Guest chapter 1 . Aug 22
Loved it! I always felt Donna deserved more time with the Doctor. I am happy that she was able to pass along her adventures in at least some capacity. I wish I knew more about her husband and children. Was she able to share her adventures with them? How did they respond?
(Inspired by response)
"There is something different about mum isn't there."
Sally never really knew why she kept asking her da that. She would ask mum the same thing but she would always laugh that everyone, in their own way particular way, was odd. Da at least seemed to understand what she was talking about but he always got that smile when he answered; a smile that told more than his words.
"She's one of a kind."
Her and da always kept each other company in the front room, reading their books and occasionally chatting but mostly keeping a comfortable silence with one another. Sally had inherited his love of books and the written word, just as her siblings, Geoff and Jenny had taken after mum. Sally oftentimes watched as they both chased after ma in an all consuming game of tag, heads tilted back in laughter, sunlight glinted off mum's red hair.
There was something different about her but it was a good sort of stuff. Sally decided, turning her attention back to her book. And she really was one of a kind.
Mum could remember anything. It didn't matter what you would ask her, she would know it. When Sally asked for help with her math homework, mum would object, insisting that da would be a better teacher. But five minutes after Sally had convinced her to sit down and help her, exactly five minutes, mum would have solved everything. Of course she would teach Sally along the way but whether it be calculate, geometry, history, mum could help. She knew everything in an instance; the rules of every language, all the history from any where around the globe no matter how minute, every detail from theorem, theoretical situations; mum knew it all. Da was smart. He had gone to college and had been the head to his firm for a few years when Sally was little but the only word to describe mum was genius. She knew everything in an instant but the next moment she would laugh and say she didn't know how she did it.
I must be loosing my mind. She would joke. Loosing my mind.
x
Sally was in high school when she was called from class.
No one would- could answer her questions as she attempted to discern why. That action alone made her blood run cold and she shivered despite the sweltering heat in the office.
Her father picked her up in the middle of the day and before she even closed the car door, she had asked what happened.
His lips were a thin line as he replied "Your mother's collapsed"
Geoff's and Jenny's footsteps echoed off the high ceiling of the hospital's corridor as they waited outside their room. Sally watched them paces back and forth, watching her father speak to the doctors on the other side of the glass, the slight breeze from her sibling's pacing ruffling her hair. Her sibling's had inherited mum's need for action, her ferocity for life. But Sally didn't care for words when they finally allowed them into mum's room. Before anyone could speak, Sally was curled at her side, laying on top of the lumpy hospital bed underneath a blanket she had brought from home.
I'm okay bird. Her mother's arms wrapped around her and Sally shut her eyes as they rocked back and forth. Back and forth. I'm okay bird.
X
"Where do you think I'll go?" Sally waved with her parents as Geoff and Jenny's truck slowly disappeared down the street. The twins didn't want to go to the same college so they settled with being a few blocks apart. A cool wind, so different from the summer heat, made the girl shiver. Her father patted her on the back and walked inside and Sally followed. Mum hadn't moved.
Mum? She called.
The woman started but didn't turn away from the street. There was a distance about her. Sally had known something had changed the day mum had gotten home. Her smile never quiet met her eyes, she had taken to staring at walls, chairs, paintings.
But the stars, erupting over their house, rising as the sun fled, were her greatest inspiration. She had liked them before but now she gazed at them like an old friend, lips moving in a silent verse. Sometimes she would be the mum she knew but at night she would breath phrases that didn't make sense, her eyes drawn to the sea of black above them.
Sally stepped back through the door, knowing without looking that da was waiting just around the corner, listening to every word she said. He never said anything about the shift but Sally knew he had noticed.
Geoff and Halley might not have but da had always loved mum for who she was; he knew something was different. And yet he was as helpless as his daughter as to discerning why.
Mum. She jumped when Sally took her hand, gently tugging her inside. Come on mum, it's cold.
Cold, yes. Her voice was tired as she allowed herself to be drawn inside, her eyes still searching for her stars. Yes it must be cold.
"Where do you think I'll go to college Mum?"
"Anywhere Bird; anywhere."
X
Da said she had inherited mum's talent when she graduated from college. Jenny gently waved an infant's hand at Sally as she stepped up to accept her degree, Geoff shouting how proud he was over the clapping of her colleges. Jenny had taken more from da after all; getting married, having a baby and becoming the top of her firm. Her husband sat beside her, beaming up at Sally as mum held their second child.
Mum hadn't changed save the streaks of silver running through her vibrant red hair. Da told Sally that she still liked to dream her own universe but she wasn't hindered or other-wise incapacitated.
Seems like she's taking care of me more than I'm taking care of her. Da had said with a smile.
In the first few months they both watched her like hawks but it turned out to be no worry. She began laughing and joking like nothing had every been amiss. That had been years ago and they all laughed It off like it had been a joke.
How does it feel, mum asked with a smile.
Like I'm on top of the world. Sally laughed back.
Mum had taken to settling on the back porch when the sun had gone down and da let her sit alone. The cold makes my bones ache. He'd say with a wink but Sally knew he just liked giving ma some space to just be.
When they were alone, she'd stare at the sky with a longing that made Sally ache as much as her father did.
Mum?
Yes bird. Her mother was always absent at times like these but she always answered.
How do you know so much?
pSally had never asked before. Sometime during her childhood she'd leaned that other people's mum's weren't fluent in every language, didn't know how to calculate the velocity of a meteor thirty million light-years away, how to build a skyscraper- but mum did. Mum could do all those things and so much more- so much more.
The girl would see it in her eyes as Mum turned away from the stars, that single moment where every answer, every possibility laid in her grasp; an unfathomable wisdom swimming in their depths. In a single moment Sally knew she should have been afraid of the elderly woman in front of her, afraid of those ancient eyes but in the next heartbeat, it was just mum.
Sometimes my head hurts. Mum explained once, not turning away from the moon. It's almost like a burn. Her hair had almost gone completely silver, a few red streaks remained as a reminder of her fire.
And is it worth it. Sally asked.
She seemed so lost most days, like she lost something so incredibly precious but didn't recall what had been stolen. That knowledge of something being so fundamental wrong yet having no thought as to why seemed to eat at her. But in those rare moments, in the moments mum disappeared and someone else stared back at Sally, she had never seemed more alive.
It's worth it every time. Mum had answered. Because I remember being with him.
x
Mum never tells Sally who he is, no matter how many times she pesters her.
He's your father. She insists but Sally can read her almost as well as she can read her father- she knows when words are heavier than other, where phrases turn to loaded pistols.
Sally watched her siblings get married, watched how their resulting offspring from hell captured her own heart. She had gotten married as well but she was content with her husband and he content enough with her to spoil their six nieces and nephews. The offspring travel around the neighborhood in a violent pack of joy filled shouts, luring all the other children from their houses to play wild imaginative games.
Sally laughs with her brother and sister, the stars clustered overhead when her ears stop and notice.
It's awfully quiet. She remarks, glancing over her should worriedly. Where there were children but a moment ago now stands empty.
Geoff casts her a careless shrug. Mum's telling them stories.
Sally watches her mother through a pane of glass from the kitchen. The odd assortment of children seated in front of her is almost comical but Sally doesn't dare interrupt. Since her father passed, this is the most she's heard of her mother's voice. She'd learn later that these children would gather around every other week and beg stories from her, wanting to hear everything she had to offer. Some nights she would send them away but most times, on nights like these, she would weave a world so vast, so fantastic they would stay far longer than she would speak.
Wonder, such wonder. Sally could see it in their eyes as she listened to her mother speak, the same wonder infecting her own mind. For a moment Sally allowed herself to be lost in such a world of fantastic adventures, lost in the heart wrenching love her mother poured into every word. She so desperately wanted to believe, to know it was true but almost as soon as her mother started speaking, she stopped.
That's enough for tonight children. She would say to the chores of disappointed pleas. It's getting late.
Looking at her own watch, Sally knew it was true. After the children had finally been called home and the block was silent once more, she settled beside her mother. Her hair was as silver as the moon, her strong face a picture of strength as she resolutely studied the heavens above them.
Was it real? Sally asked. She wanted so badly to believe her heart ached for the stories so different form this mortal coil. Maybe the good guy did win, maybe nobody had to die, maybe she could venture forever, maybe she could laugh at fate, maybe, just maybe, time could be rewritten.
Mum only smiled. Does anything have to be real for it to matter?
x
Years later, Sally stood above the ground that was shaking yet still, gripping a small rosemary plant as she slowly seated herself beside the recently disturbed soil.
For remembrance, Sally recalled her mother stating. Rosemary for remembrance.
She waited until mum's beloved stars rose high above her, waited until the moon finally showed his smiling face before digging into the dirt and planting the herb next to the silent stone.
Does anything have to be real for it to matter?
No. She says aloud, years past, years lived and loved, years later.
Because I believe in him.
Because I believe in you.
Thank you all for your lovely reviews and thank you for the inspiration of the continuation of this.
For the details of the names; Geoff was her father's name and while I would have loved to include the honoring of Wilfred in this story, I am considering a fanfic of his own in the later chapters. Sally was named after Sally Sparrow (which is why Donna calls her Bird as a nickname). While Donna herself never met her, I like to think that within all her memories of DoctorDonna, she would have stood out as an extremely brave woman. Jenny, as you probably know, was named for obvious reasons.
The reason behind Donna not sharing her adventures so openly with her family was for two reasons; if your mom suddenly started spouting how she used to be a time traveler and the most important woman in the galaxy, your first reaction would be to say that she's crazy (or in my case, breath a sigh of relief because she's finally back to normal). Donna being the DoctorDonna knows this so she gives her adventures to those who are in frightful need of them. Children now a days need hope as much as the adults. They need to see the world as somewhere light can shine and thrive so Donna gives them a universe worth living for.
In the end, I really think that's the essence of what Doctor Who is; hope disguise as fantastic adventures. And hey, if it can inspire me, it can inspire anyone.
And thanks again for reading- give me more responses at what you would like to see.
Allonsy!