Chapter Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Doctor Who and make no profit from it. Some plot points and bits of dialogue respectfully borrowed from the episodes "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky" by Helen Raynor.
Rose watched the Doctor bound around Rattigan's lab like a kid in a candy shop, identifying all the various experiments. Most of them went over her head, but when he mentioned terraforming… On their honeymoon on the third moon of Hubazuma, he had explained how terraforming had turned a barren rock into the Earth-like resort they were enjoying. So she was not at all surprised when he now turned to Luke Rattigan and said, "With equipment like this, you could move to another planet."
"You're smarter than the usual UNIT grunts, I'll give you that," Luke said as he led them into his front room.
"He called you a grunt!" The Doctor arched his brows at the UNIT driver. "Don't call Ross a grunt. He's nice. We like Ross."
"I notice he doesn't jump in to defend you," Luke said to Rose, a sneer twisting his boyish face.
The Doctor, hands shoved in his pockets, rocked on his heels. "What, Rose? She doesn't need defending. For one thing, don't let the jacket fool you, she's not with UNIT. And for another, she's not a genius when it comes to all that" – he waved his hand in the direction of the lab – "But she's smarter than you where it counts. For instance, all that equipment in there – you didn't develop it all on your own, it's much too far ahead of its time. That means you had help from an outside source, most likely with strings attached. And Rose, she would know better than to trust an alien who's offering easy access to advanced tech."
"Oh, I don't know." Rose waved her hand with airy nonchalance. "Depends on the tech. And the alien. I mean, I'd be hard pressed to say no to an alien with a northern accent and a timeship."
"Right, good point. I should say, she would know better than to trust an alien who's offering advanced tech in exchange for help with world domination."
"Yes, see," she said to Luke with a confidential air, "Like if an alien refuses to even accept a salute, that's a clear sign that he's not power-mad, and you can probably trust him not to take over the world."
"Indeed," concluded the Doctor, a daft smile crinkling his eyes.
Luke looked back and forth between them. "You're both absolute nutters." A bare minute later, the Doctor proceeded to prove him at least half right by teleporting himself onto a Sontaran ship.
"You know," Rose said a short while later, after an well-placed squash serve had enabled them to escape the Sontaran general, "Landing yourself in the middle of a warship and then letting 'Staal the Undefeated' follow you back probably wasn't one of your more well-thought-out plans."
"So you are saying that some of my plans are well thought out? I'll take that as a compliment." He grinned at her. "And anyway, at least now we know who we are dealing with." The Doctor tried to raise central command on the radio again and then tossed the receiver into the back seat in frustration.
"What's wrong with the radio?" Ross asked.
"Must be the Sontarans. And if they can trace that, then fleeing in an Atmos-equipped jeep is yet another ill-conceived plan." It was a prediction that proved well-founded as the truck took on a mind of its own and headed for the river. But what was a good plan was ordering Atmos to do exactly the opposite of what they wanted. In contradiction of the Doctor's orders, the jeep halted inches from the water's edge.
As the satnav began barking out random directions in an increasingly distorted voice, the three dashed from the vehicle, and the Doctor threw himself on top of Rose. There was a small pop, a puff of smoke, and then all was quiet.
The Doctor sat up cautiously. "Oh, was that it?" He helped Rose to her feet, and eyed the grass stains on her knees. "Another poor plan, I suppose."
"In hindsight, an unnecessary one," Rose said, trying in vain to dust herself off. "But since you weren't to know that, and since you were trying to protect me, I would hesitate to call it a poor one." She gave him a kiss. "Now off you go, do what you do." He beamed at her and bounded back to the jeep.
So much for staying on the inside, thought Donna as she drove home, a sour expression twisting her mouth. The bloke in charge, General Mace or something, had come in while she was talking with Martha. After the doctor had left to examine the workers, Mace had politely thanked Donna for her help and then firmly informed her that she would no longer be required. An escort had been provided to ensure that she went on her way.
Donna had considered doubling back and trying to sneak back in, but frankly at this point she was rather discouraged. She had told herself that finding the Doctor was the door to a fuller, more exciting life, but it was starting to feel like a fool's errand. Mum is right, you're just frittering your life away, great useless lump of... Angry tears all but blinded her; she dashed them away and then had to slam on her brakes as she saw the two figures in the road waving her down.
The pair ran up to her window, and she gasped as she recognized them. "Rose?"
"Donna?"
"What are you doing here?"
Rose grimaced. "We had a bit of trouble with Atmos. Well, when I say a bit, I mean it tried to kill us." She gestured towards the jeep perched perilously close to the river, with someone half-hidden under the open bonnet. "Listen, I know you've already been plenty inconvenienced today, but would you mind very much giving us a lift?"
Donna wondered if this was the universe's way of telling her not to give up yet. She opened her mouth to agree, but the UNIT soldier beat her to the reply. "I don't know, ma'am, doesn't seem wise to jump right into another Atmos vehicle."
Rose chewed her lip as she pondered that. Donna knew she had to speak fast, or her chance would slip away again. "I live just a mile that way. We could be on my street in two minutes, and from there I'm sure you could find a car to commandeer without Atmos installed."
The other two looked at each other and nodded. Rose turned towards the jeep, cupping her hands around her mouth and hollering, "Oi! We've got a lift! Allons-y!"
Donna knew him the instant he emerged, blue suit, long tan coat, wild hair and all. She threw her door open and jumped out as she watched the object of months of searching lope across the grass. He hadn't seen her yet; he was too fixated on doing something to a rectangular piece of metal with that thing he claimed was a screwdriver.
"It's no good," he said as he arrived at the car. "I think it's burned out. We'll need to find another…"
"Doctor!" Donna's squeal was high enough to shatter glass.
His head snapped up and his eyes lit with recognition. "Donna! Donna Noble!" He wrapped her in a big hug, which was a bit uncomfortable with the large metal object in his hand pressing into her back. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you!"
"Great," said Rose with a good-natured smile. "How many more of your old girlfriends are we going to run into on this trip?"
"Oh, but Donna's not just any old girlfriend. She left her fiancé at the altar to run away with me." Rose's smile faltered, and the Doctor took pity. "I'm joking. Well, mostly joking, I mean, she did get sucked out of the church and end up on the TARDIS, but it wasn't by choice for either of us. It's a long story involving an obsolete form of energy, the empress of a nearly extinct race and your personal favourite, killer brass-band Santas."
Rose laughed and threw up her hands. "OK, I'd love to hear it sometime, but for now I think we'd better hurry and find another ride before the Sontarans figure out that we're not dead."
At Donna's house, Ross set off to find another car and Rose called Martha to alert UNIT to the involvement of the Sontarans, while the Doctor busied himself pulling the carbon converter out of Donna's car. Donna leaned against the door, giving her distracted audience an account of her life since last they had met.
"And Egypt was beautiful and all, but that's when I realized that it wasn't what I was looking for. You know, facing the Racnoss – I mean, it was terrifying, don't get me wrong, but I felt like I was really experiencing life. I felt like I was making a difference. I felt like I made a difference to you."
He looked up at that. "You did, Donna. You were right, I needed someone to stop me, and you did."
As the Doctor lost himself in his task again, Rose wrinkled her brow in sympathy. "You know, I turned down his first offer too."
"Really? So how did you find him again?"
Rose blushed. "Well, I didn't have to. He showed up again about ten seconds later."
"Three days, actually." The Doctor was leaning over the engine, peering at the converter, so focused on his work that Rose wasn't sure that he was speaking to her.
"What?"
"Ten seconds for you, but three days for me."
"You never told me that! You were still wearing the same jumper."
"Oi, I washed it!" He shot her an offended look. "Anyway, I would have come back sooner, but it took that long to figure out what I could say that might change your mind."
She nudged him with her hip. "Could have saved yourself some time. I knew the instant you were gone that I had made a mistake, and I wasn't about to make the same one twice."
A slow smile spread across his face, but he was prevented from replying by the arrival first of Donna's grandfather Wilf and then of her mother Sylvia, with their vastly different reactions to renewing the Doctor's acquaintance. And then Sylvia's accusation that disaster followed in his wake seemed to be borne out when his sonic tinkering triggered the release of noxious gas, not just from Donna's converter but all across the globe.
As Sylvia helped Wilf from the car that had nearly become his tomb and everyone pulled their collars across their noses, Ross pulled up in an antique but Atmos-free ride. Rose dived for the back seat; the Doctor headed for the front, but then stopped and looked back. "Donna, you coming?"
"Are you insane? She's not going anywhere with you!" Sylvia's screech made clear that Donna had come by her own strident voice honestly. But Wilf nudged Donna forward with an enthusiastic "Go on, girl!"
Donna took a hesitant step. "Do you really mean it? I wasn't sure…I didn't know if…I mean, you've got Rose now, and…"
"Yeah, but we could use a mate. And you did go to all the trouble of tracking me down."
Rose leaned out of the window. "You've seen the TARDIS. Plenty big enough for three."
And with that confirmation of her welcome, Donna ran towards her new life.
By the time they reached the UNIT command centre, the humans were finding it difficult to breathe.
"It's not so bad for me," the Doctor said to the two women. "Why don't you go wait in the TARDIS for now?"
Rose drew breath to protest, but that action sent her into a coughing fit, and she allowed Donna to drag her away. The air in the TARDIS was fresh and clean, and Rose sagged against the console in relief, while Donna paced around, bouncing in excitement, taking in every detail of her new surroundings. But both relief and excitement were short-lived; a few moments later, a hard jolt staggered them both. Rose flipped on the monitor and paled.
"What is it?" Donna asked.
"I…I think we are on the Sontaran ship," was the strained reply.
Donna fought back her panic. "Well, can you fly this thing?"
"Some. But that doesn't help us. If they teleported it once, they can just teleport it right back again if we try to take off."
"So what do we do?" she asked, voice rising.
Rose's outward calmness was belied by her hard swallow. "For the moment, nothing. We're safe in here. I have it on good authority that the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through those doors. We wait for the Doctor."
They didn't have to wait long; they were soon tied in to the conference between the Doctor and General Staal. The Doctor was as unflappable as ever, even when the image of the captured TARDIS appeared on the screen. "As prizes go, that one is noble. I salute you, Staal; you rose to the occasion."
"That's us! He's talking to us! We're here, Doctor!" Donna cried, as Rose shushed her impatiently.
The Doctor went on a bit longer about phone boxes and communication and remote controls, until Staal cut off the transmission. Donna paced, hands on hips, tension imparting a sharp edge to her voice. "What now? He wants us to call somewhere. Who do we call? What are we supposed to do? And if he's got a remote, why doesn't he just zap us back now?"
"Take a breath. He'll call us. And he can't fly the TARDIS remotely; that was a bluff, although I'm not sure why…" Rose clutched at the console as the timeship began moving. "Ah, I see, he scared the Sontarans into moving us. Don't worry, he always has a plan." She chose to omit the fact that they weren't always very good ones.
It wasn't long before Rose's mobile was ringing. "The Sontarans have deadlocked the teleport links. I need you to reopen them," the Doctor said without preamble.
"Right, just tell me what to do."
"First off, can you get out of the TARDIS without being seen?"
Rose checked the monitor. "Yeah, there's just one guard, and he has his back to us."
"Excellent. There's a hole at the back of his neck – the probic vent. One good blow to that will knock him out."
"I remember. No squash balls handy, but this mallet should do the trick." She gave an anxious Donna a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, then crept out the door and swung with all her might. She let out a shaky breath as the soldier hit the ground. "First step, check. Now what?"
She followed his directions to the door on the far side of the room, fitted her hand into the three-fingered switch to open it – and came face to face with a line of Sontarans about to march through. There was no time to hide, no time to run, no time to do anything except thumb the phone off. Whatever happened next, she didn't want the Doctor to have to hear it.
