Chapter Three: Putting the Nanny in the Naughty Seat
"How did Donna find us here?" Rose asked as they jumped out of the cradle onto the roof.
"You heard her," the Doctor said as they ran back to the roof access door. "The internet… and weird things. I don't know; we'll have to ask her about it."
Rose shook her head. "Well, if you remember, we knew we'd run into her again one day."
They looked at each other while they ran down the stairs. This was their first trip back in their old life, and Rose didn't think either of them had even considered taking a new companion yet.
The Doctor sighed. "The chances of her finding us at all were frankly, astronomical. There has to be a reason we're both here, and I doubt it was just to say a quick hello and then never see each other again."
"You've got that right, Sunshine," a familiar voice said from around the corner.
Rose put on some speed and caught Donna in a hug. "I can't believe it!" she exclaimed as she pulled back to look at her.
"I know—me either!" Donna looked at the Doctor, then blinked. "You're wearing the same suit! Don't you ever change?"
Rose laughed when the Doctor shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, thanks, Donna," he said sarcastically. "Not right now."
Several storeys below them, a door banged against the wall of the stairwell. Rose, the Doctor, and Donna all looked down, knowing it meant the guards had figured out where they were and were almost there.
The Doctor grinned at Donna and Rose. "Just like old times!" he crowed as the three of them took to the stairs, racing for the roof.
"So Donna," Rose asked while they ran, "what did you mean when you said you looked up weird things on the internet to find us?"
"Exactly that," Donna said, huffing slightly. "After you left, once life got back to normal, I decided I wanted to find you—but I didn't know where to start."
They burst through the door onto the roof, and Rose led the way to the window cleaner's cradle while the Doctor sonicked the door shut. She gestured to the stairs, and followed after Donna once the other woman had climbed the first couple.
Donna continued her story. "Because I thought, how do you find the Doctor and Rose Tyler? And then I just thought, look for trouble and then they'll turn up," she said as she dropped into the gondola.
Rose laughed as she followed her. "Oh, Donna Noble—you're good," she said, bumping her shoulder against the other woman's.
Down on the rooftop, the Doctor pried open the main controls for the window cleaners' apparatus and locked them with the sonic screwdriver, listening to Donna's story as he worked.
"So I looked everywhere," Donna continued. "You name it. UFOs, sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all. Like that stuff about the bees disappearing, I thought, 'I bet they're connected.'"
Are you catching this, Doctor? Rose asked. A second later, she felt his affirmative, and a discomfort that equalled hers.
As impressed as she was by Donna's logic, it was a bit disconcerting to think they could be tracked so easily, if someone put their mind to it. Because Donna was right—if you really wanted to find them, the best thing to do was hang around where weird stuff seemed to happen. Eventually, you'd get lucky and land on the right weird thing.
Donna leaned carefully against the side of the cradle, her eyes glittering with excitement. "Because the thing is, I believe it all now. You two opened my eyes. All those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax."
Rose shivered, and Donna suddenly wondered if her granddad's story had been accurate after all. When the Doctor immediately changed the subject, she was almost certain of it.
"What do you mean, the bees are disappearing?" he asked as he climbed into the cradle with them.
"I don't know. That's what it says on the internet." Donna shrugged. "Well, on the same site, there was all these conspiracy theories about Adipose Industries and I thought, let's take a look."
She realised belatedly that they were slowly being lowered down the side of the building. "Hang on," she said. "They'll just call us back up again."
The Doctor shook his head quickly. "No, no, no, because I've locked the controls with a sonic cage. I'm the only one that can control it. Not unless she's got a sonic device of her own, which is very unlikely."
Rose groaned, and the Doctor looked at her, eyebrow raised. "What?"
Donna crossed her arms over her chest and watched their playful banter.
"You had to say that," Rose said. "You know what's going to happen now."
"Oh, come on," he protested. "What are the chances—"
The low hum of the cables controlling their descent suddenly rose in pitch, and they all fell to their knees as the cradle rocketed down the side of the building.
"You were saying?" Donna shouted.
The Doctor clung to the railing of the gondola with one hand and reached into his jacket pocket with his other, trying to find his sonic screwdriver. The jerking motion of the gondola made it harder than usual, but he finally grabbed it and managed to point it at the pulley that controlled the cable. They rocked to an abrupt stop, and he went to work immediately on the window. "Hold on. Hold on. We can get in through the window."
But nothing happened. "Can't get it open!" he grunted.
Donna scowled. I am not going to die like this. She grabbed a spanner and brandished it in his face. "Well, smash it then!"
Rose put her hand on her shoulder before she could bang it on the glass. "It won't work, Donna. The windows in buildings like this are made to withstand nearby explosions."
Donna started to argue, but then she and Rose heard sparks and fizzling noises from above, and they both tilted their heads back slowly.
"She's cutting the cable," Donna groaned, finally getting the Doctor's attention, just in time for the cable to snap.
Donna screamed when the gondola suddenly tipped, only being held to the building by one cable now. The Doctor and Rose managed to grab onto the railing, but she flew over the edge. Her flailing arms brushed against the loose cable, and she wrapped her fingers tight around it.
Rose watched in horror as Donna soared out of the cradle into the open air. "Donna!" she and the Doctor shouted together, and they both leaned carefully over the side of the cradle, afraid of what they'd see.
Somehow, though, Donna had grabbed onto the severed cable and dangled above the streets of London. "Doctor!
"Hold on!" The Doctor grabbed the cable and tried to pull Donna up.
"I am!" Donna retorted. "Doctor!"
It suddenly occurred to Rose that there were two cables, and Miss Foster likely wouldn't be satisfied with just cutting through one—after all, they were still alive. She straightened up and narrowed her eyes at the woman, who'd moved to the other cable as Rose had suspected.
"Oh no you don't," Rose muttered as the other woman pointed her sonic at the cable. Rose pulled her screwdriver out of her pocket and used a setting she'd recently discovered to create a feedback loop between the two devices that would make Miss Foster's spark in her hand.
Rose smirked victoriously when Miss Foster yelped. Her sonic device tumbled through the air, end over end, and Rose realised something as it got closer—if this belonged to Miss Foster, then chances were, it could work against the deadlock on the building.
She watched carefully, sliding back to stand by the Doctor so she could grab the sonic as it fell. "Gotcha!" she crowed when it dropped neatly into her hands.
She tapped the Doctor on the shoulder and held the sonic pen up. "Can you use this to get into the building?"
"How did you—" The Doctor shook his head and took it from her. "Never mind; tell me later." He crawled up, then grabbed the intact cable and pulled himself back up so he was level with the windows.
"I'm going to fall!" Donna moaned, just like she had the day they'd met when they swung to safety on the Racnoss' web.
"No you're not," Rose countered, giving a reprise of her own answer. "You're going to be caught."
Rose watched the Doctor for a moment, until he had the window open. He looked back at her then. "I won't be a minute," he promised, then disappeared in through the window.
When he was gone, Rose sat and looked down at Donna. "The Doctor's inside," she told her. "I promise he'll get you to safety in just a minute. Just hang on."
Donna snorted. "It's not like I can go anywhere else, is it?"
oOoOoOoOo
After tumbling into the building, the Doctor peered back out to gauge what level Donna was at. Then he raced for the stairs, going down the next three floors as fast as he could before running into Miss Foster's office.
He could see Donna's legs through the window, and a sigh of relief whooshed out of him as he ran over to unlock it and pull her inside.
"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?" Penny asked indignantly.
The Doctor looked at her over his shoulder while he used Miss Foster's sonic device to unlock the window. "What are you, a journalist?"
"Yes."
"Well, make it up."
The window finally opened, and he grabbed Donna's legs, nearly getting kicked in the face in thanks.
"Get off!" she ordered.
"I've got you. I've got you." He struggled to get a safe hold on her as she kept squirming. "Stop kicking!"
Donna finally stilled and the Doctor was able to pull her inside. As soon as she was safe, he stuck his head out the window.
"Rose!"
"I'm on it, Doctor," she called from above. "Why don't you take a step back?"
Heeding her warning, he stepped to the side and watched from another window as she slid down the cable, then swung on it until she had the momentum to angle herself into the building.
The Doctor grabbed her in a quick hug the moment she landed. "Ever the gymnast," he said, getting a laugh from her.
"I was right," Donna said, getting their attention. "It's always like this with you, innit?"
Rose laughed. "Always."
The Doctor grinned at both women, feeling the thrill of adventure course through him. "And off we go!"
Rose and Donna dashed off. The Doctor made to follow them, but Penny's sharp cry stopped him at the door. The Doctor skidded to a halt and pulled out the sonic. "Sorry!" He aimed it at her chair, and the ropes holding her there fell to the floor. "Now do yourself a favour," he implored, though he knew reporters too well to think she'd listen. "Get out."
He caught up with Rose and Donna in the cubicle area just outside the little room Rose had been stuck in the previous morning. "Come on," he muttered. "Let's get out of here."
That plan was scuttled when Miss Foster and her two goons turned the corner and blocked their path. The Doctor, Rose, and Donna all skidded to a halt. A quick perusal of the room revealed no easy escape route, and the Doctor sucked in a breath and prepared to deal with Miss Foster.
"Well, then." Miss Foster took her glasses off and smirked at them. "At last."
"Hi!" Rose waved at her.
Miss Foster narrowed her eyes at Rose. "Oh, I know you, Miss Lewis. They showed me security footage of you entering the building yesterday, since you just disappeared."
The Doctor exchanged a glance with Rose, then rocked back on his heels and stuck his hands into his pockets. "Nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor."
"And I'm Donna."
"Partners in crime," Miss Foster stated. "And evidently off-worlders, judging by your sonic technology."
An idea finally came to the Doctor. "Oh, yes, I've still got your sonic pen." He patted at his pockets and retrieved the device. "Nice. I like it. Sleek. It's kind of sleek."
He handed it to Rose, who passed it to Donna, both of them murmuring one after the other that, "Oh, it's definitely sleek."
Rose took the pen back from Donna and returned it to the Doctor. He held it up and looked at Miss Foster, who was wearing her glasses again. "Yeah, and if you were to sign your real name, that would be?"
She peered at them over the rim of her glasses, clearly unamused by their comedy routine. "Matron Cofelia of the Five Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic Class."
The Doctor nodded; that fit with what they knew. "A wet nurse, using humans as surrogates."
She sighed and shook her head, a long-suffering smile on her face. "I've been employed by the Adiposian First Family to foster a new generation after their breeding planet was lost."
"What do you mean, lost?" the Doctor demanded.
At the same time, Rose asked, "How do you lose a planet?"
Matron Cofelia looked back and forth between the two of them. "You have quite the routine going. But, to answer your question, politics are none of my concern. I'm just here to take care of the children on behalf of the parents."
"What, like an outer space Supernanny?" Donna asked.
Amusement glinted in Matron Cofelia's eyes. "Yes, if you like."
"So." Donna took a breath. "So those little things, they're, they're made out of fat, yeah, but that woman, Stacy Campbell, there was nothing left of her."
Ah, that's what triggered my tracking device last night, the Doctor realised.
"Oh, in a crisis the Adipose can convert bone and hair and internal organs," explained Matron Cofelia matter-of-factly. "Makes them a little bit sick, poor things."
Donna gasped and took two steps forward. Her voice shook slightly when she asked what all three of them were thinking. "What about poor Stacy?"
Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw Rose reach for Donna and pull her back to stand beside her again. Then he focused on Matron Cofelia.
The Doctor lowered his eyebrows and stared her down. "Seeding a level five planet is against galactic law."
She didn't seem to be appropriately cowed. Instead, she simply tilted her head and returned his stare. "Are you threatening me?"
The Doctor felt the muscle in his jaw twitch; the matron's wilful arrogance and disregard for the safety of a million humans tempted him to take her down without a warning. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that wasn't how he worked, then shook his head.
"I'm trying to help you, Matron. This is your one chance, because if you don't call this off, then I'll have to stop you."
She pursed her lips. "I hardly think you can stop bullets," she said, and her two guards stepped forward and aimed their guns at them.
Beside him, Rose shifted to put herself between Donna and the guards. She bristled with protective anger, and he held up his hands quickly stop the guards before anyone realised that she was the real threat.
"No, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on," he pleaded. It was time to use the plan he'd come up with a moment ago. "One more thing, before… dying." He reached into his pocket for his screwdriver. "Do you know what happens if you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?"
Matron Cofelia took a deep breath and pressed her lips into a thin line. "No."
The Doctor grinned. "Nor me. Let's find out."
When he pressed his screwdriver and the sonic pen end to end, he got exactly the result he'd hoped for—horrendous feedback at a high enough frequency to give even him a headache.
A pane of glass shattered nearby, and Rose grabbed his elbow. "Come on, Doctor," she shouted over the noise, and the three of them took off running again.
oOoOoOoOo
Rose's ears were still ringing when they reached the stairwell. She shook her head and tapped on her temple, then called the Doctor's name. When he spared a moment from running to glance at her over his shoulder, she raised an eyebrow.
"Let's make sure we never do that with our screwdrivers, yeah?" she suggested.
He laughed. "You have to admit, it was the perfect distraction."
"Oh yeah," she agreed. "And I'm still going to be hearing it when we go to bed tonight."
"How many flights of stairs are we going down?" Donna demanded, breaking into their conversation.
Rose looked at the number on the wall as they turned the corner. "Just three more!"
"Oh, this looks familiar," Donna said a moment later when they burst out of the stairwell into the corridor. "I know what you meant now, Rose. Mood lighting."
Rose grinned at the other woman and found herself really hoping this was the right time to bring her on board. "I think it's part of the Secret Lair DIY kit," she mused as the Doctor threw open the door to the room they'd been hiding in earlier.
Donna stood in the corridor and stared as Rose and the Doctor shoved cleaning supplies out of the tiny room. "Well, that's one solution," Donna said as he tossed a mop over his shoulder. "Hide in a cupboard. I like it."
The Doctor pressed his hands to the wall, triggering the hidden latch. "I tried to hack into this thing earlier," he said as the the panel slid open, "because the matron's got a computer core running through the centre of the building. Triple deadlocked. But now I've got this"—He held up the matron's sonic pen—"I can get into it."
"Doctor, you know she's going to send those guards after us," Rose pointed out.
"Yeah, I know. Working on it." He pushed his glasses up on his nose and peered at the map of the building. Two dots were moving towards them; those must be the guards.
The Doctor scanned the mainframe, looking for something he could use against the guards. He lit on the answer almost immediately.
"She's wired up the whole building," he explained as he pulled two wires out. "We need a bit of privacy." He held the live wires together and watched the display until the guards stopped.
Donna looked at him, askance.
"Just enough to stop them," he assured her. There was something more important on his mind than the fate of the guards, however. "Why's she wired up the tower block? What's it all for?"
When he grabbed an electrical conduit and sonicked it, Rose turned her attention to Donna. "The computers are really more his area of expertise," she explained to the other woman. "Someday, when we aren't running for our lives or trying to save the planet, I'll get him to teach me."
Donna's gaze flicked from Rose to the Doctor. "You look happy," she commented when the Doctor half-turned back to the computer.
"Yeah, we are," Rose agreed.
Donna nodded at the Doctor's hands. "Spaceman's wearing a ring, so I guess you got married."
Rose laughed. "Yeah. Only a few days after we met you, actually. We decided there wasn't any reason to wait any longer." She squeezed the Doctor's shoulder. "Best decision we ever made."
The Doctor made the happy sound in the back of his throat that was half hum, half giggle, and Donna shook her head. "That was over a year ago, and you're still absolutely besotted."
"What about you, Donna?" Rose asked, bypassing the explanation of how long it had been for them. "I thought you were going to travel the world."
Donna shook her head and looked away from them. "Easier said than done. It's like I had that one day with the two of you, and I was going to change. I was going to do so much. Then I woke up the next morning, same old life." She heaved a sigh. "It's like you were never there."
Rose listened sympathetically. She couldn't imagine what her life would have been like if the Doctor hadn't come back for her after she'd said no the first time. The regret had already been eating at her when she'd heard the TARDIS materialise; how much worse would it have felt after a year?
Donna took a breath and tried to shake the melancholy from her voice. "And I tried. I did try. I went to Egypt. I was going to go barefoot and everything."
The Doctor glanced up from his electrical work, and Rose nodded at him behind Donna's back. They were thinking the same thing. Donna wanted their life. This was why the TARDIS had brought them to London.
"And then it's all bus trips and guidebooks and 'Don't drink the water,' and two weeks later you're back home." She gave a half-laugh, then shrugged and met Rose's gaze. "It's nothing like being with you. I must have been mad turning down that offer."
It was an obvious setup—one the Doctor pretended not to catch. They'd finally come to grips with what had happened to them on the Valiant, but he knew they both still struggled to forgive themselves for the pain the year had caused Martha and Jack. Being their friend was dangerous, and not something to be entered lightly.
Hang on, the Doctor realised, that's from a human wedding ceremony. He pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth as he worked, then shrugged mentally. The line might be part of a wedding, but it was certainly accurate in this situation as well.
The Doctor tugged on his ear and tried to think of something to say that wasn't an unequivocal invitation before the silence became too awkward. In the end, he was saved by the bell. "Inducer activated," the computer announced, and an alarm chimed at them.
"What's it doing now?" Donna asked.
The Doctor's hearts pounded as he stared at the computer programme he still didn't know how to stop. "She's started the programme," he murmured, his feet rooted to the ground in shocked horror.
"Doctor!"
Rose's voice snapped him out of his paralysis, and as the computer blandly announced that the inducer was transmitting, he dove forward. "So far they're just losing weight, but the matron's gone up to emergency parthenogenesis," he explained as he worked frantically against the inducer.
"And that's when they convert…" Donna said.
He nodded quickly. "Skeletons, organs, everything. A million people are going to die."
He finally caught a line of code that he'd missed before. Of course! The signal is sent by the pendant, so if I introduce a new pendant, it should interfere…
"Got to cancel the signal," he muttered as he unscrewed the pendant so he could hook it up to the mainframe. "This contains a primary signal," he explained as he worked "If I can switch it off, the fat goes back to being just fat."
But as soon as he got the pendant wired in, the computer spoke again. "Inducer increasing." The alarm went haywire, no longer just the quiet beeping it had been before.
For a moment, the thought of all those people dying made the Doctor panic. He stepped back, his hands in his hair as he read the computer code, looking for a way to override the command again.
Then Rose pushed calm over the bond and he took a deep breath. Once his mind was focused, the answer was right in front of him.
"Hah!" he crowed. "You've forgotten I'm not working alone, Matron. Partners in crime indeed." He went back to work on the wires, making room for another capsule. "I need the capsule you took," he said without looking at Rose.
A moment later, two capsules were dangled in front of his face. The Doctor turned and looked at Rose and Donna, who wore matching "we got this" smirks. It was a brief glimpse of what his life would be like if he travelled with both these women—the two of them constantly saving the world while he watched.
Then he laughed, grabbed Donna's, and got it wired into the computer. This time, the entire system shut down, and all three of them rocked back on their heels and let out breathless, relieved laughs.
A loud pulsing hum interrupted their celebration.
"What the hell was that?" Donna asked.
Rose looked up at the ceiling. "That, Donna, was the sound of a spaceship breaking atmosphere. At a guess, I'd say the Adipose have come for their children."
The Doctor pushed his glasses back up on his nose and nodded. "Their nanny's work is done. Time for the children to go to the nursery."
Donna's eyes darted around the room before settling on the Doctor. "Fine. When you say nursery you don't mean a crêche in Notting Hill."
"Nursery ship," he answered quietly.
The computer switched back on. "Incoming signal," it announced, followed by an alien voice giving orders.
"Hadn't we better go and stop them?" Donna asked.
"Nah," Rose said. "The babies belong to them, after all."
"Hang on," the Doctor said, holding his hand up. If he was right, the plot was about to twist in a delightful way. "Instructions from the Adiposian First Family."
He read the lines of code scrolling across the display as he listened to the instructions. Oh, that's why she wired the building. "She's wired up the tower block to convert it into a levitation post." The final words of the Adiposian message came through, and the pieces clicked. "Ooo. Oh. We're not the ones in trouble now. She is!" The Doctor bolted out of the storage room, running for the lift.
"What's going on, Doctor?" Rose asked after he pushed the button for the top floor. "I mean, I heard the message… something about clearing their names or something, yeah?"
He nodded grimly. "Remember, what they've done is illegal. They seeded a level five planet."
Rose's eyes widened. "And the one person who can truly connect them to the incident is the nanny."
They reached the top floor and ran for the stairs that led to the roof. The Adiposian nursery ship hovered over the street in front of them, with thousands of baby Adipose being transported into the ship in transporter beams.
"What you going to do then?" Donna asked. "Blow them up?"
The Doctor recoiled. "They're just children. They can't help where they come from."
Donna flushed. "It's just, last time…"
Ah. He unbent slightly when he understood where the question came from. "Even juvenile Racnoss are capable of devouring half a planet," he explained. "I didn't have a choice last time." She nodded, and they watched the baby Adipose stream into the ship.
Rose chuckled, and the Doctor looked over at her. "Well, it's just… look at them," she said, pointing to the blue transporter beam filled with thousands of Adipose. "They're so… cute."
"And made of fat," Donna said. Some of the Adipose squeaked as they moved by and waved goodbye. "I'm waving at fat," she said, repeating the point.
"It's actually not a bad diet plan," Rose commented. "Oh!" She pointed at the matron. "There she is!"
They ran over to the edge of the roof, and the matron hovered in place in front of them. "Matron Cofelia, listen to me," the Doctor begged.
She smirked and shook her head. "Oh, I don't think so, Doctor. And if I never see you again, it'll be too soon."
"Oh, why does no one ever listen?" he growled to Rose and Donna. "I'm trying to help," he told the matron. "Just get across to the roof. Can you shift the levitation beam?"
She looked up at the ship, then back at them. "What, so that you can arrest me?"
"Just listen. I saw the Adiposian instructions. They know it's a crime, breeding on Earth. So what's the one thing they want to get rid of? Their accomplice."
"I'm far more than that," Matron Cofelia said smugly. She held her arms out in a gesture to encompass all the baby Adipose being taken into the ship. "I'm nanny to all these children."
Her smugness was going to get her killed, and even if she was unpleasant, she didn't deserve that.
Before the Doctor could argue again, Rose pushed forward, leaning over the edge of the building with her arms stretched out. "Don't you get it?" she yelled. "Your job is done—you delivered the kids. What do they need you for now?"
Rose's words were still hanging in the air when the levitation beam shut off. They all saw the moment Matron Cofelia realised they were right, but it was too late. Her eyes widened in panic, and then she fell, screaming, to the hard pavement below, landing with a sickening thud.
"Oh, god, I'm gonna be sick," Rose mumbled, pressing her hands to her face. Donna turned and buried her face in the Doctor's shoulder.
The Doctor watched the ship, and a few moments later, it accelerated, drawing Rose and Donna's attention away from the body on the ground. They watched the ship leave the atmosphere, then took the elevator back down to the ground floor.
When they exited the building, an ambulance was already on the scene, taking care of the matron's body. The Doctor sighed and rummaged in his pocket for the sonic pen, tossing it in the bin nearby.
"Oi!" The sharp cry got their attention, and they turned around to see Penny hobbling towards them, strapped to a chair once again. "You three! You're just mad. Do you hear me? Mad!" She stopped and glared at them. "And I'm going to report you for… madness," she declared, before hobbling off.
"You see, some people just can't take it," Donna murmured.
The Doctor shook his head. "No."
"And some people can." Donna hesitated, then looked at the Doctor and Rose. "You didn't say anything earlier, when I mentioned that I'd like to travel with you."
Rose took the Doctor's hand and started for the TARDIS. "Come on, let's walk while we talk," she said.
"I don't want to be… I don't know, pushy," Donna said as they left the building and emergency vehicles behind, "but I let my chance go once, and I don't want to do it again. Not without making it clear what I want."
The Doctor took a deep breath. "The thing is, Donna… Travelling with us can be dangerous. We had a friend, Martha. And… well, the last trip we took with her turned out to be a bit more than she'd signed on for. She was brilliant," he said quickly, "but it really… it ruined half her life," he explained quietly.
Rose flinched. She tried not to think about what Martha had gone through during the Year That Never Was, but sometimes the thought crept up on her anyway. The Doctor brushed his thumb over her knuckles, and she forced her mind back to the present, and Donna.
She offered the other woman a smile and a slight shrug. "So that's the life we lead." They slowed and came to a halt in front of the alley the TARDIS was parked in. "We want to make sure you really know what you're getting into, if you come onto the TARDIS with us."
Donna snorted. "Listen to the two of you, making it sound like it's some sort of surprise that you spend half your days running into danger." She put her hands on her hips and looked at both of them. "The day I met you, I nearly got eaten by a giant spider. Earlier tonight, I was dangling over London by a cable. I think I understand the danger."
The Doctor's relief matched Rose's. They wanted Donna to come with them, but not uninformed.
"There we are, then," he said. "Okay."
Donna looked at him, a hopeful smile spreading across her face. "I can come?"
"Oh yeah." Rose grinned and nudged the Doctor with her shoulder. "Keep me company, so I'm not alone with this one all day."
"Oi!" he protested as they started down the alley.
"No way!" Donna breathed.
Rose looked over her shoulder and realised Donna was pointing at the blue sedan she had noticed when they'd left the TARDIS hours ago. "That's my car!" She grinned madly. "That is like destiny. And I've been ready for this," she added as she opened the boot.
Rose laughed when she saw the suitcases. "You definitely have," she agreed as she stepped forward and grabbed one in each hand, then went to unlock the TARDIS and watch Donna unload her trunk into the stunned Doctor's arms.
"I packed ages ago, just in case," Donna rambled. "Because I thought, hot weather, cold weather, no weather. He goes anywhere. I've gotta be prepared." Donna pulled out a leather duffle bag and dropped it in the Doctor's arms, then piled another bag on top of that, and perched a hatbox on top of that.
"You've got a, a hatbox," he stammered, looking at it.
"Planet of the Hats, I'm ready," Donna said, making Rose laugh yet again as she opened the door. "I don't need injections, do I?" she asked as she carried two bags into the console room. "You know, like when you go to Cambodia. Is there any of that? Because my friend Veena went to Bahrain, and she—"
"No shots, Donna," the Doctor interrupted. "The TARDIS takes care of all that. Well, travelling in the TARDIS alone boosts your immune system, and anything she can't handle, I can take care of in the med bay."
Donna nodded, then patted down her pockets. "Just let me… Oh!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out car keys. "I almost travelled through space and time with my mum's car keys. Oh, I'd never have heard the end of that." She pushed the door open and ran down the alley, shouting, "I won't be a minute," over her shoulder as she ran.
Rose laughed at the befuddled look on the Doctor's face after Donna ran off. "She's a force of nature, isn't she?"
He tugged on his ear. "You know, I honestly think she was ready to steamroll her way onboard."
"Nah," Rose said as she leaned against the console. "You heard her earlier, how hesitant she was. I don't blame her for not wanting to let the opportunity go by, or for being prepared." She winked at the Doctor. "If you hadn't come back for me, you can bet I would have been watching every street corner for a blue box."
The Doctor laughed, then grabbed her hand and twirled her around the console once before kissing her. "I'm pretty sure that if you'd wished hard enough, the TARDIS would have heard you and come back to get you. She knew, after all."
Rose nodded and stepped closer into his embrace. The way the TARDIS saw time was hard to grasp, but Rose knew enough to know the ship had recognised her as Bad Wolf from the moment she ran through the doors to get away from the Auton Mickey.
Donna slipped back inside, and Rose sighed and let go of the Doctor. Donna rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you see in him, Rose," she said. "I mean… he's just a long streak of nothing—alien nothing," she added.
"Anyway!" the Doctor said loudly. "Here it is. The TARDIS. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside."
Donna shook her head. "Oh, I know that bit." She frowned and rubbed her hands against her arms. "Although frankly, you could turn the heating up."
Rose passed a silent request to the TARDIS while the Doctor stammered out his next question for their new companion.
"So, whole wide universe, where do you want to go?" He moved to the navigation panel and looked up at her.
Donna's smile was soft. "Oh, I know exactly the place."
"Which is?"
"Two and a half miles that way," she answered, tilting her head towards the west.
Rose caught on right away. "Someone you want to wave goodbye to?"
Donna nodded. "My gramps."
oOoOoOoOo
Wilfred Mott threw out the last of his coffee with a sigh. He'd hoped Donna would join him again tonight, but she hadn't been home yet when he'd trekked up the hill to watch the stars. Sylvia had muttered all manner of things under her breath as she'd gotten ready to go out, and nothing he'd said could calm her down.
If Donna wasn't drifting, if she was waiting like she said she was, then he hoped she wouldn't have to wait much longer. She deserved better than being treated like a second-class citizen by her own mother.
Wilf thought about the blue box Donna had mentioned as he glanced back up at the sky. A second later, his jaw dropped. He would have thought he'd conjured it from his imagination, except this was nothing like what he'd pictured when Donna had told him her story.
Where is Donna?
"There!" He pointed at the sky, then turned in one spot, his arms flailing as he tried to get Donna's attention, even though she wasn't anywhere close by. "Donna, it's—it's the flying blue box!"
Luckily, he hadn't taken his telescope down yet, and he quickly bent over so he could peer through the eyepiece. A second later, he reared back in shock. "What?" he mumbled, then quickly looked again. "That's Donna," he cried. "Yeah, that's Donna."
His Donna in the blue box, just like she'd said.
Then a blonde woman appeared in the doorway next to Donna, and Wilf squinted. She seemed familiar… when had he seen her? A moment later, a tall bloke joined the women, and Wilf gasped.
"And that's him," he mumbled. The shock passed quickly, and he straightened up and pulled his hat off, clutching it as he jumped in the air. "That's them. Hey, that's them!"
Oh, he'd known that couple he'd talked to at the newsstand on Christmas Eve had something to do with the Titanic! And here they were, in a spaceship! With Donna! That was as good as proof.
Wilf laughed giddily at the thought as the blue box suddenly shot straight up, disappearing into the stars. If Donna was with that couple, she was in for the adventure of a lifetime.