They drop Martha off at a park near her house, Martha must have already said her peace with the Doctor before they had gone to visit Lance because she just hugged the Doctor, gave him one last meaningful look.
And then she was gone.
For a moment Lance doesn't know what to do or what to say.
But he knew the Doctor didn't like endings, and Lance was here to keep him company so he figured they should do what they always did.
"Want to go on an adventure Doctor?" Lance asked, hopping over to the control console and putting his best smile on his face.
Martha wasn't dead, and they could contact her at any time, there was no reason to be sad, so Lance acted happy for the Doctor's sake.
At Lance's voice, the Doctor seemed to break out of whatever thought he had been stuck in, turning towards the console himself, giving Lance a smile in return.
"Well," The Doctor began and just by his tone of voice he knew that the Doctor already had an adventure in mind. "Someone has created a diet pill that actually works."
Lances eyebrows shot to his hairline. "If that isn't suspicious I don't know what is."
"Want to go check it out?" The Doctor was already fiddling with a few buttons.
"Of course." Lance grabbed onto the railings as the TARDIS took off.
Adipose Industries was a big building that was mostly windows that had security guards and cameras which was no problem for the Doctor but was a problem for Lance because as far as anyone in there was concerned, there was no reason for a child to be in the building. And unfortunately, Lance was still very much fifteen and short for his age.
"I will be in and out." The Doctor promised him. "I only need to get some information, and you can come with me after it's closed."
"Fine," Lance said sitting on a bench outside the building. "But if people start screaming and running outside you better know I'm coming in to get you."
The Doctor grinned. "I would be disappointed if you didn't."
The Doctor turned to walk away before pausing and turning back to him. "Don't wander off." The Doctor told him, and then he was gone.
Lance waited a moment, making sure the Doctor was gone before getting up from the bench and began walking to the front of the building.
The Doctor should know better than to think that Lance was going to sit on a bench all day while he was investigating.
Lance easily walked through the front doors, looking around curiously as he made his way to the front desk. There were two women there, each about his mom's age which would make this easier.
Lance had figured out a long time ago that if you acted like you were supposed to be there, no one would question you.
One of the ladies looked up from her computer when she walked up to the front desk, and Lance gave her a broad smile.
"Hello there, what can I do for you?" The women behind the counter looked both concerned and confused as to why he was there.
"My mom works here, and she accidentally took my school folder into work with her, could I go and pick it up?" Lance wasn't sure what time it was or if an average kid would be in school still but he could only hope that this lady wouldn't give his story too much thought.
The lady, however, was already getting up to show him to the elevators. "What is your mom's name? Do you know what floor she would be on?" The lady was asking him as he eagerly followed her to where she was leading him.
He hadn't thought the plan through, so he had no answers to her questions but came up with something on the spot.
"Her name is Rose McClain," Lance blurted out the first thing that came to mind in a panic. "She said something about a meeting today, so I don't know what floor she would be on."
Lance could only hope the lady didn't start questioning him, or ask what the meeting was about because Lance had no information to give her. Luckily for him, however, there seemed to be one meeting in particular that stood out today for the company.
"The Adipose Pill meeting?"
Lance nodded, any meeting would probably work, meetings meant information and Lance only really needed a way to get from the lobby into the building, any floor would work.
The lady swiped her card in the elevator and pushed a button for him, and Lance was in.
Wherever the meeting had been on this floor, Lance had missed it. Lots of people were all walking out of one room holding papers and jotting down things on notebooks at the last minute.
Lance frowned as he realized that he wouldn't get to hear about the meeting but quickly realized that while people were distracted with their papers and notes right now they wouldn't be for long and once they noticed him they would start to wonder why he was there and ask questions that Lance had no answer for.
So he quickly walked around the corner of the hallway and continued down it, trying to look as tall and mature as possible.
The hallway leads to an office space that had tiny cubicles and a potted plant sitting near a printer. Everyone who was at a desk was to busy looking at their computer screens and talking into their earpieces to glance up and notice him, so Lance wasn't too worried about walking over to an empty cubicle and sitting in the chair.
Now he was out of the way enough that no one would notice him unless they were looking for him, and Lance had access to a computer and whatever papers were on the desk.
There wasn't much, whoever usually worked here obviously hadn't come into work that day or had been fired, but it didn't matter much as Lance's attention was immediately drawn towards the blond women who was addressing the room.
Lance winced as she finished her little speech and once again made a promise to himself that he would not be working a business job, that somehow some way he would get into flying. The Garrison was his first choice of course, but he wasn't sure if he had gotten in yet.
Lance was about to go back to trying to break the filing cabinet under the desk open when a red-headed woman caught Lance's attention. Lance wasn't sure why his eyes were drawn to her, she was wearing business clothes like everyone else and was picking papers up from the printer, but something about her was shifty like she wasn't supposed to be there.
Lance was interested immediately. She was the first thing about this place that didn't seem right, and he was going to find out why.
Standing up from the desk that he had been sitting at he quickly followed her back down the hallway and to the elevators. She pushed the button to go down, and Lance walked up next to her. She glanced over at him quickly before looking away, only to realize what she had seen and glanced back at him confused, wondering why a child was here.
She must have decided that it wasn't any of her business because she didn't ask and they got on the elevator together.
The doors closed and Lance turned towards her, trying to hold back the smirk as he asked. "So why are you snooping around Adipose?"
The women startled slightly, her eyes only widening a little as she fished in her pocket and brought out an ID that she flashed at him to quickly to read it.
"Health and Safety." She told him and then turned away like she was trying to pretend he didn't exist.
"Liar." Lance practically sang as they stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby again.
The women practically bristled and started quickly walking away from him, and he grinned as he trotted after her, giving a wave to the lady behind the desk as he did so.
He quickly caught up to the women as she got to the street.
"You're looking into the diet pills, and you think there is something wrong." He told her as she opened her mouth to most likely yell at him to go away. The women's mouth closed with a snap, and Lance knew he had been right, which was a relief because he hadn't been entirely sure.
"How do you know?" Her tone was snarky, but Lance could tell that he had her attention.
"Because," Lance grinned. "There is absolutely something wrong, and you aren't very sneaky."
Lance followed Donna to a nearby café, and she explained everything she had found out about the pills.
"What I don't get is why," Donna told him as she took a bite out of her food. "I know that something is going on, but everyone seems to say that the pill works."
"Then why investigate?" Lance asked as he took a bite out of his food, looking through the papers that this lady had managed to get.
"Because it seems weird and unnatural, and I'm looking for someone who is drawn to the weird and unnatural."
Lance chuckled, it sounded like the Doctor.
"So what about you?" The lady, he still needed to ask for her name, asked. "Why were you there, and how could you tell I was lying so quickly?"
Lance shrugged. "A friend of mine is looking into it too, but told me to stay outside because a kid tends to attract too much attention, but I don't like sitting around, so I found my own way in." Lance leans back in his seat. "And I knew you were lying because you looked way too shifty, it was obvious you weren't supposed to be there, everyone else was just too distracted working to notice."
"I think you are just too observant for your own good." The lady tells him, and Lance snorts because that was the first time anyone had ever called Lance observant.
"Donna." The lady, Donna, told him, holding her hand out.
Lance shook it, grinning happily again. "Lance."
"Nice to meet you, Lance, how would you like to go visit a client of Adipose with me?"
OoO
Stacey was nice, and now she was dead.
Donna had pushed him away from the bathroom before he could enter, her face pale and eyes wide.
"The fat just walks away." She told him solemnly, and Lance realized that it was a lot more than just a catchphrase.
But she pushed him out of the bathroom, and Lance realized that they were following whatever form the fat had taken.
But Donna didn't seem to know where exactly it had gone and eventually they found themselves standing in front of Stacey's apartment watching an empty cab drive away.
Donna seemed a bit dazed but eventually started walking down the street, and Lance could do nothing but follow her, having nowhere else to go and no idea how to get back to the TARDIS.
Eventually, the Doctor would find him, he was still wearing his necklace after all, but Lance had a feeling that the Doctor was a little distracted by whatever was going on at Adipose. It was fine, Lance would figure something out for tonight and go back tomorrow and would eventually run into either the Doctor or the TARDIS.
Donna didn't seem to realize that he was still there until they were standing in front of a house and she was going to open the door.
"This is going to go over well." Was all Donna said before opening the door, and Lance was introduced to Sylvia Noble.
Lance was introduced as one of Donna's friend's nephews who had no place to go for a night and was sat down at a table by Mrs. Noble, being given something to eat and drink before being ignored by Mrs. Noble in favor of her ranting at Donna.
It was impressive to Lance how Mrs. Noble could talk for so long while doing other things around the house, what was more impressive to Lance was how Donna could sit there and listen to it.
Eventually, Donna went to see her grandfather and Lance was shown to a guest bedroom.
The next morning Donna piled him into a small blue car and Lance was given instructions to go and sit in the bathroom until Donna came and got him.
Lance stared at her for a moment. "You'll come and get me out of the men's bathroom?"
Donna rolled her eyes. "Everyone will be gone anyway. Just stay quiet, and no one will know you are there."
Waiting in the bathroom was the most boring thing Lance had ever done, but he stuck it out because there was no other way to sneak into the building without the Doctor quickly.
When Donna came to get him, she told him to be quiet as she led him somewhere, trying to quietly explain what had happened while she had been hiding in the bathroom.
They slinked through the door, staying quiet and Donna looked through the window, as they strained to hear what was going on. Lance didn't understand how a pill was the spark of life, but from Donna's description of what had happened to Stacey, things were starting to make sense.
Lance wished he was tall enough to see through the window like Donna was.
Suddenly, Donna seemed very distracted and looked like she was trying to communicate with someone through the window, which confused Lance because who would Donna be trying to talk to?
Her hand gestures quickly became more and more elaborate, and suddenly she froze, before grabbing his shoulder and pulling him after her as she started to run away.
"Donna what's going on!" Lance shouted as they ran through hallways.
"They saw me!" Donna elaborated even though that didn't explain who she had been talking to.
They quickly made it to the stairs before running up them, gunshots were fired from somewhere below, and Lance and Donna quickened their pace.
Turning a corner, they quickly ran into a familiar face.
Immediately Lance felt better seeing the Doctor but was surprised and confused when Donna embraced the Doctor in a hug which the Doctor quickly returned.
The Doctor spots him standing behind Donna and ends the hug, turning towards him and pointing a finger.
"You weren't supposed to wander off!"
Lance only has time to smirk back at the Doctor, and Donna just had time to ask a confused, "You two know each other?" Before they are reminded that they were being chased and they continue to run up the stairs.
From there it is mostly running for their lives while trying to save the millions of lives of the people who had already tried the Adipose pill and there isn't much room for explanations.
Finally, they are on the sidewalk, waving at fat and not long after that they are back on the TARDIS, moving Donna's bags to where her room will be.
"Your room is across from Lance's; the TARDIS likes him so if you ever need to find anything you can always ask him."
Donna seems to be taking it all in still, as she gazed around the room in awe.
Donna's room looks similar to Lance's room, metal walls, ceiling and floor with a large bed. But Lance had had months to personalize his room and collect knick knacks to place on the dresser and shelves.
Setting down Donna's bags, Lance doesn't think it will take Donna long to personalize her room either.
They all set out to show Donna around the rest of the TARDIS when Donna finally seems to remember that she had lots of questions.
"How long have you been traveling with the Doctor?" She asked Lance as they walked down the metal hallways, the hum that the TARDIS made echoing on the metal and creating a wonderful sounding noise, if a bit metallic.
"Months at this point I think."
They passed the kitchen, and Lance's stomach growled as he realized that he hadn't eaten much today.
"Doctor," Lance questioned, and the Doctor stopped walking to look at Lance. "Could you make chocolate chip cookies?"
Soon enough Lance and Donna found themselves sitting at the counter of the kitchen watching as the Doctor started putting together cookies for them to eat.
"You wouldn't think the Doctor would be good at cooking," Donna says to him quietly as she clutched a mug full of hot chocolate between her hands, watching as the Doctor mixed ingredients together. She seemed so shocked Lance couldn't help the little laugh that escaped him as he drank his mug of hot chocolate.
"The Doctor can cook some things, not a lot of things but some things, but his chocolate chip cookies are the best," Lance told her, understanding that up until now she had only seen the Doctor as this incredible man who chased down aliens and saved people. Martha had been surprised too at how human the Doctor could seem most days, and Lance remembered the time he had had that realization also, and how Rose had laughed at him a little when he had wondered the same thing out loud.
"The Doctor before him could cook way better, I don't know the science behind it but the first Doctor I traveled with could make these amazing meals," Lance remembered those days fondly, since the Doctor's regeneration Lance had been learning how to make foods, he wasn't an expert, but he could at least help the Doctor make meals now.
Donna looked confused, but Lance shrugged and started explaining regeneration to her. The Doctor soon came over with a plate of cookies and glasses of milk and Lance learned how the Doctor and Donna had met.
"You just missed me then," Lance told her. "I had just been dropped off at my house when you showed up."
Donna just shook her head. "Incredible." She said out loud before biting into her cookie.
The next morning there is a knock on his door, and Lance knows it must be Donna as he goes to open it. She is wide awake and already dressed for the day and Lance yawns as he looks at her.
"Can't have you sleeping in all day! Come on the Doctor says he has the perfect place for us to go and you need to be awake to see it.
Before long Lance is standing in the middle of Pompeii with the volcano about to explode and Lance wonders when this had become so normal for him.
What is not normal is for them to lose the TARDIS with Mt. Vesuvius about to explode.
What is also not normal is the feeling of helplessness when the Doctor tells them that they can't do anything about the volcano and that it has to erupt. Lance can understand what the Doctor is saying; he knows that the Doctor would never not do everything that he could to save people.
He also wishes that they had never had to come here in the first place and that the Doctor had never had to make this decision. Donna is starting to realize too, what it means to travel with the Doctor, who the Doctor really is and the burden he carries.
Lance hates it when he talks about Gallifrey and the other Time Lords, and the burden he now carries alone. He hates the weight it brings to the Doctor's eyes and how he can almost see the weight of the universe of the Doctor's shoulders.
But Donna can't see all of this yet. She hasn't been around long enough. Or maybe, Lance thinks, feeling the heat of an actual volcano press down on him, he's been around too long, and has lost the hope of saving everyone.
Donna still has that hope.
Lance has never gotten the exact details on how the Doctor ended the Time War, but he knew that in the end both the Daleks and his own people had been destroyed. Watching the Doctor have his hand on the button that would kill them, and the aliens outside and the 20,000 people in the city, Lance wondered if this was how it had happened.
The Doctor, sitting there with a button, thinking about all the people he was about to kill.
Lance couldn't let him do it alone.
Neither, apparently, could Donna. Despite not knowing what Lance knew they both placed their hands on the Doctor's. They were in this together; the Doctor would not have to bear this burden alone.
And just like that, Pompeii was falling.
It was like snow; Lance thought as Donna screamed at the panicked people, the ash was like snow.
The Doctor had a tight grip on his hand as he led Lance through town after Donna, grabbing her hand too and pulling them along.
Donna was crying. It was a strange thing to notice when everything around them was falling apart but Donna was crying.
They got to the TARDIS and Lance was pushed inside the open doors, Donna following but she was yelling and screaming for the Doctor to go back.
Lance stumbled towards Donna, holding the controls as the Doctor refused to look at any of them.
The Doctor and Donna starred at each other as the Doctor told her that he couldn't save them and Donna pleaded for the Doctor to save someone, anyone.
Lance was still covered in ash, and Donna was still crying when Caecilius and his family were brought into the TARDIS.
Watching Pompeii burn was the most horrific thing Lance had ever watched, and the most humbling.
When they got back to the TARDIS, and the Doctor admitted that sometimes he needed someone to stop him, Lance couldn't help but feel useless. Donna had been able to help the Doctor, to understand the Doctor, and Lance had stood there and been dragged around like a child holding onto his father's hand.
Donna was so undoubtedly good for the Doctor.
Lance was glad that she was here.
Later, he was laying on his bed, fresh out of the shower and cleaned of any ash, when the knock came at his door.
He knows it must be Donna before he even opens the door and feels a sense of De Ja Vu when he sees her standing there just like she had been this morning. This time, however, she is holding two mugs of hot chocolate in her hands and is in lounging clothes.
"I thought after a day like today you might want someone to talk to." She tells him, and he moves aside so she can come in.
She takes in his room and sits on the edge of his bed, he joins her, and she hands him his hot chocolate, she had added whipped cream and chocolate shavings onto the top, something Lance didn't even know the TARDIS had.
Lance clutched the mug and stares at it for a moment, enjoying the warmth that was soaking into his hands. Donna is taking small sips out of her own mug.
"It's not always like this." He tells her, feeling like she should know.
Donna nods. "I believe you. But sometimes it is."
"Yeah, sometimes it is." Lance agrees with her.
"You said you've been traveling with the Doctor for a few months now right? What about school?"
"We have a system, I travel with the Doctor for a while, and then I go back home for a week, and he picks me up on the weekends. We've been doing that for a while now."
Donna looks at him carefully, and he tries not to look her in the eyes.
"How old are you Lance?" She asks quietly like she is almost afraid of the answer.
"I'm fifteen. I will be sixteen in a little while." He tells her, finally bringing the mug up to his lips, it tasted terrific.
"This is a lot for you to go through at fifteen," Donna tells him, and Lance sets his mug down on his side table, his hands are shaking too much for him to hold onto it.
"You understand though," Lance tells her because he knows it's true. She had gone looking for the Doctor, too. "Traveling with the Doctor is amazing, you can't just pass it up.
Donna's mug had been set on the side table at some point too, and suddenly Donna is hugging him tightly, and he can't help the tears that leak out of his eyes.
He seems to have been crying an awful lot lately.
He misses Rose, and Jack and Martha, he wants to see them all again.
"You are really good for the Doctor." He tells Donna, his face still pressed into her shoulder.
"I was to scared to do anything today, I've never had to take care of the Doctor, that was always Rose's job, and then Martha's job for a while. He hasn't been the same since Rose though. But you took care of him."
Donna squeezes him tighter at his words, pulling back and handing him his mug of hot chocolate again.
"It's not your job to take care of the Doctor." She tells Lance softly. "But for the record, I think you've been trying your best and doing a good job for Rose."
The Doctor must have mentioned Rose to Donna at some point because Donna is looking at him with such understanding eyes.
"You've been doing wonderfully, and being very brave, but for now let's just drink some cocoa and you can tell me all about where you are from, and what adventures you've been on."
Lance nods, and Donna wraps his comforter around his shoulders, and he clutched his pillow to his chest and drank his hot chocolate and tells Donna all about ice cream on the planet Golsdum and The Blitz where they had met Jack, and the time Daleks were in New York.
Eventually, his mug is empty, and he can feel his eyes growing heavier with every word he says and at some point while he is telling Donna about the Lazarus Experiment his eyes slide closed.
He wakes up the next morning and finds that someone had draped a blanket over him and taken the mugs off of his nightstand and he thinks that Donna might be just as good for him as she is for the Doctor.
Donna apparently can make pancakes, and according to her that's the only thing that she can make without setting anything on fire, but they do taste delicious.
But apparently, the surprises aren't over yet because the Doctor and Donna are herding him out of the TARDIS and onto Varadero Beach.
The Tardis is parked right on the edge of the sand, and the beach is filling up with tourists but it's not overly packed yet, the sun is shining, and waves are crashing onto the shore and further out looks perfect for surfing.
"We can spend the whole day here." The Doctor tells him, coming over to look out at the ocean. "And by five o'clock you can head back to your house without running into your other self, it will be like you've never been gone, but Donna wanted a beach day, and this is the best beach in the universe."
Lance rushes back into the TARDIS to get changed into a bathing suit, and when he comes back, Donna and the Doctor are setting up their towels on a patch of beach, and all Lance can think about is how good Donna really is for them.
He returns home that night and tries to remember what had been happening with his family the last time he had seen them, and it is surprisingly difficult to do, he had been away for a while.
The week passes and Lance takes the time to talk with his parents and his grandma, to catch up with his siblings and see a movie with them. He takes the time to remember that his life is more than traveling with the Doctor, and he feels content in knowing that the Doctor has Donna traveling with him right now and isn't alone.
It's Friday night when Lance is woken up by the tapping on his window.
Looking outside Lance is shocked to see Donna, leaning out of the TARDIS and tapping gently out of his window.
He gets up, opening it as wide as he could and pokes his head out.
"Come on!" Donna orders him. "Hop in, the Doctor's phone rang, we've got to go."
Which confuses Lance because the Doctor doesn't own a phone and the one outside the police box isn't hooked up yet even though the Doctor has been saying that he will hook it up ever since Lance had first known him. The only phone that the Doctor had was Martha's phone.
And oh.
Martha had promised that they would see her again.
And Martha has grown, it had clearly been longer for her than it had for him and the Doctor. But she pulls him into a hug and asks how he's been, and he grins and tells her that he had been fine and that Donna had been taking care of them. Donna and Martha hit it off immediately, and Lance is happy because apparently Martha is engaged and a Doctor now and Martha's family is doing okay.
He gets a lot of looks in the military base, but he is hitting another growth spurt he thinks so maybe he'll start looking his age soon.
Donna, as usual, doesn't let anyone bully her around and gets her salute and Martha and Lance exchange pleased grins as Colonel Mace does just that.
Donna leaves to visit her family while they were here, make sure they are okay, and Lance stays with the Doctor as they go over things on the computer.
Later they are surrounded by a bunch of kid geniuses, and Lance feels really out of place, but Ross is nice and also there, so it makes him feel a little better.
Luke seems to completely ignore him and Ross, focusing only on the Doctor. The Doctor seems to take offense to this, going as far as to say, "Don't call Ross a grunt, Ross is nice! And Lance is going to be capable of more than you can ever imagine, you should be nicer."
It was nice to hear that the Doctor thought Lance was destined for greatness, even if he was being biased in saying it.
But in the end, Luke ended up just being lonely, and Lance only felt grateful to him as he traded places with the Doctor.
Throughout his time on the TARDIS Lance knew that the ship was sentient, the Doctor liked to talk to her sometimes, and Lance sometimes did too when he couldn't sleep. But Lance had never seen the TARDIS slam her doors shut as she did on Martha.
And he had never seen the TARDIS take off on her own before either, and it wasn't a smooth take-off, Lance dropped to the floor trying to hold onto a pillar as the rumbling of the TARDIS continued for a few more minutes, only accompanied by Martha demanding to be taken home.
And then there was silence as they landed.
For a moment no one knew what to do, they had moved, but they had no idea where they had gone. But they were adventurers first, and they quickly followed the Doctor outside.
The Doctor's supposed daughter was smiling at them, but Lance didn't know what to think mostly because he didn't know what had just happened. How could this person, who seemed to be only a year or two older than him, be the Doctor's daughter?
He doesn't get much of a chance to process the whole thing before a bomb goes off and he's stuck on the other side of the wall from the Doctor, Donna, and the new girl.
He had Martha though, which is a relief.
He and Martha are quickly brought to the Hath base, and from there they trudge across the planet surface to meet up with the Doctor and Donna.
The planet is cold and windy, and Martha had said something about radiation that Lance chose to ignore for the time being, but then Martha slipped, and Lance's arms were too short to reach, and the Hath that Martha had befriended sacrificed himself.
Lance felt terrible for the relief that flooded his veins as he held onto Martha and pulled her to her feet so they could continue going.
They made it to the tower and got inside, and Lance instantly felt warmer, especially because they made it just in time to meet up with the Doctor and Donna, and apparently the new girl who's name was Jenny and was sticking around for a while.
But things still weren't okay, because there was a gunshot and Jenny was dying in the Doctor's arms, and it just wasn't fair.
Nothing was ever fair when it came to the Doctor, and it broke Lance's heart.
They took Martha back home, and Lance hugged her, telling her to stay safe. Donna and Martha talked for a moment, and then Martha was gone again, but it was easier this time. He knew Martha would be okay.
And who knew, maybe she would call them again one day.
They wandered back to the TARDIS and Donna collapsed into Lance's hammock, so Lance found a seat between one of the pillars and made himself comfortable instead.
The Doctor came in and started to tell them a story about a robot dog when a beeping came from the engine below, and the Doctor rushed down to take care of whatever part of the TARDIS was breaking.
"Sometimes I think he's going to blow us up accidentally," Donna commented from her relaxed position in the hammock.
Lance laughed. "I think the TARDIS sets those warnings off early, half the time I don't think they are as urgent as she makes them out to be, still send the Doctor running every time."
Donna hummed nodding. "He'd probably forget otherwise."
Lance agreed before hesitantly asking. "Jenny, the Doctor was really starting to think of her as his daughter?"
Donna opened her eyes. "Yeah." She sounded so sad. "He was warming up to the idea of her traveling with us, and I was too. You would have loved her Lance. She would have been like your sister."
Lance swung his feet out in consideration. "The Doctor would have to think of me like a son for her to really be my sister, and he doesn't think that."
Donna scoffed. "Doesn't think like that?" She sounded incredulous like Lance had just told her that the sky was purple. But then realized that he was serious.
"Lance, the Doctor cares so much about you. He hasn't put a title on it, and you obviously have your family at home, but he takes you everywhere, makes sure you stay safe, and you've told me yourself, we're all the Doctor has. He might not call you his son, he might not be ready to face it like that yet, but he loves you like one."
Lance was silent, staring at the console of the TARDIS and listened as the Doctor made noise from below deck, trying to fix whatever the TARDIS wanted him too.
"He told me some things when we were down in those tunnels, he talked to Jenny a lot about you, and I can't say much, but there is a reason you're traveling with him, Lance. He is so proud of you."
The Doctor chose that moment to reappear from below deck.
"Alright got that all fixed up! TARDIS wasn't very happy with the use of Duct tape, but she'll get over it."
Lance couldn't help but chuckle with Donna as they hopped off the hammock and pillar and got ready to go to their next destination.
They traveled for a little bit more, dropping Lance off at home every so often so he could see his family and go to school.
He got a letter in the mail from the Galaxy Garrison, and he was accepted! His family and him celebrated all day, and then that weekend he brought his letter into the TARDIS to show Donna and the Doctor, and the Doctor took them to a space amusement park in celebration.
Lance got the feeling both Donna and the Doctor had known he was going to get in, but they still were thrilled to hear the news.
He'd actually done it. He'd gotten in.
He'd let Hunk know immediately, and they were all set to go to be roommates.
He had told Donna, and the Doctor all of this as they had walked into the TARDIS and the Doctor and grinned and called him brilliant and Donna had laughed, and in celebration, the Doctor said he was going to take him to the biggest library in the universe.
Libraries were cool but the biggest library in the universe? That would make anything amazing.
Only when they got there, the entire place was abandoned. No one was there.
Lance had never given much thought to noise. Maybe because wherever he went, he always seemed to be surrounded by it. Whether it be home or on the TARDIS.
But here, when they stopped talking, the entire planet was silent.
And for once, Lance could understand how silence could be loud.
Professor Rover Song unnerves him.
She knows the Doctor, and she seems to know him, but she does not know Donna.
And Lance doesn't have to be a genius to figure out what that means, and Lance can't except it, not from this lady who is an archaeologist and could be lying.
He isn't ready to accept that one day he could lose Donna.
After the events in the library, Lance is left with a fear of the dark and the fear of losing Donna.
Lance hates the archaeologist that had called herself River Song.
The Doctor, Donna, and him travel to a few more spots before they are dropping him off at home again, promising to be back soon.
They are not back soon.
Lance hadn't even been able to say goodbye.
The Doctor shows up at his door that Friday without Donna and Lance can't help but slam the door in the Doctor's face after he has given his explanation.
The Doctor leaves after that.
Lance isn't sure he wants him to come back.
