A/N: you get your chance to see if you guessed right about someone.


Part 8

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The Doctor fought the separation with all his might, unable to believe these people could hold such views. "Where are you taking me? Take me back to Donna right now!"

"It is the law that the bride and groom be apart before the ceremony," one of his guardians growled back at him.

"Why?" the Doctor demanded to know. "What good does it do?"

The guard merely shrugged. "That is the ceremony. You shall see her soon enough once you have meditated for an hour."

"An hour! This is ridiculous!" the Doctor complained. "Donna needs me."

Another guard eyed him suspiciously. "You have already blighted her by causing her to be with child. The least you could do is grant her the grace to be a proper bride."

Sighing deeply, the Doctor huffed out, "Very well. But you'd better get me to her as soon as possible." He didn't care that they seemed to think he was some sort of manipulative sex maniac; he just wanted to get back to her and the baby. Goodness knew how upset she could about all this.


"Get your mauling mitts off me!" Donna yelled out as she was ushered away from the Doctor. "Once I'm married my husband and I will sue the backsides off you all!"

"Mother of Harden… I mean, Mistress Donna; we are trying to restore your reputation," one of her guards explained in friendly tones. "Your future husband has done you a great disservice."

"That's where you're wrong, Sunshine!" Donna contradicted, with a stab of her finger. "The Doctor would never do anything of the sort. He's been nothing but caring; even when he doesn't have to be."

"Be that as it may," her guard patiently expounded, "but you still need to meditate before your wedding ceremony to cleanse the spirits that surround you."

"I'd rather drink a glass of spirits at this moment," Donna mumbled to herself. "Look, I know you mean well but it really isn't necessary."

"It is the law," an exasperated guard sternly proclaimed. "If you do not like our ways you should not have come here."

"Yeah yeah, I get the picture," Donna griped. "Be good, shut up, sit down, get married. All the usual dross. Just because I'm going through with this does not mean I approve!"

"Duly noted," the second guard acknowledged. "The wedding will begin in one hour."

"Aww, you make it sound so romantic," Donna sarcastically commented. "Is there at least the chance of a cup of tea while I wait?"

Several pairs of eyes looked at her in disapproval. Good! That was exactly the effect she was aiming for. That'd teach them to assume she'd go along with their stupid little laws.


The Doctor and Donna were not the only ones to disturbed by the wedding plans. Harden found himself being manhandled out of the tiny shack and made to walk to a covered courtyard, lit only by the moonlight above them that filtered in through the wrought-iron mesh that acted as a ceiling and buffer against the marauding interests of any passing Dreadel. It made him feel extremely uncomfortable to be standing there despite the safety of the pending dawn. The half-light was always the most dangerous time of all; and the fact their people thought the cleared area in front of a tiny statue of metal was sacred was, to be quite frank, beyond his understanding.

"Why have I been brought here?" he demanded to know from his escort of three settlement dwellers.

One of them was a gangly young man who squinted as though his vision was impaired; which may have been a massive disadvantage since corrective glasses were no longer freely available. "Your parents have committed a terrible sin, and we have brought you here to amend that," he explained.

"You what?" Harden spluttered in disbelief. "Are you saying it was an unforgivable sin to bring me here? Seriously?! Next you'll be telling me I have to be executed or some such nonsense. If that's the case, just let us go back to where we came from. We are innocent!"

From behind him a gentle female voice said, "There is no need to worry, little one. Once your parents atone for their sin you are free to go or stay with us."

Harden whirled round, to face this new, authoritative stranger. He saw a young woman shorter than him, clad in a hooded robe, smiling in his direction; but he refused to be intimidated by her ethereal presence. "Who are you and what's going on?" he asked, aiming to sound as annoyed as Donna could be.

The woman pulled back her hood slightly to reveal a slither of her shining hair; her vivid blue eyes fixed on him, and she smiled indulgently. "I am the leader of Heiligtum; and I cannot wait to meet your parents."

Still puzzled, Harden narrowed his eyes. "Why? What do you want with them? This whole place seems to be obsessed with them being some sort of parents of mine."

The woman laughed; a soft tinkling sound. "They will help us free this world."

"Really?!" Harden stood stunned. "I know that the Doctor is…" He fought to find the phrase that Donna had used to describe him. "… high up in the brainy stakes, but you make him sound like he can perform miracles. What are you really planning?"

"Ah, your phrasing is very familiar," the woman declared. "Come with me and you shall find out."

With a tweak of her finger, she encouraged him into a hut he had not seen before; but he was relieved to see that it was far from any threatening open windows. Something within him expected a Dreadel to show up at any second, and he hated that feeling; because it was normally right.

The woman stepped up onto a dais that was little more than an upturned crate, but it had the desired effect of making her taller than them all.

"Bring them in. I am ready," she announced to the same three escorts, who quickly bowed low and then ducked away.

Surprised and slightly impressed by this, Harden thought there was nothing to lose by asking, "Do they always do that?"

Pleased that he didn't seem fazed at all, the woman conspiratorially agreed, "Oh yes. Always. They just started doing it one day."

"You must have done something brilliant to cause that," he remarked thoughtfully.

"I may have done," she smugly decided.

Before Harden could ask what exactly, the escorts returned; prodding in first Donna and then the Doctor before leaving the. Even without the need to look in their direction he could tell it was them. The snarky tone of the voices was a dead giveaway.

"This is a joke, being forced into marriage by a bunch of teenyboppers! Do you know how archaic a shotgun wedding is in this day and age? Marriage shouldn't be based on a sheer whim or an accident of nature," Donna loudly complained.

"Donna, this can be overcome," the Doctor countered. "After all, this isn't the first time such a thing has happened to us."

The escorts were waved away by the woman, out of the hut; leaving only the four of them alone.

"What's come over you all of a sudden?" Donna questioned the Doctor, ignoring the other two for the time being. She'd expected to see Harden and some officiate. "You've soon changed your tune. Normally you can't wait to deny any attachment to me."

"Well… there are certain extenuating factors here at play that I cannot dismiss," he began to say before focussing his attention away from Donna and totally onto the woman. "And you smell completely differently to these people. Who are you?! Tell me what you are!"

In reply the woman released the cloak from around her head, revealing her shining golden ginger hair, and she widely grinned at him. "Hello, Dad!"

"You what?!" Donna gasped out. "Only Jenny ever said that."

"Oh no! No no no no," the Doctor automatically denied the information that assaulted all his senses. "You can't be her." Hope warred with reason within his head.

Ignoring his outburst, the woman continued, "I see you got my message."

"That was you on the psychic paper?!" he floundered. "But you can't have. This is impossible."

"Not impossible. Just a little bit unlikely. Isn't that what you usually say, Dad?" the woman goaded him. She then told Donna, "I am your Jenny."

"But you look totally different," Donna blurted out, and not knowing what to think or believe. "We saw you die."

"I regenerated. Twice, actually. The last time was a short while ago when I crash landed the colonists' rocket here and had a bit of a run in with the Dreadel."

Left on the side of this little show, Harden had his own questions. "You've got a daughter? A magical daughter! Why didn't you say?" he accused the Doctor and Donna.

"It's not the sort of thing you idly throw into a conversation," Donna defended the Doctor. "We were busy with other stuff."

"Like getting pregnant," he muttered to himself. "But you were searching for this place," Harden loudly argued petulantly. "For her," he added, waving a hand towards Jenny. "Why not tell me instead of being all secretive about some message?"

"Because we didn't know who sent it!" the Doctor raged. "She could be using olfactory trickery to trap us all."

"Or she really could be Jenny," Donna suggested as she placed a consoling hand on his arm to calm him down. "You did mention you were expecting her to regenerate at the time. Go on; risk it."

"If she isn't…?" He left the question hanging in the air between them as he continued to wrestle with this news, his eyes wild with anticipation.

"Then we'll cope with it, just like we did last time," she gently reassured him.

That was all the permission he needed, and within seconds the Doctor was hugging Jenny for all he was worth. It had taken only a nanosecond of physically touching her in order to know exactly who and what she was. Their Time Lord connection buzzed into being, calming his troubled soul. "I didn't dare let myself believe," he whispered through his happy tears.

Seeing that Harden was equally affected by this reunion scene, Donna took the opportunity to grab and hug him too. "Come here, you silly sausage," she crooned; embracing him closely, and feeling him return it as he clung on tight.

With an affectionate stroke of his hair, she released her old on him and then good-naturedly asked Jenny, "Don't I get a hug too?"

"Of course," Jenny replied, and threw herself on Donna. "I've missed you!" she cried.

"I've missed you too," Donna sobbed. "Oh, look at me! You've turned me into a blubbering mess. What must you think?" She hastily wiped away her tears, and then gave Jenny another hug for good measure.

"Think?" Jenny eyed her with amusement. "I think it is wonderful you are having Dad's baby. When did you both become like that? You said there were probably laws against it."

The Doctor giggled. "Despite any possible laws, nature decided we should be parents together. It wasn't our decision or actions that caused it."

"Come off it!" Harden protested. "I may be just a kid to you, but even I know that you have to erm… thingy… to have a baby."

"The word is 'mate', Harden; and no, we didn't carry out such an action," the Doctor firmly informed him.

"But you are a couple, aren't you?" Jenny pondered. "After all, you have Harden here as your son."

"Jenny, love, it isn't like that between me and your dad," Donna gently argued. "It never will be."

"Why not?" both Jenny and Harden simultaneously demanded to know.

"The baby was a mere spontaneous event that we can only theorise about," the Doctor supplied. "But Donna and I are best friends who travel together."

"Stop pretending you are reading us some sort of fairy story! I've seen you kiss her," Harden countered, "so you are more than friends."

"Harden, sweetheart; we really aren't more," Donna insisted. "The Doctor is only interested in the baby. Not me. What you saw was the Doctor merely looking after me."

Harden gawped at her in disbelief. "You can't be serious! All this charade is for your baby? This is mad!" he loudly fumed. "I can't deal with this anymore. I'm getting out of here."

"Harden!" Donna screeched after him in horror as he stormed off.