Chapter 10: A Dynamic Duo
"What on earth are you doing here?" asked Martha as Donna lead her away from the hospital and the press. "Aren't you traveling with the Doctor? Speaking of which, is he here?" Martha looked around expecting to see him among the crowd.
"No." said Donna. "He isn't here." Something in her tone worried Martha. Had something happened to him? He was her hurt...or worse, was he dead? That last thought was so ridiculous that Martha nearly laughed out loud, but the look on Donna's face stopped her.
"Donna? Has something happened? Where is he? Where is the Doctor?" Donna sighed and sat down on a bench that over looked the traffic. Martha sat down next to her, waiting for her friend to explain what was happening.
"I wish I knew." Donna said finally. "He's not anywhere. I can't find him. A few months ago a woke up back in my past on the very day that I first met him. Only he wasn't there. I've lived through these next few months hoping he would show up. Then today there was the thing on the news about the hospital and I remembered that was how you and the Doctor first met. So I came here. Hoping to find him."
Martha listened in silence. So the Doctor hadn't shown up for Donna either? What had happened? "Do you think it had anything to do with what you were up to...I mean whatever it was...before you woke up in your past? What were you and the Doctor...and Rose doing?"
Donna stiffened and Martha guessed that she had hit upon a touchy topic. "We weren't. That is to say Rose and I weren't. I don't know what the Doctor was up to. We weren't traveling with him."
"What?" Martha couldn't believe her ears. All this time she and Mickey had naturally assumed that the Doctor, Donna, and Rose would travel together. Had she been wrong to assume that? No, she decided, that assumption made perfect sense. Donna had become the Doctor's best friend and Martha just couldn't understand why the Doctor would leave her behind. But if that didn't make any sense, the idea of the Doctor leaving Rose behind was even more incredulous. It didn't take a great genius to know that Rose was the love of the Doctor's life. He had missed her so much when she was gone and it was therefore natural to assume that she would continue traveling with him when she got back. So what had gone wrong? "Why? What happened?"
"The metacrisis." said Donna and Martha could sense the bitterness in that one word. "The metacrisis created another Doctor. You remember." Martha nodded. "Well, because the metacrisis was a cross between me and the Doctor's hand...this other Doctor...well, he was human...mostly. He had only one heart and he wouldn't be able to regenerate."
"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Martha, curiously.
"Everything. Well, two things." said Donna. "Firstly, it was because of that that the Doctor left Rose and the human doctor behind in the alternate universe."
Martha gasped. "What? Why?"
"Because he knew that if Rose stayed with him, one day sooner or late...one way or another...she would die and because of that they could never truly be together. He was giving her the chance to live a normal life with someone who loved her...and would age at the same rate she would."
Martha understood this, but how had Rose felt about that? Martha knew that if she had been in her place, she wouldn't have been thrilled. Would that other doctor love her the same way the original did? Martha doubted it. The human doctor might have the real Doctor's memories, but that didn't necessarily make him the Doctor. Martha understood that from personal experience. Her clone had had her memories, but that hadn't made that clone her.
However, Martha could tell that Donna thought the Doctor had done the right thing so Martha decided to keep her own doubts to herself. "And what about you?"
"The metacrisis caused me to have Time Lord knowledge placed in my brain. Unfortunately, that isn't meant to happen. Time Lord knowledge does not belong in a human brain and it was killing me...literally. It was burning up my mind and the Doctor had to erase all my memories of him and our travels together in order to save my life."
"How awful!" said Martha and she shuddered. She tried to imagine having all her memories of the Doctor erased. "But what happened? I mean, you obviously remember him now."
"For the next few years I lived a normal life. I met a nice guy named Shawn Temple and we got married."
"Congratulations." said Martha, but she failed to disguise the sadness in her voice and she found she was rubbing her finger where she usually wore her wedding ring. A ring that was none existent now.
Donna looked at her quizzically as if she sensed something wasn't quite right.
"I also got married." Martha said. "To Mickey Smith. But not any more. Not sense waking up this morning and finding myself in my past." Donna gave her a sympathetic smile. She too had gone through that. "Any way how did you get your memory back?" Martha asked, eager to get the conversation back on track.
"When I woke up back in my past, my memory came back." Donna said. "So, did the Time Lord knowledge."
"But...wouldn't that have killed you?" asked Martha. "And how did come back seeing as how the metacrisis hasn't happened...yet?"
"I have a theory about that." said Donna. "It seems that even though the past has changed, there are still echoes of the way things used to be. For me it's the Time Lord knowledge floating around inside my head, yet it isn't as strong as it used to be. Yet at the same time it isn't killing me because it never happened. Doesn't entirely make sense, I know."
"It's like a paradox." said Martha and Donna nodded.
"Exactly, a paradox." agreed Donna she smiled but then the smile disappeared. "I also have a theory as to what might have happened to the Doctor."
"Really?" Martha pricked up her ears at this. "What is it?"
"He's been erased from time and space." said Donna flatly and Martha could only gawk at her.
"What...? How...?"
"I don't know." Donna admitted. "But it's like he never even existed."
"But if that's true," said Martha, "then how come we remember him? If he never existed...shouldn't we have forgotten him?"
"Not exactly." said Donna. "We traveled with him. We've traveled in time and that changes our perception."
"You could be wrong." said Martha. Donna shook her head sadly, and Martha couldn't help but think that she had never seen her friend so serious.
"I wish I were." said Donna.
"But how can you be sure?"
"I...I just know...he...he's gone. I just feel it." Donna spoke with such conviction that Martha was forced to believe her.
"So," she said slowly, "what do we do now?"
Donna had tears in her eyes as she said, "I honestly don't know." They sat in silence for several minutes. They just watched the traffic as it passed by. Neither one knew what to say or what to do.
"The last time I saw the Doctor," Martha said once she couldn't bear the silence any more, "Mickey and I were tracking down a Sontaran. And there he was. With no explanation. He didn't say anything. He just looked at us and then walked off. I thought something was wrong at the time, but now I'm sure of it."
Donna nodded. "He came to my wedding. I didn't see him, mind you, but he gave my granddad and my mum a wedding present to give to me."
"What was it?" asked Martha.
"A lottery ticket. It was triple-roll-over that week and we ended up winning. Imagine that!" she rolled her eyes and Martha laughed in spite of herself.
"Donna." a sudden thought had just struck her. "If we remember the Doctor because we traveled with him, doesn't that mean that his other companions do to, like Mickey, Jack, and Rose? Wouldn't they have woken up they day they first met him?"
Donna jumped to her feet and Martha could see a new fire in her eyes. "Martha Jones, you are brilliant!"
"So, what's the plan?" asked Martha as the two women took off running down the street.
"Find the others."
"Great. How?"
"Time travel."
"Uh...okay...but where to? And how? We don't have a time machine."
Donna turned and gave her an wide grin. "What do you think I've been doing these last few months?"
"You built a time machine? How?"
"With some difficulty." Donna admitted. "I was going to use it and try and find the Doctor, but the more time past the more certain I became that he was gone. When I saw the news about the hospital...well, that was my last hope. But I never thought of using it to find the others until you mentioned it."
"But where will we start?" asked Martha.
"Where he was first seen." said Donna. "We're going to find Rose."
Author's Note: Phew! That's over! I was afraid I wouldn't get this chapter done in time. Anyways, review!