A/N : I want to say a big thank you to everybody who has bothered to review my story so far. I hope you like this chapter and please keep reviewing because they motivate me to keep on writing and let me tell you now, this story has been at times difficult to write but I always love a challenge I guess..... :p.
Two weeks after losing Rose, Donna was sat in the console room painting her nails when the Doctor suddenly came bouncing in with the first big grin she'd seen on space-boy's face since Rose had left."Are you alright?" she asked concerned.
"What me? Never better!" he beamed and happily leapt around the console panel.
"Doctor you're starting to scare me" Donna said, slightly alarmed.
"Donna, look, honestly, I'm fine. I'm brilliant. Fantastico!"
"Err, whatever you say space-boy" Fantastico? was that even a word? Donna thought to herself.
"Get changed, those clothes aren't appropriate" he told her. Donna narrowed her eyes at him before lowering him to her snow white fluffy jumper, grey jeans and trainers.
"What's wrong with my outfit?" she demanded. There was nothing that seemed inappropriate about her clothes, to her. Four weeks ago Rose walked in wearing a short tartan mini skirt and white blouse with most of the buttons unfastened and he was more than cool with it.... yet it was her outfit was inappropriate?
"Wrong time period for were we're going. Remember the conversation we had little more than a year ago about blending in with people?" Donna rolled her eyes.
"You should of just said that space-boy"
"Instead of babbling, why don't you just do as I tell you?" the Doctor snapped. Donna wasn't so worried anymore, he was back to being a grouch like he had been for the past two weeks.
"Yes sir" she said and saluted him mockingly as if she was in the army. Normally she would have slapped him but she was determined to be as kind to him as possible since he'd lost his girlfriend recently and everything. Although, Donna thought as she walked to the wardrobe, Rose had been her best friend but she wasn't acting moody because of it. But then again she had meant more to him than Donna.
"Wait!" Donna called back."You never said what year!"
"Elvis in the fifties. What do you think, fancy it?" Donna instantly felt sad. Rose had been nagging the Doctor to take her to see Elvis for ages. Well at least if they did this, he might get some closure over the whole thing which she assumed he was aiming to do.
"Great, I'll be out in a sec" and she was. By the time she walked in, in her pink floaty dress and short blue jacket, the Doctor had combed his hair in a fifties quiff and they were ready to go.
"You look nice" he grunted.
"Thanks" she replied. A few minutes later, Donna flung open and walked out. "I personally think we should of gone and seen him in the sixties" from inside the Tardis she heard the Doctor's reply and was relieved when it was more than a grunt.
"Donna are you crazy? If you want to see Elvis you go to the late fifties, the time before burgers, when he was called the 'pelvis' and still had a waist" Donna smiled, amused and waited for him to come out. When he did, she was surprised to see him, drive out on a blue moped. He grinned at her before doing his best Elvis impression."You going my way doll?"
"What?!" the Doctor looked mildly disappointed that Donna had no idea what he was doing.
"You need to get cultured up or something" he muttered.
"Excuse me if I'm not an Elvis fanatic" she scoffed and took a seat on the back of the moped after placing a pink helmet over her ginger ponytail.
"Donna you are incredible" he said with a look of disbelief plastered across his face.
"Whatever just start driving space-boy we don't have all day"
"Actually Donna, tech-"
"Oh just shut up and drive" she snapped and he immediately obeyed."Where are we going then?"
"Ed Sullivan TV studios, Elvis did 'hound dog' there and it drew loads of complaints. If we're lucky we'll just about make it in time to see it"
"And this is tv studios in New York right?" Donna asked, hanging on to him as they drove down the street.
"That's the one" he replied, grinning before a red London bus whizzed past them. Donna raised an eyebrow and glanced around the streets.
"Oh this is very New York alright" she smirked.
"Hey, it could still be New York" the Doctor said uncertainly. Then the two looked up and saw a line of union jacks hanging off the rooftops of some houses.
"You're driving skills just get better and better" Donna remarked.
"Oi, at least we didn't end up in Cardiff 1906, that would of been a lot worst" the Doctor said in his defence.
"I guess you're right but what are all the flags for?" Donna asked, confused.
"Let's go find out shall we?" the Doctor said brightly and continued driving down the streets and stopped when he saw a man in a van handing a tv over to a boy, who excitedly took it into his house.
"There you go sir, all wired up for the great occasion!" he called out after the kid.
"What great occasion?" the Doctor frowned at the man. The man stared at him, surprised and slightly taken back.
"Where've you been living? Only the coronation!" the man answered.
"What coronation's that then?" the Doctor remarked and received a stare off Donna.
"Queen Elizabeth's dumbo! You're the time lord, I thought you knew you're history!" the Doctor didn't need to look at her to know she was taking great pleasure at his ignorance.
"Oh so is this 1953 then?" the Doctor asked ignoring Donnas' smugness.
"That it is" the man replied, a bit taken back.
"Hey look at all the tv aerials, it looks as if everyone's got one which is strange cause granddad said tellies were rare back then" Donna commented.
"Not round here, love. Magpie's marvellous tellies cost only five quid a box. Now everyone can watch the coronation"
"That's a brilliant idea!" the Doctor beamed.
"Please someone help me!" a woman voice's cried from behind them and the Doctor and Donna turned in alarm, just in time to see a man with a blanket over his head being bundled into a police car."Leave him alone he's my husband!" the Doctor and Donna exchanged a look before running towards the car.
"What's going on?" the Doctor asked her.
"Oi, what are you doing?!" everyone watched as a boy ran towards them, alarmed but the car drove off, leaving behind a weeping wife and a confused Doctor and Donna. But when they tried to question the boy about what had happened, his father called him back in angrily and he hadn't managed to finish what he was saying.
"Donna, let's go" the Doctor said quickly to Donna, who instantly followed him back onto the back of the moped before driving off after that car. Unfortunately, they had managed to shake them of."Lost them, how did they get away from us?!"
"I'm more surprised they didn't arrest you for reckless driving back there. Have you got a liscense for anything?!" the Doctor shot Donna a glare.
"We need to figure out what we're going to do" he said ignoring Donnas' comment.
"How about we ask the neighbours?" she suggested.
"That's what I like about you. The domestic approach" Donna frowned.
"Oi, was that an insult?!" but she didn't an answer as he carried on driving, the wind smacking across cheeks. They'd ended up back at that boy's house, Tommy his name was and they interviewed his mother who was a gentle woman and explained what had happened around there. Her husband was not so gentle and Donna was highly amused when the Doctor lost his temper and more or less told the guy to shut it before Tommy showed them up his grandmothers room. When the lights came on, the Doctor and Donna were startled to find the woman had no face. She was completely faceless. Nothing there at all. "Oh my god!" Donna had gasped as the Doctor pointed his sonc screwdriver at her face and started scanning it.
" Scarcely an electrical impulse left. Almost complete neural shutdown, she's ticking over like her brain has been shut down"
"What we going to do, Doctor?" Tommy asked bewildered." We can't even feed her" suddenly they were all startled by the crash of police men entering the house. They marched up the stairs and kicked the door in, ready to steal her away. The Doctor stepped in front of her.
"Hold on a minute! There are three, important, brilliant and complicated reasons why you should listen to me. One-" the Doctor didn't get to finish rambling as a fist met his face and knocked him out cold. He woke a few moments later to see Donna hovering over him, looking worried.
"Doctor?!"
"Huh?" he grunted.
"Oi space-boy wake up!" she hissed and slapped him a few times before he finally managed to pull himself up.
"I'm up!" he replied."Hell of a right hook" he said before the pair of them belted down the stairs, only Donna was slowed down by her pink kitten heels while the Doctor ran out of the door, to the moped and drove off into the night, leaving her behind at the house, to her annoyance.
You get out of my house!" Mr Connelly growled. Donnas' eyes flashed with anger."Don't talk to me like that or I'll slap you" she hissed."It's bad enough you treat you're own family that way. I'm going now, have a nice night" Donna stormed out of the house furiously before Mr Connelly could reply.
Meanwhile, the Doctor found himself at a warehouse and walked behind the side of the building. He watched two policemen locking up a pair of gates and after they were gone, he used his sonic screwdriver to sneak in. When he walked in, he didn't know what he'd find but was startled when he saw several dozen people all without faces stood inside clenching and unclenching their fists in a creepy manner. Suddenly a bright light shone on the Doctor and he was faced with two police men.
"Stay where you are" they ordered. The Doctor didn't object and allowed them to escort him to the detective's office. While that was happening, Donna had a realization. She had been staring at all the TV aerials and she put two and two together. All those cheap tvs and all those faceless people. She marched herself right over to Magpies and confronted him, only for to be confronted by the woman in the TV that went by the name of 'the wire' and informed Donna that she fed on people's faces right before she fed on a surprised and horrified Donna.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me. Doctor!" she screamed.
"Tell me everything you know" the detective, inspector Bishop demanded. The Doctor sat in the chair calmly, not in the least bit intimidated.
"Well for starters i know you can't wrap your hand around you're elbow and make you're fingers meet"
"Don't get clever with me! You were there today at Flozel street breaking into the establishment" Bishop snapped.
"Well the thing is detective inspector Bishop-"
"How do you know my name?" Bishop growled. The Doctor eyed the mans collar.
"It's written inside you're collar" he explained."Bless you're mum but I can't help thinking, detective inspector that you're not doing much detective inspecting are you?" he asked." All you're doing is grabbing those faceless people and hiding them as fast as you can. Don't tell me - orders from above, hmm? Coronation Day... the eyes of the world are on London Town... so any sort of problem just gets swept out of sight" at this Bishop sank down into his chair and explained to the Doctor how the country has an image to maintain but he wanted to help, really except he didn't have the faintest idea where to start. That's where the Doctor came in. A few minutes later when they were looking at some files, the office door swung open and a police man came through, pushing in a body with a cloth over her head.
"Found another one sir" he said. The Doctor glanced up and dropped the files as he recognised the bottom of the pink dress and the shoes. The cloth came off and sure enough, there stood a faceless Donna, only recognizable by her clothing and wild red hair.
"Donna" he breathed horrified.
"Do you know her?" Bishop asked but the Doctor wasn't really paying attention. His best friend stood before him without her face. In normal circumstances, the Doctor would thank the heavens Donna couldn't speak but now it was a complete nightmare. This was the second time in a month something bad had happened to a friend.
"Know her? I...." he tried to reply but he couldn't think straight.
"They found her in the street apparently, over at Master Square abandoned" the cop told Bishop, grimly. Bishop seem surprised by this.
"That's unusual, out in the open. God help us if something happens in public tommrow for the big day, we'll have torchwood on our back make no mistake"
"They did what?" the Doctor asked, soung vaguely annoyed, still glancing at Donna with shock.
"I'm sorry?" Bishop asked startled.
"They left her where?!" the Doctor's temper had started to boil which was never a good thing. Not for those responsible for hurting his friend.
"Just in the street"
"In the street?" he whispered. Donna had been treated like trash, she had no way deserved that.."Well that makes thing very simple. Do you know why,?" he slowly turned and glared at the men behind him. "Because now there is no powerful on this Earth that can stop me!"
The next morning, the Doctor and Bishop stormed down the streets until they got to the Connelly's house. The Doctor knocked on and started questioning Tommy but his ass of a father came out and tried to force him back in but Tommy refused and decided to go with the Doctor. As they were walking down a street, the Doctor glanced up at the aerials and it hit him. Donna had known it all along."Why all thse aerials across one street?"
"Block up the road, Mr Magpie he's selling them cheap" Tommy told him.
"Oh is he?"Bishop asked him, interested before him and Tommy followed a rushing Doctor down the street and over to Magpies. The door to the shop was locked but it didn't stop the Doctor and he smashed his way in and found a portable TV that shouldn't even exist yet. That set alarm bells off in his head. The Doctor shouted Magpie's name a few times but no one appeared still. That's when they noticed the TVs turn to static before the screens filled up with people's faces. The Doctor knelt down and gazed at Donnas' face. To his surprise, while all the other faces were mouthing things like help me or get me out of here, Donna was mouthing something completely different.
" Space-boy I swear I will bloody kill you in your sleep if you don't hurry up and do something!" The edge of the Doctor's lips twitched with amusement. But he turned serious again the moment Magpies voice penetrated the room.
"What do you think your doing?" Magpie spat.
"I want my friend restored but I think that's a bit much for a little backstreet technician, so tell me, whose really in charge here?" the Doctor hissed, looking thunderous.
"Yoo hoo, I think that must be me" came a voice and they all looked at the TV's to see a woman smiling smugly at them. Bishop and Tommy looked alarmed but for the Doctor it was nothing. "Ooh this one is as smart as paint"
"Sorry gentlemen but you've brought this on yourselves" Magpie said cowardly stepping away as the Doctor questioned her. She told him all of her intended to feed on every single person when they tuned in for the queens coronation. Every one of those one million people were going to have their faces suck off by the wire if the Doctor didn't do anything. The wire then proceeded to attempt to suck their faces into the TV. Unfortunately by the time the Doctor had managed to pull out his sonic screwdriver and save them, Inspector Bishop was on the floor unclenching and clenching his fist, his face gone. While that was happening, Magpie had taken the chance to escape the shop with the wire safely inside the portable television.
"Tommy wake up!" he said and shook the boy. Tommy opened his eyes and leapt to his feet. "Where's Magpie?" he asked Tommy, noticing the shop owners missing presence.
"We don't even know where to start looking it's too late" he whined.
"It's never too late, as a wise person once said - Kylie I think... But the Wire's got a big plan... so it'll need... yes, yes, yes, it's got to harness half the population... millions and millions of people... and where are we?"
"Muswell Hill|" Tommy replied.
"Muswell Hill. Muswell Hill! Which means...... Alexandra Palace - biggest TV transmitter in North London! Ohh! That's why they chose this place! Tommy?" the Doctor looked at him excitedly.
"What are you going to do?" Tommy asked him, bemused.
"We're going shopping" he grinned and dragged the boy out of the shop. Eventually, the Doctor managed to put everything right again. He'd found Magpie climbing up a transmitter before the wire had killed him and that was just before the Doctor destroyed the wire and restored everybody's faces.. Tommy had been reunited with his gran, his mother had kicked her abusive husband out and the Doctor was reunited with a very relieved Donna.v They found each other through a crowd and hugged tightly.
"Another attempt at going somewhere fun and once again we get stuck solving another alien crime" Donna said, half annoyed, half amused."Thanks for saving me space-boy, I would have rather of died than have been trapped in that damn TV for the rest of eternity"
"Well, Donna I never could quite get rid of you?" he smiled and wrapped an arm around and they decided to skip the celebrations and just go back into the Tardis where Donna changed into a pair of jeans and a grey jumper.
"Doctor" Donna took a deep intake of breath as she approached him, he was sat on the captain's chair reading....Donna's eyebrows shot up. Way up. "What the hell?!" Donna looked at the Doctor, opened mouthed and the Doctor went bright red as he hid the book behind his back but it had been too late, she'd already seen it. "Is that what I thought it was?!"
"Rose recommended it!" he snapped.
"And you actually decided to read it? You know Rose, you know what kind of stuff she gets her kicks from, why would you even buy it space-boy?" she demanded, cringing on behalf of the Doctor.
"Rose said it would...." his cheeks went crimson."Spice things up a little with....."
"Oh forget it! I don't want to hear about it!" she cried, throwing her hands up in the air."I was going to ask, what if Rose survived and used her vortex thingy majig to get back, did you ever think of that?" The Doctor's cheeks went back to their normal shade and he relaxed slightly. In fact that thought had occurred to him but left as quickly as it had entered. Nobody he....cared about stayed for long. In fact he was waiting for the day Donna wouldn't be here. Not that he wanted it to come but he expected it nevertheless.
"No, Donna, she's gone. There's nothing we can do" he snapped coldly.
"Fine" she sighed."I was only trying to help"
"Yeah I'm sorry, I just don't want to think about her okay?" he said softly to Donna. Donna gripped his hand with her own. It wasn't romantic; it was just her being a good friend as usual.
"You'll be fine, you always are and besides I'm not going anywhere am I?" she smiled.
"Not that I know of"
"I promise I'm going to travel with you forever" she vowed and the Doctor felt touched even though he knew she couldn't keep such a promise. One day something would come along and tear them apart like life did with everyone he ever cared about but for now, he just enjoyed having her with him.