Just to prepare you, I will be switching POVs very rapidly a couple of times during one scene, so I hope I don't confuse you. Thanks for all of your wonderful reviews! Also, when I posted my one shot On My Own, I accidentally pressed a wrong button, being the clumsy person I am, and posted the wrong story. :p It's fixed now. ;)
The Doctor and Jenny turned around to see Wilfred and several others discussing how they had tracked them down. Which was, of course, not possible, because the Doctor isn't supposed to be easy to find. So how did this group of elderly humans find him by calling their neighbors?!
He glanced around at the group and turned to Wilfred. "Have you told them who we are?" he asked quietly, "You promised me," he reminded.
"No, no," Wilfred assured him, "I just told them you were the Doctor, that's all," he explained. Wilfred smiled at them. "And might I say, it is an honor to see you two again," he said saluting the Doctor and Jenny.
Jenny smiled at him, but the Doctor saluted back awkwardly. He really hated salutes, but he didn't want to hurt the old man's feelings. Suddenly a thought came to the Doctor. "Did you see Rose?" he asked curiously, wondering if they had crossed paths, but Wilfred just shrugged.
"You didn't say he was a looker," cooed one of the women, "he's gorgeous!" She handed a camera to a man behind her. "Take a photo!" she ordered. Suddenly the whole situation got just a bit more awkward. Maybe salutes weren't so bad after all.
Jenny, help!
Before the woman could come any closer Jenny stepped in front of him. "Sorry," she said apologetically, "No pictures, we are in a bit of a hurry." The woman glared at her and the Doctor hid a triumphant grin.
Donna parked her car alongside the junk yard as she waited for Rose to get in. It hadn't taken her too long to get here after dropping off Shaun at a café, since she had already been out Christmas shopping. "Thanks Donna," Rose said as she got in with a smile Donna could tell was slightly forced, "Sorry to call you on such short notice, but well, you know how it goes."
And she did. As inconvenient as it might be from time to time, life with the Doctor was full of short notices, so she just shrugged in response. "So, where Jenny and the Doctor?" she asked curiously, "And why did they send you to do research? And why did you listen to them?"
Rose laughed. "I'm not. They told me find you and your granddad and stay away from danger, not go looking for it," she explained with a small smirk.
"But you still agreed to leave?!" Donna asked incredulously. She wasn't judging Rose, not all, it was just she couldn't wrap her mind around the idea of Rose voluntarily leaving because of danger.
Suddenly something occurred to Donna. "Wait. Why were you supposed to find me and Granddad?" she demanded.
Rose shrugged helplessly. "You were with the Doctor on the planet of the Ood, right?" she asked and Donna nodded but said nothing, letting her explain. "Well, they called us back, and they showed us a sort of . . . psychic vision of, well a lot of thing actually, but we saw Wilfred, and he was terrified," she explained slowly, as if she was still trying to puzzle something together.
Donna nodded and raised her eyebrows without taking her eyes off the road. "And you came after us instead of following the Doctor because . . .?" She understood that the Doctor wanted to make sure everything was fine, but why not just call? Why send Rose? Not only was it confusing Donna, she was also getting impatient the Rose wouldn't just tell her what was going on!
Rose sighed. "Someone from the Doctor's past has returned, a Time Lord the Doctor thought was dead." Donna could tell by Rose's voice that this Time Lord was nothing like the Doctor. "We were tracking him- he's called the Master- when the Doctor asked me to go find you.
"He was worried what the Master might do to me just hurt the Doctor," she said softly.
"Ah," Donna replied with a nod. "Hold on, what about Jenny? Couldn't 'the Master' use her against the Doctor too?!"
Rose shook her head and sighed. "The Master knows who I am, but he doesn't know who Jenny is. And apparently he's so insane, he won't figure it out." Donna rolled her eyes. Sure he wouldn't. It was a stretch and both Donna and Rose knew it.
"They'll be alright," Donna reassured her friend, even though she didn't quite believe it herself. Your song is ending, Doctor. Rose nodded mutely.
"So, then," Rose said with what looked like an-almost-genuine-smile after a second of silence, "In the vision, we saw a couple of faces we didn't recognize." Donna listened carefully as Rose described the two people, both of whom Donna didn't recognize.
"How are we supposed to find two people whose names we don't even know?!" Donna asked incredulously. Two people, and they could be anywhere, in any country on the whole planet!
Rose shrugged, but as Donna glanced at her friend she could see a look of determination on her face, a look that said nothing was going to stop her from helping the Doctor in any and every way she could. "I thought we could check the internet, new sites and all that," Rose explained confidently, "They looked fairly important, after all."
"Alright," Donna agreed with a reluctant sigh. She knew it was a long shot, but the Doctor and Jenny were her friends too. "First we just have to stop at the café where I left Shaun."
Rose looked at her curiously. "Who's Shaun?" she asked with interest.
Donna smiled a bit dreamily. "He's my fiancé," she admitted with a grin, "we've started dating about a week or so after you dropped me off at Easter." Donna knew Shaun wasn't rich, or famous, but she loved him anyway. He was wonderful. And not conspiring with a giant red spider-alien-woman-thing.
She and Rose began to pretend they weren't at all worried about the Doctor and Jenny as they began to idly chat about Shaun and weddings and Christmas.
As they were talking Donna noticed Rose was staring intently at one of the shopping bags at her feet. "I know that man," Rose said suddenly, and Donna realized she was looking at the book she had gotten for Granddad.
"So?" she asked, "he wrote a best seller, maybe you've heard of him," Donna suggested, not really thinking much of it.
Rose shook her head. "No . . ." she said uncertainly. She grabbed the book and peered at it closely before gasping in recognition. "Donna! That's him! The man the Ood showed us!" she exclaimed in part relief and part shock.
Donna's eyes widened. "You mean the man you saw in a vision thousands of years in the future just happens to be on the cover of a book I bought?! That is not coincidence. What is happening?" she demanded, "All of it." Rose nodded and explained everything, the Master, the Year that Never Happened, and the words and visions of the Ood.
As they walked into the cheery looking café Rose felt her face spilt into a grin. The café was completely empty except for none other than Wilfred Mott, the Doctor, Jenny and a dark haired man Rose assumed to be Shaun. A small part of her brain wondered how they all ended up at the same place, but the other half was thrilled they were okay, and Wilfred was okay, and Donna's fiancé looked completely human and normal.
Of course, there was another part that was slightly upset that she had missed out on an adventure for nothing, but when the Doctor suddenly turned around, Rose could tell from his expression that it was far from over after all.
"Uh, Donna," Shaun said nervously as he stood up, "Your mother is going to be . . . upset if we don't get back to your place. You know I promised her to help with the Christmas decorations . . ." he trailed off and Rose hid a grin as she realized Shaun was just a tiny bit terrified of Sylvia. Of course, she couldn't really blame him. Apparently the Doctor had a talent for picking companions with crazy mothers.
Donna let out a long suffering sigh. "I know, I know." She looked sternly at the Doctor. "Do not go off without me, got that Spaceman?" The Doctor smiled halfheartedly and Jenny gave a mock salute as Donna and Shaun walked out.
"What happened?" Rose asked as she took her seat next to the Doctor and across from Jenny.
Jenny opened her mouth to explain, but the Doctor cut her off. "He got away," he announced in forced cheer, "flew into the sky, using energy from his resurrection. I wonder what the other . . . side effects of that are? The amount of energy needed to do something like would be huge! Something must have gone wrong," he said in his usual 100 words per minute way, but Rose stopped him with a pointed look. She could tell something was on his mind.
He slumped in his chair. "I'm going to die," he said disbelievingly. "I didn't think too much of it, but . . ."
"He will knock four times," Jenny quoted solemnly.
Rose shook her head. "No!" she said sternly. "Doctor, you are not going to die," she declared with as much confidence as she could muster, "I don't care what the Ood said! I don't care about the drumbeat! You. Are. Not. Dying. Understand?" she said fiercely and the Doctor smiled slightly in response.
"Dad, do you want to die?" Jenny asked suddenly and nodded when the Doctor shook his head in confusion, not knowing where she was going with her question. "Then Rose and I won't let you," she declared with a reassuring smile. Rose knew that even if the Doctor was going to die, they weren't about to let him die sad and depressed.
"But I thought, when I saw you before," Wilfred began, "you said your people could change, like your whole body."
"I can still die," the Doctor said, "If I'm killed before regeneration, then I'm dead." He paused and looked nervously at Jenny could tell that he didn't really want to talk about this around her, but he did continue after a moment of hesitation, "Even then, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies," he explained and Jenny wondered if he was mentally replaying all his regeneration in his head, remembering the pain of dying and being ripped apart, cell by cell and she wondered for a fleeting second if all that pain was worth trying to mess with fate. No. Of course it was.
Her resolve to keep him from dying strengthened. He had only a few regenerations left, and he'd only had this one for a few short years. Jenny, however, was in her first regeneration, and she'd been in this body for one hundred and eight years. He couldn't die just yet; it wasn't fair.
"Some new man goes sauntering away." No! That could not happen! This was her father! He was not going to die!
Rose was about to say something when the Doctor straightened suddenly. "But still, maybe the Ood were wrong," he said with a small shrug, "Or maybe we just don't understand what they're saying."
Wilfred smiled at them as Rose entwined her fingers in the Doctor's. "It's been nice to see you with someone," he said at Jenny, then back at Rose, "You'll never be alone again, will you Doctor?"
The Doctor smiled, a real, genuine smile. "No. Not alone. Not anymore," he said with a fond look at both Rose and Jenny. "Merry Christmas," he said with a smile that now looked slightly forced, and Rose squeezed his hand comfortingly.
And so it came to pass that the players took their final places, making ready the events that were to come.
The madman sat in his empire of dust and ashes, little knowing the glory he would achieve.
While his saviors looked upon the wilderness, the young Lady hoping to change the fate she thought inevitable.
Faraway the fools and idiots dreamt of a shining new future, a future now doomed to never happen.
As the Earth rolled onwards into night, the people of that world did sleep and shiver, somehow knowing that the dawn would bring only one thing: the Final Day.
After a couple of hours of re tracking the psychopathic Time Lord the Time travelling trio found him in the junkyard, hunched over a turkey leg. Rose and Jenny stood behind a slab of concrete, watching as the Doctor walked towards the Master, who was shooting beams of electricity from his hands. As much as Jenny hated just waiting her and watching her father in pain, Jenny knew he would get more information about the Master's powers and his plans on his own, instead of having him taunting the Doctor's companions, so they watched as the Master sat back on his heels and spoke.
"I had estates. Do you remember my father's land, back home? Pastures of red grass stretching miles across Mount Perdition." He smiled, and for a moment Jenny thought he almost looked normal. "We used to run across those fields all day. Look at us now," he said with a sour look.
"All that eloquence, but how many people have you killed?" the Doctor asked weakly, and Jenny saw Rose wince at how weak he sounded.
"I am so hungry," he snarled.
"Your resurrection went wrong," the Doctor explained, still breathing heavily, "All that energy has ripped your body open, and you're killing yourself."
"That's human Christmas out there!" the Master exclaimed. "They eat so much!" He really was insane. "All that roasted meat and red wine." He continued muttering about food, until suddenly he turned and faced the slab they were hiding behind.