Disclaimer: The Doctor is mine I tell you! Mine!

Ch. 51:

Donna and Sylvia were tucked into their camp beds on the kitchen floor. The room was lit with candles.

"Mary McGinty." Sylvia said suddenly. "Do you remember her?"

"Who was she?" Donna asked.

"Worked in the news agent on a Sunday." She replied. "Little woman. Black hair."

"Never really spoke to her." Donna replied.

"She'll be dead." Sylvia said. "Every day, I think of someone else. All dead."

"Maybe she went away for Christmas." Donna said.

"Maybe." Sylvia agreed.

"I'll go out, tomorrow." Donna said reassuringly. "I'll walk into town. There's got to be work. Everyone needs secretaries. As soon as I'm earning, we'll get a proper place. Just you wait, Mum."

"What if it never gets better?" Sylvia asked.

"Course it will." Donna replied.

"Even the bees are disappearing." Sylvia said. "You don't see bumble-bees anymore."

"They'll sort us out." Donna said. "The emergency government. They'll do something."

"What if they don't?" her mother asked.

"Then…we'll complain." Donna said positively.

"Who's going to listen to us?" Sylvia demanded. "Refugees. We haven't even got a vote. We're just no one, Donna. We don't exist."

The sound of voices carried from the living room. Voices singing a drinking song loudly.

"And I spent all my money on whisky and beer…"

"I am going to KILL that man!" Donna seethed.

She got up and walked out.

She burst into the sitting room.

"Now, listen, Mussolini!" she shouted. "I am telling you for the last time to BUTTON IT! If I hear one more SEA SHANTY…"

She trailed off as she spotted Wilf sitting in the corner.

"I always loved a sing-song!" he told her.


Everyone stood around singing, including Donna and Sylvia.

"I'm just a poor boy from a poor family, he's just a poor boy from a poor family, spare him his life from this monstrosity-Doo doo doo doo doo, easy come, easy go, will you let me go?"

There were gunshots outside.

"Bismillah! No-"

They faltered as the gunshots continued.

"Stay here." Rocco said, getting up. "Everyone, stay!"

Outside, a soldier was shooting at an army van and the whole street was clouded in smoke.

"Hey-ey-ey!" Rocco shouted. "Firing at the car is not so good! You-you crazy or what?"

"It's this ATMOS thing, it won't stop!" the soldier said. "It's like gas, it's toxic!"

"Well, switch it off!" Wilf said.

"I have done, it's still going." He replied. "It's every car. Every single ATMOS car, they've gone mad."

There was the clicking sound.

The soldier's eyes widened and he pointed his gun straight at Donna.

"You, lady, turn around!" he ordered.

Wilf and Rocco stood in front of her.

"Are you crazy, boy?" Rocco demanded.

"Turn around!" the soldier ordered.

"Put the gun down!" Wilf yelled.

"Turn around!" he ordered. "Turn around!"

"Do what he says!" Sylvia said, distressed. "Turn around, now!"

"Turn around, now!" he ordered. "Show me your back!"

Donna turned around, her arms in the air. There was nothing on her back. The soldier lowered his gun, his eyes wide with terrified confusion.

"Sorry…" he said shakily. "I thought I saw…"

"Call yourself a soldier?" Wilf said angrily. "Pointing guns at innocent women?"

Donna wasn't angry though. She had an idea of what he had seen. Around the corner she saw a familiar flash of light and felt the familiar buzz of electricity.

"You're a disgrace." Wilf continued. "In my day, we would've had you court-martialed!"

Donna walked silently in the direction of the blue flash.

"Donna?" Sylvia called, but made no move to follow her. "Where are you going? It's not safe at night! Donna! Donna!"

Donna rounded the corner.

"Hello." She said.

The man and woman were standing there, waiting for her.

"Hi." The woman replied.


The woman sat next to Donna on a park bench while the man stood a little ways away, looking up at the sky.

"It's the ATMOS devices." The woman told her. "We're lucky it's not so bad here. Britain hasn't got that much petrol. But all over Europe…China, South Africa…they're getting choked by gas."

"Can't anyone stop it?" Donna asked.

"They're trying now." The man said. "This stupid ape and the two he's managed to get to follow him on this insane quest."

"They're brave." The woman told him, glaring.

"Doesn't mean they aren't stupid." He replied.

"Any way, they're on board the Sontaran ship." The woman told Donna. "Any second now…"

The sky turned to fire briefly, and then calm was restored and Donna's mouth fell open.

"That was the Torchwood team." The woman said. "Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones-they gave their lives. And Captain Jack Harkness has transported to the Sontaran home world. There's no one left."

She sounded so tired.

Donna looked her up and down.

"You're always wearing the same clothes. Both of you." She said testily. "Why won't you tell me your names?"

"None of this was meant to happen." The woman told her. "There was a man and a woman. This…wonderful man and woman, and they stopped it. The Titanic, the Adipose, the ATMOS, they stopped them all from happening."

"That…Doctor?" Donna asked.

She saw the man flinch.

"You knew him." The woman told her.

"Did I?" Donna asked. "When?"

"I think you dream about them, sometimes." She replied. "It's a young, black haired woman with a penchant for boots and leather jackets and a man in a suit? A tall man, great hair."

She stared off into the distance.

"Some...really great hair." She murmured.

"Who are you?" Donna asked with an air of great restraint.

"I was like you." The woman told her. "I used to be you. You've travelled with him, Donna. You've travelled with the Doctor and Lily in a different world."

"Two different worlds." The man added.

"I never met them, and they're dead." Donna replied.

"They died underneath the Thames on Christmas Eve." The woman agreed. "But you were meant to be there. They needed someone to stop them, and that was you. You made them leave. You saved their lives."

Donna stared at her.

The Doctor stood amidst a storm of fire and water with Lily leaning on the railing in front of him. Donna stood below them in her wedding dress, watching them as they watched impassively the destruction they had wrought.

"Doctor!" she called. "Lily!"

The Doctor looked at her as though he had just snapped out of a trance. Lily stayed focused.

"You can stop now!" Donna called.

He watched her for a second before turning to Lily.

"Time to go, Lily-girl." He said.

And they did.

Donna stood up and walked away, afraid.

"Stop it." She told them. "I don't know what you're talking about. Leave me alone!"

"Something's coming, Donna." The man told her as the woman stood up. "Something worse."

"The whole world is stinking." She told them angrily. "How can anything be worse than this?"

"Trust us." The woman said. "We need the Doctor more than ever. I've-"

The woman swallowed and put her hand on her heart.

"We've been pulled across from two different universes, because every single universe is in danger." She told her. "It's coming, Donna. It's coming from across the stars and nothing can stop it."

"WHAT is?" Donna demanded, tears of frustration in her eyes.

"The darkness." The woman replied.

"Well, what do you keep telling ME for?" Donna demanded angrily. "WHAT am I supposed to do? I'm nothing special. I mean, I'm-I'm not-I'm nothing special, I'm a temp. I'm not even that, I'm NOTHING."

"Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation!" the woman told her, laughing slightly at the idea that Donna was nothing.

Donna gave a short, mirthless laugh.

"Oh, don't. Just…" she shook her head, her smile gone, "don't. "I'm tired. I'm so…tired."

She turned to leave.

"We need you to come with us." The woman called.

"Yeah." Donna said, turning back with a derisive laugh. "Well, blonde hair might work on the men, but you ain't shifting me, lady."

"That's more like it." The man said, smiling.

"I've got plenty more." Donna told him.

"I know you'll come with us." The woman told her, also smiling. "Only when you want to."

"You'll have a long wait, then." Donna said, walking away.

"Not really, just three weeks." The woman called assuredly. "Tell me, does your grandfather still own that telescope?"

Donna turned back, surprised.

"He never lets go of it." She replied.

"Three weeks time." The woman told her. "But you've got to be certain. Because, when you come with me, Donna…sorry…so sorry, but…you're going to die."

Donna stared at her.

Before her eyes, the woman and the man disappeared.


Rocco hugged Donna in farewell, spinning her around, both of them laughing.

"And you!" he said. "I'm going to miss you most of all, all flame and fiery."

"Oh, but why do you have to go?" Donna asked.

"It's the new law!" he told her. "England for the English, et cetera."

Donna didn't see Wilf closes his eyes behind her.

"They can't send us home, the oceans are closed!" Rocco continued. "They build labor camps."

He smiled at her.

"I know, but…labor doing what?" Donna asked. "There aren't any jobs."

"Sewing!" Rocco told her after a second. "Digging! Is good!"

He kissed her cheek.

"Now, stop it before I kiss you too much." He told her, kissing her again.

He turned to face Wilfred.

"Wilfred." He said. "My Captain."

He saluted Wilf.

Wilf stood at attention and saluted back. All trace of humor was gone from both men as they shared an intense look that Donna didn't understand. The smile was gone from Rocco's face along with the twinkle in his eyes, and Wilfred's eyes were red and moist. Rocco nodded and joined the other foreigners on the van.

"It'll be quiet with him gone." Donna said. "Still, we'll have more room."

"'Labor camps'." Wilf said, his voice shaking. "That's what they called them last time."

"What do you mean?" Donna asked.

She looked at Rocco and his family in the back of the van. He held his sobbing wife in his arms and they all looked terrified.

"It's happening again." Wilf said.

"What is?" Donna demanded.

She looked from Wilf's distraught expression to the van before approaching the soldiers.

"Excuse me?" she called, but they ignored her. "Excuse me, where are you taking them?"

The van pulled out and she ran after it.

"Where are you going?" she called. "Rocco, where are you going? Where are you going?"

The van turned the corner.

"Were are you going?" she shouted.

The van was gone.

Wilfred shook his head.


Donna entered the room to find Sylvia sitting there with her back to her. She looked so tired, so depressed. Donna closed the door behind her.

"I asked about jobs, with the army." She said. "They said I wasn't qualified."

Sylvia gave no answer.

"You were right." She continued lightly. "You said I should have worked harder at school."

Still no answer.

"I suppose I've always been a disappointment." She said.

"Yeah." Sylvia finally said.

Donna paused a moment before leaving her alone.


Wilfred and Donna sat in the yard, bundled up in winter coats, around a little fire in a bucket. Donna was resting her head against his shoulder, staring into space, while Wilf sipped a cup of tea, considering his telescope which was set up in front of him.

"You know," he said, "we'd get a bit of cash if we sold this thing."

"Don't you dare!" Donna told him. "I always imagined, your old age…I'd have put a bit of money by, make you comfy. Never did. I'm just useless."

Wilfred squinted through the eyepiece of the telescope.

"You're supposed to say 'no, you're not'!" she told him.

"Ah, it must be the alignment." He said, not paying attention.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know." He told her. "I mean, it can't be the lens. I was looking at Orion, the constellation of Orion-you take a look."

He shifted to let her look.

"And tell me, what can you see?" he asked.

"Where?" she asked.

"Well, up there in the sky!" he told her.

Donna peered through the telescope.

"Well, I can't see anything." She told him. "It's just…black."

"Well, I mean it's working!" Wilf said, annoyed and confused. "The telescope is working."

"Well…maybe it's the clouds." Donna told him.

"There's not!" Wilf replied. "It was there. An entire constellation."

As he pointed, the stars began to blink out as though someone or something was turning them off.

"Look…" he said. "Look there…"

The stars disappeared, one constellation at a time.

"They're going out." Wilfred said, horrified. "Oh, my God, Donna! The stars are going out!"

Donna turned around.

"I'm ready." She said.

The man and woman were standing there, waiting for her.


They drove down the road in a UNIT van. Never did they say a word.


The man pushed aside a curtain and allowed the woman and Donna to enter the warehouse before him. Inside was a circle of mirrors with lights in between them. A blue telephone box stood a short distance away from the circle, linked to it by bunches of wires.

The man walked over to the box and stroked it sadly.

"Why is it we never find a live, healthy one?" he called.

"Because we're not that lucky." The woman called back.

"Good point." He replied, walking back to her.

"Ma'am." A captain said, saluting them. "Sir."

"We've told you, don't salute." The woman told her as she bent down to mess with the computers.

"Well, if you're not going to tell us your names…" the captain replied.

"What, you don't know either?" Donna asked.

"There's too many different realities." The woman said. "Trust me, the wrong word in the wrong place can change an entire causal nexus."

"You just had to go and tell them your name." the man said. "You couldn't leave well enough alone."

"Yeah, well you had to go and provoke that one tribe." The woman shot back. "Tell me, how did that turn out for you?"

"They talk like that." The captain told Donna as they continued to fight. "A lot. And you must be Miss Noble."

"Donna." She replied.

"Captain Erisa Magambo." The captain said, shaking her hand. "Thank you for this."

"I don't even know what I'm doing." Donna said.

"Is it awake?" the woman asked, having finished her argument with the man, though both still seemed annoyed.

"It seems to be quiet today." Magambo replied. "Ticking over. Like it's waiting."

The woman contemplated the box, her arms folded.

"Do you want to see it?" she asked Donna.

"What's a police box?" she asked.

"They salvaged it from underneath the Thames." The woman told her. "Just go inside."

"What for?" Donna asked.

"Just go in!" the man said, exasperated.

Donna did as she was told, still confused. She gave them a strange look before walking in.

The man and woman stood outside.

"No. WAY." Came Donna's voice from inside followed by her incredulous laughter.

"Pay up." The woman said, holding her hand out to the man.

"Screaming in terror would've been too much to ask for?" he grumbled, shoving a bill into her hand.

"Yep." The woman replied, popping the p.

Donna walked out and walked around the box, feeling the sides, her mouth hanging open. She walked back in.

The inside was a giant dark room. She looked around for a moment before walking back out.

"What do you think?" the woman asked, grinning.

"…can I have a coffee?" Donna asked.


The woman and Donna, with a steaming cup of coffee in her hands, walked around the console, while the man sat on the jumpseat.

"Time and Relative Dimension In Space." The woman told her. "This room used to shine with light."

She looked up at the engine column.

"I think it's dying." She said.

"She is." The man said. "Her Doctor's dead. She has no reason to continue now."

The woman reached out and rubbed the console. The column rose a feeble inch or two in response.

"It's still trying to help." She said.

"And…and it belonged to the Doctor?" Donna asked.

"He was a Time Lord." The woman told her. "Last of his kind."

"Sort of." The man said.

"What do you mean?" Donna asked.

"Lily was a Time Lord too." He told her. "But she was turned into a human a long time ago and she was from another reality, so it all depends on how you want to look at it."

"But if they're so special, what are they doing with me?" Donna asked, genuinely puzzled.

"They thought you were brilliant." The woman told her simply.

"Don't be stupid." Donna replied.

"Well, you are!" she told her. "It just took the Doctor to show you that, simply being with him."

She looked away.

"He did the same to me." She told her. "To everyone he touches."

Donna watched her for a moment.

"Were you and him…?" she asked her.

The woman looked at her, but she didn't seem to have an answer.

She was suddenly distracted by the clicking noise. She reached out and smoothed her hand over Donna's shoulder and back.

"Do you want to see it?" she asked Donna.

"No." Donna replied immediately.

The woman peered at her back.

"Go on, then." Donna said finally.

A/N: Almost done with Turn Left. At least now I have alt. Nine to play with. Not as much fun as Lily, but it'll have to do. So tell me what you think.

Abbey