Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing okay! I know it's not really easy at the moment but stay safe out there. Don't hesitate to send a review, I love to know what you think of the chapter :)
As always, thank you to my beta!

Chapter 26

When Donna entered the kitchen the next morning, the Doctor was already up, sitting cross legged on the counter, and deeply entrenched into the dismantling of the toaster. Probably for the fifth time this month she noted, not phased by the Time lord perched on the furniture. At least he wasn't on top of the fridge for once.

He raised his head as he heard her and smiled. "Good morning Donna! Did you sleep well?" he asked, already back to what he was doing.

She yawned. She had never really been a morning person, and living in the TARDIS was not really helping overcome it. "Yes, like a log… And you, did you get a decent amount of sleep at least?" It was the same question she asked every few days, knowing already the answer.

He grunted as a spark flew directly into his nose. "Nah! I slept a few hours, two..." He looked in the distance for a second, his eyebrows frowning. "No wait… Three weeks ago. I'm good for at least another few days."

She snorted as she took one of the cups from the dishwasher. "That's what you said two months ago, and who had to drag you on to a bench because you were fast asleep under the grating of the TARDIS?" The look she sent him as she took out the crumpet from the cupboard was less than friendly. "Oh yeah, that was me."

He looked offended for a second, before throwing what she supposed to be a screw, missing her by a good margin. "I'm taking you all over the universe, all of time and space at your disposal, and that's how you thank me?" he whinged dramatically while waving the sonic around, making one of the lamp bulbs fizzle by mistake.

She sat down, smiling into her cup of tea. "First of all, she is the one who is showing us around," she said while pointing at one of the walls. "And secondly, I'm the one putting up with you. I mean who's the one who's taking apart all of our appliances when he's bored?"

He shrugged, a mischievous smile on his face. "I'm improving them. There's a big difference."

Donna raised an eyebrow. "The last time I tried to use the microwave, it froze my soup solid instead of heating it up."

"And you are welcome, by the way!" he called out while brandishing the half disassembled toaster like Simba in the Lion King, making Donna once again question his sanity. A normal morning for them in short. "Now you can have hot and cold food in one sitting!"

"I will give you hot and cold. You'll see…" she grumbled. Fortunately, the TARDIS had taken care of everything, and her crumpets were still toasted to perfection. "By the way," she finally asked after a few minutes of relative silence. "Rose is not up yet?"

"Rose up yet?" He started to laugh, visibly very amused at her question. "It's what? Not even ten? If you think you're not a morning person, wait until you see Rose." He continued to chuckle while amusing himself with the image.

"That much?" Donna asked, not sure if she was supposed to be impressed or not at the idea.

"Well, once she hurled a solid Krilik vase at Jack's head because he dared to wake her up too many times in a row before 6am." The smile on his face was full of pride. "It was very impressive, let me tell you." When he realized she was still not understanding he added. "That thing easily weighed 20 pounds."

"Oh." She said, effectively impressed. "Well understandable."

"Also I'm pretty sure if she didn't drink her tea and have at least 15 minutes of headspace after that, the whole Roman army could do a conga line in the kitchen, and she wouldn't even realize it. One time I dyed myself purple by accident, long story..." he added before she could open her mouth. "And she didn't even see it until her second cup of tea."

Donna almost spilled the tea she was drinking, coughing as she laughed at the image. The Doctor himself was giggling, remembering the face Rose had made when she realized.

"What's so funny?" asked Rose as she entered the kitchen with a smile, before stopping suddenly as she noticed where the Doctor was perched. "And why on earth are you on the counter?" she demanded with incredulity.

"He's improving the toaster," Donna replied in a way that was part matter of fact and part sarcasm, still smiling from the anecdote of the Doctor.

Rose rolled her eyes as she opened one of the cupboards. "Why am I asking..." she mumbled before frowning as it revealed to be the concealed dishwasher. She turned around, leaning on the sink. "Any idea where the coffee maker is?"

"Try the one above the trash can." Donna pointed to the cupboard in question. "Things will generally end up in there, no idea why though."

Rose made a happy sound as she finally found what she was searching for, as well as some coffee beans. "The TARDIS likes to be cheeky." She smiled. "Slept well?"

"Like a log, you?" Donna replied.

Rose turned her head back to the coffee preparation with her hands full. "Like a baby! I really missed the sound the TARDIS makes during the night. It's very soothing." As she opened the fridge to take out the orange juice, she noticed that the Doctor had still not moved, looking at her with wide eyes and a shocked face. "Are you okay?" she finally asked, a little unnerved by his behavior, or rather lack of it.

"Don't mind him. I think you broke his brain by being awake at this hour…" Donna added while rolling her eyes. That man was sometimes more dramatic than a Victorian woman.

Rose frowned for a second before her eyebrows shot up to her hairline, suddenly remembering something. "Oh right! I was not a morning person when I was travelling with you eh?" She was vaguely embarrassed about her past self incapacity of being really up before eleven.

The Doctor nodded still a little taken aback. "That's a way of saying it." He seemed to ponder on something for a second before jumping off of the kitchen worktop, letting the half disassembled toaster to fall awkwardly on the counter. "I mean, I still vividly remember you threatening me with murder if I continued to talk to you before you finished your breakfast."

Rose flushed a deep crimson, trying her best to disappear from behind her mug, while Donna laughed so hard she almost fell from her chair. "Sorry…" she mumbled with an embarrassed smile.

He sat down beside her, curiosity all over his face. "What changed?"

"I think it started when I was still on the other side." She shrugged. "I mean helping with the baby, then my degree and after that the issue with the disappearing stars. It was not really helping me sleep. It started to get better here, especially when I realized I could do nothing but wait for the years to pass."

"And then?" Asked Donna, with great interest.

"Well, I enlisted in UNIT under the order of brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart!" She chuckled at the memories. It had not been the easiest time, but the face of her training officer when she had 'forgotten' to wake up the first morning had been memorable. The hundred sit ups that followed in punishment were too, but for not the same reason. "Let me tell you, you learn to be a morning person right away." She brandished her mug of coffee with amusement. "That's mostly why I learned to like coffee. It was either that or be like death warmed over for half a day. Everyday." She had a warm smile as she sipped her drink, her head full of memories.

"What did you do in UNIT by the way?" inquired Donna with curiosity. The UNIT she saw during their adventure had not been the most joyous bunch in the world, far from it, and she could not help but ponder about how Rose had fit into all of that.

Rose was still smiling as she finished the last of her coffee. "Well I stayed for a few years in UNIT HQ in Denham, mostly dealing with alien incidents and analyzing data or technology. Not very glamorous but really interesting. Then I was sent to the Lake Windermere base to lead my first team." Her smile grew as she remembered her years there. It had to possibly be the most fun she ever had at UNIT. For the first time she had been surrounded by science geeks all around who didn't care she was a woman, just someone who appreciated science like they did, it had been really peaceful. "We were mostly doing research on alien technology to find if it could benefit the medical field. With a few missions in between. I stayed there until…" She frowned for a second, trying to remember how many years it has been. "1986 I think? No wait '87. A month after I was born."

The Doctor made a face as Donna smirked. "Ah time travel, never a dull day with you," she said with humor.

"You could say that," added Rose while laughing. "So, when the people higher up the command chain finally realized that I wasn't really aging, and combined with the fact I was now 'officially born' so to speak, I put in place the Black Operation with other 'special' operatives. We basically travelled all over the world to resolve alien incidents and put a stop to any random invasions that took place."

"Cool!" exclaimed Donna with genuine delight. "So that's what you were at there with the Sataria?"

"Sontaran…" said the Doctor in a tone of voice, showing it was really not the first time that he had to correct that particular mistake.

"Bless you," Donna responded automatically while still focused on Rose. The face that the Doctor made behind Donna was so comical, that Rose almost choked on her spit.

She rolled her eyes, remembering where she had been before all her plan got thrown out of the window. "No believe it or not, I was on down time."

The Doctor seemed skeptical. "In the middle of an invasion?"

"No, no I was on the Valliant. I was supposed to be there for two weeks in fact, taking part of the science team. But then we heard about the ATMOS incident and decided to join the fun. The rest is history."

Donna nodded, deep in through. "So you tell me you basically travelled all over the world to stop alien invasions, to the point you are also doing it in your spare time?" She turned to the Doctor with a wicked smile. "Do you realise she is you in human form? She even has the absurd longevity down pat."

He spluttered, almost knocking over the canister in his haste to defend himself and his species. He immediately launched into a monologue about the universe and the childishness of the human race, making Rose and Donna roll their eyes with a synchronicity only born from long known suffering. The Doctor could be so predictable at times, it was almost too easy.

"You said you moved around when you were finally born, but how did you stop the temptation to bump into someone you knew during all those years?" Donna asked while the Doctor was still rambling in the background, not realizing that nobody was really listening. Rose was like a more open version of the Doctor and Donna was extremely curious to learn more and suss out the differences between them.

Rose shrugged, she had asked herself the same question hundreds of times. "Preservation. I saw what happens if you mess with the established law of the universe, and it's not pretty. I won't say it wasn't easy. There were times I would have given everything to see my mom one last time, but seeing her would only remind me what's lost. Like I said yesterday, it would only open old wounds. And if I did go see her again, what stops me from doing it again and again?" She felt the crack in her voice and her smile faltered.

"I'm sorry…" Donna replied while regretting asking the question in the first place. Rose was maybe more open than her best friend, but the sadness was still simering under her skin and poking at it had only opened something that was better left behind. After a few seconds of silence, the Doctor took Rose's hand, his eyes sad and deep. The understanding of a world and life lost to them. A sadness and sorrow that would never totally leave, only subdue with time and care.

He opened his mouth, ready to say something, but he suddenly frowned and jumped out of his chair, making Donna curse and drop her mug in surprise. After a few seconds rummaging deep into his pocket, he took out his psychic paper and opened it with eagerness. "I have a message!" he exclaimed with joy. "I never have a message!" He said to no one in particular, visibly delighted by the news.

"By whom?" Rose asked as Donna, who was still grumbling, started to mop up the tea that had splashed everywhere.

"I have no idea!" He continued, smiling like a madman, pacing all around the kitchen with visible glee.

"Why do we bother? I wonder…" Donna whispered, making Rose chuckle. "And what is written?" she asked at more normal volume while trying to contain the overly excitable Doctor.

He put down the paper with force and pointed to it with a smile. "The Library. Come as soon as you can. X," he said out loud.

"That kiss was necessary?" asked Donna as Rose peaked at the paper with curiosity.

"Maybe that's an initial?" He wondered aloud, putting it back into his breast pocket, trying to not comment on the face that Donna was making.

"I have two questions," interrupted Rose. "First, where is this library? It's really vague… And second, when are we supposed to go there? That person just asked to come as soon as you can, but that can be anywhen from today until like 5 billions years in the future."

"Can you ask them?" Donna perked up.

The Doctor straightened up, his face becoming suddenly serious. "No, the probability needed to calculate the input would be too great, and the time vortex would make it too unstable to find a secure channel without interference…"

"You don't know how because you don't know the return number," Rose countered with a grin.

He deflated and scratched his neck with an embarrassed smile. "Pretty much, but... The good news is that I do know where the library is! It's not a library, it's THE library. It's a world. Literally, an entire world. The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. You both will love it!" His enthusiasm was so intense, they could not help but be excited a little bit at the idea.

"Ok let's go," Donna said with a false bravado, as the Doctor jumped around in excitation, babbling about books and adventures. She had hoped for a quiet day, and maybe a bath in the afternoon, but it was clearly too much to ask while living in the TARDIS. As the Doctor ran out of the kitchen, something about preparing the coordinates, she turned to Rose. "What could go wrong?" she asked with a smile.

Rose snorted as she tried to push the half disassembled toaster in one of the drawers. "Famous last words…" she said, half joking half serious, making Donna giggle at the face she was making.

The redhead was already at the door when she turned around and grinned wickedly. "Last one at the wardrobe has to make dinner!" And before Rose could utter another word, she closed the door on her, making the young woman scream in protest. It was going to be a good day though. It has to.

A few hours later, with a beligerous Rose protesting about Donna cheating and a very confused Doctor, they finally stepped out of the TARDIS, directly into what seemed to be a very empty room with only a few rows of books.

Rose looked around curiously, her previous outburst already forgotten. "Are you sure we're at The Library? Looks more like the British museum entrance on a monday morning," she asked with a little bit of disappointment creeping in. With what the Doctor had said about the planet, she had hoped for something a little more… magical.

"I have to say it's very posh, but not that outlandish. Is it closed?" Donna was looking at the ceiling with a frown. The light was very low and everything was pretty bare, a far cry from the tale the Doctor had said about it.

The Doctor's shoulder slumped a little bit at their initial reaction to the place, but he perked right up a few moments after, his smile never leaving his face. "It's just the reading area, the books are this way." He walked at a brisk path, opening a double door which gave way to an outlandish marble staircase.

"That's more like it!" Donna exclaimed as they continued on their way. "But it's still too dark. Not exactly practical for reading."

"When are we by the way?" asked Rose as she examined one of the paintings on the wall.

"Fifty first century," he answered with joy as they passed a few rows of books. "I let the TARDIS choose the date," he continued before they could say anything, making them smile smugly.

After a few minutes of walking in different corridors, with the Doctor lecturing them on the different literature around the place and the human habit of this century, they finally stopped on a balcony who overlooked an infinity of books below.

"Wow." Rose amazed and perhaps awed by the view. She had wanted to ask why so many books were lingering around when they walked those corridors, as if someone had left in a hurry, but she realized it was more likely the aesthetic of the place. An immensitude of possibilities scattered in a world just for it.

The Doctor smiled brightly. "I know right?" He suddenly put his finger in his mouth then in the air, making an appalled Rose almost lose her footing as she tried to step away from him. "We're near the equator," He shouted out unintentionally at Donna, who jumped at his antics. "So this must be biographies. I love biographies!" They exchanged a look behind him, realizing that whatever will happen today they will most probably have to pry the Doctor away from this place. By force if needed.

"Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end." Deadpanned Donna as he picked up a book from one of the piles. Rose had wandered away, poking at one of the information screens, which stubbornly refused to turn on.

"You need a good death," he said distracted as he turned a few pages. "Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size." He closed the book energetically when he realized that Donna was reading above his shoulder. "Wouah, spoiler!" he pointedly warned, scandalised at her apparent curiosity.

Rose turned slightly, looking at them with bemusement. "What?"

"I think he's gone crazy," Donna complained while he pushed her away from the books, making sure she was not touching anything with words in it.

"These books are from your future," he explained passionately. "You don't want to read ahead. Spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end."

Donna rolled her eyes at his argument, making Rose look at the ceiling so she would not laugh in response. "You realize that travelling with you is by definition a spoiler right?" the red head shot back with a roll of her eyes. The face he made was picture perfect for innocence, making her sigh in despair. "Rose, tell him..."

Rose smirked as she continued to probe around the pillar that served as a touch screen. "I almost died five billions years in the future, because you wanted me to see the Earth explode as a first date. Your whole life is a spoiler, Doctor."

"Well, I try to keep you away from major plot developments," he answered with as much certainty as he could muster. Which was obviously not much with the face that Donna was making. "But, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at it…" he finally acknowledged when Rose sent him a sceptical look. But before anyone had time to respond, he suddenly frowned and took out his sonic screwdriver, pointing it in multiple directions.

"What's happening?" Donna asked with a suspicious glance around. Better be ready with that man she thought.

"We are in the biggest library in the universe, and do you hear it?"

Rose closed her eyes and tried to focus on the ambient noise, trying to decipher what the Doctor was hearing. But even with her full concentration, she failed to hear anything except for her own breathing and Donna moving around. "No, it's silent for me," she would admit to the group. He always had much better hearing than her, and isolating strange noise had never been her forte.

He nodded, like he was awaiting that response. "Exactly, it's silent. Complete and total silence all around."

"So?" Donna asked as he started to use his sonic on the touchscreen near Rose, bringing it online in a few seconds, making Rose grumble under her breath about the screens. "It's a library. It's supposed to be silent, no?"

He touched a few things, bringing multiple information up onto the screen before sighing. "Yeah, but we should still hear people walking around. Turning pages while they read. Basically living their lives. I mean, do you see anyone?" he asked, more as a rhetoric than anything else.

Rose shrugged. "Not really. But we are actually pretty high up here, so that doesn't mean anything… Do you think we are in trouble?"

"Knowing us?" answered Donna with a short laugh. "Most probably!"

"Not sure yet but…" He brutally stopped and straightened up with a surprised face. "Oh now that's interesting."

"What?" Said Rose and Donna at the same time.

"I'm scanning for lifeforms." He shuffled aside, giving enough space to them to see what he was doing and what was appearing on the screen. "If I do a scan looking for your basic humanoids. You know, your book readers, few limbs and a face, apart from us, I get nothing. Zippo, nada. See? Nobody home." Effectively the screen was showing that except for them, nobody seemed to be there. Even if the scan was configured on the whole planet. "But if I widen the parameters to any kind of life." He typed a few more things and after a few seconds an error message appeared.

"Did he really say millions?" Rose asked in doubt while looking around dubiously, like she was waiting to see something come out of the wall. Would not be the first time.

He nodded, a grave expression on his face. "A million, million… Gives up after that."

Donna tapped on the screen, like if she did it enough time it would change the result. "But there's nothing here. There's no one." She exchanged a look with the Doctor, who had not moved an inch. "Right?"

"Well, you hear it. Not a sound. A million, million life forms, and silence in the library."

"Should we go back to the TARDIS?" Rose asked while glancing around again, feeling really creeped out by the situation. She loved a good book, but she was drawing the line at a haunted library.

"Do you think it's the book?" Donna continued with a hint of fear in her voice. "I mean, books can't be alive, agree?"

The Doctor scratched his neck, clearly not knowing how to respond to either of them. But before he could find a response, a voice welcomed them, resonating in the empty hall, making them all jump out of their skin.

They looked at each other with frightened eyes before they realized it came from where the TARDIS appeared. After a few seconds of silence, they fell into a fit of nervous giggles, breaking the tension that had started to build.

"That came from over here," Donna said, already walking in the direction of the sound, closely followed by the Doctor, who was almost bouncing with excitation.

Rose paused for a minute, hoping they would stop a moment to reflect on what they were supposed to do, but they were already well on their way to cross the whole corridor, forcing her to follow them at a brisk path. "Here we go again…" She sighed with resignation. A creepy library, invisible life form and an ominous message? What could go wrong as Donna said?