Chapter CXXII
Donna
"So, where can I put all my stuff?" she asked and looked at them. "I need a place to sleep."
"Uhm," the Doctor replied and scratched his neck. "I'm sure she made a room for you somewhere." But he made no effort to actually move away from the console.
"And where do you think it might be?" Mira asked. "You know, the TARDIS is sort of big."
"Oh, you'll know," he replied to her.
"I'll-" Mira looked at him, eyebrows raised, and the, for a moment, her look got weirdly blank. "Oh. I see. Come on, Donna. Let's get your stuff down."
She watched Mira picking up some of her stuff – that skinny woman was stronger than she looked, but the Doctor didn't make any effort to help them. So she picked up the rest of the luggage and followed Mira down the stairs.
"So he lets you do all the work? Is he always like that?" she asked.
"What? Nah. He just sometimes doesn't really think about what's appropriate. Appropriate from a human perspective, that is. And he's flying right now. I think."
"Oh well, that explains it, I guess." She followed Mira for a bit until they reached a door.
"I think that's it," Mira said and opened the door, gesturing her to go in first.
"Oh that's beautiful!" she exclaimed. "Like a hotel room. No, a suite! How did you know where it is?"
"The TARDIS," Mira said as if that would explain everything.
Indeed, the room was great. A short hallway was leading into a living area with a couch and a desk. From there a door led to the bedroom with a comfortable looking double bed. The colour scheme was mainly grey with dark purple accents. It was nicely lit by table lamps and wall sconces. It all looked very fancy and expensive. She dropped her stuff and went back to the hallway, where another door had been. It led to the bathroom with a shower and a huge bathtub.
"So you like it?" Mira asked after she had put down the bags she had been carrying as well.
"I do! I could never afford to stay in a room like that!" She took another look around and then her stomach grumbled. "I don't think he has room service here, does he?"
"Nah," Mira replied. "But I can show you the kitchen. I'm hungry as well. Let's cook something."
...
A bit later they had prepared stir fry with rice and chicken – chicken for her, Mira was only having the stir fry. She said she was a vegetarian, even though she doubted that any chicken actually had given its life here. She had asked, but Mira couldn't explain where the food came from. It just appeared, like everything else in the TARDIS. They had also gone back to the console room to get the Doctor, but he hadn't been there. Mira had just shrugged and said that he would show up if he wanted to eat with them. So that was what life in the TARDIS was like then? She certainly could get used to it.
...
"What's wrong Donna?" Mira asked as they were sitting and eating.
"I don't know," she replied, moving around the food on her plate. Then she sighed and continued. "This Ms Foster. Or Cafelio or what her real name was-"
"Cofelia," Mira corrected her.
"She didn't deserve to die like that. Falling that far and then hitting the road, that's just awful."
Mira looked at her out of her big, grey eyes. Sometimes that look was a bit scary, she had to admit. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about Mira was just weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, but weird nevertheless.
"She got warned and she made her choice," Mira finally replied flatly, almost coldly. "And she had no problem killing one million people."
"Oh, so that's okay then? Let her fall to her death?" She put her fork down and crossed her arms.
"I didn't say that," Mira replied.
"No? But you don't seem to care either." She looked at her for a moment. "It really doesn't bother you, does it?"
"As said, she was warned and made her choice. Everything what happened then is on herself."
"It actually doesn't bother you," she said and shook her head in disbelieve. "I mean, why would she trust us and not her people? Makes total sense. Not!"
Mira sighed and pushed her plate away, leaned back and crossed her arms as well, looking down. Then, after a long moment of silence, she replied, "Maybe you're right. She had no reason to trust us. Probably there wasn't much of a choice for her. It's just... I've seen this before. I-"
"They tried to breed on Earth in your universe as well?"
"What?" Mira looked at her in confusion for a moment. "No. I meant I've seen similar things before, so often I can't even remember all of it. Maybe I just sometimes forget that... that it's only me who's aware of it, aware that things are repeating themselves. Maybe I'm just tired of it. And maybe I occasionally need a reminder that I can't judge others by my own standards, because for them it's the first time. They don't have my experience. Only to me it looks like they had a choice. And yes, it actually does bother me. That's why I'm trying to rationalise, I guess."
For a moment Donna didn't know what to say. Had Mira just admitted that she was right? And how often had she seen people fall to their deaths? "Now I'm getting an idea what travelling with the Doctor is like," she finally blurted out. "Or was it like that before you met him? How old are you anyway?" Somehow Mira had sounded as if she had already lived her whole life. Twice at least.
Mira sighed and rested her face in her hands for a moment. Then she looked up at her again. "Fine, I guess it would have come up sooner or later anyway. Older than I look. Much older."
She just stared at her, shaking her head slowly. She didn't understand it. "Got some good plastic surgery in your universe?"
"No, Donna," Mira replied. "I don't age."
"So when you die with seventy or eighty, you'll still look like this?"
"I don't age, Donna."
Then she understood. She didn't age. "It's not just... on the outside then?"
"No."
"How old are you?"
"Old. Probably older than him."
She had no idea how old the Doctor was, but he was an alien. Who could know with them? "Two-hundred years?" she took a guess.
"Close. If you multiply it by eight, that is."
It took her a moment to do the maths. "What!? Sixteen hundred? You got to be kidding me!"
"It's okay if you don't believe me," Mira replied and pulled her plate closer again. "I wouldn't believe it in your stead either."
She picked up her fork again and they both were eating in silence for a while. Sixteen hundred years? Surely not. She couldn't even begin to wrap her head around that.
"And how did you end up here then?" she finally asked.
"It was an accident. He saved my life. He was just there at the right moment."
"He seems to do that," she replied. "I had never guessed that you are together though." She eyed Mira for a moment, thinking if she could really ask her next question. But then again, she had never been someone to hold herself back. "Just – exactly how human is he?"
"Donna!"
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