The Last Time Lord and The Impossible Girl Classic Edition

by Smaug25

The Doctor and Clara Oswald. The Hybrid. They will laugh, cry, love but most of all, run. They shall run from the beginning to the end of time and beyond, and if anything tries to stand in their way, their worlds will burn. *STORY BEING RE-WRITTEN*

42. The Runaway Bride

The Runaway Bride

TARDIS

"What?" The Doctor blinked, him and Clara sharing a look as they looked up from the console and towards the wedding dress figure standing there, their back turned to them. Then, the figure turned around, revealing itself to be a 37-year-old red headed woman, with green eyes and standing at 5ft 6, who was staring at them with a puzzled, bewildered frown.

"Oh." She gasped, blinking as she took in her suddenly new surroundings.

"What?" The couple asked in unison.

"Who are you?" The woman asked.

"But…what?"

"Where am I?" She asked again, her voice clearly laced with irritation.

"What?"

"What the hell is this place?!"

"What?!" The two of them walked around the console to stand before the mysterious stranger, who was almost regarding them like a cat would to a stranger cat. "You can't do that." The Doctor whined. "We weren't…we're in flight!" He pointed it out as if it was obvious, while the woman just stared at the console in infuriated bewilderment. "That is-that is physically impossible! How did-"

"Tell me where I am." The woman snarled. "I demand you to tell me right now, where am I?!"

The couple just shared a small look. "Inside the TARDIS." The Doctor answered.

"The what?"

"The TARDIS."

"The what?"

"The TARDIS!" Clara now inputted.

"The what?!" The woman retorted.

"She's called the TARDIS." The couple said in unison.

"That's not even a proper word!" The woman growled. "The both of you are just saying things."

"How did you get in here?" Clara asked, hopefully more softly.

The woman scoffed. "Well, obviously, when you kidnapped me."

Clara blinked. "Eh?"

"Who was it?" She asked. "Who's paying you two? Is it Nerys?" The woman groaned. "Oh my god, she's finally got me back. This has got Nerys written all over it."

"Who the hell is Nerys?" Clara asked.

"Your best friend." The woman said as if it was obvious.

Clara just looked at the Doctor with a shrug, to which he returned before he glanced at the woman in utter bewilderment. "Hold on." He muttered. "Wait a minute, why are you dressed like that for?"

Clara blinked, but before she could retort, the woman did instead. "I'm going 10 pin bowling." She muttered sarcastically. "What do you think, dumbo?! I was halfway up the aisle! I've waited all my life for this! I was just seconds away, and then you…I don't know, you…drugged me or something."

"We haven't done anything!" The two said in unison.

"We're having the police on you." The woman continued. "Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband," She added, "we're gonna sue the living backside off the both of you!" She turned around and caught sight of the TARDIS doors, and made a beeline straight for the exit.

"No, wait a minute!" The Doctor protested.

"No, don't do it!" Clara protested. The woman flung open the doors, and she didn't say another word. She simply stared out into space and at the supernova occurring right on their doorstep, and the couple were sure her jaw had dropped, be it in wonder or bewilderment. So, they took a small breath and walked up to stand beside the woman, looking out into space with her. "You're in space. Outer space." Clara clarified. "And this is our…" Clara blinked.

"Spaceship. She's called "The TARDIS"." The Doctor finished for her, and she nodded. They didn't want to add "Time Machine" to the woman's distress, which was high enough as it was.

"How am I breathing?" The woman asked.

"The TARDIS is protecting us." The Doctor answered simply.

The woman finally took her gaze away from the supernova, at least for a few moments, to look at the couple beside her. "Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm the Doctor. This here is Clara Oswald. You?"

"Donna. Donna Noble."

"Human?" Clara asked, which earned a deeply puzzled frown from the Doctor. "What? I couldn't figure out any better question." She defended.

The woman gave a slight, if only slight, chuckle at that, but she nodded. "Yeah. Is that optional, by the way?"

"Well, it is for me." The Doctor shrugged.

"And I'm Human…ish." Clara blinked, slowly shaking her head. "Still don't get it. Probably never will." She muttered in a quip to the Doctor, earning a grin from him in return.

Donna just looked at the couple beside her. "So…you're dating an alien?" She asked.

"Yeah." They said in unison.

Donna frowned but decided not to ask again. "It's freezing with these doors open." She said with a small shiver, so Clara closed the doors while the Doctor, somehow with a newfound sense of energy, raced back up to the console.

"But I don't understand it, and I understand everything. This-this can't happen." He rambled, Donna moving slowly up to stand before him while Clara silently leaned against a coral arch with her arms crossed and an amused smile on her face. "There is no way a Human being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside." The Doctor pulled out a large bunch of hand tools from within a strong box inside the console, taking out a silver and black microscope scanner and moved straight up to Donna, who immediately flinched back, yet he didn't notice. "Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe pulling you into alignment with the Chronon Shell? Maybe something macro mining your DNA with the interior matrix? Maybe a genetic-" Donna stopped his rambling by slapping him hard across the face, and his shocked expression caused Clara to burst out laughing, which made the poor man blink repeatedly before he found his words again. "What was that for?!"

"Get me to the church!" Donna roared.

The Doctor blinked, shot a look at Clara, who only managed a shrug amongst her giggles, and he groaned. "Right. Fine. We don't want you here anyway. Right, Clara?" He asked but Clara still couldn't answer, which made him roll his eyes. "Looks like I'm piloting by myself."

Clara shook her head and made her way back to stand beside him, finally managing to get her laughter under control. "I'm so sorry." She beamed. "Your face was too priceless."

"Clara!" He whined.

"Where is your wedding?" Clara asked Donna.

"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System." Donna rambled.

Clara shot him a look. "Blimey. Do people still say, "Take a chill pill"?" She asked in a whisper as they went to work.

"How should I know?" The Doctor retorted.

"I knew it." Donna interrupted, coming around the console to stand before the couple again. "Acting all innocent. I'm not the first, am I? How many people have you abducted?" She asked, holding up…

The Doctor and Clara's faces fell, for Rose's old blue jacket lay in Donna's grasp. Clara took a deep sigh but stepped around the Doctor to look away from Donna and kept herself busy with piloting the ship. So, the Doctor was the one to answer, but his voice was rather dead. "That was our friend's." He answered simply.

"Where is she, then?" Donna asked, not understanding the suddenly odd silence from the couple. "She popped out for a spacewalk?"

The Doctor shook his head. "She's gone."

Donna blinked. "Gone where?"

"We lost her."

"Well, you can hurry up and lose me!" The Doctor didn't say anything to that. Instead, he just moved around the console to stand beside a dreadfully silent Clara and he went back to work. "How do you mean, "Lost"?" Donna asked again, deciding to take some of her irritation from her voice, but she still didn't understand the cold shoulder treatment from these two. This time, it was Clara who responded, yet it was still in silence. Instead, she moved around the console, snatched Rose's jacket from Donna's grasp and moved back around the console without saying a word. Donna was about to retort against the action, but Clara gave her a deep, smouldering glare, which frankly, managed to scare Donna more than she wanted to be right now, and she kept herself silent.

"Right, Chiswick!" The Doctor beamed, taking control in an effort to alleviate the tension from the room. The couple raced around the console and landed the TARDIS with a thud, and they frowned as the TARDIS gave a loud groan as it did. They raced outside with Donna, to find themselves in some back alleyway, and Donna gave a groan of irritation once again.

"I said, "Saint Mary's". What sort of Martian are you?" She asked the Doctor, who was staring at the TARDIS. "And what do you mean, "Human-ish"?" She asked Clara, who had placed a hand on the TARDIS, sharing a concerned frown with the Doctor. "What did you have blended with your Humanity? And where is this? Where are we?"

"Doctor, what's wrong with her?" Clara asked.

The Doctor slowly shook his head. "I don't know. It's like she's…recalibrating." The Doctor raced back inside with Clara, moving to stand before the console. "What's wrong?" He asked the ship, which only gave another deep, whining groan in return. "She's…digesting." The Doctor deducted. "What have you eaten, eh? What is it?"

"Donna!" Clara called. "You've really got to think! Is there anything that might've caused this?!" She began clacking away at the monitor while the Doctor used an array of hand tools on the console to no avail. "Anything you might've done?! Any sort of alien contact?! Have you seen…I don't know…have you seen lights in the sky or…" Clara trailed off, looking to the Doctor for assistance?

"Did you touch something?!" The Doctor called in input. "Like something-something different! A funny sort of metal?! Actually, who are you getting married to?! Are you sure he's Human?!" He shot Clara a small smirk. "He better not be overweight with a zip round his forehead, is he?" They, in all their rambling, noticed that Donna did not once respond. They looked back at the open doorway to see Donna staring at the TARDIS with her hands over her mouth in obvious shock and she ran away from sight. "Donna!" The Doctor called, him and Clara racing back outside as they caught up with the distressed woman. "Donna-"

"Leave me alone." She simply said. "I just want to get married, and I don't want to be in that box anymore. It's just too…weird."

"It's bigger on the inside." Clara shrugged. "That's all."

"Oh? That's all?" Donna retorted sarcastically. The couple decided not to say anything, which just made Donna sigh, and she glanced down at her watch. "10 past 3:00. I'm gonna miss it." She almost whined.

"Why don't you phone them? Tell them where you are?" The Doctor asked.

"How do I do that?"

"Haven't you got a mobile?"

"Doctor!" Clara interrupted. "Wedding dresses don't have pockets!"

The Doctor flinched back with a small frowning whine, and Donna gave her a smile. "Thank you." She said earnestly.

"Sometimes, he doesn't learn." Clara said simply.

"Clara!" He whined.

"Yeah, I figured when I went to my fitting at Chez Alison, the one thing I forgot to say was, "Give me pockets"." Donna quipped, and Clara giggled.

"This man you're marrying." The Doctor interrupted. "What's his name?"

"Lance." Donna said with a dreamy smile.

"Got to like Lance." The Doctor muttered, which also made Clara giggle, and he winked at her.

"Oi!" Donna warned. "No Martian is gonna stop me from getting married." Donna huffed and moved to walk back up the alleyway and towards the street.

The Doctor sighed. "I'm not-I'm not from Mars." He whined lightly, before he and Clara raced back to catch up with her, watching from the sidewalk as she was calling for a Taxi.

"Taxi! Taxi! Taxi!" Donna called, and a Taxi with its light on drove straight past. "Why's his light on?!" She asked the couple, who just shrugged at her. "Taxi! Oi, Taxi!" Another Taxi just drove straight past.

Clara giggled. "Why am I enjoying this?" She asked the Doctor, who just shrugged with a smile. "I'm so going to hell." She quipped, earning a laugh from the man.

"Oi!" Donna called, and yet another Taxi drove straight past. "Oi! Oi!"

"Good god." The Doctor muttered, him and Clara moving up to stand beside Donna, as yet two more Taxi's drove past. "Do you have this effect on everyone? Why aren't they stopping?"

"They think I'm in fancy dress." Donna explained.

Another Taxi slowed down as it drove past them, and the driver honked the horn. "Stay off the scotch, darling!" He called before driving off.

Donna huffed. "They think I'm drunk."

Then out of nowhere, a small blue car drove past with two males in the front seat, and they honked the horn repeatedly. "You're fooling no one, mate!" They called in unison.

"They think I'm in drag." Donna growled.

The couple just rolled their eyes before the Doctor stepped forward. "Hold on." He placed the tips of his forefinger and little finger into his mouth and whistled. And it was a loud, screeching whistle, one that made Clara and Donna plug their ears with scrunched expressions, but it did the job and a Taxi slowed down, coming alongside them into a park. "Sorry." He muttered to Clara, wordlessly moving her hands away to gently rub her ears for her.

"Did you have to be so loud with that?" Clara muttered and he just shrugged as they followed Donna into the backseat of the Taxi.

"Saint Mary's in Chiswick, just off Hayden Road. It's an emergency, I'm getting married. Just…hurry up."

"That'll cost you sweetheart." The driver said. "Double rates today."

Donna's eyes widened. "Oh my god. Have you two got any money?" She asked the couple beside her.

"Um…no." They said in unison.

"Haven't you?" The Doctor asked before he could help it, making Donna growl irritably.

"Pockets!" Suddenly, without warning, the driver quickly pulled into the sidewalk, and motioned them out without another word. The Doctor and Clara climbed out without a word, while Donna gave a deeply irritated face. "Fuck you, asshole!" Then, she climbed out and slammed the backdoor shut. "And that goes double for your mother!" The driver just raised his eyebrows at her, shrugged, and wordlessly drove off. "Ugh. I'll have him." Donna growled. "Talk about the Christmas spirit."

The couple blinked. "Seriously?" They looked around, noticing the banners and signs of deals on the shop windows all around them. "Is it Christmas?" They asked.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Well, duh! Maybe not on Mars, or wherever you two live but here, it's Christmas Eve." She kept glancing around until her gaze landed on a phone box by a shop wall and she tapped their arms. "Phone box." She pointed, and they started to race off towards the glass box. "We can reverse the charges."

"How come you're getting married on Christmas Eve?" Clara asked.

"Can't bear it. I hate Christmas." Donna said irritably. "We're having our honeymoon in Morocco. Lots of sunshine, should be lovely." Donna swung open the box door and stepped inside, before frowning and looking to them for help. "What's the operator? I haven't done this in years." Donna muttered. "What do you dial? "100"?"

"Bloody hell." The Doctor grumbled, as he took out his sonic and used it on the phone. "Just-just call direct."

Donna blinked. "What did you do?"

"Something…" The Doctor frowned with a sigh, "Martian."

Clara shook her head. "Just stay here. We'll get money." The couple then darted off into a small run, quickly but as politely as they could, darting through the shoppers, who were making their way towards a nearby shopping centre, and came to a stop by an ATM. Unfortunately for their already built up adrenaline mixed with increasingly frustrated annoyance, there was already someone standing before them at the ATM. Clara thrust her hands into the pockets of her jeans, all the while she barely restrained herself from tapping her foot.

The Doctor, on the other hand, could not resist. He started with a simple impatient tapping of the foot, which quickly grew into a childish bouncing, swaying from one foot to another as he repeatedly muttered, "Come on, come on, come on, come on." Clara arched one eyebrow at him, then she quietly pinched his side. "Ow. Clara." He whined.

"Patience." She said with a smirk. The ATM then began to whir and after a few moments, the man walked away, and the couple took a few steps forward to stand before the ATM. "See?" She asked rhetorically as she took out her sonic and used it discreetly on the ATM, which began to take out a few rolls of cash, and it was the Doctor's turn to arch an eyebrow as Clara snapped her fingers impatiently before snatching them out of the ATM.

"Now, who's impatient, my dear?" He purred and she blushed.

"Shut up!" She retorted and he just chuckled as they stepped away from the ATM. They looked back down the way they came to see a group of people dressed up as Santa, playing "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" on their trumpets. The couple got a brief nostalgic smile as they remembered their REAL encounter with Santa, but the smile scurried away off their faces like scared cats as they recognized, TRULY recognized, the Santa band. Whether it was exactly the same as or related to the band they saw last Christmas, they still looked the same. The faces were far too metallic to be masks. "They're not here for you again, are they?" Clara asked without looking at the Doctor, just unconsciously taking his hand in hers.

"No."

"Then they'll be here for…" She trailed off, and they whipped around to see Donna climbing into a Taxi, who briefly shot them a glare.

"Thanks for nothing, you two morons! I'll see you in court!" Then, with a huff that they couldn't hear, as she was quite a few paces ahead of them, she climbed into the Taxi, and the couple just barely saw the face of a metal Santa in the driver's seat, before the car took off from the curve and onto the road.

"Donna!" They screamed fruitlessly, but the Taxi didn't hear them, and it zipped away out of sight. They turned around to look at the Santa's that were still standing there.

"Well then, Clara, let's create a little bit of chaos for them." The Doctor quipped as he took out his sonic and used it on the ATM before they ran off for the TARDIS, sparing only one glance behind them to see cash flying everywhere out of it, and the Santa's looked like bewildered children as people ran around them with massive grins on their faces at the sight of money in the air. Quite literally indeed. Seeing their favourite blue box in sight, they dove inside and began racing around the console, Clara pulling the monitor over into view.

"Huh?" Clara blinked as it brought up a 2D blueprint view of a London motorway, a red moving and blinking dot indicating their target, thanks in help to the Old Girl being proactive, for once. "Why are they on a motorway?"

"No clue." The Doctor answered, flinching back as the console sparked, prompting him to grab the mallet and smack the console. "Behave!" He said, the TARDIS giving a groan in response. "We're going to have to fly alongside the cab if we want Donna out of there." The Doctor said.

"You can get her, then." Clara said with a shrug. "I'm too short to reach her." She reasoned.

The Doctor smiled. "Hey, your shortness adds to your cuteness." He said with a wink, making Clara bite her lip with a small blush. "You'll need to pilot the old girl by yourself, you know that?"

She nodded. "Yep." Clara pulled the monitor over and switched it to outside view, the TARDIS moving the monitor for her as she dashed around the console to pilot the TARDIS in and out of traffic, before coming to a slow drift, her speed somewhat matching that of the motorway, alongside the cab holding Donna.

The Doctor then raced for the door, swung it open while pressing his body weight against it as an anchor, and looked over to see Donna watching him and the box with wide eyed disbelief. "Open the door!" The Doctor called over the wheezing of the TARDIS.

"I can't!" Donna shook her head, repeatedly wrenching the door handle to no avail. "It's locked!" The Doctor had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Instead, he pulled out his sonic and unlocked the door and window for Donna, who rolled down the window first. "Santa's a robot!" Donna called.

No shit. "Donna, open the door!"

"What for?!"

"You've got to jump!"

Donna's jaw dropped. "I'm not bleeding flip jumping, I'm supposed to be getting married!" Before either could do anything however, the Santa driver picked up speed and drove off past the TARDIS, leaving Donna to scream incoherent words as it did.

"Clara!" The Doctor called.

"I'm on it!" Clara called back. "Hold on!"

The Doctor had to grasp onto the doors tight, almost stumbling over with a groan as the TARDIS lifted itself a few feet off the ground, flew bare inches over the nearby cars before coming down beside Donna's cab, almost crashing down upon impact. "Almost" being the key word. The Doctor then used the sonic on the Santa driver, the resulting action messed around with its systems, and locking its hands on the wheel. "Listen to me! You've got to jump!"

"I'm not jumping on a motorway!" Donna called back.

"Whatever that thing is, it needs you! And whatever it needs you for, it's not good! Now, come on!"

Donna briefly glanced down at her ensemble with a scowl. "I'm in my wedding dress!" She reminded.

The Doctor had to restrain from rolling his eyes, again. "Yes, you look lovely! Come on!"

Donna opened the door, which swung wide before her, and now Donna had more wind rushing into her face from the speed on the motorway. She glanced down at the road, seeing it whizz by at an incredible speed, the sight almost making her eyes blur, so she shook it off and glanced back up at him. "I can't do it!"

"Trust me." The Doctor said, his voice not shouting the words, but Donna was able to hear him, albeit not as clearly.

"Is that what you said to her? Your friend? The one you lost. Did she trust you?" Donna asked vehemently.

He nodded. "Yes, she did. And she is not dead. She is so alive. Now jump!" The last two words he shouted, shocking Donna into action as she leapt out of the cab and into reach of the Doctor's arms, the man grasping hers and pulling her into the TARDIS.

"Finally!" Clara called, racing around the now sparking console, which started to steam and smoke, and it got the Doctor's attention as he helped Donna up, said woman bracing herself against the handrails. "Need a hand!" Clara said, and the Doctor raced up to help her, the couple deciding quickly to set the TARDIS down on a building rooftop, just as the smoke from the console started to fill the room.

"Out!" The Doctor ordered, him and Clara grabbing fire extinguishers before they, and Donna, dove out of the doors and onto the rooftop. The couple then pointed the extinguishers inside and used them up to capacity, even as the smoke billowed out from the doors, causing them to cough and wheeze before they closed the doors and set the extinguishers down by the TARDIS. "Bloody hell." The Doctor muttered, pulling Clara into a relieving hug. "You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Clara nodded, the pair of them exchanging quick kisses before they parted, yet they kept their hands entwined, as they moved over to Donna, who was calmly looking out over London city in silence. "Funny thing is, for a spaceship, she doesn't do that much actual flying." Clara quipped lightly as Donna looked at them.

"We'd better give her a couple of hours." The Doctor said. "You all right?" He asked and Donna just shrugged.

"Doesn't matter."

Their faces turned sad at those words. "Did we miss it?"

Donna nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, you can…book another date." The Doctor offered.

"Of course we can." Donna said, but her words were without any sarcasm, to their relief.

"Still got the honeymoon." Clara pointed out.

"It's just a holiday now."

"Yeah." Clara nodded. "Sorry."

"Me too." The Doctor inputted.

"It's not your fault." Donna said, earning raised eyebrows and a smile from the pair.

"Oh. That's a change." The Doctor remarked.

Donna shrugged. "Wish you had a time machine. Then we could go back and get it right."

"Yeah, about that." The Doctor quipped mentally to Clara, who had to suppress a giggle as he just nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. But," He started, "even if we did, we couldn't go back on someone's personal timeline."

"Yeah." Clara agreed.

"Well…apparently."

Donna just sighed and sat down on the rooftop edge, thanking the heavens that there was another level just below her feet and not a long way down. After a few moments of silence, Clara sat down beside her with the Doctor's suit top in her hands, and she draped it over Donna's shoulders, while the Doctor, now wearing just a button up shirt and tie, sat down on Clara's other side. "God, you're skinny." Donna remarked as the suit top turned out to be rather small, almost Clara's size. "This wouldn't fit a rat." Her remarks made Clara giggle and the Doctor, who gave into his earlier itch, rolled his eyes at Donna.

"And, you'd better put this on." The Doctor inputted, pulling out a small golden ring band.

Donna sighed. "Do you have to rub it in?" She asked. "And before you put a ring on her?"

"Those creatures can trace you." The Doctor explained, ignoring her two questions. "This is a "Bio-damper". Should keep you hidden." Donna relented and held out her left hand, and the Doctor gave the ring to Clara, allowing her to slip it onto Donna's finger.

"With this ring, we thee Bio-damp." Clara quipped, and Donna gave them both a smile, now earnest, grateful, and warm.

"For better or for worse." The couple smiled, the Doctor slinging an arm around Clara's waist, while Donna just leaned back in her spot, giving her back relief for a few moments. "So, come on then. Robot Santa's." Donna said, re-earning their attention. "What are they for?"

"Ah, they're your basic roboscavengers." The Doctor explained. "The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise, trying to blend in. We met them, last Christmas."

"Why?" Donna asked. "What happened then?" The couple slowly turned their heads to look at Donna, their faces bearing puzzled frowns, which made Donna blink. "What?"

"Great big spaceship?" The Doctor asked. "Hovering over London? You didn't notice?"

Donna thought for a few moments, and it quickly came to her, and she gave a small shrug. "I had a bit of a hangover."

"We spent our Christmas Day and our New Year week just over there." The Doctor pointed to a small batch of large buildings, quite some distance from their current position. "The Powell Estate, with this…" Their faces quickly fell into sadness once again, but the Doctor decided to continue with it. "Family. Our friend, she had family there." He then sighed, unconsciously drawing Clara in close, trying to not wallow in their sadness for a moment longer. "Anyway," The Doctor started before Donna could ask a question about their friend, "the question is, what do camouflage robot mercenaries want with you? And how did you get inside the TARDIS?" Donna didn't answer, since she still didn't understand half of what they were talking about. But before she could speak that part of her mind, the Doctor spoke again. "What's your job?"

Donna blinked. "I'm a Secretary." She answered as the Doctor held up a sonic and used it to scan Donna.

"It's weird." The Doctor muttered. "I mean, you're not powerful or connected."

"Doctor." Clara warned. She looked down and her jaw dropped as she saw the sonic glowing bright orange. "Oi! That's my sonic!" Clara squeaked.

"You're not special or clever. You're not important." The Doctor continued, purposefully ignoring Clara.

"Clara, will you get your toothpick boyfriend to stop bleeping me?!" Donna snarled.

Clara readily agreed, snatching her sonic out of his grasp. Then, she flicked his nose and yanked on his spikey hair. "Ow, Clara!" He whined. "You ruined my hair!" He reached back for her sonic and she smacked his hand.

"Stop that!" Clara warned.

"What was that for?!" He protested.

"Because you were being rude. Again!" Clara retorted, glancing back at an amused Donna, while the Doctor wordlessly whined and mewled over his hair. "Anyway, Donna," Clara started with a smile. "Where do you work as a Secretary?"

"I'm at H.C Clements. It's where I met Lance." She said with a small, blissful smile. "I was temping." She added, then quickly blinked. "I mean, it was all a bit posh, really. I'd spent the last two years at a double-glazing firm. Well, I thought to myself, "I'm never going to fit in here". And there he was." She simply said. "He was making coffee, and he offered me one. I mean, that just doesn't happen. Nobody gets the secretaries a coffee. And Lance, he's the head of H.R. He don't need to bother with me." Donna smiled. "But he was nice. He was funny. And it turns out, he thought everyone else was really snotty, too. So, that's how it started, me and him. One cup of coffee. That was it."

"When was all this?" The Doctor asked.

"Six months ago." Donna almost laughed as she saw their eyes widen, especially Clara's, and they really were massive eyes. No wonder why he likes her. The eyes are almost too much.

"Bit quick to get married." The Doctor remarked as he blinked his eyes back to normal, Clara still stuck with her eyes being inflated, yet again.

"Well, he insisted." Donna simply said. The couple of them, as Donna looked away thinking about Lance, just shook their heads at each other, since they didn't believe her. "And he nagged, and he nagged me. And he just wore me down, and then, finally, I just gave in."

"That's a load of crap." Clara quipped to the Doctor, his mental chuckle giving her a private excuse to deflate her eyes again. "Still going to use these eyes on you more, you know that?"

"Yeah." He responded. "I mean…you ARE all eyes."

"Shut up!"

"What does H.C Clements do?" The Doctor asked Donna, cutting off the mental conversation with a small smirk that he sent to Clara.

Donna shrugged. "Oh, security systems, you know, entry codes, I.D cards, that sort of thing. If you ask me, it's a posh name for locksmiths."

"Hmmm. Keys." Clara muttered.

"Anyway, enough of my C.V." Donna said, moving to stand up, and the couple followed her. "Time to face the consequences." She almost violently flinched at the idea of what will happen. "Bloody hell, this is going to be so shaming. And you can do the explaining, Martian boy and girl with all the eyes." She quipped, before she frowned. "Seriously, how can your face contain eyes so huge? They look like bowling balls that are about to fall right out of your head." Donna rambled.

"Gee, thanks for the image." Clara muttered dryly.

"I know." Donna agreed with the same tone, her mind already on the wedding again. "Oh, I had this great big reception all planned. Everyone's going to be heartbroken."

---

Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?

It's the time that every Santa has a ball

Does he ride a red-nosed reindeer?

Does he turn up on his sleigh?

Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

So here it-

Everyone at the brightly lit reception stopped their joyful dancing, quickly and silently turning around to look at the entrance to see Donna standing there, the Doctor and Clara standing awkwardly behind her. Various emotions chased each other across Donna's face, one being angry, another being hurtful, and another being adamantly confused. "You had the reception without me?" She asked, trying to restrain from snarling venomously.

The Doctor and Clara just shot each other a look. "Let's hang back-"

"Yeah." They quickly and quietly huddled back a few paces, keeping a tight grasp on each other's hands.

"Donna." The speaker was her husband-to-be, Lance Bennett, a 5-foot 9 dark skinned man in his early 40s, his head clean bald and wearing a black suit with dark grey trousers and a red and white flower inspired vest, with a matching rose on his suit to top it off, even including a blood red tie. Lance stepped forward with a concerned look of worry, staring straight at Donna. "What happened to you?"

"You had the reception without me?" Donna asked again.

"Well, it was all paid for. Why not?" A blonde woman retorted. She was wearing a full-on blue ensemble, from her dress to her necklace, to her earrings and even to her flower inspired hair tie.

"Thank you, Nerys." Donna growled.

"So, that's Nerys." The Doctor commented mentally to Clara, who just nodded.

"Well, what were we supposed to do?" Another blonde woman interjected as she stepped forward. This woman was 5ft 7, in her 50s, and wore a red and gold vest suit dress, with matching red heels and a red feather inspired hair pin. "I got your silly little message in the end. "I'm on Earth"? Very funny. But what the hell happened?"

As soon as the woman asked that one question, utter noisy chaos erupted as literally everyone present, including the groom himself, stepped forward and started throwing various, random and incoherent questions at Donna. Then, all by herself, Donna silenced them all by starting to cry, sobbing from all the turmoil and the anxiety she had felt through the day, all channelled into her sobs. Lance relented and wrapped her in a hug, causing everyone to drop the questions as they shared a simultaneous "Aww", before they began clapping in reassurance for Donna. Donna, who's head was constricted from their view by Lance as she slowly spun them around, gave the couple a mischievous smile and a wink before she returned to her sobbing. "What the hell just happened?" Clara asked the Doctor.

"No idea." They just shrugged at each other and walked over to the bar. The people around them sort of became a blur for a few moments. One moment, Donna was sobbing and being warmly embraced by Lance, the next, they were dancing to upbeat music as if it didn't happen. Then again, the Doctor and Clara were off in their own little world for those moments. They leaned against the bar, wrapping an arm around each other when a man in his 50s, 5 foot 7 with dark brown eyes, short grey hair and a balding spot at the back, along with large reading glasses and a matching suit to Lance walked up to them.

"Did you two bring Donna back?" He asked.

They nodded with a shrug. "It's…a long story."

"I bet it is." He said with a smile, reaching out his hand to shake theirs. "Geoffrey Noble. Very glad all that is done with. Lord knows how much everyone was running about trying to find her. We even tried to call her, but all our batteries kept dying out."

"Oof." Clara muttered. "Did you have chargers?" The man just shook his hand as if to say, "Kind of", and Clara slowly nodded. "Okay." Then, she blinked. "What exactly was her message in the end?"

Geoffrey chuckled, shaking his head. "Something like "I don't know where I am, but, it's a street, there's W.H Smith's, and it's definitely Earth."

"Oh my god." The couple muttered in unison, before the three of them burst into heart full chuckles.

"Truth be told, her mother's no better." He quipped, pointing to the blonde woman that started the questioning uproar. "Sylvia Noble, and how her old man brought her up, I have no idea."

"You can talk." The Doctor quipped, earning another laugh.

Geoffrey just shook his head. "No. If you met Wilfred yourselves, you'd wish he was your father. He's that damn good at it. And he's bloody infectious with his joy is what he is." He said cheerfully before he took their hands warmly to shake them again. "Listen, I don't say this often, but if you need anything, come to me. It's all I can do. Although," He quickly started before the couple could protest, "I am not getting you any tickets to Vegas or fresh new fancy cars. Lord knows what's up with the kids these days." He quipped before walking away, giving them a wave as he returned to Sylvia.

The Doctor and Clara looked at each other with a smile. "Nice bloke." Clara commented, to which he nodded in agreement. "Anyway, H.C Clements." She said, taking out her phone and, after using her sonic to hack into someone's nearby Wi-Fi, she went into Google and searched up "H.C Clements". The Doctor peered over her shoulder with his "Brainy Specs", as Clara used her sonic again to speed search the result. The answer was this: "Sole Prop. Torchwood." This made Clara put her phone back into her pocket with her sonic, before she gave a sad sigh.

"Come on." The Doctor ushered to her as he pocketed his glasses, and took Clara's hand, leading her into the dance floor. "You always look much better when you're smiling."

Clara let her sad face melt into a mischievous smile with raised eyebrows. "I thought it was when I was wearing that blazer suit." She flirted.

"Well…" The Doctor started, making Clara huff in shock. So, she went to whack his arm, but he caught her hand, tutting smugly as he did. "Dance with me." He said simply, and they did. Their dance went from upbeat to slow waltz in time with the changing music. Their actual skill at dancing was just as good as everyone else there. In other words, it was fine enough, but they didn't care about the skill of it. They just remained close, sharing the odd snog here and there, right until they tired of it and returned to sit at the bar in the room, getting a generic drink of water and wrapping each other in a loose hug again.

"Hey," Clara started, making him take his head out of her hair, "you wanted to know how Donna…you know…" The Doctor nodded as she trailed off, and she just shrugged, pointing to a man with black curled hair standing behind a tripod mounted with a camera. "So do I." Clara said, and they set down their emptied glasses of water and walked over to the camera man. "Hey, um…"

"You want to see her trick again?" The camera man asked as if he already guessed their intent. Then, he just shrugged. "Sure, why not? I've taped the whole thing, and everyone else already had a look. They said, "Sell it to "You've been framed"." I said, "More like the news"." He said, ushering them behind the camera as he brought up the footage. "Here we are." The footage showed a large church, with traditional wedding organ music playing in the background. Donna, with her arm through Geoffrey's, was, as she had said when they first met her earlier, halfway up the aisle, an anxious smile on her face. They already guessed, since she was looking off camera up the aisle, that she was staring at the groom, Lance. Then, the Doctor's eyes quickly widened in disbelief as Donna glowed gold before disappearing into a cloud of golden dust, screaming as she did.

"Can't be." The Doctor muttered. "Play it again." He requested, and the camera man chuckled.

"Clever mind. Good trick. I'll give her that. I was clapping." The man commented as he rewound the footage by a few seconds and played it again.

"That's impossible." The Doctor muttered.

"Doctor?" Clara asked, and he just took her hand.

"It's "Huon Particles"." The Doctor said mentally. "But they're ancient. WAY ancient. Older than me, and that's saying something." Clara giggled and he just smirked. "They are so old that…" He trailed off, turning around to look at Donna, specifically her ring that they gave her. "It can't be hidden by a Bio-damper!" He realized out loud and they raced through a double door exit, through the hallway and stopped abruptly by a window, looking outside to confirm what they had already suspected. There was a pair of robot Santa's marching up to the house, both bearing trumpet weapons in their hands. The Doctor and Clara, wordlessly, just raced back into the room, straight through the people, beelining it towards Donna. "Donna!" The Doctor said, causing her and Lance to stop their dancing with confused blinks. "They've found you."

"But you both said I was safe." Donna protested.

"Yeah, and we were proven wrong." Clara quickly inputted. "Don't matter anymore, we've got to get everyone out. Out the back door." Clara raced over to the back door with the Doctor, as Donna followed behind.

"Oh my god." She muttered. "It's all my family."

They flung open the back door, only to see yet another pair of armed Santa's marching up towards them. "Maybe not." Clara quipped, slamming the doors shut.

"Side door." The Doctor quickly interjected, and the three of them raced over to said door, only to find yet another pair of Santa's moving towards them.

"We're trapped." Donna obviously stated anxiously, but the Doctor and Clara just ignored it. They stared at one of the Santa's, for it had a small golden remote in its hands, and it made them turn around to look at the large batch of giant Christmas trees in the room.

"Christmas trees." Clara muttered.

"What about them?" Donna asked.

"Long story short, they kill." Clara simply said as the Doctor raced back into the group of people.

"Get away from the trees!" The Doctor yelled to a pair of kids, who were playing with the Christmas decorations. "Get away from the Christmas trees! Don't touch the trees!" Clara raced up and moved the kids away from the trees as the adults all clamoured into a large group in the centre of the room, looking at the pair of them in utter bewilderment, Lance and Donna's parents included.

"Out! Lance, tell them!" Donna yelled, and Lance just blinked at her in bewilderment.

Sylvia groaned. "Oh, for god's sake, these two are idiots. What harm's a Christmas tree gonna…" She just trailed off. So did anyone else who were going to protest or interject, even the TARDIS couple themselves. For the Christmas decorations, specifically the red balls that hung on the trees all just…floated up, unhooking themselves off the tree branches and started to circle above all of their heads. Some people were still bewildered by this, some were amazed, some were amused, and the Doctor and Clara were just…puzzled.

"Odd way to attack." Clara muttered. Then, the most utter chaos ensued. The Christmas spheres started to fly at immense speed to random points in the room, and as they impacted upon anything in the way, exploding into shards and small chaotic flames. The whole room was then filled with scream and panic, everyone frantically running about to either take cover from the overhead bombardment, or to fruitlessly find an exit from the room that wasn't suddenly barred by a pair of armed Santa's. As a result, everyone just took to finding places to hide, until the Santa's were all lined up in front of the bar, weapons aimed at everyone in the room, minus two.

"Oi! Santa!" The Doctor called, as he was suddenly standing behind the sound system, Clara sitting down comfortably on a chair with ear plugs in her ears. As all the people, ranging from unknown guests to Donna herself, looked at Clara, she motioned to her ears and they all quickly plugged them with their fingers. As soon as they did, the Santa's turned around to look at the Doctor, who quickly drew out his sonic. "Word of advice: If you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver, and you also threaten his own queen," He winked at Clara, who just sent him her large, inflated doe eyes as he twirled his sonic up in his hands, "don't let him near the sound system." Then, he inserted his sonic into the sound system, and let loose, the pulsing from the sonic blaring through the speakers, causing everyone to flinch and gasp from the high pitched screeching, the Doctor, who already had ear plugs in his ears, just smiled as the Santa's practically started to have seizures, dropping their weapons and falling to the floor, writhing about as the sound started to destroy and melt their systems within, quickly shattering and shredding off their masks and mechanics into tiny pieces, their Santa's costumes falling to the floor with no form to carry them. As soon as the Santa's had literally shattered to pieces, the Doctor took his sonic out from the system, removed his ear plugs and braced himself against the table. "Oh, bloody hell." He muttered, clicking his jaw a bit to stop the small ringing in his ears, which thankfully wasn't any higher since he had already taken the precaution. He felt Clara's hand on his arm, and he looked at her, as she smiled adoringly up at him, having already taken out her own ear plugs. "That still hurt." He muttered and she gave him a kiss.

"You did good, my Doctor." She said, giving him one more kiss. "Now, come on, we've got a mystery to solve." She said, clicking her tongue. "And there's a reward for you at the end of the day." She flirted explicitly, which did the job, giving him a renewed sense of energy, the pair of them rushing over to check at the shattered robots, Clara picking up one of their heads, it's jaw completely shattered, and the Doctor picked up the remote control, still functional but damaged regardless. "Thank god their heads were…moderately intact." Clara said, taking out her sonic as all the people behind them helped each other to their feet.

"Doctor." Donna called as she walked over. "Clara."

"What was it?" Lance asked as he walked over as well. "What were they?"

The Doctor just shot him a frown. "They're robots." He said obviously, making Lance's expression turn dull.

"Here we are." Clara said as she held up the robot head. "We have a remote control for decorations, but there's a second remote control for the robots." This discovery made the Doctor squint his eyes.

"Someone's taken possession." The Doctor deducted. "They're not scavengers anymore."

"Never mind all that." Donna interjected. "You're a doctor and people have been hurt."

"I'm not a doctor, Donna." The Doctor said, shaking his head as he used his own sonic on the head.

"All the same," Donna continued, "you could help."

"Look," Clara started as she gave the head to the Doctor, then she stood up before Donna and pocketed her sonic, "We would like to help, truly, but we can't. Whoever was controlling those robots wanted you, Donna, and alive. Now we have to find out who they are and what they want before they hurt anyone else." She said, her words making Donna turn sad.

"And you've got to think of the bigger picture." The Doctor added as he held the head up by his ear, and his eyes widened in agitation as he heard a faint bleeping noise inside. "Clara! There's still a signal!" He yelled, getting up off his feet and dashing with Clara from the room.

"Donna." Sylvia interjected as Donna moved to follow. "Who are they?" She asked. "Who are those two?" Donna didn't answer. Instead, she just shrugged and dashed out to follow the couple, Lance quick in tow.

"Clara," Donna started, standing beside the couple as the Doctor scanned the head, "why is it me? What have I done?" She asked.

"We find the source of the signal; we will find that out." The Doctor answered for Clara, before he frowned and raised his sonic skywards. "Oh. It's up there." He said.

Clara looked up too, holding her hand above her eyes to block out the sun, and she blinked. "Is it me or are we being watched?" They shrugged and then grinned stupidly.

"Hi! " They called cheerfully in unison, waving up at the sky. "Hope the view's nice!"

Donna and Lance just exchanged a look. "Bloody hell, they're like childr-"

"No!" The Doctor yelled, repeatedly using his sonic on the robot head, but nothing happened. "The signal's gone." He said, turning around to Donna and Lance. "Donna, we need to get to your office at H.C Clements. That must be where it all started."

"Lance," Clara started, turning around as well, before she blinked, "it IS "Lance", right?" Lance nodded. "Lance, can you give us a lift?"

"Hold on," Donna interrupted, "have you been drinking?"

He shrugged. "I've had a couple, yeah."

"No, I'll do the driving." Donna said.

"No, you're not insured to drive my car." Lance protested.

"All right, then, we'll go in mine." Donna huffed.

The couple found themselves cramped into the back of a small, two door blue car, the Doctor having to bend so he could fit in while Clara just kept her knees bent, although she was quickly starting to regret it. "Not exactly a chase, is it?" The Doctor asked sarcastically.

"Oi. There's a speed limit." Donna pointed out. "I'm not going to jail in my wedding dress."

"It's like driving a hairdryer." The Doctor commented.

"Hold on, speed bumps." Donna warned, and as they drove over them, the top of the Doctor's head banged against the roof of the car.

"Ow."

"Yeah, no rush." Clara said sarcastically in her boyfriend's defence. Once the car had reached the desired destination, and the couple climbed out of the car with bone clicking relief, the four of them raced into the currently empty building, the Doctor jumping over one of the desks, Clara just simply running around, and they quickly started hacking into one of the computers. "To you lot, this might just be a locksmith, but H.C Clements was brought up 20 years ago by the Torchwood Institute." Clara explained to Donna and Lance.

"Who are they?" Donna asked.

This time, the Doctor interjected. "They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf." Donna just blinked, and they frowned at her in disbelief. "Cyberman invasion?" The Doctor reiterated but Donna just shook her head. "Daleks in the skies over London?" He tried again.

"Oh." Donna said before shaking her head. "Nope. I was in Spain."

They restrained themselves from dropping their jaws. "They had Cybermen in Spain, Donna." Clara interjected.

Donna shook her once again. "I was scuba diving." She said simply, making the couple just glance at each other in bewilderment.

"That big picture, Donna, you keep on missing it." The Doctor remarked, as he and Clara moved away from the computer and went to another, hacking in and bringing up a schematic of the building plans. "Ooh. Secret basement." The Doctor purred to Clara in their heads, receiving a mental giggle from her in return.

"Torchwood was destroyed, but H.C Clements stayed in business, and, if our theory is correct, someone else came in and took over the operation."

"But what do they want with me?" Donna asked.

The couple stopped their work and stood up before Donna. "Somehow, you've been dosed with Huon Energy." The Doctor explained. "And that's a problem, because Huon Energy hasn't existed since the dark times. The only place you will find Huon Particles now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. That's how you got into our ship." Donna just stared at him, clearly not comprehending the last part of his exposition, so he sighed. "Clara, do you mind?" He asked and she nodded.

"The Huon Particles inside you activated, and, quite like a magnet attracting metal, you were pulled from Saint Mary's, all the way into space, and within our ship." Clara explained, and Donna slowly nodded.

"I was a piece of metal attracted by another piece?" Donna summarized in a question. Clara just nodded with a chuckle.

"Yes you are. Sums you up completely." Clara quipped, earning a "Tee-hee-hee" from the Doctor before they quickly went back to business, Clara rushing over to the elevator as the Doctor reviewed the building plans.

"Now Lance, what was H.C Clements working on?" The Doctor asked. "Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?"

"I don't know." Lance shrugged. "I'm in charge of Personnel. I wasn't Project Manager." Lance then quickly shook his head with a frown. "Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?" He asked.

"HHH.C Clements makes keys. That's the point." The Doctor said simply. Then, they looked up to see Clara running back over to them with a gleaming smile. "Oh." The Doctor muttered with a growing smile. "My girl's found something." He said, standing up as Clara came to a stop before him. "Yes?" He asked eagerly.

"We're on the 3rd Floor, right?" Clara asked.

"Yes."

"And there's a basement beneath Reception?"

"Yes."

"So why does the lift have a "Lower Basement" button?" The Doctor's smile quickly grew into a proud grin and she giggled. "Come on." She grasped his hand and led him towards the elevator, Donna and Lance following close behind, and she pointed to the "Lower Basement" button, simply marked "LB" with a keyhole beside it.

"There's a whole Floor that doesn't exist on the official plans, and my Clara found it." He said warmly, drawing her unabashedly into a quick snog, before hugging her from behind. "I bloody love you." He said adoringly to her, and she giggled in return as he kissed her cheek.

"Hold on." Donna interjected. "Are you two saying that this building has got a secret Floor?"

They blinked and said, "No" in unison.

"We're showing you that this building has got a secret Floor." Clara said simply.

"Well, I don't know if you noticed but it needs a key." Lance inputted.

"We don't." They said in unison as the Doctor used his sonic on the button before pocketing it away.

"Right then." The Doctor said after clearing his throat. "Thanks you two but Clara and I can handle this on our-"

"No chance, Martian, and Human-ish." Donna snarled as she stepped into the elevator with them. "You're the ones that keep saving my life, so I am not letting you out of my sight." She turned around to see Lance still standing there. "Lance."

"M-m-maybe I should go to the police." He stammered.

"Inside." Donna growled, making the man rush into the elevator with them as Clara pressed the button to close the doors.

"To honour and obey." The Doctor quipped.

"Tell me about it mate." Lance agreed.

"Oi!" Clara and Donna snarled in unison. The doors then closed shut, and the elevator went down. Down and down until, after a few silent minutes of waiting patiently, they arrived at their desired destination, a long grey, green lit corridor. They stepped out, Donna and Lance looking around in confusion, while the Doctor and Clara gazed around inquisitively.

"Where are we?" Donna asked. "Well, what goes on down here?"

"That's what we're here for." The Doctor shrugged.

"Do you think Mr. Clements knows about this place?"

"The mysterious H.C Clements?" The Doctor asked. "Well, I think he's part of it."

"Ooh." Clara mewled, looking past them. "Transport." She beamed, rushing over to a set of three Segway's, hopping on one as the Doctor jumped on behind her. "Hey!" She squealed as he tickled her, grinning as his other hand started up the Segway.

"Oh, you had it coming, gorgeous." He purred, kissing her cheek as they moved off down the hallway, the Doctor glancing behind to see Donna and Lance hopping onto the other two and coming down to catch up. As they did, they noticed Clara giggling and squealing, realizing the Doctor was still tickling her with a mischievous grin. "She so had it coming." He remarked to Donna, stopping only as she smacked his chest with such a light tap that he almost didn't feel it. "Come on, Clara, breathe." He whispered, stopping his assault and letting her catch her breath. "Because…we've found something interesting." He said, pointing to a door as he brought the Segway to a stop. The door was marked "Authorized Personnel Only" and had the Torchwood symbol and logo on it. So, they stepped off the Segway, Clara clearing her throat to remove her blush, and they darted up to the door and spun the wheel handle on it. They opened it, seeing a small bricked room with a ladder inside on the right wall. They looked up, and it was a LONG way up. "Wait here." He said to them and to Clara. "I'll see what's up there. Eyes front soldier." He quipped to Clara as he started up the ladder.

"Mine aren't front." She flirted, looking at his form approvingly.

He gazed back down at her with an accusing glare. "Have you been reading my mind when I'm not looking?!" He demanded, but without any bite.

"What can I say?" She shrugged with a twinkle in both of her eyes. "Me as a barmaid looked quite…delicious, and you don't disagree to it." She purred.

"Stop it!" He blushed and started to flee up the ladder, Clara giggling and laughing as she waited.

"Can you two please stop?" Donna interjected as Clara cleared her throat again.

"Barmaid me, and governess me for that matter, just give me some pretty good ideas-"

"Stop it!" Donna and Lance growled in unison, which made Clara blink.

"Sorry." She muttered under her breath. "I was just being honest." She then clicked her neck, muttered a low "Ow" and leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes and started to breathe calmly, but not in slumber, just in peaceful patience. She could faintly hear Lance muttering to Donna if she was truly serious about all of this, if she truly was thinking hard about it. She almost gave a small giggle as Donna replied-

"Oh. I thought July."

Then, there was silence again for a few moments, until she heard the Doctor's converse sneakers clapping and squeaking against the ladder, and she heard him drop down from it and land with a small "Oof" beside the bottom of the ladder. "Thames flood barrier!" He proclaimed, Clara shaking herself out of her little "Zen Zone", greeting him with a bright smile. "Right on top of us." He said, stepping out into the corridor with Clara again. "Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath."

"What, there's like a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?" Donna clarified and they nodded.

"We know." They replied. "Unheard of." They started to walk down the corridor, coming to a stop by a large grey door, which they wrenched open, moving into a small, green lit corridor with another grey door with a Torchwood logo at the very end, so they moved through this door as well. "Whoa." They muttered in unison, the sight greeting them was a large room, and it was like a scientist's wet dream come true. For what got their attention was the large tubes within the machines in the room that were funnelling a bubbling liquid like water, but the lights that lined the glass of the tubes made it look like the water had a blue haze to it. But it was still no less impressive to either the TARDIS couple, their newfound friend or her groom.

"Stunning!" The Doctor remarked as he and Clara stepped further into the room, Donna and Lance following closely behind as the couple went up to inspect the machines closer.

"What does it do?" Donna asked.

"Particle extrusion." The Doctor said as he tapped one of the glass tubes. "Ooh, brilliant." He muttered softly.

"What?" Donna asked.

"Basically," Clara started, "it's a miniature manufacturing plant. But, it's for Huon Particles."

"Of course," The Doctor interjected, "it's all because my people got rid of Huon's, being cautious and all that jazz."

Lance blinked. "Your people? Who are they? What company do you represent?"

"Long story." The Doctor remarked, cocking one eyebrow at Clara. "Me on the other hand, I'm just a freelancer. But don't you see?" He asked rhetorically, putting their attention back on the machines. "This lot are building them, and they've been using the river." He deducted. "Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base until they got the end result of…" He went to one of the machines, clicked a button, which popped out a small, arrow pointed capsule containing water like liquid, "Huon Particles in liquid form."

"And that's what's inside me?" Donna deducted, making the Doctor pinch the arrow point on the capsule and turn it like a dial, causing the liquid within to glow brightly, which echoed onto Donna, and she gasped in amazement as she glowed bright gold once again, just like she did back in Saint Mary's.

"Genius." The Doctor commented.

"But why liquid form?" Clara asked him.

"Basically, in liquid form the Particles are inert, so they need something living to catalyse inside. And whoever was creating this, or at the very least took over, chose Donna." He said, pointing to Donna. "Saturate the body and then…" He trailed off, before a massive grin shot across his face. "Ha! The wedding!" He exclaimed gleefully, earning a small jump from both Clara and Donna. "Yes! You're getting married! That's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle, oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside!" Donna's expression turned from confusion to annoyed bewilderment as the Doctor continued. "Adrenaline, Acetylcholine, "Wham!" go the endorphins! Oh, you're cooking! You're like a walking oven, a pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away! The Particles reach boiling point, "Shazam!"" He abruptly stopped as Donna smacked him hard across the face, earning a relieved giggle from Clara. "What did I do this time?!" He demanded.

"Are you enjoying this?" Donna asked. The Doctor didn't respond, so, after a moment where he managed to calm down, Donna cleared her throat. "Right, just tell me. These Particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?"

"Yes." The Doctor said automatically, but Clara raised her eyebrows at him, and he sighed.

"Doctor," Clara started calmly, putting a hand on Donna's shoulder in an effort to reassure her, "if your people got rid of them, why did they do it?"

"Because they were deadly." The Doctor answered simply.

Donna's face fell at those words. "Oh my god." She muttered.

"Donna, we'll sort it out." The Doctor promised. "Whatever's been done to you, we'll reverse it. We are not about to lose someone else."

Donna gave them a sad look at their last few words, which made them sigh. Then, in response, they jumped in shock. Donna didn't respond, nor did Lance who was standing back in the corner in silence. Instead, it was a loud hiss over the speakers, like a ravenous creature that was toying with its prey. "Ooh, she is long since lost." A female yet animalistic voice drooled and snarled. Then, the far grey wall began to lift up, revealing another room behind it. Yet this room looked like a construction mess, with large spider webs across the ceiling, a catwalk runway with a staircase at the far end of the room and at least three tunnels that led down to the centre. There was the real object of their fascination, being a massive hole in the ground, but their attention was taken away from it as they heard a group of the robots, now undisguised from their Santa outfits, moving onto the catwalks above them and aiming large rifles down at them. "I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe, until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to awaken."

The Doctor looked at Clara, motioning for her to stand back as he went to inspect the large hole in the floor. "Someone's been digging." He stood by the edge and peered down into the hole, and what he saw was the longest drop he had ever seen, the hole ending in a white light, and it made him chuckle low in his throat. "Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?" He called, stepping back slightly to re-join with Clara.

"Down and down, all the way to the centre of the Earth."

That made the Doctor frown in amazement. "Really? Seriously, what for?"

Donna stepped forward with a smile on her face. "Dinosaurs." She inputted.

The Doctor and Clara looked at Donna with a blink. "What?"

Donna blinked. "Dinosaurs?" She asked, but more in a question.

"Donna, what are you on about, dinosaurs?" Clara asked.

"That film, with that "Mummy" dude and he went under the Earth and saw dinosaurs." They just shook their heads at her, and she shrugged. "Trying to help."

"That's not helping." They said in unison.

"My god, that's still creepy." Donna muttered.

"Such a sweet little group." The voice purred, making the Doctor roll his eyes.

"Only a madman talks to thin air, and trust me, you don't want to make us mad. Where are you?" He demanded.

"High in the sky, floating so high on Christmas night."

"We didn't come all this way to talk on the intercom!" Clara interrupted with a growl. "Come on! Let us have a look at you!"

"Who are you with such command?!"

"I'm Clara Oswald, and this is the Doctor!"

"Then prepare your best medicines for you and your Clara, doctor man, for you will be sick at heart."

Then, there was a whooshing noise that came through the speakers before it stopped and restarted in the very room with them, as a large mass of blue matter suddenly appeared, but it faded away to reveal a large, crimson red spider, complete with her twitching legs and large body. However, protruding from the front of her was half of a humanoid body, who had pincer legs for arms, sharp teeth and six pure black eyes, and the top of her head was multi-pointed, in either a satire or a mockery of a crown. The female spider hissed and snarled at them, her legs and pincers twitching all the while, as all of her eyes stared directly at them, and the trio felt an involuntary shiver run down their spines. But the Doctor was the one to first speak. "Racnoss." He muttered, earning a purr like snarl from the spider, more in a sense of respect that in savouring a meal. "But that's impossible. You're one of the Racnoss."

"Empress of the Racnoss." She greeted in clarification.

The Doctor shot Clara a look, taking her hand to calm her down against the abhorring sight. "If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss?" Then, he caught himself with raised eyebrows. "Or…are you the only one?"

The Empress gave another hissing purr. "Such a sharp mind."

"That's it. The last of your kind." The Doctor muttered.

"Sorry?" Clara interjected, and he leaned towards her.

"The Racnoss come from the dark times, billions upon billions of years ago. They were omnivores, devouring whole planets."

"Racnoss are born starving. Is that our fault?" The Empress snarled.

"They eat people?" Donna spoke up, the first she had said for a while.

"H.C Clements, did he wear those-those black and white shoes?" The Doctor asked, glancing up at the webbed ceiling above their heads, but Donna didn't get it.

"He did." Donna answered with a nostalgic smile. "We used to laugh. We used to call him the "Fat cat in spats"." The Doctor and Clara said nothing in return. Instead, they pointed up at the ceiling to the pair of protruding feet, and the sight made Donna gasp. "Oh my god."

"Mmm, my Christmas dinner." The Empress mocked with a purr.

"Here's what I don't get." The Doctor inputted. "You shouldn't even exist." He leaned over Clara to whisper. "Way back when, the fledgling empires went to war against the Racnoss." Clara nodded in understanding, while Donna just stared at the Racnoss in slow amazement, for some reason. "And they were wiped out." The Doctor called so the Empress could hear him properly again.

"Except for me." The Empress added.

"But that's what I've got inside me, that Huon Energy thing, yeah?" Donna asked, but the Empress just twitched her head away. "Oi! Look at me lady, I'm talking! Where do I fit in? How come I get stacked up with these Huon Particles?" The Empress twitched her head away again, making Donna growl. "Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me!"

The Empress finally looked at Donna and gave a purring hiss of approval. "The bride is so feisty!"

"Yes, I am! And I don't know what you are, you big…thing." Donna said, making the couple give a small chuckle. "But a spider is just a spider, and an axe is an axe." Her words made the Doctor and Clara blink, the couple looking just past the Racnoss to see Lance standing there and indeed armed with an axe. But before they could say anything, Donna shouted, "Now! Do it!" Lance dove in front of the Empress, raising the axe above his head, about to strike before she could do anything in defence. All she could do was laugh.

"Wait, what?" The Doctor and Clara asked mentally in unison as Lance joined the Empress in her amused laughter, dropping the axe, and holding onto his knees as he laughed. "Oh, that deceitful bastard."

"That was a good one!" Lance chuckled, the Empress nodding in agreement. "Your face was perfect!"

"Lance is funny." The Empress purred.

"What?" Donna asked.

"I'm sorry." Clara said softly, but Donna just blinked.

"Sorry for what?" Donna looked back over to Lance. "Lance, don't be so stupid, get her!"

Lance just gave her a dull look. "God, she's thick." Donna's face slowly fell, and he shook his head. "Months I've had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on the map." He spat.

Donna's gaze fluttered between the couple and Lance. "I don't understand."

"How did you meet him?" Clara asked.

"In the office." Donna answered.

"He made you coffee." Clara said simply.

"What?" Donna muttered.

"Every day, I made you coffee." Lance clarified in interjection.

"You had to be dosed with liquid Particles over six months." The Doctor explained. "The only other way for them would've been to kidnap you and force feed you a bucket load in minutes."

Donna thankfully understood the information but was no less heartbroken. "He was poisoning me?"

They nodded, and Clara spoke up to Lance. "It was all there in the job title. The head of "Human Resources"." She growled.

"This time, it's "Personnel"." Lance retorted.

"But…" Donna started meekly, "we were getting married."

Lance shrugged. "I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes. And then, I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle. Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap, yap, yap. "Ooh, Brad and Angelina? Is Posh pregnant? X-Factor, Atkins diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me! Dear god, the never-ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia." He ranted with clear joy. "I deserve a medal for perseverance." He proclaimed.

"Is that what she's offered you, the Empress of the Racnoss?" Clara asked with a low growl. "What are you, her unpaid concubine?"

"It's better than a night with her." Lance retorted.

"But…I love you." Donna said hurtfully.

Lance shrugged. "That's what made it easy." He said simply. Then, he looked over at the couple. "It's like you said, the big picture. There I was, working in the city. Every day I was climbing that ladder. Then it happened. The Cybermen all over the world, and the Daleks in the sky. Everything I've spent my life doing seemed so small. What's the point of it all when the Human race is nothing?" He asked. "That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to go out there, to see the size of it all. I think you both understand that, don't you?"

"Who is this woman and the little physician?" The Empress asked.

Lance found himself to be at a loss for a brief moment, and he just shrugged. "She said, "Martian"," He said, pointing to the Doctor, "and "Human-ish"." He pointed to Clara.

"Oh, I'm just sort of homeless. Clara stays with me, so take from that as you will."

"Oi!" Clara protested.

"But the point is, what's down here?" The Doctor asked, pointing to the large hole again. "The Racnoss are extinct. What's going to help you 4,000 miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?"

"I think they want us to talk." Lance muttered to the Empress.

"I think so too." The Empress agreed.

"Well, tough, because we only want Donna."

"Kill this chattering little doctor man and his woman." The Empress ordered to her robots.

"Don't you hurt them!" Donna exclaimed, stepping in front of the couple.

"No, it's all right, Donna." Clara said simply.

"No, I won't let them!" Donna denied.

"At arms!" The Empress cried.

"Ah, now, you see-"

"Take aim!" The Empress interrupted Clara, the robots cocking their rifles at the trio.

"I just want to point out the obvious-"

"They won't hit the bride." The Empress interrupted again. "They're such very good shots."

"Just hold on for one god damn moment!" Clara snarled, actually silencing the Empress. "Thank you." She said, clearing her throat. "If you think about it, the Particles activated in Donna and drew her inside our ship." The Empress nodded in understanding as Clara, with her hands and the small capsule behind her back, spun the arrow point, letting Donna glow once again, and they heard the groaning engines of the TARDIS as it materialised around them. "Bye!" Clara called gleefully, the trio briefly hearing the final order of the Empress before they were back inside the TARDIS again. "Off we go." Clara said, racing around the console with a grinning Doctor.

"Well played there." He complimented, earning a smile in return.

"Thank you."

"Oh, by the way Donna, you know what you said before, about a time machine? Well, we lied. And now, we're going to use it." The Doctor said as they flew the TARDIS away.

"We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up." Clara summarized. "If there's something buried at the planet's core, then it must've been there since the beginning."

"Which is brilliant. Molto bene!" He beamed. "I've always wanted to see this. And now Clara can too." He grinned. "We're going further back than we've ever been before." They slowed down on their piloting, realizing that Donna hadn't spoken a word, and she sat down on the Captain's chair with her face in one of her hands. "Donna." The Doctor said gently, but Donna didn't respond. He looked at Clara and said, "I'll keep piloting." She nodded, moving over to hug Donna, who began to silently weep in Clara's embrace. The console room fell into a silence for a minute or two, until the Doctor announced, "We've arrived."

Clara nodded, and she parted from her hug with Donna to look upon her. "Do you want to come and see?"

Donna sniffed, wiped the last traces of tears from her eyes, and she nodded, albeit bitterly. "I suppose." She muttered. Clara then took her hands and slowly led her to the doors with the Doctor in front of them.

"Clara Oswald, Donna Noble, welcome to the creation of the Earth." The Doctor opened the doors wide, allowing them to see the vividly colourful and vast deepness of space before them. Upon this sight, Donna's jaw dropped, and so did Clara's, the Doctor immediately hugging her warmly. "We've gone back 4.6 billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas. And over there is the sun." He said, pointing over to their left, and there they saw a small glow of bright yellow, aching familiar but just not quite there yet.

"Where's the Earth?" Donna asked.

"All around us, in the dust." The Doctor answered.

Donna smiled in awe before it turned into a small sigh. "Puts the wedding in perspective. Lance was right, we're just…tiny."

"No, but that's what you do." The Doctor denied. "The Human race, you make sense out of chaos. You mark it out with…weddings and Christmas and calendars." The Doctor chuckled, returning to his hug with Clara, gazing out upon the stars and the dust. "This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed."

"So, I came out of all of this?" Donna reiterated, and he nodded.

"Isn't that brilliant?"

"It is." Clara agreed softly, and he kissed her hair with a small purr.

After a small moment of comfortable silence, a massive rock floated past them in view, and Donna pointed at it. "I think that's the Isle of Wight." She quipped, making them giggle.

"Eventually, gravity takes hold." The Doctor said. "Say, one big, heavy rock starts to pull other rocks towards it. All the dust and the rocks and all the elements get pulled in towards it, and eventually you get…"

"The Earth." Donna finished for him, and he nodded.

"So, what was that first rock?" Clara clarified.

"Look." Donna pointed off to their right, and they saw a large, crystalline star, made out of hardened spider webs, like…well…crystal, of some kind. It floated out of the dust into view, before stopping amidst the rocks and dust.

"The Racnoss." Clara deducted.

"You said they were at war?" Donna asked.

"Yes. These ones must've been wanting to hide." The Doctor said. They then watched with widening eyes as all the rocks and dust started to swirl and gather around the ship, up until it was no longer visible.

"They didn't just bury something in the centre of the Earth. They became the centre of the Earth." Clara deducted. Then, upon a sudden, the TARDIS shook with a groan, shut the doors on them and started to pilot itself on its own. Or at least they thought that for a moment.

"What the hell's it doing?!" Donna demanded.

"Remember the Particle attraction, Donna! They're pulling us back!" Clara said as the couple raced around the TARDIS, Donna restraining herself on the handrails as the ship rocked back and forth.

"Well, can't you stop it?!" Donna demanded. "Can't you put the handbrake on or something?!"

"He already leaves the brakes on!" Clara answered. "That noise is the brakes!"

"I don't leave the brakes on!" The Doctor denied.

"Yes you do!"

"But…" The Doctor started, reaching over to his right and grasping the beeping object of his desire, "the Extrapolator! Can't stop it but should give us a good bump!" He placed it down on the console again, tossing Clara the mallet and she smacked it hard before they could materialise. Then, after a few more moments, the TARDIS materialised elsewhere, and they gave a sigh of relief as the console room calmed down from its shaking. Then, they rushed out of the TARDIS, running down a familiar yet different hallway. "We're about 200 yards to the right. Come on!" He called, running down the hallway with Clara, Donna following closely behind them until they reached a large, dark green steel door, where the couple began to inspect it in case of traps.

"What do we do?" Donna asked, and the couple shrugged.

"No idea. We make it up as we go along." The Doctor said simply.

"But trust us, we've been very good at it." Then, she blinked. "At least, we have been historically, but I'm sure we still are."

"But I still don't understand. I'm full of Particles, but what for?" Donna asked.

"There's a Racnoss Web at the centre of the Earth, but my people unravelled their power source." The Doctor explained. "The Huon Particles ceased to exist and the Racnoss were stuck. They just stayed in hibernation for billions of years. Frozen, dead, kaput. So, you're the new key, fresh new Particles, living Particles and they need you to open it, and you have never been so quiet." The Doctor remarked, him and Clara looking behind them, then up and down the hallway, but there was no sign of Donna. "Oh, Donna!" They called, and they obviously received no answer. "Bloody hell, robots aren't meant to be ninjas." The Doctor quipped as he used his sonic on the door and opened it, revealing a sole robot, waiting patiently on the other side.

---

"I hate you." Donna snarled as she was tied up to the webbed ceiling next to Lance.

"Yeah, I think we've gone a bit beyond that, sweetheart." Lance said with dry sarcasm, his own suit stained and wet with liquid, most certainly the Huon liquid.

"My golden couple." The Empress purred. "Together at last, your awful wedded life." She cackled venomously. "Tell me, do you want to be released?"

"Yes!" They cried in unison.

"You're supposed to say, "I do"." The Empress mocked.

"Hardly! No chance!" Lance scoffed.

"Say it!" The Empress snarled, and Lance relented.

"I do."

"I do." Donna agreed.

The Empress shook her head with a malicious grin. "I don't." She mocked. "Activate the Particles! Purge every last one!" She ordered, causing the pair to glow and simmer in golden light. "And release!" Then the golden glow, like a cloud of dust, left their bodies, falling down, straight into the hole and deep into the Earth. "The secret heart unlocks, and they shall waken from their sleep of ages."

"Who will?" Donna asked. "What's down there?"

Lance rolled his eyes. "How thick are you?"

"My children, the long lost Racnoss, now reborn to feast on flesh, and the Web-Star shall come to me." The Empress decreed. "Now, my babies will be hungry. They need sustenance. Perish the web." She looked up at the pair, and while Donna felt terror and the fear of death in her heart, it was Lance, who felt the same as she, that gave in, whimpering as he did so.

"Use her! Not me! Use her!" He cried.

"Oh, my funny little Lance." The Empress purred, granting Lance a false sense of security for only a few short moments. "But you didn't take any lessons from the Doctor man and his woman, and you remained impolite to your lady friend. The Empress does not approve." Then, she raised her pincers above her head and sliced the air, causing the webbing around Lance to be cut, and he was set free to fall down into the hole, screaming in despair as he disappeared from sight.

"Lance!" Donna cried, but it was fruitless.

"My children are climbing towards me, and none shall stop them! They shall harvest on the Humans and reduce them to meat!" The Empress decreed. Then, she turned her head to the catwalk stairwell, where a lone robot figure was walking up the stairs. "So you might as well unmask, my clever little Doctor man."

"Oh, well, it was a nice try." He said, taking off the mask and black cloak, before he took out his sonic and used it to loosen but not cut the webbing around Donna. "I've got you, Donna."

Donna cried and gasped, holding onto one large piece of webbing in front of her as she felt herself starting to fall. "I'm gonna fall!" She pointed out.

"No, you're gonna swing!" The Doctor denied, as she held on tight to the webbing like rope, flying down towards the stairwell. "I've got you!" But the webbing kept getting lower and lower, until she sank beneath his level on the stairwell, crashing into the wall and knocking over caskets and metal containers, before she rolled onto her back, and gave the Doctor a smouldering glare. "Oh. Sorry." He muttered.

"Thanks for nothing." Donna snarled as she got herself off the ground.

"The Doctor man amuses me." The Empress purred.

"Where's Clara?" Donna asked.

"Scouting our bearings up top. The Empress has a ship, we need to know what it might be doing." The Doctor answered. Then, he placed both his hands onto the handrailing and squared his shoulders. "Empress of the Racnoss, I give you one last chance." He called in an authoritative tone. "I can find you a planet. I can find you and your children a place in the universe to coexist. Take that offer and end this now. What's your answer?"

The Empress hissed for a moment before she smiled. "Oh, I'm afraid I have to decline."

"Then what happens next is your own doing." The Doctor said in a low tone as he stood up and placed his hands in his pockets.

"I'll show you what happens next." The Empress snarled. "At arms!" The robots in the room cocked their rifles. "Take aim!" They aimed at the Doctor. "And-"

"Relax." The Doctor said softly, and they stopped, then slouched and dropped unmoving onto the floor on their catwalks.

Donna blinked, looking at all the unmoving robot forms before glancing up at the Doctor. "What did you do?" She asked.

"Guess what me and Clara have got, Donna." He pulled his right hand out of his pocket, carrying the remote control he and Clara received from much earlier at the "Wedding" Reception. "Pockets."

Donna's eyes widened. "How did that fit in there?"

"They're bigger on the inside." He said simply.

The Empress snarled. "Roboforms are not necessary. My children may feast on Martian flesh."

"Oh, but I'm not from Mars." The Doctor said gravely.

The Empress blinked all of her eyes at him. "Then where?"

"My home planet is far away and long since gone. But its name lives on. Gallifrey."

A fresh new surge of animalistic energy flowed through the Racnoss at the mention of his planet's name and she snarled at him once again. "They murdered the Racnoss!"

"I warned you." He said grimly. "You did this." Then, he took out a few of the remaining Christmas decoration bombs from his left pocket and tossed them up into the air as the Empress pleaded and wailed for mercy, but he did not listen. Using the remote, he made them encircle around the Empress in an intimidating gesture, before he sent them spiralling away to impact upon the water walls beneath the river Thames, but not too far high enough for their ladder exit to the surface, and the proceeding explosions rattled and shook the room, before the loud rushing sound of water came quick and fast to their ears. Then, he made the last of the bombs impact throughout the room, causing sparks and flames to erupt as the Thames river came rushing into the room, away from the Doctor, Donna and the Empress, aiming straight for the hole in the ground.

"No!" The Empress wailed as the distant screams of her spider brethren were heard for only mere moments until the water washed them away. "My children! No! My children! My children!"

Donna looked around her in horror, while the Doctor just simply stared in cold silence at the wailing Empress. Then, Donna called, "Doctor!" But he gave no acknowledgement to her. "Doctor!" She called again, but he didn't listen. Then, Donna turned around and saw a breathless Clara dashing into the room, looking around in wide eyed panic.

Clara took one look at Donna and understood. She looked up at the Doctor and called, "Doctor!"

Her voice shook him from his stupor, and he turned his gaze away from the Empress and saw her, and it melted his cold silence into sorrow. "Clara." He muttered, but she only saw him mouthing her name to her, unable to hear him over the roaring of the rushing water and wailing of the Empress.

"Doctor! Stop this! Now!" She cried, and her words made the Doctor start to tremble, before he shook it off and stepped away from the handrailing.

"Come on!" He called. "Time we got out!" Then, the Doctor dove down the stairwell and he with Donna followed Clara out of the room, through a corridor unaffected by the Thames, and back to the ladder they had found much earlier. Clara started up first, then Donna, then the Doctor. "Clara, what happened up there?!" He called.

"Her ship came down above the city! Some large crystal star thing!" Clara responded.

"But what about the Empress?!" Donna asked.

"She's used up all her Huon Energy! Even if she got back to her ship, she'll be defenceless!" Clara called.

"How?!" Donna reiterated.

"I saw a large batch of tanks rolling up into the city!" Clara called as they reached the top of the ladder. But before they got out, they found themselves clutching onto the ladder as the ear ringing sounds of tank cannon fire echoed into their ears, mixing in with the destruction of the Web-Star, until it was completely obliterated into fire and ash and the gunfire stopped. The three of them took a moment to get their hearing back into order before they climbed out and off the ladder onto the outside world once again, before Clara slammed the ladder hatch shut again and they clutched onto each other as they willed their limbs to recover from the climb. Then, they began to laugh in relief and joy in the fact that they had survived the day, and they were still all right. "God, I need a warm bath later." Clara said, the three of them looking down at their soaked forms and clothes, and the Doctor and Donna consented with her words. The chilly night air that bit at their bones didn't help either, since they had spent the rest of the day underground, unable to see the sun set.

"There's just…there's just one problem." Donna said, a tiny bit breathless.

"What's that?" They asked.

She pointed to the barren river. "We've drained the Thames." That made them refresh their laughter anew, for now it was directed at the confused people that would be wondering where the water went. As if they would have a clue.

Chiswick

The TARDIS materialised outside Donna's house two story house, where Donna stepped out first, turning around but deciding to hang back in silence as the Doctor and Clara stood alone together in the console room. "Doctor." Clara said, taking his hands in hers before he pulled her into a hug. "You're not at war anymore, remember?" She asked, yet her words bore no bite or admonishment.

"I know." He muttered, burying his face in her hair. "I'm sorry, Clara."

She let him stroke her hair in the hug before she pulled back and gave him a soft kiss, holding his face in her hands. "I miss her too." She said sadly. "But you KNOW that you don't grieve like this. I know too. Please don't convince yourself otherwise."

"I…" He trailed off, keeping what would be repeated words silent as he drew her into a hug again. They just remained in a silent hug for a small while, letting each other's company bring them back to peace before they parted, taking each other's hand with a gentle smile before they walked over to the doors to see Donna standing there patiently with a smile on her face. "There we go." The Doctor said, joy back in his heart again. "Told you she'd be all right. Survive anything." The couple patted the sides of the box, feeling the ship give a small purring hum in return.

"More than I've done." Donna said simply.

Clara took out her sonic and scanned Donna before she shrugged and pocketed it away. "No. All the Huon Particles are gone. No damage, you're fine." She reassured.

"Yeah, but apart from that…" Donna started with a sigh, "I missed my wedding, lost my job, and became a widow on the same day. Sort of."

"We couldn't save him." The Doctor said sadly.

Donna shook her head. "He deserved it." They simply raised their eyebrows at her, and she relented. "No, he didn't." She admitted. Then, as she took a breath and gathered herself together, she glanced back at her house, seeing her parents hugging each other in reassurance inside. "Better get inside. They'll be worried."

"Best Christmas present they could have." The Doctor remarked. Then, Clara nudged him, and he blinked. "Oh, no, I forgot. You hate Christmas." He said with a smirk.

Donna shook her head. "Without gramps." They blinked at her, and she smiled. "Grampa Wilf makes the best Christmas, but he's not here, since he got laid up with Spanish Flu."

Their eyes widened. "Spanish Flu-"

"Not the lethal kind, thankfully." Donna interrupted, putting them at ease. "You two would like him." She commented, earning shrugs from the couple. "Still, Christmas without him is…yes, I hate Christmas." She said finally, making them giggle.

"Even…if it snows?" The Doctor asked rhetorically, reaching up to the top of the box behind the doors and flicking a switch. This caused the light in the TARDIS bulb to glow bright before it shot the light into the atmosphere high above, quickly causing snow to fall over London. Clara grinned with a giggle while Donna held her hands over her mouth in awe.

"I can't believe you did that." Donna said, bursting out into laughter as the snow flowed all around them.

The Doctor shrugged slightly. "Oh, basic atmospheric excitation-"

"No." Clara interrupted, making him frown. "You're ruining the mood." She chastised and he chuckled with a smile. Then, they looked back over at Donna, who smiled at them.

"Merry Christmas." Donna said warmly.

"And you." They said in unison.

They looked at each other before glancing back at Donna and they blinked. "So…what will you do with yourself now?"

Donna waggled her eyebrows. "Not getting married, for starters." They giggled slightly, and she just raised her eyebrows at them.

"Sorry." They muttered.

"And I'm not gonna temp anymore. I don't know." She added with a sigh. "Travel, see a bit more of planet Earth, walk in the dust. Just…go out there and do something." She said proudly, making them smile.

"Well, you could always…" The Doctor started, but he trailed off.

"What?" Donna asked.

"Come with us." Clara finished for him.

Donna's response was automatic, but not admonishing. "No."

They didn't show it, but they really felt disappointed by her answer. "Okay." Clara nodded.

"I can't." Donna said simply, but they nodded dismissively again.

"No, that's fine-"

"Stop it." Donna interrupted, and they slouched in silence. "Really, I can't. I mean, everything we did today…do you two live your life like that?"

They exchanged a glance with each other. "Not all the time." The Doctor answered.

Donna cocked an eyebrow at them. "I think you do. And I couldn't." She said firmly.

"But you've seen it out there." The Doctor said. "It's beautiful."

"And it's terrible." Donna agreed but yet disagreed too. "That place was flooding and burning, and they were dying, and you stood there like…I don't know…a stranger." The Doctor looked down dejectedly as Donna sighed. "And then Clara comes in, snaps you out of it and then you make it snow. I mean, you guys scare me to death!" She admitted. They just nodded in silence before Donna took a breath and looked back up at them with a smile. "Tell you what I will do though, Christmas dinner." They just gave her a look of utter horror. "Oh, come on."

They shook their heads. "We…don't do that sort of thing." The Doctor muttered.

"Yeah, we don't." Clara agreed.

"You both did it last year, you said so." Donna said. "And you might as well because Mum always cooks enough for 20."

The couple looked like they were truly pondering that offer, but unknown to Donna, in their heads they had already agreed to disagree. But, for the sake of faces, they looked as if they gave in. "Oh, all right, then. But you go first. Better warn them, and…don't say that I'm Martian." The Doctor said. "We just have to park her properly. She might drift off to the Middle Ages." He opened the door and he stepped in with Clara.

"And I'm not…" Clara trailed off with a shake of her head. "I still don't get what I am." She admitted again with a sigh.

"You're an elf, right?" The Doctor asked.

"But elves are taller."

"Not Christmas elves." They flicked the lever to go, but then they heard-

"Doctor! Clara!"

Donna's scream actually pierced their ears, and they landed back again, moving to the doors and looked out at the woman with a wince. "Blimey, you can shout." The Doctor remarked.

Donna just gave them a sad look, and it dawned on them. "If you're going to decline, be sure to say something." Donna admonished, and they sighed.

"Okay."

"Am I ever going to see you two again?" Donna asked.

They smiled. "If we're lucky."

"Just promise me one thing: Find someone."

They stayed emotionless. "We don't-"

"Yes, you do." Donna interrupted. "I can't promise you two to keep together, because that'll be like promising water to remain wet." They chuckled at the thought until Donna spoke again. "But everyone needs a friend, and you two are no different."

They nodded in agreement to her. "Yeah." They said in unison before they got themselves together again and gave her a smile. "Thanks then, Donna, good luck. And just…be magnificent."

Donna beamed. "I think I will, yeah." They nodded, and were about to enter the TARDIS again, but Donna stopped them. "Oi!" She called, hearing a unified groan from the couple.

"Oh, what is it now?" The Doctor asked.

"That friend of yours," Donna started, watching their faces turn sad, "What was her name?"

They sighed, and it was Clara that answered. "Her name was Rose." Donna gave them one last smile before they closed the doors and the TARDIS vanished from sight. Donna turned around to walk back into her house, not knowing that one day, she'll meet them again, whether she will realize it or not.

---

AN: Until the next time, Donna Noble. Next will be Series 3, and I'm quite looking forward to these two meeting Martha for the first time. Also, the finale. Cause we meet Jack again. Oh, and…well, you know who's also coming into the finale. ;) Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading and leave a review if you wish. :)