A/N: Please check the end. There's something very special about to happen that I'd love you to be a part of.
~0~0~0~
"What about now?" Danni called out the doorway.
"Did you do anything?" the Doctor replied. She glared at the doorway into the TARDIS hallway, which she knew would lead straight to her husband.
"Did I do…" she grumbled before raising her voice again. "Of course I did something! Why would I ask?"
"Well do something else!" he replied, sounding more and more out of breath. The thudding that she could hear in the distance explained his breathlessness. "They're getting angry!"
She turned back to the console. "Do something else," she continued to grumble to herself. "No one told him to go into the bloody library."
The buttons in front of her made a lot more sense than they had done even a hundred years ago. Still, she found herself pressing random buttons that she hoped would work. Her next step would be to go underneath the console again and she really didn't think that the Doctor would be pleased if she did that right now.
"How about now?" she shouted out again.
"Try aga-ah!"
Her gaze shot back to the doorway, this time in alarm at his cry of pain. "Theta!" she shouted. "Are you alright?"
"Shakespeare!" he shouted angrily, grunting slightly as he took another swing. Danni heard the bat hit the book, hopefully knocking it far away from him. "I bloody hate Shakespeare! Have you tried rerouting the library's operational matrix…"
"Of course I have!" she interrupted. "Give me a minute!"
She rushed to the other side of the console, an idea popping into her head. The operational matrix was a good place to start if that hadn't been the part that he'd buggered up in the first place. That would take longer to fix and, apparently, he was already working on making up some new circuit boards to replace it. But, if that meant that the TARDIS couldn't control the books then someone else needed to.
"Urgh gross, gross, gross…" she groaned as she put her hands in the psychic interface. There had to be a better way of connecting to the console. She was sure there used to be. That would be her next job.
She closed her eyes and focused on the library. She focused on the books being neatly lined up on shelves upon shelves. She focused on books not flying around and battering her husband. Although, throwing Shakespeare at him might finally encourage a trip back to see the author.
She shook her head, focusing even harder. There was an easier way to get that trip than throwing heavy books at the Doctor's head. And much more fun ways to convince him, as well.
"What did you do?" he called from the other room. She smiled to herself.
"Has it stopped?"
"What did you do?" he repeated, telling her that it had. "I'm coming back."
"No, wait!" she shouted back. "One sec!" She pulled her hands out of the psychic interface and waited a couple of moments. "How about now?"
"I'm coming back!" A moment later he appeared in the doorway, cricket bat still in hand. He looked a bit dishevelled but otherwise fine. "What did you do?"
"Did it work?" she countered. She didn't want to admit anything unless it had worked, after all. It was always good to own your mistakes unless you were trying to look smart.
He nodded and she grinned happily. "I used the psychic interface and told the books to stop flying around," she explained. She held her arms out slightly, the picture of arrogance. "Yeah, I did that. Me," she bragged. "Surprised you didn't think of that sooner, Spaceman."
He tried to look annoyed, but the grin that spread on his face matched hers. He let out a laugh of delight and dropped the cricket bat before rushing over to her. She met him half way, running to meet him and he caught her, lifting her off the ground.
"That's my Danni-Girl!" he cried, incredibly proud. He spun her around, much to her surprise, before putting her back down on the ground. She held onto him to stop herself falling back over. "You and that gorgeous brain of yours. I love it!"
"Well, I do try," she replied modestly. "I'm finally catching up to you."
"Catching up?" he repeated. "Nah. I've always been lightyears behind you, my Pet." He pressed a kiss on her head. "Your strong will alone will always save you. You never needed this doddering old fool."
All at once he watched a change in her. She was happy and teasing one minute, the next she was pulling away, her face neutral again. "Danielle?" he asked, concerned. Had he said something that had upset her? Had Missy said something similar and he'd reminded her of that?
"What?" she asked, a little bluntly, but trying to act like his words hadn't immediately put her on edge. "What's next? The kitchen lights were flashing different colours again, weren't they?"
He nodded. "We can do that in a minute," he agreed. "What's wrong? I'm sorry if I said something that upset you."
"You didn't," she replied. "Don't apologise. Let's just get on with fixing the kitchen." She walked over to the console again, switching the monitor's feed to the kitchen. Just as she remembered; the lights were flashing random colours like some sort of 1990's disco.
The Doctor watched her. She was trying to pretend nothing was wrong, but he could feel it. He could feel her putting that emotional barrier up that she did when she tried to internalise her emotions. He could appreciate that. He had done that himself enough times, and Danni had always seen through it. She saw him when he was sad, especially when he was pretending to be his happiness. He knew her just as well.
"Danni," he tried again. "I just want to help."
She paused for a moment before looking over her shoulder, shooting him a small smile. "You are," she replied. "I promise. Nothing's wrong with me. The TARDIS, on the other hand, seems to be in the mood for a rave." She turned back to the monitor. "You don't think she's flown through something and got a little… you know… happy go lucky?"
He tried to smile in return but it came out as just a little tilt of the lips. "Well, I guess that is a possibility," he agreed, joining her at the console. "It wouldn't be the first time something strange has gotten into the ventilation. I'm sure I would have noticed though." She watched closely as he started to run the diagnostics to check for foreign bodies in the ventilation.
"Does that work for everything?" she asked him, intrigued. "I've seen you use it before but I've never known when you can use it."
He nodded. "You can use it for pretty much everything," he replied. "However, its usefulness depends on what mood she's in when you run it. I once tried to work out why she wouldn't land in 15th century Britain. Took her three days to tell me that she just didn't want to land. I think she was bored."
Danni giggled slightly. "Well, you do tend to hang around Earth," she pointed out. "She was probably trying to broaden your horizons."
"I can broaden my own horizons," he retorted, looking up at the time rotor in the middle of the console. "She's just stubborn."
The TARDIS tilted slightly to one side in protest and the Doctor slammed into Danni, managing to find his footing as she fell to the floor. He quickly helped her up sheepishly. "Sorry, my Pet."
Again she tensed, again she was pulled out of the moment and back into why she had been trying to fill her time with trips to Clara and fixing things. "Don't apologise," she repeated firmly, brushing herself down. His brows furrowed. He didn't understand why that was upsetting her.
"Why don't you want me apologising?" he asked gently.
"Because I don't," she snapped back. "Drop it, Theta. We need to fix the kitchen otherwise I'm not going to be able to cook dinner."
"I don't want to force you to talk about it," he reassured her. "I'm just concerned. I don't like upsetting you and I don't understand how I am doing so."
"I know," she retorted. "Stop apologising, that's how you help."
"Why?"
"Because you never apologised!" she exclaimed before she could stop it. This was how Missy had always got her to talk; by picking at her until she couldn't hold it in anymore. She had become so much better at keeping her feelings to herself but the Doctor always had a way of making her talk.
It took a moment for him to understand, but then it clicked into place. He'd upset her because he'd reminded her, again, of how she'd had to survive without him. How he'd let her down. How he hadn't stopped Missy taking her. He had said the words, but he knew that it was never going to be enough.
"Danielle," he started, taking a step towards her. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I allowed that… that monster anywhere near you. She should never…"
"Oh, not that," Danni interrupted harshly. "Stop apologising for that! You're always apologising for things that aren't you fault! Missy was always going to get her grubby hands on me. She always wanted me as her own. You didn't have a choice, that wasn't your fault! Stop apologising for her!"
"I don't understand…" he replied, thoroughly confused.
The confusion annoyed her even more and she raised her finger, pointing at him. "You gave up on me," she accused.
He shook his head, still baffled. "No, I didn't," he said. "I've never given up on you."
"You went to Davros!" she countered, almost shrieking. "You stopped looking and you went to your death! If I hadn't found out where you were then you would have died. You stopped looking, you stopped waiting. You gave up on me!"
"I didn't give up on you," he protested. "You were always going to be fine! You can survive anything in the universe!"
She shook her head. "Stop saying stuff like that!" she replied. "It doesn't matter if I can survive or not. I went through so much bullshit because I believed you were going to be on the other end. I was fighting to get home, to my friends, to my family, to my husband, only to find he wasn't even looking! You gave up on finding me! No matter what you say, you gave up on finding me which means you gave up on me!" She panted slightly but the weight of her anger was slowly disappearing. Now that she'd said it out loud she felt better, but she also felt broken. "I waited so long," she continued, her voice cracking. "I waited and I waited until I couldn't anymore and you were never coming for me. You promised me, Theta… You promised…"
He quickly closed the space between then, pulling her into a hug. She was trying to hold it in and he hated that she wouldn't cry in front of him. She didn't feel like she could, she was holding it back and it was because she thought that he'd given up on her. She didn't feel comfortable being upset with him.
He had never meant it that way. He had never given up on her, he'd given up on his own abilities. It was hard to carry on when the universe was putting every obstacle it could in front of you. He hadn't felt strong enough until he'd been confronted by the very real possibility that he was going to die. He had come out the other side of that alright. In fact, it had brought back his Danni-Girl, he had been more than revigorated. He'd never even considered how it'd look to her.
"I'm sorry," he told her sincerely. "I never once gave up on you. I gave up on myself, on the universe, on everything but never on you." The lights in the console room dimmed, almost as if the TARDIS herself was giving them a moment together. He was very grateful.
"You did, though." She pulled back enough to look up at him. Her face was bright red, her eyes shining with the tears . "Even if you didn't mean it, Theta, you gave up on me. You believed Missy when she said I was dead. I heard you address the Daleks. You thought I was dead because you thought I couldn't win."
He took a deep breath, giving her a tight squeeze, placing another kiss on her head. "I hoped you were," he admitted. "Not because I wanted you dead. I've never wanted you dead, you know that. But the places I looked for you, my Danni-Girl…" He let her go, unable to even hold her as he thought on where he'd been. He walked over to the stairs and sat down, looking and feeling all of the thousands of years old he was.
"I went to the depths of the universe," he explained. "I had to check, I wasn't sure where she would take you. I saw people being sold to the highest bidder. People abused, beaten, tortured, all in the name of money. Children screamed and cried and no one cared. Places where laws meant nothing, things I should have stopped and I didn't… I didn't care…" He ran a hand over his face. "I knew… I thought if you weren't in that depravity then you might have been somewhere much, much worse and I couldn't believe that she would take you there. If you were dead…" He looked up at her. She was stood there, her lips pressed together, shuddering as she supressed her sobs. "I'm sorry, Danielle. I never gave up on you, but I should have never given up on finding you."
She nodded slowly. "I did some terrible things to, you know?" she replied. "Things that would make you sick. We've both been on the wrong side of history. You'll always have my forgiveness. I know you don't do anything out of malice. You've just… You've been trying so hard to make me forget, but I can't forget. I can't forget what she did to me and I can't forget what came next. It's part of who I am, and I want… I wanted acknowledgement." She swallowed. "I just wanted to know you were sorry."
"I am," he quickly promised, shooting off the steps. "More than you could ever know."
She stared him down, trying to see the lie, waiting for the conditions of his words. Nothing came, though, and she believed him completely. She wasn't exactly innocent herself. She was still holding secrets back from him in fear of being rejected. Or worse – hated.
"Okay," she whispered. "Can we—" she shifted slightly. "Can we just try to fix the kitchen, please?"
He nodded eagerly. "Let me show you how to run some proper diagnostics," he started, moving on from the moment. He tucked it away, though, to work out at another time. Her words echoed in his mind as he slammed his fist down onto the console.
"Stop being so contrary!" he demanded. "You're my time machine, act like it!"
"Theta!"
~0~0~0~
The Doctor growled deep in his throat, pulling her in for a kiss she could barely return. Her breaths are short and sweet. He couldn't resist trying to catch each one. She felt so good around him, and her face was showing just how good he felt inside of her.
He crushed her up against the wall, tightening his grip on her thighs. His head fell forward and he nuzzled up against hers as her fingers dug into the flesh on his arms. As a man who'd thought he'd lost the woman he loved forever, nothing felt more divine than having her so close, feeling the warmth of her skin, listening to her begging and pleading with him to keep going. As if he'd planned to do anything else.
When she'd stopped crying his name and he'd slowed to a stop, she pulled back so she could see the look in his eyes. His face was shining, little drips of sweat just starting to form on his hairline and she reached up to wipe them away as she held onto him with her other hand. She didn't want to fall.
Her fingers moved from his skin to his hair, feeling the curls give and she couldn't help but smile. "Your hair has grown so much," she commented. "I think you're trying to get back to raggedy man again."
"Never," he murmured. "I'm so much better than that idiot."
"Oi, that's my husband you're talking about," she replied in warning. "Only I get to call any of you an idiot." She paused for a moment. "Idiot."
"You're in a risky position to be calling me an idiot, Danielle," he purred. He pushed up against her, making sure she felt the way he was the one holding her up against the wall. He revelled in the moan that fell from her lips.
"I'm definitely going to need that shower now," she told him. He nodded, letting her set her feet back on the ground.
"That sounds like a good idea," he agreed, sounding reluctant. Then a wicked grin appeared on his face. "Let me help you with that."
~0~0~0~
"Then what do I do?"
"Connect the power," the Doctor replied. He dipped his head down low so he could see underneath the console. Danni was underneath, on her back, looking at all the wires above her head with a bunch in her hand and her screwdriver in her mouth. She was reaching up and he shook his head. "No, not those. They're for the navigation system."
She tilted her head back so she could see him. "That's on the other side of the console," she said around the screwdriver.
"Well, that's what they're for," he replied. "You need the power ones. See the yellow ones?"
She looked back up at the mass of wires above her head. She hadn't expected this particular Doctor to be happy with having such an unorganised mess underneath the console, and yet here she was. The blue wires she had been reaching for should have, logically, come from the centre column and, as would have made sense, been the source of the power. How he'd managed to get the wiring so disorganised was, quite frankly, impressive.
"Yes?" she replied, her voice muffled.
"Not those." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He was doing this on purpose, she was sure.
She reached up and grabbed the screwdriver from her mouth. "Well, which ones is it, then?" she bit out. She'd been under the console a lot longer than she had been expecting to be there. She was sure he was doing this on purpose.
"Umm…" He moved in a little closer, almost bent in half as he looked into the hatch. "Try the blue ones next to the yellow ones."
"Try the…" she repeated before getting too annoyed to wait any longer for him to guess his way around the console. She grabbed the blue ones in the same hand as the wires she was already holding and buzzed the ends of them all. She dropped her screwdriver onto her chest before quickly twisting them all together. She then vowed to spend a couple of days tidying up his mess before sliding out.
The Doctor helped her stand then shut the hatch. He reached over and grabbed the paper cups, handing her one. "Ready?"
She nodded and placed it on the drinks dispenser that was now built into the console. She pressed the lever at the back and poured the drink into her cup. She only put a little bit in. "Looks good so far," she commented, to which the Doctor agreed and poured his own drink. She shrugged. "Well, taste test time…"
One of things she had come to find with this regeneration was that most of the drinks created across the universe were utter garbage. One of the only ones she actually enjoyed, the one she actually craved on occasion, was Coca Cola. She wasn't sure why but she would rarely drink anything else. When she raised the cup to her lips and tasted the sweet fizzy drink, she smiled happily. "Oh, that's the stuff."
The Doctor, taking confidence in the pleased look on her face, also took a sip. Instead of something refreshing, he pulled a face and quickly swallowed it before he could taste it anymore. Danni looked at him in sympathy. "Root beer again?" she asked.
He nodded. "You can't have plugged it in correctly," he said factually. She was offended, handing her drink to him.
"Try that." He did and she could tell instantly that he was tasting the same thing that she was. She tried very badly to hide her smugness. "Maybe it's the TARDIS. She did always like me more than you."
The Doctor paused before taking another sip. He turned to the console, outraged. "That's it, isn't it?" he cried. "You're ganging up on me. Again!"
There was a ripple of light that ran over the console and Danni let out a delighted belly laugh. "Oh, I do like you!" she declared, taking her cup back of the Doctor to put it underneath the dispenser. She filled it to the top and took another sip, making sure to back a dramatic refreshed noise as she did. "I do like you indeed."
"No, no, I won't have it," the Doctor continued. He pointed at Danni. "You're not turning our home against me."
"Hey, don't blame me," Danni retorted. "She came willingly. Do you blame her?" She waved one had up and down herself. "Look at me."
"You… You…" the Doctor stuttered out, trying not to admit that he agreed wholeheartedly. He could see her cheeky grin, and the way her eyes were lighting up happily. "Come here."
Danni turned, running away as he tried to grab her. She let out a little shriek as he began to chase her. "Theta! I'm going to spill my drink!"
~0~0~0~
Danni looked around as they stepped out into the street. The buildings looked so familiar, but then again most buildings did. There were only so many designs for buildings, after all. Unless the ruling species on a planet had a very unique style, Danni had found it hard to tell planets apart based on architecture alone.
"Can't you just tell me?" she asked yet again.
"Where's the fun in that?" the Doctor replied. "You've got the take a stab in the dark. It sharpens the mind! Try a year first, we'll work from there."
"How can I guess the year if I don't know where I am?" she pointed out. She looked upwards at the tall buildings. It just felt like any other city. The skyline wasn't anything particularly different, although she couldn't shake the feeling that she had been there before. "I don't know. Give me a clue, Theta, I've never been good at this as you."
"Yes you have," he encouraged. "You've just never noticed. Look up." She just stared at him and he motioned with his hands. "Go on, look up, look up!"
She sighed and did just that. The sky wasn't particularly busy, but there definitely was some air traffic. "Alright, we've got some air travel," she declared. "I mean, that's nothing new is it? We live in a time travelling space ship. We could be anywhere."
"True, true," he conceded. Even now she was defensive at trying to work something out like this for fear of being wrong. She was much better than she used to be, but he just wanted to show her that she could do this. "What do you notice about them?"
They were walking down a side street, one that actually was quite busy. Danni's gaze kept shooting around, trying to pick out something that she recognised. The residents were all humanoid, but nothing particularly special so they didn't stand out to her.
Well, they didn't stand out to begin with. One by one, and incredibly quickly, the people around them began to stop and stare at the couple.
"Were- Were we expected?" Danni asked her husband lowly, feeling rather exposed at all the attention they were receiving.
"No, I don't think so," the Doctor replied, also feeling a little unnerved. He took her hand, giving it a squeeze. "I'm sure they're just amazed by newcomers," he offered. "We are pretty impressive, after all."
She nodded. "Alright," she said slowly and completely unconvinced.
"What did you notice, then?" he prompted to get them back into their conversation.
She looked back up again to take a look. "Nothing, really," she admitted. "I'm not very good at this whole guessing thing, Theta, you know that."
"Take a look at the engines," he instructed patiently. "There's only a specific period of time they're used. They're not particularly effective or fast. In fact, they were a massive step backwards. They were around for about 10 years during the 52nd century."
"So we're in the 52nd century?" she asked. He nodded in confirmation. "But where are we?"
"Well, that's the million-dollar question, isn't it?" he replied with that wolfish grin that meant he was intent on being rather cheeky and avoiding her questions. She sighed.
"Fine, don't tell me," she retorted. "You'll have to be my tour guide, then."
He held his arm out for her. "How about a chaperone?" he offered.
"Seems anarchic, but I'll allow it," she replied, taking the offered arm gratefully. She wasn't much for public displays of affection in this body, but they were growing on her the safer she felt. There was probably some sort of reason that she could very easily point out should she have taken a minute to think about it. Instead she listened as the Doctor pointed out random things and tried to ignore the feeling that she had been to the planet before.
"This is all well and good, Spaceman, but I thought we'd gone for random," she told him as they edged ever closer to the town centre. "Random normally means running for our lives and saving people despite not intending to get an adventure. What are we doing here?"
"Can't I take you on a nice date?" he countered. "I know Mr Floppy-Hair had an easier time impressing you, but I think I've gotten better."
She held her free hand up in surrender. "I was just pointing it out," she told him. "It's a nice spot. Well, apart from all the staring."
The staring hadn't died down as they'd walked through the town. People would even stop and just watch them walk past, but luckily there had been less people around the more they had walked around.
"Yeah, I'm not sure what that is about," he admitted. "Perhaps they don't approve of us." He pulled her a little closer. "Not that they get a say on that," he grumbled to himself.
She wrinkled her nose. She hoped that wasn't it. They had encountered a few people in their time that had thought the Doctor was her Grandfather because she always seemed to regenerate young. She didn't understand the big deal, though. They were married and had been for such a long time that it was obvious they loved each other.
"Of course they don't," she retorted, also snuggling up a little closer before she realised what she was doing. "You're my husband, not theirs."
The Doctor did appreciate the slight possessive tone that came out as she glared around, almost daring anyone to approach them. It did a lot for his ego, after all, to be wanted so aggressively.
"Alright, there was something I wanted to show you," he admitted. "It's just around this corner. You see, this particular planet is at the very end of a large growth in its economy. The biggest in its history, where the people and the government prospered greatly. Their crowning achievement is their town hall. A war is about to start and I thought we could drop in before it started."
Danni looked up at him, feeling distinctly underwhelmed and yet slightly unsettled. "You've brought me to see a government building?" she asked, unimpressed.
"No," he defended. "I've brought you to see an incredibly grand and stunning government…"
They turned the corner and immediately came to a halt. In front of them was a town hall, but instead of the beautiful architecture and art that the Doctor had been expecting, instead it was a disaster zone. The building was in ruins, with scaffolding holding up parts and builders clearing up with different machinery. "That's not right," he declared, quickly moving forward to get a better look, dragging Danni along with her. "That's not right! What's happened here?"
Danni, on the other hand, was feeling a lot of warning signs fall into place very quickly. All the staring. The fact that, as they moved further into the town centre, the people seemed to disappear. The feeling of familiarity and the deep feeling of dread that had been building up. She had been here before.
And she had to get out. Fast.
"Theta- Theta, we should go," she said, dragging her heels to pull him to a stop. "We should go before we get sucked into something."
He looked at her, confused. "Didn't you complain there was no adventure?" he asked.
"Didn't you complain that you just wanted to take me on a nice date?" she countered. "Look, we should go. You-You said you wanted to show me the building and it's gone. Let's go."
She was starting to panic and the Doctor quickly noticed. "Danni, what's—"
"Now!"
The Doctor could only stare as, from down side streets, a stream of armed officers appeared. They quickly formed a circle, cutting off the rest of the world from the two Time Lords. They held their guns at the ready and he really had no idea what they could have done.
"Hands up! Time Child, hands up!" one of them shouted loudly and angrily. Danni quickly looked over her shoulder as the Doctor turned around, baffled. She should have had him tell her exactly where they were. However, this was going to happen eventually. Her past was going to bite her in the arse.
So, she did what she did best. She smirked, waving her hands in front of her in an almost blasé fashion. "Hello boys," she greeted. "Long time no see. Did you miss me?"
"Hands up!" the officer repeated forcefully. "You are surrounded, Time Child!"
"I noticed that," she replied, slowly spinning around in a circle on the spot. The Doctor watched as the officers took aim, getting ready to fire as she slowly faced them all. "And what a fantastic little circle you've made as well. Honestly, this is top notch stuff. I'm very impressed." She finally faced the officer again. She shot him an overly exaggerated sheepish look. "Oh, I do mean it," she promised. "One of the best surroundings I've had in a long time. You've been practicing."
"We will shoot," the officer told her. "You are under arrest for the attempted assassination of Lord Mayor Steven Humple as well as attempting to incite mass panic—"
Danni held her finger up, giving it a little wiggle. "Ah, ah, ah, going to have to stop you right there," she interrupted. "'Attempting'? Really? Are we just going to pretend that all the running and screaming didn't happen? I was there. Don't try and hide it from me."
"-As well as several other attacks including the destruction of city hall," the officer finished. "You will come with us to the holding facility where you will be issued a lawyer to defend you. You cannot run, Time Child, you will not win this."
She sighed heavily. "Oh, you do have to use some very scary sounding words," she scolded lightly. "I was just trying to have a nice trip with my… Well, have you lot met, actually?" She clapped a hand on the Doctor's arm. "I'm sorry, how terribly rude of me."
"Danni, what are you doing?" the Doctor asked. "What's going on?"
"It's okay, sweetie, let me do the talking," she replied as if she was trying to calm a child down and not her husband. "Do you know who this is?" she asked the officers around her. "This is my hostage. He's been an absolute sport, you know?"
"Your hostage?" the Doctor exclaimed, slightly offended. "What is going on?"
"Fine, fine," Danni replied. "I might have lied. He's not my hostage, he's my husband. This is the Doctor."
The looks that appeared on all the officers' faces said, straight away, that this wasn't the answer they were expecting nor hoping for. He wasn't sure if he should continue feeling offended or stick with the outright confusion that had appeared the moment they had been surrounded.
The jovial, almost mocking, look disappeared from Danni's face almost instantly. "That's got your attention, hasn't it?" she snapped. "Are you going to let us go, now?"
The commanding officer hesitated and the Doctor really didn't know what to think. The people around them seemed absolutely terrified on Danni and he really couldn't correlate that with the woman he knew at all. The strangest thing seemed to be that she seemed to be expecting it.
"No," the officer replied. "You are under arrest. Step away from your husband and indicate if and where your weapons are."
Danni held her hands up in front of her. "I'm going to get something out now that won't hurt you or anyone else," she told them, reaching into her pocket. "It's not my gun, because you'd all know if it was that. We all know how good my shot is." She reached in and pulled out her sonic. The guns around them were readied to attack if needed, but she held up the device for them all to see.
"You see this?" she asked them. "This will convince you to let me go. This controls every single bomb I have placed around the city. If you do not let me go, I will set them off."
"The city was cleared off all your attempted explosives. There's nothing left for you to detonate."
She shot the man a look. "You really think you got them all?" she countered. "Do you really want to take that chance?"
She set it off once with a buzz and the officers reacted as expected. No explosion happened, but their guns all disengaged and their bullets all fell to the ground. "They're useless now," she told them. "Don't bother reloading. Do you believe me now, officer?" There was a pause and the man slowly nodded. "We're going to leave now. You're not going to follow, do you understand? You do not have the upper hand here. I do."
She turned to the Doctor. "Let's go," she said and he stared at her like he didn't recognise her at all. She expected that as well, but she didn't have time to explain herself. She set off with large strides that the Doctor easily kept up with. She walked them through the circle and out into the street, where she made a beeline to the TARDIS. "Keep moving," she muttered. "They're going to realise very shortly that I didn't actually do anything to the guns. We've got about thirty seconds, tops."
"What did you do?" he asked lowly in reply.
"Just keep moving." The sound of everything starting up again followed them into the alley and the TARDIS, where Danni rushed to the console and set them flying away from the scene.
They both stood in silence. The Doctor couldn't process what had just happened. Seeing people look at his wife like she was the bad guy had never made any sense to him, but seeing her act like she was one felt even more foreign. She seemed to have enjoyed taking on that role as well. Had she really regenerated into that person that the universe seemed to have been scared of all these years?
"What did you do?" he asked, this time firmer, feeling more than a little betrayed.
She turned to look at him and hated the look that he was sending her. The accusations in his eyes, the way he was stood straight, hands behind his back. He was waiting for an explanation. He was waiting for her to let him down.
"I didn't try and assassinate anyone," she replied. "I promise. That wasn't… I just blew up his office. I always made sure no one was inside. I didn't want to…" She sighed angrily. "You see this? This is why I wanted to know where we were! I'm a bloody outlaw, people want to kill me and I don't know what they will do to you to achieve it!"
"That woman was not my wife," he retorted. "My Danielle is good, so you have to explain to me what's happened. I don't understand!"
She shook her head. "You've-You've always held me up at this pillar of goodness. I'm not that, Theta, I never was! I learnt how to treat the universe from you, but that doesn't mean I learnt everything you had to teach me! I've made some god-awful mistakes over the last seven years. There are things I'm not proud of and this is one of them!"
She was becoming more and more upset. He could see it in her eyes. She was ashamed and frustrated and all he wanted to do was comfort her again. But all he could see was a woman taunting the police and threatening to blow everything up. She reminded him too much of her mother, who didn't seem to care about anyone or anything around her, and he knew that wasn't his Danielle. He knew that she was hiding behind a façade but he needed to know why.
"What did you do?" he asked her again.
She took a shaky breath, staring at him imploringly. She didn't want to explain what she'd done, she'd wanted to forget. Even thinking about the period of time when she had been on the run made her feel awful. But the cold look on his face and the way he was staring her down said there was no room for argument.
"Okay," she stated softly before swallowing heavily. "Okay. When- I decided to escape from Missy long before I actually did. I'd attempted a couple of times in the spur of the moment, but it never worked. I needed to plan. Once I figured out a way to get the vortex manipulator off her, I had to work out what to do next. I- I couldn't keep the manipulator long and I had one shot to get away. I knew that I had no way of finding you or anyone else and, with no real way to travel, I had to find out a way to contact you.
"So, I decided that the best way was to make some noise. Find some way of signalling that I was waiting. That I was there. I needed a way to scream loudly enough to someone, even if it wasn't you, would hear me. The way to do that is to create moments in time that didn't belong. I found wars, I found disorder, I found moments in time that created noise anyway across one time period and I aimed to get to the planets before it happened. A couple of months before anything kicked off and make enough noise that it would be noticed."
She looked up at him, realising that she'd been staring at her hands. She hated this. She felt like she was stood on trial. "On Requim I managed to get there about four months before the war started. I made some bombs and I planted them in the Lord Mayors office. I then called in, told them of the treat, and that they had twenty minutes to get everyone out. I-I needed enough time so they wouldn't get hurt but enough that they wouldn't find me."
Tears gathered in her eyes as she met his gaze. "I never meant to hurt anyone," she said in barely a whisper. "I thought everyone was out. I just wanted to make some noise, but I was getting desperate and I just wanted to be heard. It was only some stupid government building. It would cause an incident but no one would get hurt. I just- I just wanted you to hear me." Her breaths were coming short and painfully. "I never wanted anyone to get hurt," she repeated. "I never wanted to become the bad guy. I didn't mean it," she sobbed. "I was just- I was screaming for someone to find me. I just wanted to come home."
She fell back against the console, sobbing hard and he was quickly by her side. "You are not the bad guy in this," he promised her, pulling her in for a hug. "We're both quite old, you were bound to make mistakes. This is just a blip in your life, Danielle. You are not the bad guy."
"How can you say that?" she sobbed. "You heard what I did! There's so much more that you don't know, Theta. What do I do?"
She wouldn't look at him, and he knew exactly why. He knew that shame well, that hatred of your actions that made you feel disgusting to even look at. "You try and make amends," he explained kindly. "Do you think that stealing that infernal box was the only thing I ever did in the Time War?" Her brows furrowed slightly. "You've never asked what I did in the Time War…"
"Because it doesn't matter," she finished for him. He nodded.
"I did what I had to do at the time, even if now I would do things differently," he said, which was something she had always said to him. "You gave me forgiveness when I couldn't find it anywhere else, not even with myself. It will take time, but I will make this right for you too."
She shook her head softly. "I don't think you can," she admitted, almost apologetically.
He shot her his kindest smile and pulled her closer so she could get the comfort she wanted to reject. "Just watch me."
~0~0~0~
Hi everyone! I've got something important to share with you!
On the 3rd June 2013 I posted the first chapter of The Time Child. Since then there has been 6 main stories, 3 one-shots, an AU and a bunch of Outtakes. There have been fanart, and fanfics for the fanfictions and I never thought that I would have ever kept this up for so long, let alone had such wonderful people following Danni's story with me.
So, for her anniversary, I'm offering… well, I don't know if challenge is the right word. More of an event, I guess? I don't know. Whatever it is called I'm hoping that you all will participate in whatever way you can. And to help, I've got a prompt.
Give Danni a memorable day.
Yes, that's it. Give her a happy day, give her a sad day. Give her a smutty day. Was there an episode I never did you wanted to see? Is there a moment I've never done? Whatever it is, give it to her! It could be writing, it could be art, it could be anything creative! Danni Fielding has been in our life for almost five years now. Let's make it memorable!
This will mainly be on Tumblr, so you can find me on there with the username DanniFielding. You can submit stuff on there, or in PMs on here. You can also submit to the official OurDanniGirl email, which is ourdannigirl . There will be more details and a little celebration on the day on Tumblr, and you can find more information on there as the day approaches. I'd love to see you there :D
And thank you. Just thank you. I love you all.