Hello everyone!
I hope everything has been going well for all since the last time. And man has it been a long while since last time. Sorry about that. :( I feel bad in not getting back to you guys sooner. It was just my family and friends sort of convinced me to take time off from everything to get healed up. And I do mean everything. Sort of went off the grid and just stayed in a special facility to get treated. And it worked! I feel a lot better now. I'm not entirely through all my treatments, but the doctors say I'm making good progress. :) So, to make up for such the long break, I'm going to upload something extra. ;) It' going to be a super update day, for I'm not putting up just one, nor two, nor three chapters. I'm going to give you guys four chapters today! That's right! Four chapters! :D It's a way to say thank you all for such lovely and caring words and support that you all have given me since being sick. Thank you, thank you all so much for that! It truly means the world to me. :)
I hope everyone enjoys them! Have a good read! :D
XxXxXxXx
Chapter 8: Missing Bride
The white light flashed briefly within the TARDIS control room right next to the console. Wanda stumbled somewhat as she bumped into the console itself. Gazing around, she saw the Doctor standing with his back facing her and Donna in her wedding gown, glaring with rage at the Time Lord.
"I demand you tell me right now—where am I?!" Donna shouted at the Doctor.
Wanda snickered behind the Doctor's back, loving the ginger woman's spunk. Oh, she missed Donna so much. It had been quite a while since Wanda had last seen her. She would give the woman a big hug, but at the current moment that would be a bad thing. Donna was currently not a happy camper. Especially, in being dragged away from her wedding. Wanda knew she would be just as upset if she were pulled away from her own wedding. Which she almost had been, but luckily the vows had been rather quick. It turned out Eleven and her were both rather impatient people.
Wanda smiled warmly at this thought, feeling content with the warmth of love spread through her as she absently felt the hidden ring on her TARDIS key necklace under her green tunic. The best place for her ring, really. She would most likely lose it if she wore it on her ring finger. As well as it would draw too much attention from both past Doctors and companions if she did, in fact, wear it outwardly. Besides, it made her happy in knowing the symbol of the bond between her and the Doctor were close to her hearts.
The Doctor and Donna heard this snicker, drawing their attention to the Time Lady. The Doctor turned around, blinking in surprise to see Wanda standing right there. She smiled at them both, waving brightly.
"Hello. Don't mind me," Wanda said. "Please, continue on."
"Wanda?" the Doctor breathed, looking at the Time Lady as if he could not believe her presence there. Or, perhaps, rather not believe how cheerful her demeanour was.
"Yes?" Wanda responded curiously, wondering why he kept staring at her as if anticipating something to happen to her, or even waiting for her to suddenly breakdown.
"Are you—," he began to ask.
"Oi, don't just pretend I'm not here! I want answers, now!" Donna shouted angrily. "Where am I?!" The Doctor turned his attention back on the bride.
"Inside the TARDIS," he said in an unsure tone. Donna blinked, raising a brow as if wondering if she had heard the man correctly.
"The what?" she questioned.
"The TARDIS," the Doctor repeated.
"The what?" Donna asked again, trying to make certain what she was indeed hearing him correctly. But every time he said this certain word, it seemed unbelievable to her. So foreign to her ears.
"The TARDIS," Wanda told the woman. "T-A-R-D-I-S, TARDIS. She's called the TARDIS, though she does like another name. However, I can't actually tell you that at the moment because I know that you don't know until later. So, really, that other name is spoilers for now." Wanda rocked on her feet, smiling away at the extremely confused look on Donna. The woman might have been baffled from all that Wanda had said, or most likely from how speedily it was spoken.
"The what?" Donna asked again, this time mostly because she felt the situation to be so bizarre.
"TARDIS," Wanda and the Doctor spoke together. The Doctor walked over to the console, beginning to mess with some controls, starting a scan on the newly arrived woman in the ship.
"That's not even a proper word!" Donna yelled, growing angry with the two seeming to be making up words and messing with her.
"Actually, TARDIS is a proper word. What's not a proper word is Erleefreta, which means in the language of the—," Wanda began to ramble.
"I don't care!" Donna shouted. Wanda rolled her eyes, leaning against the console to watch the Doctor work on scanning the angry bride.
"How did you get in here?" the Doctor asked the woman, sending her a sharp glower. The woman was being completely unreasonable in yelling at both Time Lords.
"Well, obviously, when you two kidnapped me," Donna retorted. "Who was it? Who's paying you? Is it Nerys? Oh, my god. She's finally got me back. This has Nerys written all over it." The Doctor could only rub a hand through his hair, staring the woman with a dumbfounded expression. Next to him, the Time Lady kept snickering.
"God, no, we are not working for Nerys. She's a right . . . well, I would say that word, but that would be impolite of me. So, you can just use your imagination of what I was going to say," Wanda said lightly. "But, in all seriousness, Donna, we did not kidnap you. Seriously. Cross my hearts." She made the gesture over both her hearts. The ginger woman scoffed and rolled her eyes. Not only had she been kidnapped, but her kidnappers were a bunch of lunatics.
"Hold on, wait a minute," spoke up the Doctor, just now noticing the wedding gown on Donna. "What are you dressed like that for?"
"I'm going ten-pin bowling," Donna said sarcastically. "What do you think, dumbo? I was halfway up the aisle!" The Doctor backed up some as the woman continued on yelling. He hurriedly moved around the console, working on figuring all of this out. He did not necessarily need a raging bride screaming at him at the moment. Neither did Wanda. Or . . . hold on.
"Wanda, are you okay?" he muttered over to the Time Lady, staring her up and down. She was wearing the same outfit. Maroon overcoat and everything. But she seemed to be acting strangely. Or, at least, odd from what she had been moments ago. He had only just turned around when the bride appeared. Had she jumped away in that brief moment?
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Wanda asked curiously, wondering why the Doctor seemed so . . . edgy around her.
"Did you just come from somewhere?" he questioned quietly.
"Yeah. Why?" Wanda glanced over, seeing Donna hurriedly rush over to the TARDIS doors. "Donna, wait!" She hurriedly rushed over to the woman.
"No, wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don't!" the Doctor shouted, running over with the Time Lady. The doors opened and Donna stood frozen to the spot by the doorway. A brilliant, bright, and colorful supernova could be seen lazily spinning around in space. Distant stars twinkling around here and there. Donna could only stare at the sight in awe, her mouth slightly hanging open.
"You're in space . . . Outer space," the Doctor told the stunned woman as he and Wanda stood just beside her. "This is our . . . spaceship. It's called the TARDIS." He hoped to ease the woman into the sudden revelation of there actually being such things as spaceships in outer space. Wanda stood close on the other side of the woman, gently patting her shoulder.
"It's a lot to take in, I know," the Time Lady said softly. Donna could only blink, completely flabbergasted.
"How am I breathing?" she finally asked them.
"The TARDIS is protecting us," the Doctor explained.
"She's always protecting us," Wanda added. "She's like a lovely and caring mother. Though, with a stubborn streak to her." She glanced over at the console, giving the old girl a grin when hearing a delightful hum and beeping from the TARDIS. Sucking in a shaky breath, Donna looked at the Time Lords.
"Who are you?" she asked them.
"I'm the Doctor. She's . . .," the Doctor paused when nodding his head at Wanda. He glanced at the Time Lady, staring carefully at her. Wanda raised a brow at him, noticing that he stared at her as if wondering who exactly she was. Almost as if she were someone he barely knew. Or someone who had been lying to him for years now of their true identity.
"I'm the Wanderer," Wanda introduced herself to Donna, giving the woman a bright smile. "But you can just call me Wanda for short. Wanderer tends to be a mouth full when you're running around in a rush. Plus, Wanda just has a nice, quick ring to it. Kind of like Donna, if you think about it. Oh, sort of like a fairy tale or valiant hero. Donna Noble, savior of the universe. Has a catchy tone to it. And—I'm rambling too fast again, aren't I?" She looked to the Doctor when seeing his wincing expression.
"Yeah, just little," he mumbled quietly. Wanda blushed, feeling embarrassed by her constant need to excitedly talk. She almost wished to be more like her First self who hardly ever spoke.
"How do you know my name?" Donna asked the Time Lady, staring at her with suspicion.
"Well . . . let's just say I know things," Wanda replied, giving the woman a wink.
"What kind of . . . things?" Donna asked slowly, staring at the Time Lady as if in complete and utter disbelief to the situation at hand.
"Um, well, I know that you're Donna Noble, human, and very late for her own wedding," Wanda said, somewhat tugging on the back of her hair. Oh, she missed being able to do that habit! Having short hair as her Second self had been a drag with that. Now that she had such long hair, she could tug on and twirl it as much as she wanted. Maybe even try some new styles and—crap, Donna was talking.
"How do you know that? What are you? Psychic or something?"
Wanda shrugged slightly. "Or something." She clapped her hands together, smiling cheerfully at the woman. "So, about that wedding. Let's get you to it, shall we?" She bounded off to the console while the other two by the door stood watching her. One in a daze, and the other quite distantly with an unreadable expression.
"You're both aliens," Donna stated, keeping her dazed and dumbfounded expression.
"Yeah," the Doctor mumbled quietly. He continued to watch Wanda with his distant gaze before shutting the TARDIS doors and bouncing up to the console as well. Pushing way his wandering thoughts, he decided to remain focused on the sudden appearance of the bride. "But I don't understand it, and I understand everything. Well . . .," a brief glance was given at Wanda, who was busy setting coordinates for them, "almost everything. This—this can't happen. There is no way a human being can lock itself on to the TARDIS and transport itself inside. It must be—impossible."
"Nothing is impossible, sweetie," Wanda piped up, stopping her fiddling with the TARDIS controls. "I do it all the time myself. Why couldn't someone else do it as well?"
"Yeah, well, you're not . . . normal. That's different," the Doctor said, waving his hand to dismiss Wanda's comment as he pulled out an ophthalmoscope from one of his many tools of the console and began to examine Donna. Wanda rolled her eyes as the Time Lord began to rapidly ramble on. "Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chronon shell? Maybe something macromining your DNA with the interior matrix? Maybe a genetic—."
SLAP!
The Doctor stepped back in shock after Donna slapped him across the face. He blinked at the woman, seeing the rage had built up once again within the bride. Clearly, she had quite enough of his speeding, inconsiderate, ramblings. He seemed almost worse than the blonde to Donna.
"What was that for?!" the Doctor yelled at Donna, very much insulted to have some stranger slapping him out of nowhere and for no reason.
"Get me to the church!" Donna shouted angrily, fed up with being around the aliens. Especially the Doctor. Said Doctor shot the woman an extreme and sharp gaze of annoyance.
"Right. Fine. I don't want you here anyway," he retorted bitterly. He stormed over to the console beside Wanda, flipping around some switches and turning a few knobs. "Where is this wedding?"
"Already got you covered," Wanda told him, pointing to the coordinates on the screen for their destination.
"Right. Good. The sooner we get her out of our TARDIS, the better. Good riddance to bridezilla," the Doctor muttered. Wanda gave him a quick punch on the arm.
"Oi! Quit being rude," she scolded him.
"I knew it!" Donna yelled. Both Time Lords looked up in surprise to the woman's outburst. She stood by the TARDIS railings, holding up a woman's purple blouse. Both aliens tensed as they stared at the blouse. The Doctor, staring sadly and with guilt in his eyes. Wanda, her eyes wavering with utter sadness washing over her. It suddenly dawned on her when exactly this particular adventure took place. Donna's first appearance . . . right after the Battle of Canary Wharf. This meant . . . Rose . . . . Wanda sucked in a quick breath, feeling as though someone doused her with a freezing bucket of water. The Doctor gave a concern glance to the Time Lady, seeing the welling in her eyes.
"Acting all innocent," Donna continued on waving the blouse at the two, unnoticing to their reactions to the clothing item. "I'm not the first, am I? How many other women have the two of you abducted?"
"That's our friends," the Doctor said evenly as he held a steady, deadpan gaze with the red head.
"Where is she, then, popped out for a space walk?" Donna retorted sarcastically.
"She's gone," the Doctor replied dully. He glanced at Wanda again, seeing how the Time Lady stared at the blouse distantly. A swirling of regret and sadness mixed within her emerald eyes. Another wave of guilt went through him upon the sight. Donna noticed how the Doctor stared at the blonde girl next to him. Seeing how both seemed rather solemn about the blouse, Donna dropped her anger and stared at them both curiously.
"C-can—can I have that blouse, please," Wanda whispered. Donna nodded, handing the item over. Wanda absently thumbed the material. "Sorry, Doctor. I'd . . . I'd forgotten what today was."
"Are you okay?" the Doctor asked quietly. Glancing at him, Wanda noticed the look of pity he was sending her. He did seem upset about the absence of the companion that had just been lost, but . . . not in the way what she remembered from the show. More . . . regretful than heartbroken.
"Y-yeah," Wanda mumbled as she felt her eyes tearing up even more. "I just . . . I just thought I would be okay with it." The Doctor nodded sadly.
"I know," he whispered.
"What happened to your friend?" Donna asked them, staring at the Time Lady with concern to the sorrowful expression upon the girl's face.
"She's lost," the Doctor answered. "We lost her." Wanda cleared her throat, trying to get the lump to go down. It was silly for her to be acting so . . . forlorn when the event had not even happened to her yet. She was not meant to be sad now. It was the Doctor who she should be asking if he was okay. Not the other way around.
"Are—are you all right, Doctor?" Wanda asked him, staring at him with concern.
"Yeah. I'm fine," he answered softly. Gently, he placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it in a soothing manner. Wanda patted the hand, giving it a small, tender squeeze.
"I'll just, um . . .," Wanda cleared her throat once more. "I'll just go put this away. The coordinates are already set. Just—just send us off." She turned and walked swiftly down the corridor. Halfway down from the control room, she felt the ship begin to rock as the TARDIS flew through the Vortex. The Doctor had sent them off.
Steadily, she walked into Rose's room. The room that would never be used ever again. Just like any other room of a gone companion. Always an empty room left as a memory. Inside the lost companion's room, Wanda saw how much of it was the same as the Tyler's flat. As well as very pink. She chuckled; finding it funny how much Rose did love that particular color. Though, Wanda herself did still love her purple. Slowly and gently, she laid the blouse on the bed. She kept her hand on it for a moment, staring with an absent gaze at the item. Sucking in a breath, the reminder kept buzzing through her head, keeping her thoughts on remembering that this was not the end for Rose Tyler. It was only the beginning towards the lost girl's happy ending with a wonderful Meta Doctor. Smiling at this thought, Wanda nodded at the blouse, sending a silent, friendly, and fond farewell as she turned and walked back out into the corridor.
She reached the control room just as they landed. Donna stormed out, ready to be back at her wedding and marry the man of her dreams. They stepped outside with her, gazing around in confusion to where they had landed. They seemed to have arrived in a courtyard surrounded by building complexes. Nowhere near the church Donna wished to be.
"I said, 'Saint Mary's.' What sort of Martians are you?" Donna barked at them angrily, very aggravated with the situation at hand. "Where's this?"
"No idea," Wanda told her. "I swear that I—ooohhh, right. I forgot. The TARDIS is recalibrating." Both she and the Doctor patted the ship with concern. The Doctor bounded back inside to check the scanner of what might be wrong.
"She's digesting," the Doctor mumbled to the ship as Wanda walked inside. "What is it? What have you eaten? What's wrong?"
"Upset stomach I'd say," Wanda noted as the Doctor pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the groaning time rotor. "Oh, sorry, Sexy. I know how you feel. I bet it was like eating a bowel of glouten."
"Or one of your soufflés," the Doctor muttered. Wanda smacked him lightly in response to this. He snickered, but continued on checking on the TARDIS and calling out questions to Donna, who still remained outside. Currently, the bride was checking over the exterior of the TARDIS, trying to get her reeling mind over the 'bigger on the inside' concept. Eventually, the ginger woman had enough and ran off. Both Time Lords quickly gave chase.
"Leave me alone. I just want to get married," Donna told them both curtly as she walked briskly away from the ship and down the alleyway.
"Come back to the TARDIS," the Doctor insisted.
"No way," Donna said, looking very alarmed of them and what has been happening to her. "That box is too . . . weird."
"She's not that bad. You just have to get used to the size ratio. That's all," Wanda responded.
"Oh! That's all?" Donna replied smartly. She gave a quick check to her watch. "Ten past three. I'm gonna miss it."
"Why don't you phone them, tell them where you are?" suggested the Doctor.
"How do I do that?" asked Donna.
"Haven't you got a mobile?" the Doctor questioned.
Donna shot the Time Lord a look of great annoyance and irritation as she stopped abruptly on the spot, staring at him in disbelief that he would even say that. "I'm in my wedding dress. It doesn't have pockets. Who has pockets? Have you ever seen a bride with pockets? When I went to my fitting at Chez Alison, the one thing I forgot to say was, 'give me pockets'!"
Wanda glanced between the very edgy and irritated Donna to the frowning and flinching Doctor. She looked at the bride and stated, "Now, actually, I had pockets in my wedding dress. I don't ever wear something without pockets. You never know when you need pockets. Especially pockets that are bigger on the inside." She beamed at them both, then blinked when she realized the odd look the Doctor was giving her.
"Wedding dress?" he asked curiously.
"I-I mean, uh, if I had a wedding dress. You know, if I plan on getting married someday . . . or something," Wanda said hastily. Mentally slapping herself for the slip she had made. "Because, you know, might be getting married someday or something. So you never know when—oh, look! A Christmas tree! I haven't seen one of those in ages! I miss Christmas! Love Christmas! Oh! We should buy some Christmas decorations and such. They'd be lovely on the TARDIS." She pointed hastily to a distant shop with a large Christmas tree within, trying to bypass what she had let slip. With a blush of embarrassment growing on her face, she cleared her throat and linked her arms with the Doctor and Donna. Beaming at them both, she walked them along. "Right, so, let's get you a taxi, Donna. And for future reference, pockets for your wedding dress."
Coming out of the alleyway, they walked into a busy and bustle main road of Oxford Street. People briskly walked about on the sidewalks, most carrying large shopping bags. All getting in their last time Christmas shopping. Many cars and taxis whizzed by on the road. For a few minutes, all three of them struggled to get a taxi to pull over for Donna. Apparently, most of the drivers believed the ginger to either be drunk or in drag. Eventually, they finally managed to get a taxi to pull over for them. But when they all realized they had no money for the fare, the driver dropped them right back off. This only made everyone frustrated with their situation. Donna even more so.
While Donna used a telephone box to call someone from the wedding, the two Time Lords jogged over to a busy ATM for some money. The Doctor bounced impatiently in the line while Wanda simply shifted around on her feet as she normally did, unable to ever stop moving in the new hyperactive body of hers. After a moment longer of waiting, the person at the machine left, allowing the Doctor to discreetly sonic it and receive an enough pounds for a fare. Wanda watched him do this for a second before realizing she was hearing some Christmas trumpets playing over around the street corner. Glancing over, she saw three masked Santas slowly making their way towards them.
"Damn it. I forgot about them, too," Wanda muttered.
"What?" the Doctor asked absently, not paying much attention to their surroundings as he was busy grabbing money from the machine. Over by the street, Wanda saw Donna get inside a taxi. Another masked Santa at the wheel as the vehicle drove away.
"Doctor, we better hurry. Donna's in trouble," Wanda said quickly as she pulled out her sonic. The Doctor looked up, seeing Donna being driven away and the three Santas lowering their brass instruments at them. Wanda moved around him and sonicked the ATM to spew out waves of money onto the street. The notes fluttered in the air as people around the sidewalks rushed around to collect the free money. Wanda grabbed the Doctor's hand and both of them ran off back towards the TARDIS.
"They took Donna?" the Doctor asked as they ran.
"They're after her. One of the reasons why she had been transported to the TARDIS," Wanda explained quickly.
"Care to explain how and why?" the Doctor questioned her.
"Sorry, spoilers. But sneak peek: it was in the coffee," Wanda told him as they came up to the TARDIS.
Together, they sent the TARDIS off, piloting the old girl into an unusual flight. Something to which she greatly disliked, but flew the path they had set all the same. Though, not without sparking and shaking harshly. Wanda concentrated on keeping them set on Donna while the Doctor himself worked on maneuvering to the bride's moving location. It was a difficult task, but they managed in the end. The ship bounced and buckled severely as they hit the tarmac of the highway a few times.
"Hold onto this lever," the Doctor instructed Wanda as he rushed over to the TARDIS doors. Wanda held on tightly, anxiously watching as the Doctor opened the doors. Just outside the shaking ship, she could see a very fast moving taxi with a scared Donna within. The robotic Santa continued on driving at a steady pace, too focused in its task to notice the rescue attempt just yet.
"Open the door!" the Doctor shouted to Donna.
"Do what?" Wanda heard Donna shout from within the taxi. It was hard hearing the woman, however, with the loud noises of other vehicles on the highway and the TARDIS engine gutturally sound.
"Open the door!" the Doctor repeated even louder for the woman.
"I can't! It's locked!" Donna screamed at him.
Swiftly, the Doctor pulled out his sonic and unlocked the door. He tried to get Donna to jump, but the robot driver finally noticed the Time Lord's presence there. So the taxi sped up and Wanda pulled the lever, making the TARDIS race after the taxi. The console sparked violently and the old girl gave a few moaning beeps and hums of pain. Wanda patted the console apologetically as they bounced harshly on the tarmac once again. She managed to steer them right back next to the speeding taxi. She watched as the Doctor used his screwdriver to keep the robot from driving off again.
"Listen to me. You've got to jump!" he yelled at Donna.
"I'm not jumping on a motorway!" Donna shouted back through the open window. Wanda hurriedly tied a long piece of string around the lever for guiding the TARDIS. She rushed over to the door with string in hand.
"Donna, if you don't jump they're going to kill you!" she shouted to the woman. "Just trust us! We're not going to let you fall! I promise!"
"Trust us!" the Doctor agreed as he held out his arms for the woman.
"Is that what you said to her, your friend, the one you lost?" Donna asked in response as she stared at them with very frightened eyes. "Did she trust you both?" Wanda winced, looking torn by this statement. The Doctor gazed on steadily at Donna, unflinching nor at a loss to these words.
"Yes, she did," he said. "And she is not dead. She is so alive. Now jump!" Donna hesitated for a second longer before finally opening her door and jumping across the zooming gap between the taxi and the TARDIS. She fell right into both Time Lords' arms as they held her in a close embrace. Pulling on the string, Wanda sent them far away from the highway to someplace safe.
"See? Kept our promise, didn't we?" Wanda said, beaming away to the bride. "You're always safe on the TARDIS express." Donna stared back at the Time Lady for a moment before snorting and shaking her head.
XxXxXxXx
Wanda stood beside Donna on a rooftop. The Doctor currently struggled with dosing the fires of the console with a fire extinguisher behind them. Donna gazed at her watch sadly, seeing how they had missed the window of opportunity for her chance to be married. Wanda patted her arm, giving the woman some comfort on the disappointing day. Seeing the ginger woman shivering from the cold, winter air, Wanda quickly shrugged off her maroon overcoat and placed it around Donna's shoulders.
"Thanks," Donna mumbled quietly. She sighed heavily, feeling greatly let down. Walking over, both of them sat down on the edge of the roof with their feet dangling over the side. Donna glanced down at the coat on her, giving a small snicker. "God, you're so tiny. This wouldn't fit a child."
"Oi," Wanda retorted lightly. Both of them chuckled. Wanda was startled when she felt something warm wrap around her. It was the Doctor's own brown, pinstriped suit jacket. She smiled gratefully to him as he sat down next to her. Grabbing onto his hand, she leaned against him affectionately, making him smile softly. The trio gazed off to the distant buildings, letting the city noises echo around them as the Christmas winds whipped by.
"Did we miss it?" the Doctor asked Donna.
"Yeah," Donna replied quietly, staring down sadly. The Doctor gave the woman a sympathetic look.
"Well, you can . . . book another date," he suggested, hoping to lift the woman's spirits.
"'Course we can," Donna agreed.
"Still got the honeymoon."
Donna sighed heavily in disappointment. "It's just a holiday now."
The Doctor nodded, feeling bad for the bride. "Yeah. Yeah. Sorry."
Donna shrugged slightly. "It's not your fault."
The Doctor gave her a cheeky smile. "Oh. That's a change." Wanda poked him in the side as they all chuckled lightly.
"Wish you had a time machine. Then we could go back and get it right," Donna remarked.
"Yeah. Yeah," the Doctor replied, lightly, knowing he had yet explained to Donna about the whole time and space thing. Probably best not, now that he thought about it. "But . . . even if I did, I couldn't go back on someone's personal timeline. Apparently." Wanda gave the Doctor a slight disproving look for lying, but she let it slide this time. The Doctor smiled and shrugged to the Time Lady, then quickly remembered something else for Donna. "Oh, and you'd better put this on." He pulled out a small ring from his pocket.
"Oh, do you have to rub it in?" Donna responded dejectedly in feeling a stab of being reminded of her lost chance of marriage.
"Those creatures can trace you. This is a bio-damper. Should keep you hidden," the Doctor explained to her. Reaching around Wanda, he grabbed Donna's hand and placed it on her ring finger. "With this ring, I thee bio-damp." He made a pop with the 'p' and smiled at his own joke.
"For better or for worse," Donna joked back, giving a quick glance Wanda in between them. "Though, are you two already—?"
"No. No," the Doctor said hastily. He glanced at Wanda in embarrassment by that suggestion from Donna as he noticed the Time Lady holding a coy smirk. "We're not—we're not married."
"But are you both . . . together?" Donna asked curiously.
"Ah . . .," the Doctor trailed off as he did not know how to answer that. Wanda looked over at him, raising a brow. She herself was not about this particular point in time if the Doctor considered her as more than a simple friend. She knew how he struggled in coming to terms with his feelings just as much as she had in the past. Perhaps he still was unsure if his true hearts' desires.
"Well . . . I guess you could say that," the Doctor mumbled. He cleared his throat, looking embarrassed to discuss the topic. Donna raised a brow at the Time Lord's response. Wanda giggled, knowing the Doctor was simply uncomfortable with chatting about such topics.
"So, anyway," Donna spoke up, deciding on moving onto a new topic. "Come on, then, robot Santas—what are they for?"
"Ah, your basic roboscavenger," the Doctor explained, glad for the change of discussion. "The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. They're trying to blend in. We met them last Christmas."
"Why? What happened then?" Donna asked. The Doctor sort of gave Donna a skeptical look.
"Great big spaceship? Hovering over London?" he responded, trying to remind the woman of last Christmas's events. He only received a blank look from the ginger woman. "You didn't notice?"
"I had a bit of a hangover," Donna told him. The Doctor nodded, finding it odd someone could have missed such an extraordinary event. Looking off to the city around them, he spotted a certain area not too far away from them.
"I spent Christmas day just over there, the Powell Estate, with this . . . family," the Doctor spoke up, nodding to the direction of the particular complexes of which the lost companion used to live. "Our friend, she had this family. Well, they were . . . Still . . . gone now." He stopped, trailing off, letting his thoughts drift in remembrance to the lost companion and her family.
"I never did get a chance to spend Christmas with them," Wanda whispered sadly, gazing off distantly to the Estate. She sighed, pulling the Doctor's jacket around her tighter. She could not stop the welling sadness from passing over her.
Strange . . . even though she had not experienced Rose's loss yet, she still felt as though she had already been through the event. As if . . . sometime, long ago, she had dealt this tremendous loss such as that. Perhaps . . . even worse so. Still, she knew the Doctor was most likely feeling more of a loss than her, since he had recently just lived through the experience only a short while ago. She should be more concerned about him than her own toiling emotions.
"Your friend . . . who was she?" Donna asked them. The Doctor glanced at Wanda, worried that this certain topic might upset her. So, he quickly decided to move onto another subject. But before he could speak, Wanda answered Donna's question.
"Rose Tyler," Wanda answered, smiling sadly. "She was . . . our best mate. And then Jackie Tyler, her amazing mum. Mickey Smith, sort of . . . boyfriend/friend of the mix. They were all so wonderful." She stopped short, realizing her mistake of continuing on the subject. She knew how much it pained the Doctor to talk of past companions. She hoped she did not upset him by speaking out of terms. But from the soft smile he was giving her, she knew this was not the case.
"Yeah. They really were," he agreed fondly. He looped an arm around her, pulling her close to him. They all sat in silence for a moment, gazing on to the city around them. Allowing the sounds of the busy holiday to settle upon them.
Leaning her head gently against the Doctor's shoulder, Wanda gave a small smile of content as she felt him slowly rub her shoulder gently and lovingly. Her eyes travelled over to him, gazing warmly as he continued to stare off at the distance in tranquil silence. It caught her sudden attention when she noticed something missing. The Doctor's usual tie was gone, with a burn hole of some kind in his dress shirt. Frowning slightly, Wanda lifted her hand up to finger at the hole in his shirt.
"Doctor, what happened here?" she asked out of curiosity. Her brows furrowed, not remembering him receiving any burn marks on his clothes within her show. Had something changed again?
"N-nothing," the Doctor answered, shifting uncomfortably on the spot suddenly. He cleared his throat, seeming to try and ignore Wanda's curious gaze.
"Weren't you wearing a tie as well? What happened to it?" she continued to question, finding his behavior perplexing. He had been acting strangely since she arrived. Something else must have happened to him.
"I lost it," he answered stiffly. Wanda looked at him, raising a brow in confusion.
"You lost your tie? How'd you go and do something like that?" Donna spoke up, joining in Wanda's curiosity.
"I just did," the Doctor replied, frowning at the ginger. Seeing the two women's perplexed stares, the Doctor shook his head slightly. "Look, just forget about the tie, all right?" He sighed, rubbing at hand through his hair. He stiffened as he heard Wanda gasp next to him and felt her hand suddenly at his wrist.
Wanda pulled back his hand from his hair and stared at it in alarm. She could not believe she did not notice until now. His hand was bandaged up, wrapped in medical gauze. An angry and severe red mark could be seen on his upper palm, showing that it must be some kind of burn mark.
"Your hand. It's hurt," Wanda whispered in worried tone. Her hearts clenched as she began to worry greatly over him and his wound. Was it infected? Did it get cleaned properly? Was he in pain? Should she go into the TARDIS medical bay and get him some better medicine to heal it? Was he hurt anywhere else? She tried keeping herself calm as she felt panic building up within her over his wellbeing. She stared up at him in unease by his wound, seeing the way he stared at her with soft eyes.
"It's fine," he said softly. Eyes shifting back down to his wound, Wanda gently brought up his hand and kissed it. She then stared back at him once more, noticing how he seemed touched by this gesture.
"What happened, Doctor?" Wanda questioned him quietly. He stiffened, whipping his eyes sharply to hers anxiously. Wanda's eyes shifted in apprehension. "Your wound should have been healed by now. So what caused it? It must have not been a normal wound, so something powerful must have caused it. What hurt you, Doctor? Was it—."
"Question is, what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you?" the Doctor said hurriedly, seeming to want to bypass the subject of his wounded hand, and move onto the mystery behind Donna. He moved his hand swiftly away from Wanda's, making her look at him in uncertainty as he cleared his throat again. "And how did you get inside the TARDIS? I don't know. What's your job?"
Donna and Wanda both glanced at each other. The red head raised a brow as if asking Wanda what was up with the Doctor's sudden change of subject and his odd behavior. The woman also seemed uncertain as if she should really answer that question, and perhaps simply make the Doctor answer Wanda's questioning about his wounded hand first. Donna was actually wondering the same thing and would like to know how exactly the man had been hurt. But Wanda sighed, shaking her head slightly as if knowing it was no good trying to pry any further into the origin of the Doctor's wound. Once the Doctor changed the subject, that was the end of it.
"I'm a secretary," Donna answered, staring at him curiously as he dug out his sonic from the jacket around Wanda. He began to scan the ginger woman, which made her frown in disproval.
"It's weird. I mean, you're not special," the Doctor noted as he continued to scan her. "You're not powerful. You're not connected. You're not clever. You're not important. You're not—ow!" Wanda punched the Doctor sharply in the arm, making him wince and rub at his arm with a pout. He forgot how much more rough Third Wanda was in her smackings. Though, really, her punches in his arm were really light and almost friendly in way. He knew she was holding back in actually hurting him since if he had truly angered her then . . . well, it would be Christmas of 1869 all over again. That, and she truly did not realize her own strength in many ways.
"Oi, rude!" Wanda scolded him. "Donna Noble is the most important woman in the universe. And don't you forget it." She waved her finger at him like a scolding mother. She linked her arm with Donna's, beaming away at the woman. "Don't mind him. He's an idiot that doesn't know how to be polite." Donna laughed loudly when seeing the pout the Doctor sent the Time Lady.
"Oh, I like you," Donna said. "We're going to be best mates you and me. You kind of remind of a friend of mine from work. Real young and short, too."
"H.C. Clements, right?" Wanda asked, wanting to get this particular information for the Doctor. "Where you met your fiancé Lance Bennett?"
"Yeah," Donna nodded her head. She then frowned when realizing how accurate of her life the Time Lady seemed to know. "But how did you know that? Is this part of you just 'know things' ability?"
"Well, I would explain why I know, but you wouldn't believe me," Wanda replied.
Donna raised a brow. "Try me."
"I come from universe where the Doctor's life, and the other people involved within his life, is broadcasted as a television show. Which I watched daily. So, technically, this world around us now is nothing but fiction back in my old world. And, on top of that, I jump around time at random through the Doctor's timeline. So I never really meet people in the right order. And even though this is our first time meeting for you, I've already known you for years now." Wanda ended her quick explanation with a beaming smile.
Donna simply stared at her for a moment before shaking her head and staring off to the city. "You were right. I don't believe you."
Wanda chuckled lightly before bumping her hip slightly against Donna's "So, tell us about how you met Lance."
Donna smiled fondly in remembering her future husband to be. "I was temping. I mean, it was all a bit posh, really. I'd spent the last two years at a double glazing firm. 'Well,' I thought, 'I'm never gonna fit in here.' And then he made me a cup of coffee. 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 paused for a second, smiling over the fond memory. "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 this?" the Doctor questioned, his interest gained greatly upon the mentioning of coffee.
"Six months ago," explained Donna.
"Bit quick to get married," the Doctor commented, slightly stunned that two people would suddenly rush into a long term relationship that fast. He would much rather have a long wait until exchanging vows and sharing such an eternal bond with another.
Donna thought that for a second, thinking how to explain the sudden marriage of them. But . . . with some of the truth stretched. Just a little. "Well . . . he insisted. And he nagged, and he nagged me. And he just wore me down, and then, finally, I just gave in." She smiled, satisfied with her version of the story. Next to her, Wanda was laughing quietly.
"What does H.C. Clements do?" asked the Doctor.
"Oh, security systems, you know, entry codes, I.D. cards, that sort of thing," Donna explained. "If you ask me, it's a posh name for locksmith's."
The Doctor pondered on this answer, humming in the back of his throat. "Keys."
Wanda glanced down to Donna's watch, seeing how they only had about forty minutes left until the Racnoss ship arrived. They better get a move on.
"Well, we better get going," Wanda spoke up, gaining the other two's attention. "Got to get you back to your family, Donna. I'm sure they're very worried about you."
"Yeah," Donna sighed, not looking forward to what was to come. She just knew she was going to receive an ear full from her mother. "Time to face the consequences. Oh, this is gonna be so shaming. You can do the explaining, Martian boy."
"Yeah . . . I'm not from Mars," the Doctor countered. He suddenly frowned at the woman. "And how come it's just me that has to do the explaining?"
"Because I'm the innocent victim here, and I like Wanda," Donna replied, smirking at the Doctor. Wanda snorted and laughed next to her while the Doctor gave a small pout. Donna glanced at the laughing Time Lady. "Plus, Wanda's so tiny I doubt anyone would take her seriously."
"Oi!" Wanda exclaimed in mock anger. Both Donna and the Doctor laughed while Wanda stuck her tongue out at them.
XxXxXxXx
That's it for the first chapter today. And still more to come. ;) I hope everyone enjoys them all! Let me know if you did in a review. I would greatly enjoy any feedback. Especially to let me know in how I can make the story even better than ever. For I'm sure I lost a little bit of my touch since last time.
Also, since there is so many reviews from the last few chapters, I hope it's okay with everyone if I simply skip answering reviews again for this chapter. I know I promised to response to the reviews in the last chapter, but still getting my muscles to work again properly. Nothing serious, it's just my hands and feet get numb a lot after long usage and I can't really work them properly again. Something the doctors say will pass in time. Or not. Not sure at this point. Again, sorry for not keeping up with the reviews. :(