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Chapter Three-
He glared at the sky above him as plane after plane flew above them dropping bombs on the city they were hiding in. He didn't know how long they had been running. Time had become irrelevant to him. All that mattered to him now was keeping her out of their hands. But she wasn't making it easy for him.
He ran down another street, barely dodging a young woman with long, dark brown hair that had been braided into pig tails. She yelled something at him, but he ignored her. She wasn't important to him. She wasn't the person he was looking for. He slid to a stop and growled before hiding.
What were they doing here? Were they the reason they had come here? His steel grey eyes took in the man and woman standing in front of him next to a blue Police Box. The man had short, military style hair and was wearing a leather jacket as he talked into the phone. He watched the man as he demanded something into the phone.
She never told him where they were going. Never told him why they went where they did. But she did tell him other things. She told him her hopes and dreams. What she wanted to do once she got home. She told him about Lana, but never whom Lana was to her. And she never spoke to him about her parents.
He ducked behind a fence and the man and woman stormed passed him. Were they following them? Were these her parents? He shook his head. He didn't have time for riddles. He pushed off the fence and took off running again. He had to find her. She had run off when he had left to go find her food.
And even though she had run off, he knew she hadn't run from him. She was testing him. She wanted him to search for her. To find her. And if she wanted him to find her, then find her he will. Because it was what she wanted, and he would give her what ever she wanted.
-Three-
Loud and slightly annoying Christmas songs were the first thing to greet the trio as soon as they walked into the reception. Rose looked around and was shocked to see everyone dancing and having fun, it was as if the bride had never disappeared. Rose glanced at the woman beside her to find her glaring at everyone in shock and wondered when the rant would happen. Rose allowed the Doctor to gently grab her hand and pull her back a few steps so that she was beside him instead of Donna.
Don't want to accidentally get in the splash zone of her rant. The Doctor joked as he, too, took in the partying family and friends of the bride and groom. One by one the guest became aware of the glaring bride and stopped partying until only two people were left dancing. A young blond woman in a blue dress and a man in a tux, they were too busy laughing and flirting with each other to notice Donna. Rose only needed to take one look at Donna to tell that the man dancing and flirting with the woman was the groom. Rose did not like this man. Donna could do so much better.
Seconds later both of them noticed Donna and the music was stopped. The groom stared at Donna in shock and slight fear. "You had the reception without me?" Donna started.
"Donna, what happened to you?" The groom, Lance if Rose remembered correctly, asked in obviously fake concern.
"You had the reception without me?" Donna asked louder quickly entering rant mode.
This rant is going to be more enjoyable than the last. The Doctor whispered into her mind and Rose agreed. Rants were always more enjoyable when they weren't aimed at them.
"Hello, I'm Doctor." The Doctor said smiling before pointing at Rose. "And this is my Rose."
Can we set her loose on them? Rose asked him and her answer was a mental smirk.
"They had the reception without me." Donna told them as she turned to look at them.
"Yes, we gathered." The Doctor told her in a way that let Rose know he was winding her up.
"Well, it was all paid for, why not?" The woman he had been dancing and flirting with Lance called out and Donna whipped around to glare at her. It would seem the Doctor didn't need to help wind Donna up.
"Thank you, Nerys." Donna hissed out at the woman.
"Well, what were we supposed to do?" An older woman asked making her way towards them. "I got your silly little message in the end. I'm on Earth? Very funny." The woman stopped in front of them as the rest of the guests made their way towards them. "But what the hell happened? How did you do it?" Soon everyone was talking all at once and very loudly causing Rose's headache to remind Rose about it. Rose flinched and brought her free hand to her temple gaining the Doctor's attention. He growled at the guests as he quickly let got of Rose's hand and moved so that he could block her from them (as if that was going to stop their noise from getting to her) and began to gently message her head.
When Rose heard Donna start crying, silencing the talking guests at once, Rose removed the Doctor's hands from her head and went to check on the woman. Donna was in the arms of Lance who was trying to calm her down as everyone began to clap. Rose glanced up at the Doctor when his hand came up to message the back of her head, but his attention was focused on the couple in front of them. Rose looked back at Donna in time to see her wink at them causing Rose to lightly chuckle.
Ah the old 'I'm crying and need you to comfort me' trick. Works every time. Rose silently told the Doctor.
That trick only works on human men. The Doctor told her smugly, and Rose snorted causing him to look at her. What? Rose's response was to mentally send him every time she used that trick on him in the past, especially with his leather wearing self. I was never tricked, I just used those times as excuses to hold you longer and closer than normal. Unlike human males I can tell when the tears are real or not.
Minutes later Rose found herself and the Doctor leaning against the bar watching Donna and her wedding guest enjoying the reception. Rose laughed at Donna when she made a silly face at them while dancing with Lance. "You don't have to stand here with me, I can watch over Donna while you dance." The Doctor told her.
"Not really in the dancing mood." Rose told him causing him to hum in response.
"You wouldn't happen to have your phone on you, would you love?" The Doctor asked and Rose shook her head. "Right, then, be right back." He told her before slipping away. Rose watched him walk over to a guy and silently asked to borrow his phone, getting it and bringing it back over to her.
"Whatcha doing?" Rose asked as he slipped his glasses on as he began to type something into the search bar.
"Looking up HC Clements." He told her before glancing around them and pulling out his screwdriver to quicken the search. Rose sucked in a breath and glared at the phone when she saw that it was run by Torchwood. Without a word the Doctor calmly closed the phone before walking back over to the man and returned it.
Doctor? Rose called out not liking how quiet he was, the only time she had seen him like this was right after they had lost her mum. Her worry and fear increased when he didn't respond to her as he settled beside her and pulled her into his arms.
They stood there like that for a few minutes with her sending as much love and comfort to him as she could while he gathered himself. His eyes seemed to catch an elder blond woman and he watched her as his mind replaced the woman with Jackie. Rose quickly looked around the room knowing that she needed to find a way to distract both of them from the loss of her mother. Her eyes found the camera man paid to record everything that happens at the wedding. Rose mentally pulled the Doctor's attention away from the blond woman and towards the camera man.
Do you think he caught it? Rose asked and the Doctor smiled at her.
Only one way to find out! The Doctor told her before taking her hand and led her across the room to the camera man.
"You wouldn't have happened to be at the wedding?" The Doctor asked the man.
"Yeah. You wanna take a look?"
"We'd love to." Rose said and the man nodded before quickly changing out the tapes.
"Well, I taped the whole thing, they've all had a look." The man explained as he quickly got the tape to the time everything happened. "They said sell it to You've Been Frames, I was more like the news. Here we are." The Doctor and Rose watched as Donna suddenly began to glow and scream, Rose's eyes widened. That glow looked exactly like the Heart of the TARDIS.
"Can't be, play it again." The Doctor said and the man replayed the scene.
"Clever, mind. Good trick, I'll give her that. I was clapping." The camera man said. The Doctor watched the scene again.
"What is it, love? What happened to Donna?" Rose asked.
"That looks like Huon particles." The Doctor told her.
"What's that, then?" The camera man asked reminding them both that he was still there.
"That's impossible, that's ancient." The Doctor said taking off his glasses to look at her in confusion. "Huon energy doesn't exist any more, not for billions of years. It's so old that..." The Doctor whipped his head around to stare at Donna in fear as Rose caught the last part of his thought.
"It's can't be hidden by a bio-damper!" Rose gasped out in fear as she took off towards Donna with the Doctor right behind her. Before Rose could stop at Donna and Lance, the Doctor grabbed her hand and forced her to run out of the room. "We can't leave them there!" The two came to a sliding stop when they spotted a couple of Santa's out the window.
"Donna!" The Doctor yelled as they ran back into the room. "Donna, they've found you."
"But you said I was safe." Donna said as they came to a stop in front of her.
"The bio-damper doesn't work. We've got to get everyone out." The Doctor told her.
"Oh, my God, it's all my family." Donna muttered in fear.
"Out the back door." Rose said and the trio ran to the back door only to stop when they found two more Santa's waiting out there for them. "Maybe not." Rose said as the Doctor cursed in his native language and pulled them back inside. They ran over to a side door and the Doctor looked out of it to see two more Santa's.
"We're trapped." Donna said as one of the Santa's in front of them lifted up a remote control and Rose spun around to stare at the Christmas tree remembering all too well what happened last time.
"Christmas trees." The Doctor breathed out catching her thought.
"What about them?" Donna asked.
"They kill." Rose told her as the Doctor rushed forward.
"Get away from the tree!" He yelled as Rose and Donna quickly followed them.
"Get away from the Christmas trees, everyone get away from them!" Rose and the Doctor cried together as Donna made her way over to Lance while yelling for him.
"Stay away from the tree!" The Doctor yelled as Rose and him quickly moved the kids away from the trees.
"They're dangerous!" Rose cried taking a young girl into her arms.
"Stay away from the tree." The Doctor ordered.
"Oh, for God's sakes, they're idiots." The elder woman that had reminded the Doctor of Jackie said rolling her eyes. "What harm's the Christmas tree gonna..." Before the woman could finish her sentence the ornaments on the tree began to play music and float off the tree. "Oh!" She cried happily. Rose and the Doctor watched in fear as the ornaments floated over everyone wondering what would happen.
Without warning, one ornament flew at the Doctor who quickly ducked, thankfully the ornament flew between the woman and an elder man before hitting the floor and exploding. The room filled with screams as the other ornaments began to dive bomb them. Rose grabbed onto the Doctor as everyone began to push and shove each other to get away form the exploding ornaments. The Doctor used his body to help shield her from the explosions that got too close as he led her over to the DJ booth.
Cover your ears, this is gonna get loud. He warned her before standing up.
"Oi, Santa, word of advice. If you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver," The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and picked up a mic, "don't let him near the sound system." He said into the mic before plugging the screwdriver into the soundboard and turned it on. The speakers let out a high pitch squeal that caused the whole room to vibrate and everyone to scream. After a long two minutes, the Doctor removed the screwdriver from the soundboard.
Ow! Rose mentally yelled at him as he helped her up.
I did warn you. The Doctor told her sheepishly before all but dragging her to the fallen Santas. When he dropped her hand to quickly search the floor, Rose took that time to find Donna.
"It's all right, Stan, you'll be all right." Rose heard someone say as she caught Donna and Lance peeking out from behind an over turned table.
"Michael, Connie." Donna said rushing out from behind the table to check on two kids near her. "Sanita, do something useful."
"What is it?" Lance asked as Rose got to Donna and checked her over. "What were they?"
"Just stop wittering, just help him." Donna hissed at him.
"Look at that, Rose," The Doctor said looking away from the robots on the floor finally taking note that Rose was not beside him as he had expected. "Rose?" He called out in panic, and Rose realized why the Doctor had made sure she was near him that day. He was afraid to lose her.
"Over here, darling." Rose called to him and felt his relief flood their bond when he saw her. "What is it?" She asked walking over to him before kneeling beside him.
"Remote control for the decorations," He told her showing her the remote control, "but there's a second remote control for the robots." He said excitedly showing her the robotic head as Donna stopped next to them.
"Wait, does that mean they're not scavengers any more?" Rose asked taking the head from him and examining it as well.
"I think someone's taken possession." The Doctor told her.
"Never mind all that, you're a doctor, people have been hurt." Donna said.
"Nah, they wanted you alive." The Doctor told her as he tossed an ornament to her. "Look. They're not active now."
"All the same, you could help." Donna told him as he took the head back from her.
"He's not that kind of doctor, Donna." Rose told her standing up.
"Got to think of the bigger picture." The Doctor told her as he held the head to his ear and listened. "There's still a signal!" He cried shooting to his feet, took Rose by the hand and nearly pulled her arm out of her socket as he bolted from the room. Once outside the Doctor released her hand to pull out his screwdriver and began to sonic the head as he spun in circles looking for where the signal was strongest. Rose watched him silently as she fought with herself to not think about the last wedding she had been to (hers) and the fact that her mother had been there, and that she was gone now.
Rose was brought out of her thoughts when Donna jogged up to her and the Doctor. "There's someone behind this, directing the roboforms." The Doctor muttered as Donna stopped on the other side of him.
"But why is it me? What have I done?" Donna asked.
"Well, as soon as we can find the controller, we can ask." Rose told her.
"Oh!" The Doctor cried out having found where the signal was coming from. "It's up there." He said pointing his screwdriver to the sky. "Something in the sky. No, no, no, no!"
"The signal's gone, isn't it?" Rose asked and the Doctor nodded before tucking his screwdriver away and taking Rose's hand.
"Donna, we've got to get to your office, HC Clements. I think that's were it all started." The Doctor said as he turned his attention to Lance, who had just stopped beside Donna. "Lance!" He looked at Donna. "Is he Lance?" Before Donna even had a chance to answer him, he continued. "Lance, can you give us a lift?" Without waiting for an answer the Doctor pulled Rose towards the car park.
It didn't take them very long to get to the office once Donna had been able to convince Lance to drive them. And soon the trio, turned into a group of four, was running through the lobby of HC Clements with Donna leading them. It actually impressed Rose with how fast the woman could run in heels and a wedding dress, not many people could do that.
"To you lot this might just be a locksmith, but HC Clements was bought up 23 years ago by the Torchwood Institute." The Doctor explained as Donna led them upstairs to her desk.
"Who are they?" Donna asked as the Doctor began to use the computer.
"They were behind The Battle of Canary Wharf, and the reason we lost my mother." Rose explained ignoring a wave of hurt and pushing back the urge to cry. She smiled at the Doctor when he sent a wave of love and comfort her way knowing he was feeling the same as her. Donna's confused look shocked Rose back into what was happening right now. "The Cyberman invasion." Rose told her hoping to spark some sort of memory of it, but Donna still continued to look confused. "Skies over London full of Daleks?" Rose tried again.
"I was in Spain." Donna told her.
"They had Cybermen in Spain." Rose told her suspiciously wondering if she was lying.
"Scuba diving." Donne continued and Rose shook her head at the woman.
"That big picture, Donna, you keep on missing it." The Doctor told her causing Rose to chuckle as he pushed away from the computer and shoved Lance aside to get to another computer. "Torchwood was destroyed, but HC Clements stayed in business. I think someone else came in and took over the operation." He explained before hitting the computer when it wouldn't do what he wanted it to.
"What do they want with me?" Donna demanded.
"We don't know how but somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy and apparently that's a problem because Huon energy hasn't existed since the..." Rose turned to look at the Doctor in question as she looked through his thoughts again. "Really? The Dark Times?" Rose asked in shock as the Doctor looked up from the computer having finished what he needed to do.
"My people's Dark Times, not yours." He explained before taking over the explanation. "The only place you find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS." Rose stared at him in fear wondering what this meant for her. Nothing for you to worry about, love, if it was going to kill you it would have done so the second I took it out of you. He told her trying to reassure her.
That's not a reassuring as you wanted it to be, love. She told him.
Right, sorry. He said before focusing on the shocked woman in between them.
"Say this is the TARDIS," He continued his explanation by picking up a mug from the desk beside him, "and this is you." He said picking up a pencil from the same desk. "The particles inside you activated, the two sets of particles magnetize and wap!" He shook the pencil and mug before placing the pencil into the mug. "You were pulled inside the TARDIS."
"I'm a pencil inside a mug?" Donna asked trying to wrap her head around everything.
"Yes, you are. 4H sums you up." The Doctor said and Rose mentally slapped him.
Rude! Rose hissed at him.
And not ginger! He sent back playfully. "Lance, what was HC Clements working on? Anything top secret, special operations, do not enter?" He asked the man behind Rose as she tried to comfort the woman knowing from experience how frustrating and scary all of this could be when you first meet the Doctor. The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and soniced a computer as Rose gently took Donna's hand and led her to stand beside the Doctor. She had learned from experience that even though the Doctor was always in the center of the danger, the safest place to be was right next to the Doctor.
"I don't know, I'm in charge of personnel. I wasn't project manager." Lance told them as the Doctor hacked into the system. "Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?"
"You make keys, that's the point." The Doctor said as he quickly scanned through the system pulling up a blueprint of the building. "And look at this, we're on the third floor. Underneath reception there's a basement, yes?" The Doctor asked leading them to the lift and opening it, Rose instantly saw what he had seen.
"Then why is there a button marked 'lower basement' in the lift?" Rose asked gaining a proud smirk from the Doctor.
"There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plan." The Doctor finished as both him and Rose stepped on to the lift.
"Makes you wonder what's down there, doesn't it?" Rose asked smiling excitedly at both Donna and Lance.
"You're telling me this building's go a secret floor?" Lance asked.
"No, we're showing you this building's got a secret floor." The Doctor told him.
"It needs a key." Donna pointed out.
"We don't." Rose told her as the Doctor point his screwdriver at it and activated it.
"Right then, thanks, you two. We can handle this, see you later." The Doctor told them as he put his screwdriver back into the inside of his suite jacket.
"No chance, Martian and Wife. You're the couple who keeps saving my life." Donna said stepping onto the lift. "I ain't letting you two out of my sight."
"Going down." The Doctor muttered and Rose could tell he was mixed about having Donna with them, part of him was excited about meeting a new friend the other was still hurting over the loss of Jackie and didn't want a third person with them right now.
"Lance?" Donna called to the man expecting him to join her.
"Maybe I should go to the police." Lance said nervously but something about the way he said it unnerved Rose.
"Inside!" Donna ordered and Lance obeyed.
"To honour and obey." The Doctor muttered receiving a glare from Rose.
"Tell me about it, mate." Lance muttered back.
"Oi!" Donna and Rose cried out.
Just for that you're sleeping on the couch, and not the comfy one! Rose growled at him as the lift began to descend.