Disclaimer: With the amount of Saint Rose worshiping happening in the show, you can read this and think I own DW? *boggles*
Chapter 5 - Vignettes part four: At the end, a beginning
AN: Very long chapter, even for me. Without the AN and vignette separators, it was still over 9k words long - over 12k if I'd left the Stolen Earth ones together with the Journey's End ones. Lord only knows how I'm going to deal with it on LJ... ah well. I'll figure that out if I ever get time to update everything on LJ. And AO3... I am such a horrible person. *sighs* Anyway! Last chapter and wrapping everything up! And yes, still the Rose warning.
Beta love to tkelparis, and love to all my reviewers and readers! *mwah!*
Vignette 1 - Journey's End - What the hell have you been doing, Rose?
After the regeneration that wasn't, the Doctor settled his hand then turned to frown at Rose. "Now that I've kept myself from being stricken by regeneration sickness in the middle of a crisis, we have to talk Rose."
She tried to hug him, but he caught her arms and held her at a distance. "What do we have to talk about? I'm back!"
"Yes you are. How?" He snapped the question at her, barely noticing Jack sidle up to Donna for an explanation.
Nervous, because this wasn't at all how she'd expected her reunion with the Doctor to go, Rose stammered. "Um...well...basically, we've been building this...er...this travel machine, this, this...er...dimension cannon, so I could...well, so I could come back! And here I am...aren't you happy to see me Doctor?"
"I'd be happier if you hadn't turned into a murderer, Rose," the Doctor replied, and his tone could have frozen a glass of water. "You didn't have to kill Donna just to get her to tell me you were coming back. She would have popped right back to Shan Shen anyway - that world was vanishing even as you pulled the trigger!"
"What do you mean?" Rose asked, aghast that he knew what she'd done. "I didn't kill her - that world never happened now! It doesn't count!"
"Yes it does!" The Doctor shoved Rose away from him and watched her stumble back. "Whether or not that world, that Donna, had any further viable existence, you still pulled the trigger! You still murdered an innocent woman and stood there watching her die! Why?!"
Off to the side, Donna had been filling Jack in on the basics of the parallel world and her interactions with Rose in it, all the memories fresh from the Doctor looking at them just minutes ago.
And while the Doctor was shouting at Rose to get her to explain her murderous tendencies, Jack asked. "How does he know all this detail? And for that matter, how do you? It should have been near-impossible for you to hold onto the memories with this level of clarity."
"Forced myself to remember those last six or seven minutes cos I was so furious," Donna replied, keeping a worried watch on the Doctor. "Rest of it was still there, just faded. Hurt a lot when he went in my head and refreshed them to see, but we had to try and figure out what this darkness stuff was about and that was the only way. Now shush," she motioned him silent before he could ask about the darkness. "Need to make sure I don't have to stop himself from doing something he'll regret."
"Because she had to die!" Rose shouted back, not wanting to admit the real reason. She was not going to admit that the ginger cow was right, not to the Doctor. "She bends reality too much to have let her live - there'd be two of her now if I hadn't killed her!"
Jack very carefully retrieved Rose's gun from the floor and put it out of her reach. Just in case. Because even he could tell Rose wasn't being as honest as she should, and he wasn't going to risk leaving a weapon in her reach.
"Liar," the Doctor spat. "She wanted the reality that should have been - she wanted the life with me she'd been denied! IF reality bends that much around her, her wishes would have done the job if the changing timelines didn't! How many lies are you going to tell me, Rose? Tell me another - tell me how you knew about the Trickster's Beetle, that you could explain it as well as I could! I never even told you about the Trickster, much less his tools!"
"I...I..." Rose tried bursting into tears to make him stop shouting, as well as to keep from telling him everything she'd done. This was all going so wrong...and how did he know all these details?
"No answer?" He snapped, then closed his eyes as the power went out. "Well, they've got us. Nothing to do but talk until we find out where we're going." The TARDIS lurched as the Daleks got the TARDIS with a tractor beam or some such, and he nodded at Jack in thanks for his steadying Donna. "If you won't answer the question about the Trickster's Beetle, then tell me how you know reality bends around Donna."
"The...the cannon," Rose sniffled, trying to get him to be sympathetic by acting pathetic and helpless. "It can measure timelines as well as insert travellers into specific points. And the timelines...they all converge on Donna. And...and when she met you, reality started bending. Pushing the two of you together."
"Honesty at last," the Doctor growled, then sighed when Donna stepped away from Jack to lay her hand on his shoulder.
"Easy, Spaceman. We've got enough answers to be going on with about what happened in that parallel world." She slid her hand from his shoulder to his back and started rubbing small circles. Poor man, he was strung out like a high-tension wire from this confrontation, and they still had Daleks ahead.
"Not quite, Donna," he replied, then frowned at Rose again. "What was that about the darkness? Your parallel world runs ahead of this one - what was the future?"
"The stars were going out," she said and wiped her tears away because they were itching and weren't making him sympathetic like they should've. "One by one they were just...dying. And then, after the dimensional cannon started working, the dimensions started to collapse. Not just that world or this one, but all of reality. Even the Void was dead...something's destroying everything."
"And it needs the Doctor and Donna Noble to stop the stars going out, you said so yourself. And yet you killed her, and you still haven't answered why. Jealousy?" he huffed, still furious with her. The scanner beeped, and the Doctor cracked his neck to release a bit more tension. "Well, looks like we're here. Wherever here is."
"Probably that massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets," Jack said. "Transmissions we picked up, they call it the Crucible. Bet that's where we are."
Vignette 2 - Journey's End - Instant Son, just add Supertemp!
"No, wait. I'm part Time Lord, part Human. Well, isn't that wizard?" The new Doctor had a confused look on his face for a moment.
Donna raised an eyebrow at him and attempted to prompt an explanation for something that had been puzzling her. "I kept hearing that noise, that heartbeat. Off and on, from the Shadow Proclamation until I touched the hand."
"Oh, that was me." He grinned at her. "My single heart. Because I'm a complicated event in time and space. Must have rippled back, converging on you."
"But why me?" Donna was confused, but that was, a bit, because she was trying to figure something out. Something about him being half-Human...
"Because you're special." He said with a shrug. Obvious fact was obvious, right?
"Yeah, you skinnyboys do think I'm all that and a sack of chips, don't you?" She rolled her eyes at him, then tilted her head. "Got a question for you though, genius."
"Yeah? What's that?" He asked, head tilted just like hers.
"You said you're half-Human. And that's cos I touched the hand and sparked you to grow, right?"
"Ye-es," he admitted, slowly, not seeing where she was going.
"So...are your Human bits from me, or did all the rest of it do something weird and you're just the Doctor but half-Human? And if they're from me...does that make you my and the Doctor's instant son?"
"..." He stared at her in shock, literally having never thought of that until she brought it up.
She smirked - even if he was her son, he still looked exactly like the Doctor, and she loved seeing him speechless! "Don't you think you'd better check that out?"
"Yeah. Yeah, right on that," he mumbled, and ran to find the spare sonic. He knew Donna hated being bleeped, but that would be the fastest way to answer her question.
Two minutes later, they had their answer. He was an instantly grown, adult son of Donna and the Doctor. Wasn't that just wizard?
After Donna had blocked the Dalek's weapons, the Doctor stared at her in complete and utter shock. "How did you work that out? You're-"
"Time Lord. She's part Time Lord." The other Doctor grinned. Oh, was he going to get a surprise in a minute!
"And part Human," Donna finished. "Oh yes, that was a two-way, biological, metacrisis. Half Doctor, half Donna." She smirked at him with a wicked twinkle in her eyes. Just another minute, and if he didn't twig on, she'd take great delight in telling him the truth.
"The Doctor Donna," the Doctor breathed, awestruck. "Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming. The Doctor Donna."
"Or maybe they saw him coming, Spaceman," she said, then manipulated some controls so the holding cells shut down. "Holding cells deactivated, and seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work!" And since he didn't show any signs that he'd put the clues together, it was time to leave him utterly gobsmacked! "Show us a little father-son teamwork!"
"What?" He stood there, jaw agape, as his son - his SON?! - smirked at him, along with Donna. "What?!"
Vignette 3 - Journey's End - Wait a minute! We're married?!
The Doctor had ensured that Donna and his instant son had places at the console to take Earth home, because he didn't want Rose touching his Old Girl anymore. Not after she'd gutted her once already. Twice if he counted the incident that had seen him regenerate into this self.
As the TARDIS flew smoothly through space with the Earth, the Doctor had a sudden thought, then did something that could only be called a mental clearing of the throat. Donna?
What? How are you talking to...oh, your mind in mine, yeah, that'd do it. What's on your mind, sunshine? Donna glanced at him with a smile, then returned most of her attention to her section of the console.
Erm, yeah, about that. If it's in my mind, it's in yours. And...there's a problem with that. The Doctor hoped she wouldn't explode when she either a) leapt to the right conclusion or 2) made him explain it.
Can't be me burning - as long as our son's around, the resonance from the meta-crisis will hold me steady till this all fades away or drains back into him. So...what's the problem? If she hadn't been coaxing her panel to work she'd probably have seen where he was going, but this was the one he usually had to hit the most so she was a bit busy.
No, it's not you burning. He sighed and blessed the fact that they'd just got Earth back where it belonged. Wouldn't be any chance of her making a mistake from the shock now. It's...you know my name now, Donna.
Now that she wasn't busy, she could see exactly where that nitwit of a bloke of a Spaceman was going with all his bumbling attempts to explain. The shock of it delayed her a few seconds though. Yeah, course I d-wait! Married?! We're married because I know your name?!
Yeah. Er...it can't be undone, either. Not even if I wiped all your memories of all our time together. He shot a tentative look at her while everyone else in the TARDIS was celebrating Earth's return, then lost eye contact as he had to deal with a velcro attachment named Rose.
Don't even think you're gonna get to try that, you daft twit! Donna glowered at him, then poked him in the chest once he'd managed to detach Rose and send her off to Jack. Never expected to be married at all anymore, much less to you, skinnyboy! I never dreamed you could feel for me like I do for you. But you're my best friend ever, and if I can't survive a surprise marriage to my best friend, then I'd just best go be a barmy old cat lady and give up on everything but hairballs. Just don't expect any intimate married-people stuff anytime soon, you hear me? Your bits are weird, and I need time to get used to that.
You're...you mean, all this time, if I'd told you how I felt, we could have had this earlier?! And...you're all right with the not asking? He raised a sceptical eyebrow at her, then captured the finger that had been about to poke him in a ticklish spot. He hadn't even thought about physical intimacy as of yet, but he was pretty sure they'd manage, somehow. Once they got used to the difference in their bits. Oi! What do you mean my bits are weird? Your bits are the weird ones!
Oh we're a pair, aren't we? But...give me about a year to get used to it, and...well, yeah. Beats dying hands down, don't it? What about you, though? Isn't like you had a choice either...I've been shoved on you just like Jenny was. Even if we both wanted this deep down, you didn't have a choice. Donna pulled her hand free, then hugged him. And snickered. You keep telling yourself that, Spaceman.
You're my best friend, Donna. And, arguing about whose bits are the weird bits aside, there are so many options that would be worse than being married to my best friend who I've come to love. He grinned and hugged her back, then shared that grin with his son. His son - he had a family!
He was going to have to come up with a proper punishment for his son, though. But that could wait until the loose ends were tidied away, and he could consult with Donna. The one thing he knew he couldn't do was separate him from Donna - not when he was probably the only thing keeping her from burning at this time.
Yeah. You could be stuck like this with my mum. Donna giggled in his arms at the thought. Being in his head, or having his head in hers... either way it was giving her a whole new outlook on her barmy Spaceman. They were going to have a lot to talk about, later.
Donna! There's no reason to be disgusting about it! A sudden thought, triggered by the mention of her mother, made him cringe. Oh bugger. You're going to make me tell her about us, aren't you? He whined in her head and buried his face in her hair. That was the downside, if there was a downside to marrying Donna. Other than the accidental nature of it, anyway. He had -her- family too, and they would be peeved at him marrying her like this, especially for not telling them.
We can tell her together, Sunshine. Besides, you're a big hero now, towing the Earth home...it'll be all right, you'll see. She reached out an arm and drew their son into the hug so he wouldn't feel left out. Family - even a bonkers one like this - was something to be treasured.
Vignette 4 - Journey's End - Killer Queen
Rose glowered at the ginger cow and the clone of the Doctor that the bitch had the gall to call his son. How dare they try and force themselves on the Doctor as his family? He was hers, not that fat bint's, and it was past time she put a stop to this!
She hadn't worked all these years to come back and find the Doctor just to let him be claimed by a stupid, useless, fat old twat of a ginger temp. No, he was hers and she was his, and as soon as she had the chance to explain things properly, whatever Donna had done to him would be undone, and everything would be perfect again, with just him and her.
She'd just have to get the bitch out of the way first. And she had the perfect way too - everyone was so distracted in celebrating Earth's return that nobody noticed her pick up her gun from where Mickey had left it.
Not until she had it raised and aimed straight at Donna. "Back away from him, bitch!"
"Rose, put the gun down," the Doctor said, as calmly as possible. He was screaming inside, but he couldn't let that show even if a bit of it leaked to his new son and Donna.
"No! She's bewitched you or somethin' with all the reality-bending she does, Doctor. If she won't move away from you, then you move away from her!" Rose was not going to put up with not getting her goal when it was in sight. And if she could get him to believe that lie, so much the better.
"Not again," Donna groaned, but stepped away from the Doctor. "There. I'm away from him."
To the side, their metacrisis son was watching with fear tensing his muscles. Rose couldn't be about to do what he thought she was...could she? "Rose, just calm down-"
"Shut up you clone!" Rose snapped. "An' don't any of the rest of you try an' disarm me either," she added and primed the gun. "Try it and she's dead."
Once everyone had backed far enough away to satisfy her, Rose gestured Donna further away from the Doctor with the barrel of the gun. "You ruined everything, but getting rid of you will make it all better."
"I'm not bending reality," Donna tried, speaking softly as she took another step to the side. "That was all Dalek Caan, twisting timelines to bring me and the Doctor together so we'd eliminate the Daleks for him."
"Shut up!" Rose screamed, finger tensed on the trigger guard. "You don't get any rights here!"
"Rose, please, just put the gun down," the Doctor tried once more to reason with the girl who was breaking his hearts with what she was doing. How could she think this was any sort of acceptable?
"I've got to do this, Doctor. So you can be free to be with me." Rose smiled at him, then turned back to Donna. And pulled the trigger.
Vignette 5 - Journey's End - Life Finds a Way
The Doctor screamed a denial, but after the flash of the weapon's plasma-beam had died, he saw that Donna was sprawled on the floor, intact. It was his son, who'd pushed his mother out of the way, who was lying there injured, dying, with a burn mark on his side indicating where the blast had gone right through him, as indicated by a burn-mark on the TARDIS wall.
He ran to his son's side and oh-so-gently rolled him into his own arms, barely noting Donna scrambling to join him. "No! Oh no no no no no, not again!" he cried, tears beginning to track down his cheeks. "I can't lose another child, not again!"
"Oh my God," Donna gasped as she got close enough to see exactly where the beam had hit. "You saved me...did you know you were gonna get hit?"
"Yeah," their son gasped out. "...druther this way 'nyway..."
"Why?" The Doctor asked, one corner of his awareness noting that Rose was disarmed and Jack was handcuffing her. But she wasn't relevant, now that she was restrained. His son was.
"...too much of you...too much of mum...confusing..."
Donna stroked his cheek, tears raining unnoticed down her cheeks. "Sweetheart, your dad can fix that. Just hold on, all right?"
"...too much...damage...no r'gen'ratin...no...time..." Their son's eyes got hazy and huge, trying to focus but failing.
Donna and the Doctor looked at each other as the same idea hit them simultaneously. "Regeneration!" Donna yelped. "We get the Time Lord bits out of me and back into him, he can regenerate!"
"Brilliant!" The Doctor grinned at his new-minted wife, then looked back at his son. "You hold on, my son. Your parents are going to pull off another miracle!"
"...kay..." His voice was a feeble whisper, but the mind and spirit were stubborn enough to damn well stick around until he saw what his parents were going to do.
Which was, in the beginning, to the observers nothing more than enter into a mind-link. But the Doctor had to help Donna scrape the Time Lord bits out of her head, because they were stubbornly refusing to move on their own.
Once that was done, Donna stared at the Doctor with glowing golden eyes, one last second to see him as his equal. Then she bent over and blew that Time Lord magnificence into their instant-grown son in one long golden wisp of energy.
Then they watched, frowning, as nothing happened. Until the Doctor smacked his head, and shouted. "Of course! It needed a trigger last time, it needs a trigger this time!"
"What, touch? Like last time?" Donna asked, confused. "But...we're both touching him already, aren't we?"
"No, not touch." It was his turn to smile with luminescence hidden in the depths of his eyes. "Ten years off my life should be enough!" He gently lifted his son, then took a deep breath and sacrificed another ten years in one drawn-out exhale, fanning the flames of stalled regeneration that no one but he could sense.
This time, something happened. Their instant son started to glow, and the Doctor gently laid him on the floor, then had to have Donna's help to scramble away when it got brighter.
"Doctor? What's happening?" Jack asked, finally perceiving a place where an interruption wouldn't be fatal.
"My son is half-Human, Jack. That means he couldn't regenerate when Rose shot him. What Donna did was sacrifice her chance to be like me, to give him back the Time Lord bits that had split from him to her, and then I gave ten years off my life to spark off the regeneration."
The Doctor, all this time, had been watching his son, and his puzzled frown rapidly morphed to panic as the glowing form began to shrink. And kept shrinking. "No, no, no, no, no! You can't!"
"Doctor, wait a moment," Donna said, holding his arm to keep him from getting hurt from the...well, whatever was happening. "Look, the glow's going away, let's see what happened."
Trembling with fear all over again, the Doctor knelt beside his apparently empty blue suit and gently picked up the still form buried in the burgundy t-shirt. Then he was trembling for another reason entirely as it wriggled and squirmed, and a baby's wail shattered the silence. "Oh, there, there my son. No reason to scream so loud," he murmured as he gently uncovered a squalling male infant. "Aww, look at you!" He looked up at Donna, grinning like a loon. "Look at what we did, Donna!"
"Doctor, how is he a baby? He grew from a hand into an adult...so how...?" Donna wriggled the t-shirt out of the Doctor's arms and folded it once so they could wrap the baby in it.
"I'm not sure, but I'll bet it's cos he was only an hour old," He grinned at her, then checked to make sure his name hadn't been purged from her head with the rest of his mind. You...you're all right with that, aren't you? I mean, him being a baby.
"Not getting it, Doctor," Donna said, then rolled her eyes when she felt the familiar mental touch. It's loads better than him being dead! But you didn't answer my question!
"Oh, right, right," he said and let her help him wrap their son in the t-shirt, then reluctantly let her hold him. Of course, if he hadn't let her hold him, he'd never have noticed that their son now had ginger in his fine baby hair. And that was brilliant! "See, he was only an hour old, then because of both of us he regenerated. But he also indicated he was having trouble from having our minds in his head, so he wanted to have something done about that, so the regeneration responded to that desire and made him an hour-old infant!" There, see? I did so answer your question!
"I'm gonna assume that's not the way regeneration usually works?" Donna raised an arch eyebrow. "I mean, it's not like the next time you regenerate you're gonna be a thousand and something physically, right? Or regress to a kid?"
"Nope," he gleefully said, popping the 'p' as he let his son hold his finger. "This one was special. And confusing. And unique. And will probably never happen again." And required me to give him a bit of my life. Not that I mind, I did it for the TARDIS, I'd have done it for Jenny if I'd thought of it in time... he's my son, so of course I'd give my life for him.
"I'll say it was confusing," Donna muttered, then gently shifted their son away from her breasts. "Sorry sweetheart, nothing there for you." I wish Jenny could've been here...ah well. So, genius, how're we going to feed him?
"Ah, hate to interrupt this lovely family moment - and yes we've already got pictures," Jack said, grinning, glad that Mickey had thought to gag Rose so she couldn't interrupt. "But what's the new addition's name going to be?"
"William Tyrell," Donna said, then blustered at the Doctor's raised eyebrow. "What? William means both determined and protection, and he gave his life in his determination to protect me! And Tyrell cos he was too stubborn to die before he saw what we were gonna do to save him."
"I was just wondering why you left Noble off," he said, mildly. "It's a tradition that the man takes the woman's surname, among my people." Oh, and as for feeding him...well, if you don't mind, we can nip down to the medbay and stimulate your breasts so he can be fed naturally.
"I...I...oh, all right, if you're going to insist, 'Doctor Noble'." She gave him a sceptical look, then turned to Jack. "His name's William Tyrell Noble." You just want to see my tits again, I knew it, you are such a bloke. But her mental voice was full of warm teasing instead of sharp attitude.
And I'm going to envy our son every second of his association with your magnificent breasts, the Doctor answered honestly, albeit with humour in his mental voice. "Of course I insist - Mrs. Noble." He gave her a cheeky grin, then got to his feet and helped Donna up. "Martha, Sarah Jane, if I could get you to help Donna and our Will into the medbay? I've got a few things I need to deal with."
From the direction of his glare, no one could mistake who he was going to deal with.
Vignette 6 - Journey's End - Anatomy lesson
AN - I thought I should explain this vignette a bit. I seem to have a Thing for making Time Lords evolve from cetacean life forms rather than land dwelling mammals, and I did it here too, with a teensy bit more detail this time. So brace yourselves for some alien weirdness :D
Anything medical, save for the fact that yes, baby boys do try to pee on anyone changing their diapers, is pulled out of my ear.
"So, Donna. What's all that with the two of you calling each other Doctor and Mrs Noble? I thought you two weren't like that?" Martha asked in between Donna's instructions that were directing her on what to do so the ginger could breast-feed her brand-new son.
"And you're wondering how I can tell you what to do, I'll bet," Donna said with a smirk as she peeled off her blouse and bra, inadvertently giving Sarah Jane a spot of bother as Will started wriggling vigorously. Donna sucked in a hissing breath at the first injection, then continued.
"Well, it's cos I had his head in mine...and that lead through Time Lord weirdness to us ending up married. Don't ask how, it's really confusing to try and understand why that bit stayed when most of the the rest of it's gone. But we're still married - that and a few other things stuck when we shoved the Time Lord half back to Will. So he told me what to tell you to do telepathically, so he didn't have to put the Rose issue on hold."
"And if it didn't need injections in hard-to-reach places you could do it yourself?" Martha asked with a raised eyebrow as she applied the last one of those injections into Donna's right tricep. "Lie down now...and I scanned Will before we started, but he's still half-Human."
"Yeah, pretty much. Dunno why he's still half-Human though...maybe cos it was all mental, the Time Lord half I sent back to him, and that's why the Doctor had to sacrifice a bit of his life?" Donna shrugged as she laid back so Martha could use some of the gizmos on her chest.
She glanced over at Sarah Jane, who was looking relieved as Will stopped wriggling quite so much. "Okay over there?"
"Pretty much," she replied with a smile. "Someone's gone and unwrapped himself with all his wiggling though," she added, then as she looked down at the adorable infant, gasped with eyes wide.
"What's wrong," Martha asked, unable to look because she was occupied with a localised time dilation device and Donna's torso. "Did he try and crawl off the table?"
"Ah, no," Sarah Jane replied. "I could use your assistance when you've finished, though...Donna's too."
"What's wrong with Will?" The only thing that kept Donna from leaping to find out what was going on was that she had to lay still another few minutes while the treatments got her ready to feed her son.
"I...well, I'm not sure anything's wrong with him, per se. It's just...well, I'm not sure if 'him' is accurate," came the tentative reply.
Martha made sure everything would tend to itself properly, and turn off when it should, then went over to take a look. While Will did, mostly, look just like a Human infant, she could see why Sarah Jane was confused as to the actual sex of the child. There wasn't the expected miniature penis, just a slit. It didn't look like an infant girl's bits, either. Martha almost thought it looked like a dolphin's genital slit, and out of curiosity, she checked to see if his anus was a slit as well. That annoyed little Will, and the two women barely got the t-shirt in place before his penis poked out his genital slit and tried to pee all over them.
"Ah, I'd say he's a boy all right," Martha commented with a wry smile.
"Yes, definitely a boy." After he'd finished, Sarah Jane found some wipes beside her, then cleaned him up. "Very naughty boy."
"They do that all the time when being changed, or so I remember from my brother complaining about my nephew," Martha grinned, then shook her head. "Never knew Time Lords were so different down there, though."
"Different?" Donna asked, though she thought she knew what they were talking about. She'd seen the Doctor nude before, right after they'd left Midnight.
"Um...little Will - and we're assuming his daddy too - has a genital slit. Like a dolphin," Martha managed not to stammer, but she was blushing. And very glad she'd gotten over the Doctor. She'd never have been able to handle this.
"Oh, that. Yeah, it was a bit of a shock, seeing a slit instead of the usual bits, but I knew he was alien," Donna said, then sat up in relief when the process finished. "Ooh, bit dizzy - bring him here?"
"You've seen him naked?" Came from both women, even as Sarah Jane wrapped Will in a blanket to bring to his mother.
"Yeah. It was after he'd been through a horrible time, and he was being exceptionally clingy. Don't ever tell him I told you that, though, he'd die of embarrassment. Anyway, I had to be by his side at all times for several days, so that meant showers too." Donna accepted the wrapped bundle and put him to her breast, then sighed in relief as the pressure eased once her son latched on.
"Oh God, I'm going to sound like such a nosy cow...but what's that difference in genitalia going to mean for the two of you, now that you're married?" Martha asked, blushing a bit in embarrassment.
"Dunno," Donna mimed a shrug with her head, since her arms were occupied. "Other than my tits - and how he became such a tit man I'll never know - it isn't like he thought much of my bits either. Too much hair, he said. Guess we'll figure that out later, though. Once we've gotten used to the whole 'instantly married with a baby' bit."
She smirked as she stroked her son's auburn wisps of hair. "For all that he's so alien, he's still a bloke though - on one level, he's kicking himself right now for having to deal with issues rather than getting the chance to gawp at my tits. Again."
The softest thump interrupted what might have been said next, and Sarah Jane started for the door. "I don't mean to be rude and run off, but I've a boy of my own and he's too young to be left alone any longer."
"Well, he'll have to hold out at least ten more minutes," Donna said quickly, before Sarah Jane could leave the medbay. "We're not on Earth - we're in the parallel world."
Martha bit her lip because, though Donna should at least look content nursing her son, she was looking incredibly miserable instead. "What are we doing there?" She finally managed to whisper.
"Other than taking Jackie back to her husband and kids?" Donna sniffed back a tear. "He's...well, he's making sure Rose can't ever come back again. Punishing her with permanent exile for all the crimes she's committed, and since she was so...stubborn about crossing over the first time, he's had to alter parts of her brain so she can't come back, ever, no matter what she tries."
"She's not taking that well, is she?" Sarah Jane sighed and made her way back to Donna and Martha, who'd taken up a tissue to blot Donna's face with.
"No." Donna sighed, then gave Martha a watery smile for blotting her face so she wouldn't drip on Will.
"What are the two of you going to do now?" Martha asked, absently running one last scan on Donna and Will, after Donna'd managed to stop crying.
"Three of us, counting this'un," Donna corrected with a sad smile. Then she sighed and adjusted the exam bed so it would let her lean back but be mostly upright. "Not that Will can make decisions yet. I dunno, I guess we'll carry on, figure out how Will's going to change things...figure out how things'll be different between us, now. What with the sudden marriage and all."
"You're welcome to stay with us while you two figure it all out, if you need to," Sarah said with a sad, understanding smile. "Luke and I would welcome the company...although," she managed a laugh. "The Doctor might not appreciate the constant questions."
"Never know," Donna managed to smile back at the woman the Doctor had mentioned so often with such fondness. "He might love the distraction. But, while I'd relish a break before we go tell my mum...it's just not fair on her, even if I haven't a clue yet how to explain Will and everything."
The TARDIS went 'bong' then, and Donna tilted her head for a moment, listening to something the other two couldn't hear. "We're on the way back now."
"Then say you'll visit us, when everything's settled," Sarah Jane said with a smile as she held Will while Donna got her blouse back on.
"That's an easy promise to make," Donna grinned as she took Will back. Then the three women headed back to the console room, wondering what they'd find there.
Vignette 7 - Journey's End - Crime and Punishment
AN: Angry vindictive Doctor warning.
Once Donna had left with Will and Martha and Sarah Jane, the Doctor stalked over to Rose and glared at her. "No point in taking the gag off, you'll only lie to me again, and I've got no more patience for your games, Rose."
Her eyes went huge, and she made muffled noises of protest as his hands came up and his fingers gripped the contact points nearly hard enough to cause pain. He didn't notice, nor care - there were answers that needed to be had from this murderer who'd nearly destroyed everything. Including all his thoughts and fond memories of her.
Five minutes later, he pulled away and took several deep breaths to try and regain control. As it was, he was still very angry when he began to speak. "Rose Tyler, you disgust me. How could you think that I'd be pleased with you potentially destroying several universes just to be with me again? When did I ever give you the impression that death and destruction was a GOOD THING?!"
Another few breaths, and he was capable of continuing. "And if that wasn't bad enough, you decided to work with the Trickster's Brigade to get everything working! Creatures that seek chaos and destruction! But that doesn't matter to you, does it? Nothing ever matters to you except getting what you want and damn the consequences!" He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. "I should have left you back with your mother after the disaster you created when I took you back to see your father, but I was too screwed up from the war, too damned lonely to want to go back to solitude."
Jack and Mickey shared a glance at that statement. They both knew the Doctor, and if he was swearing, even just a simple 'damn', then he was beyond angry and well into furious. Wordlessly they came to an agreement that they'd keep a sharp eye to make sure he didn't go into blind rage and actually hit Rose.
A bitter chuckle later and the Doctor curled his lip in a sneer as he finally finished his rant at Rose. "Half of this is my fault for indulging you...but you, Rose Tyler, oh, you take the cake with your obsessions. Do you know what would happen if I was going to let you stay in this universe? You'd be dropped off at the Shadow Proclamation with all the evidence of your crimes, and it's even odds whether they'd execute you or imprison you forever."
At Jackie's pained whimper, he gave her a sad smile. "It's all right, Jackie. I'm not going to do that. It won't be easy on you though - she'll be trapped in the parallel world with you for the rest of her life."
"But...how's that going to work?" Mickey asked, confused, but relieved that the Doctor seemed to have a handle on his anger now. "I mean, even if you destroy the dimensional cannon, you won't have time to find all the copies of the plans for it. She'll just be at it again."
"You'll see," was all he said, other than a request for their jump-buttons and the occasional instruction to Jack and Mickey as he used the signals from the buttons to pilot the TARDIS through the remaining gap to Pete's World.
Once he'd landed the Old Girl, he walked over to where Rose had fallen and picked her up. Then, once she was on her feet again, he went into her mind again and finished up his task by running the sonic screwdriver over her head. "Right, that's done. Jack, Jackie, Mickey, let's get her out of here."
Once they were outside, the Doctor removed the gag from Rose's mouth, but before she could speak he started talking again. "Now I want you to listen closely to me, Rose Tyler, because your very life depends on it. What I've done to you is altered the very composition of your brain - if you ever attempt to use the dimensional cannon again, or any other method of travelling universe to universe, the energy of the method of travel interacting with your own bio-electric field will cause you to suffer a brain aneurysm. A lethal one. This is your punishment for all your crimes - permanent exile without even a hope of return. Life imprisonment without parole."
He turned away from Rose and motioned Jack back into the TARDIS, but paused when Rose wailed. "But I love you! And if you'd just get rid of Donna, you'd realise you love me too!"
He turned back around, and missed Mickey sneaking into the TARDIS behind his back. "Love? You don't love me. You don't even love the idea of me you have in your head, you only want to own that Humanish bloke with a time-travelling box that you think I am. As for me loving you? Perhaps, once. But that was before you became a murderer. Before you callously destroyed countless lives because they didn't matter to you as long as you got what you wanted."
He turned away again, but paused on the threshold and looked over his shoulder with an icy glare. "And as for me getting rid of Donna? She's my wife - I would sooner cut off my arms than get rid of her. And that's the cherry on the whipped topping on your punishment, Rose. If you'd never done any of this, it's possible that I'd never have ended up married to Donna."
He entered the TARDIS and shut the door, blocking out the screams of denial, then strode to the console and began the work of returning them to their own universe. A part of him wondered why Jack was trying to repress a smirk, but he didn't bother with it until they'd got back home and he'd made sure the last crack was sealed.
Once he'd landed, in a park near the church he'd parked by what felt like days ago, he raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny, Jack?"
"Got a stowaway, Doctor." He grinned and motioned up, where Mickey was rising to his knees on the catwalk that circled half the console room.
"Mickey?! What are you doing up there? No, more important, what are you doing in here at all? I thought you'd adjusted to Pete's World!"
"Nothing there for me now, Boss. Hasn't been since my gran passed on...died in a mansion, she did, but after she was gone...well." He shrugged, then made a face. "And don't even mention Rose - she did her damndest to destroy every relationship I managed to start. Even though she was obsessed with you, she still couldn't stand me moving on to anyone else." Mickey sighed and hopped down from the catwalk. "So, d'you blame me for wanting to get away from that?"
The Doctor sighed and ran his hand through his hair, then shook his head with a wan smile. "No. No, I don't blame you. Question is, what are you going to do now?"
"Eh, I dunno. Might see if Captain Cheesecake could use an extra hand." Mickey smiled, and the Doctor was struck by how it looked like the smile of a prisoner who'd finally served his time and was let out into the sun. "I've got my whole life ahead of me, I'll figure something out."
"I could probably use an extra hand, so long as you can handle me as your boss, Mickey Mouse. Oh, and that's Beefcake," Jack said with a grin. Sounded like the kid had gone through hell and grown up from it - he'd fit in just fine with Torchwood. And if not, he could always hit up Martha for a UNIT post.
"Could do. We'll see how it works out, yeah?" Mickey grinned and fist-bumped both men as the women came back from the bowels of the TARDIS.
Vignette 8 - Journey's End - Home at Last
After tidying up the loose ends, especially with the Architect, and acquiring baby supplies, the Doctor heaved a sigh as he parked the TARDIS in back of the Noble-Mott residence. "Hang on a moment, Donna. It's raining outside, I'll need to get a big umbrella."
"And a couple pairs of wellies," Donna said as she got a glimpse at the monitor, currently displaying a torrential downpour. "Don't want to get our feet soaked even if you manage to keep the rest of us dry."
After that comment and some further thought, the three of them eventually knocked on the backdoor of her granddad's house, Donna in a mackintosh and a rain hat as well as being under the umbrella and wearing wellies.
Once inside, the Doctor ignored Sylvia's squawking and fluttering as he closed the huge umbrella, then helped Donna out of the mackintosh and hat and wellies.
"Oh my word," Sylvia breathed as the Doctor took the rain-gear off Donna to reveal her holding a baby boy. "Now where'd this little man come from?"
"Long story, Mum. Could we have a cuppa? And maybe something to eat? It's been ages since our last meal." In her arms, Will blinked sleepy eyes open and yawned, and Donna chuckled. "Well, not him, he had a feed just over an hour ago."
"Actually, it's a bit closer to three with the running about we've been doing," the Doctor said as he pulled a chair out for Donna. "He'll be wanting another feed and a nappy-change soon."
"Is it?" Donna looked up at him, curiously. "It didn't feel that long."
"A bit over an hour straightening out the Architect, then that brief visit with Sarah Jane to make sure she and her son were all right, and then tracking down those rifles from the parallel universe to keep them out of the wrong hands. And then we spent nearly an hour and a half popping back to buy Will the starter kit." The Doctor smiled wryly at the identical snorts from both women in the room, and sat down.
"Who's this Architect you're gabbling about?" Sylvia snapped out, even as she was gathering tea and sandwich makings. "And why'd you have to spend time straightening anything out with him? And what's that got to do with how come the pair of you have a baby?"
"We'll get there, Mum. And the Architect's a she...well, looks like a woman, anyway. Keeper of Galactic Laws, or somesuch like that." Donna smiled her thanks as her mum put together a half-sandwich for her. It'd be easier to eat and keep hold of Will than a whole one.
"A lot of which got violated today...but like I said, it's all straightened out now." He sipped at the tea that'd been placed in front of him, then sighed. "At any rate, best to tell you in order."
"Aye aye, just pick up from where that teleporting blonde with the big gun left us, unless important things happened before that." Wilf said as he sat down.
And the Doctor and Donna took up telling the tale of exactly what had happened, from the time Rose showed up to the time he'd punished Rose for her murderous tendencies and left her in that parallel world.
"But I still don't understand," Sylvia said as she gently cradled her brand-new grandson she'd managed to steal from her daughter. "How does all that make you pair married? And how was exile punishment for that horrible beastly girl trying to murder our Donna?"
"The marriage bit's a Time Lord thing, Mum. Nothing legal's been done on Earth yet, but according to Galactic Law and Time Lord customs, we're married. As for Rose..." Donna trailed off and snorted. "The Architect asked the same thing - how is exile a proper punishment?"
"Donna explains it better than I," the Doctor said as Will started fussing and his mum took him back and into the other room. "But she's going to be busy for a bit. Basically, the exile's a punishment not only because I made sure she'd die if she tried to escape, but because I'm the one who made the choices. The choice to leave her behind, the choice to ensure she could never be a danger again - that was all my doing. And she's going to have to live with the knowledge that I chose to leave her there for the rest of her life."
"As pigheaded as she seemed when she was here at our home, acting like she was better than anyone else who ever travelled with you, I'll not be surprised if her mother manages to send you a message saying the brat killed herself trying to get back to you."
"She wouldn't be able to. Send a message, I mean," the Doctor said with a sad sigh. "All the cracks are sealed. And I still don't know if I did the right thing...the Architect was furious with me for leaving Rose in that parallel world instead of bringing her back for trial and execution, until Donna got her to accept that exile to that parallel world was a worse punishment. But I couldn't do that to Jackie, I couldn't take her only daughter away like that. She deserved better, and now she's got the chance to maybe get through to Rose."
"It's the never knowing if Rose is still so obsessed she'd kill herself trying to get back that's bothering him," Donna said from the other room. "But at least when he explained to the Architect that Rose couldn't leave that universe because she'd die of the trying, she calmed down and stopped trying to punish him. It's imprisonment with punishment, just like if she'd been stuck in Cyberia - that's a virtual reality prison where prisoners are punished severely all the time, but in their heads. No marks left on their bodies."
"I think that was more your doing than mine," the Doctor said and chuckled wryly. "I don't do well with authority figures. They get up my nose, as Donna says."
"But it's all over and done with now?" Sylvia asked as the Doctor got up. "No more problems?"
"Well, no more galactic or universal problems for a while," he smiled at her as he headed into the other room. "Just some domestic ones."
"Which he's actually relishing, don't let him fool you," Donna said, grinning, as she came back into the kitchen. "He's looking forward to making things legal on Earth, and learning how to be part of a proper family."
"That's all well and good, but what's the little'un's name then?" Wilf asked, half-covering the Doctor's exclamation of surprise and shock from the other room.
"Oh, we didn't tell you that, did we?" Donna snickered as the sounds of the Doctor scolding his son about being a fire-hose came drifting from the other room, then smiled at her mum and granddad. "His name's William Tyrell, cos he protected me from Rose, and he was too stubborn to die."
"William Tyrell Noble. Not a bad name. And it's good that he got named before his father changed him the first time, otherwise he'd probably be named something to do with geysers or something like that." Sylvia smirked.
Donna laughed for no reason her family could see, then trailed off into snickers shaking her head. "Oh, he's tempted, believe me. Course, he could've listened to me when I told him baby boys do that..."
"Some things will only be learned by experiencing them. Seems like only one nurse in three will listen to warnings doing the antenatal rounds." Sylvia smirked, then raised an eyebrow at the extra rustling from the other room.
Rustling that was explained when the Doctor came back in wearing a different shirt, no tie, and carrying his giggling son.
"I told you so, Spaceman," Donna smirked as she took her son back and almost immediately offered him to her granddad so she could eat.
"Yes, and now I'm properly told again," he sulked as he sat back down and started eating.
"Here now," Wilf said as he finally got a really good look at his great-grandson. "I thought you said he looked the twin of his dad when he was older, Donna. He looks like he's got your dad's chin."
Sylvia leaned over to look and smiled. "So he does. Geoff's chin, his daddy's nose and cheekbones, and his mummy's hair and eyes."
"Those will probably darken," the Doctor said. "He's only a few hours old, and when he was adult, his eyes looked like mine."
"Oh you peanut," Donna snorted and patted his hand. "He regenerated, remember? So he went from being Daddy's twin to someone more like a blend of both of us. It's better that way, don't you think?"
"Yeah," he murmured, then beamed at her. "Yeah, it is better that way."
"So, when can we expect another?" Sylvia asked as she took over cuddling her grandson again.
"Mu-um!" Donna groaned and buried her face in her hands. Muffled, she continued. "Can't we get used to all this instant marriage and parenthood first?"
"Oh, I suppose we could give you a few months," Sylvia said with a positively evil smirk.
"Aye aye, what happened to not scaring them off?" Wilf asked his daughter with a frown.
"Oh Dad, they're married. It's a lot sooner than I thought it would be, I'll admit, but they're married. Now all they need to do is make it legal on Earth, and figure out how things will work. I mean, there's bound to be some issues, what with them both being alien to each other biologically."
The Doctor gave Donna a pleading look, complete with puppy-eyes. "I don't suppose we could just run off and elope, or something?"
"No. If we were going to do that, we should've done it before we came home." Donna rolled her eyes at her husband - so weird, calling the Doctor her husband! But it felt good, too, like coming home.
Then she frowned at her mother. "But it's not going to be a big to-do. Had one of those already, even if his ship kidnapped me right out of the middle of it."
"All right. I'll help you put together a small wedding..." Sylvia trailed off at the Doctor's fidgets and scowled at him. "And don't tell me you were thinking about just doing it at the Registrar's!"
"Ye...no...it's just..." The Doctor trailed off with a frustrated sigh. "I'm rubbish at weddings - just look at how we got married!"
"What, married by accident?" Donna snickered tiredly. "Don't tell me you were thinking about doing some romantic proposal, down on one knee and everything."
"Well, no, not necessarily down on one knee and everything. I just," He blew out a breath that fluttered his lips, and sighed again. "I just wanted you to have everything you wanted."
"Silly Spaceman," Donna smiled fondly and took his hand, twining her fingers with his. "Accident or not, I've got everything I want, right here. My family, complete with a husband who loves me, and our son. The rest of it? Wedding and all that? That's just frills."
"Yeah, the rest of that is all just frills." The Doctor beamed and leaned over to give Donna a tender and loving kiss.
Sylvia let that go on for about half a minute before she cleared her throat. "It's pouring down outside, and I'll not have you exposing my grandson to that wet and chill again. Dad, help Donna with the attic and finding her old cradle. Handmade, it should be usable once we get it cleaned up. You - what do I call you now, anyway? Doctor, like before?"
"Well, you could do that, yeah. I'm used to it. But since I'm your son-in-law now, you could call me John. And yes, it's not just a name dragged out of a hat - I've got papers." He gave his mother in law a tentative smile as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"John Smith, I'll bet. Well, better than Joe Bloggs, I suppose. But what Donna will think of being a Smith..."
"Oh! Oh, no, no, no, she won't be a Smith. The culture of my people means I take her surname. So it's me that's changing, from John Smith to John Noble." He grinned at Sylvia, then raised an eyebrow. "But what were you going to suggest I do, before what to call me distracted you?"
"Oh, yes. Well, I was going to suggest you go up to Donna's room and clean out a space for the cradle. She'll want to keep him close for a while, and the spare room's a mess anyway. But on second thought, you'll go up with Dad for the cradle, because Donna will know how much space needs to be cleared for it. Oh, I hadn't thought - did you pick up any bedding?"
"We've got bedding, yep." The Doctor stood and smiled at his sleeping son in his grandmother's arms. "The baby bag is bigger on the inside. Well, come on Wilfred. Show me the attic so I can bring the cradle down."
As her family scattered on their assigned tasks, Sylvia looked down at the bundle in her arms and sighed, wishing that her husband could have been here to see this moment.
A moment that would never have come about if an utterly mad, Twilight Zone moment hadn't happened two years ago.
Ending AN: And that's it. The end of the Turn Left?! universe. Well, unless of course more inspiration strikes... but don't hold your breaths. I've got way too much else on my plate to even think about more of this story for a long time.