Chapter Summary: 1947 England. Or at least the Doctor THOUGHT it was, but it's quite different. Quite different indeed given the war is still going on. It's up to the Doctor and Donna figure out how to fix time and how it relates to the bigger picture of what is happening.
The Doctor wouldn't admit it unless held at gunpoint, but he was officially in love with Donna's tea and biscuits. The black tea was sweet enough that he never had to add any more extra sugar, and the biscuits? Perfection to his pallet.
He had set up camp in his pilot's chair, munching away at what was probably his 5th biscuit, and searched through the files he had from UNIT displayed on the screen in front of him. Polishing off the treat, he pulled the blanket wrapped around him tighter (he figured he must be anemic since he was still cold despite all his layers), and furrowed his brows.
"So much of this stuff is trivial, I'm surprised they even care." He sighed and glanced over to Donna. She seemed to continue to enjoy piloting the TARDIS, which would shake every now and then as they passed through some time rifts, as it was presently. But this time rift seemed to have a good hold on the TARDIS presently. Sliding off his seat, he began to help her try and steady the old girl.
"Let's break off and land..." When things finally quieted down, the Doctor glanced over to the monitor. "England, 1947... Harmless enough!" But when he threw open the door, it definitely did not look like the England 1947 he knew. "Donna, the monitor does say 1947, right?" He glanced over to the wall and saw a poster of what appeared to be Churchill, in a military uniform and an eyepatch no less, and he could hear the sounds of a jets flying low above.
That was not a question that filled her with confidence. That was one of those 'I've landed in the wrong place and the universe is about to explode' questions. She glanced at the monitor and sure enough it said 1947. So either the monitor was acting up or something was very much not right.
She joined him at the door, looking over his shoulder. "Doctor... Going to point out the obvious, but this doesn't look like 1947 to me. And why is Winston Churchill dressed like that on a poster? I mean... the war's over... right...?"
"The war is very much over..." The Doctor slowly walked out and watched another group of jets fly over them, and explosions sounded in the distance. And now the more he looked, most buildings looked quite pathetic - half exploded, reduced to rubble.
He saw a child run past them, "Excuse me! This is 1947, right?" The kid replied with an expletive followed by what sounded as "of course!" and continued running.
"C'mon, let's have a look, shall we?" He turned back to Donna.
Because going and having a look when there were explosions and danger was just what any sane person would do. Donna rolled her eyes and sighed, closing the TARDIS door behind her.
"Seriously... What is it with you and danger? You're totally a trouble magnet. Maybe trouble mistakes your tall streak of nothingness as a beacon or sommat."
He scoffed. "Aren't you a wee bit curious as to why the war is still happening, and Churchill is wearing an eye patch?" Ok, so the eye patch thing was completely irrelevant, but he was curious to know why everything the two had learned about history, the war was certainly over by this point.
"Well, 'course. Doesn't mean I want to run into the nearest explosion though. We could've tried, oh I dunno... asking someone first - and before you say anything, I mean an adult, not a kid..."
They made their way down the streets, heading towards the inner parts of the city, stumbling over rubble as they went. "The city's a mess!" The Doctor whistled as distinct landmarks were clearly missing or in bad shape.
She gripped onto his arm to stop herself from ending up in a less than graceful heap as she clambered over some rubble. "You're telling me. What the heck's going on? I mean, they should've been on the way to rebuilding at least, by now..."
"Careful...!" He placed his hand on the small of her back, easing her through the rubble down an alleyway until he came to a door in one of the buildings.
"I know a little secret~" He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and opened the door and nodded inside. "There's a series of tunnels that lead to London's HQ during this time, if it hasn't been too damaged; actually, we ought to be cautious in case any of the water mains broke. But nothing a little walking and a little screwdriver can't fix our way otherwise! Allons-y!"
The Doctor was most definitely getting his energy back as he excitedly snuck into the entrance way.
She was glad he was on the mend, of course she was. But at least when he'd been sick he stayed in one place more than five minutes. "Secret tunnels? Are you having me on? You're not joking, are you? What is it with secret tunnels and government, and why do you know so much about them? Beginning to think you're an alien spy." She huffed and followed him inside.
"I'm not joking and I'm most definitely not a spy! I've been around these walk-a-bouts during the war... I've even met Churchill before!" He flashed a smile before making his way down the stairs.
When they reached the bottom, he used his screwdriver to find the wireworks of the tunnel, and dim lights flashed on. "Ah, I think we're in luck!" He watched a rat scurry across a few feet in front of them. "These were escape routes and inter-workings to different departments of the government. Some of these don't exist in your present time, due to old age and neglect..." There was always a history lesson from the Doctor.
No, Donna did not squeak at the sight of the rat. Of course not. She battled all kinds of terrifying monsters, she wasn't afraid of a teeny, tiny rat... Honest. She took hold of the Doctor's arm. But she wasn't clinging. Nope. "Should've known the government would have escape routes. Leg it out the back door while the rest of the country get blown to pieces. Nothing changes."
The Doctor stopped at a door, first placing his hand on it as if thinking about it, and then soniced it open. When the lights flickered on, there were boxes and boxes of papers, files.
"What do we have here~?" He didn't quite know the answer to Donna's questions of wondering what was wrong. Not yet, at least, as he stepped up to a box and pulled out a few documents. "Well, they're quite adamant in their thoughts that their papers are secure." There were various files on random members of foreign government employees.
Pulling off the lid of another box, he found more files, and paused. "This is wrong. This is all very wrong..." He held up the document and showed Donna. "Heinrich Himmler was the chief of the German police, the Reichsführer-SS... He's dead. Well, suppose to be dead..."
"And you are right." A voice spoke behind them, causing the Doctor and Donna to spin around and see a figure in the doorway. "He evaded arrest by the British army and escaped through France. His where-abouts are unknown at this time."
And dear God! That voice darn well almost gave her a heart attack. It was easy to hear the pounding of her heart over the otherwise stuffy, awkward silence. Great. They were going to be murdered by government officials for snooping at classified documents... Not exactly how she planned to die.
The Doctor squinted, trying to get a better look at who was speaking, "No, he's actually dead at this time in history. He was caught... committed suicide..."
"I did a report on him at school. Got the best grades in the class." Oh, look at Donna with all her history knowledge. After all, it wasn't as if she'd just been able to google him and copy down a Wiki page. No, this was in the days of books and research.
"Oh, hello..." Don't say anything stupid, Donna. Keep your mouth shut. "I'm Donna and this is... Doctor... Smith. We're... um... here to sort these files and transfer them to a secure location..."
What was Donna doing? Wait... maybe she was on to something. When the man stepped forward more into the room, looking quite skeptical, the Doctor pulled out his psychic paper and showed him. "She's right! Blimey, what terrible organization here! Churchill would be ashamed!"
The man nodded at the paper, seeming to be slightly satisfied at the credentials flashed at him. "Well, limited time, sir. We're attempting to move to a new location, as you know."
"Oohh, right, yes. Erm, my memory's a bit fuzzy, where are we moving again? Big party - underground party - th' evening before it was announced, I was a bit sloshed... Donna wasn't able to attend the meeting; the kids were sick that day, y'know." He was going to get a slap for that one later.
Kids were sic-what?! Oh, he was so dead later. Of course, the off-handed comment led to a lovely awkward conversation about being a working mother in such times. The things they got themselves into. But at least they hadn't been arrested and/or shot yet. Bonus.
"Anyway... We've got an awful lot of sorting to do, so, if we could have that address? Ta, very much. And if we could take your name too, just in case we run into any security clearance problems the other end. Alright?"
They were left alone once again in the room, and the Doctor sighed with relief. "Good, now we've got more documents than we know what to do with, and where to go later. We need to figure out why history has changed. I don't think we're in an parallel universe. It doesn't seem like one, at least..." He glanced over at Donna, "Why are you looking at me like that?... Oh, the kids comment?"
"Yes, the kids comment." She rolled her eyes. Don't spring random kids on her without warning, Doctor. "Be thankful I didn't slap you."
She made her way over to one of the boxes and ripped one open. "Well, at least Mr Creep McCreeper won't be arresting us any time soon, it'll buy us a bit of time." She grabbed a handful of documents to look through. "So, what are we looking for then? I mean it's not just going to say 'oh look, here's where history messed up', is it?"
He helped himself to an old chair and kicked his legs up on the desk. "No, unfortunately. It's going to be harder... I say we look through some more documents and then see who we can rub elbows with later. That is, of course, alright to leave the children at home. Dangerous times without their mum." The Doctor smiled wickedly at Donna's irritation.
That did it! That earned the Doctor a nice, healthy smack around the head with a rather thick document. What? He deserved it! Skinny git. Defender of Earth? More like a royal pain in the backside. "The kids'll be fine. They're Nobles."
She huffed, sitting herself on the floor with her documents. They should've brought snacks. She had a feeling it would take awhile. War. Blah. Government. Blah. Politics... Wait, war? That would be a good place to start. "I thought you could see all of Time and Space with your super tingly Time Lord senses... Can't you just, I dunno, tell what's wrong?"
"I may be a Time Lord, but I'm not a god!" He had chuckled at her 'noble' comment, but now he had to scoff. "Besides, it's complicated!"
"If you were a god, you'd be a nightmare to live with. Seriously, your ego would probably implode inside that massive head of yours." Was she teasing? It was hard to tell.
He stood up quickly, "This isn't going to work. Let's go." He was growing impatient, and Donna's comment only helped him realize their limited time. Zipping back into the hallway, he started to ramble. "Something must of changed history... How would it change? Oh, think think think! Somehow decisions were made but not followed through, or decisions were not made and things continued to grow worse..."
And off he went again. With a huff, she followed. Why did it seem he was constantly stuck in high-speed mode? Someone really needed to teach him the art of casual strolling. "You mean something like a decision not to go to war, or to give up? Oh God, that's not what's happened is it? We haven't lost and are now living in a mini-Nazi-land hellhole are we?" The thought was more terrifying than any monster.
"No, I don't think we've won or lost... I think the war just hasn't ended yet." They caught sight of a few people walking in the passageway, and the Doctor hid more in the shadows. He had absorbed himself in thought trying to hypothesize what would've made the war not end. None of this was making sense. "I suppose we figure out what they're planning now, and then fish for clues as to why things seem the way they are. Unless you have a better idea?"
"You're the genius, I'm following you. Though I do think we should go schmooze with the big boys. We're so good at schmoozing." She smirked at him, sliding along in the shadows with him. "Get a few drinks down their necks and I'm sure we can get some answers. Have to be careful though." She took a breath. "'Careless talk costs lives'," she could've been a poster girl.
He grinned at her reply, "Brilliant idea, Donna! Although at this point, I don't think we need to worry about 'Loose lips sinking ships'."
They made it out to a clearing where the hallways split off into more branching sections. The Doctor noticed more people down a particular hallway and went in that direction. "Excuse me, sir, I'm a bit lost down here; I get that way every time it seems. I was looking for the board meeting..." If there was one thing the Doctor learned about wartime, there were always meetings occurring somewhere at any given time.
"Oh certainly! I get lost at times too, there was this one time..." The man kept rambling as the Doctor smirked at Donna. It looks like they were in!
Oh that Doctor, such a smooth liar. One of these days their lies would get them killed, Donna just knew it. And it wouldn't be a quick painless death either. They'd be slowly tortured to death and it would all be the Doctor's fault. Of course, thoughts of fatal ends at the fault of the Doctor often ran through her mind. And shopping. The head of a Ginger Goddess, a complex place indeed.
She zoned out slightly as the man rambled. It was a skill she'd developed over the years, temping taught a person a great many skills - came in very handy when the Doctor went off on one of his technobabble rambles on the TARDIS.
As they were led to a room of people, Donna smiled at the Doctor. "Let the schmoozing begin!"
The Doctor eyed his prospects. There were some military figure heads in one corner, and some parliament members scattered about, and some people the Doctor assumed were perhaps the stray family members.
Off to one side there was a make shift table with a couple wine bottles and glasses and the Doctor made sure to utilize it. Donna was right, fed them alcohol and they will talk. Good thing no bananas were around to make a daiquiri or else the Doctor's night would've never ended or made progress in the first place. Bananas were good.
"Figure out what's the current plans and maybe what treaties, strategies, anything that might not have taken place for this to have happened." He spoke quietly to Donna while pouring a couple glasses for her to give away.
Secret missions, brilliant. Donna couldn't help but feel a little bit like a spy - which technically she supposed she was. MI8, here she comes. "Try not to get us arrested, alright? I don't much fancy a night in the cells, right?" She shot him a knowing smirk before disappearing into the crowd with her glasses of wine.
The Doctor managed to sneak into a circle of some higher ranked military personal and listened with vested interest. They got talking about their wives finding moving to the countryside relaxing, but children were complaining which always makes things frustrating. Then there was some jokes tossed about, and eventually conversation got around to some news on the field.
"Excuse me, but who are you again?" Someone asked the Doctor.
"Smith! John Smith. I was hired recently to move the files..." The Doctor grinned widely. "My assistant, Donna, is around here somewhere..." And when there were comments assuming 'assistant' meant wife, he quickly shook his head. "Oh no! Definitely not together like that!" For some reason people always assumed it.
"Anyway, about the field news..." The Doctor snatched some glasses of wine that had just passed him on a tray and he handed them out. It was time to do some investigating.
Donna would never understand why people automatically assumed they were a couple. He was a long tall streak of alien nothing for christ sake. Totally not her type. Unlike the lovely gentleman she'd found herself schmoozing with in a corner. He was quite dishy and loose-lipped with alcohol down him. He was rambling on about this and that. Most likely nothing, but you never knew. Even the smallest tidbits could be important.
Sometime later she sidled up to the Doctor's side, leaning in so he could hear her without talking too loud. "So? Got anything? Mr Handsome over there was going on about some treaty thing and some fight talk."
"Him? Handsome?" It was good to know what the Doctor paid attention to first, as he made a face looking at the man in question. Really Donna could do better on the looks department... "What did he say to you? Anything worthwhile?" He took a sip of his glass of wine and watched the crowd as Donna spoke.
"What's wrong with him? He's bloody gorgeous, he is." Trying to fix history and Donna was busy checking out the available eye candy... Business as usual then. "Well, I dunno, there was a lot of rambling, but he said something about some peace treaty and he was waffling about some super secret document about the war locked away in the vault.
"Pity we can't get into a sealed vault." She slipped an arm around the Doctor, sliding her hand into his pocket to swipe his screwdriver, wiggling it at him. "Oh wait, I forgot. We can!"
"Oi! Hands!" The Doctor tried not to flail about at her wandering hand and pulling out his screwdriver. "You could've asked!"
"See? You should trust my womanly wiles once in awhile." She smirked, still wiggling the sonic screwdriver between her fingers. Pleased? You bet. She's always secretly proud as punch when she gets things right. Maybe, just maybe, one day she'll believe she's brilliant - it's not very likely though.
He looked about and sighed inwardly with relief that no one seemed to be focused on their antics. But he was quite proud of Donna finding this information out. Now to locate the vault. Really, there weren't that many options, so it shouldn't take too long. "Onwards?" He asked as he deposited his glass on an empty table.
She smiled at him, giving a nod. "Onwards." Always on the move.
They slipped out of the party as easily as they had got in, once again stepping back into the shadows of the poorly lit halls. Moving silently, the Doctor kept an ear open for anything to alert them they were being followed, but luck seemed to play on their side today.
He paused at a fork in the hall, "Hm, was it left or right?" He remembered the vault was connected to the conference room of Churchill's, but the Doctor seemed a bit lost. "It's been a while!" He spoke before Donna could interject with something snarky.
She arched an eyebrow at him, but somehow managed to keep her snarky comments to herself. A time and place for everything. It was hard though. Snarking and mocking him came so naturally to him. "We could always split up?" Because splitting up on dangerous missions was always safe... "I'll go left, you go right. One of us is bound to find it..." Or get arrested/maimed/killed.
"You sure?" Because he definitely wasn't keen on the idea of splitting up with her. What is someone kidnaps her? True, it was the 1940's, but still, kidnapping! "Ok, fine... 30 minutes. No more, perhaps less." He was really hesitant about allowing this.
"Alright, 30 minutes. Don't worry Spaceman, if anyone tries any funny business you'll hear me giving them what for." If he doesn't hear her shouting then the sound of her slapping someone is bound to reach him.
Oh, screwdriver... She handed it back to him, just in case he needed it, and off she went to explore. And hopefully not get arrested!
He lingered for a moment, watching Donna go down the opposite hallway by herself before finally going his way. She'll be fine! Nothing will happen! He had to keep reminding himself as he skirted his way once again in the dimly lit hall. Really, this place was fantastic for disturbing films and the such.
Just walking a little bit, he stopped at a door. Pausing to look around himself, he was drawn to open it and stepped inside. Yes this was it, the vault was in this office! The Doctor was about to turn and go find Donna, but decided he'd take peek first in the vault in case, for some reason, they weren't able to make it back.
Using his sonic screwdriver, he hacked through the code and opened up the small closet-like room and glanced at the various stacks of papers through the shelves. Momentarily, he placed the screwdriver in his mouth as he started skimming through what appeared to be various documents and treaties. Oh, this was indeed good!
Donna, on the other hand, searched for the vault with no luck and eventually made her way back to the meeting point where she waited. And waited. And waited. She paced, she sat, she twiddled her thumbs and she watched the time tick by on her watch. After one hour, seventeen minutes and three seconds, she gave up waited and went in search of the Doctor.
She crept along the corridor, poking her head into rooms until she finally spotted the skinny git. "OI!" Her voice was an angry raised whisper. "Thirty minutes, you said. For a Time Lord you have a rubbish sense of time!"
"Oh, Donna!" Had he really lost that much track of time? He was sitting on the floor with papers spread out around him looking a bit sheepish for not watching the clock.
"Donna, look at all this!" He held up some documents. "These are concentrations camps, yes? A whole list! But only a few were liberated... And Donna, look at the date on this - 1946. This doesn't make sense. I mean, it does... Oh... Ohhhhh!" He furiously began flipping through another stack. "The Yalta Conference has never happened! Japan, Germany... they're all still in the war right now." His eyes were wide with a mix of confusion and excitement, "Do you understand what all this means? Documents missing, conferences not happening... Somehow history has been altered to where these things have been manipulated to have gone missing or never happen at all!"
She made her way over to him and knelt down, picking up a handful of the papers to look through some of them. "So, what you're saying is history has been changed and instead of winning the war and starting to rebuild we're still fighting and people are still dying?"
She huffed. "Why do I get the feeling this is your fault? What did you do? Accidentally land the TARDIS on a government official on treaty signing day?" She wouldn't put it past him. "More importantly, can we fix it?"
"What? No! No, of course I didn't!" Really, Donna, he knew how to control the TARDIS. What kind of Time Lord would he be if he couldn't? He had his "brainy-specs" on and pulled them off (partially for dramatic effect, but that's besides the point) and rubbed his eyes.
"I don't really know what to make of this. For some reason, it looks like important conferences didn't happen... I have a feeling the conference in Tehran never took place either, which completely alters history and explains why only a few camps have been liberated." He looked up to her, "We're definitely still fighting and dying."
A huff and a frown. "We have to find out what went wrong, Doctor..."
Donna ruffled her hair, scratching at her scalp. Seemed she was picking up a few nervous habits from a certain alien. "Right, but why didn't they happen? I mean there must be a reason, right? Can't we... I dunno, pop back to the dates they're supposed've happened and fix it? I mean we can't just sit back and watch the world destroy itself, can we? And don't you dare give me and 'fixed-point' nonsense, either."
"None of these wars are fixed points, actually." Typically the Doctor didn't like to become involved in such worldly things like this, but all of history was now altered. He had thought to leave things the way they were, but if he did, there were strong chances that what he and Donna knew as present time wouldn't be anything like it was. Everyone he ever knew and traveled with may never come to be...
"Well, this surely complicates things." He glanced at Donna, still unsure of what to do. "I suppose we ought to fix things, but it still wouldn't explain why the timeline had become altered."
With the war still ongoing there was every chance that Wilf would be killed, meaning no Sylvia, which in turn meant no awesome Ginger Goddess known as Donna, and that just wasn't fair on the universe. She leaned back on her hands. "So, what do you suggest, Mr Genius? We can't just do nothing." With a sigh she picks up some of the papers, flicking through them.
He pursed his lips in thought at Donna's questions. Although he never voiced it, but he was quite concerned about paradoxes especially when it came to this era in time. He had traveled it so much. But really, they had no choice and he needed to fix it. Everyone he ever met on Earth might never be born or turn out the way they had if history is altered this greatly.
"I suppose we go back. Make sure the correct people receive the proper documents, connections are made at conferences...I suppose this takes a page out of your temping days, eh?"
"Making sure Mr Bigwig gets to the right meeting at the right time with the right paperwork? This is my speciality, Spaceman. Keep your sonics and your timey wimey to yourself and see how we profession temps schmooze it up in the real world." She might not believe she's good at much in life, but when it comes to temping, she's one of the best.
"Well don't just sit around on the floor all day, Time Boy. We have work to do!" She was already on her feet.
"Yes ma'am!" He scrambled to his feet and followed her quick haste back down the halls. They passed a few people and made some silly excuses (the Doctor couldn't resist one more 'for the kids!' comment) and eventually found their way back outside.
Eventually, they reached the TARDIS, and the Doctor quickly sonic-ed a typewriter device. "It finds documents!" He grinned widely with a childish excitement. "I can program it to replicate things. Clever, innit?" The plan? Visit the important people and hand out the proper documents per their time. The outcome? Hopefully time will fall back to it's proper place and the rest is history, so they say.
For a 900+ year old alien, the Doctor could be such a kid sometimes. Donna rolled her eyes at the device. "Yeah, brilliant, Spaceman. Pretty sure a computer could do the same thing though. Less talky, more worky."
She would gladly listen to him waffle on and on about anything - but later, over tea, when the world wasn't all wrong and things were back to normal. Heck, she'd even bake him a banana cake to celebrate.
Oh, he'd do just about anything for one of her banana cakes. Bananas? Cakes? How could you go wrong with that combo!?
The type writer was now queuing copies of important documents that the Doctor planned to "mail" to the proper recipients. "First stop, 1941! Invitations to the Arcadia Conference! Let's make sure the US and England rub elbows, shall we?" As far as the Doctor was concerned, everything seemed to have planned out correctly for the Axis side of the war, not so much for the others. A little coaxing and everything should go as properly planned. Coordinates locked, the Doctor grinned back to Donna and winked. Hopefully this should work, and honestly, they weren't interfering with time too much by dropping off letters.
Donna was pretty sure they were probably breaking every Time law in the universe. Still, it was for a good reason and the Doctor did say it wasn't a fixed point... "Well then, schmoozing with some pretty Yank boys? Brilliant."
He didn't consider old political men to be pretty, but if Donna said so, he'd take her word for it. If he did catch her 'schmoozing' with Franklin D. Roosevelt, he already told himself to refuse to let her get away with it.
But Doctor. Schmoozing with Franklin D. Roosevelt was going to be the highlight of the trip. That'd be one for the storybooks. Such a spoilsport. Just wait until you happen to accidentally meet Casanova, there'll be no stopping her - laws of time be damned.
"Ok, Miss Noble," The Doctor scrambled to properly label the envelopes, "Have you practiced your lines? Remember we're government employees now. Go in, deliver, that's all we need to focus on." First stop, the US, then Churchill, then on to the next event. This was going to be a long day of errands, it seems, but at least on their next stop they can gauge how well things were progressing and if they were successful.
"Don't worry about me, Spaceman. Operation Envelope is well in hand. You just make sure that you don't get into any trouble. No getting arrested or shot, alright?"
"Don't worry about me~" He momentarily fixed his tie before opening the door inside the White House. Finally they managed to move through the crowd and found the President's office. The Doctor paused and pressed his ear against the door. "Oh, a meeting!" Backing up a foot, he nodded to Donna to knock and go in and make her delivery.
Nerves. Nerves were beginning to get to her now. She paced by the door, hugging the envelope to her chest, taking a few calming breaths. "Wish me luck..."
He gave her an encouraging slap to the shoulder (despite this not being a football game) and whispered. "Remember your American accent!"
While she was in there, the Doctor paced. Honestly, there was nothing to worry about, yet he was anxious. He looked out the window, counted the leaves on the fake tree decoration, and browsed the hallway's artwork when Donna finally emerged from the room. "Good! On to our next stop!" And when they reached the TARDIS, he paused and a shit-eating grin spread across his face. "Was FDR everything you dreamed of and more?"
"For your information, Time Boy, he was lovely, actually. Seems a shame that once we put history back the way it should be he'll die. Might've had to pop back for a visit or two otherwise." Her heart was still pounding in her chest from the nerves and adrenaline. Wait until she told Gramps that she'd been mingling with the bigwigs in the Whitehouse! Beat temping in a rubbish little office any day!
"Come on then. Next stop."
This was going to be a long day once he debriefed Donna for the delivery for Churchill and then jetted off to 1942 to make sure the Battle of the Coral Sea took place with the proper result. In 1943, they sat on a far off hill watching the German troops surrendering at Stalingrad before sending more invitations out for the Trident Conference. Donna got to rub elbows again with the president and exited the conference room with what the Doctor swore was more bounce to her step despite being tired. At least he was tired as the day's hours drew out.
At the end of 1943, they were relieved that the invites for the Teheran Conference had been already done, so the Doctor could only hope things were going back to normal. To end their long day, they sat on the beach of Normandy and watched the Allied troops come in.
Sinking his feet in the sand, the Doctor yawned. "'S been a long day, Donna." They had been awake for at least 18 hours running back and forth, and part of that was due to the adrenaline and watching history play out in front of them. They got a bit carried away.
Donna was pretty sure they'd sent people to their deaths with their meddling, but if they hadn't changed things back to how they were supposed to have been the war would've just kept going and millions more lives would've been needlessly lost. Still, travelling with the Doctor did a number on anyone's moral compass. the line between right and wrong was a very blurry one at times.
Now that the adrenaline was fading, Donna was beginning to realise just how tired she was. She'd been running back and forth, meeting all kinds of important historical figures, mingling with all kinds of important people. Her, Donna Noble, temp from Chiswick, helping to restore history.
She rested her head on his shoulder, stifling a yawn. "Mm, but look at everything we did. Look at this, no history book can capture this moment. We're seeing it for real, no printed word can describe it."
"Brilliant, innit? S'why I love traveling so much, all the history you get to witness and see how things evolve!" True, they just had manipulated a world war and caused plenty of deaths, but the Doctor refused to let that guilt affect him. Sometimes timelines had to be put in their proper places. And then he also had the power to change history completely, but he knew better and didn't bother trying.
"And here I thought you loved travelling so you could show off all the trivial knowledge in that oversized head of yours," she teased, shifting closer to try and steal his body heat - not that there was much to steal, mind. He was a walking icicle most of the bleedin' time. But tiredness and miserable weather had decided to make Donna realise how chilly she felt.
"There's a couple more stops we'll have to make, hopefully with minimal manipulations, and then we'll check back to where we were in 1947 and see if things are proper." But not exactly that minute. Right now, he was enjoying the beach, regardless of all shouting from troops and the bleak weather.
"If we fix things, does that mean those people... aliens... things will stop hunting you down?" Hey, can't blame a woman for a little bit of wishful thinking...
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders enjoying the warmth she offered, unfortunately he didn't have much to offer in return. The Doctor stayed silent for a very long time, looking out at the horizon as the boats emptied and the troops had mostly cleared. Dark eyes softening as he felt more sympathetic as he caught one trooper looking at them, holding a lingering gaze before he turned and walked on.
Finally, the Doctor spoke. "No, I don't think so. This presents many possibilities. This might be a completely unrelated, stand alone incident, or it can be a piece to our puzzle... and I'm thinking more that it's part of the puzzle."
A shiver ran down Donna's spine. A chill in her bones as her Nan would've said. She sighed and pressed a kiss to the Doctor's temple before pushing herself to her feet, dusting off the sand. "Come on, let's go back to the TARDIS and warm up, finish fixing history and then figure out our next move..."
She was worried. Not for herself, but for the Doctor. Whoever these people were that were chasing him were not exactly friendly, and of course she knew he had enemies, a man didn't live for over 900 years and not annoy a few people, but this was big, so much bigger than a petty little grudge or something.
He followed her back in the TARDIS, thankful for the warmth that enveloped them both.
With a sigh, they each changed in their respective costumes for their parts, him in a military uniform and her as his secretary. Or at least that was the roles they had made up for each other. Sneaking into some board meetings and making sure to avoid giving away any details, the Doctor had instructed to just stay in the background supervising these final meetings. And supervising silently was exactly what they did as time after time they watched the higher ranks debate their next strategic move, discussing winning back the pacific and moving into Greece. The final meeting they attended was the discussion of liberating Dachau and news of what had happened there.
The Doctor leaned over and whispered to Donna, "Let's go." And quietly they slipped out of the dark room only illuminated by the slide show presentation. "I don't think we need to see the rest... It seems everything is back in it's correct place."
These last few hours they both pushed themselves to make one final check. "1947, just past the TARDIS door!"
The never-ending day was growing closer and closer to closure. Donna was exhausted, but it had been a worthwhile and important day. She was more than ready to kick off her shoes, flop on the sofa and call it a day, but like the Doctor said, they still had one stop.
She paced by the TARDIS door unable to bring herself to open it, scared of what might be waiting on the other side. What if all their hard work had been for nothing? "Ready?"
He had watched her pace nervously around. Actually, he was quite nervous as well, but he wasn't going to say anything. Really, he'd be quite shocked if it wasn't right, because after all the work they had done, damnit, it should be fixed!
"Ready!"
The door whined as it turned on it's hinges and... yup. Normal. A flock of schoolboys ran past them as they stepped out. "Aw, Donna, the children!" He waited for the snarky reply with eagerness.
Unfortunately for the Doctor, the snarky reply was replaced with a firm punch to the arm. Hey, at least it wasn't a slap around the face - every cloud has a silver lining. "Seriously, what is it with you and kids today? Anyone would think you're broody. History goes crazy and you start wondering where your next litter of Timelings is coming from? I'll tell you now, Sunshine, I'm not some Timeling oven for your personal use!"
Huff. Rant over. That felt better. Now she could take in the sight of the fixed city in front of her and enjoy the labours of her hard work and hours of schmoozing. "Looks like it worked..."
"T-Timelings?" Really, is that what they call them, Donna? "I'm just joking with you." He rubbed his arm where she had landed a pretty decent punch as he walked further into the street looking about.
"For what it's worth, I think you'd make a good mother." He'll drop the subject now, scout's honor. It was just fun to agitate her sometimes.
The sun was shining, buildings intact... yup, it was a good day. "If I weren't so tired, I'd ask if you wanted to take a walk." He snatched a piece of newspaper clinging to the drain and read the headlines.
Hey, it's not her fault she knows little about Time Lord reproduction. Not exactly the first thing you learn in Sex Ed. Time Babies could be alien blobs of goo in jars for all she knew. She did sigh at his comment about motherhood. She tried not to let it show, but her tired eyes betrayed her, showing a moment of sadness. "Me? Maybe, once. Not any more. Changing nappies while running from a Dalek? Breastfeeding while flying the TARDIS? Besides, not as if I'm a spring chicken, is it? My biological body clock has ticked away." It was a delicate subject - children - and one she tried to avoid whenever possible.
"Never thought I'd see the day when you were too tired to explore." A smile ghosted her lips. "So, news all right and proper? No weird aliens popped up? Aside from you..."
"You're not that old." That was quite the saying from a 900+ year alien.
He continued to look nonchalantly through the newspaper and frowned. "No aliens, but blimey did you see the score's of the Football League First Division Championship? Arsenal wins, but I always thought Man U would get through to them."
She rolled her eyes at him. "Typical bloke. World nearly ends and all you care about it the bleedin' football results. Who cares about Man U? Spaceman. Don't tell me you support the Mancs? West Ham all the way, Sunshine."
"I watch some, yeah. No particular favorites." He snapped the paper shut and looked to her. "Well! I think we've succeeded, dear Donna. Celebration tea and some sleep?" It was pretty rare for him to talk about wanting and needing sleep, but he still hadn't recovered 100% from his assassination attempt from the previous week.
"As long as you don't plan to slob about drinking beer and watching footie... don't think the universe could cope." She gave him a nudge. "Tea and sleep? Throw in a hot bath and it's a deal, Time Boy."
He laughed. "Is that an invitation?" Ok, he had to go there just to provoke one if those adorable irritated looks if hers. Sometimes it was too easy to press her buttons and he'd be lying if he said he didn't do it on purpose.
He was well on the way to earning himself a slap if he carried on winding her up. A slap, or she might just not bake for a whole Earth month. Donna isn't above bribes and blackmail when the time is right.
Back inside the TARDIS, he pushed her off in direction of the bathroom while he made the tea. "I can make tea too, y'know!" He shouted after her. Knowing it bothered her when she lost control of the kitchen. He insisted upon doing something nice for her.
She also hated the idea of the Doctor in the kitchen, alone, unsupervised. "Don't sonic the kettle, don't put anything metal in the microwave and do not leave the tea bags on the worktop!" With the ground rules laid down she was happy to go and lose herself in a hot, deep, bubble bath. Just what she needed after the long day.
"Right, right!" He didn't sonic the kettle but he did help the stove out in boiling the water, but Donna didn't need to know that. He fixed himself a cuppa (yes, he did load it with sugar. She wasn't around him to stop him!) And sat in his pilot's chair, navigating them back to their seemed to be their limbo spot in space.
Glancing at the numerous untouched files from UNIT strung across the console, he sighed. What a mess he still had to go through. He was growing quite concerned about what this all was a bigger picture of in the grand scheme of things, but for right now he was too tired to care about it.
Donna remained in her glorious bubble bath until the water started to go cold and her fingers and toes looked like prunes. She dried herself off, climbed into her pyjamas and fluffy towelling robe, and fluffy slippers and plaited her hair. She sincerely hoped there'd be no more running today.
She trudged to the console room, watching the Doctor from the door way for a moment before heading over. "Penny for them..."
"Mm, yeah..." He took a sip of his tea and flipped a lever on the console. Finally he glanced over to her, "Anywhere specific you'd like to go? I can't make any promises it'll be safe or no running will occur. Maybe for 30 minutes it'll be like old times." Being tired made him more subdued, it seemed, but he was tired and frustrated with no instant answers.
"We should just hang around here until you're rested. And don't give me any of that 'Time Lords are superior and don't need much sleep' nonsense. You're exhausted, even I can see that!"
She paused for a moment, mulling something over in her head before giving a nod. "Right. Jacket and shirt off. No arguments."
"W-What!?" He was definitely awake now at that statement. "What are you implying!? Are you taking advantage of me...I was joking about all that children nonsense!" Well, he was being serious about her making a good mother, but he didn't mean for her to become one right at this moment. Oh Doctor, how fickle your mind can be.
Donna rolled her eyes before laughing. "Oh give over, you prawn. And get your mind out of the gutter. Pervy old man. Just, get your jacket and shirt off. I'm gonna give you a massage before the tension snaps you in half."
She gave his ear a flick for good measure. "You want me to take advantage of you? Go get yourself a body like Captain Jack's and come back to me."
"Really? Jack strikes your fancy...?" The Doctor was unamused and finally consented to her demands in fears she'd choke him with his tie. But really, what was with everyone fawning over the guy? He couldnt even die! (The Doctor doesn't want him to die, of course, they were quite a good team together. He was just trying to pick one of his few flaws.)
And then all thoughts escaped him when Donna touched his shoulders. Oh, she hadn't even done anything yet and that felt nice... Until she opened her mouth to say something. Probably about how boney he was.
"Jack's bloody gorgeous. I mean, come on. Look at him. He could rescue me any day of the week." Blame his pheromones, Doctor. He could make the hardest, iciest of hearts melt over him. Besides, Donna is a woman stuck on a space ship. She has needs. Jack could fix those needs whenever he wanted...
"Blimey, you really are a twiglet, aren't you? Have you even been eating while I've been gone?" She worked her thumbs in slow circles. God, he was tense. She was worried he might snap under her touch - just like a twiglet...
"I'm going to bed if you keep talking about Jack or how skinny I am." Way to destroy the Doctor's delicate ego, Donna, despite your master hands.
"Okay, okay. No more swooning about Jack. Not that I was swooning. I don't swoon. I was admiring. Yes, admiring, definitely not swooning. And you are skinny. I'm sorry, but you are." She continued to work her thumbs over those tense muscles.
"I suppose you wouldn't look so skinny next to anyone else. But you make me look like a beached whale." But it's such a big ego, Doctor. If it got any bigger he wouldn't fit through the TARDIS door.
"Doooonna!" He spun around to face her, now rightly irritated. "You're brilliant! I couldn't have done any of this without you! You're really the only one I've ever taught to fly the TARDIS. And you're not a whale!" And to prove a point, he tugged her hair.
Donna squeaked, batting at his hands. "Give over. You could've done it by yourself. You're brilliant like that." Well, he might've died of aspirin poisoning, but then again, if she hadn't been with him, he'd probably never have stopped for food in the first place.
"And will you sit down and be quiet? Trying to give you a massage, here!"
"You're not listening to me! Why did I come for you to help me? You're quick-witted, helpful; you keep me level-headed and point out details I might not have looked at... Stop being so harsh on yourself! You've been listening to your mother too much and it's stifled you after all those years."
He refused to sit down and cupped her face in his hands, "I've met and traveled with many people, Donna, I wouldn't have come back for you if I didn't believe in you. And if you utter another negative statement, I will take you back home. I know I'm brilliant, but so are you."
Her bottom lip trembled - not that she'd ever admit to it though, no way. She's made of tougher stuff than some ... thing, that wibbles when someone says a few nice things. But he was right, years of Sylvia's nagging and put-downs as well as a string of bad relationships had destroyed her confidence in herself. "Don't think you're taking me home, Sunshine. You're stuck with me."
She huffed out a breath. "Now, you gonna sit or am I going to have to use violence?"
His features quickly softened into a warm smile knowing she finally heard him and he complied with her demand and sat back down, facing the TARDIS console. And was it worth it! Now he understood why humans gushed about this sort of thing, it was even better than a hot bath!
"Fantastic, Donna! First you bake the tasiest delights and now this?" He was in domestic bliss. Forget about trying to be killed or solve mysteries, he was nearly melting in his chair.
"Yeah, well... Don't go around telling everyone. A girl needs her secrets, y'know." Goddess of Baking and Massages. She was quite the little domestic queen, it was quite shaming really. She enjoyed baking tasty treats far more than was healthy. And she was quite the dab hand at massages.
She worked her fingers up and down his spine, working the tense knots from his shoulders. And then she abandoned his shoulders to massage his head, working her fingers along his scalp.
He squirmed in his seat, humming contently from her deft fingers. "Oh, I think all my worries have been worked out of me!" He sighed and closed his eyes. "I don't think I can possibly think of anything else anymore. Oh, perhaps you've found a weakness of mine!" Really he was just short of curling up like a cat in her lap and purring himself silly.
"Happy there, Spaceman?" She continued to work her fingers over his scalp. Yep, she totally should've gone into the massage business instead of temping, such wasted potential. It was lovely massaging the Doctor's scalp, and maybe playing with his hair a little - hey, she said he was skinny, she never said he didn't have great hair.
"There, how's that feeling?"
"Mmn, wonderful...!" He sort of suck down in his chair with a contented smile plastered across his face. Thank goodness she liked his hair so well.
Finally, he snapped back to reality, and stood up and slipped his shirt back on. "I know this is hard to believe, but I'm going to bed. I might actually sleep for 5 hours tonight!" Sans being sick, 2-3 hours was his norm. He just didn't require that much and hated wasted time, although he never minded his companions sleeping in. He always managed to find something to do.
It was good he didn't mind his companions sleeping in, because if Donna had to survive on 2-3 hours a day she would end up murdering somebody. She liked sleep. She enjoyed sleep.
She moved to give him a big hug. "Get some rest, Doctor. It's been a long day." She worried for him. She knew Time Lords healed quicker than humans, he'd told her enough times, but he was still suffering and there wasn't anything she could do to help aside from force-feed him soup and tea. "Good night."
He smiled brilliantly as he backed out of the room, shirt halfway buttoned at this point and jacket with his tie thrown over his shoulder.
Another miraculous ability he had, despite only needing just a few hours sleep, was it didn't take long for him to fall asleep at all. Just lying in bed with his eyes closed for a moment sleep over came him quickly. Bundled in his sheets warm and relaxed thanks to Donna, he forgot any worries and drifted off to sleep.
Donna took awhile longer to get to sleep. Well, she took awhile to even get to bed. She made a detour to the Doctor's room and opened the door just enough to peek in. She relaxed a little to see him sleeping, and left him to it.
She headed to her own room, crawled into bed and prayed for sleep to find her as she thought over the whirlwind of events that had happened in the short time they'd been reunited.