Title: Remember Me?
Rating: T
Pairings: 10/Rose
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who
Full Summary: As the Doctor investigates some strange alien sightings in 2004, Donna gets a job at Henricks to distract her from causing a paradox. There, she befriends a very familiar blond, who tells her about her dreams to travel among the stars one day. What comes next for our favourite time travellers is a frenzy of misunderstandings, a few terrible phone calls and a shocking revelation
Author's note: I'm so sorry about the script copying in this chapter, I hope you don't mind!
"What happened? What did they find?" A blond woman sped towards Donna frantically. "I'm sorry, did they find somthin'?" The woman searched through the crowds. Donna shrugged, bewildered by this stranger. The woman turned to her, and her expression changed quickly to surprise.
"Donna?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
"How do you know my name?"
"What do you mean..? Where's the Doctor?"
"Who's the Doctor?" Donna scrunched her face up in a perplexed manner. "Oh, 'old on, they said somethin' about a doctor," She recalled, jerking a thumb back to the hoard of ambulances.
"Well, where is he?" The woman asked again.
"They've taken him away. He's dead," Donna replied simply. Judging by her expression, this was not the news that the mysterious woman wanted to hear. "I'm sorry, did you know 'im? It could be any doctor, they didn't say his name-"
"And you didn't know 'im? At all?" The woman stared at Donna.
"Me? Why would I know 'im?" Donna laughed sharply.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Donna. You just said-"
"Just checkin'. This is wrong, this is all wrong. Why don't you know 'im?"
"Who am I supposed to know?" Donna thundered, throwing her arms up in dismay. The woman flinched slightly, before turning her attention to Donna's back. "Who are you? I swear I've seen you before somewhere...You don't live around 'ere, do you?"
"No, no, I was just passin' by...I shouldn't even be 'ere, not really-"
"Why do you keep lookin' at my back?" Donna demanded. The woman averted her eyes away quickly.
"I'm not-"
"Yes, you are. You keep looking behind me. You're doing it now. What is it? What's there? Has someone put something on my back?" Donna cocked her head about, trying to study her back. When she looked up, the strange blond woman had disappeared. She swept a suspicious eye over the scene once more, before wandering off.
"You're doing it again," Donna scowled at the blond woman.
"What?"
"You keep starin' at my back. People keep doin' that."
"What kind of people?" The woman asked, curious.
"People people!" Donna cried, exasperated, "Just strangers. I just catch them sometimes, just..starin'. And I get home, and there's nothin' there."
"What're you doin' for Christmas? Next Christmas, I mean," The woman asked, abruptly changing the subject.
"I dunno. It's too early to think about that yet, ain't it?"
"Yeah, yeah, suppose. I just thought...you migh' wanna get out of London. Go somewhere. Spoil yourself," The woman suggested, folding her arms against her chest as Donna contemplated.
"What for?"
"A nice hotel-"
"I 'aven't got any money," Donna replied flatly, with a guilty shrug.
"I forgot how stubborn you could be!" The woman laughed, "You've got that raffle ticket, haven't you?"
"How'd you know about tha'?"
"First prize. Use it, Donna Noble."
"Why won't you tell me your name?" Donna asked coldly. There was no answer from the woman. "I think you should leave me alone," She added menacingly, before walking away.
"It's the ATMOS devices," The woman explained, as they perched on the bench, "We're lucky it's not so bad here, Britain hasn't got that much petrol. But all over Europe... China, South Africa... they're getting choked by gas."
"Well...can't anyone stop it?" Donna inquired.
"Yeah, we've got a little band of fighters. Torchwood, they're called, Torchwood. Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, on board the Sontaran ship. Any moment now..." She gazed into the sky, and Donna copied her. The sky was ablaze with flames, before the darkness returned.
"What the hell was that?" Donna asked, amazed, and yet still horrified.
"They've done it. They gave their lives. And Captain Jack Harkness has transported to the Sontaran home world. There's no-one left," The woman explained. Donna cast a apprehensive eye over the woman. The woman was staring up at the sky, her expression hard and uneasy. For a moment, she looked so tired. Too tired.
"You're always wearing the same clothes. Why won't you tell me your name?"
"None of this was meant to happen. There was this man, this wonderful, brilliant man, and he stopped this all from happenin'," The woman stared at Donna, sincere.
"That...Doctor?" Donna could just about recall their first meeting.
"You knew 'im. You knew me too, but that's another story." Donna hesitated. Instead of acknowledging the woman, she asked her own questions.
"Who are you? I mean, I don't remember you. Where do you come from...you're jus' there, and then you're not."
"I was like you," The woman replied simply ,"I used to be you. 'Coz you've travelled with him, Donna. You've travelled with him in another universe. You don't remember it, because it never 'appened. For you, I mean. Not in this universe. The Doctor died underneath the Thames on Christmas Eve, but you were meant to be there. He needed someone to stop him, and that was you. You made him leave. You saved his life." Donna stood up and span on her heel furiously, her jaw clenched and her fingers balled into stubborn fists.
"Stop it, just STOP IT! I don't know what you're talkin' about. I thought I told you to stay away from me," Donna hissed.
"Something's comin', Donna. Something worse than this. I've been pulled across the universe, because every single universe is in danger. Trust me. We need the Doctor more than ever," The woman paused slightly, before continuing, "Because it's comin', Donna. It's comin' from across the stars, and nothin' can stop it."
"What is?"
"The darkness." Donna retracted a step back.
"Well, why are you tellin' me? What am I supposed to do? I'm nothin', I'm just a temp! I'm not even that, I'm nothin'!"
"Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation!" The woman laughed, as if mystified by the notion that Donna was meaningless.
"You told me I was special! But it's not me! It's this thing! I'm just a host!" Donna spat.
"No, there's more than that," Rose assured her, "The readings are strange it's... it's like reality's just bending round you."
"Because of this thing!"
"No, no! We're getting separate readings from you. And they've always been there, since the day you were born."
"Because I understand, now. You said I was going to die, but you mean this whole world is going to blink out of existence. But that's not dying. Because a better world takes its place. The Doctor's world. And you're there. You're there, with the Doctor, travellin' along side him, just like me. And I'm still alive! That's right, isn't it? I don't die? If I change things, I don't die? That's... that's right, isn't it?" Donna's eyes moistened as she started at the woman, begging her for that confirmation. The woman blinked, her face tight with regret.
"I'm sorry," She croaked hoarsely.
Donna lay there, not moving. She fluttered her eyes open with her remaining energy, to see the woman bending over her.
"Tell 'im this. One word. He'll understand. And you," The woman whispered into Donna's ear. Donna glanced at the woman one more time, before squeezing her eyes shut. Then she was nothing and the darkness took over.
"She said that," Donna remembered.
"Who did?" The Doctor asked, fed up of prodding the deceased beetle in-front of him.
"That woman..I dunno. It's all fadin' away from me now."
"Yeah, that world's gone now," The Doctor said.
"No..but she said the stars are goin' out...and they were, I mean, Granddad...we were at his telescope-"
"That world's blinked out of existence. It's just dust now. Memories and dust," The Doctor shrugged it off.
"No, but she said it was all worlds. Every world. She said the darkness is coming, even here," Donna squinted her eyes as she tried to recalibrate.
"Who was she?" Asked the Doctor, suddenly interested.
"I dunno."
"What did she look like?" By the tone of his voice, Donna could tell that he already had his suspicions. She desperately tried to seize the memories of the mysterious woman, grappling onto her thoughts.
"She was...blonde," Donna finally managed to squeeze out. The Doctor's eye widened.
"What was her name?"
"I don't know, she never said-"
"Donna, what was her name?" He reiterated, his tone distressed and desolate.
"But she told me...before I went...she told me...one word...." Donna began to pull the pieces together, whilst the Doctor was still demanding to know more.
"What word was it? What did she say?"
"Henricks," Donna whispered, "Oh my god, Doctor. That was Rose, wasn't it?" The Doctor lept up from his seat and sprinted out of the tent. "DOCTOR!" Donna hollered, shrugging her coat on anxiously and following him into the TARDIS. He was already by the monitor, observing it hurriedly. "Doctor, what's goin' on? Why's Rose back? You said she was in a parallel universe! What's happenin'?"
"I don't know!" The Doctor moaned, cutting off Donna's run of questions. "I just...I don't know." He ran his fingers through his mesh of brown hair, his eyes wide and in a frenzied state.
"We've got to do somethin'!" Donna threw in, her voice wavering. She watched the Doctor speed around the console, flicking switches and pushing levers. "Where are we goin'? We're goin' somewhere, righ'?"
"Oh yes. We're going to Earth."
Again, I apologise for the script copying!
Please leave a review! They make me update faster! :)