Thanks to the positive reviews! Here's another one! :) xx
Donna threw back her head and laughed at the Doctor.
"You're full of it Sunshine!" she said with mirth before turning and throwing over her shoulder she was going for a shower. He waved her off and she turned down one of the labyrinthine tunnels of the TARDIS.
Not really paying attention, she hummed slightly to herself as she made her way when suddenly the most deliriously gorgeous scent washed over her. Donna stopped and followed it, which if she had to say what it was, she'd say it was the smell of red or gold, the sun or Time itself. She found herself outside of a door she'd never seen before.
The door was just a simple dark wood but it was the incredibly intricate carvings that captured Donna's attention. Leaning closer, she realised they were vines of ivy intertwined and weaving across the door. They were beautiful. All at once, the door swung open and Donna was blinded for a moment by a soft and thrumming golden light.
At the same time a tidal wave of the most deliciously fresh aromas swept over her. A playful breeze flicked her auburn hair and she opened her eyes to drink in the incredible beauty before her.
There was a garden on the TARDIS!
Flowers of all colours and scents permeated the air. Some of the blooms were outrageously large or colourful, some alien and some from earth. It was the most beautiful thing Donna Noble had ever seen. Stepping through the doorway she glanced up at the roof only to see sky.
It was all very Harry Potter.
Caught in her rapture, she barely noticed the flowers and trees swaying slightly, as if moving out of her bewildered path and gently guiding her forward. Her roving eyes suddenly stopped on the plants at the centre of the garden. Rooted to the spot in her awe she surveyed the scene before her.
At the heart of the garden were rose bushes. Explosions of colours, the most beautiful pinks, sunshine yellows, brilliant reds, deep blues, sunburst oranges, emerald greens, and pure whites.
At the centre of the roses was a stunning white stone statue of a woman. She had hair just passed her shoulders with tendrils flicking out at the edges. Her eyes were blank and white. Full, plump lips and high cheek bones shaped her face. The woman's long dress looked like that of a Grecian goddess, long and billowing around the woman's beautiful figure, suspended in stone and time. Her hands were stretched out slightly at her sides as if about to raise them. In one hand was a simple key dangling from a gold chain. A vine crawled up the goddess's arm.
Upon closer inspection, Donna realised it wasn't just a vine, but two words repeated over and over coiling up and around the woman's arm: BAD WOLF. Donna's brilliant mind suddenly made the connections.
Roses, a woman, key, TARDIS, roses, woman, TARDIS key, roses, Rose…
"Time's like that sometimes. You just feel it. It happens all at once, like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff."
Stunned, Donna looked again at the woman before her and backed out of the room as the tears in her eyes from someone else's pain began to spill over onto her face. Donna ran through the TARDIS without looking up when suddenly she came to a corridor she'd never seen before.
A sense of understanding and warmth swept over her and she glanced around at the golden light that softly lit the corridor. There were two doors at the end and Donna suddenly knew where she was. She realised that she had to do this, for him as well as herself. And, she supposed, the TARDIS too with all her meddling.
She walked forwards towards the two doors, glanced at them both, and then turned to the one on her right and opened it slowly. She stepped inside and felt the beautiful scents of the garden envelop her once more though she was standing in what was clearly a woman's bedroom sans flowers.
The photographs of the woman's life surrounded Donna and she was momentarily overwhelmed. She stepped further inside and walked around the room, fingers tracing lightly over some pictures, a chair, a tea cup, a table, a mug, a camera, a book, a bed, before she returned to the door. Donna turned once more to face Rose Tyler's room, a small and sad smile on her lips. Pressing a kiss to her fingertips she taped the door lightly before stepping backwards and closing the door behind her.
She took corridors at random knowing the TARDIS would lead her back to the console room. He was still standing there when she walked across the grating towards him.
"Back so soon?" He laughed without turning around, "You usually take forever! Is the world ending or-" He cut himself off abruptly when he turned and saw her face. Without speaking or breaking eye contact, Donna walked forwards and pulled the Doctor into a tight hug, holding him and making sure he realised she wasn't letting go. With a sigh, she felt his whole body sag against her, his own arms coming around her.
She knew he knew that she knew.
Oh no, she'd started to sound like him in her own head!
Shaking herself slightly, Donna pulled back to look at him and the depth of sorrow in his eyes. She could see it brewing there and at the same time him trying to fight it, to pretend this was normal and go back to what they were before. She could see his brain working in overdrive, but before he could say something stupid, she whispered, "How can you bare it?"
They were silent for a long moment simply staring at each other, arms by their sides, eyes locked and trying so hard to read the other.
Eyes never leaving hers he murmured, "I have you."
"But it ain't always enough, is it?"
She could see he was prepared to lie, whether to make her or himself feel better she didn't know, but she raised her eyebrow in her infamous expression of, 'seriously?'
He allowed himself a brief smile at that. "No," he breathed, running a pale and slender hand over his face. He gave a brief bark of bitter laughter and said, "You know, people keep finding her room? You'd think the TARDIS would have put her room in storage, but no, instead she chooses to meddle." He huffed slightly and Donna smiled at him.
"I think she misses her almost as much as you do." She said, putting a tentative hand in his, which he gripped tightly.
They stood in silence for a while because this is what best friends do when they are always all right.
Eventually he dropped her hand and turned towards the console. Donna nodded slightly in acceptance and turned to leave when his voice calling her name stopped her. She turned to see him looking at her, the raw emotion wiped from his face but the traces drifting in is eyes, "Thank you, Donna Noble," he said.
"Anytime Doctor," she smiled. Heading back towards her room, she turned on the shower, stripped down, and stepped under the blissful droplets. She let it all spill over her, tumbling down her back and washing everything away.
Her thoughts drifted back to her, back to the woman who seemed to have woven herself into the Doctor's hearts. Donna wondered where she was, when she was, what she was thinking. She wondered why the universe could allow someone so precious to the man who spent his lifetimes saving it to be lost.