Jack and Ianto seemed to stare at him for an eternity. It would have been quite funny...if the world wasn't falling apart at the same time.
"This is worse than big, dark birds, I take it?" Ianto muttered.
"What the hell are you doing?" his other self shouted.
"Yeah, I know, I know, this is really bad." Jack waved a dismissive hand in front of them wondering at what point his other self would beat the crap out of him.
"Bad? Look at the sky! Any minute now..."
"Yeah...it's ok. Really. The Doctor will sort it."
"You can't tell the Doctor that we..."
"Oh you think he won't know?"
"Well this is your doing, not ours..." Jack, the other Jack stopped dead and stared at him. "I mean...mine. What the hell am I doing?!" This question was addressed to Ianto.
"Having an argument with yourself." Ianto shrugged. "We all do it from time to time. Normally, we can't actually see ourselves in front of us when we do it but..."
"Retcon yourselves, ok?" Jack stepped closer to them and looked desperately around. "No, that won't work. Just get away from here. I don't think you'll really remember...just... leave. Now."
His other self turned away and then looked back.
"Jack?"
"Yes?"
"Let's never do this again, ok?"
"Whatever. Tell you what..."
But even as he spoke, his other self and Ianto faded abruptly out of sight.
"Now!" He shouted into the empty air, taking no notice of anyone else around. "Are you happy now? Can you fix this?"
The fairies were gone. There was no reply.
Donna closed her eyes. She knew she was still clinging to the wood because she hadn't drowned. But apart from that, her body felt frozen...and strangely calm. She couldn't feel the cold. She couldn't feel the effort that staying alive was taking. She was sleepy and somewhere she knew that giving into that would be fatal. But it was very hard to resist.
Had she heard her name being called?
She allowed herself to drift, letting the image of home float through her mind. Her parents downstairs...Granddad out on the hill, searching the skies...in a minute, her father would call her...everything normal...everything so normal that she'd never realise how precious it was until it was gone...those days when Dad was still alive...and the Doctor...
Her eyes snapped open.
Was the Doctor looking for her? Was he ok?
Thinking about the Doctor gave her something to focus on, some reason to stay awake. Just as he had in the days after Dad died.
"Donna!"
There it was again.
She tried to call back but her voice couldn't compete with the wind around her. Besides that, her words sounded slurred and indistinct.
"Donna!"
Hearing his voice was comforting. She let her eyes to close again, feeling the word tip gently into her mind, like a lullaby....
...no! She couldn't fall asleep. She lifted her head slightly, aware that she was shivering again. Was her imagination or was there a slight, a very slight warmth in the water around her hands? It was as if whatever she was clinging to was warming up. She shifted her hands around, aware of an ache in her shoulder. She was feeling her body again.
More than that. She twisted in the direction of her aching shoulder. She could see it!
The water was receding!
Fully awake now, she watched the sway of water against her body...at her chest and then downwards. It was slow but it was definitely moving. In a moment, she could be able to see her hands and what it was that she was holding on to.
The Doctor had almost made it back to the shore. It had taken what seemed like every ounce of his strength to break through the barrier. The weak spot had been directly in front of the line of Jenny's spaceship, as if they had known he would need access to it, yet still wanted to make it difficult.
With a final, enormous effort, he pulled himself free of the waves and collapsed onto the stones, gasping for breath. Above him, the sky was darkening quickly. Rain and wind obscured the view and for a second, he was motionless where he lay. Then in one movement, he was upright, turning to the right and then the left.
"Donna!" he shouted into the storm.
Nothing. He rubbed his eyes as if trying to dry them to sharpen his vision but every inch of him was drenched.
"Donna!"
He turned back towards the churning waves.
"Father!"
He stopped still and turned around. Across the stones, Jenny was making her way towards him. She was drenched to the skin and horribly pale. Water ran down her face, tears or rain.
Jenny, supposedly his flesh and blood. Literally. Far too literally. Jenny, who listened to no one. Who hadn't listened to him. Hadn't confided what she'd seen. Jenny, who had crashed a powerful spaceship on to Earth and hadn't even thought it might be important enough to mention. Every instant of her life so far had been thoughtless, dangerous and downright disastrous.
He watched her approach and gaze up into his face. She said nothing and neither did he.
Jenny, who had allowed her actions to bring them all to this. She was irresponsible. She was completely ignorant. She was dangerous...nothing but a soldier in a world that she wasn't supposed to be in.
He put his arms around her and held her.
"Father..." Her voice was muffled. She tried to draw back, to look up at him and speak.
"Shh.." He held her close and pointed the screwdriver at the spaceship. Beside him, one of the fairies stood watching and he knew that this had been the one who had inhabited Jenny's body and been so weakened by it.
"You thought she was a child, didn't you?" he asked.
The creature regarded him silently.
"In a way, she was," he continued, "none of this is really her fault. It's mine, if anyone's. She shouldn't have to pay for it. With your energy and mine, we could put this right without causing harm to anyone."
"You will all pay for it," the creature breathed, "you are condemned to wander this world forever and feel the effects of its damage. You will compensate for our injuries."
"Yeah." The Doctor raised the screwdriver.
"It was worth asking."
Without the TARDIS, it was harder to find the vulnerable points of the energy around the spaceship, the point in which Time had seeped into it and around it; the crash and its subsequent cracks and ripples. He shut his eyes.
"What are you doing?" Jenny asked against him.
"Don't think about it."
He aimed the screwdriver and pressed the button.
The Doctor was running. The water was fast receding and he knew it wouldn't be long before Time began to repair itself. London of 3009 would start to reappear. He stopped and lifted his head, searching his mind for the hum that was as familiar to him as the workings of his physical self.
200 yards to the left.
The ground was sodden. He knew that while the recovery of this place and time would be instant, under the surface, it would take longer. The weather would be wildly unsettled. The cold and rain would seep into everything, including the people. You could pretend that something hadn't happened but reality would tick away underneath and churn up all that was beyond the surface. It was one of the reasons humans believed in ghosts. It was one of the reasons fairies existed.
Finally he reached it. He took a deep breath, as if drinking in something that he had been badly deprived of for a long time.
The TARDIS stood in front of him standing guard over the still form of Donna curled up in its shadow.
He reached her in two steps.
"Donna!" Afraid to move her too much before her body had had a chance to get warm, he touched her shoulder and leaned over her.
"Donna! Come on, you're safe now. I'm here."
"What? I'm getting up...in a minute..." Her voice sounded sluggish and very, very tired.
"It's ok." He took off his coat and placed it over her, "we're all ok."
Her eyes opened slowly and she gazed at him. Her eyes looked unfocused.
"Dad?"
"No, Donna. It's me...the Doctor. I came to find you."
She smiled at him...vaguely...as if she saw him from a very great distance.
"Knew you'd come," she whispered.