Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who. Thanks for the reads and reviews. I hope you're enjoying it. Let me know what you think and happy reading!
Cleopatra and her entourage were still staring dumbfounded at the Doctor and Donna.
"The same day?," asked Donna.
"It's a chronic hysteresis," said the Doctor.
"A what?"
"That's the technical name for a causal closed time loop. We go through a certain amount of time and always go back to the moment that began the loop, in this case, when the TARDIS arrived."
"Then why don't you call it a time loop?," asked Donna. "Chronic hysteresis sounds like something you should see a gynecologist for."
"It's the technical name!," the Doctor insisted exasperated.
"No need to get all bent out of shape with me," said Donna.
"I am not bent out of shape! I am caught in a chronic hysteresis!"
"Well, so am I!," said Donna.
"Well, you fractured the time line!"
"I didn't mean to!"
Antony entered the tomb room. He looked to Cleopatra. "What's going on?"
"The Doctor is arguing with this Celtic prisoner," said Cleopatra.
"I am not his prisoner! And I'm not Celtic!," Donna snapped. "Why are you saying that? Because I'm ginger?"
"This is my wife," said the Doctor sheepishly.
"Why do you sound so embarrassed?," asked Donna.
"I am not embarrassed," said the Doctor. He turned back to Cleopatra and Antony. "Queen Cleopatra, General Antony, this is my wife, Donna Noble and I am not embarrassed."
"Oh, thanks," Donna growled.
"What do you want now?"
"What do I want? I want a husband who doesn't think he needs to clarify he's not embarrassed to be seen with me!"
"You were the one who wanted clarification!"
"Excuse me," said Antony. "Cleopatra said you would help us. I feel as if that should be higher on the priority list than your inability to control your wife."
"Come off it, Antony!," snapped Donna. "This is your own fault, really! Nothing we do is going to change it!"
"Hopefully," the Doctor said quietly.
"Do I look stupid to you?," asked Donna.
"I never said you were stupid-"
"Because you're sort of treating me like I am!"
"What did that soothsayer tell you?," asked the Doctor.
"How did you know about my soothsayer?," asked Cleopatra.
"Donna needs to go see her," said the Doctor.
"I do?"
"Yeah, you really do," said the Doctor. "Go down there and see if she's conscious of the time loop or it's just us."
"Do I have to?"
"Well, it's this or we're stuck here for the rest of our lives."
"My slave shall-" Cleopatra began.
"No, thanks, Cleo. I know the way," said Donna.
"I'll wait upstairs," said the Doctor.
Donna walked back down to the room. Empty as ever, save the water. "Hello, soothsayer!"
The soothsayer shimmered in. Donna sighed. "Are you going to enter all mysterious every time?"
"You have returned," said the soothsayer.
"Wait, you remember me? How can you remember?"
"Zara."
"What? Like the shop?"
"You will call her Zara."
Donna's face dropped. "Oh, come on! You did not just tell me my baby's name! Do you have any idea how long I've waited to name a baby?! And you just appear and tell me what it's going to be! I had a list I made from the internet and I was going to buy a book! I was supposed to spend hours on this!"
"Look to the water."
"Mummy!"
Donna turned to the water. She saw herself being held back by two soldiers as she screamed and kicked and punched. She got a flash of the little girl red-faced and tears streaming as she was carried off.
"What's that?," asked Donna.
She looked up. The soothsayer didn't say anything.
"What is that?," Donna repeated the question more harshly. "Don't you dare just stand there! Tell me what that is and what's happening! Are they taking her from me?!"
"The water speaks, not I."
Donna looked to the water and back up. The soothsayer was gone again. "You can't just say that and leave!"
The Doctor was not enjoying this visit with Cleo quite as much. Things had certainly gone downhill since their last visit. Donna was right. It wasn't fun to visit people on their final days. Especially when it was a fixed event that couldn't be changed, though, by his calculation it was hours off track by now. They had begun arguing when he called her "Cleo" and had not let up as the Doctor and the remainder of the Egyptian court were forced to watch.
"Maybe you would have won the battle if you weren't so drunk!," Cleopatra snapped.
"Maybe I would have won if some woman hadn't bewitched me and convinced me to leave my wife!"
"You call that a marriage?"
"At least I didn't have to listen to some harpie every bleeding second! I could have peace!"
Cleopatra turned to the Doctor. "Doctor, am I a harpie?"
"Uh-"
"Why don't you just run off with your precious Doctor? Oh, right, he married someone else. Even he can't stand you! No one can! I bet Caesar let himself get stabbed just so he wouldn't have to listen to you!"
"Do not tarnish the memory of my beloved husband!"
"You know, I remembered he had a wife. Oh, wait, it wasn't you!" He turned to a slave and shouted. "Where's the wine?!"
"You're holding it, you git!," shouted Cleopatra.
"Yeah?" Antony threw the bottle at Cleopatra. She responded in kind.
Donna entered. The Doctor looked up at her, grateful to see someone with some semblance of sanity. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was red. He walked over to her.
"Donna, are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not. You've been crying."
"Oh, so glad you're here to let me know!," Donna snapped.
He let that one ride. "Donna, what happened?"
She burst into more tears and collapsed on him.
The Doctor took Donna away from the throne room and to the roof of the palace. The sun glimmered off the helmets and shields of the Roman army just outside the palace walls. There may have been the hustle and bustle of an oncoming army, but it was still quieter than Antony and Cleopatra.
"Okay," said the Doctor. "What happened? What did she say?"
"Lots of things."
"Donna, we have a decidedly accurate soothsayer and a time loop. Do you think the two are connected?"
Donna sighed. "There's this water and you look in it and you see things."
"What did you see?"
"A baby." Donna didn't look up.
"A baby. Oh. Well, that's..." The Doctor tried to think of an answer that would get him in the least possible amount of trouble. A baby was thrilling if it was true, but from Donna's demeanor he supposed all was not well.
"Then they took her from me. And she was screaming and crying and I couldn't do anything! She was calling for me and-"
"Shh, Donna. It's alright."
"What about our baby?"
"She doesn't exist yet.'
"Someone's going to take her from me."
"In this future, Donna, where was I?"
Donna paused. "You weren't there. What does that mean?"
"It doesn't mean anything, Donna. If someone took our child, don't you think I would do anything to get her back? Wouldn't we do anything?"
"Yes," Donna admitted.
"This soothsayer- if she is that- has got it wrong."
"And what do we do about the time loop?"
"Something's causing it. The Time Lords use to use chronic hysteresis all the time."
Donna rolled her eyes at the use of a technical term that didn't make any sense in her opinion. "So, what are you saying? Somebody wants us stuck in a time loop on this day?"
"Yes. It all goes back to the same moment the TARDIS brought us here."
"What do we do?"
The Doctor looked out over the Roman troops. "Back to the TARDIS."
"What about Antony and Cleopatra?"
The Doctor looked at his watch. "They're off track. She should have pretended to be dead by now. They're still fighting."
"What are they fighting about?"
The Doctor didn't want to admit that he had inadvertently started the argument. Donna would have loved that. "Who knows with these two?"
Donna cringed as she heard something break. "And no signs of slowing down."
"We can use the TARDIS scanners to try to track down any energy disruptions. Tomorrow, we'll try again."
Donna smiled wanly. "You mean today?"
The Doctor smiled back. "Or today."
"I'm starving," said Donna. She hadn't thought about it. She was suddenly famished.
"Of course you are. You haven't eaten in a day and a half."
They went back to the TARDIS and Donna set about getting dinner together. She was putting it on the table when the Doctor walked in.
"Did you find something out?," asked Donna.
"You said there was water in the soothsayer's room?"
"Yeah. That's what she keeps on about, the water."
"The TARDIS says there isn't any water."
"Well, sorry," said Donna, looking at the ceiling, "but she's wrong. I saw it."
"Or it could be a mirage."
"I'm not dying of thirst in the desert."
"Yeah, that's not what a mirage is."
"Here we go..." This was usually the part where Donna found out shadows could eat her or it was perfectly normal to be at a party where a murder took place with Agatha Christie.
"A mirage is actually a hole pointing to another dimension-"
Donna frowned. "I thought you said all the other dimensions were closed off. When I first came onboard, you said that all the other dimensions were completely shut off because that's why you were never seeing Rose again."
"Well, it should be."
"Does that mean Rose could come back?"
"Does that matter?"
"I'm just asking."
"Why are you just asking?"
"I don't know. What if she showed up?"
"Donna, she is not showing up and even if she did, I am married to you."
"Alright then," said Donna. She didn't want to admit it, but she was glad to hear it.
"Alright," said the Doctor, shuffling his feet.
"What's it mean then? Why is there a soothsayer with a mirage in Cleopatra's basement on the day she dies? And why is she saying all this stuff about me?"
"That is a mystery..." said the Doctor, dragging out the final 'y' as he stared at the dinner. "Is that Tikka Masala?"
"You know it comes from a packet, right?"
"Yeah, but you pick the packet," the Doctor said with a smile. "Besides, there is no one I would rather be trapped in a closed chronic hysteresis eating Tikka Masale from a packet with."
Donna smiled. "I bet you say that to all the girls."