A Frosty Reception, Of Sorts

the second part of The Runaway Bride! it was only meant to be two parts, but i thought

it was going to be a little too long, so it's been split into three for your prolonged enjoyment

of the wonderfully funny Donna, who I'm having immense fun writing!

The Doctor took one look at the taxi, flying away with a semi-hysterical bride inside, and suddenly had an idea. An idea so brilliant, in fact, that it could have won an award. Several awards, int he Doctor's opinion - and it raised the Christmas Cheer moral, as well. At least he hoped. "Watch this," he said to Rose, smirking, as she had a confused look on her face. The queue to the ATM was now gone, and the Doctor accessed it easily; he held the Sonic against it for thirty seconds and all of a sudden hundreds of banks notes came flying out the slot, swirling up into the air like feathers before the greedy people snatched as many as they could get their hands on.

"Impressive," Rose said, now smirking as well. "But I bet you're glad Mum isn't here, she'd been killing people with her bare hands to get their money."

"Haha! She would get it, as well. Now come on, while the Santas are distracted! We really need a good name for those Santas if they are going to keep popping up every year!" the Doctor said, as the couple ran back towards the TARDIS.

The TARDIS let them access immediately, without the usual fumbling for keys. Within moments the TARDIS was in flight, zooming to where Donna had been bride-napped by an bad-ass Santa.

Sparks suddenly flew up to Rose's right, nearly setting her on fire; the Doctor swore loudly, and banged the TARDIS with his faithful hammer. "Behave!" he told her, to much wheezing and groaning. "Come on, we're nearly there!" he said, holding on as the TARDIS bumped towards the motorway where Donna was. Rose was looking green.

"Are you okay?" he asked, trying to move but getting thrown around everytime he tried. She nodded weakly.

"I'll be fine," she managed, but the sentence was a complete oxymoron as she looked like she'd lose her lunch all over the console. The Doctor prayed she didn't - not only would it be a nightmare to clean up, the console room would stink for ages afterwards. It stank for two weeks after they decided to eat fish and chips in there, so God knows how long the stench of vomit would lie there for.

"Here," the Doctor said, fishing in his coat for anti-nausea tablets he'd bought ages ago when Rose had caught a sickness bug after they'd visited her mother. He'd decided to keep them in case they were needed again, and now seemed a pretty good time to use them. He handed them to Rose along with a half-empty bottle of water he'd found in there as well, bought a few nights ago when they'd visited the corner shop as a favour to Jackie. Rose gulped them down gratefully, and after a few minutes her colour seemed to return.

"Feeling better?" he asked her, whilst banging again on the TARDIS. They were closing in on Donna and the rogue taxi.

"Much, thanks," Rose said, looking much better than she did. "I'd give you a hug, but I might fall over." As if on cue, the TARDIS shook again as it appeared in the atmosphere. The Doctor headed towards the door gingerly, Rose following him.

"Stay here! I need you to control the TARDIS," he said, as the TARDIS bumped along. Rose nodded, and gripped the console to steady herself. "Are we near Donna?" he yelled across from the door to the console at her.

"Yeah! She should be there if you open the doors! What on Earth are you planning, Doctor?" Rose asked, completely clueless about the finer points of how her boyfriend was about to save a Bride-to-be from deathly robotic Santas. All she really knew, to be honest, was that he was going to save her.

The Doctor nodded, before throwing open the TARDIS doors. Rose screamed as the air turbulance whipped their faces. "You're on the bloody motorway!" she screamed, now mimicing the Doctor's stance of two hands and one leg on the console to keep herself from being tossed from side to side. Thank God for those anti-nausea tablets, otherwise her lunch would have been the new decoration for the console room.

"I can see that! And feel it!" he bellowed back to her, and Rose would have laughed if she hadn't been worried about connecting with a support strut.

Donna, meanwhile, was in the taxi with her hands pressed against the window. She'd obviously been trying to slap her way out the taxi if the handprints on the windows and back window were anything to go by.

"Open the door!" the Doctor yelled to Donna.

"Do you what?" she shouted back, unable to hear him properly.

"Open. The. Door!"

"I can't!" Donna screamed, tugging at the taxi door. "It's locked!"

"Ugh!" the Doctor sighed under his breath. A predicament he hoped wasn't going to occur, as retrieving the sonic screwdriver from his pocket whilst holding open two doors against the force of air turbulence wasn't exactly a breeze - if you excuse the pun, that is.

He managed though, and sonic'd the door. It audibly clicked, and Donna rolled down the window.

"Santa's a robot!" she told him, as if he didn't already know.

"Yes! I gathered that! Just open the door!"

What for?" Donna seemed confused.

"Oh, for God's sake! You've got to jump!" the Doctor said, exasperated. The robot turned it's head slightly, as if it understood what the Doctor was saying.

"I'm not bloody jumping anywhere, mate, I'm supposed to be getting married!"

The robot put his foot down on the accelerator and sped off at an alarming rate even on a motorway, overtaking the TARDIS.

"Rose!" the Doctor called, and heared her yell something back. "Use the spinny thing and then the pumpy thing!" Luckily, he'd shown Rose what these things were so she knew, otherwise she would have been as clueless as her mother about his analogy to the parts of the TARDIS.

The TARDIS soon sped off again, banging on the roofs of some of the cars on the motorway; one man look paticularly distressed, and become possibly even more so when the Doctor mouthed a 'sorry!' in his direction.

The Doctor fell down as the TARDIS approached Donna, but managed to regain his balance and sonic'd the robot to disable it. "Listen to me, Donna, you've got to jump!"

"I'm not jumping on a motorway!"

"Whatever that thing is, it needs you. And whatever it needs you for, it ain't good. And I've now disabled it - no need to thank me - so the taxi's gonna crash!"

"I'm in my wedding dress!" Donna said, pointing to herself, as if that was an excuse.

"I know! You look lovely! Come on!" he said, getting really exasperated with the redhead. If all gingers were like this, maybe he didn't want to be ginger so much.

Donna opened the door, it flying back with the force of the wind; she squealed loudly in response.

"Donna! Come on!" the Doctor said, holding out his arms to catch her.

"Jump, Donna, jump!" Rose bellowed from inside the TARDIS.

"I can't do it!" Donna said, her voice full of fear.

"Yes, you can, Donna. Trust me, Donna Noble, you can do this."

Donna breathed in heavily, mustering all her courage that she had in every bone in her body. Squeezing her eyes shut tightly, she jumped, screaming all the while, and landed on something warm and hard - the Doctor.

"Sorry!" she said, as the Doctor shook his head.

"Just glad you did it," he said, as Donna lifted herself from the ground; Rose had ran and shut the doors, so gave Donna a hand up while she was there. The TARDIS was in flight in the Vortex for now, so it was a (slightly) smoother ride.

Stepping out onto the roof of some high-rise building, Donna checked her watch with yet another sigh.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was spluttering and coughing loudly; the TARDIS was smoking, pillows of smoke erupting from the interior.

Rose didn't look concerned - instead she went straight to Donna and sat down beside her, put her arm around the older woman's shoulder. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

Donna nodded weakly. "I'm sure I'll live," she said, bitterly, staring over London. They could see most of the city from where they were. The two girls sat down, hands clasped together for support - or, at least, support for Donna.

"The funny thing is, for a spaceship," the Doctor said, joining them, squeezing in between Donna and Rose, the latter of which gave him a death glare for making her budge, "She actually hardly flies. At all. So we best give her a couple of hours. Are you all right?" he opened the question for both of them. Rose took his hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, letting him know she was fine.

"Doesn't matter," Donna said, shrugging her shoulders in a trying-to-be-indifferent-but-really-hurting-inside kind of manner.

"Did we miss it?" he asked.

"Ye-ah," Donna said, drawing out the word. She looked out over the city of London.

"You can still book another date. Maybe a summer wedding?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah. 'Course."

"You've still got the honeymoon," Rose said, trying to lift Donna's mood.

"Yeah - you're the one that hates Christmas, after all," the Doctor said, shutting up after a painful elbow in the ribs from Rose.

"Just a holiday, now, innit?" Donna said, squinting as the sun rose from behind a cloud.

"Yeah ... yeah ... sorry," the Doctor said, still holding Rose's hand, rubbing her knuckles.

"It's not your fault," Donna said.

"Oh! That makes a change from 'it's all your fault, Martian Boy!'" the Doctor said imitating Donna, which got a laugh out of both the women.

"Wish we had a time machine," Donna said, and the Doctor and Rose exchanged a glance, "Then we could go back. Make it right."

"... Yeah, yeah. But ... even if I did, I couldn't go back on someone's personal timeline," the Doctor said.

"Apparently," Rose butted in, and Donna's eyes narrowed suspiciously at them.

"Whatever," Donna said, and shivered; it was the end of December and she was in a sleeveless dress, while the Doctor was in a suit and Rose in a snug Abercrombie and Fitch hoodie. The Doctor removed his suit jacket and placed it around Donna's shoulders; she looked at him gratefully, before frowning.

"God, you're skinny. This wouldn't fit my cousin's rat," she said, but nevertheless pulled it closer around her.

"I don't think of myself as a rat," the Doctor said, one finger to his chin, "Maybe a ferret? A cute hamster? Oh, a guinea pig!"

"Is he actually saying what type of rodent he would like to be?" Donna asked, leaning over the Doctor to ask Rose.

Rose laughed. "Yep. Yesterday he was contemplating what type of jam he'd like to be."

"As long as it wasn't different types of marmalade," Donna said, also laughing.

The Doctor's eyes went wide. "There are different types of marmalade?" he asked seriously.

"Oh, no," Rose said dramatically, and both heads flipped in her direction. "You didn't just get him onto the subject of marmalade. That's like talking about bananas - we'll never get him to stop."

Donna laughed, as the Doctor launched into a lecture about the importance of bananas in a balanced diet and how it was he that invented the banana darquai.

Both girls were in stiches, but the Doctor was now fumbling through his pockets for something.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but you'll need to put this on," he said, producing a gold wedding ring.

"Mr. Sensitive. Do you have to go rubbing it in?" Donna said, before pointing her finger at him. "And don't bother answering, it was a rhetorical quesiton."

The Doctor mumbled something Donna couldn't hear, but Rose did - something about the shock of Donna knowing what a rhetorical question was. Rose thumped him on the arm.

"Ouch!" He protested loudly, but almost dropped the ring over the ledge - it wouldn't have reached the ground in one piece after falling twenty-something stories. And it was the only one he had. He suddenly turned quite serious. "Those creatures can trace you, Donna. This is a bio-damper. It should hide you from any sonar, radar, scanner, satillite - basically, it should keep you hidden."

"With this ring, I thee bio-damp," he said, looking quite pleased with himself for making that little joke up.

"That's so cheesy," Donna said.

"And I witness the joining of ... " Rose said, pretending to be the minister, before noticing Donna's stricken face and promptly shutting up.

"So, come on then," Donna said, semi-brightly, evidently trying to change the subject, "Weird Robot-Santas - what are they for?"

The Doctor smiled. "Ah, your basic robo-scavenger. The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. They're trying to blend in. We met them last Christmas," he said, guesturing to himself and Rose.

"Why? What happened last Christmas?" Donna asked, confused.

"Great big alien spaceship?" Rose asked, looking at Donna, who shook her head. "Hovering over London? You didn't notice?"

"I had a killer hangover," Donna said, as if that was an excuse. Rose and the Doctor exchanged glances.

"Spent last Christmas over there, Powell Estate," the Doctor said, nodding in it's general direction, "Good place, except if you've got Jackie Tyler making Christmas dinner. I wanted some turkey with my gravy, but apparently that was a luxury."

"Oi," Rose said, punching him on the arm, "Don't go slagging my mother's cooking. It may have been, as you put in 'swimming in a gravy lake', but that doesn't mean it wasn't good."

"Maybe that's because you got some turkey. All I got were overcooked sprouts and potatoes that looked like Jackie had picked them, then put them straight on the plate and served. And anyway, you can't talk, Tyler, you put over half of yours on Mickey's plate when he was watching Harriet Jones's speech."

Rose shrugged. "He was looking a bit peaky. But Mum's cooking isn't her speciality."

"Yes. I'll keep her in mind if I ever want a haircut. But I don't want it dyed pink like that woman who was in when we went to visit. That was nasty," he said, shaking his head. Rose winced, and nodded.

"It was neon pink," Rose explained to a bewildered Donna, who had been watching this whole exchange with wide eyes. The Doctor looked at Donna, as if she'd just appeared out of thin air. He shook his head - he'd actually forgotten she was there, she hadn't been this quiet in ages.

"Question is, what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you? And how did you get inside the TARDIS? I don't know ..." he said, changing the subject with abrupt force. He looked at her, as if analyzing her. Donna rolled her eyes and was about to speak when the Doctor spoke again.

"What's your job?" he asked her, pulling his sonic screwdriver out of the pocket of his jacket that Donna was still wearing.

"I'm a secretary," she said, eyeing the sonic screwdriver.

"It's weird," the Doctor said, scanning her up and down with the sonic, "I mean - you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important ... "

Donna raised her hand for another slap. The Doctor looked at Rose.

"I'm being rude again, aren't I?" he asked her, and she nodded, smirking.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but Donna was quicker. "If you're going to say something about how I'm not something, I'mma punch you in the face."

Rose could actually imagine that vividly.

"What kind of secretary are you?" Rose asked, as the Doctor was busy shaking himself out of his scared-like state.

"I'm at H.C Clements. That's where I met Lance - I was tempting. I mean, it was all a bit posh really. I'd spent the last two years at a double glazing firm. Well, I thought - I'm never gonna fit in here, everyone got at least a couple of A-Levels and all I've got was my GCSE's and A-Level Drama, and that's isn't going to help me as a secretary, is it?"

"At least you've got an A Level," Rose said, and Donna nodded.

"Go on, Donna," the Doctor added, and Rose elbowed him.

"Then Lance made me a coffee," Donna said dreamily, the love-struck look back on her face. "I mean, that just doesn't happen, ever. Nobody gets the secretaries a coffee. And Lance - he's the head of HR! He doesn't need to bother with little old me! But he was nice, and funny."

Rose smiled, and Donna smiled dreamily back at her.

"And it turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. So that's how it started, me and him - one cup of coffee. That was it."

"Like a taxi on a street corner at 2am," the Doctor whispered to Rose, and she beamed and nodded. Donna wasn't paying attention.

"When was this?" he asked.

"Six months ago."

"Bit quick," the Doctor said, "To get married."

"Well ... he insisted," she said, the dreamy voice dropping, and the Doctor and Rose knew that it was probably Donna that insisted they got married, not Lance. "And he nagged me, and nagged me, and nagged me some more ... and finally he wore me down, and I just gave in."

"What does H.C Clements do?" the Doctor muttered.

"Security codes, entry codes," Rose said, and both the Doctor and Donna looked up. "ID Cards, am I right?"

Donna nodded. "If you ask me, it's a posh name for 'locksmiths'."

"Keys ..." the Doctor muttered, again, musing over this latest news.

"Anyway, enough of my CV. Come on, it's time to face the conseqences. Face the music, as they say. Oh, that is gonna be so shaming. We had a reception organised," Donna said, as the Doctor offered a hand to Donna up, who refused. He then helped Rose up, who took the hand.

"Where is it at?" Rose asked, as the trio walked back to the TARDIS.

"The Colbalt Hotel. In the Birmingham Suite," she said. "It's posher that the Manchester Suite," she whispered to Rose who laughed.

"The Colbalt Hotel, Hayden Road, Chiswick," the Doctor repeated the information, setting the coordinates for Donna's reception.

"Oh, and it had Christmas trees everywhere, and everyone from Chiswick was coming. Literally, honestly, I think Mum invited the whole town! And everyone from H.C Clements is coming," Donna said to Rose. She turned to the Doctor. "You can explain, Martian Boy."

"Yeah ... I'm not from Mars," the Doctor said, and Donna nodded dismissively.

"Whatever. Everyone's gonna be heartbroken."

Heartbroken was certainly not the word the Doctor would have used.

Everyone was dancing, happy as larry. The Doctor briefly wondered why it was 'happy as larry'. What about 'happy as Paul' or 'happy as David', hmm?

Everyone stopped, the music came to an abrupt halt.

Donna looked thunderstruck, but her face was quickly changing from shock to sheer rage. She folded her arms across her chest, her face turning the same colour as her hair in a suprisingly short amount of time. An older-than-Donna, blonde woman pushed her way forward but didn't say anything, as if waiting for Donna to speak. Which she eventually did, but after a very awkward pause.

"You had the reception without me?" Donna stated. It wasn't a question as much as it was a statement, and all the guests looked at the floor.

A black man had also come to the forefront, and from his attire the Doctor assumed it was the groom, Lance. "Donna ... what happened to ya?" he asked.

"You had the reception without me!" Donna's voice rose an octave.

There was another pregnant pause, and the Doctor decided to break it. "Hello! I'm and the Doctor and this is Rose," he said cheerfully, pointing at each of them in turn as Rose waved.

"They had the reception without me!" Donna said, turning to them.

"I gathered that," the Doctor said, gesturing to the crowd.

"Well it was all paid for," a peroxide blonde woman piped up. The Doctor would have said she had the blondest hair of anyone he knew, but that was before he'd met Jackie. "So why not enjoyed it while you went galavanting off God knows where?"

"Yes, thank you, Nerys," Donna spat. Finally, the famous Nerys made her appearance at long last. To be honest, her shade of blonde was a little too blonde for the Doctor's tastes.

"Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your silly little message in the end," the older-than-Donna woman said, and from her stern voice the Doctor and Rose deducted (like the great investagators they were) that she was Donna's mum. "I'm on Earth"? Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick because I'd love to know ... "

As if on cue, the whole room started shouting at Donna, demanding to know what had happened and where she'd been. Rose had been so shocked she'd taken a step back in surprise. Out of the blue, Donna burst into tears and the black man - Lance, presumably - had run forward and taken her into a hug. Donna'd managed to turn Lance around so she had her back to the crowd, and winked at the Doctor and Rose through her fake tears. The Doctor and Rose smirked at each other.

The Doctor and Rose had retreated to the bar to get some peace and quiet to find out what exactly had happened to Donna.

"Do you have any idea?" Rose asked him, as he ordered drinks from the bar.

"Not a scooby. What do you want?" he replied, drumming his fingers against the bar impatiently.

"A vodka and Coke," Rose said instantly, ordering her usual tipple, before realising she couldn't drink alcohol for the next seven-or-so months. "Just a Diet Coke, then," she said, and the Doctor decided to join her on the non-alcoholic front and ordered a Fanta. He'd gotten a strange look from the barman for that, but Rose was secretly pleased - not only was he not having alcohol to make her feel no-so left out, but because a alcohol-influenced Doctor was not what Donna need right now, unless what Donna needed was a good conga, a karaoke rendition of 'I Will Survive' and banana daquari's all round.

"How you you have money?" she asked, frowning as the barmen left to make their drinks.

"I took some that flew out of the ATM, silly," he said, kissing her nose. "I didn't just do it for a distraction."

"Ah. Clever Doctor."

"I know! Here you go," he said, handing it to her, and she drank deeply - she hadn't realised just how thirsty she was. "Do you have any idea?" he asked her this time, and her dark eyebrows shot up so they collided with her hairline.

"You're really asking me?" she said, and he nodded.

"You have a nack for hitting the nail on the head when it comes to these sorts of things," he said, and she raised an eyebrow. "You do!" he protested, and turned to face her. "What's your opinion, Lewis?"

"That she done a runner 'coz she got cold feet or something," Rose said bluntly, burping loudly due to the large amount of fizzy cola she'd drank in a astonishingly short amount of time.

"Maybe, I'm not sure. But one thing I'm sure of is that your actions are disgusting, Tyler," he said, waving a hand in front of his face as if he smelt it.

"Funny, Timey," she said, hitting him on the arm, but sipped her drink.

"I'mma get bruises," he muttered, rubbing his arm. Rose caught his mutter and smiled.

"You really need to speak up, because I'm not hearing you properly," she said, cupping a hand around her ear. All she got in return was a scowl. She was laughing when her phone vibrated to tell her she'd receieved a text message.

"'Hey babe, how are you, phoned house Jackie said you were in Rome, not bad for some! Jackie says you have news - tell tell! Gimme a phone when you have time, love Keish.'" Rose read aloud, and smiled. It really warmed her heart to think her friends were still asking about her even after three years. She'd have to get them all around for a baby shower sometime.

"Are you missing them? We can go and see them after?" the Doctor said, noticing Rose's slightly misty eyes.

"Really?" Rose seemed delighted.

"Yeah, okay, but - " Halfway through he was attacked by Rose.

"Thank you!" she said, and kissed him soundly on the lips. She frowned. "But what?"

"Can I borrow your phone? I left mine in the TARDIS," he said, and she laughed, handing it over.

"I have an idea," he said, and did a WAP search for H.C Clements.

"Ah, are you going to use ... " she said, and the Doctor shook the sonic screwdriver in answer to her question. He held it to the phone, as Rose cast her eyes around to see if anyone was looking. The phone beeped, and the Doctor sighed.

"Look," he said, showing the phone to Rose. 'Sole Prop. TORCHWOOD' was on the screen.

"Shoulda known Jack was involved with this somehow."

"Nice thought, but somehow, I don't think it's Jack's Torchwood. I think it's Torchwood One, remember he said he was Torchwood Three?" he said, and Rose nodded, enlightened.

"As in the one that nearly sent me flying through a void," Rose said, rubbing her sides in memory. "That really hurt as well."

"We should sue them," the Doctor said, and closed the phone with a snap, stowing the sonic safely away in his pocket.

"What about that guy, Doctor?" Rose said, leaning her head on his shoulder, her arm around his waist possessively as two girls had come up on his blind side, evidently to pretend to order drinks and chat him up at the same time. The two girls had just acted like they were going to the bar after they saw Rose - and the Doctor hadn't even realised.

"What guy?"

"That guy over there," she said, pointing to her free arm to a twenty-something year old slightly geeky man, who had a video camera.

"What about him? Wanna ask what kind of hair gel he's using? Because the wet look is so 90's ... "

"Uh, for something so clever you can be thick. If he's taping the reception, he'll have probably taped the wedding as well, Dumbo."

"Rose Tyler, you're a genius," he said, kissing her soundly, before taking her hand and dragging her over to the man. "But Dumbo is kinda last body, don't you think?"

"Maybe, Timey," she said, nudging his shoulder. He made a face as he tried to wind around the dancers to the man.

"Hey, mate," the Doctor said, approaching him. "You didn't tape the wedding as well, did you?"

"'Course," the man said, smiling. "I taped the whole thing - they've all had a look, once or twice. They said 'sell it to You've Been Framed'. I said 'more like the News'. Here we are ..." he said, locating the right disk and slotting it into the camera. Donna's face appeared on the screen, walking down the aisle. She was beaming, and then suddenly her face went into a scream as she disappeared in what seemed to Rose like a lot of gold dust.

"Good trick, I'll give her that. I was clapping," the man said, smiling again.

"It can't be!" the Doctor said, disbelief evident on his face. "Play it again!" he demanded, and he looked so worried that Rose didn't even comment on his rudeness.

His brow furrowed incredulously. "But that looks like ... Huon Particles!" he said, whipping off his glasses in a movie so sudden Rose took a step back.

"What's that?" she said, her brow imitating his now. He didn't get this worked up over nothing.

"That's impossible, that's ... ancient! Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, not for billions of years! So old that ... " he trailed off, looking around, and Rose turned around to see he was looking at Donna. "That it can't be hidden by a bio-damper!" he exclaimed, and grabbed Rose's hand, pulling her to the nearest window.

"Oh, my God," Rose said, as the foreboding Santas came up the drive, the gravel crunching under their black boots.

"Come on, we gotta warn Donna!" he said, pulling her back to the party. He ran up to Donna, who was dancing with Lance.

"Hiya," she said, before noticing their panicked look. "Something's wrong."

"They've found you," the Doctor said simply, the panicked look still wild in his eyes.

"But you said I was safe!" Donna protested, as Lance looked on dumbly.

"The bio-damper doesn't work. We've got to get everybody out," the Doctor said, looking for exits.

"Oh, my God ... it's all my family ... " she said, looking around at everyone enjoying themselves, laughter in air.

"Out the back door!" Rose said, pointing, and the Doctor once again seized her hand and ran, Donna hot on their heels. Lance stood rooted in the stop, struck.

"It's blocked!" Rose said, as two more Santas made their way up that road as well.

"Maybe not," he said, running over to the window. Another two Santas were there as well.

"We're trapped!" Donna exclaimed, and Rose rushed over to her, giving her a hug to comfort her. The Doctor, however, had his eyes on the remote control the Santas were raising forebodingly.

"Christmas trees ... " he said aloud, and Rose whipped her head around, fear apparent. Last time Christmas trees had been involved ...

"What about them?" Donna asked, and Rose got there before the Doctor could. The Santas were inside, and stood opposite the DJ decks, opposite the Christmas trees.

"They kill," she said, and they ran back to the party, and a bunch of kids were standing next to the tree.

"Get away from the tree!" they all said, getting people as far away from the tree as possible.

"Out! Lance, tell them!"

Rose saw the Santas push a big, red button out of the corner of her eyes. Big, red buttons were never a good sign.

"Doctor!" she yelled, and he was over the other side of the room, getting peope away from the trees. She jerked her head in their direction.

"Oh, for God's sakes, the man's an idiot! Why? What's a Christmas tree gonna ... oh!" Sylvia trailed off, as the baubles rose up in the air, dotting themselves around the room. The Doctor ran over to Rose. Everyone was staring at them, muttering appreciatively.

"They're so pretty!" Rose heard someone say, and they did look pretty, all red and glitterly. But Rose would bet her Converse that they weren't as pretty as they seemed.

Her thought came true three seconds later as the baubles exploded.

Everyone screamed, diving out the way, taking cover from the killer christmas baubles. The Doctor pulled Rose over to the DJ decks, laying over her in a vain attempt to protect both her and the defenseless little baby inside of her. He was getting angry as he thought about the harm one of those baubles could do to their little baby, still very vunerable inside of Rose, as a bauble exploded right where Rose was standing about two seconds earlier.

He saw Donna pull Lance under an table, and he hoped this chaos would stop soon, that the world would stop exploding, because Huon particles were not good news, in any way, shape or form.