Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who, the Duplicate Doctor, Donna, etc. So, I just want to apologize for the delay between updates, it happened without my realizing. You know, I had to end one story, got excited about starting another and you know what I learned? Weddings are a beast to write. Anyway, thanks for the reads and reviews and follows. Please enjoy this one and please do let me know what you think.
John had gotten used to Donna's lifestyle.
He hadn't realized it at first, but it was the little things, like the 1200 count sheets on the bed, the memory foam mattress, the way there were fresh towels and lavender in the bathroom... As the Doctor he had really wanted for nothing, save companionship. As John Smith, he had wanted for everything and companionship in an IKEA bed that was so far from the TARDIS. Then Donna had given him as much companionship as he could handle and a life and a family and a house that was run like the Ritz Carlton by a Jamaican cleaning lady called Madge who was sure to correct it if you put a new roll of toilet paper on the wrong way while she was off for the weekend. She still didn't approve of the way she had seen John dry the dishes. Something about clockwise versus anti-clockwise that John couldn't quite follow. Mayantha had it much worse since as a Time Lady she had never had to clean up anything in her life and this became apparent during an incident involving an attempt to make Ella and Josh Nutella sandwiches. They had failed to tell her it wasn't necessary to use the cooker...
This all occurred to him as he stayed at Jack's new flat the night before the wedding. John had late appointed Jack as his Best Man. Granted, he didn't know this universe's Jack all that well, but he seemed familiar and the other men he knew from work and the cricket club weren't much more than casual acquaintances. So Jack it was despite the frightening stag party that John had only narrowly managed to escape. At least Jack hadn't brought his planned orgy back to the flat.
Still, he couldn't sleep. Too excited. Too ready to get married.
His mobile rang. He picked it up.
"Hello."
"Hello," came Donna's voice from the other end. "Can't sleep, either?"
John let out a big sigh. "Can't sleep without you."
"Well, you won't have to after tomorrow." He could hear the smile in her voice.
"No, I suppose not." John paused. "Look, in case I forget to mention it tomorrow in the middle of the wedding and the party and everything, I'm so glad I met you."
"Glad I met you, too, sunshine."
Rose Tyler knocked on the door to the Noble house, soon to be Smith-Noble house. She tried to shake off the thought. She waited for the door to open.
"Can I help you?," a woman asked with a raised eyebrow in a Jamaican accent.
"Yeah, I was just dropping off this wedding gift."
Madge eyed the bag. "You can't wait until the wedding?"
"I can't make it. Work stuff..."
Madge nodded and held out her hand. "I'll add it to the rest."
"I was actually hoping to put it inside myself."
"Well, Ms. Noble is busy and Mr. Smith isn't home."
"That's alright."
Madge eyed Rose suspiciously. "Then what's wrong? Why can't I just put it in myself? Do you think I'm going to steal it? What do you have that could possibly be worth stealing in that pound store gift bag of yours?"
"I just want to put it inside."
"Who are you again?"
"I'm a guest..."
"And your name is?"
Rose paused. "I'm just going to go."
Madge let the door shut slowly in Rose's face without saying a word.
Mayantha woke up to the sight of Ella shoving her arm and hopping.
"It's the wedding! It's the wedding!"
Mayantha thought. "No, still six hours, forty seven minutes and thirty-two seconds."
Ella looked at her curiously. "How do you do that?"
"It runs in my family."
"Mummy says to get dressed, we have appointments."
Mayantha dressed and headed downstairs. She found the sitting room crowded with children including Josh and Ella and another thin blonde.
"Nerys, this is Mayantha. She's John's niece. Mayantha, this is Nerys and her children, Kylie, Sophie and Liam."
"Hello," said Mayantha.
"We've got appointments for hair, nails and makeup," said Nerys. She looked at Mayantha. "My God, do you just look like that when you wake up?"
Mayantha shrugged. "Look like what?"
"She does," said Donna, "good genes seem to run in the family."
"How old are you?," asked Nerys.
Mayantha opened her mouth to answer then looked at Donna who signalled twenty with the opening and closing of her hands.
"Oh, twenty?," said Mayantha.
"So lucky. I was still fighting off acne at your age," said Nerys.
Your age. These humans were so funny sometimes.
"Well, come on," said Donna. "Big day. Josh, Liam, you can stay here. Be good for Lisette."
"Fine," said Josh not looking up from the video game he and Liam were playing.
Donna leaned in. "Remember: no bath, no bounce house." She kissed him on top of the head. "Love you. Off we go, ladies!"
"Sorry," said Mayantha, "hair, nails, what about them?"
"Oh, I have so much to teach you," said Donna.
Rose was out of ideas so she knocked on the door of her parents' house. Maybe Tony would want to play with the Noble children. Jackie was the one to answer the door and looked less than pleased to see her eldest born.
"Hi, Mum."
Jackie was in no mood for Rose's attempts at cheerfulness. "So, you're alive. Good to know!"
Jackie turned round and went back in the house. She had on a dressing gown and her hair was still in rollers. Rose shut the front door.
"I just wanted to come round and say hello."
"Yeah, I bet you did," said Jackie. "I'm busy today. We have to go to a wedding."
"John and Donna? You're going to their wedding?," Rose asked in surprise.
"Yeah, how do you know about it?"
"Oh, someone just told me..." Rose shrugged. "Where are they having it at?"
"At her house and don't you even think of showing up."
"Why would I show up?," Rose said probably too defensively.
"I don't know, why did you go to her office? Why did you dye your hair? Why did you disappear for months without so much as a word to your own mother? I don't know why you do the things you do!"
"I'm sorry..."
"Yeah, I'm sure you are. You always are," said Jackie, heading up the stairs.
Rose hadn't realized the wedding would be at the house, surely if everyone was out in the garden, there would just be staff in the house and she could look like staff. From there she could sneak in place the clock in the bedroom.
"I've got to go, Mum!," Rose shouted.
"I'm sure you do!," Jackie shouted back.
Adeola and Gwen had arrived early at the wedding. Adeola's boyfriend had a family emergency so they were both cruising the wedding alone as single girls and making comments about the kinds of crazy hats some of the very rich ladies were wearing.
The wedding was preceded by a cocktail hour and this had ample opportunity for them to people watch as they strolled the garden.
"Boy," said Gwen looking at the house, "when John gets a wife he gets a good one."
"Probably best that way. I don't think he would have done very well with a lot of dating."
"No..." Gwen concurred.
"Ladies," said Jack with a smile as he approached them.
"Commander Harkness," said Adeola. "You look very dapper."
"Thanks. It's a Brioni."
"How was the stag night?," asked Gwen.
"Jealous?," asked Jack.
"Not in the least."
"I can't picture John on a stag night," said Adeola.
"Yes," said Gwen eyeing Jack pointedly, "seems far too sleazy for him."
"Oh, Mr. Jones," said Jack, noticing Ianto's approach. "How are you today?"
"I'm hiding from Sylvia Noble," said Ianto, taking a martini off a waiter's tray. "If you see a tall blonde woman trying to move place cards smack her hand away."
"What's with the bounce house?," asked Adeola.
"Joshua's idea. Not a bad one, I must admit. They didn't really have any wedding-themed ones, though." He motioned at the inflatable palm trees on the corners of the bounce house. Several of the children among the guests had already let themselves in.
Gwen observed the bounce house where another guest was passing.
"What's bloody Harriet Jones doing here?," asked Gwen.
"Oh, that was Ms. Noble's idea," said Ianto.
"Is Pete Tyler still coming?," asked Adeola.
"I rang Mrs. Tyler to confirm."
"So, you're going to have the man who saved Harriet Jones' life and the man who sacked him in the same place as her," Adeola concluded.
Ianto looked at them. "Ms. Noble didn't get where she is by being subtle."
"A Pete Tyler trap, I love it," said Gwen. "Not the Tyler I want to trap the most. Of course if I trapped her, what would I do with her? Beat the piss out of her, I suppose."
"I have some ideas," said Jack.
"You always have ideas," snorted Gwen.
"I never saw what people saw in Rose," said Adeola.
"Complete raging psychopath if you ask me," added Ianto.
"No, definitely a complete raging psychopath," agreed Gwen. She toasted with Ianto. "Cheers."
Sylvia Noble had confined John to a small room in the bottom floor of the house to get ready. Funny that she was confining him, it was his house, almost officially now. So, he got dressed, sat around with the telly on, too nervous to actually watch.
There was a knock at the door. "Come in."
The door opened and Ella entered. She had on a long white dress, with taffeta layers like Donna's not that she would have it any other way. There was some beading and a purple sash around her waist to coordinate with the other bridesmaids. Her red hair was in a bun in a crown atop her head and she had on elbow length gloves. Donna had mentioned this to him, that Ella was in fact the only member of the wedding party with gloves on but she had spotted them at the shop and wouldn't take no for an answer.
"I wanted to show you my dress." Ella spun around.
"You look beautiful, Ella!," said John. "Of course, you always look beautiful. You get that from your mother. Come here."
Ella walked over and John gave her a big hug. Josh rushed in, scuffing the shoe on his new outfit.
"We got a bounce house!"
John nodded. "Yeah, I saw that."
"Mum says I can't go in until after the ceremony."
"Seems sensible."
"Oh, come on, John."
John narrowed his gaze. "Are you trying to play me off your mum?"
"No," said Josh, feigning innocence.
"Yeah, right. It's not going to work."
Josh groaned. "Fine."
John sniffed. "Did you take a bath?"
"Yeah," Josh said disdainfully.
Jack entered. "Okay, kids, time for the main event!"
John smiled at the kids. "See you out there."
Getting in to the wedding was harder than Rose had counted on. For one thing, the streets around the house were incredibly congested with the valets from the wedding and the drivers and cars for many of the guests. There was also a heavy police presence because apparently Harriet Jones was one of the attendees and security had been extra tight around her for some reason recently.
She had gotten a waitress uniform from a secondhand shop and was trying all of the different security points around the house. If only Ethan hadn't alienated himself from Donna, this would have been so much easier.
She finally found a way in just as she heard the wedding march playing. She found herself in the kitchen, which was serving as the launching point for the entire wedding breakfast it seemed.
"You there!," she heard someone shout at her. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Uh, to the back?"
"For what? Get over here and start helping us load up these nibbles! There are a hundred people out there who are about to want to eat!"
Rose struggled for a moment with what to do next.
"Get over here, you daft bint!"
Rose walked over and helped with the tries, lest she get sacked and tossed off the premises.
There was a strange thing about not being able to see time anymore.
As the Doctor, John remembered being able to tell time down to the millisecond. As a human-ish, time moved differently. Sometimes slower, sometimes faster.
The Doctor's wedding to Donna, he could remember every second, every detail. The Doctor's wedding on Gallifrey for that matter, but in John Smith's wedding to Donna, he found some things were moving past him. For example, when the processional started he couldn't remember the music, only Donna as she walked her way down the aisle, followed by Josh, Ella, Nerys, and Nerys' children. And he couldn't remember a word of what the vicar had said, just Donna's smile and how wonderful she looked in that dress. It was a wonderful dress after all, that corset was really...
"John," said the vicar.
"Wha- er, yes?"
The minister smiled. "I, John, take thee-"
"Oh, right, I, John take thee, Donna, to be my wife, To have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse,for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow." He rattled the whole thing off, not taking any of the vicar's prompting which he supposed is why Donna seemed a little miffed, as he had done the same thing in the rehearsal and she had mentioned not wanting to look silly when she couldn't do the whole speech. From her smile, he didn't think it was a deal breaker...
He couldn't really remember her bit, either. Just that she was speaking and she was brilliant and beautiful and whatever she was saying was just great. Then Jack was nudging him, he couldn't figure out why. He looked back about to ask why he wanted to interrupt Donna when she was being so brilliant.
"The rings?," Jack whispered.
Oh. Rings. Those would be good. He took them from Jack and they were exchanged.
"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."
Oh, that was good part. John lifted Donna's veil and kissed her. Probably more than was appropriate, but she didn't seem to mind. He finally stopped when he heard the recessional music and took Donna's hand and went back into the house.
And all he could remember of that was holding Donna's hand. As it was meant to be.
Author's Notes: Did I mention that there is more wedding coming?