Chapter Twenty-five: Donna and Jenny Have Been Saved
Jenny knew as soon as her dad hit the teleport button that something had gone wrong. Even as she caught a quick glance of the TARDIS console room, she felt a tug, like something had grabbed a hold of her and wasn't going to let her into the ship. She heard Donna scream as she gritted her teeth against the sensation, and she hoped that either Donna had made it to the TARDIS, or that they'd be together, wherever they were going.
Ten seconds later, her eyes blinked open in a large, airy bedroom painted in soothing pastels. She looked down at herself, and instead of being dressed in her own jeans and t-shirt, she was wearing flannel pyjamas.
What is going on? How did I get undressed and where am I?
Jenny took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing on the telepathic presence of her father and Rose. They were still there in her mind, just like they should be.
Her dad had told her that if she were ever abducted or lost, she should reach out for him and Rose so they could start looking for her. When she'd asked the first question to come to mind—rather practical she thought, to wonder if it was possible to block telepathy—deep, remembered pain had echoed in her mind from both of them.
She'd quickly gathered that while it was possible, most people wouldn't have the means or knowledge to do so. And lying in this strange bed, it only took her a moment to find their telepathic signatures and ask them to find her.
The heavy wooden door swung open, and Jenny jumped to her feet as a tall, bald, black man entered the room. She scanned him quickly, taking in the crisp white shirt and the placid smile on his face. His non-threatening posture did nothing to reassure Jenny, since, as far as she could tell, this perfect stranger had yanked her away from the safety of her home.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Who are you, and how did you bring Donna and me here? Where's the rest of my family?"
Brown eyes blinked behind rimless glasses. "I'm Doctor Moon. I've been treating you and your Aunt Donna since you came here." He tilted his head. "What do you remember, Jenny?"
Jenny drew herself up and wished she had her boots on—they would have added a few inches to her petite size. She copied the way Rose would tilt her head back when people dared condescend to her and reached for the confident tone of voice her dad always managed.
"My name is Jenny Tyler. My dad and mum are the Doctor and Rose Tyler. We live on the TARDIS with our friend Donna."
Doctor Moon circled her as she talked. "Interesting," he mused quietly. "Integration seems to have failed entirely with you. I'll have to try again."
He walked back to the door and smiled at her. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jenny."
Jenny shook her head slowly after he left, trying to understand what had just happened. Integration?
She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she was in a cafeteria. Doctor Moon sat across the table from her. "Hello, Jenny. I'm glad you could join me for coffee today. Are you feeling better than you were yesterday?"
Jenny stared at him. "That was less than a minute ago, Doctor Moon. You left my room, I blinked, and then we were here."
Doctor Moon pursed his lips. "No, Jenny. You've forgotten the last twenty-four hours. That's a symptom of the trauma you received." He gestured at her. "Look, you're even wearing different clothes."
Jenny glanced down and realised her hospital issue pyjamas had changed from red to blue-and-white plaid. She raised an eyebrow—she knew there was no way she'd been in the hospital for more than ten minutes.
"Can I see Donna?" she asked, ignoring his lie. "You said she was in a room like mine. I'd like to see her."
The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't allow that, not when your mind is still so affected by your accident. Your Aunt Donna has had some false memories as well, and if the two of you met right now, you would only reinforce the fiction your damaged minds are trying to create."
Jenny could feel her forehead scrunch up in a frown. "I'd really like to see her," she pressed.
Doctor Moon smiled regretfully. "When you're feeling better, we'll see what we can arrange." He looked down at the watch strapped to his wrist. "I'm afraid I need to cut today's meeting short. I'll see you tomorrow, though."
Jenny watched him stand up and walk away, then she closed her eyes. When she opened them, she wasn't surprised to find herself walking with the doctor across a plush lawn. A surreptitious look at herself revealed she was finally dressed in normal clothes, instead of pyjamas.
Her first instinct was to ask how they'd gotten outside, but then she remembered what Doctor Moon had said. If she wanted to make sure Donna was all right, she had to pretend to buy into the lie.
"It's a lovely day for a walk," she said, not commenting on the time or location at all.
She felt Doctor Moon looking at her, but she kept a smile on her face as she looked up at the sky. The sun didn't even feel warm. How did they expect people to believe this was real?
"Have you had any more dreams?" he prodded. "About the Doctor and Rose, and the blue box you flew in through time and space?"
Jenny's temper flared at the casual, condescending way he referred to her entire life. But she reminded herself that the goal today was to see Donna, and she shook her head. "No, Doctor Moon," she said—and it wasn't a lie. She hadn't even slept, so how could she have dreamt?
Doctor Moon smiled. "It is a lovely day," he agreed. "I've asked a nurse to bring Donna out, if you would like to talk to her."
Jenny swung her gaze around to look at the doctor. "Yes, please!"
A second later, they were on the patio, sitting at a table sipping tea. Donna reached across the table and grabbed Jenny's free hand. "I'm so glad you're all right, Jenny," she said. "This lot wouldn't tell me anything about you, except that your head injury was worse than mine and it was taking you time to heal."
It was hard to smile when Jenny knew Donna didn't really know who she was, but somehow she managed it. "I'm doing so much better," she promised Donna.
"As soon as they let us out of here, we'll get a place together," Donna promised her.
"I'd like that," Jenny managed to say. She wanted to grab Donna and shake her until she remembered their real life on the TARDIS with the Doctor and Rose and all the running, but she just smiled instead.
"Donna," Doctor Moon said, "would you like to go for a walk down to the river with me?"
Donna smiled beatifically and stood up. Then she looked at Doctor Moon, now wearing an overcoat and holding a bag of bread crumbs while ducks quacked noisily.
A steady breeze came off the water and they sun had slipped behind the clouds. Donna looked around, fighting her disorientation. "You said river, and suddenly we're feeding ducks." There was something not right, but she just… couldn't put her finger on it.
"Doctor Moon. Morning."
Donna turned and suddenly felt a little breathless when she spotted a man who was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome walking towards them carrying fishing gear. And he's got some meat on him, too, she thought, admiring his solid physique. Unlike that skinny bloke… She closed her eyes quickly and shoved the errant thought of the Doctor into the back of her mind before Doctor Moon could pick up on it.
"Donna Noble, Lee McAvoy." Doctor Moon smirked, then moved off to the side.
Donna smiled at the newcomer. "Hello, Lee."
His eyes were warm when he smiled at her. "Hello, D, D, D…"
"Ooo, you've got bit of a stammer there." She looked over at Doctor Moon. "Bless."
"D, D," Lee persisted.
Donna waved the attempts away with a hand. "Oh, skip to a vowel. They're easy."
What felt like just a second later, she was back on the hospital grounds with Doctor Moon. The sun had come back out, but it was still cold enough that she was comfortable in her winter coat.
Donna bit her lip as she looked up at the doctor. She thought she liked Lee, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember anything about the rest of the afternoon.
"How did we leave it, him and me?
Doctor Moon smirked again. "I got the impression he was inviting you fishing tomorrow."
oOoOoOoOo
The next twenty-five minutes were a nightmare and a headache for Jenny, as she watched Donna progress rapidly through her relationship with Lee McAvoy. Jenny had no real objections to Lee—he seemed perfectly nice—but was he even real? What if she and Donna got out of wherever they were, and Donna had fallen in love with someone who didn't even exist?
But she couldn't say a thing to warn Donna—Aunt Donna, she reminded herself—or she'd be back in the hospital faster than you could say… well, most things.
Jenny looked around at the cosy bungalow she'd moved into sometime around minute eighteen in this strange, pocket universe. Her act had successfully fooled Doctor Moon, and he had declared her fully integrated and stopped visiting her, thankfully. It was harder than she'd thought to continue pretending in front of him.
Pretending was how she was allowed to be part of Donna's life, though, and that let her offer some kind of protection, at least. Today, she was supposed to be going to Lee and Donna's wedding, but she knew there wasn't any reason for her to try to get ready, because in just a minute…
The pew was hard against her back and the pale blue dress didn't fit well. But despite her discomfort and misgivings, it was almost impossible not to be happy for Lee and Donna as they ran up the aisle together.
Twenty minutes or eight years later, Jenny was sitting in her own garden, listening to the shouts of Donna's children echoing over the wall. She pressed a hand to her forehead; how had this gotten so out of control?
Suddenly, she realised there was another person in her garden—a tall, veiled woman dressed all in black. Jenny jumped up and pressed her back to the wall. "Who are you?"
"You don't need to be afraid of me, Jenny Tyler," the woman said, and the voice was familiar. "You are not like anyone else who has been in this computer simulation."
"Is that what it is, then?" Jenny looked around, and it all made sense. Everything was perfect. The computer could program them to skip time, and then Doctor Moon would fill in the gaps of what had happened with his narrative explanation.
"Yes. You are in the central computer of the Library. You remember the Library, don't you, Jenny?"
Jenny pressed her lips together to withhold a sob. Even though less than an hour had passed since her dad had activated the teleport, sometimes it really did feel like she'd been trapped here for nine years. Time is meaningless in the Vortex, Rose, she remembered her dad saying more than once. She didn't really think this was what he'd meant.
So after being trapped in a bizarre virtual reality for an hour, hearing someone else talk about the real world was almost more than she could handle. But the other woman was waiting for an answer, so she nodded. "Who are you?" she asked.
The woman tilted her head. "I think you know the answer to that, if you really think."
Jenny stared at her, trying to place the voice. She'd heard that voice before… she'd heard that voice dying, she realised suddenly.
"Miss Evangelista!" she gasped.
"Yes, or at least, I am what's left of her," the woman said.
Jenny frowned and started to ask what exactly she meant by that. But then the air next to her flickered, and she watched a figure appear out of thin air—a figure she knew very well.
"Dad!"
He had his head bent down so he could listen to the sonic, but when he heard her voice, he looked straight at her. "Jenny!"
She held out a hand and he ran towards her, but he disappeared before he reached her. Staring at the blank space where her father had been just a moment before, Jenny swallowed hard.
"How can we get out of here?" she asked Miss Evangelista.
oOoOoOoOo
After Rose reminded Melody of the squareness gun, she used it on every wall they came to. The Doctor crossed his fingers that it wouldn't run out of battery power, though she didn't seem to having the problem Jack did.
Finally, they reached a room with a large open space under the skylight, giving them plenty of light. "Okay, we've got a clear spot," Melody announced, motioning for everyone to pile into the room.
The Doctor immediately let go of Rose's hand and slid down to the floor, pointing the sonic at the shadows.
"In, in, in!" Melody continued. "Right in the centre. In the middle of the light, quickly. Don't let your shadows cross. Doctor."
"On it," he replied, scanning for Vashta Nerada.
"There's no lights here," Melody said, pointing out what he'd noticed as soon as they entered the room. "Sunset's coming. We can't stay long." The sonic flickered. "Have you found a live one?"
"Maybe. It's getting harder to tell." He tapped the sonic against his hand and scanned again. "What's wrong with you?" he asked his tool.
Melody stood up and spun around. "We're going to need a chicken leg. Who's got a chicken leg? Thanks, Dave."
A moment later, the Doctor watched a chicken leg fly through the air and hit the ground as only a bone.
"Okay," Melody said as she stumbled backwards. "Okay, we've got a hot one. Watch your feet."
"They won't attack until there's enough of them," the Doctor said, brushing off her concern. "But they've got our scent now. They're coming."
You're being rude, Rose told him gently as she rubbed his shoulders.
Behind their backs, both of Melody's assistants were peppering her with questions—questions about them.
"So who are they?" Other Dave asked. "A group of people we've never met show up on our expedition, and we're just supposed to trust them?"
"That's the Doctor and Rose Tyler," Melody said. "And yeah, you're supposed to trust them."
The Doctor stared into the shadows as he shamelessly eavesdropped on the conversation between Melody Pond and her team. I'm being rude? At least I'm not talking about her where she can hear me.
Only 'cause she's not telepathic, Rose retorted, and he glanced up to see her teasing grin.
The results from the sonic screwdriver were getting spottier. The Doctor tried pulsing the button to see if that would help while Mr. Lux asked Melody who he and Rose were.
Oh, I feel so hurt that Mr. Lux isn't impressed by our credentials, Rose snarked.
"The only people I'd want with me in a life-and-death situation," Melody shot back. "Trust me, there's a reason I asked them to meet us here. If there's anyone who can get us out of here alive, it's them."
The Doctor knew Rose was trying to make light of the situation, but as he watched Melody out of the corner of his eye, he couldn't let it go. Listening to someone he'd never met talk about him and Rose as if she'd known them forever had been mildly curious before. Now that Donna and Jenny were gone because he'd followed this woman's message to the Library, it was infuriating.
"You say they're your friends, but they don't even know who you are."
The Doctor moved to the next set of shadows and nodded vigorously with Anita's salient point. Exactly! They didn't know who this woman was, so how could they trust her?
Melody looked up at him and shrugged when they made eye contact. She didn't even look surprised that he was listening in. "Listen, all you need to know is this. I'd trust those two to the end of the universe."
Really? the Doctor thought sarcastically. And have you been to the end of the universe? Because I have, and you weren't there.
Stop snarking at Melody Pond and focus on finding Donna and Jenny, Rose ordered sharply, clearly tired of his sour disposition.
The Doctor shuffled over to the next set of shadows, but he didn't get any better results there. I'm trying, but something's interfering with the sonic.
"The Doctor doesn't act like he trusts you," Anita said astutely. "Rose might, but I don't think he does."
Melody tucked a strand of straight, brown hair back behind her ear. "Yeah, there's a tiny problem. They haven't met me yet, and the Doctor is extremely protective of his family."
"What about Rose?" Anita asked.
They heard a smile in Melody's voice when she answered. "Rose is extremely protective of the Doctor."
You have to admit she's right about that, Rose told him as she traded screwdrivers with him. They both heard Melody walk towards them, but ignored her while the Doctor tried Rose's sonic on the shadows. To their consternation, her screwdriver seemed to be having the exact same problem.
"What's wrong with it?" Melody asked.
The Doctor ignored her, tapping the screwdriver lightly and tried it again, but the violet diode only flickered briefly.
Rose sighed and looked at Melody. "There's a signal coming from somewhere, interfering with it."
Melody nodded once. "Then use the red settings."
The Doctor's gaze flicked over to her, then he went back to fiddling with Rose's sonic. "It doesn't have a red setting."
"Well, use the dampers," she said as she took her gloves off.
"It doesn't have dampers." The Doctor was already disinclined to be civil towards this woman who claimed to be from their future, and the way that she was now pretending to know everything about his sonic screwdriver, the tool he had designed and perfected over the years, grated.
She pulled the sonic screwdriver she'd used earlier out of her pocket. The diode that had been blue now looked red. "Hmmm. I guess mine has a few extra features then," she said.
The Doctor snatched it from her hands and stood up. "So, some time in the future, I just give you my screwdriver."
She snatched it back. "No. At some point in the future, you give me my own screwdriver."
He rocked back on his heels and glared at her. "Why would I do that?"
"Present when I graduated from uni," she said breezily. A hint of nostalgia entered her voice, but her smile was still smug, like she knew something they didn't. "I'd always wanted one, but I'd never dared to ask. And then you came up to me, just the two of you, and said you had a special gift for me." She arched an eyebrow. "I guess this is when I told you I wanted a sonic screwdriver." A smirk crossed her face. "You know, if you'd told me before that this was what you meant when you said time travel had its up sides, I might have been more interested."
The Doctor's agitation washed over Rose, and combined with her own worry for Jenny and Donna, her temper sparked. She stepped in between the Doctor and Melody, standing with her feet shoulder width apart and her arms crossed over her chest.
"Oi! Leave 'im alone!" The Doctor put a hand on her arm, and Rose took a deep breath but didn't back down. "You just told Anita and Other Dave that I'm protective of the Doctor, and now you're teasing him for your own amusement when you can tell how upset he is?"
Melody opened and closed her mouth, then shook her head.
Rose sighed, and some of her anger drained out of her. "I know you're upset and stressed and this has got to be difficult for you, when you were thinking you'd get the versions of us that you know. But we just lost our daughter and our friend." Her voice cracked and she swallowed hard. "Neither of us are in the mood for jokes right now."
The smirk disappeared from Melody's face. "You're right. I'm sorry, both of you." She smiled wryly at Rose. "I've never been on the receiving end of one of your protective tirades. Think I'll try to avoid it happening again." She blinked rapidly as she turned back around to the rest of her expedition crew.
There was a short, awkward pause, then the Doctor held up Rose's screwdriver. "Know what's interesting about our screwdrivers?" he asked as he started walking in circles around the group. "Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hairdryers," he allowed as he looked up at the skylight. "But I'm working on that. So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed?"
"The moon is up," Rose said immediately. "I noticed it when I looked through the skylight when we walked into this room. There wasn't a moon in the sky before, and now there is."
The Doctor spun around and bounced on his toes. "Oh, very good, Rose!" He turned and looked at Mr. Lux. "Tell me about the moon. What's there?"
The company president shook his head. "It's not real. It was built as part of the Library. It's just a doctor moon."
"What's a doctor moon?" he pressed.
"A virus checker," Mr. Lux explained. "It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet."
"So it's there to make sure that CAL is safe," the Doctor mused. Now that he knew what to look for, he could scan for a connection between the planet and the moon. Unlike his attempts to scan for Vashta Nerada, that worked almost immediately.
"Well, still active. It's signalling. Look." The sonic's steady buzz pulsed slightly as it picked up the signal from the moon. "Someone somewhere in this library is alive and communicating with the moon. Or, possibly alive and drying their hair." The Doctor put his screwdriver to his ear, listening to the signal. "No, the signal is definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through."
He twisted the top of the screwdriver and heard a funny pop, then a very familiar voice called out, "Dad!"
The Doctor looked up up, and his throat caught when he saw a flickering projection of his daughter. "Jenny!" he called back, pushing her name past the lump in his throat. He ran towards the projection, but it disappeared just as he reached it.
He stared at the blank spot, blinking back tears. A moment later, Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tight. She's there, love, one of them said, though he couldn't tell right now if the thought was his or hers. Jenny's there, and she's fine.
Rose pulled back and wiped tears from her eyes. "Can you get her back?" she whispered hoarsely.
"I can try," the Doctor said, his voice thick. His hands were shaking when he raised the sonic to his ear, but they were steady enough to adjust the settings, trying to lock onto the frequency coming from the moon. Please, let me see Jenny again, he pleaded with the universe.
But it seemed like the universe wasn't listening. No matter what he tried, he couldn't interfere with the signal between the doctor moon and the planet.
He growled and tapped the sonic on the heel of his hand. "I'm being blocked!"
"Doctor Pond?" Anita said, a tremble in her soft voice.
"Just a moment," Melody replied. The Doctor heard the buzzing from her screwdriver and realised she was trying to locate Jenny, too.
"It's important," Anita insisted. "I have two shadows."
The Doctor's stomach fell when he spun around and saw that the young archaeologist did indeed have two shadows.
"Okay." Melody took charge. "Helmets on, everyone. Anita, I'll get yours."
"It didn't do Proper Dave any good," Anita pointed out practically.
Melody shook her head. "Just keep it together, okay?"
Anita rolled her eyes and snorted. "Keeping it together. I'm only crying. I'm about to die. It's not an overreaction."
No one could argue with that, so Melody was silent as she put the helmet on the scared woman and did up the seal.
"Hang on." Using the sonic, the Doctor turned the filter on the visor all the way up, making it black.
Melody gasped. "Oh God, they've got inside."
"No, he just tinted her visor, Melody," Rose explained. "But why, Doctor?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Well, I thought maybe they'll think they're already in there, leave her alone."
"Do you think they can be fooled like that?" Melody pressed.
The Doctor pressed his lips into a thin line. The constant questioning was grating on his nerves. "Maybe. I don't know. It's a swarm. It's not like we chat."
"Can you still see in there?" Other Dave asked.
Anita nodded. "Just about."
When the Doctor turned around to look at Other Dave, he noticed something they'd all missed. A seventh figure, standing in the shadows.
Other Dave and Mr. Lux both took a step forward, and the Doctor waved his hand for them to stay still. The last thing they needed was for the shadows to cross, spreading the infestation.
"Just, just, just stay back." Then he took Rose's hand and looked at Melody. "Rose, Melody. Could I have a word, please?"
Both women frowned, but nodded, and they took three steps away from Anita, careful to stay in the light.
The Doctor lowered his voice. "All right, both of you. Without being obvious, I need you to take a quick head count."
He watched them casually glance around the room before they looked back at him. "Seven," they whispered in unison.
"Right. That's the three of us, Anita, Other Dave, Mr. Lux, and…"
Their eyes widened.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"Run!" the Doctor ordered, and the six still-living people raced out of the room, chased by the form of Proper Dave.
oOoOoOoOo
The Doctor led the group to the stairs, thinking they might be harder for the swarm in a suit to navigate. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, keeping them safe from other shadows as they climbed over two dozen flights.
Finally, they reached a floor that indicated a skybridge could be found on this level. "This way," he said in a low voice, straining his ears for the shuffle-clomp of the Vashta Nerada, several storeys below them.
They ran through the sky bridge from one skyscraper to another. The Doctor slammed the heavy wooden doors shut behind them and hustled everyone towards the stairs, but some twinge of curiosity caught Rose's attention, and she stopped and looked at him while Mr. Lux and Anita ran on.
His eyes were bright with anger and curiosity as he stared back at the closed doors. It only took a moment for Rose to figure out what he wanted to do.
She looked at Melody, who'd slowed down when they'd stopped. "Keep running. We'll be right behind you." Melody looked hesitantly at the two of them, then nodded sharply. "Mr. Lux, Anita, Other Dave—stay with me," she barked, then ran for the door marked 'Stairwell.'
From behind them, the shuffling noise of the swarm-in-a-spacesuit got louder, and Rose mentally counted off the minute or so she reckoned they could stay there safely.
"Rose…"
She cut him off with her hand held up. "No. I sent them away because every second counts. But you're not going to stay here with that… You said the only thing to do with Vashta Nerada was to run, Doctor."
"I know, but…" He looked at her, then back at the doors, just as they burst open. "Why did they come to the Library to hunt?"
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
Rose rolled her eyes. "Does it matter?" she asked. "Would finding out how they got here and why get us any closer to the TARDIS? Would it help us find Jenny and Donna?" She held out her hand for the Doctor, and he took it. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
The Doctor looked over his shoulder at the Vashta Nerada, just crossing the threshold of the room. Rose's heart stopped until he looked back at her, and she could see the decision in his eyes. She let out a slow breath when he took her hand.
"Thank you."
With the Doctor's hand in hers, they raced down the stairs. "I'm still curious about where they came from, but you were right," the Doctor admitted as they ran. "It wouldn't make a difference in the end."
Rose squeezed his hand. "I'm curious too," she panted as they turned a corner. "But I'd rather spend our time finding Jenny and Donna and getting the hell out of here."
The Doctor snorted. "Right you are."
They both looked out the window as they reached the ground floor of the building. The sun had very nearly set by now, which would make it almost impossible to avoid the shadows.
"I don't know how we're going to make it out of this," the Doctor admitted finally.
Rose pulled him to a stop. "Don't," she said sharply. "Don't talk about giving up, not…" She took a deep breath and smiled up at him. "Have you forgotten, Doctor? We're the stuff of legend."
It was all bravado, and they both knew it. There was a significant likelihood that they would not make it out of this adventure alive. The possibility of regenerating teased the edges of Rose's mind, but she could tell by the level of the Doctor's fear that it probably wouldn't be possible if they were consumed by Vashta Nerada.
She shook her head and rested her hands on his elbows. "We are going to rendezvous with Melody and her team, we're going to find Jenny and Donna, and we are going to make it home," she said firmly. "That's the only conclusion to this day that I will accept. All right?"
The Doctor smiled, then pulled her close. "And I reckon even the Vashta Nerada don't dare thwart your wishes," he said, his voice muffled by her hair.
Rose nodded. "Exactly. Now, are you ready to find Melody?"
He kissed her quickly, then took her hand. "Oh, I'm ready."
oOoOoOoOo
They found Melody, Anita, Other Dave, and Mr. Lux back in the main circulation area, where he had first explained the Vashta Nerada only a few hours before. Melody was crouched on the floor, using her sonic screwdriver to scan the Library seal in the middle of the floor.
None of them heard the Doctor and Rose enter the room silently from the mezzanine level, so the Doctor took advantage of the moment to shamelessly eavesdrop.
"You know, it's funny," Melody said as she checked the results of her scan. "I keep wishing the Doctor and Rose were here."
"The Doctor and Rose are here, aren't they?" Anita said. "They are coming back, right?"
Melody sighed and pushed herself to her feet. "You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. And even though it's them, there's something just… missing. A familiarity that isn't there yet."
Rose squeezed the Doctor's hand. Like meeting your first incarnation, she told him. It was the first time meeting you since meeting you the first time when you looked at me without knowing me.
Down below, Melody continued her explanation. "Well, yes, the Doctor and Rose are here. They came when I called, just like they always do."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows and filed that piece of information away.
"But they aren't the Doctor and Rose who pick me up every year for Christmas. Last year, we had dinner at the Tylers', but they don't know that Jackie spiked the punch with ginger 'because it just isn't fair that himself doesn't get drunk like the rest of us.'" Anita laughed, and Melody nodded. "You see what I mean? They're here… but they aren't."
Rose's hand had tightened around his at the mention of her family, and the Doctor pulled her close. "Spoilers," he warned, unable to keep the bite out of his voice. If Melody wasn't who she said she was… if she was just playing them and she'd just given Rose false hope of seeing her mother again…
Rose reached up and stroked his jaw. Don't get so upset before we know, she chided. You can be my protector later, if it's necessary.
Melody's expression was stricken, though, and for the first time, the Doctor really believed she was who she claimed to be. "How much did you hear?" she whispered.
Her guilt was obvious, and now that he'd allowed the possibility that she truly was someone from their future, he could more fully appreciate how difficult this would be for her. Meeting someone you obviously knew very well before they had even met you was a tricky tightrope to walk, and he'd clearly impressed upon the young woman the importance of maintaining the timelines.
Impulsively, he jogged down the stairs and pulled her in for a reassuring hug. "It's fine, Melody," he promised. "A little foreknowledge won't damage the timelines."
She drew a shaky breath and looked up at him. "Yeah?"
"Yep! And I'll let Jackie get me drunk, even though I know it's going to happen."
Melody rolled her eyes and shoved him away from her, and he knew everything was going to be fine.
He turned and looked at the rest of the group—Mr. Lux and Other Dave, looking scared as they hovered awkwardly in the space between the shadows and Anita, who still had two shadows.
"How are you doing?" he asked her as he walked over to her.
"Still alive," she said, a hint of defiance in her voice. "But Doctor. Proper Dave only lasted what, five minutes after they latched onto him? How come they haven't taken me yet?"
"I don't know." The Doctor looked at her two shadows. "Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference."
Anita snorted softly. "It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again."
Her grim pragmatism made him wish he could do something for her, and despite the fact that he really couldn't, he found himself asking, "Can I get you anything?"
"An old age would be nice," she quipped, and her brave wit in the face of death made this hurt even more. "Anything you can do?"
The Doctor nodded, even though she couldn't really see him. "I'm all over it," he promised. If there was any way he could persuade the Vashta Nerada to let go of Anita, he would do it.
"Look at us," Rose said, and he silently thanked her for changing the subject. "Six of us, still safe after running from the Vashta Nerada for two hours."
The Doctor grinned and stuck his hands into his pockets. "Yep, still safe…" He lingered on the word. It felt significant, and he quickly filtered through his memory of all the times in the last two hours that he'd heard the word "safe" or any variations of it.
"What is it, Doctor?" Melody asked.
"Safe." As he repeated the word, the thought finally unlocked. "You don't say saved," he explained, his mind still working out the ramifications of his realisation as he talked. "Nobody says saved. You say safe." He spun to point at Mr. Lux. "The data fragment! What did it say?"
"Four thousand and twenty-two people saved. No survivors."
"Doctor?" Rose asked.
"Oh, it's been staring us in the face, Rose!" He grabbed her and spun her around. "Because people don't get saved, not unless you're talking about the preachers on street corners. But computers—computers save things. And that's what it did. It saved them."
oOoOoOoOo
Something about the world was wrong. Donna usually managed to shove that faint awareness into the back of her mind, but a moment ago, when she'd been talking to Doctor Moon, it had flared to life for just a few seconds.
Now, as she made tea for her guest, she felt like she'd forgotten something really important. It felt like she'd had it, just for a second, and then it had been lost again.
She sighed when the tea was done and shrugged her shoulders. I'm not going to figure it out by standing in the kitchen, she told herself as she picked up the cups and walked back to the living room.
"Here we are, Doctor Moon."
Donna's smile faded into a confused frown when the doctor was nowhere to be seen. Ella and Joshua ran through the room, and she held the teacups up to keep them from getting bumped into.
"Mummy, I made you!" Ella held up a thick body made of plasticine with two arms, two legs, and no face.
"Oh, that's nice, Ella," Donna said. She was determined to praise her daughter's artistic endeavours, rather than belittling them like her own mother had. But… "Where's the face?" she couldn't help but ask.
Ella looked down at the doll and shrugged. "I don't know."
Donna sighed and carefully bent over to put the teacups down on the coffee table. "Did you see Doctor Moon? Did he leave?"
Before Ella could answer, the door swung open and Lee stepped inside, wearing his regular suit and carrying a briefcase. The kids went crazy, calling his name and running to him, and for the briefest moment, Donna thought that the timing of his arrival was certainly convenient, the way it interrupted any answer Ella might have given her.
That cynical thought disappeared when she watched her husband set his briefcase down and open his arms to their children. "Hey! Hello, you two. Come here. Big hugs. Big Daddy hugs."
"Look what I made." Ella held up her doll.
"Oh." Lee looked at it, then glanced at Donna, his eyes dancing. "It's Mummy."
"Uh, it hasn't got a face," Donna pointed out again. There was something off-putting about the idea of her face being… taken, and try as she might, she couldn't let it go. "Did you see Doctor Moon?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.
"No. Why, was he here?" asked Lee.
"Yeah, just a second ago." Donna walked over to the window. "You must have passed him."
She pulled the curtains back, expecting to see the tall figure of Doctor Moon, maybe disappearing around the corner. Instead, she spotted a flash of black lace as what looked like a veiled woman in a long, black dress walking behind a tree.
"You all right?"
Lee sounded a little worried now, and despite Donna's growing feeling that something was wrong, her reassurance was automatic.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," she said as the last of the woman's train disappeared. "It's just…"
"Just?" Lee murmured in her ear.
The quiet neighbourhood Donna had always loved suddenly seemed eerie. Wind blew clouds in, and the sun slanted in at the wrong angle for the time of day. Even the birds were quiet.
Donna sighed and shook her head. "Nothing." She turned around and wrapped her arms around her husband. "It's been a long day, that's all." She pulled back and smiled up at him. "I'm just tired."
She blinked, and she and Lee were in their bedroom, dressed for bed. The feeling that the world was wrong strengthened, and she shook her head, hoping to either get rid of it, or get more insight into why it seemed so wrong.
Lee put his hand on her arm. "You okay?"
Donna felt a hint of panic welling up inside her as she tried to remember exactly what they'd done for the evening. She hadn't had this many problems with her memory since she'd been released from the hospital, and the idea that she might have to go back terrified her.
"I said I was tired," she began slowly, trying to remember what had happened next. "And, and… we put the kids to bed, and we watched television." The memories came as she talked, and the knot of tension in her stomach had eased by the time she finished.
Lee smiled at her, and Donna was just about to suggest they get into bed when they heard the distinctive sound of the mail slot being pushed open.
Donna looked over her shoulder at their open bedroom door, then back at Lee. "Was that a letter?" she asked.
Lee shook his head. "It's midnight."
Donna pushed him gently towards the bedroom door. "Go and see what it is," she requested urgently.
He sighed, but left the room, patting her shoulder reassuringly on his way by. After he was gone, Donna stared at the red accent wall behind their bed for a moment, wondering yet again what had led her to paint it that way. It had felt familiar and right, somehow.
She shook the thought off and wandered over to the window. If someone had dropped a letter in the slot, maybe she could catch a glimpse of them as they walked away.
The flash of lace was familiar. This definitely seemed like the dress she'd seen earlier in the afternoon, though this time, she caught a much better glimpse of it, enough to see that it was a Victorian gown, with a bustle and train.
"The world is wrong."
Donna's skin tingled when she heard the words she'd been thinking from Lee's lips. She dropped the curtain and looked back at him.
"What?"
He held up a letter. "For you. Weird, though," he added, raising his eyebrows before reading the entire note. "'Dear Donna, the world is wrong. Meet me at your usual play park, two o'clock tomorrow.'"
Donna looked out the window again, and Lee wrapped his arms around her waist and looked over her shoulder as they watched the woman in black walk away.
"Nutter," she muttered, earning a laugh from Lee.
Still… the world was wrong, and despite the tremor of foreboding she felt when she considered what the woman might have to say, Donna needed to know if she actually knew something, or if she just liked dropping notes in letterboxes at half twelve at night.
The rest of the night and the morning passed in an instant, and the next thing Donna knew, she was walking hand in hand with Ella and Joshua to the big park down the road. She brushed off the part of her that wondered when she'd decided what to wear, and if she'd had coffee or tea with her breakfast, and even how she and the kids had gotten to the park. Those weren't important questions.
She spotted a woman dressed in full Victorian mourning, completely with veil, sitting on a weathered park bench. Donna took a deep breath and nodded once, then looked down at her kids.
"All right, you two, off you go," she told them. "No fighting," she added as they raced off to play with the other kids.
She watched for a moment, and when she was satisfied they were having fun, she turned back to the woman and slowly circled the playground equipment until she was able to sit down beside her.
"I got your note last night." It was cold enough that Donna could see her breath when she talked. "'The world is wrong.' What's that mean?"
"No, you didn't," the woman said.
Something about the voice sounded familiar, but Donna ignored it in favour of addressing the direct contradiction she'd just received.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You didn't get my note last night," the woman elaborated. "You got it a few seconds ago. Having decided to come, you suddenly found yourself arriving."
Donna sucked in a breath, thinking about all the times she'd felt like time had just magically passed, all the times she'd had to struggle to remember how she'd gotten from one place to another.
The woman's head tilted. "That is how time progresses here, in the manner of a dream. You've suspected that before, haven't you, Donna Noble?"
She added emphasis to her name, but it wasn't necessary. Hearing someone she'd never met address her by name was enough of a shock.
"How do you know me?" Donna demanded. The world was wrong. This was all wrong.
"We met before, in the Library." It was strange listening to someone talk when she couldn't see their lips moving. "You were kind to me. I hope now to return that kindness."
"Your voice. I recognise it." Flashes of memory returned to Donna, moments Doctor Moon had told her were only dreams and hadn't really happened. But this voice had been in those dreams, calling her the nice woman.
The woman turned slowly to look directly at her. "Yes, you do. I am what is left of Miss Evangelista."
