Hello old friend…

Now, I know it's been a very long time since I've updated this story but I've had a lot going on… Exams, an apprenticeship, course work, getting engaged etc…

Anyway, I'm back now

I will try and update once a week as I promised before however, if I ever have a break again, I will make sure it ends at the end of an episode so you're not left hanging

Hope you enjoy

"Books!" The Doctor called. "People never really stop loving books." As he spoke, he picked up his coat then walked out of the TARDIS, Luna and Donna following behind him into the large, empty reception. The crimson haired alien had a huge smile painted on her face, taking deep breaths of the musky book smell while the other simply looked around.

"51st century. By now, you've got holovids, direct brain downloads, fiction mist. God, you just need the smell! The smell of books!"

"I know, I think Lu's getting high from it." The younger woman growled playfully, bumping her hip into Donna's which ultimately knocked her off balance.

"I'm not getting high from it... though there are certain types of mould which grow in the binding of incredibly old books. Ah, that reminds me. While we're here, don't even dream about thinking about touching anything on the top shelves. One smell and you'll be a goner." She explained before walking across the room and through the door. The other two simply looked at each other, silently deciding to follow her.

Standing there, they all admired the endless amount of bookshelves, each one containing at least 10,000 books.

"The Library." The Doctor said. "So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big 'the'."

"It's like a city." Donna marvelled.

"Trust me babe, more than a city. It's a whole bloody planet. A planet that contains books which hold completely different worlds. Basically, it's more of a storage planet for millions of different places and times. Open and a book and vavoom, you're there." Lu told her, leaning on the railing in front of them.

"The whole core of the planet is the index computer, biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffery Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed. We're near the equator, so…" Licking his finger, he lifted into the air so he could feel the direction of the wind.

"This must be Biographies!" he told them. "I love biographies!"

"Yeah, very you." Donna told him. "Always a death at the end."

"Well, you need a good death. Without death, there would only ever be comedies. Now, I'm all for a joke and giggle but dying gives us meaning. It motivates us to become something more. Gives the whole human race a purpose. Without death Donna, you wouldn't be here. Without death, there would be no inspiration to explore. Without death, we'd never really realise what we feel." Luna murmured softly, her voice and eyes portraying how old she really was though for the last part, she looked at the Doctor who understood what she was saying instantly.

If she hadn't thought he was dying, she would never have told him that she loved him and he would never have admitted the same to her.

"Human race? A purpose?" Donna s scoffed.

"Yeah. One day Donna, the human race is going to travel all over the universe. There will be a colony on every planet, in every solar system that revolves around every sun! Oh Donna, you think you're so small but you have no idea how wrong you are. This whole world was built by humans for lord's sake!" Smiling at her friend enthusiasm, she moved to pick up a book which was resting beside her but the Doctor quickly snatched it away from her.

"Oi!" he said. "Spoilers!"

"What?" Donna asked.

"These books are from your future." The Doctor told her. "You don't want to read ahead, spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end."

"Isn't travelling with you one big spoiler?" Donna asked.

"I…try to keep you away from major plot developments." The Doctor said.

"Urm Theta… little problem."

"Not now love, trying to remember a time that wasn't a complete spoiler."

"But Doctor-"

"Loony, not now."

"AUSCULTO !" She yelled, her voice echoing through the corridors, bouncing off of the book shelves so it sounded as though her voice surrounded them all. Glancing over at the angry Gideon, Donna noticed that her eyes had , strangely, darkened from a happy blue to a dark navy colour. When the Doctor noticed this, he placed a hand on her shoulder to help her calm down. If she was that worked up, something was very wrong.

"I'm sorry… What's wrong love?"

"We're in the biggest library in the universe… W-Where are all the people? It's silent" she muttered, feeling embarrassed that she had lost it as it didn't usually happen.

The Doctor walked to the nearest information terminal and began fiddling with it with the sonic screwdriver.

"The Library?" Donna asked.

"The planet honey. The whole planet is as quiet as a church. Where are all the students rushing to finish projects for tomorrow? Where are all girls crying over some romance novel?"

"Maybe it's a Sunday." Donna suggested.

"Never going to happen. From now, until the day you want to leave, you will never live through a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday afternoon again. He finds them boring."

"They are boring!" The Doctor protested.

"Can we get back to the silent planet?" Donna asked. "Maybe everyone's really, really quiet."

"Yeah, maybe." The Doctor said, humouring her even though he knew that was impossible. However, his moon wasn't going to give her the same privilege.

"Oh please. Humans can't be this quiet, even if I offered each and every one of them a million quid. Someone would screw it up by breathing too loud or coughing."

"And, they'd still show up on the system."

"Doctor, why are we here?" she asked. "Really, why?"

"Oh, you know, just passing." The Doctor replied, attempting to lie but Luna knew instantly, seeing as she had been the one to find the message.

"No, seriously." She said. "It was all 'let's hit the beach' then suddenly we're in a library. It wouldn't have anything to do with what you two were whispering to each other about, would it?"

"Now, that's interesting." The Doctor said, ignoring the question, while Luna nodded her head vigorously.

"What?" Donna sighed.

"Scanning for life forms." The Doctor told her. "If I do a scan looking for your basic humanoids-you know, your book readers, few limbs and a face, apart from us, I get nothing. Zippo, nada, see? Nobody home. But if I widen the parameters to any kind of life…"

He pushed some keys and a new number appeared.

"A million, million." Luna whispered.

"It gives up after that." The Doctor told them. "A million, million and it just calls it quits. Doesn't even bother trying to finish counting."

"But there's nothing here." Donna said. "There's no one."

"And not a sound." The Doctor said. "A million, million life forms, and silence in the library."

"But there isn't anything here except a hell of a lot of books." Luna said, pausing to look at the books that surrounded them. "Now it's someone's job to assure me that books aren't the things that are alive. The last thing I need right now is 'attack of the carnivorous books'."

No one said anything.

The Doctor slowly reached for a book.

"Welcome!"

They all jumped, Luna grabbing her chest in an attempt to stop her hearts from pounding.

"That came from in there." Donna said, pointing back to reception. A moment later, the Doctor and her began walking towards it but Luna stayed put where she was, not even shuffling an inch.

"You know, in horror films, this is the part where the person who waits is viciously killed." The Doctor commented casually, glancing back at her with a broad teasing smile. Glaring at him, she walked towards him none the less but when she reached his side, her hand found his.

Intertwining their fingers, he pulled them both towards the statue.

"Hmm, Art Deco. Lovely." The female alien commented, before it turned to reveal a face.

"I am Courtesy Node 710/aqua." It said. "Please enjoy the Library and respect the personal access codes of all your fellow readers regardless of species or hygiene taboo."

"That face, it looks real." Donna said.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." The Doctor told her.

"But a statue with a real face, though!" she pushed. "It's a hologram or something, isn't it?"

"No, but really, it's…fine." He told her.

"Additional." The Node continued in its monotone voice. "There follows a brief message from the head librarian for your urgent attention. It has been edited for tone and content by Felman Lux Automated Decency Filter. Message follow. 'Run. For God's sake, run. Nowhere is safe. The Library has sealed itself, we can't…Oh, they're here. Arg. Slarg. Snick.' Message ends. Please switch off your mobile comm. units for the comfort of other readers."

There was silence.

"Okay..." Luna said slowly, taking a step back from the statue. "That was sorta freaky... Let's go."

"That's why we're here..." The Doctor muttered, quickly grabbing hold of Luna's hand before she could get any further away from him and Donna. Holding it, he could feel the smallest tremble of fear. "Any other messages, same date stamp?"

"One additional message." The Node replied. "This message carries a Felman Lux coherency warning of 5, 0, 11…."

"Yeah, yeah, fine, fine, fine." The Doctor told it. "Just play it."

"Message follows. 'Count the shadows. For God's sake, remember…if you want to live, count the shadows.' Message ends."

"Donna, Luna…" the Doctor said.

"Yeah?" Donna replied.

"Stay out of the shadows." He told her.

"Why, what's in the shadows?"

"I'd love to say that we should never have come here..." Luna told them before walking away, making sure that her feet never once left the light.

"But as you suggested it..." The Doctor carried on, following her.

"I can't say anything because that would make me a hypocrite so I'm going to avoid that territory." she explained as they walked through a door at the end of the corridor they'd landed on. Donna and Luna couldn't help but stare at all the book shelves as they expanded as far as the eye could see, lining the whole room.

"So…" Donna said. "We weren't just in the neighbourhood then."

"Yeah, I kind of, sort of, lied a bit." The Doctor told her. "I got a message on the psychic paper."

He showed it to her.

The Library. Come as soon as you can. X.

"What do you think?" The Doctor asked. "Cry for help?"

"Cry for help-with a kiss?" Donna asked.

"Oh, we've all done that." The Doctor replied, causing Luna to nod.

"Believe me, Jadoon don't take too kindly to that. Think that you're coming onto them which leads to a whole long conversation about sexual harassment and intergalactic policies about inter-breeding between opposite species." She explained, shuddering slightly in thought. She could remember it clear as day.

A few months before the Doctor dumped her on Earth, they'd had to go to the Shadow Proclamation because of the death sentence hanging over their heads which, luckily, was easily resolved. Well, Luna was in charge of getting the message to them via physic paper which led to them nearly arresting her for sexual assault.

"Who's it from?" Donna asked.

"No idea." The Doctor told her.

"So I told him that we better go see who it is. What can I say? Nose for adventure,"

", and old books." she corrected, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"Erm... guys... not that you're not cute or anything but you know that thing about staying out of the shadows?" she asked. "Well we're about to have a problem with that."

She pointed and they turned to look. At the end of the corridor, the lights were going out and the dark seemed to be advancing.

"Anyone else getting very itchy feet?" Lu asked, taking hold of Donna's hand in hers. Once the Doctor had hold of Donna's other, the trio took off down the various aisles of books until they reached a large wooden door.

A very large wooden door.

A very large wooden door that wouldn't open.

"Come on!" he shouted.

"What? Is it locked?" Donna asked.

"Jammed!" the Doctor replied. "The wood's warped!"

"Sonic it, use the thingy!" Donna shouted.

"Donna... It doesn't work on wood!" Luna shouted, throwing her hands into the air. She had told him plenty of times to make a setting for that... and one that wasn't effected by hair-dryers.

"What, it doesn't do wood?" Donna asked incredulously.

"Hang on, hang on." The Doctor said. "If I can vibrate the molecules, fry the bindings, I can shatter line the interface-"

"Seriously?" Donna interrupted

"For Gods sake, get out of the way!" Luna demanded. When both of them had moved out of the way, she slammed her shoulder into the door with enough force that it flew open. Running into the room, the Doctor made sure to slam the door shut afterwards while Donna shoved a book through the handles to bolt it shut. During this, the crimson haired alien rubbed her sore shoulder, a frown on her face until she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

Following it, she couldn't help but stare.

In the room was a floating orb.

"Oh!" the Doctor said as he spotted it. "Hello! Sorry to burst in on you like this. Okay if we stop here for a bit?"

Suddenly, the orb fell to the ground.

"What is it?" Donna asked.

"Security camera." The Doctor said. "Switched itself off."

Picking it up, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and tried to examine the inside of the security camera.

"Nice door skills." Donna murmured into Luna's ear while she rubbed her shoulder, her eyes glued on the Doctor.

"Yeah, well, you know how it is. Torchwood." Luna offered by way of explanation. " Where words fail, surprise and a gun succeed."

"Mmm, still don't know if I approve of you doing that." The Doctor told her, glancing away from the machine for a few moments to look at her. Donna noticed the strange look in his eyes though it seemed as though Lu failed. In fact, she reacted in a way that shocked the ginger human.

"Well you shouldn't have just dropped me off, should you?! If you'd have kept me, I wouldn't have needed to learn that stuff but alas, you ditched me on a foreign planet with Jack." she snapped, the tone of her voice showing how much that still hurt her. He looked at her, his brown eyes almost begging her to forgive him but he didn't move from what he was doing.

"What was that, what was after us?" Donna asked, watching as the Gideon moved away from the Timelord, putting a couple of feet of distance between them. "I mean did we just run away from a power cut?"

"Possibly." The Doctor replied.

"Are we safe here?" Donna asked.

"Course we're safe. There's a little shop." he muttered, noticing the space she'd put between them. With a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth, he turned back to the machine and yanked a wire.

"Gotcha!" the Doctor exclaimed.

The words 'No, stop it, no, no!' began to scroll across a small display screen of the security camera.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The Doctor told it, stopping what he was doing. "I really am, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

He put the sphere down.

"It's alive." He told the girls.

"You said it was a security camera." Donna told him, confused as to how to was alive.

"It's possible Donna. Big universe. A lot of things are possible."

' Others are coming. The Library is breached. Others are coming.'

"Others?" Donna read off the screen. "What's it mean, 'others'?"

Neither the Doctor nor Luna had an answer.