Thanks for reviews! :D you make me happy. Eeeee.
Otherwise...Ugh. So I wrote this chapter and it was good and I was happy with it. Then I accidently deleted it. (!) So I had to rewrite the whole thing. I'm happy with some of it but I'm still frustrated. Because I know there was something I wrote that was good and really liked it. And now it's gone. (*crying*) Anyway, let me know what you think.
Lee and I walk up to the Nobles door. He looks a bit nervous so I tell him he'll be fine. I lift my hand and I knock. Sylvia answers the door.
"Oh. It's you."
"Yep. Can we come in?"
She eyes Lee but assesses that he seems fine and she steps aside so we can enter.
"They're in the living room."
I head that way while Lee follows. Donna is facing away from us talking to Wilf on the couch. Meta is leaning against the wall. He gives me a hesitant smile. When he sees Lee he raises an eyebrow. The. Wilf notices me.
"Jane Ryder! You helped us earlier!" He rushes over as fast as a grandfather can and gives me a hug.
"It's good to see you too. And I'm gonna need my gun back."
"Oh well, I was hoping I could keep it."
Donna cuts in. "Fat chance." She looks like she's about to say more but then Lee catches her eye and all words leave her. I gently move Wilf and I out of the way. Wilf is perceptive and says nothing as he sits back on the couch.
I go over and stand next to Meta. I answer his silent question. "Her husband from the Library."
He looks back them with a slack jawed expression and I follow his gaze. Lee is smiling gently as Donna slowly lifts her hand to his face.
"Are you real?" Her voice is shaking like she's afraid to believe it.
"D-D-Donna."
That's all it takes for her to release a stranger sob and to fold herself into his chest. He wraps his arms around her and hides his face in her hair. They stay like that for a long time.
Wilf keeps Sylvia from ruining the moment and I'm grateful for it. I'm not sure what I would do if hurt this. I'm not sure what Meta would do either. I've no doubt that it wouldn't be anything good.
But that doesn't matter now. What matters is that Donna is so happy that she's speechless. What matter is that Lee gets a happy ending. They both do. Not the tragic love story they had before. Where he couldn't say her name in time. When they kiss I have to hold back tears. Because I realize that it is the first time that they have kissed. The first time they have kissed in reality.
DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW
The days and weeks pass. Mickey and I still see each other. We are the only ones we really know at this point. I see him and Jack for lunch at least once a week.
Halfway through October, Martha and Tom call it off. They've decided they're not right for each other. I've been telling Martha that for a while and she finally decided I was right. She doesn't want to talk to her mum and Tish about it and none of her friends will understand why it's so hard. So she comes to me and Donna. Donna doesn't know it as much either, but I do. She knew him in the year that never was. But he doesn't remember that. That would put strain on any relationship.
Martha finds a kindred spirit in me because of it. We have memories that we shouldn't. So does Donna really. In more ways than one. The three of us have tea a few times a week if not everyday.
I play match maker. I tell Mickey to ask Martha out. I feel triumphant when he finally does. I'm not surprised that she says yes. Meta is the only one that knows what I'm doing. I even talk him into helping me with it.
Meta spends a lot of time with Wilf. Their relationship is so much like a grandfather and a grandson that I can't help but smile at them every time I catch them animatedly talking about the sky. Donna and Meta are close too. They banter like always but it always ends with laughter.
He takes the name James Noble like I suggested. Everyone calls him James except for Wilf and Donna. Wilf calls him Son more often than not and Donna affectionately calls him Dumbo. Sometimes they say Doctor. But that becomes more rare since in their minds the Doctor is an alien with a TARDIS.
I call him Meta most of the time. But I also call him Doctor. One day he yells at me for calling him that.
"I'm not the Doctor, not any more!"
I have to get in his face and convince him. "You are the Doctor. Just with one heart and a shorter life expectancy. But your memories make you who you are. You and the other Doctor are making separate ones now. When you meet again, yes, you will be two different men. Two Doctors on different paths but still the Doctor. You are the Doctor."
He still doesn't quite believe me. It's nearing Christmas and I decide that he's moped enough and so have the rest of us. Lee takes Donna and her family on a trip to Monte Carlo. Normally "James," Donna's half brother on her father's side, would be invited, but Donna and I have other plans for him.
So I drag him to Cardiff and he and I with Jack and Mickey take care of some weevils and another alien race that I can't pronounce. He feels more like the Doctor after that and builds a sonic screwdriver out of spare parts in his pockets.
A new year comes and goes and Meta and I find ourselves a routine. Lee and Donna are busy with their long engagement. They don't want to rush things this time. Mickey asks Martha to marry him and Meta and I celebrate by saving London from a rogue krilitine.
It's like that. Meta finds some danger and I run after him into it. He calls himself the Doctor and he calls me Ryder. Everyone calls me Jane but he says Jane is boring and that Ryder suits me better. The Doctor and Ryder at large in London.
By the time April rolls around we've become a well oiled machine. Mickey says it's even worse than when it was me and Rose. Rose and I could finish each other's sentences. Meta and I don't even need them when we're in a crisis. So when he detects an anomaly I follow him through London without a word.
It isn't until we board the bus that I realize what's going on.
"Oh crap."
He turns to me. "What?"
"Nothing."
He groans. "Ah, you recognize it don't you? Well that's no fun. Come on then. Tell me. The sooner we get on from this the sooner we can get to something that neither of us know."
I smirk. "You just don't like the fact that I know more than you."
"Come on. What is this?" He shakes his device.
"Spoilers."
He rolls his eyes. He accused me of being River too not long ago. I had to have the same conversation. I gesture to the dark haired woman sitting in the window looking nervous and he doesn't have to ask to know that he needs to sit next to her.
I take off my black jacket and tie it around my waist. I'm glad I wore a red vest today. It's about to get hot. After all, I'm about to be in the middle of the desert. I finger comb my hair up into a high ponytail. Next stop, planet of the dead.
DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW DW
Meta sits down next the Dark haired thief and I sit sideways in the seat directly in front of them. He offers her a piece of his chocolate egg.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor. Happy Easter."
It's habit really. He can't help but call himself Doctor. And I'm glad. Because he is the Doctor. Even if he is human. Well, human plus telepathy and slightly stronger senses. I do mean slightly.
"The funny thing is, I don't often do Easter. I can never find it. It's always at a different time. Although I remember the original. Between you and me, what really happened was..."
"Meta," I sigh with a slight warning. Then his thing beeps at him.
"Oh. Sorry, hold on to that for me. Actually, go on, have it. Finish it. It's full of sugar and I'm determined to keep these teeth."
He hands her his chocolate.
"Ah. Oh, we've got excitation. I'm picking up something very strange."
"I know the feeling."
I smirk at her. "I bet you do."
She looks at me with a questioning glare. "Jane Ryder. But he just calls me Ryder. I guess because it sounds cooler."
Meta cuts in. "It does sound cooler. Jane is just boring.
"Well that's funny coming from a man named James who happens to occasionally go by JOHN SMITH."
He ignores me and Christina shakes her head and looks worriedly out the window. I have to remember not to call her by name until she tells me what it is though. Meta carries on.
"Rhodium particles, that's what I'm looking for. This thing detects them. Look, this should to round, that little dish there."
"Right now, a way out would come in pretty handy. Can you detect me one of those?"
I get distracted by the couple talking a little ways back.
"Lou, can you hear them?"
"Hear what, sweetheart?"
"The voices. So many voices calling to us. Calling so far."
Meta's device starts spinning and he acts like a little kid excited by a new toy. "Ah, the little dish is going round."
Christina rolls her eyes. "Fascinating."
"And round. Whoa."
It sparks and I duck out of the way to avoid it. A blond woman further up brushes the sparks from her hair.
"Excuse me. Do you mind?"
Meta and I apologize at the same time. "Sorry. That was my little dish." Mine is a little different "Sorry he's an idiot."
Of course he takes offense. "Oi!"
"Can't you turn that thing off?" Christina says exasperated.
Meta looks curious. "What was your name?"
"Christina."
My turn to talk. "Well, Christina. Hold on tight. Everyone, hold on!"
The trolley suddenly jolts. The woman from before says, "Oh, the voices. The voices. They're screaming."
Windows break and shatter. A young man voices his confusion. "What's going on?" And then there's a flash of bright light.