"You remind me of Donna when it was her wedding day," the Doctor mutters as Belle sits and waits for Donna to come back.
"What happened?" Belle asks.
"She was sent here on purpose. Had particles in her that took her to where the TARDIS was," he explains. "That's how we met."
"She was sent here by particles?"
"Yes," the Doctor says. "Didn't want to come on her own. It was her wedding day, of course. Who wouldn't want to leave on their wedding day?"
"People who aren't in love with each other," Belle says, arms crossed. The Doctor rolls his eyes.
"Can you just get over it?" The Doctor asks Belle. She opens her mouth, about to say something when he interrupts her. "I will send you home, but on one deal."
"And the deal is?" Belle says, looking up at him. "If you go on a trip with Donna and I. Her first one living with me, and your first AND last one."
"And if you leave me again I will never forgive you," Belle tells him. The Doctor nods.
"Do we have a deal, Miss...?"
"Dunne. Isabelle Dunne."
"Since I didn't properly introduce myself, I'll do it now. I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor who?" Belle asks. "Donna never really explained..."
"I don't give out my name. My real name. I do have one from the academy I went to, but I never reveal it to anyone."
"Even to people like Donna?"
"Oi. Are the two of you talking about me?" Donna says, coming in. "And actually being civil for once?"
"She hasn't said we have a deal yet," the Doctor says, looking at her. She hadn't gotten up yet to shake his hand. He could tell she was being hesitant.
"Fine," she finally gets up. His eyebrows raise. Donna watches as Belle shakes his hand.
"Your hand is surprisingly warm," she comments.
"I lost this hand in a battle once," he tells her, "regrew it because of the regeneration."
Donna and Belle give him looks. He stares back at him. "What, you're surprised?"
"A battle?" Belle repeated. He nodded.
"Should've been there," he winked at Belle.
"I would've if you hadn't been so angry at me," Belle growled at him. Donna puts a hand on her shoulder.
"If you made a deal with him, I want you to make a deal with me, mate," Donna tells Belle, giving the Doctor the side eye, remembering the conversation from earlier. "You two try to be nice to each other, and not fight."
"It'll be hard not to, because look at that face!" Belle spat.
"Oi!" The Doctor says, offended again. "We made a deal! Forget about it!"
"You two will be the bloody death of me I swear," Donna sighs.
•••
After a few hours of calming down and taking a nap, Belle comes to the console room again. The Doctor sends her back to change her clothing that the TARDIS had produced for the girls. She and Donna shared a room because she'd be leaving soon. She starts to protest but Donna comes up from the hallway. The Doctor and Belle look at Donna as she is looking at the two suspiciously.
"Fighting again, eh?"
"No," Belle says quickly, pushing past her as she obeys the Doctor. The Doctor smirks behind her as she is out of sight.
"That was weird," Donna says to the Doctor as Belle had finally left. "You were starting to fight—"
"Donna, stop," the Doctor tries to interrupt her. "She's gone. Stop worrying about us."
"I'm never going to stop unless I see you two have calmed down about each other, spaceman."
•••
Belle returned with a pink cable knit crocheted sweater with jeans and vans on. She comes in to see Donna and the Doctor waiting for her.
"What took you so long?" Donna asked her as they finally spotted her.
"The TARDIS's clothing has a huge supply!" Belle exclaims, but not excitedly. "How was I ever supposed to choose just one outfit quickly?"
"You might regret wearing that," the Doctor says, seeing the long sleeves on her sweater. "Because you don't know where we're going."
Belle puts her hands on her hips. "You're really frustrating, you know."
"He knows," Donna says to her. "So... where are we heading?"
"You'll see," the Doctor smiles at her, not looking at Belle after.
A moment passes as he is flicking switches left and right, up and down. Then, he runs out the door excitedly.
"Ancient Rome!" He says after Donna and Belle give each other looks. Belle's eyebrows rose.
"Out of all of time and space," Belle says as they step outside of the TARDIS, "you choose Ancient Rome?"
The Doctor nods. "Well, not for them. The ancient part of it, obviously. To all intents and purposes, right now, this is brand new Rome."
"Oh, my God. it's – it's so Roman. This is fantastic!" Donna exclaims. The Doctor looks at Belle to see if her expression has changed from not impressed to slightly impressed. She just looks around.
On the other hand Donna says, "I'm here, in Rome," excitedly. "Donna Noble in Rome. This is just weird. I mean, everyone here's dead."
Belle laughs.
"Well, don't tell them that," the Doctor says. "What do you think, B–?"
"Isabelle," Belle cuts him off.
"Hold on a minute. That sign over there's in English," Donna points to a painted sign.
"Are you having me on?" Donna turns around, offended, "Are we in Epcot? Did you bring Belle and I to Epcot?"
"No, no, no, no. That's the TARDIS translation circuits. Just makes it look like English. Speech as well. You're talking Latin right now," the Doctor says.
"Seriously?"
"Mmm," says the Doctor. He looks at Belle.
"So if I said the F bomb and combined it with 'you' to you right now, it would be in Latin?"
The Doctor nods nervously. "F bomb?" he repeats.
Belle smirks before saying what Donna thinks she's going to say. She interrupts her.
"So I just said seriously in Latin," she said, impressed.
"Oh, yeah," the Doctor says as he gives Belle the side eye.
"What if I said something in actual Latin, like veni, vidi, vici? My dad said that when he came back from football. If I said veni, vidi, vici to that lot, what would it sound like?"
Belle cringes.
"I'm not sure. You have to think of difficult questions, don't you?" the Doctor asks Donna.
"I'm going to try it," Donna says suddenly. Belle watches as Donna goes up to a man who's selling fruit.
"Afternoon, sweetheart. What can I get you, my love?" the man says in English, surprising Belle. She tries to hide her reaction as the Doctor is giving glances towards her.
"Er, veni, vidi, vici," Donna answers him.
"Huh? Sorry? Me no speak Celtic. No can do, missy."
Belle laughs as Donna nods her head. "Yeah."
"You were Celtic," Belle sings and teases Donna.
"Shut up," Donna tells her.
"How's he mean, Celtic?" Donna asks suddenly, looking at the Doctor.
"Welsh. You sound Welsh. There we are. Learnt something," the Doctor explains. Belle rolls her eyes as they start leaving.
"Don't our clothes look a bit odd?" Donna asks. Belle nods.
"I was wondering the same thing, because he had told me to change mine earlier."
"Nah. Ancient Rome, anything goes. It's like Soho, but bigger," the Doctor says. Belle huffs.
"You've been here before then?" asks Donna.
"Mmm. Ages ago. Before you ask, that fire had nothing to do with me. Well, a little bit. But I haven't got the chance to look around properly. Coliseum, Pantheon, Circus Maximus. You'd expect them to be looming by now. Where is everything? Try this way."
"Not an expert, but there's seven hills of Rome, aren't there? How come they've only got one?"
"Even I don't know that," Belle tells Donna as they look at a volcano which looks like a mountain. It looked huge from where they were. Suddenly the ground shakes and Belle grabs the nearest thing she could find, which is the Doctor. Belle clears her throat as she lets go, but he grabs her as they feel the ground shake.
"Here we go again," a man says nearby. The vendors hang onto their stalls as pottery falls and breaks.
"Wait a minute. One mountain, with smoke. Which makes this–"
"Oh no," says Belle. "Why? Just why, Doctor?"
"Pompeii. We're in Pompeii. And it's volcano day," The Doctor says. Belle cries out loud, knowing they were doomed to be there on this very specific day.