Chapter Four – Noble End
Soon they had landed and Rose helped The Doctor support the unconscious Donna out of the Tardis. They were back on Donna's street and her home was just across the road from where they had landed. Between them they helped Donna to the front door and Rose knocked urgently at the front door. Moments later Wilfred Mott answered the door, at first, he looked delighted to see them, but when he saw his unconscious granddaughter in their arms his face fell to deep concern. "Donna?!" he cried.
"She's alive, but need to get her upstairs now." The Doctor instructed.
They all helped get Donna up the stairs to her bedroom. Once inside they removed her jacket and lay her gently on her bed. For a while the three of them stood there looking down at Donna Noble who looked so peaceful as she slept.
Rose was very concerned herself and didn't want to leave her, but soon the Doctor put an arm round her shoulders and led her from the room.
Sylvia then arrived at the bottom of the stairs. "Doctor? Rose? What happened to Donna? Is she ok?"
"Sylvia, come in here and I'll explain." The Doctor said.
Inside the living room, Wilfred and Sylvia sat down and the Doctor pulled the door to before sitting beside Rose on the opposite sofa. "The daleks, their creator and their ships were all destroyed. And it was all down to Donna's own heroic doing."
For a moment Donna's mother and grandfather looked as though they were about to smile.
"But the reason Donna was able to do it was because she took my mind into her own head. But that's a Time Lord consciousness. All that knowledge, it was killing her."
"But she'll get better now?" Wilfred asked.
"I had to wipe her mind completely. Every trace of me, or the Tardis, anything we did together, anywhere we went, had to go."
Rose was frozen with horror. He had wiped Donna's mind of everything? Donna had now forgotten everything she had experienced, all the people she had met and everything she had seen and done with the Doctor? Her tears were starting anew. "No, but Doctor..." she couldn't continue.
"All those wonderful things she did." Wilfred pointed out.
"I know. But that version of Donna is dead."
The moment the Doctor said this, a tear fell from Rose's eye. Because something else now made sense as she recalled what Dalek Caan had said earlier on the Crucible.
This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time. And one of them will die.
The Children of Time will gather, and one of them will die.
Caan's prophecy had come true. Almost like the prophecy the Beast possessed Ood had made at Sanctuary Base 6 about her.
"The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."
She had ended up on the list of the dead after the battle of Canary Warf, although the prophecy had not been completely true. It was just like now, Donna Noble was still alive physically, but the version of Donna that she had become from knowing The Doctor was dead.
The Doctor leaned forward where he sat, his voice becoming all serious. "Because if she remembers, just for a second, she'll burn up. You can never tell her. You can't mention me or any of it for the rest of her life."
"But the whole world's talking about it." Said Sylvia "We travelled across space."
"It'll just be a story. One of those Donna Noble stories, where she missed it all again."
It was so sad the more Rose thought about it. Then again, when she had become trapped in the Parallel world, she'd had all her wonderful memories of all her adventures and being separated that way had made it even more painful. In Donna's case, she would also be separated, but have no memory of any of it. She would move on with no recollection of anything, like a forgotten night dream.
"But she was better with you." Wilfred stated.
"Don't say that" Silvia protested.
"No, she was" Her father insisted.
Rose did agree with Wilfred. Donna had indeed become a better person by getting to know the Doctor and experiencing everything she had.
"I just want you to know there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light, and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million light years away. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. And for one moment, one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe."
"She still is. She's, my daughter." Said Sylvia.
"Then maybe you should tell her that once in a while." The Doctor replied.
Rose smiled as she imagined her own mother saying the same thing. She had said so herself that little Tony would be brought up knowing who his older sister was. And all the things she had done. Maybe this experience would change Sylvia into a better mother too.
The door opened then and Donna entered speaking to no one in particular. "I was asleep on my bed in my clothes, like a flipping kid! What do you let me do that for?"
Rose quickly wiped away her tears, but Donna only looked in their direction for a brief second before becoming occupied with her mobile phone.
"Don't mind me. Donna." She said absently as she started dialing something.
So it was true then, her memory was all wiped and she didn't recognize them at all.
The Doctor stood up and Rose followed suit. He held out his hand to Donna "John Smith"
Donna shook it showing no recognition at all to him. Rose, thinking quick also held out her hand to Donna and said "Mrs Smith" and Donna shook her hand too but then went back to her phone.
"Mr and Mrs Smith were just leaving" Said Sylvia but Donna didn't comment or ask any questions on that.
"My phone's gone mad. Thirty-two texts. Veena's gone barmy. She's saying planets in the sky. What have I missed now? Nice to meet you." She left the room and headed for the kitchen still staring at her phone.
So, this was what Donna Noble was like before meeting the Doctor. She was a complete non-believer who took all supernatural as a joke. The again, Rose had been kind of the same, she did admit to herself. Like when she had not believed that the dummies in the basement of Henriks were real living plastic when The Doctor had told her. Just like with her, it must have taken a while for Donna to realize that aliens were real and that it was all true. But now that was all over for her. She was back to her non-believing ways and she, The Doctor and everyone she had met and fought with today were just strangers now to her.
For a while she and The Doctor stared after Donna sadly until Silvia spoke up again from where she was still seated on the sofa. "As I said, I think you should both go."
It seemed that with that statement, they would probably not be welcome on this street or even anywhere near this family anymore. Together they entered the hallway and approached the kitchen where Donna was talking quick on her phone.
"How thick do you think I am? Planets. Tell you what that was, dumbo. That's those two for one lagers you gets down the offy because you fancy that little man in there with the goatee. Ha ha! Yes, you do. I've seen you."
The Doctor took step into the kitchen while Rose stood where she was in the doorway. "Donna? We were just going."
Once again Donna spoke as though she had never met them before. "Yeah, see you." She turned away and spoke again into her phone to her poor friend who clearly was trying to explain the planets phenomenon. But Donna was completely ignoring the possibility and passing it off for another daft reason entirely.
Together they both looked at Donna for one last time then hand in hand they left the kitchen as the red head continued rambling on the phone.
Opening the front door again they found it was now pouring with rain.
"Oh, come on!" exclaimed Rose crossing her arms.
"There'll have quite a bit of this. Atmospheric disturbance. Still, it'll pass. Everything does." The Doctor turned to their elderly friend who had followed them to the front door. "Bye then, Wilfred." They shook hands then the old man took Rose's hand in both of his.
"Me and my daughter would have been killed by that dalek earlier if you hadn't saved us. Thank you, sweetheart."
Rose smiled and squeezed his hand back "It was nothing. You all take care, it was lovely to meet you." Wilfred then took her in a warm hug which she happily welcomed.
The two travellers were about to step out into the rain when Wilfred spoke up. "Doctor? What about you two now? Is there anyone else in there" He pointed out to the Tardis which was still parked across the road. "I mean, any more of all those wonderful friends of yours?"
The Doctor's expression became sad again.
Rose gently rubbed his arm then turned to face Wilfred. "There was to be three of us, but that third person doesn't exist anymore."
"So, it's just the two of you? But what about those others? Wilfred asked.
"They've all got someone else. Still, that's fine. We're fine." Said the Doctor looking at Rose who slipped her arm through his.
"I'll watch out for you both, sir." Said Wilfred.
"You can't ever tell her." The Doctor warned.
"No, no, no. But every night, Doctor, when it gets dark, and the stars come out, I'll look up on her behalf. I'll look up at the sky, and think of the two of you."
"Thank you." Said The Doctor.
"Thank you." Said Rose.
Then together they headed through the pouring rain to the blue box. While behind them Wilfred Mott gave them a proud salute.
Once inside The Doctor walked up the ramp straight to the console and activated the ship. Soon the room was whooshing and Rose knew they had vanished from Donna Noble's Street. The Doctor removed his damp suite jacket and Rose did the same with her purple jacket and hung it on the coat stand which always seemed to be ignored by everyone. Walking up she approached the man she deeply cared about. "I'm sorry Doctor."
He turned round to face her and dropping his jacket on the old couch the two of them shared a long comforting hug.
"I know it must be sad when someone chooses to stay behind. But this…it's even worse."
He nodded still holding her to him. "I almost lost you, so many times. Then I did lose you in an awful way."
"So awful that I never recovered until now." She whispered. They then faced each other. "But it's ok, because I know Mum will move on, she has Pete and they have Tony to care for. At least she has that and I have her word that she will move on. That way I can do the same."
The Doctor smiled squeezing her arms. "Rose, I'm so happy you're back."
Smiling too Rose hugged him again. When it was finished, they both looked at the glowing console and then to each other again. "Well, I think we both need some dry clothes."
The Doctor nodded with a slight laugh, "Yeah, then we can move on."
Rose was about to walk forward when something stopped her. "Before we do that, there was one more thing I needed to ask you?"
"What's that?"
"When I stood on that beach, on the worst day of my life, you said my name but you never finished that sentence. Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"
The Doctor smiled and stepping forward he took her hands in his and leaning forward he whispered softly in her ear. "I love you."
Rose was frozen with astonishment. They were the words she had wished to hear him say and now they had been spoken there was no more to be said. When he was facing her again a smile broke across her face and seizing hold of his damp shirt, she pulled him to her and their lips met is a long and passionate kiss. And there they stood, the Time Lord and the Earth Girl in the middle of the Tardis finally reunited and in a loving embrace.
Author's Notes
Hello There readers!
This is the penultimate chapter. Most of you will recognize a lot of the dialogue from the show but the big difference with it is Rose being involved in the picture too. I hope you will enjoyed it despite it being a sad part of the story and the franchise. And I hope you like the chapter's happy ending. It's a lot better than what happened in the original episode where the Doctor was left all on his own. Please let me know in the reviews what you think.
Kind regards to you all and hope you're starting to feel the approaching Christmas spirit.