Chapter 10:
POV: Jenny
Date: November 25, 2023
The man looked startled to see the three of us running towards him. "Oh, sorry. That's my daughter over there, and my missus."
Dad nodded. "Good, but I need to get north. That explosion just now—something crashed. Can you get us there?"
He glanced into his cab. "I'd love to, but the sat nav says that they're closing all the roads."
Dad shrugged. "Oh, I know some roads even the taxi drivers don't. Trust me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the psychic paper to show him. "Grand Master of the Knowledge."
The man stared at Dad blankly. "That says Grand Mistress."
I giggled. "Sometimes it takes a while for the credentials to catch up."
The man looked at me like I had two heads, but gave a shrug of his own and waved us into his cab. "Alright then, hop in. Name is Shaun, by the way."
"Very nice to meet you, Shaun. My name is Jenny, and that's my sister Mara. This is our dad."
Shaun glanced over at Dad as he started driving up the street. "A family outing, then? Does your dad take you to lots of crash sites?"
"We're in the same family business," Mara supplied.
He seemed to accept that. "Oh, that's nice. What business?"
Dad pulled in a deep breath. "Crash site…clean up. So, you're Shaun Temple, which means that woman was Donna, is that right? Your wife?"
"Yeah! How did you know that?"
"Oh, I know that friend of yours…Nerys."
"Oh, Nerys! How is she?"
Dad shrugged. "She's fine."
"After the accident?" Shaun asked.
Mara and I exchanged a glance. "Smooth one, isn't he?"
I chuckled. "Seems to be getting worse the older he gets."
"Oi! I can hear you both. I'm concentrating over here." Dad's scolding only made the two of us snicker. He continued on with Shaun. "She's been fined. But, so, Donna. She's Donna Temple now?"
Shaun laughed. "No! Still Donna Noble. She refused Noble-Temple, cos she says—"
"It sounds like an old ruin," the two of them said in sync.
Shaun gave another chuckle. "That's her! And Rose Noble, too. I was never going to win that battle."
Dad gave a chuckle of his own and glanced back at the pair of us. "Oh, I know what you mean. Their mum was the same."
Shaun grinned. "But what do we care, eh? I've got the best two girls in the world, and by the looks of it, you're not doing so bad either."
Dad nodded. "Quite right. But, you know, I thought…well, Nerys said that Donna won the lottery, what do you drive a cab for?"
Shaun snorted. "Nerys and her big mouth. That's supposed to be a secret. You know what happened? Donna gave it all away to charity. Every single penny. Well, we bought the house, that's the one thing we did do. Now, we can't afford to run it. Do I complain? No, I do not." He glanced at Mara and I through the rearview. "Take notes, ladies, at what me and your dad and I do to keep the peace. Never settle for a partner who wouldn't do that for you."
I smiled at him. "Oh, we know. If Dad did anything right, it was teaching us how we deserve to be treated."
I saw Dad smile at my words and felt a quick burst of love and pride from him before he turned his attention back to Shaun. "But wait, Donna gave all her money away?"
"That's not very Donna," I thought towards him.
"That's what I was thinking," he said back. "Not very her at all."
Shaun nodded. "Triple rollover, 166 million quid, pop! Gone."
Dad pointed to the left. "Oh, just turn here."
"Lovely to meet you, Shaun," Mara said as he turned and parked the cab in front of a steelworks.
"Yes, thank you for the ride," I added as I climbed out of the cab.
We waited until Dad had joined us on the sidewalk. "Now what?" Mara asked.
Dad looked up at the steelworks and pulled out his sonic. "Well, from what the sonic says, the ship should be close. And…" He craned his neck at the sound of trucks to get a look at who was entering the steelworks just down the road. "Looks like UNIT is already here. Best we stay out of their way. Come on girls, this way."
We followed him through the twists and turns of the warehouses, doing our best to keep ourselves hidden from the UNIT soldiers until we reached the spaceship.
I looked up at it as Dad sat down and started to scan it with his sonic. "It's certainly flashy. Someone likes to travel in style."
"What's the sonic telling you?" Mara asked.
"What, you three too good for us now?"
We turned as a woman rolled herself over to us in her wheelchair with a teasing smile. "Hello there," I said in greeting. "And you are?"
"Shirley," she answered. "Shirley Anne Bingham. UNIT Scientific Advisor number fifty-six."
"Very nice to meet you, Shirley Anne Bingham. Now, that—" Dad nodded up toward the ship. "Is a Double-Bladed Dagger Drive, damaged by laser fire, which means we've got two sets of visitors at war with each other. Did you get the heat readings and deceleration?"
Shirley sat up a little taller. "Oh, I got everything. But…why are you lot hiding away? We're on the same side, you could easily have come and asked for the readings."
"Well, best to keep our presence quiet for now." Dad leaned forward to put his elbows on his knees. "We've got this family friend, Donna Noble. She was my best friend in the whole wide universe. Well, she and their mum." He waved a hand at Mara and I. "I absolutely love her."
My eyes widened as those words easily fell from his lips. "Do you say things like that so easily now?"
Dad's face looked as surprised as I felt. "Oh. Ah…I suppose I do. Am I that sort of man now?" He glanced up at me. "You two must be rubbing off on me." He turned back to Shirley. "Anyway, Donna once took the mind of a Time Lord into her head, and I had to wipe her memory to save her life. If she ever remembers me, she will die. So, then what happens? I pop around for a bit, become a family man with a bowtie, and then a white-haired Scotsman who loses my girls."
Mara reached down to take his hand, and he gave it a squeeze.
"Still, I go on. Then I'm a woman before these two land back in the TARDIS. Now, I have this old face back, and who should I run into while trying to keep the Time Lords from taking my girls away from me again? Donna Noble herself. While a spaceship crashes right in front of her." His brow furrowed. "It's like she's drawing us in."
Shirley looked as worried as Dad felt. "What, she's making it happen?"
"No, she has no idea," Mara said.
"Then how can she be drawing you in?"
Dad's expression darkened. "I don't know why yet, but the universe is turning around Donna Noble again. I don't believe in destiny, but if destiny exists then its heading for her right now."
"But why?" Mara asked. "We came here thinking that we'd find General Hass. By all rights, we should have. Why would we run into Donna instead?"
"Hold on, did you go looking for the Time Lords that your dad is trying to protect you from?" Shirley sounded incredulous. I couldn't blame her.
I rolled my eyes. "My little sister has this crazy idea that Hass was coming after us to ask for our help with the Gallifreyans who survived the Cyberman takeover."
"Why else would he?" Mara demanded. "Mum's gone; they can't use her powers anymore. I don't have anywhere near the talents she did, so they can't use me either. Why else would he have an interest in us?"
"I can think of about half a dozen reasons he might. Including to extort Dad into doing something awful. That's why we had to leave in the first place! For Rassilon's sake, Mara, he shot you!"
"Girls." Dad stood and placed a hand on each of us. "Let's focus. There's no sign of a pilot, but that's not an automatic drive, so—"
"Ma'am?" A soldier came running around the corner. "We've found the escape pod. No sign of life, but we're moving out to secure the site."
Shirley nodded. "Good work, soldier. Go get it." She turned to follow him and grinned at us. "Go on now, you three. Off you pop."
Dad gave her a mock salute. "Keep them in line, Shirley."
Her grin widened into a full smile. "Oh, I will."
POV: Mara
Date: November 25, 2023
Dad stopped knocking on the front door of the Nobles' home when an older woman opened it. "Sylvia!" he crowed. "Oh, Sylvia, so nice to see you again. Could you let us in?"
Sylvia's eyes widened. "You said if she sees you again, she will die."
Dad tipped his head side to side. "Well, no. If she remembers me. That's slightly different."
Behind Sylvia, I could hear Donna and Rose's voices shouting at each other. Sylvia glanced behind her, and then turned to hiss at us. "Get out of her now!"
"Help! Help!" another voice called.
"Oh, that sounds like someone in need," Jenny said as she breezed by Sylvia easily. "Never turn away from someone in need, me. Sort of a family value."
"You—I—stop!" Sylvia spluttered as Dad and I followed Jenny into the house. In the lounge, a short furry alien with big eyes was clinging to Donna. Disappointment filled my chest. I had hoped we would find General Hass here.
"Get off me, you space rat!" she spat down at the creature.
"Aw, he's so cute. He couldn't be a space rat, Donna, they're much bigger and have awful teeth," I said as I leaned down to get a good look at the creature. "What are you?"
"Don't look at it, Donna!" Sylvia shouted. "It doesn't exist!"
"What do you mean it doesn't exist?" Donna demanded. "It's hanging off my left leg!"
"Meep, meep!" the creature shouted.
Rose pointed at Dad. "It's you three again!"
Donna glanced up. "Oh, it's Skinny Man!"
Sylvia was clearly panicking now. "No, it isn't. No, no, he's not there. You can't see him, and there's no monster. Oh, for the love of God!" She threw up her hands in frustration. "None of this is real!"
I glanced at Jenny. "Was her mum always like this?"
She shrugged. "Don't know. I never got to meet her."
Our attention turned as Shaun entered the house. "Hey, hey! Dad's home. Something smells nice."
"Tuna Madras," Sylvia said breathily.
"Meep, meep!" the alien called out again.
"Okay!" I threw my own hands up. "Why don't we all take a breath? Rose, could you grab some first aid? I think our friend here needs a little help." I nodded toward the cut I could see on the alien's hand and leaned down to look it in the eyes. "And you. Why don't we have you go sit on the couch so I can get a look at that, eh?"
"Meep," the alien responded before letting go of Donna and hobbling over to the couch.
I focused on my task as the others settled down around me. Soon enough, I was dressing the wound. "There, not so bad now," I said, and smiled at the creature.
"We should think about infection," Sylvia said from somewhere behind me. "I mean, I think these three should deal with this beast, and…and…and we can leave them to it and go back to mine."
I turned to sit by the alien on the couch so I could look at everyone. Donna shook her head. "Never mind about the ferret from Mars. You three—who the hell are you?"
Dad blinked. "We, er…" He glanced at Shaun. "What was it?"
"Friends of Nerys."
Dad snapped his fingers. "That's it."
Internally, I rolled my eyes. "And the smooth moves strike again."
I caught Jenny's lips twitching at my observation.
Donna snorted. "Nerys! Well, now it all makes sense. That viper in the nest. I'm not going anywhere." She nodded toward the creature. "We could sell Mad Paddington for a million quid."
Rose looked at her with as much horror as I felt. "Mum!"
"Absolutely not!" Jenny shouted. "Shame on you, Donna Noble."
Donna glared at her. "Well, I don't see you lot filling my fridge, do I?"
Dad narrowed his eyes. "What did happen to all your money?"
Donna's own eyes narrowed back at him. "Why are you so interested in us? Everywhere we go, there you lot are."
I felt Dad's moment of panic as he straightened up. "Yeah, I just…I was wondering—there's one person missing. I used to know your granddad, Wilf."
"He's not with us anymore," Donna said.
Panic was quickly replaced by sadness. "Right," he said. "Of course. He wasn't young, he was…I loved that man. I'm so sorry for your loss."
The four of them blinked at Dad. "He's not dead, you idiot," Sylvia scolded.
"He's in sheltered accommodation. He's ninety-four. He can't manage the stairs," Donna explained.
"He's on a roll today," Jenny silently quipped. I had to suppress a smile.
"We were lucky," Shaun added. "We couldn't afford it, but this offer came along."
"It's amazing," Rose gushed. "He's got this room—like a cottage and a garden—and it's almost free."
"Run by that lot in the middle of town…UNIT?" Shaun snapped his fingers. "This woman in charge, Kate, she says he's an old soldier, so she'll look after him."
Dad smiled. "Right, I know her." He leaned back. "She's looking after Wilf. Brilliant. Brilliant."
"Meep, meep."
My attention returned to the creature beside me. "Is that what you're called?" I asked. "The Meep?"
The Meep nodded. "Meep!"
Dad stood. "Yes, the Meep. I promise I can help him get home and then you'll never see me again."
Rose raised an eyebrow. "You're assuming "he" as a pronoun?"
"Good point, Rose." I turned to the Meep. "Do you identify yourself as 'he'?"
The Meep looked at me. "My chosen pronoun is the definite article. I am always, The Meep."
"Oh, I do that sometimes," Dad said. "But you were shot down. Who wants you dead?"
The Meep shivered. "The Wrarth Warriors. They cultivate Meep-kind for our beautiful fur. But the galaxy said, 'no more fur. It's wrong.' So, the Wrarth Warriors slaughtered their livestock."
I winced. "That's awful."
The Meep nodded. "Now they will hunt me down till there are no Meeps left. It breaks both my hearts."
Dad's eyes lit up. "You've got two hearts? So do me and my girls here." He gestured to Jenny and I.
I glanced at Donna with worry. If Dad revealed too much, she might remember him. "Careful," I told him through our telepathic network. "Remember that Donna can hear you."
As if on cue, Donna caught up with what he'd just said. "You've got what?"
Sylvia shook her head. The panic was back in her voice. "No, he…he means it like a metaphor. Like two minds, don't you?"
Our eyes shot up as someone banged on the door. Donna huffed. "What the hell is it now?"
