Author's Notes: this story has been sitting in my WIPS for almost two years, and i finally got up the courage to post it. so far it's the longest story i've ever written and i believe it's my best. i hope you guys enjoy reading it! Some things to know: This story is rated T because of Torchwood-the bad Torchwood. In later chapters there will be implied/referenced brainwashing, gaslighting, non-graphic human experimentation, implied/referenced medical torture, child abuse, and mild gore. There will be content warnings on the chapters where these are featured.
also, i'd like to emphasize: my female original character is NOT going to fall in love with the Doctor, and the Doctor is NOT going to fall in love with her. this is basically a romance free story.
I have about eight chapters already written, and i'll start with the first three chapters, after which i'll be posting weekly on fridays. i'm hoping that i'll be able to keep up a buffer, since this is the most consistently i've ever worked on a story.
finally, i am not british, so if i have any UK readers let me know if there's any glaring errors! Sorry for the long note, this will be the only one that's this long. thanks for giving my story a chance and i hope you'll like it :)
"Twenty-fifteen, Canterbury!" The Doctor spins out of his TARDIS.
Donna follows him outside. "What's so special about Canterbury?" She takes in the town in front of her—they've landed in an alley looking out to a busy square with a combination of medieval and modern style buildings. "And why 2015?" She looks around the corner to see if there's been a huge leap in technology in the seven years. There isn't anything immediately different.
"Oh, there's loads of things special." The Doctor sticks his hands in the pockets of his trench coat and starts strolling down the road, weaving around tourists and others going about their day. "There's a gorgeous cathedral here, defeated a bunch of mad Slitheen in it, a couple faces ago. And, er..." He looks around. "There's some medieval towers."
"Doctor." She frowns at him. "I could drive down here any time I felt like it. And if I wanted to see medieval towers, we could go to actual medieval times."
"Well, erm. This has its own charm, doesn't it? You've never been here in 2015, after all."
"Bully for 2015." She says under her breath, sending the Doctor a smirk.
He rolls his eyes in return. "That's the spirit." He claps her on the back and starts wandering around the square. Donna puts up with it for a bit, though she does insist on getting ice cream at one of the little shops.
"Alright, so this has been a blast, but what are we really doing?"
"Is it so hard to believe that I just wanted to go to Canterbury?" He avoids her gaze and fiddles with his sonic screwdriver.
She looks at him flatly.
He runs his hand through his hair and meets Donna's eyes, giving her one of his looks. "Look, Donna, piloting the TARDIS isn't like driving a car. It's more like negotiating, and sometimes, you don't win."
"What d'you mean?"
"I mean that sometimes she thinks that there's somewhere that I've got to be. She didn't say why, but for some reason, she feels very strongly about us being in Canterbury at this spot in this time."
Donna glances back at the blue box and grins uncertainly. "You're talking like it's sentient."
"She is." He raises his eyebrows at her.
"Well, let's start looking, then." Donna flips her hair back and starts walking into the town. "Sooner we find whatever's important, sooner we can get out of this place."
He shrugs and starts following her, taking out his sonic. "I'll scan for odd things."
They wander for about ten minutes—getting some strange looks from the locals—when the Sonic's humming suddenly changes pitch.
"There!" The Doctor spins, pointing the blue tool at a small building with the words Foster Centre at the top.
"What could be in there?" Donna asks. "Besides the obvious, I mean."
"Oh, children are always important." The Doctor says vaguely. He pushes open the door, and the woman sitting at the desk in the front quickly sits up from her bored slouch.
"Hello!" She rushes to get up. "What do you need?" Her name tag reads Linda Bones.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is Donna Noble." Donna nods to her while the Doctor pulls out his psychic paper. "Er..." He checks her name tag. "Linda! Great name, Linda. Knew a Lynda, once, but she... well, anyway. Could I see your children?"
The woman's eyes light up. "You two are looking to foster? Oh, it's so good to see a new couple looking for alternate methods to start a family! Of course, you'd have to go through a lot of paperwork to get approved, but I can certainly get the process started. It's so wonderful to see a young couple looking for alternative methods to starts a family!"
The Doctor and Donna exchange horrified looks. "Erm—"
"Wonderful!" The woman practically flies out of her chair. "If you'll just follow me..."
They enter a room full of children that is evidently a sort of recreational room. Most of them are older kids in their early teens, but there's a few younger ones. Two boys are playing ping-pong on a battered table, while the smaller ones are watching television.
Eyes dart toward them as soon as they walk in, different faces all wearing the same tired expression, some of them even rolling their eyes in an attempt to disguise the hope that Donna had seen for a moment.
She knows that the Doctor notices it too, from the way his sharp features soften as he looks round. He sticks his hands in his long pockets, smiles at the children, and at once moves towards a little girl who looks to be maybe eight or nine years old, one of the youngest there.
The girl sits with her legs crossed in the corner of the room, braiding her light brown hair into a French braid and back out again. Her clothes look well-cared for, but like the rest of the children there, they're obviously hand-me-downs. The only thing that looks like hers is a silver earring in her right ear. An odd style choice for a little kid, but Donna isn't one to judge.
As soon as the other children see the direction he's going, they look away in disinterest. "Why her?" Donna asks quietly. "Why not ask that woman if she's seen anything strange?"
"Kids notice things, Donna." The Doctor answers, in the same tone. "And the isolated ones, the quiet ones—they notice the most. Hello," The Doctor kneels to the little girl's level, his voice surprisingly gentle. "I'm the Doctor. What's your name?"
"I'm Lana." She doesn't quite smile but looks like she might like to. She has a sort of pinched, strained look to her.
"That's a lovely name." Donna says. "I'm Donna."
Lana blinks at her, then looks at the Doctor. "Who's Rose?"
The Doctor reels back, his entire demeanor changing. "How do you know that name?"
She frowns. "Didn't you... say?"
The Doctor shakes his head slowly, eyes scanning her in a way that makes Donna wonder if he's seeing something about the girl that Donna can't.
Lana shrinks back. "I'm sorry. Please don't be angry."
"I'm not angry." The Doctor says quietly. "Does that happen often?"
"Only when people think too loudly, but it sounds just like speaking to me." Her dark eyes widen as if she thinks she's said too much. "I… I don't usually tell people that part."
She looks at the Doctor again with just a bit too much intelligence in her eyes for her to be a normal nine-year-old, like she's really seeing him. Her sharp cheekbones look a bit hollowed out, and there's slight bags under her eyes.
The Doctor gives her a hard, sweeping look back and she seems surprised when he doesn't break eye contact. She licks her lips. "Go away." She says in a fierce tone.
They really should start investigating somewhere else, Donna realizes. This girl can't be that important, and there's other kids they can talk to anyway. She starts to get up but is stopped by the Doctor's hand on her arm.
He keeps looking at Lana, not breaking eye contact, just looking at her steadily. After a moment, she bites her lip and looks down.
And just like that, Donna doesn't feel the need to go away anymore. The Doctor winks at Donna and smiles at the little girl. "Adults usually leave you alone after you do that, don't they, Lana?"
"Yeah, kids too." She looks at him defiantly, but her lip trembles, and Donna realizes that the girl is scared.
The Doctor notices, of course. "We're not going to hurt you, Lana. Do you know what you're doing when you make people go away like that?"
She frowns. "Can't everybody do it? I just sort of… want them to leave, really bad, and they do."
The Doctor nods. "What's your name? Your full name?"
She looks confused at the sudden subject change. "Lana Vivien Phillips. And if you really want to foster, you should go talk to Emily. She's nice, mostly."
"Mostly?" Donna asks. Lana's too-sharp gaze turns to her.
"Well, nobody's nice all the time." The girl says matter-of-factly.
"I see." says Donna flatly.
The Doctor nods. "We're going to go talk to Ms. Bones now, okay?"
"'Kay." Lana starts braiding her hair again.
He pulls Donna away.
"What was that, Doctor?" She asks in a low voice.
"Low-level psychic ability." He says. "All kids have it, higher than adults, but she's got it enough that the other kids start noticing, if only subconsciously. They tend to get bullied. See how she's the youngest kid here? Younger kids are more likely to get fostered than older ones, but it's likely that she unnerves the adults."
"That's awful."
"It is. It's likely she'll grow out of it, though."
"So it's normal?"
"Well, not normal. In fact, hers is so high that I did wonder for a moment..." He trails off.
"What? She's human, isn't she?'
He doesn't answer at first,
"Doctor?"
"What? No—she's human. I'd be able to sense it if she wasn't."
"Would you?" Donna looks hard at him.
"Yes, I would."
"Just checking. Sometimes you exaggerate, you know."
"You keep me well aware." He mutters, but smirks at her. She pretends to ignore him.
"Oh, you're interested in Lana?" The woman at the front desk doesn't seem quite as excited now. "She's an odd child. Never really talks to the other children, you know."
"You mean the other children never talk to her." Donna fires back.
Linda looks rather startled. "Well, I suppose—but she instigates it, doesn't she?"
"Doesn't she?" The Doctor echoes.
"Just the other day, Daniel—such a nice boy, by the way—ran to me crying about something she said. I had her wash dishes after supper all night as a punishment, and she didn't say anything to me about it. Didn't try to defend herself, just gave me a—a look and started scrubbing. Like I said, she's odd."
The Doctor starts to get a bit of a closed-off expression, and Donna learned very early on that that means he's getting angry.
"We were just wondering where she came from." Donna nudges him.
"Oh, er..." Linda frowns. "Well... I'm not actually... That's funny, the name was just on the tip of my tongue."
"Are you saying you don't know?" The Doctor runs his fingers through his hair, making it stick up even more.
"I'll look through the records."
She's typing rapidly on her computer when the lights go out.
Linda sighs. "If I've phoned the repair man once, I've phoned him a hundred times, but this just doesn't seem to stop."
The Doctor straightens. "Does that happen... often?"
"Oh, I wouldn't say often." The woman idly taps her keyboard. "Probably about once a month. I'm so sorry about this, here, I'll go check the generator—"
"I'll do it." The Doctor says quickly.
"Well, that's awfully kind of you, but—"
The Doctor yanks Donna by the elbow—"Oi, hands!"—and pulls her outside.
"Why are we fixing the generator?" Donna rubs her arms against the chilly temperature.
"I need time to think where that woman isn't in the room. Humans can be extraordinarily close minded—" He notices Donna scowling at him. "Ah, I mean. Her particularly. Not all humans, of course." He clears his throat. "Anyway... Generator to fix."
He strides off towards the generator. Upon reaching it, he slaps it a few times and buzzes his sonic screwdriver in the vague direction of the large metal box, and then stands there for a moment, flipping his screwdriver through his hands.
"Doctor?" Donna asks.
"Yeah?"
"Are you sure that you're not just... worried about this because that little girl knew about Rose?" She says delicately.
"What?" He focuses on her. "No, it's more than that. It was strange, though. Two intriguing problems in one town, I told you Canterbury was special. But... there's something wrong with the electricity."
"Yeah, Spaceman, the lights aren't working."
"No, no, no, it's not that. If it were electricity, this generator would be the problem. And it's not, because the generator's perfectly fine." His expression sharpens. "So, if the generator's working... Then why are the lights turning off?"
He sprints back to the building, and Donna's breathing hard by the time they get back. "Do you have to run everywhere?"
The Doctor gives her a wide stare. "Oh! So sorry, would you like to go back and have a nice stroll?" He turns away to Linda, who's opening her mouth. "What?"
"Did you fix it?"
The Doctor spins, looking up at the lights. "Well, they're on. I didn't fix anything, though. What does that mean?"
"That... they're fixed?"
The Doctor has already moved on. "Seen anything strange here?"
"'Course not. Not much happens here." Linda's looking at the Doctor like she's considering calling the police.
He groans. "Got to be, the TARDIS wouldn't just drop me somewhere unless there wasn't something here, and the sonic picked up something..."
"Should we go talk to the kids again?" Donna asked.
"Are you people... investigators?" Linda asks.
Donna says "Yes." At the same time the Doctor says "No." They look at each other.
"Sometimes!" He says. Donna sighs.
"Oh, well, could you tell your bosses that we need a larger budget? We have enough money to give them the necessities, but it's not quite a comfortable life here."
Donna notices that Linda looks tired. "Is it just you, here?"
The dark-haired woman smiles in a worn-out sort of way. "Yes, just me. Well, sometimes the girls in the village volunteer, but none of them ever stay long. Goodwill only lasts so long, I'm afraid."
The Doctor scratches the back of his neck. "I'll, erm, pass the message along." He follows Donna, who's already walking towards the door leading to the recreational room.
This time, Donna picks out Lana first, leading the way to the spot where she hasn't moved from. The Doctor follows a little more cautiously.
"She looks sick, don't you think?" Donna says quietly. "D'you think they're not feeding the kids enough?"
The Doctor shakes his head. "All the others look healthy."
Donna shrugs, but the girl does look too pale and too small.
"Hi, Lana." Donna tries to look kind. Her mother always tells her that she's awful with kids, that she's too rough and loud, but she works to not scare the little girl, who looks like she spends far too much time in corners.
Maybe she did something right, because Lana smiles a little. "Hi, Donna." The smile fades when she sees the Doctor, who's standing a bit farther behind her.
"Listen, we were just wondering—I know you're observant, so I was curious if you've seen anything odd?"
Lana's hands freeze on her hair, then begin moving faster. "Something… odd?"
Donna quickly looks back to the Doctor, giving him a chance to say something, but he stays silent. "Like... I dunno, just some things that you don't think are supposed to be here. Maybe some place that feels weird."
Lana looks at Donna with her dark eyes. "You can just tell me you're looking for aliens, you know." She says. "There're aliens lots of times in the news. Like last Christmas, there was that floating boat in London. And then the Christmas before that—"
"Yeah, all right. We're looking for aliens." Donna cuts her off quickly before she can get to two Christmases ago. She looks back at the Doctor again. He looks like he's trying to decipher some big puzzle, so Donna doesn't interrupt him.
"Are you guys alien hunters?"
"Oh, yeah." Donna says.
"If I… if I tell you where the odd things are, will you make sure that this place doesn't get shut down?"
"Why?" The Doctor asks. "Don't they bully you here?"
"Yeah." Lana says shortly, her eyes flashing with something.
Donna frowns. "We'll… we'll make sure it doesn't get shut down."
"Okay. I'll show you." Lana springs to her feet, now that she's made the decision.
"Are you sure?" The Doctor asks her. The man and the girl look at each other with such intensity that it almost seems like they're having a silent conversation.
Donna realizes suddenly that they very well could be.
Author's note: thank you so much for reading! leave a comment if you can 3