A/N Thanks to TimeLadyHope and TardisData for following!
chapter 6
Lights out. I'm ready to finally get out, when I hear a whispering voice.
"Not now".
Great. So someone else is hiding here. And talking on the phone, apparently.
"I can't. I'm busy!". Sounds ridicolous since it's barely audible, but I have the feeling I know this voice.
"I'm in church", the woman blurts. "Praying". The annoyed tone reminds me of Donna. Funny too, because just yesterday, for a minute I thought I saw her outside Stacy's house.
"We know you're in here, so why don't you make this nice and easy and show yourself? I'm waiting. I warn you, I'm not a patient woman. Now, out you come". Miss Foster, the woman who held the press conference yesterday, is talking, accompanied by the not-reassuring sound of firearms clicking. "Right. We'll do it the hard way. Get her."
I hear the cubicle doors being kicked, one after the other. I can't believe I'm going to get caught. Again. And that the Doctor will have rescue Zoe on top of his problems. Again. Wait, what if they're here for the other woman? Suppose if they get her first I'm the one who should try to rescue her.
"There you are", Miss Foster says with a happy voice. Luckily my cubicle is still shut.
"I've been through the records, Foster, and all of your results have been faked. There's something about those pills you're not telling us", a voice says, and it's not the one I heard before. Three is a crowd? They should change the doorsign from "ladies' room" to "hiding place".
"Oh, I think I'll be conducting this interview, Penny". Now, Penny, Penny, Penny? Oh, right, she's the inquisitive journalist from yesterday.
I wait until her protesting voice goes past the door, then I follow them, hiding behind plants and waste bins mastering my inner ninja - I used to complain a lot about the Doctor sneaking upon people (especially myself, okay) without anyone noticing, and I don't know if it's actually a Time Lord thing or if I'm just getting better after all these investigation, but I have to admit it's a pretty useful talent to have. They're going upstairs, so I take another flight of stairs to reach the upper floor, while I hear someone - the other hiding with me and Penny, I believe, going directly after them.
And, it becomes clearer when I reach the same door she's snooping from, she actually is Donna Noble. It's Donna!
As I creep my head up to the round window to eavesdrop on Penny and Miss Foster, she suddenly becomes aware of my presence with a startled look. Wow, I'm really getting good at the sneaking thing. My face is just inches away from hers and she just noticed.
I quickly smile and put a finger on my lips to keep her quiet, but she looks terrified.
Because, clearly, she doesn't know me.
With the corner of my eye I see Miss Foster turn towards us, so I crouch, pulling at Donna's jacket so she follows me. She's not very happy about it and tries to shake me off, still looking worried and concerned, but then turns to the door window again.
I groan, and as we pop again, I spot the Doctor. He's on a window cleaning cradle, holding a stethoscope to the window. He spots me too and his face turns confused, his eyes drawing between me and Donna, who's happily cheering.
So she doesn't know me but she knows the Doctor.
There's a weird conversation with gestures going on between Donna and the Doctor, from which I understand she's been following the weird alien things happening on Earth, looking for him. He looks puzzled and seem to ask if me and Donna know each other, to which she shakes her head and looks at me curiously, and before I can tell anything I notice Miss Foster looking sharlpy at us.
"Are we interrupting you?", she asks, and I see the Doctor sonicking the door, mouthing run! to us. I take Donna's hand and start running, but as we reach the staircase, I head downstairs while she goes up, initially surprised.
"Oh, well, fine, laters", I say, letting her go. If I'm right, the Doctor is getting her. I'm heading to the cupboard where we've been trying to hack the tower circuit since yesterday - maybe I can stop the signal now that Miss Foster carefully explained the whole thing.
I run as fast as I can until I'm finally in the basement. I throw out everything that's in the cupboard, mops, buckets, ladders, when a loud disturbing soundwave stops me. And, this time it wasn't a headache.
I finally get to the end wall, patting it until the sliding door is unlocked, and I study the circuit tower, which, since I'm always so lucky, is already activating. Probably Miss Foster accessed it from upstairs too.
There's a lot of cables. And, maybe I could stop the inducer signal if only I had the Doctor's screwdriver. Which of course I don't. All I can do is electrocute the doors, because I have the feeling the Doctor is being followed by guards.
I quickly check the system and strip two cables, still a bit surprised that I can read the circuit so easily. I pop my head in the hallway, calling.
"Doctor!".
I hear running, followed by his voice. "Now!". I connect the cables and hear the guards' growling cries.
An instant later, he's by my side. With Donna. Who's staring at me.
"This Bond villain with you?", she asks. I giggle.
"Well done, Zoe", he says to me, then explains to her what we're doing, handing me a pen, at which I look confused. "We've been hacking into this thing all day, because the matron's got a computer core running through the centre of the building. Triple deadlocked. But now we've got her sonic pen, so we can get into it".
"Nice", I say, without looking at him, pointing the pen at the wires. He crouches down by my side.
"You look older", Donna says, looking at him.
"Thanks".
"Not on your own anymore, then", she says, nodding at my direction. I wonder when these two met.
"Yup. Well, no. I, we had this friend. Martha, she was called. Martha Jones. She was brilliant. And I destroyed half her life. But she's fine, she's good. She's gone".
"What about Rose?". So Donna knows about Rose too?
"Still lost", he admits warily. He hands me another wire. "I thought you were going to travel the world?", he asks her inquisitively.
"Easier said then done. It's like I had that one day with you, and I was going to change. I was going to do so much. Then I woke up the next morning, same old life". She sounds so serious, and sad. "It's like you were never there. And I tried. I did try. I went to Egypt. I was going to go barefoot and everything. And then it's all bus trips and guidebooks and don't drink the water, and two weeks later you're back home. It's nothing like being with you. I must have been mad turning down that offer".
"What offer?", he says half-absentmindedly. I'm wiring the things here but I'm sure he's checking my work to make sure we don't all blow up.
"To come with you".
"Come with me?", he repeats, puzzled.
"Oh yes, please", Donna accepts what wasn't really an offer, and I can't help but laugh a little.
"...Right", he says.
Inducer activated, goes the computer. The Doctor scrambles by my side.
"What's it doing now?", Donna asks.
"She's started the programme", I reply. "So far they've been just losing weight, but the Matron's gone up to emergency pathogenesis".
Donna understands. "And that's when they convert...".
"Skeletons, organs, everything. A million people are going to die. Got to cancel the signal", the Doctor says, taking the capsule pendant from his pocket to dismantle it.
"The primary signal", I say, as he hands me the stripped wire from the capsule for me to connect it. "If we can switch it off, the fat goes back to being just fat".
I wire it to the inducer, almost surprised it works, when the computer cuts my satisfaction, announcing inducer increased.
"No, no, no, no, no. She's doubled it. I need... Haven't got time. It's too far. You can't override it. They're all gonna die!"
The Doctor is right. Fast as we run, we'd never get to the ground floor in time to get another capsule, to boost the override.
"Is there anything I can do?", Donna asks, as the Doctor starts hitting switches madly.
"Sorry, this is way beyond you. Got to double the base pulse, I can't...".
"Doctor, Zoe, tell me. What do you need?", Donna insists. Is that a smirk?
"I need a second-".
"Donna, do you have a capsule?", I cut him. She smugly swings it in the Doctor's face before dropping it in my hand, as his surprise turns to cheer.
"There you go", I say as the inducer finally shuts down. "Thanks".
She smiles at me, still a little unsure. "How do you know my name?". Slipping things? A Time Lord common trait, then.
"You've said it just now", I blabber. "Or, the Doctor did. I just heard you".
She glares, while the Doctor looks at me suspiciously. "I didn't-".
"You must have. I don't know you, how else would I have known? It's not such a common name that I could have guessed it. I mean if your name was Mary, or Anne, or... Ginger..." Blabbering? Another common trait. A loud noise interrupts my attempt to shake the name incident off.
"What the hell is that?", Donna whispers, looking up.
"That must be the nursery", I say, standing up.
"When you say nursery, you don't mean a crèche in Notting Hill".
"Nursery ship", the Doctor adds, looking around.
The computer lights up again. Incoming signal. Alien language...
"Hadn't we better go and stop them?", Donna says worriedly looking at us, as the Doctor tries to silence her.
"Hang on".
"Instructions from the Adiposian First Family", I state.
"She's wired up the tower block to convert it into a levitation post", the Doctor translates. "Oooh. Oh. We're not the ones in trouble now. She is!", he says, running out of the cupboard.
"What you going to do then? Blow them up?", Donna asks as we catch our breath once on the roof, looking up as one million Adipose - Adiposes? Adipose puppies?- are beamed up to the spaceship.
The Doctor makes a surprised noise. "They're just children! They can't help where they come from".
"Oh, that makes a change from last time. Guess that Martha must've done you good", she winks at me.
"She did, yeah. Yeah, she did", he repeats, then smirks smugly. "She fancied me". He adds.
"Mad Martha, that one. Blind Martha. Charity Martha", Donna jokes, then waves at the happy fat toddlers. "I'm waving at fat", she adds.
"Actually, as a diet plan, it sort of works", the Doctor says, as he spots Miss Foster floating upwards. "There she is!".
She stops at roof level.
"Matron Cofelia, listen to me", the Doctor says.
"Oh, I don't think so, Doctor. And if I never see you again, it'll be too soon".
"Oh, why does no one ever listen. He's trying to help", I moan.
"Just get across to the roof. Can you shift the levitation beam?", the Doctor insists.
"What, so that you can arrest me?".
"Just listen. I saw the Adiposian instructions. They know it's a crime, breeding on Earth. So what's the one thing they want to get rid of? Their accomplice".
"I'm far more than that. I'm nanny to all these children". Nope. She doesn't get it.
"Exactly! Mum and Dad have got the kids now. They don't need the nanny anymore". I tell her, just as the levitation beam switches off. She stands in mid air for an instant, like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, then falls with a scream and a splat while the spaceship flies away.
As soon as we're finally out the building, I take the cap off, ruffling my hair. The Doctor walks past me and throws the sonic pen into a waste bin. "Ehi!", I protest, but he's distracted by Penny, the journalist, who's - again - tied to a chair.
"I'm going to report you for... madness!", she's still screaming as we leave.
"You see, some people just can't take it", Donna states.
"No", the Doctor agrees.
"And some people can. So, then. Tardis! Come on!", Donna cheers. She's genuinely excited, but the Doctor looks a bit reluctant. Should I tell him I know her?
"That's my car! That is like destiny!", she happily smiles as we turn into the alleyway where the Tardis is parked. "And I've been ready for this", she says, sprinting to open the boot.
"I packed ages ago, just in case. Because I thought, hot weather, cold weather, no weather. He goes anywhere. I've gotta be prepared", she lists, and before we know, the Doctor and I are holding bags and boxes.
"You've got a- a hatbox", the Doctor states, hesitantly. I can't help but laugh.
"Planet of the Hats, I'm ready. I don't need injections, do I? You know, like when you go to Cambodia. Is there any of that? Because my friend Veena went to Bahrain, and she...", she slows down, stopping at the Tardis door to look at him. "You're not saying much".
"No, it's just... We're still adjusting, in the Tardis", he says. I stay silent even if it sounds like he's using me as a scapegoat, because I have a good feeling of how this is going to end.
"You don't want me", she states, sadly.
"I'm not saying that".
"But you asked me. Would you two rather be on your own?".
"No", he says flatly. "Actually, no", he remarks. "But, Zoe... she's... we're, adjusting, long story. But the last time, with Martha, like I said, it... it got complicated. And that was all my fault", he admits, honeslty. "I just want a mate".
The sudden switch from sad to offended on Donna's face makes it clear that she misheard. I gulp back a giggle as she repeats, unbelievingly, from the Tardis door, "you just want to mate?".
"I just want a mate!".
"Well I don't know what's the deal between you and Mata Hari there, but you're not mating with me, sunshine!", she blurts, waving her hand around.
"A mate. I want a mate!", the Doctor spells. It's all hilarious. I'm covering my face with my hands.
"Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense. I mean, you're just a long streak of... nothing. You know, alien nothing", she gestures at the Doctor's skinny suit.
"There we are, then", he agrees. "Okay".
"I can come?", she repeats, just to make sure.
"Yeah. Course you can, yeah. We'd love it", he finally smiles, as he walks closer to hug her. She beams at him, and winks at me.
"Oh, that's just- car keys", she cuts before hugging him.
"What?".
"I've still got my mum's car keys. I won't be a minute", she says, running off.
I pick up two trolleys and start lugging them to the Tardis. "We'd love?", I repeat.
"Oh, please", he groans. "I mean, you tried, but it's obvious you've already met her".
Damn. So close! "And I thought that was going so smooth", I shake my head.
"Really though, are you okay with her coming along?".
"Okay? I was this close to put an ad on Gumtree, or or stapling flyers around to find someone else to come along".
He laughs. "Poor Donna, two Time Lords", he nods, putting down the last suitcase. "We'll be fine, then? Because with Martha...", he starts, tugging his earlobe.
"Doctor", I stop and look at him. "We'll be fine. Tell you what, I'll go as far as look for that swimming suit I'm sure the Tardis saved for me".
He giggles, groaning. "Come on, go get her".
I walk back to the police line outside the Adipose building, and I see her talking to someone I can't quite properly see, so when Donna comes back with me I turn to check again, and then I'm sure, I'm sure it's her, and I kinda see her looking at me, and I want to call, or say something, but before I start wondering if she's here with the Doctor, if she hasn't even met him yet, and if she knows me, I see her disappearing, fading so fast I wonder if I did in fact see her at all.
So, welcome Donna! trivias for you in return for your nice nice nice reviews:
-Zoe's room on the Tardis is the same one she used to share with Martha. Except now Martha's bed is covered in clothes because Zoe isn't very tidy.
-Zoe understands alien languages because of the Tardis translating. I suppose when the Doctor says he knows five million languages, it's because he studied them in the very impressive Time Lord Academy (I mean, if there's an academy it must mean they aren't born smug know-it-all and they must have had something to study, don't you think?)
I'll try my best to update soon, enjoy the weekend you lovely people!