A/N: Salut tout le monde! Thanks for tuning in for this next chapter.
We welcome back our newest companion Donna Noble for the duration of the Tenth Doctor's adventures. Kicking it off with the episode Partners in Crime.
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is my OC and this story. Please review and no flaming will be tolerated.
Cheers guys!
COMPLICITY
"So no one told you life was gonna be this way.
Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA.
It's like you're always stuck in second gear.
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,
Or even your year, but…"
– The Rembrandts: 'I'll Be There For You' (Theme From 'Friends') (LP [1995]).
Adipose Industries
The Doctor and the Heart casually make their way towards a glass fronted building, trying not to draw attention towards themselves. They were investigating into some strange readings that the Doctor had picked up on, when he had been doing some repairments that the Titanic had created when the cruise liner had collided with the unprotected sentient time machine. After narrowing it down, it appeared to be heavily associated with this building.
The Heart was back wearing her new outfit: a black crop top with some rainbow prism trouser pants with multiple pockets, and her pair of white platform converse sneakers with rainbow shoelaces. Her fingernails had been painted in a bright banana yellow shade. But this time, she had found an additional piece of clothing to compliment her new outfit: a shin-length duster in a Royal Blue shade, and her naturally curly blonde hair had been piled on top of her head in a curly updo with tendrils.
Approaching the side of the building, the Doctor discreetly sonics open an emergency exit door through the rear fire escape. The Time Couple quickly slip inside before they could be noticed. Walking along a corridor in the basement, the Doctor quickly flashes his psychic paper at a guard they both passed by.
"John Smith, Caitlyn Tyler, Health and Safety." He mutters hurriedly, and the guard frowns at them both in a puzzlement but nods and continues on his way without comment.
Projection Room
The Doctor and the Heart walk silently into the projection room, which was being manned by a projectionist, who looks at them with confusion. The Heart hastily introduces herself and the Doctor.
"Er, Health and Safety. Film department." She states and the Doctor absently holds up the psychic paper for the man to scan before both resume looking out into the lecture hall below them.
Lecture Hall
A woman, standing on stage in front of a lectern, dressed in neat business attire was giving a presentation to an audience of several dozen.
"Adipose Industries, the 21st century way to lose weight. No exercise, no diet, no pain. Just lifelong freedom from fat. The Holy Grail of the modern age. And here it is…" She holds up what looked like an ordinary white capsule pill between her perfectly manicured thumb and forefinger. "… You just take one capsule. One capsule, once a day for three weeks, and the fat, as they say…." She turns and gestures towards the projector screen behind her.
"The fat just walks away." The voiceover on the presentation quotes. A hand goes up in the audience.
"Excuse me, Miss Foster. If I could?" Foster nodded and gestures for the audience member, a female journalist named Penny Carter, to continue. "I'm Penny Carter, science correspondent for The Observer. There are a thousand diet pills on the market, a thousand con men stealing people's money. How do we know the fat isn't going straight into your bank account?" Foster pastes on a professional, if slightly strained smile.
"Oh, Penny, if cynicism burnt up calories, we'd all be thin as rakes. But if you want the science, I can oblige." She gestures once again towards the projector screen. The presentation starts up once again.
"Adipose Industries. The Adipose capsule is comprised of a synthesised mobilising lipase, bound to a large protein molecule."
"One hundred percent legal, one hundred percent effective." Foster promises. However, both Penny and the Heart are 100% skeptical.
"Sounds too good to be true…" the Heart mutters to the Doctor who nodded, also looking somewhat grim.
"But can I just ask," Penny pipes up once again; much to Foster's annoyance. "How many people have taken the pills to date?"
Foster sighed.
"We've already got one million customers within the Greater London area alone, but from next week, we start rolling out nationwide." Both the Doctor and the Heart furrow their eyebrows at this. "The future starts here. And Britain will be thin." Foster promises firmly.
"I'll believe that when I see it…" the Heart muttered once again before she and the Doctor leave the projection room to continue sleuthing some more.
Call Centre
Adipose Industries' call centre employees were hard at work attempting to sell off the so-called diet pills to perspective buyers over the phone. The Doctor and the Heart manage to sneak into the room without getting caught by security.
"Right. Let's split up." The Doctor suggests. "I'll go get the customer list, you go and see if you can find anything else that could be useful around the office." The Heart nodded and both go their separate ways as the Doctor walks casually towards a nearby cubicle where a young woman was busy cold calling customers.
"We deliver within three working days." She was saying to the customer before frowning at the Doctor in surprise. He flashes her a polite smile and holds up the psychic paper.
"John Smith, Health and Safety. Don't mind me." He spots a small square black box and reaches for it curiously. The young woman lets him pick it up and inspect it for himself while she continues her sales pitch to the customer. Inside the box was a capsule shaped gold-plated pendant.
"It's made of eighteen carat gold," the young woman inadvertently explained to the Doctor, who dangles the pendent in front of his face. "And it's yours for free." The Doctor was too busy inspecting the pendant to notice that the young woman was observing him with interest and smiling because she liked what she saw. The customer on the phone with her says something, and she refocuses on the task at hand. "No, we don't give away pens, sorry. No, I can't make an exception, no." She turns back to the computer monitor, missing the Doctor quickly pocketing the gold-plated pendant.
"I need a list of your customers," He requests casually. "Could you print it off?" the young woman nods and pulls up the list before clicking print. The Doctor stands up and peers over the cubicle wall to see where the printer was located. "That's the printer there?" He inquires.
"By the plant, yeah." The young woman confirms after hanging up her phone.
"Brilliant." The Doctor smiles. "Has it got paper?"
"Yeah, Jimbo keeps it stocked." She responds, then comes to attention when Foster comes striding into the room; flanked by two security guards. The Doctor crouches down to avoid being spotted, while across the room, the Heart, who had been observing the oblivious Doctor being hit on by the young woman and pursing her lips in annoyance, manages to duck into the break room just in time to avoid also being noticed.
"Excuse me, everyone, if I could have your attention." Foster projects so that the entire room could hear her, and all the workers stand up. "On average, you're each selling forty Adipose packs per day. It's not enough. I want one hundred sales per person per day. And if not, you'll be replaced. Because if anyone's good in trimming the fat, it's me." She gives her despondent employees a fake smile. "Now. Back to it." Foster leaves and the workers sit down again and resume their jobs. The Doctor lets out a relieved sigh that he hadn't been noticed and turns back to the young woman.
"So, if you could just print off that list, I'll get out of your way. Lovely. Thanks, then. See you—" the Doctor is pulled back down into the chair he was sitting in and gives the young woman a puzzled look when she hands him a piece of paper. "Oh, what's that?" He asks.
"My telephone number," the young woman confirms, smiling at him flirtatiously.
"What for?" He frowns.
"Health and Safety," the young woman grinned at him. "You be health, I'll be safety." The Doctor instantly flushes when he realises what she was getting at; praying that his tether was nowhere near him at this moment.
"Ah. Ah. But that contravenes, er, paragraph five, subsection C. Sorry." The Doctor smiles apologetically at the disappointed young woman and turns to the printer to look for the copies he had requested. When he doesn't find any, he goes back to the cubicle and laughs awkwardly. "Me again, sorry." The Doctor gets the young woman to reprint the list, and this time successfully retrieves them before making a hasty exit. However, he falters when he sees the unimpressed scowl on the Heart's face. "You saw all that, didn't you?"
"Uh huh." The Heart confirms.
"Yeah…" the Doctor looks embarrassed and quickly turns and heads for the exit with a mildly amused Heart walking casually along behind him.
Roger's Home
That evening, the Doctor and the Heart travel to the home of the first customer on the list he had managed to sweet talk the young woman into giving him. The Doctor raps his knuckles on the door, and it opens up to reveal a curious middle-aged man, who blinks at them inquiringly.
"Mister Roger Davey?" The man nodded at the Doctor's polite enquiry. "I'm calling on behalf of Adipose Industries. My partner and I just need to ask you a few questions." The Doctor explains and the man immediately nodded.
"Of course, please come in." He invites the Doctor and the Heart and steps aside to admit them. "I've been on the pills for two weeks now," Roger explained to the Time Couple who listen intently to what he had to relay. "I've lost fourteen kilos."
"Wow, that's impressive." The Heart was reluctantly impressed, despite being skeptical about the weight loss scheme only hours ago.
"And that's the same amount every day?" the Doctor pipes up, also a bit surprised by the rapid weight loss. Roger nodded in confirmation.
"One kilo exactly. You wake up, and it's disappeared overnight. Well, technically speaking, it's gone ten past one in the morning." Roger states, earning curious frowns from the Time Couple.
"That's oddly specific." The Heart observes.
"What makes you say that?" the Doctor agreed. Roger shrugged, looking nonplussed.
"That's when I get woken up." He admitted. "Might as well weigh myself at the same time." He gestures for them to follow him outside the house, where he gestures towards his burglar alarm located right above his front door. "It is driving me mad. Ten minutes past one, every night, bang on the dot without fail, the burglar alarm goes off. I've had experts in, I've had it replaced, I've even phoned Watchdog. But no, ten past one in the morning, off it goes."
"But with no burglars?" the Heart stated.
"Nothing. I've given up looking." Roger looked frustrated. But the Doctor however, looked thoughtful.
"Tell me, Roger. Have you got a cat flap?" He questioned, casually. Roger looked surprised by the question, but his eyes widened.
"Yes, actually. I do." He leads the couple back inside his house and towards the backdoor, where a cat flap was installed at the bottom of the door. "It was here when I bought the house. I've never bothered with it, really. I'm not a cat person."
"No, we've met cat people. You're nothing like them…" the Doctor mumbles absently, poking his sonic screwdriver through the cat flap and watching it flip back and forth.
"It's that what it is, though? Cats getting inside the house?" Roger looked concerned, but both the Doctor and the Heart shook their heads.
"Well, the thing about cat flaps is, they don't just let things in, they let things out as well." The Doctor points out.
"Like what?" Roger frowned.
"The fat just walks away." The Heart quoted, exchanging disturbed looks with her tether. Roger leads them to the front door and follows them out.
"Well, thanks for your help." The Doctor says graciously to Roger who looks a bit befuddled but smiles politely, nonetheless. "Tell you what, maybe you could lay off the pills for a week or so—"
"Doctor!" the Heart pipes up in alarm when the three lobed gizmo she was holding in her hand suddenly beeps frantically. She takes off after the signal.
"Oh! Got to go. Sorry." The Doctor smiles apologetically at the confused man before running to keep with his tether who had a significant head start on him.
Street
The Doctor catches up to the Heart on a nearby street, following the signal on the gizmo she was holding.
"Ugh, this thing is useless!" the Heart grumbled smacking and shaking it a few times before it resumed beeping frantically as the Doctor finally catches up to her. He makes a quick study of the device before pointing off to the side.
"The signal's coming from that way!" He reaches out and snags the Heart's hand. "Come on!" They race off down the street, following the rapidly fading signal. As they turn onto another street, the Doctor immediately pulls back the Heart before she could be ploughed down by a white van speeding off.
"Hey! Watch it!" She shouts irritably at first but then perks up when the beeping suddenly increases in the direction of the van. "Oh! It's coming from that van!" The Heart exclaims, before it's her turn to grab the Doctor's hand and take off the down the road after the van. However, the signal suddenly goes dead, and the Heart groans in frustration. "Seriously?"
"Come on, let get going." The Doctor sighed heavily and both of them reluctantly head back to where they had parked the Tardis to regroup and plan their next move for the next day.
Tardis
The Heart was in the Tardis's kitchen fixing herself something to eat when the Doctor suddenly lets out an excited shout, that makes her almost stab herself with a knife that she was using to peel an apple to snack on.
"What?" She dashes out and back into the console room. "What's going on?" She asks, looking for the source of the Doctor's excitement, but doesn't spot anything glaringly obvious. The Doctor was examining the gold-plated pendant he had nicked from the female employee he had gotten the customer list off of, through a magnifying glass.
"Oh, this is fascinating!" He exclaims and the Heart frowns curiously and bounds her way upstairs towards the console.
"What is?"
"This!" the Doctor gestures towards the pendant. "It seems to be a bio-flip digital switch, specifically for—"
"Human skin." The Heart finishes his sentence, and the Doctor beams at her.
"Exactly!" He grinned enthusiastically. The Heart shrugged, giving the discovery some thought.
"I wonder what Miss Foster needs that for." She muses, resuming her apple peeling as she perches on the jump seat. The Doctor turns to face her and leans against the console, still holding the pendant between his index finger and thumb, looking at her curiously.
"Well, there's only one way to find out." He points out.
Call Centre
The Tardis materialises in an alleyway blocks away from the Adipose Industries, nearby a Royal Blue SUV which had been parked near the entrance. The Doctor and the Heart repeat the same infiltration as they had done the day before, only this time they find a nearby, inconspicuous storage room. The Doctor holds open the door for the Heart who quickly darts inside, followed quickly by her tether before he sonics the door closed.
"What now?" the Heart whispered the second the storage door closed behind them. The Doctor wastes no time in patting down the wall in front of them before removing a hidden door panel revealing alien technology blinking away with an eerie green glow. She blinks in surprise. "Oh, convenient." She immediately pulls out her brand-new sonic screwdriver, the promised Christmas gift from the Doctor and starts scanning the machine. The Heart's sonic had been fashioned differently to the Doctor's. The handle was a deep, dark purple, kind of like an expensive fountain pen with an exquisite gold Gallifrey stencil pattern of spirals, circles and stars. It had a replication of the glass tube-casing the Tardis console had, but it was purple instead of green with a purple sonic crystal at the tip.
"What do you think it is?" the Doctor questioned, also pulling out his own sonic and scanning it too.
"Some sort of switch, I believe. It's too soon to tell." The Heart muttered back, momentarily distracted by the purple glow of her new sonic. A child-like grin spreads across her face. "Did I ever tell you how much I love this sonic?" She questioned him, and the Doctor's serious expression softened into a warm, affectionate grin and he leans over and plants a hard kiss on the Heart's head.
"You're welcome, darling." He murmurs into her ear before they become serious again and resume examining the obvious piece of alien technology for anything potentially dangerous. By the time 6:10 in the afternoon came by, they were no closer to identifying what this strange 'switch' was. "Come on, Heart. Let's go and investigate some more." The Doctor decided and the Heart pouted but nodded and straightened up from her crouch in front of the 'switch' and both of them replaced the door panel before emerging from the storage room. They make their way towards the plant room and head out into a window cleaner's cradle, which the Doctor promptly lowers towards Foster's window. Movement coming from the office door immediately makes the Time Couple duck out of sight to avoid being spotted.
"What's going on?" the Heart murmurs, then gets an idea. "Do you have your stethoscope?" The Doctor starts patting himself down.
"Uh, yeah. I think so." He responded, absently.
"Use it on the window." The Heart prompted him and the Doctor nodded when he cottoned on to what the Heart was getting at. He sticks the earbuds into his ears and presses the chest piece against the glass. Cautiously peering over the edge of the cleaner's cradle and into Foster's office, the Doctor focused on the woman in question, instantly listening in to the conversation and relaying it back to the Heart.
"You can't tie me up," The journalist, Penny, was pointing out.
Foster's Office
Penny scowls defiantly at Foster who was observing the young woman with a bored yet haughty expression on her face as she leant against her desk with her arms crossed over her chest. The two security guards that had accompanied Foster when she had apprehended Penny, stood nearby.
"What sort of country do you think this is?" She demanded, forcefully.
"Oh, it's a beautifully fat country." Foster responded with a light tone in her voice. "And believe me, I've travelled a long way to find obesity on this scale." She looked positively giddy about that fact.
"So, come on then, Miss Foster, those pills. What are they?" Penny probed.
"Well, you might just as well have a scoop, since you'll never see it printed." Foster acquiesced, holding up the same white capsule she demonstrated at the lecture the previous day. "This is the spark of life."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Penny frowned, looking confused, where the eavesdropping Doctor and Heart looked intrigued if somewhat grave about what this woman was alluding towards.
"Officially, the capsule attracts all the fat cells and flushes them away." Foster explained. "Well, it certainly attracts them. That part's true. But it binds the fat together and galvanises it to form a body." Penny's frown deepens further in complete confusion, while the Heart blinked; unsure if she had heard what Foster had said correctly.
"Pardon me?" The Heart blurted out before looking at the Doctor disbelievingly. "Did she just say what I think she said?" The Doctor looked deeply concerned.
"I believe she did. That's not good." He confirmed and returned his attention back on the conversation. It appeared that Penny was having a hard time wrapping her head around what Foster had just told her too.
"What do you mean, a body?" She questioned. Foster gave Penny a particularly crafty little smirk.
"I am surprised you never asked about my name. I chose it well. Foster. As in 'foster mother'. And these are my children." Foster reaches into her deck drawer and pulls out a little white creature, popping it on the desk. It resembled a little walking marshmallow with arms and legs. Penny blinks at it in both surprise and disgust.
"You're kidding me. What the hell is that?" The Doctor and the Heart look through the window to see the little creature for themselves.
"Adipose," Foster confirmed. "It's called an Adipose. Made of living fat."
"But I don't understand…" Penny stammered.
"From ordinary human people." Foster clarified, a little bit condescendingly. The Heart rolls her eyes and momentarily looks away from Foster and Penny, before freezing when she spots something very unexpected across the room. Her eyes widen in shock.
Outside the Window
The Heart nudges the Doctor in the side insistently with her elbow. He jumps and scowls down at her in slight annoyance.
"Ow! What's wrong?" the Doctor grumbles. The Heart pointed into the room and he follows her pointing finger towards a swinging door with a circular window, of which the Time Couple could see… "Donna?" The redheaded woman beams from ear to ear when she sees the Doctor (and the Heart) blinking back at her with utter confusion.
"Doctor? Doctor!" Donna mouths excitedly.
"What the hell is she doing here?" the Heart questioned and the Doctor briefly glances at her and shrugged; just as perplexed and exclaiming:
"What? What?"
"Oh my God!" Donna exclaimed. The Doctor and the Heart were incredibly confused and worried about why Donna was here.
"How?" the Doctor questioned.
"It's me!" Donna gestured towards herself.
"Yes, we can see that." The Doctor gestured between himself and the Heart. Donna briefly eyes the Heart and furrows her eyebrow, also confused, but brushes this aside in favour of conversing with the Doctor through pantomime.
"Oh, this is brilliant!" Donna was practically beside herself in her excitement and the Heart couldn't help but smile a little out of amusement.
"What the hell are you doing there?" the Doctor demanded.
"I was looking for you and Katy." Donna replied and the Time Couple winced, knowing this was going to be an interesting explanation about the Heart's transformation from 'Caitlyn Tyler' to 'the Heart'.
"What for?" the Heart questioned, and Donna frowned at her.
"Who are you?"
"Never mind that, why were you looking for me?" the Doctor steered the conversation back. Donna gave an interesting and slightly bemusing explanation using her hands.
"I read it on the internet. Weird. Crept along. Heard them talking. Hid. You—" Donna thumbed towards Foster and froze. This caused the Doctor and the Heart to look over at what made Donna freeze.
"Uh oh." The Heart muttered, eyes wide. Foster was staring between them, unamused.
"Are we interrupting you?" She asked. The Doctor quickly looks back at a panicking Donna.
"Run!" He urged the redhead who darted out of view. Foster glances over at the two security guards.
"Get her." She gestured in the direction of the door Donna had just fled from. The Doctor zaps at the office door with his screwdriver to lock them in. "And them." Foster gestures towards the Doctor and the Heart. While the Doctor took care of the office door, the Heart sends the cleaner's cradle back up to the roof. The guards shoot out the office door before barrelling out of there, with Foster following them.
"What about me?" Penny yells at them, still tied in the office chair.
Stairwell
Once back inside the building, the Doctor and the Heart raced towards the stairwell and start travelling down them, searching for Donna to get her to safety. They literally collide with the redhead on the staircase and Donna launches herself into a flustered Doctor's arms and hugs him, while the Heart hangs about behind them, feeling awkward.
"Oh, my God. I don't believe it!" Donna gushes. "You've even got the same suit! Don't you ever change?"
"Yeah, thanks, Donna." The Doctor responded with a strained smile. She then spots the Heart and frowns a little. "Who's she? Where's Katy?" The Heart is a little taken aback.
"Uh—"
"Not right now, Donna." The Doctor rescues his tether from an awkward explanation for another time, and the Heart throws him a grateful smile. All three of them glance down the staircase when they hear someone kick in the heavy metal door. "Just like old times!" the Doctor grinned at Donna with obvious excitement.
"Come on!" the Heart darted between them, grabbing their arms and pulling them back up the staircase towards the roof.
Roof
It was almost like Donna had been there the entire time during their adventures. And if it wasn't already obvious that she was happy to see the Doctor again, the non-stop babbling she was doing, sinched it completely.
"Because I thought, how do you find the Doctor? And then I just thought, look for trouble and then he'll turn up." Donna was explaining her reappearance. The Doctor sonics open the door and gives the Heart a slightly exasperated glance. To which the Heart just shrugged. "So I looked everywhere. You name it. UFOs, sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked; I found them all. Like that stuff about the bees disappearing, I thought, I bet he's connected."
"Bees?" the Heart mouths at the Doctor who looks just as perplexed. Donna continues, obliviously.
"Because the thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes. All those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax." Donna stated.
"Well…" the Heart went to correct Donna, but the Doctor once again interrupts.
"What do you mean, the bees are disappearing?" He asks, only this time Donna was the one doing the shrugging.
"I don't know. That's what it says on the internet. Well, on the same site, there was all these conspiracy theories about Adipose Industries and I thought, let's take a look." By this time, the Time Couple and Donna had made it back to the cleaner's cradle, and the Heart had sonicked the cradle's controls.
"In you get!" the Doctor gestured and Donna hesitated.
"What, in that thing?"
"Yes, in that thing." The Heart confirmed impatiently, getting into the cradle first to demonstrate their intentions. The Doctor immediately follows and Donna eventually climbs in with obvious reluctance.
"But if we go down in that, they'll just call us back up again." Donna pointed out. The Doctor pushes a few buttons to get the cradle to descend down the side of the building.
"No, no, no, because we've locked the controls with a sonic cage. The Heart and I are the only ones who can control it." The Doctor explained hastily.
"The Heart?" Donna questioned.
"That's me. Hello!" the Heart wiggles her fingers at Donna in greeting. The Doctor presses on with the explanation.
"So, unless she's got a sonic device of her own, which is very unlikely, we have the advantage." The Doctor confirms, confidently. The cradle suddenly starts to drop rapidly and the Doctor manages to make the cradle stop. The Heart looks up to see what caused the rapid descension and curses underneath her breath.
"Sweetie, we've got company." She gestures back up to the rooftop at Foster, who was looking over at them with her two security guards flanking her. The Doctor growls in annoyance and immediately turns towards the window beside them.
"Hold on. Hold on. We can get in through the window." He attempts to sonically cut through the glass, and the Heart follows his example. There was an immediate sound of something locking into place, and the Time Couple stop what they were doing. "Can't get it open!"
"Well, smash it then!" Donna shouts and picks up a nearby spanner and starts banging away at the windowpane, trying to smash a hole in the glass. The Heart sighed heavily.
"I'm afraid it won't do much. Windows in this century are designed to withstand a nearby bomb going off." She explained, regretfully. Donna looks at her incredulously, before looking back up at Foster when they hear the familiar screeching sound a sonic screwdriver makes coming from above. Her eyes widen in alarm.
"She's cutting the cable." Donna realises.
"Oh, shit…" the Heart cusses, seconds before the cable holding up the cleaner's cradle snaps, which tips both the Heart and Donna out of it. The Doctor manages to hang on but looks down at both women in horror.
"Heart! Donna!" He yells out at them in fear. The Heart manages to grab the end of the cable, and Donna manages to grab and cling for dear life to the Heart's legs. Both of them were hanging precariously from the end of the cable over a nasty drop to the pavement below.
"Doctor!" Donna shouts back up at the Doctor as she digs her fingernails into the Heart's shins in her panic. She winces but stubbornly holds on for both of their lives.
"Hold on!" the Doctor begs them both, and both Donna and the Heart glare up at him for stating the obvious.
"I'm not feeling suicidal, love!" the Heart retorted before noticing Foster attempting to break the other cable with what looked like a sonic pen. "Doctor! Look up!" She instructed frantically, and the Doctor looks up and spots Foster before aiming with his sonic at her hand and blasting the sonic pen from it. She drops it reflexively and he reaches back and catches it before putting it between his teeth and climbing towards another window.
"I'm going to fall!" Donna fretted.
"No you're not!" the Heart promises her. "We won't let you!" Donna glares up at the Time Couple.
"This is all your fault. I should've stayed at home!" Donna spat out just as the Doctor somehow manages to open and slide up a nearby window. He immediately goes in.
"I won't be a minute!" He promises both women before disappearing inside. Donna takes this opportunity to interrogate the Heart, now that the Doctor wasn't around to interrupt her.
"Who the hell are you, anyway? Where's Katy?" She demanded, and the Heart once again sighs heavily.
"Donna, it's a very long, very complicated story." The Heart attempted to sidestep the question, but Donna maintained her notorious stubbornness and wouldn't budge from the topic.
"It's not like we're going anywhere at the moment!" Donna reminded the Time Lady. "Just tell me the flippin' truth!" She insisted, and the Heart caved.
"It's me," the Heart confessed. "I'm Katy." The Heart then held her breath, waiting for the inevitable exclamation that was sure to follow from this. There was silence for several seconds, and the Heart's eyes widened; fearing that the answer she had given Donna made the redhead let go of her legs. She attempted to look down, which wasn't easy mind you, and saw to her relief that Donna was still there, but looking up at her in disbelief.
"Excuse me?" Donna exclaimed.
"I'm Katy Tyler." The Heart confirmed. Suddenly, the window beside Donna opens up and the Doctor reaches out to Donna who lets go of the Heart's leg and reaches out to him.
"I've got you. I've got you." The Doctor pulls her inside and made sure she was okay, before turning back and reaching out to grab at his tether's legs. "Let go, darling, I've got you." The Doctor promises and the Heart lets go of the cable without hesitation and wraps her arms around the Doctor's shoulders as he pulls her inside too.
"Thanks!" the Heart smiles gratefully at her tether and pecks him affectionately on the lips.
"You're Katy?" Donna immediately questions the Heart.
"Yes, Donna. I am." The Heart responded, impatiently. The Doctor grabs onto her hand and looks at Donna.
"She is." He confirms. "And off we go!" The three of them head for the office door and make a run for it.
"Oi!" Penny yells out to them indignantly. The Doctor reappears, looking at the journalist apologetically.
"Sorry!" He zaps Penny free from the chair. "Now do yourself a favour. Get out!" He retreats and rejoins Donna and the Heart and they start running once again.
Call Centre
Foster and her guards corner the trio in the call centre. They had no choice but to turn around and confront her head on.
"Well, then. At last." Foster greets them with a smug little smile on her face. The Heart rolls her eyes, as the Doctor grimaces. Donna was the one to break the ice first.
"Hello."
"Nice to meet you, I'm the Doctor and this is my partner, the Heart." The Doctor gestures towards the Heart who gives Foster a sarcastic smile in greeting. Donna raises a hand.
"And I'm Donna." She introduces herself. Foster scrutinises the trio curiously.
"Partners in crime. And evidently off-worlders, judging by your sonic technology." She observed and the Doctor holds up Foster's sonic pen curiously.
"Well, the Doctor and I are. Donna is a local." The Heart corrects the woman. The Doctor smirks at his tether's words before he confronts Foster properly.
"I've still got your sonic pen. Nice. I like it. Sleek. It's kind of sleek." He stated curiously and Donna pulls it over and gives it a once over before leaning back.
"Oh, it's definitely sleek." She nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, and if you were to sign your real name, that would be…?" the Doctor prompts Foster who is quick to respond.
"Matron Cofelia of the Five Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic Class." She replies with a flash of her pearl white teeth. The Heart frowned.
"What business does a wet nurse have using humans as surrogates?" She demanded, disapprovingly.
"I've been employed by the Adiposian First Family to foster a new generation after their breeding planet was lost." Foster explained, rather matter of fact. The Doctor cocked an eyebrow.
"What do you mean lost? How do you lose a planet?" He asked. Foster waves her hand dismissively.
"Oh, politics are none of my concern. I'm just here to take care of the children on behalf of the parents."
"What, like an outer space super nanny?" Donna probed, and Foster nodded in confirmation.
"Yes, if you'd like." She agreed and Donna frowned.
"So. So those little things, they're, they're made out of fat, yeah, but that woman, Stacy Campbell, there was nothing left of her." She pointed out, looking disturbed, presumably by what she had witnessed from an earlier time. Foster adopted a sympathetic expression on her face that the trio knew was not directed towards the unfortunate woman Donna had been talking about.
"Oh, in a crisis the Adipose can convert bone and hair and internal organs. Makes them a little bit sick, poor things." Foster confirmed. Donna looked outraged.
"What about poor Stacy?"
"Seeding a level five planet is against galactic law." The Doctor pointed out, sternly. The smug little smile on Foster's face immediately falls, and she glowers at the Doctor.
"Are you threatening me?"
"Well, if he's not. Then I certainly am." The Heart shrugged nonchalantly, and Foster turns the glare onto her. The Doctor reaches out and grabs his tether's hand.
"Heart…" He gently admonishes her and the Heart backs down, still eying off Foster icily. "We're trying to help you, Matron." The Doctor corrects Foster's choice of words. "This is your one chance, because if you don't call this off, then I'll have to stop you." He warns, earning a haughty smirk from Foster who did not look at all threatened by him.
"I hardly think you can stop bullets." The security guards take aim, and the Heart immediately pushes Donna behind her for safety, while the Doctor's eyes widen, and he raises his hands up to fend them off. Then gets an idea when he remembers that he was holding not only Foster's sonic pen in his hand, but also his own screwdriver. A grin formed on his face.
"No, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. One more thing, before dying. Do you know what happens if you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?" He questioned, and even the Heart and Donna look at him strangely, in the same way that Foster was.
"No."
"Nor me. Let's find out." The Doctor challenged before aiming both sonics at each other. They create an awful noise; forcing everyone except for the Doctor to grab their heads and recoil out of pain. Glass shatters nearby, forcing Donna, who was the closest, to push down his arm to stop him.
"Come on!" She beckons him and the three of them race out of the call centre doors. Foster straightens up and notices that the trio had escaped.
"I'm advancing the birth plan. We're going into premature labour." Foster declares into her wristwatch.
Storage room
The Doctor and the Heart lead Donna towards the storage room they had been hiding in all day. The Time Couple proceed to throw out a ladder and some mops and buckets, just so the three of them could fit inside.
"Well, that's one solution. Hide in a cupboard. I like it." Donna huffed, slightly out of breath as she observed what the two of them were doing. However, her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates when the Heart removes the wall panel from earlier and throws it aside, before immediately getting to work with the Doctor to try and deactivate whatever the alien technology they had found was.
"We've been hacking into this thing all day," the Doctor explains to Donna. "Because the matron's got a computer core running through the centre of the building."
"Triple deadlocked." The Heart added, much to Donna's surprise. "But now that the Doctor's got that," she indicates to the sonic pen the Doctor still had in his grasp. "We can get into it." They hear the sounds of running feet thudding their way towards them in a rush, and the Time Couple speed up with their hacking.
"She's wired up the whole building." The Doctor realises. "We need a bit of privacy." He reaches out and grabs two wires and fuses them together with his sonic, raising a forcefield that repels the two guards in their tracks. "Just enough to stop them."
"But why has she wired up the tower block?" the Heart mused curiously. "What's it all for?"
"Well, we'll just have to find out together, won't we?" the Doctor flirts a little as he reminded the Heart who gives him a lusty wink before resuming with her tinkering. Donna observes the both of them with bemused interest.
"You look older." Donna remarked to the Doctor.
"Thanks." He responded absently.
"Still on your own?" Donna asked, eying the Heart a little suspiciously, which the Doctor notices and bristles a little.
"Yep, with Heart here." The Heart flashes him a look, and the Doctor amends what he said. "Well, no. We had this friend. Martha she was called. Martha Jones. She was brilliant. And I destroyed half her life—"
"Sweetheart, that wasn't your fault." The Heart scolded him, but the Doctor seemed to barely acknowledge it.
"But she's fine, she's good. She's gone."
"What about Rose?" Donna frowned.
"Still lost." The Heart piped up, and Donna narrowed her eyes at her, mistrustfully.
"And how would you know that?" She snaps, and the Heart pauses with her tinkering and looks defensively at Donna. "You know, I still wanna know how you could be Katy. You don't look anything like her."
"Donna…" the Doctor intervenes with a warning tone in his voice, but the Heart stops him.
"No, sweetie. It's fine, I'll explain." She turns towards Donna. "In your absence, Donna, I opened up my locket and restored my memories." The Heart indicated to her neck, which Donna noted no longer had the heart-shaped necklace dangling from it. "The reason why I no longer look like the brunette girl you last saw, was because I regenerated."
"What's that?" Donna asked.
"When a Time Lord or Lady is fatally wounded, they undergo a transformation. It changes everything about them: their bodies, their personality, everything. Except for their memories. Those stay intact." When Donna still looks confused, the Heart elaborates further. "It's a little trick to cheat death. Every Time Lord or Lady has an allotted number of lives to live before they die permanently. I just happen to be on my ninth regeneration." The Heart explains, earning a surprised look from the Doctor who was unaware of this little piece of information.
"Are you really?" He asked, and the Heart nodded solemnly.
"Yes."
"So, you and the Doctor are immortal, then?" Donna guessed and both the Doctor and the Heart winced at the terminology.
"Nothing is truly immortal, Donna. Nature would never allow that to happen." The Doctor corrects her. "We just have extended lives." He looked a bit uncomfortable about this subject, so he was quick to change it. "Moving on. Weren't you going to travel the world?" The Heart resumes her tinkering while Donna answered the Doctor's question.
"Easier said than done." Donna stated. "It's like I had that one day with the two of you, and I was going to change. I was going to do so much. Then I woke up the next morning, same old life. 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 two." Donna sighed heavily. "I must have been mad turning down that offer."
"What offer?" the Doctor questioned.
"To come with you." Donna replied, like it should've been obvious.
"Come with us?" the Heart piped up, surprised. Donna immediately beamed with excitement.
"Oh yes, please!" She gushed and the Doctor and the Heart exchanged hesitating glances with each other.
"Right." The Doctor mumbled. Suddenly, the machine starts flashing and making strange noises.
"Inducer activated." A computer automated voice reveals, and the Heart cusses underneath her breath. Donna's eyes widen in alarm.
"What's it doing now?" She asked, and the Doctor also cussed when he realised what was happening too.
"She's started the programme." He realises and begins scanning some alien words that begin panning up on a small screen. "So far they're just losing weight, but the Matron's gone up to emergency pathogenesis."
"And that's when they convert…" Donna prompted.
"Skeletons, organs, everything." The Heart confirms. "A million people are going to die." She glances at her tether with a determination. "We've got to cancel the signal." The Doctor nodded and wasted no time by dismantling the gold-plated pendant he had stolen the day before.
"This contains a primary signal," he explains to Donna. "If I can switch it off, the fat goes back to being just fat." The Doctor attaches part of the pendant to the Inducer.
"Inducer increasing." The computer announces and the Doctor immediately starts to panic.
"No, no, no, no, no!" He yells, and the Heart scans the information scrolling up the small screen on the Inducer.
"She's doubled it." The Heart reveals. "If only we had a second pendant." Angry, frustrated tears well up in her eyes. "But there's no time to go out and swipe another one. Oh, God. They're gonna die!"
"Is there anything I can do?" Donna asks them, calmly.
"Sorry, Donna, this is way beyond you. We've got to double the base pulse, but we can't—" Donna cuts off the Doctor and makes him focus on her.
"Doctor, tell me. What do you need?" Donna insisted.
"Heart just said it. We need a second capsule to boost the override, but we've only got the one. We can't save them!" Donna wordlessly holds up her gold-plated pendant, stunning both the Doctor and the Heart. The Heart lets out a triumphant yell and reaches out to grab Donna's face and plant a wet, sloppy kiss on her forehead.
"Oi! Steady on!" Donna complained, but neither the Doctor nor the Heart were listening as the Doctor takes the pendant from her and pulls it apart, plugging it into the Inducer. Almost immediately, the Inducer shuts down.
"YES!" The Doctor and the Heart celebrate and pull Donna into a group hug with them. A loud noise in the sky suddenly attracts their attention.
"What the hell was that?" Donna demanded. The Time Couple turn back to the Inducer and quickly scan the alien language still scrolling by on the screen. "When you say nursery, you don't mean a creche in Notting Hill, do you?" Donna confirmed, and the Doctor shakes his head.
"Nursery ship." He elaborates and the computer on the Inducer lights up with its eerie green light.
"Incoming signal." The computer announces and the Doctor and the Heart immediately read it. An indecipherable alien voice comes over the intercom and they pause to listen to it.
"Hadn't we better go and stop them?" Donna asked.
"Hang on a mo. This is last minute instructions from the Adiposian First Family." The Heart revealed.
"She's wired up the tower block to convert it into a levitation post." The Doctor reads before his whole face falls with dread.
"Oh, shit!" the Heart curses, and bolts from the storage cupboard and back out into the hallway. Donna frowns at her departure in askance.
"Where's she going?" She asks the Doctor, who translates for her.
"We're not the ones in trouble now. She is!" the Doctor realises before grabbing Donna's hand following the Heart.
Roof
The Doctor and Donna catch up with the Heart, making their way to the Adipose Industries rooftop; where they see beams of light dotted all about the area with thousands of Adipose babies floating gracefully up into the air before entering an enormous spaceship that was hovering in mid-air.
"So, what now?" Donna questioned the Doctor. "What are you going to do then? Blow them up?" She asks, a bit sarcastically. Which was understandable, considering the last time she had seen them, the Doctor had drowned millions of innocent Racnoss babies just to prove a point.
"Nah, they're just children. They can't help where they come from." The Doctor replied calmly, still watching the spectacle unfolding before him with his arm wrapped casually around the Heart's waist. Donna blinks at them in astonishment.
"Wow. That makes a change from last time. That Martha must've done you good." Donna realised, and the Heart playfully glares at her.
"Oh, excuse me. But I was there too, it wasn't just Martha, thank you very much." The Heart protested.
"Yeah, it wasn't just Martha. You helped me too." The Doctor smiled tenderly at his tether and pulls her into a loving kiss. Donna smiles at the couple approvingly, before turning and waving back at a nearby Adipose who was waving at them cutely.
"I'm waving at fat." Donna realised, dubiously.
"Yeah, it is a bit strange, isn't it?" the Heart observed.
"Actually, as a diet plan, it sort of works." The Doctor admitted, then reacts when he spots Foster floating upwards towards them as well. "There she is!" He rushes over to the edge of the building and gestures towards the wet nurse. "Matron Cofelia, listen to me!" the Doctor insisted, but Foster merely addresses him with disdain.
"Oh, I don't think so. And if I never see you two again, it'll be too soon." Foster stated eying the Heart also. The Doctor groaned in frustration.
"Oh, why does no one ever listen?" He grumbled. "I'm trying to help. Just get across to the roof. Can you shift the levitation beam?" He asks her, but Foster just gives him an incredulous look.
"What, so that you can arrest me?"
"Just listen to us." The Heart wades in to help the Doctor persuade her. "We 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." She explains.
"Oh, I'm far more than that. I'm nanny to all these children." Foster corrects the Heart.
"Exactly!" the Doctor agreed. "Mum and Dad have got the kids now. They don't need the nanny anymore." The levitation beam suddenly shuts off, leaving Foster suspended in midair. The smug little smile on the woman's face immediately disappears, before she falls to the pavement with a meaty splat. Donna hides her face in the Doctor's chest, while both the Doctor and the Heart wince after witnessing Foster's death. They look up at the spaceship, which quickly flies away.
Brook Street
The Doctor tosses Foster's sonic pen into the nearest rubbish bin before replacing his arm around the Heart's shoulders, as they and Donna head away from the building now that the mystery had been solved, and millions of people had been saved.
"Oi, you three!" the trio turn towards Penny, who was still tied down in her chair, hobbling along towards them. She had a thoroughly disgruntled expression on her face. "You're just mad. Do you hear me? Mad! And I'm going to report you for madness." She continues hobbling away, much to the amusement of Donna and the bewilderment of both the Doctor and the Heart.
"You see, some people just can't take it." Donna tuts sympathetically but then grinned enthusiastically at the now suddenly wary Time Couple. "And some people can." She instantly seizes the Heart's hand and pulls her along to the alleyway the Tardis was parked in. "So then. Tardis! Come on!" The Heart looks back at the Doctor who shrugged at her.
Alleyway
The moment the trio set foot into the Alleyway, Donna stops dead in her tracks, spotting not only the Tardis; in all her royal blue glory, but also her mother's car conveniently parked nearby.
"That's my car!" Donna points out to the Time Couple, who were surprised by the coincidence. "That is like destiny." She exclaimed, while the Heart just blinked at her in disbelief. "And I've been ready for this." Donna rushes over to the boot of her car and unlocks it, flinging it open to reveal suitcases contained inside of it. "I packed ages ago, just in case. Because I thought, hot weather, cold weather, no weather. They go anywhere. I've gotta be prepared."
"Isn't this overkill? I mean, we can come back to your house for pit stops, you know. We did it before with Rose." The Heart pointed out, and the Doctor nodded in agreement behind her as they approached the car. Donna shakes her head as she deposits a suitcase each into their arms.
"I gotta get out of there. My mother is driving me crazy." Donna insisted and the Heart looks at the redhead with concern.
"Okay then, if that's what you want." The Heart stated, as the Doctor makes a general observation.
"You've got a hatbox?"
"Planet of the Hats," Donna explained. "I'm ready." She shuts the boot of the car and frowns inquiringly at them. "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…" Donna trails off when she sees the solemn expressions on the Time Couple's faces. "You're not saying much."
"No, it's just…" the Doctor sets aside one of the suitcases Donna had handed to him, and the Heart does the same thing, while still looking at Donna with concern. "It's a funny old life, in the Tardis." He warns her and Donna's face falls with disappointment.
"You don't want me." She realises, and the Doctor and the Heart are quick to reassure her.
"No, that's not what the Doctor is saying at all." The Heart stated.
"But you asked me." Donna was defensive. "Do you want to be by yourselves?"
"No. Actually, no. But the last time, with Martha, like I said, it, it got complicated. And that's on me." The Doctor looked frustrated. "We just want a mate." Donna's eyes widened comically.
"You just want to mate?" She looked revolted by the idea, and the Doctor immediately flushed out of embarrassment as the Heart doubled over with laughter when she realised the direction Donna's thoughts went.
"No, no. We just want a mate!" the Doctor enunciated; meaning that he and the Heart wanted to find another friend.
"If you want to mate so badly, go and do that with her!" Donna gestured emphatically at the Heart, who was struggling to breathe. The Doctor scowled at Donna in both annoyance and frustration.
"Oh, my GOD! A friend. We want a friend." The Doctor elaborated forcefully. Donna finally gets the message, and calms down, but still eyes the Doctor warningly.
"Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense. I mean, I'm not sure what the Heart sees in you. You're just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing…" Donna babbles, looking flustered.
"Well, that's a very flattering description, Donna. Thanks so much." The Doctor drawled, petulantly. Donna then looks at the Time Couple vulnerably.
"I can come?" She questioned, hopefully.
"We never said that you weren't, Donna." The Heart told the redhead who beamed with happiness.
"Yeah. 'Course you can, we'd love it!" the Doctor grinned, his earlier annoyance quickly disappearing.
"Oh, that's just—Car keys." Donna randomly says, and both the Doctor and the Heart blink at her in astonishment.
"Sorry?" the Doctor questions. Donna pulls a set of car keys from her pocket and holds them out in her hand so that the Time Couple could see them.
"I've still got my mum's car keys." She turns and starts jogging towards the entrance to the alleyway. "I won't be a minute!" Donna promises them before she disappears, leaving the Doctor and the Heart to lug her bags into the Tardis. A few minutes later Donna bounces into the Tardis, smiling happily at the Doctor who was leaning patiently against the console, and at the Heart who was perched Indian style on the jump seat, waiting for her to return.
"All good?" the Heart asks Donna who nodded.
"Off we go, then." Donna walks up the metal catwalk to the console, as the Doctor straightens up.
"Here it is. The Tardis. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside—"
"Oh, I know that bit." Donna interrupts him. "Although frankly, you could turn the heating up."
"Noted." The Heart piped up, standing up from the jump seat and walking over to the controls as the Doctor walks around to stand with her, ready for Donna's next request for an adventure.
"So, whole wide universe, where do you want to go?" the Doctor questions Donna who gives the couple a secret little smile.
"Oh, I know exactly the place." Donna confirmed, and the Heart raises an eyebrow, waiting for the destination.
"Which is?"
"Two and a half miles that way." Donna points off to the left, earning a look of confusion from the Time Couple. The Doctor shrugged and put in the coordinates, before removing the hand brake. The Tardis dematerialises from the alleyway.
Allotment
The destination that Donna had requested, turned out to be a small hill in the backyard of Donna's Chiswick home where her grandfather, Wilf Mott, was packing up his stargazing equipment for the night. Wilf, in reality, was actually the same elderly man who worked a news stand that the Doctor and the Heart had met that last Christmas when the Titanic nearly destroyed Buckingham Palace. He pauses, frowning a little when he hears the Tardis's signature wheezing and groaning noise coming closer to where he was standing, and looks up to see the Tardis flying nearby.
"There!" Wilf exclaimed with excitement. "Donna, it's the flying blue box!" He shouts back at the house, forgetting at that moment that his granddaughter wasn't currently at home. Wilf looks through his telescope and freezes when he sees Donna standing in the Tardis's open doorway, waving at him. "What? That's Donna. Yeah, that's Donna." He looks behind his granddaughter and spots the Doctor and the Heart standing at the console, waving at him too. "And that's them. That's them. Hey, that's them! Ha, ha, ha! Go on, gal! Go on, get up there! Hey!"
The Tardis closes its doors and dematerialises away, as Wilf celebrates the fact that Donna had finally found her freedom.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. And welcome back, Donna! TTFN :)