Because You're Special - Nine
Because Your Special
Good, Brave and Fearless Insanity
Donna tugged the dress's shoulder-straps a bit straighter and was about to apply some lipstick when the door opened. She glanced out the door, "Be out in a minute."
"We haven't got a minute." The tall man announced with supreme irritation, scowling slightly as he sank into a nearby chair and crossed his arms. Her mysterious James Bond had changed into a suit, nice dark blue tie and sharp black dress-shirt, but he still wore his battered black jacket over it all. There was something about that jacket…like she'd seen it in a shop or something before. Maybe Brandon, her first boyfriend and worst nightmare, had had a jacket like it.
Donna frowned. Stupid. She was so stupid. There were things that didn't feel right and did feel right and she wasn't making the proper connections. She smoothed on the lip-color, checked the pearl-comb in her hair and wished the diet had worked a little better. Still, for what she was, she looked nice.
"I tell you what," he announced, "I'm so sick of female companions. Always into hair and eyeliner and domestic."
"Oi, Sunshine," Donna snapped, exiting the bathroom. "Can I ask you something?"
He sprung up like the hyper-active mystery-man that he was, smiling that crazy joyous grin and offering her his arm. "On the way. Haven't attended one of these meetings in years. Can't wait to see if Huddle actually found the ancient civilization of Argolis. Come on, I can walk and talk at the same time. Ha. Not a problem with me actually. I can even run and shout if it comes to it."
"Would you stop babbling, James Bond?" Donna took his arm, letting him lead her from the room and out into the hall. She frowned, something about holding the Doctor's arm, felt familiar. And that jacket, and that box. Dancing in the snow. Brandon. "Oh my god," She clutched his arm tighter, staring up into those blue eyes, "it's you!"
"You do know that that's not a question. Funny how your brain works, Donna, all unfocused and erratic. Actually, it's a bit fantastic. Like my brain."
She let go of him, leaning against the opposite wall. Almost afraid to touch him or look at him. It was like seeing a ghost. Or a really good-looking friendly alien who liked playing James Bond with British redheads. An alien. She'd been drunk, and had dismissed that conversation, like most of the night, as some delusional impossibility. But here he was, foreign and mysterious and otherworldly and unchanged since that Christmas when she was a kid.
"I'll shut my mouth then," He crossed his arms and leaned against her bedroom door, eyes dark and so cunning looking, "and hope that you'd like to explain."
"You're a mad-man in blue-box. A daft alien, who I watched pick out that, old black leather jacket one Christmas Eve. You were dressed like a cowboy, covered in blood…" Donna rubbed at her temple, "I am so stupid. It doesn't make sense, but nothing about you makes sense, does it?"
"Not especially, no." He eyed her, sending chills through her. He could be so frightening, and yet always, wonderful somehow.
"But it can't be. It just can't be."
"The TARDIS is a time-machine. I'm a Time Lord, by the way, nice to meet you. Hello."
"Stop grinnin', like it makes everything better."
"A nice friendly smile? You'd be amazed at how many wars this daft old grin has ended."
"Being with you, I'll believe anything. I almost have to, don't I? Hang on, that crazy man in the appalling coat, he said he was a Time Lord. You're one of his lot?"
"Donna…"
"Celino called you the Doctor. There was another bloke, a midget with hair like one of those Three Stooges, he called himself the Doctor. How many Doctor-Time Lord things are there? And why do I keep…? Is it an invasion? Oh this is brilliant," she began inching away from him, clenching a fistful of dress in her hands, in case she had to yank it up and run, "I go on my first vacation outside of the country and I discover an evil alien plot! That's what this meeting is about, Martian Boy? Taking over earth?"
"Suspicious fearful human-apes. No matter how many times I save you, you are still ungrateful and blind!" He was angry now, veins in his neck appearing, eyes intense and his friendly grin gone. He stopped, only a few inches away, "I'm the Doctor. I'm alone and unarmed and I have no desire to conquer anything. I'm a tourist, eh? A stranger visiting galaxies and planets all-throughout time and space. Just to see them. Just because they're there."
"In a police-box."
"In a police-box…you got something against police-boxes?"
"No. Except when they are in my bedroom."
"My room's too small." He shrugged, titling his chin slightly and watching her with those wise crazy blue eyes. Donna had no idea what he was thinking but she wanted, for some reason, him to think well of her. Like she wanted to be something special in his eyes. He was bloody bonkers, but his opinion, suddenly, mattered more than anyone else's in the world.
Donna cleared her throat. "So… you just, I don't know, keep running. Saving people from terrible things, like you did at the restaurant."
"Like we did at the restaurant. Wasn't that fantastic?" He was bouncing on his feet, like her old crazy friend, full of energy and fun and it was hard to imagine that she'd been terrified of him a moment ago. But she was, still, somewhere deep inside, she had always been afraid of him. He was different from anything or anyone she knew.
"Why didn't you just tell me?" She reached out slowly and took his hand, threading her fingers through his.
"Everyone learns what they need to as we run. It's a lot more fun that way. And, if they're not gonna stick about…"
"You haven't gotten too attached." She finished.
They stood in the hallway, holding hands, looking at each other and listening to the silence. She was crazy. Crazy. But so was he. And she wanted to be his kind of crazy. That good, brave and fearless insanity that made him really live and take chances on strangers. Running and fighting and saving people. A simple tourist, no matter how grand, he was not.
Donna kept her eyes on their linked hands, and said in an even tone, "Anybody ever tell you, you're just dazzling."
"Nope. Usually they just claim I'm trying to invade their planet and try and kill me. Shall we go to dinner?"
"Yeah. Yeah, Doctor." It sounded strange, calling him that, like she'd finally met the real-man and he was a stranger. But Donna Noble knew one thing. Whatever was going to happen, wherever this was going, she was sticking around.
Next Chapter: {Tweedy Sweep-Over Bangs Time Boy}