Because You're Special - Chapter 17

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Doctor Who

Because Your Special

The Alien Mummy

Donna stood, staring blankly into her bathroom. She had been brushing her teeth a moment before, before the maids had brought her clean towels…but she didn't recall squeezing toothpaste gel all over the counter. Stepping closer, she saw that mathematical equations were written in the gel. Blimey, maybe she was a Time Lord, after all. Plain Donna Noble was good with numbers-but not this good.

Donna wiped down the sink, trying to recall the last few moments. Maybe it had been another Doctor-another evil one who liked messing with her head-who had decorated her bathroom…and stolen her toothbrush. She'd have to ask James Bond if he had a fetish for electric tooth-brushes or something.

"Donna!" Her Doctor burst in, nearly giving her a heart-attack. In his hands were two wet-suits and two giant oxygen tanks. The wet-suit tubing flailed about him like tentacles. "I got a great deal…!"

"Stop bursting into my room!" She shouted. Donna clenched her bathrobe closed a little tighter.

He looked at her, dumped the gear on her bed and gestured at the door. "Pardon me," His tone was infuriatingly rude, "You want me to go back and knock?"

"I need just a little respect from you, space-man," Donna stomped from the bathroom, "Or I'm getting on the first flight back to Chiswick."

The Doctor bounced on his feet a little, leaning in and smiling widely. But his body language and tone were all sarcasm. Tilting his head, he asked "innocently", "Oh, are you now? Going to face all the frightening regenerations of myself-not to mention, a whole Dalek evil scheme-on you own? How noble of you!"

Donna started towards him, to slap him, of course. Then she recognized the pun on her last name and stopped. He was grinning goofily at her and she couldn't help but smile back. Good Time Lord, he could be charming even when he was insulting.

"Just… knock next time, sunshine. Got it?"

He rolled his eyes and flopped onto her bed next to the scuba-gear. Propping himself up on one elbow, he scanned her before shaking his head. "You aren't dressed yet? You human women are impossible."

"And so are you Time Lords." She muttered, grabbing her clothing and locking herself in the bathroom. As she changed, Donna decided that the Doctor's ideal traveling companion should be a hyperactive, insensitive insomniac hillbilly who never needed to change his clothes and enjoyed suffering from sleep deprivation.

As she rapidly brushed her hair-never bothering about the one-hundred brush-stroke nonsense her mum had insisted upon when she was a kid-Donna checked her make-up. Good enough. As her Doctor had so kindly pointed out, he wasn't interested in her looks. He was interested in her being "time-efficient".

A glimmer of white caught her eye in the mirror. A shape of something large-large enough to be a human-seemed to scuttle out of sight. Gritting her teeth and holding her hairbrush like a weapon, Donna slowly turned. The shower curtain was open, the door was shut…there was no one in the small bathroom but her. Either it was a sleep deprived derived hallucination or there was another Doctor in the room.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll come out, mate!" She bellowed, backing against the counter, and preparing to scream her head off if anything came at her. Donna just hoped James hadn't wandered out of screaming distance…again.

There was no response. No sound. Nothing moved into view, nothing ruffled the shower-curtain or brushed against a towel. And there were no places for another human being-or Time Lord-to hide, even if it had been the size of the little ginger-haired gremlin. Shakily, Donna faced the mirror, drawing her brush through her hair with a slow stroke.

"Don't be silly." She chided her reflection, "No one could have gotten in without me hearing the door."

The figure appeared again, over her shoulder. All Donna could stupidly think was of all those bad horror movies, where the young woman sees the monster or murderer for a split second in a mirror, or window or pond, and then is ripped apart by claws or an axe. She froze, whispering a prayer to God, and made eye-contact with the creature's reflection.

It didn't have eyes, not really, just half-closed eyelids or slits in his face. The alien's flesh, mottled, dry, waxy, mummified looking skin covered its head completely and there was not as much as an eyelash of facial hair in sight. Dressed in a white robe made of some-type of mummy-like gauze, the alien seemed to stare at her.

Darting for escape, Donna put all her weight on pushing the door open, and tumbled into her Doctor's arms. She shrieked and clung to him.

"You still aren't dressed yet-?"

"Shut it!" Donna tried to disentangle herself from his grasp so that she could cower behind him. She was feeling good about being cowardly. She was not going to be brave if James was willing to be brave for her. "There's a white thing-a flippin' white mummy-thing-in there!"

"Another great big problem…?" He twisted to stare into the bathroom, craning his neck for a better look. Endearingly weird, he smiled broadly-as if he couldn't wait to throw himself at whatever glorious monster was in her bathroom-and looked down at Donna. Then, chivalrously, the Doctor put himself between her and the door. "Good thing you got me!"

"Yeah. Lovely." She shoved his back lightly, "Go be my hero, Sunshine."

"Fantastic." He vanished inside the bathroom, scanning the tiny area with his sonic universal remote wand that made funny high-pitched whirring sounds. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled something on the sonic screwdriver and checked some tiny readings. "Tell you what, we have a semi-tangible psychic presence on our hands, Donna."

"Do you mean ghost?" Donna stepped backward, blinking, "Right, 'cause I've already met vampires in restaurants so ghosts in the bathroom are obviously next on the list. What's next… Santa in the pool? Noddy, at tea, on the patio?"

"…But how'd you pick up his presence? Tiny human brain like yours."

Crossing her arms, Donna stared at the Doctor. "Maybe it's that Time Lord intuition."

"You are not a Time Lady, Donna Noble." He gave her a fixed, cool, look. Returning to shaking his sonic screwdriver like it was a pen with only a little ink left, the Doctor climbed into her shower, shut the curtain and then drew it back so suddenly that Donna jumped. He easily leapt out of the shower again and stalked over to her. "Where did you see him?"

"In the mirror." Feeling braver, she inched toward the door, standing just out of the bathroom but angling her body so she could watch James looking in the mirror. Reflected back was the form of the mummy-alien. It had angled its body differently. Instead of staring straight ahead at the mirror, it had turned to stare at Donna in the doorway.

"Doctor! He's looking at me!"

"Just what I need…" The Doctor stared miserably at the ghostly form, "Another inexplicable mystery added to our already tangled mysteries. Donna, meet the Watcher."

"The what?"

"The Watcher."

"What's it do..?"

The Doctor looked away from the mirror to look at Donna with a look of disbelief about human stupidity. "He watches. He's sort of my own creepy observer, my own personal Grim Reaper."

"Thanks, but I don't think we need anymore poetical enigmas right now. If you know what it is-and why it is staring at me-then, spill it."

"I only have a theory," The Doctor stuck his hands in his jacket pockets, staring at where the Watcher would be in the room-if they could see him-and then glanced at Donna, "just a theory. Years ago, I met him before I died. A bringer of the doom of death and the hope of regeneration. Never saw him before. Haven't seen him since. A companion of mine claimed it was a future regeneration, but future regeneration don't spiritually haunt their pasts-so I personally thinks it's a temporal anomaly, some version of me from an alternative universe or another time, unhinged from its place in reality and looking for something familiar. But, as I said, it's only a theory."

"So it's either an unborn ghost or a lost ghost, either way, it's another Doctor-thing." Donna sighed wearily, "But why is it looking at me?"

"Because you're special." The Doctor answered glibly, continuing before she could interrupt, "but-no, not a Time Lord-and you're the one attracting it."

"All my life shouting to get guys to notice me, and here in Spain, not even a day and I've got freaks by the arm-load." Donna bit her bottom lip, "But, Doctor, no one else, none of the other Doctors, knows that they are here because of me. They just think its random chance. They think they are here buying parts or here for the guild convention."

"Point, please."

"All I'm saying is, no one else knows that they are being drawn here 'cause of me… so why should ghost-boy?" She stared at the pasty-creature in the mirror. It had not moved at all, still staring at her with whatever it had, or didn't have, for eyes. "Why should he be watching me? Especially if he's only ever showed up to dying Time Lords to tell them they are go to, well, die…"

"One, no one is dying. Two, you're not a Time Lord." The Doctor said firmly, refusing to look her in the eye.

"Yeah, well, I'll take your word for it. Can you just get rid of him?"

The Doctor patted the air where their ghost "stood", checking in the mirror to see his progress. He made none. "Can't physically move or dispel it. I can't telepathically tell it to 'bugger off' because all that it is, is thought-powerful thought-and I'm a bit rusty," He half-smiled, looking a tad ashamed, "so I'm open to suggestions."

"Well, I am not getting dressed if it's gonna be watching me."

"Get dressed in my room." The Doctor tossed his hotel-room keycard to her. "I'll keep an eye on him."

Donna gestured to her clothes, still lying on the counter, and the Doctor handed them over. She opened the door to the hallway and checked both ways before darting into the hall. Last thing she wanted was someone to see her fleeing a ghost in her bath-robe.

"Donna."

She turned to see James walking backwards out of her room. He was carrying her compact mirror and appeared to be trying to keep the moving ghost in view. He looked up at her, saying solemnly, "He seems to want to watch you. Of course, you must be much more interesting than this daft old face. No interest in me whatsoever."

The Doctor angled the mirror and tilted his head, rapidly backing up to stand next to her. "And, usually," one corner of his mouth lifted in a roguish grin, "I am very interesting."

"Annoying's more like it." She retorted, clutching her clothing to her chest. "So, it's just gonna follow me…wherever I go. How am I going to-you know-use the loo or anything?"

"I have no idea. Imagine that. Me with no idea." He smiled gleefully at the prospect.

Another voice, a younger voice with a different accent, added. "Doesn't happen often, I can assure you."

James looked behind him at the speaker, frowned and whispered into Donna's ear, "Maybe if we don't make eye-contact, he'll go away."

"The Watcher?" Donna asked.

"Of course not-haven't the slightest idea what to do about the Watcher yet-no-the nerdling idiot."

"The bow-tie one, you mean?" Donna had turned around and half-waved to the Doctor's later regeneration. He was still wearing his tweed-jacket and bow-tie but the new Doctor apparently had found a round red-hat-possibly a fez-to plop on his stupid-looking hair. He was looking at her, smiling, but as if looking at her made him hurt a little inside.

"Do you ever listen! I said, don't make eye-contact. Fantastic, now He'll want to come over and help."

"Would that really be so bad?"

"Didn't we just go over this last night? He's a useless idiot."

Donna pushed her tongue into her cheek, grinning, as she said with fake girlish-breathlessness. "And I have you…amazing you…so I shouldn't need him? That sum it up?"

"Yes!" James smiled down at her triumphantly before he saw her face. He crinkled his forehead in confusion and frowned. "Are you playing with me or what?"

"Of course she is, you arrogant…person, you." The doctor in tweed swanned in-between them, staring at the tiny mirror to get a glimpse of the Watcher. "She's Donna Noble. What's the point of a best-mate if not to exchange witty dialogue and inside jokes with?"

Donna thought of her sometimes friend Nerys. "Funny. I always thought they were to borrow money off of."

"Now, don't get clever. That's my job. King of clever. No, forget that, rubbish line. I'll think of something wittier. Just you watch me." The new Doctor had his green sonic-screwdriver out and was taking readings of their invisible friend. He stared at the readings and then peered back into the mirror. "Oh…aren't you lovely…"

James grabbed the back of the man's jacket and pulled him away from his mirror. With more than a little vehemence, he said, "Excuse me, you mind not taking over my investigation?"

Bow-tie-boy stepped back, straightened his jacket and pointed at Donna's friend. "Don't be all gloom and doom. It not my style."

"I'll have whatever style, I like. I didn't survive the Time War to be lectured by immature little punks like you."

"No, you survived the Time War so you could be mean and tough and…" Bow-tie Boy looked up at James, gesturing grandly, "…intimidating. But-no matter-I'm not here to lecture you, or to help you-now, now, no intimidating."

James plastered a fake, rather dangerous smile on his face and crossed his arms. "You scared of me or what?"

The nerd-Lord Doctor whirled his arms dramatically, scanning in a helter-skelter pattern with his green sonic screw-driver. "Scared? Well, always scared. Always scared of Daleks and the dark and Sylvia Noble and regenerating into a bald-man who goes about with the name of Clive-but scared of myself?" He paused, consulting the readings of his screwdriver before adding softly, "I know me too well."

"I am standing in my bathrobe, being stalked by undead Time Lords." Donna announced sourly. "If anyone could resolve this situation-like now, for instance-I would be a lot happier."

"Hmm?" Bow-tie Boy paused, lifting his head from peering intently at the screwdriver. He looked completely baffled to see her standing there. It was as if he had gone into another world inside his own head, and that coming out of it, had left him in some-buggy-eyed state of shock. "…hello, Donna."

"Bathrobe! Watcher!" Donna retorted.

"Yes, yes, I was getting to that. Thinking about getting to that. In any event, I will think of something clever to do to our mysterious ghost-friend here." Bow-tie Boy stopped chattering to give Donna a cheeky little smirk, "As for the bathrobe, keep it on for now, eh?"

As Donna nearly choked in shock, clutching her terry-cloth hotel robe tighter, she glanced over at her friend.

James had flushed red and looked like he really wanted to put his intellect at work planning a horrible end to the boy in tweed. But for all of that, her Doctor looked as stunned as she did. He looked down at her. "Did you see that?"

"Him flirting?" Donna considered, "Flirting badly? Hadn't noticed."

"We're not supposed to do that. Flirting with companions. Intentionally." James scowled at him, "And, might I add, she's not even your companion."

"Oh grow up. Time Ladies are all dead and I didn't mean anything by it-never do-well, mostly never-except in really particular cases. Or if they're wearing one of those shiny, really shiny red dresses….with a fez." Bow-tie Boy sighed, "Fezs are cool. Now! Besides, your problem is-Donna's not your companion."

Her doctor folded his arms across his chest. "I dunno." He turned his wise, intense blue eyes on her. "Donna, are you my companion?"

Donna shook her head, wearily. Why couldn't these Doctors ever stay on task for more than a minute? They so loved to hear themselves talk. "What's that mean, James?"

He took a moment to consider, before grinning boyishly at her. Sometimes he was just so infuriatingly adorable. "You travel with me. I rescue you from things-monsters mostly-and you act impressed."

"No. She's not." The nerdy professor-boy stated flatly. He motioned grandly, as if he'd realized he'd failed to be the center of attention for a few minutes. "You want to know what I'm doing here? Saving Donna. Friend in need and all that." He meandered over to Donna and scanned her up and down before grabbing her into a gigantic hug. For such a skinny paper-cut-thin bloke, he seemed very strong.

Bow-tie Boy held her tightly and a little too closely. Since he was about a dozen centimeters taller than she was, he had bent down to reach her. His face had somehow gotten pressed into her damp-hair and his chin was digging into her shoulder. The confusing hug reminded Donna of family reunions with cousin Arnold. The pudgy unmarried relative had always hugged a little too long and little too tight.

Donna wriggled, trying to get her hands loose. "Oi…"

James pulled him off of her, giving the young Doctor a shove away from them. He looked far from happy. "You here to get under my skin and bring out violent tendencies? Or do you actually have something useful to contribute?"

Bow-tie Boy raised himself up on his scrawny legs. "I'm the Doctor. I will not be deterred from helping Noble because a big mean," he looked James up and down, "big-eared bloke-with anger issues-" he raised a finger and waved it as if he was making a point, "who also happens to be me-stands in my way-'cause the one thing you never want to do, not ever, is stand in my way."

Bow-tie Boy grabbed the compact mirror out of the Doctor's hand, looking for a moment like the Doctor should. Brave, fearless, clever and absolutely mad. Eyes on the mirror, Bow-tie Boy pointed at a corner and said, "Now go sulk about Gallifrey over there, Doctor. Daddy's busy."

"Oi!" Donna didn't like the sudden tension in James. He was reacting very badly to the Gallifrey remark. She tried to defuse the situation with a loud question, "Can we bring the Time Lord testosterone levels down?"

"Hush." Bow-tie Boy slapped a hand over Donna's mouth. "I'm thinking."

Rage-frighteningly intense rage was building in Donna's friend's body. His eyes were shadowed and dark and his shoulders were hunching and fists clenching. She began to feel frightened for the little nerdy-idiot. Sure, Bow-tie Boy had less tact than a drunken cat, but he meant well. Didn't he?

The man was babbling out his theories in a concentrated, but oblivious to all else around him, manner. "Yes, a simple matter of reversing…"

Each word measured, almost hissed out, James stared him down, "Don't you ever use Gallifrey as part of some cheap joke."

"Quiet. I'm talking." Pocketing his gently beeping screwdriver, the boy in tweed slapped his hand over James's mouth.

"James!" Donna's cry came too late.

Her doctor had violently grabbed the boy's hand, and yanked it hard to pin at the boy's back. In another moment, he had the new Doctor flat on his face on the hallway's carpeting and trapped him in that position with a heavy knee.

Bow-tie Boy's crimson fez had flown from his head and was currently reeling its way across the hall in a languid drunken manner. It rolled into the stairwell and went over the edge with a soft plopping sound.

"Oh, look carpet." Bow-tie boy said in a dazed, chatty-tone, "Sort of an ugly pattern up close. Not so noticeable when you're standing on it."

James, chest still heaving with wrath, ground his kneecap a little harder into the other Time Lord's back. "Am I going to have to kill you to shut you up?"

Donna remembered the dark demon Doctor and his psychic gremlin. She knew he could kill the other Doctor. He wasn't so heroic that he was incapable of murder. She just didn't know if he would. Well, she wasn't Rose. But she was his friend. She'd stop him. Donna grabbed James by the shoulder. "Don't you dare!"

"Don't interfere, Donna." It was something a soldier might say. Cold tones, determined looks. "Are you going to apologize?"

"For being truthful? What is the world coming to when a man can't be truthful to himself?"

James grabbed a fistful of tweed jacket and shook the slighter man. "Just shut it!"

Author's Note: Sorry about the prolonged delay in getting chapters up. I actually have most of this story written in rough draft so as soon as I edit it, we should be rolling along rather well. =)