A Chiswick Christmas Carol 7/8 + Epilogue
Title: A Chiswick Christmas Carol 7/8 + Epilogue
Beta: The wonderful glory_jean who's been doing a wonderful job, thanks!
A/N: Apologies for this taking a while, but y'all know how it is. (Kay, not southern so I'm definitely not using that again). Hope you enjoy! Comments welcome!
A little more than a few minutes later, the Time Rotor stopped above them and the console began clicking quietly as it cooled down.
The Doctor flicked a few last controls and then peered cautiously around the console at them.
“Rose? Donna? We’ve arrived,” He told them without his usual enthusiasm. “Want to see?”
Donna sniffled and gently pulled away from Rose. “I s’pose,” she said unenthusiastically.
“C’mon,” Rose told her as she stood up and then turned back to offer Donna her hand. “Bet you’ll want to see this.”
Donna hesitated for a second but then took Rose’s hand and let herself be pulled to her feet. She was silent as Rose gently led her over to the monitor that the Doctor has swung around so they could look at it.
But as they came over, the Doctor studied the monitor and commented, “Oh, that scanner’s a bit small,” he told them and walked over to the door. “Maybe your way’s best.”
Rose glared at him, but led Donna over near where he was standing instead. “Come on,” she told the other woman lightly.
“No human’s ever seen this,” he remarked as they joined them. “The two of you’ll be the first.”
Donna shook her head. “All I want to see is my bed,” she told him with a resigned sigh.
The Doctor didn’t reply, but walked to the doors and said, hands curled around the handles, “Rose Tyler, Donna Noble- welcome, to the creation of the Earth.”
Without giving them a chance to say anything, he opened the doors and let the view speak for itself. Which it definitely did.
Both Rose and Donna’s mouths fell open as they saw the sun shining through clouds of beautiful colored dust and gas clouds, as well as rocks of all different sizes floating and spinning around in the space in front of them.
“We've gone back 4.6 billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas,” the Doctor explained from where he was leaning against the door next to them, admiring the view as well. He pointed up and off to the left. “That’s the Sun over there, brand new. Just beginning to burn.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rose whispered softly, breathless. This was definitely on her list of the top five places he’d taken her to, and she was going to remember this for forever.
Donna stared at the space around them, trying to figure something out. “Where’s the Earth?” She asked curiously.
“All around us,” the Doctor explained, turning to look at her. “In the dust.”
She turned to stare at him and then turned back to the magnificent view, hanging her head a little. “Puts the wedding in perspective,” Donna commented soberly. “Lance was right. We’re just,” she paused, looking around them. “Tiny,” she finished.
“No, but that’s what you do,” the Doctor told her, shaking his head as he tried to cheer her up a little. “The human race, making sense out of chaos.” He bumped her shoulder lightly before going on. “Marking it out with weddings,” he said, gesturing at her dress. “And Christmas,” he grinned over her shoulder at Rose, “and calendars.” The Doctor turned back to stare out at the view again. “This whole process is beautiful, but only if it’s being observed.”
Rose spoke up for the first time in a few minutes. “So, I, we, came out of this?”
The Doctor turned, and replied with one of his face-splitting grins, “Isn’t that brilliant?”
She grinned back at him, but couldn’t take her eyes away from the breathtaking sight in front of them for long.
The three of them were silent for a while, until a massive chunk of rock floated lazily by just a few feet away from them.
“I think that’s the Isle of Wright.” Donna commented, pointing at that particular rock.
Rose snickered at her observation, but was glad that Donna seemed to have found her sense of humor again.
The Doctor laughed full out for a few seconds, and then seemed to collect himself again. “Eventually, gravity takes hold,” he told them, resuming his lecture mode. “Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks towards it,” the Doctor said, waving his hand around. “All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in, everything, piling in until you get…”
“The Earth,” Donna finished, nodding.
He turned to smile his approval at her, but turned back to the view and glanced around them. “But the question is… what was that first rock?”
It only took a few seconds before a star-shaped rock emerged through the clouds; a rock that Rose was fairly sure wasn’t supposed to be there. “Look,” she said to her companions, pointing at the new rock.
The Doctor turned to see what she was pointing at, and his eyes widened as he realized what she had seen. “The Racnoss…” he whispered softly.
He then rushed back to the console, leaving Rose and Donna still confused back by the door. “Hold on-“ the Doctor reassured them, frantically spinning a large wheel. “The Racnoss are hiding from the war!” He said and then paused to turn and address them. “What’s it doing?”
As Rose and Donna watched, the rocks, and particles of dust and gas that had been spinning freely around them began zooming towards the Racnoss ship, as if they were being drawn to it by a magnetic force.
“Just what you said,” Rose called over her shoulder to him, her eyes locked on the quickly developing Earth.
The Doctor ran back to the door to look, skidding as he came down the ramp and nearly ran into Donna and Rose as a result. “Oh, they didn’t just bury something at the centre of the Earth… they became the centre of the Earth,” He said to himself as he watched the Earth form from over Donna and Rose’s shoulders. “The first rock.”
The Tardis suddenly shuddered violently then, and the three of them were nearly knocked off their feet. Rose and Donna held onto each other and onto the sides of the doors, while the Doctor grabbed onto the railings on either side of the ramp in order to support himself.
He was the first back on his feet, and slipped around the two women in order to shut the doors.
“What was that?” Donna demanded, looking alarmed as she finally steadied herself and straightened.
But the Doctor had run to the console again, so he didn’t hear her. Rose was just as confused as Donna was. Even with all her time traveling with the Doctor, she still had no idea what was happening.
So instead, they worried more about keeping their feet as the Tardis continued to shudder and tip around them.
Rose began fighting her way up the ramp, holding onto the railing with one hand. With her other hand she pulled Donna along, helping the other woman until they were both standing at the top of the ramp.
Once she was able to stay mostly upright, Donna turned to the Doctor, who, despite his experience with the hazards of Tardis travel was also having trouble keeping his feet, and demanded loudly, “What the hell’s it doing?”
He was hurrying around the console, trying his best to pilot the Tardis who didn’t seem to be responding to him, as he asked in return, “Remember that little trick I pulled- particles pulling particles?” The Doctor paused as he had to clutch at the console in order to keep upright. When he moved again, he continued, “It works in reverse, they’re pulling us back!”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s just great.” She drawled sarcastically, but then had to grab onto the console as well.
“Well, can’t you stop it?” Donna asked, faring a little better since she had been holding onto the console from the beginning. “Hasn’t it got a handbrake? Can’t you reverse or warp or beam or something?”
The Doctor paused just long enough to glare at her from the other side of the console. “Backseat drivers,” he commented scornfully. “You’re just as bad as her,” the Doctor told her, jerking his head at Rose. But he took the moment to think, and suddenly remembered something that might at least help them. “Oh! Wait a minute!”
“Don’t think the sonic’s gonna work for this one!” Rose told him with only a hint of teasing. She watched as he knelt down beside the console. “And you better not be disappearing down there!”
When the Doctor popped back up, stumbling slightly, he threw her a mock glare. “Really, Rose. It’s like you don’t have any faith in me.”
“Oh, I do. It’s crash-landing again that I worry about,” Rose reassured him.
“What do you mean ‘again’?” Donna asked worriedly.
Rose turned towards her, letting the Doctor fiddle with whatever he was working on to tell her, “He crash-landed the Tardis dematerializing once near my flat. Hit a few buildings, and knocked over some trash cans.”
Donna stared at her before looking to the Doctor, and asked harshly, “Can you even drive this thing?”
“I can drive her fine!” The Doctor snapped at her, taking the extrapolator he had dug out from under the console and propping it up against the controls. “Now, if I do this right… which I’m sure I will… it can’t stop us, but it should give us a good bump!” He told them, working rapidly on the extrapolator and at the controls.
A few seconds later, they were all silent as the Tardis materialized back inside the chamber.
Even through the walls of the Tardis, they could hear the Racnoss Empress shouting something about a bride and a wedding. But they didn’t have time to find out just what she was saying, because as soon as they fully materialized, the Doctor lunged towards the console and heavily whacked the extrapolator. “Now!” He yelled enthusiastically.
The Tardis dematerialized from the chamber again as the Racnoss Empress shouted angrily, but they were gone before the robots could try shooting at the Tardis.
A few seconds later, the Time Rotor stilled above them as they rematerialized almost immediately without any of their previous trouble.
Almost as soon as they had landed, the Doctor was out of the Tardis like a shot, and Rose and Donna quickly followed him as soon as they had loosened their death grip on the console.
“What now?” Rose asked as she came to a stop next to him just outside the doors.
The Doctor looked hurriedly up and down the corridor, but they were alone and safe, for now.
“We’re about 200 yards to the right,” he told Rose, and reached out to first grab her hand, and then Donna’s. “Come on!”
Rose and the Doctor began running down the corridor, dragging Donna along with them. But after a few feet, Donna had to let go and use her hands to hike up her wedding dress instead so that she would be able to run and keep up with them.
They stopped at the metal door with the ladder leading to the Thames Flood Barrier and Doctor pulled out his sonic again.
“But, what do we do?” Donna asked them, her voice shaking a little, and slightly breathless from having to run so much when she hadn’t done so for a while.
Rose turned to grin slyly at her, “Make it up as we go, of course! As usual.”
The Doctor took a stethoscope out of his bottomless pockets, and held one of the metal earpieces to his ear as he listened behind the door. “I don’t know!” He said, glancing at Donna. “Like Rose said, I make it up as I go along!” The Doctor paused to smile at Rose. “But trust me; we’ve got a history with this kind of thing.”
Donna didn’t look very reassured. “But I still don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head as she gestured wildly with her arms. “I’m full of particles-but what for?”
The Doctor turned back to the door and began moving the stethoscope around to different areas of it as he listened. “There’s a Racnoss web at the centre of the Earth, but my people unraveled their power source,” he told her, glancing back over at her and Rose every so often. “The Huon particles ceased to exist, but the Racnoss are still stuck.”
Rose blinked. That had to be one of the least comprehensible explanations she’d heard from him yet. She turned to mention this to Donna, since she expected the other woman wasn’t really listening either, only to see that while she’d been listening to the Doctor’s babbling, Donna had disappeared.
It took a moment for her to react, but then she found her voice and stepped out into the corridor to yell after the woman. “Donna! Donna!”
When there wasn’t any response, Rose turned back towards the Doctor only to find that he was still babbling, this time something about keys and particles.
Rose rolled her eyes. “Doctor!” She said fiercely, reaching up to yank the stethoscope out of his hands. “Donna’s been kidnapped!”
He turned towards her, looking annoyed at the loss of his stethoscope. But then he blinked and asked surprised, “What, again?”
“Yes, Doctor. Again,” Rose agreed, stashing the stethoscope back in his pocket. “Probably by those alien robots.”
The Doctor looked confused. “What, the pilot fish and the alien Santa’s?”
“No, the ones from the chamber,” Rose corrected, shaking her head. “With the Racnoss Empress.”
He looked enlightened now. “Oh. So she was kidnapped by the Racnoss then.” At Rose’s slightly annoyed nod, the Doctor held his hand out to her and asked, “Well, we’d better go rescue her, again, shouldn’t we?”
“Probably,” Rose agreed, taking his hand.
The Doctor grinned at her. He then pulled his sonic out again, and moved towards the door, planning to sonic it.
The only problem being that there was an armed robot standing right in the doorway once it opened.
“Ah, hello,” the Doctor greeted, hiding the sonic behind his back.
~~~~~
Meanwhile, Donna had joined Lance in being tied up in a large sticky spider like web on the ceiling by way of the Racnoss Empress and her alien robot henchmen.
She turned and told Lance spitefully, “I hate you.”
Lance laughed. “Yeah, I think we’ve gone a bit beyond that now, sweetheart.”
From her perch on the ledge, the Racnoss Empress said happily, “My golden couple. Together at last- your awful wedded life.” She raised herself so she was closer to them. “Tell me; do you want to be released?”
“Yes!” Donna and Lance shouted with fierce nods.
The Empress frowned up at them. “You’re supposed to say ‘I do!’” She said scornfully with a wicked chuckle.
Lance laughed, looking first at Donna and then back at the Empress again. “Ha. No chance.”
“Say it!” The Empress hissed shortly at him.
He looked at Donna again, taking in her frightened yet hopeful expression and bit out, “I do.”
Donna glanced at him for barely a second before she yelled down to the Empress, “I do.”
The Empress grinned up at the two of them. “I don’t,” she said, and then cackled. “Activate the particles. Purge every last one!”
Donna and Lance promptly began to glow faintly gold again, Donna more so than Lance.
After a few seconds, the Empress ordered, “And release!”
The particles extracted themselves then from Donna and Lance, to zoom down into the massive hole in the center of the chamber.
“The secret heart unlocks!” The Empress announced excitedly. “And they will awaken from their sleep of Ages.”
“Who will?” Donna shouted, confused. “What’s down there?”
Lance shook his head and turned to look at her pityingly. “How thick are you?”
There were a few moments of silence, followed by a bright flare of light from the bottom of the hole.
“My children, the long lost Racnoss, now will be born to feast on flesh!” The Empress told the room happily, her multiple eyes roaming around the chamber.
Suddenly there was the awful sound of chirping and the patter of feet as multiple creatures came storming up the hole towards them.
“My babies will be hungry,” the Racnoss Empress said thoughtfully over the loud sounds. “They need sustenance. Perish the web!” She commanded.
Lance began to rapidly shake his head, trying to get as far away from the hole below him as he could. “Use her! Not me! Use her!” He pleaded, staring terrified at the hole.
The Empress laughed, pointing at him with one of her claws. “Oh, my funny little Lance!” She commented, as if he amused her. “But you are quite impolite to your lady-friend.”
Lance was trembling by now, still shaking his head in denial as he tried to plead with the Empress.
But the Empress pretended not to hear him. “The Empress,” she declared, “does not,” she raised her claws, “approve!”
As she brought her claws back down as if striking the air, the web around Lance loosened and he fell down into the hole, arms and legs flailing.
Donna yelled after him until she could no longer see him, while the Racnoss Empress laughed triumphantly on the ledge, eyes wide as she bared her teeth in a horrible grin.
Donna soon quieted, staring miserably down at the hole. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed two of the robots break away from the others and begin to ascend the stairs leading up the side of the chamber. She frowned, squinting at the two robots as if that would help her see them better.
Meanwhile, the Empress continued to laugh as the sounds grew louder and louder. Finally she announced happily, “My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them!”
Suddenly the Empress turned to the two alien robots that were now standing on the stair landing right above her. “So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor-man, and his disrespectful blonde lady-friend.”
With a guilty shrug, one of the robots pulled off its mask and then the cloak to reveal the Doctor. “Oh well, nice try,” he commented, not sounding too put-out at getting caught. The Doctor then turned to the robot beside him and said, “Come on, Rose. The gig's up I’m afraid.”
The robot next to him sighed noisily, but then reached up and pulled off its mask to reveal Rose. “Well, was fun while it lasted,” she said, taking off her cloak.
“Definitely was,” the Doctor agreed before turning back to look up at Donna. “I’ve got you Donna!” He reassured her as he took out his sonic and aimed it at the web holding her.
“Maybe,” Rose said quietly to herself.
“I’m gonna fall!” Donna screeched as the web began to quickly loosen around her, the strands breaking apart.
“You’re gonna swing!” The Doctor disagreed, tucking the sonic back into his pocket.
Rose raised her hand to partially cover her eyes. “This isn’t gonna end well…”
As one of the last few strands holding her broke, leaving just one supporting her, Donna swung right over the hole and towards Rose and the Doctor.
The Doctor moved to the very edge of the railing and called to her, arms outstretched, “I’ve got ya!”
Donna screamed as she swung across the hole. The Doctor then watched as she swung right underneath the landing where he stood, smashing into the wall with a loud thud.
Over on the ledge, the Racnoss Empress smirked.
The Doctor slumped uncomfortably. “… Oh. Sorry,” he apologized guiltily.
“Oh, I am never letting you forget this,” Rose told the Doctor, punching him in the arm. She then leaned over the railing to look down at Donna. “You all right? No bones broken or nothing?” Rose asked worriedly.
From where she was sprawled out on her back below them, Donna managed to shake her head and smile weakly. “I’m fine, just a bit bruised.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the Doctor, “Thanks for nothing, spaceman.”
“It’s not like I meant for that to happen!” The Doctor protested weakly, but he doubted Rose or Donna were listening.
As Donna carefully got back on her feet, the Empress said almost as a compliment, “The Doctor-man amuses me.”
“”M so glad,” Rose replied, but not loud enough for the Empress to actually hear. Then she turned around and began hurrying down the stairs to where Donna was.
“Rose!” The Doctor called, turning around to call her back. But she’d already disappeared onto the next flight, so he turned back and addressed the Empress. “Empress of the Racnoss-I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet. I can find you a place in the universe to coexist. Take that offer, and end this now,” he offered diplomatically.
Donna rolled her eyes. “Like that’s gonna work.”
Rose, who was next to her by now, helped Donna stand as she said, “Sometimes it does.”
The Empress, however, was not impressed. She smirked and remarked amusedly, “These men are so funny.”
“What’s your answer?” The Doctor demanded, tightly gripping the railing as he ignored her remark. Really, if just one of these talks would go well….
The Empress looked up at him with what could have been considered an innocent expression and she said sweetly, “Oh-I’m afraid I have to decline.” Then she laughed.
“Told you,” Donna told Rose with a triumphant smirk on her face. “No way evil spider lady gives up her chance to take over the Earth.”
Rose sighed. “Well, like I said, sometimes it works. More often than not, it doesn’t.”
The Doctor quietly sighed and then straightened. “What happens next is your own doing,” he warned her.
But the Empress shook her head. “I’ll show you what happens next!” She countered with a hiss. “At arms!”
All around the walls of the chamber, the robots once again raised their guns.
“Take aim!”
The robots turned so all of their guns were pointed singularly at the Doctor.
“Doctor!” Rose shouted, freezing in place. She wasn’t going to lose him again, not so soon after they’d found each other again.
When she tried to pull away from Donna and go running back up the stairs, Donna held tightly onto her arm. “Wait, Rose. Just wait,” she soothed quietly.
“And-“ the Empress continued with a grin, knowing that she would be triumphant now.
“Relax,” the Doctor said quietly.
A second later, all the robots went limp, as if they had been shut down.
Donna and Rose turned to stare at the robots, but every single one of them was limp and lifeless. No longer a threat.
Donna walked a few steps forward so that she could actually see the Doctor. “What’d you do?” She asked curiously.
He grinned down at her. “Guess what I’ve got, Donna?” Before she could get a chance to reply, probably with some rude comment, he reached down and produced the remote control from one of his pockets. “Pockets!” The Doctor told her, waving the device in the air.
Donna just stared at him. “How did that,” she pointed at the device, “fit in there?” She pointed at his pocket.
If it was possible, his grin widened. “They’re Martian pockets,” the Doctor replied with a straight face.
“They kinda are, really,” Rose agreed, coming up next to Donna. “They’re just bigger on the inside.”
Donna turned to stare first at Rose, then at the Doctor. “You two are mad, you are,” she said finally.
Rose and the Doctor grinned at each other. Oh, the times they'd heard that before….
“Robo-forms are not necessary,” the Empress informed them, reminding the trio of the danger at hand. “My children may feast on Martian flesh!”
The Doctor smirked slightly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Oh, but I’m not from Mars.”
“Then where?” The Empress asked, confused and frowning.
Rose shook her head. “Doctor, you better not be planning on doing something stupid!” She warned him loudly.
Distracted from answering the Racnoss Empress, the Doctor leaned over the railing again to look down at her. “Rose Tyler, how could you say that?” He protested, mock-offended. “I’d never do such a thing.”
Before she could explain that she knew him all too well to believe that, he turned back to answer the Empress.
“He’s gonna do something stupid,” Rose told Donna knowingly, turning to the other woman. “Come on!” She said, grabbing Donna’s hand, and started to pull her back up the stairs.
Donna blinked, finding herself being dragged backwards and up the stairs by a worried blonde. “Rose, what-?”
“Never mind, just hurry!” Rose called down to her.
As they rushed up towards him, the Doctor finally answered the Empress’ earlier question.
“My home planet is far away, and long-since gone.” The Doctor told her, only a hint of grief in the words. “But, its name still lives on…” He paused then, before saying the name of his planet. The name he hadn’t spoken since the end of the War; a name he wasn’t sure he could even say. Had it been long enough since the War that he could finally say the name of his lost planet, that he could maybe begin sharing pieces of his life with Rose?
The Doctor took a deep breath, steeling himself. He then raised his head again, and opened his mouth to actually say the name out loud for the first time in years.
“Ga-“ But then, before he could get past the first syllable, Rose came up next to him and looped her arm through his. He stopped, and turned to find her smiling supportively at him.
The Doctor smiled back at her, although it was a little forced, and then turned back to the Empress. But the moment was gone and he said instead, “Its name lives on, and so does its people.” He paused, partially for dramatic effect, and felt Rose gently squeeze his arm. “The Time Lords.”
From a little behind Rose, Donna snorted and said, “Not at all pompous then.”
Meanwhile, the Empress had started hissing and snarling as soon as the Doctor announced what he was. “They murdered the Racnoss!” She roared at him, now full of rage.
“Well, they probably deserved it!” Donna shot back just as angrily, coming to stand next to Rose. “’Specially if they went around kidnapping people out of their own wedding just to bring about the end of the world!”
Rose glanced at the other woman, and slowly shook her head, warning her to stay quiet.
Although he knew it wouldn’t do any good, the Doctor made his offer one more time. “Empress of the Racnoss, listen to me. Leave now, return to your ship and I promise no harm will come to you or to your children.”
The Empress just shook her head, laughing mockingly. “You might be a Time Lord, Doctor-man. But that doesn’t mean I have to accept your offer. In fact, once again, I refuse.” She raised herself to her full height. “There is nothing you can do to threaten me.”
The Doctor sighed quietly. “Then, I’m sorry, but I have to stop you.”
Rose gently squeezed his arm, drawing his attention. “We, Doctor. We’re in this together.” She corrected him, her voice gentle. “You’re not alone anymore,” Rose reminded him, reaching up lightly kiss him on the cheek and brush dark strands of hair away from wide, vulnerable eyes. “You have me.”
The corner of his mouth twitched upward, and he managed a shaky, “Rose…”
“Don’t know if it matters, but I’m here too, spaceman.” Donna broke in, her words reassuring instead of mocking, even with the added nickname.
With a shaky laugh, the Doctor pulled Rose into a hug so tight that she could barely breathe. As he held Rose, the Doctor looked over at Donna to give her a grateful smile. “Thank you,” he told her softly.
Donna just nodded. “I might not be used to all this ‘saving the Earth’ like you two are, but I’ll still help where I can.”
“How adorable.” The Racnoss Empress cooed sarcastically. “The Time Lord and his two humans think they can defeat me, the Empress of the Racnoss!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Donna snapped, rolling her eyes. “We know who you are.”
Rose pulled away from the Doctor to turn towards the Empress. “And we’re not just humans, we’re Rose and Donna. We have names, ya know.” She glanced over to grin cheekily at Donna. “And together the three of us are gonna stop you!”
“You found a use for humans yourself, Empress, as I remember.” The Doctor added, and then winced when Rose jabbed him in the side. “What? I was just trying to help!”
Rose shook her head at his cluelessness and took a step towards him. “Well, you’re not, Doctor. You might’ve forgotten, but she was using humans for food. Plus she fed them Donna’s fiancé!” Rose practically hissed at him, keeping her voice quiet enough so Donna wouldn’t hear.
The Doctor winced again, shooting a look at Donna. But luckily the fiery red-head didn’t seem to have heard them.
“Silence!” The Empress yelled angrily. “I order you to be quiet!”
“Luck with that,” Rose told the Empress, rolling her eyes.
The Doctor snickered, but was preoccupied with digging through his pockets.
Donna, who was watching him, frowned and asked curiously, “What’re you looking for?”
“Something we can use against the Empress,” he told her, glancing up briefly.
“What, in your pockets?” Donna asked skeptically, wrinkling her nose.
The Doctor glanced up again, giving her an annoyed look. “Yes, in my pockets. I had that remote in here, figures I might have something else that’ll help.”
“You’d be surprised what he keeps in there,” Rose told Donna. “Sonic screwdriver, glasses, extra ties, crisps, rubber bands, bouncy balls, a rubber duck,” she listed off item after item, and then finished, “And bananas of course.”
“Bananas?” Donna echoed.
Rose nodded in confirmation. “Yep.”
The Doctor let out a triumphant yell. “And… these!” He announced, pulling his hand out of his pocket to show them a handful of baubles.
Donna and Rose stared at the baubles resting in his hand.
“Aren’t those-?” Donna began surprised.
“- The killer dive-bombing decorations from that tree?” The Doctor finished quickly. “Yep.”
Rose leaned over to gingerly poke one of the baubles. “And you just happened to pick some of them up?”
“Well… yeah.” The Doctor agreed. “Pretty much.”
Donna and Rose glanced at each other. “Right…”
Part Eight
community.livejournal.com/dr_2nd_chances/11038.html#cutid1
Beta: The wonderful glory_jean who's been doing a wonderful job, thanks!
A/N: Apologies for this taking a while, but y'all know how it is. (Kay, not southern so I'm definitely not using that again). Hope you enjoy! Comments welcome!
A little more than a few minutes later, the Time Rotor stopped above them and the console began clicking quietly as it cooled down.
The Doctor flicked a few last controls and then peered cautiously around the console at them.
“Rose? Donna? We’ve arrived,” He told them without his usual enthusiasm. “Want to see?”
Donna sniffled and gently pulled away from Rose. “I s’pose,” she said unenthusiastically.
“C’mon,” Rose told her as she stood up and then turned back to offer Donna her hand. “Bet you’ll want to see this.”
Donna hesitated for a second but then took Rose’s hand and let herself be pulled to her feet. She was silent as Rose gently led her over to the monitor that the Doctor has swung around so they could look at it.
But as they came over, the Doctor studied the monitor and commented, “Oh, that scanner’s a bit small,” he told them and walked over to the door. “Maybe your way’s best.”
Rose glared at him, but led Donna over near where he was standing instead. “Come on,” she told the other woman lightly.
“No human’s ever seen this,” he remarked as they joined them. “The two of you’ll be the first.”
Donna shook her head. “All I want to see is my bed,” she told him with a resigned sigh.
The Doctor didn’t reply, but walked to the doors and said, hands curled around the handles, “Rose Tyler, Donna Noble- welcome, to the creation of the Earth.”
Without giving them a chance to say anything, he opened the doors and let the view speak for itself. Which it definitely did.
Both Rose and Donna’s mouths fell open as they saw the sun shining through clouds of beautiful colored dust and gas clouds, as well as rocks of all different sizes floating and spinning around in the space in front of them.
“We've gone back 4.6 billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas,” the Doctor explained from where he was leaning against the door next to them, admiring the view as well. He pointed up and off to the left. “That’s the Sun over there, brand new. Just beginning to burn.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rose whispered softly, breathless. This was definitely on her list of the top five places he’d taken her to, and she was going to remember this for forever.
Donna stared at the space around them, trying to figure something out. “Where’s the Earth?” She asked curiously.
“All around us,” the Doctor explained, turning to look at her. “In the dust.”
She turned to stare at him and then turned back to the magnificent view, hanging her head a little. “Puts the wedding in perspective,” Donna commented soberly. “Lance was right. We’re just,” she paused, looking around them. “Tiny,” she finished.
“No, but that’s what you do,” the Doctor told her, shaking his head as he tried to cheer her up a little. “The human race, making sense out of chaos.” He bumped her shoulder lightly before going on. “Marking it out with weddings,” he said, gesturing at her dress. “And Christmas,” he grinned over her shoulder at Rose, “and calendars.” The Doctor turned back to stare out at the view again. “This whole process is beautiful, but only if it’s being observed.”
Rose spoke up for the first time in a few minutes. “So, I, we, came out of this?”
The Doctor turned, and replied with one of his face-splitting grins, “Isn’t that brilliant?”
She grinned back at him, but couldn’t take her eyes away from the breathtaking sight in front of them for long.
The three of them were silent for a while, until a massive chunk of rock floated lazily by just a few feet away from them.
“I think that’s the Isle of Wright.” Donna commented, pointing at that particular rock.
Rose snickered at her observation, but was glad that Donna seemed to have found her sense of humor again.
The Doctor laughed full out for a few seconds, and then seemed to collect himself again. “Eventually, gravity takes hold,” he told them, resuming his lecture mode. “Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks towards it,” the Doctor said, waving his hand around. “All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in, everything, piling in until you get…”
“The Earth,” Donna finished, nodding.
He turned to smile his approval at her, but turned back to the view and glanced around them. “But the question is… what was that first rock?”
It only took a few seconds before a star-shaped rock emerged through the clouds; a rock that Rose was fairly sure wasn’t supposed to be there. “Look,” she said to her companions, pointing at the new rock.
The Doctor turned to see what she was pointing at, and his eyes widened as he realized what she had seen. “The Racnoss…” he whispered softly.
He then rushed back to the console, leaving Rose and Donna still confused back by the door. “Hold on-“ the Doctor reassured them, frantically spinning a large wheel. “The Racnoss are hiding from the war!” He said and then paused to turn and address them. “What’s it doing?”
As Rose and Donna watched, the rocks, and particles of dust and gas that had been spinning freely around them began zooming towards the Racnoss ship, as if they were being drawn to it by a magnetic force.
“Just what you said,” Rose called over her shoulder to him, her eyes locked on the quickly developing Earth.
The Doctor ran back to the door to look, skidding as he came down the ramp and nearly ran into Donna and Rose as a result. “Oh, they didn’t just bury something at the centre of the Earth… they became the centre of the Earth,” He said to himself as he watched the Earth form from over Donna and Rose’s shoulders. “The first rock.”
The Tardis suddenly shuddered violently then, and the three of them were nearly knocked off their feet. Rose and Donna held onto each other and onto the sides of the doors, while the Doctor grabbed onto the railings on either side of the ramp in order to support himself.
He was the first back on his feet, and slipped around the two women in order to shut the doors.
“What was that?” Donna demanded, looking alarmed as she finally steadied herself and straightened.
But the Doctor had run to the console again, so he didn’t hear her. Rose was just as confused as Donna was. Even with all her time traveling with the Doctor, she still had no idea what was happening.
So instead, they worried more about keeping their feet as the Tardis continued to shudder and tip around them.
Rose began fighting her way up the ramp, holding onto the railing with one hand. With her other hand she pulled Donna along, helping the other woman until they were both standing at the top of the ramp.
Once she was able to stay mostly upright, Donna turned to the Doctor, who, despite his experience with the hazards of Tardis travel was also having trouble keeping his feet, and demanded loudly, “What the hell’s it doing?”
He was hurrying around the console, trying his best to pilot the Tardis who didn’t seem to be responding to him, as he asked in return, “Remember that little trick I pulled- particles pulling particles?” The Doctor paused as he had to clutch at the console in order to keep upright. When he moved again, he continued, “It works in reverse, they’re pulling us back!”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s just great.” She drawled sarcastically, but then had to grab onto the console as well.
“Well, can’t you stop it?” Donna asked, faring a little better since she had been holding onto the console from the beginning. “Hasn’t it got a handbrake? Can’t you reverse or warp or beam or something?”
The Doctor paused just long enough to glare at her from the other side of the console. “Backseat drivers,” he commented scornfully. “You’re just as bad as her,” the Doctor told her, jerking his head at Rose. But he took the moment to think, and suddenly remembered something that might at least help them. “Oh! Wait a minute!”
“Don’t think the sonic’s gonna work for this one!” Rose told him with only a hint of teasing. She watched as he knelt down beside the console. “And you better not be disappearing down there!”
When the Doctor popped back up, stumbling slightly, he threw her a mock glare. “Really, Rose. It’s like you don’t have any faith in me.”
“Oh, I do. It’s crash-landing again that I worry about,” Rose reassured him.
“What do you mean ‘again’?” Donna asked worriedly.
Rose turned towards her, letting the Doctor fiddle with whatever he was working on to tell her, “He crash-landed the Tardis dematerializing once near my flat. Hit a few buildings, and knocked over some trash cans.”
Donna stared at her before looking to the Doctor, and asked harshly, “Can you even drive this thing?”
“I can drive her fine!” The Doctor snapped at her, taking the extrapolator he had dug out from under the console and propping it up against the controls. “Now, if I do this right… which I’m sure I will… it can’t stop us, but it should give us a good bump!” He told them, working rapidly on the extrapolator and at the controls.
A few seconds later, they were all silent as the Tardis materialized back inside the chamber.
Even through the walls of the Tardis, they could hear the Racnoss Empress shouting something about a bride and a wedding. But they didn’t have time to find out just what she was saying, because as soon as they fully materialized, the Doctor lunged towards the console and heavily whacked the extrapolator. “Now!” He yelled enthusiastically.
The Tardis dematerialized from the chamber again as the Racnoss Empress shouted angrily, but they were gone before the robots could try shooting at the Tardis.
A few seconds later, the Time Rotor stilled above them as they rematerialized almost immediately without any of their previous trouble.
Almost as soon as they had landed, the Doctor was out of the Tardis like a shot, and Rose and Donna quickly followed him as soon as they had loosened their death grip on the console.
“What now?” Rose asked as she came to a stop next to him just outside the doors.
The Doctor looked hurriedly up and down the corridor, but they were alone and safe, for now.
“We’re about 200 yards to the right,” he told Rose, and reached out to first grab her hand, and then Donna’s. “Come on!”
Rose and the Doctor began running down the corridor, dragging Donna along with them. But after a few feet, Donna had to let go and use her hands to hike up her wedding dress instead so that she would be able to run and keep up with them.
They stopped at the metal door with the ladder leading to the Thames Flood Barrier and Doctor pulled out his sonic again.
“But, what do we do?” Donna asked them, her voice shaking a little, and slightly breathless from having to run so much when she hadn’t done so for a while.
Rose turned to grin slyly at her, “Make it up as we go, of course! As usual.”
The Doctor took a stethoscope out of his bottomless pockets, and held one of the metal earpieces to his ear as he listened behind the door. “I don’t know!” He said, glancing at Donna. “Like Rose said, I make it up as I go along!” The Doctor paused to smile at Rose. “But trust me; we’ve got a history with this kind of thing.”
Donna didn’t look very reassured. “But I still don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head as she gestured wildly with her arms. “I’m full of particles-but what for?”
The Doctor turned back to the door and began moving the stethoscope around to different areas of it as he listened. “There’s a Racnoss web at the centre of the Earth, but my people unraveled their power source,” he told her, glancing back over at her and Rose every so often. “The Huon particles ceased to exist, but the Racnoss are still stuck.”
Rose blinked. That had to be one of the least comprehensible explanations she’d heard from him yet. She turned to mention this to Donna, since she expected the other woman wasn’t really listening either, only to see that while she’d been listening to the Doctor’s babbling, Donna had disappeared.
It took a moment for her to react, but then she found her voice and stepped out into the corridor to yell after the woman. “Donna! Donna!”
When there wasn’t any response, Rose turned back towards the Doctor only to find that he was still babbling, this time something about keys and particles.
Rose rolled her eyes. “Doctor!” She said fiercely, reaching up to yank the stethoscope out of his hands. “Donna’s been kidnapped!”
He turned towards her, looking annoyed at the loss of his stethoscope. But then he blinked and asked surprised, “What, again?”
“Yes, Doctor. Again,” Rose agreed, stashing the stethoscope back in his pocket. “Probably by those alien robots.”
The Doctor looked confused. “What, the pilot fish and the alien Santa’s?”
“No, the ones from the chamber,” Rose corrected, shaking her head. “With the Racnoss Empress.”
He looked enlightened now. “Oh. So she was kidnapped by the Racnoss then.” At Rose’s slightly annoyed nod, the Doctor held his hand out to her and asked, “Well, we’d better go rescue her, again, shouldn’t we?”
“Probably,” Rose agreed, taking his hand.
The Doctor grinned at her. He then pulled his sonic out again, and moved towards the door, planning to sonic it.
The only problem being that there was an armed robot standing right in the doorway once it opened.
“Ah, hello,” the Doctor greeted, hiding the sonic behind his back.
~~~~~
Meanwhile, Donna had joined Lance in being tied up in a large sticky spider like web on the ceiling by way of the Racnoss Empress and her alien robot henchmen.
She turned and told Lance spitefully, “I hate you.”
Lance laughed. “Yeah, I think we’ve gone a bit beyond that now, sweetheart.”
From her perch on the ledge, the Racnoss Empress said happily, “My golden couple. Together at last- your awful wedded life.” She raised herself so she was closer to them. “Tell me; do you want to be released?”
“Yes!” Donna and Lance shouted with fierce nods.
The Empress frowned up at them. “You’re supposed to say ‘I do!’” She said scornfully with a wicked chuckle.
Lance laughed, looking first at Donna and then back at the Empress again. “Ha. No chance.”
“Say it!” The Empress hissed shortly at him.
He looked at Donna again, taking in her frightened yet hopeful expression and bit out, “I do.”
Donna glanced at him for barely a second before she yelled down to the Empress, “I do.”
The Empress grinned up at the two of them. “I don’t,” she said, and then cackled. “Activate the particles. Purge every last one!”
Donna and Lance promptly began to glow faintly gold again, Donna more so than Lance.
After a few seconds, the Empress ordered, “And release!”
The particles extracted themselves then from Donna and Lance, to zoom down into the massive hole in the center of the chamber.
“The secret heart unlocks!” The Empress announced excitedly. “And they will awaken from their sleep of Ages.”
“Who will?” Donna shouted, confused. “What’s down there?”
Lance shook his head and turned to look at her pityingly. “How thick are you?”
There were a few moments of silence, followed by a bright flare of light from the bottom of the hole.
“My children, the long lost Racnoss, now will be born to feast on flesh!” The Empress told the room happily, her multiple eyes roaming around the chamber.
Suddenly there was the awful sound of chirping and the patter of feet as multiple creatures came storming up the hole towards them.
“My babies will be hungry,” the Racnoss Empress said thoughtfully over the loud sounds. “They need sustenance. Perish the web!” She commanded.
Lance began to rapidly shake his head, trying to get as far away from the hole below him as he could. “Use her! Not me! Use her!” He pleaded, staring terrified at the hole.
The Empress laughed, pointing at him with one of her claws. “Oh, my funny little Lance!” She commented, as if he amused her. “But you are quite impolite to your lady-friend.”
Lance was trembling by now, still shaking his head in denial as he tried to plead with the Empress.
But the Empress pretended not to hear him. “The Empress,” she declared, “does not,” she raised her claws, “approve!”
As she brought her claws back down as if striking the air, the web around Lance loosened and he fell down into the hole, arms and legs flailing.
Donna yelled after him until she could no longer see him, while the Racnoss Empress laughed triumphantly on the ledge, eyes wide as she bared her teeth in a horrible grin.
Donna soon quieted, staring miserably down at the hole. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed two of the robots break away from the others and begin to ascend the stairs leading up the side of the chamber. She frowned, squinting at the two robots as if that would help her see them better.
Meanwhile, the Empress continued to laugh as the sounds grew louder and louder. Finally she announced happily, “My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them!”
Suddenly the Empress turned to the two alien robots that were now standing on the stair landing right above her. “So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor-man, and his disrespectful blonde lady-friend.”
With a guilty shrug, one of the robots pulled off its mask and then the cloak to reveal the Doctor. “Oh well, nice try,” he commented, not sounding too put-out at getting caught. The Doctor then turned to the robot beside him and said, “Come on, Rose. The gig's up I’m afraid.”
The robot next to him sighed noisily, but then reached up and pulled off its mask to reveal Rose. “Well, was fun while it lasted,” she said, taking off her cloak.
“Definitely was,” the Doctor agreed before turning back to look up at Donna. “I’ve got you Donna!” He reassured her as he took out his sonic and aimed it at the web holding her.
“Maybe,” Rose said quietly to herself.
“I’m gonna fall!” Donna screeched as the web began to quickly loosen around her, the strands breaking apart.
“You’re gonna swing!” The Doctor disagreed, tucking the sonic back into his pocket.
Rose raised her hand to partially cover her eyes. “This isn’t gonna end well…”
As one of the last few strands holding her broke, leaving just one supporting her, Donna swung right over the hole and towards Rose and the Doctor.
The Doctor moved to the very edge of the railing and called to her, arms outstretched, “I’ve got ya!”
Donna screamed as she swung across the hole. The Doctor then watched as she swung right underneath the landing where he stood, smashing into the wall with a loud thud.
Over on the ledge, the Racnoss Empress smirked.
The Doctor slumped uncomfortably. “… Oh. Sorry,” he apologized guiltily.
“Oh, I am never letting you forget this,” Rose told the Doctor, punching him in the arm. She then leaned over the railing to look down at Donna. “You all right? No bones broken or nothing?” Rose asked worriedly.
From where she was sprawled out on her back below them, Donna managed to shake her head and smile weakly. “I’m fine, just a bit bruised.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the Doctor, “Thanks for nothing, spaceman.”
“It’s not like I meant for that to happen!” The Doctor protested weakly, but he doubted Rose or Donna were listening.
As Donna carefully got back on her feet, the Empress said almost as a compliment, “The Doctor-man amuses me.”
“”M so glad,” Rose replied, but not loud enough for the Empress to actually hear. Then she turned around and began hurrying down the stairs to where Donna was.
“Rose!” The Doctor called, turning around to call her back. But she’d already disappeared onto the next flight, so he turned back and addressed the Empress. “Empress of the Racnoss-I give you one last chance. I can find you a planet. I can find you a place in the universe to coexist. Take that offer, and end this now,” he offered diplomatically.
Donna rolled her eyes. “Like that’s gonna work.”
Rose, who was next to her by now, helped Donna stand as she said, “Sometimes it does.”
The Empress, however, was not impressed. She smirked and remarked amusedly, “These men are so funny.”
“What’s your answer?” The Doctor demanded, tightly gripping the railing as he ignored her remark. Really, if just one of these talks would go well….
The Empress looked up at him with what could have been considered an innocent expression and she said sweetly, “Oh-I’m afraid I have to decline.” Then she laughed.
“Told you,” Donna told Rose with a triumphant smirk on her face. “No way evil spider lady gives up her chance to take over the Earth.”
Rose sighed. “Well, like I said, sometimes it works. More often than not, it doesn’t.”
The Doctor quietly sighed and then straightened. “What happens next is your own doing,” he warned her.
But the Empress shook her head. “I’ll show you what happens next!” She countered with a hiss. “At arms!”
All around the walls of the chamber, the robots once again raised their guns.
“Take aim!”
The robots turned so all of their guns were pointed singularly at the Doctor.
“Doctor!” Rose shouted, freezing in place. She wasn’t going to lose him again, not so soon after they’d found each other again.
When she tried to pull away from Donna and go running back up the stairs, Donna held tightly onto her arm. “Wait, Rose. Just wait,” she soothed quietly.
“And-“ the Empress continued with a grin, knowing that she would be triumphant now.
“Relax,” the Doctor said quietly.
A second later, all the robots went limp, as if they had been shut down.
Donna and Rose turned to stare at the robots, but every single one of them was limp and lifeless. No longer a threat.
Donna walked a few steps forward so that she could actually see the Doctor. “What’d you do?” She asked curiously.
He grinned down at her. “Guess what I’ve got, Donna?” Before she could get a chance to reply, probably with some rude comment, he reached down and produced the remote control from one of his pockets. “Pockets!” The Doctor told her, waving the device in the air.
Donna just stared at him. “How did that,” she pointed at the device, “fit in there?” She pointed at his pocket.
If it was possible, his grin widened. “They’re Martian pockets,” the Doctor replied with a straight face.
“They kinda are, really,” Rose agreed, coming up next to Donna. “They’re just bigger on the inside.”
Donna turned to stare first at Rose, then at the Doctor. “You two are mad, you are,” she said finally.
Rose and the Doctor grinned at each other. Oh, the times they'd heard that before….
“Robo-forms are not necessary,” the Empress informed them, reminding the trio of the danger at hand. “My children may feast on Martian flesh!”
The Doctor smirked slightly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Oh, but I’m not from Mars.”
“Then where?” The Empress asked, confused and frowning.
Rose shook her head. “Doctor, you better not be planning on doing something stupid!” She warned him loudly.
Distracted from answering the Racnoss Empress, the Doctor leaned over the railing again to look down at her. “Rose Tyler, how could you say that?” He protested, mock-offended. “I’d never do such a thing.”
Before she could explain that she knew him all too well to believe that, he turned back to answer the Empress.
“He’s gonna do something stupid,” Rose told Donna knowingly, turning to the other woman. “Come on!” She said, grabbing Donna’s hand, and started to pull her back up the stairs.
Donna blinked, finding herself being dragged backwards and up the stairs by a worried blonde. “Rose, what-?”
“Never mind, just hurry!” Rose called down to her.
As they rushed up towards him, the Doctor finally answered the Empress’ earlier question.
“My home planet is far away, and long-since gone.” The Doctor told her, only a hint of grief in the words. “But, its name still lives on…” He paused then, before saying the name of his planet. The name he hadn’t spoken since the end of the War; a name he wasn’t sure he could even say. Had it been long enough since the War that he could finally say the name of his lost planet, that he could maybe begin sharing pieces of his life with Rose?
The Doctor took a deep breath, steeling himself. He then raised his head again, and opened his mouth to actually say the name out loud for the first time in years.
“Ga-“ But then, before he could get past the first syllable, Rose came up next to him and looped her arm through his. He stopped, and turned to find her smiling supportively at him.
The Doctor smiled back at her, although it was a little forced, and then turned back to the Empress. But the moment was gone and he said instead, “Its name lives on, and so does its people.” He paused, partially for dramatic effect, and felt Rose gently squeeze his arm. “The Time Lords.”
From a little behind Rose, Donna snorted and said, “Not at all pompous then.”
Meanwhile, the Empress had started hissing and snarling as soon as the Doctor announced what he was. “They murdered the Racnoss!” She roared at him, now full of rage.
“Well, they probably deserved it!” Donna shot back just as angrily, coming to stand next to Rose. “’Specially if they went around kidnapping people out of their own wedding just to bring about the end of the world!”
Rose glanced at the other woman, and slowly shook her head, warning her to stay quiet.
Although he knew it wouldn’t do any good, the Doctor made his offer one more time. “Empress of the Racnoss, listen to me. Leave now, return to your ship and I promise no harm will come to you or to your children.”
The Empress just shook her head, laughing mockingly. “You might be a Time Lord, Doctor-man. But that doesn’t mean I have to accept your offer. In fact, once again, I refuse.” She raised herself to her full height. “There is nothing you can do to threaten me.”
The Doctor sighed quietly. “Then, I’m sorry, but I have to stop you.”
Rose gently squeezed his arm, drawing his attention. “We, Doctor. We’re in this together.” She corrected him, her voice gentle. “You’re not alone anymore,” Rose reminded him, reaching up lightly kiss him on the cheek and brush dark strands of hair away from wide, vulnerable eyes. “You have me.”
The corner of his mouth twitched upward, and he managed a shaky, “Rose…”
“Don’t know if it matters, but I’m here too, spaceman.” Donna broke in, her words reassuring instead of mocking, even with the added nickname.
With a shaky laugh, the Doctor pulled Rose into a hug so tight that she could barely breathe. As he held Rose, the Doctor looked over at Donna to give her a grateful smile. “Thank you,” he told her softly.
Donna just nodded. “I might not be used to all this ‘saving the Earth’ like you two are, but I’ll still help where I can.”
“How adorable.” The Racnoss Empress cooed sarcastically. “The Time Lord and his two humans think they can defeat me, the Empress of the Racnoss!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Donna snapped, rolling her eyes. “We know who you are.”
Rose pulled away from the Doctor to turn towards the Empress. “And we’re not just humans, we’re Rose and Donna. We have names, ya know.” She glanced over to grin cheekily at Donna. “And together the three of us are gonna stop you!”
“You found a use for humans yourself, Empress, as I remember.” The Doctor added, and then winced when Rose jabbed him in the side. “What? I was just trying to help!”
Rose shook her head at his cluelessness and took a step towards him. “Well, you’re not, Doctor. You might’ve forgotten, but she was using humans for food. Plus she fed them Donna’s fiancé!” Rose practically hissed at him, keeping her voice quiet enough so Donna wouldn’t hear.
The Doctor winced again, shooting a look at Donna. But luckily the fiery red-head didn’t seem to have heard them.
“Silence!” The Empress yelled angrily. “I order you to be quiet!”
“Luck with that,” Rose told the Empress, rolling her eyes.
The Doctor snickered, but was preoccupied with digging through his pockets.
Donna, who was watching him, frowned and asked curiously, “What’re you looking for?”
“Something we can use against the Empress,” he told her, glancing up briefly.
“What, in your pockets?” Donna asked skeptically, wrinkling her nose.
The Doctor glanced up again, giving her an annoyed look. “Yes, in my pockets. I had that remote in here, figures I might have something else that’ll help.”
“You’d be surprised what he keeps in there,” Rose told Donna. “Sonic screwdriver, glasses, extra ties, crisps, rubber bands, bouncy balls, a rubber duck,” she listed off item after item, and then finished, “And bananas of course.”
“Bananas?” Donna echoed.
Rose nodded in confirmation. “Yep.”
The Doctor let out a triumphant yell. “And… these!” He announced, pulling his hand out of his pocket to show them a handful of baubles.
Donna and Rose stared at the baubles resting in his hand.
“Aren’t those-?” Donna began surprised.
“- The killer dive-bombing decorations from that tree?” The Doctor finished quickly. “Yep.”
Rose leaned over to gingerly poke one of the baubles. “And you just happened to pick some of them up?”
“Well… yeah.” The Doctor agreed. “Pretty much.”
Donna and Rose glanced at each other. “Right…”
Part Eight
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