Ancient Cracks
Written for the who_contest
Theme: Reunion
She made her way to her ginger washed McLaren with a bit of a laboring totter. Once again the little gamin was kicking its way around in there getting her to pat her stomach with appeasement.
When night came all that moving around inside could send her into grumbles of discomfort. Be certain that if her husband’s arm wandered the wrong way he was given a good talking to.
“You dare putting that hand anywhere below my bloated middle and you’ll be sorry, you hear? Big mistake to mess with a pregnant lady.”
Hence her husband never brought his hand lower than a certain area these days as mother nature messed around with the weather system, blasts of muggy escalating heat invading for the past week. Sure it was summer, but that didn’t have to mean scorchers every day. It just made her more irritable and increasingly angry with the male persuasion which was really not connected, but no matter.
Of course her mother always had to add in things like, “Donna, stop that griping. You’re lucky to have such a good man as Shaun. Took you long enough! For years I was sure you’d be nothing but an old spinster. There I said it. Years I thought that. Now not only are you married, rich, but also soon I’m going to be a grandmother. Oh it will be marvelous after the years of you depriving me for so long, and another thing-
Of course it was all said with the utmost of love. Donna knew her mother would never change, but she could handle it. As much as her mother was a complainer, she was also a truth teller. Not even the winning lottery ticket, a special gift from her late father and a mysterious benefactor, had changed that, so bless the woman, even if she drove her mad sometimes.
With the assistance of that prized ticket, Donna had provided both her mother and dear old granddad with a new dwelling, an estate house upon a hill. Gramps loved it so much because it brought him closer to the stars, which he was always gazing at with that super fantastic telescope she bought him.
He’d say to her as he marveled at the night sky, “Donna Dear, you didn’t have to buy me something so expensive.”
“Oh yes I did.” She’d answer back. “You deserve the best Gramps.”
Then they’d gaze upon the stars and every distant planet together, sometimes granddad muttering the oddest things. “Aliens live up there Donna. I’m sure of it.”
“Oh really.” She’d smile, patting her heaving stomach. “What kinds of aliens Gramps?”
He’d start to say something excitedly, and then suddenly bite down upon his lip as if he nearly uttered something precarious. Then with drastic speed the conversation would change. She wanted to ask him about it sometimes, but he’d make that face that bothered her so much she’d just sit close to him and wrap her arm around his shoulders. Probably was the aging. Grandad was showing it more, wrinkles getting more wrinkly, lines of expression settling in like they’d been glued on. But oh hey-oh, soon he’d be a great granddad.
Great Gramps!
He and Mum were coming for dinner tonight. That was why Donna was out, took a drive to the store. Oh no big lottery winning ticket was going to keep her from leading a normal life, buying up the groceries, that sort of thing.
Even during this muggy heat wave!
Shaun would scold her for pushing away their maid lady, with her prominent stomach, informing her she’d be doing the errands, but he wouldn’t get far. If she wanted to get out of their Buckingham-Palace-sized house {only a slight exaggeration} she had every right to. And to drive her precious ginger McLaren.
Home was only a few streets away, quaint roads that Donna was quite familiar with after living in the influential neighborhood for over a year.
Like she often did, she now talked to her unborn child, that big bulging stomach the only direct visual evidence of life in there, but life indeed was nearly ready to make its debut. “Now you listen. Like your Dad and me, You’re going to go on many adventures, travel all the world once you’re walking about, because that’s the way to do life. First with your Dad and me, and then off on your own. No sitting back, no letting the world pass you by. You’ll embrace it like your daddy and me.” She told her stomach, while making her way to the road the posh house she shared with Shaun stood upon.
It was a long winding secluded road that led to it, lined with a forest of trees. Coming to the stone driveway, Donna stopped the car, got out, and moving around to the back, she lifted the trunk. Busy with the handling of her groceries, two impressively packed sacks, she didn’t notice it at first.
A few steps forward though, juggling the sacks securely into her arms, it was soon hard to miss. After all it was bright, and yet somehow elderly blue.
It stood out like some antique of olden days Gramps would collect, plopped right within all the lush green gardens.
She yelled out, “Oi. Gramps is that you? Is this some kind of joke? Well it’s not funny you best believe. Now get that eyesore out of my garden.”
No one exited the blue blot and no one answered.
It was then Donna got a knowing sneer to her face. Oh she would! Of course normally the woman was moving in on any male in the room. But that didn’t keep her from once in a while pulling some stupid prank.
“Nerys! Oi, I know it’s you! Now you’ve gone too far-
She was in midsentence as the queerest looking man jumped out of the blue phone box. Really he looked like something out of a Dickens book, three piece suit with obnoxious bowtie, old and yet brightly hued purple coat, matching boots and the most Elvis-like quaff of hair falling over his forehead like a hedgehog with a mane. Barely one step he had taken before he started exclaiming excitedly.
“Gladys! Gladys Cooper! It’s been long, too long, dreadfully long as I’m getting dreadfully old!”
Donna stared as the eccentric man moved his long thing limbs like some uncoordinated giraffe who just happened to keep from falling all over the place, his hands waving around so busily he had yet to even set eyes upon her fully.
“But never mind that! I got your distress call. Well actually it wasn’t a distress call, more like a strange sense and I told my TARDIS, the old girl that we should drop in for a visit. So here we are, TARDIS and me. Doctor and TARDIS. Ready to find out what’s the matter.”
Donna’s eyes were big. He was a nut. A certified nut. Should she try to barrel him over with her big stomach? Could prove to be handy for times like this. Defying belief, he still wasn’t done talking, lips blabbing so much and so quick he had yet to really see her.
“Last time we saw each other as I recall you were starring in that moving picture Havana, so good for a laugh even though no talkie walkie, silent instead. The music made up for it and actually it was easier to find that Hydroplanerat-
“WHO ARE YOU?” Donna demanded now, screaming.
It got the strange man to stop gabbling and finally focus in upon her. As he did, Donna swore his eyes widened hugely before they returned to the norm. “Donna?”
He was a mess of bones and thinness that caused her to let out a shrill disapproving whistle. “What does your diet consist of, rabbit food? Must be the skinniest thing alive.”
No answer. He still was staring, getting her to remember that he knew what to call her. “You said my name.” It took her moments to figure out why. “Oi, you sneaky solicitors. You found out we got the winning ticket, you’re like all the rest of them, thinking you can sell us some property in Bora Bora. Well forget it mate. Shaun and I already have a vacation home and we don’t need nothing more. Now take that blue contraption off my lawn, understand?”
His gape hadn’t ended as he now pushed his hand over his hair, letting out a bothered sigh, acting even more crazy. “I need to get out of here.”
“Yes you do.” Donna agreed. He had called that blue thing, during his crazed mutterings, a TARDIS. What the bloody hell was a TARDIS?
Nervously he fiddled around. “I need to get out of here now. It’s the TARDIS. She’s acting up lately. Leaking out the-
He stopped himself so suddenly with a jerk of his body that she took an anxious step back for a fast moment. It wasn’t that he was scary, just so queer. Such a bizarre man.
“Can’t be here. Shouldn’t be-
Feeling the hot sun making a droplet of sweat trickle down her neck, Donna idly pressed her hand against her clothing, getting the bulge to stand out even more.
The odd giraffe man lowered his eyes to her abdomen, pointing with the most curious smile. “You’re big…very big! Super tent size big. Donna Noble is-
As soon as he got the words out of his mouth he slapped his palm over his lips so hard she could hear the reverberation. Donna stared at him, before ranting back. “It’s Donna Temple, mate. And no…” Her voice was dry, her sarcasm high ever since she became overdue. “I'm not big. I just swallowed a bowling ball, going to roll it out any second.”
He couldn’t help himself, grinning at that like a little kid and jiggling his finger forward. “You’re pregnant!”
“Well of course I’m pregnant Dumbo!” Donna yelled out at him. “Nine months. One week. One day. Twenty-one hours and 44 minutes.”
“You know how many minutes?” He asked her incredulously.
Donna’s answer was quick. “I know how many seconds. I used to do data work. Played around with numbers all the time. Never underestimate a temp. I’m guessing you’re one of those bloody awful solicitors, but I’m telling you if you’re some sort of sicko stalker instead watch out! I have a husband you see who is built like a tank. He’d knock you over in one swipe. Trust me on that.” It was a lie. Shaun was nothing of the kind, but this bozo didn’t know that.
She could see it as he let out a touch of laughter and smiled, that he was getting ready to tell her something big, but then he was stopping himself again.
Donna complained hotly. “Oh don’t smack yourself once more. I could have done that for you if I already wanted to. Why are you here? What are you not telling me?”
She scrutinized him sharply, still juggling the sacks as now one started to slip out of her sweaty grasp. With the near fall the man jumped forward, grabbing the loose sack from her before rapidly stepping back. His gentlemanly gesture made her wonder about him. His bony hand touching hers for a second it made him seem even more faint. She shook her head with disdain. “You called yourself the Doctor, whatever that means and yet look at you. Veins and bones. Don’t you ever eat?”
He shook his head rapidly. “Forget that. What I called myself. Forget me Don-
Forget it all.”
He was backing up to that queer blue box, still holding her sack of groceries, getting Donna to fist her one loose hand over her waist as she felt another annoying trickle of sweat, this one descending down her back. For a moment she looked beyond his retreat, to where that peculiar blue box, that read Police Public Call Box stood. She knew enough about them, that they had been used a long time ago, probably were considered ancient artifacts now for no longer serving a function. What was he going to tell her next? That it flew in the sky like a hot air balloon?
Well a loon like him she wouldn’t be surprised.
Still, she kept having a nagging sense about him that told her not to let him get away, at least not yet. It didn’t help that his body made a painful little twitch as he backed up to that blue box, and his face twisted for just a second with hurt for sure. She moved forward rapidly, grasping onto his wrist, looking up and seeing eyes that were sunken in beneath the thinnest eyebrows, the effect one of aging. She saw it quite often enough on Gramps face, sunken eyes. Now this young man, he was definitely not as old as Gramps, not even close. But his eyes, oh his eyes, they were oddly terribly old.
Another twitch and she was asking, “When’s the last time you ate mate? Seriously.”
He started to give a wandering answer, speaking more words than needed, and Donna rolled her eyes, that motherly instinct getting her to sigh inwardly. Good thing the maid’s car wasn’t parked in the driveway. She was taking her break or gathering more things for tonight’s dinner. Donna knew her well enough to let her pick the times for such. She was dependable and honest so no worries. That meant the house would be empty for another hour or so. Donna could definitely use the help getting these two sacks inside.
“Oh come on, air cooler inside which you can definitely use dressed so horribly warm as you are. You can carry the other sack for me since you nearly carried it away with you to that blue box. But don’t you think of anything funny Dumbo. You got that?” She crooked her finger at him meaningfully. I may look like some helpless damsel, but believe you me I‘m not one.”
He didn’t follow her though. He just stood there shaking his head. “No I can’t.”
Donna fisted her free hand at her hip with annoyance. “You can’t carry a bag of groceries for a pregnant woman? Ankles are all swollen up and its hot as Hades out here, I offer you some food, and I’m hospitable and all that, and you can’t assist me? What kind of bozo man are you, eh?”
He laughed at that, but there was a welling in his eyes that made Donna stare for a moment. It was almost like he knew her, but that was impossible because she was sure as Hades that she didn’t know him. “Oh come on now!” She moved away. “Door’s this way. Follow me.”
He was perusing the bag with a glint of excitement. “Oooohhh, jammy dodgers?”
“Right-y-o.” She let out. “Now move it Skinny Man.”
He finally followed her to the large double doors and oohed and aahed despite himself as the big house impressed him greatly. She gave him a sort of mini tour, after turning on the cool air, and they took the bags to the custom designed kitchen, complete with all the modern amenities. Then she told him to sit down as she started to cook.
...
After Donna finished making him up some food, telling him in motherly fashion he couldn’t have the jammy dodgers until he ate the meal first the conversation between them found its flow. It had begun with awkwardness, but now it had a steady rhythm and even though he definitely was mad, talking about the queerest things, before silencing himself, Donna liked his mutterings. He said he actually moved that odd blue box around, without telling her how, and that it took him places, but now it was getting old and had cracks inside. Like he was getting old. Donna laughed at that, telling him he was years younger than her, a baby face man, but then she looked into his eyes again and saw the hauntings of so many years.
He turned away from her and by some wild instinct of feeling she reached for his hand, pressed her own over it. It was too bony, too cold, long thin fingers shaking just a bit.
She looked up into those queerly ancient eyes, seeing things that amazed and stunned her, but then they were closing, shutting everything out, including her. And all she could do was question what she just saw. For it was all in pieces, puzzles of some odd existence of other beings. Not her. Surely not her.
“Donna.”
“Yes?” She asked uncertainly, not sure she should have let him in now. But she had felt compelled by the little weird jerks of his body and the painful inquisitiveness that seemed to never fully depart his eyes. It was like they were desperate for something, but what?
He bit into a jammy dodger with a face that filled of child’s glee, chewing it solidly, before swallowing and asking, “May I touch it?”
She noticed his eyes' direction, how they focused downward. “My stomach you mean? What kind of Dumbo Pervert are you?”
He laughed at that, before it was there again, a welling in his eyes, an emotional flood that made no sense. He was a perfect stranger. Perfectly-
“Oh. Oh. I won’t hurt you Donna. I would never." He insisted sharply. "I just-
His words faltered. His eyes closed and opened again, his head shaking, and his limbs moving fast. “Forget it.” He was jumping up out of his seat, discarding the next jammy dodger only halfway through. “Forget what I said. Forget I was here. I don’t know what I’m doing. I shouldn’t be-
“Oh you loon!” She interrupted. “Give it a feel, but try anything funny and I will slap that hand away and don’t you doubt me.”
His smile was wry, but also sad. “I’d never doubt you Donna. I’m not an idiot.”
His hand jerked in crazy patterns, kind of flaying all about, his laugh childish, before she grabbed hold of his hand and pressed it there to her expanded stomach.
His eyes closed in some kind of heavy concentration. She stared at him. The oddest man she ever met. Crazed really. Madman. But something about him, something else that went beyond, something-
His hand touching her stomach, his eyes still closed, she started to feel the oddest sensation, almost like there was a flood of memory on the verge, saw a face that went with his, but that was impossible, that was-
And then it was gone. He was pulling away sharply, shaking his head, his eyes wide, before they softly smiled. “You’ll be a good mother Donna. This child is lucky. I have to go now. Thank you.”
He gestured to the jammy dodgers, the meal, and then to her, those lanky limbs moving forward and yet they kind of swung all about as he got to the double doors, the tall strange giraffe man.
“Will I see you again?” She asked suddenly, needing to know.
It took him long moments to finally turn around, as he gave a gesture to his prominent chin and a tear actually escaped his eye and fell down his cheek. “Not this face. Maybe not any face. Goodbye Donna Noble-Temple. Good to see you happy. With family. Nothing like family.”
He was gone after that. Somehow without making much noise about it he was out the doors, moving to that blue box. She started to watch from the window, but then heard the ringing.
“Oi!” Donna yelled, getting to the kitchen and picking it up. It was Shaun. She told him to hold on a moment and ran back to the window.
But when she got there, the blue box was gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Just like that. Moments only and where it stood was a vacant area now, grasses left alone.
Did the thing have wheels? Did it-
Donna ran out of the house, turning from one side of the long driveway to another. Couldn’t be. She would still see him moving it along. So if it didn’t have wheels?
Donna looked up to the skies, swearing she saw a glint of blue past the muggy clouds.
But that was impossible.
That was-
Ah. A kick of the kid. Shaun was waiting. She rushed back into the house. Life to live. Her life. He was a madman. Nothing more. Giraffe limbed madman. With a much too sentimental heart. Like he had more than most. With eyes that had seen more than any human ever should.
So was he even human?
Donna laughed away all the weird thoughts, feeling another solid kick. “Right you are Baby. Let him go. Nothing more than a stranger. Have plenty to tend to here.”
She made her way to the kitchen, picking up the phone, forgetting the blue box and the man. Forgetting once more. Like she was intended to.
Like the man in the blue box
Wanted her to.
***
Wednesday. He landed in the front yard like he normally did. Hearing her familiar knock he told her it was open. But then he just stood there.
TARDIS had been acting up again. She threw him off his flight pattern and decided to land right then and there. When he first saw Donna Noble, not the silent motion picture star he had been seeking out, it had stunned him.
For a quick moment he had been filled with utter excitement, before the sadness loomed in with its crushing weight. It was the burden of what he already knew and Donna Noble-Temple didn’t. During his visit with her, at that fine house upon the hill, that no doubt she was able to afford because of the lottery ticket, he had struggled to make sure she learnt nothing important. Nothing life-threatening. He just laughed and hid it all as she called him Dumbo. She used to spurt that one out sometimes along with the more frequent one…
Spaceman.
His twin hearts had stung when she started being so nice, showing that compassion that Donna always had, like when they went to Pompeii and her tears, the ache in her voice so wrenching as she pleaded with him to save just one person, a few even. Please. Her humanity was too strong. He had to heed.
It was all there again now, the painful pang of his hearts as he thought of that swollen stomach. Donna Noble, the woman who couldn’t let a family die, not without begging that they be saved, now soon to have a family of her own.
“Doctor?"
The Doctor barely heard Clara’s entrance, as the memories of Donna still plagued him. Clara's small hand touched upon his outfitted arm, cold inside, for he was getting so much older, and so much more emotional, crabby.
“Doctor?”
She wouldn’t have recognized his face anyway, Donna. It wasn’t the same, but he could feel it, how she had felt something in his eyes, before he shut her out. Had to. Couldn’t see Donna in that pain again, hear her voice repeating like a recorder out of sync. Couldn’t end her existence. Had to leave her alone. Make sure she never remembered.
And yet it hurt, because she had been his mate. His best friend when he truly needed one. Donna and him, they were a team, different face, different body, but it would always be there, the memories haunting him. His Donna Noble-Temple.
Clara was right at his side now, her eyes big, wide. She was looking up, wondering what was going on with him. The Doctor could see it, and so he patted her hand, started to give happy explanation, but it wasn’t meant to be all that sing-songy. Never could be. “I had a friend. Just saw her, unexplainably. TARDIS acting up again. Old Girl’s been behaving crazily lately.” The TARDIS gave a disapproving murmur, but the Doctor swore there was a slight moan with it too. The past was catching up with him, crashing into the future and present. Days were feeling eerie of memory.
Something-something was coming.
“Doctor?”
Clara asked. Oh Clara. She too had her life changed by him. You could argue it made their relationship better, but as always there was a price. Part of her memories now were just wiped away, not as much as Donna of course, but little bits of her past before him, they were gone. And it was his fault. Once again.
Perhaps Clara had known Donna? Remembered her as an echo? It was possible since Clara had jumped into his time stream and saw things no one else had. Her recall of all that was shoddy, but much of it was still there, if in a latent state.
The Doctor reached out, touching Clara’s small hand and stating with candor, “I had a friend. Her name was Donna Noble. Oh we did so much together Clara. We had so many good times. Crazy times. She was my mate, you see, didn’t try to be more. Didn’t want to. Saw me as this crazy spaceman. Thought I was a martian from Mars at first. She crashed into my life, almost literally when my hearts were-
He faltered, thinking of Rose, thinking of the past and the future, so much love, so much loss. Clara’s hand tightened over his, giving him more resolve, her eyes big and listening, caring.
“When my hearts were breaking. And she saved me. She saved the world. Ordinary woman, but for one special moment, she was extraordinary. Oh, she still is now.”
Clara’s hand moved to his cheek as the tear fell from his eye. “But she doesn’t remember me.” It washed over his collar. “She can’t.” It was that one tear, and then oddly enough another. The TARDIS moaned, echoing his blasted emotion. He kept getting them more lately, now as he grew older, crankier, and less able to contain feeling. The tears wet him and then her fingers.
“Why? Why can’t she remember?” Clara whispered.
Maybe this part she hadn’t seen. Maybe Donna did enough to save him there that Clara hadn’t had to interfere. Or maybe she just didn’t remember. It was that horrible knack of his, to make someone forget.
“Because it would ruin her life. It would kill her Clara.” He whispered back, head falling now, shoulders shuddering.
It was too much, the weight of time travel sometimes. Oh it had so many moments of fun and adventure. It was a natural high to save the world, a spirit booster. But always the fallout. And the older he got, the more it increased. His happiness dwindled, which seemed to get to Clara as she moved forward, holding onto him, rubbing his back some, a touch of awkwardness, a whisper of womanly confidence.
As he felt her warmth and human compassion, the Doctor thought about it. There was a reason the TARDIS brought him back there, to Donna. There was a reason she was cracking and malfunctioning. It was coming. It was just nigh.
The fall of the Eleventh.
Oh those jammy dodgers had tasted so good. They made him feel like a happy kid.
But he was no child.
He was the Doctor.
And truth be it.
He was getting older.
Soon it would be time for a new face.
Soon he’d have to make more forget.
Soon-
Oi, Dumbo!
There would be no more reunions. The time would come when he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore. Saying hello. Crying goodbye. Every time it hurt, every unexpected reunion another little crack in his hearts. So it would have to come one day. Maybe not yet, but someday. When the universe ended, when there was nothing but him. And he’d be alone.
Just him.
And his box.
It would come.
One day.
And then his madness would be complete.
“Doctor?”
It was Clara again, so close, looking strangely at him, questioning.
The Doctor took a deep breath and jumped away. That day wasn’t here yet. And until it was he would enjoy every new beginning. Every heart flooding reunion.
“Right-y-o! So where to this time Clara What do you want to see?” He asked with a clap of his hands, dancing away from her until he was standing at the console, fiddling with the shiny buttons.
She just stared, shaking her head slowly. So he pleaded with his old ancient eyes. “Clara?”
To live in the past would be madness. To be sad when there was so much to explore out there was ludicrous. Her smile was slow to come, but fully resigned when its entirety shown.
An excited glint shot through the Doctor’s ancient eyes when she was done speaking.
Oh, fantastic answer!
“Geronimo!”
Soon they were off.
To see new worlds
And yet there was no doubt he would reunite with the old too.
He always did.
***
Quick Author's Note: Gladys Cooper was an English actress from 1888 to 1971
Theme: Reunion
She made her way to her ginger washed McLaren with a bit of a laboring totter. Once again the little gamin was kicking its way around in there getting her to pat her stomach with appeasement.
When night came all that moving around inside could send her into grumbles of discomfort. Be certain that if her husband’s arm wandered the wrong way he was given a good talking to.
“You dare putting that hand anywhere below my bloated middle and you’ll be sorry, you hear? Big mistake to mess with a pregnant lady.”
Hence her husband never brought his hand lower than a certain area these days as mother nature messed around with the weather system, blasts of muggy escalating heat invading for the past week. Sure it was summer, but that didn’t have to mean scorchers every day. It just made her more irritable and increasingly angry with the male persuasion which was really not connected, but no matter.
Of course her mother always had to add in things like, “Donna, stop that griping. You’re lucky to have such a good man as Shaun. Took you long enough! For years I was sure you’d be nothing but an old spinster. There I said it. Years I thought that. Now not only are you married, rich, but also soon I’m going to be a grandmother. Oh it will be marvelous after the years of you depriving me for so long, and another thing-
Of course it was all said with the utmost of love. Donna knew her mother would never change, but she could handle it. As much as her mother was a complainer, she was also a truth teller. Not even the winning lottery ticket, a special gift from her late father and a mysterious benefactor, had changed that, so bless the woman, even if she drove her mad sometimes.
With the assistance of that prized ticket, Donna had provided both her mother and dear old granddad with a new dwelling, an estate house upon a hill. Gramps loved it so much because it brought him closer to the stars, which he was always gazing at with that super fantastic telescope she bought him.
He’d say to her as he marveled at the night sky, “Donna Dear, you didn’t have to buy me something so expensive.”
“Oh yes I did.” She’d answer back. “You deserve the best Gramps.”
Then they’d gaze upon the stars and every distant planet together, sometimes granddad muttering the oddest things. “Aliens live up there Donna. I’m sure of it.”
“Oh really.” She’d smile, patting her heaving stomach. “What kinds of aliens Gramps?”
He’d start to say something excitedly, and then suddenly bite down upon his lip as if he nearly uttered something precarious. Then with drastic speed the conversation would change. She wanted to ask him about it sometimes, but he’d make that face that bothered her so much she’d just sit close to him and wrap her arm around his shoulders. Probably was the aging. Grandad was showing it more, wrinkles getting more wrinkly, lines of expression settling in like they’d been glued on. But oh hey-oh, soon he’d be a great granddad.
Great Gramps!
He and Mum were coming for dinner tonight. That was why Donna was out, took a drive to the store. Oh no big lottery winning ticket was going to keep her from leading a normal life, buying up the groceries, that sort of thing.
Even during this muggy heat wave!
Shaun would scold her for pushing away their maid lady, with her prominent stomach, informing her she’d be doing the errands, but he wouldn’t get far. If she wanted to get out of their Buckingham-Palace-sized house {only a slight exaggeration} she had every right to. And to drive her precious ginger McLaren.
Home was only a few streets away, quaint roads that Donna was quite familiar with after living in the influential neighborhood for over a year.
Like she often did, she now talked to her unborn child, that big bulging stomach the only direct visual evidence of life in there, but life indeed was nearly ready to make its debut. “Now you listen. Like your Dad and me, You’re going to go on many adventures, travel all the world once you’re walking about, because that’s the way to do life. First with your Dad and me, and then off on your own. No sitting back, no letting the world pass you by. You’ll embrace it like your daddy and me.” She told her stomach, while making her way to the road the posh house she shared with Shaun stood upon.
It was a long winding secluded road that led to it, lined with a forest of trees. Coming to the stone driveway, Donna stopped the car, got out, and moving around to the back, she lifted the trunk. Busy with the handling of her groceries, two impressively packed sacks, she didn’t notice it at first.
A few steps forward though, juggling the sacks securely into her arms, it was soon hard to miss. After all it was bright, and yet somehow elderly blue.
It stood out like some antique of olden days Gramps would collect, plopped right within all the lush green gardens.
She yelled out, “Oi. Gramps is that you? Is this some kind of joke? Well it’s not funny you best believe. Now get that eyesore out of my garden.”
No one exited the blue blot and no one answered.
It was then Donna got a knowing sneer to her face. Oh she would! Of course normally the woman was moving in on any male in the room. But that didn’t keep her from once in a while pulling some stupid prank.
“Nerys! Oi, I know it’s you! Now you’ve gone too far-
She was in midsentence as the queerest looking man jumped out of the blue phone box. Really he looked like something out of a Dickens book, three piece suit with obnoxious bowtie, old and yet brightly hued purple coat, matching boots and the most Elvis-like quaff of hair falling over his forehead like a hedgehog with a mane. Barely one step he had taken before he started exclaiming excitedly.
“Gladys! Gladys Cooper! It’s been long, too long, dreadfully long as I’m getting dreadfully old!”
Donna stared as the eccentric man moved his long thing limbs like some uncoordinated giraffe who just happened to keep from falling all over the place, his hands waving around so busily he had yet to even set eyes upon her fully.
“But never mind that! I got your distress call. Well actually it wasn’t a distress call, more like a strange sense and I told my TARDIS, the old girl that we should drop in for a visit. So here we are, TARDIS and me. Doctor and TARDIS. Ready to find out what’s the matter.”
Donna’s eyes were big. He was a nut. A certified nut. Should she try to barrel him over with her big stomach? Could prove to be handy for times like this. Defying belief, he still wasn’t done talking, lips blabbing so much and so quick he had yet to really see her.
“Last time we saw each other as I recall you were starring in that moving picture Havana, so good for a laugh even though no talkie walkie, silent instead. The music made up for it and actually it was easier to find that Hydroplanerat-
“WHO ARE YOU?” Donna demanded now, screaming.
It got the strange man to stop gabbling and finally focus in upon her. As he did, Donna swore his eyes widened hugely before they returned to the norm. “Donna?”
He was a mess of bones and thinness that caused her to let out a shrill disapproving whistle. “What does your diet consist of, rabbit food? Must be the skinniest thing alive.”
No answer. He still was staring, getting her to remember that he knew what to call her. “You said my name.” It took her moments to figure out why. “Oi, you sneaky solicitors. You found out we got the winning ticket, you’re like all the rest of them, thinking you can sell us some property in Bora Bora. Well forget it mate. Shaun and I already have a vacation home and we don’t need nothing more. Now take that blue contraption off my lawn, understand?”
His gape hadn’t ended as he now pushed his hand over his hair, letting out a bothered sigh, acting even more crazy. “I need to get out of here.”
“Yes you do.” Donna agreed. He had called that blue thing, during his crazed mutterings, a TARDIS. What the bloody hell was a TARDIS?
Nervously he fiddled around. “I need to get out of here now. It’s the TARDIS. She’s acting up lately. Leaking out the-
He stopped himself so suddenly with a jerk of his body that she took an anxious step back for a fast moment. It wasn’t that he was scary, just so queer. Such a bizarre man.
“Can’t be here. Shouldn’t be-
Feeling the hot sun making a droplet of sweat trickle down her neck, Donna idly pressed her hand against her clothing, getting the bulge to stand out even more.
The odd giraffe man lowered his eyes to her abdomen, pointing with the most curious smile. “You’re big…very big! Super tent size big. Donna Noble is-
As soon as he got the words out of his mouth he slapped his palm over his lips so hard she could hear the reverberation. Donna stared at him, before ranting back. “It’s Donna Temple, mate. And no…” Her voice was dry, her sarcasm high ever since she became overdue. “I'm not big. I just swallowed a bowling ball, going to roll it out any second.”
He couldn’t help himself, grinning at that like a little kid and jiggling his finger forward. “You’re pregnant!”
“Well of course I’m pregnant Dumbo!” Donna yelled out at him. “Nine months. One week. One day. Twenty-one hours and 44 minutes.”
“You know how many minutes?” He asked her incredulously.
Donna’s answer was quick. “I know how many seconds. I used to do data work. Played around with numbers all the time. Never underestimate a temp. I’m guessing you’re one of those bloody awful solicitors, but I’m telling you if you’re some sort of sicko stalker instead watch out! I have a husband you see who is built like a tank. He’d knock you over in one swipe. Trust me on that.” It was a lie. Shaun was nothing of the kind, but this bozo didn’t know that.
She could see it as he let out a touch of laughter and smiled, that he was getting ready to tell her something big, but then he was stopping himself again.
Donna complained hotly. “Oh don’t smack yourself once more. I could have done that for you if I already wanted to. Why are you here? What are you not telling me?”
She scrutinized him sharply, still juggling the sacks as now one started to slip out of her sweaty grasp. With the near fall the man jumped forward, grabbing the loose sack from her before rapidly stepping back. His gentlemanly gesture made her wonder about him. His bony hand touching hers for a second it made him seem even more faint. She shook her head with disdain. “You called yourself the Doctor, whatever that means and yet look at you. Veins and bones. Don’t you ever eat?”
He shook his head rapidly. “Forget that. What I called myself. Forget me Don-
Forget it all.”
He was backing up to that queer blue box, still holding her sack of groceries, getting Donna to fist her one loose hand over her waist as she felt another annoying trickle of sweat, this one descending down her back. For a moment she looked beyond his retreat, to where that peculiar blue box, that read Police Public Call Box stood. She knew enough about them, that they had been used a long time ago, probably were considered ancient artifacts now for no longer serving a function. What was he going to tell her next? That it flew in the sky like a hot air balloon?
Well a loon like him she wouldn’t be surprised.
Still, she kept having a nagging sense about him that told her not to let him get away, at least not yet. It didn’t help that his body made a painful little twitch as he backed up to that blue box, and his face twisted for just a second with hurt for sure. She moved forward rapidly, grasping onto his wrist, looking up and seeing eyes that were sunken in beneath the thinnest eyebrows, the effect one of aging. She saw it quite often enough on Gramps face, sunken eyes. Now this young man, he was definitely not as old as Gramps, not even close. But his eyes, oh his eyes, they were oddly terribly old.
Another twitch and she was asking, “When’s the last time you ate mate? Seriously.”
He started to give a wandering answer, speaking more words than needed, and Donna rolled her eyes, that motherly instinct getting her to sigh inwardly. Good thing the maid’s car wasn’t parked in the driveway. She was taking her break or gathering more things for tonight’s dinner. Donna knew her well enough to let her pick the times for such. She was dependable and honest so no worries. That meant the house would be empty for another hour or so. Donna could definitely use the help getting these two sacks inside.
“Oh come on, air cooler inside which you can definitely use dressed so horribly warm as you are. You can carry the other sack for me since you nearly carried it away with you to that blue box. But don’t you think of anything funny Dumbo. You got that?” She crooked her finger at him meaningfully. I may look like some helpless damsel, but believe you me I‘m not one.”
He didn’t follow her though. He just stood there shaking his head. “No I can’t.”
Donna fisted her free hand at her hip with annoyance. “You can’t carry a bag of groceries for a pregnant woman? Ankles are all swollen up and its hot as Hades out here, I offer you some food, and I’m hospitable and all that, and you can’t assist me? What kind of bozo man are you, eh?”
He laughed at that, but there was a welling in his eyes that made Donna stare for a moment. It was almost like he knew her, but that was impossible because she was sure as Hades that she didn’t know him. “Oh come on now!” She moved away. “Door’s this way. Follow me.”
He was perusing the bag with a glint of excitement. “Oooohhh, jammy dodgers?”
“Right-y-o.” She let out. “Now move it Skinny Man.”
He finally followed her to the large double doors and oohed and aahed despite himself as the big house impressed him greatly. She gave him a sort of mini tour, after turning on the cool air, and they took the bags to the custom designed kitchen, complete with all the modern amenities. Then she told him to sit down as she started to cook.
...
After Donna finished making him up some food, telling him in motherly fashion he couldn’t have the jammy dodgers until he ate the meal first the conversation between them found its flow. It had begun with awkwardness, but now it had a steady rhythm and even though he definitely was mad, talking about the queerest things, before silencing himself, Donna liked his mutterings. He said he actually moved that odd blue box around, without telling her how, and that it took him places, but now it was getting old and had cracks inside. Like he was getting old. Donna laughed at that, telling him he was years younger than her, a baby face man, but then she looked into his eyes again and saw the hauntings of so many years.
He turned away from her and by some wild instinct of feeling she reached for his hand, pressed her own over it. It was too bony, too cold, long thin fingers shaking just a bit.
She looked up into those queerly ancient eyes, seeing things that amazed and stunned her, but then they were closing, shutting everything out, including her. And all she could do was question what she just saw. For it was all in pieces, puzzles of some odd existence of other beings. Not her. Surely not her.
“Donna.”
“Yes?” She asked uncertainly, not sure she should have let him in now. But she had felt compelled by the little weird jerks of his body and the painful inquisitiveness that seemed to never fully depart his eyes. It was like they were desperate for something, but what?
He bit into a jammy dodger with a face that filled of child’s glee, chewing it solidly, before swallowing and asking, “May I touch it?”
She noticed his eyes' direction, how they focused downward. “My stomach you mean? What kind of Dumbo Pervert are you?”
He laughed at that, before it was there again, a welling in his eyes, an emotional flood that made no sense. He was a perfect stranger. Perfectly-
“Oh. Oh. I won’t hurt you Donna. I would never." He insisted sharply. "I just-
His words faltered. His eyes closed and opened again, his head shaking, and his limbs moving fast. “Forget it.” He was jumping up out of his seat, discarding the next jammy dodger only halfway through. “Forget what I said. Forget I was here. I don’t know what I’m doing. I shouldn’t be-
“Oh you loon!” She interrupted. “Give it a feel, but try anything funny and I will slap that hand away and don’t you doubt me.”
His smile was wry, but also sad. “I’d never doubt you Donna. I’m not an idiot.”
His hand jerked in crazy patterns, kind of flaying all about, his laugh childish, before she grabbed hold of his hand and pressed it there to her expanded stomach.
His eyes closed in some kind of heavy concentration. She stared at him. The oddest man she ever met. Crazed really. Madman. But something about him, something else that went beyond, something-
His hand touching her stomach, his eyes still closed, she started to feel the oddest sensation, almost like there was a flood of memory on the verge, saw a face that went with his, but that was impossible, that was-
And then it was gone. He was pulling away sharply, shaking his head, his eyes wide, before they softly smiled. “You’ll be a good mother Donna. This child is lucky. I have to go now. Thank you.”
He gestured to the jammy dodgers, the meal, and then to her, those lanky limbs moving forward and yet they kind of swung all about as he got to the double doors, the tall strange giraffe man.
“Will I see you again?” She asked suddenly, needing to know.
It took him long moments to finally turn around, as he gave a gesture to his prominent chin and a tear actually escaped his eye and fell down his cheek. “Not this face. Maybe not any face. Goodbye Donna Noble-Temple. Good to see you happy. With family. Nothing like family.”
He was gone after that. Somehow without making much noise about it he was out the doors, moving to that blue box. She started to watch from the window, but then heard the ringing.
“Oi!” Donna yelled, getting to the kitchen and picking it up. It was Shaun. She told him to hold on a moment and ran back to the window.
But when she got there, the blue box was gone. Vanished. Disappeared. Just like that. Moments only and where it stood was a vacant area now, grasses left alone.
Did the thing have wheels? Did it-
Donna ran out of the house, turning from one side of the long driveway to another. Couldn’t be. She would still see him moving it along. So if it didn’t have wheels?
Donna looked up to the skies, swearing she saw a glint of blue past the muggy clouds.
But that was impossible.
That was-
Ah. A kick of the kid. Shaun was waiting. She rushed back into the house. Life to live. Her life. He was a madman. Nothing more. Giraffe limbed madman. With a much too sentimental heart. Like he had more than most. With eyes that had seen more than any human ever should.
So was he even human?
Donna laughed away all the weird thoughts, feeling another solid kick. “Right you are Baby. Let him go. Nothing more than a stranger. Have plenty to tend to here.”
She made her way to the kitchen, picking up the phone, forgetting the blue box and the man. Forgetting once more. Like she was intended to.
Like the man in the blue box
Wanted her to.
***
Wednesday. He landed in the front yard like he normally did. Hearing her familiar knock he told her it was open. But then he just stood there.
TARDIS had been acting up again. She threw him off his flight pattern and decided to land right then and there. When he first saw Donna Noble, not the silent motion picture star he had been seeking out, it had stunned him.
For a quick moment he had been filled with utter excitement, before the sadness loomed in with its crushing weight. It was the burden of what he already knew and Donna Noble-Temple didn’t. During his visit with her, at that fine house upon the hill, that no doubt she was able to afford because of the lottery ticket, he had struggled to make sure she learnt nothing important. Nothing life-threatening. He just laughed and hid it all as she called him Dumbo. She used to spurt that one out sometimes along with the more frequent one…
Spaceman.
His twin hearts had stung when she started being so nice, showing that compassion that Donna always had, like when they went to Pompeii and her tears, the ache in her voice so wrenching as she pleaded with him to save just one person, a few even. Please. Her humanity was too strong. He had to heed.
It was all there again now, the painful pang of his hearts as he thought of that swollen stomach. Donna Noble, the woman who couldn’t let a family die, not without begging that they be saved, now soon to have a family of her own.
“Doctor?"
The Doctor barely heard Clara’s entrance, as the memories of Donna still plagued him. Clara's small hand touched upon his outfitted arm, cold inside, for he was getting so much older, and so much more emotional, crabby.
“Doctor?”
She wouldn’t have recognized his face anyway, Donna. It wasn’t the same, but he could feel it, how she had felt something in his eyes, before he shut her out. Had to. Couldn’t see Donna in that pain again, hear her voice repeating like a recorder out of sync. Couldn’t end her existence. Had to leave her alone. Make sure she never remembered.
And yet it hurt, because she had been his mate. His best friend when he truly needed one. Donna and him, they were a team, different face, different body, but it would always be there, the memories haunting him. His Donna Noble-Temple.
Clara was right at his side now, her eyes big, wide. She was looking up, wondering what was going on with him. The Doctor could see it, and so he patted her hand, started to give happy explanation, but it wasn’t meant to be all that sing-songy. Never could be. “I had a friend. Just saw her, unexplainably. TARDIS acting up again. Old Girl’s been behaving crazily lately.” The TARDIS gave a disapproving murmur, but the Doctor swore there was a slight moan with it too. The past was catching up with him, crashing into the future and present. Days were feeling eerie of memory.
Something-something was coming.
“Doctor?”
Clara asked. Oh Clara. She too had her life changed by him. You could argue it made their relationship better, but as always there was a price. Part of her memories now were just wiped away, not as much as Donna of course, but little bits of her past before him, they were gone. And it was his fault. Once again.
Perhaps Clara had known Donna? Remembered her as an echo? It was possible since Clara had jumped into his time stream and saw things no one else had. Her recall of all that was shoddy, but much of it was still there, if in a latent state.
The Doctor reached out, touching Clara’s small hand and stating with candor, “I had a friend. Her name was Donna Noble. Oh we did so much together Clara. We had so many good times. Crazy times. She was my mate, you see, didn’t try to be more. Didn’t want to. Saw me as this crazy spaceman. Thought I was a martian from Mars at first. She crashed into my life, almost literally when my hearts were-
He faltered, thinking of Rose, thinking of the past and the future, so much love, so much loss. Clara’s hand tightened over his, giving him more resolve, her eyes big and listening, caring.
“When my hearts were breaking. And she saved me. She saved the world. Ordinary woman, but for one special moment, she was extraordinary. Oh, she still is now.”
Clara’s hand moved to his cheek as the tear fell from his eye. “But she doesn’t remember me.” It washed over his collar. “She can’t.” It was that one tear, and then oddly enough another. The TARDIS moaned, echoing his blasted emotion. He kept getting them more lately, now as he grew older, crankier, and less able to contain feeling. The tears wet him and then her fingers.
“Why? Why can’t she remember?” Clara whispered.
Maybe this part she hadn’t seen. Maybe Donna did enough to save him there that Clara hadn’t had to interfere. Or maybe she just didn’t remember. It was that horrible knack of his, to make someone forget.
“Because it would ruin her life. It would kill her Clara.” He whispered back, head falling now, shoulders shuddering.
It was too much, the weight of time travel sometimes. Oh it had so many moments of fun and adventure. It was a natural high to save the world, a spirit booster. But always the fallout. And the older he got, the more it increased. His happiness dwindled, which seemed to get to Clara as she moved forward, holding onto him, rubbing his back some, a touch of awkwardness, a whisper of womanly confidence.
As he felt her warmth and human compassion, the Doctor thought about it. There was a reason the TARDIS brought him back there, to Donna. There was a reason she was cracking and malfunctioning. It was coming. It was just nigh.
The fall of the Eleventh.
Oh those jammy dodgers had tasted so good. They made him feel like a happy kid.
But he was no child.
He was the Doctor.
And truth be it.
He was getting older.
Soon it would be time for a new face.
Soon he’d have to make more forget.
Soon-
Oi, Dumbo!
There would be no more reunions. The time would come when he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore. Saying hello. Crying goodbye. Every time it hurt, every unexpected reunion another little crack in his hearts. So it would have to come one day. Maybe not yet, but someday. When the universe ended, when there was nothing but him. And he’d be alone.
Just him.
And his box.
It would come.
One day.
And then his madness would be complete.
“Doctor?”
It was Clara again, so close, looking strangely at him, questioning.
The Doctor took a deep breath and jumped away. That day wasn’t here yet. And until it was he would enjoy every new beginning. Every heart flooding reunion.
“Right-y-o! So where to this time Clara What do you want to see?” He asked with a clap of his hands, dancing away from her until he was standing at the console, fiddling with the shiny buttons.
She just stared, shaking her head slowly. So he pleaded with his old ancient eyes. “Clara?”
To live in the past would be madness. To be sad when there was so much to explore out there was ludicrous. Her smile was slow to come, but fully resigned when its entirety shown.
An excited glint shot through the Doctor’s ancient eyes when she was done speaking.
Oh, fantastic answer!
“Geronimo!”
Soon they were off.
To see new worlds
And yet there was no doubt he would reunite with the old too.
He always did.
***
Quick Author's Note: Gladys Cooper was an English actress from 1888 to 1971