Fic: And Their Song Continues [SPOILERS]
Story: And Their Song Continues
Author: wmr wendymr
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble
Rated: G
Disclaimer: RTD's characters, but not entirely his plot.
Spoilers: SPOILERS FOR JOURNEY'S END
Summary: It’s not fair. It’s just not fair. He’s already given up Rose, and now he’ll have to lose Donna too.
Because I just couldn't let the ending stand. With many thanks to kae_nine for BRing.
And Their Song Continues
His hearts are heavy as he goes ahead of Donna back into the TARDIS.
After his joy at seeing Rose again back in his universe - and, of course, at the anticipation of seeing her - it’s torture to have to let her go again like this, after mere hours of her company and one hug. But it’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?
Or maybe it’s just the selfish thing.
He’s pushed her away from him a second time - sent her away for a third time. Not because he doesn’t want her, but because he wants her too much. He wants her, but he can’t give her what she wants. He loves her - oh, of course he does - but he would never have told her. Not in so many words. And he was never going to show her, not in the way she wanted.
Not because he doesn’t do that sort of thing - he’s not that much of a liar, even to himself - but because he’s too much of a coward to do it when it would mean more than a kiss, more than a night of shared desire. He told her once: he couldn’t bear to watch her wither and die while he stays the same. And, damnit, she made clear she couldn’t bear to see him regenerate again. Neither of those circumstances is avoidable, is it?
So it made sense, what he’s just done. There was his human counterpart to be dealt with, after all - he can’t have two of him in the TARDIS, and anyway it wouldn’t be fair on the other him to have to age and watch his Time Lord twin stay the same.
Of course, Jack would have been happy to look after his twin - happy in ways he doesn’t want to think too much about - and his twin would probably have been fairly happy there himself. As happy as he could be without the TARDIS, and without the woman they both love. And he could have kept Rose himself.
He contemplated that solution, for all of about five seconds once they were all in the TARDIS and flying her as a team. Rose back with him. Him and her and Donna travelling together.
Rose separated from her family again. Jackie losing her daughter permanently this time. Him keeping his distance because he’s too Time Lord still, too cowardly, to do anything else.
And his twin loving her as much as he does. He could see it as the three of them stood side by side piloting the ship.
It makes sense. He can’t - won’t - give her himself. So instead he gave her himself. Just a different him, different genetics, a human life-span, but still so very him. Still so much the Doctor. He might not have a TARDIS, or two hearts, or the ability to regenerate, but he’s the Doctor in every other way there is. Except that he’s a Doctor who can stay with Rose, and live out a human life with her.
He gave her a made-up mission, too. Not that the human him won’t feel some trauma, some amount of guilt - HHbecause it’s in their shared past, their common memories - but it’s not strictly true that he’s back to being the damaged, reluctant survivor of war his ninth self was. It really could have been either of them who pushed that button and destroyed the Daleks one final time.
The thing is that if there’s one thing he knows about Rose Tyler it’s that she can’t help reaching out to wounded souls. It’ll bring her closer to his other self and it’ll help her to accept him as hers while she comes to learn that he is still the man she loves in every way that matters. She’ll be fine. They’ll be fine, the two of them, he has no doubts whatsoever of that.
“They’ll be fine, yeah. But what about you, Doctor?”
It’s Donna, coming up to him, touching his arm. Damn, and he’d forgotten that one of the side-effects of her new half-Time Lord status is telepathic ability. Not that she can control it or anything, or even know that she’s doing it, but in the state he’s in he’s probably broadcasting all over the place. His twin would have been able to read every single thought.
He’s a selfish git, too. For a few moments, he even forgot that Donna was there. Forgot, too, all the trouble that still lies ahead for her. His hearts clench once again.
But he forces a smile. “You know me, Donna. I’m always all right.”
She slaps his arm. “Thought you’d stopped lying to me about that sort of thing. Anyway, you forgotten I think like you now?”
No, he hasn’t. That’s one thing he can’t possibly forget. But she’s right. He owes her more than glib lies.
“No, I’m not all right. Letting her go - pushing her away and leaving her with the other me - yes, it hurt. But pain fades. Always does, every time.” He gives her a crooked smile. “I’ll be fine. Anyway, the important thing is that she’s gonna be happy, yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nods. “Course, he’s got elements of my DNA in his bio-genetic make-up, because of the matter transfer during the generation process. Makes it all sound a bit kinky, really, doesn’t it?”
Despite everything, he laughs.
***
He’s not laughing for long, because it’s happening already. The human-Time Lord metacrisis, the event that can never happen, because it’s not possible. It’ll kill her if he doesn’t stop it.
Her brain’s getting stuck. One second she’s babbling at two hundred words a minute, just like him, talking about Felspoon and fixing the chameleon circuit and meeting Charlie Chaplin... and the next she’s stuck. Repeating the same word over and over, just as if she were ghosting, like Miss Evangelista in the Library.
He’s never going to be able to say the word binary again without remembering Donna Noble. DoctorDonna, only she can’t be. She can’t even be Donna, not the Donna he knows and... and cares so much about.
It’s not fair. It’s just not fair. He’s already given up Rose, and now he’ll have to lose Donna too. And Donna... she loses everything she’s had since she first met him. Everything she’s learned, everything she’s become, everything wonderful and brilliant and incredibly special that she is.
Oh, she always had that potential, didn’t she? Even on her wedding-day, the worst day of her life until now, when she was shouting and hurling abuse at all and sundry - especially him - she saw things no-one else saw. Things he didn’t want to see, but she made him.
Oh, Donna.
And the worst of it is that she knows what’s happening. She’s got his brain, after all. All of his knowledge, tumbling over inside her head, her little human brain that’s simply not built to carry all that information, all that understanding, all that knowledge of the universe and time and space.
She knows her fate, and she knows what he has to do.
“I won’t stay.” As if that’ll cure anything. She’d only be back on Earth on her own, with no-one to help her cope with what she is now, and no-one to rescue her when her brain starts to implode under the pressure.
It’s breaking her heart, and watching her is breaking his. Both of his. Because it’s not just that he’s losing her, but she’s losing him, too. She’s losing this life, and he can see, he can feel, just how much it means to her.
He can see, too, the second she realises what he’s going to do.
Oh, the way she’s looking at him... it’s shattering his hearts still further. He’s going to betray her in the worst possible way, and she knows it. She’s so proud of who she is now, Donna Noble, time-traveller - and now, too, DoctorDonna. She knows how far she’s come, though what she doesn’t know is that the potential was there in her all along. She won’t believe it, even though he’s tried to tell her.
“Don’t make me go back,” she pleads, but it’s no use. It’s no good. The alternative is that she’s going to die, and he can’t have that. Not another death on his conscience.
Doing this to her is going to kill him, but it’s the kindest thing he can do. She won’t remember a thing about him, or about everything she’s accomplished, but she’ll be alive. And all that wonderful, brilliant potential will still be inside her, just waiting to burst out. And it will. It will. He has to believe that. Because she’s Donna and she was always brilliant.
“Oh, Donna Noble, I am so sorry.” He is, oh, he is, but she’s heard him say those words to other people too many times, hasn’t she? It becomes meaningless after a while.
They had the best of times, he tells her. And they did. Oh, they did. She’s become his best friend, the companion who, even before she shared his mind, understood him better than almost anyone else ever has. Even better than Rose; for all he loves her, there were times when Rose just didn’t get it. There still are. Rose still believes he can do things that he just can’t. And that’s why she’s better off without this him.
Why does he have to lose Donna too? Why do the universes have to be so damn unfair?
Oh, Donna. For one moment, you were the most important woman in the whole wide universe.
“Goodbye,” he whispers, even as her pleas make him shatter inside.
Tears fall unchecked down her cheeks as he presses his fingers to her temples. He knows, oh, he knows how she feels, because he’s crying inside.
Goodbye, Donna Noble, my dear friend.
***
He sees her in the living-room of her mum’s house, looking right through him as if she doesn’t know him. Shaking his hand but barely acknowledging that he’s there.
Hears her on the phone to her friend, laughing in that sneering way she had when he first met her, completely in denial about everything that’s just happened to her planet, scoffing at the possibility that the planets could have realigned themselves and that aliens took over the Earth.
He sees himself saying goodbye to her and observes her reaction, knows that he means nothing at all to her, not now. He understands that she’s retreated back into the brittle shell that was the shallow Donna, hiding away everything that’s brilliant about her because it’s how she protects himself.
He hears her mother tell him that she is special, that she is important, but knows that Sylvia will never tell Donna. That she’ll just be relieved that Donna’s home and safe and willing to do what she’s told again. Yes, she’ll still have Wilf, but he’s dominated by Sylvia too. What good will he be, except as the one person in her life who’ll love Donna no matter what she’s like?
He sees himself, soaking wet, back in the TARDIS on his own. All the laughter, all the happy faces, in there with him mere hours ago gone. Back to their own lives. Back to their families, their friends, their jobs and their human lives. He’s sent them all away, because he can’t hold them close. He won’t let himself. Sarah was right.
He sees himself staring at the console, just as he was months earlier when he looked up and remembered that he was alone.
Donna was supposed to be his mate. She was supposed to be the one to stop him. She was supposed to stay with him.
His hands tremble against her face, and he forces himself to close his eyes.
***
It’s not as easy as it should be. Her mind’s much stronger now that it’s part Time Lord, and she’s fighting him in spite of the metacrisis.
He can’t help but be proud of her, all the same. He’s had more than nine centuries to get used to this mind of his. She’s had barely a couple of hours, and she’s doing this. Fighting him. Trying to stop him.
She’s doing something else, too. She’s thinking.
There’s another way, Doctor. You know there is, and if you weren’t so busy being emo over losing everyone again you’d already have seen it.
Another way? He falters, and his fingers slip again.
Yeah. Course there is. You don’t have to take it all. What’s the point in that?
Oh. Oh! “Oh, Donna Noble, you’re brilliant!”
His hands drop, and he steps back from her. Of course. Of course. “All I have to do is reverse the biological metacrisis. Take the Time Lord part of your brain back into mine... and Bob’s your uncle! Donna Noble, all human again. Safe! Oh, Donna, I could kiss you-”
“Don’t you dare!” she retorts, taking a step backwards.
He smiles, until she stumbles and he has to grab at her. “Careful. Donna, we have to do this quickly...”
Her breath’s coming in gasps, and her eyes are scared. “Do it. Please. Just... do it. And... no more!” she warns.
He won’t. How he could even have contemplated taking everything from her is beyond him.
She can barely stand now, and he can’t hold her, not when he needs his hands free. He tugs her around to lean against the console chair. “Donna. Donna, listen to me.” She nods, though her eyes are glazing over. “You’re still not gonna remember anything after my second regeneration. You can’t remember having me in your head. Do you understand?”
She just nods, and grabs at his hand. “Do it!”
***
Bit by bit, the tendrils of Time Lord intelligence trickle through his fingers and into his own head. They didn’t come from his own mind, but from his twin’s, so at first he’s a bit light-headed as everything jostles for space, but at least his mind’s built for it.
It’s not coming fast enough, though. Donna’s respirations are slowing and she’s falling into shock.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no!” He can’t lose her too. Not now. Not after everything else he’s sacrificed.
There’s still too much of his mind inside hers. It’s got to come out, and fast.
It worked once before. He lowers his lips to hers and kisses, at the same time pulling. It works. The rest of it, all those ideas and theories and all that information, speeds its path out of her head and into his. It’s all coming now. She’s going to be fine.
When she jerks back from him, breaking the kiss, and roars, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, alien boy?” all he can do is grin. Not even the flat of her hand across his cheek can spoil his mood.
She’s just Donna Noble again, entirely human, and she’s brilliant.
***
He takes her walking on the Moon of Poosh, no longer lost. Her hand held securely in his, he tells her as much as he can, but still leaves a lot unsaid.
She wants to know what happened to the Daleks, where Rose has gone to - and why he let her go; how they got away from the Daleks’ Crucible and where Jack is. She doesn’t remember being outside the TARDIS in the Crucible, so at least he doesn’t have to explain everyone else.
She hit her head when the TARDIS crashed, he tells her. In the heat of battle, he wasn’t able to get back inside the TARDIS to check on her until it was all over, and then she had concussion and he had to let her rest. Her brain’s protecting her by not letting her remember that part of it.
Yes, Rose has gone, and it’s the best thing for her, he tells Donna. It’s not really a lie. She’ll be happy in the parallel world with the other him, living the adventure he could never have - and, very likely, he suspects, some day travelling through space and time again.
“But what about you, Doctor?” Donna asks, and there’s a choke in her voice. “You missed her so much, and you were so happy to see her again.”
He smiles, and if there’s still lingering sadness there it’s only as it should be. “Still got you, haven’t I? Unless you’re planning on leaving me?”
“Nah.” Her fingers tighten around his. “I’m not goin’ anywhere. You promised me all of time and space, Doctor, and we’ve only just got started.”
“Yeah.” His grin’s more genuine now. “We have, haven’t we?”
“Besides,” she continues, “you still need a mate, don’t you?”
“That I do, Donna. That I do.”
“Yeah, well. Wouldn’t leave you on your own, would I? But there’s one condition, alien boy.” Her eyes narrow, focusing on him.
“And what’s that?” As long as it means she’s staying, he doesn’t care, really. Because she’s Donna and she’s brilliant and she saved the universe, and she’s his best friend.
“No snoggin’ me ever again. I don’t care if I need the kiss o’ life, you just keep your distance, you hear?”
He doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Only you, Donna Noble.”
The look she gives him is bemused. He shakes his head, and pulls her into his arms for a hug.
She won’t stay for ever either. One day, he will lose her too - but not today. Ood Sigma was wrong. Their song hasn’t ended. Not yet. Not for a long time.
“Come on.” Releasing her, he holds out his hand again. “Next stop, Adipose One!”
- end
Author: wmr wendymr
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble
Rated: G
Disclaimer: RTD's characters, but not entirely his plot.
Spoilers: SPOILERS FOR JOURNEY'S END
Summary: It’s not fair. It’s just not fair. He’s already given up Rose, and now he’ll have to lose Donna too.
Because I just couldn't let the ending stand. With many thanks to kae_nine for BRing.
And Their Song Continues
His hearts are heavy as he goes ahead of Donna back into the TARDIS.
After his joy at seeing Rose again back in his universe - and, of course, at the anticipation of seeing her - it’s torture to have to let her go again like this, after mere hours of her company and one hug. But it’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?
Or maybe it’s just the selfish thing.
He’s pushed her away from him a second time - sent her away for a third time. Not because he doesn’t want her, but because he wants her too much. He wants her, but he can’t give her what she wants. He loves her - oh, of course he does - but he would never have told her. Not in so many words. And he was never going to show her, not in the way she wanted.
Not because he doesn’t do that sort of thing - he’s not that much of a liar, even to himself - but because he’s too much of a coward to do it when it would mean more than a kiss, more than a night of shared desire. He told her once: he couldn’t bear to watch her wither and die while he stays the same. And, damnit, she made clear she couldn’t bear to see him regenerate again. Neither of those circumstances is avoidable, is it?
So it made sense, what he’s just done. There was his human counterpart to be dealt with, after all - he can’t have two of him in the TARDIS, and anyway it wouldn’t be fair on the other him to have to age and watch his Time Lord twin stay the same.
Of course, Jack would have been happy to look after his twin - happy in ways he doesn’t want to think too much about - and his twin would probably have been fairly happy there himself. As happy as he could be without the TARDIS, and without the woman they both love. And he could have kept Rose himself.
He contemplated that solution, for all of about five seconds once they were all in the TARDIS and flying her as a team. Rose back with him. Him and her and Donna travelling together.
Rose separated from her family again. Jackie losing her daughter permanently this time. Him keeping his distance because he’s too Time Lord still, too cowardly, to do anything else.
And his twin loving her as much as he does. He could see it as the three of them stood side by side piloting the ship.
It makes sense. He can’t - won’t - give her himself. So instead he gave her himself. Just a different him, different genetics, a human life-span, but still so very him. Still so much the Doctor. He might not have a TARDIS, or two hearts, or the ability to regenerate, but he’s the Doctor in every other way there is. Except that he’s a Doctor who can stay with Rose, and live out a human life with her.
He gave her a made-up mission, too. Not that the human him won’t feel some trauma, some amount of guilt - HHbecause it’s in their shared past, their common memories - but it’s not strictly true that he’s back to being the damaged, reluctant survivor of war his ninth self was. It really could have been either of them who pushed that button and destroyed the Daleks one final time.
The thing is that if there’s one thing he knows about Rose Tyler it’s that she can’t help reaching out to wounded souls. It’ll bring her closer to his other self and it’ll help her to accept him as hers while she comes to learn that he is still the man she loves in every way that matters. She’ll be fine. They’ll be fine, the two of them, he has no doubts whatsoever of that.
“They’ll be fine, yeah. But what about you, Doctor?”
It’s Donna, coming up to him, touching his arm. Damn, and he’d forgotten that one of the side-effects of her new half-Time Lord status is telepathic ability. Not that she can control it or anything, or even know that she’s doing it, but in the state he’s in he’s probably broadcasting all over the place. His twin would have been able to read every single thought.
He’s a selfish git, too. For a few moments, he even forgot that Donna was there. Forgot, too, all the trouble that still lies ahead for her. His hearts clench once again.
But he forces a smile. “You know me, Donna. I’m always all right.”
She slaps his arm. “Thought you’d stopped lying to me about that sort of thing. Anyway, you forgotten I think like you now?”
No, he hasn’t. That’s one thing he can’t possibly forget. But she’s right. He owes her more than glib lies.
“No, I’m not all right. Letting her go - pushing her away and leaving her with the other me - yes, it hurt. But pain fades. Always does, every time.” He gives her a crooked smile. “I’ll be fine. Anyway, the important thing is that she’s gonna be happy, yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nods. “Course, he’s got elements of my DNA in his bio-genetic make-up, because of the matter transfer during the generation process. Makes it all sound a bit kinky, really, doesn’t it?”
Despite everything, he laughs.
***
He’s not laughing for long, because it’s happening already. The human-Time Lord metacrisis, the event that can never happen, because it’s not possible. It’ll kill her if he doesn’t stop it.
Her brain’s getting stuck. One second she’s babbling at two hundred words a minute, just like him, talking about Felspoon and fixing the chameleon circuit and meeting Charlie Chaplin... and the next she’s stuck. Repeating the same word over and over, just as if she were ghosting, like Miss Evangelista in the Library.
He’s never going to be able to say the word binary again without remembering Donna Noble. DoctorDonna, only she can’t be. She can’t even be Donna, not the Donna he knows and... and cares so much about.
It’s not fair. It’s just not fair. He’s already given up Rose, and now he’ll have to lose Donna too. And Donna... she loses everything she’s had since she first met him. Everything she’s learned, everything she’s become, everything wonderful and brilliant and incredibly special that she is.
Oh, she always had that potential, didn’t she? Even on her wedding-day, the worst day of her life until now, when she was shouting and hurling abuse at all and sundry - especially him - she saw things no-one else saw. Things he didn’t want to see, but she made him.
Oh, Donna.
And the worst of it is that she knows what’s happening. She’s got his brain, after all. All of his knowledge, tumbling over inside her head, her little human brain that’s simply not built to carry all that information, all that understanding, all that knowledge of the universe and time and space.
She knows her fate, and she knows what he has to do.
“I won’t stay.” As if that’ll cure anything. She’d only be back on Earth on her own, with no-one to help her cope with what she is now, and no-one to rescue her when her brain starts to implode under the pressure.
It’s breaking her heart, and watching her is breaking his. Both of his. Because it’s not just that he’s losing her, but she’s losing him, too. She’s losing this life, and he can see, he can feel, just how much it means to her.
He can see, too, the second she realises what he’s going to do.
Oh, the way she’s looking at him... it’s shattering his hearts still further. He’s going to betray her in the worst possible way, and she knows it. She’s so proud of who she is now, Donna Noble, time-traveller - and now, too, DoctorDonna. She knows how far she’s come, though what she doesn’t know is that the potential was there in her all along. She won’t believe it, even though he’s tried to tell her.
“Don’t make me go back,” she pleads, but it’s no use. It’s no good. The alternative is that she’s going to die, and he can’t have that. Not another death on his conscience.
Doing this to her is going to kill him, but it’s the kindest thing he can do. She won’t remember a thing about him, or about everything she’s accomplished, but she’ll be alive. And all that wonderful, brilliant potential will still be inside her, just waiting to burst out. And it will. It will. He has to believe that. Because she’s Donna and she was always brilliant.
“Oh, Donna Noble, I am so sorry.” He is, oh, he is, but she’s heard him say those words to other people too many times, hasn’t she? It becomes meaningless after a while.
They had the best of times, he tells her. And they did. Oh, they did. She’s become his best friend, the companion who, even before she shared his mind, understood him better than almost anyone else ever has. Even better than Rose; for all he loves her, there were times when Rose just didn’t get it. There still are. Rose still believes he can do things that he just can’t. And that’s why she’s better off without this him.
Why does he have to lose Donna too? Why do the universes have to be so damn unfair?
Oh, Donna. For one moment, you were the most important woman in the whole wide universe.
“Goodbye,” he whispers, even as her pleas make him shatter inside.
Tears fall unchecked down her cheeks as he presses his fingers to her temples. He knows, oh, he knows how she feels, because he’s crying inside.
Goodbye, Donna Noble, my dear friend.
***
He sees her in the living-room of her mum’s house, looking right through him as if she doesn’t know him. Shaking his hand but barely acknowledging that he’s there.
Hears her on the phone to her friend, laughing in that sneering way she had when he first met her, completely in denial about everything that’s just happened to her planet, scoffing at the possibility that the planets could have realigned themselves and that aliens took over the Earth.
He sees himself saying goodbye to her and observes her reaction, knows that he means nothing at all to her, not now. He understands that she’s retreated back into the brittle shell that was the shallow Donna, hiding away everything that’s brilliant about her because it’s how she protects himself.
He hears her mother tell him that she is special, that she is important, but knows that Sylvia will never tell Donna. That she’ll just be relieved that Donna’s home and safe and willing to do what she’s told again. Yes, she’ll still have Wilf, but he’s dominated by Sylvia too. What good will he be, except as the one person in her life who’ll love Donna no matter what she’s like?
He sees himself, soaking wet, back in the TARDIS on his own. All the laughter, all the happy faces, in there with him mere hours ago gone. Back to their own lives. Back to their families, their friends, their jobs and their human lives. He’s sent them all away, because he can’t hold them close. He won’t let himself. Sarah was right.
He sees himself staring at the console, just as he was months earlier when he looked up and remembered that he was alone.
Donna was supposed to be his mate. She was supposed to be the one to stop him. She was supposed to stay with him.
His hands tremble against her face, and he forces himself to close his eyes.
***
It’s not as easy as it should be. Her mind’s much stronger now that it’s part Time Lord, and she’s fighting him in spite of the metacrisis.
He can’t help but be proud of her, all the same. He’s had more than nine centuries to get used to this mind of his. She’s had barely a couple of hours, and she’s doing this. Fighting him. Trying to stop him.
She’s doing something else, too. She’s thinking.
There’s another way, Doctor. You know there is, and if you weren’t so busy being emo over losing everyone again you’d already have seen it.
Another way? He falters, and his fingers slip again.
Yeah. Course there is. You don’t have to take it all. What’s the point in that?
Oh. Oh! “Oh, Donna Noble, you’re brilliant!”
His hands drop, and he steps back from her. Of course. Of course. “All I have to do is reverse the biological metacrisis. Take the Time Lord part of your brain back into mine... and Bob’s your uncle! Donna Noble, all human again. Safe! Oh, Donna, I could kiss you-”
“Don’t you dare!” she retorts, taking a step backwards.
He smiles, until she stumbles and he has to grab at her. “Careful. Donna, we have to do this quickly...”
Her breath’s coming in gasps, and her eyes are scared. “Do it. Please. Just... do it. And... no more!” she warns.
He won’t. How he could even have contemplated taking everything from her is beyond him.
She can barely stand now, and he can’t hold her, not when he needs his hands free. He tugs her around to lean against the console chair. “Donna. Donna, listen to me.” She nods, though her eyes are glazing over. “You’re still not gonna remember anything after my second regeneration. You can’t remember having me in your head. Do you understand?”
She just nods, and grabs at his hand. “Do it!”
***
Bit by bit, the tendrils of Time Lord intelligence trickle through his fingers and into his own head. They didn’t come from his own mind, but from his twin’s, so at first he’s a bit light-headed as everything jostles for space, but at least his mind’s built for it.
It’s not coming fast enough, though. Donna’s respirations are slowing and she’s falling into shock.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no!” He can’t lose her too. Not now. Not after everything else he’s sacrificed.
There’s still too much of his mind inside hers. It’s got to come out, and fast.
It worked once before. He lowers his lips to hers and kisses, at the same time pulling. It works. The rest of it, all those ideas and theories and all that information, speeds its path out of her head and into his. It’s all coming now. She’s going to be fine.
When she jerks back from him, breaking the kiss, and roars, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, alien boy?” all he can do is grin. Not even the flat of her hand across his cheek can spoil his mood.
She’s just Donna Noble again, entirely human, and she’s brilliant.
***
He takes her walking on the Moon of Poosh, no longer lost. Her hand held securely in his, he tells her as much as he can, but still leaves a lot unsaid.
She wants to know what happened to the Daleks, where Rose has gone to - and why he let her go; how they got away from the Daleks’ Crucible and where Jack is. She doesn’t remember being outside the TARDIS in the Crucible, so at least he doesn’t have to explain everyone else.
She hit her head when the TARDIS crashed, he tells her. In the heat of battle, he wasn’t able to get back inside the TARDIS to check on her until it was all over, and then she had concussion and he had to let her rest. Her brain’s protecting her by not letting her remember that part of it.
Yes, Rose has gone, and it’s the best thing for her, he tells Donna. It’s not really a lie. She’ll be happy in the parallel world with the other him, living the adventure he could never have - and, very likely, he suspects, some day travelling through space and time again.
“But what about you, Doctor?” Donna asks, and there’s a choke in her voice. “You missed her so much, and you were so happy to see her again.”
He smiles, and if there’s still lingering sadness there it’s only as it should be. “Still got you, haven’t I? Unless you’re planning on leaving me?”
“Nah.” Her fingers tighten around his. “I’m not goin’ anywhere. You promised me all of time and space, Doctor, and we’ve only just got started.”
“Yeah.” His grin’s more genuine now. “We have, haven’t we?”
“Besides,” she continues, “you still need a mate, don’t you?”
“That I do, Donna. That I do.”
“Yeah, well. Wouldn’t leave you on your own, would I? But there’s one condition, alien boy.” Her eyes narrow, focusing on him.
“And what’s that?” As long as it means she’s staying, he doesn’t care, really. Because she’s Donna and she’s brilliant and she saved the universe, and she’s his best friend.
“No snoggin’ me ever again. I don’t care if I need the kiss o’ life, you just keep your distance, you hear?”
He doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Only you, Donna Noble.”
The look she gives him is bemused. He shakes his head, and pulls her into his arms for a hug.
She won’t stay for ever either. One day, he will lose her too - but not today. Ood Sigma was wrong. Their song hasn’t ended. Not yet. Not for a long time.
“Come on.” Releasing her, he holds out his hand again. “Next stop, Adipose One!”
- end