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Bleep Encounter by wmr [Reviews - 42]  Author's Notes: Written for a 'spare' prompt in the Ninth Doctor Ficathon: Nine and Donna, Mars. My first attempt at writing Donna... eek! And with thanks to Dave7 for providing the lines of dialogue which got me started, and for BRing. | |
There’s an insistent bleeping coming from somewhere nearby. And it’s very irritating.
For the fourth time, she looks up from her book, looking around for the source of the noise. And, finally, she thinks she’s found it.
“Oi!” She fixes the skinhead in the leather jacket sitting on the opposite park bench with a you’re-annoying-me glare. “Do you mind?”
He glances up, and blue-grey eyes meet hers with an impish twinkle. “I don’t if you don’t.”
Oh, one of them. Perv. “Sod off,” she mutters, turning back to her book.
Bzzzz.
She looks up again, and this time speaks through gritted teeth. “Do you mind! I’m trying to study. I have an exam tomorrow!”
“Oh.” He looks up again. “What’s it in?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but geography.” Teach Lance to say she can’t find Germany on a map! Once she’s passed these exams, she’ll have a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and History. She’s finally caught up on all those world events she missed - even if the syllabus didn’t cover early twenty-first century alien invasions.
“That’s nice,” Skinhead replies. She ignores him and turns back to her book.
Bzzzz.
There it is again. And... wait a second, she’s heard that before.
She flings her book down and looks at him properly. Dark hair, skinhead cut. Long nose and thin cheekbones. Ears that could put Dumbo to shame. Not even his mother could call him good-looking. And that accent - he sounds like he belongs in Coronation Street.
But he’s got something that makes a noise she’s only heard one other person make.
“What’s that you got there?” she demands sharply.
His eyes widen at her tone. “Nothin’. Just a little gadget, that’s all.”
“What kind of gadget?”
He sighs, then holds out his hand towards her, revealing a silver-coloured tubular object. A very familiar object. “A sonic screwdriver, if you must know.”
Her breath catches. “Where’d you get that?”
“What d’you mean, where’d I get it? It’s mine.”
“No, it’s not!” She leaps up and, before he can stop her, grabs it from him. “Where is he? What did you do with him?”
Suddenly, he’s standing too, towering over her, the grey-blue eyes suddenly dark and stormy. “Give it me back.”
She whips her hands behind her back. “No. Where is he?”
“Give it back.”
She tries a new tack. “Who are you?”
But he’s behind her suddenly and the screwdriver’s extricated from her hand. She whirls around. He’s checking it over, but then he looks up at her again. “All right. Who are you, an’ what’s your problem?”
“Who am I? Who are you?”
And, abruptly, he’s giving her a wide, beaming smile. "Hello, I'm the Doctor!"
What?
"No, you're not."
His eyes widen. "What do you mean, 'no, I'm not'? I am the Doctor."
"No, you're bloody not - I met the Doctor and you are very definitely not him. Unless you're all called 'Doctor' on Mars, the Doctor is a skinny streak of bacon in trainers, keeps nattering on about his ex."
“Ex?” Skinhead’s eyes narrow. “What are you on about?” And then his expression changes. “Don’t answer that. You must have met another me. That description, sounds like someone I haven’t been yet. You’ve met a future me.”
“A future...” Okay, this is making no sense at all. Even for a Martian. “What d’you mean, a future you?”
“If you’ve met me,” he says, with exaggerated patience, “then you know I’m not human. Right?”
“Right.”
“Well, if I’m not human, you shouldn’t expect me to do things the way humans do.” He huffs out a breath. “When I die, I get a new body. You’ve met another of my bodies. One I haven’t been yet, since I don’t remember you.”
“Oh. Right.” Yeah. New bodies. This is insane. She’s dreaming.
“I am the Doctor,” he repeats. “And you are?”
“Hang on,” she tells him. “If you haven’t met me yet, should I tell you that? And if you’re meeting me now, how come the you I met already doesn’t remember meeting me as you?”
“Cause I didn’t, until now.” He grins. Oh, if she thought that other him was infuriating, this one... God, he makes her want to scream.
And yet... “You’re really the Doctor?”
“Yeah.” He holds up a hand, waggles it a little, and beams. “Hello!”
“Hel-” She breaks off, shakes her head. “Oh, this is insane. You’re insane. Now I know you’re definitely the Doctor!”
He grins again. “Nice to meet you!”
She sighs. “What are you doing here, then? Not another alien plot to destroy Earth?”
“No.” He looks as if that idea’s completely bizarre. “I’m just waiting for my friend.” He gestures towards the bench. “Screws were loose. Was just tightenin’ them.”
“Oh.” His friend. An uneasy feeling settles over her. “What’s her name?”
“Rose.” He seems completely unaware of the look on his face as he says her name. Oh god. No wonder the other Doctor was the way he was when she met him.
He said she was alive, right? Safe.
But he lost her. And he was devastated.
Her breath catches. She could tell him. He might not lose her then, if he knows. He might be able to do something to stop it.
But...
He said things, didn’t he? Things that made no sense then, but... He can’t go back in someone else’s timeline, he said. Does that mean that changing history’s a bad thing? There’s all those science-fiction films the blokes in her study group like, and they talk about things like paradoxes and stuff like that. What if it’s dangerous to tell him about his future?
He’s watching her, she realises, and she slowly meets his gaze. He nods, and a smile slowly curves across his mouth. The attractiveness of it’s like a blow to the solar plexus. God, he’s sexy.
“Good woman,” he says, approval in his voice. “That’s right. Don’t tell me anything.”
Slowly, she nods.
His attention’s distracted suddenly; he’s looking over her shoulder. She turns, and sees a young blonde woman looking in their direction and waving.
“Gotta go,” the Doctor tells her. He starts to stride away, but then pauses beside her, looking down at her. “Nice to’ve met you, Donna Noble. Think I’m lookin’ forward to meeting you again.”
Her breath catches. “How did you know my name?”
He reaches past her, down to the bench she was sitting on, and picks up her book. The cover’s open and her name’s in the inside flap.
“Good luck with your exam,” he says. “Maybe when we meet again I’ll take you to Mars. Teach you somethin’ about real geography.”
And, just like that, he’s gone.
She watches as he meets up with Rose, the two of them talk for a moment, and then they turn and walk off together. Her hand slides into his automatically, his shoulder brushes hers and his dark head dips to come closer to her blonde one as they walk.
The Doctor and his friend. Without a care in the world.
For the Doctor’s sake, she hopes it’s a very long time before he sees her again.
She slides her book back into her bag and heads off towards the opposite park gate and home.
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