fic: success rate
Title: Success Rate
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Ten2, Donna
Spoilers?: Set smack-dab in Journey's End, so... yeah.
Summary: On board the TARDIS, Donna and the brand new Doctor consider the odds.
Excerpt: All right, so she’d been locked in the TARDIS and chucked into a fiery pit by angry pepper pots, and the Doctor’s pet hand had grown into a person. It wasn’t like it was the strangest thing she’d experienced.
She watched him loop around the console and tried to force her mind to focus.
No matter how much she’d seen with the Doctor, there were still things that sent Donna Noble reeling, her mind skidding like a car with locked brakes. It took and more and more, these days, but the universe had taken to the challenge in stride, leaving Donna blinking dumbly in its wake.
She set her shoulders and gave her head the tiniest of shakes. Focus, Donna! All right, so she’d been locked in the TARDIS and chucked into a fiery pit by angry pepper pots, and the Doctor’s pet hand had grown into a person. It wasn’t like it was the strangest thing she’d experienced.
...Okay, so maybe it was.
Still, standing there gawping was helping no one. She watched him zip around the console and tried to dream up a way to be useful aside from merely staying out of his way.
“Should be able to find a way to listen in, find out what Davros is planning,” he was saying, tapping something out on the keyboard, “but the trick is staying unnoticed. You haven’t got any particular moral objection to eavesdropping on genocidal madmen, have you? No? Brilliant.”
Donna watched him adjust a dial and frowned. “Anything I can do?”
He sprung halfway around the room just to press a button. “You could fill me in.”
“On what?”
He paused what he was doing to send her an unimpressed stare. “One minute I was regenerating and the next I was naked on the floor in a burning TARDIS. I’m making the assumption something happened in the interim.”
She felt herself bristle at the tone but decided to save the snappy retorts for later. “Right.” She thought about the blank spot in his memory and rolled her shoulders. “Not much, really. A bit more of that vague ‘darkness is coming’ rot, not that it told us much… there wasn’t much time. They found us almost immediately. Barely had time for introductions.” She paused, scraping her mind for any significant details. “Rose hugged you. I mean, she hugged him.”
The Doctor made a noise that tried to pass itself off as disinterested, but Donna knew better. She’d seen the way the other Doctor had smiled when he’d finally pulled the blonde close to him.
The thought sent her mind spinning again. The other Doctor. But wasn’t that this one? The clone or the duplicate or the biological meta-whatsit -- part Doctor, part Donna, like their bloody child, as if that thought wasn’t ridiculous enough. The explanation he’d given had been just shy of destiny and Donna couldn’t work out whether she ought to be proud or a wee bit insulted. That would be the way, wouldn’t it? Destiny pushing and shoving her into the right place at the right time all so she could touch a bloody dismembered hand.
For the first time, Donna had the clarity of mind to wonder what might happen after the universe stopped ending. She doubted even the TARDIS was big enough to house two gigantic egos, and for all his bravado, Donna couldn’t imagine the Doctor being able to literally live with himself.
A worried chill trickled down her spine. Maybe he won’t have to, hissed the pessimistic voice in her head that always sounded just a bit like her mother.
“They’re all right, though, yeah?” Swallowing, Donna followed him as he stepped around the console. “I mean, if they wanted to kill us they could’ve done it right away. Right?”
He was silent for a moment as he regarded her, then his shoulders twitched in a brief shrug. “They won’t kill me. Him. Davros’ll want to gloat.” His mouth tightened into the thin line that typically signaled Hell for whoever was on the receiving end of his anger. “And Jack - Jack’s immortal, couldn’t kill him if they tried. They probably will. Try, that is.”
“He’s immortal?”
“Yep. And much too old for you, by the way.” He ignored her sound of protest and spun the monitor towards himself. “It’s Rose’s fault, sort of, it’s... a long story.” He waved his hand as though that would somehow prevent her from dragging the long story out of him the instant she had the chance.
“Seriously?” Donna laughed despite herself. “What, she immortal too?”
“No.”
His expression as he said it was tense, a glimpse of the tightly wound coil of anxiety that the Doctor was usually so good at hiding. It reawakened a similar unease in Donna, and she hurried to reassure him. “She’ll be okay.” He didn’t look up, and Donna tried to inject more confidence into her voice. “I’m sure she’s okay.”
The Doctor laughed, low and mirthless. “Oh, for the Daleks’ sake I hope so,” he agreed, “because if they’ve killed Rose Tyler before I’ve even had a chance to hug her, they’ve made their second colossal mistake in twenty minutes.”
Donna didn’t doubt it; the curve of his lips was frightening even to her, never mind the Daleks. “What was the first?”
He finally paused what he was doing to look up at her, again wearing an expression that told her it ought to be obvious. “Trying to kill you.” He raised his eyebrows. “Look where that got them.”
“Two Doctors,” she said. He nodded, and Donna felt herself grinning. “God, they’re doomed.”
“Doomed? Millions of Daleks against the two of us and a TARDIS they think they’ve destroyed? Doomed?” He grinned back at her, a hint of the confidence she’d been searching for surfacing at last. “Yeah, I think they are.”
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Ten2, Donna
Spoilers?: Set smack-dab in Journey's End, so... yeah.
Summary: On board the TARDIS, Donna and the brand new Doctor consider the odds.
Excerpt: All right, so she’d been locked in the TARDIS and chucked into a fiery pit by angry pepper pots, and the Doctor’s pet hand had grown into a person. It wasn’t like it was the strangest thing she’d experienced.
She watched him loop around the console and tried to force her mind to focus.
No matter how much she’d seen with the Doctor, there were still things that sent Donna Noble reeling, her mind skidding like a car with locked brakes. It took and more and more, these days, but the universe had taken to the challenge in stride, leaving Donna blinking dumbly in its wake.
She set her shoulders and gave her head the tiniest of shakes. Focus, Donna! All right, so she’d been locked in the TARDIS and chucked into a fiery pit by angry pepper pots, and the Doctor’s pet hand had grown into a person. It wasn’t like it was the strangest thing she’d experienced.
...Okay, so maybe it was.
Still, standing there gawping was helping no one. She watched him zip around the console and tried to dream up a way to be useful aside from merely staying out of his way.
“Should be able to find a way to listen in, find out what Davros is planning,” he was saying, tapping something out on the keyboard, “but the trick is staying unnoticed. You haven’t got any particular moral objection to eavesdropping on genocidal madmen, have you? No? Brilliant.”
Donna watched him adjust a dial and frowned. “Anything I can do?”
He sprung halfway around the room just to press a button. “You could fill me in.”
“On what?”
He paused what he was doing to send her an unimpressed stare. “One minute I was regenerating and the next I was naked on the floor in a burning TARDIS. I’m making the assumption something happened in the interim.”
She felt herself bristle at the tone but decided to save the snappy retorts for later. “Right.” She thought about the blank spot in his memory and rolled her shoulders. “Not much, really. A bit more of that vague ‘darkness is coming’ rot, not that it told us much… there wasn’t much time. They found us almost immediately. Barely had time for introductions.” She paused, scraping her mind for any significant details. “Rose hugged you. I mean, she hugged him.”
The Doctor made a noise that tried to pass itself off as disinterested, but Donna knew better. She’d seen the way the other Doctor had smiled when he’d finally pulled the blonde close to him.
The thought sent her mind spinning again. The other Doctor. But wasn’t that this one? The clone or the duplicate or the biological meta-whatsit -- part Doctor, part Donna, like their bloody child, as if that thought wasn’t ridiculous enough. The explanation he’d given had been just shy of destiny and Donna couldn’t work out whether she ought to be proud or a wee bit insulted. That would be the way, wouldn’t it? Destiny pushing and shoving her into the right place at the right time all so she could touch a bloody dismembered hand.
For the first time, Donna had the clarity of mind to wonder what might happen after the universe stopped ending. She doubted even the TARDIS was big enough to house two gigantic egos, and for all his bravado, Donna couldn’t imagine the Doctor being able to literally live with himself.
A worried chill trickled down her spine. Maybe he won’t have to, hissed the pessimistic voice in her head that always sounded just a bit like her mother.
“They’re all right, though, yeah?” Swallowing, Donna followed him as he stepped around the console. “I mean, if they wanted to kill us they could’ve done it right away. Right?”
He was silent for a moment as he regarded her, then his shoulders twitched in a brief shrug. “They won’t kill me. Him. Davros’ll want to gloat.” His mouth tightened into the thin line that typically signaled Hell for whoever was on the receiving end of his anger. “And Jack - Jack’s immortal, couldn’t kill him if they tried. They probably will. Try, that is.”
“He’s immortal?”
“Yep. And much too old for you, by the way.” He ignored her sound of protest and spun the monitor towards himself. “It’s Rose’s fault, sort of, it’s... a long story.” He waved his hand as though that would somehow prevent her from dragging the long story out of him the instant she had the chance.
“Seriously?” Donna laughed despite herself. “What, she immortal too?”
“No.”
His expression as he said it was tense, a glimpse of the tightly wound coil of anxiety that the Doctor was usually so good at hiding. It reawakened a similar unease in Donna, and she hurried to reassure him. “She’ll be okay.” He didn’t look up, and Donna tried to inject more confidence into her voice. “I’m sure she’s okay.”
The Doctor laughed, low and mirthless. “Oh, for the Daleks’ sake I hope so,” he agreed, “because if they’ve killed Rose Tyler before I’ve even had a chance to hug her, they’ve made their second colossal mistake in twenty minutes.”
Donna didn’t doubt it; the curve of his lips was frightening even to her, never mind the Daleks. “What was the first?”
He finally paused what he was doing to look up at her, again wearing an expression that told her it ought to be obvious. “Trying to kill you.” He raised his eyebrows. “Look where that got them.”
“Two Doctors,” she said. He nodded, and Donna felt herself grinning. “God, they’re doomed.”
“Doomed? Millions of Daleks against the two of us and a TARDIS they think they’ve destroyed? Doomed?” He grinned back at her, a hint of the confidence she’d been searching for surfacing at last. “Yeah, I think they are.”