FIC: Songs, Shots, and Shocks (2/2)
Title: Songs, Shots and Shocks
Genre: Doctor Who
Rating: T
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: Prompt fic for hezikiah's birthday. The Eighth Doctor investigates an alien disturbance on Earth and runs into a rather determined birthday girl. Nothing in his training prepared him for this. And his later self is unprepared to deal with a shocking reminder.
Disclaimer: I don't know if this would fall under what Paul McGaan meant when he said, in answer to my question of how Eight and Donna would've gotten along had they met, that they would've had adventures. Said in a rather intriguing tone, FTR. But I'm positive that The Powers That Be would be horrified. (Which wouldn't be such a bad thing.) Anyway, not mine.
Dedication: hezikiah, who gave me this prompt for her birthday. And, as always, tardis_mole for betaing and making sure it didn't suck.
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, my friend. Life has been a pain in many ways, not the least to my muse. So I decided to use Camp NaNo to make myself write and finish this one. I also owe thanks to a member of my writing group, Kristin. She's not even a Whovian, but I told her the prompt and she provided the title. She has no idea how fitting part of it is.
My dear hezikiah has been through a lot lately. In addition to moving the US debut of Stalking John Barrowman forward, her sister has been in the hospital. A form of cancer. I only hope that this helps bring a smile to my friend's face.
And my beta, tardis_mole, sends hir own wishes of support.
Chapter One
Songs, Shots, and Shocks
Started April 1, 2015
Finished May 7, 2015
CHAPTER TWO: SCENE OF THE CRIME REVISITED
“We aren't due to visit my family for another week, Spaceman. What are we doing here?”
The Doctor debated silently whether to answer truthfully or if he should wait. He decided that some truth was best. “I wanted to revisit a place I went to when I was a different man.”
“Different man? Is that that regeneration thing you mentioned?”
“Yes. I don't usually go to these places, but I thought I would with you.”
“Why's that?”
“You make a lot more things enjoyable for me.”
Donna smiled wryly. “Thanks. I think.”
“It's a high compliment, Earthgirl. Smile. It'll be fun.”
He hoped. He would bet his TARDIS that she would remember the place.
As they turned a corner Donna's eyebrows shot up. “That's my old favourite pub! That's where I saw that creature I told you about! The man in the velvet coat got this pesky short man who had the creature to leave me alone.”
He thought about admitting to the truth right there, but decided that she would have to control her reaction better if they were in public. No one was more careful about not advertising his non-Earth origins than Donna, and it made his life so much easier. They could blend in more readily.
Not that there might be much blending in since she was a native to the area. On the other hand, if memory served him well, they had blended on a different level with the amount of whiskey they'd drunk that night.
Donna was lost in the memories. “Oh, he was a tasty man. Shared a bottle with me. Do you drink Jack Daniels?”
“I can. It's been a while,” he hedged.
Something told Donna to look more carefully at his face. “What aren't you telling me, Sunshine?”
Luckily they were by the door. “In a moment. Show me the best beers here” He held the door open for her with a smile.
She eyed him suspiciously, but smiled back and entered. She led him to the bar, where she ordered them pints of her old favorite drink. The bartender remembered her and she ended up chatting with him for a while until she ended the conversation by slapping the bloke on the arm before leading the Doctor to an empty table.
One the Doctor recognized. It was the same place he had become so tipsy that he had not noticed that Donna slipped her knickers into his pocket. The place where he had played the ukulele for her and she had listened in enchantment.
“Same booth,” she remarked. “I told him about my birthday and how my friends at the time weren't supporting my dancing. One told me I should-”
“No one should tell anyone that they have the grace of a tank,” he interjected, deciding to rip the bandage off in one move.
She paused. “Did you just read my mind?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know? Think it?”
“Donna, you're a great dancer. Middle Eastern dancing suits you.”
“Wait, I've never told you I can do that!”
“You didn't. I saw it.”
“No, you haven't. I've had the doors closed. Unless you've been watching me through some monitor?”
“Donna! I don't violate anyone's privacy like that!”
“Then how did you see me?”
He took a deep breath. “Because that man you met is the man I was when I was last here.”
She blinked, wrapping the words around her mind for a long moment. Then her eyebrows shot into her fringe. “That was you?!”
“Yes. Let me prove it.”
He drew the ukulele out and began playing a tune. He knew would recognize it.
She blushed as the memories came back, superimposing themselves over the current moment. “Oh god, I-I'm sorry. What did I seem like, coming on to you like that?”
“Donna, I'm not angry. You were a delight. I'd never had so much fun with someone I'd just met. I learned several things I never knew before, and got to relax like I rarely get to. I wish I'd been able to have such fun as my last self, at least much earlier. I'd be in a better place now, and be a better... man, I guess.”
The distaste left by the memories provoked him into taking a long drink from his glass. He had to turn his attention to identifying every ingredient he could in the beer.
She was silent and motionless as she pondered the revelation. Her best friend, the alien she teased for being a skinny streak of nothing, was also the man she had flirted heavily with over a decade earlier. The man she slipped her underwear into his pocket. The one who had suggested in that sexy voice that they could have 'adventures'.
If only she had figured out that he had meant travel in the TARDIS. She might have saved herself considerable embarrassment now. Not to mention sixteen months trying to find him again. Twice. Not that she had known she was looking for the same man.
On the other hand, he really did not look angry over it. If anything, the biggest emotion seemed to be frustration. It took her longer than it should have for him to figure out the cause.
“You're angry that I flirted with that you and won't with this you.”
He would not meet her eyes. Instead he downed the whole of the rest of his beer.
Donna, her own beer barely touched by comparison, sank in her seat. “Oh, Doctor. I'm... I'm sorry. I guess I felt so scared and hurt by Lance that I didn't want to let anyone too close. It was like he poisoned the good memories I had. That day with you then was the one good memory of a bloke that I had.”
He lifted his eyes. “Really? All the other men in your life were complete arses?”
“Yeah. The ones who weren't? Either turned out to be gay, or just not going to work out with me. Didn't suit, you know?”
“I wish I did.”
“You don't get on with everyone you meet, right? And some you work better with than others. That was my situation at the best of times. Means I had only a few things going well in my life, and none of them were in my personal life.”
That drew her to take a long sip.
It dawned on the Doctor that Donna could drink for a long time given that she lacked a respiratory bypass. Proof of how much practice she had had with her trips across Europe.
She finished her beer and sighed. “What, no comment?”
He kept looking at her with an even expression. “I don't think anything they said is worth dignifying with a comment. You're better than any of that, and the ones who didn't hurt you still did you know favours by keeping you hanging on as long as they obviously did.”
Donna found a tiny smile. “Thanks.”
“I mean it, Donna.”
“Fine. So... do I dare ask what you thought of me back then? Was I prettier then?”
He was quiet as he looked at her, but he smiled. “There's no comparing the two of you. You're the same person - and just as magnificent.”
“Really? You're not just saying that?”
“If you haven't noticed, I stopped lying to you after you called me on one after you slapped me the second time. I've lied less around you than I have with anyone else.”
“Doesn't speak too well of how you treated the others. Wait, did that include Rose?”
He grimaced. “Lied to her all the time. Lied about being happy. Lied about my age. Lied about almost everything to her. Even let her believe things about how I felt about her.”
Donna's eyes widened. “Oh. So... what does that mean about why we're here? You decided to stop lying to me about knowing me before?”
“To be honest, it wasn't too long after that that I got caught up in the Time War. Once that started everything became jumbled in my mind and I didn't remember a lot of things until much, much later. Caused me a lot of embarrassment, but I suppose I should be used to that. Still, once I did remember that I'd met you before it didn't take long for me to decide that I had to come clean somehow. Coming here seemed the easiest way.”
“Well, you did bring back good memories.” She smiled.
Then she stilled and shifted uncomfortably. “So... did what I... left you... get destroyed in the War?”
His face gained additional color. “Um... no, it's actually still in that pocket.”
She blushed. What the hell was she supposed to do with that? And was that very thought a leading suggestion? “I liked that pair. Still have its matching bra.”
“Bet you still look beautiful in them.”
Her face turned pinker. “Don't get cheeky, Spaceman!” she hissed
“I'm not. I'm perfectly serious.”
And he had never looked more sincere.
Her mouth dropped as the color faded, replaced by her skin going paler and paler. She was completely speechless.
Part of him wanted to fill the silence, but when did speaking from nervousness help him? Only in life or death situations. And this was not one, no matter how much it felt like it. If Donna had been going to slap him she would have done so already. So he was safe on that score. But whether she would stay with him was not clear.
Donna needed several long breaths to recover her voice. “Um... I guess... I thought that you liked me, and there was part of me that regretted turning you down.”
“Just as well you did. I wouldn't have been able to keep you safe. I don't trust that my luck would've held out.”
He also was not about to mention exactly how his Eighth regeneration died. At least not without her prompting it. And he was not certain how comfortable he would be when she did. Not if, when.
She noticed that he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the topic. She sighed. “I'll get us another round.”
“Let me, I need to get up a moment.” And he was up with both their glasses before she could lift her bum out of the chair.
Donna was not expecting him to have any money on him, given how her first meeting with this him went. She was expecting to have to bail him out, but he drew out an actual five pound note and paid properly. Her eyes were even larger than they were when she realized she was not anywhere on Earth back on what was her wedding day. Her almost wedding day.
When he returned he noticed her stunned reaction and apparent inability to speak. For once he was not pleased to render someone who talked as much as he did silent. He waited to see how long it would take her to recover. Hopefully before their beer ran the risk of going flat.
She finally shook herself out of her stupor. “Okay, I wonder if this is how the after effects of electroshock therapy feel like.”
“That was sort of what that alien wanted to do to you,” he whispered.
“Wait, that man that day was an alien? Oh my god, no wonder I thought that thing looked like that!”
He had to smile, just a little. “I'd never heard of the Graske's favourite pet described like that. It was funny. Although I still personally think they look like the bastard child of a lobster and a crab.”
She giggled. “Okay, maybe you win that one. Just don't count on it happening often, Sunshine.”
His smile grew bigger. “The rare wins in our verbal duels are that much more of an honour, Donna.”
“Oh, shut it,” she teased, finally feeling comfortable with him again. “So... where does this leave us? Are we still just mates?”
The idea left him feeling more than a bit empty. He sighed loudly. Well, loudly to their ears. It probably did not carry past the table next to them, which was mercifully empty. “Maybe we can just see where it goes. I've never been unclear about the future before, even my own. So... I'd like to have this feeling of how life is like for those unburdened by Time sight.”
“And... if that includes something... interspecies?”
“As long as it feels right, what's the problem? There's no one left to complain on my side. And aren't you ready to be treated like a queen?”
She blushed, but held his gaze. Now that she looked hard at him, she could finally see the man she had fallen for in him. They really were the same man.
“Doctor?”
“Yes, Donna?”
“You know, this you has even more amazing eyes than the other you did. And a lovely smile.”
His eyes widened. “Donna Noble, complimenting me? Have I died and found Heaven?”
“Watch it, Spaceman!” she quietly snapped, although she did not lose her smile.
He grinned. “And what about my hair? Is that your third favourite thing about me?”
“Actually, I was going to say your bum.”
“When did you notice that?” he squeaked.
She blushed. “When you were climbing to see where we were underground.”
His eyes widened. That long ago? Oh, the time they had lost by not being honest!
“Anyway, I guess I'm ready to see where things go, too.”
He paused a long moment to see if she really meant it, but saw no insincerity. Not that he thought her capable of it for a moment, but it was not often that something he wanted was really within his grasp. A slow and soft smile graced his face as he lifted his glass again. “To the future, whatever it brings?”
She raised hers in answer. “The universe won't know what hit it.”
“I hope not.”
Their eyes remained locked as they clicked glasses and drank. Some reminiscence would pass now, that was certain.
Donna paused a moment. “Doctor, I think this might be the first time for either of us where we don't feel weighted down by the past.”
His eyes widened a moment before his face split into a huge grin. “No, we won't. For once in my life I can enjoy the present moment fully on my way to my future,” he quietly but firmly declared as he held her free hand in his.
He did not know how to react when his hearts seemed to stumble in their beating when she smiled and turned her hand to grasp his, almost like electroshocks felt. But it felt far lovelier, like something he would gladly experience again and again.
And he tried very hard to forget about his earlier thoughts about her and her underwear. No matter how much he thought teal would look good against her skin.
THE END