How The Winds Are Laughing

by Kathryn Andersen

Chapter 4. Got To Get You Into My Life

Wilf frowned out the window at the fading light. Donna had been behaving oddly lately, almost secretive; vague about where she was going, what she was doing. Brighton in the off-season - what was that all about?

So when he heard the sound that the Doctor's spaceship made when it materialized, he ran out the door and down the street towards the sound. He spotted the blue box as it faded into existence, and was straight in front of it when the door opened.

"Doc-" he began, and his jaw dropped as his red-headed granddaughter stepped out. "Donna?"

"Gramps?" A flush coloured her face, then she stepped forward with resolve. "You don't have to lie any more, Gramps; the Doctor cured me."

"Cured you?" Gramps said. "But he said-"

A breeze kicked up as the blue box began to vanish, noisily.

"He's leaving!" Gramps said. "Come back!" he called out. "Why is he leaving? Aren't you going with him? Don't tell me you're angry at him - he had to do it Donna, you were dying!"

"I know, Gramps, I know," she said. She patted his shoulder, still gazing at the place where the TARDIS had been. "I won't say I'm not a little angry, but..."

"Don't you want to travel any more?" he asked. "I know it's dangerous, but-"

"I do want to travel with him, Gramps, I do!" Donna said. "But I need to travel with my Doctor - the one who just left is a different person."

"A different person?"

"It's complicated," Donna said. "Let me tell you over a cuppa."

-oOo-

The scent of tea still lingered in the kitchen, but their cups were empty.

"So how are you going to find your Doctor?" Gramps asked.

"I have a plan... and it should be quicker than looking for weird trouble."

"What?"

Donna smiled, and tapped her mobile phone against her chin. "I'm going to find someone who has his number."

-oOo-

"Hello, my name is Donna, and I'm calling on behalf of World-"

Click.

"The nerve of some people!" Donna snapped.

"They think we're telemarketers, dear," said Doris in the next booth over. "Don't even stop to listen."

Donna took a deep breath. "All in a good cause," she said, plastering on a smile, and went to the next number on the list. Why did I think this was such a brilliant idea? Get myself paid to call all the Joneses in London, sure to find Martha then. It's been almost a week!

"Hello, my name is Donna, and I'm calling on behalf of World Vision," Donna said as soon as the phone picked up.

"Hello," said a familiar voice.

Donna's heart beat faster. "Mar-" Donna began.

"I'm not at home right now, but if you want to leave a message, talk after the beep."

Donna hung up the phone.

"Another rude one, dear?" Doris said.

"No, an answering machine," Donna said, forcing her voice to calmness. But she wrote down the number.

-oOo-

That night, when she got home, Donna rang Martha's number.

"Hello, Martha Jones speaking."

"Martha, it's Donna-"

"I'm sorry, you have the wrong number."

Click.

"What the hell?" Donna said, staring at the phone. "Bloody Martian! He told them all not to talk to me."

She rang again. "Martha, don't hang up. My brain's not going to explode, I've been cured."

"Donna? You remember?"

"Everything," Donna said. "You, the Sontarans, Jenny... and your mobile phone. The Doctor wiped mine, so I can't call to tell him I'm better."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Martha asked.

"You want to examine me, Dr. Jones?" Donna said, half-jokingly.

"Actually... I think I do," Martha said. "And you can explain how you managed to do what the Doctor said was impossible."

Donna rolled her eyes. "The Doctor doesn't know everything."

There was a smile in Martha's voice. "Yes, I know. I also know that he'd kill me if I let something happen to you. So..."

Donna agreed to meet Martha the coming Saturday. Then she quit her job and started packing.

-oOo-

"All right, I believe you," Martha said, putting her stethoscope away. "It sounds just like the kind of time-tangle the Doctor would get himself into. Did he tell you about the time we got stuck in 1969 and we kept leaving messages for someone in 2006 to come and rescue us? That was weird."

"So, will you call him?"

Martha nodded. "Watch me." She flipped open her mobile phone, pressed a few buttons, and waited. The seconds stretched. "Doctor, it's Martha."

Donna wished she could hear the other side of the conversation.

"I'm fine, the family is fine," Martha continued. "Not an emergency exactly, but you really really should come... It's a surprise... A good surprise... Yes, there are such things as good surprises... You'll find out when you get here... No, I won't... You can't pout over the phone... Yes, I can tell... Now would be fine, yes... See you, then."

"He's coming?" Donna asked.

Martha grinned. "Any minute now." As she spoke, they could hear the noise of the TARDIS, and the air in the lounge room began to stir. Martha hissed, "I thought he'd arrive outside! Bathroom! Now! We don't want him to run off."

Donna glared at Martha, and went into the kitchen instead. She peered around the door as the TARDIS materialized fully.

"Martha!" the Doctor said as he bounced out of the TARDIS, but Donna could tell he was putting on a front, edgy, like someone who'd drunk too much coffee.

"Doctor," Martha said with a smile.

"So what's the surprise?" he asked.

"Me," Donna said, stepping out of the kitchen.

"Donna?" the Doctor spluttered. "No, no, no - Martha why did you-"

"I'm cured, spaceman," Donna said, stepping right up to him. She poked him in the chest. "You cured me. A past you. Which you won't remember because you made yourself forget."

The Doctor's eyebrows climbed into his hairline. "I cured you?"

"You and Nyssa," Donna said.

"Me and Nyssa?"

"Are you going to repeat everything I say?" Donna asked.

"I just- Nyssa? And I was-"

"Blond, cricket outfit, wet as a winter Wednesday in Southend," Donna said with a smile.

"I was not!" the Doctor protested. "Besides, you seemed to like m-" His eyes widened. "I remember," he said. "You found me. Again!" He grinned hugely, and gave her a bone-cracking hug. "Oh, Donna, you are brilliant!"

"Can't get rid of me," Donna said. She hesitated. Now that she'd actually found him, her certainty wavered. "If you still want me."

He stepped back. "How could you want to come with me when all I do is nearly get you killed?"

"Doctor!" Martha snapped. "Enough with the guilt. If you want to feel guilty, do it for things you actually did."

"Like wiping my memory," Donna added.

"I had to!" the Doctor said. "You were dying!"

"I know," Donna said. "But did you have to wipe everything? Everything since I first met you, everything in between, everything I'd learned?"

"There was no time," the Doctor said. "You were doing so well, I thought, I hoped - but I was wrong, and suddenly your brain was in overload. I had to."

"Okay, you had to," Donna said. "But you know what's worse? The way you made Gramps - my Gramps, who taught me to look at the stars - and you made him into my gaoler. Do you know how much that broke his heart?"

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, hands in his pockets, looking at the floor.

The gesture reminded Donna of the other him, and her rant died. "Well... fine," she said. "But you owe Gramps a trip, don't think you don't."

The Doctor grinned at her. "Love to!" He bounced on the soles of his feet, as if he couldn't wait to start running.

"Somewhere safe," Martha interjected.

He pouted. "Of course," he said.

"There's no 'of course' about it," Martha said.

"Do you want to come too?" the Doctor asked Martha.

"The answer is still no," Martha said. "But don't lose the phone," she added with a smile.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said. "Donna?" He gestured at the open TARDIS door.

Donna pulled her suitcase from behind the sofa. "Here." She handed it to him.

Martha laughed at the look on his face.

While the Doctor was putting the suitcase inside, Donna gave Martha a hug. "Thank you," Donna said.

"We Children of Time have to stick together," Martha said. "Don't be a stranger. That phone can call out too, you know."

"Thanks, I'll remember that."

The Doctor popped his head out the door. "Come on, Donna, the universe is waiting!"

"Goodbye Martha," Donna said, with another brief hug. Then she entered the TARDIS, and its blue bulk faded away with a wheezing groan.

-oOo-

Donna ran her hands over the coral struts of the console room. I might never have seen this again, she thought. She gazed at the Doctor as he gyrated around the console with his usual manic energy. Real energy, this time, she reckoned, not a fake front.

"And how are you, Doctor?" Donna asked when he'd flicked the last switch.

"I'm all right," he said.

"Is that 'all right' all right, or is it really all right?"

"Now that you're here, I think it's going to be really all right," he said.

~finis~

Author's Notes

Thanks to those interested enough to vote for this in the finish-a-thon, especially Harriet, without whose enthusiasm for the idea, I wouldn't have put this story on the ballot. Also thanks to Harriet for introducing me to the song "Dona Dona", which accompanied me in this writing, and from which comes the story title and one of the chapter titles.

Thanks to Jonathan as ever, for being an invaluable sounding-board. Thanks to Judith for the idea about ripping up the wedding dress. Sorry I couldn't get in the Jenny connection.

Thanks to Kaffyr for beta-reading, and the folks on dw_britglish for helping me with slang.

Those who weren't lucky enough to see "Time Crash" may be interested to know that that was where the Fifth Doctor met the Tenth Doctor, and, yes, the Tenth Doctor did mention the Master, since "Time Crash" was a sort of a mini-scene set between "The Last of the Time Lords" and "Voyage of the Damned".

Transcripts of New Who episodes were provided by who-transcripts . atspace . com; Old Who quotes I looked up on my own recordings.