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Tweak says, "that old lady down there scare"

The Tenth Doctor (lonely_god) wrote in silverage,
@ 2011-07-19 11:51:00

Entry tags:

!log, 10th doctor, amy pond, donna noble, galen

Who: The Tenth Doctor + Donna + Open (multiple characters welcome)
When: July 19th, at night
Where: an alley near the Welcome Center
What: The Tenth Doctor expected to walk out of his TARDIS and find the Powell Estate. Instead, he finds himself alone in New York City.
Rating: Teen for angsty/dying Time Lord
Status: Open, in progress

The Doctor stumbled against the console as the TARDIS landed, the gentle jolt that ran through the grating beneath his feet nearly enough to topple him though the old girl had settled with far more finesse than usuaul. He must be getting worse, he though, for her to be so careful with him. By his best estimate, he would lose major organ function within another twenty-four to thirty-six hours. When that happened, he would have to let go and allow the regenerative process to fully take hold. It was either that or die, well and truly die for the first time.

Still, he would grasp at every hour he could get, every moment he could stay as he was. He needed more time, just a little more time. He still had one more person to see. Just one more. He'd landed the TARDIS somewhere familiar, somewhere he hadn't been since shortly after the Battle of Canary Wharf. He was early, he knew, far too early, but he'd wanted to make certain he wouldn't miss her. He'd just pop outside for a quick look to be certain he'd landed in the right place and time, and then he'd find a likely place to wait for a flash of pink and yellow. She loved pink, he knew. Wouldn't have to walk too far, he thought. That was good. He was tired, and it hurt. Oh it hurt so very much, and not just because he was dying. Oh, no. It hurt because of the companion he still had left to see. The companion he had left for last to remove the temptation to linger too long.

He took a deep, shuddering breath as he pushed away from the console and headed for the doors. He'd come for Rose. Rose, whom he could see, but who wouldn't know him. Couldn't, just like Donna. He was already pushing the boundaries by even considering touching her timeline in the first place, but he thought, so long as he went to her before she'd met him, he'd be all right. They'd be all right. It wouldn't hurt, would it? Just one last glimpse of the woman for whom he'd been created? That, in the end, was part of the reason he was so afraid of death this time around. He would have to let go of Rose, finally. He wouldn't be her Doctor anymore. He might not even remember how it had felt to love her.

Absorbed in thoughts of what had been and what couldn't be, the Doctor didn't notice at first that the alley he stumbled down once he'd left the TARDIS wasn't the right alley. Wasn't even in London. He only realized he wasn't where he'd meant to be when he reached the corner and looked out not at the plain, blocky building where Rose had lived the first nineteen years of her life, but on a busy New York City street.

"No," he breathed, shock washing over him. "No. No no no. Oh, no. I don't have time for this."

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Jumping in!

fairytale_pond
2011-07-21 05:07 pm UTC (link)

Amy had searched the city up and down to find public records on the Welcome Center. There wasn't much-- the building truly was a mystery-- but she was able to track down work orders for independent contractors and safety certificates for the fire escapes, etc. The signatures were nearly illegible, and there was no printed name, but it was better than nothing. She was making her way back to the Welcome Center on foot to show Tonks what she'd found when something in an alleyway caught her eye.

Was it...? Could it be...? The TARDIS stood, big, blue, and impossible as ever, tucked neatly against the wall of the alley. Rushing toward it, Amy pulled her key from her pocket and made to turn the lock with shaking hands. One single word echoed in her mind. Rory. Rory. Rory.

She didn't need her key after all, as the door was already unlocked. She rushed inside, fully expecting to see the Doctor at the controls, a smug grin on his face because he'd managed to recover the TARDIS he somehow misplaced so many weeks ago.

"Doctor! You found it! Where's Ro--"

She cut off suddenly when she realized that this looked nothing like the TARDIS she knew. Neither the Doctor nor her husband were anywhere in sight. Instead she saw a man with spiky hair and a suit who looked to be in incredible pain, and standing next to him...

"Donna? Is that you? What's going on, where's the Doctor? Or is that...?" Getting closer to the center column, Amy recognized the pale blue shirt and brown tie with a swirl pattern that the man was wearing. She'd seen them before, when she first met the Doctor that night in her aunt's garden. Could this be the Doctor Donna knew? The one that came before her own?

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illhaveasalute
2011-07-21 08:22 pm UTC (link)

"Amy!" Donna looked back between the girl and her friend yelling into the mobile, and made her decision. She rushed over to the other redhead, grabbing her arm and managing a terse smile. "Amy, hi. Yes, this is my Doctor- he's the Doctor almost immediately before you knew him- he's dying, he's trying to stop his regeneration before-" she swallowed, trying not to get emotional. He needed her to focus, right now, and that's what she would do. Focus and not let anyone distract him.

"Anyway, he's trying to find someone to cure him of radiation poisoning so that he doesn't regenerate into your Doctor. I wouldn't interrupt, he get's titchy in life or death situations- or I suppose he still does that? Oh, this is weird." She turned her head, still looking at the Doctor, hoping he'd found someone on the phone to help him.

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fairytale_pond
2011-07-21 09:36 pm UTC (link)

"Life and death?" Amy parroted numbly. This was not good. This was the Doctor right before she met him, but if he regenerated here, and now, with no way out... Amy didn't know if this was the way it had happened, but seeing as her Doctor seemed just as surprised and frustrated to be stranded in 1964 New York as she was, Amy would wager a guess that this wasn't a part of his own personal history that he'd planned.

Oh no. The Doctor's own personal history. He wasn't ever supposed to meet himself, or learn about his future. Amy had learned that the hard way that day on the beach in Utah, when she saw...

Tears welling in her eyes, she turned away from Donna and approached the man in the suit. The man who would know her better than anyone, but who at the moment didn't know her at all. He had been talking to someone on a cell phone, and now was furiously working the TARDIS controls. This close, Amy could tell it really was the Doctor. The face and hair were completely different, but something about him stayed the same.

"Hey," she whispered, drawing his attention away from the controls for a moment. "Listen to me, yeah? You don't know me yet, and it's hard to explain, but trust me when I tell you that everything is going to be alright. You're going to get through this. This isn't--" She cut off. This isn't the way you die, she almost said, but then thought better of it. "Just... just hang in there, you. Because you still have me to look forward to." She let out a halfhearted chuckle and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

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lonely_god
2011-07-21 09:50 pm UTC (link)

The other woman had come around the console. She was talking to him, the Doctor realized, but he only half paid attention to her as he ran diagnostics and simulations and tried to figure out how he was going to get the TARDIS to move. He'd told the man, Galen, that he'd take a taxi cab if he needed to, but he'd vastly prefer driving himself to hospital, so to speak. Now that the shields of Galen's ship were down, the readings he was getting made more sense. If he could just coax a little power from the TARDIS to dematerialize her ...

The woman was still talking. Why was she still talking. Didn't she see that he was busy? "Humans," he muttered. "It's always something with you, isn't it? Well whatever it is, it can-" His voice died off, however, when he realized that the woman wasn't just talking. She was crying. She was crying for him. She knew him, or rather, she knew the next him. His eyes widened and he backed away.

"You can't be here," he protested. "If you know him ... " He shook his head and turned back to his work. "I don't have time for this. Stay on board if you like, but I have to find a way to get the TARDIS where she needs to be, and unless your Doctor-" He couldn't help the bitterness that crept into his tone at the mention of his successor. "-taught you how to fly her outside of her native dimension, stay out of the way."

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illhaveasalute
2011-07-21 10:08 pm UTC (link)

Donna reached over and took Amy's arm, pulling her away from the Doctor. "Amy..." She sighed. "I told you, it's best to stay out of his way right now, he's not even going to be civil with me at the moment, and I'm his best friend." It was nothing personal- he was just in one of his moods, and they'd do better to stay out of it. Nothing to do now but fret over him. She smiled at the younger woman, apologetic. "I know you're worried but there's not a lot you can do. Time is probably in flux or something else Time Lord-y and he's just going to snap at anyone who isn't him right now."

She rubbed Amy's arm in what she hoped was a comforting manner. "Now then, shall we hold on for dear life while he figures this thing out?" She left Amy and walked over to where he was, glaring. "You know, spaceman, you could try a bit of tact. I know you know how to use it. Now what do you need me to do?"

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fairytale_pond
2011-07-21 10:34 pm UTC (link)

Amy had a feeling the Doctor would snap at someone who was him more than he would at anyone who wasn't. Still, Donna was right. There was nothing Amy could do to help the Doctor right now, not this Doctor anyway, and it would be too dangerous for her to reveal elements of his future to him. River had warned her not to do that. She nodded at Donna, not entirely capable of speech at the moment, and took a seat on a cushioned bench nearby.

As she watched Donna reprimand the stranger-Doctor, Amy couldn't help but miss her own Doctor. Donna had said she was the Doctor's best friend. Amy wondered now how many faces the Doctor'd had, and how many best friends. Glumly, Amy wished River were there. The Doctor had taught River how to fly the TARDIS. Maybe not this exact model, but she could probably still manage. And Rory was a nurse, if he was there he could help tend to this Doctor's injuries. Either of them would be able to help, and the Doctor here trusted Donna but not Amy. She had never felt so useless.

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lonely_god
2011-07-21 11:25 pm UTC (link)

He paused in his work at Donna's scolding, raised his head and looked past her at the woman who was waiting on the jump seat. His expression was haunted, full of fear not of the years behind him but of the years ahead. It occurred to him to say that he was sorry, and he started to, but the words caught in his throat. Donna was right, she was always right, so why couldn't he say the words?

"That button over there." He pointed with a shakey hand at the button he meant. "Push it down and hold it when I say." If he tried his usual style of piloting, arms and legs akimbo, he was likely to fall and not be able to get back up. Fortunately, most of the controls he needed were all concentrated in one place. There was only that one button he couldn't reach ...

Oh, but he was being an old fool. An old, selfish fool. That poor woman--Amy, that was her name--didn't deserve to be shoved aside like unwanted baggage when she clearly cared enough about the next him to cry for the current him. Eyes averted in shame, the Doctor called, "Amy, wasn't it? Is that short for Amelia? Lovely name, Amelia. Anyway, Amy, it seems I need a bit more help than I thought. Balance is completely shot, you see. I don't suppose you'd do us a favor and press that button there when I ask?" He didn't need her to--the button did absolutely nothing when the TARDIS was in flight--but it was the nearest to an apology he could manage at the moment.

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fairytale_pond
2011-07-22 12:27 am UTC (link)

Amy smiled when the Doctor guessed her full name correctly. Somewhere in this stranger of a man was a piece of the Doctor she knew. She stood up and walked around the console towards the button he'd pointed at. As she passed by him, she raised a fist to give him a playful shove, but then realised that this probably wasn't the proper time, and that this Doctor most likely wouldn't appreciate someone he didn't know punching him on the shoulder, no matter what the sentiment behind it was. Instead, at the last minute she changed it to an awkward thumbs up, then dropped her hand, embarrassed, and continued on to her spot in front of the button.

Still slightly too emotional to speak, she gave Donna a look and a smile that she hoped conveyed her thanks.

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illhaveasalute
2011-07-22 12:40 am UTC (link)

Donna ducked her head to hide a smug smile. He was amazing, the Doctor, but sometimes he forgot about things like feelings. That's what he had her for- to stop him when he got too wrapped up in his own damn head. "Any buttons for me, Doctor?" She smiled at Amy, glad she could cheer the girl up. Didn't know what she was so depressed about- her Doctor was here, at least, and had been. Although there was the husband.

"C'mon then- where are we headed?"

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lonely_god
2011-07-22 12:49 am UTC (link)

"That one, right there," the Doctor said, waving his hand at a little red button just in front of Donna. "Push down and keep pushing. And make sure you push that one and not the other one, or the TARDIS might implode. Now then." He flashed Donna a weary smile. "Allons-y!"

With a quick jerk of a lever, he set the TARDIS into flight. He held his breath as the familiar noise of her rotor filled the control room and then, finally, quieted as she settled into more or less normal flight. She shuddered a bit, and he reached over to throw another switch. Even a simple shift in space was difficult for her, and he silently apologized for his violent behavior of a few minutes ago.

"There we are, old girl. Just about there. Amy, hit that button for me. Donna, keep holding yours down until I say."

Within minutes, the TARDIS settled with a groan and a shudder. The motion sent the Doctor staggering back from the console, and he caught himself on one of the coral uprights that he usually only used for a coatrack. "Right. We're here. Now's the hard part."

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fairytale_pond
2011-07-22 01:11 am UTC (link)

Amy pushed the button when instructed. The rush of their situation plus the familiar sound of the TARDIS' takeoff silenced her tears and brought a wide smile to her face. This was the feeling she was used to, the reason she kept traveling with the Doctor. The central column looked different, illuminated with a light more blue than green, but it still rose and fell in time to the groaning sounds of the TARDIS' inner machinery.

Once they landed she figured it might be safe to let go of the button. Good thing she did, too, as it gave her just enough time to rush to the Doctor's side as he stumbled and hung onto an odd-looking column. "Woah there!" Without hesitation, she grabbed his arm and slung it over her shoulders. This Doctor was slightly taller than hers, so it was an easy fit. "Take it easy, you," she ordered. "Now, where exactly's here then?"

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illhaveasalute
2011-07-22 06:38 am UTC (link)

Donna couldn't stop smiling. The TARDIS! The TARDIS taking off! He was back, and they were moving! This was brilliant, this was perfect, this was exactly what she'd needed, her best friend flying her around the TARDIS-

When he stumbled she rushed to his side, surprised to see Amy right there with her- she took his other arm and helped support his weight. "Alright then, shall we? Are we next to the ship or in it?"

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lonely_god
2011-07-22 03:59 pm UTC (link)

The Doctor showed his gratitude for the support by not complaining and not shrugging away from Amy and Donna. Just at the moment, he needed their help more than he cared to admit.

"In it," he said in response to Donna's question, "or we should be, anyway. Come on then. No time for dawdling."

Once the small group made it outside the TARDS, they would find the automated gurney Galen had dispatched waiting to take the Doctor to the automated medical bay.

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fairytale_pond
2011-07-22 05:53 pm UTC (link)

Amy was grateful that the Doctor didn't argue when she lent him her support, but she sensed his discomfort at having her so close. Well, tough, she thought to herself. He obviously was in no condition to stand on his own at the moment, and like it or not, she was going to help him.

Together, Amy and Donna helped the Doctor limp out of the TARDIS and onto the stretcher waiting for them. "A spaceship that's bigger on the inside, inside another spaceship that's bigger on the inside?" she mused. "Is that even allowed?"

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