Doctor Who | Holiday

[eponymous_rose]

Title: Holiday
Author: eponymous_rose
Word Count: 1031
Rating: G
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble



"Well?" Donna poked her head outside the police box, catching a few strange looks from passersby as she did. The Doctor was standing on the road, grinning so broadly that she expected his face might just freeze that way. She rolled her eyes to keep from smirking back at him. "All right. Where've you brought us this time?"

It looked ordinary enough, anyway: people wandering about, the usual sorts of cars parked here and there, hints of a familiar accent - nothing terribly exotic about it. "Is the world about to end?" Donna hazarded.

The Doctor rocked back on his heels. "Nope!"

"Is there going to be a Martian invasion?" Donna stepped outside, squinting up at the clear sky.

Making a show of checking his watch, the Doctor shook his head. "Not yet."

Donna planted her hands on her hips, considering. "Some sort of astronomical phenomenon?"

He followed her gaze up to the sky. "D'you think?"

"Not really," she said.

"No?"

She elbowed him. "Now you're just being difficult. Why are we here?"

"That," the Doctor said, and she mouthed the old joke along with him, "is the topic of some interesting philosophical debate."

"You're useless as a tour guide, you know that?" said Donna, shielding her eyes from the sun's glare to peer up and down the street. "Looks like my sort of time, anyway."

"Probably," the Doctor said, agreeably, and went back to rocking back and forth, heels to toes, like some obnoxious little boy with a secret. Donna had to quash the urge to push him over.

"You don't know, then?" She wasn't terribly surprised; in fact, she was downright amazed that he could fly that contraption of his with any accuracy at all - and the notion that they might wind up somewhere, anywhere, was terrifying and- and interesting all at once.

He looked faintly hurt, though. "Of course I know, Donna! Just didn't bother to check the temporal coordinates exactly. Sometime in the first decade of the 21st century, anyway."

She shoved her hands into her pockets. "All right," she said. "But why are we here?" Before he could answer, she shook a finger at him with what she hoped was an appropriately intimidating expression. "In a strictly literal and specific sense."

"Oh," he said. "We're buying lunch."

"Buying lunch?"

He mimed eating. "Lunch? Food? Yes, lunch."

She considered; it didn't sound as though he had any ulterior motives, so she decided to deem it acceptable. "Why here?"

"Because we don't know what day it is," the Doctor said, beaming, and strode off down the street. "Come on."

Donna gaped after him for a moment, then pulled herself together and jogged to catch up. "What are you on about?"

He glanced at her as though it should have been patently obvious. "Donna, really, it's nothing sinister. Just lunch. Somewhere new. Or possibly old - it's getting harder and harder to tell if I've been anywhere before. Well, not me. Well, sort of me, anyway."

She recognised the start of a long and arduous digression and decided to stem it before it got out of hand. "So this is just a break, then?"

And then, of course, he stopped walking so suddenly that she nearly ploughed straight into him. "A holiday," he pronounced, slowly and deliberately, then grinned and started walking again.

For the second time in as many minutes, Donna found herself jogging to catch up with him - it was getting to be annoying. "How is this a holiday?"

The Doctor gave a theatrical sigh. "You're just full of questions today, aren't you? It's a holiday for you, Donna-who-hates-Christmas, because everybody needs a bit of relaxation. Just an ordinary day - any day." He glanced back at her, smiling. "Make it your own."

"Oh," she said, and, because it couldn't hurt, added: "Ah." They walked in silence for a few moments, and eventually she thought to say: "Thanks."

"My pleasure," said the Doctor, and he sounded so pleased with himself that she couldn't help a laugh. "It's not really yours," he added quickly, "I mean, you probably shouldn't go around announcing that it's Donna Noble Day, or people will start asking questions and celebrating in your absence and making all sorts of messy paradoxes."

"That's all right," Donna said, grinning. "I can take it on loan."

It was quiet again, for long enough this time that Donna found her thoughts wandering, wondering if another her was still out there somewhere, still temping at HC Clements, still with Lance-

An explosion somewhere down the road brought a welcome distraction from the way her thoughts were turning. It was succeeded by a rapidfire series of high-pitched squeals that faintly resembled the sound a very small U.F.O. might make if projected at high speed into a brick wall.

"Ah," said the Doctor. "That doesn't sound good." He had the sort of look on his face that suggested he was trying exceptionally hard to let her be the one to decide whether or not they got involved, the one that was equal parts endearing and annoying.

"It is Donna Noble Day," she reminded him. "Up to me, then, isn't it, if we just go back to the TARDIS?"

He made a face, practically dancing from foot to foot. "Of course," he said.

"Well then," she said, and shrugged. "I hereby decree that we hurry up a bit. Sounds like the sort of thing we're good at."

He grinned and bounded ahead, and for the third time in as many minutes she found herself scrambling to catch up.

She didn't mind, not really - it was her day, after all, her very own, and how many people could say they'd been given twenty-four hours as a present? For a moment, she wondered if the other Donna, wherever she was and whatever she was doing, even knew the date, or if it was lost in some bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo over the weekend, or tomorrow, or yesterday.

Almost unconsciously, the Doctor slowed his pace and she sped hers so that they ran side-by-side.

There were worse ways, after all, to spend a holiday.

Comments

[rapunzelita.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do love Donna ♥

This fic is wonderful!