The road less travelled...

Title: Revisiting the Past 7/14
Author: katherine_b
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Spoilers for The Doctor’s Daughter.
Summary: The Doctor and Donna go back

“I have to say, ‘anomalous’ is probably the best description of you that I’ve ever heard.”

“Well, Time Lord, TARDIS – kind of adds up. You’re not exactly run-of-the-mill yourself, Donna Noble. DoctorDonna. Human-Time Lord metacrisis. Find another one like that!”

“You know, we don’t have to stay here.”

“Actually, I think I’d like to, if you don’t mind.”

“’Course not.”

“It’s not the same. It’s not – we’re not out there. We’ve left already. Such a long time ago. But…. I wanted to see what Messaline became.”

“It’s all right, Doctor, I do understand.”

“Jenny was right. It is beautiful. New life. Terraforming. The best thing science ever created.”

“You know, it seems crazy to me that human beings are so far behind everyone else. So many other races are just light years ahead of us. In technology, I mean, rather than distance.”

“Well, everyone develops and learns at their own pace, and that goes for races, too. I know of one planet where they have yet to come up with the physical concept of the wheel. I went there in the days before the chameleon circuit died, and the TARDIS changed every circular item into a square or a hexagon. I couldn’t find a decent plate to eat off for days, and do you know how hard it is to drink out of triangle-shaped cups?”

“But they’ve got interstellar travel?”

“Of course!”

“See, that’s what I mean? We send off primitive little rockets to the closest planets, and fill up the atmosphere above Earth with probes and all this other space junk. But we can’t get beyond that into other galaxies.”

“But you know what happens when you do.”

“Yeah, we try to enforce our ideas on other people and take helpless races as slaves. So much to look forward to.”

“Well, it’s not that bad – oh, sarcasm.”

“Yeah.”

“Donna, I thought – I hoped that all that time travelling with me would have shown you how wonderful the Universe is.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’ve certainly seen all that. But I’ve also seen that humans as a race seem incapable of appreciating that to its fullest extent, and instead seem to want to ruin it.”

“But every race has people like that. It’s just – sometimes those humans are the ones who get put in charge, or, more than likely, put themselves in charge. But look around us, Donna. Humans helped this planet to become what it is. They got past the war that was programmed into their very DNA and created a society almost as peaceful as that on the Oodsphere.”

“General Cobb was human.”

“And so are you, Donna. And for every General Cobb, there are so many more Donna Nobles.”

“And here you were saying I was unique a few minutes ago.”

“I really can’t win in an argument with you, can I?”

“Women’s prerogotive always to win arguments and have the last word.”

“I’d like to disagree with you on that last point.”

“But you’re going to let me win the argument.”

“Nope, postponing it while I disagree with you. Then we can argue properly later.”

“Fine, you want to disagree? Women talk more than men, therefore they should always have the last word.”

“Hold on, just to clarify, are we talking about women and men in general, or you and me?”

“Would that make a difference?”

“If it’s you and me we’re talking about, I’ll have to duck more often.”

“Hey!”

“Sorry, sorry.”

“You know, I don’t think you actually mind my slaps anymore.”

“Oh, they’re not as hard as they used to be. And you go for an arm rather than my face, which is a definite improvement. In fact, some people might even suggest that you do it because you like me.”

“Well, if ‘liking’ and ‘being completely frustrated with’ are suddenly the same, then yes, that might be right.”

“Donna, how you wound me!”

“You’re asking for another one, aren’t you?”

“Funny, I don’t recall saying ‘Please, Donna, hit me.’ Ow! I said I wasn’t saying that.”

“But you did say it, didn’t you? Even if you were saying it to prove you hadn’t said it.”

“Ooh, that’s a paradox, that is. I love paradoxes. Well, most of them.”

“I’ve become rather fond of them myself recently.”

“See, that’s as a result of being the DoctorDonna. You can think of so many things at once. Heaps more than an average human mind can manage. Not that yours was exactly average, but…”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, not up to the same level as yours. Although – would this be the right moment to mention your little mind-wiping stunt again?”

“Honestly? I’d much rather you didn’t.”

“You’re a touch sensitive about that, aren’t you?”

“It was – well, let’s call it a mistake.”

“And we know how much you love making those!

Next Part

Links to previous parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6