The road less travelled...

Title: Revisiting the Past 8/14
Author: katherine_b
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Spoilers for The Unicorn and the Wasp.
Summary: The Doctor and Donna go back

“Now why am I not surprised that this was your choice for our destination here?”

“It’s – it’s a nice kitchen.”

“You just want to watch me snog you again.”

“Well, actually I’d prefer it if you did sn – I mean, no! Of course not! I wanted to see you be brilliant again!”

“What, so brilliant that I’ll fail to understand what you mean by having your hands splayed out like you’ve accidentally ingested strychnine?”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I’m not about to do that! The strychnine part, I mean. Not much I can do about my miming skills now.”

“Well, now that I think about it, strychnine could be one way of keeping you still.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t tempt me, Spaceman.”

“You know, this kiss we’re about to have must have tasted – bleagh! From this angle, it even looks disgusting!”

“Nice of you to consider my feelings in the matter.”

“Well, I was expecting you to – oh, I don’t know! Burst a balloon or something!”

“Yeah, ’cos they’re really easy to find in a 1920s kitchen.”

“Bang a pan.”

“You’d have seen me pick it up. Where’s the element of surprise?”

“Um, I don’t know, yell.”

“What, and I don’t do that normally?”

“True.”

“Oi!”

“You said it! I just thought it would be polite to agree. Ow, no poking!”

“I will say one thing for you, at least you don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Thank you for noticing.”

“Might have made things easier if you had.”

“Have you ever tried talking around a mouthful of walnuts? Or – no – we’re up to the anchovies now, aren’t we?”

“Yes, you are. He is. Blimey, you need a whole other book on grammar to describe a situation that has happened in your personal past, but which is now taking place in front of you.”

“The perils of time-travel. This is why I don’t normally indulge.”

“Except for cheap tricks. Martha told me.”

“That was different. I wasn’t in the same room as myself.”

“Well, technically you’re not now, either. You’re watching him through the window. Yourself through the window. Oh, whatever it is.”

“All right, you know what? I really am quite bad at mime.”

“Hallelujah! He finally admits he’s not perfect at something! Ooh, and reports state that it’s snowing in Hell. Definitely a day of firsts.”

“You know, I was just being modest.”

“Pfft. You don’t even know what that word means!”

“That’s all you know. Modest: intended to describe the act of having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one’s merits.”

“Yeah, I’d question if you really understand the meaning of ‘humble’ either. But you’re right – your skills as a mime are well and truly lacking.”

“I admit that I’m perhaps not quite as good as you.”

“Then why did you look so completely and utterly confused when I was describing how I found you?”

“Not confusion so much as – well, shock, to be honest. You and your grandfather are the only two people, excluding former companions, that I’ve ever met twice.”

“Well, that wasn’t really chance, was it?”

“As far as I knew at the time, it was.”

“You know, I don’t believe that nutter, Caan, at all. And I’ve never believed in fate or destiny. It’s all just – luck. Pure luck. Or hard work. In the case of finding you again, lots of hard work!”

“But what was finding me in the first place?”

“Weird!”

“Well, I don’t deny that. But was that really luck? If it hadn’t been for me, you would have been eaten by the Racnoss.”

“And if not for me, you would have drowned under the Thames.”

“We’ll get to that later. Why don’t you like the idea of destiny?”

“I don’t like the idea that there’s something out there controlling us, whether we want it or not, and that we’ve got no say in our own futures. That nothing we can do or say will make any difference. That life is like the computer program in the Library.”

“That really got to you, didn’t it?”

“I can’t decide whether or not to be grateful that we can’t revisit it.”

“How about we enjoy the moment instead and worry about that when it happens?”

“Which moment though? Right now, here, on the grass beneath the kitchen window on this frankly glorious day, or inside, with me having just had the worst kiss of my life?”

“Hey, I didn’t think it was that bad!”

“I’m talking about the taste, not the technique! And while we’re on the subject, do you want to explain now what you meant by needing to do ‘that’ more often?”

“Does it really need saying?”

“I’d like to hear it.”

“Actually, I think I can show you, in a way that doesn’t involve me saying a single word.”

Next Part

Links to previous parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7