The road less travelled...

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

A/N: This is not a part to be read while tired, or hungover, or in any other way mentally limited. Because otherwise trying to make sense of this could cause your brain to melt and leak out of your ears in a most unseemly fashion. You have been warned.

“If you ever do anything like that again, I’ll kill you!”

“Regeneration, Doctor.”

“And the next you! And keep right on going!”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about killing anyone before.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as furious with anyone as I am with you right now! All that knowledge you’ve got about timelines and fixed points in time and – you’re the DoctorDonna, for crying out loud, and yet you still interfered!”

“I didn’t interfere. I did what had to be done.”

“You hid in the TARDIS. Not this TARDIS. The one stuck in the heart of the Crucible.”

“Yes.”

“You trapped the other version of yourself in your bedroom of that TARDIS.”

“Mmm hmm. Hang on, how did you know it was the bedroom?”

“You caused the metacrisis. One way. Couldn’t be two ways because you already are – were – the DoctorDonna.”

“Sounds good so far. Keep going.”

“You created the other version of me.”

“Who else could have got the TARDIS to safety? And you know you care more about your beloved ship than you do about almost anything else!”

“Made me think I’d somehow been spotted by winking at me as the human version of me got the TARDIS out of the Z-Neutrinos – and I can’t believe you saw me – him – naked!”

“Mate, I’ve seen you naked often enough now. Trust me, you really are identical.”

“Destroyed the Daleks.”

“Had to be done. Well, actually, no, that wasn’t me. That was the other version of you. Which, strictly speaking, is me. Oh, never mind. Carry on.”

“Freed the 26 planets.”

“That was really the whole point of the exercise, wasn’t it?”

“Helped tow the Earth back home.”

“Not really. Just stood and watched, basically. Well, flirted with Jack – sorry, ‘Captain Harkness’ – a bit.”

“Slipped out of the room while I was watching everyone celebrate.”

“Didn’t feel like a party.”

“Got your other self into the sick bay.”

“She didn’t like it! Not one bit! Well, I didn’t. Strictly speaking.”

“Created the DoctorDonna in her, too, but, thanks to the TARDIS, without the danger of her mind being unable to cope.”

“Well, I’m not stupid enough to want to kill myself, am I?”

“Set the whole thing up and reappeared next to me while I was still watching the party.”

“And I’d love to know why you didn’t notice I was missing! I bet you were talking to yourself that whole time, weren’t you?”

“Left her to carry out the act of the metacrisis and collapse.”

“Hey, I’d already done it once. Give someone else a turn.”

“Scared the life out of Wilf and your mother.”

“Yeah, knew we’d get to this bit eventually.”

“Made me think I’d taken away the best parts of your memory. Which I couldn’t because I was trying to get those parts that were affected by the metacrisis. Which weren’t there. Because it hadn’t happened.”

“Will it help if I say I’m sorry? Again?”

“Left me wandering the Universe, forlorn and desperate.”

“Oh, come on! You were never desperate! Woman in every era, remember?”

“Waited until I came back to Earth.”

“Had to pick the perfect moment.”

“Saved my – what did you call it? Oh, yes – ‘scrawny hide’.”

“Well, it’s sort of a habit now.”

“Made me realise that you’d got your memories back, but without explaining how.”

“I didn’t want to give the game away.”

“Convinced me to take you with me again.”

“I seem to remember that you were the one trying to persuade me. Not that it took much.”

“Suggested this little trip down memory lane.”

“Actually, you’re the one who came up with the vague idea. I just set it out in concrete form.”

“And right now is the first time that I’ve actually realised what you’d done.”

“That’s what’s really killing you, isn’t it? We’ve gone through this whole history of our travels together and you never fully understood until this very moment why I was still the DoctorDonna. I’ve left all sorts of openings and you never asked. And you never noticed that, when you asked, I changed the subject. That’s why you’re standing there glaring at me like that, but with nothing to say for yourself. Because you feel stupid!”

“Donna, you completely interfered with time!”

“Yeah, and you’ve never done that before! Excuse me while I clear my throat – hypocrite!”

“That cough sounded strangely like a word.”

“Nah, you’re hearing things.”

“But, Donna, you can’t go mucking about with things like that! You know that! You’ve got the mind of a Time Lord inside yours and you know how dangerous it is!”

“Let’s put it this way - which would you rather: that there was a two-way metacrisis, that I’m left at risk of my brain melting out of my ears if I’m ever reminded of you, and that you’re alone, or that I did what I did and we’re together?”

“But… but… you created a paradox. Actually, you are a paradox!”

“I know! Fun, isn’t it?”

“You only exist because you – the DoctorDonna - were created by touching my old hand and causing the two-way metacrisis. You saved the world and destroyed the Daleks. But then you stepped in and stopped yourself from causing the two-way metacrisis. So therefore you shouldn’t exist. And if you don’t exist, the human version of me can’t exist. And the TARDIS doesn’t get saved from the Z-neutrinos. And the Universe isn’t saved from the Daleks.”

“But all that happened. No more Daleks. Earth safe. Human version of you safely away in the alternate world with Rose. DoctorDonna exists. So therefore – paradox.”

“Oh, stop looking so smug! You say that like you’re proud of it.”

“Well, how many people can honestly say that they’re a living, breathing, endless paradox?”

“How many people would want to?”

“How else could I stay with you forever?”

“You are completely impossible!”

“Not impossible. Just a bit unlikely. Well, very unlikely now, I suppose.”

“About as unlikely as me.”

“Seems as if we are meant to be together after all. Revisiting the past and moving on into the future. Forever.”

“Know what? I don’t think I will complain about it after all.”

“I should hope not.”

“You really do always have to have the last word, don’t you?’

“Always.”

Links to previous parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13