The road less travelled...

Title: Time After Time 5/Lots
Author: katherine_b
Rating: G
Summary: Have you ever wondered what happens to those the Doctor leaves behind?
Spoilers: Major plot spoilers for The Deadly Assassin and The Invasion of Time
Characters: Donna and the Doctor (Four) plus assorted Classic!Who people

Chapter IV

Donna hovers outside the entrance to the archives, waiting for any sound of those within. She knows little about the Matrix except that it contains the knowledge of all Time Lords who have passed on. It is located within the Archive and Engin is the man with perhaps the most knowledge about it on Gallifrey.

What she knows about the Master comes from her own knowledge of Theta's mind – that they were once friends, but they have been enemies for a long time. She can only wonder what might have passed between them to change things so dramatically and why the Master would want the Doctor to be in such a potentially deadly situation.

And when she feels a wave of mental pain that she is certain comes from Theta, she breaks through the security barrier keeping her out and, in spite of the mild electric shock she receives, continues running down the corridor...

Only to be caught by Engin himself as leaves the room.

“No, Donna!”

He grabs her arms to keep her from dashing into the room, securely closing the door so that she can't dash past him inside. She gasps as he pulls a staser out of his robe and, taking a step back, threatens her with it.

“No,” he repeats coldly. “We can't risk any harm to the Doctor, particularly from anyone who might be associated with the Master.”

“But...”

“No, Donna.” His voice is firm and he waves the staser to remind her that he's pointing it at her. “Go back to work. I will send a message and let you know what happened. But you can't help him now.”

Letting her go, he takes a quick sideways step and disappears back into the room before she can stop him. She stares at the closed door, trying to hear any sounds from within and also struggling to understand what just happened.

Backing away, she finds a small alcove and drops onto the bench, staring at the floor as she replays Engin's words in her mind.

We can't risk any harm to the Doctor, particularly from anyone who might be associated with the Master.

Suddenly gasping, with the feeling that someone has punched her in the stomach, she understands the full import of his words – he believes that she is working with the Doctor's enemy!

Remaining frozen on the seat, shocked and deeply hurt by the implied accusation, Donna only just looks up in time to see the door of the archive open and three people hurry out into the hallway.

Much to Donna's relief, a sweat-soaked and clearly exhausted Theta is among them.

He doesn't even glance at her, leading Spandrell and Engin in the opposite direction.

For an instant, she wants to run after Theta and grab him, until a thought strikes her that keeps her in her seat.

What if Theta also believes that she is working with the Master?

Her stomach drops as she watches him disappear and she blinks to clear sudden, inexplicable tears out of her eyes.

When the hallway is once more clear, she manages to push herself up off the bench and laggingly does as Engin had suggested, returning to her desk to wait for news.

* * *
Donna is running an errand for a livid Acton when the Citadel begins to shake. As the ground in front of her cracks and begins to yawn open, she throws herself back with a scream and runs deeper into the citadel. Ducking around other panicked residents of the Capitol, she fights her way through the crowd, trying to avoid the gaps opening in the ground and hoping desperately to find Theta, no matter what he might think of her.

“Donna!”

A hand seems to come out of nowhere and grabs her arm, grabbing her just as a piece of masonry from the ceiling comes crashing down.

But it's not in time, and Donna feels it slam into her back and stomach, knowing the breath out of her and filling her with a hot, familiar breath of agony.

“No! Donna…”

With difficulty, knowing what's happening, she raises her eyes to the figure leaning over her and manages a faint smile as she recognises the young man's brown eyes.

“Will...”

“I'll get help!”

She shakes her head, biting her bottom lip at the pain, and reaches out for him.

“Get it – off me,” she manages to get out. “Please!”

Leaping up, Will drags away the massive piece of ceiling that is lying across her legs and body, and Donna can't stop a scream as the pain intensifies. Theta's son is beside her immediately, easing one of her hands away from her tight hold on her stomach and wrapping his fingers in hers.

“Don't leave me,” she manages to get out as she feels the fires begin to burn inside her.

“Of course not.” Will's voice, so much like Theta's, is gentle in her ears. “Safe journey, Donna. See you on the other side.”

And then it all dissolves into agonisingly blackness and the process of rebirth.

* * *
Engin is waiting for her when she's properly recovered from her regeneration. She opens the door of her house to find him waiting on the doorstep, and he gazes at her for a moment before nodding.

“It always seems to take a moment longer with you than anyone else, Donna.”

“I choose not to share my thoughts with the world, Co-ordinator Engin,” she replies tightly.

“No,” he agrees, “you don't.” For another moment, he studies her features before nodding towards the interior of the house. “May I come in?”

“You want to come into the home of someone you believe supports the Master?” she retorts.

“I never thought that of you,” he says immediately.

“You pointed a staser at me!”

“And you reacted normally to that.” He rocks back on his heels. “The Master had already sent one of the guards, presumably under hypnosis, to kill the Doctor while he was in the Matrix. Castellan Spandrell had to shoot him to keep the Doctor safe.” He spreads his hands in front of him in a gesture of innocence and demonstration. “I had to make sure the same thing hadn't happened to you.”

Finally she moves aside to let him in, unable to help feeling somewhat relieved, because, if he doesn't believe it, then neither, surely, will Theta.

Almost as if he's reading her mind, he turns to her as soon as she's closed the door.

“He's gone,” he tells her. “The Doctor. Took his TARDIS and left.”

“I wish I'd had a chance to see him again,” she says ruefully as she leads the way into her living room.

“I wish I'd told him you were there,” Engin replies as he sits in the seat she indicates. “But there was no time until he'd defeated the Master, and then you really weren't in a fit state to go with him.”

“Theta would have waited,” she says softly, almost longingly.

“History has been – twisted a little,” Engin admits with obvious reluctance, lowering his voice as if afraid of being overheard. “Chancellor Goth is being portrayed as a hero who was trying to find the man who assassinated the President – the Master.”

“But in reality?” Donna asks warily.

“In reality, Goth was working with the Master.” Engin sighs. “But the High Council doesn't want the citizens of Gallifrey to know that there might be corruption.”

“Of course not,” Donna says scornfully. “But if Goth is being portrayed as the hero, that means the Doctor...”

“No one is to know that he was involved.” Engin looks grim. “The story is that Goth died in a fight against the Master.”

“Then no one knows that Theta saved Gallifrey.”

“No.”

And after that, there doesn't seem to be anything more to say.

* * *
“Commander Andred to all Guard leaders. An unidentified capsule is approaching Gallifrey. Any sentient form on board is to be arrested on arrival. If there is no sign of life, destroy capsule as soon as it materialises.”

The announcement carries clearly into Donna's room within Chancellor Borusa outer office, and for some reason that she can't quite understand, she feels her hearts race a little.

Surely, surely it must be the Doctor!

Without conscious thought, she pushes back her chair from the desk, about to stand when she realises that she has no idea where the capsule might land.

Besides, surely they will bring him to Borusa's office, particularly when that man must be aware that the Doctor poses no threat to Gallifrey!

And at that moment, the door of the Chancellor's office is flung open and Commander Andred stalks past, followed by a figure whose image has been present in Donna's dreams since the last time she saw him.

“Theta,” she begins, leaping to her feet, but he has passed by as if she didn't exist and is gone almost before the word has left her mouth.

“Yes?” Borusa demands as the door of his inner office is opened, and she can hear the impatience in his tones.

“Forgive the intrusion, sir,” Andred says abruptly. “An unexpected emergency has arisen.”

Theta has followed him into the room and clearly Borusa recognises him, too, but he only gets out a surprised “Doc-” before the Doctor speaks.

“I am here to claim my legal right.”

Donna peers over the shoulder of one of the guards to see the Doctor pull the large, baggy hat off his head.

“I am here to claim the inheritance of Rassilon. I claim the titles, honour, duty and obedience of all colleges.”

Donna's eyes widen as she begins to understand and remembers what she was told during this man’s last visit to Gallifrey.

Well, it can't be a co-incidence that the Doctor should turn up on the same day as the President is assassinated, and then stand for the vacant office of the Presidency, can it?

Her mouth falling open, she backs away against the far wall as she watches Theta stare fixedly at a spot between Borusa and Andred as he announces, “I claim the Presidency of the Council of Time Lords.”

The others in the room, apart from Donna and Borusa, gasp aloud at the Doctor's speech, but he simply strolls over to the far side of the room, sits down and tilts his hat over his face.

Borusa watches him for a moment before turning to the other occupants of the room.

“Out,” he orders.

For a moment, Donna considers arguing, but she happens to glance in the Doctor's direction and notices him watching the other occupants of the room out of the corner of his eye.

What frightens her is that, if she hadn't seen Theta with this face before, she would never have recognised him.

That warm, friendly gleam that is a part of her former employer and friend, no matter what his face might look like, is gone.

Suppressing a shudder, she slips out of the room after the last guard, wondering what has happened to the man whose return she has been awaiting for so long.

* * *
Donna winces at the voices screaming from within the Chancellor's office, hating that she can hear Theta's – the Doctor's – voice clear among them.

And she sneers a little at the toadying she has come to expect from Castellan Kelner.

She's shocked to find herself feeling relieved when the three men – the Doctor, Borusa and Kelner – stalk past her towards the President's quarters, and even happier when they don't return for sextas.

She would never have believed that she could prefer her own company to that of Theta, and that she would ever fail to actively seek him out if he was on Gallifrey. And yet here she is, sitting at her desk, apparently working hard.

She even refuses to attend the swearing in of Theta Sigma as the President, despite Borusa's orders that she must do so.

Only when she sees an apparently unwell Doctor being taken past the office does she leap to her feet and follow the men that are escorting him to the Chancellory. She stops outside the door, hoping that, once he recovers, he will be more like his usual self.

But when the Doctor’s first order is to expel the woman who came with him to Gallifrey, and who is half-dressed in some torn and dishevelled clothing, Donna feels her hearts sink.

She turns away – only to be shoved to one side as Leela tries to escape. Recovering her feet, Donna gapes at the fleeing woman, before turning to find Borusa standing behind her at the entrance to the Chancellory.

The Chancellor is holding both doors open, almost bristling with rage as he addresses the newly appointed President of Gallifrey. “We can continue after you've had your rest. And the alien has been caught and expelled.”

There is a murmur from within, but Borusa doesn’t wait to be given permission to leave. He backs out of the room and then closes both the inner and outer doors.

Turning, he gives her an impatient wave that shows he wishes her to accompany him. Donna glances over her shoulder as she accompanies him down the hallway in time to see two guards immediately step in front of it, one securing the closed door.

Shuddering, she follows Borusa, wondering if she will ever be happy to see Theta again.

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