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Danni, so far, had been to a different companion each time her vortex manipulator would set off and shoot her away. First Donna, then Amy, then Donna again and then Martha. And, as one tended to do when thrown into an impossible situation, she tried to find a pattern. A method to the madness, as it were. It wasn't too farfetched to assume that she would go to a different season, or a different companion, each time the manipulator burnt her arm and shot her away.
So, when she reappeared in front of Martha and the Doctor, she was a little confused. Partly because the act of being chucked around was still rather new and still very unsettling, but also because she hadn't expected to see Martha at all. It looked like they hadn't moved at all. The Doctor had just been taking them to some ocean planet she couldn't pronounce, and he was still stood as if he had just piloted them away. She looked down at her wrist, then up at the Doctor.
"Have I not moved?" she asked tentatively.
The Doctor shook his head. He recognised the clothes she was stood in from their detoured trip to Ka'il'ah, where she'd dressed for the potential of swimming. It was rare for her to jump such a short distance. "It's been about a day," he explained.
"You missed a killer sun," Martha explained, placing Danni exactly where she was in the series. In fact, she'd missed the last episode. Not that she minded too much; she'd liked the concept, but it wasn't one of her favourites. "And," Martha looked delighted, "the Doctor finally gave me a key!" She presented the Yale key proudly and Danni couldn't help but smile.
"Well, he was always going to," Danni replied knowingly. The Doctor went to roll his eyes, opening his mouth to make a sarcastic comment before he stopped, realising something with a start.
"Oh!" He reached into one of his impossibly deep pockets and pulled out another key. He held it out to her. "Since you're always jumping about, it's about time I gave you one too."
Danni wasn't sure what she had expected, perhaps to just follow him or his companions about and get let into the TARDIS, like a kid following their parents home, but for some reason she hadn't expected her own key. So she grinned in delight and all but snatched it out of his hand. "Now I'm a proper companion!" she cried in excitement before giving him a tight hug. "Thank you!" He gave her a big hug back, chuckling slightly at her reaction, before letting her go.
"Yeah, well, I was going to have to do it at some point," he replied offhandedly. "Makes it all more official, doesn't it?"
Danni studied it closely, like it was a piece of jewellery and not, essentially, someone else's house key. "I'll have to get a chain or something so I don't lose it," she muttered to herself. After all, she didn't want to jump away and not have it anymore. Having it around her neck would be a lot easier than having to transfer it to whatever clothes she was wearing. But, for now, she held onto it tightly. "Where are we off to now, then?"
"We're going ice skating on some mineral lakes," Martha told her.
"The Mineral Lakes of Koorharn," the Doctor elaborated. She smiled slightly as she nodded. She remembered the Doctor suggesting it to Martha at the end of this particular episode, and it always sounded like it might have been fun. And she'd get to see some quality Doctor-Martha bonding time, which she had always wanted more of when watching the show. Was it weird that she was still thinking about her life in context of the television show?
She shrugged; she'll worry about that at a later date.
"Oh!" she exclaimed happily, another thought coming to her. "I don't know this! I should go get changed!" She motioned down at herself. "I'm dressed for a beach, not ice skating, and I am not going to freeze again." She bounded towards the hallway before pausing, turning to face him. "You really do like to go to cold places, don't you?"
He pondered on it for a moment. "I've never really noticed."
"Next time, Space Florida, okay?" she commanded and he nodded, giving her a lazy salute.
"You got it."
She grinned and ran off into the TARDIS, towards the wardrobe to find something warm, yet cute, to wear.
Martha didn't even have to look at him to know he was watching her disappear out the door. "You were right," Martha commented and the Doctor turned his attention to her, confused.
"About what?"
"You do always give into her," she clarified before smirking. Wonder why." She left the words hanging in the air for a moment before shrugging. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. I'd better go catch her. Danni, wait up!" she called as she chased after her. The Doctor stared after his new official companion, wondering what she had meant before shrugging to himself and turning to the console.
Humans. They were always looking for the next piece of gossip.
His brows furrowed and his head snapped to the side. How had she known they were going ice skating?!
~0~0~0~
Martha had already headed back to the console room a while ago as Danni walked towards the doorway, having just chosen to change her shoes for a more appropriate pair of boots and grabbing a duffle coat not unlike the one Donna had worn on the Ood Sphere.
Would wear on the Ood Sphere.
Danni shrugged to herself; it could be either depending on which way you looked at it. She, however, had replaced every piece of her outfit a couple of times before coming to a decision. There was something about being able to choose the exact right outfit that was very quickly becoming quite a thing for her, but while she had an infinite wardrobe she may as well use it.
This time she'd stuck to the blue, with a warm dress, warm tights and cute snow boots that made her feel like she set for any weather, which considering the last time she was in snow was definitely a step up. She also had a pair of skates tied at the laces chucked over her shoulder, because obviously she was going to need them.
She paused just before stepping into the console room, fiddling with the TARDIS key that now hung around her neck from a silver chain. Last time she had been in the snow, the Doctor had given her his jacket. She'd rather enjoyed that.
She shook her head, ignoring the warmth in her cheeks from the thought and put the key back inside the coat and dress where it was supposed to be. She'd also found some wonderful accessories that had been too good to leave behind, but also had meant that she'd needed to do yet another change of outfit.
"Oh, for God's sake, she's coming!" she heard Martha exclaim, obviously exasperated. "She was just choosing a hat and some gloves."
She looked down at her gloves, then readjusted her hat before jumping through the door. "Look, I'm a panda!" she shouted with the hopes of surprising them both. The hat she had found was black, made of wool and had a panda's face stitched onto it, complete with pom-poms for ears and went perfectly with the panda gloves she had found.
Martha immediately burst out laughing. "Yes, yes you are," she agreed and Danni rushed over, linking arms with the Doctor.
"I've never been ice skating before," she told him. "Is it hard? I don't want to look like an idiot in front of a load of people."
"It's not hard," he promised. "And there shouldn't be anyone there, so you've just got me and Martha to worry about."
He opened the TARDIS door, letting them out onto the small covering of snow outside. Danni's breath caught as she stepped out, looking around at the new ground. New ground, new snow, a new sky. Everything she'd seen so far had been so much more dazzling than she'd expected, but it had been short, sweet and – more importantly – something she had already seen on television show. This was new. Truly new. A new planet, where the snow wasn't as thick as she'd expected, but the view was still stunning.
The Doctor had parked them on a small hill overlooking the huge lake that looked completely frozen, but was in fact so full of minerals it had just hardened to the point they could skate on it. There were mountains towering in the distance that almost looked painted onto the landscape. The lake glistened in the faint light of dusk. There was no sign of civilisation around them, just like the Doctor had hinted at.
"Oh wow," she breathed to herself as she took it all in. The universe wasn't terrifying, it was beautiful.
"Is there no one here?" Martha asked and the Doctor shook his head. He hadn't realised just how little she had seen, but he could tell by the sheer awe on Danni's face that she was somewhere completely new. He could tell, some things just never changed.
He shoved his hands in his pockets as he headed down the hill, nudging Danni to pull her attention back to the activity they'd come for. "There was a shift in atmospheric temperature that eventually drove the people onto another planet," he explained. "The myth is the god Harn gave birth to a miracle baby too early, and she needed the sun of 10,000 years to incubate her son, so took it from the planet with the promise of eternal wealth and bliss when the sun was returned."
"That's lovely," Danni told him. "What actually happened?"
"The sun began to die," he said. "When the planet began to freeze over, they all left, vowing to come back when the time was up and the sun was to be returned."
She pouted slightly. "I like the myth better," she declared as they reached the edge of the lake, finding a clump of rocks to sit on the change into their boots. The Doctor jumped up and skated onto the ice, spinning to face the pair with his trademark grin on his face.
"See? Easy peasy!"
Danni laughed sarcastically. "Oh yeah, very easy," she muttered. She should have known that he'd be fantastic at it, he was brilliant at pretty much everything else. She reached out, pushing down on Martha's shoulder as she tried standing on the ice. She wobbled slightly, but she found her balance pretty quickly.
"It's just like normal skating, use one foot to push off and try and keep the glide going," Martha explained briefly before demonstrating.
Danni pursed her lips, nodding to herself, and tried it. She grinned as she managed to go a few yards before yelling in surprise as she slipped and fell forward, landing with a thud on her hands and knees. "You know," she started as she pushed herself up. "I'm starting to feel very glad there's no one here except you two to watch me fail miserably."
The Doctor helped her steady herself. "Don't be like that, you've only just started," he chastised lightly. "It's like Martha said; one foot in front of the other."
She steeled herself and tried again, making it slightly farther before falling, the Doctor catching her before she could hit the ice. "Oh this is going to be so bad," she sobbed to herself. Her knees were already starting to hurt. She didn't want to keep falling for the rest of the day.
"You're doing fine," Martha told her with the air of a parent who was very quickly getting irritated by their child's complaining. "You can do it."
~0~0~0~
Although she wasn't twirling or jumping through the air, Danni did manage to pick up skating relatively quickly. Well, at the very least, she could skate between the Doctor and Martha without the fear of falling over and looking ridiculous as they made their way around the edge of the lake. It was, actually, incredibly peaceful.
"Why are you so good at skating?" Danni asked Martha, hoping to get to know her a little better. Between the giant monsters and all the running, she didn't know how much down time she would get. "You live in London, there can't be many opportunities to go ice-skating on a daily basis."
"My mum thought it would be a good idea to have Tish and me go to ice skating classes when we were kids," Martha replied. "It went well for a couple of weeks then she got a phone call telling her to go pick Tish up. She'd kicked one of the other girls in the shin and sliced her leg open with the blade on the boot. She wasn't allowed back, so I never went either."
Danni laughed. "Why did she do that?"
Martha shrugged. "She still won't say, but I think it had something to do with this guy we went to school with who she swore she didn't fancy, and the fact that Janet Bronson was his girlfriend."
"There's nothing like a teen romance to really bump up the violence in anyone's life," the Doctor replied and Martha nodded.
"Tish has always been headstrong," she told the pair. "Mum always said it was because she's older than us two so she shouted to get attention."
"Hmm," Danni said. "I don't know why, but I always thought you were the older one." She smiled softly to herself. "I don't have any siblings. The one and only me." It was that thought that brought her back to her parents again. She'd left them all on their own, with no other children to comfort at all. Would they be alright without her? She never wanted to leave them on their own.
She shook her head, clearing the thoughts quickly. Why focus on that? There was nothing she could do about it. She was stuck in another universe, she needed to focus on the good, not the bad.
"Come on, let's race!" she suggested, surprising both the Doctor and Martha at the sudden change of topic. "One side to the other, last one there has to... I don't know, fetch some hot drinks or something?"
Both the Doctor and Martha had noticed how quiet she had gone for just a moment, before literally trying to shake herself out of her thoughts. But she was also looking at them expectantly, so Martha shrugged. "Yeah, alright then," she said for the both of them. "On the count of three?"
Danni nodded eagerly. "One, two, three!" she cried and she set off before the other two had even had a chance to get ready, powering forward with her newfound skill. The Doctor quickly made his way past her, though, as he really did have quite gangly legs and they gave him an unfair advantage in her opinion. She did manage to stay pretty consistent with Martha, though, and it was only by chucking herself onto the ice and sliding forward did she manage to touch the edge of the lake before the trainee doctor did.
"Did you really just do that?" Martha asked with a laugh as Danni, unsteadily, climbed back onto her feet.
"Hey, I made it to the edge of the lake before you did," Danni pointed out. "No one said I had to make it vertically."
The Doctor nodded his agreement. "That's three hot chocolates, Martha," he declared. "Off you trot."
She shot him a warning look but he just grinned in return, pretending to be innocent so she rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm going," she muttered before she skated back towards the TARDIS.
"The kitchen should have some thermoses," the Doctor called after her. "I want my blue one!"
"You're both children!"
Danni laughed before turning to the Doctor. "She's going to be a while," she commented. "What do you want to do?"
The Doctor wasn't sure, if he was honest. But he didn't feel like being honest, so he looked around until he spotted a large rock just off the lake on the other side. It was perfect for sitting on and it would give a great vantage point so he could find something for the trio to do and sound like he'd thought farther than the ice skating.
"I'll race you to that rock," he challenged, pointing across to it.
Danni knew there was no way she would win, and yet felt like she could with every bone in her body, so she nodded. "Alright," she agreed and they lined up. "One, two, three!"
She couldn't help but think the Doctor was showing off, slowing down every few seconds to let her catch up, giving her the illusion that she could win before speeding off again. It frustrated her just enough that she pushed harder, hands clenched and eyes narrowing as she became more and more determined to beat him and wipe that grin off his face.
Of course, she actually wasn't very fast, or fit, so the Doctor made it to the other end with plenty of time to spare, doing a sweeping turn so he could watch her pant her way over to him.
"I think you have an unfair advantage," she told him. "You have such long legs. It must give you some automatic power advantage."
"I can't help it if you're so small," he replied and she shot him a warning look.
"I'm not small, you're just ridiculously tall," she retorted, motioning up and down him with her hand. "It's unnecessary."
"Do you want me to give you a head start next time to compensate?" he teased.
"Don't start with me, Spaceman," she warned him. "Next time I'll win."
"Of course you will," he replied, obviously humouring her. Her eyes narrowed determinedly and she turned around to face the way they came. It was more than a race, now. Her pride – and her height – were on the line.
"Yes, I will," she swore. "And I'll prove it. On the count of three."
"All right, if you want to lose a third time, I won't say no," he told her, sounding too smug for her liking. She glared at him from the corner of her eye.
"You're being rude again," she told him.
"I'm trying to," he retorted playfully. She looked ahead, focusing on beating him and his stupid, Time Lord, long legs.
"Right then, Spaceman. Watch this," she told him and, on the count of three, she pushed off with one foot. She shot forward and away from him. He waited a moment, amused and rather fond of her persistence, before taking off and quickly over her.
She scowled, cursing him in her head, before pushing herself harder. It took a large amount of effort, but she managed to make it to his side, if not any further. He glanced down, smiling just slightly at the determined look on her face, when tripped and she yelled in surprise, tumbling down onto the ice. He came to a quick stop, skidding around as she slid forward on the ice.
He bent down to help her up. "Are you okay?" he asked as she rolled over to sit on the ice, rubbing her knee through her tights.
"Yeah, it's just my pride," she muttered. "I almost had you then as well."
He laughed and took her hand, helping her up and gave her something to hold onto as he led her back over to the large rock.
"Of course you did," he humoured.
She looked up at him, indignant at being dismissed. "I was right by your side!" she protested, although if she was honest, she was glad to be on solid, less slippery ground once they stepped onto the snow-covered shore. He helped her onto the rock before sitting down next to her.
She looked out over the planet, still amazed at everything she was seeing. The snow fluttered down lightly in the air, blowing around with the chilly breeze that stung her cheeks but didn't make it through her jacket. The greenery around them was poking through the dusting of snow on the ground, making it look like the lake was actually frozen and not just dense enough to walk on.
She leant back, tilting her head backwards so she could look into the sky. A sky full of new stars, and new darkness, and a moon that looked bigger than anything she could have seen from her own life at home, with her parents. A whole new life was just laid out bare in front of her. Would she have given up her family for it? Probably not, but was she upset that it was happening? She wasn't so sure anymore.
The Doctor watched his friend for a moment, the conflict on her face from whatever she was thinking and he leant back slightly as well to try and see what she was thinking. He had no idea, though. More than ever, when she was this young, it was hard to work out what was upsetting her.
"I was going to bring Rose here," he admitted to her. She turned to look at him, surprised. "To somewhere with some real snow. I hadn't planned on taking Martha somewhere else to do with Rose, but it seemed too nice a place to waste."
Danni nodded along. "I'm sure Rose would've loved it," she told him gently, seeing the bittersweet smile on his face. He still missed her so much, she was sure he'd never stop. "She wouldn't have wanted you to miss out because of her.
"Have you met her yet?" he asked, curiously and she shook her head.
"Not yet," she replied. "I'm hoping to soon, though. I know I meet her at least once." He looked confused. "When I first landed, back with Donna, you asked if I'd come from the 1950's. That's a Rose adventure, with the televisions that eat people's faces."
Once again he was amazed, and slightly concerned, by how much she seemed to know. "How do you know all this?" he asked her yet again, hoping she was young enough to slip up. His curiosity was going to get him into trouble someday, but he really couldn't help himself.
Danni sat up a bit straighter, wondering if she should answer his question. After all, who really wanted to find out their whole life was a television show? All their happy memories recorded for all time sounded great, she had always been keen on taking photographs even when doing mundane things, but all of his pain was on that screen as well. All of the losses, the people. Rose. How would anyone react to that? Even the Doctor, who would be more inclined to believe her than most, didn't deserve his anguish to be someone's entertainment.
She shifted slightly on the spot. He didn't deserve that burden. He deserved better than he always got. She couldn't add to that pain, could she? She looked at him, studied his face, remembered how devastated he had looked as Rose had fallen towards the Void only to be stuck behind the wall. How he'd had to wipe Donna's memory. How he'd lost Amy and Rory…
She smiled at him, apologetic. No one deserved that pain. "Spoilers," she offered, because what else could she say? It wasn't strictly untrue, so she wasn't lying, but it held everything back from him either. The perfect word.
She needed to thank River for it, if they ever met.
Immediately she saw a change in him. His curious look fell to annoyance, much like it had done when he'd snapped at her when looking for Lazarus. She'd made him angry with just one word alone; she must have used it a lot.
"That word," he snapped. "It just means you can't do anything. All that knowledge and you never seem to use it. What's the point if you can't save anyone important?"
Danni was slowly coming to realise that feeling hurt at his words was going to become a theme in her life, one that she knew wouldn't have happened if she had actually been dreaming all along. The attack came from nowhere, and although she knew it was because he was still grieving, all she could think about was that she was still grieving too.
"Excuse me," she exclaimed. "It's not like I can just go spilling the beans, you know? Do you have any idea what could happen if I do? You're all like 'can't change the past, fixed points' etcetera, until it's something you want." She jabbed his arm. "I don't have a choice what I'm doing. My life actually pretty much sucks, so sorry if I'm keeping something to myself once in a while." She crossed her arms. "You tell me off for helping, you tell me off for not helping. What the hell am I supposed to do, then, Spaceman?"
His anger quickly fell away and, a little chastised, they both fell silent. He hadn't meant to snap at her, he wasn't exactly sure where it came from and he immediately felt bad. But even though she was slightly annoyed, she still couldn't help but be drawn to the sky above them in awe and delight.
This was why he travelled with his friends. Like Rose had, like Martha and Sarah Jane and everyone else before her, Danni's wonder just helped ignite his own.
"How long did you know me, before you came here?" he asked, trying to bring the conversation back to something nice. If she wouldn't tell him about what or how she knew, perhaps he could tease out other information from her he could piece together.
Danni looked out of the corner of her eye at him, a little amused by the way he seemed to be pushing his luck with asking the questions. He did it so casually, as if he'd not just tried and she'd shot him down. He had that innocent look on his face that was trying to suggest that he'd not asked her a similar question just a moment ago.
She couldn't help but smile; how did a nine-hundred-year-old alien manage to be absolutely adorable and infuriating at the same time?
"About seven years," she replied, knowing that didn't really give him much. She then frowned to herself. "Well, kinda," she corrected. "I knew of you practically all my life, but I guess you've been in my life properly for about seven… yeah, that's about right." She shot him a grin. "I was quite fascinated with you."
He sat a little straighter, looking rather pleased with himself. "I am quite fascinating," he confirmed and she laughed, nodding.
"Yes, you are," she agreed. "Fascinatingly big-headed."
"Oi!" he exclaimed and she nudged him with her shoulder.
"I'm only teasing," she told him. "It's not fascinating, it's just a fact."
"Well, if I'm big-headed, you're definitely—" He nudged her back. "- fascinatingly smug."
She nodded her agreement. "Oh, most definitely," she agreed. "It's hard not to be around," she nudged him, a little harder, "you."
"Oh, really?" he asked, giving her a harder nudge. Once again she found herself yelling in surprise and she fell down to the ground with a hard thud. Instead of being concerned, as he should have been, the Doctor just burst out into a fit of laughter that had her glaring up at him. She shifted to push herself up but, feeling the coldness of the snow through her gloves, came up with a much better idea.
She scooped up a load and chucked it at the Time Lord, who stopped laughing in his surprise at being attacked. The dumbfounded look on his face caused her to burst out laughing. "Oh, oh, is that how it is going to be?" he asked, already gathering the snow from the rock for his return attack.
"Bring it," she challenged and the tension from their small argument disappeared as they fell into an unsteady snowball fight underneath the darkening sky. They only stopped when Martha skated over, thermoses in hand, looking like an exasperated mother.
"What are you two doing?" she asked them. They both shared a look, a little embarrassed, snow ball in their hands. Then, with a little cheeky turn up of the Doctor's lips, they joined forces and answered with a snowball each, laughing at the outraged look on her face. She placed the drinks down, scooped up some snow and began chucking it in their general direction.
"Oh, you asked for this!" she cried, also stumbling off the lake in her skates and the fight continued.
~0~0~0~
It was only when Danni was starting to turn a distinct shade of blue that they headed back to the TARDIS. Night had fallen and the snowball fight and the beautiful nature around them had kept them out much longer than perhaps they should have. The Doctor had given her some sort of tablet to make sure that she didn't develop a cold then had sent her to bed for some rest. She knew she should have gone, after all she'd barely slept at all lately, but she still found herself grabbing a drink and trying to find Martha. Her exhaustion wasn't going to stop her exploring the TARDIS.
She'd found the companion in, what she had dubbed, the entertainment room. It had a large sofa, some comfy chairs and a giant television on the wall. The TARDIS knowing, once again, what everybody needed. What had surprised her was the fact the trainee doctor was watching Scrubs, of all things.
"You have Scrubs?" she asked Martha as she sat down next to her, careful not to spill her tea.
Martha nodded. "The TARDIS basically has any television show ever made. Some of these episodes haven't even aired yet. It's pretty amazing."
Danni couldn't agree more and they both watched the show together, laughing at the antics of the doctor and his surgeon friend. Danni had loved this show but had fallen away from it. She needed to pick it back up.
"Do you miss your parents when you're here?" she asked Martha, seemingly out of the blue. Martha seemed surprised at the question, but then looked up as she considered it.
"Sometimes," she settled on. "It's hard to miss them when we're running away from witches or Daleks, but when I stop I remember them and, yeah, I guess I do."
"It's strange, but I thought I'd miss them more," Danni admitted. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd give anything to be back at home, but I thought I'd just miss everyone so much all of the time. But like today, ice skating was fun. I had a good time. I shouldn't be, should I?" She turned in her seat slightly. "Is it bad that I am having a good time?"
Martha, again, took a moment to consider her answer. "You've not been here long, have you?" she asked and Danni shook her head. "Well, then, you've barely had a chance to miss them at all. I'm sure it'll happen, but when you lose people, sometimes it's when they've been gone a while, when you've had a chance to notice their absence, that's when the pain will come. But you can't sit around waiting for it, just make sure that when you do feel it, you let yourself feel it. What we all have to remember is to never forget the people we leave behind, but to spend your life wishing you weren't here would be a waste of all this splendour."
Danni took a sip of her drink before leant on Martha's shoulder. "You're very smart," she told her.
"I should hope so," Martha replied and Danni chuckled, already feeling a little better about herself. Martha was right; how many people got the chance to see what she had seen? They'd had a snowball fight on a planet nobody had stepped on for years. She was with the Doctor, and Martha Jones, and everyone else in between and they'd not even existed for her until, like, a couple of weeks ago. She had to give herself more credit. She had to give herself some time.
"Does 'The Simpsons' exist here?" she asked Martha as the credits for the episode began to roll.
"I think that show exists in every universe," Martha replied and Danni giggled.
"You're probably right," she agreed. "Can I put an episode on?"
"Sure." Martha nodded at the television. "Just think of the episode and it should come on. Most of the time it works, unless the TARDIS decides she doesn't like your choice."
She turned to the screen, her face scrunching up in concentration until the screen turned to the familiar blue of the opening credits and she beamed. "Oh yeah, look at me go!" she cried before looking up at the ceiling. "Thanks, sweetie!"
"What episode do you choose?" Martha asked curiously as Danni settled back. Her tea now drunk, she was starting to feel herself slowly becoming more and more tired.
"The one where Mr Burns wants to find his old teddy bear," she replied before smiling softly. "It's my mum's favourite episode."
"I always liked the one where they move to the other city and it's owned by a supervillain," Martha replied and Danni laughed in recognition.
"Oh yeah, and he gives Homer that baseball team at the end."
"The wrong one, and he's really disappointed," Martha finished and they both laughed. The episode started but neither woman paid it any attention as they began reminiscing on classic episodes, pointing out their favourite moments until Danni yawned one too many times.
"Right, off to bed," Martha told her. "The Doctor gave you strict instructions to get some rest."
"Yeah, yeah, alright mother," Danni muttered good-naturedly as she stood up. "I'll see you in the morning." She paused in her step. "Well, maybe."
She had truly been on the way back to her room when she'd stumbled upon the library. Too tired to read, she had thought for a moment to turn and head to bed before she thought on her and the Doctor's heated exchange. She really didn't know what to change and what to leave. She knew that some things were going to be too big for her to change. And what if she changed something for the worse? The Doctor and Martha were heading towards the Master, but if she warned them or steered them away, what else might he do? The Doctor stopped him after the year he spent on the Valiant, it didn't mean that he always would stop him.
She ran her fingers across the books, now too troubled to head to bed. There was something else coming up, something she knew was going to be more painful that anything before it. The one episode she'd not been able to watch twice. Something she wasn't going to be able to stop, and something she wished she could. She stopped on one, hesitating before pulling it out.
Melody Malone: Private Detective in Old New York Town.
She flipped to the final chapter, to the Afterword and read until the tears in her eyes blurred her vision and she slammed it shut. Some much was riding on the end of the Ponds, new companions and Weeping Angel farms. She just hoped that she had enough time to think of something before she reached it.
She turned and fled the library, book in hand, a fresh wave of denial rushing over her. She had plenty of time. She didn't need to think about the bad just yet.
Another copy of the book rippled into existence where the gap had been left, the TARDIS filling the space ready for Manhattan.