2Best Mates: Finding Jenny's World
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, darnit!
Summary: This follows the deleted scene where Donna and the Doctor discuss finding a new world in honor of Jenny's memory... And a little bit more.
The Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS with a flourish, "How's this one for a candidate?"
As Donna walked to the doors, she said, "I liked the last two well enough, but there was something missing from both of them. Maybe third time lucky, eh?" Looking out, she gasped.
The trees had trunks in various shades of the darker blues in the spectrum, leaves in varying reds, from the darkest maroon to candy apple. The grass was a vivid teal with lime, coral, turquoise and yellow flowers everywhere. There was a crystal clear stream nearby that was shimmering in the light of an Earthlike, yellow sun.
Inhaling deeply, Donna breathed, "It's beautiful!"
Grinning from ear to ear, the Doctor asked, "Shall we have a look round?"
Nodding eagerly, Donna answered, "Of course! It's the only way to be sure, isn't it?"
"Too right," the Doctor beamed and they stepped out, shutting the doors behind them.
The two spent some time exploring the different aspects of this particular world and all its breathtaking wonders. Using the TARDIS to hop to the other two continents as well, they took days to look it all over.
Running back inside the TARDIS, Donna and the Doctor slammed the doors shut and leaned on them, breathing heavily. A loud crash against the doors shook the ship, making the travelers look at each other and laugh.
Donna halfheartedly berated the Doctor, "For the third time this week alone, can you try not bleeping everything with that sonic screwdriver of yours? I've told you before that not everyone, or every creature, likes it."
The Time Lord chuckled, "That big fella there certainly didn't, but how was I to know he would turn out to be a relative of yours?"
She gasped, "You cheeky Martian!"
He took one look at her face and he was off and running because Donna was chasing him. Around the console and down the corridor, the sounds of running feet and his laughter echoed through the TARDIS.
After dinner they sat at the table with their tea and the Doctor asked, "Well I know my choice of the three, what about you, Donna?"
"This last one, certainly," she beamed. "It's perfect! It's just too bad we can't officially name it Jenny's World because that's how I'm always going to think of it."
The Doctor looked thoughtful and said, "But we can."
At Donna's surprised, but delighted look, he explained what they had to do. So as soon as they'd finished their tea, they were off to do just that.
About a week later in their travels, the Doctor was passing Donna's open bedroom door and heard her figuring something up on her personal calendar. He stopped and asked, "What's that? Need some help?"
She made a face, "Not really, just keeping track of the actual days of traveling with you and I reckon tomorrow to be my birthday."
He grinned, "Really? Tomorrow we'll do something special for your birthday, it'll be brilliant!"
With an almost panicked look on her face, Donna set down her calendar and shook her head. She jumped quickly to her feet and crossed to the door to grasp his hand and gasped out, "No! Please don't?"
Puzzled, the Doctor asked, "Why not?"
Donna sighed, "Oh, the best of intentions is how it starts, but then disaster usually strikes. The car breaks down and it's some horridly expensive repair, that one happened three times and is NOT something I want to ever happen to the TARDIS! Other times, reservations were mysteriously lost or outright cancelled and even take away orders were always wrong or delivered to the wrong door and the restaurants refused to make amends OR give refunds. Once I tried to see a film with friends and the theater caught fire somehow."
The Doctor had a growing look of consternation on his face.
Donna was looking down as she finished with, "Then one year I let a friend try to take me out, spur of the moment, I ended up in hospital getting my stomach pumped out because of food poisoning. That was the year I decided to quit trying for anything special for my birthday, because it'll all just go wrong." She shrugged, resigned.
He looked almost upset on her behalf, "How is all that even possible? The odds against it are astronomical!"
Snorting a bit, Donna snarked, "That's me, beating the odds, every time. So now you see why I don't want you to try to plan anything special?"
"But Donna," he tried to protest, but she held up a hand to stop him.
"Promise me, Doctor. Promise me you won't try to plan a special outing, or a dinner, ANY special meal, someplace. I'm deadly serious!"
He pouted.
"And don't poke that lip out at me, you're not five for all you act like it sometimes, so it won't work on me. Promise!"
He sighed, "All right, I promise not to plan any outings or special meals for tomorrow, but your next birthday we WILL do something special for you and I won't take no for an answer!"
Donna had started to sigh with relief, then tensed up at his declaration before shaking her head at him, "Thank you for your promise, but don't count on that last bit. We both know that with your track record, there's no way you could possibly deliver on a trouble free dinner out at a posh place, no matter what planet we happened to be on. It's not your fault, either. The universe just doesn't seem to work that way, for either of us. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get ready for bed. Us humans need our beauty sleep."
With that she pushed him out into the corridor and closed the door.
The Doctor let his lips form into a smirk as he murmured quietly, "I never promised I wouldn't get you a gift, now did I? And I, Time Lord that I am, don't need sleep!"
A few hours later, the Doctor stumbled back into the TARDIS, wet and bedraggled and more than a little mud spattered. He made his way down the corridor to his room, emptied his pockets on his bed then shucked off everything and sent it down the laundry chute, even his trainers.
After his long, hot shower, he walked back into his room all bundled up in his bathrobe. Rubbing a towel vigorously over his wet hair for a minute, he then slung the damp terry cloth around his neck and walked back over to his bed. He picked up and opened one of the small boxes, revealing a set of palladium hair combs, studded with Geravic diamonds. "Yes, these will do nicely and Donna doesn't have to know a thing about how much of an adventure it turned out to be, acquiring them!"
He chuckled as he set the box back down and went to get dressed. He had a whole year to whittle down that superstition of hers so that he could take her out for that trouble free dinner she wanted. He'd have another present for her on that occasion as well, he thought, looking at all the other small boxes. Yes, he had plans to make up for all the horrible birthdays his best mate had had over her life. If he had his way, she'd never have another horrible birthday ever again!