Silence in the Library, part 1 -
About three months had passed since the Doctor and the Oracle had found out that they were going to be parents. They had told Donna by now who had congratulated them brightly before going into a ramble about thinking that all Time Lords came from machines like Jenny.
They had also gone back to Earth for a little bit so Donna could see her family and the Oracle could tell Martha the big news. Martha had the brightest smile on her face and asked all kinds of questions from the biology of Time Lords over safety in the Tardis all the way to whether they still needed a volunteer for godmother.
Through the loose top the Oracle was wearing today her small bump was not visible and the Doctor was almost disappointed about it. She joined him by the console and looked at him expectantly.
"Where to today?"
"Oh, you'll love it", he smiled and started to move around the console, "Books. People never really stop loving books."
They walked out into a large, dusty, room with hardwood flooring and light streaming through windows high up on the walls. The Doctor walked ahead, turning to the women to tell them more.
"Fifty first century. By now you've got holovids, direct to brain downloads, fiction mist, but you need the smell. The smell of books. Deep breath. The Library. So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big The."
They walked out to a huge marble staircase from the top of which they saw the sheer size of the library as the Oracle said, "Like The Oracle."
"Like The Doctor", he gave back with a smile.
"It's like a city", Donna brought their attention back.
"A world, a planet. Literally. This is a planet, the core of which, an index computer. Biggest hard drive ever, every book ever written", the Oracle told her.
"Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed", the Doctor added.
They reached the balcony and looked down.
"We're near the equator, so", he licked his finger and held it up like he was checking the wind, "this must be biographies. I love biographies."
"Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end", Donna commented and picked up a book.
"You need a good death. Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size", he took the book away from her and put it aside, "Oi, Spoilers."
"What?"
"These books are from your future. You don't want to read ahead. Spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end."
"You git called Agatha Christie a Dame, introduced Harry Potter to Shakespeare and showed Martha the end of the Universe, and that's just in this face. And now you bring Donna to a library-planet in the fifty first century and forbid her to look at the books?", the Oracle raised her brows at him.
"Yeah, travelling with you is one big spoiler", Donna smirked.
"I try to keep you away from major plot developments. Which, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at, because you know what? This is the biggest library in the universe. So where is everyone? It's silent."
He went to a computer next to them and used his sonic to turn it on.
"The library?", Donna asked.
"The planet. The whole planet."
"Maybe it's a Sunday", she tried.
"No, I never land on Sundays. Sundays are boring."
"Libraries are always quiet. It's way stranger that nobody's shushed you yet", the Oracle told him.
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To Be Loved
FanfictionThe Oracle and the Doctor found each other after years apart. While they're rebuilding their love mysteries unravel around them as they're trying to connect the dots around themselves. [Part 2 in the To Be Series]
