Wander of time: Darkness within (doctor who)

Chapter 26: Christmas with the Ponds

Upon Wanda's request, the Doctor took her back to the warehouse. Back to the cloning room where the clones of her and Martha had been made. They had to go back anyway, to get Donna who was still with UNIT. While Martha and the Doctor went to the UNIT trailer to get the woman, Wanda stayed behind in the cloning room. She collected her coat from the room she had left it behind in. The rest of her clothes she left on the clone, wanting to leave the poor dear who died to be left to rest in some decency.

"Time to go!" came the call from the Doctor as he and the other two stepped back into the room. Wanda glanced up from where she sat on the floor next to her clone.

"Are they really going to let Luke work for UNIT after everything he's done?" Donna asked the Time Lord, clearly in disbelief of the boy seemingly getting off so easily after almost destroying the world.

"More like forcing him to work. We're not letting him out of our sight after that," Martha replied as she and Donna went to the TARDIS. "Brilliant mind like his can do us some good, but also lets us keep a close eye on him. I doubt he'll enjoy that." She and Donna laughed as they went into the ship, letting the door close behind them.

Wanda sat there in silence, staring down at her clone's body. She tensed as she heard the Doctor walking over to her. A gentle hand rubbed her shoulder as the Time Lord crouched next to her.

"We can't just leave her here," she whispered, sadness laced heavily in her voice.

"I know," the Doctor agreed. "She has parts of your DNA in her. Can't let that fall into the wrong hands."

"I wasn't talking about that," Wanda sighed, staring at him steadily. "I meant she deserves a proper funeral. Not just left behind to rot here."

"Right," the Doctor responded, tugging at his ear in embarrassment. He felt uncomfortable staring at the clone Wanda dead on the floor. Too close in looks to his Wanderer. He had to keep looking at his Wanda to know that she was still alive and well. Seeing how Wanda still looked at him evenly, he sighed. "Okay . . . I'll ask UNIT to make certain to take care of her body. They'll have to cremate her, though. You know how Time Lord DNA works. But I can ask them to place her ashes somewhere nice."

"Thank you." Again she sighed, staring down in remorse at the dead clone. She gently fixed the girl's hair and placed her hands together on her stomach, making the clone appear more at peace. "I'll be in the TARDIS. Do what you have to with UNIT and her body." Standing up, she hurried back into the TARDIS. Only wishing to be far away from this place.

It was a while later before the Doctor came back into the ship, sending the group of travellers off once again. With Martha and Wanda properly dressed once more thanks to the TARDIS wardrobe, everyone was simply ready to get the day over with. Soon the Doctor took Donna to her home when asked to check up on her family and to see if they were all right in the end. Wilf ended up meeting them outside where the TARDIS had materialized, smiling proudly at his granddaughter and waving merrily at the two Time Lords and Martha standing behind Donna. Wanda—not being able to contain her excitement in seeing Wilf again—ran around Donna and ended up giving the old man a hug. She pulled away in embarrassment, blushing as everyone, even Wilf, laughed at her giddiness. But the granddad ended up hugging her again, telling the Time Lady how delighted he was in meeting her once more. As well as receiving a hug from an actual alien.

Leaving Donna and Wilf to go back into their home to discuss over today's events, the Doctor, Wanda, and Martha sat within the TARDIS control room waiting for the red head's return. Then, glancing between the two Time Lords, seeing the tension, Martha cleared her throat.

"You know, I think I'll go pop back to my old room real quick," she told them as she edged away from the console and towards the corridor. "I think I might have left something in there from, well, you know, last time I was here." With that said, she turned and disappeared from sight, leaving the other two alone.