belle, doctor who

two

Partners In Crime

A whole month. That's how long it's been since she got dropped off in the year two thousand and six.

Donna had made Belle feel welcomed in her complex with her mother Sylvia and grandfather Wilf. Wilf was interested in Belle which made her feel appreciated.

He kept asking her all sorts of questions. Kept asking her about what the future was like. Donna had only told Wilf about where Belle really was from, because Sylvia wouldn't have allowed it. Donna kept an eye on Wilf, trying to have him not slip that Belle was from the future.

Belle also told Wilf how she shouldn't say anything about the future because it would cause a paradox.

Donna had asked Belle what she would do when she would ever see the Doctor. A whole month of mixed emotions, she doesn't know what could happen. Belle thought about how she would react, but she knew it wouldn't be pretty if he hadn't shown up for a year. Though it had only been a month since she had been dropped off.

Belle sighed as Donna asked her to be a chauffeur for a Industry she found suspicious. Belle agreed to drive her even if she didn't have a license with her from 2006. Donna believed she wouldn't get caught. And she believed they would find the Doctor as well. Belle started to shake when Donna mentioned him. This wasn't going to be pretty.

•••

Quite a few hours later in an alleyway, Belle sits in Donna's blue car, waiting for her. She hears a gasp coming from a woman outside. She looked up from dawdling with her fingers to find Donna gaping.

"That's my car!" shouts Donna as Belle gets out.

"Donna? What — No. no. No. No. No. no—"

"What? What're you flipping out for?" The man says as Belle notices the TARDIS not so far away from her.

"That's the TARDIS! Donna, you know, the-the—"

"Yes, and this is the Doctor, Belle!" Donna says, pointing to him. Belle looks at him, up and down.

"No it's not. I remember him clearly. He was a bulky bald man that—"

"A bulky bald man?" This 'Doctor' says, offended. "And who are you to—"

Belle slaps the man in the face. "If she says you're the Doctor, then I believe it!" Belle yells in his face.

"A whole month!" She shouts at him. "Do you remember me? I bet you don't, because you have a new face! I don't know how, but—!"

The Doctor places a hand on her head as she is boiling in anger.

"It's all coming back to me now," the Doctor tells her, trying to have her calm down. She starts to sob. "It's been a very long time for me, obviously, but look..."

"Her name's Belle."

"Isabelle to him," Belle says in between sobs. "I don't care," she says, "I had a life, and you ruined it by your own anger and stupidity!"

The Doctor frowns and suddenly is upset. "You don't get it, Belle."

Belle growls, "Isabelle!"

"I was just from a war with my people!" The Doctor shouts at her. "I was grieving! I had just become the last Time Lord of existence! I didn't want anyone around me! Can't you understand that?! I was at a tough point in my life and the last thing I needed was someone to barge in—!"

"Why couldn't you park your TARDIS somewhere else?!" Belle shouted back. The Doctor leans down to her height and gets in her face, nose to nose.

"The TARDIS put me there! I had no choice and she wouldn't let me go!"

"Oi!" Donna says, breaking the two up. "Spaceman, step away from poor Belle here. I think she's learned a lesson from your past self, that she shouldn't have trespassed on private property."

"It's not the point," says Belle, crossing her arms. "He could've just... just..."

"Spaceman, I demand you to bring her home," the Doctor rolls his eyes as Donna points at him. "You have no right to get angry with her. All she wants to do is get home, you hear me?"

The Doctor doesn't say anything.

"Would you rather be on your own?" Donna asks, questioning him as he is oddly silent.

"No," the Doctor says to Donna, ignoring Belle who was trying to look everywhere else other than him. "But the last time, with Martha, like I said, it, it got complicated. And that was all my fault. I just want a mate."

"You just want a mate?" Donna says as she reaches the TARDIS with her things. Belle pushes past him, almost shoving him as she tries to walk inside.

"I just want a mate!" The Doctor repeats. "One who's not Belle!"

"Obviously Belle isn't a mate of yours, and that's Isabelle to you! You're not mating with me, sunshine!"

"A mate," he struggles to say, "I just want a mate."

"Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense. I mean, you're just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing."

"Donna," Belle says, "he's saying he wants a friend, not a person he wants to spend the rest of his boring, little life he's got—"

"Oi," the Doctor says angrily. "You have no right to speak for me. And my life isn't boring—!"

"I've had enough of the two of you fighting, and it's been only five minutes!" Donna shouts.

"I'm sorry, Belle," Donna says after interrupting the Doctor. "But I want to travel with the Doctor. I've been waiting for this moment ever since he left last Christmas, after my failed wedding, but..."

"I understand," Belle mutters, then pauses. The Doctor's staring at her. "Just get on with it."

"On with what?" Donna asks.

"I'm talking to the Doctor," Belle says. "Get me home!"

"Oi!" Donna says to Belle, "I have to drop the car keys off first!"

"Fine, but hurry up! I need to get home!"