Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

Turn Left and Don't Just Watch

Turn Left and Don't Just Watch

(Turn Left: Part 5)

Matt, as he'd feared, received a patented Donna Noble slap upon his return.

"Where've you been? I was worried sick about you!"

Well aware he'd drawn the attention of several of their housemates, Matt rubbed at his cheek. "Ran into an old friend."

The look on Donna's face plainly said, Really? She took hold of his arm and dragged him into the kitchen, where Wilf was setting out a few of his meager possessions. Sylvia was nowhere to be found.

Donna's wrath had faded slightly when Matt told her of Mallory and was replaced by unrest when he told her of the crime scene he'd witnessed. She finally settled cross-legged on one of the mattresses and let out a sigh. "I knew this would be bad."

"Oh, well," Wilf finally said. "We'll settle in, won't we? Make do, huh? Bit of wartime spirit, eh?"

"Yeah, but there isn't a war," Donna snapped. "There's no fight. It's just... this."

Wilf's face plainly said he was trying to stay optimistic, if only for the rest of them. "Well, America, they'll save us. It was on the news. They're going to send Great Britain fifty billion quid in financial aid. God bless America!"

~~~

"America is in crisis, with over sixty million reported dead. Sixty million people have dissolved into fat. And the fat is walking. People's fat has come to life and is walking through the streets. And there are spaceships. There are reports of spaceships over every major US city. The fat is flying. It's leaving..."

A few weeks later, when the story came on the news, there was no question. "Aliens," Wilf said, glancing around the residents of house twenty-nine as they gathered around the tiny, worn television.

"Yeah," Donna said quietly.

There was one thing they had left, one peaceful activity this world had left untouched. As the night wore on and Matt slipped into the bedroom slash kitchen, he felt his heart lift as he saw Wilf readying his telescope.

"You going up the hill?" Matt asked, unable to keep a note of hope from his voice.

"Yeah," Donna said from behind him, wiping her hands on her jeans like she'd come from the bathroom. "You coming?"

"Sure," Matt said, scrambling for his coat. Even in what should have been spring, it was still frighteningly cold thanks to the debris left in the atmosphere from the Titanic's explosion. He was reaching over to carry a piece of Wilf's telescope when Donna spoke again.

"Hey, bring your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," he mumbled, though he felt his face warm. Though he still often wondered what twist of fate had led Mallory just four houses down from him, it hadn't stopped him from spending time with her. He would be lying if he said a fire of affection that had once burned for her, reduced to ashes for years on end, wasn't starting to flicker back to life.

"Well, you don't need to be scared about bringing her home to meet the family then, do you?" Donna said with a slight smirk. He glanced away. When he looked back, she had sidled up beside him, glancing over her shoulder at her grandfather and lowering her voice so he wouldn't hear. "Listen. You don't have to if you don't want to. I'd just like to meet the woman that seems to have done you so much good."

Her words gave him pause. Done him so much good? He felt the farthest from good as he'd been in years.

The realization crept over him, then hit hard. Since he'd watched the cloud billow up over London, the only time he'd felt anything but aching and numb was with Mallory.