Work Text:
There was a spaceship over London, the Doctor was starting to think that they should all just give up with the capitol, there were constantly alien ships flying across or crashing, often both, such as in the case of this latest one.
Even the news didn’t really seem to mind too much, it was sandwiched between learning how to cook something and dog astrology signs on This Morning. Donna had supposed to have the day off of work, in fact she’d been looking forward to spending the day off work crushing the Doctor at board games.
But no, she’d gotten a call in, her first call in, so she had left them on the floor with the board games and the rest of their family, no one was focusing on them though, they were all looking at the tv showing the spaceship crashing.
They felt that tug they did, and the guilt, they knew they shouldn’t go chasing after it, after an explanation more than anything, but Donna had given them a begging look before she’d gone to change out of her pjs.
He knew that their brother would be on it, and that they’d find out everything from Donna, or if worse came to worse they could just access the Unit computer system… no one was in clear danger, that they could tell.
They pushed themself to their feet, they could feel everyone watching them as they left the room, they felt relief flush through them when no one asked where they were going, no one told them off, or assumed the worst of them, even if they were probably thinking that they were going off.
They were probably Donna’s issue before she went to work, that was their theory anyway.
They lent against a wall in the hallway, leaning back with their legs crossed over each other and their arms wrapped over their chest. They tried not to listen to the noise of the news playing, luckily Sylvia told Wilf to change their channel, with a vague hushed noise the Doctor knew was about them when Wilf did as he was told with minimal complaining.
They span one of their fidget rings round on their finger using their thumb.
Truth be told they were pretty sure that if they decided to try and get in their Tardis and go help they’d be stopped by Donna, and the Doctor, hell if Unit were there their psychologist would also stop them and then force them to talk about it for an hour the next week.
“You’re not comin’ with me,” Donna tried to put on her work heels as she walked down the stairs, on the bottom step she nearly fell, but steadied herself before she needed to be caught, “just so we’re both clear.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, there’s only so much Unit I can take,” he shot her a smile, when they received a doubtful look they began spinning their ring again. “I know,” they told her quietly, looking up to meet her eyes for a brief moment, a flicker of a smile on their face, “I’m not going to ask,” she opened her mouth but they carried on, “and I’m not going to go off in my Tardis.”
Donna hesitated before nodding slowly, “Okay… good… but you realise if you do try I'm getting your brother to like timelock the Tardis from you?”
They let out a snort, “Not how timelocks work, but sure.”
She rolled her eyes.
“How’re you feeling?”
“What? Me? I’m fine, why wouldn’t I?”
They raised an eyebrow back at her, causing her to sigh, and lean back against the wall beside them with another sigh. “You’re going to do great, Donna.”
“It’s my first time being called into one of these.”
“Except from all the times we flew around with the Tardis taking us to where people needed us, that was basically like being called into an emergency.”
They allowed their soft reminder to sink in.
After a minute she quietly spoke again, “It’s not the same… I always had you there…” She quickly turned to face him, her eyes wide, “this is not me asking you to come along, not because I don’t want you, but because you-”
They gently took her hands, cutting off her words, “Donna, I know. I’m sure if it’s something that needs a Doctor, one of us will turn up. I know, I mean, it sucks, and it’s boring … but I get it.” They took in the small frown on her face, they were pretty sure she looked like she felt a little guilty, even if it were for the best, but her trepidation had clearly lessened a little.
“It’s okay,” they promised, pulling her in for a hug. “You’re going to do great, you’re Donna Noble, you’re the best person for the job. If anything fails just yell at them, it scares me, you’ll have them running off quaking in their boots, if they’re wearing boots.”
They laughed as she gently shoved them with a laugh and told them to piss off. She took a deep breath then smiled, “Okay, I got this. If I see your brother, do you want me to invite him and Ruby for dinner? I think mum’s making some pizzas from one of those books you got her.”
The Doctor shrugged, “I mean, if they’re busy I get it, I swear he’s always here, if they want to I’m sure I can put up with him for a while…”
Donna rolled her eyes, “You are such a younger sibling.”
“No I’m not!” they protested loudly, as they helped a laughing Donna into her coat. “Literally, technically I’m not.”
“Uh huh,” she grabbed her new work handbag, “keep telling yourself that kid .”
“I’m changing the locks to your door while you’re out,” they followed her back into the living room, as she quickly said bye to her family.
“You can’t even fix the microwave, I doubt you’ll be able to change the locks, kid .”
The Doctor threw their head back with a loud annoyed groan, not liking how she had got this nickname from the Doctor purely for them both to annoy them with, they threw themself back onto the couch, gaining looks from everyone in the room who was a parent, with those built in ‘don’t ruin the couch’ looks, they held his hands up in surrender to the worst of them from Sylvia, he quickly looked back in his traitorous best friend’s direction, “Rose, tell your mum to be nice to me, will ya?”
“I don’t think even I have that power,” she told him as she accepted the kiss on her cheek from her mum. “And you probably just annoyed her.”
The Doctor subtly kicked his niece, okay it was more of a nudge, but it earned them a glare from her.
“Of course they did, but when don’t they?” Donna told her, but dropped a kiss onto the top of the Doctor’s head, earning a small smile from them, she sent them one back, but both looked away before it could get too sappy. “Be good, no going in the Tardis, no causing fires, no-”
“-I know, Donna.”
“I was talking to my actual child, Doctor, but thanks for agreeing with me.”
From the look on her face they knew she was claiming she was right about them being the youngest sibling, they sent her a small glare before a sweet smile overtook their face. “Have fun at work, don’t ask any aliens about probing…”
“That was one time!” She shouted turning on her feet to leave as Rose and Shaun started to ask them about what happened, “Tell them and you’re dead!”
The front door slammed shut and the Doctor smiled to themself, fishing their mobile off of the side, while they ignored the questions they were being asked. They wouldn’t tell anyone about that whole catastrophe. They glanced at the screen of the phone, no new texts from the Doctor… but they’d keep it close to them, just in case the Doctor needed some help…