Chapter Text
The Doctor was still settling in to life on Earth with the Noble family. A new mundane sort of routine. Less aliens, less running, less world-altering anomalies. Even so, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Donna hadn’t quite told him everything about the life she had built for herself.
He’d picked up on a few clues. During their fight against the Meep, he had heard her and Rose mention someone named Eclipse. A strained worry underneath the name each time it was spoken. He didn’t push or ask, sensing it wasn’t the right time or his place to intrude, but he couldn’t ignore it.
The first mention had been in the van with Donna, Rose, Sylvia and Shaun during their battle with the Meep. Rose had seemed so worried as Donna held her.
“Mum...what about Eclipse?”
“Oh darling...they’re far away. On their own. Probably flying to Italy right now. They’ll be safe.” Despite the attempt at a comforting tone, Donna’s voice had been laced with worry and fear.
The second time had been while they were lost at the end of the universe fighting the Not Things. It had been brief. Donna had pleaded for him to “get me home to them. They still need me.” He had assumed she simply meant her family, Rose. And in a way she had. But even so, there was that same sadness beneath it. Something deeper. He had finally got the courage in him to ask.
“Donna...those photos in your home. It wasn’t just Rose in some of them. May I ask…?”
“Oh, yes. Um, that’s Eclipse. First born. Impossible, that one. Absolutely impossible. They’ve moved out now. I made a bit of a mess of things. They always preferred to be on their own anyway. But blimey they would love this. Not the whole being abandoned at the end of the universe bit, but the science and the running and the TARDIS….they would love it. That is, if you could get them to stick around long enough to appreciate it.”
The conversation had been interrupted, but he hadn’t forgotten.
The third time he had heard Eclipse’s name was when they arrived back to Earth while the Toymaker was reining chaos down on Chiswick. Donna had looked up from Wilf with a worried gaze.
“Where are they? Is Eclipse with you??”
Wilf had frowned almost apologetically. “No. They’ve been trying to get here. They closed the airspace down and they’re planes grounded in Ireland. But they’re safe. They said they’d keep trying.”
Donna sighed with a mix of relief and worry all at once. “Maybe its better that way. They shouldn’t be flying in this. It’s not safe.”
There’s a small pause and Wilf had given a sad smile “That won’t stop them though. Not if their family is in danger.”
Unfortunately Eclipse hadn’t been able to get through then. But Donna did have a very long frantic phone call that evening. They were safe.
Donna had hung up and returned to the Doctor’s side. The Doctor glanced up “All good then? Safe and sound?”
Donna nodded “They’re flying home now. Lord only knows when they’ll be by. Can’t exactly wrangle that one in. There’s always something going on.”
Sylvia mused “I’ve still no idea how Wilf handles her.”
“Them,” Donna corrected. Not missing a beat. “We’ve had years to get that one right mum. Misgendering them won’t help encourage them to come back.” She sounded harsher than perhaps she meant to. Sylvia frowned and, for once, went quiet.
Shaun let out an almost frustrated sigh. “I think it will take much more for them to come back and actually stay. They want answers. They deserve answers.”
Donna hesitated. “If I had answers to give I would.”
Sylvia shook her head “I understand wanting to know where you come from, but what they need to do is focus on the family they have. They have a father in their life who loves them. They should be grateful.”
Shaun frowned. “Just wish I could keep up with them.”
Donna laughed but there is little humor in it. “I don’t think anyone could keep up with them. Grandad comes close, but that’s because he lets them run their mouth on and on about those stars.”
The Doctor tilted his head. “They live with Wilf?”
Donna nodded as she refilled her tea. “To keep the peace. He’s the only one other than me and Rose they won’t butt heads with.”
Sylvia chimed in without missing a beat. “That’s because he entertains all those crazy ideas they have. I mean really they’re so bright. They could be a rocket engineer if they stuck with something long enough.”
That caught the doctors attention. “Bright eh? How bright are we talking?”
A fond smile crept across Donna’s face. “Bright enough they most of their time in school fighting with the teachers or bored out of their minds. Absolute pistol, them.”
Rose laughed softly. “You should see their workshop. Gramps let them turn his whole garage into one since he stopped driving.”
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”
Donna rolled her eyes but not in malice. “’Oh’ yourself. You’ll only encourage them. What they need is a proper job.”
Rose frowned “They have a job.”
“Freelance cargo flights. They need something stable.”
Shaun smirked “I don’t think stable is in their language, Donna.”
The Doctor didn’t hear much about Eclipse further after that other than passing mentions. It seemed like a sore spot he did not want to intrude much upon. He understood the need for space and time probably better than anyone else, although the tension ached his hearts to watch.
One week earlier:
Eclipse had never been one to stay in one place for too long. They were restless, and running and finding new problems to solve and explore was much easier than facing their family and the impossible questions they had never seemed to be able to get an answer to. Nonetheless, the distance hurt, especially when they were too far to save them.
The moment the mysterious ship had fallen from the sky, the airspace around London went on lockdown, leaving Eclipse grounded in Ireland after a cargo flight. Eclipse had refused to accept that limitation, staying close to their small bonanza craft and lingering by the hangar, insisting on real time updates as to when they could fly again. They needed to get home, needed to make sure Rose, Mum, Granddad, Nan, and Shaun were safe.
Eclipse glared down at her phone screen as another unhelpful update flashed across her screen. “Mysterious aircraft recovered. Airspace remains restricted to authorized flights only. All commercial and personal air crafts are to remain grounded and secure until further notice.” A frustrated groan escaped them as they tossed their phone onto the seat beside them. Wanting to be ready to fly at a moments notice, they stayed with their plane. Occasionally running a hand over the flightdeck controls as if comforting it. “It’ll be alright...just a few more hours. I’m sure. We’ll get home.”
Finally they had had enough. Flight restrictions be damned. Their family needed them. With frantic adrenaline pulsing through them, they quickly flew through one last inspection of the sapphire bonanza. Motors, pressures, battery, etc. Mentally ticking each box as they flew through it for the hundredth time.
Just as they climbed into the pilot seat to go over the flight deck, they gasped as a pain surged through their chest, expanding through their whole body. They clutched their chest and writhed in the seat. It felt as though their heart was about to explode through their chest, their head feeling so full it might shatter at the lightest touch. They cried out as another wave of pain flooded through them, and the world went gold. Amber light swirled through their eyes, around their head and out from their hands.
“What…” they grimaced as they slowly strained themselves to lift a hand, examining the impossible energy swirling around their fingers. Another wave crashed over them and they screamed as they felt as though their chest split in two. Their heartbeat pound in their hears.
Thud-thud...thud-thud...thud-thud…
They gripped the seat and arched in agony.
Thud-thud-thud-thud….thud-thud-thud-thud….
Eclipse groaned in agony, their right hand coming over the right side of their chest. It was as though something long dormant had suddenly kicked into gear and their body was overwhelmed. Their thought process sped up, new senses suddenly more aware, taking everything all at once in an impossbley fast stream of input.
Another stream of energy flood through them, cascading outward, and suddenly that bright light went out, and they lay motionless on the pilot seat.