A Special Christmas

Carolling

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears: Yes, the chapter-title means something. No, I don't plan to tell you. Yes, if you guess, I will tell you. :) Only because I love you.

Donna was helping her friend Kathy set up a tree in her flat, and the two had to stop a few times after they'd dissolved into ornament battles and had to find where all the things had flown to. A candy cane skidded under the sofa, a little blue bulb sitting quietly in the corner, and the star had somehow wound up on the telly. It was fun, even if it did take well over an hour to even get the plastic Christmas tree standing. Not to mention untangling the lights...

Still, it was a better holiday than...than....than what? Something tingled at the back of her mind, like when you can almost think of a word but it refuses to let itself known. Frowning, she wondered what exactly had happened to make the Christmas a bad one. Something involving....spiders?

Kathy's head jerked around at the sudden noise, just in time to see Donna grasp at her head, teetering to the side. "Donna! Donna, what is it?" She rushed over to her friend who'd been laughing just a few moments ago. She caught her just before her hit the floor. "Donna!"

Donna's eyes opened, looking around in a pained, frightened way, not focusing on her friend. "My head...." Suddenly she stiffened, letting out a scream. "Help, help, help, help, helphelphelphelphelphe-" She sobbed and, just as suddenly, went limp. Her eyes were still open, glazed over, and she was still breathing, and so Kathy thought it perfectly fine to start crying and dash around her flat for the phone.

Had either of them cared to look, they might have seen the shadow that had been standing in the window...

The human mind, you see, does not like pain, or chaos, or anything relating to either in large amounts. It's like how you can see the shape of a duck hiding somewhere in the clouds or how victims of a fire stop feeling the flames after a point because the body shut down the nerves that weren't burnt away. Think of it as a forced alteration of consciousness, like meditation only far more necessary for your health.

It is important you remember that fact.

But it is also important for you to remember that the Universe is full of fancy and that anything is possible.

Because it's fine time for an adventure, don't you think?

Donna opened her eyes groggily, blinking around her. This...wasn't her friends flat. At all.

It was a meadow.

Grassy, with flowers, and a big tree that reached up and out, the sun flitting through the gaps between leaves and branches and making odd patterns all around.

And there were people.

Quite a few, actually, but she found it hard to focus on any of them. They were all sitting around tables - she just then noticed she was at one herself - made of metal and painted white and looked like they'd be better fit for a cafe than beneath a tree.

One woman in blue was humming into her teacup, and young man was repeatedly holding out his hat and making it tumble down his arm and back onto his head. Then there was the woman sitting in front...of....her...

Wait.

What?

"Hello, Donna." She's blonde, and smiling at her like she had some secret, brown eyes watching her closely. "Feeling alright?"

The ginger woman stared at her. "I-I suppose so."

"Good!" The blonde nodded, then glanced down at the table. "Your tea's getting cold."

Looking down, Donna saw a little white teacup sitting on a little white saucer and cautiously reached for it. Glancing from the woman to the cup, she slowly raised it to her lips and took a sip. As she felt the liquid slide down her throat, she shivered and sat up straighter in her chair, and when she looked around again there was no one around, though the chairs and tables were still there. Even the woman was gone. And, she noticed, the teacup.

"Better now?"

Donna jumped. The woman was behind her now, and Donna stared at her a moment. She looked about her own age, but her eyes looked so much older, but her smile was almost childish. Donna nodded slowly.

"That's nice." The blonde said, and then Donna was standing and there were no chairs or tables in sight. "Now then, Donna Noble, follow me." She walked to the tree and paused, turning back to look at Donna, who hurried to her side, feeling suddenly lost and alone.

"Now what?" She asked quietly.

The other woman smiled at her and, for a moment, her eyes seemed to glow golden. "Let's pretend."

And she tugged Donna around the other side of the tree.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears: Ah, y'see? Said I'd continue it, didn't I? :) Reviews, a friend told me, are not love. They are chocolate. Which I suppose is alright too...