Meant to Be (TARDIS Family Adventures: Part 1)

Chapter 4 - A Journey's End...and Another's Beginning (Part 2)

The Duplicate Doctor and Donna ran back to the med bay and he ran a scan on Scarlett. "She's got two hearts! And—she's practically identical to a Gallifreyan!"

"But that's not right, is it? I mean, she's from the planet Teni."

"Let's assume for the moment that she already had two hearts, before all this happened. That she was already this way. If she forced herself into the metacrisis, she could have imprinted her biology on—" He stopped and turned slowly to Donna, swallowing hard. "Um—Donna, do you mind—" He grabbed the nearby stethoscope, placing it on his ears, then reached out slowly, placing it politely on the right side of her chest, as safely away from anything that might get him slapped. She watched him closely. His mouth opened slowly, then he finally spoke. "Oh."

"What is it!?" she shouted, before he placed a hand on her mouth and raised his eyebrows again. She growled quietly. "Okay, okay, quiet, I know." She whispered this time, "What is it?"

He nodded down towards her chest and handed her the stethoscope. She put it on and placed it back where he had it just a moment before. Her eyes grew large, her mouth opened wide. "I have—" she started to shout then stopped as he started to say something, so she whisper-shouted the rest, "—I have two hearts!!"

"Now Donna, just breath—" He tried to calm her and guided her back towards the control room. "—we'll figure this out, but remember—need to save the universe first, right?"

When they arrived back in the main room, he headed over to the console.

"But why me?" Donna exclaimed.

The Duplicate Doctor smiled up at her. "'Cause you're special."

Donna shook her head, "Oh, I keep telling you, I'm not."

The Duplicate Doctor looked up, a slight frown on his face. "No but you are, you're—oh." He paused. "You really don't believe that, do you? I can see, Donna. What you're thinking. All that attitude, all that lip, 'cause all this time, you think you're not worth it." He grabbed her hands and squeezed them.

"Stop it," she said quietly, looking down, unwilling to look him in the eyes.

"Shouting at the world 'cause no one's listening. Well, why should they?"

She finally looked up at him. "Doctor, stop it." She was tired of him faffing about, continuing to try and make her feel like something she most certainly was not.

He continued, determined to make her see. He could see, feel, and remember things from both the Doctor and Donna. "But look at what you did. No, it's more than that, it's like—we were always heading for this." He paused, recalling her entrance into the TARDIS. "You came to the TARDIS." Then he recalled Adipose Industries. "Then you found me again. Then I met your granddad." Then he squeezed her hands again, "Your car! Donna, your car, you parked your car right where the TARDIS was gonna land. That's not coincidence! Ooh, we've been blind. Something's been drawing us together for such a long time."

"But you're talking like—destiny. But there's no such thing. Is there?" she whispered as she looked up, examining his face and eyes for answers.

"It's still not finished. It's like... the pattern's not complete. The strands are still drawing together. But heading for what?" He smiled down at her and she blushed. Suddenly, the TARDIS began shaking. The Duplicate Doctor looked down at the monitor where the planets were displayed. "It's the planets. The twenty-seven planets." All of the planets appeared to be alight with white fire.

Donna looked over at the Duplicate Doctor. "What was it? Doctor? What did it do?"

He frowned and shook his head, then began running around, grabbing bits and pieces, going down into the depths, under the grating. A while later, he walked out from beneath the grating. Odd bits of technology were strewn across the floor. Donna held some kind of contraption made out of bits and bobs from the TARDIS. The Duplicate Doctor took it from her and ran over to the console.