Searching for the Doctor [attn: Rose] cont'd

"Apparently not." She mulled over their possibilities. "I think... try searching for recent sitings some more. Least for a bit while I give the number another go. If neither of them get us anywhere we'll just have to keep trying."

Rose gave her a small smile. "Not so much on the investigation myself. Only got up to one of these sites myself, last time. Rest of it's new to me as far as looking it up." She admitted as an afterthought.

Afterwards she pulled her phone back out, pressing the button to redial and putting it back to her ear. There was silence for a moment, and then once again it started ringing. This time however, after a few moments it stopped.

Donna clicked another link and as it loaded, she turned to Rose. The mobile was pressed to her ear and suddenly, her bored expression changed. Donna looked at her expectantly, eyes wide and face curious.

"Someone pick up?" she mouthed silently at Rose. Donna certainly hoped so, because if they didn't get some help, soon, she was fairly afraid that she would be more than tempted to give it up as a lost cause. And that would be even more heartbreaking than the realization that she made a mistake by not going with the Doctor in the first place.

For a moment there had been nothing but silence on the line, replaced by a voice. To Rose's chagrin it was electronic. "Got a machine." She mouthed back to Donna, frowning slightly as she listened to it.

It wasn't a normal 'leave a tone after the beep' or 'press 2 for english' message. Didn't seem pre-recorded at all. Especially not when, after a few moments of silence from her end, it asked if she was there. "Yeah, I'm.."

She paused as it cut her off with a greeting. "'Ello." Rose gave Donna a confused look as she listened once more. "Who're you?" She blinked at the answer she recieved. Mister Smith? Wait- Smith? Common last name, she reminded herself, don't get excited.

Donna watched Rose intently when her face changed again and she began to speak into the phone. She wasn't leaving a message; she was talking to someone.

A rush of hope and excitement waved through her immediately as she listened to Rose on the phone. Her internet search was completely forgotten for the time being.

"'Kay... So.. Mister Smith you said, right?" Rose looked at Donna as she she repeated the name, mostly to give her the tidbit of information. "D'you know a Sarah Jane?" After listening another moment she hestitated before answering. "Rose Tyler."

There was a longer pause this time, and she frowned. "Do I sound dead? ... Well it's wrong. ... Look, it's a long-" Rose sighed as she was cut off again. "Does this mean you do know her? ... Yeah I'm sure 'bout who I am. ... It's not.."

Eyes rolled up to stare at the ceiling, Rose made an annoyed sound. "I just want to talk to her. ... Not home. Right. How about this, you've got this number now, yeah?" She paused for the answer. "Tell her to give it a call whenever she gets back. ... Thanks and... tell her I'm taking her up on her offer."

She lowered the phone, and gave Donna an accomplished smile.

Upon hanging up the phone, Rose gave Donna an accomplished smile and Donna nodded approvingly. "Well done, Rose," she said with a smile. "Just a question, though, and you haven't got to answer if you'd rather not, but...after you gave your name, you paused and asked 'Do I sound dead?' to whoever was on the line..." Donna paused and frowned, trying to think of a way to ask without prying. When no other wording came to mind, she let out a small sigh and asked bluntly, "why would someone think you're dead...?"

It seemed only fair to ask. If she was going to be spending time with Rose, she figured she should know and it wasn't like Donna was ill-prepared for weird things; she was looking for the Doctor, after all.

"Oh, that.. It's because I'm sort of... officially dead in this universe." Rose paused for a moment before adding onto that quickly. "Just as far as paperwork goes. A lot of people died in what happened there, and I'd vanished literally off the face of the Earth. He told me I'd been put on the list of the dead." She explained easily. As far as questions went it could have proven much more difficult. "It was some sort of..computer or something on the line, it probably looked my name up."

She pocketed her phone again now that she was finished with it. "Now we wait, I guess."

Rose's explanation made enough sense that Donna believed it without a single doubt. She nodded.

"Now we wait, I guess."

Right. Now they waited. Doing what, exactly? Donna knew nothing about Rose and --

That would kill time. Get to know one another. Donna had the idea that if they found the Doctor, it might be amusing to see his reaction not only to Rose but to Rose and Donna knowing one another and maybe even being friends. That might be pushing luck, but, talking to one another while they waited was a start.

"So...I was nearly killed by the Empress of the Racnoss or some such nonsense and I watched the Doctor commit genocide. What kind of wonderful and terrifying things did you get to do?" Donna asked, thinking it sounded a bit funny saying such things in such a casual, nonchalant tone.

Genocide? That definitely wasn't one of the things he'd shown a penchant for, was it? At least not when things other then Daleks had been involved. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know, so instead of questioning about that she hid her momentary look of surprise and thought back.

"Let's see..." Rose thought for a moment about how best to sum up the various adventures. "Visited a planet orbiting a black hole that held something that may or may not have been the devil. Saw the end of the world- first trip, that one. Gas-mask zombie plague, literally killer reality television. Met Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria. Think she might've got bit by a werewolf thing, actually. We were in 10 Downing street when it got blown up awhile back. This planet with some serious hallucination issues... Daleks. Lots of Daleks, especially since they're supposed to be extinct. There was one in Utah."

As Rose went on about her adventures with the Doctor, Donna listened intently. She longed to know more; to see more. "What's a Dalek? And what's the end of the world look like? Is it frightening? Does it happen soon?" her questions were being hurled at Rose almost as fast as she could think of them and she'd apologize if it occurred to her to do so. "What was Charles Dickens like? I bet he was brilliant! Killer reality show...like what kind of show?"

Donna was afraid Rose might reach out and slap her for all her persistence, but she couldn't help herself. The short time she'd been with the Doctor, he'd shown her amazing things and she was dying to hear everything that Rose had to say. To soften the blow, she added lamely, "in contrast to you seeing the end of the world, he showed me the beginning..."

Rose blinked as she tried to process all of Donna's questions. Focus on one at a time, she reminded herself, and started again. "It was the day the sun expanded, and it burned. The whole planet was like this enormous ball of fire. They'd held it back for awhile, that's why it happened all at once." She added as an afterthought. "Only scary bits had to do with sabotage on the platform we were watching from. It's not soon, no. In about...5 billion years. Planet's empty." She assured her.

"He was! Saved our lives, really, figuring out how to draw the Gelth out of the corpses they were possessing and had us cornered with. There was this girl though, Gwyneth. She's the one who stopped them, and...died doing it."

"All sorts, from the sound of it. Only one I was in personally though was the Weakest Link. Host was an Anne Droid. Like, a robot version of Anne. Shot whoever it was that got voted the weakest link, though it was really a transmat. Whole thing was run by the Daleks." Back to them then. How to explain explain the Daleks...

"The Daleks are like..." Rose hesitated for a moment. "Going to sound daft, but they're sort of giant homicidal pepper-pots. But very smart, almost impossible to kill, and without emotions. If you've heard about the Time War..." She didn't think she should go on about that part.

"What's the beginning of the world like then?"

All of it sounded exciting and new; all of it made Donna want even moreso to meet the Doctor again and go on another wonderful adventure. Or rather...her first wonderful adventure, since the last adventure hadn't actually been wonderful at all.

"The beginning of the world...well, the Doctor said that the Earth started with one big rock, pulling all the smaller rocks to it, almost like a magnet was what it looked like, only in slow motion. It was really beautiful, except..." her voice trailed off and she paused.

"The thing was, it wasn't a rock that started the earth. It was a Racnoss ship. They were these giant spider things... The last of them was the Empress and when she tried to..." her voice trailed off again and she frowned.

"The Doctor killed her and the babies she'd been trying to bring to Earth by way of the Huon particles. Honestly, none of it made any sense to me and I couldn't remember the details of her plan if you paid me to, but...he killed them all. I think he was so broken, after you'd gone. He stopped caring, maybe, because he didn't strike me as the type that'd do something like that until, well, he did. That's when I stopped having fun with him and started being really afraid of him." Donna's eyes drifted downward toward her feet as she continued.

"He took me back home and when I invited him inside for dinner, he said he was just going to park the TARDIS properly, only he meant to take off. I shouted at him until he came back. He'd asked me to come with him and I told him no, because he scared me to death...I told him that, too...and said he needed to find someone because I thought sometimes he needed someone to stop him...

"If we ever find him, I don't know if he'll want me to come along this time around," she finished a little sadly.

Taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh, Donna looked back up at Rose. "Tell me more about the Daleks?" she asked. "Looks like we've got a bit of time on our hands, yeah? And what's the Time War?"

Rose listened aptly as Donna told the rest of the story of her first encounter, but her eyes had something of a faraway look to them. She couldn't help noticing that in whatever short period of time there'd been, she'd ended up with, from the sound of it, the two extremes. After a moment she let her mind wander back to the questions.

"What else can I say about them... They're these mutant things, really. Look sort of like a deformed squid, tentacles and all, and one eye. There's this battle armor I guess that they use, shaped a bit like a pepperpot like I said. About as tall as a person. Their voices are like they're always yelling.

"Bullets don't hurt them. They can fly. Their main goal's to be the supreme species in the universe, that's what they were made for. That means... Killing all the others, everything else." She paused.

"He's got a history with them, and he's about the only thing that can scare them in the slightest. 'The Oncoming Storm'." Rose remembered.

"They were behind those television shows I mentioned. The losers got transmatted, that's sort of like a type of teleport I guess, to them, and they... Made them into more Daleks, cos they were almost complete wiped out during the Time War." She decided that was enough on them, and it was a good time to transition the subject.

"I don't know much about the Time War myself." Rose admitted, slightly apologetic. "But it was between the Doctor's people and the Daleks. But it effected some other species too. Higher species." She added, thinking of the Gelth's words.

As Rose told more stories, Donna listened raptly and smiled sadly. "It sounds like you've had some pretty amazing adventures with the Doctor," she said quietly. Once again, the pang of jealousy made its presence known to Donna. Why had she been so stupid? Why hadn't she just gone with the Doctor? If she'd had any sense, she would've gone.

"I have a question," she said slowly. Deciding to change the subject from the adventures Rose had had and Donna might never get the chance to experience, Donna took a deep breath. "Was he the same? I mean, before the way he is now? Before the regenerating thing?"

That was a harder question, one she had to think about a bit more. There wasn't really a yes or no answer, there'd been differences yes, but were they large enough? Maybe.

"He was... In the big picture, yeah, he was the same. Still the Doctor. Still the same person, but not exactly the same in every way. It's like..." Rose thought about it, tried to figure out the best way to word it.

"Like a kaleidoscope, all the little pieces of colored plastic, all the little bits are in there. But you turn it...and then it's completely different, but still the same pieces. There are ones that get hidden from sight, or come to the front, or pushed to the side. It's all things that were there all along, are still there, but they make something new. You can never get back the old picture, but there are bits of it that you'll see." Released from her moment of concentration, she tried to think over what she'd just said and frowned slightly. "That doesn't help any, does it?"

Donna bit her bottom lip and smiled a little, wrinkling her nose. "Not really, Rose. I mean, yes, a little, but..." her voice trailed off. She wished the phone would ring so that she could stop interrogating the poor girl for lack of anything more constructive to do. As much as she wanted to see the Doctor again, she had no idea where to begin and hoping that Rose's mobile phone would ring was about as far as her brain would let her think.

Surely, there was something else they could do. Anything other than waiting around with Donna asking too many questions and Rose having to try and keep up with them. It wasn't fair to Rose, in any case, that she had to ramble on simply because she'd been smart enough to go along with him when she'd had the chance and Donna was thirsty for information and facts she'd missed by declining the offer.

"Rose, what else can we do? Is there anywhere to go or anything we can do? I mean, there's got to be. While we're waiting for your friend, maybe we can find a way to search for where we could find the Huan Particles? That's the easiest way to find him, right? Make sure we get ourselves pulled into the TARDIS...yeah?" she tried.

"Well... the only place I can think of really might be Cardiff. There's this rift there, that the TARDIS can get energy from to refuel. Have to be really lucky to catch him there though, I think. So I don't think it would help much." Rose told her after a moment.

"I think looking for the Huan Particles are the best bet while we wait. Since we know they work. They're more likely to stay in one place till we get to them, too." She added, after a moment's though. The always moving on was a little more problematic as far as finding him went. Which, Rose realized, was probably the point.

Donna frowned. "Why can't he just carry a mobile like everyone else?" she mumbled, furrowing her brow. She paused and swiveled back and forth in her chair for a moment, tapping a finger against her lips.

"All right. So, I know where they were before...I just don't know if any managed to survive the fire and water...

"Should we go back there and check first? You know, before doing anything else? Because, I mean, if there's any left, couldn't we just...I don't know, drink some...and poof be in the TARDIS? Save ourselves a lot of time and trouble?"

"He'd probably leave it turned off all the time even if he did. Complain that it'd ring when he was in the middle of hiding somewhere if he turned it on. The TARDIS has a phone but..." Rose shrugged. "It only does outgoing calls." At least, as far as she knew.

"Sounds like a plan to me. Give us a good way to kill time while we wait, if nothing else. Is that how it worked before?" She couldn't help asking. "You're the expert there. Would save us a lot of time if it worked though, yeah." After a moment's pause she grinned.

"And imagine the look on his face."

"The TARDIS has a phone but..." Rose shrugged. "It only does outgoing calls."

"Bollocks," Donna sighed. "Have you ever tried calling it on a whim? Just to see?" she asked.

"You're the expert there. Would save us a lot of time if it worked though, yeah."

"And imagine the look on his face."

Donna laughed out loud, her face going red as she gasped for air between fits of giggles. "Oh, my God...brilliant. I've got it in my mind's eye right now," she said.

When her laughter settled, she took a breath and let it out slowly. "All right, the Huon Particles...how they worked. Well...I'm really not an expert, but I remember that they activated and pulled me into the TARDIS when I was walking down the aisle. The Doctor tried to explain how they worked to me, but you know how he rambles. Something about my the emotions and endorphins or something...so, now, I'm not saying one of us needs to run off and get married to do this, but we'd have to figure out a way to make ourselves get that same sort of emotional rush," she explained as best she could. Donna paused. "I think," she added sheepishly.

"I've tried doing a callback but never got anything from it. I don't know if it even has an actual number. Just comes up 'TARDIS'." Rose told her simply.

She grinned at the mental image herself. If that wouldn't be an entrance, she didn't know what would be. If they could get it to work, it'd be...fantastic.

"Well you know more than I do about them." Rose pointed out with a shrug. "We'll figure that part out once we find some, right?" She pondered on the subject for a moment longer anyway. "Don't think it'd work right if it was getting married just for the purpose of that though, anyway..."

"I've tried doing a callback but never got anything from it. I don't know if it even has an actual number. Just comes up 'TARDIS'."

"That's a bit odd, isn't it?" Donna thought aloud. It was something she added to her list of things to ask the Doctor if -- when, she corrected herself -- they found him.

"We'll figure that part out once we find some, right?"

"Don't think it'd work right if it was getting married just for the purpose of that though, anyway..."

"That's a point," Donna agreed. "And, yeah, we'll have to figure it out if we find some, I suppose. Maybe we won't have to do anything, actually," she went on, her voice changing from low and serious to a little higher and more thoughtful. "I mean, if it works on endorphins and emotions, wouldn't we have enough of that running through us just finding the stuff? Knowing that we're about to see the Doctor again? Especially you, yeah? I mean, I'll be excited, don't get me wrong but you...what if I just hang onto you and we hope for the best?" she suggested. "In the meantime..." she said, voice trailing off as she stood and put the extra chair back in the corner of the room, "we should get going. Can't very well find Huan Particles in my ruddy flat..."

She winked at Rose and grinned, grabbing her purse and fishing out her car keys again. Her smile dropped away immediately upon taking out the keys. "Oh, bollocks...I imagine my mum took the car the minute we got here and she heard it..." she murmured, furrowing her brow. "I've never really taken public transport. Do we call a cab or...does a bus come 'round? What?" she asked, hoping Rose would know. The young ones sometimes did.

"It is." Rose agreed, though she'd never really thought of it before. It had just been something she'd accepted, not much of the TARDIS tended to provide sensical answers.

She ducked her head slightly to hide a smile at Donna's latest addition to the Huon Particle plan. Rose had to admit she had a point though. Her emotions had definitely been running high, and if each step closer to their destination kept giving her that extra surge like they had been...they wouldn't have much of a problem, if that was all there was to it. "Think you're right... Hope you're right. Make things really easy if you are." Fingers crossed, she thought to herself. She stood up as well, a bit slower. "Be handy though, if you could."

Public transport... Rose tried for a minute to figure out where they were in relation to routes she knew, and then realized she didn't know what the actual destination was, so that wouldn't be much use. "Don't know about the bus..." She spoke up after a moment. "Have you seen any around here? Any stops? They'd have the little signs on the posts, red circle with a line through them. We'd have to figure out what ones to take to get wherever we're going.. Could call a cab, but that'd probably cost more."