Fic: [Ashes to Ashes/Doctor Who; Gene/Donna] Some Other Year (3/6)

[intrikate88]

Title: Some Other Year
Author: intrikate88 

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: This takes place post-"Journey's End" and pre-"The Waters of Mars" for the Doctor, and post-"The End of Time" for Donna. References to Old Who ("The Time Warrior" and the Seventh Doctor era) and all of Sarah Jane Adventures for Sarah Jane. Post-Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, though spoilers for A2A are fairly skimpy. Good lord these are involved shows.

Summary: Gene Hunt never knew the whole story behind Donna Noble's appearance in his life, and even less about her sudden disappearance; he thought he never would. But when a visiting stranger in a blue box appears in 1986, it seems like the perfect opportunity to get some answers. Or, perhaps, to get his wife back.
Third in a series, following (There is No) Modern Romance and Spectacular Views; it may help to read those first.

Warnings: Abuse of plot and Bowie lyrics, questionable language, Gene Hunt, boob gropage.

chapter one | chapter two | chapter three
chapter four | chapter five | epilogue


 

Chapter Three

This is Major Tom to Ground Control, I'm stepping through the door,
and I'm floating in the most peculiar way,
and the stars look very different, today.
-David Bowie, "Space Oddity" (1969)

*

"A sunny day! Well, not raining. Well, not raining much. 1973, if it matters to you at all. Which it should."

This time Gene stepped from the TARDIS first, apparently having given up on causality being out to get him. "We're in a scrapyard. Do you take everyone to such lovely holiday spots, or am I just special?"

"Aw, scrapyards can be great places! Did you know there is a whole planet in what you lot call the Horsehead Nebula that's just a breaker's yard? They have everything, every kind of vehicle you can imagine, it's amazing. Great place to go when the TARDIS is feeling a bit under the weather."

"Then why are we at this scrapyard?" Gene surveyed the gloomy landscape, taking in the mud crisscrossed with tires and footprints, the heaps of twisted, rusting metal, the smoke drifting skyward and a blue car, and the brick backs of factories beyond that. He knew this city like a worn place in his shoe, all its sharp places that told him when to tread lightly and when to make his steps heard. He looked at the skyline, and the layout of Manchester from where he stood filtered into his head, all the landmarks seen from car chases, home arrests, night patrols. He breathed in deep the sooty familiar air, and lit a cigarette. "And what the hell are you doing now?" he added, taking notice of the Doctor squatting by a particular set of treads in the mud.

"Now this," the Doctor said, "this should be a proper jump in time. Your detective Sam Tyler, he just left a minute before we arrived. This is his first day experiencing 1973 for the second time in his life, an experience you get to share and aren't you lucky, and we followed him to land here. What did he tell you about how he got to this year?" The Doctor wrinkled his forehead.

Gene blew out a stream of smoke, thinking back. "Said he was dyin'. That he'd gone crazy, was locked in his head. Least he wasn't as bad as when Bolly called us all figments and waggled her fingers at me."

"Thought he was crazy..." the Doctor mused.

Shaking himself to settle deeper into his coat, Gene commented, "I didn't disagree with him."

The Doctor frowned. "None of this makes sense. I can see a little of the trail to where he came from- Gene, Sam never left 2006. He never left, and he did arrive."

"I," asserted Gene Hunt, "am not a figment. Anybody that disagrees will get my fist in his figments." He considered. "Or the best shagging of their life, depending on who thinks she's imagining."

"And there's nothing else you know about Sam? Anything at all, anything he might have said about how he got here?"

"Didn't care to ask, figured Donna would take care of him if he became a problem."

"I wish- there has to be some way I could talk to him."

"What," said Gene, and ground out the cigarette beneath his boot, "you don't think I can break into my own police station?"

-

"You can't be seen by yourself. Or tell anything about the future to anyone you know. Normally I'm not bothered by all of this, you probably won't kill your granddad or step on a butterfly or anything like that, but this is a special case, because we're interfering so closely with your own timeline. And, quite frankly, because you're thick."

"Watch it, spaceboy, you're the one talking about imaginary butterflies. Where am I goin' to find a butterfly to step on?" Gene demanded, and delivered a targeted blow with his fist to the hinge of a window. This window was located on the back of the station, and required climbing on the roof of a shop next door to reach. Getting onto that roof had required climbing a drainpipe, which had nearly collapsed under their weight even though they had primarily climbed from a brick wall onto a few windowsills and only used the pipe for balance. In this process, they had angered a cat, which tried to sink its teeth into the Doctor's arm before sliding off the roof tiles and landing in a pile of rubbish. The two of them looked down to see the cat stalk off as if it had meant to be that dignified and anyone who disagreed would soon be missing an ear.

The window that Gene had hit opened slowly. He was fairly certain he was the only one who knew about this entrance. Pushing it the rest of the way open, he swung his legs in first and dropped to the floor; the Doctor followed shortly thereafter. They were in a cleaning cupboard.

"I'll go out first. Make sure no one's around," the Doctor said.

"And what if Donna is? That's going to look good for you. Least I belong here." Without a further word, he pushed his way out. The Doctor sighed at him, muttered, "Thick!" and stepped into the hallway. "All clear," announced Gene, triumphantly.

"Oh, guv, was looking for you," said Ray, from behind the door.

"Raymondo. What must a man do around here to get a little quiet to impart a sense of respect into a witness? Clearly a broom cupboard isn't enough!"

"Chris said he just saw you leaving for the pub to talk to reporters about the Susie Tribble case, but-"

"Get on with it!"

"That new DI, Sam Tyler-"

"Tell 'im to get his arse somewhere to question this man. Seems the case carries over from Hyde, an' if it's anything to do with Susie then that's a headache he's to add to the one he ought to already have. I don't give a tart's last rubber where you put 'im, they can talk on the front steps for all I care. Why are you still standing here?"

"Your missus is in your office, and she's getting louder."

Gene paused. "Is she."

"Yes, guv, said she wanted to tell you something about a guest coming into town. Wouldn't let me just take a message, she said she needed to talk to you."

 

"Right then. Tell her to wait in my office, I'll be come down to talk to her. And send Sam to the Lost and Found before he goes to the sick bay!"

Ray nodded, paused to consider how the guv might know where Sam was going if he didn't know where he was to begin with, and headed off to do as he was bid; as soon as he was mostly out of earshot the Doctor began his diatribe. "What are you thinking? You can't see her! You think she won't notice that you're, oh, a decade and a half older than you were this morning? Mucking about in your own timeline-"

"Doctor!" Gene interrupted. "It seems you" -he jabbed him in the chest with a finger and sufficient force to cause the Doctor to take a step back- "suffer under a misapprehension that I don't care about the laws of time. So I will tell you this once." He jabbed the Doctor again, this time hard enough to push the slighter man back against the wall with a thud. "I am the law, around here. I make sure that everyone minds their place so all the cogs in this city continue to turn and a minimum of bodies appear on the pavement outside those doors downstairs. I understand about the perks of the job, the 'gratuities' that sometimes disappear as favours when shop owners get warned they left their door unlocked. But any copper that thinks he can bend the law however he wants just because he serves the law-- that's a bent copper, and I will not allow that on my police force. Not anymore. And I reckon time works the same way. You don't get to do whatever you want with it just because you work with it a bit closer than most." Gene stepped back. "No matter now much you want something."

The Doctor stared at him a moment, perhaps surprised at the amount of thought, perhaps just generally gobsmacked, Gene didn't know. "Well then. Seems you understand."

 

"Do you?" Gene challenged.

 

The Doctor looked away. "Let's go find Sam Tyler."

 

-

 

"Guv? This is all wrong, I shouldn't be here-"

 

Gene surveyed the man before him, whose eyes were wide with perpetual disbelief and indignation. Good god, he thought, it had been a long time. "What are you nattering on about now, Tyler?" he demanded loudly. "You have a- uh, a case coordinator to talk to, or did you not do that sort of thing over at Hyde?"

 

"Better than you, I'm sure," Sam muttered with a baleful expression, then glanced away as if that would prevent Gene from seeing it.

 

"Get on, then, he's in there." Gene jerked a thumb towards the Lost and Found room, where a John Smith sat waiting to talk to Sam. The DI gave Gene one last disdainful look and trudged inside. The door shut behind him, and Gene leaned against the wall, itching to be doing something useful. This place was so familiar; he felt as if he wouldn't be entirely out of place heading back to his office to find out what progress was being made on one case or another. Heading back to his office to see Donna. Not a good idea.

 

"Oi! You think you can avoid me all day?" A finger poked sharply into his shoulder from behind, a fitting accompaniment to the sharp voice. The sharp, all-too-familiar voice.

 

"It's called work, Donna, were you thinking all our money simply fell out of the air?" he said, not turning around, trying to sound gruff so she didn't hear a voice that was sixteen years older than she knew, one that had grown rusty with lack of use of her name; he never said it, until the Doctor walked in. 

 

"Half of which I earn, yet still have time to pick up the phone when you ring me to ask what I'm making for supper." She walked around him to look him in the face, and he couldn't see what he might have done to avoid that. It occurred to him then that his hair was a lot shorter in 1973, and he prodded at it ineffectually, trying to have the disparity not be obvious. "I came by to ask you something since it seems to be the only way to get your attention."

 

"Criminals, tits, or a good whisky are all just as likely to do so," he added.

 

"Left one in your office, brought another with me, and can promise you a third. Care to guess which is which?"

 

He looked down her blouse.

 

"Yes, I left my tits in your office," she told him. "That's the axe murderer hiding down my blouse, and I'll buy you a new bottle of scotch after work. You done ogling?"

"Never," he replied, fervent as a supplicant to an ancient goddess.

"'S'not wedding vows but it'll do," Donna said, the corner of her mouth curling up. "I brought the whisky because I'm about to complicate your day even more, an' it'll make you feel better."

 

Gene cast his mind back, trying to remember what on earth he was doing the day Sam arrived. Should have been momentous- but then, every murder case, every new arrival, every day and year and goddamn goodbye was momentous in its own way and he just did not know. There was the Susie Tribble murder case, the meeting at the Railway Arms with reporters- some brunette, not much of a figure but possibly athletic under that vest, she had been particularly persistent- then Ray in his office, lighting a new cigarette off his nearly finished one and laughing about Tyler going off his head whilst down in the morgue. Him demanding Tyler go have someone check said head, interrupting him with Annie later. "This day's already about as rough as an unemployed prossie's twat. What now?"

"That new DI that's transferring over today, he's come a bit farther than the paperwork says."

"What, London? Oh, don't tell me, he's Welsh, is he?" Gene started to get a suspicious twisting in his gut. If Donna risked one of her headaches to tell him something he already knew, he would stay to help her. Time, he decided, was fucked enough around her to withstand at least one more thrust from him. "An' he's already here, if you're wondering." He jerked a thumb towards the Lost And Found. "In there, talking to... someone, a bloke-"

"It's the Doctor, innit?" She laughed at Gene's total lack of response. "Even if I hadn't felt the TARDIS land, it would be hard to miss the hair. Or that tie that I know I didn't buy for you." Her face softened. "Something's happened, hasn't it? I probably had to go away and leave you. I wouldn't've let you out of the house in a tie like that."

"Six years ago," he told her. "Never found out why. I didn't know where to look, thought whatever had brought you had taken you away again. I moved to London, went round your mum's and saw you when you were two weeks old. You threw up all over me, again." He cut himself off. No use babbling; is this what time travel did to people? All the time travelers he had met appeared to be cracked, and it seemed to be rubbing off on him.

But there was Donna. Here, in front of him, so real, and-- so damn tangible, the look of an annoyed twist on her lips and a light in her eyes that made you think she had a secret plan she would only share with you, and it would probably result in a great deal of wonderful chaos. He wanted to have everything go back to the way it once was, he wanted her to keep traveling with him and the Doctor; hell, he wanted to pull her away to the broom cupboard and lock the door. "It's been a long time. Fancy a quick shag in the broom cupboard?" he invited graciously.

"Tempting," she said. "Look, I'm here because- well, not because of Sam, but he's part of it. Somebody's mucking about in time and I followed him- her- it back here."

"And here I thought it was my rugged good looks and manly grip."

"That too. But this... person, he's trying to make the entire planet become the kind of place you keep this city from becoming every day. I'm doing all I can to stop him, but right now, I'm the only one. Never told you about that, did I?"

Gene thought back. "No," he said, "but I guessed it was something like that. We're not that different, you'n me."

Donna looked at him, her expression unreadable. "Broom cupboard," she said, her voice a bit sad, a bit determined. Gene nodded briskly. He never could say no to her.

Not more than five times, anyway.

-

"I can't beat him," Donna said, buttoning up her blouse. Gene's hand drifted inside before she made it to the top, and she paused in her efforts, three buttons from the collar. "This person we're all following. The Doctor knows who he is, or at least he'd better, but I can't get rid of him by myself. You have to keep going, stay on his trail."

"Chasing villains. What I do best," Gene declared, conducting a thorough investigation with his hand as if to demonstrate another thing he did best.

"Good," she said. "Because today is the beginning of a lot of problems, I think. I know. Whatever starts today ends with me leaving you."

"I'm getting you back, though, aren't I?" Reluctantly, Gene allowed her to finish buttoning. "The Doctor and I are looking for you now, should have you back in time for tea."

"You'd better. I'll be waiting for you." She hesitated. "Do you mind that I just cheated on you with... well, you?"

"He just dumped rain on me in 1969," Gene said darkly. "Fuck 'im."

"I believe," replied Donna, "I was fucking you."

-

They emerged, Gene strutting, Donna smoothing back her hair. "There's a paradox that could seriously crack the universe building around Sam Tyler," she said, and pulled a compact from her purse.

"I thought it was time for my post-coital smoke," Gene answered. "You don't even wait for a cuddle before moving on to the next bloke, do you?"

"There been any other women in your life since I had to leave you to, oh, probably save the universe?"

"Oh, an' you're one to talk, are you? After Shaun, and all that?"

"Who?" Donna looked at him, in genuine bemusement.

Gene paused. "Shit. After this is over, I am never traveling in time again. I don't care what you say about Christmas with your family."

"Oh, you think I want to spend my Christmas listening to you havin' a row with my mum? And Shaun. That's a future thing, isn't it? Always told you, I didn't care for knowin that sort of thing. Now I won't be able to stop wondering when I meet a Shaun! And when you meet whoever she is."

"Look, what's this about a paradox, then? You're the one who told me that I had to accept Tyler's transfer to my force."

Donna sniffed. "She'd better not be a giant spider, that's all I'm sayin'." She finally gave up on her hair, and let it fall, pulling her fingers through it. "Tell the Doctor to follow the paradox. I still have to wait to do anything about it."

"Why don't you tell him?" Gene didn't want her to leave. Not just yet. "You should stay. Help us out."

"Wish I could." She reached out and squeezed his arm. "Hopping into your own future timeline has got to be bad, though. It's not time for me yet. It will be one day." And there, in the hallway, constables passing by and the latch clicking on the door to the Lost and Found, she grabbed the lapels of his coat and pulled him to her, her lips finding his like she had every intent of leaving them there forever. She had always, always kissed him like this as he had left for work every morning. It wasn't until just then that he realized she had been saying let me have this, just in case I have to save it for years. He pulled her closer.

Eventually, she drew back.  The door to the Lost and Found was opening. "Time for me to go," she said.

"You'd know better'n me."

"An' there's someone who needs to speak to you!" Donna grinned at him, though he didn't know why, and walked past him, letting her hand brush against his. She didn't say goodbye. He almost followed her anyway.

"DCI Gene Hunt? I'm Sarah Jane Smith, journalist. I'm doing a piece for the Metropolitan. You didn't quite answer my question down at the pub and I was hoping for a more personal interview."

"Which question?"

"Do you have a minute?"

"I really don't."

"Then the quick version out here in the hallway. How do you think the Susie Tribble case highlights the need for greater oversight in police departments, to make sure that no evidence, eyewitness account, or pattern of offense is missed? Do you intend to take any special steps in this case to make sure all possible leads are taken into account?"

"I promise you that the evidence will be examined to a painful degree of exactitude," Gene told her, remembering Sam dragging out armloads of dusty files. "We do our jobs. Why don't you come back tomorrow, talk to my DI, Sam Tyler?" It wasn't that Gene liked journalists. But he'd rather pass this particular problem on towards the even-more-confused-looking man stumbling from the Lost and Found before the Doctor, almost running down the hall towards the front in the effort to be outside. The Doctor exited more slowly, hands jammed in his trouser pockets.

"I would, but I can't afford to stay in Manchester another day," Sarah Jane Smith was saying. "I have to go home to London and convince the Metropolitan they want this feature, or else I won't be able to afford to stay anywhere at all." Gene turned his full attention back to her, noticing for the first time how very young she was. "I don't know that I'm cut out for journalist work, really."

"Sure you are!" came the Doctor's voice from behind her. "You're brilliant! I read that piece you wrote, oh, what was it, the one on that Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher? You made quite the case for her going far. Maybe even Prime Minister!"

Gene frowned. So this was where madness came from, knowing things like this; the urge to tell what he knew rose up and Gene fought it back. "A woman PM?" he said, recalling a long-ago conversation with Tyler; "Not bloody likely."

"Aw, you never know." The Doctor grinned at Sarah Jane, rocking back on his heels. She smiled back uncertainly. "But you should keep being a journalist, keep poking around and exploring everything."

"I know someone who can probably get me a job as a teacher. I- well, you don't want to hear my problems, I'm sure. What was your name?"

"John Smith, I'm John Smith. Always got to have a Smith around!" Sarah Jane Smith laughed at this because it was the same size and shape as a joke, and looked like she wasn't quite sure why. The Doctor continued. "Are you going to be covering that story on UNIT when you return to London?"

"What story?"

"Hadn't you heard? They've invited all the top scientists in Britain to some secret project. If you could get in, it'd make your career."

Sarah pondered this. "I think my aunt, Lavinia -she's a well-known virologist- was invited to that. But I can't go with her, she's on a lecture tour in America."

"Who said you had to be with her?" the Doctor asked, eyes dancing. "You're a journalist, I'm sure you've been in loads of places after using a bit of creativity to get in. My, er, cousin is working there now. He's called John, too. You should find him, he'll make sure you go far. Only don't tell him I sent you. We don't always get on."

 

"I'll- I'll try to get there. Thank you so much, Mr. Smith. Do you really think it's that big of a story?"

 

"Miss Smith," the Doctor said, "I promise you, it'll change your life."

 

Comments

[mickey-sixx.livejournal.com]

Ok, seriously. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love you. Oh this story... Donna! Donna knowing and being all fantastic and awesome and ballsy. Gene being... Gene! *flails*

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

:D

Heeee I am so glad it is working out. There's so much plot and, well, timey-wimey it could go any which way, but it appears to be heading a direction that functions. I'm pleased.

[theonlytwin.livejournal.com]

omigosh sarah jane! and broom cupboard! and lots and lots of plot and ahhhhh who is shaun?

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Heeeeee sounds like you liked it! Yes, it was very interesting how parts of this plot came together... like how I had kind of just thrown Donna in at 1969 at random, and then I recalled Martha and Ten had been stuck in that year in "Blink". Sam Tyler landed in 1973, which was the same year Sarah Jane started traveling with the Doctor. Rose and Ten tried to go to a concert in 1979, but hit some turbulence and landed in 1879 to see Queen Victoria; later the Doctor was teaching Donna to drive the Tardis and joked that someone had put a dent in the eighties- which could easily be seen as about the time Alex came through. So with all of those connections, it just all felt like they needed to meet up somewhere, and thus the bunnies left me to figure it all out on my own.

I don't know if you remember much about Ten's finale, "The End of Time" episodes, but Shaun was that bloke Donna married at the end. It threw a spanner in my planning, but not a big one.

[theonlytwin.livejournal.com]

youv'e tied it beautifully together. and ohhh yeeeah, i do remember shaun. mostly i remember his last name, but i remember donna's wedding.

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

UNFFFFFFFFF! I love your Gene voice. And just ... everything else. This is getting so exciting and GENE/DONNA, and I love the Gene-Doctor interplay and your own take on time travel and flummoxing the space-time continuum and everything. And such wonderful, pithy, hilarious metaphors.

♥!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D THANK YOU FOR BRIGHTENING MY DAY. REALLY.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

:DDD

I am so so so glad it is working out. Gene has such a distinctive voice, I think that's why I keep coming back to write him even though I always meant to write all this from Donna... but obviously that wouldn't have worked, here.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU DARLING. Also I have a compulsion to make eighties-style movie posters to go with this fic after it's done. I feel it may be silly because, well, audience of three and all that. But who knows. WHAT IS THE INTERNET FOR BUT BEING SILLY IN PUBLIC THOUGH, I ASK YOU.

[ebony-steinbach.livejournal.com]

I love you and this so much, and it's a crime if only three people are reading this. I'll go and rec all your fics at my lj right now. And do you mind if I friend you, so I can follow any updates more easily?

This just gets better and better. I'm excited that Donna's joined the party (if only for a bit) and the exchange between Gene and Donna was witty, sweet and sad at the same time. And Sarah Jane! Is she going to have a bigger role, or was this a cameo? Whatever it is, you managed to flesh out her pre-Doctor character beautifully in such a short time. And I wonder what the Doctor said to Sam?

Again, the dialogue and characters are what I love the most, especially Gene, who's character is pitch perfect. He's also reminding me a little of Sam Vimes, which just adds to the awesome!

And PLEASE make an 80s-style poster for this fic. If ever a story needed its own gag-poster, it's this one. It would be awesomely crack-tastic!

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Yes, after all those comments, I love you too. I think I may snog you. I do hope you don't mind. *SNOGS* Thank you for the friending, I appreciate it! Chapter four should be up in the next day or two. I... should probably crosspost this chapter to donna_gene so people don't get confused.

Sarah Jane is more of a cameo, but who knows, she may show up in future fics! Her timing of when she started traveling with the Doctor coincided so perfectly with Sam's arrival in 1973 that I had to include her, in addition to plot developments in later chapters that relate to her. ;)

I'm so amused that you picked up on the Sam Vimes connection; when I first heard of Life on Mars I was like "...oh, so an adaptation of Night Watch, then?" I've always thought that Vimes' inner thoughts and the contrast with his outer behavior (always-thinking moral-ish copper, with bloody-minded watchman) in some ways was like Gene, and other ways was a combo of Gene and Sam. The characterisation of Vimes was something I did keep very much in mind while writing this, so you'll see some of those ideas coming through. I'm glad you're noticing those themes.

Poster is now more likely to happen. I kind of want to make something vaguely like this. (http://www.impawards.com/1980/posters/empire_strikes_back_ver4.jpg) Even though more of a tribute to Back to the Future would be appropriate, lol.

[hermyfan.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! I've been reading this since you posted it, and never got round to reviewing it. D:
Loving it so far, you've got all the characters down perfectly, Gene especially. You balance plot with moments that are just lovely, especiallyespeciallyespecially the Donna/Gene interplay. I love how everything ties together so well, DoctorWho/Ashes/LoM crossover should be canon, seriously. And I give you the credit for turning me into a Donna/Gene shipper. :D
It's all just amazing, thanks so much for sharing, can't wait to see how it all plays out! ♥♥♥

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reviewing! It makes me :DDDDDD that you are loving it and continue to read all thees chapters, and I am more flattered than you know when you say I have converted you into a Donna/Gene shipper. I think that these two universes together in general, and Donna and Gene together specifically, just make SO much sense and I am glad that my little bandwagon is growing. I hope you enjoy the next three parts!