Stop and Smell the Roses (1/2)
Title: Stop and Smell the Roses (1/2)
Rating: PG
Characters: Donna and the Doctor (Ten)
Spoilers: Mentions Midnight and Doctor's Spoiler, but unless you've seen the episodes you won't even realize I've made the references.
Summary: The Doctor wants to go see a 'show', and Donna resists because she's sick. She finally give in, but when they return chaos sort of ensues.
“Awwww, come on, Donna!”
“No. For the forty-first time in the last ten minutes, no!”
The Doctor started to argue then cocked his head to the side.
“What, have you been counting? And why won't you come? It'll be-”
“Forty-two!”
“But….but….”
“I’m going to smack you if you ask me again….”
“Why not?” he persisted. “I mean, really. They’re singing flowers. Singing. They’re flowers that sing! Why wouldn’t you want to see that?”
Donna held up her hand, stopping his whining just long enough for her to let out a well-placed cough. “Because I’m sick, you dummy, that’s why.”
“It’s no fun if I see them on my own,” he said, pouting.
“That's what you said last time,” she countered, and her hand flew to her mouth as the Doctor's gaze fell to the floor. “Crap. I didn't mean it like that, Doctor. It's just that I'm sick and I know how you get whenever we go to a new world and....” She trailed off again and smacked herself on the head. “I should just shut up, shouldn't I?”
“It's all right. And don't worry about it, I didn't really want to see it that bad anyway,” he said dismissively, but she saw his lower lip sticking out a bit more than before. “I suppose,” he began again, “we can do whatever you want today, and I'll just forget all about what I had planned. It's hardly important, and I wouldn't want to drag you along somewhere where you didn't want to go. I'm sure Rose would have loved to go with- OW!”
“Don't try to guilt me into it, Spaceman,” she threatened, raising her hand at him again. “I'm sick, I'm tired, and just because I said something that might make you feel bad doesn't mean I'm going to do everything you want. Do you understand?”
The Doctor nodded, still obviously pouting. After a moment he fished around in his pocket, producing a lozenge, and held it out to her.
“Think about it this way. On Earth when you're sick you get cards and flowers. Well, these are singing flowers, which means I don't even have to get you a card, because the flowers can tell you to get better too! Brilliant,” he said smugly. “And quite the romantic idea if I do say so myself, flowers serenading you and all.”
“Rubbish,” she muttered. “You just want to get your way, and don't deny it. And if you ever mention me and romantic in the same sentence I'll bloody kill you.”
The Doctor nodded sharply, even managing a small salute, then thrust the lozenge at her again. “Come on, it's strawberry. I know how you love strawberries.” She took the lozenge from his grasp and he grinned, gesturing toward the exit. “You know you want to....”
Donna rolled her eyes, stuck the lozenge in her mouth, and started for the door.
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“I am going to kill you!”
“How was I supposed to know?”
Donna blew her nose -which was very red by now- and glared at him above the tissue.
“First of all, they were bloody gorgeous, which -achoo!- means there had to be something wrong with them. Besides, this whole trip was your idea,” she accused, tossing her used tissue at him and grabbing another from the counter in the TARDIS infirmary, “and we both know how well your ideas normally work out.”
“But they did sing!” he pointed out, grinning proudly, for which he received another tissue in the face. “Oi, that’s disgusting!”
“You should talk. Really, it’s me who should be afraid of your germs, you stupid selfish alien.”
“Selfish? Oh, come on, you know you enjoyed it.” He saw imminent murder in her eyes and took a step back in an attempt to dodge another tissue. “You did though, I could tell.”
His friend finally surrendered a small nod, which quickly became a large bob of her head as she sneezed violently, pitching herself off balance.
“Hmmmm. On second thought,” he said, “maybe we should check you out. You may be allergic to this particular species.”
“Do ya think?”
“I think so, yeah.” The Doctor helped his companion onto the examining table and gestured for her to lay back. “Shouldn't be too hard to deal with though, and then we can be off again.”
“What are you going to do next,” she complained, hitting her head on the cold metal as she sneezed again, “put me in a room full of dust bunnies?”
Suddenly the Doctor’s face turned very serious.
“Don’t joke about that, Donna. Those things look all cute and fluffy, but they’re nasty buggers. Nasty, pointy teeth and everything.”
Donna groaned and flopped back against the table. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The Doctor left some tissues beside her and went to fetch some drugs, rifling through a drawer labelled ‘anti-histamines, Jelly Babies, forceps, and assorted pointy objects.’
“I swear, Marvin, you better fix me up with whatever Martian rubbish you've got over there, or I'm going to wring your skinny neck!”
“Working on it, Donna....”
He tuned her out, feeling only slightly guilty for doing so, and got to work on finding some medication for his sick friend. He flipped through a large textbook and started reading the passage on the flowers they'd seen, if for no other reason than to drown out Donna's shouting.
“Let's see, humans generally have an adverse reaction to flosculus saltans. Oooo, now those are fun, they do the cancan whenever you come close to them, and if you give them the right fertilizer they do a little jig, pull their roots right up and start-”
“OI!”
“....Or maybe not. Okay, flosculus saltans, but they only grow on Trossagor 6, so that's not it. Oi, Donna, do you have any allergies, 'cause it says here that if you're allergic to the pollen in them you might face some....erm, interesting side effects,” he finished nervously.
Donna sighed in frustration, placing her arms by her sides on the hard surface of the table.
“If your stupid flower fetish gets me killed....”
“Oh, don't worry, Donna, it won't kill you. Well, theoretically anyway. Of course if your immune system's already not up to normal standards it's very possible that-”
“I'm going to flipping die!” she huffed, and he half-listened as she ranted again. “-and you're just standing around and letting whatever the flipping heck poison it is do....well, whatever it does. I swear, if you just stand there and let me die....”
She trailed off and at first he thought he'd finally succeeded in ignoring her, but after a couple minutes he looked up from the vial he was mixing things in and realized she'd stopped talking.
“Finally give up, did we?” he teased, but when she didn't yell at him to shut up or even bother to call him a dumbo he turned to face her. “Donna?”
The Doctor rushed over to her as he realized Donna wasn't moving.
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Part two is here.