Doctor Who: On the Run (3/?)
Who: the Doctor, Donna Noble
What: Post Journey's End and after The Next Doctor, the Doctor finds out he's somehow become a universal outlaw. He doesn't know how, he doesn't know why, but he knows he can't figure this out alone and the only person he can trust to help him is Donna.
Rating: PG-13/Teen
Notes: This is written by two authors: deathnomiko and darkranger, and is actually an adapted fanfiction out a RP verse. I thought it was too good to not share. I didn't want to change much of the written content as possible, so that explains why the POVs change slightly between Doctor/Donna. Thoughts, comments, and suggestions are always welcomed.
Chapter Summary: After teaching Donna how to fly the TARDIS, they take a little lunch break that goes horribly wrong.
It had been about 3 days since the Doctor had started teaching Donna how to fly the TARDIS. You'd think he would've taught her a long time ago, but he never honestly justified a reason as to why he should up until now. (Her time as part Time Lord didn't count).
"OK, now let's try landing in 2247... New York City~" She had pretty much mastered all Earth travel, while other planets were slightly more difficult. He wasn't exactly sure what the reasoning was, other than the TARDIS being stubborn.
Flying the TARDIS was fast becoming one of her favourite hobbies. The feeling of flying through time and space to anywhere was amazing. And the fact that the Doctor trusted her enough to let her fly was just brilliant.
When the Doctor opened the door, he bounced on the balls of his feet. "Ohhh, brilliant Donna!" He turned to her, "Let's eat, yeah?"
Once she was sure the TARDIS was properly landed and not going to drift off she bounded after the Doctor, looking over his shoulder with a smile. "Lead the way!" Food! Future food! Great!
Not a lot had changed in this era of time other than advances in medical treatment and transportation. Food, housing, locations were more or less the same as Donna's present time. However, the city was far cleaner than it had been in ages, as the Doctor happily made his way to a deli.
Other than teaching Donna to fly the TARDIS, just in case something happens and she has a better opportunity than him to fly themselves to safety (he always had ulterior motives), but he had been lazy to research more details of their journey. Honestly, he was hoping to avoid responsibilities of learning more information.
Unfortunately, Donna had assumed that the Doctor was finding out answers about why they were being hunted down. Men, so useless! If you want things doing, do it yourself.
She headed out of the TARDIS, following after the Doctor, hop, skip, jump, hand grab. "Hope you're paying then, Spaceman."
He swung their joined hands back and forth. "Of course I'm paying."
They found a deli after walking a few blocks and seated themselves in a booth. After placing their orders, he sat there, eyes wandering around at their surroundings as he absent-mindedly drummed a beat on the table with this fingers. Lately it just seemed like he couldn't sit still even if he tried.
Donna tapped his hand lightly with a straw. "Give over, you're making me nervous. Just sit still. You look all suspicious and people will stare." She was tempted to build a menu fort to hide behind, but then they'd look like two awkward people on an awkward first date pretending it wasn't a date.
When the drinks arrived Donna took a sip of hers, savouring the taste. Delicious. "So, any reason we stopped here, aside from for a meal? Y'know, like... a plan?"
He stopped the tapping, but smiled apologetically. "Sorry, no plan. Been kind of avoiding it all, actually." Hey, he was honest, right?
He frowned a bit and slid down further in his chair. "I've looked up a few things, but... bah, I don't know." He rubbed at his eye. Maybe he was slightly depressed randomly.
A depressed Doctor? Now there was something Donna wasn't sure how to deal with. There was hugging him and hair petting - that sometimes worked, or baking for him or just listening to him ramble. But right now, sat in a deli? Not much she could do.
She gave his leg a light nudge under the table with her own. "Come on, Spaceman. Cheer up. We'll get through this."
"Mm, yeah we will..." He glanced around, catching the gaze of a worker behind the counter. It was NYC, where it was known people weren't the friendliest, so he didn't really think of it and turned his attention to Donna.
"'M sorry, I'm not trying to be so down. Like you said, finding something through all of time and space is a bit difficult when you don't know what you're looking for."
"We'll figure it out. That brilliant brain of yours must be useful for sommat after all." She gave him another nudge, and took another sip of her drink. "What's taking the food so long? You'd think service would've speeded up over the years."
She let out a sigh, slouching down in her seat.
The food arrived and the Doctor unceremoniously scarfed down his sandwich in record speed. Apparently he was quite hungry. He was practically licking the crumbs off his plate, as he glanced over to Donna still taking her time.
"Ok, a walk, and then we'll start searching through articles and hopefully find hints of what I apparently have done."
"Blimey, where do you even put all your food? Seriously, so unfair." She munched her way though her sandwich, savouring every bite. At least the food was food, even if it had taken forever to arrive.
She took another sip of her drink. "Library? That'd be a good place to start. Check all the papers and news links."
"That sounds lovely!" The Doctor glanced over and caught a couple other people looking over at him before they quickly looked away.
"...Do you feel like we're being watched?" He glanced back over to Donna. "Maybe I've grown paranoid these days."
Donna glanced around, frowning. "Hm? Maybe our clothes stick out and look odd or sommat? Or maybe they want to know how you get your hair to look so crazy." Still, she couldn't shake the slight unease she felt.
She took hold of his hand across the table. "Come on, lead the way to the library..." So they could hide away in a corner.
"My hair is fantastic!" He scoffs for a minute then follows closely behind as they made their way outside.
Once out, the Doctor looked around for a second. "I believe it's about 4 blocks north." They walked side by side, Donna commenting on some building's architecture, the Doctor adding historical facts to observations and rambled on about the time he met Frank Lloyd Wright, when he paused for a second mid-step. Shaking it off, he kept on going. He just ate too fast and the sour stomach was proof of that.
"If you've got indigestion it's your own fault, Time Boy. You practically inhaled that sandwich." She gave his stomach a prod for good measure, although if he puked up on the street, she was not going to clean it up. No way. It was his own fault if he was sick.
"Do we need to stop at a chemist?"
"Mm, no, I'm fine."
The library finally appeared in their line of sight as they made their way, "My! Look at this! They've restored it... Ohh, look at the detail of the painting over there!" He smiled brightly, momentarily forgetting that his stomach still ached.
"Alright, I haven't been here in ages, but the periodicals can't be too hard to find, can they?"
Donna could find her way around a library almost as easily as she could find her way around an office. It was one of her very limited skills. "Let's split up. Will be quicker that way. We'll meet in the middle. They're bound to have a table, libraries always have a table."
She headed off into the vast room of books and files to begin her search.
The Doctor roamed around a bit, eyes wandering around until he found a news archive. He sat in a seat, briefly searching through some articles, before collecting a few volumes worth and meandering through the library to find Donna.
Finally, he spotted her across a large study room and sat across from her. "Here's a start!" He began flipping through the volume, but began to realize his stomachache wasn't letting up, and a dull headache was coming about.
A frown formed, but he kept searching through the stack he had brought with him.
"I found a computer terminal too, can probably hack into it with your sonic or something." She started to flip through the articles she had found, scanning the pages for anything of interest.
She paused and watched him over the top of her book, frowning at his frown. "You sure you're okay?"
He shakes his head, "Yep, fine!"
Pulling out his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, he hands it to her, "Go ahead. I'm just... gonna rest my head for a moment." He folded his arms and rested his head on top. "Got a headache now."
Must be a bad headache if he was giving her full control of the sonic. She was torn between going to collect data and staying with him. She gripped the sonic in her hand, biting on her lip as she thinks.
"Doctor? Do you need to go back to the TARDIS? Sleep it off, maybe?"
The Doctor opens his eyes and looked at the woodwork of the table, staring at it as if it were the most fascinating thing in the entire universe.
"Something isn't right..." He glanced up, and noticed someone looking at him briefly around a bookshelf. His gaze focused back on Donna, "Something isn't right at all." He stood up when again he thought he saw someone peripherally in his vision dart by. "....I think you should take me back to the TARDIS."
Okay, he was beginning to worry her. She really hoped he was being a typical bloke and turning a teeny tiny headache into the worst illness ever, but she had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't.
"You don't look so good." She moved in closer, wrapping one of his arms around her neck. "Come on, let's get you home. I'll make you a cuppa and you can lay down in a dark room and sleep it off." Whatever 'it' was.
Once they stepped outside, the Doctor groaned and squinted his eyes. It was an overcast day, yet it was making him light sensitive and his head was pounding.
"I feel retched." He grabbed at his tie and loosened it nearly to the point of ripping it off, as well as unbuttoning his shirt collar. He realized he was placing alot of his weight on her, and straightened up as they made their way down the stairs of the library entrance.
When his foot hit the last step, the slight bounce in movement made something jostle in him, "I'm going to be...." The unfortunate public waste bin received the end of that sentence.
He continued to feel eyes watching him, and even though it wasn't everyday to see a grown 'man' vomiting his guts out in broad daylight, this felt more than the typical public spectators. "Someone... traced us here... Someone's watching me..." And even when he was confident there wasn't anything left in his stomach and was only dry heaving, his mind was on Donna - was she safe? Do they know she's traveling with him now? Could she get them back to the TARDIS?
Not panicked. Not panicked. Nope. Perfectly calm. Oh bugger it, no, she was a worried mess. She rubbed his back as he emptied his guts into the bin, trying to comfort him as best she could.
"Calm down, just relax. We can outrun anyone. We'll get back to the TARDIS and get outta here. Don't worry." Her hand was trembling against the small of his back.
"I don't think I can run." He replaced his arm around her shoulder and walked with her at a quick pace. "I think I've been poisoned... and the onset of symptoms is bloody fast. I probably will get worse..."
He tried to straighten himself up and appear calm, so as not to worry her. The Doctor had traveled along with her long enough to know she was probably scared and freaking out, which he didn't blame her.
Digging in his pocket he pulled out the key to the TARDIS and clumsily placed it in her hand. "Keep it." He dug around in another pocket and pulled out his screwdriver, "Keep this safe too."
"Oi, you talk like something bad's gonna happen. Don't talk like it's goodbye. Stuck with me, remember?" Even so, she pocketed the items, before wrapping her arm around his waist to better support him. For such a skinny thing he could be quite the dead weight.
Why did the TARDIS seem so much further away than she remembered? It better have a 'Treating Poisoned Time Lords for Dummies' guide on board too. "You know how to cure it, though? The poison? I mean, we'll get you to the TARDIS and we can fix it, yeah?"
"I don't know." What a way to fill her up with confidence, as he wiped away a thin line of sweat from his brow.
He leaned into her, feeling more shaky. "I'm going to give you instructions now, because I..." He had a pained look on his face for a moment, "I think I'm most definitely going to get worse. When we reach th'TARDIS, Donna, submerge me in the tub in freezing water.
Get us to UNIT's hospital and find Martha, the Brig, whomever..." He shakes his head, "Stupid me, the Brig won't be there. Oh," He pauses, "Oh, I think I'm hallucinating or is the ground turning different colors?"
Throw him in a tub of ice cold water? She could do that. Hold his head under and drown him for good measure for worrying her! She held onto him tighter. She'd dragged her fair share of drunken people home from pubs before, it was similar, only instead of drunk he was poisoned and probably dying. Lovely.
"The ground's fine. Just, close your eyes and lean on me. We're almost there!" And after some more dragging/carrying/helping they finally reach the wonderful, beautiful blue box. Donna didn't think she'd ever been more pleased to see it.
She unlocked the door and helped the Doctor inside, taking him straight to the bathroom.
By this time, the Doctor held on the edge of the tub, knuckles white and he clutched it. "I can do this... I can do this... Oh, I can't do this... I can't... Ice, there needs to be more ice."
He slid to the floor, awkwardly tugging at his shoes, trying to discard them as she ran and got his request. Shakily, he fumbled at the buttons of his jacket, and finally gave up and ripped it, shrugging it off as he placed his head against the tub, trying to calm himself.
"I can do this... I can do this..." He looked pathetically up at her when she returned. "UNIT, I need to go to... them... Martha...." He held up one finger, "I'm down to one heart...S-Stopped it; I'm quite clever, yeah?"
"Wait... what?! What do you mean you're down to one heart? You stopped it on purpose or the poison stopped it?" He was hardly setting her mind at ease. Panic, panic, panic. Calming breaths... It wasn't working. She felt sick with nerves. "What're you going to do? Freeze yourself into some sort of Time Lord hibernation?"
"I stopped it!" He struggled to his knees and then shakily to his feet. "Need to... slow down... metabolism. Slow the..." He hissed when he dipped a leg into the water, "poison. At the rate I'm going..." He nearly whimpered dropping his other leg in, "I'll die before regenerating."
Oh, it was cold. The TARDIS luckily had helped out and poured freezing water, and the ice make his clothes practically sting against his skin. "Donna, go. And when you c-come b-back... Not dead, in a c-c-coma.... to heal."
Unit... right. Right, yes, pilot the TARDIS. "Okay, okay. I'll get us there..." Donna stammered before running off.
He rocked back and forth for a moment before finally slipping the rest of himself in and submerging himself. Whatever it was that was affecting him was causing him to be feverish which only sped his metabolism up. He had hoped this worked, to cut his circulatory workload in half and forcing himself in a coma-like state.
Piloting the TARDIS with the Doctor? Fun. Piloting the TARDIS alone and in a crisis? Petrifying. Her hands were trembling as she set the coordinates, flicked switches, pressed buttons and wiggled levers. Luckily, the TARDIS was being helpful and not stubborn.
The flight was smooth enough. The landing... not so smooth. At least the TARDIS was upright and not on it's side. But it was a bit of a bumpy landing, right in the middle of UNIT headquarters. So much for discretion. Right... time to find Martha!
Time... Time seemed to have slowed down. The Doctor quickly felt the pain become more dull and finally numb from the freezing pool of water he was in, and his consciousness retreated deep within himself.
He didn't remember hearing all the shouting and urgency of UNIT members as they poured into the TARDIS, following Donna. He didn't remember it took four people to pull his limp body out of the water, and despite his advanced warning to Donna, he definitely appeared dead. He didn't remember the needles and tubes being inserted him, bloodwork drawn, or a doctor explaining to Donna that the drug screen showed that the only thing in his system was salicylates - someone had given him what would a normal, safe level to a human, but a lethal dose of aspirin to a Time Lord.
Time... Time seemed to have been sped up. Sounds no longer seemed muffled and words distinctive as the Doctor suddenly gasped and his eyes flew open.
"Where am I!?" Panic was in his eyes, until he blinked and saw it was only him and Donna in a quiet hospital room. He blinked again and calmed down, "H-How long have I been out?"
Time went incredibly slowly for Donna. Every second dragged by painfully slow as she waited by his bedside. Medical staff had been in and out, rushing around. She hadn't been able to relax at all. Nor would she leave him alone.
She let out a squeak when the Doctor cried out and she instantly had his hand in hers, her free hand smoothing his hair back. "Shh, relax. You're okay. You're in a hospital. It's been... awhile. Just rest."
He looked at his free hand and ran his tongue along his teeth. "Oh Rassilon, I'm me! I didn't regenerate! I'm... Still...Me!" Embarrassed, he covered his eyes with his arm trying to cover his tears of joy.
He surely thought he was going to die and not even have enough time to regenerate. His body still felt extremely weak and exhausted, but it was healing. Both hearts were beating, lungs working at full capacity, and he was alive. "Thank you, Donna."
"You're still you." She was secretly glad of that too. She wasn't sure how she'd feel if he had regenerated. It would've been weird looking at a different face. A bit creepy too.
"Don't thank me, you prawn. I didn't do anything. It was all the medical staff who fixed you up. I just sat in the corner like a wally."
Typical Donna, never wanting to acknowledge how brilliant she is. He uncovered his eyes and smiled at her. "If you hadn't helped me, I wouldn't be here. I'd be rotting back at th'library."
He rolled over to his side, facing her. "So what was it that I had? You weren't affected any, were you?" He paused and added very quietly, "I'm sorry for scaring you."
"You were the one who told me what to do. I'd still be panicking and you'd be dead, otherwise." She once against brushed his hair back with her fingers, and she may've used it as a sneaky excuse to check his temperature...
"Aspirin poisoning. I'm completely unaffected." She frowned. "Why didn't you tell me aspirin is poisonous? What if I'd've given you some for a headache or sommat?"
He smiled softly at her and closed his eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair. "Would you believe me if I say I forgot or would you prefer that it never had crossed my mind?"
Then he sat up, as if starting to panic. "The TARDIS! Is it safe and in a secure location? We are at a UNIT facility, right?" He had spent a significant time when he was younger working for UNIT but after that he tried very hard to avoid them. Now look who came running back.
"For such an oversized brain, it can be a bit like Swiss cheese sometimes." She offered him a smile. "You need a handbook for your companions, y'know? Maybe I'll write one for whoever takes my place."
The Doctor started to feel light-headed and lied back down, realizing he was just too weak to do much at this time.
At his panic, she gently rested a hand on his shoulder, easing him down. "Relax. The Old Girl is safe and sound. You just need to rest and focus on getting yourself better. Alright?"
He sighed and rubbed at his face. "It's going to take me a while before I really recover from this, even after everything that has been done." And almost as proof, that short burst of energy had already worn him out and his eyes were growing heavy. "Can you stay a little while longer...?"
"You kidding? You're stuck with me until you're better, mister." As if she'd leave him in the hands of strangers. Even if said strangers had saved his life. No, he was stuck with her. In fact, he'd probably be begging her to leave him alone by the time he was better.
"I'm gonna stay right here to make sure you don't do anything silly."
After a couple more days in the hospital, which a good portion of that was still spent sleeping for the Doctor, he insisted it was time for him to go. Back in his usual layers of clothes, which probably seemed excessive to a regular human, he still felt a chill he couldn't quite shake off. But given circumstances recently, he had definitely overstayed his welcome, at least in his mind he had.
As Donna was preparing some last few things, the Doctor stood waiting for her outside in the hallway where the TARDIS was held just behind the door. He was looking at an old photo from circa 1970's as his old self and some UNIT officers. When Donna came around the corner, he grinned. "Who do you think this is, Donna?" He pointed to a man with blondish hair and a smoking jacket with a cape in the back.
Donna peered at the photo, studying the man the Doctor had pointed out. "No idea, he's rather handsome though." She turned her attention to the Doctor, arching a brow. "Come on then, who is it?"
"That's me! I was quite young in those days.... And this is my dear friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and some of his men." He grinned widely as he remembered those days. "Changed much, have I?"
The Doctor was greatly amused by Donna's reactions as they finally made their way to the TARDIS.
"Blimey, you were a handsome chap back then, weren't you?" He was very pretty these days, but she wasn't going to openly admit that. His ego didn't need swelling any more than it already was. "Very different. Now you're just a walking twiglet."
"Oi! I'm always handsome! Maybe not have had the best taste in dress..."
As they entered the TARDIS the Old Girl hummed warmly around them, welcoming them back. "Now, off to bed with you, Doctor. No arguments."
It felt great being back in the TARDIS; like coming home after a long trip. In true Time Lord fashion, he hated staying idle for very long and these past few days, however long they were, nearly drove him mad.
But then Donna was pushing him to sleep more! "Definitely not! I've done enough of that!" And he promptly started locking onto some coordinates in space.
She moved over to the console, giving his arm a firm smack. "Oi! Bed! You need to rest, you're still not mended. Now mush, and I'll bring you some tea and toast in bed."
Yep, she was still very much in a worried mother hen mode and wouldn't rest until he was 100% better.
In fears that she might try to knock him out, he relented and like a stubborn child, trudged back to his bedroom. He did briefly feel like throwing a temper tantrum, but then realized Donna would probably tie him to the bed if he did that. The Doctor most definitely didn't want to tempt her.
So he buried himself in his sheets, creating a small fort around him, and by the time Donna came around, he was already asleep again. If he knew how much sleep he had gotten the past week, he'd be ashamed since it was the most he could ever recall doing his entire life. That included all the time he'd sleep off regenerations.
Once she returned with his tea and toast, she smiled at his sleeping form and set the tray down so she could free her hands to stroke his hair. He had slept more than ever, and she, had been awake more than ever. She settled in a chair next to the bed so she could watch over him some more.
The Doctor woke up briefly at one point and shook Donna awake. He knew she had been dozing there in the chair. "You can rest in bed, silly. You don't have to stay in the chair." And he tugged at her arm in his insistance.
"Oh alright, but no funny business! I'm not some nurse you can flash those big brown eyes at for a quick fondle." She shifted from the chair onto the bed, settling on top of the covers with a magazine, a Mills & Boon book and a half eaten bar of chocolate. Doctor-sitting was hard work...
"I'm not a predator!" He wrapped himself back in the blankets, "And don't ruin my bed with your snacks." He quipped as he fluffed his pillow and closed his eyes.
He was silent for a while and just when Donna probably thought he had fallen back asleep, he spoke. "I found some information while there... Tomorrow, yes I think tomorrow will be a good day to review what I found."
Donna chewed and swallowed her mouthful of chocolate. Really... did he think he could just say something like that and leave it? No way, Spaceman. "What do you mean you found something? Well? Don't keep me in suspense! Tell me now, you prawn!"
She leaned over him slightly, pulling back the covers slightly. "Well?"
He rubbed at his eyes with the palm of his hand, "I merely borrowed a few files from UNIT that might give us more clues with what we're dealing with. I haven't had time to really look any of them over."
He grabbed his sheets and pulled them back up defiantly.
"Borrowed... as in stole? Isn't stealing things what got you into this mess in the first place?" She rested her chin on his arm, arching a brow. "Fine, fine. We'll go through them all tomorrow then, see what we can find."
He made no comment because he did steal the files, but considering how much UNIT owes him, he felt it justified. Besides, things are getting more serious if an assassination attempt was placed on him. He now had to become paranoid and throughly plot his actions before following through with anything.
"Brilliant! Glad you agree." He ruffled her hair and closed his eyes.
As long as UNIT didn't come after them with flaming pitchforks or anything worse she'd be fine. Near-death experiences were something she'd like to avoid for the time being. Even if that meant hiding out in the TARDIS for awhile.
She nuzzled into his side. It was a battle to keep her own eyes from drifting shut.
What: Post Journey's End and after The Next Doctor, the Doctor finds out he's somehow become a universal outlaw. He doesn't know how, he doesn't know why, but he knows he can't figure this out alone and the only person he can trust to help him is Donna.
Rating: PG-13/Teen
Notes: This is written by two authors: deathnomiko and darkranger, and is actually an adapted fanfiction out a RP verse. I thought it was too good to not share. I didn't want to change much of the written content as possible, so that explains why the POVs change slightly between Doctor/Donna. Thoughts, comments, and suggestions are always welcomed.
Chapter Summary: After teaching Donna how to fly the TARDIS, they take a little lunch break that goes horribly wrong.
It had been about 3 days since the Doctor had started teaching Donna how to fly the TARDIS. You'd think he would've taught her a long time ago, but he never honestly justified a reason as to why he should up until now. (Her time as part Time Lord didn't count).
"OK, now let's try landing in 2247... New York City~" She had pretty much mastered all Earth travel, while other planets were slightly more difficult. He wasn't exactly sure what the reasoning was, other than the TARDIS being stubborn.
Flying the TARDIS was fast becoming one of her favourite hobbies. The feeling of flying through time and space to anywhere was amazing. And the fact that the Doctor trusted her enough to let her fly was just brilliant.
When the Doctor opened the door, he bounced on the balls of his feet. "Ohhh, brilliant Donna!" He turned to her, "Let's eat, yeah?"
Once she was sure the TARDIS was properly landed and not going to drift off she bounded after the Doctor, looking over his shoulder with a smile. "Lead the way!" Food! Future food! Great!
Not a lot had changed in this era of time other than advances in medical treatment and transportation. Food, housing, locations were more or less the same as Donna's present time. However, the city was far cleaner than it had been in ages, as the Doctor happily made his way to a deli.
Other than teaching Donna to fly the TARDIS, just in case something happens and she has a better opportunity than him to fly themselves to safety (he always had ulterior motives), but he had been lazy to research more details of their journey. Honestly, he was hoping to avoid responsibilities of learning more information.
Unfortunately, Donna had assumed that the Doctor was finding out answers about why they were being hunted down. Men, so useless! If you want things doing, do it yourself.
She headed out of the TARDIS, following after the Doctor, hop, skip, jump, hand grab. "Hope you're paying then, Spaceman."
He swung their joined hands back and forth. "Of course I'm paying."
They found a deli after walking a few blocks and seated themselves in a booth. After placing their orders, he sat there, eyes wandering around at their surroundings as he absent-mindedly drummed a beat on the table with this fingers. Lately it just seemed like he couldn't sit still even if he tried.
Donna tapped his hand lightly with a straw. "Give over, you're making me nervous. Just sit still. You look all suspicious and people will stare." She was tempted to build a menu fort to hide behind, but then they'd look like two awkward people on an awkward first date pretending it wasn't a date.
When the drinks arrived Donna took a sip of hers, savouring the taste. Delicious. "So, any reason we stopped here, aside from for a meal? Y'know, like... a plan?"
He stopped the tapping, but smiled apologetically. "Sorry, no plan. Been kind of avoiding it all, actually." Hey, he was honest, right?
He frowned a bit and slid down further in his chair. "I've looked up a few things, but... bah, I don't know." He rubbed at his eye. Maybe he was slightly depressed randomly.
A depressed Doctor? Now there was something Donna wasn't sure how to deal with. There was hugging him and hair petting - that sometimes worked, or baking for him or just listening to him ramble. But right now, sat in a deli? Not much she could do.
She gave his leg a light nudge under the table with her own. "Come on, Spaceman. Cheer up. We'll get through this."
"Mm, yeah we will..." He glanced around, catching the gaze of a worker behind the counter. It was NYC, where it was known people weren't the friendliest, so he didn't really think of it and turned his attention to Donna.
"'M sorry, I'm not trying to be so down. Like you said, finding something through all of time and space is a bit difficult when you don't know what you're looking for."
"We'll figure it out. That brilliant brain of yours must be useful for sommat after all." She gave him another nudge, and took another sip of her drink. "What's taking the food so long? You'd think service would've speeded up over the years."
She let out a sigh, slouching down in her seat.
The food arrived and the Doctor unceremoniously scarfed down his sandwich in record speed. Apparently he was quite hungry. He was practically licking the crumbs off his plate, as he glanced over to Donna still taking her time.
"Ok, a walk, and then we'll start searching through articles and hopefully find hints of what I apparently have done."
"Blimey, where do you even put all your food? Seriously, so unfair." She munched her way though her sandwich, savouring every bite. At least the food was food, even if it had taken forever to arrive.
She took another sip of her drink. "Library? That'd be a good place to start. Check all the papers and news links."
"That sounds lovely!" The Doctor glanced over and caught a couple other people looking over at him before they quickly looked away.
"...Do you feel like we're being watched?" He glanced back over to Donna. "Maybe I've grown paranoid these days."
Donna glanced around, frowning. "Hm? Maybe our clothes stick out and look odd or sommat? Or maybe they want to know how you get your hair to look so crazy." Still, she couldn't shake the slight unease she felt.
She took hold of his hand across the table. "Come on, lead the way to the library..." So they could hide away in a corner.
"My hair is fantastic!" He scoffs for a minute then follows closely behind as they made their way outside.
Once out, the Doctor looked around for a second. "I believe it's about 4 blocks north." They walked side by side, Donna commenting on some building's architecture, the Doctor adding historical facts to observations and rambled on about the time he met Frank Lloyd Wright, when he paused for a second mid-step. Shaking it off, he kept on going. He just ate too fast and the sour stomach was proof of that.
"If you've got indigestion it's your own fault, Time Boy. You practically inhaled that sandwich." She gave his stomach a prod for good measure, although if he puked up on the street, she was not going to clean it up. No way. It was his own fault if he was sick.
"Do we need to stop at a chemist?"
"Mm, no, I'm fine."
The library finally appeared in their line of sight as they made their way, "My! Look at this! They've restored it... Ohh, look at the detail of the painting over there!" He smiled brightly, momentarily forgetting that his stomach still ached.
"Alright, I haven't been here in ages, but the periodicals can't be too hard to find, can they?"
Donna could find her way around a library almost as easily as she could find her way around an office. It was one of her very limited skills. "Let's split up. Will be quicker that way. We'll meet in the middle. They're bound to have a table, libraries always have a table."
She headed off into the vast room of books and files to begin her search.
The Doctor roamed around a bit, eyes wandering around until he found a news archive. He sat in a seat, briefly searching through some articles, before collecting a few volumes worth and meandering through the library to find Donna.
Finally, he spotted her across a large study room and sat across from her. "Here's a start!" He began flipping through the volume, but began to realize his stomachache wasn't letting up, and a dull headache was coming about.
A frown formed, but he kept searching through the stack he had brought with him.
"I found a computer terminal too, can probably hack into it with your sonic or something." She started to flip through the articles she had found, scanning the pages for anything of interest.
She paused and watched him over the top of her book, frowning at his frown. "You sure you're okay?"
He shakes his head, "Yep, fine!"
Pulling out his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, he hands it to her, "Go ahead. I'm just... gonna rest my head for a moment." He folded his arms and rested his head on top. "Got a headache now."
Must be a bad headache if he was giving her full control of the sonic. She was torn between going to collect data and staying with him. She gripped the sonic in her hand, biting on her lip as she thinks.
"Doctor? Do you need to go back to the TARDIS? Sleep it off, maybe?"
The Doctor opens his eyes and looked at the woodwork of the table, staring at it as if it were the most fascinating thing in the entire universe.
"Something isn't right..." He glanced up, and noticed someone looking at him briefly around a bookshelf. His gaze focused back on Donna, "Something isn't right at all." He stood up when again he thought he saw someone peripherally in his vision dart by. "....I think you should take me back to the TARDIS."
Okay, he was beginning to worry her. She really hoped he was being a typical bloke and turning a teeny tiny headache into the worst illness ever, but she had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't.
"You don't look so good." She moved in closer, wrapping one of his arms around her neck. "Come on, let's get you home. I'll make you a cuppa and you can lay down in a dark room and sleep it off." Whatever 'it' was.
Once they stepped outside, the Doctor groaned and squinted his eyes. It was an overcast day, yet it was making him light sensitive and his head was pounding.
"I feel retched." He grabbed at his tie and loosened it nearly to the point of ripping it off, as well as unbuttoning his shirt collar. He realized he was placing alot of his weight on her, and straightened up as they made their way down the stairs of the library entrance.
When his foot hit the last step, the slight bounce in movement made something jostle in him, "I'm going to be...." The unfortunate public waste bin received the end of that sentence.
He continued to feel eyes watching him, and even though it wasn't everyday to see a grown 'man' vomiting his guts out in broad daylight, this felt more than the typical public spectators. "Someone... traced us here... Someone's watching me..." And even when he was confident there wasn't anything left in his stomach and was only dry heaving, his mind was on Donna - was she safe? Do they know she's traveling with him now? Could she get them back to the TARDIS?
Not panicked. Not panicked. Nope. Perfectly calm. Oh bugger it, no, she was a worried mess. She rubbed his back as he emptied his guts into the bin, trying to comfort him as best she could.
"Calm down, just relax. We can outrun anyone. We'll get back to the TARDIS and get outta here. Don't worry." Her hand was trembling against the small of his back.
"I don't think I can run." He replaced his arm around her shoulder and walked with her at a quick pace. "I think I've been poisoned... and the onset of symptoms is bloody fast. I probably will get worse..."
He tried to straighten himself up and appear calm, so as not to worry her. The Doctor had traveled along with her long enough to know she was probably scared and freaking out, which he didn't blame her.
Digging in his pocket he pulled out the key to the TARDIS and clumsily placed it in her hand. "Keep it." He dug around in another pocket and pulled out his screwdriver, "Keep this safe too."
"Oi, you talk like something bad's gonna happen. Don't talk like it's goodbye. Stuck with me, remember?" Even so, she pocketed the items, before wrapping her arm around his waist to better support him. For such a skinny thing he could be quite the dead weight.
Why did the TARDIS seem so much further away than she remembered? It better have a 'Treating Poisoned Time Lords for Dummies' guide on board too. "You know how to cure it, though? The poison? I mean, we'll get you to the TARDIS and we can fix it, yeah?"
"I don't know." What a way to fill her up with confidence, as he wiped away a thin line of sweat from his brow.
He leaned into her, feeling more shaky. "I'm going to give you instructions now, because I..." He had a pained look on his face for a moment, "I think I'm most definitely going to get worse. When we reach th'TARDIS, Donna, submerge me in the tub in freezing water.
Get us to UNIT's hospital and find Martha, the Brig, whomever..." He shakes his head, "Stupid me, the Brig won't be there. Oh," He pauses, "Oh, I think I'm hallucinating or is the ground turning different colors?"
Throw him in a tub of ice cold water? She could do that. Hold his head under and drown him for good measure for worrying her! She held onto him tighter. She'd dragged her fair share of drunken people home from pubs before, it was similar, only instead of drunk he was poisoned and probably dying. Lovely.
"The ground's fine. Just, close your eyes and lean on me. We're almost there!" And after some more dragging/carrying/helping they finally reach the wonderful, beautiful blue box. Donna didn't think she'd ever been more pleased to see it.
She unlocked the door and helped the Doctor inside, taking him straight to the bathroom.
By this time, the Doctor held on the edge of the tub, knuckles white and he clutched it. "I can do this... I can do this... Oh, I can't do this... I can't... Ice, there needs to be more ice."
He slid to the floor, awkwardly tugging at his shoes, trying to discard them as she ran and got his request. Shakily, he fumbled at the buttons of his jacket, and finally gave up and ripped it, shrugging it off as he placed his head against the tub, trying to calm himself.
"I can do this... I can do this..." He looked pathetically up at her when she returned. "UNIT, I need to go to... them... Martha...." He held up one finger, "I'm down to one heart...S-Stopped it; I'm quite clever, yeah?"
"Wait... what?! What do you mean you're down to one heart? You stopped it on purpose or the poison stopped it?" He was hardly setting her mind at ease. Panic, panic, panic. Calming breaths... It wasn't working. She felt sick with nerves. "What're you going to do? Freeze yourself into some sort of Time Lord hibernation?"
"I stopped it!" He struggled to his knees and then shakily to his feet. "Need to... slow down... metabolism. Slow the..." He hissed when he dipped a leg into the water, "poison. At the rate I'm going..." He nearly whimpered dropping his other leg in, "I'll die before regenerating."
Oh, it was cold. The TARDIS luckily had helped out and poured freezing water, and the ice make his clothes practically sting against his skin. "Donna, go. And when you c-come b-back... Not dead, in a c-c-coma.... to heal."
Unit... right. Right, yes, pilot the TARDIS. "Okay, okay. I'll get us there..." Donna stammered before running off.
He rocked back and forth for a moment before finally slipping the rest of himself in and submerging himself. Whatever it was that was affecting him was causing him to be feverish which only sped his metabolism up. He had hoped this worked, to cut his circulatory workload in half and forcing himself in a coma-like state.
Piloting the TARDIS with the Doctor? Fun. Piloting the TARDIS alone and in a crisis? Petrifying. Her hands were trembling as she set the coordinates, flicked switches, pressed buttons and wiggled levers. Luckily, the TARDIS was being helpful and not stubborn.
The flight was smooth enough. The landing... not so smooth. At least the TARDIS was upright and not on it's side. But it was a bit of a bumpy landing, right in the middle of UNIT headquarters. So much for discretion. Right... time to find Martha!
Time... Time seemed to have slowed down. The Doctor quickly felt the pain become more dull and finally numb from the freezing pool of water he was in, and his consciousness retreated deep within himself.
He didn't remember hearing all the shouting and urgency of UNIT members as they poured into the TARDIS, following Donna. He didn't remember it took four people to pull his limp body out of the water, and despite his advanced warning to Donna, he definitely appeared dead. He didn't remember the needles and tubes being inserted him, bloodwork drawn, or a doctor explaining to Donna that the drug screen showed that the only thing in his system was salicylates - someone had given him what would a normal, safe level to a human, but a lethal dose of aspirin to a Time Lord.
Time... Time seemed to have been sped up. Sounds no longer seemed muffled and words distinctive as the Doctor suddenly gasped and his eyes flew open.
"Where am I!?" Panic was in his eyes, until he blinked and saw it was only him and Donna in a quiet hospital room. He blinked again and calmed down, "H-How long have I been out?"
Time went incredibly slowly for Donna. Every second dragged by painfully slow as she waited by his bedside. Medical staff had been in and out, rushing around. She hadn't been able to relax at all. Nor would she leave him alone.
She let out a squeak when the Doctor cried out and she instantly had his hand in hers, her free hand smoothing his hair back. "Shh, relax. You're okay. You're in a hospital. It's been... awhile. Just rest."
He looked at his free hand and ran his tongue along his teeth. "Oh Rassilon, I'm me! I didn't regenerate! I'm... Still...Me!" Embarrassed, he covered his eyes with his arm trying to cover his tears of joy.
He surely thought he was going to die and not even have enough time to regenerate. His body still felt extremely weak and exhausted, but it was healing. Both hearts were beating, lungs working at full capacity, and he was alive. "Thank you, Donna."
"You're still you." She was secretly glad of that too. She wasn't sure how she'd feel if he had regenerated. It would've been weird looking at a different face. A bit creepy too.
"Don't thank me, you prawn. I didn't do anything. It was all the medical staff who fixed you up. I just sat in the corner like a wally."
Typical Donna, never wanting to acknowledge how brilliant she is. He uncovered his eyes and smiled at her. "If you hadn't helped me, I wouldn't be here. I'd be rotting back at th'library."
He rolled over to his side, facing her. "So what was it that I had? You weren't affected any, were you?" He paused and added very quietly, "I'm sorry for scaring you."
"You were the one who told me what to do. I'd still be panicking and you'd be dead, otherwise." She once against brushed his hair back with her fingers, and she may've used it as a sneaky excuse to check his temperature...
"Aspirin poisoning. I'm completely unaffected." She frowned. "Why didn't you tell me aspirin is poisonous? What if I'd've given you some for a headache or sommat?"
He smiled softly at her and closed his eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair. "Would you believe me if I say I forgot or would you prefer that it never had crossed my mind?"
Then he sat up, as if starting to panic. "The TARDIS! Is it safe and in a secure location? We are at a UNIT facility, right?" He had spent a significant time when he was younger working for UNIT but after that he tried very hard to avoid them. Now look who came running back.
"For such an oversized brain, it can be a bit like Swiss cheese sometimes." She offered him a smile. "You need a handbook for your companions, y'know? Maybe I'll write one for whoever takes my place."
The Doctor started to feel light-headed and lied back down, realizing he was just too weak to do much at this time.
At his panic, she gently rested a hand on his shoulder, easing him down. "Relax. The Old Girl is safe and sound. You just need to rest and focus on getting yourself better. Alright?"
He sighed and rubbed at his face. "It's going to take me a while before I really recover from this, even after everything that has been done." And almost as proof, that short burst of energy had already worn him out and his eyes were growing heavy. "Can you stay a little while longer...?"
"You kidding? You're stuck with me until you're better, mister." As if she'd leave him in the hands of strangers. Even if said strangers had saved his life. No, he was stuck with her. In fact, he'd probably be begging her to leave him alone by the time he was better.
"I'm gonna stay right here to make sure you don't do anything silly."
After a couple more days in the hospital, which a good portion of that was still spent sleeping for the Doctor, he insisted it was time for him to go. Back in his usual layers of clothes, which probably seemed excessive to a regular human, he still felt a chill he couldn't quite shake off. But given circumstances recently, he had definitely overstayed his welcome, at least in his mind he had.
As Donna was preparing some last few things, the Doctor stood waiting for her outside in the hallway where the TARDIS was held just behind the door. He was looking at an old photo from circa 1970's as his old self and some UNIT officers. When Donna came around the corner, he grinned. "Who do you think this is, Donna?" He pointed to a man with blondish hair and a smoking jacket with a cape in the back.
Donna peered at the photo, studying the man the Doctor had pointed out. "No idea, he's rather handsome though." She turned her attention to the Doctor, arching a brow. "Come on then, who is it?"
"That's me! I was quite young in those days.... And this is my dear friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and some of his men." He grinned widely as he remembered those days. "Changed much, have I?"
The Doctor was greatly amused by Donna's reactions as they finally made their way to the TARDIS.
"Blimey, you were a handsome chap back then, weren't you?" He was very pretty these days, but she wasn't going to openly admit that. His ego didn't need swelling any more than it already was. "Very different. Now you're just a walking twiglet."
"Oi! I'm always handsome! Maybe not have had the best taste in dress..."
As they entered the TARDIS the Old Girl hummed warmly around them, welcoming them back. "Now, off to bed with you, Doctor. No arguments."
It felt great being back in the TARDIS; like coming home after a long trip. In true Time Lord fashion, he hated staying idle for very long and these past few days, however long they were, nearly drove him mad.
But then Donna was pushing him to sleep more! "Definitely not! I've done enough of that!" And he promptly started locking onto some coordinates in space.
She moved over to the console, giving his arm a firm smack. "Oi! Bed! You need to rest, you're still not mended. Now mush, and I'll bring you some tea and toast in bed."
Yep, she was still very much in a worried mother hen mode and wouldn't rest until he was 100% better.
In fears that she might try to knock him out, he relented and like a stubborn child, trudged back to his bedroom. He did briefly feel like throwing a temper tantrum, but then realized Donna would probably tie him to the bed if he did that. The Doctor most definitely didn't want to tempt her.
So he buried himself in his sheets, creating a small fort around him, and by the time Donna came around, he was already asleep again. If he knew how much sleep he had gotten the past week, he'd be ashamed since it was the most he could ever recall doing his entire life. That included all the time he'd sleep off regenerations.
Once she returned with his tea and toast, she smiled at his sleeping form and set the tray down so she could free her hands to stroke his hair. He had slept more than ever, and she, had been awake more than ever. She settled in a chair next to the bed so she could watch over him some more.
The Doctor woke up briefly at one point and shook Donna awake. He knew she had been dozing there in the chair. "You can rest in bed, silly. You don't have to stay in the chair." And he tugged at her arm in his insistance.
"Oh alright, but no funny business! I'm not some nurse you can flash those big brown eyes at for a quick fondle." She shifted from the chair onto the bed, settling on top of the covers with a magazine, a Mills & Boon book and a half eaten bar of chocolate. Doctor-sitting was hard work...
"I'm not a predator!" He wrapped himself back in the blankets, "And don't ruin my bed with your snacks." He quipped as he fluffed his pillow and closed his eyes.
He was silent for a while and just when Donna probably thought he had fallen back asleep, he spoke. "I found some information while there... Tomorrow, yes I think tomorrow will be a good day to review what I found."
Donna chewed and swallowed her mouthful of chocolate. Really... did he think he could just say something like that and leave it? No way, Spaceman. "What do you mean you found something? Well? Don't keep me in suspense! Tell me now, you prawn!"
She leaned over him slightly, pulling back the covers slightly. "Well?"
He rubbed at his eyes with the palm of his hand, "I merely borrowed a few files from UNIT that might give us more clues with what we're dealing with. I haven't had time to really look any of them over."
He grabbed his sheets and pulled them back up defiantly.
"Borrowed... as in stole? Isn't stealing things what got you into this mess in the first place?" She rested her chin on his arm, arching a brow. "Fine, fine. We'll go through them all tomorrow then, see what we can find."
He made no comment because he did steal the files, but considering how much UNIT owes him, he felt it justified. Besides, things are getting more serious if an assassination attempt was placed on him. He now had to become paranoid and throughly plot his actions before following through with anything.
"Brilliant! Glad you agree." He ruffled her hair and closed his eyes.
As long as UNIT didn't come after them with flaming pitchforks or anything worse she'd be fine. Near-death experiences were something she'd like to avoid for the time being. Even if that meant hiding out in the TARDIS for awhile.
She nuzzled into his side. It was a battle to keep her own eyes from drifting shut.