DWSANTA FIC: Behind the Veil 1/1
TITLE: Behind the Veil 1/1
AUTHOR: juliet316
FANDOM: Doctor Who (Ten, Donna)
RATING: PG - 13
CONTENT: ANGST, HURT/COMFORT, FIX - IT
CATEGORY: VIGNETTE, ADULT, DRAMA
SPOILERS: Season Four, Planet of the Dead, minus the prophecy at the end.
SUMMARY: The Doctor is being stalked by a mystery woman. This was my gift to geekymary for dwsanta.
DISCLAIMER: BBC owns both Doctor Who and Torchwood. The characters of Ten and Donna featured in this story were created by Russell T. Davies. No profit is made off of them for this story.
Behind the Veil
It was a wonderful mid - year day.
The suns were just at the mid - point of the day, as the trees had lost their fire - like appearance. He was down at the base of the mountain again, looking at the rich colorful stones down there. He had been looking at them for hours and the wet snow was starting to seep through his shoes and lower legs of his trousers. He would need to go back before his father began to send search parties out for him. He pocketed a few of the colored stones to inspect later.
As he looked up he saw her. A purple covered woman, wrapped in cloth he had rarely seen, not even on Gallifreyan women. She reached up to remove the headdress obscuring her face and…
The Doctor slid easily out of unconsciousness. What little sleep he had only did the barest of good to keep him functional. The dream had been a memory from when he had been a young boy. From happier times when he was just exploring the horizons beyond his father’s home.
The woman however was not. She was a manifestation of the mysterious person that had been shadowing him for weeks now. Since shortly after his misadventure on that bus and Lady Christina. Sometimes she would stand by watching while he saved the day; other times, she had well placed timing and managed to save him without saying a word. Sometimes it would be a random mysterious message, such as the cryptic one some weeks back that enabled him to return to Earth and stop the 456. She never showed her face behind that satin veil of purple and he was not inclined as of late to stick around to see. The woman had a vortex manipulator on her wrist, so transport would not be a problem for her.
He would not allow himself to get close to any one individual again, in this or his remaining incarnations.
“Well, where are we going today?” he said to his ship and he set about a random materialization sequence.
Hours later, he saw her again as he was liberating a princess from a rival kingdom on the planet Pufdid 4. An errant laser bolt from a discharged weapon hit her wrist, forcing him to save both her and the princess. He turned down the King’s offer of a bountiful celebration in his honor so he could take the woman back to the TARDIS and have her wrist looked at. Despite no interest in finding out who she was (the possibility of it being River Song would briefly cross his thoughts from time to time), the least he could do was repair whatever damage her wrist sustained before sending her on her way.
In the TARDIS’ medbay some minutes later, he could properly see the burns the laser made on her delicate pale skin. He could see that it took all she had not to cry out beneath the veil as he cleaned and used the dermal regenerator on the wound. He was about to hand her the Vortex Manipulator when he saw that it had been the only thing that kept her injury from being much worse. As it was, it was currently fried beyond repair.
“Well,” the Doctor said, after a moment. “I suppose I could give you a lift somewhere if you’d like.”
He took her silence and neutral body language as agreement and headed off to the console room. He did not have to glance back to know she was behind him.
As he headed for the console, he continued to ignore the rather happy tone his ship was giving off ever since he returned. He figured she was just happy that he had returned in one piece and in the same body that he left in. He initialized the dematerialization sequence and made preparations to set in new time and space coordinates. As he was about to turn to ask his temporary passenger where she’d like to go, he glanced up and the chronometer. He had it set to early 21st century as that was where the last of his most recent companions had been from. He paused when he saw the date.
Christmas Eve, 2009.
“Well,” he spoke softly, the other person in the room forgotten for the moment. It had been awhile since anybody other than himself had been onboard the TARDIS. “I had completely forgotten about that date. More like deliberately pushed it out of my mind. I wonder what some of them in that time period are doing?
“Some of us are making sure skinny idiots aren’t trying to get themselves killed.”
The Doctor stilled at the familiar voice that rang out in the console room. Very slowly, he turned toward the direction of the voice.
He was half convinced he was hallucinating.
Donna Noble stood at the other side of the console, veil removed from her face, wearing a very annoyed expression on it.
“By the way, you get to explain to Captain Jack why his vortex manipulator doesn’t work anymore.”
He walked over to her, stopping just short of touching distance. He was afraid if he did, she would disappear.
“Donna?” he asked, his voice strangled with disbelief.
Donna nodded, taking the hood that the veil had been attached to off, allowing her familiar red hair to flow loose down her shoulders.
“Why some women prefer these things, I’ll never know. It gets hot under there very very quickly.” she noted, looking at the satin coverings in her hand.
“Wha - how, why?” the Doctor stumbled over the thousands of questions exploding in his mind, very few of them escaping past his bewilderment.
“What am I doing?” Donna retorted. “Because somebody is a git.” With that her uninjured hand came hard across his cheek.
Instead of crying out, he simply placed his hand across his stinging cheek.
“I deserve that,” he said softly.
“You got that right,” Donna shot back, her blue eyes showing the pain, and hurt as clearly as they had that last moment they had been together before he had to wipe her memory.
“How come, you’re able to remember without - ”
“Without burning up?” Donna cut in. “Quite frankly I’m not entirely sure. However, this might have something to do with it.” She placed his other hand across her chest. Sliding it from the right of her chest to the left.
His eyes widened.
“That’s not possible. A human being can’t have two hearts?” That’s - ”
“Impossible? Evidently I’m full of impossibilities. All I know is that I was watching the news this past Easter, about this mysterious flying red bus and went to bed with a massive headache. The next morning I wake up with two hearts, the ability to hold my breath for at least an hour or so, and oh yes, not only the memory of the last two years, but your memories as well. So you tell me?” Donna explained.
“But you shouldn’t have regenerated. No human being has that ability.”
“Apparently, I’m not human anymore. Not fully, anyway. Probably something to do with the metacrisis.”
“As for why I was following you around with that veil get - up, I saw the look on your face when you saw me a few minutes ago. If you had seen me without it earlier, you would have been convinced you had finally cracked up and gone some place where I probably wouldn’t have even been able to find you.”
“Probably,” he admitted, only a small corner of his mind thinking about the battery of tests he wanted to run to determine just how it was Donna was able to regenerate into something approximating a full Time Lord when she had been both human and had no formal training in being a Time Lord. The rest of him was thinking about how bad he had missed her and was glad she was there.
“Now, I know you want to run a whole bunch of stuff on me to figure out how the whole regeneration thing happened,” Donna said, seemingly reading his mind, which was entirely possible. The Doctor made a note to train Donna in her new mental abilities as soon as he could. “However, Grandad insisted before I left that I bring you home for Christmas Dinner. And this time, neither he nor I are taking no for an answer.”
A small smile graced the Doctor’s lips. It had been so long since he had genuinely smiled that even that small of a smile hurt. But it was a good hurt as he set about setting the coordinates for Chiswick into the console. The smile slipped off as he looked at Donna and the guilt over what he had done came crashing back in. He walked back towards her.
“Donna, I am sorry,” he said, “I hope someday you’ll forgive me, but I understand if you don’t.”
Donna sighed. “You prawn. I’ve had a lot of time on my hands since I remembered you, and I do forgive you for the most part. However, if you ever do something like that to me again, I will find away a way to make this you live as long as possible and figure out how to haunt you for as long as possible.”
She pulled him into a much missed hug then and the smile returned to his face.
For the first time in ages he felt truly at peace.
AUTHOR: juliet316
FANDOM: Doctor Who (Ten, Donna)
RATING: PG - 13
CONTENT: ANGST, HURT/COMFORT, FIX - IT
CATEGORY: VIGNETTE, ADULT, DRAMA
SPOILERS: Season Four, Planet of the Dead, minus the prophecy at the end.
SUMMARY: The Doctor is being stalked by a mystery woman. This was my gift to geekymary for dwsanta.
DISCLAIMER: BBC owns both Doctor Who and Torchwood. The characters of Ten and Donna featured in this story were created by Russell T. Davies. No profit is made off of them for this story.
Behind the Veil
It was a wonderful mid - year day.
The suns were just at the mid - point of the day, as the trees had lost their fire - like appearance. He was down at the base of the mountain again, looking at the rich colorful stones down there. He had been looking at them for hours and the wet snow was starting to seep through his shoes and lower legs of his trousers. He would need to go back before his father began to send search parties out for him. He pocketed a few of the colored stones to inspect later.
As he looked up he saw her. A purple covered woman, wrapped in cloth he had rarely seen, not even on Gallifreyan women. She reached up to remove the headdress obscuring her face and…
The Doctor slid easily out of unconsciousness. What little sleep he had only did the barest of good to keep him functional. The dream had been a memory from when he had been a young boy. From happier times when he was just exploring the horizons beyond his father’s home.
The woman however was not. She was a manifestation of the mysterious person that had been shadowing him for weeks now. Since shortly after his misadventure on that bus and Lady Christina. Sometimes she would stand by watching while he saved the day; other times, she had well placed timing and managed to save him without saying a word. Sometimes it would be a random mysterious message, such as the cryptic one some weeks back that enabled him to return to Earth and stop the 456. She never showed her face behind that satin veil of purple and he was not inclined as of late to stick around to see. The woman had a vortex manipulator on her wrist, so transport would not be a problem for her.
He would not allow himself to get close to any one individual again, in this or his remaining incarnations.
“Well, where are we going today?” he said to his ship and he set about a random materialization sequence.
Hours later, he saw her again as he was liberating a princess from a rival kingdom on the planet Pufdid 4. An errant laser bolt from a discharged weapon hit her wrist, forcing him to save both her and the princess. He turned down the King’s offer of a bountiful celebration in his honor so he could take the woman back to the TARDIS and have her wrist looked at. Despite no interest in finding out who she was (the possibility of it being River Song would briefly cross his thoughts from time to time), the least he could do was repair whatever damage her wrist sustained before sending her on her way.
In the TARDIS’ medbay some minutes later, he could properly see the burns the laser made on her delicate pale skin. He could see that it took all she had not to cry out beneath the veil as he cleaned and used the dermal regenerator on the wound. He was about to hand her the Vortex Manipulator when he saw that it had been the only thing that kept her injury from being much worse. As it was, it was currently fried beyond repair.
“Well,” the Doctor said, after a moment. “I suppose I could give you a lift somewhere if you’d like.”
He took her silence and neutral body language as agreement and headed off to the console room. He did not have to glance back to know she was behind him.
As he headed for the console, he continued to ignore the rather happy tone his ship was giving off ever since he returned. He figured she was just happy that he had returned in one piece and in the same body that he left in. He initialized the dematerialization sequence and made preparations to set in new time and space coordinates. As he was about to turn to ask his temporary passenger where she’d like to go, he glanced up and the chronometer. He had it set to early 21st century as that was where the last of his most recent companions had been from. He paused when he saw the date.
Christmas Eve, 2009.
“Well,” he spoke softly, the other person in the room forgotten for the moment. It had been awhile since anybody other than himself had been onboard the TARDIS. “I had completely forgotten about that date. More like deliberately pushed it out of my mind. I wonder what some of them in that time period are doing?
“Some of us are making sure skinny idiots aren’t trying to get themselves killed.”
The Doctor stilled at the familiar voice that rang out in the console room. Very slowly, he turned toward the direction of the voice.
He was half convinced he was hallucinating.
Donna Noble stood at the other side of the console, veil removed from her face, wearing a very annoyed expression on it.
“By the way, you get to explain to Captain Jack why his vortex manipulator doesn’t work anymore.”
He walked over to her, stopping just short of touching distance. He was afraid if he did, she would disappear.
“Donna?” he asked, his voice strangled with disbelief.
Donna nodded, taking the hood that the veil had been attached to off, allowing her familiar red hair to flow loose down her shoulders.
“Why some women prefer these things, I’ll never know. It gets hot under there very very quickly.” she noted, looking at the satin coverings in her hand.
“Wha - how, why?” the Doctor stumbled over the thousands of questions exploding in his mind, very few of them escaping past his bewilderment.
“What am I doing?” Donna retorted. “Because somebody is a git.” With that her uninjured hand came hard across his cheek.
Instead of crying out, he simply placed his hand across his stinging cheek.
“I deserve that,” he said softly.
“You got that right,” Donna shot back, her blue eyes showing the pain, and hurt as clearly as they had that last moment they had been together before he had to wipe her memory.
“How come, you’re able to remember without - ”
“Without burning up?” Donna cut in. “Quite frankly I’m not entirely sure. However, this might have something to do with it.” She placed his other hand across her chest. Sliding it from the right of her chest to the left.
His eyes widened.
“That’s not possible. A human being can’t have two hearts?” That’s - ”
“Impossible? Evidently I’m full of impossibilities. All I know is that I was watching the news this past Easter, about this mysterious flying red bus and went to bed with a massive headache. The next morning I wake up with two hearts, the ability to hold my breath for at least an hour or so, and oh yes, not only the memory of the last two years, but your memories as well. So you tell me?” Donna explained.
“But you shouldn’t have regenerated. No human being has that ability.”
“Apparently, I’m not human anymore. Not fully, anyway. Probably something to do with the metacrisis.”
“As for why I was following you around with that veil get - up, I saw the look on your face when you saw me a few minutes ago. If you had seen me without it earlier, you would have been convinced you had finally cracked up and gone some place where I probably wouldn’t have even been able to find you.”
“Probably,” he admitted, only a small corner of his mind thinking about the battery of tests he wanted to run to determine just how it was Donna was able to regenerate into something approximating a full Time Lord when she had been both human and had no formal training in being a Time Lord. The rest of him was thinking about how bad he had missed her and was glad she was there.
“Now, I know you want to run a whole bunch of stuff on me to figure out how the whole regeneration thing happened,” Donna said, seemingly reading his mind, which was entirely possible. The Doctor made a note to train Donna in her new mental abilities as soon as he could. “However, Grandad insisted before I left that I bring you home for Christmas Dinner. And this time, neither he nor I are taking no for an answer.”
A small smile graced the Doctor’s lips. It had been so long since he had genuinely smiled that even that small of a smile hurt. But it was a good hurt as he set about setting the coordinates for Chiswick into the console. The smile slipped off as he looked at Donna and the guilt over what he had done came crashing back in. He walked back towards her.
“Donna, I am sorry,” he said, “I hope someday you’ll forgive me, but I understand if you don’t.”
Donna sighed. “You prawn. I’ve had a lot of time on my hands since I remembered you, and I do forgive you for the most part. However, if you ever do something like that to me again, I will find away a way to make this you live as long as possible and figure out how to haunt you for as long as possible.”
She pulled him into a much missed hug then and the smile returned to his face.
For the first time in ages he felt truly at peace.