Ficlet: No More Bad Dreams (Sequel)
Title: No More Bad Dreams
Author: lemon_pencil
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Doctor Who isn't mine.
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Donna
Spoilers: Tiny spoiler for Planet of the Ood
Author's notes: Sequel to Her Dreams, provoked by katherine_b who is a very bad girl for giving me an excuse to not revise!
He’d told himself he’d stop doing this. It was not a good idea; he knew that. Yet here he was again, crouching at Donna’s bedside feeling her mind ripple across his, and watching her innermost thoughts that manifested themselves as vivid images twirling in the depths of her subconsciousness. The nightmare he had awoken from had been playing upon his mind, so he’d come to see whether or not she was having sweeter dreams.
She was dreaming of flying, strangely. She was soaring through a purple sky, touching the stars and somersaulting in the air. He smiled.
"Doctor!"
He opened his eyes in shock to see Donna’s staring straight back at him, horror evident within them. He withdrew his hands from her head as though he’d been scalded, and she sat upright, indignant.
"You… you were…! Like you did on the Ood-Sphere! You were inside my mind!" She swung her legs out from under the covers and stood up, hands on hips and eyes blazing.
He opened and closed his mouth helplessly. "No, I -"
She cut him off with a sharp slap. "Don’t you dare try to deny it! I could feel it!"
He reeled, rubbing his cheek and knowing that he deserved the agony completely. They often joked about Donna’s legendary slapping abilities, which he’d experienced all too painfully the first time they’d met, but in actual fact she didn’t hit him that often at all now that they both lived here together. Only when she was really livid - like now.
He’d seen her angry before, yes. Donna knew her own mind and he’d been on the receiving end of her rage several times. But he didn’t think he’d ever seen her quite like this. She was furious. He couldn’t believe he could have been so stupid.
"Well?" She was looking daggers at him.
"I - I don’t have anything to say that can justify it, Donna. I’m so sorry."
Now there was hurt mingled with her fury, which made him feel even worse.
"How could you, Doctor?" she said, her eyes brimming with tears. "And how can I trust you now? I mean, what other secrets do you have?"
He knew that he had to confess everything. "There’s something else. This isn’t the only time I’ve done this. And sometimes I… well sometimes I don’t just watch your dreams. Sometimes I’ve manipulated them too."
A tear spilled over onto her cheek. This was torture. Ordinarily when Donna was upset, he’d be hugging her tightly and trying to calm her down. But he clearly couldn’t do that now, so he was forced to watch her suffer, and all because of him.
"That was you, wasn’t it?" she asked, her lower lip trembling.
"What was?"
She glared at him, hating herself for turning a fetching shade of red. "You made me dream that we were naked!"
He nodded, ashamed. It didn’t seem at all funny now. That was the one time he’d truly overstepped the mark. Observing what was inside her head was bad enough, but that had been too far. Amusing, yes. But not fair.
"Why? Why did you think it was all right to violate my mind?" Her voice was just above a whisper now.
He looked down at the floor. "I never thought it was all right. But your dreams… they’re so… they’re so ordinary. So full of lovely things. Even the bad dreams; you’ve seen a fraction of the horrifying things that are out there." He paused. "I keep seeing them dying when I sleep, Donna." She knew he meant the Time Lords. "And it was all my fault. There was nothing I could do, but it was all my fault. Just tonight, they were pointing their charred fingers at me, accusing me. I couldn’t bear it. So I escaped to your mind. I haven’t done it often, but it was wrong and I’m sorry. The reason I did it… it doesn’t make it okay, I know, but I didn’t ever want to hurt you."
It was his eyes that were stinging with tears now, and Donna could tell he wasn’t pretending just to gain her sympathy. He never spoke about the Time Lords - this was the Doctor after all, and he didn’t tend to do emotions. It was hard for him to talk about it all, so even through her distress she could see that it took a lot for him to open up to her.
"Okay." She took a deep breath. "I don’t like it. But I forgive you. I don’t want you to do it again though."
He shook his head fervently. "No. I won’t, I promise."
She sighed. "I wish you’d have felt like you could talk to me about it. You don’t need to spy on my dreams in the dead of night. You can just wake me up, you know, and we’ll talk. It’s not like it matters if our sleeping hours get messed up; you have a time machine." He thought he saw her eyes momentarily roll upwards in mock exasperation, and knew that she was no longer annoyed.
"Now come here, you," she instructed, firmly.
He was surprised when Donna took hold of his hand and led him to her bed. She gestured for him to lie down, and then she lay down beside him. She was still disappointed in him, but she understood why he’d done it (well, except the dancing naked dreams. She’d be having stern words with him about that in the morning.) Right now, there was nothing to be done but to make sure his nightmares didn’t return, and if that involved putting her anger aside to be there for him, she was prepared to do it. She remembered how devastated she’d been when her dad had died. She couldn’t imagine how awful it must feel to lose your whole race.
"No more bad dreams, Spaceman."
She rubbed his shoulder soothingly until he fell asleep. And this time, his dreams were wonderful, because that was what Donna Noble was.