Sep 22, 2008 22:13
He stirs in bed, and then, suddenly, he's awake, everything searing his neural pathways, and he knows it's too late. He shouldn't have let Donna leave, not with Martha. The danger of triggering the cascade was too great - but he wanted her to be able to go out and have a good time without him looming over her shoulder. Now it seems it'll be his undoing.
He fumbles for the bond, thin and tenuous at this distance, but still capable of scorching his mind when he touches it. "Donna," he says mentally, his voice urgent. "Donna!" He's not sure if redirecting her thoughts will work anymore, which means it's time for one of his stopgap solutions. He takes more of the liquid fire into his mind, encouraging it to come to him instead as he works on subtly changing the neural pathways in Donna's brain. It feels like there's a star going supernova in his head, and he's wrestling with all the power it gives off. Stupid Doctor, he thinks. He's only a human. A Time Lord might be able to do it, but he's only a pretender - practically a Shobogan.
"Donna," he tries again, though he's not sure if the light is swallowing up his words. "Remember last time? Think of something else." He can't spare a thought to come up with a topic to divert her mind. "Come on, Donna. Squares of two. Two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two," he encourages her.
with: alwaysbrilliant,
rp