DW Fic: Moment of Silence
Took a break from stats and mapping to write up a story that's been rolling around my head since this ep re-aired on BBC America. Hope you enjoy! Off to go dig toad traps tomorrow. The life of a wildlife ecologist is ever so glamorous. :)
Moment of Silence
Setting: Forest of the Dead
Rating: G-PG
Characters: Donna, Doctor, Lux, River (sort of)
Spoilers: Through Forest of the Dead
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Someone has to find and free the Doctor.
The sense of being pulled by a strong current finally stopped and the blinding white light faded and resolved into the familiar walls of the TARDIS’s main room. Donna gasped, looking around in confusion. No Doctor. The controls were quiet and still. Then who…?
“Doctor?” she called, just in case.
She walked to the door and leaned out. The room was empty. Closing the door behind her, she walked out into the room, remembering belatedly to avoid stepping on any shadows. God, that felt like so long ago.
She heard voices and the sound of many people moving around ahead and jogged to the nearest balcony that overlooked the Library. Below, the world was alive with the confusion of thousands of restored people.
And not one of them she could see was Lee, nor the victorious form of the Doctor.
“Donna!”
She turned to see one of the archaeology team members running toward her. It was the pompous one, what’s-his-name, whose family supposedly owned this place. Well, she had some words for them about how they were maintaining their property.
But all of those words dried up when he embraced her in a quick hug, a relieved smile upon his face.
“He saved you, too! Or un-saved you, or-whatever! You’re back!”
“Yeah, I’m back.” She gently disentangled herself from him. “But…how?”
“The computer core of the planet saved you. It saved everyone, liter-”
She cut him off. “I know, I know. Miss Evangelista explained it to me.”
“Miss Evangelista?” This drew him up short, a surprised, somewhat touched look on his face. “She was in there? CAL saved her? My god.”
“Look,” Donna said, trying to draw him back into the moment, “where is the Doctor?”
“Down in the core. He used his own memory to get everyone out. Anita and Professor Song are with him.” His face fell a bit. “I hope he’s alright.”
Fear cut through the numb haze inside Donna. “What do you mean?”
“Professor Song said that doing this was dangerous, but he said he could handle it.”
She was already starting to walk away. “Take me there!”
***
As soon as the lift reached the core, Donna could smell the horrible scent of burnt hair and flesh. She felt numb again as she ran forward, anger swelling in her head.
Don’t you dare. You already took my husband and children from me today. You’re not getting him too.
She found a skeleton in a spacesuit in the doorway, but couldn’t pause long to check if it was Anita or River. All it did was add the image of a skeleton in a pinstripe suit to her fears of what lay ahead.
Then she saw him, leaned against a pillar, his back to her, motionless.
“Doctor?” she called.
He didn’t look back, but as she slowed to a halt behind him, she saw the body in the chair, and she understood.
She approached slower now, coming around his legs to crouch beside him. “Doctor?”
He finally tore his gaze away from River’s body, eyes raw, and saw her at last. “Donna.”
He struggled awkwardly to his knees and wrapped her in a hug with his free arm. She saw then the other was handcuffed to the pillar. Even so, he held her tightly, and she let him just cling for a moment, positioned between him and the chair.
Finally, he pulled back, looking her in the eye. “Are you alright? Did it work?”
She nodded. “It worked. Everybody’s back. The Library’s full again.”
The Doctor nodded, a bit dully. “Good. She did it.” He rubbed his eyes and looked at the handcuff on his other wrist. “Can you get me out of this?”
“Sure.” She followed his pointed finger to the small pile of belongings just out of his reach. For a brief moment, Donna felt a bit of anger toward River. To chain him up where he couldn’t help but watch her die in his place? She felt guilty thinking so of the dead, but still.
“I can’t find any keys.”
“The screwdriver’s fine. Just give it.”
She passed it over to him and watched him sonic the lock. She wanted to ask if he was alright, but it was a stupid question right now. Instead she waited while he massaged his chafed wrist and helped him to his feet.
He walked past her to the chair and just stood for a moment, looking at River, before he gently began unhooking the various cables and devices from her body. It was one of those moments that knocked the breath out of her a bit, when she felt she could actually see him as the old man he claimed to be, burdened by so many people lost along the way.
But there was something more. Something had changed since she had disappeared. She watched the way he moved River’s body to the ground and arranged her arms and hair into a respectful position and was reminded of seeing her mother in the hospital the night her father passed away, how she’d closed his eyes so he would look more at rest. It seemed like he was losing more than someone he had known for less than a day.
A fist closed around her heart. Lee. The children. According to the other member of the expedition, Lux, she’d only been gone a matter of hours, as part of her had suspected, but it felt like years of her life had been stolen. She glanced back toward the lift, heart racing at the thought that he might be up there somewhere in those crowds, looking for her.
The Doctor noticed her movement and misinterpreted it. “That’s Anita, by the door. We’ll have to find the others now that the Vashta Nerada have left them.”
Donna looked back. “They’re not still in here, are they?” Because she really didn’t have the patience to put up with carnivorous shadows at the moment.
“They’ve agreed not to harm anyone for a day so we can evacuate properly.”
“They’ve agreed?” Donna repeated derisively.
“It’s their world, Donna. Their home was destroyed to make these books. Best deal I could get was one day. I don’t feel like fighting for more.”
She had to agree. Let them have their dead world. She wanted to be far away, under a lot of bright sun.
The Doctor settled into a sitting position beside River and Donna knew he would be there a while. Her heart went out to him. It had only been a few weeks since he’d done the same thing for poor Jenny. Another person taken from him before he ever got to know them. Well, from the sound of it, he would have years ahead to see River again, but their friendship would now be forever colored by this day. She supposed, long as his lifetime was, he always expected to outlive his companions, but she doubted he usually knew how their time would end before it even began.
She shivered remembering the way River had looked at her upon hearing her name. Whatever future lay ahead for the two of them, Donna was not part of it.
And, she supposed, she wasn’t part of this moment either.
She drew a breath, her voice breaking the silence. “I should go tell Lux about that deadline so he can start transporting people somewhere.”
The Doctor looked up at her, his expression torn between gratitude for her understanding and a clear hesitation at being left alone.
“And then,” she continued, “I’m coming back down here with help to get River and Anita out of here.”
“Thank you.” He looked down at River again. “I was supposed to do it,” he said. “I could probably have regenerated in time, or thought of something. But if I couldn’t…” He looked up and caught her eyes. “She stopped me.”
Donna’s own words from when they first parted ways thundered back to her from across the years. “Yeah. Well, now I’m stopping you blaming yourself. She wouldn’t want that and neither do I. I’ll be back soon, alright? I need to see if someone else made it.”
The Doctor blinked and she got the impression he was really seeing her for the first time since she’d arrived. “Donna, are you alright? What happened in there?”
She gave him a bitter smile. “I’ll tell you about it when I get back.”
She walked back to the lift, pausing briefly to look at Anita’s body. She didn’t remember the woman in particular; just another face in the expedition who hadn’t been very nice to Miss Evangelista, but she deserved a better fate than this. It was a day of things not being fair.
Donna hurried on, scanning the crowds for a familiar face as she tried to track down Lux. Even if it had only been a few hours, as far as her heart was concerned she’d had a marriage with Lee, and if there was even a chance he was real, she’d find him again.
But she had to get back to the Doctor soon, too. She didn’t want to leave him alone with the dead for too long. Because as much as he needed someone with him to stop him, she suspected he could use someone to keep him going, too.