Doctor Who, Doctor / Donna, PG
Title: Even
Characters: Donna, Ten
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: These characters belong to their respective owners. No harm or profit is intended.
Author: blacktofade
Word Count: 2027
Summary: While saving the Doctor from certain death, Donna is seriously hurt.
Prompt 26. Donna is seriously hurt while saving the world (or someone's life, or the Doctor's life).
Warnings: Some gore
Author's Notes: This was written for the marriedonmars Donna Ficafest. This has not been BETAd, so feel free to correct and/or critique any part of this.
They had argued in the past, but nothing as bad as now.
In a fit of rage, Donna had stormed off, away from the Doctor. It hadn’t been one of her proudest moments and it had ended up getting her lost, in a forest of purple, on a planet that she couldn’t even pronounce the name of. She was beginning to cool down now, not only because of the rapidly decreasing air temperature, but also because she had had time to herself, without the Doctor's presence, even if he was almost non-existent because his lack of size. She was trying to find the Tardis again, but it seemed as though she had passed the same orange stream repeatedly. She followed her old footprints and as they turned left, she turned right. She stumbled over a rotten log and into a clearing, where she came upon the Doctor himself.
He was tied to a post, with his mouth-taped shut. Donna snickered quietly as she thought it was a suiting position for him to be in, she would have to remember to thank whoever did it to him.
“Oi, space boy! Want a hand?” she called out. She could see him try to nod, and as he did so, she began to clap.
He didn’t seem amused, but she knew, deep down, he appreciated the joke nonetheless.
The Doctor motioned for her to help him, his actions making him look like a fish out of water, but his point was still made. Donna stood still for a moment basking in the fact that she was his only way out; he would definitely owe her one when it was over. After a while, she strode forwards, a smirk on her face, and took pleasure in ripping the tape off from over the Doctor’s mouth.
“Ow!” he whispered harshly, rubbing at his lips as soon as his hands were free.
“What you whispering for?” Donna asked. The Doctor paused, staring at her, a look of utter puzzlement on his face.
“Do you think I just tied myself up for the fun of it?”
Donna bit her tongue and reminded herself that it was meant to be a rhetorical question. The Doctor continued,
“I was captured by creatures that were calling themselves the Gidaks. I’ve never actually come across them before, but apparently, the colour blue is illegal here. As soon as I stepped out of the Tardis to come looking for you, they grabbed me and I ended up here.”
Donna snorted,
“You forgot to mention the prince that rode in on the white pony to rescue the damsel in distress.”
The Doctor pointedly ignored her comment.
“We have to get out of here before they come back for me. They went to fetch their executioner, and as nice as he sounds, I’d rather not meet him, so come on!”
He grabbed her hand and they ran deeper into the forest, dodging low hanging branches and rather vicious looking rabbit burrows, which, Donna thought, probably weren’t occupied by rabbits anyway. A spiny plant that tangled itself in her hair, scratching across her cheek in the process, made them pause, taking up precious moments as the Doctor, previous arguments forgotten, helped carefully remove it for her. Once free, they set off running again. They knew they had almost reached the edge of the woods as it was beginning to get lighter as they grew nearer.
“This way!” Donna shouted, pulling on the Doctor’s hand, which was once again firmly enclosed in her own.
They darted between two large boulders and broke free from the purple mass of undergrowth and trees. It was at that exact moment that from behind them, a loud rumble began, and the ground beneath their feet started to shake.
Donna remembered seeing the same grassy hill, and as they reached the top, she caught sight of the Tardis, in all its blue glory. Just a few more feet and they would be able to escape from trouble, as usual, and head to another destination.
The ground was still shaking and Donna could now hear cries of outrage from the Gidaks behind them. She wanted to turn around the see what they looked like, but she thought that their safety might be a bit more important at the present time. The Doctor let go of her hand as he struggled to get the Tardis door open, and as it swung open at last, the Doctor gave a small cry of triumph. He jumped inside laughing and breathing heavily, as he jabbered on about narrow escapes and set new co-ordinates on the Tardis.
Donna was close behind him, but feeling worse for wear. Sure, she didn’t often run, but she thought it was a bit ridiculous that she was feeling light-headed. She turned to close the door behind them, yelling, “So long suckers,” as she did so.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she said, turning and grinning at the Doctor, but the Doctor was no longer laughing.
“Donna, I think you’d better come with me.”
The seriousness in his voice was enough to scare her half to death. She stumbled as the Tardis finally launched itself back into space and grabbed onto the Doctor for support. With a hand on her elbow, the Doctor manoeuvred Donna through the maze of rooms until they finally reached the medical station.
“Oh, did you want to clean up the cut on my face?” she asked, pointing vaguely towards the right side of her face.
“What’s wrong?” Donna asked confused as to why the Doctor was so solemn.
“That plant that scratched you is called the Spiny Caoilfhionn plant; it has thorns that are two inches long, it’s a brighter shade of purple than most other plants, and can be potentially deadly to humans. It also has a numbing agent in the poison, which is why it isn’t hurting. I should have noticed it before, but we were in a bit of a hurry.”
“What?” she yelled. “A bit of a hurry? Too much of a hurry to recognise something that might end up killing me?”
She brought a hand up to her cheek and paled as her fingers disappeared inside the cut that was getting wider and deeper as the seconds ticked by. There was no pain, as the Doctor had said, just an odd feeling of endlessness. She soon found it wasn’t as endless as she thought when her fingers met her teeth.
“I’m going to be sick,” she whispered as she passed out in a dead faint.
- - -
When Donna once again regained consciousness, she found herself settled in one of the hospital beds, as the Doctor rushed around the room holding, what Donna expected to be, different chemicals. She brought her hand up to her cheek, her morbid curiosity getting the best of her, and realised that her cheek had been bandaged up.
“Don’t fiddle,” the Doctor said, without even glancing in her direction.
“I wasn’t,” Donna replied sarcastically, but brought her hand down, away from her face.
“Since you’re awake, you can hold this,” he said as he thrust a test tube into one of her hands. It would have worked if Donna had been able to grip the glass container; but she couldn’t; instead, it slipped out of her hand, and fell onto the duvet, spilling its content in the process. She looked at her hand in despair.
“Doctor?” she asked, hoping he would have an answer for her. He stopped moving about the room and looked her in the eyes.
“I’ve been able to cauterise the cut, but I’m still working on an antitoxin. I’m not certain how long it takes for the poison to, er, kill, but paralysis of the extremities is the second stage.”
“How many stages are there?” Donna asked. The catch in her voice gave away her panic.
“Three.”
Donna nodded vacantly,
“You’re going to save me, right?”
For a moment, the Doctor paused, looking unsure, but then the whole of his face lit up as he smiled.
“Trust me, I’m a Doctor,” he said as he winked.
“All right, space boy. Back to work, I am dying, you know.”
The smile that rested lightly on her lips soften her words, though her eyes still held a hint of fear in them.
The Doctor paused and set a reassuring hand on her shoulder for a moment. Before Donna could even count to five, he was all ready back to running around the room, with beakers in his hands.
“If I can...yes...ah, but what if...no, surely not...what?”
Donna found the Doctor’s self-directed musings more amusing than mental and she couldn’t help but smile. She did trust him to save her, but she was just feeling so tired. She yawned, cringing as she waited for a pain that didn’t come. Just a short nap, she thought, and when she was awake again, he would surely have a cure for her.
She had just shut her eyes, when the Doctor started gently, but firmly, shaking her shoulder.
“Donna? Donna, come on, don’t go to sleep.”
She attempted to open her eyes again, but no matter how hard she tried, they wouldn’t budge.
“Doctor, I can’t open them!”
She could handle cuts and bruises, but not the loss of her sight. She felt a cool hand on her forehead before the Doctor pulled it away again.
“Donna, you’re going to have to trust me, okay? It’s almost ready, just stay with me.”
He grabbed her hand, and even though it seemed to be awkward for him, he kept them clasped as he continued mixing chemicals by her bedside.
She didn’t really notice it at first, but before long, the odd sensation that had formed in her chest, was too noticeable to ignore. It felt as though the Doctor was pressing down on her ribs, which was odd because one, both his hands were occupied, and two, she wasn’t being pressed deeper into the bed’s mattress. It was as if an invisible weight had settled itself on her.
She began to panic, when she found it took more work for her to draw in breath. If she were able to move her hand, she would squeeze the Doctor’s hand in alarm. She was unable to talk, just wheeze, in out, in out, at a rapidly increasing rate. Knots formed in her throat, like hands in a death-grip, and her head began to pound from the lack of oxygen. She knew her face must have been bright red, and it was strange that when she was drawing in her last breaths, all she could think about was the fact that her red face would clash with her ginger hair.
Not her family. Not her friends. Not the Doctor. Just two clashing shades.
She never caught the scared look that appeared on the Doctors face, as everything went silent. She couldn’t hear, she couldn’t see, she couldn’t breathe, and it was as she choked out a whispered goodbye, that she felt a small prick on her arm.
- - -
“-a, -nna, Donna? Can you hear me?”
Donna groaned in frustration as the loud noises invaded her ears. With one hand, she rubbed her eyes, before peering sleepily up at the Doctor, who was leant over her, squinting and close enough that their noses rubbed together. She paused, and suddenly realised that she could move, hear, see, and breathe, all at the same time.
“You did it,” she whispered.
“Course I did, I said I would, didn’t I?”
Donna wrapped her arms around his back, and drew the Doctor in for a hug. She didn’t have to say anything, she knew the Doctor all ready understood how grateful she was. It wasn’t just that he had saved her life; it was that he had kept his word, she knew, now more than ever, and that she could always trust the Doctor. Even with her life.
“We make a great team, you and I. You save my life, I save yours.”
“All right, space boy,” Donna said, a smile forming on her lips, “we’ll call it even.”
Characters: Donna, Ten
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: These characters belong to their respective owners. No harm or profit is intended.
Author: blacktofade
Word Count: 2027
Summary: While saving the Doctor from certain death, Donna is seriously hurt.
Prompt 26. Donna is seriously hurt while saving the world (or someone's life, or the Doctor's life).
Warnings: Some gore
Author's Notes: This was written for the marriedonmars Donna Ficafest. This has not been BETAd, so feel free to correct and/or critique any part of this.
They had argued in the past, but nothing as bad as now.
In a fit of rage, Donna had stormed off, away from the Doctor. It hadn’t been one of her proudest moments and it had ended up getting her lost, in a forest of purple, on a planet that she couldn’t even pronounce the name of. She was beginning to cool down now, not only because of the rapidly decreasing air temperature, but also because she had had time to herself, without the Doctor's presence, even if he was almost non-existent because his lack of size. She was trying to find the Tardis again, but it seemed as though she had passed the same orange stream repeatedly. She followed her old footprints and as they turned left, she turned right. She stumbled over a rotten log and into a clearing, where she came upon the Doctor himself.
He was tied to a post, with his mouth-taped shut. Donna snickered quietly as she thought it was a suiting position for him to be in, she would have to remember to thank whoever did it to him.
“Oi, space boy! Want a hand?” she called out. She could see him try to nod, and as he did so, she began to clap.
He didn’t seem amused, but she knew, deep down, he appreciated the joke nonetheless.
The Doctor motioned for her to help him, his actions making him look like a fish out of water, but his point was still made. Donna stood still for a moment basking in the fact that she was his only way out; he would definitely owe her one when it was over. After a while, she strode forwards, a smirk on her face, and took pleasure in ripping the tape off from over the Doctor’s mouth.
“Ow!” he whispered harshly, rubbing at his lips as soon as his hands were free.
“What you whispering for?” Donna asked. The Doctor paused, staring at her, a look of utter puzzlement on his face.
“Do you think I just tied myself up for the fun of it?”
Donna bit her tongue and reminded herself that it was meant to be a rhetorical question. The Doctor continued,
“I was captured by creatures that were calling themselves the Gidaks. I’ve never actually come across them before, but apparently, the colour blue is illegal here. As soon as I stepped out of the Tardis to come looking for you, they grabbed me and I ended up here.”
Donna snorted,
“You forgot to mention the prince that rode in on the white pony to rescue the damsel in distress.”
The Doctor pointedly ignored her comment.
“We have to get out of here before they come back for me. They went to fetch their executioner, and as nice as he sounds, I’d rather not meet him, so come on!”
He grabbed her hand and they ran deeper into the forest, dodging low hanging branches and rather vicious looking rabbit burrows, which, Donna thought, probably weren’t occupied by rabbits anyway. A spiny plant that tangled itself in her hair, scratching across her cheek in the process, made them pause, taking up precious moments as the Doctor, previous arguments forgotten, helped carefully remove it for her. Once free, they set off running again. They knew they had almost reached the edge of the woods as it was beginning to get lighter as they grew nearer.
“This way!” Donna shouted, pulling on the Doctor’s hand, which was once again firmly enclosed in her own.
They darted between two large boulders and broke free from the purple mass of undergrowth and trees. It was at that exact moment that from behind them, a loud rumble began, and the ground beneath their feet started to shake.
Donna remembered seeing the same grassy hill, and as they reached the top, she caught sight of the Tardis, in all its blue glory. Just a few more feet and they would be able to escape from trouble, as usual, and head to another destination.
The ground was still shaking and Donna could now hear cries of outrage from the Gidaks behind them. She wanted to turn around the see what they looked like, but she thought that their safety might be a bit more important at the present time. The Doctor let go of her hand as he struggled to get the Tardis door open, and as it swung open at last, the Doctor gave a small cry of triumph. He jumped inside laughing and breathing heavily, as he jabbered on about narrow escapes and set new co-ordinates on the Tardis.
Donna was close behind him, but feeling worse for wear. Sure, she didn’t often run, but she thought it was a bit ridiculous that she was feeling light-headed. She turned to close the door behind them, yelling, “So long suckers,” as she did so.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she said, turning and grinning at the Doctor, but the Doctor was no longer laughing.
“Donna, I think you’d better come with me.”
The seriousness in his voice was enough to scare her half to death. She stumbled as the Tardis finally launched itself back into space and grabbed onto the Doctor for support. With a hand on her elbow, the Doctor manoeuvred Donna through the maze of rooms until they finally reached the medical station.
“Oh, did you want to clean up the cut on my face?” she asked, pointing vaguely towards the right side of her face.
“What’s wrong?” Donna asked confused as to why the Doctor was so solemn.
“That plant that scratched you is called the Spiny Caoilfhionn plant; it has thorns that are two inches long, it’s a brighter shade of purple than most other plants, and can be potentially deadly to humans. It also has a numbing agent in the poison, which is why it isn’t hurting. I should have noticed it before, but we were in a bit of a hurry.”
“What?” she yelled. “A bit of a hurry? Too much of a hurry to recognise something that might end up killing me?”
She brought a hand up to her cheek and paled as her fingers disappeared inside the cut that was getting wider and deeper as the seconds ticked by. There was no pain, as the Doctor had said, just an odd feeling of endlessness. She soon found it wasn’t as endless as she thought when her fingers met her teeth.
“I’m going to be sick,” she whispered as she passed out in a dead faint.
- - -
When Donna once again regained consciousness, she found herself settled in one of the hospital beds, as the Doctor rushed around the room holding, what Donna expected to be, different chemicals. She brought her hand up to her cheek, her morbid curiosity getting the best of her, and realised that her cheek had been bandaged up.
“Don’t fiddle,” the Doctor said, without even glancing in her direction.
“I wasn’t,” Donna replied sarcastically, but brought her hand down, away from her face.
“Since you’re awake, you can hold this,” he said as he thrust a test tube into one of her hands. It would have worked if Donna had been able to grip the glass container; but she couldn’t; instead, it slipped out of her hand, and fell onto the duvet, spilling its content in the process. She looked at her hand in despair.
“Doctor?” she asked, hoping he would have an answer for her. He stopped moving about the room and looked her in the eyes.
“I’ve been able to cauterise the cut, but I’m still working on an antitoxin. I’m not certain how long it takes for the poison to, er, kill, but paralysis of the extremities is the second stage.”
“How many stages are there?” Donna asked. The catch in her voice gave away her panic.
“Three.”
Donna nodded vacantly,
“You’re going to save me, right?”
For a moment, the Doctor paused, looking unsure, but then the whole of his face lit up as he smiled.
“Trust me, I’m a Doctor,” he said as he winked.
“All right, space boy. Back to work, I am dying, you know.”
The smile that rested lightly on her lips soften her words, though her eyes still held a hint of fear in them.
The Doctor paused and set a reassuring hand on her shoulder for a moment. Before Donna could even count to five, he was all ready back to running around the room, with beakers in his hands.
“If I can...yes...ah, but what if...no, surely not...what?”
Donna found the Doctor’s self-directed musings more amusing than mental and she couldn’t help but smile. She did trust him to save her, but she was just feeling so tired. She yawned, cringing as she waited for a pain that didn’t come. Just a short nap, she thought, and when she was awake again, he would surely have a cure for her.
She had just shut her eyes, when the Doctor started gently, but firmly, shaking her shoulder.
“Donna? Donna, come on, don’t go to sleep.”
She attempted to open her eyes again, but no matter how hard she tried, they wouldn’t budge.
“Doctor, I can’t open them!”
She could handle cuts and bruises, but not the loss of her sight. She felt a cool hand on her forehead before the Doctor pulled it away again.
“Donna, you’re going to have to trust me, okay? It’s almost ready, just stay with me.”
He grabbed her hand, and even though it seemed to be awkward for him, he kept them clasped as he continued mixing chemicals by her bedside.
She didn’t really notice it at first, but before long, the odd sensation that had formed in her chest, was too noticeable to ignore. It felt as though the Doctor was pressing down on her ribs, which was odd because one, both his hands were occupied, and two, she wasn’t being pressed deeper into the bed’s mattress. It was as if an invisible weight had settled itself on her.
She began to panic, when she found it took more work for her to draw in breath. If she were able to move her hand, she would squeeze the Doctor’s hand in alarm. She was unable to talk, just wheeze, in out, in out, at a rapidly increasing rate. Knots formed in her throat, like hands in a death-grip, and her head began to pound from the lack of oxygen. She knew her face must have been bright red, and it was strange that when she was drawing in her last breaths, all she could think about was the fact that her red face would clash with her ginger hair.
Not her family. Not her friends. Not the Doctor. Just two clashing shades.
She never caught the scared look that appeared on the Doctors face, as everything went silent. She couldn’t hear, she couldn’t see, she couldn’t breathe, and it was as she choked out a whispered goodbye, that she felt a small prick on her arm.
- - -
“-a, -nna, Donna? Can you hear me?”
Donna groaned in frustration as the loud noises invaded her ears. With one hand, she rubbed her eyes, before peering sleepily up at the Doctor, who was leant over her, squinting and close enough that their noses rubbed together. She paused, and suddenly realised that she could move, hear, see, and breathe, all at the same time.
“You did it,” she whispered.
“Course I did, I said I would, didn’t I?”
Donna wrapped her arms around his back, and drew the Doctor in for a hug. She didn’t have to say anything, she knew the Doctor all ready understood how grateful she was. It wasn’t just that he had saved her life; it was that he had kept his word, she knew, now more than ever, and that she could always trust the Doctor. Even with her life.
“We make a great team, you and I. You save my life, I save yours.”
“All right, space boy,” Donna said, a smile forming on her lips, “we’ll call it even.”