FIC: Amalgamation (4/6)
Title: Amalgamation
Series: (none)
Rating: T for the first two parts (naughty comments among... other stuff), M for the fourth, and high T for the final two
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: The Meta-Crisis transforms Donna Noble in a way that only Caan could foresee. No one is prepared for what comes next.
Disclaimer: That this didn't happen proves I own nothing.
Dedication: tardis_mole. I was asking for ideas for another story's ending, and the third idea triggered this plot balrog. I doubt Moley will mind. ;D
Author's Note: Various medical issues coming to play. Along with psychological ones. Be prepared for a ride.
And as of Chapter Three, tardis_mole is the co-author. I got stuck, and my beta saved me. So much that I feel it's only right to give co-author credit from here on.
And my apologies to all of my readers for the delay. And a bigger one to gemmiel, whose birthday was the original impetus for posting. The end is written, so... keep your eyes open. :)
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3
Amalgamation
Started August 14, 2014
Finished June 16, 2015
/=/=/=/=/
CHAPTER FOUR: FAMILY TIME
Dinner with the Mott-Noble family was something the Doctor had never experienced before. Dinners with a companion's family was always off the table because of the implications associated with the invitation within Gallfreyan - and specifically Time Lord - traditions. It was why he had gone hungry when Jackie and Rose offered him Christmas dinner. Despite the food on the plate in front of him at the time.
Strictly speaking, he should have bought his own chips when Rose said she wanted them after their first proper adventure. He should have known that a girl who would flirt like she was fully developed and an adult would not take 'I have no money' for an answer.
But what did it matter when he was already bonded to someone in the family? Donna was now his wife, so he was expected to join them. After all, her family was now his forever, too.
And after Sylvia's retorts he actually liked the thought of her as his mother-in-law. At least he had someone who could get the Duplicate to behave. He did not want to have to grab Donna's body on odd occasions to force her Head-Mate to stop being a prat because they were in the same body.
But he was starting to feel off. He felt unusually warm and had to remove his jacket. He didn't feel so weird about it since Donna had finally removed her coat. It had felt very awkward during dinner, even while he learned more about Donna. Although some of the awkwardness was from having to talk about his own past.
His thoughts were interrupted by Sylvia putting pudding down in front of him. His eyes widened. “That's a large serving.”
Sylvia laughed. “And what size were the equivalent Gallifreyan treats? Thimble size?”
“Jelly!” the Duplicate cried in delight. “I love jelly with evaporated milk and ice cream, and trifle, and fruit, all in one bowl.”
Donna shook her head as she exerted control again, cringing. “Oi, just because something tastes good don't mean it was good for you. Or that the items taste good together. That sounds more like a pregnancy craving. Or like when I read the labels on the things I saw when I visited America. Give me packaged food on this side of the pond any day.”
The Doctor giggled. “She's right. I can't tell you how many times I tried one thing only to discover the real thing tasted nothing like it.”
He winced suddenly.
Wilfred looked up from his pudding. “You all right?”
Rubbing his neck, the Doctor grimaced. “Um... no. Just... nearly dying and the day... It's taken a lot out of me.”
Donna squirmed in her seat. “That's not the problem, Spaceman,” she muttered tightly.
Sylvia narrowed her eyes as she finally sat with her own bowl. “Then what is?”
A different tightness came out of Donna's mouth as her Head-Mate answered. “He didn't mention when he said my sister and he were married that Gallifreyan instincts have been suppressed since before he was born. The urges are coming back now that he has a bond-mate, and his body's not used to them. Neither's ours, 'cause there hasn't been anything able to trigger them. He wasn't expecting the symptoms. And I'll be honest, I'm not fond of them either.”
“Thank you, brother-in-law,” snapped the Doctor.
“Oi! Don't I get a name?”
“You should have one,” Wilfred agreed. “You are your own person, no matter if you can't be seen.”
“Thanks, Granddad,” he beamed.
Then Donna blinked and cleared her throat. “Okay, smarty-pants, let's suggest some names. What about Geoffrey, after Dad?”
Sylvia looked down to hide the tears that appeared in her eyes.
The Doctor interjected almost immediately. “If he's going to be named after someone it should be my late brother, Braxiatel. I wouldn't have escaped Gallifrey in the first place without his help, and I wouldn't have met you and this wouldn't have happened.”
“Braxiatel?” Donna was dubious and it radiated from her body. “How are you going to explain that name to anyone from Earth? His middle name, Irving, would fit in better.”
“So use both: Geoffrey Irving.”
A grimace passed Donna's face, one more suited to the Doctor's. And then came the explosion.
“Oi! You're not asking my opinion! You're just talking over me like I'm not even here, or like I'm a newborn who can't make a decision because he's not old enough to have a say. At this rate I'll never be allowed to decide anything for myself while Donna, being ginger, will get her way every time!”
“Son!” warned Sylvia. “No whining.”
Donna's body took on the petulant movements that she had always given the Doctor teases over. “Mom, I need to be able to make my own choices. I might not have a body, but why can't I have my own name?”
“Fine.” She held up a hand to keep anyone else from talking. “What name do you want?”
The lack of obvious Donna reaction told the others that she was holding back because she recognized her Head-Mates legitimate complaint and was giving way.
He thought a long moment before he beamed. “David. David Andrew.”
Donna chose that moment to come back. “Why? It means 'beloved wise', and given that you're part Spaceman is that really a good choice?”
He huffed. “I like the sound of it. Besides, it's a five letter D name, just like yours. And Andrew shortens to 'Andy' which is a shortened version of the nickname Jack gave me.”
The Doctor nearly choked on his spoonful of pudding. “Do I even want to know?”
“Give Jack some credit, you biased Gallifreyan!” snapped David. “It was a joke of his!”
Wilfred decided to interrupt. “Doctor, is it going to be possible to separate them? I mean, it isn't fair that he can't make his own way, and that is going to make things awkward as you said.”
The Doctor's face turned the brightest shade it ever had. He slowly put down his spoon, breathing carefully to not make his symptoms worse. “The trouble is that, so far, I can only think of using a genetically targeted teleport, but that needs a lot of luck. I have to be able to sedate them because the procedure is likely to be very painful and prolonged.”
“Why?” asked Sylvia. Her nursing background made this more fascinating than she was really comfortable with.
“Each organ and process needs to be programmed in and the final separation done simultaneously. The ideas I have will take at least 14 hours if I can make them work, and I run the risk of losing them both through blood loss or synaptic degradation. And I can't even risk beginning until I'm sure both Gallifreyan brains are fully formed and healed. Who knows how long that will take? I have to run every scan I can think of to map the blood vessels and the nerves, what is where, what blood supply it's being fed with, which bones go with which body.”
Donna frowned. “I thought you said we were one body.”
“Not exactly. It was a blend, with Human elements still there. It's all so compact that it looks like there's only one body from the outside.” He cut himself off on a hiss.
Donna stiffened an instant later, and exhaled sharply through her mouth. “Oh, this is shaming,” she whispered.
Sylvia and Wilfred looked at each other. Neither wanted to ask, but it seemed like one of them had to talk. Finally he caved in. “Those side effects you mentioned?”
“They're leaving it too long, especially him,” muttered David.
The Doctor put down the spoon, having just managed to inhale the pudding, and took a few breaths to find his voice. “There's no information on this. My hearts rate is elevated, my breathing is deeper than normal and my blood pressure is up. I feel, erm-” He glanced down at himself briefly, not that his trousers were looking any different. “Well, my body is hot and prickly and I'm trembling all over. But there's an area of my body that is pulsating, hot and constricted. I feel like I'm about to explode, in a non-regenerative sense.”
Sylvia and her daughter's face competed for the title of most flushed in that moment. The former cleared her throat as her dad looked resolutely into his own bowl. “It's called arousal, Doctor.”
He blinked. “What?”
Donna cleared her throat, the tone making it clear she was in charge. “It's like the state Jack's almost always in around you, only it's more of a compulsion than his instincts or desires could ever create.”
“In other words, they have to mate or they'll fall very ill,” grumbled David. “And I'm stuck being the third wheel in the head.”
The Doctor suddenly narrowed his eyes. “There are some things we could try,” he said, forcing the words from his throat.
Donna's eyes popped wide open.
/=/=/=/=/
As she watched the Doctor close the door behind them, Donna folded her arms. “What have you got in your pockets that might help? And help how?”
He undid his tie and loosened his collar, feeling sweat moistening the latter. “Until I've scanned you both enough I'm not sure what I could use. Pick the wrong item and I could lose you both to anaphylactic shock.”
Donna's body shuddered, cringing. “Okay, then,” she continued, undoing her belt because it suddenly felt constricting. Never mind that she was sweating enough that her shirt would have to go soon. “What do you have in mind?”
Loosening was not enough. He had to completely undo his shirt, revealing a thin sheen all over, but greater in the back and chest. “David, with your permission, I'd like to try coaxing your part of Donna's body into sleep.”
David snorted. “What? You have proved today that you don't understand everything and you're thinking that Time Lord mojo will work?!”
The Doctor blinked. “Time Lord mojo?!?!”
Donna giggled as she shed her jeans, wanting to keep the upper layers on as long as possible. “I thought it once, after the Ood Sphere. It stuck in my mind.”
Her husband groaned. “It is so much more than that, Donna!”
“Are you going to keep prattling on or are you going to actually help me not have to live through you two going at it?!” David snapped, pausing Donna's progress on her clothes.
The Doctor's gritted teeth became visible. “If you won't distract her we can get to it sooner. Once you're asleep I don't think I'll have much patience left.”
Donna's moan was a mixture of exasperation and something strangled. “Theta, you are aware I'm a virgin?”
“Um... Oh! Well, it makes some things make more sense.”
“What do you mean?”
As they spoke, each shed more clothing. They were each down to undergarments.
David flinched. “I think he means what Lance said. He figured out that you didn't let him too near you, and he'd wanted something for his efforts.”
Donna's cringe and curse were bigger. “Yeah, well, I wanted to wait. It should've been a clue that his pride was too wounded for a man supposedly in love.”
“I'll wash those thoughts away, Donna,” gasped the Doctor, freezing in the process of removing his underpants. Donna had ditched her bra, and was now only in her own briefs.
Donna blushed at the nearly naked sight before her, and then froze a second later, paling. “Oh god.”
“What?”
“Aside from when you mentioned the fully functioning parts thing I could forget about it. Now... I can't.”
“You're embarrassed?” The Doctor blinked, momentarily distracted enough from his earlier distraction to finish disrobing. “Donna, you're beautiful. I've always thought so.”
“Even if I don't look quite like what you might've fantasised about? And for once I'm not talking about my body overall.”
David huffed, but he held his retort to thinking this time. Donna, he's seen far more unusual things than someone who looks like a woman who happens to have a penis. And remember that one Star Trek movie where Martia said 'Not everyone keeps his genitals in the same place'?
Oh... Right. The memory of that stupid movie a friend made her see with them was finally comforting.
The Doctor could tell that a talk was happening, but he couldn't give them the time they might have otherwise needed. “Trust me, Donna: I'm making it one of my missions to help you see yourself as I see you. And since you gained my memories how come you don't see the ones about you?”
She blushed. “It's... hard to undo decades of negative talk.”
“I've got thousands of years on you.”
Donna smirked, hiding the internal snickering of her Head-Mate. “Only thousands?”
He closed his eyes, shaking his head with a tiny smile. “Okay, I walked into that one. My point stands. Please...?”
She knew why he couldn't finish the sentence. His hormones were kicking in even stronger, and hers surged in answer. Her flush turned darker as she hesitantly removed the final physical barrier between them, closing her eyes out of reflex.
The Doctor looked at what he knew was giving Donna pause, and he blinked. “Well, it looks like part of your body isn't affected by the hormones.”
“What?” David exclaimed as Donna's eyes popped wide open and they looked down. “Oh...”
The male portion of the anatomy on his and Donna's shared body was practically asleep. Apparently unmoved by the riot of pheromones wafting off the Doctor's body and unaffected by Donna's proximity. He had expected to be aroused by her pheromones, but she didn't affect him at all; a testament that his brain thought of her as a sibling and not a mate.
David sighed loudly, and with more than a hint of relief. “Well, I guess that increases the odds that we can be separated one day. Proves that some of the nerves aren't utterly entwined.”
The Doctor's twisted expression showed his own relief about that detail.
Donna shook her head as she re-established control. “Okay, that is weird. Good, but weird.” She cleared her throat. “So, um, how's this going to work, Spaceman?”
The Doctor reached for his jacket where he had left it on the hook on the back of the bedroom door, and took out his sonic screwdriver and a gene-targeted neuron amplifier. He buzzed it and twiddled with the settings alternating between one and the other for a minute while he explained what the small cube was and what it did.
“Looks like a tefillin,” Donna spoke. “Alice’s brother is a Rabbi,” she added by way of explanation.
The Doctor and David accepted that within comment. “Except this has a piece from the Dark Scrolls,” the Doctor told her. “And unlike the libel spoken of Jewish tradition and worship in Medieval Europe, the Dark Scrolls really are magic and extremely dangerous in the hands of the unwary,” he warned. “I am attempting to find the right variance and strength to put David to sleep but not enough to put both of you to sleep.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?” David squeaked.
“Yes, but it’s a delicate balance,” the Doctor assured him. “I don’t want you dead so shush a minute.” The hexagonal orifice on the box began to glow a deep red. “There we go. Donna, lie down for this. It might make you feel a bit woozy for a bit.”
Donna laid herself down on the bed and the doctor pressed the box to her forehead. At once, Donna flopped back, unconscious.
“Oh heck!” the Doctor blurted out and buzzed the box to a lower setting, closing the hexagonal portal and diminishing the power of the Scroll. “Donna?” he called, tapping her cheek to wake her?” “You all right?”
Her eyes opened. “That was weird. I felt like someone had shut the door on me.”
“David, are you asleep?”
There was no answer.
“Can you move all right, Donna?”
Donna moved everything she could think of. She had most of her body under her control, but there were large swathes without feeling. Not the numb of pins and needles, but numb all the same. And her lower limbs felt cold. She sighed. “Well, that's not as much control over my body as I wanted for my first time, but it'll have to do, won't it?”
By this time, the Doctor was utterly desperate to mate, but had no idea at all how to go about it.
“You'll need to guide me, Donna. I'm far more of an innocent than you. You at least know how things are supposed to work.”
She laughed soundlessly. “Hope it'll be enough. Ready?” She held out her hands.
He took them and let her lead him into lying on their sides, every movement that brought them closer together making his body tingle and feel even more alert. She smoothed a hand over his side and nodded for him to do the same. She swirled her fingertips over his chest and then waited for him to follow. It took very little to awaken a new sensation.
“You're vibrating.”
He looked at his hands. “Oh. I didn't know that could happen.”
“If you don't shut it, you'll be saying that a lot tonight and we might prematurely wake my twin.”
“Right. So what do I do?”
“Lean over me and kiss me, for starters.”
“Okay, I can do that.”
He moved closer until Donna rolled onto her back. He was slightly alarmed when she hugged him with her legs, but then he kissed her. And all was right with the world. For a second.
“Have you done? Man, that was wizard. A door, sort of, shut in front of my eyes and I fell... asleep...” David fell silent, staring back at the Doctor’s glazed expression mere millimetres from his nose. “Oh... Ok. Awkward.”
“Shut up!” the Doctor spoke calmly but strongly.
He buzzed the sonic over Donna’s conjoined cranium and David was unconscious.
“Sorry,” he said to Donna. “Love your brother, but that kind of interruption should only come from a small child who hasn’t yet gained the understanding of how ‘awkward’ awkward really is.”
Donna grinned. “Is he asleep?”
He glanced at the sonic in his right hand. “Yeah. He’s asleep. Now, where was I, before we were so rudely interrupted?”
Donna drew her hands sedately down his back and buttocks, causing him to draw in a huge breath. She watched his eyes drift to a close and heard the breath escape his lungs.
“Oh yes. I remember,” he panted.
He kissed her tentatively, expecting David to pop up at any second. But he didn’t. He followed her hands, touching her as she was touching him.
“Is this it?” he wondered, his entire body trembling.
“No,” she assured him. “We should join now, otherwise, we’ll both be exploding and nothing will be achieved. That bit goes in there.”
The Doctor looked where she was pointing and he looked up at her. “There’s a slight size disparity,” he commented.
“It’ll fit. Apparently it might hurt me a bit, but don’t worry. Once we get going that won’t last long.”
He looked again and lifted an eyebrow at her. “Erm, not to blow a trumpet, but... That won’t all fit in there, will it?”
Donna giggled prettily. “Trust me. It does.”
“Ok... here goes.” He held himself up on both hands and watched carefully as he lined himself up. Then he pressed forward to join them. His head snapped back, eyes closed and his mouth slack as he moaned a long drawn out breath.
Donna held on to him, eyes wide in shock. “Oh god... at long bloody last!”
He panted thickly and nodded. “You have no idea... ah-oh... I’m sinking.”
“I’ve got you.”
He breathed evenly for a long moment and smiled. “What now?”
“You have to move your hips back and forth, without falling out until all the tiny muscles inside you snap open and you climax.”
He thought about it for a moment. And then tried it, grunting at the exquisite sensations he was getting. “Oooooh, that feels...”
“It does, doesn’t it?” she agreed.
“How long does this take?”
“Why, you want to hurry it?”
“No, just wondering how long I should keep those tiny muscles clenched.”
“You’re that close?”
He nodded, moving over her steadily. “Been holding them shut for about an hour.”
“Better get me a bit more aroused, Space prawn,” Donna suggested. “Try playing with my breast with your mouth.”
His eyes widened. “With my what?”
“Especially the nipples. And keep moving while you do it.”
Multitasking had never been a problem before. But within seconds of his mouth touching her skin, David woke up.
“What the hell!” Donna’s brother shrieked. “Who’s touching my boob!!”
“God help me if I don’t throttle you myself!”!” Donna shrieked back.
In utter rage and frustration, the Doctor upped the portal another notch and David shrank back into sleep. Unfortunately, it had a knock on effect on Donna, she was half asleep, but so aroused now that she was awake by sheer will alone. The other affect was that the Doctor’s arousal dipped. Literally.
In frustration, he upped the pace to frenetic; almost rabbit speed. His body did the rest automatically, snapping everything open just as Donna’s body began to tighten.
“Oh...! Lost control,” he warned, his voice strained.
As Donna stared up at him, their bodies strained together at the point of release, he saw David’s eyes open and stare back at him. Donna screamed. The Doctor screamed. And so did David, the tefillin on his head now dark and silent. For a split second they froze before the Doctor sank, unconscious, on top of Donna.
“Sorry,” David murmured. “I got the wake up call, saying everything was finished... Donna...? Oh great.”
Chapter Five: Unexpected Time Out
Series: (none)
Rating: T for the first two parts (naughty comments among... other stuff), M for the fourth, and high T for the final two
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: The Meta-Crisis transforms Donna Noble in a way that only Caan could foresee. No one is prepared for what comes next.
Disclaimer: That this didn't happen proves I own nothing.
Dedication: tardis_mole. I was asking for ideas for another story's ending, and the third idea triggered this plot balrog. I doubt Moley will mind. ;D
Author's Note: Various medical issues coming to play. Along with psychological ones. Be prepared for a ride.
And as of Chapter Three, tardis_mole is the co-author. I got stuck, and my beta saved me. So much that I feel it's only right to give co-author credit from here on.
And my apologies to all of my readers for the delay. And a bigger one to gemmiel, whose birthday was the original impetus for posting. The end is written, so... keep your eyes open. :)
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3
Amalgamation
Started August 14, 2014
Finished June 16, 2015
/=/=/=/=/
CHAPTER FOUR: FAMILY TIME
Dinner with the Mott-Noble family was something the Doctor had never experienced before. Dinners with a companion's family was always off the table because of the implications associated with the invitation within Gallfreyan - and specifically Time Lord - traditions. It was why he had gone hungry when Jackie and Rose offered him Christmas dinner. Despite the food on the plate in front of him at the time.
Strictly speaking, he should have bought his own chips when Rose said she wanted them after their first proper adventure. He should have known that a girl who would flirt like she was fully developed and an adult would not take 'I have no money' for an answer.
But what did it matter when he was already bonded to someone in the family? Donna was now his wife, so he was expected to join them. After all, her family was now his forever, too.
And after Sylvia's retorts he actually liked the thought of her as his mother-in-law. At least he had someone who could get the Duplicate to behave. He did not want to have to grab Donna's body on odd occasions to force her Head-Mate to stop being a prat because they were in the same body.
But he was starting to feel off. He felt unusually warm and had to remove his jacket. He didn't feel so weird about it since Donna had finally removed her coat. It had felt very awkward during dinner, even while he learned more about Donna. Although some of the awkwardness was from having to talk about his own past.
His thoughts were interrupted by Sylvia putting pudding down in front of him. His eyes widened. “That's a large serving.”
Sylvia laughed. “And what size were the equivalent Gallifreyan treats? Thimble size?”
“Jelly!” the Duplicate cried in delight. “I love jelly with evaporated milk and ice cream, and trifle, and fruit, all in one bowl.”
Donna shook her head as she exerted control again, cringing. “Oi, just because something tastes good don't mean it was good for you. Or that the items taste good together. That sounds more like a pregnancy craving. Or like when I read the labels on the things I saw when I visited America. Give me packaged food on this side of the pond any day.”
The Doctor giggled. “She's right. I can't tell you how many times I tried one thing only to discover the real thing tasted nothing like it.”
He winced suddenly.
Wilfred looked up from his pudding. “You all right?”
Rubbing his neck, the Doctor grimaced. “Um... no. Just... nearly dying and the day... It's taken a lot out of me.”
Donna squirmed in her seat. “That's not the problem, Spaceman,” she muttered tightly.
Sylvia narrowed her eyes as she finally sat with her own bowl. “Then what is?”
A different tightness came out of Donna's mouth as her Head-Mate answered. “He didn't mention when he said my sister and he were married that Gallifreyan instincts have been suppressed since before he was born. The urges are coming back now that he has a bond-mate, and his body's not used to them. Neither's ours, 'cause there hasn't been anything able to trigger them. He wasn't expecting the symptoms. And I'll be honest, I'm not fond of them either.”
“Thank you, brother-in-law,” snapped the Doctor.
“Oi! Don't I get a name?”
“You should have one,” Wilfred agreed. “You are your own person, no matter if you can't be seen.”
“Thanks, Granddad,” he beamed.
Then Donna blinked and cleared her throat. “Okay, smarty-pants, let's suggest some names. What about Geoffrey, after Dad?”
Sylvia looked down to hide the tears that appeared in her eyes.
The Doctor interjected almost immediately. “If he's going to be named after someone it should be my late brother, Braxiatel. I wouldn't have escaped Gallifrey in the first place without his help, and I wouldn't have met you and this wouldn't have happened.”
“Braxiatel?” Donna was dubious and it radiated from her body. “How are you going to explain that name to anyone from Earth? His middle name, Irving, would fit in better.”
“So use both: Geoffrey Irving.”
A grimace passed Donna's face, one more suited to the Doctor's. And then came the explosion.
“Oi! You're not asking my opinion! You're just talking over me like I'm not even here, or like I'm a newborn who can't make a decision because he's not old enough to have a say. At this rate I'll never be allowed to decide anything for myself while Donna, being ginger, will get her way every time!”
“Son!” warned Sylvia. “No whining.”
Donna's body took on the petulant movements that she had always given the Doctor teases over. “Mom, I need to be able to make my own choices. I might not have a body, but why can't I have my own name?”
“Fine.” She held up a hand to keep anyone else from talking. “What name do you want?”
The lack of obvious Donna reaction told the others that she was holding back because she recognized her Head-Mates legitimate complaint and was giving way.
He thought a long moment before he beamed. “David. David Andrew.”
Donna chose that moment to come back. “Why? It means 'beloved wise', and given that you're part Spaceman is that really a good choice?”
He huffed. “I like the sound of it. Besides, it's a five letter D name, just like yours. And Andrew shortens to 'Andy' which is a shortened version of the nickname Jack gave me.”
The Doctor nearly choked on his spoonful of pudding. “Do I even want to know?”
“Give Jack some credit, you biased Gallifreyan!” snapped David. “It was a joke of his!”
Wilfred decided to interrupt. “Doctor, is it going to be possible to separate them? I mean, it isn't fair that he can't make his own way, and that is going to make things awkward as you said.”
The Doctor's face turned the brightest shade it ever had. He slowly put down his spoon, breathing carefully to not make his symptoms worse. “The trouble is that, so far, I can only think of using a genetically targeted teleport, but that needs a lot of luck. I have to be able to sedate them because the procedure is likely to be very painful and prolonged.”
“Why?” asked Sylvia. Her nursing background made this more fascinating than she was really comfortable with.
“Each organ and process needs to be programmed in and the final separation done simultaneously. The ideas I have will take at least 14 hours if I can make them work, and I run the risk of losing them both through blood loss or synaptic degradation. And I can't even risk beginning until I'm sure both Gallifreyan brains are fully formed and healed. Who knows how long that will take? I have to run every scan I can think of to map the blood vessels and the nerves, what is where, what blood supply it's being fed with, which bones go with which body.”
Donna frowned. “I thought you said we were one body.”
“Not exactly. It was a blend, with Human elements still there. It's all so compact that it looks like there's only one body from the outside.” He cut himself off on a hiss.
Donna stiffened an instant later, and exhaled sharply through her mouth. “Oh, this is shaming,” she whispered.
Sylvia and Wilfred looked at each other. Neither wanted to ask, but it seemed like one of them had to talk. Finally he caved in. “Those side effects you mentioned?”
“They're leaving it too long, especially him,” muttered David.
The Doctor put down the spoon, having just managed to inhale the pudding, and took a few breaths to find his voice. “There's no information on this. My hearts rate is elevated, my breathing is deeper than normal and my blood pressure is up. I feel, erm-” He glanced down at himself briefly, not that his trousers were looking any different. “Well, my body is hot and prickly and I'm trembling all over. But there's an area of my body that is pulsating, hot and constricted. I feel like I'm about to explode, in a non-regenerative sense.”
Sylvia and her daughter's face competed for the title of most flushed in that moment. The former cleared her throat as her dad looked resolutely into his own bowl. “It's called arousal, Doctor.”
He blinked. “What?”
Donna cleared her throat, the tone making it clear she was in charge. “It's like the state Jack's almost always in around you, only it's more of a compulsion than his instincts or desires could ever create.”
“In other words, they have to mate or they'll fall very ill,” grumbled David. “And I'm stuck being the third wheel in the head.”
The Doctor suddenly narrowed his eyes. “There are some things we could try,” he said, forcing the words from his throat.
Donna's eyes popped wide open.
/=/=/=/=/
As she watched the Doctor close the door behind them, Donna folded her arms. “What have you got in your pockets that might help? And help how?”
He undid his tie and loosened his collar, feeling sweat moistening the latter. “Until I've scanned you both enough I'm not sure what I could use. Pick the wrong item and I could lose you both to anaphylactic shock.”
Donna's body shuddered, cringing. “Okay, then,” she continued, undoing her belt because it suddenly felt constricting. Never mind that she was sweating enough that her shirt would have to go soon. “What do you have in mind?”
Loosening was not enough. He had to completely undo his shirt, revealing a thin sheen all over, but greater in the back and chest. “David, with your permission, I'd like to try coaxing your part of Donna's body into sleep.”
David snorted. “What? You have proved today that you don't understand everything and you're thinking that Time Lord mojo will work?!”
The Doctor blinked. “Time Lord mojo?!?!”
Donna giggled as she shed her jeans, wanting to keep the upper layers on as long as possible. “I thought it once, after the Ood Sphere. It stuck in my mind.”
Her husband groaned. “It is so much more than that, Donna!”
“Are you going to keep prattling on or are you going to actually help me not have to live through you two going at it?!” David snapped, pausing Donna's progress on her clothes.
The Doctor's gritted teeth became visible. “If you won't distract her we can get to it sooner. Once you're asleep I don't think I'll have much patience left.”
Donna's moan was a mixture of exasperation and something strangled. “Theta, you are aware I'm a virgin?”
“Um... Oh! Well, it makes some things make more sense.”
“What do you mean?”
As they spoke, each shed more clothing. They were each down to undergarments.
David flinched. “I think he means what Lance said. He figured out that you didn't let him too near you, and he'd wanted something for his efforts.”
Donna's cringe and curse were bigger. “Yeah, well, I wanted to wait. It should've been a clue that his pride was too wounded for a man supposedly in love.”
“I'll wash those thoughts away, Donna,” gasped the Doctor, freezing in the process of removing his underpants. Donna had ditched her bra, and was now only in her own briefs.
Donna blushed at the nearly naked sight before her, and then froze a second later, paling. “Oh god.”
“What?”
“Aside from when you mentioned the fully functioning parts thing I could forget about it. Now... I can't.”
“You're embarrassed?” The Doctor blinked, momentarily distracted enough from his earlier distraction to finish disrobing. “Donna, you're beautiful. I've always thought so.”
“Even if I don't look quite like what you might've fantasised about? And for once I'm not talking about my body overall.”
David huffed, but he held his retort to thinking this time. Donna, he's seen far more unusual things than someone who looks like a woman who happens to have a penis. And remember that one Star Trek movie where Martia said 'Not everyone keeps his genitals in the same place'?
Oh... Right. The memory of that stupid movie a friend made her see with them was finally comforting.
The Doctor could tell that a talk was happening, but he couldn't give them the time they might have otherwise needed. “Trust me, Donna: I'm making it one of my missions to help you see yourself as I see you. And since you gained my memories how come you don't see the ones about you?”
She blushed. “It's... hard to undo decades of negative talk.”
“I've got thousands of years on you.”
Donna smirked, hiding the internal snickering of her Head-Mate. “Only thousands?”
He closed his eyes, shaking his head with a tiny smile. “Okay, I walked into that one. My point stands. Please...?”
She knew why he couldn't finish the sentence. His hormones were kicking in even stronger, and hers surged in answer. Her flush turned darker as she hesitantly removed the final physical barrier between them, closing her eyes out of reflex.
The Doctor looked at what he knew was giving Donna pause, and he blinked. “Well, it looks like part of your body isn't affected by the hormones.”
“What?” David exclaimed as Donna's eyes popped wide open and they looked down. “Oh...”
The male portion of the anatomy on his and Donna's shared body was practically asleep. Apparently unmoved by the riot of pheromones wafting off the Doctor's body and unaffected by Donna's proximity. He had expected to be aroused by her pheromones, but she didn't affect him at all; a testament that his brain thought of her as a sibling and not a mate.
David sighed loudly, and with more than a hint of relief. “Well, I guess that increases the odds that we can be separated one day. Proves that some of the nerves aren't utterly entwined.”
The Doctor's twisted expression showed his own relief about that detail.
Donna shook her head as she re-established control. “Okay, that is weird. Good, but weird.” She cleared her throat. “So, um, how's this going to work, Spaceman?”
The Doctor reached for his jacket where he had left it on the hook on the back of the bedroom door, and took out his sonic screwdriver and a gene-targeted neuron amplifier. He buzzed it and twiddled with the settings alternating between one and the other for a minute while he explained what the small cube was and what it did.
“Looks like a tefillin,” Donna spoke. “Alice’s brother is a Rabbi,” she added by way of explanation.
The Doctor and David accepted that within comment. “Except this has a piece from the Dark Scrolls,” the Doctor told her. “And unlike the libel spoken of Jewish tradition and worship in Medieval Europe, the Dark Scrolls really are magic and extremely dangerous in the hands of the unwary,” he warned. “I am attempting to find the right variance and strength to put David to sleep but not enough to put both of you to sleep.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?” David squeaked.
“Yes, but it’s a delicate balance,” the Doctor assured him. “I don’t want you dead so shush a minute.” The hexagonal orifice on the box began to glow a deep red. “There we go. Donna, lie down for this. It might make you feel a bit woozy for a bit.”
Donna laid herself down on the bed and the doctor pressed the box to her forehead. At once, Donna flopped back, unconscious.
“Oh heck!” the Doctor blurted out and buzzed the box to a lower setting, closing the hexagonal portal and diminishing the power of the Scroll. “Donna?” he called, tapping her cheek to wake her?” “You all right?”
Her eyes opened. “That was weird. I felt like someone had shut the door on me.”
“David, are you asleep?”
There was no answer.
“Can you move all right, Donna?”
Donna moved everything she could think of. She had most of her body under her control, but there were large swathes without feeling. Not the numb of pins and needles, but numb all the same. And her lower limbs felt cold. She sighed. “Well, that's not as much control over my body as I wanted for my first time, but it'll have to do, won't it?”
By this time, the Doctor was utterly desperate to mate, but had no idea at all how to go about it.
“You'll need to guide me, Donna. I'm far more of an innocent than you. You at least know how things are supposed to work.”
She laughed soundlessly. “Hope it'll be enough. Ready?” She held out her hands.
He took them and let her lead him into lying on their sides, every movement that brought them closer together making his body tingle and feel even more alert. She smoothed a hand over his side and nodded for him to do the same. She swirled her fingertips over his chest and then waited for him to follow. It took very little to awaken a new sensation.
“You're vibrating.”
He looked at his hands. “Oh. I didn't know that could happen.”
“If you don't shut it, you'll be saying that a lot tonight and we might prematurely wake my twin.”
“Right. So what do I do?”
“Lean over me and kiss me, for starters.”
“Okay, I can do that.”
He moved closer until Donna rolled onto her back. He was slightly alarmed when she hugged him with her legs, but then he kissed her. And all was right with the world. For a second.
“Have you done? Man, that was wizard. A door, sort of, shut in front of my eyes and I fell... asleep...” David fell silent, staring back at the Doctor’s glazed expression mere millimetres from his nose. “Oh... Ok. Awkward.”
“Shut up!” the Doctor spoke calmly but strongly.
He buzzed the sonic over Donna’s conjoined cranium and David was unconscious.
“Sorry,” he said to Donna. “Love your brother, but that kind of interruption should only come from a small child who hasn’t yet gained the understanding of how ‘awkward’ awkward really is.”
Donna grinned. “Is he asleep?”
He glanced at the sonic in his right hand. “Yeah. He’s asleep. Now, where was I, before we were so rudely interrupted?”
Donna drew her hands sedately down his back and buttocks, causing him to draw in a huge breath. She watched his eyes drift to a close and heard the breath escape his lungs.
“Oh yes. I remember,” he panted.
He kissed her tentatively, expecting David to pop up at any second. But he didn’t. He followed her hands, touching her as she was touching him.
“Is this it?” he wondered, his entire body trembling.
“No,” she assured him. “We should join now, otherwise, we’ll both be exploding and nothing will be achieved. That bit goes in there.”
The Doctor looked where she was pointing and he looked up at her. “There’s a slight size disparity,” he commented.
“It’ll fit. Apparently it might hurt me a bit, but don’t worry. Once we get going that won’t last long.”
He looked again and lifted an eyebrow at her. “Erm, not to blow a trumpet, but... That won’t all fit in there, will it?”
Donna giggled prettily. “Trust me. It does.”
“Ok... here goes.” He held himself up on both hands and watched carefully as he lined himself up. Then he pressed forward to join them. His head snapped back, eyes closed and his mouth slack as he moaned a long drawn out breath.
Donna held on to him, eyes wide in shock. “Oh god... at long bloody last!”
He panted thickly and nodded. “You have no idea... ah-oh... I’m sinking.”
“I’ve got you.”
He breathed evenly for a long moment and smiled. “What now?”
“You have to move your hips back and forth, without falling out until all the tiny muscles inside you snap open and you climax.”
He thought about it for a moment. And then tried it, grunting at the exquisite sensations he was getting. “Oooooh, that feels...”
“It does, doesn’t it?” she agreed.
“How long does this take?”
“Why, you want to hurry it?”
“No, just wondering how long I should keep those tiny muscles clenched.”
“You’re that close?”
He nodded, moving over her steadily. “Been holding them shut for about an hour.”
“Better get me a bit more aroused, Space prawn,” Donna suggested. “Try playing with my breast with your mouth.”
His eyes widened. “With my what?”
“Especially the nipples. And keep moving while you do it.”
Multitasking had never been a problem before. But within seconds of his mouth touching her skin, David woke up.
“What the hell!” Donna’s brother shrieked. “Who’s touching my boob!!”
“God help me if I don’t throttle you myself!”!” Donna shrieked back.
In utter rage and frustration, the Doctor upped the portal another notch and David shrank back into sleep. Unfortunately, it had a knock on effect on Donna, she was half asleep, but so aroused now that she was awake by sheer will alone. The other affect was that the Doctor’s arousal dipped. Literally.
In frustration, he upped the pace to frenetic; almost rabbit speed. His body did the rest automatically, snapping everything open just as Donna’s body began to tighten.
“Oh...! Lost control,” he warned, his voice strained.
As Donna stared up at him, their bodies strained together at the point of release, he saw David’s eyes open and stare back at him. Donna screamed. The Doctor screamed. And so did David, the tefillin on his head now dark and silent. For a split second they froze before the Doctor sank, unconscious, on top of Donna.
“Sorry,” David murmured. “I got the wake up call, saying everything was finished... Donna...? Oh great.”
Chapter Five: Unexpected Time Out