Fic: Close Call (1/8)
Title: Close Call (1/8)
Author: shining_moment
Characters/Pairing: Doctor, Donna
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor is about to ask where the pain is but his question is cut short as he glimpses the blood seeping through her jacket, a steady and spreading patch of dark red that makes his breath catch in his throat.
Disclaimer: The Beeb has the power, not me.
A/N: My muse was again lurking in Starbucks. About time she started buying my coffee, if that's the only place I'm going to find her. It's her fault that this isn't Christmas fluff, I'm sorry. This fic features Injured!Donna and SlightlyFrantic!Ten.
And the rest... Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight
They run faster, their feet pounding harder against the pavement as bullets of some description fly past them, bouncing off the walls on either side of the narrow alleyway that they both know leads to the TARDIS. Donna falls behind, just slightly and just for a second, so he tightens his grip on her hand and almost drags her the final few steps.
The Doctor bolts through the doors, his hand still pulling Donna with him. He lets go as he charges towards the console to get them out of there and to safety as quickly as he possibly can. Only then does it start to register with him that she hasn’t said a word yet so he calls out to her,
“Another close one, Donna! There’s one more planet we should probably avoid for a while!”
When she still doesn’t respond, he turns to look over his shoulder and what he sees makes his blood run cold. Donna hasn’t made it any further than the slope just inside the doors and she’s on the floor, slumped uncomfortably against the rail. She looks up at him, smiling weakly, her eyes watery and full of fear and when she speaks, it’s barely more than a whisper,
“Bit too close this time, Spaceman.”
He crosses the room in what seems to be one huge step and kneels by her side,
“No, no! Donna, how did I not see that you’d been hit?”
“Not your fault. Too slow, me, never can keep up with you,” she tries again for a smile but doesn’t quite manage it this time.
“Hey, you can stop that. You do alright, especially since you switched to trainers.”
She does smile at that but it very quickly turns to a wince of pain. The Doctor is about to ask where the pain is but his question is cut short as he glimpses the blood seeping through her jacket, a steady and spreading patch of dark red that makes his breath catch in his throat. He forces a light and cheery tone out of his mouth,
“Right then, let’s get that coat off and see what we’re looking at here. I hope this wasn’t your favourite top Donna.”
As the Doctor’s hand reaches her jacket, Donna covers it with her own and forces him to meet her eyes, “You don’t have to do the cheerful thing with me. I’m no doctor but I know all this blood probably isn’t good. Not to mention it hurts like a bugger.”
“You’ll be ok Donna, you will. You’ll be fine. We’ve barely even made a start on that list of places I want to take you,” her silence worries him, “Are you hearing me?”
“Yeah,” she croaks, “And you promised me a quick visit with Brad Pitt in his Thelma and Louise days. If you think you’re getting out of that one…” her voice trails off and her eyes drift shut.
“Donna, open your eyes! Donna!” the Doctor is completely unable to disguise the sheer panic in his voice this time and he knows he needs to get her into the medical bay. He feels her hand on his cheek and immediately pulls his gaze up to her face, where he notices with huge relief that her eyes are open. He also notices with much less relief that they’re foggy rather than their usual clear blue and her pupils are worryingly dilated.
“Come on Doctor,” she pauses, “Do you really think if I die, I’ll just slip off quietly like that?”
There’s a ghost of a smile playing across her lips but it’s outweighed by how pale she looks, so much so that the light smattering of freckles across her nose stand out as though they’ve just been painted on. The Doctor strokes her face gently, partly because he just needs to touch her and partly because he wants to try and assess her temperature.
“You’re not going to die Donna. Not yet, not for a very long time and definitely not here, not today.”
He watches her eyes struggle to focus briefly before finally settling on his, “glad to hear it,” she takes a shaky breath, “Fix me up then, would you, so we can get back to that ‘1001 planets to see before you die’ list.”
The Doctor smiles at her, his brave Donna, “I need to get you into the medical bay and have a look at how bad this is. Then I need to call Martha because however bad it is you’re going to need more than I can do here, you need to be in a hospital.”
Donna nods, looking scared but relieved that he’s being straight with her, not trying to dress things up. If he had done, she would have been really worried, “You’ll come with me, won’t you? You won’t leave me?”
“I won’t leave you for a single second, I promise.”
“Steady on,” she takes another ragged breath and he frowns, “I don’t want to be having to get a restraining order.”
“Listen Noble, as much as I’d love to stay here and trade funnies with you, this grating isn’t easy on my old knees. So, do you think you can walk?”
“Oh I learned that little trick years ago.”
“Blimey, you’re going to be a treat once we get you on the morphine. Come on, hold onto me.”
The Doctor stands slowly and then reaches down to take Donna’s arm, positioning himself so she can lean on him with the side that isn’t hurt. She manages it for a few seconds before he feels her grip on him loosen and he scrambles to catch her before she crashes back down onto the grating. Her feet are on the floor whilst the rest of her body is suspended, held up by the Doctor. He glances down at her ashen face, his hearts thundering in his chest, the noise echoing in his ears like rushing water.
“Hold on Donna, hold on. That’s my girl.”
With a single swoop the Doctor lifts her into his arms and vows to tell her off as soon as she recovers for all the time she spends moaning about how she thinks she’s too heavy.
He makes it into the medical bay and places a still unconscious Donna down onto the bed. Watching her for a second he can see that her breathing is still fairly steady and, lifting her wrist, he can feel a pulse which is much faster and weaker than he’d like. He quickly flicks the switch to activate the ADT and sighs when a quick look reassures him that while things aren’t great, all of her vital signs are stable enough for now.
The Doctor pulls Donna’s jacket away from her good shoulder and then puts his arm behind her to support her head while he peels away the sleeve from her injured side. He hoped that the bleeding might have lessened so his hearts sink when he finds it still oozing from the wound he can now see is right below her left shoulder, too close to that heart of hers. He shakes his head, desperately aware that he has to keep a cool head because he absolutely can‘t lose her, no question. He reaches for a wad of towels on one of the shelves, placing one underneath Donna and pressing one over the top of the wound.
He keeps one hand pressing down hard on the towel, frantically trying to stem the bleeding, while his other hand desperately scrambles around in his pocket for the phone. He finds it and is about to punch Martha’s number into the keypad when, on the bed, Donna stirs and the Doctor almost drops the phone,
“Try not to move, Donna.”
She doesn’t speak but her eyes flutter slowly open and she moans faintly.
“I’m sorry, so sorry, I know you’re in pain and I know I’m not helping that but I need to get this bleeding stopped as soon as possible. Ok?”
Donna’s hand comes up to rest on his hand, the hand holding the towel, the hand now covered in her blood and she gives him what he knows would be a squeeze if she had more strength. A lump appears in his throat and he swallows it down but doesn’t take his eyes from her face until her blue eyes gradually slide shut again. Grabbing the phone, he dials Martha’s number, willing her to answer, and when she does, his legs almost give way from under him.
“Martha.”
“Doctor? What’s happened? What is it? Are you ok?”
“I’m fine. It’s Donna.”
“Donna? Doctor, what’s wrong?”
“We were so close Martha, practically within touching distance of the TARDIS and I was just ahead of her and I didn’t even know, didn’t know and I still had hold of her hand and I thought she was-”
“Doctor! What happened?”
“Shot, she’s been shot.”
“Oh my God. Is she-? I mean-”
“She’s here, she’s breathing, she has a pulse but she’s bleeding a lot, it hasn’t slowed at all and I think she’s in shock. It‘s her shoulder, just under her shoulder,” he stops briefly and she hears him take a shaky breath, “Martha, I’m scared. I can’t lose her, I just- I can’t.”
“You’re not going to lose her, do you hear me? We need to keep her around, she’s good for you, keeps you on your toes, you are not going to lose her. Now, can you get here?”
“Um, where’s here?”
“New York, actually. Long story, no time for that now. Just get yourselves to Bellevue Hospital.”
“Bellevue. Right, ok, yeah.”
“You can do this Doctor. You know what to do- stop the bleeding, keep an eye on her vitals, keep her warm especially if she‘s in shock. Oh, and don’t give her any pain relief unless it gets really bad, it’ll be easier when she gets here for us to treat her if we know hasn’t had anything else. I’ll be ready as soon as you get here.”
“Thank you.”
The Doctor disconnects the call and realises that he’s going to have to leave her in order to set the co-ordinates and get them to New York. He promised he wouldn’t leave her for a single second yet he has no choice if he’s to get her to hospital and he begs the TARDIS to keep her safe in here, just for a few minutes, please.
When he steps outside, he realises with a start that the medical bay has relocated to right beside the console room and, as he quickly sets the co-ordinates for Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan and races back , he pats the wall of the medical bay gently, thanking his precious ship for somehow knowing how important Donna is to him.
She hasn’t stirred and he returns to his original position, replacing the bloodied towels with clean ones so he can monitor the rate of the bleeding. He presses down hard over the wound again, suddenly acutely aware that his hand is almost directly above her heart and he finds himself lifting her hand and placing it briefly over one of his own hearts because at that very moment it feels like the right thing to do.
With the hand that isn’t on the wound, he reaches over and smoothes her hair from her face, frowning as he feels her cold, clammy skin and sees the uneven rise and fall of her chest. He pulls a blanket gently over her as he glances up at the monitors, noting anxiously that her blood pressure has dropped far too low, far too quickly and, without blood to replace what she’s lost, it’s not going to improve. He silently wills the TARDIS to get them to the hospital before he runs out of options and he takes Donna’s hand and closes his eyes.
When he opens them again, it’s not because she’s squeezing his hand or because they’ve arrived in New York, it’s because the alarm above his head is telling him her pulse has slowed to a dangerous rate, she’s lost too much blood for her pressure to stabilise and she’s not breathing.
Author: shining_moment
Characters/Pairing: Doctor, Donna
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor is about to ask where the pain is but his question is cut short as he glimpses the blood seeping through her jacket, a steady and spreading patch of dark red that makes his breath catch in his throat.
Disclaimer: The Beeb has the power, not me.
A/N: My muse was again lurking in Starbucks. About time she started buying my coffee, if that's the only place I'm going to find her. It's her fault that this isn't Christmas fluff, I'm sorry. This fic features Injured!Donna and SlightlyFrantic!Ten.
And the rest... Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight
They run faster, their feet pounding harder against the pavement as bullets of some description fly past them, bouncing off the walls on either side of the narrow alleyway that they both know leads to the TARDIS. Donna falls behind, just slightly and just for a second, so he tightens his grip on her hand and almost drags her the final few steps.
The Doctor bolts through the doors, his hand still pulling Donna with him. He lets go as he charges towards the console to get them out of there and to safety as quickly as he possibly can. Only then does it start to register with him that she hasn’t said a word yet so he calls out to her,
“Another close one, Donna! There’s one more planet we should probably avoid for a while!”
When she still doesn’t respond, he turns to look over his shoulder and what he sees makes his blood run cold. Donna hasn’t made it any further than the slope just inside the doors and she’s on the floor, slumped uncomfortably against the rail. She looks up at him, smiling weakly, her eyes watery and full of fear and when she speaks, it’s barely more than a whisper,
“Bit too close this time, Spaceman.”
He crosses the room in what seems to be one huge step and kneels by her side,
“No, no! Donna, how did I not see that you’d been hit?”
“Not your fault. Too slow, me, never can keep up with you,” she tries again for a smile but doesn’t quite manage it this time.
“Hey, you can stop that. You do alright, especially since you switched to trainers.”
She does smile at that but it very quickly turns to a wince of pain. The Doctor is about to ask where the pain is but his question is cut short as he glimpses the blood seeping through her jacket, a steady and spreading patch of dark red that makes his breath catch in his throat. He forces a light and cheery tone out of his mouth,
“Right then, let’s get that coat off and see what we’re looking at here. I hope this wasn’t your favourite top Donna.”
As the Doctor’s hand reaches her jacket, Donna covers it with her own and forces him to meet her eyes, “You don’t have to do the cheerful thing with me. I’m no doctor but I know all this blood probably isn’t good. Not to mention it hurts like a bugger.”
“You’ll be ok Donna, you will. You’ll be fine. We’ve barely even made a start on that list of places I want to take you,” her silence worries him, “Are you hearing me?”
“Yeah,” she croaks, “And you promised me a quick visit with Brad Pitt in his Thelma and Louise days. If you think you’re getting out of that one…” her voice trails off and her eyes drift shut.
“Donna, open your eyes! Donna!” the Doctor is completely unable to disguise the sheer panic in his voice this time and he knows he needs to get her into the medical bay. He feels her hand on his cheek and immediately pulls his gaze up to her face, where he notices with huge relief that her eyes are open. He also notices with much less relief that they’re foggy rather than their usual clear blue and her pupils are worryingly dilated.
“Come on Doctor,” she pauses, “Do you really think if I die, I’ll just slip off quietly like that?”
There’s a ghost of a smile playing across her lips but it’s outweighed by how pale she looks, so much so that the light smattering of freckles across her nose stand out as though they’ve just been painted on. The Doctor strokes her face gently, partly because he just needs to touch her and partly because he wants to try and assess her temperature.
“You’re not going to die Donna. Not yet, not for a very long time and definitely not here, not today.”
He watches her eyes struggle to focus briefly before finally settling on his, “glad to hear it,” she takes a shaky breath, “Fix me up then, would you, so we can get back to that ‘1001 planets to see before you die’ list.”
The Doctor smiles at her, his brave Donna, “I need to get you into the medical bay and have a look at how bad this is. Then I need to call Martha because however bad it is you’re going to need more than I can do here, you need to be in a hospital.”
Donna nods, looking scared but relieved that he’s being straight with her, not trying to dress things up. If he had done, she would have been really worried, “You’ll come with me, won’t you? You won’t leave me?”
“I won’t leave you for a single second, I promise.”
“Steady on,” she takes another ragged breath and he frowns, “I don’t want to be having to get a restraining order.”
“Listen Noble, as much as I’d love to stay here and trade funnies with you, this grating isn’t easy on my old knees. So, do you think you can walk?”
“Oh I learned that little trick years ago.”
“Blimey, you’re going to be a treat once we get you on the morphine. Come on, hold onto me.”
The Doctor stands slowly and then reaches down to take Donna’s arm, positioning himself so she can lean on him with the side that isn’t hurt. She manages it for a few seconds before he feels her grip on him loosen and he scrambles to catch her before she crashes back down onto the grating. Her feet are on the floor whilst the rest of her body is suspended, held up by the Doctor. He glances down at her ashen face, his hearts thundering in his chest, the noise echoing in his ears like rushing water.
“Hold on Donna, hold on. That’s my girl.”
With a single swoop the Doctor lifts her into his arms and vows to tell her off as soon as she recovers for all the time she spends moaning about how she thinks she’s too heavy.
He makes it into the medical bay and places a still unconscious Donna down onto the bed. Watching her for a second he can see that her breathing is still fairly steady and, lifting her wrist, he can feel a pulse which is much faster and weaker than he’d like. He quickly flicks the switch to activate the ADT and sighs when a quick look reassures him that while things aren’t great, all of her vital signs are stable enough for now.
The Doctor pulls Donna’s jacket away from her good shoulder and then puts his arm behind her to support her head while he peels away the sleeve from her injured side. He hoped that the bleeding might have lessened so his hearts sink when he finds it still oozing from the wound he can now see is right below her left shoulder, too close to that heart of hers. He shakes his head, desperately aware that he has to keep a cool head because he absolutely can‘t lose her, no question. He reaches for a wad of towels on one of the shelves, placing one underneath Donna and pressing one over the top of the wound.
He keeps one hand pressing down hard on the towel, frantically trying to stem the bleeding, while his other hand desperately scrambles around in his pocket for the phone. He finds it and is about to punch Martha’s number into the keypad when, on the bed, Donna stirs and the Doctor almost drops the phone,
“Try not to move, Donna.”
She doesn’t speak but her eyes flutter slowly open and she moans faintly.
“I’m sorry, so sorry, I know you’re in pain and I know I’m not helping that but I need to get this bleeding stopped as soon as possible. Ok?”
Donna’s hand comes up to rest on his hand, the hand holding the towel, the hand now covered in her blood and she gives him what he knows would be a squeeze if she had more strength. A lump appears in his throat and he swallows it down but doesn’t take his eyes from her face until her blue eyes gradually slide shut again. Grabbing the phone, he dials Martha’s number, willing her to answer, and when she does, his legs almost give way from under him.
“Martha.”
“Doctor? What’s happened? What is it? Are you ok?”
“I’m fine. It’s Donna.”
“Donna? Doctor, what’s wrong?”
“We were so close Martha, practically within touching distance of the TARDIS and I was just ahead of her and I didn’t even know, didn’t know and I still had hold of her hand and I thought she was-”
“Doctor! What happened?”
“Shot, she’s been shot.”
“Oh my God. Is she-? I mean-”
“She’s here, she’s breathing, she has a pulse but she’s bleeding a lot, it hasn’t slowed at all and I think she’s in shock. It‘s her shoulder, just under her shoulder,” he stops briefly and she hears him take a shaky breath, “Martha, I’m scared. I can’t lose her, I just- I can’t.”
“You’re not going to lose her, do you hear me? We need to keep her around, she’s good for you, keeps you on your toes, you are not going to lose her. Now, can you get here?”
“Um, where’s here?”
“New York, actually. Long story, no time for that now. Just get yourselves to Bellevue Hospital.”
“Bellevue. Right, ok, yeah.”
“You can do this Doctor. You know what to do- stop the bleeding, keep an eye on her vitals, keep her warm especially if she‘s in shock. Oh, and don’t give her any pain relief unless it gets really bad, it’ll be easier when she gets here for us to treat her if we know hasn’t had anything else. I’ll be ready as soon as you get here.”
“Thank you.”
The Doctor disconnects the call and realises that he’s going to have to leave her in order to set the co-ordinates and get them to New York. He promised he wouldn’t leave her for a single second yet he has no choice if he’s to get her to hospital and he begs the TARDIS to keep her safe in here, just for a few minutes, please.
When he steps outside, he realises with a start that the medical bay has relocated to right beside the console room and, as he quickly sets the co-ordinates for Bellevue Hospital, Manhattan and races back , he pats the wall of the medical bay gently, thanking his precious ship for somehow knowing how important Donna is to him.
She hasn’t stirred and he returns to his original position, replacing the bloodied towels with clean ones so he can monitor the rate of the bleeding. He presses down hard over the wound again, suddenly acutely aware that his hand is almost directly above her heart and he finds himself lifting her hand and placing it briefly over one of his own hearts because at that very moment it feels like the right thing to do.
With the hand that isn’t on the wound, he reaches over and smoothes her hair from her face, frowning as he feels her cold, clammy skin and sees the uneven rise and fall of her chest. He pulls a blanket gently over her as he glances up at the monitors, noting anxiously that her blood pressure has dropped far too low, far too quickly and, without blood to replace what she’s lost, it’s not going to improve. He silently wills the TARDIS to get them to the hospital before he runs out of options and he takes Donna’s hand and closes his eyes.
When he opens them again, it’s not because she’s squeezing his hand or because they’ve arrived in New York, it’s because the alarm above his head is telling him her pulse has slowed to a dangerous rate, she’s lost too much blood for her pressure to stabilise and she’s not breathing.