Fic: Given the Choice

[wendymr]

Fic: Given the Choice
Author: wmr wendymr
Characters: Donna Noble (Martha Jones, Tenth Doctor)
Rated: PG
Spoilers: The Sontaran Strategy/The Poison Sky
Disclaimer: Episodes are the property of Helen Raynor and the BBC. Words are mine
Summary: It’s his life or the future of the Earth. Right now, she’s not even sure which matters more.

With thanks to dark_aegis for

Comments

[honorh]

This is so perfectly Donna, and so perfectly Doctor through her eyes. Thing is, he can't do anything except be who he is, even when that's exactly what's driving him toward death. *Sigh* We'd love the big git less if he weren't so stupidly noble, though.

[wendymr]

Thank you :)) This is actually my first time writing anything from Donna's POV since S4 started, so it was a bit of a challenge - quite a relief to hear it worked!

And, yes, it's exactly what he is; it's what he did in POTW when he sent Rose home and stayed behind to die, as well. When it comes to it, he's all about the grand gesture that no-one, or almost no-one, gets to see.

[box_in_the_box]

What a sad, lovely look at her thoughts.

[wendymr]

Thank you very much :)

[larielromeniel]

I love stories that fill in the gaps, and this is so perfect.

[wendymr]

Thank you very much :) That's a heartwrenching scene, and I think it's very significant for Donna.

[butterflyborn]

Okay, now that I've gone through and read this twice. Once voraciously devouring a new ten/donna fic and thinking "hey, this is really awesome" and then the second time going back and realizing of course it was awesome, how did I miss who the author was the first time round? *sheepish grin* Your characterizations continue to ring true for me. I love how you pull lines from previous episodes back through her thoughts, helping to characterize how she sees the Doctor.

I think this was my favorite section, if I had to pick just one:
She was just beginning to learn, wasn’t she? That there’s more to her than that. That she can do things. She can help. She can even help a bloody ancient, skin-and-bone, genius Time Lord.Because it reminded me of the scene in The Poison Sky where the Doctor was talking her through what she would have to do and she remarked that she couldn't even mend a fuse to which he immediately demanded that she stop talking about herself like that. *happy sigh* And of course that was the whole "bloody ancient, skin-and

[wendymr]

Oh, thank you for this lovely comment! I absolutely love this scene - partly because it's heartwrenching (which I can bear, because he comes back!), but mostly for the look on Donna's face when she realises what he's up to, and the way she pleads with him to find another way. I think, while she and the Doctor have obviously been growing closer, this may be the first time she's been hit with quite how close they have become.

Yes, she has learned, and she's become far more than Lance (and probably a lot of other people too) have always told her she was. In a way, that bit in TPS where she's putting herself down seems out of kilter with her 'jump in and do it' attitude in other episodes, but perhaps that's because there she had time to think, whereas she's better where she can just go ahead and do.

And I love it that she slapped him when he came back. As another gorgeous post-ep fic, Tender Moments that Don't Last by cherryfeather, points out, that slap probably told the Doctor a lot about how much she cares about him.

Thank you!

[kae_nine]

Oh wow. You've captured that moment extremely well, and Donna is just so Donna. So many parts I loved:

He has to give them a choice, he said. Who gave him a choice? He could just walk away. Others would. Once, she would have. It’s what she thought he was doing in Pompeii, too, before she understood. Before she saw the hard choices he has to make every day of his life.

Such a good point. He gives the villains a choice, always, but he never really has a choice himself, does he?

He needed her. And now he’s gone and bloody gone off to die without her. He’s a stupid, thick, moronic git of an idiot and she bloody well hates him.

That's just absolutely perfect Donna. I'm printing off that para, framing it and putting it above my desk. ;)

Because he says he’s giving a choice, but he’s not. He’s deciding, taking the choice out of all their hands. Because he’s the Doctor, the last Time Lord, Mr Know-It-All, Mr Highest Authority I’m-In-Charge-and-do-as-I-say. Mr TARDIS, Time Lord, Yes.And this reminded me of a discussion I had recently on

[wendymr]

Thank you, Kae! Oh, I've missed your ability to pick out quotes and analyse meanings I might not even have noticed. I'm so glad you liked this! :)

And, yes, he's every bit as bad here as in POTW. He thinks he's saving them, making sure that they're not caught up in whatever he's about to do, but they see it as being pushed aside and treated as if they don't have a right to any kind of say in their own fate or that, as his friends, they don't have a right to care about him. But it's the way he is, and the way he'll always be.

Thank you again! :)