Fic: Close Call (8/8)

Title: Close Call (8/8)
Author: shining_moment
Characters/Pairing: Doctor, Donna
Rating: G
Word Count (total fic, 8 parts): 15,605
Summary: The second thing she notices is how quiet it is and for a moment she wonders if he’s landed them on some bizarre as yet undiscovered planet where anything could be about to rear up from the sand.
Disclaimer: I do not own the lovely Donna and the Doctor.
Author's Notes: Little nod to lounge_lily within :)

Previous chapters- One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven


Stepping out of the hospital entrance, his arm still linked with hers, the Doctor turns to Donna and grins,

“Look at that sky, perfect blue, not a cloud in sight and here we are in New York, shopping capital of the world- or so you human females tell me.”

Donna smiles back at him, “You better believe it! If there’s one thing us human females know about, it’s shopping.”

“So the shoulder feels ok?”

She hesitates for just a second before smiling again, “Yeah it does, feels good to have both arms back again.”

“All the better to smack me with?”

“Of course,” she squeezes his arm playfully, “There’s something else I was thinking of that I can do properly with two arms that I couldn’t do with one.”

The Doctor’s face lights up and he beams at her, “Ooh, you’ll be able to make your lovely roast dinners again!”

“Not that, you muppet,” she sighs at him but not unkindly.

She shakes her head at him but says nothing else, just steps forward and puts her arms around his neck, hugging him properly for the first time in weeks and smiling as she rests her head comfortably on his shoulder,

“Call that a hug, Spaceman? Not going to break, remember?”

“Better?” he asks as he tightens his arms around her and manages what he hopes is a discreet sniff of her hair.

“Much. I was worried you’d lost your touch there for a minute.”

“Never,” he pauses briefly, “As happy as I would be to do this all day, I’m guessing you’d quite like to do some shopping before we head off for that relaxation I promised you?”

“You’d be guessing right,” she replies with a smile but she doesn’t move, doesn’t pull away from their hug, “A minute more of this can’t hurt though, can it?”

“Oh definitely not.”

#

Three hours later when they’re heading back to the TARDIS and he can barely move under the weight of Donna’s shopping, he wishes for a moment that they had just spent the day hugging. Then he sees how happy she is, how her cheeks are flushed a faint pink as their matching Converse pound the streets of Manhattan in an apparent attempt to buy everything in sight. She once told him that September was her favourite month- not usually too hot or too cold but capable of both and sometimes in the same day, the trees teetering on the brink of losing their leaves but trying their hardest to hold onto them for just a little while longer. She’d made him laugh comparing them to balding men trying to hang onto their last remaining hairs before the inevitable day comes when they have to admit defeat.

In one of his occasionally poetic moments- soppy, Donna calls them but he begs to differ- he thinks it fitting that she chose September as her favourite month since she could be the poster girl for autumn with her cream skin, those blue eyes and hair the same shade as the leaves just before they make their final leap for winter. He knows she’s caught him daydreaming when she elbows him and he almost drops the shopping,

“Penny for them?”

“Hmm? Oh sorry, miles away. You were saying?”

“I just said I could murder a cup of tea and you could probably do with a sit down too. It’d be a shame for me to recover from being shot only for you to die under the weight of my shopping.”

“Yeah, then who would you get to carry it the rest of the way?”

“Exactly,” she grins and squeezes his arm, “Come on then, let’s get back and get the kettle on. There’s chocolate in one of these bags too if you can manage not to keel over before we get there.”

The thought of tea and chocolate spurs him on and they make it back to the TARDIS intact, shopping included. The Doctor puts the shopping on Donna’s bed before heading into the kitchen under orders to put the kettle on and she’ll be right there. He’s aware that Donna’s idea of ‘right there’ varies, especially when there’s shopping to distract her but even by her standards, when she isn’t in the kitchen by the time he’s made tea and poured it for both of them, he starts to wonder where she might have got to. He tries not to slip into worry mode because he knows she’s fine, healing just like she should be and that he isn’t going to lose her every time he leaves her alone for five minutes but he still finds himself wandering down the hallway in the direction of her bedroom. Just to let her know her tea’s ready, of course.

When he reaches her door, it’s open enough for him to see that she’s standing in front of the mirror and she doesn’t look happy. Even though the door is open, he knocks softly, “Donna?”

She looks up at him, a sad, slightly disappointed look on her face, “Sorry, I was just on my way.”

The Doctor steps inside the door and walks over to her, resting a hand on her shoulder, her good shoulder, “You ok?”

She doesn’t answer him straight away, instead pulling her top away from her bad shoulder before turning to him, “It’s awful isn’t it?”

“What’s awful?”

She nods her head down in the direction of where she was shot, “I know I should just be happy to be alive and you know I am but still, it does look awful, doesn’t it?”

“Donna, I’m completely the wrong person to ask.”

“No, you’re exactly the right person because you won’t lie to me, you never can,” she pauses, embarrassed now to be making such a fuss, “Forget it, I’m being silly, doesn’t matter anyway, not really.”

She wishes that were true, because it shouldn’t matter, it really shouldn’t, it’s not like she’s a Bond girl and her bikini wearing days have just been ruined or anything. Still, here she is, focusing on an ugly scar rather than the fact she almost died, actually did die- twice, the first time in the Doctor’s arms yet she’s daring to worry him with her stupid moment of vanity when she should be grateful to just be alive.

Annoyed with herself, she starts to pull the top back up over her shoulder but the Doctor’s hand stops her, pulling her own hand away firmly but kindly and smiling at her, slightly sadly, “You’re not being silly, of course you’re not but when I see this,” he runs his thumb gently over the scar and the tenderness in his eyes brings an unexpected lump to her throat, “I don’t see a scar, I just see how brave you were, how strong, so expecting me to say it looks awful when I can’t see past how wonderful it is that you’re still here is exactly why I’m the wrong person to ask.”

Donna is horrified to find herself crying suddenly and she wipes her eyes angrily, “I’m sorry, I don’t know why the hell I’m crying-“

She doesn’t get chance to finish because she finds herself wrapped in his arms, tight enough that he’s obviously decided she won’t break after all just as she has started to fear that she might, and she’s thoroughly ashamed to feel herself having to fight back huge sobs. The Doctor doesn’t say a word though, just holds her, his head resting on the top of hers, his arms rubbing her back gently until he feels her calming down, hears her sobs turn to small sniffles. She doesn’t pull away and he hears her laugh, muffled against his chest, before she speaks,

“Typical, I tell you off for treating me like I’m about to fall apart and that’s exactly what I go and do.”

“After being shot, almost dying and having to spend weeks watching me attempt to get to grips with unhooking your bra, I don’t think a few tears are unreasonable.”

She pulls back to look at him, smiling despite her tears, “Oh, I think you got the hang of that one fairly quickly actually.”

He grins at her as he pushes her hair back over her shoulders, “You alright?”

“Apart from being a big emotional fool, you mean?”

“Well yeah, apart from that, of course.”

“Then yeah, I’m fine,” she smiles again, “Thanks.”

“Good. I’ll go and make us some fresh tea-“

“Hold on,” she stops him, wriggling out of his arms and turning back to the pile of bags on her bed, “I got something for you.”

The Doctor looks at her, slightly suspiciously, “When did you-“

“Don’t look at me like that, gadget boy. You were in that flippin’ shop for ages looking at whatever boy toy it was you were looking at, didn’t even notice I’d gone, did you?”

“Well, I-“

“I’m not having a dig about you running off on me, don’t start flapping. It gave me a good chance to sneak out long enough to get this anyway,” she hands him a small bag, smiling slightly expectantly.

He pulls out a cream t-shirt adorned with a brown ‘Trust me, I’m a Doctor’ logo and a slow grin spreads across his face as he holds it up against his chest. Donna smiles back and shrugs a little, “Well, you know…you are and I do so when I saw it I couldn’t resist. Plus, it’s an improvement on the one you snagged in the hospital.”

“It is, it’s brilliant, I love it.”

They grin at each other for a few seconds before Donna grabs his hand, “Come on, I think I remember you promising me tea before we head off to wherever it is we’re heading.”

#

Donna steps out of the TARDIS first with the Doctor following right behind. The first thing she notices is how warm it is, how the sun hits her face- well, the tiny part of her face that isn’t covered by the huge hat she pulled from her hatbox in preparation for the somewhere warm and sunny he promised her.

The second thing she notices is how quiet it is and for a moment she wonders if he’s landed them on some bizarre as yet undiscovered planet where anything could be about to rear up from the sand. Then she remembers he promised her, absolutely vowed that it was somewhere on earth, somewhere warm and somewhere she could definitely swim, rest and relax. So she turns to him, peering up from under the huge brim of her hat, “Well then, do I get to know now where we are?”

The Doctor grins at her, his freckles standing out so clearly as the bright sun hits his face that she almost tells him to put some sunblock on before she realises that he’s a Time Lord so probably has inbuilt sunblock or some bizarre ability to deflect the sun’s rays so she says nothing. She’s aware that she’s drifted off briefly and that he still hasn’t answered her question about where they are so she taps his arm lightly, “Well?”

He still doesn’t answer but he does start to walk around towards the back of the TARDIS and she can only assume he wants her to follow and when she does that’s when she sees them, the pyramids, shimmering in the hazy sunshine and she gasps, “Oh, Egypt, you brought me back to Egypt.”

“I know you’ve been here before but I know you were disappointed, that it wasn’t what you wanted it to be. This time I’m going to make sure you see it all properly and there’ll be no bus trips because there are no buses, not in Ancient Egypt.”

“We’re in Ancient Egypt?! How ancient?”

“32 BC to be precise. We probably still shouldn’t drink the water though.”

“No,” she grins, “Probably not.”

She bends down and he looks at her in concern until he realises what she’s doing but by the time he tries to stop her it’s too late and her bare foot hits the scorching hot sand. She grabs his hand so that she can balance on the foot still safely in the sandal, “Ow! Yeah, maybe the going barefoot thing is overrated.”

The Doctor can’t help laughing at her irritated expression, “Just put your shoe back on for now, you can go as barefoot as you like once we get to where we’re staying.”

“Oh yeah?” she hangs precariously onto his arm, trying but failing to get her sandal on with her weaker arm.

“Here,” he crouches down in front of her and she rests her hands on his shoulders as he slides her foot back into her sandal before leaping cheerfully back up, “Done!”

She smiles gratefully at him, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he takes her hand and squeezes it gently, “Come on, let’s get to where you can go barefoot without your feet frying.”

“So,” her interest piqued, “This place we’re going then- got nice cool marble floors, has it?”

“Yep and beautiful gardens and pools, not to mention the most incredible selection of food you can ever imagine.”

“Stayed there before have you?”

“I might have done, once or twice.”

“I wouldn’t have even thought they had hotels in 32 BC.”

“Did I say it was a hotel?” he smiles cheekily at her.

She rolls her eyes at him, “Oh don’t tell me, you just happen to own a palace in Ancient Egypt? Got a rose bush or two in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon too, have you?”

“Well…”

“Never mind. So, a palace?”

“Oh yes! Not mine though, if you must know,” he grins, straightening the brim of her slightly wonky hat.

“Oh God, you haven’t brought me to 32 BC to break into some fancy palace and nick off with the ancient relics, have you?! Because seriously, I know I’m feeling a lot better but I still doubt I’m up to running across the sand with an urn shoved under each arm.”

“No breaking and entering, I promise. We’ll be very welcome with Antony and Cleo.”

“Antony and- get out! We can’t just knock on their door and say ‘hello, weary time travellers looking for a bed, two beds, can you help?’”

The Doctor smirks at her, enjoying every second of her desperate curiosity, “There’ll be no need to beg for a bed,” he raises his eyebrows, “Or two…Cleo owes me a favour.”

“Cleo owes you a favour? Cleo?!”

“Long story-”

“Well, good thing we’re here to do nothing, you’ll have plenty of time to tell me.”

He doesn’t argue and she laughs, “Cleo! This is exactly why I love travelling with you, it’s totally bonkers!”

“And here was me thinking it was because you couldn’t get enough of my superior tea-making skills.”

“Well, you do make a good cuppa, it’s true,” she links her arm through his and smiles, “Come on Spaceman, let’s go and walk in the dust.”

END