Coding: Donna Noble (The Doctor/Donna)
Timeline: The End Of Time
Catching Shadows
By Socket
At four in the morning Donna sits alone at the kitchen table sipping a cup of tea. Her first of the day.
Lately she finds herself waking at odd hours, her body shaking and covered in sweat - recovering from a nightmare that she can't recollect. She feels unsettled, traumatised… as if something terrible has happened to her but she can't remember what it is.
She's tried talking to her grandfather about it but Wilf always brushes off her concerns – belittling her anxiety as mere pre-wedding jitters. She hopes he's right.
But as Donna sits alone in the early hours of the morning, her mind clutter-free, she has an intrinsic sense that she's lost something. Something so important and fundamental to her that she wants to cry. An unfathomable sadness fills her and she can't understand why.
She feels misplaced. Out of time and out of sync with the world around her… she has an overwhelming sense that she should be somewhere else… that she's the anchor to a lost soul… then the impulse fades and she feels empty.
She should be happy. She has a good job, has Shaun… she has everything she's supposed to want and yet there's a deep-seated ache within her. A searing pain. As if she's missing part of herself. As if something were taken from her, but the more she tries to remember, the vaguer her sense of it becomes. Like trying to catch shadows.
Shadows… Vashta Nerada.
The outline of a memory shimmers before her – teasing, taunting. Then it's gone and pain fills her head; a burning sensation blisters through her mind. Donna closes her eyes and rubs her temples, trying to alleviate the pain. Maybe she should go and see a doctor.
Doctor… an inexplicable wave of joy runs through her… then fades.
Suddenly there's a fire behind her eyes, as if something is burning her memories. Donna shakes her head. Her imagination runs wild sometimes. Maybe Gramps is right – she's just over-anxious about the wedding. She hopes that's it. She hopes… but she fears this feeling of loss will continue even after she's married, fears it will last the rest of her life.