Author's Note: Well, I think I need to stop getting new ideas because my poor stories are starting to gather dust. Oh well, I'm on a bit of a Doctor Who craze, and I can't believe Tennant is leaving the show. He was a brilliant Doctor. I just wrote this in class the other day, so tell me what you think of it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, unfortunately.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." The one sentence you never want to hear from the Doctor, and a phrase that has been repeated over and over throughout his life. Why, aside from its rather dismal context, would you not want to hear this sentence? Because it is one of the last things you will hear before you die, or in Donna Noble's case, get your memory wiped completely clean.
I never wanted him to say those five words to me, not only because it would mean disaster for me, but because he would be left alone once again, with another person to add to the long list of people who have left him, whether willingly or not.
Some didn't have a choice, such as Rose, one of the few women to capture his two hearts, and Donna, the woman who saved the universe and lost everything. Or Jenny, the daughter he had for only a day before she was killed. Others, like Martha and Jack moved on with their lives, settling for a more normal way of living.
I didn't understand, why he kept allowing people to become his companions when they would sooner or later be ripped away from him, causing more pain, more anguish. But he always did, always yearned for a traveling companion, no matter how hard he tried to hide the truth, even from himself. He needed us just as much as we needed him. And we did need him, more than we had realized before he came running into our lives. He was always running. Once he had taken you with him you couldn't turn back. He opened up a part of you, you never knew existed, and you never wanted to return to your old life. Perhaps Donna was lucky, he left her with no memories of their adventures. Martha chose to remain behind, but she always yearned to fly through the vastness of space once again. And Rose, she received the short end of the stick, locked away in a parallel world, not by her own choice, always wanting her Doctor to return to her and take her on more wonderful journeys.
And after everything he was left alone once again. A lonely angel as the lovely Reinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour, called him.
I was dying when he found me. And I was dying when he left.
No one in the sleepy little village noticed a strange noise humming in the air or the sudden appearance of a foreign object that accompanied it. Had the villagers not been inside their ramshackle homes hiding from the biting winter wind, they might have wondered at the mysterious blue box that was sitting towards the edge of the shacks. As it was, nobody saw the odd-looking man who stepped out of said box, his red-trainers crunching the thick layer of snow as he took a few steps forward, looking back into the box.
"Come on Donna! Time doesn't wait for anybody! Well, it does wait for me, but that's not the point." The man called to his companion, leaning his head back and closing his eyes as the crisp breeze ruffled his unruly brown hair.
"All right, all right! I'm coming!" A woman with red-hair caught up in a beaded net followed him out of the box. She was dressed in a long, olive-green gown with draping sleeves and a square neckline. The dress was embroidered along the hem and sleeves and trailed a bit behind her on the ground, completely covering the boots she had refused to remove in exchange for flimsy slippers.
"Doctor, shouldn't you at least try to blend in?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at the pinstripe suite and brown overcoat he never seemed to change out of.
"Nonsense, nobody will notice a thing." The Doctor said with a cheeky grin and a wink before heading towards the main circle of huts.
"Ah! Fifteenth century England, tyrannical landlords work the peasants to death while enjoying lavish parties at their castles. And this appears to be a quaint little village."
"Oh come on Doctor, couldn't you whip out a carriage or something? It's bloody cold!"
"Yeah, but you'll get more out of walking." The Doctor said, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his overcoat and striding forward once more.
They rounded a corner and were interrupted by a loud splash and clatter of an object on the cold ground. A thin dark-haired woman in a ragged dress was kneeling on the ground before them, visibly shivering in the cold.
"My lady! Forgive me, are you heading for the manor?" The quivering woman asked keeping her eyes firmly on the ground.
"Um, yeah, er, yes I am." Donna confirmed, attempting to sound stately.
"Please my lady, is your Lord learned in the medical arts, I believe I may have heard you refer to your husband as 'Doctor'?"
"Oh, we're not married!" The Doctor said hurriedly.
"Never, not in a million years!"
"You speak so strangely my lady, but I beg of you my lord, if you are indeed a doctor I need your help! I know it be not my place to ask, but we found a young lady who is desperately ill. We will do whatever we can to compensate for your services, but please sir, she is dying!"
"Nonsense," The Doctor said pulling the woman to her feet. "I am somewhat learned in the ways of medicine, I will do what I can to help the girl. Show her to me."
The woman nodded with a grateful look in her eyes and then turned and all but ran to a nearby hut, the Doctor and Donna following.
Inside the hut it was surprisingly warm. A small fire smoldered in the middle making the atmosphere a bit smoky, as there wasn't good ventilation. Four skinny children, a boy and three girls, with runny noses and wide brown eyes that looked too big in their shrunken faces huddled together in a corner, watching the newcomers with awed fascination. A much older woman with nearly white hair, wrinkled skin, and a hunched back sat beside a figure lying on a sorry looking straw pallet, a thin blanket covering most of the sick girl's body.
The Doctor was forced to crouch because of the low ceiling, and crawled over to where the old woman was caring for the girl and was surprised as he reached the invalid's side.
She was certainly no peasant. Though her dark hair was greasy and stringy and her skin held an unhealthy pallor, her clothes were of much finer material than the rags of the assorted people around them. From what he could see, the dark brown dress was made from silk or some sort of fine clothe with a thicker layer underneath. It was embroidered with many-colored threads and encrusted with tiny gemstones. She fidgeted as she lay before him, her eyes rolling in their sockets under their closed lids.
"Who is she? Where did you find her?" The Doctor asked as he kneeled beside the prone girl, placing a hand on her sweaty forehead and frowning at the heat, she had a severe fever.
"We don't know, my lord. We've never seen her before and our lord has sent no one out looking for anyone, nor have other lords sent envoys. George, my husband, and some of the men found her lying at the bottom of the ravine, unconscious. She woke briefly a few hours ago but has been like this since, we've been too afraid to leave her and the roads and fields are too bad to be traveled, what with the snow, otherwise we would have sent for help."
"Could you go fetch me a bucket of water from the well?" The Doctor asked as he pulled out his stethoscope.
"Of course my lord." The younger woman said with a quick bow before ducking out of the shack.
"What be that you got there, young lord?" The old woman asked in a scratchy voice, gesturing at the stethoscope with a snarled hand.
"It will let me hear her heart better." The Doctor explained as he pressed it against the girl's chest. The old woman shrugged and hobbled over to the fire.
"Is she going to be all right?" Donna asked in a whisper, staring down at the girl.
The Doctor frowned. "She's not supposed to be here." He said quietly.
Donna snorted. "Well of course she's not supposed to be here, have you looked around? She's obviously of higher class and here she is lying in a bloody hut."
"No." The Doctor said, still staring down at the girl. "I don't think she's meant to be here, as in Earth. I don't think she's human."
"What do you mean, you don't think she's human?" Donna hissed, keeping her voice down. "She looks just like the rest of us, and her clothes, those are period clothes aren't they? How would an alien get a hold of them, and why would she be sick?"
"Donna, feel her head, it's far hotter than a normal human fever. Her heart rate is also more accelerated than most humans would be able to withstand. Also, this seems to be some strain of disease, maybe smallpox or something of the sort."
"Smallpox? But I thought Europeans had developed immunity to that by this time period. If it were smallpox there's no way it would be this bad."
The Doctor glanced at his companion, an eyebrow raised, as it usually was when he was figuring out something, or pointing out the obvious. "Exactly."
"Oh."
Heavy breathing and a sloshing sound signaled the other woman's return.
"Thank you, er, what was your name?"
"Siobhan, and of course my lord."
"I believe she is suffering from a case of smallpox."
"Smallpox? But my lord, begging your pardon, but I've never seen a case this severe before?"
"I know. I would like to take her with me. I'm sure you have enough to look after with your family, and it will be easier to treat her at my home where I have medical supplies, we don't want it worsening. Also, I might be able to find her family, I am sure they are missing her."
"Of course my lord." Siobhan said with another bow. "Do you need any help?"
"No, not at all she's just a slip of a girl." So saying, the Doctor bent down and removed the thin blanket, placing it beside the pallet. He then scooped her thin frame up in his arms and shuffled to the entrance of the hut. Once outside he straightened.
"Thank you Siobhan, for looking after her. You most likely saved her life."
The serf looked flustered. "Any human being with a decent heart would have done the same my lord. I pray you can cure her."
The Doctor smiled at her. "I hope so as well!"
And with that the Doctor and Donna made their way back to the large blue box.
Siobhan stared with wide-eyes as a roaring sound filled the air and a light flashed at the top of the construction. And then it was gone.
"What in the Lord's name?" She questioned aloud to herself, wondering at the disappearance of the object before returning to the warmth of the hut where her family was waiting.
"Donna!" The Doctor snapped as he used his feet to press twinkling buttons and push down levels, sending the Tardis spiraling into the vortex.
"What? What is it? What do you need?" The anxious woman cried, wringing her hands.
"First door down that corridor, then make a left at the hall, up two flights of stairs, around the corner, and it's the seventh door on the left right. Open it for me."
"What?"
"Oh never mind, just follow me." He said, rolling his eyes as he hurried through the seemingly endless halls of his ship, Donna's eyes getting bigger the further the went. Nobody ever believed how much bigger it was on the inside.
"Here." The Doctor said as they reached a plain wooden door. "Open it."
Donna opened the door revealing a medium-sized, quaintly decorated room, a large bed taking up a lot space. He walked forward and laid the girl on the bed before taking out his stethoscope once again.
"Donna, go left down the hall and into the closet at the end, there should be a first-aid kit."
"Fine." Donna said as she trotted out of the room.
She returned minutes later, the Doctor was still leaning over the girl listening to her irregular heartbeat.
"What is she?" Donna asked staring down at the feverish woman.
"I'm not sure. She appears to be human, but she can't be. She shouldn't have been there. Something's wrong, but I don't know what it is."
Author's Note: Any good? Reviews are appreciated!
TBC