A/N: This will eventually be a Doctor/Donna romance, so you may not want to proceed if you're a strictly friendship person. Also, warnings for a slightly insensitive Martha - I love her, but it was necessary for the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
"Martha just called," the Doctor announced as he appeared in the kitchen. He sank down onto his chair at the table and busied himself with smoothing out an invisible wrinkle on his pyjama jacket. "She said she wants us to come back to Earth."
"Good morning to you too," Donna said, but there was no bite in her words. She slid his mug across the table to him. "Cream and sugar with a splash of tea, just for you."
"Good morning," he echoed. "And thanks."
Donna sighed as her little joke went unnoticed, but she certainly couldn't hold it against him. She gave his shoulder a fond squeeze as she circled the table and sat down next to him in her chair. "Now, what's this about Martha? Did she leave something behind, or...?"
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "I don't think so. She just said that she wants us to come."
"Hmm. How long has it been for her?" They had dropped her off just a few days ago from their perspective, but time travel made these things confusing at the best of times.
Another shrug.
"All right, well let's have breakfast and then go see what she wants." Donna waited for a response, but when none came, she stood and went to gather some things from the fridge. "Now, how about scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon? Oh, and maybe some banana bread if there's any left?"
"I don't want to go," he said at last. Donna turned back to face him and found him staring up at at her with wide, pleading eyes.
"Why not?"
"Because…" He swallowed thickly. "She might talk about...her." The last word was whispered, as if saying it quietly could make it hurt any less, and then his whole face crumpled.
Donna didn't think she would ever get over the way her heart ached at seeing her best mate mourn his daughter. Breakfast forgotten, she went to his side and wound her arms around his shoulders. He leaned into her touch gratefully, not holding back as he had done at first, when they'd gone to find a planet for Jenny and he had pretended to be his usual self as they took in the local flora and fauna. He had been completely unconvincing, of course, but she had let him pretend until he simply couldn't anymore.
"We talk about her," she reminded him, gently, as she pulled away and took his hands in hers. Every night since, he had joined her in the library to talk until she fell asleep, his deepest feelings and thoughts pouring out and mixing with hers into a mess of tears and laughter, and then he would wake her and send her off to bed.
"Yeah, but Martha's different."
Donna bit her bottom lip. "How is she different? Is it because she was in love with you?" And I'm not, she added the implied bit silently, even though the truth was just the opposite. He could never love someone like me.
"No, it's because she wasn't there," he corrected her. "She was off with the Hath most of the time, and I know it wasn't her fault, but… You were right there with me. You named her, and you helped me accept her, and after…you helped me. You're still helping me." He looked down at their joined hands. "Martha might not understand. I don't want her to talk about what happened. I don't even want her to say that she's sorry. I don't think I could stand it, and I might snap at her, and I don't want to do that because she's my friend, but..."
"Oh, Spaceman," Donna said, with a soft sigh, as she sat back down beside him. She didn't want to stop and think about what might have happened if she had been the one separated from him. Instead, she pressed on. "What exactly did she say when she called?"
"She just said that it was important, and to hurry."
"And you told her we would come?"
"Yeah," he said. "She expected me to say yes, and I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want to let her down."
"Then we should go. It's not good to stand up our friends," she said, gently. "What if it's an invasion or some kind of alien assassin on the loose?"
He sighed. "Can't your planet sort its own problem for once?"
Donna held his gaze for a long moment, almost waiting for him take back his words and jump into action. He didn't. He just looked at her out of those deep, haunted eyes. Slowly, she removed her hands from his. "All right. I'll go make breakfast and then we can call Martha back and tell her we're not coming." He deserved a break and the time to grieve his daughter for as long as he needed, but she couldn't bear to think of Martha waiting for them in vain. She pushed back her chair and stood up.
"Are you angry with me?" the Doctor asked.
"No, of course not," she assured him, and gently brushed her fingers through his hair as she walked past him. "I'm just hungry." She smiled at him, and earned a small smile in response.
She was almost done frying up the eggs when the Doctor's mobile rang.
"It's her," he hissed. He held the phone far away from his body like it was due to explode, starting at it with wide eyes. "What do I do?"
"Answer it," Donna said, waving her spatula at him.
He pressed the button and held it to his ear. "Um, hello?"
Donna watched him intently as he listened to whatever Martha had to say. After a moment, he looked up at her for help. 'She wants to know why we aren't there yet,' he mouthed at her.
'Ask her what she needs,' Donna mouthed back, and then she quickly slid the eggs onto a plate before they could burn.
"Um… What is it? I mean, what is it that you need exactly?" One of his hands found its way to his head to anxiously pull at his hair. "Erm, has it got something to do with aliens?"
A pause.
"Oh, it does?" He looked back at Donna, but she just shrugged. It was up to him to decide what to do.
"N-no, I'm fine," he said. "Just, you know… Donna and I are a bit busy doing...stuff."
A long pause.
"No, no, I'm not ill." He paused. "Donna's not either." Another pause. "Yes, I'd tell you if we were."
Donna snorted. Of course Martha would think there was something seriously wrong with one of them with the way he was acting!
"Okay, yeah. We'll be there. 'Course we will." He looked to Donna for approval, but she could only raise her eyebrows at him. "Yeah. We'll be there in just a minute. Bye." He hung up his mobile and stared at for a moment before slamming it down on the table. "Oh, what did I just do?"
"Well, you didn't say no, for starters," Donna said, as she carried their plates to the table. "Here, eat and try not to worry. Maybe it won't be much of anything at all."
Martha greeted them with hugs and an apology. "I know you just dropped me off, but something has come up and you're the only ones who can help," she explained as they walked through the gleaming white halls of a UNIT building.
"Help with what? What's wrong?" Donna asked.
"It's actually a bit hard to explain, but you'll see soon enough. We're nearly there." She gestured vaguely in the direction they were walking.
The Doctor met Donna's gaze and they shared a nervous look. She took his hand as they continued to follow Martha.
Eventually, they came to a door marked nursery.
"Nursery?" Donna whispered to the Doctor. "Do you think it could be the Adipose again?"
He shook his head, but she got no further answer out of him.
"Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous," Martha assured them as she scanned her badge. The lock clicked open, and she held the door open so they could go through in front of her.
Inside was a room full of the usual human nursery stuff, except that there were a number of strange machines spread out between the changing table and the cot. In one corner sat a young woman rocking a baby.
"Oh," the Doctor said, his voice flat. "Sorry to disturb you."
Donna turned back to Martha. "Are you sure we're in the right place?"
"Yes, of course," she said, ushering them the rest of the way in. "Doctor, Donna, this is Rita. She's one of our volunteers."
"Hello," the Doctor said. Donna echoed his greeting with her own.
"I'm glad you've come," Rita said, with a shy smile. She couldn't have been older than eighteen, and her brown pigtails made her look younger still. "It's a real honor to meet you both."
"Thank you," Donna answered for herself and the Doctor, hoping to spare Rita from any possible irritated response. She squeezed the Doctor's hand and he nodded in agreement.
"And this is Baby Boy Smith," Martha said, nodding at the tiny infant in Rita's arms.
Donna walked across the room and looked down at the baby with a smile. He was swaddled tightly in soft blankets, but his tiny pink face was peaceful in sleep. "Oh, he's precious," she cooed. "And look at those eyelashes." His eyes were framed with the kind of long, thick lashes that normally only came from a box or the salon.
"I know," Rita said, grinning. "I always tease him and say that I'd be happy to trade any time that he likes."
Donna chuckled. "How old is he?"
"He's only five days old," she replied, and then she looked expectantly at Martha, obviously waiting on some kind of cue.
"Go on," Martha said, nodding.
"Would you like to hold him?"
"Oh, yes, if you're sure it's okay." Rita assured her that it was, so Donna held out her arms to take the baby. To her surprise, he didn't so much as stir when Rita stood from the rocking chair and carefully passed him into her arms. Donna held the baby securely against her chest, hardly able to believe how small and light he was. She hadn't held a newborn since Nerys had had her twins a few years ago. "Look, Doctor," she said, as the baby made a sucking motion in his sleep.
The Doctor crossed the room to stand beside her, and Donna shifted so he could see better. His face softened as he looked down at the baby. "He's a bit hungry, isn't he?" he said, as the baby continued to suckle in his dreams.
Rita gasped. "You were right, Martha! He can tell!"
Both the Doctor and Donna looked at her in surprise.
Rita covered her mouth with both hands, her cheeks flushed pink. "Oops," she squeaked. "I'm so sorry."
"It's all right," Martha said.
"I really didn't mean to!"
"I know. Don't worry, you have done absolutely nothing wrong," Martha assured her. "Now, why don't you go to the break room while I finish up here?"
As soon as Rita was gone, Martha cleared her throat. "I'm sorry about that."
"What's going on?" Donna asked. "Why was she so upset?"
"It's a long story," Martha said with a sigh. "But first, how have you been, Doctor? I should have asked you right away, but I've had a lot on my mind lately."
"I'm fine," he said, shortly. "Now, what did you need from us?"
If Martha were upset by his tone, she didn't show it. "It's about baby Smith here," she began. "His mother was found wandering the streets just over a week ago. She was brought here for medical care as she was heavily pregnant and in the beginning stages of labor. She didn't speak, and not even our best translation tools could decipher the few sounds she did make, but it was obvious that she wasn't well."
"Oh no," Donna said, realization dawning on her as she looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms.
"We were eventually able to identify her as an Arelisien," Martha continued.
"But they're extinct," the Doctor said, now looking at her with interest.
"That's what we thought," Martha said. "As far as we know, she was the last of her species. Well, second to last."
Donna cast a glance at the Doctor to see how he was handling the new information, but his face was completely blank. "What happened?" she asked, hoping for the best, but already knowing that it didn't end well.
"The poor woman was in labor for days. She cried and cried, but no one could console her. Our drugs couldn't touch either her pain or her illness." Martha's voice shook. "She died shortly after the birth. It was awful."
"She must have had the virus that killed them off," the Doctor said, quietly, as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "There was nothing you could have done."
Martha nodded. "Thank you. It means a lot to hear you say that."
"But what does any of this have to do with us?" Donna asked.
"Well, I thought…" She took a deep breath. "The baby hasn't been doing well. He will hardly eat, and he cries when he's awake like there's something we can't see eating away at him. We've tested him for just about everything, but he doesn't seem to be sick. He's just miserable, and we don't expect him to survive for much longer if he continues on like this."
"Oh, the poor little thing," Donna said, dread filling her stomach as she cuddled him closer to her chest. "Isn't there anything you can do for him?"
"We have made a few attempts to tube feed him, but he screamed night and day until we took it out. He has been getting IV fluids and some immune system boosters, but they haven't helped." Martha paced anxiously in place. "The Arelisiens were a telepathic species. We don't know much about them, but we've come to suspect that they may need a telepathic bond with a parent to survive."
"You're right," the Doctor said, softly. "There are a number of species who depend on such a bond to develop outside of the womb. The Arelisiens were one of them."
Donna's eyes grew wide as it hit her. "Doctor, were your people another?"
"Yes," he admitted.
Martha turned to him with hope written all over her face. "That's why I asked you both to come here. I thought maybe you would be willing to provide the bond that he needs."
"No," the Doctor said, taking a step away. "No, I won't. I can't."
"But he'll die," Donna said, her heart breaking for the baby as the truth sank in.
"It's not that simple," he insisted.
"I know you just lost Jenny, but I haven't been able to find anyone else to ask, so please consider-" Martha began.
"No!" the Doctor shouted. He jabbed a finger in her direction. "Don't you dare try to use her to guilt me into it!"
"If you'll just let me exp-"
"No!" he roared, and then he turned and stalked from the room.
Donna was about to go after him when the baby startled awake and began to gasp for air. A thin wail filled the room, but it soon turned into a crackling hum as his weak lungs struggled to keep up with the effort of crying.
"Shh, it's all right," Donna soothed, but he only cried harder. She looked desperately at Martha for help. "What do I do?"
"There's nothing we can do. That's what he does when he's awake," she said. "His body is so weak that we're afraid he's going to go into cardiac arrest."
Donna sat down in the rocking chair and rocked him back and forth, watching as his tiny chest heaved through the blanket. Tears welled in her own eyes as his cry faded even more until he was screaming silently, his face bright red. "Please stop," she begged.
And then suddenly the Doctor was back. He knelt down in front of Donna and placed his fingers on the baby's temples. The baby instantly quieted, blinked twice and went back to sleep.
Donna sighed with relief and slumped back in the chair, but the Doctor wouldn't give her a moment to gather her wits.
"Come on, Donna, let's go," he said, as he lifted the baby from her arms and unceremoniously passed him to Martha.
"But-"
"Come on," he repeated, holding out his hand for her. "We need to go home."
"Doctor-" Martha started.
"No!" He turned to face her, fire in his eyes. "I don't know who you think you are that you can ask me to do this."
"I just thought you might have a bit of compassion for a being who is in the same situation as you," she said. "I guess I thought wrong."
"I guess you did," he sneered, and then he turned back to Donna. "Please, let's go," he said, softly, holding out his hand to her again.
Donna bit her tongue to stop herself from shouting at him as she normally would. The Doctor was unreasonable when he got like this, so it wouldn't do any good. "Fine," she said, softly, and took his hand so he could lead her out of the building. She cast an apologetic glance at Martha as they went. 'I'll talk to him,' she mouthed, already making plans for their nightly discussion.
There was no way she would let an innocent child die if she could do something to help.
A/N: I've always said that I wouldn't post anything until it's finished, but I've been in a bit of a writing slump lately, and I haven't been happy with anything that I've written. I decided to go ahead post this in the hopes that it would motivate me to write more. Just a heads up that it may be a while before I post another chapter as this is all I have written so far. Thanks for reading!