Story Title: A Storm on Midnight
A/N: Since recently watching the Doctor Who S4 Episode: Midnight, I have had a ticked off plot muse running around in my mind. So here is the result…
Warnings: None, really.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who is property of BBC… I own nothing on that side of the Atlantic.
"So what the hell happened out there?" Donna asked once the Doctor finished telling her about the failed trip to the Sapphire Waterfall. He glanced at her in confusion. Her tone wasn't exactly angry, but it did hold a strong note of indignation.
"I just told you. We were attacked by an unknown alien entity. The other passengers panicked, fell into a mob mentality, and nearly murdered me. What more do you want to know?"
"I want to know what happened to you. It's not like you to lose control of a crowd of any size, at least not from what I've seen while traveling with you, Spaceman."
"I don't know exactly." The Doctor shrugged. "They just wouldn't listen to reason. I think the entity played an active part in making their panic worse, but I can't prove it for certain, not now."
"So the end result was that the other passengers refused to listen to you. And now here you are, half-sulking for lack of a better word, and needing to go convince the management to shut down their Leisure Palace and the tours on this planet." Donna shot the wiry man a critical stare. "You're not going to convince anyone of anything with that manner."
"I am not sulking!" The Doctor cried, glaring at his friend like she had just betrayed him. "I just had my voice and my ability to move stolen by some unknown alien hell-bent on murdering me. In all of my 900 years, I have never felt that helpless, that close to death. I was bloody terrified, Donna!"
The redhead reached across the table and clasped the Doctor's hands as he moved to stand, holding him firmly in place.
"I know, Spaceman, I know. But if you want to make sure no one else will die on this planet, then you need to remember who you are. The man before me now is not the same man I met on my wedding day when a giant spider-woman monster was trying to take over the world. He's not the same man who freed the Ood from slavery or chose to destroy Pompeii in order to save the entire planet. He's not the same man who took on a Sontaran war fleet or challenged the Vashta Nerada in the Library. What happened to that man, Doctor? Where is he?"
They sat in silence, staring at each other. Donna could see her friend's mood shift as her words sank into his mind. The lost, haunted expression faded from the Doctor's eyes to be replaced by something she remembered seeing when they had left the Library. It was dark and confident and determined. She knew it wasn't a new expression; it sat on his face too perfectly, too comfortably. But it was something she hadn't been privy to seeing in the past, not even in glimmers or shadows.
"You're right, Donna. I did forget who I am today. I tried to be human, because the thought that maybe I wasn't frightened those people more than I was willing to allow. And I let my curiosity and desire for discovery blind me to what they really needed me to be, the man who stops the monsters. I did them a disservice, and I need to rectify that."
"There's my Doctor." Donna smiled as her friend stood. She made no move to stop him this time.
"Let's go, then. The others should be in the medical suite, getting checked over and giving their statements. It's time I give my own." He held out his arm to his fiery, redheaded companion. Donna took it with a smirk, and together they made their way from the pool deck toward the medical suite.
Upon arriving, the pair found the other passengers from the ill-fated tour scattered around the waiting area as the Doctor had predicted. Dee Dee seemed to be ignoring Professor Hobbes, and Jethro sat huddled in the corner of a couch as far away from his parents as he could get while still in the same room. The crew from the rescue shuttle were standing around a receptionist desk, talking with a man that the Doctor assumed to be the Leisure Palace's manager. Everyone looked up when he stepped through the doorway with Donna.
"Where did you wander off to? You were told to report directly here after the shuttle returned to the loading area," asked the emergency medical technician who had been in charge of the rescue shuttle.
"I wanted to inform my companion of my safe return," the Doctor replied. "This is Donna Noble, by the way."
"Yes, that's all well and good," the EMT commented, "but we need your name for the paperwork."
"I told you, I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor who?" the manager asked.
"Just the Doctor."
"Oh, here we go again." Professor Hobbes rolled his eyes. "Your name, man, what is your real name?"
"This Leisure Palace, it has access to an extensive library network, yes?" the Doctor asked.
"Of course, but what does that have to do with your name?" the manager replied.
"Collections on Earth-history? Interplanetary conflicts?"
"Yes, yes, all of that. We provide our guests with whatever reading material their hearts desire." The manager crossed his arms and attempted to intimidate the Doctor with a commanding glare. "But what we need to know right now is your name."
"I told you. I am the Doctor. If you don't know what that means, then look me up! I'm not answering any more questions until you've done that much at least." The Doctor snapped out before guiding Donna to a seat on one of the sofas. Curious, the medical suite's receptionist turned to her computer console and logged onto the library system, figuring her manager would be too stubborn to do such research himself. One of the nurses called Val back to an exam room, distracting the EMT and the manager from trying to question the Doctor further.
"I think I've reached my limit on dealing with willful ignorance for one day," the Doctor mumbled. Donna hid a smile as she cuddled into the Doctor's side, watching him as he lay his head on the back of the sofa and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"All I wanted was a nice, quiet vacation. I thought you deserved that much, Donna, after dealing with the Vashta Nerada. All of time and space to pick from, and I thought, 'Oh, a nice, quiet planet orbiting an xtonic star. What could go wrong?' A lot, obviously. I should have stuck to somewhere I've visited before, like Barcelona maybe…"
"And where would be the fun for you in that, Spaceman?" Donna asked, reaching up to pull the Doctor's hand away from his face. He turned to look at her with his big, brown eyes, and after a moment, he offered her a tentative smile.
"It shouldn't be about me, Donna. I might be the one in the driver's seat, but in all honesty, the ride wouldn't be half as fun without you."
"I bet you say that to all your companions."
"Yeah, but it's always true." The Doctor's smile grew with the admission. "How 'bout after we get off this diamond cluster, we head home, pick up Martha from UNIT HQ, hop on over to Cardiff and kidnap Captain Jack, and then we'll go crash another party, sometime during the Renaissance or Ancient Persia or whenever your heart desires."
Across from them, Dee Dee had been eavesdropping on their conversation while pretending to fill out paperwork for the medical staff. Her curiosity, however, finally got the better of her, and she stood, walking over to one of the computer consoles in the waiting area.
"Dee, what are you doing?" Professor Hobbes asked.
"I'm going to look up the Doctor on the library system. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think we owe it to him to find out who he is. And if he's not willing to tell us directly…" She glanced over her shoulder at the skinny wisp of a man sitting with his redheaded friend. The Doctor gave her a small nod of encouragement, glad to see that today's events hadn't dampened the university student's desire to learn.
As Dee Dee began typing away at the computer, Jethro seemed to wake from his self-isolation and shifted so that he could watch the girl work. The Doctor shot Donna a hidden smile before whispering softly into her ear.
"It's good to see Jethro's not completely catatonic. He's a bright boy, lots of potential if he can avoid following the negative aspects of his parents' example."
"Even after what happened today, you still strive to see the best in humanity, don't you?" Donna asked, her voice rising back to a normal conversational level. Neither she nor the Doctor realized that her question had drawn the attention of most of the room's occupants.
"Next time you see Martha, ask her about her journey during the 'Year That Never Was,' and she'll tell you just how spectacular humans can be. We've seen it firsthand. I've seen it more times than can be counted, how they rise above impossible odds, how they can bring out the best in each other, their courage and their compassion, their endurance and their mercy, their hope and light and everything that makes them not only survive but thrive. They go from a few billion people inhabiting this tiny, little planet to billions upon billions spread out across the universe, expanding and exploring for billions and billions of years. They're fascinating and inspiring and beautiful and wonderful and so much more, and I love them."
"Even when they let you down?" Donna nudged, worried by the child-like enthusiasm glowing in the Doctor's eyes. He turned to look at her and reached up to stroke her cheek.
"Every race, every species has its negatives and its bad fruits. There are dark periods to every history. But humanity has always managed to rise above its darkest hours. The same can't be said about any number of other great races." The Doctor's eyes had gained the habitual sadness that Donna had come to realize meant he was remembering the Time War and the destruction he had been forced to bring down upon his own people. She gently pulled his head toward her and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"Don't go there, Time Boy, not right now. You've had a bad enough day without revisiting old wounds."
The Doctor nodded and allowed Donna to pull his head against her shoulder. She ran her fingers through his spiky, brown hair, soothing him with her gentle touch.
"Tell me about this Captain Jack fellow," she requested, wanting to distract him from bad memories with thoughts of better times.
As the Doctor began speaking about the former Time Agent, Val returned from the exam room and took a seat next to her husband.
"Well those two certainly look cozy," she commented after glancing over at Donna and the Doctor. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone? Did that doctor finally give up his name?"
"No, he set them on some wild goose chase looking up 'the Doctor' on the library system," Biff replied, shooting a quick glare towards the pair on the opposite sofa.
"Actually, there is a surprising amount of literature on him listed in this system," Dee Dee spoke up, not turning away from her computer screen. "Right now, I'm looking over an abbreviated history of the Doctor on Earth, but apparently there are volumes and volumes written about him."
"Oh, Dee Dee, don't exaggerate," Professor Hobbes scolded.
"She's not exaggerating," Jethro said. He was reading over Dee Dee's shoulder, the pair speaking in whispers about things that caught their attention. Across the room, the receptionist was pointing out something she had found to the EMT and the manager. After studying her computer screen for a moment, both men glanced over to where the Doctor and Donna were talking quietly.
"Um, sir? Doctor?" the EMT called, pulling a stethoscope from around his neck. "Could you come over here for a moment?"
Both the Doctor and Donna gave the man a critical look before deciding to oblige the request. With reluctance, the redhead released her grasp on her friend and allowed him to rise. As he approached the receptionist's desk, the Doctor unbuttoned his suit jacket, knowing what was wanted of him. He shoved his hands in his trouser pockets and shot the EMT a tired glance as he met the man before the desk.
"Sorry, I just want to check something," the man said, ducking his face away from the world-weary gaze. With practiced efficiency, the EMT listened to the left side of the Doctor's chest before moving the stethoscope to the right. The Doctor watched with limited amusement as the man confirmed the truth of his physiology.
"A binary cardiovascular system," the EMT whispered, shaking his head in disbelief. "Two hearts. So you really are a Time Lord?"
"Last of my people, yeah. Keep reading and you may even discover why that is." The Doctor nodded. "Now, you lot want a statement from me on what happened today? I'll tell you. Four people died who shouldn't have. One gave up her life courageously to save the rest of us. If you're smart, you'll take my advice and shut down this Leisure Palace, move on, build elsewhere. Let Midnight continue to orbit its xtonic sun in silence."
The Doctor turned to Donna and offered her his arm. "I know we agreed to have dinner at that anti-gravity restaurant, but I'm not really feeling like eating out tonight. Why don't we head back to the TARDIS, and I'll whip something up instead?"
"I didn't know you could cook." Donna smiled.
"Well, it can be kind of hit or miss," the Doctor admitted, "so I'll let you pick the ingredients. Greater chance it'll turn out palatable to your human senses that way."
End A/N: So… Midnight is an awesome episode (one of my favorites), but I don't like the fact that the other passengers never really found out who the Doctor is.
I'd kind of like to continue following the thought exercise I've started with this story (I have several ideas I could use), but I'm going to wait for some feedback first. Suggestions are welcome.
- Stony Knight