Title: Hot Bodies (1/1)
Beta (LJ-user): saaammie, bas_math_girl (thanks girls!)
Disclaimer: Not mine at all; I just did some basic research on gingers, heat stroke and radiation.
Bingo: (Heat stroke) For my bingo card from hc_bingo (LJ-comm)
Warnings: None really, just some fluff
Word Count: 2443
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Donna Noble had been to Egypt but she had never been to a place as hot as the beach on Fiés. The midday suns hung right above and shone mercilessly down on Donna and the Doctor. Donna had been a little worried about this at first - one sun was enough to burn her pale skin – once again she sarcastically thanked nature for making her ginger. However, the Doctor had assured her that Fiés' radiation was safe for humans, it was enough to keep the planet warm, but would go straight through the human body; harmlessly.
It wasn't that Donna didn't trust the Doctor, she trusted him with her life, but whenever words like "safe" or "harmless" left his mouth she knew something was about to go really really wrong. So, to be on the safe side, she'd applied some strong sunscreen and stepped out of the TARDIS very gingerly – no pun implied.
Several hours later, Donna happily noticed that this time, the Doctor had actually been right. She'd been in the waves for quite some time and felt wonderful. When she left the water the warm air of the planet embraced her cool skin and when she looked down she found that she was still as pale as before.
Okay, this did mean saying good-bye to the idea of a nice tan, but at least she wouldn't have to struggle with a nasty sunburn. The sudden urge to buy her favourite Martian a dish of ice-cream for getting something right made Donna go back to where she and the Doctor had placed their towels.
She made her way through the soft sand until she spotted the Doctor just where she'd left him. Coldblooded he lay sprawled across both of their towels. He wore the sunglasses and the swimming trunks she'd bought for him, together with an airy white shirt, he'd insisted on wearing. (Donna mentally patted herself on the back for at least talking him out of wearing his suit on the beach).
"Oi, space-sluggard!" she called out with a chuckle. "Have you moved at all since I've been gone?"
The Doctor wearily raised his head, smiling as he saw Donna approach, and then he lay back.
"It's far too hot to move" he replied.
"Well, it's cooler in the water" Donna let him know and looked down at the resting Doctor.
"And it's cooler in your shadow" he all but purred and earned a kick on one leg.
"Stop commenting on my figure!"
"That wasn't what I meant" he mumbled, as if the effort on speaking properly was too much for him.
"It's nothing to provide shadow for a streak like you" she remarked, ignoring his objection.
"Do you mind budging over?" Donna gave her own towel a longing look. The water had made her skin all sticky and the sand clung to her.
"Suddenly this 'streak' is enough to be in your way?" he replied, not moving an inch.
"Oh, stop pouting" Donna crouched down next to him and pushed at him. How could his skin be so dry? Harmless radiation or not, Donna was sweating just from the short walk from the water. Did Time Lords sweat at all? Well, the Doctor wasn't panting either, so what other ways of cooling off were there? Whatever method he had for it, he should start soon. He felt unpleasantly warm and his skin looked rather red.
Finally the Doctor gave in to Donna's pushing and released her towel. His moves were sluggish, like he wanted to move as little as possible. Shooting him a worried look Donna started clearing her skin from saltwater and sand.
"I could kill for some ice-cream, fancy a cone?" she asked, rubbing her hair dry by letting it cascade over her shoulder and all but patting the water out of it.
"No thanks."
Now Donna was officially scared. The mention of ice-cream or any sort of sweet and her hair (the bugger thought she didn't notice him ogling it!) never failed to make the Doctor go all excited, happy about the first and nervous about the latter. Now he just lay listlessly on his towel, not batting an eyelid over Donna's hair-porn-show.
"Are you angry about what I said?" Donna asked and stopped stroking her hair. "You know I'm just teasing you, don't you?"
"I'm not angry" he replied. "I'm just knackered and not hungry."
Donna dropped to her knees next to him and looked through his sunglasses into his eyes.
"You are always hungry, Doctor" she told him firmly, like he'd just said something completely lunatic. "Wouldn't wonder if you plan supper while eating dinner."
"Donnaaa" he stressed and tried to escape her hair tickling his chest. It was the tone of someone who just wanted to be left alone and this was something Donna just would not do.
"I just wanna know what's wrong" she justified truthfully. "I mean, are you ill or what?" Donna rested one hand on his forehead and the other one on her own. It was more an attempt to annoy him into telling her what was bothering him, but she pulled her hand away instantly.
"Doctor, you're really hot!"she exclaimed and saw him frown under the sunglasses.
"Uhm, thanks."
"Not that, you dunce! You're cooking!" She raised her hand to swat at his arm but stopped herself, not wanting to hurt him if he was ill.
"I'm just a little warm" he mumbled, still sounding like he just wanted some peace and quiet.
"You are hot, full stop" she declared and touched his neck and cheeks to prove her theory.
"Did you use any sunscreen at all?" she snapped. It wasn't just that his skin wasn't sweaty, it was also clear of any lotion.
"Donnaaa" this time his voice came close to whining. "I don't need sunscreen."
"Don't give me that 'I'm a superior Time Lord' nonsense now!" she warned, baffled by his carelessness.
"When you said Fiés' radiation is harmless for humans, did that imply Time Lords, too?"
Silence followed her question in which she stared at him, unbelieving.
"Well, no. Not directly harmless, but-"
"You are the oldest child in the universe!" she cried. "And somehow I became your bloody mother!"
"Do you mind not screaming?" he grumbled faintly "I've got a headache."
"'Course you got one!" she didn't think about talking any softer. "You got yourself a nice case of heat stroke, which means we need to get you out of the sun at once."
Ignoring his protests, Donna collected their things and pulled the Doctor to his feet. For someone that skinny he was quite heavy. He was groggy and unsteady on his legs and Donna needed to prop him all the way to the TARDIS. Luckily she spotted the ship just inches away from the beach. Had they parked her that close? Maybe the old girl had sensed the Doctor was feeling unwell and... what? Donna wondered if the TARDIS could just follow them. She certainly couldn't fly on her own, but crawl some feet...?
For now Donna didn't care, she just wanted to get the Doctor out of the sun. One armed she pushed the TARDIS's doors open and guided the Doctor inside. Yup, the ship was already aware of his condition, Donna recognized; the temperature in here was chilly and she sent a silent "thank you" to the old girl.
"We better get you into bed, Spaceman" she told the Doctor and dropped their things next to the control panel.
He nodded shortly and even though Donna was glad he'd stopped being stubborn about her help, his unusual silence worried her. She helped him to his bedroom, suddenly not sure if making him walk all the way had been the right decision. When she was younger she had often suffered from sunstroke and her father had told her what to do in such a case.
First: Get out of the sun. Second: Drink water. Third: Cool down the whole body. Simple as that. The difference was that she had been a kid and her father could carry her, all she could do for the Doctor was to prop him up.
Had the walk, short as it was, been too much?
With a dry throat Donna guided him to his bed where he slumped down, one hand holding his head like he was trying to stop it from spinning.
"How do you feel?" she asked softly, removing the sunglasses. Blimey, his eyes looked pretty dazed. A choked noise like he was trying not to puke answered her question – Donna remembered the nausea common to heat stroke and went into his bathroom to get him a bucket and a glass of water. She placed the bucket next to his bed and pushed the glass into his hand.
"Drink something," she told him, "I'll get you some wet towels." Once again she left for the bathroom.
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Once the room stopped spinning the Doctor sat up against his pillow. Alright, maybe he had underestimated Fiés' weather slightly. He carefully took a sip from the water and felt the chill running down his throat into his heated body. It was refreshing but dangerous; his stomach seemed unwilling to be filled with anything and gave a threatening contraction.
When the Doctor was sure the water wouldn't come right up again he laid back, the sheets pleasantly cool against his red skin. He glanced at the bathroom door where Donna had vanished. He had wanted to give her a nice vacation on a beach completely safe for her, but now it turned out that she took care of him instead of vice versa. Maybe he could get her to go back without him and enjoy herself; it wasn't like he was dying or anything.
Just then the bathroom door opened and Donna came back, a pile of towels in her arms. They looked wet but they weren't dripping and Donna glanced over at the Doctor.
"You need to get out of your clothes" she said plainly and the queasy feeling returned into the Doctor's stomach.
"I'm fine, Donna, no need for that" he said, which was a plain lie, but Donna wouldn't be Donna if she suddenly listened to him.
"Rubbish! If you feel half as bad as you look, you're still far from 'fine'."
'Bad'? Enchanting. What had become of 'hot'? He was dying here! She could at least try to be nicer to him.
With a soggy thud Donna dropped the towels next to the Doctor and eyed him, expectantly. Grumpily he started fiddling with his shirt buttons. This turned out quite a lot more complicated than expected, as if the connection between his brain and his limbs had somewhat grown longer.
A solid minute and two persistent buttons later, Donna finally took pity on him and waved his hands away with a sigh.
"Really. The. Oldest. Child. In. The. Universe," she repeated, undoing a button with every word and then tossed it aside. Her eyes lingered on his chest and she cocked an eyebrow just the slightest.
"What?" he wondered and Donna unglued her eyes with a surprised grin.
"Nothing, I was just counting your bones, skinny Martian," she mocked with a strange expression in her eyes.
"Some people would call it 'sporty,'" he remarked. Donna snorted.
"Sure, if your sport is chess maybe."
He opened his mouth to reply but Donna reached for his trunks and drew his attention away from their argument.
"What are you doing?" he asked faintly.
"We need to cool you down, what did you think did I get the towels for?" She undid the band at the front.
"But these are swimming trunks; they won't mind the wet towels," he objected but didn't move. Donna's hand was still on the band and even through his dizzy mind he recognized that he had no problem with her closeness.
"Coward. Dad always told me I needed to get out of all my clothes when I had heat stroke" she told him but dropped the band.
Great, how did she think the image of a naked Donna was going to help him cool down? Not that her swimsuit left much to the imagination whatsoever. The slowly drying fabric clung to her bright skin and outlined her soft curves.
The warmth this sight added to his already cooking body suddenly died when Donna applied the first towel to his chest. He gasped and all but expected a cloud of steam rising from where cold fabric met feverish skin.
"Is it too cold?" Donna asked worried, but the Doctor bravely shook his head. The towel was room temperature, maybe slightly less and he realized just how overheated his body really was.
They spent the next minutes in careful silence. Donna's eyes darted over to the Doctor's face whenever she applied another towel on his body and the Doctor made sure to keep his expression relaxed whenever Donna looked. At first he winced with every new layer but slowly his temperature seemed to adapt and the towels started feeling pleasantly cool.
With a satisfied "Done," Donna sat up and examined her piece of work. The amused sparkle in her eyes told the Doctor he looked like a poorly wrapped mummy.
"How are you feeling now?" she wanted to know and when he assured her, truthfully this time, that he already felt a great deal better, she believed him.
"Why don't you go back to the beach?" he proposed. "You deserve some free time after this mess." 'That I am' he added silently, hoping Donna caught the hidden apology in his words.
"Nah, I've had enough sun for now" Donna said and got up from the bed. The sparkle in her eyes was still there when she glanced at him and what he'd earlier mistaken for amusement was simply relief. She seemed glad he was all right and he knew that she would not leave without him. If it wouldn't have ruined her work of the past minutes, he would have jumped right up and hugged her.
"What do you think about a nice cup of tea instead? Ice-tea for you, of course." Donna said, but the Doctor's mouth twitched in disgusted.
"Eww, cold tea?"
"You won't get a hot cup as long as you're looking like a ripe tomato. Think of something else" she decided strictly.
"Hmm, the ice-cream you mentioned earlier sounds tempting" he mused with a lick to his lips and Donna rolled her eyes with a smile playing about the corner of her mouth. Mumbling something about babysitting a big child she left the room to get the two of them their dessert.