Half Broken Things

Summary: What would you do if the person beside you was broken, and the only thing that could save them was the voice screaming within your head? Donna can hear Rose.

It was a face Donna Noble had not seen before. It was the shape of a heart, gently sloping into a chin which was covered by two pink soft lips. They were pressed together, the skin around it turning light pink as a tongue pressed against them from inside. Her eyes were a shade of hazel mixed with green in two gentle swirls, they were transfixing eyes that were filled with fear. Around her face a layer of long blonde hair hung which swung below her chin before catching on her shoulder and resting there.

When her voice spoke it was one of the most alluring sounds she had heard, the voice was soft with a slight cockney accent and it escaped to fill Donna's ears as the soft pink lips moved.

"Help me. Please help us. We need him".

Donna woke with a start in her bed, the duvet was tangled around her ankles and a thin layer of sweat covered her forehead as she sat up in her bed. The room was a deep purple and littered with random alien artefacts that she had collected and kept within the Tardis. She ran her fingers through her long hair which rested on her shoulders before shaking it back, trying to remove the fragments of the dream from her head. It the third time she had heard those words. The first two times she just heard the words as a faint whisper, but this time the words had become strong and clear, accompanied by the pretty face of a young woman.

Donna sat in her room in the darkness whilst debating whether the girl was just a dream built up of fragmented memories with the Doctor, or if it was a girl in dire need of their help. It was a question that she mulled over until the early hours of the morning when the Doctor bounded into her room, his silly grin greeting her readily.

"Morning morning morning" he grinned enthusiastically. Donna blinked away the fears of the night before matching his grin and jumping out of bed.

They spent the day content in each others company as they explore a new planet which was created from the dust of vacant stars. Donna stood at the top of a mountain formed from ancient star dust and shut her eyes as she raised her head to feel the strange breeze travelling across her face. In her mind she pictured the sight of the dying stars and how strange their beauty was in comparison to the familiar sights of her old home in London. In her mind she could see the darkness of the night sky being lit by stars, but the more she pictured it in her mind, the more the stars faded into burning orbs of flames. Amber and gold flames licked the nights sky, tearing through it and burning anything within its way to destruction, in her mind she saw planets burning, raged by wars, and in her head she heard their screams.

"Doctor! I need you! Doctor…please".

Donna recognised the voice instantly; it burned through her mind resurrecting the nightmares of the previous nights. She paused on the top of mountain, gently rocking as voices unknown to her screamed throughout her head, she raised her fingers to her temples gasping for air as the intensity of someone else's emotions shook her.

The Doctor was standing on the edge glancing out over the night sky, it seemed from the top of the mountain he could actually touch the stars, the edge of a smile touched his lips as he watched the soft glow of the stars and remembered the things he'd lost.

He glanced back over his should to see Donna rocking precariously on her perch with her face screwed up in agony. The Doctors' face instantly fell into a frown as he leaped backwards from his ledge over to hers, he squinted into her face

"Donna? Donna you alright?" he asked. Donna didn't reply to him, instead she focused on the face in her mind, the woman's eyes were wide with fear but also laced with determination, she could see the fire that decorated the background of wherever as was, and the stench of death was slowly filling her nose.

"Tell the Doctor I need him. Tell him it's Rose…"

Those were the last words she heard before a blast ripped through her vision and her eyes flung open glancing desperately around for Rose.

The Doctor squeezed her shoulders trying to get her attention as her eyes darted feverously around searching for the scenes that had invaded her mind only moments ago.

"Donna? Donna you alright?" his voice was harsh and serious cutting through the millions of thoughts that ran through her mind.

"What?" she replied glancing up at him as though he had been speaking nonsensically.

"You looked…well…odd" the Doctor replied scrutinising her with his eyes. She shrugged at him forcing herself to smile at him

"Sorry, just thinking" she replied turning away from him so that she didn't have to lie to him directly.

"Right" he answered softly, still not believing her as he watched her back. Donna wiped her face quickly, turning back to meet his eyes. They were raw for a split second as they watched her, she could see the faces of every person he'd ever lost dancing across his eyes and the pain in them broke her. Donna watched him slowly; almost afraid of what she needed to tell him. Her normally sparkling eyes were filled with sorrow and her face was ashen pale. The Doctor watched her again, his brown eyes studying her quizzically, his forehead was drawn into a small frown and his hands rested palm to palm as he watched her face.

"Doctor…" she began again, unsure of how to say the inevitable words that were beginning to form on her lips. She knew what his reaction would be – she had seen him on Christmas Day, just moments after he'd lost her and balanced precariously on the boarder of insanity before giving into despair, and she knew what she was about to say had the ability to destroy him.

"Yup" he replied, his voice as cheerful as always, despite the slight look of concern on his face. Donna remained silent for a moment relishing the look of contentness upon his face, she didn't want to shatter him but she knew that it would also have the ability to heal him wholly – like she had been unable to. Her eyes were quiet on his face as his thin lips pulled into a familiar quirky grin

"Well…let me guess" he began, his tongue rolling over his lips and his eyes sparkling, "You've decided to runaway with a Slitheen?"

Her snicker urged him to continued

"No? Too green. Ah…. You fancy a Jadoon? No? Um….give me a hint! Maybe you're-"

"I can hear Rose". She closed her eyes as she cut in, unable to watch his face as the words effortlessly tumbled out of her mouth. There was a moment silence in which the tension of it could have crushed the Tardis, the silence was corrosive, it cut into everyone present until Donna dared to open her eyes. The sight before her very nearly broke her heart. She stood silently, no words could be expressed which would create any sense of consolation for the Doctor – that would be if she could even retain the ability to form words. Of his entire expression, it was his eyes which broke her. The darkest pain filled his eyes until they formed into dark glinted orbs. His mouth was slightly parted, his lips pulled away from one another so the soft pink of his tongue could be seen but no words tumbled out – instead it because an empty void of deficit emotion.

"Rose."

He finally spoke after what had felt like a million heartbreaks. The word was barely even a word, instead it came out hoarse, each syllable separate as though it was a name that had been practised over and over until one had forgotten how to even say it properly. In that singly word Donna could hear the world of pain that rested heavily on his heart and she felt a piece of her own heart breaking for him.

"Rose" he tried again, this time words forming against his tense lips.

"You hear Rose?" The words had become desperate, like an addict begging for a fix – one only she could deliver. Donna nodded slowly, afraid of speaking in case it shattered that glass like figure the Doctor had become. She watched as his eyes blazed through every emotion possible, from the sorrow of losing her, the pain of watching her fall to the love he had filled his heart with for her, and to the anger that burned within him for his inability to save her, and finally, finally his eyes transfixed upon hope, hope at getting her back, hope of crushing her soft skin against him, hope of no longer being so cold as she would be there to warm him and hold him.

Donna watched as each of these emotions filtered through his eyes as easily as a glass veil, the usual barrier shielding his emotions had been lost. An eternity of silence held them before he spoke again

"Is she…did she…how is" an abundance of half broken sentences tumbled out of his mouth before he paused, trying to form legitimate sentence in his mind. He breathed deeply as though by some unseen force the air was being slowly withdrawn from the room. He tried to force each word out one by one, devoid of the emotion that fuelled him so the words no longer sounded so foreign and could be absorbed.

"What did she say?". Despite how hard he had tried, desperation seeped through and lurked heavily upon his words. His palms were no longer limp by his side, instead they flexed and pressed against each other, the emotions within him creating and unnatural force surging within him. Donna retracted the breath she was about to expel and held it within her trembling mouth as though it were some sort of miracle elixir. She knew this was the moment she was about to break him, the hope in his eyes to be finally shattered by the darkness which would overtake him.

"She was asking for help, she said 'there are things waiting in the darkness, creatures of metal, fire, blood, but he's out there, burning through time, facing a thousand dangers across the stars, and never giving up.. he'll come back to save us"

Donna blurted it out, scarcely pausing for breath as the words tumbled heavily from her mouth, each one of them impacting the Doctor like a blow from a fist. Finally, when the words were done and silence loomed, she dared to look at him. Despair was barely visible in the hard gems his eyes had become, instead rage burned them. The delicate brown had turned nearly amber as fury pulsed through him.

"No". The syllable broke Donna, the despair on it was evident.

"No…no…they took her from me" his words were soft, heavy with anger, before he flew from his chair consumed in a fit of rage, his body seeming demon from his mind. His voice rose as his hands flew out

"They took her from me! She should be safe…she should be" his voice fell again so it was a tortured whispered

"She should be safe from them. This should have been for something" and then he was silent, his head falling into the palm of one trembling hand. Tears wetted the globes trapped within his skull as Donna stepped back, almost frightened by his rage. They sat that way for several moments before raising his eyes to meet Donna's. This caused her to freeze, at first blush he struck her as a frightened puppy with large unknowing eyes, then beneath that she saw the true anger pulsating within him, the anger which turned his eyes into not those of a man, but of something else altogether, into a monster – a monster seeking revenge.

The Doctor studied Donna's eyes and saw part curiosity and a lack of understanding clouding them, and he knew that she needed to know.

"When she fell" his voice was soft like something being translated out of a nightmare. She looked up at him, wanting to understand the torment that haunted his soul.

"When she fell, there was only one thought that kept me going, just one. It was that something good had come from this. That although I'd lost her, the Daleks were lost too, they hadn't won. But now…now it was all for nothing. If they're back…they're not even back here – they've gone to hurt her again and its just…" an exasperated sigh escaped replacing any words that were forming. He held Donna's eyes for a moment, ashamed o the pity that filled them. Then the anger surged back through, this time he wouldn't fail her, this time he would save her and so he stepped away, reaching for the controls that would be his savoir.

For Rose it was hell all over again. The fires that raged, the screams of death and the reek of fear that stung the air. It was as though it had been for nothing, the living with the pieces of her broken heart rattling within her at every turn of the day. She'd endeavoured through the rage and the depression – she'd lost him and a part of herself so that she was barely recognisable to herself, all so that the Daleks couldn't win. Yet here they stood, the golden globes of defence shinning proudly, almost mockingly at her, as she stood with her pale finger folded into one another so that tiny fists clenched by her sides, and with whatever forced had caused her to become Bad Wolf, she used it to propel her cry for help into the Tardis.

As her cry hit Donna it propelled itself through her mind filling every cell of her brain with Rose. As this happened it reverberated through the Tardis causing the entire ship to vibrate and rock unsteadily. The Doctor's eyes opened wide with anticipation

"Come on old girl" he urged the ship as he hit controls, he glanced back over one drawn, tense shoulder to see Donna. Her face would have been beautiful if it wasn't the perfect picture of fear. The Doctor froze, reading her face instantly his eyes urged her to listen

"What?" he barked instantly, "What's she saying?".

Donna opened her eyes quickly and her mouth opened as she repeated the stolen words that had been forced into her mind.

"The Daleks, they're here, they're trying to collapse the void, trying to break through to you. You have to barricade yourselves, Doctor – don't let two worlds suffer for the cost of one".

For a moment it was as though she was still there with him, her proud words tumbling from her pretty mouth. Despite his misgivings and failures, and despite her battles she was still Rose, she was still willing to sacrifice herself for mankind no mater how everyone had let her down. A soft, proud smile adorned his lips, he knew that Rose – his Rose – was still surviving. The moment of proudness only captivated his face for a moment before it was released back to the savage rage that fulfilled the rest of his body. Donna opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the screeching alarms of the control panel. The Doctor's eyes darted feverishly towards the pane, his eyes dancing over each control and screen until each reading slot into place within his brain alongside Rose's words. He began to frantically hit controls until the familiar sound of the Tardis pounded into the room.

"Donna!" the Doctor shouted from where he was clinging on, "Hold on, it's happening now!"

She grabbed the nearest pole, the slick metal was cool beneath her sweating fingertips, his words had reached her just in time before the Tardis began to shake and shudder, flinging abstract objects of the ground.

"What's going on?" Donna screamed over the crashing which sounded like the universe was collapsing.

"It's the parallel world, its collapsing!" he called back as he hit a button on the panel which caused the Tardis to shake even more.

Finally all was still, the lights within the Tardis shone thinly over its occupants.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked disjointedly. A faint nod from Donna allowed the Doctor to focus on the screen before him.

"What happened?"

"The worlds collapsed and collided forming one" he explained softly, his eyes scouring the screen

"So" Donna began, working it out in her head , "So she could be-"

"Here" her finished for her with the weight of the world on the decibel.

"She's here". He watched the screen before him, his lips slightly parted and his hearts scarcely daring to beat for fear of a hallucination provoked by many dreams. Before him she stood on the screen, she looked slightly dazed and confused, her features were thinner now, her cheek bones more prominent yet she was still gloriously beautiful. Her hazel eyes glanced in wonder at the blue box before her and her blonde hair had grown out so it hung heavily over her shoulders. Neither of them dared to move.

"Rose" he breathed.

"Doctor" she whispered. And then they both ran.

Their bodies collided with the impact of a years worth of heartbreak, their skin stung against the texture of the others but they didn't care. The Doctor's arms flung heavily around Rose's waist, his fingers sinking into her soft skin, his eyes were pressed shut so that the world that was spinning around him couldn't affect the stillness of the moment before him. Her scent flooded his nose, his brain lost in a haze of her, consuming him as opium would. Her scent was deadly to him and his heart pounded so hard against her that it caused him to quiver. His fingers rose into her blonde hair, each strand falling through his fingers like forbidden sand spun from silk.

"You're here" he choked, the words falling heavily from his mouth, her soft hands framed his face, her fingertips treading a secret dance into his skin. She nodded silently, her eyes drowning in the sight of him. A gently smile rode upon her lips until he leaned forward and devoured it, his lips trembling against the softness of hers.

"You're real" he breathed against her, fearing his imagination was taunting him. She nodded, her hair dancing over her face, her eyes squinted around her

"The Daleks?" she asked. When she spoke the Doctor feared he may shatter from the force of the decibels, he feared he would never hear her again. His eyes remained locked onto hers which contained all the colours of the morning sky dawning within them.

"Genesis Arc…by void…trapped them again". He explained his understated heroics in a number of disjointed words. Rose smiled her brilliant smile which captured the warmth of the sun and radiated it out of her eyes as love fore the man who stood before her.

Rose lifted one sunken arm gently into the air so that she could press her fingertip against his. The moment their soft skin touched, each individual call colliding with the others', a gasp enveloped them. Completeness consumed and fulfilled them, they could be one again. The Doctor lifted her, she was still so light and soft to touch, he was trembling so heavily at the return of her that he feared he might drop her – he carried her over the threshold, her Tardis key still dangling around her neck setting his heart alight as his hand tucked into hers. Half broken things they were no more, hearts and souls mended at the strength of a touch, the combined together to heal one another until they were complete again. Hand and hand within their Tardis, they were no longer broken. What had destroyed them had saved them.