If She Ever Remembers Me
A/N: Spoilers for Castrovalva (possibly some other Old Who as well; I've never seen the episodes in question, I only know the trivia) and anything with Donna – even as far as the end of Series 4.
She was lying prone in a hospital bed when he walked in; that fiery woman who could so easily put him in his place… She'd even said once that he needed someone to stop him sometimes, and he was inclined to believe she had never been more right.
He walked in and placed his hand gently on top of her snow white curls. Her hair had apparently lost its fire, but her personality never did… nor did her gaze, as he saw when she opened her eyes.
"Who?" she asked blearily.
"Shh, Donna, it's alright." His voice cracked.
"How d'you…" she mumbled.
He cleared his throat, then spoke a little louder, "It's me, Donna; it's the Doctor."
She slowly shook her head. "No. No, you're not my doctor. I may be nigh on a hundred years old, but I'm not senile! Tell me who you are."
He cracked a smile at that; proof positive that her fire had never even come close to fading. "You don't remember, but we used to spend a lot of time together… traveling… quite a while back, now, for you at least." As he spoke, the hand atop her head drifted down to her temple. He raised his other hand and placed it opposite its pair before closing his eyes.
"Traveling? With you? But that's…" She sounded confused at first, but her voice tapered off as her lost memories were restored. "Doctor?" she asked, this time in recognition.
He offered her a sad smile.
Her eyes grew moist as she gazed at him, until finally she burst out, "You PRAWN!"
"Ow!" he exclaimed as she smacked his outstretched arm. He recoiled. "Donna?"
"You CRAZY–"
"Ow!"
"–INSENSITIVE–"
"Ow! Donna!"
"–PIG-HEADED–"
"Ouch!"
"–MARTIAN!"
"Donna, what?"
"Why'd you do that to me, huh? You had no right! No right! I asked you not to! I told you not to! I BEGGED you not to! And what did you do?"
"Donna, I gave you your life back!"
"My OLD life! I didn't want my OLD life! Do you have any idea what it was like for me? Do you? I knew something was off, I could tell SOMETHING was missing, I just didn't know what; it was maddening's what it was! And what do you have to say for yourself, mister?"
"I'm sorry. I really am, Donna, I am so sorry."
"Well, that's too bad, Sunshine, because…" she paused, taking in his downtrodden appearance and his downcast gaze before continuing, "I forgive you."
He perked up at that. "What?"
"Of course I forgive you, you great big outer-space Dumbo; I probably would've done the same thing if the roles were reversed, seeing as we share the same mind. The same dense Time Lord mind! You DO know the metaphysical properties of the Zero Room would've led me to a full recovery in just under twenty-four hours, right?"
"Donna, as you said, we share the same mind; you know the Zero Room was destroyed in the Big Bang…"
"…and you know Nyssa made a cabinet out of the walls of the Zero Room that would serve the same purpose in a pinch!"
"Which was lost in the Time War, but alright; if it'll make you feel better, I'll have the TARDIS make a new Zero Room so that this never happens again, okay?"
"Okay. You're still a prawn, though."
He grinned. "Aren't I just?"
She slapped him.
"Ow."
"You big baby, you're not hurt."
"Nah." His smile wavered. "But, come to think of it… you should be."
"Morphine." She waved the button for the remote dispenser for him to see. "It's a wonderful thing." She sighed.
"Humans." He beamed. "Knew there was a reason I loved 'em."
"Speaking of reasons, you're the reason I won the lottery, aren't you? Just after I married Shaun…" Donna sighed again at the blank look on his face. Bloody timelines… "Still running, are you?"
"Yup," he replied, popping the p.
She squinted at him. "Not for much longer though."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Same mind, remember? You wouldn't've come back unless you thought there was a chance that you wouldn't be able to later. That's how you console yourself, isn't it; you never go back to see your old companions because, so long as you don't, you know you still can?"
"Yeah." It sounded like he was saying 'yup' but without enunciating the p, as though he were too tired to pronounce the plosive.
"Time catches up with us all eventually."
"Well–"
Donna placed a finger on his lips to silence him. "Don't bother lying to me, Spaceman. Save it for someone who might believe you… and if you're smart you won't say it until you've got some sort of proof in your hand."
He swallowed as she pulled back and laid her arm down on the thin blanket covering her. The Doctor was unsure what to say now; it seemed like there was nothing else to be said, so he just stood there in silence until Donna's eyelids slid shut and she exhaled deeply one last time. He opened his mouth to say farewell to the woman who was his best friend, but his throat closed around the unspoken words and he merely walked out, heedless of the steady single tone from the machinery in the now-unoccupied room behind him.
A/N: I know, I know, I'm a bad girl; I go for two months without posting anything despite promising several new chapters, and when I finally do get back I give you a one-shot out of nowhere. What can I say? Inspiration in new places and writer's block everywhere else? Either way, remember: reviews are wonderful. ^.^; Cookies for anyone who can guess where the Doctor is in his timeline and identify everything I foreshadowed here that happens after this!
EDIT (3/1/14) – I had forgotten that I had mentioned the Moment in this story, but given certain revelations in a more recent episode I have now tweaked it so that it's just the Time War and not specifically the Moment that led to him no longer having the Zero Cabinet. (Is it called that? Whatever, I'm gonna call it that.)