Disclaimer: Sorry, but I don't own Doctor Who. I know, it's hard to believe. :P
A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews, guys. I really appreciate the feedback!
Chapter Two
Donna stared in horror at the Doctor's sinking form and the uncharacteristic look of terror painted on his face. She thought for a few moments that maybe it was just rubbish to get her to stop from trying to murder Dee-Dee, which seemed like something the Doctor would pull. But the look of intense panic on his face couldn't be faked, even by her Spaceman. Besides, as a bubble of precious air exploded from his lips and he sank into the darkness and out of her line of vision, it was more than obvious that something wasn't right with the situation.
"What the hell is going on here?" Donna cried, kicking her legs to tread water as she almost joined him in sinking beneath the surface of the freezing water. One of the slivvy fish or silver fish or whatever it was that the Doctor had called them earlier brushed up against her leg, and she flinched away. "Are you doing something to him? He's sinking!" She jabbed an accusing finger in the direction that the Doctor had vanished in. She still wasn't completely sure that he wasn't having her on.
"Oh my God," Dee-Dee choked out, her dark eyes owlishly round. "Oh my God. That's–that's just what happened to him and that Sky woman on the Crusader 50! His face…"
No, Donna thought, mildly suspicious about whether Dee-Dee was telling the truth or not. It could still be some sort of trick. How can it be what happened to him on that shuttle? That's rubbish! She hesitated, eyes flickering back towards where she had last glimpsed the Time Lord. But what if it's true? What if he is drowning? another mental voice prompted her. Then it'll be all your fault if the skinny bloke dies!
That was enough for her. Inhaling a gasp of oxygen and tuning out Dee-Dee's frightened cries of concern for the Doctor, she expertly dove beneath the waves. Well, she would have liked to think that her dive was expert. She really had no experience with swimming, so she wasn't quite sure what it officially rated. All she knew was that once she was submerged completely, her strangely skintight suit protected her from the cold. It clung even tighter to her, if that was even possible, and kept even a drop of liquid from leaking inside.
Donna gave a powerful kick, one which moved her with surprising speed towards the seemingly endless bottom of the chasm-like lake. She assumed that something was up with the gravity here, like the gravity-free restaurant. She dismissed the puzzling thought from her mind and moved back to more pressing matters, such as the drowning Doctor. She could only hope that the 'superior alien physiology' he was always going on about included being able to hold his breath longer than a normal human. If not…then whatever she found at the bottom wasn't going to be very good.
A glimpse of black below her caught her attention, and she squinted through the perfectly clear water that stung her eyes. The Doctor was sprawled limply on a gathering of gorgeous sapphire and diamond rocks, caught there during his downward spiral. Donna was eternally grateful for this, since her lungs were already burning for air. She kicked with both legs, then stopped right before him. The human-looking alien's eyes were still open impossibly wide, the pupils focused right on her. His expression seemed to beg her for help, still as horribly frozen as it had been when he had first started sinking. For some reason, it almost seemed like he couldn't even control his facial muscles. This was very troubling to Donna, but she didn't have time to think about what it meant.
Come on, Doctor! Help me out here! she begged him silently, grabbing one of his arms with both of her hands, straining and trying to pull him upward. He made no sign that he intended to help her, expression still frozen in one of utter terror. Her lungs burned even more insistently, and her throat was almost painfully scratchy. She had to get some air soon, or she was going to drown. But she couldn't leave him down there to die, not after all they'd been through together! If it weren't for him, Lance and his alien spider friend would have killed her way back in the day, preventing her from participating in all this wonderful traveling. And he'd saved her life so many times…
Suddenly, another pair of hands wrapped around the Doctor's other arm. Donna's head whipped up in surprise, a bubble of air escaping from her mouth, and she saw Dee-Dee hovering just across from her, a determined look on her pretty face. She nodded briskly, which Donna took to mean that she was there to help. Then they both pulled the Doctor's body upward.
Donna kicked as powerfully as she could, Dee-Dee doing the same, as they fought to reach the surface. Blackness was already starting to spot round the edges of Donna's vision, so she couldn't even begin to imagine how the Doctor was holding up, since he had been under so much longer than she had. She could only pray that the lack of oxygen hadn't already affected his amazing brain. She certainly couldn't run the TARDIS herself, that was for sure.
Wonderfully, their heads broke the surface at that exact instant. Donna continued gripping the Doctor as she gasped in the coveted air, slinging one arm over her shoulders and choking. Dee-Dee was doing the same, though she wasn't nearly as oxygen-starved. "This…almost…heightens my opinion…of you," Donna managed to say, earning a small twist of the lips from Dee-Dee.
"It certainly heightens my opinion of myself," Dee-Dee murmured softly, bowing her head. "Now, could we get out of the water yet? It's bloody freezing."
Oh, that was right. Donna had forgotten about the girl's lack of a suit; she was only in her regular clothing. "Sure, sounds brilliant. Doctor, how does that sound to–" She turned to look at the Doctor, then broke off and froze. He was hanging limply off her, eyes now pressed closed and skin several shades paler. He looked…well, he looked rather like a corpse. A very dead one.
"Oh my God! Doctor!" Donna shrieked, eyes nearly bugging out of her head at the sight of her alien companion in such a state. "Come on; we've got to get him on dry land!" She made for the side of the lake, flapping her free arm through the water to move them forward. She reached it before Dee-Dee and pulled her body up onto the concrete. Then, ignoring the startled cries of several gawking bystanders, she tugged her half of the Doctor up, followed by Dee-Dee. Water splashed and sloshed everywhere, wetting everyone within spitting distance.
Donna paid the outraged humans no mind, dropping to her knees in front of the unconscious Doctor. Staring at his surprisingly muscled chest, which was easily shown through his skintight suit, her throat clenched when she saw that not even the lightest breath of air was moving it up and down.
"He isn't breathing! Oh my God, he isn't breathing!" Dee-Dee cried shrilly, wringing her dripping hands in front of her.
"Yeah, I figured that out, thanks!" Donna shouted irritably back at her, not tearing her gaze from the Doctor's motionless chest. I've got to do something! she thought frantically, moving on her knees to get closer to the Doctor's head. Maybe…what was it? CPR? Her granddad had once shown her how to perform the lifesaving procedure when she'd been about ten or eleven. She'd even gotten to practice on her mum's dog, which hadn't gone over too well.
Taking a deep breath, Donna positioned herself in what she hoped was the right place. Then she placed both hands on the center of the Doctor's chest and started pumping it up and down, a few times extra for good measure. Then she stared at his parted lips for several seconds, willing herself to do what needed to be done, then swiftly leaned forward and breathed into his mouth. Pulling back, she repeated the steps two more times, and paused to survey her handiwork.
"He's still not breathing!" Dee-Dee cried with horror.
"I thought I was doing it right…" Donna murmured breathlessly, biting down hard on her lower lip while staring at the Doctor's limp form. She was really starting to get worried; he hadn't moved or even breathed since she'd pulled him out of the drink. She's been doing the compressions directly over his heart, which she vaguely remembered her granddad explaining was the way to get it started again if it happened to stop. And the heart was on the left side of the chest, wasn't it?
"Oh God, of course!" she suddenly shouted, causing the soaked Dee-Dee to jump in surprise, then stare at her with wide eyes. "He's got two hearts!" Hurriedly leaning forward, she started pumping both hands on the right side of the Doctor's chest, then switched back to the left side once more. Inhaling deeply, she pressed her lips to his and breathed into his mouth while pinching his nose closed.
Unexpectedly, the Doctor's chest jerked, and he coughed. Donna jerked back, covering her immense relief with a faux disgusted expression. "I just saved your life, and that's the bloody thanks I get? You coughing into my mouth?" She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, then abruptly halted all formalities. "Doctor, are you all right?" she asked in a meek voice.
The Doctor was still lying on his back, head lolled to one side. Still coughing, the clear water of the lake spewed from his lips and all over the concrete. He gasped for air, coughing and wheezing while Donna stared at him with much concern. She was about ready to resume CPR, whether he was conscious or not, when his dark eyes finally rolled into full view, darting around to Dee-Dee and the people that were unabashedly staring. He shuddered violently, the expression of fear that had been present in the water coming back to his face. "So cold...completely paralyzed…" he muttered, talking to no one but himself.
"That…that was what the creature who was inside the woman said," Dee-Dee uttered after this revelation, causing Donna to turn and look at her. "About the cold, and being unable to move…" A guilty look crossed her face, which led to Donna noting silently that maybe the girl wasn't quite over what had happened on the shuttle, or her part in it.
The Doctor seemed to shake himself, the expression of fear vanishing from his face. He blinked groggily up at his companion, mouth twisting into a grimace. "Donna? Blimey, why are we all wet? I don't exactly remember going for a swi–" His eyes fell on Dee-Dee, and he became suddenly silent. The subject of his attention became very still, avoiding his gaze.
"Doctor, there's been some sort of accident," Donna said gently, placing both hands soothingly on his shoulder. "You jumped into the water after, uh, Dee-Dee and I, and you almost drowned."
"But how is that even possible? I can swim," the Doctor said dubiously.
"I know you can swim," Donna said impatiently. "But you were drowning. I saw it. So did she." She jerked a thumb towards Dee-Dee, who looked embarrassed at all the attention. "I had to pull you out and give you CPR and everything."
"But I can swim." The Doctor looked strangely detached with the situation, seeming stuck on the fact that she might not believe his swimming skills.
"I know, Spaceman," she snapped without bothering to suppress her supreme annoyance. "But the point is, you didn't even try to save yourself. Unless it was all some trick to stop me from pummeling Dee-Dee over there, which I really doubt. How daft do you think I am? And you weren't even breathing when we got you out. I had to jumpstart both hearts before you even started breathing again!"
"But I can swim," the Doctor echoed himself musingly.
"We get the idea!" Donna bellowed angrily, huffing an exasperated sigh. "Don't you remember me punching Little Miss Tried-to-Kill-You in the face? We fell into the lake, and you jumped in after us?" She tried desperately to jog his memory. At least he still seemed to remember both her and himself, or things would have been very dire. She'd heard of amnesia before, and didn't want to take the chance that the Doctor had it. That would have been utterly disastrous.
"Oh yes," he said quietly, looking away and focusing on the wet concrete. "I tried to stop you, but you wouldn't listen to me. And then you punched her, and you both fell in…" he recounted, paling a few more shades, if that was even possible. He coughed weakly, turning his head politely away as he did so.
"Doctor, I think you need to get checked out," Donna noted, brow furrowing. "You're not doing so well."
The Time Lord chuckled with some amusement, though it didn't really seem to fit the situation. "The Doctor going to see a doctor. Never thought I'd hear something like that," he managed to say, before coughing again.
"I'm serious, Spaceman," Donna said gravely, to emphasis her point. "You don't really seem like…yourself."
"That's insulting, Donna Noble. And everyone is always saying that I'm rude. Rude and not ginger."
"Now see what you and those other shuttle people did to him?" Donna demanded, turning to Dee-Dee. "You made 'im bloody mad!"
"He wasn't like this on the shuttle," Dee-Dee whispered. "And this is different. He almost drowned. That's traumatic in itself, I'd say."
The Doctor heaved himself into a sitting position, then gagged and coughed again. "I haven't been this sick since the time I accidentally drank that poison," he rasped. "Remember, Donna? The giant wasp who was disguised as a human? You kissed me, to give me a shock." He grinned cheekily, then his eyes rolled back in his head. He slumped to the ground with a muted thud, and several of the bystanders gasped at this startling new development in the unfolding drama.
"Is he going to be all right?" Dee-Dee asked faintly.
"He should be, after a few dozen ticks in bed. He's going to rest whether he likes it or not, if it's the last thing I do," Donna stated firmly. "He'll probably try his best to avoid it, but I won't allow any of that. He needs rest, especially after what happened on the Crusader 50." She shot Dee-Dee another scathing glare; one that she was sure could almost catch something on fire. She couldn't have the girl thinking that they were actually friends, after what she and all the others aboard the shuttle had put him through.
"Do you need some help? I doubt that you can get him to your room without some help," Dee-Dee observed nervously.
"He's as skinny as a rake; he can't be that heavy." Donna stood up and grabbed the Doctor by his arms. She pulled as hard as she could, but it was like she was tugging on something that was bolted into place. "Maybe…I was…a bit…off," she grunted, dropping his upper body back to the ground with a disgusted look. She shot appraising glances at the gathered crowd of humans and aliens around them, which caused most of them to scurry off to avoid getting volunteered to assist her. "Some help that lot was," she scoffed with a heated scowl.
"Like I said before." Dee-Dee hesitated, then gave a small smile. "Which side do you want?"
Donna dumped her half of the Doctor onto the sofa, which made Dee-Dee stumble and drop the rest of him. He rolled off the edge of the couch, still unconscious, and landed on top of the poor girl, knocking them both to the thick carpet. She squeaked, more from surprise than in pain.
Donna muttered something unsavory under her breath, then knelt beside the jumbled pile of limbs. Shoving with all her strength, she managed to push the Doctor back onto the couch. Once she had firmly settled him on his back, he looked much more peaceful. If not for the pronounced shadows under his closed eyes and the whiteness of his skin, he would have looked almost normal. Oh, and then there was the black leather diving suit that he was still clothed in, since Donna hadn't been about to undress him and put him back in his normal suit. She was sure that he had loads of spare suits stuffed in the TARDIS somewhere.
"What should we do now?" Dee-Dee murmured, as though worried she would wake the Doctor. Donna personally doubted that the task was even possible, since he seemed to be sleeping like the dead.
"I don't really know. Does this place even have a telly?"
"No." She looked exasperated. "I meant about, um, the Doctor. Shouldn't you be more worried about him?"
"He'll be fine, after some sleep. Then I'm more than ready to get back to travelling. I've had bloody enough of this place."
"Maybe you should, you know, get him some food from one of the pavilions," Dee-Dee said sensibly. "Swimming in the slyvivin fish enclosure always makes you lose several pounds, because of the gravity there. I don't really know the specifics. And since the Doctor swallowed quite a lot of that water…"
Donna nodded. That matched up with what the Doctor had been rambling on about earlier, so she was probably telling the truth. She was still pretty suspicious of Dee-Dee, but decided to trust her judgment for the moment. "Spaceman really shouldn't lose any weight. He'll shrivel away to nothing before too long, with all that running that he does."
"I'll help you, if you want," Dee-Dee offered helpfully, sending a worried glance at the sleeping Doctor. It was plainly obvious that she was much more worried about the Doctor than Donna, who was simply convinced that he would sleep it off.
The Doctor's current companion almost refused, then decided that it would do well to have some assistance in gathering some nourishment. Besides, she didn't even know how to find her way around. Not that she would ever tell Dee-Dee this. "Fine, might as well be useful," she sniffed haughtily. "Lead the way, I suppose."
Dee-Dee bobbed her head once, still seeming nervous, then hurried out into the hallway. She paused until Donna had followed and latched the door behind them, then continued on. They walked in silence through the complicated maze of brilliantly gleaming hallways. Donna couldn't tell if they were going to same way that she and the Doctor had gone that morning or not, only that plenty more people were out and about. They passed several groups of laughing and chatting beings, some of them with appearances that made Donna try her best not to stare.
Finally, after what seemed like quite a while, Dee-Dee walked through a doorway and into a large room. It was completely white, from the walls to the gathering of chairs to the marble front desk. Donna could smell a variety of different foods, and realized that she was actually pretty hungry, despite the enormous breakfast she had consumed that morning. Maybe there really was something to the losing-a-few-pounds-from-the-lake-water theory.
Dee-Dee approached the desk, peering over it to meet the eyes of the pink-skinned woman sitting behind it. "Hello," she said politely. "I need three of the slyvivin fish enclosure specials, one of them in the extra-large size."
"Yes, right away," the woman promised in a musical, bell-like voice. "Your number is 674; please take a seat."
"We have to wait?" Donna questioned as Dee-Dee sat down on a snow white chair. "There aren't even any other people here. This is bloody horrible service." She dropped down in the chair directly across from the one the dark-skinned girl had taken.
"Do you think that the Doctor will be all right?" Dee-Dee reached up as though to adjust her glasses, then looked a little lost when she remembered that they had been left behind for the slyvivin fish. She shuddered violently and rubbed her arms. "The expression on his face…it was so much like what he looked when he was being drained by the creature two days ago." She closed her eyes for several seconds, rubbing them with the backs of her hands.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Donna said confidently. She arched a brow as she realized what a crucial chance she currently had, in the form of the quiet girl sitting across from her. She could find out more about the Crusader 50 and what had occurred in the sixty minutes when its passengers had been waiting for rescue. Dee-Dee seemed like a good source for information, since the Doctor hadn't sounded even a peep, which was really saying something for him. He was usually smacking his gob like a man possessed. "Now…tell me about what happened that day. On the shuttle, that is," she clarified in a soothing voice.
Dee-Dee opened her eyes and stared up at the blindingly white ceiling. "It was horrible. Just horrible," she said in a low voice, clearing her throat. "First there was that horrible pounding on the walls, then the Hostess tried to step into the cabin, and we found that it was gone. Just gone." She shivered again. "There was all that blinding light, then more pounding. Then the train was shaking, and Sky Silvestry was screaming…"
Donna leaned forward, clasping both hands tightly in her lap. "It must have been terrible," she encouraged sympathetically.
"That wasn't even the half of it. Then Sky was repeating everyone, and we all started screaming. All except the Doctor. He was crouched in front of her, trying to figure out was wrong with her, to help her. When Sky began speaking exactly when the rest of us did, he ushered us to the back so we could talk without being so close to her.
"But then the Professor and some of the others started accusing him of being in league with Sky. They were all shouting, and we almost didn't notice that Sky wasn't repeating anymore. That is, until the Doctor started talking. Then he went back to her and got down on her level, and started telling her that he could help. This long, drawn-out speech." Dee-Dee swallowed hard before going on. "But then he stopped for a few seconds, and Sky spoke before him, with his voice the one delayed.
"The creature inside Sky, whatever it was, insisted that she was free, and that the Doctor was possessed. The others helped her away from the Doctor, and acted like she was actually one of us. The Doctor was the one repeating by now. No one would listen to either the Hostess or I when we both tried to tell them that something was wrong."
Donna managed to nod woodenly. It sounded horrifying; it was no wonder that the Doctor was so unwilling to tell her about what he had experienced that day. She decided that it had to be one of the things he was always burying within himself and trying not to think about. One of the things that he hid behind that grin of his, and the constant chatter.
"Then I'm not entirely sure what happened next. Everyone was trying to throw the Doctor out the door, and they were all trying to lift him up off the floor. The Hostess was shouting something, and she rushed forward and grabbed Sky. She hit the door button, then that bright light exploded into the shuttle. We were all crying out, and I could feel the sunlight making my skin tingle, since I was so close to the door. Then both of them were sucked out." She stopped speaking, the tale evidently finished.
"I…how awful," Donna croaked, her mouth suddenly dry.
"Yes," Dee-Dee agreed solemnly. "Yes, it was."
A bell rang out merrily from the front desk, and the pink-skinned woman called out, "Order 674, please!"
Dee-Dee stood and hurried up to gather the plastic bags, while Donna slowly stood. She smoothed a strand of hair back from her forehead and inhaled a shaky breath. The story that Dee-Dee had just told her had made goosebumps break out on the exposed skin of her arms. She vowed mentally that once the Doctor had recovered from his near-drowning, she was going to have a nice, long talk with the bloke. And she certainly wasn't going to take no for an answer.
Dee-Dee joined her again, holding out two of the plastic bags, which Donna took. One was marked with a large red X, which she studied with a furrowed brow. "What's all this, then?" she demanded.
"The bag with the X is the special, which the Doctor should eat because of the drowning incident," Dee-Dee explained, leaving the room and starting rapidly back to where they had first started out. "And it's all a certain type of food that's prepared for everyone who goes swimming with the slyvivin fish."
"Well, that's…wizard," Donna said, raising both eyebrows until they almost merged with her hairline. "I suppose it'll work, if we can ever rouse the Doctor. He was completely dead to the world. I doubt he'll ever move again."
Dee-Dee pushed open the door to the correct room, then stumbled to a halt. She stared at something for several moments, then turned to face Donna with wide eyes. "Are you sure about that?" she asked in a shaky voice.
Donna pushed the girl aside, still clutching the two bags, and peered into the room. Her jaw dropped when her eyes landed on the empty couch, where the Doctor had been sleeping when they had left. "Where the hell has he wandered off to now?" she cried angrily. "It's like takin' care of a flippin' kid!"
Dee-Dee looked a little taken aback, staring at Donna with the facial expression of a person who was currently facing down a mad woman. Her gaze shifted towards the empty couch. "He was right there on the sofa when we left," she said worriedly.
"I know that," Donna said through gritted teeth, striding into the room. She dropped the two bags of steaming food onto one end of the couch, scowling fiercely. Planting both hands on her hips, she gazed around the room as though expecting the Doctor to pop out from behind a potted tree and grin cheekily at them. It really seemed like something that he was capable of.
"Where could he have gone?" Dee-Dee spoke up, hesitantly venturing into the room and placing her bag of food beside the others. "You don't have any friends here that he could be visiting, do you?"
"Of course not," Donna snapped, annoyed. "You could say that we're from quite a ways off. But knowing Spaceman, he's nipped off to visit some alien bloke that he hasn't seen for half a century or so." She added this last bit mostly to herself, speaking under her breath.
Dee-Dee's eyes widened at the puzzling words, but she brushed her confusion aside for more important matters, such as the Doctor's vanishing act. "Well, where're we going to look for him? We can't just let him wander about after he nearly drowned like that," she pointed out sensibly. "He's out of his head, and he wasn't doing so well when we pulled him out of the water."
Donna looked at the sack containing what she had rather hoped would be her afternoon tea. The delicious odors were still radiating from the bag, making her hungrier than ever. Heaving a sigh, she dropped her hands and turned towards Dee-Dee and the door. "Fine, let's go. If we don't find him soon, he could walk into a door or something. I don't think he's in his right mind at the moment."
Dee-Dee hurried back into the hall, pausing as Donna stormed after her, brutally slamming the door behind her. "We're supposed to be resting after what happened in that library, he said. But no. Instead, I'm chasing after 'im, throughout this whole bleeding resort!"
"Um…I'm sure we'll find him soon, with both of us looking," Dee-Dee said encouragingly, seeming to automatically assume that she was coming along to help with the search. Donna didn't disagree; it would certainly come in handy to have someone along to help her find her way round the resort. She hadn't even a clue about how to get about the place. It was absolutely enormous.
"Which way d'you want to go first?" Dee-Dee inquired, politely allowing a green-skinned couple to pass them by. She looked at Donna expectantly, awaiting an answer to her question
"Um…that way, I'd wager," Donna said smartly, pointing randomly towards the left. If memory served her correctly, that was the way that they had gone to get to both the lake with the fish in it and to pick up the food. So there were probably other attractions in that direction, drawing people in like flies. And the more people that were around, the more possible witnesses that could have seen the Doctor pass them by. He wasn't easily forgotten, in Donna's opinion. She knew this personally, after she had refused his offer of travelling the first time round. She had really come to regret that spontaneous decision.
"Right, then." Dee-Dee marched in a business-like way in the way that Donna had pointed. The latter hurried to catch up, tugging uncomfortably at her rubber suit from the lake, which she still wore. She hadn't yet had time to change, and it was really starting to bother her. Once dry, the suit was highly uncomfortable. "Maybe some people have seen him around somewhere," the girl added hopefully. "That would really help with our search."
"Well, at least he can't go outside or anything," Donna spoke up optimistically. "We only have this place to pick over, instead of the whole planet. It definitely narrows down our search margins."
Dee-Dee nudged Donna as they approached a blonde woman, who was talking flirtily with a rather handsome man. "Shall we ask them?" she consulted in a hushed whisper.
Donna moved around the girl, clearing her throat loudly. Both turned to look at her, and she noted that they seemed completely human. What a relief. She didn't think that she could just strike up a chat with a pair of five-eyed squid people, such as the Doctor would never hesitate in doing. "Excuse me, but have you seen a man go by here?" she asked, daring to hope that the Doctor had been sighted heading for the loo, or something equally simple.
"Could you perhaps be more specific?" the woman tittered mockingly.
Donna's eyes narrowed. "Tall, dark-haired, looking slightly dazed and utterly mad? Wearing a suit from the sly…sli…slvvy…the big lake thing with the fish in it? Oh, and as skinny as a walking rake?" she added as a last resort.
"Hmmm, no. Doesn't really ring a bell." The woman studied her companion in a calculating way, then leaned towards Donna to hiss in a stage whisper, "But if you see him, tell him that my communicator digits are 777-823-654-099-032-310-2020, yeah?" she rattled off.
Donna arched a brow with mild disgust. Even when only hearing his description, every woman in the galaxy still seemed to fall for the Doctor. "Sure thing. I'll tell him that right off the bat, lady," she said sardonically, striding past the couple and down the gleaming hallway. Dee-Dee hurried after her, sending one last look over her shoulder at the pair.
"Weren't much help, were they?" Dee-Dee said sadly, disappointed that they hadn't picked up a lead to the Time Lord's whereabouts.
"Not particularly." Donna sighted a woman wearing a white staff uniform just ahead, and rushed to flag her down. "Have you by any chance seen a skinny bloke dressed in a suit from that fish enclosure pass by here recently?" She quickly added his description for good measure.
"No, sorry." The woman continued on her way, leaving Dee-Dee and Donna looking deflated behind her.
"Who am I kidding? This is going to take hours!" Donna declared hopelessly.
A soft buzzing sound unexpectedly rang out, and Dee-Dee fumbled into her pocket. "Really, I would have thought that it'd been ruined in the slyvivin water," she announced, though not in a particularly angry voice. Holding up a small black device, she flipped it open and studied a gleaming screen full of scrolling numbers. The temp from Chiswick could only assume that it was the modern equivalent of a cell phone. After a moment, Dee-Dee closed the device and slid it slowly back into her pocket. Her features settled into a sad expression.
"Who was it?" Donna questioned boldly.
"The professor," Dee-Dee said quietly. "I haven't spoken to him since the shuttle. Not after all those cruel things he said to me. He basically told me that I was an idiot, just because I said that I didn't think Sky was telling the truth about being free from the creature." She shook her head solemnly. "I really thought he was different, that he thought highly of me. But it turns out that I was apparently just an assistant to him, someone to tote his things around and fetch him another cup of tea." Her dark eyes sparkled with something that looked suspiciously like tears.
Donna frowned, not sure what to do when confronted with the possibility of a weeping girl. "Fine, then. Good for you to be rid of him, I'd say."
"We've been travelling together for some time. I can't believe it's really over. And we'll never find the lost moon of Poosh, I suppose," she said solemnly.
Donna pulled a face at the girl's predicament, feeling even sorrier for her by the minute. "I–"
"It's all right," Dee-Dee stated firmly, cutting in. "It's more than time for me to move on to other things. And right now, we really need to find the Doctor."
"Yes we do," Donna agreed reluctantly, trying her best to focus on the problem at hand. "Who knows what trouble he's gotten himself into by now."
"Let's head towards the south canteen," Dee-Dee suggested, veering sharply to right. "There are always plenty of people always there, since it overlooks the planet's surface safely through a glass wall. Maybe someone there has seen the Doctor around there somewhere."
"We can only hope," Donna muttered under her breath. She followed Dee-Dee through several winding corridors, until they eventually reached their destination. Donna was forced to pause for several seconds and sharply draw in her breath as she gazed at the amazing sight before her. The sparkling glass wall, though fifteen feet thick like the rest of the dome protecting the resort, hid none of the amazing view. Mountains that looked as though they were made of crystals and diamonds sparkled in the deadly sunlight. It was absolutely gorgeous, and Donna had to fight to tear her eyes from the glass wall.
"Let's split up," Dee-Dee suggested. "Then we can ask more people between the two of us. Perhaps we can get some information that way."
"Sounds about as good an idea as I've heard so far," Donna muttered under her breath, walking in the opposite direction of Dee-Dee and beginning to circulate through the room. She paused at a table where four or five humans were enjoying tea, asking politely, "Have you by any chance seen a tall bloke in a rubber suit, probably looking confused, pass by through here?"
"Sorry, but no," a dark-haired woman answered. She turned away, casually picking up her conversation as though she'd never been interrupted.
Donna walked over to the next table, but before she could even open her mouth, a woman sitting before her snickered, "Didn't you know that the slyvivin fish are two halls to the right of this place?" Her friends laughed as though this was the funniest thing they'd ever heard. And it probably was, since none of them looked of very high intelligence.
Wisely holding her tongue, she marched on to the next table and quickly rattled off the Doctor's description, hoping that maybe these would be the last people she would be forced to inquire of. Maybe they had seen the Doctor around. But unfortunately, no such luck. The answer was negative, though almost every woman (human or not) expressed an interest in meeting the human-looking alien. Donna continued to move on, slowly but surely asking round the whole room. She received none of the answers that she was hoping for, much to her disappointment.
Finally, she met up with Dee-Dee in the center of the domed area, brows drawing together into a displeased frown. "Useless, this lot. First no one even stepped up to help us save the Doctor from drowning, and now this," she stated irritably. "I'm not recommending this place to any of my mates, that's for sure." Not that she really could,. What would she tell her mates back home, in the twenty-first century? Oh, Marge, next time you take a trip, don't pop a few hundred years into the future and head to that planet with the deadly sunlight, Midnight?
"No one's being very helpful around here," Dee-Dee agreed with a shrug. "I asked them all, but none of them had seen the Doctor around."
"What are we going to do now?" Donna wondered, folding her arms across her chest. "Should we maybe start searching in the halls again?"
Dee-Dee had a thoughtful look on her face. Unexpectedly, she brightened. "Maybe we could go to security. They've got cameras absolutely everywhere in this place. They could access one near your room, and trace the Doctor's path throughout the resort."
"Would they just hand out information like that? They might think it's violating some important protocol," Donna said ruefully.
"Well, I'm sure that we can, um, convince whoever is working behind the desk that he needs to check for us," the girl said boldly, lips twisting into a shy smile.
Donna grinned at her when she got the drift. "You know, I think that having you around could come in handy, Dee-Dee Blasco," she stated enthusiastically. After uttering the words, she realized that she sounded almost like the Doctor. Now there was a scary thought, indeed.
It only took about five minutes for them to navigate the way towards the security center. It was deep within the resort, taking up a sizeable amount of room directly in the middle of the place. Donna was glad that she didn't have to find the way on her own, for the pristinely white tunnels were all exactly the same, with no distinguishing details.
Once they had arrived, the former passenger of the Crusader 50 made her way through the proper door and into a perfectly round room. A handsomely clean-shaven bloke sat behind a shining counter, his drooping head perking up when the two woman walked in. "How may I help you lasses?" he asked, with a definite Scottish accent. This one was very easy on the eyes, in Donna's opinion.
"I'm Donna, and this is Dee-Dee," Donna declared importantly, leaning across the counter. She craned her neck to study the man's name badge. "Daniel, we really need to look at some security footage from earlier today. Just a little bit ago, yeah?"
"Why would you need to do that?" Daniel questioned suspiciously, cocking a brow. "Guests aren't supposed to have access to the cameras, no matter who they happen to be. I've had countless guests insisting that it was a matter of life and death to check out the camera records, and've nearly gotten fired a couple of times."
Donna batted her eyelashes at him. "See, it's very important that we see the footage. Our friend has, well, gone and gotten himself missing."
Daniel looked disappointed. "Your friend's a lad?" he asked bluntly.
"No, my, uh, brother," Donna lied quickly. "That's right. I meant to say my brother had gone missing. He's a bit too fond of his afternoon drink, to tell you the truth, and I'm afraid that he's wandered off. Who knows what he could be up to right now!" While she was inventing this whole brother scenario, she might as well add a few other details. Why not? Though it pained her to even imagine the Time Lord as her brother. Heaven forbid.
"Well, then." Daniel's spirits seemed to have risen again. "In that case, I think I'll be able to help you out. You can't have your brother wanderin' about on his own, now can you?"
"Oh, no. Of course not," Donna said gravely. She winked at Dee-Dee as Daniel began typing something on his highly-advanced computer. So there, Doctor! I wonder what you'd say if you could see me successfully using my woman wiles, she thought smugly, remembering their trip to the future with Martha Jones.
"What room do you have?" Daniel looked up curiously from the computer's screen.
"Why?" Donna asked guardedly.
"So I can locate the correct camera," he said, eyes innocently wide.
"Oh, right. It's suite 406, registered under 'the Doctor'. I think so, anyway."
"Ah, so your brother's a doctor, then?"
"Right. So can you hurry up with the cameras, please?" She wanted to get out of there before Danny boy came onto her even more. She preferred people from good ol' planet Earth, not some place out in the depths of space, where you couldn't even go outside without turning into a pile of blackened ash.
Daniel was silent for several seconds, fingers skating along the keys. Then he finally said, "Here, I think I've got something. It's from about half an hour ago. A tall bloke with dark hair, right?"
Donna leaned around the counter, peering awkwardly at the computer screen as best she could from her position. She managed to pick out the Doctor's lanky form as he staggered from the room and down the corridor. He constantly fell heavily against the wall, his face glazed oddly over. "Yeah. Yeah, that's him!" she shouted excitedly, jabbing one finger towards the compact computer. Daniel jumped with surprise at her outburst.
"Really?" Dee-Dee tried to look around Donna's shoulder, without much success. "Where did he go?"
"So you want me to trace his position, then?" Daniel verified.
Donna nodded eagerly, still balancing across the counter as she ogled the computer. She watched as Daniel navigated along the Doctor's stumbling path, following him as he bypassed the lighted, more cheerful hallways and headed along the gloomy ones. He made his way to a heavy metal door and sleepily pulled out his sonic screwdriver, aiming it at the door lock.
"This is current footage," Daniel announced with a frown. "Your brother is live, breaking into the personnel-only section of the resort. It's way out on the fringes, near where this place ends. Why on earth would he be out there? I might need to call a couple of security officers in, I'm afraid…" His voice trailed off, failing to create the image that his threat was dangerous.
Brow furrowing, Donna watched as the Doctor fumbled with his sonic, trying to open the door despite the fact that he highly resembled a walking zombie. "What's down there?" She remembered that they had parked the TARDIS down in a dark and dank place like that, but it had been some sort of spaceship parking lot, not an employee-only section.
"Nothing, except the exterior air locks leading outside. Not that they get much use, considering that anyone who sets foot outside would be incinerated," Daniel admitted.
Donna kept staring at the Doctor on-screen, for some reason thinking back to that dream he'd had just last night. Back to the cryptic things he'd told her, right after waking up. "I was dreaming about the creature that inhabited Sky. It's impossible…but I dreamt that it was waiting for me." That's what the Doctor had said. That the creature was waiting for him. And today, he'd mentioned being cold and paralyzed. According to Dee-Dee, that was exactly what had happened to him on the shuttle…
"Oh my God," she gasped, finally working out what was going on with the Doctor. She knew why he was near the exterior seals. She whirled to face Dee-Dee. "Oh my God. Oh my God!" She added these for good measure, to get the seriousness of the situation across. "He's going to try to go out there with the creature! Why else would he be mucking about near there?"
Dee-Dee's face became several shades whiter. She looked just like a ghost. "But why would the Doctor be going out ther–"
Donna didn't give her time to continue her train of thought. She instead spun round to face the bemused security officer. "Daniel, how do you get down there?" she demanded urgently. "Hurry up an' tell me!"
Daniel made a face. "Well, leaving this office, head to the right. Then take two lefts, one right, a left, another left, and one more right," he drawled. "Then you'll be where you need to be."
"Thanks!" Donna dashed for the door, Dee-Dee right on her heels. Slamming the door open so that it crashed into the wall behind it, she raced towards the right. She only hoped that she would manage to keep all the directions straight in her head. If she got lost before reaching the Doctor, who knew what he would do. In a mad trance like that, he was bound to wander right to his death. And even though he'd survived some bad things before, there was no chance of him just bouncing back from being burned to death.
"Oi!" shouted an orangely-tanned woman as Donna barreled past her at breakneck speed, nearly crashing into her. "Watch where you're goin', lady!"
"No one's ever taught her any manners, obviously," Donna muttered with annoyance under her breath, continuing on without pause. Concentrating hard, she pulled Daniel's directions to mind, following them to a T. Dee-Dee was right behind her, panting breathlessly as she tried to keep up. Donna was already used to running long distances, after being with the Doctor for such a long time, so she had no trouble keeping up the pace.
Finally, she skidded to a stop in a dingy hallway, which obviously wasn't as well-maintained as the rest of the place. The floors were scuffed, and though the walls had obviously once been painted white, they were now a dull shade of gray. The hanging spider webs only doubled the eerie funhouse effect. Apparently, not many of the paying guests ever ventured this far.
Donna definitely recognized the hallway as the one from the live security footage. And the door just ahead, which was slightly ajar, made her even more certain. She jogged to the door, pausing to examine the blackened lock. Yes, the Doctor and his sonic screwdriver had certainly come through here.
"Why would the Doctor be trying to get outside?" Dee-Dee asked breathlessly, chest heaving up and down as she tried to get enough air into her winded lungs. "Has he gone crazy?"
"I don't know," Donna murmured. "But I don't think that he's really himself right now. We have to stop him, no matter what." She pressed one hand against the sticky metal of the door, shoving it forward. It creaked ominously open, revealing a dark room full of machinery and dusty boxes. The only light came faintly from several bulbs attached to the ceiling. "Creepy, this place," she uttered nervously, eyes scanning the shadowed darkness.
"Right you are," Dee-Dee mumbled, biting down hard on her lower lip. "But where's the Doctor?"
"Blimey, I hope he hasn't already gotten out." Donna's eyes widened at the thought of hearing the Doctor's agonized screams as he boiled to death, knowing that there was nothing she could do for him. And then that would leave her trapped in this dirt heap, with no way back to her own time. The Doctor had been teaching her some about flying the TARDIS, but not nearly enough. He for some reason didn't seem to trust her skills, though she couldn't begin to imagine why.
"He hasn't," Dee-Dee said with grim determination. "The Doctor would never do something like that. I'm sure that he'll regain control of himself in no time. Maybe he already has," she added hopefully.
Donna didn't answer, venturing deeper into the darkness. She avoided bumping into a box as a sign with red lettering caught her attention. It was suspended carefully from the ceiling, and cheerfully announced in several different languages that the door leading out into the x-tonic sunlight was straight ahead, and that all needed to beware. Both her hands curled into tight fists. Hang on, Doctor. I'm coming for you, so just hang on, she thought, hurriedly rounding another haphazard stack of boxes.
She froze, Dee-Dee bumping roughly into her back, as her worried eyes fell upon the Doctor. He was standing ramrod straight, right in front of the door leading outside. One of his hands was raised, as though trying to guess the password for door's opening mechanism. Donna gave a sigh of relief as she saw this. Not even the Doctor could randomly guess a password out of the blue like that. There was no way that he was getting out into that sunlight.
And then her worst fears were confirmed. Behind her, Dee-Dee gasped as the passcode bar beeped shrilly and flashed red, signaling that the correct code had been used. The door was now authorized to open.
Donna leapt forward, adrenaline spurring her on. "Doctor!" she cried in horror, as his hand landed on the knob of the door and slowly turned it round.
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