Keeping up with the Doctor when you're five four in your sock feet and he's in a long-legged incarnation and in a hurry is a challenge at the best of times. And these most certainly weren't the best of times, thought Sarah Jane wearily as she slogged through the grass in his wake, trying to keep him in sight. High heels, even with the heels broken off, are not hiking boots. Evening dresses are not activewear. And a long, very long day that involved adult beverages and dancing into the wee hours wasn't the best preparation for a brisk march across alien terrain. Top all that with being teleported across the universe, God knew where, by a creature whose energy wasn't in synch with human or Time Lord physiology, and you definitely did not have the best of times.
At least she hadn't overdone the alcohol, she thought gratefully as she glanced over her shoulder periodically to make sure Donna was still bringing up the rear. She was. But barely. And frequently with a hand pressed to her forehead. Sarah was torn between the need to keep the Doctor in sight and the need to make sure their little party stayed together. If any of them got so much as five feet from the others, they disappeared in the grass. The Doctor kept disappearing as he easily outwalked them and then reappearing, stood standing and waiting for them to catch him up, when he realized what he had done. Then he'd be off again, and before long would disappear in the tall grass in front of her, his sonic screwdriver held high like a torch, periodically bringing it down to eye level to check readings, then raising it again, too focussed on his researches to remember to set a human-friendly pace.
A bath. That's what she'd planned. A nice, warm, relaxing bath to ease her sore feet and tired legs before crawling into bed for a good long kip. Well, no reason not to, she thought, letting her eyes drift halfway shut. She put her body on autopilot, mechanically lifting one leg after the other while her mind took her to the big claw-footed tub in the house on Bannerman Road, the tub filled with warm water, bubble bath, why not, she loved a bit of bubble bath, sinking into it, relaxing...
She was startled out of her walking daydream when she felt the Doctor's hands grasp her arms and physically stop her forward progress. She blinked and looked into his deep brown eyes which were dancing with amusement. "Bubble bath?" he asked.
She nodded with a sleepy half-smile at the remembered imagery.
"Donna?" he called over her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Not even close," she said. She started to fold her legs under her.
"Wait," he said sharply, startling both women into sudden alertness. He aimed the sonic screwdriver at the ground around them and flicked it on, scanning over a wide radius. Then he nodded. They both just looked at him in puzzlement. "Didn't want you sitting on something that might not appreciate being sat on," he said by way of explanation.
Donna and Sarah both frowned down at the ground. "It's okay," he reassured them. "No life signs. No animal life signs anyway. Plenty of vegetation."
They both sank to the ground gratefully. Donna pulled off her shoes and gingerly probed a spot on one heel.
"Blisters?" Sarah Jane asked.
Donna nodded. "You?"
Sarah nodded. "I don't think I dare take my shoes off. I'll never get them on again."
The Doctor's eyebrows came together as he knelt in front of Donna and checked her feet, then turned to Sarah, gently pulled her shoes off and examined the blisters on her heels. He sighed deeply. "Why didn't you say something?"
"What would you have done? Carried us?" she answered. His eyes met hers and she saw the deep worry and self-recrimination there. "You were preoccupied with getting us out of here alive. Didn't want to distract you from that," she said.
He wrapped both hands around her foot and she closed her eyes, relishing the coolness of his touch. "I wish I had a safe place to park you two while I go for help," he said. "But I'm afraid I'd never find you again if we split up." He took his hands off her foot and looked up at her. "Better?"
She opened her eyes and flexed her foot. "Yes," she said, surprised. "Much."
He nodded and wrapped his hands around her other foot. She sank back on her elbows and closed her eyes, paying attention this time to how the coolness of his fingers washed away the pain of the blisters and fatigue. She opened her eyes when she felt him let go of her foot, only to see him taking off his jacket and bending down to drape it over her. "Rest," he said simply, then turned to minister to Donna's blisters.
Donna was sitting, knees up, her arms wrapped around her legs, her head down. She jumped when he took her foot in his hands and pulled it back. "This isn't some kinky alien foot fetish thing, is it?" she asked, but with much less energy than her protests against body contact with him usually held. He shook his head solemnly and held out his hand. She looked at Sarah, who nodded encouragement. Donna slowly moved her foot toward him and he gently wrapped his hands around it as he had done for Sarah.
Sarah had rolled up on her side, pulled his jacket around her and pillowed her head on her arm. She watched him tending to Donna with a small warm smile on her face even as her eyelids drooped.
"So, does this sort of thing happen to you all the time?"
Sarah blinked herself back awake as she realized Donna's question was directed to her. "No. This is a first," she answered.
"Another unintended consequence of you and him..." Donna jerked her head at the Doctor and let her sentence hang unfinished.
"Seems to be," Sarah said.
"I certainly hope it doesn't become a regular occurrence," the Doctor muttered darkly, without looking up.
"Well. I wouldn't mind so much," Sarah said sleepily. "If aliens came to me for help. Whatever help I could give. So long as they didn't throw me across the universe without warning and then disappear." She yawned hugely. "And so long as they weren't trying to get me to help them conquer the earth or anything."
"I'd mind," the Doctor said emphatically. "What if you'd been brought here by yourself? You wouldn't have had a prayer." He gave the grass surrounding them a dark look.
"Do we have one even with you?" Donna asked him softly.
He met her serious gaze and a muscle jumped in his jaw. "Yes," he finally said, determinedly. "We do." He let go of Donna's foot and rocked back on his haunches. She lay down on her side, facing Sarah, and they both looked up at him as he went on. "We know the planet is inhabited by intelligent beings. Not only intelligent, but with the power to teleport across vast distances. They have to have some sort of civilization. We just need to find it."
"Why would it bring us here and then leave us in the middle of nowhere?" Sarah asked, as much to herself as to them.
The Doctor shook his head. "No idea. Something must have gone wrong."
"Or something scared it off," Donna said.
"Oh, that's a jolly thought, thanks for that," Sarah said.
"Well, it didn't eat us, at least, if that is what happened," the Doctor said. He stood up and scanned what he could see of the sky. "The atmosphere didn't kill us on arrival. That's a good thing. We didn't immediately freeze solid or burn up. That's a good thing. We can move around since the gravity is nearly earth-normal. A bit less, actually, which helps. Haven't found any water yet but there must be some for these plants to grow the way they do. Better be ready to catch some in case it rains. Sarah..."
He looked down at Sarah Jane and saw that her eyes were closed and her breathing was slow and regular.
"Donna..." he said, looking at his other companion. Her eyes were also closed, her mouth hanging open slightly, and in the silence that followed he heard a soft snore.
He pulled a "meh" face and sighed deeply. After a moment, he stepped over Sarah and stretched out on the ground behind her, molding his long body to hers, wrapping his arms around her. She put her hands over his and nestled in with him, all without waking up. He breathed deeply, closed his eyes, pressed his forehead to the back of her neck, then went totally still.
The lavender-tinged sun slowly sank toward the horizon and the light dimmed. Before anything like true dark could fall, though, another sun rose in the sky, this one casting a pink light over the two humans and the Time Lord, lying unmoving in the grass. The second sun was high in the sky before any of the three figures stirred.
Donna's eyes opened and she squinted up at the pink sun for a moment. Then she sat up, moaned softly, pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes and rubbed her face. She glanced around, found her shoes and slipped them on, clenching her teeth and grimacing all the while. Gingerly, she rose to her feet and started to step away from the little clearing their three bodies had made in the grass.
"Donna." She turned at the sound of the Doctor's soft call and saw him, still holding Sarah, but with his head raised and his dark eyes on her. "Don't wander off."
"Just need a bit of privacy. Nature calls," she said. She eyed him and Sarah for a moment and her lips twisted. "Looks like I should be giving the two of you some privacy and all as well."
The Doctor's brows furrowed. "No, we're fine," he said, sounding a bit bemused. "Don't go far."
"Trust me," she said, and parted the grass curtain to take one step behind its screening foliage.
The Doctor was up and scanning the skies with his sonic when she stepped back into view. Sarah was sitting with her legs crossed, the narrow skirt of her rumpled evening dress rucked up to mini-skirt length, finger-combing the snarls and tangles out of her hair. She smiled up at Donna. "Better?"
Donna rolled her eyes appreciatively. "Much. You?"
"Feel like a new woman." She glanced at the Doctor. "Thanks for the energy."
"Hmm?" he said absently, his concentration totally focussed on the sonic's readings. "Oh." He looked down at her and smiled. "Don't mention it. Glad it helped."
Donna scowled at them. "Energy?"
"Um hm." Sarah nodded and then clocked the scowl. "He gave me some. While I slept," she explained.
"He. Gave you. Energy," Donna said, tipping her head from side to side with each set of words for emphasis.
Sarah nodded again, and the Doctor looked at Donna.
"What did you think I was doing?"
"Well..." she said, a mixture of innuendo and uncertainly in her tone.
"Donna," Sarah said reprovingly. Donna looked at her and Sarah shook her head.
"Wish I could have given you some too," the Doctor said. "You needed it."
"Too right. Why didn't you?"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "If you'd woken up and found me lying next to you with my arms around you, what would you have done?"
Donna opened her mouth, then snapped it shut again. She glanced from the Doctor to Sarah and then back. "It wouldn't have been pretty," she admitted.