A/N: I forgot to mention this at the very beginning, but better late than never. The formatting has changed for the next few chapters, and will change again a few more times by the time the end of the story. Originally, the story was posted in separate pieces on LJ, so there wasn't an issue with the formatting, but since I want to post the story as one full thing, the formatting comes into play here.
The previous six chapters were considered the first part, Days Before Atlantis. This next part is called Days of Atlantis, from where the title is from.
Enjoy!
Day One.
The Doctor didn't recall waking up.
It was quiet in the room they were in, the blankets that were around them soft and plush. He felt an arm draped across him, light breathing somewhere near his shoulder. He didn't open his eyes at first, but when he did, he was momentarily alarmed to see that all he could see was red. His alarm was quelled when he realized it was just Donna's hair covering his face.
She felt warm. Humans were typically warm to the Doctor. It wasn't human warmth though. The Doctor knew the proper temperature of humans, and it was most definitely not that warm. Gently, he brushed her arm off of him. She stirred and then, without warning, tensed up around the Doctor. He then realized that she had wrapped herself around him, like a baby monkey would cling to its mother.
"Donna," he murmured.
He felt a shudder across his chest, a tug at one of the collars of his shirt, and a continued writhing from Donna. He loosened one of his arms so he could wake her from a nightmare she was having. "Donna, it's me," he told her gently. "It's okay."
A whimper came from the mass of hair that was still across his body. He searched for her face, brushing away the hair that was almost leech-like in its manner. "Donna?" he asked, each time, getting a little more worried with each nonexistent reply.
She finally moved away from him, curling immediately into a ball, almost like a piece of ribbon, being pulled back into a coil after the tension that was holding it straight was taken away. He noticed that she was clutching at her abdomen, as if it were in pain. The Doctor nudged Donna again, this time with a more deliberate force, which knocked her out of her slumber and made her eyes fly open. "Doctor?" she asked in surprise.
He sighed in relief as he saw her blue eyes staring back at his. He wasn't even bothered by the fact that she knew exactly who he was and was not having any bad side effects from this. "Donna, are you okay?" he asked, almost breathlessly, as he had been holding his breath, waiting for a reply.
She tried to sit up, but found that she was too weak to brace herself on her elbows. "Doctor, what is going on? Why are you here, in my bed?"
"We're on Appares Acwin. It's like the Lost City of Atlantis, only in planetary form. We may have gotten married last night."
"Married? Last? Night?" she asked slowly and deliberately, emphasizing every single syllable before she let out a yowl that startled the Doctor.
"What's wrong?" he asked, flying to sit back on his knees and face her.
She grimaced and clutched at her lower abdomen. "My god… it hurts like fire…" she groaned as her toes snapped back and forth as she wriggled them as result of pain.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, thinking that maybe he'd have an answer from pulling it out to use it. Donna's eyes flew open as she fell back against the pillows in an irrationally violent manner. "Donna?" the Doctor cried out.
"I'm… fine," she sighed as the tears she had been clutching back with her eyes tightly furled together opened, letting back the floodgates.
"This is now the second time you've done this," he informed her. "You are not fine."
He crawled towards her, pulling her hand off of her abdomen so that he could get a better look at what was going on. She sucked in her breath as he barely touched her. "Did I hurt you?" he asked softly.
"It's sore," she informed him. "What do you think it is?"
He didn't want to say what he thought it was just yet. He wanted more answers before getting the ultimate answer. "I don't know," he answered her quietly.
The Doctor started to bleep her with his sonic screwdriver, looking for any indication of what might be causing her to be in such pain. His first instinct was to look for some of the Halapay tea, scan a sample of that to see if there was anything to point him in the right direction. He was on the brink of a breakthrough when Donna tensed up again and, as if reflex mandated, abducted his hand to grip veraciously until the pain subsided.
As the pain left, Donna's heavy breathing made the Doctor's decision. He was going to find Abaya and demand to get a sample of the tea, only a drop or so, to test to see what was hurting Donna. It wasn't affecting him, but she was clearly unwell. "Donna, you're going to dislike this, but I've got to leave for a moment."
"You're right, I do dislike that," she murmured quietly, bracing for another wave of the pain.
"Donna, I'm sorry. I'll be back."
"You had better come back here, Spaceman… I get the sneaking suspicion that this has you written all over it."
"Well, that is to be determined. I'll be right back," he said as he threw his legs over the side of the bed and clamored down the ladder to go find his shoes.
His shoes were in the cupboard, loitering near the ceiling of the cabinet. He snatched them down one at a time to keep them contained in the convenience of the cupboard that was within his arms' length. He slid his skinny arms into the black blazer, buttoning the top button and then hurrying out into the hallway from the bedroom.
He searched for life in the hallway, hearing something down the hall to his left. He turned westward and strode quickly down the long passage until he came upon Abaya, who was busied with a basket of linens for another room. They were in some sort of a hospital, the Doctor decided. "Abaya," he hissed urgently.
She looked up, smiled, and then paused. "Yes, Doctor?"
"What the hell did you do to Donna?" he growled in an angered tone, his accent on some of the syllables almost making him sound Scottish.
"I'm sorry?" Abaya asked, innocently enough to almost convince the Doctor that she knew nothing of Donna's condition.
"What the hell did you do to her?" he asked again, this time, his already tense words became tenser and more aggravated.
"What has happened?" Abaya asked, realizing that something was seriously wrong.
"She's in pain. Excruciating pain. It comes in waves, crippling her. What was in that tea?"
Abaya set the linens down on a window sill and looked at the Doctor intently. "Doctor, that tea, it unifies. It is used solely for the purpose of unions of our people. Marriage unions. Mating unions. It is used to bring together mates."
"I'm guessing mates doesn't mean friends in this instance," the Doctor murmured.
Abaya shook her head. "Halapay tea, when consumed, will mark the first person of the opposite gender whose blood touches your own as your mate. You will only feel attraction to this person and this person only. You will become incompatible with any other being you come across. That is why here, on Appares Acwin, you will find no dissolution of our unions, as you will find on Earth. There is no infidelity, there is no, what you call 'divorce'. There is simply no need for it. Once you are matched with your mate in the ceremony with the Halapay tea, you are with them for life."
"Halapay tea is a hormonal matching solution. I should have known," the Doctor muttered to himself as he hit himself in the forehead, wincing in pain as the scar from the cut made during the ceremony was touched by his forehead. "Donna is the only person who I will ever feel attraction to?"
"That is correct."
"And I will be the only person she will ever be able to reproduce with?" he asked, this time, almost afraid to do so.
"That is correct."
"And, I'm scared to ask but… does this ceremony often cause reproduction?"
"The ceremony is performed first when children are born, to ensure that no promiscuous behavior occurs, then, later, it is performed whenever a child is desired. It is done a second, third, fourth, or even fifth time, after the couple is sexually mature."
"So… yes, it does."
"Yes," Abaya answered. "Is Donna sexually mature?"
"Yes, she is," the Doctor grumbled. "Great. This is just bloody fantastic."
"A child is a blessed gift," Abaya replied, confused about the Doctor's reaction.
"Not when you didn't mean for things to happen in this manner," he replied. "I thought it'd be through the birds and the bees, not through blood transfer."
Abaya said nothing and picked up her linen basket. The Doctor was about to walk off when a terrible thought crossed his mind. "Abaya, what is a typical gestational period for your people? What is the gestational period that is induced by the Halapay tea?"
"Nine days, Doctor."
"Nine days?" he echoed, in shock. "That will kill Donna. Her body wasn't made to grow a child that quickly."
"We have trained physicians that can aid in the process," Abaya informed him.
"I don't know if they'll know human medicine. Do they know how to perform a cesarean section?"
"A what?"
"A Cesarean. You know, a C-Section?"
"I am unfamiliar with your terminology."
"It's where they cut the child out of the mother's body."
"Why would anyone do something so barbaric?" Abaya asked, horrified at the notion.
"There come times where it is necessary to do so. Do your physicians know this procedure?"
"No, they know nothing of this terrible ritual."
He nodded. "It's a good thing I know a thing or two about delivering babies. Donna will need one. She'll be too weak to deliver naturally, if the baby doesn't kill her before that point."
Abaya said nothing in response, but rather, bade him farewell before hurrying down the stairwell with her head down. What the Doctor had told her of the human rituals terrified her and she wanted no more to do with this knowledge. The Doctor sighed, frightened for Donna's livelihood and returned to their room.
He found Donna lying flat on her back, staring up at the silver stones that dotted the ceiling. She seemed to be coming out of another bout of pain, relaxing from the ordeal, and was quiet. The Doctor kicked off his shoes, soon regretting his choice, as they flew up to the ceiling, out of his reach. When he climbed onto the bed, Donna smiled weakly.
She tried to sit up and act somewhat social, but quite frankly, this pain she was experiencing was draining her of all the energy she had. There was never a time where she felt so completely helpless or exhausted. Sensing her frustration, the Doctor helped her up, propping her up with his arm as he stuffed pillows behind her so she could sit up. Donna sat against the pillows the Doctor had put behind her, just so she could sit up and not use her energy for it. "Donna, I know what's wrong," he informed her as soon as he sat criss-cross-applesauce in front of her.
"What?" she asked, draping her arm over her abdomen and rubbing out the pain.
"You're pregnant."
She stared at him blankly, before wincing as the start of the pain began. Even though they had been awake and going through the motions with this cycle for only about an hour, they had their routine down. The Doctor frowned and he grabbed her free hand so she could counter the pain with a tight grip. It was always better to have a hand to hold. When the pain subsided, she looked up at him with her expressive eyes. "No…" she murmured. "I can't be. I've had my tubes tied because Shaun doesn't want kids."
He said nothing, figuring the next thing would be coming from Donna. "Wait a second, Spaceman… you didn't shag me while I was knocked out cold, did you?" she asked in a sassy tone.
He held up his right hand, gesturing at her right hand. "Blood transfer. The ceremony was a marriage ceremony, and we were joined as reproductive mates. We cannot reproduce with anyone else."
The Doctor felt no necessity in telling Donna that she would no longer feel any attraction towards her husband. The pregnancy news was more than enough excitement for her in this condition. "Of all the things you can get from blood to blood contact, pregnant should not be one of them," Donna remarked bitterly. "The worst STD."
He smiled at her, remembering her sardonic manner, the hint of sarcasm and the uncanny ability to speak her mind, no matter the consequences. She was a feisty one, one who would require a proper handler who knew how to take her insults as nothing and love her anyway. He wondered if Shaun was that sort of being, capable of loving Donna for her outspoken and somewhat churlish manner.
Donna began to sob uncontrollably, questioning whether Shaun would still love her if she returned home with a baby that was most definitely not his. She refused to eat, even though the Doctor knew that she needed to eat something before she withered away from the pain's greedy consumption of her energy. He didn't mind when she chucked the plate of food at him, screaming incomprehensibly through her tears. He simply cleaned himself up, picking the food up off of the bedding and setting it back onto the plate which he then took the trash and cleared it off.
When she banished him from the bed, kicking him to the ground to sleep, he didn't mind. He didn't sleep much that first night, keeping his ears open in the dark to hear if the pain was cycling through again. It had become predictable, each new wave of the pain coming about every six minutes. Donna was already a light sleeper, so this pain made it nearly impossible to consider sleep. She only cried.
