Last time:

Donna eavesdrops on an offer Demeter was making the Master and reunites with the Doctor. Time Lords get chased off planet earth. After a belated honeymoon, the Lungbarrows check on the city of Olyesti and find that not only are human laborers still there, but there's something up with what little progress has been made repairing the Looms. They get a message that leaves the Doctor asking, "What?"

Chapter 10

In Which Donna Sees No Alien Insides

Gawain slapped his palms to the marble. "They can't do this!"

The Doctor swallowed. "I knew they'd have to do something after Earth broke off relations, but I didn't think they'd do this. We need to repopulate!"

Gawain stared at him. "Earth broke off relations?"

"Yeah. A week ago. The only thing you heard is that there's been delays?"

Whatever they were talking about, Donna couldn't read the news for herself, and she was sick of feeling out of the loop. "Oi!" She pointed to the floating circles. "Is it from the High Council? What did those buzzards say anyway?"

The Doctor stuck his hands in his pocket. "Yeah. Well, they finally admitted that repairs for the Looms are suspended, but beyond that, well, there's one Loom functioning in the Citadel, and they've just restricted it to the High Council only."

Donna's whole body shook. "You mean there's a Loom working, and no one is allowed to have kids?"

"Well, the High Council can have kids, but yeah." Placing a hand on Donna's elbow, the Doctor looked at Gawain. "I'll clear this up, but there is one more matter I need to investigate."

"Yes?"

"The humans." The Doctor slid his arm around Donna. "We've heard complaints that they haven't been paid, and we noticed the Head of Human Resources is scared of Time Lords."

Gawain frowned. "They have privileges for all the necessities, and they should be getting compensated on their home planet. Do they not understand that?"

"Apparently not."

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "Right. You explain it to them. What about…." he glanced at Donna, "what's-his-name? Lance?"

She nodded.

"He's been scared since we collected him from the High Council," Gawain said. "All the others seem normal."

"Maybe the Council did something when they were investigating his involvement with the Racnoss." The Doctor further messied his hair with his hand. He took a deep breath. "Thank you."

"Good luck, Doctor."

"If I have any of that, we'll have Looms available again." He offered Donna a weak smile. "Come on."

The moment they left the office, Donna was on him about his nasty reaction to Looming kids with her one day. "What? Are humans alright to look at, but not good enough to be the mother of your children? Don't lie to me, Spaceman. I'm not a pea brain."

The Doctor looked her up and down. "Nice to know you're not put off by the thought of half-alien children."

Oh, no. No sidestepping the question. Donna put her hands on her hips. "And you are. Is that it? Half-human children are nauseating?"

"A bit, yeah. Well, maybe a little more than a bit. I just don't even want to think about that." He looked away as though regretting his attitude would get him off the hook.

Donna punched him in the arm. "How could they be nauseating? They're your children. Is their mother nauseating?"

The Doctor suddenly stopped outside the Loomhouse doors. "Donna, do you think I don't want to be a father again?"

The pain in his voice made her stop as well, but it didn't make sense. "That's what you're saying, isn't it? That you don't want to have a family with your wife."

"That's not what I said at all! We can adopt. There are more kids who need adoption now on Gallifrey than ever before. I wouldn't mind adopting again."

Donna's eyes were prickling. She raised her volume to cover her tears. "You don't want. To have. A family. With me? Just tell me the truth!"

The Doctor turned his back on her. "Humans! You always jump to the worst possible conclusions, and you're so stubborn when you're convinced you know something!"

"Time Lords! You never explain anything properly, and you're one to talk about stubbornness!" She followed him back to the TARDIS, stomping the whole way. "I just want you to answer me properly: why would half-human children be so disgusting?"

He slammed the door open when they reached the TARDIS. "Donna, we don't have time for this!" He yanked her inside and slammed the door shut behind her.

She put her hands on her hips. "Oh, now he has time to deal with other Time Lords. Now that he has a family to run away from."

He leaned around the time rotor to point a finger at her. "It's not like that and you know it."

"Isn't it? No, you can't even stand the thought of having kids with me. 'No. Absolutely not,' you said."

"Rassilon's eyes, Donna! I am not the only one who thinks this way. You know what the High Council does to hybrid children? Of course you do – I told you!" He threw up the lever that dematerialized the TARDIS.

Donna took a breath and counted to ten. "What does the High Council do to them? I don't understand."

"I did tell you, didn't I?" The Doctor stepped around to face her. "Most Time Lords wouldn't risk going for someone of another species. And you know why? Because of just what the High Council did to that half-Abzorbalovian boy – they murdered him and his parents."

Tears rained from Donna's eyes. "They do that to all hybrid children? I thought the Abzorb-a-what's-its might have been your enemies, or it was because he was womb-born or something."

"Yes, it's all hybrid children." The Doctor gazed at her with big sad eyes. "In most cases, that's the most disgusting part of mixed children: what's done to them."

She buried her head in his shoulder. "You're not actually disgusted by the children themselves, are you?"

He pulled her to him. "We can't. I can't. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"And you can't do anything."

"I try, but it's too embedded in our culture." The Doctor leaned into her hair. "There's a Matrix prophesy about a hybrid, and well, when Time Lords don't understand something, we're scared, and when we're scared, we do something stupid."

They held each other for a while, letting the TARDIS hum and pulse in the background. The Doctor stroked Donna's hair. She rubbed circles on his back. She cuddled herself closer to his ear. "This prophesy about a hybrid, could it be linked to the prophesy about us?"

"The hybrid of prophesy is destined to destroy Gallifrey and stand in its ruins." Taking a breath, the Doctor pulled back and gazed into Donna's eyes. "There's a good chance the hybrid is half-Time Lord, half-human." He paused, breath shuddering. "Perhaps the High Council was hoping we'd mess up and have a kid together as an excuse to get me out of their way permanently. Our marriage seems too big a risk to be just a distraction. They appointed me Lord President because the public demanded a war hero, but they don't really want me around. You know I want to be close to my wife, but-"

Donna squeezed him a bit closer. "What are they going to do to us?"

"Nothing. I won't let them." He kissed her on the forehead. "I'm going to talk to them. You'll stay here, won't you? I have something I need you to do if anything goes wrong."

This was an excuse to leave her behind, wasn't it? "Doctor." Donna released her embrace, crossing her arms and giving him a look.

"So sorry, but I'll need you here if anything happens. I don't think you could face the Time Lords to get me out of real trouble, so I'd need you to contact Demeter. She has a vested interest in keeping me alive and free. She'd get me out."

The Doctor was looking at her so intently that Donna felt too bad to say no. "Fine, but you'll need to show me how to do that."

Nodding, he pulled out six white squares of a substance Donna couldn't identify. He sat down and laid them out in a cross. "I'm preparing the message now."

He closed his eyes and put his hands to his temple. Quickly, the white squares moved themselves to make a cube. The Doctor stood up and pressed it into Donna's hand. "I'll set up the TARDIS screens to monitor me. If I get myself captured or killed, just chuck this out the door."

The cube felt soft and warm in her hands, and it seemed to whisper with the Doctor's voice. "Your suspicions about me are right. I don't think the High Council knows, but if you're getting this, they've done something to me. I need you to save me, even if it means retrieving me from the Matrix."

"Oi! What do you mean her suspicions about you are right?" Donna joined her husband at the console, where he was adjusting the position of a television-like screen.

"Well, how else am I supposed to convince her to help?" He turned the screen on, showing the two of them standing in front of it.

Donna scowled. She looked a mess with her rumpled hair and her red eyes. There was a displeased glint in her gaze from her frustration at not knowing whether the Doctor was just saying things to Demeter or not. There was still something he wasn't telling her about their role in the prophesy, wasn't there? Did he believe they were the Hybrid's parents or something?

He leaned over, stroked her cheek, and kissed it. "I'll be back."

He started for the door, but Donna grabbed his wrist. "Wait." When he turned, she reached into his silky hair and pulled his head toward her. She pressed her lips to his, running her tongue over his cool skin. He tasted like magic. "You'd better be."

The resulting grin split his face. "Oh, Donna Lungbarrow, I'll always be back for you." He hopped to the door and gave her a wave. "You can count on it!"

She waved back. "Be careful!"

There was nothing for it now but to watch that silly martian and pray for his safety as he skipped through the streets to the capitol building. She'd worry about what he was hiding later. For now, she just wanted him to be okay.

She watched as the Doctor pressed his ear to the Grand Meeting Room, then, unconcerned, threw the doors open. "'Ello. Miss me?"

He stood at the bottom of an amphitheater, only Rassilon and three other Time Lords seated on the floor, leaving an empty seat there that likely belonged to the blonde standing in front of the crowd.

Seated to Rassilon's right was Syrlian, who was rising to his feet. "You can't just barge in here like that!"

Rassilon halted Syrlian with his hand. "Let's hear what Lord President Doctor has to say for himself."

"You've cut off all public access to the working Loom." The Doctor stared Rassilon down, but Rassilon appeared unfazed.

In fact, Rassilon relaxed into his seat, resting an elbow on its side. "We don't want to overwhelm the staff with panicked requests to use it. We'll be able to make Looms publicly available again once we can get the workforce to mine and process the materials we need. The situation is really your fault for bungling things with Earth."

"That wasn't my fault! The Master's the one who broke their trust."

Rassilon silenced the Doctor with his hand. "We dealt with the Master already. The situation would not have gone south over one criminal had you gone to President Erickson in the United States like we told you to instead of approaching unstable Saxon in the United Kingdom a few years prior."

"I like the UK better: it has less guns." The Doctor crossed his arms. "There are still British citizens you haven't returned."

Rassilon spread his hands. "You can hardly expect us to repatriate them with the British military order to shoot on sight. Besides the danger to our own people, we would be delivering the laborers to their deaths."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes.

"If you don't like the situation, you go to Earth, you set up trade with America, and you negotiate a ceasefire with Saxon to return his citizens." Rassilon smirked.

"Fine." The Doctor pointed a finger at Rassilon. "But I know there's something you're plotting with the Looms. I'm going to find out what it is, and if I don't like it, it will stop."

Rassilon chuckled. "Investigate all you like. Don't you have ambassadorial duties to perform?"

The Doctor spun on his heel and trod to the door. Behind him, Rassilon nodded to Syrlian, who raised a silver stick and pointed it at the Doctor.

The Doctor showed no sign he'd noticed that the TARDIS could show Donna. Her grip tightened on the message he'd left for Demeter. "You promised. Don't make me send this."

A moment later, Syrlian lowered the stick and turned his head toward Rassilon. Donna didn't see any more of that exchange because the Doctor was exiting the room. Her heart pounded with each step he took back to the TARDIS. When he finally stepped through the door, she ran to tackle him in a hug. "Doctor!"

"You missed me that much?" He hugged her back, planting a kiss on her lips.

Donna got off of him and shut the door. "Yes. I'm an infant with separation anxiety. I can't spend five minutes without you. No! The High Council did something while your back was turned. Syrlian had something that looked a lot like your screwdriver."

"Oh." He slid to the TARDIS screen and soniced it, freezing on the frame with the best view of the incident. He blanched. "That's a sonic stethoscope."

Donna stared at him. "A sonic stethoscope? What were they trying to do, listen to your wacky heartbeat?"

"Hearts-beat, Donna. Time Lords have two hearts, and no, I think they were doing more than that." He flipped a bunch of blue levers and switches, patting the console as he worked. "You'll keep us in the vortex while I'm in the med bay, checking to see what they did to me, won't you? That's a good girl."

Donna followed the Doctor through the long, curving halls. "What could they have done to you?"

"Something subtle or I'd have noticed. Boost my sperm production, or set a time-delay for an increase in libido, or…. I don't have time to list them all."

She clenched her fists. "They're trying to trick you into mating with me."

"Yeah."

"And then they're going to kill us both."

"Yup."

Her arms shook at her sides. "Whatever they've done, you can counter it, right?"

"Maybe." He led them through a yellow door into a very yellow room with a waterbed. The walls were covered with painted bananas.

Donna gawked at the twisting, organically-inspired shapes of the unrecognizable equipment in the room. "This is your med bay?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I like bananas. They always make me feel better."

"Right." Donna plopped down in a white, velvet armchair. "What do you mean, maybe?"

He wheeled the waterbed over to a wall with a metal rod hanging low from the ceiling like a tree branch. "They might not even have done anything. They could have been checking for signs that we've already mated, or, well, signs that I've mated with someone. Who else would I be involved with but you?"

Donna snorted. "Like you wouldn't have your pick, Lord President."

He flopped onto the bed. "Is that what you think I'm like? I can count on my hands the number of times I've had sex in the last 903 years."

903? Was he serious? She knew Time Lords lived long, but why did someone so old get to look so good? Not that he was her type, but still, the Doctor was by no means rough on the eyes, just unnaturally skinny. She bet a lot of women would love to get in his pants for that thick brown hair alone.

Blinking, she asked, "Are you sure? You spend a lot of time running around the universe."

He flipped a switch and held relatively still in his chair. "I like adventure. Running's my thrill, not sex."

The TARDIS chimed and he slid off the bed, padding over to some screen to check the results. "The Time Lords didn't do anything to me. Just a scan. Since we haven't gone beyond kissing, we should be fine."

So the Doctor said, but he was rocking on the balls of his feet, staring at the screen.

Donna contemplated getting up to join him, but she knew she wouldn't understand anything anyway, and the last thing she wanted to see was anything like an x-ray of alien insides. "Was it really just a scan?"

"Yeah, it was a scan." The Doctor stuck his hands in his pocket and shuffled to the door. "I've got some world leaders to phone on Earth, one of them in a sensitive time zone."

If it was just a scan, what was he so worried about?

Next time:

Sometimes even the gods are bound.

Review incentive:

None. I have the rest of AAOG and CM written. They'll be posted here and on AO3, but otherwise I'm jumping fandoms (there may still be one Doctor Who story I'll post - a crossover with my new fandom). However, I've put one reference to my new fandom in each of my Doctor Who stories. If anyone is able to identify the fandom and send me at least one of the references by the time I post anything for the new fandom (which will be at least two weeks away), then the first to do so will get the opportunity to request bonus material for any of my Doctor Who fanfictions.

Disclaimer:

Doctor Who is property of the BBC.