A/N: I have MonkeesDoctorWho1987 to thank for an idea I've used here
Part 14
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In the darkness of the Dreadel ship, Donna tried to regroup her thoughts. A wave of nausea swept over her, and she dived desperately for the packet of mints the Doctor had shoved into her pocket. Whatever was in them, they certainly worked a treat. Thank goodness she had been sucking on them as and when needed rather than feasting on them like her greedy tendencies had tried to insist.
Moving her body to look meant pain; lots of bloody pain! If she could see better she would have probably seen a huge bruise across her abdomen from where that Dreadel had grabbed her. It ached from her ribs down to below her navel. Thank God it hadn't gripped her around the pelvis. It might have meant the risk of losing the baby. Okay, there was still a massive risk of doing that, but she'd worry about that later; once she had avoided being sick everywhere. Hopefully.
Finding the bag in her trouser pocket, she sighed with relief when she opened it to find there were still some mints left. Popping one into her mouth, she waited for her morning sickness to dissipate as the reassuring taste hit her palate. Mmmm. She sent out silent prayers of thanks.
If she was going to be rescued by the Doctor, and she really hoped it wasn't a massive 'if', he would have to be able to locate her location exactly. How on earth, or Hureenax, was he going to do that? It wasn't as though she had a distress flare on her.
Then an idea hesitantly crawled through her mind. There was a way if he had formed a parental link with Time Baby.
No! Could she really do that? I mean, contact him in a similar way to that mind melding act he had performed on the Oodsphere. It was certainly worth giving it a go. What else did she have to lose?
Sitting back to rest her head against the bulkhead behind as she sucked slowly on the mint in her mouth, she decided to assess the possible damage to her body. The throbbing in her head and the yuck on her face suggested a head injury that involved a cut. The bruising across her stomach might also have a cut or two. It was hard to tell, since her camisole was a dark colour anyway; but the feel of the cloth was more than a bit crispy in places. As for the state of her trousers, lord knew how bad things were. Thank goodness she had just finished urinating, pre-snatch; otherwise she'd have been facing that situation too; although she hadn't lost her chance to. It all depended on how long she would be kept there, tied up to the wall. She seriously doubted she would get any bathroom breaks from it.
Feeling slightly better as the nausea did its best to slip away, she forced herself up onto her feet. Her ankle complained loudly at this action, as pain erupted from there. Bugger! She must have hit it on something on the way to the Dreadel ship because she certainly hadn't injured it like that earlier in the day when she'd been conscious.
"Okay, Time Baby," she murmured, pressing a hand over where she thought he was currently residing. "Do this for Mummy. For both of us, come to think of it. Help me find Daddy."
There was nothing in response.
"I know you've been talking to him, so don't come the innocent with me," she griped. "All that lip action wasn't for my benefit. Daddy needs to find you; he'd be devastated if he can't get you back. I dread to think what it'd do to him, I really do. So please, Time Baby! Show me how to get him here."
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and focused her mind onto visualising Time Baby safely encased in his little world inside her body. For a second she didn't think it was working and almost gave up hope; but gradually a slithering golden thread appeared in her mind, dancing about playfully as she tried to grab hold of it.
'There you are!' she cried with delight as his image pulsed with affection. 'Hello, Time Baby. My, you've grown. I was expecting you to be just a blob thing and not a recognisable baby foetus.'
Time Baby reacted with glee to her thoughts. Daddy was helping his brain to develop enough before her body starved to death, and she had to give birth.
Oh! She'd never thought about it like that before, having assumed it was brain development and not bodily supplying nutrients that determined the length of a pregnancy. Since a Time Lord needed extra brain capacity, it made perfect sense that the Doctor would be helping him along the way. And it was a boy she was carrying; there was no doubt about that.
'Tell Daddy where we are,' she requested. 'He needs to get here before the Dreadel come back to eat us.'
There was a blink of something in confirmation; and then the pulsing began to oscillate in a different way. Colours were added in, like a forming tornado.
'That's it, Time Baby,' Donna encouraged, now aware of him reaching out towards the Doctor's mind.
There was a sudden flash of the Doctor, an image of his intense eyes; and then it was gone.
What the heck was that? She gasped as the previous silence returned, and she kept a protective hand over her stomach. As the quietness continued, all she wanted to do was cry. 'Don't die on me now, Time Baby!' she wordlessly begged. For all she knew, the connection had been permanently disconnected, and the thought terrified her more than her own impending doom.
Behind the Doctor, Harden found Jenny's calm presence helpful as he reined in his fear of the Dreadel. She was exuding a similar odour to the Doctor, and he readily accepted that this was the way to deal with the situation. After all, what did he know? Shouting at them and kicking them in the face hadn't worked all the other times he had come across these things. So he mentally took a backseat and watched the Doctor perform.
The creature seemed bemused for some seconds, as though an unexpected free delivery had suddenly turned up on the doorstep from Pizza Hut. It edged closer to these three unexpected meals, and tasted the Doctor's words. What?!
"What are you?" it asked in surprise.
Fortunately the TARDIS now had some data on these creatures so she could readily translate the Dreadel's question for the three travellers. Harden's jaw dropped in awe as he 'heard' the words.
"As I said, I'm the Doctor. A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey," he supplied.
"You cannot be," the Dreadel denied in shock. "Time Lords are things in stories from long ago."
"Apparently not," the Doctor countered. "I've come to collect what is mine."
This weird little animal was insisting it handed something over! The Dreadel did the equivalent of a chuckle. "What do I have of yours and why should I give it to you?"
The Doctor stepped nearer, his intention to intimidate. "You took my wife and child. I can take you to a better world if you just let me have them back."
"And if I don't?" the Dreadel inevitable asked, goading him. "What then?"
The threatening atmosphere intensified.
"If you do not let me take them back, I shall destroy you and your mate! I shall show you no mercy," the Doctor sternly declared.
"You upstart!" There was the equivalent of a roar of anger, and the Dreadel lunged at the Doctor.
Immediately the Doctor countered the attack by switching on his sonic screwdriver. "On your head be it."
The resultant pulse forced the Dreadel to fall backwards and away from the TARDIS trio. It let out a howl of distress, flinging a toxic waft of some chemical over them in retaliation.
Jenny had hardly moved to grab one of the canisters tied to her waist when the other Dreadel appeared to answer its mate's distress call. Its great head filled the chamber they stood in, as it thrashed around to locate them. She nudged Harden to throw a canister too, in the opposite direction to the one she'd tossed away.
The Doctor seemed to be set in stone as he deepened the output of the sonic screwdriver, its resonance altering the Dreadel's perception as the odours from the canisters distracted what little sense they had left.
Only Jenny and the Doctor winced at the detected terror in the Dreadel scent release as they reared up in panic, not knowing which direction to go in order to avoid this horrendous assault.
Each of the Dreadel got in the others way and they lashed out at each other with their sharp claws; jabbing and slicing a path out of the chamber. Harden wanted to feel sympathy for them as they suffered injury after injury, but he couldn't find it in him as he was too busy keeping out of their way and looking for another strategic place to open another canister.
The Dreadel were absolutely covered in the chemicals from the canisters. Everything they did seemed to strengthen the retched taste of it upon their tongues. With a ferocity Harden had only seen a few times before, the creatures stumbled their way out of the chamber, still fighting each for supremacy as they went.
And then there was an almighty boom as the Dreadel evidently fell out of the nest ship and onto the hard surface below.
Harden bent over, panting for breath in the dissipating acrid air. "Do you think they are dead?" he hesitantly wondered, hoping that they were.
"We won't know until we look," the Doctor admitted. "But for now I'm going to seal that outer door shut so that they can't come back in," he continued as the changed tone of the sonic screwdriver whirled up and he momentarily disappeared out of the chamber. Seconds later he was back, grinning triumphantly. "That's put out the rubbish! Now to go and find Donna."
"Dad, is she still alive?" Jenny risked asking but not able to actually face him as she did so.
His grin didn't disappear. "She is so alive," he informed her and strode off, shining a torch before him in the encompassing darkness.
"But… how do you know?" Harden wanted to believe him as he followed the Doctor down a corridor in the ship.
To his surprise, the Doctor pointed to his head. "I can feel them thanks to Time Baby. Isn't that terrific?!"
Harden nodded back, still not totally convinced. For all he knew, the Doctor was merely referring to a gut feeling; and he was very aware how misleading that could be.
They got to a crossroads, and the Doctor stopped sharp. "Donna!" he yelled out, stressing the two syllables.
There was an answering feeble "Doctor!" to their right.
Like a shot, he was off. The Doctor raced to where the voice had come from and found, in a small antechamber, Donna tied by one wrist to the wall, and covered in blood from head to toe. He dreaded to think how extensive her injuries were.
"Donna!" he cried in horror, and hurriedly knelt to hug her trembling broken form to him. "I'm here. I'm here. Sh shh shhh! I'm here now," he soothed her with gentle words, stroking her hair with tender touches.
"Is this real? I thought you'd never come for me," she sobbed with relief as he cradled her to his chest. All she wanted to do was bury herself in his comforting warmth.
"Of course I came for you," he crooned, giving her a tighter hug and rubbing his face against her hair. It took some moments for Donna to stop trembling so much, so he was eventually able to pull his sonic out of his pocket and zap the bindings on Donna's wrist, instantly freeing her. "Where have you been hurt?"
"Across my stomach, my head, all sorts of places," she supplied in a shaky voice as they resumed their embrace and she wrapped both of her arms tightly around the Doctor's waist.
"It's okay. We'll sort all that out once we get back home to the TARDIS," he cooed, adding in a kiss to her temple to ground himself. Donna needed him calm and comforting rather than the fiery ball of anger he wanted to be. Whoever had injured her like this would pay dearly, if they hadn't already!