"Donna, fetch me that internal stabilizer."
In any other situation, Donna would've asked just what that looked like again, and how he expected her to remember all of his crap lying around the TARDIS; now, however, she snatched up the device and passed it to him without a word. He inserted it into the console, and watched as the circles on the screen spun ever more rapidly. At least it meant they were increasing speed.
Her nerves were on edge, and she knew her teeth would be ground down to the gums, but she remained silent, knowing that her words would do nothing for the Doctor as he worked, except perhaps raise his anxiety.
"We are…eight hundred miles behind their ship, but closing." He looked up at her, hands still moving across the controls to get them going just that little bit faster. "You know you're mad."
Donna couldn't fake a smile, even for him. "Just get us there."
He nodded, and the ship lurched forwards again with newfound speed. "Four hundred miles—Two hundred. Fifty miles."
Donna rushed to the door as the TARDIS began to slow.
"I'll overtake them by three miles, and then you'll fall back to them in a matter of seconds. I'll extend the atmosphere—"
"I know," Donna interrupted. He nodded briskly, his back to Donna as the door flew open. He had to trust her.
"Good luck," was the last he said to her before she leapt into the unfathomable, empty gap between the ships.
At first she saw nothing, but suddenly the ship was there; a Donna in motion remained in motion, and she managed to grasp the bars outside an airlock. The TARDIS must've hovered closely behind her, because she could still breathe. Anxious, quick hands opened the latch, and she crawled inside as she heard the TARDIS shoot off behind her.
She had to be quick. Looking up, she saw exactly what the Doctor had described to her: a lever marked 'Emergency' beside a panel listing different codes of danger. Quickly she swallowed, turning and pulling the lever and holding the intercom.
"R—red level emergency," she said shakily. "All guards report to my sector immediately."
She closed her eyes; now she would have to wait. She prayed the ruse would lend the Doctor enough time…closing her eyes, she felt a tear fall along her cheek.
She had to have faith…
She could hear the stomping of feet fast approaching her, and braced herself. She knew she was bound to be taken prisoner for stowing away, but it was better than the alternative.
"Halt." Looking up, she saw three groups of guards converged on her.
"Oi! I'm not bloody moving, all right?" she snapped at them. For a moment they froze. Then—
"Blue level emergency! Intruder on nursery floor, attempted kidnapping in progress."
Donna's face grew scarlet; that would be the Doctor. The teams nodded to one another. "You watch the intruder here; we'll catch the other one," one of them said.
Donna held her breath as some of them ran off. They wouldn't catch him, she told herself confidently. He's escape, and they'd be safe. That was what mattered.
Oh, God, they'd better be safe.
##
She knew the TARDIS would appear; she always did. What she didn't know was how the tears would fall from her eyes as she bolted through the doors, or how her shoulders would tremble with emotion as she took the children in her arms, finally, after far too much time apart. She didn't know how right it would feel when she fell into the Doctor's arms and sighed, pressing her face into his shoulder.
She knew his embrace was the safest place in the world, but until now, she didn't know how much she needed it.