I've not updated this for a while as I'm starting to find it a bit too heavy, to be honest. I know I'm one for complex storylines, but this one's going to probably end up being one of the most confusing I've ever done, purely because of the amount of detail I'm going to have to put into it. This is actually intended as a sequel to a piece of original fiction I started to post on FictionPress, but I only wrote two chapters of it before deciding I actually wanted to write this as a fanfiction. I had a whole story planned about Dominie prior to the events in this, but then I decided I wanted to write the story of Dominie forgetting about it and then unearthing the past with the Doctor. Which means I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do if I want anyone to understand this, so this is going to be a lot of work.

I do still enjoy writing this and want to go as far with it as possible, but it's just a bit much to handle updating it frequently. I'm getting so wrapped up in the plot that I'm still finding the characterisation immensely difficult, but I'm really making the effort to write the Tenth Doctor at least passably. Honestly, in every Doctor Who fic I've ever done I've always found him the most difficult to get in character because he's so complex, but I'm going to keep trying.

Anyway, thanks to Chessie for the review and on we go!

Chapter Six – On The Run

The pair of them ran towards the door to the room, ducking more plasma shots as they went. Once they'd reached the exit the Doctor saw Dominie reach up to hit a control pad attached the wall next to the doorframe. "No, don't do that!" he shouted, but it was too late.

There was a whirring mechanical sound as the shutters suddenly came up again and the room was plunged into darkness. The plasma fire ceased and the pair of them stood still in the doorway, waiting to see what happened. After a few seconds the backup lights flickered on, and in the dim light the Doctor saw Dominie glaring at him. "Why not?" she snapped, "Those shutters are more than capable of deflecting plasma bursts."

"Well, it won't do much good if…" he began to respond, but then suddenly another bright burst of plasma collided with the door frame just over their heads. "If the shooter's already inside the building!" the Doctor finished as they began to run deeper inside the villa again.

They ran across the entrance hall and towards a flight of stairs. Dominie started to ascend them, but the Doctor grabbed her arm and tried to pull her in the opposite direction. "Don't get stranded on the upper floor, we need to get out of here and back to the Tardis."

She pulled away from him and continued running upstairs. "You do that if you like. I want to find out who the fuck's trashing my house."

The Doctor felt a surge of frustration that she was being so stubborn again, but continued to follow her upstairs just as another plasma jet collided with the banister. They reached the landing and Dominie ran towards and door just a few metres to their left, opening it to go through with the Doctor close behind her. On the other side was a large room with a spacious circular bed in the middle of the floor, beside which was a white swivel chair with a khaki jacket flung over the back of it. There was a tall wardrobe with mirrored doors on the wall opposite the shuttered window, and next to the door they'd entered by was an ornate chest of drawers. The room might have looked stylish if it weren't for the clutter that was covering every available surface: paper documents, electronics, ornaments…all sorts of things scattered around the room in a disorganised mess. This must be Dominie's bedroom, the Doctor realised, and he was a little surprised by how untidy it was. He'd had her down as the kind of person who liked everything to be orderly and under control.

Dominie snatched up the khaki jacket and shrugged it on over the black long-sleeved shirt she was wearing, before crossing to the chest of drawers. She opened the top one and took out three small glass bottles which she put into the pockets of the jacket. More pills, the Doctor realised. Then she opened the second drawer and took out some kind of firearm which the Doctor recognised as an ion revolver. "Should've known," he commented, "You like shooting people, don't you?"

"If it stops them shooting me," Dominie said in response, loading the revolver with a magazine of cathode cases and cocking the charge hammer.

"Have you got any idea who it is?" the Doctor asked, but Dominie just shook her head as she crossed to the door.

"None whatsoever," she replied, and before he could do anything to stop her she'd opened the door again and fired two ion rays in the direction the plasma was coming from. Apparently, she missed, and another jet of heated plasma exploded on the landing. Dominie darted across the scorched floor to the other side of the landing and ducked down next to the banister before taking another shot. The Doctor was about to follow her when there was another explosion in front of him, and he hung back in the doorway. He reached into his jacket for his sonic screwdriver and glanced at across at Dominie opposite him. Her eyes flickered from the direction of the shooter towards him.

"Stop shooting," he instructed her, "I can immobilise the plasma cannon with this."

She glanced sceptically at the device in his hands, but he ignored her and brought it up to point in the general direction the shots were coming from. He activated the screwdriver and the blue light on the end of it began flashing as the sonic pulse was sent in the direction of the staircase. A couple of seconds passed without any more plasma shots firing, and the Doctor and Dominie exchanged glances. Even if that had worked, then the shooter was still out there somewhere and they both had to be cautious. The Doctor slowly inched his head out of the door to look round the corner, but the backup lights weren't up to much and he couldn't see anything beyond the top of the staircase. He wasn't even sure he'd been pointing the screwdriver in the right direction, but there had been quite a pause since the last shots were fired. Hopefully that meant it was safe.

He glanced over at Dominie again and was about to cross the landing to join her, but then a plasma burst collided with the doorframe just next to his head and he ducked down with a surprised yell.

"And while you're doing that, I'll actually be taking care of the problem," Dominie remarked snarkily as she got up and ran towards the top of the stairs, firing ion bursts into the shadows in front of her.

"Dominie, stop shooting and give me chance to do something!" the Doctor shouted, picking himself up again and running after her. He saw that she'd just reached the top of the stairs when a jet of plasma collided with her arm, causing her to drop the gun. She gave a scream as the force of the impact knocked her off her feet, and she fell sideways and began to tumble down the stairs. "Dominie!" the Doctor shouted again. He ran after her, all the time looking round to try and work out where the shots must be coming from. He still couldn't see the shooter through the shadows and it seemed like the shots must be coming from somewhere above them. But where exactly? He didn't know the layout of this house well, but he couldn't see anywhere higher up on this floor where the shooter could be.

As he ran down the stairs to where Dominie had landed roughly at the bottom another plasma burst took out the steps underneath his feet. He lost his footing and slid down the next few steps, but managed to put an arm out to stop himself from falling any further. He held up the sonic screwdriver to point towards the top of the stairs and activated it, not stopping to give any thought as to whether or not that had worked before picking himself up and running down towards the ground floor.

Dominie had picked herself up and as he reached her she turned to look at him. Upon seeing he was only carrying the sonic screwdriver she shot him a glare. "What did you leave my gun at the top of the stairs for?"

"Oh, the sonic's so much better than a gun," he responded, "I think I've managed to deactivate the…" The end of that sentence turned into a cry of pain as he felt a something hot collide with his right shoulder blade. It wasn't the burn of sizzling plasma, but more like a sharp stab of heat concentrated on a small point. "Oh, he's got a laser pistol as well," the Doctor hissed through gritted teeth, "I don't think there's any point trying to fight him. Let's just get out of here."

"Well since I've not got a gun anymore what choice do we have?" Dominie snapped as they ran towards the front entrance. The Doctor brought up the screwdriver to deactivate the shutters, and they just managed to make it through the exit before several laser shots collided with the doorframe.

"Come on!" the Doctor yelled as they headed back to where the Tardis was parked. He was the first through the doors of the police box, but Dominie was very soon after and as she shut the door behind them she felt it rattle as a laser jet hit the other side.

The Doctor had crossed to the console and was fiddling with the controls to get the Tardis to move. Like it had done earlier, the engine seemed to give a groan of protest and the ship didn't appear to want to do anything. From outside came the sound of more laser shots colliding with the door. "Doctor, get a chuffing move on," Dominie hissed.

"I'm trying," he snapped back, "I don't understand what's the problem. Come on, I'm only asking you to take us into orbit." He addressed the last part to the Tardis, and once he'd said that the groaning noise stopped and was replaced by the more familiar whooshing sound. "Ah, much better," the Doctor said as the sound of lasers hitting the door suddenly ceased.

He let out a steady breath as the stabbing pain in his shoulder slowly faded. It was a clean laser wound and as a Time Lord it would only take him a few minutes to heal.

He turned to Dominie and saw that she was scowling. "Are you alright?" he asked sincerely.

She glared at him. "If you mean aside from being attacked by a lunatic with a plasma gun who kept trying to blow my home to pieces, and then being dragged off to God-knows-where by another lunatic in a blue box, yes I am fine."

He didn't say anything in response to that, thinking that this time her reaction to the situation was completely justified. He could imagine that being dragged away from her home like this was a massive shock to her, but she had agreed to go with him. And after what had just happened he didn't think it was really an option for her to change her mind.

Dominie just continued to stand by the door and glare at him, and he walked away from the console to go nearer to her. He could see the burn on her upper arm from the plasma burst and it looked nasty. "Let me have a look at that," he said, reaching out to her, but she pulled away from him.

"Don't bother, it's fine."

There she was, being stubborn again. "Dominie, I really think you should let me take a look."

"I said it's fine," she repeated insistently. "Now can you please tell me where we're going?"

"Dominie, just let me," he said firmly, and she glared at him for a few more seconds before giving a roll of her eyes and shrugging off the jacket with its scorched sleeve.

He reached out to touch her arm just at the edge of the burnt skin, trying to get a better look. It wasn't actually as bad as it had first seemed. Only the outer layer of skin appeared to have been damaged and the area of the burn wasn't all that large. He frowned slightly, finding it a little odd.

Dominie, noticing his expression, raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on, what are you looking like that for? It's not that bad."

"Exactly," he said thoughtfully, looking up at her face. "I don't think he was trying to kill us."

Dominie gave him a disbelieving look. "Really? Because with all that shooting he was doing he could have fooled me."

The Doctor shook his head. "But he kept missing, didn't he? All those shots and only a couple were on target, and even then he didn't hit anything vital. If he'd had the plasma cannon on its highest setting he could have taken your entire arm off, but he's only just scorched the top layer of skin. It seems more like he was just trying to scare us."

Dominie frowned. "But why? That makes no sense whatsoever."

"No, it doesn't" the Doctor agreed, still probing gently around the wound with his fingers, "Are you sure you have no idea who he was?"

"Haven't a clue," she replied, "He might be working for one of my rivals; might be something to do with the Costello brothers; or he could be something else entirely. I honestly don't know."

The Doctor made a 'hmm' noise as he continued to think, still looking at the burn on Dominie's arm. She didn't seem to be reacting to that at all either, and that was another thing that puzzled him. He gently pressed his fingers against the edge of the burn and looked up at her face. Her expression was blank. "You will tell me if I'm hurting you, won't you?" he asked, a little concerned.

"You're not," she replied with a smirk.

He found her reaction a little odd and frowned slightly. "No?"

"I have congenital analgesia, didn't I mention that?" she said nonchalantly.

"Really?" Now that was something else intriguing about her. The more he found out about her the more questions it seemed to raise, and now he was more eager than ever to find out exactly who she was. "So you can't feel pain? At all?"

She shrugged. "I can feel temperature, texture and pressure, but it doesn't really register as being bad. I know there's a sensation but it doesn't really hurt, if that makes sense."

He studied her face with a fascinated expression. "Do you know why? Is it a side effect of the pills?"

"Might be," she replied, "I can't remember a time when it was any different. I don't know if the cuts on my arm hurt when I did them, or if I only did them because I knew it was the only way to write a permanent reminder for myself, but I don't think it matters all that much."

"Don't think it matters?" he repeated incredulously, "Of course it matters. The reason pain exists is to let you know when something's wrong, and if you can't feel it then you're only in more danger of doing yourself serious damage. Surely you must worry about that."

She just shrugged again. "A little, but I've got used to it. I know how to deal with things."

He frowned again, concerned by how little she even seemed to care about it. "Don't you find it a bit odd, though?" he asked, finding it difficult to believe she was genuinely content not knowing the truth about her past, "That you not only chose to forget everything prior to the last seven years of your life, but you've got a rare condition that makes you indifferent to pain. It seems pretty likely to me that the analgesia is linked to the pills. Have you never wanted to find out for sure?"

Dominie shook her head. "I work on the assumption that either it's the pills that give me the analgesia, in which case it's a worthwile side effect if it stops me remembering; or it's not the pills, in which case I deliberately tried to make myself forget what it was. So either way, I don't particularly want to know," she answered, still not sounding like she cared all that much. "I know there's an evolutionary purpose to pain, but it's not just that; it works the other way too. I can't feel pleasure either. I do experience sensations, but my brain doesn't process them as being either good or bad. The only part of me I get anything positive or negative out of is my sense of taste, and I find that's enough to keep me happy. Other than that I'm completely indifferent."

"That's…that's really…" he trailed off, not quite able to find the right word for what it was. Part of him found it quite sad that she couldn't feel any kind of pleasure from physical touch, but at the same time not being able to feel pain wasn't really something to be pitied. Or was it? Pain was supposed to be what reminded a person they were alive, but Dominie couldn't feel it. She couldn't even remember who she was or where she came from, and there was something about that which was heartbreakingly sad. Despite finding her immensely frustrating to be around, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

Dominie gave a bitter laugh. "It is what it is, and I've managed to live with it for as long as I can remember. It doesn't bother me. Now, are you done?" she asked, pulling her arm away from him.

He looked at her with a concerned but resigned expression. It seemed she was determined not to let him help her. "Yes, I'm done," he answered. "Just get some bionitrine solution and a bandage on it and you'll be fine. The Tardis infirmary is down there," he said, pointing towards a corridor that led away from the control room.

"Alright," Dominie said bluntly, beginning to walk in that direction, but then she stopped and turned to look back at him. "So are you going to answer my question? Where are we going now, then?"

He was standing back at the console and altering the co-ordinates for the Tardis' destination. "Well, since you have an expired ID card from the Intergalactic Federal Authority, I thought that potentially makes them suspects in who sent the shooter after you and they might have some information about you in their records. So, we could always start with their headquarters on Altager Four. How does that sound?"

Dominie just rolled her eyes as if she didn't particularly care. "Do what you like," she replied, "I still can't believe I agreed to this." That was all she said before turning away from him and continuing towards the medical bay.

The Doctor stared after her for a few seconds with an eyebrow raised. She really was fascinating. Ever since he'd met her she seemed to swing between being perfectly friendly with him and then flipping to phases of passive-aggressive snarking, and that odd behavioural pattern was just as intriguing as the past she didn't know about. He hoped he was going to be able to find some answers.

"Alright, Altager Four it is then," he muttered to himself just has she vanished round the corner, and he pulled down a lever to set the Tardis off on its course.