I'm glad you all are loving this story so much! I love it too! I have the next chapter drafted and generally completed, I just need to do some editing on it before I put it up.
Reviews are loved as always. Thank you, you guys! :)
Not long after the Doctor disappeared around the side of the Adipose building, the taxi arrived for Wilf and Donna.
Wilf had also taken the time to call Shaun and let him know Donna was safe and sound. Shaun, in turn, called Sylvia and everyone else to let them know all was well. He was very relieved, to say the least! He hurried home to be there to greet her when she arrived.
In the taxi on the way back home, Donna turned to Wilf. "Gramps, who is that man anyway?"
"Well, you heard him! He's Williams Pond. He's a friend. A good friend. A best friend. He's a best sort of man. You can trust him, darling." He said this with the same sort of affinity he used when speaking of her, her mother, or an old war buddy long ago lost. It didn't make sense to Donna.
"But granddad, he's just a kid! What could you two possibly have in common?" She shot him a look.
He laughed anxiously. "You'd be surprised, love." Again, he got a look and felt the need to explain a bit more. "We met a long while back. He and I share a love of the stars." He told her as plainly as he could. He hadn't had to lie either. That much was true. Very much so! In more ways than his granddaughter could ever know.
She gave a knowing half-smile at this. "You and your stars." She didn't say it the same way her mother did. Sylvia always said it as if it were ridiculous, an absurd fixation that wasn't the least bit important. But Donna said it in an affectionate and caring way. She understood. There was something fascinating about the sky. There was enormous mystery and wonder out there and even Donna could appreciate that.
"Me and my stars." He agreed, patting her hand as the taxi rolled up to the house. "He'll fix you up nice and make everything okay, that friend of mine. He's really smart and amazing, Donna. You go on in and I'll send the Doc-My friend in." He told her.
This earned him a whole new sort of look. She caught his little slip there, and although she wasn't sure what it meant, it niggled at her mind. But she didn't say another word as she went inside, leaving the door open for the Doctor, or as she knew him, Willams Pond.
Shaun was out the door and greeting her with a quick kiss before she could fully stand up out of the taxi. He helped her inside, but Wilfred pulled him aside after Donna went in. "Shaun, come up to the cottage with me and we'll have a chat. I've got a doctor who might be able to help Donna."
Shaun looked tired and like he wanted to go in and be with Donna, but Wilfred felt the Doctor needed one less distraction while he was here, and so he decided to distract Shaun. Shaun was too polite to be rude to Donna's grandfather so he agreed and up the hill they went.
Donna sank onto a plush blue sofa and stared blankly at the floor, thinking. This entire night had been a blur. She remembered being on the roof and recalled vague ideas about feelings and images, but she couldn't grasp them long enough to remember exactly what they were.
Though she'd never say so, she was really upset about all of this. What was wrong with her? She didn't understand. Maybe she never would. She wasn't very bright. At least, she didn't think so. She knew there were plenty of things she didn't and would never understand.
But her own head? It frightened her immensely to think she might be losing her mind.
Whoever this Williams Pond guy was, she hoped he could help her. Her grandfather certainly seemed to have a lot of confidence in that kid. She didn't think he could do much, but she couldn't go on like this. Something had to happen.
"Donna?" The unfamiliar voice startled her. She jerked her head up and there he was.
The man in the bow tie. He was standing just inside the doorway entrance. He closed it behind himself and approached her.
"I'm going to try a little something." He knelt down in front of her.
She looked at him warily. "It won't hurt, will it?" Her voice sounded so soft and lost. It wasn't like the Donna he knew. But then she followed it with a sharper look. "If you hurt me or let your hands wander bow-tie boy, I'll hit you so hard, your grandchildren will feel it!"
He gave her a lopsided grin. That was more like it. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you. No, I promise it won't hurt you, Donna." He reached up and placed a hand on each side of her head. She immediately felt herself growing sleepy.
As she started to slouch, he leaned forward, pressing her safely back against the sofa cushions so she wouldn't fall over. Then he delved into her mind.
He reached in to seek out the memory block. There it was. A gaping wound in her mind hidden behind the power of a Time Lord.
He pressed his mind deeper into hers, searchingly.
Everything was in place. He did notice some minor inflammation in the temporal lobes. Very likely the slight swelling was caused by the hint of memories that had tried to escape into her conscious mind. He soothed back the memories locked deep within her mind to ease some of the pressure and swelling they had caused. But what had caused them to do that in the first place?
He searched and found what he was sure was the answer. Her frontal lobes were also slightly inflamed and laced with an unfamiliar presence. The more he tried to reach it and discover what it was, the more it seemed to evade him. He stared heavily at her as he gazed into her thoughts, shuffling through them as gently as possible.
Whatever was effecting her frontal lobes, meant it could easily control her movements. He worked at separating the trace of foreign presence within her mind and release her from whatever it was. It didn't seem to be a living presence, but he had never seen anything like it before. It bothered him a great deal.
He mentally attempted to comb it out of her mind. He observed that whatever it was, it was dissolving as he separated it from her.
He watched it completely vanish and the swelling started to go down. Relieved at that, he didn't stop to question exactly what it had been. It was gone and Donna was safe. That was all he needed to know.
After he finished re-checking his fail-safes and the inflammation to make sure it was being relieved, he gave her head's blood vessels a psychic massage to even out the blood flow and lessen the pressure of the headaches that the memory suppression was causing.
She shivered in her unconscious state at what he was doing.
And then...
He couldn't help himself. He took a peek.
Up to this point he'd been actively avoiding acknowledging her thoughts as he moved through them.
But now he allowed himself a peek into her thoughts, her feelings, her life. And he immediately regretted having done so. Not by her life. Because Donna Noble always did things big. Winning the lottery and having a huge near-mansion built, hiring all sorts of help and going on lavish vacations. He saw she had bought her mother a place a bit away and made a cottage for her grandfather. She spent outrageous amounts of time and money shopping. All of that was perfectly Donna.
But it was the other thoughts and feelings and notions inside her that disturbed him. That she awoke in the night, afraid to tell anyone of her nightmares, bothered him. That she was almost obsessive about planning far off vacations while trying to fill an endless void within herself that she couldn't understand, upset him. She thought so very little of herself that he ached because of it.
He understood it, even if she didn't. She felt alone even with her loving family and husband nearby. She did love Shaun, that much was clear, but just how deeply in love with him she was, was another matter. It was her settling, basically. And he didn't like that. It hurt him to see how much pain she was in over the confusion of her 'sleep walking' episodes. He always knew a bit of her would remember him in some form or another, but he never thought it would be as profound as all this.
Her experiences with him, even though forgotten, infiltrated nearly every aspect of her life. Where they didn't affect her by existing, they affected her by not existing. They made her forget her own potential. Her own wonderful nature and how amazing she was. He couldn't do anything about it. And that, perhaps, was the thing that got to him most of all.
He finished and removed his hands from her head. Gently, he tossed a blanket over her. He watched her.
She was sleeping soundly now. She wouldn't remember much of this night.
He remembered that night at Adipose. A night he'd felt oh so very alone as he investigated the company. The night Donna Noble came back into his life. For him, things had gone from cold, distant, and quiet, to loud, warm, and cozy. He hadn't had to feel alone anymore.
They'd gone on many exciting adventures together. He would always cherish those times with her. But she had to get on with her life here. And he had to get back to fetching Amy and Rory.
He leaned down to press a tender kiss to Donna's forehead. "Sleep well, Donna Temple-Noble. You were brilliant." He combed his fingers through her hair one last time. His eyes were full of sorrow.
"You'd laugh at me. If you were you again." A crooked smile slipped across his face, his eyes filling. "Oh, you'd laugh at how I am now. Still the daft old space man. Only now in a cool bow tie." He plucked at his bow tie. "You'd probably be even worse about the bow tie than Amy is." He laughed softly at that thought, fighting back the tears now.
"Take care, my friend. My very best friend. And you were, you know."
He headed for the door. He cast one last look over his shoulder at the sleeping red-head. She was so unassuming looking, but she had saved the world! And changed it for the better.
She'd saved him. With that final thought, he turned back to the door and stepped out, closing it quietly behind him.
Not to worry, this isn't the end of their story or mine.