It was half eight when Donna and Martha sat down at the table in Martha's kitchen to eat the meal the medic had cooked. It was a Chinese marinated salmon steak with a bite of chili with a creamy mashed potato with peas and sweetcorn through it. It was delicious. Donna hadn't realised quite how hungry she was.
By the time they'd eaten and Donna had insisted on helping Martha with the dishwasher the best that she could it they were both knackered. It was hardly surprising really. The TARDIS had shown up at just after three in the morning and it was now half nine at night. It had also been an emotionally trying day. They both went into the TARDIS and into the Doctor's bedroom. The Time Lord remained tucked up in bed and asleep.
Martha suspected he would remain asleep for the rest of the night. He had a lot of recovering to do. How he was going to feel about any of it remained to be seen once the physical aspect of his recovering was done. Medically they had taken the safest route and encouraged natural expulsion of the toxins as opposed to a quite invasive and risky technique, but emotionally? She just hoped that they had not damaged their friendship in any way, especially not his relationship with Donna.
They went off to bed. Martha went back into her flat and into her bed but left the TARDIS door open so that she could hear if there was anything going on inside. As soon as she was in bed she was sound asleep. Donna went to bed. She tried to get comfortable, but her wrist was throbbing a fair bit despite only just taking the pain relief. She didn't want to now go and say to Martha that actually she'd like the stronger one because she knew the medic had been rudely awoken at three in the morning and unlike her, had not dosed during the day.
Donna tried to get to sleep, but in the end she gave up. She went to check the Doctor remained asleep and then she went into the galley and made herself a cup of cocoa. While she was sitting in there she got an impression from the TARDIS that she should go into the sickbay. Concerned that it was something to do with the Doctor she followed the feeling and found that there was a bottle of pills on the side by the main screen. The indication was for her to take one or two of them now and then every six hours but no more than 8 in any 24 hour period. Donna thanked the TARDIS. She took one of the pills not wanting to go straight for the two. Then she went back to bed with her cocoa. She wasn't sure if her wrist stopped hurting or if she simply stopped caring, but she drifted off to sleep with her cocoa unfinished.
Martha woke first in the morning. It was just after six. She popped into the TARDIS and found both the Doctor and Donna still sleeping comfortably and went back out into her flat to shower and dress. She then returned and sat in the galley having made herself a coffee. It wasn't that long until Donna came in. She looked fairly well rested. As she sat nursing a mug of steaming coffee courtesy of Martha she admitted that the TARDIS had given her some additional drugs. She was feeling a little bit groggy and drowsy with them in combination with the codeine. Martha confirmed it was what she'd have suggested in tramadol and recommended that Donna didn't do anything too strenuous while on them and certainly not to be operating any heavy machinery or driving. She didn't plan to do either with her arm strapped to her chest, the most strenuous thing she had planned for the day was a shower and then movies in the library.
After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast Martha and Donna remained sitting in the galley for a second round of drinks. Martha had nothing planned for the day until the evening when she was going to go out with her sister. She was going to wait to find out how the Doctor was before she definitely confirmed with her sister that she would be meeting her as planned. They were just going to go late night shopping, and then for a meal, and maybe to the cinema and spend some sisterly time together.
While Donna and Martha were sitting at the galley table the Doctor appeared in the doorway. "Hello, you," Donna grinned. She pulled the seat out beside her. "Come and sit down, how are you feeling this morning?"
"Better," he acknowledged but he was slow moving and wide legged as he came and sat down at the table. "Is there tea going?" he asked hopefully. Martha nodded and got up to make him a cup of tea. At least if he was drinking then he was going to be peeing. Martha got him a cup of tea but she also poured him a half pint glass of water and gave him that as well. He knew that he had to flush everything through so he didn't question the water just picked it up and downed it and then pulled a face before sipping scalding hot tea so that everything was alright again.
"We're going to have a quiet day today," Donna suggested.
"You're going to get no arguments from me," the Doctor offered as he shifted uncomfortably on his chair.
"Awww, is Mr Winkle still sore?" Donna asked him.
"Mr Winkle?" the Doctor regarded her curiously. "If you mean my penis, then yes, it is still sore."
"Do you want some egg on toast?" Martha asked him.
"No, thank you, I'm not really hungry at the moment. I'll have something later."
"Once you've finished your tea I want to see you in the sickbay," Martha told him. He knew he wasn't going to get away with it so he just nodded.
"How is your wrist feeling?" he asked Donna.
"Martha split the cast so it wouldn't get too swollen up," Donna advised. "It was pretty sore during the night so the TARDIS provided me with some tramadol."
"Now you're floating without the vortex?" the Doctor teased slightly.
"I'm not that bad, I feel a bit sleepy," Donna admitted.
"I'm sure that is better than being in too much pain," Martha interjected. The Doctor finished his tea and then went with Martha into the sickbay. Donna remained in the galley she didn't want to embarrass the Doctor any more than he already was. As he left the galley she could see that there were still areas of his back where his T-shirt looked wet and over his shoulder it looked like it had been bleeding and that the material of his T-shirt might have stuck. Her poor Time Lord was still most definitely under the weather.
"So, how are you feeling this morning?" Martha asked him.
"You want the list?" the Doctor half laughed as if it was a joke.
"Yeah, I think so," Martha nodded as she guided him to sit on the edge of one of the beds.
"My penis feels like it is filled with razor blades and that I've been kicked several times. My guts feel like they've been twisted and pulled. My back is still a bit hot and sore, though that is not as bad as it was, I've still got a bit of a headache, and I feel worn out despite sleeping for ten hours."
"So pretty rotten still?" Martha confirmed, but the Doctor just sighed.
The Doctor complied with Martha's examination. He was still swollen and sore. He certainly wasn't going to be comfortable putting his suit on yet. She had to soak some of his T-shirt in order to peel it away from his back. Some areas where the stings had concentrated over his shoulder and into the middle of his back were still inflamed and looked very sore, but where there were isolated stings that had not triggered and released the secondary poison they had reduced to red dots despite Donna's shoulder still having a ferocious looking sting on it with a clear boundary between raised red skin and normal milky colouring.
The TARDIS checked a pinprick sample of the Doctor's blood and confirmed there was no toxins there. There was no way the Doctor was even contemplate providing a semen sample to check there was no toxin there so instead the TARDIS scanned him and found nothing to worry about. She recommended his back was coated in ointment again, he had an antihistamine injection, he was given a general analgesia and then Martha delivered the anaesthetic into his urethra for him. He didn't even bother being embarrassed about it anymore, what was the point after the day before?
The TARDIS assured both him and Martha that he'd be fine in a day or so and that he just needed to rest and relax. It was going to be another library day. It took a while for the drugs to start to work and then he felt a little brighter, but he was still content just to lounge around, watch movies, read books, and when Donna got a jigsaw out they sat at the table and did that together.
In the evening Martha went out with Tish as planned and she didn't go back into the TARDIS until the following morning. The Doctor was almost back to his normal self. He was still a bit slower on his feet and he'd not put his suit back on yet as he remained a little bruised and swollen. When Martha came in during the morning she was surprised to find that the Doctor had got out of his pyjamas. He'd put a pair of knee length shorts on and he had a light coloured loose shirt that didn't cling to the odd marks on his back. He was waiting for her on the flight deck.
"What plans have you got for today?" he asked Martha as she went into the TARDIS to make sure they were alright.
"None, except making sure you're alright. It's probably a bit too early to change Donna's cast over yet, so that is probably the plan for tomorrow or the day after, but I've got no plans at all."
"You don't need to pop in and see your mum or anything?"
"I can do, but it's not a plan as such," Martha offered. "Why?"
"Well, Donna still needs to rest and I am still a bit sore so don't want to go running around too much, but, there is only so long we can stay parked in your bedroom isn't there?"
"I've no issues with your being parked in my bedroom," Martha offered. "As long as you don't make a habit of it," she added.
"Do you fancy coming back to the islands for a few days?" the Doctor asked. "Donna will tell you, apart from a bad tempered spine weasel; that is in the jungle and not on the beach, it is really quite beautiful and relaxing. What about it? A few days on a beach? Safe waters, some snorkelling, sun bathing, the TARDIS parked just by?" he prompted trying to make it sound enticing rather than him wanting to be outside and getting some air.
"Sounds great," Martha accepted. "When do you want to go?"
"How quickly can you pack a bag?" the Doctor asked her. "I'd quite like to set going before Donna has got up? So she can have a surprise waking up back on the beach?"
"You're a big softy aren't you?" Martha teased him.
"She's looked after me, you have both looked after me, but we were over half a mile away from the TARDIS in thick jungle when I got hit with those spines and she got me back," the Doctor offered. "And, she's hurt. I don't like that she's hurt," the Doctor admitted to Martha. "She likes the beach."
"I'll go and pack a bag," Martha advised him.
"Make sure you have your swimming gear," the Doctor instructed.
"Beach holiday, got ya," Martha confirmed. She went back out into her bedroom and packed a load of things. She knew what she didn't have the TARDIS would have provided but it was nice to have her own clothes as well. She absently wondered if her bedroom was as it had been left.
As soon as Martha was back on board the Doctor programmed the TARDIS to take them back to where they had been before she had tracked the phone signal back to Martha's flat. She was happy to take them back there so that they could all relax and recover together. When they landed he opened the door of the TARDIS. She was parked at the back of the beach again beyond the normal tide line and positioned so that the door framed a view down the beach and out to the turquoise seat that stretched to the clear blue of the sky and was illuminated by the brilliant orange of the sun high above them.
"It looks beautiful," Martha commented. "Like a real treasure island," she offered. She stepped out of the TARDIS into the sand and saw the jungle rising behind them over the slopes of the long extinct volcano. The beach was a greeny bluish grey colour rather than sandy white, but it was soft when it ran through her fingers. The beach was wide enough and there was a line of seaweeds and drift woods where the tide reached at high tide.
It was a gentle sloping beach into a clear lagoon, but there were rocky areas at the sides of the bay area which would make it even more sheltered for swimming and paddling. The sun was warm on her skin but the sea breeze was refreshing so it was neither too humid nor oppressively hot. She was not surprised that Donna liked it. It was like they'd stepped into a holiday brochure.
"Think you could relax here a few days?" the Doctor asked her.
"I could stay here a month!" Martha exclaimed and laughed.
"You could," the Doctor offered with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
"Don't be daft. I've got to go back to work on Monday," Martha commented.
"The TARDIS is a time machine Martha, we could stay a month, and then drop you back in time for work on Monday?" he offered.
"It's certainly tempting." Martha stood on the beach and looked down along the sand.
"Think about it, no reason to decide now, is there?" the Doctor offered. They went back inside to the galley. It was another hour before Donna got up out of bed. Her hair was all mussed up where she had not been able to do much with it but where it had been falling out of the plait she'd put in a couple of days before. She felt like she needed a decent shower and a proper hair wash. The painkillers were still making her feel a bit muggy and she'd woken up with her wrist throbbing and her fingers hurting and not in a particularly great mood, so when she went into the galley and found the Doctor looking more or less recovered and pretty pleased with himself she wasn't really in the mood for it. She wanted a coffee and she wanted to have a decent shower and she didn't really want to have it with a bin bag over her arm and have to figure out how to do everything one handed. Even taking the lid off the shower gel was going to be a struggle.
"You're looking better," Donna grumbled at him.
"Almost fully done," the Doctor agreed and grinned. He got up and hugged Donna. "Come on, I've got something to show you?"
"Doctor?" she groaned. If he'd started doing some maintenance again and he wanted to show her the sparkly manifolds under the central console before she'd even got out of her pyjamas and had a coffee then she was going to kill him. "Can't I have a coffee first?"
"Nope," the Doctor grinned. He linked arms with her to lead her out but she resisted him grumpily.
"You better go," Martha commented and rolled her eyes.
"Has he made you look at it as well?"
"Yeah," Martha agreed and nodded. She didn't follow them as the Doctor led Donna out.
"You better not have been polishing things again," Donna groaned at him. "Has Martha cleared you for maintenance yet? I'm not having you making yourself ill again?"
"I've not been doing maintenance. I'm not going to for a few days yet," he offered. He went to the door to the TARDIS and opened it. The sunlight streamed in and made Donna wince slightly, before she realised that they weren't in Martha's bedroom anymore. She went to the door. She could hear the sounds of the jungle behind them and the gentle lapping of the stream.
"You brought us back here?"
"Yep," the Doctor grinned.
"You almost died in the middle of the jungle and you brought us back here?!" Donna exclaimed trying to sound angry with him. His expression fell and he rubbed the back of his neck, catching one of the tiny blisters that remained from the thorns.
"Um, I…"
"Thank you!" Donna grinned and very gently hugged him.
"We won't be able to waterproof that cast, but when you've got the new one on we will. You'll not be able to go snorkelling or diving for now, only paddling," the Doctor offered sounding apologetic, but Donna just laughed.
"Even better. Then I can't get eaten by those sharky things."
"They were only babies," the Doctor insisted. "They'd not have troubled us."
"Yeah, you say that," Donna teased him, but then she grinned. She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."
They went back through to the galley where Martha was making drinks again. Donna sat down and had her coffee. She asked Martha if she would be kind enough to take the plait out of her hair so she could go and get a proper shower. Then they wrapped her arm in bags and taped it so it was waterproofed so she could go in the shower and freshen up.
Donna spent some time in the shower. When she came out the Doctor was waiting in her room to make sure she didn't need a hand with anything. She asked him if he minded going to get Martha so she could brush her hair out, but he pouted and claimed that he could do that. He got her to sit at her dressing table and then he pulled another chair up behind her. He gently brushed her hair for her. It had kinked with being in the plait for three days and there were some knots in it, but he was gentle as he worked them out until he could pull the brush through her hair easily.
She left it loose and damp so it could dry naturally in the sunshine as she fully intended to make use of the time on the beach. The Doctor made sure he put plenty of suntan lotion on her. There were even more areas that she could not reach now she only had one hand in use and he made sure she was coated, or as he called it, receiving a slight tap on his thigh for his trouble, basted.
Martha had gone outside and she had laid three enormous towels out on the beach. The TARDIS had provided a cool box and drinks on ice. They spent the morning lounging on the beach and paddling in the warm water up to their knees, but nothing more strenuous than that. Donna and Martha both fetched themselves books from the library and teased the Doctor who was scouring the beach for interesting things that he could collect, sonic, and gift to the other two. He'd taken his shirt off and the sunshine was doing a good job at drying the rest of the sores on his back up. Martha was fairly sure she'd be able to take the stitches out and there was only the odd bruised circle on there now. He was walking more easily as well.
At one point Donna and Martha were both watching him as he whooped at something. He then went running along the beach only to drop down onto his knees. They'd both stood up thinking that he'd pulled himself or that he was in pain again, only to see him digging with his hands down into the wet sand after a crab that was trying to bury itself even faster. The poor crustacean did not succeed and it was dragged out of its escape burrow by an inquisitive Time Lord.
"If he comes over here with that thing I am going to kill him," Donna grumbled as the Time Lord looked up and saw them watching him.
"If that thing gets him with his claws then he can go and treat himself," Martha added just as the Time Lord squeaked and dropped the crab which took the opportunity to escape. The Doctor sucked at his offended finger, he looked over to Donna and Martha wondering if it was worth going and complaining that he'd been nipped by a crab, but judging by the way Martha was stood akimbo and Donna had folded her uninjured arm over her cast? He just waved and carried on his exploration of the beach.
"Nutter." Donna chuckled as she sat back down on her towel.
"You really care about him don't you?" Martha commented.
"What? The Doctor?" Donna checked and Martha nodded. "Yeah, course I do, he's my mate." She looked down the beach to where the Time Lord had found a bit of drift wood and was dragging along the sand for some reason she was sure made perfect sense to him if to no one else.
"Just your mate?" Martha asked her.
"Just his mate," Donna confirmed. "That is all he wants. We both made that pretty clear when I started travelling with him."
"Are you sure, because, I mean the way he takes care of you?" Martha suggested.
"Don't be daft." Donna laughed. "I think we better get you a hat, the sunshine is obviously addling your brain, all he wants is a mate."
About an hour later Martha rose and stretched from the towel. "I'm going to go and stretch my legs," she offered. "You fancy a walk or are you staying here?" she asked Donna. The red head had her book balanced on her stomach and her sunhat perched just over her brow and was lying back in the shade enjoying the sun's warmth without direct rays.
"Quite happy here."
Martha got up and wrapped her sarong around her otherwise bikini clad body and walked down to the surf. She went into the cool water so that it lapped around her ankles and then she strolled up the beach toward the Time Lord. He had found other bits of drift wood and had laid them all out on the beach beside each other. Martha chuckled and shook her head.
"You've got the TARDIS there," she teased him. "You don't need to build a raft in order to escape you know. Is it that horrible being stuck on the beach with the two of us that you need to build your own escape raft?"
"Course not, I'm just, well look. With stuff just on the beach we can build a raft and then get to the next island," the Doctor suggested.
"Or, you could jump in the TARDIS," Martha offered. "And, don't be lifting anything too heavy, alright?" she reminded him.
"I won't," the Doctor assured her. "Where are you going?" he asked her.
"I'm just going to wander up the beach for a while. Donna just took some more painkillers and I think she's going to have a snooze," Martha advised. She saw the Doctor look up the beach with some concern. "Its fine, she's in the shade, and she's plenty of sunscreen on," Martha assured him.
"Okay, good," the Doctor accepted. "Have you got sunscreen on?" he checked with Martha. "Did you and Donna baste each other?"
"Yeah, we did," Martha confirmed. "You could probably do with some basting as well," she reminded the Time Lord. He pulled some sunscreen out of his shorts pocket. It was a spray on one and Martha sprayed it over the tops of his shoulders and the back of his neck and then got him to close his eyes and sprayed his nose. He sniffed and sneezed and then pouted. "Care to join me in a stroll?" Martha asked him.
"Yeah, okay," the Doctor agreed. He took Martha's hand as they both walked through the surf.
"This really is a beautiful place," Martha remarked as they strolled. "Quite romantic," she added.
"I wouldn't know about that," the Doctor commented. "But it is pretty."
"I am going to say something to you once, Doctor," Martha advised him. "It doesn't have to be a discussion and you don't have to confirm or deny or comment at all if you don't want to, okay?"
"Um, yes, okay," the Doctor puzzled. He was worried that their trip was bringing back some of Martha's old feelings.
"You don't have to sound so worried." Martha squeezed his hand. "I'm not about declare my undying love for you or anything," she teased him.
"Well, that is a relief," he added and grinned as Martha tapped him.
"The other day, when we had to make you ejaculate," Martha started.
"Don't remind me," the Doctor groaned his embarrassment.
"I know it was horrible and I am so sorry that it had to be done, but, you are almost fully recovered now and there is no guarantee that needle aspiration would have worked."
"It was the safest of ways to do it," the Doctor agreed. "I would just rather forget the whole ordeal if I'm honest."
"I don't blame you," Martha accepted. "But, there were brief times when it seemed that you might have been enjoying some aspects of it, and, that is normal and natural. I know that Donna was suggesting that you closed your eyes and thought of something nice and someone nice," Martha advised. "Now, I don't know if you did that, and I don't want you to tell me either way if you don't want to, I'm not prying. I am just going to say this once, and you need to think about it. I know as well as anyone that you lost Rose and it broke your hearts, but I don't want you to make the same mistake again. You deserve to be happy, Doctor, you don't deserve to live within some self-purgatory through fear of loss. If it was Rose you closed your eyes and thought about then I'm sorry," Martha told him. "If it was Donna? Then you should tell her."
The Doctor didn't laugh at Martha as though she was completely insane. He didn't explode at her and tell her to mind her own business. She'd braced herself for either response, instead he remained silent as he continued to walk hand in hand along the beach with her. Martha had assured him that he didn't have to comment, but now she was itching to know, except she couldn't push him. She could almost hear the clogs behind his skull spinning and whirring as the processed what she'd said and thought it through.
"Donna is a mate," the Doctor responded after eleven long strides during which he'd failed to pick his feet properly and now had dollops of wet sand hiding his toes.
"I can see that," Martha accepted. "Very good mates."
"Yes," the Doctor agreed. "Neither of us are looking for anything different."
"Do you never wonder why so many people say that it is when you're not looking for anything different that something different actually arises?" Martha asked.
"Because they're idiots?" he suggested cheekily and Martha chuckled at him.
"Because it's true," Martha told him. "It's none of my business, of course, just, don't waste a chance to be happy."
"What do you think I should do?"
"I think you should have a think about what you want," Martha advised. "Then, when you figure out that it is actually Donna, I think you should let me pop the full cast on her arm and then drop me off back for work and bring her back here and then you should tell her."
"What if she chases me round the beach slapping me with a bit of wet seaweed?"
"Then I want you to film it," Martha commented deadly seriously. The Doctor just looked at her and she burst out laughing. "She won't, Doctor."