Second-to-last chapter, friends! The good news is, I've been working on something new(ish)...
But first, let's find out what happens to Donna and Colin, and how the Doctor explain himself...
Enjoy!
THIRTY-FOUR
For about a week, there were four occupants of a TARDIS parked in a common garden in Prince's Square. No-one felt they had any reason to go anywhere, but felt they had every reason to stay.
Donna's coma was complete for the first three days, and then she began to slip in and out of consciousness intermittently. But, when she was awake, she was confused. She seemed to recognise Martha, but no-one else, and asked, heartbreakingly, after her granddad each time she opened her eyes.
Her body was riddled with muscle spasms at best, and at worst, she had terrifying seizures. Martha treated her with Torpiramate, a common anti-convulsant, and the frequency of seizures began to abate day by day. Though, perhaps as a side-effect, perhaps not, her blood pressure seemed unregulatable; no matter how Martha adjusted her dosages, she could not keep it stable. The Doctor rigged a way to compensate for high or low blood pressure by using a kind of miniature defibrillator to regulate blood flow using electrical pulses…
"I can't believe that works," Martha mused, after seeing him do it for the first time.
"More things in heaven and Earth, Horatio…" the Doctor commented, walking away.
She chuckled, remembering how she'd used that exact phrase with her cousin, days before, when he couldn't believe what he was seeing in the TARDIS. It felt like a much more innocent time.
Colin spent most of his days with Donna, that is when he wasn't forced out of the room in order to eat, sleep, or simply stop biting his nails at the bedside. But, he was never without a doctor attending her as well – and that was fine with him. The monitors, the IVs, the chaos, the intertwining cause-to-effect of all the human body's functions… he was happy not to have to think about that stuff. The Doctor and Martha saw to it that all he had to do was hold Donna's hand, read to her, and occasionally watch a bit of telly, pretending she was watching with him.
On the sixth day, the fog seemed to lift.
Colin was sitting with his feet on her bed, watching a football match, eating crisps, making occasional comments about how his team were "rubbish" this season, and all of a sudden, he heard, "Colin?"
He spilled the crisps all over the floor, and the Doctor, who had been on the other side of the room, cataloguing supplies and preparing to re-order, skidded across the room in order to come to her bedside.
"Donna!" he shouted.
"Doctor?" she asked, looking at him with a measure of lucidity for the first time in a week. She looked around the room. "What's going on? Am I in hospital?"
"You're in the TARDIS," he told her, his eyes filling with tears. He took her hand and squeezed. "God, it's good to see sentience in your eyes."
"This is the TARDIS?" she asked, looking around again. "The TARDIS has a hospital in it?"
"Of course," he shrugged. "The TARDIS has a swimming pool, billiards room, library, spiritual centre, a Canadian mountain lagoon, two formal gardens, a Beethoven-themed room, and I'm thinking of putting in a Starbucks. Why wouldn't it have a hospital?"
"What happened?" she asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.
The two men looked at each other. Then Colin asked, "What's the last thing you remember?"
She placed her hand at her forehead in thought, examining the IV site as she brought her arm up. She thought for a moment, the said, "Hovering above Earl's Court Road and Bolton Gardens in the TARDIS, looking down upon… oh…"
Her eyes had gone wide with realisation.
"You remember jumping into that hole?" Colin asked, turning off the television.
"I do," she answered, in total disbelief.
"We waited for you in 1938 for a while, but you didn't turn up, so the Doctor tracked you down in the Vortex," Colin explained.
"In the Vortex?"
"You got lost," the Doctor told her, his voice breaking slightly.
She smiled. "Thanks for getting me back."
"I just found you," he said. "Colin did the hard part."
"What was the hard part?" she asked Colin, looking at him anxiously.
"We don't need to talk about that now," he said, patting her hand. "Don't worry yourself."
"Colin, what did you do?"
"He tied himself to the console with a rope and demanded that I speed up the TARDIS so he could leap out and grab you," the Doctor said quickly, before anyone could stop him.
"Doctor, no…" Colin said, lowering his eyes.
"What? It was heroic!" the Time Lord insisted. "Bloody insane, but heroic."
"You did that?" she asked Colin, again anxious.
"I did," he admitted, sitting down in his chair again.
"The technology wasn't working, so the Architect decided to go analog," the Doctor said, remembering that day.
"I have no idea what that means, and… don't tell me," Donna chuckled. "Just… thank you both. Where's Dr. Jones?"
"Asleep," the Doctor said. "She and I have been taking it in shifts. I should tell her you're lucid."
"No, don't bother her."
"Are you kidding? She's going to want to know you're awake!"
That evening, they all had dinner together for the first time since the gourmet burger place, the night of Colin's grandfather Floyd's funeral. Which had been less than two weeks prior, but seemed like years. The Doctor boiled some pasta, deeming it sufficiently bland for Donna's recovering stomach, and served it with some light olive oil, oregano, and simple salt and pepper. They ate fruit, had some sparkling water, and the Doctor, Martha, and Colin sat in chairs with trays, while Donna ate from her bed. Donna talked about what she was beginning to remember, after leaping into the time portal (mostly flashes from her childhood and early adulthood, a few moments of the sensation of falling, bright lights, seeing her granddad, and occasionally, Martha's face, like an angel, lulling her). Martha and Colin chatted a bit about football, but the Doctor, while listening, stayed mostly silent. He had retreated into watchful mode again, the mode in which Colin had first seen him.
"What about you, Spaceman?" Donna asked, cheekily, popping a cube of melon into her mouth.
"What about me," asked the Doctor, secretly delighted to hear her call him Spaceman again.
"You're uncharacteristically quiet," she said.
"Just thinking."
"Stop that," she scolded. "Tell me what happened to the bad guys."
"The bad guys? You mean General Kir, and the wacky gang at the Heimat Squad?"
"Yeah!"
"Ugh, Donna," Martha said. "You're going to be sorry you asked."
"Why?" Donna wondered.
"You just are. Why don't we talk about something else?"
"No way," Donna insisted. "Out with it, Spaceman."
He sighed heavily, then, "The General is, as you once were, lost in the Vortex." The Doctor said this without making eye-contact.
"What?" she shouted, her conversation with Martha a couple of weeks before, concerning the darkness of the Doctor, popping into her head now. She now had no idea who to look to, the Doctor, Martha, or Colin.
"I told you," Martha said, knowingly.
"Jesus! Who are you, Bruce Wayne?" Donna asked, in her trademark high-pitched, riled-up fashion. "Doctor, what were you thinking?"
"Well, it's better than what I said I would do!" he practically whined. "At least I didn't squash the whole Kyriarch system into a coffin!"
"That's what you tried to do?" Donna asked, incredulous.
"No, that's what I said I would do, Donna," he responded. "Said, not actually tried. It's called a scare tactic. Nothing was ever rigged to cause destruction on such a scale. Blimey, how could you think I'd do a thing like that?"
"How? I've seen you…"
"Yeah, I know, I know," he muttered, taking a bite of pasta.
"All the same," she sighed. "Good grief, Doctor. You pushed him into the Vortex?"
"I programmed the equipment to track his energy signature, put in specs for his height and weight, then technically had him swallowed, by the Vortex. And let's be clear, here: I did give him a chance, and I'm not the one who actually flipped the switch."
"How?"
"I told him I'd rigged the switch to swallow up the Kyriarch system, and told him not to touch the machinery in that room ever again, if he didn't want to be swallowed up with it, thus keeping him from binding 1938 again and imprisoning the planet Earth in a time loop. And then, Agent Pym flipped the switch, not me. So it's a little more high-tech, and a lot less brute-force than you're implying, but… yes, basically, I banished him to the Vortex."
"That's an awfully big punishment for some guy who… basically didn't get to accomplish what he wanted."
"He did it for me," Martha said, softly.
The Doctor muttered, "You don't need to make excuses for me. Donna's got my number, one way or the other."
"He did it partially to punish Kir for all the ugly, nasty stuff that he said he'd do to me – and with me – if the Doctor didn't comply," Martha continued, ignoring him. "None of it actually happened, mind you, but if the Doctor had chosen humanity over my well-being (like he perhaps should have)…"
"Martha…"
"…then I would've had my skin branded and been raped… both repeatedly. Probably by several different people."
"That's what this General Kir bloke was gonna do, if the Doctor didn't give him what he wanted?" Colin blurted out.
"Yes," Martha said.
"And the Doctor agreed to give him what he wanted?" Colin asked, in disbelief.
"Yes, he agreed to show them how to imprison the human race," Martha said. "To keep me safe."
"Holy shit," Colin muttered. "I have… no idea what to do with that information."
"And, the Doctor got Kir to basically admit that he'd had every intention of going through with those threats," Martha added, to everyone in the room. "The threat itself, oddly enough, is a crime, too."
"Basically admit?" Donna asked.
"I asked him what his fellow operatives would say if I brought in an interrogator to see if he had made plans to procure a branding kit, and then…" the Doctor swallowed, unable to give any more direct thought to the rest of the scenario.
Martha finished his explanation. "General Kir, thank God, has no poker face whatsoever. And he just stared at the Doctor with this steely anger, that betrayed everything. I watched the whole sordid episode on the monitor."
"Then I say, bloody good riddance to the General," Colin declared. "Well-done, mate."
"Thanks," the Doctor said, expressionlessly.
"No, seriously. I know you and I have been having our differences lately…"
"You have?" Donna asked, practically shrieking the question. "What the hell does that mean?"
"A lot's happened since you've been gone, Donna," Martha said. "Fill you in later."
Colin continued, "…but the world doesn't need a guy like that. Or the universe. Whatever."
"Ordinarily, Colin, I operate under the rule that it's not for me to decide that," the Doctor grumbled, trying very hard not to be condescending.
"But what would you have done if what's-his-name hadn't set you free? Would you have really showed them how to redo the time loop and keep my planet in its place?" Colin wondered.
"No," the Doctor said. "I reckon I'd have hemmed and hawed a bit in that time-machinery room, and then come up with something brilliant… probably something very much like what I did, in the end. I agreed to it just to keep Martha safe, and buy some time."
"Erm, can we concentrate on the real question here, Spaceman? No offence, Martha. But how are we going to save General Kir from the Vortex?" Donna asked.
"Save him?" Colin asked. "Why would we save that arsehole? So he can threaten more people, and maybe follow through next time? Imprison other civilisations throughout the cosmos?"
"Why? Because he's a misguided man, an individual worthy of compassion," Donna said. "Don't you agree, Doctor?"
"Ugh… yes," He groaned. "Yes, I actually do."
"Because he's been taught a lesson, and does not deserve an eternity floating about in a timeless vacuum. He needs jail time, not total exile from existence itself!"
"Which is why the Doctor rigged the machinery, and showed Agent Pym how to locate the General in the Vortex, very much like the TARDIS did with you," Martha said. "That room has schisms between realities, just sittin' there behind two totally normal-looking doors; they might already have him back now."
"But if they try to do anything else with that equipment, like, say, try to work out how to truss up 1938 again, there's a fail-safe that alerts the real Galactic Council to their goings-on, and they will come in, guns a-blazin'," the Doctor added. "And I'll have no choice but to give evidence against them, if and when the time comes."
"So they could get away with all of this?" asked Colin.
"I've left it in the hands of Agent Pym," the Doctor said. "If he feels the General deserves to come back, then he shall. If he does come back, he will not be able to manipulate time and space, and he may or may not learn his lesson about the Orlingus Cruelty scale, Rights of the Living, and whatnot. But at least we've saved the Earth, left the toughest decision in the hands of a good man, and given the bad guy a chance to do what's right."
"Now that's the Doctor I know," Donna said, miming pushing her hand against him. She looked at Colin proudly.
"Wait, aren't you afraid that he'll try something with that equipment, and Pym will get hauled in with all of the rest of them when the Galactic Council shows up?" Martha asked, having just now thought of this.
"Pym is the only one I've told that about the fail-safe," he told her. "He's the only one who knows what will really happen if they try to mess with that machinery. If they do it, he'll leave. That is, if he doesn't have the good sense to leave sooner – and I think he does have that good sense, don't you? And if he doesn't, and he gets arrested, I'll vouch for him. As you know, I do hold some sway with the Council, for better or worse."
"What about Uriel E. Shavingcream?" Donna wondered. "What happened to His particular Nibs?"
"Nothing," the Doctor said. "The TARDIS was able to undo the Gallifreyan annex inside that office building, so now our Mr. Greene has no place to go, to slow the aging process. He's forty-two years old, give or take, and he no longer has a heart condition. If he keeps his nose clean, he'll have another fifty years, maybe more, to live out his life in the twenty-first century. I mean, he's already, what? A hundred and twelve? That's a hell of a lot more than what most humans get!"
"You just let him loose in 2008?" asked Colin.
"I gave him an ID card with a new birthdate, so he can get a real job, and then, yes. He's free. Without that annex and without the Heimat Squad pulling his strings, he should be harmless. Maybe he'll meet someone nice, and actually try to have a life now."
"Here's hoping," Donna said, quietly, staring at her hands in her lap.
After a long pause, Colin asked, "Is everyone finished eating? My turn to do dishes."
"I'll help," Martha said, standing up, helping to gather plates.
The Doctor and Donna handed off their cups and dishes, and said thanks. Then, they were left alone.
"So, how much longer before I can be up and about again?" she asked the Doctor.
"I'll have to consult with my colleague, but I'd say, off the cuff, it'll be at least three or four days before I'll be comfortable with your getting out of bed – you're still a fall risk. And it'll be a few weeks before you can, you know… fully function again."
"Fully function?"
"I mean, run, jump, risk your life…"
"Oh, that."
"I mean, fully function as a TARDIS crew member. Travel, get your hands dirty, help me out, like you always do."
"I know what you mean."
"Why the long face?"
"Oh, Doctor," she sighed. "You know I can't do that anymore."
"What? Why?"
"Remember? Last week… or was it two weeks? Last month? I dunno. Anyway, I said I wasn't going to travel with you and Martha," she said, softly. "And I have to stand by that."
"You have to… why?"
"You and Martha don't need a third wheel," she said. "And now, I've got someone to stay behind for."
"You have never been a third wheel, Donna," he said, rather seriously. "If anything, you're a good buffer. Martha and I are…"
"I know, you have an intense relationship. She's intense, you're intense, and together it's like kaboom."
"Exactly."
"She told me the same thing," Donna sighed. "But none of that is bad. You don't need anyone interfering with your kaboom. I know you'd like to think that I could mitigate some of the difficulties there, but… despite what I say sometimes, you are an adult. And so is she."
"Oh, Donna…"
"Plus, as I've said, I've got someone of my own now! I've got Colin! I really think he's worth staying on Earth for."
"I think he' probably worth it, too. Have you and he talked about this?"
"What kind of a daft question is that? I've been conscious for four hours, and you've been here the whole time!"
"Sorry," he muttered. "I just wondered if he'd tried to talk you into leaving."
"No, why would he?"
"He's not exactly my biggest fan right now."
"Why?"
"Why? Seriously, why?"
"Well, what do you want from me? I've been in a coma for a week, and Martha said a lot had happened."
"Donna, you jumped into a hole, into a time portal. To protect me. So that I wouldn't have to do it myself."
"Yes, I did, and I would do it again."
"And you can't see why that action, and that statement you just made, might make Colin perhaps a bit suspicious of me? Might make Colin wonder what kind of cult-like hold I must have on you and Martha, to make you risk – give – your lives for me?"
"He said that? He said it was cult-like?"
"From what Martha told me, yeah. And… well, I suppose it's not unfair for an outsider to see it that way."
She sighed, and seemed to think for quite some time, then she asked, "What do you think of him?"
"I like him," the Doctor said without hesitation. "But I think he needs work."
"Needs work?"
"Yes," the Doctor said. "He's a smart bloke, but he turned on me on a dime. All in one second, he went from trusting me (basically), to thinking I'm incredibly dangerous and trying to pry Martha away from me."
"He did not!"
"He did," the Doctor said. "Begged her to leave me, after he saw what happened to you. And, well… he may have a point, but he still seems impulsive, and I don't entirely trust impulsive."
"Right, because you have to be the only impulsive guy in the operation, so that the rest of us can talk you back."
"Obviously."
"Well, Doctor," Donna said, patting the Doctor's arm. "Give him time. You've got plenty of that, don't you?"
"I suppose I do," he said. Then, "Give him time. Does that mean you'd consider staying with me? With us? The both of you?"
"What, me and Colin?"
"Yeah."
"He's not cut out for this, Doctor! Didn't you just say, he doesn't trust you, and thinks you're running a cult? And didn't you just say you don't entirely trust his impulsivity?"
"I can bring him round, on both fronts," the Doctor said. "Now that you're awake and alive, and he knows I saved Martha from a lascivious fiend, plus rescued his planet from a time loop… he might get it. He might get how our weird little operation works, and why. Plus, how can you say he's not cut out for this life? He's the one who jumped out of the TARDIS and snatched you back from the Vortex."
"Still can't believe that."
He chuckled, and sat back, crossing his arms and legs with finality. "Believe it, Ms. Noble. It happened. And it was spectacular."
"Okay, if Colin will stay, I will stay."
"Brilliant!" he said, exploding his arms up in celebration.
"Which brings us back to our original conversation, how long before I can be fully functional?"
"I told you, several weeks."
"Does that include sex?"
"Whoa…"
"Are you, or are you not, my doctor?"
"I…."
"Well?"
He sighed. "I'll have my colleague examine you, and she can make the call."
"Chicken."
"Yeah."
Awww...
One more chapter left - an epilogue is coming down the pike rather soon! Stay with me for another few days...
And, leave a review. You know, just to let me know you're listening! :-) THANK YOU for reading!