Much Ado About Who

Chapter 4: Scared

"Hi Sarah Jane, I'm just here to pick Donna up. Is she—okay? I mean, is she still here?" the Doctor enquired, looking over Sarah Jane's shoulder into the house.

"Of course, Doctor. Come on in and I'll get her," Sarah Jane said as she let the Doctor in then turned to go further into the house. "Donna! The Doctor is here!"

Donna came down the stairs with a bit of hop in her step. She didn't seem upset, and when she saw the Doctor the smile on her face seemed delighted. "Hello, Doctor!"

The Doctor felt quite relieved to see that she didn't seem upset, but at the same time, confused and a bit nervous. "Hi, Donna! Have you had a, um, lovely time?" he asked awkwardly.

"Yes, Sarah Jane is a wonderful hostess, and Luke is so smart! And why didn't you tell me about that K-9? You need to get another one of him on the TARDIS!" Donna spoke as she approached the Doctor, placing her hand gently on his lapel as she finished.

The Doctor glowed under her gentle affectionate touch. It wasn't an obvious sign, as they were generally a bit touchy-feely with each other, holding hands, an occasional friendly hug. But after the revelation he overheard tonight, it made him feel all warm and tingly. "Oh yes, K-9 is brilliant, but I already have one brilliant companion on the TARDIS—" the Doctor began, but was cut off first by Donna's scowl, then by her words.

"I hope you aren't comparing me to a robot dog, Doctor!" she exclaimed.

The Doctor's face went white and he started stammering, "What?! No, um, erm, no, that's not what I meant! You're so much more than a robot dog, Donna!"

Donna's eyebrows were still furrowed, but she relaxed a bit. "Alright then, well, let's get back to the TARDIS. I'm feeling quite tired, I think."

"Sounds good. Thank you again, Sarah Jane, for everything. We'll be in touch," the Doctor said to his former companion before holding his arm out to Donna. She gave the Time Lord a shy smile before looping her arm through his and allowing him to escort her out of the house.

As they stepped out the door, Donna stopped in her tracks at the pouring down rain. The Doctor quickly reached into his pocket and produced an umbrella. With the push of one button it had extended and popped open and he raised it to cover them. They made it to the street and Donna looked around in confusion. "Where's the TARDIS, Doctor?"

"I parked it up the street a little way up. Nice night for a stroll. Beautiful!" he said with a smile.

Her eyebrow raised, and she glanced between him and the pouring rain and let out a chuckle. "Hmph. Nice night for ducks, maybe! Certainly not beautiful."

He scrunched his face up to purposefully show he was thinking. "Oh, right—perhaps I confused the company I'm keeping with the state of the night."

It took Donna a moment before she caught on. "You're saying I'm—" she stopped herself then and turned to look each direction before asking, "Anyway, what direction are we going?"

"This way," he said as he tugged her to the left and they started off down the pavement. After a few moments of silence, he spoke quietly, "I hope you don't mind the walk—I always did love a stroll in the rain, and I just thought it would be nice, after all the busyness of the past few days, to have a quiet moment, just the two of us."

"Yeah," she said softly, squeezing his arm a bit tighter. "It has been quite a few days, hasn't it?"

He nodded then inhaled a deep breath, his eyes getting shiny from moisture, but not that of the rain. "I thought I'd lost you—on the Crucible—it was—devastating."

"Yeah, I thought I was a goner too, for a bit." She chuckled nervously.

"Seriously, Donna. When I saw the TARDIS drop through that hole with you in it—and saw it in the core of the ship. My hearts broke. Then, when I heard the sound of the TARDIS again—and you and Geoff came running out—" He shook his head and looked up into the sky, searching for answers. "I'm just happy you're safe, Donna. And," he said before pausing to consider the situation. "It seems keeping Geoff relatively close by is helping balance out the metacrisis for both of you." He sighed quietly, considering things for a moment. "I know you don't like me 'bleeping' you Donna, but we really do need to do a scan of both you and Geoff and determine what's going on."

He could feel Donna tense up beside him. She let out a breath and spoke, "Soon enough, Spaceman. Can we just be blissfully ignorant for a while?"

He stopped them, half-way between Sarah Jane's and the TARDIS. The rain was pouring down around them, thankfully his umbrella was huge and kept them relatively dry. He turned to face her. "What's wrong, Donna? Why are you frightened?"

"Who said anything about being frightened?" Donna said, defensiveness seeping into her voice.

The Doctor tried to calm her by saying, "Donna, I've known you long enough to know when you're scared. And you are scared. I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong."

"Doctor, I've had your knowledge crammed into my tiny human brain, and somehow survived. I don't know what that means. I don't know if I have a day or a thousand years to live. I don't know what that means for me, or for—" she stopped herself from continuing her thought. "Yeah, I'm scared, okay?"

He stopped them again and turned to face her. "Then don't you want to know? So you can stop wondering?" he asked.

"No, because if we find out I am going to live longer because of all this metacrisis mixed up brain nonsense—what if you decide—" she stopped mid-thought again.

This time, the Doctor was having none of it. "Decide what, Donna? What could I possibly decide that has you so worried?"

"What if you decide you don't want to put up with me for that long? A few years, maybe. When I told you I was going to travel with you forever, you were nice to agree, Spaceman. No matter what you think you may feel—you were just being nice. I'm human, or at least as of a few days ago I was. That means shorter life span, and I'm sure you hoped to get rid of me before I became old and gray. But with your brains stuck in my head I'm not foolish enough to not know what this metacrisis might mean. And I can't bear to think of you kicking me out when you find out what forever might really mean. I'd rather us both be ignorant of what's going to happen and enjoy a few more days of traveling with you." Donna's confession spilled out so quickly that if the Doctor hadn't had his own Time Lord senses he might have missed part of her confession. But before he could respond, she had noticed a lull in the rain and had darted out from under the umbrella and was running to the TARDIS.

"Donna! Donna, wait!" he shouted for her as he closed and shoved the umbrella in his pocket, then broke out into a run to catch up. But she ignored him as she pushed the door open and was inside the ship before he could get to her.

Just as he got to the door, it was slammed shut in his face. He sighed and with a snap of his fingers it reopened and he was running in after her.

"Donna! Donna, stop!" he yelled with such intensity that she whirled around to face him, anger flashing in her eyes at his command. "Donna, I need you to stop and listen. Do you know what terrifies me?"

-*-*-