Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 28 - The Runaway Bride, Part 3

The first sensation she became aware of was a dull throbbing in her cheek, like the time she'd tripped as a child and bashed it into the dining room table. Others began to trickle in after, and she slowly became aware of cool tile pressing into the side of her face, of fabric rustling nearby as someone shifted. She scrunched her forehead slightly, trying to draw her scattered thoughts together enough to figure out what was going on. She didn't think she'd gone to sleep on the floor again, but stranger things had happened.

"No, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it," someone was saying, their voice echoing painfully as her head protested at the sound, and she resisted the urge to groan, some hidden instinct whispering to wait. "Go on." 

She heard the faint whirring of gears and the click of metal, something heavy stepping against the floor as it passed her, and fought the urge to tense, not wanting to draw their - its? - attention. She didn't recognize it, not yet, but something deep within her feared being noticed. She cracked her eyes open, and saw the bright red of Santa's robe over black boots shuffling by before shutting them again. The elevator opened then closed with a ding, humming as it began to move. The same voice sighed, then fabric rustled nearby again. 

"Hey, wake up," the voice hissed, now close to her face. 

A hand reached out and shoved her shoulder and she flinched, eyes jerking open and fully awake in an instant as adrenaline roared through her. She flung herself in a roll to the side, throwing her back to the wall as she glanced around wildly. There were no Cybermen nearby, no saws circling overhead. She was in the hallway of a nice looking business, and a dark skinned man in a tuxedo was kneeling across from her, eyes calculating. 

Lance.

She glared at him to hide her fear, cheek throbbing painfully. "You gonna try and explain your way out of this one?" she challenged him with a sneer. She opened her palm to reveal the emergency button the Doctor had given her, thumb held centimeters away from the button. "You have thirty seconds before I call the Doctor down on your head. Tell me, what do you think your chances are of surviving being shoved out an airlock? And that's if he's feeling nice."

"There were two robots behind you," Lance informed her coolly. "If I hadn't taken you out of the equation before you could see them, they would have taken you as an eyewitness and disposed of you. I saved your life."

"And there was nothing else you could have done?" she scoffed. "The only possible solution was to knock me out?"

"Well, I could have offered you up to them now, couldn't I?" he retorted. "But I didn't. Way I see it, I saved your life." He paused, softening his expression to something approaching remorse. "I'm sorry I had to hurt you to do it, but it proved my continued loyalty to the robots and saved your life. I didn't have enough time to warn you."

She narrowed her eyes at him, skeptical of his sudden change of heart, true as his argument may have been. "I hope you realize I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, and that the Doctor is liable to see just how far he can throw you."

He spread his hands wide in a gesture of innocence. "That's completely understandable. I was just trying to save your life, but I know my actions of late haven't been the most trustworthy," he winced. "I wish I could change them, but I can't."

She raised an eyebrow at the massive understatement. "What are you trying to say? You don't actually want to kill Donna? You're not going to betray the entire human race for an empty promise? You regret taking advantage of her feelings and poisoning her slowly over the past six months? Or are you just trying to stall long enough for them to capture Donna?"