Doctor Who ~ Thasmin oneshots

Nightmares

The doctor had always had nightmares, ever since she'd been being reborn into new bodies and faces, she'd been dealing with the aftermath. Memories haunted her, guilt, judgement, all the mistakes she thought she'd left in her old lives came back every night to ridicule her. She'd either spend hours tossing and turning, trying to sleep but fear keeping her awake; avoid sleep all together, or just sleep through the horrors and scream at the top of her lungs when she woke up. She hated every option, but did she really have a choice?

Worst of all though, she couldn't tell the fam about any of it. It'd be a burden on them, and after all they couldn't help her. They couldn't undo what she'd done so many years ago, they couldn't fix what was causing her night terrors. She wanted so badly to talk to them about it, to explain why some mornings they would find her barley awake with bags under her eyes at the console table, or screaming in the middle of the night with tears streaming down her face. She wanted them to know, she wanted to help them understand. But she knew it would be a waste of energy for them all. However, one night proved too much for her.

The doctor was sat upright in bed, arms crossed and pouting. The fam had all gone to bed, rightfully so- they'd all had a packed day of their normal time travelling activities- leaving the doctor awake to sulk. She wanted to sleep, god how she did, but she felt somewhere inside her that if she did, tonight was going to be harder than normal. So she sat awake to face the night alone. Every so often she would feel her eyes start to shut, begging her to rest, but she'd pull them back open and shake her head to stay awake.

Suddenly there was a bang outside, a huge crash following and shaking the whole of the Tardis. The doctor was almost thrown off her bed at the shear impact, but got up promptly and ran towards her room door. She swung it open and was hit with the smell of smoke and fire, the air thick and grey and hard to breath in. She coughed and choked as she made her way out, wafting the smoke away with her hands and running quickly to the centre of the problem. As she reached the control centre of the Tardis she stopped dead in her tracks.

Something had blown a hole in the Tardis wall, the outside of space and time visible through a huge gaping gap. It was almost impossible that her and everyone inside weren't dead, suffocating at the lack of clean oxygen present now it was escaping through the wall. It was almost as if the doctor was dreaming, but she couldn't be. She hadn't fallen asleep.

As she stood frozen, staring at the burning mess, a figure emerged out of the darkness outside. He had his hands neatly behind his back, smiling so innocently. The doctor's mouth fell open slightly. "Master?" She called, though the figure was very clearly the master. He was smiling, but not grinning, just smiling at her. His stance was unthreatening and calm, but it contradicted the fire and smoke surrounding him. "Did you- did you blow a hole in my Tardis?" She pointed her finger at him and the destruction around him, but her feet were glued to the ground.

The master didn't respond, he just stood smiling at the hole swaying slightly. His eyes moved with the doctors, but he was almost unmoving completely. The doctor tilted her head. "Answer me!" She was shouting, she could feel it, but her voice sounded distant and quiet. The master again made no move to talk, and smiled. Just then the distant shouts of Yaz, Ryan and Graham could be heard somewhere behind the doctor, yet she couldn't turn around. They were calling for her, but she couldn't react in the slightest.

She reached down into her pocket for her sonic, but it was gone. She felt helpless, stuck, the only thing having any mobility being her mind. And yet the master just stood there, smiling like a child having a school picture. "Doctor? Doctor! Doctor help us!" It was Yaz, she was screaming for the doctor but she couldn't turn around. "Yaz?" She could barley talk at all, her mouth felt stiff, and anything that left it was a small mumble. Noises heightened, her senses all rose to an unstable level as the smells and sounds all came crashing in on her.