From Bad To Worse | Doctor Who Fanfiction

14. The Wait

Martha sat next to the Doctor's bed. It had been 21 hours since he had collapsed after saving Donna. His condition, unfortunately, hadn't changed much. At least it hadn't gotten any worse. Not that it could get much worse than it already was.

He was barely breathing.

A few hours in Donna had finally caved and admitted that he most likely couldn't regenerate any more, explaining that there was a limit on how many regenerations a Time Lord had.

She sighed slightly, it had been a really weird week.

Well, The Doctor was around, things always tended to get weird around him. But this week had been even weirder than the general weirdness he seemed to attract.

Honestly, the fact that he had two broken arms was almost neglectable compared to everything else. He was going to have a long recovery period, even with him being a Time Lord.

He was not going to like that

Martha stroked his hair slightly, with a sad smile on her face. She could almost imagine his pouting at having to stay in bed for such a long time. She hadn't seen him pouting like that in this body before, but she was under no illusions that he had changed enough to be able to sit still for longer than a few hours.

She had talked with Jack about memory locks earlier, and they were wondering if him having unlocked a big one earlier had anything to do with him being as ill as he was.

They hadn't been able to come to a conclusion. They agreed that while Donna might know more about the topic, it was better to keep it private, for now. He had made it obvious that he desired the contents of the memory to remain a secret. She was sure he hadn't wanted her to tell Jack about it either, she probably shouldn't have told him if she was honest. She didn't exactly have a good reason to tell the immortal about it.

At least she could trust him to keep a secret.

She looked up as the door to the infirmary opened, seeing her husband entering the room carrying a tray with some sandwiches.

"I brought some food, for you. Because if I'd wait for you to get something on your own, you'd at least have half stared to death." Mickey informed her as he moved over to his wife.

She smiled slightly at him. "Thanks, Mickey, I wasn't really thinking about food, to be honest," she admitted.

"That much is obvious." Mickey agreed as he handed her the tray before sitting down next to her. "How is he doing?"

"Same as before." She said with a sigh. "Thankfully it's not getting worse, but..." She trailed off.

"We would prefer it if he was getting better." Her husband finished.

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a bit

"You still love him, don't you?" He finally asked, barely harder than a whisper. He wasn't stupid, he knew his wife.

Martha turned to her husband, shocked. "Mickey, I love you!" She told him firmly.

Mickey smiled slightly. "That's not what I asked."

She sighed slightly, looking at her hands. The last thing she wanted was to tell the man she had married that she also loved someone else.

"That's what I thought," Mickey said while leaning back in his chair, interpreting her silence correctly.

"Mickey?" She started hesitantly, unsure what she could say to make the situation better.

"I'm not angry Martha." Mickey started. "Can't really blame you. Any other man and I don't know what I would do. But this. This is the Doctor. He is very, lovable." Her husband admitted. "Don't tell Jack I said that." He warned. "He won't let me live it down."

He sighed before getting up. "I need to go back to my work, I'll find you again later. Try to get some sleep, though. You look exhausted." He promised before leaving the room.

She knew Mickey was right, but she couldn't quite bring herself to leave the Time Lord alone.

----------------------------------------------

She got startled awake by a hand shaking her shoulder, she snapped her head up trying to figure out where she was for a few seconds

"Morning Donna." She said with a yawn, after realising she was still in the infirmary and that she had nodded off leaning forward on his bed.

"It's evening Martha." The redhead answered with a concerned smile. "You should go to bed."

"I'm fine." She lied, before yawning widely.

Donna just rose an eyebrow at her.

Martha blushed slightly, shifting closer to the alien on the bed. Not wanting to leave him in the state he was currently in.

The other woman seemed to understand though, as she just indicated the empty bed next to him.

"You can sleep in here, I'll go get you something more comfortable after I'm done with this." She told Martha as she was going through the Time Lord's scans.

"Any changes?" The doctor wondered. She rubbed her neck slightly. Trying to get the stiffness out of it after having slept in the unnatural position.

"Not really, his blood pressure seems to be a bit higher than it was so that is good." She sighed slightly. "It can take a couple of days before he is back in the clear."

Donna moves over to sit in the chair next to Martha grabbing her hand.

"He is a strong man. You know that. He's a fighter, he'll get through this." She told the younger woman. "It just might take some time."

"Yeah. I just wish that he wasn't this self-sacrificing." Martha answered with a sigh. "He always has to put himself in danger!"

"Oh Martha, sweetheart. We both know that he will always help someone if he can, regardless of his own health. It is one of those things that make him so special. And frustrating, as well." She had to concede. "It's just not him to let people suffer if he can help it at all. He rather suffers himself than let anyone be in pain."

Martha sighed. "I know. That doesn't mean that I don't wish he wasn't like that"

"That's a part of him that will never change, the best thing we can do is stitch him up as good as possible."

"I hate sitting here, I feel so helpless," Martha admitted, defeated.

"If you want something to do, you can go grab some new solution. He's due for another dose." Donna instructed the young doctor as she stood up to go back over to the Time Lord. "Though after that you are going to bed." She added in a tone that accepted no protest.

Martha smiled at the older woman before getting up to go to the medical storage room to get the requested solution.

When she walked back into the infirmary she saw that Donna was just clearing away the material she had used earlier to check his vitals. As the older woman was taking care of that she went over to the Time Lord, hooking the bag with the solution to the standard before connecting it to his IV line.

"Alright, that is it for now." Donna went over to Martha and grabbed her shoulders to guide her towards the bed next to the Time Lord, which to the younger woman's surprise had a pair of pyjamas on it, courtesy of the TARDIS most likely. "It's bedtime for you, I'll close the curtains on my way out, Go change into these pyjamas and go to bed. If it makes you feel better you can reopen the curtains to see him." Donna instructed her. "The TARDIS will inform me if you don't go to sleep. So sleep!"

After that the redhead turned away, closing the curtains on her way out. "Good night"

"Good night," Martha mumbled back as she started to change into the pyjamas the TARDIS had given her.

When she was decent she opened the curtain again, as Donna had suggested. She knew that it sounded stupid, but she couldn't bear the thoughts of falling asleep with even the smallest barrier between her and The Doctor.

"Good night, Doctor." She whispered as she closed her eyes.

Obviously, he didn't respond.