The road less travelled...

Title: The Skies Turn Dark 3/7
Author: katherine_b
Rating: PG
Characters: The Doctor, Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, Donna Noble
Summary: The Doctor needs help.

Part III

Jack holds open the door of Torchwood and lets Donna in ahead of him, ushering her into the reception area.

“Take a seat, Miss Noble,” he says smoothly, pleased that he seems to have built a measure of trust with her during the walk to their current location. “I'll be right back.”

“What, no forms to fill out?” she asks with obvious surprise as she steps towards one of the chairs. “No endless paperwork?”

“We'll get to that,” Jack tells her with what he hopes is a convincing smile. “Dr Jones or myself will have questions for you, but we prefer to ask them face-to-face. Just get comfortable. Oh,” he adds suddenly, “and I'm afraid we're having some issues with phone reception here, but we can call people for you if you want to let them know where you are.”

“Oh, they'll be fine,” she says easily enough. “Nobody worries about a temp.”

Jack nods, but a frown appears on his face as he turns away and he hurries down the hall to the infirmary. Martha looks up as he enters, relief on her face.

“Jack!” She stands up, peering behind him into the hallway. “Where is she?”

“There's a problem.” Jack closes the door. “Donna's in the reception area, but she doesn't know us. Doesn't know me. Doesn't seem to attach any significance to 'the Doctor'. Just – doesn't know.”

Martha's hand slides off the Doctor's wrist and drops onto the bed as she stares at him in confusion. “But – how can she not?”

“I don't know.” Jack shakes his head. “But I think she's had her memory wiped. She talked about undergoing tests for memory loss, that her mother's been sending her to see every memory and brain specialist they could find for months. I didn't want to make things seem weird by asking her too many questions yet. She's got to trust us if she's going to let us help her. I'm going to get some basic information from her, find out when this all started, and maybe there's something here we can use to treat her.”

“Do you think the Doctor knew?” Martha asks, her voice almost helpless. “Maybe he was looking for her when you found him.”

“Martha, she was here,” Jack tells her with exaggerated patience. “On Earth. Only a couple of miles away. If the Doctor was looking for her, he wouldn't have had to go far from her house to find her.”

“Meaning what?” she snaps, adding accusingly, “I suppose you think he somehow made her forget.”

“I don't know.” Jack isn't about to tell her that that’s exactly what he was thinking, not when she's clearly angered by the mere suggestion. “And right now,” he adds, “I'd rather focus on working out how we're going to fix it rather than trying to blame someone for it. Okay?”

“All right,” she agrees after a moment. “I'll stay with the Doctor and you see what you can find out.”

Jack leaves the infirmary and collects a notebook and pen from one of the offices, heading back to find Donna still in the waiting room. He ushers her into one of the smaller rooms nearby and invites her to sit down, placing a jug of water and two glasses on the small table between them.

“Usual questions?” Donna suggests. “All about what and when and why?”

“Actually, why don't you just tell me about it?” Jack replies. “Tell me your story, what you've been going through. Any order you like.”

“Are you a shrink?” she demands.

Jack laughs, although it's an effort. “No,” he replies. “But,” he adds, extemporising, “it's how Doctor Jones likes to work.”

“Oh, okay.” Donna settles a little more comfortably into her chair and her voices takes on something of a resigned tone, as if she’s been over this many times before. “It started – maybe better to say it ended – the day the planets appeared in the sky.”

Lowering his head over the notepad as he pretends to write, Jack only just avoids gasping. Now he's certain that the Doctor had something do to with it, although he can't imagine what.

“That's when my memory started to work again,” Donna goes on, starting to frown. “Some of the doctors I've seen said I was probably in a fugue state before then, that something traumatic happened that I've blocked out for some reason”

Jack nods, but he's already a little lost. Still, he remains silent and lets Donna keep talking.

“The next question is usually what I remember before that, so I'll save you asking it,” Donna continues, idly playing with the large ring on her finger. “I've thought hard, and the very last thing I remember is trying to decide between two possible jobs, one as a PA for some man my mum knew and the other for a job the temping agency offered me at a company called H.C. Clements.”

Frowning, Jack writes the company's name at the top of the sheet of paper. He has to wonder if, since that's one of the many companies owned by Torchwood, there might be a link that caused Donna to forget so much. He listens with half an ear as Donna continues to talk, explaining the challenges that the memory loss has caused in her life, in particular the strains that have been created in her relationship with her mother and grandfather.

“You know,” Donna says at one point, “I reckon you are a shrink. Nobody else has just let me shoot off my mouth like this.”

“I can assure you I'm not,” Jack says honestly. “But you never know what details might be important in helping you,” and the Doctor he adds mentally.

“Could I – I mean, is there a bathroom here?” Donna asks a little later.

“Sure.” Jack puts down his pen and smiles. “Out of here and go left. Right at the end of the hall. Third door on your left.”

“Thanks.”

She leaves the room and Jack looks down at the few notes he's written from what she told him. He can't make any immediate connections between the various pieces of information, and frowns as he rereads the names and details she has given him. Sitting at the desk in the corner, he logs into the computer and begins entering the random details.

“Jack!”

His name suddenly sounds loudly from the intercom on the desk and he overturns his chair as he leaps up. Ignoring the crash, he runs from the room, fear filling him at the tone of Martha’s voice. He skids to a halt outside the infirmary and throws open the door.

Martha is leaning over a figure crouched down in the corner of the room, her ginger hair identifying it as Donna.

“What’s going on?” Jack demands, glancing quickly at the bed to see that the Doctor has barely moved, although he’s still mumbling strange words, and Jack can catch Donna’s name being said with increasing frequency.

“Help me here,” Martha says curtly, moving aside so that Jack can see Donna curled up in the corner, her hands clamped to either side of her head and her eyes wide and unfocused.

“Doctor.” The word is a whimper, almost a whisper, and Jack can hear the pain in her voice. “Doctor,” she repeats. “Doctor, Doctor, Doctor…”

“It’s all right, Donna,” Martha tells her, moving aside slightly so that Jack can join her. “We’re going to help you.”

“What are you going to do?” Jack demands in an undertone.

“Painkiller,” Martha replies, getting up and grabbing the device that he knew she had planned to use on the Doctor. “Her heart is beating much too fast. She can’t go on like that, and at least, once this takes effect, she might be able to tell us what’s wrong.”

Holding the applicator to Donna’s hand, which is still pressed to her temple, Martha presses the button that will release the drug into her system. Jack slides his arms around Donna and lifts her into a chair that Martha moves beside them, stroking the woman’s ginger hair as they wait for the painkiller to begin working.

“What happened?” Jack asks in an undertone, seeing Donna’s eyes still wide and staring, her voice repeating that single word like a mantra.

“I went to get a new pen and when I came back, the door was open and Donna was curled up in the corner of the room like that.” She looks up at him almost accusingly. “I thought she was with you!”

“She needed to use the bathroom,” he explains. “I gave her directions, but,” he adds in tones of growing realisation, “if she turned left instead of right at the end of the hall, she'd end up in this room and would find the Doctor.”

“Doctor,” Donna murmurs again, as if echoing his words, but Jack looks down in time to see her blink. “Doctor,” she says again, “Doctor. Doc – Martha.”

The young doctor bends down to be on eye-level with this new patient. “Hi, Donna,” she says with a smile, although Jack can still see the anxiety in her eyes. “You know me now, do you?”

“Martha.” Donna’s fingers loosen from her hold on her head and she clings to Martha’s hand, strain in her eyes, but she manages a tiny smile. “Martha Jones.”

“Hey, I’m here, too,” Jack can’t help saying,

“Jack, don’t,” Martha protests, before turning back to Donna. “What happened, Donna?” she asks gently. “Do you remember? Why didn’t you know Jack or me before?”

“I don’t…” Donna’s voice trails off. It’s weak but more like the tones Jack remembers from their previous meeting, having lost the abrasiveness she used during their interview. “I don’t know,” she admits, her eyes travelling to the almost motionless figure of the other man. “The Doctor took it away.”

“Took what away?” Jack demands.

“Everything…”

“Where did we meet?” Martha prompts, deliberately changing the subject as tears glisten in Donna’s eyes.

That woman frowns, and then flinches as if the act of remembering itself is painful. Jack notices that Martha has moved her hand so that her fingers are resting on Donna’s wrist to check her pulse.

“Earth,” Donna says in the end, gasping for breath. “On Earth.”

“Good.” Martha gives her other hand an encouraging pat. “Can you remember why you and the Doctor came to Earth?”

“Oh, my head!” Donna groans and leans against Jack’s shoulder, her eyes closing tightly. “It hurts!”

“It hurts to remember?” Jack prompts, wondering what the Doctor could have done to cause this.

She nods, pressing her head against him as if to escape the pain.

“Her pulse is still racing,” Martha says in a low voice, her anxiety obvious. “I don’t think that painkiller is doing much more than scratching the surface, and yet it’s the strongest thing Torchwood’s got. What did he do to her?!”

“Donna,” Jack gently raises her head from his shoulder, cupping her face in his hands and seeing as her eyelids lift, “do you remember me?”

“Jack.” Her voice is a harsh whisper now and tears are slipping out of her eyes. “Captain Jack.”

Her eyes widen and then roll back in her head and she slumps against him, almost falling off the chair. Jack only just catches her before she hits the floor.

* * *
Teaser for next part:

‘What did you do to her?’