In Dreams Part IV

[katherine_b]

Title: In Dreams 4/6
Author: katherine_b
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor has come in response to the summons he received. But the reason for him being called is not at all what he was expecting.


“All of the time we're together in dreams. In dreams.”

Part IV

“Doctor?”

He feels hands shaking him quite violently and forces his unwilling eyelids open so that his gaze falls on Donna’s face. Her concerned expression drives away the clouds of sleep that are making his thoughts hazy and he sits upright.

“What is it, Donna? What’s wrong?”

“This place,” she glances around fearfully, “I think I got as far as this once – and I sat down to sleep, and never got up again!” She looks back at him. “Can we go? Please? In case it happens again?”

“Of course!”

He gets to his feet, feeling that there’s a faint pull that seems eager to drag him back to the ground. As he straightens up, he can’t help feeling that Donna could be right and he offers her his hand. She grabs his arm and uses that as leverage to pull herself upright, grabbing his jacket as she does so and pushing it into his hand.

“We’ll be all right now,” he says reassuringly as he swings it around to slide his arms into the sleeves, but before he can settle it, Donna stares at his chest.

“What’s that?” she asks anxiously.

He looks down and sees a small hole in his shirt, with small flecks of red around it. “I don’t know,” he admits, frowning as he tugs at the material.

A sharp jab of pain causes him to gasp a little, and then he feels Donna’s hand come to rest on his chest. Strangely, beneath the warmth of her fingers, he feels as if a wound is being healed.

“I don’t like this place,” Donna says as she lifts her hand off and he sees that the tear is mended and the red discolouration is gone. “Can we go?”

“Good idea.” He settles the jacket comfortably and then takes her hand, leading her back to the path where the rope continues to glow and light the way.

They come out of the darkness into what looks like an endless field of green grass. A blue sky arches high above them, with a scattering of fluffy white clouds dancing across it, and the Doctor can smell mint and lemonade in the air.

“Oh, that’s better,” Donna sighs in relief.

As he sniffs the different scents, she laughs, and he arches a questioning eyebrow as he glances at her. “What is it?”

“I was going to suggest that maybe you could tell where we are by sniffing,” she jokes, and he snickers before offering her his arm. She slides her hand around it and they stroll along the path, both glad to be free of the gloom.

However she suddenly stops dead without warning and he turns to face her, worried by the concern on her face.

“What’s wrong, Donna?”

Colour floods her face and she is visibly reluctant to lift her eyes to meet his. “I think,” she says slowly, “I’m meant to do – something.”

“Mmm?” He waits, but she doesn’t say anything. “Well, what is it?” he asks in the end. “What are you meant to do?”

She bites her bottom lip, staring out over the grass. “I’m meant to kiss you,” she blurts out.

He can’t help smiling, although whether at the expression on her face or at the idea, he’s not sure. “Is that such a bad thing?”

“It depends, I suppose,” she admits, rushing on before he can interrupt, “whether you think it’s bad or not.”

“Donna.” He peers down at her until she meets his gaze and then he smiles again, trying to look encouraging and not overly eager. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all.”

He slides his arm around her waist, gently pulling her closer. Her hands come to rest on the lapels of his jacket and gradually slide up his chest as her mouth brushes against his. She clearly feels braver as his other arm curls around her shoulders and she slides her fingers into his hair as she kisses him again, more enthusiastically this time.

Finally she pulls back a little, although remaining in the circle of his arms, and looks at him questioningly.

“Do you think it was like this between us last time?”

He shrugs a little. “I doubt it,” he’s forced to confess, wondering how she will react. “If it was,” he points out, “we would already have felt it.”

“Oh.” She looks away, her fingers unconsciously rapping out her nervousness on the nape of his neck, before she finally meets his gaze again. “So if it wasn’t like that then,” she asks anxiously, “what will happen now?”

“Donna,” he says, injecting his voice with as much calmness and certainty as he can muster, “what we just did shows me is that we can clearly change what happened in that other world.”

A smile creeps over her face and she reaches up to kiss him again. “I’m glad,” she whispers against his mouth.

The Doctor is distracted from the feeling of her body against his by the way the world around them is darkening. He can feel his pulses quicken and knows they are in danger.

“This time,” he tells her, “we have to run. No excuses. Are you ready?”

“Mmm hmm.” She takes his hand once more and he glances at her feet to see that they are clad in converse like his.

He takes off, relieved that Donna is able to keep up with him. The darkness behind them only increases, even the gold rope doing little to lighten their surroundings, and just as the Doctor begins to fear that the faint lights around them are going to go out altogether, the sky lightens and he knows that they’ve escaped.

Stopping, he slides an arm around Donna as she regains her breath and they stare into the darkness they have just managed to escape.

Donna suddenly frowns and would have taken a step back into the blackness if not for the Doctor’s arm around her waist.

“What’s the matter?” he asks. “No, Donna, stay here!”

“Someone’s calling me,” she explains. “At least,” she glances at him before looking back, “I thought they were. But then,” her face falls, “they were calling ‘Mummy’. S-so maybe,” she stammers, her eyes filling with tears, “they weren’t talking to me after all.”

He pulls her into his arms, feeling as she sinks her face into his shoulder, her hands clinging around his back. He doesn’t dare to point out that she doesn’t have children because he’s aware that it would only serve to upset her even more.

And then she suddenly clutches the lapels of his jacket and he looks down to see that her eyes are suddenly full of fear.

“What is it?” he asks anxiously, aware that something else has upset her, but unable to guess what it might be.

“I’m frightened,” she admits. “This place – it’s terrible!”

He looks around. The light is blue and white and silver, with the landscape looking like piles of shattered rock. He finds himself awed by the beauty of their surroundings, but it’s clear Donna doesn’t feel the same way.

“Don’t let them take you away,” she begs, tightening her hold on him. “Please, Doctor, don’t leave me!”

He wraps his arms even more firmly around her, turning his eyes away from the striking landscape and lowering his head a little so that his cheeks is pressed against her forehead.

“I promise,” he vows in a whisper, his lips brushing light kisses to her skin. “No one will take me away from you.”

He barely notices the way her hands are travelling over his body until he realises that his tie is hanging loose around his neck and his shirt buttons are undone. He looks down at Donna, realising at that moment that she’s dressed in a white bathrobe, and for the first time he recalls that she has changed her clothes in each place they have experienced together. His coat is draped over a white sunbathing lounge, and they are lying on top of it. He slides a hand beneath the robe, easing back the terry-towelling so that he can brush his hand along the side of her breast, feeling as she arches against him, whimpering softly in what he knows is happiness rather than her earlier fear.

As they move even closer, she repeats her plea in a soft whimper. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Never,” he vows, and loses himself in her.

* * *
Some time later, the Doctor realises that he’s lying in Donna’s arms, her fingers gently stroking through his hair. He looks up and she reaches down to kiss him.

“Better?” he asks softly, tracing a complicated pattern with his finger on her chest.

“Yeah.” She nods. “I know you wouldn’t leave me – not unless you had to anyway.”

He kisses her again before looking around, finding that they’re still in the blue world, but that it seems further away, as if separated by glass or some sort of forcefield.

“Do you want to keep going?” he asks, unsurprised by the reluctance on her face.

“I’d like to stay here forever,” she admits. “Just the two of us, but I know we can’t.”

“No,” he agrees, kissing her once more. “We do need to keep moving.”

A few minutes later, they’re dressed and back on the path. They come to the end of the blue rock world, and the Doctor stops as the world seems to end in front of them.

“What is it?” Donna asks, her concern obvious in her tones.

“I can’t see anything,” he replies, stretching out the hand not holding Donna’s in an attempt to feel his way forward.

“Can’t you?” There’s a confusion obvious in Donna’s voice. “I can.”

“What’s it look like?”

“It’s horrible!” She shudders. “Grey and miserable and awful!”

He nods, wondering why he’s suddenly unable to see and wildly curiously about this unknown place. “You’re going to have to lead me,” he tells her.

“All right.” She takes a firmer grip on his hand and steps forward, guiding him in the same direction they have already been going.

However when she makes a sudden, sharp turn to the right, and almost instantly one to the left, he feels his pulses begin to race and grabs her arm with his spare hand to stop her.

“Are you sure you’re following the path?” he asks anxiously. “It’s been much smoother up until now.”

“Definitely,” she replies, and the certainty in her tones calms him. “There’s some sort of gold thing showing me the way. Like that rope you told me about back on the beach.”

“You can see it?” he demands in astonishment. “How? Well, never mind that,” he goes on hurriedly, wanting to get away from a place where it seems as if his senses have been stripped from him, leaving him with an awful feeling of vulnerability. “Let’s keep going.”

She reassuringly smooths her thumb over his fingers and they continue along the path, which continues to jerk sharply to the left or right without warning. The Doctor is deep in thought, struggling to understand how Donna can be seeing the golden rope that she disclaimed all knowledge of when they began following this path. And yet, as the darkness surrounding the Doctor finally begins to lift, he sees the rope glowing at his right side and can relax, knowing she’s brought them the right way.

“Oh,” Donna says suddenly, and stops. “I can’t see it anymore.”

“It’s all right.” He takes her arm and turns her to face him, relieved that he can once more make out her features. “I can now.”

A curious frown is evident on Donna’s face. “What was it?” she asks. “I mean, I knew better than to touch it somehow.”

“I think it’s part of me,” the Doctor tells her. “Like an extra sense.”

“So I could see part of you?” she says wonderingly. “How is that possible?”

“I’m not sure,” he admits, “but perhaps, in this part of that other world where we were together, I wasn’t there and you had to take my place.”

Panic flickers in her eyes and she gives a tiny squeak of protest as she tightens her hold on him until it’s almost uncomfortable. Still, he isn’t about to let go because he can tell she needs to feel him.

“You promised not to leave,” she reminds him almost desperately as the light around them strengthens, making her hair glow.

“And I won’t,” he vows, pulling her gently into his arms. “Not now that I’ve got you back again. I meant it before when I said we could change things here. Maybe that’s why we’re here – to make sure things work out for the better this time. I don’t think there’s far to go now, and then it’ll be all right.”

“Okay,” she agrees, giving him a last hug before letting go – and then she exclaims in obvious horror as she looks down to see that they seem to be suspended in space. “Doctor!”

“It’s all right,” he says in his most reassuring voice, although he has to admit that the sight of what looks like sky around them, interspersed with planets, so that it seems as if there is nothing solid beneath their feet is unnerving, to say the least. “The path is still there,” he assures her. “I can see it. This way.”

He guides her gently along the almost invisible track between the planets, remembering how lost he felt when he couldn’t see where he was going and realising that Donna’s felt the same way all the way through this strange adventure. His love for her, which has been growing ever since they began along this path, increases with a bound as he realises how much she must trust him.

And then the planets around them disappear with an almost audible click and the Doctor finds himself in a dark room lit only by several spotlights and, of course, the gentle glow of the gold rope.

Donna suddenly sighs with relief and he feels the way her hand relaxes. “Oh,” she says as a smile appears on her face. “I can see it now,” she goes on, “the gold thing. Your extra sense.” Understanding dawns. “Your time sense.”

He nods, although he feels as anxiety builds within him at the realisation of what is taking place. “Yes,” he agrees. “You know everything I do now.”

“The meta-crisis.” A frown appears on her face. “That’s not a good thing.”

“It is at the moment,” he admits, hurrying on to add, “but it won’t remain that way unless we can get to the TARDIS soon. That’s where the answer is.”

“The answer to why we’re here?” Donna asks, although he knows it isn’t really a question.

“Yes,” he agrees, grabs her hand, and they run together through the most dangerous world they’ve come across so far, forced to dodge explosions and pools of fire that lie across the path and figures that scream at them to come back and face what they’ve done.

And finally they reach the end of the gold rope, which leads into the blue box that is standing at the end of the path, its doors open in welcome. Without a thought, the Doctor dives inside, Donna right behind him, and then they slam the doors shut and collapse against them, exchanging looks of relief.

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