A Cage Without A Key

[scripsi]

Title: A Cage Without A Key
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: All ages
Genre: Angst
Word Count: 358 words
Pairings and/or Characters: Donna Noble, Twelfth Doctor
Warnings: None
Summary: Sometimes Donna feels like she is living in a fog.
AN: I love Donna Noble and I hated the way she was written out of the series. I think she must feel like something important is missing and feel depressed about it. The title comes from a quote from Elizabeth Wurtzel: That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage without a key. Written for who_contest's "Blur".

Some days Donna wakes up and the world around her is all dim. It is like everything isn’t quite real, like she’s a bit out of sync with reality. Those mornings she goes out for coffee. Coffee, she had found, helps to sharpen the world again, but she doesn’t want to drink it in her kitchen, having her home in a blur is very unsettling. So she goes to a coffee shop around the corner, sits down with the double espresso and waits until she feels like she belongs again.

This morning, as she stands in the slow moving queue, she sees something in the corner of her eyes that isn’t blurred. When everything else looks like something seen through a foggy glass, the man who has just picked up his order stands out, an almost shockingly exact shape in the mistiness. Donna doesn’t know him, he is a grim-faced man with grey hair and sharp, sharp eyes under heavy eyebrows. He looks at her so intensely that Donna bristles.

“What?”

“I’m just picking up coffee for Clara.”

He’s Scottish, she notices, and she also realises she feels jealous of the unknown Clara that this equally unknown man brings coffee. Donna credits her odd reaction to the strange mood she is in, only she doesn’t feel the least fussy anymore when she looks at him. She feels alert and focused, like a big adventure is just around the corner, one she isn’t invited to share.

“I’m sorry,” the man says sincerely. “I really am very sorry.”

And before Donna can answer the queue jolts forward and she is staring at the barista and the man slips away and is gone by the time she has got her coffee. But this morning she doesn’t need it, the blurriness is gone, leaving Donna feeling angry and confused and terribly energetic. Frustrated and in need of venting she goes home to her Mum and has a terrible row to ease it all off. But when she falls asleep that night she once again hear the stranger’s apology in her mind and for some weird reason it makes her feel a little better.

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Donna :(((((((

Donna's mind and memories are slowly regenerating themselves, so slowly that she won't even know what's happening until it's safe for her to start remembering again. All those days are being restored. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[eve11]

Oh yes, I very much like that story; it's a good one to stick with!

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Thta's a very good story! I will think so too!

[saaammie.livejournal.com]

This is my headcanon from now on.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

To me it's pretty much the same, only her body is being changed, too, that's why she didn't change into the Master in "The End of Time". One day she'll have all her memories back.

[bearshorty.livejournal.com]

Donna! I love her so much. She's my favorite companion. This was a lovely story. I enjoyed reading it.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

She's my favorite companion too. :) I'm glad you liked the story!

[eve11]

Oh, Donna. This is very well written and bittersweet. The Doctor owes her so much more than an apology she can't consciously understand :(

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed the story! Oh yes, the Doctor Owes her so much!

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

Donna is my favorite companion. She was the companion I planned on growing up to be when I watched Dr. Who as a child. The Doctor and I were going to be friends and act silly together and have angst - free adventure!

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

She's my favourite companion as well! The Doctor's companion always has a funtion to ground him, and Donna did that really really well. It's quite telling, I think, that Ten almost went over the limit when he lost her and not when he lost Rose, who he was in love with.

[navaan]

Oh, I love Donna and having her meet a later incarnation of the Doctor stirring something in her os so wonderful. Twelve and Donna would have been so perfect together.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I would LOVE to see them together. It would be great!

[dm12.livejournal.com]

See, even Twelve still is sorry for what he did to her, a thousand years ago (in his timeline, anyway...). A thousand more years could go by and he would still regret it. Donna was truly his best friend (well, besides the Master and his TARDIS).... and he failed her.

I agree with others here, her mind would adapt at some point to the knowledge within her, and that would be when things are clear. She's just that good!

I loved the little detail at the end that Donna doesn't need the coffee anymore after her encounter, but goes home and has a row with her Mum just to settle herself down.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Yes, Donna was one of the most special companions IMO. I don't think he'll get over her, either.

I don't like to quarrel, but I know people who love it, saying they feel relaxed and energized after. I can imagine both Donna and her Mum can enjoy a good row. :)

Thanks for reading!

[dm12.livejournal.com]

It's their dynamic... Donna would feel very uncomfortable if Sylvia all of a sudden became totally agreeable! So, while the Doctor's admonition might have led to a little bit more supportive behavior from Sylvia, she would never go too far. Nor would Donna believe it...

Donna was a very special companion. I could go on and on about why, and I agree, he will never get over her. Eleven tried to run away from it, but even he had moments where you just knew he was thinking about her.

I really do hope (and they are promising) they address why Twelve chose the face he did. Supposedly, they will go back to "Fires of Pompeii." I'll believe it when I see it, but he did ask the question....

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, an all nice Sylvia would make Donna feel very weird!

I really do hope (and they are promising) they address why Twelve chose the face he did. Supposedly, they will go back to "Fires of Pompeii." I'll believe it when I see it, but he did ask the question....

Me too! And I really hope it will involve Donna, but I din't have high hopes for it- Moffat isn't much for using character's from Before his tun.

[saaammie.livejournal.com]

Oh Donna...

Very nice and bittersweet.

Donna's fate hurts my heart all the time.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yes, hurting your heart is a very good escription!

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

I loved the description of Donna, it reminds me the Doctor when he was human. There was something wrong with her and she just had to have her momories back to get a chance for happy ending.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[paynesgrey.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Donna! But I love that you had her run into Twelve, and that his apology and presence still resonates with her. Wonderful job!

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I'm all for Donna having a wonderful life, though I think the show has made that difficult for her. How can she, even with memorly loss, ever feel like there is NOT something missing?

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this...

And it WOULD be Twelve. Blunt, rude, abrasive. Yet kind in his own way. The first to say he is sorry.

Thank you for this...

*HUGS*

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I think that Twelve, for all his abrasivness, is a lot more humble than both Ten and Eleven. They could sometimes be a bit righteous. :D

*hugs*