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“So, are you gonna tell me what you need?”
Donna’s impatient voice broke through the fog of memory. The Doctor raised his head, trying to reorient himself. Right, the TARDIS. No diamond planet, no shuttle, no creature stealing his voice. “What?”
“What do you need?” Eyebrows raised inquisitively, Donna spread her hands. “A cup of tea? Something stronger? Some secret Time Lord comfort food?”
“Um. Nope, don’t need any of that.” He tried to put on a bright smile, but it was harder to pull off than usual. It had been hard, this whole week. “I mean, I could use a new timestream monitoring circuit, but I’m sure I can fix this one. No problem.”
From the look on Donna’s face—unimpressed, really unimpressed—he wasn’t fooling her. “Oh, you mean the one you’ve been not-fixing for ten minutes?”
The Doctor looked down. The circuit was still just as burned out as it had been when he sat down by the console and then promptly spaced out. “Ten minutes already? Is it? Well, you know how it is, time is relative. Especially to a Time Lord repairing a timestream monitoring circuit.”
“Don’t give me any of that rubbish.” Donna crossed her arms. “You’ve got a serious case of the blues, mate.”
“Case of the morbs.”
“Pardon?”
“Well, I know that’s not the way you humans say it now.” Managing the grin more easily this time, the Doctor hopped off the floor and started flipping switches. Anything to keep from slipping back into memories of losing control, of being helpless. “But! Last century—well, last century from your present, not from when we are now—that was the word. One of them, anyway. Morbs. Got the morbs, case of the morbs. Derives from morbid, probably. Or does it? I’m not actually sure.”
“Lovely.” Donna still hadn’t uncrossed her arms. “So, you’ve got a case of the morbs…”
“Nah, I haven’t. You know me, always good to go. Especially to the next adventure.” He stared at the console for a minute, trying to remember which switches he’d just flipped. Unsure, he flipped one anyway, and an alarm beeped. “Whoops, not that one. You know, that gives me an idea. Victorian London, Donna! How about it?”
Instead of matching his enthusiasm, Donna touched his arm. “Doctor.”
“Come on, it’d be fun.”
“Do you really think it would be fun?” She gave him a keen look. “Or are you just trying to distract yourself? To stop thinking about that planet, and that creature?”
“Hmm, I dunno.” Blowing out a long breath, he turned around and leaned against the console. It would be easy to keep denying that anything was wrong, but probably pointless. Donna knew him too well. “Both, maybe. That’s the cure for a case of the blues—or morbs—anyway, isn’t it? Stay ahead of it.”
“Well, at least you’re admitting it now.” Donna leaned back against the console beside him. She looked as uncomfortable with the conversation as he was. “Look, I just want to know if there’s any way I can help. You keep… slipping off. Like you’re not here with me.”
“Yeah, sorry. You know how it is after a really bad day, memories stick for a bit. It’ll all get better in time, eh?” He turned back to the console and experimentally smacked a button. No alarms went off. “So! Let’s spend that time somewhere fun. Maybe—”
Donna pointed down. “Oi. You still haven’t fixed your timestream whatsit.”
“Oh, yeah.” Forgetting that really wasn’t a good sign of his stability. He’d need to be more careful for a bit. “Don’t wanna take off without fixing that, the TARDIS wouldn’t like it.”
“How about a hug?” Donna asked. The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, and she help up a hand. “Don’t even start. A hug for you, not the TARDIS. Would it help?”
“Well, hugs are good for some things. Not much good for fixing a timestream monitoring circuit, though.” He wiggled his fingers. “Need my hands free for that.”
Donna rolled her eyes at him and opened her arms. “Just get over here.”
The Doctor sighed, and this time he gave in without a fight. He stepped into Donna’s embrace and hugged her tight, like he had after getting back to the spa. She hugged him tighter, tight enough that he couldn’t breathe.
Hugging couldn’t drive away the shadow of Midnight. But when dealing with a case of bad memories and lingering dread, having a good friend really helped.