Chapter Text
Her reaction had puzzled him, how could she have been so calm when even he had had trouble reconciling his actions with the rational part of his brain. His awareness of his scenting had been accompanied by a change in his behavior, small gestures such as lending her his trench coat or holding her hand during most of his adventures to keep her close, even in the TARDIS when he perceived the slightest indication that Donna was sad, whether it was her sour smell or a slight pout, his alpha would run to where she was to comfort her, which made it a little bit difficult to think about how to tell her the little problem they were in but this time had been the last straw.
It was likely that the exaggeration of his reaction was due to Donna confessing that she did not trust him, that had hurt both his alpha and him, but he had to accept it, since he, although unconsciously, committed a transgression of her trust and put his will over hers, which was quite barbaric and unforgivable. He knew that his partner would ask him for a time apart, it was the logical conclusion, after all, he also came to that conclusion when he was in the library, and even with that knowledge when he heard her said "leave the TARDIS" his inner wolf panicked, his hearts increased their palpitations and released his bitter and spicy aroma, if it were not for the ventilation system of the ship, it would have quickly spread throughout the room revealing the terror that invaded him for a few moments, and despite everything, he still had a little self-control to be able to stop all the verbiage that was about to leave his lips when his partner pointed out that he should keep quiet.
During the rest of their conversation he dedicated himself to regain his composure and listen to what his omega was saying, he could not allow another demonstration of loss of control and let his instinct free so he calmly accepted to leave his partner at his mother's house after she had a proper rest, but now that he was alone he could only let out what he had kept at bay all that time, and of course, he had planned to leave her at his mother's house and return in a few days for her, but that was his plan for her, his plan for himself actually involved a more time apart than a few days, but he needed to mentalize himself for that time apart, and for that, he required more time with Donna by his side not just a few hours as she established.
It was not something he really liked to admit, but his inner wolf would play a decisive role in the separation to break the semi bond that formed between them; he knew that the alfa would not let the bond break easily so after a certain length of time apart he would be forced into a premature rut, which by his morals he would be forced to endure it alone, it would be a desperate attempt to claim what his instincts consider his, a rather primitive one that made his stomach turn.
According to his calculations and his research, it would take him at least a month to show the first symptoms of the rut and after about two weeks to fully enter it, it would last about 5 or 4 days in which the TARDIS would lock the controls for preventing him from looking for his partner or causing a disaster in space-time, then he would suffer the consequences for two weeks of having spent his heat alone without "his partner" or anyone and then it will be the begin of his recovery and finally repair everything that he had broken inside his ship thus leaving 4 months remaining building a new normal for when Donna returned to him she would see an animated Doctor ready to jump on the next adventure and have something to tell her about how he spent his time alone, never revealing to her the martyrdom he had endured could never reveal to her the three months it took him to sever their bond and completely rebuild himself.
What occupied his mind at this moment was no longer how he would spend those 4 months or about how to hide his actions from his omega, but that all his calculations were based on that she will stay at least one more week by his side, in that time he would try to convince her to lower the intensity of the ventilation so that their scents could be perceived correctly or at least hers, he could always argue that as their secondary genders had a natural sensitivity for scents to spend long periods of time without perceiving any could caused them stress, which is something that they definitely tried to avoid due to the previous events, he would offer to use scent blockers if that calmed her, that way only the smell of omega would be perceptible; a plan with many flaws but it was the only thing he had.
Now, with the new conditions established by Donna, the numbers in his head changed, new scenarios were developed, everything became darker and with shades of red; his rut would be more violent and she would not give him the necessary time to mentally prepare for it, the consequences would therefore also be greater which terrified him quite a bit.
Another thing he had to consider was the time factor in which his partner would be separated from him, originally he had planned about three or four days long enough for her to calm down completely, but she came with other plans, apparently she needed more time and despite the fact that she said a week, her face had expressed that she would definitely need more than seven days, this fact worried him a lot because it was well known that an omega that came out of a state of stress was looking for comfort, a place to feel safe and being this the case he feared that the feeling that seized her omega was strong enough for her to reject him again, traveling again alone after his rut would turn out worse than traveling after what happended to Rose, at best it would be her deciding that they would have adventours any other time, that definitely didn't feel right to him right now due to his condition but maybe later it woul not be so bad, the only sure thing is that he would spend a lot of time alone in the TARDIS which he never did like.
His last resort was not something that really pleased him but the truth is that he was in a hurry, he would ask his ship to stop the ventilation in his companion's room, and later when she was no longer aboard the ventilation would work again spreading her scent where he will pass at least he would have a week to prepare. It was time to get up from his seat in the kitchen, after all, half an hour had passed, it was time to go back to the library.