A/N: This is what happens when you miss Donna and listen to 'Immortals' by Fall Out Boy. And then get stuck on the 'just not for long, for long.' Disclaimer: I own nothing except the... Um... Nothing.
June 17- Yes, look at me, I'm expanding 'Here To Help' again! I was surprised at the response I got so quickly so I'm updating it. And, the plot bunnies won't leave me alone. Sigh. Here we go again. Spoiler: Surprise Tom Baker appearance, Yay!
"-But they'll only spend it on boring stuff like lamps and vegetables! Yawn!" The children giggled, delighted with the antics of the young new employee that worked at the shop.
"And I'm uh-oh, I'm losing control." The helicopter smashed into a shelf and two people yelped.
"Uh-oh. Ladies in gentlemen while I take care of this embarrassing situation why don't you find your parents/guardians. Try lamps!"
The children scampered off quickly giggling all the while. The Doctor still grinning, looked up and paled. A furious familiar red-haired woman bore down on him.
The one thing he did to prepare himself for her inevitable outburst was to wrench his name tag from his suspenders and throw it on the floor behind him. The woman began yelling at him for his carelessness and he only nodded meekly and cowed under her gaze.
An elderly gentleman took the ginger by the arm.
"Donna, I think he's had enough and besides it was an accident. And don't we need his help?"
Donna Noble sniffed but nodded. "Where are the baby toys?" And then the Doctor beheld her swollen stomach.
"You've swallowed a planet!" He said before he managed to clamp his hands over his mouth.
"Oi! Are you calling me fat?!"
"No! No, I just-uh wasn't expecting that. Y- you're pregnant then."
"Yes, get your head out the clouds. Why do you think I want baby toys?!"
"Ah, yes. I'll just... Go get some..."
"I'm coming with you dumbo. I couldn't trust such a dunce with my life."
Wilfred Mott noticed the man's absence of a name tag. "Wait. Are you an employee of the store?"
"Yes. Of course, that's me just an employee. Heh."
"Where is your name tag?" Donna asked suspiciously.
"I've just misplaced it around here. I'm sure I'll find it later."
Donna sniffed and followed the strange man with the bow tie out of the aisle. Wilf began to follow them but his shoe crunched on something and removing his foot he picked it up.
It was the man's name tag. He flipped it over and his mouth parted in astonishment. No. No! It must be a coincidence!
It read, "The Doctor. Here to help."
He slipped it into his pocket. Where were the baby toys? He wasn't going to let this chance opportunity pass by. He ran in the general direction of yelling.
Donna was alone in the aisle.
"Where'd the man go?"
"Hmm? He's peculiar. And a dumbo. He went back your way."
Wilf turned and went back but hesitated and then turned left instead of right. He found the Doctor talking to a man with a baby who sauntered off with the stroller.
The Doctor turned. "Ah, W- uh, is your um, friend having trouble finding something again?"
Now that Wilf was faced with the grinning man who seemed so different from Donna's Doctor, he was unsure. The eyes made him decide.
His eyes were old, much older then when he had last seen them and with those years added sorrows and hurt. Wilf began tearing up before he could stop himself.
"D- Doctor?" The energetic man froze. "I- I found your name tag."
He held out the offending object. The Doctor snatched it up quickly as if he hid it he would not have to confront his friend about it. Finally he he clipped it to his burgundy suspenders and grinned weakly at his old friend.
"Hello, Wilf."
Wilf threw his arms about his lost friend and felt the tears drip down his cheeks. They stood like that for a while.
Wilf was not unaware of the Doctor thin and lanky frame trembling slightly with quiet sobs.
DWDWDWDWDWDW
When Wilf pulled away, the Doctor had a weak smile upon his face.
"It's good to see you again."
Wilf just grinned with tears in his eyes.
"When you said you'd change your face, you weren't kidding- you really changed!"
The Doctor looked down at his lanky frame as if he just realized that yes he had changed quite a lot.
"I mean blimey, look at you! At least a couple of years knocked off but you're still as skinny as ever. Do you choose what you look like?"
One of the Doctor's hands reached up automatically to finger his chin. "No. Regeneration is a dodgy process."
Wilf's mind had started kicking into full gear again.
"Wait, you met Donna!"
"Well-"
"And she didn't recognize you!"
"Well, yes-"
"This is brilliant!"
"Well yes, uh? Wait, what's brilliant?"
Wilf was excited. "Doctor- you could see her again! Don't you see? Start over and she'd be happy again!"
The Doctor shook his head vigorously. "No! I can't!"
"Doctor, she misses you."
"Wilf, I can't and she doesn't even remember me! Besides she's got her own life now! A husband, a baby- she doesn't need me anymore."
"Doctor. She does, she found a paint color that looked like the TARDIS and she started crying and she didn't know why. She watched an old telly show with a police box and muttered about it was rubbish and it wasn't bigger or something. She didn't know why. She told her husband, Shawn, that he didn't look right in brown pinstripes and she always wears cream-colored trainers with a red stripe. She doesn't know why. And she says that she should be happy but for some reason she's sad all the time and Doctor- you could fix that!"
The Doctor's face had begun to drain of all color when Wilf's desperate pleas filled his heart with guilt. He had thought that maybe Donna would be happy one day and she had seemed happy.
Wilf didn't see that he would only make things worse. He would become attached again and so would Donna and when he left (as always he would eventually do) she would be devastated.
Besides, something might slip and she might remember. And who said he would ever be able to tear himself away again?
He might stay there forever once he gave up resisting and he knew that would never work. He would just lose her again and that couldn't happen.
"Wilf, I- I... I can't!"
"Please, Doctor. Please."
The lights flickered ominously as the store announced that closing time was in five minutes.
Donna's distant voice shouted, "Grandfather! Where did you wander off too?"
The Doctor visibly flinched and Wilf could see tears starting to form again.
"I- I'm sorry, Wilf, I'm so so sorry."
"Wait!" But the Doctor turned and fled down the aisle as Donna emerged from the other end.
"Grandfather, who was that? Was that that bloke again? Funny, I quite liked him. He seemed... Anyway, what were you doing?"
Wilf quickly wiped his eyes. "Nobody. It was nothing."
The Doctor was gone again.
Wilf came back the next day, he stood outside of the shop for what seemed forever. The Doctor had left the shop from what he could glean from the workers there.
He still came back the next day.
Three days, four days, five, a week, two weeks, one month, two months, three months...
Four months and one day had passed when a man tapped the back of Wilf's shoulder, "Excuse me sir," the voice was a deep baritone and the man was smiling with a wide and very toothy grin.
"Hello, have you seen my friend around here? I believe she has wandered off again."
Wilf tried to be helpful. "What does she look like?"
"Oh, yes! Sorry, she's..." He lowered and raised his hand until at about the same height as his chin. "About this high."
The man still had that same blinding grin on. "And she has brown hair and it's short."
"I'm afraid I haven't."
The man pushed his hat up and scratched his head full of curls. "Her name is Sarah Jane Smith."
"I really haven't seen her."
"Oh, if you see her, tell her the Doctor is waiting for her at the TARDIS. Don't worry she'll know what it means, goodbye!"
And the man took off, still grinning, with a ridiculously long scarf flapping behind him. Wilfred Mott gaped.
Wilf was still standing there in shock with his mouth open as a woman ran past him a little later. She had short brown hair and was running for her life shouting, "Doctor! Doctor!"
Wilf sat back on the bench and stayed there until midnight hoping the Doctor might show up again. He did not.
One month and two days later.
Donna was puzzled and worried by her grandfathers obsessive behavior. He hardly ever looked at the stars anymore.
He always went to that store every day and came back home for lunch and dinner. She was very concerned about him, but she was going to have a child any day now, work, and a husband. She didn't have the time.
Her mother was no help. Sylvia only complained about it day in and day out. Donna didn't know what to do or if she even could do anything.
Wilf sat on the bench and stretched his legs tiredly. The bench was stone, the morning was cold, and he wasn't getting any younger. His breath came out in little puffs and he pulled his warm knitted hat so it was a little snugger on his head.
Someone sat down next to him and Wilf looked in surprise at a familiar bow tie clad figure.
"D- Doctor?"
"You really shouldn't be out here. It's freezing." The man glanced sideways at Wilf worriedly.
The Doctor shouldn't be worried, Wilf should be worried something had happened. Something bad. He had seen that look once before on a dark and stormy night.
"Who was it?" He blurted before he could lose his resolve.
The Doctor looked at his knees. "Is it really that obvious?"
Wilf didn't have the heart to say anything.
The Doctor heaved a great sigh and he began to weave a tale of two Ponds and a Song.