Title: The Mother of All Wisdom
Rating: G
Warnings: Spoilers for S4 casting
Disclaimer: I only wish I were British and I owned them.

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"Doctor, look what I found in the library," Donna Noble said as she entered the console room.

"You know where the library is?" the Doctor asked without looking up. He was currently very engrossed in a delicate modification to the TARDIS' main dematerialization circuit. Just a few more minor tweaks and he was certain those recent mishaps his companion was obsessively complaining about would be completely taken care of.

Donna hit him with the large book she was carrying.

"Ow!" The Doctor rubbed his shoulder and gave her a classic 'what did you do that for?' look.

Donna ignored him and carried on. "Absolutely fascinating book. It's a manual for the TARDIS. Did you even know you had one on board? This could come in quite handy. There's even diagrams." She opened the book to one of the detailed break-downs of the matter regulator and held it out proudly.

"Hmmm...thought I'd gotten rid of that," he muttered under his breath.

"There are some notes in it too. 'Make sure he doesn't forget the multi-loop stabilizer- Roma—Romana-d-vora-tre-lundar.'"

The Doctor winced as she tripped over the syllables. "It's Romanadvoratrelundar," he replied, pronouncing the name effortlessly. "I always preferred to call her 'Fred'."

"You did not! What self-respecting woman would let you get away with that?"

"I never said she let me get away with it. Usually, I had to call her 'Romana'."

Donna perched on the edge of the console, well away from any of the major buttons or levers she'd seen him use. "She traveled with you, then?"

"For a while." The Doctor returned to fiddling with the master dematerialization circuit, seemingly uninterested in the conversation.

"What happened to her?"

His focus on the circuitry was near-total, which let her know that he'd heard her perfectly well the first time. She drummed her fingers on the console in a way she knew would annoy him as she waited for his response.

"Could you stop that? It's distracting!"

"What happened to her?"

"She became president of Gallifrey," he replied without looking up. "And then she died with the rest of them."

"What was she like?"

He looked as though he couldn't believe she'd actually dared to ask that question.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Well, come on then! It's not like you can just forget all about her. Remember the good times and whatnot. It's supposed to help."

The Doctor shook his head but answered anyway. "Young. She was only 272 when I first met her. She used think she knew everything too. 'Multi-loop stabilizer', ha! I've done well enough without one, thank you very much. And there was this one time..."

Donna hid a smile as he continued to talk about his past adventures. Discreetly, she glanced down at the small note gracing the inside cover of the manual. 'Don't let him get too absorbed in himself. He's insufferable that way.'

Mission accomplished.