The day after the twins' first birthday is the day the Ood knocks on the door.
Donna opens it, and her mind blanks. Literally. She isn't afraid, she isn't surprised, she isn't anything at all. No thoughts. No feelings. Just a blank.
Then Quinn, in her arms, giggles and reaches out to try and grab the tentacles. Donna pulls him back, and her mind begins to wake.
"Donna Temple-Noble. Friend," says the Ood. He takes Quinn from her suddenly weak grasp.
"Ood Sigma," Donna says, and faints.
When she wakes, she remembers everything—everything. She stares at Ood Sigma.
"How?"
"You are our friend," he said. "We would not rest until we found a way to cure you."
"But …"
"You are fully human again. We removed the Time Lord DNA and restored your memory."
Donna sits up and swings her legs over the side of the sofa. "Where is he?" she demands. "I'm gonna kill him."
Ood Sigma understands. "He is already dead."
That stops her. "What?"
"We sang him to his sleep. The Doctor died. He is reborn, but he is your Doctor, and ours, no longer."
She slumps. "He didn't have to take it all away," she whispers. "But he did." And now she can't even yell at him for it. He gave her up, and she can't take him back.
"Would you rather your memories were still inhibited?"
Through a blur of tears, she looks into the compassionate eyes of her alien friend. "No," she gulps, swiping at her nose with the back of her hand. As much as her world is spinning around her right now, as confused and heart-broken as she is, she feels whole again. She hadn't even realized part of her was missing, but now that it's back she knows she can't give it up again.
"Thanks," she adds, inadequate as it seems.
Ood Sigma inclines his head. "Donna Temple-Noble," he says. "Friend."
She sniffs and blinks, and stands up to give him a hug.
"Yeah," she says. "Friend."
She doesn't tell Shaun at first. How can she? He will never believe her. Quinn and Evie giggle about the "funny-face man," but he thinks it's another of their made-up games, and takes no notice. He does notice that Donna is acting different these days, but tells her he knows she'll talk to him when she's ready.
(Quinn and Evie—somehow her subconscious remembered her journeys with the Doctor to pick those names. Young Quintus from Pompeii and Ms Evangelista from the Library—funny that those two stayed with her more than any of the rest.)
When Shaun finds her at the hardware store earnestly trying to describe a Vortex Manipulator to the confused lad behind the desk in hopes she can build herself one, she breaks down and tells him everything.
To his credit, he doesn't immediately call a psychiatrist. He remembers enough of the weird stuff that happened in the last few years to know there might be some truth behind her wild story.
He does call Wilf and Sylvia, though, and is shocked when old Wilf bursts into tears and confirms everything.
The day Granddad tells her about the Doctor's death is hard. Still, she supposes it has to redeem him a little, that he would die to save Granddad.
She still wishes she could yell at him just once more.
She thinks about finding U.N.I.T. or Torchwood or Martha or Jack, but in the end, decides to work out what she and Shaun and the twins are going to do with their life for herself, without advice from anyone. Martha's smug comment about Donna leaving the Doctor someday still rankles, even (especially?) because it came true. She doesn't need any more help like that.
"I can't keep living an ordinary life," she warns Shaun.
"I know," he says. "Just take us with you when you go."
"Don't worry," she says. "I won't ever leave anyone behind. Even if I think they'll be better off for it."
He takes her hand. "I would never be better off without you."
She kisses him. "And I'd be lost without you."
Evie and Quinn peek around the corner, giggle, and rush in to tackle Mummy and Daddy around the ankles, resulting in a family wrestling match and the leaving behind the notion of time and space travel for a while.
In the end, it is one of the others who finds her. Donna answers a knock to see an anxious young man with dark hair and a pale face standing there.
"Are you Donna?" he asks. "I'm Luke Smith. I was told you could help me."
"Smith?"
"Sarah Jane Smith is my mum. She's dying."
Donna opens the door wider. "You'd better come in."
It is Luke and Sarah Jane's super computer which sent Luke to her. Mr Smith hoped that she was enough of a Time Lord to use her regenerative abilities to heal Sarah Jane. It breaks Donna's heart to tell Luke she can't do that.
"I'm not even a part Time Lord anymore," she says. "But I'll do whatever I can to help."
"I should be able to fix this," Luke says, staring blankly into the cup of tea Shaun brought him. "Mum could fix it if it was me."
"Not even your mum could fix cancer," Donna says sadly.
"She would if it was me!" Luke blazes.
Donna only got to know Sarah Jane slightly, but somehow she doesn't doubt it at all.
"Isn't there something we can do?" Shaun asks, returning to the living room with some tea for Donna. "An alien plant we can hunt down, or some cure in the future we can bring back? Or could your Ood friends help her?"
"I don't know how to contact the Ood," Donna confesses. "And if we could get to New New York I'm sure the cats would have a cure for cancer, but …"
"We don't have a time machine," says Shaun.
"Can we build one?" Luke asks.
They look at him.
"Right," says Donna. "That does it. I'm calling Captain Jack."
Shaun grimaces, because she's told him all about Captain Jack Harkness, but he doesn't argue.
Jack's vortex manipulator doesn't work anymore, he tells them, and the sorrow in his face seems real. He thinks highly of Sarah Jane, too. Luke doesn't give up that easily, though. He asks if he can at least see it.
Jack is horrified when Luke takes the entire thing apart, then stunned when the young man just as easily puts it back together.
"Right," says Luke. "Thanks."
And with that, they send Jack on his way, still bemused.
"I've got it now," says Luke. "I can build one of those, with Mr Smith and K-9 to help. It won't be as good, but it'll do."
"While you're doing that, we'll build something to house it—and us," Donna says.
"We will?" Shaun asks, because Donna is not very good at building things.
The glare she turns on him has all her old fire, like he hasn't seen since Ood Sigma showed up, and he silently rejoices. "We will."
Quinn picks up a shoe and waves it like a hammer. "We help."
Evie bops him on the head. "Help!"
It isn't a TARDIS, but it will do.
"It's an old car," Luke says.
"Well," says Donna. "It seemed easier than trying to build a spaceship."
"Less conspicuous, too," Shaun adds.
"We looked a bit less like Noah building an ark in the middle of a desert," Donna says. "Although the neighbors did think it funny that we were buying an old junker, instead of a new model."
"Right," says Luke. "I'll install the manipulator."
Donna straps the twins into carseats, because safety is important even in time and space travel, and Shaun squeezes in between them in the back seat. Luke wants to drive, but Donna points silently to the passenger seat, and he meekly slinks in. Donna gets in, inserts the key, turns it, and they're off.
The cats are reluctant at first to give them a cure—they want them to bring Sarah Jane to the hospital, but Luke isn't sure how many more trips the VM can make. Donna is very persistent, and Shaun persuasive, and Luke desperate, and at last they leave with the tiny, precious vial.
They drop Luke and the vial off at his home.
"Thanks," he says.
"Do you want the VM back?" Donna asks.
He shakes his head. "Keep it. I can always build another."
Donna looks at Shaun, and he looks back her her, and they grin.
"Ready for a little adventure, twins?" Donna asks.
Luke remembers just as they are driving out of sight.
"Wait!" he calls. "The VM needs at least two hours rest between trips, more for longer ones, or it'll burn out and you'll have to wait for it to … recharge."
It is too late. They are gone.
"Oh well," he mutters. "They'll figure it out." He looks down at the vial in his hand and runs inside to find Mum.
And somewhere in space and time, a beat-up crimson sedan with safety seats in the back hurtles toward adventure.