Donna woke up cold and trembling, a clammy sweat pasting her hair to her forehead. She breathed deeply, trying to calm her nerves and slow her speeding heart rate. She'd had that same dream again. She'd had it every night for the past five years. The same dream that always made her wake up feeling scared and sad, all at the same time.

She was in a place, looking so familiar but completely foreign at the same time, like some sort of space ship she'd seen in cartoons from her childhood. That was probably it.

And there was always a man with her, tall with amazing hair, always with the old eyes and the sad smile.

They would be talking. After five years of listening to the same words, she could only catch Six words. Just six. "Donna Noble I am so sorry." She remembered the overwhelming wave of sadness his words invoked, and the fear that the walls of her world were collapsing, but now as she strained to remember, she couldn't recall a single other detail. Who the man was, why he'd been so important to her, why he was sorry.

It must be that she'd photoshopped herself into a sitcom she'd seen late at night on telly. Must be.

But it didn't sit right with her, whatever had happened in her dream felt... real. there was no other way of putting it. But If that was real, and those nightmarish visions she got with migraines these days were real too... Well, what did that all mean?

She didn't know.

She rolled over, Shaun murmured something inaudible in his sleep, his hand finding hers but he didn't wake. She sighed, she needed a Doctor.

Donna stiffened, as if that word could possibly mean something more to her. Could it? What would it mean though? She clamped her teeth down on her lip in yearning for something she did not know.

This was ridiculous. She took in a deep breath, and tried counting sheep to fall back asleep. After a while, she did.

Donna sighed, clicking the TV onto an old soap and dunking her feet into the foot spa, the jet stream of bubbles massaging the aches in her bones. The morning run this morning had been no more special than yesterdays or the day before. Josh clung to her leg as she tried to get him into nursery, smearing jam over her clean on jeans. Ella of course flounced off to her friends on her royal high horse.

The only unusual thing was she bumped into a strange, wiry man in a tweed suit with a bow tie. She was certain she'd never met the man before but something about him was oddly familiar. He glanced at her fleetingly, his child like face creasing only slightly with a frown and then he'd stalked off, rounding a corner with the sound of screeching engines in his wake.

Oh well, none of that mattered right now, when she had the day off and the house to herself.

It'd been three months since anything irregular had disturbed Donna's life. No migraines. She'd been to a sleep therapist who'd helped her rid her sleep of dreams completely bar a few nights. No baby-faced grown men in bow ties either.

Actually, that wasn't completely true. She'd met this woman. Truth be told she liked her, she couldn't help it. She was almost as funny as she was, always joking about her useless husband who was always off travelling. She never mentioned where, but one time she said something funny, like: "It's like we never meet in the right order." And when Donna asked again, she'd closed off. She'd said a few funny things Donna couldn't make sense of. Something about a machine her husband uses called a Targist or something, She'd spoken about a library in the 51st century, and she spoke about about her parents being thousands of years old. Admittedly, Donna had spiked her drinks tremendously, but after not making sense of a thing she'd been saying she decided her friend had an odd imagination and made her sleep it off. When she'd sobered up, she'd apologised and when Donna asked if she was planning on writing a kids book she'd only said 'Spoilers' and insisted on speaking only about Donna's life rather than her own. They'd met up every other Wednesday afternoon for a month and a half, before River had said she needed to be somewhere because someone important had come knocking on her door. Donna had the feeling she wasn't too pleased with having to go, but felt like she must and so off she went.

She raised her glass of red and muttered "To River," before draining it in seconds.

One year and a half since she'd been to that sleep therapist, and Donna had been on the receiving end of the same nightmares. Similarly, the migraines were back and she was just recovering from one. She saw strange women draped in red robes, with hands painted over the back of their hands.

Donna rubbed her fingers against her temples trying to ignore the migraine and think about Josh. Being forced to wait outside was killing her. Josh had broken his arm, and the Doctors were casting it in the room she was leaning against. It seemed silly to her that they wouldn't let her stay, prattling on about Health and Safety or something or the other. She heard the door click and looked up immediately, a tall male nurse with a hell of a nose was holding a clipboard and looking quite nervous. "Mrs Temple-Noble?" He inquired, looking like he could wet himself. Donna didn't feel too surprised, she often got this reaction from people. Apparently something about her was terrifying. She glanced at his name tag, and forced a smile to try and relax him. His shoulders declined by maybe half a millimetre.

"Joshua's arm has been plastered, but-"

"Is there something wrong? Has something happened to my boy?" She couldn't hold her tongue back and Nurse Williams flinched. She forced herself to calm down. "Sorry. Is Josh okay?"

He seemed to calm down and continued. "Josh will be fine, but he is going to need to rest his arm for a minimum of seven days, just to avoid straining the natural healing process of his radius."

"You what?"

"His arm, he needs to rest it for a week so it doesn't heal improperly."

"Right, yes that's okay. Thank you Rory."

Nurse Williams looked bewildered so she motioned to his name tag. "Your name's on that, love." She said and brushed past him.

"Of course, of course." She heard him say behind her.

She met Josh, perched on the hospital bed with a heavily casted arm. "I reckon you're going to need an ice cream after this. Don't you?" She asked him with a smile, leading him out the room.

Donna stretched on the sofa, feet resting in Shaun's lap as she alternated her attention between dozing off and distractedly paying attention to what Shaun was watching. Probably another fake documentary about aliens of all things.

She was just drifting off when something compelled her to stay awake. A woman was talking about an alien who went by the name of Trickster and how he'd tried to get her to marry a dead man. She claimed a "Special kind of Doctor" had saved her. Her name flashed at the bottom, Sarah Jane Smith.

Then the camera changed and three teenagers were being interviewed, their names flashed up too, Luke, Clyde and Lani. They spoke about this special Doctor as well. Something about the mention of "Doctor" tickled Donna's mind, but she was too tired. She dismissed it.

Donna sat in an uncomfortable café chair, taking a menu from the stand. The kids were talking animatedly to their father about what had happened the night before. Something about an alien they saw in a movie called a Garlic, or a Darlink. She didn't care. You'd think that a nice day out to Cardiff would mean there'd be a change in what they'd prattle on about, but apparently not. She couldn't understand the fascination with aliens her family held, and it's not a passion she shared with them. She'd decided on a coffee and a croissant and turned to look out the window. A tall man wearing a military jacket and a strange hat walked past, flanked by a man in a tie and waistcoat and a woman with waves of kinkless black hair. The man flashed her a cheeky grin at her and continued on his way.

"Who was that?" Shaun asked her, who clearly had not missed the interaction.

She turned to look back out the window, but the man was gone.

"I don't know." She whispered, wondering why he seemed so familiar. It was like she knew his face was buried somewhere in her past but she couldn't place it.

"Oh well. Who's ready to order?"

Donna shifted on her back, flinching in terrible pain. She'd taken the day off everything, no work, no kids, no Shaun.

The splitting migraine in her head was preventing her from doing anything. She'd recovered from a migraine if not five minutes ago, accompanied by the vision of her thoroughly unwinding on a luxury spa, then meeting that strange man with the brilliant hair. She recalled herself saying "molto bene" and the man, who looked exhausted and upset told her not to say that. The pain intensified, and with this migraine came another vision, she was wrapped up in furs but standing outside a cage. A large cage with humans? No they weren't human, they were bald creatures with slitted eyes, and tentacles hanging from their face. They had their hands clasped in front of themselves, as if protecting something. She heard the echo of a melody, only a whisper really but what she heard of it brought on a surge of emotion.

The migraine lessened, and when she came to, her forearms were pressed to her head and she was curled in a tight foetal position. Her face and bedsheets were sodden with her shed tears. It was the song, it was so sad but all of a sudden she couldn't remember it. She knew that song, she knew that somebody had told her it was "The song of captivity", but she couldn't remember who told her, or even what those things were. It must be from one of Josh's alien movies. E.T and his pals. That was it.

Donna hit the streets, surrounded by a group of giggling women in skimpy dress. Donna however was not in to the whole show-off-her-skin look, and wore leather-look leggings and a suggestive halter neck top that showed off a fair amount of cleavage. She didn't want to look too modest after all. It was Nerys's Hen-Do. She'd finally found her own fella and was due to tie the knot the next day. She laughed absently at something someone had said, only half paying attention. They trailed together down the street, stealing the customary wolf whistles that came with the costumes. The girls entered a nightclub with thumping music spilling onto the street, and Donna was last in, but a shuffle in the road behind her stole her attention.

Something that she could only see as a blur streaked past her, and a dark skinned woman clad in black clothing was darting off after it, hair streaming behind her.

A black man similarly dressed in black was running after her, shouting "Don't let it get away, Martha!"

If Donna hadn't known better, she'd have thought they'd been wielding frightening looking guns.

"Donna, are you coming or what?" Nerys emerged from inside the club, looking irritably at her.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm coming. Just some people ran past and i could swear..." She trailed off. She'd recognised the pair of them. The woman was called Martha, and she found she knew that... but she'd never seen her before in her life. And what were they chasing? Oh gosh! it hit her! It was an alien! It had to be! She knew them both from that fake TV show that came on. The one she sometimes watched with Shaun. That was Martha Jones, and that must have been Mickey Smith. She'd never imagined she'd see a celebrity, even one as unpopular as they were. They'd probably use CCTV footage on an upcoming show.

"Uh, okay. You stay here if you like, I'm going back in." Nerys made herself known and disappeared back into the club.

She'd been seeing that woman around for a while. The annoyingly pretty one with all that hair and the same colour as hers. She must be a model, her picture was pasted all over the place. Now she was releasing a perfume. Petrichor. Where'd she even think of a name like that? For the girl who's tired of waiting. Donna sighed, and flipped the magazine shut. She'd seen her a long time ago. At the hospital when Josh was getting the cast changed for a fabric sling, she was with that male nurse. It didn't matter. Not really. Just something about her eyes stood differently. Like she'd seen things. Things most people would never see.

Donna had a different nightmare one night. When she woke up she could only snatch at snippets of what had happened, The Earth had been stolen. Space Rhinos. Outer space FaceBook. A blonde woman crying over the dying body of the man that haunted her usual nightmare. Then swathed of gold. She was shaken awake then.

"You were kicking me in your sleep." Shaun whispered, hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay? It looked like a nightmare you were having."

Donna blinked, disorientated. "I'm fine." She said before she knew what she was fine about. "I'm fine."

Shaun frowned but kissed her on her forehead. "Okay. Sleep well." He lay back down and promptly fell asleep.

She blamed herself for this nightmare. She'd brought it on. Since seeing Martha and Mickey just under four months ago, she'd watched ever documentary, movie or TV show about aliens, ghosts and monsters she could find. She was almost certain that the nightmare she just had was a result of scenes from something she'd watched. Certainly nothing like that could happen in real life.

The visit to her mothers was long overdue. She hadn't seen her family in long over six months. She wrapped up Joshua and Ella, bundled them in the car and off they drove. Shaun was spending the weekend in Bournemouth. A conference meeting with his company needed him to be away.

Donna had hardly knocked the door when her mother came bustling out, cooing and fussing with her grand children. She swept them away from her, off playing cards and board games with them in the Living room. Donna made a Thermos of hot soup and carried it up the hill behind the house.

Her Granddad was of course perched in his lawn chair staring at the sky though it was still daytime and not a star in sight could be seen.

"Aright, Granddad?" She broke his search, watching as he turned to her and grinned.

"Donna!" He got up and wrapped her in a bear hug, same as always. "How are you, sweetheart?" His word muffled into her shoulder.

"Oh you know, same old. Molto Bene. I've missed you. It's been a while."

"Oh it has, but as long as you're alright. How're the children?"

"They're down in the house. Mum's got them as usual."

"Let's go, let me see them." He began hurrying back towards the house.

"Wait a minute. What were you looking for in this?" She tapped the telescope. "It's the middle of the day."

Wilf looked dismayed. "Meteors. You can see them during the day."

"Are we expecting meteors any time soon, Granddad?"

Wilf continued to look out of place.

Donna ducked her head to look down though the small lens, and Wilf became stricken. "Donna, wait it's not safe!"

She saw a smudge of something rectangular and dark blue fade into the lighter blue of the sky.

"What's not safe?" She righted herself. "I only saw some funny blue smudge."

Wilf, though looking relieved continued to look panicked. "You need to cap the lens with a filter. You could've blinded yourself."

Donna was taking Josh to a sci-fi convention. Ella was over at a friends. Shaun was on another meeting, in Edinburgh this time.

Josh was dressed up as the traditional, short green alien with the big black eyes, only he'd insisted on it having a fat, pouchy belly and long arms which ended in claws.

"Good Heavens boy!" A man with outrageously curly hair, dressed in a long coat, stripy scarf and old hat addressed him. "That's a magnificent costume."

Josh swelled with pride. "I shaw it on TV." He lisped, "On the Extra Terreshtrial channel."

The man Nodded. "Here, would you like a jelly baby?"

Josh nodded, and reached for one but Donna took his hand back. "Who are you and why are you offering my son dodgy sweets?" She demanded, rounding on him.

The man blinked in alarm, "I meant no harm. I just appreciate a good costume, is all. I'm John. John Smith."

Donna rolled her eyes. Like she hadn't heard that one a hundred times before. "Okay then, Mr Smith. Thanks for the offer, but Josh would not like a Jelly baby." She clasped her hand around the claw of Josh's costume and led him away.

She knelt before him once out of sight from John Smith. "Joshua. What did I tell you about strange men?"

Josh frowned, "Don't take anything from them, and never ever go away with them."

"Good. Now, would you like a comic book or a souvenir before we go?"

Bored at her desk one dreary Tuesday afternoon, Donna was mindlessly surfing the internet. She typed "Blue Meteor" into the search engine and hit enter. Something about the smudge in her grandfather's telescope was skewed. She clicked on link after link but all she managed to turn up was old myths and tales of a time-traveller who's time machine could change the way it looks, sometimes it had the shape of a blue box, sometimes a steam-punk style hot air balloon. Apparently it was called a TARDIS, which stood for Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style. Apart from that, Donna unearthed nothing more useful. But that was all legend and if there was any truth in that to begin, there wasn't any left now. That story didn't make any sense at all. And of all thing, a Time-Traveller?

Donna closed the tab and opened up a video streaming website, and wasted the next few hours watching videos about cats.