Written and posted to dA two years ago.
Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.
Donna Temple-Noble watched her daughter swing from the monkey bars. It really was a beautiful day, she decided, to enjoy the park. The orange and red painted the trees and littered the ground, the sky was completely clear, and it was Saturday, the weekend. The time to spend with Victoria and Shaun, once he arrived. There was a bit of a nip in the air, Donna conceded, enough of which required that they bundle up, but children work up body heat on the playground, and Donna could ignore it. It really was a good day.
A good day made even better by the man who sat down next to her on the park bench. "Sorry I'm late," Shaun said, draping an arm around her "but I couldn't find the USB lead I need for the presentation next week. One of the temps working in my office misplaced it. I swear, temps never seem to get anything right!" He said this with a wink, which earned him a playful "Oi!" and a light punch to his arm. He grinned, and looked out to the playground. Tori was now chasing after another child, for some reason or another. Shaun frowned. "She's too young to be chasing after boys."
Donna chuckled, and snuggled against him. "Like mother, like daughter, I suppose."
Shaun grinned, and held her. They looked over the playground at the children—it was now clear they were all in a game of tag. Tori had just tagged the boy and was now running for her life over the wood mulch. A flock of birds suddenly flew up from the trees, drowning the playground in the sound of fluttering wings. Shaun spoke after the noise had ceased. "You know, sometimes I can hardly believe she's only seven. It seems like such a long time ago that we didn't have her.
Donna murmured in agreement. "Sometimes it feels like no time at all." This statement made her feel uneasy all of a sudden, though she had no idea why.
Shaun nodded and opened his mouth to speak before grabbing at his stomach and looking sheepish.
"Hungry?" Donna asked, amused.
"Always." Which was true. Shaun Temple was known for his appetite. It was just as well as he could cook, because if the cooking was left up to Donna, he would probably starve. "All I've had today was a Danish." He looked around the park before spotting a vendor down the park path. "Ice cream?"
"In this weather?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Are you mental?"
Shaun shrugged and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Tori!"
Tori stopped her game and turned to look at them. Shaun pointed to the vendor with a questioning look on his face. Tori nodded and grinned enthusiastically, before running back to the monkey bars. The game, it seemed, had ended.
Shaun winked at Donna and got up, pulling his wallet out as he did so. Donna, still feeling unsure, resettled herself and muttered "Bonkers, the lot of you." She turned her attention back to her daughter, now swinging from the bars by her knees. Donna wished she wouldn't do that, it made her nervous. She watched as Tori's wool cap fell off her head and onto the mulch below. Something was wrong. The scene made her agitated. Her breathing quickened, and the right side of her head started to pound. Her eyes darted from her daughter's face to the faces of all of the children on the playground, trying to determine just what was wrong.
"Donna?" Shaun's voice said, just as Tori fell from the monkey bars and onto the mulch, crying out.
"The children are all the same!" Donna blurted out, leaping to her feet.
"Donna, what's wrong?" he asked again, concerned. He glanced at Tori, who was picking her herself and her cap off the ground and trying again. The little fighter would never give in to the laws of gravity. Her name, Wilfred's suggestion, suited her.
"The…the children," she repeated, searching the playground again in confusion. "They look the same."
Shaun transferred the fudge bar to the same hand with the cone, then put his free hand on her back. "Donna, are you alright?" She looked dazed.
"I'm…" she was going to say "I'm fine", but she suddenly hissed and her hand flew to her temple. "My head…"
"Maybe we should go home," Shaun suggested, and Donna numbly nodded. He called for Tori, who promptly ran over. "What's up?" she asked.
"Mummy's not feeling well," he explained, handing her the cone. "She needs to get home and rest."
Tori sighed, took a lick of ice cream, and ran back to tell her playmates goodbye. She then ran back where Donna was now half-leaning against Shaun, and took her mother's hand. Donna looked down at her and smiled weakly. "Mummy's sorry she has to cut down park time, sweetie" she apologized.
Tori shrugged. "It's alright, Mummy. That one boy whined too much anyway."
Donna awoke to smell of chicken coming in from downstairs. She sat up, stretched, and for a moment was very confused to why she was in bed at this hour, before remembering. Her headache was gone now. She swung her legs off the bed, found her shoes and put them on, and made her way down the stairs.
Victoria was in front of the TV, coloring with markers. She looked up as Donna walked in. "Hello Mummy!" she said, grinning. "Feeling better?"
Donna grinned back. "Yeah, I am. Is daddy in the kitchen?" Tori nodded. Donna made her way through the room. "Don't sit so close to the telly!" she called back. Tori rolled her eyes and resumed coloring.
"Mmm, that smells heavenly!" Donna gushed, leaning against the doorway to the kitchen. Not for the first time in her life, she wondered how she had gotten to this point. From a struggling temp in a rundown flat to a well-off mother in a well-sized house. All thanks to a lottery ticket that she had thought a cheap wedding gift at first. Turned out to be the most valuable gift she received then.
Shaun looked up from chopping vegetables and smiled. "Thanks. How's your headache?"
"Gone, thankfully. I don't know what brought it on. Need any help?"
Shaun tipped the vegetables into a large bowl of leafy greens and pointed at it. "If you could mix this, that'd be great." He made his way to the oven as she began tossing the salad. As he checked a pot on the stove, he called back "So who's Lee?"
Donna looked up, confused. "Lee? Who's Lee?"
Shaun looked over his shoulder, eyebrow raised. "You tell me."
"I don't know any Lees," Donna replied, wondering what he was going on about.
"As I helped you into bed you muttered 'Lee'," Shaun explained, stirring the pot. "I'm not angry or suspicious, mind. Just curious.
Donna looked thoughtful as she continued mixing the salad. "I knew a Lee back in primary school," she thought aloud. "Dunno why I'd be thinking about him now."
"Don't know either," Shaun replied, turning the stove off. A timer on the oven dinged, and Shaun turned that off too. "Dinner's ready."
Donna set down the mixing utensils and sighed. "Having a husband who can cook like you does nothing for my figure," she mused. Shaun was about to tell her she wasn't the least bit fat, but she went on. "But I love you anyway. The perfect man. Gorgeous, adores me, and hardly ever speaks a word." She wasn't sure why she said that last part. Shaun was actually quite talkative.
He thought she was teasing him. "And I love you. The perfect woman. Beautiful, independent, and demure."
Donna made a face at him, laughed, and went to go set the table. The evening, at least, would be perfect.