"Come on in, the water's lovely!"
Big round brown eyes gazed at her doubtfully and he shook his head with aplomb.
"Scared."
Donna smiled encouragingly. He looked so adorable standing there, his pale freckly skin slick with too much sunscreen and his knobbly knees sticking out from too big shorts, decorated with violently grinning glow-in-the-dark lobsters.
"Oh sweetheart, c'mere! Just for a paddle!" Donna splashed back to the water's edge and reached out her hands.
His eyes widened further in response and the target of her embrace stumbled backward before she could grab him. He tripped over his own feet and landed in the sand.
"Aww, honey!"
His bottom lip trembled and his eyes welled up with tears. Donna left the gentle waves to sit beside her son in the sand. He crawled clumsily into her lap and sniffled. She could tell he was determined not to cry.
"How about we just watch the seagulls, just for a little bit, okay baby?"
He nodded against her chest and she wrapped her arms around his little body. Moments later Doctor was at their side and she smiled up at him to let him know everything was okay.
Seeing him, the young boy perked right up. "Papa find mobsters?" he asked, expectantly, scrambling out of his mother's arms to jump into those of his father.
"Mobsters?" asked Donna, questioningly.
Her husband grinned. "When we read about sea-life last night for his bedtime story I think he heard 'lobsters' as 'monsters'."
Their son sighed at them and pointed to his shorts emphatically. "MOB-STERS" he elucidated slowly, with exaggerated impatience.
"Ah," said Donna, and nodded sagely, trying not to laugh.
"I did find rock pools, shall I take him?"
Donna nodded. "You boys have fun, be careful with those mobsters now." She smiled up at them then lay back on the silver sand and closed her eyes.
When the Doctor didn't move she opened them again, he was still holding their son, and looking at her, his eyes traveling over her skimpy bikini. She blushed a little and sat up, calling up the beach a little ways to the man pitching a sun umbrella and laying out a picnic.
"Gramps? Feel like taking your great-grandson to the rock pools to catch mobsters?"
Her grandfather's smile was wide as he came over to them, nodding enthusiastically. "What's up, Donna love?"
"Nothing, I just need someone to put sunscreen on my back is all." She caught her husband's eye.
Wilf chuckled. "Ah. Right you are then, wouldn't want you to get sunburned now, would we?" He winked at her and reached for the excited little boy. The two of them chattered up a storm as they walked hand in hand along the beach, disappearing around a rocky outcropping.
Minutes later Donna was stretched out on a huge beach towel, having donned a glamorous oversized sunhat, and all but purring in pleasure as her husband took his time thoroughly applying sunscreen to every inch of her body.
"Good idea finding a private beach," she murmured, closing her eyes and sliding her hands lazily up his chest, enjoying the feel of his skin under her fingertips.
"It won't be so private a few hundred years from now, but for today, it's all ours." His hands moved higher on her legs and she sighed in appreciation.
"The best idea though," he continued, and Donna could hear the smile in his voice even though her eyes were closed, "was inviting your granddad. Think they'll be gone a while?"
"Mnnn hmmmm," was about all she could manage as he kissed her gently and his body moved over hers.