Donna sighed grumpily.
"Go on! Where's the spaceman?!" She paused to allow the ships internal hum to decrease in a few octaves.
"Now, don't give me that! Where is he? I'll kill him, I'll bloody murder him. Wakes me up after three hours sleep? 'Waterfalls of St. Patoon?" She scoffed and shook her head so that her fiery hair shimmered around her. "I'll show 'im where the waterfall will be, mate!"
The TARDIS groaned a little, trying to persuade a bad-tempered Donna to take another attitude but she was adamant. The TARDIS knew where her thief was hiding, he'd accidently strolled in there and was unable to pull himself out again, he needed a friend.
Her stamping towards different rooms continued to bombarded the halls until finally the TARDIS gave up.
"Thank you!" She yelled sarcastically heading straight to the end of the corridor where the Doctor sat on a bed, frame low, back to her.
Donna stopped stamping and placed her hand on the interior walls pretending to have needed it for balance but really needing guidance.
He had taken his jacket off so that she could see the skinny outlines of his arched spine through the blue cloth. He was leaning forward but barely moved an inch.
"Is he...?"Donna asked the air.
She got no reply and so began taking tentative steps towards the room. A girls room. There was clothes falling out of a large black and red backpack, the bedding was strewn across the mattress and around the entire room, on shelves and cupboards were tiny trinkets from far off adventures with some pictures.
The Doctor wasn't breathing, he had the duvet hanging along his right leg as an excuse for comfort and that familiar scent but it was in a position where it was easy for him to lie and blame his sitting position for the estranged cover. His eyes were lightly closed as he gently ran a thumb over a small picture in his hand.
Donna didn't get to see the face of the girl of a picture. She was wearing a pink flimsy hat from a Christmas cracker on top of her peroxide blonde hair and by her side was a beaming Doctor. She couldn't see much else as he was carefully rubbing his touch over the photograph as if recalling every inch of the memory.
Gasping, she relayed a look of guilt as the Doctor's gaze flashed to hers at first in confusion but then in a hint of anger.
"What you doing?" She muttered carefully taking a few steps inside the room. She could smell perfumes and shampoo's. He watched her unsteadily, not saying anything but forbidding her to step any further.
"Nothing, we were-er-. Going." H couldn't bring himself to smile let alone move as he tried to give a protective stance over a box of photograph's he now stood in front of.
"What are they?" She nodded her head to the box so that his hand flashed out to protect it.
"Nothing. C'mon we're going." He muttered, walking towards the door as if to push her out the room with his authority. She took another step inside.
"What are you doing?!" He complained, trying hard to show a light-hearted nature but he finding he was unable to do so. He'd spent the last half-an-hour remembering the old times and he really didn't feel like opening up.
Donna began to sit on the bed but his outcry and wavering of his limbs stopped her.
"What now?!"
"Don't!" He yelled warningly, moving the cover to how it probably had been before his arrival. "Don't sit down," he said softly, looking to the floor and swallowing his guilt.
She moved so that she was standing next to him, he clung tightly onto the photograph.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm always alright," He lied making out to leave again. Donna grabbed him by the hand and threw him back into the room.
"Is this...?"
"Yeah. This is Rose's room." Donna tried to pat his arm but he shifted out of her touch. "Was," he corrected.
His eyes were red and bloodshot and although it was clear he hadn't been crying she was sure that he'd been on the verge.
"Can you never se-"
"I won't ever see her again." He interrupted. "Never. 'Never ever'" He quoted, frowning at the wall.
"What have you been doing?" She whispered trying to see if her comfort would ease his tension.
"Nothing." He stated bluntly.
"Doctor."
"It doesn't matter,"
"Rose didn't matter?" She played, seeing his jaw clench as he balled his fists; they argued constantly always contradicting each others morals or laws. It was what made them a great team it was what made him open up, prove to him that she needed to trust his emotions as much as she trusted hers.
"Of course she mattered!" He yelled, glaring at her until he'd taken another breath and looked towards the door. "I'm sorry, Donna. Really I am but-"
"What were you doing?" She asked for the final time.
He sighed, exasperated.
"I was recreating a memory from every molecule of every fibre of a second right down to our very last moment together to see if she...to see if she knew I..." He lost the words, they were hidden in the depths of his soul begging him not to utter the words; 'loved her'. 'Loved' had nothing to do with it, it was past tense, it was a lie because he had never 'loved' her, he would always be in love her.
Suddenly, a bundled of bright ginger hair was tickling his chin as Donna wrapped her soft arms around his sharp structure and held him. It was a hug he'd never had before, it wasn't the Rose type hug he craved but from only Rose, it was the reassurance hug, the comforting and supporting hug as she wrapped her warm arms around him.
He was sure he could let every emotion rip, he was sure he could just scream out in agony or cry foul mouthed retorts to the TARDIS walls, Donna wouldn't mind or freak out, she might even empathise but of course he wouldn't, instead he'd let Donna Noble work her magic by being the friend that he needed.
With that he hugged her back and let her lead him out of the room and shut the door. She was sure he wouldn't enter that room again until Donna was in the depths of unconsciousness but that was okay. She wanted she give him Rose but she couldn't and she wouldn't. She was his equal, his best friend and in no way, in the same mindset of his relationship with Rose. Because it wasn't just about being a Rose, a special person, a great companion. He'd fallen in love with the girl who couldn't be recreated. He'd fallen in love with the only Rose Tyler and would continue to hold this until his death bed.
There would never be another like Rose Tyler. But then again, as she teased him about his weight so that he laughed and eased up, she realised. They were never be another Donna Noble either.