Author's Note: May contain spoilers for Journey's End, End of Time and Series 6, but I did my best to keep spoilers minimal. Still, it reads best if you've seen the aforementioned episodes/series. This was originally meant as a oneshot, but it escalated a bit and I decided it worked better split up, so now it has become a simple little story in three parts. In terms of timelines, for the Doctor this takes place between the God Complex and Closing Time and for Donna this takes place post End of Time, but it jumps around a bit. I did my best to keep it clear in the story whereabouts things are, but I'm letting you know now just in case. Reviews are cherished! I take into account any and all feedback.

Obligatory Disclaimer: I own very little. Anything in this story that you recognize is not mine.

Earthbound
Part 1- Grounded

Donna Noble was making do. She supposed, in this economy, that was all anyone could do. She had found herself a decent bloke, at last, and she had moved out of her mother's place. The flat was small, perhaps, but she was sharing it with the man she loved and there was finally talk of a wedding, albeit a small one considering their tight budget. Shaun wasn't earning much, but she really did love him to bits. It wasn't going to be the fairy tale wedding every little girl dreamed of, and she was a touch disappointed about that, but she supposed as long as she was happy it didn't matter much anyway.

She was still working as a temp herself, and a damn fine one at that. Donna was good at what she did and it put food on the table, but she couldn't help but wonder if perhaps she was destined for something more. They were doing the best they could to get by, which was all she could hope for, really, but none of it felt particularly fulfilling.

If she was pressed, Donna would say that she was happy. She had a home, a job, a fiance, and a loving family. What more could anyone ask for? But there were times when she felt an incredible sadness that she had never thought herself capable of.

Often the sadness was triggered by the strangest of things. While most people feared spiders and bees and wasps, they made Donna sad. There was something about squids that filled her with the same sort of sympathy she felt for bald people, though she had never before considered the two things related. She couldn't even look at a pepperpot anymore without feeling some sort of strange amalgamation of gloom and fear and triumph. All these funny and unrelated things sparked these emotions in Donna that she couldn't explain.

She thought it best not to discuss these feelings with anyone because most people would think her mad. Shaun would probably be supportive, but he would suggest professional help and that was really the last thing she wanted to seek. She didn't discuss it with Sylvia, either. Though her mother had become softer towards her (which was actually a bit disconcerting), Donna didn't think her mother would really understand. Nerys would just laugh at her, and any of her other friends wouldn't take it much more seriously. As for her grandfather...

Gramps was someone she trusted more than anyone in the world. Since her father had died, Wilfred Mott had taken over that role. She had found a confidant and a trusted ally in her silly, stargazing grandfather. Donna wanted to talk to him about it, and she had tried to do so on many occasions, but she always found herself unable to find the words. She knew he would never laugh at her, but it was one thing to feel these emotions and quite another to admit them to a living soul, even one as beloved as Gramps. Still, there was comfort to be found in the embraces they shared after spending a long night up the hill, dreaming of something more.

The world knew Donna Noble as brash and biting. She had always been a stubborn little thing, and she always had something to say about anything she didn't like. She was loud and obnoxious and perhaps a little bit shallow. That was the mask she put on for the rest of the world.

In reality, she was tearing apart on the inside. There was nothing remotely special about her, and just like the rest of the world Donna made do. There was nothing about her that said she deserved it, but she wanted something more out of the world. So instead she shouted at it, asserting her presence. If nothing else, she would at least make it known to the rest of the planet that yes, Donna Noble was here and yes, she had opinions. Very loud opinions.

Sometimes she feared for her sanity. Sometimes she had the strangest of dreams, fantastic tales that would seem to explain some of her sadness. They were full of impossible things like giant wasps, bald squid people and pepperpots with lasers. And there was always this man... Always the same man. She had met him once before; she recognized him. John Smith, he said his name was. He had been in their house just once, and she had only caught him as he was leaving, so why did she dream about him?

He was the most normal of men when they'd met, but in her dreams he was anything but. This man with the generic name stared down monsters and offered them compassion. He spouted off things she didn't understand. He was dark and manic and goofy, and strangest of all, he thought she was brilliant. In every dream he would look her in the eye and tell her just how brilliant he thought she was.

Donna wondered if it was all just her vanity. She had met the man but once before and thought nothing of him, but he thought the world of her. Certainly this meant she was incredibly vain. Why him, though? If she really was vain, the man in her dreams could have been anyone, so why him?

The dreams always gave her the biggest headaches. She would wake up in the morning with a splitting pain just behind her eyes. Most people would see a doctor after such persistent headaches, but Donna just popped a couple of aspirin and went on her way. She didn't want to talk to anyone about these things because she was afraid of the answer.

Most of the time she was as sane as anyone, and she couldn't even remember why she had doubted her sanity in the first place. Most of the time she was just brazen, snippy Donna Noble. She was normal and insignificant. She was painfully average. But when those mad moments struck, she felt as though she was the most important woman in the universe.

And that scared her most of all.


Tick-tock, goes the clock...

Indeed his time was running out. The Doctor paced about the TARDIS console room. He had lapped around the console about twelve times now, gone up and down the stairs eight times, and sat down for about six seconds before standing up to pace again three times. In all honesty, he was getting a little bit frantic. It had been nearly two centuries of putting it off, and certainly he had gone on some brilliant adventures. Vaguely, he wondered if he had gone mad yet. It had been proven in the past that he lost it a little bit when he travelled alone. Surely if he had gone mad, he would have noticed. Though maybe all mad people thought they were perfectly normal. Maybe all perfectly normal people were mad...

He shook his head in an effort to clear it. What did it matter if he was mad? He was going to be dead very soon anyway.

The madness and the lack of a companion wasn't what bothered him the most, though. There was so much unfinished business. The universe was a big place and even after centuries of travel he had barely made a dent. It wasn't so much a fear of death that gripped him, but rather a disappointment that he hadn't done all that he could possibly do. The Doctor had made a promise to himself that he would do it all. Before regeneration he would often lament about the multitude of things he had yet to accomplish, but there was always some form of comfort in the fact that there would be someone new on their way to do it instead. This was different. He was the last person in the universe capable of doing these things that he wished to do, and soon he wouldn't be able to do them.

He paced because of the possibilities. What did he do next? Which adventure did he embark on now? He was running out of time to decide.

Goodbyes.

That final adventure, saying goodbye, had nagged at the back of his head for a long time now. So many people who would never see him again... He might as well give them fair warning and see them off. It hurt though. Saying goodbye was never easy. He had done it already with the people who mattered, why bother doing it again?

You owe it to them. They deserve to know. They deserve the chance to say goodbye to you.

He recognized that tiny little voice in the back of his head. How familiar that voice was... And how much trouble it had gotten him into. It was the voice that had convinced him stealing a TARDIS and running away was a good idea. It was the voice that told him to save everyone, even if it meant breaking a few rules. It was the voice of a Renegade.

'Not all of them. You do not need the pain of visiting them all again. Just the ones you have not said your farewells to. Just the ones you met in this regeneration. Leave the past where it belongs. You have already said your goodbyes to them. Tie up your loose ends from this body and do not put yourself through anymore pain than you must.'

There it was. That was the sensibility that was encoded in his Time Lord DNA. And it raised a decent point. At the end of his last life, he had said goodbye to them all. He didn't need to do it again. He only needed to visit the ones he hadn't yet.

Donna.

Oh Donna...

He missed her with all his hearts. Sweet, caring Donna. Brash, brave Donna. Snappy, sarcastic Donna. His best mate. He never did get a proper goodbye. He had seen off her family and bought that lottery ticket for her, but he had never been able to see her off personally. But maybe now...

'You cannot,' insisted Sensible Voice. 'The risk is too great. If she remembers, you know what happens. Leave her be. You have done all you can for her.'

Thinking about Donna hurt. Seeing her again would tear him apart.

You don't have to see them all again. Just her. Just for a little. Give her the goodbye you know she deserves. She won't remember, she hasn't seen this face yet. That was why you didn't say goodbye last time, because she would remember. Say it to her face this time.

Oh, but he really did want to see her. Before he regenerated he'd had to be so careful. Now he was wearing a new face, his last face, and he could actually see her, actually talk to her. He missed hearing her voice, he missed having her yell at him and tell him that no matter how brilliant he was, he was still capable of making mistakes. Donna reminded him that he could mess up.

'You messed her up pretty badly. You do not want to face that. You do not want to see her again, the woman who became a better person only to be destroyed at your hand. She is getting on with her life now. Let her be.'

Oh yes, Donna reminded him exactly how badly he could mess up.

Sensible Voice continued. 'Besides, the metacrisis still lives inside her. There is always the chance that upon seeing you, even if she does not recognize you consciously, there is always the chance that something inside her might spark and she may die after all. It is not worth the risk.'

It just wasn't fair. He hadn't had his chance to say goodbye and now he probably never would. On top of all that, it was seeming increasingly likely that he had indeed gone mad, carrying out an argument inside his own head. Seeing Donna on top of everything he had already gone through and everything he had yet to go through would just make things more difficult than they needed to be. If he was going to die, it should be peaceful with as little worry on his part as possible. For once in his life, he would listen to reason and skip over Donna's goodbye.

Since when have you ever listened to reason? You've lived your life by your own rules and now, as your death approaches, you're choosing to listen to reason? Some things are more important. Donna is worth any of the pain you face, and you know that she won't die. There is still one thing you can do for her. You can still help Donna Noble. Go say goodbye. Don't die with one more regret than necessary.

Renegade Voice was right. He had never followed the rules, and soon he would be too dead to deal with the consequences. The Doctor took a deep breath to steady himself. This was not going to be easy for him, but he had to. It wasn't fair that he didn't get to say goodbye to her himself. She wouldn't recognize him in this body. He had to do it. The Doctor yanked on the levers of the TARDIS and set his course before he changed his mind.

Attaboy.