Here, have a new chapter. Sorry it's a bit introductory, again. This story is coming out a bit slow.
There was a soft, but efficient knock on the door, and Millie looked up to see a rather professional-looking ginger with a nervous smile. "Oh, hello," Millie said, putting on a smile. "You must be Ms. Noble. I'm Mildred Moore, but you may as well start calling me Millie, as everyone else does."
Donna suddenly felt much better about this meeting. She didn't normally go in to a job the week before unless it was a difficult situation, so she had been afraid this professor was one of those pompous terrors she had heard of. She couldn't imagine that the over-important man she was imagining would have a secretary that went by her first name, however. Generally the stuck-up ones observed professional practices as if they were law.
Just to be sure, though—"So, how's your boss to work with? Alright?" She just hoped she came off as a bit gossipy instead of nervous. The temp agency had a reputation for gossip anyhow.
Millie hesitated. This woman seemed nice enough, but John was a bit of a challenge for most people who spent their lives organizing. She hoped she wouldn't turn tail and run. "He's nice, certainly, but…" she looked around the room, searching for the words to describe her boss. Donna tried to keep her face neutral while this went on. "He's…well, he's a bit absent-minded professor, to be honest. Good, and sweet, but can't keep track of his own shoes. Organizes in piles, and if you try to move them or change them he starts to shout and ends up pacing the hallway muttering about important papers and being behind for years on paperwork. I'll admit it's frusterating." Then, almost as an afterthought, "He really is sweet, though. And very appreciative. I do like this job."
Donna nodded. "Sounds like a challenge, and I do love a good challenge."
Millie could already tell that her replacement would be more than a match for her stubborn boss. "Alright then, let me get him and we'll walk down to the cafeteria. I'll give you the short version of the tour."
As Millie hobbled back to the door to John's office, she crossed her fingers, hoping that he hadn't completely forgotten and gotten himself caught up in something. "John," she called through the doorway. "Come on, then. Let's go." She poked her head around the door. John was, of course, completely in his own world, reading what was probably some poor freshman's lab report and pulling his hair absently. "What is he thinking? That's completely wrong, what is it with this class?" and such things were quietly falling out of his mouth in a surprisingly exclamatory pattern. She sighed.
"John!"
He didn't even look up. "Not now Millie, I'm grading this idiot's paper. Honestly, how did he even get into university? I know this is an entry level class, but it's to be expected that the students be able to add and subtract, right? For god's sake!"
"John, it's lunch time. You need to come eat."
He looked up then. "I can't eat now, I've got things to do. I'll eat later."
But a look crossed her face, a hardened look that comes only from being a mother or being a teacher, and he knew he was going to have to do whatever she ordered next. "John Smith, you promised to come eat lunch with me and Ms. Noble today so you could meet her. Just because you don't want me to go on my leave doesn't mean you can be rude to her and break your promises. If you don't get up right this moment and take a lunch break I will personally order the cafeteria not to sell you anything with sugar in it for the entirety of my leave, do you understand what I'm telling you?"
Her speak was delivered with a surprising calm, somewhere between accepted authority and resigned panic. She was completely prepared to dole out the punishment she'd stated. This was not a bluff.
He stood up. "Let me put this in the drawer, is that ok? Will you let me put my work away?"
She nodded and crossed her arms. "Hurry up. Ms. Noble is waiting and no doubt is very hungry. And you'd better by nice to her when I'm gone!"
He nodded while he opened drawers looking for an empty space to hide the lab report. At this point he remembered that he was going to have to talk to Donna, and interact with her, not just speculate about it, and he swallowed hard. Well, time to go then. You can do it, John, he thought to himself. You've faced weirder situations. Just remember that you are only just meeting her now.
He straightened his hair with the air of a 5 year old boy going into church and took the few steps around the doorway into the reception room. And there, standing in the far side of Millie's immaculate desk, stood Donna Noble. And oh, it was definitely Donna. Oi! Knock that stupid grin off your face, idiot! Let her introduce herself!
"Hi, I'm Donna Noble, nice to meet you. I'll be your temp for the next few weeks."
She had a right brilliant smile. He smiled back, "Oh, I'm John, John Smith. Doctor John Smith. I teach Physics. Good to meet you, too!"
And he took her hand to shake it, as was expected, but it seemed such a familiar, comforting action. The urge to pull her along on adventures, or at least to the cafeteria, was overwhelming, and the knowledge that she didn't know him at all cut in painfully.
Well, this was certainly going to be a challenge, both of them thought, simultaneously, and for completely different reasons.
