A/N: a special call out to thank sweetpeablue, and "thank you" to TheMysteriousComicGeek for your encouragement.

Part 2

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Donna watched the Doctor nervously fidget whilst her microphone was put in place close to her cleavage. His eyes bore into the soundman. Anybody would think he was being possessive by the way he was behaving. It was sweet though, she decided, even if he was being paid to look after her. Not that she remembered negotiated that part of the deal now that she came to think about it.

Her memory had become more than a bit hazy in the last few months, since those strange lights had appeared; closely followed by Sarah Jane Smith bursting into her life.

When exactly had it begun? Donna strove to work it out.

It had all started with the weirdo kite that had flown right by her head one night as she put the rubbish out in the dustbin. There hadn't been any sound to accompany it; just these two bright lights that swept passed her like an annoying blue bottle. She hated flies at the best of times, so she had swatted at it, hoping to kill the bloody thing, only to see it fly rapidly in the direction of next door. She'd get the blighter later, when it made another attack. Except it didn't. Instead it zoomed off into the sky like a reversed homing pigeon.

The following day Sarah Jane Smith had arrived in Donna's office full of questions about the phenomenon. How fast was it? How big? Did it have eyes? Did it try to speak? Did it pick up Sky or BBC1? Okay, Donna had made that last question up, but Sarah Jane might as well have asked it for all the sense it made.

But Donna liked Sarah Jane; she liked her very much, and had formed a tentative friendship with her on that first day. In many ways Sarah Jane was extremely secretive. For instance, it was only yesterday that she found out where she lived. There had been several mentions of her son, and how clever he was; but beyond that, Donna didn't know his name, what he did for a living or what he looked like. It had been a relief and a wonder to finally find out. Donna had started to think that Sarah Jane might have made him up in order to fill some sort of gap in her life. Well, women were known to have phantom pregnancies, so why not follow that through with a phantom child? Stranger things had cropped up on her daytime show.

Something amusing caught her eye, and Donna found herself regarding the Doctor again.

He was trying desperately to stand still next to the floor manager, Donna noted. Any moment now Dave, the floor manager, was going to tell John to bugger off! She was sure of that. There was such a lot of energy around the man as though his feet wanted to run alongside his rampant thoughts. You could almost see them whirling around in his head. He was the sort of bloke you could record using SP on an old VHS machine, play back at LP and still be able to understand him perfectly if not better than normal. Either that or she was being exceptionally thick again. She knew she tended to be more than a bit thick around blokes that she fancied. Not that she fancied Dr John Smith. Oh no. How could she go after a long streak of nothing like him? Nope, it wasn't going to happen. Plus Sarah Jane had told her that he had a thing for some blonde she'd seen him with a while back. Donna Noble did not step on anyone's toes. Never ever.

Still… he had nice eyes, she conceded. Deep brown eyes that held the world in their depths; not that she had looked that closely, mind you. And a smile that lit up the room when he was amused.

Oh bugger! She was in danger of making a complete fool of herself if she wasn't careful. In the moments that he did his wounded duck act she wanted to hug him to within an inch of his life. That was a very bad reaction. Men absolutely hated that sort of thing. No, it was better that she carried on as she was, reminding herself that he was off limits.

With a defiant shrug, Donna squared her shoulders and picked up her script to memorise.

The Doctor instantly noticed the action, and worried what had caused it. Had something or someone affected her? Was it the start of a personal attack? All his senses went on standby.

Now that she was quiet and reading, he could examine her without interruption. Boy had she came as a shock into his life! He wasn't sure if he should thank or blame Sarah Jane for bringing them together. Donna hadn't come across as pleased to see him when he had met her yesterday.

"You want me to what?" she had cried out when Sarah Jane had suggested that someone stay with her in order to make sure she stayed safe. "Look, I know you mean well, and those bloody little things that come without batteries included keep buzzing me like demented Harrier Jump Jets, but I am capable of looking after myself!"

Sarah Jane sighed in exasperation. "Donna, you are in danger. I don't know what sort of danger yet, but you have been targeted for some reason and need constant monitoring."

Donna had carefully put her tea cup down on the kitchen table in Sarah Jane's house before going into a full rant. "Monitoring?! What am I now, some sort of silly girl who falls over and twists her ankle while she's waiting for Prince Charming to appear on the scene?"

"No, Donna. I never said you were as feeble as that," Sarah Jane tried to counter. "But I'm worried about you. That's why I brought you home to meet my son and Mr Smith; so that I can work this all out."

Mr Smith, Donna wondered. Was her husband still alive somewhere in the house?

It was at this point that the Doctor appeared in the doorway, watching them with great interest. "Hello! You wanted to see me about something?" he asked, pointing his question towards Sarah Jane.

"You made it!" she exclaimed, greeting him with obvious delight and relief. "This is Donna, the one I told you about. She keeps being pestered by creatures that are obviously alien, and we have no idea why they are so interested in her." Sarah Jane then thought to turn to Donna to introduce them properly. "Donna, this is... erm…"

"John Smith," he said, stepping forward in order to take her hand. "But you can call me the Doctor."

Donna automatically returned his handshake. "The Doctor? That's a bit formal, isn't it? Or is it a nickname?"

"A bit of both, but I am a doctor," he admitted.

"The sort that deals with bunions and hip joints, or the sort that deals with science stuff like rockets?" she wondered.

He chuckled. "The latter. Well, sort of the latter. There's a lot of science involved with what I do but I rarely get to play with rockets."

"And does that involve taking DNA samples and fingerprints?" she then asked.

"Not on a regular basis. Why?" He frowned in confusion.

"In that case, can I have my hand back, please?" she answered, tilting her head to indicate the fact that he still had a tight hold of her hand.

"Oh! Sorry!" he blurted out and instantly dropped her hand from his grasp.

"Ta very much," she replied, and turned to dismiss him from her embarrassed mind.

"I'm making tea," Sarah Jane deliberately interrupted the awkward moment between them. "Perhaps you'd like a cup while you explain things to Donna."

"Explain? What sort of things?" Donna demanded as she fixed her beady eye on the pair of them.

"We may have to spend the night together." The Doctor knew those were the wrong words as soon as he had uttered them, but the expression on Donna's face clarified that for him.

"What?!" she shrieked. "I don't know what you were expecting, Bunsen boy, but there is no way on God's earth that I will spend the night with you!"

"Earth is only one option," he muttered to himself. He stepped forward and Donna immediately stepped back in self-defence. "No no no no! I didn't mean like…" His sincerity was underlined by the blush that suddenly appeared on his pale cheeks, and he took a steadying deep breath before continuing, "I propose that we stay within the same house or space whilst I work out what these things are and what exactly they want with you."

"He really is good at this sort of thing," added Sarah Jane. "In fact he's been investigating alien activity for years."

"He has?" Donna regarded her uncertainly. She then found her hands being intensely grabbed.

"Please, Donna; for me," Sarah Jane begged. She really didn't want her newly formed friend to suffer any unnecessary harm, and she knew the Doctor would soon have it all figured out once he had time to think things through.

There was a sigh in answer. "Oh, alright!" Donna reluctantly agreed. "You're hired," she told the Doctor, "but don't expect any special treatment from me."

"As if I would," he retorted.

"In that case, I'd better show you where you will be sleeping," Sarah Jane interrupted another possible misunderstanding. "Follow me, Donna."

Dutifully following Sarah Jane, Donna found herself going up two flights of stairs and into a small bedroom. As they entered the room, Donna noticed a framed photograph on the side. She peered closely at the badly lit picture. "Is that you, Sarah Jane?" she asked, since the young woman resembled her.

Sarah Jane peered too. "Oh yes! That's when I used to travel quite a lot. If you really look closely you can just about see the Doctor."

Donna resumed looking, and could make out an old man looking over Sarah Jane's shoulder in the background, but where was the Doctor? Then she thought to look at Sarah Jane's stomach. Ah! That's what she must have meant! The Doctor was the wee bump. "Oh yes," she replied. "Is that Mr Smith?" she asked, pointing to the man.

"That's him," Sarah Jane confirmed with a chuckle. "You don't have to be so formal."

You what? When had she been formal? Donna just put it down to the odd things people say at times. She decided to go for a compliment instead. "You look very happy together. And I'm amazed that you haven't changed much since the early 70s."

"How did you guess that?" Sarah Jane queried before she caught the compliment and smiled. "Yes, we had good times together." She then reached round to pluck up another photo that displayed them much more clearly, showing them standing with a uniformed man. "Here we are with our old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart."

Aw, ain't that sweet, Donna thought. It was nice to know that her friend had some really good memories of her husband. Not everybody fared so well. "You must miss him," she sympathised.

Sarah Jane nodded her agreement. "Yes, but at least I have my son now for company."

Donna found herself wondering for how long.