Hear you go. Not very impressed with this chapter. I like the Donna part, Martha...well, I'm not a Martha fan anyway. Donna's the Doctor's best friend and Rose is his Rose. Martha, well, Martha was treated horribly by the writers both in S3, S4 and Torchwood and I sadly never warmed to her because of it.

Martha Jones threw a wad of cash at the cab driver and hopped out of the Taxi, pulling her black coat closer as she stepped onto the footpath and entered the council grounds of the Powell Estate. As she picked up her pace the wind continued to howl, the sky dangerously dark and threatening rain as a group of teenagers sauntered past, hoods up against the bitter weather.

With her ears open wide to any familiar sound, she made her way through the Estate, head a brim with questions. The Doctor had sent the TARDIS to Jack; which meant that the Doctor was in trouble, out there anywhere or in anywhen and he needed to be rescued. Martha wondered that if maybe she had been with him, whatever had happened could have been avoided, maybe if she'd stayed, she could have….no. The Doctor and Donna were fine together, Martha had a life here now, there was no point longing for that adrenaline rush.

She wanted to keep her feet firmly grounded on the earth, she had Tom, she had her work at UNIT, life carried on. The Doctor flitted through on occasion and that was just enough. But now, when the Doctor didn't flit through, when he was nowhere to be found; well, that was a problem Martha couldn't ignore.

She found herself in the middle of a basketball court, the court lines very nearly vanished, the baskets themselves rusting and leaning crooked, large sprawling words of graffiti spelt out across the length of the concrete ground. She gazed around for a moment wondering her next move before setting out towards the council buildings themselves, coming to an immediate sudden stop when she caught ear of that oh so familiar sound howling with the wind. The sound of the universe; music to her ears.

Furiously searching for the source of this ranging noise, she finally managed to see the blinking light of the TARDIS appear nearly camouflaged behind the children's playground.

Her first thought puzzled her because, strangely enough, the 1950's police box actually fitted here. It almost belonged in this aging, simple environment, it's vibrant colour looking casually part of the playground, with it's wailing sound very nearly unnoticed behind the noise of the televisions blaring up in the flats, the people yelling at each other about the various woes of day to day life and then that deathly cold wind, so late in the year, which all together, hugged the magnificent time machine snugly.

No sooner had the TARDIS fully materialised, Martha having taken no more than a step in its direction when the door banged open and a rather recognisable figure spilled out, his large navy coat sticking to his body against the wind.

Jack Harkness spotting her immediately and she gave him a heartfelt smile as he ducked under the red and blue monkey bars, and met her at the edge of the bark boundary, enveloping her in a hug, announcing with joyous feeling, "Oh, I've missed you around Doc Jones!"

Martha gave him a gentle smile but pulled herself away from him, surveying him now with a sad frown on her face. She opened her mouth to speak but Jack cut in, the sudden closed mask of his face signalling that he already knew what she was going say and didn't want to hear a word of it, instead trying to avoid the subject; his eyes searching behind her and a slight edge to his voice, "Have you found Donna yet?"

Martha shook her head absently, trying to meet Jack's eyes, "No, Jack...I," she bit her lip and placed a hand on his arm, her heart throbbing painfully in her chest, "Jack, listen, I...I heard what happened...Owen and Toshiko..." she trailed off, helpless, her voice becoming a pathetic whisper as Jack's eyes flashed and his expression hardened, "I'm sorry," she said simply, "I'm so sorry."

Jack shook his head defiantly, glancing straight over top her head, searching for Donna, "Let's just focus on finding Donna."

It was now Martha's turn to shake her head, "No, Jack, I..."

"The Doctor, Martha. Donna and the Doctor. That's all that matters for the moment."

Martha sighed, but realised it was not the time and place to push the subject, instead, "I organised a UNIT team to go down to Cardiff for you. When I realised you'd brought Gwen, I logically assumed you'd brought Ianto too. Somebody has to clean up down there...I sent the lackey's...hope you don't mind."

Jack gave her a thankful smile, both for her quick thinking and the change of subject. Martha gave him a grim nod of acceptance, then frowned, glancing back at the TARDIS, "So where are Gwen and Ianto then?"

Jack snorted, a small smile returning to his face, "They're in there trying to sort the ceiling from the floor." He said, throwing his head in the direction of the TARDIS. "They've never traveled by police box before, let alone with my dismal driving skills."

Martha smirked, remembering her many rough journeys in the blue box, "Bit of a bumpy flight was it?"

Jack shrugged, hands in his pockets, "More so than usual. I've never actually used the TARDIS without the Doctor before. Toshiko would have been a help; she would have been able to figure..." he realised what he was saying and the remainder of the sentence died in his throat. He sighed and shook his head, eyes darting around the estate again, quickly changing the subject, "So what does this Donna look like?"
Martha gave him a sympathetic look but didn't press the point, instead pulling her mobile phone from her pocket, "Flaming red hair, hard to miss." She looked up at Jack with a grin, "Although, you'll hear her before you see her."

Jack snorted, remembering the woman on the phone previously, "Yeah, I could believe that."

Martha put the phone to her ear and waited as the dial tone rang. A moment later Donna picked up, breathing down the phone in what was close to barely disgusted hysterics, "Martha, perfect timing. See, I'm starting to panic slightly here, the Doctor's gone...this man called, oh, I don't know, god knows who he is but...where are you? Can you pick me up at the Powell Estate? That's in London…somewhere. You're in London, aren't you?"

"Donna, I'm already here, at the estate, with Jack. Trust him, he's a good friend of ours."

Donna snorted, "Sure, whatever, but where are you then?"

Martha blinked and glanced at Jack, feeling slightly uneasy "Didn't you hear the TARDIS, we're outside the playground."

Donna Noble stood in the near center of the basketball court, looking across at the child's playground with a frown. She stood there for a moment, sensibly trying to reason logic before slowly turning on the spot, asking Martha calmly, "So how many playgrounds are there exactly?"

There was silence from Martha as Donna moved across the court towards the flats, wondering if there was an area behind the building. Static came from her cellphone and a moment later a familiar american accent spoke, "There's only one playground Donna, where are you?"

Donna blinked, turning back to her view previous, feeling a tad confused, "Are you having me on? I'm standing on the basketball court, looking at the playground."

Captain Jack Harkness sighed, "Donna, you're not."

"Yeah, Captain Kirk, I am. But where the hell are you?"

There was an intake of breath as the Captain came to his conclusion, "Aw, damn."

"What?" Both Donna and Martha demanded simultaneously.

There was an uneasy silence from Jack before he asked her in one big rush, "Donna, in between the flats and the road, directly ahead. Is there a large new building looming above?"

Donna frowned but turned and looked in the said direction, the sky above the road empty. She sucked in a breath of frustration, "No, there's no building, what the hell are you..." her eyes caught sight of a large construction site at the end of the far road and a large sign just visible from this distance that read, Hawthorne Apartments: Coming Soon.

Realisation hit, "Oh, oh god."

She finally understood what he was yabbering on about. Spinning around quickly, desperate for inspiration, she ran across to the apartment complex, charging up the first flight of stairs as Jack demanded in her ear, "Donna, what year is it?"

"Oh, god, I don't know!" she wailed, running across to the nearest door, "Hang on!"

Slipping the phone, still open, into her pocket, she gave the door three sharp raps, bouncing on the balls of her feet before someone finally answered.

"Can I help you?" the balding middle aged man asked, standing there with his glasses and grey cardigan.

Donna put on her best public relations smile, "Why hello there," she said calmly, all the while aware of the open phone still in her pocket, "So sorry for the intrusion; but would you be able to tell me the date?"

She smiled hopefully at the man as he blinked at her for a moment, finally replying, "Umm…it's December 27th."

Donna nodded understandably, feeling frustration build as the man continued to stare at her, completely bewildered, "Really?" she bit her lip, "Ahh, sorry, about this, and I'm not mad, truly, I'm not, but…what year would that be?"

The man looked at her as if he clearly thought she was most definitely mad, before finally clearing his throat and, having the decency to comply, said, "2005. Last time I checked."

Donna groaned, pulling the cell-phone from her pocket, already turning away when the man finally took a step over the threshold, a finger raised in question, "Excuse me, but, who are you?"

Donna paused, the phone half way to her ear before she put a hand over it and turned back to the poor confused man, grasping for an excuse, "Ah, yes, thanks for that. I'm just, I…work with the Alzheimer's Association. Random checks on everyone over forty five. Nothing to worry about sir, you passed. Thanks."

And before he had chance to object Donna was charging back down the stairs, the phone back at her ear, "Captain Kirk?"

"Harkness," Jack said with a sigh, "It's Harkness."

"Yeah, whatever. 2005. I'm in 2005. December 27th."

Jack sucked in a sharp breath before finally letting it out and slowly formulating a plan, "That's cutting it a bit fine. So there's no sign of the TARDIS? You sure?"

Donna rolled her eyes, "Big Blue Police Box, yeah, no, I wouldn't have missed it." she said sarcastically.

"And no sign of the Doctor?"

"No... hold on, I'm confused, aren't you with the Doctor?"

"He spent some time at the estate Christmas '05, don't want to cross any timelines." Jack sighed, which didn't really answer the question and Donna got the unnerving feeling that he was avoiding answering it properly.

She raced out of the apartment building, out to the basketball court and collapsed onto a park bench.

Gazing around with distaste, thoroughtly fed up with being messed around by the Doctor, she demanded down the phone, "So, do I have to wait around for three years or are you lot coming to get me?"

Next chapter is already finished. It will be up in the next few days.