Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, and am making no money. If I did own Doctor Who, things would obviously be very different.

AN: Thanks to everyone for the reads, reviews, and follows. You guys make my day.

Dyoni Chesterton looked up from the test results on one of the many screens in the main base under the Torchwood-owned clinic. "You're late." She said simply, raising an eyebrow at the ginger-haired girl who had just appeared without warning a few feet away from her.

"Unavoidable." Mina replied, shaking out her hair, and taking off the vortex manipulator from her wrist.

"What happened?" Dyoni asked curiously, as she turned the monitor she was looking at so that the younger girl could inspect the results.

Mina ignored the question for a moment, inspecting the test results. "Her body's assimilating a little too fast." She hit a few keys on the keyboard, recalibrating a few of the variables. "We need to slow it down - the timing has to be perfect. We'll add an inhibitor to the injection today, that should do the trick."

"Mina," Dyoni repeated. "What happened?"

"I ran into Donna this morning and she heard me have a big fight with Adam. So, I'm going to be staying with her for awhile."

"What? What happened? You and Adam have been nothing but perfect since I met you." Dyoni asked, shocked.

"He apparently fell for some sex pheremones and a few glamours and couldn't tell it wasn't me, despitethe psychic link." Mina made a face at the screen, running a simulation of the effect of the medications. "And now he thinks it's his subconscious telling him something."

"Oh, Mina..." Dyoni said in a soft voice. "I'm..."

Mina didn't let her get the second word out. "I'm fine.Let's just get this next treatment done, shall we? I have to go back and pack yet before she gets out of here."

Donna arrived back at the block of flats, just as Mina was coming into sight with an olive green kit bag. She watched her, unseen for a moment, move around the buildings. She knew she had only known the girl a week, and the rational part of her knew it was ridiculous, that she didn't know anything substantial about the girl, but ever since her memory had gone, she had been relying on her instinct. It seemed to be working, at any rate.

Unfortunately, this meant that when Sylvia came home that evening to Donna finishing up dinner, she was faced with playing host to a strange "friend" of Donna's. This led to Sylvia getting into an argument with her daughter as the much younger girl hid in a corner, trying not to be seen.

Wilf took pity on her, quietly leading her out to his hill as the two argued. When they were far enough away from the house, Mina looked up at him. "Maybe I should go." She said with a shrug. "I can get a room at a hotel or something."

"Don't be ridiculous." Wilf said easily. "Sylvia's just a bit protective of Donna, what with her memory gone and all." He gestured up the hill, telescope barrel in his free hand. "We'll just look at the stars until they're done. There's no interrupting them when they get like that."

He quickly set to putting together and calibrating his telescope. "I'm always on the look out for them aliens, you know?"

"Can't blame you." Mina admitted, lying back on the blanket to stare up at the stars. "Never know when they'll show up." She grinned slightly. "Except Christmas - something always happens at Christmas."

"I wonder what it'll be this year." Wilf said thoughtfully, not about to debate that fact when he knew very well that it tended to be true.

"Nightmares." Mina said softly, almost too quiet for Wilf to hear. "Everyone will have bad dreams."

Wilf looked at her, where she was looking at the stars and breached the question that had been bubbling in his mind all day, or at least since Donna had said something earlier about the 'last time'. "You knew Donna before, didn't you, when she was travelling?"

Mina sat up and looked over at him sadly. "Donna and the Doctor saved my life."

Wilf frowned, looking worried. "The Doctor said if she remembered her mind will burn."

Mina sighed. "I know. But that's why I came - she saved my life, I want to save hers. She's surviving now - but the Doctor didn't realise how much he would be taking, and didn't have enough time to figure something out, not really - and then later, he thought she was happy, had everything she needed..."

"She misses him." Wilf admitted, suddenly looking his age, and almost collapsing in on himself. "All those wonderful things she did..."

"That's why I'm here, to give her back the stars." Mina murmured. "I want to make good on what she did for me."

The two sat in silence, looking up at the stars for a long time, then, an accord reached between them