"Dean."

Dean's eyes cracked open. His first sensation was of being shaken; his second was that he was absolutely covered in sweat. His clothes and sheets were soaked through. His mouth felt parched, and his lips were chapped.

He finally got a hazy vision of a baggy white shirt, loose blue tie, and ragged brown trench coat above him. Cas's face came into view.

"Cas?" he croaked.

Cas shifted uncomfortably. "It appeared you were having a nightmare. I thought it best to wake you."

Dean nodded slowly. "It was…it was Michael," he said quietly. "Michael talked to me through my dream."

Cas made an affirmative noise. "It takes the power of an archangel to do that. He will be persistent, Dean, you can count on that."

Dean rubbed his eyes. It was still dark out, and Sam was still sleeping, his body spread out across the entire bed.

"Don't tell Sammy, okay?" he said. "I don't want him to worry about anything. The kid's got enough on his mind, what with setting Lucifer free and everything."

Cas squinted at Dean. "I don't think it's wise for you two to keep anything from each other at this point-"

"Please, Cas."

"Okay."

"And, Cas, one more thing."
"Yes, Dean?"

"Don't watch me while I sleep. It's creepy, man."

"Okay."

The nights passed and Michael continued tormenting Dean through his dreams.

There wasn't a night that Cas spent away from Dean's side.

"Donna."

Donna felt a steadying hand on her shoulder as she hyperventilated. Memories were flooding back, memories that couldn't be hers, that shouldn't be hers-and yet they were hers: she could feel every emotion, every burst of happiness, every drag of heartbreak, she could feel the heat of Pompeii, she could feel the biting cold of the Ood planet, she had experienced it all, she was there.

"Doctor."

She clutched at the hand on her shoulder, and it was unfamiliar. She saw her surroundings; she knew it was the TARDIS, but it was unfamiliar also. She saw the face of a girl who was unfamiliar, and she just about lost it.

"What's going on?" she screeched, jumping to her feet. She felt a bit unsteady, so she grabbed onto the TARDIS mainframe for support. "This isn't the TARDIS, and this-you aren't the Doctor, and who the bloody hell is this girl, and-"

Donna stopped dead as she caught sight of a face. The face was lurking in the shadows, obviously trying to stay out of the way, unsure, wary of her, but when their eyes linked, the corners of the face's mouth were tugged upward, and Donna felt calm envelop her, because that face, it was ingrained in her, pulling something from her, unraveling her bit by bit-

Then a splitting headache wracked through her skull, and she collapsed to the ground, whimpering, wishing it would all be over.

"It was Jack. Clara, get Jack away from here."

Did she know a Jack? Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack. It rolled through her head easy enough, but did the face match the name? Did the name match the face? Jack, Jack, Jack.

"Donna, please calm down. It's me, it's the Doctor. I told you I could change my face, right? Well, I did, and this is what I look like now. I might not be as suave as you remember, but I'm the same person, do you understand? Donna?"

Gradually, her headache subsided, leaving Donna feeling only slightly queasy.

She gained control of herself, and looked up at the Doctor. "A bit younger than I remember," she said, grabbing a railing and hoisting herself to her feet again. She turned her head left, then right. "It's a bit darker in here than I remember, too," she said

"I did a little redecorating," the Doctor said, backing up from her again. He hesitated, then said, "So, what else do you remember?"

Donna frowned at him. "Are we playing some sort of game? Would that help explain why two seconds ago we were on the planet Midnight and now all of the sudden I'm in a brand new TARDIS with a brand new Doctor and a…girl?" She gestured to the girl-Clara-now standing at the doorway to one of the hallways.

"How are you so sure he's the Doctor?" Clara asked curiously, coming forward.

Donna shrugged. "I dunno, I can just feel it." She grinned. "I mean, if I'm gonna be with this man forever, I would probably do well to know what he looks like at his best-and his worst," she added, eyeing the bowtie.

The Doctor saw where her eyes strayed and yelped, "Hey, bowties are cool."

"Yeah, and Converse go well with suits and long coats," Donna teased. Her lightheartedness faded slightly when she asked, "So who are you, anyway?"

Clara stepped forward and held out her hand. "Um, I'm Clara Oswald," she said.

"And how'd you pick her up?" Donna asked the Doctor, jerking her thumb at Clara.

"It's a long story, Donna," the Doctor said.

Donna crossed her arms. "I got time."

Donna was feeling incredibly stubborn, but then she noticed how absolutely upset the Doctor looked, and she decided she would pry at it later. She dropped the subject for now.

"Never mind. But there was someone else here, wasn't there?" She grasped in her head to try and find the face, the name, the face, the name she had just had moments before, but it was like trying to grab a watermelon covered in Vaseline in a swimming pool. It was bloody near impossible.

"Yes, he, uh, left," Clara said quickly. "Just someone we'd helped along, but he's gone now."

"Uh huh." Donna chewed her lip, before saying, "Alright, is anyone gonna address the elephant in the room? Like why Spaceman here got plastic surgery done?"

"It's complicated, Donna, and I promise I'll get around to explaining to you," the Doctor said, "but first I want to know what you remember. Please."

Donna sighed and rolled her eyes. "Alright. Um, let's see. I met you on my wedding day. Then I lost you. Then I found you again. Um, Agatha Christie, you had a daughter but not through natural means, Martha Jones is kind of awesome and she moved on after you, I mean, her loss and my gain. And then there were the Ood-"

"Let's not talk about the Ood," the Doctor said hurriedly.

"I mean, we don't have to. I grew fond of them after a while, but at first their little tentacles kind of creeped me out, if you know what I mean."

The Doctor was shaking his head. "What?" Donna said, irritated.

"It's just…it's good to have you back, Donna."