"Mom, did you recognise that man?"

She caught my eyes instantly, looking somewhat lost. That was a yes, but not who he was.

"Are you going to tell me who he is now?"

"Just tell me if you trust me. Honestly."

"Mia," she said, laughing but with impatience, "please."

I needed more proof, more that she knew at least something.

"Why did you call the police and tell them what you did?"

She held my eyes for a long moment, but looked away suddenly. She began to look down at her fingers like I did when I was nervous, and she didn't look up while she spoke. Instead, she looked over the floor. "I don't really know…I guess I knew he didn't mean you harm. He brought you home. That wouldn't have happened if it was as…seedy…as what you can hear on the news."

I processed the words, perhaps looking into them for more than they said. Then I remembered the conversation with Gran.

"Mia, just tell me who he is, because I'm going mad just to place him here," she said, finally looking up and flicking her fringe from her eyes. "I know him, yes! But its like I know him but simply cannot place him anywhere! Not in a shop, not in the house, not even in the street. Hes not a neighbour, and your Gran says he's not a family friend-"

"You believe that?"

She gave me a long look, sighed, and rose slowly. "Come on, I fancy a walk."

I followed suit, and followed to the door, agreeing, not only for the opportunity to talk, but I really needed to stretch my legs. I was filled with energy now, almost as much as the Doctor on his happy moments, and I knew why. I was getting somewhere. I was proving Gran wrong.

I went to open the door as she pulled her coat on, and recoiled in shock.

The Doctor looked glumly across at me, my eyes almost level with his. I heard my mum inhale sharply behind me, and push me out of the way. Then she landed a slap across his face before he could even blink.

"OI! What did I do now?!"

"Oh don't you go there with me, sunshine! Don't you dare! You just can't help yourself can you?!"

I watched in horror and embaressment and disappointment as they glared at eachother, the Doctor like an injured lion rubbing his cheek, my mother seeming to tower over him in her anger.

"Mrs Noble, I mean, Morton, you seem to be under-"

"Noble? How the hell do you know my name?"

He gave her a loud look, as though to say, 'are you stupid?' I think he was just still shocked and angry.

"Mum, this is the…" I gave the Doctor a look, his eyes impossibly wide, to check how he'd react. This is the Doctor."

"Eh?"

Disappointment lay as a shallow layer in my stomach, but I was suddenly aware then of how happy I was that he'd come back for me. My heart was racing. I daren't even look at him yet, though. One of my potentially and, as unexplained, reckless acts.

"You know him, and not just from the shops, the street, not even just through the family."

"Mia, stop!"

I shot him a sharp look, and felt the full force of the fear in his eyes. I resisted to crumble.

"Mum, look at him," I requested, because she was looking past him, distantly thinking. I saw her eyes focus minutely. She shook her head and was gone again.

"No, no, I can't."

"Mia, whatever you think you're achieving, don't. She'll die if she-"

"Remembers you."

I stared hard at her suddenly, and so did he. The words were her own, and her lips began shaking. Then, with no warning, not even closing her eyes, she collapsed.

"DONNA!"

"Mum!" Oh god, what had I done?!

I flew down to a crouch and felt her pulse in her neck, and breathed a sigh of great relief when it pulsed securely beneath my fingers. "She's ok," I breathed. I ignored his eyes as I took her hands to take her inside, but he closed the door and snatched my hand away from her left one. He turned out to be a lot stronger than I was. Soon she was out on the sofa, and we stood over her, silently considering what to do next.

The dream was odd. Not just odd, but strange. Alien to her, and yet very, very familiar. Faces drifted past of all shapes, colours, sizes and protrusions. She didn't know the names of what they were, but she knew them, whatever they turned out to be. Not just her dream self, either, because she was simply viewing a screen, not moving but following, completely still, looking through the eyes of the person who'd experienced all that. Old earth, new earth, distant planets, aliens even more distant, racing past her eyes with a rush, as though all of the memories needed to cram themselves in, or there were so many of them that no time in the world could be enough at a normal pace. Finally, after bald aliens with large heads and small faces, bald aliens with tentacles covering their mouths, dome shaped robots…they slowed. Almost at a sudden stop. A song emerged, one that had always been there, simply fallen to the loudness of everything else. A voice, souring so high, so beautiful, so tragic. A face emerged, narrow and sharp and handsome, brown eyes eying her, power held in them. The most alien of them all.

Finally, she sighed, and I breathed with a breath that I had been keeping for endless seconds. The Doctor was standing over her with me, and he hadn't moved or spoken once.

"Doctor," she whispered.

My pulse stopped, and I risked a look up at him. His nostrils wide with sharp, supressed hyperventilation, his eyes frozen with determination not to hope. I wasn't willing to be so hopeless, but I remained where I was, next to him. This was my place now.

"What…the song…I thought I asked you to stop it."

The breathing beside me quickened, and his hand twitched to touch mine. I felt my lips twitch into a smile.

"Please, make it stop."

"Ok, ok, Donna. I'm here."

He stepped forward and crouched in one fluid motion, resting his hands on each side of her head. She relaxed in moments.

"Better?" He whispered, still cautious. She nodded, and finally opened her eyes. Her eyes were clear, clearer than I'd ever seen them. But before I knew, she landed another sharp slap around his face, and he lost his balance. He was sitting at my feet, holding his face again. "What now?!"

"For leaving me, that's why, space man! You left me, back there, with nothing more than a good bye, my dear old granddad crying and at a loss for words! What the hell did you do?!"

The Doctor couldn't answer, and I couldn't speak. I simply watched the exchange.

"Donna, that's…how this…how is are you doing this?!"

Both looked up at me, and finally the Doctor rose to meet my eyes. "What did you do?"

I looked into his eyes, nervousness pulling them wide and tight. "I found a way, the thing that's in my head. It's gone, anyway."

He grabbed my shoulders, and his flaming eyes threw panic into my own. "What does that mean, Mia?" he asked quietly, deadly quiet concern in his voice. "What did it tell you?"

"It told me it could help. It's been in my head for weeks now, and I know it's been showing me as much as it's been learning from me. He told me that in return for responding, he would help."

"And you thought that would be clever?! Don't you know what they're nickname is throughout the galaxy, in hundreds of different languages?! Silent assassins."

"I wasn't killed, Doctor. As I reminded you, it's been in my head, and I'm still alive, no worse off than before. Why was that?"

I was feeling almost completely calm, because my argument was piecing together as though it existed that way all along. The only thing getting in the way was the worry in those dark brown eyes, a storm hindering the starlight.

"It was my mother's time lord part, the part that would kill her because no human can possess that knowledge. That's why you had to wipe that part away from her knowledge…but what if it could come back, and be used? What if she was free of it, free of not knowing what that nagging memory is? What if that part of her could be used for something else?"

The Doctor's grip loosened, but his eyes remained as strong and defiant. "You did it…so she could remember?"

I nodded, as though it were obvious. "It wasn't for selfish reasons…it may have started out that way, or maybe I only thought that. But no one deserves to have done so much, achieved so much, and not be able to know. No one should be deprived of the memories they've had… with you."

His eyes widened marginally, and he dropped his hands. His features softened, and I was only acutely aware of my mother being in the room. When we looked back to her, after she made a very audible cough, she was sitting, an outwardly suspicious look in her eye. "And just what is that all about? You haven't gotten her into trouble have you?" Her voice was dangerous, and the Doctor began to mumble small sounds. His mouth was opening and closing like a guppy fish.

"Donna, I know it's a lot to ask…But you're going to have to trust me. You can still do that, can't you?"

He was crouching before her again. Her eyes grew concerned. "Always. I'm still remembering, but I know that much…but when it comes to her…"

"Donna, Donna Noble. There is nothing I want more in the universe than to keep her safe. For that reason, you need to trust me."

She stared for a while, until her eyes began to water. Then she slowly nodded.

"You know, that daughter of yours. If she's thinking what I think she'd thinking, she's brilliant," He remarked with a huge grin, and my heart leaped. That truly was something! I only hoped he knew what I was thinking.

"So, what exactly is your plan?"

We'd explained, as a joint effort, the whole story, regarding the trouble we'd had with the entity in my mind, and what the race was in a nut shell, since she'd not encountered them in her time with the Doctor. She hadn't gained all the details yet, but at least she knew the Doctor, who he was to her, and what she'd achieved. Well, some of it. It was a haze, she'd reported, since her mind was somewhat fused to another that she could never access.

I had to remind the Doctor that she hadn't been subjected to one of his tangents for many years, and so he'd have to take it slow with the science, and after all, she was still consuming it all.

"Basically, the energy has created a shell," he said, using his hands to form a casing around the air, apparently the time lord part. "And while you're remembering this, it's protecting the rest of your mind, like a shield."

"Just like defusing a bomb, he said," I added. The Doctor turned to me and gave me an exasperated look. "'He'- Who's 'he'?"

I shrugged from the chair across from him and my mother, watching him take my advice on simplification to a whole new level while talking to my mother. "It's a male…thing."

"How do you know that?"

"I just get the sense he's male."

He stared at me for a while. "I bet you've named him as well."

I laughed, and felt quietly pleased at the slight childish jealous tone in his voice. "No, he's not a cockroach."

"He's as good as one. I mean it," he added, when I smiled in victory at him. "Anyway, why are you personifying it?"

"I don't know, pity I guess…I was thinking of naming him…James." I resisted a quiet smirk at his face.

"Why 'James'? 'James' the weeping angel, yeah! Nice fit!"

"Well, you look human but you're not, and you title yourself with a human professional title, so why not? I've even seen you go under the alias of 'John' before, so if you can have a name, why can't James? He's sentient, like you and me and Mom, so he deserves one."

"Because he, I mean IT is not…I mean…that's not even the point! It's distracting us from the task in hand."

"You started it."

"And I'm ending it!" Donna piped up in the background, and we shut up at once. The Doctor was looking quite beaten and guilty, although he'd never admit that he'd just been put in his place by a mother and daughter.

Silence drew on, and I felt a need to defend my reasoning for naming the being. Beyond teasing, of course.

"You want to know why, then?"

My voice was so loud in the silence, the silence following it was electric. I continued however, when the Doctor connected his eyes with mine.

"Because I've seen what he's seen. He's seen what no being should see. He's seen his own people killed, his home destroyed, burning skies and trees ablaze, and he could do nothing but watch. Sound familiar?"

Mom watched his emotions as I spoke, and the way she looked at him told me she knew. She knew his past as much as I did, maybe more. Maybe she'd seen it, too."

"I gave him a name because I wanted to. He's about to help us, help Mom remember, help you with your guilt, and me with travel with you again. And, with that part of her mind, they finally have the imagination and creativity they craved from me, on a much more powerful level. On an everlasting, immortal level. Isn't that enough to trust him?"

"Doctor," Donna added slowly, placing a hand on the pair clamped together, leaning on his knees. "Listen to her. Remember what you said about her."

I felt gratitude well up in my eyes at the faith she put in me. She trusted us, despite having near enough to no clue of what was going on in her mind.

He watched her beneath his eye lashes, a heavily dark stare that showed that he was thinking, but he was resolved. While he didn't particularly like it, he had no other choice. That was what that expression told us.

"Alright."

He stretched out his long legs and stood, and I noticed that his hair almost scraped the ceiling. "A nice trip down memory lane, just what we needed."

While there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, I allowed myself to notice that he stood taller than when we first arrived, and his voice wasn't so dark. I joined, and my mother followed.

"So what's the plan then?" Donna asked, flattening down her clothes. I noticed the change in her, too. I watched the pair exchange familiar glances as old friends. Well, old for her; it had only been a couple of months for him.

He rocked on his heels as he thought, perhaps rolling the die as to whether he should continue taking chances. Wordlessly he turned, grabbed his discarded trench coat from the arm of the sofa and cocked his head. "Come on."

He lead us outside into the blinding sun, and so threw his coat back into the house. "Shan't be needing that! Snow! Where's the snow? I love the snow!"

I laughed as I remembered how we met, him lost in the snow. "You seem in higher spirits, Doctor."

"I'd be in even higher spirits if we had snow."

"Typical, no weather's good enough for you," Donna remarked sardonically. We continued walking on in a light-hearted haze all the way into the nearby village, usually sleepy but now teaming with sun bathers.

"I must be honest, I never imagined Donna Noble settling down in the country," the Doctor said as he slowed his step, and I thought that maybe he was delaying the journey in case the worst happened. I fell into step with them both.

She shrugged at his remark and adopted a thoughtful expression. "I think that, subconsciously, I always thought that London was dangerous, and when I found out about Mia, I just took the chance and went."

"What happened?"

She looked up at him, and whatever façade she was holding up crumbled. She didn't cry, she always had a strong hold over emotions she thought would make her appear weak.

"Shaun died, car accident, then…"

We came to a stop, and the three of us stood in the patch of grass, Mom and I facing the Doctor. Sadness dawned on my mom's face, and I took her hand gently.

"Gramp's passed away," she breathed quietly, flicking her hair from her face to reveal her lack of tears. "Peaceful, you know. I'm sorry, I know you were…"

I looked to the Doctor, his face empty. His eyes full of remorse. "Donna, I'm…"

"I know," she laughed awkwardly, "So, so sorry. Just wish this one new him. Anyway, when that happened, I came here for a break, met Steve, her dad, and so on and so forth."

We hesitated for a while, staying awkwardly to the floor in the end, and automatically began walking in silence. I pondered the Doctor's reaction.

I'd heard so much about my great gramps, from my gran and mom, but could never really picture him. Wilfred, a slightly eccentric old man who dreamed of the stars and loved the idea of an adventure, but never really got there. So he grew as a time bomb of dreams, unfulfilled but never lost, never given up on. I wondered if he knew…But of course he did! My Gran mentioned his place in keeping my mother safe and unknowing, and he'd obviously known the Doctor. That made me feel comforted, and slightly sad. Sad that the Doctor, the most alien man on the planet, had known him when I didn't. That he'd known what his own grand-daughter had done, and was never able to express his pride.

My thoughts were interrupted by the Doctor's voice.

"Right, here we are then."

We were standing in a church yard, the odd ancient headstone dotted here and there. A large tree gave cover to the sunlight, and beneath it stood the blue box. My mother, who'd fallen behind slightly, came around the tree trunk as we watched, nervous, excited, expectant and unprepared at the same time. When she finally found it with her eyes, tears welled up, and an unexplainable emotion passed over her face.

"Well? Can I trust you to remember-"

"Yes! Yes I know," she rushed, holding her fingers before her to shut him up, which he did abruptly. "Time…and…Relative! Dimension in…Space! Is that it?"

The Doctor stood silent for a long moment, and then, finally, for the first time since we'd left the house, looked me in the eye. A huge grin grew over his skinny face. "You'd better thank that James next time you see him," he beamed, and took me up in his arms. He was laughing, and soon I was too, and after an unknown number of seconds he placed me down and went to hug my mom. I'd honestly never been more relieved, or seen her so happy.