A/N: the ending of this part won't shock you in the slightest (assuming someone is still reading this, obviously).


Part 9

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Donna slept peacefully on, surrounded by loving vibes that helped ease away the pain in her head. The TARDIS was still singing to her as she woke. Stretching out the arm she'd been laying on, Donna mentally thanked the TARDIS for looking over her and not letting her sleep too long; she'd hate to miss seeing Tim go through his treatment. "I didn't think you'd still be here," she said as she turned over to greet Tim. She drew in a sharp breath when she found herself facing the Doctor instead. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded and shuffled away from him.

"Waiting for you to wake up," he answered, as though it was the stupidest question in the world.

"Don't play the innocent with me, Time boy!" she admonished him. "You don't normally do this sort of thing, and your girlfriend would have a pink fit if she knew you were in here. So why don't you just come out and tell me what you are playing at?"

He sighed resignedly. "Donna! Why didn't you say anything to me?" he softly pleaded.

"About what? I am allowed to get tired, you know. I'm more than a bit out of practise with running about with you," she snapped in defence.

"Donna, I know," he said more steadily. "You've been having terrible migraines, caused by the aftermath of the metacrisis. I quizzed Tim about it, and he is extremely worried about you. He said you've had scans and they'd found a tumour. I'm sorry; so sorry. I could see you weren't feeling right but I'd put it down to stress. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Because honestly, what was the point? All the doctors had said it was inoperable, that it was only a matter of time before things began to drastically slide. I can feel it throttling my thoughts and tripping me up in other ways. And I am so sick of hospitals after everything with Tim and me. So while I could still do it, I appealed to the TARDIS to send you for Tim; and she did. You turned up." She gave a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders and got up to pace about the small space in the room. "Now you know all that you can get on with fixing Tim."

"It isn't as simple as that," he argued.

"Yes it is!" she countered. "I begged you once and I'd do it again if necessary. Fix Tim."

He got up off the bed and stood in her way so that she had to stop pacing or walk right through him. "But you might die…"

She threw up her hands in anger. "Then I die. It's no biggie."

He stared at her incredulously. "And what about me, Donna? Don't I have a say in all this?" he asked as he edged closer.

She stepped back. "Since when did I have to worry about that? You say what you want anyway without my permission or acknowledgement. Oh no! You can't make me change my mind with this one."

"Then let me say goodbye," he implored, stepping nearer. "Please."

She was about to ask how he was going to do so when his lips were suddenly crushed onto hers, stealing a heartfelt kiss.

Despite all her best efforts to fight off his 'attack', Donna found herself enjoying the feel of the Doctor's lips upon hers. The way he moved delicately, using tiny increments of pressure, tasting and teasing her in equal parts. Not only did she enjoy it; she started to reciprocate. Her hands worked their way up into his hair, luxuriating in the feel of him crushed against her body. He was holding her head in place with a firm grip, but he was also moulding her body onto him, edging his hand over her bottom with far more confidence than should have been allowable.

It had started out as a small kiss goodbye to a dear departing friend for the Doctor; hadn't meant to be more than a fond farewell. But as he grasped her to him, had placed his lips upon hers and tried to express how much he would miss her, the kiss had morphed into something else. His senses had suddenly been flooded with her Time Lord mind; but it had been even more than that. Donna was a partial Time Lord now, it had become part of who she was over the time she had been away from him; and he could feel that part of her reach out and intensify along the bond they had formed when she had gone through the metacrisis. All that confusion and emotional numbness he had been experiencing was wiped away in a flash; and he finally felt whole as though he had returned home. No, scrub that. The fact was home had returned to him and he had not been aware of its absence because he had been unable to feel anything before he had stepped out of the TARDIS and spoken to Donna. He had thought it had been solely Tim reaching out to him with his futile cognitive efforts, but he was wrong. So wrong. Everything was crystal clear now and he knew what he had to do; what had to be done.

"Oh Donna!" he groaned next to her lips, and changed the angle of his descent so that he could gain full access to her mouth in order to slide his tongue across every possible nuance; feasting, sucking and devouring her whilst eliciting happy sighs.

Goodness knew how long they clung together in their ecstatic bubble of pleasure. There was a growing surge and then explosively the near-nudge of his mind that she had been feeling became a roar of emotions, thoughts and feelings.

Donna shivered and trembled under the onslaught as though an orgasmic experience had occurred. Her legs muscles gave out, and he had to catch her in order to stop her from nose-diving to the floor.

He laughed with delight, and she swatted his arm for his cheek.

I've missed you so much, my wife. Let me fix this, the Doctor's voice begged in her head.

"Did you just…? You did! You did the same trick you did on the Ood Sphere," she said in shock. "How did you do that?" Seeing his exasperated expression of disbelief, she quickly added, "Okay, I know how you did it, but I don't understand why you did."

"Donna!" he huffed. "I have just been explaining to Rose that we are married in more than one way."

"You and Rose are married?" she exclaimed.

"Give me strength… I had to explain that you and I are married; and as such meant that I cannot return Rose's obvious affection," he stated as clearly as he could.

"Why would you go and do that, for goodness sake? You pined after her something chronic when I first met you. Why are you throwing her aside now?" Donna loudly wondered.

The Doctor threw up his hands in despair. "Oh for the love of…!" He took a firm hold of both her hands. "I seem to have a communication problem today. Remember us getting married? That we bonded during the metacrisis? And then we kissed earlier? Ringing any bells?"

"Don't get clever with me, Sunshine! You can get around anything if you want to. I know because I've seen you do it," Donna insisted. "You were running away from me and towards Rose before all the metacrisis business; and then you chose to keep her with you in the TARDIS, so it wasn't as though you weren't pleased to see her."

"Yes," he testily agreed. "I had lost her in a horrible way, and I was keen to meet her again."

"There you are then!" she said smugly. "That proves my point."

"What point exactly?" he questioned.

"My point, dear husband," she began sarkily, "is that you were forced into our bond. Given half the chance you'd have scarpered as quick as you like. And coming in here to experiment on me in the way you just did is below you."

He released her hands, almost pushing her away in his need to retaliate. "What are you accusing me of now?"

She prodded a finger in his direction. "Excuse me! You come in here while I'm sleeping… not for the first time I might add and don't think you've got away without me knowing in the past…, lying in wait for me to wake up before you attempt to grope my bum, and then you have the cheek to act as though I'm the idiot!"

"Donna…"

"If you think I'm going to believe every single word that comes out of your mouth you've got another think coming; especially if you are going to sexually accost me whenever it takes your fancy," she continued.

"Donna…!"

"And let me tell you; I am not here purely for your entertainment," she argued.

"A fact I am well aware of," he grumbled. "As it is I had to stop Tim from jumping all over you with his news."

"So I gather. You wanted to jump all over me yourself." She fixed him with a beady glare.

"Look, I know you are determined to get the wrong end of the stick about my intentions, but I came in to tell you that I'm ready to start Tim's treatment," he told her, fighting off the guilt she elicited in him.

"Hah! You just proved what I've been saying all along, Time boy. You came in to do one thing and ended up doing another."

"I didn't say it was the sole reason I came in to see you, did I? I can't get a moment alone with you to say anything personal, and as it is I had to send Tim off with Jack to choose kitten toys," he contended.

"Kitten toys? Are we talking toys for a kitten or toys that are kittens?" she queried. Getting a sheepish look from him, she pressed on with, "What have you done? You've gone and promised him a kitten, haven't you? I don't believe it! I have spent the last three years evading every single request for a pet; I put him near you and the next thing I know I've got to cope with a bloody kitten. Thank you very much!"

He tried to appease her. "Donna, sweetheart, he needs to have a pet to love. You yourself had a dog for a while."

"And I gave him up when Lance came on the scene!" she seethed. "I could kill you right now for doing this to me. It's yet another thing to add to the list."

"What list? How have I slighted you?" He was advancing on her again.

"Don't get me started!" She began to count the list off on her fingers. "One: your girlfriend takes umbrage against me. Two: the metacrisis happened to my brain. Three: to rescue Tim from your God-awful plan to dump him I took him with me out of the TARDIS. Four: you managed to complete miss and ignore my phone calls when I tried to contact you about Tim. Five: your girlfriend acts like Tim and me are a bad smell and you fail to notice. Six: you prance into my room and sprawl all over my bed while I'm sleep. And seven: you not only pretend it is only a goodbye kiss you then go on to say we are bonded, like proper Gallifreyan-type bonded."

"Have you finished?" he demanded, having backed her up tightly against the wall and gained a nod of agreement. "Then that leaves me to say how much I'm sorry, and this…"

In hindsight this passionate kiss was inevitable too.