'Cause we belong together now, yeah
Forever united here somehow, yeah
You got a piece of me
And honestly,
My life would suck without you
-Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without You
He didn't know what he'd expected to find when he did so; an unfamiliar planet, a platoon of Daleks, or worse, the Master with a large gun, but he certainly wasn't expecting what he got:
A lonely hilltop in Chiswick. A familiar, lonely hilltop in Chiswick. He knew this place. He'd seen it before. And he knew the man who watched the stars up here every night all too well. The man who was standing about ten feet away from the TARDIS, looking mystified and strangely elated.
"Wilf?" he called softly. "Wilfred Mott?"
Wilf looked at him strangely. The Doctor couldn't read his face.
"Wilf, it's me. It's the Doctor. I know, I look different. I had to... to change. You remember."
Wilf nodded slowly. "I may be getting on in the years, Doctor, but I'd know the man who saved my life anywhere."
The Doctor smiled. Good old Wilf. For a moment, he felt a fleeting glow of happiness. But the crushing grief set in again when he realized the danger that he was putting one of his best friends in just by being here.
"Wilf... why did you call the TARDIS here? No... how did you call the TARDIS here? Only a Time Lord with a strong connection to her could do that."
Wilfred shrugged, barely concealing a grin. "Wasn't me."
"What d'you mean? Why else would she choose to materialize in Chiswick? I certainly didn't send her here. D'you realize the danger we're putting... her... in just by my being here."
"You don't have to go talking about me like I'm not here, you know. Didn't they teach you manners at the Academy, Space man?"
The Doctor spun around so fast, it was almost a blur, his face a mask of terror as he recognized the voice. The fear ripped through him as he realized that he was about to kill his best friend. No. Please, not Donna. Not now.
The he remembered that he looked different. There was nothing about him that she'd recognize. Apart from the TARDIS, of course. But that had a perception filter on it. She wouldn't see it unless she knew it was there, which of course, she couldn't possibly. He assured himself there was nothing to worry about at the moment, except for his possibly breaking down at the sight of her.
"Hello there." He smiled politely through the pain of seeing her for the first time in months. "I'm Mr. Smith, I'm a friend of your grandfather's. I was just leaving. Nice meeting you, Miss Noble."
Donna's features darkened as he tried to hurry back to the TARDIS and make a clean getaway.
"OI!" she called. "You get back here, right now, Doctor!"
He turned again, eyes wide and frightened. She knew who he was. She would die. He'd effectively just killed his best friend. "You... you know who I am?" She heard the tremor in his voice. She saw the fear in his new eyes. But she was so overwhelmed with eight months of repressed frustration she didn't even care.
"Of course I bloody well know who you are!" She shouted, causing both the Doctor and Wilf, who had been expecting a joyful reunion, to jump. "You can go around changing your face all you want, Alien Boy, but it's not gonna change who you are!"
Panicking, his whole being ablaze with pain and terror and premature grief, he rushed over to where Donna was standing, mind racing, trying to think of some way he could save her. Nothing came. It was too late. He grabbed her shoulders, but much to his surprise, she smacked him away.
"What-"
"You. Stupid. Git!" she hissed furiously, punctuating each word with a slap to his arm.
"But, Donna-"
"Don't 'but Donna' me, you twit! I can't believe you!"
"What?"
"I said forever, I wanted to fly on the TARDIS with you forever, but you couldn't be having any of that, could you? Oh, no. You had to go and wipe my mind. Is that how you always get rid of us, or was I the first one you tried that nonsense with? What, when we don't get sick of you or sucked into another bloody dimension you've got to take matters into your own hands, it that it?"
"Donna, are you alright?" he asked, still scared for her.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine, thanks for asking!" she said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. " 'Course I'm fine, no thanks to you!"
The Doctor looked from Donna, who looked very much like she might hit him again, to Wilf, who looked calmly amused by the spectacle. He could only assume that this all meant that Donna was okay, but how could she be? He knew that her mind couldn't handle all the Time Lord knowledge it had gotten in the metacrisis. He knew it would burn if she ever remembered him, their close call at Christmas was proof of that. So how was she standing in front of him, knowing who and what he was, yelling at him like she was back to her old feisty self, but still alive and well? It didn't make any sense. He opened his mouth to try and ask her what had happened, but then she looked at him in a way that effectively shut him up while she ranted. He stepped back a few feet, so that he was out of hitting distance, while she yelled.
"Where d'you get off poking round in my head like that? Trying to save me, yeah, I know... but you told me, you said to me that this had never happened before! So how did you know what would happen? How did you know it would be permanent? You weren't THINKING, that's why. You don't think these things through. You go rushing into these situations without thinking, and you always end up getting hurt! And yeah, I know, at the time it always seems like the right thing to do, but you can be wrong you know, you alien git! You can be so utterly, magnificently, dead wrong that you almost go and mess up my life! Do you even realize how... how pointless it all was? I went around for almost a year with this huge bit of me missing, just because some know-it-all Time Lord decides that what's best for me is to take away who I am! Eight months, Doctor! Eight bloody months! And yeah, now I've got a time Lord mind, I can see eight months isn't much to you, but it was to me. The better part of a year, walking around like some amnesiac who'd lost something but couldn't remember what. You could have waited! You could have tried to save me some other way. But oh, no. You had to test out your little hypothesis on me. You. Bloody. GIT!"
She stopped abruptly and took a deep breath, seemingly calming herself down. The Doctor looked at her.
"Finished?" he asked softly.
Donna was silent for a second, then breathed, "Yeah. I think so."
A smile crept slowly over the Doctor's features, the first genuine one in months. "You're back, then?"
Donna grinned and nodded slowly. "So back."
"Well isn't that wizard?" he mocked jokingly.
"Oh, shut it, Space Man. And get over here!"
He stepped towards her slowly, as afraid something still might go wrong, or perhaps worried she'd hit him again. Donna wasn't having any of that. She almost sprinted the short distance between them, throwing herself into his arms. She'd missed hugging him, although it was rather strange this time. He wasn't as skinny as he'd been before, but other than that, it was like she'd never left. He wrapped his arms around her so tight, she almost couldn't breathe, but she didn't care. She was back here, with the Doctor, and everything was right in the world again. What she was feeling right now... it was like what she imagined a blind woman would feel, miraculously cured and staring at a sunrise for the first time in years. She was half-laughing, half-sobbing. So was he.
"Oh, Donna. Donna Noble."
"God, you have no idea how much I missed you."
'You're one to talk. The TARDIS hasn't been the same since you left."
Donna laughed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, as if you don't have some other girl in there right now."
'You know me too well."
"Not shacking up, are you?"
"And I thought you knew me. Of course, we're not! Mates only, that's the new rule. You remember, don't you?"
"Like it was yesterday. Everything." she laughed breathlessly. "God, it feels good to say that."
She pulled him away from her and held him at arm's length, looking him up and down. He got it immediately.
"What do you think?"
"Well, I'll miss the old hair..." she said.
He frowned a little. Still so self-conscious about changing bodies.
"But at least you've got some meat on those bones now. Look, no paper cuts!"
The Doctor just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, Donna. Ah, well. It was worth the change." He smiled over Donna's shoulder at Wilf, who he'd never seen looking happier.
"And hey... at least my skinny spaceman is still out there, somewhere in a parallel universe. That fantastic hair didn't go to waste after all."
The Doctor laughed and shook his head. "You know, for all those months, you haven't changed a bit! Well, except for the marriage. A Racnoss free wedding, for once. Congratulations!" he said, hugging her again.
"Yeah. Thanks for the lottery ticket by the way. Although, would it have killed you to come up and say hello?"
"I thought it would have killed you." He replied. Then his new face grew solemn again. "I am sorry Donna. I thought I was doing the right thing-"
"I know you did. You were upset anyways at the time, and of course you assumed the worst. I can't blame you for that. It's fine, really. All in the past, now."
The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the TARDIS door creaked open and Donna saw a young woman of about 19 peeking out. She cocked an eyebrow and looked at her old friend again.
"She's a bit young for all this, don't you think? I mean, Martha was one thing, but she looks like she's still in high school. Although..." she looked him up and down thoughtfully. "I suppose the same could be said for you. What is the deal with you lot? Do you just get younger every time you regenerate? Like some freaky alien version of Benjamin Button?"
"Doctor?" the girl sad timidly. "Are you there?"
"Yeah, right here, Amy."
"Oh!" her eyes adjusted to the absence of light, and she caught sight of him. She stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around, then rushed up to the Doctor and hugged him. "Oh my God, I am so sorry about that. I was a complete cow before, and all I could think of was that you were going to go get yourself killed and I'd just be in there all pissed off at you and-"
"S'alright, Amy." He grinned. "Been having a great time out here. Catching up with old friends and all. Oh, I should probably introduce you. Amy Pond, this is-"
"No, no, wait! Let me guess!" Amy said, squinting at Donna. "Is this.... Rose?"
Donna burst out laughing, causing Amy to jump a little, then look a tad wounded. "S-sorry about that, love, but... Rose? Seriously?" she chuckled again. "No, not quite. You'll know Rose by the fact that she's at least three or four years younger than me, blonde, and dragging a skinny clone around with her."
"Oh, she was blonde, was she?" Amy said with a small smile.
"Aren't they always?" Donna grinned back. Amy chuckled. "Anyways, I'm Donna."
Amy actually took a step back and covered her mouth with her hand. "No way. Donna Noble. The Donna Noble? You're kidding me. You have got to be kidding me. I'm meeting Donna flipping Noble in person!"
Donna was stuck halfway between flattery and being freaked out by the Doctor's newest companion. "What, he... talks about me?"
"Hardly ever!" Amy said, with the same huge grin and admiration on her face. Donna raised her eyebrows. Amy realized what it must have sounded like. "No, no! I mean... it's a good thing."
"That he never talks about me?"
Amy nodded. "Yeah. He missed you. If you ever came up in conversation, he'd get all quiet and this... haunted look would come on his face for a second."
"Oh yeah... I used to call that the Rose face." Donna chuckled.
"Oh, he's got no problem chatting about her." Amy said. "It's you. I've travelled with the Doctor for about six months now, and I know that it's the ones he doesn't mention that he loved the most. 'Cause he missed you, see? He'd get all depressed and closed off whenever I asked about you. But I got enough that... well.... weren't you not supposed to remember any of this? Didn't he... wipe your memory or something?
Donna shook her head. "Yeah, I did lose it for a while there... but I'm better now."
