Rose talks Bob into helping her with Donna.

No heavy stuff in this chapter, just helping Donna. Next Chapter should be Doctor centric. Time for the Doctor to see the Ood and get a few surprises.

I cannot thank you guys enough for the reviews, they are so encouraging.

His hands started to shake, and he closed his eyes. When he spoke, it was in a quiet almost pleading tone. "Make me go now, before the madman lashes out again. If I go now, then my last act will have been of something good."

Rose nodded, tears starting to slip down her cheeks. "Goodbye Doctor, I hope you find your peace." He nodded at her words and turned, slowly walking away. The cracks in the walls and ceiling started to close.

The image of her first Doctor turned towards her, taking one long step to wrap her up in a hug. "Time for us all to go now, so none of that fussing. Just remember, I'll always be here, in your mind and heart, or hearts, whichever you choose. And Rose, you were fantastic."

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he whirled away. Rose, sight blurring from tears whispered after him. "And so were you."

********************************

The Tardis hummed to herself, things were progressing nicely. Her little Wolf's wounds were healing. Her Thief had been running, yet he had not turned back to the darkness. Instead the memories she had been inserting into his dreams seemed to be helping. It was almost time to bring them together again. But first, there was a task that each of them needed to do . On her part, it was time for her to take her Thief to the Ood, he was ready.

Her Wolf needed time yet, recovering from her mental battle. She had a bit of time, but there was something drawing near, something that risked all of time. Skipping him ahead, would cut things close, but her Thief was sometimes better, when he didn't have time to over-think.

**

Wrapping both hands around the coffee cup, Rose gave a half smile to Bob who was sitting across from her. He mimicked her motion, leaning in towards her, keeping his voice just a notch below conversational. "So, you want to tell me what this is all about? Not that I don't enjoy a nice trip to Chiswick. But sadly I don't think this is about running away with me. So, why Chiswick and why this Coffee Shop?"

Rose's eyes dropped to the menu of the Bad Wolf Café. Her lips twitched up for a moment, before relaxing back into the half smile. "As for the last question, it has special meaning for me. For the first, I need to ask you a couple of questions before I explain."

Tapping his fingers on his mug, Bob gave her a bright smile. "As long as I don't have to take a test afterwards, rather rubbish at them. For some reason when you take a test they don't like it when you rewrite the questions to suit your answers, go figure!"

She had to grin at that, amusement sparkling in her eyes briefly before fading. "No tests, just the opportunity to help someone else out."

"Oh?" Bob's eyebrows lifted. "Well on with the questions then."

Taking a sip of coffee, she studied him before starting. "First question, how strong do you think my mind is now?"

He made a show of carefully studying her, tipping his head one way and then the other almost bird like. "I'd say stronger then you ever have been. It's been two weeks since your confrontation, and it is rather remarkable the difference. To be honest Rose, I've never seen anything like it."

Her hands tightened on her mug as she thought that over. Then giving a nod she moved on. "Okay, second question, you have always helped me from the outside, never actually gone into my mind, why?"

Leaning back, he released his coffee mug to fold his hands over his stomach. "Oh, that is a much trickier question. Well, there are several reasons. First, you already had so many outside influences in your head. Adding mine to it could cause an overload, alterations to your personality; quite frankly you were too weak in the beginning for me to safely do it."

She looked thoughtful, taking a sip of her coffee. "What about now though, you did say I was stronger."

Giving a shrug, his fingers briefly straightened before folding together again. "For one, it is a rather intimate thing to do, especially between two telepaths. It is less so when one of them is not. In your case particularly, I really don't want to make the people connected to you angry for trespassing."

Her brows furrowed as she worked that one out. "Hang on, you mean the Tardis and…. oh. Well, I could see why you would be cautious there. Well, the good news is I supposed I don't actually want you to go into my head."

"I sense a but coming here."

Her lips quirked in a half smile. "Yeah well, I was asked to seek someone out and help her, and to bring you along for help."

Taking his nod as permission to continue she gathered her thoughts. "See the thing is, she literally saved the universe, but at a cost. A Time Lord's gifts were essentially down loaded into her brain, but a human's brain isn't capable of handling it. Left intact, her brain would burn and she would die. So what was done was all her memories of what had happened were repressed. The problem is, memories make who we are, and her experiences which she was forced to forget had really allowed her to realize how brilliant she was."

"I see." Picking his cup of coffee back up to take a sip he gestured with it first. "I take it you have a plan? How did you find out about all that?"

Rose's half smile reappeared. "Some of it I saw, some of it Jack told me. I was told, by the unwelcome guest in my head, that there is a place in my head that could handle it. It was his last request really; he wanted to do something good before he … left."

Bob gave Rose a very intent look. "So, let me get this straight, you want to find a woman that doesn't remember anything about what happened. You want to extract the dangerous part of her brain and put it in yours. Said dangerous thing could possibly burn out her brain if let loose. And you are taking the word of a madman about the whole thing, and trusting he wasn't trying to hurt you by asking you to do it. There is the added bonus that since you are telling me here, you didn't tell the rest what you wanted to do. So they are probably not going to be happy when we get back, does that sum it all up?"

Cheerily she answered him, "Yep, that about covers it."

He leaned in again towards her grinning. "When do we start?"

Her full smile flashed, and for a moment, she looked truly happy. "You remind me a bit of him you know, the Doctor I mean."

Bob's posture and expression shifted, looking very innocent. "Do I now?"

With a curious tilt of her head she noted the change. "Is that deliberate on your part? Hang on, you don't even know him."

With a small smile Bob tented his fingers on the table. "Rose, my species are telepaths and we adapt to make people comfortable. It is instinct for us. Now mind you we don't go into anyone's minds and pick things out, it just happens. I'm still, well me, but sometimes we adopt mannerisms instinctively, especially when we are trying to help."

Chewing on her lip she nodded. "Like the earth chameleon, who changes colors to blend in. Only your lot does it with behaviors."

"Exactly so, not meant to trick anyone, mostly it's a survival technique. However it does come in hand for fitting in, and a great trick for office parties. "

She smiled and her gaze wandered to outside. Suddenly her eyes widened in recognition. Bob turned to see what she was looking at, and there was an older man standing out there looking astonished to see Rose. "As for getting started, I'd say right about now."

It didn't take much for them to convince Wilf to let them help Donna. In fact, he greeted Rose with a question if she could find the Doctor to help Donna. Apparently saving someone's life from the Daleks with a giant gun leaves an impression, he had no trouble remembering her. When he found out that she wanted to help Donna herself, he all but tried to drag them back to the house. Sylvia was gone visiting relatives, so it happened to be an excellent timing.

In the end, it was Bob that went inside the House with Wilf to first see Donna. They couldn't risk her seeing Rose, and starting to remember before they were ready. Still there was one more step that needed to be taken in order to do this. They needed consent, and Wilf's was enough to get the process started, but not enough to go into Donna's mind. Especially not when Bob realized there were some pretty powerful protections that had been left in place. There was, though, a way around that particular issue.

At the kitchen table, enjoying a cup of tea, Bob carefully, and deftly, managed to slip Donna into a hypnotized state. This would allow him to ask questions, hopefully without triggering memories. Bob was careful not to make any suggestions, only ask questions. "Donna, you are in a safe place here. Your Grandfather is here watching over you. I have some questions I need to ask you. Now this is very important, you need to just answer the questions Donna, don't try to think of anything except the questions I ask, do you understand?"

Bob kept his voice even while talking to Donna, staying calm and collected. As for her part, Donna seemed calm, and accepting. She smiled briefly at the mention of Wilf. "I understand."

"Donna, there are memories of yours that have been hidden for your own protection. It was done to save your life. Now we can try to get those memories back for you, but there is a risk."

Her response was almost immediate. "I want to remember."

He didn't start with surprise, but his eyebrows rose, and then furrowed. "Why do you want to remember?"

"I want to be important again." Her reply was firm, insistent even.

Giving her a slightly troubled look, Bob continued with his questions. "Donna you know there are people that you are important to still. You don't need to remember in order to be important."

This time her tone was a bit impatient. "I said, I want to remember, there is something I should be doing and I'm not." Donna's forehead wrinkled slightly on her last words.

"Alright Donna, two more things I need you to know. I need your permission for my friend and me to go into your mind to fix it. You should also know there is a risk to this, it could hurt you very badly."

This time she almost huffed at him. "Oi, I told you already, I want them back. Now get on with it already, do whatever you need to."

Lifting his eyebrows, Bob looked over to a chuckling Wilf. "That's my Donna, she's got spirit. I'll go get Rose now so you can get started."

Excitedly he got up to fetch Rose, missing the small wince from Bob at the mention of her name. Everything that might trigger a memory would put Donna at risk until they were done. Still it seemed to have done no harm. Giving a small head-shake, he reached to take one of Donna's hands in his own. This time, he simply gave a little mental nudge, not needing to bother with hypnosis. It sent Donna into a deeper meditative state. This would be easier for them to work with.

The sound of the door closing, and footsteps coming closer caught his attention. Rose slid into a seat next to him an excited smile on her face. "So, what do we do?"

Bob reached with his free hand to take Rose's. "Put your other hand on her temple, yours is the more dangerous part of this actually so be careful and go slow. Together we'll find the locked up bit, and it will be your job to draw out the parts that shouldn't be there. I'll monitor you both, and unlock her memories when it is safe to."

He didn't bother to ask Rose if she was ready, or if she was sure she wanted to do this. The answer was evident in the excited buzz of her emotions and unspoken words. Holding hands like this meant the surface of it all flowed over him. So he gave her a nod towards Donna. Rose reached to make the final connection, lightly grazing the other woman's temples with her fingertips.

It was very different this time, instead of being placed within setting, it felt like diving into a web of energy. Despite being in a meditative state, Donna's mind shone brightly with an intricate lattice of connections. ~Oh, it is so beautiful. ~

Bob's "voice" flowed back to her, carrying approval. ~And very delicate. There are many ways to view the mind Rose; it all depends on what you need. ~

She recognized the dark green of his energy, helping guide her. It had been an interesting surprise when she had realized that mental presences could have a corresponding color. If she looked for them, it helped her recognize who had potential or training. Jack, she had noted to her amusement, was a warm red. Bob's was a deep green, while hers a bright gold laced with pinks. Rose wasn't sure if there was significance to the colors, but now was not the time to ask.

Instead she shifted her focus to the web of energy in Donna's mind. It had the clean white light of a non-telepath, and it was hard not to just stop and admire. However they were there for a purpose. Carefully she searched along the lattice, as she knew Bob was doing the same. At the same time almost they noticed it, an area that was darkened and encased behind a deep blue barrier.

This was going to be the tricky part. They had permission to be there, but the barrier was placed by an outside force. The energy of it was deep, and there were flecks and swirls of gold laced through it. As Rose drew close, it brightened slightly, and then relaxed; it almost seemed as if it recognized her. However when Bob approached it toughened, and it wasn't until Rose "pulled" Bob's presence along that it relaxed. She could feel Bob's intense curiosity about that, but they both left if for later.

Working in tandem, they reached for the messy knot of energy sparking in front of them. Instead of the open airy lattice, this was a confused knot, hopelessly tangled with a vine of bright blue fire. Bob's green reached to help the lattice, while Rose's gold reached towards the blue fire. Instinctively she sang to it, a golden melody that wove around the blue fire, creating a path for it to flow down.
There was nothing that could have really prepared her for the moment her song wove with the blue fire. It was knowledge and strength. It was both fire and ice, it was both terrifying and oddly comforting. Somehow, it also seemed to like her. Almost instantly it flowed along her touch, uncovering the lattice it was knotted around bit by bit. It was slow at first, and then almost eagerly it came to her. The fact that Bob was handling the memory part of Donna's mind was a good thing, because it was that entire Rose could do to handle the influx of energy. The blue fire apparently found her much more to its liking, because in a very short time, Donna's memories were completely free of it. It was tangled up in her own energy.

Rose felt Bob's assurance that he had Donna's memory in hand, and his urge for her to withdraw so she could deal with the blue fire. Very carefully she started to pull back to herself, still weaving the song. Her hand dropped from Donna's temples, and her hand pulled from Bob as she turned her focus totally inward.

It was strong, and she struggled to keep it from overwhelming her. Dimly she noted another voice singing in the back of her mind. She recognized the song of the Tardis, and sent a wordless pulse of thanks. Together the two worked to gently pull the blue fire into the place waiting for it. It resisted, not wanting to be tucked away. Instead, it wanted to spread through and settle along the golden network of her mind. But it could not resist the two songs working together, and eventually most of it was tucked away. A few tendrils were extended, lightly twining with a part of her lattice. Carefully she examined them, and noted they would not harm her, so she left them.

While she was busily working in her own mind, she noted the distant voices which meant that Bob had finished, and Donna was waking up. Her lips curved slightly at Donna's exclamation that the skinny spaceman should just wait until she got her hands on him for doing that to her. The not so muted voice of Donna then expressed surprise Rose was there, and concern. As she settled the last strands of blue fire, she managed to mutter, albeit somewhat fuzzily. "M'fine, just need a nap I think."

Rose would have been more concerned about what was happening with her, if not for an unexpected side effect. The blue fire had brightened the energy of her mind, and the woven link between her and the Tardis momentarily hummed with its strength. There was another link there though, and it was also affected. A thin gold cord was lightly entwined with her, and for a moment, it too blazed bright. Its light faded some, but not down to the just warm light from before.

Idly she noted there was a feeling of shock and recognition coming from the other end of it. Unfortunately that was being rapidly overwhelmed by her need to rest, now. The last thing she heard reverberating down the link was a familiar voice, going a bit high pitched and squeaky. ~What? What!?~