A/N: Sorry folks! Nano followed by holidays is evidently a large time suck. Thank you for all the gentle pushing notes though! I'm working to get back on track! Also, sorry for short update!

"Gone missing?" Donna was still dusting sand from her palms as she stepped onto the Tardis. Humid salty air billowed in behind her. Over her shoulder, bright yellow sunshine reflected off a tropical beach where they had landed.

The human time lord hybrid had clearly dressed for the occasion in her comically over-sized hat and a bright red sun dress. She pushed her lime-green sunglasses up onto her forehead, the annoyance of her holiday being interrupted gradually fading as she spotted the Professor and raised an eyebrow. "Thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on her?"

"She vanished into thin air." The Professor's voice was sharp and defensive. That was exactly what he was supposed to be doing. He'd hardly expected her to get into any trouble running a coffee shop. And yet she had, and he'd failed to do anything to prevent it.

"Yes, well that's fairly typical for her, isn't it?" Donna snorted, she turned and shut the door behind her. "Blimey, and I thought I was a handful."

"You were. And continue to be." The Doctor added. "Isn't your mother out there?"

Donna looked at him blankly.

"You know, because you were taking a break, to visit family." The Doctor frowned to himself.

"That, was three weeks ago. And you've interrupted me twice since then." She took her hat off and flung it at the Doctor like a Frisbee. He ducked to avoid its path as though it were something venomous.

"Right, well. Hard to come by handy sidekicks." The Doctor grunted and adjusted his bowtie self-consciously.

"Not your sidekick." Donna regarded him coolly. "So what's happened to Fitz?"

"She's been gone for a few hours and we've… no idea where to start looking." The Doctor admitted, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Ailla?" Donna asked hesitantly, it was obviously on all of their minds.

"There's no direct evidence as of yet." The Professor said, still foolishly hoping it might be something, anything else.

Donna seemed to sense his level of denial and opted not to push it. "Alright, have we got something we can run through the bio sensor?"

"Yes," the Doctor cleared his throat, shooting the Professor a look. "We just happened to have one handy."

"Don't give him that look," Donna snorted. "I'd have done the same."

The Professor gave her a slight nod, perhaps she would still prove to be useful.

"So I'm guessing you didn't find her?" She asked.

"No. Apparently she's not anywhere. Local."

"Well. On the bright side, that means she's not dead." Donna shrugged.

That was little comfort. It was true that if she were dead in this universe, the Tardis would have come up with a result. But that didn't mean she couldn't be dead elsewhere, beyond this universe. He ground his teeth together and bit back the unpleasant response he'd had in mind for Donna. That wouldn't find her any quicker.

"She just vanished then?"

"She was taken." The Professor clarified. Though it was not a far reach to believe Fitzgerald could, at some point in the future, develop the unpleasant habit of vanishing all on her own. "There was a women in the cafe basement with her. Maybe in her twenties, dark skin. Head shaved down the sides, longer on the top. Utilitarian garments," he sighed. He could relive the moment in slow motion, but nothing particularly important stood out. The woman had her back to him when he'd reached the bottom of the stairs. "There was a blue patch on her jacket. An arrow or a V."

"That might be something," Donna shrugged, though it was clear she didn't hold out much hope. "Can you sketch it out?"

The Professor took a notebook out of his pocket, careful to flip past the notes he'd been taking, and roughly drew out the patch. There wasn't really much to it. No name or affiliation, just the circle and the two lines within it.

Donna squinted at the sketch, "Oh!" She brightened. "Jack'll be able to help us sort that."

"Harkness?" The Professor frowned. He couldn't recall seeing Jack with anything resembling the patch.

"Sure. Unless she plucked it off a corpse, she's part of the Time Agency."

"The Time Agency?" The Doctor scowled. "Jack hasn't been part of that in ages!"

"Well he's not full-time or anything, but they consult with him from time to time. Honestly, do you ever pay attention to what's going on in anyone's life but your own?"

"I pay plenty of attention. He's just too busy flirting to mention 'oh, I've had a run in with my old employer, look, I even got the special patch.'" The Doctor waved his hands in the air dramatically and Donna just rolled her eyes. "Hang on, since when have you been spending so much time with Jack?"

"Never mind that, spaceman," she was already fiddling with the Tardis controls, the ship humming to life as she moved. "We've got our girl to find."