After he said goodbye to Mr Copper he was tired and weary. Battle scarred again, too many people died today, the sweet married couple, the strange robot and the beautiful Astrid. Astrid...she overwhelmed him for some strange reason. Something about her felt so familiar, it wasn't till he saw her glance over her shoulder before she fell over to her death he realised.

She reminded him of Rose.

He felt ill, never before had he been attracted to someone because they reminded him of someone else. Never. It felt incredibly wrong. Right now there was only one person he could go to, one place he can rest in, he knew it would be all right. For a start his presence has been demanded and another Wilf spoke to him last night and kept raving how better he is and how the Doctor should get Donna out of the house before she drives Sylvia up the wall.

The TARDIS started before he could even punch in the co-ordinates; apparently she knew what he should do as well. The TARDIS went quickly, quietly and smoothly and the moment she stopped he yanked the door open to see Donna standing there in slippers and dressing gown thrown over her flannel pyjamas.

"You cocked up again" she announced.

The Doctor groaned. "Please tell me this isn't Christmas 2009" he begged.

"It's not but you still cocked up" Donna said handing him her mobile. The text message was displayed on the screen in bold letters: soz can't come 2 Xmas, Doc cocked up, in Feb. 08

"Bugger" the Doctor muttered.

"Yeah you need to work on your piloting skills" Donna said shaking her head.

"So I take it you forgiven Jack if you invited him round for Christmas" the Doctor said casually.

"What? Nah, we arranged this earlier I refuse to speak to him since he announced that. Check my text messages" Donna said with a satisfied smirk. The Doctor went through, each of them were a mixture of grovelling, pleading and down right dirty. Jack was getting desperate the Doctor can see. "You look tired" Donna said softly. "Come inside and we'll have a cuppa before Mum and Granddad wake up"

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

The news was on the TV turned down low; Donna apparently was watching the Titanic almost hit Buckingham Palace when he came.

"I take it that was you then" she said passing him a much needed cup of tea.

"Yeah" the Doctor whispered.

"Wanna talk about it?" Donna asked softly. "Granddad said he saw you with a blonde..."

"Astrid....she's gone now, died to save us all" the Doctor said not looking up from his tea.

"What was she like?" Donna asked.

"She was like Rose"

"I'm sorry"

"What for?" the Doctor asked looking confused.

"you went on a rebound. I leave you for a while and you end up getting hurt, I should have stayed there to help" Donna rambled.

The Doctor looked shocked. "I do not go on rebounds!" he declared.

Donna snorted. "You're a person; people go on rebounds all the time. I did"

"Yeah and look at how well that turned out. Almost eaten by a giant spider, terrific" the Doctor pointed out.

"Never did like Lance"

The pair jumped and turned to see Wilf and Sylvia walking into the kitchen, they both looked more tired than before but other than that completely healthy.

"Something about him rubbed me the wrong way" Wilf continued. "Now that Captain Harkness bloke, he is definitely good enough for my little general"

"Granddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad" Donna groaned blushing.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

The day went quickly and quietly much to the Doctor's relieve. They opened Christmas presents and much to his surprise Wilf brought him every single version of the Christmas Carol on DVD ("Donna told me all about your Christmas with Charles Dickens" he said proudly.), Sylvia had brought him several new shirts and Donna brought him several...colourful ties...with Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Scooby Doo, etc. Etc. Etc.

"You need something more cheerful in your look" she had declared as she put the Bugs Bunny one on him immediately.

After Donna and her family got dressed they prepared dinner, watched the Muppet version of the Christmas Carol and lazed about after dinner watching Eastenders while rubbing their extremely full bellies. Donna then took the Doctor out to Wilf's favoured hill with a large thermo flask filled with hot chocolate.

"And if you turn this here, look to the far left, squint just a little, that's it" the Doctor instructed Donna. "What do you see?"

"A blob"

"Donna, be a little more imaginative!"

"Ok a silvery blue blob" the Doctor let out a little sigh. "Oh all right then Space-Boy what is it?"'

"A new planet, undiscovered right now in this time but in a century it'll be known as Fortuna, a small little planet with a breathable atmosphere. Silver water and blue grassland but otherwise Earth's twin"

"Wow" Donna breathed. "Hang on, Fortuna? Like the goddess Rose's sculpture was based on" the Doctor had told Donna the story during one of their quiet moments and then took her to see the statue afterwards...she slapped his smug face when he boasted how good he was at sculpting.

"Yep, guess who helped name the planet?"

"You didn't!"

"Just before you landed in my TARDIS"

"You mean when you abducted me out of sheer loneliness?"

"Cheek!"

Donna threw her head back and laughed. When she stopped she stared up at the sky with a twinkle in her eye. "This year coming up" she said. "It'll happen this year coming up"

"What will?" the Doctor asked with a frown.

"Rose's return, she's coming back this year. I'm sure of it" Donna said firmly.

Authors note: and if you want Rose's return to be soon you have to give me 290 reviews. While you're reviewing and waiting you could read What Wolf? By AlexMcPherson, it's a fantastic read.