A/N: I was serious when I said every day this week ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or Doctor Who or any of the related rights.

...

"I like the ponytail. You should wear your hair up more often," Dean said. He had his feet propped up on the table and a bowl of popcorn on his lap.

"Thanks," Donna said. She was sitting beside him sharing the bowl of popcorn. The Doctor had gone off to talk with Sam, and Bobby had gone on a walk to "clear his head," which clearly meant he almost didn't believe Dean—if he hadn't seen the Doctor materialize for himself . . . .

They'd just pulled up whatever was on TV. Just the local news. Mostly they were just talking and eating.

She was prettier than he remembered, which was weird, because she'd been his babysitter when he was hardly old enough to get himself dressed. Maybe it was just that she looked more confident. Or maybe it was that he was older now and she was more his age.

Still. Babysitter.

Donna grinned over at him. "So, Sammy called us over to tell us you're dying, and here you are, walking and talking. Any Fountain of Youth secrets you want to share? No angel to drag you back into the land of the living this time, I'd think."

"This time?" Dean laughed but couldn't tell if Donna was kidding.

Donna glanced at him with sudden alarm, then mimicked his laugh and leaned back again. "Spoilers," she said quietly.

"You sound like River."

"You know River?" Donna leaned forward, her eyes sparkling with interest.

"Yeah, I've hunted with her a few times now, and she travels with the Doctor sometimes," Dean shrugged. "But I thought he wouldn't meet her til after your time. You've met, then?" He was starting to recognize the time travel headache.

"Just recently, yeah. At the library. But you didn't mention her last time I saw you." But then Donna fell silent, and Dean could tell it wasn't something she wanted to talk about.

So he figured he'd change the subject. "Doctor's a bit jumpier than usual," he observed. This model's not usually the flustered worrisome type."

"This model?" Donna raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "He's been through a lot lately," she said. "First the library and then he goes and gets himself taken over by an alien and nearly thrown out of a bus for getting too clever."

Dean winced. Yep, that sounded like the Doctor he knew. Had a knack for trouble. "Yeah, well, maybe it's good he and Sam are off together. They could use a little quiet time—the pair of them."

"Yeah?" Donna leaned forward, and her eyes asked the question for her.

Dean sighed. He knew Sam would hate it if Dean told tales on him, but it was the Doctor and Donna, and if there was one thing they knew how to do, it was keep secrets. Even from each other as they met in passing. "There was this girl," he said.

"Ah," Donna said in a say no more kind of way.

"And she turned out to be a werewolf," Dean continued.

Donna winced.

The two of them turned almost in unison towards the doorway so they could see the Doctor and Sam talking in hushed voices. Sam looked agitated; the Doctor looked apologetic. And Dean could basically imagine how the conversation was going.

"I called you foreverago! Dean got electrocuted, and if you'd been around to save him, we would have been spared an encounter with a Reaper and having to trade Dean's life for someone else's," Sam was probably saying.

"I got here as soon as I got your message," the Doctor was probably saying. He had the I'm so sorry face on.

"It wasn't soon enough," Sam was probably saying.

Donna caught Dean's gaze, and Dean grinned at her, knowing that she was probably playing the same "probably saying" conversation in her own head, though her Doctor's version of things was probably closer to what he was actually saying. Donna did travel with the guy, after all.

Dean sighed. He wished he could travel with the Doctor. He thought about it more and more often lately. He was tired, and he didn't want to keep going down this road, worrying about Sammy and what Yellow Eyes had planned for him, waiting for that one day when he would have to do the unthinkable, knowing that he'd die first. What he wouldn't give to just run away with the Doctor.

That seemed to be the common theme with the guy's companions anyway, the running away thing. Running away from the ordinary, running towards the extraordinary.

The Doctor and Sam were headed back into the office now, and Bobby seemed to be done with his walk and headed back inside too.

And that's when the idea started somewhere in the back of Dean's mind, and his mouth got moving before he could think himself out of the idea.

"Listen, Doc," Dean said, "we've got a case we were going to check out. It's a few miles' drive north and probably a couple days' worth of hunting, but you look like you could use the fresh air." He looked pointedly at Sam. "And my usual backup is in dire need of a vacation."

Sam's eyes said thank you, but out loud, the kid said, "You don't need to baby me, Dean."

"I'm not babying you," Dean said. You're welcome.

"What use is the Doctor gonna be on a hunt? You gonna give him a gun?" Sam teased. Don't make me out to be a coward.

I wouldn't do that. At least not in front of the Doctor. Dean grinned. "I dunno. I think Donna could scare it off all on her own."

"You bet I could," Donna said confidently.

Sam let his shoulders droop. Thanks. "Fine. I needed to check up with Ash anyway. I've got him running some numbers for me."

Dean knew Ash didn't have anything, and so did Sam—Ash had always told them to go away and wait til I call you when they asked. But it was a good enough excuse to save face, and a berating phone call was a small price to pay for a few days' silence and sleep.

The Doctor hadn't been following Dean and Sam's silent conversation with the usual rapt attention that he did, and Dean caught Donna's gaze. He nodded imperceptibly to show her that, yes, he'd noticed the subdued Doctor too, and they were definitely going to do something about that.

"Bet you've never heard of a windigo before, Doc," Dean said to get his friend's attention.

The Doctor looked up at Donna instead of Dean, and that's when Dean saw it. The masked terror. He was still thinking about the last creature he faced.

Donna looked at Dean, too, and Dean sighed. He knew the best solution to a hunt gone wrong, at least with someone who couldn't get out of the life, was to go on an easy hunt, to build confidence. He was thinking it would probably be the same with the Doctor and his monster, but it was hard to tell. There was so much out there in space and time that he didn't have a way to possibly even start to relate to what his friend had seen.

Still, best to keep the Doctor moving, keep him working on some new problem. That's when the Doctor was at his best—when he was in the middle of action. Standing or sitting didn't suit him at all.

"I know what they are," the Doctor said. "I always figured they were urban legends, just something to frighten people away from cannibalism. They're in almost every culture, in different guises, but yes, always there." He looked to Donna, who was waiting for an explanation with her arms crossed over her chest, and said, "They're creatures who were once human, but they were starving, or something happened, no one knows, and they ate their fellow men." The Doctor shuddered. "It's not a very kind legend."

"Want to hunt one?"

The Doctor looked very tired, but at last he nodded. "I'll come along," he said. "Just don't expect me to kill anything."

"I'll do the killing," Dean assured him. "You two are coming along for . . . cheerleading purposes."

Dean caught Donna's eye, expecting to see her grin back at him, but now she was frowning. Seemed the prospect of cheering the Doctor up by going after a maneating monster wasn't exactly her idea of fun.