Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it nor do I make any money off it.

A/N I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOU GUYS. The last chapter was so well-received. I was admittedly a bit nervous but you all loved it immensely. Thank you for that.

So, this is the official start of Series 4. The events of 'Partners in Crime' and the return of Donna Noble to the story. I know a lot of you were looking forward to this.

A reader of mine, Way Worse Than Scottish, suggested that I do a mini-summary before every chapter. I have never done it before so I would appreciate what you think about it. I welcome feedback.

Link to Rose's outfit on profile.

Songs for the chapter: 'A Noble Girl About Town' and 'Donna's Theme' from the Doctor Who Series 4 Soundtrack.

Happy Reading!


Story so far: Rose returned back to the Eleventh Doctor and River instructed her to fulfil the paradox of going back to help her younger self. Rose set a newly regenerated River the task of finding Jenny and the Tenth Doctor in the right timeline.

Hello Again, Miss Noble

The Doctor looked around the empty TARDIS and sighed. It had been six months since Martha had left and five months since he had seen Rose. The silence in the TARDIS was eating at him.

He wondered why Rose hadn't come back. Had she finally had enough? He could hardly blame her. She had been imprisoned for so long, on the verge of dying. And then walking the Earth. But she had seemed fine when they had gone off on the Titanic.

The second explanation was his future self was reluctant to part with her. And he could hardly blame him too. He wondered how had he not gone insane when he had let her go, knowing what was going to happen. And he wondered how he would get the strength to do it when time came.

Maybe the knowledge that Rose would be fine was what kept him sane. He wondered if it was enough.

Whatever the reason for her absence, he missed her. When she was around, her presence comforted him and his loneliness seemed to seep away.

And then there was Martha's departure. He would never forgive himself for what had happened to her. The earnest and bright doctor he had met in London had been turned into a hardened warrior. No wonder she left. It was a miracle she didn't hate him.

Maybe he should stay away from companions. He made them worse; took away their innocence and filled it with cynicism and brutal reality. He was old and jaded but he had no right to do that to someone else.

He rubbed a hand across his face and looked at the beeping TARDIS screen. His hearts plummeted and despite his dark thoughts, a wide grin broke out on his face. She had always had that effect on him.

Hello love

Earth. London. 2008. Adipose Diet Pills.

See you there.

Bad Wolf


"How long has it been?" she murmured, rubbing the back of his head as he buried his face in her neck.

"Five months," he mumbled, letting her scent comfort him.

Her grip tightened on him. "I'm sorry," she said. "You seemed rather reluctant to let me go."

"I don't blame myself," he said, pulling away but keeping his arms around her. "I wonder how I'll do that again."

Rose reached up and kissed him lovingly. "Don't worry about it right now," she said.

He smiled and stroked her face. "So what should we worry about now?"

Rose grinned. "Adipose Industries. We should check it out."


Donna Noble got dressed in her best pantsuit and went into the office building of Adipose Industries. They were definitely worth checking out. It had been slightly over a year since she had been looking for the Doctor and Rose.

It was a long and frustrating search. They had a habit of leaving no footprints. So she started tracing any and all strange happenings hoping one of them would lead her to them. One year on and no luck. But she didn't give up. Looking for them gave her a purpose to get up every morning.

She reached the Adipose seminar a bit late and so the auditorium was already dark. She slipped into a seat near the door and watched Ms. Foster advertise the new diet pills. She was right; it was definitely suspicious.

Deciding to check more, Donna slipped out and went to the office upstairs. What she didn't notice was a couple slip out the other exit.


"You're right," the Doctor said as he and Rose slipped out of the other exit of the auditorium. "This is definitely fishy."

Rose nodded. "Could they be lacing the pills with something?" she asked.

"But why?" he asked. "What do they get by getting humans to lose weight?"

Rose pursed her lips but had no answer. The Doctor took her hand and they went upstairs to check the offices.


As the day came to an end, Donna slipped into a cubicle in the women's bathroom and waited. What she needed was to take a long, good look when no one was around. She sat cross-legged on the closed toilet seat and waited.

Rose and the Doctor hid in the janitor's closet while the office closed and the personnel left. The Doctor spent his time hacking into the mainframe while Rose helped from time to time. They spent the rest of the time, catching up with each other and their activities over the past five months.


Donna heard the bathroom door slam open. She tensed and waited quietly.

"I know you're there," she heard Ms. Foster say. "Come out, come out."

Donna's heart hammered but she didn't move a muscle.

"Alright," Ms. Foster said. "You wanna do this the hard way?" she asked. "Get her," she ordered someone.

The first cubicle slammed open. Donna flinched. She knew she was in the fifth stall.

The second one slammed loudly. Donna considered just revealing herself but sat back.

The third one. Donna closed her eyes and waited.

The fourth one. "AHA!" she heard Ms. Foster exclaim and Donna opened her eyes slowly. Her door was still closed.

Puzzled, she listened as the reporter was discovered in the stall before hers. As she heard Ms. Foster lead her away, Donna breathed a sigh of relief and slowly walked out of the bathroom.


The Doctor and Rose peered into Ms. Foster's office. They saw a woman being tied to a chair while Ms. Foster questioned her.

"What's that about, you think?" Rose asked the Doctor.

The Doctor shrugged. "Seems like we're not the only ones suspicious of the Adipose pills," he said.

"We should get her out of there. I don't trust Ms. Foster. Her henchmen will shoot her easily," Rose said, looking worried.

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed and a flash of red caught his eye. He looked there and stopped. Donna Noble was staring at him and Rose with her mouth open. He tapped Rose on the shoulder and nodded at Donna.

Donna was beyond excited. "Doctor! Rose!" she mouthed.

"Donna!" the Doctor and Rose mouthed back.

"OH MY GOD!" she mouthed. "I have been looking for you everywhere," she gestured.

"What for?" he asked.

She began to mime something but then her eyes fell on Ms. Foster who was staring between them. "Are we interrupting?"

"RUN!"


Donna ran up the stairs, ecstatic. She had found them. She nearly ran into the Doctor but stopped herself just in time. Not for long, she threw her arms around him in a hug. "Oh my God, it's you," she said happily.

"And you!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Rose. "Look at you two, you look the same. Don't you ever change," she said, looking at them with bright eyes.

"Yeah, Donna, not now," the Doctor said, taking hers and Rose's hand and leading them to the roof.

"What are you doing here, though?" Rose asked her as the Doctor soniced the cradle to take them back down.

"I was looking for the two of you," she said. "And I thought, how do you find you? And it was simple. Look for trouble and one of you is bound to show up sooner or later. So, I went online. Conspiracies, aliens, bees disappearing and all."

"The bees are disappearing?" Rose asked, wondering where she had heard that before.

"Yeah," Donna said, excited. "The things is, yeah? You two, you opened my eyes. I believe in everything now. Well, except the Titanic over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day."

Rose grinned. "Well that one is true. We were there," she said.

Donna's mouth dropped open. "No...way," she said. "You were at the Palace?"

"No," the Doctor interrupted. "We were on the Titanic. Now, come on you two, get in."

Rose climbed in but Donna looked at it doubtfully. "What, in that thing?"

"Yes in that thing," the Doctor said like it was obvious.

"But Foster can just pull this back," she said.

"Nah, he's locked it with sonic," Rose said.

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed. "Unless she has a sonic device of her own..."

"Alright," Donna agreed and climbed in.


Ms. Foster smirked as she severed one of the cables holding the cradle. The cradle tilted and Donna fell out, holding on to the broken cable.

"Hold on," Rose cried as the Doctor tried to stabilise them.

"I AM!" Donna yelled back. "This is all your fault," she said, looking at the height. "I should have stayed at home."

"Any ideas?" Rose asked the Doctor.

The Doctor winked at her and pointed his screwdriver straight at the sonic device in Ms. Foster's hand. It sparked and fell down straight into Rose's hand. He grinned as he unlocked a window. "Come on, in we go," he grinned.

They got Donna safely inside and ran straight into Ms. Foster and her henchmen. "Who are you?" the Doctor asked.

"Matron Cofelia of the Five-Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic Class," she said.

"A wet nurse?" Rose asked in astonishment.

"But this is a level five planet. You know breeding is illegal," the Doctor said.

"The breeding planet of the Adiposian First Family was lost," she said.

"Lost?" the Doctor asked sceptically. "How do you lose a whole planet?"

"So, she's like an outer-space nanny?" Donna asked.

"Yes, she's using humans as surrogates. The fat that walks away is actually adipose babies," Rose explained.

"I'm trying to help you, Matron," the Doctor said. "This is your only chance; if you don't call this off, I'll have to stop you."


"Why do they never listen?" Rose asked as they ran downstairs, their ears still ringing with the shrill sound of the sonics.

"I don't know," the Doctor said as he began to pull stuff out of the janitor's closet.

"Hiding in a cupboard?" Donna asked. "Brilliant idea," she said, trying not to sound like she thought this was the worst idea in the world.

Rose giggled. "It's got the mainframe in here," she explained. "Foster's put the final step in action. The conversion has begun."

"What're we gonna do?" Donna asked.

"Cancel the signal," the Doctor said. He fiddled with the controls and the inducer started decreasing.

Rose sighed in relief. "Good, it's stopping," she said.

"No, no, no," the Doctor groaned as the inducer started increasing. "She's doubled it."

"What do you need?" Rose asked sharply.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," he said, looking at Rose.

Rose grabbed his collar. "Focus," she ordered. "What do you need?"

The Doctor looked surprised at her snippy tone. "Uh...a second capsule," he said.

"Donna," Rose said, looking at Donna. "You wouldn't happen to have an extra adipose necklace, would you?"

Donna grinned and handed Rose the necklace. Rose beamed at her and gave the necklace to the Doctor, who used it to stop the process. The machines whirred to a stop. For a moment, the three of them stared at the mainframe in silence and then burst into laughter.


"So," Donna said as she walked back to the TARDIS with the Doctor and Rose.

"So," the Doctor smiled. "Donna Noble," he said. "I thought you were going to travel the world."

"I did that," she said. "The day after I met you but then after a while, it was back to my old life," she said, her eyes sad. "I made the biggest mistake of my life," she said.

"Yeah? What was that?" he asked.

"Turning down your offer to come with you," she said.

Rose smiled at the Doctor who sighed and looked at Donna with regret. "Donna," he said but Donna had unlocked her car and had started pulling out bags after bags. She piled them into the Doctor's arms. "You have a hat box," he said, forgetting his line of thought at the sight of the bizarre piece of luggage.

"Planet of the Hats, I'm ready," she said happily.

The Doctor put down the bags and looked at Donna seriously. "Donna," he said.

Donna looked at his face and felt her smile slide off. "You don't want me to come," she said, trying not to sound crushed and failing.

"I travelled with someone before," he said. "Martha Jones. Brilliant but things got complicated," he said.

Donna nodded, trying not to look as defeated as she felt. Rose turned to the Doctor. "But Doctor," she said.

"I can't do that to anyone else, Rose," he said, his tone pleading. He looked back at Donna. "Martha fancied me and it got bad," he said.

Donna nodded in understanding even as she wondered how anyone would fall in love with the Doctor when even a blind person could see the Doctor and Rose were inseparable.

"I just want a mate," the Doctor said.

Donna stared. "You just want to mate?" she asked, her mouth open.

"I just want a mate," he said while Rose burst into giggles both at his tone and the expression of disgust on Donna's face.

"Well just as well," she said. "I'm not having any of that nonsense. You and Rose can do whatever alien stuff you do but you're not mating with me, sunshine."

Rose actually burst into loud peals of laughter at that. The Doctor smiled at Donna. "Okay," he said.

"I can come?" Donna asked.

"Yeah," the Doctor said.

"Then my work here is done," Rose said with a grin.

"Wait, you're not coming?" Donna asked.

"Nope," Rose answered cheerfully. "But I will see you soon." She kissed the Doctor lovingly. "See you, love." She hugged Donna who hugged her back, still confused. "Look after him," she whispered and Donna nodded.

Rose pulled away and smiled at two of them before disappearing further down the alley. Donna looked at the Doctor for an explanation. "Later," he promised. "Come on then, Allons-y!"

"Wait," Donna said. "My car keys. Just hold on," she said, racing back to the street.


River Song looked around the police barricade. There was no sign of them. She sighed and decided to go back to the university. Her dissertation still needed work. She was about to turn and leave when someone tapped her shoulder.

"Excuse me," the ginger woman said. "There's a blonde woman called Sylvia. When she gets here, just tell her, that bin there," she said, pointing at a bin.

River stared back at her in bewilderment. The ginger woman smiled giddily at her. "It will all make sense. That bin there," she repeated and then flounced off.

River stared after her and then slowly began to walk away. The Doctor and Rose had been here, she knew. She had read about the Adipose incident in her textbook. But it appeared that she had missed them. Slightly disappointed, she started looking for a spot to vanish inconspicuously.

It was back to books for her. Find Jenny and then find Rose and the Doctor. She still had work to do.


A/N And scene. So, Donna's back.

I know I kept a lot of Donna's lines the same but honestly, they are too good to be changed.

So, how did you like it? Let me know. Did you know we are almost close to 500 reviews? How did that happen?

Anyway, the next chapter is based on the events of 'Fires of Pompeii'. It's an amazing episode. The chapter will be up on Sunday.

See you then.

Cheers x