I finally managed to get out of Pete's world and back to universe prime, only to realize that it's been almost 2 years since I've written 10/Donna, my main reason for coming into fix-it land. I didn't realize how hard it would be to get back into their mindset until I tried to finally write this chapter. With everything that's been going on in my life this year, I'm just thankful my muse is still talking to me. I'm finally back with my OTP, and it's good to be back! I will update as best I can over the holidays, but for those who have hung on through my long absences I can only say thank you and I hope you enjoy.

PART 2

Chapter 8

"Come on, Donna! Stop fussing so much, the Tardis will make sure that everything is perfect for Wilf's stay!"

The Doctor looked on with fond exasperation as Donna bustled in and out of their room, her arms filled with blankets and pillows and all manner of things as she tried to tidy up in preparation for her gramp's arrival.

"This is something that I've been meaning to talk to you about, Doctor. You can't just expect the Tardis to clean up after you all the time! She's got far more important things to worry about then tidying up your messes."

Donna threw the last over her shoulder as she vanished into their dressing room, her armload of bedding barely fitting through the door before she dumped it into the laundry chute that lay just to the right of the door. She smiled as the bigger on the inside chute took the whole mess without any fuss.

They'd spent the last few days floating in the void, licking the last of their wounds and letting the Tardis reorient herself to her new configuration after the near disaster with the failure of the transducer. Donna had spent the first two days asleep more than awake as her body had healed and her mind had finally fully recovered from its time spent in the healing trance. She still couldn't believe that she had been unconscious for nearly 10 days, but that in that time she had been able to heal such serious injuries with barely a mark.

She held her hands up and frowned slightly as the faint spiderweb scars ran across the back of her hands. The marks were really only noticeable if one was staring intently at her skin, but she knew that they were there and that would always remind her of their ordeal as they journeyed to the center of the Tardis.

Donna looked back to the Doctor, her smile changing to a smirk when she saw him standing there with his arms akimbo as she had quite thoroughly blasted through his ordered chaos, as he liked to call it. A bloody fine mess is what it was, and she for one was sick of tripping over his various experiments as they spilled out of his work space.

"Donna, she's been taking care of me for centuries, if she'd had a problem with it, then she would've said something in the past."

There was a flash of annoyance from the Tardis before a blast of cold air nearly flattened the Doctor against the wall. Donna looked up at the wall and just burst out laughing.

"Seems she just didn't make her opinion known before now! It wouldn't kill you to pick up after yourself once in a while."

The Doctor and Donna paused when they felt the Tardis begin to materialize and Donna flew into an absolute frenzy of activity. "Okay we're here, we've got to go meet them. We can't let them know what happened to the Tardis or me. You're sure that you got the date correct? We're not going to be late, are we? I don't want Gramps to have worried.."

The Doctor grabbed Donna's shoulders, his mind reaching into hers to try to still the chaos of her thoughts. He smiled when he felt the instant calm that settled over her with the soft caress of his mind, her eyes flashing up to his as she took a deep, steadying breath. "Donna, relax. Wilf is going to be over the moon to be traveling with us in any capacity. We could be traveling in a cardboard box and he'd think it was fantastic."

She blinked up at him, her eyes locked onto his as she struggled to get her chaotic thoughts under control. "You're sure, Doctor?"

His smile was blinding as he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "Yes, Donna, I'm positive."

She took a deep breath and then smiled when they both heard the knocking on the outside of the Tardis. "It looks like someone was waiting for us!"

The Doctor laughed and took her hand in his before he led the way back into the control room and down the walkway to the double doors. He reached out and pulled it open to find both Wilf and Sylvia standing there waiting on the other side.

"You're late, Doctor!" Sylvia stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the Doctor as she waited for his reply.

Donna's head swiveled to shoot a glare at the Doctor before she turned back to her mom and grandfather and hugged Wilf tight. "I'm sorry we're late! We got tied up with something."

Wilfred Mott hugged his only granddaughter, unable to contain his laughter and relief when he'd finally heard the Doctor's barmy ship appearing across the street. "It's quite alright, sweetheart. I knew you'd both be around soon enough."

Sylvia Noble stood back and just looked at the Doctor, her eyes were flinty as she crossed her arms over her chest and began tapping one foot lightly. The Doctor winced slightly when he noticed the look on Sylvia's face, he decided to turn on his most blinding smile and try to deflect an impending explosion. "We got caught up trying to save another…"

"I don't want to hear it, Doctor. Dad's been waiting by the window for five days! The least you could've done was call to let us know that you were going to be late!"

The Doctor couldn't hide the huge sigh of relief that they'd only missed the date by five days, and that the Tardis hadn't landed them partway into the following year. He grinned winningly at Sylvia even as Wilf pulled away from Donna to shush his daughter. "Now, now Sylv. There's no harm in them being a little late. I'm sure that they were off saving some planet or freeing some race from an evil overlord. Work that's far more important than taking Donna's old Gramps on a tour of the universe!"

The Doctor shook his head with a laugh and pulled Wilfred into the Tardis by the hand that he had reached out to shake in greeting. "Nonsense, Wilf! I'm very sorry that we're a few days late, but the Tardis has been acting up a bit lately and sometimes she doesn't quite manage landings like she's supposed to."

Every word he said was true, it just wasn't the entire truth. He paused just inside the doors as Wilf suddenly became aware of his surroundings, his jaw dropping open as he spun in place in order to try to take in everything that he was seeing.

Sylvia was just behind her father and her hand came up to her chest in shock while she blinked several times to try to see if her eyes were deceiving her. She looked back to Donna and the Doctor, for once not at all annoyed at the pleased smiles on their faces. "It's bigger on the inside!"

The Doctor grinned and pushed the door closed behind Sylvia, his hand reaching out to take hers in order to pull her deeper into the amazing ship. "Yes it is, and this is only the beginning of it! Wait till I show you the Gallifreyan gardens, Sylvia! There are plants there from my home planet the likes of which you can't even imagine and exist nowhere else in the universe." A brief, pained look flashed over his face before he shook his head and continued with barely contained enthusiasm. "The Tardis really is a sort of ark for Gallifreyan flora, the last place in the universe where anything of my home planet exists and I must admit I've sort of let the gardens run wild over the last few centuries."

Donna looked from her mother to the Doctor and could barely contain chuckles at the incongruous sight of her mother's hand held in the Doctor's and Sylvia, for once, wasn't trying to slap him. "What he means, Mum, is that this regeneration has a brown thumb. The Tardis says that his last few regenerations weren't the best gardeners and so they've sort of run riot." She paused and then grinned. "I personally prefer them overgrown, I've seen images of them when they were all manicured and they were just a tad too… stuffy."

"Oi! They were hardly stuffy! They were laid out in perfect symmetry just like the gardens in my family's home back on Gallifrey."

Wilf piped up at that last comment. "I'd love to help you get the gardens back into some order, Doctor! Give my old bones something to do while we travel from place to place."

The Doctor looked at Wilf and smiled fondly before he nodded. "I think that'd be just perfect, Wilf! Maybe you can show me a thing or two that I've forgotten over the last three hundred years."

Wilf just took his comment in stride rubbing his hands together, his eyes shining as he seemed to have overcome his initial shock at finally seeing the inside of the Tardis. He was surprised that such a large space was so warm and welcoming, and the strange glowing amber walls seemed to exude a life all their own. He knew that he would have plenty of fun here and he couldn't wait to see where the Doctor would take them to first.

"Come on, Gramps. Let me show you to your room and then we can take you both on the grand tour!"

The Doctor piped up at Donna's comment, his voice trailing after her as she nearly dragged her grandfather across the control room and down the corridor that was standing just opposite their room. "We can't give them a full grand tour, Donna! That'd take decades!"

"Oh shut it, Spaceman, you know what I meant! You get to show them all the good stuff!"

The Doctor looked to Sylvia, who just stood back with a smile on her face as she seemed to have relaxed now that she'd entered the Tardis. Yes, they were five days late, but she had to admit it was better than when Donna had first been traveling with the Doctor and they'd been gone for months without any word. She decided to cut the Doctor a little slack just this once as she could see her dad was more excited then she'd seen him in years. She knew that this would be a good trip for both him and Donna and she couldn't wait to hear all about it when they came back to earth.

The Doctor reached out to take her arm in his, a bold gesture she had to admit, but she let him get away with it as he led the way after Donna and Wilf. "Shall we then?"

Sylvia just shook her head with a laugh and nodded.

He led the way down a short corridor that ended in an old wooden door, the panels were a softly burnished golden oak and were held together with solid cross pieces. All in all, the door wouldn't be out of place if it were in a rustic cabin somewhere in the woods and Sylvia was taken aback by the warm touch in such an obviously alien environment.

They stepped inside the room to find Donna and Wilf with heads tucked together standing by a stone fireplace that was blazing merrily. Sylvia's eyes about fell out of her head when she saw that the door matched the interior of the room perfectly.

The room looked to be about as large as the entire downstairs of her house. There was a large fireplace that Wilf and Donna were currently standing by and in front of it were a pair of plush leather reading chairs as well as an antique looking table with a Tiffany style lamp perched atop it. There was another seating area with another large, comfortable looking leather couch and a large, very modern looking flat screen telly mounted on the wall. Next to the television area was a large chest of drawers and a queen sized bed that was made up in a simple comforter of red and white rings and enough pillows to sink a battleship.

Wilf looked to Sylvia and just grinned from ear to ear. "Can you believe this room, Sylv? It's just like I've always imagined having in that cabin when Eileen and I used to dream together."

Sylvia looked sharply at her dad, though there was only fond remembrance in his voice and none of the usual pain that always seemed to crop up when he thought of his departed wife. It was like he'd come home, and for that she couldn't have been more grateful to the Doctor.

"It's a lovely room, Dad. I'm sure that you'll be quite comfortable here during your stay."

The Doctor looked to Sylvia and with what seemed a titanic force of will, he offered. "There's plenty of room on the Tardis, Sylvia. You can come with us as well."

Both Sylvia and Donna looked at the Doctor like he'd gone mad, and even the Tardis was surprised, as the sudden drop in temperature in the room indicated, but he shook his head and simply smiled at the stunned woman in front of him.

"Thank you for the offer, Doctor. But I really prefer to keep both my feet on earth." She looked at her father's glowing face and just smiled. "No, this has been his dream for as long as I can remember, to go up there and see the stars first hand."

Donna moved away from her grandfather to her mother's side, her hand reaching out to take Sylvia's hand. "Are you sure, Mum? It's really quite amazing out there, I know you'd love it."

Sylvia just shook her head with a soft laugh. "Not this time, Donna. Maybe another time. Besides someone needs to take care of things while you're away and I really wouldn't know what to do with myself!"

Wilf smiled softly and moved to Sylvia's side before he took her into a warm embrace. "I'll miss you, Sylv but I'll make sure we take lots of pictures to show you when we come back!"

Sylvia laughed at Wilf's comment before she suddenly remembered. "We need to get your luggage, Dad. Don't want them to be leaving without it, do you?"

The Doctor chuckled and looked from Sylvia and Wilfred with a wink. "The Tardis would've taken care of anything that he needed, but you're quite right! He can't embark on the journey of a lifetime without his personal items!" He shook his head and with a smirk nodded his head towards the door, leading the way towards the open doorway.

"First things first though, that tour that I promised both of you! Starting with the Tardis gardens."

The Doctor led them out of Wilf's room and turned down the corridor into a new passageway that hadn't existed just a few moments before. "But Doctor, this wasn't here before!" Wilf exclaimed.

Donna laughed softly before reaching up and placing a warm hand on his shoulder. "You'll get used to it after a while, the Tardis moves things around as needed to help us get to where we need to go more quickly. Don't worry though, she won't let you get lost."

Wilf looked up to the ceiling of the corridor, his thoughts filled with gratitude and amazement at the wondrous ship that his granddaughter now called home. He started when he felt a wash of warm air over his face and he looked about the corridor to try to spot any vents, but there was nothing but endless lines of piping and alien looking coral.

Donna felt the warmth of the Tardis brushing over her grandfather and she reached out to the ship, letting the Old Girl know in no uncertain terms how grateful she was that the ship had taken so instantly to her Wilf. She'd had a feeling that the Tardis would love him the minute he stepped foot inside the ship, but she hadn't been expecting such an instant connection.

Of course she loves him, Donna. You're all the best parts of him. His desire for life and the universe fill his entire being and even though he's had such a hard life, he's never lost his wonder.

Donna looked back to the Doctor, her eyes brimming with tears as she tried to articulate all that she was feeling. I still can't believe he's here, Doctor. I can't believe they're both here!

A soft chuckle met her comment, the Doctor flicked a gaze back to Sylvia as she padded along the corridor beside her father. The Tardis is behaving the best she can, Donna. I think it's only because she can feel just how much your mother loves you that she hasn't taken her displeasure out on her too much.

Donna grunted at that reminder and turned her gaze straight ahead to the large double doors that stood at the end of the corridor. She'd truly had only one concern when they'd decided to take her grandfather on a trip, and that had been how the Tardis would react to Sylvia Noble once she'd stepped foot into the spaceship.

Donna had known that Sylvia would never agree to travel with them and that she would only come aboard for a short period of time before bidding them a safe journey, and after much coaxing and convincing on Donna's part, the Tardis had agreed to remain silent and behave for the period of time that her mother was aboard.

It had been a nervous few moments when she'd first stepped onto the ship and Donna had felt the instant flare of anger from the ship, but then the Tardis had let herself fully connect with the woman in that strange way that she had and suddenly the anger had faded completely away. It was as if the Tardis had discovered Sylvia's deep love for her daughter and because of that, had decided to behave after all.

The Doctor stopped in front of the doors and turned back to Wilf and Sylvia with a big smile on his lips. "Well, here we are, the Tardis gardens. I'll only be able to show you a small part of them today as they are really quite extensive and if you laid them all out in sequence, they'd probably be larger than all of England." He didn't even notice the look of shock on either of their faces as he was suddenly lost in thought. "You know, I've never even thought about how large they were in a linear sense. Hmmm, that's something I'll have to discuss with the Tardis when I have the chance."

Donna nudged the Doctor out of his reverie, her head jerking to her family who stood in shock as they tried to comprehend how anything so large could exist in the tiny wooden box that had appeared on their quiet street.

The Doctor swallowed hard and nodded, before he reached out and pushed open the garden doors. "Right then, follow me!"

He led the way into the brightly lit space beyond, his steps sure as the light seemed to be momentarily blinding before it resolved into a huge open space that looked like a huge meadow beneath a pale blue sky.

"It's incredible! I feel like I'm actually out in the country!" Wilf exclaimed as he followed the Doctor into the space beyond, his eyes wide when he stepped onto the plush red grass that rippled in an unseen breeze.

Sylvia's eyes were similarly wide with wonder, but her gaze was instantly drawn to the huge explosion of flowers that dotted the landscape along a haphazard path that wound its way towards the distant horizon. "Doctor, how is this possible? Are we still inside your spaceship?"

The Doctor just grinned at Donna, his eyes dancing with the excitement he always felt whenever anyone new discovered his wondrous Tardis. Donna smiled back, her mind gently entwined with his so that she could feel his happiness that her family seemed to be captivated by the wonders of his ship.

Go on, Spaceman. It's time for you to show off for my mother. She nodded her head in their direction, the smile was brilliant when he tucked his hands into his pockets and strolled off towards Wilf and Sylvia, his voice already taking on that boyish tone of excitement that she found so endearing.

She trailed behind the three of them, letting her mind and gaze wander over the brilliant flowers that spread in a gently undulating blanket around them. They'd come so close to losing everything just a few short weeks ago, all of this had nearly been destroyed and this last wonderful piece of Gallifrey had nearly been lost forever.

The Doctor glanced back momentarily at Donna, his frown was fleeting before he wrapped her mind in his and then turned his attention back to her family.

Donna sighed happily as she realized that both her worlds had finally combined into one.