It was great seeing Donna's Grandfather again, however when her mother wanted to know why she had turned up with Harry and why she hadn't gotten a job yet, he decided to help Donna out.
"She doesn't need to get a job my dad's pay for everything for our travels, Donna is traveling around all the world seeing new and exciting things every day, we came back now because my dad's needed to look into our next few destinations as well as do some consultation work, we got a lift here from the main company one of my dad's work for they are actually the ones really paying for me and my dad's, Donna was included in the deal after meeting her a few times over the years. You could say she is working as she is getting all of this new and exciting information that will help her in the future when she wants to find another job, it could end up that the company that employs my dad decide to employ her after we finish traveling which could take years to complete there is so much of the earth left unexplored and to be explored and Donna is going to see it all, learn the history of the planet from different cultures. Don't you think that's better than being a full-time secretary?" He asked the question gently to Donna mum.
"Is this true?" Demanded Donna's mother of her.
"Yes, you know I was investigating for a newspaper, after my last job it put me back in the company of Harrys dad's, well at that point I had only met one of them before. that was when the offer was made to me after we had all finished our investigations, it was at first I think a bit of a bribe, to stop me handing the news article in, but then that didn't happen, they wanted me to continue traveling with them even after the deadline passed, even when they found out I had been let go for not contacting them until I was back last, we had to come back the company needed Harry's dad's help and they brought me along its why I took the time to come and see you I wanted to see you again and they wanted Harry out of danger while they were looking into that ATMOS thing but you weren't here at the time mum….Oh, mum some of the things I have seen and heard would shock you, it really is a beautiful planet. As Harry said we were back in England and I wanted to see you both and collect some more clothes for our new destinations, we can get clothes when we get there but traveling from one place to another, we change clothes a lot. I'm going to need a bigger wardrobe in my room that's for sure. They pay for all of that for me and all I have to do is travel with them until I want to stop."
"What's the name of this company?" Was the next demand off her mother
"That unfortunately takes a contract to be signed before you are allowed to know, we had to all sign them at the same time, the only one who didn't was one of my dad's because he had done it previously, when he first started out with them." Harry jumped in to cover for Donna. He did not want her mother knowing the Doctor worked for UNIT.
from there it fell to questions of where she had been and what she had seen, Harry quickly flashed through an alternate timeline where his dad did what he had said, stayed on earth with him and travelled just the earth and collected all the information, he looked to Donna who was actually looking to him to help and he did he started to feed her information about England then France then Spain, as she kept looking at him he would nod as though he was agreeing with her but would feed her the next set of places for her to talk about.
It took about an hour to talk about just generalities, she mentioned where she had been but not what she had learnt only that they looked into the past of the area and then considered their possible future while taking copious amount of notes as she was learning about all of this, when her mother asked her about the books she said they were with the rest of her stuff at the headquarters of where Harry's dads were. She played the TARDIS off as a private plane but never named her.
They talked about how most of the time they would decide together where to go but one of Harry's dads did occasionally choose a destination at random which was fun at times they never knew just where they were going until they got there. Or the company sent them somewhere specific for their work.
From there it descended into Harry having to field questions about his dad's. He explained that one was his stepdad while the other was his biological father and they were both raising him together, that both his dads were bisexual, and it had been a one-night stand, when his mother died, he was sent to live with his dad's. it named him in her will. Wilfred was looking at both him and Donna in amusement as they talked, he knew full well where they were exploring but he kept quiet he didn't buy the looks passing between them it looked like Harry was agreeing but more was going on.
"I know you've not seen Donna in ages, but I thought you had to go shopping today, do you need my pension for the food?" asked Wilfred to Donna's mother.
"Good lord look at the time!...And next time you borrow the car fill it up before you leave it in somewhere like Cardiff. It cost me fifty pounds to get it back here."
"I'll leave that for you before I go, I need a cash machine to draw money out of my account though. It's not as though I keep British pounds on me the money I'm given to spend is in the currency of where we are." Replied Donna in her usual attitude.
Looking over at Wilfred, Harry saw him looking at him and Wilfred nodded to say they would work it out once her mother was gone. That took her another twenty minutes and a reminder off Wilfred again. Once she was out of the house, he looked at both of them.
"So what did you bring back for you old Granddad then?"
"We picked you up a star bracelet, it's a bracelet that is made up of a dying star the metal is cooled and turned into this!" Spoke Harry while taking the gift he had grabbed for him while passing it over for Wilfred. He looked stunned as he held it.
"This is made out of a star?"
"Yes but it will look just like a black metal bracelet, you can pass it off as a meteor bracelet it would take someone really knowing what they look like to call you out on it, anyone who asks just tell them it was from a meteor crash site in the deeps of Africa and my dad's made it for you when Donna asked for a memento of following the comets history, like you pretend we had, if you are called out on it play dumb until you can get away from your daughter, then explain she's traveling with the Doctor, the Master and the Son, that will shut anyone up. Anyone who could know what this is would know who we really are and will have met at least the doctor and will drop the matter." Explained Harry to him.
"You don't have to wear it you can just place it in your room somewhere safe if you want, we just thought you would truly like a bit of the stars as you had asked for."
"That is really nice of you for you all to do that for me!" Spoke up Wilfred with a bit of a choke in his throat.
"I wish we could take you out there with us for a few trips but we would never get away with it, yes we can come and go in seconds but you would age it would be to noticeable, Donna looks older than she did she just has youthful looks, but pick up the last picture you have of her and you will see the difference, its why we can really only get away with at most once a month visits. Once Donna decides to stop traveling with us, you and her will be able to tell your daughter everything that she has done and seen. There are galaxies out there that she helped save from slavery, she remained calm and composed throughout our last adventure it was only when it was over did it hit her. That's why she came home today, we nearly died, she got trapped in a virtual environment that wasn't very real and she with help, saw through that and realised the life around her wasn't real, even though she lived a lifetime in there she still noticed the inconsistencies. None of us saw in the timeline her not making it back to the TARDIS where she was being sent because we all thought she was safe inside it and you can't look inside a TARDIS through time, there is too much Time vortex energy running through her to see inside of her. It was only when the Doctor saw her on the teleport pad stepping off looking around that he realised what had happened to her that she hadn't made it to the TARDIS. Donna met a man there and fell for him, she felt he was real, and he could have been none of us could see inside a virtual environment all the souls in there was causing damage to it, the girl who pulled them all into her forgot what she had done until the very end, it was only with a death of a person that we manage to re-materialise all the people." He spoke upset at the end he was still affected by it.
"Who was she?" Asked Wilfred gently he could see Harry's eyes they were haunted on such a young face it looked wrong. Harry was quiet for a while then answered honestly
"Family, that's all we know at the moment, and we have to preserve the timeline, her death became a fix point for some reason none of us know or understand at least at this moment in time, I've tried looking for her timeline but can't find it anywhere, but in the end we all watched a loved one die the first day we met her." He spoke so quietly that Wilfred had to strain to hear but he did and when Harry looked up could see the sympathy in Wilfred's eyes, he was an old man now he had lived a good life, he expected to pass before losing anyone else.
"But if you know she is family then she will have to be born, once you find that out you can look and ensure she is happy and has a full life. You said you can't do anything about her death but you can you can give her a full life to live before that happens so that you have good memories to overwrite the others, it will still hurt losing her, when I lost my wife it hurt and still does, there will be a hole in your heart until you reconnect with her, then it will start to mend until you know she's going to her death, give her a good life and that would be all she would and could ask for."
"She told the Doctor not to alter one single time we interacted with her it was her dying wish, to him. I do want to know where bloody Asgard is though? I thought that was a fiction planet. Even SATURN doesn't know where it is I've looked. The TARDIS must though, or the Doctor or Master know and just haven't told me. I should ask them really."
"Then that is what you do Harry, you keep to her timeline to keep her safe until you know it's the end and then you stay with her as much as you can before her timeline jumps back on you." Wilfred spoke with gentleness but also conviction,
"I think that's what both my dads have been trying to tell me, we all have this hole now, but the Doctor feels it the worst out of all of us. That I do know, he will keep her safe for my sake now. If no other reason than to make me less sad." Harry answered again to Wilfred's statement.
"Then listen to them Harry. From everything you've said they know what they are talking about they are both older and wiser than any of us could be."
"They are, the Doctor is actually over a thousand years old, my dad is even older than him now through his linier age being older even though they were born the same year. Time travellers for you, we are just lucky once we reach adulthood we can slow our biological clocks down to virtually nothing. I've been with them at least ten years now and they haven't aged a day it looks like when you see them, but I will grow older until I reach that point in my own liner time believe it or not about another eighty to a hundred years, it will take now at least thirty more years from this point before I even look like a teenager."
"She wasn't worried about my looks just my age when she found out we didn't know who she was. She realised these were the before times of her in our lives, but it also could be that I've grown when she has met us all before or she has seen me like this, we just don't know."
"She told you she would see you all again, which means she defiantly will, from there you can work on helping her." Answered Wilfred to that.
"Grandfather's right Harry you now know who she is even if you see her as another adult, you will do all you can for her always being there for her if she needs you. You can't find her timeline you don't know how old she actually was when you met her."
Harry just nodded to that.
"Tell your grandfather of your adventures before your mum get home she should be gone an hour and a half if nothing changes in the Timeline and we would hear the car arriving even if it doesn't…Oh before I forget." Said Harry at the end putting his hands in different pockets his hand and arm disappearing into most of them he rummaged around until he found the British pounds.
"Here is what Donna owes in petrol plus there is another two hundred for the two months rent, she's not been here to use anything all you've needed to do is keep her room ready for her, it can be explained as that, I don't know how to draw money out of a cash machine yet without an account and mine is getting empty that's nearly the last of it but The Master has said he's going to teach me how to use my probe fully over the next few days so I can use it properly without damaging anything or blowing it up on me. Once that is done, I can move some gangs or drug lords money into my account without a trace."
They spent the next hour just talking about their adventures Donna explaining the ones she went on without Harry even and explained they really didn't know where they would be going next that was the truth, the Doctor and Master had popped away for some time on their own while she came to see them with Harry. Explaining how they got there and that they would have to go around the block a bit before diapering just like how they had arrived.
It was just before her mother arrived home that he warned them both she was coming, Donna had a light in her eyes and it reflected in her grandfathers he really was glad she was out there seeing the stars.
"If we leave from here, we will less likely be seen, but dad and the Doctor aren't back yet but they shouldn't be long we can look through the Torchwood cells while we wait for them. Plus we still need to do a shop ourselves. We need milk, the only planet in the galaxy with cows at this moment in time and its Earth…It was lovely to see you again Wilfred and I get the feeling we will meet yet again and for some strange reason you will help us, I'm not looking into the timeline but you will see us all again, especially Donna, she loves you very much Wilfred and that love will make you help us. It's very rare for us to meet the same person more than once while traveling. And yet I've met you twice now. you've met the Doctor without realising, even being Donna's Granddad, you still have seen and met us more than most."
After another round of goodbye and Wilfred telling Harry to let his life flow and follow where it takes him, if she said they will see her again just as Harry implied, they would see Wilfred again. If he believed one, he had to believe the other.