A/N: write a short story, I told myself; just a couple of hundred words, I said. It won't grow. It'll only take up a day...

Part 9

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To be honest, Donna thought that was the end of it. That nobody had seen the photo of her and John happily smiling at each other as a fake couple, let alone would consider it to be real, so she had dismissed the whole incident from her mind.

Right up until morning tea break at work the following day.

She had handed out mugs or tea, coffee and several glasses on non-fat water, as well as tortured a few of them by waving the biscuit tin under their noses, when Daniel had surreptitiously mumbled at her, "You work fast."

His head was bent over his camera lenses, adjusting something or other, so she thought she had misheard him for a moment.

Somewhat shocked, she demanded, "Pardon. What exactly are you accusing me of?"

"The engagement," he whispered, trying not to be overheard.

Turning her head slightly, she glanced at the gaggle of female models practicing their poses at the other end of the room. Suddenly it clicked why they'd all been treating her slightly differently. A bit more sneer than usual.

"Ah. Well, either you've got it or you ain't," she deliberately trilled.

His eyes went wide in wonder. "But how did you capture him? This lot have tried to get him for years. No one's even seen John out with someone so they're all keen to know your secret."

Leaning close, she mouthed into his ear, "I may kiss, but I never tell."

Daniel's burst of laughter was all she could ever want. "Whatever happens, don't change, Donna," he begged. "I'm going to really miss you when you leave."

"Play your cards right and you could get to keep me too," she teased, but secretly, she couldn't wait to get away from the fashion world and return to the normality of general offices.

Somehow, the place had lost all its shine. And no, she didn't miss John being there. Not one tiny little bit. She especially didn't miss his cheesy smiles. Or the way his arrogance made her laugh.

With a last mouthful of her coffee, she realised that lying to yourself doesn't always work.

Much later, when she was finishing for the day, she was going over the contact details of the models for the next photoshoot, and the name of John's detective agency just happened to jump out at her, like these things do. Feeling somewhat guilty, she looked at where it was on Google maps, and was surprised to find it wasn't too far away. Near enough to accidentally walk pass, should the urge overtake her. Just to satisfy mere curiosity, she told herself, and nothing more.

And there was a small retailer's nearby that she had been dying to try out for quite a while, so it made sense to go and look on the off chance. The off chance of what exactly was not something she was ready to admit to herself yet.

Okay, you can do this, she told herself as she stood outside the newsagent near John's office. Just an accidental meet up to engineer. Like you do. It wasn't as though she was officially stalking him.

John sighed and threw his pen down onto the desktop in front of him. How was he going to explain to Bennett that his brother was obviously avoiding the family? The warm, friendly, loving man that had been described to him certainly wasn't the Lance Bennett he had met in person. Charming in his own way, perhaps, there was something about the man that John hated.

No, it wasn't jealousy exactly, although he wasn't fond of the fact Donna had been in love with the bloke, but she was at the root of his loathing. Lance had treated her with utter distain and that made John mad.

Alright, he himself hadn't always shown her due respect, he freely admitted that. His caustic side had shown up, with claws out, as soon as he'd set eyes on her. For some reason he felt as though he had to fight for her attention when the natural order of things, so far, had been people falling over themselves to please every little whim that he had. But not Donna; no. She had practically refused to pander to his casual need for validation and, for some reason, that intrigued him. Any friendship she had consequently offered had felt like manna from heaven.

Plus, she wasn't bad to look at. Not your conventional beauty, yet there was an air about her confidence that attracted him, nevertheless. Certainly made a change from all those self-obsessed elfin creatures he tended to work with.

Ah, work. The very thought brought up new hopes.

His eyes scanned round the small office that remained empty of another living being. Even the potted cactus on his windowsill was a façade. Plastic, but a good fake. He'd chosen it because he couldn't trust himself to remember to water a real one. Plenty of plants had died in the past to prove this hunch.

What he needed was someone to add some life to his surroundings. Someone efficient at whatever task you set them. More to the point, someone who was capable of finding people it had taken him ages to get remotely near to.

In short, he had decided he needed Donna to work with him. Surely her temporary contract with Daniel must be up soon? It would be logical to sweep in and offer her a new placement, with him, investigating missing or errant people. Should be a piece of cake for her, with her skills.

But how to approach her without seeming creepy? It was tricky. Especially when you took into consideration how he'd handled asking her about Lance in the first place.

You managed to ask her out for the day, his brain reminded him.

It had gone like a breeze. With lots of laughs along the way. And a fiancée, his evil side pointed out. A problem he still hadn't sufficiently dealt with.

Oh well, that could all wait, he decided as he stared out at the grey London day outside the window. That was tomorrow's problem to solve. For now, he would pop down to the restaurant across the road and grab a takeaway for his evening meal. Then head for home. Alone.

Yes. He really needed to do something about that too. Another thing to add to the list. Once he'd resisted phoning up the agency or Donna herself. It had been a day or so of forcing his hand away from dialling her number.

'Don't look too keen' buzzed around his head. Why did he listen to himself? If he'd got his finger out, he could have been seeing her face to face by now, or at least have actually spoken to her. The truth was, he wanted to see her again, almost yearned to do so, so why was he denying himself the experience?

She might reject you, was the answer. Yeah? Well, so what? He could cope with that. She'd offered friendship with no conditions. Wasn't that worth fighting for? Definitely, he told himself as he got up to leave. No biggie. Perfectly attainable. Just go out there and phone her. Later. You know, after he'd eaten and gained some courage, Dutch or otherwise.

Now in a determined mood, he crossed the road.