Donna held her grandfather tightly, trying not to let him see her unease. It seemed too soon to send him home. What if he needed someone to talk to about what he had just been through? She had tried to convince him to stay a little longer in the TARDIS with them, at least until he'd had a chance to relax and talk about things, but to her surprise he had remained firm.

"Please? We could take you travelling...somewhere, anywhere you've always wanted to go."

He smiled at her. "I know. And it's not that I wouldn't want that, 'course I would. But your mom will be frantic by now. Sooner I get home, less painful it's going to be."

Beside them, the Doctor sighed, watching Keira and John, who were huddled together at a desk.

"I feel responsible for them," he said quietly.

"None of this is your fault," Donna said, sounding sharper than she'd meant to.

"No?" He looked intently at her and she could almost see him struggle with what he wanted, or didn't want, to say next.

"At least they're here," she said, "They're not wandering the streets on their own. We'll think of something."

"I'll sit with them for a while," Jenny said. She turned toward them and then looked back at the Doctor. Her face looked very tense.

"Is that ok?"

"Yeah, 'course it is. They'd appreciate that." He smiled at her, one of his quick, 100 watt smiles.

Jenny's face froze for a second as if she had caught her breath too quickly. She turned quickly and caught his hands, holding them tightly for a moment.

"Thanks," she whispered, and then, with a sharp nod, she turned and walked away.

The Doctor watched her, frowning.

"What was that?"

"I don't think she was expecting to be forgiven."

"I don't blame her for defending herself in a hostile situation but...how do I teach her that without the gun, there would be a way of getting out of them before they reach the hostile stage?"

"Give her time. She hasn't experienced many situations that aren't hostile yet, has she?"

"No. I just hope...I don't want her to feel..." He broke off, looking helpless.

"What?"

"I don't want her suffering because...that's what it does." He indicated the discarded gun.

"That's all it does," he whispered.

"So tell her," Donna said, fixing her eyes on his face. "Talk to her about it, Doctor. Because you don't talk about it and it'll help you both."

He nodded vaguely.

"You're supposed to say, yes, Donna, that's a great idea! Thank you!"

His face cleared and he took one of her hands.

"What would I do without you, Donna Noble!"

"I don't know. How you survived this long without an ounce of common sense is a complete mystery." She turned back to her grandfather who was standing by the TARDIS.

"I'll come home with you for a bit," she said, even though she knew it was a bad time to leave the Doctor. Not for the first time, she felt torn between the two strongest forces in her life.

"No, sweetheart." He patted her hand and lowered his voice. "I think the Doctor needs you and he'll never say it, will he? You come and see me when you've got things under control here."

He stood up and looked around the hub, calling out to Jack who sat at the far end with his team sitting silently around him.

"I'd like to come back someday, see this place in full operation mode."

"Anytime sir!" Jack said heartily. He offered Wilf a smart salute.

"Pleasure to have had you on board! I can see the old adventuring spirit runs in the family!"

"We'll take you home," the Doctor told him, and Donna felt his hand pat her shoulder reassuringly. "Maybe we'll let Donna pilot, how about that? Or...no...you might want to have had a slightly easier day before facing that kind of fear! Ow! Got a tough hand, hasn't she? Maybe we'll take in a little tour along the way! You like to watch the stars? Well, what about a look at good old Earth from the stars?"

Wilf smiled and held out his hand to Donna.

.........................................

"I can't believe we just...forgot everything." Martha's voice was shaky and her eyes were dull. Jack felt helpless as he looked at his team. They all looked completely shell-shocked.

Gwen was looking at him rather warily.

"Are you going to make us forget?" she asked, and something in her voice implied that she knew there was no option if that was what he wanted.

"No," he said gently. "Forgetting won't do you much good and besides, if by any chance there's more Feyads around here, you need to know what you're up against."

"We need to know," Ianto corrected quietly, giving him a rather pointed look.

"Yeah, we need to remember everything the Doctor said about them."

"It was so real though," Mickey said, "Moira, I mean. It was like she'd always been here."

"Memory manipulation's a very powerful art," Jack told them. "It's worse than erasing memories because it messes with what everything you already remember." He felt a shudder run through him.

"We forgot you," Martha whispered, "and the Doctor."

"Never thought you'd see the day that would happen," Jack said, keeping his voice light. "Martha, honestly, there's nothing to be ashamed of. From what the Doctor said, she learned from the best. Do you remember when she came to Torchwood? You and Ianto went to talk to her. Do you remember any of that?"

Martha shook her head slowly. "Maybe, I don't know. I think I remember telling you...and something about erasing her memory. You...Jack, you collapsed! You weren't well."

"It was nothing," Jack replied, deliberately avoiding Ianto's steady gaze. "Don't worry. It's all over and I'm fine. We all are."

................................................

"I don't know what we do now," Keira said. "I know it was terrible...and stupid...what we did. I know that. Those people probably want to murder us slowly, and I don't blame them. But...it was something to do, you know. It was a plan. Moira made it all sound so right."

"I'm sure she was very persuasive," Jenny said, "don't forget, she was probably using a fair amount of manipulation on you."

Keira shivered. "Don't," she whispered, "it doesn't...I can't think of her that way. Not after everything we've been through together."

"Sorry," Jenny said, "but you do have to move on. You're here. You're alive."

John shook his head slightly, as if trying to deny even that simple fact.

"No really." Jenny struggled to put her thoughts into words. "That's what it comes down to. I know. You can lose everything and find yourself alone but...you have to go with what you've got, even if that's not very much. There's always something."

.................................................................

The TARDIS materialised back into the centre of the hub just as Ianto came in with a tray of coffees. He stopped along the way to hand cups out to Keira, John and Jenny. Jack smiled slightly at Jenny's suspicious glance at the cup. Clearly the Doctor had been making her coffee at some stage recently.

"Talk to them," he said to his team, nodding towards Keira and John. "I know it's hard but it'll help you understand what's happened better. If you decide you want nothing more to do with them, fine, I'll respect that but talk to them first, see what you think."

"John knows a lot about the invisibility shield theory," Ianto said, his voice just the right side of cajoling.

"There's no such thing," Gwen said witheringly.

"No. But when you hear him talk about it, you might realise that there could be."

"Martha?" Jack knelt in front of her. "Please talk to them. I'll trust your judgement, you know that. I want to know what you think about them and what we should do."

She stood up slowly, her eyes widening as the TARDIS came back into view.

"The Doctor would give them a chance," she said finally.

Jack nodded, smiling at her.

"I'll be here if you need me."

................................................................................

As Jack entered the TARDIS he could hear the sound of raised voices.

"Donna! Be reasonable, please. I'm not about to mess with your mind!"

"You wouldn't bloody dare!"

"Look, it's totally painless and it won't last more than five minutes!"

"Well there's a selling point if ever I heard one," Jack said, closing the door behind him with a bang. Donna and the Doctor stood at opposite ends of the console, Donna gripping one side as if for dear life.

"Tell him, Jack," Donna said, her voice high-pitched with indignation, "tell him that if I happen to be perfectly happy the way I am, then he has no right to..."

"What do you mean, the way you are?"

"I need to fix her genetic code," the Doctor said, in a tone of voice that sounded like he had said these words many times. "It's not going to change or alter you in any way whatsoever. Donna, you can't go around the rest of your life with dormant Timelord genes in your body! They're not doing anything...you won't lose anything. If you ever have to go to a hospital, it'll cause huge complications..."

"Why would I? You being a Doctor and all?"

"...and if your genes are put right, there's less chance of any harm being done if that watch should ever find its way into your hands and that's a real danger, Donna. I told you. Those watches have a habit of finding their way back into their owner's hands."

"I can deal with that!"

"Can you? You looked pretty determined to find it no so long ago!"

"But I didn't, did I?"

They stared at each other, their expressions so similarly furious that it made Jack want to laugh. He held up his hands.

"Ok, ok, deep breath!"

Donna obeyed him and back away slightly from the console. Her eyes remained trained on the Doctor, as if she were afraid he was about to mess with her genetics at any moment. Jack smirked, despite the tension.

"Jack, whatever you're about to say, don't." the Doctor said. "Don't forget, there's a few matters we still need to discuss."

"That's right," Donna said, her voice bright again, "why don't I leave you to it and I'll just see how Jenny's doing?"

Without bothering to reply, the Doctor raised the screwdriver and aimed it at the TARDIS door.

"You're locking us in?" Jack raised an eyebrow and stepped well back from the force of Donna's inevitable tirade.

But she seemed to deflate. Looking down at the ground, she muttered something inaudible.

"Talk to me," the Doctor said, his voice gentle now.

"I said..." Donna paused and raised her head to look directly at him. "It hurt enough losing all of that the first time around."

"You're not losing anything!"

"No, I know but...think about it." She looked pleadingly at him. "Imagine if you lost everything that made you a Timelord. Imagine if, suddenly, you became human..."

"Sometimes I see the appeal."

"Yeah...sometimes. But you don't really, do you? I know how you suffered, remember? I felt it all, that day. All your loss, all that anger, the pain you never talk about. But I felt everything as well...it was like the whole universe was in my head and every little pattern binding every world together. I saw all they all fit together, how one little timeline out of place could destroy a hundred worlds. How a civilisation could begin just because a rock falls a million miles away. It was brilliant. I was..."

"Donna, I told you before. None of that is as important as who you are. It's knowledge, that's all. You can..."

"Please. I know it has to be done. But not yet. I'm not ready to lose that last little piece. Knowing that those genes are there, even if they're meaningless and wrong, I want to keep them for another while."

The Doctor stared back at her, his expression unreadable for a moment. Then he walked slowly around the console, as if tentatively approaching a frightened animal, and put his arms around her.

Jack walked over to the couch and sat down quietly, not liking to invade the moment. But the Doctor straightened and looked over at him with a sad smile.

"Jack..."

"Yes?"

"If Donna can live with being...well...a bit of a mistake..."

"Watch it," Donna muttered.

"Don't you think you can too?"