The Doctor looked warily at the small house and rubbed his eyes. "Uh, you two best stay here with the TARDIS. Donna's mother is not my biggest fan." He shook his head, staring off into the distance. "It's always the mothers," he muttered as he turned and started for the door.

It swung open before he'd gone a step and Wilf stepped out, throwing a nervous look over his shoulder before closing the door quietly behind him. He hurried up to the Doctor, one finger to his lips.

"I heard you coming-- I knew it had to be you." He looked past the Doctor at the TARDIS, frowning. "You had to come back sooner or later. Couldn't leave things the way there were." His expression darkened, "couldn't leave her well enough alone either."

"I'm sorry, but I need to see her."

"She's not here. She's at work." He paused sadly, "a temp job in town."

"Do you know when she'll be back? It's kinda of important."

"Saving the Earth I suppose?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Wilf gave a long sigh. "Well, she should be back soon. But don't let Sylvia know you're hear or you'll be gettin' an ear full."

"Dad? Who's here?" Sylvia's head popped out the door before Wilf had finished his sentence. Both he and the Doctor closed their eyes for a moment, steeling themselves for the confrontation.

"Him!" she growled, sounding not unlike her daughter at her fieriest. "Haven't you done enough? You have to come back to this house and do more damage?" She stormed out the door towards the two men. "First you all but steal my daughter away-- leaving him," she stabbed an accusing finger at Wilf who shrank back, "to keep me in the dark with your lies. Then you show up on our doorstep in the middle of the night with Donna laid out on the ground-- I thought she was dead you know!" She took a shuddering breath and the Doctor opened one eye cautiously, but she was far from finished. "And then after all that, now we've had to spend the last 6 months lying to her so her brain won't explode!"

"If. You. Think," she punctuated each word with a stabbing finger, "For one second I'm going to let you in our home -- or anywhere near my daughter..." she was now poking him in the chest, he winced slightly with each stab, but didn't move or respond. Finally she seemed to run out of steam. A second later she burst into tears. The Doctor opened both eyes, then wider when she moved forward to sob on his shoulder. He made a gesture of helplessness at Wilf, but the old man just shrugged.

The Doctor patted her awkwardly on the back. "There there," he said, obviously baffled.

"Oh it's been so hard!" Sylvia spluttered into his jacket. "She just flutters about, from one temp job to the next, out with the girls at all hours, no plans for a real life. No hope! It's like she's not even trying any more. Like she doesn't even pretend to have a future any more." She pushed him away suddenly. "You took something from her, something that was there before." Her voice dropped to almost a whisper, "you killed her."

The Doctor's jaw clenched, but he didn't move, his expression stone. "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't absolutely have to." He said flatly. "And I wouldn't be here now unless I had no other choice."

"So you have come back for her," Sylvia asked, all the fight gone out of her. "What will you bring back this time?" She turned without another word and headed back into the house shaking her head. But she left the door open behind her.

The Doctor tried to shake off the confrontation as he and Wilf followed her into the house. "Well," said the old man by way of apology, "I guess that could have been worse-- somehow. Can't I get you a cuppa at least? While you wait?"

The Doctor nodded and Wilf headed off to the kitchen. Sylvia sat in one of the easy chairs, body turned away from him, flipping through a magazine she clearly wasn't looking at. The Doctor took a seat, wondering how much awkward silence they would have to endure.

Not much as it turned out. The door opened and slammed shut behind a whirl of red hair. Donna was chatting away loudly on her cell phone, shedding purse and coat and shopping bags. She charged through the room without a glance around and headed into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her-- not that it did much to dampen the non-stop commentary going into the phone. Sylvia sighed as pushed herself out of the chair just as Wilf returned with a tray of tea.

"Donna. Donna!" Sylvia rapped loudly on the door. "DONNA!"

"Oi! What?!" came a reply finally, the door swung open, the cellphone uncermoniously clicked shut. "I was talking with Sharleen!"

"Donna, there's someone here to see you."

"What? Who?" Donna scanned the room for a second before her eyes fell on the Doctor. He tried to smile harmlessly but both hearts were
pounding-- superior biorythmic control or no. A flash of recognition lit up her face and the Doctor held his breath-- did she know him? Was there some glimmer of the past left-- despite what he had done, despite what Sylivia had told him?

But then her face settled into a frown. She put one hand on a hip and gestured at him with the other. "Yeah, I know you, you were here before. A friend of yours isn't he," she turned to Wilf. "Someone from the telescope group-- another nutjob star crazy," she laughed, not all that kindly.

The Doctor stood up and approached her slowly. "Donna, I'd like to talk to you. I need your help with... with a project I'm working on. It's very important."

"Haw!" She whooped. "Me? Help you with an "important project"-- I bet! Buddy, that's the saddest chat-up I've heard in a while, and I've heard some bad ones." She turned to Wilf, "was this your idea? Setting me up with this skinny glass of nothing?"

The Doctor took advantage of her ranting to slip up along side her. "I'm sorry," he whispered in her ear. "I'm so very sorry." Then he brought his fingers up to the corners of her forehead and concentrated.

"Oi!" She protested, about to slap his hands away. "What do you think you're--" Her hands fell limp at her side. She took a deep, dragging breath as her head whipped back. He put a hand on her shoulder to steady her but she knocked it off.

"Oi! What? What?" She blinked at him, then gasped. "Doctor!"

He smiled, "Donna."

She threw her arms around him for a moment, then pushed him away. Her eyes narrow. "You just-- what did you do? You just--"

"Dumped a Timelord mind back in your human brain," he finished for her.

"Recreating the Human-Timelord metacrisis..." she continued, calmer now. "But how did you overcome the synaptic limitation?" Surprise and relief flashed across her face. "You found a solution! You found a way so I can stay--" she cut herself off seeing his expression. "You didn't find a solution?" He shook his head slowly. Her eyes narrowed, "you didn't find a solution and I have about 10 minutes before my brains melt and run out of my ears."

"I'm sorry--"

"Don't you start with your 'so sorries' space-boy!" She started towards him so quickly he stumbled into the coffee table trying to back away. "My head's about to explode and..." Her expression softened, her voice dropping back to normal, "and, you wouldn't do that without a very good reason. So hurry up with the reason."

"We need two Timelords to save the planet, and you're the closest thing we've got."

She blinked once, then burst into a grin. "Well then, let's get on with it." She grabbed her coat and started past him to the door. He put a hand on her arm, looking past her, out the window.

"I don't know... I don't know if you have enough time."

"Wait a minute!" Sylvia cut between them. "You don't have enough time? You're going to destroy my daughter's mind on the wild chance that she can help you and now you say you don't even have time for her to try?"

The Doctor took a deep breath and let it out. "Well," he scratched at his hair, making it stand more on end than usual. "I was hoping we'd come up with a way to stabilize her, for at least a day or two. But, I haven't been able to think of anything."

Sylvia's eyes bugged out of her head, "then why bother?!"

He shrugged, "I thought that Donna could come up with something I haven't though of."

There was a moment of silence.

Sylvia opened and closed her mouth twice before she managed to pick up her tirade. "You think Donna-- my Donna-- is going to think up a solution to your meta-whatever problem when you couldn't?"

"Yes."

"Have you even met my daughter?"

"Mum!" Donna protested.

"Well dear, I just don't see how your 100-words-per-minute skills are going to save the earth right now."

"Mrs. Nobel," The Doctor gave his just-barely-keeping-his-tempter look and said very slowly, "I know you have a hard time recognizing it, but your Donna is very special. Right now she is so special that she is our only hope to save every life on Earth--"

"Again," added Donna. "I pretty much saved everyone on Earth last time too, remember." Then she shook her head, backing away from him. "But she's right, if you couldn't think of something..."

"No, no!" He took her shoulders, "it's like you said-- you've got all the knowledge I have, plus that little something extra that only humans have got." He looked into her eyes, "use it Donna. Use all of it and think of something to save yourself."

She took a deep breath and looked away. "Well, there's always the TARDIS. But I'm sure you already thought of that," she said glumly.

He blinked, starring at her. "The TARDIS? What do you mean?"

"You mean you didn't think about that? Gah! It's so obvious-- the TARDIS is like one big living containment field. I mean, it's got a piece of the Time Votex at its heart doesn't it? Should be easy enough for it to hold back an itsy-bitsy Timelord mind from overwhelming my human brain."

"A piece of the TARDIS! Now why didn't I think of that!" He smacked his forehead with one hand. "Of course! We take a sliver of the TARDIS and wire it though a biomagnic field--"

"--like the biodampening ring you've got--"

"--and it should act as a containment field--"

"--keeping the Time Lord and Human bits from getting all squished together!" They exchanged an exuberant a high-five, grinning like idiots before realizing everyone else was starring at them.

The Doctor coughed and smoothed back his hair. "Yes, well then, I think we have our solution. Best get to it then." He held out an arm to Donna "Doctor Donna, will you be so kinda as to join me in the TARDIS?"