"So how does it feel?" Martha asked Donna in a soft, almost conspiratorial voice as they headed into the warehouse. It was the first time Donna and the Doctor had been more than two feet from each other and Martha jumped at the chance. "I mean, do you really know everything he knows?"

"Yep! It's all crammed in here," Donna rapped the side of her head with her knuckles. "The names of every star, the mechanics of time and space, and a whooooole lot of recipes involving bananas. Really," she shook her head, eyes wide in disbelief, "I had no idea. I mean, banana bread, sure. Banana daiquiris, check, but banana--"

"That's... that's not quite what I meant," interrupted Martha, biting her lip. She leaned in a little closer, "I mean, like, personal things..."

"Oh!" Donna, gave her a knowing look. "You want the gossipy-wossipy things."

Martha nodded eagerly, curiosity naked on her face.

"Yep," said Donna, "got all that too." She smiled distractedly, but didn't offer anything more.

"Well?" asked Martha finally. Probably coming up with another recipe for banana creme lasagna.

Donna blinked at her innocently, then shook her head. "But not what you want to know."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, it's just facts-- not the emotions, not the real memories. I just have the dry statistics." She paused, frowning a little, "not that I've really looked. Not my thing," she shrugged, "plus there's so many more interesting things. Things I never understood before. Like, did you know--"

Martha quickly interrupted. "But the facts-- like people and places?"

"Sure," admitted Donna, clearly bored with the subject. "If you really want a list of who-all he's snogged--" she rolled her eyes, "and, I mean, he's had over 900 years too-- even a skinny slip like him can rack up--" she stopped herself. "Sorry."

"No, it's OK," Martha was studying the ground. "There's just so much I don't know about him. I thought I was over that, but then, I just thought... since you..." She took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Let's forget the whole thing, shall we? After all," she nodded at the door to the warehouse, "planet to save and all that."

She flashed her badge at the stone-faced guard and started in.

"Martha," Donna called after her.

"Yeah?" she paused, looking back over her shoulder.

"You're on that list you know."

Martha sighed. "Well, that's something I guess." She disappeared inside.

"Donna! Wait up!" Jack approached her, flashing a white smile like something out of an ad for American toothpaste. He stopped a few feet away from her. "How are you feeling?" she asked tentatively.

"Oh, fine now," she waved away his concern. "Come over here." He started heading for the door. "No really," she said determinedly. "Come over here and hug me. You can hug me."

He laughed and wrapped her in a big bear hug. "How's that brain of yours-- or should I say brains?"

"Better now," she held up her hand with the ring. "This has things pretty quiet. I can even switch back and forth from the Timelord side," she made a thinking-face, "to the human side," she flashed a big Donna-grin. "Or, if I want to get fancy, a little of both!" she waggled her head back and forth.

Jack could hear a slight hum coming from the ring. "How long is that going to last?" he asked.

"As long as it needs to," she said determinedly. "Now let's get in there," she nodded at the door. He headed in past her. "And I want a proper hug when I save the world this time!" she yelled after him before following.

She paused just inside the door to take in the size of the warehouse and let her eyes adjust to the dim light. The Doctor nearly bumped into her as he came barreling though the door behind her.

"Oh there you are," she said, only half conscious of how her sense of personal space had changed around him. It wasn't anything sexual-- her brain wasn't that scrambled, thank-you-very-much. But there was something very physically comforting about being next to him.

"It's a side-effect from the metacrisis," he said suddenly. "Your subconscious-- subconscious?-- recognize me is all. They recognize me in you and naturally gravitate closer."

Her mouth dropped open. "Did you-- you just..." she gapped at him. He returned the look as calmly as if he'd just commented on the weather. "You read my mind!"

"Aw, no," he shrugged it off. "Nothing so fancy. Just a flash of bioelectrical-proximity-telepathy. Another side-effect."

She shook her head, eyes narrowing. "Telepathy is mind reading, you dolt!"

"Just think of it as great minds thinking alike." He grinned and took her hand. "Now let me show you something that's really going to cook your noodle."

They cut though the plastic sheeting to the alien device. The dizzying display was still floating above the console, waiting for someone to resume the game. Donna rushed forward, pointing at a cluster of shapes and symbols as they whizzed around an equation.

"Is that--?" she gasped, then pointed at something else. "Oh, and there's...!" She put one hand to her mouth, clearly delighted and amused.

"Yes, yes!" The Doctor laughed and nodded along with her.

"Oh, this is brilliant," Donna crowed.

Marth threw Jack a lost look and he shrugged back. She watched his eyes follow the changing display. He was clearly understanding at least a little more than she was. She sighed and leaned up against the console, throwing a glance around the the warehouse. The top of her field-- not a lot of competition in the exo-sciences of course-- but here she was, surrounded by the best minds on Earth and, as usual, they were totally lost without the Doctor. She wondered if Jack felt the same way over at Tourchwood. But he seemed relaxed, almost enjoying himself as he rested his hands on the console, watching the Doctor point out different buttons and switches to Donna.

"Allllll right!" announced the Doctor suddenly with a clap. "Time's a-wasting! Doctor Donna? Will you assist me?"

"I'll do more than that spaceboy! I'm going to trounce you." She walked around the console until she was directly across from him, with Martha to her left and Jack on her right.

"This should be fun," the Doctor grinned across at Donna. He gave his knuckles a loud crack, rolled his shoulders and shook himself like a boxer about to go into the ring.

"One," the Doctor held one finger over a bight green pulsing button.

"Two," Donna held her finger over an identical button on her side.

"Three." They both pushed their buttons.

Martha looked up at the display expectantly. But instead of the game, there was only a tiny ball of white light. It contracted into a pin point, then expanded with a flash.

"What?" She heard the Doctor and Donna exclaim in unison before the screaming white light enveloped them all.