Warning: Contains mild lust and brief nudity.

Summary: Donna and the Doctor have a d- doing something together moment in a shopping centre.

Disclaimer: I do not own the shopping centre this is set in, Donna, the Doctor or Doctor Who.


Chapter 3 - Doing Shopping Together

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"So…er… now that we're back to normal colour, do you fancy doing something together again, Donna?" the Doctor asked.

Donna knew she was about to disappoint the Doctor. "Could we go shopping today? Now, don't look at me like that! I need to buy a present for Mum."

"Alright, alright, just tell me where exactly you want to go," he agreed exasperatedly.

The new Olympic Stadium shopping centre was a dream come true for Donna. It had every single shopping retailer she loved all squished under one roof. Heaven! Well, it would have been if the Doctor wasn't moaning about being there. It had taken the promise of a chocolate sundae later to shut him up.

She allowed him to drag her into a gadget shop as compensation. It was while they were bent over an interesting example of German engineering (Donna assured the Doctor her mother wouldn't want it), that Donna heard some recognisable voices. "Donna! Is that you? OMG! You're looking well! And you're with someone." In front of them stood her friends Alice and Marie.

'Oh heck!' thought Donna as she put on her best smile. "Hello Alice! Hello Marie! Haven't seen you in ages! What are you doing here?"

The two women laughed. "We've come to blow Marie's latest wages on a hot dress," Alice informed her as they both eyed the Doctor up and down, liking what they saw. "What are you two doing?"

"Trying to buy Mum something she won't try to return later," Donna supplied, and all three laughed knowingly. "Oh! Alice, Marie, I don't think you've met the Doctor."

"Hello!" he grinned at them shaking their hands. Alice and Marie passed each other a look that said both 'A doctor!' and 'The Doctor!' They both turned to grin back at him, and Marie noticed that Donna eyed them with concern. 'This could be fun' Marie thought.

Marie moved slightly nearer to the Doctor, saying, "Why don't we join forces with you to find your mum's present? I'm sure we could come up with something."

Donna visibly bristled, much to Marie's delight, and said, "We wouldn't want to stop you dress shopping, and we need to buy the Doctor some swimming trunks," as she took his hand. His answering look was pure 'do we?', but he knew better than to contradict Donna in public; he'd learnt that lesson early on.

Marie noticed with some satisfaction that Donna had moved the Doctor further away. Marie admitted that she had a bit of a reputation for stealing boyfriends in the past, but she didn't always do that these days. She spoke directly to the Doctor, "So, how long have you two been together?"

He spluttered a little bit, "We'll have known each other two years this Christmas but…"

"…we're just good friends," Donna finished for him.

Alice and Marie were not convinced. Who was she kidding? The guy was practically drooling all over her! Oh how sweet! A bloke who remembered meeting anniversaries! 'Donna had bagged herself a good'un by the looks of it' both women thought.

Alice took pity on her "How about we meet up for coffee in, say, about an hour? Would that be long enough?" she looked between Marie and Donna.

Donna grabbed the chance of escaping from Marie, "Yeah, sure! Meet you up in the food court, alright?"

They all nodded, left the shop and said their good-byes. As they walked away, Marie whispered to Alice. "So, that's the infamous Doctor! No wonder she keeps him so well hidden. I think I'd keep him permanently in the wardrobe too!" and they giggled together.

The Doctor heard this, of course, and innocently asked Donna, "Why would you keep someone in the wardrobe?"

Donna looked at him as if he were having some sort of logic attack, "I have no idea what you are on about, or where that thought came from, Sunshine!"

He was about to explain when she started to drag him in the opposite direction to the two women, coincidentally towards a department store. "Are we buying me swimming trunks now then?" he asked her.

"Do you need swimming trunks?" she was totally puzzled.

"Well, you said…" he began. Donna knew it was going to be a long day.

"I know I did," she looked at him and an image of him in his skimpy towel flashed through her mind. Maybe he could do with some trunks after all. "I'll get Mum's thing first, then shall we have a look now we're here?"

"Okay," he replied. He was happy to walk hand in hand with her anywhere. He might even test out his powers of persuasion and get her to try on a swimsuit. Yep, he was beginning to warm to this shopping trip.

There was quite a good choice of swimwear, and Donna picked out a pair of navy swim shorts for him, not too skimpy but revealing enough. She led him to the changing rooms. As he undressed to try them on the curtain suddenly swished aside and Donna appeared, demanding "What? Why were you calling me?" He hastily moved to cover his modesty, but he wasn't quite quick enough. "OMG! You're naked! What the hell are you doing naked?"

He glared at her "I didn't call you; I was about to try on the swim shorts you picked out! What do you think I'm doing in here?"

"But, naked! You don't try them on naked! You put them on over your underwear. Somebody might see you!" Donna was exasperated, and, other things…

"And apparently they all have now! Shut the curtain!" to his surprise, Donna stepped inside and shut the curtain. "So, you don't remove underwear to try stuff on?" he blushed deeply.

"No, you prawn! Other people might want to try it on later. Oh! Sorry!" she brought her hand up in a vain attempt to cover her eyes as he tried to hide away. Well, she'd seen everything now but she had to pretend she hadn't. She fought hard to resist the urge to put her hands out and rub his back in sympathy.

"What do you think?" he asked shyly as he turned to face her wearing the swim shorts. They looked nice, very nice indeed. They showed his legs off to a tee. Donna smiled broadly at him. It was no good; she had to run her hands over his chest and arms. "Do they fit alright?" he asked her.

"They look…" Donna was finding it hard to think straight as she examined him, "great… really great. I think we have a winner." They smiled at each other deeply satisfied.

Donna's mobile phone rang urgently in her bag. She threw him a disgruntled look and answered it. The voice on the other end asked her where she was. "We're in Debenhams… Just have to pay for something then we'll come and meet you… Okay… Bye… See you," she turned to him and explained, "we've been summonsed!" and they both laughed.

She left him to get dressed, much to his relief; they paid for the swim shorts and headed upwards towards the food court. They arrived at virtually the same time as Marie and Alice. "Right then," the Doctor clapped his hands, "who wants a coffee or tea?" All three responded that they wanted coffee. Donna started to go with him to buy the coffees but her friends grabbed her arm and sat her down with them.

"Stay and talk to us Donna" they persuaded her. Donna was thankful she had thought to slip him some money before they reached the food court.

As they chatted Marie watched Donna. She could tell that Donna itched to go and help the Doctor, so she stood up and wandered over to him hoping that Donna was irked by the action. He was standing in the queue to pay for his tray of cups when she reached him. "Need some help with that," she almost purred as she sidled up to him. He smiled his thanks at her and, of course, was oblivious of her intentions. Feeling the need to up her game Marie walked her fingers up his lapel towards the buttons of his shirt. "I could make your day that little bit better."

His eyes narrowed as he took hold of her walking-fingers' wrist. "I'd say it was pretty good as it was thank you."

"Oh, I'm sure that's not true," she tried again, sure in the notion that Donna would be almost climbing out of her seat by now. "Donna won't mind, honest!"

He looked towards Donna to see her tight little face oozing agitation towards them, smiled briefly at her to reassure her, and turned back to Marie. "In that case, would you pick up some chocolate biscuits to go with our drinks," he beamed at her. He had a great deal of experience of dealing with obnoxious people, and Marie was small fry in comparison. But she was Donna's friend, so he had to be careful.

Marie tried to touch his arm on their way back to Alice and Donna, but he aborted her attempt by handing her a small packet of biscuits. "Here you are, ladies" he smiled as he placed their drinks in front of them. "Marie treated us to some biscuits."

"Oh, he'll be your friend for life now," Donna joked. "I enticed him with chocolate hobnobs."

"Nothing but the best!" he smiled at her. Marie felt decidedly crushed.

They sat and chatted some more, although Marie wasn't as animated as she was earlier. The Doctor sat and observed them with some interest, adding in the odd agreement with Donna. Alice thought he could not be more adorable.

After a while, they all stood up, saying their good-byes and promising to keep in touch. As Alice kissed Donna on the cheek Marie made a grab for the Doctor, but he halted her attempt by taking her hand and shaking it again. He shook Alice's hand too and than took hold of Donna's. "Take care you two," Alice laughed as she watched the scene play out. She had plenty of ammunition to tease Marie with later. "Come on Marie; let's see if we can bag one too!"

Donna had never been so relieved to see two friends walk away in her life! She watched them go then turned back to the Doctor, "Remind me again why I'm friends with them."

"I don't know! So that you can show me off to someone, perhaps?" he teased her.

"And why would I want to do that?" she smirked at him.

"If you don't it means you want to keep me all to yourself." He looked very pleased with himself.

"Yeah, you keep on believing that, and I'll stay here in the real world."

"Aw! Can't I stay here with you?" he pouted.

"Hmm… I might be persuaded with the aid of a packet of bourbons!" In fact, that idea appealed to her quite a lot.

"It's all about the biscuits with you, isn't it?" he chuckled.

"May be!" she laughed.

"How about," he murmured closer to her ear, "we go back to the TARDIS and see what we can find in the cupboard?"

"Talking about cupboards, what was that earlier about wardrobes?" she half-whispered back.

"Something I overheard that Marie was suggesting she'd do with me. What does that mean?" he clearly had no idea.

"I dunno, but we could always stand in the wardrobe and find out what the attraction would be." It could be fun, she reasoned.

"I hope we find Narnia. Or at least a small part of Paradise!" he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"You know, sometimes you have some really good ideas!" she giggled.

"Don't I just," he confirmed.

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