Part 2

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They followed the country lane they found themselves on for several miles. Donna had held her hand out to Splodge, and they all walked along joined together with Donna in the middle. The people they passed all said "hello" to them in a friendly manner. And without overdue curiosity; which was unusual in itself. 'Perhaps a family out walking was more of an occurrence than a couple was?' Donna pondered. Oh dear, she had thought of them as a family again; this could turn out to be painful. She gave the Doctor a worried look, and he squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"You do that a lot," Splodge remarked.

"Do what?" Donna asked him, with a puzzled expression.

"That looking, smiling and squeezing hands thing," he stated.

"Is that bad then?" she fixed him with a glare.

"No, but it is the sort of thing…," his voice trailed off.

"Was that sentence going to have the word 'married' in it?" Donna tried not to sound too threatening.

"Might have. Might have had the word 'lovers'!" He grinned at her, causing Donna to guffaw and the Doctor to hide his amusement.

"You are too cheeky for your own good, young man!" Donna chided.

They walked on, for several miles, until they noticed a hay barn within easy reach of the lane. "I think we've found our hotel for the night," the Doctor said and grinned at Donna.

"How many stars has it got? I'm hoping for at least one," she told him brightly.

"As long as you don't mind the lack of an en suite, tea making facilities or a television you'll be fine; or the fact that the stars can be seen through parts of the roof." He pulled her towards the building.

She looked back at Splodge to ask, "How you doing there?" His puzzled expression concerned her.

"I've no idea what you two are talking about. Something about sweets and teas, I think," Splodge replied with a frown. His frown turned to terror as the Doctor scanned the barn with his sonic screwdriver. He forced his frail small body into the back of Donna's legs as much as he could possibly get away with, and trembled with fright.

Donna made a futile attempt to get him to release her, and she cooed comforting words at him.

"What's the problem?" the Doctor asked as he returned to her side.

"You! You big outer-space Dumbo!" Donna chided him. "Couldn't you have done that without all the drama?"

The Doctor squatted by Donna's legs and tried to catch Splodge's attention, smiling consolingly at him. But Splodge was determined to not be won over so easily, and hid his face in Donna's flesh. "Do you want to have a look at what I used then?" The Doctor used his softest voice to tempt the boy out. "It's a type of scientific magic."

His reply was a muffled, "No!"

Donna tugged on the Doctor's ear to bring him up to her eye level. "I think you're going to have to try harder than that!" she teasingly scoffed.

"But Donna…," he spluttered; to have Donna halt any further ramblings by placing a finger on his lips.

"Shall we just find shelter for the night, Spaceman?" She moved her finger to tenderly caress his sideburn. "Give us all a chance to calm down," she said and glanced towards Splodge's figure still wrapped around her legs. "And perhaps give me back the power of walking?"

"I could always carry you if necessary," the Doctor stated proudly.

Donna laughed, making his hearts swell in gratitude. "I'd love to see you try!" she giggled.

The Doctor took her face in his hands. "What else would you love to see?"

"I want to see the end of world poverty, free doughnuts for all, the FA Cup to be won by West Ham United again, and the recipe from Colonel Sanders please!" Donna breathily said in her best beauty queen voice as she gazed into his eyes.

The Doctor's hearty chuckle was broken by Splodge's annoyed exclamation. "Are we going inside or not? All you two do is…" He blushed as Donna and the Doctor fixed him with a glare, and finished on a feeble, "…that!"

"I'm beginning to re-think the whole children being seen and not heard stuff," Donna commented as she gave the Doctor a wink. She lent down and grabbed Splodge's hand, "You young man need some sleep! You are getting grouchy. Come on, Happy Harry."

She led him into the barn, where they found themselves some nice bales of hay to rest on. Tucking her coat around him she left him to sleep and she went to sit with the Doctor as he gazed out onto the surrounding countryside.

The Doctor noticed Donna shiver slightly so he pulled her into his warm embrace. "You should get some sleep too," he whispered to her. "It's been a long day."

"I don't think I'm going to manage to get much shuteye," she admitted in a low voice. She glanced over to Splodge, "Plus the fact that I've given away my coat as a cover."

He shrugged off his overcoat, and stated, "That's soon fixed."

"Oh no!" She held back his offer with one hand. "I couldn't rob you of it!" she declared, and smiled at him.

"But I'm willing to share." He gestured to the bale of hay he'd claimed. "We could snuggle up and get cosy."

"Keep thinking that, mate!" she snorted; but she made no attempt to move away or fight him off when he began to pull her down onto the bale. She watched him adjust the overcoat across both of them, and lay down with him. She waited a few minutes before asking softly, "Do you think we'll get there tomorrow and sort this out?"

The Doctor leant up on one elbow to seek out her eyes in the gloom. "Yes. I'm sure of it," he answered gently, giving her hair a reassuring touch. "Now try and sleep; or I'll be forced to do something desperate!"

"Like what? Wash your own socks?" Donna softly laughed at him.

He chuckled in return. "Like cuddle you until you do!"

"Bring it on, Timeboy!" she told him as she snuggled into his welcoming embrace; and they drifted off to sleep together.

Donna woke to find two little blue eyes peering at her over a smirking mouth and grimy cheeks. "Finally!" he chirruped. "I thought you were never going to wake up!"

She could feel dozens of pieces of straw jabbing her in all sorts of unwanted places and a weight on her chest. "Why are you so cheerful, Harry?" she sleepily asked.

"Because it's funny!" he answered readily. He flicked his gaze to where the Doctor lay to emphasise his point.

The Doctor lay very comfortably with his head resting on Donna's cushioning cleavage. She could have done without the added spot of dribble he'd left on her, but other than that part of her wasn't at all surprised. She decided to pretend to the boy that this was perfectly normal. "Doctor!" She ruffled his hair tenderly. "Time to wake up!"

"What?" he snuffled lightly. He turned his head into her cleavage and immediately gasped, causing Splodge to laugh hilariously. The Doctor lifted his head blearily to see what the fuss was, blushing furiously. Donna placed a consoling hand on his face, and he gratefully leaned into her touch.

Splodge's laughter calmed down to giggles until his stomach rumbled, causing him to stop completely. "Can we find something to eat?" he asked matter of factly.

The Doctor rubbed his hand down his face and considered the question. "Yes, we should," he agreed.

"Can I go and explore outside?" Splodge suddenly asked.

"Yes, but don't go too far," Donna told him. He gave her a cheeky grin and scooted off. She turned her attention back to the Doctor. "What are we going to do about this?"

"Well, if we catch the…," he was quickly interrupted before he could say much.

"No! I mean this!" Donna pointed to his head and then her chest.

The tips of the Doctor's ears went a delightful pink. "Oh that!" He averted his gaze. "I ...er… didn't…"

She narrowed her eyes at him involuntarily. "Just tell me if you were after a quick jolly."

"Oh course not!" he blustered, unable to look away now.

"Good! Now get off me, Timeboy, before I have to threaten you!" She gently shoved him, and he hastily retreated from their loose embrace.

"Sorry..! Right; food!" He clapped his hands decisively.

Donna rolled onto her knees, wincing at the pain as she received multiple jabs in her skin again. As she considered the best way to get up the Doctor helped her stand and started to dust her down. "Hands!" Her glare halted his efforts in an instant.

"I'll just…," he stammered, pointed to the door and sauntered in its direction.

Donna closely followed him and peered out, seeking the small form of Splodge. He was nowhere to be seen. She tried to quell the panic that threatened to overtake her, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of foreboding. "Harry? Where is he?" she asked.

The Doctor instantly whipped out his sonic screwdriver and began to scan the area. "He's over there!" he cried out as he began to run. The readings had shown another life-form by him, and he tried not to prejudge the reason why. Reaching back he grabbed Donna's hand and raced them towards the large hedge surrounding a nearby cornfield. He could smell Splodge now; his natural scent mingled with a hint of Donna.

Her gasp made him realise she could see the creature too through the branches and undergrowth, so he gestured her to keep as quiet as possible. Releasing her hand, he thrust his body through a small gap, and ambled over to the creature. It had woven a thread around Splodge's hands in the same manner as a spider. Damn! It had found them after all his efforts to be undetectable! "Let him go!" the Doctor demanded loudly with a growl of contempt. "You don't need him, Parfilal. He won't be of much use to you."

The creature flashed it's yellow eyes at the Doctor. "He is mine to do with as I will," it replied.

"Ah, now that's not true," the Doctor answered, plunging his hands deep into his coat pockets. "He belongs with us, so I'm not going to let you take him."

"Who is this 'us'?" the creature retorted with a laugh. "Perhaps I will take you too?"

"Oh I don't think so," the Doctor strolled closer, enough to get in front of Splodge. "Not when you consider I'll do this…!" He pulled out the sonic and pressed a button.

The Parfilal screamed in pain before crumpling to the ground, clutching desperately at it's head.

There followed another shot from the sonic at Splodge's hands, and the webbing fell away. "RUN!" the Doctor ordered Splodge, pointing him towards the gap in the hedge.

Splodge emerged on the other side to be engulfed by a quick hug from Donna; and then both Donna and the Doctor grabbed a hand each and ran with Splodge away to safety.

They ran a mile or so before they felt able to stop. "What was that?" Splodge asked breathlessly.

"They are called Parfilal, and they're from Klontrina, out by the third quadrant in the erm…" The Doctor halted his explanation when he caught Donna's expression.

"Are you alright? Did it hurt you?" Donna asked anxiously, petting Splodge's hair.

"I'm fine," he answered. "Dad… I mean, the Doctor sorted it all out." He shot a worried glance at the Doctor, and was relieved to not see any anger.

Instead the Doctor looked highly embarrassed at the slip of the tongue.

"Why don't you tell him why the Parfilal are so interested in him, Spaceman," Donna encouraged him with a gentle touch on the arm.

"Well, Harry, it's like this…," the Doctor began. "The Parfilal need an energy source that exists in very few places around the universe. One of those places is here on Earth, deep below the ground. They want to use you to persuade some people to dig it out for them."

"Me?" exclaimed Splodge. "How would I do that?"

"As I've already told you, you'd do that by being special. You're a very special boy for certain people in this world," the Doctor said, and then suddenly realised why Splodge was looking at him with such optimism. He was going to dash the boy's hopes of staying with them, but for the life of him he couldn't do that yet. He scratched his neck nervously. "Erm… perhaps we ought to find something to eat and somewhere to sleep at this rate, Donna?"

She smiled sweetly at him in answer, sensing his demise. "Whatever you say, Spaceman. Just promise me you won't dribble all over me next time," she answered mischievously.

"So you're allowing me a next time?" he retorted with delight, for more than one reason.

"If you're lucky!" she exclaimed, and he found himself wanting to kiss her in gratitude.

~o~