Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who. Thanks for the reads and follows and review. I really look forward to hearing from people, so don't hold back. Let me know what you think and happy reading!

Donna awoke the next day. She was alone in the bed. She assumed that meant the Doctor was somewhere tinkering away as he often did while Donna slept.

Okay, today was the day. It was going to be a great day. They'd go somewhere, see something amazing and she would tell him that she was pregnant. He was going to be a dad again. How could it get better?

It certainly couldn't get worse than yesterday.

Donna walked out to the console room to find an unexpected state of affairs. Every bit and bob of the console was laid out on the floor. Wires and cables were going everywhere. She tiptoed over them.

"Doctor?"

She finally found him where the jump seat had been uprooted. "Doctor?"

"Morning," he said, not looking up from the bit of console he was polishing.

"Doctor, what's going on?"

"Spring cleaning! Well, not really spring cleaning. It's cleaning, though. I had no idea how long it had been since I gave the TARDIS a proper once over."

"Okay, why?"

"Like I said. Maintenance."

"Well, where did you park us?," asked Donna.

"Park us?"

"Yes, park us." Donna walked over to the doors.

"Don't touch those! I just painted!"

She turned and threw up her arms. "Where are we, Doctor?"

"In the time vortex."

"In the time vortex?"

"Yes."

"You've disassembled the TARDIS!"

"To clean her."

Donna knelt down. "Doctor, we need to talk."

"About what?"

"About what?!," she said incredulously. "Yesterday, a bus of seemingly ordinary people tried to kill you, today you're going all DIY on the TARDIS. Do you think there might be a connection?"

"No, Donna. You can't apply your conventional psychoanalysis to Time Lords."

"Oh, really? Because I think I can."

"Donna, you're distracting me. I could finish this much quicker without you bothering me."

Donna looked at him. He wouldn't make eye contact with her. She did actually need him to reassemble the TARDIS.

"I'll be in the library," said Donna.

"You can't. I just steam cleaned in there."

She sighed. "Where can I be exactly?"

"Well, I would say the bedroom, but I'm putting in track lighting."

"We don't need track lighting," said Donna.

"Oh, then I've got to do something about the garage. I've got to replace the cooker. Then clean the pool. The art gallery! You could be in the art gallery! I don't need to do anything in there!"

She knelt down. "Doctor, I really think it might helped if you talked about what happened yesterday."

"Oh, Donna, what's to talk about? Possessed by an alien shadow on a planet with no atmosphere, bus full of people tried to toss me out, there. Done. End of story. Fin."

"Please, Doctor-" she said putting her hand on his shoulder.

He shrugged away from her touch. "Sorry, Donna. I've got to put new dampeners in the quadratic stabilizers."

"Okay, I'll be there if you need me," said Donna.

Donna went to the art gallery and sat down. It wasn't somewhere she went often. She didn't quite get art and had a difficult time understanding the appeal of standing around in a gallery, staring at something and pretending to be clever while they discussed it. She had gotten bored once listening to the Doctor describe everything that was in this room. She took out her mobile and dialed.

"Donna, my girl!," Wilf said happily on the other end.

"Hi, Gramps," said Donna. "What time is it there? I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No, it's nighttime. I was just about to go up the hill."

"Always up the hill!," she heard her mother say. "Who are you talking to?"

"It's Donna."

"Donna? What happened? Is she alright? Has that man left her yet? Does she need money?"

"Sylvia..."

Donna grunted. "You can tell Mum that man has not dumped me, thank you very much." She paused. "You don't remember me visiting with him, do you?"

"You mean with the Sontarans?"

"No, I mean after that."

"No. Did we miss you?"

"Trust me," said Donna recalling the embarrassment of the Sylvia walking in on her and the Doctor, "it's the sort of visit you would have remembered."

"Where have you been now?"

Donna's heart dropped. "We were just on this planet called Midnight. It was made of diamonds, Grandad. All diamonds. Sapphire waterfall."

"Did you get any good pictures?"

"We couldn't stay long. The Doctor had a rough time of it there. We had to leave."

"What do you mean, love?"

Donna shook her head. "It's hard to explain. Did you get that new computer yet? We could be video chatting. I could show you a bit of the TARDIS."

Wilf chuckled. "Oh, we got it alright, but your mother wouldn't let me get the camera. She thinks I'll just use it for something naughty. Too much Oprah, I say."

Donna cringed at the mental image that produced without regard to how ridiculous it was. "Well, the Doctor and I will give you a proper tour when we visit."

"You're visiting? When?"

"I'm not sure. Soon. I've got some news to share."

"I bet you do, what with all your travels!"

"Well, there's that," Donna agreed. "That's not all of it, though."

"Like what?"

Just then, the Doctor burst in. "Donna, are you on the phone?!," he spat.

"I'm talking to my grandfather," she said.

"Well, I'm trying to reassemble the communications array and you're on the phone!," he said annoyed.

"You didn't say anything-"

"Well, you should have known!"

Donna sighed. "Gramps, I have to go. Love you."

"Love you, too, sweetheart. Take care."

Donna hung up the phone. "There. Are you happy?"

"I've got work to do."

"No, you don't!," she shouted after him.

Donna spent the rest of the day trying to occupy herself. Whenever she tried using something that required any sort of power, she would soon find herself joined by the Doctor. As soon as she tried to inquire after his state of mind, she would be told like a five-year old why whatever she wanted to use was connected to whatever he was "repairing." Then he would stalk off.

So far it hadn't been her favorite day.

She was thinking that when she noticed a slight fluttering. She couldn't quite place it. In her head or her stomach? She looked down.

"Is that you?"

She felt a sensation of warmth only... cooler? What the hell?

"That's you, isn't it?," she asked. "Eh, baby? Zara? That's what the soothsayer said I'm calling you, but I don't know. There's a definite ring to it and I did always like that shop. We can discuss it if you want."

Donna realized she was smiling again.

Maybe this was as good a time as ever. Maybe they didn't have to be somewhere amazing. She was amazing. It had to be enough to knock the Doctor out of his mood, it just had to.

"Doctor!," Donna called walking down the hall.

She didn't hear a reply.

"Doctor!"

She went to the console room. The pieces were all back where they should have been. It took a minute before she found the Doctor, slumped up against the wall on the floor, his jacket and tie lying on the floor next to him.

"Sweetheart?," she asked gently.

"Everything should be mended, Donna. You ought to be able to do anything you like. Steam cleaning should be dry in the library."

She sat next to him. "You did all that?"

"Yes, even re-tiled the pool."

"Why did you-" she shook her head. "Never mind that. I've got to tell you something-"

"I wasn't supposed to live."

She was taken aback. "What? Of course you were! You're the Doctor! You can't just die because some arses on a space bus are too stupid to be saved! Don't even talk like that."

"No, in the Time War. I wasn't supposed to live."

Donna shook her head. "I don't understand."

"When Gallifrey burned, I was supposed to go with it. I was supposed to die, so why am I still here?"

She took his hand in hers and squeezed. "You've done so much since then, helped people, saved planets."

"I bring death and destruction with me wherever I go. They were right, I enjoy it."

"No," said Donna, not knowing who he referred to, guessing it had something to do with the bastards on the bus, "no, that's not you."

He looked at her. "You said it, too. The day we met."

She tried to search back in her memory. He had gone off on one of his rants using a bunch of big words and trying to sound clever. Then she had slapped him. "Are you enjoying this?," she had shouted.

"No," said Donna. "I didn't mean that. I barely knew you then and I was frightened. You saved me, though. That's who you are."

"You should leave me," he said suddenly.

"What?"

"I ruined Rose's life, then Martha's. Astrid is just molecules floating the universe. Jack is immortal and is probably going to be a big head in a jar someday thanks to me."

Donna frowned. "I'm not following that at all."

He looked at her. "And River Song. I don't even know who she is or the slightest thing about her, but she burned in that computer core because of me. You'll be next. What fresh new hell can we find for you?"

"Don't talk like that."

"No, I mean it, Donna. You should leave me."

Donna shook her head. "No, I'm never leaving you, remember? I'm staying with you forever and I think you're wrong about the people you meet. Martha's still brilliant, isn't she? As for Rose, it seems like the worst thing that happened to her is she got stuck in a parallel universe with a father she never knew who's a millionaire there. I'm sorry. There's worse things to happen to a person."

He looked at her. "What about Jenny? She wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for me and what do I do? I warn her against violence so she can get shot."

"You didn't know. You were trying to help."

"That's my point, Donna. I'm always trying to help and look at my amazing successes!," he said, voice dripping with bitterness. "Corpses and the ashes of dead worlds scattered across the universe!"

"You and Jenny saved Messaline. They'd still be fighting if you'd never gone there."

"I'm not letting it happen to you, Donna. You have to leave."

"No, Doctor, you're not kicking me out. I'm staying with you forever."

"And what's that?"

Donna hadn't been expecting that. "Sorry?"

"Even if I can save you, even if I spend the rest of your life keeping you from harm, you're going to get old and decay and die and I'm going to have to watch it."

She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for that cheery reminder."

"No, Donna, I am serious. Can you imagine that? I love you and I have literally no choice but to watch you die," he was gripping her by the wrists now. "Do you understand?"

Donna shrugged. "I... I don't know what you want me to do about it."

He didn't say anything.

"I'm going to give you as long as I have, whatever I have," said Donna.

There was still silence.

"Doctor, you're not yourself," said Donna. "This is normal. What you've been through is enough to make anyone-"

She was cut off when he released her wrists and stood. He started walking out of the console room.

"Doctor?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just... I'm so sorry," he said stalking out of the room.

He walked off, leaving her alone on the floor of the console room, staring at his jacket as it laid on the floor.

Then she realized she was crying.

A/N: During the conversation with Wilf, I'm referring to the events of my story "Don't Drink The Water." You don't have to read it, but just if you were wondering. Reviews are like red velvet cupcakes that get delivered to your door without you ordering...possibly like David Tennant. See? I'll get the hang of this.