This one takes place after a fix-it, and includes an established relationship.

The Doctor entered the kitchen with a grin on his face and a mischievous gleam in his eye. He leaned against the doorjamb, artfully arranging his limbs as he waited for Donna to notice him as she ate her breakfast. He could be a terribly patient man when he had to be, but after being thoroughly ignored for a full minute, he cleared his throat.

Donna humored him. "Oh, did you need something? Come here and sit down." She patted the chair next to her. He did as she said, and she slid a plate of toast and a banana across the table to him. "Go on, eat it. You know it's three squares a day with me, love. Do you want some of my scrambled eggs?"

"No, thanks." He frowned at the toast but finally took a bite, chewing it thoughtfully. "Donna?"

"Yes?"

"Have you been in the library lately?"

She shook her head. "No. Why?"

"Just wondering." He paused to take another bite of toast, and then he stole Donna's mug to wash it down with a big swig of coffee. "I thought I heard something moving around in there last night after you fell asleep. Might've been Father Christmas." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Donna laughed to herself. He had been trying so hard to get her interested in the upcoming holiday. She shouldn't have been surprised that he wanted to bring it up again. But even though she knew what he wanted, she couldn't help but tease him a bit first. "You didn't go check it out?"

He frowned at her. "No. Maybe you should."

"But why didn't you? You've certainly got no problem with sneaking into buildings or confronting evil aliens, so what stopped you from going to see what was happening in the library?" She widened her eyes, trying to look innocent. "I mean, if you think someone else is on board the TARDIS, shouldn't you find out what they're up to? They might be trying to sabotage us."

"But Donnaaa," he whined, stretching her name out in that way of his, "I want you to go see who it is."

She sighed. "Fine, fine. After I finish my breakfast," she agreed. "Now give me back my coffee."

He shoved the last bite of toast into his mouth, took another drink, and then passed her mug back to her. "I'm going to go do some last minute dec- I mean, some repairs on the, um, landing system. I need to recalibrate the sensor alarm…thingy before we go anywhere."

"Okay," Donna agreed, ignoring his obvious nervous babbling.

"Okay." He grabbed the banana and stood to leave the kitchen, but stopped and turned back to her at the last second to give her a quick kiss. "Don't forget to check out the library. Soon, I mean. Don't leave it for too long. If someone's on board…"

She waved her hand, shooing him on his way. "Don't worry. I'll get to it."

"Good. Right. You're on it." He nodded to himself and then turned and walked off, leaving Donna alone with her breakfast.

"Silly Spaceman," she said aloud to herself, snickering. At least she'd managed to make him eat a few bites this morning. That was something. She still didn't understand how he had functioned for so long on mostly bananas and snacks before he had met her, but she doing her best to feed him properly now. It was no easy task, but she managed, and it had grown a fair amount easier to convince him to both eat and sleep regularly after they had fallen into a relationship along the way.

She decided to go to the library as soon as she finished eating. The Doctor was clearly up to something, and she didn't want to hurt his feelings if she ignored him. He just didn't seem to understand how much she hated Christmas. It had been fun when she was a child, but not so much as an adult. No part of her cared about lights or trees or carolers or anything. It was all just more work for busy people, false cheer and commercialism run rampant. A hassle. Not to mention that her mum always nominated herself leader of the diet police for all of their family holiday meals. Donna was dreading that bit already.

So with a resigned sigh, she pulled open the door to the library and stepped inside. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first glance. There were the rows of bookshelves and their favorite leather sofa by the cozy brick fireplace, all untouched. She almost wondered if he was serious about hearing strange noises when she noticed a green arrow taped to the carpet. She shook her head. What was he up to now?

She followed the arrow only to find another one pointing left past a row of bookshelves, and then another pointing off to the right. She continued to follow them until she came to a small wooden door. It hadn't been there before, or at least she had never noticed it. There was a handwritten sign on the door that said to enter, so she pushed it open and stepped through.

She stopped just inside and gasped at what lie before her. It took her a long moment to realize that she was in the garden because it was so completely different from how it had been the last time she'd visited. Most of the normally lush plants were bare and covered with a thin layer of snow. Big evergreen trees had popped up, scattered across the landscape and decorated like Christmas trees, lights twinkling brightly. Soft snow fell from the artificial sky above, drifting in a cold, artificial breeze. She stood there almost frozen for a moment, just taking it all in.

"Surprise!" someone shouted, and launched themselves at her for a hug, laughing.

Donna shrieked even as she realized whose arms were suddenly wrapped around her waist. She automatically pushed him off of her. "Oi! What are doing?"

He sobered instantly. "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. The air was so cold it made her lungs ache. "It's okay. I just didn't see you there for a moment." She held her arms out for a hug, feeling ridiculous. "Come here."

"Sorry," he said again, and wrapped his arms around her again.

"It's fine. There's no need for that." She rested her head on his shoulder, relaxing into the hug. She shook off her embarrassment, knowing that he understood. "The garden is beautiful. Did you do all of this yourself?"

"Mm-hmm. I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, you certainly did that," she said with a laugh.

He laughed, too. "I noticed."

"It's lovely, though. It really is." She pulled away from him to look around again, marveling in the scenery. "It's like a winter wonderland in here."

The Doctor bobbed his head. "That's what I was aiming for. I know you don't like Christmas, but I thought maybe you'd like some of the scenery."

"I love it." She grinned up at him. "Is this where you've been sneaking off to at night?"

"Sometimes," he answered, grinning.

"Only sometimes?" she asked. What else was he up to?

"Yup." He winked. "Oh, there's an ice skating rink on the other side, where the vegetable garden was. Do you want to skate?"

Donna grinned up at him. "Okay, but shouldn't we change first? It's freezing in here."

"Don't worry, I thought about that 's a little changing booth out by the rink. Should be well-stocked with coats and things."

"All right. Lead the way." She tucked her arm into his and let him lead her to the ice rink, smiling all the way.

Soon, they were both all bundled up and ready to go. Donna had ice skated some as a kid, but she was long out of practice and felt wobbly on her feet. The Doctor was no better because he had only skated a few times in his life. They clung to each other as they made their way slowly around the rink, their gloved hands fitting awkwardly together.

"The Winter Olympics, you and me," he teased, as they started on their fifth slow lap around the rink. "We'll take the gold in pairs figure skating."

"Oh, definitely," she agreed. "We'll amaze the judges with our skill, grace and perfection."

"They'll see moves they've never seen before." The Doctor wobbled as he spoke, leaning more into Donna so that he didn't fall. Unfortunately, she wasn't prepared to support him and lost her balance at the same time, and they both fell to the ice in a heap of tangled arms and legs.

The Doctor sat up first. "You okay?" he asked, leaning over to check on Donna.

"I'm fine," she said, as she sat up. "In fact, I think that was a perfectly executed double tumble."

"I think you're right." The Doctor laughed, and Donna soon joined in. Before long, they were both laughing until their lungs hurt, rolling around on the ice together.

"Do you think you can get up?" he asked, after they had finally managed to regain control of themselves.

"No," Donna admitted frankly. Her feet ached, and her bum was going numb from sitting on the frozen rink.

"I don't think I can either," he said, and they had another round of laughter at that. Who knew ice skating was so much hard work?

Eventually, they both managed to half-crawl off the rink and back onto solid ground. They took off their skates and got to their feet, scampering to the changing booth in their socks.

Later, as they sipped tea and warmed up in front of the library fireplace, Donna found herself looking closely at the Doctor. She had never would have imagined that there might be someone like him for her out there. He loved her, and she didn't doubt it as she had with all of her previous boyfriends, and even with Lance. She knew he loved her because he told her so, and that wasn't always an easy thing for him to admit to, but she felt it even more because of the way he listened to her and supported her, and treated her with kindness and respect. It had taken her a long time to accept that he was serious when he said that she was special to him, but he had never had a reason to doubt it.

As she thought, she suddenly remembered something. "You said there was something else you've been working on at night?" she prompted.

"Oh, well, yes, but not in the same way as I've been working on the garden," he said, shifting awkwardly. "I thought maybe we could invite your mum and Wilf to come here for Christmas dinner, instead of us going there like usual. I can even do all of the cooking. I spoke with them about it, and they said they would love to come, but it's not too late to cancel if you'd rather not."

Donna chuckled at the thought of what he might make for dinner if left to his own devices. Bananas, biscuits, jam and jelly babies, maybe. She would definitely have to help with the cooking. Still, she loved the idea of inviting her family into their home, and she reached for his hand. "I would love that," she said, softly. She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed his palm. "Thank you."

He smiled fondly down at her. "Let me know when you're ready and we can go pick them up."

She nodded. "Okay, but first I want to enjoy cuddling you for a while. You deserve it after all of the hard work you've done."

"Yeah?" he preened. Never having been one to pass on a cuddle, he snuggled against her and wrapped her up in his arms. "Happy Christmas, Earthgirl."

"Happy Christmas, Spaceman," she echoed. She closed her eyes, feeling content. The Doctor had somehow done the impossible - he had found a way for her to enjoy Christmas.