Thank you for the reviews all!

Note: I realize this story is slow paced. Some chapters may be quicker than others. So my apologies to those who feel the story isn't progressing quickly enough.

Please review. :)

Donna saw the visions swimming through her mind. Things of which she could not begin to comprehend. Things that meant nothing to her. They were foreign, coming to her from somewhere else. Deep within her own mind she screamed for relief. Whatever was seeping into her mind was anything, but natural. It was inhuman, not to mention inhumane. It was pure torture. She couldn't even scream out loud, her mouth wouldn't work.

Please stop this! The woman who had slapped the Oncoming Storm multiple times and lived to tell about it. Not only that, she'd lived to become his best mate. She had saved worlds, rescued those in distress, and yet here she was, reduced to nothing more than a puppet on an invisible string.

She felt her body moving, saw the things in front of her vision, but her body moved of its own accord. It was as though she were merely a passenger along for the ride. She could feel her hands, her feet, her face, frozen in a blank expression. But she couldn't frown, smile, laugh, cry. She couldn't sit or force her legs to stop. On and on she walked. So much so her legs were sore, her feet were starting to blister. The cold of the night air was causing goose bumps to rise across her delicate skin.

Please, whoever or whatever you are, let me go! She'd gone far past yelling inside her head at the thing that was doing this to her. She'd cursed at it, called it every name possible, screamed for all she was worth, told it off like she had never told anyone off before. And yet, nothing answered her. No one was listening.

It was as if she were on autopilot. She tried desperately to stop, but to no avail. She tried to get someone else's attention, but nobody had paid a bit of attention to her walking along. And now it was late, no one was about. She wasn't even sure where she was. She had never walked so far away.

She was nearing what looked like an empty field with trees off in the distance. Why wouldn't it let her go? The blasted thing that had her. Because if there was one thing Donna was positive of, it was that this something that was controlling her, was alive and not her. This wasn't a case of going mental or her mind having some sort of bizarre stroke. This was completely different.

She felt it now, the presence. She felt it taking her over earlier the other morning while shopping. That was when the visions first started. She felt something pressing inwards, but didn't understand what it was at the time and had no reason to believe she could stop it, even if she had realized what was going on. She would have tried though, had she known it would take her mind over so completely as to literally control her every move.

She hadn't even meant to go out shopping without talking with Shaun first. She couldn't remember getting dressed or leaving the house. She could only remember that she'd enjoyed some of the shops she was in and recalled some of the items she enjoyed looking over.

This whole thing had to have something to do with her headaches and the sleep walking over the past year, especially the past month or so. She had no reason to find those things connected, but somehow she did. She'd had plenty of time to think about it over the past few hours of walking to nowhere.

Something was wrong with her head, and moreover something else was trying to exploit it. But who, what, where, when, why and how were things she just couldn't work out.

The scary thing was, rather than consider that Shaun might find her missing and come looking for her, the strangest thought occurred to her. That he might betray her. Not cheat on her, but leave her out here to die! Why would he do that? He loved her! She knew he did. But every time she thought of him saving her, a strange red spider shaped creature ran through her head and made her want to punch something. Hard.

Finally, one less shoe, and no jacket to protect her arms from the cold, Donna was halfway across a field. Wet grass touched her ankles. Her vision started to fail her. She couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel. Donna was falling to the ground now, but she didn't know it.

She was conscious, but couldn't use a single sense to tell that fact. Everything was so dark. She was deaf, blind, she couldn't feel her own body, couldn't tell if she was even breathing. Was this death? If so, she knew she was surely in her own personal hell because even pain was better than feeling nothing.

Back on the TARDIS...

"Why won't you land?" The Doctor frowned up at the console. His former incarnation would be hitting her with a mallet for misbehaving this poorly, but his current self didn't feel the need for such actions. His ship had been loyal to him through out the ages. He couldn't see treating her abusively, any more than he could imagine hitting an child. It wasn't something he did, ever.

Something was happening that caused her to refuse to land. He'd had the TARDIS track Donna's current location. The ship had located her some fifteen miles away, a town over. So he waited, but she refused to land. "I know I ask a lot of you, dear, but Donna really is very important. You remember Donna, aye? She was always kind to you. We need to land so I can help her. Lets help her?" He cajoled his ship, petting her as he changed a few dials in the hopes of calming her.

It took some work, but he finally managed to convince her. As the TARDIS landed, he gave her a smile and exited. And then he found himself facing nothing more than a plain field and some woods. The nearest house was yards away and even the nearest road was unpaved. No car was in sight. He frowned. Where was she and why would she be all the way out here?

Even if her memories came back to her, he could think of no logical reason why she would be all the way out here. It was worrying him more than he cared to admit, even to himself.

He pulled out his sonic and held it out in front of him, scanning the entire area. It started beeping like mad when he pointed it NW at the field. His frown deepened as he stepped into the tall grass and started walking. He could sense her now. Smell her even. That warm spicy scent that was so Donna. Not that she smelled bad. Everyone had their own scent and the Time Lord's senses were acutely more adept at detecting external input than the average human.

He paused to listen, more intently than perhaps he normally could, desperately searching for the sounds of breathing or a heartbeat, but he knew he couldn't hear it even if he tried.

He headed on, continuing to follow his sonic's direction and then the scent. And there she was. Hidden away. Tucked in the uncut grass on her back, her chest rising in falling, much to his great relief. Her eyes were closed, her hands lay at her sides.

"Oh Donna..." He spoke softly. He knelt down beside her and examined her.

Upon first glance he picked up more troubling evidence that this was not his fail-safes failing her at all. The blood on her one bare foot told him of the blisters she'd endured and the stiff way she lay let him know her muscles were sore. So she had walked all of this way. But why? There was nothing out here that could possibly hold a memory of her time with the Time Lord. It had to be something else.

He tugged out of his tweed jacket and lay it over her. It was a cold night. He stared at her face as he did this. When he spoke to the unconscious woman, the words were full of compassion and affection as much as they were a genuine inquiry that he didn't expect a response from. "Whats going on with you, Noble?"

He reached up with both hands on either side of her head to take a look. He didn't like doing this. Over and over to the same person like this wasn't a wise idea. He did it though. He reached in and was stunned by what he found. A complete wall. Not just over the memory block he'd put into her mind, but around her entire mind! It was a dark energy, the same presence he'd found before, except fully active. He tried to press it back, but he wouldn't budge. He couldn't see into her mind because of it, and in all likelihood, she wouldn't be able to see out. "What's happened to you...?"

The Doctor was entirely upset and angry by what was happening to her. He checked her vital signs. All appeared well, but nothing was at all.

This wasn't just her memories merging into her subconscious mind. This was something much more...Dangerous. While he still had no idea what she was doing in the middle of a field, he now knew that her unconsciousness had nothing to do with her memories flooding back, at least. That would have been a better thing than this.

"Whoever did this to you..." His frowned etched its way across his features, setting in deeply. "Knew what they were doing. They knew about your memories being suppressed and how to avoid the self defense I gave you. But who could know that? Who would go through so much trouble to get to you?"

Carrying her would take a bit of work, but he was up for it. He wasn't going to leave her out here to freeze to death, whatever else was going on. He slowly stood and slid his arms under her, with a small grunt, he lifted her up, her body falling against his chest. He struggled quite a lot, but was determined.

To the TARDIS he carried her, swearing that if he did nothing else, he would not drop her.

He maneuvered his hand so that his fingers were open a moment, just long enough to snap. The TARDIS doors flung themselves open and he carried her in. He carried her back to a room with a bed and laid her down. It was a little less TARDIS looking back here, though it was hardly looking like a regular bedroom. It had a lamp and a bed and a book case, but the rest was very much just TARDIS, with a few odds and ends that would be confusing. Thankfully, none of it looked like the TARDIS that would be in Donna's memories. Though he was still fearful of what might happen if she started to remember, right now they had bigger troubles.

Whomever or whatever was trying to control her mind, wasn't going to get away with it. Whatever their reasons, they couldn't have her. Not as long as his hearts were still beating. "I won't let them do this to you. Don't you worry, Donna. I may have left you, but I will never abandon you." He knew it wasn't possible for her to hear him or know anything with that solid wall of foreign energy blocking her mind in, but he had to say it.

He was angry. Not only with whomever was doing this to his dear friend, but himself for leaving her alone and vulnerable. He had a feeling the previous visit that it wasn't the end of it. Seeing her hunched down in that scaffold, crying and reliving moments she couldn't quite reach, but knowing she felt the pain of the loss just the same, was heart wrenching. It had been all he could do just to not break down sobbing himself.

He dragged a blanket over her. He slipped her other shoe off and cut her stockings off below the ankle to assure that her feet dried and warmed, then, he reached out to tuck a few loose strands of hair back from her face. He watched her for several long moments before turning and leaving the room.

I'll find whoever or whatever is doing this to her. I'll stop them.

After he left, Donna stirred.

Pain. Intense. Donna gasped and sat straight up, gripping her head. She had her fair share of hang overs, but this beat that all to hell and back! At least she was feeling something! She felt ridiculously relieved about that.

But that didn't help the fact that the pain was...Painful!

She rocked back and forth, unable to open her eyes. "Shaun? Bring me the aspirin!" She hollered, annoyed. This hurt bad. "Shaun! Hurry it up!" She called barely three seconds later. The throbbing was so intense she had never felt anything so blindingly painful before. It was so bad, she considered crying, except that would have hurt all the more.

A moment later a glass was placed in her hands and she drank down the cool water eagerly as warm fingers traced gentle lines across her forehead and temples. Amazingly, the touch eased the pain back and caused her to shiver. It felt as if his fingers were entering her skull! "Where are those aspirin? Oi, Shaun..." She was a little less combative with him now that the pain was easing up. Until she opened her eyes.

And then she screamed.

A strange kid was leaning over her, his hands on her! So what if they were only on her head, they were still on her body and she didn't know him! "Get offa me!" She jumped up and glared at him, even as she was aware the pain was subsiding considerably.

He stood back, a calm look on his face. "Its okay, Donna. Really, I promise it is." He spoke just as calmly and gently as she thought someone with his weird look wouldn't.

"How do you know my name? Who are you?" She looked around, shifting from one foot to the other and now eyeing him with all the suspicion one would expect from someone confronted with a serial killer. "Where am I?" Her tone was rising so quickly that the Doctor knew if he didn't give her some answers and now, he would be suffering for it.

"You remember me." He said softly. "Give it a moment. I'm Williams. Williams Pond." He reminded her.

"You did something to me! You must have drugged me or something! That's how come I went walking and couldn't stop and why I'm here in this weird room!" She accused.

Oh, this was getting complicated indeed! He held up the psychic paper, letting her see it. "No. I'm a...medical professional, and your family asked me to bring you to my...Convalescence Center. For your recovery. Heard you've been having a bit of trouble lately." He gave her a reassuring smile.

She peered at the paper. It had the man's name and credentials on it. She remembered. Williams Pond, friend of her grandfather, weird bow tie wearing kid who helped her the other night. She calmed slightly. "So what are you saying? Shaun just signed some papers and off I went? You took me away while I was asleep?"

"Oh Donna, you weren't sleeping." He admonished lightly. "You went off on your own and worried them. You're in trouble and need help." He knew she knew this. "Shaun and Wilf felt it would be for the best if I looked after you while we get this sorted out for you."

She slowly approached him and for a moment, he cringed, fearing a slap. But she merely sank down onto the side of the bed with a sigh. "I don't know what to do!" She stared blankly as she spoke. "My head hurts so much. Too much all the time now." She rubbed it. "And things keep happening. I don't understand! My feet hurt, I'm aching all over. I wake up places, I don't know how I got there. I think...I can't remember. I just can't!" She sounded very upset. As she spoke, the Doctor slowly sat down beside her, watching and listening.

She turned to look at him and for the briefest of moments, it felt like old times. The two of them hanging out in the TARDIS, talking about problems and he was hopeful for a joke. Then he got to be reminded this was Donna Temple-Noble.

"Oi!" She shouted, causing his ears to ring. "You're supposed to be some doctor, why are you sitting on your patient's bed!" He quickly rose.

"Uh, sorry."

Her eyes narrowed in on him. "Listen, kid, I don't know what sort of place you're running here or what you think you can do with or to me, but it ain't happening! You put your paws on me, you won't have any left when I get done with ya! You hear me?"

He put his hands out in a surrender gesture. "Understood. I won't hurt you, Donna. I'm here to help. And I don't want to touch you!" He said this in such a tone that she looked at him in agitation. Fearing offending her, he quickly he went on. "Not that touching you is a bad thing. I would touch you."

Another look. "Not without your one hundred percent consent of course." She glared. "Well, yes, I'm a professional, mustn't bother with all of that then." He coughed. Sometimes maybe not speaking was a good thing. "I won't hurt you, Donna." He repeated helplessly.

"I'm not worried you'll hurt me. You just try it you!" Donna made a sort of 'humph' sound that told the Doctor that argument was done with at least. "So if you're so good at figuring this stuff out, fix me then, bow tie boy."

"Right." He clapped his hands together. "First, I'm going to need you to stay right here, while I run a few tests." He left the room and left Donna wondering what the heck was going on! If he needed to run tests wouldn't he need her? She was the one he was running tests about! She rolled her eyes and sat down with a heavy sigh. And why were her feet so sore?

She looked down at them and noticed the blisters. She frowned, recalling the long journey she'd been unable to stop herself from making. It felt so blurry in her mind. Why was that?

She sank back down onto the bed and rubbed her feet, thinking. Thinking all sorts of things. From what was going on with her, to why didn't this room have a television. Didn't these sort of places always have television and a dresser? What about clothes? Shaun or her grandfather both, wouldn't have dropped her off here or allowed her to come without at least a suitcase full of clothes. They knew very well she didn't travel lite. Why would they dare bring her here without anything? She looked under the bed and all around the strange room with the coarse feeling walls. Nothing. She was angry all over again now.

She stormed out of the room in search of that medical guy...

Something hard and lumpy hit the back of the Doctor's head. "Ow!" He rubbed it as he turned around. Donna was stood just inside the console room, glaring. At his feet lay the shoe he had removed from her foot a bit ago. "Why did you do that?" He asked, miffed.

He hoped beyond hope that she wouldn't recognize the TARDIS console. After all, he reasoned, it looked significantly different than the one she would remember anyway. He kind of hoped he could pull off making her think it was some weird medical lab stuff instead. Having her pass out would make things inconvenient at best.

"Why? Why?" She stomped over to him and snatched her shoe back. "Because there is no way Shaun or my Gramps would leave me here with you without any clothes!" Puzzled, he looked her up and down.

"Oi! Don't be doing that!" She looked ready to slap so he cringed, but again, it never came. "What did you pick me up off the ground and drag me back to your bonkers hospital for anyway? Why can't you stop being weird! I mean where is my suitcase? Where are my clothes? My family wouldn't leave me here with nothing, but the clothes on my back!"

The Doctor smiled graciously and gestured with his hand, toward the stairs. "Of course you've got clothes here, Donna. You even have hats." He'd kept them, not because it was inconvenient to return some of her things, but because he liked to keep a little piece of those he left behind. He kept at least one thing, usually more, from every single one of his companions. Donna perhaps was one he'd kept the most from because she'd brought the most stuff on board his ship.

He had a full suitcase up in the wardrobe along with that hat box. He wouldn't let her take them with her. Especially not the hat box. Oh, that held so many memories! Even if she kept the hats, he was stealing that box for himself. It was his Donna's, after all. He would use the hats, but they were all womens hats and didn't suit him even if some of them were, indeed, very cool.

"Hats?" She let him lead her upstairs and to the most enormous wardrobe she had ever seen in her life.

Her mouth fell open. "Oh. My. God!"

He looked at her worriedly. "You've got your own shop! Why didn't you tell me your bonkers hospital had a shop?" She squealed with delight and dove in.

He grinned and pulled out her suitcase from the back along with a hat case. "Don't get too excited. Nothing here is for sale, Donna. These are your things, right here, and you can use that room over there."

One thing he loved, she didn't question the obvious things. The things that would have caused him problems to try to answer. She didn't ask him why he had a big weird thing, the console, in the middle of his floor, or any other question he would have expected from most people. But then, Donna wasn't most people.

She was already pulling out a frighteningly familiar colorful suit from his wardrobe by the time he had her things out for her. Although he remembered it with a surreal fondness, he was positive Donna wouldn't care for. He was more than a little bit right about that.

"What is this?" She demanded, holding it up and making a horrible face. "Please tell me this is a clown suit for the little kids who come here." She was practically commanding that he tell her just that. He tried not to look offended. "Ahem. Well, it coulddo, but it isn't. It was actually a suit worn by a very brilliant, if a bit halted, man. Nothing wrong with that suit."

Donna stared at him as if he had told her to sprout some wings and fly about the TARDIS. She hadn't even looked that shocked when she had first found herself inside the TARDIS in her wedding dress. She was speechless, which the Doctor wasn't sure whether to be insulted by that fact, or grin in triumph. He settled for a half-pained smile.

Look who I'm talking to, thought Donna. The man can't even dress himself properly. I can't expect him to understand basic fashion trends!

"Well, no need to worry about that suit, as I said, here are your clothes right here." He gestured. She hung the suit back up, but wouldn't let it drop. "Who on Earth would wear a suit like that?"

"Maybe not anyone on Earth." He admitted truthfully. "But there was a man who did wear it, once upon a time."

"Who?"

"Eh..." This being honest stuff was working so far, so why not? "Me."

Donna's mouth fell open. She looked him up and down. "Oi, if you're gonna stand there and try to tell me you wore this suit..."

"But I did. Used to anyway. I'm into bow ties now though."

She charged over with such a rapid speed he hadn't time to consider what her intent might be. A moment later a hot flash swept across his cheek and he was propelled backward by the sheer force of it. He rubbed his burning cheek and stared, open mouthed. Of all the things she found to be insulted about, she took offense to this?

She stood, hands on hips, glaring at him. He couldn't believe he was finding himself happy to be slapped. He'd missed her.

Seeing her glaring, feeling the warm sting on his cheek, he couldn't help himself. She was just being so very Donna! He burst into laughter and hugged her.

"Oi, let me go!" She shoved him back violently, but that didn't stop his laughter. She stared at him worriedly. Maybe this one was the one who needed to be carted away to a hospital! How was he to help her with her episodes if he was going to go off all funny on her? And why the hell would anyone wear a multicolored suit like that unless they were on...

"Drugs!" She accused as his laughter slowly died down and he coughed. "Excuse me?" He asked between coughs. He was smiling brightly now as he looked at her, unfazed by her annoyance, which just made her all the more perturbed. Not to mention very unnerved.

"You're on drugs! Must be. Only explanation for you." She declared which only made him grin fully at her.

Yep, he was a loon, she was sure of it now.

She went and grabbed her suitcase and hat case, all the while watching him as though she feared he might suddenly swoop down and try to attack her or some such thing.

"I am not on drugs, Donna." He assured her. "Just enjoying an inside joke." He didn't bother to add that she was actually on the inside of that joke, but there was no way for her to remember or know it. He watched her give him one last odd look before disappearing into a nearby room. He sighed and went back down to the console. The TARDIS was stationary because he couldn't risk Donna remembering by flying all about the place.

He silently thanked River for teaching him about the stabilizers. Actually, he kind of already knew about them but chose to forget it. He didn't understand why others didn't understand. The understanding being that stabilizing something that travels through time and space was just silly! Nothing that has such a wicked job should be kept stable. Because there was absolutely nothing stable about flying through time and space! Just because no one else could see the logic in it, didn't mean he had to ignore it.

There were other things that manual said that the Doctor disagreed with. So many other things. It got on his nerves. It dared try to tell him how to fix the chameleon circuit! As of a TARDIS couldn't decide on it's own what it should look like.

He looked over some of his old clothing, reminiscing briefly before turning and heading back to the console. He still had a few matters to contend with where she was concerned. Before he could safely return her to her family. He needed to find answers.

Right now was the issue of who or what was controlling her mind. Someone had the ability to control it, and to block all others out, and he needed to know who. He needed to know why. He needed to stop them.