Rose managed to get the Doctor to slow down just enough to not leave the flat in his jimjams or without having a bite to eat first… though just barely. If it hadn't been for the banana she dangled in front of his face it would have been a losing battle against his barely contained excitement. She giggled as he crammed it in his mouth while trying to tie his trainers and tuck in his shirt at the same time.

"Worse than Tony, you are!"

Grinning from ear to ear he looked up, cheeks bulging like a chipmunk with half chewed banana in them, and winked at her. When he was ready, he bounced around on the balls of his feet following Rose like a little lost puppy while she finished her own preparations.

He hadn't yet been in her room since arriving at the flat but was so preoccupied with his non-stop rambling about the process of adding transdimensional pockets to his new suits that he didn't even notice crossing its threshold until he had sat down on her bed. Rose turned around at the sound of the bedsprings.

"Oh… sorry, I expect you want to finish getting ready. I'll just… go then."

He started to get up but Rose just smiled and waved him off.

"No its fine, I'll just be a moment." She grabbed a few things from her closet and disappeared into the loo.

The Doctor sat on the edge of the bed and looked around curiously. Rose's taste of clothing was not the only thing that had changed. Her bedrooms both at the Powell Estates and onboard the TARDIS had been full of bright pinks and shimmery things. Clothes had always been strewn about, and had it not been for the TARDIS tidying up after her, he would have gone insane waiting for her to get ready each day. Just waiting for her to wake up was bad enough.

This room, much like the rest of the flat, felt hardly lived in. Whereas Rose had trinkets and knickknacks collected throughout their years of traveling together scattered around her room on the TARDIS, this one was bare except for a few picture frames and books. He got up and wandered over to her dresser, picking up the pictures and studying them silently. One was of them Christmas night, just after he had regenerated. They were sitting at the dinner table, he with his specs on and his brand new outfit as well as a paper crown to match Rose's. He recalled how nervous he'd felt those first few days with her, watching as she tried to adjust to the new him. He smiled wryly as the irony of it all hit him.

Another frame held a picture of them back when he had blue eyes. He looked as grumpy as ever, with his daft old face and big ears. His arms were crossed and he wore a scowl as per usual, but Rose looked… well, beautiful. In fact, it had been on that occasion that he had first slipped and flat out told her so earlier that evening when she had come down from the TARDIS wardrobe wearing that magnificent dress, ready to take on Cardiff in the eighteenth century. After fighting off the Gelth and almost losing their lives in the process, Rose was unbelievably cheerful and hadn't wanted to go to bed for ages. She kept pestering him, swishing her full skirt to and fro, and batting her eyelashes playfully at him. Though he certainly was much grumpier in that particular body, she had already begun to work her magic on his hearts, slowly thawing them out with each smile and laugh. Before finally retiring to her room she bounced over to him and pulling out her mobile from who knows where, tried to snap a picture of them. He had grumbled and tried to pull away, but she elbowed him in the ribs, snaked a hand into his arms and took one anyway. She had told him to stay still if he knew what was good for him, all through clenched teeth in that beautiful smile of hers.

Walking over to her bedside table he saw a few other frames, more memories of their life when everything was happiness and adventures, handholding and hugs. Laying on his coat on the applegrass of New Earth, a block party in Muswell Hill in celebration of the Queen's coronation, standing amongst the frozen waves on Woman Wept, and a curious picture of them both with icing on their faces, the Doctor trying in vain to lick his nose.

"You were so mad at me for wasting the edible ball bearings that night! I didn't think you'd forgive me for ages."

The Doctor had been so caught up in his memories that he hadn't heard Rose come out. She was standing just behind him, peering around his left shoulder at the frame in his hand.

Smiling as he recalled his indignation and how he'd smeared the cake icing right back in her own face, he chuckled softly.

"Yes well, incredibly hard to find, those ball bearings! You could have attacked me with a less rare treat, you know. And what is it with humans and slamming backed goods in each other's faces? You're a bunch of savages, you are! Perfectly good pastries gone to waist, hmph!"

Rose rolled her eyes and bumped his shoulder with her own, as she gently took the frame from his hands and put it back on her night stand. Her eyes stayed fixed on the picture for just a few seconds longer and then as if shaking herself from darker thoughts, she took a deep breath and smiled as she linked her arm through his.

"Come on, you. Your suits await."

The Doctor was so happy to be back in "normal clothing" that he insisted on wearing one of his suits out of the shop. He almost asked Rose which one she preferred but decided not to at the last moment, afraid of how it might feel if she asked him to wear his brown one. So instead, he picked out a new shirt to go with his dark olive suit. Rose made no comment nor did her expression reveal anything regarding whether or not she was hoping for the brown. She simply helped him pick a coordinating tie to add to the outfit and then sent him off in a hurry to change so that they could go by the grocers to pick up everything they would need for tonight's dinner with Donna.

When he came out all ready to go, Rose looked him up and down appreciatively and grinned. She loved him in casual clothes, but there was just something about him in a suit. The Doctor raised an eyebrow and shoved his hands in his pockets, a smile spreading across his features as well as he stood silently rocking back and forth on his heels. Geoffrey cleared his throat as he approached them and when they both turned to him grinning like idiots, he managed to hide his amusement at this very odd couple that had left quite the impression on him since their last visit. He thanked them again for their patronage, reminded them to call upon him for any future needs, and wished them a good day.

The trip to the grocers was quick enough that the Doctor had no time to start whining. He was busy peppering Rose with never-ending questions about this world's Donna Noble, her likes and dislikes, her personality, and past. She could tell that he was uncharacteristically nervous about that evening and wondered if she had been right in asking her over so soon without first consulting with him. She imagined it would be hard for the Doctor, and confusing… though part of her felt some relief in knowing that this would at least give him some sort of an idea as to what it was like to be her at the moment.

Since Rose had slept in (she had to admit, she hadn't slept that well in ages and was loathe to go back to sleeping in her own bed despite their agreement to take things slowly) and they had gotten a late start to their day, the rest of the afternoon went by rather quickly in a flurry of cooking and getting things ready for the evening. The Doctor continued to get more and more restless and though he tried to be helpful, bless him, he was starting to drive Rose mad. She finally had to kick him out of the kitchen and suggested that he go read a book or watch some telly. Looking slightly like a kicked puppy, he muttered an apology and left. Rose sighed heavily, she would have to go check on him in a little bit and apologize for losing her patience. At the moment however, she had quite a few things left to do and as she looked at her watch, she pushed it to the back of her mind and carried on.

A while later, the doorbell rang. Rose was just in the middle of something, so she called out to the Doctor. "That'll be Donna then, can you get the door please, Doctor?"

Putting a book down and hefting himself up from the couch in the front room where he had been reading and re-reading the same page for the last thirty minutes, the Doctor took a deep breath. He walked over to the door and putting on his best smile, opened it up.

"Hello Donna! Come in."

Looking him over with raised eyebrows she shoved a bottle of wine into his hands and laughed. "Blimey, you didn't have to dress up for me!"

Looking down at his suit and then back at Donna's amused expression he stammered. "What? No! I didn't- I mean, I always dress like this!"

"Not yesterday you weren't, but that's alright sweetheart, I'm flattered. I really am." And with that she strolled right past him, dropping her purse on the stand and making her way towards the kitchen.

"Wait, but I really do dress like this!" He followed her, half exasperated and half mortified.

Turning back, she laughed again. "Oh come off it mate, I was only teasing! Rose has told me about you and your suits. Bit uptight for my taste, but whatever floats her boat I suppose. Tell you what though, she was right about the hair. Is that an alien thing? The great hair?"

The Doctor just stared. Fortunately Rose came out just then and saved him.

"Donna! Come in, make yourself comfy! I'm about done in the kitchen."

"Oh Rose, it smells gorgeous in here, what have you cooked?"

The Doctor watched as Donna followed her back into the kitchen without so much as a backwards glance in his direction. He rubbed a hand over his face and let out a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding. Still the same Donna, it seemed like. Smiling slightly he shook his head and followed them to place the wine on the table.

A while later they were eating and laughing as Donna filled Rose in about the goings on at Torchwood in her absence. There were plenty of jokes that the Doctor was not privy to but he smiled politely as the two women cackled about this or that. It was interesting to watch their dynamics and it further convinced him that he had been right during his travels with Donna in guessing that she and Rose would have hit it off marvelously.

"Now, enough about Torchwood, let's get to the good stuff, eh Rose? Tell me how you found him!"

Both Rose and the Doctor exchanged a quick glance and then she gave a bit of a nervous laugh. "Well… it's a long story, really, but you recall how on my last jump I had found another version of you that had that beetle on her back?"

Donna squirmed a bit in her chair and nodded. "Yeah, I do. Don't tell me it didn't work!"

"Oh no, of course it did, and because of that my world's Donna was able to get the Doctor my message."

Donna looked at the Doctor then and smiled. "Bad Wolf, yeah?"

He gave a quick, short nod and looked down at his hands. "Yeah."

Rose watched him carefully and when neither of them continued the story, Donna prompted them.

"Go on, then what?"

Recovering, Rose turned back to Donna. "Well, my next jump landed me back in London. The Earth had been pulled from its coordinates, it was dark, there were all these planets in the sky and it was absolute chaos. I set off in search of him. Initially I came upon Donna's mum and granddad though, stayed with them a bit while trying to get in contact with him."

She continued the story, with relatively little hesitation or interruptions until she got to that moment. The moment that would set things into motion and change everything.

"I set the coordinates on the jumper and…" She looked at the Doctor. He was still staring at his hands, though now they had curled slightly and were slowly becoming clenched.

"Aaaand? Come on then Rose, don't toy with me! This is when you two finally saw each other again, isn't it?"

Donna looked back and forth between Rose and the Doctor, her face clouding over with confusion as she took in Rose's pained expression and the Doctor's stiff posture.

"… Isn't it?"

Rose cleared her throat. "Well, yes… and no. It's complicated."

Donna could feel an uncomfortable tension settle over them like a thick, heavy blanket. She kept looking back and forth between them but kept quiet for once.

"I arrived just after the TARDIS had, not far up the road from him and Donna. We spotted one another but before we could reach each other a Dalek appeared and… and shot him. Then a friend of ours, Jack Harkness, also appeared and took care of it while Donna and I helped him back into the TARDIS. Once inside we realized he was dying. He started regenerating."

Donna knew what that meant. She looked over at the Doctor and shook her head.

"But you're still the same! I thought you lot changed faces when you regenerate?"

"We do… but I didn't regenerate. Not fully, anyway."

Not waiting for Donna to question this, he plunged on, preferring to tell this part of the story before his memories of the event cut off. He'd let Rose take back over from there.

"He- I just used some of the regeneration energy to heal myself and then siphoned off the excess into… well, my other hand. Did Rose ever tell you about the hand I lost shortly after regenerating into this body?"

Donna's eyes grew wide. "The hand that got chopped off by that Sycorax bloke that challenged you?"

"Yeah, that would be the one. Anyway, so the excess energy got siphoned into that hand and that was that… didn't need to change."

"Hang on, but that's good yeah? Why the long faces then?"

The Doctor gave a mirthless sort of laugh, one that surprised even Rose. She looked up, a bit startled and her stomach coiled even more when she noticed that he refused to meet her gaze. He spoke again, staring down at his hands once more.

"Go on then Rose, you may as well since I don't have any memory of what happened on your end after that. I can fill her in on my side of things in a bit."

Donna sat back in her chair and watched as Rose's face closed off for a second. She wasn't so sure she wanted to hear whatever was coming if it had the power to turn what should have been a happy reunion into… well, into whatever this thing was that was certainly no longer happy.

Rose began again and told Donna of their capture and being transported aboard the TARDIS onto the Dalek Crucible. She explained how everyone had exited the TARDIS except for Donna and how she and the TARDIS had been lost to the core of Z-neutrinos. She continued the story and told of how the rest of her friends and her mother were also captured and how when all seemed lost the TARDIS suddenly rematerialized with Donna and a second Doctor onboard. She then quietly said, "I think you should take over from here Doctor."

Donna, whose mouth was already hanging open, turned to look at the Doctor across from her.

"After the hand received the extra regenerative energy, Donna began hearing a heartbeat. As the TARDIS was starting to be destroyed by the Z-neutrinos, she felt a pull towards the receptacle that held my hand and touched it. This caused an instantaneous biological metacrisis. The stored regenerative energy in the hand mixed with Donna's touch triggered the formation of… well, me."

Donna's eyes grew wider still.

"So you're not… I mean, but you are? How… how does that work? And where is-" but she stopped herself.

The Doctor closed his eyes momentarily. This was the moment he had been dreading all afternoon… well, one of two. His jaw clenched as he held his breath, trying futilely to control his erratic heartbeat. As much as the silence made him want to scream, he held his tongue. He knew this was something Rose had to answer, and so he remained silent. He couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze though. He didn't want to see the doubt, if any still existed.

Finally, Rose spoke. Haltingly at first, but growing more confident as the words tumbled out of her mouth. "He… he is the Doctor. He's just… a bit changed is all. He's part human now, he's only got one heart… and… and he can age the same as us."

Rose reached over and took hold of one of the Doctor's clenched hands. She gently pried it open and laced her fingers through his, giving it a little squeeze. He still did not look up at her, but she could feel him relaxing, though just by a fraction. She began to rub tiny circles with her thumb, the way he often did when trying to soothe her.

"So… let me get this straight. He's only half alien then? And the other half human?"

"Yes."

"And… the human part of him, that was because of Donna."

"Yes, that's right." Replied Rose again.

Turning back to the Doctor, she raised an eyebrow. "So… so that makes you like… my half-brother or something? Only from another universe!"

Not much could have made the Doctor laugh at this moment, but in true Donna fashion, she certainly did. With an incredulous look, he lifted his gaze to meet hers and for an instant just stared at her, dumbfounded. Then a grin began to spread across his face and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yes Donna, I guess it does… sort of."

Donna looked from the Doctor back to Rose and then back to the Doctor, not quite sure knowing how to take that confirmation. Finally she just shrugged and grinned as well.

"Well isn't that just…. wizard!"

At this the Doctor threw back his head and let out an almighty, "HA!" that made both Rose and Donna jump a little in their seats. They watched in confusion and amusement as he laughed at what must have been some inside joke between himself and his Donna, though they couldn't know for sure.

Rose looked over at her friend and mouthed a silent "Thank you" at which Donna just smiled and shrugged. Then Rose smiled and gave a quick chuckle herself.

"Actually, that's sort of brilliant seeing as you both share the same last name now!"

"We what?"

The Doctor quieted down and looked a bit sheepish. Rubbing the back of his neck, he muttered, "You should have said something Rose!"

Scrunching up her face, she replied. "Yeah… sorry about that. You were in such a bad mood on the way to mum's that night I just figured I'd tell you later, but then we ended up at Torchwood unexpectedly and well… sorry. But we could I don't know, change the story up a bit and pass you off as cousins or something?"

The Doctor looked pensive a moment. "We were mistaken as brother and sister once in Pompeii. That just might work. What do you say Donna?"

"Go on then, I've always wanted a long lost half-alien cousin!" replied Donna with an eye roll, though her grin confirmed that she really didn't mind at all.

The Doctor beamed.

"Right, so we'll hash out the particulars later yeah? Get on with the story though, Rose! So what happened afterwards?"

"Well, after getting in a bit of a scuffle with the Daleks, we were able to stop them thanks to Donna's change as well. The metacrisis was two way, and so she got the Doctor's mind. She saved us, she saved all of reality... absolutely brilliant, she was. Donna and the Doctors were able to send all the planets back to their proper coordinates and when we got Earth back home, he started dropping everyone off… last of which landed us back here in this universe, at Bad Wolf Bay."

Donna's gleeful expression at hearing of her other self's heroic actions began to fade as she sensed that something heavy was coming. Their faces had become subdued again, though Rose looked more determined now, rather than defeated as she had before.

"The Doctor… the original Doctor intended to drop us off here… to stay, with mum. He and Donna would go back to our home universe."

Donna could hardly believe her ears. She knew how much effort Rose had put into getting back to this man, and the thought of him leaving her behind… she could only guess at how much pain this had caused and was continuing to cause her friend. But what of this man next to her? She looked over at the Doctor, the man she had thought she knew. Upon seeing such raw uncertainty and fear on his face, she had to look away.

Rose plowed on before she lost her nerve. "They explained about the metacrisis and what it meant for this Doctor and myself. The same man, only able to spend the rest of his life with me. I wasn't sure if I could believe any of it. It was too good to be true, really. I panicked, I wasn't ready to let him go… it was all happening so quickly and I wasn't being given much of a choice. I asked him to tell me what it was he was going to say to me before we got cut off the last time we were at that beach… He refused."

Donna's stomach sank. If she could have reached across the universes to slap that alien she would have.

"But this Doctor did. He knew it needed to be said, and so he did… finally." Rose spoke this last bit so softly, so reverently that Donna could hardly hear her. She did, but even if she hadn't it wouldn't have mattered because at that point Donna had just melted into the background. Rose and the Doctor's gazes finally locked and in that moment an understanding passed between them that allowed both to put to rest those last little doubts and fears they had been hanging onto up until now.

"And so here we are." It was the Doctor that had spoken, a shy smile on his face and a look of relief about him. He seemed to have relaxed quite a bit.

Donna didn't want to ruin the mood with more questions about the other Doctor, but she just wanted to be clear on what had happened, this was all so different than what she had been expecting to hear.

"So… the other Doctor though, he left then? With Donna? And… they're not coming back?"

The Doctor squeezed Rose's hand. "Yes, they both left and no, they won't be coming back. That would risk tearing another hole in the fabric of time. It would also be too hard… for him I mean, because of what he had to leave behind."

Donna wasn't sure how to react, she knew Rose couldn't be taking this very well but she and this new Doctor seemed to be doing alright. Seeing them together yesterday she would have never guessed he wasn't who she thought he was. But given the tension she had just witnessed, she knew things couldn't be perfect either. She would have to be sure to get Rose alone sometime and see how things were really going. She decided to change the subject slightly and inquire after her alternate self.

"Hold on, did you say that the other Donna got landed with a Time Lord brain? So what, she's a genius now?"

Again, Rose's and the Doctor's faces fell.

"Blimey, I'm just asking all the wrong questions, aren't I?"

Sighing, the Doctor shook his head. "No, it's fine, you need to know this, especially after all the help you gave Rose to facilitate her interactions with my Donna… It's just that, well, there's never been a human with a Time Lord consciousness before… it's not possible.

Donna chuckled, "Well, leave it up to me to find a way, yeah?"

"No Donna… it's just not possible. I was created from mostly Gallifreyan DNA so my human traits are just a slight alteration, a downgrade if you will. Donna on the other hand kept her human DNA intact but took in knowledge far beyond her mind's capability. The human brain just can't physically manage it."

Donna was afraid to hear what was coming. By the look on his face, she knew it wasn't good.

"Please tell me she didn't die. Please."

Rose reached across the table for her friend's hand. The Doctor took a deep breath and continued.

"No, she didn't die… but he'll have had to make her forget it all in order to keep it from killing her. Every memory of every moment spent with him. The TARDIS, all those adventures… everything."

Donna was floored. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what it would be like to have done all those magnificent things only to have your memories of it all just taken away. It wasn't right. She ached for her other self, despite being a universe away and never even having met her. It was a strange sensation, mourning for the loss of something you never actually experienced, and before she could stop herself she felt tears bubbling up to the surface and spilling over.

"But… but couldn't he have done something else? You didn't witness it, yeah? So maybe… maybe he didn't have to do that and just found another way?"

Shaking his head, the Doctor dropped his gaze.

"No Donna, there would be no other way. I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry."