Donna walked into the reception hall, followed by The Doctor and Rose, and stopped as she watched in angrily in shock. "Merry Christmas Everybody" was blaring at full volume and everyone was dancing, drinking, eating and laughing. Donna folded her arms as she stood there, thunderstruck. Her mother, Sylvia spotter her first and froze. The rest of the room soon followed suit as one-by-one they spotted her, until the whole room was silent as the all stared at Donna.
"You had the reception without me?" She said, unbelieving.
"Donna…" Lance said from where he had been dancing. "What happened to ya?"
"You had the reception without me?" She just asked, again, her voice raising a notch. There was an awkward silence as no one wanted to answer, and people avoided meeting her eyes.
"Hello! I'm The Doctor." He said cheerfully, breaking the silence. "And this is Rose."
"They had the reception without me." Donna said again, turning to him.
"Yes, I gathered." The Doctor told her.
"Well, it was all paid for… why not?" The woman who had been dancing with Lance said. Her Lance!
"Thank you, Nerys." Donna said sarcastically. If looks could kill, Nerys would be very dead right now. Sylvia approached Donna.
"Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your silly little message in the end. 'I'm on Earth.' Very funny." She said sarcastically. "What the hell happened? I mean, what's the trick because I'd love to know…" Sylvia demanded to know and here other guests, family members and friends all joined in and started at the same time. Pretty soon, all Donna could hear was an incomprehensible babble of voices. She stared at them all, not knowing what to say or do. She couldn't tell them what had really happened. They'd think she was bonkers. So she did the next best thing. She burst into tears. Immediately, their anger turned into pity and Lance forward and hugged her. She cried into his shoulder as everyone applauded. But over Lance's shoulder, Donna winked at the Doctor and Rose through her fake tears. The Doctor smirked while Rose smiled in admiration.
"Oh, she's good." She whispered over to The Doctor.