Disclaimer: Mine Doctor Who is not.
A/n: Sort of spoilers for the beginning of Planet of the Ood (s4 ep3) and the beginning of The Sontaran Stratagem (s4 ep 4) but nothing central to the actual episode, just explanations for why they do what they do. Also, I just realized that the breaks I thought I was putting between the story and the A/n were actually nonexistent, so sorry if that annoyed anybody (because I know it drives me nuts). Let's see if this works, shall we?
000
Something is wrong. Something is very wrong and he doesn't know what it is and that is a problem, a very, very big problem.
Ever since he had brought Donna to Everffet 3, the TARDIS has been acting upset and she won't tell him why. He had meant to go to one of the moons of Titalia, but the TARDIS had veered off midflight for no reason and crashed in the middle of an invasion. People were rioting, cities were burning, and it was up to him and Donna to fix it. They had managed it in three hours, a pretty impressive time to save a planet, but by the time they had returned to the TARDIS, something had upset her. When he had asked, though, she pretended that everything was perfectly fine and taken them off to the Oodsphere.
It wouldn't be as big of a deal if this was a new thing, but she's been hiding things from him for a while now and he is getting very, very tired of it. Oh, she thinks he hasn't noticed, but he has. He knows that she's been rearranging rooms to keep him away from certain places; he knows that she's been distracting him whenever he starts thinking about certain things. It's gone on long enough, and he plans to make it stop, now.
But when he confronts her, all she does is send him a wave of sadness and frustration and something along the lines of, I-can't-tell-you-because-you-can't-tell-you, which doesn't make any sense. Why would she be hiding something from him that he already knows? It's times like this that he wishes they could actually talk, in words instead of this vague telepathy which, although sometimes useful when there aren't quite words to describe a concept, can make saying anything straight out incredibly difficult.
She repeats it, mixed in with quite a bit of anger, although he can tell that it's not directed at him but at someone (someones?) else that she refuses to name. But who could she be angry at, and why? Whenever anyone tries to vandalize her or steal her, she just laughs and pities them for being such insignificant creatures. He doesn't think he's ever seen her actually angry before. Irritated, sure, especially at him when he starts fiddling with her circuits; sad, during the time war, as they watched their species burn, but angry?
And it's something on Everffet 3. Well, maybe on Everffet 3; they visited during the 623rd century, and by then, intergalactic teleportation had been invented. Whatever had upset her could be anywhere by now.
He promises her then and there to never try to take them near there, and is surprised by her negative reaction. She wants to go back there, there's something there she needs, something they both need—she interrupts herself, I-can't-tell-you-because-you-can't-tell-you, and then withdraws sharply from the link.
"Doctor, you okay?" asks Donna from the door.
He turns around (when did she get there?) and puts on his best 'Oh, yes, I'm perfectly fine grin.' "Nope, I'm fine. Absolutely positively brilliant, that's me. So, where do you want to go next, hmm?"
Of course, Donna Noble is stubborn and knows him far too well. "You look like someone just smacked you or something."
"Right, yes, well, I don't know what you're talking about. I know, why don't I teach you how to drive the TARDIS?" That would distract her, and it would give him time to think about what was going on with his TARDIS later. If he survived, that is.