Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who or like anyone in it. Thanks for the reads and the reviews and please, bear with me on the timey wimey-ness, I promise it will come good. Anyway, this chapter has some Journey's End semi-spoilers, but really, you should have seen that by now and it should have made you upset. Thanks again for reading, enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Rose met with Madame Kovarian again in her new hotel suite she'd taken residence in since the fall of the warehouse. She wasn't happy with the latest turn of events.

"She's cut off his access to the children?," she asked.

"Yeah, won't talk his calls. Filed a protection order." Rose sighed. "I'm trying to get him to find a way to see the children."

Kovarian shook her head. "The clock should have been in place weeks ago."

"What's so important about it anyway?"

Kovarian ignored her as she did so often, Rose noted. "This will be a missed opportunity if you don't act swiftly. Mr. Croft may be nearing the end of his usefulness."

"It's just a clock."

Kovarian leaned back. "You'll have to take it."

"Take it where?," asked Rose.

"Their bedroom."

"What? I'm supposed to sneak into their bedroom?"

"You're a resourceful young woman. You'll work out something."

There was a part of Rose that thought that was a mad idea. Why would she do that?

"That is if you ever want to see your Doctor again," Kovarian added.

Rose nodded. "Okay then."

Rose left Madame Kovarian's suite and started down the hall. She thought about the last time she had seen her Doctor on that beach and what came before. The trip to return the Earth and that time on the Dalek Crucible.

She suddenly remembered when they had stood in the TARDIS, she, Jack, Donna and the Doctor. The way she'd been elated when the Doctor said she had been brilliant, then confused as he turned to Jack and said the same. Then even more perplexed when he walked to Donna and took her hand in his.

"And you were so brilliant, Donna Noble. Thank you, for everything."

"Yeah," said Donna. "You weren't so bad either."

"Blimey," said the Doctor. He moved to face the door and found Donna not moving with him. "Donna?"

"I just need a moment," she said. "I'll be right there."

The Doctor nodded. Rose moved to follow him first, wondering at what had just transpired. Did the current companion get priority or something? Yeah, that must have been it. Couldn't have been anything else, certainly not that nonsense in the universe with Donna and the Time Beetle.

Then she saw Donna's hand drift to her stomach and kept walking, forcing herself not to think about it.

They walked out onto the Dalek Crucible and the Doctor called for Donna again. She wondered why, what difference did it make? Then the door to the TARDIS slammed shut and they were both beating on either side of the door, begging for it to open.

Then it went down that trapdoor and the Daleks made them watch as the TARDIS burned and the Doctor had turned to the Daleks, to beg for Donna.

"Please. I'm begging you, I'll do anything! Put me in her place! You can do anything to me, I don't care, just get her out of there!"

The way he hadn't taken any of her consolation. Was that possible? Had he really, really meant that? Had John been telling the truth?

Rose looked in front of her in the hall. She thought she saw something, but blinked and it was gone, her breath had quickened.

No, not possible. She was going back to her Doctor, no matter what. He loved her, she loved him and that was that.

Donna's schedule for the week had been crowded before: she had the wedding plans to finalize and had to prepare her office for her absence during the honeymoon. Add in a strategy meeting with the gaggle of attorneys she employed to decide how best to ruin Ethan's life and Donna was behind.

Which is why she didn't beat Sylvia back to the house.

"Oh, Mum, good you got in," said Donna, tossing her bag onto the floor.

"Are you just going to leave it there?"

"It's my house, Mum."

"Where's this John at?"

"I don't know, Mum, I don't keep him on a leash," Donna said flopping down on a chair as her mother scowled.

"Well, where are my grandchildren?"

"They're with John."

"They're with John? Is he the nanny now?"

"I had to give Lisette some time off before the honeymoon and John is very good with the children."

"So was Lance..."

"Okay, Mum..."

"Ethan rang me."

Donna sat up in her chair. "When did Ethan ring you?"

"This morning. He says he's very sorry for what happened over the weekend."

"Did he happen to tell you what happened?"

"He said you two got in a row."

"He choked me in front of the children, Mum. It was a bit more than a row."

"Well, he's sorry."

"Oh, God, Mum, it's just like you to take his side. Get this through your head, we are never getting back together. Never ever. I'm marrying John."

"So, what were the baby books for?"

Donna's jaw dropped. "Why do you think you can go through my room?"

"I need to know what's going on in your life."

"Then ask! I'm a grown woman, not some teenager you need to spy on!"

"Wants his own baby, does he?"

"We both want another baby. I always wanted more children."

"You could have had more with Ethan..."

"Not happening, Mum!"

Donna was saved as the door swung open. Josh and Ella bounded in with hugs for their mum. Sylvia greeted them and then looked up to see John and Mayantha.

"So, you're John," said Sylvia, looking him up and down.

"Yes, hello."

She looked over at Mayantha. "And who is this?"

"That's Mayantha, she's John's niece," said Ella.

"She has a really cool telescope," said Josh. "You can see everything in it!"

"Mayantha..." said Sylvia. "What sort of name is that?"

"Uh... Hebrew?," said Mayantha. "That's a thing, right?"

Sylvia eyed her with skepticism, so Donna spoke up.

"Mayantha's staying with us for a bit," said Donna. "We love having her around."

"Where's your family then?," asked Sylvia. "Can we expect to see them at the wedding?"

"No," said John, "work is going to unfortunately keep them."

"What do they do?," asked Sylvia.

"Well, Mum sort of works with records and Dad is a... doctor."

"A doctor," said Sylvia. She looked at Donna. "Too bad you didn't meet that one. What do you do, John?"

"I'm sort of between things..." said John, thinking this was the wrong response as Sylvia's eyes widened.

"John works with aliens!," exclaimed Josh.

"Nobody likes fibs, Joshua," said Sylvia.

"No, John's actually an alien expert," said Donna. "Very highly regarded. Over the weekend, saving the Earth, that was him."

"Is that a fact then?"

"Yes, Mum." Donna stood. "Who wants a drink?"

"So," asked Mayantha, "that was humans interacting?"

John smiled. The previous night had been a lot of Donna avoiding eye contact, the passing of jaded remarks and a lot of people going to bed early. They were walking on the street, Josh and Ella ahead of them as they took in the beautiful spring day.

"They're not all like that. The way you see Donna with Josh and Ella, that's more the norm."

Mayantha nodded. "Still different from Gallifrey, though."

John nodded. "It is." He looked ahead as Josh and Ella ran to the steps of the National Gallery. "Oi! Be careful, you two!"

"Hurry!," shouted Ella. "Before it closes!"

"It's the National Gallery, Ella! It's not closing!" He looked to Josh. "What are you running for?"

"I want to get done so we can go to Toy Kingdom!"

"Fair enough," said John.

They went inside. The guide pointed out some things going on in the Education Centre so they had to go as Ella proudly painted some flowers in the Impressionist style. Josh played along, then ended up painting a battle between some zeppelins and a dragon. Then it was time to explore the museum.

"Oh, look," said John, "Madame de Pompadour."

Ella walked up to the fine oil painting. John held her back noticing the glare of a museum guard.

"She's pretty," said Ella.

"Prettier in person," said John.

"How do you know?," scoffed Josh.

John shook his head. "Just guessing, really." He looked to Mayantha. "What?"

"Nothing."

They walked further down.

"Oh, Ella, here's a good one," said John. "Van Gogh's sunflowers."

"Van Gogh," said Mayantha. "My dad met him."

Josh and Ella both looked at her.

"You know, an impersonator," said Mayantha quickly.

"Van Gogh?," whispered John.

"Helped him find a wayward space monster." She motioned at the painting. "See what it says?"

"For Amy?," asked John. "That companion?"

Mayantha got behind Ella and moved her closer to the painting. "Ella, see how they're all different?," she said motioning. "All at different stages of life. Some old, some brand new. Van Gogh was a genius, he could see things in the world that no else could and painted like no one else could."

"My painting wasn't as good as that," said Ella.

"Well, you need time, Ella, and practice," said John. "Besides, I'd rather see your paintings. Oh, think of that. We could have a painter and a space explorer in the family."

"I'm only going to explore space when it's not football season," said Josh. "I want to play for Manchester United."

"So, you're going to play football and then explore space in the off season?"

"Duh," said Josh.

John nodded. "That seems reasonable. You'll miss cricket season, though."

"Okay," said Josh.

John rolled his eyes. "Fine then."

Ella hurried off to the next room.

John sighed. "Oh, Ella, where are you going?"

They hastened to follow her and found Ella standing in front of Edvard Munch's The Scream. She was frozen.

"Ella, what's wrong?," asked John.

"I don't like it."

John shrugged. "Well, you don't have to like it."

"It's scary," she said.

"It's just a painting, dummy," said Josh.

"Josh, don't call your sister names."

John looked at the painting for himself, he could understand how it might be frightening. Those big eyes, the odd face and the color of the skin. That frightening sky behind him. He felt Ella's small hand take his.

"John, I want to go," she said.

"Are you certain? There's still lots more to see."

Ella nodded.

"Okay, sweetheart," he said and picked her up.

When they arrived home, Donna was waiting at the door with a glass of wine. The children presented her with their paintings and she priased them and fawned over them, promising to hang them both up somewhere. They all went to see the preparations going on in the back garden for the wedding. Tents were going up, chairs were being arranged and an altar was being built. There were gardeners straightening up and Sylvia Noble seemed to be putting her nose in everything. Ella dragged Mayantha off to practice her flower girl walk down the aisle, forcing Josh to come with, leaving Donna and John alone.

"I am going to murder my mother," said Donna. "She's tried to get me on the phone with Ethan twice! Twice! And she's trying to move all the chairs. She's already rearranged the seating chart for the reception," she said motioning at the tent where Sylvia Noble was now moving place cards.

"There's a seating chart?"

"Yes!" She sighed. "Granted, Ianto did most of it, but I won't have her undermining him."

John leaned in and whispered. "We could always elope. Think of it. We could be on our honeymoon tonight."

"Very tempting," said Donna. "However, I've got a couple dozen workmen building tents out there and setting up chairs and you were the one that wanted the wedding."

"I just wanted to get married," said John remembering what he said in the hospital.

"Well, we can't cancel now," she sighed, "Ella will be devastated if she misses the chance to wear that dress. Also, she's trying to get me to give her mine after I'm done with it. She wants to wear it to her friend Maisie's birthday party."

"You can't have her go being under-dressed for the occasion."

"Oh, she's got you wrapped around her finger, doesn't she?"

"No... yes, well, maybe a little."

"A little?," Donna prodded with a smirk.

"Maybe a lot." He paused. "You know that painting The Scream?"

"Yeah?"

"Ella was frightened of it," said John. "We were having such a good time, then she saw that."

Donna shook her head. "Ella's never done anything like that. She's always been such a happy girl, even when she was a baby, she barely cried, just giggled at me."

Josh ran over. "Mum! I have an idea for the wedding!"

Donna was in shock. "You have an idea for the wedding?"

"Remember my mate Tristan's birthday party?"

"Yes," said Donna.

"He had a bounce house! Could we hire a bounce house, please?"

"Josh," said Sylvia, "that's a silly idea. You can't have a bounce house at a wedding."

Donna stiffened, shot a look at her mother and then back to her son. "Josh, it may not be feasible to get a bounce house by Saturday."

"Oh," said Josh, looking deflated.

"However, if I can locate and hire one by Saturday, we'll have it."

"Donna!," exclaimed Sylvia.

"Really?," asked Josh.

"Yes, really, but you can't play on it until after the ceremony. Is that clear?"

"Yes. Thank you, Mum."

Josh ran off to tell Ella the good news. Sylvia crossed her arms and marched closer to Donna.

"Donna, what are you thinking? How are you ever going to live down having a bounce house at your wedding?"

"It's not as if we're having the ceremony on it, Mum," said Donna.

"That could be fun," said John.

"Besides, it's the first idea Josh has had for the wedding and I want him to feel included. That's much more important to me than what people say. Not that you would get that given your history."

"What?," said Sylvia.

"Okay, might have had too much wine..." said Donna. She handed her glass to John. "Here. Keep this from me."

John shrugged. "I don't know, I might give you more."