The noise sounded familiar. Sylvia Noble knew that noise. Her heart fell at that noise.
Quietly moving across the kitchen and living room, silently passing a sleeping, pregnant Donna, Sylvia went outside into the windy, sunny morning. Sure enough, there stood the TARDIS, but another man stood next to it. She smiled hesitantly, hoping the Doctor wouldn't come from the box.
"Morning you," she called.
"G'morning, Sylvia. Where's Donna?"
Her heart dropped more. He spoke like the Doctor. He said her and Donna's name like the Doctor, but it couldn't-
"Oh, yeah, it can be."
It was. He said it in a damning way. The way the Doctor sounded when he was grave or angry or some other emotion that was negative. It was the Doctor with a new face and body.
Sylvia stepped out and closed the door behind her. She took a deep breath and looked all around before stepped forward again. "You're here because of them, aren't you? Those things that are all around."
And the Doctor looked around and knocked on the box. "Tarna, come out. We'll go into the Noble's home."
The door opened and Tarna Ood stepped out. Both ignored the quiet squeal of shock from Sylvia and stepped passed her and walked inside her home.
"No, Doctor!" Sylvia stepped in front of him, hands out, face scared.
The Doctor rolled his eyes at her. "She's not going to remember. I don't even look like her Doctor." His tone was clipped and rude, but his face softened when he saw Donna fast asleep. His mind locked and he sat in front of her like a child. "Oh, Donna. Look at you, Donna. You are brilliant, amazing." He looked at her swollen belly and grinned. "And I bet that child will be just as brilliant." He got lost in possibility for a moment before his mind swirled.
"They're called Drucks. They're machine's with minds, but have a terrible sense of danger. They're not killed by bullets, obviously. They're like Cybermen, only they work on their own. I encountered them before on Calay when they encircled their senate and nearly killed the race. But these Drucks must not understand you and your government." He took a deep breath before rising and crossing the room to the door.
"They'll fall easily, but I don't know if any of you will like the way they die if it has to come to that." He glanced at Tarna before looking back at Donna.
Tarna was staring at Doctor Donna, her mind looking into Donna's. She knew that mind, now. Tarna listened to it and saw the amazing things the Doctor did, and saw the condemning action that brought Donna back to Chiswick, now. "She was brilliant."
The Doctor crossed the room and looked at Tarna dead in the eyes. "And she still is. You will stay with her and watch her and make sure she is okay. That is an order."
The Ood nodded. "Of course, Doctor. I would have, anyway." Looking at the almost forgotten Sylvia, she held up her translator device and spoke to her: "I will not interrupt. We can just say it is a good costume. Doctor Donna will understand."
Sylvia, a little unnerved, nodded. "Yes, she will. Doctor?"
His abrasive mood calmed instantly, his mind swirled from the sudden attacks of anger, and he looked up at her. "Yes, Sylvia?"
"Will she be okay? Donna? Is that another reason you're here?"
The Doctor forced a smile and nodded. "She'll be fine." And he knew she believed the lie.