The Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS in an alley near a council housing building in Peckham, London. The building was ten storeys of flats style housing jutting as a silhouette into the dark night sky. As the Doctor's eyes adjusted to the lack of light outside the ship, he observed that plain grey stone formed the shell of the structure with a light blue framework that almost glowed in the moonlight.

The alley was one he'd landed in many times not long ago. It wasn't much different than how he'd seen it; there might have been more garbage littering the area. On a group of posters plastered across the alley walls, the Doctor caught sight of a familiar phrase. There was a point in his life when a specific phrase followed him and his companion through space and time and even now it still cropped up when she was around to point him in the right direction. The posters along the wall advertised: Aces High ft. Radioactive Battlecats on the Bad Wolf Tour.

The Doctor breathed in deep the cold winter air. Pleased with his surroundings, he disappeared back inside the blue police box before emerging completely with a small red bicycle decked out with a white basket above the front wheel and shiny metallic streamers flowing from the handlebars. He wheeled the bike through the access door, drudged the surprisingly weighty toy up a few floors, and came to rest on a balcony overlooking the city. Selecting the correct setting on his sonic screwdriver, he unlocked the deadbolt and stepped through the doorway into a familiar entryway. He paused just inside the door, taking in the decor before pushing the red bike into the sitting room.

With the moonlight shining through the large window, the Doctor discovered a tall full-fledged pine dominating the living space. On every branch of the great tree, baubles and other ornaments dangled, and silver and gold tinsel crisscrossed its way around from top to bottom. The string of lights that would normally have been lighting up the room were turned off for some reason. At the very top sat a large clear plastic star. With a sonic flick, the colorful lights blinked to life, twinkling with joy. The star glowed red for a short time before changing to green and then back again. The Doctor smiled somberly.

Guiding the bike through the room, he slipped it carefully behind the Christmas tree. Then from one of the pockets on his jacket, the Doctor produced a green bow with a tag attached; the tag read: To Rose, From Santa. He peeled off the protective paper from the sticky pad on the underside of the bow and pressed it to the handlebars. Stepping back, he savoured the moment, entertaining the idea of seeing her reaction when she wakes up Christmas morning and runs into the room looking to open gifts and finding this wonderful surprise. Jackie on the other hand–

"Oh, Rose," he spoke to the bicycle, "I keep losing them. I'm trying to be better. Trying to be how I should have been for you. I lost Martha to the Master. She wandered alone for a year because of me. And now, I've lost Donna."

The Doctor pushed up his glasses with his thumb and index finger and closing his eyes, massaged the bridge of his nose.

"And I can't find her, Rose. I don't know where she is. I can't find Donna," he clenched his fist against his forehead," and I can't save her. She's lost out there somewhere and even as clever as I am, I'm useless. And I came here tonight to," he trailed off. Honestly, the Doctor didn't know what he expected to gain by visiting Rose. At least, not by visiting this Rose– twelve year old Rose who knew nothing of alien worlds or parallel dimensions. He dropped his hand before he continued, "You could always find the answers. You and me, Rose."

The Doctor stood in silence for a few minutes just thinking. Thinking about nothing and everything. Trying to come to some kind of revelation. Without coming to a conclusion for his predicament, he retrieved the sonic screwdriver from his trouser pocket and shut off the Christmas lights.

"You're gonna save her, Doctor," stated a man from behind him in an American accent.

The Doctor simply replied, "Hello, Jack."

"Does Jackie know you're here?" Jack asked knowing that at this point in time Jackie wouldn't even know who either of them were.

Without turning around, the Doctor answered, "Jackie just fell into some extra money. She went out for some last minute gift shopping. She should be back soon; though, without finding what she was looking for."

"And what would that be, Doctor?"

"Jackie is out in search for a little red bicycle for Rose."

"And you don't think it will concern her to find exactly what she was looking for has found its way into the apartment while she was out?"

"It's Jackie Tyler," the Doctor stated.

"I guess you have a point there, Doctor," through the open door, the men heard a distinct voice, speaking as she tended in a shouting manner; Jack sighed and said, "Let's talk outside."

Jack spun on his heels, his long coat billowing around as he turned, and led the Doctor out onto the balcony where the Doctor sonic-ed the deadbolt back into the locked position. The two men descended the stairwell silently except for the sound of their footfalls on the stone steps. The Doctor followed the whole way in Jack's blind spot. Jack can't see this face, yet.

Near the bottom of the flight of stairs, Jack and the Doctor passed Jackie, who was carrying four large, colorful paper bags with rope handles. She was in the middle of ranting on about something to her neighbor as they sidestepped the two men.

"Tha's what I told her," she was saying, "but she jest wasn't havin' any of it."

Grins formed on both men's faces, the one on the Doctor quickly turned to a grimace. Even Jackie's grating voice couldn't scrape away the dread that pressed on his heart. Exiting into the alleyway they stopped just short of the TARDIS. Another minute of silence passed before either man said a word.

Jack was the first to speak, "I've been looking for you for a long time Doctor."

"I know."

"You know? You knew I was still alive and you just left me on Satellite 5?"

"I'm really not in the mood to have this conversation, Jack. You were listening to me up there. I'm a wee bit preoccupied at the moment."

"So preoccupied that you're delivering Christmas gifts to a twelve year old Rose. Speaking of– she here with you? Maybe visiting little Mickey?" Jack chuckled at what he considered a joke.

"She's not here. This was a personal trip."

Jack took a couple steps toward the Doctor who turned away from the futuristic swashbuckler.

"There's something different about you, Doctor. New duds. And do you have hair– well, more hair?" he chuckled again.

"It's way too early for this conversation," groaned the Doctor knowing exactly when Jack is supposed to catch up with him in the future, "I've got so much on my mind right now, I can't even come up with a good excuse for why I can't answer your questions tonight. Just know that eventually, I will, but right now, right this moment, I have more important things to worry about."

Jack scraped his boot across the ground as he considered the Doctor's petition, then in acceptance, steered the conversation back the situation at hand, "You said a name, Donna, right? Another blonde?"

"Oh, no. Donna wouldn't be caught dead, blonde," The Doctor shook his head and a smile formed on his face, though he couldn't show Jack.

"What happened to her, Doctor? How did you lose, Donna?"

The Doctor described the last day to Jack. Donna was always bragging about being the best temp in Chiswick, yet she had never had her own digimon partner, let alone seen one. He decided it would be a good idea to let her experience the battle for the eighth Digidestined. While he spoke, he approached and sat in the shadow of the TARDIS. Jack followed a couple steps but respecting the Doctor's wishes, didn't get close enough to make out the features of his newer face; so he leaned up against the nearest building, crossing his arms while he listened to the narration of events.

"The whole affair had gone off with only a few slight hitches but then, as the Digidestined were ascending back into the digital world some interference jostled the TARDIS. Donna was flung out the hatch and before I could do anything to stop it, she was digitized somehow. She's trapped somewhere in the digital world and I don't have the slightest inkling of how to get to her or bring her back."

"The digital world? I thought that was just a myth."

"In the future, where you're from, the digital world has expanded and evolved such that it lives on the same dimensional plane to us. Digimon and other digital creatures have become just another alien race to you and their origin as computer data almost completely forgotten. As for Donna, I don't have an explanation for the level of observation she lacks to have never once noticed a real live digimon."

"So, the digital world. You believe that's where your friend is? How come you can't get there with the TARDIS?"

"That's the thing, Jack. Back when my people were still alive, the Time Lord's had the technology to make dimension travel look like a trip on the tube. Now that they're gone traversing dimensional planes is extremely unlikely. I did it with Rose once," the Doctor stood facing the camouflaged space/time vehicle. He placed his hands flat on the surface of the blue police box it had been disguised as for centuries, "but it almost put the TARDIS out of commission.

"Before Donna was digitized, I had recorded the temporal and spatial energies exerted by the digital dimensional rift as the Digidestined were returned to the digital world. I have the TARDIS running an analysis of the transport wave, but even if I can open a portal to the digital world, I have no way of knowing what would happen if I entered it without the help of the Time Lords. I wish there was a better way."

"So, you might have the way of getting to the digital world, but you can't guarantee you'll even get there in a condition well enough to find and retrieve her. Sounds to me like you're in need of an expert."

The Doctor could feel that Jack was implying something and instead of blindly guessing at what it could be, he just waited for him to finish his explanation.

"From what I can remember from the mythology, the Digidestined that protected the digital world time and time again had a certifiably effective form of traveling back and forth between our world and the other. I think they called ita D-Gate or D3 or something."

How could the Doctor not have realized this before? Of course. The Digidestined had their digivices which connected to digital servers and opened a dimensional rift between the physical world and the digital one. All the Doctor needed was a set of digital coordinates and a corresponding physical server. With the data recorded from the aftermath in Odaiba, the TARDIS could effectively work as the physical server. Unfortunately, the coordinates for digital servers were inaccessible by unauthorized parties. Good thing the Doctor knew where authorized parties could be located.

"Oh, brilliant, Jack!" he ran his hand through his wild hair and took an excited tour around the TARDIS.

"What happened to fantastic?"

"You have been an invaluable resource, Jack. Thanks to you, I have everything I need to get Donna back! Ha!" coming full circle around the police box, the Doctor spun quickly as he entered the light, still avoiding a direct face to face. He opened the door to the ship.

"All right! Another adventure. We'll stop off to pick up Rose– get the old gang back together–" before Jack could follow the Doctor into the TARDIS, the door was shut and locked, "Doctor?""Sorry, Jack," the Doctor called from the inside. He skipped up to the control console and began throwing levers around.

"This isn't funny, Doctor!" Jack knocked on the entrance, "Doctor? I know you can hear me! Doctor?"

Pulling down a view screen, he watched Jack as he rotated the date and locale gears. He punched the ignition and the TARDIS roared to life. While adjusting the clutch, the Doctor thought he saw Jack consider keeping hold of the ship similar to how he will just over nine years in the future. This time, though, Jack stepped away from the outside of the machine as it began to make its signature VWORP sound. Soon the TARDIS faded into relative dimension in space leaving Jack glaring at the empty air; a lingering VWORPing noise was all that Doctor adjusted the controls as he guided the ship through time and space. Jack had been right. He needed to speak to an expert. Someone who knew as much about the digital world as the Doctor knew about, well, everything else. And he knew just where to go to find this expert.

"Alons-y!" he shouted as the TARDIS sped through time.