The sun shone through the slanted blinds, and the Doctor's worn plimsolls rested up on the desk. He had a hat pulled low over his eyes. The dust danced in the sunbeams.
And the door burst open.
"I'm telling you, we've got it for a whole week!" Donna Noble, coffees in one hand and phone in the other, looked at the Doctor. "It's my mother, she doesn't think we're looking after this place for a week. God it's dark in here." Donna put the coffees down, went to the blinds and pulled them open.
The Doctor squinted, disappointed, and quickly threw his hat under the desk.
"Lovely to catch up mum, speak soon! Feel free to pop by!" Donna hung up. "She won't. Ten minutes down the road and she won't come and see me, but when I'm in outer space it's all 'where are you why aren't you home?'" Donna caught her breath, and looked at the Doctor. "What were you doing when I walked in?"
The Doctor sniffed and looked away. "Just getting into the part."
Donna eyed him suspiciously, not really sure what 'the part' was meant to be, and made her way to sofa in the room. She put her feet up, and sipped her coffee.
"When you said we were doing a favour for your friend, I thought it might be more glamorous." Donna studied the office in front of her – two small conjoined rooms, a desk and filing cabinet in this one, and desk and bookshelves in the other. There was a thin layer of dust on everything. "You know, like, guarding the diamond of an alien prince or something."
"This could be glamorous," the Doctor said defensively.
"It's Chiswick!"
"Thought it might be fun." The Doctor got up from his seat and started aimlessly flicking through a filing cabinet.
"What are we doing anyway?"
"Solving crimes."
Donna laughed, but the Doctor just looked at her.
"No way!"
Unfortunately, as fun as it had sounded, the week soon began to drag.
Donna soon realised that the reason for the dust was that no one had been a client here for a long time. The Doctor told her that the latest case file in the cabinet had been dated 1998 – a decade earlier.
Over the course of the first few days, Donna had painted one of the walls, rearranged the files to a more efficient order, and cleaned out the office's Windows 98 computer.
The Doctor spent most of the time in what he'd called the 'Detective's Chair', and Donna was certain that she'd heard him interviewing imaginary clients in a New York accent.
When returning from what had become a daily run to Starbucks, Donna found the Doctor at the computer, sonic screwdriver poised and whirring.
"Bored?" She said as she brought the toasted sandwiches over to him.
"Well," the Doctor stopped using the screwdriver and looked thoughtfully at her. He was wearing his glasses. "I can't work out why we've been invited here. I mean, there's nothing unusual, there's nothing to look after, really. There's no clients."
"Are you sure the guy who asked you to look after this place didn't secretly hate you? Was it your arch-nemesis or something? Have you checked for explosives?"
"I have, but I don't know who told us to come here."
"What? You said you knew!"
"Well, I was hoping I'd work it out!"
"How the hell did they get in touch with you?"
"Psychic paper," the Doctor showed Donna the message he'd received. An address, and the dates. Donna noted that, depressingly, they were only half way through the week.
"Can't we just skip forward a bit?"
"I'm part of events."
"We're not part of any events! That's the whole point, nothing's happened!"
"Maybe something will."
Donna didn't look confident. The Doctor went back to aimlessly taking apart the computer.
Later that same day, Donna looked up from the book of crosswords she'd bought at a newsagents.
"I was thinking… Donna's Daring Detectives!"
"For what?"
"The name of our detective agency. We could put it on the door."
"Why not 'The Doctor's Daring Detectives?'"
"It's always your name on things!"
The Doctor pulled a face. "Well it's a bit…"
"A bit what?"
"Local."
"It's not local!" Donna closed the crossword book, which she'd filled with other name ideas, none of which she was as passionate about. "You can't be daring in Chiswick – trust me, Susie Mare's tried enough times."
"I thought you couldn't wait to go?"
"Well, maybe if we had a client."
As if the universe was answering her call, which it may well have been, there was a knock on the outer door. Donna froze. The Doctor sat up. They looked at each other, and grinned.
"What shall I be doing, shall I be in the other room, like I'm your secretary? I'm the temp, I'll be temp." As she rushed into the other room, she shouted the words "Fastest temp in Chiswick!"
The Doctor straightened his tie, ran a hand through his hair, and prepared himself.
A moment later, Donna's voice called from the other room. "Do you want me to let them in?"
"Yes please," the Doctor said.
Donna's Daring Detectives' first client was a Jamaican woman called Josie Campbell. She was in her seventies, and greeted Donna, and then the Doctor, with a smile.
"I'm so sorry to disturb you. I didn't realise this was open again."
"Not at all, Mrs Campbell. We're very happy to help you, take a seat," the Doctor said, leaning over the desk to shake Josie's hand.
"Can I get either of you a tea or a coffee?" Donna said in a posh accent.
"I'm good thanks," the Doctor said. All he'd done for the last three days was drink tea and/or coffee.
"Oh, a tea please, thank you," Josie said.
"No worries madam, please take a seat." Donna helped Josie down onto the sofa, and headed back into the other room. On her way, she smiled and winked at the Doctor. He smiled back, and then turned to Josie.
"How can I help you, Mrs Campbell?"
"Well, it's about my cat, you see."
"Your cat?"
"He's gone missing."
"Riiiight," the Doctor said. He reached for the notepad he'd been desperate to use all week. "How long for?"
"Six weeks."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Mrs Campbell. And what does he look like?"
"He's ginger. He's got white fur on his belly." The Doctor dutifully wrote down the notes.
"And he speaks French." The Doctor stopped writing. He heard a coffee mug fall over in the other room.
"Fluently?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes."
The Doctor let this process for a moment. "Where did you last see him?"
Josie, nervous about the whereabouts of her cat, had asked if it was okay for her to go with the Doctor and Donna on their search. She'd last seen the cat in Chiswick Park, and Donna lead the way happily, while the Doctor and Josie spoke.
"It was quite strange really," Josie said. "I thought it was the television. But then I realised the television was off, and there was Harold, speaking French!"
"Did you talk to him?"
"Oh yes. This was about three months ago, we've had many talks."
"And did he start acting strangely in any other way?"
"Here we are," Donna said. "If you see a grumpy old man who says I owe him twenty quid, just ignore him."
"O-kay…" The Doctor said, taking the lead. "Where did you last see Harold, Josie?"
Josie took the Doctor and Donna further into the park.
"It's very quiet, normally it'd be packed in the middle of the summer."
"Maybe they've all gone on holiday."
"Unless there's been some big alien invasion you don't know about. I bet that's why we're really here, I bet you've tricked me," Donna said.
"Trust me, if Josie hadn't come in, I would've been making up one just to get out of that office."
Josie lead them into a clearing. Donna stopped in her tracks.
Ahead of her was a huge group of people, all gathered round, all looking at her. Standing at the front, her mum Sylvia, and grandad Wilf.
"Happy Birthday!" They chorused. Donna looked shocked, and turned to see the Doctor grinning at her. She hit him on the arm.
"Did you have something to do with this?"
The Doctor sniffed. "Maybe."
"Oh my god, this is great!" She ran over to Sylvia and Wilf, who rushed forward to meet her. "It's so good to see you!"
"And you dear, and you."
"Everyone's here! Nerys!" Donna pointed out her friend in the crowd. "How did you get her to come?"
"Your mother was very persuasive."
Sylvia walked over to Donna and hugged her. "Happy Birthday, sweetheart."
"I can't believe you've done all this!"
"Well any excuse to get you to visit," Sylvia eyed the Doctor suspiciously.
"We were gonna have it in the house but your mother said we'd make a mess."
"So…" Donna turned to the Doctor, who was walking over to them with Josie, and then back to Wilf. "Did you send Josie?"
"Of course!" Wilf said.
"You must have been so bored," Josie said, "a talking cat!"
Wilf and Josie shared a laugh.
"Well, I believed it!" The Doctor said.
"But you knew this was happening?"
"I didn't know when!"
"And what about that psychic paper message thingy you got?"
"It shows you whatever I want you to see," the Doctor smiled. "Easy."
"But how the hell did you get an office?!"
"Ahh," Wilf said, tapping the side of his nose. "That's on a need to know basis, I'm afraid."
Later that night, as the festivities drew on and Donna showing no signs of stopping, the Doctor made his way back to the office. He collected all of the things that he and Donna had left scattered about over the course of their time there, and headed towards the TARDIS, which was parked in the store cupboard next door.
As he closed the door to the detective agency, he looked at it and smiled. Maybe one day they'd come back, and set up Donna's Daring Detectives for real.
But for now, the detective agency would remain closed, and its old name would stay engraved on the glass.
The Silver Cloak.