Disclaimer: I own nothing but my love of Catherine Tate and David Tennant.

This had been on my mind for a while, so I had to write it. The Doctor and Donna, could be romance of just close friendship, depending on what you prefer. Enjoy!

Freckles

The Doctor was furious. He fought against his assailants as hard as he could, even as they prodded him once more with those damned electric probes. He clenched his jaw down hard to stop himself from screaming, only thinking of one thing; get to Donna.

She was a few feet ahead. Screaming, begging, and pleading for the Doctor, for help, for them to stop their brutal assault on her. They weren't deliberately even trying to harm the Doctor, just keep him away from her.

Worst of all; they thought it was for his safety.

'Sir, please we need to keep you clear of her. The woman of fire is dangerous.' One of the guards screamed over the ruckus of the three other guards and Donna's desperate cries.

'No! Please! Don't hurt her, stop hurting her, please! She's my friend; she's with me, please! She isn't dangerous!' The Doctor screamed until his lungs burnt raw.

'Sir this man says he is her master. She is an owned fire child.' The guard shouted back to the others, and the guard apparently in charge halted their actions. Donna curled up tightly on the floor, sobbing quietly. The Doctor could see her shaking from his position behind the wall of revolting men.

'You own this woman of fire?' Lieutenant Aaron asked, the man in charge according to his badge that the Doctor read quickly. He wanted to punch the disgusting little man in the face for even referring to Donna as a possession.

But for the time being though, it was the only little string of hope he had.

'Yes. Yes I own her. She is mine.' The Doctor said through gritted teeth. 'Let me go to her.' He said steely toned, but the need to get to her leaked through anyway.

'Yes of course.' They stepped aside.

He was instantly beside her, laying hands on her, begging her to look up and gently, with shaky frightened hands, smoothed her red locks out of her face.

'Donna? Donna my darling, I'm here, I've got you. I'm so sorry, so, so sorry, I'm here now.' He whispered through desperately held in tears. Bu on seeing she was unconscious, and with a sickening jolt in his stomach, one tear did break free.

He weaved his arm beneath her legs and one across her back and lifted her easily up into his strong embrace. She seemed to know somehow in her unconscious state that she was safe for now, for her body visibly relaxed a little and her face turned towards his chest.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

'Sir, we need you to come with us, she has no papers, so we need other proof that you are her master.' The youngest of the guard said, visibly blanching when the Doctor got near to him with the sleeping Donna.

The Doctor nodded stiffly, but walked in silence. 'Sir can I ask something?' The youngest guard said tentatively.

'What?' The Doctor spat.

'You kissed her forehead. Are you not worried about getting infected with the fire?' He asked, looking cautiously over at Donna to spy her freckled face.

'You are an idiot. A stupid inbred nobody, on a planet of idiot nobodies, and if you wish to leave tonight with all your limbs, you'll back the hell away from her!' He screamed the last bit, tugging her tightly to him.

Arriving at the holding centre, the door clanged shut and the Doctor finally let out a sign of relief. He gently placed Donna down on the little narrow bunk and turned to collect the little supply of medical care they had begrudgingly provided for him, thanks to the physic paper claiming him a man of high importance from across the city.

The room they were being held in was bright white, with literally nothing in it but the small bunk. A small toilet and sink and high up near the ceiling, at least 9 feet high, was a window.

He took his coat off and bunched it up to bundle it under her head.

He crouched beside her and cupped her cheek.

'Donna? Donna I need you to wake up.' He spoke in whispers but his emotions were thick.

She mumbled incoherently and blinked a few times, before finally coming to aware.

'D...Doctor?' She called out and in the next instance felt a strong arm help her sit up into a sitting position. She then felt a cold solid thing press against her lips.

'Drink, its only water.' He coaxed and tilted the glass slightly to encourage her. After a few mouthfuls he let her be.

'Can you open your eyes?' He asked, pressing his fingers to either side of her temple.

She nodded but, on opening them, she squinted and cried out, shuttering her eyes once more. 'Too bright, m'sorry.' She mumbled, and her cheeks instantly blushed rouge with emotion.

'It's ok. It's ok.' He quickly tried to sooth, but his tears were building thick and fast behind his eyes, feeling completely helpless for Donna. She was his best friend and she was hurting.

She heard him choke ever so softly on what she assumed to be pain and opened her eyes once more. 'Are you hurt Doctor?' She stuttered through hoarse vocal chords.

He spat out a tiny chortle, he was choking on concern for her not his own non important pain.

'I'm fine. Let's focus on getting you better yeah.' He soothed once more, running his fingers gently through her beautiful red hair.

She looked up at him with her wide blue eyes and smiled. Smiling, despite being in pain and probably frightened, she was smiling. She really was the most amazing woman in the entire universe.

'Hullo.' He said, waving his hand limply returning his own dozy smile.

'Hullo.' She replied quietly, the smile still evidently in place.

'May I?' He gestured to her top and his long nimble fingers had held onto the hem of her shirt. She nodded, easing her aching body back down again. She cringed whilst he lifted her top, tucking it up just beneath her breasts.

'Did that hurt?' He suddenly asked, aghast at the idea he just caused her pain.

'No...just embarrassed. Fat.' She mumbled, closing her eyes and blushing a prominent shade of red.

He wanted to shake her lovingly for being so completely ridiculous. She was beautiful, he thought, and he wished she could see it. He didn't really know how to say this though; so instead, he lowered his mouth to her stomach and gently pressed a kiss to the centre of her beautiful exposed skin. She lifted her head in shock.

She looked at him, he looked at her, then keeping contact for a moment longer, leant and kissed her stomach again. She smiled, blushing and tearful, but she understood what he was trying to say. He smiled too, gruffer-ling his tears away himself.

He then snapped back to reality and got his serious face on. She was badly bruised, coming up in vivid purples and reds being so fresh and all. But beneath that, and literally on every expanse of skin he could see, were the millions of tiny little freckles adoring her pale skin, the same freckles that the despicable guards arrested them for, beat her for.

He picked up the wash cloth and started to wash away the dirty boot marks on her beautiful skin, and smiled, not at the situation, but at a memory playing behind his eyes from a few months back, when he had discovered the extent of her freckles.

On the beaches of Briton skies

They were lying side by side on a remote beach on a planet called Brighton. However it looked nothing like the earth Brighton Donna had been to a few dozen times and as for being in any resemblance to an earth beach at all was just plain opposite. It was a vast, vast stretch of orange coloured ground, meeting in the distance with the most vibrant of emerald green seas.

The Doctor lifted himself onto his elbows. He lifted his sunglasses and looked down onto his dozing companion.

She was led in a modest vintage yellow bikini, with a lighter, somewhat sea through material draped self consciously across her waist. The Doctor smiled at her beautiful face, halloed by the brilliance and fieriness of her hair, which quite blended in with the ground itself.

She had delicate features and the Doctor, who had noted on more than many occasions, loved in particular her eyes, so big and gorgeous in conveying emotion. Actually he rather liked her mouth too, with its little pouty way of resting and that one tooth that stuck out more than the rest made her look somewhat of a child sometimes. Or her nose, which was a very excellent feature of hers, strong but dainty, she was actually just very beautiful.

Then, without realising, the Doctor had suddenly lowered his fingers to brush across her cheek and across and down her nose and over her lips and across her chin, before stopping short of her neck when he caught himself in action.

It was her freckles.

He started with the suddenness in which he had just realised the sheer amount of freckles this woman had. They were everywhere; thousands; absolutely thousands. She even had them on her lips.

Her eyes fluttered open, feeling his gaze on her, and looked up at him with questioning eyes.

'Doctor, everything alright, we're not going to have to suddenly run for our lives are we?' She joked but swiftly stopped laughing when he continued simply to stare at her. 'Oh god are we?' She said more seriously ready to jump up at his command.

'No...no no no.' He stuttered, 'It's nothing, I just suddenly realised is all the amount of freckles you have.' He said with a smile and she had the good grace to laugh.

'Well done Sherlock.' She laughed before lowering herself again to the floor.

That's when she noticed his eyes drifting over the rest of her.

'Doctor stop it!' She teased, as she noticed his eyes scanning over her chest, stomach, legs and hands.

'Sorry it's just you literally are covered in them.' He blurted out with a huge grin.

'Well I'll have you know, freckles mean you have been kissed by the sun. I am a sun kissed ginger goddess in ginger terms.' She joked.

'Yes you are.' He said in all seriousness, despite the fact he knew she was poking fun at herself. She playfully whacked him on the arm and closed her eyes once more.

They lapsed into silence once more.

'8,003...' The Doctor suddenly chirped into the friendly silence between himself and Donna.

'What's that?' Donna asked, smiling already knowing the answer.

'The amount of freckles you have. 8,004 freckles on Donna Noble.' He said with a smile.

'You've been counting my freckles! You've been counting my freckles!' She laughed but had blushed quite the shade of crimson red.

'Yeah...not in a weird way or anything, just...you do have quite a lot you know as I said.' He defended himself when he noticed her somewhat disgruntled look.

'I do not.'

'Yes you do, you have 8,003, or actually 8,004 as I didn't notice the one on the corner of your mouth there.' He said with a smile, reaching out to brush his finger against her lip.

She flinched back to eye him sceptically.

'What? Is that weird? Am I being weird?' He said, reaching his hand out once more to her.

'No...not weird, you're just being you.' She said, playfully smacking his arm and leaning back down once more.

'Oh Doctor!' Donna suddenly moaned breathlessly, 'That...that hurts!' She cried as the Doctor ran his hand on a particularly sore spot across her slightly protruding ribs.

'They broke a few ribs that's why. I'll be able to fix it once back on that TARDIS but no sooner. I'm sorry, so sorry.' He said, leaning forward to stroke some hair from her flushed face.

'Stop apologising, it's not your fault.' She said hoping to alleviate his emotional pain.

'Donna, I let you get hurt...' She interrupted him instantly. 'You tried and succeeded in stopping them and saving me, so shut up...spaceman.' She closed her eyes as she said the last bit, choosing to leave a smile for him in her eyes absence.

'Donna, I need you to stay awake. Come on, make fun of me, you like doing that.' He said, gently stroking her cheek to draw her attention back.

She mumbled and tried to turn her head away. 'No...I'm too tired, later, I'll just rest a bit first.' She spoke in whispers, in a tone that was so innocent the Doctor hesitated before reacting once more to their situation.

'No Donna,' His voice was sharper now; he forced his arms under her own and hauled her up swiftly to shock her. 'You can't sleep now.' She cried out of course, her ribs crushing together in broken agony and her stomach burning from the blows earlier saw to that.

The Doctor grimaced at his actions, but he needed her to stay awake, not sure what damage she had to the head apart from obvious blunt trauma, it was dangerous to let her be unconscious for any amount of time.

'Let me go!' Donna whimpered, pushing feebly away from the Doctor. He was just as quick in pulling her close once more.

'Donna!' He scolded, 'You could have an epidural hematoma, there's an artery that runs right underneath the skull, and the skull on the temple is very thin. You can break the bone, the bone cuts the artery and a high-pressure blood clot forms. That then squeezes the brain...which means...bye bye Donna.' He said in quick succession, being sure to keep his voice firm and in charge.

'Let me go please.' She said again, a sigh of said injury the Doctor was concerned off. Repeating themselves and acting almost as if drunk were clear and worrying signs and the Doctor was instantly doubly concerned.

'Donna!' This time he directed it at her so strictly, she visibly flinched. 'I need you to listen to me. We're going to dance. Now come on, I need you to sing a song with me.' He said, unable to stop the concern once more leaking into his voice and softening his tone towards the woman he held his hearts.

She looked at him with confused eyes for a long silent moment. Then clumsily laid her hand on his side and stood a little straighter. He smiled, taking her waist in one hand and her hand in the other.

'Ready?' He asked then began to hum ever so softly moving ever so gently whilst Donna focused on the task at hand. Even in her injured state, she was so beautiful, with flushed freckled cheeks and intense burning blue eyes staring intently at the Doctor's shoulders, trying to feel the movements.

When she stumbled forward slightly, the Doctor was momentarily blinded by a shining red waterfall and in the moment, seeing only this, the Doctor was reminded of the red waterfalls of Gallifrey.

When she pulled away slightly, the Doctor continued to stare at her hair like it had found a small relic from home. He ran his finger through her thick locks and held them close to his face and filled his senses with her scent and smiled.

Donna, noticing his funny smile, giggled slightly and gave her own dozy smile back.

It made a mental note to tell her when she was better again that her hair was the exact shade of red from the red of Gallifrey, he's never seen this before on a human nor had he noticed hers until now.

Suddenly a guard appeared at the door, insisting the Doctor step away from Donna.

'Why?' The Doctor barked, clamping his hands over Donna's ears to stop her head pounding any more.

'Now!' The guard yelled back, pointing a damned gun at him and Donna.

'Alright, just stop shouting, her head is very fragile.' He said softly, slowly lowering his hands from her head. She looked up at him with frightened eyes, already filling with tears.

As soon as the Doctor stepped aside, the guard stepped aside also, and three white suited, masked and gloved men stepped forward, all instantly grabbing Donna and forcing her to the floor.

The Doctor was shocked momentarily in horror at the way they were manhandling her before his voice barked through the disarray once more.

'Stop!' He bellowed and the white suits literally froze mid assault.

'Step away from her.' He ordered with the storm of the last time lord.

The guards did as they were told.

'Now what is it you want?' He asked, moving instantly to her side, helping her sit up and pressing a soothing kiss to both cheeks and forehead.

'Sir, we need to assess the scale of how much of the fire has touched her.' The Guard said. The Doctor looked at him and noticed it was the young one from their fight earlier. He looked just as frightened as Donna, the Doctor noticed with surprise.

'What does that even mean? What is this fire your on about?' The Doctor barked in annoyance, he hated not knowing what was going on and that was exactly what he felt right now.

'Sir, the fire sir, it's those touched by the colour of blood sir, the omen of war and death on our planet. Those touched by it are sent to destroy our civilisation and can only be trusted to live under a strong master.' The guard dribbled out in a little voice.

The Doctor stared at him dumbfounded for a second or so, before looking at the white suits and the guard and the guards gathering outside. They were all dark skinned and dark haired. Come to think of it, there was not one person with red hair or freckled skin or even pale skin on the whole little planet. How could he have been so stupid as not to notice this!

'Right ok fine, I get that, the colour scares you, but she's not from here. That colour is just her natural makeup. She's harmless, innocent, just an innocent woman, please.' The Doctor begged them to understand. He crouched down by Donna and gathered her hair into a ponytail. 'Look.' He pleaded, rubbing her hair on his cheek. 'Harmless.'

However, the guards just cringed at his actions.

The Doctor sighed sadly. 'Let's just get this over with then shall we.' He sighed again dejectedly. 'What do you need to see to 'assess' her?' He spat at them. He stood protectively over her to let them know they weren't getting near her again.

'Her skin.' The young guard squeaked.

The Doctor huffed in anger, trying to control his inner rage before turning to Donna.

'I'm sorry.' He whispered against her cheek and Donna nodded, standing up with his help. The Doctor clenched and re-clenched his jaw as he gently removed her top. 'There you go.' He said, turning once more to the men in the room. They looked on in horror as Donna's pale and curvaceous and beautifully freckled upper body was revealed.

The Doctor crouched and lifted her trouser legs in turn to reveal her equally freckled legs and finally held her hands out to show the group.

'Grade five. Purple papers and 15,000 sums for release.' One said and finally, with a massive sigh of relief from the Doctor, they were letting them go.

He made sure Donna was ok whilst he went and dealt with the papers and money and within the hour he was finally carrying her out the door and back to the TARDIS.

'Let's go get you healed up shall we.' He chirped, walking down to the infirmary.

Whilst the Doctor healed her body with various high tech lights and scanners, Donna spoke.

'It's funny, I used to be picked on as child for being ginger and freckled. But that, that was the worst I've ever been through and been made to feel ashamed of my skin.' She couldn't help but cry a little with the remembrance of the recent event.

The Doctor halted his work to look at her seriously.

'Donna, you are beautiful. So, so very beautiful.' He said seriously but Donna just laughed.

'Shut up you prawn.' She said, looking away from his intense eyes.

'No, listen, you really are. Your skin, your beautifully freckled skin is so...*kiss*...beautiful.' He kissed her hands in turn, then arms and then forehead to punctuate his point.

Donna laughed incredulously.

'And, well, your hair...that lovely ginger brilliant mane, reminds me of home.' This time his voice was soft, conveying the pure emotion of what he was saying.

'Really?' She asked quietly.

'Yes, it's the same red orange glow. I look at your hair and suddenly I'm lying in the orange fields of my childhood and it...it gives me that feeling I thought I lost so long ago, that feeling of belonging.' He finished and smiled when he noted her tears.

He wiped them away gently and then pressed his forehead against hers.

'My daft Spaceman.' She whispered in their close proximity.

'My Earthgirl.' He whispered back, before both remembered it was their best friend they were talking to and laughed.

The end. Hope you liked, please review if you did! Frailly :)