Disclaimer: I might have borrowed these characters for a while but they are definitely not mine.

A/N: written as a very belated birthday present for DonnaDianaNobleWayne. I really hope she likes it. Although I suppose I could change it to "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Wasteland Want Not

.
A harsh voice drifted across the wasteland to where two men were seen to stand together like old friends.

"There you are!"

They both turned towards the voice but only the Doctor knew who it was. Curiosity had made him turn to see where the angry accusation had come from and why it had been shouted; and he immediately saw an irate Donna bearing down on him at a fast rate.

"Pardon?" he spluttered, hoping she hadn't meant him but the man by his side. It was a false hope.

"YOU!" she raged, pointing an angry digit at him. "This is all your fault!"

"What I done?" he innocently countered.

"I'll give you three guesses," she spat at him; and then she properly noticed the man he had been conversing with. A rather blonde and good looking bloke with a distinguished air despite the shoddy clothing. "Hello, I'm Donna; Donna Noble, since he won't introduce me."

"That's hardly fair...," the Doctor started to protest.

"Shut it, you!" she snapped back. "No doubt you'll deny you know me like you always do."

The man to the side of the Doctor grinned in suppressed delight. "Hello, Donna. You must be one of his Earth girls. I'm the Master."

"The who? No, never!" she gasped. "You can't be him. And I'm not just some Earth girl, I'm HIS Earthgirl, sunshine, so be careful what you say, otherwise you won't be cruising on your looks for much longer."

"My, she's feisty," the Master remarked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yes, I am," Donna emphasised. "And I'm also starving. What's a girl got to do to grab a bite to eat?"

"I'm sure we could arrange something...," the Master started to say, but he was interrupted.

"Donna, lovely as it is to be hunted down by you again and insulted in front of an old adversary, I'd like to know why you are here," the Doctor requested as calmly as he could. "I'd also love to know why you are able to speak to me in such a normal way and not blink out of existence."

"Oh, ain't it sweet when he shows so much concern like that," Donna mocked. "It's enough to make your heart bleed."

"Perhaps you ought to rest considering your condition. Standing about cannot be good for your health," the Master unusually suggested.

"Condition? What condition?" the Doctor blustered in confusion, trying to work out why the Master was being so nice to Donna.

"See! This is what I have to put up with," she appealed to nobody in particular. "He marries me, gets me knocked up, does a moonlight flit, all in one day, and then tries to appear none the wiser."

"Married?!" The Doctor's mouth moved silently for some seconds, so Donna undid the heavy winter coat she was wearing to reveal an obvious pregnant swell to her stomach.

"What have you been doing, Doctor?" the Master jibed him with a chuckle.

"Abandoning me, that's what he's been doing," she bitterly answered. "Like yesterday's old newspaper. I get that I'm nothing like the perky blonde from love's young dream you wanted, but you could at least have called."

"He never does," the Master remarked. "I always have to find him; not the other way around."

"So you're really not dead," she pondered, considering him carefully. "Wow! That was a neat trick. How did you do it?"

"Shall we go and discuss it further, Mrs Noble? Or may I call you 'Donna'?" the Master suggested, reaching out a hand to lay it on her lower back to guide her footsteps.

"Hang on just a minute!" the Doctor halted their progress. "This is a little weird, even for me."

Donna sighed deeply in resignation. "Have I stepped into yet another lovers' reunion? I seem to be getting good at this."

"No no no no," the Doctor hastily denied, holding up his hands. "That isn't the case," he added when Donna looked extremely perplexed.

"Then what IS it?" she demanded to know. "Because nobody is explaining anything; and to top it all, I'm beginning to feel as though this pregnancy will never end. I'll be giving birth just after my fiftieth birthday at this rate, and it's bad enough being all on my own as it is. All alone without you." Then to her horror, tears began to stream down her cheeks. "This isn't what it looks like. I don't care really, it's just my hormones and... Why did you leave me?! All I did was push a few buttons! And maybe play with a Dalek or two. I didn't mean to get in the way!" she wailed.

There was a flurry of hands as she tried to find a handkerchief.

"Oh Donna, darling, it wasn't like that," the Doctor insisted as he rushed forward to wrap her up in a hug and press into her grasp a handkerchief from his pocket. He then added in tender sweeping strokes to her hair. "I didn't want to leave you, but I thought it was for the best. I'd have never left you if I had known, honest I wouldn't have done," he crooned.

There was a sniff next to his chest, as she murmured, "You're just saying that to shut me up. Nobody really wants a fat lump like me."

"Shh Shh shhh," he whispered into her ear, "that is not true, in oh so many ways."

"Like what?" she inevitably wanted to know.

"Well I'm not going to say in front of... Where did he go?!" he indignantly questioned as he looked up and didn't see the Master close by.

"I have an appointment elsewhere," the Master joyfully informed him as a ladder dropped down from a low flying helicopter and he wound an arm around the lower rungs. "A date with destiny, if you will. Would you care to join me, Donna? I'm sure I could supply you with all your needs."

"No she will not!" the Doctor raged, not letting go of her. "She is MY wife, and you will not take her away from me!"

"Are you sure? You didn't seem so keen to see her a few minutes ago," the Master drily commented as the ladder began to slowly rise.

"That's because..." Blind fury was etched all over the Doctors features. "Just get out of here and go play at being a big shot again. I'll see you later when I have to redeem you."

"Cheeky! Is that what you told Donna when you got her in that state? Perhaps she isn't good enough for you now that she is a half-breed? I am more than willing to take her off your hands. Half Time Lords can be so interesting." The Master hung in the air, grinning smugly from ear to ear.

In the blink of an eye, the Doctor reached into his pocket, drew out his sonic screwdriver, and aimed it at the rungs of the ladder. The bottom rung snapped off, and the Master's footing failed, but fortunately he had held tightly on with his hands.

"Until we meet again!" the Master called out as the helicopter flew away into the evening sky.

Donna could hear the Doctor's hearts beating wildly in his chest. "It's okay, Doctor. You can let go of me now," she quietly told him. "Nobody is looking anymore."

He frowned down at her. "What do you mean?"

Oh dear, he'd gone all dense. "This..." She indicated the empty landscape around them with a wave of her hand. "...all empty of people; all gone home, so you don't have to pretend you want to hold me anymore. I'm fine, honest I am."

The frown turned into a scowl. "And what if I want to continue holding you and protecting you?"

A small disbelieving smile formed on her face. "Then I'd say you're the gentleman I always assumed you were. It was a lovely act, by the way. I thought you did the jealousy part awfully well. Had me almost believing it for a second."

"I see," he slowly replied. "Is the pregnancy element fake?"

"No, of course not!" she denied. "I wouldn't have sobbed all over you if it wasn't the case."

"Very true," he agreed. "So why should my reaction be false?"

It was official; he'd lost it. "Because it is. D'uh!"

His hands came up to firmly hold her shoulders. "Donna, how often have I lied to you? I may be arrogant, stupid, and insensitive at times, but when have I genuinely lied to you outright?"

"I don't know," she admitted. There had been a few times he had started to try and lie, but it had stopped each time. The nearest had been when he'd transported her out of the Library in the little shop. "What are you trying to say?"

Tears of emotion welled up in his eyes. "I have missed you so much! I would have done anything to keep you with me; even deliberately got you pregnant if I had thought it would work. Who'd have thought it would?! You are amazing, Donna Noble. I knew you were brilliant, but healing yourself like this... I can't tell you how happy I am to see you whole, healthy, with my baby inside you; and you're mine. My wife. Having our marital bond broken was turning me insane. So I have to ask: would you, Donna Noble, come back and be my wife again? But properly this time, please."

This sounded like a trick question to her ears. "What do you mean by properly?"

"Without all the denials; with a decent ring, and in my bed," he said in seductive tones into her ear.

"In that case, I suppose my answer is 'what are we waiting for?' Except this was a little putting the cart before the horse," she remarked, giving her baby bump a reassuring rub.

His hands joined hers to fondly touch her stomach. "We did it all in the right order," he reminded her. "A nice ceremony on top of a building overlooking St Paul's, the first of many such ceremonies; and this little bundle of joy years later after we forged a proper marital bond."

"But we haven't consummated it," she breathily stated as excitement bubbled up inside her.

A knowing smile broke out on his face. "We sort of did; we joined together as one. Now we get the chance to do so in other ways and take advantage of your hormonal pheromones."

"I forget at times you can smell these things," she confessed.

"Then let's take advantage," he proposed, took hold of her hand and started to lead her away and back toward their home.

"Is it the sort of taking advantage that includes chocolate and breakfast in bed?" she cheekily queried.

"For you, anything. Whatever your heart desires," he promised. "But not Brad Pitt," he said as an afterthought. "No one else gets to lay a finger on you."

Funnily enough, that wasn't such a horrible idea to her after all.