Title: The Green-Eyed Monster

Author: Mindy

Rating: K

Disclaimer: Doctor and Donna are not mine, no money from this etc.

Spoilers: Nope.

Summary: Ten/Donna. The Doctor gets territorial.

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"You can deny it all you want--" Donna sang as she was guided from the bustling ballroom by the Doctor's hand at her waist.

He glanced down at her, jaw set. "Thankyou, I intent to."

"But I saw that look," she finished, a knowing glint in her eye.

"What look?" he grunted.

"The look you gave him!" she hooted, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the affair they were retreating from as fast as he could make her move in stacked high heels. "Seen it a million times."

"What's that?"

"Oh, I know that look!" she accused glibly: "It's the look of the Green-eyed Monster."

"I've met one of them, as it happens," he commented under his breath.

"Not literally, dumbo," Donna rolled her eyes and extricated herself from his grasp. "I mean…" she turned to face him, her voice emphasising each word: "You. Were. Jealous."

"That's--That's ridiculous!" the Doctor denied, pulling himself up to his full height: "I don't get jealous! I don't approve of it – tedious, puerile emotion, not to mention a complete waste of time. What--" he paused before leaning in to murmur falteringly: "what, what, what exactly would I have to be jealous about?'

"Nothing, you dunce," she exclaimed, eyes twinkling: "You were behaving like a lunatic! Worse, you were behaving like a man."

"Hey, now--" he protested, looking injured: "there's no need to name-call."

"You--" she poked his chest with her finger: "were being territorial. Defending what you see," another admonishing poke: "as your property."

"We-ell… I meeean…" the Doctor squirmed visibly for a moment before his words erupted in an emphatic surge: "I saw the way he was looking at you, tongue practically on the floor. I'm not having that! If he wants a ginger chatterbox to fill out his shabby little spaceship he can find his own!"

"Ginger chatterbox?" she repeated bemusedly.

"Listen," he lectured, one finger raised: "I've travelled, I've seen things, I know what's out there."

She raised her eyebrows. "And?"

"Well, you're my…. my--" he grimaced, looking like a petulant child for a moment.

Donna blinked expectantly: "What?"

"You know! My--!"

"Your…?" she prompted, shaking her head, slowly.

"My-- My-- My Donna!" he exploded abruptly: "Where am I gonna find another one like you? Answer me that. Took me long enough to find you, let alone actually getting you to come with me. And he thinks he's gonna waltz in and snatch you away with his big old rocket and his velvet dinner jacket and his capped-tooth smile? Not on my watch."

Donna placed a hand on the lapel of his tux. "Doctor," she told him calmly: "you're being completely unreasonable."

"So…" his face fell as he muttered: "What? You want to go with him to Planet Zog?"

"No!" she laughed. "I'm not going anywhere," she assured him softly: "--except wherever you take me."

The Doctor relaxed perceptively, his mouth twitching into a smile and his eyes gleaming down at her. "Good," he answered after a moment: "Oh, that's very good. Yeah, that's what I thought, just, you know, making sure. Right then! " He cleared his throat and stuck out his elbow: "TARDIS?"

Donna smirked and hooked her arm in his. "TARDIS," she agreed with a nod.

"And, just to be perfectly clear, Ms Noble…" he mused as they headed down the marble corridor.

"Yeah?"

"I wasn't," he stated pointedly: "being territorial."

"No?"

"I was being…."

"What?"

He shrugged, drawing her arm more fully about his: "protective."

"Oh…" she murmured slyly: "s'that what you call it?"

"They're not the same thing, you know," he added, ushering her out the door.

Donna tossed a look over her shoulder at him: "Po-tae-toe, Po-tah-toe."

END.