If there was one thing that Donna Noble most enjoyed, it was shopping.

Even before her wedding gift of five million pounds (in the form of an anonymously gifted lottery ticket), Donna had spent a considerable sum of her weekly paycheck on accessories from the brand-name knockoff store in the local mall. Now the sky was the limit. Every day she would commute into the city to peruse the latest selection at the hottest designer stores, and today was no exception for her.

Donna idly picked up a hat from the display rack, pondering if the color would clash with her hair, when she heard a commotion from behind her, in the menswear section. Hoping it was nothing more than some parents with unruly children, she grit her teeth and continued to look at the selection of hats. That is, until a loud voice with a Scottish accent screamed- "DOCTOR YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THAT ON YOUR HEAD AGAIN!"

Doctor… Donna spun around to the source of the shout. For some reason, the name gave her a sense of deep sadness and an ache of longing in her chest. This was quickly forgotten and replaced with jaw-slackening astonishment at the scene in front of her.

A dark- haired young man in, of all things, a tweed jacket and bow tie, was being bodily restrained by a red haired girl. In front of them, another man, a sandy blonde, was holding something out of reach of wildly flailing arms. He was holding… a fez.

Donna blinked.

"Oh come on, Rory, give it back!" the man in the tweed jacket, who must have been the "doctor" being shouted at, pleaded. "I was only looking!"

"You," the Scottish girl holding him growled, "Are a terrible liar. I saw you skulking over to the checkout line, thinking we weren't watching."

The Doctor pouted and stopped grabbing for the fez. "I wasn't skulking, I was walking." He looked back at the blonde, now identified as Rory. "And if you don't give that back right now, I swear I will leave you stranded out in the ice deserts of Gamma seven."

Rory lowered the hat slightly, giving the redhead a nervous glance. "He wouldn't do tha… there is no Gamma seven, right Amy?"

"Yes, and I will-"

"NO, you won't-"

The scene dissolved into loud bickering again. Having finally regained the power of speech, Donna decided to end the argument for good. She was getting a headache.

"OI, YOU LOT!"

The trio fell silent and gaped over at the loud woman. The "doctor" character after the fez turned white as a sheet as she stamped across the aisle to them. The other two turned nearly as red as Amy, the girl's, hair.

"Aren't you three too old to be causing trouble like this in a store?" Donna snapped. "Just let your friend buy the fez!"

The Doctor gave a small grin of victory, despite his still chalky complexion. An ally in his battle for a fez?

"It's his own money. Besides, he's the one who has to walk around looking like a loon in it."

The grin slipped off. Maybe not.

"Anyways, stop bothering all the people, like ME for instance, who are trying to take their shopping experience seriously! Really!" Donna huffed, and turned on her heel towards the footwear section. She had lost interest in hats. Besides, her head was just killing her.

Several hours and several new pairs of shoes later, Donna had completely pushed the loud trio out of her mind. Amazingly, her headache had disappeared too. Returning to her parked car with a smile, she stowed her new possessions away. Donna loved shopping. There was nothing it couldn't fix.

Thousands of miles away, the Doctor watched her pull out of the lot on the TARDIS's monitor. With a sad smile he turned the video feed off; satisfied she would be all right, despite their close encounter that afternoon. Spinning his newly purchased fez on his finger, the Doctor turned to join Rory and Amy at the TARDIS main console.

"Thanks for the hat, Donna Noble."