Eyeing the Doctor warily, Donna waited to see if he'd notice the difference in her. So far, he'd blamed the changes on the metacrisis but he'd only been partially correct in that assumption. They'd just left Rose, Jackie and the man created by the metacrisis in an alternate universe and she could feel the pain and tension radiating from the Doctor.

Part of her wanted to go and comfort him, but a larger part wanted to stay as far from him as possible. She wasn't sure how he'd react once he knew what she truly was. The TARDIS had known as soon as she'd appeared on board the day of her ill-fated wedding, but had kept the knowledge to herself. Now she sang a welcome to Donna, the music as beautiful and haunting as the Oodsong. Longing to sing back to her, Donna contented herself with caressing the console, knowing that the Doctor would hear her singing.

Seeing his intentions long before he saw them himself, Donna decided to play along with it for the sake of the timelines. The look of despair on his face as she said goodbye so dismissively in her mother's kitchen nearly broke her heart. Surreptitiously watching him farewell her Gramps and slouch back to the TARDIS reduced her to tears, as did the melancholy song the TARDIS sang to her. But they both knew that this was how it had to be for now.

Acting the part of her earlier personality, Donna found a job as an administrator for a large charity and went through the motions of everyday existence. She knew that she was supposed to have met and married Shaun Temple, but found herself unwilling to dupe the poor man. Instead she started spending more time on her own, taking daytrips and exploring the countryside. Sylvia seemed surprised that she'd turned into a "rambler" and often asked her if she was feeling alright. Wilf sometimes came with her on her travels but never invited her up on the hill to watch the stars with him anymore. She missed those nights but understood why he'd stopped asking. Their concern weighed heavily on her though.

ooooOoooo

The Doctor was exhausted and every single part of his body hurt as he glared at Wilf, standing in the containment booth. For one brief moment, the void in his mind where the collective consciousness of his people had once been had been filled again. Now it was gone and he felt hollow and cold. After he'd banished his people for the second time, he'd initially celebrated the fact that he was still alive, overjoyed at the fact that he'd beaten the Ood prophecy. His song would continue and he was so relieved that his eyes had filled with tears of happiness.

Then he'd heard the sound of four knocks. The four knocks sounded again after he'd stilled in horror, and he'd turned to see Wilf in the containment chamber that would soon fill with deadly radiation. Something deep inside him had snapped and he'd ranted and railed against the unfairness of his life, the amount of sacrifices he'd had to make, the unhappiness and pain he'd been subjected to throughout his long, long life. But now, he just gazed at the man he saw as a surrogate father. Wilfred Mott. Donna's Gramps. Wilf had told him not to help him, that he was an old man who'd lived his life, that the universe needed the Doctor far more than a broken old man like him. Wilf was a good man, who was needed by his Donna if she was to have any joy in her life as it was now.

Stumbling towards the adjoining chamber, the Doctor put his hand on the door release, ready to sacrifice himself for Wilf and Donna. Then his mouth fell open in shock as Donna suddenly popped into existence behind Wilf, wrapped her arms around him and winked back out of existence.

"WHAT?"

His body frozen in shock, he started to wonder if he'd hit his head harder than he'd thought. Maybe he was concussed and had merely hallucinated the past fifteen minutes. Shaking his head, he rubbed at his eyes and looked in the chamber again as it turned red and filled with radiation, harmlessly now that it was empty.

"Doctor, are you alright?"

He spun around to find Donna standing behind him, looking at him with sympathy, concern and a certain wariness. Wilf stood beside her, dazed and confused.

"WHAT?"

A bittersweet sense of déjà vu filled Donna at the Doctor's reaction, given that it was the same as the one he'd had when she'd first appeared in front of him in her wedding dress.

Suddenly, Wilf clutched Donna to him and asked plaintively, "Donna, sweetheart, how did you do that? How can you remember the Doctor? He said your head would explode if you remembered. I don't understand, love."

Hugging the old man to her, Donna tried to comfort him. "Oh Gramps, it's such a long story and you're tired. The Doctor looks like he's been through a mangler and he'll need to hear the story too. I don't want to tell it twice, so let's just go back to the TARDIS, go back to Mum to let her know we're alright and then have a cuppa, huh?"

Releasing Wilf, Donna slowly approached the Doctor, noting how his wide, tear filled, chocolate brown eyes never left her. Taking his hand, she was thankful to feel it close on hers tightly as though he were trying to reassure himself that she was real. His mouth worked but no sound came out. Smiling gently, she waited.

His mind reeled as he watched Donna and Wilf interact, but he couldn't even begin to process what they were saying. Then Donna came over to him and took his hand, which he squeezed convulsively. His vision was darkening around the edges, his legs felt like jelly and he thought it was a distinct possibility that he may actually throw up. As if in slow motion, he felt his knees buckle and the world went dark.

Catching her friend, Donna hooked her arm under his knees and cradled him in her arms. Calling for the TARDIS, she waited for the ship to wheeze into existence in front of her. Then she walked inside her, calling back to Wilf, "C'mon Gramps, our lift's here."

Going straight to her old bedroom, Donna directed her Gramps to the kitchen next door and asked him to make some tea. Once he'd left, she stripped the Doctor down to his boxer shorts and almost cried at the amount of bruising and laceration on his slender body. Assured that her Gramps would be occupied in the kitchen for a while, she quickly forced a surge of energy to build up in her body. Leaning forwards, she locked lips with the Doctor and breathed the energy into him. As he inhaled it, she sat up and used her hand to smooth it out from where it glowed in this chest, directing it to all the areas of damage in his body.

She was so intent on her task that she didn't notice when her Gramps re-entered the room.

Staring at his granddaughter as she smoothed golden light all over the Doctor's body, he goggled as the bruises and cuts vanished under her hands. "Donna. What are you… How are you… Donna, my girl, I don't understand."

"Hush Gramps, I've got to concentrate."

After a further ten minutes, she'd healed the Doctor's body and covered him over with the duvet. Settling down at the end of the bed, she accepted the cup of tea Wilf handed her. Wilf put a mug of tea on the bedside table and then sat in the lone armchair in the room.

Wilf was fair burning with curiosity, but he knew his Donna well enough to know she'd not tell him anything until she was ready. So he sat and sipped his tea, nibbling on the biscuits he'd found in the cupboard. He didn't recognise the writing on the packet, but they tasted like shortbread. Well, shortbread that had been soaked in whiskey and then dipped in honey. Smacking his lips, he decided he liked them and that Sylvia wouldn't let him eat them, which made them that much better in his opinion.

Stirring weakly, the Doctor groaned and tried to sit up. Someone lifted him and plumped pillows behind him before lowering him onto them. Now in a semi-recumbent position, a cup was pressed to his lips and he sipped at the luke warm, sweet, milky tea gratefully. Prying his sticky eyes open, he blinked to clear his sight, focussing on the face of Donna Noble. "D-Donna?"

"Hullo, Spaceman. How are you feeling?" Donna smiled fondly at him, unable to resist doing so when he looked so adorable as he blinked his big, brown eyes with their long lashes. Reaching up, she brushed his hair out of his eyes tenderly. The next minute, she had her arms full of clingy Time Lord, as the Doctor threw himself at her.

"Donna! I…" cried the Doctor before his voice gave out and he swallowed thickly, crushing her to him as though he'd never let her go.

Rubbing her hand over the Doctor's bare back, she was concerned to feel every vertebrae in his spine and every rib. Her other hand was buried in his thick hair, her fingers gently massaging his head. He burrowed into her, his hands fisted in the fabric of her shirt.

"There now, sweetheart. It's alright. We're all safe on the TARDIS and it's all over." Kissing his head, she held him tight as long as he needed it.

Eventually, he leaned away from her, but kept hold of her hand. Reclining on his pillows, he watched her as she pulled the duvet back up to his chin. Tearing his eyes off her, he looked over at Wilf sitting forward in the armchair and asked, "Are you okay there, Wilf?"

"Yes, sir. I'm fine. How are you feeling?" Wilf looked at him with bright eyed interest as he chirped his reply.

Thinking about it for the first time, the Doctor realised that he actually felt pretty good. He was tired and hungry but that was to be expected given how little care he'd taken of himself for the past couple of months. But all the pain from his injuries was gone. Lifting his free hand to his face, he felt that it was smooth and unblemished. Pulling the duvet back down, he looked at his pale chest and stomach, unmarked and painfree. Puzzled, he quirked an eyebrow at his friend, asking, "Donna?"

As she sat thinking about how best to explain to him, she felt the surge of panic hit him and rushed to reassure him. Taking his hand, she smoothed back his hair as she said, "Hush now, Spaceman, it's alright. You didn't regenerate."

Relaxing back into the pillows again, he sighed with relief. He was truly enjoying this body and didn't was to give it up anytime soon. Bewildered, he asked helplessly, "But then, how..?"

Taking a deep breath, Donna plunged in. "I fixed you. I forced my body to create a surge of regenerative energy and then breathed it into you. Once it was in your body, I smoothed it out into the various parts that were injured. Which was practically every part, you idiot. What did you hope to achieve by throwing yourself out of the TARDIS and through a glass ceiling? You could have died, well, regenerated. You know you don't regenerate well, so what good would you have been then? You'd have either been bouncing around with all the concentration of a five year old with ADD and a stomach full of sweets, or lying in a coma..."

"DonNA!" he whined.

"WHAT?" she snapped back.

"Babbling," he replied pointedly.

"Oh. Right," she murmured, chastened, "Yeah, well, anyway, that's why you're healed now."

Thoughtfully, the Doctor studied the nervous woman in front of him. Gently, he prompted, "But that doesn't explain how you could produce regenerative energy, or how you knew how to heal in the Time Lord way, or how you managed to save Wilf that way without a vortex manipulator."

Getting to her feet and starting to pace, Donna appealed to the TARDIS for help. Getting the equivalent of a mental hug and push, she realised she'd have to come up with the words herself. "Um, have you ever heard of a plentyn am troeon a talmau?"

The Doctor gasped, as his face paled, and he looked wildly at her and then up at the ceiling of the TARDIS. "No.. You can't be. They're just a myth."

Trying desperately to keep up with the conversation, Wilf had to ask, "What is that, sweetheart?"

"Translated, it's a child of time and space. Legend has it that a TARDIS left without a pilot can spawn a child that resembles the basic humanoid shape, but retains the abilities of a TARDIS. These children are incredible long lived, very hard to kill, can see all of time and space and can travel through time and space without need of a TARDIS. They also produce regenerative energy and can heal Time Lords. It's even said that they can regenerate for a Time Lord, providing him with an indefinite supply of lives." Donna stopped, leaning on the wall of the TARDIS as she collected herself.

"Like… like a battery. Just keep recharging them?" Wilf was way out of his depth, grasping for a way to make this familiar.

Smiling wanly, Donna turned back to them, saying, "That's about the size of it. You can understand that if you were a 'Time Lord battery', you'd want to keep it quiet. You'd be a sought after commodity, after all. Imagine, your own personal fountain of youth and eternal life."

The Doctor never took his eyes off Donna, his hands fisted in the duvet. "But I've been inside your mind, Donna. I'd have known if you were a plentyn am troeon a talmau, wouldn't I? You'd have felt like the TARDIS."

"Only if I let you. As far as I know, I'm the first one, so it's hard to know what's normal and what isn't. But the TARDIS tells me that she thinks I was born with a psychic cover that masked my true self until I was exposed to a TARDIS. Even then, it seems I've kept the mask in place until I was sure I could trust you."

"So, when…" The Doctor swallowed and looked down at the bedcovers before continuing, "How long has your mask been lifted?"

"Since Davros dumped the TARDIS in that pool of zed-neutrinos and we thought we were going to die. Reaching out for your hand was the last conscious thought I had as Donna Noble, Human Being, citizen of Earth." She shrugged, unconsciously stroking the wall of the TARDIS for comfort.

Sitting bolt upright in bed, the Doctor yelled, "But that means that you weren't affected by the metacrisis! I shouldn't have been able to lock away your memories of me. You've been able to remember all this time, haven't you? I've been torturing myself for months! My hearts were broken and I've been so lonely and sick and…. and frightened. I needed you. I needed my best mate. I changed time because you weren't there to stop me! And the whole time, you've known about it and you could've stopped it and you didn't? Why? WHY? Do you want the TARDIS for yourself? Were you hoping I'd die?"

"DOCTOR! Calm yourself, Time Lord."

Donna had drawn herself up to her full height and was fixing him with the look that always brought him in line. The look he secretly thought would bring the entire Dalek empire in line. Bringing his anger and hurt back under control, his chest heaved with the effort. In a small voice, he asked, "Do you even care about me anymore?"

Deflating, Donna rushed to his side and framed his face with her hands, telling him fervently, "Of course I care about you, you daft git. I love you. You're my best mate in the whole universe. I was made for you. Haven't you ever wondered at how easily we've always gotten along? Why I'm the only companion you've ever had that mothers you and protects you? Why I'm the only companion that you simply cannot function without, who keeps you sane and makes you feel less alone without making you feel like you have to act like a Human?"

His eyes widened and stared at her, his hearts quickening.

"The TARDIS was worried about you, the way you always lost your companions and the grief you felt afterwards. She knew she couldn't be with you all the time, so she created a companion who could look after you the way she couldn't. Knowing your love for Humans, she spawned on Earth and I was taken in by the Nobles. Have you never wondered why I'm the only one in the family with bright red hair? Mum and Dad took me in after Gramps found me in the allotment one night. They'd never been able to have any children of their own. The police and child services were notified, but they couldn't find my birth parents, so Mum and Dad offered to adopt me. It was all much more relaxed back then."

Wilf, who'd largely been forgotten up to this point, stammered, "S-so, what you're saying … your biological mum and dad is this ship?"

Donna looked at him and nodded.

"Oh. My. Gawd!" Wilf sat back in the armchair, pale and shaking.

Going to kneel in front of the old man, Donna carefully checked his pulse and then leaned her head on his chest to listen to his heart. Suddenly, his arms surrounded her and he held her to his chest. The familiar smell of her Gramps engulfed her and she smiled as she returned the embrace. "Don't you worry, Gramps. I'm still your girl."

"Well, of course you are. Take more than having a spaceship for a mum to change that," he replied gruffly, stroking her hair with his gnarled old hand.

Laughing, she gave Wilf a bit of a squeeze before pulling back to note with relief that a bit of his colour had returned. "I think we could do with another cuppa, don't you? I'll just see what I can do."

The two men sat in silence, each consumed by their own thoughts surrounding Donna's revelation. As one they looked up as she came back to them, laden with a tray of tea and sandwiches.

"I thought you could do with a bit of nosh after all your running around and adventuring. I'll make something proper later, but for now some sandwiches should take the edge off," she nattered, passing out their cups of tea and plates of food.

Silence descended again, aside from the slurps of Wilf and the Doctor, the quiet chuckling of Donna and the smug hum of the TARDIS.

Putting his mug and plate on the bedside table carefully, the Doctor asked, "If I'm your best friend, why did you leave me alone for so long? I… I needed you."

Placing her own mug and plate aside, she shuffled forward and guided the Doctor's head to her shoulder, holding him fiercely as she cried brokenly, "I had to let the timelines play out, you know that. It broke my heart too, but it had to be allowed to play out. But I couldn't let you regenerate. Certainly not alone and frightened. My poor Doctor. I'm sorry."

Swallowing a sob, the Doctor buried his face in her neck and held on for dear life. Clearing his throat, he asked tentatively, "So you'll be staying with me now then?"

Squeezing him as tight as she could without triggering his respiratory bypass, she promised, "Forever."

A weight lifted from his chest and he sobbed with the relief. Dimly aware of Wilf gathering dishes and saying he'd be in the kitchen, he released centuries of pent up fear, loneliness and grief. Donna rocked him and rubbed circles on his back, singing in his mind with the TARDIS, a duet of heavenly music. Eventually, he exhausted his supply of tears and he lay against her drawing comfort in her presence.

Knowing that the Doctor needed to vent, Donna held him without trying to hush him or stop his tears. Letting him get on with what he needed to do, she just held him close and sang to him. The TARDIS joined her and it felt like a homecoming for her, finally finding the one place in the whole universe where she fitted. A few tears of her own slid down her face to soak into the Doctor's hair.

As soon as his mind gave up it's fight to stay conscious, Donna removed some pillows and lowered him onto the bed. Wiping his face with tissues, she tucked him in and went to find her Gramps, after kissing the Doctor's cheek and making him smile in his sleep. Pausing at the bedroom door, she watched him roll over and curl up, hugging one of her pillows happily. Shaking her head, she chuckled and murmured, "Silly Spaceman."

Wilf was sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. Concerned, Donna sat beside him and put her hand on his shoulder, whispering, "Gramps? What's wrong?"

Startled, he dropped his hands and turned to her, saying, "Wrong? Nothing's wrong, my darling girl. Although I was sort of wondering how to explain all this to your Mum."

"That's simple, Gramps. We won't. I rang her when I was making the sandwiches and told her that I'd gone to find you, that we were both safe and together, but that it would take us a while to get back to her thanks to the traffic. She asked me what had happened and why she could remember such a long period of time. I told her that she'd mentioned that she was getting one of her migraines that morning. She thinks she's taken too many pain pills and slept away the day." Donna rubbed his back soothingly as she spoke.

"But what about you and what you are now?"

"What about it? Do I look or seem any different to you, Gramps? I'm exactly how I was before the mind wipe, so we'll just tell Mum that the Doctor found a way to fix me and I've gone travelling with him again. She won't be too happy, but it's better not to bring up the whole 'she's not my real mum, a sentient alien spaceship is' issue. Mum raised me, so she gets to continue thinking she's my Mum. As for me, well, now I've got two Mums so I'm the lucky one, huh?" She'd taken his hand and gave it a squeeze.

Wilf's face relaxed into his usual cheeky grin as he replied, "Love, that sounds like the best way to go about it. Now, I suppose you'd better take me home so I can get some sleep. I'm an old man, you know."

"Yeah, but you're young at heart." Standing up, Donna held out her arms for her Gramps and hugged him tight to her when he stepped into them. Checking, she asked, "Ready?"

As he nodded, he felt the world going very white and bright and something very like vertigo gripped him. Just as he thought he might be sick, it all stopped and he was standing in his bedroom, arms still around Donna. Trembling, he held onto her until he was sure that his legs weren't going to buckle, then he let go and tottered to drop onto his bed.

"I think I'd prefer to travel on the TARDIS next time, love."

Donna laughed and kissed the top of his head. "Okay, I'll remember that. Well, I'd better get back before he notices I'm gone. Love you, Gramps."

"Love you too, sweetheart. You take care of each other, now."

"'Course we will," grinned Donna, before vanishing just as Sylvia burst in the door.

"Dad! I thought I heard Donna in here. Where is she? She said you were together."

Wilf sighed and braced himself to break the news to his daughter, hoping she'd accept it and not chew his ear off all night. He really was tired.

ooooOoooo

Donna flashed around, saving the Doctor's other companions from harm's way.

"Back of the head!" She crowed as she saved Martha and Mickey from a Sontaren.

"Try looking both ways before you cross the street, Luke. Say hello to your Mum for me and the Doctor." Giving the boy a bit of a squeeze, she released him after saving him from being hit by an oncoming car.

"Don't go into Thames House, you won't come back out alive," she warned Ianto, turning to flash Jack a huge grin. "Hullo gorgeous. Don't let him go in there. He'll die and you'll be heartbroken." Kissing them both, she blinked out of existence. There was no reason for young Ianto to die, after all. Jack needed him.

Back on the TARDIS, Donna showered and then crawled into bed beside the still sleeping Doctor. Smoothing a stray tendril of his wayward hair, she grinned in happiness at how right her world was at the moment. Closing her eyes, she slept and dreamed of time itself.