Prologue
The Doctor had spent his whole life waiting for this moment, waiting for something or someone to show him why the world still existed, why people still believed in people. Now, as he sat there in the sheer white cubicle, he was waiting for life. He knew that this was treacherous ground they walked upon and the next few hours could determine whether a family celebrated a new beginning, or mourned another end. They’d been told there was little to be done but to wait and hope. Wait and hope he would, for all eternity if needed.
Chapter One- The Grand Beginning
I had known the Doctor for three years now and every day I learnt a little more about the man behind the blue box. As time went on I learnt more about just how fully distant he was from the world in which he lived. Oh sure he provided adequately, well, as adequately as one can expect a man who flies through time in a blue police box saving the world to. But there were times when I longed for a quieter life, a life that didn’t always involve my husband running off saving the world. Ah well, this is the price one must pay for choosing to marry a Time Lord. We had been married for two days when The Doctor had disappeared in the TARDIS. He’d given me that devilish grin and told me he’d see me that night.
That was six and a half months ago.
It had been 181 days since I had laid eyes on my husband. I mean, I should have expected it. I’m nothing special, I was just a temp. Always had been, always would be. I had convinced myself that the only reason he married me in the first place was because I had ended up pregnant. And now here I was, seven months pregnant and facing the very real possibility of being a single mother.
I missed him though. No one had heard me say it and no one would hear me say it, even if he never came back, but I missed him, a lot.
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“Donna! Donna my girl, you need to pay up! I know things are hard right now bu-“
“Things are NOT hard right now! I’m fine! I’ll have your money tomorrow Mr Bun, I’m fine; everything’s fine and I wish people would stop saying things are hard! I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had their husband disappear after two days of marriage, he’s going to come back and we’re all just fine!”
Mr Bun, Liverpool’s most well-known baker stared at me in utter disbelief, he’d never seen me be outspoken, let alone screaming like a lunatic in the middle of a busy street. At that moment a girl stopped next to me, auburn hair framing her face. With wide, knowledgeable eyes she looked at the scene unfolding before placing a reassuring hand on my arm.
“Need some help?” she took my arm, offered a sympathetic smile and turned on her heel, walking towards the cottage we- well, I occupied. I followed her, stupidly scrambling for some recollection of this girl. She looked in her late teens, had some sort of wand stuck in her belt and was clearly amused by my outburst. And yet no recollection came, she was none I had seen before, no one I knew. Then how was it she had happened upon me in my hour of need, on the edge of an utter breakdown?
“I’m Hermione Granger” the strange girl smiled encouragingly as we walked inside the cottage.
‘Donna Noble. Now um, well thank you for your help but ah, do I know you?”
“Oh… He didn’t tell you. Well ma’am, your husband sent me. To check on you, to tell you he’s sorry.”
“He sent you here to tell me he is sorry!? My husband disappears two days after we get married, doesn’t turn up for six and a half months and then sends you, a girl I’ve never seen before in my life, to tell me he’s SORRY? Who are you anyway? His mistress?” I hissed, glaring hatefully at the stranger in front of me, this girl in my home, shattering my life even further.
“Donna. Take a deep breath. No, I am not the Doctor’s mistress, in fact I have never seen him. We have been what ah I guess you could call associates for four years but I have never seen him, we have only ever communicated through letters. Here, take this tea, sit down and I will tell you a little of my story. After which, you can decide whether I stay here and help you as the Doctor requested or whether I leave.”
“Fine.” I sat at the mahogany kitchen table and warily accepted the tea from this Granger child. I guess I really had no choice but to listen to her, she had heard from my husband after I had and maybe she could tell me where to find him. This Hermione was my last option, my last hope.
