Misguided Ghosts: Chapter One

The sun was low in the sky, and a few stray leaves blew across the sidewalk. A few children passed by on their bikes, waving at the young woman as she walked down the road. She was hunched over, facing the wind.
Donna Temple-Noble lifted her head and stared up at the pink-streaked sky. Her eyes sought out the first star, barely visible in the dusky sunset. Her heart felt painfully full for a reason she could not quite understand.
Glancing back down the road, Donna knew she should go back; Shaun would be wondering where she'd gone off to. But something was drawing her to the park tonight, and she felt compelled to walk right to the center, where a tall, ancient oak stood like a landmark.

Donna watched the stars come out, something still squeezing uncomfortably in the back of her mind. She didn't even notice her grandfather join her beside the tree until he spoke.
"Watching the stars, love?" Wilf asked quietly. Donna jumped.
"Oh, hello Gramps. Didn't hear you come up."
"Your mother was wondering where you'd gone off to," he replied. "And Shaun wanted to wait for you before we eat dessert."
Donna smiled slightly. That was so like Shaun; always the gentleman. Although somewhere, in the back of her mind, Donna could remember another man she'd once loved... even married? His name... it was, it was Lee, wasn't it? And he had a stutter....
"You all right, love?" Wilf's voice was suddenly concerned. "Donna?"
She shook her head as if to clear it. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"You went all funny-like for a moment," he pressed. She looked at him and tried to smile convincingly.
"Just remembering.... a dream, I suppose it must've been. I've been having lots of funny dreams lately, Gramps. There was a giant... a giant spider in one of them." She blinked. "Funny, right?"
Wilf took hold of his granddaughter's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Only a dream, love."
"Yeah." Donna took one last look at the sky and then said, "Let's go eat before mum has a fit, yeah?"
Wilf nodded and followed Donna across the park. He glanced up at the now full sky, his weakening eyes picking out a shooting star. He saluted the darkness in his mind, imagining that the shooting star had been that wonderfully impossibly blue box; the box that had changed his Donna's life before she'd been forced to forget it.

"I'm worried about her, Dad," muttered Sylvia Noble. She glanced back at her daughter, who was lounging in the sitting room with Shaun watching the telly. "She keeps wandering off like that, staring at the sky... what if something happens? What if she remembers?"
"She won't," Wilf said firmly. "The Doctor made sure--"
"The Doctor made sure of a lot of things, Dad, but he can't protect her forever," Sylvia insisted. "He hasn't been around in almost a year and a half now. What if he's dead?"
"Don't you say that," Wilf said, suddenly furious. "Don't you ever say that."
Donna stood up, kissed Shaun, and left the room, a distant look in her eyes. "Night, mum, Gramps."
"Goodnight," Sylvia said faintly. She stared after her daughter, and Wilf saw the worry was clear in her eyes.
"She won't remember," he assured her, but there was regret in his voice. "Though God knows she'd be better off if she did."
Sylvia made an angry tutting sound. "She was just fine before that... that man, and she's fine now."
"Fine," Wilf agreed. "Just fine."

Donna had pounded the streets of  Chiswick since she was little; however, something felt different about it this time. Her spine tingled as she crossed the street and made her way to the park. She was often drawn here these days, as if something important were going to happen there.
Her mum didn't approve of her wandering the streets like "some common bum" instead of looking for a new job. Donna didn't see the point in aggravating her mother any more than necessary, so she had taken to lying about where she went when she spent the day at the park. Today she was supposedly going to a job interview as a secretary.
The wind picked up, and Donna stopped dead. Right beside the old oak, the air was swirling; a light flickered into existence, accompanied by a whirring and grinding. Donna's head began to pound. It felt hot, even though the autumn air was chill. Her dreams flashed through her mind; she knew this sound.
Tar... tar... TARDIS. That's what it was.
"Not even a proper word," she whispered, as the blue box came into being. The door flew open, and a young man with longish black hair and a bow tie stuck his head out.
"And where have you taken me now, you blasted thing?" the man yelled at the box. "You can't just go zooming me off to any old..." He stopped mid-sentence as he spotted Donna, who was by this point close to passing out. "Oh. Donna." He coughed. "well, this isn't good."
Donna collapsed.

"Donna.... Donna. Donna!"
"Oh.... my head." Donna blinked several times, and the rather square face of a young man swam into view. He had black hair that fell in his eyes and a smile on his face.
"Aw, there we go," he said loudly. "Hello again."
She squinted at him. "What are you talking about? Who the hell are you?"
He looked put out. "Come on, you remember... oh wait," he glanced down at himself. "New face, right. It's me, Donna. It's the Doctor."
The Doctor. Donna's head began to pound again.
"And as for you..." the Doctor looked her up and down. "Judging by your looks.... this is after my regeneration... yeah, I see the wedding ring. How is old Shaun, eh?"
"He... you... Doctor." She struggled to focus. "How..."
"Right, I should probably address the headache. Well, you remember how I told you that you'd die if you remembered?"
Donna felt ill. "Head... hurts."
"I know, Donna, I know." He looked sad. "And I really am sorry about that. But I've got a plan. Well, sort of a plan. I haven't tested it yet, but the theory is just fantastic."
Donna glared at him. "Well then get on with it, spaceman."
He clapped his hands and laughed. "There, look! That's the Donna I know!" He hoisted her to her feet and led her to the TARDIS. "We've got to act quick or your brain with burn." She gave him a withering look. "Right, sorry. Not very tactful this regeneration."
They were in the TARDIS. Donna's head felt like it was boiling over, and everything was a blur. The Doctor dropped her into a chair and pulled a strange machine down that was clearly meant to clamp onto her head.
Seeing the look of fear she gave it, the Doctor said, "Oh, sorry, you don't recognize this! It's a Chameleon Arch. Used to modify the biology of a Time Lord so it registers as another species. But I've made some adjustments and now..." he waved his hand dramatically. "It's going to revert your brain back into the normal human one. I've also made it so you'll be able to keep all your memories, isn't that wonderful? But, Donna," he added, looking serious. "It's going to hurt quite a lot."
Donna was once again on the verge of collapse; the pain was mounting in her mind, and she could only gasp, "Do it. I don't care. Just do it."
The Doctor placed the Arch on her head and held up a fob watch. "This watch will have the Time Lord part of you inside. If you ever open it, you'll burn up. Okay?"
Donna nodded, sweat dripping down her face. The Doctor switched on the device and closed his eyes as Donna began to scream.

Images burned through Donna's mind, images that were not hers. She was looking into her own tear-streaked face, and everything was going in reverse; suddenly she was running beside Martha in a hospital hallway... she was standing in the TARDIS, projecting herself to a sobbing Rose Tyler; she was feeling the hot burn of regeneration; she was wearing a black leather jacket and grabbing Rose's hand, rescuing her from living mannequins. Donna relived all of the Doctor's lives in reverse, feeling his pain as he watched his friends fall, sobbing along with him as he turned his back on his burning planet. And all at once, it was gone. He was gone. The Doctor died inside of Donna, burning up into nothing like a regeneration gone wrong.
Donna felt as though a weight had been lifted from her chest, and the air came in easier. She was vaguely aware that she was screaming in pain, but felt oddly removed from that part of herself. Her life was suddenly flooding back into her mind; the Doctor, the Daleks, meeting Shaun... it felt as though she'd been half asleep for the past three years.
"My head hurts..." she muttered. The Doctor turned around, his too-young, not-right face staring at her in concern.
"Donna," he said quietly, "do you remember who I am?"
She looked at this man, with his prominent chin and long black hair. His green eyes that were so unlike the impossible dark brown eyes of the man she knew. But the ancient sadness was there, and it was enough to make her truly recognize him. Her Doctor.
"Hey," she said with a weak smile. "Took you long enough."
His eyes sparkled with that gleam that was there no matter whose face it shone out of. "Well, you know me. Never can keep track of time."