Story title: Donna Noble, Supertemp

Summary: Danger lurks inside one of England's most prestigious universities. Professors and students are disappearing, and fear runs rampant. Somehow, it all seems to have a connection to a man named Cadger Ethyls; but what? And how? Can the Doctor figure out what is wrong before all is lost?

Rating: K+

oOo

Chapter 1: A Seemingly Normal Morning

oOo

Donna Noble, Supertemp, of Chiswick. One-hundred words per minute, or so she had uttered on many an occasion throughout her travels with the Doctor. But she no longer traveled with the Doctor; in fact, she did not even remember who the Doctor was. As soon as the two had said good-bye to Jackie, Rose, and his clone, they had left Bad Wolf Bay and recrossed into her own universe. It was there that the Doctor had been forced to wipe every single memory of himself from her, Donna's, mind. The reason, of course, was because she had taken a Time Lord consciousness into her own mind, a very dangerous thing for any human being, since any human's mind wasn't built to cope with the vast knowledge of a Time Lord. So he had wiped every memory of himself from her, saving her life, but at the cost of her not ever being able to see or hear mention of him again, for the rest of her life.

There she had been, in the TARDIS with tears streaming down her cheeks, with the Doctor's hands resting gently on each side of her face. She had been watching all her memories of that amazing, terrible but wonderful, man of Gallifrey flash by in her mind, right in front of her eyes, so that it seemed as though she had been dreaming. And then suddenly, as quick as someone snapping their fingers, it had all gone black. The next thing Donna knew, she had been waking up on her bed, still fully clothed from what she thought was the night before.

Donna had been incensed. The nerve of her mother letting her go to sleep like that, like a flipping kid! She had instantly exited her room (but not before picking up her mobile) and headed in the direction of the living room, where she had heard the voices of her mother and granddad. Dialing a friend's number on the mobile along the way, she had stormed into the room like an angry cat, demanding to know what was up. Only, upon entering, she didn't see just her mother and granddad; there was also another man visiting with them, and a very good looking man at that. So she immediately composed herself, accepted the gorgeous man's introduction (of John Smith), and offered up her own. Then she put the mobile to her ear and had begun chattering away to her friend.

The last thing Donna remembered about that John Smith was when she had been in the kitchen, still chattering away to her friend. He had stopped to stay good-bye to her, so she obliged him, and continued her mobile conversation.

That had all been nearly eight months ago and, at the present moment, Donna was asleep, only this time in a pair of cozy pyjamas under her nice warm bed covers; but not for long.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!

Donna sat up so quickly it nearly made her head swim. She glanced at the time, which read 7:00AM.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-

She hit the snooze button, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and got up. Donna shuddered when her feet hit the floor; it was cold, which was odd as it was summer, but no matter. She stood up and walked over to her dresser, where she picked out a smart-looking outfit to wear for the day; it consisted of a gray skirt and pale white blouse and over that, a posh gray jacket. She was currently working as a temp at a fashion agency; she mainly did secretarial work and fetched coffee for people, but hey, it was in the fashion industry! Donna had always held a fascination with fashion.

As soon as she was done getting dressed, she did her hair and make-up and walked into the kitchen for breakfast. Donna was not surprised to find the kitchen completely void of people; her mum and granddad didn't usually get up until 8:30AM and 9:00AM, respectively. So it was in silence that Donna had her usual bowl of cereal with skim milk; as soon as she was finished, she wrote a quick note saying she was going to work and what time she had left, as well as what time to expect her back home (for some reason, ever since that gorgeous man had been there, eight months previously, her mum had wanted to track her every move like a flipping kid).

Donna got into her mum's car and drove off, to London, where her temping job was. She arrived forty minutes later (the drive usually took about 20 minutes, but the traffic on this morning was particularly bad), as soon as the clock struck 8:13AM.

The fashion agency was located in the heart of London and was a very posh place. It was about 5 floors high, and the entrance way where Donna was now walking had a sleek white marble floor and giant glass windows that overlooked Hyde Park. Donna loved it here. Donna's work, however, was not here in the entrance way; it was up on the third floor in a good sized office. Luckily it also had a large glass window over looking the park.

"Morning, Luke!" Donna called out as she crossed the threshold.

Luke, the receptionist, only grunted in reply.

"Fine then, don't talk to me," Donna muttered under her breath. She entered the lift, which promptly took her to the third floor.

"Donna!" was the first word that Donna heard as she stepped out of the lift.

"Morning, Clyde." Clyde was, of course, Donna's boss. And a good looking boss, at that. He had dark hair that fell elegantly over his face and sparking, attractive blue eyes. "What have you got for me today?"

"Some papers to type up, some to copy and give to me," said Clyde. "Also, there's some paperwork for you to fill out."

Donna groaned. "Can't you get Beatrice to do that? You know how I am with paperwork."

"Unfortunately, not," said Clyde. "She called in sick because she's in Paris, with her parents, so you'll have to do her share of the work."

"Wonderful," Donna muttered. Then, more loudly, she uttered, "And this is all waiting on my desk, yeah?"

Clyde confirmed that it was, and so Donna hurried to her desk without delay. Her desk was in a corner of a large room, surrounded by the window on one side, some plants, then a few other desks at which other people sat, typing away at their computers. She groaned at the amount of papers she saw stacked, and muttered about that dumbo, Beatrice, and the nerve she had of making her, Donna, do all the work.

"Hm, maybe one of these days, I'll wait til there's a lot of work to do, then call in sick and dump it all on Beatrice," said Donna to herself as she sat down. Her purse she place in one of the drawers on the side. "Yeah, that's what I'll do. See how she likes it."

Donna sighed.

"Might as well get started," she said to herself. Then she decided that she should probably stop talking to herself so people wouldn't think she was crazy. So, with that thought in mind, Donna dived into the mountain of papers sitting in front of her.

It was slow going. Donna had only gotten through half of one stack (which was six inches high) before it was time for her morning break at 10:00AM. Stretching and yawning, Donna got up and went into the break room for a cup of coffee; she figured some caffeine would help wake her up.

While she was getting her coffee ready, her boss, Clyde walked in. He was deep in conversation with a man Donna had never seen around the office before. This man was rather squat and had grayish hair, but that was all she could see of him, for his back was turned to her. She couldn't hear much of what they were saying, so she took care to walk as close as she dared to them in order to find out what was going on; she caught the words "Oxford" and "disappearances". Donna would have stayed there longer, listening in, but she couldn't think of a reason why she needed to be in the break room any longer. Which was a shame, because it sounded like an intriguing conversation; but, when she heard the words "blue box", she decided that the two men were just nutters and so dismissed all thoughts of the conversation from her mind. After all, what could some stupid old blue box have to do with someone's disappearance?

Donna went back to her desk and started her work once again, all the while taking sips of her coffee. When she was done with the first stack of papers, she took them to Clyde, who took the papers gladly. Then, Donna went back to her desk to complete the rest of the paperwork, or as much as she could before lunch. Thankfully, the second stack didn't take as long, and she was glad to be done with it by the time lunch finally came around.

Donna's stomach grumbled as she took out her purse and slung it over one shoulder. She didn't think she'd be this hungry; after all, she did have breakfast; but, whatever. Donna took the lift to the ground floor and walked quickly out of the building in search of someplace to eat. There was a café just around the corner that she had taken a liking to, and so it was this café that she set out for.

The sidewalk was fairly crowded with people, both locals and tourists, so it was nearly impossible to Donna to avoid bumping into a very familiar looking man. A man she had not seen for nearly eight months.

"Mr. Smith!" said Donna, with some surprise.

"Donna!" said John Smith. "Call me John."

"Okay, John," said Donna with a bit of a laugh.

"Long time no see, eh?" said John Smith, grinning. Even though it was a warm day, he was wearing a suit and trench coat. Odd.

"Yeah," said Donna. "Not since you were at my house those few months ago."

"Yep, been a while," said John Smith, sticking his hands inside his pockets.

"What were you doing there, anyway? I had never seen you before then."

John Smith hesitated. "Er… I was there on business. Had to talk to your mum and granddad about something of importance."

"Oh really?" said Donna.

"Yep," said John Smith. Then, he suddenly added, "Well, it was nice bumping into you; but, I've got to go. See you around!"

He walked away before Donna could respond.

"How rude!" said Donna to herself. Her stomach grumbled again. "I should've invited him to lunch." She glanced at him; he was still only a dozen feet away from her, but the distance grew each second. "Well, it's not too late, might as well try."

And so she followed after John Smith, or tried to. Since the sidewalk was crowded, it was difficult to get to close to him. It was also difficult to get John Smith's attention because everyone was talking so loudly; but, Donna managed as best she could, and followed him, determined to invite him to lunch.