Title: Stars
Spoilers: For Season 4
Characters: Donna, the Doctor, Wilf

Wordcount: 471
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The characters belong to the BBC - no infringement is intended.
Summary: Written for the prompt: "You're in a place with plastic glow in the dark stars on the ceiling." at Scifi Muses.

A/N This is post-Journey's End, but also post-Donna getting her memories back (I don't know how yet, but she does.)

Donna sat next to the hospital bed, holding her grandfather's hand. He was dozing at the moment, but she didn't want him to wake up alone. She hated seeing him like this; he looked so small and weak. She hated that he was here in the nursing home, rather than at home, surrounded by his familiar things. After his second stroke he had required more care than her mother could provide, and she had been off traveling. The Doctor had brought her home, straight away, as soon as her mother had called. That didn't soothe the guilt she felt for being away so long.

And oh, she hated the nursing home. Sure, the staff were nice enough, but they still had too many patients to care for to give much personal attention to any particular one. And always the odor of death, and age, and despair hanging around the place. She had tried to brighten up the room a bit though. She and the Doctor had put up glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, so that Granddad could see the stars even without his telescope. The Doctor had wanted to perfectly recreate the entire sector, but she made him stop at what was visible from Granddad's favorite vantage point.

She heard someone in the doorway, and turned tear-filled eyes to see the Doctor. He came to sit beside her, handing her a cup of coffee and putting his arm around her. "Has he woken up yet?"

She shook her head. "Not yet." She sipped at the coffee, and pulled a face at its bitterness. "I should have been here."

"You're here now. That's what matters. He didn't want you to stay at home."

She smiled. "I think he wanted to travel with you as much as I did."

A shadow crossed the Doctor's face. "Ah, I should have taken him somewhere."

She looked at him, stricken. "Don't. Please." She put the coffee down on the nightstand.

"Would you rather have tea?" the Doctor asked.

She shook her head. "Would you just stay here with me?"

"Of course," he replied, no hesitation.

"D'you think he can hear us?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. It can't hurt if you want to talk to him."

And the false stars twinkled above them as Donna talked, told him of all of the places she'd seen, the people she'd met, the adventures, the running, the heartbreak. All of it. So he could experience it too.