A/N: don't own doctor who
She feels a bit like Alice, six impossible things and a world of imaginings that do not make sense. Sees things in her dreams that can't exist, that are not real. She's even Important (for some reason the word deserves a capital letter). The most important woman in the world. It's how she knows they are dreams, even if they feel like memories. She's a nobody. Not important. There's a little part of her though, that whispers in gold dust and wisdom of centuries, that maybe she can be more.
She's developed an inordinate fondness of calling people Martian and Space-man. It's a strange impulse, and she cannot recall why it started. Although it surprises her, Wilf and Sylvia do not find it at all unusual. It scares her a little; that they seem so comfortable with something she does not understand, cannot remember. Donna wonders if, maybe, these impulses stem from her strange dreams.
It surprises Donna when her mother offers job applications for real proper jobs (good ones too, not just a job as a minimum wage waitress) without any condescending remarks and even tells her she is proud.
"Of course you can, you're brilliant." Wilf replies to Donna's adamant objections, hugging her close.
There's a sudden echoing dichotomy to her grandfathers words. It sounds like another man, voice full of absolute conviction, of power and knowledge and age old wisdom and for some reason she thinks of plimsolls and pinstripes (and vaguely, a hedgehog?). But it (somehow) also sounds like a woman and she feels both overwhelming sadness and overwhelming joy strangely at the same time and everything is golden.
The voices help her, she feels a little bit stronger, like someone believes in her more than anyone else ever has. She pretends hearing voices is normal, because she knows she'll be lonely if they leave and she believes her grandfather (though she never has before) and accepts the applications.
She ends up with an entry-level position in a large company. It does not pay that well, but she has already been noticed for her skills and even has enough money to move out of her mother's house.
Shaun asks her to marry him and she immediately agrees, excited (the shop is confused when she requests pockets in her dress). They may not have much money, but she is happy with him.
And when she opens the strange wedding present with the winning lottery ticket, she turns to Shaun and asks if, maybe, they can go traveling, walk in the dust, and the little voices that keep telling her there is more out there are silent. The dreams of all those incredible things are still there, but they are punctuated with dreams of her travels with her husband. She no longer feels like there is something missing.
And if she still feels a little sad when she looks at the stars, she assumes it's her grandfather she misses, and not the impossibly old, young man who was her best friend.