Donna lays quietly in her hospital bed, starring at the ceiling, looking back at her life; how normal it seemed. Yet the blank spaces in her memory (from a very long time ago) that she couldn't quite figure out seemed to hold some unusual memories.
Now nearing the age of 90 she contemplates her life - her wonderfully simple life. She wonders at the times when people were ranting about aliens and the impossible things and wondering why she always missed the events. Though thinking about these things seemed to cause a mysterious headache, so she didn't dwell on them for long. Donna feels her body start to descend into a sleep so deep she wonders if she would ever wake up and half hopes that she won't. Death would be a welcome relief since she had nothing more to live for. All of her love ones are gone and she'd never had children -never could though no doctor could explain why. Apart from that she'd lived a brilliant life with her husband, especially after they'd won the lottery. The ticket had been given to them as a Wedding present from someone who her mother and granddad would only call a very good friend and say nothing more on the matter.
Thinking back over her family, sadness and sorrow washed over her making her frail body feel even heavier.
Finally, as she nearly succumbs to the sleep, Donna hears an impossible and yet familiar whooshing sound. She rolled onto her left side, facing the window, still not quite able to put her finger on where she had heard the noise before. As she watched a tall, blue box began appearing and fading away. Every second it seemed to stabilise until it was as solid and real as the hospital room itself, and if she wasn't mistaken the blue box seemed to be some kind of police box. The door to this blue police box swung open revealing a tall man dressed in a blue suit and a long, sweeping brown coat. The man smiles solemnly and walks to Donna's. He kneels down so the two are face to face, eye to eye. Donna was thinking just how familiar the man's brown eyes seemed to be when her mind opened; how it hurt! The man winces and then whispers, "Sorry, but it's time Donna, time for you to realise all the brilliant things you've done." He pauses for a moment, with a small smile, before continuing. "The Doctor Donna... Worlds sing for you and you have no idea. I couldn't let you die without knowing how truly, fantastically, brilliant you are."
Suddenly memories began to wash over her; the blank spaces began to fill. This man, her best friend, the Doctor. This man was who she had wanted to spend her whole, human life with. Her time travelling days came back to her: Giant wasps, Sontarans, Pompeii, Ood and little fat people. All so impossible and yet, so real. Racnoss, Lance her ex-fiancé , the Vashta Nerada, River song, a voice "there is something on your back" (which made her turn around to check her shoulder), Daleks, the Doctor born in war, Davros, the 27 lost planets, the Doctor Donna. That name brought a shiver of excitement and realisation to her. As the Ood had foretold 'The Doctor Donna'. Tears trickled down her wrinkled cheeks.
The Doctors face turned to worry, maybe he shouldn't have come here, he has caused her more pain, "Donna I am sorry is there anything I can do?"
Donna smiles and smacks him on the arm, "Oh, shut up, so I can remember, these are happy tears. In your eons of living you would have thought you would have learned to tell the difference between tears of sadness and joy." As she speaks she shakes her head and rolls her beautiful and wise blue-grey eyes. The Doctor laughs, 'Still the same old Donna', he thinks wiping the tears from her cheeks.
He then begins to pace. After some time he places both of his scar ridden hands on Donna's cheeks and rests his forehead against hers. Her eyes flutter briefly, then shut as she gasps. The Doctor opens her mind to see the show her the effect her actions have had on those in her life. Telepathically he transfers a message, 'No words could ever describe how brilliant you are, so the only way to make you understand is to show you.'
Images flashed trough Donna's mind, everything she had ever felt whilst travelling with the Doctor, her best friend. Tears escaped her as words failed to.
"You can regenerate, what about me?" she breathes.
The Doctor sighs and sinks back to his knees beside the bed, his eyes closed. "You don't need to ask me that, you are part doctor and part human, look into your mind, you know." Donna starts to look back, but as a headache starts to pain her she whispers, "It's starting."
"Donna, I am so sorry, if I could I would g-"
"No don't you dare finish that sentence," Donna says in a weak, but firm voice. "If I hadn't taken you with me it would have been okay," she mimics the Doctors voice, "because it wouldn't have been, plus you can't go back and change anything, all those things that happened are all fixes points in time, no fluxes." The Doctor tries to speak again, but Donna silences him again. "All of those adventures, though I have only just remembered them again, they were some of the best things that ever happened to me... I wouldn't change a thing." She winces in pain, her headache is getting worse and she knows that her time is almost up. For the last time she holds the Doctors gaze. "Thank you, Doctor,thank you for everything – from saving me from a marriage to a man with a giant spider fetish to letting me remember it all. Thank you my best friend, thank you Doctor, I love you remember that, thank you Doctor...thank you..." Donna closes her eyes as her life begins to fade and her mind begins to burn up carrying the impossible knowledge that had granted her peace.
He knew she could not hear, but the Doctor still whispered aloud, "No, thank you The Doctor Donna. Your name shall always live on in the stars above us all." Then he cries, The Doctor cries for the loss of another brilliant companion. He sits and holds her hand until daylight starts to appear on the horizon. He places Donna hand down gently on the bed again before he stands up and steps into the Tardis, who is humming her sorrow; informing him that many across the universe and indeed beyond were mourning with him.
A nurse enters the hallway ready to check on her patients, when she hears a whooshing sound (almost like an engine) coming from Miss Noble's room. She wonders over to see if Miss. Noble is awake and perhaps watching television. She opened the door to the patient's room and could have sworn that she saw a blue telephone box appear once and then vanish; taking with it the whooshing noise she had been hearing and creating a silence in which the constant beep of the heart monitor could be heard. The phone box forgotten, the nurse rushed to the patient's side and began trying to revive her, but her efforts were in vain.
She announced the time of death to the quiet room and pulled the plug on the life support machines.
The nurse liked to think that when a person died, that their life was suspended into the light of a new star so that their soul could shine for a little while longer before passing on. And she believed that Miss. Noble's light would shine very bright indeed. The nurse pulled the bed sheet up over Miss. Noble's head and before calling for assistance whispered, "May you shine on in the sky Miss. Noble, and I pray thatyou died knowing how wonderful you truly were and that you will be well looked after up in the heavens. May the Lord bless you."