AN/ Some spoilers for The End of Time. Written in the POV of the TARDIS. The BBC owns everything.
Today Donna enters my control room, still a little sleepy from her nap. Her mind is sluggish, slowly picking up steam as it's forced to work, to be conscious. There's something stabbing through the fog though – a memory from a dream.
She's quiet and the Doctor notices. She's never quiet unless there's something wrong. The Doctor's usually blunt, but has had enough experience with human women to know that sometimes you have to address issues sideways.
"Have a good sleep?" he asks.
Donna shrugs. "Guess so."
"Something wrong?"
She sighs, eyes on my floor. She's sad, but not weepy. "I had a dream about my dad."
Ah, that's what it is. Again, we seem to have attracted a companion who has lost her father. Unlike Rose, there really isn't a way to go back and see her dad again, nor would there be any chance of saving him. He had died in hospital after a series of heart attacks.
The Doctor walks over to her, ready to give her a hug if she needs it. She doesn't talk about her dad much – just mentioned him once after our trip to Pompeii. Luckily, she has her grandfather to watch out for her, be the father figure. She's never seen the Doctor as one, not really, nor is he a romantic replacement. He's just a good friend. A platonic one.
And I feel that that's the way it should be in this case.
Donna's eyes met the Doctor's and she accepted that hug.
He's not going to ask her questions about her dream. She hasn't asked many when he dreams about Gallifery. He just knows that she misses him.
"Would you like some tea?" he asks after a moment.
She smiles and pulls back. "You know, if you were human, you could be one of the most British blokes I know. At the first sign of a sad face, you reach for a cuppa." A little of her spark is back.
"Is that a 'no'?" The Doctor starts to smile too, a Plan B of ice cream already in his mind.
"No, it's not a 'no.' Go put the kettle on, Space Man."
***
Today there is a man dying in a hospital in London. He had been rushed to the emergency room after having a heart attack. His wife and daughter are on their way, but traffic is slow. He is stable for now, but his heart is weak. He probably won't last long.
A man in a long brown coat is there, by the dying man's bed. He knows that the wife and daughter won't make it in time. The man in the brown coat is also dying. His body is getting weaker and weaker by the minute. He hides this fact well, for now, but he and I both know that his time is running out. He's here to do a favour, receive a gift. The dying father recognises the man, remembers when something awful happened that he could be blamed for, but something in him tells him now that he can be trusted.
"Your daughter is going to get married again someday."
"Shame I won't be able to get her a present."
"I think I might be able to help you there... if I could borrow a quid."
"A quid? What are you going to do with that?"
"Let's just say I have good luck with the lottery."
There's something in his eyes that makes the dying man pause and think. The machine he's hooked up to is beeping, showing his life as it ticks away. After a moment, he nods. "Alright. In my trouser pocket. The nurse put 'em over on that chair in the corner. Have it. Have that on me."
The Doctor retrieves the coin and thanks the dying man on the hospital bed. As he leaves, Geoffrey Noble's heat spasms and stops. Medical staff rushes in, but there's nothing they can do to get it beating again.
My Doctor returns to me, waiting patiently outside the hospital. Donna and her mother pull up in their car as I disappear. They don't notice me or the Doctor.
***
Tonight a Time Lord will regenerate in a fiery golden light. I will burn and melt and crash down onto the planet Earth. A husband and father will be remembered when the lottery numbers are picked. The stories will go on and on.