She didn't mean to crash straight into the Titanic. It worries her that she did. Of course, she reasons, it probably didn't help that both pilot and TARDIS were deep in thought. Apart from that, she blames her age.
Donna is back. That's good. She always did make her laugh somewhat. She brings a much needed smile around. And what's more, she understands. That is quite possibly the greatest gift of all. She knows about Rose, and she doesn't mind.
The TARDIS can remember Donna telling Theta to find someone. None of them knew that she would be the someone a year or so later. Funny how things work out really. She is - the TARDIS thinks - what Theta needs. Even when he cries for Koschei, Donna is there for him.
With a wry smile, the TARDIS knows Donna would probably be the last person to sympathise about Koschei if she could have remembered the year that never was. Donna survived that year, the TARDIS remembers suddenly. Through her own courage (as yet somewhat undiscovered since she's been sent back to where she was) she survived everything thrown at her.
That's comforting. Donna is - at the moment - the strength that comforts the both of them. She'll talk absently to a wall, and the TARDIS will listen, sometimes responding as best she can to a non-telepathic being, and it takes her mind of things.
She is not quite sure what Donna does so well to comfort Theta. But she is glad she does. When they do eventually get back to saving the universe, she will be glad. That will mean things are back to normal. Perhaps then she can forget a few things, and the pain will lessen.
They say time is the greatest healer, but the TARDIS knows that to be a lie. She is time, more or less, and she certainly doesn't heal very well.
She thinks she knows what the greatest healer is, and has seen it in play many times over, and each time, it makes her a little stronger.
She sees it now, and is stronger again.
It's hope. Hope is the greatest healer of them all.
So when the words Bad Wolf cross her path again, she thinks to herself whether she dares to hope.
But then she sees the look on her Theta's face, and she dares.
And she knows in that moment, that for any of them, whether its Susan or Donna, or every one who came in between, she will dare for them all.
She will hope.
And she knows that she may die an old fool, still hoping, but that doesn't matter anymore.
And as the sound of laughter fills the console room, she realises something else. She thought for a long time that she was too old to care anymore. But now she sees differently.
She does care. Her eyes have been opened again, and it's made life worth living. (Or risking, as is often the case) She doesn't care how long she's got left, because she is going to live for them all. Everyone she lost, she will keep alive within her heart.
As she crash lands, and feels the power of her vortex fading rapidly, she calls out, and doesn't know what made her do it. But as she does, her call is answered, and a wolf comes to her rescue.
Vaguely, she wonders what did it, her wolf-sister, the crash landing, or Theta's sheer joy.
Either way, she doesn't care.
Because finally, after so long, it doesn't hurt anymore.
