A/N: Alright, this is it! I hope you like it. Thank you to all those readers out there, and SO SO much to the reviewers! Onward and upward!

After five minutes of wandering the halls, she was just about fed up with the TARDIS, time lords, and the universe in general.

"Alright you, I've had enough mucking about." She crossed her arms over her chest, knowing the ship was being difficult on purpose, or that the Doctor had instructed it to be. "I'm going to give you five seconds to show me where he's at. Or I'll unhook the interstitial couplers, and you can find yourself a new dimensional memory system to store all these rooms in. Right?" She almost felt silly threatening the ship, almost. Something in the air shifted and she smelled burning ozone, "That's better." She huffed; satisfied it had worked when the next corner she took brought her to a door she hadn't seen before.

The door was black; the same ebony wood that had been from the forests of Gallifrey; and it was carved with circular patterns that were clearly Gallifreyan in origin. It only took her a moment to translate it, 'home' it said. She pushed open the door gently and it gave no resistance as she stepped through. She was taken aback by the lack of decoration in the room, the walls were the same orange of the main control room, but there was nothing exotic about it. It had a bed, a desk with a chair, and a small door that she assumed led to a bathroom. There was one wall of shelves that had decoration, it was filled with pictures. Some of them in frames, but many of them just scattered across the shelves, there had to be hundreds of them. She didn't realize what they were until she recognized Rose's face among them. And then one of herself. They were pictures of his old companions, a reminder of the good times that had come and gone, and sometimes, the only company he had.

It wasn't the sparseness of the room that bothered her in that moment, or the mementos of his past; it was the body on the floor. It was wrapped up in a black cloth, but there was no mistaking it was a body. The Doctor sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from the door and unaware of Donna's presence. He held his head in his hands and his shoulders were hunched over like there was a great weight threatening to tear him apart. She wanted to comfort him, but she still didn't know what she could say. Especially since it had all been her fault, her and her stupid half-human brain.

Instead, she knelt down next to the body, needing to see his face one more time. She knew it was the same as John, but it wasn't. She had to see the Doctor again, one last time, just so she could say goodbye. She pulled back the edge of the wrap delicately, and there he was. There was no life in him and he seemed somehow smaller, diminished, as he lay there on the floor. Just a pale, thin man, fragile looking as he lay there with his eyes shut. It hurt to see him that way, knowing how much energy he had displayed when he was alive. It hurt even more to know she was to blame. Fresh tears prickled her eyes as she started to tuck the cloth back around him, not wanting to see any more. But something caught her eye, something she hadn't expected. He was wearing a white shirt, the Doctor had been wearing a suit, and she could swear that he had been wearing a blue shirt. But come to think of it, John-

"Oh, that idiot." Donna fumed, a mixture of fury and heartache in her tone.

"Donna?" Her outburst alerted the Doctor to her presence and he turned, confusion in his red-rimmed eyes. She softened then, realizing that she hadn't been the only one mourning, and the Doctor would have taken it upon himself to lay the blame at his feet. She looked down at the covered body with a small smile on her lips, shaking her head.

"He said, 'I love you Donna. You're my best mate.' I thought," She swallowed, her throat felt dry as she spoke. "I thought he was just trying to deliver a final message, you know?" She stood up on shaky legs and crossed the room to sit next to the Doctor; he had resumed his gaze to the floor, sniffing once. "Hah. I suppose he was. I just didn't realize…" She looked back over the bed. "That's John, over there, isn't it?"

The Doctor nodded without looking up. "Yes. That's John."

"He gave it all up for her, that daft man. Didn't he?" She put an arm across his shoulder and sighed.

"Yes." He spoke, still looking deliberately at the floor. They sat there in silence for a while, unsure of what to say.

"Do you wish it was you back there?" She asked softly.

"What?" He frowned, glancing up at her just briefly, but his floppy hair still masked his face. "No, of course not. Absolutely not."

"Alright," She hugged his shoulder, just waiting quietly. He let out a slow breath after a moment and cleared his throat.

"But, I had forgotten. How much it tore me up…I went to see her one last time, before I died. Saw you too," He smirked. "It was such a long time ago for me, but for him? It had only just happened. And he didn't even question it, didn't hesitate. He didn't wonder at all of he'd miss any of this. Sometimes…" He looked up at the shelf where all the pictures were scattered. "Sometimes I wonder if I would miss it. I wonder if I should stop."

"Course you'd miss it." Donna said with a laugh. "I missed it, and I couldn't even remember it."

"Oh Donna," He moaned as though just recalling what had happened. "I'm so sorry about that." Those last moments had been the worst, when she had begged, pleaded with him, and still, he had lost her.

"Hush now," She reassured him. "That's over. We made it through okay, yeah? Besides," She swallowed, gathering her courage. "I'm the one who should apologize." She found herself staring at the floor then. "I thought we could change it, I was so confident we could. I was the Doctor Donna again! How could I have been so wrong?" She blinked furiously as her vision started to blur. "I made you go through all of that, I made you destroy them all over again. Oh Doctor, can you ever forgive me?" A sob escaped her throat before she realized she had started to cry again. She covered her face with her hands, admitting it out loud had been much harder than she thought.

"Donna," His voice was quiet next to her, but she couldn't bear to look at him. She was too afraid that she would find the fury of a time lord staring back at her. She had seen it once before, and she couldn't stand the idea that now it would be directed at her; the one who had made him relieve all those old pains. "Donna Noble. Look at me." He pulled her hands away from her face gently, but she continued to shake her head.

"It's all my fault. All my fault." She kept repeating between the sobs, hating herself more each time she said it.

"No Donna," He whispered, taking her face in his hands and lifting her up. She looked at him through her watery eyes and was surprised that she didn't see what she most feared from him; instead, she saw her own sadness reflected in his gaze. He smiled then and pressed his forehead against hers, still cradling her face. "It was always going to happen. I had to go back, Donna. It wasn't any more your fault than it was mine. And I'm glad, Donna. I'm so glad I went back."

"Why?" She gulped in quick breaths, "Why would you want to go through all that again?"

He grinned at her, but she could see the grief in him. "I got to say goodbye, Donna. A real proper goodbye." A few of his own tears danced at the corner of his eyes and he kissed her forehead. "And I got you back, didn't I? You're still my best mate."

"Hah." She said, sniffing back the tears. "Give you a week before you start regretting that."

"No, Donna. Never ever." His voice was hoarse as he pulled her in for a tight embrace, holding her until he could feel her shaking had ceased.

"You know," Donna said, wiping away the last of her tears when she finally pulled away. "I was supposed to be in here making you feel better. River's orders." She said with a brave smile.

"Ah yes, River Song, trouble on a stick." He smirked, thinking eagerly of the day they would meet again. "You have cheered me, Donna, immensely. Mission accomplished." He patted her shoulder. "It's nice…" He had to clear his throat, some of that sadness crept back into those ancient eyes of his. "It's nice to know that I'm not alone."

Donna took his hand in hers and smiled at him. "Never again, spaceman. Never again."