Wow, it's been forever since I wrote anything. I sincerely apologize, everyone. Christmas break left me no time for anything, and both my computers broke and were out of commission as soon as I got back to school a week ago. You can imagine how stressed I've been, but never fear! I have fanangled myself a working computer, and now I must write angst! My ongoing stories will be updated one of these days... This one is set directly after Journey's End onward.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Doctor Who, however hard I might wish.

Whether it was by purpose or by folly, Donna awoke on the night that she saved the universe with a special piece of metal among her packed bags.

She wasn't certain why, exactly, they were packed, only that they were. They sat next to her bed, damp with rain. She thought that perhaps she'd just returned from somewhere, but where? She couldn't remember having gone any place. When she asked her Grandfather, he only looked at her sadly and shook his head. Sylvia, her insufferable mother, wouldn't say a word.

Still perturbed by the strange situation, she thought it best to unpack the bags. She had almost finished when a small key fell from the bag she carried her essentials in. Curious, she picked it up from the floor, but found that she didn't recognize it. She felt a curious sense of attachment to the key, like it was something extremely important to her, but she couldn't figure out why. She would spend hours a day staring at the key, hoping to remember something hidden in its hard lines and metal spires. But nothing came.

Over time, she spent less and less thought on the key, instead threading it on a chain and keeping it around her neck, close to her heart. It felt like it belonged there, something much more sentimental than a necklace full of diamonds. Women would occasionally ask to see her jewelry and she would explain that it was not jewelry, but something far more important. They would look at her strangely and move on.

She never went anywhere without the key. It became her lucky charm. There were a few times when she would lose it, and she would cry without knowing exactly why. Eventually, someone found it, whether that be her mother, her grandfather, or her new husband, Shawn. The key was a part of her and with her it would stay.

Years went by and children were born. More years went by and they all grew. Her children attended the best colleges that money could afford, had the best weddings, and the best homes for their own families. Donna would explain to her grandbabies, when they were old enough, that her key was a special key. It was important. She knew that, one day, she would remember what it opened.

She wrote in her will that she wanted to be buried with the key. Shawn saw no harm in such a request, but their children were concerned, as their mother had always been so attached to the object that it was almost as if it were alive. Their parents waved them off, stating that it was only a key, and nothing more.

More years came and went. Their grandchildren grew older. Shawn passed away at the ripe age of 78, with three children and seven grandchildren. Donna survived almost five years past the death of her husband. On the eve of her death, mere moments before passing, a man in a blue suit, tie, and ridiculously spiky hair visited her in the hospital.

"Donna Noble. I believe you have something that belongs to me."

Her hands drifted to the key, which still hung around her neck, unmarred by age. "It opens... her doors."

The man smiled with all the sadness of a dying world and held out his hand.

She felt her mind begin to burn and carefully lifted the chain from around her neck, happy to give it up, because she finally remembered what the key opened.