Out of all misery...

The nurse silently opened the door. The room was bathed in a peacefully dim light, and the lady was still in her bed, the blanket neatly drawn up to her waist, her hands folded at the edge of the blanket's bend. She breathed calmly, and her eyes were shut.
The nurse smiled faintly, and quietly walked towards the window to open up the shutters that had only been closed seven of eight parts just like Madame preferred.
When the nurse turned around, the lady had opened her eyes and was now herself smiling faintly.
"Good morning, ma'am", said the nurse happily. "And happy birthday to you! It's your birthday today!"
"I know, I know, Thelma. I've already been awake for some time. It all came back to me, suddenly."
The nurse cleared the nightstand, picking up a tea cup, half emptied, that had been placed there the night before. Distractedly she wiped with her hand over the doily.
"What came back to you, Ma'am?" she asked.
The old lady shifted under her blanket.
"Me being eighty-five - on the dot. Old hag Donna."
The nurse now smiled brightly and glanced at the window.
"The sun is shining, ma'am. It's gonna be a beautiful morning. What a fine day for your guests."
The lady frowned a little.
"I have guests?"
"Yes, ma'am. Quite a few!" said the nurse, placing the cup on a chest of draws next to the door, in order to take it with her when she was going to leave.
"And do I know these people?" asked the old lady.
"You used to know them once. It will come back to you, too."
The lady shook her head in disbelief.
"Guests! What a day. Isn't that exciting?"
The nurse had returned to the bed and looked at the lady.
"Yes, ma'am. Ever so exciting!"
She blinked a few times, fighting what ever might have touched her, but the old lady did not notice as, with some difficulty, she had thrown the blanket down to her feet and was about to lift herself out of the bed.
"Well then, let's get dressed. Quickly, quickly!"
The nurse made a turn and pointed at a dress hanging over a chair.
"That black robe?"
"Oh, no, no, no", said the Lady Donna. "Not if I have guests. The blue robe! You know, the blue robe! That will be much better. People remember me in blue."
"That's right", said the nurse and opened the wardrobe.

"People remember me in blue", said the lady again and nodded, when she had placed herself on her bed again, sitting upright leaning against a few large lace cushions the nurse had put into position.
"That's right!" said a voice, and the lady turned her head facing the open door the nurse had just left. And now a man walked in, dashing, young, with bright eyes and a long dark blue and grey military coat.
"That's right, Donna!" he said. "People remember you in blue!"
"Who are you, Mister?" asked the lady, all in astonishment.
"My name is Jack", the foreign hero said. "Captain Jack Harkness. At your service, ma'am." And he saluted. The Lady Donna shifted a little.
"Stop saluting, you. And stop this 'ma'am here' and 'ma'am there'. All of you!"
With a wave of her hand she included the nurse that had re-entered the room, occupying one of the wine red velvet chairs now.
"Alright", smiled the Captain. "What would you like me to call you?"
Before the old lady could answer, someone else entered the room, a female someone with shining black hair and a wonderfully dark complexion.
"The Doctor Donna!" said the young woman and smiled showing perfectly aligned and brightly white teeth. She was stunningly beautiful, Donna thought without any grudge. Like a princess, actually.
"Blimey!" she said. "I ain't no doctor. I'm just Donna. And who are you? Is this a foreign invasion?"
"No, dearest Donna. It's just me, Martha!" said the princess.
There was another woman entering the room, while the princess spoke, and she nodded with a heartily smile. She was followed by another man. He smiled as well and looked at Donna with deep affection in his dark brown eyes.
"You're all so young, people", said Donna and had to take a deep breath. "What have you got to do with me old hag?"
"We are your guests for today", said the Captain. "Your day of honour."
He turned around to point out everyone to Donna.
"This", he said, putting his arm around the princess who stood nearest to him, "this is Doctor Martha Jones. The beauty over there is Sarah Jane Smith. And this man here - is the Doctor."
The Lady Donna frowned again and shook her head.
"Doctor who?" she asked distractedly.
Princess Martha was first.
"That's exactly the problem, Donna. And the solution! There is no "who". He's just the Doctor."
"Oh, you've got me here now!" said Donna with a laugh and clapped her hands together. "I know what this is all about. You're playing a practical joke on me! I just wonder who's behind that!"
"This is no joke Donna," said the man with the brown eyes softly whom the Captain had called the Doctor.
"We are all your guests. And you used to know us very well."
"Oh, then I guess, I'm sorry", said Donna apologetically. "It's age, you see! I keep getting slower and slower every day, and sometimes I don't remember at all."
"This is different", said the Doctor. "Oh, Donna!" he said. "My dearest Donna!"
"You're truly a doctor!" Donna said, a little angry now. "Just statements and no explanation! Why is it different then?"
"It's different because we will make you remember", said Princess Martha.
"And how is that gonna happen?" asked Donna. "Martha Smith?"
"Smith, that's me", said the other woman hastily.
"Jones", said the princess. "It's Martha Jones. But I like that other version, too." She laughed and gave that strange doctor person a look. Then she walked to the old lady's bedside and grabbed one of her hands - like a doctor feeling her pulse.
Are you a doctor, too? Donna was about to ask. But she just looked at all her guests, one after the other. She felt so sleepy, and somehow secure.
"Martha!" said the Captain, apparently reminding her of something.
"Yes, alright, Jack!" said Martha. And to Donna she said:
"You see, Donna. You have reached the end of it today. And we've come to keep you company."
"The end of it?" asked Donna, suddenly wide awake again. "You mean my end? Am I finally gonna die? What a relief!"
"Listen Donna!" said the Captain, clearing his throat. " We've come to you right from the past to give you something you lost a long time ago."
"And what would that be?" asked Donna in a whisper.
"A present!" said the man they called the Doctor. "A huge present!"
And there she was again, old hag Donna, shaking her head in disbelief.
"What could be of any use to me, if that is true what you say, that I am about to go. About to leave this world for ever! I won't be able to take anything with me, will I?"
"It will be of use for you!" said the princess softly. And now the other woman, the quiet one whom the Captain had called a beauty, started to move towards Donna.
"You're Sarah, right?" said Donna, proud to remember something.
"Sarah Jane", said the woman, whose fine lines around her eyes proved that she was bound to have a little more experience then the princess, or the hero captain.
"Sarah Jane Smith", she added. "And I'm happy to be with you today!"
"And you're all gonna give me something?"
"Yes, Donna", said the Doctor Brown Eyes. And he was impossible to assess, so young to look at, and such a piercing glance, as if he knew - everything.
"Yes, Donna", he said again. "We've come to bring you music. A choir from far beyond the suns and planets of this galaxy."
"That must be some choir!" Donna said under her breath.
"It definitely is", said the Doctor. "It's the choir of the Ood. And they're singing your song."
"The song of the Doctor Donna!" whispered Martha.
Now Donna laughed. She could not help it.
"Oi!" she said. "What's that supposed to be? Now I'm a Doctor, too? Are we all doctors?"
"You were once the Doctor Donna!" said Brown Eyes. "That's why you had to forget. I made you forget. Otherwise you would have died."
It was very silent and kind of dark in the room now, even though there was no sunset, yet.
"And now", said Donna, breaking the silence, "now, that I'm dying you're gonna make me remember? Is that it? Is that the present you've brought me?"
"Yes. That is it", said the Doctor. "You're still fast and clever. My Donna!"
And he said it was such affection that the old lady felt tears in her eyes.
She knew, didn't she, she knew. Somehow -
"Doctor", she said. "I still don't -"
But he would not leave her in her confusion any second longer.
"It's time!" he said. "We salute you, all of us. May you enjoy the choir, beloved Donna."
That was too much.
"Thank you", said Donna. "But I don't think I deserve -"
"You do!" They all had shouted that. Then they stood with her like guardian angels gathered around her bed.

And then it began, a song so beautiful, so magical, a choir of millions singing across the stars.
"Those voices", said Donna who suddenly cried. "They're so wonderful, wonderfully sad and happy at the same time. I know. I know now. I've heard them before. Yes I have. Oh my God. I know. Doctor! Doctor!! Thank you. I do. I remember -"

© 2009
The Ood: Song of Captivity and Freedom

Your mother said something before she was excuted. Something very important.
I have no mother. She was just a woman that unwillingly gave birth to me.
They were her last words if you will.
She was a traitor. What could she have said that was of any consequence?
She told me in Basic, as to tell you, when you were her age.
Father. Why are you torturing yourself?
You must understand, Sela. I loved her.
And she betrayed you.
Yes, she tried to betray me. But I know that she had good reasons for that. From her point of you. For instance, she never loved me. Wait. Sela. You must listen. I loved her dearly, as much as my heart could be forced to love anyone. And she also tried to love me, because she was greatful. But she coluldn't. And so she decided to go so that she wouldn't hurt me any longer, realising every day that she was not truely happy.
And then she showed her gratitude, when she was trying to steal away your child?
Her child, Sela. Listen. I love you very much. I have always loved you, from the beginning. But you are not my child. Not genetically, that is.
Father! With all respect. You are talking nonsense. I am half Human and half Romulan.
No, my dear. You are not. Your mother tried to let me believe that, but I had known the answer from the first moment we met. Then, she was already pregnant.
But -
I know that must come as a shock, my dear. But it's the truth.
Truth! So that is your truth that you have protected me all those years, even though you knew I was not Romulan, nor your real child?
I made this promise to your mother, that I would protect you and raise you as a true Romulan.
A true Romulan!
I understand that you are bitter. But there was no other way. Other wise you would have been killed together with your mother. She saved your life, while I could not save her. You were too young to understand all this. And when you had screamed, and all the servants, and the neighbours had seen her trying to take you away, I had no other chance than having her arrested. I suffered so much. I had already known that you were not my child. But I loved you just like I loved her. And when she confessed this to me in her death cell, I told her that I had already known, and that I was going to protect you by any means necessary. Even if it meant to make you hate her. And we agreed on that, and for the first time in her life she loved me dearly, and then we had to say good-bye for ever. It tore me apart. But I saw in her look that she was proud to go this way. Saving her daughter.
No. No!
Sela. She loved you. And even when she decided to leave our house, her love had made that decision.
No!
So you became my child, after all. And there was no one in the universe who would have disputed me, even if you looked so very much Human.
But my physiology.
Is faked. We did this to ensure that you wouldn't be exposed by an accidental scan.
All those years!
Yes my dear. That was your mothers heritage. She wanted you to have a better life than she had. A quiet life, always knowing where to belong to.
But why are you telling me this now?
Because I am dying.
No! Oh, no! Father! I mean -
Yes. Yes. It's alright, Sela. I am your father, the only one you have ever learned to love and respect. And I love you, too. But this truth has it's value for you, you will see. I can no longer protect you, when I die. And I wanted you to see clearly, as I have promised your mother, when I kissed her for the last time, and when she kissed me for the first time willingly, and with affection.
Father! Father -
Yes, cry my dear. Cry! It is a time for tears, when heroes go. And your mother was a hero. And she told me this in Basic, before she took her last breath, she said: When she's my age, tell her to find Richard Castillo's relatives.
Richard Castillo?
Yes. That was the name.
Is he my father? I mean -
Yes he is the man who was your mother's great love before I met her. She told me all this in Basic, but of course I had figured out straight away that it was the name of a man, your original father, that she had told me. And it only needed a bit of research until I found out that he had been on the same Federation vessel your mother was on, and that we had caputered. According to the record his body was never found. But there had been a fire on board so he was registered as dead due to that fire.
You knew this all those years, father? If it weren't for you, if anyone else had told me this -
I know, Sela. You have turned out a true Romulan.
And now I am nothing anymore. NOTHING! WhY did you have to tell me? I could have gone on like this for ever.
No, my dear child. I have seen you come a long way from the child that did not really know what it meant to cry out and sentence a mother to death, to be the woman you are today, fighting Federation as your worst enemy.
The Federation -
- are your people. You are one of them.
I can never be one of them.
They are forgiving, Sela. They're not Romulan.
I don't believe it that I am standing here, listening to all this.
You've proven yourself strong, Sela. I have faith in you. You will manage. Leave Romulus as soon as you can. Don't wait for my death, as I am forced too.
I won't go anywhere.
Please do not contradict me, now that I've become sick and weak. Find Richard Castillo's relatives. Please my dear. Find your heritage. So that your mother's and my love won't be wasted. Go. Now!
Richard Castillo.
Yes, my dear. Jolan tru.