Rani, Luke, Clyde and the Doctor stood by the edge of the cliff, watching the brown box bobbing in the starry sea. The earth was only a few inches above where the water lay calmly.
It was night on Chyme, and thus everything was bathed in a moonlit glow, and the heavens were an eternal black; lit by the shining stars of the neighbouring planets.
Rani knelt down to the box, and swirled her fingers in the sea of the sky. She withdrew her fingers, and with the damp stardust drew a heart on the box. Then standing up, she bit her lip as a tear escaped her. She went back to stand next to Clyde, who put his arm around her.
Upon seeing she was crying he wrapped his other arm around her; encasing her in a hug, and kissed her on the cheek.
"Oh Clyde!" She sobbed, turning to him. "It's just so-. I can't believe that-."
"I know. I know." He hushed her.
Clyde squeezed Rani again, then let go of her to go stand by the waters edge. Their having spoke seemed to have broke the silence, for now the small group could clearly hear the lapping of the sea against the cliff edge.
Clyde stood there for a while, watching the box with a solemn expression on his young face.
He too, then knelt down by the water. Reaching out to put his palm upon the box he could feel that familiar jolt of arton energy. It was only his small amount of energy finding the dormant, and for a long time, unused, energy that lay within the.. no. He couldn't think like that... He couldn't think of... as a...
Clyde hung his head, then determined not to wallow in sorrow like his friends, he brought to life all his memories; which floated in the aether like bubbles; illuminating the night, and bringing smiles to his friends.
Gently taking his hand back, he felt uncried tears threatening to spill, and a lump in the back of his throat, causing him to choke on his breath.
He had always felt close to the elder lady, some might even say he loved her. But in all truth, she was like family to him.
And after all they'd been through, after all they'd survived, for her to be taken like this.
It just wasn't fair.
He went back to his place by Rani, who had a hand at the bottom of her throat as if trying to stop the heartache spreading to her mind.
Luke stood there all the while, silent; and with a frown on his face. He had resolved not to let this even happen in vain. He would stop this- stop the monster that so brutally slaughtered-.
Tears burned in his eyes, and he wiped them away with the edge of his neck-scarf, furious that he couldn't have somehow protected her.
This was foolish; he knew. But he wished it all the same.
The Doctor walked over to him, and put a tweeded arm around him, and fiddled with his bow-tie.
"Um." He muttered, mind racing. "This is the bit where I sat something remarkably clever and witty; that not only cheers you up but gives you hope for the future." The Doctor decided.
Luke looked at him; upset, worried and now confused.
"As of yet I haven't thought of anything adequate so I'll ask you this instead; so you want to go say 'Goodbye' now?" He gave Luke a comforting squeeze as he asked.
Luke shook his head, not trusting himself to speak.
"Aww, come now Luke." Encouraged Rani, walking around to Luke's other side, the ghost of her previous tears still shining in her eyes. "If you don't say something now, you'll regret it later, you know." She told him, gently
watching him, trying to comfort him.
Luke looked at Rani's pleasing face, and the Doctor's young, yet grave expression; then turned his gaze to where the box patiently lay.
If only she could have...
Dazed somewhat, and feeling incredibly foolish; for neither the box nor its owner could hear him, he tried to speak to it, to her, when it lay bobbing at his feet.
To him it appeared that his words were foolish, clumsy. None of his love, his admiration, none of his wanting her to come back was apparent in his hollow, lonely words.
He was aware the box was at his eyesight level, though was not aware of crouching down. He reached out a hand, but as fingertips traced the designs on the box; he found he no longer had any strength.
All pent-up anger and frustration that had haunted his bones since the nineteenth was gone. He was as empty as his hollow words.
Wearily, he stood up, and to the confused faces he met; he looked to the Doctor:
"I can't. I.. Doctor? You, you knew her best..."
The Doctor smiled sadly at this, both cheered and saddened.
But all the same, he nodded, and clapped Luke on the shoulder, before also, going to stand at the waters edge.
Time seemed to slow then, as he crouched in front of the box and folded his legs beneath him.
Sound too, seemed to dim.
All three teenagers felt it; an anticipation of a miracle; a ... something.
For many moments the Doctor just sat there, watching the horizon where the sea flooded out into space.
Then, bringing his mind back to the present, he turned his gaze to the mahogany casket in which his friend lay. He watched it with a fondness that only comes with a deep friendship; when secrets of the heart are not told, but seen, with eyes of the soul.
The Doctor's eyes sparkled, but he himself would disagree with this description, saying the only one whose eyes ever shone was laying cold, forever paused a the prime of her life-.
"I remember you." He declared, his words painting images of emotions the teenagers could only dream about.
"I remember you." He repeated, smiling. "That first time you snuck aboard the TARDIS; and the Sontarens, dinosaurs, the darleks... I remember you; wearing that andy-pandy outfit, you eating my jelly babies... You were always falling over; yet you always jumped right back up. You had spirit, Sarah Jane Smith; and those whose depart us in body never leave us in spirit, not if we hold onto them. And I plan to hold you in my heart till I too, abandon this hollow shell I am caged in, and shall join you in roaming the aether without constrictions."
The Doctor paused in his jumbled speech of the hearts-song, and sighed.
Oh- the loss of a friend hurt more than any wound, than any torture; than any regeneration.
Brushing his fingers over the patterns engraved in the side of the box, he only just noticed the detail.
She knew she was... wasn't going to live, and had planned this. It was already made come her... demise.
A ribbon of engraving was etched into the mahogany wood, and as it bobbed up and down upon the starry sea the Doctor saw vines, top and bottom, which flowered hearts and leaves; a TARDIS or two, depicted hurtling past planets and suns; K-9; and a woman in a wedding-dress holding hands with a man in a striped suit with glasses and a trench coat (with no detail or embellishing on the woman's face, yet the Doctor knew it was her all the same). As the Doctor leaned over the water, reading pictures showing various stages of her life; there were faces in the vines.
Four faces, constantly in the background; that the Doctor recognised as himself; his third, fourth, tenth and eleventh self.
Always in her thoughts, always a part of her life.
"Oh, my Sarah Jane." He murmured, only just realising what an effect he had had on her. On her entire life.
Craning his neck to see more of the etchings on the wood, that no doubt were also etched into her heart and soul, he saw a small carving; one he recognised for the deception of the tower in the background. It was a memory of the death zone, on Gallifrey. It shows Sarah Jane surrounded by five figures of the Doctor.
"For all I wish I could bring you back Sarah Jane, I cannot. Your time was far too early, for sure; but take comfort in this; the shadows that haunt our darkest nightmares will be a lot darker now without you, and indeed, Sarah Jane; we will never forget you; many of us cannot wait to join you." The Doctor murmured to the casket. His voice was low, and quiet, indeed he was speaking not for the three teens who, stood behind him, struggled to hear, but directly to his very best friend.
He glanced back at Luke, who nodded sadly, biting his lip.
The Doctor turned back to look at the sea, took a deep breath, and lowered his head one final time.
Then, with a fierce determination in his eyes; he looked up, and with all the energy and personality of regeneration ten, pushed the casket away from the edge, from where it was telepathically moored. The teenagers wandered over to the waters edge, watching as the coffin floated atop the sea, then as it too, flooded out into the heavens; travelling space of all eternity.
"Goodbye;" The Doctor announced, "My Sarah Jane Smith!"
...
When the coffin had long since vanished from view, the three children started to make their way back to the TARDIS.
"Doctor?" Asked Clyde, motioning for him to join them.
"Just a minute." He smiled.
Clyde nodded; understanding. Well, not really but...
The Doctor frowned, and watched that spot on the horizon where her casket has faded from his eyesight.
He sighed. What was happening with the world? His Sarah Jane had died?
No, no she could have... She was a strong woman, she wouldn't have let something so annoying human as cancer get her, would she?
He stood a little wander, and waited for Sarah to gingerly peek around the door of the TARDIS, and then swagger over, flinging her arms around his neck saying "Where next?"
The Doctor smiled, and touched her hands entwined around his collar bone.
They slipped through thin air.
The TARDIS door was closed.
He was alone.
Sarah Jane was gone.
In the cold darkness of the night, a single tear dropped into the sea of stars with a chime.
"Never forget me, Sarah. I know I'll never forget you..."