Welcome readers! So this is the first of several stories which will continue the Gifted Series. This story will be following Sarah Jane Smith, who has psychic powers, from her time at university to the moments before she met the Doctor. Previous reading of Gifted is not required to understand this story, but is still highly recommended. Also, because this goes into detail on 60s and 70s subculture and politics, as well as on the supernatural, there will be some strong thematic material, language, and violence at certain points, but I will try to tone it done to keep the story appropriate while also sticking to the complex style which was such a strong part of the original show.

Disclaimer: I don't own either Doctor Who or the Sarah Jane Adventures

Prologue: The First Premonition: April 1952

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

And Mourners to and fro

Kept threading- threading- till it seemed

That sense was breaking through-

And when they were all seated,

A service, like a Drum-

Kept beating- beating- till I thought

My mind was going numb-

-Emily Dickinson, "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain"

In this world, it was impossible to label anyone as ordinary, and yet it was very easy to blend into a background. Many people had brilliant talents, and were able to use them by creating unforgettable stories, innovative inventions, or the finest art, while others did it by coming up with an insightful philosophical idea, becoming a powerful political or business figure, or making a groundbreaking discovery in the sciences.

However, the majority of people remained hidden amongst crowds of others who were just trying to make it through their lives without facing trouble. For many in this world, it was better to avoid standing out, because they were afraid of what could get in the way.

For Jane Harris, who had been creating paintings and drawings of various subject matter throughout her life, it was slightly different. From the moment she was a child, the most unbelievable of visions were always running through her mind. She could sense the darkest emotions and the most horrific incidents, but also rather ordinary things, like awkward inner jokes and unexpected company. No matter how hard she tried to blend into that ideal picture of how people expected her to be, it was just impossible when she was able to see the exact images they had in mind.

As of now, she was doing what many women of her age would be expected her to do: sitting in a rocking chair in the sitting room and holding her one-year-old granddaughter Sarah Jane Smith, while trying to read to her from her old, worn- out copy of Anderson's Fairy Tales which she'd owned since she was a child. Her oldest granddaughter, Rebecca, was upstairs in her room, playing with her dolls. Within two hours, Jane was expecting her son-in-law's sister, Lavinia, to come over with news about how Barbara, her only daughter, was after giving birth to her third child. Her son-in-law, Edward, refused to leave his wife's side, since he always feared for the worst. He insisted that if anything was to go wrong with the pregnancy, he wanted to right there beside Barbara to make it less emotionally painful for her.

"He's so much like me in some ways," Jane said to herself. "Always fearful of what obstacles fate might have in store for us, and willing to go so far to protect those he loves. Unfortunately, he's always been more vulnerable than Barbara. She's willing to face any bad incident with her head held high and her hope still in place, as is Lavinia. But Eddie tends to fall more easily. If he was anything like me, I'm afraid it could have killed him."

All of sudden, she heard the wailing of Sarah Jane. Just a while ago, she'd had her face quietly turned towards her grandmother's eyes, and now, she looked as if something had frightened her, as it sometimes occurred when she heard an automobile roaring by the house, or the howling of a dog at night. However, after a year of closely observing her, Jane knew that what was scaring her could not be found anywhere near the house.

"Sarah Jane, my dear girl," she said gently. "Just what is the matter?"

And, perhaps in response, she starting hearing the rapid beating of a heart, followed by the sound of groaning. It started out rather steady and slow, but within only a few seconds, the beating sounded more like that coming from a drum than that of the most vital organ in the human body. The louder it got, the louder became the cries of her granddaughter, to the point where her face turned as pale as a ghost, and her eyes remained fixed towards the ceiling. Jane herself soon had one hand covering her face, hoping that the terrible sound would soon drown out, but as she feared, it would not go away, getting more frightening as time went on.

Jane had experienced this sensation before many times in her life. The first time, she had been nine years old and on a train ride around Yorkshire. She'd started screaming so loudly that she and her mother ended up being escorted out by one of the servers who'd been eyeing them suspiciously from the moment they'd set foot inside the train. Her mother was both terrified and furious about Jane's behavior, and had slapped her across the cheek in an attempt to bring her back to her senses. Two days after finding an inn to stay in, they'd received a telegram saying that her father and younger brother had been killed outside of a tavern around the time in which they'd been on the train. After this incident, besides all the difficulties they faced in their lives, Jane's mother always seemed to regard her with fear, as if she believed there was something menacing about the things her daughter could do.

The second time had been when she was in her teens, shortly before the start of the First World War. She had been alone when it occurred, walking through a field where the horrific screams she heard intermingled with the tranquil melodies of the robins and the soft blow of the breeze. She ran home in horror after it became too much, and three days later, the announcement of the assassination of the archduke of Austria- Hungary was in the papers.

There were several other incidents since then, especially following the two wars and the deaths of many family members and friends. Such premonitions were often the worst thing Jane experienced, though. Other times, it simply involved hearing neighbors criticizing their coworkers or members of their gardening club through their thoughts, or guessing what trouble Eddie had faced in his store earlier in the day. Quite petty incidents, if you asked her.

But there had been a number of people who found out about the major incidents. Some were family members who learned to tolerate her abilities without full acceptance, as had her mother and her younger sister, Louise, who had been four years old when their father and brother died (she'd stayed with an aunt in London at the time of their deaths) and who ended up marrying a Canadian professor at the age of twenty, going on to living a comfortable life in Toronto and not having visited or spoken to Jane since the death of their mother twenty years before.

Others, however, were not so kind as to simply avoid her. These individuals saw her powers as something which was both sinister and profitable, and as a result, had taken advantage of Jane in ways she could never foresee. First, it had been Peter Fleming, who had left small gifts at her doorstep and accompanied her on walks and trips when she was eighteen, only to later release a report on her in an underground periodical called Beyond Science, openly admitting his deed to her and telling her, "If you were more open about your special talents, Jane, then you would probably become a rich woman someday."

The most awful of all had been George Stewart, a wealthy officer in the army who had met her when she was displaying one of her paintings at an art fair two three years after the incident with Fleming. He'd told her that he was a friend of her uncle's, giving him the chance to have her completely confide in him regarding everything that her family knew about her powers. Then, two nights later, she found herself waking up in a laboratory located at a military headquarters, finding Stewart regarding her with a sinister smile. He then revealed that his mission had been to use her for experiments which would be very useful to the government, as well as to have her sterilized once they were done with her, because they didn't want more "degenerates" as herself to bring trouble to the world.

However, she had been able to escape, going on to lead a stable life with her husband Henry, who was a bookkeeper for a law firm, and having Barbara. In addition, she continued to sell some of her paintings, was a regular church attendant, and had played a major part in helping out within her community. She'd defied so many of the forces which conspired to bring her down that she considered the way she was living now to be a major accomplishment. In addition to that, Barbara managed to be born without powers and had a happy childhood, and although she was now married to a struggling businessman, all the help she gave him would certainly allow them to move forward at some point.

But then there came the birth of Sarah Jane, who seemed to inherit not only her grandmother's name, but also that knowing expression in her eyes when something was about to go wrong, and the ability to sense something which often seemed to make her cry out for what appeared to be no reason to her parents. As far as they knew, she was just a normal baby who sometimes…

Jane was brought back to her surroundings by the sound of the phone ringing. Sarah Jane let out one last piercing cry before falling silent, with the look of fear in her eyes refusing to go away.

"Hold still, dear," Jane told her reassuringly. "It's your Aunt Lavinia. She must have good news about Mummy and the baby." That last part was far from the truth as Jane was sensing it, but there was a part of her that was convinced that if she sincerely believed that all had gone well for Barbara, that it just might turn out to be the truth.

And so she picked up the phone and said, "Hello? Is that you, Lavinia?"

She could hear the woman's heavy breathing, knowing that she was struggling to find the right words to explain what had just happened. Finally, she managed to say through a shaking voice, "Jane, it… it's very bad. The baby's in good condition, but… but Barbara… she…"

"What is it, Lavinia? I need to know how she is," Jane demanded, her anxiety increasing once again.

"She didn't make it, Jane. There were several complications with her during delivery, and she died not long after the baby was born," Lavinia finally managed to say.

And then, everything seemed to freeze. Once again, she'd sensed the death of one of her family members, and turned out to be none other than the daughter she'd almost thought she'd never be able to have, for whom she'd done so much to help get her to the point which she had now been in. Only it hadn't just been Jane who'd sensed death this time. Her baby granddaughter had been able to sense the death of her own mother just moments before she did, and without a doubt, she had been appeared just as frightened, if not more, than Jane herself had been when she was riding on that train at the age of nine.

What would this mean for Sarah Jane? In addition to having inherited her grandmother's powers, she was now going to grow up motherless and with a father who had to frequently deal with financial instability and depression. Jane had at least been able to have her father, who had seemed more supportive of her than her mother had been, at the start of her childhood. What could happen to a psychic child who had to live under such circumstances from the moment she was an infant?

"How's Edward?" Jane asked, knowing that she couldn't avoid confronting the present situation for long.

"He's acting hysterical," Lavinia replied. "You know he's never been able to cope well with such emotionally distressful situations. One of the nurses is trying to look after him right now, talking to him and offering something to drink. I honestly don't know if he'll ever be able to move on from Barbara's death, Jane. He has three young daughters to look after, and there's only so much I could do for them right now."

"I'll look after them," Jane said. "I've already done so much for Sarah Jane that I'll be willing to dedicate my time to looking after the other two as well. How is the baby, by the way?"

"It's a girl, and her name is Lucille Grace, just as Barbara said she wanted. She has the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen, and all is well with her health. She might be brought home within four days."

"That's good," Jane said reassuringly. "I don't know what the future will have in store for her or her sisters, but we must never give up on them, Lavinia. We're family, so we must be willing to support them during the best and worst of times."

"I couldn't agree with you more, Jane. But promise me something right now."

"What is it?"

"As the girls get older, don't ever tell them too much about these strange things you're able to do. Children are so prone to believing in crazy concepts that you can't guess what ideas they might get about you. And you know perfectly well how intolerant some people can about this."

Jane looked at Sarah Jane, who remained quiet, yet still looked scared. She'd already been able to form a connection of the mind with her, and she knew that once such a thing was formed, there was no way she could ever break it. It might deeply bother Lavinia, who was always looking towards logical explanations for such matters, and perhaps even Eddie as well, but Sarah Jane needed that connection with her. Otherwise, who knew what she might be forced to confront alone later on.

"I'm sorry, Lavinia, but I can't make promises I can't keep," Jane responded with assurance.

And that settled it.

Next, the story will be picking up in 1969, when Sarah Jane is about to start on her first year at university. We'll see how the lives of the Smiths had been over the past fifteen years, and whether there's any signs that something unusual is going on in the small town and university where Sarah Jane will be staying for the next four years.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this!