Author's Note: In memory of Elisabeth Sladen.
Sky Smith sat in her room, the blankets on her bed askew. She didn't have the heart to straighten them. Sky quietly wrote another draft of the announcement. Thirty words. It was never enough. Never. This was the one thing that she never wanted to write. How could you sum someone up in thirty words? Someone so wonderful, so inspiring and so unbelievably brilliant. Sky blinked back tears. She thought that by now, she would have run out of them, but then Luke explained that humans and probably all creatures with eyes like theirs made tears all of the time, so she would never run out.
She heard the room's door creak open and the sound of Luke entering. Brushing a stray lock of her curly hair behind her ear, she turned to face him. In his hands was a tray with two mugs of steaming tea. In the last twenty-four hours, Sky had learned another lesson – that people's eyes went red and puffy when they cried. Luke's eyes were like that right now.
"How are you getting on?" he asked her quietly, setting the tray down on her bedside table.
She avoided his question with one of her own. "Why were you away so long?"
Luke faltered, sitting down on the edge of her bed with a soft thump. He stared at the floor, wrapping his arms around himself in a one-sided hug. "I... that's the first time I've... made tea without making one for Mum." On the final word, a single lonely tear flowed down his cheek unchecked. He reached a shaking hand over to a mug of tea, bringing it to his lips and taking the smallest sip possible.
Sky, trying to be as polite as she could be, got up from the far end of the bed to fetch her own mug and sat down beside Luke. She took a small sip, putting a comforting arm around Luke's shoulders as she did so. She rubbed his arm like she had seen Sarah Jane do many times before. He finally lifted his head and smiled weakly at her. They sat in silence for a few long moments, taking occasional sips of their tea, lost in their own memories. Then Sky spoke up.
"I can't get the words right."
Luke didn't need an explanation to know what she was talking about. He looked at the floor again. He had left Sky with the task of writing the announcement because he simply couldn't bring himself to do it. "Do you want me to help you?" he offered, managing to keep the reluctance out of his voice.
Sky nodded and handed him the notebook that she'd been writing in. There were five paragraphs, each one a new attempt at weaving words in a way that was both sad and celebratory at the same time.
Before Luke could comment, there was a knock at the door. Luke really didn't want to face anyone right now, and he was sure he would burst into tears if his Mum's name was mentioned. He watched Sky as she smiled reassuringly at him and got up from her bed, placing her half-empty mug of tea of the tray. "I'll tell them to go away," she told him as she walked from the room.
The Doctor landed in the garden beside Sarah Jane Smith's house. He was continuing on his farewell tour, and Bannerman Road was his next stop. Shrugging on his green trench coat, he walked calmly out of the TARDIS.
It was autumn, he knew instantly from the colour of the trees. Their orange leaves littered the gravel footpath the led to the front of the huge house. The Doctor followed the path, going through the gate with a grin on his face. Knowing what he was going to face in less than a week, he was surprised that he could still smile. But the thought of seeing Sarah Jane always made him smile. She was brilliant.
Reaching the front door, he knocked a few times. His hands fiddled a little, probably because he was just a tad excited. Expecting a woman in her sixties to be answering the door, the Doctor was very surprised when a little girl that could be no more than twelve answered his knock. "Oh. Hello," he said, still smiling. "Is Sarah Jane in or have I got the wrong house?" He wouldn't be surprised if he had – he didn't recognise the girl for a start.
At the sound of Sarah Jane's name, the girl visibly tensed. She kept one hand on the door, probably so she could slam it in his face if needed. He was mildly surprised when she didn't.
"Sarah Jane's not in," she said. Now the Doctor noticed the girl's eyes. She looked like she'd been crying.
"When will she be in?" the Doctor asked, hands slipping to his sides. He didn't like the look the girl gave him one bit. He guessed what she was going to say before she said it.
"She passed away. Last night." As if realising she hadn't asked something important, she gave him a questioning look. "Who are you?"
No. No... Not Sarah Jane. His Sarah Jane. The thought of her dying hurt more than anything. The Doctor wanted to run, run so far. He didn't burst into tears, no, but he was sure that his eyes gave away his true feelings. They always did. He wanted to run away from the grief that was beginning to consume him. His shoulders slumped and he turned away, his back to the girl. He decided not to answer her question right away. "What happened?"
"Cancer," the girl said. "She hid it from us until two weeks ago. Then it was too late." The sadness was evident in her voice. "Why am I telling you this? Who are you?"
Cancer. The most human of ailments. Sarah Jane had survived so many trips to alien worlds, but in the end what took her was something so painfully human. The Doctor was reminded once again in the harshest of ways that his friends were fragile. Too fragile. The Doctor turned on his heel, whirling around to face her without his usual flair. "I'm the Doctor."
"Sarah Jane's friend, the Doctor?" The girl's hand left the door. She had obviously decided that slamming the door in his face wasn't so high on her list of priorities any more.
"Yes," the Doctor replied quietly, too consumed in his newfound grief to be paying all that much attention to her.
"Sky!" Luke shouted as he walked down the stairs. "Are you..." Reaching the bottom, Luke trailed off, placing a hand on Sky's shoulder as he looked at the man standing there. His eyes were far away, Luke could tell, as the man was looking in his general direction, but not looking at the same time. He had come down the stairs because Sky had been taking an awful long time to turn the visitor away. "Who are you?" he asked the man.
Sky spoke up just as the man's focus landed on Luke. "This is Sarah Jane's friend that she was always talking about: the Doctor."
Of course it was. No one could have eyes that old and a face that young. Luke had heard the story of the Doctor's fake funeral, and how he looked different. 'Lanky with floppy hair' was Rani's rather helpful description. Clyde's matched it almost word-for-word, except he added 'bow tie'. The man standing in front of him now definitely matched that.
"Hello, Luke," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry." His voice was quiet, and looked like he was on the verge of tears.
The Doctor had come. Luke wasn't sure he would turn up so soon after his Mum's death. Mum was always talking about how he usually had bad timing. Was he on time for once? "Did you come to help us make the funeral arrangements?"
The Doctor didn't answer him directly. "I owe it to you and Sarah Jane to stay for as long as you need me. Even longer. I will help, Luke and Sky, I will."
"You better come in, then," Luke said. Both Sky and Luke stepped aside. Once inside, the Doctor turned in the direction of the kitchen but Luke pointed to the stairs. "Sky's bedroom is where we're brainstorming." The Doctor nodded and followed Luke and Sky up the stairs.
The house was too big, too empty. Sarah Jane wasn't here, and that just made it wrong. This whole situation was wrong. The Doctor was in Sky's bedroom, on a chair facing the two younger ones sitting side-by-side on the messy bed. "Where are Clyde and Rani?" he asked.
"They know, Doctor," Luke replied, weary beyond his years, "but they found out very late last night. They'll probably be over later."
The Doctor didn't have the heart to tell the two adopted children of Sarah Jane what had really happened to have the Doctor on their doorstep today. One of the final stops on his farewell tour. Sarah Jane Smith, Craig and then the Alignment of Exidor. He was hoping to see Sarah Jane one last time, but the universe isn't that kind. Not to him. He missed her by less than twenty-four hours. There was no time for goodbye.
The Doctor was sure that if he had the chance to say goodbye to Sarah Jane, she would know something was wrong. She had something of a sixth sense when it came to these things. She knew him too well.
The notebook was now in the Doctor's hands. Thirty words. Thirty words to describe the single most amazing person in the universe – and that wasn't an exaggeration. Not by a long shot. Luke and Sky watched on in silence as the Doctor put pen to paper.
Sarah Jane Smith. The best of humanity.
He didn't need thirty words.
A/N: I wrote this after watching the last ever episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures, which brought a tear to my eye. I know a lot of people have made stories like this one, but I had to have a go myself. Thank you, Lis.