For the End of the World, a doctor who fanfic

Written for the Doctor Who femslash ficathon over at livejournal.

Title: The End of the World.
Pairing: Sally Sparrow/Lucy Saxon
Rating: PG-15
Spoilers: Until the end of season 4 specifically for Journey's End and Blink.
Summary: "My name is Sally Sparrow," she says. "And I have a message from the Doctor."

Sally first hears the name Lucy Saxon on a Tuesday evening on the 7 o'clock news. It's been a long day in the video store and she's tired so she turns on the telly in the kitchen while she makes some tea and tries to ignore they way her head is aching.

'Surprise Prime Ministerial Favourite, Harold Saxon, returning from New York with his wife, Lucy,' says the news, and Sally drums her fingers absently against her mug as she waits for the kettle to boil, and thinks about what a nice man Harold Saxon is.

She spends only a minute on the wife, admiring the red dress and styled blonde hair before Larry comes into the kitchen behind her. He wants to tell about the new film he's ordered for the shop, talking enthusiastically, and Sally slips her hand into his as she listens, her attention on the Prime Minister's wife entirely forgotten.

She's walking to work weeks later, staring determinedly at a statue of a gargoyle on her right, when she hears a woman saying in a Welsh accent, "The Doctor's gone, Jack, he can't help us control the rift anymore. And you can't blow up any aliens that come through just because they might be harmful."

Sally stops. A man and a woman are near her, weaving through the people that have gathered to hear a harassed-looking Government spokesman deny any official British involvement with the assassination of the American president.

"Then we've got to do things our own way, Gwen," the man argues in an American accent. "Otherwise we'll have more to deal with than the Master and Lucy Saxon holding the Doctor captive."

"What?" Sally demands, hurrying to catch up, but the man and woman have already vanished into the crowd.

She mentions it to Larry that night, when they're sitting on the couch watching a movie they've brought home from the shop, and Larry tenses and takes his arm from its place around her shoulders.

"I thought we were forgetting about all that," he mutters, without looking at her, and Sally blinks, surprised.

"But don't you think it's odd?" she asks. "Who do you think the Master is anyway?"

"I don't know." He's still not facing her, his mouth tight.

"Wasn't Lucy Saxon the Prime Minister's wife? Right before the Prime Minister himself disappeared? They've never managed to explain that. What if the Doctor had something to do with it? What it he was there?"

"So what if he was?" Larry says, and he turns to her now, his tone a mixture of unhappiness and firmness. "It doesn't matter. It's none of our business. Don't meddle, Sally."

He puts his arm back around her and pulls her close, turning back to the movie and ignoring her completely, and Sally bites her tongue and settles against him.

It's caught her interest though, so while Larry's working, Sally slips away to investigate. She starts on Google, searching anything to do with Lucy Saxon, and moves on to the library to check out newspaper articles and headlines.

She doesn't tell Larry. She doesn't think he'd approve.

She finds nothing useful, though, in all her searching. A sweet girl, the newspapers say. Pretty; trusting; taken in by Harold Saxon, who was clearly the brain behind the attack on the Earth. There's nothing that hints at anything out of the ordinary, nothing that helps Sally to find out what's been going on, and for some reason it make her feel like crying.

She's already given up a while later, when she gets unexpected inspiration. She's at home, working on the books for the shop, when she hears a familiar grinding noise coming from the other room. Sally's on her feet before she knows it, racing in just in time to see the TARDIS door swing open, and the Doctor step out of it, and she feels instantly grateful that Larry's not home, because he wouldn't like this, she knows.

"Doctor," Sally can't help gasping, her eyes wide as she looks at him, takes him in. He looks different to how she remembers; older now, and sadder, and Sally gets the impression that so much has happened since the last time she saw him.

"Sally Sparrow," he says, his voice solemn and his eyes sad. "You've been searching for Lucy Saxon." It isn't a question. Sally stares at him, unable to speak.

"I need you to tell her something," he says. "A message. It's important." Sally nods, her eyes still wide. "Tell her –," The Doctor pauses. "Tell her not to do it until she meets Osterhagen. And -," he adds, pausing again. "Tell her that – it's alright."

Sally's still lost for words, her mouth open, but when the Doctor begins to stride back towards the TARDIS, she gathers herself together.

"Wait," she calls, and the Doctor turns back. "Where's Martha?" she asks and the Doctor hesitates.

"She's gone," he says quickly. "They're all gone. But she's good. Great, in fact. Helped me save the world not long ago." He grins, teeth flashing, but his eyes are dark.

"So," Sally says, almost as quietly. "Does that mean you're alone?"

The Doctor sets his jaw. "They're all gone," he repeats, more loudly this time. "I couldn't stop that."

There's a moment of silence, and then the Doctor nods at her.

"Goodbye, Sally Sparrow," he says. "And thank you."

"Goodbye, Doctor," Sally says, and watches as he steps back onto the TARDIS. As it begins to fade out of sight, she goes back to the study, stares at her work, and then puts it away.

She's got an excuse now, a good one, so she ties up her hair and goes out to the house in the middle of London where the reports say that Lucy Saxon lives now. She's not sure what she's expecting, but she knocks on the door, her palms sweating for a reason she can't identify, and it swings open to reveal Lucy Saxon dressed in jeans and a casual top, her hair loose around her shoulders. Sally finds she can't speak.

"Yes," Lucy Saxon says, frowning slightly, and Sally clears her throat.

"My name is Sally Sparrow," she says, "and I have a message from the Doctor."

Lucy Saxon lets her in, and they sit on opposite sides of a long table in a spacious room.

"That's all?" Lucy asks. "Don't do it until I meet someone called Osterhagen? Don't do what?"

"I don't know," Sally says, and hates that she feels helpless and insignificant. "He didn't say."

Lucy looks at her sharply, and Sally tries to reconcile this image of her with the one she remembers seeing on the telly – sweet, caring, pretty; doting on the man Britain had fallen so suddenly and mysteriously in love with. "What was your name again?"

"Sally," Sally says again, feeling strangely shy. "Sally Sparrow."

"And how do you know the Doctor?" Lucy asks, and Sally hesitates.

"I saved his life," she says after a minute, trying to tell herself that that was all that had happened, that there was nothing else to it, and the smile Lucy gives her is sad, and knowing.

"Yes," she says quietly. "He saved my life too."

There's a silence for a moment, and then Sally stands up.

"Well," she says, trying not to feel awkward. "I'd better get going – dinner and all."

"Sally," Lucy says as Sally heads for the door, and Sally turns. Lucy looks different now; younger and more vulnerable, and terribly lonely. "Would you like to stay?"

Lucy's good company, Sally comes to discover, once they've gotten past the first, awkward stages. Lucy's nothing like Sally had expected her to be: an empty-headed blonde flirt, the kind of person who would marry Harold Saxon just for the material benefits. Instead, Lucy is clever – far cleverer than the press gave her credit for – and she's funny; witty and charming. She's lonely too, reaching out for Sally's friendship, and Sally responds, because she likes being around Lucy, likes spending time with her.

She often goes to Lucy's house to talk, to eat (Sally is a terrible cook, but Lucy excels), to watch telly. They meet for lunch sometimes, or for coffee at a cafe near the shop. She never invites Lucy to the flat. She hasn't lied to Larry, not exactly, but he doesn't know just who her friend Lucy is.

He never questions her but she catches him sometimes looking at her with a frown, and at night he sleeps wrapped tight around her in a way that makes Sally feel like she's suffocating, as if he's afraid that she won't be there in the morning.

"There are a lot of odd things happening lately," Lucy muses, as they stand outside, watching the Adipose floating up to the mothership.

"We could check them out," Sally suggests. "You know; girl investigators." There's a twinge as she remembers Kathy saying those exact words so long ago, and she ignores it, looping her arm through Lucy's and giggling.

"Really," Lucy says, turning to her with a look that makes Sally remember that she's almost ten years younger than Lucy, and not always as mature as she could be.

"I was joking," Sally says hastily, pulling her arm back from Lucy's. "I didn't mean it."

But then Lucy breaks into a smile. "OK," she says. "We'll check them out." She smiles at Sally, her eyes sparkling, and Sally suddenly feels glad in a way that has nothing to do with investigating. She can't help grinning back.

It's weeks later, while they're looking into a nursing home that turns out to have a lot to do with portals in time and space, and almost nothing to do with aliens, that they run into a man investigating the group of nuns in the home. Sally doesn't want to talk to him when he asks in accented English if they've discovered anything, but Lucy smiles at him in a way that makes Sally's stomach churn, and asks him to join forces with them. He takes both of them out for a drink afterward, and his eyes never leave Lucy.

"So what are your names, beautiful ladies?" he asks, and Lucy introduces them both because Sally isn't speaking. "Such pretty names," the man says, smiling. "My name is Matthias. Matthias Osterhagen."

The name makes Sally sit up, and she looks quickly at Lucy.

"Osterhagen?" Sally repeats loudly, and he turns to her.

"Yes," he says, still smiling. "It is not as pretty as your names, but…" he shrugs, turning back to Lucy.

Osterhagen, it turns out, is an important, influential businessman in Germany who has an interest in tracking down aliens. He's handsome, charming and flirtatious, and Sally hates him, just a little.

"What do you think?" Sally asks a few days later, sitting on Lucy's couch and accepting a cup of tea from her. "Because whatever 'it' is, you can do it now."

"I don't know," Lucy replies, setting down her mug and sighing. "I don't know what he meant."

"All we know is that it's connected to Osterhagen somehow," Sally says, and adds a little grumpily, "I suppose that means we'll have to see him again."

"Yes," Lucy says slowly, and then says without looking at her, "actually, he's invited me to a party tomorrow night."

Sally sits up straighter.

"A party?" she asks, trying to sound casual. "That's… nice of him."

"Mmm," Lucy agrees absently, picking up her mug and fiddling with it. "Do you think I should go?" She's got her eyes fixed on her tea, and Sally can't read her expression.

"Well, I suppose," she says. "I mean, if you want to."

Lucy nods, without speaking, and Sally bites her lip, awkward for the first time around Lucy since they first met.

"Lucy," she says, after a short silence. "What happened with your husband?"

She hasn't asked before, hasn't referred to the news, or the election, or the comment she'd heard the man make in the street that day. She'd intended to, at first, but she'd never found the right time, and she wanted Lucy's friendship besides, so she'd steered clear of the awkward question. Now, though, she suddenly finds that she wants answers, real ones.

"What happened on the Valiant?" she asks again.

"That's none of your business," Lucy says shortly, eyes cold, and Sally turns away, uncomfortably aware that she's broken some sort to trust between them.

"You'd better go," Lucy says after a moment. "I've got a lot to do." She takes Sally's half full mug of tea into the kitchen, and she doesn't look around as Sally quietly lets herself out.

She's surprised to get a call from Lucy the next night, while she's supposed to be at the party with Osterhagen.

"Where are you?" Sally asks, hearing voices and music in the background, the clink of someone's glass hitting another.

"Outside," Lucy's tone is dismissive. "Listen, I think I've had an idea. About what the Doctor meant, that is. Will you come over? Meet me at my house in half an hour?"

"What do you -," Sally begins but there's a loud cheer from the phone that cuts her off.

"I have to go," Lucy says. "I'll see you soon."

The door is open when Sally arrives just over thirty minutes later, and she walks in, calling Lucy's name.

"Oh," she hears from the bedroom. "I've just got home. I haven't even –," The bedroom door opens, and Lucy herself appears, fiddling with a bracelet.

Sally's jaw drops. Lucy is still dressed from the party, in a bright red dress, short, suggestive, curving in at the waist and out at the bottom where it meets her mid-thigh, the low neckline showing off her chest well. Red platform fuck-me heels and a chunky black necklace and bracelet complete the outfit, and dark eyeliner brings out her eyes in a way Sally hasn't noticed before. Her hair is done in soft curls, some of which are pinned up, the rest of them flowing smoothly down her back. The whole effect is amazing.

Sally can't stop her eyes from traveling the length of one long leg, up Lucy's body, pausing on the curves, and finally reaching her face. "What sort of party were you at?" she gasps, ignoring the way her face is heating up, and terribly conscious of her own faded jeans and casual tee-shirt.

"A costume party," Lucy replies, starting to smile. She twirls a little. "Do you like it?"

Sally swallows. "It's… nice," she manages, pleased that her voice doesn't quaver. Lucy's smile grows, and she turns to lead Sally into the sitting room. Sally can't quite help the way she watches Lucy's hips swing as she walks, and she forces her eyes upward.

"Well, I think I might know what the Doctor meant," Lucy says, picking up a plate of toast from the table, and biting into it. "I think -," she begins, but Sally interrupts.

"Where's Osterhagen?" she asks. "Didn't he want you to stay?"

"Yes," Lucy replies calmly. "But this is more important."

"Is he coming over later?" Sally persists, and Lucy gives her a look she can't interpret.

"No, he's not," she says, and Sally notices that her fingers are knotted together. "Would you help me let my hair out?" Lucy asks suddenly, and turns around without giving Sally the chance to refuse. Sally blinks, and then moves closer, sitting right behind Lucy.

Close up, Lucy smells like vanilla, and Sally leans in, letting the scent wash over her as she reaches up to Lucy's hair, taking out the pins and letting the curls fall, one by one, to settle neatly on her shoulders. Lucy's hair is soft against Sally's fingers, and Sally's licking her lips from nervousness when Lucy turns around suddenly, so they're face to face, and very, very close.

"Thanks," she says quietly, and Sally can't stop her eyes flicking down to Lucy's mouth, where the gloss is still making her lips shine.

"Lucy," she says hesitantly, and then she kisses her.

Lucy doesn't take long to respond, kissing back forcefully, her tongue slipping out into Sally's mouth, and it makes Sally smile against her lips. She slides one hand up Lucy's thigh, until she reaches the bottom of the dress, and then she gasps as she feels fingers under her tee-shirt. She can't quite believe that it's really happening, but then Lucy's fingers are underneath her bra, doing something wonderful, and Sally breaks away just long enough to pull off her top, before her lips collide again with Lucy's. This time her hand doesn't stop at the dress, instead sliding underneath and all the way up, until she can stroke her through her underwear, and Lucy gasps into Sally's mouth, just a little bit.

She helps Lucy out of the dress, taking advantage of the flesh left exposed, and Lucy reaches down to pull off the heels.

"No," Sally says, and she's surprised at the lust in her voice. "Leave them on." She grins, and Lucy grins back, and then she takes Sally's hand and leads her, haltingly, to the bedroom.

The toast ends up going cold.

Lucy's not there when Sally wakes up the next morning. There are four missed calls from Larry on her phone, and she calls him at the shop to tell him that Lucy needed her last night, and she was obliged to stay. Larry doesn't sound happy, but he accepts her excuse, and Sally ignores the feeling off guilt settling in her stomach.

Lucy's curled up on the window seat in the sitting room, and Sally sits down next to her quietly. Lucy turns to her with a smile and it makes Sally forget again about Larry.

"Morning," Lucy murmurs, brushing her lips over Sally's, as Sally's eyes slip shut. "Sally. I've got something I should tell you."

Sally opens her eyes again and sits back. "Something about the Doctor?" she asks, and Lucy nods, but hesitantly.

"It's about the time my husband and I nearly brought about the end of the world."

She tells Sally everything then, and Sally has to work hard to disguise her horror. They sit in silence for a moment after Lucy finishes, and then Sally asks, very quietly, "Did I die? In the year that never happened, was I dead?"

Lucy doesn't look at her as she says, "I don't know. Probably." There's a pause, and then she adds, so quietly that Sally almost doesn't hear her, 'I'm sorry."

Sally nods. "I'd better go and – and get my things together," she says, getting up to leave, and Lucy turns sharply.

"Sally, wait," she says. "There's more."

"Harry had warships all over the planet that he could use to blow up the Earth if he chose. He had them before the election, hidden, and after – after the year disappeared they were still there, hidden all over the planet. If someone knew they were there, if someone wanted to – they could destroy the Earth." She swallows. "I've been thinking that I have to do something about them. But I have no influence; no one who would believe me. But Matthias Osterhagen does."

Sally stares at her.

"That's what the Doctor meant? But why now? Why couldn't we do it before? Why did we have to wait for him?"

"I don't know," Lucy says. "But Sally, I think this is it."

There's a pause and then Sally says, "Why don't you invite him over? We'll talk to him together." She brushes her fingers briefly against Lucy's, and then turns to leave.

She doesn't see the way Lucy's eyes light up as their hands touch.

Osterhagen turns up just an hour later. He looks a little disappointed to see Sally there, but his smile remains firmly in place as they sit down at the long table together.

"We have a business proposal for you, Mr Osterhagen," Sally says, and looks at Lucy to continue. Lucy, though, seems lost for words, so Sally says, "We happen to know about some – things – that would be safer elsewhere."

Osterhagen frowns. "You had better explain," he says.

Sally explains as well as she can, leaving out a forgotten year and a 900 year old alien, and by the time she's finished, his eyes are glittering.

"Bombs that could destroy the world," he murmurs, almost to himself. "I could sell that."

"No!" Lucy is finally horrified into speaking. "No, you're supposed to get rid of them." Osterhagen doesn't look convinced, and Lucy picks up his hand. "Please Matthias," she says. "They're dangerous. You can get them removed, I know you can."

He looks down at her hand on his and shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Lucy," he says. "But think what I could do with this. Everyone's afraid now; a last-resort plan will go down well." He chuckles. "And make me very rich at the same time."

He stands. "Thank you very much, ladies," he says, and Lucy and Sally exchange desperate looks as he heads for the door.

"You can't!" Sally bursts out. "You can't do this!"

Osterhagen turns back, and his smile is finally gone, his eyes cold. "I think you'll find I can," he says. "Goodbye."

And then he's gone, leaving the two of them alone. Lucy grabs Sally's hand, tight, and Sally's surprised to see that she's crying.

"I'm sorry," Lucy says, and she repeats it over and over. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Sally pulls her into her arms.

"I know," she says quietly, and wipes away Lucy's tears with her thumb. "It's alright, Lucy. It's alright."

"They say the stars are going out," Lucy says one night, months later. They're sitting in Lucy's bed – Sally's too now, since she moved in after ending things with Larry. Sally stares out the window into the night sky, and she shivers as she imagines the darkness complete. Lucy wraps an arm around her and presses her lips quickly to Sally's. "Don't worry," she says. "I'll look after you."

There are planets in the sky.

Lucy and Sally sit together in the window seat, staring out at the unfamiliar sights, hearing the screams around them.

"This is it, isn't it?" Sally asks, and Lucy nods.

"I think so," she says softly, holding tight to Sally's hand, an arm wrapped close around her.

"Lucy," Sally says, tears welling in her eyes, and her voice unsteady. "I love you."

Lucy kisses her fiercely, leaving her breathless by the time she pulls back. "I love you too, Sally Sparrow."

There are planets in the sky, explosions, bursts of colour, and blasts of light.

They sit close together, and wait for the world to end.