(Author's Note: I thought, after watching the massive 12-part episode, that these three would be the sort of afterlife-best-friends, sharing their stories about the Doctor and still waiting around for him, just in case he decided to drop by. I also thought that they deserved a bit of a happy ending, too, so this happened. If you want a visual for the setting, I imagine it looks somewhat like the crossroads in Kingdom Hearts when Sora's wandering around. None of this is mine, but enjoy!)

Sara Kingdom wonders, for a moment, if this is death.

And then she remembers everything. She remembers the burning heat of the desert and her skin just melting away. She remembers the pain.

Pain, a long silence, and then this.

Whatever this is.

She blinks rapidly and opens her eyes, waking and feeling as if she'd only been asleep for a very, very long time. She takes a deep breath and lets it out again, staying still and feeling her lungs fill and then empty themselves again regularly. In, out. In, and out.

The sky is dark above her, scattered with pinpricks of stars, and Sara sits up in the dark. Though she shouldn't be able to see her hand in front of her own face, the starlight is bright enough above her to leave the world around her in only a shadow of darkness. Calm, she thinks. Serene.

She sits up and brushes her hair from her face, feeling the grass bend under her palms as she uses her arms to prop herself up. She doesn't know where this is, but it isn't Earth. The starlight is above her and it reaches to the line of the horizon on either side, the ground sculpted into gently sloping hills before that seem to stretch for miles and miles, the grass tall and waving lightly in a breeze that she can't seem to feel.

Sara Kingdom remembers dying.

"I'm dead," she says out loud, as if only to assure herself of that fact, and she watches a shadow only some feet away walk until it's at her side. A hand is offered to her, to help her up from her place on the ground.

"Sara?"

She looks up, and meets the welcoming gaze of someone she'd never expect to see.

"Bret!"

She's too shocked, at first, to take his hand, so he takes hers and lifts her up to stand beside him. Sara looks at him, in a loose top and pants, both dark blue, and without any shoes. The breeze picks up and she feels it this time, her hair blowing out behind her, and the dress she now realizes that she's wearing.

She is dressed all in white, in a gown of cotton and some other flowing fabric she can't place right now. Her head feels like it's full of cotton, but the haziness is beginning to clear, now.

"Where are we?" she asks him, even though she already knows the answer.

"I've been here for awhile," Bret tells her. "And now you're here. So you must be dead."

"Yes," Sara answers slowly, nodding. "I think so." She remembers everything before in a suddenly clear blur, and she manages a small smile without looking him in the eyes. It's rather awkward.

"I shot you," she remembers, and steps back from him. "I'm sorry."

"The way I see it," Bret tells her, "is that I can either be bitter about it, or I can forgive you. And there's no sense in playing some hate game when it looks like we'll be here for quite awhile."

She looks up sharply. "You're just going to let it go, like that?" She's almost offended that he'll forget about it so easily.

He shrugs. "You forget that I worked for the same people. Before the Doctor, were I in your shoes, I might have done the same thing. It's alright, Sara. I forgive you."

Lightly, he takes her hands in his, and kisses her forehead. "I will always forgive you, little sister."

She feels his arms around her and hugs him back as tightly as she can. Sara doesn't know how long they hold the embrace, but it feels so good to let everything go, to be forgiven, that she doesn't care. When they finally separate, he still clings to one of her hands, as if they were children again, not wanting to lose one another in a crowd.

"This looks like it goes on for miles," she observes, turning in a circle to see the grassy hills span before them in every direction. Bret squeezes her hand.

"It does," he confirms. "But the stars stay in their places if you travel, I've noticed, so there's some sort of worldly shape to this. It's not endless expansion, I suppose it just seems like that. There were a few trees I'd passed on this way."

"Oh."

"And we could go explore it if you'd like."

She grins like a little girl during the holidays, takes his hand, and takes off running with him, laughing. The grass bends under her bare feet, the ground soft under her toes, and they run until they're out of breath and have to stop.

"How far did we go?" she asks, breathlessly, and stands to check around them. There's a tree some feet to her right, and Bret shrugs.

"Could be anywhere," he admits. "But we've got the rest of this to explore, and so much time to do so."

Sara looks at the tree, coated in starlight and standing alone in the grass. As she walks towards it, she notices a figure below, resting against the trunk.

"There's a girl there," she says, pointing, and Bret looks confused.

"I didn't meet anyone else before I found you," he admits. "I've never seen her before."

They get closer and get a good look at the girl, her dark hair a black in the darkness, and her robe-like garments in shades of lilac and lavender. The girl blinks, and sits up. When she notices the pair watching her, she gasps, frightened.

"It's alright," Sara assures her. "We're...friends, I suppose. How did you get here?"

She blinks, studying their faces. "I thought I was the only one here."

"So did we," Bret tells her.

She thinks hard for a moment, shaking her head. "I was killed," the girl admits. "Were you as well?"

Sara nods, and the girl sighs.

"So this is the afterlife?"

Sara's not so sure what to call this, but it's as good of a guess as anything else. "I suppose."

"I guessed so," the girl says. "My name is Katarina."

"Bret Vyon," he introduces himself, and helps Katarina to her feet. "And this is my sister, Sara."

"So, we're dead," Katarina sighs. "Now what?"

Sara looks around them, breathes deeply, and looks around at the expansion around them. "There's all of this to explore, and I don't want you to get lost finding your own way around. You can come with us," she offers, taking her hand and running off across the grass. Katarina keeps up surprisingly well, and Bret reacts a few seconds too late.

"Sara!" he calls after the girls. "Where are you going?"
"Anywhere!" she laughs, tugging the handmaiden along beside her. "And I'll bet you can't keep up!"

He sprints after them, the three running and running until they can't, and collapse on the ground in laughter, rolling in the grass like children.

"That was amazing," Katarina giggles, rolling onto her stomach. Two trees rest on either side of the space the three lie in, the stars spilling across the sky above. They talk of the Doctor, and their brief travels with him, and then there's silence between the three for a moment. Katarina looks at the stars curiously, and watches them with a sad smile.

"They're so bright, and...and beautiful."

Sara crawls to lie beside her. "I can tell you about the ones that I've been to," she offers, Bret coming to lie on her right, and Katarina looks almost surprised.

"Really?"

Sara laughs. "Sure."

The handmaiden considers it, and then nods. "I...I would like that."
"Alright. Then, I'll tell you about the stars I know, and we can make up things about the ones I don't know," Sara tells her, and the girl's shock only rises as she looks at the sky.

"But there's so many!" Katarina says, unsure. "Every single star?"
"Oh, I think that we've got plenty of time ahead of us," Bret assures her. "So, yes. Every single star."

Between them, Sara smiles. "We'll watch the stars, then, and if that blue police box goes drifting among them, then we'll be the very first ones to know."

And so they talk and dream of the stars, and wait. They wait for the Doctor, just in case he comes back.

Just in case.