For those of you who had read previously, I've shifted the focus over slightly to Sarah Jane and the Doctor's relationship, but the other characters will still feature, and this is now the first chapter because I was just writing it for no reason and I realised that it fit perfectly before the last chapter, so I decided to put it in
A perfectly ordinary street. That's all it was, a street. He would admit, he was disappointed. But, wait! Something hummed in his pocket. He patted down his coat to try and find the right one, eventually feeling the slight vibrations. He delved in and threw out all the junk; pens papers, chocolate bars and jelly babies. He looked at the bag of jelly babies for a sec and grinned pocketing them again. They'd given him the same smile when he bought them last week.
It had been an impulse. He had been wandering down a perfectly innocent street when he came across a sweet shop. It wouldn't hurt him to go in for a sec, just to look around. It was the same sweet shop he had come in during his fourth regeneration to buy jelly babies. So naturally he had to buy some. And some fudge, but that was just because he liked fudge. But then a Velociraptor came rampaging down the street and he got side-tracked.
So he was standing in the middle of a suburban street with no fudge, dinosaur bites, jelly babies and a humming thing that he couldn't find. Eventually, after many moment of displacing junk (including a mobile phone, several toy mice and a medieval gold goblet.) until he pulled out a little red sphere, slowly changing colour to purple and then to blue. He pressed a button in the centre and it fell in half, revealing what looked like a highly detailed radar system.
There were thousands of tiny dots on the screen, but a huge blob, further down the road. She tapped it, to make sure it wasn't malfunctioning and wiped the screen, he was sure there couldn't be an energy spike that high.
"Damn energy detector thing," He muttered angrily and then laughed, "I need to think of a better name." He started to walk towards the vague direction of the blot on the screen, turning into a driveway and knocking on the door seemed to be coming from behind.
"Electrician!" He yelled. There was no sign of movement from inside. He banged harder and yelled louder. "Electrician!" He pressed his ear to the door, but still couldn't hear anything.
He looked down at the radar and pulled his sonic screwdriver out of a pocket. He aimed it at the door and with a click it swung open. "Hello?" he called in to the empty house. "Electrician, jest doing a check of the area…" He looked in the kitchen and it seemed like any other kitchen. It disappointed him really, no Frankenstein experiments or alien computers.
The room was boiling, so he pulled off his jacket and laid it just out of sight on the sofa, taking out his precious sonic screwdriver and put it in the front pocket. It put out a slight, comforting warmth in the strange, empty house.
He walked upstairs, "The door was open, I just thought I'd look around." He had a quick look upstairs, but could tell he was still far away from the energy spike, it seemed to be coming from above him.
He climbed up the next set of stairs in to an small, cluttered attic. It seemed perfectly ordinary. There was a sofa and books that lined one wall. Yet, the reading was perfectly clear; this was where the energy spike was coming from.
He tapped the device again. It flickered for a second but still read the same. The Doctor sighed, "I guess it is just an ordinary street." He sighed and went to put his hands in his pockets, despite the fact that his jacket was downstairs and he was holding a clucky device in one hand.
He turned to the door, but something stopped him. His spare hand twitched and pulled up to the sonic screwdriver in his pocket. It wouldn't take long to just do one sweep of the room for hidden devices.
He put the energy device down on the sofa and picked a random point in the room, close to the fireplace. It didn't take long until the wailing noise coming out of the little blue and silver device changed pitch, becoming higher and more rapid. He twisted the setting and the sound oscillated from high to low and he bent down to the floor, running it against the edge of the fireplace.
Surprise knocked him of his feet into a sitting position as the fireplace swung open like two doors. Steam flew out and the pressure being released blew his light brown hair back. His eyes closed on instinct and when he opened them, a computer was there, hidden in the wall.
He grinned and ran his hand over the front panel underneath the screen. "A Xylok computer!" He cried happily. "You are beautiful." The screen was blank, instead of the fluctuating crystalline structure he knew should be there. "Not turned on yet," he muttered, "Probably for the best." He ran his hands over the few buttons on the mainly voice activated sentient machine.
Suddenly, a picture appeared on the screen, fuzzy at first, but growing clear and the crystal shape stated to move. "State your species and purpose." It said in a calm, male voice.
"Ah," He stood up erect in front of the computer. "well," He put a hand up to rub the back of his head.
"State your species and purpose." The computer said again, and what looked like a small cannon appeared out of the side. He backed away and fell onto the sofa. It was then that he heard a footstep on the stairs.
Sarah Jane walked up the driveway with her son and her three young friends. The three fourteen year olds laughed at a joke that she wasn't listening to. She grabbed the doorknob to unlock it, but with the little force she put in, the door swung open a little was, exposing the hallway.
She looked back at Maria, Clyde and Luke, who had all gone silent; they knew she never left the door unlocked. Fear for her young companions washed over her as she put a hand on the door frame, barring their way through. "Stay here," She said seriously, and they knew better than to defy her, looking at each other with an itch to investigate, but still, out of respect, they stopped themselves.
She closed the door behind her and though she regretted it, locked it, so the children couldn't come in. She didn't want them risking their lives in her house. Again. But the house seemed strangely empty without them, even though she knew they were just outside.
She walked in to the living room, peering round. All seemed fine, except for a shape on the sofa. She edges towards it and her heart gave a leap. Tentatively she picked it up and a small, white bag fell out of one of the pockets and her heart leaped in to her mouth. A smile broke through her lips and she was filled with apprehension and excitement.
A small part of her wanted to throw open the door and let Maria, Luke and Clyde meet the man who had started it all, but the rest pushed it away, wanting him all to herself for a little bit. That is, if Rose wasn't with him. She didn't think so, though. She put the coat over her arm, still holding the little bag of jelly babies and started upstairs.
She heard voices from her little attic room and a commotion. She ran up the stairs and flung open the door, only to see the funniest sight she would have ever seen had it not been for the danger of the situation. The Doctor was there, crouching behind the little sofa while her computer tried to shoot him with his cannon. Of course, all he managed to do was blow chunks out of her sofa.
The Doctor looked relived to see her,. Collapsing onto the wooden floor. "Sarah Jane!" He cried, happily, but with relief laced in her voice. "Call the computer off!" he yelled at her." Despite it all, she had to restrain from laughing.
"Mr Smith! Stop, he's a friend." The computer calmed down and stopped firing.
"I am sorry Sarah Jane, He was not being compliant and I perceived him as a threat." The computer said quietly.
"That's ok," She glanced back at the Doctor, who had stood up and was brushing off his blue suit. A smirk crossed her face. "No harm done." She turned her full attention to the Doctor and her smile grew, if possible, wider. "Now, would you like a jelly baby? I'm quite partial to them, you know." He laughed and strode up to her, hugging her and lifting her completely off the ground. "I missed you," She whispered sadly.
"I missed you too," He let her feet touch the ground again, though she didn't notice, she still felt like she was floating. He rested his face on hers, so that their foreheads and noses touched. His fringe tickled her fore head and she blew up, to brush it out the way. It felt intimate here, like she was privy to some secret and that they were all alone. Her skin tingled with the contact, but a part of her wanted to pull away.
"Where's Rose?" She asked, not unkindly, but with a hint of possessiveness. She saw his eyes change, a hint of sadness in them. "Oh," he voice softened. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to-"
"No," he cut her off. "It's not your fault. She's ok, she's just trapped in an alternate universe. No way back." They just stood in the position for minutes, the things she wanted to say, not coming out, yet they seemed said anyway.
A knock on the door brought them back to reality. A voice called out, "Sarah Jane? Are you ok?"
"Are you expecting anyone?" Asked the Doctor, drawing away from her, the points where he had put pressure on her face tingled and felt empty, in a way.
"That's Maria." She said, itching for him to show as much emotion as he had a few seconds ago, but he had already gone back into his shell. She had seen him do it before; her pouring her heart out to him as they tried to fix K9 as his eyes smoky, almost glazed over as he smoothed over everything she had said. Yet she could see, vivid as if it had happened five minutes ago, the pain gathering behind his eyes.
"I should go then," He took his coat and stated to put it on.
"No," She whispered. "Don't go. I don't want you to disappear again; last time you did, I didn't see you for decades." She smiled sadly, feeling ripped in two.
"I'm sorry. I have to."
"Then promise me you'll come back soon." She smiled, blinking back the tears that welled in her eyes, threatening to come out.
"I'll try to." His voice sounded sincere. "it's not always easy for me. You wouldn't understand."
But strangely, she did. "I do," She nodded. "And if you can't do that, promise me you'll always remember me, promise me," She paused, unsure whether to say it. "Promise me I'll always be your Sarah Jane." He grinned widely.
"You'll never be anything else."
"Sarah Jane?" Called the voice again, louder and more frantically.
"I'm here," She finally yelled back, down the stairs. "Everything's ok, I was just clearing up." She cringed at the poor excuse, but it would have to do."
"I'd better go down and let them in." he nodded on agreement.
"I should go too, I didn't actually mean to stay." The machine, still lying on the sofa beeped again and he picked it up. "There's a big energy surge uptown, I should check that out." They started walking down the stairs together. "So you've done alright without me then,"
She sighed, "Alright, I suppose, but not good. I try and keep busy, then I don't have to think about it too much. I miss you." As they reached the landing, he made to go out the door, but she stopped him, "can you go out the back door?" She asked cautiously. "I don't want them to meet you yet."
He nodded, though slightly confused, "Of course," he turned round to go the other way.
"And one more thing before you go. Promise me?"
He nodded and kissed her on the lips. "I promise," And with that he was gone.
It was then that the tears she had held behind her eyes broke forth and ran down her cheeks. They only lasted a minute, as she lay her head back on the wall, succumbing to the heavy stream, kicking the wall with the back of her shoe and slumping down to the floor.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks and stood up, her legs shaking. Sighing, she walked over to the door and, with one last, nervous breath, opened it. She was suddenly barraged by questions. "What happened?" "Don't tell me you've been cleaning up for ten minutes!" "We were worried!" "Why'd you lock us out?" "Did I see someone come round from the back of the house just now? What aren't you telling us?"
It was too much to bear for Sarah Jane, who let out another choked sob. Then there was silence, as the three fourteen year olds stared at her. She new she must look a mess, with her mascara smudged, red swollen eyes and clutching a bag of jelly babies like it was her most precious possession. Plus, she had to explain the burnt hole in the couch.
"Are you alright?" Asked Maria, breaking the silence.
Alright? Thought Sarah Jane, How could I be alright? The only man who I have ever loved has just ripped my heart out again and my lips still burn from his kiss, just like if I was a teenager. I'm so confused.
But she sniffed, pulling back tears and smiled. "Of course, why wouldn't I be?" And without another word, she walked back in to the house, still clutching the jelly babies.