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2012
Smiling to herself as she strolled past the shops, Sarah-Jane Smith was resisting the strong urge to start dancing down the street.
In the past few years everything had started going her way, she had met the Doctor – now a lot older with many regenerations come and gone – and finally had had him say goodbye to her properly. He had fixed K-9, well, and then blown him up but he had given her a new one, one who acknowledged her as 'Mistress', and she had solved many, many investigations with the help of K-9 of course.
Having been given the closure she needed by the Doctor, she had also found relationships generally went a lot better due to the fact that she could let herself love them back now.
And Rose had not come to seek her out, so maybe the Doctor hadn't broken her heart. Well, that or he had and Rose was unable to come and see her or wouldn't – something Sarah-Jane didn't think likely as she remembered when he left her how she wanted to talk to someone who would understand. Not just to have known him, that wasn't enough, but to someone who really knew what it was like to be with the Doctor. Though she preferred to think Rose was still with him. He deserved to have somebody, her time with him had passed and now it was Rose's time, she deserved to be happy.
At least that was what she thought until she rounded the corner.
A familiar brown trench and mass of big hair – that was all she needed to identify him as the Doctor. He was stood outside an electrical shop, bearing a window full of plasma TV's. All of them plastered with Rose's face on the news.
Shocked, Sarah-Jane edged nearer to hear what was being said on the news, but no so close that she disturbed the Doctor, who was merely stood staring.
"Last night, as the Olympic Torch bearer passed an ordinary street on his way to light the Olympic flame, the camera's caught an extraordinary sight on film." A clip began to play and the newsreader gave a running commentary, "As you see, to the back there, the cheering crowd is being forced apart as someone desperately attempts to get to the front, and here, Rose Tyler who was reported dead in 2006, emerges at the front and attempts to cross the barrier. Stopped by a policeman she argues before pushing back through the crowd and out of the camera's view.
Rose Tyler's friend, Shereen, reported this sighting, providing pictures of Rose which have since been analysed and cross-referenced to show that this is indeed Miss Tyler we saw just now. It has also been noted that she looks no older than when the photo's where taken of her at the age of 19…"
Sarah-Jane had stopped listening. Her attention was now focussed on the Doctor, who hadn't moved an inch since she had first seen him.
Biting her lip she took the last few steps to wards him before hesitantly reaching out and laying a hand upon his shoulder.
Starting, the Doctor spun around, looking shocked. "What? ….Oh, right, Sarah-Jane. Hello." He said distractedly, offering her a vague smile.
As the Doctor didn't look as if he were going to say anything else and that 'how are you then?' didn't exactly look like a path he wanted to be sent down right now she nodded at the screen. "What was Rose trying to do there?"
"Hmm? Oh… An Isolus was possessing a young girl in the neighbourhood, Rose found the ship and got the Isolus to return to it, but she needed heat to send it off, she intended – and managed to – get it into the Olympic torch. But that was a few months ago – for me anyway. Just a couple of days for you."
"Right." Sarah-Jane said, nodding as the Doctor glanced back at the screens, now showing a picture of Rose and her mother at Christmas, and if she wasn't mistaken the Doctor in the background.
He'd spent Christmas with her family? Well, that was a first…
"She's not with you anymore, is she?" she asked, unable to help herself. Had he just left her like he had she? Had she been killed? Or maybe she'd chosen to stay somewhere else?
Pausing the Doctor looked quizzically at her before smiling a little bolder this time. "It's that obvious?"
Merely smiling back she shrugged her shoulders a little before inclining her head towards the TV's. "It said she was reported dead in 2006. By the Cybermen I presume. Although, knowing you and knowing she was with you, I don't think that's entirely true."
"D'you wanna go for coffee?" the Doctor asked suddenly, before she had barely finished speaking, shuffling his feet a little nervously. Some might have mistaken this action for hesitance and nervousness about asking her to go for a drink, but she knew that he was uncomfortable talking about Rose.
"Coffee?"
"Hmm, coffee. Like normal people. You know: 'what shall we do?' 'Oh we'll go get a coffee' like that. A normal life sort of thing. I might as well have a bash at being normal for a day. So yeah, coffee. Coffee and chips."
Sarah-Jane raised an amused eyebrow, and then automatically linked her arm through his. She paused when she realized she had done this and glanced at him, but he didn't seem to mind, or even really have noticed. "You know, chips and coffee don't really go Doctor."
"No? Well it was either chips or banana's. Personally I rather fancy a banana right now but chips'll do."
"Banana?"
"What's wrong with a good ole banana? Good source of potassium!"
"Oh we've moved on from Jelly Babies I see."
"Quit 'em a few decades back."
"How old are you now then? 900?"
"1,136" (A/N: Look up the Doctor's age on wikipedia instead of arguing if you have an issue please )
"Really?"
"Well…ish…"
"Ish?"
"Well your head gets scrambled in the TARDIS. You have to count all the hours up to make a day then make the days into a year then check it and go through all your working out and stuff, and then, you still don't know how old you are. Lets just say I'm one-thousand and one-hundred-ish."
"But you've just dropped about 30 years from your life!"
"Yeah well, once you get into the thousands the decades kinda stop mattering."
"So, 1,100-ish. That's pretty old for a Timelord, so you must be near your last regeneration?"
"I'm on my ninth. So that's three left. And I will not complain just so long as I get to be ginger! Just once. I'm not asking for too much am I?"
Laughing Sarah-Jane pushed open the door of a small café on the corner. "Ginger? Why'd you want to be ginger?"
"I've never been ginger. Never. Never ever ever. I feel kind of left out."
"You could always just dye your hair."
"Oh but that's not the same! I want to be ginger ginger not fake ginger. Besides I'd look bloody stupid if I dyed my hair ginger. Anyway, we established that I'm rude and not ginger. Not vain and not ginger."
Sarah-Jane threw him a slightly puzzled look.
The look went unnoticed and the Doctor continued. "Although that may have been better…Hmm… D'you think Queen Victoria banished us because I was rude and told her that her new telescope was naff? Oh no wait…I told her it was bloody amazing later when we figured out what it was meant to do. Hmm…No…no I'm sure actually that it was when you kept trying to get her to say 'I am not amused' then when she did say it you laughed at her…So technically this is …oh…" the Doctor finally trailed off, realizing he had slipped back into the past. "Sorry. That was with…yeah, back in Scotland. Met Queen Vicky, lovely woman. Banished me from Scotland mind you…" he lapsed into silence as he seated himself at a table in the corner.
Sarah-Jane remained standing. "I'll get the coffee's." she muttered, heading for the counter.
After ordering cappuccino's she glanced back over her shoulder at the Doctor, who was sitting with his chin in his hand gazing out the window and looking very down.
Whatever had happened to Rose is was recent and she didn't think he'd just left her. He wouldn't have. There was something, just a little something she had seen between them back all those years ago. Something thing would once have longed for him share with her. Just in the looks they had exchanged, Rose loved him. That was obvious, but maybe he had loved her back. Maybe now he was experiencing some of the pain she had felt when he left her…
"Miss? Your Cappuccino's."
"Oh, thanks." She said distractedly, grabbing them and beginning to walk hastily back over to the table. She had to know. There was no particular reason…but it would just make her feel better if she knew exactly what had happened, she'd understand his oddly depressive mood and possibly be able to comfort him.
"Doctor," she began, "What –"
"She's not dead." He replied instantly, as if he had read her mind. "In a manner of speaking anyway."
In a manner of speaking? How could someone not be dead in a manner of speaking?
"In a manner of speaking?" She repeated.
"She's dead to this world. But not technically dead. As in alive somewhere else that's not here. Sort of. Well, it is here, but it's not."
"She stayed in a different time period?"
"No. Well…maybe…yes, I think…no…? No, yes. Sort of. Two years on there I think…or maybe not, I'm not sure I wasn't really listening…or…if it took them two years to cross then? Or maybe it was two years on here before we went…no…no? No."
Sarah-Jane blinked at him. She was aware that she tended to ramble and didn't always make sense but this was…distracted, mindless, half-thought out and almost kind of distressed rambling.
She was about to ask where she was then when the Doctor carried on. "She didn't stay anyway…not by choice. I wanted her to go in the first place because it was dangerous, it could kill her. It nearly killed her…if her dad hadn't come back to get her then…anyway, she wanted to stay, and no one came to fetch her and she refused to use the transporter again…I didn't really want her to go anyway. Though I'd rather she was there than dead…not that she is dead, her dad caught her before she could fall into the void…" he trailed off again, staring out the window.
"The void?"
"Mmm. I opened it up, to get rid of all the Daleks and Cybermen. Anything with void stuff would be sucked in…"
"Void stuff?"
"Radiation. You can see it through 3-D specs. You know, those weird cardboard ones you get with books. One red lens one blue. Anyway. Yeah…and me and Rose obviously both had void stuff, so-"
"How'd you get void stuff?" she asked, confused. The Doctor was switching to so many different aspects of his story, jumping from one to the other that it was hard to keep track.
"Anyone who's travelled through time and space. So we had to hold on to clamps which reduce-"
"Why wasn't I sucked in then?"
"Oh…I dunno….oh I never thought of that. It could have killed you…no...no it's been too long…too many years…the radiation will have worn off. Or almost worn off. Not strong enough…or something like that…anyway…we were holding on and one of the levers got hit and went offline, meaning we had half the power. It was on Rose's side so she let go of the clamp and started pushing that back up. Only…once it was up…the force was too strong...she couldn't hold on…just 5 more seconds though, and she would have been safe…but she didn't fall into the void. She dad saved her and took her back."
"Back where?"
"Parallel universe. That's where the Cybermen came from…they had a device that allowed them to cross between in a second. But once I closed the breach...then they couldn't. And can't ever again…"
Sarah-Jane was staring into her cappuccino. Right, so Rose was in a parallel universe. Somewhere she really didn't want to be by the sounds of it. Sighing took a sip of her coffee and looked up, finding the Doctor hadn't touched his, but had produced a small, round, white tub, those content's he was now eating.
"But her family went with her, at least. They had no arguments in staying…well, Mickey, her ex, he was already there. We landed there by accident when a void-ship containing the Daleks came through and ripped the vortex open. Rose didn't exist there well, they had a dog called Rose, anyway that really caught her up, but her dad was still alive, very famous and rich… but then some git called Lumic let loose a whole bunch of Cybermen, which killed Rose's parallel mother, and parallel Mickey who was actually called Ricky
Which I – by the way – knew but he insisted on being called Mickey… anyway, he stayed then, and then Rose's parallel dad came through with Mickey during the invasion and met Rose's mum and she went back with him and they took Rose too, but she came straight back…"
He glanced up, smiling slightly as she looked at the small tub and back up at him, "Oh, edible silver ball bearings, can't beat 'em." He said, offering the tub to her.
Refusing Sarah-Jane looked back up at him, "And this was only a few days ago, right?"
"What? No…that was about four months ago… but I…I needed…I needed to say goodbye… there was a gap left, just a tiny one, but enough for me to be able to project an image of myself and speak with her… I used my telepathy to call to her and guide her to where it was – turned out to be Norway, on a beach called darlig ulv strandon."
He stopped, chuckling softly, "Which translates as bad wolf bay…." He paused again smiling.
"Bad wolf is a message Rose scattered throughout the universe about 18 months ago. Which the old me, my ninth incarnation…well, there were more Daleks believe it or not! Well, the first of them! Well you would believe it…because…when I said, all those years ago for you, that I lived and they all died…I meant…that there was a war. Between my people and the Daleks…every Dalek – or so I thought – was killed, but my people burnt with them…I am the sole survivor of the timewar…not counting sneaky Daleks who survived by chance or trickery…"
Reaching across Sarah-Jane laid a hand sympathetically upon his forearm.
"Anyway…there were Daleks, they were waging war on earth…and me and Jack – he travelled with us too back then – knew that we were all pretty screwed, I had to make the choice between killing all the Daleks and the human race and letting the Daleks take control…but Rose took the decision from me.
"I'd promised I'd look after her no matter what, so a few months before that I rigged up something in the TARDIS which allowed me to remote activate her using my sonic screwdriver, which would take Rose home and also play a message I recorded telling her what I was doing. Rose being Rose somehow managed to tear the console up and look into the heart of her; she absorbed the time vortex, giving her power over everything.
She came back and dissolved the Daleks into nothing. By this time of course we'd noticed the words 'Bad Wolf' following us, the place we were at was called 'Bad Wolf Corporation' and she took the words and scattered them throughout time and space as a message to bring herself back…
"Anyway, everything evolved around Bad Wolf basically. And she came to the beach. I had to destroy a sun to get the power to project my image, but I did it anyway…we had about two minutes…I told that I'd announced her officially dead back here, and she told me she was in charge of an alien intelligence secret organization called 'Torchwood'."
Pausing once more he took a deep breath, his fingers drumming nervously on the table. "And she told me…she said…" stopping he threw her a look which clearly said 'Come on you know what she said!'
"Yes," she nodded, putting her hand over his, but he flipped it and grasped her hand instead.
"And I couldn't tell her…I mean, I wanted to, I wanted to tell her so much…but…I…it was because I paused, I couldn't bloody say it properly and I knew I couldn't. And when I finally attempted the transmission cut out before I could finish, or even begin, I only said her name…"
His head was lowered, but she thought she saw the glint of a tear sliding down his cheek. Tear or not it was hurriedly brushed aside.
"Even when, just before I fell down Satan's pit –"
"Satan's pit?"
"Oh yeah, little bugger was screwing with the laws of gravity and attempting world domination from a big pit on a lump of rock in orbit around a black hole. Had to smash his prison, in theory it would kill me but I found the TARDIS, it should have killed Rose too but she was smart. Sorted it out."
Deciding not to ask why the Doctor had made it seem as if the fact that Satan had messed about with gravity was more important than attempted world domination, Sarah-Jane gave his hand a slight squeeze and apologised for interrupting, "Sorry, carry on…"
"Oh…before I went down there, I was pretty certain I'd die someway or another down there, and the communication's were playing up, I tried to tell Ida to tell Rose if she got back in touch…but I couldn't then either…
"I've never said it…" he murmured, "Never. At all. Why?" he shook his head and let out a soft chuckle, "I love her…" he looked up, a small smile playing about the corners of his mouth, "I love her. I love her!" he stood up, letting out a short bark of laughter. Taking hold of Sarah-Jane's shoulders and grinned, "She's Rose Tyler and I love her!" he laughed loudly before hugging her tightly.
Letting go of her he turned and – flashing a manic grin at a few staring people – walked out.
Sarah-Jane stared after him for a minute before fumbling with her purse for a minute and throwing down a five-pound note on the table. As an after-thought she grabbed the tub of silver ball bearings and followed him out. "Doctor! Wait!"
When she finally caught up with him he was still grinning and had now acquired a banana from somewhere, which he was munching happily on. She considered asking why he appeared to carry such strange items of food around with him but decided against, putting it down to a replacement for the Jelly Baby obsession.
"Thank you." He said as she reached him.
"For what?"
"Listening. Ya know," he started through a mouthful of banana, "In films and books and all that sorta stuff, they always say 'talking helps'. And nobody ever believes them, but you know, it actually does a world of good," he nodded, taking another bite of banana. "Some people anyway. The old me hated talking, made him feel a whole lot worse."
"The…right." Sarah-Jane nodded, a little confused as to why he was referring to his previous incarnation as a separate person.
"Ah, yeah, huh, talking helps! Who'd have ever believed it," he mused, nodding as he swallowed another mouthful of banana.
"Doctor." Sarah-Jane smiled, holding out the silver ball bearings.
"Ah!" he grinned again, taking them off her and stowing them inside his trench coat pocket.
They walked in silence for a few moments, she at a loss of what to say and him too busy finishing off the banana to notice the awkward silence. Tossing the skin into a nearby bin however he stopped.
Sarah-Jane continued for a few feet then stopped, spinning back around, realising that they had reached the TARDIS. The Doctor who stood outside it, looking at her with his hands stuffed into his pockets.
"Come here Sarah-Jane."
Once she had stopped in front of him, he took both of her hands in his – slightly sticky- ones. "Come with me Sarah-Jane." He said, throwing her a smile that was tinted with sadness.
Smiling sadly herself she looked down, swinging their hands slightly no. "I'm too old Doctor…" she sighed, "Travelling with you is very demanding, I doubt I could keep up anymore. I had a little trouble doing so all those years ago." Biting her lip she looked back up, "Plus I can't say my boyfriend would approve…"
The Doctor stared blankly at her for a moment then scooped her into a hug with a laugh, "Good! Fantastic!"
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A/N: He's basically just pleased that she's managed to move on, and I think this is long enough now ;;