Lavinia Smith was as sympathetic as Sarah Jane had promised. She, like her niece, insisted that Tegan stay with them "for however long it takes to sort things out."

"You can stay in the guest room across from Sarah Jane," Lavinia continued, in an "I-won't-take-no-for-an-answer" tone of voice. "It's the one where Commander Sullivan pretends to sleep when he stays over," she added drily.

Sarah Jane had the grace to blush before shrugging philosophically. "Harry will be very embarrassed," she warned with more than a hint of laughter. "He thinks you haven't noticed."

Her aunt snorted undelicately. You tell him that I'd be a pretty poor scientist if I couldn't see what was going on right under my nose! Or better yet I'll tell him myself." She nodded decisively, and Tegan found herself liking the elder Miss Smith as much as she did the younger. "All that aside, I think Sarah Jane knows what to do next?" Lavinia suggested.

"Sarah Jane certainly does," Lavinia' s niece replied promptly. She turned her gaze back to Tegan. "I'm going to ring Harry up and invite him over for tea." With those words, she rose from her seat and disappeared into the hall.

Tegan looked at Lavinia with a bemused stare. "She's going to help me by bringing her young man 'round for a nice cuppa?"

Lavinia laughed and gave Tegan's hand a reassuring pat. "Not to worry, dear. Sarah Jane hasn't gone round the bend. Harry Sullivan is a very sensible, level-headed young man. As for the rest," she continued serenely, "he's an MD, a former member of UNIT, and even traveled with your Doctor a time or two." She sipped her tea and nodded at Tegan's surprised face over the rim of her cup, eyes twinkling.

oOo

When Harry Sullivan arrived, precisely at 4:55 that afternoon, he was a bundle of nerves--or at least as much a bundle of nerves as someone with his rather placid temperament ever became.

It was all Sarah Jane's fault, of course. She had been extremely mysterious on the phone, saying only that "they" needed him for advice. Who "they" were, or whether the advice needed was medical, military or personal, she wouldn't say. All he could get out of her was that it wasn't an emergency...yet. She had certainly piqued his curiosity. But when he tried to pry more information out of her, she had merely responded by telling him they would be expecting him precisely at 5:00. And then Sarah Jane Smith had very neatly hung up the phone before he could say yes or no. Intriguing, to say the least, and the slightest bit annoying. As good a description of Sarah Jane as the situation, he thought sourly.

Of course, he reflected as he waited for Sarah or her aunt to answer the door--he never used his own key when Lavinia was in town--she'd hung up on him on purpose. He could have called her right back, but knowing Sarah Jane, he'd get no answers out of her unless he showed up at 5:00 p.m., as scheduled. And here he was, so her tactics obviously worked. For the thousandth time since they'd met, he asked himself what on earth he was doing, getting involved with someone who had as devious a mind as Sarah Jane Smith. And for the thousandth time, his response to himself was a simple shrug and a confused "I dunno".

Not that they'd been "involved" since the beginning; it hadn't been until the Doctor was out of their lives, seemingly for good, that they'd discovered one another as something more than traveling companions. But then, the Time Lord had that effect on people, keeping their attention centered on him and on whatever disaster he happened to be involved with at any given moment. Not that he did so on purpose; it was just that he was, Harry had long ago decided, far too distracting a personality. Sarah Jane had been, to Harry, a sort of appendage to the Doctor, rather than a separate person. It wasn't until the Time Lord was gone that she--or anyone else–seemed to recall that she had a reality and existence of her own.

He'd never told her this, of course, although he had a sneaking suspicion that Sarah had similar feelings about him. Harry Sullivan had simply been another body in the Doctor's dazzling orbit, and before that, just another faceless uniform behind the Brigadier's only slightly less dazzling presence. It had taken both of them quite a long time to get their eyes to focus back on reality. And on each other.

Harry was still ruminating on these slightly uncomfortable thoughts when Lavinia finally appeared. She greeted him warmly, offering no explanation for her delay in answering, and took his coat before ushering him straight into the parlor. She was so efficient, in fact, that he barely had time to ask after her health before she disappeared into the kitchen. Without answering. Naturally.

Harry settled himself gingerly on the antique chair Lavinia had brought him to before she left. He unconsciously jingled his car keys in one hand as his eyes strayed longingly toward the window behind him. He returned them firmly to the fireplace directly opposite, with a stern reminder to his subconscious that, no matter how oddly everyone was behaving he was not going to bolt through the front door, jump in his car and drive off like a maniac. No matter how temptingly it sat, just in view across the street.

Fortunately for Harry's nerves, only a few minutes passed before Lavinia and Sarah Jane came into the room, although it seemed the proverbial lifetime. With them was a young woman he didn't recognize. Automatically coming to his feet in the presence of the ladies--a habit Sarah Jane had tried and failed to break him of--he looked the stranger over.

He saw a youngish woman, early twenties at most, with short brunette hair framing a pretty face. She was wearing a black leather mini-skirt, a black-red-and-white print blouse, and black heels. She seemed nervous and uneasy, and he concluded that she must be the mysterious "they" Sarah had referred to on the phone. He could see nothing overtly wrong with her, aside from the anxious creases around her eyes and the nervous twitching of her hands as she fidgeted with her skirt.

As the fidgeting increased, Harry realized guiltily he had been staring. "I'm terribly sorry--" he began with some embarrassment, only to be interrupted by Sarah Jane.

"No need to apologize, Harry," she said lightly. "I should have made the introductions right away, but I could see you were wearing your 'professional' look." Harry reddened slightly at this accurate observation, then stepped forward as Sarah continued: "Doctor Harry Sullivan, may I present Miss Tegan Jovanka. We may have met on an alien planet, but she's a home-town--or at least, home-planet--girl, from Brisbane, Australia. She's just got back to Earth recently."

"How'd'you do, Miss Jovanka," Harry murmured as she reached out to shake his hand. He remembered the name now, from Sarah's somewhat breathless and confusing account of her latest encounter with UNIT's former unofficial scientific advisor in the Gallifreyan Death Zone. Before he could do more than that, Sarah Jane invited him to pull up his chair next to the coffee table.

Harry did as directed, while Sarah and Lavinia took the far more comfortable sofa near the fire and Tegan sat in the equally comfortable wing chair opposite them. Lavinia poured, and Sarah engaged her two guests in some minor chit-chat while tea was being taken care of.

Or rather, she engaged Harry in chit-chat. Tegan sat in miserable silence, wishing desperately that she were anywhere else but there. As much as she liked to talk--and she would be the first person to admit how much she liked to talk--she hated talking about herself. But it had to be done; there was no avoiding it, not now. The time to avoid things was already long past, she thought unhappily. She brooded on these things until her attention was returned to the present by someone calling her name.

Tegan shook her head and blinked, looking around for the source of that questioning voice. It was Lavinia; she was staring at her young guest with a look of mild concern. Harry and Sarah Jane were also staring at her, Tegan realized uncomfortably. She shook her head again. "Sorry. Just got lost in thought for a moment." She hunched her shoulders, then straightened her position to one her Aunt Vanessa would have approved of. "You know how it is."

"Not really," Harry murmured, and Tegan knew he was referring to the situation in which he now found himself rather than to her comment. She sympathized; they'd all been acting mysteriously enough. It wasn't fair to keep him in the dark any longer. Not if he was going to help her. Time to come clean.

She looked him squarely in the eye. "I'm the reason Sarah Jane asked you to come over. It's because I'm...pregnant."

Harry's first reaction was merely a raised eyebrow. "A common condition," he said cautiously. Sarah knew what an effort it was for him to maintain such a cool facade. Tegan had already been introduced as "Miss", and Harry could be such a prude--but he wasn't stupid. Once he got past that part of the situation, he'd realize there was no reason to hush up such a "problem" in these modern, enlightened times. Surely it wouldn't take him long to figure out that there was more going on here than met the eye...

Then again, maybe not. "Forgive me, Miss Jovanka," he said stiffly, "but was there a reason you told me this? Do you need a recommendation for an obstetrician?" The glance he darted at Sarah Jane was, as expected, disapproving.

Sarah Jane gave an inward sigh, knowing that the bombshell would have to be dropped without his having the faintest idea it was coming. "Tell him, Tegan," she said, with an encouraging nod and a grimace that said, He hasn't got it yet.

The Australian looked down at her tightly clasped hands, then back up at Harry. "Do you know one that might be able to deal with a baby Time Lord?" Her tone was sharper than she had intended. Telling a sympathetic Sarah Jane and Lavinia had been hard enough; this third time through, with a decidedly less sympathetic Harry Sullivan, was much worse.

It took a moment for the implications of her statement to sink in; when they did, Harry's reaction was almost comical. His mouth formed a round "O" of surprise as he half-rose, both hands tightly gripping the arms of his chair as he tried to assimilate what he'd just heard. Sarah Jane found herself stifling a very inappropriate giggle; Harry's reaction would have been absolutely priceless if the situation weren't so serious.

Her old comrade-in-arms spent several stunned moments gaping at them before slowly sinking back into his chair. "How?" he finally asked in a strangled voice. "I mean, he's not human, after all."

Tegan raised an eyebrow of her own, in deliberate mockery of his earlier gesture. "Human enough," she commented dryly, and Harry found himself blushing again.

"I didn't mean--that," he responded as he jumped to his feet. "I just meant--well, genetically, not physically. That is to say...I mean..."

"We know what you mean, Harry," Sarah rescued him with a laugh she now felt justified in emitting as he turned helplessly to face her. "But it's obviously possible. Now we just need to know if it's safe."

"Safe? Of course it isn't safe!" Harry exploded. He ran agitated fingers through his hair as he began pacing nervously back and forth in front of his seat. "We're talking about a pregnancy that gives new meaning to the term high risk! Safe?" he repeated incredulously. "It's bloody impossible!" He stopped abruptly as Tegan paled at his words.

His face turned beet red as Lavinia commented mildly, "Really, Harry, there's no need to shout."

"Terribly sorry," he apologized, his usual good manners coming to the rescue as he clasped his hands behind his back and looked down at his feet. "Obviously it isn't impossible. But it's an idea that takes a bit of getting used to, you'll have to grant me that much." He turned back to Tegan. "Are you certain? Have you had any symptoms? How long has it been since you menstruated?"

"I think I'm about two months along," Tegan answered after a moment, a bit off-balance by the rapid-fire barrage of professional questions appearing hard on the heels of his initial shocked babbling. "It's kind of hard to tell for sure because traveling on the TARDIS tends to put me off. And I've only had a few symptoms--a little morning sickness, some tiredness, and a peckish sort of appetite. Enough for me to know."

"Are you certain there's been nothing else? No--" he hesitated as if searching for the right word, then made a face and continued, "--problems?"

Tegan shook her head. "Nothing. I've been fine otherwise." Liar! her conscience screamed, but she ignored it with the ease of long habit, telling it firmly that her emotional problems--not that she actually had any--were private property. That it wasn't what Harry was asking about.

"I'll need to perform a complete physical," Harry was saying, steadied now, back in the role of Doctor Sullivan, "We ought to take you to UNIT--"

"No!" Tegan and Sarah Jane both exclaimed at the same time. All opposed, Lavinia found herself thinking as the other two women traded glances.

It was Sarah Jane who continued: "Not if we can avoid it, Harry. Remember, the Brig's not in charge anymore. All we need is for the government to get wind of the fact that the baby's father is an alien. They'll treat her like a lab rat--don't try to deny it!--and when the baby's born, it'll be even worse. For both of them!"

"You've been watching too many science fiction movies," Harry protested, but weakly. Sarah might be exaggerating, but she was essentially correct. He sighed, holding up one hand as Sarah opened her mouth to protest. "I'm not going to argue with you. You're right." Sarah closed her mouth and looked extremely satisfied.

"As usual," Harry added devilishly, and watched as the satisfaction turned to indignation. He ignored her, however, turning instead to Tegan as he continued: "For now, I'll go along with you. No UNIT. And no hospital. I have a friend with a private clinic who owes me about nine lifetime's worth of favors. He knows how to keep a secret. They know what an odd lot UNIT is, so I don't think he'll ask too many questions, or be too surprised by anything that happens. And of course, there's K-9 to help out."

Tegan had already been introduced to Sarah Jane's unusual electronic "pet" and had no doubts about his ability to render any assistance necessary. "But--" Harry held up a warning finger, "--if I feel there's any danger to either you or the baby, it's off to UNIT and we'll just have to take the consequences. Agreed?" He waited for Tegan to nod before sitting back down.

"Thank you," Tegan replied gratefully. She felt almost overwhelmed by the willingness of these people to help a near-stranger. "I couldn't ask for anything more. I can't ask my family for help, I told Sarah Jane that--"

"But you will keep in touch with them," Sarah interrupted soberly. "Letters, at the very least. You don't have to tell them about your--er, delicate condition, but you don't want a missing persons to go out on you, either. All right?"

Tegan nodded her agreement. "It's what I've been doing all along," she replied with a small shrug that tried to be indifferent, but couldn't quite mask the bitterness in her voice. "They think I'm balmy for turning into such a gypsy. Anyway, if that's what you call a condition, I'm not about to argue! You hardly even know me, and you're going to all this trouble. I don't know what to say."

"I don't need to know you," Harry interrupted, shifting uncomfortably on his seat as Lavinia picked up the tea tray and tactfully disappeared into the kitchen. "I know the Doctor, and that's enough." He glanced at Sarah. "Lord knows he's gotten us into--and out of, I'll admit it!--enough scrapes. Without him, I'd probably never have met Sarah Jane, for example." He smiled, still with a hint of the devil.

"And is that an 'into' or an 'out of'?" Sarah inquired sweetly. "No, don't answer that; I don't want to know!" she continued at Harry's discomfited look. She turned her attention back to Tegan. "Look, Harry is the best. You're in good hands. Trust me."

"Let me ring up my friend," the object of this unstinting praise said hastily as he rose from his chair and headed for the front hail. "The sooner we get this going, the better."

Sarah's gaze followed him fondly as Tegan commented, "Not one for the spotlight, is he?" She rose from her seat as well and paced restlessly around the room, ending up at the window. "Is he as good as you say?" she asked, glancing back over her shoulder while her fingers toyed nervously with the curtain.

Sarah smiled wryly. "In my 'unbiased' opinion?" She met Tegan's gaze frankly, no teasing now. "When it comes to this sort of thing, he's the best." She opted to keep the Doctor's opinion about Harry to herself. There was something about traveling through space and time; it either brought out a person's best side...or their worst. And she knew exactly what the Doctor would say about Harry Sullivan. But that was in the past, just like her own time on the TARDIS.

Tegan turned to gaze out the window, focusing unknowingly on Harry's car. "I hope so," she replied softly, almost to herself. "I've a feeling I'm going to need all the help I can get."

Sarah nodded silent agreement before rising from her chair and joining Lavinia in the kitchen, leaving Tegan to her thoughts. And her memories.

It had all started after Adric died...