"Sarah, Sarah. Do you hear me old girl?"
Sarah opened her eyes. Harry Sullivan was there trying to revive her.
"Harry?" she asked still stunned by the blow.
"Welcome," Harry replied.
"What happened?"
"You had an accident with the TARDIS. The Doctor brought you unconscious this morning."
"The Doctor!" Sarah said sitting up suddenly. The girl felt dizzy and lay down again while she was slowly remembering the events before passing out and waking up in the sickbay of UNIT: the TARDIS landing suddenly, the gray planet, the earthquake...
"You should continue resting, old girl," Harry advised.
"First tell me: how is the Doctor?"
"You can see that for yourself, Sarah Jane," the Doctor said as he was coming into the room.
"Doctor ..." the girl began to say, but she stopped when saw her friend.
The Doctor was before her as she had known him: an older and smart man with gray hair and stylish clothes, not the young man with big blue eyes and tousled curly hair in which he had regenerated after he almost died a year ago.
"What is it, Sarah Jane? It looks like you have seen a ghost," the Doctor said worried about the state of his dear friend.
"It is you!" was all she could say.
"Who else would it be?"
"But you changed ... I know ... You did it in front of me!"
"No, my dear, I have not changed. Someday I will, but not yet."
"But ... Metebelis Three … radiation ..."
"Oh, that day the Doctor gave us a scare," Harry said.
"Yes, I was very nearly to die, but fortunately I managed to survive."
"And the Space Station Nerva? The creation of the Daleks, the Zygons ..." Sarah was naming those adventures she had lived with the 'other' Doctor.
"Yes, I remember all that, and I'm glad you do too. You hit your head very strong, and we feared that your memory had been damaged."
"And you wore an extra long scarf," Sarah continued.
"Yes, I have an extremely long scarf; I have it saved in the TARDIS. I lend it to Harry once. Madame Nostradamus knitted it for me but the truth is that it is not my style."
"Yes, I remember the scarf. Very warm," Harry said.
"Doctor, what happened?" Sarah Jane finally asked.
"We landed on a gray planet and there was a strong earthquake. When I got back to the TARDIS, you were on the floor senseless. I realized that the earthquake had also damaged the ship, so I decided to go where you could recover and I could repair the TARDIS, i.e. Earth", said the Doctor.
"Is the TARDIS badly damaged?" the girl asked.
"Do not worry about it. It's in the way of self-repair. It will remain closed until it is repaired completely," he replied. "Let's spend some time on Earth, so take advantage to rest and recover."
Sarah nodded. Apparently everything was normal, but she knew it was not.
