This is an exceptionally long one. If you don't appreciate long chapters, let me know, and I'll cut them up in the future :)
Bannerman Road
Present
As she stood beside the bed and looked down at him, she decided her memories of him hadn't even done him justice. Not his oddness, nor his effortless enigmatic charm. Despite having wondered many times whether she wasn't romanticising their joined past, and especially him, it didn't come as a surprise either... as time passed, more and more thing seemed to have neatly organised themselves within a place of something approaching neutrality in her mind.
Memories which once seemed either too painful or embarrassing to recall without wincing had morphed into mere bumps or curves in the road, some of them cause for laughter even... Similarly, those memories of which she had wanted to perserve their beauty forever, had also faded in their intensity. They were remembered with fondness and joy, but had ceased to deliver the same sense of euphoria they once did.
As much as she had wanted to remember every detail of his face, every semi-tone of his rich voice, and each aromatic nuance of the TARDIS mingled with him and the clothes he wore, the scents and tastes of alien worlds... she hadn't been able to hang on to them. A rare few had been perserved. Most of them had been lost forever.
Having him with her again, rekindled that intensity of memory and senses with unwavering persistence. For years, it had been as though this precious and raw part of her had been corked and now it had been popped. She smiled as he let out a soft childlike moan and slightly altered the position of his legs. Even when asleep, there was something truly magical about him. She experienced a sudden desire to comfort him. To carress and explore every inch of his features, yet was grateful for the ability to suppress the impulse.
'Oh, Smith, get a grip,' she sighed silently.
She put the letter in her pocket and once again sat down beside him. Looking at her hands she had decided they had aged a lot. There were still moments, and many of them in fact, when she didn't feel a day over thirty five. It was only her hands that reminded her of the truth every time she caught a glimpse of them while performing routine every day acts.
The tables had turned on them... appearance-wise at least. She had lived almost four decades more and he didn't look a day older. She was surprised that it should suddenly bother her so much... or fill her with an insecurity she had never experienced before rather. She still turned heads and she knew it, even those of men, and occasionally women, who were considerably younger. She had always been determined to age gracefully and without complaints and had managed to do so as well. There was only one man who succeeded in making her feel old and the version of him who was best at it, she decided swiftly, despite being older looking than the other two, was lying in front of her.
'I've wondered so many times what this moment would be like,' she whispered. 'After we parted, it was a given... It would simply be a matter of time before you came back...' She placed her right hand on top of his and compared their sizes while attempting to clear the lump in her throat. Their hands had always found each other and fitted together effortlessly, whatever was required of them... Whether he was swinging her 'round a corner to hide, pulling her to safety from sickening depths, or simply clasped together while enjoying one another's company. Their hands always instinctively found each other.
'I never once entertained the idea that it could take half a lifetime,' she sighed tremulously.
'Master asleep, Mistress,' K9 informed her dryly. 'Attempt at conversation rendered completely useless.'
Sarah managed a chuckle while wiping a stray tear from her cheek as she carefully got up from the bed and passed the tin dog on her way to the door.
'Thank you, K9. But not to me.'
The Global Biota Repository
Two Days Earlier
The dimly lit living quarters had held a claustrophobic grip on Sarah from the moment she had entered them. As they were being escorted out of the Lab and through a series of corridors, she attempted to spot as many of the cameras as she could find but none were visible. The idea of being watched constantly by an artificial intelligence made her feel uneasy and she hoped there wouldn't be any spyware hidden in the sleeping quarters.
She was relieved to find out everyone had their own individual room, and couldn't suppress a smile of relief as Ramsey opened the door to hers. Despite the foreign and unsettling surroundings, she was ever so grateful to be reassured of a few moments of peaceful and quiet privacy.
'Dinner is planned for half past six. You'll meet Reid and Seymour then. In the meantime, feel free to roam around in the living quarters after you have settled in,' Ramsey informed her politely.
'How do you know I won't sneak off?' Sarah asked teasingly. 'I'm a journalist, I may want to investigate.'
Ramsey chuckled heartily. 'Well, be my guest,' he offered while motioning his hand towards the corridor in overly dramatic fashion.
'But remember, Argus is watching. He always knows where you are.'
He feigned a look of terror and pointed upwards towards yet another camera hanging from the corridor's ceiling as he left the room.
'Mr. Ramsey?!' Sarah called out.
He stuck his head back in view from behind the door opening, attempting to seem curious and interested.
'When will we be going into the actual...'
'First thing tomorrow morning, Miss Smith,' he interrupted. 'However, you can ask everyone as many questions as you like during dinner for preparation.'
'Thank you,' she replied kindly.
He nodded his head in reply before disappearing once again.
Sarah glanced around the room and decided it wasn't all too bad. Spartan and militaristic, yet strangely cozy.
After closing the heavy steel door, she placed her bag atop the bed and crawled in hands and knees first like a toddler. She was overcome with sudden fatigue. The long journey and subsequent descent into this scientific imaginarium had finally proven to be too much for her system to swallow. A slight smile spread across her face as she eased her head upon the coarse bur ever-so-welcome pillow, and closed her eyes.
'Just... just a few minutes,' she yawned.
She shot up a few seconds later to the sound of a high pitched alarm accompanied by violent screams just outside her room. Startled by the sudden racket, her immediate instinct was to reach for her sonic lipstick. The room was dark. 'That's odd,' she mused while searching. It hadn't been dark when she went to sleep, had it?
Probably a power failure or something.
'Sarah!' A muffled voice yelled from behind the door. The noise from the alarm rendered any possibility of recognising who it belonged to impossible. Whoever it was sounded like they were in need of help.
'Who is it?' Sarah yelled back.
With her lipstick in hand, Sarah flung her legs over the side of the bed, gingerly got up, and approached the door with her arms extended in order to feel her way through the dark.
'Sarah!'
Once again the voice was drowned out by the unbearable noise of the alarm.
'I'm coming!' she said while approaching the door, suddenly with great determination.
'KLANG!'
She immediately backed away again as a sharp and thundering crash landed against the other side of the wall. For a moment, all she felt was an overpowering sense of terror as she stood nailed to the floor in the center of the dark room.
'Steady on, Smith,' she ordered herself. 'Get a grip and open that door.'
As she stood there in the dark, attempting to regain control of her faculties, she was sure she heard people screaming. Smothered as they were, they were the unmistakable screams of people in severe terror and agony.
She didn't understand what had suddenly come over her. She had rarely lost her nerve in all the years she had been confronted by danger on a regular basis. 'People could be in mortal danger and you're standing here like a grazing cow.'
The screams grew and intensified with each second. Could it be something was chasing them?
Carefully, she closed in on the door yet again. She placed a shaking hand upon the frame before tentatively putting her left ear against it in the hope of hearing something other than the infernal wail of the alarm.
She inhaled deeply and with one swoop opened the heavy steel door...
Standing in the doorframe, she immediately scanned her surroundings. Nothing.
It was as if she had turned off the noise by opening the door. The corridor was empty and quiet. No alarm... no one yelling her name in desperation. She raised her left hand, expecting to see her watch around it. With groan, she remembered... Luke. 'Luke has it,' she remembered.
Dumbfounded by the situation, she began massaging her forehead.
'You've really gone off the deep end now,' she whispered to herself before letting out a soft but nervous chuckle.
Suddenly and violently, she was pulled back inside the room by a hand which had managed to snake itself around her waist, seemingly out of thin air.
As she was dragged bakwards, the door closed in front of her as if by its own accord. She wanted to scream but couldn't. Wanted to kick and free herself but was unable to. All she could do was gasp as she was pulled into a hole in the ground where an intense white light made her lose all consciousness.
'Sarah...,' a gentle voice whispered in her ear.
Once again, she awoke. Under circumstances more agreeable this time. The sound of birds and the feeling of warm soft sheets enveloped her with an overwhelming sense of peace. The hand around her waist was still there. But who... ?
'Sarah,' the voice repeated softly. A shiver ran through her body like wildfire. That voice. Unmistakable.
'Doctor,' she uttered, barely above a whisper. She felt the stinging of tears forming in her eyes as he replied.
'My Sarah Jane'.
There had been times in her life, years after their first farewell, when she had wondered whether the sound of his voice in her head was a memory or a fantasy. Surely that voice, so rich and commanding yet playful and sensual, couldn't have been real. Yet here it was, once again resounding in her ears.
She closed her eyes and sighed. 'What took you so long?'
She was afraid to face him. Afraid that he would disappear in front of her eyes should she turn around.
His temporary silence unnerved her instantly.
'Got caught up in things. You know how it goes, don't you?'
She simply nodded as a single tear escaped and trickled downwards to the pillow.
'Good girl,' he replied in a low husky pur that caused a tingle of pleasure to quickly blossom from every nerve in her body
'I miss you so much,' she breathed while attempting to even her breathing.
'I'm right here, Sarah.'
The warmth of his breath against her neck commanded her to look at him. Carefully she turned to her other side. There he lay. Exactly how she left him all those years ago. She was immediately struck by the intensity of his gaze as he quickly scanned her features. For a moment, she was convinced she could see his thoughts, thousands of them at once, flashing through his mind at the speed of light. Those eyes. There was a time when he could have
asked her anything. One glimpse of those blue stargates and she was his. Always.
He gave her a lazy smile and raised his hand to her cheek, tracing patterns with his thumb. She returned the smile and locked her fingers with his.
'Were you reading my mind?'
He gave her an uneasy look and sighed before gently kissing her on the nose.
'This is your mind,' he replied dryly.
It suddenly hit her. The Vault... she was in the Vault right now. This was just dream. She closed her eyes as sadness overtook her.
'I'm still dreaming, aren't I?'
'Of course you are.' He offered a comforting smile. 'And you have to wake up now, Sarah.'
Bannerman Road
Present
With the kids out of the house, Sarah decided it was time to take a closer look at the alien gadget the Doctor had given her in the garage.
She approached the Doctor's tweed blazer which still hung over the bannister, retrieved the odd but sleek looking device, and tip-toed into the sitting room as if she were about to open her Christmas present a day early.
As she sat down and inspected it more carefully, she quickly decided it couldn't be a sonic screwdriver like she had suspected earlier. It had the same overall shape as one... However, there was no emmitter or resonator... just one single activation button at the base. She once again carressed the smooth surface with her index finger, clutched it tightly, and raised her thumb... ready to press the inviting button.
'I shouldn't,' she warned herself as she grabbed the device with her other hand and carefully placed it atop the coffee table in front of her.
She stared at it from a safe distance while gently biting her bottom lip and shaking her head.
'Then again', she mused silently. 'Why would he give it to me if he didn't want me to find out what it was?'
She grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it... sighing. Itching to know more about it as it lay there, daring her to pick it up.
She decided it was best left alone, stood up with a groan, headed towards the kitchen, and disappeared behind the wall. No more than three seconds later however, she came running back into the room...
'He knows what I'm like,' she fretted, loudly this time, as if she wanted him to hear her.
She grabbed tight hold of the device and without further consideration, pressed it...
'Argh!'
She yelp as something sharp extended through the button and into her hand, drawing blood in the process.
Letting the device fall onto the carpet, and immediately sucking her finger, she quickly bended down to one knee and picked it up again.
'I'll take that as a no, then,' she mumbled on her way towards the staircase.
She should have taken it up to the attic first thing, really. The Doctor counted on her. Still, it was on him... He knew how curious she was.
As she opened the door to the attic, and safely tucked away the device in a hidden drawer under her desk, she called for Mr. Smith, who immediately introduced himself with usual loudness.
'Perhaps I should do something about that after all,' she mumbled.
'Sarah Jane?'
'Oh, nothing, Mr. Smith, nothing.'
She closed in on the screen and placed her hands on her hips.
'I warned you we weren't done yet. This whole business with the Doctor... You know more about it.'
'Sarah jane, I...'
'Come on, let's have it,' she said sternly.
'I am not at liberty to divulge any information regarding either the device or the boxes which were delivered. It is strictly confidential.'
'You know about the boxes too?!' She gasped in a petulant manner, obviously irritated by her exclusion.
'These are merely safety precautions taken by the Doctor to protect you, Sarah Jane. Cooperation is advisable.'
'How am I supposed to cooperate if I don't know what's going on though,' she snapped back. 'My protection,' she huffed, well aware the computer was making a good deal of sense... The Doctor was up to something big, she could feel it. If her not knowing was important to a good outcome, she was more than willing to cooperate. Still, her investigative nature and instincts protested.
Mr. Smith remained silent as Sarah stood with her hands stuffed in her pockets, her back bent slightly forward, ready to outdo any excuse the computer threw at her.
'I have detected an unknown presence at the door, Sarah Jane.' Mr. Smith informed her instead.
Sure enough, the doorbell rang.
'I'll be back,' Sarah mumbled while heading over towards the door.
'Sarah Jane,' Mr. Smith offered. 'I advise extreme caution.'
Sarah nodded confusedly. Mr. Smith only advised caution when there was genuine danger. As a matter of fact, she felt he should do it more often...
If he bothered, the threat was serious.
The Global Biota Repository
Two Days Earlier
'It adds up to more than what most people tend to think, you know. It's a little bit more complicated than gardening.' Dr. Julia Reid, the resident botanist informed the journalists while raising another steaming fork of something resembling stew to her lips.
'Don't worry, Dr. Reid, I am in absolute awe of both this place and your profession, and would never even consider to belittle its scientific value. Nor will I downplay the contribution you're making to the world in general down here,' Mark assured her.
Sarah didn't know whether to call it sleazy or absolutely adorable, but quickly decided on the latter as his awkwardness had already gotten the better of him several times during the last few hours. One thing was certain... when he complimented people, he meant it. And his respect for science of all areas seemed equally genuine. His sarcasm was often harsh at first glance, but it was softened by a silliness that made it easy to sense its lack of malice.
'It'll be nice to have some female company, I'm getting fed up being surrounded by these cavemen,' Reid told Marianne, who nodded in full agreement.
'I only bashed you on the head with a club and then dragged you into my grotto once. Don't you think it's time to let it go?' Dr. Lewis Seymour ribbed.
'See what I mean?' Reid mumbled while shaking her head and tossing her napking over Seymour's head.
Dinner went by slowly. It seemed as though they had all been sat around the table for days. Sarah gazed into the whirlpool she had created in her plate as her mind wandered back to the dream she had had earlier.
She used to have similar ones with alarming regularity, but by now had learned not to attach too much importance to them. After all, her dreams she use to have of the Doctor dying had held no merit either.
Then again, in many ways her Doctor had died, hadn't he? No. That was selfish and no way to approach the matter. He was still the same man... in a way. Though in most respects, he was different. It was complicated. Since her reunion with the Doctor at Deffrey Vale, the dreams had stopped.
So why did she have this one? Why now? Her daydreaming was interrupted by Mark, who poured some more water into her empty glass, and subsequently addressed Ramsey.
'If you don't mind my asking, Mr. Ramsey.' Mark began. 'Is there any way Sarah and I could get an audience with Dr. Karlsson?
'Where is he?' Ramsey asked Artie, who merely shrugged his shoulders and continued eating his dinner as Edison the parrot said lazily on his shoulder.
'Still in the Greenhouse I should think,' Seymour informed him. 'He's been down there working ever since you guys came back.'
'Must have been something you said,' Ramsey said while grinning across te table at the tree visitors.
'Good,' Mark mumbled in Sarah's direction before clearing his throat.
'He does seems very suspicious of us being here.' Sarah offered.
'It's nothing personal, I'm sure,' Reid informed her. 'If you want to pick his brain, you can do it tomorrow after our visit to the greenhouse. He has a habit of working late, so I doubt you'll be able to catch him today, especially with the new shipment.'
'Say what you will. He's been wired so tight lately, I get nervous when he enters the same room as me,' Artie said barely above a whisper. Ater a brief pause in which he wiped his mouth, he pointed his spoon at the floor and continued. 'Don't know why you're so eager to go down there. personally, I wouldn't want to... no sir. Not for...'
'Not for all the farms in Cuba,' Ramsey finished for the smaller man sitting beside him at the table.
Reid and Seymour smiled.
'Why?' Mark asked. Sarah couldn't help but smile at his genuine interest. He resembled a wide-eyed child at the beginning of a horror story. Filled with expectation.
'Don't encourage him,' Ramsey scoffed in contrast to Mark's gentler approach.
'Artie is very good at convincing himself of certain things on the basis of very little or no evidence whatsoever.'
Ramsey patted his colleague on the back while throwing his empty beercan in the nearby bin.
'You c-c-convince yourself of whatever gets you to fall asleep at place has bad karma,' Artie mumbled to himself.
'What is he talking about?' Marianne asked of the other team members who were either shaking their heads or smiling.
'Well, two years ago when this place was near completion...'
Semour began as if she were divulging the latest bit of gossip.
'Oh, here we go...,' Ramsey huffed.
'Let her finish, Rammer, the lady asked a question,' Reid protested as Ramsey looked up at the ceiling and rolled his eyes.
'Well, apparently one of the construction workers just vanished. Never to be heard from again.'
'Apparently?' Sarah asked amusedly, though admittedly intrigued.
'Except...,' Semour continued. 'When the first team started working here, they would occasionaly spot someone they didn't know on the monitors...'
'Doing what?' Marianne asked.
'Just wandering around. They heard a voice on the intercom from time to time too.'
'Back then there were only twenty or so cameras installed.' Artie informed. 'Most of that crew went crazy in this place. One of them even started attacking the others...'
'This is a joke, right?' Mark asked.
'I wish,' Artie replied. 'When their team got relieved after just six weeks, they were ready for the funny farm.'
'Paaaaaaassword,' Edison squawked suddenly.
'Subsequently,' Artie continued... 'The Powers That Be wanted better surveillance and less people to work here...'
'That' why Argus was installed,' Sarah finished for him.
Artie nodded.
'So... Have any of you seen this phantom yourselves?' Mark enquired dryly.
Ramsey snorted while rolling his eyes.
'Mark smiled. 'I'll take that as a...'
BANG! The conversation was interrupted by a mighty boom right next to them. As edison fluttered upwards towards the roof in a sudden state of panic, the other seven occupants of the kitchen shot up from their seats.
'What the hell!' Ramsey grunted as a pillar of smoke arose from behind the microwave. He quickly headed towards the appliance and immediately pulled the plug.
'Edison, come down. It's alright, boy,' Artie begged his winged friend.
Sarah attempted to calm herself as everyone's focus shifted towards the bird. She was wound so tight even the slightest sudden noise would have made her heart skip, never mind kitchenware exploding around her.
As Artie and Ramsey managed to lure Edison back down, Mark approached her with a look of deep concern.
'Are you alright?' he asked. 'That was quite something, wasn't it? I nearly wet myself'
He feigned embarrassment and Sarah loved him for it.
She offered a grateful smile. 'I'm fine, thanks.'
The rest of the night went by a lot faster. She had to admit that for the most part, the team was enjoyable company and both Dr's Holden and Seymour were women she felt a kinship to. Both of them had sacrificed a lot in their life in the name of scientific pursuit and had rarely stayed in the same place for longer than a year. It was something she was confronted with time and time again. Her attraction to people who never stayed at the fair. Those with that same habitual and incurable case of wanderlust she so admired in the Doctor.
During the course of the evening, she had caught herself looking at Mark on more than one occasion. They way his eyes widened when someone said something that peaked his interest. The way he slowly raked his curls back with his fingers. Every time she noticed similarities between him an her Doctor she felt a stab of guilt. Like she was cheating on someone... no matter how ridiculous that would have sounded had she said it out loud. But cheating someone or something at least. Herself probably. Still she couldn't help but feel drawn to him.
'It's late,' Reid yawned. 'I'm off to get some kip.'
'We should all do that, I think,' Ramsey informed the rest of the group. 'Busy day ahead'.
As they wandered back to their sleeping quarters, Sarah lagged behind the rest of the group in order to collect her thoughts.
She felt worried about Luke and Sky after the incident in the kitchen, and hoped that they wouldn't blow up the house. Where other mothers might worry their children would trash the place while partying, she had to consider Sky and Luke may feel the need to update modern physics in her attic and destroy their home as well as greater London in the process. Luke was careful and had always showed uncanny responsibility along with his alien intelligence. Sky on the other hand, was stubborn and eager to prove herself. A dangerous combination when paired whith her abilities.
'No, no,' she mused. 'They'll be fine... K9 and Mr. Smith are there,' she reassured herself.
As she turned a corner, she caught a glimpse of an undidentifiable figure hurrying his way through an adjacent corridor.
Her heart stopped.
With the rest of the group disappearing from sight, her investigative instincts took control and the urge to follow those instincts overrode her common sense. Without so much as a minute of consideration, she silently tip toed towards where she'd seen the figure.
Bannerman Road
Present
She half-opened the front door, practicing the caution Mr. Smith had recommended. She was faced with a tall blonde, thirty-ish woman, impeccably dressed in a tight black tailored suit, and dark green suede heels that matched her eyes.
'A lawyer type... or perhaps a sales representative,' Sarah decided inwardly. The kind who never blink and leave a trail of cold bodies on their tunnel-visioned path to promotion. A predator.
She didn't bat a smoky eyelash nor moved her blood-red lips as she approached the door and closed in on Sarah. Neither did she introduce herself or bothered to state her reason for being there.
'Sarah Jane Smith,' the tall woman stated in a dry, almost chilly manner while focusing her steely gaze on Sarah's.
Sarah frowned and nodded questioningly.
'That's me.'
'I'm afraid I have some regrettable news, Mrs. Smith,' the woman proclaimed in a jumbled, almost unidentifiable accent.
'That's Miss Smith, dolly,' Sarah mused as she pressed her lips tightly together and swiftly decided to let it pass.
'May I enter?'
After a second or two of subtle hesitation, Sarah motioned for the woman to come into the house.
'Of course,' she added, attempting to sound casual.
'What's the regrettable news then?' she enquired whilst leading her guest through the hall and into the sitting room.
'Do sit down,' Sarah added.
The predator slowly lowered herself onto the edge of the couch, swung one leg over the other, and subsequently locked her cold stare onto Sarah while clasping her hands around her top knee.
'It would seem as though some unfortunate catastrophe took place in the Global Biota Repository, Mrs. Smith,' the woman informed her evenly.
Sarah's spine tightened as a sudden pang of panic shot upwards through her entire system.
The predator's features were unreadable, and yet, through her business-like facade, one could have easily interpreted her feigned look of concern as a failed attempt to repress a sardonic, almost lugubrious sense of pleasure and satisfaction. Or perhaps it was anger, and her pleasure was mostly fed by Sarah's sudden and apparent discomfort.
'I'm so sorry, I seem to have lost your name,' Sarah informed with feigned ease while remaining standing between the predator and the kitchen door.
'That's because I neglected to share it, Sarah Jane,' she replied in a manner so smarmy and disingenuous, it nearly prompted Sarah's gut to turn.
'Veronica Krauss. On behalf of my father Edmund, the founder of Krauss International, I wish to extend my apologies concerning what happened during your visit.'
'The oil baron... What does he have to do with this...,' Sarah pondered
'Must have been quite an ordeal, Mrs. Smith,' the predator whispered in an almost supernaturally suggestive fashion.
Sarah stuffed her hands into her pockets while thinking of a proper reply and simultaneously clearing her throat as a momentary silence arose.
'Can I offer you something, Miss. Krauss? Tea, coffee,...'
'Water would be most kind, Mrs. Smith,' she replied swiftly and desperately, as if suddenly on the verge of dehydration.
With a frown, Sarah fled to the kitchen and instantly conducted a bodysearch on herself in an attempt to find her sonic lipstick. This woman was here for something other than an apology. 'Krauss International, Krauss International,... Was Edmund Krauss the money behind the Vault?'
'Where is it?' she muttered silently in search of her lipstick.
Heading over towards the fridge in a panic and retrieving a bottle of water, she ordered her own composure.
'If I may ask, Miss. Kraus...,' Sarah began while pouring water into a glass. 'What does your father's oil company have to do with the Global Biota?'
'He funded its construction, Mrs. Smith,' the predator replied, suddenly standing at arm's length from Sarah as she turned around.
Startled to the core, Sarah dropped the glass to the floor, which landed with a loud and hight-pitched crash, before backing away from Krauss.
She had been right. Edmund Krauss was the man behind the curtain... But what did it have to do with her? Surely she had been just as much a victim. She had nearly died while he had been safe.
'Now, If I may ask Mrs. Smith,' the predator deadpanned while closing the distance between them. 'How is it that one woman could not only escape, but welcome me into her home the day after as if nothing had happened to her whatsoever? How coud that be...,' she dragged her words in a threathening manner.
'Unless of course, it had been carefully planned,' she suddenly snapped.
'Excuse me?!' Sarah demanded.
'Now, I will only ask this once,' she threatened. 'Where... are... the pods?' Her tone was so cold and calculated, it held a near hypnotic quality.
'Miss. Krauss,' Sarah began as the predator closed her eyes and shook her head, suddenly looking possessed.
The predator opened her mouth, though not to speak this time. As she parted her lips, something in her throat which resembled a rubbery cable, extended towards Sarah with the swiftness of an arrow...
As she attempted to duck and crawl out of harm's way, it still manged to snaked itself around her neck, clasping it so tight she immediately felt as though her windpipe was on the verge of being snapped in half. She lay contorted against the fridge like a fly caught in a web, attempting to free herself.
The predator's eyes began potruding, increasing in circumferance and growing more bloodshot and horrific as the pressure she exercized on Sarah's neck also intensified. It was almost as though she was somehow sucking the oxygen from Sarah's lungs in an attempt to blow her eyes up like two balloons that would eventually go splat.
For a moment she thought she was dreaming when she heard the sound of her sonic lipstick.
That was untill Krauss' 'tongue' retreated into her pretty face and her eyes remodified themselves from golfball size to acceptable... at least according to human convention.
Both Sarah and Krauss glanced at the doorway simultaneously. There stood a tall man with wild curly hair and bright blue eyes... in his boxers.
He aimed the sonic lipstick at Krauss while a maniacal grin slowly appeared on his face.
'Housecall,' he said while pressing the button.
It's familiar tone soon mingled with penetrating witch-like screams as Krauss crouched to her knees, huddled up like a turtle, and then, jumped through the window like a grasshopper, shattering the glass on her way... It fell to the floor with an echoeing clatter, and then... silence.
Sarah released a tremulous sigh of relief as she looked at the Doctor. He was smiling proudly... Some humanoid reptile-like blonde had just attempted to wring her neck, and he stood there smiling like a child at the fair, ready to collect his teddy bear.
'You should be in bed,' she said, her breath still uneven.
The Global Biota Repository
Two Days Earlier
Sarah recalled the story Dr. Seymour had told them earlier as she chased the figure through the dimly-lit corridors. Perhaps this phantom wasn't just a figment of the imagination after all. She reconsidered that thought and quickly decided it was silly. How could anyone survive here for that long without ever borrowing some milk or sugar?
Slowly, she closed in on a corner and remained there. A screetching sound, like a chair being dragged across the floor resounded nearby. Very nearby.
With her heart pounding in her chest, she reached for her sonic lipstick. She was never like the Doctor in that regard. She had to be prepared for the worst in a situation like this. After all, he could afford to let curiousity get the better of him and pay the price with a life afterwards. She couldn't.
She inhaled deeply and carefully peeked around the corner.
'Karlsson,' she mouthed silently.
Dr. Karlsson was crouched down over a hole in the floor which she guessed was a safe of some sort. Relieved that it was him, she watched as he lowered the black box he had held on his person from the first moment she had seen him into the square hole. Her concentration was suddenly disrupted by footsteps behind her. She kep her eyes ahead knowing all too well someone was silently approaching her. The illusion of time standing still once again established itself.
She turned around and gasped in surprise.
Relieved to find standing behind her, fingers on his lips to shush her, she closed her eyes and supressed a loud sigh of mounting tension.
For a second it felt as though she was being bathed in relief.
'I thought we'd lost you. You shouldn't wander off like this, you could get lost,' he whispered in a worried tone whilst boring into her soul with his gaze.
For a moment, she wanted to kiss him. The sudden excitement of investigation combined with his presence made her feel... ecstatic. She quickly regained her senses, broke eyecontact, and pointed at Karlsson, who by now was locking the safe and closing the floorlid.
'What is he doing?' Mark enquired casually.
Sarah put a finger to his lips, grabbed him by the hand and led him back towards where the sleeping quarters were. After having reached a sufficient distance between them and Karlsson, Sarah quickly explained what she had seen.
'What do you think is in it?' Mark asked, obviously intrigued and excited.
'No idea,' Sarah replied. 'But if I were to hazard a guess, I would say he's probably smuggling something in, no?'
'Or out?' Mark offered.
Suddenly she chuckled in amusement at their presumptions and shrugged her shoulders.
'Or he could just be doing his job.'
Mark raised an eyebrow and gave her a playful grin.
'Don't look at me like that. This place hasn't exactly had a relaxing effect on me,' Sarah fretted. 'I have to be objective and add up the facts before I start accusing people based on so little evidence. Not even evidence. I mean, I just happened to see him put a box in a safe. Not exactly unusual for a scientific facility, is it?' She proposed.
'Of course. Ridiculous to make unsubstantiated conclusions. Also, we're not policemen. we were sent here merely to report,' Mark said before both started nodding in silent unison.
'We'll see what we can find out tomorrow,' Sarah offered after a brief moment of silence.
'Yeah.'
They shared a slightly awkward moment wherein nothing was said... only uncomfortable smiles and nodds.
'You are quite something,' Sarah thought to herself as a wide grin appeared on his face.
'Very well. Goodnight then,' she said while opening the heavy door to her room and disappearing inside.
Bannerman Road
Present
His expression changed from happy to bleak as she stood up and approached him, causing her to halt abruptly. He looked as though he'd seen a ghost...
Clumsily shuffling into the livingroom, he dropped himself onto the nearest couch, attempting to ease his suddenly uneven breathing.
She rushed to his side and cleared a few stray curls from his face.
'Sarah please, I...' he began muttering.
'Yes, yes, you're fine, of course you are,' she interrupted sarcastically while placing her hand on her forehead. It was chilly. Normal for him.
'No, I feel dreadful,' he said matter-of-factly.
'Probably the sudden rush of adrenaline,' she mumbled as she grabbed a spread from the next couch and put it around him.
He looked down at the stitched up wounds on his upper chest and huffed contemptuously, no doubt directed at the idea of guns.
'Humans. Always ready and able to make unnecessary suffering even more messy and gruesome,' he pondered aloud. 'I'm surprised you don't shoot meat cleavers from rotary cannons... Now that would make a mess worthy of your primitive ambitions.'
Despite the insult, Sarah couldn't help but smile.
'Insults can cause more pain than superficial wounds, Doctor,' she informed him dryly.
For a moment, he looked at her in way that made her feel slightly uncomfortable... as if he was suddenly nervous being there beside her...
'I've gotten old, I know,' she thought to herself.
She had changed, yes. She wouldn't let him pushe her around anymore, no. Perhaps that was too much for him to take, was it? It was some act of rebellion against him. Neither was she trying to prove anything. More than three decades... that's all it was. Nearly fourty years, that's all it was.
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
'Are you happy, Sarah?'
She was dumbfounded by the question. First of all, the very fact that he would bother to ask came as a surprise. The years after they had parted, she had occasionally permitted herself to ponder on the 'What Ifs' of their relationship. Sometimes... just sometimes, that 'what if...' preceded the words '...he had been human?'.
What if he had been an ordinary man? Did she feel this attraction solely because he was something extraordinary? Because he was something exotic and genius and incomprehendible? Or would she, in the event that they had crossed paths on a random street somewhere, have fallen in love with this man if he had been, although similar, just a physicist from Cambridge, a shoolteacher from Liverpool, or a garbageman from London?
That's how she tortured herself for months and years afterwards.
She would be lying to herself had she claimed those days were long gone. Because the question had survived the years. It reared its painful head less frequently... but it was there. There were days, when the answer was a simple, sure, and slightly angry 'Yes!'... Those days, the fact that he was or had been one of the Doctor's lifecycles, seemed unfair. Because those days, all she wanted was him. The one sitting next to her. She loved all of his models and their personalities. They were like uncles, old flames, and even, in an odd way sons. But he... Well, there was no sense in beating around the bush. He was the love of her life.
Being with him again now, reminded her just how non-human her Doctor had always been. That her own needs and wishes simply did not correspond with who he was or could ever be... and worst of all, that he was meant to be temporary. That he was too brilliant and wild and curious and everything at the same time to not change several times or burn up long before she would ever stop loving him. They had all been like that. He had always been like that. Too fast to keep up with.
She barely managed to supress a sob as she answered his uncharachteristic question.
'Yes,' she smiled. 'I'm happy.'
No reaction. He simply remained seated with his head back and his eyes closed.
'And I am very happy that you're here,' she began while reaching for his hand. '
After all this time, I had convinced myself I would never see you again. Well... Not this you anyway... Doctor, I...'
Her dialogue was abruptly broken off as he shot op to his feet. Eyes widening and mouth grinning.
'Aaaaaah!' he cried as he raised a finger and patted himself on the head.
Sarah stared at him in confusion... and slight annoyance...
'Well, I'm glad you're doing fine, Sarah,' she mumbled sarcastically.
'Yaxwinik!' he exclaimed victoriously. 'Oh Sarah, I should have known...'
'Yaxwinik,' she repeated confusedly.
He turned and kneeled in front of her.
'I need your help, girl,' he said in that husky tone that made her body ache, his mouth slightly open and his eyes begged for assurance.
'Damn you and your voice,' she thought as she pressed her lips together and nodded casually.
'Of course.'
He smiled happily. Not his demented grin, but that lazy smile he gave when he was happy and content.
He grabbed her hand and locked his fingers with hers.
Their hands always found each other.