Sarah always felt as if she were entering a sanctuary when she crossed her own threshhold and shut her door on the outside world. That feeling washed over her especially strongly tonight as she let her friends into the house, locked the door behind her, and took a moment to lean back against it, close her eyes, and exhale deeply.

"You pulled it off. Well done." She opened her eyes and saw the Doctor standing in the doorway, smiling at her. Then he nodded toward the living room behind him. "Now get in here. The pizza's getting cold."

She laughed and stepped up to him, wrapped an arm around his slim waist and walked out of the entryway with him.

They brought kitchen chairs into the living room for the benefit of their alien guests, whose tailfeathers were not really designed for comfort in overstuffed furniture. Sarah picked up the remote, then claimed one end of the couch, her legs folded under her, while Harry sank down next to her and Martha next to him. The Doctor sat on the floor in front of Sarah, his long legs stretched out in front of him, using the couch as a backrest and within an easy arm's reach of the pizza boxes piled on the coffee table. Sarah clicked the TV on and then tuned in to Planet 3 just in time to catch the evening news.

Galindor was rivetted by the news and was astonished to see female newsreaders. "Is that what you did, Sarah Jane, when you worked for them? Were you a newsreader?"

"No," Sarah said around a bite of veggie pizza. "I was never a newsreader. Just a journalist." Harry turned, raised his eyebrows and gave her a pointed look. She tightened her lips and, with a slight shake of her head, gave him a half-warning, half-pleading look. He sighed, bent forward, helped himself to a piece of pizza, then leaned back and stretched his left arm out across the back of the sofa behind her as he took a big bite of cheese and pepperoni.

They watched images of the day's events unfold on the screen, the humans endeavoring to explain some of the more esoteric aspects of the daily happenings on planet Earth for their alien visitors, who were full of questions.

Harry laughed. "Gives you a whole new perspective on the news to watch it with aliens."

Just then, the image changed to show the London Eye, and the newsreader said, "And now, our Man on the Street, Toby Whitman. Toby visited the Eye this morning, and chatted with some of the folks who were enjoying our city's greatest tourist attraction. Toby? Who did you meet?"

Galindor leaned forward eagerly.

"Well, Bob, we saw a lot of faces, some old familiar faces, and some faces...well, you might have to see to believe."

The camera cut to Sarah Jane and Galindor, and Galindor--the real one, not the one on screen--let out a cackle of glee. "I am on alien vidscreen!" he crowed delightedly. He turned quickly to Sarah Jane. "Are you able to record this?"

"Way ahead of you," she said, brandishing the remote. "Not sure what you'll be able to watch it on, but you'll have a copy."

"We could send them back with a DVD player," Harry suggested.

"AC or DC?" Sarah asked mildly. "110 or 220?"

"Oh," Harry said, his face falling. "Well. Battery operated then."

"That'll work for awhile at least," Martha said.

"And a supply of batteries," Harry added.

"Rohstan and I can probably sort out the power issues," the Doctor said. "Or I could just have the TARDIS copy it onto something compatible with their systems."

"That's sorted, then," Harry said, sounding pleased, and helped himself to another slice of pizza.

* * *

"Good God. Some people will do anything to try to get back into the public eye."

Owen Harper was watching the London evening news in the Hub. He laughed sardonically at the image of the woman and the bird man that had flashed on the screen moments before.

"What's that?" Captain Jack Harkness stepped up to Owen's side, took a swig of coffee from his Starbucks cup, and stared at the monitor.

"Oh, this woman," Owen said dismissively.

"What about her?"

"Sarah Jane Smith." Owen curled his lip in disdain and said the name as if it should be self explanatory, but Jack just shrugged. "Sarah Jane Investigates?" Owen said, looking at Jack expectantly. Jack added a head shake to his shrug this time. "Had her own TV programme. Went undercover, did exposes." He pursed his lips and made an "ooo" noise as he widened his eyes and held his hands up in mock awe. Then he dropped the act and one corner of his mouth turned down. "Did one too many. Got her facts wrong, got shown the door, nearly put Planet 3 out of business with all the fines and "gee gosh golly we're sorry" money they had to pay out to the company Miss Sarah Jane wrongly accused of being a menace to the ecosystem."

"She does look familiar," Jack said thoughtfully, staring at the screen.

"If you watched TV at all, you couldn't have missed her. Darling of the chat shows. Intrepid girl reporter, all that bollocks."

"Girl reporter?" Jack repeated dryly. "How many years ago was this?"

"Not that many." Owen screwed up his face, trying to remember. "2000. 2001 maybe. And it's a figure of speech," he added.

"Mmm. Not a very accurate one then. Not that she isn't holding up well," he added appreciatively. Then his eyebrows came together in a scowl. "Who's that with her?"

"Some poor sod of an actor she shanghaied to get herself back in front of a camera, no doubt."

Jack set his coffee down on a nearby desk, then leaned in to peer at the monitor more closely. "Tosh," he called without looking up. "Are you recording this?"

"Automatically," came the reply.

"As soon as this segment's done, play it back for me, okay?"

"You got it."

Jack and Owen waited, watching the end of the Man on the Street segment, then Tosh joined them as it began to play again on their screens.

Jack let it play all the way through, then turned to his team. "What did we just see here, boys and girls?" he asked.

Owen scowled. "Told you. Has-been where-are-they-now-and-who-the-hell-cares over-the-hill former celebrity trying to kick-start her dead career back to life in a desperation move."

"Try again," Jack suggested. "Tosh? One more time."

Tosh went back to her workstation, hit a few keys, then returned to Owen's monitor to watch the video again.

"Freeze it, Tosh," Jack said, when the camera zoomed in on Galindor's face. She did, and Jack stood staring at the screen for a long moment before turning to his team with raised eyebrows. "Pop quiz. What. Is that." He looked from Owen to Tosh and back again.

Owen frowned, but didn't answer. "An actor?" Tosh said hesitantly.

"Oh Tosh Tosh Tosh," Jack sighed. "I'd expect that from John Q Public. Not a member of my team. Try again."

Tosh looked at the screen, then back at Jack. "An alien?"

"Bingo," Jack said.

Owen rolled his eyes. "An alien. On the London Eye. Letting himself be interviewed for the evening news. Jack, you've gone right round the twist."

Jack put a hand on the back of Owen's neck and pushed him, not overly gently, in the direction of the monitor. "Look. At. It," he said emphatically. "Tosh, can you zoom in on this picture?" he called over his shoulder.

"Sure. What part?"

"Start with the beak." The image zoomed in on the shiny black beak. "OK, pan up to the eyes." The image obligingly moved up and they stared into large alien eyes. "Now the feathers." A close-up image of the roots of the colorful crest appeared. Jack let go of Owen's neck, and Owen settled back into his chair, rotating his head, but staring at the monitor. "Does that look like makeup and prosthetics?" Jack asked rhetorically.

Tosh and Owen just stared at the screen.

"No." Jack answered his own question. "So the new question becomes, who is this Sarah Jane Smith who has the unbelievable balls to parade a real alien through London, telling a cock-and-bull story about him being an actor because she knows that people don't believe the evidence of their own eyes? Even people who should know better," he added, scowling at Tosh and Owen.

The freeze frame ended, and the video continued, coming back to Sarah's face. Jack narrowed his eyes at the monitor. "And why does she look so damn familiar?" he added softly. "Keep it going in a loop, Tosh."

"Right," she agreed.

Jack stood, arms folded over his chest, one knuckle absently tapping his upper lip, as the segment with Sarah Jane and the birdman played a few more times. Then his eyes widened and he straightened up. "Tosh. Do you still have that CCTV footage from a few months ago? When my Doctor Detector went off and that woman and man got caught up in the rift flare?"

"Yeah, I think I archived that."

"Oh, you're so going to get a big wet one on the lips if you did," Jack said earnestly. Tosh blushed and frantically hit keys.

The image of a cul-de-sac replaced the evening news on Owen's monitor. They watched as a slim woman with auburn hair followed a tall, lanky, dark-haired man onto the screen. The man stepped away from the woman and a flare of rift energy made him disappear from view, but the woman gave a quick glance over her shoulder as if checking to see if anyone was watching. For a moment, her face was visible to the CCTV camera.

"Freeze it!" Jack yelled, and Tosh poked at her keyboard and made it so. "Sarah Jane Smith, eh." He grinned, then laughed, his blue eyes flashing with delight. "So we've finally found you."

"You think that's her?" Owen said doubtfully.

"You don't?" his boss snapped back.

"Well. There's a resemblance, I'll give you that. But I wouldn't--what do you say? 'bet the ranch'?--on it being her."

"There's a resemblance. She's seen in Cardiff playing with rift energy when my Doctor Detector goes off, and now she's hob-nobbing with aliens in London? You bet I'll bet the ranch."

"On what?" Tosh asked, wide-eyed with confusion.

Jack opened his mouth, then shut it and took a breath before answering. "On the fact that it's worth a trip to London to find out more about this Sarah Jane Smith." He looked at the two of them. "Ianto and Susie will be back tomorrow to hold down the fort. Who's up for a road trip to the big city?"

Tosh looked at Jack and Owen hesitantly, then tentatively raised her hand. Jack chuckled and reached out, took Owen by the wrist and raised his hand for him. "Good, two volunteers."

* * *

"May we view it again, Sarah Jane?" Galindor said hopefully.

Sarah grinned and hit the remote. Their interview started over and Galindor's eyes were glued to the screen.

"So, what's on the agenda for tomorrow?" Harry asked, turning to Sarah.

She took a deep thoughtful breath and sighed it out before responding. "Well. London was a bit of a challenge today."

"Wasn't so bad," Harry said encouragingly, but with an amused grin.

Sarah gave him a look, then went on. "So I was thinking about getting out of the city and showing them the countryside." Harry's eyebrows furrowed and he stared at her. The Doctor twisted around from his place on the floor to look up at her with an identical worried frown. "What?" she asked, looking from one to the other.

Harry shook his head. "If you think London was a challenge..."

Sarah frowned at him and shrugged her shoulders when he didn't continue. "What?" she asked again.

"Sarah," Harry said. "Londoners are pretty blase. They've seen it all. But people in the country, in villages..."

"What?" she asked for the third time when he again trailed off, raising her voice a bit in exasperation.

"They can be scary," Harry finally finished.

Sarah laughed. "Oh Harry. You've seen too many movies. Country people aren't all out to eat the big city folk who make the mistake of wandering into their village."

"Your people consume one another?" Rohstan asked, sounding worried.

"No, no," Sarah assured him quickly. "Just in movies. And on TV. More of that tendency we have of liking to scare ourselves."

"I don't know, Sarah," the Doctor said, also sounding worried.

"Not you too."

He sighed. "I'm sure it was just an isolated case. But one of your villages gave me a pretty rough time."

"What kind of a rough time?"

"Oh. Devil worship," he said with an unhappy wrinkle of his nose. "Well. It was actually an alien. From the planet Daemos. But they didn't know that."

Sarah met his eyes and this time, she looked worried as well. "You know. You're right. I ran into some of that myself. Not an alien," she clarified when he gave her a surprised look. "Witchcraft. Human sacrifice. Nearly lost my aunt's ward to them."

"I nearly lost Jo to them," the Doctor said. "Not to mention getting a bit frosted up myself."

"Jo?" Martha asked.

"My assistant."

"Assistant?" Martha asked in a surprised tone.

The Doctor gave her a pointed look. "Yes. Assigned to me by UNIT." His look softened and he smiled. "Thought she was the tea lady at first."

"Tea lady?" Martha asked, shifting from surprised to baffled.

Sarah grinned. "Jo, short for Josephine," she clarified.

"Oh. Figures," Martha said. "You knew her?"

"Met her briefly. At the wedding." She gave the Doctor a sidelong glance and grinned. "Just long enough to share some tips."

"About what?" the Doctor said suspiciously. Sarah gave him an eyebrows-up innocent look. "Me?" he asked, pointing at his chest. Sarah grinned and the Doctor rolled his eyes at her. "That's a conversation I'd like to have heard."

"Wouldn't you just," Sarah agreed.

"So." Harry broke into their reminiscences. "We're agreed the English countryside isn't quite ready for our friends. What's Plan B?"

Sarah looked at Rohstan and Galindor, who had been listening patiently to the conversation since the replay of the interview had ended. "Do you have anything in particular you'd like to see?" she asked them.

"We are interested in anything you wish to show us," Rohstan said. "Your world is endlessly fascinating to us." He glanced at his nephew for corroboration, and Galindor nodded his agreement. "Although, since you did pose the question, I would say that seeing the larger fauna you mentioned today at the zoological gardens would interest me greatly."

Sarah nodded. "Okay. I can check on the internet what the hours are for the large animal area."

"Why not just take them to the Serengeti?" Harry asked.

Sarah stared at him in surprise. "You think getting them on a plane and across a few international borders would be easier than taking them to an English village?"

"You have a TARDIS at your disposal," Harry said, gesturing toward the police box sitting in the corner of the living room. "And a TARDIS driver," he added, indicating the Doctor. "You could take them anywhere. Or anywhen."

The Doctor twisted his head around to look up at Sarah. "I was wondering when someone would think of that," he said with a grin.

Sarah's mouth hung open for a second as she looked down at him. "We thought of it," she said. "Didn't we, Martha?" Martha nodded. "I just didn't like to ask." She looked at him appraisingly. "Wasn't sure you were up to it," she added softly.

"Got you here, didn't I?"

"Doesn't mean you're up to flying us all over the planet."

He clicked his tongue dismissively. "I could pilot the old girl in my sleep. And have done. It's not a strain. Especially if you only want to travel in one dimension."

She gave him a long look. "You're sure?" He raised his eyebrows and pulled a "quit worrying" face. "Well then. That opens up the possibilities a bit." She got up, retrieved a notepad and pen from her desk, then stepped over the Doctor to return to her spot on the couch. "Where shall we go?"

The next half hour was spent listing all the places on the earth that the residents of the planet thought worth a visit, and explaining to their alien guests what the attraction of those places was. When they ran out of suggestions, Sarah reviewed the list. "Well. If we do these all in one day, we'll have..." She did a quick calculation in the margin of her notepad. "Ten minutes to spend at each site." She looked down at the Doctor. "That's assuming we have zero travel time."

"Can be done," the Doctor said, nodding.

"By day, you mean twenty-four hours?" Harry asked. Sarah nodded. "Might be a bit tiring, don't you think?"

Sarah laughed. "Definitely. Let's go over the list again and see if we can pare it down."

"I could always get you to the next site just ten minutes after we left the one before," the Doctor offered.

"No matter how long we stayed?" Martha asked, intrigued.

The Doctor tipped his head back and forth thoughtfully. "Within reason."

"So we'd pack well more than twenty-four hours' worth of sight-seeing into a twenty-four hour period?" Sarah asked. He nodded. She looked to her guests again. "Rohstan, how much sleep do your people need?"

"It is somewhat variable to the individual, of course," Rohstan responded. "But we generally perch for approximately a third of our day. Your rest and activity cycles were quite in synch with ours when you visited our planet."

Sarah nodded. "So. Let's cut it back to what we can reasonably see in, what, twelve, fourteen hours, real time?"

Another ten minutes and they had a workable itinerary compiled. The next question was how to spend the rest of their evening.

"What would you like to do?" Sarah asked her guests.

"How do your people generally spend time after consuming your evening meal?" Galindor asked.

Harry, Sarah and Martha threw out a number of earthly ways to spend time, from playing cards to parlor games to visiting the local pub, explaining each one until their visitors' eyes were wide with the number and variety of options.

"Please," Rohstan said. "What would be your normal mode of spending time, Sarah Jane? Let us participate in a standard evening for you."

Sarah looked at Harry. "Movie?" Harry suggested.

Sarah shrugged and nodded. "If I'm not working." She looked at Rohstan apologetically. "I lead a pretty quiet life." Harry snorted and looked pointedly around the room. "Well. Most of the time," Sarah amended with a grin.

"Could we see the vidscreen entertainment that you said we were going to appear in a new version of?" Galindor asked.

"Birdman of Alcatraz?" Harry asked. Galindor nodded as he recognized the title, and Harry turned to Sarah. "You have that one?"

Sarah shook her head. "We'd have to see if the rental store has it."

"You have The Birds?" Harry asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Harry," Sarah said in a warning tone.

Martha grinned. "How about Bye Bye Birdie?"

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?" Harry suggested, ignoring Sarah's warning, his eyes challenging Martha.

"The Maltese Falcon," she shot back.

"To Kill a Mockingbird," Harry countered.

Sarah shook her head, climbed up off the couch again and went over to the shelves where her DVD collection was stored. She sorted through the movies, ignoring the ever wilder suggestions being thrown around behind her. "OK," she announced, silencing her friends--except for muffled sniggering. "I have Fly Away Home and March of the Penguins."

Harry looked at Martha and laughed. "How did we miss those two?"

"Give us time, we would have got them," Martha said. She turned to Sarah. "They're both great movies."

"And will give our friends a glimpse into another aspect of life on Earth," Sarah said. "Which will it be?" She described the content of the two movies to Galindor and Rohstan. Galindor was intrigued by the human interest story of Fly Away Home, but deferred to his uncle, the scientist, who clearly favored the documentary.

"Maybe we'll have time for both," Sarah said, as she inserted March of the Penguins into the player. "Duck," she said to the Doctor as she carefully stepped over him to return to her place on the couch. He did, and Martha groaned. Sarah furrowed her brows for a moment, then realized what she had said. "Oh, stop," she laughed at Martha. "That one was an accident." She aimed the remote, hit play, and settled back to watch.

"Is this a real location on your planet?" Galindor asked as the snow-swept Antarctic appeared on the screen.

"Definitely," Sarah said after a momentary pause.

"Perhaps we should add it to our list for tomorrow? It appears to be remarkable."

"It is very very cold," Sarah said, emphasizing the "very"s.

"You've been there?" Martha asked, surprised.

Sarah nodded.

"With me," the Doctor said with a grin.

"The first time," Sarah agreed.

"You went back?"

She nodded. For a moment, her face grew grim and her eyes drifted out of focus. Then she smiled down at him. "It was more fun with you."

"Blimey," he said. "Must have been miserable the second time. I don't recall that trip being what anyone would call fun."

"It was pretty miserable the second time," Sarah agreed softly. "I'd just as soon not go for a third try." She brought herself back to the present with a visible effort, and smiled at her guests. "But if you want to go, and the Doctor is willing to take you, don't let me hold you back. I can wait in the TARDIS."

Harry gave her an incredulous look. "Wait in the TARDIS? Good grief. That's not the Sarah Jane I know. What happened down there?"

Sarah glanced around the room. "Long story, Harry," she finally answered. "I'll tell you all about it. Some day." She gave him an apologetic smile. "Let's watch the movie now," she said, and everyone obligingly turned their attention to the screen.