CHAPTER FIVE – THE UNIVERSES COLLIDE

Sarah Jane tried to concentrate on the article she was writing on her desktop computer, but she kept glancing over to the corner where the TARDIS sat parked. Part of her was glad Andy was inside the TARDIS. While she liked the girl, having a whole other life that she could've lived pushed front and centre played on her emotions more than she cared to think about at the moment. She knew that everyone's focus was and should be on getting Andy home, she'd have time for reflection later. Fortunately, at that exact moment, the Doctor flew out of the TARDIS and over to Mr Smith, bringing her attention back to the here and now. He quickly punched several buttons on the keyboard. 'Do we have a match?' he asked.

'Based on the various quantum signatures both you and Andrea have provided, it appears so,' Mr Smith intoned.

The Doctor turned to Sarah Jane and gave her a quick smile and thumbs up before disappearing back into the TARDIS. After a couple of moments, he stepped back out, playing nervously with his bow tie before looking at Sarah Jane and smiling. He shouted back to the open TARDIS doors. 'Wait until I give the signal, Andy!'

'Waiting!' Andy's voice carried out into the attic.

Before the Doctor could say anything else, Mr Smith interrupted. 'Excuse me, Doctor, Sarah Jane. I have an incoming communication.'

'Who from, Mr Smith?' Sarah Jane asked, coming down to stand beside the Doctor.

Mr Smith sounded almost confused when he responded. 'From me, Sarah Jane.'

The Doctor took a deep breath. 'It's probably us, trying to contact us for the same reasons we're trying to contact them.'

'There seems to be some degradation in the signal, Doctor,' Mr Smith intoned.

'Can you boost it through the TARDIS?'

'With the connection you and Andrea have established, I believe so.'

'Do it.' The Doctor glanced over at Sarah Jane. 'You ready for this, Smith?' A million things went through Sarah Jane's mind, but she kept them to herself and nodded. The Doctor called back towards the TARDIS, 'Now Andy!'

'Done!' her voice called out.

'All right, Mr Smith, try again.'

'Attempting communications link,' Mr Smith responded. Sarah Jane kept her arms wrapped tightly around herself, watching Mr Smith's view screen. 'Connection established.'

As an image of the older Fourth Doctor appeared on the screen, the Eleventh smiled as he clasped his hands together in delight. 'Well there's a face I never thought I'd see again.' He heard Sarah Jane gasp and spared her a brief glance before focusing back on his earlier self. 'How's my universe treating you, Doctor?'

'Your universe?' Four asked with a frown. 'You're me?'

'In the flesh,' Eleven reached up and adjusted his bow tie. 'And yes, your universe. You slide there and decide to stay, so to compensate, I have to come and pick up the pieces here. How one Doctor could cause so much trouble, why even the Pantheon of Discord took notice of it, feeding on the temporal wakes. The Trickster made Sarah Jane here a target several times because of her association to you. Me. Whatever.'

Four looked fondly at Sarah Jane standing next to Eleven, then turned his gaze back to his other self. 'Is this really important right now? I contacted you because we have a problem.'

'I'd say,' Eleven smirked. 'If we weren't in a hurry and you weren't me, I'd bring you up on charges.' He pointed at the screen. 'You're a thief.'

'Excuse me!' Four was indignant.

'You took my life, my place there.' Eleven reached down and grasped Sarah Jane's hand before continuing. 'My companions.' The tone implied so much more that passed unsaid between both Doctors.

Four didn't respond, but glanced back as his Sarah entered the attic and came down to stand next to him. She smiled nervously. 'Hello.' Turning towards Four, she continued, 'I don't look that much different, but is that you?' she nodded towards the view screen before looping her arm through the Doctor's and rubbing her opposite hand along his arm.

'It is,' Four responded, covering Sarah's hand with his. Turning his attention back to the view screen, he asked, 'Which body are you?'

'Eleventh.'

'Burning through them at an alarming pace, I see.'

Sarah Jane focused on the youthful appearing Doctor standing next to her, trying to ignore the older appearing Fourth Doctor and her other self on the view screen, along with all of the feelings that evoked. 'We really don't have time for you two to stand here and argue, do we?'

'Did it work?' Andy shouted from inside the TARDIS.

'Yes, I think so. Come on out and take a look,' Eleven shouted back, then focused on his other self. 'I do believe you've lost something. Or rather someone.'

Andy rushed out of the TARDIS and stepped in front of Eleven and Sarah Jane. On the view screen, Four and Sarah's relief was evident. 'Andy! Oh thank goodness!' Sarah exclaimed, tears springing to her eyes.

'Mum, Dad, you two are a sight for sore eyes!' Andy hung her head. 'I wasn't sure I'd see you again.' Sarah Jane instinctively stepped up next to Andy and put her arm around her shoulders, attempting to both comfort and protect her, although to protect her from what, she wasn't sure. Andy glanced over at her and gave her a weak smile.

The relief in Four's voice was obvious as he watched his daughter. 'Do you honestly think your mother or I would give up on finding you?'

Andy only shook her head. Sarah buried the feelings of jealousy that threatened to spring up as she looked at her counterpart comforting her daughter before concentrating on Andy. 'How are you feeling, sweetheart?'

'I'm fine,' Andy mumbled, knowing it wasn't the full truth.

Eleven cleared his throat as he reached out and ruffled Andy's hair. 'We need to figure out a way to get your daughter back to you. Given the cobbled up mess that is her genetic structure, it should've been a physical impossibility for her to even be conceived, and quite frankly, the fact that she turned out healthy is a miracle in and of itself. Sometimes the universe gives us those, and I guess for that we should be thankful.'

'Doctor,' Sarah Jane shot him a warning look. 'Could we please stay on point?'

Andy turned to Eleven, agreeing with Sarah Jane. 'You did say the longer I stayed here, the more dangerous it becomes.'

Four watched and knew Andy hadn't been completely honest when she'd told Sarah that she was fine. 'Andy?' Four asked.

She knew exactly what he meant when he used that tone. 'While I was expecting the headache I got from the original temporal explosion, I wasn't expecting the residual issues I've been having. All due to this universe from the looks of it.' She looked up at the screen. 'It's getting worse.'

'I think there's a way to channel the energy from the rift in Cardiff through the TARDIS and create a conduit to get you home. I'm sending the calculations to that Mr Smith now,' Four was matter of fact, even as he focused on the view screen and his daughter.

Mr Smith shuffled the image on the view screen to one side and displayed the Doctor's calculations up on the other half of the screen as he received him. Eleven stood looking at them for a minute. He frowned. 'That should be easy enough to rig up, but it will take some time.'

'How much time?' Sarah asked from her spot next to Four.

Eleven looked up at the view screen and smiled. 'Don't worry, Sarah. We'll keep Andy safe until we can get her home.' He started inputting calculations into Mr Smith, speaking all the while. His voice was light, but his words were anything but. 'I have to admit, I'm a bit jealous.' His eyes darkened as he looked down at his boots. 'The slow path is not something most Time Lords allow themselves the luxury of.'

On the screen, Four frowned. 'As you well know, we're not most Time Lords.'

Eleven looked up again and put his face near the view screen. 'If that were true, you would've never left Sarah here in the first place. It took you going to a parallel universe and realising that the timelines were out of whack from the moment you got there with Adric. So you decided to use that to your advantage.'

'Adric died,' Four said softly.

'He died here as well, just later on in our travels, after I'd regenerated. But you couldn't handle it. And rather than just keep moving on as we always did, you let your hearts control your life in a way Time Lords shouldn't.'

'Maybe Time Lords should. There's a lot to be said for it.' Four frowned. 'Look is this really a discussion we need to be having? We can't change the past, and I'm staying here with my family. Now, are we going to work together to get my daughter back to her proper universe, or continue to bicker about things you regret?'

'You have regrets as well.'

'Nothing that would make me change my decisions,' Four countered.

'Your decisions were wrong,' Eleven stated.

Andy started to say something, but Sarah Jane gave her a look that stopped her in her tracks.

'Now just a minute,' Sarah Jane piped in, looping her arm through Andy's in support. 'If the result of his decisions means that this young woman is here and alive, and that in their universe,' she gestured at the view screen where the Fourth Doctor and her other self were watching her, 'they've been together for however long it's been, then it's not our place to criticise.'

'Sarah Jane,' Eleven began. 'You can't possibly understand the repercussions.'

'Maybe not, but I know enough. You're here because Andy needed you and once she's home safely, you'll be gone again. Somehow I deserve better, and at least there, I get it. Any repercussions will be up to them to handle as a family.'

Eleven looked at Sarah Jane, cataloguing all of the emotions written on her face and filing them away for later. 'Right, let's go,' Eleven said quietly.

~!~!~!~

Sarah walked back upstairs into the attic carrying two mugs of tea. She watched as her Doctor walked back and forth from his TARDIS to Mr Smith and back again. On the view screen, they maintained the connection with the parallel universe where Andy was currently stuck. She could see the younger appearing Doctor bouncing back and forth in front of the view screen as he worked on the calculations on that end. Seeing herself was slightly disconcerting, but she found herself not wanting to know too much about that other universe.

She watched as Andy sat down on the steps of Sarah Jane's attic and could tell instantly that something was wrong. 'Andy?' she asked, setting down the mugs of tea and stepping up to the view screen.

Andy looked up at her mother. 'Sorry, Mum. I'm just a little woozy. Probably lack of sleep, that's all.'

Eleven glanced back at Andy, having heard her response. 'Not much longer now, I promise.'

'Something's wrong,' Andy finally whispered.

He stopped dead in his tracks, kneeling in front of Andy. She reached out and grabbed at the arm of his coat before slumping over, unconscious. 'Andy, Andy can you hear me?'

Sarah Jane rushed over to his side, instantly gathering Andy in her arms. 'Doctor, you've got to do something!'

'What's going on?' Sarah demanded to know as she tried to make sense of the scene that played out on the screen in front of her.

Four came to stand beside her. 'We need to make the transfer now!' he insisted.

Eleven spun around to face the view screen. 'We don't have much time.'

Four verified his calculations. 'Everything's ready on this end. All you have to do is flip the switch.'

Eleven nodded, then turned back to Andy and Sarah Jane. 'Sarah, I want you to hold her steady, then you'll feel her literally fading. At that point, let go, understand?' Sarah Jane nodded, obviously concerned. She reached down and shifted Andy to hold onto her shoulders. 'And now!' Eleven shouted as he flipped the switch.

Sarah Jane waited a moment. 'Nothing's happening, Doctor,' she said worriedly.

Eleven quickly knelt down next to Andy. He reached down and grabbed her wrist to take her pulse, then took his thumb to push up her eyelid and look at her pupil. 'She's not stable enough to travel alone. There needs to be a certain amount of conscious thought for her to make the transfer.' He looked up at the view screen. 'Now we have to make a choice.'

Four frowned. 'I'll have to come there, we've established the pathway, so we can easily reverse it. There's no other way. If you were to come here, it might be more difficult to get you back.'

Eleven nodded. 'I agree.'

'Well I don't,' Sarah said through the view screen from her spot standing next to Four. 'I have an idea.' She turned to him and took his hand, pulling him out of view of Sarah Jane and Eleven.

~!~!~!~

'You're not going.' Sarah turned to the Doctor. 'I'm going.'

'Sarah, you can't. You're human.'

'Don't start that with me.' She put her hands on his arms. 'It's either me, or that universe's Sarah Jane. That's your original universe. If you go, you might not be able to get back, and then where would we be? If that Doctor comes here, he runs the risk of getting stuck and we don't need that either. My daughter needs help getting home. I have a vested interest, so it makes the most sense for me to go. Besides, it won't impact me as much as it will you.'

He reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand. 'You're wrong. The transfer might be fatal if the least little thing goes wrong.'

'How likely is that?'

'I don't know. Anything could happen.'

Sarah leaned her cheek into his hand, then reached up to cover it with her hand. She turned her head to press a kiss into his wrist. 'Then I have you here and your other self there. You'll get us home, I know you will.'

'Even if you have no other ill effects, at the very least, you'll be severely disorientated and it will give you one of the worst headaches you've ever experienced.'

Sarah put her hands on her hips. 'Worse than the Scandari?'

'Yes.'

'I don't care. This is our daughter. If I was willing to face the Scandari for people I don't know, you'd better believe I will cross universes and take whatever risk for my child.'

The Doctor locked gazes with Sarah and knew she wasn't going to be dissuaded. He finally nodded. 'Very well.' He looked deeply into her eyes before leaning in and quickly kissing her before they stepped back in front of the view screen and to explain the new plan.

~!~!~!~

Sarah materialised in Sarah Jane's attic. Instantly, she reached up and put her hands against her temples, but then shook her head to ignore the throbbing pain piercing through her head. She quickly took in the situation around her. She saw her Doctor on the view screen watching her arrival. 'Made it,' she whispered to him and they exchanged a smile. She saw the Eleventh Doctor watching her, his own silly grin plastered on his face.

'Sarah Jane Smith, welcome to this universe.'

She nodded politely at Sarah Jane, who was still cradling Andy's unconscious form. 'Thank you.' She knelt down and took Andy's hand in hers.

'Are you all right?' The Doctor knelt beside her and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze as she nodded. He then reached down and pulled Andy into a sitting position. 'Okay, I want you two to switch places. Sarah, you need to be sitting behind Andy. You're going to have to hold her tight.'

From the view screen, Four could do nothing but watch and advise. 'Sarah,' he started, prompting both women to turn. 'Both of you be careful not to touch. The last thing we need is the Blinovich Limitation Effect causing more problems.'

'Right,' they both said in unison, before turning to look at one another. Sarah Jane stood up and stepped out of the way before gesturing for Sarah to take the spot she'd just vacated. Sarah slid into Sarah Jane's spot and the Doctor eased Andy into her mother's arms.

The Doctor looked into Sarah's eyes and could see the pain she was masking. 'Sarah?'

'I'll be fine,' Sarah replied as she tightened a hold on her daughter, cradling her head and smoothing back her hair.

'Crossing universes with no sort of containment shell, especially so rapidly, well it's foolhardy and dangerous.' He sighed. 'I should've known you'd jump in feet first.'

She focused all her attention on Andy. 'For my daughter? You'd better believe it.'

'I had a bad dream, Mummy. The monsters came for you and Daddy.' Andy reached up and roughly wiped away more tears with the back of her hands. 'The scary monsters,' she added before sniffing.

Sarah quickly scooped up the five year old onto the bed beside her, cuddling her close. 'It's all right, Andy, it was just a bad dream.' She reached up to wipe away Andy's tears before beginning to smooth down her wild curls in hopes of soothing her. She debated what to tell the little girl, wishing she could tell her daughter that the monsters weren't real, that they were figments of her imagination. Unfortunately, she knew that wasn't the case. Very often, the monsters in Andy's dreams were actually telepathic visions of what the Doctor was currently encountering.

'I'm scared, Mummy,' Andy sniffled again before burying her head against Sarah's chest.

Sarah held the little girl tightly. 'It's all right, you're safe.'

Sarah felt Andy relax before she shifted and tucked her head into the crook of Sarah's arm. 'Is Daddy fighting monsters again?'

Sarah glanced at the empty spot next to her on the bed. 'Yes, he is.' She turned back to Andy. 'Daddy will keep the monsters away. We'll always keep you safe.'

Sarah pushed back Andy's curls away from her face. 'I've not done such a good job of keeping you safe, have I?' She looked up at Eleven and Sarah Jane. 'What's next?'

'Hold her tight, Sarah. The strength of your quantum signature is what's going to pull you across. Her internal energies will pull on yours while you make the trip, so it will drain you. And in your already weakened state, you may even lose consciousness before you materialise back home, or soon after. At the very least, you'll be completely exhausted, fortunately the trip itself shouldn't take more than a few seconds.'

Sarah looked up at him. 'You're the original Doctor from my universe. The one I travelled with.' The Doctor cupped her cheek with his hand and gave her a small nod. 'Thank you,' she managed a small smile.

The Doctor stood up. 'Quickly now, Andy doesn't have much time.'

Sarah glanced over at Sarah Jane. 'And thank you for being here for her and for all your help.'

Sarah Jane nodded. 'She seems like a good kid. Take care of her.'

'Will do.' Sarah wrapped her arms more tightly around Andy and leaned down to whisper in her ear. 'Don't worry, Baby Girl, it's time to go home.'

The Doctor walked over to Mr Smith. 'Ready, Sarah?' At her nod, he flipped the switch. 'Here we go!' The Doctor and Sarah Jane could only watch as Sarah and Andy faded away. The Doctor released a breath he didn't know he was holding. He turned back to the view screen and watched as Sarah and Andy appeared on the screen. Home.

Sarah Jane stepped up next to him and put a hand on his arm. 'You've done it.'

'We've all done it,' he said softly. Watching the view screen, he could see his other self kneeling next to Andy and Sarah. Luke was on the opposite side and they were obviously engrossed in taking care of Andy.

Four glanced back up at the screen. 'Thank you,' he said softly.

'Ending communication,' Eleven whispered as the view screen went dark. He turned to Sarah Jane and gave her a smile. 'And that's that.'

'Will Andy be okay?'

'I knew a lot more before the war when I could keep an eye on things.' The Doctor shrugged, staring at his boots. 'As for now, I don't know, but I have to believe so. If anyone can make sure she is, they will.'

Sarah slipped her arm through the Doctor's. 'Have you truly been happy in this universe?'

'Not at first, but this eventually became home.' The Doctor turned to Sarah and wrapped his arms around her, burying his head in her hair. 'Having friends like you helps.'

'Well, I'm always here, Doctor.'

He whispered in her hair. 'My Sarah Jane.'

~!~!~!~