Her little eyebrows shot up in amazement. "Do I really?" She looked intently at the console with all it's buttons, levers, knobs and switches. To her it was like a giant busy box. She turned to him with daring in her eyes. "What do I do first?"
Oh, that look. It was the same look she'd get right before they were about to, say, leap off a cliff. Fortunately, this was not quite that daring -- at least not for him. He leaned over so that she could reach the console without falling over on it completely. "First you twist that knob over there verrrry slowly, until I say 'stop'."
Sarah Jane leaned over as he held her and slowly twisted the knob. She concentrated very hard, biting her bottom lip and holding her breath until he told her to stop.
"Perfect," he said, then pointed to the knob next to it. "Now this one." He watched her set all four dials, then swung her around to the other side of the console. "Now push that big red button."
Her tongue licked her lip as she pushed the button and heard a sound coming from the TARDIS as she did. She gasped in astonishment and looked at him for reassurance.
"It's all right," he said, smiling, and pointed at the time rotor, now moving up and down and rotating. "Perfect." He move around to a third spot, and moved her from his right hip to his left. "Now you see that lever over there? Pull that verrry slowly towards you until I say 'stop'." He reached down and picked up a large sledgehammer and got ready to swing it.
Sarah didn't see the sledgehammer. She was too busy pulling down the lever as slowly as she could. When he told her to stop and then slammed the hammer down, she jumped in horror. "You hurt her, why did you do that," she said, recovering from her shock.
"No, no, no," he said, dropping the hammer and using that hand to steady her. "It's all right, it's all right." He realized that he'd never told her that the TARDIS was a living being, but he wasn't surprised that she sensed that. "That doesn't hurt her. She's ..." He tried to find a way to explain it without actually saying, 'She's really old.' He sighed. "She's got a couple of parts that don't work right anymore. She can't feel that button unless I hit it very hard, and I can't ... I can't get a replacement. It doesn't hurt her, I promise." He touched her cheek. "I would never hurt her if I could help it," he said.
Sarah nodded with relief. "I'm glad because she is very special and she loves you so much." Sarah patted the TARDIS console gently and nodded again and then smiled at the Doctor. "It's alright, she says it didn't hurt. She said I shouldn't worry about her, she's fine."
The Doctor wondered when the TARDIS had started talking to Sarah, but didn't say anything about it. "Good, glad to hear it." He walked around to a view screen and took a look. "See that? That's where we're going."
Sarah looked curiously at the screen, and what she saw fascinated her. She looked over her shoulder at him smiling and then looked back at the screen once more. "It's beautiful. What's it called, please?"
He shifted her so she could see better. "It's the Market of Secaro. You can get anything there, including the greatest food in the universe. And it's all barter, which is the best part." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"What does barter mean?" she asked, still staring at the screen. "And what are all those little moving dots and things?"
"Those little dots are vehicles moving around the market. The market's pretty big you see. And barter means that instead of using money, you get to trade for things." The TARDIS landed with a small thud. "So I've got to load up my pockets. Come on." He tucked her under his arm like an American football and headed for a storeroom.
Sarah Jane didn't seem to mind being carried this way at all. For a while, she was content to just look around, but that didn't last long. Suddenly, she got a mischievous look on her face. She slowly pulled her arms in close and then started tickling the Doctor's side. "Got you," she laughed.
The Doctor jumped and started laughing, not because she'd gotten a particularly ticklish spot (she hadn't) but just at the silliness of the whole thing. He twisted his hand and tickled her side as he carried her. "Got you back," he said.
Sarah wriggled, laughed and kept tickling him. This went on until they arrived at the storeroom. "Give up, you've been defeated," she laughed.
"All right," he said, still laughing. "I give up." He closed a trunk-like box and sat her down on it. "Now. I need to stock up. You wait right here while I do that, OK?" He grimaced, realizing what he was about to say. "Don't wander off."
Sarah nodded and sat there waiting for the Doctor to return.
The doctor rummaged around in the storeroom, grabbing this and that and the other thing that he thought might be desirable in the marketplace, and dropping them into his pockets. When he felt that he had enough, he turned back to Sarah and his stomach dropped; she was gone. "Sarah!" he called, a bit nervous. True to form, she'd wandered off -- he hoped. And if she'd wandered off in the TARDIS, it could take hours, even days, to find her.
Suddenly he heard her laughing happily and running down one of the halls. From the sound of it, she couldn't be too far away.
He chased after the sound, and finally caught up to her as she chased after a blue-green bouncing ball. "Norman, I said behave yourself," he laughed with relief, and grabbed Sarah by the waist, tossing her gently over his shoulder and carrying her back to the console room.
Sarah Jane was still giggling. "Can I play with the blue ball some more please? It's funny!"
"No, you can't," the Doctor said, sitting her down on the jump seat.
Sarah looked miffed as Norman bounced a few more times, then dissolved into a mass of tentacles and ran away from her. "Well then, even if he is magic, I'm never going to kiss him. He can stay enchanted now because he ran away, that's just rude." She nodded her head and crossed her arms.
He couldn't help chuckling at her. "Fair enough."
Sarah Jane grew thoughtful. She looked down at herself and frowned. "I wish I had some play clothes. This is very pretty," she tugged at her skirt hem. "But it's not very comfortable, and it's very hard to keep clean," she sighed.
He looked down at her. "Hm. You're right. Can't have fun if we can't be comfortable. Off to the boot cupboard." He held out a hand and swung her back onto his shoulders. "Alons-y!" She'd always loved the boot cupboard, he thought; it was one of her favorite places. The thought of seeing her reaction to it now tickled him. He swung her back down and set her down at the doorway. "All right, Sarah Jane, welcome to the playroom." He swung open the door.