A/N: Oh, Seeds of Doom gives us so many moments to have those stolen glimpses into the relationship between 4 and Sarah. After their narrow escape from the Chase mansion as the Krynoid is bombed by the RAF, we have time for a bit of reflection. What happened after they watched the mansion destroyed and before they met with Sir Colin?
HOME AGAIN, GONE AGAIN
Sarah and the Doctor slowly entered her flat. He headed straight for the living room as Sarah shut and locked the door behind them. She walked into the living room and saw the Doctor staring out the front window. Without turning away from the window, the Doctor spoke, 'I wish we weren't meeting with Sir Colin in the morning. I would've rather just done it now and gotten it over with.'
'You know he and Major Beresford had some cleaning up to do with the RAF as well. I'm just as glad we didn't have to stick around for that.' She walked over and stood behind him, leaning around to peek out the window. She put a hand on his arm and leaned into his shoulder. 'Are you all right?'
The Doctor glanced at her, 'I suppose. We didn't have a choice.'
'No, Chase didn't give us a choice. Neither did the Krynoid.'
'It's been a rough couple of days, Sarah.'
Sarah walked away and sat on the sofa, running a hand through her hair. 'That's probably the biggest understatement I've heard in a while.'
'The people on this planet can be so stupid sometimes. Chase was driven by his insane desire to be one with plant life. Scorby was driven by nothing but money. I don't know why I put up with humans.' At that, he stalked off towards the TARDIS parked in the corner of the room, not sparing Sarah even a glance as he brushed by.
'Well, I'm human,' Sarah said softly.
He paused as he put the TARDIS key in the lock, and looked up at the ceiling. 'Even so, I still sometimes think this planet should just be left to its own devices.' He entered the TARDIS quickly and slammed the door behind him.
Sarah looked over at the TARDIS and frowned. 'Sometimes, I would agree with you.' She waited for a moment, almost expecting the sounds of dematerialisation. She didn't expect the Doctor to leave her, but then again, when he got in one of his moods, she knew better than to expect the Doctor to do anything expected. She sat still for several minutes, her eyes never leaving the TARDIS doors, the silence beginning to eat away at her already frayed nerves.
Slowly, she stood up and walked over to the TARDIS. She reached up and put both her hands on the frame, resting her forehead against the doors and closing her eyes. As she concentrated, she knew the Doctor only wanted to be left alone to collect his thoughts. She sighed and walked away, heading upstairs to get cleaned up and hopefully begin to put this adventure behind her.
~!~!~!~
The Doctor knew as soon as he walked into the TARDIS that Sarah hadn't followed him. They'd been travelling together long enough that she'd learned to give him his space when he needed it, and this was one of those times. Watching Chase being shredded by his own composter had been both gruesome and disturbing. What disturbed him most was that Sarah was almost the victim of that monstrous machine.
Chase had tried to pull him in, but Sarah had been his intended target. He'd only just been in time to quickly swing her out of danger before Chase attacked him. The idea of her being mangled alive really bothered him. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed that any form of danger she'd been threatened with was beginning to bother him more than it should.
He lived a dangerous life, and had for quite some time. He'd seen companions come and go, stand beside him and then ultimately leave when the danger got to be too much for them to handle. Sarah threatened to leave from time to time, but she never meant it, at least not seriously. He'd watched her change and grow as the Universe had opened itself to her. She'd been put in mortal danger more times than he cared to count, and yet she stood beside him, trusting that they'd always be able to escape, to overcome any obstacle that got thrown at them.
While he frequently lost track of Sarah's earthbound origins, he was beginning to wonder whether her experiences with him were making her less human. Despite his berating her species from time to time, he fully appreciated that side of her. She connected him to a side of himself that he'd sometimes rather lock away; but now she was so much more than just a normal human. She'd been exposed to so much beyond what she should've, and most of it was because of him. Had he destroyed Sarah Jane's humanity? And if he had, would she ultimately hate him for it?
The Doctor couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to soon happen between them, and that thought hurt his hearts more than he wanted to admit.
~!~!~!~
Sarah curled up on the sofa with a hot cup of tea and pulled the throw blanket across her legs. She glanced up at the TARDIS and smiled. She sipped along on her tea, lost in thought about the last few days' events. There were times she got frustrated and kept telling the Doctor that she was going to go home. Now, here she sat in her own flat. Given that they had to use normal transportation for the whole foray into Antarctica, it made as much sense to park the TARDIS here than anywhere else.
If anyone would've told her years ago when she'd snuck into the research facility as her aunt, that she would've wound up like this, she would've thought they'd gone insane. And yet, this was her life, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
It felt very wrong to have the TARDIS parked in her flat with her looking at it from the outside. At least for now, she belonged inside, travelling across the stars with the Doctor. A thought in the back of her mind kept reminding her that this couldn't go on forever, but she insisted on pushing it to the very back and trying to lock it away.
It was almost easier for her to accept the strange goings on that they got themselves into when they were on an alien world, but this adventure had brought them to Earth. Krynoid pods in Antarctica and madmen in England. Apparently, life on Earth had the potential to be an adventure as well. It still wasn't something she wanted to experience without the Doctor.
Truth be told, it was moments like this, where he distanced himself from her that she was reminded of the differences between them. Whatever their feelings were for each other, ultimately, it would always come back to the differences. Those differences seemed greater than the similarities at the moment. Absently, her brain started cataloguing those differences. He was a Time Lord from Gallifrey and she was a human from Croydon. He had two hearts instead of just one and a lower body temperature than hers. She required between six and nine hours of sleep, depending on how long it had been between opportunities to sleep and he required only an hour or two every couple of days. Their logic patterns were completely different, so they analysed situations from completely separate angles.
She shook her head to stop that train of thought and went back to thinking about this adventure in particular. She couldn't block out the image of Chase being essentially eaten by his own contraption. Her heart practically stopped as she finally processed just how close it had been to taking the Doctor as well. She took a deep breath and drank more of her tea.
Sitting the mug down on the nearby end table, Sarah finally closed her eyes for a moment and was soon pulled into a dream-filled sleep.
~!~!~!~
The Doctor stood at the console when he felt a sharp ache in his chest. Instinctively, he knew what it was and practically flew out the TARDIS door. He was by the sofa, kneeling by Sarah's side in an instant, watching her thrash about in the throes of a nightmare.
He reached up and began to smooth her hair and whisper shushing noises. 'Shhh, it's all right, Sarah, you're safe.'
Her eyes flew open as she sat up and gasped for air. It took her a moment before she registered where she was. 'Doctor?' she asked, just making sure.
He nodded and sat carefully next to her, letting a hand rest on one of her shoulders. 'I'm right here, Sarah. You were having a bad dream.'
She reached up and touched the side of his face gently. 'You're not hurt, thank goodness.' The relief in her voice was palpable as she began to cry.
He was surprised as she quickly wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, but he returned her embrace and soothingly rubbed a hand across her back, 'Hey, what's all this about?' he asked softly.
'I dreamt you got caught in Chase's machine, and I couldn't get you out or stop the machine.'
He instinctively tightened his grip around her, pulling her even closer. 'Oh Sarah, I'm sorry.' Stressful situations, he reminded himself. Not long after they first met, he'd found her having a nightmare in her room in the TARDIS, and she'd said she had them when she was in stressful situations. In all the times they'd slept together since then, even most recently in Antarctica, he couldn't remember her having more than just the occasional odd dream.
He stood up, pulling her along with him. For a moment, he pondered taking her back to her room in the TARDIS, but decided against it and slowly led her upstairs.
~!~!~!~
Sarah yawned and stretched, squinting her eyes against the sunlight. It took a moment for her to recognise her surroundings as her own bedroom in her flat in Croydon. She felt an arm around her waist, and looked over and smiled at the Doctor stretched out on top of the covers, sleeping soundly next to her. She turned slightly and reached over and put a hand gently on the Doctor's chest.
'I'm awake,' the Doctor said softly.
'Sure you are. How long were you asleep?' Sarah asked.
'Three hours, twenty two minutes and thirty eight seconds.' He propped himself on an elbow and turned to look at her. 'How are you feeling this morning? You were having some pretty bad nightmares last night, Sarah.'
She closed her eyes and turned away from him. 'That happens from time to time, you know that. You've seen enough of them.'
'I've not seen anything like this from you in quite some time.'
Sarah sighed, and kept her eyes closed. 'I suppose.'
The Doctor reached up and gently ran a finger along the edges of her face, tracing a line from her cheekbone down to her jaw. 'I know this experience wasn't pleasant for you. I have to admit it wasn't one of my better ones either, but we made it through, Sarah.'
She finally turned back to him. 'Yes, I know, and I'm glad, believe me. I'm just surprised by how insane some people can truly be. Chase wanted us to be turned into compost, and the Krynoid just hated anything that wasn't plant life. I never expected to run into this here on Earth.'
The Doctor wrapped his arm back around Sarah's waist and pulled her towards him. 'Unfortunately, Sarah, I think you'll find that there's a level of insanity on any planet in the Universe. But, that's why we do what we do, we have to be the voice of reason sometimes.'
'Even if it almost gets us killed?'
He smiled. 'At least then you know you're on the right track.'
'What does that say about our level of sanity?' She smiled at him, waiting for his reaction.
Seeing her smile, he laughed. 'Oh, we're definitely insane.'
She joined in his laughter. 'Oh good, at least I'm not alone in that.'
'No Sarah, you're never alone.'
~!~!~!~