He smiled at her, enjoying the warmth of her hands on his face. "I'll have you," he said. "I told you, you're going to see me again. It may take a little while, but you will definitely see me again."

"Will it be when I'm a big girl and ready to come back here?" she asked, leaning her cheek against his.

He wondered if he could really give up on the idea of ever seeing this little version of Sarah Jane again. "Why don't you just let me surprise you?"

His answer was exactly vague enough to encourage Sarah Jane. She knew, as every young child does, that if the answer isn't exact, there's a chance it could mean what you really want it to mean. "Oh, I hope it will be soon," she said, smiling warmly at him.

'Oh, that smile, it just keeps tugging at my hearts,' he thought. "Me too," he said, smiling back at her. "Now. Ready?"

"Not yet," she said to him as if he were the child and she was the adult. "Remember, I have to change my clothes first."

He smiled at her pseudo-maturity. She was like an old soul in a 5-year-old body. "All right, then, let's go." He took her hand and slowly walked her back to the boot cupboard, where she'd left her dress. "Why don't you go and change your clothes, and I'll go get your flower."

"Please don't forget Elizabeth, I left her behind too," Sarah Jane called out to him as she went to change.

He sighed as he walked back to the garden. He thought he'd missed her before; this was going to be much worse. In the garden he neatly snipped the bloom she'd chosen, leaving enough stem for her to put it in water like a normal terrestrial flower, even though it didn't need it. Then he gathered up her stuffed owl and headed back.

Halfway back to the boot cupboard he doubled back just a little and opened the door to one particular bedroom. Pink and white, it was just as she'd left it (or would leave it), except that he'd tidied up and made the bed. Every once in a while he'd come in here and just sit, enjoying the faint scent of her and pretending she was still traveling with him. More than one companion had teased him about it, referring to the room as "the shrine". After he'd given Rose a stern talking to for coming in, she'd taken to referring to the room's former occupant (not altogether charitably) as "Saint Sarah". It didn't stop him.

He opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a box of chocolate-covered cherries. He'd often enjoyed the mingling of the chocolate smell with the peaches and hyacinth that were her signature scent, so when she'd mentioned chocolate covered cherries, seemingly forever ago, he'd known just where to find them. Fortunately, for the most part food didn't spoil in the TARDIS, and after pulling out a single cherry and placing it carefully back in the drawer so he could still smell it, he tucked the box under his arm and headed back to the boot cupboard.

When he arrived, she was sitting on a trunk, swinging her legs while she waited for him.

He set the chocolates in front of her. "I believe these are yours."

Sarah Jane's eyes grew huge. "The whole box? Mummy never let me eat that much, she said it would make me sick." Sarah opened the box and then looked up at the Doctor. "Somebody already ate some. Is this your box of candies?"

He smiled. Oh, if she only knew. "They were. Now they're yours. And I don't think there's enough left in there to make you sick."

"Thank you," she said politely. "Would you like one?" She offered the box to him before she had any.

"No, thank you," he said. "I've saved them for you."

She smiled gratefully at him and popped one into her mouth. She broke the chocolate shell, sucked on the juice and then started munching on the cherry. "Mmmm," she said as she ate it. When her mouth was empty she counted out how many were left. "There are six more here," she said happily. "Now there's going to be only five more." She popped another piece into her mouth and shrugged her shoulders at him, still smiling.

He smiled back at her. "I'll bet in a moment there will only be four more."

She nodded in agreement as she chewed away with obvious pleasure. When she finished, she looked over at him and put her arms around his neck affectionately. "Can I take rest of the chocolates with me instead of eating them all right now? I'm not as hungry as I thought I was." Her stomach growled as if on cue. "My tummy's eating what I just sent it," she said, pointing to her stomach.

He stifled a chuckle. "Of course you can take it with you," he said. "Now then, let's go tell the blue box where your Auntie lives." He started to swing her up onto his shoulders for one more airplane ride back to the control room.

"Thank you for everything Doctor. I think you're wonderful," she said as she threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. He felt himself blushing. In all the years they'd traveled together, they had never shared so much as a peck on the cheek. Now here she was, a complete innocent, oblivious of any reason not to. "You're welcome." He said, and put her back on his shoulders before she could say anything else.

She sat up there thinking as he walked back to the control room. She put her head on top of his and looked around comfortably as it stayed there. She was completely unaware of how many times he would do that to her. She also had no idea that this was the only time she would be able to do it to him. "If you know me from when I'm big, do you know what I'm going to be when I grow up," she asked him.

"Yes," he said.

"Then what am I going to be," she said, playing with her fingers in his hair.

"A journalist," he said.

"What is that, please?" she asked, still playing with his hair. At the moment, she had both hands in it, and was making it go in a sort of mohawk up the center of his head.

"A journalist is a person who looks around to see what's going on and writes it in the newspaper so everybody knows," he answered, setting the coordinates with one hand and holding her ankle with the other.

"Oh, that sounds like fun. I think I'll like that," she said, mussing his hair up as she started to create yet another new hairdo for him. "Good, because that's what you're going to do," he said. "Until we meet again, that is."

"Is that when we'll get married, and live happily ever after?" she asked. Now she was making lots of little spikes in his hair.

He laughed at her one-track mind. "You'll have to find out then," he said, swinging her off his shoulders and into his arms. "Because we've just arrived at your Auntie's house."

"But you are going to marry me, aren't you? You have to, or we can't live happily ever after," she said, with child like certainty.

"We'll talk about it when the time comes, but some things will have to wait. Because you, my dear, are very sleepy." He slid his finger across her forehead as he would do so often in their travels. "And now, you're going to sleep."

Sarah Jane said nothing. She had fallen asleep on his chest, her flower still clutched in her hand, and her owl pressed against her chest.