A/N - There's still a little more of Sarah, Harry and Susan's story left to tell...this is where this picks up. :-)

EPILOGUE

MANY YEARS LATER

On Trivid, a much older Lacond sat down at a small table, in the otherwise empty room. She looked at the old gray haired man sitting across from her. 'So what do you think, Doctor?'

'I think it has interesting possibilities, my dear.'

'Susan can get the best education back on Gallifrey. I'd rather her learn everything the Time Lords can teach her. I've already taught her what she needs to know here. Do you think we can get her into the Academy?'

'It's possible, with her father's agreement. What if I decide to leave Gallifrey at some point? I won't stay there forever, you know.'

'Doctor, you're like a father to me and you've done more than your fair share for this planet over the years. If you travel the stars, then my daughter should travel the stars. It would be an amazing experience for her. And good for you to have someone with you. You're not as young as you used to be. Besides, no one need ever know that she's not genetically your granddaughter.'

'She is part Gallifreyan. The way the loom works, that makes her my granddaughter in almost every sense of the world. And as for my age…' The Doctor made a shushing noise. 'I do very well, and I'm not that old, all things considered. Now, quit talking about all I've done, since I've not done them yet.'

Lacond stood up, walked to the door and called for Susan. A elfin looking young girl with short, dark hair came bounding into the room. 'Susan, you're going to be going with the Doctor. He's going to make sure you get more advanced training from the Time Lords.'

Susan smiled broadly, 'You mean I get to go to Gallifrey with Grandfather?'

'Yes you do.'

Susan ran over and hugged the Doctor. 'When do we leave, Grandfather?'

'Go and pack, then we'll leave.' After Susan ran out of the room, the Doctor turned back to Lacond. 'I do have one question, Lacond.'

'Anything.'

'How did you come up with such a terrestrial name like Susan?'

Lacond smiled. 'You just told me not to tell you about what you'd done and the time laws dictate that I can't tell you the specifics, but remember the name Sarah Jane Smith, you will need to. About Susan, all I can say is I met a young Earth girl named Susan during our Civil War. She and her family were some of the bravest people I ever met. I only felt it right to honor her by naming my daughter after her.'

~!~!~!~

In Ealing, the young soldier in uniform walked into the house unannounced and pulled off her beret and overcoat, hanging them on the coat hook near the door. 'Mum?' she called out. A whirring noise drew Susan's attention and she watched as K9 rolled into the room, tail wagging. 'K9! How did you get repaired?' She noticed there was no rust on the machine as she knelt down beside him and put a hand on his head. 'Wait a minute, you're not the same K9 are you?'

'Negative, mistress Susan. I am K9, Mark IV.'

'You look exactly the same! Impressive.' She scratched K9 between his "ears" and stood up. 'Where's Sarah?'

'In here, Sue!' came the voice from the kitchen. Sarah walked in the room and wrapped Susan in a warm, enveloping hug. 'Happy birthday, Lieutenant Sullivan.'

Susan grinned and pointed to her shoulder. 'It's actually Captain now, I just got a promotion!'

'Congratulations Sue, you absolutely deserve it.'

'Thanks, Mum. And with it I got an increase in my security clearance, but I still couldn't find out anything about Dad.'

Sarah frowned. 'I'm sure he's ok.'

'It's been several months.'

'Your father knows how to take care of himself.'

'I know, but I just don't like the term "missing". It's too close to "killed in action" for me.' Susan sighed, 'All right, change of subject, I don't want to be sad on my birthday.' She looked down at K9. 'So, what's up with the new K9?' Sarah only smiled and looked down at K9, remembering her recent encounter. Susan gasped, 'The Doctor was at that school, wasn't he?'

Sarah looked back at Susan as they both crossed to sit down on the sofa. 'How do you know about Deffry Vale? I didn't tell you about that!'

Susan grinned. 'I am with UNIT, remember? I get paid to know things like that. Actually, I took a group out to the school to clean up after the explosion. I wanted to make sure we took care of everything before Torchwood decided to show up. We found the remains of some odd creatures.'

'Krillitanes.'

'Ah, ok. I'll make sure that gets put in the report.' Susan paused briefly, then asked, 'So, how was that for you?'

'It was nice to actually say some things to the Doctor. Get some stuff out in the open.'

'Was it the same Doctor as I met? I'm curious as to whether he's been back to Trivid. I also want to know if he said anything to you about what happened?'

Sarah smiling knowingly. 'About Mirsaj?'

'That was a very long time ago!' Susan defensively replied, before quickly softening. 'All right, perhaps, the thought briefly crossed my mind.' Susan smiled back.

'This Doctor was different. Very young looking. He knew who I was, but he said it had been several regenerations since we last met. I wasn't sure if the whole Trivid experience had even happened for him yet or not. I tried to be very careful about what I said, just in case.'

Susan sighed. 'The dangers of time travel.'

It was Sarah's turn to change the subject. 'So, birthday girl, where would you like to go for dinner?'

'I know we said something about going and eating out somewhere like Jardine's, but would you mind if we just picked up a quick take-away, maybe a video and then just come back here for some peace and quiet? It's been a long day.'

'I completely understand.' Sarah patted Susan on the knee as she stood up. 'Anything you want, Sue, after all, you only turn 30 once. Let me go get my jacket from upstairs.' Sarah headed towards the stairs when the doorbell rang.

Susan stood up and headed for the door, 'I'll get it.'

Sarah stopped and smiled. 'Good, it should be a surprise for you. I was hoping it could've gotten here earlier, but better late than never.'

Susan opened the door and saw Harry standing there, smiling. Susan beamed and quickly grabbed him in a tight hug. 'Dad! They said you were missing! No one knew where you were – even Uncle Alistair said he couldn't give me any more information. Are you OK, are you home for good, or is this just temporary?'

Harry pulled away from Susan, walked in the door and closed it behind him. 'I can't go into details right now, I've been doing "medical research"', he said, putting his fingers up to mimic quotes around the last two words. 'It's all hush hush, you know. I just knew I wanted to get here for your birthday.'

Susan sighed. 'I have two parents who are bound and determined to get themselves killed at an early age.'

'I have no idea what you're talking about, do you Sarah?' Harry asked as he walked over and gave her a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.

Sarah smiled, 'Nope, not at all.'

Harry kept an arm around Sarah and continued, 'The first thing I did was ring Sarah to see what your plans were and if I could join. After all, what sort of dad would I be if I missed your birthday?'

Susan looked at both her parents and smiled. 'Thank you both. This is a great way to spend a birthday! We haven't been together like this since we were in Tenerife after the whole Trivid thing.'

'And you're both staying tonight. No argument, I've already made up the beds in both rooms for you.' Sarah's look enforced the lack of argument.

Susan and Harry exchanged glances and smiles before they both saluted and replied in unison, 'Yes, Ma'am!'

~!~!~!~

Sarah and Harry sat at the kitchen table, each quietly contemplating the mug of tea in their hand. 'Thanks for letting me stay last night, Sarah.'

'You have to leave again, don't you?' Sarah asked softly.

'I was only able to get the two days away. Sarah, I don't know when I'll be back, or if I'll be back. This mission isn't like the others.'

Sarah looked over at him, tears just at the edges of her eyes. 'It's not fair, Harry. When you went over to MI5, I thought these crazy assignments would be over.'

Harry shrugged. 'Me too, Sarah, but now that Susan has her own life and career, I can't turn down these opportunities.'

'Even if they get you killed?'

Harry reached out and took Sarah's hand in his. 'We each face death every day. You know what life with UNIT is like, and that's the life that Susan signed on for. You're constantly defending the Earth with that supercomputer of yours and the robot dog, and you can't tell me that there aren't times where it runs through your mind that each experience might be the last. We've lived on the edge for too many years. Anything else and we'd be bored.'

'You're right, of course, Harry. Susan pegged it last night. We never were your normal nine-to-fivers, that's for sure. There's a part of me that wishes that Susan would've chosen a more traditional path.'

Harry laughed, 'Like that could've ever happened. She's our daughter, Sarah. Traditional has never been in our vocabulary.'

Susan walked in, still wearing her striped jim-jams. Absently, she walked over and kissed both Sarah and Harry on the temples and went straight for the kettle. Sarah looked over at Harry and smiled. 'Morning, Sue.'

'Good morning, Susan,' Harry added.

'Morning Mum, Dad,' she mumbled.

Harry shook his head, 'Nope, still definitely not a morning person.'

Once Susan had her tea, she joined her parents at the table. After sipping at it for a moment, she finally spoke in something other than a mumble. 'Thank goodness for Saturdays. It's my one day to pretend I'm still a teenager and sleep in until noon.'

'Except it's only 9am.' Sarah noted.

'Well, that's close enough to noon when I'm normally up around 5am.' She took another sip of tea and looked from both Sarah to Harry and watched their expressions. 'Oh, I know what you've been talking about this morning.' Before either Sarah or Harry could comment, Susan continued. 'Let me guess. Dad, you have to go back out, you have no idea when or if we'll see you again. Mum, you question why he does it, yet you do the same thing by fighting aliens with K9 and Mr. Smith, and you both agree that anything less than what we do is for regular people, not us, cause we're special, or weird, or something along those lines.'

'That's fairly accurate,' Harry admitted.

Susan smiled. 'And we love every minute of it and wouldn't have it any other way.'

~!~!~!~