Westmont, Florida

Sarah Jane could never recall feeling as overwhelmed as she'd been recently in years. Even her most dangerous adventures with the Doctor seemed a piece of cake in comparison to her current situation.

Upon making it to Florida, there was a dangerous, unexpected thunderstorm, forcing the plane to come down near Westmont, Florida. Due to this cycle of bad weather across the southern states, all flights to Washington DC were delayed for six hours. Sarah Jane remained in the airport throughout the whole time, but fell asleep as the time was approaching, resulting in her missing the flight and having to buy a ticket for a flight which would be three days later.

Because of this, Sarah Jane was stuck in a state she'd never visited before, with a limited amount of money because of how few individuals here were willing to trade in foreign money of any kind, much less that belonging to those "old brits", as some of the shop owners and bankers rudely commented the moment they caught her accent. She also had limited contact with other people unless she made long- distance calls, for which she was willing to spend half of the money she had if just for the comfort of talking to someone she knew.

The first person she talked to was her sister Rebecca, who was obviously disappointed that Sarah Jane would have to come in later than expected. "It's such bad luck that this has to happen to you, Sarah Jane. But then again, trouble always seems to be around the corner for you. If it's not missing a flight, then it's being gone for nearly two years with only a few visits here and there. And if not's any of that, then it's attempts at being brought down by your crazy, psychic journalism professor."

Sarah Jane giggled. "You could say that again, Rebecca. The fact that I'm a magnet for trouble has always been obvious to me."

"At least tell me that you have a decent place to stay in for the next two days," Rebecca said.

"If you call a motel with cracked old furniture and a tendency to attract bugs if you leave any crumbs on the floor decent, then yes, it is a pretty comfortable place once you get used to it," Sarah Jane answered.

"Oh, Sarah Jane, if only there was some way I could get there myself. But as you already know, the weather up here in DC is as terrible as it in Florida. So, all I can do is wish you good luck and hope that you can make it up here without any further issues."

Rebecca could not even guess how many other issues her sister was facing. When Sarah Jane went over to buy takeout at a fast food joint on her first day, she could hear the thoughts of everyone around her, including one woman could kept having nasty thoughts about a coworker, a man using racial slurs to describe a black family seated right next to him, and a waitress who seemed suspicious of how Sarah couldn't stop staring at everyone.

But these awful feelings didn't end once she got out of there. Upon making it back to the motel, she started having visions of Rose at Northern Horizons, looking scared and confused as she saw her mother typing away through the night, staring straight at the paper the whole time and never once acknowledging Rose's presence. Her eyes were covered in dark, heavy bags, her face ghostly pale and dry, and her hair sloppy and disheveled, looking more grey than blonde. Seeing her mother in this state clearly scared Rose, who kept calling out, "Mummy, please talk to me! You're acting really scary right now!" But Jackie Tyler didn't do much as give off a small frown whenever her daughter said this; whatever she was writing was clearly the top priority at the moment.

Sarah Jane tried to send telepathic messages to Rose, warning her not to disrupt her mother, as that could be twice more dangerous than just letting her be. Rose would sometimes nod in response, but other than that, she was almost as unresponsive as her mother. Expect for one occasion in which she was playing with a toy train, she'd always be sitting there watching her mother, waiting for something to happen and then starting to cry once everything remained the same.

These visions were almost as haunting as seeing Rose getting attacked by aliens would have been, and Sarah Jane would gain consciousness trembling and feeling dizzy. She'd try to ease her stress by watching sitcoms on TV, usually the final season of Cheers or Seinfeld, or by reading one of her old science fiction paperbacks (She was currently rereading The Left Hand of Darkness, an old favorite from her university years), but they only proved to be a momentary distraction.

So, the next morning, after having these visions three times during the night, she called the Marshes. To her relief, it was Tom who answered, since he would most likely take things more calmly than Violet would, as she would probably go on nonstop over how she'd told Sarah Jane that she'd be having trouble and demand that she get some sort of pay back from those thoughtless bastards at the airport.

And of course, Tom listened quietly as Sarah Jane told her story, only interrupting a couple of times for questions on where she was staying and whether she'd managed to obtain American currency. By the time she started telling him about the visions, however, he got very worried, asking, "Please tell me you've at least got the ESR with you, Sarah. You know how bad things can get for you if you're having these episodes and you're all alone without medication of some kind."

"I've got it with me, Tom. I already took it once tonight, but it hasn't helped me at all," Sarah Jane said.

"That doesn't sound good," Tom said. "So, all you see in these visions is Rose staring at her mother as she types without interruption?"

"For the most part," Sarah Jane replied. "The only thing that went differently in these visions was that at one point, Rose was playing with her toys. But other than that, nothing changes."

Tom was silent for a while, Then, he said, "I'll tell you one thing we could do, Sarah. Right now, Violet and I will drive up to Northern Horizons and see what's up with Jackie and Rose. If something bad is going on, we'll call you back as soon as possible."

"Sounds like a good plan," Sarah Jane said.

"And one more thing."

"What's that?"

"If you keep having these visions so often, take the first flight available to London. From everything you've been telling me, Sarah, this sounds like one of the more dangerous psychic episodes you used to have. You made it through because you'd have your family or me and Violet by your side, but whenever you've been far from home, it would always be more difficult for you, even if one of us was there. You might have to hold off this visit to DC for now for your own good," Tom insisted.

"If that's the case, Tom, then I promise I'll come back as soon as possible," Sarah Jane responded. And if Rose happened to be in danger, then she would also return, but she wouldn't admit this to Tom.

"Well, good luck dealing with this mess," Tom said. "I already know Violet will be outraged, and we can only hope that she doesn't get mad enough to murder the owner of Heathrow Airport."

Sarah Jane laughed. "If she nearly did it to a ghost once, them who knows if she'd do the same to a human if she's provoked?"

Once the call was done, Sarah Jane had to leave the motel to get breakfast somewhere, because despite how scared she was of having that overflow of thoughts again, having to remain alone with endless visions while hungry seemed much worse. Besides the fast food joint, which was now off limits after yesterday's incident, she decided to go to the McDonald's next to the Westmont Mall. Although she wasn't a big fan of the restaurant, it was still the best place to go if you were abroad, starving, and with a limited budget.

But much to her luck, as this was a Saturday (and breakfast no longer being served), the restaurant was packed, with a line which took up about half the building going through as she entered. You could find everyone from workers to busy families to bored teenagers in here, with the people next to Sarah being a Little League baseball team which was headed by one of the boys' fathers, who kept barking orders at them.

In a normal situation, Sarah Jane would have inspected these people in curiosity, being especially interested in seeing whether they exhibited that much talked about southern hospitality. But under the condition she was in, this overwhelmingly large group seemed nothing but a nuisance, and all she could notice was how often mothers scolded their children, how some teenagers openly complained about their annoying classmates or coworkers, and how crabby customers would scream at the cashiers due to wrong orders.

And before long, she was hearing it all again:

We were one shot away from losing. One damn shot, and if it hadn't been for good old Sammy here, the Westmont Grizzlies would have been screwed once again…

Karen's nothing but a frigging boyfriend stealer. All they see in her is her cute blonde head and gleaming eyes, but if they could see past all that crap, they'd find nothing but…

Why do they hire a bunch of losers who can't hear orders well enough? I'd fire these idiots under one strike if I were the manager of this damn old place…

"Excuse me, miss? Are you okay?" a little girl who was to the back of Sarah Jane asked.

It wasn't until now that Sarah Jane noticed how pale and sweaty she was, with a hand clutched around her stomach.

"I'm sorry, dear. Do I really look that ill?" Sarah Jane asked, hoping she wasn't frightening the child.

She must have noticed her accent immediately, because as soon as Sarah Jane started talking, the little girl smiled and said, "Harry's going to like seeing another British person in here of all places. He's my tutor, and he was offering to order for you when he noticed how uneasy you looked."

"Oh, dear. Something must be going on with me if he noticed so quickly," Sarah Jane said. But something else the girl had said had stuck out to her. Harry? Another British person? Is that just a coincidence, or could it be who I think it is? And this girl? Where have I...?

Sarah Jane got the answer to her question when a middle-aged man with curly brown hair stepped up next to the girl and said with a British accent," So, Christine, how's our friend over here doing?" Looking up at Sarah Jane, who was once again startled upon hearing the girl's name, he said, "Hello there. We noticed you were having some trouble over here, and I wanted to know if…" Then, as if as struck as Sarah Jane was at the possibility of having run into an old friend, he said, "This is strange. You look oddly familiar to me."

"I was thinking the same thing, sir," Sarah Jane said. "It may just be that we're the only two British people in McDonald's, but I get the feeling that we may have…"

To Sarah Jane's astonishment, she was interrupted by the little girl, who said, "You two do know each other! Harry, that's Sarah Jane Smith. And Sarah Jane, this is your old friend Harry Sullivan."

The two of them stood speechless for a moment, with a couple people close to them taking notice and staring at them. Then Harry, who was now blushing, said, "Sarah? Is that you? Oh, God, of all the places I could have expected to find you, I never dreamed that it would be here, at this particular time." He then started laughing awkwardly, seeming to be both delighted and embarrassed in a way that only someone like Harry could ever be.

Sarah Jane laughed too. "You got that right, Harry. It's me, Sarah Jane Smith! Twelve years later, if not seventeen on those strange days I sometimes have, but here we are, the two of us together once again."

Then, momentarily becoming oblivious to the line around them, Harry took Sarah Jane into his arms, and the two of them hugged each other. Christine looked on at them with a smile, glad to have contributed to this unexpected reunion, and the responses of those around ranged from similar feelings of joy, especially from the teenaged girls, to annoyance, as expressed by a man in a cowboy hat close to Harry who looked as if he was prepared to beat him up if he didn't move soon.

"Harry, you do know we're still in line, right?" Sarah Jane said after a while.

"Oh, of course! What an idiot I am, completely forgetting what I was intending to do," Harry said. Turning to Christine, he said, "Christine, would you mind staying here for a while as I get Sarah seated?"

"Are you going to want me to order everything as well, Doc?" Christine asked.

"Don't worry about that. I'll try to keep an eye on the line and then take care of all orders when the time comes."

"All right, Doc. I'll do it," Christine said.

"Notice how he said he'll try to watch over the line. He could just as easily forget to do so in all his happiness," Sarah Jane joked. "But I'll be sure to remind him of his responsibilities, Christine, so don't fret too much over it."

Then, the two of them went over to the nearest table, and everyone, even those who'd liked seeing the unexpected reunion, sighed in relief as the line started to move once again.

And Sarah Jane let out a heavy sigh as well, because she'd momentarily forgotten how tense she'd been feeling when standing in line, and as happy as she was about seeing Harry once again, she could feel how hot she was now that she was seated, although not so much as when she'd been standing.

Harry seemed to notice as well, since he asked, "How are you feeling, Sarah? A moment ago, you looked exactly as you used to do back when you would have those strange psychic episodes."

"Well, I feel a little better now that I'm seated, but I'm still a little queasy," Sarah Jane admitted.

"Have you eaten anything?"

"No, I haven't even had breakfast. Do you think that's the problem?"

"At least part of it," Harry said, giving her a piece of chocolate, which Sarah Jane immediately popped into her mouth. "If you're going around hearing every person's thoughts while on an empty stomach, you're not going to be feeling well. I've got enough experience seeing that with Christine, since she's psychic as well and can't stand to go longer than two hours without anything to eat."

"I actually met Christine before when you two were in England," Sarah Jane said. "So I understand how overwhelming her psychic experiences had been."

"I actually guessed that it was probably you she met up with when she told me the story about the Doctor being stuck in her mind," Harry said smiling. "It's a shame I wasn't there when it happened, so I could have helped you out with that whole mess."

"Yes, you always were strangely calm and helpful during times of danger, maybe even more so than during our normal traveling days," Sarah Jane remarked.

"Normal traveling days. Are you sure we ever had any of those, Sarah?" Harry asked.

"Am I the only one that remembers how we visited my dad and older sister after our business with the Cybermen?"

"Right," Harry said. "For some reason, I sometimes forget we ever had that little adventure."

"Well, I have a nice little picture of the two of us from that day, so it's impossible for me to forget," Sarah Jane said smiling. "But I sometimes get dates mixed up. There are times when it seems like we traveled five years earlier than we actually did, in 1975 instead of 1980. Have you ever experienced that?"

"I have, strangely enough," Harry said. Then, noticing Christine waving at him, he said, "Looks like I have to get back and make all those orders. We can talk about our weird time perceptions later. So, is the usual burger and chips okay with you?"

"It's fries over here, Harry, but yes, I'll have all that. Just make sure the order of fries is large, seeing as how hungry I am, and that the burger comes without onions or pickles."

"Got that, old girl," Harry said, patting her in the shoulder, then walking back out into the line of inpatient customers.

Sarah Jane laughed upon hearing his old pet name for her. It was good to know that some things just never changed about people.