"I'm the wrong one."
"Sorry?" The Doctor turned back to her.
"Nothing…" Sahara tried to pull herself together, trying to put the images of Shard, so thrilled and terrified by life, and Antonio, the embittered survivor, hanging on grimly... "So that's it then," she looked back at the blue box that stood on the street corner outside her apartment complex. "You're off to die?"
"Yes," the Doctor said, almost sounding relieved. "One or two more trips, perhaps, tidy up some loose ends, but soon enough, probably. Have a mission I've been putting off. And then there's the matter of all that spatio-temporal energy… need to bleed it off or redirect it, now that I have full control of my ship back again. I've added some new circuits and filters to keep some thoughts isolated…"
Sahara stared at the storm clouds that loomed ominously on the horizon, massive and red in the new evening sky. The little town seemed so surreal now; the Bloom had sank back into the earth weeks ago and in small villages like this, spared at random, life was just starting to peek out of hedges and doorways. "And Shard?"
The Doctor stared at his toes. "I'm afraid she… the nerve agent had already damaged… the Bloom… she never…" the Doctor cleared his throat. "She never felt the Bloom take her."
Sahara wondered what happened to Antonio, but was afraid to ask the Doctor for an answer. Instead, she said, "Thanks for the lift." She had the strangest urge to hug the Doctor, not because she was that sort of person, but because he was.
As she opened the door to her apartment, she could just hear the sounds of the TARDIS fading and she nearly tripped over the little boy that wrapped himself around her legs. "Michael!" she scolded, scooping him up. "How are you sweetie? And please stop kicking my legs!" She carried him into the living room. "Mother, I thought I asked you to get him a new shirt!"
Dr. Elizabeth Shaw took him out of her daughter's arms and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Welcome back dear. Did you say goodbye?"
"Yeah," Sahara stared at her son, puzzled for a moment, then looked back at her mother. "I think. I'm not sure anymore."
But Liz wasn't listening, and headed off into the kitchen once more. "Well, come help me with dinner, I've got to head back to the labs tomorrow, you know, or what's left of them. The Kabul UNIT group turned up some fascinating stuff in Afghanistan just before this whole mess blew up…"
Sahara paused for a moment, flashes of distant memories teasing her mind, of getting pregnant but not telling her boyfriend, raising a child on her own, the chores, the cuddles, the diapers…
Sahara shook her head tiredly. No time… She had to help get dinner ready and there was a planet to rebuild.
While washing her hands in a bucket at the sink, she found herself humming an old jazz riff.