Title: Dream a Little Dream
Author: paranoidangel
Words: 17,000 altogether
Rating: PG
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan, Nat Redfern, Josh Townsend
Spoilers: SJS audios: Buried Secrets and Fatal Consequences, School Reunion and small ones for The Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel
Summary: Sarah Jane Smith often wished she believed in coincidences but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.
Beta: by tellitslant
Disclaimer: Not mine, guv

Part 2

When she came to she was unmistakably in a chilly cellar. It was not very big so it did not take her long to examine it. There was one naked light bulb in the centre of the low ceiling that was not very bright, which Sarah desperately hoped was because it was a low wattage and not because it was about to go. The floor was cold to the touch and the bottoms of the walls were damp and mouldy. Neither showed any signs of being anything other than well-built. There were no windows either, so the only way out and in was via the door at the bottom of the stairs, which she thought was unusual.

Whoever had locked her in there had kindly left her a bucket with some toilet roll next to it and a big bottle of water, but nothing else. She had not had her watch or her mobile on her when she left the flat, so she had no idea how much time had passed. She just hoped K-9 had noticed something and told Harry.

As bored as she had been, cooped up in her flat, it now seemed heavenly compared to imprisonment in a cellar. She did not find anything she could use to get out on her second trip round to check she had not missed anything the first time. She had tried shouting at the door and banging on it until her throat and hands hurt but either there was no-one there or no-one cared. She hoped the presence of the water did not imply the former and that they were merely giving her more time to die.

After a while she found the trouble with being on your own with nothing to do was that it gave you time to think. At no point had she seen any of the people who had now stepped up to kidnapping, so she still had no idea who they were or what their goal was. If they wanted something from her then they would have to show themselves at some point. Sarah certainly could not think of any other reason for her being here. A kidnap did immediately make her think of a ransom but there had to be better targets if you wanted money. And why go to the trouble of scaring her first? Assuming it was the same people, which she did, being as she did not believe in coincidences. She often wished she did but so far her faith had been shown to be true every time.

Her abduction must have been planned and they had to be have been waiting for her to leave the flat, as they got there so quickly. Except they'd had plenty of opportunities while Harry was out, given that K-9 did not seem to present them with much of a problem. Her thoughts went round in circles, unable to make sense of it all.

Her head started spinning, whether from the muggy air or the drugs they had given her to knock her out, so she lay down. She had nothing to make a pillow from other than her clothes and the floor was cold enough she was not going to take any of those off. She lay on her back with her arms behind her head and considered Harry instead.

She was going to have to apologise to him when she saw him. She had not exactly been the easiest person to live with this past week but Harry had never once complained. When she had ended up being hurtful he had not reciprocated. Although she did not think she would lose his friendship over one argument, it was still difficult to work out how to show him just how sorry she was and how much she valued his company.

Thinking of Harry led her mind onto what he had said about believing she had rescued him. The only way it made sense was if he had imagined it. But if he had, why had it taken him so long to escape? He had been missing a long time and she knew she had not been there. Except... if she had not been there yet. She knew someone with a time machine: she had Rose's phone number that she had assured Sarah would work wherever and whenever the TARDIS was.

When Sarah had said goodbye to the Doctor, properly this time, she had meant never to see him again. She had needed to stop thinking about him coming back again and get on with her life. Harry, though, was more important than that. What if his only way of escape was through the Doctor? She pondered the questions over and over in her mind until she fell into an exhausted sleep.

She had been awake for a few hours, she guessed, when she heard someone coming down the steps to the cellar. The drugs were at least out of her system now and she felt much more awake and clear-headed. She was hungry and thirsty though, as she had carefully rationed her water given that she had no way of knowing whether she would get any more.

In the few seconds she had to grab a weapon and take a chance that might not come again, she chose the bucket - its contents being more disposable than the water bottle and there was certainly nothing else she could use. As she heard the locks being pulled back she pressed her back against the wall, held her breath and waited.

The door opened cautiously, which was not what she was expecting. Her surprise prevented her from moving at first, which was just as well considering that the person who came through it was Harry.

"Harry! What's going on?"

He still stood in the doorway eyeing the bucket she held, so she put it down and moved away a little.

"I'm sorry you've got mixed up in this, Sarah."

"You're sorry? I--"

"They've been using you to get at me. I thought I had escaped and come back home but all the time they had another plan. Another way to get me to do what they wanted."

She shivered. "What are they going to do to you?"

"Not me, you. If I help them they'll let you go. Otherwise..."

Sarah did not think she needed to know what the alternative was. "You can't do it, Harry." Whatever it was she might have to endure, she would, if it was as important as it appeared to be.

"I'm sorry. I can't let them hurt you." He turned away and started to pull the door closed behind him.

"Harry, don't," she shouted at him, desperately.

"Goodbye, Sarah," he said as he closed the door behind him with a thump.

Sarah ran to it, shouting his name but he never came back. She went for the water bottle and slumped to the floor before taking a sip. After spending a minute trying to work out what was going on and how she was going to stop Harry from doing something so foolhardy she realised what she had missed: she had not heard the door being locked again.

Cautiously, she got up and turned the knob. When she pulled, the door moved. She only opened it enough that she could see through the crack and establish there was no-one there. She ascended the stairs and did the same thing with the door at the top. She hoped nothing too horrible was going to happen to Harry as a result of his actions.

She crept around a house that resembled a perfectly ordinary one, apart from the use the cellar had been put to, and searched for anything that could be useful. There were four empty mugs, she noticed, on the dining room table, each holding down a corner of a handwritten map. Sarah bent over to examine it but presumably it was written in some sort of code because she did not understand where it referred to.

She had barely even begun to try and work it out when she heard a noise from above her that was definitely a person walking about. Quickly, she rolled the map up and hid it up her sleeve. She tiptoed to the front door and went through it but did not bother closing it - it would make too much noise. Besides, she had not shut any of the other doors she had been through and it would not take them long to work out she had escaped.

Once outside she ran until she had rounded the corner and was sure they could not see her from the house. She stopped to catch her breath and rest her aching feet, slippers not being the best footwear to run in. She had to carry on for a few more streets before she found a phone box. Grateful they had not all disappeared thanks to the mobile phone, she dialled 999 and stayed where she was, hoping the police would find her first.

Sarah wished she could help the police as much as they had helped her. The local police station had given her a meal and a cup of tea and called DC Taylor over, who was the officer in charge of her case. The only useful thing she could tell them was where to find the house and that would not do much good if it had been abandoned, as she suspected it might well be by now. The map was just as incomprehensible to them but they had at least photocopied it so they could study it some more and she had a copy to give to Nat, whom DC Taylor had promised would be waiting for her once they were done. It did not occur until later to her to wonder exactly how that had been arranged.

She was still worried about Harry, though. Presumably he had some sort of plan that only involved looking as if he was cooperating but since he had not said much she had no real way of knowing. Doubtless it was because he was being overheard but some sort of clue would have been helpful. His assessment of her abilities to work it all out was grossly exaggerated. At least he was someone she could give a good description of to the police, so there was slightly more chance of them finding him, she hoped.

When they were finished at last it was dusk, leaving her wondering whether it was still the same day or whether she had missed one, locked in that cellar. Nat was waiting for her at the front desk.

She greeted her with, "Sarah, you look awful!"

Sarah smiled. She was so glad to see a friendly face and she interpreted Nat's comment in the manner she meant it. "So would you if you had spent your day locked in a dark cellar. Or was it two days?"

"I've been so worried about you. Harry called and told us you'd disappeared but he was taking care of it. I didn't know what to think."

"I need your help but I'll explain everything on the way home."

Once Nat was up-to-date on all that had happened so far, and Sarah had showered and changed and was feeling more human, she showed Nat the copy of the map she had found.

"I think this might tell us where they've gone," Sarah said. "Can you work out where it is?"

Nat frowned, turning the map around to examine it closely before putting it down. "I don't know but I'll work on it."

"Thank you." She sighed. "There's something else I need you to do. Um, it's a bit illegal."

"A bit illegal? Isn't that like being a bit pregnant?"

"Well, okay, it's very illegal. Harry was captured not long ago and I need to know where he's being held. It should be in his Navy files."

"And you want me to hack in?"

"Yes, please."

Nat closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Do you know what could happen if I got caught?"

"I have a good idea. Look, Nat, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. I think the whole of time could hinge on it."

Nat, unsurprisingly, looked distinctly sceptical. Sarah just waited for Nat to make her mind up. If she really did not want to do it Sarah did not want to force her, given the potential consequences. Getting one of her few remaining friends imprisoned was not that high on her to-do list.

"All right," she said eventually. "But you're going to owe me a lot of favours for this."

Sarah could not help but smile, relieved. "I know. Thank you, Nat."

"I'll go and get it over with, then. Are you going to be all right?"

"Oh, yes, I'll be fine. I've been through worse."

Nat looked dubious, not that Sarah blamed her. "Well, if you're sure. Just be careful, okay?"

Sarah smiled. "I will."

Once Nat left, Sarah went through the flat, looking for her old SIM cards, which she eventually found in an old ice-cream box at the back of a drawer. She really wished she had labelled some of them, though, because there were quite a few of them. Once again she resolved to do something with them, instead of carting them around from one place to the next, as she swapped each one in her current phone in turn. The right one was, of course, the last one she tried.

Rose answered after a few rings.

"Hello, Rose," Sarah said. "It's Sarah Jane Smith."

"Oh, hi, Sarah." Rose, understandably, sounded surprised to hear from her. "How are you?"

"Well, I'm... actually I need your help. Where are you?"

"Um, hang on. Doctor, where are we?"

Sarah heard the Doctor's voice in the background but could not tell what he was saying, only that it was a lot.

"He doesn't know either."

Sarah smiled. Some things never changed. "Once you've worked it out, you couldn't stop by, could you? You and the Doctor."

"Sure. It'll be good to see you again. Doctor!"

Sarah grimaced and held the phone away from her ear as Rose's last words were considerably louder than the rest.

"I'll get back to you," Rose said, remarkably calmly considering her previous comment, and hung up.

After she put the phone down, Sarah paced nervously. The Doctor could, in theory, turn up at any time and she had to be ready. Except that she would never be. As she turned the kettle on she heard a familiar sound in her lounge. She stood in the doorway and watched as the Doctor and Rose stepped out of a familiar blue police box.

"Hello Sarah," the Doctor said, looking just like she had left him, down to the long brown coat and white trainers.

"Tea?" she asked, which saved her from thinking about what she wanted to say to him.

"Ooh, yes, please."

"And for me, thank you," Rose added.

Sarah busied herself with making three cups of tea and trying to get her hands to stop shaking. She could not keep acting like this every time she saw him. When she had finished and brought their drinks to the lounge, the Doctor was communing with K-9 and Rose was sat on the sofa, laughing at him. Sarah had to smile as well. K-9 seemed just as excited to see the Doctor again as the Doctor was to see him.

When something vaguely approaching decorum was reached, Sarah broached the reason why she had called.

"I need your help, Doctor," she said. "Harry was on a secret mission and he went missing. I found out he had been captured and he needs me to help him escape."

"So, you and Harry kept in touch."

"There weren't that many people I could talk to about the things I'd seen. Well, there weren't any really, apart from Harry."

"So where is he?"

"I don't know. I have a friend working on it. Once she rings, we can leave." She bit her lip. "The thing is, this is in the past. For him this has already happened."

"Sarah, I wish I could help but I can't do that. Crossing your own time stream causes so many problems." He looked over at Rose as he said it. Rose looked away and Sarah wondered what had happened to provoke that response.

"I think you already have. I've been thinking about this." She leaned forward on her seat. "Harry remembers me helping him to get away to a UNIT base nearby. And if I haven't done it yet, it must follow that's because I'm going to do it in the future."

The Doctor got up and went over to the window, hands in his pockets.

Sarah decided to play the sympathy card. "Harry needs our help. Yours and mine." The Doctor never could resist a distress call.

"You've put me in a very difficult position, Sarah." He turned to face her. "I will help you but you must promise to do everything I say."

She smiled, relieved. "Thank you."

Being in the TARDIS again was strange after so long. She had seen the console room recently but the rest of it was overwhelming and even though the Doctor had redecorated, it was still basically the same. The kitchen stocked several varieties of tea and the wardrobe room still had some of the clothes she had worn and not taken with her when she left. They seemed to be coming back into fashion, so she donated them to Rose who was inordinately happy to receive them.

While waiting for Nat to ring with Harry's location the Doctor was spending some quality time with the TARDIS, so Sarah spent her time with Rose instead. It was good to have someone else to talk to about what she had seen back in the days she had spent with UNIT and the Doctor. They traded stories over tea and brightly coloured biscuits, which was much more pleasant now they were not trying to compete with each other over them.

Rose was especially interested to hear about Sarah's experiences with the Cybermen and Sarah was equally fascinated in Rose's encounter with them on a parallel world. At least, up until the end of the tale, which mostly involved Rose crying, Sarah comforting her and eventually managing to get out of her what had happened.

Although it probably did them both no end of good, and Sarah genuinely enjoyed spending time with Rose, as the hours passed Sarah got more fidgety and had to remind herself that it did not matter how long it took, the Doctor would still be able to get her to Harry and then home again just after she left. She did spend the time usefully by finding some clothes that might camouflage her a little and packing a bag of things she might need, like a torch, some water and a first aid kit.

When Nat came through, as she always did, Sarah found an empty bedroom and slept for four hours. When she got up they were already there.

"He's being held here," the Doctor pointed on a map he had laid out over the console, "and the UNIT base is here."

The second place he pointed to seemed a long way away for two people on foot and she did not know what condition Harry was in. She wished they could use the TARDIS but as Harry had not mentioned it the Doctor would not allow her, no matter how much she had tried wearing him down while they were waiting. She consoled herself that he would probably only get the time and place completely wrong anyway.

"I'll tell them to expect you," he continued. He went on to describe the terrain and her route in such detail that Sarah felt sure she would forget at least half of it by the time she stepped out of the TARDIS. "Good luck," he said at last.

"Can I borrow the sonic screwdriver?" she asked.

"Why?"

"Because it might come in useful."

The Doctor did not look happy at all about giving it away.

"You're only going to be with UNIT, but what if Harry is tied up and I don't have anything to break his bonds with?"

The Doctor sighed and handed it over. "Guard it with your life," he said.

"I promise I won't lose it." She turned to leave but the Doctor stopped her.

"Sarah. Be careful. Just because you're in the past doesn't mean nothing will happen to you out there."

She smiled, touched that he still cared. "I will."

Despite the Doctor's lecture, Sarah was still unsure about what she was going to see outside. Almost as soon as she left the TARDIS it vanished as the Doctor took it elsewhere. There was plenty of greenery around to hide in, so she crept slowly through the hedges, in case anyone was around. By the time the scenery changed and she came upon a clearing, her legs were starting to seize up from crouching down.

Harry was lying in the middle of a patch of dead grass with nothing else around him she could see. She was expecting him to be held in some kind of building at least but there was nothing else around except for the tall trees that hid the clearing from the road where she had left the TARDIS. The sun was high in the sky, though, and the shade did not reach Harry where he was. She could not tell whether it was really hot here or it was just the change from the winter she had left. Either way, it probably was not doing him any good.

She could not see any guards around so she whispered, "Harry," as loud as she dared.

Harry immediately sat up and looked round. She called his name again when he looked in her direction and she knew he had seen her because he smiled. A pair of booted legs, belonging to a man in fatigues carrying a gun, cut across her line of vision and she nearly jumped. As he passed, she could see Harry was looking at him, not her. As he had a better view than she had, she did not move.

She was expecting, though, once the guard left, for him to come to her but instead he called her over. When she got there, she discovered why: his hands and feet were bound. She pulled the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and undid the chains as fast as she could. Once done he nearly fell over just standing up, so she grabbed his arm and pulled him along.

Now she was closer to him she could tell Harry was not in good shape. The several months between now and when she had seen him at the Brigadier's funeral had obviously given him enough time to recover. At the moment he looked thin, although some of that could have been an illusion due to the ill-fitting clothes he wore. He was pale, as well, despite his time in the sun, but she was glad to see he had no visible injuries.

He staggered behind her and they carried on in this fashion through the undergrowth until Harry finally did fall over and did not seem to have the energy to sit up. Sarah judged they were probably far enough away to be safe for a few minutes. She pulled two bottles of water from her pack, having a few sips of hers before offering the other one to Harry. He managed to lift his head to swallow but beyond that she had to help him. She only allowed him a few sips, just in case, and he seemed exhausted by the effort.

Turning her attention to his bonds she released the ones around his wrists and ankles, grimacing at the way they had cut into his skin. Putting the remains in her bag, so they could not be traced, she tried not to think about how much they must have been hurting him as she used a little of the water to clean his wrists and ankles as best she could before bandaging them up.

"I hope I'm doing this right," she said, daring to speak at last. "You know more about this than me."

"That's much better, thank you," he whispered in return.

She smiled and said, "Come on, we have to keep moving."

"Where are we going?" he asked, as she helped him up.

"You're lucky, UNIT have a base nearby. Once we get there, you'll be safe."

It seemed an effort for him just to walk and in truth it was beginning to wear her out too, as she found herself bearing much of his weight. When they next stopped, Sarah dug out two cereal bars that she had found in the TARDIS kitchen and they ate one each with a little more water. She spent some time looking at the print-out the Doctor had given her and wished her map reading skills were better.

Looking up at the darkening blue sky she was grateful that at least they were still on Earth. Trying to work out where you were when the sun rose and set in a different direction was hard work. And when there was more than one sun it all just got very confusing.

"If we carry on," she said eventually, "we ought to reach a river soon."

"A swim would be nice."

"Well, you do smell."

"Thanks a lot."

Sarah was relieved when they at last found the river. The journey had taken them a long time and it was getting dark already. She could not work out whether the colour of the water was down to the lack of light or just ordinary dirt and she wrinkled her nose, not really wanting to go in it but there was no other way of crossing. The only good side was that at least she would be somewhere warm and dry tomorrow. She seemed to have developed a habit lately, not entirely her own volition, of venturing into places where warm and dry seemed like paradise.

"It doesn't look very safe," Harry ventured.

Sarah closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Look, let's just get across, shall we?" When she looked back at Harry he was still looking sceptical. "Oh, this is ridiculous," she said and pushed him in. She followed more gingerly, holding her bag up to try and keep their supplies dry and slipping often on the rocky riverbed. Harry's swimming would have seemed much less hazardous had it not looked like he was going to drown every few seconds when he ran out of strength.

Once they dragged themselves out the other side Harry looked daggers at her and Sarah was very glad looks could not kill. She just ignored him and focused on finding them somewhere warmer to spend the night before they froze to death. Thankfully, the Doctor had planned well and marked a hay barn on the map.

Sarah lay down in one of the small piles of straw for a minute to rest her aching legs before realising she was going to have to do something about her shivering. She was glad Harry had told her about the river because it had given her a chance to pack a change of clothes for them both. She dug in and handed Harry's to him. She smiled slightly when he disappeared off to the other end of the small barn and pointedly kept his back turned. Sarah was almost at the point of not really caring much about what Harry saw of her and she was slightly amazed that this was something he still bothered about, even with the state he was in.

She changed quickly, though, and they had sandwiches for supper. She wished she could have packed more substantial food but there was only so much she could carry. Sandwiches and cereal bars had seemed the most usefully nutritious and easy to carry for a two day hike. It told her a lot about Harry's state that he had not offered to take the bag from her. That he had not so far called her 'old girl' also made her worry.

He did try to offer to be a look-out first, so that she could sleep, but he seemed to be in no condition to be staying awake for any period of time so there was no way she was going to let him do that. She knew she had made the right decision when he fell asleep as soon as he lay down. Sarah turned the torch off once he had, to conserve the batteries and so there was less chance of anyone finding them.

Trying not to sleep in a pitch-black barn was hard, she discovered. Although, with enough time, she could make out shapes in the gloom, it was still much darker than she was used to. She got bored of playing games with herself and was toying with the idea of waking Harry up when she heard a familiar noise - Harry crying out in his sleep. She decided it was a sign and woke him up.

"Sarah," he said. "How are you here?"

"I can't tell you that."

"I'm imagining things. You can't possibly be here; you don't know where I am."

"I am here; I'm not your imagination. I am real, Harry."

Satisfied with this explanation, he went straight back to sleep. Sarah sighed and stood up, gambling that she was less likely to accidentally fall asleep that way. She walked around a little, rubbing the muscles in her legs as she felt them tightening up. She was just not used to this much exercise in such a short period of time. She was very glad UNIT were close by, otherwise she did not know where the Doctor might have suggested they head for.

When she realised she could see the other end of the barn due to the light and not just to her dark-adapted eyes she could have jumped for joy if she had not been so tired. She woke Harry up again, gave him a breakfast consisting of more cereal bars and told him in no uncertain terms to wake her in an hour. She would have liked to have got going then and there but she just could not stay awake any longer and she would only slow them down.

She looked at her watch when Harry woke her up and was unsurprised to find he had let her sleep for longer. "Harry, I said wake me in one hour, not two."

"You looked like you needed it."

She could not really argue with that as she yawned, stretched and winced. "Never mind," she said instead. "Let's get out of here."

She wished she had managed to convince the Doctor to give her some sort of vehicle, anything would have done. This interminable walking might have been more inconspicuous but it was getting harder, especially now that she hurt from the previous day's trek. Neither of them had the energy to say very much, so the day went much like the previous one, with endless walking punctuated by short rest stops.

When at last they came across a UNIT soldier, Sarah could have wept. The Doctor had been true to his word and the sergeant knew exactly who they were. Within minutes there seemed to be a swarm of them and the rest of their journey was in a bumpy jeep. Not that Sarah minded - she fell asleep and by the time she woke she was back in the TARDIS.

Sarah was angry when she got up and more so by the time she had failed to find the Doctor anywhere in the TARDIS. She eventually discovered he had parked it in her lounge again and was availing himself of the contents of her kitchen.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Making some tea," he said innocently, although she felt sure he knew what she meant. "Would you like some?"

"No, I want to know why you took me out of there before I could see Harry."

"Oh, he's safe." He had made her a cup anyway and she scowled at him as she took it.

"That's not the point, Doctor. We walked for two days because you wouldn't let me involve the TARDIS and then you didn't even give me a chance to check on him."

"You were asleep."

"Argh!" Having an argument with the Doctor was impossible because he either did not listen or he purposely did not understand what you said.

The doorbell rang while Sarah contemplated strangulation as a method of getting her point across. She heard it open and only then realised Rose had been there all the time, wisely not getting involved. At least the Doctor had managed to get her back at the right time, as she had gambled and asked Nat and Josh to come round not long after she left - two days ago from her perspective.

She did some swift introductions, "Josh, Nat, Doctor, Rose. We need to find Harry and quickly before something happens to him," she said as they all sat down. She was not really in the mood for small talk just now.

Nat had performed her second miracle in as many days, relatively speaking. "I compared the map you gave me to real ones on the internet. So I know where he is, assuming that's where they've gone."

"That's amazing. Nat, you're a star."

Nat beamed at the praise, even though Sarah said it often. Nat handed her annotated map to Rose, who was closest and she passed it to the Doctor without Sarah even getting to see it. Although since the Doctor would be the one to get them there, it was he that needed to know where they were going.

"I know who one of the people we're looking for is," the Doctor said, quietly.

Sarah swallowed what she wanted to say to him and put their argument to one side. "Okay, who?"

He produced a photo from inside his long, brown coat and passed it to her. "Do you recognise him?"

The man in the picture could well have been described as tall, blond and handsome. But apart from the UNIT uniform he wore, he could have been anyone. "No," she said at last, "should I?"

"He certainly remembers you. Although not necessarily in the nicest terms, given what K-9 heard him say about you."

Sarah frowned and looked round at K-9.

"The photograph is of one of the men who came to the house three days ago," he confirmed.

Sarah rubbed her eyes and thought for a minute. Time travel made calculating dates a nuisance.

"He's still in UNIT," the Doctor said, before she could say anything else. "He was at the base and heard me describe you to them." He looked straight at her. "I thought I should get you out before he saw you."

Sarah looked away. Why had he not told her that at the start? She did not get a chance to say anything about it to him though, because Josh spoke first.

"Is anyone else completely lost?"

"For once, it's not just you," Nat agreed.

"I will explain everything later," Sarah promised. She had wanted to tell Nat and Josh about the Doctor and everything she had seen with him but she knew they would never believe her, it was just too fantastic a story. But perhaps, now that they could see the TARDIS, and had spent time with K-9, they might.

"For now, though," she continued, "we need to get to Harry and somehow convince the police to arrest this UNIT bloke and his friends. Which could be tricky given that I already told them I never saw them. Somehow I don't think they'll believe my dog identified them."

"I have an idea about that," Nat said. "Leave it to me; I'll speak to the police."

"Okay," Sarah agreed, not really knowing how Nat might go about that but believing that if she said she could do it then she could. She would ask later, when they would need explanations all round.

"The quickest way to get there," the Doctor said, "is in the TARDIS. Then we'll split up. Sarah, you take care of Harry; Rose and Josh can help me with the bad guys."

Sarah rolled her eyes at his words but agreed with his plan.

The Doctor hustled Rose and Josh into the TARDIS but Sarah missed Josh's reaction when he saw the inside because Nat pulled her to one side.

"Are you all right?" Nat asked her. "You look exhausted."

"I am, but then walking for two days will do that to you. I'll explain everything later, I promise," she added at Nat's confused expression. At this rate the story would take a day, at least.

"Sarah!" the Doctor called from the doorway.

"See you later," she promised, wishing she could have seen Nat's expression when the TARDIS dematerialised.

When she reached the console room Rose was trying to explain the TARDIS to Josh. Sarah took pity on her and took over. "You believe in aliens, don't you, Josh?"

Josh hesitated; the subject had been a sore point with them for a while, although in Josh's defence he had no way of knowing all the reasons why.

"Well, the Doctor here is an alien and this is his spaceship," she continued in a tone that told him she expected no argument to this statement.

He did not get much of a chance anyway because the Doctor said, "We're here," in a cheerful voice.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked.

Sarah smiled. The TARDIS obviously had not got any more reliable. The Doctor ushered Sarah out of the door first and her eye was immediately drawn to three men beating up another not far in front of her. They had obviously not been distracted from their task by the sound of their arrival. She called out before her brain had registered that one of the men was the one in the photo the Doctor had showed her earlier and the man on the ground was Harry.

The men scrambled, each in a different direction among the grey buildings that surrounded the area, and the Doctor and Rose raced after them. Josh, to his credit, barely paused upon stepping out of the TARDIS and following them. Sarah dug her mobile phone out of her pocket and had called an ambulance even before she reached Harry's side.

"Harry!" she called, as she knelt down next to him. He had one arm held around his chest and there was blood on his face, although where it was coming from she could not say.

Harry merely groaned and stayed curled in a protective ball.

She put on hand tentatively on his shoulder, not wanting to hurt him any more than he already was. "I'm so sorry we didn't get to you any earlier."

He coughed and looked up at her as he uncurled slightly. "You're here," he said in a hoarse voice.

She debated going back to the TARDIS for a first aid kit but decided to stay with him as she was not really sure what to do for him anyway. She took her jacket off and laid it over him. It was possibly a futile gesture but it at least made her feel like she was helping.

"Need to teach you first aid," Harry said, with an almost-smile.

"I didn't do so badly with your wrists and ankles," she said, picking up one hand and pushing up his sleeve so she could see for herself they were healed. It seemed odd that something that had only happened a day ago for her was several months ago for him.

"That was you?"

"I borrowed the TARDIS." It was easier to go with the simpler and shorter version of the truth just now. "I still ache from all that walking," she said with a smile.

She had not quite dropped his hand after she examined his wrists, and he turned his arm slightly to grasp at her hand. "You are my guardian angel."

She could not stop herself from blushing at his compliment. "I'm just returning the favour for all the times you rescued me."

He coughed again and his hand tightened around Sarah's. Worried at the sound of his breathing she looked around but there was no-one else about. It looked like London inasmuch as all she could see was grey concrete and the tall buildings that formed their immediate surroundings and blocked out the view of any more distant objects. Even where she sat was paved and was starting to make her knees hurt.

"Where are we?" she asked Harry, but her only reply was a loosening of his grip on her hand. She looked at him to discover his eyes had closed. "Don't pass out on me!"

He half-opened his eyes. "I'm not."

She stole a look at her watch, glad that someone would be able to locate her mobile phone signal to get the ambulance to them. She wondered if it was worth asking Harry to get up, so she could get them to somewhere more visible from a road but he did not look like he was going anywhere. Plus she seemed to remember something about not moving a casualty when it came to first aid and she felt she ought to at least follow that one, if nothing else.

By the time she heard sirens she was nearly frantic. She stopped breathing for a minute, trying to work out if she was imagining the sound and hoping, once she was sure it was real, that it was coming in their direction. She need not have worried because it was the ambulance she had called. She got up to make sure they were coming over and when she looked down she could see there was blood left on her hand.

The paramedics shouted things to each other about Harry that she did not understand, while she tried not to panic. She was not getting very far on that front when they loaded him into the ambulance. She managed to get herself in there too, by claiming she was Harry's sister, as they were not exactly in a position to check her story and Harry was unlikely to protest, especially as he had not said anything for some time by that point.