A/N: Oh my god, 'The Magician's Apprentice' was amazing! I was so excited that I forced myself to finish this chapter for everyone, even if it's a day late. Enjoy!

When I woke up the next morning, I instantly regretted binging on ice cream all night long. My stomach was used to wild game, fruit, and seafood, not junk food, so I didn't feel very good for the majority of the morning. Martha had already left for work by the time I woke up, but she left me a note with her work phone number and address and when she would be home.

I spent the second half of the morning in bed and either fiddling with my phone or reading through some of the books in the bedroom. My appetite was mostly non-existent, so I didn't bother to get anything other than some water and a piece of toast. But despite the interesting books I had found, my thoughts kept drifting back to everything that had been said between the Doctor and I.

I knew I was right to tell him what I had seen and I was grateful to Martha for prompting me to do so, yet I still wondered if maybe I could have done something different. It hurt me deeply that the Doctor had just left me. I felt abandoned and so alone, even with Martha's company the night before. Did this mean that we were over? How long would he be gone? Would he even want to return to me?

It occurred to me then that that was probably how the Doctor always felt about me. My life was so complicated and confusing because of my traveling capabilities, and I could only imagine the hurt that I left behind. But I couldn't control when or how I left; the Doctor could. He chose to leave me when all I ever wanted was to stay with him.

Martha returned home at half past noon and, after seeing me sitting motionless in bed, urged me to eat some lunch. After we ate together she explained that she had bought me a new pair of clothes since my old clothes from my stay on Gallifrey were dirty and ragged. After I tried the new outfit on, Martha decided to bring me outside. The house had a small but lovely backyard with a beautiful flower garden and an impressive oak tree. Sitting in the shade of the oak and noting the fresh air improved my mood considerably, and talking with Martha helped even more.

She talked about work and how frustrating many of the customers at the shop were. Martha admitted that she absolutely preferred medical school to working the shop, but that she was enjoying a break from school. I was alright with not speaking very much and just listening to my friend instead.

"Well," Martha sighed after a long rant about her boss, "that's enough about me. I've been talking your ear off for a good hour."

"It's fine," I said with a smile. "I don't mind."

"I know, but you can talk if you want to. About anything."

I absently tugged on the grass as I considered what my response would be. Martha obviously wanted to make sure I was alright, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about anything with her. How could she possibly understand about the Doctor, about Gallifrey?

"I'm sorry if I'm being pushy about it," she added quickly. "I just want to make sure you're okay. You're my friend and I want to help if I can."

Flashing Martha a reassuring smile, I said, "I know. I just… I have a lot of conflicting feeling right now. And anyone I talk to wouldn't understand-"

"Not even me?"

"You didn't spend six months stranded on Gallifrey pretending to be a Time Lord. And your boyfriend didn't abandon you the moment you saw him again." I closed my eyes and sighed, shaking my head in frustration. "I'm sorry. I'm not angry at you, I'm angry at him."

"I know." Martha suddenly rested a hand on my knee, making me open my eyes. "You have every right to be. Whatever it is you saw, you needed his support, not for him to run off and leave you. None of this is your fault."

I sighed again and lowered my gaze so I was staring emotionlessly at the grass. "Yeah," I mumbled, too focused on my frustration to say much of anything else.

"You know," Martha began after a few moments of silence, "I think I know someone you could talk to."

"Martha, I didn't mean that I didn't want to talk to you-"

"No, I know. I just mean that I know someone who might understand."

That confused me. Who could she possible know that would understand what I was going through?

"Martha, can't you just tell me where we're going?"

Martha shook her head and smiled a little. "No," she said as she looked out the window of the cab. "I don't want to ruin the surprise. Besides, I promised not to say anything."

I sighed in exasperation and leaned my head against the window, watching the city fly past us. I was still completely stumped on who Martha had contacted that she thought would understand my situation. She wasn't supposed to know Jack yet, but maybe something had happened and she knew about Torchwood already? Or perhaps she had met or heard of UNIT and contacted the Brigadier?

I was drawn out of my thoughts when the cab rolled to a halt. Peering through the window, I saw that we had stopped in front of a small library. Martha paid the cab driver and then pulled me outside behind her. The cab drove off immediately while Martha pulled the door of the library open and stepped inside. I looked at the library in confusion for a moment before following after my friend, albeit a little cautious and curious.

The inside of the library was completely normal and ordinary. I had almost expected it to be full of alien tech or something since Martha was being so secretive about it. An older woman sat behind the counter at the front of the library with a small stack of papers in front of her. The rest of the library, although small, was full of bookcases and a few chairs scattered around them. I only saw one other person in the library, a young woman sitting in the nearest chair with her nose buried in a copy of "The Silmarillion".

But the young woman suddenly closed her book and looked up to meet my gaze. It took me a moment to realize who she was because the last time I had seen her she looked much younger, but when I finally recognized her I felt guilt rip through my chest. My eyes welled with tears immediately as she stood up and slowly placed the book on the seat of her chair, her eyes never leaving mine.

"Sarah," I breathed through my tears.

"Mother," she replied curtly.

Rushing forward, I threw my arms around my daughter and pulled her into a tight embrace. She was rigid in my arms and didn't move to return the hug, but she didn't fight me either. I closed my eyes and buried my head in Sarah's shoulder as I tried to keep my tears from falling.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "Sarah, I am so so sorry." I pulled back then and cupped Sarah's face in my hands as I gazed into her beautiful gray eyes. "What happened? After we-… Were you okay? Did you get hurt? Please tell me you weren't hurt."

Sarah pursed her lips slightly as she pulled her head back. I immediately withdrew my hands when I realized that she didn't want me touching her. The way my daughter looked at me felt like a knife to my heart; her expression was neutral as she stared at me in silence and her eyes were both cold and cautious.

Ignoring my frantic questions, Sarah looked past and caught Martha's gaze. "Where's the Doctor?" she asked, her voice void of any emotion and one of her eyebrows raised.

"He's gone," Martha answered.

"Gone? What do you mean gone?"

"He left," I said.

Sarah furrowed her brows together in confusion. "What, he just left you?"

I nodded. "Yes." Anger and hurt bubbled up inside my chest and I clenched my jaw as I muttered, "He abandoned me."

Sarah scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, so he's back to doing that again, is he?" she said bitterly.

Behind me, Martha suddenly cleared her throat. "Um, I think I'm gonna have a look around," she said a little awkwardly.

I didn't even bother to say anything to Martha as I heard her walk away. I gazed at my daughter instead as I tried to think of something I could say to her, a way for me to apologize for accidentally leaving her behind when the Doctor kidnapped Ian and Barbara. But when I looked into Sarah's eyes again I saw the bitterness and the hurt and the anger, all the things that she wasn't saying.

"Sarah, I-"

"So what happened?" she asked. "Why did the Doctor leave you?"

She doesn't want me to say anything about what happened, I realized. She probably doesn't want to hear whatever pathetic excuse I might come up with.

I nervously brushed some hair out of my face as Sarah settled down in her chair again. She crossed one leg over the other and stared at me expectantly. "I was on Gallifrey," I began slowly. "I ended up there somehow and I got stuck there for six months."

"I thought Gallifrey was time locked."

"It is. But I got stuck there somehow and I had to pretend to be a Time Lord. And, uh, long story short, I ended up here and the Doctor left."

Sarah raised her eyebrow again, staring incredulously at me. "But why did he leave? He wouldn't just leave you because you spent some time on Gallifrey. There had to be a reason."

"Sarah, it's not my place to tell you what happened."

"So?"

I sighed and ran a hand over my face. "I saw something. Before I was living in the Wastelands as a hunter, I saw something that I wasn't supposed to see. Something that the Doctor's ashamed of. And when I told him what I saw, he just left without any explanation or telling me when he'd be back or even if he'd come back. I don't know where he went or where he is now. I just know that when I needed him most, he abandoned me."

"Yeah, he does that a lot," Sarah replied with a cynical smile.

I had to look away to reign in my tears at Sarah's bitter response. "Sarah, we never meant to leave you. It was an accident."

"But you still left me," she snapped. "You still forgot about me. You and the Doctor just abandoned me for a second time."

"I never forgot about you. Not ever, not for one single moment. You are my daughter and I love you. I could never forget you."

"But you did!" she shouted, swiftly moving so that she was standing. "I was a child and you left me behind. I was lost and alone and scared and I didn't have my parents because they abandoned me! The only person to ever look after me was Alistair. He was the only proper father I ever had and even now, I don't have him because I'm stuck here in this time without any way back."

"Sarah, I'm sorry," I said through my tears. "I never meant to hurt you. I'm your mother, I'm supposed to look after you, not ruin your life. I-I never meant for any of this to happen. If I had known, I would have done something, I would've changed what happened somehow because you deserve so much more than this. But right now I can't do anything. I'm stuck here for God knows how long with no TARDIS, no way to leave, no Doctor to support me when I need him."

Sarah scoffed and shook her head in frustration. "Yeah but the thing is, Mum, that the Doctor always comes back for you. He never comes back for us. Not for his granddaughter, not for his own children or even his friends, just for you. So don't act like you're all alone and that you have nobody because you have absolutely no idea what that's like."

Before I could say another word, Sarah stormed past me and rushed out of the library. "Sarah, wait!" I called as I ran after her. "Sarah!"

She had already sprinted across the street and dodged around a shop corner. I was about to run across the street after her, but Martha suddenly appeared by my side and pulled me back by the arm.

"Careful!" she exclaimed as a car whizzed by.

"Sarah!" I shouted, pulling my arm out of Martha's grasp.

"Diana, wait. Let her go."

"But-"

"She probably needs some time to cool down. Just… let her be for now."

I let out a shuddering breath and felt my entire body tremble with the effort of holding back my tears. "She hates me."

"She doesn't hate you," Martha assured me, gently placing a hand on my arm. "She's just upset."

"What kind of mother am I if I can't even look after my own children properly? What other things have I done to hurt her that she hasn't told me about? What will I do to her in the future?" I spared Martha a tearful glance and shook my head. "She said Alistair was the only father she ever had. Was the Doctor ever even there for her? Was I? A-Am I just a terrible mother?"

I could barely control myself as I dissolved into tears. I fell forward into Martha's arms and sobbed into her shoulder as she tried her best to comfort me. Without the Doctor there to reassure me, I wasn't sure what to do. He knew better than Martha, myself, or even Sarah what had happened to our child and he would know exactly what to say to me. But he had left me and all I could do was guess and worry and pray that Sarah wouldn't hate me forever.

Martha called a cab soon after and we headed home immediately. I could tell that she felt guilty the meeting with Sarah had gone so poorly, but I promised her that I wasn't angry with her for how things turned out. I knew it was my fault that Sarah was angry and hurt. It was my fault that she was left behind because Susan told me that very day that Sarah was staying behind at school. But I had forgotten her because I was so caught up in the sudden appearances of Barbara and Ian. What kind of mother was I to let myself forget about Sarah?

When we returned home, I went straight to my room and collapsed on my bed with a soft cry. My life felt like it was falling apart around me too quickly for me to stop or fix anything. The more I thought about everything Sarah had said, the worse I felt and the more I worried about her and our relationship. I knew that her future self was much more understanding towards me, but what if it was just a pretense or short lived? I doubted I could handle my own daughter hating me.

Why did we decide to have children? I wondered as I stared through my tears at the ceiling of my room. All we do is bring them into this universe so they can get hurt. Susan died because of us, because of me. I could have stopped it from happening if I had just tried harder. Now Sarah's been abandoned by her parents twice and she hates me. God only knows what else we end up putting her through. What about Hope? And Alistair? If he really is my son, then I can only guess what kind of pain he's gone through as well.

I rolled onto my side and curled into a ball, staring at the wall as I continued crying softly. Theta, what have we done to our children?

The next three days were mostly uneventful for Martha and myself. Martha was usually at work most of the day since she had to support the Doctor and I. However, my argument with Sarah had only made me feel worse and I retreated even more into myself, very rarely speaking and hardly ever leaving the house. When I did go outside, I stayed in the backyard and stared at the flowers or watch the clouds as they floated across the sky. All I could think about was the Doctor and Sarah and how I had hurt them and driven them away. I worried over my children and wondered how each one had grown up, if I had raised any of them properly or not. The more I thought about my children and what Sarah had said, the more I wished I could rewrite time to spare her.

The fourth day I started to feel a little more like myself, even if I was still dwelling on the events of the last few days. Martha was thrilled to come home and find me out of bed with something other than a frown on my face. Hoping to keep me in my newfound good mood, Martha decided to take me out to dinner. The new surroundings were a nice change of atmosphere for me and I enjoyed eating something that someone else had prepared for me.

"So did you get any reading done yet?" Martha asked as we walked, arm in arm, in the setting sunlight back home. "I know you probably haven't been in the mood recently, but I thought maybe some reading would do you good."

"I think I read the first morning I arrived here. But nothing else yet. I kind of wish there were more American shows on the TV," I added as an afterthought. "But my favorite TV show kind of doesn't exist in this universe, so…"

Martha glanced at me from the corner of her eyes. "What's your favorite TV show?"

"Doctor Who," I answered with a half smile.

"Wait. You mean-?"

I nodded and laughed a little at Martha's shocked expression. "I'm living in my favorite TV show. So I guess watching it would be a little redundant."

"So you know what's going to happen, then, with the angels and the TARDIS?"

"Mostly," I answered with a shrug. "I don't know much about yours and… the Doctor's perspective because what I saw in my universe only showed me what happened to Sally. But I know how everything's supposed to end."

"And we make it out of here, right?"

"Martha, I promise you're not stuck in the past for the rest of your life. I know it for a fact," I sighed as I recalled what was supposed to happen once she and the Doctor regained the TARDIS: the end of the universe with Jack and the fob watched Master. Pulling out of my thoughts almost immediately, I saw that we were walking along the sidewalk that led to the house. "Oh, good. I've been looking forward to sitting down again as soon as we left the restaurant."

Laughing softly, Martha unhooked her arm from around mine and pulled the house keys from her coat pocket. "Six months without a sofa really makes you appreciate it, huh?"

I nodded. "You have no idea."

Martha pushed the front door open, stuffing the keys back into her pocket, before gesturing for me to go inside first. Smiling briefly at her, I hurried inside with the intention of sitting down on the sofa with a book or even going back to my room and collapsing on my bed. I kicked my shoes off in the entry and padded into the living room in my socks, only to stop short at what I saw.

The Doctor jumped up from his seat on the sofa, his eyes wide and his face tight with worry. "Diana," he breathed, "you're back."

A/N: Please don't forget to review (and head to pinterest to see Sarah all grown up)!