~revised~

Chapter VIII

Mira

She sat at the rear wall of the classroom on a small chair, a clipboard with some sheets on her knees. The pen in her right hand was tapping against it in some random rhythm as she waited for the lesson to begin – and for the Doctor to show up. It had been a few days since Rose had received a call from someone called Mickey. He had told her that something strange was going on here, and so the Doctor had decided to investigate. They had gotten themselves jobs at school – the Doctor as a teacher, obviously, Rose in the kitchen and she herself as some sort of official to evaluate this facility. He had even handed her the strange ID-thing that he had shown the soldiers of the Queen. It was blank, but there was something weird about it. Psychic Paper he called it, and as she had shown it to the headmaster she had gotten a hint of what he had been seeing on it, almost like a faint, telepathic whisper in her mind. Well, she was fine with that job, although she could have done some teaching herself. She definitely had the skills, she had taught at the University of Terrania occasionally, but then again, that had been adults, not children. She wasn't really good with children and wasn't too keen on dealing with them. Apart from that she was still a bit anxious about accidentally messing up history by telling them the wrong things. So instead she was just walking around, sticking her nose into things and annoying people. Something she was quite good at – and she enjoyed it.

Finally the Doctor showed up, wearing his usual brown suit and carrying a bag which he know put on the table. "Good morning, class. Are we sitting comfortably?" he grinned. "Oh and, by the way, the woman sitting behind you is Miss Rhodan. Doing some evaluation. Just don't let her disturb you."

She cringed slightly as he called her by that name. For a moment she had forgotten that none of them had ever heard of her. Back in her universe it would have been impossible to go undercover by her real name. Especially since she had build quite a reputation for her self, going beyond simply being her father's daughter.

Her father. Suddenly she had to think about him, feeling her heart hurt in her chest. She missed him already. Over the years they had grown close, he wasn't only her father but also her best friend. Sometimes it seemed they had an almost psychic connection, being able to tell if something was wrong, even over great distances. She immediately pushed that thought aside. If she allowed herself to think too much about it now she was afraid it would completely overwhelm her.

A few of the pupils turned their heads around and she smiled at them as there wasn't a care in the world whilst the Doctor was writing the word 'Physics' on the whiteboard. If anything she had learned to cover up her emotions.

"So. Physics." He put the pen back on the desk. "Physics. Eh? Physics. Phyyyyyyyysics. Physics! Physics. Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics."

She raised an eyebrow and looked at him sceptically as she felt the bemusement of the class.

"I hope one of you is getting all this down. Um, okay - let's see what you know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?"

They clearly weren't in for answering anything. Only one of the children raised his arm, the rest were rather bored. No wonder, she thought. Who cared about strips of nylon?A sure way to ruin physics for them for the rest of their lives.

"Yes - uh, what's your name?" the Doctor asked him.

"Milo," the boy answered.

"Milo! Off you go!" the Doctor encouraged him.

"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge," Milo answered.

Well, hadn't been that hard, had it?

"Correctamundo! A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again. Question two - I coil up a thin piece of micro wire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this; how do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?"

She had to bite her lip not to laugh out loud at his word-creation. She caught his glance and tried – quite unsuccessfully – to hide a big grin.

"I hope the outcome of your evaluation is going to be good, Miss Rhodan?" he said to her.

"Well, that depends," she replied, still grinning.

"On what?"

"Solely on you and your teaching skills, Mr. Smith."

"Well, anyway.", he replied, also hiding a smile. "Who wants to answer the question?"

She shook her head slightly and wrote something down, just to take her eyes off him. She didn't know what it was about him she found almost comforting, helping her forget her whole messed up situation for a moment. Besides that, everything seemed to be good again between the two of them, despite that he now knew all of her secrets. Or maybe just because of that, she thought. They hadn't really had time to talk any further after Rose had joined them that morning, so she still had no idea what exactly he was thinking about it.

Milo's hand shot up again.

"Someone else," the Doctor said after looking around. No response from the other pupils at all.

"Nope... ? Okay, Milo - go for it."

"Measure the current and PDs in an amp-meter and a voltmeter."

That kid was good, she had to give him that. The Doctor seemed to be impressed as well, just as the other pupils.

"Two to Milo! Right then, Milo, tell me this; true or false - the greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings."

"False," the boy said.

"What is a non-coding DNA?"

"DNA that doesn't code for a protein."

"Sixty-five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-eighty-three times five?"

She did the maths herself, and even though she knew how to quickly do calculations in her head and had quite some practise, Milo was faster.

"Three-hundred-and-twenty-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-fifteen," he replied as soon as the Doctor had finished his question.

She looked around in the classroom, now clearly getting the mixed feelings of being impressed and disturbed at the same time from his classmates. Milo was good. Too good for a kid his age.

"How do you travel faster than light?"

"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of 36.7 recurring."

What!? Her jaw dropped. Was FTL travel even a thing yet? Did they even consider it theoretically possible at this time? She had no idea about what exactly he meant with quantum tunnel. Might be something about the old science of quantum physics, but the Doctor's reaction – dropping his jaw as well - told her that Milo must be right. Obviously the principles of travelling faster than light differed from her own universe. Anyway, Milo shouldn't know that. Not at this age.


Rose

She was in the canteen, smashing food on plates. As the Doctor finally walked by she gave him a filthy look. And also to Mira, who was walking behind him, looking at the food in disgust.

Mira should have rather looked in the mirror today, she thought. Her hair was braided and tucked around her head like Princess Leia from Star Wars had worn it. Thanks to Mickey she knew the episodes quite well. Or like a milkmaid. From hundred years back or so. And she was wearing black – again. She was a bit pale for that in her opinion. As they finally sat down at a table she walked over to them.

"Two days." she said. Why in hell was it her who had to do the kitchen job? Well, maybe she was really not into teaching, and a bit too young for that, but there were other jobs, weren't there? Evaluation, to start with, she thought, shooting an angry look at Mira. She magically knew her feelings were anyway, she could just openly show them.

"Sorry, could you just - there's a bit of gravy," the Doctor said to her. Did he actually enjoy his role? She wiped the table.

"No, no - just there," he said again, pointing at it with his fork.

"Two days we've been here," she repeated herself.

"Blame your boyfriend, he's the one who put us onto this. And he was right," the Doctor replied. "Boy in class this morning - got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth."

"Mickey's your boyfriend?" Mira asked somehow surprised.

"Yeah, well, that's... You eating those chips?" she asked the Doctor, avoiding to answer the question. What was it to her anyway?

"Yeah, they're a bit... different," the Doctor said.

"I think they're gorgeous. Wish I had school dinners like this," she said, eating one of them. Her look fell on Mira's plate, she had hardly touched her chips. "You're not in for chips?"

"That's no food for children in school," Mira complained. "I'm really used to a lot, I've been with the fleet for quite a while now and the food there is famous for its lack of taste – and texture - but that's just plain awful, outright sad," she pointed at her plate. "Anything remotely resembling nutritional value beyond empty calories has clearly been fried to death. In stale oil." Despite her complaining, she was still eating it, at least some of it, Rose noticed.

"Well, can't be that bad, if you're eating it...," she said slightly annoyed.

"I'm hungry," Mira replied, before shuddering in disgust. "But not that hungry, actually."

"It's very well behaved, this place," the Doctor interrupted them.

"Mm," Rose agreed, munching on chips.

"I thought there'd be happy-slapping hoodies. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ring-tones." He looked at her as if he wanted to impress her.

"Yeah? Yeah? Oh, yeah! Don't tell me I don't fit in."

"Happy-slapping?" Mira asked bewildered.

"Beating others and filming it with their phones," Rose explained. God, where did she come from?

Mira looked at her in utter disbelieve. "Oh for God's sake. I'm too old for this, I really am. This is so not my generation," she sighed, rubbing her face with both hands.

"Oh, believe me, I know exactly how that feels," the Doctor added sympathetically, before Rose could reply anything. Great. At least the two of them got along quite well. As it hadn't been enough that they both were into their science-nerd-talk she didn't really understand.

"How old are you anyway?" Mira asked the Doctor.

"Nine-hundred-six," he said.

"Oh, you're in really good shape for that age," she said mockingly after giving him a surprised look.

"Oh, you think so? Really?" he replied in the same tone, correcting his tie.

Before Rose could say anything to that, one of the dinner-ladies showed up.

"You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting," she said to her icily.

"I was just talking to them," she replied.

"Hello!" the Doctor greeted the dinner-lady.

"She doesn't like the chips," Rose said, nodding at Mira.

"The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance. Now, get back to work," the dinner-lady replied, apparently affronted.

"Maybe you make sure that you take care of your kitchen as well as you take care of your staff. My evaluation isn't finished yet," Mira said not one ounce less icy than the dinner-lady, who just walked off after shooting her an unfriendly glance.

Rose looked at Mira in surprise. Well, help sometimes came from unexpected sources... On the other hand, she was very well capable of defending herself.

"See? This is me," she said to the Doctor. "The dinner-lady."

"I'll have the crumble," he said.

"I'm so gonna kill you," she said to him before returning to her station.


Doctor

He grinned at Rose as she went back to her work. She would manage doing that job for a few days, of that he was sure. He also hadn't missed what was going on between her and Mira, although he preferred not to think about it too much. He just couldn't stand that sort of fighting. On the other hand, they weren't really fighting that much, were they? They just needed a bit more time to get to know each other.

"So, Mickey's her boyfriend?" Mira asked.

"Yeah, why?" he replied and looked at her out of wide eyes.

"Oh just... He's fine with her travelling with you and him staying back on Earth? With the two of you being..."

"Hm?"

"Friends?" she finished the sentence. "I mean, first: It's none of my concern, but I'm just too curios sometimes. Second: I basically have no problems with open relationships. As long as everybody who's involved knows about it."

"What!?" he stared at her. She just looked around in the canteen.

"Just saying," she shrugged.

What was she up to now? Rose and he were close, but still, she was together with Mickey. Mickey the idiot. Yes, true, they had danced together in his former regeneration, but that had been under somehow special circumstances. And she had saved his life after all. And he had sacrificed himself for her. Well, at least a part of him. But that was it. No relationship, at least not in that human sense of meaning. Was she getting anything from Rose about her feelings? Things he might have missed? Happened sometimes, even to him, he hated to admit.

"Rose and I are friends. Just friends. Close friends, but nevertheless: Friends," he finally said.

"If you say so," she replied innocently. "I was just wondering, that's all."

"So..," he decided to finally change the topic. "What do you make out if this all?" he said quietly.

"I'm not sure yet. Besides that Milos knowledge seems way too advanced for this time." She looked at him and shrugged. "And there is something weird about some of the staff. Teachers, the dinner-ladies and even Mr. Finch himself."

"What?"

"Don't know. They seem to be normal enough. It's just, when I look at them, it's like one of these flip-images. For a moment it's like there's something else, before it flips back to normal."

"What? They change right before your eyes? Into what?" he asked startled.

"No, not visibly changing. More in a psychic way. They feel human, then there is this short.. flip or twitch, before everything is back to normal. It's just weird."

"Well, that's what we're here for," he said, smiling widely. At this moment a conversation on one of the other tables caught his attention.

"Melissa. You'll be joining my class for the next period. Milo's failed me... so it's time we moved you up to the top class," Mr. Wagner, one of the other teachers, said to a girl.

"Kenny? Not eating the chips?" he continued addressing another child, a boy who was a bit chubby.

"I'm not allowed," the boy answered.

"Luke - extra class. Now," Mr. Wagner had immediately turned his attention to the next child, before leaving with several children following in his trail.

"And there is Mr. Finch, always watching," Mira said, inconspicuously turning her eyes up to where he stood on a balcony.


Mira

They were all sitting in the Staff Room. Mr. Finch wanted to introduce someone to them. She was sitting in a corner of the room, just looking around, holding her clipboard. The Doctor was sitting on a table, eating biscuits and talking to one of his co-workers.

"But yesterday, I had a twelve-year-old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy... in cubits," he seemed equally astonished as she and the Doctor had been earlier on about Milo.

"And, it's ever since the new headmaster arrived?" the Doctor asked.

"Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot," the teacher replied and nodded over to a group of other teachers. "Except for the teacher you replaced, and that was just plain weird, her winning the lottery like that," he continued to the Doctor.

"How's that weird?"

"She never played! Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight."

"Hmm! The world is very strange," the Doctor said, still eating biscuits.

Indeed. Especially the world of time travel. Just as Mira thought about this Mr. Finch arrived, accompanied by a woman.

"Excuse me, colleagues - a moment of your time," he gathered their attention.

They all turned to him and Mira's look fell on the Doctor. It was as if his whole face just lit up at the sight of this woman. He was smiling all over it, even wider then he normally did. Did he know her?

"May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist, who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times," Mr. Finch said.

Sarah Jane smiled at all of them. The Doctor was still captivated by her sight.

"I thought it might be useful for her to get 'a view from the trenches', so to speak. Don't spare my blushes," Mr. Finch continued.

Now Sarah Jane finally seemed to notice that the Doctor was still smiling at her widely, making her approach him.

"Hello," she greeted him.

"Oh, I should think so!" he said cheerfully.

Who was she? The love of his youth?

"And, you are... ?" Sarah Jane said. Strangely she didn't seem to recognise him at all.

"Hm? Uh, Smith. John Smith."

"John Smith? I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name," she wondered.

"Well, it's a very common name!" the Doctor said after a short pause, as if lost for words.

Lost for words? He?

"He was a very uncommon man," she said as she hold out her hand. "Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you! Yes! Very nice! More than nice – brilliant!" he replied, shaking her hand.

"Um... so, um, have you worked here long?" she wanted to know.

"No! Um, it's only my second day."

"Oh, you're new, then? So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum?" she asked further, with him just staring and smiling at her. "So many children getting ill - doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile," he finally said.

"Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here," she answered conspiratorial.

"No. Good for you," the Doctor said, as she walked away to the other teachers. "Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith."

Then the bell was ringing and everyone hurried to get out of the staff room. Mira was following the Doctor.

"What was that? You know her?" she asked as she finally caught up with him.

"Yeah, she's a friend. Haven't seen her in a long time. A very long time."

"But she didn't seem to remember you!"

"Well, I might have changed," he said to her whilst watching her out of huge eyes. Oh, that look again. She never had the slightest hint of an idea what was going on behind these dark eyes when he looked at her like that. Before she could say anything more to him they had reached his class-room and he shut the door behind him, with her still standing outside. She just shook her head and took off. Still enough places to investigate left.

Night had fallen as they all were at the school again. This time accompanied by Mickey. A nice guy, she thought, just really not the brightest star in the sky. But he was honest, most of the times speaking out what went through his head. No filter in between there. A thing she valued quite highly. And yes, there was more drama forming around Rose as she had almost expected it. Poor Mickey, that was basically everything she had to say to all this.

"Oh, it's weird seeing school at night. It just feels wrong," Rose said as they were walking down a corridor. The school appeared to be empty, but something was odd. There was a presence she hadn't felt before during the day. Clearly not human.

"When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school," Rose continued.

"Well, someone is clearly sleeping here. I just doubt it's the teachers," Mira said quietly.

"What?" the Doctor spun around to her.

"Someone's here. Aliens, I guess. I'm not sure if their sleeping, though. Somewhere above us...," she explained. "Whoever it is wasn't here during the day."

"We're not alone here?" Mickey asked her, truly scared. "And how d'ya know someone is here?"

"I'm psychic."

"Cool! You mean, like mind-reading?" he asked her.

"No, not quite..."

"Mickey!" Rose snapped at him. "Not now!"

Mira just crossed her arms, shook her head slightly with her eyes down to the floor and then looked up to the Doctor. She had decided to keep herself out of this and she would stick to that, no matter what.

"So, fine, we have to be a bit more careful then," he said and scratched his head. "All right, team. Oh, I hate people who say 'team'. Um... 'gang'. Um... 'comrades'. Uh... anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen and get a sample of that oil. Mira, the new staff are all Maths teachers, take Mickey with you and check out the Maths department. I'm gonna look in Finch's office. Be back here in ten minutes."

"Mickey, you have a watch?" she asked him and he nodded in response. "Good. Oh, and by the way, who put you in charge?" she asked the Doctor. Not that it wasn't sensible what he had suggested, but still. She just had a problem with orders – a serious one which had most of the times done nothing for her professional career back home.

"I did. Any problems with that, Major?" he replied, a strange tone in his voice.

"Essentially, no. Though one word of advice: I'm not good at taking orders. At least not if they don't make any sense to me. Just so you know."

He looked at her for a long moment. "Good. So, off you go," he said, turned on his heels and took off up the stairs.

"You gonna be all right?" she heard Rose say, addressing Mickey, as she turned around. The girl was fiddling with the sleeve of her sweater. Suddenly it hit her just how young she was. Maybe she really should be a bit more lenient towards her. Even though she didn't approve of her behaviour towards Mickey.

"Me? Please. Infiltration and investigation? I'm an expert at this. And I have her. Psychic Powers. Well, that's really cool," he said, and just strode away in a random direction, leaving Mira and Rose staring at each other in wonder. After a few steps he turned around and strode back.

"Where's the Maths department?"

"Just follow me," Mira said and walked off in the opposite direction.

They finally managed to reach the maths department. On their way there they had heard weird sounds – like screeches and flapping – and Mickey was giving her quite a hart time keeping him from freaking out.

"It's only ten minutes," she tried to reassure him once more. "Just look at your watch and keep track of the time. I'll pay attention to those sounds. It's nowhere near us right now, trust me."

"Yeah. I'm fine, by the way. Just being careful," he said, and one didn't needed to be an empath to be not convinced by that.

"I never assumed anything else," she replied. "Just try to stay behind me and don't forget the time. Just a quick check in the department and we also need two minutes or so to get back."

She went into one of the class-rooms, making sure Mickey was still following her. "You take the cupboards over there, I'll take the desk," she said and immediately turned to the teachers desk. She had just opened the first unlocked drawer as she heard something falling to the floor - a lot of rather small, solid items – and Mickey screaming in utter terror. She turned on the spot, rushed over to him, falling over some chairs and right against a table whilst doing so. It was pretty dark in there, only Mickey stood in a ray of light coming from the window.

"Mickey, shut it!" she yelled-whispered at him as she finally had reached him whilst carefully rubbing her left side which had made rather painful contact with the table. She was glad to see that he wasn't in immediate danger - he had just given himself a scare. He held one of the little packages that had fallen out of the cupboard right onto his head, and turned it into the light.

Are these... Before she could prevent it he screamed again and threw the package away as if it was toxic.

"Mickey!" He just looked as if he was starting to scream once more any second. Great. Before that could happen, she slapped him. Not hard, just enough to hopefully snap him out of his panic. And it worked. "Sorry, but we're not alone here!" she said as he finally looked at her.

"S...Sorry," he stuttered. "I... I just..."

"Yeah, got scared. Never mind. Happens."

At that very moment the Doctor appeared in the door-frame, followed by... Sarah Jane. Surprise, surprise. Oh, and Rose. Of course.


Doctor

He had also heard the strange noises whilst he was on his way to Finch's office. He decided to follow the source of them. Mira had mentioned that there was someone else here, so why not have a look? As he turned around a corner, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. There she was. Sarah Jane Smith. Also following the noises and now heading directly to the room where he had landed the TARDIS. He followed her quietly. He waited outside the room with the TARDIS, where she just had walked into. As she came out again, walking backwards, he just stood there. Oh, it had been a really, really long time. Finally, she turned around.

"Hello, Sarah Jane.", he said quietly.

"It's you. Oh... Doctor...", she whispered, as if she still couldn't believe that it was actually him.

Then a smile was slowly forming on her face as she walked towards him. "Oh, my God, it's you, it's... it's... you've regenerated."

"Half a dozen times since we last met," he said.

"You look... incredible."

"So do you."

"I got old," she said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Old? To him she still looked as she had the day he had brought her back to Earth. Looked as he would always see her, every time he looked at her. Just as Sarah Jane, the woman who had been a companion to him on so many adventures. No matter how she might have changed over time. More wrinkles, different hair, all these things humans used to fuss about so much and were just skin-deep.

"What're you doing here?" she asked him.

"Well... UFO sightings, school gets record results - I couldn't resist. What about you?"

"Same," she said with a mischievous smile and they both burst out into laughter. But just a few moments later she stopped, and as she was talking again, she sounded close to tears.

"I thought you've died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must've died."

"I lived. Everyone else died," he said, a sudden sadness rushing over him. Meeting someone again he had known back then brought it all back somehow.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone died, Sarah," he said in a voice heavy with pain.

Sarah just shook her head in disbelieve. "I can't believe it's you," she whispered.

Right at this moment they both heard a terrible scream, snapping them out of their talking.

"Okay! Now I can!" she said to him and they both started to run, searching for the source of the scream.

It was Mickey, of course, he had clearly heard that. On their way they met Rose – in fact, he almost pumped into her as she was just coming from a converging corridor.

"Did you hear that?" she asked, out of breath, then she spotted Sarah. "Who's that?"

"Rose, Sarah Jane! Sarah Jane, Rose.", he said in an urgent tone. No time for this right now.

"Hi. Nice to meet you," Sarah said to Rose. "You can tell you're getting older - your assistants are getting younger," she added, obviously talking to him right now.

"I'm not his assistant," Rose snapped at her before he had any chance to say something. Instead he was scratching his ear.

Here we go again...

"No? I get you, tiger," Sarah said.

They finally reached the class-room, all of them standing in the door frame, staring at Mickey.

"Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I - We started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell out of them," Mickey explained.

The Doctor bent down and picked up a few of the packages Mickey was standing in. Rats. Packaged rats.

"Oh, my God, they're rats. Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats," Rose said.

"Oh please, not you too. Don't freak out too," Mira pleaded, looking at Rose who shot her an icy glance in return.

"Rats. And you decided to scream," the Doctor said to Mickey.

"It took me by surprise!"

"Like a little girl?"

"It was dark! I was covered in rats!" Mickey replied indignantly.

"Nine, maybe ten years old. I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt," he just couldn't help himself. Mickey the idiot. They were in a school full of aliens and he screamed like a little girl whilst opening a cupboard and getting hit by some dead rats. Packaged rats.

"Hello, can we focus? Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?" Rose said somehow angry.

"Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them. Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you?" Sarah asked her.

He looked at Mira who just raised a brow at him and then lowered her gaze to carefully eye the rats. All right, no help from that direction, he thought.

"Excuse me, no one dissects rats in school anymore. They haven't done that for years. Where are you from, the dark ages?" Rose replied.

"Anyway, moving on," he said quickly. He just caught the dirty look Sarah and Rose exchanged as he was about to turn to the door. "Everything started when Mr Finch arrived. We should go and check his office," he explained, throwing the rat he held back to Mickey who dropped it in disgust. Then was walking out the door, with the others following him.

"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who exactly are you?" Rose asked as they were walking.

"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor," Sarah replied. "Alone, a lot of times," she added, nodding to Mira. "The official, huh?"

"Yeah, still just evaluating," Mira said happily and shrugged. "Never mind me."

"Oh! Well, he's never mentioned you," Rose said to Sarah.

"Oh, I must've done! Sarah Jane! Mention her all the time," the Doctor hurried to say.

"Hold on... sorry... never," Rose said after pretending to think for a few moments.

"What, not even once? He didn't mention me once?" Sarah asked almost hurt, as Rose just walked off. Sarah immediately followed her, leaving him with Mickey and Mira.

Mickey put a hand on his shoulder. "Ho ho! Mate! The missus and the ex. Welcome to every man's worst nightmare," he said, grinned and then followed Rose and Sarah.

The Doctor sighed in relieve and ruffled his hair with both hands. Then his glance fell at Mira, who was still standing in front of him. Arms crossed and looking at him, the corners of her mouth twitching suspiciously.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, really, I'll just stay out of it if you don't mind," she said and went off, following the others.

He sighed again and followed them as well. They all went up the stairs and he was opening the door to the headmasters office with his sonic. "Maybe those rats were food," he said.

"They are somewhere behind this door," Mira whispered.

"Let them," he replied.

"Food for what?" Rose asked.

Right at this moment he opened the door. The strange noises were indeed coming from here, he had heard it before Mira had told him so. He looked up to the ceiling. "Rose... you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school... ? Well... they do."

There they were. Gigantic bats hanging from the ceiling, their wings folded around them, obviously sleeping right now.

"No way!" Mickey yelled, turned on his heels and ran away quickly followed by Sarah and Rose.

Only Mira was still at his side, looking at the creatures. "Who are they?" she whispered almost inaudible. He just shrugged and cautiously closed the door.

"One's woken up!" she whispered urgently, just as they both heard its screech.

"Time to get out here anyway," he replied as he took her hand and pulled her with him.


Mira

They all gathered outside the front doors.

"I am not going back in there. No way," Mickey said, out of breath from running.

"Those were teachers!" Rose almost yelled.

"Those are just intelligent alien lifeforms, Mickey, no need for panic," she tried to comfort him. "Well, at least I assume they're intelligent."

"When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen. Thirteen big bat people. Come on," the Doctor said. He was walking towards the doors again.

"Come on-? you've got to be kidding!" Mickey tried to stop him.

"Yeah, maybe that's really not such a good idea," she fell in, holding her left side. "We're outnumbered." She had really hit the tables quite hard, her ribs were hurting rather badly now that she was a bit out of breath from running. But they didn't feel broken.

"I need the TARDIS. I've got to analyse that oil from the kitchen," he insisted. "You're alright?" he suddenly added, looking intensely at her.

"Yeah, sure," she answered, dropping her arm.

"I might be able to help you there. I've got something to show you!" Sarah said to him with a smile before grabbing his arm and pulling him to the car-park.

A few minutes later they were all peering into the boot of Sarah Jane's car. The Doctor pulled away the blanket which was hiding something in there. A weird looking, dog-shaped robot came to light.

"K9! Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Mira Rhodan - allow me to introduce K9 - well, K9 Mark III to be precise," he said delighted. Rose and Mickey were just glancing at each other as if not entirely sure what to make of this.

"What sort of Robot is that?" Mira asked. "AI?"

"Oh, you could clearly say so...", the Doctor answered.

"Why does he look so... disco?" Rose wondered.

"Oi! Listen, in the year five-thousand, this was cutting edge!" the Doctor said, a bit offended.

Mira shot a quick glance to Mickey and Rose. They really didn't seem to get the point in all this. If this thing was only half as advanced as she thought, giving that it was from the year five-thousand, then they had a positronic brain at their hands which would exceed the processing power of the most advanced computers in the year 2006. Well, at least she assumed it was based on the same principles as the positronics were in her universe. Didn't really matter anyway, as long as it did work. Which wasn't the case right now, sadly. Though she had to admit the exterior of the robot wasn't really impressive nor cutting edge.

"What's happened to him?" he turned to Sarah Jane.

"Oh, one day, he just... nothing!" she replied.

"Well, didn't you try and get him repaired?"

"Well, it's not like getting parts for a mini-metro! Beside, the technology inside him could rewrite human science. I couldn't show him to anyone!" Sarah said.

"Ooh, what's the nasty lady done to you? Eh?" the Doctor said, patting the head of the robot-dog. She looked at him mildly irritated now. This thing might have an AI, but he was overdoing it a little now.

"Look, no offence but could you two just stop petting for a minute? Never mind the tin dog, we're busy!" Rose intervened. The Doctor looked at her, then closed the door, still grinning.


As always, thanks to everyone who read that far, or even followed or favourited it. :-) (And, of course, reviews are still welcome ;-) )