Tears marked everyone's faces.
Barbara and Ian sat close together, looking the same age as when they had stepped into the first Doctor's Tardis. Their dark hair had no grey, their light skin had no wrinkles. They drew looks from all the others once they each discovered that this was the Barbara and Ian.
Tegan, who had left her work with Australia's aborigines to come here, remembered Sarah Jane instantly from their adventure involving four out of the first five incarnations of the Doctor. Her brown hair was only a bit longer around her creamy face, and her former mod clothing style was hinted at in her black dress.
Dorothy McShane, or Ace as she was once known, seemed to waver between grief and anger, her light brown ponytail both similar and different to the style she wore when she traveled with the seventh Doctor. Seeing her temper so close to the surface, creating a tinge of red to her honey complexion, reminded Sarah Jane how she'd been once known for her Nitro 9 explosives.
Martha and Mickey sat together and off to the side of the group, looking the same as the last time Sarah Jane had seen them. Martha had her black hair up and they wore matching grieving expressions on their warm brown faces. Her hands were clasped tight and gripped between her knees. He straddled the bench so he could better hold his wife for both their sakes.
Jack moved to stand behind Wilf, gripping his shoulder. The former Time Agent looked torn between crying and wanting to kill somebody. Jack... poor Jack, thought Sarah Jane. He had been through too much emotional damage these past few years. He had lost his work and his purpose with all of Torchwood now completely destroyed. His whole team except for Gwen was dead. Sarah Jane knew something had happened with Jack's daughter, but he refused to talk about it. And Ianto... if only Ianto had been spared. Had he lived, Jack would still have love, comfort, and some happiness in his life. But he hadn't, and now the Doctor's death had annihilated whatever healing Jack may have felt. She understood that; she still felt pain over the Brigadier's death and if the Doctor was dead too, every memory of their times together would be crippling.
Sarah Jane's son Luke, along with Clyde and Rani, the two other teens who worked with her to keep Earth safe, sat next to Jo. She had come by herself instead of with her grandson, like she had the last time Sarah Jane had seen her. Warm and lovely Jo Grant Jones, her silver hair complimenting her luminous skin tone, lighter than Sarah Jane's, acted as her hostess while she waited for the last guests she had managed to invite here. She had gathered as many as she could, as quickly as she could, telling them that they would make plans once they were all together on what to do in this Doctor-less universe. She would have to figure out later how she would spread the word to the ones who couldn't make it - such as Ben and Polly, who were in India, and friends of the first and second Doctors.
Candles flickered in the slight breeze and plenty of hands reached for the boxes of tissues Sarah Jane had set out around her garden. K9 looked so tiny, his head continually down since the news, despite him saying he experienced none of the emotions the others felt. He had not called Luke "Master" in days.
Footfalls in the drive told her that the last guests were arriving. A woman with ginger hair brighter than Donna's, especially against her black suit and white complexion, walked next to a man with light brown hair and only slightly darker skin; a red convertible was parked behind them. Everyone grieving had dressed in black or at least subdued colours. As an example, Jack didn't wear his usual long coat but a black suit jacket over a dark shirt. The jacket was long enough to make Sarah Jane wonder if he hid a gun under it.
Poor Donna. At least she didn't have to carry the pain the others here did. Not that it was much consolation for the life's memories the Doctor had removed.
"Amy and Rory?" she asked, and they nodded. "I'm Sarah Jane Smith. Thank you for coming."
They both replied with the usual thanks for inviting them' before she took Amy's hand in between hers. She had to look up to see their faces. "It must be worse for you. I heard you were there with him." She left enough time for their answer before carefully saying what she really wanted. Like Melody had pointed out in Gunnersbury Park: someone could be watching and listening and they wouldn't know they were there. In fact, she had her sonic lipstick in her pocket in case she did have to disable the wrong people using a device against them. It would just be her luck for the Slitheen or some other enemy to attack now.
"It must be horrible for you, having to watch it happen," she began. "I don't know what I would do if I saw it. It must have hurt so much that I can't imagine anything could relieve it." She squeezed Amy's hand on that last part. She didn't know why, but she swore Melody would tell Amy Pond the truth about the Doctor. UNIT had said they were related somehow and if Melody wanted Sarah Jane to know the facts, she would never leave Amy and Rory in pain. "I heard he asked you to be there without telling you what would happen. Isn't that just like him? Always making the decisions for us. Telling us things, not telling us things." She gave Amy's hand another small squeeze. "Swearing he knew what was best without ever asking."
Those brown eyes darted back and forth between her own. Sarah Jane knew she asked for a lot, but maybe, just maybe, Melody had told Amy it was all right.
Amy finally gave her everything she could hope for: she slightly squeezed back on her hand. "He's an idiot. I always told him so."
Her husband's hand fell to the small of her back. "Amy."
"Yeah, sorry. Was an idiot. I still get it wrong sometimes."
The strain in Sarah Jane's back and shoulders relaxed at last for the first time since UNIT told her the news. "Yes, well. I think we're all doing that." Amy hadn't forgotten to use present tense. She had just confirmed Melody's message and sent her own.
Sarah Jane ushered them in and began introductions before she left them talking quietly with Martha as she made her way to Jo. She sat down next to her predecessor and took her hand as she had just taken Amy's.
"Jo, do you remember when we first met? We said we both had a notion about the Doctor and how we felt."
Jo's abundant personality could never do quiet. "A notion? You mean at his funeral." Tears built in her brown eyes and a few cringed around them. Luke started coming closer to his mother, but she shook her head letting him know she was all right.
"Yes, then. And we both said we thought that if the Doctor died, we would..." She held Jo's hand tighter as in comfort.
The tears in Jo's eyes suddenly had a different shine. "You have that feeling now?"
"Like I did then." That the Doctor hadn't died.
That Jo smile - whether she used Jo Grant or Jo Jones - that smile held the same brightness of a newborn world. Her hair caught the candlelight in the garden. "I feel like you do."
Sarah Jane hated to kill that smile, but they didn't know if the wrong people were watching. "It's so cruel, isn't it? These people who are taking credit, they seemed to have tracked him down wherever he went. Even places like here where you wouldn't think it'd matter."
Jo took a deep breath and dimmed that smile. "It's very cruel, all of it."
Tegan interrupted them. "Who are these Silent Academy people? Does anyone know?"
Sarah Jane answered, "I think Amy and Rory can help us there."
"Amy and Rory!" Jo exclaimed as something clicked into place. "The Doctor mentioned you the last time I saw him. You're the Ponds! The married couple on the Tardis!"
Rory interjection of It's Williams couldn't be really heard over Jack's yell. "Ponds! As in Melody Pond?"
Sarah Jane shot to her feet. "Jack-"
But Amy was already in his face and her being only an inch shorter made her nearly eye to eye. "You want to say something about my daughter?" Her Scottish accent growing thicker only emphasised the threat.
Wilf looked up, confused. "Your daughter?"
"Time travel," Sarah Jane quickly explained, instinctively guessing the answer. "Jack, please!"
"I have plenty to say about your daughter," he shouted. "Including what I'm going to do to her for killing the Doc!"
"Jack, listen!" Sarah Jane tried again. The group swung in every reaction imaginable and she had lost control. She had brought them here to end their pain, not to have it raised to a fury. But every reopened wound from the past two years of Jack's life poured a toxin of pain and anger through him. It showed in his voice and the dark storm in his expression, and it spread like a virus to the others. Only Jo understood, of course, and tried to help her bring things back to where they should be.
Dorothy McShane moved up next to Jack's shoulder. "Your daughter killed the Professor?"
"Twelve thousand consecutive life sentences!" Amy shouted back at him, ignoring the other woman. "In a maximum security prison!"
"She's not going to serve them, because I'm putting a bullet-!"
"Jack!" Sarah Jane shouted. She put herself between them. His blue eyes were hard as ice and stood out shockingly against his dark hair and light pink skin. "This isn't getting us anywhere. You know he wouldn't want this."
"He's gone. So are his rules." Jack bore down on Amy again. "Because of your daughter."
"And what are you going to do about it?"
Jack glared, unintimidated. "I've been clear about that."
Amy gave him a dark smile. "How? You don't know where she is."
It stopped him. For a second. He touched his vortex manipulator and, even though Sarah Jane thought the device wasn't capable of time travel anymore, she slipped her hand to her sonic lipstick. If she was wrong, she'd disable it before Jack could leave. He'd be furious, but he didn't give her a choice.
But his hand moved away to jab a finger in Amy's face. "I'll find a way."
"Please." Barbara stood up to speak and, just like the Doctor's older incarnations deferring to his original self, everyone in the garden respected her position and quieted. "You say the Doctor wasn't this. Like he was never violent. He was, and, if we're all honest, we each saw that side of him."
Ian didn't have to touch her to support her. Like any well matched couple that had been together for long, they spoke of being half of each other without word or movement. "Barbara had to stop him from murdering a man in cold blood on our very first trip with him."
"And we can be just as much that side of him as we can be his other. It's our choice." She directed this at Jack before she pleaded with Amy, "Even so, you clearly must not understand how devastating this is for us."
"Don't tell us what we understand." Rory's voice was soft but didn't relent. "You didn't see what happened. We did."
"It obviously didn't hurt you as much," Mickey said, "Sorry, but it has to be true when you can stand there and say what you're sayin'."
Amy spun on him. He couldn't know that she quoted her daughter, but with an added deadly tone. "You are so wrong."
"That's enough." Sarah Jane stood in the middle of the garden, in the middle of everyone, so what she said included all of them. "I'm going to say it again. This is getting us nowhere."
"They didn't kill the Doctor. Melody Pond-" Jack growled and Martha reminded him that Sarah Jane told him to wait.
Amy was cut off by Wilf. His tears had caught in the lines of his ruddy face and grey beard. "Are you saying that you're defending what she did?"
"You can't!" Dorothy bit out.
Rory's eyes seized Wilf. "If that was true, I never would have let her plead guilty. She never even defended herself. She's in a hellhole for thousands of years. She'll never live without being punished for this."
Dorothy blinked at that. Mickey let out a deep breath, and one by one, they each looked to the other, their rage deflating. Sarah Jane thought they had finally reached the end of the argument, but they hadn't.
Jack faltered, but he hadn't been able to win against the 456 by destroying their purpose or them; he had to give in and make sacrifices to save Earth's children. Sarah Jane knew that much. Now he funneled everything he wished he could have done years ago into a target he could strike: Melody Pond.
Before he could do anything, Martha was up and by his side. "Don't do this, Jack. She's paying for what she did."
"Not enough, Martha. Not for ambushing the Doctor."
"She didn't ambush him," Rory came back with just as much steel, even if it was quieter than Jack's. "He pushed it on her. He went up and demanded she do it. She refused, she drained the energy out of the weapons built into the astronaut suit-"
Mickey interrupted with a confused, "Astronaut suit?"
Rory went on with no break. "- and told him to run. He kept trying to force her and she stopped time. She admitted she might have no choice to do anything else, but it didn't stop her from sending a message across the universe asking them to help him."
Wilf got to his feet, raising a hand. "I got that message." Mumbles of agreement spread through them all.
"Everyone did." Amy hadn't stopped glaring at Jack. "She built a beacon. It reached everywhere in space and time." Pride showed around her anger.
"He finally pleaded," Rory finished. "It was a fixed point and everyone would be killed if it didn't happen." He paused there, considering something, but before Sarah Jane could ask what, he made a decision, shaking his head at whatever it was. "He kept going until he convinced her. He sacrificed himself and she cried the hardest. She'll never get over it. She sacrificed the new life she had built. With us, with the Doctor, for herself." He swallowed and barely got out the next words above a whisper. "She got her doctorate that morning. She was in a cell that night."
The garden had gone silent back at the beginning. Rory had stilled them with He pushed her to do it. A few swallowed, and Wilf looked like tears were coming back. Barbara dropped back into her seat, and now her husband touched her in support. That was the most anyone could manage.
No, not quite. Rani spoke, her Indian features alight with understanding. Her speaking now left Sarah Jane to wonder if the teenagers had felt they couldn't say anything before. "You had to agree too. Right?"
Amy stared at her, her mouth shut tight. Then: "We didn't have time."
Rory put an arm around her waist and ushered her out. "We should go. I'm sorry, Miss Smith. We just made everything worse."
"No, wait!" Sarah Jane rushed over. "Don't go. Let me explain to them."
She turned in a slow circle as she spoke so she could look at each one of them. "Melody came to me. She warned me about UNIT turning up with the news about the Doctor. And she indirectly told me-"
"No!" Amy shouted.
She spun back to the Ponds. "Please," she begged Amy.
"If she wanted them to hear it, she'd have told them instead of just you."
Sarah Jane crossed back those few steps between them. "They're hurting as much as you did. I know how I felt after Melody came to me. I'm sure you felt the same way."
Rory had an arm around himself as he rubbed his forehead with the other hand. He made his mind up just as Sarah Jane finished and touched his wife's arm. He nodded quickly to her.
Amy looked back at him for a long, hard second before agreeing, even if she did so with an impatient noise and a belligerent glare at Harkness.
"Hold on." She pulled pens out of her pocket and handed one to her husband. He looked at it with a combination of disgust and resignation. He turned so they were back to back and shoved up his sleeve to expose the skin on his arm. "Okay. Go."
Their heads turned as they scanned all around them, high and low and everywhere in between. The pens hovered over their arms.
"What's going on?" Clyde asked, his eyebrows knit in confusion against the warm umber of his forehead.
"I think," Ian answered him, "this has something to do with their knowing more about the people who killed the Doctor."
Sarah Jane darted glances about her garden as she flipped up the face of her scanner watch. She asked K9 to check for electronic devices and life signs other than theirs as a backup to her own scans, but mostly she waited and bit back on telling the Ponds to hurry up.
Luke came over. "I'll go ask Mister Smith to scan too, Mum," he offered, referring to the living, extraterrestrial computer in their attic. "I'll text you if he finds anything." He looked to Clyde and Rani to follow him into the house, his medium skin tone made lighter by their darker complexions.
Sarah Jane found nothing on her watch, but she still relied on the Ponds. Something made her trust their experience more than anything else. The alien members of the Silence were so new in their knowing they existed, even the Doctor, that she wondered if they would be in the databanks.
Amy and Rory turned, always in orbit with each other, until she was face to face with Sarah Jane again. The ginger blinked and then husband and wife hurriedly put their bare arms next to each other.
"Nothing," Rory said. Amy quickly instructed Sarah Jane, "Okay. Tell him."
She still took the precaution of whispering it in Jack's ear. As she stepped back to call Luke on his mobile to tell him just as quietly, she saw Jo had told Tegan, who immediately went to Ian and breathed it to him and Barbara. Now they went rapidly around the garden so the word went out in a hush to each person.
The Doctor is alive.
Chapter notes: I know Amy's eye colour seems wrong, but it is true. I double checked. Karen Gillan's eyes are brown by the time of "The Wedding of River Song", even though they were originally green when she joined the show. If you look at pictures of her through the two series (and the sources that discuss it), they go from green to hazel and then to brown. She never wore coloured contacts; it just happened as she aged. :) BTW: her cousin, Caitlin Blackwood, has blue eyes, but I didn't notice the difference when she played young Amelia Pond and Karen played Amy.
Jack's vortex manipulator is turned off again by the Doctor in "Journey's End" and he reprimands Jack about ever fixing it. Sarah Jane doesn't know if Jack went against the Doctor again and fixed it. That's why she wonders if it works now.