The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 59
A/N: Okay, so we have School Reunion and a lot of tension between the Doctor and Rhea as Rhea tries to deal with the fact that she just confessed some of her most deepest, darkest secrets out loud and her growing unease with the fact that her relationship with the Doctor is more permanent that she'd like.
Replies to Reviews:
CmdrHawke667: I know, it was awfully traumatic, wasn't it? I almost cried just writing the chapter!
TimeladyAlly: Something tells me she wouldn't take well to the Doctor comforting her after that.
deathb4beauty: Thank you so much!
NicoleR85: I think it's really hard to come back from something like that, so it'll take some time for the Doctor to help her. Plus, they're not at a place in their relationship where Rhea would accept the Doctor helping her. She deals with it. I don't think she could ever move past it completely, because there's something else holding her back.
grapejuice101: Yep, I was trying to make it as momentous as possible. It is quite depressing and it took me ages to make up the backstory for her. But I'm glad you liked the twist!
hiddenintentions: Yep, it was a horrible chapter because I did out a lot of what's gone on in Rhea's past. Trust me, the end is still far to come. There are more things in Rhea's past that will shock you as well. I do agree with you about Rhea's relationship with the Doctor, but a reminder that Rhea only said all of those things because she had the sneaking suspicion that the Doctor already knew about what happened between her and Damian. But, yeah, this was definitely the first step for her. Her accepting the fact that the Doctor knows about her dirty secrets.
King and the Lionhearted: Yep, I warned you that it would be dark and deep and pretty much horrible. I'm glad you liked it though. And you're so sweet, thank you so much. Rhea really appreciates it and I'm sorry I feel happy that you cried, but that was what I was getting at with the last chapter.
Serendipity989: Thank you so much! It's so good to have someone affirm it!
Marmalade1512: Don't worry, Rhea will still remain our loveable, closed-off, trigger-happy psychologist. She's not going to change all that soon. I think Rhea's become very attached to the Doctor, despite her vehement denial of her feelings for him. So, she got a bit frazzled the last chapter when the Isolus took the Doctor. I hope you like my choice of episode!
LookAliveSunshine03: Yeah, I think her trauma has created this second personality inside of her, a person that can deal with all of the crap that she's been through, and I'm glad you don't think she's insane. I'm trying to go with the irony of having a psychologist with mental problems. And I love writing insane OCs, they're so interesting. And she is a very complex characters. She is so many people that it's hard to pin her down. She's the daughter, the sister, the lover, the victim, the killer, the psychologist, the revolutionary etc. and I think that makes her more dynamic and it gives me a lot to explore with her character. I happily accept your hug, by the way. It was a very traumatic chapter to write. Rhea will not let the Doctor comfort her. In her eyes, it's her past and no one else's. She has to deal with it on her own. She thinks she caused it, you see. And she has a very strange and quite unhealthy and frankly twisted relationship with her ex-husband and that will come out in the next couple of chapters. It's not all clean-cut between them. He's not always the abuser and she's not always the victim, and she did/does love him in her own way. So, Rhea won't let the Doctor help her. She's very closed-off in that sense. She won't accept help from anyone. She prefers to go into herself and lick her wounds in private.
ImpactBlue: Thank you so much! I haven't put those episodes down on my schedule yet, so I can't say for sure. Sorry about that. Rhea's husband is definitely alive and he will be making an appearance. I've already written a few scenes with him in present time and he'll definitely appear in flashbacks. It'll be very interesting to see how the Doctor reacts to Damian, because Damian's very smooth and calculating and the complete opposite to the Doctors, especially 10 and 11. But those interactions will be mainly between Damian and Rhea :(
CRAZYNERDGIRL: Thank you so much! And as for your question, it's not that simple. There are a few steps to her and the Doctor getting together. There's sleeping together for the first time, Rhea actually vocally declaring her feelings for the Doctor, and her acceptance of the dynamics of their relationship. And only one of them is coming soon. Rhea's not one to jump into a relationship quickly, especially after everything she's been through, so it'll be a slow progress till they get to the point where she can look at the Doctor and say "I'm in love with him" and "He's my lover". She may sleep with the Doctor, but she won't believe him having feels for her all that quickly.
DoctorWho9: I know, I can't imagine how many people relate to Chloe. I was like her as a kid as well.
Audrie-13: Don't worry, I cried writing the chapter :) Sunehri makes her appearances once in a while. Rhea kind of created her to deal with everything that happened to her. Yeah, she was really unwilling to say all of those things aloud, but a part of it was because she wanted to warn Rose. And I think it's a very important lesson. Just because a marriage or a relationship seems perfect doesn't mean it is. Just because a guy seems perfect doesn't mean he is. Rhea fell into that trap and she wanted to make sure that Rose would always be watchful of what men are capable of.
Linda Ku: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you like the chapter/story so much. I'm so glad you like Sunehri so much. She's definitely my baby OC and I love her to death, so any praise makes me feel really happy. I love suspense and I love giving away little bits of the story at a time, but I also realise that I can't keep it a secret forever, even though I'd really like to. Don't worry, there's a lot more to her past than just what Rhea confessed to last chapter. And it's okay. Rhea really is broken and emotionally destroyed. She's spent the last one or two years building herself back up again, but she's not quite there yet. Thank you so much. I'm glad you think the Docthea relationship is heartbreakingly beautiful. I don't think anyone's ever said that about them and it an absolutely lovely characterisation of their relationship. There is a lot more to her relationship with the companions. We haven't see a lot of Amy and Rory just yet, so there's more to her and the Ponds, but she has this certain role she takes in her relationship with every companion. Like with Rose and Clara, she's the worldly, wise older sister. With Amy and Donna, she's the best friend. With River, she's the kindred spirit. With Martha, she's the mentor/colleague/sister in arms. I can't believe you read all of the chapters in one day. It's very long :) And I have spent a long time on this story and thank you for appreciating that. This isn't the first story that has the OC jumping through the Doctor's timeline. I got the idea from Jumping Through Time by AnaDona and The Time Child by DanniFielding, but I hope you like my own twist on the plotline. Thank you so much for the review, it was incredibly lovely and I loved reading and replying to it.
Warnings: Nothing too indecent. Some language, sexual content, dark themes as usual.
School Reunion: After School Special
A boy headed into a science lab and went to a bench. The door opened and a familiar pair of scruffy white Converses stepped inside, followed behind by a lithe figure in a flowery pencil skirt, red leather sleeveless shirt and black stilettos. The Doctor dropped his bag down on the teacher's desk and faced the class, while Rhea moved over to the back of the room, sitting down in a chair, playing the part of a student teacher to perfection.
"Good morning, class. Are we sitting comfortably?" The Doctor asked.
He grinned. He moved back over to the whiteboard and scrawled the word 'physics' in capital letters before underlining it.
"So. Physics."
The Doctor replaced the cap of the board pen and chucked it back down on the desk, haphazardly.
"Physics. Eh? Physics. Phyyyyyyyysics. Physics! Physics. Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics." The Doctor babbled. The class looked bemused and Rhea resisted the urge to let her head fall into her hands in exasperation. The Doctor sniffed purposefully. "I hope one of you is getting all this down." He said, pointedly. "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?"
One of the boys put his hand up.
"Yes, uh, what's your name?" The Doctor asked.
"Milo." The boy answered.
"Milo!" The Doctor beamed. "Off you go."
"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge."
"Correctamundo! A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again." Rhea nodded, wistfully, in total agreement. "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?"
Milo's hand shot up again.
"Someone else." The Doctor looked around, expectantly. There was absolutely no response from the rest of the class. "Nope... ? Okay, Milo, go for it."
"Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and a voltmeter." Milo replied.
The other students looked impressed at the extent of Milo's knowledge.
"Two to Milo! Right then, Milo, tell me this;" The Doctor smirked. "True or false: the greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings."
"False."
"What is a non-coding DNA?"
"DNA that doesn't code for a protein."
Rhea sat up straight, narrowing her eyes at Milo.
"Sixty-five-thousand-nine-hundred-and-eighty-three times five?" The Doctor asked, sharply, peering at Milo.
"Three-hundred-and-twenty-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-fifteen."
Some of the other pupils looked very impressed, the others simply disturbed.
"How do you travel faster than light?" The Doctor asked.
"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of 36.7 recurring."
"Well, hell." Rhea muttered under her breath, looking at the Doctor, sceptically.
The Doctor's mouth dropped open slightly.
It was lunchtime, and the dinner ladies were spooning food onto people's plates. The Doctor and Rhea moved along the line with his tray. Rose, who was undercover as a dinner lady, spooned mashed potato onto their plates and gave the Doctor a filthy look simultaneously, knowing that Rhea had been against her placement as a dinner lady. The Doctor just smirked at her and they headed towards the tables.
"You're such an ass." Rhea muttered to him.
At their table, some time later, the Doctor speared a chip on his fork, nibbled it, and stared at it distastefully. Rose came over with a dishcloth to wipe their table down. Rhea leaned back in her chair, resolving not to touch a bite of the food.
"Two days." Rose hissed.
"Sorry, could you just… there's a bit of gravy." The Doctor told her, pointing at it with his fork. Rose wiped the table. "No, no, just there."
"If you want to take the fork and stab him in the face, I could hold him down for you." Rhea offered her, dryly.
Rose nodded at her, considering it for a moment. "Two days, we've been here." Rose snarled at the Doctor.
The Doctor shrugged. "Blame your boyfriend, he's the one who put us onto this. And he was right. Boy in class this morning, got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth."
Rhea nodded. "I didn't even know have those things and I have PhD, for God's sake. Well…" She rubbed the back of her neck. "I knew the multiplication and the ammeter and voltmeter question."
"You eating those chips?" Rose asked, suddenly, pointing to Rhea's full plate.
"They're a bit… different." The Doctor commented, hesitantly.
"Which is another word for 'disgusting'." Rhea commented. "I could get better French fries in the fat-infested fryers at McDonalds."
Rose helped herself to one off Rhea's plate. "I think they're gorgeous. Wish I had school dinners like this." She took a seat opposite to Rhea and the Doctor.
The Doctor squinted around the canteen. "It's very well behaved, this place."
Rhea also chanced a look around the room. "My schools were never like this. There was screaming on all sides and food fights at least once a week. Like that scene out of Mean Girls."
"Mm." Rose mumbled, her mouth full of chips.
"I thought there'd be happy-slapping hoodies. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones."
Rhea paused and stared at the Doctor, incredulously. "Never say that again." She said, slowly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yeah? Yeah? Oh, yeah! Don't tell me I don't fit in."
Rhea placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned in. "You don't."
Another dinner lady approached Rose, looking at her sternly. "You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting."
Rose jumped to her feet. "I was just talking to these teachers."
"Hello!" The Doctor grinned and waved.
Rhea smiled, gently.
"They don't like the chips." Rose told the dinner lady.
The dinner lady looked personally insulted by that. "The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance. Now, get back to work." She left.
Rose walked away from the table. "See? This is me." Rose told the Doctor and Rhea, sadly. She gestured down at her uniform. "The dinner lady."
"I'll have the crumble." The Doctor said, loftily.
"I think I might kill you." Rhea told the Doctor, seriously. She turned to Rose. "The Doctor's an idiot, you know that. You're so much more than just a dinner lady or a shop girl. You're Rose Tyler, defender of the universe. Screw anyone who says otherwise." She said, sternly.
Rose smiled and squeezed Rhea's hand and Rhea winked at her. She returned to her station and Rhea turned to glare at the Doctor.
"You're a jerk and don't talk to me." She growled, shaking her head in disbelief. Only he could be this thick.
They watched as a teacher, Mr Wagner, approached a girl sitting a few tables away from them.
"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." The Doctor watched, chewing absently, and Rhea stared at them with interest. "Kenny? Not eating the chips?"
"I'm not allowed.' Kenny replied.
"Luke, extra class. Now." Mr Wagner told them.
He left, and several of the children followed him. Mr Finch, the principal, watched the proceedings from a balcony above the canteen. He seemed to notice that the Doctor and Rhea were watching him.
"Okay, is it just me or is this school is very Village of the Damned?" Rhea muttered to the Doctor.
"Are you talking to me now?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, go to hell." She hissed, standing up and walking away, her hips swaying, the Doctor's eyes drawn to the way her arse was outlined in the tight skirt.
Rose was in the kitchen, drying a tray.
"Careful... keep it steady... don't spill a drop." A dinner lady was saying, sternly.
A few of the dinner ladies were very, very carefully wheeling in a barrel of oil. They had masks, goggles and gloves on. Rose watched them with well-disguised interest.
"I said keep it steady. Careful... that's it... easy now... steady..." Rose's mobile rang. "Right, second barrel… quickly now!"
Rose answered her phone. "What you got?" She asked.
"Confirmation. I just got into army records. Three months ago, massive UFO activity. They logged over forty sightings, lights in the sky, all of that. I can't get any photos, 'cause then it gets all classified and secret. Keeps locking me out." Mickey told her.
Rose made sure to keep her voice low, in case anyone was listening in on her conversation. "Tell you what, though, three months ago, turns out all the kitchen staff were replaced." She watched them wheel another barrel of oil into the kitchen with what looked like unnecessary caution. "And this lot are weird."
"See, there's definitely something going on. I was right to call you home."
Rose shrugged. "I thought maybe you called me home just to... well, just to call me home."
She could practically hear Mickey grinning. "Do you think I'd just invent an emergency?"
"Well, you could've done!" Rose protested.
"That's the last thing I'd do."
"Watch it!" One of the dinner ladies shouted.
"Because every time I see you, an emergency just gets in the way-"
The barrel of oil toppled over and spilled onto one of the dinner ladies, who screamed in agony and started smoking.
"I've gotta go." Rose told Mickey.
"Get her up, get her up!"
The dinner lady was hoisted to her feet. She was steered into an office, still wailing with pain. Rose tried to see through the partition but the blinds were swiftly drawn. Rose dialled 999 as the head dinner lady emerged from the office. She pulled her goggles down and leaned against the doorframe, eyeing Rose suspiciously.
"What're you doing?" She asked Rose.
Rose stared at her, incredulously. "Calling an ambulance."
"No need. She's quite all right."
Rose hung up the phone. There was the sound of something bursting into flames, followed by the sound of something smashing, and a billow of smoke from the office. The dinner lady did not flinch, nor did she turn around when she heard the various noises.
"It's fine. She does that." The dinner lady said, finally, and went back into the office.
Rose was completely confused by the recent turn of events. She moved closer to the barrel of oil for a closer look.
The Doctor was sitting on a desk in the staffroom, nibbling on a biscuit, while Rhea listened to a teacher who was pacing up and down in front of them.
"But yesterday, I had a twelve-year-old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy... in cubits." The teacher told them, incredulously.
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "And, it's ever since the new headmaster arrived?"
The teacher nodded. "Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot." He nodded over to where a group of smart looking teachers are standing. The Doctor and Rhea looked over his shoulder at them. "Except for the teacher you replaced, and that was just plain weird, her winning the lottery like that."
Rhea hid her smile. "How's that weird?" She asked, innocently.
"She never played! Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight."
The Doctor popped another biscuit into his mouth and winked at Rhea, knowingly. She grinned back at him.
"If you'll both excuse me, I think I left my keys in my car." Rhea said, sweetly, and then left the room.
Mr Finch approached them. "Excuse me, colleagues, a moment of your time."
The Doctor spun around and his eyes widened. He jumped to his feet, just staring at the person standing next to Mr Finch.
"May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist, who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times."
Sarah Jane smiled around at them all, beatifically. The Doctor's face was a picture at that moment, and the corners of his mouth began to turn upwards in a smile.
"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 told them before leaving.
Sarah Jane caught the Doctor's eyes and approached him, her smile sweet. "Hello!"
The Doctor beamed at his old friend. "Oh, I should think so!"
Rhea would pick this time to go and get her keys from her car. But, it was probably better that Rhea wasn't here at this particular moment. Sarah Jane would have recognised her off the bat and Rhea would have been backed into a corner. He knew how much she hated being faced with people who already seemed to know her without warning. Of course, this made so much more sense. How Rhea had been so adamant that Sarah Jane travel with them back in the 1970s, how she seemed so warm towards the intrepid young journalist and how accepting she had been when they had left Sarah Jane on Earth. She must have known that they – he – would see Sarah Jane again.
Sarah Jane raised an eyebrow. "And, you are…?"
The Doctor was unable to take his eyes off her. "Hm? Uh, Smith. John Smith." He said, using the name he had given the principal and the one Rhea had so predictably scoffed.
"No one's actually called John Smith."
Sarah Jane's smile turned down at the corner. "John Smith? I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name."
The Doctor had to keep a tight control on his emotions to prevent himself from giving anything away. "Well, it's a very common name!" He offered.
Sarah Jane smiled, sadly. "He was a very uncommon man." She held out her hand. "Nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you! Yes! Very nice! More than nice, brilliant!" The Doctor exclaimed, not being able to form a clear thought in his mind.
"Um…" Sarah Jane's gaze turned inquisitive. "So, um, have you worked here long?"
"No!" The Doctor exclaimed. "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?" Sarah Jane asked him, curiously. The Doctor could still not tear his eyes away from her, and he was smiling at her but she didn't seem to notice. "So many children getting ill, doesn't that strike you as odd?"
The Doctor grinned, knowingly. He only wished that Rhea knew more to be able to appreciate what this meeting meant to them. "You don't sound like someone just doing a profile." He pointed out.
Sarah Jane shrugged, innocently. "Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here." She told him, conspiratorially.
"No. Good for you." The Doctor grinned. Sarah Jane walked away from him to meet some of the other teachers. "Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith." He whispered, more proud of Sarah Jane than he had ever been.
She had done so much with her life since they were forced to let her go. He remembered how painful it had been for Rhea to leave Sarah Jane behind, it had practically broken her heart to lose someone who she had seen as a sister.
The bell rang.
The corridors were crowded with students once more. The Doctor took slow steps with a vague smile and a faraway expression on his face, just remembering.
"Okay, stoner, what's with you?" Rhea asked, confused, approaching him, his arm falling to slip around her waist like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"I met someone." The Doctor told her, happily.
Although, he should probably have worded that better.
Rhea stilled, a sharp pain slicing through her heart and leaving her breathless. "Seriously?" She hissed, covering up her hurt, resignation and jealousy with anger and disappointment. "We're in the middle of a remake of Children of the Corn and you're screwing someone?"
You dumb bitch, see… it was only a matter of time he realised you were a waste of his time.
"What?" The Doctor looked down at her, horrified. "No!" He exclaimed, hurt shining in his eyes. "Do you honestly believe I'd do something like that?" He asked, softly. He cupped her face in his large hand, his thumb stroking over her cheek. "Rhea, I'd never do that." He said, sincerely, saying so much more than just those five words. "There's a journalist here, her name is Sarah Jane Smith. She used to travel with me in the 1970s. You obviously knew her back then, but you don't know her now, so I'm giving you a heads up. I know how much you hate meeting people that already know you."
"Oh." Rhea said, blandly, feeling stupid for a moment. But she wasn't in a position to consider why she had felt so alarmingly jealous of the Doctor meeting someone else. She shook her head. "Okay, I'm guessing she didn't recognise you?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No, she travelled with me during my third and fourth regenerations."
Rhea whistled. "Is she in for a shock." She cleared her throat. "So, are you going to tell her who you are?"
The Doctor shrugged, his face tightening. "I don't want to ruin her life."
Rhea frowned and placed a hand on her arm. "Why would you ruin her life?"
"I left her here on Earth and she made a life for herself without me, Rhea." The Doctor sighed. "How can I just walk back into her life and upturn it?"
Rhea shrugged, not exactly knowing what to say. She had noticed that the Doctor had a habit of showing people – usually women – the universe and then abandoning them back on Earth after awhile. She had seen it most obviously with Amy, but she gathered that many of the other companions of the Doctor had also met with a similar fate, such as Rose and Donna, considering the way the Doctor seemed to exchange companions like Rhea did shoes.
"Maybe she might need the closure." Rhea offered. "She might need to see you now so she can finally put that chapter of her life away."
"But she has." The Doctor pointed out.
Rhea shook her head. "She may have just been making the best of a bad situation. Tell her the truth why we left her. Let her know it wasn't because of her. Let her live her life with the freedom of not being bound by you. The least it'll do is make her feel better about herself. There's nothing like not feeling good enough for someone." Rhea confessed.
The Doctor nodded, sadly, holding onto Rhea's hand as if it was the straw that was keeping him afloat.
That night, the corridors were dark and empty, the chairs up on the desks. A torch shone into a classroom, and Sarah Jane appeared at one of the windows. She undid the latch from outside and peered inside with interest. When she was sure the coast is clear, she hoisted herself inside, dropping her body into the classroom.
The Doctor opened a fire door and came through it into a dark corridor, followed by Rhea, Rose and Mickey.
"Oh, it's weird seeing school at night. It just feels wrong." Rose said, grimacing. The four made their way down the corridor as quietly as possibly. "When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school."
"All right, team. Oh, I hate people who say 'team'. Um... 'gang'. Um... 'comrades'." Rhea glared at the Doctor. "Uh... anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen and get a sample of that oil. Mickey, the new staff are all Maths teachers, go and check out the Maths department. Rhea and I are gonna look in Finch's office. Be back here in ten minutes." He ordered, grabbing Rhea's hand and taking off up the stairs.
Rose fiddled with her sleeved, uncomfortably. "You gonna be all right?" She asked Mickey, nervously.
"Me?" Mickey scoffed, puffing his chest out, confidently. "Please. Infiltration and investigation? I'm an expert at this."
He strode away with purpose. Rose just stood there smirking, waiting for him to come back, which he did almost immediately, looking very sheepish for someone who had walked away with such confidence.
"Where's the Maths department?" He asked, reluctantly.
Rose pointed in the opposite direction from which Mickey had gone. "Down there, turn left, through the fire doors, on the right."
"Thank you." Mickey told her and strode off again.
The Doctor and Rhea headed down a dark corridor. They stilled when they heard screeches and flaps in the distance. He paused for a moment and then looked at each other.
"That wasn't just me, right? You heard that too?" Rhea asked, anxiously, looking around for some sort of sign for where the noise was coming from.
The two started searching for the source of the noise.
Sarah Jane began to pick the lock to Mr Finch's office, looking as though she was someone who had done this a million times before. She heard a bang, followed by a screech, and spun around, eyes wide and slightly frightened. The sounds became even louder and closer and she gave a sharp intake of breath and backed away down the corridor, keeping her eyes peeled for anything suspicious.
In the kitchens, Rose took the lid off the barrel of oil and spooned some into a small jar. A shadow passed over her followed by a screech and she looked up sharply.
Sarah Jane backed into a maintenance closet and slammed the door behind her. She turned around slowly and there, looming in front of her, stood the TARDIS, looking exactly the same as last time she had seen it. Her eyes widened in shock and trepidation and she backed out of the room, unable to believe what she was seeing right in front of her eyes. She stared at the closed door of the room she had just walked out of, and then turned around. The Doctor was standing there in the darkness, watching her, solemnly, while Rhea stood at his side, giving her a sheepish smile.
"Hello, Sarah Jane." The Doctor said, quietly.
"It's you. Oh... Doctor...Rhea…" Sarah Jane whispered. A smile started to spread across her lips as she edged towards them, still slightly hesitant. "Oh, my God, it's you, it's... it's... you've regenerated."
The Doctor shrugged, a smile playing on his lips. "Half a dozen times since we last met."
"You look… incredible." Sarah Jane said, swallowing hard.
"He does, doesn't he?" Rhea said, proudly, as if she was the cause of the magnificent specimen at her side. She paled. "Oh, fuck, I said that aloud, didn't I?" She spun around to glare at the Doctor. "You didn't hear me said that!" She said, warningly.
The Doctor nodded, dutifully, exchanging an exasperated look with Sarah Jane. She had seen the same look mirror on her Doctor, as well as Rhea's face, that she couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Here she was, having not seen the Doctor or Rhea for over twenty years, and they were still able to act like the old married couple they always were.
"Oh, Rhea… I've missed you so much." Sarah Jane whispered, resisting the urge to wipe away the tears that had formed in her eyes.
Rhea smiled at her. She could tell right off the bat that she meant a lot to the woman in front of her. "I'm sorry, Sarah Jane, but this is the first time I'm meeting you." She said, slowly and gently, not wanting to hurt the woman.
Sarah Jane flinched, remembering exactly what the Doctor had told her about Rhea. How she didn't stay still in his timeline, that she knew his future before he did, but she hadn't even experienced his past yet. "Oh." She fell quiet.
"Doesn't mean that I haven't heard about you, though." Rhea said, quickly. "You should've seen the big lug after he met you in the staffroom. Wouldn't shut up about the great Sarah Jane Smith and how important she would be to me." She walked up to the woman and placed a hand on her should. "I can't wait to know you, Sarah." She said, sincerely, before walking back to the Doctor.
Sarah Jane smiled at her.
"You look incredible, Sarah Jane." The Doctor said, quietly, his eyes roving over her, fondly.
Sarah Jane shrugged. "I got old." She said, mournfully.
Rhea snorted. "If you're old, I can't wait to see what I look like when I'm your age." She said, teasingly.
Sarah Jane grinned and edged around them. "What're you doing here?" She asked, them, curiously.
The Doctor shrugged. "Well... UFO sightings, school gets record results, I couldn't resist. What about you?"
"Same." Sarah Jane confessed.
The three laughed. But Sarah Jane's smile faltered and she sounded as if she were close to tears when she spoke again.
"I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must've died." She practically sobbed out.
Rhea had the startling urge to punch the Doctor in the face, when faced with the weary and tearful eyes of one of the Doctor's ex-companions. She didn't know why he did it to them. Why he just left them as if they meant nothing to him. Leaving them without an explanation and making them fear the worst.
"I lived." The Doctor shrugged. "Everyone else died." Rhea placed a hand on his arm.
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone died, Sarah." The Doctor said, quietly, but Sarah Jane and Rhea knew the Doctor well enough to read the pain in his voice.
Sarah Jane shook her head. "I can't believe it's you." She whispered in her disbelief.
The moment between the three old friends was broken by the sound of Mickey screaming.
"Okay!" Sarah Jane laughed. "Now I can!"
They grinned at each other, knowingly, and ran from the gym to find the source of the scream. They almost skidded and ran into Rose who was running from a converging corridor.
Rose frowned when she saw Sarah Jane accompanying them. "Who's she?" She asked, defensively.
"Rose, Sarah Jane!" He gestured to both of them in turn. "Sarah Jane, Rose."
"Wow," Rhea's eyes widened, staring at Sarah Jane and Rose, carefully. "This is like a whole new dimension of awkward." She muttered and the Doctor nodded.
Rose looked unpleasantly surprised, but they shook hands nonetheless.
Sarah Jane gave a weak and fake smile. "Hi. Nice to meet you." She turned to the Doctor. "You can tell you're getting older, your assistants are getting younger."
Rhea grinned and winked at the sly woman. No woman wanted to be faced with the image of their replacement. When the inevitable day came that the Doctor realised she wasn't worth fighting for, she had no interest in travelling with him anymore. She didn't want to see the new and improved version that would taking her place.
Rose looked outraged at the idea. "I'm not his assistant."
Rhea watched in amusement as the Doctor scratched his ear uncomfortably. She remembered when Martha had met Donna and how the Doctor had asked them not to fight, in case Martha would get jealous that the Doctor had someone else travelling in the TARDIS with him. She could laugh now if she wanted to, this must have been what the Doctor had been referring to.
"No?" Sarah Jane raised an eyebrow, mockingly. "I get you, tiger."
Rhea clapped her hands together and grinned at Rose and Sarah Jane. "Okay, children, why don't we put the claws away, huh?"
The Doctor sped off and Rhea sighed, rushing after him, the two behind her following. They found Mickey in one of the classrooms, surrounded by a load of vacuum-packed rats.
"Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I-I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell out of them." Mickey said, frantically.
The Doctor bent down and picked up a few to examine them.
Rose paled, looking at them closely. "Oh, my God, they're rats. Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats."
A smile played on Rhea's lips. "And you decided to scream." She said, playfully.
"It took me by surprise!" Mickey protested.
"Like a little girl?" The Doctor teased, picking up off Rhea's comment.
"It was dark! I was covered in rats!" Mickey shouted, indignantly.
"Nine, maybe ten years old. I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt." The Doctor smirked.
Rhea lashed out and smacked the Doctor above the head. "You're taking it too far, you chauvinist jerk." She hissed. She rolled her eyes. "Typical, a man does something remotely not masculine and he gets compared to a girl." She wagged her finger at him. "You're everything that's wrong with the world."
Sarah Jane grinned, watching Rhea tell the Doctor off. It was as if nothing had changed between them. Rhea was still a force of nature and the Doctor still thought she hung the moon.
"Hello, can we focus? Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?" Rose looked at them, sceptically.
"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 Jane asked, innocently.
The Doctor and Mickey looked shiftily between them, while Rhea simply watched them with barely concealed humour.
"Excuse me, no one dissects rats in school anymore. They haven't done that for years. Where are you from, the dark ages?" Rose snapped, indignantly.
"Well," Rhea drawled. "To be fair, I did dissect a rat in Biology… I think it was in ninth grade."
Sarah Jane nodded and Rose gave Rhea a withering look. Rhea could practically hear her question. Did you have to say that now?
"Anyway, moving on." The Doctor said, quickly.
Sarah Jane looked as if she really wanted to say something in reply to Rose, instead deciding to give Rose the dirtiest look imaginable.
"Everything started when Mr Finch arrived. We should go and check his office." The Doctor told them, his eyes shifting uneasily between Rose and Sarah Jane.
He chucked the rat he was holding back to Mickey, who dropped it instantly. They followed the Doctor out and down the corridor.
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who exactly are you?" Rose asked, intending to be rude.
"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor and Rhea." Sarah Jane said, proudly.
"Oh!" Rose's eyes widened. A sly smile formed on her face. "Well, they've never mentioned you." She said, innocently.
"To be fair, this is the first time I've met Sarah Jane." Rhea said, pointedly.
"Oh, I must've done! Sarah Jane! Mention her all the time." The Doctor said, quickly.
Rhea rolled her eyes.
Rose looked thoughtful, pretending to think about it deeply. "Hold on... sorry... never."
Rhea glared at Rose and smacked her on the arm. "Okay, cool it with the bitchiness, Regina George. You've even got the blonde hair to match." She said, sharply.
Sarah Jane looked annoyed and hurt. "What, not even once? He didn't mention me once?"
Rhea threw her arm around Sarah Jane's shoulders. "Don't feel bad, Sarah. He's a jerk. I'm sure you knew that." She grinned.
Rose walked off in a huff and Sarah Jane followed her, probably to probe her further.
Mickey chuckled at the scene and placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Ho ho! Mate! The toddler and the new baby. Welcome to every parents' worst nightmare."
Mickey grinned at followed Rose and Sarah Jane, leaving the Doctor and Rhea dumbfounded in the situation they had found themselves in.
Rhea slapped him on the chest. "This is all your fault." She hissed, and stormed off down the corridor.
The Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to unlock the door of Mr Finch's office.
"Maybe those rats were food." The Doctor mused.
Rhea frowned. "Food for what?"
The Doctor opened the door and he and Rhea peered inside. There were some incredibly strange noises coming from inside. The Doctor's and Rhea's eyes were fixed on the ceiling.
"Rose... you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school...? Well... they do." The Doctor muttered.
"Fuck." Rhea cursed under her breath.
Bat-like creatures were hanging upside down from the ceiling, while the five of them stared.
"No way!" Mickey growled and turned on his heel, read to hightail it out of there.
Sarah Jane and Rose quickly followed him, Rhea waiting for the Doctor to shut the door behind him, before she grabbed his wrist and tugged him down the corridor, not sure that he wouldn't try anything stupid in the name of scientific curiosity. At the sound of the door shutting, one of the bats woke up and screeched.
Mickey, Rose, Sarah Jane, the Doctor and Rhea hurried out of the front doors of the school.
"I am not going back in there. No way." Mickey panted, out of breath from running.
"Those were teachers!" Rose exclaimed.
"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 began to walk back inside.
"How about we not do that?" Rhea suggested, eyeing the school with unease.
"Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" The Doctor urged.
Rhea snorted. "It's telling me to run the fuck away from the school with the creepy bat-vampire monsters."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I need the TARDIS. I've got to analyse that oil from the kitchen."
Sarah Jane perked up at that. "I might be able to help you, there. I've got something to show you!"
She grabbed the Doctor and Rhea's arms and pulled them excitedly in the direction of the car park.
Sarah Jane opened the boot of her car. Inside was something covered up with a green blanket. The Doctor pulled the blanket off to reveal a small tin dog.
"K9!" The Doctor exclaimed with amusement and fondness. "Rhea Adwani, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, allow me to introduce K9, well, K9 Mark III to be precise."
Rhea could see from the look in the Doctor's eyes that he truly did care for K9. She smiled at the boyish grin that formed on his face when his eyes fell on the tin dog, and wondered what it would be like to have all these memories of a life she hadn't even lived at. Would she have reacted to Sarah Jane and K9 differently? Would she have had the same fondness and adoration for these two 'old' friends as the Doctor did? Sometimes, she hated the idea that she had so much more of her life to spend with the Doctor and he had already lived it. It gave him so much more power over her that it made her feel uneasy and smaller in his eyes.
Mickey and Rose exchanged glances at each other, an 'it's just a tin dog' sort of expression on their faces.
"Why does he look so... disco?" Rose asked, grimacing.
"Oi! Listen, in the year five thousand, this was cutting edge!" The Doctor protested. He looked at Sarah Jane. "What's happened to him?"
"Oh, one day, he just... nothing!"
"Well, didn't you try and get him repaired?" The Doctor asked, indignantly.
Mickey shook his head and Rose stared at all three of them, not realising what the big deal was.
Rhea raised an eyebrow at the Doctor. "Seriously. You just said that K9 was made in the year five thousand. Where was she supposed to go? Best Buy?"
Sarah Jane nodded. "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!"
"Ooh, what's the nasty lady done to you? Eh?" The Doctor cooed at K9.
Mickey and Rose stared at him, while Rhea rolled her eyes. The Doctor stroked K9, making soothing noises. Rhea shook her head when she saw Sarah Jane throw Rose what could be described as a triumphant glance.
Rose finally had enough the scene in front of her, the green-eyed monster flaring up inside her. The Doctor and Rhea were her friends, not Sarah Jane's. She had been the one there on all of their adventures and Sarah Jane wasn't going to swan in and steal them away from her. "Look, no offense but could you three just stop petting for a minute? Never mind the tin dog, we're busy!"
The Doctor closed the boot of the car, grinning.
The Doctor, Rhea, Sarah Jane, Rose and Mickey are in a chip shop. The Doctor, Rhea and Sarah Jane were sitting at a table by the window, chatting and laughing whilst the Doctor tried to fix K9, who had been placed on the table-top. Mickey and Rose were by the counter.
"You see, what's impressive is that it's been nearly an hour since we met her and I still haven't said 'I told you so'." Mickey grinned.
Rose wrenched her eyes away from the trio to grace Mickey with a withering look. "I'm not listening to this." She glared at him.
"Although, I have prepared a little 'I was right' dance that I can show you later." Mickey joked and snickered.
The shopkeeper held her hands out to Rose. "Two quid, love."
Rose gave her the money, took the chips and tucked into the box immediately.
"All this time you've been giving it, 'he's different!', when the truth is, he's just like any other bloke!" Mickey crowed, thinking that Rose's jealousy was out of some unrequited romantic feelings for the Doctor.
They sat down at a table on the other end of the shop, far away from the Doctor, Rhea and Sarah Jane.
"You don't know what you're talking about." Rose snapped.
"Maybe not. But if I were you... I'd go easy on the chips." Mickey told her conspiratorially.
For Rose was shovelling them into her mouth like there was no tomorrow.
"I thought of you on Christmas Day. This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead, I thought, 'Oh, yeah. Bet they're up there'." Sarah Jane said, wistfully.
"Right on top of it, yeah." The Doctor said, glancing at Rhea, uneasily.
"I have no idea what the two of you are talking about." Rhea grimaced, stabbing her box viciously with the fork and heaping a spoonful onto it. "These fries have absolutely no oil on them. Why the hell would you have them with gravy? I miss freaking ketchup." She growled and tossed the fork aside. She pouted, looking at the Doctor. "I miss In-N-Out Burger."
"I'll take you there." The Doctor promised her.
Rhea beamed back at them.
Sarah Jane looked at the Doctor and Rhea with a fond smile on her face. They hadn't changed at all. Rhea was still a bitchy American and the Doctor still humoured her every chance he had. "And Rose?" She asked, cautiously, not knowing what to think about the young blonde. She couldn't help but feel her age when placed next to girl. She didn't know what it was about the Doctor and Rhea that brought out all of her insecurities.
"She was there too." The Doctor said, loftily.
There was a pause whilst Sarah Jane looked at the Doctor, knowing that Rhea had no idea what she was talking about, and the Doctor fiddled with K9's wires.
"Did I do something wrong? Because you both never came back for me. You just... dumped me." She asked, softly.
Rhea glared at the Doctor, feeling a prick of anger at herself striking her as well. She didn't know what her future self was thinking. She didn't do things like that. She didn't make people feel like they were second choice. Not when she knew what it felt like.
The Doctor shrugged. "I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed."
Rhea frowned. But I'm human. Why would he take me back to Gallifrey with him and not Sarah Jane? It doesn't make any sense. And Sarah Jane recognised me. Not just as someone seeing their friend after a couple of years, but someone who looked exactly the same as the last time they saw her. What the hell is going on here?
"I waited for you. I missed you." Sarah Jane said, sadly.
"Oh, you didn't need me! You were getting on with your life." The Doctor waved off.
"You were my life." Sarah Jane said, grimly. The Doctor looked up at her and Rhea pursed her lips, guessing that Sarah Jane had wanted to say this for a very long time. "You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, and with what doesn't happen next. You both took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?"
The Doctor's brow furrowed, not understanding her point. "All those things you saw… do you want me to apologize for that?" He asked, confused.
"No," Sarah Jane shook her head. "But we get a taste of that splendour... and then we have to go back."
The Doctor smiled. "But look at you, you're investigating. You found that school, you're doing what we always did."
"Very Lois Lane." Rhea murmured, winking at Sarah Jane, who grinned back at her.
"You could've come back." Sarah Jane pointed out.
The Doctor looked at Rhea, helplessly, hoping that she would step in, but Rhea kept silent, knowing that Sarah Jane needed to say this and the Doctor needed to hear it.
"I couldn't." The Doctor said, quietly, casting his eyes down.
"Why not?" Sarah Jane whispered, hurt.
The Doctor chose not to answer. Sarah Jane shook her head and the Doctor switched his sonic screwdriver back on and returned to repairing K9. But she had still not said all that needed to be said.
"It wasn't Croydon, where you dropped me off, it wasn't Croydon!" Sarah Jane told him, a spark of humour lighting up her eyes.
The Doctor frowned and looked at her. "Where was it?"
"Aberdeen." Sarah Jane said, irritably.
"Right." The Doctor drawled, realization dawning in his eyes. He paused. "That's next to Croydon, isn't it?"
Rhea groaned and shook her head. "Seriously, again? You suck at driving." She grimaced.
Sarah Jane smiled and shook her head. At that moment, K9 sprung to life.
"Oh, hey! Now we're in business!" The Doctor exclaimed, happily, leaping to his feet and standing in front of K9.
"I don't mean to be rude, but that is kinda creepy." Rhea commented.
"Master! Mistress!" K9 called out.
The Doctor looked ecstatic and Rhea reeled back in shock. "He recognizes us."
"Affirmative."
"Rose, give us the oil."
The Doctor took off the lid of the jar with the oil inside and was just about to dip his finger in it when Rose stopped him.
"I wouldn't touch it, though, that dinner lady got all scalded." Rose warned, quickly.
"I'm no dinner lady." The Doctor scoffed.
Rhea cocked her head to look at him with interest. "That you aren't." She teased.
The Doctor dipped his finger into the oil and K9 slid out a sensor for the Doctor to smear it onto, which he did.
"Here we go. Come on, boy. Here we go."
"Oil. Ex-ex-ex-extract ana-an-analysing..."
Mickey grinned, delighted. "Listen to it, man! That's a voice!"
Sarah Jane scowled. "Careful! That's my dog!"
Mickey looked sheepish and turned away.
"Confirmation of analysis: substance is Krillitane Oil." K9 intoned.
The Doctor paled. "They're Krillitanes."
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I'm sensing that's bad." She offered.
"Very." The Doctor nodded. "Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad."
"Oh, joy." Rhea said, dryly. "So what are… Krillitanes?"
"They're a composite race. Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by, you've got bits. Bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever, the Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry-pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognize them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks." The Doctor explained in one breath.
Rhea frowned. "What are they doing here?" She asked, carefully, knowing that she would hate it no matter what reason the Doctor came up with.
The Doctor stared at Rhea with horror. "It's the children. They're doing something to the children."
A/N: There's the end of the first chapter of School Reunion. This signifies the beginning of Rhea's change in this story. She's getting angry at the Doctor for what he does to his companions and she's starting to feel scared that she may be next. So, she'll be pulling away from him a bit over the next couple of chapters. I hope you liked the little jealousy scene from Rhea in this chapter. We've seen a bit of the jealous Doctor before, but not really a jealous Rhea. I hope you guys liked the way I characterized Rhea's relationship with Sarah Jane in this chapter, I think Rhea would like Sarah Jane right off the bat, so I tried to put that in this chapter.
Anyway, hope you all liked the chapter and don't forget to review!