Chapter 19

Death of the Doctor

Andrea tottered across the floor plates of the console room towards her father.

'Hello Sweetheart,' the Doctor said, crouching down and holding his arms out for her.

'Dadadadada,' she giggled as she reached him and was scooped up into a hug.

'We're gonna have to put everythin' on the next shelf up now,' Rose said with a grin. 'I just managed that packet of chocolate digestives you opened last night.'

The Doctor suddenly looked horrified. 'I've just thought, what about when she can reach the controls on the console?'

Rose laughed. 'You'll have to cobble together one of your gizmos out of a fire guard and a playpen.'

'Oh yeah. Good idea.' He tickled Andrea's tummy. 'Your mummy's brilliant she is . . . Yes she is.'

'Watcha been lookin' at?' Rose asked him as she looked at the monitor.

'Oh that. It's the Wasteland of the Crimson Heart, a mighty old battlefield. The Shansheeth used their Memory Weave to send me a message on the psychic paper.' He flipped open the wallet and showed her.

'We the Shansheeth have found something mysterious in the Wasteland of the Crimson Heart,' Rose read. 'Who are these Shansheeth then?'

'They're sort of galactic undertakers, travelling through space to repatriate fallen heroes to their kin. They're grouped into "tribes" and are led by the Wide Wing of the High Shansheeth Nest. Do you remember Sam, the American Bald Eagle on the muppets?'

Rose looked a bit puzzled at the sudden change of direction in the conversation, but was used to it. 'Yeah,' she said cautiously.

'Well, if you imagine him wearing robes, then you've got a good idea of what they look like.'

She snorted a laugh. 'You're kiddin'.'

'Nope. They bear a strong resemblance to a vulture, but are harmless enough and provide a good service to grieving relatives.'

'So, we gonna have a look then?'

'What? A mighty old battle field with a mystery which is just begging to be explored . . . What do you think?'

'I think I'd better get Andrea in the pushchair and get the baby bag ready.'

The Doctor gave her a big grin and used Andrea's hand to pull down the materialise/dematerialise lever.

'It's very red,' Rose commented as she stepped out of the TARDIS behind her husband. She looked out over a desert plain with wrecked space ships strewn across it, some of which had palls of smoke rising into the amber sky. There was the crescent of a large planet hanging in the sky, with two moons in attendance.

'A red giant star. This system is very old,' he told her.

'What happened here?' she asked as she looked around the debris field.

'A space battle probably. Crippled ships caught in this moons gravity and pulled down to the ground.'

Rose was halfway through her rotation of looking at the wreckage when she stopped suddenly, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

'Doctor . . . where's the TARDIS?'

The Doctor turned the hover pushchair to face her. 'Eh?'

'The TARDIS. It was right there, and now it's gone.'

He squinted through the smoke. 'You're right. It's gone.'

'Yes, I know,' she said, starting to panic. 'What I want to know is where it's gone to.'

He reached inside his jacket. 'I'll just do a scan . . . Ah.' He then realised that his sonic screwdriver was on the console, covered in drool.

Rose gave him a stern look. 'Don't tell me that because yer afraid of a bit of baby spit, we are marooned on a deserted battlefield.'

'Okay,' he said sheepishly.

'Okay what?' Rose asked in confusion.

'Okay I won't tell you that because I'm afraid of a bit of baby spit, we are marooned on a deserted battlefield.'

'Ooh, you, you.' He flinched at each of the "you's".

'Sorry,' he said quietly, which deflected some of her anger and frustration.

She realised that it wasn't his fault the TARDIS had been stolen. Someone had lured him here with that message. She took the pushchair off him. 'You . . . are going to do somethin' brilliant to get the TARDIS back. And you'd better do it before we run out of supplies in the baby bag.'

'Ah. Right. Yes. I'm all over it.' He ran into a section of hull, and Rose could hear bits of equipment being thrown about. Occasionally, some of the pieces made it outside.

After a few hours of tinkering, he had managed to cobble together a gizmo which was a metre tall cylindrical column.

'So what's it do then?' Rose asked him.

'I'm hoping it will transport us to a source of Artron energy, namely, the TARDIS. But without the sonic . . .'

Rose gave him a "look".

'Okay. Sore point. Let's fire it up and see what we get.'

He powered up the device and made some adjustments. Andrea started clapping her hands, saying, 'sahsahsahsah.'

Rose frowned. 'Can you hear voices?'

He made another adjustment and they could hear voices distorted by a phase shift.

['Rani? Clyde?'] they heard a woman call out.

'Is that Sarah Jane?' Rose asked.

The Doctor frowned. 'It sounded like her.'

['Where is everyone?'] another woman asked.

'That wasn't her,' Rose noticed.

'No, it wasn't,' the Doctor said. He'd recognised the voice.

['I think there's something wrong,'] Sarah Jane said.

['Wrong? As in you mean just like the old days sort of wrong?']

['Exactly like the old days,'] Sarah Jane confirmed.

'The old days?' Rose asked.

['Groovy.']

['Yes,'] Sarah Jane said.

'Crikey. "Groovy" is old days. I haven't heard that since the sixties.'

['We've got to get out of here, okay?'] they heard Clyde say, and the gizmo sparked with Artron energy.

'Ah. Clyde. He's still got Artron energy from when he touched the TARDIS!' the Doctor exclaimed. 'If I can tune in to that . . .'

['There you are,'] Sarah Jane said.

The Doctor spoke into the gizmo. 'Sarah Jane, it's the Shansheeth. They're lying through their beaks. They want you and Jo. This whole thing's a trap.'

['I knew it,'] Sarah Jane replied.

'Who's Jo?' Rose asked.

'Remember when I told you I'd met the Nestene and Autons before, in my third body? And Jo Grant at UNIT helped me?'

'Oh, her. Am I goin' to meet her?' Rose asked excitedly.

['Hold on. If they're lying, that means the Doctor's still alive. Yes!']

'Of course I'm still alive, Jo. I thought that was obvious. Catch up,' he told her.

'Rude Doctor,' Rose said.

['I beg your pardon?'] Jo said.

['Clyde, is that you?'] Sarah Jane asked.

'Course it's not. It's me. I'm using Clyde as a receiver. I've keyed into his residual Artron energy so I can organise a very complicated biological swap across ten thousand light years. Hold on.' The Doctor sends a boost of Artron energy through the gizmo.

['That wasn't me. That wasn't me speaking. I'm getting. That's not my hand, because my hand's not white,'] they heard Clyde say.

Rose watched as the Doctor was enveloped in Artron energy, before being replaced with Clyde. She reached forward and held his shoulders to steady him.

['Sorry, Clyde, but this space is taken,'] the Doctor said.

The Doctor looked around the corridor he was now standing in. 'Good. So, gosh. That was different. Hello, everyone.'

'Doctor? Where's Clyde?'

'Come on, Rani, use your brain. Clyde and I swapped places. I'm where he was, he's where I was. Which means, right now, he's with Rose. Ooh, I'm in a lot of trouble.'

['Doctor? Doctor!'] they heard Clyde and Rose call out.

'You bring him back, whoever you are,' Rani insisted.

Sarah Jane realised who it was. 'No, no, no. Rani, don't you see? It's you, isn't it? You've done it again.'

'Hello, Sarah Jane.'

'Doctor.'

'That's the Doctor?' Rani asked in confusion.

'What Doctor? The Doctor? My Doctor?' Jo asked.

'Yeah, well, he can change his face,' Sarah Jane said.

'I know, but into a baby's?'

'Oi. Imagine it from my point of view. Last time I saw you, Jo Grant, you were, what, twenty on, twenty two? It's like someone baked you. Everyone. Meanwhile.'

The vultures approached. 'Ah, yes. The Claw Shansheeth of the 15th Funeral Fleet. I've been looking for you. Have you been telling people I'm dead?'

'I apologise. The death notice was released a little too soon. Though I can rectify this, immediately.' The Doctor was transfixed by red energy from the lead Shansheeth's claw. 'I'm so sorry for your loss, Doctor. Rest in peace.'

Rose watched as the Doctor was enveloped in Artron energy, before being replaced with Clyde. She reached forward and held his shoulders to steady him.

['Sorry, Clyde, but this space is taken. Good. So, blimey. That was different. Hello, you lot,'] she heard her husband say.

'Doctor?' she called in to the gizmo.

'Doctor!' Clyde called out.

'Hello Clyde. Are you all right?'

'Oh, hello Rose. Where am I? Where's the Doctor?'

'I was wonderin' that myself,' she said and then tilted her head to listen to the gizmo. 'Can you hear countin'?'

'Sounds like a countdown,' Clyde said, and promptly turned into the Doctor.

'Oh, yer back. Thank God.'

He kissed her on the lips. 'Yep. But I've got to go again to sort out the Shansheeth. I'll be back soon.'

He shook the gizmo. 'Come on, come on.'

Back on Earth, Sarah Jane was leading her small band down a corridor. 'Faster,' she encouraged as she ushered them through a doorway.

'Come along, Smith,' the Doctor said instead of Clyde.

'In, in, in,' the Doctor said as everyone ran into the dormitory.

A female UNIT colonel approached as the Doctor entered the room. 'I'm sorry, is there a problem?' she asked.

The Doctor's face appeared in the gap in the door. 'Sorry, I was slamming it.' The door slammed in the colonel's face.

'Right. Now we need to lock it. Come on, use the sonic lipstick.'

'Haven't you got the screwdriver?' Sarah Jane asked.

'They took it,' he said sheepishly.

'They do sonic lipsticks now?' Jo asked enthusiastically, with the intention of ordering one off ebay as soon as she got home.

'We're running out of time,' the Doctor told them. 'I need you, Sarah, and you, Jo.'

Jo looked puzzled. 'Need us for what?'

The Doctor took one of their hands in each of his. 'Remember the old days when we'd go zooming off to faraway worlds?'

Before either of them could answer, they were looking at a rocky cliff under a red sky. The teleport gizmo was making a whining noise.

'No, no, no, no. Let's get you working properly. Stop.'

'Will you stop doin' that,' Rose chastised. 'Or if you do it again, you take us with ya.'

'Where are we?' Sarah Jane asked, still looking at the cliff face.

'The Wasteland of the Crimson Heart,' he said. He turned around and pointed. 'Planet Earth's that way. Bit of a long walk.'

The ladies turned around and gasped at the sight of the planets in the sky. 'Wow,' Jo breathed.

'Sonic, please,' the Doctor said to Sarah Jane.

'Hiya,' Rose said to Sarah Jane, pulling her into a hug.

'Hello Rose,' Sarah Jane said and crouched down to look at Andrea in the hover pushchair. 'Oh my word, hasn't she grown.'

Jo was still gazing over the alien landscape. 'It's so many years since I was on another planet.'

'Me too,' Sarah Jane agreed.

'You must be Jo,' Rose said holding out her hand. 'I'm Rose. He's told me a lot about you.'

'Are you his latest companion?' Jo asked, and both Rose and Sarah Jane laughed.

'You could say that,' Rose said, holding up her left hand to show her ring. 'But I think I'm a bit more than that these days.'

'What!?' Jo exclaimed. 'You mean he married you?'

Rose grinned. 'Yep. And we have a daughter.'

'Oh-my-God. You are amazing.' Jo pulled her into a hug as Sarah Jane went to help the Doctor.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane were working on the gizmo as Rose and Jo joined them.

'There, and there,' the Doctor directed her.

'Anythin' we can do?' Rose asked.

The Doctor smiled at her. 'That one there,' he said, and Rose made the connection.

'Did it hurt? I mean, the regeneration,' Sarah Jane asked hesitantly. 'That last body of yours, was he okay in the end?'

'It always hurts . . . And there.'

'So how did you end up in this place?' Sarah Jane asked.

'The Shansheeth lured me. A mighty old battlefield, just begging to be explored. Then they nicked the TARDIS. Fortunately, I had all this wreckage to build a space swapping doo-dah thingummy wotsit.

'So, you've got a wife and child in the TARDIS now,' Jo said.

'Yes. Who'd have thought it, eh?' he said with a grin.

'I only left you because I got married. Did you think I was stupid?' Jo asked him.

He frowned at her. 'Why do you say that?'

'I was a bit dumb. Still am, I suppose,' she said.

'Now what in the world would make you think that, ever, ever, ever?'

Rose had been eavesdropping. 'He doesn't travel with people who are dumb. There was this one boy, Adam . . . er, long story. But he soon dropped him off. He only takes the best.'

Jo smiled at her kindness. 'We'd been travelling down the Amazon for months, and we reached a village in Cristalino, and it was the only place in thousands of miles that had a telephone, so I called you. I just wanted to say hello. And they told me that you'd left, left UNIT, never came back. So I waited and waited, because you said you'd see me again. You did, I asked you and you said yes. You promised. So I thought, one day, I'd hear that sound, Deep in the jungle, I'd hear that funny wheezing noise, and a big blue box right in the middle of the rainforest. You see, he wouldn't just leave. Not forever. Not me. I've waited my whole silly life.'

'But you're an idiot,' he told her.

'Well, there we have it,' Jo said.

Rose slapped his arm. 'Rude, Doctor.'

'No, but don't you see? How could I ever find you? You've spent the past forty years living in huts, climbing up trees, tearing down barricades. You've done everything from flying kites on Kilimanjaro to sailing down the Yangtze in a tea chest. Not even the TARDIS could pin you down.'

'Hold on. I did sail down the Yangtze in a tea chest. How did you know?'

'And that family. All seven kids, twelve grandchildren, thirteenth on his way. He's dyslexic but that'll be fine . . . Great swimmer.'

'So you've been watching me all this time?'

'No. Because you're right, I don't look back. I can't,' he said sadly, almost painfully. 'But the last time I was dying, I looked back on all of you. Every single one. And I was so proud.'

'It really is you, isn't it?' Jo asked with a smile.

'Hello.'

Sarah Jane reluctantly interrupted. 'Sorry, but we've got that lot back at home with the Shansheeth.'

'Yes, yes. And I still need you, Jo. Now, that bag of yours, I can smell blackcurrant. Is it buchu oil?'

'Hand-picked in Mozambique,' she said proudly.

'Oh, perfect. These circuits need connectivity. Wonderful. Little tiddly drop. That's it. What a team. There. That should work. Intergalactic molecular streaming, with just a hint of blackcurrant.'

'But what'll happen to Clyde?' Sarah Jane asked.

'No, no, no, I've fixed it. All I needed was you two. Oil and sonic. Now we can go back and Clyde can stay where he is.' He put his hand over Rose's on the handle of the hover pushchair, and Rose took Sarah Jane's and Jo's hands and put them onto the handle. 'Hold tight.'

['Get us out of here. Doctor!'] they heard Clyde call as they materialised back in the dormitory.

'Then again, maybe leaving Clyde in the same place wasn't such a good idea,' the Doctor said, examining the air vent grill.

'Look out, stand back,' Sarah Jane said, taking out her sonic lipstick and sonicking the grill.

'I have GOT to get me one of those,' Rose said.

The Doctor pulled off the grill and looked inside. 'Ah! Ventilation shafts. That takes me back. Or even forwards.'

'Hurry up. We're getting boiled alive,' he heard Clyde call from deep in the ventilation system.

'Hold on. We're coming,' the Doctor called back as he hurried along the shaft on his hands and knees.

Jo called to her grandson. 'Don't worry, Santiago, I'm here. You go first, you've got the sonic lipstick,' she said to Sarah Jane. As she turned to look, she saw Sarah Jane and Rose being held by a Shansheeth. A third one grabbed her and dragged her to her feet. Andrea let out a niggling cry that she usually did when she was upset at something.

['Doctor, it's a trap,'] Rose thought in his head. ['The Shansheeth have grabbed us.']

Sarah Jane managed to free her mouth from the clawed hand and shout. 'DOCTOR!'

['Rose?'] 'Jo? Sarah?' he called back along the shaft.

'They're roasting us,' Rani called out from ahead.

The Doctor looked ahead and looked behind. It was one of those impossible situations again. 'Rose?' What should he do? 'Argh!' he called in frustration.

['Save the children,'] Rose told him. ['I'll take care of the Shansheeth.']

He smiled at his wife's resolve. ['I love you! Stay safe.']

Rose, Sarah Jane and Jo had their hands cuffed behind them, and with Andrea in the push chair were taken to the chapel.

'I didn't trust you, Colonel, from the moment I met you,' Sarah Jane told Karim.

'Like I care,' the colonel said with derision. 'Frankly, I've never met anyone so staggeringly pious in all my life. Now then . . .' She activated a control on the lectern and massive bolts secured the door. 'The chamber's sealed off. The Doctor would need half a ton of dynamite to get through that.

Jo spotted a familiar blue box in an alcove. 'The TARDIS. I never thought I'd see it again.'

'That's what this is all about. The TARDIS, and you,' Karim said. 'Place them in the Memory Weave,' she commanded, and Rose, Jo and Sarah were strapped to some upright couches.

In the ventilation shaft, the Doctor was hot wiring a control panel. 'And release.'

'Blimey. You really have changed faces, haven't you? I couldn't see you before, I was too busy swapping,' Clyde said.

'Oi, we're still cooking back here,' Rani complained.

'Where's my gran?' a blonde, curly haired youth asked.

The Doctor deduced that that he was Santiago. 'Right, yes, sorry, she's in danger, so, we'd better er . . .' He realised that he was too big for the shaft he was in. 'Can't turn round.'

'You'll have to shuffle backwards,' Clyde said in an "isn't it obvious" tone of voice.

'Oh, yes okay. Thank you, Clyde.' He started shuffling backwards and the rest of the troupe followed him.

As they crawled along, Clyde studied the "new" Doctor reversing in front of him. 'Even your eyes are different. It's weird, 'cos I thought the eyes would stay the same. Can you change colour or are you always white?'

'I could be anything.'

'And is there a limit? How many times can you change?'

'Five hundred and seven.'

['We've got a problem Love. They've strapped us to these couches and are going to suck our memories out of our heads,'] Rose thought to him.

['What do they want your memories for?']

['A key to the TARDIS. This Memory Weave thing can produce one from our memories.']

['But you've already got a key.']

['Der. And if they find it, we're done for.']

['Ah, right. You'd better clear out your mind.']

['I'm tryin', but I'm not as good at it as you.']

['No. I mean you'd better clear out your mind and come into mine. Remember the shuttle on Midnight?']

['Oh yeah. Okay, open the door 'cos here I come.']

The Doctor and his team climbed out of the ventilation shaft, and he noticed that he had acquired another member in the form of a small blue Groske. They could hear the hum of the Memory Weave starting up.

'They've started,' he announced, and hurried along the corridor towards the Chapel.

'They've sealed it off. Jo, Sarah, can you hear me?' he called through the doors. 'Try to find a way in.'

His young team examined the door and the walls. 'There's nothing. We need a bulldozer,' Santiago said.

The Doctor leaned against the doors. 'I've got the original here. You can have it if you let them go.' If he could get them to open the doors, he could act against the Shansheeth.

Clyde tried hitting the steel doors with a fire extinguisher, which just bounced off. 'It's not shifting. What do we do, Doctor? What do we do?'

The Doctor had his head under a control panel when an idea came to him. 'Because the Shansheeth are making them remember.'

'I know!' Clyde exclaimed in frustration.

'Then don't you see?' the Doctor said with a smile.

'I don't see anything,' Clyde told him.

The Doctor stood up and activated the control panel. 'We do the same. Opening comms . . . Sarah, Jo, can you hear me? Listen to me, both of you. I want you to remember.'

'We are doing. That's the trouble,' Jo told him.

'No, no, no, no. I want you to remember everything. Every single day with me. Every single second.'

'What's he doing?' Karim asked.

'Because your memories are more powerful than anything else on this planet. Just think of it. Remember it. But properly. Properly. Give the Memory Weave everything. Every planet, every face, every madman, every loss, every sunset, every scent, every terror, every joy, every Doctor. Every me.'

'I remember,' Sarah Jane said with joy.

['Rose my love. Much as I've enjoyed having you in here with me, I need you back in your head remembering everything we've experienced together.']

['I am gonna blow their socks off. Just you watch.']

['That's my girl.']

['Do Shansheeth wear socks?'] she thought to him with a grin as she left his mind.

'NO!' they heard Karim shout through the doors.

['Memory Weave overloading.'] the computer announced.

'I remember,' Jo said.

'We need that key. What is happening?' Karim asked. 'What's happening?'

['Initial target lost,'] the computer said.

'The device is overloading. Too many memories. Too many,' the Shansheeth told them.

'Reverse it. Bring that key back,' Karim ordered in desperation.

'Come on, all of you. Tell them, tell them,' the Doctor instructed his team.

'Think of us, Sarah Jane. Remember Maria and her dad, and all the stuff we did, like the Gorgon,' Clyde called through the door.

Rani joined him. 'And the clowns, and the zodiac. And the Mona Lisa.'

'All of it. All of it,' Sarah Jane said.

The Doctor picked up thoughts from Rose of their exploits in the bedroom. 'Maybe not that Rose,' he called out. 'That might cause the planet to implode,' he said quietly to himself.

'Just think, Gran. All the countries you've been to,' Santiago said.

'Every country in the world,' Jo agreed.

['Weave starting to self-destruct,'] the computer warned.

Rose managed to pull a wrist free, and was able to free herself from the couch. She looked to her right and saw Sarah Jane freeing herself.

'It's blown a circuit,' Sarah Jane realised.

'I can't get out,' Jo said in alarm.

'We've got you,' Rose said as they went to her aid.

'Now we're in trouble,' the Doctor said. 'The Weave's going to blow up and we can't get them out.'

'What?' Rani said with concern.

'Can't escape,' he confirmed.

'I need the key,' the Shansheeth said.

['Weave now entering detonation phase,'] the computer told them.

Things were going bang and starting fires as Karim tried to force the doors open. 'I can't unseal the doors. The power line is gone. Argh!'

Sarah Jane tried to use her sonic lipstick on the door. 'We've drained it. Doctor? Doctor, I can't get out.'

'I can't open it,' the Doctor told her.

'No sonic screwdriver?' she asked.

'It's inside the TARDIS.'

'And we can't get in, because guess what? We stopped ourselves getting the key. Oh, that was clever,' Sarah Jane said.

'I just want to say, I'm so glad I saw you again,' Jo said through the door. 'I waited all this time, and it was worth it. Every second. Funny thing is though; your funeral turns out to be ours instead.'

'Y'reckon?' Rose said with a grin, holding up her key. ['We'll be safe in the TARDIS, yeah?'] Rose asked in his head.

['Oh you beauty!'] he thought back with a grin of his own. ['Safe has houses. Now move it.'] He turned to the Groske. 'How much time have they got?'

'Big bang, ten seconds.'

'Come on,' he told the group, and ran down the corridor.

The Groske started a countdown. 'Ten . . Nine . . .'

['Total destruction imminent,'] the computer told them, and the Shansheeth hammered on the TARDIS door.

'We can't let them in,' Jo said sadly. 'They'll take the TARDIS.'

The Doctor and the children took cover around the corner.

'Seven . . . six . . .'

'HURRY UP GRAN!' Santiago shouted down the corridor.

'Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . .'

KaBOOM! There was an explosion, and the fireball blew the doors off.

With the crisis over, the Doctor realised what Rani had shouted through the doors. 'What do you mean, the Mona Lisa?'

'Smells like roast chicken,' the Groske said as they entered the charred Chapel.

The Doctor stepped through the rubble and put his key in the TARDIS lock. He pushed the door open and was grabbed by the lapels and pulled into kiss.

'Mmmm. Hold that thought wife and we'll continue this later,' he said with a cheeky smile and a waggle of his eyebrows.

He led the way up the ramp to the console, and when everyone was on board, he started the Time Rotor. After a short trip, he shut down the console and held his arm out for his young passengers to have a look outside.

'Whoa. It's Bannerman Road. It's like everything moved. I'm never getting used to that,' Clyde said as he looked around the attic.

'Mister Smith, you're in big trouble. Those Shansheeth were bad,' Rani told the computer.

['It transpires that you encountered a rogue element, and the Wide Wing of the High Shansheeth Nest sends apologies.']

Santiago looked on in wide eyed wonder. 'No way. On top of everything else, you've got a talking computer? That is it. I'm giving up.'

'Still the same old TARDIS,' Jo said as she looked around the new console room. (Well, new to her.) 'It doesn't matter what's changed, it still smells the same. No. I've got to say goodbye, or else I'd stay with you forever. Besides, I probably couldn't keep up any more. Get you into trouble with the Time Lords.'

"Ooh, elephant in the room," Rose thought to herself.

'Hmm. Yeah, I'd probably better go. You know me, stuff to do,' the Doctor said.

Rose gave a laugh. 'I'm not sure what he was like when you travelled with him, but he ain't big on goodbyes.'

Sarah Jane and Jo thought back to their time with him, looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

'He'd blow things up,' Jo remembered.

'Or break things to stop them working,' Sarah Jane added.

'And then go,' Rose finished for them. 'Leaving someone else to clear up the mess.'

The Doctor gave them an exasperated look. 'Oi. You never see Superman or Spiderman with a broom, having to sweep up after themselves.'

Sarah Jane finished laughing. 'It's daft, though, because we were both saying, we had this theory that if you ever died, we'd feel it, somehow we'd just know. But that's just silly, isn't it?'

He thought about that. 'I don't know. Maybe not. Because between you and me, if that day ever comes . . . I think the whole universe might just shiver.'

He was quiet for a few seconds, just looking at them, and then he gave a start, making them jump. They all laughed and hugged, knowing that this was goodbye.

'It's been lovely to meet you,' Jo said to Rose and looked over to the Doctor. 'You've been quite an influence on him.'

Rose looked over to her husband and gave him a wink. 'It's been great to meet you too. I can finally put a face to the name in all those stories.'

Sarah Jane hugged Rose. 'Nice to see you again, Rose.' She stooped down and held her arms out for Andrea, who was toddling around the console. 'And you little lady, get bigger every time I see you. How old is she now?'

'Twelve months in TARDIS time,' Rose told her.

'Hah! It was six weeks only a couple of months ago,' Sarah Jane realised. 'You and mummy look after your daddy, won't you?'

'We will,' Rose said, wrapping her arm around the Doctor's waist. He instinctively put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

Sarah Jane and Jo gave Andrea a kiss on the cheek before she put her down on the floor grating again. 'We know you don't like to say goodbye, so until next time.' They walked down the ramp to the doors and turned to take on last look, before waving and stepping outside.