Title: I Get By With A Little Help
Author: PrincessOfQuestionableMorals
Genre: Action/Adventure, Friendship, Romance
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Rose, Donna, Sarah-Jane, Jack, Torchwood, Martha, Sally Sparrow, the Master...?
Summary: Rose returns to her world, alone and with no way to contact the Doctor. Will she, Donna, and Torchwood be able to save the world from the not-quite alien threat that is slowly taking over without his help? Pre-s4, AU s3.
A/N: Excuse me if I blatantly overwrote Sarah Jane Adventures canon. I know next to nothing about the show, so it's all Wikipedia and guesswork for me. Reviews are love, and they feed my malnourished muse.
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Chapter Two: ...From Sarah-Jane Smith
When Sarah-Jane Smith had read the list of the dead from the Battle of Canary Wharf, it had been in the newspaper. As a courtesy to all of those who had lost friends or family, the list had been published in every major newspaper, to give people closure or hope.
Sarah-Jane had been reading an article about cell phones ("Are They Dangerous? How Much Is Too Much?") when she came across the List, as it came to be unofficially dubbed. She had skimmed it, on the off chance that she did know someone who had died, but didn't really expect to find anyone.
She had nearly choked on her tea when she saw Rose Tyler's name.
It was near the bottom, right below Tyler, Jacqueline. Nine letters that encompassed the brave, foolish, charming impossibility that was Rose Tyler, and as Sarah-Jane thought of the young blonde woman, she felt a surge of anger at the Doctor that was quickly pushed down by overarching sadness.
That's why, after she followed Luke's voice to the door, she became convinced that she was dreaming, because it was impossible for that familiar blonde girl, wearing the same smile she had worn while they laughed together about the Doctor, could possibly be leaning comfortably against the doorframe, flanked by a ginger-haired woman.
"'Mum'?" Rose mimicked Luke. "Well, I must've been gone longer than I thought."
Sarah-Jane remained frozen in place, as she had been since she first saw Rose in the doorway. Rose frowned. "I was joking. It hasn't been that long, has it?" A thought struck her. "Do you…remember me?"
Sarah-Jane snapped out of her thoughts, and walked up to the blonde and hugged her. "As if I could forget my replacement." She scoffed.
"So, you have a son…" Rose trailed off.
"I was genetically made from the DNA of many humans, and Sarah-Jane adopted me after she stopped the aliens who made me from invading the Earth," the boy informed them.
Donna stared at the boy. "Can he cram complex explanations into a nutshell, or what?" she said, impressed.
"His name is Luke." Sarah-Jane explained. "Come in, come in."
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"He was at a hospital a few months ago," Sarah-Jane informed the two women who were sitting at her table, drinking tea. "It went to the moon."
Rose giggled. "Oh, he must've loved that."
"Would be quite like him," Sarah-Jane smiled.
"But you haven't seen him…?" Rose trailed off, looking down and playing with the tablecloth.
"Not since we defeated the Krillitanes, no." Sarah-Jane replied, sadly. "Rose…"
"You want to know how I came back from the dead." Rose guessed, sighing.
"The Doctor said you were 'lost'," said Donna. "Not dead, just…lost."
"My body was never found, or my Mum's, but so many people died or disappeared that day that our names just got put on the list of the dead." Rose started sniffling. "At least, that's what he told us." She looked up at Sarah-Jane. "Burned up a whole sun to say goodbye." She took a deep breath. "I was in a parallel universe." Her lips twisted into a sarcastic smile. "Stuck there, actually."
Sarah-Jane's lips formed a small 'o' of understanding.
A small silence lasted until Donna finally broke through with an obvious question. "Well, if you were stuck…how did you get back?"
"Mickey thought he had found a way, we were just testing it on a mouse, but somehow, I guess I must've gotten pulled through…" She felt tears start to slip down her face, and sniffed. "I didn't get to say goodbye to any of them—Mum, Mickey, Pete, Pete Jr., Jake…" she trailed off. "My team…Owen, Tosh, Ianto, Suzie, Gwen…"
Sarah-Jane silently handed her a tissue, and she blew her nose noisily.
"Sarah-Jane…do you know how to get in contact with the Doctor?" ventured Donna. "Both Rose and I are trying to find him, but for different reasons," she leaned in and whispered to Sarah-Jane, "I don't know what she can see in that skinny grass stain that would make her fall in love with him, I honestly don't."
Sarah-Jane grinned at Donna. "It's just one of those things," she said wisely. "I'm actually not sure how to get in touch with him, and it's nearly impossible to predict where he'll be. K9 might know…" Rose's eyes lit up at the mention of the robotic dog.
"Good old K9," she said enthusiastically. "Can you ask him?"
Sarah-Jane's mouth twisted sadly. "He went to stop a black hole. Sometimes he gets close enough to Earth that he can speak to me, but otherwise he can't. I'm sorry." Another thought jumped into her mind. "You could try…" She hesitated.
"What?" asked Rose, eagerly.
"Torchwood," said Sarah-Jane, and Rose felt her stomach drop. Sarah-Jane read it on her face, and immediately began to cajole her. "It's not Torchwood London anymore, it's Torchwood Cardiff. The top man there is also looking for the Doctor, or so I've been told, his name is Jack…"
"Jack…?" prompted Rose, unjustified hope spreading through her body.
"Jack…Jack Harkness, I think. Yes, Captain Jack Harkness," Sarah-Jane said.
There was a thump and the sound of breaking china, and utter silence. Donna looked at Rose and then turned and stared at Sarah-Jane.
"I think she's fainted."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As the TARDIS hurtled out of medieval England, Martha chanced a personal question.
"Rose…what planet was she from?"
The Doctor looked up, surprised. "Earth, of course," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "London, actually. Born around the same time as you, I think." He turned away, clearing his throat. "Humans always make the best companions."
"Like Rose?" teased Martha.
"Especially Rose." The Doctor replied emphatically, grinning as he thought of the wonderful girl who had saved him in more ways than one.
He wondered how she was doing.
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