Disclaimer: I really hope that the lawyers have not taken advantage of my forgetfulness. Let me state clearly: I do not own Doctor Who. Doctor Who and all associated characters and concepts belong to the BBC.
Rose kept on running, although the girl disappeared from in front of her, even though it grew dark and cold, even though her Tardis key was burning with a painful freezing heat. To stop moving was to die; she knew it as well as she knew her own name. Then she was through, breathing heavily. Although she knew that she had only run a few yards, she also knew that she had travelled a vast distance.
The streets of 20th century Sheffield had vanished. Instead a grey desert stretched ahead, distances blurred by some kind of fog, illuminated by a watery moon. Rose glanced behind her and saw only more desert. As she turned in a circle, looking for some indication of life, a flash of colour caught her eye. A blob of blue sat near the horizon. With a lack of anything else to do, Rose set out.
xxx
Rose stumbled yet again, the sand slipping and sliding under her feet. She cursed under her breath and picked herself up, wincing as the sharp grains cut into her hands. She seemed to have been repeating this cycle for hours and yet the blob seemed no nearer.
"Rose?" There was a shape approaching.
"Sarah."
"How did you get here?"
"I followed you. A younger you. What about you?"
"I followed the Doctor."
"Which Doctor?"
"I- I don't know." It was true. When she tried to imagine the Doctor, all she got was a vague impression. If she tried to pin a face to it, the features slid. Grey hair with a boyish face, bright blue eyes darkened into chocolate brown. She had to think of something specific such as 'My first Doctor' 'the Doctor with the scarf' 'or 'Doctor-with-Rose.'
"Have you got any idea what's happening?" After all, Rose was the one still travelling with the Doctor.
Rose shook her head. "I was heading for that blue blob. I thought it might be a Tardis."
"Me too."
They walked together in silence for a while.
"Rose? If this turns out to be the Doctor's fault, do me a favour."
"What?"
"Kill him for me. I hate having my memory tampered with."
At Rose's surprised look, she explained. "I think something like this has happened before. I think I met the Third again. But I can't remember."
"How do you know I'll remember?"
Sarah Jane shrugged. "Tegan remembered that particular episode."
"Tegan?"
"She was one of the Doctor's companions at the time."
"Oh." Rose knew that she knew very little of the Doctor's past. She wished that Sarah would stop mentioning it, intentionally or not.
"How do you know her?"
"The Doctor has a certain fondness for humans from around our time. There's a group of us, we meet up ever so often, have a coffee. You'd be welcome any time."
Rose opened her mouth to make a reply- what she was going to say she had no idea- but was interrupted by a voice.
"Hello, Sarah. Hello, Rose."
At the same instant the strange fog seemed to clear, allowing Rose and Sarah to see the man who had spoken, the Tardis behind him, and the couple stumbling in from the other side.
Rose gave a gasp of surprise. "I saw you in Victorian London! You were wearing exactly the same clothes."
The woman looked around. "Where are we?"
"I don't know, Barbara."
"One minute we were in nineties London and now…"
"Ian, Barbara, this is Rose and Sarah." The man was grinning widely.
"Who are you?" the man called Ian demanded.
"I'm the Doctor."
"No, you're not." Ian and Barbara chorused at the same time Rose and Sarah simultaneously demanded 'Which one?"
He turned to Ian and Barbara first. "Yes, I am. But I shouldn't be."
Turning to Rose and Sarah, he stated simply, "The fourteenth."