Chapter 15 a hard goodbye
Sarah – Jane's kitchen was overcrowded as the kettle whistled and everyone had separate conversations. Romana, Rose and Amy had bonded quite well and had locked in chatter. They spoke of many different things. The Doctor lent against the kitchen doorway, his arms folded. This meant it was time to go. Everyone knew that. He walked away and went out of the door, not far behind everyone else followed. There outside was the trusty old Tardis in all its glory. The Doctor then lent against the Tardis and focused on John and Rose.
"Come on then you two, you have to go back so I can close the gap again" he said slowly.
"I'll take them back, I have to thank Rose's parents for putting up with me any way, plus I won't leave them on some beach in Norway" Romana broke in. John and Rose laughed as the two time lords battled over whose way of travel was the best.
"Well I guess its good bye again" said Martha.
"Good bye Martha, until next time" said The Doctor and squeezed her tightly.
"You too Jack" he added patting Jack on the back. Jack patted him back nearly knocking him over. Romana hugged Jack and Martha as well and thanked them for everything. When the good bye's had ended the Tardis zoomed away with the old sound it had always made, The Doctor, Amy and Rory were gone. Jack and Martha headed back to the centre of London where they worked to keep alien threats at a minimum. Sarah and Luke stood at the front of the house waving to the three of them as they prepared to go. Romana had the watch ready with the coordinates set for parallel earth. Suddenly the gateway to the time vortex opened and began to suck in like a giant vacuum cleaner. John waved to Sarah and Luke and jumped in to the portal. Rose took her goodbye more personally and hugged Sarah. Romana also hugged Sarah – Jane and Luke before going through time.
Jackie was in the garden hanging out the washing and Tony was playing with some of the pegs. Pete sat at the garden table while reading the newspaper. Suddenly Tony began to jump around as if he could sense something coming, which it was.
"Rose, Rose" he shouted.
"Calm down sweetheart your sister isn't here" Jackie said in attempt to calm him down.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Pete.
"I don't know but I don't see you trying to do anything" said Jackie sternly. He then went back to his paper; Jackie shook her head and went back the washing. Then the portal opened. John and Rose fell out together and Romana after. Jackie nearly fainted and Pete even nearly fell out of his chair. Tony sat clapping with the pegs at his feet. Then they all got up slowly and Romana brushed herself down. Rose went to her mother and gave her a hug and Jackie squeezed her tight.
"Rose what were you thinking, was that Rouen worth all of this, where is she anyway?" Jackie asked.
"I'm here" Romana said lifting her hand. Jackie looked over with a perplexed look on her face.
"Are you sure, you looked different before?" Jackie asked her head full of questions that needed answering.
"Jackie, she's a time lady" said John smiling.
"I'm still confused, I thought you were the last one?" said Jackie.
"I was!" said another voice. Everyone looked at the side of the house towards where the voice had been heard and out stepped The Doctor. Jackie and Pete where still confused but then Jackie soon realised The Doctor had changed again. She went up to him and squeezed his cheeks.
"You've put some weight on now, but you still just pop up out of nowhere" she said still latched on to his cheeks. He tried to say something but couldn't get a word out, so she let go with everyone laughing.
"What I was going to say was you've not changed a bit either!" he finally spat out rubbing his cheeks.
"Oh come here you big lump you" Jackie said squeezing him hard. Yet again he couldn't talk. Once the greetings had ended he glanced at Romana who was playing with Tony, letting him ride on her back. You can tell this Romana is good with children he thought.
"Come on Romana, time to go" he shouted, then went off to find the Tardis. Romana and Rose along with John went along with him.
Then there stood the old wooden blue box. The Doctors face had gone from being happy to just frowning. He looked upset and Romana knew why. Rose went up to him and hugged him hard, "Goodbye doctor" she whispered in his ear and a single tear fell from her eye. He looked ready to cry as well but refused to. Romana gave John a hug too.
"Thanks for everything" she said. Rose finally let go of The Doctor and moved on to Romana. Then it was time to say good bye. Rose and John stood close together and waved them off as the Tardis disappeared into cellar space. Then they went back to the garden where their family waited them.
Inside the Tardis Romana was amazed by the changes that had been made in her absence.
"Do you like it?" The Doctor beamed.
"Yes it's wonderful" she exclaimed.
"So why did you come to the Tyler's house then?" she asked. The Doctor gave her a glance and went back to the controls.
"I told you I had to close the gap or the whole universe could suffer" he said without even looking up.
"You wanted to say good bye again though didn't you?" she looked at him with big eyes trying to pull out the truth.
"I came to say good bye yes, but there was another reason why I went back, because I wanted to make sure you were ok!" he said. Romana looked shocked, she thought he didn't think twice about her, but clearly she was wrong. She had been wrong about a whole lot of things recently. The Tardis arrived outside of Sarah – Jane's house where Amy and Rory where waiting. They all poured out of the front door when they heard the noise. The Doctor and Romana came back out and Amy and Rory got back in saying good bye to Sarah, Luke and K-9.
"So what are you going to do Romana, are you coming with us or you can go your own way" The Doctor said smiling.
"Or you can stay here with us, that spare room is always open to you, you know" Sarah – Jane added.
"You know that sounds good, I think I'll stay on earth for a while and try and settle down, after all that's what the Tharil wanted me to do any way" she said.
"Ok then we'll be off, see you when we see you" The Doctor beamed and hugged Romana, then journeyed back into the Tardis and zoomed away. Sarah and Luke went back inside leaving Romana and K-9 to stare at the lonely sun set. This was only the beginning of Romana's journey and there's still a lot of excitement to come!