Three months had passed since Christmas. The pain of the loss of the Doctor had started to become more manageable, and days ticked by in a gentle rhythm. One Thursday night, Sarah Jane was in the attic, working on an article on the upcoming election. Luke was on the floor taking chemistry lessons with Mr. Smith. Sarah Jane was just finishing up a paragraph and was ready to send Luke to bed when there was lightning outside. "What's that?" Luke asked, abandoning his chemistry set and running to the window.

"Mr. Smith?" Sarah Jane asked, joining her son.

"Temporal displacement detected." Mr. Smith replied.

"Mum, is that Rose?" Luke asked. Sure enough the blonde was running up their front path.

"I wonder what she wants?" said Sarah Jane, "She was over only yesterday."

Sarah Jane and Luke headed downstairs. Rose barged in the door without bothering to knock.

"Sarah Jane, hi," Rose said, stopping to recover her breath. She tried to look casual, leaning against the doorway. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing new since yesterday," Sarah Jane answered, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, nothing." said Rose, unconvincingly, "I was just wondering…what are you planning to do tomorrow and the next day?"

"I don't know. I don't have anything that interesting planned, why?"

"I was just thinking…you really need a break." Rose said, again, trying and failing to be casual, "Take a nice trip, you know, out to the country, or something. Maybe take a break from alien watching for a little while. Nice little camping trip maybe? Or a holiday in Cardiff?"

"I can't, Luke has school." Said Sarah Jane.

"He can miss a day," Rose argued, "You said yourself he has perfect attendance, one day won't cause him to fall behind."

"What do you know?" asked Sarah Jane, suspiciously. Rose shifted her position, looking down and picking something off her jacket.

"Nothing, nothing at all," she said, "I just thought it would be nice. Take a break, you deserve one."

"No, I know that's not it." Said Sarah Jane, "What are you up to? What aren't you telling me?"

"I'm not up to anything." Rose said. "In fact, I could use a break, too. We could all take a holiday, take the Brig, Clyde and Maria, Alan, we can all have some nice alien hunter bonding."

"I can't exactly put a sign on the door that says 'please don't invade today, I'm on holiday.'"

"Why not?" asked Rose, "UNIT's still there, and Torchwood."

"You know I don't agree with how UNIT and Torchwood does things." Said Sarah Jane.

"One day won't cause the world to end." Rose said.

"You also know that's not true. Now, knock this off Rose, tell me what's going on. Don't patronise me like this."

"I can't tell you." Rose said, "You know I can't, really wish I could, but I can't. I shouldn't even be telling you this." Sarah Jane eyed her suspiciously. "Sarah Jane, please just trust me. Please, just, if you've never trusted me on anything else before, please just trust me on this."

Sarah Jane looked into Rose's eyes. They were pleading, but determined, "I trust you." Sarah Jane said. "But I can't get out. I have an interview with Harriet Jones tomorrow. Defending the Earth is a side project, I still have a job."

"Good," Rose said, "Know what, Harriet Jones is fine, tell her I say hi... never mind, don't, I'm probably not her favourite person. Just, don't do anything extraterrestrial the next two days."

"Okay." Sarah Jane said.

Rose looked relieved, "Promise?"

"Yeah, sure, I promise." Sarah Jane said.

"Okay," said Rose, "I need to get back to base, you have my mobile number, call me, okay? I'm not kidding, anything that comes up, give me a ring."

"Okay." Sarah Jane said, "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

"Right, of course you can," agreed Rose. "I'll be off, then, see you Tuesday."

"See you then."

"And remember, nothing extraterrestrial, you promised."

"Okay." Sarah Jane said again, getting slightly annoyed. "Good-bye Rose."

"Bye, then." Rose said, nodding to Luke before heading back out of the door.

"I wonder what all that was about." Luke said.

"I don't know." Said Sarah Jane, "It's hard to tell with her sometimes. It's probably something UNIT is planning that she thinks I might disapprove of."

"You disapprove of most of the things UNIT does." Luke pointed out. Sarah Jane laughed.

"That's not completely true," said Sarah Jane, "I suppose whatever it is, we'll find out tomorrow. Anyways, you get upstairs and clean up your 'lesson'. It's bed time, spit-spot." Luke rolled his eyes and went upstairs.

Being thrown out of offices was nothing new for Sarah Jane, but it was never big on dignity. She was on her way home after being chucked out of Harriet Jones's office. Apparently, Harriet Jones wasn't quite as keen on discussing her 'adventures' with the Doctor as Rose was. And casually bringing up the genocide of a ship full of retreating soldiers was a bit of a sore spot.

It was just as Sarah Jane passed the Royal Hope Hospital that she noticed it. Something felt…off. She couldn't explain it, but an instinct in her gut told her that something was up at the hospital. She parked her car and got out. She flipped open her watch and did a quick scan. There were elevated levels of plasmacores around the hospital. Suspicious, she closed her watch and headed home. She pulled in the driveway just as Luke and Maria were walking up the street.

"I thought you said you would be home late." Luke said as he met his mum's car.

"Well, you know," Sarah Jane shrugged, nonchalantly, "Things happen, people don't always have a sense of humor."

"You got kicked out." said Maria, halfway between disapproving and laughing.

"Again." Luke added. Sarah Jane rolled her eyes.

"Enough cheek from you two." she said. "We need to check something. I was driving past the hospital and I noticed something funny."

"Something alien?" asked Maria, starting to get excited.

"Possibly." Sarah Jane said.

"Mum, you promised Rose we wouldn't do anything extraterrestrial for the next few days." Luke warned.

"Oh, looking won't do anything." Sarah Jane said.

"I don't know…" said Luke.

"Okay, come on, Luke." Maria said, "Stop worrying so much."

Luke looked unsure, but he didn't say anything as Sarah Jane unlocked the door and the trio went into the attic. "Mr. Smith," called Sarah Jane, "I need you."

Luke hung back, still looking unsure. "Hello, Sarah Jane," greeted Mr. Smith in his usual monotone, "What can I do for you?"

"Can you run a scan around the Royal Hope Hospital."

"Certainly, what am I looking for?" the computer asked.

"An increase in plasmacores, I picked them up on my watch on my way home, see if that was just mistake."

The computer processed for a few seconds, "There has been an increase in plasmacores around the hospital facility, growing over the past two days, not to mention a substantial increase in power usage within the building."

"That's not good." Sarah Jane said, "We need to get in there."

"Mum, you said you were just going to look." Luke objected.

"This could be dangerous." Said Sarah Jane, "I have to check it out."

"Call the Brigadier," Luke pleaded, "Let UNIT take care of it. Rose must have told us to avoid aliens for a reason."

"Luke, I know what I'm doing." Sarah Jane said. She felt guilty when she saw how upset her son looked, but she couldn't just pick and choose when she was going to defend the Earth like she picked her news stories. It had to be a full-time job. "Mr. Smith, tap into my medical records, put in a family history of heart disease."

"Why?" Luke asked, suspiciously.

"That way if I go in complaining of chest pains, they'll keep me overnight. What better way to get into a hospital than to be a patient?" Sarah Jane answered. "Maria, you understand you can't come with us, it'd be too suspicious. You stay here incase Mr. Smith finds anything else unusual."

"Okay." Maria agreed.

"Luke, come on." Sarah Jane said, grabbing her coat.

"I still don't think this is a good idea." Luke protested.

"It'll be fine, look, if anything comes up that we can't handle, I'll call Rose and the Brig for back up, okay?"

Reluctantly, Luke agreed, "Okay, but I think I should be the patient."

"Oh no, you will not!" Sarah Jane said, "I have nothing to hide in my biology, you do. I will not have anyone running experiments on you!" There was no more time for argument as Sarah Jane steered her son out the door.

Author's note: Okay, I had to think long and hard about how I was going to get Sarah Jane into the hospital, because obviously Mr. Smith couldn't have noticed it because if he had then he would have noticed it in the non-parallel universe as well, my thought is, if she just happens by it on her way home doing something that she wouldn't have done in the other universe, it would make sense. That's why I have the Harriet Jones bit, because if it was the other universe she probably would be interviewing Saxon instead of Jones, and he would have no reason to chuck her out…not at that time at least. So, that is the logic for this chapter, I'm not just pulling stuff out of my arse. Thanks to CountryGrl for being my Beta