Sorry this chapter has taken so long. I was struck down by a nasty evil cold of doom, complete with lots of lovely sinus pain and general brain muzziness. I did managed to write 500 words or so, but my plot bunnies seemed as stuffed up as I was, thus the delay… And after all that, this chapter is filler! I must confess I considered deleting it altogether because I'm not sure it contributes much, but I enjoyed writing it, and hopefully you'll enjoy reading it, and it does move the plot on a smidgeon. If you squint…

Chapter Five

When Sarah Jane reached her daughter and found an unknown someone bending over her, she reacted instinctively.

'What are you doing? Get away from her!'

The other person flinched back, blinking, and Sarah Jane bit her lip. Common sense had returned; she had been summoned here, after all. This small person, who was blinking up at her reproachfully from behind absurdly large glasses, must be the summoner.

'I'm sorry,' she said, kneeling down at Sky's side. The little girl was curled up, her hands lying limply. She was bleached white; even her lips held little colour, and Sarah Jane brushed back a strand of hair from the child's face.

'How long has she been like this?'

'She – she was like this when I found her,' the boy said. 'Clyde said to try the bushes, just in case, so I did and she was like this an' – an' then you came.' He sounded aggrieved.

'Clyde told you to search the bushes?' Sarah Jane repeated, confused. 'How do you know Clyde?'

''Cos I'm Sky's friend,' the boy said simply. 'An' Clyde and Rani are her friends too.' His eyes returned to Sky. 'What's wrong with her?'

Sarah Jane sat back, chewing her lip. 'I don't know yet, but we'll find out,' she said firmly. 'The first thing is to get her inside; she can't be left like this.' And if she's being affected by the electricity in the atmosphere, outside is the last place she should be. 'You say you're a friend of Sky's. Would you do something for her?'

''Course, once I know who you are,' the boy responded, an almost comical severity edging his tone. 'You just came bursting in like – like –'

'A bat out of hell?' Sarah Jane suggested, a smile flickering across her face. 'I suppose I did. Sorry about that. I'm Sarah Jane Smith, Sky's mum, and you are -?'

'Al,' the boy said. 'What d'you want me to do?'

'Find Rani and Clyde. Tell them to go to my car and get the tarp from the back, and bring it here. We can use it as a stretcher.'

'Got it!' Al said. He took three steps away before stopping abruptly, pivoting to look at her. 'Uh, Miss Smith, don't I need your car keys?'

Sarah Jane smiled broadly. 'Don't worry, Al. Clyde knows how to open my car. Off you go.'

The smile lingered until he vanished through the curtain of shiny green leaves that separated them from the school grounds, and Sarah Jane's gaze returned to her daughter. Sky was still motionless, but her lips seemed pinched, as though pain was penetrating the depths of her unconsciousness.

'What's happened to you, kid?' she murmured.

She was answered by a tiny sound, so faint that it hardly qualified as a moan, and instantly Sarah Jane was bending over Sky, calling her name as gently as she could.

The moan this time was more definite.

'Oh, thank you,' Sarah Jane breathed; it was almost a prayer. 'Sky, it's your mum. It's all right. You're going to be fine.'

This time there was no response; Sky had returned to oblivion, and Sarah Jane found that there was nothing she could do but wait for Al to return with Clyde and Rani.

She took her coat off and covered Sky's shoulders with it before sitting with her arms around her knees, trying not to panic.

She'd never been very good at just waiting, after all.

Al's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw what Clyde used to open Sarah Jane's car.

'It – it's lipstick!' he sputtered as the older boy shoved the cosmetic into his pocket and opened the boot. 'How did that open the car?'

Rani put her arm around his shoulders and grinned down on him from her lofty height. 'It's not just any lipstick. Stick around and you'll find out – in time.'

Al's eyes narrowed as he looked up at her. 'What d'you mean?'

'Stop all that nattering and help!' Clyde bellowed, throwing a cross look at them over his shoulder. 'Rani, what does the tarp look like?'

She went to him. 'Isn't it the spider-silk one? If so, it folds down really tiny. Try the poky spots,' she advised. 'You know what Sarah Jane is about – er- special equipment. She'd try to keep it out of sight.'

'Good thinking,' Clyde said, leaning forward and half crawling into the boot in his efforts to reach the back. 'Ah – got it!' He emerged triumphant, with what looked like a fine silk handkerchief in one hand.

Al's brow creased. 'Miss Smith said she wanted a tarp,' he emphasised. 'That ain't no tarp.'

'The first thing you'll learn, Al,' Clyde told him as he closed the boot, having shoved the tarp into his pocket and pulled out the lipstick once again, 'is that nothing is ever quite as it seems with our Sarah Jane. OK, she's locked. Let's go!' He took off at a run in the direction of the bushes and Sky, his legs picking up the pace as his sense of urgency visibly increased.

Al rubbed his nose, absently pushing his glasses up. 'I'm starting to see why Sky's so strange,' he remarked.

Rani grabbed his hand and pulled as she started to run, an action that would have offended his eleven year old dignity at any other time.

'Believe me, Al,' she called as they traced Clyde's footsteps, 'you haven't seen anything yet!'

Sarah Jane could not hide her relief when Clyde emerged from the bushes, a whisp of something faintly glowing hanging out of his pocket showing that he'd brought the spidersilk.

'How's she doing?' he asked, coming to hunker down beside her.

'She's still out of it,' Sarah Jane responded, whispering. 'Mostly. She came to a few minutes ago, but went again almost immediately. She's in a lot of pain, I think.'

Clyde pulled out the tarp from pocket and shook it out. 'Let's get the kid inside,' he said. 'If she's picking up electrical whatsits from the thingummyjig, she'll be more comfy there. Won't she?' he ended dubiously, and Sarah Jane found herself smiling. Clyde could always hearten her.

'It doesn't hurt, at any rate,' she agreed, and rose to help him with laying the tarp out flat on the ground; the stuff was awkward to handle as it clung to one's fingers, just as cobwebs do.

'Are you sure this will hold Sparky's weight?' Clyde asked after struggling to disentangle himself from it. 'It doesn't seem very… substantial.'

'It's the strongest fabric in the universe,' Sarah Jane told him. 'It'll make nothing of Sky's weight. Right, let's move her, shall we?'

'Yup. Got her feet, Sarah Jane?'

'I'm ready. I was waiting for you!' she responded tartly, looking up from where she was positioned at her daughter's ankles. 'One – two – three – hup!'

'And down she goes!' Clyde commented as they gently lowered the child onto the spidersilk. 'Now all we need is – '

'Us!' Rani supplemented, batting leaves out of her way as she came through, with Al tagging behind. 'Oh, you've got her moved already,' she went on, sounding vaguely surprised.

'Finally!' Clyde exclaimed, earning himself a daggered glare. 'Rani, take Sparky's feet from Sarah Jane. We're going to move her inside.'

'Who died and made you boss?' Rani muttered, but she obeyed anyway. 'Haven't you forgotten one thing, though?'

'What's that?' Sarah Jane asked, her brown wrinkling.

'You'll have to return Sarah Jane's lipstick,' Rani explained patiently to Clyde. 'Dad'll have gone by now and the place'll be locked. I don't suppose you can carry Sky and open the doors!'

'I'm wounded by your lack of faith!' Clyde said, dramatically clutching his heart. 'But yeah, good point. Ready to catch, Sarah Jane?' He tossed the sonic lipstick in the air as he finished speaking, and grinned when Sarah Jane caught it neatly. 'Nice.'

She nodded at him. 'Well, if you've all finished talking –'

'We're moving, we're moving,' Clyde interrupted. 'Go on, Rani, pick it up a bit, or I'll get Al to replace you.'

'Oh, shut up, you!' was Rani's retort, and they vanished through the rhododendron foliage, leaving Sarah Jane and Al staring at each other.

'Am I coming inside with you?' Al asked, his eyes growing impossibly large behind his glasses.

Sarah Jane studied him for a long moment, struggling with her reluctance to embroil yet another child in her dangerous life. Yet her sense of fairness reminded her that Sky deserved to have a friend of her own age, just as Luke had done. And Al had already proven his loyalty to Sky, and his ability to follow instructions quickly and without argument…

'Of course you're coming,' she said aloud, putting her hands on his shoulders and propelling him forward. 'Let's go!'

'Where are we going?' Al asked when Sarah Jane led him ever deeper into the school building. 'I thought we were just gonna go to hall.'

'We're going to the gym,' Sarah Jane explained. 'It's … safer.'

'Why?' Al demanded.

Sarah Jane said nothing until they reached the double doors that separated the gym from the corridor. Then she turned and, once again, put her hands on the young boy's shoulders.

'Sky … is not like other children,' she began gently. 'If you stay with us you'll –'

She paused and began to smile as someone yelled 'Mum!'.

'It's Luke,' she murmured, much to Al's bewilderment. 'Luke's here.' She turned back to Al. 'Go on into Clyde and Rani; I'm going to get Luke before he ends up wandering all over the building. Go on,' she repeated, pushing him through the double doors.

She watched him through the round porthole windows, once again questioning her decision to involve him in her life. Her qualms were alleviated somewhat when she saw how he instantly went to kneel at Sky's side, ignoring Clyde and Rani who seemed to be arguing about something, if Clyde's waving arms and Rani's hands-on-hips stance were anything to go by.

'Mum!' she heard again, and she called back in answer, knowing that Luke's superior senses would guide him to her quickly.

She was unprepared for the relief that washed over her when her son finally appeared before her, all earnest dark eyes and ruffled hair and careless scarves. She put Sky out of her mind for the moment and threw her arms around him, burying her nose in the depths of the soft scratchiness of his navy blue scarf.

'Oh, Luke,' she whispered. 'It's so good to see you.'

He pulled back to look down at her. 'What's the matter, Mum? Sky's not -?'

She shook her head. 'She's still unconscious. We've moved her into the gym; Clyde and Rani are arguing about what to do next –'

'Nothing new there, then,' Luke interjected with a grin.

Sarah Jane smiled faintly and continued. 'And there's those strange messages on all our phones – did Jo tell you?' she asked, interrupting herself. 'We think there's something wrong with the Doctor and to top it all off, we've picked up another straggler!' Her tone revealed her exasperation, and Luke grinned again.

'Of course. Team Sarah Jane must go on,' he teased, before turning serious. 'Jo and Santiago are in the car; they weren't sure whether to come in or not. I think,' he added thoughtfully, 'they're taking a snooze. Jo said something about being dead on her feet and too old to sleep in newspaper, whatever that means, so –' He shrugged. 'What next?'

Sarah Jane took his hand. 'We check on Sky,' she said firmly. 'Then we'll go home and find out what's going on.'

'And how to fix it,' Luke answered with equal firmness. ''Cos that's what we do, isn't it?'

TBC.

Reviews/comments would be amazing... and a belated but heartfelt thank you to IsobelFrances, Vilinye and Avatar Rikki for their comments on the last chapter!