Author's Notes:

Not mine, nope, none of it! Reviews would be awesome, is anyone reading? Some of the events the 4th Doc and Sarah discuss with Harry are pulled from another story of mine - Saving Sarah.

Sarah stood in the kitchen, starting to put the kettle on when she could sense someone standing behind her. She smiled as she felt the telepathic feelers reaching out for her. 'Does your father have you practicing your skills?' She turned around to see Luke giving her an odd expression.

'This is all relatively new, isn't it?' he asked.

'For me or for you, Luke?'

Luke sat down at the kitchen table and couldn't quite shake the confused expression from his face. 'Both? Mum, how does you knowing the truth change our lives?'

Sarah sat down opposite Luke. 'What do you mean?'

'Dad said that you knowing the truth would change our lives and your perceptions on things. Your relationship to each other, who I am, that sort of thing.'

'Your father and I have a complicated relationship. We always have, we probably always will, and of course knowing the truth doesn't make it any less complicated. I'm still not happy about the fact that he suppressed my memories, but I do understand why he did it.'

'What about me?'

Sarah was confused. 'What about you, Luke?'

'Do you feel differently about me, knowing who Dad is, and knowing you had another son before me?'

Sarah reached across the table and took Luke's hand in hers. 'Oh Luke, I love you, and nothing is going to change that.'

'But I'm not human.'

'In some ways, neither am I. Not anymore.' She sighed. 'If I had to be perfectly honest with you, that's the part I'm having the hardest problem adjusting to. Part of the memories that your father held back included the fact that I wasn't quite human myself. If you were 100% human or 100% Time Lord, it wouldn't matter to me. The important thing is that you are my son.'

Luke smiled. 'Mum, do you think Dad will go back to travelling? Like he did before I was born?'

'Honestly, if I had to make a guess, I would say yes. Maybe not right away, but eventually. His wanderlust has to be about driving him batty. He never was one to stay in one place for too long.'

'What about us?'

'We'll be all right, no matter what he decides to do. It won't change the fact that we're a family. We'll just be a bit of an unusual one. Luke, I know it'll be a change for you, but it won't change your father's feelings for you.'

'What was your other son like?'

'Christopher? He was very much like you, extremely smart. He was just starting to really show his personality, but he was only six when he died. He looked more like his father than me.'

Luke jumped on her odd choice of words. 'His father? But he and I have the same father, don't we?'

Sarah smiled. 'Has your father ever told you about regeneration?'

'No, what's that?'

The Doctor was standing in the doorway watching the conversation, unnoticed by either of them. He picked now to jump in. 'When a Time Lord's body wears out or is damaged badly enough, we have the ability to completely replace and regenerate that body, right down to the cellular structure. Each time it occurs, we look radically different. I'm in my seventh body now, so I've gone through six regenerations.'

Luke turned around to look at his father. 'So this wasn't the body you were in when you and Mum met?'

Sarah smiled. 'His fourth body was Christopher's father. He may look different, but underneath the exterior features, he's the same.'

The Doctor walked over and kissed Sarah on the top of her head. 'Sarah's known me through several incarnations. She travelled with me during my third and fourth incarnations. She even witnessed me regenerate that time. She met my first, second and fifth selves on Gallifrey one time, but I didn't get to say much to her.'

'So what happened to you, Mum, that you say you're not quite human?'

The Doctor sat down at the table between Sarah and Luke. 'Your mother was exposed to a deadly form of radiation when we were separated on a war-torn planet. I thought that we had purged the radiation from her system, but it wasn't until later that I realised we hadn't. I had to make some pretty drastic decisions.'


The Doctor, Sarah and Harry entered the TARDIS, pushing the printout from the Brigadier's time space telegraph out of the way. The Doctor was fussing as he moved the paper way from the console, 'Why the Brigadier thinks that the more times he uses that the faster we'll be there. I'm a Time Lord, not an errand boy.'

While the Doctor continued to complain loudly and just as Harry started to interrupt, he glanced back at Sarah. She had gone deathly pale, and leaned heavily against the console. 'Sarah, are you all right?' Harry asked.

The Doctor looked up at her and frowned, just making it to her side as she passed out. He eased her gently to the ground, concern radiating from his eyes. Harry was at her other side in an instant, checking her vitals. 'I don't understand, Doctor, she was fine just a second ago.'

'I think I've made a terrible mistake, Harry.' He stood up quickly and started changing the coordinates. 'We have to get her to the medical base on Indela VI.'

'Her heart rate is rising, just like with the toxins in her system earlier. I thought the transport purged them from her system?'

'Harry, this isn't from the cybermen's virus, this is dystronic toxaemia from her loading the rocket on Skaro. I thought that the transport back and forth from Voga would've flushed it from her system, but I was wrong.'

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'Are you sure this is the only way to save her?' The Doctor asked, glancing back at an unconscious Sarah propped up on one side of the wide hospital bed.

The Indelian medic with four legs and three arms gave a slight nod of his orange head. 'The process is quite intensive and painful. Our normal procedures are different for a humanoid than it would be for one of our own species. If you add in the extra difficulties from the variations in your own species, I'm afraid your…' the medic paused and glanced back at Sarah before continuing, 'Friend, will have a very difficult time adjusting. We have found with different humanoid species that close proximity eases the discomfort, especially when you consider your own telepathic ability.'

'So just tell me exactly what I need to do and let's get this over with.'

'You will need to be as close to her as physically possible. The procedure itself will not take long, however she will have residual seizures. We need you to hold her as still as possible while the changes solidify. We will also have monitors on you as the donor, to make sure that as her body adjusts, she is not further altering the sequences past what will eliminate the toxins from her system.' The medic gestured towards the bed. 'If you would, Doctor, we can go ahead and get started.'

The Doctor went over to the empty side of the bed and lay down on top of the covers next to Sarah. 'Let's get this started.'

The medic walked around and put sensors on both the Doctor and Sarah's temples. Taking a handheld device, he began to scan the Doctor, frequently stopping and looking at the feedback the device was giving him.

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The Doctor tightened his arms around Sarah as her body began to convulse. He could see the pain etched across her face, even though she refused to vocalize it. As her seizure began to ease, Sarah relaxed her head against the Doctor's arm as he reached up and pushed hair away from her face. 'Better?' he asked softly.

She took a few deep breaths before answering, 'Getting there. Not fun.'

'I suppose not. Your body is doing a lot of adjusting at the moment.'

They both watched as the door opened and the medic gestured for Harry to enter. The surprised look on Harry's face was obvious as he saw the Doctor and Sarah. 'Well, I must say that I've never seen a hospital that allowed for those sorts of visits, eh Doctor?'

The Doctor glared at Harry. 'Shut up Harry. It's part of the Indelian procedures on genetic transfer and stabilisation.'

'Genetic transfer? Where did they get the source?' After a pause, Harry realised. 'From you, Doctor? Wouldn't it make more sense to come from me? After all, I am human.'

'Harry, I'm not your normal human.' Sarah said softly.

Harry smiled, 'Of course you aren't, old girl, but you're still human.'

'I'm a product of…' her sentence dropped off as another seizure wracked her body. The Doctor focused all his attention on her and again tightened his grip, leaving Harry only able to watch.

As the seizure calmed, Sarah attempted to continue her statement, but the Doctor shushed her. 'You rest, Sarah.'

'Is this what the treatment they've given her causes?' Harry asked.

'It's only temporary. These are briefer and not nearly as violent as they were at the beginning, but they're still exhausting her.'

'I'm still here.' She said softly, but with a smile. Her eyes met the Doctor's and they stared at each other in silence for a moment.

The Doctor looked back to Harry and said, 'What Sarah started to say was that she was a product of a failed science experiment.'

Harry had watched the silent exchanged between the Doctor and Sarah. 'Are you two now communicating telepathically? How did you know what Sarah was going to say?'

'It's complicated,' Sarah noted. 'He was there. The Doctor is the only reason I'm alive today, in fact, he's the only reason I was born healthy.'

The Doctor added in, 'Sarah's father wasn't the businessman he claimed to be, he was actually a scientist about 100 years out of his time. A geneticist who should have never been able to accomplish what he was able to.'

'Experiments on a scale that seem impossible, even unethical in most circles, yet, here I am,' Sarah added.

Harry struggled to wrap his brain around all the information he'd been given. Sarah could tell by his eyes that he didn't like this latest development. 'Well, I'd say that the best thing at this point is for you to get better, old girl, and then for us to just get back to the Brigadier and take care of whatever he needs.' He watched as Sarah had trouble keeping her eyes open. 'Why don't I let you rest, Sarah. I'll be outside.'

As Harry left the room, Sarah turned at looked at the Doctor. 'Oh, that probably didn't go the best, did it?'

'Well, he doesn't understand.'

'No, and he never will, nor will he be able to accept it. I just lost my humanity in his eyes.'


Luke continued to watch the conversation between his parents, waiting to see what else they were going to say.

'No, Harry never did completely understand exactly what we went through when the Indelians did that final genetic transfer.' Sarah looked from Luke over to the Doctor. His eyes were dark, his patent look for when he was deep in thought.

The Doctor agreed. 'No, he didn't. I would imagine that's why he was so keen to get back to Earth.'

'And to stay there once we were in Scotland. The "space stuff" never really was his cup of tea.'

'To say the least. He never did quite accept you after that, did he?'

'Oh, he was always a dear friend, and always very nice to me, but he had trouble comprehending why I was ok with everything that happened. As an Earth doctor, he always thought there should've been another way that wouldn't have compromised my "human side".'

The Doctor reached over and took one of Sarah's hands in his. 'What about you, Sarah Jane, do you regret it?'

Sarah squeezed his hand tightly and smiled. 'Regret what? That you saved my life? I don't think so. Regret that you gave some of yourself to me to make sure I lived, not once but twice? Absolutely not. Regret that because of it I was able to have your children? I'd not change that. The only thing I would change is that Christopher would still be alive. We should've left with you when we had the chance. I blame myself for that.'

Sliding his chair closer to her, the Doctor reached up and took her face in his hands, and turned so that she was looking into his eyes. 'I don't blame you, Sarah.'

'What? How could you not?' she couldn't hide the tears beginning to form at the edges of her eyes.

'I don't blame you. Our life would not have been safe for a child, with all the dangers we always faced. You were doing the best thing you knew to keep him safe. I can't blame you for that.'

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