A/N: Wow guess what? I'm allowed back on ff! Wooo!
Disclaimer: Doctor Who (c) to the BBC.
"Hello?" She called after a few minutes, when nobody came to the door. "Anyone home?" A mixture of disappointment and relief flooded through her; disappointment that she wouldn't find out whether Sarah Jane would have any idea what she was talking about, relief that she didn't have to. She was turning to leave when there was the click of a latch, the door opened a few inches and a face appeared.
"Who are you?" Said Sarah Jane, and Rose instantly felt her spirits plummet to trainer level. There was no recognition in the face of the woman before her.
"Sarah Jane?" Asked Rose, just to make sure it was her, and not someone who looked a lot like her. She couldn't see much of the face in the gap. "Sarah Jane Smith?" The door shut again, and Rose was wondering whether to leave or not when she heard the safety chain being slid off, and the door opened fully.
It was definitely Sarah Jane. She had the same dark, red-brown hair hanging loose around her shoulders, the same half stern, half kind expression, the same blue eyes that said she'd seen more about the universe than the average human should have. She was dressed in jeans, a jumper and slippers. Since she was at home at 5 in the afternoon, on a Thursday, when everyone Rose knew worked until 6.30 so they could leave early on the Friday, she guessed that she had never found more work after leaving Torchwood. After all, it wasn't something you could put on your CV, being top secret and all.
"I haven't been Sarah Jane Smith for twenty years." She said thoughtfully, looking Rose up and down, taking in her "inconspicuous" outfit and scuffed trainers. She glanced at Mickey, waiting in the car, who waved self-consciously. "And since you didn't know that, I'm guessing you aren't from Wheatfield, and you aren't here to sell me something."
"Er, you guess right," said her visitor, who was frantically trying to think of which path to take now she knew Sarah Jane definitely didn't know who she was. Instinct told her to go with the truth. "My name's Rose Tyler, I'm from London." Sarah Jane's eyes had narrowed suspiciously when she said "Tyler", but Rose ploughed ahead anyway. "I come from somewhere you used to work. Er –"
Sarah Jane was shutting the door. Rose dived forwards, and managed to wedge her foot in the way. "Listen," she said frantically. This was not going well at all, "I – we need your help. Please!"
"Get your foot out of my door or I'll call the police." Came a calm voice from the other side of the door, and Rose could tell she wasn't bluffing.
"Fine, but you have to –"
"Three. Two –"
"All right!" Rose yanked her foot free, breathing hard. "But please, you have to hear me out. Please." She saw Sarah Jane was considering it, and risked a glance over her shoulder. Mickey was half out of the car. "Mickey, stay there!" She yelled. He reluctantly obeyed. Rose spun back to face the woman, who was still eyeing her suspiciously.
"I don't know what your people have told you about me, but you can probably tell I'm good at guessing people's motives. And, as I told your father when he rang, I've no interest of coming back to Torchwood."
Quickly squashing her surprise at Sarah Jane's knowledge of who her father was, along with the thrill that passed through her every time she remembered he was alive, Rose put on the Doctor's most charming smile. "But we wouldn't need you to come back for good," she explained, "Only to sort out this transmission thing. And -"
"No, thank you." The older woman interrupted her again. "Though I can see it's obviously gone downhill since I left, if they're employing straight from school. How old are you exactly?"
Rose felt a flash of amusement - Sarah Jane had said exactly the same thing when they had first met - and then an almost simultaneous flare of anger. Her disarming grin had vanished. "I'm twenty," she told her, "And I've seen more in the past year than you have in your whole life. I've been to places you couldn't even imagine, and I'm from further away than you could comprehend, and I've lost just about the only thing that made my life mean anything, so you shouldn't think that just because you're older, you know more about the universe than me!"
"Oh." Said Sarah after a few seconds, when she saw that Rose was close to tears and trying to hide it. "Well. Er, I think you'd better come in and have a cup of tea."
Rose nodded dumbly, afraid that she'd start blubbering if she opened her mouth, cast a warning glance over her shoulder in Mickey's direction, and slowly followed Sarah Jane inside.