Sarah floored the pedal as she drove out to the UNIT headquarters, where Harry and the Brigadier were already waiting for her. But for the ever unlucky medical officer, everything of interest to them was already a thing of the past by the time of her arrival. When he showed Sarah and his supervisor around the storage, they found one of the mirrors lying face down on the floor and another one sitting on top of a table, seemingly undisturbed. As they lifted the one Harry had claimed to have been attacked by, its shards fell out of the frame and clattered on the floor. Only a whole lot of glue could have fixed this mess.
Ever since the incident, Benton had not shown up again and so the three of them approached the remaining mirror with some caution. His reflection was not there, just the image of the non-existent tetrahedron, which Harry pointed out to them. As Sarah stepped closer to inspect the strange object, her friend linked arms with her. Apparently he was frightened to lose her to the mirror world as well…
But her inspection revealed nothing of use. She had no explanation for the object in the mirror or how something could break out of or into a two-dimensional world in the first place, which meant she was just as clueless as the rest of UNIT. The Brigadier, who then approached the matter from an aspect of security, suggested to put the mirror into a crate. The idea behind this action was that no one would find oneself staring into it by accident – and the crate would hopefully keep something from popping out as well.
For a while, Sarah pondered whether she should force the Doctor to come here and have a look at it. The tetrahedron was something absolutely and undeniably unusual – any scientist whose title was worth something ought to be intrigued by the mystery. But she had seen the mood he was in and felt that he could barely be bothered with university life right now, even less then with the businesses of UNIT… Just remember how harsh he had been to poor Harry!
As Sarah was thinking about the best action to take, a UNIT scientist was suddenly mentioned who used to work with the Doctor a long time ago. Liz Shaw, so the name Sarah had read in one of the old files during her search for the lost Time Lord. The last information UNIT had about her was that she had left them to work at Cambridge, but Miss Shaw would make a great replacement for the position of the scientific advisor now. With that fresh idea on his mind, the Brigadier decided that UNIT could make do very well without the Doctor's help for once and ordered Sarah and Harry not to drag him into it unless the case was turning into a global crisis. There were great talents on Earth after all!
It was also on this occasion that Sarah found herself revisiting the Doctor's old lab at UNIT. Not intentionally, but as she passed by, she could not help but to step inside for a moment. Although a few pieces of equipment had gone missing from it over time and a thick layer of dust laid on everything which remained, it looked for the most part still like it had a few years ago, almost as if the room was waiting for its former occupant to return. In one of its corners was a large empty space; It was the space the TARDIS would usually stand in when the Doctor was around. In her memory, Sarah saw the well-known police box materializing just in that spot, fitting into the corner as if it was part of the furnishings and that unique sound it always made, echoing through the room. The door opened, and in its frame appeared the Doctor. Older yet than the one at Amberton; a proper dandy with a shock of white hair and a gentle smile.
...Why did it seem so long ago all of a sudden?
As Sarah was wandering around the laboratory by herself, she felt the cold brass of the fob watch in the pocket of her coat. For weeks now she was carrying the thing around wherever she went, because she had promised the Doctor not to lose it. It was important in one way or another, that she knew, but had not the slightest idea how to make the object reveal its secrets to her. The glow shining out of the cracked shell of the watch had changed over the course of time. Sarah had noticed how it had gotten stronger and stronger. Now that she was all by herself, she took the fob watch out of her pocket to inspect it again. Today, it was the strongest yet. Out of the crack poured a stream of glistening, golden light particles, bright and beautiful, but also strangely alien. For all she knew, it could be radiation of some kind. The young woman felt worry seeping into her insides once again. It was time she stopped to carry the watch around like it was nothing out of the ordinary. With that sort of mesmerizing glow, it was almost begging to be stolen now.
Back at the university, the former journalist struggled to explain the case to the Doctor, whereupon she found once again that his twisted set of memories made it difficult for him to believe the things that had actually happened to Harry. Still, she felt that a part of him wanted to trust her, because he was worried about the medical officer and her own involvement in those dangerous events. But while Sarah began to drive out to UNIT again and again and thus, spent less time at university, the Doctor stayed away from work more often, too. It was not because of the cold he had caught, though. No, that only kept him grouchy for a couple of days, but he would be in his office even if Sarah had to find him with his head on the desk, snoring.
As soon as the cold wore off, however, he began to take a great interest in the other fields of science represented at the university. The next time he skipped one of his lectures, Sarah was suddenly joined by him in a reading about the Anglo-Saxon history. He probably had no idea how lucky he was that she had been in no mood of making a spectacle about themselves when really she should have thrown him out of the hall single-handedly. When questioned about his behaviour, the Doctor merely attempted to explain it with his natural thirst for knowledge, but once his assistant tried to make the topic into an argument, he quietly fled the scene and was not seen again until long after lunch time of the same day. Whatever he was doing or planning now that took so much of his time, it must have something to do with his growing desire to go adventuring again, Sarah thought to herself.
Not before long, and the Doctor's assistant was forced to defend his personal wishes and dreams in front of the dean and his own students as well. Being his shield to responsibilities was no fun at all. More than once Sarah wished he could bring himself to deal with his own growing problems, but whenever she brought up the subject, he wanted to hear nothing of it – usually by pretending that he was too busy to pay attention to her. Was it making her cross? Of course it did, but then she never stayed mad for long. The Doctor she used to know had been just the same; Any trouble smaller than the end of the world was but a waste of his time and so Sarah was rather glad to find more pieces of his original personality breaking through the false identity.
Besides, it was not that the Doctor had gotten lazy or disappeared from university completely. Although the neglect of his responsibilities occurred more often than it should, he still spent some of his precious time to prepare courses and help the students. The door to his office might usually be locked, but if you were his assistant and already sitting inside the room, you might find him at the desk with his beak-nose stuck deep in a pile of books. The Doctor was so busy reading up on seemingly everything that sometimes, he was already at work even before she arrived in the morning and then he stayed late, too. He would simply refuse to go home at a time when she became tired already. Since she was worried, as usual, about his well-being, Sarah soon told him not to stay at university during the night, but whether he would listen to her advise or not, she eventually had to leave to him.
That he had not listened at all was then proved by one specific occasion...
It was the middle of the night. Half past midnight or some other ungodly hour, when suddenly the telephone at her aunt's place rang. Sarah had never liked the sound of the old telephone to begin with, but as she awoke, half-conscious lying in her bed and turning around with great unwillingness to look at the clock on her night stand, it sounded about five to ten times as annoying. From her bedroom, she could hear Lavinia getting up fairly quickly and hurrying downstairs to pick up while she was still wondering how someone could possess the impoliteness of making midnight-calls. Yet at last, Sarah's curiosity prevailed, and she forced herself out of bed, even if it was just to ask her aunt what was going on. It was dark and quiet in the house, but coming from the hallway on the ground floor, Sarah heard Lavinia telling, if not scolding, the caller that no, Sarah Jane was not available and that he should be ashamed of calling at this time of night for anything else but an emergency.
The Doctor's companion stood at the top step of the stairs, rubbing her eyes as she overheard the conversation. When Lavinia noticed her, she just signalled for her niece to go back to bed. But that did not quench her curiosity. "Who was it?", she demanded to know, upon which her aunt answered: "Some professor from that university you're going to. But never mind it, it was not important." And with these words spoken, she trotted back to her bedroom. Although Sarah was still very tired, when she heard that it had been the Doctor, she quickly decided that it was probably better to call back, whatever the reason. After all, Lavinia had been so rude to him, she might have cut him off before he could have voiced his concern. The younger Smith carefully climbed down the stairs and tip-toed to the telephone trying to make as little noise as possible before she dialled the office's number. "Doctor…?", she whispered just as she heard how someone picked up.
"Hello, Sarah!", greeted the Doctor her, loudly and cheerfully, and full of energy, too.
Sarah winced and wished he would keep that voice of his down, but then reminded herself that it only seemed so loud because the rest of the house was so very quiet at this time of day. "What is it? Why are you calling?"
"You remember me brining in a stack of newspapers yesterday, don't you? There was a torn out piece of the classified column between the papers, and it must have fallen out as I entered the office. Have you seen it? I spent the last hour or so searching high and low."
As the Doctor went on about the lost newspaper clipping and even began to tell her of the things he needed her to do for him after sunrise, Sarah let out a long, heavy sigh. In her half-asleep state, his words soon blended into each other and all that remained in her ears was a low, almost melodic buzz threatening to lull her into deep sleep again. Only when the receiver almost dropped from her hand, Sarah regained a brief moment of clarity. Clearing her throat, she interrupted the Doctor mid-sentence – because there was obviously no other way to stop him. "Doctor, may I remind you that it's the middle of the night?", she asked him and did not even bother to hide the annoyed tone in her voice.
"Yes, I am aware of that...", he told her, then hesitated. "Is there a reason you and your aunt keep reminding me of it?"
Sarah chuckled, drowsy as she was. Oh, that funny alien of hers could not make the connection! Then she sighed again. "People sleep at night, Doctor… And they need that sleep to have enough energy for the day...", explained Sarah very, very slowly.
"Oh, yes. Right.", he suddenly understood and just then, he finally lowered his voice. "I'm so sorry... Please go back to bed, Sarah, and forget I ever called."
"Hm-hm. For your sake, you better hope I will.", Sarah threatened him jokingly.
"...Good night, Sarah.", he whispered softly before eventually, he put his receiver down.
Shaking her head, his companion did as told and climbed the stairs back up to lie down again. How glad she was she had no appointments during the upcoming week-end!