Author's Note: A very short chapter compared to the others but I haven't updated in a while and figured that I should at least give you something to enjoy!

PHOENIX RISING

Chapter 7

When Sarah Jane was a teenager, a cousin of her Aunt Lavinia came for a visit, bringing along his wife and seven-month old baby, Hannah. Sarah Jane had immediately fallen for the child, watching over her every moment she had to give. It was from taking care of Hannah that Sarah Jane had learned the fine art of changing diapers and bottle-feeding. However, with Hannah's parents always available to take over when things got to be too much, the teenage girl never really had to take care of a child for more than a few minutes.

After the Doctor had left Phoenix in her tending, Sarah Jane immediately wondered why she had allowed the Time Lord to leave the boy with her. She would be the first to admit that she wasn't the most qualified person to take care of a newborn, considering that the last time she'd changed a diaper was over thirty years before. She supposed that she never could deny the Doctor anything he wanted and she knew that he wouldn't have done so if he didn't have complete faith in her abilities to do what at the moment looked to be a nerve-racking task. Fortunately for her, Rani had admitted to having babysat infants before – though never one as young as Phoenix – so she agreed to help Sarah as best as she could.

The first thing they did was to find an eyedropper and sterilize it, thus giving them an immediate means of providing Phoenix with water. Instructing Luke and Clyde on how to give the tiny boy a drink, Sarah Jane and Rani then left the house. While the two ladies went to the local grocers to pick up the necessary items – formula, diapers, etc. - the boys remained with the child, who seemed content to remain asleep. A lucky thing, in Clyde's opinion. He wasn't happy with playing babysitter, even though Luke seemed to enjoy it as he watched the boy with quiet fascination.

By the time they returned to Sarah Jane's house, however, a siren was blaring from the house in the form of a screaming newborn who was demanding attention. Clyde had apparently opted out of the situation, having hurried home the moment the baby started crying and thus leaving Luke alone with the bawling child.

"He's been crying for nearly half an hour," Luke told his mother as she and Rani walked in the door. "I gave him some water but he didn't stop crying. I didn't know what else to do so I just left him be. Didn't want to accidentally hurt him. He looks so fragile." He looked to his mother for reassurance. "Is he okay?"

Sarah Jane sighed slightly at her son's words before giving him a reassuring smile as she and Rani carried in as much of their purchases as they could fit in their hands. "It's okay, Luke. I'm sure that he's fine. The Doctor warned me that he would be hungry when he woke up. Please go out to the car and get the rest of the bags. Rani, would you go into the kitchen and prepare a bottle?" she requested while she went to the bawling infant, who had chosen to kick off the soft towel the Doctor had given him as a temporary blanket. It was immediately obvious that the boy needed more than just lunch. A change of diaper and a set of clothes were also needed, though clothes would have to wait until the ones they bought were washed and dried.

Sarah Jane carefully picked up the small infant and, using the remarkably unsoiled towel the Doctor had given the baby as a blanket as a barrier, laid the boy on the carpet. Digging into the bag she had carried in, she pulled out a package of diapers, a container of baby powder, and a package of wipes. Grimacing slightly at her own actions, she removed the cloth diaper the boy had been wearing and put it in the clothes basket with the knowledge that the makeshift crib would need to be cleaned before it could be used again.

"Mrs. Chandra offered to help me with the crib," Luke explained to his mom as he came in. He and Rani's mum put the crib against a wall before Gita moved towards Sarah Jane.

Even as Luke spoke, Rani came back into the living room with a bottle. "Mum!" she stated with surprise.

"What's going on here, Rani?" Gita Chandra questioned with concern. She followed the sound of an infant crying to where Sarah Jane was sitting. "Who's baby is that, Sarah?" she asked, her curiosity getting stronger.

Sarah Jane cringed internally at Gita's words. There were very few people in the world who could get away with calling her 'Sarah' rather than her full first name. The Doctor was one of them as was her friend Harry Sullivan. Other than from those two, hearing her name shortened so was like nails on a chalkboard to her and most of her friends knew better. She also knew that she wasn't going to change Gita's habit; she'd tried several times before to correct her and had failed every time. As such, she'd learned to put up with it from her.

"I'm just watching over him for a friend," she answered her query as she gently wiped the boy clean and then reached for the diapers to retrieve one.

Rani's mum leaned over to look at the small boy, who kicked as his head moved around in an attempt to understand his blurry surroundings. "Where are his parents? He's too young to have a babysitter." She looked around quickly and frowned. "Didn't they leave you anything to take of him with? It looks like you bought out the store with all these bags!" Noting that her neighbor was deeply embroiled in tending to the baby, she sat beside her and regarded the child for a moment. "So, what's his name?"

"Phoenix," Sarah Jane answered as she finished changing the diaper.

"And how old is he?" she asked, knowing that the baby couldn't be very old with him still having his umbilical cord.

The older woman frowned slightly. "I'm not exactly sure but, from what my friend told me, he can't be more than a few hours old."

"A few hours and they just dump him on you?" Gita exclaimed, stunned by her answer.

"It wasn't like that," Sarah Jane protested. She sighed at the look the younger woman gave her. "It's complicated. Phoenix's mother died giving birth to him and…"

"Oh, the poor dear! Where's his father, then?" Gita questioned with concern while Sarah Jane gently lifted the boy into her arms.

Sarah Jane reached over towards Rani, who automatically put a prepared bottle in her free hand. Adjusting her position, she gently eased the nipple into Phoenix's mouth, smiling when he started suckling on it rabidly. "His father needed some time to take care of a few things," she finally answered Gita. Taking a deep breath, she searched for a reasonable explanation. "Neither of them have relatives and I'm the closest thing to family he has so I agreed to watch over Phoenix until his father has made funeral arrangements. He said he needed a couple of days at the most." She knew that that was very likely the closest to the truth as she could get.

"That doesn't explain the shopping spree," Gita pointed out. "Surely he had all of these already, expecting a baby and all."

It was Rani who came up with the solution. "They'd lost everything in the house fire." The glance from Sarah Jane told her that, all though she didn't approve of lying, under the circumstances it was a most appreciated subterfuge.

"House fire? You mean, they're homeless?" Gita questioned with sympathy. "Oh, that poor man! No wonder he left his son with you." She paused, watching Sarah Jane adjust her hold on the boy. She seemed to hesitate to speak before deciding to voice her concern. "I hope this isn't a case of child abandonment. I wouldn't be surprised if he left his baby with you because he doesn't have the means to take care of him."

"He'll be back for him," Sarah Jane said firmly despite the flicker of doubt Gita's words brought her. It wouldn't be the first time the Doctor had left someone behind because he believed he was doing what was best for them. Neither would it be the first time he'd lied to persuade someone to do as he wished. "He'll be back," she stated again, almost as if she were trying to convince herself of her words.

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As the Doctor dematerialized the TARDIS, he couldn't help the small smile that came to his lips, grateful that Sarah Jane had agreed to watch over Phoenix until he returned. He couldn't blame the expression on her face, though, when she looked upon the child and realized what he was asking her to do. For only a split second, she looked very much like a deer caught in the headlamps of a car, plainly frightened by the prospect of taking care of a newborn child. The look had vanished quickly and was replaced by sympathy towards the child and the Doctor and by determination to take on the task given to her with the best of her abilities. He knew that, if anyone could take on such a thing as watching after a newborn despite the lack of experience, it was her. His current smile faded as he thought again about his own task, his hearts aching with the heavy burden that he once again had.

Every civilization has its fascination with death, mostly out of curiosity and fear of what may lie in, as Shakespeare referred to it, "the undiscovered country." In most cases, this apprehension of death and the possible afterlife led to elaborate funerary rites that matched up with that civilization's religion and/or environment. Gallifrey was no exception to this rule. Before the Time Lords came about and before the great glass-domed citadels graced the planet's surface, the early ancestors of Gallifrey had to cope with harsh winters that would often lead to death. Since wood was a precious commodity during these seasons and the dead could not be buried in the frozen ground, it became necessary to create funeral pyres that would not only take care of the remains of the dead but also warm those in attendance against the cold. Over the centuries, the scarcity of wood became less of an issue with the rise of technology, and religion brought new meaning to the funeral pyres. Most Gallifreyans forgot the origins of their practices and only remembered that their faith – and/or Rassilon, depending on one's beliefs - demanded it of them.

The Doctor, for his part, had never really been a religious man. His father never practiced any religion on Gallifrey but rather focused on science. His mother did have a religion but it wasn't one she could observe on Gallifrey without condemnation so she kept her beliefs to herself. As such, the Doctor grew up believing in what he could see and touch but, at the same time, acknowledging that there were some things in the universe that he wouldn't be able to explain. It also gave him an appreciation for other people's beliefs, even if they didn't agree with his own.

It was with such understanding and with a heavy heart that he slipped on a lab coat, knowing that moving Nariam's body would stain his suit with blood just as it had the one he'd changed out of. Taking a slow, meticulous breath he went over to his fallen friend, carefully lifted the body into his arms, and carried it through the TARDIS into a small ornate room that was specifically designated for preparing the dead for a traditional Gallifreyan funeral, a room he had been in only a short few years before when he took on the task of providing the Master with the same arrangements. There, he diligently removed all of the clothing from Nariam's body before delicately wiping the body down, taking the time to cover the gaping wound in the back. Once the remains had been thoroughly cleansed, he retrieved some white linen and gradually wrapped the body from toe to head, tucking small handfuls of a kind of potpourri within the folds as he worked. He wasn't absolutely certain that a Gallifreyan funeral mirrored those of the now near-extinct Teranovians but, given how much of Teranovian life matched that of early Gallifrey, it was a fairly reasonable assumption.

When the work was done, he slowly removed his lab coat, hanging it in a nearby closet before returning to the body now in resting, waiting for the ceremony the Doctor would soon perform. Retrieving a dark purple arm band – it was the closest he was going to get to actually wearing ceremonial funeral robes - he slipped the piece of cloth around his right forearm, making sure that it would not accidentally slip down. He then gazed on the carefully wrapped body for a moment and bowed his head.

"Rassilon, Entrile po Ushazte sa trantizam po Nariam, famedare maha," he murmured, recalling the prayer spoken frequently during the funerary ceremony. Insuring that a light shown on the body of the murdered Teranovian, he slowly left the room and the TARDIS to prepare the wooden altar upon which her remains would be laid.

The Doctor had chosen a quiet, out of the way place on Earth to perform the rites for Nariam. The location was far enough from civilization that the fire would not catch anyone's attention and was isolated enough to allow the ashes a chance to become part of the land without humanity disturbing it. It was also the ideal place to procure the wood needed to build the pyre needed for the funeral.

The Time Lord personally cut the needed wood and carried it piece by piece to the desired location before carefully building up the altar, making sure that there was plenty of kindling between the layers of wood to ensure that it burned evenly and completely. He also sprinkled the same potpourri like substance that he used in wrapping Nariam's body with every layer. It took several hours to create the altar on his own. Having been high in the sky when he started, the sun was now nowhere to be seen.

The pyre and torch now ready, the Gallifreyan took a moment to rest before returning to the TARDIS. A couple of minutes later, he emerged from the time ship, the wrapped body gently cradled in his arms. With the utmost care, he laid the body on the pyre and, taking a step back, retrieved and lit the torch with his sonic screwdriver. Repeating the ancient prayer he had said before, he lit the pyre and stood back. He watched the pyre burn for several minutes before carefully tossing the torch into the base of the blaze and turning away. He then returned to the TARDIS, leaving the doors open so that the flames of the pyre could be seen and felt, and allowed himself to finally grieve for Nariam, for all the Teranovian people, and for his adopted son who, like him, was now the last of his kind.

The fire burned through the night, slowly dying as dawn came over the horizon. In the end, there was nothing left but ashes.

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Sarah Jane had learned much about taking care of babies in the last three days, especially ones as small as Phoenix. She'd had all sorts of advice from Gita and from the friends she had spoken to, all of which she'd put to good use. The one thing she appreciated was that Phoenix seemed to sleep a lot, allowing her the chance to get her own sleep while doing the research she needed to complete the article she was working on. After all, saving the world on occasion did little to pay the bills.

Luke, Clyde, and Rani helped out, of course, though Clyde wasn't as thrilled with the task as the other two. Still, he had to admit that he'd been growing fond of the little boy despite how many diapers needed to be changed.

Sarah Jane had been feeding Phoenix when an otherworldly sound filtered through the walls of the house, causing her to stand. Going to the door, she opened it, obviously intent on stepping out when her path was blocked by a tall skinny frame. She smiled widely at the Doctor, who returned the grin.

"I see you made it back after all," she commented teasingly.

"Was there any doubt?" the Doctor countered. He glanced down to see a blanketed form in Sarah Jane's arms. "There he is!" the Time Lord practically cooed, retrieving the baby from her hands. "Were you a good boy for Auntie Sarah Jane?" His focus shifted to his longtime friend. "Thank you. From the bottom of my hearts."

Sarah Jane smiled her acceptance as she stepped aside to allow the alien to enter her home. A moment later, however, her expression became somber. "Were you able to do… what you needed?"

The Doctor's exuberance faded with her question. "Yes," he answered solemnly. It was clear from his eyes that Nariam's death still weighed heavily on him.

"Do you want to talk?" Sarah Jane pressed gently.

The Time Lord swallowed slightly. "Maybe later," he finally said. His disposition immediately brightened. "Right now, I want you to teach me how to take care of my son." He sniffed slightly at his own words. "Not that I've never taken care of a baby before. I mean, I've been a dad before but that was a long time ago and we never had the need to bottle feed; just wasn't done on my planet, only breastfeeding. Humans have this odd taboo against allowing mothers to breastfeed each others' children. Well, some humans anyway. I mean, you do have childcare facilities but I seriously doubt that any of them are willing to breastfeed. Well, some humans wouldn't have a problem with it. There are African tribes that don't have a problem with community nursing…" Seeing the expression on Sarah Jane's face, he realized that he was rambling. "Umm…" He frowned slightly. "How do you make baby formula?" he questioned.

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Translations:

Rassilon, Entrile po Ushazte sa trantizam po Nariam, famedare maha. – Rassilon, open the Gate of Eternity for Nariam, my dear (female) friend.