Thank you people for your reviews and follows and favourites and visits...all in all - everything! It really makes a person happy. Now there you are. A freshie. Hehe.
It was lunchtime, and the dinner ladies were spooning food onto people's plates. The Doctor was moving along the line with his tray. Rose, who was undercover as a dinner lady, spooned smashed potato onto his plate and gave him a filthy look simultaneously.
Bloody dinner lady again.
She could have been just about anyone. But no. Again with if you want to know what's going on, work in the kitchens. Well, he could have worked there himself then.
He just smirked at her, as he watched her.
You gonna hear no end about it. Rose thought, still giving him a hateful look, as he headed towards the tables shorty after, just to turn around and smirk at her some more.
Rose bit her lip in frustration.
"Enjoying, huh?" she muttered under her breath.
At his table, some time later, the Doctor had a chip speared on his fork, nibbling it, and staring at it distastefully. Rose came over with a dishcloth to wipe his table down.
"Two days," Rose shot at him in a blaming voice. Not that she was that concerned about dates. Mind you, she knew about them better than anyone here, but she was too frustrated to be sent as a dinner lady. Again!
"Sorry, could you just-" He completely ignored her tone and was pointing with his fork. "There's a bit of gravy." He jumped a bit inwardly, when Rose slammed the cloth at the place he was pointing at.
"No, no." He tried again. "Just there." Rose gave him a look, to which he responded with an innocent smile.
"Two days, we've been here," Rose muttered under her teeth, while slamming the cloth again. The Doctor wondered whether a cloth could kill someone. He pondered about it for some time. If it was longer then-
"Excuse me." Rose's voice, shook him of his thoughts.
"Ah, yeh. Blame your boyfriend-" he began nonchalantly.
"He's not my boyfriend for a long time," Rose added.
"Right. Then ex-boyfriend. He's the one who put us onto this," he ended lightly. "And he was right," he said in a voice, asking for attention and Rose had to put her cloth away to listen. "Boy in class this morning got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth," he ended meaningfully, looking at Rose, who seemed to consider his story, but apparently wasn't.
"You eating those chips?" She pointed at them.
"Yeah, they're a bit..." He grimaced. "Different."
Tell me about it. Poison.
"Don't eat them." She furrowed her brows and was about to go away with his chips.
"But I paid for them!" he cried.
"Not you. Your sonic did," she sang in a whisper.
"My sonic is like me. Like my soul. Whenever I go, it goes with me. So if it paid. So did I," he ended, looking all nostalgic at the memory of his sonic screwdriver, as he couldn't pull it out in the cafeteria.
"Right." Rose nodded. Should I let him be alone with his Sonic Screwdriver from now on too? Nah, I guess it was always like that to begin with. Good ol' screwdriver. She rolled her eyes and was about to walk away with the chips, when a dinner lady approached them.
"You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting," she announced with an unpleasant face.
"I was just talking to this teacher." Rose pointed at him with one hand, another still holding the chips.
"Hello!" The Doctor greeted the dinner lady, beaming.
"He doesn't like the chips. So, I'm getting rid of them-" Rose added with a fake smile.
The Doctor opened his mouth to protest, but Rose interrupted. "For him." She glanced at him, narrowing her eyes, making his mouth shut.
"The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance," the dinner lady announced, like reading from the newspaper. "Now, get back to work," she hissed.
Calm down you Krilitane. Blimey, when did she start working in the kitchen with hostile aliens? She glanced at the Doctor who was smiling all happily. Good for you, don't even know where I'm going.
With the dinner lady gone, Rose began to walk from the table.
"See?" Rose gestured to herself. "This is me. The dinner lady," she ended with a fake, forced smile.
"I'll have the crumble then!" he called out for her.
"I'm so gonna kill you," she muttered, but the Doctor seemed to hear her, as he left his gaze wander after her, grinning all happily.
Rose was in the kitchens, drying a tray when she spotted a few dinner ladies very very carefuly wheeling in a barrel of oil. They had masks, goggles and gloves on.
"Careful... keep it steady... don't spill a drop," one of them said.
Rose frowned. Should she go help them? No. She didn't even have the equipment. Warn them? No, yet again. It might as well make them spill everything from the shock. And well, it was the way every one of them died anyway. So why be concerned now?
"I said keep it steady. Careful... that's it... easy now... steady..." The dinner lady was chanting like a mantra.
As Rose's phone rang, she pulled it out to see Mickey calling.
"What you got?" she whispered, not to get anyone's attention.
"Confirmation. I just got into army records. Three months ago, massive UFO activity. They logged over forty sightings. I can't get any photos, 'cause then it gets all classified and secret. Some Torchwood keeps locking me out," Mickey complained.
"Torchwood?" Rose squalled.
The dinner ladies turned their head to look at her questioningly. Not exactly hearing the word, but the sound coming from her mouth.
"Achoo." Rose faked it, rubbing her nose, as she hid her phone in one of her pockets.
"Rose?" Mickey's voice could be heard from the other line, but not audible enough for others.
"You. New one. Don't cause bacteria to pass on the food." One of them chided Rose.
"Sorry." Rose gave a small smile with a salute. They turned back to their barrel.
"Rose? You there?" Mickey was speaking on the phone, as Rose put it back to her ear.
"Yeh, yeh. I'm here. I was just about to tell you that it was three months ago, when all the kitchen staff were replaced." She spoke in a low voice, not showing her inner turmoil. It was Torchwood again. Always Torchwood.
She watched the group wheel another barrel of oil into the kitchen.
"And this lot are weird. Very weird." Rose spoke, trying to hint something was wrong out here.
"See, there's definitely something going on. I was right to call you home," Mickey pouted.
"Yeh, it seems you've become a big help to us." Rose spoke fondly.
"O-of course!" Mickey shuttered, shouting into a phone, maybe a bit too enthusiastically. Not often was he praised. And he could be so much more. Rose had to take note of that.
"Watch it!" someone from the group yelled, taking Rose's attention. Just then she saw the barrel of oil toppling over and spilling onto one of the dinner ladies, her screaming in agony and starting to smoke.
"I've gotta go," Rose whispered into her phone, as she hang up, watching the scene cautiously.
"Get her up, get her up!" The dinner lady was hoisted to her feet and into an office, still wailing with pain.
Rose tried to see through the partition, but the blinds were swiftly drawn once again, not letting to see through.
Rose just stood there for a while, waiting for the unpleasant dinner lady to show up. She didn't have to wait long, as the one she wanted opened the door to reveal herself.
"What're you doing?" she asked, pulling her mask off.
"Nothing." Rose shrugged, biting her lip. "Is she..." She took a breath. "Is she gonna be all right?" she asked the dinner lady.
She seemed a bit confused by the girl's reaction. "Yes," she just answered, before the sound of something bursting into flames, followed by the sound of something smashing and screaming and a billow of smoke from the office came through the doors.
"It's fine. She does that," the dinner lady just said, not flinching.
Rose gave a weak smile. As much as ridiculous those words there, they managed to soothe her. Just for a bit. She had to keep reminding herself that those were not real people. Just Krillitanes.
"Excuse me, colleagues...A moment of your time." Mr. Finch's voice caught the Doctor's ears, as he was sitting in the staff room.
When he turned, he saw someone he thought to never be able to see again.
"May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith," Finch continued in his sweet voice, while the Doctor just stared. Eyes wide, mouth slightly open, stunned to the ground. "Miss Smith is a journalist, who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times." The woman in question smiled gently, while looking around at them all.
The Doctor was gradually coming to his senses of what he was seeing, with the corners of his mouth beginning to turn upwards in a smile.
"I thought it might be useful-" Finch was still talking something, but the Doctor heard him no more. When he finally left, Sarah Jane caught the Doctor's eye, watching her, and she slowly approached him.
"Hello!" she said in a gentle voice, beaming even, such a warm smile.
"Oh, I should think so." The Doctor smiled at her with a tender and happy smile. She was really here.
"And, you are... ?" she asked him.
It took a moment for the Doctor to get himself off the mesmerising sight. He couldn't take his eyes off her.
"Hm? Uh, Smith." His lips quivered a bit at the word. He didn't have enough time to think whether he wanted to tell her who he was, hint it to her or keep it a secret altogether. "John Smith."
"John Smith?" Sarah beamed at the name. He knew who she was remembering. "I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name." She shrugged slightly, wandering a bit in her memories.
"Well, it's a very common name." The Doctor shrugged, feeling a bit nervous himself.
"He was a very uncommon man," she said the words all too fondly, reminiscing. But shortly after, she lifted her head, holding out her hand.
"Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you!" He shook it with enthusiasm. "Yes! Very nice! More than nice!" He shook his head in disbelief of his bliss. "Brilliant." Beaming at her.
"Um... so, um," Sarah Jane looked around, not sure how to prolong the conversation as the man himself seemed to be eager to continue it. Even if not exactly making sense. "Have you worked here long?"
"No! Um." He looked around blithely. "It's only my second day," he said honestly.
"Oh, you're new, then?" she breathed. "So, what do you think of the school?" She looked around, the Doctor's eyes not leaving her moving figure by a millisecond. "I mean, this new curriculum?" she asked him in an innocent hint, as she approached him.
"So many children getting ill." She began talking and Doctor just kept smiling at her. "Doesn't that strike you as odd?" she whispered.
"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile." He grinned at her.
"Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here," she ended nonchalantly.
"No. Good for you." He assured her with a smile, keeping his eyes on her, as she walked away to meet some of the other teachers.
"Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith." He looked at her with pride filled eyes.
Oh, how proud he was of her. She was still doing what she did best. He thought he lost them all once. That he would never see anyone of his past again, but now when he saw her, he was just once more reminded of how many brilliant people he had actually met. And he didn't even affect her life in a wrong way. She was just like how he remembered her.
He stood there in the hallway, students rushing about, and him just smiling to himself in awe.
With dark already consuming the school, the trio - the Doctor, Mickey and Rose decided it was about time for a little investigation. The Doctor opened a fire door, as he came through it into a dark corridor, followed by Rose and Mickey.
"Oh, it's weird seeing school at night," Mickey uttered, shaking slightly.
"Are you scared Mickey boy?" the Doctor asked him lightly, glancing him over.
"Of course not!" Mickey replied with a bit loud voice. "Me? Please. Infiltration and investigation? I'm an expert at this."
"You could keep your voice down. For once." The Doctor chided him.
Rose rolled her eyes. "When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school." She told her story blithely, trying to break the fight. Oh, the teachers did sleep at school. Just fortunately not hers.
"All right, team." The Doctor stopped in his tracks, facing them. "Oh, I hate people who say 'team'." He grimaced at that. "Um... " Rose raised an eyebrow at him. "Gang." He tried, making Rose jump a bit from the impact the word had. "Um... 'comrades'." Once more.
"Uh..." He tried, but decided that whatever.
Rose forgot about this episode of their lives. He surely didn't know what they were to him, huh? Well, I'm no assistant to him.
"Anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen and get a sample of that oil." He was back to his usual adventurous self. "Mickey, the new staff are all Maths teachers, go and check out the Maths department. I'm gonna look in Finch's office," he announced, as he began going up the stairs. "Be back here in ten minutes!"
"What about not raising my voice?" Mickey complained.
"Oh, that's just..." Rose was now the one trying to find the right word. "The Doctor." There.
Mickey didn't seem to feel the same though. "So he can, but I don't?" he complained.
Rose shook her head. "Not now, Mickey." She chuckled. "Down there, turn left, through the fire doors, on the right."
"What?" Mickey asked in confusion.
"The Maths department." She made a pointed nod.
"Okay. Thank you." And he strode away.
After hearing the sounds of something living in the dark, Sarah Jane backed into a room and slammed the door behind her. She turned slowly and there, looming in front of her, was the TARDIS. Her eyes widened in shock and she backed out of the room, not believing it...
Sarah Jane stared at the closed door, walking backwards, until she slowly turned around. The Doctor was already standing there in the darkness, only the moonlight illuminating him, as he watched her.
"Hello, Sarah Jane," he said it almost in a whisper. It had been so long for him.
"It's you," she whispered in recognition. "Oh... Doctor..." She breathed a smile, edging towards him.
"Oh, my God, it's you, it's..." She gestured. "You've regenerated," she stated calmly.
"Half a dozen times since we last met," he joked with a warm smile.
"You look..." She smiled, then put her lips together to find the words, but then a smile spread across her face again. "Incredible," she exhaled.
"So do you." He told her tenderly. She was still with so much life.
She shrugged. "Hmph, I got old." As she edged around him, staring at him. The Doctor gave her a look that he would not battle with her over that last sentence.
"What're you doing here?" Her blunt question with a straight expression shook him a bit, but he answered it lightly.
"Well..." He trailed off. "UFO sightings." He looked somewhere in the distance, blithely. "School gets record results. I couldn't resist." He looked at her seriously, but with a hidden inside joke. "What about you?" he asked her expectedly, a smile breaking on its way.
"Same." She nodded, making both of them grin at each other. But before long, her smile faltered, and she sounded close to tears, when she spoke again.
"I thought you'd died." The Doctor's smile fading slowly too. "I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must've died."
"I lived," the Doctor stated. "Everyone else died," he whispered barely audible.
"What do you mean?" She furrowed her eyebrows in question.
"Everyone died, Sarah," he said in a quiet pain, gulping.
Sarah Jane shook her head in disbelief, whispering. "I can't believe it's you."
The moment was broken by the sound of Mickey wailing. Sarah Jane's and the Doctor's heads turned to the direction of the sound.
"Oh. Okay!" she breathed with eyes wide. "Now I can!" Both of them grinning and running from the gym to find the source of the scream.
Rose was just walking her way to the corridor, as she saw the Doctor and Sarah Jane run, nearly missing her completely, as she was still on the side corridor.
"Doctor!" she yelled out, as he stumbled to stop in his tracks, smiling all happily. Rose smiled at him too, although, she knew that the smile was not for her. She turned her head to see Sarah Jane looking at her questioningly, as Rose beamed at her warmly.
"Rose, Sarah Jane!" He gestured to her. "Sarah Jane, Rose." Back to Rose.
"Hello." Rose beamed at her, maybe not the same as when the Doctor saw her again after such a long time, but just as warmly in her own way. The Doctor grinned at the sight, exhaling a breath he was holding. He didn't even know that he would feel a bit nervous about them meeting each other.
Sarah Jane looked a bit uncomfortable. Rose could feel she was expecting a different reaction and this one made her chide her own self.
They shook hands. "Hello." She turned to the Doctor. "You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger," she muttered. The Doctor began rubbing the back of his neck, getting uncomfortable with the situation.
Rose raised an eyebrow. Don't complicate this Sarah Jane. I'm not not the temperamental one here now.
"I'm not his assistant," Rose snapped, maybe a bit more than she meant. But the Doctor's earlier remarks about team, gang, comrade and now adding assistant, made her a bit unsettled.
"No? I get you, tiger," Sarah Jane breathed, making Rose roll her eyes. The Doctor sped off, gesturing further in the hallway. At least that was an amusing sight. The Doctor getting all... Rose snorted, making him spin around.
"What?"
"'Caught a cold, maybe." Rose shrugged, covering her nose. The Doctor just eyed her, moving his neck questioningly, before he took off again.
They found Mickey in one of the classrooms, surrounded by a load of vacuum-packed rats. Oh dear Mickey.
"Sorry! Sorry, it was only me." Mickey spoke breathless. "You told me to investigate, so I- " He gestured to the ground, the Doctor bended down to pick one of the rats. "I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell out of them."
"And you decided to scream." The Doctor stood up, still having one rat in his hands.
"It took me by surprise!" Mickey defended himself.
"Like a little girl?" the Doctor sang, grimacing in a mock.
"It was dark! I was covered in rats!" Mickey continued.
"Nine, maybe ten years old. I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt," the Doctor continued to mock him, gesturing at his head.
Rose stifled a chuckle, as she had a part to play. "Hello, can we focus? Does anyone notice anything strange about this?" She looked them all over. "Rats in school?" She tried to hint.
"Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them," Sarah Jane muttered. "Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet." She glanced her over. "How old are you?"
Snap
The Doctor and Mickey looked shiftly between them.
Rose inhaled a breath. Almost there. She would certainly snap. Or so Mickey thought. But to everyone's surprise Rose exhaled, her shoulders relaxing.
"Rats are not dissected in school anymore. They haven't done that for years, and as far as I know." She shrugged nonchalantly, biting her lip. "Didn't resume to do it."
Mickey stood there, mouth open. That was not the reaction he was expecting. The Doctor was beginning to show a smile on his face.
"So!" the Doctor exclaimed, taking everyone's attention. Rose raised an eyebrow at him.
"Everything started when Mr Finch arrived. We should go and check his office." He threw the rat at Mickey, who failed to catch it.
They followed the Doctor down the corridor, as Rose decided it was time to break a small conversation. There was just too much of dead-awkward silence in there.
"Um. So, you used to travel with the Doctor?" Rose asked softly.
"Yes, I have." Sarah Jane glanced the girl over. She was a strange one. The looks she was giving her were so warm, but she couldn't believe it was really true.
"Has he mentioned me to you?" she nearly whispered.
Rose grimaced a bit, biting her lip. She inhaled, almost said something she didn't mean to, and then exhaled. "Not really..." She trailed off.
"Oh, I must've done! Sarah Jane! Mention her all the time." The Doctor tried to defend himself, when he saw uneasy Sarah Jane's look.
Rose gave the woman an apologetic smile, while shooting the Time Lord a look.
Sarah Jane inhaled, a bit disturbed by the thought that her long lost friend didn't bother to mention her even once. Was she so insignificant?
"I was preparing myself to laugh at you for making the missus meet the ex, but Rose's taking it a bit well." Mickey trailed off, thinking.
"Way too well," the Doctor muttered. He was getting more and more disturbed by the thoughts swirling in his mind. It should have been a good news that Rose took Sarah Jane so well, but it bothered him. He frowned at the thought. It was...unnatural. Too unnatural. He read Rose's expression over and over again, and when he found no fakeness it was disturbing him even more. He was expecting something to happen. A duel of some sort. No no no no no. He was not the type to enjoy his two dear friends fight over him, it was just something he was expecting of Rose. But how? Rose never acted that way. She was always...besides always being all too weird, she was quite composed. So where does the idea of catfight come from?
They found Krilitanes sleeping in the Headmaster's office, the Doctor not failing to point- "Rose... you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school... ? Well... they do." Just before they went outside, and now were standing in front of Sarah Jane's car.
When Sarah Jane opened the boot of her car, everyone were revealed with a covered K9.
"K9!" the Doctor cried, delighted, once the blanket was off. "Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, allow me to introduce K9," he said in all happy voice. Mickey grimaced, not getting what was the purpose of that thing, Rose smiled at it. "Well, K9 Mark III to be precise." The Doctor shrugged.
Mickey glanced at Rose with an 'it's a tin dog' sort of expression. Rose nodded at him approvingly. Mickey was kinda lost.
"Why does he look so old?" Mickey spoke up first.
"You mean disco," Rose corrected him, half-chuckling, that clearly being misunderstood as an insult to the K9.
"Oi!" The Doctor turned to look at her. "Listen, in the year five thousand, this was cutting edge!" Back to K9.
"I'm no-" Rose began, but didn't get to finish.
"What's happened to him?" The Doctor looked concerned.
Mickey glanced at Rose, still with half-parted mouth. He was almost giving her I told you so expression, when Rose moved her shoulders, and put an unreadable expression.
Do people purposely get on her nerves? For once she thought she would handle the situation like a mature adult. But guess what? You can't be, when you realise that you're surrounded by children yourself. Rose sighed.
The Doctor and Sarah Jane were talking about K9 for some time, before deciding to stop by the chip shop.
The Doctor and Sarah Jane were sitting at a table by the window, chatting and laughing whilst the Doctor tried to fix K9, who was placed on the table-top. Mickey and Rose stood by the counter.
"You see, what's impressive is that it's been nearly an hour since we met her and I still haven't said 'I told you so'." Mickey was clearly enjoying himself.
Rose's face was blank, as she watched the pair. They were laughing and giggling. Nothing new with the Doctor really. Except. He was relaxed with her. So at ease Rose didn't see him in a long time. As much as they were so close to each other at one times, on another they were worse than strangers. That haunting doubt was gone when he was talking with Sarah Jane. He was back to how he used to be in her original timeline.
It pained Rose to see the view. No, she was not jealous, mad or anything of that sort. She was sad, that she was keeping such emotions from him. She was supposed to be his pillar, his support, but now she was starting to think that she was a burden. A heavy psychological burden.
Mickey was telling her something in the background, but Rose heard nothing. She just watched them. Watched him smile, which made her make a small smile herself.
"Come, sit down." Rose felt herself being pulled by Mickey to sit near the table. She was a bit taken aback, too suddenly disturbed from her thoughts, but soon relaxed.
They got some chips on the table, and Rose soon found herself start mechanically eating them. Not that habit again.
"You really love him, huh?" Mickey sighed. Rose shot her eyes up to look at his face, her own expression confused. "I don't think she'll get back together with him. It looks like they haven't seen each other for ages. She must have had a life of her own," Mickey continued on. Rose just blinked at him. What was he doing? Can't be. Was he actually comforting her?
Rose leaned back on her seat, eyes fixed on Mickey, who was still babbling something. Did she really look that miserable?
"I'm all right, Mickey." Her own voice came out more steady than she thought it would.
Mickey looked at her concerned, not believing. "I know that look." He pointed at her.
"'s not like that," Rose muttered. Then sighed. "She's important to him. That I know. I just..." She shrugged. "I thought I was making his life better, you know? But now..." She shook her head slightly. "With her... now he's so at peace. With me he's like..."
"Now that is a lot of bull," Mickey joked, leaning in his seat himself. After getting a raised eyebrow from Rose, he rested his arms on the table. "I don't know how should a happy alien look like, but when I see him, I-" Mickey frowned, he was battling with himself whether to even try to help that poor man out. But when seeing Rose's expectant eyes, he just decided to drop his second thoughts away. "He looks happy with you. If that's what you worry about," he ended seriously.
"Really?" Rose asked absentmindedly, her gaze trailing off to the pair. "He looks like he's trying to understand a universal problem, which is giving him a headache and he better off drop it to me," she ended faintly.
"You've really spent too much time with him." Mickey shrank in his seat.
"What?" Rose gazed back at him.
"You're even picking his miserabilities."
"A what?" Rose frowned.
"Everyone has secrets, you know? Even I have!" Mickey exclaimed. Rose gave a sceptical look.
"I do! Like..." He was thinking hard. "You don't know how I found the Doctor after you were gone for a year." He smiled all proud of himself.
"You watched the neighbourhood with your telescope and then saw his TARDIS," Rose said in one gulp.
"How did you know?" Mickey asked in bewilderment. "Okay okay, next one." He was back to thinking. "You don't know what I would have been doing today if not on this mission." He pointed at her, head held high.
Rose sighed. Couldn't he get more predictable. "You would have been watching the match on the telly."
"How did you know?" He furrowed his brows.
"Which you're watching now," she sang, while taking a chip into her mouth.
"Oh." Mickey blinked. "Maybe that was not the best example-"
"It's alright. Enough. Really." Rose laughed.
"I thought of you on Christmas Day." Sarah Jane was talking softly. "This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead. I thought, 'Oh, yeah. Bet he's up there'."
"Right on top of it, yeah," the Doctor agreed with her while tinkering K9.
"And Rose?" She glanced him over while asking.
"She was there too," the Doctor replied absentmindedly.
"She looks at you like..." Sarah was trying to find the right words. "Like she wants to say something but she doesn't."
"She's always like that," the Doctor answered, his eyes focused on K9 wires, but his mouth now stoic.
"Just like someone I know," Sarah whispered, but the Doctor caught the double meaning in her words, as he turned his head.
"Why don't you ask her?" she said faintly.
The Doctor glanced down, in thought. "She would probably not tell me anyway."
"But did you even try? To ask what's wrong?" she persisted.
"Oh, she just gives excuses and makes everything a coincidence." He shrugged, brushing it off, although failing to fool Sarah Jane.
"You're the Doctor. You can get the answer to anything you want," she said firmly, his hands stopping to fiddle with the wires for a moment.
"You fear what you going to hear, don't you?"
He looked up at her.
"I had so many things to ask you, Doctor." She shook her head slightly. "Why did you leave me behind like that? Did you know how difficult it was to adjust with the life after everything we've been through..." The Doctor opened his mouth, but got no chance to reply. "But I see why now. You were always just running and running. Not only into the adventure, but from it too. Maybe a bit different one, but still." She smiled a bit. The Doctor was looking guilty and pain was visible in his eyes.
"You're different with her," she uttered each word in a whisper, but with so much feelings.
"You barely saw us interact-" the Doctor began to brush it off with a joke.
"That's the whole point!" She leaned in to his side. "You barely spoke, but your body language never left her side. You're observing her every move - how she reacted to that boy, Mickey, to the new adventure, to meeting me!" She had an understanding smile on her face.
The Doctor looked away, putting his lips together and gulping, as he continued to work on K9.
"You've to face the things that bother you." She rested her hand on his arm, making him look her way.
"It can end not well," the Doctor said it in a low, sad voice.
"Then you'll just have to accept it. It's part of what life is. Everything has the beginning as everything has an end. But don't let the middle be clouded." They looked at each other for a while, intense gaze full of different emotions, until the moment was interrupted by K9 coming back to life.
"Oh, hey!" he exclaimed, drumming on the table, as he stood up. "Now we're in business!"
Sarah Jane smiled warmly.
"Master" K9 nodded at the Doctor.
"He recognizes me!" he exclaimed in absolute bliss.
"Affirmative."
"It wasn't Croydon, by the way." Sarah Jane spoke, while looking at K9. The Doctor looked at her questioningly. "Where you dropped me off, it wasn't Croydon!"
"Where was it?" he asked curious.
"Aberdeen," she said irritated.
Realisation dawning into his face. "Right."
Pause.
"That's next to Croydon, isn't it?" he asked hopeful. Sarah just shook her head, smiling, as Rose approached the table.
"Rose, give me-" He extended his hand.
"The oil is here." As she handed it to him. He half-turned to face her. She only gave him a pointed look at the K9.
"Okay!" he exclaimed while turning to face the tin dog to examine the liquid.
"Oil. Ex- ex- ex- extract ana- an- analysing..."
"Listen to it, man! That's a voice!" Mickey was grinning in amusement.
"Careful! That's my dog!" Sarah chided him. The Doctor gave him a warning look too.
"Confirmation of analysis - substance is Krillitane Oil."
"They're Krillitanes," the Doctor whispered, shocked.
After explaining his team, no matter if he hated that word, about the suitcase of bad things that could come from the Krillitanes and realising that the children were somehow involved, the group scattered. Sarah Jane somehow managed to get Mickey to help her with the K9, while leaving Rose and the Doctor a bit behind.
"Um..." Rose thought how best to approach it. Ended not that well the last time. "Did you travel with her for long?" she asked softly.
"Who?" the Doctor replied absentmindedly while walking out of the cafe in a hurry.
"Sarah Jane."
"Does it matter?" He brushed her off.
"Well no, maybe, yeh, not exactly..." Rose began to shutter. The Doctor came to a stop to look at her. "It doesn't really, just wanted to know more about you..." She shrugged.
"It was a long time ago. It doesn't matter," he told her, trying to avoid her gaze.
"Look." Rose took a calming breath. "I get it that you had to leave her one way or another, sooner or later it would have happened. I get it. I really do." Rose was looking into his eyes. "But people need to know that you didn't just drop them off. That you cared for them." They looked at each other for a moment.
"Does it need saying?" His expression pleaded not to go further into this. He didn't want to have this conversation. It hurt and he was starting to get impatiently angry.
"Yes, it does." She looked at him with pleading, honest eyes. She didn't notice when and where did their conversation turn to this direction, but she knew that it passed Sarah Jane long ago.
"Is it so much to ask?"
"You can't ask of me that," he said faintly.
"Why not?" Rose asked in a soft whisper.
"Not you. Not you, who has so many secrets around you," he said it in a bit angry and hurt voice, looking at her with watery eyes.
His words took her by surprise, that Rose thought maybe she didn't hear him right. But once she looked into his eyes, she saw all. This was it. It's as long as they could keep this going. This was the end she feared.
The moment those words left his mouth he cursed himself silently for even letting them escape. He didn't want to hear it. And he certainly didn't want to sound so harsh. Now there was no going back.
He ran from the world, from the people and the relationships humans establish with others. But mostly of all, he ran from himself. And from Rose. He could've just came out straight and asked her Who was she? Why did she know so much? Sarah Jane was right - he was scared. He feared the day everything would come out to the open and everything would change between them. He feared the things he would find, once he got his answer.
For all he knew, she was the most compassionate, loyal, more than it was needed for her own good, someone who brought light in his life, after he saw the darkest bit. Her smile always making him smile himself. And the only thing shadowing her, was that secret. The one she was keeping from everyone around her. But even in his deepest guesses, he couldn't find anything what would cause harm to anyone. Whatever her secret was, she could keep it to herself, right? Because she was not a threat. She was a gift. And the only way he could keep her by his side for a bit longer, even if for just a bit, was if he let it slide.
But he couldn't.
Of course he couldn't. Because it was the curse of the Time Lords. He was doomed to be left alone one day, and he was someone to always get his answers to the question. So why would it be any different now? He had only one answer.
"Rose."
to be continued...
What are your thoughts on this one?