A/N: Hello! I am back and glad to be so. I have made it through the daunting ACT's, the tedious senior pictures, the mind-numbing college applications and more importantly, a delightful holiday. I hope you all had a delectable Thanksgiving and an eventful Black Friday, if shopping is your thing. Please pardon my horrid skills of updating and shout mercilessly at me in your reviews if you want to leave any. I will try to be more prompt now as most of my responsibilities have been marked off the list and am so glad and appreciative of those who still have stuck around for this story. I went through this chapter ten times over for any errors just so the one that broke my absence would be special. Love you all, and of course, enjoy!

Well? Go on then. Get reading!

Chapter 23

Rose was just about finished drying the pots and pans in the kitchen when she heard the head dinner lady, Jackson, instructing the other staff.

She moved silently to the side behind some shelves staying out of sight just in time to notice the large, silver, cooking oil drum that the rest of the kitchen staff were wheeling in. She thought it looked peculiar with all of the different symbols she's never encountered before on the side.

They all were wearing heavy protection with goggles, masks and gauntlets along with their aprons.

"Careful. Keep it steady. Don't spill a drop." She instructed them, just then it faintly jolted. "I said keep it steady! Careful. That's it. Easy now. Steady."

Rose jumped slightly at the sound of her phone ringing, she speedily reached for it and answered it to silence the sound before she attracted any attention, worrying they heard.

"Right. Second barrel. Quickly now!" She barked, evidently not noticing Rose.

She inwardly sighed in relief when they all moved away to get the next barrel before answering. "What you got?" She asked, already knowing who it was.

"Confirmation." Mickey sounded through the other side of the phone. "I just got into army records. Three months ago, massive UFO activity. They logged over forty sightings. Lights in the sky, all of that. I can't get any photos, because then it gets all classified and secret. Keeps locking me out."

Through Mickey's eyes, he was confronted with a screen flashing the bold, red print of Torchwood Access Denied.

"Tell you what though." Rose eventually chided in, "Three months ago, turns out all the kitchen staff were replaced. And this lot are weird."

Just as she said this, the mentioned staff were back to their strange antics and pulling in another barrel cautiously.

"I was right to call you home."

"I thought maybe you called me home just, well, just to call me home." Rose confessed, thinking Mickey was still hung up on her.

"Do you think I'd just invent an emergency?" He playful feigned offence.

"You could've done."

"That's the last thing I'd do." As Mickey was talking, they could hear shouting from the strange dinner crew.

"Watch it!"

"Because everytime I see you, an emergency just gets in the way."

The sound of a barrel toppling over and an unfortunate piercing scream drowned out his words as she rushed a goodbye to call up an ambulance.

"I've got to go."

"Rose, wha-" Click.

Rose's fingers quivered as she quickly punched in the numbers, hearing painful screams from the poor woman as she was swiftly taken into the adjoining office. The blinds were pulled down immediately after.

As she brought the phone up to her ear, Jackson popped her head out the door with a suspicious glare towards her and removed her mask, "Whatcha doin?"

"Calling an ambulance." Her voice trembled.

"No need. She's quite all right." Whoomph!

The sound of flames enacted from the office, accompanied by screams of pain. Jackson still managed to keep a passive face through the whole episode.

"She's fine. She does that." She replaced the mask and headed back into the smoke filled room, leaving Rose standing there incredulously.

She consented to her words and hung up the phone, taking note of the golden oil dripping ominously onto the floor.

She was led to a darkened computer classroom along with some other students, all who seemed to be particularly emotionless as they entered. Everyone seemed to walk like robots in near perfect synchronization and sat at their assigned seats.

Alli Rose meekly followed in between the gap of the line, effectively corralling her towards an empty seat. She sat down apprehensively as she glanced warily at all the blank faces of the students staring expectantly at the screen. Something is definitely wrong at this school, she thought to Luna.

Mr. Wagner stood in front of a massive screen that supported the school's crest. He glanced almost hungrily over all the students awaiting his command.

"I'd like you all to put your headphones on now, please."

They moved innately for their headphones and placed them over their ears. Alli sat frozen in her seat, reluctant to even pick them up as the voice of reason screamed no. The effective glare from Mr. Wagner dictated otherwise.

She shakingly covered her ears with them and stared at the monitor like all the other students, hearing a muffled voice from him through them.

"Now, children, the things you will see."

A rapid, garbling, monotone language blared through Alli's ears as the screen flashed a bright green screen, harboring some image of a complex equation. A strange, burning feeling flowed through the passages of her mind in quick succession, similar to scalding water through her brain.

This chain of fast-time events barely made it past her eyes to be processed by her brain before everything went dark. All of it was effectively blocked away by Luna.

Mr. Wagner watched the pained expression fleet across the child's face before it clicked to the vacant expression like all the others in a nanosecond. Her arms pounced in beat with the other children towards the keyboard as they all began to decipher the ancient paradigm.

He smirked in his small victory as they all began to slave away to their demise.

The Doctor had perched himself carelessly against the table of the teachers lounge, snacking upon some complimentary crisps he obtained while conversing with the teacher by the name of Mr. Parsons. He managed holding up his end of the conversation and still retaining what he was saying as his mind raced about Alli Rose.

She'll be fine, she's getting more information about the curriculum this way. She might find something out that'll really help us. That Mr. Wagner bloke won't do anything drastic now would he? I mean come on, during school? She's a black belt for crying out loud, she can handle it. Right? He supplied himself with a constant mantra of empty reassurance, taking note of the statement Mr. Parsons just made.

"Yesterday, I had a twelve year old girl give me the exact height of the Wall of Troy, in cubits."

Ooh! That's interesting. "And, it's ever since the new headmaster arrived?" He responded, keeping the tone of nonchalance ever-so-present in his tone.

"Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot, except for the teacher you replaced and that was just plain weird her winning the lottery like that,"

"How's that weird?" I thought it was pretty clever.

"She never played! Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight." He answered mystified.

There's always one, isn't there? "Hmm. The world is very strange." He said as the teacher walked away, feeding on his lust crumb.

Just then, the man in question arrived with a painfully familiar face, who's hair still seemed to hold the same style from when he last saw her. He swallowed hard as he rose from his seat and looked towards her with a deer-in-headlights look about him.

"Excuse me colleagues. A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist whose writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak. Don't spare my blushes." Mr. Finch 'humbly' introduced before making his way out of the room. The Doctor still hadn't taken his nostalgia ridden eyes off of her.

Sarah Jane looked around the room amicably before casting a smile towards his dumbfounded appearance and making her way towards him first.

"Hello." She greeted as she approached him.

His mind was still swimming in old memories as he looked at her aged, yet still hands down the same, face from when he last saw her. Eventually, his brain realized the fact that he didn't answer her yet.

"Oh, I should think so." He gushed out at her.

She looked at him with an expectant gaze before asking, "And, you are?"

"Hm?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows uselessly at the question before he gave himself a mental kick in the head.

Your name you idiot! She wants your name!

The Doctor held his tongue back before he began stumbling over it and managed to spit out his 'name'. "Uh, Smith. John Smith."

"John Smith?" She chuckled. "I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name." She said in a distant voice, yet still her voice was saturated in joy and fondness of those times.

"Well, it's a very common name."

Yeah, probably should have picked a different name. Oh well, points for simplicity.

"He was a very," She shrugged as she found the perfect words for his past self, "...uncommon man."

Her vibrant eyes snapped back to the present to look at him as she held her hand out towards him. "Nice to meet you."

He more than enthusiastically shook hers in return, sending an eager, if not unsettling, toothy grin. "Nice to meet you. Yes, very nice. More than nice. Brilliant!"

She rose her eyebrows in response and subconsciously retracted her posture from his chaotic elation at the fact of just meeting her.

"Uh, so, uh, have you worked here long?"

Alright, maybe try and start reeling it back.

"No, umm… it's only my second day."

"Oh! So you're new then?" Her interest in him clicked back on as she pressed forward subtly on her interrogation of him. "So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum? So many children getting ill. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

The Doctor's pride swelled if not even further for her still inquisitive nature she had back when she was younger and traveling with him. He leaned in just as close and conspirative as she unknowingly was doing.

"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile."

"Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here."

His grin stretched to an impossible width and his delight exponentially multiplied to the same level. Look at that, absolutely the same! And what a clever way of going about doing that, a reporter. Ha! Brilliant!

As she began walking away, if not a little more swiftly than when she approached him, he realized he once again didn't respond yet.

"No. Good for you. Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith." He sighed out, thankful for the fact she walked away long enough ago that she didn't hear that.

He spent the rest of the day swerving lethargically in bemusement through the kid-packed halls, still in a daze from seeing someone from his happier times in the past. Knowing her, they would probably meet tonight while searching through the school. What a wonderful reunion that would be, his current companions would probably get along well with her too! Well, more than likely.

The suffocating darkness of the school at night was eerie to the companions as they entered the school, they had walked closer to the Doctor for this fact. Seeing as he bravely strode through the darkness without any hesitation, it made him stand out even in the shadows.

"Oh it's weird seeing school at night. Just feels wrong. When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school." Rose joked about, lighting the mood for the group.

"I used to think that too, that's why I found it so weird seeing a teacher out of school. I actually went up to them one time and asked why they weren't at home." Alli laughed.

The Doctor spoke out through the chortles of the two girls, getting back to business. "Alright team." He instantly made a face at that word as well, he was starting to have a list. "Oh, I hate people who say team. Uh, gang."

"I like that one." Alli supplied, being dutifully ignored as he tried another synonym.

"Uh, comrades."

"No, that one sucks."

"Anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen. Get a sample of that oil. Mickey, the new staff are all Maths teachers. Go and check out the Maths department. Alli, Luna."

"Yes!"

Crack

"Yup."

"Um, actually. Best you come with me, don't want another repeat of that duct tape incident. We're going to go look in Finch's office. Be back here in ten minutes."

He leaped up the stairs with a complaining Luna trailing behind him, leaving the two in the entrance corridor. Rose was getting ready to leave as Mickey leaned in with a befuddled look.

"What happened with the duct tape incident?"

Rose shook her head in amusement, "Don't worry about it, you gonna be alright?"

"Me? Please. Infiltration and investigation? I'm an expert at this."

Rose watched with hilarity as he walked in the opposite direction of the correct department before he stopped on his heel and walked back with exasperation.

"Where's the Maths department?" He asked, not even attempting to look her in the eye.

Her radiating smugness seemed to have been contracted from the Doctor's own supply.

"Down there, turn left, through the fire doors, on the right." She instructed for him.

"Thank you." Mickey strained, he just couldn't seem to catch a break.

"I still don't see the problem about all that, I mean it's not like there's anyone I'm going to tape down while we're here. We'd be perfectly alright on our own." Luna hissed in the silence, determined to keep her voice down in case there was anyone actually still in the school.

"I'm not worried about you tapeing anyone down while we're here, though it wouldn't hurt to keep tape out of your hands for a while." He murmured to himself, earning a light jab from her bony arm.

"Oi!"

"Shh!" She shushed him, immediately after she called him something along the lines of a wimp, receiving the same stab from him she just delivered.

"Anyway. What I am worried about is the fact that you're still… well-"

"Young?" Luna finished for him. "I'll have you know that I have enough knowledge in my head to be older than you, I mean how old are you? Thirty-ish? I can more than handle myself."

The Doctor chuckled at the age guess, he must have forgotten to tell the tiny detail back when he was using his and Rose's little adventures as a bedtime story. He considered his options of telling her his genuine age but decided to just do that later.

"Yeah yeah, fine, but you haven't actually experienced it, I'm not risking it. Just... stick close for a while, stay within eyesight so to speak."

"Ugh." She scoffed, rolling her eyes at his overprotectiveness, She already had that area covered for Alli, she most certainly did not need babysitting as well.

Her spiteful thoughts were halted when they heard large wings flapping and a sinister screech echo through the halls, the Doctor spreading his arms across her with sudden instinct, earning a glare at the back of the head.

His eyes were not taking in the heat from hers as he kept his gaze down the hall, catching a mere glimpse of an older woman running out of the hall from where Mr. Finch's office was, and running straight towards the TARDIS.

"Come on." He whispered, gripping her hand and pulling her along cautiously down the hall. To her surprise, they walked right past their turn for Finch's office and headed for the TARDIS.

"Where are we going?" She breathed out, trying her best to keep her voice down while they sprinted to the supply closet they parked at.

They slowed down their pace to a standstill when they approached the gym, Luna narrowly missed running straight into him. She tugged on his hand still holding hers to draw his attention down towards her.

"What are we doing?"

"I think you might like to meet an old friend of mine." He whispered in a low voice, his words were almost impossible to hear when the door in front of them opened at a steady rate. An older woman backed out of the closet, not taking her eyes off the TARDIS until she turned around and met the pair of eyes staring back at her.

The silence that followed was dense enough to hear a pin drop, allowing the Doctor's greeting to cut through like a butter knife.

"Hello, Sarah Jane."

Sarah's eyes widened at the sight of him, the realization of who he was hit her in the face.

"It's you." She sighed in awe. "Oh, Doctor. Oh my God it's you isn't it?" She walked with great care towards him like she was approaching a mirage. She reached out her hand as if to touch when she pulled it back like she noticed something.

"You've regenerated." She stated, like she was chatting about the weather.

"Yeah, half a dozen times since we last met." He joked in a light-hearted manner, pleased at how she took his new appearance in stride.

Luna was trying her best to work out what was going on between the two. How could this Sarah Jane not recognize he was the Doctor straight away? What made her so unsure of it before? She decided it was best for Alli to assess the bizarre situation, she was much better with understanding how people worked.

"You look incredible." She breathed out, still in a shock from the sight of the man. He was the walking proof that men get better with age. Well, if men were Time Lords, and if they were the Doctor.

"So do you." He stated simply, as if it were a fact that would never change. He looked in her eyes and still saw the beautiful young woman who ran with him on adventures, her fresh young face that sported just a few years on it.

Just as Sarah-Jane was about to say otherwise about the compliment, Alli prevented any words coming out.

Crack

"Wait no, sorry, hold on. Regenerated? Is that why you didn't know it was him right away?"

Real subtle there. Luna thought to her.

He nodded his head but still never looked away. He almost laughed aloud from her stunned whisper, "You're a lot older than thirty aren't you?"

Her speaking out drew Sarah-Jane's notice towards her, acknowledging her presence for the first time.

"Oh. Hello there, what's your name?" She looked back and forth between the Doctor and the very, young, companion. She felt a strong pang radiated through her chest at the thought that was plaguing her mind. This was the Doctor's child, he really did move on. The Doctor however, did not notice the connection that she was making.

A/N: I am going to start organizing my little A/N's with an introduction, thanks and more than likely apologies for taking so long to update at the beginning and have my questions, heads up, and another thanks just for the giggles down here. Otherwise I'll probably end up writing my life's story in these. Aaanyway, moving on to what I was going to ask you lovely ones.

1. How do you feel about this kind of Sarah Jane? (Don't worry, she will eventually end up like a godmother kind of role for Alli and Luna)

2. I was told to make these a bit longer, so I got that one down, but did you want these bits from the show rewritten in here too? Or just skip over that bit?

Ask a couple more questions or give me a few bits of advice if you think I missed any. I will gladly see to them.

Thanks again to all you lovely readers, until next time my little companions!