From the Journal of Sarah Jane

105. TEN things you would leave to your loved ones (and who they are) when you die.

1. [Milliways] To my dearest James, I would leave all my possessions to do with as you please. I would hope more than anything that you would keep my wedding band and engagement ring to remember what we once had. However, I am praying that my life with you will be just as it is in the movies: long lives for the both of us, seeing Valerie grow and find a family of her own, and that happy ending we both deserve.

2. [Milliways] To Valerie, my darling daughter, I don’t care how old you are when I pass, but more than anything I want you to have the stuffed owl my father gave me. It’s one of my most treasured possessions, aside from you and your daddy, of course. I’d also want you to have my TARDIS key and remember that not everything you read in a fictional novel is, indeed, fictional.

3. [Milliways] Sam: my death was not James’ fault so don’t you dare go blaming him for it. If Valerie ever comes into bar, I’m trusting you to look after her. In fact, I’ll leave you my camera as a sign of good will. Use it well, eh?

4. [Canon] Doctor, take care of K-9, will you? He’s been an amazing friend all these years. Thank you for leaving him to me. Also, make sure Mr Smith doesn’t cause any havoc please.

5. [Canon] My aunt passed on to me her home and I want to pass it on to you, Luke. I never thought I would have a son, let alone one as brilliant as you have been. I know you will take care of all those daft alien gadgets I have lying around. You’ll always make me proud.

6. [Canon] Maria: I want you to take the alien communicator the Starpoet gave me. I hope it’ll aid you in your own adventures some day.

7. [Canon] I guess I didn’t make it, did I Harry? Tell my aunt that I was working as a journalistic correspondent for UNIT and died well. If I can trust anyone to do that job, it’s you. The Doctor’ll probably just leave my body where it is. I never pictured him for the sentimental type. See that my belongings in my South Croydon flat are taking care of? And keep the typewriter for yourself. It’s an antique, but still works quite well. She’s always served me well, at least.

8. [Twood Hub, future] Ewan, leman, I know you’ll outlive me. I know that you will find new loves after me. But I do hope that you won’t ever forget me. There are so many things I could leave you – most of my belongings as you (and our children) are the closest I have to family here. I would, however, specifically leave to you keep that necklace you gave me after the twins were conceived.

9. [Twood Hub] Gethin Jones, if my death is any way connected to you, I’m coming back and haunting you. That aside, you see, you’ve become one of my best mates here in Torchwood. So I want you to have that strange looking burnt golden plant sitting on my desk. It’s from Delta Upsilon Nine. I tried to leave it with the Doctor, but he insisted he was better off alone. Talk to it; you’ll be surprised.

10. [Twood Hub] You took me in when I had been left behind, gave me a new career that eventually led me back to the one I adore, and introduced me to the man I love. I don’t know how to ever repay you, Jack, for everything that you’ve done. It’s been some life working for you. Thank you. In my flat, I have a thickly bound first edition copy of the Sherlock Holmes adventures. We went back to visit Arthur years after our first encounter and he presented it to me as a thank you for the inspiration. Enjoy, will you?

[Part 1]

The morning sun shone through the window, irking the still sleeping woman. She crawled up further against the man sprawled in bed with her. It was too early; she didn't want to wake yet. Not when, despite being in a 16th century hotel, she had had some of the best sleep she could remember. Not when she went to bed the prior night completely sated.

Sarah Jane yawned gently as she tried to find a new crook on his chest to hide against. Last night had been... completely and utterly romantic. The ball in the plaza and then witnessing the Doctor's flirtatious side first hand. Making love had never quite lived up to its name before.

You could see why, then, she was loathe to face the morning. It was rather difficult, considering just how content she felt laying in his arms

Part I

When Sarah awoke, it was to a mess of tangled limbs and blankets. It had been a rough night for both of them, neither really getting a decent amount of sleep. While the bed wasn't quite designed for two, that hadn't been much of a problem. She had slept mostly wrapped around him, and neither complained. What had kept them up was his coughing. It frightened her, more than she thought possible.

His fever had spiked in the night, causing her to consistently run out of bed to get a new damp cloth for his forehead. This wasn't a good sign at all. Sarah Jane had no idea how long it was until the toxins killed him, but at this rate, she was certain it would be soon.

Exhausted, she started to cry.

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( cut for sexual situations )

Pick one of the following items, and write a fic about it...

Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue

It wasn’t much to look at, but still Sarah Jane kept it on the top of her night table, letting it stand out among books and clocks and clutter like the prized possession it was. It was old and broken – it hadn’t worked in years – and becoming slightly rusted. It wasn’t anything one would imagine deserved such a prestigious position in someone’s bedroom. In fact, perhaps the only thing that stood out less was the photograph behind it; blue tinted due to abysmal processing and dog eared thanks to years of being carried around in books and bags.

She had borrowed it off the Doctor years and years ago, when he hadn’t been looking and she had needed it to attempt and repair the desk in her room. She had seen a couple of sonic screwdrivers lying around the TARDIS and had figured that one missing wouldn’t matter all that much. And despite initial confusion on the Doctor’s part (and a sheepish admittance on hers), it really had not mattered much. And she had gotten to keep it in the end.

-- “You mean to tell me that all this time you’ve been walking around with a sonic screwdriver as well?”

“Oh, it wasn’t as if I meant to! I just borrowed it one day and forgot. Besides, it came in handy today, didn’t it?”

“Yes. Yes it did, Sarah. You clever girl! The Hilns would never have thought to check a twentieth century human—

“Doctor!”

“I quite mean it as a compliment. Perhaps you should keep it, then. The sonic screwdriver you borrowed may come in handy again one day.”

“I certainly think it will.”--

Sometimes Sarah wished that it would still come in handy. Perhaps she had wished for it to magically repair itself most of all the day K-9 broke down for good, leaving her unable to repair him and best friendless for the second time in her life. But whatever powered the sonic screwdriver had long since died, leaving it an empty shell full of old memories. It no longer possessed the same power it once held, but the one it contained now was perhaps (when not lamenting the loss of K-9) even better.

One look at the screwdriver, placed so carefully next the picture of smiling faces wrapped in a scarf, and she remembered.

She remembered first meeting him. She remembered the first time she saw the device in action. Her first trip in the TARDIS, her first trip to another time, her first trip to another world. She remembered times with UNIT and times without. She remembered Harry and she remembered the Brigadier and she remembered all those other faces that had entered her life because of him.

And, of course, whenever she looked at the device, she remembered the Doctor. He was her best friend. You can’t ever forget your best friend. But more than that, he was the man she gave her heart to. No one else would ever compare. That was the real reason why the tarnished and broken screwdriver would always remain where it was.

“Oof!” The Doctor’s hat falls forward on her head, the brim covering Sarah’s eyes shortly after she collides with a taller and broader body that had been walking in the opposite direction just seconds ago. After taking a few seconds to steady herself, one hand pushing up on the hat as the other clutches the strip of photographs in her hand. When a face comes in to focus, she scoffs. “Harry Sullivan, what are you doing here?”

“I could be asking you the same thing,” comes the reply, as Harry readjusts the scarf around his neck. “The Doctor sent me to find you when you hadn’t shown up and – I say, what’s that you’ve got there, old girl?”

Sarah Jane blinks and looks down at the paper in her hand and flushes lightly despite herself. Oh, what had she been thinking, walking into the TARDIS holding the only piece of evidence of her latest trip to Milliways? In her defence, it wasn’t as if she had thought she would encounter anyone between this door and her room, thinking she’d have just enough time to hide the photographs under her pillow before rushing to meet up with the Doctor and Harry in the console room. It never quite seems to work that way, she realizes now, as her face grows stern.

“Oh, it’s absolutely nothing, Harry. Least of all any of your business.”

He shakes his head, taking a step forward and tilting his head to try to get a better view of the strip. Harry’s eyes narrow and as he stretches a hand forward, Sarah pulls hers back closer towards her chest. The action does nothing but increase the suspicion in his eyes. “Is that a bloke in those pictures, Sarah?”

“Harry-”

“I didn’t realize you were seeing someone,” he interrupts, and for a moment there Sarah thinks she sees a slightly crestfallen look on his face. But surely that’s in her imagination, eh? “Not with… well, I guess I just never really considered it.”

At that, she sighs, taking one last look at the picture strip – of hers and James’ smiling faces and his attempts to kiss her neck in one of the photographs and that one in which his face is filled with nothing but shock – before burying it in the pocket of her blue blazer. Letting out another breath, she looks up at Harry with all seriousness.

“It’s. It’s something that started just recently and please don’t mention this to anyone, especially the Doctor,” Sarah Jane starts, suddenly feeling very foolish. Not mention to the Doctor? That was a rather daft thing to say, wasn’t it? Why did she even—She shook the thoughts away. There were too many, and as strange as it felt to be back from her extended stay in Milliways, it didn’t feel strange at all. “

So it is back to the reasoning. “I don’t want to give him any reason not to let me tag along on his travels, you see. And James, well, he knows I’ll be gone sometimes and he--” He is grinning. Harry is grinning at her. Sarah stops mid-sentence and stares. “Harry! I don’t see anything funny about this situation.”

He chuckles, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Your secret’s safe with me, old girl. Although, I would like to meet the chap someday. I didn’t see much by those photographs of yours, but he looks like a decent enough fellow. If I’m going to be keeping quiet, I want to make sure.”

“Harry, I don’t need you to protect me,” Sarah says with a sigh. It’s easier than admitting that he’ll probably never meet James. It’s a rather strange image that pops into her head, trying to imagine Harry in a place like Milliways. Best not to. “As I’ve shown time and time again, I’m perfectly capable of--”

“Ah, but you’re jumping to conclusions, Sarah. I’m only saying this as your friend, no injury meant at all to your aptitudes,” he answers with a humorous tone in his voice. It makes her smile softly, chuckling softly at the absurdity of this whole conversation. In the middle of the TARDIS no less, where just about anyone could—

“And what’s this? The two of you having a chat without me when the Brigadier so direly needs me?”

Of course. Today was just the day for interruptions. Harry’s hand drops immediately back to his side and Sarah looks up at the Doctor innocently, quickly pushing aside all thoughts of Milliways. She’ll have time to dwell on them later. Right now, she is here for a reason after all. Which includes laughing at the Doctor’s choice of wardrobe (especially that silly plaid hat), something she had managed to forget in the past few weeks.

“Come on, get a move on,” the Doctor barked, pointing a finger down the hallway. “There is absolutely nothing amusing about this, Sarah Jane. The Brigadier better have a good enough reason to drag us two hundred and seventy million miles to clean up his mess. Let’s hop to it, shall we?”

There’s shared amusement as Sarah falls in step behind Harry and the Doctor marches them outwards and in to Scottish countryside, far from any nearby highway. After laughter is silenced with another mock-serious glare from the Doctor, he pulls out a device to guide them to a road (or so he hopes, Sarah can’t help but think).

Steps later, after a fortuitous car ride by the serious looking and rather medieval thinking Duke of Forgill, they reach the inn in which UNIT has set up camp. It’s after the Duke bids his farewell and Sarah Jane and the Doctor finally stop teasing Brigadier Lethbridge-Steward for his kilt that answers for their return are finally obtained:

“Doctor, the destruction of these rigs is a complete mystery. Do you want more men to die?”

It isn't that hard to steal away from the Doctor (her Doctor, the fourth version of him as she reminds herself) and the TARDIS to go find another one while he consults with the Brigadier over some matter or other that Sarah Jane can't bring herself to bother with.

It's a quick trip back to her flat in Croydon where she and the Doctor (the other one, the one from that odd place filled with such a strange collection of people) agree to meet. Meeting outside of that place is a rather exciting - if not nerve-wracking - thought, and so, Sarah can't help but pace around nervously as she waits on the street corner for him to show up.

It doesn’t seem like Earth at all. There weren’t any pigeons at Trafalgar Square, and oh, it was just so quiet. Grass and plants and absolutely no remains of any buildings. It’s empty and abandoned, and even with Harry beside her Sarah’s a little bit frightened. Not that she’d ever let him know, of course. But it is empty. This Earth is just too empty.

She follows Harry (well, mostly follows seeing as Sarah is too busy constantly looking around her to keep up with her friend) on a trail leading off further away from the Doctor. It’s peaceful, she’ll give it that. Certainly not the London she knows…a London that is dead now for twenty-odd centuries. She gets a chill from that thought, suddenly realising just how far away from home they were. It’s not at all what Sarah Jane had imagined. No, not at all.

“Hey Sarah, come and have a look at this.”

She turns around just in time to see Harry stumble and fall down – down something! Sarah runs forward, no longer looking at her surroundings and shouts after him. She stops at the edge of the cliff, kneels, and looks down at…

…oh, oh Harry! “Harry, are you alright?”

But he doesn’t look alright. He looks unconscious and oh, she does hope it’s only a lack of conscious and not something far worse. For a few seconds, Sarah is frozen with fear, praying that the UNIT doctor wasn’t dead.





Oh Harry!

Sarah Jane beams when she sees him get up, rubbing at his head and quickly examining for no broken bones. Oh, he’s such a man, isn’t he? To tumble forth like that, not at all watching his step. Typically, though, Sarah thought Harry was one of the more thoughtful ones. Old fashioned, yes, but still thoughtful. But…wait, what’s that?

On closer examination, Sarah notices all the twigs. Those twigs right at the edge of the pit, covering the hole with their careful arrangement. Her eyes narrow as she picks up one with a gloved hand to study. This isn’t normal, no. This isn’t right at all. “Harry, the edge of the whole has been covered!”

Oh god, this is far from right for an abandoned planet!

And that, of course, leaves Sarah Jane Smith with one option, doesn’t it?






The Doctor wasn’t there though. The Doctor wasn’t there and only his sonic screwdriver was and no matter how hard Sarah yelled for him, there was no answer. He was gone. Vanished or abducted or worse. And when she had returned to the pit, she had discovered Harry was gone too.

It had scared her – positively and absolutely frightened her. Here she was, stranded on some alien (well, Earth or not it was far enough in to the future to seem alien to her!) planet dressed in a bright yellow rain slicker and trousers, with orange boots and a bright blue hat. Why, she was a walking advertisement for these things (abductors) to come get her next! This…this really wasn’t turning out to be such a good day now after all.

And now, now she had been abducted herself. But that…that’s an overstatement, she realises shortly enough when this odd sound, definitely not human, fills the air. There’s something nearby, and judging by how still her captor is right now, it’s probably not something good either. After the noise goes away, the man releases her and explanations and introductions are made quickly enough.

Or, at least, introductions are. His name is Roth and he’s a spaceman, given the clothing he’s dressed in, and he’s very, very frightened of the odd noise – machine. And an alien in the rocks.

An alien, Sarah Jane realises a half hour later after being captured alongside Roth, that’s all too familiar.















Lynx.

But how had that Sontaran survived his spaceship exploding? Oh, whatever the reason, Sarah thinks as she stands there gaping, the Doctor had better recover from his fall into that same pit into which Harry had disappeared. She and Roth are going to need him.

And soon!

When Sarah wakes up again, she’s in another room all together. It’s not the control room that the Doctor and Harry had left her in, lying on the couch, but a room filled with what appears to be, well, human caskets! And there’s and Harry helping her out, both rather happy to see her. There’s someone else in here too, a woman with short hair (Vira, she finds out) watching them converse, and the Doctor’s no where in sight.

Everything is explained soon enough. The giant insect lying on the floor isn’t from Earth – it’s an alien that got onboard while the Arc’s inhabitants were asleep, and was the cause of all this trouble. But that isn’t everything, as she soon finds out. The alien left larvae, larvae still currently on the ship.

When Sarah and Harry finally find the Doctor, he’s unconscious. “Doctor!” Sarah screams, running up to him and falling down on her knees in concern. But then he wakes up and she laughs, relieved. Quickly, they’re off on a hunt for Noah – the apparent leader of this satellite.

But Noah isn’t himself. Somehow, and oh how Sarah doesn’t want to know how, he was infected by the grub crawling around. It’s altered him, changing him into a frightening bug-like creature, but as fearful as Sarah Jane is, she’s with the Doctor. He’ll figure something out. Harry wants to leave, but Sarah knows the Doctor too well to know he will let them do that just yet.

And figure it out they do. The giant insects (oh, they are repulsive to look at – perhaps the oddest of all life forms she’s encountered since travelling with the Doctor) want to use the still sleeping colonists (the survivors of a 31st century Earth that was wrecked by solar flares) as nests to lay their young. But of course, the Doctor won’t allow for it. And this time, to Sarah’s pride, it’s her that comes up with the life-saving idea:

The escape shuttle has enough energy to power the electric field the Doctor wants to use to protect the sleepers.

Oh men! If only they would just put aside their arrogance for once and listen!

It’s how she winds up crawling through a narrow triangular vent, tugging a cord from the cargo hold to where the Doctor awaits, setting up the rest of the circuitry. And oh, the Doctor! Insulting her and telling her he should have relied on someone else to do the job and oh, how infuriating! And then he’s telling her how proud he is, and well, he’s nothing but a:

“Brute! Oh, you horrible man!”

But they’re laughing and smiling at each other, despite the danger that awaits them outside the now working electric field. Soon enough, a plan is concocted to rid the ship of the horrible insects and it works. But there’s a casualty. Not only was Noah lost, now more man than insect, but so was one of the technicians – sacrificed so the Doctor and everyone on board could live. She grieves the loss of life, but her happiness to have the Doctor safe and sound outweighs all.

Somehow, in someway, they had done it again.