The Doctor set his mug on the bar. "Actually, Sarah Jane..." He shrugged in a way that instantly had Sarah Jane both attentive and very worried. "... we need to talk. You don't realize the situation you're in."
Sarah Jane instantly grabbed her refill (as the barman saw it was going to be one of those talks, topped them off, and left to a courteous distance) and slammed half of it in one long swallow. After the shudder and the glow settled into place she spoke firmly. "As the man said, Doctor.. Straighten me, because I'm ready."
He raised a eyebrow and gave a smirk of genuine amusement. "That's about the way Lord Buckley liked to lay it on me back in the day, Sarah. To start with, you need not worry about me dragging you to Gallifrey of some such nonsense. I couldn't if I were insane enough to want you there."
Sarah Jane almost shot back a answer about how the wishes of the Timelords in regards to where the Doctor was welcome had never mattered before, then she froze just before she would have spoken. The Doctor watched as Sarah Jane paled to what would have looked a light tan, then flushed a deep copper in shade. Finally she recovered and managed a slow "My.. sincere sympathies. How?"
He nodded. "I suspected you'd sense the truth once the slightest reference came up. Rassilon is lost outside time, the Matrix destroyed or beyond all cognition. Gallifrey is no more. Neither my people or the Daleks exist as a people anymore." He clenched a fist, then relaxed his grip. "Do you think it odd I use the music of Freddy Mercury to cope?" Sarah Jane thought about that one a bit, then shook her head. There was likely not a single Timelord that would have understood why things like Hammer to Fall would help the Doctor deal. Well, maybe fellow outcasts like..
"Sarah Jane? Sarah? ..Sarah, if you don't breathe in the next minute I will commence CPR on both your hearts!" The Doctor spoke sharply, and Sarah Jane quickly chugged the remainder of that round. She apologised "Sorry, doctor, I was just realising about the Ma.. You know, that guy." She actually looked about. The doctor pinched his newly sharp nose and decided he couldn't blame her a bit.
"He's just the tip of the iceberg, Sarah Jane, although he'd certainly delight in targeting you should he ever learn what happened to you. He'd adore it even without the prospect of stealing your regenerations." Sarah Jane didn't even bother denying the possibility, as she knew from the tone the Doctor was using that it had happened before.
"I see he's still striving mightily to be the Universe's perfect example of a pillock, then." Sarah Jane's face and tone showed the severity her choice of phrase did not. "You of course realise that the only thing he'll feel he has left is his feud with.. Of course you do, and you're afraid for me and all your past Companions, aren't you?"
"All that remain, yes. Still and all, Rassilon's will remains manifest, even though it no longer works through me or others of his blood." At Sarah Jane's raising of a brow, the Doctor elaborated "As your ascension via the Virus has made clear, the Timelords may be gone, yet measures are 'naturally' falling into place to slowly fill the void. Aside from the Master and myself, there is a former Companion that cut herself away from the Timelords to stand as guide and caretaker for another time spanning race who are coming into their own outside this Universe, as just one example. No, Sarah Jane, all that need be done is the hardest task of all. Growing into the role abandoned by my people when they failed, and surviving the many foes they and I accumulated until some form of support exists. Sontarans, Cybermen, renegades and aftermaths from the now-lost Timelords' past. All of that still exists, and it will no more remain at bay than time itself."
"..." Sarah Jane looked at the fairly miserable Doctor. Then she surprised herself a bit and the Doctor a great deal by kissing him on the forehead quickly. "Doctor, I think we'll do all right. You should get to warning the others soon. for now, I have a bit of news that you seem to have forgotten, so I'll retell it and hope it puts you at ease in your mind. Doctor. Know that your chances may change, but the odds have never really changed. It's you and yours against the whole damned Universe. Same as always, for all of us. So get over it, will you?"
The Doctor was in a true mental stun, likely the first in several regenerations, and almost spoke to refute her optimistic bit of sardonic wit. He got interrupted by a passing auto blaring A Kind of Magic, blinked, then started laughing a bit harshly. This soon settled into actual humor and good spirited laughter. He finally managed "That's it. I'm just going to have to get the most decent collection of Queen I can for the TARDIS. Care to see me off?"
"Oh, I can do that, I suppose. But only if you answer one question. I daresay I've finally earned a straight answer to this one." The Doctor paid absurd levels of attention to her, but he seemed to be going along, so Sarah Jane inquired quite deliberately "WHY in the name of God do you keep on about and with that Sonic Screwdriver of yours?"
The Doctor blinked, then broke into laughter so severe he slid off the stool twice. When he recovered (he dropped a hat on the floor to check) he grinned in a fashion vaguely reminiscent of the Doctor Sarah Jane had gallivanted with most (The fifth Doctor [Tom Baker's]) and said gaily "Why Sarah Jane! I'm surprised you never figured it out! I'm a self-trained scientist who does roadside repairs on his own time machine! I invented the Sonic Screwdriver!" He then regally strode out of the pub in the direction of the music shop, needing the head start for when Sarah Jane unfroze and ran after him, howling for the man's blood.
The barman looked to his wife, who retained her looks as they were when she was 17, save for the eternally closed eyes. As she now saw everything even more clearly, to greater distance, and to total truthful detail by ESP, it didn't hamper her in the slightest. Shaking himself back from his distraction, he wearily asked his beloved "Margie, those two weren't on about nothing, were they?" He had a note of pleading in his voice, she noted with a smirk.
"Love, I'm afraid they were telling the truth, whatever you heard." She couldn't help but love her Norris for caring about things, even if he did tweak himself over this normalcy thing a bit overmuch. "Norris, you just give up, already! There isn't any norm. Never was, it's just we can't pretend anymore."
As he sighed and got her to mother hen him for their mutual comfort:
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(Posted Fri, 27 May 2005 06:43)
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