Sarah Jane was staring at the misty sky, just as Clyde had moments before. It was an alien sky, seen from an alien world. With two moons. And constellations above of kinds she had never imagined before.
Then she bent down and scooped up a handful of the dusty ground, letting the particles trickle through her fingers. All around were the remnants of things that might have once been crashed spaceships. Or rockets. Or something. They were old, rusted and pitted, so whatever disaster had befallen them had happened a long time ago.
She glanced over at Jo, who was still staring upwards, her face reflecting the same thrills that Sarah Jane was feeling.
Jo realised she was being stared at and looked back at Sarah Jane, a massive grin on her face.
It was infectious and Sarah Jane smiled too, before letting it break into a small whoop of joy.
‘An alien world,’ she said.
‘A different planet,’ agreed Jo.
‘Two moons!’ they said together.
‘I never thought I’d do this again,’ Sarah Jane called over to the Doctor. ‘Thank you!’
The Doctor was crouched down by the missile-like device, which was flashing blue in rapid increments.
‘Welcome to the Wasteland of the Crimson Heart. Glad you like it,’ he said, while trying to prise a panel off the device. ‘Can I borrow you and your lipstick please?’
Sarah Jane was at his side in an instant, sonic aiming at an area he was indicating with his finger.
‘Zap there, please.’
She zapped.
‘And there.’
Zap.
‘And…there.’
Zap.
Sarah Jane looked at this new Doctor, who carried himself so confidently one minute, and at another, resembled a new-born Bambi, all arms and legs flapping madly in the wind, wide eyes staring around, trying to take everything in. And yet, behind those same eyes, burned the passion and experience of the same old Doctor she’d known in a variety of bodies over the last thirty or so years.
‘Did it hurt?’
The Doctor looked at Sarah Jane, frowning. ‘Did what hurt?’
‘Regeneration. That last body of yours…was he okay, in the end?’
‘It always hurts. And there, please.’
Zap.
‘So, how’d you end up here?’ Sarah Jane gesticulated around them. ‘This world?’
The Doctor stopped working and stood up. ‘The Shansheeth lured me. Mighty old battlefield, just begging to be explored. Sounds interesting, so I headed here after dropping Amy and Rory off.’
‘Amy and Rory?’
‘Who I’m travelling with. They got married, so I dropped them off at a honeymoon planet…which isn’t what you think. It’s not a planet for a honeymoon, it’s a planet on a honeymoon – it married an asteroid! But then they nicked the TARDIS. The Shansheeth, not Amy and Rory. Fortunately, once stranded on this planet, I managed to find bits and bobs and build this space-swapping-doo-dah.’
Jo, who had sat down on a boulder a little way back, looked over with a sad frown on her face. ‘So, you’ve got a married couple in the TARDIS?’
‘Mr and Mrs Pond!’
And Jo sighed. ‘I only left you cos I got married.’
The Doctor looked down at his feet and closed his eyes for a second, then guided Sarah Jane’s hand holding the sonic lipstick back towards the device. ‘And another zap there.’
But Sarah Jane didn’t zap. She was looking at poor Jo.
‘Did you think I was stupid?’ Jo asked quietly.
The Doctor turned to look at her, then walked over. ‘Why d’you say that?’
Jo shrugged. ‘Well, I suppose I was a bit blonde. A bit dumb. Still am, I suppose.’
The Doctor waved his hands around, as if trying to work out what to say to that. He settled on a quite heartfelt, ‘What in the world makes you think that? Ever? Ever??’
She looked up at him, as if trying to see the face of the Doctor she knew behind the current one. ‘Cliff and I, we’d been travelling along the Amazon for months after we’d married. And we got to this village in Cristalino, the only place with a phone for a thousand miles and I phoned you. I thought I had to say hello. And they said you’d gone, left UNIT one day and never came back. So I waited. Because you said you’d see me again – you did, I asked and you said yes. You promised. So I thought one day I’ll hear that noise again. One day! Deep in the jungle, that funny wheezing and groaning noise and there was gonna be a big blue box standing in the rainforest, because he wouldn’t just leave. Not forever. And not me.’
Jo took a big breath, and Sarah Jane’s heart broke a little, because Jo was doing her very best not to get more upset, not to cry in front of this fantastic, amazing man, who had contributed so much to their lives.
Jo looked the Doctor right in the eye. ‘I waited all my life.’
For a long time, the Doctor didn’t move, not even a blink. Then he suddenly clapped his hands together, the sound echoing across the deserted alien world.
‘Oh, Jo, you are an idiot!’
‘Well,’ Jo shrugged, ‘there you are then.’
And the Doctor was on his knees in front of her. This much older woman whose early twenties had been shaped and directed so much by the Doctor, and who had lived so much afterwards.
Just like Sarah Jane, who knew exactly what the Doctor was going to say next. Because she had asked herself those same questions some years ago, before meeting up with him again. And although she’d never had it spelled out to her, she had realised. The Doctor never forgot anyone, never abandoned anyone.
‘Don’t you see?’ he said, taking Jo’s small hands in his large ones. ‘How could I ever find you? You’ve spent the last thirty-five years living in huts, and climbing trees, and tearing down barricades. You’ve done everything from flying kites on Kilimanjaro to sailing down the Yangtze in a tea chest! Not even the TARDIS could pin you down!’
‘But I –’ Jo started, then paused, before her eyes widened further. ‘Hang on, I did sail down the Yangtze in a tea chest! How do you know that?’
‘And that family,’ the Doctor laughed. ‘All seven kids and twelve grandchildren, thirteenth on the way. He’s dyslexic by the way, but that’ll be fine – great swimmer.’
‘Do you mean, all this time, you’ve been watching me?’
The Doctor shook his head slowly, released Jo’s hands and stood up, taking in both his old friends. ‘No. Because you’re right, I don’t look back. I can’t. But the last time I was…dying, I did look in on all of you. Every single one. And I was so proud.’
And a tear trickled down Jo’s cheek, but it was a tear of happiness, and she was smiling her biggest, hugest smile.
And Sarah Jane was smiling too. Because she had actually seen the Doctor that last time, before his tenth body transmuted into this, his eleventh. She had seen him in Bannerman Road, seconds after saving Luke from being hit by a car.
And she had known, then, that he was saying goodbye, even though he hadn’t said a word. It had just been a look. An understanding that time and space could never break.
‘Anyway,’ she said. ‘We’ve got that lot back at home, with the Shansheeth on their tails!’
The Doctor spun round, arms flailing as he started to think. ‘Yes, yes, yes. And Jo, I need you. In that bag of yours – I can smell blackcurrant. Is it buchu oil?’
‘Hand picked in Mozambique,’ she said, pulling a small bottle out of her bag and holding it towards him.
‘Perfect. These circuits need conductivity…’ and he was back at the strange device, taking the bottle from Jo at the same time and unscrewing it, trickling a small amount on to some circuits, the ones Sarah Jane had been about to zap with the sonic lipstick earlier.
‘Sarah Jane?’
She zapped it and the whole device suddenly lit up properly, and the beeping noise cut out, replaced by a steady, healthy hum.
He grinned at his two former companions. ‘What a team,’ he yelled. ‘We are brilliant!’ He punched a couple of buttons. ‘There, that should work.’ He stood back proudly. ‘Intergalactic molecular streaming, with just a hint of blackcurrant current.’ He laughed. ‘Blackcurrant current? Did you like that? No? No. Right, won’t say that again.’
‘But what’ll happen to Clyde?’ Sarah Jane asked.
‘Ah, fixed that! All I needed was you two. Oil and sonic. You could be a TV detective team. Oil and Sonic Investigations! Ha!’
They just gave him a look.
‘Okay, maybe not that either. Anyway, we can get back, and Clyde will stay where he is. Now, hold tight.’
And he gripped a hand of each of them. Tight. And squeezed. And grinned a marvellous grin that reminded them both of how much they loved, trusted and adored this madman with a box.
And all three of them vanished in a blue flash.