The attic at 13 Bannerman Road was silent, when suddenly Mister Smith detected a temporal flux.
The source was the TARDIS, which wheezed and groaned into solidity in front of the computer, and the doors opened.
First Clyde, then Rani and finally Santiago emerged.
‘Whoa!’ Clyde said. ‘The attic. Home! It’s like everything moved around us. I’m so never getting used to that.’
Rani was staring at Mr Smith. ‘You are in big trouble. Those Shansheeth were bad!’
Mr Smith apologised. ‘It transpires that you encountered a rogue element and the Wide Wing of the High Shansheeth Nest has already sent their apologies.’
Santiago was staring at Mr Smith. ‘On top of everything else, you’ve got a talking computer in the chimney.’ He hugged Rani and Clyde. ‘Of course you have. Why wouldn’t you?’
Inside the amazing TARDIS, Sarah Jane and Jo were saying goodbye to the Doctor.
Jo was running her hands over the console. It looked very different to the one she remembered and yet…somehow so familiar. She sniffed loudly. ‘Same old TARDIS,’ she said. ‘Doesn’t matter what you’ve changed, it still smells the same.’
Sarah Jane breathed in deeply and then nodded in agreement.
‘But it’s time to go,’ Jo continued. ‘Because if I stand here any longer, I’ll stay forever. And these days, I’d slow you down.’
The Doctor busied himself with the console, not catching either of their eyes. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I’d really better go. You know me. Things to do.’
‘It’s daft,’ said Sarah Jane quietly. ‘Because we both had this theory that if you ever died, we’d feel it. Somehow. We’d just know. But that’s silly, isn’t it?’
The Doctor looked at them. ‘I don’t know. Maybe not. Because between you and me, if that day ever comes,’ and he leaned towards them, as if telling then something top secret, ‘I think the whole universe might shiver.’
Jo and Sarah Jane stared at him, captivated. Until he went “boo!” very suddenly and made them jump. And laugh. Jo hugged him first and then stood back, to let Sarah Jane say her goodbye.
‘Until next time,’ he whispered to her, so that only Sarah Jane could hear.
She smiled and followed Jo out of the TARDIS and into the attic, where they joined the teenagers, watching as the police box faded away.
After a few moments’ sad silence, Santiago nudged Rani. ‘It’s just like you said. You save the world. From an attic. In Ealing!’
Rani smiled. ‘You know, we do. We sort out Slitheen. And Sontarans. And the Trickster. And your family fight oil barons and factories and that’s equally important. But I live over the road, and Clyde’s mum is just a few streets away. At the end of the day, who’s waiting for you?’
Santiago shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s time to make some changes. I dunno.’
Jo was suddenly behind him, and kissed the back of his head. ‘I think our next stop is Norway, sweetheart. Meet up with your mum and dad and have a bit of a break, yeah?’
‘I’d like that,’ Santiago agreed.
‘So would I,’ said Jo.
‘But before then, I’m starving.’
Jo turned to Sarah Jane. ‘Got any food in this house?’
‘Must be something in the fridge. Probably not much, though. I’m not one for cooking,’ Sarah Jane said.
‘Great. We’ll whip something up,’ Jo said and led Santiago out of the attic and downstairs.
Rani was about to follow, but Clyde asked Sarah Jane a question. ‘D’you think there’s lots of Jo Grants out there? Old companions of the Doctor?’
Sarah Jane smiled. ‘I do a little search now and again.’
‘You Google “TARDIS”?’
‘Hey,’ said Sarah Jane. ‘It works. I mean, I can’t always be sure. I know a woman in Australia called Tegan Jovanka, fighting for Aboriginal rights. There’s a Ben and Polly running an orphanage in India. A Doctor Holloway in San Francisco looking into new breakthroughs in surgery. I knew a lovely doctor once, Harry Sullivan.’ Sarah Jane sighed sadly. ‘He did such good work with vaccines, saved thousands of lives. Then there’s a woman called Dorothy who runs that company, “A Charitable Earth”, raising billions, where she works alongside a Melanie Bush, providing PCs to schools in Africa. And this couple in Cambridge, professors at the university, Ian and Barbara Chesterton. Rumour has it, they’ve never aged, not since the Sixties. So yeah, I often wonder…’
‘That’ll be us one day,’ said Clyde to Rani.
‘Out there. Still fighting.’
Sarah Jane held them close. ‘Echoes of the Doctor, all over the world. With friends like us, he’s never going to die, is he?’
And with a little smile at Mr Smith, Sarah Jane led them out of the attic, and downstairs to find out what was happening in the kitchen.