Walking in Eternity 1/1; the Doctor, Sarah Jane, Luke; PG

[scarfman]

Title: Walking in Eternity 1/1
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: Doctor Ten, Sarah Jane, Luke, cameos by Sarah Jane Adventures characters I've never seen any of yet
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): Children of Earth: Day One
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: Everyone's wondering why the Doctor wasn't on Earth during the events of Children of Earth. I haven't seen anyone ask where Sarah Jane was. Actually they were both in the same place.
crossposted scarfman dwfiction

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"Mum, I'm going to be late," Luke complained.

"Oi!" said the Doctor. "It's not every day you get a Time Lord making you breakfast."

Sarah Jane sputtered in her coffee, though she managed not to deposit any of it anywhere it didn't belong. "Doctor, on Earth that is an idiom you'd rather avoid in this context."

"Yes, ma'am," said the Doctor enthusiastically. Sarah Jane had no idea whether he knew what she meant, though if he hadn't he'd probably have asked. "How would you like your eggs, Luke? ...Luke?"

Luke was sitting staring straight ahead, completely unresponsive. It continued several minutes, to Sarah Jane's mounting panic, when suddenly it was over without Luke realizing anything had happened.

"What do you think it was?" Sarah Jane asked the Doctor sotto voce at the stove, once he'd finally got Luke's breakfast order.

"Petit mal seizure?" the Doctor guessed. "Something to do with his origin as a manufactured being?"

"Should we keep him home from school and run some tests in the TARDIS laboratory?"

"Naaaw, it's passed. After school is soon enough."

Breakfast passed without further incident, and the adults walked Luke to the sidewalk. Rani's father was doing the same for her across the street. "Surprised to see you," Sarah Jane said to Haresh, after introducing the Doctor, their two young charges hastening down the street toward school. "Luke said he was running late, yet here was Rani also just setting out."

"Yeah, it was the oddest thing," Haresh said, climbing into his car to start his own day. "She spaced out for a few minutes after breakfast."

"What time was that?" asked the Doctor, a little sharply.

"I don't know. About ten minutes ago. Snapped out of it though, right as rain now. Nice to meet you."

"That was the same time Luke -" Sarah Jane said - but Haresh had shut his car door and was starting his car, and the Doctor was halfway back down Sarah Jane's front path.

She found the Doctor washing the breakfast dishes without looking at what he was doing. "Doctor. You know what's going on, don't you?"

"They have no name for themselves. They temporarily adopt whatever working name the people they encounter have already come up with. Time Lords called them the Fog, though that's more a description of the atmosphere they live in. Earthpeople will only ever know them by their communication frequency." Heavily he described the next five days of Earth history for her as he dried the dishes and put them away. Then, to her consternation, he sat down to do the daily Times crossword puzzle.

"But ..." Rooted in front of the fridge, Sarah Jane felt like she was in a dream where no one else saw the obvious. "Can't you stop them?"

"Oh, yes," said the Doctor, his usual bright tones returned. "No trouble at all. A bit of magnesium in the tank and they'll get the message, Bob's your uncle.

"And then we can get in the TARDIS and rescue President Kennedy from his assassin! President Lincoln while we're at it. Might as well keep George II from falling off his horse and perhaps that whole nasty colonial revolution won't be necessary in the first place!

"Then we can smother Napoleon in his crib, convert Constantine the Great to Taoism instead so Earth civilization isn't so my-way-or-the-highway all the time, and steal Cain's axe so he has to think his way out of his problems." He gave her a wide, false grin and turned his attention back to the crossword puzzle.

After a moment Sarah Jane sat at the table with him. "Can we at least keep Luke safe? And Clyde and Rani?"

The Doctor didn't look up but spoke cheerfully. "Oh, I'd love to hang around for a week or so, thanks for offering."

"And Maria?"

"Why I think a day trip for your young charges in the TARDIS to the Smithsonian is a fine idea. Actually, as long as we'll be getting them out of school at all, one day won't do it for the Smithsonian. You could get lost in there."

"I'll ring their parents."

fin

Sequel here.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Actually I've seen several people say they wondered if there'd a ref to CoE in SJA S3...

Trip in the TARDIS sounds like an excellent plan to me!

[malinbe.livejournal.com]

That was an idea I just came up with this morning. What if the Doctor didn't show up because this was a historical event, that people of Earth needed to think their way out of by themselves?

[scarfman]

I posted it as soon as I'd drafted it, trying to be first to print with the idea.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Was wondering what happened with Sarah Jane during all of that...

[rainbowstevie.livejournal.com]

Pointed here by way of janusfiles...THANK YOU. I spent at least half the miniseries grumbling about how Sarah Jane factored into all of this, and then someone goes and writes fic just like I was hoping for. Definitely needed this. I never even thought about it being a fixed event, but that makes a lot of sense. Love this!

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

Yeouch. And well-done.

[kaffy_r]

Nicely done - and I liked the fact that you had Luke and Rani, both post-pubescent, far less affected, than the younger kids who were the 456's real prey.

[scarfman]

Thanks. But, the way I remember it, in the first wave even younger kids only came to a halt while not saying anything. E.g., the kids Gwen observed on her way into work.

It did occur to me that Luke and his friends are a bit older than the range that the 456 were interested in and, perhaps, were affecting. But I decided to ignore that for the sake of this story, and I think I did afterwards, when watching the last two episodes, see that there are affected kids in the story close enough to Luke's age that I wasn't violating continuity.

[kate-swynford.livejournal.com]

Loved it.

[lullabymoon]

Very nicely done.

[shelaghc.livejournal.com]

Just read this after your post in the DW community.

Nicely written, although I kind of agree that Rani, Clyde and Maria were a bit too old for the 456. They're definitely not pre-pubescent.

However, technically, Luke is only a couple of years old even if his body looks older. And I wondered at the time of CoE whether that would make him susceptible to the 456?

In any case, it makes a nice read and gives me a little extra dose of 10/SJS.

Thanks!