SJ Fic: Taking in Strays Ch. 8 - Den Mother to the Cub Scouts from Hell (Sarah Jane / Duplicate 10)

Apr 30, 2011 17:49

Disclaimer: It all belongs to the Beeb. I'm having fun with Sarah Jane and Handy today. Since Rose seemed to me like the type to decide something wasn't so good once she had it. Sorry to all those Rose fans out there.

Summary: When the human Doctor clone finds his way to her door, Sarah Jane finds she's opening her door to much more than the trouble she expects.

Rating: PG

Author Note: Again my thanks to Spydurwebb for the brilliant beta. She made this even more awesome than it was.



By the time Oliver woke up, he'd realized there really was no choice at all. It had stunned him, although on retrospect he supposed he was selling Sarah short. She'd been more comfortable with the idea of him as a human than he had been. His thoughts lingered on that kiss. He and Rose had kissed but it never felt like that. A smile crossed his face as he wondered exactly what he'd have to do to get Sarah to kiss him like that again andlet him participate.

Pulling himself from the bed, he eschewed his normal choice of clothing, pulling on a pair of jeans he thought might get Sarah looking at his arse again then changed into a clean t-shirt. He padded out barefoot down the hall to the Luke's room to find that all the teens were already there. "Is Sarah up, Luke?"

Luke looked up and nodded. "Just barely." He paused, "Mum isn't going to ask you to leave, Oliver. I asked her." At Oliver's bemused expression, Luke shrugged, "I told her I feel better with you here to look out for her."

"Oh, I bet she took that well." Oliver cringed and moved into the room to sit on the bed beside Luke.

Clyde grinned, "Yeah, about what you would expect. Lukey-Boy here got the long lecture about her not needing a keeper." Clyde rolled his eyes. "Then I got my what-for about respect for all alien life and," he held up his fingers in quote gestures before continuing, "not needing to stoop to the destruction of the creatures we run into."

Oliver thought for a moment. "She's right. It's not the easiest path and sometimes the consequences of that sort of high minded thinking are hard to bear." Oliver paused, "I had a chance to destroy the Daleks once. I was sent there to destroy them by the Time Lords, with Sarah, actually." He looked at Luke, "I couldn't do it. At the time, Sarah was all for it. Sometimes I wonder…" he drifted off, lost in his thoughts as he shook his head.

"It must be odd," Rani watched Oliver closely. "You're not the Doctor but yet, you are, sort of."

"Up here," Oliver tapped his temple. "Yeah, it is odd. It's not me, but since it's what I remember it is me too." He shrugged, "Still, the slow path doesn't seem all that bad. Not with you lot and Sarah Jane to keep me company." He paused, "There's a thought," he said randomly, "Rani, your dad is headmaster of your school, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Rani was fairly certain she had an idea, causing her to smile.

"Well, I apparently need a square job." Oliver grinned back. "Did you know when I met up with Sarah again I was employed as a Physics teacher?"

"Oh that's brilliant!" Rani beamed.

"But so not fair," Clyde scowled. "There's finally going to be a teacher at the school we'd want to hang with and we're nearly done."

"You're not supposed to make friends with the teachers, Clyde. You always said that was uncool," Luke offered.

"No other teacher was ever as cool as Oliver," Clyde defended before changing the subject. "Hey, you promised to tell us about Sarah Jane and a nuclear reactor."

"I did, didn't I?" Oliver grinned widely. "What do you think Luke? If I tell you lot embarrassing stories about Sarah Jane, is she going to kick me out?"

Luke shook his head. "She can't say no to me, so if she does, I'll intervene." He said teasingly, though he really didn't think his mum would go that far.

Oliver thought back to Clyde's comment. "Oh, I wish I had pictures of some of the things she wore when we travelled together. Like when we were at the reactor she wore adorable little pink-striped overalls with little stars on the bib."

"Oh I'd pay to see pictures of that," Clyde grinned widely.

"And she had red trainers too." He pointed at his bare feet. "Now, where to start?"

While Oliver busily told tales, Sarah Jane was downstairs on the phone with Sir Alistair. She explained about Oliver, his origins and how he'd be staying with her until he got on his feet. "He will need a job."

"And you think he'd still be suitable as UNIT's scientific advisor." Sir Alistair clearly considered it. "Sarah Jane, you do realise most of UNIT operations are from Mt. Snowdon now." He paused, "It wouldn't exactly be feasible for him to work there and continue staying there."

"Yes, well, he won't want to stay here forever now will he?" Sarah said hurriedly, clearly not wanting to think about it too hard.

Sir Alistair sighed. It was obvious that Sarah Jane quite valiantly shooting herself in the foot again. When he'd gotten back from Peru this last time, much to his dismay, Jo called and they had a very long, mostly one-sided conversation about the unfortunate state of Sarah Jane's love life. Jo wanted to dig up other former UNIT members to toss in Sarah Jane's path, despite him advising her that Sarah Jane wouldn't appreciate the interference in her personal affairs. He brought himself back to the present and his current conversation. "That is a decision you should let Oliver make, Sarah Jane."

"Sir Alistair," Sarah Jane sounded almost desperate. "It would be extremely selfish of me..."

"I will see what I can do to arrange something," Sir Alistair said, cutting her off. "But I won't force the matter. I do think I'd like to come down and supervise this clean up and meet Oliver. Might as well oversee something other than these repetitively disastrous trips to Peru."

"I would like that, Sir Alistair." Sarah Jane couldn't help but smile.

"Is that son of yours going to be there?" Sir Alistair enjoyed spending time with Sarah's son, but he wondered if Sarah could see what he did. It wouldn't be hard to imagine the boy as Sarah and the Doctor's child.

"Only if you can make it here today." Sarah Jane's voice was brimming with pride. "He'll be driving back to Oxford this evening."

"Well then, I'll see you in time for an early supper." He heard the slight moan from the other side of the telephone. "No supper actually required, Sarah Jane." He could sympathise after what she'd been through.

"No, no. I have to feed Luke before I send him back." Sarah laughed lightly. "It's in the owner's manual, as his mother I'm obligated."

"Have you made the obligatory trip up to the university to do his laundry and make certain he isn't starving?" Sir Alistair asked. "As I remember, my wife did it at least once a semester with our children."

"That's why I sent K-9," Sarah Jane chuckled. "He's better at nagging than I am."

A deep, warm laugh met her ears. "I'll see you soon, Sarah Jane," with those words, Sir Alistair was gone with a click.

"Everything all arranged then?" Oliver asked, standing behind her, arms crossed.

"Well one thing you haven't lost is your ability to sneak up on someone." Sarah Jane turned and arched her brow at him, her emotions over the night before not resolved yet.

Oliver turned a pathetic puppy look on her, his lip jutting in a pout. "You're not still angry with me are you, Sarah?"

"Oh, don't pull that with me." Sarah Jane crossed her arms over her chest. "You aren't going to fix this with those looks of yours, Oliver." In fact, her heart melted with the look he gave her, but she wasn't about to admit that to him.

"I am sorry, Sarah Jane," Oliver said softly. "Give me a chance, please." The puppy look turned serious. "I want a chance at this. You, Luke. Even Rani and Clyde. Without the lot of you, well.." He shrugged slightly, still not entirely certain what this was but he knew what he hoped it could be. "You can hardly blame me for habits built up over several centuries."

"What am I going to do with you?" Sarah Jane said softly. "I meant what I said though, Oliver. You have to deal with those habits."

"Absolutely," Oliver agreed readily. "I'm turning over a new leaf." He held up his hand as though taking an oath. "Dependable partner," he paused when her brow arched and decided it was a bit too soon for that appellation. "Team member?" His nose wrinkled. "Part of the gang?" She shrugged a bit, having the same issues as he did those terms. He grinned widely. "Anyway, that's me. You're the boss."

Sarah Jane cringed. "I am not the boss. Den mother to the cub scouts from hell, perhaps."

Oliver chuckled at that. "Not hell, surely," he cocked his head. "Den mother to the cub scouts from the time vortex doesn't have the same ring though now does it?"

"Not quite." Sarah Jane shook her head. "Now where are my cub scouts?"

"I think they're in the attic." Oliver said innocently.

"What are you lot up to?" Sarah Jane glared at him. "You know you really are pushing your luck." She jogged up the stairs.

Oliver followed her to the bottom of the stairs, then watched her ascend, staring at her bottom until she disappeared around the first turn of the stairs. He couldn't keep the grin off his face. She really was the most gorgeous woman. "Allons-y." He said to himself as he took off after her, not wanting to miss what Clyde had plotted with the other teens.

Emerging through the attic door, Sarah's brow furrowed at the sight of each of the children sitting on the floor of the attic, legs spread as though there should have been something between them, their hands at their sides, blank expressions on their faces. "All right Clyde, Luke. What are you up to?" She walked up to Clyde and glared down at him.

Without looking at her, his eyes never moving from some spot on the far wall, Clyde intoned, "Eldrad must live." It was obvious by the exact timing of the words and the way his voice went up in pitch as he said 'must' that a certain former Time Lord was going to be getting a piece of her mind, even though the idiocy of the statement coming from the teen brought a smile to her face.

"Oliver." She turned and glared at the man who now stood in the doorway, trying to maintain the innocent look on his face past the giggles that were trying to escape as he shrugged. Her hands found their way to her hips. "Rani, Luke."

That apparently was their cue, as both of them produced a stereo version of the statement, perfectly timed and with the same pitch change. "Eldrad must live."

Tossing her hands in the air. "Mr. Smith."

"Eldrad must live." This time delivered in Mr. Smith's neutral tone without the pitch change only made the statement funnier.

K-9's head came up and his sensor extended as he rolled up to her from where he'd been sitting beside Luke. "Eldrad must live, Mistress."

"Oh not you too, K-9." Now she couldn't help it, she was shaking with laughter. Her gaze turned to Oliver, her eyes much lighter now. "Well, your turn, Oliver."

"Nah," Oliver grinned from ear to ear now. "Couldn't get that high pitched squeak just right."

"Oh you are a dead man, Oliver." Sarah Jane walked up to him, purposefully invading his personal space as Oliver put his thumbs through the belt loops of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. She brushed past him, purposefully pressing her body against his as she did, but making it look accidental. "The Brigadier is coming by this afternoon, so some help making the house presentable would be appreciated."

sarah jane/duplicate ten, fandom, fiction, sarah jane smith, doctor who, duplicate ten, writing

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