(no subject)
There were certain smells in the world that were unlike anything in the world. The Doctor's scarf had that quality, as did certain shirts she found in Goodwill stores. The TARDIS had that smell as well, of otherworldly opulence, of mystique and enigmatic joy and when Sarah Jane woke up, that was the familiar smell that brought her back to herself. And not just that, but she could feel a material she hadn't since...well, since the Doctor had promised her Florana and had instead given her Venutian-5 sheets. She curled up in them, feeling comfortably at home.
It was the humming that woke her up.
And then the singing of O Sole Mio in a deep voice that she knew to be accompanied by a rather giant frame and curls. "Sarah," he called down the halls. "If you don't come out soon, I'm going to eat all the jellybabies and then we'll never get to Florana," he warned in a rather deep, jovial tone and that was the moment when Sarah Jane Smith might have wept for absolute joy. She was in a pair of comfortable plaid pajamas, a tank-top on and she threw on a silk housecoat draped over her chair as she burst out of the room and nearly tackled the Doctor with a mad hug, tears staining her face. "Sarah," he said, deep voice affectionate and bemused. "I don't mean to remind you quite so much of Harry, but you're looking a bit old."
"Stupid side effect," she said, voice brimming with her tears as she smacked him, hugging tightly. "Wasn't it you who told me time and space were never constant?" she laughed, wiping at her eyes and hugging even tighter, the way she hadn't ever gotten to do properly. "I've missed you," she said petulantly and stubbornly. "You you."
"I don't see how you couldn't," the Doctor gave a deep, booming laugh. "I am entirely missable."
She eased back to her feet, no more steel grating, but the control room was rather like she recalled it, all white and familiar, with buttons she knew how to use as opposed to being confused by their workings. She wiped at her cheek with the back of her hand, already on her way, looking at every inch of the TARDIS, trying to get a feel for it. Did he rescue her? Was that it? "Where are we going?"
"Off to Skaro, I'm afraid," was the Doctor's grim tone. "Gallifrey has sent orders and another Time Ring." He extended the bracelet to her. "And this time, perhaps Harry won't zealously ruin our trip for us."
"Doctor," Sarah Jane chastised, hands on her hips.
"You'd best be getting changed, Sarah," the Doctor advised. "I don't think the Kaleds would appreciate your current wear."
She was still trying to regain her wits, most honestly and set the Time Ring down on the TARDIS console, laughing warmly as she wiped the remnants of tears from off her cheeks and turned to simply stare at everything.
Peter had known where he was the moment he'd woken, of course, not because he'd ever been there but because he'd seen it so many times it was practically an old friend. In bare feet and with his hair even messier than normal, he'd padded down the halls, gotten turned around, doubled back, and had begun to think he was in some sort of ironic Hell where he'd be forced to wander the TARDIS for the rest of eternity and never get anywhere.
Not having air conditioning in his hut was something that required some getting used to for Peter, what with the island's heat and humidity. He'd fallen asleep in a pair of red plaid boxer shorts and nothing else, and that was what he was wearing when he stopped in the doorway to gape.
It was the control room. The real, bona fide control room from when he was a kid, and there was a real, bona fide Doctor in it instead of some rude bloke who looked like him. It wasn't entirely surprising that he was having trouble speaking.
It was Sarah who'd seen him first and her eyes had lit up both with joy and a marked confusion regarding what he could possibly be doing there. "Peter?" she inquired curiously, but that gave to the abject relief and happiness of having him there and she brightened to a degree that couldn't possibly be measured as she turned to see the Doctor's reaction. "Don't you be cruel," she warned, a finger pointed right up in his face, having forgotten what the foot of difference between them felt like.
"I didn't realize I was carrying a stowaway," was the Doctor's impish reply and he looked at Sarah Jane expectantly. "More specifically, a mostly-naked one. Of all the things I carry about, I've never done that before." But there were telltale signs of the Doctor's not-minding of the situation as he eased over gracefully, extending a pouch from the depths of his neverending pockets (Mary Poppins had nothing on the Doctor, she honestly thought and when she'd discovered his coat was Gallifrey-made, it hadn't been a surprise). "Would you care for a jellybaby?" he offered to Peter. "It won't clothe you, of course, but it might just tickle your tastebuds." He glanced once more to Sarah Jane. "I didn't know your game was to make me jealous. And here I thought I knew you, Sarah." There was no malice to his tone, simply a deep and teasing tone, but that didn't stop Sarah Jane's hands from resting sternly on her hips.
Peter made a small sound in the back of his throat -- more like a squeak, really -- and thrust out his hand, palm-up. "Sarah..?" he began, the name tinny, and swung his gaze to his girlfriend and then back to the Doctor. "Sarah, this is the Doctor," he said, a bit more clear this time. As if she had possibly missed that fact.
Her cheeks were still shining slightly from her earlier blubbering of such an immature and stupid nature and as the Doctor counted off audibly, 'one, two, five...' as he set the jellybabies into Peter's hand, Sarah Jane had been wandering over, taking off her robe to offer it to Peter. "Yes, it is," she confirmed.
"Sarah, you are aware that's my dressing gown," he pointed out. "And you are giving it to..." His eyes set upon Peter, like he'd just seen him. "I don't even get an introduction!" Even though he'd just remarked the last bit quite immaturely, he reached forward to shake Peter's free hand enthusiastically. "I'm the Doctor. The Doctor, the definite article, and this is Sarah Jane Smith, my best friend," he introduced her, which just made her roll her eyes.
"Doctor," she exhaled, the word a huff and almost like she'd never left. "He knows who I am," she pointed out. "This is Peter Carlisle," she introduced, eager and optimistic once more, something she didn't think she could be in the TARDIS, ever again. Which did lead to the question of how all this was possible, but if you mentioned 'impossible' to the Doctor, there was a longwinded speech and mentions of Alice. "He's my boyfriend," she said, rather proudly.
That got a rather comical double-take out of the Doctor as he stepped back to give Peter the onceover. "What is it you do?" he asked slowly. "If you've brought me another Harry Sullivan, Sarah..." It was an empty threat, she knew, because as much as the Doctor and Harry had their antagonistic play, he had liked the man. Or, at least, she had hoped so considering it turned out he knew about their liaison in the TARDIS.
Still rather dazed, Peter simply accepted the hand and shook, albeit not quite as enthusiastically. "I'm a police detective," he answered automatically, clearly quite awed. "And you're- You're-" Without warning, he grinned, wide and bright as anything. "You're the Doctor! Sarah!" His gaze swung back to her. "He doesn't look like me!"
Sarah was already throwing a dagger of a hissed 'hush' in Peter's direction.
The Doctor, however, was in a world of his own. "A detective, are you?" he mused. "Perhaps you might detect something rather intriguing down these corridors. They have been known to be haunted, so I daresay you ought to be careful." His tone of voice was that of a mad Uncle talking to the nephews after supper. "I would rather like his ears, Sarah. Perhaps his nose. See if you can't remember the shape of it for me."
He was still talking as Sarah Jane looped her arm with Peter's and gently pried him away from the Console Room before anything might get slobbered on with accidental drool. The Doctor was still nattering on about 'perhaps the hair, in a more ginger tone...' as she fondly smiled at Peter. "Now you've got him started," she accused. "Come on, we ought to find you some proper clothes in the wardrobe." She suspected the news of him being her boyfriend would settle in roughly five minutes and then there would be questions and she didn't want to subject poor Peter to that.
"Sarah," Peter hesitantly began as he allowed her to lead him away, finally more aware now that he wasn't blinded by the Doctor. "How are we here?" Oh, he had many other questions, but that one seemed the most important. "This isn't the TARDIS from the island, and that's definitely not the Doctor from the island, and... why am I only in my shorts?"
That got a bemused smile from her as she raised both brows at once, lips parted. "I suspect because you're not the sort of tosser who sleeps naked?" she suggested, utterly innocent. "Not that I'm any position to know just yet." That got yet another cock upwards of her brow as she opened a door. "Coffee bean room," she murmured, leading him down the hall. "And honestly, I've no idea. Of course, time and space hardly matter." Another door. "Hm, boot cupboard." And how was it that Peter was there, considering they hadn't been in the same place and the Doctor -- especially her Doctor -- couldn't know about him.
"I've no earthly idea," she confessed, tugging open yet another room. "The Lily Garden." She gave a huff, peering to the ceiling. "Please!" She closed the door and opened the very same one and there was the grand wardrobe. "Finally."
"Did you say coffee-" Peter began, lifting one uncertain finger, but was then cut off by Sarah Jane's further rambling explanation. "How can you have no earthly idea? I know that the Doctor makes the impossible possible, but this is a bit much, don't you think?" It completely defied everything he'd learned as a child!
"I hope the TARDIS is nicer about clothes than that bloody bin in the basement," he murmured as he followed her inside.
"Oh, she's got everything," Sarah Jane promised, eyes wide as she spun about inside the hangars and the racks of clothes and suits and if she just took a deep breath, she remembered everything and there everything was. Her swimsuit meant for Florana, both times, her dress, the outfit she had been left in. That took her back a moment and her hands closed about a pink polo shirt and a rather mad plaid short skirt to go with it with a pair of brown knee-high boots.
"The only thing I can imagine is that the Doctor found a way to get to the island and managed to get us?" she suggested, hands clasping the clothes tightly. "And she heard my thoughts and brought you aboard?"
"But the Doctor was- Oh, nevermind." Grinning again, Peter swiftly closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around Sarah Jane so that he could lift her in a spin. "You're here and I'm here and we're on the TARDIS, of all places!" When he slowed, he pressed his mouth warm over hers and let her slip back down to the floor again. "It's brilliant," he murmured against her lips.
She nearly dropped her clothes as she wrapped her arms about his neck and held on tight, laughing brilliantly and kissing back very much eagerly, her toes touching the ground first as she looked up at him, with far less of a wall and a mask in place and Peter could see so much of her, just as she was. She smiled softly up at him. "Take your pick," she encouraged, voice thick with...well, something. "There's worlds of clothes and if you can't find anything you like, just dig a little deeper."
She herself ducked behind a Chinese screen to slowly change into the mismatched, yet comfortable clothes. "Now," she advised, tugging on a bra and her shirt. "If you do anything silly like die on me, I'll be quite cross, I hope you realize."
"Wouldn't want that," Peter absently replied as he stepped up to one of the racks and began poking through it. "Is there any particular way I should be dressing?" he asked, because he had absolutely no idea of where they were or where they were going. Over his shoulder, he addressed the screen. "Do you think he'll let me stay?"
"Dress practically," she advised, recalling the landscape of Skaro and those damned tunnels with all the nasty creatures. On second thought, she tied her hair up, in case there would be scaffolding to climb this time. She thought carefully on the second part of his question, sitting on a stool from the Oriental 15th Century as she zipped up her boots. "Well, I want you to stay. So yes." Right up until they couldn't travel any longer. She was still going over it in her mind, the timeline of such an event.
Had he been to Gallifrey yet? What of Leela and Romana?
She stepped out as she pushed her hair back with a headband atop, all plaid with pinks and browns, watching him curiously, but with no small amount of glee.
"Sarah!" The booming voice was heard down the corridors and she covered a laugh with one hand. "Did you say boyfriend?"
"Oh, you see?" she teased. "Now he's onto you."
Peter had stopped in the middle of pulling on a pair of jeans when Sarah Jane emerged from behind the screen, and was in the middle of taking a moment to appreciate the sight of her in a miniskirt when the Doctor's voice came from down the hall. "Should I be worried?" he asked, hastily buttoning his trousers and reaching for a shirt. If they were going to have this conversation -- If he was going to have to face down THE Doctor about his dating Sarah Jane -- he thought it was probably advisable that he be dressed for it.
She was much of the same mind and eased closer to help him with each button, deftly flicking buttons and looking up at him as she smoothed the fabric. "No," she said. "No, he's a good man," she insisted, leaning over for a jacket to extend to him while taking a rather long trenchcoat for herself. "And you've nothing to feel worried over."
She smoothed her palm over the shoulder, just as the door was pulled open.
"I couldn't help but realize," the Doctor remarked, almost absentminded. "That you said boyfriend, Sarah. Where did you find this one?"
"Oh," she trilled with a grin. "Just down that back alley I frequent. Do you like him?" she asked hopefully.
The Doctor yanked out a monocle from his pocket, affixed it to his eye and began to study Peter very closely. "He seems reasonable. Human, I see, but we can forgive that..."
"What a relief," Peter quipped as he shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. It wasn't until his fingers were occupied for a moment against nothing but fabric that he realized he'd find no bits of candy inside as it wasn't actually his. He chewed against his bottom lip instead. "I do hope I pass muster," he continued, having a bit more confidence now that he was awake and clothed.
The Doctor eased back, raising to his full height, which to a great many species and people was quite intimidating and it always made Sarah crane her neck right up. "Pass muster, you say," the Doctor mused. "We'll just see. If he lives, Sarah, do invite him to the beaches of Cassiopeia with us. They're a lovely holiday."
"When you're not mistakingly landing us in Antartica," she replied, quite innocently, swaying back to lean against the nearest wall, but that merely earned her a broad grin. "When are we landing?"
"As soon as we're no longer accidentally fifty years off!" was the response, even as the Doctor left the room and Sarah Jane turned back to Peter, quite exuberant and excited.
"I still can't believe you're here," she marvelled, even as she wandered from the wardrobe, in search of more familiar sights. "I mean, here, with me. Here here, and he's him." It was all a large stream-of-consciousness, slow methodical wondering amidst their wanderings until she found her bedroom once more to see if her things weren't still in storage.
"You're telling me," Peter murmured as he followed along after her, looking around as they went. "Did you say there was a coffee room or something like that?" he asked, thinking if he was going to have to not die, he should be awake.
That got a happy laugh from Sarah Jane, leaning against the door as she crossed her arms and regarded him with a very fond smile. "Would you like a cup of coffee, Peter? You only need say please and I'll take you to the kitchen. She's got about four of them, each to varying degrees of expertise, but I think I can work the coffee by now." That got a finger wag of warning. "Don't you dare tell the Doctor I made you coffee. He'd have my head on a platter."
Peter caught hold of Sarah Jane's finger and placed a kiss to the tip of it. "If you give me coffee, I'll do whatever you want," he vowed with a mischievous smile. "It doesn't even have to be fancy coffee, although if you can find me a decent cappuccino, I might just worship at your feet." Although really, he was prone to that already.
She led him towards the nearest open door, where there were several machines brewing and several cups steaming and she made her way to an old-fashioned machine from the seventies and began to operate it quite flawlessly, extending a foamy index finger to Peter as she prepared the cup. "Here. Drink quickly, because it sounds like we've about touched down." And from there, who knew what they might face?
"Oh, you gorgeous woman," Peter enthused, happily accepting the cup and lifting it up to his face for a nice, long sniff. "I've not even tasted this and I can already tell that it beats the hell out of that rubbish island coffee." He realized, then, that she was talking about them touching down somewhere, and that it might not be Earth. A swift sip, and he furrowed his brow. "Where?"
"Anything for a man as handsome as you," she remarked, pressing a firm kiss to his cheek as she wandered by, adjusting her boot. "Skaro. Sent to monitor the ongoing happenings of the Kaleds, which does mean daleks." She affixed him with a worried look. "They are dangerous, Peter," she warned. "And they're not just on your television, so you be careful," she warned sharply.
And with a jolt of the TARDIS, it meant there was no more avoiding it.
It was difficult for Peter to do much but stare at Sarah Jane, then, given what she'd just informed him. "Daleks," he repeated, as if he was trying to accept the idea. "We're going to see Daleks." A moment's more thought, and he decided that yes, he definitely needed his caffeine today, and finished the cup in three long swallows.