FIC: Those Left Behind [Doctor Who]
Title: Those Left Behind
Author: atraphoenix
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Liz Shaw/Sarah Jane Smith
Rating: PG
Summary: “You don’t need to feel sorry for me,” said Liz. “Life on Earth can be an adventure too, you know.”
Sarah Jane waited for the Doctor to return. Patiently at first, but then the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. Eventually, she had no choice but to try and find some semblance of a normal life.
It was somewhat therapeutic, returning to journalism. Everything seemed so much more structured when it was printed up neatly and the hours flew by as she worked at her typewriter. It made the waiting easier.
A few weeks after her return, Sarah Jane found herself on her way to Cambridge to interview a scientist who was engaged in some very interesting research into meteorites. She was very careful about the stories she chose these days, and this one seemed suitable. In fact, she only chose stories that she knew the Doctor would be interested in, dimly hoping that she might bump into him before he’d even had the chance to collect her. Because he would collect her, soon. There was no doubt about it.
She was greeted at the entrance to the wing by a cheerful man who introduced himself as Mr Mitchell and shook her hand so enthusiastically that her wrist ached. Since the abrupt end of her travels with the Doctor she’d been in what could only described as a foul mood and this man’s overly jolly demeanour was doing little to improve her it.
However, he told her a little about the research project as he led her to the appropriate laboratory. Sarah Jane was soon satisfied she’d made the right choice in coming here. Humans, reaching valiantly - if a little blindly - for the stars? Oh yes, the Doctor would like that. Indomitable.
“Ah, Professor Shaw,” Mr Mitchell said, when they finally reached the appropriate laboratory and Sarah Jane was ushered inside. She was surprised - pleasantly surprised - to find that the person who looked up was not the old, bearded man that she’d expecting, but an attractive young woman with reddish blonde hair and a rather guarded expression on her face.
“This is Sarah Jane Smith,” Mr Mitchell explained to the scientist, “She’s a journalist, here to talk to you about your research. Miss Smith, this is Professor Elizabeth Shaw.”
Sarah Jane smiled, but the other woman merely nodded curtly. She clearly didn’t think much of journalists.
Elizabeth Shaw. She’d heard that name before, often on the lips of the Brigadier, and once or twice from the Doctor himself. She’d been a scientific advisor at UNIT, or something like that, but had returned to Cambridge because of reasons neither the Brigadier nor the Doctor would specify.
While Sarah Jane considered the possibilities of the Brigadier’s precious Miss Shaw and Professor Elizabeth Shaw being the same person (given the Doctor’s penchant for pretty female assistants, it was rather likely), Mr Mitchell excused himself.
“You’ll have to be quick, Miss Smith,” said Professor Shaw as soon as he was gone, industriously reaching for another glass vial, “I’m afraid I’m very busy and my research …”
“Actually,” said Sarah, before she could stop herself, “I didn’t want to talk to you about your research. I wanted to talk to you about UNIT.”
There was the tinkle of broken glass as a test tube fell from Professor Shaw’s hand.
“I don’t know how you found I used to work for UNIT,” said Professor Shaw carefully, as if this was a well rehearsed speech she’d lived in fear of actually having to use, “But may I remind you that the operations of UNIT are covered by the Official Secrets Act …”
“I used to travel with the Doctor,” Sarah interrupted.
“Oh.”
***
The silence stretched on for a full minute, and would have carried on even longer if Sarah Jane had not taken it upon herself to break it. Elizabeth Shaw certainly didn’t seem willing to speak at present, which confirmed that she was the same woman who had worked for UNIT, if nothing else.
“You were originally employed as a scientific advisor, weren’t you?” Sarah Jane asked.
Professor Shaw nodded.
“But then the Doctor joined, and you were reassigned as his assistant?”
Another curt nod.
“The Brigadier …” Sarah began, but as soon as she mentioned Lethbridge-Stewart, Elizabeth Shaw’s whole face softened, taking Sarah Jane completely by surprise. She knew that look all too well. It was the same look that she had, whenever she was talking about the Doctor.
“How is the Brigadier?” Professor Shaw asked, and Sarah Jane informed her that he had been perfectly well the last time she’d seen him. The other woman breathed out a long, ragged sigh of relief, and then, all at once, the whole atmosphere of the room changed.
After a few minutes of rather awkward introductions, the topic moved onto the Doctor and they were soon swapping war stories. Liz - not ‘Professor Shaw’, not now - told Sarah Jane about the Autons and how she was recruited to UNIT, and in return Sarah told her about Zygons and Sontarans.
“So you actually travelled in the TARDIS?” asked Liz, “He was still trying to repair it when I knew him.”
Her eyes misted over, as they had often done during the few hours Sarah Jane had been talking with her. She was fascinated by the concept, although Sarah Jane found the idea of the Doctor being confined to Earth equally astonishing. She couldn’t imagine knowing him but not knowing the wildness of time and space in which he lived. It would be like seeing a tiger at the zoo, trapped in a too small cage. Magnificent, of course, but what you saw was still only a shadow of its real majesty.
It perhaps wasn’t the best of analogies, but she shared it was Liz anyway, and the scientist, to her credit, smiled.
“What was it like?” she asked.
“You mean the universe?” Sarah Jane laughed, “Oh, I don’t know if words could ever really do it justice. There was so much out there. Even the Doctor has only seen a fraction of it.”
“When I knew him, he couldn’t remember a lot of what he had seen,” said Liz, smiling, “But what he did describe sounded so beautiful. I’d been studying meteorites for years, but I only ever looked them at in relation to the Earth. I never looked up at the stars. I never began to imagine what could be out there. Those sorts of thoughts seemed far too fanciful for a scientist, no matter how fascinating they might be …”
“If you found it all so fascinating,” said Sarah Jane, more cattily than she’d intended, “Why did you leave him?”
She regretted the words as soon as they passed her lips, but to her surprise - and relief - Liz didn’t seem particularly offended.
“All the Doctor needs is someone to make him feel superior,” said Liz with a dry laugh, “It doesn’t matter who that person is.”
“No!” exclaimed Sarah Jane, looking outraged, “He isn’t like that. He cared about me, we …”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” said Liz softly, interrupting, “He loves us all, in his way. But he isn’t human and he doesn’t love like humans do. He drifts from adventure to adventure …” She paused, and placed her hand gently over Sarah’s. “He doesn’t know what it’s like to be left behind.”
“And you do?” asked Sarah, and once more the words came out a little more aggressively than she’d intended.
“Me?” Liz said, a trace of bitterness creeping into her voice for the first time, “I never had the chance to travel in the first place.”
”You don’t need to feel sorry for me,” she added, pre-empting Sarah’s train of thought, “Life on Earth can be an adventure too, you know.”
The expression on Sarah Jane’s face spoke for itself, and she gave a snort of derisive laughter.
“It doesn’t matter if it is or not,” she informed Liz fiercely, “The Doctor will come and collect me soon, and we’ll go back to travelling, just the two of us.”
Her words sounded horribly hollow, even to her own ears, and she was grateful that Liz didn’t make the sarcastic comment that was certain to be hovering on her tongue. Her desperation grew stronger with every day that passed, but the chance of the Doctor actually returning grew slimmer.
“And until he does?” Liz enquired, and Sarah Jane was suddenly acutely aware of the coolness of the other woman’s hand in her own. She managed to smile slightly.
“I’m sure I can think of a few things.”
Author: atraphoenix
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Liz Shaw/Sarah Jane Smith
Rating: PG
Summary: “You don’t need to feel sorry for me,” said Liz. “Life on Earth can be an adventure too, you know.”
Sarah Jane waited for the Doctor to return. Patiently at first, but then the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. Eventually, she had no choice but to try and find some semblance of a normal life.
It was somewhat therapeutic, returning to journalism. Everything seemed so much more structured when it was printed up neatly and the hours flew by as she worked at her typewriter. It made the waiting easier.
A few weeks after her return, Sarah Jane found herself on her way to Cambridge to interview a scientist who was engaged in some very interesting research into meteorites. She was very careful about the stories she chose these days, and this one seemed suitable. In fact, she only chose stories that she knew the Doctor would be interested in, dimly hoping that she might bump into him before he’d even had the chance to collect her. Because he would collect her, soon. There was no doubt about it.
She was greeted at the entrance to the wing by a cheerful man who introduced himself as Mr Mitchell and shook her hand so enthusiastically that her wrist ached. Since the abrupt end of her travels with the Doctor she’d been in what could only described as a foul mood and this man’s overly jolly demeanour was doing little to improve her it.
However, he told her a little about the research project as he led her to the appropriate laboratory. Sarah Jane was soon satisfied she’d made the right choice in coming here. Humans, reaching valiantly - if a little blindly - for the stars? Oh yes, the Doctor would like that. Indomitable.
“Ah, Professor Shaw,” Mr Mitchell said, when they finally reached the appropriate laboratory and Sarah Jane was ushered inside. She was surprised - pleasantly surprised - to find that the person who looked up was not the old, bearded man that she’d expecting, but an attractive young woman with reddish blonde hair and a rather guarded expression on her face.
“This is Sarah Jane Smith,” Mr Mitchell explained to the scientist, “She’s a journalist, here to talk to you about your research. Miss Smith, this is Professor Elizabeth Shaw.”
Sarah Jane smiled, but the other woman merely nodded curtly. She clearly didn’t think much of journalists.
Elizabeth Shaw. She’d heard that name before, often on the lips of the Brigadier, and once or twice from the Doctor himself. She’d been a scientific advisor at UNIT, or something like that, but had returned to Cambridge because of reasons neither the Brigadier nor the Doctor would specify.
While Sarah Jane considered the possibilities of the Brigadier’s precious Miss Shaw and Professor Elizabeth Shaw being the same person (given the Doctor’s penchant for pretty female assistants, it was rather likely), Mr Mitchell excused himself.
“You’ll have to be quick, Miss Smith,” said Professor Shaw as soon as he was gone, industriously reaching for another glass vial, “I’m afraid I’m very busy and my research …”
“Actually,” said Sarah, before she could stop herself, “I didn’t want to talk to you about your research. I wanted to talk to you about UNIT.”
There was the tinkle of broken glass as a test tube fell from Professor Shaw’s hand.
“I don’t know how you found I used to work for UNIT,” said Professor Shaw carefully, as if this was a well rehearsed speech she’d lived in fear of actually having to use, “But may I remind you that the operations of UNIT are covered by the Official Secrets Act …”
“I used to travel with the Doctor,” Sarah interrupted.
“Oh.”
***
The silence stretched on for a full minute, and would have carried on even longer if Sarah Jane had not taken it upon herself to break it. Elizabeth Shaw certainly didn’t seem willing to speak at present, which confirmed that she was the same woman who had worked for UNIT, if nothing else.
“You were originally employed as a scientific advisor, weren’t you?” Sarah Jane asked.
Professor Shaw nodded.
“But then the Doctor joined, and you were reassigned as his assistant?”
Another curt nod.
“The Brigadier …” Sarah began, but as soon as she mentioned Lethbridge-Stewart, Elizabeth Shaw’s whole face softened, taking Sarah Jane completely by surprise. She knew that look all too well. It was the same look that she had, whenever she was talking about the Doctor.
“How is the Brigadier?” Professor Shaw asked, and Sarah Jane informed her that he had been perfectly well the last time she’d seen him. The other woman breathed out a long, ragged sigh of relief, and then, all at once, the whole atmosphere of the room changed.
After a few minutes of rather awkward introductions, the topic moved onto the Doctor and they were soon swapping war stories. Liz - not ‘Professor Shaw’, not now - told Sarah Jane about the Autons and how she was recruited to UNIT, and in return Sarah told her about Zygons and Sontarans.
“So you actually travelled in the TARDIS?” asked Liz, “He was still trying to repair it when I knew him.”
Her eyes misted over, as they had often done during the few hours Sarah Jane had been talking with her. She was fascinated by the concept, although Sarah Jane found the idea of the Doctor being confined to Earth equally astonishing. She couldn’t imagine knowing him but not knowing the wildness of time and space in which he lived. It would be like seeing a tiger at the zoo, trapped in a too small cage. Magnificent, of course, but what you saw was still only a shadow of its real majesty.
It perhaps wasn’t the best of analogies, but she shared it was Liz anyway, and the scientist, to her credit, smiled.
“What was it like?” she asked.
“You mean the universe?” Sarah Jane laughed, “Oh, I don’t know if words could ever really do it justice. There was so much out there. Even the Doctor has only seen a fraction of it.”
“When I knew him, he couldn’t remember a lot of what he had seen,” said Liz, smiling, “But what he did describe sounded so beautiful. I’d been studying meteorites for years, but I only ever looked them at in relation to the Earth. I never looked up at the stars. I never began to imagine what could be out there. Those sorts of thoughts seemed far too fanciful for a scientist, no matter how fascinating they might be …”
“If you found it all so fascinating,” said Sarah Jane, more cattily than she’d intended, “Why did you leave him?”
She regretted the words as soon as they passed her lips, but to her surprise - and relief - Liz didn’t seem particularly offended.
“All the Doctor needs is someone to make him feel superior,” said Liz with a dry laugh, “It doesn’t matter who that person is.”
“No!” exclaimed Sarah Jane, looking outraged, “He isn’t like that. He cared about me, we …”
“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” said Liz softly, interrupting, “He loves us all, in his way. But he isn’t human and he doesn’t love like humans do. He drifts from adventure to adventure …” She paused, and placed her hand gently over Sarah’s. “He doesn’t know what it’s like to be left behind.”
“And you do?” asked Sarah, and once more the words came out a little more aggressively than she’d intended.
“Me?” Liz said, a trace of bitterness creeping into her voice for the first time, “I never had the chance to travel in the first place.”
”You don’t need to feel sorry for me,” she added, pre-empting Sarah’s train of thought, “Life on Earth can be an adventure too, you know.”
The expression on Sarah Jane’s face spoke for itself, and she gave a snort of derisive laughter.
“It doesn’t matter if it is or not,” she informed Liz fiercely, “The Doctor will come and collect me soon, and we’ll go back to travelling, just the two of us.”
Her words sounded horribly hollow, even to her own ears, and she was grateful that Liz didn’t make the sarcastic comment that was certain to be hovering on her tongue. Her desperation grew stronger with every day that passed, but the chance of the Doctor actually returning grew slimmer.
“And until he does?” Liz enquired, and Sarah Jane was suddenly acutely aware of the coolness of the other woman’s hand in her own. She managed to smile slightly.
“I’m sure I can think of a few things.”