Until We Burn | Dr Who

Chapter Twenty: God Maker

We spend the rest of the night planning, still aware of a heavy tension between us. Before we know it, it's morning and we stand outside the school, surrounded by uniformed teenagers.

I stay beside Rose and Mickey but my gaze wanders over to the Doctor every now and then. He remains oblivious to the fact. "Inara, Rose and Sarah," he instructs, "you go to the maths room, crack open those computers. I need to see the hardware inside. You might need this." Sarah accepts the sonic from him. "Mickey, surveillance. I want you outside."

Mickey frowns, glancing to Rose for any sign that she may disagree. He gets nothing. "Just stand outside?"

"Here," Sarah Jane tosses him her car keys, "take these. You can keep K9 company."

"Don't forget to leave the window open a crack."

He scoffs, "What? He's metal."

"I didn't mean for him!"

Following his lead, Rose glances over, curious. "What about you?"

"It's time I had a word with Mr Finch."

—

Desperate to get away from Rose and Sarah Jane, I head over to the teacher's desk. The lack of paperwork and supplies is strange. If I didn't know better, I'd assume that there was no teacher at all for this classroom. It's just empty and untouched.

I hear a huff behind me and glance back to see Sarah Jane emerge from under one of the many computers, sonic in hand. "It's not working."

"Give it to me," Rose says, taking over.

"Used to work first time in my day."

"Well, things were a lot simpler back then."

The woman glances over to me but I only shrug. "Can I give you a bit of advice? Both of you, actually," she begins.

Sighing, she sits up again and types something into the computer. "I've got a feeling you're about to."

Sarah Jane looks over again, perching on the edge of the desk. "I know how intense a relationship with the Doctor can be and I don't want you to feel I'm intruding."

"We're not worried about you," I say, making my way over to them. I know that it's true. She's not the problem. She isn't a threat. Whatever it is that has me feeling so uncomfortable, it's about the Doctor.

Just the Doctor.

"Good. Because I'm not interested in picking up where we left off."

Rose glares sharply up at her. "No?" She scoffs incredulously. "Big sad eyes and the robot dog, what else were you doing last night?"

Wincing, I try to gesture for her to stop, over Sarah Jane's shoulder so that it isn't too obvious. My efforts earn me another scathing look. "I was just saying how hard it was, adjusting to life back on Earth," she tries to explain, clearly growing more and more exasperated by the second.

"Thing is, when you two met, they'd only just got rid of rationing. No wonder all that space stuff was a bit too much for you."

"Rose, seriously?"

She rolls her eyes and fixes me with a new look that I gradually recognise — betrayal. "Oh, come off it. I saw how you were looking at them two last night. You think the same!"

I hurriedly shake my head. "No! No, I don't. This isn't about her and you know it."

Finally, the tension is too much and Sarah Jane storms up to her. "No, let her say her piece, Inara. 'Cause I'd jolly well like to say mine. And, for your information, I had no problem with 'space stuff'. I saw things you wouldn't believe."