Doctor, I Need You!

Part 15: The End

“NO!” Sarah Jane screamed, lying in the pool of blood and wrapping her arms around her daughter.

“You can’t be dead. You’re my baby. You have so much to see. So many worlds to visit. You can’t be…” Sarah Jane sobbed into her daughter’s blood stained clothes, the tears mixing with the dark blood.

The Doctor sat down beside Sarah Jane and hugged her from behind, resting his hands on his daughter’s arm.

“I’m sorry Sarah. I’m so, so sorry.”

“But she can’t be dead. She’s only twelve.”

The Doctor turned to Sarah Jane and put his arms tight around her chest. She leant back against him, screams and cries too big for her little body still coming from her. The Doctor rocked her back and forth for a time that seemed so short, yet infinite. He rocked his broken companion until Donna interrupted him.

“Um… Doctor. I think that big green thing’s claw just moved.” Donna sounded nervous, which wasn’t in her character. However she had never seen her friend lose his child.

The Doctor took a tissue out of his blazer and dabbed Sarah Jane’s puffy eyes with it before he wiped away his own salty tears.

“Come on Sarah, we have to go back to the Tardis.” The Doctor said, rising to his feet and lifting Sarah Jane with him.

“We can’t just leave her here Doctor. She’s my little girl, our little girl.” Sarah Jane said, crouching down and running her hands through Victoria’s blood stained hair.

“We’re not going to leave her.” The Doctor said. He bent down and picked his daughter up, supporting her head like a baby’s because of the cut on her throat. The Doctor walked slowly towards the Tardis with his daughter, Sarah Jane and Donna just behind him. Donna wanted to comfort Sarah Jane, but she didn’t know how.

When all four of them were back in the Tardis, The Doctor laid Victoria on Sarah Jane’s old bed.

“Doctor, what should we do about the aliens?” Donna asked hesitantly.

“Just pour some vinegar on each of them, they’ll die quickly.” He replied dryly. Usually The Doctor would have tried to save the Slitheen, but not today. Today there were no second chances. The Doctor sat with Sarah Jane at their daughter’s bedside until Donna came back on board the Tardis. When The Doctor returned to the main control room to fly the Tardis back to Sarah Jane’s house he was grateful that Donna didn’t talk about the exploding aliens, she barely made a sound.

The Doctor landed the Tardis in Sarah Jane’s attic, exactly where he had picked her up to go and find Victoria. Just over an hour ago they had been hopeful. The Doctor had honestly thought he would be able to save his only living child.

When The Doctor had finished landing the Tardis he returned to the room where Sarah Jane was sitting with their daughter, Donna remained in the control room.

The two of them sat in silence for while, The Doctor with his arm around Sarah Jane’s waist and Sarah Jane with her head on The Doctor’s shoulder. They were holding Victoria’s hand together.

“Is this my fault Doctor? Is this the Universe’s way of punishing me for killing those men thirteen years ago? Because I can’t think of what else I might have done. I try to help everyone, maybe I couldn’t help someone important…”

“Shhh… None of this is your fault. It’s the way of the Universe, it can’t be explained. I just wish, after everyone I’ve lost to the Universe, I wish it could have let me have Victoria.” The Doctor said, tears once again beginning to escape his eyes.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane sat there and talked for a while; about their history, Victoria, the future, it almost felt like it used to be. Sarah Jane decided to let the Doctor take Victoria’s body. She knew it had to be burned because she was part Time Lord, but she couldn’t bare to watch her daughter burn. She requested that The Doctor burn her body somewhere beautiful, so that if there were such a thing as the afterlife, then her spirit would begin its journey in a magical place.

Sarah Jane kissed her daughter goodbye one last time before she rose to leave the Tardis, and it was the hardest thing she had ever had to do.

“Visit me Doctor. I know you don’t do that sort of thing but please, I need you.” Sarah Jane said, wiping her eyes again with The Doctor’s tissue.

“I will be here every day if you like Sarah. I won’t ever leave you unless you want me to.”

“I know what I said back in the school Doctor, but I didn’t mean it. You’re my best friend. Goodbye Doctor, look after her.”

The Doctor wrapped his arms around Sarah Jane once more, holding her tighter than ever. He realised then that he needed her just as much as she needed him.

*

Empty. Everything was empty. The house. Her heart. Her soul. None of it mattered anymore, it was barely there. Before Victoria was born Sarah Jane was content, but now, looking at her empty house, she couldn’t even call it a home anymore. Everywhere she went reminded her of Victoria, and each time she thought of her it was like a stab in the chest.

It had been two weeks, and The Doctor hadn’t visited. She felt like the only thing she got up for each morning was to wait for him. She wouldn’t turn on the TV incase she missed the sounds of the Tardis or the doorbell ringing. All she wanted was to see him. She needed him.

Exactly 17 days after her daughter’s death she heard it. The familiar whooshing sound that made her smile for the first time in 17 days. She ran up to the attic where the noise was coming from, excited to see her Doctor again. She didn’t even look at the Tardis when she entered the attic; she just swung open the double blue doors.

There she was.

Not a scratch on her porcelain neck.

Her hair was perfect.

Not a speck of blood clung to her dress.

Victoria was alive.

The Doctor watched his companion’s reaction to seeing her daughter alive again with his hearts full of happiness and love for the first time in a long time. Sarah Jane looked terrified of her daughter at first glance, but with a nod from The Doctor she threw her arms around her child.

The Doctor had been worried about the fact that Victoria was part Time Lord. But it saved her life. Yes it took her longer to regenerate than most Time Lords, and instead of getting a new face she was returned to the state she was in before her death, but she was still alive, and that was because she was part Time Lord. But he would explain all that to Sarah Jane later, for now he just wanted to enjoy the moment. Because after everything he had been through, after everything he had seen, he never dreamed he would have a family again.