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Post by Sarah Jane on Jul 10, 2011 19:14:20 GMT -5
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Post by Susan Foreman on Jul 10, 2011 20:36:35 GMT -5
Susan’s smile faltered when she saw the tears fall from the other woman’s eyes. She could almost feel Sarah’s relief. She put her hand on the other woman’s shoulder and smiled weakly. She knew how it felt to wonder if the Doctor were real. She had spent the first three hundred years of her life with the man, and yet she had been abandoned so suddenly sometimes she wondered. When she had been in her first incarnation – without her second heart – sometimes she would have to ask her late husband if she had imagined the whole ordeal. Susan knew just as much as his companions about the hole he left behind in them.
Her eyes traveled away from Sarah’s, focusing instead on the grin. She furrowed her eyebrows, puzzled. It didn’t seem forced or fake. The woman was stronger than she had been. She hadn’t been able to grin when her grandfather was mentioned. She abhorred the Time Lords for allowing her to be sentenced to Earth for the rest of her life. If she hadn’t stolen the vortex manipulator, she had no doubts that she still would be in her own little prison. But Sarah seemed to be happy. Susan put her arms behind her back, appearing confused.
“You know, if this is a trap for the Doctor, he’ll smash you flat when he gets here. Come on, my place is only a few blocks North of here,” the woman told her, walking off in what Susan assumed was the direction. She followed quietly. Smash her flat? She almost laughed, because he had done that to her ages ago when he had locked her out of the TARDIS. “It isn’t a trap for him. He’s forgotten me by now,” the Time Lady said, her voice carefully devoid of any bitterness.
They continued walking. The pressure that had hovered so thickly on Susan’s shoulders had lifted. She had gotten her away from the pub. “What is your name?” Sarah asked, forcing Susan away from her victory. Susan looked at her, unsure of what to tell her. Her grandfather had stopped calling her Arkytior when he was exiled from Gallifrey and took her with him. She hadn’t minded; she thought the name foolish. It meant “rose” in High Gallifreyan, but the young Time Lady hadn’t found what was so amusing about her parents naming her after an Earth flower. She had never been a fan of roses, especially the thorns.
But the name Susan hardly fit anymore, did it? She had earned that name when she and her grandfather had first traveled to another planet. The Foreman was because of the junkyard he hid the TARDIS in while she attended school with humans. 1963 seemed like such a long way away, even though now she was only a short ten years or so close to the life that she had loved.
“Susan,” she responded eventually. “Susan Foreman. I used to be the Doctor’s apprentice,” she answered. It was a lie, but a harmless one. The woman would expect too much of her if she knew that she was the Doctor’s granddaughter. She didn’t have any more hold of him than his human companions would. She had probably even less power over him, because he had assumed that she’d do perfectly dandy on her own.
Well, a dead husband and child later, she’d beg to differ.
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Post by Sarah Jane on Jul 10, 2011 23:16:57 GMT -5
When Susan spoke of the Doctor, she did so in a voice so flat you could have rolled a marble across it. How could there be so much pain in such expressionlessness? By the time Susan said her name, Sarah Jane knew she was talking to a Time Lady wrapped around a softball sized chunk of pain. She drew alongside the other woman, took a deep breath, let it out slow, wondering how to untangle this knot presented her while doing as little damage as possible. She caught Susan's long, slender-boned hand in her own and gave it a squeeze. Of all the empathetic, careful things she was trying to think to say, what popped out was entirely selfish and almost beyond her control.
"Susan." She stopped them right there in the road, needing to see what emotions came to those dark eyes lit so dramatically by the old gas lights in her district. "Is he alive? He's alive then . . .now . . right? I knew he must be . ..he must be in trouble then, that bloody High Council has him locked away somewhere . . .You came to find me so I could help him, didn't you?" Her face full of worry and hope.
She found herself clutching gently at the young woman's lapels. Perhaps it was just an excuse to feel that double heartbeat against her fists. She wanted to shake "The Doctor's Apprentice" but did not. Perhaps there was a small wave of jealousy, for she had been many things to the Doctor, but Apprentice she was not.
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Post by Susan Foreman on Jul 11, 2011 2:53:47 GMT -5
Susan’s eyes widened when the human grasped her hands pulled her to a stop in the road. This wasn’t the way the night was supposed to go. She had been going to get Sarah back home and keep her there with information about the Doctor, whether it were true or not. But those plans cracked as Sarah reached out to her, or at least tried to. She could sense the woman looking for something diplomatic and not hurtful to say, or maybe Sarah was just looking for anything to break the sullen silence. She raised her eyes from their hands to meet Sarah’s eyes.
“ Is he alive? He's alive then . . .now . . right? I knew he must be . ..he must be in trouble then, that bloody High Council has him locked away somewhere . . .You came to find me so I could help him, didn't you?” the woman asked, and Susan wondered if she really believed her own story. Was her grandfather still alive? She had no idea; his death would explain the reason he hadn’t bothered to fix the timeline. It would have been so much more effective than if she had done it with her clumsy, inexperienced hands.
But the woman’s face was hopeful, and it hurt Susan. She rested her hands over Sarah’s and smiled calmly at her, hoping to at least settle some of the nerves. “The Doctor can handle himself, Sarah,” she said truthfully, dodging the questions carefully. “As for the High Council, I wouldn’t worry about them too much. They wouldn’t dare keep the Doctor under imprisonment there; they need him to do their dirty work to keep up their diplomatic appearances,” she answered, trying to assuage not only Sarah’s fears, but her own.
“But now isn’t the time to be discussing this,” she gently separated herself from Sarah. She bowed melodramatically and swooped out her arm, mimicking a gesture that Ian Chesterfield had made to her and Barbara on several occasions on his ‘good’ days exploring with her grandfather. “Ladies first,” she chuckled.
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Post by Sarah Jane on Jul 11, 2011 23:51:06 GMT -5
Her face went from sunlight to pout in three seconds flat. Not that she intended to pout. She was trying not to growl. Not to argue, not to toss her head like an unsettled horse. Not to shake the Doctor's Apprentice that stood in her grip. A pout was what happened on her face as she struggled against a hot flare of denial and disappointment that heated her skin and her mind. Her hands had tightened into hard fists until Susan laid a hand over each. Ease down. Ease down, she thought to herself. Don't blame the messenger, not when she stands before you with dark circles under her eyes and her skin so pale. There is more going on here than is first apparent. Patience.
Susan began untangling herself from Sarah's grip, but Sarah only relinquished after saying the one thing she must.
"He needs me. Sometimes, he needs me. Maybe just not right now." She affirmed to them both softly as she let go.
She stepped back, turned aside, hid in her hair, sniffed, brushed her cheek with her hand and released a wave of anger loose from shoulders to toes and fingertips all in a simple graceful movement that ended with tossing long dark hair away from her face and nailing Susan with her gaze. She shook off her anger like rain. Her pout was gone and had replaced by resolve and welcome.
“But now isn’t the time to be discussing this.” Susan said, followed by a dramatic, graceful bow that brought Sarah Jane's smile back, closed lipped against the lingering pain she felt though it was.
“Ladies first,”
Sarah led the way down the next block and up her apartment steps. Her digs were small, but for the first time in her life, she lived alone. She let them in and flipped on the lights. It was brick and dark wood, with hand plastered walls. the place being ancient but well cared for. A few pieces of cutting edge art from the streets were sprinkled around the place.. The sofa is flat and pristine, white cloth and art deco squared corners. It is one large room with the kitchen separated only by a long island.
"Susan, you look just exhausted. Why don't you just lay down on the couch a bit while I get the coffee started." She is walking over to a thick quilt on a rack and pulling it into her arms. It smells faintly of lilac. She turns and looks back at her guest with her fluffy burden in her arms.
"Please, really, close your eyes a minute, and I'll bring you something to eat." She frowned a little. "The Doctor was always very . . . .unpredictable about food. Something? Anything to eat for you?"
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Post by Susan Foreman on Jul 13, 2011 0:31:13 GMT -5
“He needs me. Sometimes, he needs me. Maybe just not right now,” the woman said, muted confidence in her tone. Susan lowered her eyes, an uncomfortable feeling of nostalgia clawing through her chest. There had been a time that she had been assured of her place in the Doctor’s heart. She had been confident that he needed her. When the Doctor had left her, those feelings had quietly chipped down into fury. She didn’t know the circumstances of how this woman had left the Doctor, but she had obviously taken it better than Susan had – or maybe she was in denial of the cruel truth.
The Doctor never came back.
Once inside the apartment, her eyes studied the surroundings carefully. It looked like a home that she had once had with her husband and child – the home she had grown bitter toward and put behind her. She could remember the day her husband had been killed working for the Resistance; the way her son had slowly drawn away from her. And why not? It was no secret that she wasn’t human. She could remember the last day she had spent inside of her home in the twenty second century London; the day her son had been murdered.
She shut her eyes, pushing back down those memories as her face paled and tinted slightly green. “Susan, you look just exhausted. Why don’t you just lay down on the couch a bit while I get the coffee started.”
Exhausted? It was probably the diplomatic way of saying she looked like death warmed over. The prospect of lying down did sound especially tempting. However, the idea of falling asleep on a stranger’s couch did not sound appealing. Despite that hesitance, she found herself taking the blanket from Sarah and curling up the edge of the couch.
“I’m not that tired,” she lied, sounding much more lucid than she appeared. The smell of lilac reminded her of something that she couldn’t quite remember. A memory that was on the edge of her mind, but was too far gone to be remembered completely. Mother? she wondered faintly, but decided not to think on it too much. Her eyes closed reluctantly, and her mind remained stubbornly awake.
“The Doctor was always very… unpredictable about food. Something? Anything to eat for you?” the woman asked kindly.
Susan’s eyes opened even more reluctantly than they’d closed. She rubbed them with fierce determination to stay awake. “No, but thank you for asking. I don’t have much of an appetite.”
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Post by Sarah Jane on Jul 13, 2011 1:30:09 GMT -5
Her momentary privacy as she made up the coffee was a welcome agony. The Doctor could not have her with him right now any more than he could have when he dropped her off, but he was alive. Alive, as she had known deep down. Tears of relief and sorrow streamed silently down her cheeks. It was easier to let them come than hold them back, and she didn't want Susan to see. By the time the coffee was ready, her face was washed and dried, her nose blown and her resolve made. Until the Doctor returned to her, she would simply go on with their work the best she could. Or just maybe she'd look for that motorcycle - Puck fellow and find out what was exactly on his wrist, said a small, dangerous, eager voice in the back of her mind. Sarah Jane suspected that Susan's visit had less to do with the Doctor than it did about the man with the bracelet in the bar that made such intriguing sounds.
The coffee set rattle just the least bit as she brought it to the table beside the sofa. She could not tell for a moment if Susan was asleep or awake. Sarah claimed the little chair.
"Susan? Susan, here." She began to pour the coffee for them both. She'd broken out the good stuff for this occasion and it smelled heavenly. Sarah Jane plucked up her own cup and saucer and sat.
"Look, Time Lady, you look like someone in trouble. Are you in trouble? Do you need help? What can I do?" Sarah Jane would pitch her voice in exact proportion to how asleep or awake the Galifreyan appeared to be, not wishing to startle her, or even not wake her if she had managed to drift off. If she was sleeping, Sarah Jane would muse this in whisper to herself.
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Post by Susan Foreman on Jul 13, 2011 16:09:13 GMT -5
At the sound of the rattle, Susan opened her eyes wearily. She remained silent, watching as Sarah set down the coffee on the table. She shut her eyes again, heaving a little sigh. The depths of the blanket were a comfort, and the sofa was a welcome luxury to her aching back, but it needed to end. She needed to snap out of it and face the woman and reality. She wasn’t there to fall asleep on a stranger’s couch, nor was she there to mope about that way her grandfather left everyone. She was there to prevent Sarah from doing anything stupid.
Also to get her favorite restaurant back.
“Susan? Susan, here,” the kind woman said, and the Time Lady heard the welcome sound of coffee being poured into a cup. As the aroma reached her nose, her lips tugged into another smile. She struggled with herself, trying desperately to get up. Due to her weak will to leave the couch, it appeared only a slight shift in the lump on the couch. “’m ’wake,” Susan mumbled unconvincingly.
With a great final, valiant struggle, Susan finally managed to sit up. She rubbed her eyes and pulled the blanket off her. She took her cup and the saucer, curling up on the couch, careful not to get too comfortable. She drank from it, the heat running through her bringing her back from the brink of exhaustion. “Thank you for the coffee. I really needed it,” she said, directing a warm smile towards Sarah.
“Look, Time Lady,” Sarah began, and Susan cringed, wondering if she had upset the woman despite her gallant efforts to be nice. “You look like someone in trouble. Are you in trouble? Do you need help? What can I do?” she continued, overwhelming Susan with the question. The tone was soft-spoken and held little malice that Susan picked up on, but the questions put her on edge anyway.
She swallowed thickly, unsure of how to answer them. Was she in trouble? Probably not in the way the woman meant. She wasn’t on the run from any sort of alien, not from the Time Lords. They had all but forgotten her once the Doctor had. Susan wouldn’t go as far as to say that she was on the run from herself – that was needlessly dramatic. But sometimes, in her darkest of moods, she would curl underneath her bed and imagine helping the Doctor’s enemies finding him and –
Susan shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted, voice drawn. “I’m lying to you. I don’t have any information that you don’t already know,” she hissed, the truth twitching angrily inside her. “I haven’t seen him since he locked me out of the TARDIS and left me stranded,” she growled, the cup in her hand shuddering as she trembled.
Calm down, she told herself. She took a shaky drink from the cup and set it down on the table, worried about breaking the kind woman’s nice dishes. She shouldn’t take out her anger on those who did not deserve it.
She swallowed thickly and looked at Sarah, shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m just wasting your time.”
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Post by Sarah Jane on Jul 13, 2011 17:08:33 GMT -5
Groggy, grumpy Galifreyan. She was delighted none the less. until she heard:
"Stranded-" Stranded? Stranded?
Sudden hope dashed, and she was on her feet, snatching up her coat again.
"We don't have to be stranded." She said, thinking of herself as much in that moment a Susan. In that moment, she knew she was going to live differently. No more wading into life, she would dive headfirst as she always had with the Doctor. She was going to skydive and mountain climb, meet weird people in bars, and she was going to chase down every hint of Space Stuff she came across and find herself a way back into the greater Universe. The Doctor wasn't the only one who could reach the stars.
"You stay here and get some rest." She is reaching up and plucking her hat from it's peg. "I swear there was someone in that bar tonight who travels time and space. I'm just going to go talk to him-" She is turning around, purse in hand.
All of this in a rush of just seconds, she is determined to get out the door before the sleepy woman can rouse and talk her out of it. Time may be of the essence.
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Post by Susan Foreman on Jul 18, 2011 1:24:50 GMT -5
That had not been the reaction she had been expected. She had expected a slap to the face, a stern warning about never crossing paths with Sarah again, and the strongly worded ‘get out’ speech. But instead of all that, Sarah practically jumped out of her seat. Susan jumped, nearly falling out of the couch from nervousness. “We don’t have to be stranded,” the woman proclaimed. Susan opened her mouth wordlessly, trying to find anything to say to hold the woman back. “You stay here and get some rest. I swear there was someone in that bar tonight who travels time and space. I’m just going to go talk to him—”
And the woman was talking much too fast, was moving all too deliberately. Susan scrambled off the couch, the blankets tangling around her feet and making her fall flat on her face. She picked herself up quickly and stood in front of Sarah, holding her own arms out to her side. “No,” she demanded, catching her breath. She placed her hands on Sarah’s shoulders, pausing to calm her racing hearts. “Don’t do that please. He’s one of the people that work against the Doctor,” she said, deciding that it was a necessary lie that was almost the truth. She was quite certain that her grandfather wouldn’t agree with the kinds of things the Time Agency did.
She let go of the woman with one hand and dug into her own pocket, pulling out a Vortex Manipulator. “You’re right. We don’t have to be stranded. Your situation was vastly different than mine,” she explained, pushing the Manipulator into the woman’s hands. “It’s a Vortex Manipulator. It’s how I got from where I was stranded to here with you. It’s how that man in the bar came from where he did.”
ooc| sorry for it's lameness. :/ PM me if you need me to change something. [/font]
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Post by Sarah Jane on Jul 19, 2011 11:59:25 GMT -5
There is a big thump behind her, and turns to see Susan on the floor with her feet tangled in the comforter. For a frozen second Sarah was torn between helping to right her guest, or getting out the door. It felt like if she didn't run now, she'd be trapped here for the rest of her life. The man in the bar couldn't drink forever. In that moment's hesitation, Susan scrambled up and moved to block her path, arms spread.
Sarah's sense of urgency must have shown on her face because Susan took her shoulders, intensely imploring her to stay. Galafreyans were not quick to touch people, and that grip on her shoulder caught Sarah's attention enough to keep her standing there. The Vortex Manipulator surely caught her attention as well. She actually, unknowingly, licked her lips to see it.
Well, Susan wasn't stranded. This roused in Sarah Jane such an unattractive wave of jealousy, all she could do was banish it from herself as irrelevant. It takes her less than a second to do this, but the battle shows on her face. Then Sarah is staring into Susan's startling blue eyes as the facts of the evening suddenly assemble themselves in that moment of inner clarity.
Irritated by such deep intervention in her life, Sarah continued to look like she might bolt out the door any minute. Her face wears a look of disbelief at such base manipulation.
"You came here to stop me from meeting that man. You came to stop me from finding a way to go looking for the Doctor. Thats not fair, Time Lady. Apprentice." She said with the slightest edge of accusation, implying that Susan had too much advantage already. Too much advantage with those long limbs and her swan like throat. With those penetrating eyes and her Vortex Manipulator. With her I.Q. unmeasurable.
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Post by Susan Foreman on Jul 24, 2011 23:14:52 GMT -5
Susan could tell that she had the woman’s attention. She noted the longing in Sarah’s eyes as they roved over the Manipulator. She lowered it slightly, slipping it back in her pocket. “I—” she cut herself off, alarmed by the sudden change in Sarah’s expression. It was full of bitterness, jealousy, and anger – three emotions that Susan had felt all too often in recent years. She dropped her hands from the woman’s shoulders, biting her lip nervously. Her lie seemed to slipping away from her – an apprentice was someone you took up willingly, after all. A granddaughter was someone you dealt with, even though she cramped your style.
“ You came here to stop me from meeting that man.”
The Time Lady felt her mouth go dry at the truth. She glanced around furtively, trying to think of anything that would help her lie. What was she supposed to tell Sarah? ‘Yeah, I’m risking your happiness because I like my restaurant.’ That was the truth, but there was no way that she could tell the kind woman that. She also couldn’t tell her that if she went to the man she’d die earlier than she was meant to. What would that convince her of? That her life was more exciting, more intriguingly dangerous with the man?
“You came to stop me from finding a way to go looking for the Doctor. That’s not fair, Time Lady. Apprentice.”
Each word stabbed at Susan’s conscience. It wasn’t the truth, but the tone in the woman’s voice made her feel guilty nonetheless. It was her fault, really, that the Doctor had abandoned her. Maybe if she hadn’t met David – maybe if she hadn’t fallen in love – she would still be with him. Maybe he wouldn’t have picked up this poor woman and made her as miserable as she was.
Susan bit her lip and shook her head. “No, that’s not true at all,” she insisted. She grabbed Sarah’s hand and pushed the Manipulator into the palm. “I came to help you, Sarah Jane. I really did. Believe me,” she implored. She almost told Sarah that the apprentice bit had been a boldfaced lie, but why give the woman even more reason to distrust her?
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Post by Sarah Jane on Jul 26, 2011 16:59:17 GMT -5
It was heavier than it looked, the device Susan put into her hand. It felt powerful. In action and deed, the Time Lady implored her to trust. Sarah Jane felt her sense of violation fading away, along her quick flash of anger.
One glance at the clever thing and she knew it would be of no use to her. The gesture was appreciated though.
"I believe you." She admitted, though continuing anger would have been easier. She took her opportunity to get another good look at the device in her hands just out of curiosity. "When I realized you didn't have anything else to tell me about the Doctor, I brought you back here because you look so worn, Susan, but if you have this, you must be able to take it back home." She reached out, took Susan's wrist to pull her hand palm up, and put the heavy bracelet into it. "I'll bet you have a bed somewhere with your name on it, don't you?" She asked.
Sarah Jane didn't quite know what she owed this tall young woman, but she suspected it was more than she guessed. The least she could do was encourage her towards safety and sleep. Or whatever cat nap like alternative suited Galifreyians.
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Post by The Second Doctor on Jul 27, 2011 9:36:39 GMT -5
OOC: Sorry for the lameness of this post...
A sly grin crossed The Dark Lord's face as he laid a sheet of laminated paper down on the Tardis console. The schematics of a particular part of London Sewage. A pathetic way to tread, especially for a Timelord. But it was necessary.
In the dark lighting of the Tardis, the green glow from the console lit up his eyes as his gaze came up to look at the Tardis's main screen. The target showed on screen.
Time was a fickle thing. It could be twisted and curled. Written and rewritten. In this case, unwritten. Or "helped along," depending on point of view. The target never should've done the things she'd done. So Alec was going to make sure she didn't.
The Dark Lord opened the Tardis doors, and stepped out into the sewer, dragging four triangle machines with him. He set one up just outside the cardinal points of a single dwelling. North, East, South, and West. First one down, three to go.
He gathered the others up in his arms and trudged through the wet concrete, kicking water up. He got to the approximate points and placed the others down, charging them up.
Walking down the underground, he stepped again inside his Tardis, teleporting above ground. The machines matched up, just like the ones hundreds of thousands of billions of kilometers away. A planet far off...
Once turned on, they would teleport what was in the perimeter, or particularly, above it. Teleporting Sarah Jane Smith to this planet would stop her from meeting that genetically modified know-it-all, besides all the other hero junk she accomplished, and that would solve a million other problems...
The Dark Lord lifted up his screwdriver, ready to activate the machines...
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Post by Susan Foreman on Jul 29, 2011 20:39:34 GMT -5
“I believe you,” the woman told her. Susan gauged her reaction carefully, feeling her hope damper at the woman’s expression. “When I realized you didn’t have anything else to tell me about the Doctor, I brought you back here because you look so worn, Susan, but if you have this, you must be able to take it back home.”
Susan nearly cringed when Sarah put the bracelet into her hand. She clutched it loosely, letting her hand fall back to her side limply. The woman was effectively kicking her out – in the politest way possible, but it was still a clear order for her to get out. The Time Lady looked down at the vortex manipulator, and then back to Sarah.
She didn’t want to leave. What if Sarah Jane decided to take things into her own hands again and track down the man in the bar? Susan wasn’t too sure about the mind-set of this woman: even though Susan had the same device as that man, perhaps Sarah would instigate a change in the future anyway. And what effect had this meeting had?
And not regarding the future, Susan was tired of being lonely.
“Wait,” she said, tucking the Manipulator into her pocket. “I’m trying to tell you that we have the same goal. You want to find the Doctor, and I would like to see him again as well. We could work together, Sarah Jane.”
And before she could launch into a convincing argument that the human wouldn’t be able to say no to, she tilted her head curiously. “Do you hear that?” she asked, in regards to the ineffable sound of a TARDIS.
ooc| I shall change it as I need to.
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