IT WAS 20,000 YEARS AGO TODAY

Chapter Forty

"Right, I'm leaving for the shops," Sarah Jane said to Luke, Rani and Clyde as she opened the front door. "You lot behave and don't mess up my house. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"We'll be fine, Sarah Jane," Clyde said. "Have fun."

Sarah Jane paused a moment and stared at the innocent looks on their faces, suddenly getting a sneaking suspicion that leaving them alone in her house on a Saturday was a bad idea. She stepped outside, shut the door and began walking to her car when she suddenly froze as her ears caught the familiar wheezing sound she loved so dearly. She ran down the driveway and let out a cry of joy when she saw the TARDIS materializing across the street. Luke opened the front door and the teenagers ran outside while Sarah Jane sprinted across the street, calling the Doctor's name. John Smith opened the door and she ran and gave him a hug.

"Doctor, I missed you. How are you?" she said as Luke and the others ran across the street.

"Um…I'm not the Doctor, well, not really. I'm not that Doctor," John Smith said.

Sarah Jane frowned in confusion then it dawned on her.

"You're the clone then?" she said.

"Well, yes and no. I'm not that clone," he said, feeling like a fool.

"Okay, what's going on here?" Sarah Jane said, crossing her arms over her chest. "If this is some sort of joke…"

"No, It's not a joke. Um…come inside and I'll explain. All of you," he said, glancing at the teenagers.

Everyone went inside the TARDIS and Sarah Jane froze when she saw the interior.

"Wait, you changed it?" she said to John Smith.

"I'll explain. Just come have a cup of tea," he said to her as he closed the door behind them.

Sarah Jane looked at the others and she did a double take when she saw the Beatles.

"Wait…isn't that…" she said, pointing at them while the Beatles snickered.

"Paul McCartney! Pleasure," Paul said with a little bow.

"John Lennon, also a pleasure," John said with a nod of his head.

"Ringo Starr, nice to meet ya," he said, waving.

"And I'm George Harrison," George finished.

"You have the Beatles on board?" Sarah Jane said to John Smith while everyone laughed.

"Come with us, I'll explain everything. I need you and the teens help," he said to them as they followed him out of the console room.

For the next hour, John Smith and the others explained what had happened starting with a brief summary of the Doctor's death, regeneration and meeting Amy and Rory. They had to pause after talking about the Doctor's death when Sarah Jane choked up at that.

"When he saved my son…that goodbye wave he gave me, I had a funny feeling that something was wrong but I convinced myself that I was imagining things. I should know better than to deny my journalist instincts. I'm glad he was able to regenerate again. I'm sorry though…please go on."

They continued and told her about going to save Paul from dying. Sarah Jane was shocked at that when she heard that Paul had originally died and had been replaced.

"I remembered hearing those rumors growing up but that was something else I denied," she said to Paul. "I'm glad that the Doctor went back and changed things."

"So am I, I'm thankful to be here," Paul replied.

They went on with the story and Sarah Jane and the teens listened in stunned silence while they told her everything. Sarah Jane swallowed hard when they told them about the Doctor and the others being kidnapped.

"Yes, you can count on me, I would be honored to fight at your sides again," Sarah Jane said.

"What about us? Can we come?" Rani asked.

Sarah Jane glanced at them.

"You'll do everything they tell you to and you'll promise to be careful?" she asked.

They nodded.

"Then you can come with us," she said. "So are we going now then?"

"Well, I thought we'd try to find Jack. Last time the Doctor saw him was an intergalactic pub. I thought we'd try to find him there first."

"Wherever you want to go, John, go ahead," Sarah Jane said.

"Actually, can you wait a tic," Clyde said.

"Why? What's wrong?" Sarah Jane said to him.

"Well, um…we were in a hurry to get over here and we…left your door standing wide open."

"What?" Sarah Jane said as the teens sprinted towards the console room and everyone else laughed. "I swear, those three are gonna be the death of me. No wonder I have to clean my house twice a week now! Kids!"

After the teens locked the door and got back inside, John Smith set a course for the pub on Draxus Minor while the others stood around him and waited.

(Draxus Minor…)

"Evenin', Tom," Jack said to the barkeep as he settled into his usual place at the bar and ordered a Saturnalia Lager.

Tom smiled and nodded as he got him his drink. Jack sighed and looked around at the crowded pub. There was the usual crowd, the usual mixture of aliens chatting and getting drunk. Jack envied them when he saw most of them laughing and joking with their friends while they downed their drinks. He hadn't felt like laughing in a long time. His brief fling with Alonzo hadn't worked out. He had been a nice enough guy but he wasn't Ianto and that's who Jack truly wanted. Night after night, he came to the Polaris Pub to drown his sorrows in alcohol so he could try to forget the image of his lover dying in his arms. He had basically spent the past few months bumming around the planets, both Draxus Minor and the planets around it. He didn't really have any desire to do more than be a bum, at least for the moment. He couldn't go back to his old life of being a con man and he had no desire to form another team like Torchwood or go back to the one he left behind. He was just content for the moment to park his ass on a bar stool and swig lager after lager until he could barely see.

He had just started on his first lager when he lowered the mug and saw an all too familiar face staring at him from across the way. He groaned and muttered a curse at the Doctor. Here was another man who stirred up passionate emotions inside him and yet, he was unattainable which frustrated Jack even more. He wished just for once the Doctor would agree to come back with him to his dingy flat and engage in some rough sex so he could finally know what it was like to shag a Time Lord. He eyed the Time Lord when he came around the bar towards him.

"If you're trying to set me up with another man, I'm not interested," he said when he was in earshot, "Alonzo didn't work out."

"Sorry to hear that. I'm not the Doctor though," John Smith said. "And before you say anything, I'm not the clone that was with him in the Crucible. I do, however, need your help."

"Sorry, not interested in helping anyone anymore," Jack said before he took another swig of lager.

"Rose is with me," John Smith said.

"So? Go shag her then," Jack said with a shrug.

"No, she wants to see you, she missed you," John said, annoyed.

"Well, I'm sorry but I'm not in the mood to see her or anyone else."

"What would you say if I told you the Beatles were traveling with me?"

Jack paused in mid-swallow. He swallowed the lager in his mouth and lowered the mug.

"The rock and roll band?" he said in disbelief.

"The very same," John Smith said.

"You got the Beatles to be your companions?" Jack said.

"I did. Would you like to meet them?'

Jack considered that for a moment and decided that meeting the Beatles in person was too good to pass up. He downed the rest of his lager, paid Tom and waved goodbye to him while he followed John Smith to the door.

Once inside the TARDIS, Jack was in awe when the Beatles came up and introduced themselves. He accepted hugs from Sarah Jane and Rose and eyed Amy and Rory appreciatively before shaking their hands. John Smith took the TARDIS into the vortex which shocked Jack.

"Wait, where are we going?" he said, glancing back at the closed door in alarm.

"We are going to help our friends," John Smith said. "And that includes the Doctor. They're in trouble and we need your help."

"Yeah…but…"

Jack started to protest and demand that they take him back but he glanced at Sarah Jane and saw the warm smile on her face. For the first time in months a genuine smile spread over Jack's face and while John Smith headed for Francine's house, he listened while everyone explained the situation to him.

Francine put the silver tea tray down on the coffee table while Martha and Mickey sat on the sofa. She grabbed her cup of tea while her daughter and son-in-law fixed theirs.

"So…how have you been?" Francine asked.

Martha hesitated. Since they had gone freelance they had gotten in a couple of perilous situations that nearly cost them their lives but she never told her mother about how close to death they came, preferring to sanitize everything and make it seem like they were defeating aliens and monsters without breaking a sweat. She didn't think Francine believed it but she liked to think her mother was trusting enough that she brought her story at face value.

"We're fine. We haven't done anything lately," Martha replied, which was the truth since both of them decided to take a holiday and rest. "We're just havin' a little R and R."

"That's good. You know that I don't like you going out on your own and fighting those creatures by yourself, not without UNIT backing you up," Francine said.

Martha groaned inwardly. Her mother always brought this up. Ever since she quit UNIT, her mother went on and on about what a huge mistake it had been, giving up the protection of the UNIT troops when actually Martha felt they had always been a hindrance to her and Mickey. She couldn't count the number of times she watched young men and women get wounded and killed because they were inexperienced at fighting aliens. She and Mickey finally decided it was better that they risk their own necks instead of others. But her mother still thought she and Mickey weren't able to defend themselves and so it had gotten to the point where Martha dreaded coming over because she knew her mother would start in on going solo.

"Mum, we're fine, honestly," Martha said. "We don't take on more than we can handle."

Another lie but her mother didn't need to know about all the requests for help they'd accepted and how many more were on hold now, waiting until they returned from their well-deserved holiday. Martha started to tell her something else when to her relief, her mobile rang. She checked it and smiled when she saw the call was coming from Jack. She excused herself as she got up and answered the phone.

"Hey, cutie, you and Mickey Mouse free tonight? I have some people I want you to meet," Jack said to her.

"Oh my God," Martha said when the Beatles stepped outside the TARDIS with everyone else, "I don't believe this. I'm a huge fan of you guys!"

The Beatles came up and introduced themselves to her, Mickey and Francine who was also in shock at seeing them. Once that was done, they introduced Amy, Rory, the teens and Pepa before John Smith asked if they could talk. Francine beckoned for them to come inside and make themselves comfortable. Once they were inside, everyone went through the same story they had told Sarah Jane, the teens and Jack.

When they finally finished about an hour later, Martha, Mickey and Francine were stunned. Finally, Martha spoke.

"If the Doctor and the others are in trouble, you can count on me to help," she said.

"And me," Mickey replied.

"Great. We need all the help we can get, especially since I think we're going to be headed to the Diablon's home world in order to get them back," John Smith said. "I normally wouldn't ask this of you, but we really do need as many people as we can to help."

"Say no more, I'm on board," Martha said while Mickey nodded in agreement. "I'm just glad you explained about the Doctor regenerating. He saved us that day and Mickey and I wondered why he didn't come and say hello. He just walked off without saying a word. Now we know why."

"So, is there anyone left we need to get then?" Mickey said.

"Yeah," John Smith said, rubbing the back of his neck, "we need one more person and it'll take a bit of convincing to get her to come with us."

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