eponymous_rose: (DW | Sarah | Harry | Cling)
[personal profile] eponymous_rose
Title: Ending Start
Author: [livejournal.com profile] eponymous_rose
Word Count: 400
Rating: G
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan



She comes to see him again, does Sarah Jane, looking just a bit older, just a bit more worn by her experiences but still shining as ever. Harry tells her so, and she doesn't blush but her smile widens.

He doesn't tell her that he never expected her to come back, not really.

They sip tea in his sitting-room, discuss impossible things with the nonchalance Harry usually reserves for the weather and particularly boring sport matches. She tells him about having to leave, about Aberdeen and wondering if the Doctor was all right, wherever and whenever he might be.

He tells her about an alien incursion the Brigadier managed to hold off single-handedly, about being the expert on the case and nursing an injured alien back to health. For a long, absurd moment they smile proudly at one another.

They exchange the tea for wine after a time, something tasteful that Sergeant Benton's wife sent over after a particularly harrowing misadventure, and their conversation turns to melancholy, to the worlds they never visited, to the hidden darknesses in their own planet. They exchange clichés about ignorance, and eventually they've both had enough of the alcohol and the triteness that Sarah asks why he stayed.

"You stayed," Harry argues, and the wine sloshes in his glass as he waves it to punctuate his point.

She rolls her eyes. "Harry," she says. "Harry, Harry, Harry. I had to leave, remember?"

"No," he says. "You're persuasive. You could have talked your way in; you might have snuck back on board. It sounds like you hardly even thought to ask why he was dropping you off."

She sniffles, watching the wine swirl at the bottom of her glass. "That's not fair."

"You took your chance," said Harry, in what he hoped was an appropriately mentorish tone of voice. "I know, because I took it, too. You can do more good here."

Sarah snorts indelicately. "I'm not saving worlds here."

"I am," says Harry, and she turns to look at him for a long moment, and outside the buzz of alcohol he recognises that she wants to say something, that she can't find the words.

"Well," she says, after a long moment, "I suppose life goes on."

He follows her gaze to the opposite wall, to the window opening out onto the outside world. "Life goes on," he echoes. "Believe me, I know."

Date: 2008-03-11 06:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] livii.livejournal.com
Oh, this is very very lovely; I seem to be incapable of not getting mushy and soppy like a great big girl at anything Harry-related these days, and this fits that bill. Very sweet.

Date: 2008-03-11 06:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] flo-nelja.livejournal.com
I really love this. It makes me love Harry more than I did.

Date: 2008-03-11 08:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] purplemonster77.livejournal.com
Beautiful. Melancholic and bittersweet. Wish we could have had more of Harry.

Date: 2008-03-11 12:26 pm (UTC)
paranoidangel: PA (Doctors and Nurses)
From: [personal profile] paranoidangel
Oh, this is so sweet. And it's such a good point of Harry's, that if Sarah tried she could have stayed with the Doctor. I love that he's still saving the world and nursing injured aliens, and the Brig saves the world single-handed!

Date: 2008-03-11 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hms-surrender.livejournal.com
=D This is so beautiful. And anything with Harry makes me happy. xD

Date: 2008-03-12 08:57 am (UTC)
tree_and_leaf: Watercolour of barn owl perched on post. (Default)
From: [personal profile] tree_and_leaf
Lovely! You write a really good Harry.

Date: 2008-03-12 11:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] minerva-fan.livejournal.com
Utterly, utterly beautiful. My day may now begin. THank you.

Date: 2008-03-12 07:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xtrue-coloursx.livejournal.com
Oh, that is bittersweet and accurate and poignant and just beautiful

Date: 2008-03-13 03:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amilyn.livejournal.com
Absolutely lovely.

Thank you.

Date: 2008-03-14 11:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rapunzelita.livejournal.com
I only realised today that I hadn't read this AND JEEZ I MISSED SOMETHING. I barely know Harry at all (I've only seen Genesis of the Daleks with him) but I still think this fic is absolutely wonderful. It almost made me cry, dammit. (Had it been longer, I would have.)

You, madam, are made of sheer, pure, hundred percent awesome.

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