Except when he reached for her, she sighed.

"Sorry, Harry. I'm just not in the mood."

He leaned away again. It wasn't as if every dinner had to result in them going to bed together, which was what they told themselves to make it seem less sordid, but generally they at least tried. "You were when you invited me over."

She shrugged. "Maybe it's just too easy now Luke's at university. There's no excitement in it."

Harry tried not to take offence at the insinuation that their sex life was boring. But given how it had been since she'd adopted Luke, he'd live with boring over non-existent. Somehow Sarah always had something on, and when he did come over other people being around would spoil the mood. He was glad she had Luke but he was nostalgic for the old days. "You weren't like this before you adopted Luke."

She gave him an apologetic look.

"So we have to come up with something to make it exciting." Whether Sarah agreed or not, he felt that the onus was on him. Not least because she'd not come up with anything herself. Although he thought his previous attempts with blindfolds and handcuffs had been good ideas, they had failed in their execution, so he would have to think of something different. Maybe if adding things didn't work, changing the location would. "How about the sofa? No one else has a key, do they?"

"No," she said slowly, and not sounding very confident about it.

He sighed. "You still keep a key under the plant pot, don't you?"

She didn't have to answer, he could tell by her guilty look.

"I've told you that isn't safe."

"Harry, having an argument isn't going to help."

She was right. He would wait until he left before telling her again. She might have Mr Smith, but he wouldn't be much use against someone breaking in to steal her valuables. "Are you going to throw me out, or do I get to stay the night?"

"Of course you can stay, Harry. I need a man to deal with any burglars," she said in an innocent tone that didn't match her grin.

"I think you'd be more than a match for any burglar." He knew she didn't always have a very high opinion of his usefulness, but then he didn't have a very high opinion of her regard for her own safety. They just had to stay off those subjects and they would be fine.

She smiled at him, but the effect was spoilt by a yawn.

"Bed?" he suggested and she nodded. "I'd ask what you've been up to, but I prefer living in blissful ignorance." He stood and offered her a hand up, which she took. And then didn't let go as they went upstairs to her bedroom.

They could almost be an old married couple, he thought, as they cleaned their teeth and put their pyjamas on. When she cuddled up to him in bed, he wondered if she'd changed her mind, until she said, "Perhaps I should just get a vibrator. It would always be there when I wanted it."

"If that was what you wanted you'd have got one years ago. Or married me." That wouldn't have just made their sex life simpler, it would have meant he could keep more of an eye on her and her dangerous activities. It was, he suspected, at least part of the reason why she'd never wanted to.

"I'm not marrying you, Harry."

He smiled. "I wasn't going to ask." He'd tried once and had been far too scared by her response to ever attempt it again. Besides, he wasn't in love with her any more. "Maybe I should come round for dinner every week while Luke's away. You're bound to be in the right mood at one of them."

She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being understanding."

"With you, I don't have a choice."

She rested her head on his shoulder and he held her tight until he fell asleep.

When he did eventually step through the front door, his clothes were damp and his hair stuck up. Sarah wondered briefly if he'd got into a fight. She was torn between relief at seeing he was all right and anger at him scaring her. He could have stopped to find a phone if he tried, she was sure.

"What happened to you?" she asked as he hung up his coat and carefully left his shoes by the door. Although she'd decided on anger, her tone had come out as relief.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, old girl."

Now she was annoyed. "Harry." This time her tone was a warning.

"I need a shower and a change of clothes," was all he said and Sarah seriously considered throttling him.

Instead, she stood outside the bathroom door and thought about how much effort she'd have to put in to break the door down. And how much more effort it would take to fix. So she made herself a cup of tea instead.

Back in the living room she settled down with a nice, hot mug of tea and told herself it was relaxing. But mostly she glared at the mug in place of glaring at Harry. She'd nearly finished it by the time he came out of the bathroom. He did at least look like everything was back in place and he smelled flowery, which meant he'd accidentally used her shower gel again. Sarah decided not to mention it and glared at him when he finished her lukewarm tea.

"Your tea's gone cold," he said, as he sat down.

Sarah folded her arms. "I'm still waiting."

He frowned. "What for?"

"For you to tell me where you've been." From the state of him she guessed that nothing that bad had happened to him at least.

"Oh." He leaned back on the sofa. "I was on my way here, taking a stroll along the Thames. It's very pretty with the lights reflecting off it." He smiled at her look. He was clearly going to take his time over the story. "The water rippled a bit, which I thought was odd, so I stopped to look. The next thing I know some monster has capsized a boat - you know, one of those tour boats for tourists. And they're not easy to capsize, believe me. Well, I couldn't just stand there, could I?"

He paused. Wondering if he wanted some sort of reaction, Sarah softly said, "Of course not."

"I thought it was the Loch Ness Monster back again for a moment. But this was far smaller and had more legs. I think it was an octopus. I didn't stop to count them, but they have eight legs, don't they?"

Sarah interrupted. "Harry, as much as I'm enjoying the story, do you think you could stick to the facts? I'd like to go to bed this side of midnight."

He looked hurt. "I am. I just thought you'd appreciate a little background."

She gave in. "Carry on, then," she said and patted him on the leg.

"Now where was I?"

Sarah gave him a look and Harry grinned.

"Ah, yes, the thing in the water - let's call it an octopus, shall we? - capsized a boat. Fortunately, there was a trained diver on a nearby boat and he jumped in to get all the people out. So I just had to worry about the octopus. And a bally great thing it was too. It probably would have filled your living room."

Sarah looked around at the room and decided she didn't want to face it, given a choice.

"The next thing I knew, something came up from the bottom of the river, nearly sucking all those people down! And it looked familiar, because it was an escape pod and the octopus was a crashed alien. With all the flailing about it was doing it was hard to get close to it in a boat, but it was coming closer to the shore, so I didn't have to. I called out to it, and I think it answered, but I didn't understand what it's saying."

"Because the TARDIS wasn't around," Sarah put in.

Harry nodded. "The only thing I could think to do is to call UNIT, but before I could dash off to find a phone box, there was a tremendous roar and a giant spaceship appeared over our heads. I'm surprised you didn't hear it, even out here."

Sarah was too and she had her suspicions about that, but she kept them quiet for now.

"It hovered over the Thames and nearly crashed into the Houses of Parliament. Then a hatch opened and there was another octopus, bigger than the one on the river. They talked to each other, as far as I could tell. And then they reached out an arm towards each other, the big one pulled the little one on board, and they closed the hatch. It flew off over my head and I had to throw myself to the ground to avoid having my head taken off."

Sarah looked at him closely and noticed he didn't have a scratch on him. That must have been very soft ground he'd thrown himself on.

"So then I went and got the escape pod and you'll never guess what I found inside."

"I probably won't," she agreed. "You might as well tell me." He looked like he was itching to.

"Eggs! Big octopus eggs."

She raised her eyebrows. "Where are they now?"

"I called UNIT and they came and took everything away. They're incubating the eggs, hoping they can teach the youngsters English, then they can tell us about their race."

Sarah wondered if, despite being a doctor, Harry knew the slightest thing about biology. Given that she'd heard nothing at all about this on the news (and she'd watched a lot of it while she'd been waiting), and UNIT weren't that good at covering up alien invasions, Sarah doubted most of his story. It wasn't the first tale Harry had told her and most of those had been exaggerated, if not a complete lie. But something must have happened and if it was by the Thames that would account for his clothes being wet. Mind you, being Harry, he could have just fallen in. "How much of that was actually true?"

Harry stood up. "Didn't you say something about bed?" he asked, changing the subject and holding out a hand. When she didn't move he added, "Does it matter?"

He had told an entertaining story and she had forgotten all her worry and anger. And bed might be the best place to tease the real story out of him. So she smiled at him, took his hand and let him lead her to the bedroom.

Sarah sat down, surprised. She had been sure the Brigadier would understand. She'd originally come here independently of the Doctor, so why couldn't she stay now that he was gone? Alright, so she'd sneaked in, pretending to be her aunt, but she was hoping the Brigadier had forgotten about that. "How am I supposed to help you if I can't get on the base?"

"We'll call you, if we need a favourable report in the press."

"That's not what I meant."

The Brigadier leaned forward. "Sarah. We just can't allow civilians on the base any more. Orders from above. If it were up to me...." He gave her a sympathetic look.

She nodded, understanding the military mindset all too well - which was why she wanted nothing to do with it. Except for UNIT, of course. She stood up. "Thank you for trying, Brigadier." Although she wondered how much effort he'd put in and whether he'd try again now.

He stood too and shook her hand, giving no hint of any guilt he might be feeling. "Keep in touch, Miss Smith."

Being without a pass meant she was escorted out, although in her case it involved having a friendly chat with Benton as they walked to the front gate. She just wished she'd managed to convince him to let her stay a little longer, but he refused to go against orders. After he left her, she frowned when she saw someone by her car. It wasn't someone in uniform, so that automatically made her suspicious.

It was only when she got closer that she realised who it was: Harry Sullivan. She hadn't seen him since the last time they were on Earth in the present, not long after she'd had to deal with the android version of him. She'd wondered if he'd stayed in UNIT and now she knew. "Harry," she called out to him, cheerfully.

Harry straightened up from where he was peering at her windscreen. "Hullo, old girl."

She rolled her eyes. "I see you haven't changed a bit." Although she wasn't entirely unhappy about it. It was nice to know that some things never changed.

He smiled at her before he said, "Did you know your tax disc's three months out of date?"

"Oh, no." Her shoulders slumped as she checked it to confirm he was right. "I have a pile of post at home that I haven't had the energy to work my way through." She'd only got as far as the final demands, not wanting her electricity to be cut off.

"You can't drive it like that."

She wondered if Harry ever did anything that could be considered breaking the law, even if only a little bit. He'd probably never even had a speeding ticket. But at least you knew where you were with Harry, she supposed. "Harry, the chances of the police stopping me are pretty slim."

"Not the way you drive."

She punched him in the arm. He'd only experienced her driving once.

"Come on, I'll give you a lift home."

She sighed and gave in. She would have argued more, but she didn't have enough money to buy petrol with. At least if she didn't have to make the journey here, she could get everywhere she needed to on the bus. "So what have you been up to while I've been away?" she asked, glaring at him for holding the passenger door open for her.

"I'm still working at UNIT," he replied, if that wasn't obvious. Why else would he be hanging around the base?

"So no plans to go elsewhere?"

He shook his head. "I'm perfectly happy here, why would I leave?"

"You did say you'd like to leave the Navy and have your own practice in the country," she pointed out.

"Maybe one day. But my tour here isn't over and I'm just getting used to dealing with aliens."

Sarah smiled, remembering his reactions to the whole idea. He had improved a lot very quickly. She wondered what it would take for him to leave now. But even after seeing other planets and other times, Harry was still perfectly happy in good old London in the present. She envied him that a little. "It's very good to see you," she said. "I've had such a hard time explaining where I've been."

"I'm glad to see you're in one piece, old girl."

Oh, she hadn't missed that at all. "Don't ever change, Harry," she told him, fondly, thus scuppering her chances of ever getting him to stop calling her that.

2.
Sarah had to remind herself that dinner in a restaurant really did consist purely of foods found on Earth. Which, although boring, meant that nothing was about to kill her. She could have added some excitement to the meal by allowing Harry to order for her, but she wasn't so bored that she needed to get her kicks from a surprise main course. Besides, Harry had already held her chair and poured her wine, she wasn't going to let him get away with doing anything else for her.

In between the waiter bringing out their food they'd reminisced about the amazing things they'd seen. It might not be the best conversation to have in a public place, but for now it was all they had in common. And Sarah wanted to remember how real it was and not how dreamlike it was starting to become in the face of bus tickets and burst pipes.

"I wish we could see that future," Sarah said, when their coffee arrived and they'd run out of old times to talk about.

Harry shivered. "I'd rather not see an empty Earth again."

"It wasn't empty the first time," she pointed out, but it was eerie enough as it was. She much preferred London filled with people, not fields. "No, I want to see humans build spaceships and go into space."

He frowned. "You do remember the moon landing, don't you?"

She was half-tempted to pour the milk over his head for being so obtuse, but settled for adding some to her coffee instead. "It's not the same. They had to wear spacesuits and live in zero g. Nerva Station was just like being on Earth, only we were in orbit around it."

"It would be something worth seeing," he agreed. "But I'm afraid the chances of you living thousands of years are small." He grinned and had a sip of his coffee to cover it.

"Only small?" she teased, smiling. "I'll take any chance, no matter how small." After all, you never know. Scientists might discover the secret of eternal life. Or the Doctor might come back and take her to the near future, rather than the distant future. She tried not to dwell on that last thought.

Harry smiled back and shook his head. "Ever the optimist."

If only he knew. She sighed and played idly with the empty sugar sachet.

"What's wrong, Sarah?" he asked softly.

He was so content that she wasn't sure he'd understand if she explained it to him. But then, it wasn't as if there was anyone else she could tell. She dropped the sachet back on the table. "You know how going back to work after a good holiday is really depressing?"

He nodded.

"I feel like that, only it's not getting any better." It probably didn't help that she wasn't going to work on a regular basis. Writing about ordinary events seemed so unimportant after the the things she'd seen, but having very little to do only gave her more time to think.

He took her hand. "In that case, I think we had the holiday of a lifetime. Maybe we'll never do anything like that ever again, but we're luckier than most of the other people on this planet."

She didn't feel lucky, but she hadn't expected Harry, of all people, to look at it like that. She studied him closely, wondering if there was only a part of the real Harry he allowed people to see.

He frowned at her. "What is it?"

She shook her head and smiled. It was hardly something she could explain to him and she was sure that if she tried he would just tell her she was imagining things. So instead she squeezed his hand and said, "I never thought of it like that. Thank you."

"That's what I'm here for."

And, as it turned out, to refuse to allow her to pay the bill.

3.
Harry leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Aren't you supposed to be writing?"

Sarah looked guiltily down at the empty page in her notebook. She was here to review the concert. It wasn't quite what she was used to, but it paid the bills and she did enjoy listening to music. The magazine had given her two tickets, so she'd brought Harry along. She'd deliberated about who to bring, wondering how she'd managed to lose touch with all her friends, but in the end she'd decided that the problem wasn't that Harry had become the focal point of her social life, but that she was unexpectedly enjoying his company. They'd been out together a few times now and she had a vague idea he appreciated classical music, so inviting him made sense.

The concert was only an amateur affair, but she'd got caught up in the music and forgotten what she was here for. When she still hadn't written anything by the time the interval started, Harry went off for ice creams and returned with a programme as well. "Here," he said, passing the programme over. "If you forget to write in the second half at least you have something to start with."

"Thank you." She smiled at him, touched by his thoughtfulness.

Although she managed to write a couple of sentences while she had been waiting for Harry during the interval, she didn't manage to expand on any of them during the second half. So when Harry dropped her off at her flat she asked him, "Will you come in and help me think of something to say?"

"I don't think I'll be much help," he grumbled, but came in all the same.

He'd taken her coat, despite it being her flat, and then offered to make them coffee, which left her along in the living room with her notebook. There was nothing else for it, but to find a few sentences to sing the praises of the soloists. At least until Harry reappeared in the doorway.

"Do you have any coffee?" he asked.

She opened her mouth to tell him where it was before she realised he wouldn't find any there. "I think I've run out."

"Never mind, it doesn't have to be coffee."

He wasn't gone nearly as long this time before he came back, holding a tea bag. "Were you saving your last tea bag for something in particular?"

"Tea?"

He rolled his eyes. "Perhaps some hot milk instead. I'll turn the kettle off."

She had been intending to go shopping, but there was always something else more important to do. Tonight she had to get this review written, but the pressure she once used to enjoy being under now hindered her ability to write anything at all. Consequently, she hadn't managed to write any more before Harry returned. All she really wanted to do was to enjoy the rest of the evening, but she had invited him in because she knew he wouldn't let her until she'd done some work.

"What do you have so far?" he asked, putting two mugs down on the coffee table.

She showed him her notebook. "They looked very smart and sounded very professional," she summarised.

He nodded. "The audience seemed to enjoy it too. And I don't think they were all relatives of the orchestra."

She smiled. "Perhaps I'll leave that second bit out." She wrote and then paused, unable to think of anything else, so drank some of her hot milk, allowing Harry to do her thinking for her.

"What were you thinking about while they were playing?"

That was a good question. It was usually the first thing she wrote about, even if the paragraph got moved later. She was getting sloppy, waiting for an adventure. "I was watching how serious they looked and how hard they were concentrating. And how the music made me feel like I was on another world." They had played some of the The Planets Suite.

"I'd say Holst was imaginative chap. Or else the Doctor once took him on a tour."

"I wouldn't put it past him," she said, smiling. The Doctor wasn't a suitable subject for the review, but she wrote the rest down. She used to be able to do this on her own once, she just needed to be able to get back into the habit.

"I should go," he said, once they'd finished their milk and she had plenty of notes to write a glowing review from. "I have an early start in the morning."

She was disappointed he wasn't staying longer, but she couldn't argue with his reasons, so saw him to the door.

"Thank you for inviting me," he said as he put his coat on.

"I enjoyed your company."

He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek as was his habit at the end of an evening. But she turned her head so their lips met instead. She wondered for a moment if he'd pull away, but after a short hesitation, he kissed her back. And when they stopped he was smiling just as much as she was.

4.
"You really can cook," Sarah exclaimed over a roast dinner that was cooked to perfection.

"You needn't sound so surprised." Although Harry didn't sound too upset at her reaction.

"You just don't strike me as the type of man who can cook." Given Harry's views on what women should and shouldn't do, she was amazed he knew how to turn the oven on. "But I'm learning you have hidden depths."

He shook his head. "I'm just plain old Harry Sullivan."

Harry Sullivan he was, but plain he clearly wasn't. "Where did you learn?"

"At sea. I was friends with the chef. I saw him often, dealing with burns on his staff," he added with a smile. "It made a change from feet."

She frowned. "Feet?"

"A lot of standing up and wearing the same shoes all the time," he explained. "I think I saw the feet of every sailor on board in the space of six months."

"And there I was thinking your job was all glamour." She smiled.

"That's not the worst part. That's dealing with sea sickness."

Sarah made a face. "You'll put me off my dinner." Although it didn't done anything of the sort - it was too good not to eat. "I should let you cook more often," she said, thinking of the simple food she cooked that involved as little effort as possible.

"Better than that, I should teach you. After all, we can't have me being better at cooking than you, can we, old girl?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. He'd only eaten her cooking once and it wasn't that bad. She just hadn't learnt the art of finishing it all at the same time, so it ended up half burnt and half undercooked. But it wasn't too inedible and she'd never got ill from her own cooking. She didn't really need someone to teach her any more than she already knew, she just needed more practise. When she didn't get caught up in her writing and forgotten she'd got something in the oven or a saucepan boiling dry.

While they ate she considered Harry. He'd seem so ordinary when they first met, especially in comparison to the Doctor. But now Harry was here and the Doctor wasn't and she was learning all sorts of unexpected things about him. He supposed he was learning the same about her, although in her case she wasn't sure they were good things. It made her wonder what he saw in her.

"Why are you doing this, Harry?" she asked, putting her knife and fork down.

"Because you complained about always going to the same restaurants."

She shook her head, although that was a valid complaint. Harry seemed quite happy going to the same restaurant every Friday and eating the same thing and he'd been surprised when she'd said she wanted a change. "No, I mean why are you always doing so much for me?"

"Because you needed me," he replied and then, as if he was embarrassed by that show of emotion, he picked up both of their empty plates and took them into the kitchen.

Sarah followed him and leant against the door frame, watching him.

"I know I'll never measure up to the Doctor," he said, with his back to her, as he piled their plates in the sink. "But I hope I can show you there's life here on Earth too."

"There is, Harry," she said softly, and put a hand on his shoulder to turn him to face her. "Thank you," she said.

"For dinner?"

She shook her head. "For being there when I needed someone."

He had to wait until she'd finished kissing him before he could reply with, "My pleasure."

5.
"You know you really should leave this sort of thing to UNIT," Harry said, crouched beside her.

"And what are UNIT doing about it?"

"Nothing," he admitted. "They can't be everywhere and a Sontaran sighting in Sussex was more urgent."

Sarah gave him a look, considering he'd just answered his own question.

He sighed. "Come on then."

She smiled and they went opposite ways around the warehouse.

"You shouldn't be here," she said to the blue-skinned aliens, as she stood in the doorway with her arms folded. Telling them off always worked for the Doctor. Well, it was always the first thing he tried anyway.

"One human isn't going to stop us," one of them said to her and then went back to his packing.

They were, as far as she could tell, trading in weapons. Earth had enough problems as it was without adding ray guns into the mix. Especially when they looked more like water pistols than guns that could kill people.

She made a face at them dismissing her so quickly. It was just as well she had a backup plan. "Oh, I am going to stop you," she continued. The one who'd spoken to her made a noise dismissing her, but at least it covered the sound of the one at the back falling. "And you'd much rather I did because if you ignore me, then you'll have to deal with UNIT."

That did give him pause, she was glad to see. "What will they do?"

She wasn't sure exactly, but she wasn't going to let the aliens know that. "Lock you up, confiscate your weapons and send you home," she replied, in a confident tone.

"Your world doesn't have spaceship technology."

Sarah shrugged. "Then you'll sit in a cell and rot."

She thought for a moment that she might be getting through to him, but then Harry failed to catch one of the aliens he'd stunned before it fell. The one Sarah was talking to whirled round, a weapon in his hand trained on Harry. He was at least the only one left standing, but it still gave Sarah a fright.

"Harry!" she shouted, but he'd already seen, dropped his stun gun and put his hands up.

"Easy now," he said. "There's no need to shoot. I'm sure we can resolve this peacefully."

Sarah had a stun gun of her own tucked in her waistband - weapons that only stunned she was perfectly happy for UNIT to use. But she couldn't risk firing it in case the alien's finger twitched on the trigger.

"You killed them," the alien said.

Harry shook his head. "They're only stunned. See for yourself."

Harry looked very calm, Sarah noticed, as the alien bent to check the one lying nearest to him. Her heart was racing and her mouth was dry. Even though the Doctor wasn't around to get them out of trouble, Harry didn't seem to be scared for his own safety, but she was. Especially when Harry took the opportunity to kick the alien in the head.

"Sarah!" he shouted.

She got the message and while the alien was recovering, and not quite pointing his gun at Harry, Sarah pulled out her stun gun and shot him. She breathed a sigh of relief when he went down without a fuss. Then she ran over to Harry and hugged him hard. With her head near his shoulder she could hear his heart beating as fast as hers.

"Now we turn this over to UNIT?" he asked.

She nodded. "They have the equipment and manpower to lock them up," she conceded. "How long will they be unconscious for?"

"Oh, several hours, don't worry."

"Good," she said and kissed him, hard.

"I think," he said, when she let him go, "that you enjoyed that far too much."

She shook her head. "No, I think I enjoyed it just the right amount. But you didn't have to come."

"Someone has to keep an eye on you," he grumbled half-heartedly.

Maybe he was right, but on balance, she was glad that Harry was that someone.

She bit her lip and wouldn't look at him, which gave him a good clue as to what the answer was.

"Sarah," he said softly, "it doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it?" She looked up at him then, a guilty expression on her face.

He shook his head. Of course it did, but he could hardly tell her that. "As long as we're still friends."

She smiled and he knew he'd done the right thing. Now he just had to work out how to fall out of love with Sarah Jane Smith.

She frowned and looked up from the toast she was buttering. "Why not?"

"Because..." He took a deep breath before continuing. "You're not in love with me." He waited for her to deny it, but she just put the knife down gently.

"Harry," she said softly, taking a step towards him.

He shook his head and she stopped. "At least we can still be friends."

She smiled, but he couldn't return it, so he left her to her breakfast.

When she'd recovered enough to tell him she'd have to think about it, he had looked disappointed. She suspected that his romantic idea had ended with her saying 'yes', but she wasn't going to jump into it. The evening had gone slightly downhill after that and she'd ended up at home, unable to sleep for thinking about it.

In order to help her decide, she'd attempted to write down any reasons she could find to marry Harry and reasons not to marry him. Under the former she had 'Great sex'. Under the latter she had nothing. One reason - especially that one - wasn't enough of a good motivation to marry someone, however.

After a moment's thought she added 'He understands about the Doctor and aliens' and then crossed it out. She couldn't imagine marrying someone who didn't know about the existence of aliens, even if she'd have to convince them. But there were plenty of other people who also knew and she had no intention of marrying them.

Harry's proposal hadn't been any sort of arrangement on his part either, because he did love her. He'd told her that once, although not again since that first time. More out of curiosity than uncertainty she'd once asked if that was still the case. He'd given her a funny look and said, "Of course I do, old girl," as if saying it once meant it was obvious after that. She supposed it was obvious to Harry, but he didn't seem to have considered the idea that it was nice to hear it from time to time, or that it was possible to fall out of love.

Even so, she didn't want him to do that because she loved him too. It had taken her a while to realise that he wasn't just convenient, but he was sweet and thoughtful and treated her far better than any other man had. Oh, he frustrated her, sometimes to the point where she was ready to walk out, but somehow, in comparison, anyone else was too tame. She could no longer imagine herself in a relationship with someone who wasn't Harry.

She supposed she should have written this down in the 'Reasons to marry Harry' column, but it seemed too obvious. The trouble was, she decided, was she was trying to think about this logically and love wasn't logical. If when she first met Harry someone had told her she would be in this position she would have laughed at them.

She sighed, screwed up the sheet of paper and threw it at the bin. It missed. She decided not to take that as a sign and called Harry. She knew he wouldn't be upset at being woken in the middle of the night once she gave him her answer.

~*~*~

Sarah stretched lazily and smiled when she encountered a still-naked Harry. She'd had a job the night before to convince him not to put his pyjamas on and she only won because neither of them were sure where anything was. They'd made the bed the previous evening, then fallen into it, but apart from that everything in their new flat was in boxes. If they'd just been able to agree whose flat to live in there wouldn't have been such a problem, but the only way they'd been able to compromise was if they both moved. Even if it was a compromise that negated both their arguments on the subject. At least they'd been able to agree on that.

"Good morning, Mrs Sullivan."

Sarah opened her eyes and looked over at Harry. She hadn't realised he was awake. "I told you, I'm keeping my name."

"I thought you might have changed your mind." Her fingers drew patterns on his chest as he pulled her closer.

"Tomorrow I'm going to America, where I'm going to be Felicity Barnes. It's enough to remember which alias I'm using, I don't want to have to think about my own name too." She suspected that for him it was a point of pride for his wife to take his name, for Sarah the opposite was true. But her excuse was also true: it was never a good idea to forget to answer to your alias and she didn't want another that she would have to remember all the time.

He sighed. They both knew she had the winning hand in this particular argument because there was nothing he could do to force her. Not that he would ever force her to do anything, just be very persuasive from time to time.

"Let's not discuss that now." She reached over to kiss him.

Although he kissed her back just as enthusiastically, he didn't let it go on very long before he pulled back and said, "We really should unpack."

"We should," she agreed, and moved her mouth down to his shoulder. "But we're both leaving tomorrow and I want to make the most of our honeymoon, even if it's just one day."

"Maybe I shouldn't leave."

At that she stopped what she was doing and raised herself up with a hand on his chest. "What?"

"Well, it's not much of a marriage with both of us never here, is it?"

She didn't think the Navy was that easy to leave, from what he'd said in the past, but he hadn't been very specific, so she didn't really know. "But you like being in the Navy. And we both knew what we were getting into."

"What about when we have kids?"

She bit her lip and flopped back onto the bed. They probably should have had that discussion much sooner, if they'd been sensible about it. Maybe one day in the future she might change her mind, but right now she didn't want children and couldn't see being any different in the near future. Which probably had rather a lot to do with why she had never brought it up in the first place.

When she didn't reply he propped himself up on one elbow to look over at her. "Sarah?"

"I bet you think all women are domestic goddesses who live to have children, don't you?"

He had been reaching his hand over to her waist, but now he brought it back to the bed, moving away from her a little.

She wasn't angry with him, so much as herself for being too scared to discuss anything that might mean the end of their relationship, but she hadn't meant to take it out on him. "I'm sorry." She reached out to stroke his arm. "But I can hardly go off after a story if I had a baby to worry about."

"You could just stay at home and look after it." She gave him a look and he added, "No, of course you couldn't."

"I'd go mad."

He smiled at that "So you don't have names picked out then?"

She really wanted to tell him that it really was just a cliché, except that somewhere along the line there were some names that had somehow stuck. "Luke and Maria. But I never told you that."

"What was that, old girl? Terribly sorry, but I wasn't listening," he said with a grin.

She laughed. "We're wasting our honeymoon with talking when we can do that over the phone."

"But the unpacking..."

She cut him off with a kiss and then made him forget the unpacking completely by pushing him back onto the bed and straddling his hips.

~*~*~

They didn't have what most people would think of as a normal relationship, but it worked for them. Although Harry didn't go away at sea for months at a time, the Navy seemed to be determined to send him to the most remote places in Britain: bases in the middle of nowhere with no big newspapers or magazines for Sarah to work for. Since she was often off around the world after a story, it made sense for them to live apart and just see each other when they could. At least it led to fewer arguments, although Sarah would never admit that she liked arguing with Harry. She suspected he felt the same way, given that their marriage had lasted this long.

But at some point it had to crack and at least they'd made it past what was surely a mythical seven year itch.

"I'm sorry I can't make dinner next week," Sarah said, over the crackly phone line. "There's a story in Africa and--"

He cut her off before she could explain. "It's our anniversary. What can possibly be more important than that?"

She bit her lip. Whatever else happened, they always made sure to be together once a year on their anniversary. Without fail, they'd both be in the same restaurant at the same time for dinner. Until now, when it was just too inconvenient. "We'll just have to postpone it for a week or two, that's all."

"Sarah, I can't pick and choose when I get leave, not with that short notice. You know that."

She did know that, she just chose to forget, that's all. She had thought he wouldn't mind too much, that he'd be able to swing it some way if he really wanted to see her. "Let's just forget it this year, then."

"Let's forget about our marriage you mean."

It wasn't that she didn't want to see him and it was just an arbitrary date in the end, but she'd known he wouldn't see it her way, which is why she'd agonised over it in advance. It was a hard decision, but this story was important and there would be plenty of other opportunities to see her husband. However, she knew he didn't see it that way, especially given the threatening tone of his voice. "Harry, I love you." But she was talking to thin air. She decided it was because they had been cut off, not because he put the phone down on her.

~*~*~

In the end it was nearly a month later when they next saw each other at their home in London. Sarah hadn't been entirely looking forward to the meeting, expecting Harry to be cross or upset, but in the end he wasn't either of those things.

"Things have to change," he begun, once they were both seated in the living room. "I'm taking a job at MI5, so I'll be living here permanently."

For what was possibly only the second time in her life, Sarah was speechless.

"I've been doing some intelligence work, so it's a logical move."

He looked at her with a worried expression on his face and Sarah couldn't help but smile. Aside from it being quite sweet the way he worried about her, she was sure she had surprised him just as much by not acting in the way he'd expected. "That's a good idea," she said, and he gave her a relieved smile. "I do miss you when you're away, you know."

When he held out his arms she happily hugged him back. "I thought you'd be angry with me for missing our anniversary." Although now she could see that was illogical because Harry never got angry.

"No." He shook his head. "I'm glad you did. I don't know if we could have carried on the way we had been." He smiled down at her when she lifted her head, and brushed his thumb against her cheek. "There's just one other thing." She frowned as he calmly removed his wedding ring.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Why was he contradicting himself?

He put the ring down on the coffee table before he answered. "You don't wear yours because you don't want your enemies to come after me. It's only fair that I do the same for you, since I'm likely to make a few enemies in this job."

She looked down at her left hand guiltily because she hadn't remembered to put hers back on and it was still on her bedside table. "I don't need to be protected," she said, not because she ever won this argument, but more because of how it felt to see Harry take that ring off. She finally understood the look he'd given her the first time he discovered she did it.

"I know you can look after yourself, old girl, but it's far better if you're not in danger in the first place."

"Don't call me old girl," she retorted, rather more harshly than she intended and then soothed his wounded expression with a kiss.

~*~*~

In the end, Harry being around more didn't change their relationship as much as she thought it might. For a start, Sarah was away just as much as she was before and when she was around Harry worked all hours. Sometimes she thought they spoke less than they had before he joined MI5.

She suspected he still had visions of domestic bliss with 2.4 children and a dog, even if she thought they were too old for that sort of thing now. But the dog had been calling Harry 'Master' for years. That neither of their lives suited it was still the case and nothing was going to change now that they both properly lived in the same house.

"Your feet are cold," she complained one night when he slid into bed.

He'd stopped apologising for waking her by now, knowing she was too alert for any sounds in the house. He didn't even apologise for his feet being cold, but purposely touched them to her ankles instead.

"Harry!" Now she was definitely awake and looked over at the clock. Then wished she hadn't found out what time of night, or morning, it was.

"I thought you might warm them up for me." It was just enough light in the bedroom for her to see his grin, but she wasn't in the mood for this just now.

"Get a hot water bottle." She turned over and out of his reach.

"You're the one complaining, you get one." He put a hand on her arm and demonstrated how cold that was too.

She shook her head. "I'm nice and warm."

"You are," he agreed, shifting over to cuddle up behind her.

The shock of his cold body against hers woke her up enough that she decided she might as well give up on going back to sleep. She had to be up soon anyway. So she turned in his grip to face him and press a kiss to his mouth. "Go to sleep. I'll be gone by the time you wake up." She hated that she couldn't tell him where she was going, but he'd find out tomorrow - later today - why when he met her younger self.

~*~*~

"You had an unfair advantage," he accused her afterwards, over dinner at Jardine's. "You already knew what I'd be like in the future."

She smiled enigmatically. Although it had been at the back of her mind, not least because she hadn't been able to remember him wearing a ring, but she hadn't considered it at all when deciding whether to marry him. However, she was perfectly happy to maintain the fiction that she did, if he wanted to believe it. "You aged quite well, I thought. And you haven't changed a bit."

He frowned. "I haven't?"

She shook her head. "Not in the important aspects. You're the still the same old Harry I know and love."

"With emphasis on the old." He sighed.

When she was younger and had met this older Harry, she hadn't remembered him feeling like this. But then she hadn't known him as well back then and she was sure whatever he had been feeling he'd kept to himself, as usual. "You're not that much older than I am."

"No, not any more." He smiled and ordered them some coffee.

Not wanting to revive the subject, she picked a new one. "And you never said what it was like meeting the Doctor again."

"It was..." He swilled the remains of his wine around in the glass as he thought, while she waited patiently. "Different," was all he managed in the end.

She rolled her eyes, wondering why she'd expected something deep and eloquent from Harry. "Different?"

He nodded. "I've changed more than he has." He slid his arm over the table to take her hand. "I know you still miss him."

She swallowed. He knew her too well. "You didn't say anything to him, did you?"

He shook his head. "I thought about it, but in the end I didn't. It was selfish of me really. If he'd come back for you, you'd never have married me."

It had always been in the back of her mind and she'd assumed she would probably leave with the Doctor until Harry had proposed. Yet now, she couldn't imagine leaving Harry. "I'm glad he didn't come back." She smiled and squeezed his hand.

~*~*~

For a while they were happy. Until Harry announced he was going on a secret mission with NATO and then vanished off the face of the Earth. Of course Sarah did everything she could to find him, but no one seemed to know a thing about where he was and eventually she was forced to give up.

She feared that he'd been captured by aliens to get at her, but no one contacted her and there was no evidence to suggest it apart from her own paranoia. She half-wished he'd stayed in MI5 because at least his enemies there were in this country and there would be far smaller to space to look for him. But all she could do was carry on living and going to their anniversary dinners in the hopes that he would show up at one.

When she met the Doctor while investigating Deffrey Vale School she decided now was the time to move on and stop clinging to the past. Living in hope was killing her a piece at a time and the only way to save herself was to admit that Harry was most probably dead, act as if he was, and grieve. She moved into a bigger house with the insurance money and filled it with clutter in a way that Harry would have complained about, but let her keep in the end.

The built-in wardrobe in the spare room had enough space for all of Harry's things. He never had been very good at having many possessions - too much time spent moving around, he claimed, but it still looked like such a small memory of his life. At least here they were mostly out of her sight, so she could choose when to remember, but they were also safe, just in case. Adopting Luke helped, especially without K-9 around and in time she found she was happy again.

At least until one night when she woke with the sound of the TARDIS ringing in her ears. It had to be a dream or a memory, but she couldn't just dismiss it. So she put on her slippers and dressing gown, and tip-toed downstairs to have a look. She didn't find the familiar police box shape, but there was a familiar sort of person shape in her living room.

"Doctor?" He didn't look like any of the ones she'd met, but she couldn't rule out him regenerating since they'd last met.

"Sarah?"

Unless the Doctor had developed a voice that sounded very like Harry, there was only one person it could be. She switched the light on to be sure and found that her hand shook.

She closed her eyes against the bright light and when she cracked them open she found it was indeed her formerly-dead husband standing in her living room, a hand up to ward off the light.

"Harry," she breathed, not quite able to speak properly, and not caring where he'd been, only that he was here now, she raced over and hugged him tight. With her face buried in his shoulder she could feel the familiar rough texture of his blazer beneath her cheek and her eyes filled with tears. She was determined not to cry, though, so she let go enough to reach up and kiss him. His stubble grazed her skin and irrationally, she wanted to tell him off for not shaving before he saw her.

"Where have you been?" She looked him over more closely and tried to decide whether it was her faulty memory or if he hadn't changed at all since she last saw him, when he left on a mission he couldn't tell her anything about.

"Gallifrey."

"They don't allow humans there," she said, without thinking and then realised if Harry was serious, and he looked it, that was the TARDIS she heard. He wouldn't joke about this sort of thing, she knew, but in that case why didn't the Doctor stay? But that wasn't the most important question at the moment. "Why?"

"There was a terrible war and the Doctor needed a doctor."

Once she would have made a joke about that, but this time she bit her lip. She could see now the pain written in Harry's eyes and wondered what he'd seen. "Gallifrey's gone."

"Yes, it is," he whispered.

He wasn't going to talk about it, she could tell that much, but she didn't quite care, now that he was really here. She took his hand and pulled him down to the sofa to sit next to her.

"Where are we?" he asked, looking around the room.

"Home," she said, and then amended it to, "My house."

He looked over at her. "Yours?" She could hear the implied, "Not mine?".

It wasn't that unreasonable that she'd moved, was it? Except that she remembered something important about what the TARDIS could do - and how the Doctor sometimes got that part wrong. "How long has it been for you?"

"A few months. I don't know exactly, I lost track." He frowned. "Why?"

She bit her lip. From his perspective it was no longer than they were usually apart, although they usually managed to communicate during that time. "Harry, it's been more like a few years," she said, softly.

"Oh." She could see comprehension dawning on him. He pressed his palm to her cheek. "You haven't aged a bit."

She smiled at the flattery. "I thought you were dead." She put her hand up to her mouth to keep herself from crying.

"Oh, Sarah." He pulled her closer. "I'm so sorry."

It was easier not to cry when faced with his familiar, comforting warmth for the second time tonight and she let herself relax, just a little.

"Tell me." He stroked her hair as she caught him up on the events in her life since he'd gone. There was rather a lot to tell.

~*~*~

She didn't remember falling asleep, but she must have at some point because she woke up on the sofa with a blanket covering her. For a moment she wondered if she had dreamt the previous night's events, but she could hear voices in the kitchen. She was glad Harry hadn't put her to bed and he was still close by since she wasn't at all sure about letting him too far out of her sight just yet. After running her fingers through her hair to make herself presentable, she went to join them.

Once at the door she smiled at the picture in front of her. Luke sat at the table and, in between bites of his toast, was telling Harry all about his first encounter with a Sontaran. With his back to Sarah, Harry sat opposite him, his hands wrapped around a mug, gazing intently at Luke and occasionally putting in his own observations. Sarah leant against the door frame and watched them until Luke noticed her.

"Mum!" he called, excitedly. "Did you know Harry once blew up a Sontaran spaceship?"

Sarah wouldn't have said that was quite what happened, but since Harry got up and put the kettle back on without being asked, she decided not to contradict him. She was just glad she'd told Luke about Harry because he was enough of a shock as it was, not being dead, never mind if Luke hadn't known she had a husband in the first place.

"I was there," she pointed out as she sat in the seat Harry had vacated. "But Harry's a much better storyteller than I am." Rather prone to exaggeration, but he always told stories well enough that she didn't mind. Luke would certainly appreciate them.

She smiled at Harry as he put a cup of tea on the table in front of her. "But you'll have plenty of time to hear them. He's not going anywhere."

"I'm not?" he asked amiably.

"We have enough work dealing with aliens here, you don't need to go anywhere else." She reached out to take his hand. "I don't want you to go away," she added, softly.

"Then of course I'll stay." He squeezed her hand. "After all, I have a lot of catching up to do."

He was half-facing her, but talking to a group of sailors and she couldn't catch his eye. It did give her an opportunity to study him, though. He looked even more handsome in a Navy uniform and Sarah had thought she was immune to the girly idea of finding men in uniform handsome. He looked a little older, as she would expect, but time and the war hadn't been too unkind to him.

Just as she was debating whether to go over there, and if she wanted to speak to him again at all, his eyes met hers. The rest of the world melted away, as if they were back in the Tirol again. She held his gaze, trying to work out from it what his reaction to seeing her again was, but she could discern nothing in his expression.

He said something to his friends, then came over to where she was waiting for him, a little way down the quayside. She smiled to cover her nervousness and then accidentally dropped her pen. Before she could pick it up he had bent and got it for her.

"Thank you," she said, just as if he had been anyone.

"I didn't expect to see you here." His eyes looked over her, as if assessing her and she was almost surprised to find it didn't make her feel uncomfortable.

"Story," she said, holding up her notebook in confirmation and taking the pen from him.

"Then I should leave you to work." He turned away, obviously still unwilling to talk to her but she couldn't just let him go.

"No!" She reached out and grabbed his arm.

He stopped, but didn't turn, instead going absolutely still. She bit her lip and took her hand back, hoping she hadn't done anything wrong.

"I mean, I've got all I need, so I have time to talk if you want to." She did. She so desperately wanted to mend the hurt she had caused him, but she could understand he might just want to forget her.

"Over here." He led her away from the groups of sailors to a bench where they sat side by side.

"I heard you joined the Navy," she began, unwilling to get right to the subject straight away.

He nodded. "During the war. Which you covered." His expression looked worried.

"I realised if something happened to you I'd have to find out from Joey." She'd kept up with Joey all this time, and since Joey had married Jack not long after Sarah left Austria, she knew Harry and Jack also wrote to each other. So Sarah had heard all of Harry's news through a proxy, although it hadn't occurred to her that information had gone both ways. She didn't mind, now that she knew.

"I also wanted to make sure everyone who had a friend or relative in danger knew what was happening to them."

His smile was the proud one she'd seen on him before, even if it was rarely and one she had forgotten existed until now. "I wasn't fighting, I was just a doctor."

"I still worried." He had been in danger, after all.

"Not as much as I worried about you when you disappeared off the face of the Earth for two years."

She bit her lip. How could she explain about the Doctor in a way that he would understand or believe? "I'm sorry," she said, hoping it would be enough. He'd never know the truth of his words, though. She took his hand.

He squeezed it. "Are you happy?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Yes, I am." She smiled, realising that she spoke the truth despite what she felt upon seeing him again. "I love what I do." She didn't regret that she'd kept on trying to have this career. Much as she had enjoyed her year spent teaching, it wasn't something she could have done forever. "If I'd married you I would have been unhappy thinking about what might have been. You know that, don't you?" Suddenly it was very important that he did; that she knew hurting him had been for the best and he would have suffered either way.

He nodded. "Not at first, but I do now."

Still, when she first moved to London she lay awake missing him and wondering if she had made the wrong decision after all. But the memories she had of their time together had only included the good times and what she felt was more nostalgia than anything else and she had moved on during the past ten years without noticing.

They'd both changed too much since then to go back to the way they were.

"I have to go," he said, as he looked over her shoulder.

When he stood she followed suit. "We can still be friends, can't we?" They hadn't been in the last ten years, but perhaps now it had been long enough that they could go back to the friendship they'd had before they'd got into this whole mess.

"I'd like that." He smiled and she was relieved. She'd been half-afraid his answer would be the same as the last time she'd asked.

So she returned his smile and stood up on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. "Write to me." She wanted to hear his news directly from himself. She couldn't be sure just what Joey was filtering out of her letters, even if it was to avoid hurting her. Since he was wearing gloves she couldn't tell if Harry wore a ring. Joey had never mentioned he'd met anyone else, but Sarah hated that she might have made him so unhappy he'd never been able to get past her.

He nodded. "Only if you promise to write back."

"Of course I will." Just try and stop her - after all, writing was what she did best. "Goodbye, Harry." Somehow, they'd never quite managed to say the words when they last parted.

"Goodbye, Sarah."

She watched him walk away from her, but this time it wasn't out of her life.

He knew, from what Sarah had told him, and from the snippets he heard at Kaffee und Kuchen every week, that they had to be careful what they said in front of the pupils because they were apt to repeat everything and ascribe their own meanings to what they heard. Before long all sorts of crazy rumours went around the school.

So Harry settled for returning Sarah's smile in greeting and watching her out of the corner of his eye as he checked his patients and told them this week's story concerning Christmas in London and a ship crashing. They lapped it up and, as usual, Sarah's expression never changed from one of scepticism. But he was used to that by now.

Once it was time for Kaffee und Kuchen Harry breathed a sigh of relief because at least here they could talk quietly and although they still had to be careful, no one would be any the wiser about what they were talking about, except Juliet and Grizel who sat nearby.

"How was your Christmas?" Sarah asked as she poured out their coffees. "I was expecting you sooner."

"Bad weather, I'm afraid. I was in Scotland and we were snowed in. Couldn't get in or out." He sipped his coffee and found it was just right, as always.

She frowned. "I thought your family lived in London."

"They do but I was visiting someone in Scotland." He almost referred to her as a friend, but he wasn't sure about that any more. Although he and Esther had drifted apart she had been more willing to change that than he was, and hadn't taken the news that well. "But I'm glad I went." He had missed the place too. Austria was similar in some ways, but not quite the same and as much as he loved his new home, he still missed his old one. "How about yours?"

She took a sip of her coffee and was smiling by the time she put the cup back down. "It was nice to have so many people about on Christmas Day. Often it was just me and Aunt Lavinia."

"As long as there were no arguments." He had very vivid memories of the sorts of things his family used to say over the dinner table. It was guaranteed to keep some of them away for the rest of the year.

She shook her head. "No, no arguments. Just three children underfoot and lots of chatter."

The three children in question included Jem's son David and his wife Madge's brother's twin children, Peggy and Rix. He had found them very well behaved whenever he visited, but three small children in a small place could easily create chaos, as he saw from their nursery. "The cold has completely gone, hasn't it?" He was fairly sure it had, but sometimes these things could linger.

"Oh, yes, I'm much better. Have been since before you let me out of the San."

Her tone was partly accusing and partly teasing, so he just smiled in return, unrepentant. As long as she was better he didn't care.

"I did a lot of writing with my free time and then sent a lot of articles off."

"Any of them accepted?" She had once complained that he had a far too an high opinion of her abilities, so had shown him something she'd had rejected. He'd read enough newspapers and articles to have some idea of the standard expected, and he honestly couldn't tell why hers weren't good enough in the eyes of the editors.

"I haven't heard back from all of them yet." She tore her bread twist apart, scattering crumbs over the tablecloth, but he thought he heard a hopeful note in her voice.

"There's still plenty of time," he said, trying to reassure her.

But she sighed. "If I could get enough articles accepted I would quite happily go freelance, then I wouldn't have to fit it around this job. I either need that or a contract, but I've got nowhere on either front so far. What's wrong with me?" As she spoke her voice grew louder and the poor bread twist was sacrificed to the tablecloth.

She rubbed her face with her hand, and he caught it on the way down. Instantly, she looked down at it and he wondered if he'd done the wrong thing. For a moment he could think of nothing else except the speed his heart had starting beating at, and the feeling of her small, soft hand in his. Whatever he had been planning on saying to comfort her went out of his mind completely.

So he settled for, "I'm sorry," and squeezed her hand before releasing it.

It seemed to do the trick, though, because she smiled.

That was the end of Kaffee und Kuchen and Sarah brushed the crumbs off the table into her hand before dropping them in her now-empty coffee cup.

"Do you have a lesson now?" Harry asked her quietly.

She nodded. "At least it'll take my mind off it."

He got up when she did and watched her as she went down the corridor to the classroom. Only when she was out of sight did he turn to make his way back to the San. Yet he couldn't put her or the touch of her hand out of his mind.

Now that he was free to be more than just friends with her he knew he was helplessly in love with her, and he had been for some time. He just wasn't sure what her feelings were. He didn't want to lose her friendship by doing the wrong thing, and yet if he could have more than just friendship with her he wanted it desperately. It would take him some time to decide what to do next, he thought. It didn't matter though; there was no rush.

~*~*~

It was Sarah who had suggested the first aid lesson to Harry, the last time he had been at the school. It was February and the weather was still too bad to go out much. She had been thinking of an activity to do to occupy their minds and bodies to avoid them getting into too much trouble, and this sounded like the perfect thing. Young girls had a habit of getting into all sorts of accidents, so it made sense that they should have a basic idea of what to do, other than fetch a grown up. She, Juliet and Grizel would benefit from a reminder too. They couldn't always rely on Matron being available.

The hall was the best place to do it, since it could fit them all in easily. Harry had come over specially to teach, since this wasn't his usual day for check-ups. As soon as Sarah had suggested it he had agreed at once what a good idea it was and either he wasn't very busy or he was able to fit them in somehow. Sarah liked to think it was because it was she who asked, but she didn't think their friendship was quite that close. Not for him, anyway.

She wasn't really listening to what he was saying about burns. Since she had burned herself more than once she knew the drill, so could justify her mind wandering. Instead she was studying Harry as he talked. He was quite handsome and he was very good with the girls: making their check-ups into something they looked forward to with his outrageous stories of experiences he couldn't possibly have had. He was always thoughtful and considerate, yet kept her on her toes, flinging back insults at her as fast as she slung them at him. If nothing else, he kept her brain working.

The only problem was that he had someone else back in Scotland, so he would never think of her the same way she thought of him. That was something she could do nothing about and it frustrated her.

"Miss Smith."

Sarah jerked upwards with the sound of her name and judging by the expressions on the faces of the girls, who were all looking at her, it wasn't the first time Harry had called it either.

"Since you're not paying attention," he began, and his eyes laughed at her as he spoke, so she worried what she'd missed, "perhaps you'd like to volunteer."

"Ah..." She had no idea what she might be volunteering for but didn't want to admit it and thus prove her inattention.

When Harry raised his eyebrows she realised it wasn't really a question. So she had no choice but to stand up and make her way past the girls who sat in front of her, to the front of the hall where he stood.

"This is a simple bandage," he said, and he held up his hand to show it to her. It had been there all along, she realised, she just hadn't seen it. "Roll up your sleeve and hold out your arm."

She chose the one nearest to him, which happened to be her right. She had an idea of what he was going to do and it wouldn't matter either way. It took a minute to undo her cuff and roll the sleeve up so it wouldn't fall down.

"Let's pretend Miss Smith has cut herself here." With his finger he indicated a line running across her arm just above her wrist. He barely touched her skin and she got goosepimples as it tickled.

"The first thing we need to do is cover up the wound." He took her elbow with his left hand, and she was glad she hadn't rolled her sleeve up enough to bare it because she shivered at the proximity of his hand. He gave her a quizzical look, but she pretended nothing had happened and he carried on, pressing the bandage to her arm. One end of it trailed down one side, the other he still held rolled up.

"If you don't have a bandage, you can use a handkerchief, as long as it's clean."

Sarah was trying not to look at Harry too closely, so she saw a few girls squirm in their seats. They were the ones known for never quite managing to keep their handkerchiefs clean. She couldn't blame them - she had been just the same at their age, and even now they never lasted as long as they ought to.

"Now you wind the rest of the bandage around the arm." He did so as he talked. "Make it tight enough to stop the bleeding, but not so tight you cut off the blood flow to the arm." He looked up at the girls, pausing with his bandaging for a moment. "Can anyone tell me what colour blood is?"

Most of them held their hands up and Harry nodded at Melanie, who replied, "Red," in a voice just loud enough to carry to where Sarah and Harry stood.

Sarah bit back a smile. Melanie was very shy and when Sarah asked the class a question she would only give the answer if she was asked specifically, she never volunteered. It was typical that Harry had managed to make such an impression on her. It made equally as much of an impression on Sarah too, which didn't help.

"So, if I wound this too tight," he held up Sarah's arm, and she just let him, it was simpler, "S-Miss Smith's arm would go white."

There was the sound of tittering and whispering from their audience and Sarah glared at Harry for slipping and nearly saying her name. When she was younger she knew exactly what that meant, even if it was reading too much into it.

Harry gave her a quick smile and finished his bandaging, tying off with a neat bow that she wouldn't have expected of him. "How does that feel?" he asked, releasing her arm and making her feel cold all of a sudden. "Not too tight?"

"No, that feels good." She touched her other hand to the bandage.

He nodded. "Well, I have some bandages here so you can all give it a try." He reached behind him and Sarah saw he had a picnic basket full of what must be slightly old bandages, judging by their colour. "Divide into pairs and collect one bandage per pair. When you're all finished, there might be a prize for the best." The girls were already chattering and he raised his voice to be heard. "Remember, not too tight, not too loose."

It wasn't long before a line of girls began in front of Harry. While he was involved in handing out bandages Sarah untied the bow and unwound hers. She couldn't help but smile as the girls began, after decisions on which arm to bandage and who got to go first. She could also hear complaints they were too loose or too tight and some of them had to start again after an inspection from Juliet or Grizel.

Harry took the bandage from her and wound it up while he watched them. "I hope they never need it," he said softly.

"There are first aid kits here and we always take one on any expedition. So they shouldn't. But you never know." She really hoped they wouldn't. Being out in the snow with Cecile was enough excitement for one year.

He nodded. "No, you don't. And even the smallest piece of knowledge can save a life."

Her eyes flicked to the crowd of girls all laughing and having fun. "I'm glad you agreed to do this. Especially in this weather." Although even on days no one in the Annexe would go out, the doctors all managed it somehow.

"It was a pleasure." He smiled at her.

Sarah smiled back, although she really wished he wouldn't do things like this, because it just made it harder not to fall in love with him.

~*~*~

Although the snow had melted and spring had finally arrived up at the San, the excitement was eclipsed by the new baby, even if it mean they were all working longer hours to make up for the time Jem was spending with his wife and new daughter. Sybil Margaret Russell, as she was eventually named, had been born the night before half term started at the Chalet School. It mean their house, Die Rosen, had been full of people, so it was a while before the doctors were invited over to see her.

Jem had talked at length about what the baby was like, so Harry almost felt as if he knew her already. More interesting, was his account of the naming party they'd had and the names the girls had come up with for Sybil, none of which were chosen anyway. Joey had apparently complained the baby was ginger and Harry knew her well enough by now to laugh and shake his head when he heard.

Things had settled down a little by the time Harry was invited for Kaffee und Kuchen and baby viewing, although Jem still walked with his head held high. There were so many people fond of Madge and babies that they'd had them over in shifts and today was also Sarah's turn, it appeared. Harry suspected a conspiracy, but wasn't going to complain at a chance to see her.

"Is she all right?" Harry asked Madge, over their coffee. "She was early, wasn't she?" Although he hadn't worked in that area recently, he could give a list of things that could go wrong with premature babies if asked. Although if there had been anything he felt sure he would have heard by now.

"She's perfect," Madge answered, with the same grin on her face Harry had seen often on Jem.

The perfect baby in question let out a yell and Madge excused herself to see what she wanted. Until now she'd been asleep and Madge hadn't wanted to disturb her. Harry had been wondering whether they'd get to see her at all, but it seemed like Sybil had her own ideas on that.

"Don't you know?" Sarah asked after Madge left. "Didn't you learn about babies in medical school?"

"Of course I did, but the effects of a premature birth vary greatly." It was a direct quote from a medical textbook. He hoped she didn't want him to recall any more of it - he didn't want to scare Madge with the list if she hadn't picked up anything from Jem.

"I've never seen many babies," Sarah admitted, setting down her now-empty coffee cup.

"Neither have I." He'd seen enough to know they were hard work, but it didn't stop him from wanting one in the future.

The crying had stopped and Madge was soon back with the now-quiet Sybil. "Come into the salon."

They followed her out of the Speisesaal and into a bigger room with more comfortable chairs around it.

"Do you want to hold her?" Madge asked Sarah.

Sarah bit her lip and nodded. "She's not going to scream again, is she?"

Harry had to hide a smile behind his hand. He hadn't seen Sarah scared of anything - or nothing she would admit to anyway, so it was amusing to see her fear of such a small baby.

Madge just ignored the question and directed Sarah to a chair. Once Sarah was in it, Madge, with the practised ease of someone used to babies, held Sybil with one arm and used the other to position the cushions. Then she put Sybil into Sarah's arms, arranging the baby just so.

As Harry stood and watched he felt there was a great deal more to babies than he previously thought. His eyes were drawn to the picture Sarah and Sybil made. Sybil looked up at Sarah with fascination, and Sarah smiled down at her and said, "Hello, Sybil." If it wasn't for the ginger hair, and he had to admit Joey was right about the colour, he could almost imagine the baby was Sarah's own.

He went over and perched himself on the arm of the chair. When he touched the palm of Sybil's hand she fastened it around his finger. For a minute he was lost in the wonder of this baby.

It was Sarah who broke the mood, saying, "She's so tiny,"

"She didn't feel it, believe me," Madge said, and Harry almost jumped: he'd forgotten she was there.

He laughed, and Sybil transferred her gaze to him. "Hello, Sybil. I heard what your aunt said about you."

Sarah grinned, and he guessed she had heard the same thing.

Before she could say anything, though Sybil wriggled and Sarah cried out, "oh," in surprise. Madge swiftly drew in and plucked the baby from Sarah's arms, and Sybil immediately calmed down.

Sarah jumped up. "I should really get back."

Harry raised his eyebrows. She had obviously had enough of babies for one day. He felt sure that she would feel differently if it was one of her own. "I'll walk you back." He stood up as well.

She still wore a thoughtful expression as they went outside into the sunshine and Harry wondered what was on her mind. Or rather, what aspect of Sybil she was thinking about. With the touch of his hand on her arm, she stopped and looked at him. Before he could get too nervous, he bent his head and touched his lips to hers. Although it was just the briefest of kisses she didn't immediately pull away.

Despite his heart beating fast at what he had dared to do he had a new-found confidence and admitted, "I've been wanting to do that for such a long time." Possibly it felt like longer than it was.

She frowned. "But you have... I mean, there's someone else...."

He shook his head. "Not since Christmas." He'd missed Sarah far more in the time he was away from Austria than he'd missed Esther in the month before that, so he knew he'd made the right decision.

"You should have said. I thought..." But what she thought he was never going to find out because she reached up and pulled his head down to hers with one hand on the back of his neck.

Her lips were soft beneath his and tasted faintly of milky coffee. He pulled her closer with his hands on her waist and never wanted the kiss to stop.

~*~*~

"Someone to see you, Miss Smith." Sarah looked up from where she was puzzling over a piece of marking while taking prep. Since the Annexe only had twenty two pupils they all had prep together in the largest form room. In the main school the older pupils were trusted enough to do their prep on their own and the younger ones were supervised by the prefects. But here even the eldest was too young to take on that duty.

So Sarah, Juliet and Grizel each took prep one day a week in turn. In theory, it was a quiet time to get some marking done, or writing in Sarah's case, but in practise there were always girls wanting help with something. For that, Sarah had suddenly found herself revising mathematics rather hurriedly. It was fortunate that the level wasn't above that which she understood.

There were also occasions when someone chose prep time to get into mischief. At least that wasn't every evening and didn't usually depend on which mistress was in charge of them. Today Sarah had been attempting to decipher some particularly vicious handwriting, so wasn't altogether sorry at Grizel's interruption.

She frowned at her, though, wondering who Grizel could possibly mean. If it was Harry then Grizel would have said, and anyway, she wasn't expecting him. He knew better than to try and see her when it wasn't her evening off.

Although none of the girls looked up, and at first sight appeared to be scribbling furiously, Sarah knew from experience that their attention was more on the two mistresses than on their work. Grizel gave no indication of who she meant and Sarah wasn't going to risk asking when she didn't know her reasons why.

So she just nodded and stood up. "Will you take over for me, Miss Cochrane?"

Grizel didn't have much of a choice, and her scowl showed what she thought of having her evening interrupted. From the way she was dressed, Sarah wondered if she had been on her way out somewhere. Grizel slipped into the seat Sarah had vacated, and Sarah vowed to be back quickly. It was always best to avoid Grizel's sarcastic tongue. Sarah'd had enough of that when they were at school.

It was looking as if the Annexe would have twice as many pupils next year, but for now they didn't use all the rooms, it was just too expensive. Juliet didn't spend much time in her office, so they mainly used it as a place to greet visitors. Since Grizel hadn't said where Sarah's visitor was, Sarah assumed correctly he was in the Head's office.

Inside was a tall man who looked to be in his forties. Sarah didn't recognise him, but he looked vaguely familiar, although she couldn't put her finger on why.

"Good evening," she said, cautiously.

He turned to face her properly. "Miss Smith?"

She nodded and closed the door behind her.

He held out a hand "Mr Stevens. Amy and Margia's father."

She shook his hand, politely, but all the time wondering why he wanted to speak to her and not Juliet. At least now she knew why he looked familiar: Amy obviously took after him in looks, even if she was younger and feminine. "What can I do for you, Mr Stevens?" She motioned him to sit down, and took the Head's chair for herself.

"It's more something I can do for you."

She frowned.

He reached into the inside pocket of his blazer and pulled out a sheet of paper, which he passed to her.

She took it and unfolded it. She was impressed by the letterhead, but then she already knew Amy Stevens' father wrote for a big London newspaper; it must be this one. "This is offering me a..." she checked the letter again, in case she'd imagined what it said the first two times she read it through. She'd dreamt of similar before but it had never happened in real life. "An unpaid job for the Easter holidays." She looked back up at him.

He smiled at her. "Amy talked to me about how much she liked you and your lessons and mentioned that you were looking for a journalism job. I thought this might help. I hope she wasn't prying."

She shook her head. "No, not at all. But Mr Stevens, you don't even know me." She knew well enough that the journalism business relied heavily on knowing the right people, and that's what she had spent her three years at university doing. She had hoped to make Mr Stevens' acquaintance before now, but every time she had a chance something would interfere to prevent her.

"No, but I've seen some of your articles. I know enough to know you'll go far. You just need a start, that's the hardest part."

Some probably meant all - she hadn't had that many published. He must have done his research well. There were tears building in her eyes. "Ah, I... I don't know what to say." Nothing she had done with her job here was in order to get a start in her chosen career. She'd done it because she wanted to and she enjoyed seeing her pupils learning.

"Thank you?" he suggested, with a twinkle in his eye.

She smiled as the tears faded away. "Thank you."

He stood up. "I must go. This was just a flying visit, so to speak."

Sarah stood too, wondering just why he was here and whether he had seen Amy or Margia. She suspected not, given the absence of information in Grizel's message and the lack of response from Amy. She wasn't going to ask, though, as much as she wanted to: she didn't want to risk him taking the letter back. "It was good to meet you, Mr Stevens. Amy is a credit to you."

"Why, thank you." He gave her a small bow.

After she saw him out she leant back against the front door, hugging the letter to her chest and smiling. Occasionally she glanced at its contents, which only broadened her smile. She didn't linger too long, though, not wanting to leave Grizel resenting Sarah's unexpected time off tonight.

She took a deep breath, stood up straight and walked along the corridor, trying to act as if nothing much had happened. It was the thought of Harry that sobered her. Although the Easter holidays were short this year, so they could finish the summer term before it got too hot, she had been hoping to spend more time with Harry. It hadn't been very long since their kiss outside Die Rosen and their time together consisted mainly of snatched moments. Now it looked like that wouldn't change, since they would once again spend the school holidays in different countries - she couldn't imagine he would get so long off again. Not when Jem had a new daughter to spend his time with and Harry wouldn't begrudge him that.

Harry would understand, she was sure, since this was hardly an opportunity she could pass up. Although she had been editor of the university newspaper as well as doing unpaid work on the local newspapers, that hadn't got her anywhere. This, though, was a big, well-known paper and their recommendation would go a long way. Perhaps if they liked her work they would even employ her.

She would miss Harry, of course, but she was giddy with the excitement coming up.

~*~*~

"Harry!"

He had barely turned round, his mind still on the patient he had just come from, and the heat of summer in May, when he was assaulted by someone small, soft and smelling of soot: Sarah. He pulled her closer, pressing the file he carried against her back and burying his nose in her hair. She had probably come straight to the San without even stopping to wash and his heart skipped a beat thinking what that meant.

She hadn't been away for Easter for much more than a week, but it felt like longer and he never wanted to be apart from her that long again. After spending some time spending thinking about his relationship with Esther and what he felt for Sarah he was much more sure this time. So much so that he'd gone to the shops in Innsbruck on his day off. He had almost regretted that instinct once he got back and he resolved to wait until the end of the school year before he asked her. For now a small velvet box lived in his desk drawer and no one but he knew it was there.

As he heard footsteps coming down the corridor towards them, Harry pulled himself away from her reluctantly. He really wanted to be even closer to her, but that would have to wait a few months yet, at least. "Come into the office and tell me about your holiday."

She took hold of his hand, threading her fingers through his and smiled up at him as they walked.

Once they had some privacy she pressed one hand to his chest and pushed him against the nearest bookcase to kiss him thoroughly. His file dropped from nerveless fingers and he tangled his hand in her hair. When at last she released his mouth they were both a little breathless.

"What was that for?" He was always gentle with her, afraid that his feelings would scare her away and she had responded in kind. Although he wasn't used to this kind of forcefulness from her, he had enjoyed it anyway and rather hoped she would do more of the same in future.

"It's so good to be back." She smiled up at him and stroked the back of his neck, making it very difficult for him to think clearly.

"Didn't you have a good time?" He half-hoped she had spent the whole week wishing she was with him, but he hated the idea of her being miserable.

"Oh, Harry, it was amazing," she said with a sigh and released him, as if she had more important things to think about.

"It is rather hard to tell. After all, you never wrote." His tone wasn't as harsh as his words sounded: he knew how long it took the post to get from England to here, although he had expected she might send a postcard to tell him she had got there safely. After all, that might have arrived here before she did.

She took his hand, and rubbed her thumb over the back of it, before giving it a tug and leading him over to his desk before he could retrieve his dropped and now half-forgotten file. "I'm sorry, I was just so busy."

He nodded at that, wanting to ask her if she'd had any time to think of him at all, but saying nothing in case her answer wasn't what he wanted to hear. He began to worry that the ring had been a terrible idea when she moved a few things on his desk with a sweep of her hand and perched herself on the edge.

"It's not built for that, you know."

Her only reply was a cheeky grin and another kiss. It was a while before either of them were far enough apart to speak again and Harry reconsidered his opinion of a few minutes before.

"So, what did you get up to that filled all of your time?" he asked, not letting go of her this time.

"First they had me making the tea." She made a face at that and he laughed. He wished he could have been there to hear her express her opinion of it to the people at the newspaper.

"But then a lot of stories happened all at once," she went on, "and they were short of reporters. So they sent me." She sat up straighter.

"Good for you." He absently counted the vertebrae he could feel beneath his palm.

"Then once I'd written it the Deputy Editor completely re-wrote it." She sighed and slumped a little.

With his other hand he ran his fingers along her cheek. "Sorry, old girl."

"Don't call me that. I know Dr Jem calls Madame and Joey 'old lady' all the time, but that doesn't mean you have to copy him." Although she was telling him off it didn't stop her from moving her hand from his waist down to his hip, slowly.

He smiled and pressed his lips to hers again. When he didn't call her 'old girl' for a while she asked him if there was anything wrong, so he was hardly going to stop, no matter what she said. She never quite complained in a serious voice, anyway.

"I just refused to leave his office until he told me why he'd done it. And then he made me a cup of tea."

He laughed and she smiled along with him. He knew Sarah's tactics well when she tried to get her own way. The poor man probably had no chance, or fancied her rotten, and Harry couldn't blame him for that.

"It did make sense." She sighed. "I've got more to learn than I thought. It's no wonder they didn't offer me a job."

"So it was all for nothing?" He frowned.

She shook her head. "Not completely. I have a lot more contacts now. You never know when they might be useful."

"No, you don't," he murmured, wondering what she would say to staying here with him. He wasn't going to ask until he was sure, no matter how long that took.

She brushed one hand up his arm. "I can think of better things to do than talking."

There was a playfulness in her tone that made him raise his eyebrows. His reply of "Better than words?" was lost in her mouth.

~*~*~

Sarah sighed and sunk into a chair, throwing her letter down as she did so. She sat with her head in her hands and didn't move until Grizel spoke.

"What's wrong? Bad news from home?"

She looked up to see Grizel looking down at her, a concerned look on her face. Sarah shook her head. "In a manner of speaking." She bent down and picked the letter back up, screwing it up into a ball. "The newspaper I worked for at Easter don't want me to work for them."

Grizel sat down opposite. "I'm sorry."

"I was so sure...." She stood up and threw the crumpled up letter into the bin a little harder than was strictly necessary. "If I don't have a job by the end of the year I don't know what I'm going to do."

Grizel shrugged. "Stay here and teach?"

"Maybe I'll have to." She gazed out of the window where there was a picturesque view of the Austrian Alps. They didn't soothe her as much as they usually did though.

"I thought you liked it here."

She turned back to face Grizel, leaning back against the windowsill. "I do, I just don't want to be stuck here forever."

"I know what you mean," Grizel said, with feeling.

Now Sarah sat back down. "Oh, Grizel, I'm so sorry, going on like that. But you'll find a way, I know you will."

Grizel gave a wry smile. "Maybe. But I was never one for patience."

Sarah smiled, remembering incidences when they were both pupils at the Chalet School. "Neither was I. But then, I never did know when to give up."

"There you go then. Perhaps someone will admire your tenacity and employ you."

Sarah smiled.

Before she could say anything, there was a knock at the door and it was pushed open. Sarah jumped up as Harry came in the room, carrying a basket. She stopped herself from approaching him because Grizel was in the room.

"Good news?" he asked.

Sarah shook her head. "They rejected me."

Harry frowned. "Who did?"

"The paper I worked for at Easter."

He didn't look any less confused. "I thought they already did that."

"No. They said they would get back to me and I hoped...." Despite what she'd told him there was always a chance, but she almost wished they had said no straight away and not left her hanging for so long. She bit her lip. "What have you got there?" She hoped he would get the hint that she didn't want to talk about it. She didn't even want to think about it at the moment. Harry's arrival was unexpected and she wanted to enjoy the time she spent with him, for however long he could spare.

"A picnic. I brought enough for two." He held the basket a little higher.

"Oh, thank you." She looked over at Grizel who was industriously pretending to read her book. "Let me get my sunhat."

They said their goodbyes to Grizel and stopped off at Sarah's room where Harry gentlemanly waited outside and Sarah collected her hat.

Outside, she took his arm and they wandered along the path up the mountain. She vividly remembered coming up here in the snow, chasing after Cecile. It had changed a lot since then, with long, green grass and plenty of wildflowers making the landscape colourful. The sun shone down from a blue sky and it was a good day for a picnic. "I'd forgotten how much I missed the summers here. And the winters." When she was dressed for them, anyway.

"They are very different from England," Harry agreed.

She cocked her head sideways to look at him. "Good different or bad different?" She couldn't tell whether he was that fond of the weather here.

He looked over at her. "Well, it is a little hot."

She smiled at that. It didn't help that he always dressed very properly, so wore more layers than were necessary at these temperatures. She wouldn't have minded seeing him wearing fewer clothes, but she never got the chance.

"But on the whole I think I like it." His gaze took in their panoramic view of the valleys.

"So you're planning to stay here?" She had wondered, when he first arrived, how long it would be before he wanted to move back to Scotland, or get married and bring his wife out here. Since neither had happened, she wasn't sure if she was enough reason to stay for now.

"For a little while. But who knows what the future will bring." He smiled down at her and she responded by reaching up for a kiss before they carried on walking.

She had expected to survive however long she spent here, not like it as much as she had. It wasn't as much as she had loved working on the newspaper for a week, but enough that she wasn't in quite as much of a rush to leave as she had been at first. Harry was responsible for a large part of that. "If I could stay here and write that would be perfect, I think." England paled in comparison to the Tirol.

He pulled her closer to him and she wrapped her other arm around his. "Can't you do that?"

She shook her head. "The Tirol isn't the right place to be for the things I want to write." Pleasant as it was, it was too far away from the action, and she wasn't well enough known yet to earn enough money that way.

Harry nodded and said, "Let's stop here."

They had reached a shady spot with soft, green grass and a good view of the other mountains. It was as good a place as any other. Harry unpacked the blanket for them to sit on and Sarah started on the rest of the contents of the basket.

"Is there anything exciting happening at the Chalet School at the moment?"

She wondered if he really didn't know or was just making conversation. The former seemed unlikely given the closeness of the San and the school and the latter was unlike Harry. But she answered anyway. "There is the trip to the Zillerthal for Madame's birthday next week. You must have heard about that." She watched him out of the corner of her eye as she laid out the sandwiches.

"Oh, yes. Jem mentioned something about it." He still sounded distracted, though, and he held a plate as if he didn't quite know what to do with it.

"Harry." She laid a hand on his arm. "Is everything all right?"

"What? Oh, yes." He came back from wherever his mind had been, and chose a sandwich. "It's not long until the end of term."

"Just over a month," she confirmed.

But Harry didn't elaborate on why he'd made that statement, just calmly ate his sandwich. So Sarah filled in the silence by telling him more about the trip as they ate. "The Juniors are coming here because it's too far for them to go, but Juliet, Grizel and I are going to the Zillerthal. Everyone's looking forward to it." Ever since the school started there had been an annual trip for Madame's birthday. In the year Sarah was there they had also gone to the same valley for a picnic and Sarah was looking forward to seeing it again.

"The river Ziller runs through it," she explained, "and we have to take the train to get there, which most of them find exciting." She grinned - travelling by train had rapidly lost its appeal for her after taking so many. She much preferred the destination to the journey itself. "When I was there we went to Mayrhofen and the pine woods there. The river was lovely and cool in the heat." She smiled, remembering how they'd looked for gold, although didn't find any, of course.

It turned out that Harry had heard a little about the place and asked her questions as they ate.

"I could have a nice nap now," Sarah said, yawning, after they'd packed everything away.

Harry laughed and pulled her closer to him with one hand around her waist. She rested her head on his shoulder and one hand on his leg. It was a better way to spend the day than fretting over her latest rejection. She didn't feel as badly about it now, although it was perhaps because she was becoming more immune to them. They never completely left her unaffected, though.

She still had a month to decide if she wanted to stay on next year. Juliet and Grizel were happy for her to stay, as were Madame and Joey. Sarah wouldn't be sorry to live in a place like this for a little longer but she had only intended to teach for a term, then it had turned into a year and she wasn't quite ready to give up on her dream yet.

If she was sensible, she would get herself a job in London where she now had more contacts, thanks to her Easter job. She wondered, if she suggested it, whether Harry would come with her. However, that was a little more commitment than she was prepared for just at the moment. So she would put the decision off until the end of term and hope for the best in the meantime.

~*~*~

Harry almost walked straight into her. He hadn't expected Sarah to try and accost him in the corridors of the San when he was at work. If he remembered her timetable correctly she had an hour off, but he hadn't expected to see her here. It was a nice surprise, though.

"Has something happened?" he asked her. He couldn't think of any other reason why she might be here.

"Oh, yes. Something wonderful."

He raised his eyebrows. She was practically bouncing and her smile was broader than the one she usually greeted him with.

"I wanted you to be the first to know."

"I'm honoured." Although he couldn't think what it was and didn't know where to begin guessing. "Don't keep me in suspense." Partly because he only had a few minutes free.

"I've got a job! It's a glossy magazine but they cover all sorts."

For a moment he couldn't quite take in what she was telling him. "So you're leaving?"

She nodded, obviously not thinking through the implications. "At the end of term."

He folded his arms and gazed over her shoulder at the wall beyond. "Congratulations," he said, in a flat tone. It wasn't that he didn't want her to be happy, he just didn't want it to be at the expense of his own happiness.

"What's wrong?" She frowned. "I thought you'd be pleased for me."

"How can I be when you're leaving me?" He stared hard at her and she bit her lip in response.

"I hadn't thought of that." Her voice was suddenly small.

He'd met Gertrud a few times, since he worked with her husband, and he knew Madge'd had to give up her job when she married. Harry wouldn't have minded waiting a few years if that was what Sarah really wanted and if he had a promise that it wouldn't be forever. He hadn't expected her to be that different to anyone else.

"But I still have a few weeks left, we'll just have to make the most of that time." She stretched out an arm to him, and he stepped backwards, out of her reach. He refused to be affected by her hurt expression.

He shook his head. "What's the use in continuing if we're only going to be parted?" Why had she even let him kiss her if she had no intention of following their relationship through to its natural conclusion?

"But I always meant to leave one day. I thought you knew that." She took a step closer to him.

Were they even on the same page any more, he wondered. "I thought you loved me. I thought...." He thought that she loved him more than her career, but clearly he was wrong. Perhaps he was just too much of a romantic, believing that love conquered all.

"I did," she said quietly. "I do, Harry."

He swallowed hard. "Goodbye, Sarah. Good luck with your new job." He turned round and walked back in the direction he had come from, even though it wasn't where he was supposed to be. If he'd tried going past her she would have reached out and stopped him and it was hard enough walking away from her as it was.

"You can't just leave it like this," she shouted after him.

He could, so he didn't stop, even when she called his name.

The office was mercifully empty and he sunk into the chair at his desk, head in his hands. For some time he just sat there, not moving, unable to work out what to do now.

When the door opened he sprang to his feet, turning to face the window, hands in his pockets.

"Harry?" It was Jack. "I've been waiting for you..." Harry heard him come closer. "Is something wrong?"

Harry sighed and turned round. "I'm sorry, old chap," he replied, trying to sound far more jolly than he was. "I'll be right there." Mustering something of a smile, he started towards the door.

Jack stopped him with a hand to his chest. "What's happened?"

They might not have seen each other for a few years, but Harry and Jack had been good friends at university and that still continued. If there was one person Harry wouldn't be able to shrug this off with, it was Jack. "Me and Sarah," he began, and then stopped to take a deep breath as he tried to decide what to say. "We're not together any more."

Jack frowned. "Why not? I thought the two of you were--"

Harry cut him off before he could say the words. "So did I, but she didn't. She's going back to England to start her journalism career."

"I'm sorry." Jack's expression immediately changed from worried to sympathetic.

"Will you take over my duties at the Annexe for the rest of the term?"

"If you want, but you can't just avoid her."

"Yes, I can." Harry slipped around Jack and opened the door. "Come on, we have patients to see."

He was glad Jack got the hint because he said no more about it and concentrated his talk on work. If the rest of the term went the same way and he never had to discuss Sarah again he might just manage to keep going.

~*~*~

Harry hadn't just been avoiding her, he was hiding, Sarah determined. She had ended up being more upset over getting a job offer than she had by any of her rejections, so she had decided to wait until Harry came to the Annexe for his usual afternoon of check-ups. Except he'd sent Dr Jack instead, who hadn't been very willing to discuss Harry with her.

So, once she had some time off when she was sure Harry wouldn't be working, she sought him out. When she enquired she discovered he had been working more often than not and now she was worried about him on top of everything else. She felt sure if they could just discuss it they could work something out, as long as she could find him first.

Boldly, she walked into the San and found him just around the corner from the front entrance. The next thing she knew he turned round and practically ran away from her. Undeterred, she decided on a more stealthy approach and following him without him noticing. Once he went into the office and the door swung shut behind him she knew he was trapped. She hadn't been able to follow him into patients' rooms, but here she could.

She had one hand on the doorknob when it opened suddenly and Harry stood immediately opposite her. For a moment she thought he might shut the door on her, he looked so shocked at seeing her.

"I just want to talk to you," she said, hoping that he might actually listen.

"I'm busy." He went round her, taking care not to brush past her at all.

"I'll wait then." She opened the door but didn't quite go in, waiting to see what he would do.

He sighed and looked back at her. "Five minutes," he promised.

She smiled at her victory, but not so he could see. She wasn't quite sure how long he would really be, but she was prepared to wait as long as it took. He would have to come back here some time. She sat herself down at Harry's neat desk: he didn't spend much time at it, so it wasn't a surprise that it wasn't more messy.

However, there was only so long she could sit there with nothing to do and she knew better than to poke through confidential files. The only books kept in here were medical texts, which were dull and dry and liable to put her to sleep. It had been longer than five minutes already and it occurred to her that there was nothing to stop him from leaving. Usually Harry was as good as his word, but she wasn't quite so sure any more. If she could just think of what to say to make things better she would write a note. Perhaps she would make a start and see if anything came to her - that had been known to work on occasion.

She looked around his desk for a scrap of paper she could use, but the only pile of paper on there was all used. So she opened the top drawer of his desk and cast about in there. The drawer looked like he'd thrown any old thing in it without much regard for what it was supposed to contain. Clearly his life wasn't as ordered as it first appeared. The paper was easy to find and when she took the notepad out she came across a pencil. On closer inspection she discovered it had only been sharpened on one side. With a sigh she put it back and watched as it rolled towards the back of the drawer and hit a small velvet box.

Frowning, she pulled it out and opened it curiously. Her mouth went suddenly dry as it revealed the ring inside. Her mind raced, trying to think of an explanation other than the obvious, but if there was one, she couldn't see it.

As she sat there holding it, the door opened and Harry stood framed in the doorway, just as still as she was. Gently, Sarah put the box down on his desk and pushed it closed, not wanting to see the ring any more.

Harry shut the door behind him, but didn't advance any further into the room. Sarah bit her lip, but for once she couldn't think of a single thing to say.

"What would you have said if I'd asked earlier?"

Her gaze flicked to the box, but before she could say anything Harry spoke again.

"Don't answer that. I don't think I'd like either answer."

It was just as well because she knew she would have been terribly tempted to say yes. And after that, who knows what might have happened.

The silence grew between them until it almost became big enough to have a life of its own. At last, Harry broke it when he pulled a chair up to his desk and sat on it. "You said you wanted to talk."

She nodded. She had known exactly what she wanted to say, but now it just didn't seem to fit. "I thought we could still be friends." She'd never wanted to lose his friendship, and now she wished she had foregone the wonderful few months they had been more, so she wouldn't have had to lose him now.

He shook his head. "I can't."

Of course it wouldn't be easy, but he could at least try. "I can't leave it like this. I love you, Harry." It was the first time she said it and it sounded desperate. It matched how she was starting to feel.

"Then stay with me."

He sat so still and she wished he would do something to break the tension in the room. "I didn't mean for it to happen like this." She sat forward on her seat, remembering what she had wanted to discuss. "You could come to London with me."

"What for?" He frowned.

"We could keep it a secret; tell people you're my brother or something." If only it was possible for her to work and be married then they wouldn't have this problem. But it wasn't and she had to live with it, as much as she wished it was different. One day her writing would change the world, she hoped, but it could only happen slowly. And it wouldn't be fast enough for her to have a husband and a career.

He shook his head. "I won't lie to everyone. And we'd only be found out."

She sighed. She knew he was right but she had to try something. It wasn't as if they could carry on the way they were. One of her classmates at university had been thrown out when it was revealed that she was pregnant and unmarried. Sarah might not always toe the line when it came to doing what society expected of her, but that was too much of a scandal, even for her. Harry too, she suspected. "At least I'm trying to find a solution."

"You made your choice. Now we both have to live with it."

He didn't look like he was living with it very well. In only a few days he'd got thinner and had circles under his eyes. She wanted to go over to him; smooth over the wrinkles and kiss him better. She wondered what he would do if she tried it, but he wasn't sounding his most friendly, and she didn't dare.

Nothing she could say would make a difference. Maybe if she had more time, she could change his mind, but soon she would be far away and out of his life. Sarah wasn't a quitter but she knew when she had lost. She got up and made to leave. At the door, she turned back to make one last attempt at making things better between the two of them. "You will say goodbye before I leave, won't you?"

"I don't know." He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Of all the things I'll miss about this place...." She trailed off, sure he would understand without her needing to finish the sentence out loud.

As she hesitated on the threshold, he looked up and their eyes met. For a moment she couldn't remember why she was leaving; why she was leaving him. Perhaps he was right and they couldn't be friends.

~*~*~

Sitting at his desk, staring into space, Harry gradually became aware he was being watched. It was something he'd done a lot since the last time he saw Sarah. He was thinking of her, as always, but he'd never been found out until now. He look up to see Jem standing on the other side of the room. Harry didn't say anything, just waited for the other man to speak.

"You've been here for nearly a year now. I'd like to think we were friends."

Harry nodded. He wasn't as good friends with Jem as Jack was, but he liked and respected the older man.

"So if you won't talk to Jack, how about talking to me instead?"

Harry sighed. "There's no law that says I have to discuss my life with anyone." He came out a little harsher than he intended, but if it made Jem leave him alone, then he didn't mind. He just had to get through today, then he would apologise.

"You know Sarah's leaving today." Jem sat in the chair that Jack had left opposite Harry's desk yesterday.

"I could hardly forget."

"Aren't you going to see her off?"

They'd had a party to celebrate Sarah's new career, he remembered. Harry had offered to stay at the San so Jack and Jem could go, although he hadn't really got much work done that evening. "I've said everything I need to say." There were other things he could say, but nothing that would help. It was much too late for her to change her mind now. And yet, if she did, he would probably forgive her.

"You'll regret not going more than you'll regret staying here."

Harry sighed, giving in if only to shut Jem up. "All right, you've convinced me." He didn't have to get that close to her, or even speak to her. As long as he was out of the San he was safe from Jem's meddling, however well intentioned it was.

When he stood up, Jem got up too and pulled a key from his pocket. "Why don't you drive her to the station?"

Harry gave him a look. He was not happy about being blind sided like this.

Jem shrugged and held the key out. "Someone has to."

"All right, you win." Harry took it from him.

Jem didn't smile. "It wasn't a battle."

It was from Harry's perspective, but he admitted defeat graciously and walked down to the Annexe with Jem following. At least they went in silence - Harry hadn't been looking forward to hearing more of Jem's opinions on the subject. He'd had enough from Jack as it was.

Once there, Harry let Jem go on ahead, while he hung back. There was quite a crowd of people around Sarah, including Juliet, Grizel, Madge, Joey and Robin as well as Jack and Jem. Harry watched as Sarah hugged them and promised to write, smiling all the time. Usually he wouldn't be able to help himself from smiling at the sight, but today he swallowed hard and didn't take his eyes from her.

One by one everyone else melted away, or was dragged away in Jack's case, and it was impossible for Harry to stay unnoticed, if he ever had been. Slowly, he walked over to Sarah and picked up her case.

She frowned in the direction Jem and Madge had gone. "Dr Jem offered to drive me."

"And he volunteered me for the job."

She nodded and followed him to the car. Usually she would complain that she was perfectly capable of carrying her case herself, but she didn't and for once Harry wished she would. Their relationship had been teasing from the start and this forced politeness didn't sit well with him.

Sarah gazed out of the window as he drove carefully, since he was not as familiar with the roads as Jem. "I'm going to miss it here," she said, wistfully.

He refrained from pointing out that it had been her decision to leave - no one had forced her. "You can always come back sometime."

She looked over at him. "Can I?"

At least he had a good reason to keep his eyes on the road and not turn his head towards his passenger. "I won't stop you." No one could stop Sarah when she really wanted something, but still, it wasn't his place to tell her what to do. Although he wondered what would happen if she decided to come and pay a visit in a year's time. He could probably avoid her if necessary.

Their conversation faltered after that and Harry put all his concentration on getting them both to the station safely. When they arrived he opened the boot to pull her case out and their hands reached it at the same time.

"I can do that," she said, not letting go.

He wished he could do something about the way his heart still sped up at her touch. He gripped the handle harder. "I'll put you on the train if it's the last thing I do."

She took a step back at the venom in his voice. He hadn't intended it, but he was angry at what she had done, it was just easier to hide it when she wasn't around. She looked very small of a sudden and stood and watched as he manoeuvred her case from the car to the waiting train, all the while not saying a word.

When he stepped down he moved away from the door to give her space to board, but she stayed where she was.

"I'll miss you too," she said and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder, just as she had done many times before.

He knew he shouldn't, but he hugged her in return, pressing her close to him. It would be so easy to stay like this; to beg her to stay. He didn't dare say anything, in case the words slipped out without him meaning for them to.

When she lifted her head and looked up at him her eyes were watery. She leaned her head forward and for a moment she was close enough to kiss easily. But he knew if he did that he would never be able to let her go and it wasn't exactly easy now.

She turned her head to press a kiss to his cheek before turning and disappearing into the depths of the train.

He let out a sigh: half relief and half disappointment. He watched the train leave and when it was out of sight he touched his fingers to his cheek. He could still feel her warm breath against his neck and the wetness of her lips.

It had been three years since she was last in the Tirol. It wasn't that she didn't like it, but she had been so determined to be a journalist that she spent her university holidays hanging around journalists and their offices doing whatever work she could get. As long as it gained her some connections the pay never mattered. But it meant there had been no time for foreign travel. She'd always thought she could do that later, once she had some of her own money to do it with, but things hadn't quite turned out the way she'd expected.

The mountain air smelt fresh and even more healthy than she remembered. Her time recently had been filled with nothing but writing applications and trying desperately to get a job, so this journey had been a break. She knew once she reached the Annexe her first few days would be too busy for anything except for lesson plans. Teaching, she was feeling more apprehensive about, but she would just need to follow Madame's example and it shouldn't go too badly.

Since she'd never been up to the Sonnalpe before, she had some directions written on a piece of paper as to how to get to the Annexe. However, all the people round about knew of the school and the Sanatorium it was connected with, so it was hard to get lost. She greeted those she came across in the German she'd become much more fluent in after a year spent in Austria. Since it had come in useful in the past, she was grateful for Aunt Lavinia for giving her the chance to learn it so well.

There was no one outside the Annexe chalet. It looked big for just twenty two pupils, three mistresses and various support staff, but she supposed it had been chosen with expansion in mind. Inside smelt as fresh as the outside and looked spotless besides. Juliet and Grizel would probably be in here somewhere, but it was hard to tell where.

She had known them both well enough at school but hadn't especially been friends with either of them. But then Juliet and Grizel hadn't been that close either, so they were all going to have to make the best of it. Although given what Sarah had heard from Joey, they got on better now and Sarah was trying not to feel too much like an interloper in their midst even before she arrived.

Joey was the person Sarah had got on best with at school. Mind you, everyone liked Joey, but in Sarah's case they'd had a shared love of writing, although Joey's ambition was more towards fiction than journalism. Just about all the Old Girls wrote to Joey, it seemed, and where she got the time to write long letters back, Sarah never found out.

"Sarah!" Juliet came out of a room into the corridor ahead of Sarah. She was carrying a cardboard box folded shut, so Sarah couldn't see what was in it. "How was your journey?"

Sarah tried not to feel too much like a student and more like the contemporary of Juliet she was. "Fine, thank you." Although it wasn't a short trip from the North of England to Tirol, it had at least been uneventful. "Can I help with anything?"

Juliet shook her head. "We're nearly done, thank goodness. I feel like we've been unpacking for weeks, not days."

"Sorry I wasn't here sooner." It had been a rush to get everything ready and make the journey to the Annexe before term started.

"Don't worry about it, we've had plenty of help. Come on, I'll show you to your room so you can get cleaned up. Then it will be time for Kaffee und Kuchen." She started off down the corridor in the direction Sarah had been going.

"Thank you." As Sarah followed Juliet around the chalet she tried hard to remember the layout. It wouldn't do to get lost and be late to lessons.

On the way, Juliet pointed out a few rooms and Sarah was glad to see the staff room wasn't far away from her bedroom. So she wouldn't get too lost until later at least. Once at Sarah's room, Juliet left her to get settled in.

Her trunk was already here, but Sarah didn't quite feel up to unpacking just yet. So she just hung up her coat, changed her shoes and washed her face and hands. A quick glance in the mirror showed her hair to be tangled from the wind, so she had to stop and comb it. After that she was presentable, if tired. The rest of the soot she could wash off later.

When she reached the small staff room Grizel was pouring out coffee.

"Oh, Sarah," she said, when she turned round to see who had come in. "Have a cup of coffee." She held out the one she had just filled. "Did you find your trunk all right?"

"Yes, thank you," Sarah replied, taking the cup from her and sitting on one of the easy chairs arranged around the room. She took a sip of her drink and immediately felt the warmth of it. As much as she liked tea, she was fond of the milky coffee and bread twists that formed the mid-afternoon meal of Kaffee und Kuchen at the Chalet School.

She wasn't sure where all the furniture had come from, but the four chairs in the room were comfortable, and the table at the end of the room looked big enough for two of them to work on at a time. Most of the colour came in through the window but there were more important things about the room than how it looked.

The door opened again. "Ah, there you are Juliet. I thought you were never going to get here."

"All right, Grizel, I'm not that late." Juliet came in and accepted her cup.

"Is there anything else that needs doing?" Sarah asked, as Juliet and Grizel both sat down.

"The students don't arrive until tomorrow, so we have this evening to relax," Grizel answered.

Sarah was thinking that an early night would be just the thing, although she didn't expect to sleep that much from nerves.

"Which I'm so glad about. I've been meaning to write to Donal for the past two days and simply couldn't find a spare minute to fit it in."

"Spare minute, spare hour more like."

"When you're in love you'll spend just as long on your letters, mark my words, Grizel."

Grizel turned to Sarah, who had been listening to their conversation with interest, but not wanting to interrupt. "Please tell me you don't have someone back in England you're just waiting to marry."

Sarah smiled and shook her head. "I'm going to be a journalist, I don't have time to marry."

"Oh, thank goodness." Grizel put her hands to her chest and sighed dramatically. "You can be my island of sanity among the madness of young love."

Juliet rolled her eyes. "It's hardly as if I talk about Donal that often. And I'm a year older than you, young Grizel."

Grizel just waved her hand. It looked as if this was an argument they'd had often.

Sarah hoped she wouldn't get caught in the middle of it, as friendly as it was. "You are excited about being headmistress here, though, aren't you, Juliet?" she asked.

"Of course I am. But it's just temporary until I can marry Donal." She smiled and had a faraway look in her eyes.

"Everyone here's only temporary." Grizel sighed. "Except me."

Sarah frowned. "I thought you wanted to teach?"

"Yes, but PT, not music." She made a face.

Joey had been inclined to tell Sarah everything about Juliet and Grizel before Sarah came, but hadn't mentioned that point. Grizel had always been good at music when they were at school, but given the choice Grizel would have given it up. Her father was too much in control of her life to let her, though. "That's better than me at least." Sarah gave her a friendly smile, with some sympathy. "I'm scared to death I'll be terrible at it."

"We'll help you, don't worry about that." Juliet patted her knee. "And you can always ask Madame for help. She's only a few minutes away." When Madge taught at the Chalet School she had been known to all the pupils as Madame. Even now that held true and Sarah couldn't imagine calling her anything else. It was also a politeness, since Madge was still the owner of the school.

"Thank you. That is a great comfort." She smiled at Juliet.

"Well." Juliet put down her now empty coffee cup. "I'm off to write my letter, you two do whatever you want and I'll see you at Abendessen."

Grizel rolled her eyes and Sarah giggled. Juliet ignored them and walked from the room looking every inch a headmistress.

~*~*~

"Ah, there you are."

Harry looked up when Jem came into the office. He'd been at the Sanatorium a week now and was well acquainted with the staff and patients there by this time. He was also getting to know the other people who lived up on the Sonnalpe. This was the first time he'd had a letter from Esther, though, and he was sitting at his desk, re-reading it. He stood up as Jem came over.

"How are you settling in?" Jem was not much taller than Harry, although fairer, so the two looked much like opposites. Harry had been in awe of the other man when he first arrived, since it was Jem who had founded the San. Jack Maynard, who was Jem's deputy, had been one of Jem's students at university. Harry had known Jem, although not very well, but he was friends with Jack. Just as Jem had asked Jack to work here, Jack in turn had asked Harry. As jobs were scarce at home, and disappearing with the Doctor for a week or two hadn't helped, Harry hadn't been able to say no.

"Very well, thank you." He smiled. He was liking it here so far.

Jem nodded. "Now that the girls have had a chance to settle in, I think it's about time to introduce you to your charges."

"Righto." After putting the letter down, Harry followed Jem out of the office.

The Chalet School Annexe was only a few minutes walk away from San. Although the weather was still hot, it wasn't too unpleasant this far above sea level. When he first got here, Harry had wished they weren't as far away from the sea he loved, but working in the heat made him appreciate the San's location more. On the way, Jem pointed out the mountains to him and talked about which ones he'd been to. Harry rather fancied taking a look at some of them on his days off.

The school was in a chalet, just as many of the other buildings round here were. The gardens surrounding it probably looked better in spring when the grass was greener and the flowers grew, rather than wilted, but it was a wide open space, which would be good for school girls to run about in. A dozen young girls sat cross-legged on the ground, close to the front of the chalet, in the shade it offered. All had exercise books and were scribbling away at them, although a few looked more thoughtful and sucked on the end of their pencils.

"Hello!" Jem called as they neared, and at once all the girls looked up. Many of them called out "Dr Jem!" delightedly and somehow still managed to bounce sitting down.

Harry couldn't help grinning along with Jem at their reaction. He only hoped he could make himself as popular with them.

"Dr Jem." A young woman stood up from where she had been kneeling beside one of the girls, correcting her work. She was short and dressed in the local fashion, although a lock of hair had fallen from her bun and was instead tucked behind one ear. She looked too young to be a teacher, but she held herself with a confidence that suggested she was older than she looked. She was the complete opposite of Esther in looks, but Harry thought she was just as pretty.

She came over to where they were standing.

"Sarah. It's good to see you too." With a hand on her shoulder, Jem said, "Let me introduce you to my colleague, Harry Sullivan. He's just joined us to take care of the girls here. Harry, Sarah Jane Smith."

She turned her smile on him and shook his hand. "Have you ever been to the Tirol before?" she asked him.

Harry shook his head. "Never even been to Austria."

"Well, then you're in for a treat."

He smiled. From what he'd seen so far he agreed with her.

"Let's get down to business." Harry turned his attention back to Jem. "Harry and I will give all the girls a check-up today, and they can get to know Dr Harry." He nodded at Harry with a smile. Harry hadn't quite known what to make of the nickname by which he'd seen the girls greet Jem, but now he was hoping they would come to call him by it. "And after that it'll be all up to him."

"Do you want to start with my class?"

"It's as good a place as any."

The lesson had been disrupted anyway, so their check-ups hardly made it worse. Jem knew many of the girls and their entire medical histories by heart and Harry marvelled at his memory. As he wrote notes, Harry tried to remember as many names as he could, so he could match the girl to them afterwards. He was encouraged to see Sarah hesitate as she introduced some of them to him, so he wasn't alone and he knew she must be new here too.

Not all of the girls were entranced by Jem's presence. Those that weren't must be new to the school and hadn't met him before. He noticed one, Emilie, who spoke with a French accent, bit her lip and looked very nervous as Jem tried to examine her. So Harry stopped writing and started talking instead.

"Emilie, have you heard of the Loch Ness Monster?"

She looked over at Harry and nodded.

"Well, I saw it once."

She blinked at him and said nothing, but she looked interested, so he continued.

"Once, I was on the banks of the loch and there was a man walking along ahead of me, eating an apple. To impress the young lady he was with, he threw it as far as he could out into the lake. Before it even hit the water there was an almighty splash and out of the water came an enormous monster." Harry paused for effect and noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that all the girls were listening to him. "Nessie opened her mouth, showed us her teeth, and they were bigger than you are. She picked the apple out of the air and swallowed it whole."

"What did you do?" The voice came from a taller girl somewhere beyond his left shoulder.

Harry looked over at her. "I ran, of course, before she decided I made a tasty meal too."

That got the right reaction, as the girls laughed. Emilie, he noticed, when he turned back to look at her, had eyes as wide as saucers, but had entirely forgotten what Jem was doing. After that, Harry found the story worked well with other groups of pupils and by the time they were done he was already thinking of what to tell them next time.

Since it took a while for them to get round all twenty two students, the two doctors were invited for Kaffee und Kuchen afterwards. All the pupils and the teachers (although Harry soon learned they were called mistresses here) had it together in the hall. There was a mixture of ages on the tables the girls sat at, but the staff had a table of their own, out of earshot of the girls, as long as they talked quietly. Jem sat with the pupils, which he treated as a great honour, but Harry was ushered to the mistress's table. Although he had also been introduced to the other two teachers he was glad to find himself seated next to Sarah.

Although most of the girls talked eagerly to Jem, Robin in particular, who called him Onkle Jem, some of them called to Dr Harry, asking for more stories. Harry just laughed and told them they would have to wait until next week. He wanted some time to think first, but also he really wanted to talk to Sarah.

Fortunately, she came to his rescue. "So what brought you out here?" she asked.

Harry swallowed his mouthful of bread before he answered. "Jack recommended me for it. I was in need of a job and the San was in need of another doctor. "

"That's what happened to me too. I needed a job and the school needed a teacher at short notice. So they got someone they knew."

"Oh?" He hoped she would elaborate on that last part.

"I used to be a pupil at the Chalet School myself. Although," she lowered her voice, "if you ask anyone here they'll tell you I was quite wild at the time."

He raised his eyebrows. "And now you're a calm old thing, I suppose?"

"Well..." She grinned, mischievously. "I should set a good example. But I'm sure that between us, Juliet, Grizel and I have already tried any prank the girls can think of."

He laughed. "You've got your hands full here."

"So have you," she pointed out, before finishing her coffee. "But that was a good story you told."

"And what makes you think it wasn't true?" He put down his own cup.

She shook her head. "It's too fantastic to be true. I'll be keeping an eye on you in future," she teased.

Harry only smiled back. He wasn't sorry to be seeing her again and Kaffee und Kuchen ended far to soon for his liking. As the school went back to lessons, he and Jem had to return to the San.

"You're on your own next time, you know. So, it's up to you know, old chap." Jem clapped Harry on the back as they left the school.

Harry nodded and smiled. "I'm sure I'll get on fine." In fact, he was looking forward to it.

~*~*~

Each weekend brought another coach-load of Chalet School pupils to see the Annexe. It was now a few weeks into the term and their enthusiasm at the new part of the school hadn't been dampened at all. Even though it meant Sarah had seen some old friends from when she was a pupil herself, she was still looking forward to a little peace and quiet so she could get some writing done.

It had all meant that finding an empty classroom hadn't been as easy as she anticipated, and she'd ended up traipsing over most of the chalet, with Amy Stevens trailing after her, before she found one they could use. Once inside, she put the pile of papers she carried on the mistress's desk. Sarah had set her classes the task of writing something for the Chaletian, the school magazine. As a result they had rather a lot to look through, but she wasn't sorry, as all twenty two girls in the Annexe had contributed something and some of them had written more than one thing.

Amy was the editor for the Annexe, with Sarah overseeing her. Although Joey had been editor, Sarah had written for the magazine when she was at school, and then the newspaper at university, but it was a little different from the perspective of a teacher. She was only here to help, since the magazine was the girls affair, and it was hard not to put to use the skills she'd learnt and take control of the Annexe's submissions. However, she could claim some benefit of the job when talking to Editors, even if it wasn't quite as much of a direct link to what she really wanted to do.

Amy clutched a few sheets of her own, which she added to Sarah's pile.

"Goodness," Sarah said. "We almost have enough here for a magazine of our own." She was eager to begin before she forgot her good intentions. "Well, let's go through it." She motioned for Amy to pull up a chair and they began their arduous task.

Some of it was easy and had to go in, such as the Headgirl's report from Robin. Given the way the language was inconsistent throughout Sarah suspected some of the others had helped her with it. However, since there was nothing technically wrong with it, she didn't have a good reason for asking Robin to re-write it. Besides, Sarah was sure that if she started doing that they wouldn't have anything for the magazine. And it wasn't her place to choose entirely on the quality of the language, so it went in without a fuss.

"The handwriting on this is terrible," Sarah commented, studying the next one. She was tempted to ask that all future contributions be typewritten, but that was impossible since the only typewriter in the Annexe belonged to the secretary. Sarah had one, but it was her own personal one given to her by Aunt Lavinia.

"Perhaps there should be handwriting lessons," she mused.

Amy smiled shyly.

That probably wasn't the right subject to discuss with a student, even when she didn't feel much older than them herself. She made a mental note to talk to Florence Williams about her handwriting. Maybe she could suggest calligraphy lessons as part of art - it might inspire the girls to think more about their penmanship.

Fortunately, that was the worst of the contributions they looked through and all the rest were far easier to read. It would be the job of the Editor at the Chalet School proper to have the last say in what went in and what didn't, so Sarah didn't worry too much about weeding anything out, unless it was particularly terrible or outrageous. Fortunately, there weren't too many of those.

One stood out as being particularly interesting. Renee Lecoutier had written an article about the new doctor at the San. Sarah was glad one of the girls had thought of it - it would be something all the pupils would be interested in reading. All except the new girls knew Dr Jem and Dr Jack, and the other doctors they had little to do with. The Annexe pupils had got to know Harry well, so it was only fair everyone else did too.

Renee's description of him was flattering, without being untrue. "Do you like Dr Harry?" Sarah asked Amy.

"Oh, yes," she answered, nodding. "He tells good stories."

Sarah smiled at that. Harry's visits were the highlights of the week for the girls, as they got a different story each time. They were fast becoming the highlight of hers too, although not for quite the same reason. "I'm not sure you should believe them all," she cautioned.

"But they're still good stories."

Sarah couldn't argue with that.

"You like Dr Harry too, don't you, Miss Smith? Does he tell you all his stories at Kaffee und Kuchen?"

She couldn't really blame Amy for noticing Harry always sat by her. It wasn't even on purpose really, he'd just sat there the first time, and now that was his place. "Not just stories," she replied, not quite wanting to reveal to a young girl just what they talked about.

"But you do like him?"

"I do. He's..." Amy was eager for her opinion, so Sarah searched for the right word carefully. He was quite good-looking, which was nice, but not the most important thing, and not something someone of Amy's age would think about just yet. There were times when he wasn't quite serious and teased her, and she enjoyed teasing him back. But he also knew when to be serious and she appreciated that. "He's honest," she managed, eventually. Amy looked sceptical, so she added, "Not all men are. You'll learn that one day." Much as she hoped Amy wouldn't, it was probably inevitable.

The other contribution that stood out was the second to last on the pile that Amy shyly handed over. When Sarah read it, she found the poetry on it was very good. She knew Amy wrote well from the poetry she'd set in lessons, but for her age she was really very impressive. "Did you write these all by yourself?"

Amy smiled and nodded.

"They're very good." Sarah put the poetry down, wishing she could have written half as well as that as a child, but then she'd never been as interested in fiction writing.

"Thank you." Immediately Amy put the sheet on the pile to go into the magazine and Sarah dropped the subject, not wanting to embarrass her any further.

They were nearly finished and there was only one sheet left. Still caught up in Amy's poetry, Sarah pulled it across the desk. "What's this... Oh." She went red and quickly folded the paper up, putting it to one side and away from Amy - not that she thought for one minute that the girl would open it up and read it. But she rather hoped Amy hadn't seen what it was at all.

Given the way Amy sat on her hands and looked out at the empty classroom, Sarah realised her hopes had been dashed. She sighed. She hadn't meant this meeting to be uncomfortable, but so far it had been mostly that.

"Dad says they're good for science." Amy looked at Sarah out of the corner of her eye.

"They?" Sarah was confused for a minute, before she realised Amy must have seen the letterhead. "They are," she confirmed, giving in to the inevitable and having the conversation. "My aunt reads it. Is your father a scientist?" She wasn't sure how else she would know of it.

Amy shook her head. "My father is foreign correspondent for a big London newspaper."

Amy said it as if it was nothing special to her, which it probably wasn't. Sarah tried not to be jealous that if Amy wanted to be a journalist she would probably have a far easier time of it. It was a connection she could use, potentially. However, if she wanted to write to Amy's parents the school rules said Amy had to know. Sarah didn't want Amy to know she was being used, but neither did she want Amy to worry that Sarah was writing about her.

Since Sarah couldn't think of a good way of introducing herself to Amy's father by letter, she dropped that idea. However, if he was the foreign correspondent then he probably travelled all over the world. Perhaps he would come to a school event, such as the Christmas play, especially as Amy's older sister, Margia, was at the school. That was something she would have to investigate later, though, and for now she had to put her feelings to one side and finish what they'd come here for.

Amy hadn't quite answered the question of where she had heard of the science magazine, but her poetry made more sense now. "So that's where you get your writing talent from. You should carry on writing the poetry, you know, you'll be a great poet one day. And I'll be proud to say I taught Amy Stevens." She actually was, she realised. For the first time she was enjoying her temporary career.

Amy laughed. It didn't matter that she wasn't taking it seriously, though. There was plenty of time yet for her to decide what she wanted to do. "So how do you get scientific magazines to write to you?"

Sarah could hardly complain about Amy deflecting attention away from herself and her gift, or about her curiosity. She was only doing what Sarah would have done in the same situation. "I'm a writer too. I sent them an article to publish." And asked them for a job, but Amy didn't need to know that.

"Will they?"

She sighed. "Probably not." Although the letter hadn't said no exactly, it had heavily implied it. They certainly weren't looking to employ her full time, so it was no help either way. She couldn't stay freelance forever, not at the rate she had articles accepted.

"Do you write science? Will you teach us some?"

She shook her head. "I write all sorts." Anything she could get printed - she wasn't fussy any more. "Perhaps I will teach some science." She quite liked the idea. There were plenty of experiments the girls would find interesting that wouldn't be particularly dangerous or need any special equipment. "I'll have to talk to Miss Carrick about it first."

Amy nodded. "Margia's doing science and it sounds like fun."

"Oh, it is. But there's plenty of time for you to do some too, when you're older and well enough to go back to the main school with your sister."

She smiled. "I'm getting better all the time, Dr Harry said so."

Sarah smiled at the simple faith the girl placed in Harry. That was quite enough talk about herself, though, she decided, and picked up the stack of contributions that were bound for the Chalet School. "We'll let Joey decide which of these she has space for."

"I can give these to Margia, she'll take them down tomorrow when she goes back."

Sarah passed them over. "Good idea."

The rest Sarah kept. If nothing else they'd given her plenty of ideas for things she needed to cover in her lessons. The science lessons she would definitely put to Juliet. After all, Grizel was here to teach music but managed to find time to teach some PT without anyone here minding and without anyone else knowing that she was secretly finding a way to do what she really wanted to do.

~*~*~

"Hello." Harry smiled at the girl Sarah had brought to the San, as he desperately tried to remember her name. Twenty two names shouldn't be hard after two months in the job, but sometimes the girls were hard to tell from one another, especially when he saw them out of context. Most of them were short with dark hair, which didn't give him many clues.

"Is Maman really ill, Dr Harry?" She looked up at him with big, sad eyes.

Now he knew. Her name was Cecile le Brun and she was at the Chalet School because her mother was in the San dying of TB. The same was true of quite a few other girls and his heart went out to all of them. He looked up at Sarah, who nodded at him and put a hand on Cecile's shoulder.

Since Cecile was only a small girl, Harry went down on one knee so he was level with her. "She is very ill." The San had a policy - one Harry entirely agreed with - not to lie to the relatives of patients. If her mother died she would be prepared, so although it looked cruel now, it would be better for her in the long run. At least that's what he told himself. He'd far rather be more positive and see her smile. However, there was nothing to stop him trying to soften the blow a little. "Dr Jem is the best doctor we have."

Cecile examined her shoes and picked at her dress.

"Do you know what your mother would like best?" Jack's voice came from behind Harry and Cecile immediately transferred her gaze to him. "To speak to you, of course." Jack held out a hand, which Cecile took and allowed Jack to lead her into the room her mother occupied.

Harry hung his head and sighed. "I hate this part of the job."

"Maybe you should have stuck to adults." Sarah grinned and offered him a hand up.

He took it but scowled at her. "I'm not that much older than you and quite able to get about, thank you." He'd seen her medical record once, so knew exactly how old she was. Not that he would ever let on he knew her age: it just wasn't done.

"And yet you needed my help to do it." It was only when Sarah slipped her hand out of his that he noticed he hadn't let go.

"No arguing in my San." It was Jem's turn to sneak up on them. "Or I'll have you both sent for a thorough medical."

Sarah's glare told Harry exactly what she thought of that, and he couldn't help grinning. She punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"No assaulting my staff either."

Sarah took Jem's words as good naturedly as they were intended. "I should get back to school anyway. It's Grizel's music lesson and I've left Juliet on her own." She kissed Harry on the cheek. "See you on Friday."

He nodded and smiled back, and watched her go. Once she was out of sight he turned to face Jem, who stood with his hands in his pockets. "What are her chances?" Harry asked.

There was no need to ask who he was talking about. "Not good," Jem admitted with a sigh. "Come on, let's go to the office. I could do with a stiff drink."

Harry certainly couldn't disagree with him there, so left Jack to worry about Cecile and settled down comfortably with a drink in hand. The office held all the patients' records and the medical textbooks in various languages that the doctors that worked there had brought with them. There were also desks they could work at, but a small corner held more comfortable chairs, that Harry sat on now.

Jem poured them out a glass of scotch each from the supply in his desk drawer, before he sat opposite Harry. "So what's between you and Sarah?" Jem asked, changing the subject completely.

Harry took a sip of his drink and frowned, wondering what he was getting at or why he was asking. "Nothing. We're just friends."

"Very good friends, very quickly," Jem pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe it's because we're both new." He hadn't really thought about it much. He hadn't been here very long and he and Sarah hadn't seen each other often, but at an afternoon a week the hours spent together soon added up. Not that he counted, he just enjoyed her company.

Jem sat forward on his chair. "You're sure there's nothing more to it than that?"

Harry sighed and sat up himself. He hadn't been expecting this interrogation. "Hardly, old chap. Have you forgotten Esther?" The one thing he'd brought to remember her by was a photo. He hadn't thought he needed anything else, and he didn't. Esther was not a girl who was easily forgotten.

"No, but I thought you had. When's the last time you wrote to her?"

Harry went red and examined the contents of his glass closely. He hadn't known Jem was monitoring that sort of thing, but then the post all came and went in one go, so it was probably something that was hard not to notice. "She hasn't written to me lately either," he said, as if that was some sort of excuse. It certainly wasn't if he loved her. He had been sure of that when he came to Austria, but lately he had been questioning it.

"Why did you come here?" Jem waved his glass around, sloshing the small amount of liquid left in it. "Scotland is a long way away from Austria and she can hardly visit for the weekend."

"She wanted me to come when Jack offered." Harry sighed. He had needed the job, but there was nothing to stop him from holding out for something closer, even if his previous employers had been less than happy about giving him references. It wasn't even as if he'd planned to go travelling around time and space, and he had returned at the first opportunity. "I think she liked the idea of moving out here one day. But...." He shook his head and drained his glass.

Jem finished his own, took Harry's glass and refilled them both. "Well, I think you should do something. Even if it's just to choose between Sarah and Esther."

"There isn't a choice to make." How many times did he have to repeat the message that he and Sarah were just friends and nothing more?

"Talking of romance," Jem said, and continued before Harry could point out that they weren't, "you should see Jack when Joey's around."

Harry frowned. "Joey?" He knew the name but couldn't place it.

"Madge's sister. Tall, dark haired and attached the Robin's side when she's up here." Jem handed Harry his now-full glass.

Now Harry knew who she was. He had met her a few times and Joey was a memorable person. "But she's still at school isn't she?" He could be wrong on that point.

"She won't be forever. Jack's prepared to wait. Aren't you, Jack?" he added when the man in question entered the room.

"What are we talking about?" Jack filled a glass of his own and took a seat beside Harry.

Jem took a sip of his drink before answering. "You and Joey."

"Oh, that." Jack sighed and drained his glass in one go.

"You have an uphill struggle there, I think. Joey's determined not to grow up if she can help it, despite being head girl this year," Jem added to Harry.

Harry smiled. "Well, if you think she's worth it."

"She is," Jack said, with a smile and a faraway expression.

"I've seen that look before." Jem pointed his glass in the direction of Harry.

Harry frowned, wondering whether he should ask whether Jem referred to his thoughts of Esther or Sarah, but decided it was prudent not to ask. He didn't want a repeat of their earlier conversation for Jack's benefit. He hoped Sarah wasn't getting the same thing from any of her friends.

He wondered if in future they should be more discreet, but then they weren't doing anything wrong. They really were just friends and while he still loved Esther, it wasn't going to be more than that. And he would hardly fall out of love with Esther - he just needed to get up the courage to ask her to marry him.

~*~*~

"I have a wayward student for you."

Sarah was lost in thought as she looked through her post, so she jumped at the sound of Harry's voice. When she turned round she found him grinning at her. "If I'd had hiccups I certainly wouldn't now."

He was saved from replying by Cecile, who stood next to him, holding his hand and smiling, even if it was a little one. "Dr Harry didn't meant to scare you, Miss Smith."

Sarah smiled back at her. She knew that, but wasn't going to miss an opportunity to tease him. It wasn't something she usually did in front of the girls, but Cecile was a special case at the moment. "Not this time, maybe. But he does have a habit of sneaking up to people with a stethoscope," she said, confidentially. She was looking down at Cecile, but could see Harry when she flicked her eyes up.

Harry raised an eyebrow and she grinned at him.

"The rest of your form are in arithmetic now. Do you want to join them?"

Cecile scrunched her face up and Sarah laughed. Juliet was a good teacher, she thought, but there were some people who never would like mathematical subjects. It was something she could understand.

"Go on then."

Harry put a hand to Cecile's shoulder briefly, and she trotted off. Sarah watched her go before she turned to Harry.

"She seems happy enough," she said. "I take it it was good news."

Harry's face quickly became serious. "Cecile had some time to say goodbye, but..."

Sarah slumped. "Oh, no." She shook her head. "It's just not fair." The San was supposed to heal people. She had known Cecile's mother must have been bad if Cecile had been called to her bedside, but Sarah had hoped the doctors would be able to work miracles. Sarah was more worried about Cecile now that she knew the girl was motherless, especially since Cecile was a delicate child: she wouldn't have been at the Annexe if she had been perfectly healthy. Although until now, the air up here had done her no end of good.

Harry interrupted just as Sarah was beginning to despair. "Does she have anyone else?"

She thought back, accidentally nibbling on the corner of an envelope before she realised what she was doing. "A father. But by all accounts he doesn't spend much time at home and she's hardly seen him." So he probably didn't count as a relative as far as Cecile was concerned.

Harry reached out and took her post from her. Sarah let him - it was probably safer that way. "Hmm. Perhaps that explains why he's not been to the San."

"Perhaps." If her parents had separated Cecile should live with her father. Sarah didn't know many people that had divorced, but as far as the law was concerned children belonged with their father. Since Cecile lived with her mother, Sarah thought that there was probably a lot going on there that Cecile didn't quite understand, so the school didn't know about.

"Will you keep an eye on her? I don't think she's quite taken it in yet and I'm a bit worried."

He wasn't the only one. She nodded. "Of course." Fortuitously, at that moment Robin came along the corridor toward them. Sarah called her over. "Robin, don't tell anyone else, but Cecile's mother has just died. Will you look after her?" Sarah knew she could trust Robin to be discreet.

Robin's expression immediately changed from looking purposeful to one of compassion. "Oh, poor thing. Of course I will."

Sarah smiled at her. "Thank you."

Robin returned the smile and then continued on her way. Apart from being head girl at the Annexe, Robin had lost her mother too. Granted, she had been a lot younger than Cecile was now, so probably didn't remember her mother, but she would at least have some idea of what it was like. And looking after the other girls was part of the responsibility of being head girl anyway.

After Robin was out of earshot she changed the subject to something happier. "You don't have to go straight back, do you?"

"Don't you have a lesson to be in?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, this is my free period. Honestly, Harry, do you really think I'd be wandering the halls if I was supposed to be teaching some of the little angels we have here?"

He smiled. "I suppose not. What have they been up to now?" He offered her his arm, which she took, and led him to the staff room.

"Oh, just the usual naughtiness when they couldn't get out because of the snow." Fortunately, none of them had tried anything spectacular. Given what she heard from others she was glad they didn't have any Middles, since they were always the most ingenious when it came to getting into mischief. "I have had them experimenting with using it to freeze things."

Harry frowned. "I thought you were the English teacher."

"There's nothing to say I can't teach them a little science now and again and have fun, is there?"

"Of course not," he said quickly, opening the staff room door for her. "But I'm surprised, if you're so interested in science you're not teaching that at the school proper."

She shook her head, and upon hearing the sound of footsteps, entered the room, with Harry following. "I have an English degree." She chose her favourite chair near the window to sit on. "And besides, I'm only here temporarily."

"Oh?" He frowned, as he sat down opposite her.

"I do love it here." More than she had the first time, even though she had to deal with young children, which wouldn't have been her first choice. "But I'm going to be a journalist. I'm just teaching for a while while I look for a job."

"So how long will that take?"

She sighed. "Forever it feels like." She turned her gaze away from him to peer out of the window at the white landscape. "Originally it was going to be one term but I'm no closer now than I was at the start of it." She shook her head and turned back round to face Harry. "I've applied to every newspaper and magazine in existence, or it feels like I have at least. I need this job just to keep me in stamps!" She didn't smile at her joke, though, and neither did Harry.

"You're not going to give up?"

"Not yet. I may as well give it until the end of the year at least. And then, I don't know." She sighed. She couldn't see herself teaching for the rest of her life, but she really didn't know what other career to try, she'd always been so keen on journalism.

"Well..." He paused and stood up, but didn't quite look at her as he continued. "I'm sure they'll recognise your genius soon."

She laughed and shook her head. He had never seen anything she'd written, and even if he had she felt sure he wouldn't know what was good and what wasn't. "Thank you, Harry." She stood too and kissed him on the cheek.

He went red. "What was that for?"

"Cheering me up."

Before he could get any more embarrassed, the bell went.

"I have to go. The Second Form await me and Shakespeare."

He nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, and handed her back her post.

She took it and watched him go, looking forward, as she usually did, to his weekly afternoon at the school. By the time she shook herself and went to the classroom she was nearly late.

~*~*~

"How's Cecile been?" Harry asked what had become his usual question at Kaffee und Kuchen for the past two weeks since her mother died. After the first time he came here it had fast become a custom for him to stay and sit at the staff table. It was nice to have some female company and different conversation once a week. That's what he told himself, anyway.

"Quiet, mostly, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for her." Sarah sipped at her coffee. "I think she is doing better, though."

Harry nodded. "I'm glad to hear that." He had kept a careful eye on her during his last two visits, but he couldn't be sure if the way she acted during then was how she normally was these days.

"Perhaps," Sarah said, thoughtfully, "it helps that so many girls at the Chalet School have lost a parent, so they know how she feels."

He looked across at where the Annexe's pupils were eating and drinking and talking about what sounded like the story he'd told them today. "One or two I might expect, especially given how many have a parent at the San. But is it really more than that?"

Sarah shook her head. "Not at the Annexe. But Juliet, Grizel and I can only produce one parent between us."

"Oh, ah...." Harry sipped his coffee, watching her out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to ask if it was Sarah's but didn't want to upset her by the question.

Fortunately, Sarah took pity on him and with a small smile said, "It's Grizel's father. Although she does have a stepmother."

"I'm sorry," he said, with sympathy. "It wasn't recent I hope?" He felt slightly safer about asking that question.

"Oh, no. I was five." She shrugged. "I don't really remember much about my life before they died." She certainly didn't look like it had any effect on her.

"I was ten and I don't really remember my mother that well any more." His memories of her mostly centred around her being ill, much as he wished he could remember the stories his father told of her.

"I'm sorry." She looked it too. "Do you have anyone else?"

He nodded. "My father, stepmother and stepbrother."

"Quite a crowd!" She grinned.

"And my sweetheart can manage a brother and two parents," he replied, finishing off the last of his cake.

Sarah frowned and inspected her coffee.

That reaction was unexpected. Sarah had been perfectly happy to talk about her parents, and she had mentioned an aunt before, so he didn't think she was jealous of the number of relatives he could rustle up. Which made him wonder if it was his mention of Esther that did it. He hadn't spoken of her before, but then he wasn't sure there was anything between them any more. He'd been putting off talking to Esther about it until he could see her in person and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to talk about her with Sarah either.

Despite the chatter in the room he felt an uncomfortable silence between them. He finished his coffee with an eye on Sarah and an ear on the conversation he could hear. He smiled as some of the girls debated the truthfulness of the stories he told, and he saw Sarah's mouth turn up too.

"Do you believe it?" he asked her, sure she would know what he was referring to.

She looked up. "Today's story?"

He nodded.

"It just sounds too fantastic to be true." She smiled to soften the blow.

He wasn't really hurt, though. "Sometimes the tales that are too unlikely are the very ones that are highly probable." This one, like all his stories, had a basis in truth at least. The real story would just sound even more improbable. It was best to leave time travel and alien planets out of the tales of his experiences.

She shook her head, but was still smiling. "Honestly Harry, sometimes I just can't work out what's real with you and what you're making up."

He paused, with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth. "You think I lie." It wasn't really a question, but was just too similar to something Esther had said in her last letter.

"Oh, no, I didn't mean..."

But he wasn't listening any more. He recalled the story of the boy who cried wolf and wondered if Sarah thought everything he told was a story. It wasn't: he made a distinction between the tales he told to children to cheer them up, and the facts he told Sarah, even if he didn't always tell the whole truth. They were still getting to know each other and there was plenty of time for that yet.

He drained his cup and wished it wouldn't be rude for him to leave now. When he looked at Sarah out of the corner of his eye she was looking worried and biting her lip. The room seemed to have quietened all of a sudden and he wasn't sure this was a conversation he wanted to have in front of the whole school.

Instead he spent the remainder of the meal listening to Juliet attempt to convince Grizel that Jack's interest in Joey was more than just platonic. Harry wasn't convinced he cared either way, just at the moment. Finally, after an age, the meal was over and he got up to leave.

"I'll walk you out," Sarah said by his ear - or rather his shoulder, since she was shorter than him.

He nodded and they walked side by side to the front door where he collected his coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

"I'm sorry," she said, once he was clad in his cold-weather gear. "I didn't mean you were a liar. I think you're too honourable for that."

"I wouldn't lie to you." He held her gaze, until she broke it by reaching up to kiss him on the cheek.

"You will be safe out there won't you?" Either she really did look worried about him going outside or she was still not convinced he had forgiven her.

He pulled an electric torch from a big pocket in his coat. "I'll be fine, old thing."

She scowled. "Don't call me that, I'm not a thing."

"Sorry, old girl." His grin showed the untruth in his words.

But she smiled too and shook her head. "Oh, get on with you."

With which pleasant words he set off out into the snow on his way home.

~*~*~

Sometime in the past few weeks Sarah had got better at putting off her marking. At first she had been keen to do the job well, since you never knew what sort of references you would need, after all. But there were so many more things she would rather be doing that weren't marking: writing articles for one. The more she wrote the more chance she would have of getting one of them accepted and having her name remembered when she applied for a proper job.

Today, however, she had reached the stage where she couldn't put it off any more. At least it was nearly the Christmas holidays when she would have plenty of time for more pleasant activities. Fortunately, she wasn't on duty, so she made her way to the staff room where a pile of paper threatening to spill over at too big a draft awaited her.

She couldn't help but be half-pleased when she came across Cecile le Brun in the corridor. "Cecile? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Hobbies?"

Although Cecile stopped she didn't look up. "I had to take a message to Miss Carrick."

Sarah frowned, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong. "All right, then, off you go."

Cecile went on her way and Sarah watched her until she turned a corner and disappeared from view. Then she shook her head and carried on her own way, hoping there wouldn't be any more interruptions before she really did lose her resolve to be good.

Before she reached the staff room she heard the front door close. They weren't expecting anyone and the snow that lay all about meant that visitors were rare. The doctors at the San had ways of getting anywhere in practically any weather, which was just as well. The locals had their own ways too, but mostly they kept close by their houses. Sighing, Sarah turned around and made her way to the front of the chalet. It might well be someone in need of assistance and if she could be of help she didn't want to ignore that.

The corridor in the vicinity of the front door was empty, though. Sarah looked around and saw no signs of anyone having recently come in and there was no snow on the doormat that she would have expected to fall from a person's boots. Someone, therefore, must have gone out, yet Sarah hadn't seen anyone around or known of anyone needing to go on an errand. There was Cecile, of course, but it couldn't possibly be her.
At least, she hoped it wasn't. It wasn't the right weather for a young girl to be wandering around in and goodness knows what could happen to her.

When Sarah opened the door, she immediately flinched back as the cold air hit her. The corridor wasn't that warm, being unheated, but it was balmy compared to the temperature outside. After getting over the initial shock, she stood on the doorstep and looked around. There was only one person to be seen and from her size she could tell it was Cecile. She was still in her uniform and the colours Sarah could see told her she had no coat on. Added to that she was rapidly disappearing up the mountain and out of view.

Smothering a curse in case anyone was around to hear it, Sarah raced for her own coat and put it on as she ran, not wanting to lose a minute. Once outside she pulled the door shut and stopped to do her coat up with trembling fingers, and only partly from the cold. As she ran after Cecile she thought she heard a voice come from the house, but it was still Hobbies and there wouldn't be anyone else in the corridors. She had more important things to worry about, anyway.

Fortunately, the snow was deep enough that Sarah could follow Cecile's footprints. She called her name, but the wind carried her words away and whipped her hair across her face. She made an effort to try and tuck it into her coat, but it wasn't long enough and didn't stay there. She hadn't wanted to risk losing more time and Cecile with it by picking up more warm clothes. Belatedly, she remembered she kept a pair of gloves in her coat pockets. At least she wouldn't get frostbite, but her hands still felt cold, even once she had put them on.

It was hard to run in ankle-deep snow, but Sarah was just glad it wasn't any deeper. She'd already passed the highest part of the village and was worried about just where Cecile was headed. They had gone up the mountain on a walk one day earlier in the term before winter had arrived. So she knew there was a hut about a mile away, but didn't think she was going to make it that far at this rate. Cecile, with no coat and shorter legs, surely had less chance.

Sarah was catching her up, though, despite Cecile's head start. She had to stop to breathe for a minute and looked up at the sky. What she saw worried her and she hoped the snow wouldn't fall until after she got Cecile back to school. She didn't dare stop for long. Footprints criss-crossed her path here, so she couldn't let Cecile out of her sight, now that she was close enough for Sarah to see. She'd tried calling to her, but the snow muffled all sound and the girl probably never heard anything.

Sarah sped up and was relieved to see she was getting much closer to Cecile. Once she was near enough to see clearly, she found that it was because Cecile had stopped moving entirely. Sarah called to her again, but there was still no reply.

Sarah put on a burst of speed, but even all this running didn't warm her up that much. Less than a minute later she was at Cecile's side, chest heaving, the cold air making it harder to breathe.

Cecile sat on a rock, although it was covered in snow, her legs curled up to her chest.

"Cecile!" Sarah called to her again.

This time there was a response. Cecile looked up and her cheeks were streaked with tears. "Mademoiselle."

"Oh, you must be freezing." She would have to deal with that first. Cecile was small enough that Sarah could probably carry her if she had to. How far was another question, though. She stripped off her coat and wrapped it around Cecile. It swamped the small girl, but at least it would warm her up a little. "What are you doing out here?" Sarah asked, folding her arms around herself and trying not to shiver too much.

"I wanted to see Maman." Cecile sniffed.

Sarah stooped down next to her, unwilling to sit on cold snow. "But Cecile, she isn't here."

"I know. She's in heaven and that's up there." She pointed up the mountain.

Sarah looked in the direction she indicated and as she raised her face to the sky the clouds she saw worried her even more. They didn't have time to debate this now. "Come on, let's walk." With her arms under Cecile's armpits, she picked the little girl up off the rock and set her down on the ground, hoping that if she had no option she would do as Sarah said.

When Cecile made no further move Sarah propelled her along with a hand on her back. She would have taken her hand, but since the arms of Sarah's coat were far too long for Cecile, Sarah wasn't sure she could find her hand inside it. "Heaven isn't part of this world. If you go there, you can't come back." She really wasn't sure what the right thing was to say, but she had to try something.

"I know." Cecile didn't look at her, but she did at least keep walking on her own.

Sarah bit her lip. She hadn't considered this when she accepted the job, thinking that she would always be able to call Juliet, who would be far better at it. But she wasn't sure how long they could be out here with one coat between them without getting ill. The only way she knew to get Cecile back was to keep her mind off the direction they were headed or fix the problem. Both would be preferable, but at the moment she wasn't fussy. She couldn't see the village very well from here, but they were headed in roughly the right direction at least.

"But you can't go to heaven, think of all the people who would miss you." Sarah sped up a little, hoping Cecile would be able to keep up.

"Maman went." Cecile wiped her sleeve across her face, and since it was the sleeve of Sarah's coat, Sarah winced, but chose not to say anything.

"I know, but she had to. She was too ill to stay here. There's nothing wrong with you." She hoped.

"I didn't... I didn't want her to." The last words were quieter and sounded more strangled. Sarah could tell without looking that Cecile was crying again.

Sarah was berating herself for thinking that Cecile was getting over her grief when, in reality, she had barely started. She had to keep her mind on the job in hand, though, and save the guilt for later. "I don't want you to go either. Will you stay for me? And Robin?" Since she'd asked Robin to keep an eye on the younger girl Sarah fancied a friendship had sprung up there. They seemed fond of each other, at any rate and Robin had confided to Sarah that she enjoyed looking after the girls that needed it.

Cecile finally looked up, nodded and gave Sarah a shy smile.

Sarah smiled back. "Come on then, let's go home." They already were headed in that direction, but Sarah didn't think Cecile had paid much attention to that. She wasn't sure she had fixed everything either, but at least back at the school there were other people Cecile could talk to.

With a perfect sense of timing, it started snowing.

Sarah had to bite back another curse. She hurried Cecile along and they ran down the mountain, Sarah with one hand on Cecile's shoulder. However, within minutes it was impossible to see where they were going through the blizzard. Moreover, there was a great risk of them tripping over something. So Sarah slowed their pace and pulled Cecile closer to her.

"I'm scared," Cecile said, as she snuggled closer to Sarah's side.

Sarah was too but she had to be strong for Cecile. "We're nearly there," she replied, with a confidence she didn't feel. She was cold and getting colder and wetter by the minute, the snow having an unerring tendency to find gaps and some of it melted against her skin. In truth she was no longer sure they were even going in the right direction.

~*~*~

Harry struggled to get his breath back as he laughed along with Jack. "I always thought girls weren't as naughty as boys," he said, between coughs.

"By all accounts Joey was worse in her day and just as inventive as any boy." Jack sobered himself. "I don't think she always meant to be though." A far-off look came over him that Harry was beginning to recognise whenever Jack talked about Joey Bettany.

Harry was about to ask just what Joey had done in the past when Jem burst into the office.

"Quick! Juliet's just rung up to say Sarah's been seen going out and hasn't come back. And Cecile le Brun is missing."

Harry jumped up at the mention of Sarah and he looked over to the window where the snow was coming down. "But the visibility's practically nil out there!"

"All the more reason to find them soon," Jem replied before rushing back out, assuming Harry and Jack would follow him.

He was right, of course, and no matter who it had been they would have done the same. "Right." Harry ran out after Jem.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Jack called after him, as Harry reached the front door and wrenched it open.

The snow blew in and he was forced to take a step back, but he didn't look behind him. "What?" Sarah was out there somewhere and she could be hurt. He was trying not to think of it, but it was hard not to.

"Your coat! Come on, Harry, think!"

"Ah, yes, sorry." Abashed, Harry turned his attention to the here and now and closed the door before he went back to put on the layers he would need to go out into the cold.

By the time he and Jack were both ready, Jem joined them at the door with medical supplies and a big pile of blankets. Jack and Harry took some each, while Jem readied himself. Harry bounced on his feet, impatient to go out, but knowing that he had to wait, otherwise they might need to send a search party out for him. He was worried as well about whether Cecile was out there and if Sarah was with her. Sarah had said Cecile was doing well, but anything could have come over her.

By the time they were all ready it was so long after Jem's call that Harry thought Sarah must be lost. Outside they picked their way slowly up the slope, each with torches and rope. Jem explained Juliet said they would look close to the school and she thought she'd seen Sarah go up the mountain, so that was the first place Harry wanted to look.

As they went they called both Sarah and Cecile's names, but their only answer was the howling of the wind. One scenario after another presented itself in Harry's mind, each worse than the previous one. Even if it hadn't been snowing there were too many places to look in; too long since the pair had gone missing; and the chances of anyone finding them were small. Not that Harry intended to stop looking until he found them, whatever state they were in.

He might have run ahead, but he knew he would be lost too, so he stuck to the slow pace that Jem set. Jem and Jack had far more experience of this sort of thing and he had to trust them. Usually he did, it was just that they didn't seem to be as frantic about it as he was.

Just as he was beginning to despair of ever finding them alive he thought he heard voices. Unable to tell whether they were real or his imagination he called, "Wait!" and Jem and Jack obediently stopped to listen.

The wind swirled around and the snow battered at them. Jem and Jack looked at each other, then back at Harry, but before they could say anything the voice came again.

"Not far now."

It was unmistakably Sarah's.

"Sarah!" Harry called excitedly, abandoning caution and running towards her voice. Although it was hard to tell her exact position any rough idea would do.

"Harry?" Her voice caught on the syllables and Harry knew that she was either at the end of her tether or she or Cecile were hurt. She had sounded like she was reassuring Cecile, so he hoped the latter was untrue.

"Are you all right?" he called back.

All of a sudden, before she could answer, she appeared in front of him, like an angel coming out of the mist. Harry rushed forward to wrap a blanket around her. She wasn't even wearing a coat and he wondered at that until he looked over at Cecile. Jem and Jack were already tending to the girl, so Harry kept his attention on Sarah.

She slumped against him. "I'm so glad you're here," she said, in a voice that sounded worryingly weak.

Harry tucked the blanket around her more securely and added the other he carried, making this one higher so it covered her head. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head. "So cold." She yawned.

Having finished with the blankets, Harry wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. He could feel her shivering, even through the layers they both now wore.

"You're nice and warm," she said, sounding better already.

"Can you walk? You'll be warmer if you can." Harry didn't want her to go to sleep either, although he would certainly carry her if he had to. She didn't look all that heavy.

"Yes." She stood up straight, although didn't move further away from him.

Harry gave her a reassuring smile as she look up at him, and they started back to the San. Jack and Jem followed behind, with Jem carrying Cecile.

Fortunately, the pair had wandered close to the San, so it didn't take long to get back. It felt like a lot less time than they had spent searching for them. Harry's only concern was getting Sarah back there, so she could warm up and he could assess her condition. Just because she was found didn't put her out of danger yet.

~*~*~

"How are you feeling?" Sarah asked, once Cecile had sat down next to her bed. A week after their adventure in the snow Sarah inspected Cecile and decided she looked better - much less upset and none the worse for wear after being lost in a snowstorm.

"Bien," Cecile replied shyly, examining the bed as if it was the most interesting thing in the room.

Sarah waited to see what Cecile wanted to say to her - the little girl had requested the visit - and considered the irony of Cecile not being ill at all after their adventure, despite her being far more delicate than Sarah.

Cecile shifted in her seat and plucked at the blanket Sarah lay under. "I'm sorry I ran off. I shouldn't have."

"Oh, Cecile." Sarah reached out a hand to Cecile's shoulder, and the girl finally looked up at her, although not releasing her hold on the blanket. "It's all right to be upset. But next time come and see me or Robin first, all right?"

Cecile nodded. Then almost out of nowhere she got up and threw herself at Sarah. Sarah hugged her back, smiling against her head and thinking that maybe teaching wasn't such a bad job after all.

"I don't think Dr Harry allows sitting on beds."

Sarah looked up to see Grizel standing in the doorway, with a smile on her face.

Abashed, Cecile sat back down. "Are you coming with us?" she asked Sarah.

Sarah frowned. She hadn't heard anything about what was going on - Juliet and Grizel refused to talk about school when they visited her. "Where are you going?"

Cecile looked over to Grizel, who came into the room to stand by her.

"We're all going down to the Chalet School for the last two weeks of term so we can rehearse the Christmas play properly."

"Oh." Sarah blinked, wondering if she would be allowed to go with them. She had forgotten about the Christmas play in the light of everything else that had happened. Since she'd only spent one Christmas at the school she had been looking forward to seeing this year's, especially as she had been involved in helping the Annexe pupils learn their lines and understand the play. Most of her English lessons had revolved around it, the girls finding it far more interesting than their usual texts.

"I'm still well enough to go, even if I can't teach," she said, in the hopes that saying it out loud would make it true. She felt better, anyway.

Grizel looked at her sympathetically. "That's not what I've heard."

"Quite right too."

As Harry came into the room Cecile gave him a brilliant smile.

"Harry, do tell her I'm well enough to get up, please."

"Of course I will, old girl, when you are."

Sarah sighed. It was harder to have an argument about it when Cecile was listening to their every word with apparent rapture. Sarah knew the conversation would be all over the school by the end of the day.

Fortunately, Grizel solved that for her. "Come on, Cecile, it's time to get back or we'll miss Mittagessen."

Sarah waited until they'd said their goodbyes and left before she spoke again. "This over-protectiveness is very sweet, but don't you think I'm the best judge of whether I feel better?"

Harry busied himself with making sure she was well tucked in. He wouldn't look at her, but she thought his face looked redder than its usual colour. "You might be all right in here, but you're not well enough yet for a long journey down to the school in the cold."

Sarah sighed. She certainly wasn't looking forward to being cold again; she'd had quite enough of that for the whole winter. But she had been hoping for the chance to talk to Amy's father and being in the San while he was further down the mountain would make that impossible. The next opportunity would be the Sale in aid of the San at the end of next term, and that was just too far away.

"At least you have plenty of time to read," Harry commented, nodding towards the pile of books on her bedside table as he sat in the chair Cecile had been in earlier.

It wasn't really much consolation, but she had been wearing Harry down about wanting to get out every day she was here and reluctantly, she had to admit defeat. "You can only read for so long, though." Not that she hadn't appreciated the time to rest or being able to chat to Harry every day, but she wasn't good at being inactive.

"Perhaps you'll be able to go home early for Christmas."

She shook her head. "I'm not going home for Christmas. Aunt Lavinia is in America so there's nothing to go home for." Grizel was staying here, so it wasn't too bad. And although Lavinia had been supportive of her attempts at following a career in journalism it didn't mean she always would and Sarah didn't want to push it.

He frowned. "You're not going to be here on your own, are you?"

"Oh, no, Madame has invited me to hers for Christmas and none of the doctors get the school holidays off." That was one benefit of her job: long holidays to spend time writing articles in. Even when she didn't have somewhere in mind to send them, she still itched to write. So she did. Besides, you never knew what might come in useful one day.

Harry looked down. "Except I'm going home for Christmas."

"You are?" She tried not to sound as disappointed as she felt. "I thought you would have to work."

"I'm not going for long. But there's someone I have to see."

He didn't say who, but she knew it must be his sweetheart. She had forgotten about her and had allowed herself to hope a little, based on his actions in the past week. That was dangerous though and she mustn't forget again. She twisted her hands up in the blanket and watched as the blue of the blanket wound around her fingers.

"I have to go now." He stood. "But I'll challenge you to another game of chess later."

She smiled at that. "That's something to look forward to." If nothing else she valued Harry's company and his friendship. The time he spent with her while she was in the San must be because he knew how bored she was.

"Maybe you'll even win this time." He smiled.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"When you do that I have this terrible urge to pour medicine down your throat in response."

She laughed at that, and she heard his laughter too, as he left.

Madge Russell shook her head. "I don't think you two realise just how much hard work twenty two girls are." She was right. Although Juliet and Grizel had been in charge of small groups of Chalet School pupils before, it had only been for short periods of time. It was different being in charge of a whole school.

Madge had plenty of time to learn that in the four years since she started the school, along with her good friend Mademoiselle Lepattre. They'd left England because Madge's younger sister, Joey, was a delicate child and the Austrian air had agreed with her. Madge was delighted both that Joey was much stronger now, and that the school had been such a success.

Her companions in the discussion were Grizel Cochrane, who had been the school's second pupil, and Juliet Carrick, who had joined later. None of them were at the school at the moment, which was on the slopes of the Alps in the Austrian Tirol on the shores of the Tiernsee. It was closed for the summer holidays, so they met in the garden of Madge's house, Die Rosen, which was further up the mountain on the Sonnalpe. Here, Jem Russell, who Madge had married a year after moving to Austria, had a Sanatorium for TB patients.

"You did say you would come and teach too, Madame."

"Yes, but in the mornings for a little while, now that David is older." David was Madge's only child. She already knew he had a brother or sister on the way, but she and Jem had kept it to themselves thus far. "And I won't be able to after this term." She also looked after her niece and nephew, as her brother worked in India.

Grizel sighed: she'd thought her suggestion a good one.

This year saw a new venture for the school, as they were just starting up the Annexe for delicate pupils near the San. Tall, fair-haired Juliet had just got her mathematics degree and was to be head. Contrasting with her, Grizel was shorter with curly, brown hair. A year younger than Juliet, she was fresh from two years in Florence studying music and had also returned to teach.

Juliet spoke. "Well, we'll just have to manage as best we can for a while."

"Who's managing what?" Joey, long-legged and a senior at the Chalet School burst into the room with her usual whirlwind.

"Sit down, Joey and we'll tell you," Madge said kindly. Although Joey was still a pupil at the school Madge never left her out of any of her decisions.

"It's Gertrud," Juliet began. "She's got herself engaged and won't be able to teach after all. So it leaves us one mistress short at the Annexe."

Along with the two English girls, an Austrian one, Gertrud Steinbrucke, was to be another of the mistresses. However, she had recently become engaged to Dr von Ronschlar, a new doctor at the Sanatorium. Madge had hoped she would stay on until her marriage, just as Juliet was doing, but Gertrud had fewer good reasons to put hers off. It wasn't something they could compromise on either. It was 1934 and married women couldn't teach. The Depression that gripped most of the world meant that there weren't enough jobs for men, never mind women, so it made sense that married women were kept by their husbands, leaving the jobs for those that needed them more. On Madge's part, the choice between marriage and teaching had been hard, but not one that she regretted, so she could hardly blame Gertrud for hers.

"Blast her!" Joey shot up from her perch at the edge of an easy chair. "Why must everyone be in such a rush to grow up?"

Madge smiled fondly and didn't even rebuke Joey for her language.

"I'm sure you won't feel like that forever, Joey," Juliet said kindly, although this was a subject that had arisen often since Joey became a Senior and, in theory, more grown up herself.

Joey turned to Juliet. "Personally, I plan to be an old maid like Grizel."

Grizel shot Joey a dirty look, but Joey hadn't meant anything by it and didn't even notice. Juliet was engaged to Donal O'Hara, but they couldn't marry until Donal had established himself in his business. Given Gertrud's recent announcement, it made Grizel the odd one out amongst the Annexe mistresses.

"Anyway, I think I have the solution to your problems."

Joey's statement hung in the air as they all waited for her to finish. But Joey had a sense of the dramatics and just grinned at the looks she received.

Juliet was the first to give in. "Well, don't leave us in suspense."

"Hold on, I'll just get it." She rushed from the room, unheeding of her sister's call not to run.

"Get what?" Grizel had recovered from her perceived insult and was now on tenterhooks as much as the other two.

Joey never meant to do it; she just had a habit of having brilliant ideas and refusing to tell anyone until she'd thought them through. Which wouldn't have been in a bad thing in itself, but she did tend to leave them annoying titbits that told them nothing.

Fortunately, she was only gone as long as it took for her to go up to her room and come back, now holding a letter. "This just came yesterday," she began. "It's from Sarah Jane Smith, remember her?"

"Of course," Madge replied, with a smile.

Sarah had been hard to forget. She came to the Chalet School for her last year before she went to university. Although she excelled in English, her passion had been for science and at that time there was none in the school. The decision had been made by her aunt, who was spending some time in Europe herself and wanted Sarah nearby, yet taught in an English school. Despite Sarah's unhappiness at the decision she had eventually taken to the variety of people in the Tirol and she left the school a more rounded person than she had when she started.

Which, Madge suspected, had been her aunt's intention in the first place.

"Well," Joey continued, "she's finished university now and looking for a job."

"Does she still want to be a journalist?" Juliet asked. Although Sarah and Juliet were the same age they hadn't been the best of friends. It had been a small school, though, and all the pupils were always eager for news of Old Girls.

"Oh, yes, dead set on it." Joey consulted the letter briefly. "But unable to get a job."

"That is a pity. Does she say why?" Madge had been quite fond of Sarah, as she'd been one of her star pupils.

Joey shook her head. "Just that she's thinking of getting another job while she tries to get into journalism. But the only thing she's qualified for is teaching and it's too late in the summer holidays to get one now." Joey looked up from the letter. "Don't you see? We need a teacher and she needs a school." She shook the letter a little to emphasize her point.

"Well," Grizel began, "it certainly sounds like the perfect solution."

"But she was a bit wild," Juliet said. "Would she really settle down enough to teach?"

"It has been three years, people can change a lot in that time," Madge said. "Remember how different she was after a year here? Besides, there have been other girls at the school you could describe as wild and look how they turned out." She looked over at Grizel, and both Grizel and Juliet blushed. "I think we'll give her a try."

Joey grinned. "I'll write to her right away."

And that was how Sarah Jane Smith came to teach at the Chalet School Annexe.

It meant, though, that having been over to give Maria her present earlier in the day, she could invite Harry over without any comments from Luke or having to worry about being quiet. However, organising it in advance made it seem so mundane and she rather wished her sex life had more spontaneity in it these days. Sometimes she wondered if she wouldn't have been better off just marrying him and have done with it. Granted they might have killed each other, but at least her sex life wouldn't be planned by email.

By the time Harry arrived, she still wasn't convinced she could be bothered with the whole thing. It wasn't as if he always came round just for sex, not least because it made it all seem a little sordid. But tonight it felt like they should take advantage of the opportunity. They had dinner anyway and afterwards, when he tried to kiss her, she pulled away.

He sighed, but didn't look too upset, at least.

"Sorry." She gave a wry grin. "It's just too simple with Luke not being here. Obviously I like things complicated."

He grinned, not a reaction she'd been expecting, and reached into the inside pocket of his blazer. "Is this complicated enough for you?" He held out a pair of pink, fluffy handcuffs.

She raised her eyebrows. Harry in conjunction with a set of handcuffs was not an image she'd ever previously considered likely, that they were pink and fluffy even less so. "You don't intend to put those on me, do you?" She hadn't been particularly fond of being tied up even before various aliens, and humans, had tried it. It didn't help that Harry had tried to liven things up before, she remembered, and it hadn't gone particularly well.

"No." He blushed. "I thought you might put them on me."

She tried to keep from grinning at his embarrassment but was only partly successful. In the past she'd pointed out that it was pointless being embarrassed around her, given how long they'd known each other, but it never had any discernible effect. She took the handcuffs from him. "Come on then."

He followed her up to her bedroom and it was then that they encountered a problem. The headboard on her bed was designed for comfort rather than attaching people to. Funnily enough, it hadn't been something she'd considered when buying a bed.

"Where were you think I should put these?" she asked him.

"Well, on my wrists."

She rolled her eyes at his tone as well as his words. "And?"

He looked over in the direction she was facing. "Oh. Um, I don't know." He slumped a little at this discovery.

She was determined to give this a try, though, for his sake, if nothing else. "Wait here." A quick trip to the attic later and she had a pin long enough to get through the gap in the chain linking the cuffs and into her headboard. She pinned them there, hoping they weren't too far above the pillows to be uncomfortable. If necessary she could move them later.

"Good thinking." Harry slipped off his shoes and draped his blazer on a chair. When he sat down on the bed she glared at him, hands on her hips. "What?" he frowned.

"Have you seen how many buckles I have on these boots?" She lifted one leg up for his benefit. She'd picked them out specially, having no intention of making things easy for him.

He sighed. "Come here then."

Obediently, yet unable to keep a smug expression off her face, she sat at the bottom of the bed, her feet on his legs. He reached down to undo her boots and Sarah just watched and let him struggle with the buckles.

"You could help, you know."

She put on her best innocent expression. "But you're doing so well on your own."

"Hmph." He carried on, though. Then he got his revenge by taking even longer to get her boots off as he tickled her as he did so.

Squirming and laughing, she eventually managed to get out of his grip and kick her boots onto the floor. Then she turned round so she had one knee either side of his hips and, with her hands on his chest for balance, leaned down to kiss him. He tasted of chocolate ice cream and she moaned into his mouth, wanting to taste more. He entangled one hand in her hair, the other sliding down her back and slipping beneath her trousers.

She turned her head out of his grip. "This won't do." She removed his left hand from the vicinity of her head and held it up, snapping the cuff closed over it. Concentrating on her task, she hadn't thought about where his right hand was until she finished and he slipped it under her shirt to tickle her.

"Stop that," she said, laughing, and slapped his hand away, before taking it and cuffing it too. "Now I'm in charge."

"You are." Was it her imagination or had his voice gone a little husky? "What are you going to with me?"

She grinned: it wasn't a difficult question to answer but she had no intention of vocalising it. Instead, she leant back down again, her lips not far from his but not touching them. When she didn't move any further he lifted his head and she pulled hers back just far enough that he couldn't reach her.

"You're enjoying this." But he was smiling, the same as she was.

"So are you," she pointed out.

After that, he wisely said nothing. Silence prevailed as she concentrated on unbuttoning his shirt and she sighed in disappointment once she'd done because he was wearing a t-shirt underneath.

"Why do you wear so many clothes?" She complained about it often but that never stopped him from doing it. Or perhaps that was why he did it.

"It's winter. It's cold out." As if to prove his words the skin she brushed against while untucking his shirt and t-shirt had goosepimples under her fingers.

"You weren't in the cold. You went from a warm car to a warm house. And you knew I was only going to take them off anyway." She ignored the fact that she hadn't been entirely reconciled to the idea not so long ago.

He grinned at her.

"Oh, you..." She kissed him again, which would probably only encourage him, but then so did telling him off. She pushed his t-shirt up further and got her hands on his skin properly, which was definitely warm. Given that he'd been in the house a while she couldn't use that to prove her point, though. How he'd not been hot wearing so many layers and eating a hot dinner, she didn't know. She was certainly warm enough in what she wore.

Starting at his waist, she kissed her way up, just lightly though, and he arched up, trying to get her to press harder. But she was in control and determined to stay that way, so she just moved with him, refusing to be swayed on her course.

However, she was thwarted by him still wearing the t-shirt. As she sat up she realised she wasn't going to be able to take it off either, since there was no way of getting his arms out of it. She sighed.

"What?" He frowned at her.

"We've done this in the wrong order." They could have continued with him still wearing half his clothes but where was the fun in that? With her hands on her hips, she studied him, trying to decide what to do next, but it was impossible to think given what she could see and she started laughing instead.

He sighed. "That wasn't the mood I was going for."

Given that he'd tickled her she could have disputed him on that, but at least he'd only done that earlier. She shook her head, and when she could talk again she said, "Just look at you. Honestly, Harry, pink, fluffy handcuffs?"

"They were all I could find." He looked slightly hurt, for which she felt a little remorse, until he started to sit up, using his arms to lever himself up.

"Wait," she said, quickly. "You'll dislodge the pin if you're not careful." She leaned over him to take the pin out. She didn't really feel like spending the rest of the evening searching the bed for it.

He brought his arms down and took the handcuffs off, putting them down on the bedside table on his side.

She moved off him to sit on the bed next to him and rest against the headboard, as he now did too. "It's typical. Luke's not here so it's the perfect opportunity and it's just not going to happen." She looked over at him. "I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We don't have to."

She grinned and turned towards him. "I'm sure it's me who should be telling you that."

He feigned a hurt look. "Are you trying to tell me I'm old?"

"Of course not. I don't have any complaints. Yet." She bit her lip to keep from grinning.

"You..." He was obviously in a funny mood tonight because he reached over and got his hands back under her shirt to tickle her.

She laughed and told him off alternately, but was glad of it because he reminded her that they could still have fun whenever they wanted.

This year's UNIT Christmas party had been black tie, which meant there had been plenty of dashing young men in uniform for her to feast her eyes upon. Although she'd had fun the party was part of the problem. During the evening she'd heard tales of what UNIT had been getting up to in her absence and she wished she was still part of that, rather than having to go back to the ordinary reporting that hadn't felt so mundane before she met the Doctor.

Although she had tried going back to UNIT, the Brigadier had merely asked for her ID badge back and told her firmly, if gently, that she no longer had a place there. He had promised her that if they ever needed the media they would call her first, but that was little consolation when all she had to go back to was a small flat and a pile of bills.

The other problem she was having was with Harry, who, having fussed with their coats, now came up behind her. She half-regretted having slept with him on the TARDIS, as since then they hadn't seen each other for a while and could no longer work out what their relationship should be. She had tried to cling on to their friendship, but he had been strangely distant and she wondered if it was because he was unsure about her feelings.

Like the gentleman he was, after inviting her to the party in the first place, he had offered to see her home safely and she'd accepted, intending to talk to him about it. However, they'd never discussed what had gone on and what it meant and she wasn't sure how to start now.

Harry was equally silent, but when she made no move to acknowledge him he put a hand on her bare shoulder. She shivered at his touch. "Your hand's cold," she complained, but it wasn't the only reason she shivered. He looked good in uniform, she'd forgotten that, and what she really wanted was them to return to the friendship they'd had, with the added bonus of good sex on occasion. But she wasn't sure if that was all he wanted.

"Sorry," he said, removing his hand, and he brushed his equally cold lips against her shoulder instead.

She smiled, but he couldn't see that and he stopped before she wanted him to. Perhaps she didn't need to have that talk at all. However, her feet were killing her, which were counteracting any effect he had on her. She bent down to take her sandals off and sighed loudly as she stood in bare feet, facing him by now. "That's better."

He frowned at her. "Why do you wear them if they make your feet hurt?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Because it looks good." He could hardly be expected to understand. She rubbed one foot across the top of the other, which helped a little.

"I'm very good at foot massage."

She raised an eyebrow - that was unexpected, but he looked sincere. "All right, you're on." If nothing else she was determined to get him to prove that statement.

He twisted to look round her lounge and Sarah wished she had a long, comfortable sofa. But she'd had to take what she could get and the flat only contained two armchairs. She'd been putting off cleaning, so she had no intention of sitting on the floor.

"Bedroom," she offered as a solution and before he could offer an opinion she took his hand and led him there.

He hesitated on the threshold of her room. "I shouldn't... lady's bedroom," he mumbled.

She rolled her eyes and tugged at his hand. "Come on."

He had no choice but to follow, settling himself on the edge of her bed. She lay back on it, her head on the pillows and her feet in Harry's lap. He left her in anticipation for a little longer while he took his jacket off and folded it up, reaching out to put it on top of her chest of drawers. She'd cleared it of the pile of paper it had previously been host to earlier in the evening and now there was plenty of space for it next to her hairbrush and make up. Before he started he blew on his hands and she smiled at his thoughtfulness given her earlier complaint.

"Your feet are like ice!" he exclaimed once his hands were on them.

"It's cold out," she pointed out. It was warm enough inside her flat, but her feet always took a while to warm up. Since she hadn't bothered with stockings (they all had ladders anyway) there hadn't been anything to keep them warm in the first place.

It didn't stop him from honouring his promise, at least, and she soon discovered Harry was as good as his word. Her eyes drifted closed and she felt far more relaxed than she had all evening. She could get used to this.

It wasn't long before her feet were warm and painless, so she opened her eyes. He was still intent on his task, so when she gave a wicked grin he didn't see it. In the guise of stretching a little, she moved the foot he wasn't currently working on up his leg a little. She knew when she hit the right spot because his whole body jerked.

"Sarah," he admonished, but his voice cracked between syllables and his hand now just rested on her foot.

She took advantage of that and sat up, sliding towards him, ending up in his lap, her arms around his neck and his around her waist, holding her there. Her fingers played with the hair at the back of his neck. But before she did anything else, she wanted to be sure, so she said, "I just need a friend."

He pulled her closer and she rested her head on his shoulder. "You have one."

Unwilling to initiate anything more in case she no longer had that much she stayed there, listening to his breathing, his shirt still smelling of washing powder and warming her cheek. She closed her eyes, feeling suddenly tired.

When she did move it was to lie back on the bed and pull him down next to her. "How do you do it?" she asked, threading her fingers through his. "Go on as if everything was normal, I mean. Forget everything we saw with the Doctor."

"I haven't forgotten." He squeezed her hand. "Maybe I'm just used to being away."

She'd done plenty of travelling herself, before she ever met the Doctor, but it hadn't been quite the same and now it was hard being tied down to one place and time. She sighed and shifted her head to use his chest as a pillow, his arm a comforting weight across her back. It didn't take long for the the steady beat of his heart to send her to sleep.

~*~*~

When Sarah awoke it was still quite dark, but getting light. She yawned and rolled over, intending to go back to sleep, but the movement reminded her how uncomfortable a ball gown was after a few hours. Harry looked to be still asleep, so she got out of bed carefully.

She wriggled out of her dress quietly and hung it up on the back of the door. Shivering in the cold - it was too early for the heating to have come on yet - she picked up the first thing that came to hand. It was Harry's uniform jacket; heavy and scratchy, probably because it was not intended to be worn against the skin. But it was warm and big on her too, the sleeves ending past her hands and the rest of it covering her body easily.

Wondering where she'd flung her pyjamas the previous morning, she turned back to face the bed and discovered Harry was awake and looking at her intensely. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

He shook his head and sat up, propping himself against the wall behind. "I usually get up at this time."

She hadn't looked at the clock to find out what time it actually was. It was enough to know it was too early, especially given how late it had been that she fell asleep last night. Abandoning the idea of pyjamas, she walked back to the bed and couldn't help noticing the way his gaze followed her movements. She gave him a questioning glance.

He coughed and examined the duvet before his eyes met hers. "It looks good on you."

She smiled. "I think that's the first compliment you've given me."

"Surely not." He frowned.

Since it was unimportant, she didn't stop to consider whether he really had or not and instead changed her route to end up standing next to his side of the bed. "Do you want me to take it off? she asked, dropping her voice a little.

He shook his head, but he was no longer looking directly at her.

Taking that as an invitation, she grinned and sat herself in his lap to brush her lips against his. His hands had gone to her hips when she sat down, and now travelled up her sides, under his jacket.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take it off?" she whispered.

This time his answer was to remove one hand to the back of her head and pull her down for another, more thorough kiss.

~*~*~

Warmer and more comfortable afterwards, Sarah dozed, taking no notice of where Harry went. He could hardly get far without all of his uniform. When he came back to the bedroom he was dressed again and carrying a tray with toast and tea on.

She smiled at him and sat up. "Breakfast in bed. You can come back again."

"Don't expect this every time," he warned, and passed her a mug.

She didn't mind, though, because he had at least confirmed that he wanted to do this again. But she couldn't resist teasing him, so after she took a sip of the tea, which he'd made just the way she liked it, she rested the mug on her bedside table. "I'll withhold your jacket and tie until you promise." She sat up straighter and folded her arms, looking up at him in defiance.

There was enough space on her dressing table for him to put the tray down there. "Then I'll just have to take them from you." He sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to her.

She grabbed his hands before he could get near. "Oh, no you don't."

Quickly, he changed his grip and held both of her small hands in one of his, leaving his right hand free to reach for his tie. However, her hands weren't the only weapon she had available, and she wriggled around to stop him getting hold of it. She wasn't quite good enough, though, and he got a finger into the knot and held on. Annoyingly, he was sitting too far up the bed for her to use her legs at all, and so she had no choice but to let him undo her tie. As he did, she got goosepimples where his hands brushed against her breasts.

Standing back up afterwards, he said, "Drink your tea or it'll get cold."

She glared but it was lost on him, as he calmly ate a piece of toast. So she had no choice but to give in, and she sighed before taking his jacket off. She held it out to him. "Swap you for a piece of toast."

He took his jacket from her and passed her the other slice. She pulled the covers back up to keep her warm, no doubt getting crumbs everywhere, but she could change the sheets later.

He didn't take long to finish his breakfast. "I have to go." He pulled his jacket on and stuffed the tie into his jacket pocket. He kissed her on the cheek and then stayed there a moment, hesitating. Eventually he said, "I'll call you," and left.

Sarah finished her tea and snuggled back down in bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. It wasn't just that that made her feel warm, though. It was also because she didn't feel quite as much as if she was on an alien world any more.

Her anticipated evening of fun ends abruptly on the bed in her hotel room as Walt roughly unbuttons her blouse and it's guilt she feels, not lust.

"I'm sorry," she says to Walt, who berates her for leading him on before he leaves.

Whenever she goes away for a story she takes her wedding ring off and it lives in her purse, hidden among the coins, until she's near home. She likes to feel single again, but tonight has reminded her that her married status is something she can't forget.

Harry's a good man, but she doesn't love him and she never will. He would never cheat on her, but that's no longer enough; she needs something more in her life. Tomorrow she has to go home and tell him. And she doesn't know if she'll be able to face him at all.

~*~*~

The overnight flight means it's still early when she lands, although she has to fight the rush hour traffic on her way out of the airport. She nearly turns away, but she's expected and Elizabeth, at least, will be upset if she's not back.

Harry is behind the door as she opens it; he's on his way out. Sarah returns her daughter's enthusiastic greeting, but when her husband moves to kiss her, she turns her head away. He frowns but says nothing. She anticipates his return home with growing unease.

Although she's tired she does the washing and cleans the house like a good wife ought to. That way it won't matter if Harry doesn't get to it for a while. Then she packs and leaves her suitcase in the bedroom.

After picking her daughter up from nursery, she watches as Elizabeth tries out the new crayons Sarah's brought her back from America. Sarah makes all the right noises over the drawings and later, when no one's looking, she slips them into her suitcase.

Harry's home in time to put Elizabeth to bed, as he always is. He ignores his wife in favour of his tired daughter and Sarah is guiltily glad as she cooks. Harry spends longer on Elizabeth's bedtime story than usual and dinner is ready when he comes back downstairs.

They don't speak until after they've eaten.

"You're leaving me," he says, watching her wash a saucepan.

She doesn't know how he knows, she's just relieved she doesn't have to break it to him, and glad she has her back to him, so she can't see the expression on his face. By the time she says, "Yes," and turns around he's not quite looking at her.

"Why now?" he asks, head ducked. "What's different about today?"

The sponge she still holds drips soapy water on the floor, but neither of them notice. "I nearly had an affair." She didn't, but she could have.

His gaze flicks up to where her left hand rests on the counter. Belatedly she realises she has forgotten to put her wedding ring back on.

He sighs. "Where will you go?"

"Aunt Lavinia's." She doesn't have anyone else to go to. She doesn't want to have to admit to Lavinia that she had been wrong, that she'd made mistakes, but at least her house is big enough for Sarah to hide herself away in.

Although the topic is different, their conversation is the same as every other they've had recently. When they first married they argued constantly, although quietly so Elizabeth didn't hear. Later, it was easier to assume tacit agreement even when there was none, and silence was more common. Now Sarah suspects it was because they had nothing to say to each other.

When Harry says, "I'll get your suitcase," he doesn't wait for an argument and she doesn't offer one. They don't even say goodbye - he just puts her case in the boot of her car before going back inside the house and shutting the door.

Sarah gets in her car and wonders why, when she'd finally made the right decision, that she is crying over it.

Sarah had slept for most of the time since then and when she awoke, feeling more refreshed and up for adventure, she had gone in search of the Doctor. Unfortunately, he had disappeared. She worried for a moment that he had gone on without them, but the TARDIS was still in flight. She had amused herself in the wardrobe room for a while, before putting on something that would be most appropriate for Scotland. After that she was still bored and wanted some activity, even if it was something she'd later regret wishing for.

So she went in search of Harry. Since she hadn't seen him in any of the obvious places she'd looked for the Doctor in, she had decided it was about time he was up, and went to his room. Although at first she wondered if she was going to have to search all over again, she eventually heard movement inside.

When he answered the door he was clearly not ready to go out, being as he was wearing only a dressing gown. There couldn't have been that much under it either, since his legs were bare and she could see a triangle of his chest. Apart from the lamp on the bedside table, his room was quite dark and he blinked in the light that flooded in from the corridor. When he ran his hands through his hair, messing it up more, she found it quite endearing on him, and bit her lip to hide her smile as she considered a perfect cure for her restlessness.

"Did I wake you up?" she asked, peering past him but his bed was perfectly made and gave her no clues.

"No, I was just reading."

When she looked she could see there was a big, thick book on his bedside table. She slipped past him to pick it up. She was unsurprised to see that it was a medical textbook. "A little light bedtime reading?" she teased.

"I should get dressed," Harry said with a smile on his face, as he watched her from where he still stood by the door. He made no move to do anything of the sort.

Sarah said nothing, just smiled at him. She headed back for the door, but instead of leaving she came up close to him, standing face to face although not quite touching. He gave her a quizzical look that she ignored - he'd work it out soon enough. When she untied the belt of his dressing gown it fell loose to reveal that he only wore a pair of pants under it. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight, as unfashionable as they were, but she hesitated. They'd never discussed this, so she wasn't sure what he wanted.

He answered her by shutting the door, taking her hand and leading her over to the bed. She sat down and took her boots off - his bed didn't look like one that should have shoes on it, even though it was just the same as every other one on the TARDIS, at least as far as she knew. He sat down next to her and even though they were no longer touching, she could feel his eyes on her. She wondered if he wanted to be doing this instead, but she carried on and waited to see if he would ask.

She took her time, but he never said or did anything, so once she was done she turned and pushed him down, so he lay flat. Although he was certainly stronger than her, he let her have her way, which resolved any uncertainty she had about what she was doing. As she moved to sit on him, her knees by his waist, his eyes never left her and she blushed at the intensity of it. He was so busy watching her that his hands hovered by his side, as if he'd forgotten he could use them to touch her.

Her own hands rested on her thighs and the two of them stayed like that, gazes locked. They still had plenty of time before they landed and Sarah felt that if she moved it could all be over quite quickly. She broke the spell at last by pulling off her jumper and throwing it behind her. She didn't check to see where it landed because Harry smiled appreciatively, most probably because she'd decided not wear a blouse under it, and his hands finally landed on her hips.

It didn't immediately compel her to action, though, because that wasn't enough - her trousers were in the way. She considered the urge to strip there and then, and resisted it because it was clear neither of them were ready to go quite that quickly. She unconsciously licked her lips as she thought, and only realised she'd done it as Harry's eyes flicked to her mouth. Deciding what she was really missing, she bent over to kiss him instead.

She kept it light to begin with, just brushing his lips with her own. His warm hands ran slowly up her bare back and she shivered, but he captured her mouth and made the kiss more passionate. She gave a soft moan, having forgotten how good this was already, and leant down further so she was lying on him. His skin was hot next to hers and she could tell he had just taken a shower, since the soap he'd used was one she remembered smelling in her bathroom, although she had chosen a different scent. She tried to smell him more closely, but he just turned his head to follow hers and nibble on her lower lip before she could escape again.

The mood was broken as he fumbled with her bra, and she laughed into his mouth. Although she pulled away, she was still laughing as she brought one hand back to help him. He gave her a puppy dog look but that didn't do anything to stop her. She could forgive him being terrible at this one thing because he kissed so well. Which was certainly not something she'd have expected from him when they first met.

He took advantage of her inattention to flip them over once her bra was undone.

"Hey!" she said, as he pulled it off, although that was not what she was complaining about.

His only response was to go straight for her breasts. She rolled her eyes, thinking what a typical man he was until he revealed he had a good memory and his tongue found the right spot. Her hands grabbed the sheets as his fingers grazed over her breast and she arched up so that he touched her more firmly. Or at least that was the plan. He had other ideas and just moved with her. However, she didn't really have any complaints and would certainly rather he didn't stop doing what he was doing any time soon. So of course the minute she thought it he lifted his head. His hand didn't stop but that wasn't quite the same.

"What was that you were saying?"

She didn't want him to know exactly what he did to her, although she was sure her body did that all on its own without the intervention of her brain. So she just stuck her tongue out at him. He took that as an invitation and she soon forgot what they were talking about, as she was too busy exploring his mouth again. Just about retaining some ability to think, however hard that was at the moment, she hooked a leg round his waist, pulling him closer to her. Her breath hitched at the contact and from here she could feel that it had the same effect on him. However, she had another plan, and used her leverage to push him back into their previous position.

As she applied her mouth to his chest, creating goosebumps, he slipped his hand into the small gap between her back and the waistband of her trousers. She gasped at the touch of his hand on her skin and wriggled appreciatively, grazing her teeth along his collarbone. As she did so, he moaned. Because he was always so quiet, in contrast to her, that felt like a small victory and she repeated the movement, getting the same response in return.

She smiled and broke off what she was doing long enough to ask, "Isn't this better?"

"I prefer being on... ah." He stopped talking when she nipped at his earlobe.

Grinning, she pushed her hands against his chest to help her sit up. "Are you sure about that?"

"Very." He rolled them back over and she giggled as she landed.

He kissed her hard and she was pressed against the bed by his body, unable to make a sound because he had taken her breath away with the intensity of it. Although he couldn't be any closer, she wrapped her legs round him and ran a hand through his hair, finding it damp. As she ran her wet hand down his back she cooled the flesh there, and she moaned as he moved against her. She groaned when he pulled back to focus on undoing the zip on her trousers. His fingers fumbled with the button in his haste to undo it and she just grinned at him, refusing to help him this time, despite the glare he gave her.

She studied him, mostly naked and looking flushed, and picked up the thread of their conversation. "I think you liked it really."

When he said nothing, she decided to take that as a yes and watched him take off the rest of her clothes. She had to bite her lip to keep from smiling as he folded everything up and draped it across the end of the bed. Afterwards he spent his time tracing his hands up her legs, stopping just short of where she really wanted him to touch. No amount of movement on her part got his fingers to go in the direction she thought he should. She groaned in frustration and looked daggers at him, which he ignored.

"You were saying?" he asked with a grin.

Revenge was sweet. She pushed him onto his back to take his pants off, then paused, holding them in one hand, before dropping them onto the floor. He gave her a look but made no effort to pick them up. Not that he could move much with her sitting on him again. In the end he sighed dramatically and opened a drawer in the bedside table to pull out a condom. She smiled in victory and absently wondered if its presence meant all the bedrooms on the TARDIS were exactly the same, including the contents.

"Let me," she said, reaching out to take it from him.

"Ah," he stretched his arm out above his head, towards the wall to hold it as far away from her as he could.

She put her hands on her hips and pouted but it didn't seem to have any discernible effect on him.

"You can have it your way," he said, "only if I put this on."

She held his gaze steadily for a minute, before giving in. You had to take your victories where you could find them with Harry. "I promise you you'll like it," she said, as she sat back down on him.

He said nothing, but took hold of her hips to guide her onto him. She sighed at the feeling of him inside her, but he didn't let her savour it, thrusting up into her and digging his fingers into her hips. Once he'd done that she couldn't remember why she thought it would be a good idea not to move. As much as she tried to fight back, he didn't let her set a rhythm and she had to do something about that.

The angle changed as she leant down to kiss him and she gasped into his mouth. It was enough to put him off his stroke and her back in charge, which she much preferred. Having reminded herself of the taste of his toothpaste, she sat back up slowly trying to establish the best angle. Once there, she slowed her speed and reached down to touch his balls and the part of his cock not inside her at the time.

He retaliated by trying to get his hand in there too. When she realised he was going for somewhere else and not just trying to stop her, she took hold of his hands to stop him. If he wanted to wait for her to come first he was going to have to suffer for it. She quickly discovered she could use him for leverage, and when he tugged at her hands she sped up.

She was just getting close when he squeezed her hands and came. She grinned at him and let go.

"I told you you would like it," she said, hoarsely.

"Maybe," he whispered, and reached out to tickle her.

She couldn't help but laugh and squirm, but was disappointed he had forgotten her.

"Now will you stay on your back?"

She rolled her eyes but got off him and lay down. He kissed her, but if he didn't get on and do something better than that soon she was going to have to do it herself. When he moved his lips to her throat she arched her neck so he could reach more of it, but also tried to push him down. He wouldn't be moved, though, except at his own pace.

It was maddening how slowly he kissed and licked his way down her body, as good as it felt, but there were far more important things she wanted him to do now. It was all worth it, though, because after he dipped his tongue in her belly button he moved his mouth to the place she wanted him to touch most. She writhed under him, moaning, and he put his hands back on her hips to try and keep her still.

It had the opposite effect, though, as she raised her hips so he would just touch her more there. She reached out a hand to push his head to exactly where she wanted it and he complied. When his tongue hit just the right spot she screamed and pulled at his hair as she came.

He lay back down next to her but it was all she could do to lie there limply and pant. He raised himself up on one elbow and smiled at her. She managed to move enough to reach up and kiss him.

"You can definitely do that again," she said, still a little breathless.

His expression turned serious. "We'll be back on Earth soon. In the right time."

She looked at her watch. "We have a little time, yet."

He grinned at her and shook his head.

"What?" She pulled at his chest hair, and he caught her hand in his.

"We already landed. And you thought the Earth moved."

Since he showed no signs of letting her go, she hit him on the shoulder with his own hand. "I suppose we should get up." It would be nice to spend some time just lying in bed with Harry, or on it as they technically were, but it wasn't to be this time either.

"I was going to get dressed before you took off what I was already wearing."

He let her hand go and she ran it down his torso. "You're not wearing that much less than you were before."

He shook his head at her before sitting up. She followed suit, stretching out an arm for her clothes. He beat her to it, though, and brushed them off onto the floor.

"Hey!" She stood, picked up the nearest thing, which happened to be her knickers, and threw them at him.

He caught them with one hand. "Perhaps I'll just keep these."

She tried putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him, even though neither trick had worked so far. "You threw them on the floor."

"You put threw on the floor." He calmly picked up his pants and put them on, not letting go of his prize.

"Can I have my knickers back, please?" Asking nicely had to count for something, after all.

He grinned. "Maybe."

She sighed at him and he threw them back before turning to the rest of his clothes, which were draped over a chair. After she had dressed she realised what was missing. "Oh, I had a coat."

"A coat?" He was just doing up the buttons on his jacket. She was tempted to undo them and make him think she wanted to start again - although that was not a bad idea - but they really should go before the Doctor got suspicious.

He followed her dutifully to the wardrobe room where she picked up her coat and they found the Doctor wearing tartan.

"What do you think?" he asked, posing for their benefit.

Sarah put a hand up to her mouth but couldn't hide her laugh.

He didn't wait to see their their reaction, as he picked up his scarf sadly and said, "I don't think this matches the rest of the outfit."

She shook her head at the Doctor actually making a decision like that. He usually thought every piece of clothing went with every other piece of clothing. She took it from him and draped it round Harry before he could work out what she was doing.

"Hey!" he said.

She smiled at him. "Looks good on you."

In return he picked up the Doctor's hat from the hat stand beside him and plonked it on her head. "It suits you, old girl."

"Let's go and see what the Brigadier wants, shall we?" The Doctor grinned at them.

Sarah adjusted the hat so she could see. "Lead on MacDuff."

The Doctor led the way out of the room, but before Sarah could go Harry grabbed her for a kiss that dislodged the hat, so it nearly fell backwards off her head.

"What was that for?" She adjusted the hat again.

"Come on," the Doctor called from the corridor, "we haven't got all day."

Harry just grinned at her and she rolled her eyes at both men, even if neither of them saw it. She had to run to catch the Doctor up, with Harry just behind her, on their way to find out what Scotland, and the Brigadier, had in store for them.

After a quick look behind her to verify that her father hadn't made a miraculous recovery while she wasn't looking, she started shouting and banging again. "Let me out!" She wiped away the tears falling down her cheeks and ignored the the pain in her hands where they had turned red. No matter what she did, the door stayed shut and her father stayed slumped where she had left him.

Eventually she had to stop shouting because it was hard to do that and cry at the same time. Although it seemed as likely to work as any other method at this point. It took her a moment to realise she could hear a voice on the other side.

"Are you all right in there?"

She wiped her eyes before replying. "No. My dad's ill, I think he's having a heart attack or something."

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of there."

There was a sound that she recognised as the sonic lipstick, except that their last one had sunk to the bottom of the Thames the previous week.

When the door opened, she stepped back to let the man on the other side come through. He had a blue suit and clashing red trainers that looked a few decades out of date. He grinned at her but she could only stare back, unable to work out what he could possibly find to smile about. He didn't stand there long, though, but went past her into the cell and over to her father.

His grin soon faded once he bent down next to him and she heard him murmur her father's name. He looked back over his shoulder at Georgia. "Your father is Harry Sullivan?"

She nodded, not sure why it was relevant.

"Well, come on then." He hoisted Harry onto his shoulders in a fireman's lift.

Georgia followed him out of the cell, along a corridor and up a flight of stairs. She wished she was more help, but she was just glad someone else had arrived to take care of the situation. She wasn't far off eighteen, but at this rate she was never going to be grown up if she fell to pieces at the first sign of trouble. It didn't matter that she'd done this many times before because she had always been the assistant; she'd never had to be the one making all the decisions. She had never doubted that she could, until now.

It was only when she saw the blue police box parked at the top of the stairs that she could place the nagging feeling of recognition she'd had since she first saw the man. She was unsurprised, therefore, to find the inside was far bigger than the outside. The other man put Harry carefully down on the floor and ran over to the console in the middle of the room, pressing buttons and pulling levers. Georgia bent down to her father but she wasn't sure what to do. Gathering her courage, she stood and went over to the console.

"Can I help?" she asked.

"Yes." He put his hands firmly on her shoulders and moved her across. "Stay out of the way." He pushed a button on the console in front of where she had just been standing.

She bit her lip but did as she was told and took a step backwards. She certainly didn't want to do anything to make the situation worse.

It didn't take long, but it felt like an eternity before he announced, "We're here."

Georgia ran over to the door, opened it and she stepped out into a hospital corridor. She sighed with relief.

The Doctor followed her, carrying Harry again. "A&E should be just around the corner... aha!" He handed her father over to the staff who quickly had him surrounded by people and equipment.

Georgia felt surplus to requirements as she watched and asked if he was going to be okay. She hadn't really been expecting an answer at this point but it still hurt not to be told "of course he will".

Once Harry had been wheeled away she turned and said, "Thank you" to their rescuer.

"All part of the service." He grinned and made his way out of casualty.

She debated what to do for a moment before making her mind up. "No, wait!" She ran after him and caught up with him just as he opened the TARDIS doors. "I have so many things I wanted to ask you, Doctor."

He turned back to face her. "How did you know?"

"My parents used to tell me stories when I was little." She smiled. "You should see our attic."

"Your parents?" He frowned. "Who's your mother?"

"Sarah Jane Smith."

He smiled. "Sarah Jane. I can't believe she married Harry Sullivan of all people."

She shook her head. "Oh, they weren't married."

He frowned. "Weren't?"

"She died. Nine years ago." She bit her lip. Time made it easier to say but still brought it all back if she wasn't expecting it.

"Oh." He looked away from her at the floor and put his hands in his pockets.

There was an awkward silence as Georgia tried to work out what to say next. She couldn't guess what the Doctor was thinking. "Um," she began with no idea of how to continue.

"What happened? Invading aliens finally get the better of her?" He looked back at her and gave her a strained smile.

Georgia shook her head. "Sort of. It was breast cancer."

He turned away from her and leant against the TARDIS.

"I'm sorry." She gave an ironic smile - usually it was other people saying that to her. She wondered how close the Doctor and her mother had been. "She talked about you a lot."

He looked around at her and gave her the ghost of a smile.

She took a deep breath and blinked a few times to clear her eyes of tears. Talking about this was just making her think about it happening to her father too. So she changed the subject. "Don't you want to know what we were doing in a cell?"

He turned back to her and looked a little more like his old self.

"Trying to stop the Hermions, I imagine."

"Oh, yes." He kept wrong-footing her, doing the unexpected. In that he was exactly like he was in the stories she'd been told as a child. Somehow she hadn't quite believed he was real, despite the attic full of alien technology. "Did you--"

"All defeated, no need to worry."

She nodded, glad of that, at least. "I don't suppose you have another sonic lipstick? It's just that mine fell in the Thames and..." She shrugged. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

He dug around in his coat pockets and came out with a long grey instrument. "Here, have a sonic screwdriver. Better than the lipstick."

She smiled and went to take it from him but he held on to it.

"Your dad's going to be okay," he said quietly, while she was still standing close.

"How do you know?"

"I checked on our way here."

"Oh." Much as she wanted to, she wasn't quite sure whether to believe him. Much like everything else about him.

He let go of the screwdriver. "You just keep saving the world. The Earth needs you."

She smiled at him and watched as he went inside the police box and it dematerialised. Then she went back to A&E to find out where her father was. Since it didn't seem likely Harry would be able to keep up the work they were doing any more, she would have to take over her mother's position in the world-saving business. Harry wouldn't like it - he wanted her to go to university and get a proper job. But this was what she wanted to do, she'd been doing it long enough after all, and she had to admit she was glad of the excuse to be able to do it properly from now on.

She held her head up high and discovered a new-found confidence as she spoke to a nurse and confirmed that the Doctor was right and her father was going to be fine. For now at least. But she was going to make sure he was around for a good long while yet.

Luke had one hand on the open front door, the other on the strap of the rucksack on his shoulder. It was the big rucksack that he had used to go backpacking one summer holiday and that made Nat worry. He hadn't been himself the past week, but then none of them had. He used to go to her with all his problems but lately it seemed like he didn't talk to anyone, or even spend much time at home.

"You're not my mother," Luke replied, "you can't stop me."

Nat sighed. "It was just a question."

He shuffled his feet. "Out."

"When will you be home? Tomorrow? The next day?" Nat felt like she was his mother and she hated it. It wasn't her place and it wasn't the relationship she used to have with him.

"I don't have a home any more."

"Sarah left this house to all three of us."

"I said home, not a house."

Nat gave in. He was right - this house wasn't the same without Sarah. "At least say goodbye to Georgia first." She hoped that Georgia would be upset enough to make him stay.

He nodded, put his rucksack down and ran up the stairs. Nat heard Luke and Georgia's voices but not what they said. When Luke came back down he kissed Nat on the cheek, said "Bye," and there was nothing more she could do to stop him. He took Sarah's car, she noticed, which she hoped meant he had somewhere in mind and would be safe.

After a minute it became clear he really wasn't coming back and Georgia hadn't run down to complain or anything, so she went back to the washing up - it needed to be done and there was nothing else useful she could do. It had become the only time in the day when she was on her own and was usually undisturbed, so it was the only time she let herself cry. She told herself it was just the running water that set her off, but the trouble was she couldn't decide whether she was more upset at Sarah's death, that it reminded her of her mother's, or whether it was just the stress of having to deal with everyone else.

She had just finished when the front door opened. The sound was closely followed by Georgia clumping down the stairs and a shout of "Dad!" followed by "Luke's gone." Nat heard their voices getting quieter as they both went back upstairs.

Nat put Harry's dinner in the microwave and turned her attention to the drying up. She had done by the time Harry appeared in the kitchen.

He sat down and said, "Thank you," before picking up his knife and fork. "What's happened with Luke?"

Nat settled opposite him. "He's run away from home."

"And you didn't stop him?"

Nat resented the accusation she heard in his voice but bit her tongue. She didn't want to get into an argument about this. "He's just lost his mother, can you blame him?"

Harry sighed and shook his head.

If he didn't come back in a week, or maybe a month, she would look for him. For the moment he seemed to want to be on his own, and she would give him that space. Everyone grieved differently, after all. She put thoughts of Luke aside and tackled the topic she really wanted to speak to Harry about. "We have to talk about your working hours," she said.

He sighed and set his cutlery down. "It wasn't work that kept me late. I had some things to do back at my flat and--"

"It's not what you're doing, it's what time you're getting in. You only see Georgia at her bedtime. Doesn't that bother you?"

He started eating again. Nat took that as a yes.

"She's just lost her mother and now her brother's disappeared, goodness knows where." Her anger on this subject stopped her from feeling anything else at her words. "She needs her father and if you're not here for her now she might never forgive you." She spoke from experience.

"It's just going to take me a while to get organised."

"You've had a week. You forget I have a home of my own to go to. Or did you remember?"

He shook his head. "No, I--"

She was determined to have her say; she was going to win this argument. "I'm not Sarah, and I'm not going to take her place." No matter how much she had recently. "Georgia is your daughter, she's your responsibility."

There was silence as Harry ate and Nat struggled to think of what else to say to get her point across. The trouble was she couldn't just leave here whenever she liked because she couldn't leave Georgia on her own, and he knew it. Not that she thought he was doing it on purpose, he was just taking her for granted and if he carried on her marriage wasn't going to make it to its first anniversary.

They were interrupted by a small voice calling, "Daddy," and Georgia stood in the doorway, tears running down her cheeks.

Harry put his knife and fork down, pushed his chair back and held his arms out. Georgia settled herself on his lap, burying her face against his chest.

Georgia said a muffled, "Everyone's left me," between sobs.

"No, they haven't." Harry stroked her hair and rubbed her back. "I'm still here."

She didn't say anything else and eventually her crying subsided as she fell asleep. Nat looked at Harry pointedly. He kissed Georgia on the top of her head.

"I'll be here when she gets up," Nat said, quietly. "But I'm leaving at six o'clock, so I can go home and eat the dinner my husband will be cooking for me."

"I do appreciate everything you've done." Harry's voice was just as quiet, so as not to wake Georgia. He sighed. "I didn't think it would be this hard."

Nat smiled at him. Maybe it was easier for her to be able to go home where everything was normal and nothing had changed. "It will get easier." She hoped.

He nodded. "She looks more and more like her mother everyday."

There was definitely a resemblance. But Nat thought that perhaps it was because she missed Sarah that she saw her in Georgia's place. She went around the table to softly kiss Georgia. "Night, Harry."

"Night." He saw her out, carrying Georgia, before taking her back to bed.

Georgia yawned and settled down. Harry sat on the bed next to her and brushed some of her hair from her face.

"What did Mummy mean earlier?"

Harry smiled. Georgia must be tired - she had made the decision on her last birthday that mummy and daddy were far too childish names and from now on she would call them mum and dad. Harry had smiled indulgently at her at the time, but he didn't really mind what she called him, just as long as it wasn't Harry. She had gone through a phase of that at one point, although he couldn't really blame her as her brother and sister called them by their names, so it was no wonder she had been confused.

"When?" he asked.

"She said..." She stopped and scrunched her face up in thought, looking somewhere in the distance. Harry waited patiently. "'I'm glad I have you to look after her.'" She looked back up at him. "She meant me, didn't she?"

His heart quickened - he really didn't want to answer this, not now. "Yes, she did."

"But what did she mean?"

"I..." He couldn't lie to her, not now. "It's complicated, I'll explain in the morning."

"But Daddy..."

"In the morning," he repeated and bent down to kiss her on the cheek.

She sighed but closed her eyes.

Much as he was proud of her, sometimes he wished she wasn't quite so clever. Fortunately, she was tired enough from the late night that she would probably fall asleep before she had too much time to worry about it. He turned off her light and went down the hall to Sarah's room. He knocked gently before pushing the door open.

Sarah was still dressed, sitting on the bed opposite the mirror, struggling with her hair.

"Here, let me help." Harry sat down on the bed behind her. She dropped her hands into her lap and let him continue taking the flowers from her hair.

"I think Georgia got a bit enthusiastic putting them in," she said.

Harry smiled. Now that Sarah's hair was short, there was only so much she could do with it, apparently, since he knew very little on the subject. Georgia had threatened/promised to give him a lecture and demonstration. Whatever the two of them had done while getting ready, it had looked good, in his opinion. "You look beautiful."

She smiled. "I look tired and ill."

"It is late. You can be justified in looking tired."

She turned around to face him, so he had to stop what he was doing. He dropped his hands into his lap.

"We need to talk about this."

He shook his head. "Not yet."

"Then when? After I'm dead?"

He looked down. How could she say it so matter-of-factly?

"You're going to have to look after Georgia, and not just at the weekends."

He looked back up at her and couldn't help a smile at the mention of Georgia's name. "I know that." It was a daunting proposition, but he was looking forward to spending more time with his daughter.

"I know why Nat got married so quickly. " Sarah looked over her shoulder at her reflection. "I'm not stupid, I know what you're hiding from me."

He looked in the same direction she did. "I was just trying to protect you." He didn't want to have to think about what was going to happen. He knew she was right, that this needed to be out in the open, but it was easier not to think about if they never discussed it.

She raised a hand and brushed his cheek with her fingers. "I don't need you to, Harry, I never did."

He swallowed the lump in his throat, shook his head and dislodged her hand.

She sighed. "I trust you to do what's best for her."

He nodded and stood up, hands in his pockets and paced around the bed. When he stopped and turned round he saw Sarah had been watching him the whole time. "We have to tell her."

"No." She shook her head. "I don't want to scare her. She's old enough to know that cancer means death."

"And she'd be right." At once, he regretted his harsh tone and came back round to sit next to her again. "She's a bright girl, she knows something's up. She'll only be more upset if we keep it from her."

Sarah sighed and looked at the flower she was twirling in her hand. "I suppose you're right."

"Of course I am." He smiled.

She put a hand up to wipe at an eye. Harry frowned and took her chin in one hand to tilt her head back up. Then he could see the tears in her eyes. Not saying anything, he put his arms round her and held her close. There wasn't any need for words because he knew why she was crying and was powerless to do anything about it.

Eventually, she said, "I just want to be able to see her grow up; what sort of a woman she becomes."

He nodded. "I know."

"I don't..." She pulled back and look at him. "As much as I hate to think of her growing up with me, I'm still glad we kept her. Eight years of her is better than none."

"I'm glad too. I just..." He shook his head. They'd had a big argument about this already and had to agree not to talk about it any more.

Sarah could obviously tell what he wanted to say, though, because she said, "I know. If I'd just got that lump checked out sooner. But there never seemed to be enough time and..." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter, I can't turn the clock back. Which is ironic really." Given that they knew someone who could travel in time.

He kissed her on the cheek and reached up to take the final flower out of her hair. "I should let you sleep. And we'll talk to Georgia in the morning."

She nodded. "Night."

"Night."

She let out an "oh" in surprise when she saw the lounge. There was a banner hung up that said 'Welcome home Georgia' drawn in various different colours with felt tip pens on pieces of A4 paper. Chains made of paper hung from the walls and the ceiling. Someone had been busy and, given the grin on Luke's face, Sarah was fairly certain who it had been.

"Did you do this?" she asked him.

He nodded.

"Thank you." She smiled. "I'm sure Georgia will be thrilled with it when she wakes up."

He came closer to look at her. "She's still yellow."

He was right. "She's a lot better than she was. We'll just have to watch her and make sure she doesn't get worse."

"And carry on taking photos," Harry said, as he came in, carrying Sarah's bag. She had taken a photo everyday, so they could check how Georgia was doing. She was almost tempted not to stop, except that they would end up with over three hundred of them in a years time, which was probably a bit over the top.

The sound of Nat's wheelchair announced her entrance from elsewhere in the house. "I know you're only doing it so you can embarrass her with them when she's older."

Georgia wriggled, and Sarah looked down to see that she had woken up. Luke offered her a finger, which she took, and he bent over to whisper in her ear. Sarah turned to grin at Nat. "Isn't that what parents are supposed to do?"

"Can I hold her?" Luke asked.

"Sit down then." Considering that he was technically a fourteen year old boy, he was probably stronger than she was, but Sarah had still not quite got over the fear of dropping the baby herself.

Once Luke was settled on the sofa, Sarah passed the baby over to him. He smiled at Georgia, and she looked up at him, fascinated. The two of them certainly seemed fond of each other so far. She wondered how long that would last once Luke had suffered sleepless nights.

"Thanks for looking after him," Sarah said to Nat, as she reached down and hugged her.

"No problem. He's really not that hard to babysit."

"When is she going to do something?"

Sarah smiled fondly at Luke. "It will be a few months yet before she's big enough to play with. But you can help with burping her and changing her until then."

"Okay."

She smiled to herself. He probably had no idea what it would involve, given he had agreed so quickly. She would be glad of his help because although Harry obviously loved Georgia, whenever Sarah went to change her nappy his contribution had been to leave the room. Since he must have seen (and smelt) far worse than that as a doctor, she was not impressed. Although not terribly surprised, since she had guessed that was what he would be like.

It was part of the reason she had refused to marry him when she was pregnant with Elizabeth - he'd have had her at home doing all the housework and looking after the baby, while he went out and had all the fun. She probably would have killed him within a year.

Nat went over to where Luke was sat, so Georgia could hold her finger. Sarah laughed, as Georgia then couldn't decide which of them to look at.

Sarah could feel Harry's presence behind her, also looking down at Georgia. "Glad we kept her?" he whispered into her ear.

She smiled and nodded, reaching back to take his hand. "She's perfect," she said. Georgia hadn't even been in their lives long and already Sarah couldn't imagine being without her. Although she was looking forward to Georgia being old enough for Harry to take her off Sarah's hands for a day at a time. There were parts of her old life she still missed terribly. Although spending weeks in hospital with Georgia hadn't really helped that.

"Yes, she is," Harry agreed. "But you only say that because she hasn't woken you up every night yet."

Sarah smiled. "She can do whatever she likes."

Nat took Georgia from Luke, bouncing her a little. Sarah bit her lip. Georgia had screwed her face up and started wriggled, and Sarah knew what was coming next.

Nat seemed perfectly oblivious though because she said, "I think I'd like one of these one day. Not just yet but..."

Harry muttered something about looking forward to being a grandfather and Sarah winced, since it was certainly loud enough for Nat to hear. Fortunately for him, Georgia started crying and Nat was too busy handing her back to Sarah to reply.

"You might change your mind when you see all the horrible things she does." Somehow, whenever Nat had visited she had always seen Georgia's good side and not the disgusting things that babies did. Although it was far easier to put up with Georgia doing them, than other babies Sarah had seen in her life.

She looked down at Georgia and asked her, "Are you hungry?" She moved a hand under her. "And your nappy needs changing, already. You're going to be hard work, I can tell." But she didn't mind. Sarah already couldn't remember why she ever had doubts about the baby at all.

She had thought, that since this time she had allowed herself to love the baby before it was born, that what she felt after the birth wouldn't be so overwhelming. That hadn't been the case though. Harry had been right when they discussed it - there was no way she could let someone else take her away. That was before she took all her worry into account. Georgia was so small and so delicate that anything could happen to it. Her life was threatened in so many ways now, more so than if someone had tried to kill Sarah while she was still pregnant.

The house still wasn't ready. They'd finished the decorating but there were plenty of other things Sarah had managed to put off. It had seemed like there was plenty of time to prepare for Georgia's arrival - both mentally as well as physically. Now, though, all Sarah wanted to do was take Georgia home like any other mother with a new baby.

She didn't look round when she heard someone approach, assuming it was a doctor or a nurse. So she was surprised when she heard Harry softly call her name.

"Harry, where have you been?" She was half-annoyed at him for going off somewhere and being out of contact, and half-worried that something had happened to him.

He didn't answer until he found a chair and was sitting opposite her. "My father died."

"I'm so sorry." She reached out a hand to take his, and he wrapped his fingers round hers. She had no idea his father was so ill, but then he never did talk about it. "Are you all right?"

He didn't look at her but down at their hands, and said nothing. She took that as her answer.

After a minute, he said, "I spoke to Nat. She told me what happened."

Sarah decided to go with his change of subject. If he wanted to talk about it, he would. "We did try to find you." She wished now she had thought more carefully about where he could be. At first it hadn't seemed that important, and she hadn't really been in the best state of mind once it was. Although the timing probably wouldn't have helped him.

He turned his gaze to Georgia and Sarah followed suit. She looked just like any normal baby, except for her size. And the wires and instruments she had around her to make sure she was warm and could breathe.

"I told you you should rest."

She sighed, not looking at him. She didn't need him to tell her 'I told you so'. "I know you did," she said, firmly.

"But you couldn't do that, just for a few months."

She pulled her hand away. "It's not that easy to change your whole life, just because of 'what if'." Her tone was just as stern as his.

"We're talking about your life and hers."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Although she was far more concerned about Georgia's life than hers at the moment. "I already feel guilty enough, I don't need a lecture from you."

Immediately, his expression changed. "I'm sorry, I didn't..." He reached out for her hand again and she let him take it. "It's my fault, I should have made sure you did it."

She shook her head. "It's no one's fault. Let's not waste time blaming ourselves when we should be worrying about Georgia."

He turned back to the baby. "How is she?"

"There's nothing really wrong with her." A little time would cure her, as long as she didn't develop any problems. "But..." her voice hitched and she put a hand up to her mouth. She was only a day old and anything could happen yet.

Harry put his arms round her. "She's strong. Just look at who her mother is."

Sarah smiled through her tears, not feeling particularly strong at the moment, and glad of Harry's comfort. She buried her face against his chest, and he rubbed her back.

"Hey, she's awake."

Sarah let go, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Look Georgia," she said, and she couldn't help smiling as she spoke to her daughter. "Your Daddy's come to see you."

"Hello, Georgia." Harry reached for her hand.

The baby looked up at him for a minute but she was obviously unenthusiastic about what she saw, because she closed her eyes again and went back to sleep with a sigh.

"She can't understand what all the fuss is about," Harry said. "She's not worried at all."

Sarah smiled at him. "I hope she's right."

"She'll be fine, I know it." He put an arm around her. She leaned against him, and they together watched Georgia sleep.

"Nat?"

Nat looked round and smiled at her, although not very convincingly. She reached forward to take Sarah's hand.

Sarah frowned, unable to remember what could be wrong. "What...?"

"You've got eclampsia. Um..."

The events of Luke's party came back to her in a rush. "I know what it is." She'd had the lecture more than once. The gist was if she didn't rest it was possible she would be very ill. It all seemed so unlikely at the time, though, and she felt fine now.

"I found you on the lounge floor. You looked like you were having a fit."

Nat's fingers squeezed Sarah's. She probably looked worse than she felt, given what she remembered. "I'm sorry."

Nat shook her head. "You know they're going to deliver the baby."

"No!" Sarah snatched her hand back. "They can't, it's too soon." And she was small, they kept telling her that. What if Georgia didn't survive?

"They have to," Nat said softly.

Sarah shook her head. Her concerns and fears about her life after the baby was born instantly vanished. She just wanted her to be all right. "Where's Harry?"

"I don't know."

"He has to be here. I promised him he could be."

Nat smiled. "Don't worry, I'll find him."

Sarah nodded as Nat left. She almost called her back, not really wanting to be on her own. But she also wanted her to find Harry and Nat couldn't do both.

She wasn't alone for long, though. It was only a minute before Nat stuck her head back round the door and said, "There's someone here to see you."

Luke bounded through the door and Sarah managed a real smile for him. He ran over to hug her. "Oof!" she said, but rubbed his back and said, "Everything's going to be all right."

He didn't say anything, just held her tighter. Sarah was grateful for something to distract her. "I'm sorry about your party. We'll have another one later, okay?"

He nodded and said a muffled "Okay" before loosening his grip and pulling away from her.

"Sit down." She gestured to the chair next to the bed, and he did as he was told.

"You'll get to see your little sister soon, aren't you looking forward to that?" There was at least some good in the situation.

He frowned. "But you said it wouldn't be until September."

"I know, but babies don't always do what they're supposed to." She tried her best to sound like this was normal. While it was true babies were premature for no reason, she just wished it was true in this case.

He twisted his hands in his shirt and didn't look at her.

She frowned. "Luke?" She waited until he looked at her again before she continued. "I'm sorry I scared you." Although she was glad it was Nat who found her and not Luke.

He shook his head. "I know it's too soon for her to be born. Harry gave me a book."

She smiled. It was sweet of him to think of it, but if it was anything like the book he'd given her it would probably frighten rather than reassure him. Harry, with his medical training, likely wouldn't see it in the same way they did. "You're right. But the doctors know what they're doing. We just have to trust them." There was a lump in her throat, though.

He nodded.

Sarah reached out to take one of his hands. "Will you stay here for a bit and keep me company?"

He smiled and nodded.

"Tell me about your party. You sounded like you were having fun."

He grinned and told her about the games he and his friends were playing, and about who was friends with whom and which of them was cheating. She listened, wishing she could make it all less complicated for him, but it was a part of growing up and Luke would have to work it out on his own. Eager to find the silver lining, she thought how nice it was to spend time with Luke. She would have to make sure they still did that, after the baby was born.

Sarah was much more comfortable and relaxed by the time Nat came back. Sarah looked up at her.

Nat answered the question without Sarah having to ask it. "I left a message on his voicemail, but...." She sighed. "I tried his parents but they weren't there. I don't know where else to look."

Sarah shook her head. She didn't know either. She couldn't even name Harry's close friends because he never talked about them. They had probably been at his funeral but she hadn't been thinking about that then. "They'll wait until he gets here, won't they?" Her voice was more hope that anything else.

Nat shook her head. "They can't. What if he's a long way away and can't get here for a couple of days?"

Sarah swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back the tears that she refused to allow to fall, especially in front of Luke. It wasn't just because she promised him, either, she really wanted Harry to be here.

When she thought she could speak with her voice sounding normal she asked Nat, "Will you stay with me?"

"Of course I will," Nat said, smiling. "I won't let you be on your own."

Sarah smiled at Nat. "Thank you." But even Nat's presence wasn't going to guarantee anything.