Hello! This story is being largely revised, though the basic plot will stay the same. Reviews are always appreciated and each of them will be cherished.

A relationship with the Doctor never truly goes away. One could say, "Once a companion, always a companion." No one knows this better than Sarah Jane Smith. Her official title is 'former companion' but she knows in her heart that one is never truly an ex-companion. And she honestly believes that this is a good thing. She believes in him. And she knows that he will always come for her. Always.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Sarah Jane Smith was curled up on the window seat in her bedroom, gazing out at the darkness of Bannerman Road. The night was sporadically punctured by the occasional streetlight. Here and there, the lights appeared to flicker out. Obviously, no one had come by to do maintenance on them in quite a while. The shutters of the other houses were closed; after all it was nearly eleven o'clock at night. Really, she should have been in bed as well. But she couldn't sleep. Not after the message that she had received from UNIT.

Martha Jones had telephoned her earlier in the day to inform her of the Doctor's response to Project Opal. It had been adamantly negative and those who held high positions in UNIT were extremely displeased. Judging by Martha's tone, Sarah Jane could only guess that they had given the Doctor more information than she herself had received. But, even so, she had to admit that she didn't like what little she had seen. Martha hadn't sounded surprised.

"Project Opal is badly planned, badly organized, and just plain bad news." She had said. "I'm surprised that the proposition has received as much attention as it has."

"I know." Sarah Jane had sighed. "The entire project seems absurd. Can you keep me updated on any progress that is made?"

"Of course."

Sarah Jane sighed and reached a hand back to push her dark hair out of her eyes. She had been in direct contact with Martha for the past few months; the relationship was one of two former companions of the Doctor. Sarah Jane had to admit that she liked the young woman; she could definitely see why the Doctor took her under his wing. She chuckled as she remembered her own sarcastic comment when she had first seen Rose: "I can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger." It was true that she had been jealous of Rose at first; she had known that the Doctor would choose someone to replace her. Of course he would. But somehow, seeing the actual young woman just made her feel incredibly old.

The clattering sound jerked her out of her musing, causing her to jump and whip her head around to face the closed bedroom door. She sat frozen in silence for a long moment, just listening but the sound wasn't repeated. In fact, the entire house was silent, just as it had been for the past few hours. 'Perhaps I just imagined it?'

She turned back to the window and saw that all of the streetlights had now gone out. A mournful howl sounded as the wind began to pick up. She carefully got to her feet, taking deep, steadying breaths. 'Easy, Sarah Jane. Easy, girl. You're just a bit jumpy because you're alone.' That had to be it.

She was still getting used to Luke's absence. It was funny, really. She had spent so much time alone in her house on Bannerman Road before Luke had come into her life. He had had a bigger impact on her than she ever could have imagined. But, try as she might, she still couldn't convince herself that the feeling of fear in the pit of her stomach was false.
Glancing down at the yard below her window, she laughed quietly as a black cat yowled angrily, clattering dustbins as it scampered away. Of course. She was just being silly. 'I must be jumpy if a cat can frighten me.'

Still chuckling to herself, she rose from the window seat and crossed the room to sit on her bed. Sarah reached for the phone on her bedside table and lifted the receiver to her ear. She'd ring Luke at the university. Yes. He would be able to calm her down, just as he always had. Her slim fingers began to dial the number, knowing that simply hearing his voice would -

The door behind her gave a long, despondent creak as it slowly opened. Sarah Jane swallowed hard, not daring to turn around. That was definitely not a cat. But the sound didn't go away. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned around to face the door. And immediately wished that she hadn't looked. She could see a beefy hand grasping the wood and the strangled cry stuck in her throat.

"Hang up the phone, love."

Sarah Jane's hand shook as it hovered over the numbers. "Who are you?" The receiver moved away from her ear, her hand seemingly acting of its own accord and she hated herself for appearing to obey him. The owner of the hand on the door appeared, tall and thin. Surprising, really that the owner of such a muscular hand appear so bony? But she couldn't see his face and that was what frightened her most. "Hang up the phone, Miss Smith. Please." The last word was tacked on as an afterthought and the man crossed his arms.

"No, why should I?" Sarah was rather pleased with how steady her voice was, masking the terror that was churning in her stomach.

"Let's make this nice and easy, Miss. Hang up the phone and it will be much better for you." Another man appeared behind, all bent over and coughing. He did not speak and his face remained buried in his arm. Somehow the presence of this invalid made her stomach twist all the more.

"Who's that? What's going on?" Sarah could barely keep her fear in check as the phone dropped from her slack fingers to rattle onto the table. She prided herself for her ability to keep the fear out of her voice; no matter what she thought, she knew that she was doing a wonderful job keeping up the pretense of bravery.

The second man pulled something from a bag and she had a sneaking suspicion that it was not going to be anything pleasant. He approached her and she scrambled onto the bed, against the wall, trying to get away. She swallowed hard as her hand found the wall; she had nowhere to go. The hacking invalid stood at one end and the only other escape route was blocked by the second man. "No," she gasped out in horror as the needle appeared in the moonlight. The lamp on the bedside table clattered to the ground as he climbed onto the bed after her. "Please, no." She scrabbled backwards, knowing that it was useless. Sarah closed her eyes in apprehension of whatever was in the syringe, waiting for the impact. But the needle just scraped the bare flesh of her upper arm and the man retreated. Confused, she swallowed hard, taking deep breaths and examining the site that had been touched. There was nothing there. That didn't make sense. "What have you done?" She asked, not really expecting an answer.

But the man refused to answer and came at her with the needle again, entering the skin with a white hot jab. She gasped in spite of herself, feeling the icy liquid enter her veins. Consciousness began to slip away and the last thing she saw was the blurred face of the invalid, who had paused in his coughing long enough to savor his victory over her. Then…oblivion.