Harry stood in the kitchen, utterly still, staring into the middle distance, listening as the last echoes of the time ship's departure faded. Then the pop of a sizzling sausage snapped him back to life. Under Thor's eager supervision, he piled eggs, bacon, sausage and toast onto plates and the plates onto a tray. A teapot tucked into a gingham cozy, mugs, butter, a pot of marmalade...what else? He shrugged and picked up the loaded tray. If they needed anything else, he could always run down and fetch it later. He headed out the kitchen door and up the stairs, Thor by his side, the dog trying to keep his nose as close to the enticing tray as he dared.

Harry entered the bedroom with a theatrical flourish and a big smile-which immediately fell when he saw the bed was empty.

"Oh God. Not again," he moaned softly. He set the tray on the foot of the bed. "Sarah!" he cried to the universe, his voice pleading.

"What?"

Harry jumped and turned to see Sarah stood right behind him, an impish grin on her lips. He pressed a hand to his heart and shook his head. "Don't do that to me."

"Do what?" she asked, eyes twinkling. "Can't a girl go to the loo? Did you think I'd disappeared into...thin..." Her words slowed as Harry's eyebrows rose. "Well, I didn't," she finished rather lamely.

"Not this time," he said, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly.

"Thor!" Sarah said in a warning tone. Harry spun 180 degrees, Sarah still in his arms, and saw the lab sitting very close to the bed-and the tray-looking at him with wide innocent eyes.

"You were not thinking of helping yourself, sir, were you?" Harry addressed his dog sternly over Sarah's shoulder, and the Lab thumped his thick tail on the floor. Harry loosed his grip on Sarah, but took her hand as he did. "Back to bed," he said, gently tugging her in that direction. "Before breakfast gets cold. Or eaten," he added with another stern look at his dog.

Sarah resisted his pull, frowning at the tray. "That's very sweet, Harry, but..." She looked up at him with a tentative smile. "We have guests."

"They've already eaten," Harry said with a dismissive wave of his free hand. Sarah still just stood, looking at him with uncertain eyes. "The Doctor was cooking breakfast for himself and Donna when I got up. Flapjacks. American style," he continued as Sarah continued to resist his pull on her hand.

"They could probably eat again, as long as it's been since we all had decent food. And enough of it." She closed her eyes and drank in the ambrosial scents of sausage and bacon. "We could at least be sociable..."

He cut her off abruptly. "They left."

Sarah stared at him. Her mouth opened and her eyebrows furrowed as she took in his words.

"Left?" she asked, incredulous.

Harry nodded. "The Doctor wanted to get back to that world and get those creatures sorted."

"But..." Sarah's hand flew to the spot just below where her collarbones met. She rubbed it softly for a moment as her eyes went out of focus.

"He is gone," she said in a disbelieving whisper. She looked up at Harry with the eyes of a lost soul.

Harry nodded reluctantly.

"Why?"

"Maybe he thought he'd put you through enough," Harry said softly.

"He didn't put me through anything," Sarah corrected him firmly. "None of it was his fault."

Harry tipped his head from side to side, acknowledging her point. "Maybe he thought you'd been through enough," he amended his statement.

Her fingertips still pressed on the slight indentation at the base of her throat and her eyes went out of focus again. When she came back to herself this time, she looked at Harry with wide eyes. "You told him to leave?"

Harry laughed, a bit too heartily. "Me? Tell a Time Lord what to do?" His laughter faltered and died as she continued to stare at him. He sobered under her gaze, started to say something, then closed his mouth and swallowed hard instead. "I may have suggested...".he finally managed to say. He studied her thin face and his voice grew stronger, more sure. "...I did suggest...that you'd had enough adventure for one visit. And you needed some R&R far more than you needed to go back to that planet."

Sarah's lips compressed into a thin line, and her eyes began to flash green fire. "And he agreed?"

Harry shrugged, rounded his eyes and pooched out his lips as if to say, well, he left, didn't he?

"Oh!" Sarah huffed as if someone had punched her in the stomach and knocked the wind out of her. "You...he...what...OH! You didn't! Both of you..." She shook her head, her mouth opening and closing, beyond words. "Did either of you think of consulting me?" she finally asked. With another huff, she wrapped her dressing gown tightly around her and stomped off to the far side of the room, where she flounced into the window seat, knees up, arms wrapped tightly around them, and stared out at the icy world.

"Sarah." Harry studied her pose and tried his best to sound reasonable, innocent, caring, and firm, all at once. "Come eat. We can talk about it."

"I'm not hungry," she snapped without turning from the window. She leaned her forehead against the cold glass and stared out at the gray morning.

Harry hesitated another moment, looking from Sarah to Thor and back to Sarah again. Then he picked up the breakfast tray, slid under the sheets, and set the tray across his lap. "Oh well. More for me," he said lightly. He glanced at the small, tightly-coiled figure in the window seat, but saw no change in her tense posture. "Shame," he want on, picking up a sausage link and examining it. "I fixed them just the way you like them. Well browned." Sarah's eyes moved this time, darting a look of daggers at him that turned into a yearning gaze at his sausage. Then her jaw set and she turned away again.

Harry's lips quirked in a smile that he quickly suppressed. "Mmm," he purred as he took a bite of the meat and chewed appreciatively.

"Oh, alright. I am hungry," Sarah said, flouncing out of the window seat and stomping to the bed. "Shove over."

Harry ducked his head to hide a grin and shoved over. When Sarah reached for the tray, though, he pulled it away, putting one sausage link in his mouth, leaving half of it sticking out. He wiggled it, and his eyebrows, in her direction.

Sarah glared at him. "I'll bite your lips off."

He grinned and wiggled the sausage at her again. "Come and get it," he said, his words indistinct thanks to the need to keep his lips tight around the sausage to hold it in place.

Sarah sighed, then leaned in to him and with a ferocious snap bit off the sausage, her teeth grazing his mouth. He jumped back instinctively, then laughed and chewed the bit of sausage he'd been left with.

Sarah leaned against the pillows, closed her eyes and chewed as if her hard-won bit of sausage was the most delectible thing she'd ever tasted. When she opened her eyes, the tray was in her lap, and Harry was beaming at her.

"This doesn't mean you're forgiven," she said as she picked up a fork and dug in to the heavenly food. She groaned with pleasure as she took a bite of the eggs, cheese, mushrooms and onions.

Harry watched with a broad grin. "I thought the way to a man's heart was through his stomach."

"What makes you think this will get you to my heart?" she asked, flashing him another annoyed glance.

"Works with Thor," Harry said blandly, then chuckled when she threw him the expected glare. Thor thumped his tail hopefully when he heard his name. "I don't think she's going to leave you anything, mister," Harry told his dog, watching Sarah tuck in.

"Fat chance," Sarah mumbled around a mouthful of eggs.

Harry helped himself to a piece of toast, buttered it, then leaned back against the pillows and took a bite. He watched with a benevolent smile as Sarah cleared her plate.

"Would it be uncouth to lick it?" she asked, staring at the empty plate longingly.

Harry snorted a laugh. "Not if you're a dog." She gave him a sidelong glance that was several degrees less frosty than the last one had been. "There's more, you know," he said.

She sighed and leaned back against the pillows, her hands resting on the slight bulge of her stomach. "It still tastes good, but..."

Harry nodded. "Probably wise. Don't overload your stomach when it's been empty so long."

Sarah's eyebrows furrowed slightly and she closed her eyes. "Mmm," she murmurred. "Now you say."

Harry's forehead immediately creased in a worried frown. "You alright? You're not..."

"I'm fine," she interrupted him. "I just made a pig of myself." She looked into his worried blue eyes. "Oink!" she said, raising her eyebrows.

He grinned, a grin that softened into a gentle, loving smile. After a moment, Sarah gave him a reluctant half-smile back. "I didn't consult you," he said, very softly. "Because I was afraid." Her smile faded, but she didn't look away. "Afraid you'd make the wrong decision."

"Wrong for you," she said flatly.

He stretched out a hand toward her cheek, but she turned away from his touch. "What's wrong for you is wrong for me," he said softly, after a moment. He ran the backs of his fingers down her jawline, ever so gently. She sighed, but she didn't move away. "Besides," he said, lightening his tone. "I had big plans for today. Didn't want you galavanting off to hob-nob with blobs."

Sarah rolled her eyes at that. "What big plans?" she asked, curious in spite of herself.

Harry slid further down under the covers, lying flat on his back with his fingers interlaced behind his head. "Sleep in. Have a wonderful, decadent, unhealthy breakfast. Make love." He gave her his best seductive smile. "Fall asleep in each other's arms. Wake up. Eat a decadent, unhealthy, wonderful lunch. Make love..."

"Okay, okay, I see where this is going," she broke in.

"Sounds better than going back to Blobworld, doesn't it?" He was looking at the ceiling as he said it, a small smile playing on his lips. When she didn't answer-even with a "humph!"-he turned to look at her. "Sarah?"

She didn't respond. She didn't move. Her eyes were blank, empty, her muscles rigid.

"Sarah," he said, sliding back up into a sitting position and leaning close to her, a hand on her shoulder. "Sarah Jane. Love. Talk to me. What's happening?"

Her lips trembled. Her mouth opened slightly, but at first nothing came out except small puffs of air. Then the puffs of air turned into sounds. "I...I...I..." she stammered softly.

"Easy. Deep breaths." No reaction at first. Then her breathing deepened, as if his words had just, belatedly, penetrated her mind and taken hold. "Good," he encouraged her.

After a minute or two, she blinked and pressed the heels of her hands to her temples.

"Better?" Harry asked. She nodded, still shaken. "What happened? What set it off? What I said?"

She gave him a sidelong, apologetic glance, and nodded again.

"Tell me," he coaxed, in a soothing voice.

"Ah..." she said, as if just finding her voice again. "I...oh Harry." She closed her eyes and shook her head. He moved his hand from her shoulder to her back, and she leaned into him, resting her head on his chest. "There's a part of me," she said in a small voice. "That thinks that sounds like the most wonderful day possible."

Harry smiled, and leaned his cheek against the top of her bowed head. "But?"

"That's not me."

He pulled back and gave her a puzzled look. "You just said it was."

Her eyebrows furrowed and she sighed. "I did, didn't I." She thought a moment. "Well. That's her."

"Her who?"

She gave him a mildly annoyed glance. "You know who. Her. The...Sarah that was left behind."

He gave her a crooked grin. "Oh. Her. The girl I proposed to."

She nodded unhappily. "That's the one."

"So who's me?" he asked gently.

She looked up at him, puzzled.

"You said 'That's not me.' Who's me then?"

Sarah frowned. "You know me."

"Oh!" He pulled an exaggerated I get it! face. "You mean you. Intrepid girl reporter you."

She rolled her eyes. "If you must."

"Time and space traveller you."

She smiled at that one.

"Independent feminist you."

She just stared at him now, as if waiting-and hoping-for him to wind down.

He took her face between his hands and looked deeply into her green eyes. "I don't know how to break this to you, Miss Smith," he said softly. "But...she's you too."