Chapter One

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray my heart you choose to keep"

Nightmares

"Where am I?"

I was standing in the middle of a medium sized room with warm burgundy walls. The ceiling was full of stick-on stars and several large wooden bookcases lined the wall. A four poster bed was pressed up against the far wall next to a writing desk. There were papers everywhere and a large leather bound notebook sat on a night stand next to the bed. It took me a few seconds to realize I was in my old room in the TARDIS. What in the world is going on? I looked around the room again and even though I was lost as to how I got here; I smiled. This was my world in the good days, when my life had been changed forever. When I was young and strong, traveling space and time with that very special man. I walked around the room for a bit taking in the old articles strewn across the bed. Laughing at how I would get half way through one article, decide it was no good, then crumple it up and toss it over my shoulder.

I walked over to open the door on the far side of the room, which lead into the hallway, and stepped into the long white corridor. I looked around puzzled, the last time I was in the TARDIS it had changed so much, at least in the console room, so surely the rest of it would be different as well…but it looked like it did when I traveled with the Doctor long ago. My Doctor… my thoughts started to trail off so I shook my head to clear them. Get a grip Sarah. I need to find out what's going on here… How did I get here? Where is the Doctor? Why has the TARDIS changed back? I looked around me and spoke to the walls "Do you know what's going on?", I felt silly asking out loud but the TARDIS was very surprising and often helpful to me when I traveled with the Doctor. After a second of feeling like a complete idiot a loud BANG came from down the empty hallway and the lights went out. "Hello?" I called out in the dark, "Can anyone hear me?" I took a few steps forward; then there was a crash. The floor tilted beneath me and my world spun. I fell into the wall of the TARDIS and yelped in surprise. "Anyone? Doctor? Please answer me!" The TARDIS was spinning and I was being thrown from wall to floor to ceiling and back again. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the sonic lipstick. In the dark I wasn't sure where the lights or even any stabilizers might be but I zapped it once anyway.

I fell to the floor as the TARDIS stabilized and the hallway was instantly bathed in an eerie green light. In all the times the TARDIS had been in need of repair I had never seen the lights go out, or felt it spin in 360's for that matter, so I wasn't sure if this was an emergency light or another unexplainable situation. I pocketed the sonic and stood up slowly hanging onto the wall just in case I would lose my balance due to how dizzy I was.

"No! NO! Not her! It's me you want!"

My blood went cold. I knew that voice. "Doctor!" I screamed and ran down the hall to the doors that, if my memory was correct, lead to the main console. I put hand out to push the door open as I ran but as soon I made contact with it I was thrown backwards. I fell to the floor and the wind was knocked out of me. I took several deep breaths then sat up slowly, ignoring a searing pain in my head as I got up, and walked toward the door again and just as I was about to touch the smooth surface my hand was forced backwards. "Oh no… no please not her! Leave her!" I heard the Doctor yell. There was desperation in his voice, and that made me panic

"No, Timelord. She is very precious to me. I need her." A far too familiar voice replied, and then there was a scream from another voice. It was familiar but…

I pulled out the sonic lipstick again and pointed it toward the center or the door. ZAP and I saw, for a second, the invisible wall shatter like glass and then it was gone, I reached forward again; nothing happened, so I pushed the door open and ran inside the room.

"Doctor!" I screamed as I took in the scene in front of me; and I gasped. The Doctor, in his 4th regeneration scarf and all was stuck in a force field like the one around the door except I could see it without the sonic lipstick. The Trickster standing next to the older console, laughing as the Doctor banged his fists against a red light wall trying desperately to free himself.

"Trickster! Let him go! Let him go NOW!" I shouted venom in my voice.

"Ah! Sarah Jane Smith how nice that you have come. Welcome to your worst nightmare only; after awhile you'll see you won't be able to wake up."

Then I heard a cry from the opposite side of the dimly green lit console room, "No please don't-don't do this! Doctor…Doctor, I'm so sorry…"

Oh, you are KIDDING me! I thought to myself and spun around. Lying on the ground in heap a few feet from the console; was me. My younger near thirty year old self lying there clutching the sonic screwdriver in my right hand. My face was pale; as white as freshly fallen snow except for a crimson splash of blood above my right temple. I gasped and reached back inside my pocket for my sonic lipstick. I've had enough of this.

"Oh no Sarah Jane, no helping your friend! Or yourself for that matter." The trickster said mockingly holding out his hand.

"As if I'd hand it over to you!" I snapped at him aiming around him to try to free the Doctor but As soon as I zapped the sonic the Trickster snapped his finger and it flew from my hand; landing somewhere in the dark room behind me.

"NO!", I cried, searching franticly around in the dark for the sonic.

"Get out of here! He'll kill you! He has control of the TARDIS! PLEASE! Save Sarah… Get her out how you came!" The Doctor yelled to me from his cage then he yelped in pain and fell to the floor. That image was burned into my memory.

"No helping Sarah Jane! This is just the beginning of your end. Soon you shall fall in reality." The trickster said to me before pressing a button on the console and disappearing.

"NO! Come back! You MONSTER! YOU-", I was cut off as the TARDIS spun again. All I remember was seeing the Doctor twitching on the floor holding his chest in agony before I looked over and saw younger self; eyes wide, terror filled, tears streaming down my face yelling to me and then the Doctor, "Get out! Save yourself! Oh Doctor! I'm so sorry! I-I need to tell you that I-"

I shook my head as I grabbed onto the console trying to press any and every button I could remember the Doctor using to stabilize the TARDIS. I was crying I tried not to look at myself or at the Doctor. "No…no no NO! TRICKSTER DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! YOU'LL-" I was cut off as the console exploded.

"DOCTOR!" I screamed and sat bolt upright I was lying on the couch in the living room breathing heavily. I was shaking from fear and when I thought about what I had seen I felt a lump growing in my throat and tears slid down my face, "It was just a nightmare, Sarah." I told myself trying to calm down, "Just a bad dream, Mistress." K-9 told me as he came into the room. I got up and walked up the stairs to my bedroom even though I knew it was pointless. I wouldn't sleep after what I saw.

It wasn't until the morning when I looked into the bathroom mirror that I saw I had the same crimson cut on my temple as I had seen on my younger self in the nightmare; that's everything started to go downhill and reality became a living nightmare.

"Shine it down, lead me home, back to him.

Bring me back to him…"

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm trying to get better at writing… not the best but entertaining? I hope…

This is set after Luke goes to college in the SJA, and Sarah Jane is just settling into life at home without him. Please review. The lyrics I put in the beginning and end really made me think about what Sarah's nightmares might have been like after the Doctor left her in Aberdeen…

Song lyrics: Light A Way by He Is We

Thanks for reading; it means a lot to me!

~L