AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, it seems like forever, but here we are with the next installment of this series, which started when Sarah Jane found a man with no memory bleeding on her doorstep. Torchwood is convinced he's the Doctor, but he's human - perhaps too human. If you want to go back and catch up before we give away any spoilers, you can read the following stories: "The Long Road Home," "Be Careful What You Wish For", and "Five Doctors and a Baby". For those of you who aren't worried about spoilers and just want to be caught up, here's what's happened since we started:

Several months after "Hand of Fear", Sarah Jane found a man with no memory bleeding on her doorstep. He took the name John Tinker, and married her, partly to cover the fact that she was carrying the Doctor's baby, but mostly because he fell madly in love with her, and she for him. Torchwood, convinced that John is the Doctor (based on a sketch they have from 1877), kidnapped and tortured him nearly to death, but Jack rescued him and is now acting as a double-agent, pretending to keep tabs on the mystery man while really protecting the Tinker family. Now Sarah Jane has given birth to the Doctor's baby - and two more, besides. But Sarah Jane Smith has never been one to settle down completely.

A few notes for those who are just joining us: this series follows a couple of rules. First, despite what you may think, it is NOT an alternate universe story. Everything that happens is consistent with what you see on-screen in Doctor Who (but NOT necessarily SJA). Also, we list the 10th Doctor as one of the characters because he will show up eventually. As for the definition of "eventually", well, that's up for debate.

Normally we post on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but due to heavy RL workload, this story will post ONLY on Wednesday mornings. (Take heart, however; we never start posting a story until the first draft is done - hence the long delay - so you can count on consistent publishing.)

Thanks so much for sticking with us this far; we really appreciate all of your feedback, and couldn't do this without it.

By the way, we will be heading to FandomFest in Louisville, Kentucky next week (July 25-28 2013), so if anybody is going to be there too, please contact us if you'd like to get together, we'd love to meet you!

And now, Alons-y!

Ealing, UK - Summer, 1988

Sarah Jane Tinker ran to the back door of her home, laughing, the sounds of happy splashing behind her as she headed into the kitchen for more of the fruit punch and iced tea she'd stocked up on the night before. It was a beautiful summer day, perfect for a party, and from the sounds of children screaming with glee it seemed obvious that everyone was enjoying themselves. She heard the door open once more and turned to see her Aunt Lavinia smiling at her.

"Need any help, Sarah Jane?"

"Actually yes, thanks, could you grab that box of napkins and the paper cups next to it? I have all I can do to carry these pitchers out."

"It really is the perfect birthday party," Lavinia said. "You couldn't have chosen a better day for it, either." She picked up the napkins and paper cups. "Now if we can just keep everyone out of the cake, we'll be in business."

Sarah heard shouting and barking. She looked outside and saw Jack chasing John with a huge squirt gun, Faraday the Golden Retriever chasing both of them with obvious delight.

What she could see from the kitchen window that Jack couldn't, however, was that John's run was a diversion - or more accurately, a trap - and that Harry was lying in wait with John and Sarah's two young sons, ten-year-old Luke and five-year-old Sid. The moment Jack came around the corner, they would catch him off-guard and drench him with the garden hose. She laughed and shook her head. "We better hurry up with this, our team needs us. There's a war going on, you know," she said, adding mock gravitas.

Just as they came outside, Jack rounded the corner to see Harry and the boys. Too late to change course, he instead acted as though the icy water was machine-gun fire, making exaggerated cringing movements and falling to the ground as the boys giggled.

John staggered back to Harry and the boys, barely able to catch his breath because he was laughing so hard. "Go get him," he said to his sons, and the two boys, who each looked to be about five years old, dropped the hose and jumped on their Uncle Jack, who began tickling them mercilessly.

"Don't worry," John said to Harry, who, despite being engulfed in laughter himself, looked a bit concerned, "I'm fine. More than fine."

And he was; it had been ten years since Luke's birth, and despite everything else that had gone on in that time, he looked over at his family and friends and didn't think he could have been any happier.

Meanwhile, three-year-old Lisa Ann squealed with delight as she saw her mum and her aunt head out the door. "Mum, Auntie, they've got Uncle Jack, come save him!"

Sarah and Lavinia put the drinks and things down and grabbed their squirt guns. They ran up to the two boys and aimed their 'weapons' at them. "Surrender or be fired upon, gentlemen," Sarah said in the most menacing voice she could summon under the circumstances.

"Yay," shouted Lisa Ann, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Not today ladies," said John, Harry and John Benton in unison. They readied their guns, prepared for victory.

Suddenly from out of nowhere, water balloon bombs dropped out of the sky and pelted the three men. They looked up to find the source.

Then they saw him, leaning out from a second floor window, a tall man with a mustache.

"You seem to be forgetting one more member of the red team," the Brigadier said, a superior smile across his face as he picked up the Cosmic Liquidator water gun John had "improved" and started firing huge streams of water at the entire blue team. "My compliments," he said to a dripping wet John when the toy's tank was empty, "on your contribution to the state of hydro-weaponry."

He turned to his fourteen-year-old daughter, who'd been handing him loaded water balloons. "You see, Tiger? Science always leads." This was a good day for the two of them - for a change. Lately their relationship had been growing more and more strained. Her mother Fiona had divorced him because he was never home; now it seemed that no matter how he tried to make up the time with Kate and be a good father, it was never enough. But still, he had to try.

Kate flashed a rare smile at him and then down at their opponents. "Looks like science wins this time, gentlemen."

"Come down here and say that," John shouted up at them as he wiped his eyes so he could see, his own water gun at the ready.

But the Brig and Kate had already disappeared from the window, and when they came downstairs, everyone was too busy laughing to continue the battle.

And so it was like any other birthday party, for any other child, on any other Saturday afternoon. John grilled hamburgers and frankfurters, the children continued to splash each other, and eventually, with the war ended, a truce declared, and no clear winner, everyone gathered for birthday cake and ice cream.

Luke smiled hopefully at Kate as she stood by her father. He had been watching her - but trying not to look like he was watching her - since she had first arrived at the party. He was too embarrassed to tell anyone, but he wanted desperately for Kate to like him as much as he liked her.

He'd found himself fantasizing about her quite a lot since he first met her several months ago, and felt awkward being around her. On the other hand, he liked the fact that she had been asked to babysit for his younger siblings a few times when his mum and dad had gone out and Uncle Jack couldn't come. She wasn't like everyone else; she treated him like an equal and not a child.

Luke walked over to John, who was looking over the entire scene. "Dad, can I ask you a really serious question?"

John sat down and gave Luke all of his attention. "Sure, son, what is it?"

"Well, it's something really personal and sort of embarrassing."

John looked at his little boy, reminding himself that he was actually ten years old, despite the fact that as a Time Lord, he was growing only half as fast as his siblings. It couldn't be time for "The Talk" already, could it? He decided not to panic until absolutely necessary. "Well, you know that you can ask me anything."

Luke put his head down and almost whispered. "When did you know you were in love with mum?"

John had to strain to hear him, but fortunately he had; he wouldn't have wanted to make Luke repeat it. "I knew right away, actually," he said quietly, then added a conspiratorial "Why?"

Luke squirmed a little before answering. "Don't tell anyone please, but I think I may be in love with someone, but I'm not sure."

John's heart seemed to squeeze a little. Luke was so … young; even if it wasn't The Talk, he wasn't ready for this phase of being a father and guiding his children through the wilderness of love and dating. "Well, that's pretty serious, it's the kind of thing you should be sure about. May I ask who?"

Luke picked his head up and looked into his father's eyes with an almost helpless expression. "It's Kate, dad."

John tried to keep his expression neutral as he nodded. Poor Luke. He knew there was no way she could return his feelings. At least not anytime soon. "I see. Have you talked to her about it?"

Luke shook his head. "Nope."

John nodded again, this time a little relieved. "Well, maybe that's best, since you're not really sure how you feel. I mean, you wouldn't want to get her hopes up, right?"

Luke's eyes lit up. He hadn't thought about that. "You're right, dad, she's ever so nice to me and I never stopped to think that she might like me so much that her feelings could get hurt if I didn't like her back. You really think that she might like me back," his words spilled out. He was so happy he could barely contain himself.

John cringed inside. "That's not quite what I meant." But he could see Luke's happiness, and he didn't want to squash it. "I mean, you said you MAY be in love with someone, but you weren't sure. And that's natural at your age. I mean, you haven't really had any experience with this sort of thing, what if you tell her you're in love with her, but you're not. You could hurt her feelings that way."

"You mean that she could love me so much that if I didn't love her too she'd pine away, like in that movie you and mum watched last week on the telly?" As far as Luke was concerned, this was even better than he had hoped for.

John realized that he was just making things worse. "I just mean that you should take this really slow. I mean, what if she hadn't really thought about it, and then you brought it up and she got all happy about it, but then you dropped her? She'd be hurt. Just take it slow."

Luke sat up straight, he was filled with pride now. "Not to worry dad, I'll go slowly. I would hate to break her heart."

John was torn. The last thing he wanted was for Luke to get hurt, but he just didn't see any way to stop this. He nodded and squeezed his shoulder, trying to smile.

Sarah Jane brought out the cake, five candles burning, and everyone started singing to Sid, Sarah Jane and John's middle child. Next to him, eyeing the cake, sat Lisa Ann, and on his other side, Luke stood next to his father, whose arm was around his shoulder. All the other guests - mostly friends from UNIT, rather than other children - were gathered round the table as Sid leaned over the cake and blew out the candles, everyone applauding raucously.

Sarah Jane watched the scene and smiled. She had never imagined that her life would end up so close to normal - and more than that, that she'd love it that way.

She watched her husband and her children's faces. There was John, the light of her life, with his arm around Luke, who practically worshiped the man he knew to be his father. John, in turn, doted on the boy.

Luke was home schooled, and while Sarah taught him the basics things like English, music, and art, John taught him math, science, physics and astronomy. He was brilliant, and absorbed everything John taught him at almost lightning speed. Luke was always so enthusiastic about learning from John too, it was as if he couldn't learn fast enough. Sometimes John would just get him books to read and then answer Luke's questions.

She wondered what they would do when Luke surpassed both of them. At the rate he was going that would be another two or three years. Perhaps they would just let him be a child prodigy when that happened, and allow him to take college classes. Only time would tell.

Sid, on the other hand, was a typical all-around boy. He went to the local school, and his grades were fairly normal for a child his age, although he was better than average at science. He also loved sports, and was well liked by his fellow classmates for his sense of humor and fair play. Sid was always the first person to speak up for the underdog, and he couldn't tolerate bullying - unless it was him bickering with Luke, as all brothers did, of course.

Then there was Lisa Ann, sitting in her aunt's lap trying her best to wait patiently for a piece of cake. Lavinia was always telling Sarah how much Lisa Ann was like Sarah Jane when she was small. She also told Sarah that seeing her raising Lisa Ann was her reward for raising Sarah Jane. Sarah had to confess, Lisa Ann did have her love of adventure and her curiosity. Sarah always joked that it was a good thing that she was their last child, because if Luke had been the handful her daughter was, he might have been an only child.

There was no denying it, Sarah Jane loved her family. Days like today, with their friends there to enjoy life with them, were wonderful. She looked up for a moment at the night sky. Somewhere out there the Doctor was with a companion and they were saving the universe, being chased by vicious creatures and facing challenges every day. She only hoped that he was as content with his life as she was with hers. Of course, she still missed him and wished she could see him again, but she knew her place was with John and her children, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

The children were racing each other around the garden, and as Lisa Ann slid off Lavinia's lap, Sarah saw her Aunt come over and sit beside her. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked.

Sarah Jane smiled. "Who wouldn't enjoy themselves in this little mini paradise?"

"I can't think of anybody," Lavinia said, staring out onto the birthday party with her. "But is it enough?"

Sarah stopped smiling. "Why would you even ask such a question?"

"Because I've known you since you were born, Sarah Jane. There's something wrong, and I'm pretty sure I know what it is."