A few more lights will come back on, a few unknowable hums hum to life, in the time that he waits.

He pats the console.

Stands up, stretches.

"I'm gonna take a look outside."

A distant sense of warm acknowledgment.

He likes this box.  She's a good box.

He heads for the door.

The door to the TARDIS creeeaaaks open.

It's night, which it wasn't when they left, so that's probably a good sign.  Come to think of it it looked pretty dark in Sarah Jane's video.

He's pretty sure the TARDIS is in the same spot it was when they left, just seven or so months earlier.  There's the red door, connecting the garage to the reception area.

He walks toward it.

As he opens that door, he sees -

Sarah Jane, sitting on the floor, face illuminated by the faint bluish light of a little portable video player, on whose screen her eyes are fixed.

And he hears his own voice, tinny from the recording, coming from it.

"...see if Sarah Jane's outside.  You don't have to say anything, just keeping you in the loop."

He turns red.

She looks up and sees him, and shuts off the player.

"I'm sorry," she says.  "That wasn't for me, I shouldn't have watched.  I - was worried about you, and about the TARDIS.  ..and a little nosy, I suppose," she adds a bit sheepishly.

Bryce doesn't really know what to do about people apologizing to him.  It feels like it's usually the other way around.  "It's okay," he says quietly.

She stands and approaches the door.  "You hear her so clearly," she says softly, almost wonderingly.

He looks down bashfully and fidgety with the hem of his shirt.  "...the Doctor says he thinks she likes me."

She smiles a bit ruefully.  "I don't think I made a very good impression, when we first met.  I was a stowaway."

...he giggles a little in spite of himself.  "Will she want you on board?"

"We grew to trust each other well enough," she says.  "I traveled with him for a long time."

The pronoun throws him for a second.  " - the Doctor, you mean."

"Yes.  Him I could understand.  I still don't understand the TARDIS very well, though."

He's not sure what to say to that.  But that feels okay, somehow.

"...we should get back on board," he says.

"Right," she says smartly, and follows his lead back into the box.

He does a little half-jog to the console.  "She's okay.  We were planning to camp out here a few days while you rest up, that okay?"

yeah

know your way around?

"The Doctor told me where the kitchen is and where the bedrooms are, and I can ask Sarah Jane if I get lost.  You rest."

<3

Grin.

He turns back to Sarah Jane.  "I.  Guess we're bunking here a few days."

Nod.  "Could I ask for my purse back?"

"Oh - shit, right, sorry - "

He scurries over to terminal number four, where he remembers leaving it on the catwalk.