==== ==== EPILOGUE ==== ====

Inside of the TARDIS, the Doctor was just throwing a switch on the console. With a light creaking and hissing of valves, the mechanical arm of the so-called chameleon arch retreated into the ceiling of the control room. "Good-Bye chameleon arch! Hope to never see you in use ever again!", the Doctor exclaimed and watched the contraption disappear behind a wooden panel sliding shut above of him, before he walked over to the room's corner where the hat stand had toppled over. In his attempt to restore a bit of tidiness to his space craft, its owner put up the hat stand straight again and picked the fedora up from the floor to jam it back on his head, right where it belonged. As a trade-off the Doctor allowed the hat stand to have the orange-brown striped scarf from his neck and the brown professor's jacket.

In the meantime, Harry had been walking around the console room. For the first time, now that they were no longer in life-threatening danger, he was able to get a good look at every detail of the wood panelling and decoration. "I haven't gotten the chance to say this before, but I really like your redecoration, Doctor. Looks more like a proper ship now, all this old-fashioned charm of wood.", he said.

"Hm! I quite like it myself!", agreed the Doctor while his eyes searched the room for something he either could not find or did not know yet what it was.

All the better that Sarah was there to point out the obvious which he was always overlooking. She quickly snatched his red coat and scarf from the floor, and, beating the surprisingly little amount of dust off of them, brought the articles of clothing to the person they belonged to.

"Oh, thank you." The Doctor smiled gratefully. Before he had any chance to take the coat off her, she folded it open for him to put his arms through the sleeves.

After that, she was left with the woolly monster in her hands. All grey and mustard, brown, red, purple, khaki and beige: More colourful than any scarf really should be. Sarah noticed a few loose threads sticking out here and there where the colours had once been joined. This piece of knitwear had been through a lot already. It was a miracle that the tassels were still intact after having been dragged across metal gratings, rocks and through several kinds of shrubs.

Once the Doctor was finished adjusting the collar of his coat, he looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to give the scarf to him. It was just then, before she raised her gaze to meet his eyes, that she remembered a short conversation the Doctor once had with his childhood mentor. "You know, I remember you saying once that the scarf is a symbol for friendship...", she recapped as she held one of the scarf's ends out to him.

"Oh, but you must pay more attention, Sarah!", he replied with a slightly disappointed tone, before correcting the bit of conversation she had pulled from her memory. "I was speaking of Tibetan traditions that time, and they tend to gift cotton scarves."

Instead of just accepting this piece of knowledge, Sarah pouted a bit, dissatisfied that he had seemingly missed the point of her statement. Instead of saying so, she just kept looking at him until he had figured out by himself why she was making such a face.

Eventually, a soft smile spread on his face. "But yes, this particular specimen carries many good memories of friendship...", he added, and so Sarah finally smiled back at him. While he put his favourite piece of knitwear back around this neck, he glanced back at its less impressive, two-coloured sibling hanging on the hat stand. "This one, not so much...", he mumbled and his smile was alleviated as he pondered the recent memories which had been woven into its wool.

Sarah put her hands on her hips. "Come now, Doctor, it wasn't all that bad, was it?", she wanted him to admit, because it most certainly had not been too bad for her. All the worrying, maybe, but aside from that, she had enjoyed to see him face the challenges of an ordinary life for once. The same challenges she had to put up with most of her life. Not that she would wish for him to go through all of that again, but she could not help but wonder where he might have ended up with that taxi of his…

"Easy for you to say! You don't know what it was like in my head.", protested the Doctor, and Sarah figured, that being half a Time Lord only must have been very confusing in the end.

"Very messy, I would presume.", Harry chimed in, chuckling to himself.

The Doctor huffed in response, slightly offended by his presumption. "I'll have you know, Harry, that I am, in fact, a very tidy person."

Out of the Time Lord's field of view, Sarah turned to Harry with a wink. "No, he isn't.", she mouthed before returning to her normal volume. "Well, not always, anyway." The medical officer might not know, but the Doctor also had a habit of turning the TARDIS topsy-turvy when looking for something he had misplaced a century or two ago. Sarah still remembered being buried under a pile of clothes as he once rushed into the wardrobe looking for his 500 year diary. To this day, she was not even sure he had even noticed her presence until she had cried for oxygen.

Whether the Doctor had heard her remark or not, he decided not to insist on his opinion this time around.

"By the way, have I told you already how I managed to escape the Master?", he attempted to change the topic.

Sarah knitted her brows. Surely, he was aware that he already had? Was he speaking of another encounter with the Master than she was thinking of? "...You mean after that ordeal at the French Coast?", she asked.

"That's just what I mean.", the Doctor confirmed and walked around the console in the middle of the room until he had found a good spot to tell his story from. "Because, as you know, the Master's plan to take me to some faraway planet or time failed. Yes, he had me undergoing physical and mental reconstruction, but after the damages my TARDIS had taken from him, she wouldn't let him go anywhere without putting up a fight first!" He chuckled and gestured a bit as he spoke, but Sarah took the first little pause he made in his speech to interrupt him.

"...And while the Master was busy coping with the failing machine, you managed to break free.", she continued for him since she was rather well-informed about it. "Yes, you've told us already."

But he didn't know. The Doctor just looked at her with big eyes, surprised that she had – almost – read his thoughts. "Really? Have I? But when?"

"Just after the watch opened, you spoke to us… or me. No, us.", Sarah tried to explain to him, then realized halfway in-between that maybe only she had heard his voice through the strange golden light. She turned to Harry to check with him whether he agreed with her phrasing, and so she rectified her sentence once more after he had nodded back at her.

"That's funny. The burst of energy knocked me out for a moment just like the two of you. Maybe you've caught a glimpse of an alternate future in which I am telling the story to you now?", the Doctor wondered aloud. Something about that idea caused him to put on another one of his Cheshire cat grins. "A little bit of Artron energy goes a long way, as they say...", he added mysteriously.

"Artron energy…?", asked Sarah, hoping for a more detailed explanation, which he did not really want to give.

"Background radiation of the time vortex!", was all that he said, before changing positions on the hexagonal console to place his fingers over the flight controls. "Now, let's set the coordinates for our next destination, shall we?"

As though on command, Harry shrugged and sighed. "Well, time I'll better be off then...", he announced and pointed back at the TARDIS' exit. Though he took a few steps in the general direction of it, he was not exactly in a hurry.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for a bit, Harry? I could drop you off at home, you know!", offered the Doctor, suddenly looking a bit disappointed to loose his second companion.

The medical officer raised his hands to politely decline the offer. "No offence, Doctor, but I'd rather go with UNIT..."

But by the time he had spoken the words it was already too late. With delight, Sarah heard the de-materialization noise of the TARDIS fill the vast insides of the time machine.

"Ah! Sorry, Harry!", the Doctor called out. Needless to say, he didn't look particularly sorry about this little mishap. "It appears the de-materialization process was already activated! You don't mind taking a little detour, do you?" Quite the contrary; He was grinning at Harry and probably hoping for the same contagious effect that it always seemed to have with Sarah.

But Harry just smirked."Oh...I should have known…!"

==== ==== THE END ==== ====

And that's it! I can barely believe it, but the story is finished.

At the same time, having Harry back as a companion gives me a set-up for the next big story, though it's not out of the conception phase yet. I will only publish something that will be finished, so you'll have to wait and see whether that project goes anywhere.

Until then, there are a couple of one-shots to be written/published. Especially a couple more which belong to 'The Ordinary People' Ep3. There were so many scenes I could have put into Episode 3, just little snippet's of the Doctor's human life - but there are only so many "fluffy" scenes I can bore someone with, before the main plot needs to be put back up again.
If you care to read them, keep an eye on my short story collection "The Scarf Unravelled".

Speaking of which, I suppose the "mirror"-plot could have been put together a little better and I could have made notice of the Great Intelligence earlier, but I suppose you have noticed that I was much more focused on the premise instead, and that paid off rather well, if I dare say so.

Hope you've enjoyed reading, and here's a special little thanks to zeropointchoirgirl for reviewing: Thank you!