URGENT NOTE: As you may know, the BBC starts shooting the 50th anniversary special this week. If you'd like to see a proper tribute to Sarah Jane in the special, please consider signing the petition at www dot ipetitions dot com / petition/sarah-jane-smith-dr-who-tribute (automatic link removed because we don't want to break any rules) and passing it on to any groups you belong to. If we all pass it on, we can make a difference! Time (ironically) is of the essence! Thanks!

AUTHORS' NOTE: We're still in the middle of moving - just a few more days and we can finally rest! - but we just had to get a fix. It's fluff, but it's fun fluff.

"I should have known better! You always offer to take me anywhere I want to go, but somehow, we never manage to get there, do we Doctor?" Sarah Jane stomped out of the console room and into her bedroom.

The Doctor sighed, letting out a breath that blew his curls off his forehead. 'Why is it,' he thought to himself, 'that they always want to go to the beach? The entire universe, all of time and space at their disposal, and every single one of them wants to go to the beach.' Another potential disaster averted, he closed the view screen and climbed back under the console to try to find the source of that strange noise that had been such a wonderful excuse.

Meanwhile, Sarah was in her room, pouting. How could she ever get the Doctor to notice her if they didn't go to the beach? She kicked at her bed and flopped down on it. He could make his own supper tonight. She wasn't all that hungry and besides, she could always get a snack later and eat in bed, while she read the last three chapters of that Victorian novel she found in the pocket of a dress she wore last week. 'What's wrong with him anyway?' she thought to herself. 'There must be a way to get through to those hearts of his. I'm sure that if I could ever get him to notice I'm a woman, the rest would be easy.' She stood up in front of her mirror and assessed herself. 'Maybe if I changed the way I look,' she thought to herself. 'A new hairdo and something ... I don't know ... a bit of décolletage or something clingy might do the trick, but there's really nothing like that in the boot cupboard. Oh, he'd probably just laugh at me or ignore me.' "Pooh," she said out loud as she kicked the bed again.

Just then the Doctor swung into the doorway, a huge grin on his face. "I've got just the thing to cheer you up. How about a trip to the Market of Secaro? Nothing like a planet-wide shopping spree..."

Sarah was about to rebuff him again, but then his words sunk in. She gave him a huge grin. "You're absolutely right, Doctor, I'd love that. Set the co-ordinates, I'm right behind you."

"Right," he said excitedly. "Off to Secaro!" And with that he disappeared down the corridor.

Sarah leapt off the bed and followed him eagerly, but his long strides got him to the console room before she was halfway there.

When she reached the console room, he was finishing setting the coordinates. "Ah, there you are," he said. "Where shall we set down? Clothing? Gadgets? Lunch?"

"How about lunch and then you can go look at gadgets and what-nots while I shop for a few new things?" Sarah smiled innocently at him.

"Lunch it is," he said, putting the finishing touches on the coordinates and inwardly sighing with relief that her obsession with the beach had been sidetracked. Life on the TARDIS was always better when Sarah was happy.

Sarah and the Doctor enjoyed their lunch. They ate at a place she loved, where it was considered an insult not to 'play' with their food. They sat and laughed while they shot food into each other's mouth with paddle like spoons and then slurped the gooey desert as noisily as possible. The waiter even complimented them on their good manners and the loudness of their eating. When they left the restaurant, Sarah looked around and then turned to the Doctor. "I'll be over in this section shopping, where and when do you want to meet up again?"

"Why don't you meet me in two hours at the Wheel Of Gadgets?" He rubbed his hands together, smiling. "I'm feeling lucky."

"Don't lose your shirt, Doctor," Sarah laughed at him as she wandered off.

Two hours later she found him still at the wheel. He was loaded down with all sorts of things that were unidentifiable to her, but he seemed to be having the time of his life. "Ahem," said Sarah, waiting for him to react to the way she looked. Her hair was fire engine red and swept up beautifully with ringlets around her face and trailing down the back of her neck, her heels were four inches high, and her dress had a sweetheart neckline and was not too tight, but it definately brought out the fact that she had curves. It was black and had sort of a train that went down to her ankles in the back. She had a dark pink crystal necklace on with matching earrings and bracelet. She had had her makeup done, and her nails too. Her nails were dark pink with little sparkling black gems set in them. "Hullo Doctor," she said as she came up beside him quietly. She wiggled her hands in front of him playfully. "Look, I had my nails done. Like them?" She waited anxiously for him to get a good look at her.

The Doctor glanced at her, his eyes still focused on the spinning wheel. "Very nice," he said distractedly. Just a bit more, and ... he sighed as the phlebotic manipulator he'd had his eye on passed by the pin. "Ah well, there's always next time." He shoved his treasures into his pockets, along with the gadgets he had brought but hadn't traded away, then stood and turned to face her. "Ready?"

"That's it? Ready?" She was furious with him. "Look at me Doctor, I just spent two hours trying to make myself attractive! What do you think of the way I look? If you don't like it, don't worry, the hair color wears off in a few hours. But I bought a whole packet of color wands to try, and in all different shades." She turned around slowly to give him the full effect.

He looked at her studiously, trying to take in exactly what it was she wanted him to notice. The red hair was a little jarring, but pretty, in a strange way, and the dress was rather nice. The heels ... 'Ah,' he realized, this was another one of her attempts to get him to notice her. She'd been doing that a lot lately, though he couldn't for the lives of him figure out why. "I think you look wonderful," he said reassuringly, holding out his arm. "Shall we go?"

Sarah was somewhat appeased, but frustrated. She had a feeling that no matter what she looked like, he wouldn't really be phased by it. What could she do to make herself attractive to him? Getting his attention wasn't enough, and changing her appearance didn't work either. She sighed. Maybe it was hopeless, maybe she'd never be able to get him to care for her they way she cared for him. She took his arm and thought as they started walking back to the TARDIS. Suddenly, she stopped short. "Doctor, I just forgot that there was something else I needed to buy. Do you mind if we spent just an hour or so more here?"

"Not at all," he smiled. After all, if she was still shopping, he didn't have to think of something else to make her happy. "Do you want me to come with you," he asked, eyeing the Wheel of Gadgets.

"No, I don't think that would be such a good idea. Besides, I can see exactly what your attention is focused on right now. You go see how many more whatchamacallits you can pick up and I'll come and get you when I'm done. Good luck Doctor," she said as she headed back to the stalls.

"Don't wander off too far," he called after her, then headed over to a newly empty seat, pulling a few gadgets out of his pocket to bet with.

Sarah stopped back at the booth where she had bought her dress and whispered to the woman who had waited on her.

The woman gave her a knowing smile and nodded her head, then pointed to a booth at the end of the aisle, which was draped in purple and gold material. "I promise you, you won't be disapointed. Tell the man that Sherkarise sent you to him. He'll know just what you need."

Sarah thanked her and headed towards the booth. After about a half an hour she came out with a small box. She hugged it close to her and headed towards the next aisle over. In a little while, she had what she wanted and headed back to where the Doctor was with two boxes, one wrapped in purple and gold, and the other in silver and blue. She smiled sweetly at the Doctor as she came up to him and slipped her arm around his. "I'm ready to go whenever you are," she said.

"All right then," he smiled, careful not to let her think he was more interested in the wheel than her. He pocketed his treasures and they headed back to the TARDIS.

A short while later, Sarah walked into the room where the Doctor was tinkering with his new technical toys. She set a silver and blue box on the corner of the table where he was working. "Win anything fascinating, Doctor," Sarah asked him as she leaned over to see what he was working on.

The Doctor was using the sonic screwdriver to make adjustments to a green glass sphere. Finally he set it down on the console and after a moment, it began to smoke. Then the smoke subsided and it began to crackle. Finally, it jumped off the console, bounced on the floor twice, then hovered at eye level, various readouts scrolling around it's circumference. "I did, as it happens. This," he said, pointing to the floating ball, "is a portable readout device. I've tied it in with the TARDIS so we can see what's going on wherever we are."

Sarah Jane leaned over and took a closer look at it. "Like some sort of early warning device," she asked. She had been hoping that the special perfume she had bought and used generously on herself would have started to have a positive effect on the Doctor by now.

"Exactly," he said. He sniffed the air, then looked around. Something wasn't right. "What's that smell?"

Sarah smiled slightly. "Does it smell exotic and tantalizing, like a warm flowery summer's evening? Does it make your mind wander to intimate thoughts of being close to a loved one?"

The Doctor chuckled. "No, actually it makes me wonder if I need to start looking seriously at that harmonic stablizer." He gazed up at the time rotor. "It has been acting a bit strangely lately." Rather like Sarah Jane, he thought.

Sarah frowned slightly. Then she opened the silver and blue box. When she lifted the lid, it started playing soft sultry music. "Pretty, isn't it, Doctor? Does it make you think of anything in particular?"

The Doctor listened intently for a moment. "Marbles."

Sarah's mouthed dropped open. "Marbles? Why on earth does it make you think of marbles?"

"Well, I don't know why it makes me think of it, but I had a lovely bag of marbles, and we left them behind on Argistana. Don't you remember, you got caught in that fishing net, and the only way to get you down was to distract the creatures holding it by rolling marbles to them."

Sarah was starting to smolder with anger. "Right, do you have any idea of how much time I spent, and how much haggling I had to do because of you? And all you can think of is marbles?" She started to pace up and down, waving her arms. "I don't know what to do about you anymore. I can't get you to take me to the beach so you can notice me! I buy expensive perfume and all you can say is 'what's that smell?' I buy what was supposed to be a music box with a romantic enchantment on it and it reminds you of marbles! I change my hair, get new clothes, get my nails done and you barely look at me." She threw the necklace on the table, then took the earrings off and slammed them down in front of him. "You're a cold heartless person and I don't know why I even bother trying to please you. And to top it off, these shoes are killing me." She kicked the shoes off and suddenly she was a head shorter. The tirade continued now that she was in full swing. "Look at my feet, I even got a pedicure, fat lot of good that did!" She turned and glared at him as she held a bare foot out for him to see.

The Doctor turned to answer her, but before he could react, all he could see was her toes.

Her beautiful, incredible toes.

Her pink, painted, diamond studded toes.

He stopped, dumbstruck. Normally he would have turned away, just to be polite, but he'd never seen anything like this before. He pointed shakily. "They're ... painted," he said in awe.

Sarah stopped in mid rage and looked at him with surprise. The expression on his face was exactly the way she had been trying to get him to look at her for months. "I always get them polished to match my fingernails whenever I get a pedicure. Do you like them?"

"They're ... amazing," he breathed. He tore his gaze away from her toes and forced himself to look her in the eyes. "I'm terribly sorry if I'm being forward. It's just ... I've never seen anything like it."

"Like my toes," she asked with amazement. "They're just toes. You act as if you'd never seen anyone barefoot before."

He looked at her conspiratorially, sneaking a glance at her toes. "Gallifreyans," he said quietly, "never show their toes."

Sarah looked down at her feet and wiggled her toes. So you haven't ever seen anyone's feet before?" She paused for a moment and then asked. "Why don't Gallifreyans show their toes, Doctor?"

He felt a thrill go through him as she wiggled her toes. "Not all cultures have the same mores, Sarah Jane. It's rather like showing an ankle in Regency England, whereas it was perfectly acceptable to display your ... décolletage." He blushed, realizing what he'd said.

A light went on in her mind. "So, does that mean that bare feet are, uhm, naughty on Gallifrey?"

He put his head down and looked up at her mischievously through his curls. "Why do you think I never took you to the beach?"

Sarah was surprised yet again. "So all those times when you offered to take me, when you asked me where I wanted to go and I said the beach, we didn't make it on purpose! Why didn't you just say something about it?" Before he could answer, another thought struck her. "Come to think of it, you have always asked me to change my shoes if I wore sandals. You kept going on about me stubbing my toes and not being able to run in them if I had to! And all the time is was because you could see most of my feet!"

"You do have beautiful toes," he said huskily. "I certainly wouldn't take advantage of you. Unless..." His gaze traveled back to her decorated feet.

"Unless what," she smiled coyly at him.

"Unless you wanted me to," he smiled, and carried her off.