Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Dr Who – Martha and Ten The Inbetweens and Backstories ❯ Chapter Thirty Two ( Chapter 32 )

Martha Jones handed over the money and picked up the bouquet of flowers off the counter. She stepped outside, took a deep breath, taking in the fragrance of the blooms, and looked up to the sky as she thought about the previous year.

One year, one whole year, she had walked the Earth, to tell her stories about the Doctor. How he was all fire and ice and rage. Like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun, ancient and forever. Burning at the centre of time, seeing the turn of the universe . . . he was wonderful . . . and she had loved him.

The number one wasn't enough to express what she'd been through for him, neither was the number twelve, the number of months that she'd travelled over five continents, meeting up with resistance cells and finding people cowering in the dark and hidden places, hoping against hope for a saviour to rescue them.

Fifty two weeks to visit some of the one hundred and ninety six countries on those continents, bringing hope and the promise of salvation. Three hundred and sixty five days of evading the Master's Unified Containment Forces to avoid capture, now that was getting more like it.

However, eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours of fear and trepidation, sleeping with one eye open, and never knowing when you would eat or drink again, to find some of the six billion people still alive . . . that number started to express what she'd been through.

And it had all been to get every human on the planet to think about the Doctor at one specific time, over six billion of them, because the Doctor needed Artron energy, the psionic-temporal energy that is the energy of thought and perception, the very stuff of History itself. And the atto-Omegas of energy that six billion minds could generate, linked by fifteen satellites, was immense.

The Doctor had glowed with the energy, and reversed the Master's accelerated ageing. He had risen into the air, his arms outstretched, looking everything like the Messiah, the saviour of the human race. And then, with some of that Time Lord magic, he changed time, and it had never happened!

Martha thought about that image, the rising into the air, the outstretched arms, and the glowing light; it couldn't be . . . could it? Had he done that before, maybe two thousand years ago . . . ? She shook her head, "nah, couldn't be".

She found her way to the nearby park where the Doctor said Professor Alison Docherty would be, and found her walking along the path. She ran up to her and presented the flowers for her to take.

'Just to say, I don't blame you,' Martha said, not that she could blame her for anything, it had never happened for the Professor, but for Martha, she had betrayed her to the Master because her son had been taken hostage to make her comply.

'But who are you?' The Professor asked in confusion. In the alternate timeline, the resistance knew that her son had been taken, and they'd created a story that Martha had been assembling a weapon that could kill the Master (as if the Doctor would let anything happen to the last of his people).

She left the baffled Professor, and walked back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor and Jack were waiting for her. They were still helping the TARDIS to fix the damage that the paradox machine had caused, and glanced at her as she walked up the ramp.

'And was the Professor completely clueless?' The Doctor asked her with a knowing smile.

'Yeah,' she said with a lopsided smile. 'But it made me feel better.'

The Doctor gave a single laugh. 'It reminds me of when we first met and I took my tie off in front of you in the street . . . you must have thought I was a nutter.'

Martha laughed as well and looked at Jack. 'Yeah, and I was right.'

She and Jack laughed as the Doctor frowned at them, and then smiled; it was good to see his friends laughing again after the year of hell that they'd been through.

'Right then, a quick stop off at the Rift for a top up, and then we can be on our way.' He started the time rotor, and moved around the console adjusting the settings. The paradox machine had been drawing energy from the TARDIS while it allowed the future and the present to coexist, and now she needed to regain that lost energy.

The TARDIS had landed next to the cascading water feature where it normally parked, and they stepped out onto Roald Dahl Plass. The sky was cloudy, but it was warm and bright, they could hear the Herring Gulls in the bay.

'Come on, let's go, and grab some lunch in that restaurant out on the jetty,' Jack said. 'I'm buying.'

Martha linked arms with both of them, and they strolled down the Plass, and right onto Mermaid Quay, following it around to the short jetty, which they walked along and into the restaurant.

'This takes me back a bit,' Jack said, seeing the faraway look in the Doctor's eyes.

'Yeah,' the Doctor said absently, lost in his memories.

'What do you mean?' Martha asked. 'Were you here before?'

Jack knew the Doctor well enough to know he wouldn't open up, so he proceeded to tell her about the time they had refuelled here before, as the waitress brought their food, and they started to eat.

'Rose's boyfriend came down from London to see her while we were here. She told him she needed her passport of all things,' Jack said, grinning.

'Her boyfriend, but I thought . . .'

'So did Mickey . . . but everyone knew she was in love with someone else . . . everyone except this guy,' he said, nodding his head sideways towards the Doctor.

'Jack,' the Doctor said in a warning tone.

'What? I'm only telling it like it is. Anyway, we had a run in with a Slitheen called Margaret, who was a sneaky piece of work, and she managed to open the Rift.'

'Oh, you mentioned that, the earthquake . . . said you were a different man,' Martha said to the Doctor.

'Completely different man,' Jack said. 'All northern, with big ears, daft grin, and a really cool leather jacket.'

'The man in the message!' Martha said, everything was falling into place now. She remembered their conversation in the radiation chamber. “I thought you'd sent her back home” Jack had said, “She came back” the Doctor had replied. The message must have been for her when he sent her away.

The Doctor cleared his throat. 'Yeah, I'd left a message telling her to forget me and to get on with her life,' he said in a quiet, sad voice.

Martha looked at him in amazement. 'You really don't know much about women, do you?' She knew now, from what Jack had said that Rose was deeply and madly in love with the Doctor. That she'd invited Mickey to Cardiff all those years ago to do the decent thing and break up with him face to face. She was never going to forget him, she was never going to get on with her life, not while this incredible, gorgeous man was here, pining for her.

When Martha had first heard about his ex, she thought that she had run off with the man in the message, and that he was heartbroken that she had left him. She had run off with the man in the message, because the man in the message was him. And he was heartbroken that she had left him, because something happened that trapped her, her mother, and her old boyfriend in another universe.

'Anyway, after that, Mickey went back to London, and we went on to the stars,' Jack said, finishing the story.

'It was Kyoto actually, 1336,' the Doctor reminded him.

Martha shook her head as she finished her meal. 'I still can't get over the way you talk about travelling to the stars, or the past, or the future, like you're popping down the shops to pick up a loaf of bread, y'know, like it's the most ordinary thing in the world. To me it's still the most amazing and unbelievable thing that's ever happened to me.'

Both the Doctor and Jack were smiling. 'People's reactions to that are what keep us going,' the Doctor said. 'That never gets old.'

When they had all finished, Jack paid the bill, and they wandered back towards the Plass, and the waiting TARDIS. They stood by the red brick Pierhead Building, leaning on the railing, and looking at all the people in the Plass, going about their daily business, getting on with their lives.

'Time was, every single one of these people knew your name . . . now they've all forgotten you,' Martha said sadly, there would be no recognition of what he'd done for them, the risks he'd taken, the sacrifices he'd made.

'Good,' the Doctor said simply, sounding relieved. He couldn't travel like he did if everyone knew who he was.

'Back to work,' Jack said suddenly, climbing through the railing.

'I really don't mind, though . . . come with me,' the Doctor said softly to his old friend. He was becoming desensitised to his `wrongness', and he wouldn't mind travelling with Jack again, they could reminisce about old times . . . about Rose.

'I had plenty of time to think that past year . . . the year that never was.' He looked over to the secret entrance to Torchwood Three, the last remaining outpost of the institute. 'And I kept thinking about that team of mine.' He looked back at them. 'Like you said, Doctor, responsibility.'

'Defending the Earth . . . can't argue with that,' he said. Jack had told him in the warehouse that the old Torchwood had gone, there were only a handful of them now, and he'd rebuilt it in his honour.

The Doctor grabbed Jack's arm and exposed the Vortex manipulator on his wrist. He took out his sonic screwdriver and disabled it.

'Hey, I need that,' Jack protested.

'I can't have you walking around with a time travelling teleport. You could go anywhere . . . twice,' he told him. 'The second time to apologise.'

'And what about me? Can you fix that? Will I ever be able to die?' Jack asked in desperation.

'Nothing I can do. You're an impossible thing, Jack.'

Jack laughed and gave him that perfect smile. 'Been called that before.' He turned and took a few steps, before turning and saluting them. 'Sir.' The Doctor touched his forelock. Jack winked at Martha. 'Ma'am.' She gave him a wave and smiled.

He took another step and turned again. 'But I keep wondering . . . what about ageing? `Cos I can't die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know?' he said pointing towards his head. 'What happens if I live for a million years?'

'I really don't know,' the Doctor drawled with humour.

Jack laughed 'Okay, vanity. Sorry . . . yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one EVER to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me, hah!' He had a melancholy air about him now. 'I'll see you.'

He finally turned and headed off towards Torchwood's secret entrance. Martha touched the Doctor's arm, a look of amazement on her face.

'No,' he said.

'It can't be,' she said as they watched the retreating figure of Jack Harkness.

'No. Definitely not. No.' Martha started laughing. 'No,' he said again, and started laughing himself. It all made perfect sense now.

'Come on, the TARDIS should have a full charge now.'

'Can you take me to Mum's?' she asked. 'I just want to see how they're coping.'

'Yeah, of course.'

He landed the TARDIS across the street from The Jones's house, and stood, leaning against the door, watching the family through the window. It looked like Clive and Francine were having another go at making their marriage work. At least something good had come out of the year that never was. "Good title Jack, well done" he thought to himself. Francine came to the window and they exchanged a look that didn't need words, she gave him an attempt at a sad smile, and his face said she was welcome.

He turned and entered the TARDIS, walking up the ramp, and throwing his coat over the coral. He silently looked at the console, the time rotor, and around the domed, vaulted ceiling, before sitting on the jump seat and putting his feet up on the console, waiting for Martha to say goodbye to her folks.

Martha came out the front door, her mobile to her ear. 'Yeah. Could you put me through? Hi, I'm looking for a Doctor Thomas Milligan.' He had been her underground contact when she came back to Britain after those eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours of travelling. She could hear him saying hello, it was his voice.

She was going to say hello, but he wouldn't know who she was, so she ended the call, smiling to herself; she could make his acquaintance another time, because she'd come to a decision, like many of his companions had in the past.

She recalled the passengers of the Brilliant, and how they had decided whether to party on in a time loop forever, or hitch a lift in the TARDIS to their destination. She had now arrived at her destination, and she couldn't do it anymore. It was time she stopped waiting for the Doctor and found a life of her own.

She was no longer jealous of a woman she'd never met, instead she envied her, because Rose Tyler had done something that none of his other companions had been able to do, she had managed to get inside the Doctor's emotional shield, and he'd fallen in love with her, and for that she deserved her respect.

'Right then, off we go. The open road. There is a burst of star fire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, the sky is like oil on water, fancy a look? Or back in time, we could, I don't know, Charles the Second? Henry the Eighth? I know, what about Agatha Christie? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie, I bet she's brilliant,' he said cheerfully as she walked up the ramp, and then he saw her face, and knew.

'Okay,' he said quietly, sadly, resigned to a life alone again. At least he'd had a year to come to terms with his loss.

'I just can't,' she said.

'Yeah.'

'Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them.'

'Of course not.' He understood that, and they stood there just looking at each other, and then he smiled. 'Thank you,' he said pulling her into a long hug. 'Martha Jones, you saved the world.'

'Yes, I did,' she said proudly 'I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best.' She poked him in the chest. 'But you know what . . . ? I am good.'

'Hmm,' he laughed with her.

'You going to be all right?'

'Always . . . yeah.'

'Right then,' she said finally. 'Bye.' She kissed him quickly on the cheek and left the TARDIS. So, that was that, he thought as he watched her walk down the ramp and out the door. He turned to the console, contemplating his next destination, when he heard the door open.

'Because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean,' she said as she walked up the ramp.

'And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him.'

'Is this going anywhere?' he asked, because he hadn't got a clue what she was going on about.

'Yes!' She'd had a year to think about this, and a few hours in Cardiff to put it all together. 'Because he never looked at her twice.' The Doctor looked guiltily at the floor.

'I mean, he liked her, but that was it . . . And she wasted years pining after him, years of her life, because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else . . . And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, get out.' He nodded his understanding of what she was saying, but what could he do? He was in love with someone else.

Martha now knew that she never stood a chance against the ghost of Rose Tyler. 'So this is me . . . getting out.'

She took her phone out of her pocket and threw it to him. 'Keep that, because I'm not having you disappear. If that rings, when that rings, you'd better come running. Got it?'

'Got it.'

'I'll see you again, mister.' They exchanged smiles, before she turned and left the TARDIS.

The End