Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Dr Who – Martha and Ten The Inbetweens and Backstories ❯ Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

The rag-tag group of misfits were standing around a bench in Central Park. The young man from Tennessee named Frank, who had become the spokesman for the inhabitants of Hooverville, since Solomon had been killed by the Daleks, had returned from the shanty town.

'Well I talked to `em and I told `em what Solomon would've said and I reckon I shamed one or two of `em,' he told Laszlo and Tallulah.

'What did they say?' the Doctor asked.

'They said yes,' Frank said with a smile. Tallulah hugged Laszlo around his neck.

'They'll give you a home, Laszlo . . . I mean, uh . . . don't imagine people ain't gonna stare. I can't promise you'll be at peace but, in the end, that is what Hooverville is for . . . people who ain't got nowhere else.'

'Thank you. I . . . I can't thank you enough,' the genetically altered pig-human Laszlo said.

'Well Martha, I reckon that we need to get moving if we're going to catch the ferry over to Liberty Island,' the Doctor said.

He turned to Laszlo, Tallulah and Frank. 'Good luck, and don't be too despondent, this depression doesn't last forever . . . in a few years time, I think America will recover, and over the next few decades will become a force to be reckoned with.' They all shook hands and hugged, and the Doctor and Martha walked out of Central Park, to catch a bus to Battery Park.

On Liberty Island, they walked up from the jetty. 'Do you reckon it's gonna work, those two?' Martha asked.

The Doctor turned and looked out over the bay. 'I don't know, anywhere else in the universe, I might worry about them, but New York, that's what this city's good at . . . Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and maybe the odd pig-slave-Dalek-mutant-hybrid too.'

Martha laughed at that last bit. 'The pig and the showgirl.'

He smiled at that himself. 'The pig and the showgirl.'

'Just proves it, I suppose,' she stated. 'There's someone for everyone.'

The Doctor's smile disappeared, as he thought about the someone who was for him. He hadn't had chance to think about her while he was battling the Daleks, but now, at this moment when it was all over and he was victorious once more, she wasn't there to smile that special smile, to hold his hand, to give him that victory hug.

'Maybe,' he said sadly, as he turned away and headed for the TARDIS. Martha watched him go; realising that she'd said the wrong thing again, stirred up his memories and his emotions.

She caught up with him and sighed. 'Meant to say . . . sorry.'

'What for?' he asked, it wasn't her fault that he couldn't stop thinking about Rose.

'Just `cos that Dalek got away. I know what that means to you. Think you'll ever see it again?'

Ah, so it wasn't about Rose, she was empathising with him, over his continuing battle with the Daleks. He unlocked the TARDIS door and thought about her question. While there was just one Dalek alive in the universe, then all life was in danger.

'Oh yes,' he said, that one Dalek would find a way of cloning itself and producing an army.

He held the door open, and she walked past him. He paused in the doorway and gazed out into the distance.

'One day,' he said quietly, before going inside and closing the door.

He walked up the ramp, and started the time rotor, before looking up at her and smiling. 'Are you hungry?' he asked her casually.

'Starving,' she replied with a smile.

'Right then, what about if I prepare lunch?'

'Lunch? You're going to make me lunch?'

'Make us lunch . . . and it's not a date or anything, it's just a meal, y'know, between breakfast and dinner,' he said with a smile and a waggle of his eyebrows.

'Okay, you've got yourself a deal.' She hung onto his arm, and they went through to the kitchen. 'What are you going to prepare?'

'I thought something from another world, a San Kaloon salad. A baked tuber, a cross between a jacket potato and an aubergine, with a spicy, mixed bean filling, sitting on a bed of sweet and savoury leaves.' He remembered when he had taken Rose and Jack to see the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, and they'd had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the pyramid plain. It seemed that everything he did reminded him of Rose, and he wondered how long that would go on for.

In the dining area of the kitchen, he pulled out a chair for her to sit down and did the gentlemanly thing of moving her chair to the table as she sat. He then took two glasses out of the cupboard and poured a glass of sparkling, white wine. He then set about preparing the meal, as Martha watched him, admiring his skill in the kitchen. She casually wondered if he would have cooked for Rose like this, "of course he would" she thought.

When the meal was ready, he brought over the plates of food, and put them on the table. 'Bon appétit,' he said with a smile, and they started to eat.

Martha took one mouthful and stopped, her eyes wide.

'Is it alright?' He asked as she stopped eating. 'I can do something else if you don't like it.'

'Don't like it? This is absolutely gorgeous.' She started to devour the food with enthusiasm. The Doctor continued eating, with a large, satisfied smile on his face, he'd still got it.

'Tell me Doctor, do all your trips end up with you nearly being killed?' she asked with a cheeky smile.

'No, most of them are just sight seeing, and having fun, although these last two trips and the detour, haven't turned out quite as I'd planned . . . sorry about that.'

'Don't be, because in a weird sort of way, I've enjoyed it,' she said with a lopsided smile.

'Really?' he asked in surprise, he'd underestimated her.

'Yeah, I mean, it's not every day I get to meet Shakespeare and find out that he's not the serious, sombre character I thought he'd be.'

The Doctor laughed at the memory. 'He was quite the lady's man, wasn't he?'

'And the witches, don't forget the witches,' she said as she put another forkful in her mouth. 'Okay, I know they were really aliens, but they sure looked like witches. And, I got to meet the oldest being in the universe before he died, and I helped stop the Daleks from overthrowing the Earth.'

'You certainly have a way of looking on the bright side, don't you?'

'Well, no use being maudlin about everything is there? I think you need a positive attitude when you're training to be a doctor.'

'Talking of which, what made you want to become a doctor?'

'I think it was when I was a kid, Leo pushed me off a swing once, and I broke my arm. He didn't mean to hurt me, he was just messing about, and he felt really guilty. But travelling in the ambulance, and having my arm put in plaster, it was fascinating, and I think I was bitten by the medical bug.'

'Ah, Leo, twenty first birthday, what was all that about outside the tavern? It was a bit `domestic'.'

'Yeah, I suppose it was hard not to notice. Mum and Dad split up a while ago, and Dad's got himself a new girlfriend, and as you'd expect, they don't quite see eye to eye.'

'More like fist to eye from what I saw,' he said with a cheeky grin.

Martha laughed, and he noticed for the first time, that she had a really nice, bubbly laugh. 'It was nearly a cat fight in the middle of the street, how embarrassing would that have been? Somehow, over the years, I've seemed to have ended up as the peacekeeper in the family, even though Tish is the eldest.'

'Trust me, emotional maturity has nothing to do with your age.' He took her empty plate and put it on his, as he stood up and put them in the sink. He came back with two bowls of an alien fruit salad.

'Ooh, that's tangy and spicy, it's making my tongue tingle, I love it.'

'Great, isn't it, it's one of . . . Rose's . . . favourites,' he said, without even realising the effect that statement would have on Martha, and his face took on that sad expression that was becoming all too familiar.

Martha saw that melancholy look come over his face again, it happened every time he mentioned her. He must have had it really bad for this woman, and she started to wonder what she was like. Having seen the kind of life he leads, she must have been brave . . . and tough. Did it all get too much for her? Or was it that she met someone else on their travels, and dumped him?

'She had good taste . . . in desserts . . . and in men,' Martha said.

"Yes, she did", the Doctor thought to himself, unaware or just ignoring the intended flirt in her last comment. He had fallen in love with Rose, knowing that eventually the time would come when she would wither and die, and he would live on, but this . . . this was unbearable, she was alive, vibrant and in her prime, and yet she may as well have been dead, because she was lost to him, and he yearned to hold her in his arms again.

They finished their desserts in comparative silence, the Doctor deep in his own thoughts and memories, and Martha in her frustration at this attractive and yet seemingly unavailable man she was sharing lunch with. He'd come to a decision, and although Donna said that he needed someone to stop him, and Rose had been mortified at the thought of him travelling alone, he wasn't ready for company just yet, not when everything he did, or everything he said reminded him of what he'd lost.

He contemplated the woman sitting at the table opposite; she had all the makings of a good travelling companion. She wasn't fazed by the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, just like Rose; she was clever, like Rose; she was brave, like Rose; she was resourceful, like Rose. There was just one problem, she wasn't Rose, and that hurt, because this woman opposite was attracted to him and wanted to get emotionally involved, and he just couldn't do that.

If only Donna had agreed to come with him, she had no romantic interest in him whatsoever, and right now, he needed someone he could talk to about Rose. Martha seemed to be jealous of a woman she'd never met and would never have the opportunity to meet, and he couldn't handle her obvious interest in him.

So on the whole, it was probably for the best if he took her home and dropped her off.

'Come on then,' he said as he cleared the table and put the crockery and cutlery in the dishwasher. 'Let's go back to the console room.'

At the console, he started the time rotor and set the coordinates; the TARDIS `took off', and started twisting its way through the Vortex. Martha held on as the room swayed gently around. The Doctor moved around her, operating various controls as he went, the space-time throttle, the time forwards/backwards controls and the harmonic generator, until finally, he activated the materialise/dematerialise function, and landed the TARDIS.

'There we go . . . perfect landing,' he declared, looking up at the now stationary time rotor. 'Which isn't easy in such a tight spot,' he concluded, scratching the back of his head.

'You should be used to tight spots by now,' she said with a hint of sarcasm. She looked at the doors, and back to the Doctor. 'Where are we?' She asked with an expectant smile.

'The end of the line.' There was finality to that statement, which was echoed in his quiet tone of voice.

Martha ran down the ramp to the doors and stopped, looking back to him for reassurance. She's picked up on his tone of voice, and her subconscious was trying to nudge the elbow of her awareness.

'No place like it,' he said, and Martha gave a questioning nod to ask if she should open the door. He nodded back, and she opened the door, stepping out into . . . her flat.

'Home . . . You took me home?'

'In fact, the morning after we left, so you've only been gone about twelve hours, no time at all, really.' He started looking around the flat, inspecting some photographs on the shelf.

'But all the stuff we've done, Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?'

'Yep, all in one night . . . relatively speaking.' That was good for him, last time he tried that, he'd gotten a slap from Jackie Tyler for being twelve months late. 'Everything should be just as it was . . . books, CDs, laundry.' He hooked a pair of knickers off the clothes horse with his finger and held them up.

Martha snatched the offending lingerie from his fingertips and stuffed it in her pocket.

'So, back where you were, as promised.'

'This is it?' She asked, knowing the answer. He had only promised one trip, as a thank you for helping him trap the Plasmavore in the Royal Hope Hospital.

He took a deep breath in. 'Yeah, I should probably . . . um . . .'

Martha's phone rang and the answering machine picked up `Hi! I'm out! Leave a message!'

'I'm sorry,' she said apologetically, as they stood there looking at each other and listening to the call.

'Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?' her mother's voice said out of the phone.

'It's Mum. It'll wait.'

'All right then, pretend that you're out if you like.' They both had a little giggle at being found out. 'I was only calling to say that your sister's on TV. On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested.'

Martha picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. They heard the voice of Professor Lazarus, and then saw an elderly gentleman giving a press conference; her sister, Tish was standing next to him.

'The details are top secret,' he was saying.

'How could Tish end up on the news?' Martha asked herself out loud.

'Tonight, I will demonstrate a device . . .' Lazarus continued.

'She's got a new job. PR for some research lab,' she told the Doctor.

'Hmm,' he said as he looked at her and then back to the TV.

' . . . with the push of a single button . . . I will change what it means . . . to be human,' Lazarus concluded.

Martha switched off the TV and turned to look at the Doctor. 'Sorry. You were saying we should . . . ?'

The Doctor wasn't paying attention to her, he was staring at the TV, trying to take in what he had just seen and heard. He suddenly realised that Martha was talking to him. 'Yes, yes, we should . . . One trip is what we said.'

'Okay . . . I suppose things just kind of . . . escalated,' she said with a smile, resigned to the fact that it was over, and he was moving on.

'Mmm . . . Seems to happen to me a lot,' he said quietly, with a frown.

'Thank you . . . for everything,' she said sincerely, with a sad smile.

'It was my pleasure.' He gave her a warm smile, and opened the TARDIS door, stepping inside. Martha gasped a breath and blinked back the tears that were stinging her eyes. This incredible, gorgeous man had breezed into her life, turned it upside down and inside out, and now was leaving, probably never to be seen again, unless he stepped in front of her on some street in the future, and took his tie off again.

She heard the engine start up and backed away as the TARDIS started to dematerialise, sending a gentle breeze through the room. "Now what?" she thought to herself as she turned her back on the space where the TARDIS had been. What did she do now, go back to her studies, and become a doctor? That would be hard, after the distraction of the last few days. I mean, come on, she'd been to the moon, met aliens, met Shakespeare, and saved the Earth, it would be hard to top all that by just living a normal life.