It's Like Falling (3/?)
Title: It’s Like Falling (3/?)
Author: dk323
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Martha, Alt!Martha/Grey Suit!Doctor, Ten 2.0, Rose
Spoilers: Journey’s End
Disclaimer: Don’t own Doctor Who, just playing with its characters.
Summary: Chapter 3 ~ Martha learns more about the unexpected existence of a third Doctor and the other Martha’s relationship with him. The third Doctor offers a proposition to Ten 2.0. And Martha finds out something that she never knew about the TARDIS.
Author’s notes: Alt!Martha is referred to as Alice - it’ll be clear in the story. The third Doctor (the one with Alt!Martha) wears a grey suit, so he’ll be referenced that way sometimes. Ten 2.0 is wearing his blue suit.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
Comments are love. :-)
“Was she the one who traveled with you?” Her look-a-like asked him, as she looked at Martha with interest.
*
Martha noticed that this version of the Doctor was wearing a grey pinstriped suit. He wore a purple collared shirt underneath instead of the usual white; the shade of purple matching the color of the other woman’s dress.
The Doctor grinned at Martha’s look-a-like, “Yes, Martha. Now would you be a star and take care of whoever is banging on the door?” He handed her a mallet.
It was then that Martha realized that, in fact, someone was banging on the door. She must have been distracted before, but now she feared for the Doctor’s well-being. It could only have been him on the other side…
Meanwhile, the exchange between the other two continued:
His Martha looked disdainfully at the mallet, “I told you, love. I hate violence. It’s distasteful.”
He sighed, “Sorry. I’ll take care of it.”
Martha put her hand on his chest to stop him, “No, you can’t hurt him. And besides, he’s you. He’s still the Doctor. Can’t you be reasonable about this?”
“The Doctor or a version of him?” He questioned.
“A version…a part human, part Time Lord version.”
The Doctor looked thoughtful for a moment, but then shook his head, “I honestly don’t care either way. Now I really don’t want to force my hand, but I don’t like to be tested.”
Martha was taken aback by the dark look he gave her.
“You should listen to him.” The other Martha told her.
Martha directed her attention to her look-a-like. She knew that there was only one person she could be.
“You’re Martha Jones from the other universe, I’m guessing?”
The other woman nodded, “Yeah, born Martha Jones just like you. I never met the Doctor on the Moon. Met Torchwood though and then I met him - she nodded her head toward the Doctor. Died not too long after. You can call me Alice if you like. It doesn’t matter much to me - you’re the living one here. And you’ve done more than enough to earn the name.”
Martha was taken aback by her alternative self’s dismissive manner, “No one ‘earns their name’. You’re still Martha Jones - no matter what universe you came from or whether you’re alive or dead. Or - are you even listening to me?” She cut herself off when she noticed ‘Alice’ sneaking glances at her Doctor.
“What is it?” Martha asked, hoping one of them would answer her properly.
“Look, just call me Alice, all right? It’ll make things a lot easier.”
“She fell down the rabbit hole…” The Doctor said abruptly, staring off into the distance as his words trailed off.
“What?”
The Doctor looked at Martha, “It’s been brilliant, really, but I can’t keep our renegade Doctor waiting. Not a good idea that - leaving him alone.”
It was clear that he was avoiding the real issue at hand. Like why her alternate self had to be killed by him and how this Doctor even existed in the first place.
She almost didn’t realize that the banging on the door had stopped.
Martha eyed him uncertainly, but sat down beside her alternate counterpart, “What d’you mean - renegade? Do you have something against him?”
The Doctor scratched the back of his head, “Well, more like both of them -- the Doctor and the copy. Anyway, it’s a long story and I’d rather not get into it.”
“I liked John Smith for a while there.” Alice mused.
The Doctor looked sharply at her, “Doesn’t matter. You’re with me now.”
She nodded, “Sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Martha was getting rather concerned about the state of their relationship. It really didn’t look healthy.
“You were killed, weren’t you? By him? This version of the Doctor? Don’t you find that disturbing?” Martha asked the other woman.
“He asked me if I would be willing to let him do it. I agreed. It was a peaceful passing, to be honest. I became a ghost and stayed at his side because he needed me to. We searched for the TARDIS - just now found it as you know. This ship is the only place where we can assume corporeal form.” She explained quite calmly which only served to trouble Martha even more.
“And the Doctor has no idea?”
“Not a clue! And we’d like to keep it that way. We just want to be left alone. That’s all.” The Doctor said, looking straight at Martha.
“Just for the record, I think you two are mad.”
“You’re still going to help us. If you don’t, I doubt your Doctor will be too happy about losing a companion, don’t you think?” He said firmly.
“You’re going to kill me?” Martha asked in disbelief.
Alice put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head, whispering to her, “Just let it go. It’s not worth it.”
The Doctor spoke up, “Now don’t get the wrong impression. Martha - Alice to you - and I have a good relationship. I would never hurt her, but you have to understand - we only have each other. I can’t have her straying away from me.” He took a breath, kneeling in front of Martha who was still seated on the bed.
“Coz, Dr. Martha Jones, you do not want to see me on my own. Got it?” He finished, staring at her to the point that it was unnerving.
Martha nodded mutely, “All right. The last thing I want is to get into someone else’s business. As long as the Doctor won’t be harmed, mind you.”
Alice looked to the Doctor - and from Martha could discern, they were having a silent conversation.
Then the Doctor clapped his hands and stood up, “Well then. I really must see what the copy is up to. Martha dear, why don’t you take our guest and show her some of the sights…”
“Wait - I just want to know before you go. How did you come into existence? It doesn’t make sense.” Martha cut in.
The Doctor sighed, “Donna Noble, you know her? Well, the Time Lord part of her that was wiped away to save her life - it didn’t just disappear. I wasn’t supposed to even exist, not at all. I’m still not sure what even happened. I just remember feeling like I spent centuries in a horrible place. I was alone - I had no one. Only the darkness. I nearly went mad you know? But I got out. That’s what counts.”
“What do you think the place was?” Martha inquired.
“I’m not too sure. But I’d have to say it felt like Hell. Not pretty. Don’t recommend it.” He said, and without waiting for a reply, he left the room.
*
“Well, what do we have here? Got tired, I expect?” The Doctor asked his blue-suited counterpart.
The other Doctor was sitting beside the door, knees drawn up and looking blankly ahead of him.
“You’re not stable, you know that? You can’t just go on murdering people.” He said, glancing at him.
The grey-suited Doctor snorted as he went down to sit beside his other self,
“That’s where you have it wrong, Blue, I only murder people for a good reason. I needed a companion - and look who comes along.”
“Martha Jones, but not--”
“Not the Miss Jones we know, but all the same - the whole plan was brilliant. It was like a fresh start, a clean slate. She had that look about her - that look I remember from our Martha and I knew. I knew what I could give her - what she wanted. What you could never hope to offer her.”
“Shut up, just shut up.”
“An escape from reality. A chance to travel the stars - once I found the TARDIS of course - while you were dumped into a parallel universe - completely grounded and with a blonde who can’t quite come to terms--”
“I said SHUT UP! Why don’t you just hit me over the head with that mallet already?”
The other Doctor grinned, “No, sorry. I have a proposition for you.”
The blue-suited Doctor looked warily at the other, but he motioned for him to continue.
“I have a way to annoy him.”
“Who do you mean?”
“The One and Only.”
The part-human Doctor looked despondently at his counterpart and said, “This better be good.”
*
“Come on then. I have something to show you.” Alice informed Martha, grabbing her hand and moving to stand up.
Martha looked at her curiously, “But you two haven’t been here that long, have you? What can you possibly have to show me that I haven’t seen before?”
“My Doctor, Martha, knows about the darkness.” She explained mysteriously, gesturing vaguely.
Martha felt the need to whisper. Somehow, she suddenly felt as if she were being watched.
“What do you mean?” She asked as Alice directed her to a different door out of the room.
“The dark things on this ship. Figments of the imagination, the Doctor calls it. Dark emotions taking human form so you could almost touch them. But in the end, they’re not real.”
“What - is it like people reenacting times they were feeling their lowest?”
Alice shook her head, “Figments of the imagination - dark figments at that. It never happened. You know how sometimes you feel miserable but you never go all the way and act on it? The TARDIS can twist that and create a play of sorts where the emotions do become real--”
“And the players act out what they never could dare do in real life?”
Alice nodded, “You got it. And it’s mostly companions. Anyone who has been inside of the TARDIS.”
“What about the Doctor?”
But Alice shushed her and Martha heard someone banging loudly on a door before they turned into a corridor.
Martha gasped at what - who she saw.
She looked to Alice, “I don’t want to see this.” She said firmly.
“He wanted you to - my Doctor. He thought you would find it - oh, what was the word? - vindicating.”
Martha strengthened her resolve and observed the scene before her once again.
It was the Doctor - her Doctor - banging on the door just a few feet away from them.
He looked very much like a ghost and despite their nearness; he didn’t notice that they were there as if he were lost in the moment.
Martha couldn’t bear to look at his hands where blood trickled out of open cuts. The splinters of wood from the door cut into his hands as he banged on the door in a sign of desperation.
And he spoke too.
“Martha! Let me in, please! We need to talk about this! I can’t let you - open the door!”
But there was no answer.
“Do you know what this is about?” Martha asked the other woman.
“Right after Farringham 1913. Don’t you remember, Martha? What you were feeling? What you thought of doing?”
“No.” She answered, not wishing to voice it out loud. She didn’t want to remember.
The Doctor continued to rap on the door, but the intensity decreased with each passing moment.
They heard a click and the door opened just enough for the Doctor to slip through.
“Take my hand.” Alice told her.
Martha did so and they were transported inside of the room - a bedroom to be precise.
“Martha,” The Doctor said gently.
The ghostly image of Martha, still in her maid’s uniform, didn’t look at him as she returned to her seat on the window alcove.
“Talk to me. Say something.” He continued, slowly walking toward her.
His answer was silence.
“The last thing I want to see is that horrid uniform,” Martha muttered to her other self.
“I’m with you on that.” She agreed.
“Martha, if you’d rather leave, just say the word. I’ll take you back home. How about that?”
He reached her and placed his hand under her chin, forcing her to look up at him.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Please say something, anything.”
“Doctor?” She whispered.
“Yes?”
She suddenly grabbed a hold of his tie, pulling him toward her and she kissed him with an intensity that left him breathless afterwards.
“Get me out of this horrid uniform, please.”
“What?”
She just gave him a look and said, “I just want to feel alive, Doctor.”
The Doctor didn’t answer, but led her over to the bed. She sat down and he kneeled before her.
“Martha, I--” He started, but she shook her head, placing her finger on his lips.
He undressed her until she only had her bra and knickers on; the maid’s uniform discarded on the floor.
She sighed as she lay down on the bed on her side, facing the Doctor who was in the same position. He was giving her a concerned look.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” He told her, stroking her cheek.
Then he kissed her and words weren’t as important anymore.
Alice nodded to Martha, “We can go.”
“Yeah,” She only said.
It was a private moment after all.
*
Rose observed the Doctor from her seat by the console. He was moving about the console; looking like he was trying to look productive more than anything else.
“Doctor.” She called.
“Yeah, what is it?” He asked, looking up at Rose.
“It bothers you, doesn’t it? That she has moved on?”
“This isn’t the time to discuss this. We have more important things to deal with.”
“You always run, don’t you, Doctor? But are you ever really running toward anything? Or are you just running away from anything you can’t handle - can’t find a solution to?”
“If you’re not going to be useful, Rose, just don’t say anything, all right?”
She let out a frustrated breath, folding her arms across her chest.
“Watch her slip through your fingers. Don’t blame me.” She muttered under her breath.
The Doctor banged a mallet on the console - harder than necessary.
He had heard.