NEW Fic: Future Imperfect (Doctor Who)
Title: Future Imperfect
Author: Laurieisme (revolution25)
Fandom: Doctor Who (both new and old)
Rating: PG
Spoilers: (RTD) Season three, but not the final two episodes.
Summary: The Doctor hears something he never thought he'd hear ever again, and he's not happy about it.
Author's Notes: This is the first of a series. As always, thanks to vessybeta, my beta.
They had saved the world, again. They should be celebrating, happier than ever. But Martha was moping in the kitchen. She was glad that Jack would be traveling with them, at least she'd have someone appreciate that she was in fact a woman, but there was something else.
Jack had brought the memory of her along with him. Martha just didn't understand, the Doctor had seen death and destruction of good people all over, how could one person affect him so? And what exactly did she have that Martha did not?
Did she have to be blonde?
Martha had the vision of some Britney Spears - Pamela Anderson offspring, with a soft light surrounding her and a wind machine; that was Rose. Not only that, but she apparently made Stephen Hawking look like a chimp.
"How far away are you?"
Jack's voice made her jump, and her heart stop.
"You can't scare me like that," she said as she laughed nervously.
"Whatcha thinking?" Jack smiled as he sat down unbelievably close to her.
Martha hesitated, wondering if she should really ask, but she above all else was bold.
"What was Rose really like?"
Jack's smile faded a little.
"The Doctor never really says much," Martha said, "Even though he seems to talk about her all the time."
Jack looked as if he were thinking it over, then opened his mouth but nothing seemed to come out for a while.
"When I met her, she was hanging on a rope from a blimp over nineteen forties London, wearing a Union Jack shirt and screaming for help."
Martha tried to picture her Spears-Anderson offspring in the same situation but her imagination failed her.
"She used to work in a shop, selling clothes I think. That's how she met the doctor. She was there after everyone had left, and the Doctor had to blow it up, I don't remember why. Rose... He was always protective of her. He even hated me at first. He especially hated Mickey."
"Mickey?"
"Rose's ex-boyfriend."
Martha shook her head, "I'm really not understanding, what was so special about her?"
Jack tried to say something but failed, giving up he said, "I have no idea. She was just, Rose. She had compassion for the Daleks!"
At that Martha looked at Jack questioning his, and Rose's, sanity.
Jack grew serious and looked deeply into Martha's eyes. It was not something that she ever expected to feel from Captain Jack Harkness, which made her twitch with uncertainty.
"I know," Jack started in a calm voice, "you want to know why the Doctor feels the way he does about her. You think I'm going to say she's some kind of angel, or that she was the most beautiful person in the world; anything that may tell you why, but I don't have that. She was petty, got into trouble all the time, and in a life and death situation she ignored everything the Doctor said and did as she felt was right."
Jack sat up a bit, smiling a little, and changed his tone to a lighter one, "You know I've searched, I've had the time, he's had... probably hundreds of assistants. All very different, and nearly every one of them was left behind. The same might have even happened to Rose..."
"Never."
The voice behind them made both jump and stiffen. They both slowly looked over their shoulders at the Doctor, who was standing behind them with a blank expression and his hands in his pockets.
"Rose told me how long she wanted to stay, and I... would have let her." He said in an even tone, pouring himself a cup of tea and walking with it out of the room.
"How long did she say?" Jack yelled out to the Doctor.
The Doctor stopped, but did not look back, he drank a sip of his tea and said, "Forever."
* * *
The door was ajar, only enough to see the mess of blonde hair that seemed to stick out every which way when she slept.
He walked in, ready to tell her to get up and tell him where she wanted to go next, but he had no idea how long she had been sleeping. It was eight full hours for humans, which made them seem extremely lazy creatures, and he had no idea how long he had been working on the Tardis. It could be three hours, could have been eight. He turned when something caught his eye, it was his own reflection.
This was his ninth face. It wasn't bad, but it was not as handsome as his fifth face. He wondered if Rose would have swooned if she had seen his fifth face. Would she act differently around him? Well she would be different, because he'd be different. No, he decided, Rose was no swooner.
He turned his attention back to her bed where one arm and leg were draping off the side as she slept. He'd decided he'd wait for her to wake up, so on the other side he sat upright and waited.
Three hours later she bolted upright, "I'm up!"
"So you are. Do all humans take as long as you for their sleep cycles?" The Doctor asked.
She squinted then looked to her watch, "It's been seven hours. What're you doing?"
"Waiting for you, come on, hurry up I've got the perfect place we can go."
With that he jumped out of her bed and walked away.
Rose flopped back into the bed, "Why did I have to travel with the crazy alien?"
"Just lucky!" she heard him yell from across the Tardis.
* * *
"He's gay?!" The smile on Jack's face turned into a Cheshire grin.
"No, he's like you, open to anything." The doctor said as he punched buttons.
"Let's go! Now!" Jack jumped off the jump seat where he had been sitting beside Martha and began to follow the Doctor like a puppy pleading for a bone.
"We've been already," the Doctor said seemingly unsympathetic to Jack.
"Oh come on! Do you know how many time agents can say they've had sex with Shakespeare? That would be an adventure!"
"Jack you're seeming to overlook one small thing, what if he doesn't want to?" The Doctor said taking enough time to look up at him.
"Oh come on Doc, look at me," Jack turned around for emphasis.
"I dunno," Martha said, "The Doctor makes a good point. I'm sure he could have anyone, him being Shakespeare and all."
"I'm as close to a ten as you can get," he said showing how flat his stomach was.
"Eight point oh." Martha said sounding unimpressed.
"Six." The Doctor said not looking above the panel.
"Seven and a half."
"Six."
"Seven point two."
"Five."
"Hang on," Jack interrupted them, "How do I go down from a six to a five?"
The Doctor looked up from the console, "I forgot about Jamie. He was a much better-looking man than you. And he had great legs, looked quite good in a kilt."
"And for that I get bumped down to a five?"
The Doctor took off his glasses for a moment giving Jack a once over, "Wear a kilt sometime and maybe we'll talk."
Jack sat back down next to Martha buttoning up his coat, "That's sexual harassment and I don't have to take it."
Martha couldn't help it, she had no choice really, she pumped the air and said, "Preach it sista!" then giggled madly.
"Well we're almost done, this may be bumpy, but we're going to the Americas, somewhere towards the middle, around the eighteenth century... or nineteenth."
Jack and Martha gave each other looks, but sat in silence.
"What did you say?" The Doctor asked looking straight at Martha.
"I didn't say anything," she said.
"You said my name." The Doctor said putting his glasses in his pocket.
"I didn't." She said looking to Jack for help.
"I'm sitting right next to her, she didn't say a thing." Jack said looking at the Doctor as if he were going mad.
The Doctor just shrugged and pulled the last leaver.
* * *
"S'weird if you sit up like that," Rose said sleepily.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"Jus' lay down."
"I'm not going to sleep, why would I do that if I'm just going to be sitting here?"
"'Cause you look like a pod person, or some robot. And I can't go to sleep if you do that."
He scooted down so that his head was on the pillow, but he was still staring blankly ahead, "Better?"
"Much, thank you."
Just a few minutes later the Doctor could hear her even breaths and knew she was asleep. He looked over to her and took in the sight.
Her hair was wildly going everywhere, half her face was scrunched up by the pillow, her arm was contorted in an odd angle, and he was sure that was drool coming out of her mouth.
She looked perfect. Of course not in the traditional Earth sense of the word. It was more in the sense that it if you knew Rose, really knew her, and you were to then wonder what she would look like sleeping, this would be it.
He didn't remember why this had become their rhythm, why whenever he was done reading or fixing the Tardis he would come in here and wait for her to wake up. But she never objected, and more importantly she never thought it was something it wasn't. Most humans are quite like primates, where their sexual drive seems to be the rule of them. The Silverback wants to be in charge because he gets the best females that way, thus their hierarchy is created. If a human man started to sleep in a human woman's bed there really could be only one reason for it, he wanted sex.
But if a Time Lord sits in a woman's bed while she sleeps, all he wants is to wait for her to get up so they could go have a fantastic time on a new world. But if he were to be entirely truthful there was another reason. After the Time War he was absolutely alone, he couldn't feel another Time Lord at all, and the feeling was almost too much. But as he laid here with Rose, his hearts didn't hurt as much. He wasn't totally alone when he was with her, and he needed that.
* * *
"How. We. Want. Food. We. Not. Scary. White. Devil. We. From. Magic. Blue. Box. Fall. From. Sky."
"What are you doing?" The Doctor looked at Martha as if she had grown a third head.
"That's the way they all talk on F-Troop..." She said defensively.
The Doctor turned his attention to the Native Americans who were now gathering weapons, "Ah, hello, sorry to intrude, but I'm the Doctor, this is Jack, and that was Martha. She's a bit slow, we usually don't let her out but there you have it. We seem to be lost. I'm actually looking for our blue box, we lost it, it says 'Police' on the side of it. But we've been lost for a few days, and she was right, we are hungry. Could we please speak to whoever's in charge here?"
They stood in silence for what seemed like forever.
"Why yes, I'm the Doctor," The Doctor said turning to one of the native women who had not uttered a word.
Jack and Martha looked to each other, asking if the other heard that.
"Who are you?" One of the Natives said as he approached them.
"So you're the leader? Fantastic. We are just travelers, merely passing through, and we're a bit lost. We're looking for our blue box right now, but we'd also love some food. We've been out here for a while, can you believe we didn't pack anything? No tea at all... I don't suppose you'd have some? Of course you wouldn't."
"We have bark tea..."
"Fantastic! Thanks so much, what's you're name?"
"Eric." The man said still a little unsure.
"Eric, it's good to meet you. I'm the Doctor, that's Jack, and that's Martha."
"Are you a doctor of medicine?" Eric said looking hopeful.
The doctor nodded, and with that he was being pulled to one of the small shacks.
"My daughter, something's wrong." He said pointing to the pregnant woman in the bed.
"Right," the doctor said assessing the situation taking out his sonic screwdriver, "we'll have to hold off on that tea then."
* * *
"What?" The Doctor said a little annoyed.
"It's just... different." Rose said.
"Of course it is, I'm alien remember? You thought it'd be the same?"
Rose sat up in the bed and turned to him, "you know that song, the one in My Fair Lady, the one everyone thinks is romantic but isn't?"
"You'd have to narrow it down." The doctor said his tongue going over his teeth for the hundredth time in the past two hours.
"The one where he says he's grown accustomed to her face? It's just different."
"Is it really that bad?" The Doctor said touching his face.
"No," Rose said automatically, "Handsome really. But I was just used to the old one. I open my eyes, and it's not there anymore, it's just... different."
"Alright, you are no longer allowed to use the word 'different' when talking about my new... well the new me."
Rose scooted back down and the Doctor followed so they were face to face lying in the bed.
"I know what we need to do," Rose said smiling.
"What?"
"We need one good adventure, then I'll be used to the new you."
The Doctor smiled, "A new adventure with the new me?"
Rose smiled brighter, "yeah."
The Doctor nodded, and Rose nuzzled her pillow settling in.
* * *
"Congratulations Eric, you're a Grandfather." The Doctor said smiling at the man holding the newborn, "It's a great feeling, I remember when I- What's going on with our tea? We have been waiting for three hours, more than patient I feel."
The Doctor turned looking to Martha who was trying to wash off, "Alright, I know I heard you that time."
"What?" Martha said scrubbing her arms in the bucket of water.
"It's not a funny joke, I don't know why you and Jack insist on doing it, maybe it's just Earth humor, but I fail to see the joke in saying my name, then looking at me like I'm insane."
"Doctor we're not joking," Jack said looking worried, "She's never said your name. Maybe you need a hearing test."
"Right," Martha said drying off her arms, "You're how old?"
"Over nine hundred."
"And when was your last ear exam?" She asked.
The Doctor shook his head and pointed to himself, "Time Lord."
Jack rolled his eyes, "like a Time Lord has never had a hearing problem."
"Never," The Doctor paused, "well actually there was a school mate of mine that did, but he had an ice pick shoved in his ear, so of course he had problems after that. Always said he could hear icebergs crashing into each other in that ear, never believed that. Until I had to cling to that iceberg that one time, it was exactly how he described it..."
"Your tea," One of the natives said as they came in with three glasses.
Jack, Martha, and the Doctor all took a drink at the same time, then simultaneously said, "different."
"It's getting late, we have somewhere for you to stay until morning," the woman said, "Come with me."
* * *
He meant it. When he had said he would never leave her like he's left so many others, but his reasons were entirely selfish. He wanted her there because she was his lifeline, she made him feel connected, she made him feel as if he weren't alone anymore. Maybe after fifty years he might be able to let her go, only if she wanted to, but not now.
And of course there was the tiny little fact, that really didn't matter, because with or without it his decision would be the same, but it was the complete truth; he loved her.
He was pretty sure it happened when the Gelth tried to kill them. There she stood holding his hand, not afraid, and not sorry she had known him. Most of the humans he knew would have hated him at that point, but she smiled.
He would have of course noted for posterity that his love for her had not grown into a sexual compulsion. That's where humans always got it wrong, they even called it 'making love,' which made the doctor want to roll his eyes every single time he heard those two words put together. Showing of love and affection should not be singled out to one act. How could one see the way that she took his hand, or the way they embarrassed and not think of that as a physical manifestation of their feelings for each other? How was it that sweating and grunting and making awkward faces was more intimate than the way she smiled, the way she ran into his arms, or the way she looked at him when they had just solved a big puzzle together?
"Okay," her sleepy voice said into her pillow, "where are we going, and don't say Barcelona, 'cause I'll know you're lying."
"I thought we'd spend a week with your mother," he smiled.
Rose looked at him and groaned, "it's a secret... again. Can you at least tell me what type of shoes to wear?"
"That would be telling."
* * *
"They're taking their oral myths and writing them down," Martha said picking up another book from the shelf.
"Anything like F-Troop?" The Doctor said from his small bed.
"One mistake," Martha said exasperated. She flipped through the book then stopped, "Oh look, this one's about a traveling medicine man. Oh it says he had an assistant, an M.D. who was by the way beautiful, and he should have treated her better now he's in a pit of snakes," she walked over to Jack and showed him the pages, "See."
She was about to put the book away when Jack stopped her, "Hold on."
"What?" She moved so she could see the page he was reading.
"In this story," He started to whisper so only she could hear, "She gets put behind a mystical barrier, and the traveling medicine man can't get to her."
"So one thing matches up that doesn't-"
"The woman is called the 'Bad Wolf.' That was the name Rose took, the Doctor said she put it through time to tell herself to go to that point in time."
"So what? Bad Wolf has been in kid stories too, does that mean she's going to try to eat someone's grandmother?"
Jack shook his head, "His tribe had all died, just like the Time Lords. And in this story they say he has many names, one of them being the Oncoming Storm; just like the Doctor."
Jack sat up a little and cleared his throat, "Doctor, this voice, are you sure it sounded like Martha."
The Doctor seemed to think about that for a moment, "It was a woman's voice."
"But was it Martha's?" Jack asked earnestly.
"Why does it-"
"Doctor you of all people should be curious, was it her voice specifically?"
The Doctor closed his eyes as if he were concentrating, "No, not Martha's."
"But it was a familiar voice?"
The Doctor rubbed his eyes then stood up looking worried.
"Yes... It sounded like... Hundreds of years...."
Jack pointed down to an illustration in the book, Martha read underneath the drawing of a woman, it read: Lady of Time.
The Doctor looked to them and said in disbelief, "Romana."
Author: Laurieisme (revolution25)
Fandom: Doctor Who (both new and old)
Rating: PG
Spoilers: (RTD) Season three, but not the final two episodes.
Summary: The Doctor hears something he never thought he'd hear ever again, and he's not happy about it.
Author's Notes: This is the first of a series. As always, thanks to vessybeta, my beta.
They had saved the world, again. They should be celebrating, happier than ever. But Martha was moping in the kitchen. She was glad that Jack would be traveling with them, at least she'd have someone appreciate that she was in fact a woman, but there was something else.
Jack had brought the memory of her along with him. Martha just didn't understand, the Doctor had seen death and destruction of good people all over, how could one person affect him so? And what exactly did she have that Martha did not?
Did she have to be blonde?
Martha had the vision of some Britney Spears - Pamela Anderson offspring, with a soft light surrounding her and a wind machine; that was Rose. Not only that, but she apparently made Stephen Hawking look like a chimp.
"How far away are you?"
Jack's voice made her jump, and her heart stop.
"You can't scare me like that," she said as she laughed nervously.
"Whatcha thinking?" Jack smiled as he sat down unbelievably close to her.
Martha hesitated, wondering if she should really ask, but she above all else was bold.
"What was Rose really like?"
Jack's smile faded a little.
"The Doctor never really says much," Martha said, "Even though he seems to talk about her all the time."
Jack looked as if he were thinking it over, then opened his mouth but nothing seemed to come out for a while.
"When I met her, she was hanging on a rope from a blimp over nineteen forties London, wearing a Union Jack shirt and screaming for help."
Martha tried to picture her Spears-Anderson offspring in the same situation but her imagination failed her.
"She used to work in a shop, selling clothes I think. That's how she met the doctor. She was there after everyone had left, and the Doctor had to blow it up, I don't remember why. Rose... He was always protective of her. He even hated me at first. He especially hated Mickey."
"Mickey?"
"Rose's ex-boyfriend."
Martha shook her head, "I'm really not understanding, what was so special about her?"
Jack tried to say something but failed, giving up he said, "I have no idea. She was just, Rose. She had compassion for the Daleks!"
At that Martha looked at Jack questioning his, and Rose's, sanity.
Jack grew serious and looked deeply into Martha's eyes. It was not something that she ever expected to feel from Captain Jack Harkness, which made her twitch with uncertainty.
"I know," Jack started in a calm voice, "you want to know why the Doctor feels the way he does about her. You think I'm going to say she's some kind of angel, or that she was the most beautiful person in the world; anything that may tell you why, but I don't have that. She was petty, got into trouble all the time, and in a life and death situation she ignored everything the Doctor said and did as she felt was right."
Jack sat up a bit, smiling a little, and changed his tone to a lighter one, "You know I've searched, I've had the time, he's had... probably hundreds of assistants. All very different, and nearly every one of them was left behind. The same might have even happened to Rose..."
"Never."
The voice behind them made both jump and stiffen. They both slowly looked over their shoulders at the Doctor, who was standing behind them with a blank expression and his hands in his pockets.
"Rose told me how long she wanted to stay, and I... would have let her." He said in an even tone, pouring himself a cup of tea and walking with it out of the room.
"How long did she say?" Jack yelled out to the Doctor.
The Doctor stopped, but did not look back, he drank a sip of his tea and said, "Forever."
* * *
The door was ajar, only enough to see the mess of blonde hair that seemed to stick out every which way when she slept.
He walked in, ready to tell her to get up and tell him where she wanted to go next, but he had no idea how long she had been sleeping. It was eight full hours for humans, which made them seem extremely lazy creatures, and he had no idea how long he had been working on the Tardis. It could be three hours, could have been eight. He turned when something caught his eye, it was his own reflection.
This was his ninth face. It wasn't bad, but it was not as handsome as his fifth face. He wondered if Rose would have swooned if she had seen his fifth face. Would she act differently around him? Well she would be different, because he'd be different. No, he decided, Rose was no swooner.
He turned his attention back to her bed where one arm and leg were draping off the side as she slept. He'd decided he'd wait for her to wake up, so on the other side he sat upright and waited.
Three hours later she bolted upright, "I'm up!"
"So you are. Do all humans take as long as you for their sleep cycles?" The Doctor asked.
She squinted then looked to her watch, "It's been seven hours. What're you doing?"
"Waiting for you, come on, hurry up I've got the perfect place we can go."
With that he jumped out of her bed and walked away.
Rose flopped back into the bed, "Why did I have to travel with the crazy alien?"
"Just lucky!" she heard him yell from across the Tardis.
* * *
"He's gay?!" The smile on Jack's face turned into a Cheshire grin.
"No, he's like you, open to anything." The doctor said as he punched buttons.
"Let's go! Now!" Jack jumped off the jump seat where he had been sitting beside Martha and began to follow the Doctor like a puppy pleading for a bone.
"We've been already," the Doctor said seemingly unsympathetic to Jack.
"Oh come on! Do you know how many time agents can say they've had sex with Shakespeare? That would be an adventure!"
"Jack you're seeming to overlook one small thing, what if he doesn't want to?" The Doctor said taking enough time to look up at him.
"Oh come on Doc, look at me," Jack turned around for emphasis.
"I dunno," Martha said, "The Doctor makes a good point. I'm sure he could have anyone, him being Shakespeare and all."
"I'm as close to a ten as you can get," he said showing how flat his stomach was.
"Eight point oh." Martha said sounding unimpressed.
"Six." The Doctor said not looking above the panel.
"Seven and a half."
"Six."
"Seven point two."
"Five."
"Hang on," Jack interrupted them, "How do I go down from a six to a five?"
The Doctor looked up from the console, "I forgot about Jamie. He was a much better-looking man than you. And he had great legs, looked quite good in a kilt."
"And for that I get bumped down to a five?"
The Doctor took off his glasses for a moment giving Jack a once over, "Wear a kilt sometime and maybe we'll talk."
Jack sat back down next to Martha buttoning up his coat, "That's sexual harassment and I don't have to take it."
Martha couldn't help it, she had no choice really, she pumped the air and said, "Preach it sista!" then giggled madly.
"Well we're almost done, this may be bumpy, but we're going to the Americas, somewhere towards the middle, around the eighteenth century... or nineteenth."
Jack and Martha gave each other looks, but sat in silence.
"What did you say?" The Doctor asked looking straight at Martha.
"I didn't say anything," she said.
"You said my name." The Doctor said putting his glasses in his pocket.
"I didn't." She said looking to Jack for help.
"I'm sitting right next to her, she didn't say a thing." Jack said looking at the Doctor as if he were going mad.
The Doctor just shrugged and pulled the last leaver.
* * *
"S'weird if you sit up like that," Rose said sleepily.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"Jus' lay down."
"I'm not going to sleep, why would I do that if I'm just going to be sitting here?"
"'Cause you look like a pod person, or some robot. And I can't go to sleep if you do that."
He scooted down so that his head was on the pillow, but he was still staring blankly ahead, "Better?"
"Much, thank you."
Just a few minutes later the Doctor could hear her even breaths and knew she was asleep. He looked over to her and took in the sight.
Her hair was wildly going everywhere, half her face was scrunched up by the pillow, her arm was contorted in an odd angle, and he was sure that was drool coming out of her mouth.
She looked perfect. Of course not in the traditional Earth sense of the word. It was more in the sense that it if you knew Rose, really knew her, and you were to then wonder what she would look like sleeping, this would be it.
He didn't remember why this had become their rhythm, why whenever he was done reading or fixing the Tardis he would come in here and wait for her to wake up. But she never objected, and more importantly she never thought it was something it wasn't. Most humans are quite like primates, where their sexual drive seems to be the rule of them. The Silverback wants to be in charge because he gets the best females that way, thus their hierarchy is created. If a human man started to sleep in a human woman's bed there really could be only one reason for it, he wanted sex.
But if a Time Lord sits in a woman's bed while she sleeps, all he wants is to wait for her to get up so they could go have a fantastic time on a new world. But if he were to be entirely truthful there was another reason. After the Time War he was absolutely alone, he couldn't feel another Time Lord at all, and the feeling was almost too much. But as he laid here with Rose, his hearts didn't hurt as much. He wasn't totally alone when he was with her, and he needed that.
* * *
"How. We. Want. Food. We. Not. Scary. White. Devil. We. From. Magic. Blue. Box. Fall. From. Sky."
"What are you doing?" The Doctor looked at Martha as if she had grown a third head.
"That's the way they all talk on F-Troop..." She said defensively.
The Doctor turned his attention to the Native Americans who were now gathering weapons, "Ah, hello, sorry to intrude, but I'm the Doctor, this is Jack, and that was Martha. She's a bit slow, we usually don't let her out but there you have it. We seem to be lost. I'm actually looking for our blue box, we lost it, it says 'Police' on the side of it. But we've been lost for a few days, and she was right, we are hungry. Could we please speak to whoever's in charge here?"
They stood in silence for what seemed like forever.
"Why yes, I'm the Doctor," The Doctor said turning to one of the native women who had not uttered a word.
Jack and Martha looked to each other, asking if the other heard that.
"Who are you?" One of the Natives said as he approached them.
"So you're the leader? Fantastic. We are just travelers, merely passing through, and we're a bit lost. We're looking for our blue box right now, but we'd also love some food. We've been out here for a while, can you believe we didn't pack anything? No tea at all... I don't suppose you'd have some? Of course you wouldn't."
"We have bark tea..."
"Fantastic! Thanks so much, what's you're name?"
"Eric." The man said still a little unsure.
"Eric, it's good to meet you. I'm the Doctor, that's Jack, and that's Martha."
"Are you a doctor of medicine?" Eric said looking hopeful.
The doctor nodded, and with that he was being pulled to one of the small shacks.
"My daughter, something's wrong." He said pointing to the pregnant woman in the bed.
"Right," the doctor said assessing the situation taking out his sonic screwdriver, "we'll have to hold off on that tea then."
* * *
"What?" The Doctor said a little annoyed.
"It's just... different." Rose said.
"Of course it is, I'm alien remember? You thought it'd be the same?"
Rose sat up in the bed and turned to him, "you know that song, the one in My Fair Lady, the one everyone thinks is romantic but isn't?"
"You'd have to narrow it down." The doctor said his tongue going over his teeth for the hundredth time in the past two hours.
"The one where he says he's grown accustomed to her face? It's just different."
"Is it really that bad?" The Doctor said touching his face.
"No," Rose said automatically, "Handsome really. But I was just used to the old one. I open my eyes, and it's not there anymore, it's just... different."
"Alright, you are no longer allowed to use the word 'different' when talking about my new... well the new me."
Rose scooted back down and the Doctor followed so they were face to face lying in the bed.
"I know what we need to do," Rose said smiling.
"What?"
"We need one good adventure, then I'll be used to the new you."
The Doctor smiled, "A new adventure with the new me?"
Rose smiled brighter, "yeah."
The Doctor nodded, and Rose nuzzled her pillow settling in.
* * *
"Congratulations Eric, you're a Grandfather." The Doctor said smiling at the man holding the newborn, "It's a great feeling, I remember when I- What's going on with our tea? We have been waiting for three hours, more than patient I feel."
The Doctor turned looking to Martha who was trying to wash off, "Alright, I know I heard you that time."
"What?" Martha said scrubbing her arms in the bucket of water.
"It's not a funny joke, I don't know why you and Jack insist on doing it, maybe it's just Earth humor, but I fail to see the joke in saying my name, then looking at me like I'm insane."
"Doctor we're not joking," Jack said looking worried, "She's never said your name. Maybe you need a hearing test."
"Right," Martha said drying off her arms, "You're how old?"
"Over nine hundred."
"And when was your last ear exam?" She asked.
The Doctor shook his head and pointed to himself, "Time Lord."
Jack rolled his eyes, "like a Time Lord has never had a hearing problem."
"Never," The Doctor paused, "well actually there was a school mate of mine that did, but he had an ice pick shoved in his ear, so of course he had problems after that. Always said he could hear icebergs crashing into each other in that ear, never believed that. Until I had to cling to that iceberg that one time, it was exactly how he described it..."
"Your tea," One of the natives said as they came in with three glasses.
Jack, Martha, and the Doctor all took a drink at the same time, then simultaneously said, "different."
"It's getting late, we have somewhere for you to stay until morning," the woman said, "Come with me."
* * *
He meant it. When he had said he would never leave her like he's left so many others, but his reasons were entirely selfish. He wanted her there because she was his lifeline, she made him feel connected, she made him feel as if he weren't alone anymore. Maybe after fifty years he might be able to let her go, only if she wanted to, but not now.
And of course there was the tiny little fact, that really didn't matter, because with or without it his decision would be the same, but it was the complete truth; he loved her.
He was pretty sure it happened when the Gelth tried to kill them. There she stood holding his hand, not afraid, and not sorry she had known him. Most of the humans he knew would have hated him at that point, but she smiled.
He would have of course noted for posterity that his love for her had not grown into a sexual compulsion. That's where humans always got it wrong, they even called it 'making love,' which made the doctor want to roll his eyes every single time he heard those two words put together. Showing of love and affection should not be singled out to one act. How could one see the way that she took his hand, or the way they embarrassed and not think of that as a physical manifestation of their feelings for each other? How was it that sweating and grunting and making awkward faces was more intimate than the way she smiled, the way she ran into his arms, or the way she looked at him when they had just solved a big puzzle together?
"Okay," her sleepy voice said into her pillow, "where are we going, and don't say Barcelona, 'cause I'll know you're lying."
"I thought we'd spend a week with your mother," he smiled.
Rose looked at him and groaned, "it's a secret... again. Can you at least tell me what type of shoes to wear?"
"That would be telling."
* * *
"They're taking their oral myths and writing them down," Martha said picking up another book from the shelf.
"Anything like F-Troop?" The Doctor said from his small bed.
"One mistake," Martha said exasperated. She flipped through the book then stopped, "Oh look, this one's about a traveling medicine man. Oh it says he had an assistant, an M.D. who was by the way beautiful, and he should have treated her better now he's in a pit of snakes," she walked over to Jack and showed him the pages, "See."
She was about to put the book away when Jack stopped her, "Hold on."
"What?" She moved so she could see the page he was reading.
"In this story," He started to whisper so only she could hear, "She gets put behind a mystical barrier, and the traveling medicine man can't get to her."
"So one thing matches up that doesn't-"
"The woman is called the 'Bad Wolf.' That was the name Rose took, the Doctor said she put it through time to tell herself to go to that point in time."
"So what? Bad Wolf has been in kid stories too, does that mean she's going to try to eat someone's grandmother?"
Jack shook his head, "His tribe had all died, just like the Time Lords. And in this story they say he has many names, one of them being the Oncoming Storm; just like the Doctor."
Jack sat up a little and cleared his throat, "Doctor, this voice, are you sure it sounded like Martha."
The Doctor seemed to think about that for a moment, "It was a woman's voice."
"But was it Martha's?" Jack asked earnestly.
"Why does it-"
"Doctor you of all people should be curious, was it her voice specifically?"
The Doctor closed his eyes as if he were concentrating, "No, not Martha's."
"But it was a familiar voice?"
The Doctor rubbed his eyes then stood up looking worried.
"Yes... It sounded like... Hundreds of years...."
Jack pointed down to an illustration in the book, Martha read underneath the drawing of a woman, it read: Lady of Time.
The Doctor looked to them and said in disbelief, "Romana."