And as we say our last goodbye... I nearly do.

[smithnjones]

Martha Jones is leaving at last.

It's time. Far, past time. She waited as long as she could. Martha has her backpack ready, her antiboitics stocked up, and she's ready.

She's been ready.

Well, she would leave, but she has to say goodbye first to certain individuals. So she waits by the door with an Irish coffee in her steady hand.

Puss in

Comments

[impossible_thng]

Jack blinks as he reaches the bottom of the stairs and sees Martha standing there with all her things - and the ever-present Irish coffee.

He gets over the initial surprise - and worry and disappointment - fairly quickly, masking it all with a smile as he starts toward her. "Going somewhere?"

[smithnjones]

Martha looks up from her drink and hesitates before nodding, not sure why she feels so awkward... except that of all of the things and people in the Inn... Jack is the hardest to leave.

So maybe she does know why.

"Yeah. Figured... it was about time, you know."

[impossible_thng]

Jack pulls up a chair beside her and sits down, as close as he can without seeming a little too desperate. A little too concerned.

"Probably true. Not like I can complain without being hypocritical, running back out into wars all the time..."

But it's different. For one thing, he can't die. He's much too aware of how mortal Martha is, and it scares him.

[smithnjones]

Martha sets her back pack down by the door and scoots her chair closer to him before taking a seat in it.

She's quiet for several moments before she looks up at him.

"I wasn't going to leave again until I found you, but I thought I'd better get ready..." Martha reaches her hand out to touch his knee, softly. "I had to tell you... thank you. For everything." She smiles, faintly. "I think you might be the most amazing person I've ever met."

The way he watched out for her through it all. Martha hadn't thought for a second that it would be the end, that she would die... not here, not with Jack looking after her like that.

"And I wanted to say that I'm sorry, too, for everything that I put you through, even though I know I didn't have any control over it. I still wish that you hadn't... been forced to see me like that. To have to worry like you did, put all your energy into that when the Inn should be... much more relaxing."

[impossible_thng]

"Oh, please," he says dismissively, shaking his head with a faint smile. "I've got the rest of my life for relaxing, and that... is a very long time. In the meantime, I don't really care whether it's relaxing or not, just as long as you're still around for it."

He reaches over to cup her cheek lightly, smiling gently at her. "So don't you dare apologize."

[smithnjones]

Martha smiles, helplessly, at his words, heart swelling in her chest in a beautiful, painful way. He always makes her feel so special, so important. She reaches up to touch the hand that's cupping her cheek and grab hold of it, squeezing.

"I'm going to miss you. So very much." Even with the emotion and intensity in the tone of her voice, it feels like an understatement. "You know, you're the hardest to leave."

[impossible_thng]

There's a moment of doubt, of skepticism in his eyes - he has to wonder about that, if the Doctor wouldn't be harder to leave than him (and if not, why not, because Jack doesn't even compare to the Doctor, at least in his own mind). But it flickers only briefly and then vanishes.

"I'd better be," he says with a soft chuckle. "And you'd better be back."

[smithnjones]

At one time, the Doctor might be harder to leave, but the Doctor's been thousands of miles away. And Jack's right here. Jack makes her feel like... somebody, more than the Doctor's ever been able to do.

Martha smiles, laughing a little, too... though she's not sure why.

"Of course." Not that she can ever know that, but she likes to think after everything that she'll be allowed to come back to the Inn before it's all over.

4 more months.

"Still don't think the Inn's developed a grudge on me. So I'll be back."

[impossible_thng]

"There you go. You've done nothing to upset her like I apparently have, so I don't think it'll be sixty years or anything..." A smile's growing on his face despite himself at her laughter. He likes to hear her laugh, and he knows she hasn't done nearly enough of it lately, and that she might not again for a while yet.

"You'll be fine."

[smithnjones]

"Oh, please, no. Remind me not to upset the Inn. Whatever you've done to her, I would like to do the exact opposite." Martha asserts, but she's obviously not very serious about it, what with the grin playing on her lips.

"I'm not immune to aging like you seem to be. I'd be an old woman and that would be no fun at all."

She smiles, leaning against him and taking hold of his hand. "Yes, I'll be just fine. The Inn likes me."

[impossible_thng]

"I've done nothing at all!" he protests. "I met her once, she seemed perfectly nice to me. Of course, that was after she apparently got over her grudge..."

He shakes his head. "Anyway. The Inn does like you. I don't know of anyone who doesn't."

[smithnjones]

"Mmhmm. That is what they all say, of course. Yes, dear Inn, I believe that if you held a grudge against him, you had a good reason for it." Martha's really smiling now, and breaking into a little fit of laughter when she realizes she's talking to the Inn.

Even if it's only for teasing purposes, it doesn't make it any less silly.

"Well, I do. More than one, in fact." The Master and Lucy for a couple of examples, and it's really rather amazing that she can keep the smile, thinking of them. She has had a lot of practice, pushing it all inside, making light of it. It's easier to smile. "But I'll let them remain a mystery to you so as not to break your perception of me."

[impossible_thng]

"Well, whoever these people are, they're obviously evil and I take issue with them. Point me at them, I'll set them straight." She is, after all, the amazing Martha Jones, and Jack is of the opinion that no one should ever forget that.

[smithnjones]

"You... take issue?" She giggles, softly. "Oh. My. That sounds so official, Jack." Martha's smiling, rather brightly.

Obviously, she won't be pointing him in their direction ever. She won't need to. It all sort of happens on its own.

[impossible_thng]

"Between being a captain and head of Torchwood, I've got plenty of official to go around," he says with a chuckle. "I could even write up an official notice if you like."

[smithnjones]

"Really?" Martha laughs and shakes her head at him. "An official notice about what, exactly?"