Second to None
Author: starjargon
Title: Second to None
Rating: K
Word Count: 1035
Claim: Tenth Doctor Era- Mickey Smith/Martha Jones, Jack Harkness/ 3 Prompts: Tropes
Prompt: First Time
Summary: This is the story of Mickey Smith and Martha Jones, and how they fell in love
The first time Jack tells Mickey he thought he'd finally gotten rid of him, Martha smiles and asks, "Ah, jealous again Captain Harkness?"
"Of Mickey Mouse? Never, Doctor Jones. You don't know this guy like I do."
"Well, why don't you tell me?"
"I don't think that's fair. Captain Innuendo here might prejudice you against me."
"Oh, don't worry about it. I already know by now how much Jack loves to embellish. Have you ever seen him after a few hyper vodkas?"
"Unfortunately, I can't ever unsee it."
They both laugh, and the new Smith-Jones friendship begins. Jack rolls his eyes fondly at them, reaching his arm out further to encompass Martha, hugging them both to him tighter, glad once more to be alive.
The first time Jack convinces both of them to go on a mission for Torchwood, Mickey sees just how capable Martha is, and he proves himself quite competently, even to Jack, in a moment of crisis.
When he sees how she struggles with the approaches and mindsets of both Torchwood and UNIT, Mickey suggests Martha keep doing what she knows, only freelance. She asks him if he realizes that'd likely be a bit more dangerous- what with no backup or authority. He tells her she is brilliant and could no doubt handle herself alone just like she did in the Year that Never Was. Jack hears him suggest it and punches him in the face, telling him that the field's no place for a lone, single woman.
The first time Mickey sees Martha cry, she had just received the phone call that an ordinary, stupid automobile accident had taken her beloved Tom from her. She collapses into Jack's arms, sobbing. Mickey finally drives her home and stays with her, just holding her close until her family arrives, his arms tight around her and refusing to let go. And when she cries some more, he lets her.
The first time they go out after that, it's as two friends who know what it is to have lost a great love. They meet at a cafe, Mickey asking Martha if she is all right yet. She tells him she would be.
Then, they just talk. Bemoaning those loves lost and taken, they each realize the other also understands what it is to feel like second best. As afternoon turns into evening turns into night, they speak on and on about shared experiences, about loving someone so much it hurts, especially when that other person doesn't quite see them the same way. They briefly speak about what it was to compete with the Doctor, both as a rival and as a person. When Mickey confesses he knew he'd never compare, Martha takes his hand and tells him he didn't have to. When Martha shares she finally saw she was worth more than how she'd felt with him, Mickey smiles and tells her he could have told her that right off.
Then they sigh, and smile, and rejoice in the fact that they had each also gotten out. They'd taken control of their own lives, realizing they each deserved better. And they would find it.
The first time Mickey makes her really, truly laugh, he feels like the most clever, accomplished man in the world. Her smile lights up the room and it is all due to him. Then, he finds he always wants to be around to hear that laugh again. And suddenly, he realizes his good friend Martha had somehow become more than that. When he walks her home that night, he fumbles for a second, then gives her a clumsy, friendly kiss on the cheek before saying goodnight.
He turns and leaves too quickly to see Martha's surprised, soft smile in return.
The first time Martha asks him out, Mickey isn't sure she means it. He was trying to give her time to grieve, to move on, or to wallow after Tom. He should have known she isn't the wallowing type. They were finishing the paperwork for their last joint mission for Torchwood, when she asks, just him, out for a drink. He tells her perhaps another time, trying to give her space. Jack calls him an idiot, then smiles before he shoves Mickey back inside to where Martha is.
They go out one afternoon. She holds his hand as they go to Tom's grave, telling him it was time to let go. Then they go to his old estate, where he shows her his roots, and realizes he had let go too. They hold hands and talk all through the night and then start the new day together.
The first time he kisses her, she makes him feel like he is the most important man in the world, and no one has ever compared, for either of them. When she tells him she loves him, he believes it as he's never believed in anything before. And, he makes sure she believes him, too.
The first time he proposes, all his well-drafted plans for the evening go out the window. They were called out to help save a city, and she was being brilliant and was so beautiful and amazing that he blurted it out instead, without a second thought.
She was shouting orders and instructions, protecting others and leading troops. He wasn't sure she had even properly heard him. And, by the time the invasion was thwarted, sanctuary provided, and the civilians retconned, he realizes he didn't know her answer.
The first time Martha turns to him with a wide grin and tells him to ask her again, Mickey was unsure of which question she meant. Then she looked at him with those beautiful brown eyes, exuding pure excitement and joy and love and Martha, and only one question comes to Mickey's mind.
The first time they celebrate with Jack and Martha's family, a celebration unlike any other and with Martha's hand firmly in his, Mickey realizes he will never be alone again.
And the first time Mickey Smith kisses his new bride, he knows he wants nothing more than to experience every first and every last with Martha Jones-Smith for as long as they both lived. And so they do.