Snapshots
Title: Snapshots
Series: Doctor Who
Summary: Five adventures Martha had with the Doctor, and one she didn't. Spoilers for all of Season Three
Pairing: Kinda-sorta-implied Ten/Martha?
Rating: PG
2008
Martha would be scared, except the whole thing is unbelievably incredible. She's standing on the moon, for God's sake, the actual, literal, moon, with the Earth hanging far away in the sky. 'In the Earth-light,' John says, as a joke, but he's right.
She has to admit, despite her best efforts to stay focused on the moon and the amazing wonderfulness of it all, and not come off as shallow, John might have something to do with how much she's enjoying the whole thing. Sure, maybe it's sort of desperate to start fancying your patients, but he's clever and charming and mysterious, and extremely pretty with it. And best of all, he's confidant and composed, and for once Martha can enjoy the moment instead of having to be sensible.
He tells her, with the sort of arrogance that comes from being really smart and knowing it, that he's 'the Doctor,' or something. That irks her; she's going to be a doctor, and she's working damn hard to get there, and it seems kind of unfair that he gets to just claim it. 'You have to earn that,' she says, and means it, and somehow she gets the sense that he intends to.
Whatever, she tells herself. He's still John to me.
1599
She's in 1599. Real, live, actual 1599. With real, live, actual Shakespeare. He's an alright bloke, actually, but he keeps on trying to hit on her, which is a little annoying, especially since he can't seem to get past her skintone. Oh, and there are witches - real, live, actual witches - who are also aliens, and do this kind of voodoo Harry Potter thing. It's probably the most incredible thing that's ever happened to her; it would have been a clear winner if not for the moon.
There are little things she doesn't like, things that rankle. John the Doctor is still all hung up about the last girl he travelled with, called Rose or something. He mopes about it, whines about missing her, even tells a frustrated Martha, who's never had witches before, that Rose would know the right thing say. In the end, Martha saves the world (well, helps at least) with a well-timed Harry Potter quote, and feels just a little smug that when it comes down to it, she does know the right thing to say.
She's still wondering what, exactly, Rose would have said.
1913
Martha has decided she hates 1913. There's the work, which is dull and tiring and completely mindless. There's having to babysit the Doctor John, to make sure he doesn't break any of the rules had set out for her. And there's all the stupid, racist, sexist idiocy surround that year. Because of her gender and the color of the skin, she can't be the doctor that she's worked so hard to become, or even a nurse. She has to listen to all the stupid, hateful remarks made by boys who fancy themselves her 'better' because of who she is and what she does. Even John doesn't respect her, and that's what hurts most of all, that it's not just the arseholes of the world who look down on her, but even the good people. She's quite literally the person who knows him best, and yet at the end of the day, she's just a black serving girl, and doesn't really count.
There's something else, there, too, a sort of disconnect with everyone else around her. She knows their futures, in general if not specific terms, and even as she talks with them and laughs with them and cries with them, she knows that in what seems like only mere moments, they'll be gone, and she'll just move on. She knows she's leaving, too, that as close as she is to Jenny, once the three months are up, she'll be gone, off to the stars and the future.
It's a scary way to think, she can't help thinking, because in the end, it's true for everything. This too must pass isn't just about the past. And there's something profoundly uncomfortable on the way she's sort of looking down on them for all this, like they're not quite real people. But the creepy thing, the really creepy thing, is the knowledge, or maybe just the idea, that this is what it's like for John the Doctor all the time.
1969
The thing about 1969 is that there is no feasible way a man and a woman can share a flat without inciting scandal unless they're married or related. They'd really rather not have too many rumours going around about them, and there's no way Martha can reasonably claim to be the Doctor's sister, so he hunts up a set of rings, and the flat gets rented under the name 'Dr. and Mrs. Smith.'
Of course, people still gossip a bit, which isn't too surprising, but is still tiresome. The rest of the building seems to agree that there's something off about the Smiths, and Lydia Baker, the girl who lives across the way from them, asks Martha if she and 'John' are getting on all right. They try to solve the problem - well, the Doctor tries to solve the problem - by jumping vigorously on the bed one night, but it doesn't quite seem to work.
One night, Harvey and Carol Anne Ford invite them to go out for ice cream, and Martha, not wanting to attract any more suspicion, agrees. They sit in the park eating their ice cream, and Martha manages to smear some of it on her cheek. She reaches for a napkin, but before she can, John the Doctor John licks it straight off, with a casual ease that says, 'This woman is mine, and my right to do this is unquestionable' (unless you are Martha; then it says, 'I'm willing to do this to sell our story,' or maybe just, 'I am used to licking things that I probably shouldn't').
Overnight, and due in large part to Carol Anne's love of gossip and close attention to detail, the Smiths' status goes from 'Nice couple, but so quiet, you almost have to wonder sometimes,' to 'Lovely couple, very sweet with each other, a little shy perhaps, but that's alright.' Martha supposes it's a victory, even if it as tiny one, but it feels more like a mistake.
2009
Martha watches the world burn, and she spends the time telling stories. The lies surround her like a cloud, the little ones about what exactly she was doing wherever she was, the slightly silly one about the gun she cribbed off a cartoon, and of course, the really big one, the one that she repeated to everyone. Don't worry, we'll get through this, everything will be okay. It almost hurts to tell them that, and know that the world is burning, and there's nothing she can do to fight the fire, she just has to keep on running ahead of the flames. She watches Japan go, the entire archipelago, and she swears to herself that she will make her lie come true.
At least she does have one truth to tell them, and that's the stories about the Doctor. That's the real mission, to spread the story, and she does it with gusto. After a few weeks, it becomes a sort of ritual. She's reminded of how, back in the days before people wrote things down, stories were passed on by word of mouth, and how some of them have eventually survived in today's world. She tells everyone, pass it along, and they do, but they also pass on the story of Martha Jones, saving the world.
The stories she tells may be about the Doctor, but the legends are about her.
2008
The thing about stories is that you never really find out what happens after the ending. Hers has had the big, exciting conclusion, and the falling action, and all the other things they talk about in English class that aren't supposed to happen in real life. And now... Now Martha's with her family, trying to comfort them from the nightmares that no one but they know are real. (She's being the sensible one, the one who's holding the whole thing together, again, she notices, but she tries not to think like that.) And he's waiting outside with the TARDIS, ready to embark on a thrilling sequel.
Martha doesn't think she can handle any more stories. So she tells him the truth, tells him both truths, and walks away. It would have been easier, it would have been so much easier, to just stick with the first one - it's a perfectly good reason, all on it's own, and the other one makes her come off a bit shallow - but it would have been a lie in it's own way. She's not going to let him off the hook like that.
She gives him her phone, though, because she knows one day, she just might want to see John the Doctor John him again.
Series: Doctor Who
Summary: Five adventures Martha had with the Doctor, and one she didn't. Spoilers for all of Season Three
Pairing: Kinda-sorta-implied Ten/Martha?
Rating: PG
2008
Martha would be scared, except the whole thing is unbelievably incredible. She's standing on the moon, for God's sake, the actual, literal, moon, with the Earth hanging far away in the sky. 'In the Earth-light,' John says, as a joke, but he's right.
She has to admit, despite her best efforts to stay focused on the moon and the amazing wonderfulness of it all, and not come off as shallow, John might have something to do with how much she's enjoying the whole thing. Sure, maybe it's sort of desperate to start fancying your patients, but he's clever and charming and mysterious, and extremely pretty with it. And best of all, he's confidant and composed, and for once Martha can enjoy the moment instead of having to be sensible.
He tells her, with the sort of arrogance that comes from being really smart and knowing it, that he's 'the Doctor,' or something. That irks her; she's going to be a doctor, and she's working damn hard to get there, and it seems kind of unfair that he gets to just claim it. 'You have to earn that,' she says, and means it, and somehow she gets the sense that he intends to.
Whatever, she tells herself. He's still John to me.
1599
She's in 1599. Real, live, actual 1599. With real, live, actual Shakespeare. He's an alright bloke, actually, but he keeps on trying to hit on her, which is a little annoying, especially since he can't seem to get past her skintone. Oh, and there are witches - real, live, actual witches - who are also aliens, and do this kind of voodoo Harry Potter thing. It's probably the most incredible thing that's ever happened to her; it would have been a clear winner if not for the moon.
There are little things she doesn't like, things that rankle. John the Doctor is still all hung up about the last girl he travelled with, called Rose or something. He mopes about it, whines about missing her, even tells a frustrated Martha, who's never had witches before, that Rose would know the right thing say. In the end, Martha saves the world (well, helps at least) with a well-timed Harry Potter quote, and feels just a little smug that when it comes down to it, she does know the right thing to say.
She's still wondering what, exactly, Rose would have said.
1913
Martha has decided she hates 1913. There's the work, which is dull and tiring and completely mindless. There's having to babysit the Doctor John, to make sure he doesn't break any of the rules had set out for her. And there's all the stupid, racist, sexist idiocy surround that year. Because of her gender and the color of the skin, she can't be the doctor that she's worked so hard to become, or even a nurse. She has to listen to all the stupid, hateful remarks made by boys who fancy themselves her 'better' because of who she is and what she does. Even John doesn't respect her, and that's what hurts most of all, that it's not just the arseholes of the world who look down on her, but even the good people. She's quite literally the person who knows him best, and yet at the end of the day, she's just a black serving girl, and doesn't really count.
There's something else, there, too, a sort of disconnect with everyone else around her. She knows their futures, in general if not specific terms, and even as she talks with them and laughs with them and cries with them, she knows that in what seems like only mere moments, they'll be gone, and she'll just move on. She knows she's leaving, too, that as close as she is to Jenny, once the three months are up, she'll be gone, off to the stars and the future.
It's a scary way to think, she can't help thinking, because in the end, it's true for everything. This too must pass isn't just about the past. And there's something profoundly uncomfortable on the way she's sort of looking down on them for all this, like they're not quite real people. But the creepy thing, the really creepy thing, is the knowledge, or maybe just the idea, that this is what it's like for John the Doctor all the time.
1969
The thing about 1969 is that there is no feasible way a man and a woman can share a flat without inciting scandal unless they're married or related. They'd really rather not have too many rumours going around about them, and there's no way Martha can reasonably claim to be the Doctor's sister, so he hunts up a set of rings, and the flat gets rented under the name 'Dr. and Mrs. Smith.'
Of course, people still gossip a bit, which isn't too surprising, but is still tiresome. The rest of the building seems to agree that there's something off about the Smiths, and Lydia Baker, the girl who lives across the way from them, asks Martha if she and 'John' are getting on all right. They try to solve the problem - well, the Doctor tries to solve the problem - by jumping vigorously on the bed one night, but it doesn't quite seem to work.
One night, Harvey and Carol Anne Ford invite them to go out for ice cream, and Martha, not wanting to attract any more suspicion, agrees. They sit in the park eating their ice cream, and Martha manages to smear some of it on her cheek. She reaches for a napkin, but before she can, John the Doctor John licks it straight off, with a casual ease that says, 'This woman is mine, and my right to do this is unquestionable' (unless you are Martha; then it says, 'I'm willing to do this to sell our story,' or maybe just, 'I am used to licking things that I probably shouldn't').
Overnight, and due in large part to Carol Anne's love of gossip and close attention to detail, the Smiths' status goes from 'Nice couple, but so quiet, you almost have to wonder sometimes,' to 'Lovely couple, very sweet with each other, a little shy perhaps, but that's alright.' Martha supposes it's a victory, even if it as tiny one, but it feels more like a mistake.
2009
Martha watches the world burn, and she spends the time telling stories. The lies surround her like a cloud, the little ones about what exactly she was doing wherever she was, the slightly silly one about the gun she cribbed off a cartoon, and of course, the really big one, the one that she repeated to everyone. Don't worry, we'll get through this, everything will be okay. It almost hurts to tell them that, and know that the world is burning, and there's nothing she can do to fight the fire, she just has to keep on running ahead of the flames. She watches Japan go, the entire archipelago, and she swears to herself that she will make her lie come true.
At least she does have one truth to tell them, and that's the stories about the Doctor. That's the real mission, to spread the story, and she does it with gusto. After a few weeks, it becomes a sort of ritual. She's reminded of how, back in the days before people wrote things down, stories were passed on by word of mouth, and how some of them have eventually survived in today's world. She tells everyone, pass it along, and they do, but they also pass on the story of Martha Jones, saving the world.
The stories she tells may be about the Doctor, but the legends are about her.
2008
The thing about stories is that you never really find out what happens after the ending. Hers has had the big, exciting conclusion, and the falling action, and all the other things they talk about in English class that aren't supposed to happen in real life. And now... Now Martha's with her family, trying to comfort them from the nightmares that no one but they know are real. (She's being the sensible one, the one who's holding the whole thing together, again, she notices, but she tries not to think like that.) And he's waiting outside with the TARDIS, ready to embark on a thrilling sequel.
Martha doesn't think she can handle any more stories. So she tells him the truth, tells him both truths, and walks away. It would have been easier, it would have been so much easier, to just stick with the first one - it's a perfectly good reason, all on it's own, and the other one makes her come off a bit shallow - but it would have been a lie in it's own way. She's not going to let him off the hook like that.
She gives him her phone, though, because she knows one day, she just might want to see John the Doctor John him again.