FIC: Flipped, Book 3 (1/12)
Title: Flipped, Book 3
Rating: heavy T, with some M/MA
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: David Noble thought he had come to terms with the strange feelings the female Doctor inspired, and it seemed to be helped by Martha Jones joining them. But when the Aubertide threaten the Doctor, protecting her requires a cover that will test his sanity and his ability to find the right thing to do. Written for tardis_mole.
Required Disclaimer: The summary should be enough to tell you I own nothing.
Dedications: My good friend tardis_mole, for helping me discover my talent at editing and for being an inspiration. You've challenged me to go beyond what I previously thought I would like, and so this is the farthest I've gone from my comfort zone so far. Who knows where I'll go next?
And another important shout-out: sykira, whose LJ post about John Barrowman's comments about how Doctor Who could eventually go was the ultimate spark for this idea. So I suppose that means the ultimate blame for this lies with the Barrowman. I can only imagine what he would think, although I suspect he would heartily approve. :P
Author's Note: Originally spawned from a different idea that split into three, this is a new version of one of those ideas revived as a birthday present. And it's spawned a slightly AU version as a Christmas present. The original prompt from TM boiled down to this: “The Doctor and Donna in a situation that's never been done before.” Ask and ye shall receive, my friend. Enjoy the second sequel. :D A VERY Belated Happy Birthday, TM! :DDD
Special Disclaimer: I refuse to be held responsible for any $2000/₤2000 lattes, spit-takes, fainting spells, workplace/school gaffes, or falling against/from things that might happen if you're not careful while reading this story. Especially in certain chapters. Read at your own risk. (I put this in because I was warned by one of my betas, cassikat, that my emails should come with a spit-take warning. So I'm looking out for y'all. ;D)
And TM, be careful that you don't hyperventilate from reading some of the sections. I know you. :P And so sorry for the delay. At least I have a legitimate excuse for not working on it last year; we had our balrog to work on. :D
Thanks to cassikat and bas_math_girl for betaing. Couldn't have done it without y'all.
Make sure you've read Flipped, Book 1 and Flipped, Book 2 first!
Flipped, Book 3
Started July 14, 2013
Finished December 24, 2015
CHAPTER ONE: DANGER, DOCTOR, DANGER! DANGER, DAVID NOBLE, DANGER!
The Doctor took the mug from her replicator, and took a deep breath of the lovely smell of her favorite tea, the fruit blend that she had introduced David to back as her old self. Oh, the joys of being back in the TARDIS again! 1969 had been a decent year given all that happened then, but it was different when you were trapped in the past with your two companions and had to rely on a girl from what was your present - well, a year was close enough when you were a time traveller who had lived far longer than you would ever admit to even under pain of death - to save you from a new enemy.
Well, not so new. But her companions didn't know that. Yet. Although one would be very likely to winkle it out of her soon enough. And the way he encouraged Martha to ask questions, she would not be far behind.
A wordless exclamation sounded from the doorway. The Doctor turned to find Martha Jones rush in and raid one of the snack jars that David had set up for their collective use. “Oh, I've missed these!” she cried as she drew out a few of her favorite biscuits and started noshing before she could close the jar. A grin crossed her face. They were all adjusting back to their normal patterns. Of course, “normal” was a relative term given her life, although Martha had adjusted pretty quickly to this funny old life on board the TARDIS.
“Where's David gone off to?”
“Giving Curie a run in the gardens,” Martha said as soon as she finished her first biscuit, which she savored as long as she could make it last. Which did not look like savoring, as quickly as she ate it. “She was a little confused about why he was so excited to see her, but she took it completely in stride when he led her away.”
“Noticed. She's like that.” Which was good. She could ask a few questions of her first real girlfriend ever. Well, not counting Nerys and Emily. But now was not the time to go off on one of her digressions, even in her head. “Did they go just now?”
Martha nodded, already on her next bite.
“Good. I was hoping we could talk a little.”
Martha nearly choked. “You, wanting to talk? Dear God, for a second there you had me thinking you were having flashbacks to that... sun creature.”
The Doctor cringed. That had been a terrible day, nearly being completely possessed by a creature that she had never known could exist. Worse, it had nearly killed her companions. Martha she would've felt bad enough over, but she could not bear thinking about it happening to David.
And naturally she could not just brush it off. Not with him around. Even if he took good care of her afterward.
The Doctor had not wanted to admit to what she experienced. Only she had never had a companion being more in her face about getting things wrong than any of the others had ever been. Or about admitting when something was not right inside.
Well, and gotten their way. Tegan would have been furious had she seen how much David could get his own way when he really felt justified. The thought suddenly hit her, and it only soured her mood further. How much was the difference because of how much of a prat her previous selves had been, and how much was because she had a difficult time saying no to David?
David exhaled loudly and held out his arms. No one should endure that alone, he felt. “We'll find some cold place to visit. After you've decompressed.”
The Doctor only hesitated a moment, uncertain if she would be able to let him go. But she slowly stepped into his embrace and held him tightly. Factoring his human frame, of course.
For once his body wasn't reacting inappropriately. It seemed like his protector instincts were out full force, knowing that she needed to feel safe. So he kept his arms wrapped tightly around her, with one hand stroking her hair. That seemed to calm her, especially when she was overemotional.
She melted into the embrace, feeling like she could hide from the universe for a while. She could pretend for a precious moment that the universe and all of time was more afraid of David than of her. That she didn't have the whole of Time and Space weighing on her shoulders, and that she wasn't who she was.
Martha watched from the side of the room, eyes wide. For the first time, the Doctor seemed utterly like a regular person. It was rather strange to have that thought, and yet she now seemed more approachable.
The Doctor kept breathing in David's scent. Waking nightmares of the creature managing to kill him through her kept flashing through her mind, and she used smell to ground her firmly in reality.
That relief had only lasted until they returned to Earth and she worried about enduring another visit to the Nobles. Oh, Wilf, Eileen and Geoffrey were delightful. But Sylvia had somehow become worse since the regeneration. Thank Rassilon that David had kept her part of the visit to just Wilfred and Eileen. He knew when she hit her limits where family was concerned, even if those limits had decreased over time.
She let herself blink rapidly, grateful that the action would not put her or anyone else in danger anytime soon. “Good to be alive.”
Martha nodded, nearly done with her biscuits. “You drifted off there a moment. Wasn't sure how to snap you out of it. I'm not exactly your friend.”
She didn't like anyone speaking poorly of themselves. David had taught her how important it was to treat everyone well. “But you are a friend, a good friend, and I... I need some womanly guidance.”
Her eyes went huge. “Me? Martha Jones, the doctor in training with a few years left to go before I can legally practice, is being asked to advise the last Time Lord?”
“David does it all the time. Well, not about womanly matters.” She blushed. “Unless they're medical.”
Martha grimaced. The Doctor had been unable to hide her period difficulties from her, and the process had given her a new perspective on Human problems. Even if that was at the Doctor's expense. “And he's been with you how long? He's comfortable with it.”
“But he's a... bloke, and I'm in need of a woman's point of view. There are some things you just can't ask a man.”
Martha looked at the last piece of her biscuit for a long moment before nodding. “And certainly not the one you're in love with.”
The Doctor blanched, her freckles standing out even more. “How...?”
“You don't exactly have a great poker face when you're not trying to fool a dictator or stop some villain from taking over a planet. Even then, if they're good at psychology, your habit of making things up would surely cause a lot more trouble than we already get into.”
Sighing, the Doctor waved her to sit down and poured a cup tea for Martha. “Fine. When did you first suspect?”
Martha smirked ever so slightly. “It was probably when you kissed him to create that distraction for the Judoon.”
Martha was trying to follow the rapid banter between the two doctors with limited success. She could not believe how her day was going. Although at least neither of these two had made her feel like she was stuck in the middle of a war zone like her family did. Even if they all probably were.
The woman, who called herself the Doctor, seemed to be in charge. And she claimed to be an alien. Which meant that the other aliens - the bipedal rhinos with clipped speech and armor - were a very dangerous thing to her since they said, “find the non-Human”.
The man was another matter to Martha. She had seen him over the past day, and he looked familiar - like she had seen a picture of him somewhere. Then she recognized his name as someone referenced by one of her instructors, someone whose picture from some event had been on their desk. Dr. David Noble, a physician and medical inventor. Nice man who asked where she was exactly in her training. Not entirely hard on the eyes, either.
Not that she had more than a few seconds to ponder it. There was the glorious matter of standing in the Earthlight and then the alien ships landing.
She had run with them to evade both the Judoon and the creature wearing that leather and helmet. She had found Mr. Stoker dead, blood drained from his body. And now they needed to find the woman who she saw drinking his blood.
But the Judoon were approaching and had caught sight of the Doctor. Even registered that she was not Human. Martha had not really believed them about that until right then.
The Doctor looked around frantically. “I need a distraction so I can go and stop her.” Her eyes suddenly lit. “Genetic transfer!”
“How?” David demanded.
The Doctor blushed, but she quickly turned and faced him. “This will save everyone.”
He had no chance to protest before she grabbed his head and drew him down for a kiss.
Martha, even in her wide eyed state, could tell that David's shock had allowed the Doctor to use her tongue. A kiss when there was so much danger?!
Suddenly the Doctor broke it off, letting David stumble back against the wall, gaping like a fish. She blushed harder. “Let them scan you. Then find me.” She rushed off.
Martha tried to think of a question, but the Judoon came up first. She decided since David was struggling for breath still - which was odd given that he had expertly avoided a nurse who had been hell bent on flirting with him earlier, before this whole 'hospital is kidnapped' thing started - she would talk about Mrs. Finnegan.
Not that they listened once they detected traces of non-Human on David. At least they left him alone, with some item that was supposed to be compensation. “Why can't these aliens have money that's redeemable on Earth?” David had muttered.
She looked oddly at him, but before she could ask a question he finally recovered himself and led her in the direction the Doctor had gone. And they found her, dead according to the Judoon scanners.
But that had apparently been her plan: get some of her blood drunk by the plasmavore, and said alien would become detectable as an alien to the Judoon. And it worked.
But then the hospital was in danger again and the Judoon did nothing but evacuate themselves.
David however led her in CPR, modified for the two hearts factor. Martha could believe it now, having earlier thought something was wrong with the stethoscope. She gave the breaths - because she suspected he would have a little more focus that way, even though she was certain he would have managed if he had to - and they alternated on making her hearts beat. Thank God it worked before they both lost consciousness from the growing lack of air.
Although she had had to ask when they later found her and invited her to join them for some journeys:
“Does trouble follow you, or do you follow trouble, Doctor?”
David smirked. “I'm not sure. One definitely attracts the other, but it's even odds in which order.”
“Oi!” the Doctor protested.
It only made him laugh, drawing a smile from their new passenger. Although Martha noted that neither could hold the other's gaze for long.
The Doctor blinked, and turned to face her. The tea could wait. “And yet you still...?”
It was Martha's turn to blush. “Well, he's charming, knows how to flirt without going overboard, has a good voice, and he actually listens to you when you talk. You've heard about my family, and met them. I was fielding all sorts of complaints that day I met you two, since so few of them can really get along right now. He just seemed like a dream come true. Lucky for me I also could see right away that he was off-limits. And not just because he became a mentor who I could ask questions of to better prepare for the exams. I'm not saying I'm over it completely, but I think I've grown because of it. I might be able to face my family more often now and actually hold my own.”
“Yeah, I can see why you felt that way. Can't blame you. He has the nicest smile... lovely eyes, and I could listen to him reading anything. He's done that sometimes, when I've been unwell.”
Martha nodded. “And a nice bum?” she teased with a smile.
“Oh, yes.” Then the Doctor realized what she'd said and instinctively flashed an irritated look.
The medical student was unrepentant and gave an innocent smile. “What? I might've seen the light, but I'm not blind. I can only speculate on what's beneath those clothes, which I've probably done more than is healthy.”
The Doctor flushed and looked down at her tea.
Martha raised her eyebrows, intrigued. “Is that from your imagination, or because you... saw him without at least a shirt once?”
She cleared her throat and pretended her face was still its normal color instead of doing anything else. “When I was in my last form, I began teaching him martial arts from other planets. He wanted to get good exercise in other than running, and had to give up his gym membership because he couldn't work out in peace. Since Gallifreyans are naturally, and sorry for using the word, superior in most things, I would hardly break a sweat and he'd be looking like he just gave Curie a bath. He managed to best me once by catching me off my guard, and took off his shirt to cool off before he went to bathe.” Her face was almost matching her hair. “I had to wear different exercise clothes so I wouldn't give off any signals of what the sight of him was doing to me.”
“So you had to wear pants and shorts that were dimensionally controlled? Good thing his sense of smell isn't anywhere near as strong as yours. Unless humans can smell your pheromones?”
She blinked, puzzlement overtaking her embarrassment. “I'm not sure. I was told by one of the people we've seen more than once that I smell the same and Curie apparently recognised me by scent immediately, so...”
The Doctor sank in her chair. “Do you think there's any chance he could ever consider making that whole “Drs. Noble” thing real?”
Her tone proclaimed that she was not holding much hope, but there was just enough that she had to wonder.
Martha thought about it, reflecting on what she knew about from while she picked his brain while she studied. She was silent for much longer than she knew the Doctor liked. “I'll see what I can tell from asking. I've kind of been trying to avoid that since my crush was outed.”
“Just please find out however you can.”
Sighing, Martha nodded. The Doctor had very good puppy eyes, which made her wonder if she'd learned them from David. If she didn't respect the man so much she would've cursed his version of that look. “Okay, I'll find out whether he'd freak if you tried slapping his bum.”
The Doctor's eyes widened. “You what?!”
Martha had to laugh. She had had no idea that teasing an alien could be so much fun.
/=/=/=/
Martha watched as David reviewed her study notes. They consulted on her training regularly, and he had given her a study regimen that he thought would help her be very prepared for the upcoming months. This was a sort of assessment of how he thought she was doing.
At length he smiled broadly. “This is very good! I think you're just about ready for that test.”
“Only the first of many.” The comment was spoken on a groan.
“You'll do fine, Martha. Think of all the disasters you've handled being with us. That exam will seem like a breeze after living in 1969.”
Martha exhaled loudly. “Yeah, not one of my favourite experiences. Good thing you're good with all sorts of gadgets or we would've had a much harder time.”
David laughed. “You didn't see all the odd looks I got for living with two women when I wasn't married to either of them.”
“And how many of those looks were because of my skin colour?”
“Too many, but I think between my and the Doctor's glares, we were left alone pretty quickly.”
Ah, there was her possible opening. “David?”
“Yeah?”
“I've always wondered. What happened between you two when the Doctor turned into a woman?”
He nearly choked on his tea.
She resisted the urge to slap his back to help him, a method that did not exactly work like it did on the telly. It was one of the things that made her want to become a physician. “I mean, you'd just found out that your male best friend had feelings for you and then he dies, and in his place stands a woman who I must say is attractive enough to make most women feel inferior. Especially if they know that curves are what women are supposed to have.”
He coughed as he recovered his breath, knowing his face had changed color. “Martha, where did this come from?!”
“I've watched you two. Had many opportunities. How many people have assumed that you and the Doctor are married? Shakespeare was convinced of it! I mean, we found proof that you two inspired Benedick and Beatrice!”
His face went through a wild array of expressions as he remembered finding the notes that linked meeting them to the creation of Much Ado About Nothing. Not quite as unnerving as Elizabeth I seeing them and calling the Doctor her 'mortal enemy'. Because there had been something in how the monarch had looked at him that gave him the shivers.
“And you two practically acted like a married couple while we were stuck in the 60s. Hell, I sometimes felt like the teenage daughter who was trying to get her parents' attention without acting out!”
His expression stilled into wide eyes only. “You did?”
Martha noticed how much of a squeak that was, but she said nothing. She knew enough to know that it was not good for a man's ego to mention such things. Besides, she wasn't a woman who liked rattling a bloke's cage that much. Not like the Doctor, who seemed to enjoy that newfound element of being a woman - the liberty of how much further she could push things to aggravate the male dictators and other stuffed shifts. “Yes. I know it must have felt weird, all those things happening at once. But I have to know... what do you really think and feel?”
He shifted, looking anywhere but at her. “The Doctor hasn't put you up to this, has she?”
His looking away was useful. It allowed her to hide the deep breath needed to lie convincingly. “Really, do you see her asking such a personal thing of someone? Especially of me?”
She was relying on his knowledge that she had felt a crush for him that she was keeping under regulation to override any suspicions he harboured.
He sighed. “I suppose not.”
“So... I'm guessing you haven't talked with anyone about this. Not even your friends who seem in the know about the Doctor's change. And especially not your family.”
David rubbed his face, struggling to find any words that would remotely suffice. “I don't know where to begin.”
“The beginning usually helps.”
He laughed humorlessly. “Smart alec.”
“I have to be sometimes. Not that you two give me much room to be one.”
They both laughed after a moment's pause. The banter did tend to be solely between him and the Doctor. Although Martha had managed to find the occasional snappy comeback to inject into the moment, mostly because of her perspective as the outsider.
Leaning back in his chair to stare at the ceiling, David let his eyes drift around as he gathered his voice again. “Where in the beginning? I'm not sure what I'm willing to talk about.”
“Let's start with something simple. How do you feel and think about the Doctor having been in love with you for so long? Did you have a clue before the change?”
“No. Not a whisper. But... a few things make more sense in hindsight. Some of the martial arts lessons changed. Not so much of the grappling after that one time I managed to pin him when he thought he'd won that final round.”
Yeah, Martha could imagine that was a shocker. Probably trying to conceal the instinctive reactions, which it sounded like the Doctor had not known how to cope with at first. “Anything else?”
“Yeah. He made one other companion stop flirting with me. You haven't met Jack Harkness yet, but he's impossible to forget. Well, I say 'he', but I think the Boe-Kind might be more than one gender at once. Freemartins is the term the Doctor uses.”
It sounded familiar from her biology lessons, although she could swear she heard something else in reference to it. Not that her medical texts were always accurate, she had found from traveling with them. Something else to brush up on then. Although asking questions would derail her whole reason for starting this conversation. “So... Jack flirted with you, and the Doctor threatened him? If 'him' is the right pronoun?”
David shrugged. “I don't know for sure. I think the correct pronoun is spelled h-i-r if meant as the subject. S-h-i is the subject pronoun. Anyway... back to the real question. Neither of them will admit to what was said, but the Doctor sort of admitted to it when I noticed how quickly Jack went from intense flirting to nothing within minutes.”
Yeah, that was a jealous reaction there. Which fit with some of the Doctor's reactions to the females flirting with David. Martha had never seen her scare someone off with just a glare. Mind, some of those women and girls had deserved it. But how much had he noticed? “What about the reaction when females flirted with you?”
“I'll admit I wasn't paying much attention,” he admitted with a frown. “Usually the flirting tended to be part of some plan to distract us from figuring out the evil plot of the day.” He huffed. “Never thought I'd almost miss being imposed on at the gym - at least there you knew what they were after.”
She'd once heard this story, and it had stuck in her mind like a like a tooh on a toffee when she thought about flirting with him. Lips twitching, she tried another track. “What about once you did know?”
David sat up straighter, his body starting to tense. He thought about stopping the talk here, but he supposed it might be worth voicing to her just once. She did understand that her crush could not ever come to anything, so she might be able to understand where he was coming from. “I was shocked. Floored. You name the word, I probably felt like it. Trouble was that I also had to deal with the TARDIS telling me I had to risk my own life to save the Doctor. In the end I had to do it because I couldn't just abandon a friend, and was preparing myself mentally to die. But... the Doctor apparently kissed me and drew the Vortex energy out, which led to his death.”
“Wait. You don't remember?”
His cleared his throat. “No.”
“Are you grateful for that?”
He squirmed in his seat. “Yes... I think. I mean, it's my best friend we're talking about. The one who helped me feel alive and part of something so much bigger than myself. Not that medicine isn't that, but I had no idea I was starting to burn out. I'd been given a new lease on life by saying yes when the Doctor asked me again to join him, so it feels wrong that I can't remember much about his last moments. Only the very last minutes are clear.”
Guilt. Survivor's guilt despite the Doctor living on in a way. “So when this Doctor first appeared, what did you think? Did you wonder if the regeneration had been deliberate so the Doctor could be someone you wanted?”
Now he rubbed his neck, hemming and hawing as his legs bounced like a chess player's in the middle of a tough game.
It made Martha raise her eyebrows. This sounded interesting. “What's wrong?”
He dropped his hands with a loud exhale. “This is something I've never told the Doctor, because I don't know how to or what would happen if I did. I don't know what I want to see happen.”
“Then tell. Maybe talking about it will lessen the fearful hold on you.”
He gave her a doubtful look, but he plowed on. “He's told you that I'm a bit psychic, like my granddad. Well, growing up, especially once I hit puberty, I had these dreams about a smiling ginger woman who acted like she was married to me. I thought she was the most beautiful woman, and I kept wishing that she was real and I could meet her. Probably hurt most of my relationships, even if I just couldn't find one who I thought I could have a connection with. Once I understood why so many of my dreams became reality I started hoping I would see her one day, that on my journeys with the Doctor I'd come across her and could... court her. Didn't really let myself think about it, but I know the hope was there. And then my best friend..” He couldn't finish the sentence.
Martha saw exactly where he was going and said it for him. “And then your best friend transformed into the very same woman from your dreams?”
“Looked and sounded exactly like her,” he admitted. “I was flabbergasted. And then she seemed to be deathly ill, so I had to take care of her. Her clothes didn't fit anymore, so I had to help remove them or outright do it myself when she fell unconscious. Oh God, that was embarrassing! Stuck helping my best friend who's never been able to control the process, and I was aroused! Taking care of someone who couldn't care for their own person, and I was practically perving over her!” He rubbed his face vigorously, like he could scrub away the memory.
Like it had worked the last thousand times he tried it.
Martha was not sure he intended to tell her that much, but she pretended like it was an everyday thing. No reason to draw attention to anything that might make him even more uncomfortable. “The Doctor had to practice at acting like a woman, didn't she? How did she manage?”
“Two of my friends, Nerys and Emily, they stopped by and I had no choice but to tell them everything. Mostly because they found the notes I had left behind for my family and friends when I thought I wasn't going to come back from doing what the TARDIS told me to do. When they learned that she had no suitable clothing they insisted on taking her shopping. What could I do but go along? Do you know how many times I had to caution the Doctor even in the future about his behavior before then?”
“I'm guessing far more often than I've seen you do. Or that I've been compelled to do myself.”
“Well, as much as I trusted my friends, I didn't want to leave my changed best friend alone with them to face the wilds of the shops. At least I was spared from the more... provocative aspects.”
Meaning the bra and pants shopping. Yes, that might have been too much for his frazzled mind then. “She adjusted eventually. She acts like a woman now.”
“Yeah, the trip helped her in the end, even if she hated the process at first. And I'm not going to say what seeing her in clothes that flattered her did to me. Thank God I had the twins around to keep me calmer than I might've been otherwise.”
“And what about as you two travelled between then and when I met you?”
He cleared his throat. “Between helping her adjust to periods - and you've seen how bad they can get now, so imagine what it was like when she discovered that her body did that - and the start of being mistaken for a married couple practically everywhere we go now? I don't know how I coped!”
Martha suspected that wasn't exactly the truth, but she wasn't going to press. Not on that one. “So... what's changed? Is it just a matter of feeling awkward given that she was a man, or is there something more?”
He shook his head. “It's the awkwardness. And that the lust took its sweet time to lessen even a bit. I mean, I can be around her now without immediately feeling hot, but if she gets into a dress or shows any cleavage... I need time to myself later on.” He cleared his throat.
“But what about the future? Could there ever be anything for real between you two?”
That made him shoot out of his chair. “No! There can't be!”
He sounded a little too frantic to be believed. “You sure?”
“It has to be that way! We might look compatible, but it has to be impossible! We're two different species and there's so little technology of the Doctor's kind left! There was only one known child between a Human and a Gallifreyan, and that had to involve help. Besides, she deserves more than the four or five decades a Human of my time might be able to give, and anyone who loved her wouldn't ask for more than her conscience would permit.” He nearly hurried out of the room, but stopped to point frantically at her. “Never ever tell her what we talked about!”
Martha nodded, stunned by the force of his reaction.
Not quite comforted, David left the room.
Once she was sure he was out of earshot, Martha looked back down at her tea. “He's focusing on every possibly reason they shouldn't be together. Is he in denial of his own feelings? And if I can't talk... what the hell am I supposed to do for them? She's too scared to make a move, and he's not facing things.” She looked up. “I wish you would talk to me, TARDIS.”
There was a tinkling sound.
She sighed. “In a way that I understand.”
The tinkling suddenly seemed a bit amused. Not that it helped Martha's mood.
Chapter Two: Acts Of Desperation
Rating: heavy T, with some M/MA
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: David Noble thought he had come to terms with the strange feelings the female Doctor inspired, and it seemed to be helped by Martha Jones joining them. But when the Aubertide threaten the Doctor, protecting her requires a cover that will test his sanity and his ability to find the right thing to do. Written for tardis_mole.
Required Disclaimer: The summary should be enough to tell you I own nothing.
Dedications: My good friend tardis_mole, for helping me discover my talent at editing and for being an inspiration. You've challenged me to go beyond what I previously thought I would like, and so this is the farthest I've gone from my comfort zone so far. Who knows where I'll go next?
And another important shout-out: sykira, whose LJ post about John Barrowman's comments about how Doctor Who could eventually go was the ultimate spark for this idea. So I suppose that means the ultimate blame for this lies with the Barrowman. I can only imagine what he would think, although I suspect he would heartily approve. :P
Author's Note: Originally spawned from a different idea that split into three, this is a new version of one of those ideas revived as a birthday present. And it's spawned a slightly AU version as a Christmas present. The original prompt from TM boiled down to this: “The Doctor and Donna in a situation that's never been done before.” Ask and ye shall receive, my friend. Enjoy the second sequel. :D A VERY Belated Happy Birthday, TM! :DDD
Special Disclaimer: I refuse to be held responsible for any $2000/₤2000 lattes, spit-takes, fainting spells, workplace/school gaffes, or falling against/from things that might happen if you're not careful while reading this story. Especially in certain chapters. Read at your own risk. (I put this in because I was warned by one of my betas, cassikat, that my emails should come with a spit-take warning. So I'm looking out for y'all. ;D)
And TM, be careful that you don't hyperventilate from reading some of the sections. I know you. :P And so sorry for the delay. At least I have a legitimate excuse for not working on it last year; we had our balrog to work on. :D
Thanks to cassikat and bas_math_girl for betaing. Couldn't have done it without y'all.
Make sure you've read Flipped, Book 1 and Flipped, Book 2 first!
Flipped, Book 3
Started July 14, 2013
Finished December 24, 2015
CHAPTER ONE: DANGER, DOCTOR, DANGER! DANGER, DAVID NOBLE, DANGER!
The Doctor took the mug from her replicator, and took a deep breath of the lovely smell of her favorite tea, the fruit blend that she had introduced David to back as her old self. Oh, the joys of being back in the TARDIS again! 1969 had been a decent year given all that happened then, but it was different when you were trapped in the past with your two companions and had to rely on a girl from what was your present - well, a year was close enough when you were a time traveller who had lived far longer than you would ever admit to even under pain of death - to save you from a new enemy.
Well, not so new. But her companions didn't know that. Yet. Although one would be very likely to winkle it out of her soon enough. And the way he encouraged Martha to ask questions, she would not be far behind.
A wordless exclamation sounded from the doorway. The Doctor turned to find Martha Jones rush in and raid one of the snack jars that David had set up for their collective use. “Oh, I've missed these!” she cried as she drew out a few of her favorite biscuits and started noshing before she could close the jar. A grin crossed her face. They were all adjusting back to their normal patterns. Of course, “normal” was a relative term given her life, although Martha had adjusted pretty quickly to this funny old life on board the TARDIS.
“Where's David gone off to?”
“Giving Curie a run in the gardens,” Martha said as soon as she finished her first biscuit, which she savored as long as she could make it last. Which did not look like savoring, as quickly as she ate it. “She was a little confused about why he was so excited to see her, but she took it completely in stride when he led her away.”
“Noticed. She's like that.” Which was good. She could ask a few questions of her first real girlfriend ever. Well, not counting Nerys and Emily. But now was not the time to go off on one of her digressions, even in her head. “Did they go just now?”
Martha nodded, already on her next bite.
“Good. I was hoping we could talk a little.”
Martha nearly choked. “You, wanting to talk? Dear God, for a second there you had me thinking you were having flashbacks to that... sun creature.”
The Doctor cringed. That had been a terrible day, nearly being completely possessed by a creature that she had never known could exist. Worse, it had nearly killed her companions. Martha she would've felt bad enough over, but she could not bear thinking about it happening to David.
And naturally she could not just brush it off. Not with him around. Even if he took good care of her afterward.
The Doctor had not wanted to admit to what she experienced. Only she had never had a companion being more in her face about getting things wrong than any of the others had ever been. Or about admitting when something was not right inside.
Well, and gotten their way. Tegan would have been furious had she seen how much David could get his own way when he really felt justified. The thought suddenly hit her, and it only soured her mood further. How much was the difference because of how much of a prat her previous selves had been, and how much was because she had a difficult time saying no to David?
David exhaled loudly and held out his arms. No one should endure that alone, he felt. “We'll find some cold place to visit. After you've decompressed.”
The Doctor only hesitated a moment, uncertain if she would be able to let him go. But she slowly stepped into his embrace and held him tightly. Factoring his human frame, of course.
For once his body wasn't reacting inappropriately. It seemed like his protector instincts were out full force, knowing that she needed to feel safe. So he kept his arms wrapped tightly around her, with one hand stroking her hair. That seemed to calm her, especially when she was overemotional.
She melted into the embrace, feeling like she could hide from the universe for a while. She could pretend for a precious moment that the universe and all of time was more afraid of David than of her. That she didn't have the whole of Time and Space weighing on her shoulders, and that she wasn't who she was.
Martha watched from the side of the room, eyes wide. For the first time, the Doctor seemed utterly like a regular person. It was rather strange to have that thought, and yet she now seemed more approachable.
The Doctor kept breathing in David's scent. Waking nightmares of the creature managing to kill him through her kept flashing through her mind, and she used smell to ground her firmly in reality.
That relief had only lasted until they returned to Earth and she worried about enduring another visit to the Nobles. Oh, Wilf, Eileen and Geoffrey were delightful. But Sylvia had somehow become worse since the regeneration. Thank Rassilon that David had kept her part of the visit to just Wilfred and Eileen. He knew when she hit her limits where family was concerned, even if those limits had decreased over time.
She let herself blink rapidly, grateful that the action would not put her or anyone else in danger anytime soon. “Good to be alive.”
Martha nodded, nearly done with her biscuits. “You drifted off there a moment. Wasn't sure how to snap you out of it. I'm not exactly your friend.”
She didn't like anyone speaking poorly of themselves. David had taught her how important it was to treat everyone well. “But you are a friend, a good friend, and I... I need some womanly guidance.”
Her eyes went huge. “Me? Martha Jones, the doctor in training with a few years left to go before I can legally practice, is being asked to advise the last Time Lord?”
“David does it all the time. Well, not about womanly matters.” She blushed. “Unless they're medical.”
Martha grimaced. The Doctor had been unable to hide her period difficulties from her, and the process had given her a new perspective on Human problems. Even if that was at the Doctor's expense. “And he's been with you how long? He's comfortable with it.”
“But he's a... bloke, and I'm in need of a woman's point of view. There are some things you just can't ask a man.”
Martha looked at the last piece of her biscuit for a long moment before nodding. “And certainly not the one you're in love with.”
The Doctor blanched, her freckles standing out even more. “How...?”
“You don't exactly have a great poker face when you're not trying to fool a dictator or stop some villain from taking over a planet. Even then, if they're good at psychology, your habit of making things up would surely cause a lot more trouble than we already get into.”
Sighing, the Doctor waved her to sit down and poured a cup tea for Martha. “Fine. When did you first suspect?”
Martha smirked ever so slightly. “It was probably when you kissed him to create that distraction for the Judoon.”
Martha was trying to follow the rapid banter between the two doctors with limited success. She could not believe how her day was going. Although at least neither of these two had made her feel like she was stuck in the middle of a war zone like her family did. Even if they all probably were.
The woman, who called herself the Doctor, seemed to be in charge. And she claimed to be an alien. Which meant that the other aliens - the bipedal rhinos with clipped speech and armor - were a very dangerous thing to her since they said, “find the non-Human”.
The man was another matter to Martha. She had seen him over the past day, and he looked familiar - like she had seen a picture of him somewhere. Then she recognized his name as someone referenced by one of her instructors, someone whose picture from some event had been on their desk. Dr. David Noble, a physician and medical inventor. Nice man who asked where she was exactly in her training. Not entirely hard on the eyes, either.
Not that she had more than a few seconds to ponder it. There was the glorious matter of standing in the Earthlight and then the alien ships landing.
She had run with them to evade both the Judoon and the creature wearing that leather and helmet. She had found Mr. Stoker dead, blood drained from his body. And now they needed to find the woman who she saw drinking his blood.
But the Judoon were approaching and had caught sight of the Doctor. Even registered that she was not Human. Martha had not really believed them about that until right then.
The Doctor looked around frantically. “I need a distraction so I can go and stop her.” Her eyes suddenly lit. “Genetic transfer!”
“How?” David demanded.
The Doctor blushed, but she quickly turned and faced him. “This will save everyone.”
He had no chance to protest before she grabbed his head and drew him down for a kiss.
Martha, even in her wide eyed state, could tell that David's shock had allowed the Doctor to use her tongue. A kiss when there was so much danger?!
Suddenly the Doctor broke it off, letting David stumble back against the wall, gaping like a fish. She blushed harder. “Let them scan you. Then find me.” She rushed off.
Martha tried to think of a question, but the Judoon came up first. She decided since David was struggling for breath still - which was odd given that he had expertly avoided a nurse who had been hell bent on flirting with him earlier, before this whole 'hospital is kidnapped' thing started - she would talk about Mrs. Finnegan.
Not that they listened once they detected traces of non-Human on David. At least they left him alone, with some item that was supposed to be compensation. “Why can't these aliens have money that's redeemable on Earth?” David had muttered.
She looked oddly at him, but before she could ask a question he finally recovered himself and led her in the direction the Doctor had gone. And they found her, dead according to the Judoon scanners.
But that had apparently been her plan: get some of her blood drunk by the plasmavore, and said alien would become detectable as an alien to the Judoon. And it worked.
But then the hospital was in danger again and the Judoon did nothing but evacuate themselves.
David however led her in CPR, modified for the two hearts factor. Martha could believe it now, having earlier thought something was wrong with the stethoscope. She gave the breaths - because she suspected he would have a little more focus that way, even though she was certain he would have managed if he had to - and they alternated on making her hearts beat. Thank God it worked before they both lost consciousness from the growing lack of air.
Although she had had to ask when they later found her and invited her to join them for some journeys:
“Does trouble follow you, or do you follow trouble, Doctor?”
David smirked. “I'm not sure. One definitely attracts the other, but it's even odds in which order.”
“Oi!” the Doctor protested.
It only made him laugh, drawing a smile from their new passenger. Although Martha noted that neither could hold the other's gaze for long.
The Doctor blinked, and turned to face her. The tea could wait. “And yet you still...?”
It was Martha's turn to blush. “Well, he's charming, knows how to flirt without going overboard, has a good voice, and he actually listens to you when you talk. You've heard about my family, and met them. I was fielding all sorts of complaints that day I met you two, since so few of them can really get along right now. He just seemed like a dream come true. Lucky for me I also could see right away that he was off-limits. And not just because he became a mentor who I could ask questions of to better prepare for the exams. I'm not saying I'm over it completely, but I think I've grown because of it. I might be able to face my family more often now and actually hold my own.”
“Yeah, I can see why you felt that way. Can't blame you. He has the nicest smile... lovely eyes, and I could listen to him reading anything. He's done that sometimes, when I've been unwell.”
Martha nodded. “And a nice bum?” she teased with a smile.
“Oh, yes.” Then the Doctor realized what she'd said and instinctively flashed an irritated look.
The medical student was unrepentant and gave an innocent smile. “What? I might've seen the light, but I'm not blind. I can only speculate on what's beneath those clothes, which I've probably done more than is healthy.”
The Doctor flushed and looked down at her tea.
Martha raised her eyebrows, intrigued. “Is that from your imagination, or because you... saw him without at least a shirt once?”
She cleared her throat and pretended her face was still its normal color instead of doing anything else. “When I was in my last form, I began teaching him martial arts from other planets. He wanted to get good exercise in other than running, and had to give up his gym membership because he couldn't work out in peace. Since Gallifreyans are naturally, and sorry for using the word, superior in most things, I would hardly break a sweat and he'd be looking like he just gave Curie a bath. He managed to best me once by catching me off my guard, and took off his shirt to cool off before he went to bathe.” Her face was almost matching her hair. “I had to wear different exercise clothes so I wouldn't give off any signals of what the sight of him was doing to me.”
“So you had to wear pants and shorts that were dimensionally controlled? Good thing his sense of smell isn't anywhere near as strong as yours. Unless humans can smell your pheromones?”
She blinked, puzzlement overtaking her embarrassment. “I'm not sure. I was told by one of the people we've seen more than once that I smell the same and Curie apparently recognised me by scent immediately, so...”
The Doctor sank in her chair. “Do you think there's any chance he could ever consider making that whole “Drs. Noble” thing real?”
Her tone proclaimed that she was not holding much hope, but there was just enough that she had to wonder.
Martha thought about it, reflecting on what she knew about from while she picked his brain while she studied. She was silent for much longer than she knew the Doctor liked. “I'll see what I can tell from asking. I've kind of been trying to avoid that since my crush was outed.”
“Just please find out however you can.”
Sighing, Martha nodded. The Doctor had very good puppy eyes, which made her wonder if she'd learned them from David. If she didn't respect the man so much she would've cursed his version of that look. “Okay, I'll find out whether he'd freak if you tried slapping his bum.”
The Doctor's eyes widened. “You what?!”
Martha had to laugh. She had had no idea that teasing an alien could be so much fun.
/=/=/=/
Martha watched as David reviewed her study notes. They consulted on her training regularly, and he had given her a study regimen that he thought would help her be very prepared for the upcoming months. This was a sort of assessment of how he thought she was doing.
At length he smiled broadly. “This is very good! I think you're just about ready for that test.”
“Only the first of many.” The comment was spoken on a groan.
“You'll do fine, Martha. Think of all the disasters you've handled being with us. That exam will seem like a breeze after living in 1969.”
Martha exhaled loudly. “Yeah, not one of my favourite experiences. Good thing you're good with all sorts of gadgets or we would've had a much harder time.”
David laughed. “You didn't see all the odd looks I got for living with two women when I wasn't married to either of them.”
“And how many of those looks were because of my skin colour?”
“Too many, but I think between my and the Doctor's glares, we were left alone pretty quickly.”
Ah, there was her possible opening. “David?”
“Yeah?”
“I've always wondered. What happened between you two when the Doctor turned into a woman?”
He nearly choked on his tea.
She resisted the urge to slap his back to help him, a method that did not exactly work like it did on the telly. It was one of the things that made her want to become a physician. “I mean, you'd just found out that your male best friend had feelings for you and then he dies, and in his place stands a woman who I must say is attractive enough to make most women feel inferior. Especially if they know that curves are what women are supposed to have.”
He coughed as he recovered his breath, knowing his face had changed color. “Martha, where did this come from?!”
“I've watched you two. Had many opportunities. How many people have assumed that you and the Doctor are married? Shakespeare was convinced of it! I mean, we found proof that you two inspired Benedick and Beatrice!”
His face went through a wild array of expressions as he remembered finding the notes that linked meeting them to the creation of Much Ado About Nothing. Not quite as unnerving as Elizabeth I seeing them and calling the Doctor her 'mortal enemy'. Because there had been something in how the monarch had looked at him that gave him the shivers.
“And you two practically acted like a married couple while we were stuck in the 60s. Hell, I sometimes felt like the teenage daughter who was trying to get her parents' attention without acting out!”
His expression stilled into wide eyes only. “You did?”
Martha noticed how much of a squeak that was, but she said nothing. She knew enough to know that it was not good for a man's ego to mention such things. Besides, she wasn't a woman who liked rattling a bloke's cage that much. Not like the Doctor, who seemed to enjoy that newfound element of being a woman - the liberty of how much further she could push things to aggravate the male dictators and other stuffed shifts. “Yes. I know it must have felt weird, all those things happening at once. But I have to know... what do you really think and feel?”
He shifted, looking anywhere but at her. “The Doctor hasn't put you up to this, has she?”
His looking away was useful. It allowed her to hide the deep breath needed to lie convincingly. “Really, do you see her asking such a personal thing of someone? Especially of me?”
She was relying on his knowledge that she had felt a crush for him that she was keeping under regulation to override any suspicions he harboured.
He sighed. “I suppose not.”
“So... I'm guessing you haven't talked with anyone about this. Not even your friends who seem in the know about the Doctor's change. And especially not your family.”
David rubbed his face, struggling to find any words that would remotely suffice. “I don't know where to begin.”
“The beginning usually helps.”
He laughed humorlessly. “Smart alec.”
“I have to be sometimes. Not that you two give me much room to be one.”
They both laughed after a moment's pause. The banter did tend to be solely between him and the Doctor. Although Martha had managed to find the occasional snappy comeback to inject into the moment, mostly because of her perspective as the outsider.
Leaning back in his chair to stare at the ceiling, David let his eyes drift around as he gathered his voice again. “Where in the beginning? I'm not sure what I'm willing to talk about.”
“Let's start with something simple. How do you feel and think about the Doctor having been in love with you for so long? Did you have a clue before the change?”
“No. Not a whisper. But... a few things make more sense in hindsight. Some of the martial arts lessons changed. Not so much of the grappling after that one time I managed to pin him when he thought he'd won that final round.”
Yeah, Martha could imagine that was a shocker. Probably trying to conceal the instinctive reactions, which it sounded like the Doctor had not known how to cope with at first. “Anything else?”
“Yeah. He made one other companion stop flirting with me. You haven't met Jack Harkness yet, but he's impossible to forget. Well, I say 'he', but I think the Boe-Kind might be more than one gender at once. Freemartins is the term the Doctor uses.”
It sounded familiar from her biology lessons, although she could swear she heard something else in reference to it. Not that her medical texts were always accurate, she had found from traveling with them. Something else to brush up on then. Although asking questions would derail her whole reason for starting this conversation. “So... Jack flirted with you, and the Doctor threatened him? If 'him' is the right pronoun?”
David shrugged. “I don't know for sure. I think the correct pronoun is spelled h-i-r if meant as the subject. S-h-i is the subject pronoun. Anyway... back to the real question. Neither of them will admit to what was said, but the Doctor sort of admitted to it when I noticed how quickly Jack went from intense flirting to nothing within minutes.”
Yeah, that was a jealous reaction there. Which fit with some of the Doctor's reactions to the females flirting with David. Martha had never seen her scare someone off with just a glare. Mind, some of those women and girls had deserved it. But how much had he noticed? “What about the reaction when females flirted with you?”
“I'll admit I wasn't paying much attention,” he admitted with a frown. “Usually the flirting tended to be part of some plan to distract us from figuring out the evil plot of the day.” He huffed. “Never thought I'd almost miss being imposed on at the gym - at least there you knew what they were after.”
She'd once heard this story, and it had stuck in her mind like a like a tooh on a toffee when she thought about flirting with him. Lips twitching, she tried another track. “What about once you did know?”
David sat up straighter, his body starting to tense. He thought about stopping the talk here, but he supposed it might be worth voicing to her just once. She did understand that her crush could not ever come to anything, so she might be able to understand where he was coming from. “I was shocked. Floored. You name the word, I probably felt like it. Trouble was that I also had to deal with the TARDIS telling me I had to risk my own life to save the Doctor. In the end I had to do it because I couldn't just abandon a friend, and was preparing myself mentally to die. But... the Doctor apparently kissed me and drew the Vortex energy out, which led to his death.”
“Wait. You don't remember?”
His cleared his throat. “No.”
“Are you grateful for that?”
He squirmed in his seat. “Yes... I think. I mean, it's my best friend we're talking about. The one who helped me feel alive and part of something so much bigger than myself. Not that medicine isn't that, but I had no idea I was starting to burn out. I'd been given a new lease on life by saying yes when the Doctor asked me again to join him, so it feels wrong that I can't remember much about his last moments. Only the very last minutes are clear.”
Guilt. Survivor's guilt despite the Doctor living on in a way. “So when this Doctor first appeared, what did you think? Did you wonder if the regeneration had been deliberate so the Doctor could be someone you wanted?”
Now he rubbed his neck, hemming and hawing as his legs bounced like a chess player's in the middle of a tough game.
It made Martha raise her eyebrows. This sounded interesting. “What's wrong?”
He dropped his hands with a loud exhale. “This is something I've never told the Doctor, because I don't know how to or what would happen if I did. I don't know what I want to see happen.”
“Then tell. Maybe talking about it will lessen the fearful hold on you.”
He gave her a doubtful look, but he plowed on. “He's told you that I'm a bit psychic, like my granddad. Well, growing up, especially once I hit puberty, I had these dreams about a smiling ginger woman who acted like she was married to me. I thought she was the most beautiful woman, and I kept wishing that she was real and I could meet her. Probably hurt most of my relationships, even if I just couldn't find one who I thought I could have a connection with. Once I understood why so many of my dreams became reality I started hoping I would see her one day, that on my journeys with the Doctor I'd come across her and could... court her. Didn't really let myself think about it, but I know the hope was there. And then my best friend..” He couldn't finish the sentence.
Martha saw exactly where he was going and said it for him. “And then your best friend transformed into the very same woman from your dreams?”
“Looked and sounded exactly like her,” he admitted. “I was flabbergasted. And then she seemed to be deathly ill, so I had to take care of her. Her clothes didn't fit anymore, so I had to help remove them or outright do it myself when she fell unconscious. Oh God, that was embarrassing! Stuck helping my best friend who's never been able to control the process, and I was aroused! Taking care of someone who couldn't care for their own person, and I was practically perving over her!” He rubbed his face vigorously, like he could scrub away the memory.
Like it had worked the last thousand times he tried it.
Martha was not sure he intended to tell her that much, but she pretended like it was an everyday thing. No reason to draw attention to anything that might make him even more uncomfortable. “The Doctor had to practice at acting like a woman, didn't she? How did she manage?”
“Two of my friends, Nerys and Emily, they stopped by and I had no choice but to tell them everything. Mostly because they found the notes I had left behind for my family and friends when I thought I wasn't going to come back from doing what the TARDIS told me to do. When they learned that she had no suitable clothing they insisted on taking her shopping. What could I do but go along? Do you know how many times I had to caution the Doctor even in the future about his behavior before then?”
“I'm guessing far more often than I've seen you do. Or that I've been compelled to do myself.”
“Well, as much as I trusted my friends, I didn't want to leave my changed best friend alone with them to face the wilds of the shops. At least I was spared from the more... provocative aspects.”
Meaning the bra and pants shopping. Yes, that might have been too much for his frazzled mind then. “She adjusted eventually. She acts like a woman now.”
“Yeah, the trip helped her in the end, even if she hated the process at first. And I'm not going to say what seeing her in clothes that flattered her did to me. Thank God I had the twins around to keep me calmer than I might've been otherwise.”
“And what about as you two travelled between then and when I met you?”
He cleared his throat. “Between helping her adjust to periods - and you've seen how bad they can get now, so imagine what it was like when she discovered that her body did that - and the start of being mistaken for a married couple practically everywhere we go now? I don't know how I coped!”
Martha suspected that wasn't exactly the truth, but she wasn't going to press. Not on that one. “So... what's changed? Is it just a matter of feeling awkward given that she was a man, or is there something more?”
He shook his head. “It's the awkwardness. And that the lust took its sweet time to lessen even a bit. I mean, I can be around her now without immediately feeling hot, but if she gets into a dress or shows any cleavage... I need time to myself later on.” He cleared his throat.
“But what about the future? Could there ever be anything for real between you two?”
That made him shoot out of his chair. “No! There can't be!”
He sounded a little too frantic to be believed. “You sure?”
“It has to be that way! We might look compatible, but it has to be impossible! We're two different species and there's so little technology of the Doctor's kind left! There was only one known child between a Human and a Gallifreyan, and that had to involve help. Besides, she deserves more than the four or five decades a Human of my time might be able to give, and anyone who loved her wouldn't ask for more than her conscience would permit.” He nearly hurried out of the room, but stopped to point frantically at her. “Never ever tell her what we talked about!”
Martha nodded, stunned by the force of his reaction.
Not quite comforted, David left the room.
Once she was sure he was out of earshot, Martha looked back down at her tea. “He's focusing on every possibly reason they shouldn't be together. Is he in denial of his own feelings? And if I can't talk... what the hell am I supposed to do for them? She's too scared to make a move, and he's not facing things.” She looked up. “I wish you would talk to me, TARDIS.”
There was a tinkling sound.
She sighed. “In a way that I understand.”
The tinkling suddenly seemed a bit amused. Not that it helped Martha's mood.
Chapter Two: Acts Of Desperation