Martha Jones, brilliant and lovely. Just like The Doctor would say. Okay, he would mostly say brilliant but he had called her lovely once or twice. Alec considered him a fool. What he saw in Rose over Martha, Hardison would never understand. He nearly corrected her when she said that he must have really enjoyed the episodes. Hardison enjoyed the series but he repeated the episodes with Martha the most. For Martha.
But he had said plenty and she had told him in her very sweet and polite way to calm down. So he would. Even as she mentioned the Ninth Doctor and Rose, although his brow went up in pleasant surprise. Now when she confirmed the Captain then mentioned Snape, Hardison was doing the slight bounce in place again. Only Martha seemed to lose some wind from her sails when she mentioned Severus. Uh oh.
She started talking about things he didn't readily understand. "Winchester boys? Buffy... the vampire slayer?" he asked, his face contorted in complete question. "But if you're saying from the barge then they're from your world then. Or am I missing something?" Hardison was all up on his Martha knowledge and none of this was ringing a bell.
When he calmed down, Martha eased down a bit as well, and she was a fair amount more relaxed. It was easier to talk to people when they weren't bounding around like rabbits. Not for the first time since this had happened to her, Martha felt a deep and pressing need to go and apologize to Snape for how she'd reacted when he'd first come aboard, and to find Neville and do the same thing. Of course, this was a very different Snape, and a very different world.
And then he was bounding once more, and Martha gave up. It was easier to just smile and not when he did it, and she wished that she could have the same level of happiness with something here. It was hard, after nearly fifty days and with so many people leaving. Now there was Alec who was brilliant.
"They're not from my world. After Davros stole the Earth, and I left the TARDIS with Jack, I left UNIT and went to work on an interdimensional rehabilitation Barge. That's where I know Severus from originally. I woke up here after that with West telling me I was fictional."
"Oh," he said simply. What she said made sense. Even if he didn't know the details of the barge or who she meant by Buffy and the Winchester boys. "West is a trip. And kind of a bastard. He really could've stopped Victoria from throwing her envelope in the fire. ...Hate to think what he let happen with poor Mary."
Hardison swallowed as he remembered Parker. "What'd you mean by 'gone'? I've got a friend missing since yesterday. I haven't been able to find her. She was here before me and well, she's just gone. Haven't found a trace of her. She LOVES Santa but wasn't there with West last night. We were kids together when that all happened. -I didn't realize it until we returned back into adults. Haven't seen her since."
The smile had finally vanished from his lips. As did the excited energy. In fact, he was almost frowning. Concern was evident in his tone and on his features. Maybe Martha could explain the ongoings in Peaksville a little better than Nate and Parker had. This was all turning into the most dynamic dream Hardison remembered ever having. And it seemed far from over.
"Mary'd have the knowledge of it. I think she'd done alright in the end." Martha had seen the episodes, even if she'd forgotten them until after she'd been here for a few days. That was the problem with this place (one of the many) time ran so weirdly slowly here. "But West definitely is a bastard. So is Miss Devlin." Martha's face went grim for a moment, and she frowned, but there was nothing more that she could say about her deal. Literally.
Martha frowned at that, and she reached out and quickly put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, but people have a habit of disappearing here. West just suddenly shows himself burning their tapes. It seems to happen in shifts. Somedays there's loads of them. I think it has to do with if West finds them interesting or not." She gave his hand a quick squeeze. "But it doesn't always mean that. The town's in a bit of disrepair now, and maybe she's just somewhere else."
However, she didn't think it was likely given the fact that Hardison said that his friend had vanished before everything had gone all pear-shaped. With a reassuring smile, Martha added quickly. "Come on, I'll help you look for her, yeah? Four eyes are better than two."
His head snapped back and his eyes widened a tad when Martha knew exactly what he meant. Hardison was so used to his team not understanding what he was talking about that it was a slight jolt to his system when she commented on Mary. Devlin....Devlin...OH! It took him a second to run through his knowledge of the Twilight Zone before remembering the devious character played by Julie Newmar.
He nodded in acknowledgement and remained quiet again, feeling there was more to her feelings about Miss Devlin than just the episode. His frown deepened at Martha's explanation of disappearances in Peaksville. "Parker has a tendency to disappear sometimes but...I don't think this would be one of those times."
A grin immediately matched hers at the offer to help search for Parker. He was on a mission with Martha Jones! Hardison instantly felt better. "The one thing Parker isn't is uninteresting. I just hope she didn't cross paths with Anthony or Miss Devlin. She ...doesn't always get things. Wish I could say she always means well." He smirked at a recollection of when the team had discussed getting over fears. Her story gave them all perpetual brow.
"Any chance there's a bank in town?" Why hadn't he thought of that sooner?! "I'd think she would've gone after it sooner but there's no telling with Parker."
Martha nodded quickly when he said that she'd had a tendency to vanish. Martha hadn't been close to the woman, and the only time they'd ever spoken had been when they were talking about how the powers had been. Really, she wished she'd gotten closer to the woman, or to a woman in general, but for some reason it hadn't worked like that here. "Then I'm sure she's around here somewhere, really."
The fact that his grin matched hers amused it; it amused her a fair amount. There was a nod when he said that she wasn't uninteresting. "No, she didn't seem like it when I'd met her. We were talking about having super powers. That was a few days ago, though." Martha paused for a moment, considering. "Nearly a week, I think? She could levitate, and I turned into an owl and flew. Well, an owl and a Pegasus and other things."
Her words had a laugh in them, and she looked around when he asked for a bank. "We've got one, yeah. It's based off every sort of small town in America, and they all have one. But it's completely empty. I don't even think the vault door shuts. I doubt she'd have gone there. We can give it a shot though."
"Super powers?" he asked, a little jealous that he had missed out on that. Hardison hadn't voiced his jealousy but corrected his thought process aloud. His expression went from questioning to a smirk with a slightly embarrassed amusement in his voice. "Then again, she tortured me as kids so maybe it's good I missed out on that fun."
He chuckled then simmered and had asked about the bank. Martha knew Parker better than she thought. "Nah, you're right. She wouldn't bother unless it was some kind of challenge. That's where she scares me. I could see her getting sent to the cornfield, only to be sent back because she was having way too much fun trying to get out."
Hardison stopped and hung a hand off the back of his neck in thought while panning from one side of town to the other. "Then again, she does love money. But I think she would've discovered the bank already. ...I just don't know." Worry returned both on his face and in his voice. This is why he had put a tracking device on Parker before. He would apparently have to invent one for her here in Peaksville.
"Yeah. It was fun, really." Martha grinned at that; she'd enjoyed it loads and loads, really. "Well, until the next day when it was like having the worst hangover of your life. Like the worst hangover of your life and time travel without a capsule all rolled into one." There was an amused smile when he said that Parker had tortured him while they were kids. "Someone named Nate tried to hold me up for two dollars, during that. Other than that, I had loads of fun as a kid. Sledding was brilliant."
Martha gestured to the area around them. "Sad the snow left, really. It would have been fun to have gone sledding as an adult." And it would have been something to do in the dead little town. "I doubt anyone would have wanted to be sent back to the cornfield. It costs too much to get out of it, especially for the people around them. Buffy," she remembered that she hadn't answered his question before. "Yes, the Vampire Slayer, from the show not the movie--she was sent to the cornfield." A dark look passed her face; Martha Jones had been the cause of that trip thanks to being given Severus Snape's magic.
"Things were different then; we had partners that we couldn't move outside several meters of. And when something happened it happened to both of us. The deal she made affected loads of people." Martha shrugged at that, and then she put her hand on his.
"Don't worry until we see a burning tape, yeah? That's when you'll know for sure."
They went from grinning to frowning in no time. Hardison hadn't exactly had the same experience sledding but agreed that it would probably be fun as an adult. He was sure Parker would love it which made him smile but a reminder that his friend was missing. Moreover, he was missing his friend. He snorted at Nate trying to extort money out of Martha. So much for being the good guy.
The way Martha looked when she spoke about the cornfield was ominous and worried him. He didn't think it would be a pleasant place, remembering exactly which episode little Anthony wished the people there, and what else he had done. Hardison had grown used to being the one who kept tabs on the team. And Parker had grown to be a little more important to him within team.
Martha's instruction not to worry incited the opposite reaction from Hardison. His face was in a perpetual frown. "At least if we were stuck to each other, I wouldn't lose her. Might make it a little awkward to use the bathroom but it'd be better to together than not knowing where she is." He stopped there, shoulders slumping after an exhale even with her touch.
This was starting to become a really depressing dream. "Aside from the tape burning and the cornfield, there anywhere else people can get sent to?" His hand fiddled with the key while his elbow kept the DVD tucked into his side. If he wasn't so worried, Hardison would probably want to watch one of their episodes.
"No. The town is contained with a bubble. No matter how many times we walk through it, we always end up right back at the beginning. Streets move and what not, and there are the buildings on Maine Street, but for the moment our world is just the town and the cornfield. If her tape isn't burned, then she needs to be one place or another."
But that was beside the point. There were other people that she hadn't seen either, and those other people were worrying her. Jim, Sam, Castiel, Cordelia, Erik. Taking a deep breath, she just looked around again. "Remember, as long as West thinks we're entertaining, he's going to keep us around. Parker was pretty entertaining; I'm sure she's here somewhere, love."
She patted his shoulder again, and then looked around. "Maybe we'll find her and Jim together."
"Entertaining is definitely one way of describing Parker," he replied through a smirk. Just as he connected with her onscreen persona, Hardison was comforted by Martha. "The minute I find her, I am so putting a tracking device back on that girl."
He thought about what Martha had said regarding the town being a bubble. "Any way we can find out who is in the cornfield? A broadcast? Writing in the journals? Can we find the cornfield?"
Hardison remembered the instructions given by West but no one had explained the cornfield. All Alec knew from the corresponding episode of The Twilight Zone was that Anthony sent them there. Apparently, there were some changes to that in Peaksville.
"Well, if you come up with a way of making one here, more power to you, mate. We don't really have any sort of level of technology here at the moment." To their great detriment, really. Martha had been used to having Star Trek technology aboard the barge for things like medical equipment and she was definitely missing that.
"No, the cornfield isn't connected to the journals. It just seems not to work like that. But normally writing in the journals does work to each other. Although sometimes what you intend to be private simply doesn't turn out that way. I've had it happen to me before." It had happened when she had being doing something incredibly stupid, but that was beside the point.
"There's not even where the cornfield should be in town. Either Anthony sends someone there or they end up there when they die. It's just a creepy place." There was a shrug that covered a shiver, and the doctor just looked around for a moment.
"Oh, just wait and see. Radio and TV both act as receivers and transmitters. I'll come up with something. Watch." Hardison hacked history. History! He could no doubt create something as simple as a tracking device.
He stared silently as they walked, trying to digest what she said. He would have never trusted a private function in the journal. Yet he couldn't understand why someone couldn't access their journal in then cornfield. This sucked.
"Has anyone ever talked about it after coming back from there? Maybe there's a tell. It has to be around here somewhere. There's at least gotta be a way of communicating with West or Devlin where we can ask the question about who is where."
Hardison looked toward where the boarding house once stood.
Martha had seen the Doctor create a timey-whimey detector out of a lunch box and a telephone; she'd seen the Master make a rocket out of food... it wouldn't surprise her to find out that Hardison could actually go about and do something like this. Then again, very little surprised her in Peaksville now.
"Buffy never spoke of it. At least to me, anyway." She took a deep breath and there was a shiver as she clasped her fingers tightly together. She remembered how it had felt to be firing off magical spells without rhyme or reason, and how she'd ended up turning Rose into a cat, and giving torturing people, and of course killing Buffy. She was also reminded of how Snape had taken care of her when that happened, how he'd sat with her and given her his wand during that.
And now he didn't remember her. Bloody hell how she loathed West.
"Even talking to West or Devlin can be a risk, and whatever you do, don't use the phones. Remember the episode where they call your dead relatives and they tell you to kill yourself? Yeah, they do that as well."
But he had said plenty and she had told him in her very sweet and polite way to calm down. So he would. Even as she mentioned the Ninth Doctor and Rose, although his brow went up in pleasant surprise. Now when she confirmed the Captain then mentioned Snape, Hardison was doing the slight bounce in place again. Only Martha seemed to lose some wind from her sails when she mentioned Severus. Uh oh.
She started talking about things he didn't readily understand. "Winchester boys? Buffy... the vampire slayer?" he asked, his face contorted in complete question. "But if you're saying from the barge then they're from your world then. Or am I missing something?" Hardison was all up on his Martha knowledge and none of this was ringing a bell.
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And then he was bounding once more, and Martha gave up. It was easier to just smile and not when he did it, and she wished that she could have the same level of happiness with something here. It was hard, after nearly fifty days and with so many people leaving. Now there was Alec who was brilliant.
"They're not from my world. After Davros stole the Earth, and I left the TARDIS with Jack, I left UNIT and went to work on an interdimensional rehabilitation Barge. That's where I know Severus from originally. I woke up here after that with West telling me I was fictional."
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Hardison swallowed as he remembered Parker. "What'd you mean by 'gone'? I've got a friend missing since yesterday. I haven't been able to find her. She was here before me and well, she's just gone. Haven't found a trace of her. She LOVES Santa but wasn't there with West last night. We were kids together when that all happened. -I didn't realize it until we returned back into adults. Haven't seen her since."
The smile had finally vanished from his lips. As did the excited energy. In fact, he was almost frowning. Concern was evident in his tone and on his features. Maybe Martha could explain the ongoings in Peaksville a little better than Nate and Parker had. This was all turning into the most dynamic dream Hardison remembered ever having. And it seemed far from over.
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Martha frowned at that, and she reached out and quickly put her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, but people have a habit of disappearing here. West just suddenly shows himself burning their tapes. It seems to happen in shifts. Somedays there's loads of them. I think it has to do with if West finds them interesting or not." She gave his hand a quick squeeze. "But it doesn't always mean that. The town's in a bit of disrepair now, and maybe she's just somewhere else."
However, she didn't think it was likely given the fact that Hardison said that his friend had vanished before everything had gone all pear-shaped. With a reassuring smile, Martha added quickly. "Come on, I'll help you look for her, yeah? Four eyes are better than two."
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He nodded in acknowledgement and remained quiet again, feeling there was more to her feelings about Miss Devlin than just the episode. His frown deepened at Martha's explanation of disappearances in Peaksville. "Parker has a tendency to disappear sometimes but...I don't think this would be one of those times."
A grin immediately matched hers at the offer to help search for Parker. He was on a mission with Martha Jones! Hardison instantly felt better. "The one thing Parker isn't is uninteresting. I just hope she didn't cross paths with Anthony or Miss Devlin. She ...doesn't always get things. Wish I could say she always means well." He smirked at a recollection of when the team had discussed getting over fears. Her story gave them all perpetual brow.
"Any chance there's a bank in town?" Why hadn't he thought of that sooner?! "I'd think she would've gone after it sooner but there's no telling with Parker."
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The fact that his grin matched hers amused it; it amused her a fair amount. There was a nod when he said that she wasn't uninteresting. "No, she didn't seem like it when I'd met her. We were talking about having super powers. That was a few days ago, though." Martha paused for a moment, considering. "Nearly a week, I think? She could levitate, and I turned into an owl and flew. Well, an owl and a Pegasus and other things."
Her words had a laugh in them, and she looked around when he asked for a bank. "We've got one, yeah. It's based off every sort of small town in America, and they all have one. But it's completely empty. I don't even think the vault door shuts. I doubt she'd have gone there. We can give it a shot though."
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He chuckled then simmered and had asked about the bank. Martha knew Parker better than she thought. "Nah, you're right. She wouldn't bother unless it was some kind of challenge. That's where she scares me. I could see her getting sent to the cornfield, only to be sent back because she was having way too much fun trying to get out."
Hardison stopped and hung a hand off the back of his neck in thought while panning from one side of town to the other. "Then again, she does love money. But I think she would've discovered the bank already. ...I just don't know." Worry returned both on his face and in his voice. This is why he had put a tracking device on Parker before. He would apparently have to invent one for her here in Peaksville.
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Martha gestured to the area around them. "Sad the snow left, really. It would have been fun to have gone sledding as an adult." And it would have been something to do in the dead little town. "I doubt anyone would have wanted to be sent back to the cornfield. It costs too much to get out of it, especially for the people around them. Buffy," she remembered that she hadn't answered his question before. "Yes, the Vampire Slayer, from the show not the movie--she was sent to the cornfield." A dark look passed her face; Martha Jones had been the cause of that trip thanks to being given Severus Snape's magic.
"Things were different then; we had partners that we couldn't move outside several meters of. And when something happened it happened to both of us. The deal she made affected loads of people." Martha shrugged at that, and then she put her hand on his.
"Don't worry until we see a burning tape, yeah? That's when you'll know for sure."
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The way Martha looked when she spoke about the cornfield was ominous and worried him. He didn't think it would be a pleasant place, remembering exactly which episode little Anthony wished the people there, and what else he had done. Hardison had grown used to being the one who kept tabs on the team. And Parker had grown to be a little more important to him within team.
Martha's instruction not to worry incited the opposite reaction from Hardison. His face was in a perpetual frown. "At least if we were stuck to each other, I wouldn't lose her. Might make it a little awkward to use the bathroom but it'd be better to together than not knowing where she is." He stopped there, shoulders slumping after an exhale even with her touch.
This was starting to become a really depressing dream. "Aside from the tape burning and the cornfield, there anywhere else people can get sent to?" His hand fiddled with the key while his elbow kept the DVD tucked into his side. If he wasn't so worried, Hardison would probably want to watch one of their episodes.
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But that was beside the point. There were other people that she hadn't seen either, and those other people were worrying her. Jim, Sam, Castiel, Cordelia, Erik. Taking a deep breath, she just looked around again. "Remember, as long as West thinks we're entertaining, he's going to keep us around. Parker was pretty entertaining; I'm sure she's here somewhere, love."
She patted his shoulder again, and then looked around. "Maybe we'll find her and Jim together."
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He thought about what Martha had said regarding the town being a bubble. "Any way we can find out who is in the cornfield? A broadcast? Writing in the journals? Can we find the cornfield?"
Hardison remembered the instructions given by West but no one had explained the cornfield. All Alec knew from the corresponding episode of The Twilight Zone was that Anthony sent them there. Apparently, there were some changes to that in Peaksville.
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"No, the cornfield isn't connected to the journals. It just seems not to work like that. But normally writing in the journals does work to each other. Although sometimes what you intend to be private simply doesn't turn out that way. I've had it happen to me before." It had happened when she had being doing something incredibly stupid, but that was beside the point.
"There's not even where the cornfield should be in town. Either Anthony sends someone there or they end up there when they die. It's just a creepy place." There was a shrug that covered a shiver, and the doctor just looked around for a moment.
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He stared silently as they walked, trying to digest what she said. He would have never trusted a private function in the journal. Yet he couldn't understand why someone couldn't access their journal in then cornfield. This sucked.
"Has anyone ever talked about it after coming back from there? Maybe there's a tell. It has to be around here somewhere. There's at least gotta be a way of communicating with West or Devlin where we can ask the question about who is where."
Hardison looked toward where the boarding house once stood.
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"Buffy never spoke of it. At least to me, anyway." She took a deep breath and there was a shiver as she clasped her fingers tightly together. She remembered how it had felt to be firing off magical spells without rhyme or reason, and how she'd ended up turning Rose into a cat, and giving torturing people, and of course killing Buffy. She was also reminded of how Snape had taken care of her when that happened, how he'd sat with her and given her his wand during that.
And now he didn't remember her. Bloody hell how she loathed West.
"Even talking to West or Devlin can be a risk, and whatever you do, don't use the phones. Remember the episode where they call your dead relatives and they tell you to kill yourself? Yeah, they do that as well."
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