(Untitled)

[thegooddrjones]

Who: Martha Jones and open.
What: Wandering and eventually the doctor's office. Multiple threads encouraged!
When: Day 51
Where: Town Square!

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[thegooddrjones]

She'd tied the black ribbons of the mask together, weaving them around her arm. The gold of the mask dangled from her non-injured wrist like some sort of antique and ornate purse. Her thoughts were dark and preoccupied, filled with wonder about the mask that she'd discovered and whatever the hell else that West possibly could have planned. Her hand ached, and she wondered who's ache she was borrowing, and there was a moment when she wished that she could shout from the rooftops that people really shouldn't do stupid and mad things like punching walls.

But then there was a familiar voice calling for her. There was a familiar voice that over the last fifty days Martha had rather given up on ever hearing again. The voice made her face break into a vivid smile when she turned towards it, and there the Doctor was. Seeing the Doctor on the streets of Peaksville was quite possibly the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen in that instant.

The Doctor being here meant loads of things, and it meant that they'd be able to get back to the Barge and to their lives and bloody hell here was the Doctor. Without even saying anything, Martha ran towards him and threw her arms around his neck. When she kissed him so soundly, she'd completely forgotten about the split of her lip and the bruises on her face. The little sting of pain really didn't matter; the Doctor was here and everything was going to be alright now.

[a_bit_put_upon]

Though with barely a chance to transfer the toy to his pocket, the Doctor wasn't at all displeased by the reaction: it meant she remembered him, or at least he hoped she did. And if she did, it meant there had to be a way back--or at least a link there somehow--and if there wasn't, there had to be a way to bring the TARDIS through so he could take all three of them out of there. It meant that West's words had been at least some measure of rubbish.

The kiss was met with a surprised laugh, and he caught her automatically, swinging mask and all, to return it with vigour. He wondered briefly what had happened to cause this; she seemed far more relieved than she ought to have been, given how recently they'd seen each other on the ship.

He staved off that thought process for the time being, though, preferring to indulge in the few seconds of joy afforded to them both in this moment.

His smile was wide and probably unbidden when he finally let go... and lasted for all of a second as he reached up to fuss with her hair and found her face bruised and injured. His expression faltered slightly, the hand that had been reaching for her hair simply falling to rest a fingertip lightly and carefully on the bruise, while the other touched the wrist above her bandaged hand.

"What in... what's happened to you? Who did this?" His tone sounded as if it couldn't decide whether worry or anger should be the primary tinge.

[smilesnbracers]

Jack was in the middle of asking Martha what was going on, and how she'd been injured when another voice called out for her. He broke their hug and looked in the direction of the voice. There was a man there (a rather nice looking man), who obviously Martha knew, judging from the smile the spread across her face. There seemed to be a pause, though Jack wasn't sure it actually happened as it was so fast it was barely noticeable.

Standing aside, he watched as Martha ran to the other man, threw her arms around him and kissed him fiercely. It was almost a strange site, but really only because she was still holding that strange mask.

A wide smile spread across Jack's face as he watched from a distance, wanting to give them a bit of space for a minute before intruding. It was obvious to Jack that it was some sort of reunion between two people who were very close.

Making a mental note to try to not flirt with the attractive blond man, Jack slowly made his way over to the two. "Seems like today's the day for reunions," Jack said pleasantly when he arrived next to the pair, smile still lighting up his face.

[thegooddrjones]

Oh thank god, he remembered her. Martha didn't know if she could handle run into someone from the Barge who didn't remember her. The Doctor remembered her and he kissed her back and he was here. He was here and it was a bit like sunlight after a long ran and bloody hell how long had it been and how much had happened?

When his expression faltered, Martha frowned quickly and she remembered the bruise on her face and the ten additional ones that formed a necklace about her throat. Bloody hell, she didn't want to have to explain it, but she knew she did. The Doctor hadn't been around when there was the Mirrorverse flood, and she was grateful for that really. "It was Ace," her voice was soft. "But it wasn't the Ace you knew. She was from a flood..." Floods, he knew her and then he knew about them from the Barge. "She's gone; she disappeared while she was doing it. Gone with the smell of burning plastic." A part of Martha wondered if she had perhaps managed to destroy the other woman's tape in the process of getting free.

"I'm fine. They'll heal eventually, no real damage." The Doctor and Jack showing up was better than any painkiller that she could think of. Jack! For a moment she'd completely forgotten him, and then he was there and mentioning reunions. She watched him for a moment, and she didn't think that there was recognition.

"Jack," she said quickly. "May I present to you the Doctor. The Fifth one. Doctor, you know Jack."

[a_bit_put_upon]

He grimaced slightly at the mention of floods. He was still coming to terms with having lost his memory in the most recent one, and given the condition Una had been in when he'd first found and met her, he had no doubt the ship's denizens had suffered far worse than amnesia on too many occasions. But still, burning plastic...

He opened his mouth, about to ask if Ace had looked quite real and natural, but was cut off by the exchange following Jack's approach. The Doctor turned and, upon recognising him, became all smiles once again.

"Captain! Were you drawn to that anomaly on deck as well? I was rather..." But then something clicked, and while Jack didn't receive the frown Martha's injuries had, he did merit a somewhat befuddled expression for a moment. "...You needed the introduction. You--he hasn't come from the ship, has he?"

[smilesnbracers]

Jack cocked his head to the side, giving Martha a bit of a sidewards glance at her odd introduction. He couldn't quite figure out how the fifth incarnation of the Doctor would know him. If he recalled, he didn't meet the Doctor until his ninth form. Still, this was all very interesting. He'd always liked the doctor and he'd be lying if he said this one wasn't quite easy on the eyes, and he had always been curious about the man's past. What better way to find out than by talking to the past?

Things became even more interesting when the Doctor started talking about some sort of ship that didn't seem to be the TARDIS. "Well, I was on my way to a ship, but it wasn't one I figured you'd be on. Especially not as you are now. Can't say it's not good to see you, though."

[thegooddrjones]

Martha saw the grimace; she knew how much he'd hated to be denied his memories. The time that they had spent needing to rebuild them and his emotions for her had been very hard to say the least. She wrapped her fingers around his and gave them a squeeze. As there was that subtle little squeeze, it was matched with a broad smile. Martha'd missed his hand and his fingers and the way his presence calmed her.

There was a quick nod when he said that Jack hadn't come from the ship. Martha didn't know for certain or not, but she didn't think that he'd had. The way that he hadn't asked about it being a flood or a port, and not knowing who the Doctor was tended to be a bit of a sign. Then when Jack confirmed it, Martha smiled. It was a quick one, and a bright one. The Jack that she had known aboard the Barge was broken, even more broken than he had been on his arrival. She was glad that he didn't have that additional baggage.

"Was it called the Barge, Jack?" Martha's hand was still wrapped around the Doctor's and she wasn't going to let go for a while.

[a_bit_put_upon]

The hand suddenly squeezing his was held tightly, and gratefully so. It was strange, how deeply he'd come to trust Martha to look after him, and how protective of her he'd come to feel in return. This moment, for example: the way she acted didn't seem to be the result of a recent, startling transplant, and she was covered with injuries--his first instinct, to his dismay, was to ransack half the Universe until he found the culprit and bring her to justice. His second was to gather Martha up and tend to her, making certain she'd sleep afterwards.

Another oddity was that she'd come at him with the air of 'don't leave me behind again' that he was ashamed to admit being accustomed to catching upon leaving a companion on holiday and miscalculating his time of return... how long had she been here? That, and a barrage of other questions, came to his mind at once, stopping just shy of his tongue but tinting his expression nonetheless.

Half an ear still on the conversation, he drew himself out of his own train of thought to glance up at the Captain again with a chuckle.

"Mucking about in other people's timelines is getting to be a favourite pastime of mine, it seems," he mused with a grin. "Odd as it sounds, I'm glad to see you looking this well." Upon Martha's question, however, he looked vaguely troubled, and possibly on the brink of warning Jack against the idea, should it happen to be true.

[smilesnbracers]

Jack cocked his head and looked thoughtfully at Martha. "No, can't say that it was," he said before smiling his 1000 watt smile again. "Should it have been?"

There was obviously something going on here that he wasn't aware of. Not that that was a surprise. He and Martha had crossed paths randomly a lot over the years and considering how busy they both were, he'd never been able to keep a close eye on her whereabouts. He'd always heard rumours, of course, but never details, and never from what he considered to be reliable sources. Martha was a bit of a household name amongst other time and space travellers after all. It was bound to be that he'd hear something, just like he heard some rumours about Rose every now and again.

Still, he had to wonder just where in her timeline Martha was. Had this Martha joined UNIT? Married Mickey? His eyes narrowed slightly as he thought, wondering how much he could say without possibly giving away information about her possible future.

Jack's smile returned as the Doctor spoke again. He looked different and acted a bit different from the Doctor(s) he'd known, but it was still plainly obvious that he was the same man. "Well, I'm not sure where on what timeline we all are, but I'll tell you this much. You don't really improve on the whole mucking about thing," he replied, jovially. His expression faltered just slightly at the mention of him looking well. He thought again of all he'd lost in the past while. Tosh, Owen, Ianto, all because of him, because he couldn't protect them. It occurred to him then that if this other Jack they knew was not looking so well (judging from the looks on their faces, something really bad happened), then he wasn't really looking forward to his possible future.

"So, are you guys going to tell me what's going on? Where we are? Why we're here, that kind of thing? And who was that West guy?"

[thegooddrjones]

Martha noticed the odd expression that the Doctor had; she couldn't not notice it. Taking a deep breath, Martha just kept holding onto his hand, not wanting to let go of it even a little bit. The sense of home, the familiarity of the Barge where she at least had some concept and ability that she'd be able to run off and do something else helped, despite knowing how fragile and frail it was. How untrue it was. There were floods and ports and terrible things happening on the Barge, but hopefully the Admiral hadn't done it on purpose.

There was a quick grin when he mentioned mucking up other people's timelines. Hers were currently rather mucked up, as were his. She did know, however, that eventually he'd go home and it would be all fixe on his end. After all, the Doctor didn't remember her when they'd met, and that was several lifetimes away, as it were.

With Jack's question, Martha shrugged a bit. It was a hard topic to broach, being on an interdimensional rehabilitation ship with the likes of the Master and Davros. Then she laughed at the comment about not improving on the mucking about thing. That was true; he was always rather bad about it in each incarnation of the Doctor that she'd met. It was part of the whole Doctoring thing. And then it was time to do the lovely bit of Time travel part of figuring out where people were.

"I'm from after the Earth was stolen." Vague spoilers. "About a week after on real time, and then I went to the Barge; it works a bit out of time. I saw you there, actually, but you were from later than me." A pause, and how to frame this. "You'd come from after that. A year or so." What she meant to say was 'after Steven and the 456 and Ianto's death' but that was a lot to take in.

Instead, it was time to focus on the here and now. "West is a nutter. He thinks he's made us all up. We're in the Twilight Zone, literally. The town is called Peaksville, and I've not found a way to get out. So far since I've been here, we've been turned into children, given super powers, given each other's powers," a dark shadow fell over Martha's face, and she shook it off quickly. "And people just come and go over night. Some people from the Barge, and some not."

[a_bit_put_upon]

"I'd be rather disappointed in myself if I did," he replied jovially, flipping one coattail back to tuck his free hand into his pocket. Some things, it seemed, never changed.

He gave Martha a brief look of puzzlement at the mention of the Earth being stolen, but even once they'd have a chance to talk in private again, he knew better than to ask. History, he firmly believed, was meant to make itself, and he was sure he'd hear of that in its own time. The pause, the facial changes exchanged between Martha and Jack, made him curious as well, but that exchange seemed a more private thing, and so he turned his attention elsewhere until West was brought up.

"Children again?" he muttered half under his breath. "Are we certain he isn't the..." but trailed off with a huff. He doubted the Admiral would have the attention span to look after a town, given the shoddy job he did at keeping ship. "How long have you two been here?"

[smilesnbracers]

Jack's face fell once he quickly worked out the math in Martha's subtlety. He did his best to make his face look more stern than sad, but the grief washing over him at the loss of his grandson and lover was almost too much to bear. This had been why he'd run away from Torchwood and Gwen and Earth in general. He couldn't handle people thinking he was some kind of hero, especially not Gwen and especially not after all he'd done to those he supposedly loved.

He didn't comment, just nodded, knowing that if Martha had heard anything about what had happened in Wales before she ended up here, that she would know exactly what his facial expression meant.

Shaking the morbid thoughts from his head as best he could, Jack plastered a content look on his face and began pondering their current position. "The Twilight Zone? Like that television show from earth? Well, I guess that would fit if West thinks we're fictional."

Jack looked at the Doctor and smiled, all traces of the sadness now gone as if they had never existed. "Well, I've been here all of five minutes. From the looks of things, that's about a minute longer than you, Doctor."

[thegooddrjones]

"He's not the Admiral. If he was the Admiral things would be a lot different and one of us wouldn't have been able to hit him and draw blood at Christmas." A pause. "Well, what passed as Christmas I suppose." Time had such strange meanings here. The party had only been a few days ago, and yet it felt like months and months back. That was hard to remember really.

But her attention focused on Jack's face. Damn. Damn, she had hoped that he hadn't come from that time, the time where he'd saved the Earth at such a huge cost to himself and to everything that he was. She hated how that sadness had flooded his eyes, and she'd seen it before. Hell, she; been on the other end of it more than once. She'd also been on the other end of the not a hero bit, because she'd seen what Steven had cost him, how much it had cost him.

Slowly, she moved towards him, and she offered him the hand that wasn't entwined with the Doctor's. She didn't think that he'd want a hug, not yet, but Martha Jones knew how important touch could be, how it could fill and warm and hopefully make things the smallest bit better.

"Yeah, The Twilight Zone. He believes that he made us up. He does things like bugger with our reality because he wants to see how we'd react. And I've been here fifty-one days." There was a little bit of a sigh. "But it feels like over a year."

[a_bit_put_upon]

He found himself watching Jack's expression as well, a worried tinge coming over his own. He'd heard about those events; Martha, incidentally, had told him, after the nightmare of the Master's contrived society.

Truthfully, he was glad this Jack had only suffered that sort of a loss the one time; he'd been chilled and horrified by what had happened on the Barge once the Admiral had safely retrieved everyone from that world. He wasn't certain he could watch that sort of suffering again.

"Time acts strangely," he observed faintly, but beyond that acknowledgement, the responses to his question were filed away for the moment, his mind distracted by the gestures and faces. He glanced at the hand still caught in Martha's and being tugged gently, probably unconsciously, as she went, and he in turn stepped to keep alongside it. He didn't offer his hand, still pensive and working to grasp the smaller nuances of human interaction (it always seemed to be in the midst of crisis, didn't it, and never in the moments between until he'd come to that ship), but his stance when he moved softened, visibly projecting his share in Martha's offer to the Captain.

[smilesnbracers]

Jack grinned at Martha, but the sadness filling his eyes betrayed his normally warm smile. It's not as if she didn't know. Jack was a very private person, but he also wore his heart on his sleeve. It occurred to him (or maybe Ianto had pointed it out sometime) that it was one of Jack's more difficult traits. Everyone knew when he was upset, they just didn't always know why.

When Martha offered him her hand, he took it gratefully and squeezed it, but he didn't hold on for more than a few seconds. He was more than glad for her comfort, but he also felt like he was getting in the middle of something between her and the Doctor and as much as Jack liked to flirt, he wasn't into interrupting a balance.

He schooled his face again, looking more serious and nodded. "Time always does act strangely," he agreed. "But it's not usually as far off as Martha has explained. At least nowhere I've been too. Have you seen anything like this before Doctor? Met aliens that are highly creative and delusional enough to have a God complex big enough to think he's created all of us? I mean, even the Master didn't think he'd created us."

[thegooddrjones]

The sadness broke her heart for him all over again. She wished that there could be some way to make it all better, to undo what had been done to Ianto and Steven, and to make him the same man whom she'd last seen when he'd saved her life, after the Pharm. What she would give to put a bit of the old Jack sparkle in his eyes.

The squeeze of her fingers was returned, and she brushed them when he pulled back after the few seconds. She wished she'd could just take him and get him a hypervodka and try and to make him laugh. The grip on the Doctor's hand tightened, and she stepped closer to him, so that she was touching him.

For a moment, Martha couldn't answer Jack's questions, and then she went into her bag and pulled out the copy of the DVDs that she'd been given at Christmas. The DVDs with all of them on them, apparently. "I've heard people call us fictional before, and there are other people who are supposedly fictional people as well. Severus Snape, Jim Kirk." Martha paled slightly. Poor Jim. Poor, poor Jim.