fic
Ten Things That Are Almost Absolutely True About Martha Jones, and One Thing That's True About the Doctor
by Branwyn
fandom: Doctor Who
characters/pairings: Martha, the Doctor, Francine, Jack, Ianto
rating: PG
notes: It started off as a regular old list, and then turned into something more like a narrative.
1.) Martha could have read any subject in university, pursued any kind of career. She's a science geek, yeah, but she's also really good with words and concepts and even shapes and colors, and English was her favorite subject in high school. For a long time, Francine worried she might turn into a hippy, and even after Martha started med school Francine was still a little worried that Martha had grown into something too good to be true. At the back of her mind she half-believed that one day Martha would drop out of med school and drive to Italy in a van to pick grapes for a living.
2.) But then Martha took up with the Doctor, which is practically the same thing, only a million times worse.
3.) Martha develops a crush on all of her mentors eventually. Anybody with something to teach her is exciting to her in his or her own way. Once she surpasses them, however, her feelings cool a little, which is partly why the Doctor was so attractive to her---she didn't think she would ever run out of things to learn from him.
4.) She knows the Doctor is more interested in her than he lets on---he's always sneaking glances when he thinks she's not paying attention. She figures, though, that she's already made her interest obvious, and if he's still putting distance between them he must have a good reason for it. Or else a really stupid reason, in which case she figures she's better off without him, because she's already done the boyfriend with baggage thing and she has no interest in doing it again.
5.) The night the Doctor told her about Gallifrey they talked for hours at an end, well into the twilight and darkness of New Earth. They hadn't been at it for very long before Martha realized that the Doctor wasn't actually talking to her so much as he was talking to himself, but she kept nodding and asking questions because she could tell that he needed to keep going, and needed the excuse of her presence to do so.
6.) All that night she had dreams of Gallifrey and its twin suns, high in a red sky. She saw other things in her dreams that had not featured anywhere in the Doctor's eulogies, but she dismissed them as the products of a sleeping brain until she saw them again in greater detail the next night, and the night after that, and noticed upon waking shortly thereafter how the humming of the TARDIS engines seemed to coil around her bedroom like a great, purring cat, lulling her back to sleep.
7.) During the Year That Never Was, Martha met a number of previously famous people doing surprising things with their lives---especially in Hollywood, where she discovered that Denzel Washington was among the chief resistance organizers in southern California. She's almost positive she saw Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie walking side by side down Santa Monica Boulevard with bandoliers of ammunition strapped to their chests and serious automatic weaponry slung over their backs.
8.) The speech she gave the Doctor when she told him she was leaving him was something she made up on the spur of the moment to spare his feelings. Contrary to her expectations, she had realized that she had surpassed the Doctor in every way that mattered, and that the things that were still a mystery to her had better stay that way, or soon she would pass the point of ever being able to go home again.
9.) A few months later, Jack calls her from Cardiff and invites her to come to Torchwood for a visit, and even over the phone Martha knows a thinly veiled job offer when she hears one. Halfway through being introduced to Jack's team she meets Ianto Jones, who turns so white when their eyes meet that she forgets where she is and starts ordering the others around as though they are A&E interns. He recovers quickly enough, but for the rest of her visit gives her strange looks behind her back, which she can feel even if she can't see.
10.) Ianto finds her alone in the tearoom late one night and presses a minidisc into her hand, then walks away quickly, before she can say anything. She plays it when she gets back to her hotel room---it is footage taken from Torchwood One on the day of the battle of Canary Wharf, according to the title card that flashes onscreen first. And then the action starts, and Martha sees the Doctor killing Adeola.
11.) The next day, Martha calls the mobile she left with the Doctor for the very first time.
by Branwyn
fandom: Doctor Who
characters/pairings: Martha, the Doctor, Francine, Jack, Ianto
rating: PG
notes: It started off as a regular old list, and then turned into something more like a narrative.
1.) Martha could have read any subject in university, pursued any kind of career. She's a science geek, yeah, but she's also really good with words and concepts and even shapes and colors, and English was her favorite subject in high school. For a long time, Francine worried she might turn into a hippy, and even after Martha started med school Francine was still a little worried that Martha had grown into something too good to be true. At the back of her mind she half-believed that one day Martha would drop out of med school and drive to Italy in a van to pick grapes for a living.
2.) But then Martha took up with the Doctor, which is practically the same thing, only a million times worse.
3.) Martha develops a crush on all of her mentors eventually. Anybody with something to teach her is exciting to her in his or her own way. Once she surpasses them, however, her feelings cool a little, which is partly why the Doctor was so attractive to her---she didn't think she would ever run out of things to learn from him.
4.) She knows the Doctor is more interested in her than he lets on---he's always sneaking glances when he thinks she's not paying attention. She figures, though, that she's already made her interest obvious, and if he's still putting distance between them he must have a good reason for it. Or else a really stupid reason, in which case she figures she's better off without him, because she's already done the boyfriend with baggage thing and she has no interest in doing it again.
5.) The night the Doctor told her about Gallifrey they talked for hours at an end, well into the twilight and darkness of New Earth. They hadn't been at it for very long before Martha realized that the Doctor wasn't actually talking to her so much as he was talking to himself, but she kept nodding and asking questions because she could tell that he needed to keep going, and needed the excuse of her presence to do so.
6.) All that night she had dreams of Gallifrey and its twin suns, high in a red sky. She saw other things in her dreams that had not featured anywhere in the Doctor's eulogies, but she dismissed them as the products of a sleeping brain until she saw them again in greater detail the next night, and the night after that, and noticed upon waking shortly thereafter how the humming of the TARDIS engines seemed to coil around her bedroom like a great, purring cat, lulling her back to sleep.
7.) During the Year That Never Was, Martha met a number of previously famous people doing surprising things with their lives---especially in Hollywood, where she discovered that Denzel Washington was among the chief resistance organizers in southern California. She's almost positive she saw Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie walking side by side down Santa Monica Boulevard with bandoliers of ammunition strapped to their chests and serious automatic weaponry slung over their backs.
8.) The speech she gave the Doctor when she told him she was leaving him was something she made up on the spur of the moment to spare his feelings. Contrary to her expectations, she had realized that she had surpassed the Doctor in every way that mattered, and that the things that were still a mystery to her had better stay that way, or soon she would pass the point of ever being able to go home again.
9.) A few months later, Jack calls her from Cardiff and invites her to come to Torchwood for a visit, and even over the phone Martha knows a thinly veiled job offer when she hears one. Halfway through being introduced to Jack's team she meets Ianto Jones, who turns so white when their eyes meet that she forgets where she is and starts ordering the others around as though they are A&E interns. He recovers quickly enough, but for the rest of her visit gives her strange looks behind her back, which she can feel even if she can't see.
10.) Ianto finds her alone in the tearoom late one night and presses a minidisc into her hand, then walks away quickly, before she can say anything. She plays it when she gets back to her hotel room---it is footage taken from Torchwood One on the day of the battle of Canary Wharf, according to the title card that flashes onscreen first. And then the action starts, and Martha sees the Doctor killing Adeola.
11.) The next day, Martha calls the mobile she left with the Doctor for the very first time.