(no subject)
Title: Martha, The Liar
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 351
Fandom: Doctor Who
Prompt: Pinocchio
Character: Martha
Spoilers: End of Season Three
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: I had an idea of intertwining the themes in my table for a sort of alternate season three, where Martha stays on the Valiant instead of going off on her own. Hope this is okay and that it works. ;)
I. MARTHA THE LIAR
She clutches the time manipulator (or whatever it's called) in her hand and stands there, looking away from the Doctor, Jack, and her terrified family. She is trembling. Martha can barely press the button-- her hands are hot and clammy.
But he turns around too quickly for her, and in the next minute she feels heat and burning and can smell burnt leather. White smoke whisps upwards from her sore hands. “What is that, Martha?” he asks, leaving his wife by the window and coming towards her.
She is so terrifed that she loses her ability to speak. “It's... nothing. It's nothing.” She repeats it over and over again, mostly because no one in that room believes her. There is ash on her hands and she can still smell burnt leather.
“Nothing?” His tone is mockingly gentle as he bends down to pick up the vortex manipulator. He holds the remains between two fingers, away from him, as if it's something he's just picked up out of the garbage. “This doesn't look like 'nothing' to me, Martha.”
Martha wishes she were brave enough to come up with something witty, something defiant, but the words don't come to her. All she can think of is the sound of the screams on the radio and the sound of her own heart hammering in her chest, echoing in her head. It occurs to her, as if the thought comes from a distant universe, that she is afraid that she is going to die. “It's just something I picked up off the ground. Rubbish.” She doesn't know what she's saying, or why she even feels the need to lie. Her only hope, their only hope, is gone now. It doesn't even matter.
He examines her, head titled to the side. He is still holding the damn thing in his right hand. “I don't really like liars, Martha. There's consequences for lying on my ship. Take her family back to prison.”
And the sounds of the screaming on Earth echo in her mind as she watches her family being dragged away from her.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 351
Fandom: Doctor Who
Prompt: Pinocchio
Character: Martha
Spoilers: End of Season Three
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: I had an idea of intertwining the themes in my table for a sort of alternate season three, where Martha stays on the Valiant instead of going off on her own. Hope this is okay and that it works. ;)
I. MARTHA THE LIAR
She clutches the time manipulator (or whatever it's called) in her hand and stands there, looking away from the Doctor, Jack, and her terrified family. She is trembling. Martha can barely press the button-- her hands are hot and clammy.
But he turns around too quickly for her, and in the next minute she feels heat and burning and can smell burnt leather. White smoke whisps upwards from her sore hands. “What is that, Martha?” he asks, leaving his wife by the window and coming towards her.
She is so terrifed that she loses her ability to speak. “It's... nothing. It's nothing.” She repeats it over and over again, mostly because no one in that room believes her. There is ash on her hands and she can still smell burnt leather.
“Nothing?” His tone is mockingly gentle as he bends down to pick up the vortex manipulator. He holds the remains between two fingers, away from him, as if it's something he's just picked up out of the garbage. “This doesn't look like 'nothing' to me, Martha.”
Martha wishes she were brave enough to come up with something witty, something defiant, but the words don't come to her. All she can think of is the sound of the screams on the radio and the sound of her own heart hammering in her chest, echoing in her head. It occurs to her, as if the thought comes from a distant universe, that she is afraid that she is going to die. “It's just something I picked up off the ground. Rubbish.” She doesn't know what she's saying, or why she even feels the need to lie. Her only hope, their only hope, is gone now. It doesn't even matter.
He examines her, head titled to the side. He is still holding the damn thing in his right hand. “I don't really like liars, Martha. There's consequences for lying on my ship. Take her family back to prison.”
And the sounds of the screaming on Earth echo in her mind as she watches her family being dragged away from her.