The Time Lord Victorious
Who_Daily Link: < a href="http://persiflage-1.livejournal.com/325981.html">The Time Lord Victorious by < lj user=persiflage_1> (Characters: Ten, Martha | Rating: PG | Spoilers: Waters of Mars, TW: Children of Earth)
Title: The Time Lord Victorious
Author: Persiflage_1
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Martha
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Waters of Mars, TW: Children of Earth
Summary: The Doctor believes that the Laws of Time are his playthings now.
Disclaimer: I occasionally wish that I did own it!
Author Notes: I didn't really plan to write a tag fic for Waters of Mars (or for Torchwood: Children of Earth for that matter), but a load of thoughts and ideas congealed in my brain, and then the plot bunny attacked.
Betas: abstruse_fangrl and catholicphoton, who made sure the ending didn't fizzle out...
~~~~~~
As the Doctor set the TARDIS to dematerialise he heard a familiar voice speaking words he'd heard before: You need someone to stop you. He started, looking up from the console, but he was alone in the ship, just as he always was lately.
"I could save her," he said quietly, the image of Donna begging him not to lock away her memories filling his mind's eye. Then he thought of Rose being sucked into the Void. "I could save her too." His voice was louder and firmer now. Then he thought of Jack, who'd hoped to be 'fixed' so that he was no longer forced to come back to life over and over again, and he knew he could spare Jack that too - no more outliving his friends and lovers.
His mind flew backwards, faster than before, and he saw Gallifrey burning again. "I can save them all!" he declared, suddenly full of enthusiasm. "And no one can stop me."
The TARDIS span through the Time Vortex, while the Doctor laughed gleefully at his realisation; he danced around the console, whirling about on the spot with his arms in the air.
"I am the Time Lord Victorious!" he crowed, bouncing over to the door when the ship landed.
He couldn't wait to see Donna's reaction once she realised he'd restored her memories. He flung open the TARDIS door, already grinning in anticipation, and found someone wholly unexpected on the other side.
"Martha Jones!" he said happily, his grin having slipped for only an instant in response to the surprise he felt at the sight of the young medic. "What are you doing here? Not that it's not good to see you, but you shouldn't really be visiting Donna just yet, not until - " His words tailed off as he realised this wasn't Donna's house: he appeared to have arrived in a hospital ward, judging by the number of beds around him, although a second glance showed they were all empty.
"Um," he began, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck: Martha's stern expression and her stance, arms-folded across her chest, conveyed disapproval. "Where am I?" he asked, suddenly worried that Donna was in hospital for some reason.
"This is UNIT's medical wing," Martha answered.
"Is Donna okay?" he asked anxiously.
The young medic frowned. "Donna's fine," she answered. "But Donna's not the reason I rang you."
The Doctor looked startled, then guilty, and clapped a hand to his breast pocket. His mobile phone, the one Martha had given him after she'd defeated the Master, was nestled in its usual spot over his left breast, but he knew for a fact that it was switched off.
"So why did you ring me?" he asked.
She glared. "You mean you're not here in response to the half dozen messages I've left for you since I got in to work this morning?" she demanded.
"Um, no," he answered, sliding his hand into his pocket and pulling the phone out to look at it. "What's wrong?"
"You'd better come through to my office," she said. She turned on her heel and stalked out, and he rubbed the back of his neck again, wondering how it was possible for such a diminutive human to make him feel so small. He also wondered how he'd ended up at UNIT HQ, rather than at Donna's house; he glanced back at the TARDIS as he trailed after Martha, but the ship gave him no clue as to the reason for the diversion.
"Sit down," Martha said, gesturing to a chair in front of the large desk that was positioned in front of a large window.
She seated herself behind the desk in a large leather chair, and the Doctor was suddenly reminded of visits to see Romana when she'd been President and he'd been in his eighth incarnation.
"Any chance of a cuppa?" he asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
"Later. What do you know of an alien race which humanity dubbed the 456?"
The Doctor frowned in thought, the name stirring only vague memories at the moment. "Not much," he answered honestly. "Why?"
"Apparently they came here in 1965 and offered us a cure for a virus that was about to mutate and do untold damage to Earth. In return they asked for twelve pre-pubescent children. The government of the day let them take twelve orphans in return for the cure, but covered it up. Then the aliens came back again last week and demanded we give them a tenth of the Earth's children or they'd wipe out the whole of humanity. Jack was involved in both incidents, but he's gone missing now. I'd like you to help me find him again, please."
He gave her a puzzled look. "Hang on, you said the 456 came last week, but earlier you said you'd rung me half a dozen times today. Why's it taken you so long if you're that concerned about Jack?"
"I was on my honeymoon last week," she answered, sounding annoyed by his question. "Tom and I decided we'd avoid TV, radio, phones and the internet so that we could have that week to ourselves without any interruptions of any kind."
He pouted. "You didn't invite me to the wedding."
"I rang and left a message on your voicemail, actually," she retorted. "The one that you obviously never bother checking."
"Oh!" He looked embarrassed for a moment, then grinned. "Never mind, I'll go back and attend. I'll add it to my list."
She stared. "You're going to put my wedding on your to-do list? I thought you told me, that first day we met, that crossing into established events was strictly forbidden? Or does attending my wedding count as a cheap trick? Because if that's how you feel, don't bother going."
The Doctor looked at her, surprised by the anger in her tone. "Of course it's not a cheap trick to go to your wedding. Why are you so angry?"
"Because I'm worried about Jack. Something really bad happened to him, and I wasn't here to help."
He chuckled. "No need to worry about Captain Harkness, or should I say 'Captain Scarlet'. He's indestructible, don't forget."
She glared at him. "Do you know just how indestructible Jack is?" she demanded. "Because they blew him to pieces, and then encased him in concrete."
The Doctor looked startled at this news. "Who did?" he asked curiously. He could sense Martha's barely-restrained anger as she spoke, and wondered if he should tell her that he was going to 'fix' Jack.
"Agent Johnson, a government agent, and her little black ops squad, which our Prime Minister saw fit to send after Jack, Ianto and Gwen. The bastards put a bomb in Jack's stomach and blew up him and the Hub, and Gwen and Ianto barely managed to escape." She was trembling with anger as she spoke and he could see tears in her eyes.
"After that Johnson took the bits of Jack's body that they could find to a secret prison, waited for him to regrow his body, then filled the cell in which they'd chained him with concrete. God knows what else they'd have done to him if Gwen, Rhys and Ianto hadn't managed to rescue him." She gave a shaky laugh. "Ianto tore the concrete-filled cell out of the building, then dropped it into a quarry to free Jack."
He winced in sympathy. "So, what makes you think Jack's gone missing after all that? How do you know he hasn't just gone somewhere to recover?"
"I haven't told you the rest of what happened, yet," she answered, and went on to explain why Johnson had been ordered to destroy the Torchwood Three team, and what Jack had done to save the children of Earth from the 456.
The Doctor listened in silence, waiting without comment while Martha choked over her words as she recounted how Jack had used his own grandson to redirect the 456's signal back at them, killing Steven in the process.
His expression was grim as he thought of Jack being forced to use his own grandson to save thousands of lives; he couldn't easily imagine sacrificing Susan in such a manner.
"How do you know all of this?" he asked after Martha had rubbed the tears from her face and drunk some water.
"I've spoken to some of the people involved," she answered. "Gwen, Lois Habiba, who was working for the Minister who ordered Jack's death, and Agent Johnson herself - she was there with Jack when he reversed the 456's signal and sent them away."
The Doctor got to his feet. "Well, don't worry, Dr Jones, I'll sort it all out for you," he said cheerfully.
"What do you mean?" Martha asked, looking up at him with a worried expression. "And why did you come here anyway? When you arrived, you mentioned Donna - it was as if you expected to be at Donna's house, not here."
He grinned. "I'm going to fix Donna's memories, rescue Rose before she falls into the void, fix Jack's inability to die, go to your wedding, and save Gallifrey - all before - oh, what time is it, four o'clock? All before dinner."
She gave him a distracted look. "Doctor, what are you talking about?
He grinned at her, a manic gleam in his eyes. "I, Dr Jones, am the Time Lord Victorious. No longer will I bow to the Laws of Time, Time will bend to my will."
Her eyebrows climbed into her hair and she shivered slightly. "I don't understand," she said. "Will you please explain, before you go rushing off?"
He huffed out a sigh, then flopped back down into the chair he'd just vacated. "Fifty years from now, you humans will have a base on Mars, Bowie Base One, it's called - will be called," he corrected himself. "It'll be staffed by an international team of astronauts, and that team will be led by one Captain Adelaide Brooke. She's about eleven now, and she's inspired to go into space by a Dalek she saw during Davros' attempt to destroy reality."
His expression grew wistful, which didn't escape Martha's notice as she listened intently to him. He was suddenly reminded of sitting in a dingy alley in New New York, and how he'd told her all about Gallifrey. He gave himself a little shake, then continued with the rest of the story, explaining the events in which he'd just participated. He left out the bit about Adelaide shooting herself - he had a feeling Martha would strongly disapprove, and he didn't want disapproval, he wanted congratulations, and a reassurance that he'd done the right thing in saving those three lives.
She was giving him a thoughtful look. "If you go back and rescue Rose, you'll change more than just your timeline and hers, won't you? The TARDIS won't be pulling Donna in from her wedding, will she? And what about the events at the Royal Hope? How will they unfold? I suppose Rose could pretend to be visiting you - but you wouldn't need my help to stop the Judoon hurting people if Rose is there, so does that mean I wouldn't get to travel in the TARDIS?"
"I'd have thought you'd be glad of that," the Doctor said snappily. "Because then I wouldn't be ruining half your life."
Martha stared at him, amazed. "What do you mean? You didn't ruin half my life - that's a wild exaggeration, even for you."
"If we didn't travel together, you wouldn't get dragged back and forth across the universe. You wouldn't have been forced to spend a year walking a post-Apocalyptic Earth to stop the Master, and your family wouldn't have to spend a year imprisoned on the Valiant."
"But what gives you the right to change my history in that way?" she demanded. "I learnt a lot in my time travelling with you. I had painful experiences, I won't deny that, but there were positive ones too. And my time with you led me to my job here at UNIT - are you going to undo all that?"
"But you'd still be brilliant, Martha Jones, whomever you worked with."
"That's beside the point, Doctor. You don't have the right to change people's lives like that. What happens if you save Rose from the Void and then a while later you lose her in some other way? Are you going to interfere in your timeline and everyone else's to save her again? Where will it stop, will the universe just be your playground and humanity your playthings, puppets whose lives you will order according to your whim? How does that make you any different to either the Master or Davros, who both tried to reorder reality to suit them? You're better than that, Doctor, I know you are."
"That's not fair!" he exclaimed crossly.
"Isn't it?" she asked, coolly. "From where I'm sitting, it seems an accurate assessment if you're going to go around altering timelines willy-nilly, just to suit your convenience. And don't try to kid yourself that you're only doing it for other people, for their good - because that's how all tyrants think. Doctor, don't do this, please. I know you're hurting over losing Donna and Rose, and maybe even the Master, too, but you can't make things better by undoing them like that. You once told me that the Time Lords had a responsibility to Time - are you going to ignore that now, just because you're feeling lonely and unhappy?"
He glanced at her expression, seeing a hint of fear in the depths of her eyes, even as she tried to cajole him. "I - " He paused. "Martha, I'm scared," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Why?" she asked softly.
"I'm going to die soon. I've been warned, and it's going to happen soon, and I'm scared I'm going to be on my own when it happens."
"Oh Doctor." She got to her feet, moved around the desk and gently pulled him up, then hugged him; she could feel him trembling as she held him and tried to comfort him.
After a few minutes she pulled away. "Come on, let's go and get a cup of tea, and you can tell me about this warning."
She took his hand and led him down the corridor to a small room they used for debriefing people who'd encountered aliens. "Sit there," she said, pointing at the comfortable, if slightly shabby, sofa, before she moved over to the waiting kettle and sorted out the tea things.
The tea made, she carried the two mugs across the room and set them on the coffee table in front of the sofa, then she sat down on his left side and took his hand in hers. "Talk to me."
He gripped her hand tightly, almost too tightly but she didn't wince or complain, then he began to speak, haltingly at first, and then in his more usual babbling manner, as he told her of the bus that went to another planet.
Martha, of course, knew the story; she'd been back in New York again while Lady Christina was attempting to steal the Athelstone Cup, and the Doctor was trying to get a red London bus back to Earth, but she'd heard all about it afterwards, mostly from Malcolm Taylor. But she let the Doctor talk uninterrupted until he ran out of words, having repeated Carmen's warning that his 'song is ending', that 'it is returning through the dark', and that 'he will knock four times'.
"What scares you most about this premonition?" she asked, when he'd finished.
"Being on my own when I die," he answered without hesitation. "That would be a horrible reminder of the Time War."
She squeezed his fingers. "What about if I come with you?" she asked. "I wanted you to help me to look for Jack, so we could do that together, and I'll stay with you until you've regenerated."
The Doctor gave her a half-hopeful, half-doubtful look. "You'd do that?"
Martha nodded. "If it'll keep you from turning into someone who's no better than the Master, then yes, I'll travel with you."
"Thank you." His voice came out as a croak, and she wondered if he was trying not to cry.
"That's what friends are for," she told him. "C'mere." She wrapped her arms around him and held him. She had a feeling there was something more he hadn't told her about Adelaide and Bowie Base One, but she wasn't going to push him into telling her.
As she hugged the Doctor, Martha wondered what her mum would say to the news that her daughter was planning on travelling with the Time Lord again. Maybe she'd suggest to the Doctor that he stay in the TARDIS while she talked to her mum, to save him a potential slapping: Francine Jones still had mixed feelings about the Time Lord, and there was a possibility she wouldn't take kindly to the prospect of Martha going off with him.
"Right, I'm going to go and talk to the Colonel," she said, finally pulling back from their hug. "Do you want to go and wait for me in the TARDIS, and I'll be with you as soon as I can?" He nodded, his eyes bright but his cheeks dry. "Then we'll need to pop back to my place so I can pick up some clothes, and I want to drop in on my mum to let her know what's happening."
The Doctor looked faintly alarmed at this.
"It's okay," Martha reassured him. "I won't make you come in and see her, don't worry."
He gave her a smile. "Thank you."
* * * * * *
Half an hour later, the TARDIS was making the short hop to Martha's flat. The Colonel had readily agreed to his Medical Director taking a few days of personal leave, once she'd explained why she needed it.
The Doctor was feeling brighter and less weighed down by guilt over Adelaide now that Martha Jones was aboard. He had no idea how easily they'd find Jack, or how soon it would be before he regenerated, but all that mattered, at the moment, was having someone to travel with, to talk to, to laugh with, and, if the need arose, someone to stop him.
Title: The Time Lord Victorious
Author: Persiflage_1
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Martha
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Waters of Mars, TW: Children of Earth
Summary: The Doctor believes that the Laws of Time are his playthings now.
Disclaimer: I occasionally wish that I did own it!
Author Notes: I didn't really plan to write a tag fic for Waters of Mars (or for Torchwood: Children of Earth for that matter), but a load of thoughts and ideas congealed in my brain, and then the plot bunny attacked.
Betas: abstruse_fangrl and catholicphoton, who made sure the ending didn't fizzle out...
~~~~~~
As the Doctor set the TARDIS to dematerialise he heard a familiar voice speaking words he'd heard before: You need someone to stop you. He started, looking up from the console, but he was alone in the ship, just as he always was lately.
"I could save her," he said quietly, the image of Donna begging him not to lock away her memories filling his mind's eye. Then he thought of Rose being sucked into the Void. "I could save her too." His voice was louder and firmer now. Then he thought of Jack, who'd hoped to be 'fixed' so that he was no longer forced to come back to life over and over again, and he knew he could spare Jack that too - no more outliving his friends and lovers.
His mind flew backwards, faster than before, and he saw Gallifrey burning again. "I can save them all!" he declared, suddenly full of enthusiasm. "And no one can stop me."
The TARDIS span through the Time Vortex, while the Doctor laughed gleefully at his realisation; he danced around the console, whirling about on the spot with his arms in the air.
"I am the Time Lord Victorious!" he crowed, bouncing over to the door when the ship landed.
He couldn't wait to see Donna's reaction once she realised he'd restored her memories. He flung open the TARDIS door, already grinning in anticipation, and found someone wholly unexpected on the other side.
"Martha Jones!" he said happily, his grin having slipped for only an instant in response to the surprise he felt at the sight of the young medic. "What are you doing here? Not that it's not good to see you, but you shouldn't really be visiting Donna just yet, not until - " His words tailed off as he realised this wasn't Donna's house: he appeared to have arrived in a hospital ward, judging by the number of beds around him, although a second glance showed they were all empty.
"Um," he began, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck: Martha's stern expression and her stance, arms-folded across her chest, conveyed disapproval. "Where am I?" he asked, suddenly worried that Donna was in hospital for some reason.
"This is UNIT's medical wing," Martha answered.
"Is Donna okay?" he asked anxiously.
The young medic frowned. "Donna's fine," she answered. "But Donna's not the reason I rang you."
The Doctor looked startled, then guilty, and clapped a hand to his breast pocket. His mobile phone, the one Martha had given him after she'd defeated the Master, was nestled in its usual spot over his left breast, but he knew for a fact that it was switched off.
"So why did you ring me?" he asked.
She glared. "You mean you're not here in response to the half dozen messages I've left for you since I got in to work this morning?" she demanded.
"Um, no," he answered, sliding his hand into his pocket and pulling the phone out to look at it. "What's wrong?"
"You'd better come through to my office," she said. She turned on her heel and stalked out, and he rubbed the back of his neck again, wondering how it was possible for such a diminutive human to make him feel so small. He also wondered how he'd ended up at UNIT HQ, rather than at Donna's house; he glanced back at the TARDIS as he trailed after Martha, but the ship gave him no clue as to the reason for the diversion.
"Sit down," Martha said, gesturing to a chair in front of the large desk that was positioned in front of a large window.
She seated herself behind the desk in a large leather chair, and the Doctor was suddenly reminded of visits to see Romana when she'd been President and he'd been in his eighth incarnation.
"Any chance of a cuppa?" he asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
"Later. What do you know of an alien race which humanity dubbed the 456?"
The Doctor frowned in thought, the name stirring only vague memories at the moment. "Not much," he answered honestly. "Why?"
"Apparently they came here in 1965 and offered us a cure for a virus that was about to mutate and do untold damage to Earth. In return they asked for twelve pre-pubescent children. The government of the day let them take twelve orphans in return for the cure, but covered it up. Then the aliens came back again last week and demanded we give them a tenth of the Earth's children or they'd wipe out the whole of humanity. Jack was involved in both incidents, but he's gone missing now. I'd like you to help me find him again, please."
He gave her a puzzled look. "Hang on, you said the 456 came last week, but earlier you said you'd rung me half a dozen times today. Why's it taken you so long if you're that concerned about Jack?"
"I was on my honeymoon last week," she answered, sounding annoyed by his question. "Tom and I decided we'd avoid TV, radio, phones and the internet so that we could have that week to ourselves without any interruptions of any kind."
He pouted. "You didn't invite me to the wedding."
"I rang and left a message on your voicemail, actually," she retorted. "The one that you obviously never bother checking."
"Oh!" He looked embarrassed for a moment, then grinned. "Never mind, I'll go back and attend. I'll add it to my list."
She stared. "You're going to put my wedding on your to-do list? I thought you told me, that first day we met, that crossing into established events was strictly forbidden? Or does attending my wedding count as a cheap trick? Because if that's how you feel, don't bother going."
The Doctor looked at her, surprised by the anger in her tone. "Of course it's not a cheap trick to go to your wedding. Why are you so angry?"
"Because I'm worried about Jack. Something really bad happened to him, and I wasn't here to help."
He chuckled. "No need to worry about Captain Harkness, or should I say 'Captain Scarlet'. He's indestructible, don't forget."
She glared at him. "Do you know just how indestructible Jack is?" she demanded. "Because they blew him to pieces, and then encased him in concrete."
The Doctor looked startled at this news. "Who did?" he asked curiously. He could sense Martha's barely-restrained anger as she spoke, and wondered if he should tell her that he was going to 'fix' Jack.
"Agent Johnson, a government agent, and her little black ops squad, which our Prime Minister saw fit to send after Jack, Ianto and Gwen. The bastards put a bomb in Jack's stomach and blew up him and the Hub, and Gwen and Ianto barely managed to escape." She was trembling with anger as she spoke and he could see tears in her eyes.
"After that Johnson took the bits of Jack's body that they could find to a secret prison, waited for him to regrow his body, then filled the cell in which they'd chained him with concrete. God knows what else they'd have done to him if Gwen, Rhys and Ianto hadn't managed to rescue him." She gave a shaky laugh. "Ianto tore the concrete-filled cell out of the building, then dropped it into a quarry to free Jack."
He winced in sympathy. "So, what makes you think Jack's gone missing after all that? How do you know he hasn't just gone somewhere to recover?"
"I haven't told you the rest of what happened, yet," she answered, and went on to explain why Johnson had been ordered to destroy the Torchwood Three team, and what Jack had done to save the children of Earth from the 456.
The Doctor listened in silence, waiting without comment while Martha choked over her words as she recounted how Jack had used his own grandson to redirect the 456's signal back at them, killing Steven in the process.
His expression was grim as he thought of Jack being forced to use his own grandson to save thousands of lives; he couldn't easily imagine sacrificing Susan in such a manner.
"How do you know all of this?" he asked after Martha had rubbed the tears from her face and drunk some water.
"I've spoken to some of the people involved," she answered. "Gwen, Lois Habiba, who was working for the Minister who ordered Jack's death, and Agent Johnson herself - she was there with Jack when he reversed the 456's signal and sent them away."
The Doctor got to his feet. "Well, don't worry, Dr Jones, I'll sort it all out for you," he said cheerfully.
"What do you mean?" Martha asked, looking up at him with a worried expression. "And why did you come here anyway? When you arrived, you mentioned Donna - it was as if you expected to be at Donna's house, not here."
He grinned. "I'm going to fix Donna's memories, rescue Rose before she falls into the void, fix Jack's inability to die, go to your wedding, and save Gallifrey - all before - oh, what time is it, four o'clock? All before dinner."
She gave him a distracted look. "Doctor, what are you talking about?
He grinned at her, a manic gleam in his eyes. "I, Dr Jones, am the Time Lord Victorious. No longer will I bow to the Laws of Time, Time will bend to my will."
Her eyebrows climbed into her hair and she shivered slightly. "I don't understand," she said. "Will you please explain, before you go rushing off?"
He huffed out a sigh, then flopped back down into the chair he'd just vacated. "Fifty years from now, you humans will have a base on Mars, Bowie Base One, it's called - will be called," he corrected himself. "It'll be staffed by an international team of astronauts, and that team will be led by one Captain Adelaide Brooke. She's about eleven now, and she's inspired to go into space by a Dalek she saw during Davros' attempt to destroy reality."
His expression grew wistful, which didn't escape Martha's notice as she listened intently to him. He was suddenly reminded of sitting in a dingy alley in New New York, and how he'd told her all about Gallifrey. He gave himself a little shake, then continued with the rest of the story, explaining the events in which he'd just participated. He left out the bit about Adelaide shooting herself - he had a feeling Martha would strongly disapprove, and he didn't want disapproval, he wanted congratulations, and a reassurance that he'd done the right thing in saving those three lives.
She was giving him a thoughtful look. "If you go back and rescue Rose, you'll change more than just your timeline and hers, won't you? The TARDIS won't be pulling Donna in from her wedding, will she? And what about the events at the Royal Hope? How will they unfold? I suppose Rose could pretend to be visiting you - but you wouldn't need my help to stop the Judoon hurting people if Rose is there, so does that mean I wouldn't get to travel in the TARDIS?"
"I'd have thought you'd be glad of that," the Doctor said snappily. "Because then I wouldn't be ruining half your life."
Martha stared at him, amazed. "What do you mean? You didn't ruin half my life - that's a wild exaggeration, even for you."
"If we didn't travel together, you wouldn't get dragged back and forth across the universe. You wouldn't have been forced to spend a year walking a post-Apocalyptic Earth to stop the Master, and your family wouldn't have to spend a year imprisoned on the Valiant."
"But what gives you the right to change my history in that way?" she demanded. "I learnt a lot in my time travelling with you. I had painful experiences, I won't deny that, but there were positive ones too. And my time with you led me to my job here at UNIT - are you going to undo all that?"
"But you'd still be brilliant, Martha Jones, whomever you worked with."
"That's beside the point, Doctor. You don't have the right to change people's lives like that. What happens if you save Rose from the Void and then a while later you lose her in some other way? Are you going to interfere in your timeline and everyone else's to save her again? Where will it stop, will the universe just be your playground and humanity your playthings, puppets whose lives you will order according to your whim? How does that make you any different to either the Master or Davros, who both tried to reorder reality to suit them? You're better than that, Doctor, I know you are."
"That's not fair!" he exclaimed crossly.
"Isn't it?" she asked, coolly. "From where I'm sitting, it seems an accurate assessment if you're going to go around altering timelines willy-nilly, just to suit your convenience. And don't try to kid yourself that you're only doing it for other people, for their good - because that's how all tyrants think. Doctor, don't do this, please. I know you're hurting over losing Donna and Rose, and maybe even the Master, too, but you can't make things better by undoing them like that. You once told me that the Time Lords had a responsibility to Time - are you going to ignore that now, just because you're feeling lonely and unhappy?"
He glanced at her expression, seeing a hint of fear in the depths of her eyes, even as she tried to cajole him. "I - " He paused. "Martha, I'm scared," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Why?" she asked softly.
"I'm going to die soon. I've been warned, and it's going to happen soon, and I'm scared I'm going to be on my own when it happens."
"Oh Doctor." She got to her feet, moved around the desk and gently pulled him up, then hugged him; she could feel him trembling as she held him and tried to comfort him.
After a few minutes she pulled away. "Come on, let's go and get a cup of tea, and you can tell me about this warning."
She took his hand and led him down the corridor to a small room they used for debriefing people who'd encountered aliens. "Sit there," she said, pointing at the comfortable, if slightly shabby, sofa, before she moved over to the waiting kettle and sorted out the tea things.
The tea made, she carried the two mugs across the room and set them on the coffee table in front of the sofa, then she sat down on his left side and took his hand in hers. "Talk to me."
He gripped her hand tightly, almost too tightly but she didn't wince or complain, then he began to speak, haltingly at first, and then in his more usual babbling manner, as he told her of the bus that went to another planet.
Martha, of course, knew the story; she'd been back in New York again while Lady Christina was attempting to steal the Athelstone Cup, and the Doctor was trying to get a red London bus back to Earth, but she'd heard all about it afterwards, mostly from Malcolm Taylor. But she let the Doctor talk uninterrupted until he ran out of words, having repeated Carmen's warning that his 'song is ending', that 'it is returning through the dark', and that 'he will knock four times'.
"What scares you most about this premonition?" she asked, when he'd finished.
"Being on my own when I die," he answered without hesitation. "That would be a horrible reminder of the Time War."
She squeezed his fingers. "What about if I come with you?" she asked. "I wanted you to help me to look for Jack, so we could do that together, and I'll stay with you until you've regenerated."
The Doctor gave her a half-hopeful, half-doubtful look. "You'd do that?"
Martha nodded. "If it'll keep you from turning into someone who's no better than the Master, then yes, I'll travel with you."
"Thank you." His voice came out as a croak, and she wondered if he was trying not to cry.
"That's what friends are for," she told him. "C'mere." She wrapped her arms around him and held him. She had a feeling there was something more he hadn't told her about Adelaide and Bowie Base One, but she wasn't going to push him into telling her.
As she hugged the Doctor, Martha wondered what her mum would say to the news that her daughter was planning on travelling with the Time Lord again. Maybe she'd suggest to the Doctor that he stay in the TARDIS while she talked to her mum, to save him a potential slapping: Francine Jones still had mixed feelings about the Time Lord, and there was a possibility she wouldn't take kindly to the prospect of Martha going off with him.
"Right, I'm going to go and talk to the Colonel," she said, finally pulling back from their hug. "Do you want to go and wait for me in the TARDIS, and I'll be with you as soon as I can?" He nodded, his eyes bright but his cheeks dry. "Then we'll need to pop back to my place so I can pick up some clothes, and I want to drop in on my mum to let her know what's happening."
The Doctor looked faintly alarmed at this.
"It's okay," Martha reassured him. "I won't make you come in and see her, don't worry."
He gave her a smile. "Thank you."
* * * * * *
Half an hour later, the TARDIS was making the short hop to Martha's flat. The Colonel had readily agreed to his Medical Director taking a few days of personal leave, once she'd explained why she needed it.
The Doctor was feeling brighter and less weighed down by guilt over Adelaide now that Martha Jones was aboard. He had no idea how easily they'd find Jack, or how soon it would be before he regenerated, but all that mattered, at the moment, was having someone to travel with, to talk to, to laugh with, and, if the need arose, someone to stop him.