Fic: Girl In The Mirror 'Verse: Chapter 2: Identity Crisis
Title: The Girl In The Mirror ‘Verse, Chapter 2: Identity Crisis
Author: psyfi_geekgirl
BetaBabe: akkajemo
Characters/Pairings: Twelve, Jack, Martha/Mickey
Rating: PG-13
Excerpt: “I’m sorry Jack,” started Martha in her authoritative tone, “but until I know differently-until whoever this is can prove to us that they are who they say they are-then I think we should assume otherwise.”
Word count: 2,379
Disclaimer: Until she’s Jossed, Twelve is mine-but of course based entirely on stuff that ain’t mine… All hail Auntie Beeb!
TAKE NOTE: I also do not give anyone permission to post this in whole or in parts anywhere else! To do so would be very dishonest and terminally uncool and your actions would kill kittens, make puppy dogs cry and send the Reapers to eat your thieving flesh...
A/N: Here it is, my own series, a Twelfth Doctor ‘Verse--Finally named.
Icon by my lovely beta, akkajemo ! Thanks, babe!
Prologue Chapter 1
“Oh. My. GOD!” she breathed in disbelief over the top of her clipboard watching the monitor. “It can’t be…!”
The hulking machine whirred and clicked away on its gantry, slowly passing over the prone and unconscious form of the Doctor, lighting up the screen with a lurid kaleidoscope of organs and tissues and bones.
Doctor Martha Smith (née Jones) studied the readings with a horrified fascination. Behind her through the glass partition, the London Torchwood One office was operating at full tilt.
“Did you call him?” asked Martha.
“Sure did. He’s on his way. Be here any second, my guess,” replied Mickey.
“Good thing he’s immortal, he might actually die from shock.” She pointed to the images on the Bioscan. “Two hearts! Two hearts, Mickey! Hell, I might die from shock!”
“Hey,” Mickey ran a reassuring hand down his wife’s back. “You ok?”
“Yeah. It’s just a bit of a shock is all. If it really is him-“
“Y’mean, her.”
She shook her head, disbelievingly, “Yeah…”
“What is it then, why did she collapse?”
“I’m not sure. There’s nothing here that unusual-aside from the two hearts, that is… No evidence of subarchnoid hemorrhage, stroke, or retroclival hematoma. I see no colloid cysts or cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. And according to all the other tests there is no hypertensive emergency and no positives for Meningitis… As far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with the brain, and no cause for sudden, incapacitating thunderclap-like headaches-or even cluster ones-like what you described. Then again, it’s not like I precisely know what I’m dealing with. Timelord anatomy wasn’t exactly on my exams…”
“But if everything checks out normal, it could just be Regeneration Sickness, yeah?”
She nodded slowly, far away in thought. “Yeah, maybe. But I always figured I’d have known-I’d have sensed it or something-when he left… changed, whatever… He didn’t even say goodbye…” She trailed off.
“I know, babe. I know. M’sorry.” Mickey pulled her into him. He was getting a little tired of comforting the women he loved over the years from their pain and disappointment about the Doctor. What’s more, he was tired of the Doctor having disappointed them in the first place. He brought her closer to him and kissed her softly on the temple, at the beginning of her tight braids, breathing in her earthy scent of cocoa butter and nag champa. She sighed. Cupping his cheek, she kissed him back.
They didn’t hear the electrified sound of the Vortex Manipulator activate as a figure teleported into view-but a few other med techs had, and they rolled their eyes at the trademarked mysterious appearance by the familiar man at the back of the room.
A voice rang out from behind the clinched Smiths, interrupting them. “Hey you lovebirds! Isn’t that against company policy or something?”
Recognizing the voice, Martha broke away from her husband with a smirk on her face. “Like you’d know anything about company policy.”
“Of course I know about company policy,” returned the familiar voice. “You have to know the rules before you break them. It’s more fun that way.”
“And you’d know all about fun, wouldn’t you, Captain Beefcake?” Mickey greeted smugly.
“Damn straight, Mickey Mouse.”
Jack flashed his biggest, warmest grin and opened his arms to his friends, catching them both in a bear hug. Martha giggled as he shook them back and forth.
“Lemme go, space poof!” laughed Mickey finally, their traditional greeting completed.
“Aww, you two really are no fun,” sulked Jack.
“Sure we are, it’s just that you don’t get to see it,” Mickey retorted, saucily.
“And I mourn each of those days that pass me by.” Jack waggled his eyebrows at Martha indecently.
“Oh, Jack!” she turned away from him briefly, pretending that she had a stray hair to tuck behind her ear to hide her blushing. “It’s good to see you.”
“Is it him?” asked Jack.
“Well, we think so,” Mickey hedged.
“We aren’t sure,” added Martha.
“Why, what’s the problem?”
Martha pressed her lips together and made a sideways glance at Mickey. He shrugged. “See for yourself,” she said and they both stepped aside to reveal the motionless female figure on the exam table.
Jack’s smile faded into an expression of shock and then wonder. “Oh! You are kidding me!” His eyes swept over the sleeping woman, drinking her in. Brown ringlets rested lightly on a pale, bare cheek, framing her heart-shaped face and led down to a long neck that disappeared into a very familiar burgundy jumper and a body that resembled that of a Frazetta goddess. Jack watched the double pulse-points on her neck throb and wondered how this magnificent creature had come into being. He glanced up at Mickey and Martha in astonishment. “And you found her where?”
“Rose’s old flat.”
“And you saw the regeneration energy?”
“Yes-but.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes-but…”
“Incredible. Simply incredible,” said Jack in awe as he studied the woman lying on the table.
“Jack. Did you happen to notice that he’s a girl?”
“Notice? How can you miss it? And what a girl!!” he exclaimed very enthusiastically.
“Well, you’d best stay back then-you might get your eyes poked out if you get much closer…” Mickey teased, indicating her breasts.
“Cheeky,” Jack observed, waggling his eyebrows at him. “That’s promising.” He hooked his thumb at Martha. “Think maybe someday I might be able to-“
“No,” was Mickey’s stony reply.
“Naw… I didn’t think so,” he said with a sad shake of the head. “Still, maybe now I might finally have a proper shot here,” said Jack, indicating the prone woman on the table.
“If that is him,” reminded Martha.
“As opposed to…?”
“The Master,” she answered, in a hushed tone.
“Riiiight, the Master,” Jack replied as if to a small child. He scratched his chin. “But the Master’s dead, Martha.”
“That’s what we all thought the last time,” she reminded him. “But then he came back and turned us all into his precious Master Race, remember??”
Jack grimaced. He certainly did remember. “Look. Torchwood interviewed everybody after that event on Christmas, and from all accounts, the Master never left that building and the Doctor did.”
“Well, then he escaped or something,” offered Mickey. “Cos a missing body isn’t any proof of anything-certainly not death. And you should know that.”
“Yeah, well. Then, call it a hunch.”
“I’m sorry Jack,” started Martha in her authoritative tone, “but until I know differently-until whoever this is can prove to us that they are who they say they are-then I think we should assume otherwise.” She put her hand on her hip and clutched her clipboard to her chest. “And right now all I know is that we have a Timelord-with two hearts-who’s recently regenerated. She could be either of them.”
“Or she could be a completely different one,” offered Mickey. Martha and Jack both turned to stare at him. “Well, yeah-you don’t know! Sure, the Doctor said that they were all dead and he was the only one left, but then the Master shows up and wreaks havoc. You think he’s dead and he pops up again like a bad penny. You lot seem to forget that the Doctor isn’t infallible. Sometimes he’s wrong. Maybe he’s wrong about this, too. Look,” he pointed to Martha, “I remember what you told me that whosie-whatsit of Boe thing said to you---“
“Yeah, not just now, hon,” said Martha, cutting him off.
“The who of what?” Jack’s interest was piqued.
“Never mind,” hurried Martha, “Just somebody I met with the Doctor a long time ago…” She was desperate to change the subject. “But I agree with Mickey. I don’t trust this.”
“Fine,” said Jack simply. “Take whatever precautions you need and then let’s wake up our guest. I want to meet Earth’s latest alien visitor, whoever she is.”
Martha nodded and spun off to give orders to the other medical staff in the room.
******
Fifteen minutes later, Martha began the IV drip to awaken the Doctor. For good measure, sodium pentothal had been added to the mix, just in case. Martha hadn’t a clue if Timelords could even be affected by it, but she thought it would be a good precaution, just in case. At the moment, they were alone in the room-Mickey waiting just outside-and Martha was curious to see what she would hear from the stranger when she woke up.
Sluggishly, the Doctor stirred.
“It’s all right,” reassured Martha. “I’ve got you.”
The Doctor turned her head towards the familiar voice and smiled sleepily. “Martha… Martha Jones-Weeelll, Doctor Martha Smith now, isn’t it?”
Martha startled at the new voice but felt an instant kinship in spite of herself. She smiled softly. “Yeah, it is.”
“Sorry I missed the wedding…”
“You weren’t invited.”
“Oh… Well. Then-“ the Doctor spluttered.
“I’m teasing. We eloped.”
“Ooh, well-good for you-pick up and run at a moment’s notice? That’s the Martha I know.” Martha smiled back at her. “Happy?” the Doctor asked.
She grinned at the Doctor warmly. “Very,” she replied, but she was still torn. “You?”
“Awww, you know me-Last of the Timelords and all…”
“That’s not what I heard,” Martha prodded.
“The Master?” the Doctor shook her head. “Gone. Went back through the White Void with the emerging Timelords back on that Christmas…” she trailed off, remembering as she’d watched the very last glimpse of her people and her family disappear into the whiteness of time and become pressed into the pages of history. “It all ended the way it was supposed to-and everybody died,” she said, bitterly.
“Not everybody. The Earth was saved. You were saved.”
The Doctor shook her head. “No. I wasn’t. Regenerated after that. That was my previous incarnation. My Eleventh. I’m Twelfth...”
This stranger certainly seemed a lot like the old Doctor she knew.
Hold on? Did she say, Twelfth?
“Doctor?”
She grinned. “That’s me. Look different, do I?”
“Is it really you?”
“Really me? Yes… It’s good to see you, Martha. I’ve missed you. I’ve missed everybody.”
“But…” she struggled against the tears that threatened from emotions only half-buried. “You just disappeared? Why didn’t you come back? Why didn’t you say goodbye?”
“Oh,” breathed the Doctor, realising. “But I did-or I will-“
“You what? No you didn’t, I’d have remembered something like that.”
“No. But see, it hasn’t happened to you yet.” Just noticing, she looked at the length of Martha’s braids. “Once those reach past the middle of your back, you’ll see me again-the old me again-I promise.”
“You went to the future to say goodbye to me?”
“Yep.”
“Why the future? Why didn’t you say goodbye when it happened?”
“I chose a very special day…” the Doctor hedged.
“He came to me,” said a clear voice from the doorway.
The Doctor strained around Martha to see the known source of the voice. Jack moved closer to the gurney and looked down at the Doctor.
“On the worst day of my life the Doctor came to me and said goodbye,” Jack smiled at the prone woman with a mixture of awe and intense sadness, “and I’ll always be grateful for that.” He gripped her hand affectionately, both in greeting and gratitude and nodded solemnly at her. “Doctor.”
The Doctor replied with equal affection and respect, “Captain.” She tried to sit up to give him a hug but restraints that she hadn’t noticed before held her back.
Jack produced a key. “I think we can get rid of these, now-unless Doctor Smith here would leave the room so I could run some ‘experiments’ of my own,” he said, winking scandalously at the Doctor.
Martha slapped Jack’s hands away from the Doctor. She was incredulous. “What? You knew all along it was him? And hold on-where did you get that key?”
“Your desk drawer, and I knew he’d regenerated, yes,” answered Jack, and with a regretful sigh began unhooking her handcuffs. “But I didn’t know what a fine regeneration it would be,” beamed Jack, admiring the view as the Doctor sat up, woozily. “And I must say, Doctor-this is your best regeneration yet-“
“Jaaaack,” admonished the Doctor. “Really? Aren’t we both a little old for that?”
“You’re only too old when it doesn’t work anymore, Doctor,” Jack replied with the trademark sparkle in his eye. “And from what I saw on those Bioscan results, everything on you should work like a charm.”
The Doctor frowned at Jack. “Oh, Blimey! Nine-hundred and ten years of time and space and I’ve still got the Universe’s biggest Horn Dog after me!”
Martha covered her mouth and exploded in a peal of giggles. Jack continued to stare saucily at the new Doctor. “So, whattaya say, Doc? Fancy a test drive?” Martha continued to giggle as the Doctor simply looked at him-however the practiced look of exasperation wore a bit at the edges and her lips quirked up a bit in spite of herself; for while Jack and his oversexed fifty-first century manner was a bit strong, this was familiar banter-and something the Doctor had sorely missed.
“So was this your clever plan?” she asked wryly, as a suspicious eyebrow arched. “Pump me full of sodium pentothal and try and seduce me? You’re lucky Timelords don’t process sodium pentothal the same way humans do. It just makes me a little sleepy.”
Jack pointed to Martha. “Her idea, not mine. But I thought I might give it a go and try my chances. Y’never know… New new Doctor?”
The Doctor grinned at him smugly. “Well, New new Doctor, yes. Brain damaged Doctor, no.”
Jack brought a dramatic hand to his chest and pretended to look affronted. “Doctor! You cut me to the quick!”
“S’all right,” she quipped, with the wave of a freed hand, “You’ll heal.”
Jack guffawed. “Yep. I’d say it’s the Doctor,” he grinned.
“Absolutely. No doubts from me,” Martha seconded.
Jack swept into the Doctor’s embrace and then Martha pushed him away for a go. As the three of them were laughing and hugging, Mickey walked in and pulled a face.
“Oh. So’s it all settled then?” his voice dripped with sarcasm, “Or is the Master trying to suffocate you with his brand new ti-“
“Mickey! Hello again!” beamed the Doctor. “Fancy a hug?”
pic by akkajemo!
To be continued in Chapter 3: Stories In The Dark
Author: psyfi_geekgirl
BetaBabe: akkajemo
Characters/Pairings: Twelve, Jack, Martha/Mickey
Rating: PG-13
Excerpt: “I’m sorry Jack,” started Martha in her authoritative tone, “but until I know differently-until whoever this is can prove to us that they are who they say they are-then I think we should assume otherwise.”
Word count: 2,379
Disclaimer: Until she’s Jossed, Twelve is mine-but of course based entirely on stuff that ain’t mine… All hail Auntie Beeb!
TAKE NOTE: I also do not give anyone permission to post this in whole or in parts anywhere else! To do so would be very dishonest and terminally uncool and your actions would kill kittens, make puppy dogs cry and send the Reapers to eat your thieving flesh...
A/N: Here it is, my own series, a Twelfth Doctor ‘Verse--Finally named.
Icon by my lovely beta, akkajemo ! Thanks, babe!
Prologue Chapter 1
“Oh. My. GOD!” she breathed in disbelief over the top of her clipboard watching the monitor. “It can’t be…!”
The hulking machine whirred and clicked away on its gantry, slowly passing over the prone and unconscious form of the Doctor, lighting up the screen with a lurid kaleidoscope of organs and tissues and bones.
Doctor Martha Smith (née Jones) studied the readings with a horrified fascination. Behind her through the glass partition, the London Torchwood One office was operating at full tilt.
“Did you call him?” asked Martha.
“Sure did. He’s on his way. Be here any second, my guess,” replied Mickey.
“Good thing he’s immortal, he might actually die from shock.” She pointed to the images on the Bioscan. “Two hearts! Two hearts, Mickey! Hell, I might die from shock!”
“Hey,” Mickey ran a reassuring hand down his wife’s back. “You ok?”
“Yeah. It’s just a bit of a shock is all. If it really is him-“
“Y’mean, her.”
She shook her head, disbelievingly, “Yeah…”
“What is it then, why did she collapse?”
“I’m not sure. There’s nothing here that unusual-aside from the two hearts, that is… No evidence of subarchnoid hemorrhage, stroke, or retroclival hematoma. I see no colloid cysts or cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. And according to all the other tests there is no hypertensive emergency and no positives for Meningitis… As far as I can see, there is nothing wrong with the brain, and no cause for sudden, incapacitating thunderclap-like headaches-or even cluster ones-like what you described. Then again, it’s not like I precisely know what I’m dealing with. Timelord anatomy wasn’t exactly on my exams…”
“But if everything checks out normal, it could just be Regeneration Sickness, yeah?”
She nodded slowly, far away in thought. “Yeah, maybe. But I always figured I’d have known-I’d have sensed it or something-when he left… changed, whatever… He didn’t even say goodbye…” She trailed off.
“I know, babe. I know. M’sorry.” Mickey pulled her into him. He was getting a little tired of comforting the women he loved over the years from their pain and disappointment about the Doctor. What’s more, he was tired of the Doctor having disappointed them in the first place. He brought her closer to him and kissed her softly on the temple, at the beginning of her tight braids, breathing in her earthy scent of cocoa butter and nag champa. She sighed. Cupping his cheek, she kissed him back.
They didn’t hear the electrified sound of the Vortex Manipulator activate as a figure teleported into view-but a few other med techs had, and they rolled their eyes at the trademarked mysterious appearance by the familiar man at the back of the room.
A voice rang out from behind the clinched Smiths, interrupting them. “Hey you lovebirds! Isn’t that against company policy or something?”
Recognizing the voice, Martha broke away from her husband with a smirk on her face. “Like you’d know anything about company policy.”
“Of course I know about company policy,” returned the familiar voice. “You have to know the rules before you break them. It’s more fun that way.”
“And you’d know all about fun, wouldn’t you, Captain Beefcake?” Mickey greeted smugly.
“Damn straight, Mickey Mouse.”
Jack flashed his biggest, warmest grin and opened his arms to his friends, catching them both in a bear hug. Martha giggled as he shook them back and forth.
“Lemme go, space poof!” laughed Mickey finally, their traditional greeting completed.
“Aww, you two really are no fun,” sulked Jack.
“Sure we are, it’s just that you don’t get to see it,” Mickey retorted, saucily.
“And I mourn each of those days that pass me by.” Jack waggled his eyebrows at Martha indecently.
“Oh, Jack!” she turned away from him briefly, pretending that she had a stray hair to tuck behind her ear to hide her blushing. “It’s good to see you.”
“Is it him?” asked Jack.
“Well, we think so,” Mickey hedged.
“We aren’t sure,” added Martha.
“Why, what’s the problem?”
Martha pressed her lips together and made a sideways glance at Mickey. He shrugged. “See for yourself,” she said and they both stepped aside to reveal the motionless female figure on the exam table.
Jack’s smile faded into an expression of shock and then wonder. “Oh! You are kidding me!” His eyes swept over the sleeping woman, drinking her in. Brown ringlets rested lightly on a pale, bare cheek, framing her heart-shaped face and led down to a long neck that disappeared into a very familiar burgundy jumper and a body that resembled that of a Frazetta goddess. Jack watched the double pulse-points on her neck throb and wondered how this magnificent creature had come into being. He glanced up at Mickey and Martha in astonishment. “And you found her where?”
“Rose’s old flat.”
“And you saw the regeneration energy?”
“Yes-but.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes-but…”
“Incredible. Simply incredible,” said Jack in awe as he studied the woman lying on the table.
“Jack. Did you happen to notice that he’s a girl?”
“Notice? How can you miss it? And what a girl!!” he exclaimed very enthusiastically.
“Well, you’d best stay back then-you might get your eyes poked out if you get much closer…” Mickey teased, indicating her breasts.
“Cheeky,” Jack observed, waggling his eyebrows at him. “That’s promising.” He hooked his thumb at Martha. “Think maybe someday I might be able to-“
“No,” was Mickey’s stony reply.
“Naw… I didn’t think so,” he said with a sad shake of the head. “Still, maybe now I might finally have a proper shot here,” said Jack, indicating the prone woman on the table.
“If that is him,” reminded Martha.
“As opposed to…?”
“The Master,” she answered, in a hushed tone.
“Riiiight, the Master,” Jack replied as if to a small child. He scratched his chin. “But the Master’s dead, Martha.”
“That’s what we all thought the last time,” she reminded him. “But then he came back and turned us all into his precious Master Race, remember??”
Jack grimaced. He certainly did remember. “Look. Torchwood interviewed everybody after that event on Christmas, and from all accounts, the Master never left that building and the Doctor did.”
“Well, then he escaped or something,” offered Mickey. “Cos a missing body isn’t any proof of anything-certainly not death. And you should know that.”
“Yeah, well. Then, call it a hunch.”
“I’m sorry Jack,” started Martha in her authoritative tone, “but until I know differently-until whoever this is can prove to us that they are who they say they are-then I think we should assume otherwise.” She put her hand on her hip and clutched her clipboard to her chest. “And right now all I know is that we have a Timelord-with two hearts-who’s recently regenerated. She could be either of them.”
“Or she could be a completely different one,” offered Mickey. Martha and Jack both turned to stare at him. “Well, yeah-you don’t know! Sure, the Doctor said that they were all dead and he was the only one left, but then the Master shows up and wreaks havoc. You think he’s dead and he pops up again like a bad penny. You lot seem to forget that the Doctor isn’t infallible. Sometimes he’s wrong. Maybe he’s wrong about this, too. Look,” he pointed to Martha, “I remember what you told me that whosie-whatsit of Boe thing said to you---“
“Yeah, not just now, hon,” said Martha, cutting him off.
“The who of what?” Jack’s interest was piqued.
“Never mind,” hurried Martha, “Just somebody I met with the Doctor a long time ago…” She was desperate to change the subject. “But I agree with Mickey. I don’t trust this.”
“Fine,” said Jack simply. “Take whatever precautions you need and then let’s wake up our guest. I want to meet Earth’s latest alien visitor, whoever she is.”
Martha nodded and spun off to give orders to the other medical staff in the room.
******
Fifteen minutes later, Martha began the IV drip to awaken the Doctor. For good measure, sodium pentothal had been added to the mix, just in case. Martha hadn’t a clue if Timelords could even be affected by it, but she thought it would be a good precaution, just in case. At the moment, they were alone in the room-Mickey waiting just outside-and Martha was curious to see what she would hear from the stranger when she woke up.
Sluggishly, the Doctor stirred.
“It’s all right,” reassured Martha. “I’ve got you.”
The Doctor turned her head towards the familiar voice and smiled sleepily. “Martha… Martha Jones-Weeelll, Doctor Martha Smith now, isn’t it?”
Martha startled at the new voice but felt an instant kinship in spite of herself. She smiled softly. “Yeah, it is.”
“Sorry I missed the wedding…”
“You weren’t invited.”
“Oh… Well. Then-“ the Doctor spluttered.
“I’m teasing. We eloped.”
“Ooh, well-good for you-pick up and run at a moment’s notice? That’s the Martha I know.” Martha smiled back at her. “Happy?” the Doctor asked.
She grinned at the Doctor warmly. “Very,” she replied, but she was still torn. “You?”
“Awww, you know me-Last of the Timelords and all…”
“That’s not what I heard,” Martha prodded.
“The Master?” the Doctor shook her head. “Gone. Went back through the White Void with the emerging Timelords back on that Christmas…” she trailed off, remembering as she’d watched the very last glimpse of her people and her family disappear into the whiteness of time and become pressed into the pages of history. “It all ended the way it was supposed to-and everybody died,” she said, bitterly.
“Not everybody. The Earth was saved. You were saved.”
The Doctor shook her head. “No. I wasn’t. Regenerated after that. That was my previous incarnation. My Eleventh. I’m Twelfth...”
This stranger certainly seemed a lot like the old Doctor she knew.
Hold on? Did she say, Twelfth?
“Doctor?”
She grinned. “That’s me. Look different, do I?”
“Is it really you?”
“Really me? Yes… It’s good to see you, Martha. I’ve missed you. I’ve missed everybody.”
“But…” she struggled against the tears that threatened from emotions only half-buried. “You just disappeared? Why didn’t you come back? Why didn’t you say goodbye?”
“Oh,” breathed the Doctor, realising. “But I did-or I will-“
“You what? No you didn’t, I’d have remembered something like that.”
“No. But see, it hasn’t happened to you yet.” Just noticing, she looked at the length of Martha’s braids. “Once those reach past the middle of your back, you’ll see me again-the old me again-I promise.”
“You went to the future to say goodbye to me?”
“Yep.”
“Why the future? Why didn’t you say goodbye when it happened?”
“I chose a very special day…” the Doctor hedged.
“He came to me,” said a clear voice from the doorway.
The Doctor strained around Martha to see the known source of the voice. Jack moved closer to the gurney and looked down at the Doctor.
“On the worst day of my life the Doctor came to me and said goodbye,” Jack smiled at the prone woman with a mixture of awe and intense sadness, “and I’ll always be grateful for that.” He gripped her hand affectionately, both in greeting and gratitude and nodded solemnly at her. “Doctor.”
The Doctor replied with equal affection and respect, “Captain.” She tried to sit up to give him a hug but restraints that she hadn’t noticed before held her back.
Jack produced a key. “I think we can get rid of these, now-unless Doctor Smith here would leave the room so I could run some ‘experiments’ of my own,” he said, winking scandalously at the Doctor.
Martha slapped Jack’s hands away from the Doctor. She was incredulous. “What? You knew all along it was him? And hold on-where did you get that key?”
“Your desk drawer, and I knew he’d regenerated, yes,” answered Jack, and with a regretful sigh began unhooking her handcuffs. “But I didn’t know what a fine regeneration it would be,” beamed Jack, admiring the view as the Doctor sat up, woozily. “And I must say, Doctor-this is your best regeneration yet-“
“Jaaaack,” admonished the Doctor. “Really? Aren’t we both a little old for that?”
“You’re only too old when it doesn’t work anymore, Doctor,” Jack replied with the trademark sparkle in his eye. “And from what I saw on those Bioscan results, everything on you should work like a charm.”
The Doctor frowned at Jack. “Oh, Blimey! Nine-hundred and ten years of time and space and I’ve still got the Universe’s biggest Horn Dog after me!”
Martha covered her mouth and exploded in a peal of giggles. Jack continued to stare saucily at the new Doctor. “So, whattaya say, Doc? Fancy a test drive?” Martha continued to giggle as the Doctor simply looked at him-however the practiced look of exasperation wore a bit at the edges and her lips quirked up a bit in spite of herself; for while Jack and his oversexed fifty-first century manner was a bit strong, this was familiar banter-and something the Doctor had sorely missed.
“So was this your clever plan?” she asked wryly, as a suspicious eyebrow arched. “Pump me full of sodium pentothal and try and seduce me? You’re lucky Timelords don’t process sodium pentothal the same way humans do. It just makes me a little sleepy.”
Jack pointed to Martha. “Her idea, not mine. But I thought I might give it a go and try my chances. Y’never know… New new Doctor?”
The Doctor grinned at him smugly. “Well, New new Doctor, yes. Brain damaged Doctor, no.”
Jack brought a dramatic hand to his chest and pretended to look affronted. “Doctor! You cut me to the quick!”
“S’all right,” she quipped, with the wave of a freed hand, “You’ll heal.”
Jack guffawed. “Yep. I’d say it’s the Doctor,” he grinned.
“Absolutely. No doubts from me,” Martha seconded.
Jack swept into the Doctor’s embrace and then Martha pushed him away for a go. As the three of them were laughing and hugging, Mickey walked in and pulled a face.
“Oh. So’s it all settled then?” his voice dripped with sarcasm, “Or is the Master trying to suffocate you with his brand new ti-“
“Mickey! Hello again!” beamed the Doctor. “Fancy a hug?”
pic by akkajemo!
To be continued in Chapter 3: Stories In The Dark