Gallifreyan Nature: Chapter 2

[nevermoreraven]

Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: Teen
DISCLAIMER: Other people have actually read this one before the internet.  Yes, I know.  It's weird.
Summary: This is a rewrite of the Human Nature/Family of Blood two-parter, because I really liked Latimer.  It's long.  I liked it pretty well at the time, as did the other readers, so let's see how well it held up.  ...so far, so good.  also I actually bothered to tab for once on this one.
It's not finished, but it's fairly close.

As always, Martha sighed before bed.  This was one of the days she decided she was going to sleep in the servant’s quarters and not make her way to the TARDIS.  The truth was, she was too tired, and there were days when she began to doubt that this would ever end.  Then the cheerful part scolded her, telling her, “The Doctor’s coming, soon.  You’ll see.  It’ll all be over.  And then you’ll both be off again.  You should be welcoming this as a respite.  It’s probably the only one you’re going to get for ages and ages, and then you’ll be sorry you didn’t enjoy it more.”

She’d had to scrub down the entire school today.  She fell asleep before she got undressed.

Her dreams didn’t start with the Doctor screaming.  They almost always did, and she always woke up with the sound ripping through her heart, slowly killing her.  Dr. Jones had long ago made the diagnosis that she might be able to survive everything else, but the feeling that the Doctor-her Doctor-was slowly dying was too much to bear.  Somehow, she made it through the days anyway…

“Martha!  There you are!  I wondered where you’d got to!”

The familiar voice was too much, and for a moment Martha forgot everything else, like the fact that this should be impossible.  The sound was the only part of her world at first, then slowly the rest filled itself in, as if it’d just forgotten to upload and was sheepishly trying to make up for the error.

The weirdest thing was, as far as Dr. Jones could remember, she had no recollection of this particular adventure.  It was brand new.

The Doctor was standing there, beaming at her, hands stuffed casually in his pockets as he waited for his companion to join him.  Martha seriously considered running to him then and there, but the sight of him was too much.  She’d longed for this moment for ages and ages, and here it was.  More than anything, she’d just wanted him to come back, just to see him, one more time, and there he was, the hair tousled just like so, the enthusiastic grin, the sparkling light in his eyes-so much that was missing in the translation into human form.  Somehow he’d lost his energy, his geekiness, and she had no idea how anyone like Mr. Smith could have come from her Doctor.  She drank in the sight of him.

He started bouncing, just slightly, on the balls of his feet, eager to be off.  At last, he queried, “Something wrong, Martha?...”  After a moment, he added, smile fading slightly, “Oh, yeah, I’m sorry…got the coordinates wrong again.  Suppose that’s it.  It is, isn’t it?  This is the ‘you’ve done it again don’t try to weasel out of it’ face, isn’t it?”

Martha let out an excited laugh and rushed into a hug, giggling like a little schoolgirl as he lifted her up and twirled her around.

He set her back on the ground gently and stared mostly seriously into her eyes.  “That wasn’t the response I was expecting.  I guess you’re okay with missing the performance of Undr’goo’na(‘la?”

Martha laughed again, ecstatic to see him.  “I’m okay with anything.”

The Doctor’s eyebrows shot up in astonishment.  “That’s not what you said in the TARDIS.”  After a moment, when it became clear that she wasn’t going to explain, he added, eyes shining in wonder, “This is the second choice, by the way.  Pataryh.  It’s beautiful, and no human’s ever seen it before…but you didn’t seem like you wanted to do any of the stuff I mentioned here, so I…”

Martha put her fingers on his lips, enjoying the tingling sensation she got.  He got the hint for once and shut up, although he’d somehow managed to make his eyebrows go up further on his head.  The strain on his muscles must be pretty painful, she thought, and was proved right when he quickly resumed a normal expression again.

He gently removed her hand and grinned goofily.  “Well, I suppose…nightfall on Pataryh.  Gotta be worth missing the play, though I’ve heard the part in the middle is to die for.  Still.”

The Doctor led her over to the nearest grassy area and stopped.  Since she didn’t have any idea of what was going on, she let his soft grip on her hand lead her.

The Time Lord carefully spread out his coat on the ground beneath them and motioned for Martha to sit on it.  After a second, she did, and he plopped down next to her.

“What are we watching for?”  Miss Jones asked, to make sure she didn’t miss it more than anything.

The Doctor put his finger to his lips.  He looked a bit wraithlike in the dying light, as if he was about to begin a ghost story.  After a minute, he pointed at a place far on the horizon and drew her closer so she could see, arm draped loosely about her shoulders.

“That,” he whispered, and Martha understood perfectly.  Beauty this incredible, like in cathedrals, called for lowered voices.

The sky was ablaze-only the sunset was a deep, rich purple, a colour so beautiful it made her gasp in amazement.  The Doctor’s smile grew larger as he watched her amazed face.  “It reflects really well off your skin, Martha.  You’re glowing purple,” he remarked, causing her to tear her eyes off the display.

“So are you,” she retorted, which caused him to chuckle.  “So, this is one of the sights of the universe, yeah?”

The Doctor shrugged.  “One of them.  But I’ve never seen it before.”

“How’d you know what to look for, then?” Martha queried, curious.

“Brochure,” he replied nonchalantly.  “Nothing like this, of course.”  The Time Lord sighed contentedly.

Martha didn’t even mention how silly that particular statement sounded.

The light flared up, brighter than ever, and disappeared in a haze of glory.  A glow still lit the ground, well enough for the two time travelers to see each other.  The strange thing, Martha thought idly, was that it wasn’t the same amazing purple colour-it was more of a bluish green.

“It’s good we arrived when we did, then,” she remarked.

“It’s not done yet, Martha…” the Doctor stated, tone hiding a smile.

Martha was about to ask another question when it was answered by the arrival of what looked to be little fireflies.  That’s where the light was coming from.  A few landed on her shoulders and chest.  She giggled a little as one of them moved-it was a bit ticklish-and heard the Doctor chuckle too, although it probably had more to do with the fact that he was enjoying himself immensely.  She watched them crawl over her arm, fascinated, and asked him, “What are they?”

“Later, Martha.  For now, just enjoy the moment.  It’s like magic, isn’t it?”

Martha believed in many things.  She’d thought about adding magic to the list, but the Doctor assured her that the witches in their adventure with Shakespeare had nothing to do with hocus-pocus.  But this-this was magic, or just maybe the sheer brilliance of it all.  Whatever it was, it was more fun than anything.

After the lightning bugs-or whatever they were-had gone, the Doctor picked up his jacket and they headed back to the TARDIS.  Martha thought she’d seen little human-like bodies, but had decided that it was just part of the magic of the moment-or the mention of the word.

“They were the inhabitants of this world.  Now they’re just echoes,” the Doctor explained, hands firmly stuck in his pockets.

Martha cast a look of horror at him.  “They’re dead?”  She swallowed and felt a creepy crawly sensation on her arms.  Dr. Jones gulped-it was like playing with cadavers or something.  Definitely a little too much information.

Aware that he’d said something wrong, the Doctor took her by the shoulders and turned her towards him.  “Martha, look at me.  They’re like…faeries.  Except they’re nicer than most on your world, or that visit your world.  And no one, not even Time Lords, knows what’s happened to them.  Maybe they decided that it would be much more fun to be mobile echoes of themselves, who knows.  Another thing we don’t know.  Maybe their civilization hasn’t even been created yet, maybe they’re living alongside their own, maybe their cities toppled long ago.  Whatever the case, they’re having fun-the time of their lives.  They’re bringing joy to visitors.  I saw your face-you were loving it.  And they knew that-they sensed it.  Martha…they’re doing their best to show others beauty and truth and light, and that…that’s not any dead person I know.  They’re echoes of a really, really brilliant race.”

Dr. Jones laughed and wiped the tears from her eyes.  “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” he replied, the gentle smile back in his voice.  They walked the rest of the way in companionable silence, although Martha slipped her dark hand in the Time Lord’s own.

As they reached the familiar blue doors, the Doctor began to talk again.  “All right, as I told you, Pataryh has a few other attractions, although we can go and try to catch the show if you want…”

“Let’s stay,” Martha stated firmly. 

Again, an eyebrow rose, but he couldn’t keep the edges of his mouth from twitching into a smile.  “All right, stay it is.  Since we don’t want to bother with the rest of the night-not that it’s boring, but we’ve been there and done that already-we’ll just hop over to the other side of the planet during the day.”

He turned into a flurry of pinstriped activity, dodging around the console in his happy caffeinated bunny way of his.  Martha watched him, biting her lip to keep herself from smiling too broadly.

They emerged in the light of a fairly normal sun.  “What do you want to do first?”

“Sorry…what did you say we could do here?” Martha queried, hoping that it wasn’t too obvious.

The Doctor frowned for a second before continuing with an approximately normal smile, “Something like snorkeling.  We’ve got caving, hiking, a bit of swimming.  Something else I mentioned that seemed pretty obvious at the time but I can’t remember right at the moment.”

“Let’s do it all,” Martha smiled happily.

His eyebrows never seemed to get tired of it.  “Martha, you’re a woman after my own heart.”

…Right after the caving, with the beautiful reddish crystals and the bioluminescent lizards, but right before they went mountain climbing on the glowing cliffs-which is what the Doctor forgot-Martha asked with only a little bit of irritation, “Where are the invading aliens with evil agendas?”

The Doctor did another small frown and teased her, “Oh no.  Never thought that Doctor Martha Jones would ever say anything like that.  The universe will collapse in…” he glanced at his watch, “…about five seconds.”

Martha only laughed and punched his arm.  “Oh, stop it.”…

They were almost back to the TARDIS when the Doctor stopped her, looking anxious.  “Martha, are you okay?  You’re looking…transparent.  And I mean that.  Literally.”

He took her hand, which was beginning to feel cold, and started sonicking like crazy with his other.  “Martha…stay with me, come on….”

His companion managed a small, faraway sound.  “Doctor?”

The readings he was getting weren’t encouraging him much.  “Martha, don’t…don’t panic.  I’ll sort this out!”

Despite his best efforts, his dark companion was beginning to literally fade away like a ghost.  Her hand barely felt like it was there.

Martha muttered to someone shaking her, “Wanna…sleep….”

Ignoring his own advice, what looked suspiciously like despair began to cross the Time Lord’s features.  Eventually, he dropped his sonic, putting both hands on Martha’s face.  It felt like touching a wisp-just a tingle, nothing more.  “I’ll find you,” he promised her, dark brown eyes staring into her own seriously.  “I’ll find you, and everything’ll turn out all right.  You’ll see.”

He kissed her firmly on the lips, hoping that the DNA within the saliva would help him track her down.  Or something.  Maybe to give her hope, who knows.  A desperate, last ditch defense.

It did have one effect, at least.  Martha licked her lips, muttering, “Mmm…Doctor….” as if drunk…or half asleep.  The smile that crossed her face now was sweet, if fleeting.  Then she was gone.

The Doctor was left staring fixedly at the spot where his companion had disappeared, his hearts feeling hollow and heavy.  He didn’t even have the perkiness to declare that such was a contradiction.

Martha felt herself being shaken awake by Jenny.  “Wake up, sleepyhead,” her friend stated, as if this was the final time she’d ever try.

“But…the dream….”  Martha still wasn’t completely awake, and wanted to try to savor every moment she had with the Doctor.

“We’ve got a job to do.  They want us to become window scrubbers next.”  Jenny seemed to only want to bemoan the situation.

Martha sat up abruptly, a gigantic smile coming across her face.  “They do, do they?  Well, we’ll show them.  We’ll be the greatest window-washers in history, just you wait.”

In a second, the covers were thrown aside and Martha was running into the first minutes of her day.  Jenny rolled her eyes, not sure what was up with her friend.  “Must’ve been some dream,” she muttered.