Gallifreyan Nature: Chapter 13

[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.

 

Martha had learned a lot about hard work lately, but this time it hardly felt like her usual toils.  Yeah, the life of one boy she really liked rested on her abilities, but she didn’t give herself the time to think about it and let the pressure settle in.  She was a flurry of activity, and in the end all his wounds were dressed and his back was covered in a swath of bandages.  She wiped the sweat off her forehead and took Daniel’s hand, moving the blanket she’d put on him below the arm.  “Dan?  Dan, if you can hear me, this is Martha.  I need you to get circulation back to normal, if you can.  We don’t want you to die of shock, not after all this.  You hear me, Dan?”

He didn’t respond, not verbally, but she checked and his extremities were returning to the normal temperature-for him.

She felt safe moving him to the TARDIS console room now, where she yammered on about nothing to the unresponsive timeship.  Really, it’d been too long since she’d had someone to talk to properly.  She’d even thought about ringing Tish, a couple of times, but no way could she mention she was in 1913 and being treated like a slave.  She couldn’t talk normally, had no idea even what time Tish would be in when she called, so she’d mostly forgotten about the idea.

She was at his side when Daniel stirred sleepily and opened his eyes.  “Martha!”  His eyes lit up upon just seeing her and he sat up-apparently way too quickly, as he added, “Ohhh…” with a grimace on his face.

“Careful.  Your back will still hurt.  I can’t just wave a hand and make the pain go away.  But you’re out of danger now,” she reassured him, trying to give him the feeling that the Doctor had always given her, the faith that everything would be all right if only she stayed close.

It didn’t seem to have much of an effect, however, as Winters cast her a funny look.  The doctor in her was about to start worrying again, that something had gone wrong, but the words came out, explaining everything, “Next year, one of your planet’s worst wars breaks out, the Family are running around trying to take the essence of a Time Lord, never mind enemies at home, and you’re telling me I’m out of danger?”  A slight smile appeared on his face as he stretched, groaning.  “Martha Jones, you are just about the most optimistic person I know.  Now, if you’d told me I’ll be all right,” he winked, grinning roguishly, “…then I’d say you were right on all accounts.”

Unlike the Doctor, he accepted her help as he stood up, a grim look on his face as he tested out his energy and body strength.  When he was completely straight, his eyelids fluttered, and he fell against her.  Surprised, she barely managed to keep the two of them upright.  “What is it?” Martha whispered, scared.

Daniel concentrated on breathing, taking great big gulps of air.  Eventually, he answered, the slightest of smiles appearing on his face.  “I am such an idiot.”

Miss Jones frowned, taking his arm and leaning him against the console, shaking her head emphatically at him.  “No, you’re not.”

His smile grew teasing.  “Yes, I am.  A thumpin’ great thick, blind idiot.  I need to remember that this particular body’s got low blood pressure-good except when I move too quickly even for myself and the blood can’t catch up.”

Martha couldn’t help but smile at that one.  At least he wasn’t whacking his forehead with enough strength to make the doctor in her worry.

He fixed her with his eyes, the deep brown eyes boring into her own.  “Martha…thank you.  Ever so much…and more than you’ll probably ever know.”

A shiver ran down her spine, but she just smiled as much as she could.  “You’re welcome, every single time.”  The seriousness of the situation, the way he was looking at her-it was a bit too much, and she felt the floor moving from out under her, the way it sometimes did when she felt herself come face-to-face with her love for the Doctor when she wasn’t ready.  She felt her cheeks begin to burn.

He beamed at her, that large, Doctorish grin that made her heart jump.  “I know,” Daniel told her gently, then stuck out his hand for her to shake.  “We haven’t really been introduced, although I’m sure we know each other’s names by now.  Still…Daniel Winters, but you know you can call me Dan.”

She hid a smile then.  “That’s not really a 1913 nickname, is it?  So much for blending in…”

He had the decency to look a little sheepish.  “Well…there’s no need to playact for you-I mean, you’ve figured out there’s something strange about me.  I don’t need to keep it up.  And the rest of the early twentieth century humans are a bit too blind to notice the pretty giveaway details about the alien kid in their midst…though, mind you, it’s a human talent, honestly, being purposefully obtuse about things.  People point and shout, ‘Great big UFO hovering over London,’ in 2006 and half the population doesn’t even notice…the other half slowly and conveniently convince themselves somehow that what they saw didn’t really happen and the few that are left still fully aware of what they spotted are considered completely bonkers and ignored.  You lot don’t like things you don’t understand, and if you can block it out of your perception then you don’t have to deal with it.”

“Like what Mr. Smith’s doing right now,” Martha couldn’t help but observe bitterly.

Dan blinked owlishly at her.  He scrubbed at the back of his neck and looked decidedly uncomfortable.  “…Yep.  He makes a rubbish human, doesn’t he?”

Martha found it was her turn to be embarrassed.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bang on that.  Really, not now especially.  I mean, you’re the patient.  You don’t discuss serious things in hospitals.”

To her astonishment, Winters wasn’t much discomfited.  He just gave her another one of those gigantic grins.  “The Doctors do.”

He took her hand and asked her, “Want to walk back to the school?  We can run if you like; I just don’t want to do it automatically because I’m not sure how I’ll hold up.”

            Miss Jones was thrown back to her (high school-this is England, is this right?) days, when she’d gone on dates, and they’d just walked and held hands.  And kissed, of course.  How hard it would be, she thought, to be walking with him like that, without him even knowing how it made her feel.  But she couldn’t say no.  “Let’s walk,” she told him, still a little worried about him.

            The smile he gave her now wasn’t one that she’d seen on the Doctor before.  She couldn’t tell if she was imagining it, but she thought that it was a little bit shy with a big dollop of sweet.

He chattered on while they walked, talking about the birds, about the weather, about the triumphs of the human race, even in the darkest of times (most of the stories he told were about next year).  Martha was becoming a little tired, so she just sank into the comforting tone of the Doctor’s accent and put her legs on autopilot.  He didn’t seem to notice, gesturing, laughing, becoming rather animated.

Before she knew it, they were in front of the school.  Dawn was just beginning to peek over the horizon-she smiled and nodded as he pointed at the clouds slightly tinted with orange, purple, and red.  Dan stopped, turned to look at her, both of her hands clasped gently in his own.  All her senses went on alert.  He wanted to say something, it was clear, but he hesitated, just staring at her face, his vulnerable look on again.  Martha would have asked, but he shook his head, reaching out to gently tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.  She loved how he was treating her-extremely gently, as if one wrong move would break her into a thousand pieces like china or glass, but it was a feeling she was unused to with a Time Lord around.  He didn’t want to make the next move, she realized, worried that he would scare her away or break her heart completely.  But at the same time, something had changed-Dan, this Dan, her Doctor-needed to go further, no matter what.  He needed her as much as she needed him, now.

He leaned in.  She caught a glimpse of spiky hair before her world narrowed to the kiss and nothing more.  This wasn’t like the one he’d given her on the horse, where he’d been guarded, just snogging her to save his life.  This was so much more.  The passion of it knocked her off balance.  His arms wrapped around her, exploring her back, while he hungrily pressed his lips against hers.  For a moment, she was soft, yielding, but then she kissed back just as hard.  She felt herself become giddy, and guessed that he felt similar.  One of her hands pulled Daniel closer to her, being careful of the injuries on his back, the other running through his brown hair.  She felt the joy at the delight of doing so.  How many times had she longed to play with his hair after watching his fingers fly through his hair every which way?  For that matter, how many times had she wished the Doctor to kiss her like this?  If just the small taste she’d gotten of him in the Royal Hope Hospital was any indication, he was just as good a kisser as she was-and she wasn’t disappointed.

Neither of them pulled away for a long while.  They probably should have come up for air at some point, but it was obvious neither one of them wanted to stop the kiss.  They somehow got gasps of air now and then, but they didn’t need more than small amounts of oxygen.

At last, as if by mutual consent, they disentangled at the exact same instant.  Both were grinning broadly, the joy and laughter infectious.  She’d never seen this exact smile on the Doctor’s face, either, but on Dan’s it was perfect.  She suspected that a similar look was on her own.  Martha knew she’d remember this moment for the rest of her life.  He didn’t want to let go of her hand, she knew, the fingers interlocked and somehow closer than they’d ever gotten.

After a moment, they started saying something at the exact same instant and started laughing loudly.  The likelihood of anyone noticing was high, considering how noisy they were being, but at this time neither of them cared.  Finally, Dan wiped the tears from his eyes.  “Sorry, Martha…didn’t mean to…I mean, didn’t mean to interrupt you.  What were you going to say?”

“So, you like me?”  She couldn’t help the question-it just sort of slipped out.  After years of living with the Doctor not noticing her, this seemed too good to be true.  Like the end of a fairy tale, where they always say ‘and they lived happily ever after’.  It couldn’t possibly be true-she must be hallucinating or it was a fluke or…well, something.

Winters’ smile disappeared immediately, and solemnly he caressed her neck, fingers gently stroking her hair.  “Oh, Martha.  You’ve been left out in the cold for far too long.  Time for you to come in to the roaring fire in the hearth…and a book, and a loving boyf.”

She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant.  The words were English, twenty-first century, even, but the thought process behind them was alien-so she couldn’t completely understand what he was saying.  Whatever it was, it was completely Time Lord-but she didn’t like the thought that he was just doing this because he felt sorry for her.  Dan seemed to read her mind.  “Martha, I…I just snogged you because I love you.  Not because of anything else.  I didn’t want to complicate things, didn’t want to get you attached to me because I don’t have a TARDIS of my own.  You’d just take off with the Doctor and for once I’d be the one left behind.  Martha…I was afraid of you breaking my hearts, and of leaving you longing for me forevermore.”  He smiled shyly at her, fingers moving up her neck through her hair.

“Dan…you’re like a Doctor, my Doctor, only…like, you’ve been personalized for me.”  She was still a little dazed, and so wasn’t choosing her words carefully.

He managed to look insulted, but this time she actually knew it was just pretend.  He couldn’t keep the expression long, ditching it for the mad grin.  “Martha…we can’t pretend that this kiss didn’t just happen.  For one thing, I think it’s probably the best kiss of our lives.”  Martha couldn’t help but smile irresistibly at that one.  “But we can…you know, end it here.  Everything’s been done and said that needs to be.  But if you want to go on…”

“Oh, yes.”  Martha didn’t even have to think about that one.  She’d just gotten something she’d always wanted, and she wasn’t about to let go.

“Sure?”  His eyes were completely the Doctor’s, serious, ready to back away if she wanted, and aware of the consequences.  Always aware of the consequences.

“Oh, yes.  You’re everything I’ve always wanted, Dan.”  She wanted another kiss, but knew that it wasn’t the right time.  Later, she knew, and because of what she was saying, there would be a later.  They both had their respective places to be.

“Thank you ever so much, Martha.  You’ve saved me.”  She half guessed that he was kidding her-that mischievous twinkle sparkled in his eyes as he looked at her.

He pushed the hair off her left cheek with his hand, gently, and almost reverently kissed her cheek, making her giggle.  “See you ‘round, Martha Jones,” and he almost skipped off, whistling happily.

If she could have that effect on him, Martha thought, she really was something, and more than the Doctor had noticed.  She’d never thought that she was good enough for him, but after that kiss she’d tell him that it was the other way around.  Dan was her Doctor.  And she was better than anesthesia for him, she realized-he hadn’t complained about his wounds, even though she’d ran her hands all over them.  She wasn’t tired anymore.  A kiss from her Doctor, she reflected, was better than caffeine.