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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.
“How are we going to get the Family to meet us? I mean, they’re not likely to just meet us, splitting up their forces, will they? They’re likely to think it’s a trap. Aren’t they?” Martha wasn’t likely to just take all of it on the Doctor’s word. She wanted to understand his plan. And that would involve him actually discussing the plan, instead of just telling them all it would work and letting them just trust that it would.
He cast a glance at her out of the corner of his eyes and smiled slightly. “Mmm. I was thinking a challenge. A game-the game of a Time Lord. I’m going to ask them if they think they can spot the Time Lord. Their problem will be that almost all of us will be about the same level of…them sensing the Gallifreyan-ness of things.”
If anything, she was more confused than she’d been before. “Um, Doctor…want to run that by me again?”
Dan just grinned sheepishly at her. “I can’t. I’m not sure of the exact words to describe this. I mean, I can just make up stuff-that’s what I do normally, you know, make up stuff as I go along…”
Miss Jones elbowed him. “I’ve known that for ages.”
She couldn’t help but laugh as the Doctor started to pout. “Doesn’t mean you’re not good.” She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed it back, just enough to show that he wasn’t as put out as he’d made out.
“I…ohhhh…this’d be so much easier to explain in Gallifreyan.” His expression twisted into one of frustration, the inability to communicate something to his companion making him upset-no, more than just a companion, now. So much more.
This threw her off a little. She’d never heard him complain about English, or being unable to find the words too express himself. Usually, he ended up using too many. “…Doctor…I thought you liked human language…” She didn’t know how to ask the question, but he grinned at her, astonished by her take on things.
“No, it’s not that. It’s not that at all! I love humans!” He punctuated that last statement with a passionate kiss-but didn’t take too long about it. “It’s…your languages are so…different. I’m sure you’ve heard that every language is a reflection of the culture that uses it. Yours is…flawed, with weird exceptions to rules and all sorts of random things that make it hard to master, but it makes perfect sense to you lot. And that imperfection…it…makes it beautiful.” He ended with a very wistful tone, painful, yet so romantic.
She grinned and put her head on his shoulder, enjoying the closeness that had developed between them so quickly. “So, what’s Gallifreyan like? I mean, I’ve heard it, but I don’t understand it, so…”
Another glance, another lopsided smile. “For what it’s worth, you may someday. I could try to teach you. If you like, and if we ever get some ‘down time’, which usually doesn’t happen…It’s…for one thing, there’s a lot more emotion. It’s like…life, is the only way I can think to describe it. It’s optimistic, full of warmth and light and truth-but there’s a darker side too. It’s…lyrical. Poetic. Yet somehow transcendant. Beyond life. It translates concepts and ideas better than English.”
Through the Doctor’s attempts to use language to fully express himself, she’d just gotten the barest of glimpses of what he’d meant. And it, like him, was beautiful.
She felt the difference in his posture, and correctly interpreted it to mean it was back to business a moment before he actually spoke. ‘I could get quite good at this,’ she thought with a smile.
“Weeeelllll…this is it. End of the line. But don’t worry, another train’s coming in…well….you know. Soon. Anyway…good luck.” He pecked her on the cheek.
“I’ll be keeping an eye out for you,” she promised, letting those dark eyes slip through her own into her heart.
He grinned widely at her and sauntered off, hands in his pockets. She could tell he was walking eyes closed, but how she wasn’t quite sure, since he wasn’t running into things. Then again, no matter what random stuff he did while walking, he almost never walked into anything.
She took out the watch, letting her thumbs run over the patterns on the front. They looked like Gallifreyan writing to her, and she’d have to get him to translate one day. It was like she was holding a piece of the Doctor’s soul, and that thought made her treat it with a bit more reverence.
