Disclaimer: BBC owns characters, but Savannah (aka, 'random nonsense' aka, 'the chibis are stalking me') owns the plotline. It comes from her 'What if's…' fics, (which are a fantastic read) chapter 101, Not Alone in this.
He tried to shift from his already uncomfortable position into a better one without much success, considering the little amount of space in the basement where he was trying to sleep. But sleep was just as impossible to get as safety, with the Toclafane blasting people to smithereens all over the world. Yes, he'd lost his power to sleep ever since he'd seen his children and his two grandchildren explode right in front of him…
Suddenly the basement seemed even more cramped than before. He made to stand right when he heard someone nearby speak. Normally, this wouldn't have fazed him at all, especially not now, but two words stood out clearly to him.
"The Doctor,"
His head snapped around quickly, seeking out the speaker. She was sitting at a table talking to a few of the other people who had taken refuge in the shoddy little hole in the ground, and the moment he'd spotted her, her eyes met with his, her surprise at his attention apparent on her face. She stopped speaking as she watched him stride towards her.
"What did you say?" he asked, his voice coming out harder than he'd expected. "Please, you must tell me."
She blinked before taking a breath and starting over. The Doctor and his heroism (he grinned and asked her to skip over that bit). Saxon and his take-over (he couldn't help but puff up with pride that he hadn't so much as considered 'Voting Saxon'). And finally, The Master; his laser screwdriver, and her mission to spread the word about the Doctor.
"The Master," he snorted and shook his head, "Should've known, has his name all over it."
The young woman glances at him, quizzically. He looked right back at her, her eyes shining with a youth he'd almost forgotten. She was clearly sharp, the kind he would've recruited back in the old day. And she had one damn good backbone (not to mention persistence) to do what she'd been doing for the Doctor. "What did you say your name was again, my dear?"
She smiled, "Martha, Martha Jones."
"It's been a pleasure meeting you, Ms Jones. Now if you don't mind, this old Greyhound has a mission and a story to tell, good day." He tipped an imaginary hat and walked away.
Night fell and he sat in a corner, a piece of battered looking machinery placed carefully in his lap. His concentration was so focused on making sure that every knob and wire was moved in just the right way, that he almost missed the sound of someone trying to address him.
"Excuse me?"
"A minute," he grumbled, and pressed a thin needle across the slightly rounded part of metal right at the top of the dark box, it made a small beeping noise. He smiled in satisfaction and looked up, it was her. "Yes, Ms Jones? Is there anything I can assist you with?"
She seemed to hesitate a little and looked over shoulder quickly at the rest of the sleeping figures on the ground before turning back to him.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't catch your name earlier." she said quietly and sat on the ground with him.
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, at your service." He said with a proud smile and a small bow of his head. She smiled as he took her outstretched hand and kissed it. "And you Ms Jones have given me a great deal of hope. I'll do my best to spread the word around." He tapped the device in his lap.
"Well, Sir, if you don't mind me asking, you seemed to have known what I meant when I mentioned the Doctor and the Master earlier, not many people do…" she didn't seem quite sure how to end her sentence. He smiled at her; he knew what she wanted before even she did, just some companionship.
"I know quite a bit about both of them, Ms Jones. In fact it may be of interest to you to know that the Doctor worked for me for a few years."
If he hadn't been so tired, he would have laughed at her facial expression. Her lovely eyes grew wider and she actually dropped her jaw a little. "No way, seriously? He actually worked?"
"Well, for UNIT, if you want to be more specific." Her forehead wrinkled. "You've never heard of UNIT, Ms Jones?" she shook her head. He sat up a little straighter and began to tell a little bit of his own story… "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, otherwise known as UNIT. We're a military organization, in case the title wasn't clear enough-"
She giggled a little; he was glad that he was able to make someone smile at such a horrible time. "Our purpose is to investigate the extraterrestrial and if needed, go into combat to defend Earth against any alien threat."
"But I thought that was Torchwood's job," she said suddenly. The Brig raised an eyebrow and shook his head.
"No, Torchwood's motto is more around the lines of 'shoot first, investigate later'." He said in a gruff tone, he'd never been fond of Torchwood. "I don't usually like to speak like this Ms Jones, but Torchwood is so full of self-important hoo-ha's, who did nothing but try to steal our research for years then suddenly started blasting ships out of the sky without any warning and without consulting anyone. They're main purpose was set with the Doctor as their number one target."
"What? You mean as an enemy?" Martha asked, dumbfounded.
"Oh, why yes, Ms Jones. But I believe that they've redirected their goals after the horrible incident at Canary Wharf. The End of the World was near and we had them to thank for it. Well, I'm sure they must be happy that this time it's not their fault."
Martha seemed a little shocked by this information, so the Brigadier waited until she'd closed her mouth before continuing. "We've caught them attempting to get information about the Doctor from our files more than once, luckily they didn't get much."
"Why?"
"Because when the Doctor worked as our scientific advisor, it wasn't documented. It was a mutual favor, allowing him to work at UNIT. You see, Ms Jones, his people weren't happy with him at the time, and we needed to advance our research. Therefore, he lived at UNIT HQ, seeing as his Tardis was also a little faulty at the time, and we were able to have a fantastic scientific advisor. So you see, win-win, Ms Jones. But after his fourth regeneration we saw less and less of him, sometimes I still miss the old dog…" he finished fondly.
"Old dog?"
"mm, you must be with one of his young regenerations, eh? How old does he look now?"
"About thirty five,"
He grunted in response and returned his attention back to the metal box in his lap as the small beeping changed its tempo slightly. Martha watched him closely as he set about pressing a few more buttons and rewiring a small part of it.
"There we go," he said, "should be ready to transmit in a few moments."
"What is it?" Martha looked the box interested. The old man smiled and opened the side of the box, pulling out an old fashioned ear and mouth piece of a phone.
"Communication device," he said happily.
"But I thought that all lines of transmission had been cut!"
"Ah, yes, well you see Ms Jones, another reason why Torchwood doesn't get on too well with us at UNIT is because they find us old fashioned."
Martha laughed quietly, so that she wouldn't wake anyone. "Guess old fashioned can come in handy, though."
"It most certainly does, Ms Jones. And this device here will hopefully be linking me to an old friend of mine who will be more than pleased to hear that the Doctor is still alive. She'll also make sure that your message gets spread around, I promise you."
"But how does it work? Isn't it monitored by the Arch Angel network?"
"Heavens no, no, very few people have this link. This was given to me by the Doctor, you see, it was used to call him whenever we needed him, but he broke link between us and him. Now the woman whom I am trying to reach has a… well, a robot given to her as a gift by the Doctor as well, and through that I am able to contact her. But it takes nearly half an hour to find her and fifteen minutes before it can actually get through to her, but no one ever said that avoiding the Master was going to be an easy task now, did they?"
Her smile was bright and cheerful one, something he'd definitely not seen ever since he'd come underground. "How long do you think you can stay here, Ms Jones?"
She looked tiered all of a sudden and frowned, he was sorry he'd even brought it up. "Not too long, one more day, at the most. I have to keep on the move."
He nodded understandingly, "Well, another old friend of mine, also at UNIT, is trying to get his niece here to keep her safe. But we lost contact with them a few days ago, however he did say that some food was going to arrive by tomorrow evening. You'll be able to leave from here with them; they'll keep you safe and be able to get you as far as the docks."
"Thank you, Sir. That'd be brilliant!" She rubbed her eyes wearily, but smiled at him all the same.
"Well then Ms Jones, I'm glad to be of some help after the wonderful news you've just been kind enough to share with me. Best get some sleep though, you need your rest. I assure you that that pile of dirt right there is the most comfortable spot." He said nodding to a clear space on the ground not too far away from where they were sitting. She giggled and again and nodded, then stood up.
"Good Night Brigadier,"
"Sleep well, Martha Jones. And you know what?" she turned and looked at him, shaking her head in response. "If we survive this, I'd be more than happy to have someone like you join UNIT, if you're interested."
She smiled again and nodded enthusiastically. "That'd be nice, I'll see what I'm doing once it's all over." They both laughed a little, just then the beeping grew steadily louder. Martha looked at it then waved her hand 'goodnight' as she made her way to the patch of ground. The Brigadier quickly picked up the earpiece and pressed it to his ear as a familiar voice made its way through,
"Greyhound?"
"Yes, Ms Smith, it's me."
"Is everything alright, Brig?"
"Oh everything's looking up, Ms Smith,"
"Oh? Since when?"
"Sarah Jane, you might want to take a seat. I have some news that I'm sure will be of great interest to you."
"I'm all ears, Alistair."
"Jolly-good, well, today a young woman by the name on Martha Jones…"
A/N: Awwww, who doesn't love the Brig??!! Bring back Courtney before he kicks the bucket!! He was so awesome, anyone who hasn't seen an episode with him has got to check out the old stuff. He's sooo Old-school-cool! Anyways, next chapter should be up soon! Hope you liked it!