Rose had imagined what she'd do in this moment a million times in her head.
Her pulse would spike at the familiar whooshing sound of the TARDIS, the blast of wind from it's wake tossing her hair every which way. She'd reach for her key, and find it to be golden and glowing. The entire world and all sensations would melt away as she walked up to the worn and weathered blue box, to slide her key into the lock and pull open the door to find….what?!
Instead of the gangly, mussy-haired figure wrapped in pinstripe that she was expecting, a tall, dark-skinned woman burst out of the door, leading an older man behind her on a lead of some sort.
Rose blinked in confusion and stumbled back a few steps as the other woman rushed towards her.
The woman was clothed in well-fitted trousers and a snug leather jacket that had seen better days. Rose also noticed she was younger than she had first thought. When she saw Rose backing away, she held up her hands in a friendly gesture and smiled tightly. It wasn't the most reassuring action, as it only brought more notice to the leash that was chained to her wrist with bright, flashing lights.
"Right, then." The woman searched the immediate area in a no-nonsense way. The TARDIS had landed at the edge of her parent's estate, catching Rose as she had been walking towards the house to join her mother for tea. "Please, please tell me that you are Rose Tyler. I mean, I've seen pictures, but you can never be sure."
"Please, please somebody kill me now. Dragged about like a dog in my prime." The man muttered under his breath as he stumbled to keep up with the woman.
"I….am." Rose answered slowly. The scene was too bizarre for words, and she only had a small blaster on her if things got out of hand.
"I'm Martha Jones." The woman said a bit hesitantly, before Rose could ask. "I travel with the Doctor sometimes."
Rose nodded quickly at her introduction. Of course. His new companion. Martha was lovely and exotic, and had an air of competence about her. Rose could hardly blame his choice. But she did anyways.
There was a nervous silence between them as the man on the leash watched with a smirk on his face. Something about the man gave Rose a shiver as she glanced his way, and suddenly she wasn't as revolted by the leash as she had been.
"You said sometimes?" Rose asked suddenly. "Isn't the Doctor inside?" She peered around the strangers', trying to catch a peek inside the door.
"No…the Doctor isn't with us at the moment. We're here for you, Rose." Martha looked at her quite seriously. "It's very important that you come back with us."
"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi! You're my only hope!" The man mimicked in a sing-song voice, fluttering his eyelashes as he swayed to a song only he heard.
Rose spared the nutter a glance and then straightened as she digested that bit of information. "What the hell do you think you're playing at here?" She walked up to Martha, her voice and temper rising. "You took the TARDIS on a joyride without the Doctor, crossed the Void, and risked shattering the universe, to pick me up on a lark?"
"We don't have time for this right now." Martha said in exasperation, clearly not a bit intimidated by the shorter woman's tirade.
"It's a bloody time machine!" Rose retorted the obvious. "You've got nothing but time!"
"When time is unraveling all of existence, the benefits of a time machine tend to lose their edge!" Martha yelled back at her.
Martha stared at her silently as though weighing her words, and Rose noticed how bloodshot the woman's eyes were. She looked exhausted, as though she might fall over in a brisk wind.
When Martha finally spoke it was in a quiet, but urgent voice. "You think that I don't know how dangerous this is, Rose? You don't know me, but I know you." She laughed roughly without humor. "He constantly talks about you, his Rose. So brave, so clever, always knows what to do in a pinch. Rose Tyler, defender of Earth."
Rose flinched at the words and the memory they brought back.
"Burned up a star to say goodbye, he did." Martha continued in almost a whisper. "Couldn't let you down, he said. Never mind that he spent 15 years searching for that last gap in space between the universes."
Her heart thumped heavily in her chest, and Rose felt herself go cold as Martha kept going.
"Every time that he was tempted to break through the Void and come back for you, he'd go on about how he couldn't disappoint you. No matter how much he wanted to throw caution to the wind and be selfish, just once in his life." Tears glittered in Martha's eyes, and Rose knew that she was telling the truth. "I adore the man. But even I can't compete with that sort of devotion, Rose. You have to come back, now. We're all in danger."
"He's in danger, Rose." Came a familiar voice from the doorway of the TARDIS. "We need your help to save the Doctor."
Rose turned to stare openly at the figure, and then ran into his arms before she could stop to think.
"Jack?!"