Prologue: On the Tardis
When Martha Jones and Mickey Smith got a divorce, Martha's second in as many years although the first marriage could barely counted, nobody was really surprised. They both knew that they'd married reflexively because of their mutual adventures with The Doctor and after a brief period of time attempting to travel the universe as "freelance" alien fighters, whatever that meant, they had both agreed to go their separate ways. As divorces went it was remarkably compatible and the pair still met for drinks on alternating Thursdays, Jack too when he wasn't busy saving the Earth with Torchwood.
It was leaving one of these evenings that Jack offered her a job at Torchwood for the millionth time and like always, she politely declined, but for some reason when he made his standard plea for "Just one day with us Nightingale, at least make sure you remember what it is you're missing out on." she finally gave in and agreed to "Just one day Jack, and only so you'll stop pestering me."
Which was how she found herself back in the control room of the Tardis looking into the piercing blue eyes of the man casually leaning against the central pillar, at least, that was what she told him.
"While there is always the unlikely possibility that I am wrong, I do not think you went from that conversation to this one simply like that." He emphasized that with a snap of his fingers, causing the Tardis doors to swing open revealing the depths of space.
"...Oops" He said walking over to the doorway. "I never get tired of seeing it like this. Not once in thirteen lifetimes has it ceased to amaze me. Space is big. Time is big. I had the privilege of seeing any bit of it I wanted to." Martha joined him in the doorway and placed her hand on his shoulder, disrupting his reverie.
"Had the privilege? What is it you're not telling me?" He turned his head to look at her, the girl who left, the girl who came back, brilliant, beautiful, Martha Jones. He saw her fear that she would lose him, so soon after he had finally come to his senses and seen her for the star she was. Assuming he'd told her how he felt yet. He had hadn't he? He could remember doing it in his earlier incarnations, but where that fit into her timeline? Ugh. Sometimes all this wibbly wobbly timey wimey was more trouble that it was worth. He smiled broadly and despite his misgivings gave her that sort of nonchalant penetrating look that could only by the supremely confident.
"To be completely accurate I still have the ability to travel through all of time and space, I just accidentally talk about my life in the past tense a bit whenever I remember that I'm out of regenerations. I have one last chance to do, well anything. For all intents and purposes I have now become human. Well, a really smart human with two hearts and a Tardis and y'know what? I take back the human comment." He snapped his fingers as if remembering something and the Tardis doors slammed shut in their faces. Martha jumped and The Doctor inhaled exasperatedly as if he were about to say something profane but thought better of it. He walked towards the control panel wiggling his fingers in anticipation of getting to fly his favorite machine in all the universe but stopped before he got there and pivoted around in his spot causing his coattails to flap out behind him.
"You have still not yet finished your story, and I was most looking forward to hearing about that so, stand, sit or otherwise make yourself comfortable and tell me all about it." He leaned against the console, crossing his legs at the ankle. He loved leaning against the console, it was his favorite place on the whole ship. Martha looked bemused and sat the railing opposite him, half rolling her eyes.
"You're seriously just going let us float in space until I tell you about it?" The Doctor nodded.
"Yup" he said, popping the p "think of it as a time travelers way of saying hi honey, how was your day?" He said the last part with mocking over enthusiasm which was the only reason Martha didn't fall of the railing after realizing that he had basically called her honey. The Doctor realized this, and although he was internally kicking himself for obviously not having expressed himself to Martha yet, he decided it would have to wait. Why didn't he just say it? Ugh. Emotions were hard, well this one was anyway.
"You dislike honey?" He asked after Martha had regained her balance. " 's alright, there are so many others to choose from. Dear. Darling. Sweetheart. Umm... No, not um. Um is a thinking sound not a sweet nothing. Tell your story and then I would be more than happy to discuss your favorite term of endearment." He was speaking brusquely by the end of this but it didn't matter, it was still more openly affectionate than anything his Tenth incarnation had ever said to her. Martha took a long slow breath, trying to determine whether this Doctor was more affectionate simply because he felt mortal or because he was actually trying to express some hidden feelings for her. She, like the Doctor had done only moments before, decided that his self-expression would have to wait, assuming that if he really have feelings for her, he would express them again. He seemed much better about that than some of his earlier selves.
"Fine, I'll tell you my story." The Doctor beamed and Martha couldn't help but remember that she was in love with him. "I was really busy at the hospital so it was a couple of days before I managed to get over to Cardiff and Torchwood..."