Martha Jones had always wanted to be a hero when she was little. Of course, she'd wanted to be a doctor, too, but mostly she'd wanted to fly around saving people. She used to vacation with her American cousins and they'd tell her about their favorite hero, and she didn't listen much, really, she just substituted her name for his so she could pretend there were thousands of stories about her.
Of course, though, there weren't. When she'd turned ten, she'd vowed to save people the rest of her life, and she couldn't do that by running around in a silly cape. She'd pulled on her white coat and restarted hearts.
Then one day, she met a man called Doctor. She'd gone off into time and space in a machine called the TARDIS and nearly fell in love with him. But he was in love with a pretty blonde named Rose, and he'd just barely been able to save her from the Daleks and safely get her into a parallel universe. And she'd been left lonely, hero of the day, Martha Jones.
And here she was today. A year later. She'd saved the universe, yes, the entire universe and every universe and every planet and every star and galaxy countless times.
"Martha Jones, come in," her radio startled her. She'd almost forgotten it was on her hip. She'd almost forgotten she was at work.
"Coming," she mumbled back. Martha walked down the long, sterile hallway, all the way to the end, where she was needed.
"Martha, we've got a rather serious issue," a short man in a suit who she'd never seen before stated.
"Yeah, what's that?" she sat down across from him.
"We at S.H.I.E.L.D. understand that you possess knowledge of ah, ahem, higher technology." An American.
She nodded. She wondered if by "higher technology" they meant alien.
"Well, we understand that you also have a PHD. Is this correct?" the American inquired.
She was getting a little suspicious. "Depends on who's asking."
"Miss Jones, this is a very serious issue."
"Yeah, great, then you should tell me what's going on so I can get started on helping out." She crossed her arms and stared the man down.
"We came all the way to London because we understand you're the best doctor around," she chuckled a little at the phrase. "And, you know a little about aliens and perhaps some about enhancing technology?"
She recalled a planet they'd landed on for about a day. It'd been a futuristic society, where humans had all gotten bigger and better looking. Interesting science, but she'd just barely scraped the surface.
"A little," she replied hesitantly.
"A little is all we need. Are you clear tomorrow, Miss Jones?"
She didn't have to think. She wasn't doing a whole lot these days, work kept her pretty busy.
"Yeah, where should I meet you?"
The man wrote down an address. She didn't recognize it, so she looked it up when she got home.
According to the website she was using, it was a washed up old factory building that hadn't been in use for about twenty years. She did a little more digging, and apparently some strange stuff went down there. Illegal medicines and experiments that the mere thought of made her flinch.
"What the hell have I gotten myself into," she mumbled as she went to bed later that night.
xxx
Martha put a small gun in her handbag, just in case.
She got to the obscure address right on time, and walked slowly to the door, scoping it out as she walked. Very, very suspicious indeed. What would the Doctor have done?
"Hello?" She wandered inside. She double checked the piece of paper. Definitely the right address.
"Martha Jones?" she turned quickly, and lo and behold, another obnoxious American, pointing a gun at her.
"The one and only." When had her life gotten to the place where she could be at gunpoint and roll her eyes about it?
The man snapped his fingers dramatically, and a wall slid back to reveal a hidden room.
But not just any hidden room. A state-of-the-art, billion dollar office building, somehow all underground on the outskirts of London, and hidden still.
"I understand if it's a lot to take in-"
"Mister," she walked past him. "I've saved the universe a couple of times, too."