A/N: Hello! So I've had this for some time but I've just now been able to finish it. It's a bit of a dabble, an idea that I've had that I wanted to try to write. A bit of background: this takes place sometime between The Idiots Lantern and The Impossible Planet. Marie is my OC, and this is an AU where mutants from the X-Men universe exist but none of the main X-Men characters make an appearance. Sorry for the rushed ending, I'm really bad at endings. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy and if you like it, I can try to write more.
Marie was in the TARDIS console room working on paperwork. There had been endless amounts of legal stuff after her parents had died. Being the only child and with no family alive, she inherited everything. The businesses, the money, everything. And she hated it. She hated this lifestyle so much that she made a vow when she was younger - when her parents were gone and she inherits everything, it's gonna go and she's gonna start a new life. And now that time has come. She's sold all of the businesses her parents owned and the mansion. Her original plans for starting a new life didn't go quite as expected though - one fateful night in New York City, she ran into a strange man and his friend, The Doctor and Rose, and they invited her to travel with them through time and space. How could she resist? Literally go anywhere you want through time and space, not having to worry about your life back on Earth, this was the life she'd been dreaming about since she was a little girl. She always wanted to see the stars, and now she can thanks to her best friend and his magical machine. Of course there was complicated science to his ship, but the little girl inside her couldn't help but call it magic.
She sat on the floor with her laptop and a pile of paperwork to her left. To her right, was the Doctor working on wiring or whatever was underneath the floor panels. He was always so kind to her. Both him and Rose. She felt closer to the both of them than anyone else. For once in her life she actually had people who cared about her. They knew what she was - a mutant with telepathy, telekinesis, and rapid tissue regeneration and they weren't afraid of her. She knew how her kind got treated and never revealed to anyone what she actually was, but now she can be herself without any fear of judgement. The Doctor being telepathic himself knew exactly what she felt and how much it hurts to have thousands upon thousands of voices inside your head all at once and would help her tone down the volume of all the voices. He was never able to take her telepathy away as it is a part of her that's hardwired, but he's helped her gain more control over it.
It was quiet in the console room. Rose was in her room sleeping and all that you could really hear was the hum of the TARDIS, the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, and Marie tapping away at her laptop. She couldn't hear the Doctor's thoughts, she's never been able to unless he allows it and that has only been once or twice. In a way it's nice to have the silence, but at the same time she's always been curious to know what goes on in his head.
Paper after paper, entering in information on her computer, she suddenly runs across a file with the name of a company she doesn't recognize. She knew all of the companies her parents owned, they were ingrained in her head since she was young and her parents taught her the basics on financing and company management.
"What is this?" She said softly to herself. She opened the file and in big green letters on the top left was 'ALKALI TRANSIGEN RESEARCH LABORATORY'. She kept looking through the file and saw the dates on the signed papers were 2 years before her birth year. She got near the end of the file and came across a paper that had 'PROJECT M.A.C' in big black letters across the top.
"No.." She said as she felt the air being pulled out of her chest. She kept reading. It was a permission slip to allow for an experiment to be performed on her mother. She read through the procedure - basically her mother was being infused with a genetically engineered fertilized egg. Genetically engineered with mutant DNA. Her heart pounded faster the longer she read. A couple of pages later it was signed by both her parents and by someone named William Stryker. That name sounded so familiar. Stryker. Where had she heard that? The date that was next to the signatures was 9 months before her birthday. She dropped the file and gasped.
"What's happened, what's wrong?" The Doctor said popping out from working under the floor panels.
"This.. I-I... " She couldn't speak so she handed the Doctor the file. He flipped through it, "Project M.A.C?"
"That's me, that's my name, Marie Anne Carlisle." She felt everything collapse down on her, her entire life where she thought she was a natural born mutant, she was just part of an experiment. She must've started crying 'cause she felt the Doctor's arms wrap around her.
"What am I?" She sobbed into his shoulder as he rubbed her back and held her close.
"I'm sorry," he said softly.
She pulled away from him and looked at the file again through her tears. "I'm nothing, I'm just an experiment…"
"No you're not, you're so much more than that," the Doctor said. "Marie, look at me."
She looked at him trying her hardest not to start sobbing again. "You're brilliant, and you're beautiful, and you're amazing, and you're so much more than what they made you."
Marie dropped the file again and the Doctor brought her close to him again. She quietly sobbed on his shoulder as her mind flashbacked to points in her childhood. She pulled away from him again grabbing her head.
"I remember. I remember that name, I remember… a hospital, being in a lab, so scared.. they had me.. hooked up to so many things." Marie's mind was flooded with about a year's worth of memories she seemed to forget about long ago. She couldn't control her breathing.
"I remember screaming for my parents and being locked in a room. And then… and then I was taken home to the mansion… and I never left." Marie collapsed to the floor and the Doctor sat next to her with an arm around her. She went to hug him and cried on his shoulder as he held her tight.
She finally regained control of her breathing and started to calm down. She looked at the pile of papers and her laptop and shoved everything in her bag. Her head hurt too much to finish the paperwork. After some silence she asked "Can we go somewhere please? Somewhere far away and quiet and… I just… need to get my thoughts out."
"I know just the place," the Doctor said and started flipping switches and levers and turning knobs on the console. The TARDIS landed, Marie had no idea where. The Doctor grabbed his trench coat and put it on. "Come on," he said walking over to the door. Marie opened the door of the TARDIS and saw a beach. She stepped out onto the sand. It was night and the sky was a dark purple with two moons. She slowly walked towards the water and sat down near the edge of where the waves were coming in with the Doctor to her left. She couldn't hear anything, either this planet didn't have people living on it, or they were just too far away that she couldn't hear or feel them. There was a silence between them as she gathered her thoughts and the Doctor didn't want to push her to talk.
"I always thought I was a natural born mutant. That even though… everything was being taken away from me, no one could ever take that away. But maybe they just did…" She said looking up at the stars in the purple sky. The Doctor stayed quiet, not quite knowing what to say or if he should say anything.
"I remember being in a lab and being scared. And then… home. I don't know if I wanna remember the details. Did you see them? When you were in my head?" She asked referring to when he helped clear out her head of 10 years worth of noise not too long ago.
"I saw you had buried memories but I didn't go any deeper than that," he said. "I can try to recover them for you, if you want."
Marie thought for a moment. She wanted to know but at the same time if she can't remember, it must've been too painful so she buried the memories. "No," She said looking out onto the ocean waves coming in and out. "I don't want that life anymore. I want this. I want you, and the TARDIS forever." She breathed in the cool air and laid back. The stars were like glitter on a clear purple background. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the ocean waves and took in the feeling of the cool breeze.
"Thank you," She said looking over at the Doctor who was laid back as well, "For helping me and.. putting up with my nightmares."
"You're still learning how to control your abilities. You can hear people's thoughts, but fragments remain and build up over time. They have to be flushed out at some point or you'll go mad," she looked over at the Doctor as he continued. "Telepathy usually evolves within a species. It's not just about hearing thoughts, it's about communicating with each other and empathy and what to do the information that's given to you. Your mind has nothing to go off of, it doesn't know what's important and what isn't so it just keeps everything."
"When I first got to the city, I was fine. But after a few days everything got louder and louder. It was like… like being in a huge room with thousands of people talking all at once and I couldn't leave. It hurts," Marie said looking up at the sky. She sat up and watched the waves come up almost touching her feet and go back out.
"Takes a few days to adjust," the Doctor said. There was a beat of silence as they were both thinking, "Are you afraid of humans?" he asked.
Marie thought for a moment. "I don't know. Part of me is. I guess I just wish that they wouldn't treat us so different. If only they could understand maybe they wouldn't be so cruel."
The Doctor noticed Marie shivering a bit in the cool wind. He sat up to take his trench coat off and wrapped it around her.
"Thanks," Marie said. "What about you, you're not cold?"
"Nah, I'm alright," the Doctor replied.
Marie smiled at him then quickly turned her attention to the sand once she realized she was blushing. Relationships with the Doctor were always complicated. She loved him with all her heart but she knew from the moment he took her on her first trip, she wouldn't be able to have any sort of romantic relationship with him. Also it was very obvious Rose was in love with him and she didn't want to get in the way of that. It was fine though, she didn't need a relationship, it hadn't even crossed her mind really. All she ever wanted was a friend. Although, she couldn't help admiring his figure.
Marie leaned against the Doctor and the minutes that pass were in silence with both of them taking in the atmosphere. "Are you hungry?" She asks out of the blue.
"What do you feel like," the Doctor asks.
"Sushi," she replies.
"Let's go get some sushi," the Doctor says happily as he hops up. He helps Marie up and she hands him back his coat as they walk back to the TARDIS to get some lunch.