SO... THIS STORY IS A CONTINUATION OF ANOTHER STORY. IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE FULLY UP-TO-SPEED, PLEASE READ MY STORY BENEVOLENCE. I THINK YOU'LL ENJOY IT, HOWEVER, YOU DON'T REALLY NEED IT IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THIS STORY.
BECAUSE... HERE'S A QUICK RECAP OF STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BENEVOLENCE: EARTH WAS LANGUISHING IN THE BLACK PLAGUE. THE ROY-LEMANS, BENEVOLENT BEINGS WHO INHABIT THE PLANET KORR, WERE TRYING TO HELP. WITH THE DOCTOR'S ASSISTANCE, THEY CHANNELED THE PERSONALITIES AND ATTRIBUTES OF CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS AND MARTHA JONES INTO THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. THIS BROUGHT A STRONG REPRODUCTIVE IMPERATIVE AND A GREAT BENEVOLENT INITIATIVE INTO THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PLANET, AND SUCCEEDED IN SLOWING THE ILL EFFECTS OF THE BLACK DEATH IN EUROPE.
IN THE FACE OF NEAR-DEATH AT THE HANDS OF AN OVERLY ENERGETIC PERSONALITY-EXTRACTING MACHINE, THE DOCTOR AND MARTHA DISCOVERED THEIR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER, AND JACK BEGAN A TENTATIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH A PURPLE-SKINNED MALE ROY-LEMAN NAMED FEENO.
ONE
Ah, the first morning aboard the TARDIS after adventures with the Black Death. First morning to wake up in the Doctor's actual bed with the actual Doctor beside her. She felt like royalty, like she was occupying the one place in the universe where everyone wants to be. For her, the TARDIS represented space, time, possibilities – power. And she had the right ear of the man at the helm.
Briefly, Martha allowed herself to wonder how many before her had awakened in the same spot, but she pushed the thought away. She knew that the Doctor had been around for 900 years, and that she was unlikely to have been his first bedmate, but still, she couldn't bear the thought of anyone else knowing him as she now knew him.
The morning began unlike any other on the TARDIS. It was watershed for her that this morning, she actually watched him climb into his pinstriped suit. Even when they were sharing a room in the Guest House on Korr, even after they'd acknowledged their love and seen each other naked a few times, he had put on his clothes out of her sight. She was somehow surprised to find that he, as they say, put his trousers on one leg at a time, and was obliged to button up his shirt and tie his tie like a normal man. Did she expect him to say "Bah-woosh," and suddenly he'd be all dressed and dapper? As she thought about it, it brought a smile to her face.
As he was tying his trainers (red ones today), he asked, "Do you think Feeno eats waffles?"
The question seemed so random that she had to ask him to repeat it. He did.
"Oh! Blimey," she said, patting her forehead. "That question was on Ultimate Quiz Show just last week – what was the answer?"
He looked at her with mock-scorn. "You're very cute, Martha," he told her. The final word was exaggerated and blunt.
She smiled. "Well, ask a silly question..."
He stood up. "I was thinking waffles might be nice for our first morning as a family... they're my favorite. But Feeno's not human. Or Time Lord. Dunno if he'll like waffles." As he said this, he stared at a point in the room beyond Martha's head, and she actually turned to see what it was. As usual, it was nothing – the Doctor was simply lost in thought.
He suddenly snapped out of it and clapped his hands. "Oh well," he exhaled. "Only one way to find out, isn't there?"
"I suppose so," she answered with a smile.
"Are you wearing that down to breakfast?" he asked. "You'll have to stay away from the griddle – it splashes."
She looked down. She didn't have a stitch on. Self-consciously, she pulled the sheet up to her armpits and threw a pillow at the Doctor. He dodged it with a child-like grin.
"I haven't brought my things over from my old room yet," she said. "Think you can go grab a few things for me?"
"Oh, just wear this, and put on your jeans," he said, turning to his wardrobe and producing a white dress shirt.
"I don't have any clean knickers."
"So do without. No one will know but me," he said, smirking with one eyebrow up.
So she donned her jeans from the day before and one of the Doctor's shirts. Barefooted, she padded down to the TARDIS' extensive kitchen with the Doctor following behind. In the hallway, they ran into Jack and Feeno emerging much as they were; sleep-refreshed and tranquilly happy.
They chatted as they made their way to the kitchen. The Doctor flipped on the lights, pulled out mixing bowls, whisks, ladles, griddles and spatulas and spread them noisily over the counter. He boisterously grabbed an apron out of a drawer and held it up high. "Captain Jack, what do you say to waffles?" he asked in a ta-daaah sort of way.
"Sounds great," Jack said with a big smile, taking a seat at the breakfast bar.
"Brilliant," said the Doctor. "The waffle iron is in the third drawer next to the refrigerator, and you'll find flour in the cannister far left."
To Jack's incredulous stare, he responded, "I don't know how to make waffles – you'll have to do it." With a hearty pat on the back, the Doctor handed off the apron to Jack.
With a dubious expression on his face, Jack reluctantly stood, put the apron on over his wool trousers and U.S. military-issue shirt, and began calmly, expertly, making batter. The Doctor took his place at the breakfast bar between Feeno and Martha, and watched with interest as Jack prepared their meal.
Jack, as it turned out, was a great chef. The four of them, including Feeno, ate waffles until they nearly burst.
Sated, the Doctor leaned back in his chair, and asked his three friends, "So, children, after we say hello to Martha's mum, where are we headed?"
Jack piped up. "Better question: where are we?"
"We're nowhere," the Doctor said simply.
"Nowhere?" Feeno asked. "How is this possible?"
"Oh, it's really cool," Martha chimed in. "The TARDIS goes into a kind of suspended animation if there's no-one available to man the console."
"Really?" Jack asked, looking interestedly at the Doctor.
"Well... sort of. We just sort of blink off the radar for a bit. We're not in any particular space or any particular time at the moment. We are undetectable to most machinery, and the universe is undetectable to us," he explained. "Otherwise I'd never get any sleep. The slightest noise wakes me up. A star explodes in the Crawlawn Galaxy, for goodness' sake, and I'm wide awake."
"So then, when we come back into existence or whatever, where do we end up?" Jack wanted to know.
"We end up wherever we left off. In our case, hovering somewhere above the Earth, round about the year 1350," the Doctor answered. "I parked us here overnight so that we could go to sleep. I figured I'd set the time coordinates in the morning so we could go have a cuppa with Martha's mum."
"Yeah, speaking of which," Martha said to him. "You'd better let me do the talking. She slapped you last time she saw you, and weren't sleeping together then. She doesn't like the look of you this time, and she'll hire a hit-man."
"Aww, don't worry love," he assured her. "I can be very charming."
"She thinks you're an intergalactic mobster. Trust me – better I do the talking."
"Doctor, might I ask you a favor?" Feeno asked, interrupting.
"Certainly."
"Before we go have a cuppa with Martha's mum," Feeno said, attempting to mimic the Doctor's speech pattern, "Might we make a quick trip to the current Earth? The Earth of 1350? I would like to bring back some samples for the laboratories at Earthsafe. I'm sure they would be interested to study this plague phenomenon. It might help to get me promoted past the mailroom."
"Samples of what?" the Doctor asked, wrinkling his nose.
"For example, pieces of clothing which the afflicted have worn and in which they have died. Perhaps some of their perspiration would remain as an indicator of the nature of the sickness. Or, we might search for the fecal matter or ejected stomach contents of an afflicted person..."
"Okay, okay, stop right there," the Doctor said. "We can do that, but you'll have to do all the searching for ejected stomach contents on your own."
"Oh yes," Feeno said, a bright smile lighting up his deep purple face. "Thank you, Doctor!"