The Bigger Picture
There was someone seated on the bench she usually took to get away from work during her lunch break.
It wasn't much really, just a three seater bench in a park close to the little shop she spent her days in while the Doctor fiddled around with whatever device it was he was making that would lead them back home.
She couldn't wait. 1969 was alright she supposed, but being stuck here for longer than a short trip, having to actually earn money with a paying job just to put food on the table, was becoming a bit too much for her. It really didn't help that she was dark skinned. Or that the Doctor wouldn't bother helping around the house and kept telling her that she kept on missing the 'bigger picture' whenever she asked him to.
She saw the bigger picture. He was being a lazy arse. End of story.
It was her that cleaned up after him, who went to work every day and earned their money, it was her who had to put up with blatant stares, scowls, and generally being unliked. It was her that had to go shopping to buy the food to make sure that they had it in the first place.
All he was good for was eating, tinkering away at pieces of junk, and hiding whenever she arrived back to the flat they were sharing in a rotten mood.
She looked at the brown paper bag in her hand which held her lunch, looked at the man and frowned slightly, since older people were generally meaner to her than younger people. And this one didn't look too friendly at all. She took a deep breath, before going over and sitting on the other side of the bench.
He looked up at her for a few seconds, before picking up a piece of bread and shredding it, feeding it to the birds.
She watched for a few seconds, before pulling out her sandwich (a cheap strawberry jam on plain white bread) and took a bite. She wished for something else, anything else, but most things she liked during her time were frightfully expensive given the money she earns, and having to feed two and not just one. Things may be cheaper now, but the pay was less.
The man brushed off his hands, smiled down at the birds pecking at the bread and she smiled herself. "They look like they're enjoying that," she said, though not knowing how he'd reply, or even if her intrusion into what could possibly be a private moment was even wanted.
He chuckled a bit, a sound that sounded pleased, not angry. "Yes, they do, they do. I used to come here all the time when I had nothing to do. Now, of course, I have plenty to keep me occupied and still I find myself here every time I arrive in this town."
She grinned at him then, glad to have met someone who didn't look at her and judge on first appearances. This day and age may not be as bad as being a maid in 1913, but still, it wasn't quite as modern to her tastes. "Plenty to do, yeah, that's me. Got all the time in the world, and I'm stuck working in a shop. A shop."
They trailed off into silence for a few seconds, before he chuckled again. "Not the same birds, unless they have lived to a remarkably old age. No, I used to come here when my granddaughter, Susan, went to a nearby school."
She nodded and smiled to herself. "Finish, did she?"
He chuckled again, and Martha found that she really liked the sound. There was something so familiar about it. "No! My, no. We were gone long before then. She was only there for a few months. Wanted to see what it was like. She actually liked it. Liked it! What child her age likes school?"
She laughed back at that, because while she had enjoyed school as much as the next person, she had loved learning new things, and it always left her wanting to know more. "Not many that I know of, that's for sure," she replied, before turning back to her sandwich when it seemed like the talking was over and done with.
"No, we were off after a few months. A couple of schoolteachers with us. Ian and Barbara. Sometimes I miss them too."
Her happy mood seemed to fall a bit at that. "She moved away? Or did she...pass on?"
"Oh! She fell in love as people do, and she wouldn't for the life of her leave me. So, in the end, I left her with her young man. She'll be learning how to farm now. I think she'd actually like it. I told her I'd come back to visit, but as of yet, haven't found the right time..."
She snorted at that, and gave a chuckle of her own. "Funny that. Time. It's never right nowadays. Not for me anyway."
He smiled at her, and there was a hint of a very familiar madness in those old eyes. She shook her head. No, she'd been hanging around the Doctor too long. And she knew that there were no Time Lords left except him because his world and people were destroyed.
"Time is the only thing that is right, my dear woman. It is those of us who travel through it that sometimes get a bit lost, hmm? Hehehe, yes."
She stared at him now, and wondered if he knew somehow, about her not being where she belonged. She was wearing clothes to fit the period. She shopped the same way, she used the right currency. She even tried talking the right way, though most of the time just used her own words. The slang was a bit...60's for her.
"Lost. That's a good word for it. Lost." Sometimes it was how she felt. Floundering around and knowing next to nothing about what she was doing or if it was right or wrong. She wondered why the Doctor was taking this as well as he was. Much better than her at any rate.
Maybe it was because he was holed up in the flat and didn't have to go anywhere or do anything to remind him of where they were.
She wasn't as lucky as that.
She finished her sandwich, got out her drink (fruit juice, orange because the Doctor liked it) and drank it quickly. She sighed, picking her rubbish up and throwing it in the nearby bin. "Well, it was nice to meet you, sir. I better be off, back to work. It was nice to have company for the day though."
"Hmm? Oh, company is always better than being alone. I'd better be off too now I think of it. Wallowed enough for the time being. Silly old man that I am. Vicki and Steven will be charging by any minute now if I don't hurry. Young people. Humph. Always in a rush and can't follow instructions. Still! It was nice to have met you too, my dear."
"Martha, my name's Martha."
"Martha. Yes, hmm. Well, people call me the Doctor. Good day!"
And because he had gotten up and had his back turned to her as he walked away, the birds now gone from their small meal of breadcrumbs, he didn't see the look of astonishment that was on her face.
The Doctor. The Doctor? As in her Doctor?
It was only then that a conversation they had after nearly falling into a sun which had possessed the Doctor came back to her. Regeneration. A thing he could do to save his life. Trading one body for another it sounded like, but in a much more painful way. More like the chameleon arch kind of painful way.
Well! She didn't know which version of him the old man was, but it was definitely not her version. Wrong kind of face. She thought she'd recognise her Doctor even as an old man.
Oh god, he'd had children. He'd had grandchildren. And they were all dead. No wonder he...
Well, no use thinking about it right now, she had to get back to work, before she was fired for being tardy.
* * * * * * * * * *
That night she arrived back to the flat thankful that the rest of her day hadn't been horrid in the least for once. She promised herself that she wouldn't do anything to make the Doctor think she was angry. Since it was a state she was normally in after her days, it was probably going to be harder than she thought.
Still, she wasn't angry right now anyway. In fact, after her lunchtime talk, she felt much better about him. Because she felt in a way she understood him a bit more now. There wasn't a lot in any world that could keep him preoccupied when stranded, especially with the TARDIS gone. And if anyone needed distraction from his own thoughts it was him.
Letting herself in with a smile on her face, she was blindsided by the Doctor who threw his arms around her with a happy little giggle, and swung her around for a bit. She couldn't help but laugh wildly with him, hugging him back just as tightly.
"So, what's got you in such a good mood then?" she asked, and he let go of her enough to look at her face, an ear splitting smile on his face, and said the magical words she'd wanted to hear for quite a while now.
"I finished it. It actually works, Martha! Now all we have to do is wait a few days, and our fellow stranded person will be here too. So! What do you say? Go out for a test run? See if it works for long periods of time?"
She squealed loudly in happiness, threw her arms around him and nodded tightly. "Oh, god yeah! Let's go then. We can have a late dinner tonight."
He untangled himself from her, that wide grin still on his face and grabbed her hand, the weird machine, made up of bits and pieces of stuff he had found either lying about the flat or found in a junk yard, picked up in the other.
"Well then, Allons-y!"
They came back three hours later, still laughing at their good luck, covered in bits of what used to be a live chicken.
That night, while their moods were high, they shared a shower, and afterwards the bed.
He was still holding her, smiling and wishing her a good morning when she woke up the next day.
She felt like she was home.