Disclaimer: Still not mine.
A/N: Forgive me if it sucks. It took me two and half months to write this and am posting it because I don't know what else to do with it. Oh, and, as with all my work, this is completely un-Beta'd. Please be kind if you review.
They were just two common words strung together to form a familiar phrase from her childhood and Martha Jones found comfort in them. She found them branded on batteries in Japan, on posters in Australia, and graffiti in Paris; and aside from the story she told, they were the only real constants in her life as a traveler. But, sometimes, when the days seemed to go on without end and the nights grew too quiet and cold, paranoia would creep into her mind. She would wonder if the words were part of the Master's design, if, somehow, he could follow her through them. Eventually, rationality would shine through and she would tell herself that it was just her exhaustion and stress voicing themselves and she would carry on.
Eleven months into her trek across the globe Martha made her way into Norway – the closest she had been to home in nine months. There, she found what was left of a village living in a manor by the sea. She was surprised at how these sixty-five people were living so openly on the beach while the rest of the worlds was forced to live in the dark.
"He's up there, in the Valiant," explained Kristine, the group's de-facto leader, pointing to the patch of sky above them. "We're right under the bastard's nose. What better place is there to hide?
And once again, Martha Jones told the story, but it was different this time. This time, instead of telling it by shadow and candlelight she told it under the burning Sun. Instead of drawing the TARDIS in ash and dust she drew it in warm sand. Instead of feeling the warm hope and comfort of the Doctor's words she felt a shiver of dread. Martha knew the power words held, she had seen it first hand, and she feared that they would float up to the Master's ears and lose their sway.
After she told the story Martha sat on the manor's balcony facing the sea and intently watched the sky; a few minutes later Kristine came with a cup of tea and told her to watch the beach instead. Martha's eyes widened when, not five minutes later, a blonde girl appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The girl walked a short distance, as if searching for something lost, and stopped when a man in a familiar pinstriped suit appeared just as suddenly.
"That's him! That's the Doctor!" Martha gasped. "But how?"
"They've appeared on this beach every few years for as long as anyone can remember. Its how this place got its name. But, ever since He came they've appeared everyday at exactly this time."
It was then that Martha finally came to understand what the words meant; recalling a conversation between Jack and the Doctor on that day almost a year ago…
"Doctor, what I don't understand is how did Rose know?" Jack asked as they followed her to her flat. "You said that she had absorbed the Time Vortex but even YOU didn't know what looking into the heart of the TARDIS would do to a person. So, how did Rose know what to do?"
"Do you remember the words 'Bad Wolf'?"
"Yeah. You said that they following us."
The Doctor shook his head. "It was Rose. It was all Rose. When she absorbed the Time Vortex she became the Bad Wolf – made up of Time but existing outside of it. The words were a message, a connection between the two of us, so she could remember what to do." He smiled wistfully. "I still see the words sometimes – on posters and batteries and coffee cups. When I see them I swear I can hear her voice telling me, urging me to carry on. I think they're the closest thing I have to a prayer."
Martha couldn't help but laugh as she stared at the words branded on the battery in her hand. In the past eleven months there had been times where she would doubt herself and the Doctor's plan, but, almost every time she would see the words and she would take comfort in them and hear a voice – her mother's, her sister's, or the Doctor's voice – telling her she could do it. It was in those unspoken words where Martha would find strength and they were enough to keep her going.
That night, Martha left Dårlig Ulv Stranden smiling her first real smile in almost a year. One month later she found herself kneeling before the Master on the Valiant.
"Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the Time Vortex…This one's useless."
And Martha laughed.
She wasn't Rose Tyler. She couldn't burn for the man she loved, but she walked the Earth for him. She didn't become like-God to save the world, but all she had to do was be Martha Jones.
In the end Martha understood. The Doctor couldn't see her, not while he was still blinded by the Sun and decided that she wasn't going to be its mirror.
A/N2: This was half inspired by my obsession with Bad Wolf!Rose and half by someone saying that they put the Valiant's coordinates in Google Earth and having them show up in Norway.