Author's note: I see Martha Jones together in the series and I've often wondered how they got together. A few months ago, I had a personal epiphany about someone close to me, similar to the one Martha had. With both of these thoughts fresh in my mind, this story came into being.
As always, I love and appreciate Doctor Who, but I don't own any of the characters.
Enjoy!
After the Blue
He watched her exit the blue box, then saw her turn around and come out after a few minutes, a sad smile on her face. He knew that look, having seen it on his face so many times after the Doctor and his redhead companion had left a fully human replica of the Doctor with his Rose.
His Rose. Mickey felt his stomach twist at that. He couldn't stand to see her love for the Doctor fully realized in his replica. He'd let the jealousy and depression eat away at him until Pete Tyler had approached him one day.
"You can't continue on like this, son," he'd said, holding a wristband with a round button in the middle out to Mickey.
"Aren't those a bit dodgy now?" he'd asked warily.
"I calibrated it to one last jump to the other dimension. I couldn't calculate time, so you might be off a few years, give or take, so pick up a paper when you get there."
Mickey had nodded, strapped on the wristband, and pushed the button. He'd only had a split second when he'd arrived to glance at a paper to notice the date—Pete had been right. He'd traveled a year into the past.—when he saw the TARDIS materialize. He'd thought to go in and give the Doctor a piece of his mind until he'd seen her go out and in, then out.
"Excuse me, miss?" he said. She turned.
"Um, yeah, what?"
"Did you just get out of that blue box?" he asked, internally chiding himself for such an inane question. Why did he have to blow it with her? She was pretty cute and he was starting to sound like a blithering idiot.
"Excuse me, but—"she said. He was blowing it. He knew he had to bail himself out somehow.
"You've been traveling with that Doctor bloke, right?" he asked. Jackpot. The look on her face said it all.
"Martha Jones," she said, extending her hand.
"Mickey Smith," he replied, taking it.
"You want to go for a coffee or something?" she asked.
"That sounds good," he said, taking her arm. "I'll buy."
He let her keep the silence as they walked together. He knew full well that she was wondering how he knew about the Doctor. He caught her glancing at him and wondered what else was going through her mind about him.
He steered his thoughts back towards buying her coffee and discussing their mutual acquaintance—at least that's what he was trying to tell himself. Deep down, he was wondering what it would be like to kiss her, among other things.
They entered the café and he bought the coffee. They found a corner booth away from everybody.
"So, tell me, Mickey Smith, how you came to know the Doctor," she said leaning toward him.
He tried to ignore the scent of her perfume—sweet with just a hint of spice, like innocence with just a bit of naughtiness—as she did so. He took a deep breath to begin his tale and failed. He took a sip of his coffee and tried again.
One word came out of his mouth: "Rose."
"Rose?" she asked.
"Rose. She met the Doctor first. She was with me at the time and he had to come sweeping in with his blue box—"his voice broke and she put her hand on his.
"It's okay," she said and he remembered the sad smile that he'd seen her wear after her exit from the TARDIS and, somehow, he knew he could begin his story again.
"She went off on many adventures with him. That I knew. I traveled with him too some. I remember one time he posed as a teacher in a school and made her pose as a dinner lady. We ran into someone else he'd traveled with. I think her name was Sarah Jane Smith. She had this tin dog, K-9, and I was left with him while the three of them saved the school. I realized then that I was the bloody tin dog of the group."
At this, he shook his head.
"What else?" she asked.
"Cybermen," he said looking at her.
"Canary Wharf?" she replied. "My cousin was lost there."
"I'm sorry," he said.
"What happened for you there?" she asked.
"When the other dimension was opened up and Rose got sucked in, I stayed with her and her parents. We were happy for a time, she and I. Deep down, though, I knew she wanted to be with him and was settling for me," he said, then pulled a book out of his pocket.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Secrets. You know about revealing too much and mucking up the time line for people?"
He saw her nod.
"I'm about to do that, but it won't mess it up too much," he said.
"Go on," she said. He saw the curiosity in her eyes.
"After you, he will travel with a woman named Donna Noble." He saw her reaction and briefly wished he hadn't revealed that. It could only get worse with what he would further tell her. "From what I understand, she became part Time Lord and created a fully human duplicate of the Doctor. In the end, he ended up in the other dimension with my Rose—"
He put his head in his hands. It still hurt. He knew that it would for a long time. However, something was changing, partially eclipsing that emotion. He knew what it was and shoved it back. It scared him worse than cold metal men trying to take over the world and a man in a blue box that was bigger on the inside. What stopped him pushing it down was her hand beneath his chin.
When she gently lifted his face, he was shocked at what he saw, yet, somehow not surprised. Her eyes were glazed over, like she was holding back tears. In those eyes, he saw a mixture of heartbreak and something beyond that that seemed to be only for him.
"Go on," she whispered. "You need to finish telling me."
"Pete Tyler, Rose's father, died in this dimension, but he didn't in the other. His Jackie Tyler did, so he ended up with Rose's mum. Anyway, he calibrated this bracelet," he held up his wrist, "for one last jump to this universe, and here I am. You know the rest."
They both sipped their coffees and put them down in sync, then laughed.
"It's time I tell you my tale," she said.
"After I told you mine, it's only fair," he said, smiling for the first time since this whole thing had begun for him. Why not give in? Why not feel happy?
"I met him as all of us seem to, when disaster strikes and he decides to save the world. I have traveled with him to the end of the world and back to find that the man we all elected, Harold Saxon, was the Master, another Time Lord with plans to destroy the world. He forced the Doctor to age and watch his plan unfold. For a year, I walked the world for him. The Master often tried to find me, but I eluded him, telling everyone about this beautiful man I loved—"Mickey heard her voice break and put his hand on hers. "—anyway, I put him in their minds and that defeated the Master's plan."
"That just happened for you," he said, realizing how fresh her pain was for her.
"Yeah. Anyway, I realized I had become this friend I'd had when I was in university. I told the Doctor about her. She loved this guy who never really saw her. He liked her, but she just went on about him and didn't move on from him for years. I realized that the Doctor never saw me, never loved me, not like I loved him. I never told him that, at least not until I left."
"But you got out. You knew when to call it quits. Your friend hung on too long," he said.
"I see something in your eyes, Mickey Smith," she said, her voice soft and knowing. He also found it sexy.
"What's that, Martha Jones?" he asked, letting her hear in his voice what she had seen in his eyes.
"Not here," she said, standing up and taking his hand. They walked out of the coffee shop hand in hand.
Confession of their links to the Doctor had given way to an intimacy. It had played on their mutual attraction and become something else. They had walked along different places. It was almost like a date, with each pointing out places in the city they had lived previously.
At one point, they sat on a bench in the park.
"It's nice to just sit down for once," Martha said as they gazed at the pond.
"Yeah. Time travel doesn't lend much to that, does it?" Mickey said. They both laughed.
He didn't analyze how it happened. All he knew was that they were both looking at each other at the same time. Then her mouth found his and he was kissing her back. It both scared and thrilled him that he wanted more so soon.
"I think," she said breaking off the kiss. "That if we don't stop this soon, we may get arrested."
As much as he hated to stop, she was right. He stood first and offered her his hand. She let him help her up, then did something that surprised him. She grabbed his rear end, then leaned up and whispered in his ear.
"Don't think that because we're no longer making out on that park bench that I'm done with you, mister. You'll walk me back to my flat and you'll come up for a nightcap."
She led the way. They made small talk on the way, but none of it made coherent sense and neither of them seemed to notice. Their minds were elsewhere. She unlocked the door to her flat, and pulled him in.
"I don't have much for a nightcap except for some wine," she said.
"That'll be fine," he said, watching her take the glasses out of the cupboard. He crossed over to her and put his arms around her. All at once, her scent hit him again. He couldn't resist. He kissed her neck. She giggled, turned to face him, and found herself pressed against the counter.
She handed him his wine glass, downed her own, set it on the counter, and began to kiss him. She then slid from his grasp, grabbing his arm. She led him to her room, then turned off the lights.
He hadn't planned for things to go this fast. In fact, he reflected as they curled together beneath he covers, he wasn't sure he'd even planned much beyond talking to her. Martha propped herself up on one elbow.
"I just had a thought," she said.
"What's that?" he asked.
"We've got it all wrong," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I was just thinking that it took knowing the Doctor for us to get together. You know, my traveling with him and you traveling with him. Then I thought it took me leaving him to push me into your arms, but maybe it wasn't him."
"Are you thinking it was Rose?" he asked.
"It makes sense. She had you all torn up because she left you for the Doctor's human replica. She was the reason the Doctor never looked at me twice."
"And yet," he said. "It no longer matters."
"Nope," she said, kissing him senseless.