This is my ficathon fic for the second Like Giants fic fest. For those who don't know, Like Giants is an lj comm. that shares the love of minor and original characters in the whoverse. This story involves Nasreen Chaudhry, Tony Mack and Eldane from Hungry Earth/Cold Blood and the beginning of the rest of their lives together. It also has the Doctor guest star at the end, and ties in with 'A Good Man Goes To War'.
Upon Waking
Nasreen had never had a problem with early mornings. With her job, it was a given that she would be up at odd hours and she was always happy to be there. And she had done all of it, because of her love for discovering what secrets might lie underground.
Opening her eyes, she was at first both groggy and unaware of where she really was. Why was she sleeping in an almost vertical position with an extremely uncomfortable pole as a bed? Why was she next to Tony to begin with and why was he... Oh, lizard man. Of course. She turned as a hand fell on her shoulder.
Eldane smiled at her. "Awake I see. I think it is time to eat and then we will continue our discussions from before and hope that the ancestors of your mate have kept their end of the bargain, so to speak."
Blinking and nodding her head, she carefully moved one foot and then the other, making sure that they would support her walking. They were strong and fully able to take her weight. Grinning, Nasreen soon emerged from the decontamination chamber she had squeezed into with Tony and hugged the leader of this civilisation of lizard people.
"That sounds like a plan, Eldane. Is Tony awake yet? Might be a good idea to wait for him. He gets a bit grouchy when he's hungry."
Tony wasn't awake and, judging by the green skin he was now sporting, they had been too late to save him from the mutation. Either that, or Eldane had simply run out of time to operate the dial to start the process before having to go to his own stasis chamber. How the mutation kept going while under stasis was beyond her. Perhaps it wasn't affected like the rest of him was.
Oddly enough, the green skin and the slight smattering of scales she saw covering his cheeks didn't turn her off. She knew that it was still her Tony, no matter what he may look like. God, how she loved that man. He was so wonderfully kind and generous.
Best of humanity, Tony Mack was, even if he was now a mutated version of his former self.
And now she had a whole new world to explore. An underground world. A world she had spent her entire life trying to find. Her dream had come true and she had found someone willing to not only share it with her, but to jump right in and not care about having to share the place with a species not their own.
He hadn't wanted to be thought of as a freak by humans. There was no way she could ever think of him as such. If anything, he now embodied her ideal man. The best of both worlds. Above and Below.
As she watched, he stirred awake and blinked. His eyes hadn't changed at all, still very human and full of confusion at the moment.
"Hello, love. You're a bit green, but at least you'll blend in a bit better down here than I will," she stated, the humour in her voice showing she didn't mind.
Tony blinked, looked down at his arm and sighed. "Oh, I guess the decontamination didn't work, then..."
She saw him trying not to cry and sighed. "Well, if it helps, I think you make quite the fetching lizard. It hasn't changed my opinion of you at all, and I love you, Tony Mack." She reached out to him, cupped his face in her hands and kissed him like she had only a few times before.
She knew he'd be sad, even depressed, over his new looks and it would be something they would both have to get used to, but it was something she knew they could both live with. He wasn't entirely Silurian. He was still human in there somewhere, it couldn't possibly have been a full species change. The Doctor had called it a mutation, not a transformation, and to her there was a world of difference.
A transformation to her would be replacing Tony with someone else completely. There would be no way of knowing what he'd be like. This mutation just made him look different.
The tears began to fall anyway, and she hugged him close. "Hey, we'll get through this, you and me. We will. Because we are living the dream, Tony. We made it. Our life's work and here we are!"
Tony managed to smile at her a little, and gave her a small "Yeah, I know love," before turning towards Eldane himself. "So, what do your people eat? Just vegetation, or meat too?"
Eldane smiled at them both. "We are omnivores, much like your species I believe. As it is, we now have passageways to the surface we can fix and use. It may be interesting to see if there is anything new up there now."
And just like that, it suddenly hit her. Tony's family was dead. Even his grandson was long gone by now. They were too far in the future. She had forgotten about that little fact in the excitement of it all. A thousand years later and the world that she knew would be gone.
She now had a larger understanding of what Eldane's people went through and why they acted like they did when they'd been woken up by her drill.
Her drill! Her drill had been blown up because someone decided to commit genocide.
She couldn't imagine what had possessed Ambrose to do such a thing when she had seen that both her son and husband were safe. They could have come to an understanding after a bit of time, she knew that.
Yet again, Ambrose hadn't.
But in that moment it was the one thing that grieved her the most. "My drill. My work! It was destroyed..."
"By me and my daughter..."
Oh, she had forgotten that Tony had helped in doing that, and she knew why he would too. He just wanted to help his little girl. This situation was becoming entirely too unreal much too fast. She was so confused...
"So...food, yes?" she asked, wanting to get her mind fixed on something else before she did something stupid, like faint.
"Sounds good, love," Tony stated, smiling at her slightly better than his last attempt.
Nodding, she helped him step off the machine like decontamination table and together they walked on into the beginnings of their new life together. It would have been even more perfect if t wasn't for a rather peculiar sound that began, a wailing that grew in pitch until a blue police box began to take form in front of them.
The Doctor. Well, he had said he'd be back after the 1000 years was up. Good to see he at least keeps his little promises as well as the big ones.
Tony and Eldane stared at the box with worry and confusion in their eyes and, since the Doctor hadn't yet come out she squeezed their shoulders and laughed. "It's the Doctor come to see how we're doing. He did say he'd be back. This is his ship."
"His ship is a box? That's a bit small, isn't it?" Tony asked, reaching out to touch the blue outside shell of what Nasreen knew was a massive inside space.
"You'd be surprised," she replied, humour in her voice.
Before anything else could be said, the doors opened and the Doctor stepped out, grinning widely at them. "Nasreen! Tony, Eldane. How are you? Good I hope, yes? Right! Very important question before we do catch up. Are your people awake yet, Eldane? Especially the warrior sect? I think I may want to borrow a few of your warriors for a war that is happening in the future."
She laughed at how quickly the Doctor could go from introductions to business about war and it seemed to her, with the few short hours she had known him, that it was something he did regularly for a very long time. As to the question, she had just woken up herself and had no idea of how to answer, so let her lizard friend do the talking.
"Some have been woken up. Why do you need my people to help fight your war though, Doctor? I thought you were against such actions."
"Oh, you know. Some very bad people kidnapped Amy, and have her trapped and very, very pregnant. I think she gave birth shortly after I stopped her ganger from transmitting. Never mind what that means, it won't make much sense, but I am trying to get her back and I need an army to fight an army. Your people are great soldiers. I thought you could spare a few...dozen, maybe? A baby and her mother are at stake. You know what kind of mess that sort of thing can cause."
Once again, Nasreen remembered what Ambrose had done to protect her child and shivered. She had met Amy and knew her to be someone who would fight back with everything she had.
Not again. She would not allow something like that to happen again if she could prevent it.
"I think it would be a good idea to give him some soldiers, Eldane. If they don't come back, at least you know you tried to help the man who helped save your people."
Tony squeezed her shoulder in support and nodded. "I agree. Plus, I don't want Amy to know what it is like to go through what my girl did."
Eldane looked between the two of them, before sighing. "I suppose I can spare some soldiers for you. A hundred at the most, Doctor. No more than that."
The Doctor grinned at all three of them and nodded. "Great, that will be greatly appreciated. And, believe me, even if none survive, they'll be known as great warriors and do your race proud."
With that said the Doctor raced back in the TARDIS and closed the door behind him. They blinked, looked at each other and shrugged. The wheezing sound of the TARDIS started up again and they watched as the blue box disappeared from sight, only to reappear again a few seconds later.
The Doctor poked his head out and grinned. "Don't worry, just moving the Old Girl down to the barracks. Easier to get them inside that way, instead of marching through all those tunnels. I'll, leave the doors open."
The TARDIS once again disappeared from sight.
Nasreen looked to Tony and grinned. "Well, at least things seem to be going all pear shaped again. Amazing how normal that feels now. Come on, let's go explore our new home."
With that, she dragged Tony towards the nearest door to see what there was to see in this fascinating new place she would be staying in.
After all, it was likely she wouldn't be staying here long. The world and what it looked like now was just waiting for her to explore.
Bring it on! she thought. She was ready.