Author's Note: Sooooooo... I'm a very productive writer who's only 4 months late for Christmas... errrrrrrr well, my friends assured me that it's never too late or too early to post a Christmas fic so I guess I'm good. Anyway, once again I planned to write a short one-shot and once again it turned into something longer than that. As this fic turned as long as it did I decided to split it into 3 chapters, as I'm writing this I've only edited chapter 1 and once I'll edit the other chapters I'll put them up, so expect the next one in a couple of days and then another couple of days for the next chapter I think. There will be a max of a week between them, I'll promise that. I also promise that my English is better in the actual chapter, I don't know why but I always end up typing in gibberish outside the stories I write *shrugs*
Anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: No I didn't get rights for Doctor Who last Christmas causing me to be too excited to write stuff I'm afraid, I've got no excuse.
1. An Unexpected Visit
The Doctor pulled the dematerialisation lever, deciding to put the TARDIS in the vortex. Spending the day with one Jackson Lake had been fun, but it had reminded him of everything he had lost.
And it hurt.
He ran his hand over his face as he went further into the inside of the TARDIS, needing to relax and forget again.
A couple of minutes later he was making his way towards the library with a steaming cup of tea, a good book would help him to forget about the terrible things that had happened in his life. For a couple of hours at least.
His plans got crushed when the TARDIS suddenly decided to lunge, making him lose his balance which caused him to spill his tea over himself and hit his head against the wall, then the TARDIS lunged the other side making him land on all fours with a grunt, he tried to keep himself balanced as the TARDIS was shaking. He didn't know what was going on and was worried about it, at least until the TARDIS quickly assured him that everything was okay and that he just had to hang on.
"What are you doing!?" He nearly screamed at the TARDIS.
He didn't get an answer, so he just focused on keeping his balance. However he failed when the TARDIS lunged once again, he let out a grunt as he landed on his back. Just after he had landed on the corridor floor the TARDIS landed with her usual thud.
The Time Lord kept laying there trying to catch his breath and sooth his racing hearts.
Where are we? He wondered mentally.
You will find out in due time my thief. The TARDIS answered him in his head.
"Yeah, great, thanks." He said and closed his eyes, trying to get rid of the slight dizziness in his head he got from hitting the wall.
He could tell that there wasn't too much damage from the hit, the dizziness would be gone quickly.
"Doctor!"
A female voice startled him out of his concentration a couple of minutes later, causing him to open his eyes and look up towards the source.
"Martha?" He wondered as she sped to his side, checking him for injuries.
"What happened?" She asked worriedly.
"Nothing. " He answered as he sat up. "I'm fine."
"Nothing?" She repeated disbelievingly. "Then what are you doing on the floor?" She asked incredulously.
He looked around at the ground then looked her in the eyes.
"Relaxing?" He tried unsure, rubbing his neck.
The look Martha gave him told him that she didn't believe him.
"What? The floor is surprisingly comfy." He added finding his confidence again.
"Sure, with grating digging in your back I can sure imagine," Martha said in a mocking tone, causing the Time Lord to wince and sigh in resignation.
"Honestly though, I just fell... and dropped my favourite cup." He added while looking sadly at the remains of said cup. "Oh.. and might've slightly hit my head. I'm still fine though." He assured her
"Oh... you hit your head?" Martha asked him. "you could have a concussion." She started searching for signs of said concussion.
The Time Lord rolled his eyes at that.
"I don't have a concussion, I already checked." He told her.
"I'll check anyway," Martha told him firmly, in the kind of tone he knew not to disobey.
She pulled him up from the floor and let him to the infirmary.
After a couple of tests, Martha concluded that he, indeed, didn't have a concussion.
"Told you." The Doctor said in a sing-song tone.
Martha crossed her arms unimpressed at that.
"Yeah... do you want me to list all the times you said you weren't injured, only for it to turn out you were?" She countered.
"Errrr..." The Time Lord rubbed his neck awkwardly. "That won't be necessary."
"That's what I thought." She continued satisfied. "Now, since this is figured out, I'd like to know what you're doing here?" She wondered.
The Doctor frowned.
"Could you specify 'here'?" He asked.
Martha frowned at him.
"You do know that the TARDIS landed in my flat, right?" She wondered, earning a blank stare from the Time Lord.
"I do now." He eventually answered cheekily, earning him a swat on the arm.
"How didn't you know that earlier?" She questioned.
"The TARDIS decided to do that, she didn't discuss it with me. Not at all, I mean. She surprised me with landing all of a sudden, which caused me to fall over and well... you know the rest." He answered.
"Oh, okay then. Well, just as well that you're here. It's Christmas." She told him. "And you're going to be staying!" She added firmly.
"Errr... What are the plans for Christmas?" He wondered nervously, not entirely in the mood for dealing with Martha's family, no matter how nice they were, at least now.
"Just dinner and presents over at Torchwood Cardiff, we'll be joined by a couple other of your old companions." Then she changed to an exited whisper to convince him. "We also got you presents," She knew his love for presents
He smiled slightly, slightly getting into the mood, then his expression turned into a frown.
"Why would you get me presents if you don't know whether I'm coming?" He wondered.
"Because you're you," Martha answered him. "Now, go on change into some clean clothes and we'll get in the car. Be nice and dig your Christmas sweater out of the wardrobe, would you?"
The Time Lord shifted uncomfortably.
"Two things. One: Why would we go by car if I could move the TARDIS to Cardiff and B... No, hang on, Two: There's no way I'm wearing a Christmas sweater out in public, what if I for some reason end up at UNIT and then I'll be in their records with a Christmas sweater for the rest of my lives. I've got a reputation to uphold!" He complained.
"Okay, One: Your driving is terrible, for all we know we could end up in the stomach of a T-Rex or something." She opened her mouth to continue but got interrupted.
"That has never happened before!" The Time Lord exclaimed undignified.
"Knowing your driving, it probably will sooner or later. As for your second remark I have two things to say. Firstly, you're already noted in the records of UNIT with several terrible clothing styles, I mean, a celery? And secondly, everyone knows that Christmas sweaters aren't fashionable, they just go with the season. No one looks good in them, except for some lucky few. Now go get changed! We leave in 10 minutes." She finished firmly.
"Yes ma'am." He said and shot up from the bed, he had been forced to sit on it earlier, to go and find that horrifying Christmas sweater Martha had bought for him in 1969, he was sure she meant that one at least. He was so glad that he had resisted the urge to just throw the sweater in the same black hole as the TARDIS' manual had ended up, because Martha would have his head him if he didn't wear that sweater in 10 minutes.
When he walked into his bedroom he noticed that the TARDIS had been considerate towards him and had put the red Christmas sweater on his bed already, along with a pair of jeans.
The Time Lord wrinkled his nose.
"An ugly Christmas sweater is one thing, but there's no way I'm wearing jeans." He said mostly to himself.
The TARDIS mentally reminded him that he had worn jeans in his current body before.
"Yes, I wore jeans back when we were stuck in the ninety sixties because I didn't have a choice! I do have one now and I'm not wearing jeans!" He said as he went to look for the trousers of his blue suit instead. He could wear those trousers perfectly fine with that red sweater, he could even wear his coat over it all. if Martha let him at least.
The Time Lord nodded decisively to himself as he quickly changed out of his tea stained clothes into the more Christmas themed set.
He walked out of the TARDIS roughly two minutes later to discover that the TARDIS indeed seemed to have landed in a living room. Martha's living room, to be more exact. Not that he would've known that if Martha hadn't mentioned it earlier.
He had never been in Martha's new flat, The Master had blown up her old one so it didn't surprise him that she had a new one, who would want to live in a blown up flat?
It looked nice enough, there were several pictures of her family and he even managed to spot an old-ish one of himself with Martha and every one of the flat complex where they had lived in 1969. He remembered the reason behind the picture. It had been for Mr Rowland who had been moving out of the flat into an elderly home, and he had wanted a picture of all his neighbours to remember them. They liked Mr Rowland so of course, they hadn't said no.
He turned his head away from the picture as he heard Martha's voice coming from what he suspected to be the kitchen. He decided to head towards the direction her voice came from and see what was going on.
When he walked into the room, which was indeed the kitchen, he saw that Martha was on the phone.
"Yes, we're about to leave. I'll speak to you later." Martha said to the person on the phone.
"Alright, I speak to you in a couple of hours, Nightingale." The Doctor managed to pick up Jack's voice with his advanced hearing, then he heard the phone call being ended from the other side. Martha closed her own phone and turned to the Time Lord, giving him a once over and apparently approved of his outfit.
"Ready to go?" She asked him.
He nodded in response.
"Well then, come on then!" She said as she pulled him out of the flat and into the car.