a/n: Episode Tag:The Family of Blood with Major Spoilers; this will be easier to understand if you have seen the episode. This is my first Doctor Who fic, so please be nice and I hope you like it.

Endless Sacrifice

It was hopeless.

Martha couldn't believe that she had messed this up so bad, that she had lost the watch; especially when it was on the shelf just hours ago. John Smith didn't think anything of it, just the way the Doctor intended, but who would have guessed that that might be their downfall? Martha certainly didn't.

This time period—1913—didn't help either, causing her to be John Smith's maid, and having the skin colour that she had. It was good that she got to stick close to John Smith, making sure that he didn't open the watch too soon, that the Family didn't discover the Timelord too early before they perished. But now the Headmaster was telling her to shut-up threatening her because she was the Help and her skin was darker to boot. John Smith was acting all scared and hapless—just like an ordinary bloody Human. And that Matron wasn't helping matters.

You just had to fall in love, didn't you? And it wasn't with me.

Martha shook her head; there was no point in thinking of such things. It didn't matter what she felt, it was trivial to the current situation and it wouldn't solve a thing. Not having the watch didn't either.

And now the students were going to shoot all of the Family's scarecrow soldiers, but it would do no good; it was just a distraction, one that would use up all of the schools defenses. That little girl, the one with the red balloon, the one that was at the dance just came out of nowhere. And that stupid Headmaster walking out there, reaching for her hand . . . Martha tried to stop him, yelling at him that she was one of them. But he didn't listen, the Matron had to tell him so for him to believe—it all came down to status and skin colour, didn't it? Even in the mist of possible death. The girl with the red balloon shot him—turning him to dust—and for a second Martha thought it serves him right, but then she felt bad and that just made her even more angry.

Now who's going to shoot me? Any of you? Really!

The only thing that they could do at the moment was run, and the only thing that Martha could do was stay with John Smith and protect him—making sure that the Family wouldn't get a hold of him. But now the Family had the TARDIS, the only thing that might have been able to save them.

Do you remember the name?

Martha had tried, maybe if they didn't have the watch, they she could jog the memories back into him, but in was no use.

The Matron had also tried.

I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it. The Blue Box. You dreamt about the Blue Box.

I'm not—I'm John Smith, that's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life—And his job, and his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?

Yes, he is.

Why can't I stay?

But we need the Doctor. Martha had pleaded.

So what am I, then? Nothing? I'm just a story.

Martha wanted to cry, wanted to give up then because it was hopeless, John Smith was dominant and the Doctor was the beta right now. But she forced the tears back, and shoved the hopelessness back down. There was still time, there always would be as long as the Family didn't get a hold of the watch or John Smith.

They had to run, they couldn't stay. The Matron led them to an abandoned cabin that had once been occupied by the Cartrights.

I must go to them; before anyone else dies. John Smith had said suddenly; talking like a man and not the Doctor.

Martha, there must be something that we can do. The Matron had turned to her.

Not without the watch. Martha had answered her, everything about her hopeless; she was close to giving up.

You're the Doctor's companion. Can't you help? John Smith demanded. What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?

Martha had stared at him for a moment, silent. It hurt to hear those kinds of words coming from his mouth, this may be John Smith at the moment, but he was still the Doctor to her. She knew that she'd never be like that Rose, but she didn't want to be Rose, she wanted to be her.

Because he's lonely. She had told him finally, knowing that it was the truth.

And that's what you want me to become.

Martha didn't say anything. To her, John Smith wasn't real; he was just someone that she had made up to fill the Doctor's body while he was absent.

Tim, the boy from the school had found them; and it was him with the watch. He gave it to Martha and she held it out to John Smith.

Hold it.

He told me to find you; it wants to be held. Tim said.

You've had this watch the whole time? Why didn't you return it? The Matron questioned

Because it was waiting. And because I was so scared of the Doctor.

Why?

Because . . . I've seen him. He's . . . Like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun.

Stop it. John Smith said faintly.

He's ancient and forever. He burns in the center of Time, and he can see the turn of the universe.

Stop! I said stop it.

And, he's wonderful . . .

Martha had gotten as wistful smile on her lips as Timothy described the Doctor, because that is exactly what he was like. But John Smith was fighting it; she could see it, he wasn't the Doctor.

The Family was bombing the village, trying to draw John Smith out—draw the Doctor out.

Martha was still holding the watch, and she grabbed John Smith's hand, trying to bring his hand to it. He pulled back. Martha could hear the Doctor inside the watch and she knew by the proximity of the two of them touching that John Smith could too.

Come closer. Closer. Closer.

God, how Martha had missed that voice.

Why did it speak to me? Timothy asked him suddenly, and despite the moment Martha was wondering that too.

A low-level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extra synapic engram causing— John Smith replied, if just for a second becoming the Doctor before he jerked from Martha's hold. Is that how he talks?

That's him! Martha whispered. All you have to do is open it, and he's back.

You knew this all along and yet you watched while Nurse Redfern and I—

I didn't know how to stop you; he gave me a list of things to watch out for. But that wasn't included

Falling in Love? That didn't even occur to him?

No.

And what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die!

It was always going to end, though! The Doctor said that the family has got a limited lifespan. That's why they needed to consume a Timelord. Otherwise, three months, and they die. Like Mayflies, he said.

So your job was to execute me.

People are dying out there. They need him, and I need him. 'Cause you've got no idea what he's like. I've only just met him. It wasn't even that long ago, but . . . He is everything . . . He's just everything to me, and he doesn't even look at me. But I don't care . . . 'Cause I love him to bits. And I hope to God that he won't remember me saying this.

Martha couldn't believe that she had just told him that, told John Smith how she truly felt about the Doctor—since the very second she had met him. But she was desperate now, and what would it matter if they all died any way? She knew it wouldn't work though, that being confirmed with what he said next.

I should have thought of it before, you can give them this—you can give them the watch. And then they can leave me alone.

You can't do that!

If they want the Doctor, they can have him.

He'll never let you do it; I'll never let you do it.

If they get what they want then—then they'll leave me alone.

Martha clutched the watch tightly, she was never going to do that; she could never betray the Doctor like John Smith was doing. And that was when she realized it; this wasn't the Doctor. He never was, not from the beginning, not since the Doctor transferred his consciousness into the watch. John Smith was someone that Martha had created, but now he had taken a life of his own—had taken over the Doctor's body.

She now knew that trying to get John Smith to open the watch by himself was useless—the only way that that was going to happen was if she forced him, and she couldn't do that. But the only way that they were going to get the family to go away was if they had the Doctor.

It was hopeless; the Doctor was definitely rubbish as a Human.

Martha was glad when the Matron asked if she and John Smith could be alone, but she felt her heart break all the same. Standing outside in the dark, the watch clutched to her chest, she could hear what they were saying. Getting John Smith to open the watch was a dead-end, so she was just going to have to do it herself.

Martha closed her eyes, taking very deep breaths. She wasn't sure what she was about to do would even work, but if it did, she knew that there was a probable chance that it couldn't be undone. She didn't know what was going to happen to either, if the Doctor's consciousness took over her's —if she'd be gone forever. But the Doctor would live, and so would these people—her own existence was insignificant in comparison in truth.

Martha opened her eyes and opened the clasp on the watch-top before she could change her mind. The clock face glowed bright, the stream of light enveloping her body. The hands on the clock moved both counter and clockwise, each taking one. She gasped, she could feel the power of it, as well as hear his voice; the words were so fast and far away that it sounded as if she were in a sewer system. Everything that was the Doctor she could feel and see, it was so overpowering and painful, but it was wonderful at the same time because it was the Doctor.

Painful, though, because as a Timelord, that meant that his structure was different too; developing two hearts wasn't natural. But soon the pain was over, and she was now the Doctor—and Martha—or the Doctor was inside of her. It felt more normal than she had expected, comfortable instead of a weird-body-take over like from the telly.

And now that she had the Doctor in her head and body, she knew that there was no turning back. She could feel the Doctor's disappointment; he had been counting on her to get John Smith to open the watch, so that he could go back to his body. She tried not to pay attention to it as she left John Smith behind her, going to the Family's ship. She knew that this put a big damper on things, but knew that if push came to shove that she would give her body up to the Doctor if it came to that.

By doing what she did, she not only gave up her chance of ever going home and seeing her family, but she also gave up her life and her body. Maybe, eventually, she and the Doctor could come up with a way to fix this little snag—but right now it was just going to have to do. 'Cause at the moment, all the was on her and the Doctor's mind was getting rid of the Family of Blood.

He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing, the fury of the Timelord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with Gods and Demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden—He was being kind. He wrapped my Father in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a Dwarf Star. He tricked my Mother into the event horizon of a collapsing Galaxy to be imprisoned there . . . Forever. He still visits my Sister, once a year, every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is—don't you see. He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was suspended in time, and the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England . . . As their protector. We wanted to live forever . . . So the Doctor made sure that we did.

This was something that she was going to have to get used to, but it wasn't that big of an obstacle for Martha. She loved to Doctor to bits as she had said to John Smith—the man that she had created and that had taken over the Doctor's body—she tried to hide that fact from the Doctor, with very little success. He couldn't hide things from her either, as it turned out, they were an open book to each other—though Martha had a hard time figuring the Timelord.

But nothing was hopeless, and with the Doctor nothing was impossible—so they would figure this out sooner or later. Martha didn't really care which though, as things had it, no matter what form the Doctor took—even her's—she would love him forever.

note: I know that the ending was kinda shawdy maybe, and that I made Martha take the Doctor in instead of John Smith; but when I watched the episode this is how it had to go down. And I pissed at myself for adding Rose to my fic, but it had to be done, and thankfully it didn't ruin the whole fic. I hated that at the end of the episode that the Doctor went back to Joan—the Matron—and asked if she wanted to go in the TARDIS with him as his companion. It pissed me off because he still has Martha but he doesn't seem to notice that fact, and he thought nothing of it when she said that she would have said anything to get him to touch the watch, but what she said was true and he still can't see it. Any way,

I hoped that you liked it and please review, I want to know if it was crap or not. :)