Memorial

Synopsis: There's now a memorial where Torchwood One once stood.
Characters: The Doctor (ten), Martha, Jack
Spoilers: DW: Doomsday & some series 3. Torchwood: End of Days
Rating: PG

There was now a garden where Torchwood Tower had once stood. Grass and shrubs and flowers and a fountain, and benches to sit on and reflect. And in the centre was the memorial - ironically (in Martha's mind) made of steel, it listed the names of all the victims of that day; the day the Cybermen and the Daleks had fought over London.

Jack, Martha and the Doctor had arrived there purely by chance, a malfunction in the TARDIS - or maybe not a malfunction (more often than not, the TARDIS knew what she was doing). When they'd materialised only a few streets away, somehow it had felt wrong to simply close the doors and leave without paying their respects - or at least the two Humans had thought so.

It was early morning, a Sunday the Doctor had told them - the 16th of February 2014. They walked in silence through deserted streets. When they reached the entrance to the garden they stopped, suddenly reluctant to be there. The place had an atmosphere, Jack thought, a feeling, a bad feeling - too many people had died there. Too many people had lost the ones they loved.

"Come on then." The Doctor strode off in front and the other two followed.

"I'm glad they finally decide what to do with the place," Jack commented. "When does this get built?" he asked the Doctor, but the Time Lord merely shrugged and walked away. Jack was about to follow him, when he noticed Martha crouched down, wiping frost from the memorial. He walked over and knelt next to her. "You okay?"

Martha nodded and pointed to the name 'Adeola Oshodi', "My cousin."

Jack frowned. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you knew anyone here."

"She worked for Torchwood. Thought it'd be fun - and a good way to meet interesting men," she added with a sad smile.

"Well Torchwood does employ the most interesting men," Jack replied. "She was in the tower then?"

"Apparently," Martha said. When the Doctor had told her what had happened to Adeola, she'd been briefly angry with him, until she realised that her cousin had already been dead, and even if she hadn't, she would have died anyway - almost everyone else there had died that day. "Did you have anyone here?"

"I knew some of the staff casually, not well. No, there was just Rose."

Martha nodded. Rose. The girl she wasn't replacing. The Doctor never talked about her, and she'd found that Jack wasn't much more forthcoming. She didn't press either of them. It was their grief; it wasn't for her to intrude. She did overhear them in the study one evening. She'd gone to retrieve her iPod, but had stopped at the door when she'd heard them discussing Rose. They'd been laughing about past adventures and Martha had been pleased - it was surely a good sign if the Doctor could laugh when someone mentioned Rose. She hadn't interrupted them though; once again it was their grief.

"You be okay?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I didn't know Adi that well. Christmas and family get togethers, you know," Martha shrugged, but there was a wistful note to her voice - it would have been nice to maybe know her cousin better. Too late now though. "Go and check on him," she told Jack.

Jack squeezed Martha's shoulder in a gesture of comfort and then went to find the Doctor. The Time Lord was on the other side of the memorial - the side where the names of the non-Torchwood employees were listed. He'd found Rose and Jackie's names, and a little before them, Mickey Smith. When he'd registered Jackie and Rose as dead, it had made sense to add Mickey's name to the list. Now he was standing staring at the wall of names - hundreds of them, thousands even.

"Did you find her?" Jack asked.

"Down there. It's in alphabetical order, which was considerate." The Doctor didn't join Jack as the other man bent over and read the name. He didn't share the Human need for memorials; he didn't need somewhere special to remember any of the people he'd lost - especially not Rose.

Jack thought the Doctor looked more solemn that he'd ever seen him, in either regeneration. But there was something more, something distant about the other man that worried Jack. "You okay?" he asked.

"It's a bit nippy here."

"I didn't mean..."

"I know. Martha alright?"

"Her cousin worked for Torchwood One. I didn't know that."

"Yep," the Doctor agreed. "I killed her."

The Doctor's tone was so neutral, so wrong for the words he'd just spoken, that it brought a chill to Jack.

"Well," the Doctor continued, "she wasn't actually alive. She'd been taken by the Cybermen, they'd put an implant in her brain - hadn't physically changed her into one of them, but as near as makes no difference."

"Does Martha know?"

"Yeah." The Doctor pulled his gaze away from the memorial and looked at Jack. "Is this really comforting for Humans?" he asked.

"Some find it is," Jack replied, although he doubted Ianto would take any comfort knowing that Lisa's name was carved in steel at the place she'd died (the place the real her died, not the Cyberwoman she'd become). He frowned and shrugged, "I don't really understand it. But if it gives comfort to some people, then why not."

Neither man had noticed that Martha had joined them until she spoke. "Most of these names, there's no graves for them. There were no bodies to bury. Their families need somewhere to come and mourn, somewhere to remember. I think it'll help my aunt and uncle." Both men nodded, though she wasn't sure they really understood. "You want to go?"

"We can stay as long as you like," the Doctor told her.

"I'm done. I'm glad its here, and I'm glad the TARDIS brought us to see it."

"Maybe she knew you needed it," Jack suggested.

Martha smiled, though she doubted it was her the TARDIS had been thinking of when she brought them here.

END