Author's Note:
I didn't know quite what I wanted to put in the author's note, aside from the fact that this fic will almost certainly include spoilers. It's set sometime after Vampires in Venice, I'd say, since I'm not planning on mentioning River very elaborately any time soon.
This fic will have spoilers from End of Time (the end of Tennant's era). So I'm warning you now before you move on. I haven't gone into much detail, but if you haven't finished Tennant yet and would like to keep the nice surprises in the special as surprises, then I recommend you don't read this chapter. As a matter of fact, the first word is actually a spoiler. xD
This whole chapter is also from Martha's point of view. And I'm horrible at writing Mickey... I just can't get my head around it! He was innocent and stupid at first when he met Nine, but when he met Ten he sorta became a man. And surely what's happened has changed him, so I was kind of lost of how to portray him.
But please, enjoy and ignore all my rambles in the author's notes! And please do tell me if anything is out of place. :)
Exact Estimate
Martha Jones-Smith couldn't run very fast. And the fact she had to glance behind her every few seconds to ensure Mickey wasn't trailing too far behind wasn't helping either. She'd lost her stamina these past few years, because things had gotten more hands-on rather than fleeing from threats. At least, the job description of an alien hunter was: 'kill or be killed'.
She sharply turned a corner, skidding on her toes slightly and almost toppling. Mickey followed not shortly afterwards and edged her to keep going. They were running from a Slitheen. Mickey had made negative noises about the green creature, linking it to military bombs and Downing Street. She'd dismissed his link with a grunt as they ran.
Neither of them had any idea where the Slitheen had come from, and that was precisely why they'd been paid to track it. The Slitheen were an unwanted family from Raxacoricofallapatorius and had been exiled from their home planet for a crime that had remained unnamed. And why there was one here, no one knew.
They'd been looking for it down one of the streets nearby when they actually found it. Mickey had charged at it, stun gun and trans-dimensional cage at the ready. He just missed getting his head swiped off by the green alien's deadly claws. It had then started to pursue Martha at the end of the street, and so they'd both been running from it ever since. They'd lost it quite considerably, but Mickey kept close to it to ensure they didn't completely lose it within the street system. He'd told her to run and that he'd try his best to lead it away from her.
He was still behind her and was sporting his stun gun rather majestically. He was firing blindly most of the time, attempting to hit the shadowing creature.
And then suddenly, as Martha turned another corner, she ran straight into a man. He attempted to catch her but failed miserably, falling to the floor with Martha on top of him. There were two cries of surprise and one noise that seemed to resemble a cheer. Martha looked down at the man she'd fallen on and gave him an apologizing look.
As she picked herself up, taking a moment to glance behind her to check for the Slitheen, she said, "Look mate, it's not safe in here. There's an alien on the loose and it's armed and dangerous."
And then Mickey came round the corner, bowling Martha over once again. She didn't even catch the man's response.
"It took a detour." He told her as he helped her up, not registering the presence of the man Martha had just run into. "It's gone 'round one of the side-alleys, probably hoping to cut us off." He then glanced back around the side of the wall that marked the corner, and looked back at Martha contently.
Mickey opened his mouth to speak again, but rather than words, his lips curved into a confused pout, and his eyebrows furrowed. Martha saw he wasn't looking at her; he was more or less looking behind her, and so she turned to follow his gaze.
And, well, she almost fell over. Because there was the honest-to-goodness blue of the Doctor's TARDIS – police box and all. She immediately looked to the man she'd bowled over, who was getting helped up by a red-haired woman.
"You changed?" Mickey asked hoarsely from behind her.
No one answered at first, but the man Martha had fell onto eventually stepped forward and held his hands out in a comical 'obviously, here I am' gesture. Both Martha and Mickey pounced onto him, engulfing him in a mass of hugs (and a couple of kisses, because Martha was in a good mood).
His new face was slim and long, with a slight stubble and nice eyes. He had flat light brown hair and his nose was a little bigger than she would have liked. He wore jeans, a red shirt and a denim body-warmer. It was incredibly strange Doctor-attire (it was too normal for him), but he seemed to always manage to surprise people.
"Were you alone when it happened?" Mickey asked him, Martha unable to put her finger on something to say. "Last time we saw you, you were alone."
"I was… uh…" The Doctor was most strangely lost for words.
His previous incarnation never actually shut up. And this one was strangely quiet and very quirky. Martha quickly ran her eyes over his two new companions – the red-haired girl who had helped the Doctor up and a man standing absently, leaning on the TARDIS exterior. Martha looked at all three of them, wondering how their complicated relationship had started.
"I was alone. Yes. I changed by myself." He finally spat out after looking around the street for inspiration.
"Did it hurt?" Martha eventually got out.
She knew about the regeneration process – he had told her about it on New Earth. He had said that if a Timelord is critically injured and/or is facing death, they can completely rebuild their molecular structure to form a brand new body before dying. And then he'd simplified it to: "If I'm going to die, I'll get a new face."
And it seemed he'd gone and done exactly that. He'd managed to get himself killed. Martha couldn't help but wonder if the death had been painful for him.
She looked to the Doctor, who didn't seem to have a suitable answer for her question. And she didn't blame him. It had taken her a while to get him to talk about him and his complex life. Perhaps the way he had died had been private, and that's where he wanted to keep the information.
"Uh, well, yes. It hurt."
Or not.
If anything, he was very hesitant in his sentences, this one. It was as if he was expecting someone to come round and hit him if he got something wrong. Of all things, he seemed extremely unsure about being here.
Martha caught the male companion smirking wildly to himself at the Doctor's inability to get out a sentence. The red-haired girl also looked amused, but not in the same sense as the man.
"I wish we could have been there for you." Martha stated with a gentle smile. "All you needed to do was ask, you know."
Martha turned to look at her husband for something else to say, but Mickey was giving the Doctor a sideways glance. The old companions and the new companions were just standing together awkwardly with a Slitheen on the loose.
"Thanks." The Doctor said, his lips slightly curving to form the hint of a smile.
"So." Martha decided to change the subject, as the nameless two new companions were bugging her. "New companions, hey? What happened to Donna?"
The Doctor turned to look at his companions and both of them smiled at him. It was a smile that almost made the whole encounter seem like a joke. But it couldn't be, because he'd come all this way just to say hello. How could that be converted into a joke?
"Uh, yes." The uncertain tone still rung in his voice, and judging by the expression on Mickey's face as he examined the new Doctor, the feeling of uncertainty was mutual. "This is Amy. Amy Williams."
"Amy Pond." The man leaning against the TARDIS corrected. "In my eyes, Doctor, she'll never have my last name. It just seems so... wrong."
Martha assumed Amy and the other man were married. Which was strange, because the Doctor had clearly outlined he wasn't domestic. And yet, he had a married couple on the TARDIS. She would love to see his reaction if they ever had kids.
"Right." The Doctor seemed to agree with him, but as he turned to introduce Amy's husband, his eyes were reduced to slits and the man was smirking cheekily. "And this is Rory Williams."
"Hello!" Rory gave Martha and Mickey an over-exaggerated wave. "The wonderful Doctor has never mentioned you two before, so please, enlighten me?"
Martha and Mickey exchanged glances. It seemed Rory was asking for their names. Martha was also quite surprised the Doctor had never mentioned her or Mickey to his new companions. Her Doctor had always gone on about Rose, so why not her and Mickey with these companions? And 'wonderful' Doctor? She wondered if Rory was Jack the Second.
"Mickey Smith." Mickey introduced himself. "And my wife, Martha Smith-Jones." He introduced Martha.
"Smith-Jones?" Rory asked curiously.
It seemed Rory was more intrigued about what Martha and Mickey had been doing this past few years than the Doctor. This incarnation was very shy. Shy or not, it was most unlike him to be this quiet around old friends he hadn't caught up with in a very long time.
"Yeah. Martha wanted to keep her Jones, and so we settled on Smith-Jones." Mickey explained with a grin. "So Doctor, why have you never mentioned us before?" He then went on to ask the out-of-place Timelord.
"Oh, you know." He finally answered a question immediately, although quietly and not so confidently. "Things to do, places to be..."
"Ri-ght." Mickey nodded his head, sarcasm ringing in his voice. "Though, boss, answer me this."
Martha put her hands on her hips, further showing the annoyance in never being mentioned. She knew each of the Doctor's companions had been important to him (he'd hand-picked them himself) but still, never ever mentioning them to the new companions was just downright rude. Then again, Martha had never met Donna before her time with UNIT and the Sontarans. Perhaps he just liked to be secretive?
"What year did you meet Rose in, again? I completely forgot." Mickey seemed to be quizzing the man, and surprisingly, no immediate answer came out this time.
And then Martha sort of made sense of why he was asking. If the Doctor had a new face, he could be any of the three people standing in front of her. She doubted he'd regenerated into a female, but all things considered, the preposition was entirely reasonable.
"I..." The Doctor began, but he was interrupted before he could continue.
After a few moments of silence from the Doctor, Amy burst into laughter. Martha and Mickey gave her a perplexed look, but Rory and the Doctor just simply stood there a little too innocently.
And then Martha was certain Mickey was right. Rory was the Doctor and the Doctor was Rory. It seemed Mickey thought the same, since he had his armed crossed and was smirking in (the man introduced as) Rory's direction.
"Very funny, Mister." Martha moved over to him, still leaning on the TARDIS, getting right up into his face. "You're so rude, you are!"
She was rather actually quite annoyed at the Timelord and his companions for playing that trick on them, but kudos to them for managing to keep it up for so long. Mickey was laughing in turn with Amy now, and the real Rory soon gave into the urge as well.
"Oh, lighten up Martha." The real Doctor shoved her away playfully. "A new face and a TARDIS which can travel through time and space? I couldn't resist the urge." He giggled very childishly. "The looks on your faces when you realized!"
She was still so annoyed at him despite the fact he'd come to say hello again, but she could never stay mad at him forever...
"I've missed you so much!" Martha took to hugging the real Doctor again, and he happily hugged her back.
She made a mental note that this face rather enjoyed hugs, whereas his last face hadn't really liked them. He had accepted them but never actually had said he liked them. This one picked Martha up and spun her round as she hugged him. He was much more enthusiastic about everything in general.
Martha and the Doctor then moved over Amy, Rory and Mickey, where the three were engulfed in conversation about something that sounded alien. She knew what it was like for people having no one to talk to about what they'd seen with the Doctor. Mickey and Martha understood, and so Amy and Rory must have been explaining their stories to Mickey.
"That was a nasty trick, boss." Mickey commented as Martha approached with the Doctor.
They were holding hands, something that the old Doctor had enjoyed doing. She missed holding hands with him. His hands were always warm and she'd always grab on when she was feeling cold. He always seemed warmer than she was, no matter the climate. This face was the same; his hands were warm.
"I couldn't resist, sorry Ricky."
"Mickey."
"Ricky."
"Mickey."
"R-i-c-k-y. Ricky."
"My name is Mickey." Mickey continued to huff as the Doctor demanded his name was Ricky rather than Mickey.
"Mickey the Idiot, then." The Doctor changed his mantra with a grin.
Martha glanced at Amy and Rory, who were looking just as confused as she was. She knew Mickey had met the Doctor before she had, but it seemed there were a couple of inside jokes the two shared. Martha and the Doctor's current companions let the two exchange various names for a couple of minutes, before Amy quietly cleared her throat, causing the Doctor to look at her and Mickey to pause.
"Yes, Pond?" He asked innocuously.
"There are three other people here, you know." She reminded him, gesturing to herself, Rory (who was actually apparently Amy's husband) and Martha.
"Oh, right!" He exclaimed, suddenly registering the fact there actually were more people in the room.
He turned to face Amy and Rory, which turned his back to Mickey. Mickey took this opportunity to give the Doctor a shove on the shoulder. He stumbled into Amy, who caught him before he could fall. Martha caught the redness of the Doctor's cheeks as Amy took her hands from his chest. Martha caught herself smirking – was the Doctor preying on married women, now?
He muttered a thank you and then turned to glare at Mickey. Mickey smiled sweetly in response, before grabbing Martha and pulling her to beside him. It wasn't rough – it was more or less a 'we have a Slitheen to catch and the Doctor's lovely but we do have lives now, you know' grab.
"It was good seeing you again." Martha took it as her cue to say the closing speech. "Even though your name was Rory in three quarters of your hello." She grinned.
"Yeah, thanks for dropping in, boss." Mickey added rather un-elaborately.
"It was lovely to meet you." Amy stated with a slight bow of her head. "And it was the entirely Doctor's idea... believe me. But we made him take off the bowtie." She said proudly.
Martha and Mickey exchanged glances again. The Doctor apparently was creating his own fashions, now. Although the converse with the suit had been sort of out of place, bowties (and were they suspenders?) were just taking it over the top.
"I did have a tweed jacket too, but Pond went and hid it from me." The Doctor puckered from his place beside Amy. "And yes, Smiths, a bowtie."
This Doctor was also incredibly good at reading expressions, too. Martha smiled at him and he smiled back. She was so glad he had come back to say hello, even though it had been a prank at the time. And he had incredibly good timing – they'd almost certainly lost the Slitheen during their catch-up with the Doctor.
"Before you go, Mister, answer me something." Martha stopped him as he seemed to begin to enter the TARDIS. He turned to face her, face lit up in a huge smile. Amy and Rory were looking at her, too.
"You are okay, aren't you?" She asked him, and she caught the smile fall from his face slightly.
"I'm always okay, Martha." The Doctor answered, the smile still half-on his face. "I'm the king of –"
"Doctor."
"Ponds." The Doctor avoided the question as he turned to his companions. "Go inside for a moment, would you?" He asked politely, standing aside from the door so they could go in.
They did as they were told. Amy flashed Martha a concerned glance as she disappeared into the TARDIS. The Doctor pulled the door shut when Rory was inside, and he turned his back to it so he could lean on it. He then pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked up at Martha.
"I won't lie to you." He began. "I just miss it. I miss being with everyone. I miss being with you." A sad smile formed on his face as he spoke. "I mean, Amy and Rory are charming and I love them to pieces, but sometimes I can't help but wonder if everyone else is okay."
"We're alive and well." Martha reassured him with a smile. "We're happy and we've got each other, thanks to you."
Mickey made a noise of approval from beside him, and the Doctor smiled down at his toes.
"Sorry about the prank, too." He apologized, finally looking up at them.
"It's all good." Martha reassured him. "But next time, maybe you should tell Rory our names and a little background information first." She suggested.
"And get him dressed in something more strange." Mickey added. "Denim isn't your thing, boss. New face or not, you just don't dress as normal as that."
"You haven't even seen me with the bowtie yet." The Doctor said with a grin. "And the tweed went wonderful with it, but nooo, Pond had to go and take it away from me." He puckered and crossed his arms, trying his best to look cross.
"You take care of yourself." Martha moved up to give him a goodbye hug, and he accepted gladly. "I'm always worrying about you. Both of us are."
Mickey then gave the Doctor a goodbye hug, and with a mockery salute, he disappeared into the TARDIS again. Martha was certain she'd see him again. And perhaps this time he wouldn't take to being named 'Rory'.
Mickey and Martha watched the TARDIS dematerialize, hand in hand, memories filled with images of the Doctor. Martha knew Mickey missed him too, despite all the mockery he and the Doctor shared.
"Come on." Mickey dragged her past where the TARDIS had been last, just as it faded into the background of the street. "We've got a Slitheen to catch."
