Ghost

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Rose took a deep, desperate gasp for air. Once oxygen was back in her lungs, she felt fine. Looking down, she found herself in her dark pink 'Punky Fish' jacket. As far as she could tell, she was fine. She began checking herself over, patting her hands down her body. She found nothing. No gash, no life threatening injury. Not even a scratch.

Hang on, her 'Punky Fish' jacket? She hadn't worn that in years… she didn't even have it anymore. Not only had it been lost in the other universe, but it had been utterly destroyed when it had caught on fire at a luau on Laka III. ("The entire planet is founded on Hawaiian culture, Rose," the Doctor had said gleefully. "Laka was the Goddess of the Hula! It's one of four moons all with the same name. They circle the Planet Lakakane, him being the God of Hula." - Yes, because that information had come in handy when one of the tiki torches had tipped and fallen on her and she had to scramble out of the jacket before it could hurt her.)

It wasn't until she heard the sound of a door opening that she noticed where she was. She was in the TARDIS… holy crap, she was in the TARDIS!

The dull green glow of the central column brightened and the TARDIS hummed excitedly. She could hear a faint singing and realised two things at once. One, it was the TARDIS singing. Two, it was almost the same song that had called to her as she had died…

Had she died? She was sure she had been dying, and then she was standing in the TARDIS. Hmm, she could be dead. The TARDIS was one of her ideas of heaven.

She looked up to the door, expecting to see the Doctor. But instead she saw a young dark woman in an olden day maid's uniform.

"Hello," the woman said fondly. "You've never done that before," she remarked when she noticed how the TARDIS was reacting. "Are you excited to see me? Well, I guess you are a little lonely." The TARDIS gave a graunch that almost sounded indignant. But the woman didn't notice, instead she seemed to realise what she was doing. "Ugh, I'm talking to a machine…"

Rose knew how she felt, having talked to a twig once, but she felt something flare in her at those words. The TARDIS wasn't just a machine. "She'd probably be upset if you didn't," she told the woman. "She's alive, she can hear you."

But the woman ignored her. She just slowly waked up the ramp to the console, a forlorn, thoughtful look on her face as she took her gloves off.

"Erm, excuse me, where's the Doctor?" she tried, she took a step closer. "And who are you anyway?"

Still the woman ignored her, she walked sadly around the console and stopped, looking up at some contraption hanging from the roof. Her eyes closed against what looked to be some painful memories. When she opened her eyes, she was looking at the device in hatred and fear. She sighed heavily.

"Hey! Hello!" Rose called to her. She was starting to panic a little. This girl was ignoring her as if she actually didn't exist. "Hey, can you hear me? God, please say you can hear me!" She waved a hand in front of her face. Still nothing. Not a blink or any form of reaction. Not even a breeze about her pinned up hair. "Shit! I'm dead. I'm a bloody ghost. I'm a bloody ghost on the TARDIS!"

The woman made her way around to the monitor and switched it on. A video appeared on screen and showed the Doctor sitting down on the jump seat. It was her Doctor. All brown and pinstripe suits and great hair. "This working?" he said, tapping the screen. "Martha," he addressed the camera. She assumed that he was leaving a message for the dark girl. "Before I change, here's a list of instructions for when I'm human."

"Wait, what?" Sorry, he what? All Rose could do was stand there spluttering in shock. How the hell could he become human?

"One, don't let me hurt anyone. We can't have that, but you know what humans are like." Rose gave an affectionate snort at that. "Two, don't worry about the TARDIS. I'll put it on emergency power so they can't detect it. Just let it hide away. Four… no, wait a minute. Three, no getting involved in big historical events. Four, you. Don't let me abandon you." Rose's heart melted and yet grew cold at the soft, affectionate tone he used. He only used to use that voice with her. "And five-"

The rest of it blurred by as Martha put it in fast forward. "But there was a meteor, a shooting star," she told the screen. "What am I supposed to do then?"

"And twenty three," the Doctor said at normal speed. "If anything happens. If they find us, Martha, you know what to do. Open the watch. Everything I am is kept safe in there. Now, I've put a perception filter on it so the human me won't think anything of it. To him it's just a watch. But don't open it unless you have to. Because once you open it, then the Family will be able to find me. It's all down to you, Martha. Your choice." He went to move off screen, but then stopped and looked back. "Oh, and - thank you."

The screen froze on a still shot of his brilliant adorable grin. The two women just stared at it for a while until the screen faded to black.

"I wish you'd come back," Martha whispered.

"Yeah, me too," Rose agreed. "He'd be able to figure out this ghost problem."

…Then again, were you supposed to feel your heart beating if you were dead? How could she be dead when she felt so alive? And the TARDIS seemed to know she was here.

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After a moment, Martha sighed and looked down at herself. "God I hate 1913," she muttered. "At least the TARDIS has a decent shower… or one at all." And with that, she turned and made her way into the depths of the ship.

Rose followed her a little way. How long had it been for the Doctor? He still looked the same, yet obviously he had moved on. No, she couldn't think like that. It was horrible to think that he was out there along with no one to care for him. He needed someone to hold his hand, to tell him it was going to be okay and make him happy. If she couldn't do that, then she would rather someone else then no one at all.

Although… this Martha did seem to like him a little too much. She knew what that was like.

She stopped when she reached the hallway with the rooms. There only used to be two rooms in here. There had been three when Jack, and then Mickey had joined them. She was somewhat happy to see three rooms there again. Hers was one of them. It hadn't moved.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward… and walked into the door.

"Ow! What?" she said in confusion, rubbing her head. Around her the TARDIS hummed as if she were laughing. It was funny, she only used to get notions of the ships emotions when she first came aboard, then they had been clearer after she looked into her heart. But now it was like she knew exactly what they were. And the TARDIS was definitely laughing at her. "Hey! That's not fair. If I'm a ghost, I should be able to walk through walls and stuff right?"

Still the TARDIS only laughed and sighed fondly. Tentatively, Rose reached out to the handle, expecting her hand to go right through, but instead it met the cool metal. Smiling slightly, she turned the knob and pushed open the door to her room.

"Okay, so I can touch the TARDIS," she said to her self as she stepped in. "Okay, I'm confused. Am I dead or not?" Getting no reply, she just looked about her room. Nothing had changed. Okay, maybe a few things. There was no dust, but that was because the TARDIS kept it that way. Her bed had been made, and then messed up from someone lying on it.

She walked over and ran her hand along the new long imprint on the cover. As she lay down, she could smell something familiar on the pillow. Oh, it was so familiar, and so nice and comfortable. It smelled like the Doctor.

Had he stayed here? On her bed, just lying there, wishing she were still with him? The thought warmed her heart and bought painful tears to her eyes. She couldn't hold them back as everything came crashing down on her. She sobbed into her pillow.

Was she alive or dead? What was happening to her? Why couldn't Martha see her? What about her family? She had no clue what was going on, and she was scared.

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"What the?" Martha's voice came from outside her room. "What's this doing open?" Then the lady was stepping inside. Curiosity burned in her eyes and it soon changed to amusement. "A girls room?" she scoffed. "What's so secret and off limits about a g-" she stopped dead when she saw the photo frame on Rose's bedside table. Sighing, Martha sat down

She sat right on Rose. No, through Rose! She had sat down and gone right through her! Rose jumped up, a panicked scream at her lips. She started patting down her chest, feeling how solid it was. It felt fine. And she hadn't felt anything, no pain, no shiver. It was just as if there had been nothing there. But Martha had gone through her!

Martha hadn't noticed anything at all. She just sat on the bed of a ghost and stared at the picture frame. It was some sort of digital photo frame that did a slideshow of images. She just sat and watched them go by.

The first picture was of the Doctor and a blonde woman. They were both posing for the photo, their arm wrapped tightly around the other. The Doctor was wearing a paper Christmas hat, and though he seemed to be the same age, he somehow looked a lot younger. But it was more than that. He looked… happy. Oh, she'd seen him smile, but never like that.

More pictures flashed up. One of the blonde girl with a similar looking older woman - it must be her mother. One with a man who was devastatingly good looking and had the air about him that he knew it. One with the good looking man and a man with big ears and a leatherjacket sandwiched on either side of her. 'Dumbo' didn't look all too pleased to be in the photo.

But the next photo was just of the girl and Dumbo. They obviously hadn't known about the camera. They looked so happy and silly. The next photo was similar, except the two of them were dancing around the console… they were in the TARDIS?

There was one of the girl and a rather good looking black guy too. And one of her and him with another dark haired girl.

But that was when it moved onto photo's of just the girl and the Doctor. One was a collage of the two of them pulling funny and silly faces, as if they were at a photo booth that took twenty pictures.

The rest were all natural, like they hadn't known about the camera. One, the Doctor sat on a couch, his feet resting on a coffee table. He was grinning over at the girl who was sitting at the other end of the couch with her feet resting on him. Another was of them walking away, their hands entwined and their heads bent together like they were talking about something secret. The next, they had fallen asleep on the library couch. They looked warm in the firelight. A book had fallen to the arm of the couch. The Doctor's head had fallen to the side and was nuzzling into blonde hair, his arms were wrapped around the girl who had fallen asleep on his lap. She was curled into his chest, a small smile on her lips.

And the next was just a photo of the two of them standing, looking at each other. The look was of pure adoration and joy. Just looking at the photo made her feel she was invading on something highly personal. It was clear to anyone looking, that these two were in love.

"So you're Rose," she whispered to the girl in the frame.

Rose blinked. Martha knew who she was? He had talked about her?

Martha looked at the photo. Rose was younger than she had expected. She had expected her to be some big wonderfully beautiful goddess or something. The Doctor had never said as much, but the way he said her name… But she was just a normal pretty young woman… who wore far too much eyeliner. Yes, the girl was pretty. But now she saw the truth. She was just a normal girl - not a goddess with man enchanting powers - that he had fallen for.

She felt bile rising in her throat. It would never be her, would it? She had never seen him look so happy… and so did she. Rose looked unbelievably happy too. How could someone who was that happy and in love just leave?

She noticed that the image hadn't changed in a while and saw her finger was pressing against a button on the side. Pushing another button, a grid of squares came up, showing blurry still shots. When she tapped on one she realised it was a video as it grew to full screen and began to play.

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The image on the screen wobbled and flickered about. "What's this? What's it doing?" asked a rather annoying, high pitched voice.

The camera clunked around as someone moved it to face them. "It's on video," she heard the Doctor's voice.

"Video?" the woman shrieked. "It can film things? A camera with a video? I've heard of them… But they're so expensive! And it's tiny!"

"Yeah, we got one from the future," the Doctor told her, still off screen. "Not that far off actually. Give it a couple of years and everyone will have one of these. Well, we did get this one from 2013. Wanted to get a decent one. Just, don't flash it about too much."

"Here, Rose, can you find out how to turn this off?"

The camera rattled again as it was chucked at someone. But it couldn't muffle a surprised grunt from the Doctor.

"No way in hell I'm turning this off," a cheeky voice giggled quietly. The camera turned and finally stilled on the Doctor being attacked by that older blonde woman. He was sanding stiff as a board, his hands locked into claws as the woman trapped him in a hug and planted kisses all over his face.

"Thank you. Thank you. You daft. Stupid. Alien!" she cried between kisses.

"Gah! Jackie! Jackie, stop! Jackie! Jackie! Please, Jackie!" the Doctor cried as he attempted to fight her off.

A giggling distracted them both and they turned to face the camera and the girl behind it.

"Oh, think this is funny, do-" the Doctor's face fell further and he froze as he saw the camera and its little red light. "Are you…? No!" He finally managed to jump free and he lunged after her. "No! Rose, give me that camera! Rose!"

The screen wobbled as the holder turned-tale and ran. You could just hear the delighted squeal of someone being chased before the image cut out.

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Martha was surprised to find herself giggling. Rose, however, found herself crying. She missed the Doctor so much. And she was never going to see her mum again… And no one could even see her! Was she dead, a ghost, what?

… Should ghosts feel hungry?

Beside her, Martha sighed and put the frame back. "You were so lucky," she whispered. "You were an idiot to give it up."

"I didn't choose this!" she said. "I would have rather died… Well, I got my wish." Dejectedly, she went to the door and opened it. She was starving.

As the door creaked open, Martha looked up in shock. Thinking it was the TARDIS or something, she took the - imagined - hint and left.

?...DW…?

By the time Rose got back to the console room with a plate of her favourite foods, Martha had left. She walked around the console, trailing her hands longingly over the buttons. Oh, she had missed this place. She had missed her home.

She was really curious about what was going on. She was curious about everything. She wanted to know what was happening to her, who this Martha was and what had happened to the Doctor. The first thing, she would probably have to wait until this was all sorted out so that the Doctor could tell her. The second she could find out in time. She could stand waiting. She could just watch Martha. Unlike for Martha, she was actually there. She didn't have to go snooping in her room or something. But the third… the third was fairly simple, wasn't it? There was a video.

Turning the monitor towards her, she sat on the jump seat. The TARDIS automatically played the video for her.

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The Doctor sat down and looked at the screen questioningly. "This working?" he said, tapping the screen. "Martha, before I change, here's a list of instructions for when I'm human. One, don't let me hurt anyone. We can't have that, but you know what humans are like." He waved his hand dismissively and Rose couldn't help but giggle again. "Two, don't worry about the TARDIS. I'll put it on emergency power so they can't detect it. Just let it hide away. Four… no, wait a minute. Three, no getting involved in big historical events. Four, you. Don't let me abandon you. And five, very important, five," he leaned forward and put on a serious face as if to emphasise the point. "Don't let me eat pears. I hate pears. John Smith is a character that I made up, but I won't know that. I'll think I am him, and he might do something stupid like eat a pear! In three months, I don't want to wake up from being human and taste that!"

This part had Rose in silent hysterics. "Six," the Doctor went on. "That watch. It stores my DNA template, memories and everything else that makes me the Doctor. Make sure - it's extremely important - that I don't lose it. I can't change back without it. Erm… now, seven… now I'm not really certain here. I've never done this before, and I only have other's records to go off. But there's a chance that I'll start remembering my life, most likely as dreams. You have to convince me that they don't mean anything."

This made her frown. How horrible it must be to not remember who you really are. To dream of a wonderful, fantastic life that is actually yours, but not quite reach it.

"And eight, please stay out of trouble and refrain from wandering off into trouble…" he seemed to drift off into thought and his expression became sad and fond and wistful. It almost broke her heart. It reminded her of the few times he had spoken of Gallifrey… only worse. She didn't know that, were Martha here, she would recognise the look and know that he was thinking of Rose.

"Nine," he suddenly said far too brightly, trying to snap out of the mood he'd been in. "Just come and check on the TARDIS every now and then. She'll get pretty lonely. Also just make sure that no one's found it. Most people won't notice it, but if there's something different about them, or if they're part of the Family, they might. Ten, whatever you do. Be safe. I won't actually be me, so I can't help you. And… what am I up to? Ah, eleven, I know how scared you're going to be when I change. It's really not a pleasant experience. And I know that it'll probably give you a few reservations about me changing back. Don't worry, it's nothing like that. Won't hurt a bit. Don't ask me how, it just doesn't."

Rose gasped in a tiny breath. It had hurt him to change into a human? And by the look on his face as he said it, she could tell that deep down he was terrified.

"Twelve, no matter what time frame we're in, please try and keep me out of trouble. John Smith will act like everyone else from that time and place, but deep down… way deep down… he's still me. There's probably something there that he'll mess up or get into trouble with…" His face screwed up a moment and he gave a hollow chuckle. "Oh dear, I'm admitting faults here. That says something doesn't it! Anyway, thirteen, bananas! Bananas are good. Wherever we are, please try and find some. I really love bananas; they're a good source of potassium."

Rose smiled as memories came back to her. She sighed in delighted exasperation. Her Doctor and his bananas…

"Fourteen, there may be some people, rather curious people who want to know more about us. People who want to get closer or find something out. You can't trust anyone too much. The Family can change their shape. If people ask too many questions, elude them. Fifteen, you cannot let on to who we really are. I can't know that you're a med student from 2007. And I definitely can't know that I am the Doctor. It could be disastrous and if the Family come, I don't imagine I would react too well. And sixteen, John is going to believe with every fibre of his being that he is John Smith. He's probably going to need convincing to open the watch. But please be nice to him, you'll be tearing his world apart and essentially killing him. Just… be gentle."

Rose's heart really went out to the poor man that the Doctor had become. No memory of who really was. Only dreams, which would cause a normal man of 1913 to believe he were mad. And he would only be around for three months before he would effectively be 'killed'. And poor Martha had to take care of all that!

"Seventeen, try and stay close to me. You'll have to find your own back story that somehow works in with my memories. Try and make sure you're someone I would see everyday. Eighteen… Blimey, are we that high already? Anyway, eighteen, someone is bound to become suspicious of me. You're not all stupid apes, no matter the time frame. If someone catches on, try and lead them away. - Haven't I already said something like that? Oh well, it was a little different, let's just go with it."

Rose rolled her eyes affectionately. "Nineteen, I've already warned you about getting close to people in case it may be the Family trying to hurt you. Now I'm warning you about getting close to people so you don't get hurt, period. I mean, what if you fell in love with some bloke and decided to stay? Then I'd have to find a new companion, and I really hate doing that. Not to mention I'd have to tell your mother, and she'll probably slap me. Seriously! Put your mother and Jackie in a room… No! No, don't do that! Bad. Very bad idea!"

Rose laughed as he shuddered in horror at the thought. What was it with him and mothers?

"Twenty, feel free to use the TARDIS for anything you need, as long as it doesn't arouse suspicion. Or that you don't activate an alert or send yourself somewhere you can't get back from. Only one person has done that with out a manual before… nearly killed her too." He looked down a moment to hide his expression. "But who knows, eh? Twenty-one, you're going to have to blend in. When you find out where we land, you'll have to dress for that time. It just occurred to me that you've never dressed up yet. Little odd that. But the wardrobe is on the first left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, it's the fifth door on your left. Have fun in there."

She hadn't dressed up yet? Really? Rose dressed up her second trip! She loved dressing up as much as the Doctor had loved showing off.

"Twenty-two, this is a very long list. I must keep lists shorter. Keep the sonic and the psychic paper with you, just in case. You might need to try and convince me who I really am. It might help. But make sure that no one else finds it! And twenty three, if anything happens. If they find us, Martha, you know what to do. Open the watch. Everything I am is kept safe in there. Now, I've put a perception filter on it so the human me won't think anything of it. To him it's just a watch. But don't open it unless you have to. Because once you open it, then the Family will be able to find me. It's all down to you, Martha. Your choice." He went to move off screen, but then stopped and looked back. "Oh, and - thank you."

Once again the screen froze on a still shot of his brilliantly adorable grin. The screen faded to black, and Rose sat in shock, staring blankly at the monitor.

From what she could gather, the Doctor had somehow - painfully - turned himself into a human, he was now a man called John Smith, who had no recollection of who he really was, except in dreams that would make him believe he were a madman. And poor Martha was stuck in a time where things were very different to what she was used to, so she could look after him.

And just to throw gasoline on the fire, they were being hunted by shape changing aliens called 'the Family'.

Great. This was just bloody great.

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Rassilon, it's harder than you think to think up 23 rules! (Well, technically 17, but still). The fun part was writing about the digital photo frame.

Know what Rose is yet? Yeah, I'm not to sure either.