The Doctor found himself outside a small cottage. He was definitely in the English countryside. There were green fields for as long as his eyes could see, a small mountain and grey sky.

It was about to rain. He could almost smell it in the air.

A cold breeze took him by surprise. That was strange. He wouldn't say he can't feel temperature changing but he knew himself very well. This kind of weather did not affect him.

Now that he was thinking about it, the humidity and the heat in the Void shouldn't have affected him either. However he had taken off all his clothes except from his T-shirt and trousers.

That was very strange. Should he go back? No, no, no. He wouldn't risk that.

Oh, well, a little bit of cold is fine. Should he die of it he would regenerate. Right?

He hoped so.

"Hey, young man! Where do you think you're going like that?" a man's voice was heard.

The Doctor turned around and saw an old man standing in front of the cottage's door.

An old man! Another being! Finally, someone!

"It's no time to walk around in a T-shirt! Jesus Christ, in the middle of November, these kids today." The old man added. He had a rather heavy accent. Scottish? Probably.

"Sorry, sir, I have no clothes. Would you be so kind as to give me a jacket?" the Doctor said.

The old man frowned. "You look too stupid to be a thief. Ok, come in." he said and got inside the house.

"Stupid? That's new." The Doctor said and followed him inside.

The house was nice and warm. It had a fireplace in the corner, a wooden table, a small kitchen across the room and a door leading probably to the bedrooms and bathroom.

"Sit." The old man said offering him a chair.

"Tea?" he asked and the Doctor nodded. He put the kettle on and left.

"I'm going to get you some clothes, watch the kettle." He told the Doctor.

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir." The Doctor said as the door was closing behind the old man.

Yes, sir, thank you, sir? Where did that come from?

A moment later the old man returned with a suit.

" I thought you would like to change full, son. I don't know what you were in your town, but here silver shiny trousers are not welcomed." He said giving him the suit.

What the…

Rassilon!

That was his suit! His favorite striped, blue suit!

"Excuse me, sir, where did you find this suit?" the Doctor asked.

"It's mine; I have it since … I don't know, ever. Why, is there a problem?" the man asked.

"No, not at all, it's just that I have one like that, back home. It's strange." The Doctor said.

"Not strange at all. There must be thousands of them around the globe, son. Bathroom's on your right." The old man said pointing the door.

The Doctor changed and came back just on time for tea.

"Here." The old man said and gave him a cup of tea.

"Thanks." He replied.

"Now, tell me what the hell where you thinking going out like that." The old man asked him.

"Long story." The Doctor said.

"I haven't spoken to a living person for quite a time, boy. I have more than plenty of time to listen your story." The old man said.

The Doctor looked at him. Could it be a Void's test? Could this old man be a creation of the Gallifrean prison? Everything looked so innocent, so real. Well, of course, the Architect would make nothing less than perfect. One mistake and this old man would suck the life out of him.

Oh, Doctor you're being paranoid! Look at him! He's an old man! Just a man.

The suit could be a coincidence. Couldn't be?

"Well…" the Doctor said. Let's go with it. A little bit a danger never harmed anyone.

"I was supposed to go to a party." The Doctor said.

"That explains the clothing. Young men dress weird these days." The old man said and took a zip from his tea.

"No, actually I was wearing a quite nice suit. Shirt, waist coat, jacket, my wife had bought it, my son had a similar one." the Doctor said.

"Where are they now?" the old man asked.

"Uhm, I forgot them in the car. They got all greasy when I tried to fix It." the Doctor answered.

"I didn't mean the clothes! I meant your wife and kid." The old man said.

"Oh, uhm, home." The Doctor said and took a zip from his tea. Home, far, far away.

"We had a fight and I… left." He told the old man.

"Leaving is never a good tactic. Listen to me, son, for as long as I was with my wife I always wanted to run. Run, run far away and return when I would be ready. There are times I think I never actually stopped running. There are times I think she knew that." The old man said.

"Where is your wife now?" the Doctor asked him.

"She died long ago. There are times I think she's by my side and I talk to her. I even see her some times." The old man answered.

"I'm sorry." The Doctor said.

"That's life, my boy. Time is cruel to us all, but something tells me your story is not over. It had to be quite a fight to make you leave." The old man said.

The Doctor took a look at his shoes.

"No, it was a stupid fight, about my shoes." He said.

The old man looked at the Doctor's shoes. "They are quite ridiculous." He said.

"No, they are not!" the Doctor said offended. "They are really comfortable, especially when it comes to running. You never know what is going to happen." The Doctor said trying to defend his Converse.

"But it was not just that. I had taken my son for a… walk, we came back a little tired, a little late, there was no time for a full time shower!" the Doctor added.

The old man looked at him without speaking.

"I guess it was not even that. We both knew it was a stupid reason. I suppose we could not take it anymore. So many fights, so much whining. I don't know what happened to us. We've been through so much to be together and we blew It." the Doctor said and ran a hand through his hair.

"Fights are part of a couple's life." The old man said.

"Did you and your wife fight?" the Doctor asked. It felt strange. Here he was, a genius asking advice from a man who's probably not real and way younger from him. His eighty years could not even compete his nine hundred plus years. Yet he felt so young and inexperient at the moment.

"Not often and usually it was for something I had done." The old man answered.

"We didn't use to fight at all until we moved in with her mother. God, that woman never liked me." The Doctor said making the old man laugh.

"No, really, the first time she met me she slapped me!" the Doctor said.

"Even though I have no such experience I'm sure she had her reasons." The old man said laughing.

"Well, yeah, actually they had told her I was really dangerous and that I would hurt Martha." The Doctor said.

"Martha." The old man repeated. Mostly to himself. The Doctor looked at the old man.

"Yes, Martha, does it sound familiar?" the Doctor asked the old man. The old man did not answer.

"Was it your wife's name?" he asked again, afraid of the answer. The Void could play hard games on you.

"No, no." the old man said. "A friend's name, dear friend, she died not long ago." The old man said.

Something was going on. Sure one is sad when his friends pass away but the man was about to break down!

"Are you ok?" he asked him. The old man nodded and drank some tea.

"She must have been very important to you." The Doctor said spotting a calendar on the opposite wall.

The Date was November the 20th 1979. His brain was spinning a hundred times per sec.

He didn't remember this date. It had nothing to do with that particular time or place. It was something else. Something he was afraid to admit.

"She was with me all her life." The old man said. "But let's not bother you with that stuff; tell me about your problems. So your mother in law had a good reason to slap you." The old man said trying to change his mood.

"Yes, she did." The Doctor said thinking he could ask him later about his Martha friend. "But even when I saved them all she still didn't like me." The Doctor added.

The old man raised his eyebrows.

"Ok, maybe she had a point there too; after all it's not so easy to spend a year in captivity while your daughter is out walking all around the world to save the planet." The Doctor said.

"Wars are the plague of this planet. Believe me, I was a teacher in a military school and those killed were much more than those that took a metal." The old man said.

He was a teacher in a military school. He had a friend named Martha. He was around eighty. Oh, God…

"So which was it?" the old man asked before the Doctor could open his mouth.

"Excuse me?" the Doctor asked.

"In which war were you?" the old man asked.

"Somewhere in Africa;" the Doctor said.

"So, you're a military." The old man said.

"Nah, it's not my stuff, that's more like Martha. Yes, she is a true soldier, but we're both doctors." The Doctor said.

"My wife was a nurse." The old man said. That was it. The final blow. 1939 was going all around the Doctor's mind in big flashing numbers.

This man was him! In some parallel universe at least, or in a universe the Void created, or in universe his mind had made. The possibilities were endless but the facts were too many to be just a coincidence.

The question was why was he there? Did the prison wanted to play with his mind or was that door leading to a parallel universe? Because if it was the second his TARDIS should be there somewhere.

"Do you have a blue police box?" the Doctor asked out of the blue.

"No, how did you think that? The nearest town is miles away, how should I have something like that? I barely have a phone!" the old man said laughing.

Ok, let's not loose hope; probably Martha hid the TARDIS somewhere safe.

"Could you tell me more about that friend of yours?" the Doctor asked the old man.

The man's face became darker. "Let's not talk about things that are unpleasant." He said.

"Why? You listen to my problems; I want to return the favour." The Doctor said greening widely.

"You remind me of my son, you know young man?" He said.

"Don't you tell your son everything?" the Doctor asked.

"He tells me everything too." The old man replied.

"Ok, one to one, then. You start, I have told most of my story." The Doctor said. He had to find out where his TARDIS was; if it existed at all at that world.

"I was really sad when Martha died. More than I was for my wife. When Joan died it felt only natural. People get old and they die, that's how the story goes. She was seventy years old with a lot of problems but when Martha died… for some reason I felt responsible. It didn't feel right, like …"

"Like she didn't belong here." The Doctor finished the old man's sentence.

The man did not respond. He seemed lost. The Doctor understood him completely. He had trapped her out of her timeline, making her leave a life she was not meant for, she didn't deserve and he had no idea.

"My turn now." The Doctor said to catch his attention again.

"Yes, your mother in law." The old responded and the Doctor continued.

"All in all we didn't go well until Martha and I got together and I admit I might have my share on that but since we moved to her house things got a lot worse."

"What do you mean? Why did you move?" the old man asked him.

"Well, let's say our home was not suitable for a baby."

"Why didn't you get another house?"

"We were out of money, my wife quit her job and mine is kind of voluntary." The Doctor said.

"I thought you were doctors." The old man said.

«I am a volunteer doctor at war zones, Martha worked for the government."

"Why did she leave?"

"They send her in a lethal mission she wasn't supposed to take. She almost die, I almost lost her. No, I wouldn't let her go back there again, never! If I could I would burn the whole agency down!" the Doctor said hitting the table.

"Easy, tiger, I have no other table." The old man said.

"I'm sorry; I just get angry thinking of it. So, no job, no money, no money, no home. It was really difficult for her to find a job, any job and the one she has now does not pay well, not yet, not for so long working hours."

"What are you doing? Why aren't you working? I'm sure the world can survive without you for a day, hero." The old man said.

The Doctor smiled. If only he knew, if he remembered…

"Nah, you wouldn't get through the day without me. Now, don't you trick me, I told you how we ended up in Francine's, now it's your turn." The Doctor said.

"Francine, this sounds familiar. Anyway, I knew Martha since she was a little girl. She was our servant's daughter, destined to be a servant too." The old man said.

"Do you have memories of her as a child?" the Doctor asked.

"Strangely, no, but I am an old man and my memory is weak. She would follow me anywhere. She came with me when I got the job at the military school, she even followed me here, in Scotland when I got married, and when Joan died she was there to help me."

"She was very loyal. Didn't she get married?" the doctor asked even though he thought he knew the answer.

"There were many young men that came to me to ask for her hand but she would always send them away. She was a very beautiful young woman." He said and pointed at a picture on the fireplace.

It was Martha, in a servant's suit, smiling rather sadly.

"I never thought of her as an equal to tell you the truth until we came here. She was like a ghost to me most of the times, being there but not being there. I wasn't really seeing her but I was relying on her."

"I know how that feels." The Doctor said behind his teeth.

"The worst thing I did though was when I allowed other people to treat her like she was… nothing. It was usual in that time to treat colored people like that, but I should not have let it happen. After all I was a professor." The old man said.

"But things changed when you came here. Really, why did you move?" the Doctor asked him.

"Something strange was happening at the school. People went missing, killed, then the war started, it wasn't safe anymore."

"And you left, just like that." The Doctor said trying to understand what had happened with his ship.

"Not exactly. Things had gone out of control, we were afraid to go out of our rooms. Martha didn't want us to leave, she was saying something about a watch, a Tamis, no Janis, no…"

"TARDIS." The Doctor said.

"Yes, how did you know it?" the old man said.

"Just lucky." The Doctor said grinning foolishly. They were getting somewhere. "So what happened?" he added.

"Joan told me to take her to a mental house"

"What?" the Doctor yelled. The Joan he remembered wasn't like that.

"You have to understand, my young friend, she was saying irrational things about aliens killing the people in the school and that I was the only one I could stop them! She was even saying she was from another timeline, that she was a doctor. We meant only her health." The old man said.

That was ridiculous! They couldn't have put Martha to a mental house.

"Did you do it?"

"No and I am glad I didn't." the old man said. The Doctor looked at him. Deep down inside he must have known that she was right. There must have been a part of him that understood all that.

"So?" the Doctor said more interested in the story now than his ship.

"I think I've said enough for now, I want to hear the rest of your amusing story." The old man said changing the subject.

Not so amusing if you actually knew what had happened.

"Where was I?"

"You moved in with your wife's mother."

"Oh, yes, well as I said things between Francine and me were never ideal but at first I think we did well. Of course I can still feel her eyes stabbing me but real trouble started when Martha got a job. Several actually.

At first she worked as a waitress, then as a saleswoman, she changed several jobs, she even did two jobs at a time but money was never enough. Her mother would whine and yell at me that I am out all day long, going on trips while her daughter was killing herself at work." The Doctor said.

"Well, she had a point. Don't take this wrong, what you're doing is really noble and heroic, but a family has actual needs." The old man said.

"I know that! But what I do I do it for them. You have no idea what I've seen, what I've been through all these years, how many times I have found no meaning in what I do, but now, oh, now it's the time that I try a zillion times more." The Doctor said.

"Did you tell your wife that?"

"I don't have to, she knows that, she understands me, or at least she used to. She was standing up for me when her family doubted me. She was always by my side."

"What changed?" the old man asked him.

"I don't know, we all pushed it too much. She got a job at a hospital as an external assistant, long working hours not enough money. I got involved in a really tough case; agents were coming by making our life even harder, we were both missing our son's best moments, we were missing our moments!" the Doctor said.

"It takes a lot of patience, son, to make it work."

"I know it and it just wasn't us. We are both very patient people and we have gone through worst but… I don't know, that night everything went bad." The Doctor said.

"Do you want to tell me what happened that night?" the old man asked.

The Doctor nodded. "After a silent fight I had with Francine, I decided to spend more time with my son. So I left the world alone for a day and took my boy for a small…uhm, trip. Unfortunately it was the same day as Martha's hospital reception party. She had told me more than once that morning that it was really important to go and look nice because the Principal of the Hospital would be there and she was first in the list to get promoted and have an actual job. She told me again and again but I forgot it. We were having such a good time, we came back a little late and it was the first time I was actually tired! That kid is amazing. We might have fallen asleep a little bit, and maybe we woke up by Martha's car. We took a super fast shower, and got dressed as fast as we could but apparently it wasn't enough."

"Women, always want everything to be perfect." The old man commended.

"No, Martha is not like that. Actually I believe that she would have absolutely no problem to go a little bit later. I don't know what got into me; maybe I didn't want to disappoint her one more time."

"Well, that didn't go very well of what I get."

"No, she started yelling for no reason; I yelled back, we both said things we didn't actually mean, I might have said something that really hurt her. Trying to save it was a bad idea; I opened the door and just left." The Doctor said and ran a hand through his hair. "I shouldn't have. I should have stayed calmed, I knew things were tensed, she didn't even meant to fight, she probably had a really bad day at work." He added barring his head in his hands and kneeling over the table.

The old man did not speak. The Doctor stayed that way for a few moments, pictures going through his head. Things were starting to clear up now; he was starting to understand; he just needed one more piece to complete the puzzle.

"Sorry for that, I'm not myself lately. So, I told you my story, now finish yours." The Doctor said.

"We moved here, in the nearest town. Joan and I found a job at the local school. Martha never stopped claiming her story was true even though she stopped having crises. There were nights she would tell her stories to my children and I would stop and listen as I was passing by. Stories about a planet where the sky was orange and the grass was red, about a man that used to save the world every day, about the future." The old man said.

"The future?"

"Yes, she had told me about the war, what would happen, every single thing."

"Didn't you think that her stories might be true?" the Doctor asked him. The old man's face was an answer all by itself.

"You did, didn't you?" the Doctor said grinning.

"I had a dream once, that I was burning inside out. I told Martha and at first she looked very happy. She said it was a memory, that maybe I didn't need the watch after all, that she would go back. She looked so happy, but then her face fell. She couldn't make me abandon my family. She left and came here, in this house in the middle of nowhere." The man said on the verge of crying.

"She left to give you a normal life." The Doctor explained.

"I know that, I just regret I didn't give her a normal life. I had my kids, I saw them grow, having other kids, I had Joan, friends, colleagues and she was here all alone, denying me to visit her. When Joan left, I came here and she told me all about the planets we had saved, the people we had met, and our trips together. Just before she died she gave me this." The old man said and got a watch out of his pocket.

"She had found it, just after she left us. She said that I could do whatever I wanted now, stay here or leave."

"She gave you a choice." The Doctor said.

"Yes, but she left me and now I am all by my shelf." The old man said looking at the Doctor.

The Doctor looked back at him and Time seemed to freeze for a moment. The old man's face changed from sadness, to curiosity, surprise, realization and just when he was ready to speak the Doctor jumped off his seat and ran to the door.

"Don't be silly, John, you're not by yourself, you have the biggest family in the universe!" he said grinning goofily.

He understood now. He understood everyone and everything.

He understood Martha's family and mostly Francine that she was worried about her daughter and all she wanted was her to be happy.

He understood Martha. She was trying really hard; she was sacrificing her needs and wants to keep everybody else happy.

He understood himself. He was feeling trapped and guilty about the mess in their lives.

Calm, domestically life was not for them. They were wild, they were fighters, they loved to be in action, to save the universe. They had lived so many things that they couldn't just forget about it and be like everybody else.

Because they weren't like everybody else.

They were Martha and the Doctor and that had such a special meaning.

He waved towards John Smith and ran out of the door.


Coming up next, chapter 4 and the Second door.