The Doctor is taking care of the terrified Alain, and Martha has just seen the demise of Alain's unfortunate boyfriend, Gregoire. She also met the illustrious Jean-Marc, whose sexual terrorism (for lack of a better term!) seems remarkably familiar.

Remember the couple had invited Gregoire's persistent ex to join them in the bedroom, so that Alain could experience the magic of Jean-Marc. And, well, things went awry. Poor Gregoire.

Here we go! Enjoy! :-)

SIX

Just when Alain was getting to the "horrifying" part of his story, the Doctor's eye was caught, for the second time that evening, by Martha Jones coming through a doorway. This time, she was exiting the hotel into which she had disappeared a few moments before.

"Uh-oh," the Doctor said, seeing her.

Alain turned and looked at her, then asked, "Uh-oh, what? What's that mean?"

The Doctor knew that Martha had gone upstairs to help an "injured" Gregoire, and that his "injury" was probably fairly gory… the fact that she wasn't rushing about was a bad sign.

"Oh, don't worry just now… finish the story. How exactly did it become horrifying?"

Alain gulped. "Well, Jean-Marc and I were… you know, with each other for a bit, and Gregoire watched. We do that sometimes. It was, like… explosive, you know? I was thinking, 'I get it now – I get the Jean-Marc hype.' It's hard to describe."

"I don't think you need to," the Doctor told him.

"But as amazing as it was, I guess, in hindsight, it did sort of seem like Jean-Marc was just trying to finish with me as soon as possible so he could get to Gregoire. And that's exactly what happened."

"He turned toward Gregoire," the Doctor said. By then, Martha had reached them in mid-plaza, and had a forlorn look on her face. She and the Doctor exchanged a meaningful look, and she had oh-so-subtly shaken her head to indicate that Gregoire hadn't made it through.

"He turned toward Gregoire," Alain echoed. "And they were together for a bit, while I watched. And I gotta say, even watching Jean-Marc was somehow amazing. I was just starting to think who is this guy? What planet is he from? when he got this predatory look on his face. At first, I just thought that's what he's like, you know? He's a fiend. He's an animal. He's insatiable… it's kind of hot. But then…"

There was a long pause while the Doctor and Martha waited.

"But then," Alain continued. "He attacked Gregoire, and… oh God, you're going to think I've lost my mind."

"No," the Doctor said earnestly. "I said I wouldn't, and I meant it."

"Jean-Marc's mouth opened up like… I don't know what. Like a snake, you know, how their jaw can unhinge and swallow a fucking rat? Like one of those fish whose mouth is the size of their whole body?"

"I see," the Doctor said, sombrely.

"It was like his head turned inside-out, and he became... I don't know. Something else. He was trying to swallow Gregoire's whole head," Alain continued. "But he kind of missed, and Gregoire screamed and squirmed away, but the next thing I knew there was blood spurting everywhere and Gregoire was writhing on the floor."

"Then what happened?" the Doctor asked.

"I started yelling," Alain said, tears streaming down his face, his voice having faded to an appalled whisper. "It was sickening. I was terrified. And then Jean-Marc tried to go for him again, and his mouth did that thing again, where it opens like it wants to swallow…" Alain stopped, and shuddered.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said. "Please continue if you can."

"Well, I somehow found the wherewithal to get between them, even though I thought Jean Marc might try to bite my head off, too."

"But he didn't have any interest in you," the Doctor surmised.

"No, weirdly," said Alain. "He tried again to go after Gregoire, but I kept getting between them, and finally, Jean-Marc got really frustrated and left. And that's when I came running down the stairs."

Martha's eyes were wide as saucers at this revelation. Then she said, "I met Jean-Marc."

"You did?" asked the Doctor and Alain simultaneously.

"Yes."

"Are you okay?" asked the Doctor.

"I'm fine," she reported. "He didn't have any interest in me, either. I reckon it's not just because I'm a woman."

"It was Gregoire he wanted," Alain said. "Gregoire specifically. Is he going to be okay?"

"I'm afraid not," Martha said, gently.

"Oh my God," Alain said, breathlessly. "Do you mean he's dying? Can I at least say goodbye?"

"He's already gone. I'm sorry. He lost so much blood…"

Tears had been coming copiously for a few minutes, and now Alain gave a proper sob. "Fuck! I'm such a coward! Such a coward!"

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"I left him! I ran away!"

"You did what you had to."

"And he died all on his own, in a hotel room…"

"No," Martha reassured him. "He did not die all on his own. I was there. I was tending to him. He was not alone. I mean, I'm a stranger, but I'm better than no-one right?"

"Thank you," Alain choked, before repeating. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'll have to tell his dad. I'll have to tell… everyone! What do I say? What the fuck do I say?"

From there, the man collapsed into tears of grief, fear, anger. He leaned against the Doctor, and just sobbed.

"We need to talk," he said to Martha, while he tried to comfort Alain. "ASAP."

The Doctor had given Alain a pair of his blue pin-striped trousers, and one of his burgundy t-shirts. He reckoned, if the man was going to talk to the police, he was going to need some clothing, and the Doctor really didn't have time to go diving into the large wardrobes in the backwaters of the TARDIS. So he'd grabbed what was handy.

Alain was muscular, and a little thicker round the middle than the Doctor, so the trousers zipped but didn't button, and the t-shirt fit him like second skin, but the grieving man didn't notice at all. He sombrely thanked the Doctor, and sat down on the sofa in the lobby of the hotel, while Martha called the police.

The three of them had already worked out "feasible" story that Alain could tell to the police. They all knew that Alain himself would be the prime suspect for a while, and that the woman at the front desk would report having seen the Doctor and Martha, but by then, they would be long gone and virtually untraceable. But Alain's story did not include them, and they all thought that was best.

"Unless you get into a bind, that is," Martha qualified. "But you can just tell them that you're the one who applied the pillowcase bandage to Gregoire's wound."

What actually happened didn't much matter, considering they were dealing with a non-human. "I reckon he'll be leaving the planet ASAP. Or shape-shifting, or teleporting to Guam or some such, before they can catch him," the Doctor said a bit later. He pulled the TARDIS door shut, locked it.

"We still didn't stop the thing that's beheading people," Martha said, making her way up the ramp. "Couldn't save Gregoire, traumatised Alain..."

"We'll be able to save the next victim," the Doctor said, hurrying up past her. He threw the TARDIS into gear, and the vessel began to move.

"You've already got another alert?" she asked, sensing his urgency, and that he had a specific destination in mind.

"Not exactly," he said. "I've got a story to tell you about Jean-Marc."

"Jean-Marc the head-hunter."

"Yeah, but first, Martha, you have to finish telling me about Sylvie and Tom."

"What, now?"

"Yes," he said. "Why did they break up?"

"Erm… basically, she became abusive."

"How?"

"Her sexual tastes began to run to violent," Martha said. "She started with S&M – emphasis on the S – and spiralled out of control within a month."

"Over a month, she got remarkably more aggressive?"

"Yes," Martha said. "Tom went along with it for a bit, even though it made him nervous. She kept testing his trust – tying him down, blindfolding him, seeing how hard he'd let her hit him with a riding crop."

"And what brought it all to a peak?"

"She wanted to try erotic asphyxiation on him," Martha said, looking furrowed and worried.

"Strangling him during sex," he sighed.

"She kept telling him she wouldn't go too far, that the orgasm would be unbelievable, but he wouldn't let her."

"I can't say I blame him. And mind you, I've got a respiratory bypass."

"Then one night, he woke up, and she was on top of him, choking him."

"Lovely."

"She was naked, trying to get him aroused…"

"And that's what he meant when he said, if he'd done something like that to her, he'd be in prison," the Doctor commented, nodding.

"Yep. Come to that, why isn't she in prison for that? Blimey."

"She wanted something from him, and must've known she couldn't overpower him, so tried to weaken him with asphyxiation," he mused. "Tried to have sex with him while he was incapacitated so that he couldn't fight her off."

"But he did fight her off. He pushed her onto the floor, and that's when the screaming and yelling and tears began. And... they broke up that night… though…"

"Though?"

"Though it wasn't the last time she got to him in his sleep."

"How do you mean?"

"He said he tried to resist her in the jungle, but he woke up in the middle of the night and she was…"

He waited for her to finish, but then reckoned it didn't matter. "Doing something he hadn't asked for?"

"Yeah. But at least wasn't being violent."

"Back down from the rough stuff, return to her usual m.o. and get to him while he's unconscious. That must've been the only way she could get him to feed her."

"Excuse me? Feed her? Sorry, Doctor, but that's the most disgusting way I've ever heard it put."

"No, I don't mean… that. I mean, it was the only way she could get him involved in a sexual relationship again," he said, beginning to talk very quickly. "He was engaged to you, wanted to be faithful, yeah? So she played dirty, because she had to have him. And it had to be him."

"What the hell are you on about?"

"His signature must have faded, and she needed to work at him again," he went on. "She needed to be fed… like, another series of top-ups after being thwarted…"

"Doctor!" she yelled.

"Mm? Yes? What? Oh! Sorry!"

"What the hell, Doctor?"

"Martha, Jean-Marc is just like Sylvie."

He expected her to protest, but she did not.

Her mouth and eyes opened wide, and she stared at a spot just past him for a long few seconds, and then breathed, "Oh, my God."

"Alain told me the story of Gregoire and Jean-Marc," the Doctor said. "And it sounded awfully familiar."

"An oddly alluring person…" she said, absently, thinking only now of the creepy similarities between Sylvie and Jean-Marc, however briefly she'd met them both.

"Correction: an oddly alluring being, who zeroes in on a human, blows their mind sexually, and gets them addicted. Eventually they slip up, get too voracious, scare the pants off the human, so they get pushed away and resisted…"

"…but they keep coming back?" Martha asked.

"Yes," the Doctor said. "They must need to be fed with a single human energy signature over time, so it can mix with theirs and they can continue to appear human, and… well, there are other ways to do it, but sex is the easiest."

"Is it?"

"It is," he confirmed. "And the most fun. Because, repeated electrocutions do not foster good relationships - you pretty much have to hold the human hostage long-term, and that attracts attention from families and police and whatnot. A Kyronian energy converter would be spotted immediately... by everyone, including CERN. Can't transfer humans once a week to a different planet for an interface, so…"

"They hit below the belt."

"Yep," he said, popping the p. "All of the victims in India were found…"

"…in bed."

"Not necessarily, but always in some state of undress or another. And I'll bet you if we took a look at the pathology report, we'd find that they died mid-shag."

Martha was still lost in thought. She shook her head in disbelief. "She tracked him across the bloody continent, and then onto another."

"I'm not sure of the species yet, but it must have not only the ability to absorb and use a human energy signature, but also to detect it, once it's internalised it. Jean-Marc did the same to Gregoire."

"Are all of them… French?"

"French? Martha, they're not even human. They probably just have a nest or something, based in France, probably here in the south somewhere."

"Should I feel better or worse that Tom's crazy ex is an alien?"

"Oi," the Doctor said. "So's yours."

"We have to go find her, don't we?"

"I'm afraid so. Where do we start?

She sighed. "I think we both know the answer to that question."

And now begins the hunt for Sylvie. The woman who disgusted and repelled them both is now the object of their search. How do they find her? What would she be doing right now?

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