Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction story and not written for any financial gain of any kind. All rights to Doctor Who and any associated material belong to the BBC and any other affiliated entities. Thanks. Also, the story of Lady Silverhair comes from Neverwinter Nights 2, which is the property of Atari, Obsidian, Wizards of the Coast and any other involved parties.
A/N: OK, if you've read this far you know that this is a blatant Super!Martha fic, nd is a Martha/10th Doctor romance. Please hit the back button if either of these things offends you. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, it means a lot to me. Thank you also to Haleine Delail for being a source of great inspiration and great stories!
This is now the edited version, beta read by the brilliant Persiflage - thanks for all your hard work!
Part Seven: Planet of the Ood
"He who is brave is free."
Seneca
Martha
For the three living on board the TARDIS, life had not been very easy just lately. For Donna's first trip the Doctor had suggested they go to Ancient Rome. Unfortunately, the coordinates had been off and they'd landed in Pompeii.
They arrived – in Pompeii – just twenty four hours before Vesuvius was supposed to blow and the Doctor's refusal to interfere and stop the destruction of the city caused a rift to form between him and Donna. As for Martha, well, she could identify with both points of view, and could see why each of them felt so strongly that they were right.
The human who still lived in Martha agreed with Donna that the eruption was a tragedy, but the celestial in her also had the long view, similar to the Doctor's, and knew that some things just had to be. They could not be changed, they could not be undone. They just were.
Things had deteriorated between them pretty quickly, with one or the other trying to get her to take a side, but she adamantly refused to. Part of her thought they were being ridiculously childish, and accused them of belittling the deaths of twenty thousand people with their bickering. But again, she could relate. By focussing on the little things they could pretend not to notice the awful truth which hung in the air.
They'd left the TARDIS behind a curtain in a market place, and when the stall holder decided to sell it and they'd gone to Fosse Street – where the purchaser purportedly lived – to try and get it back, one whiff of the so-called 'vapours' coming through the grate in the Caecilian household set Martha's eyes ablaze.
Donna and the Doctor had told her what had happened from their point of view. She had stood transfixed for a moment, before her eyes glowed and she hissed. Just like a cat, and growled out one word. "Pyrovile!"
Examination of her inherited memories told her that Lady Silverhair had come across them before, when they were trying to conquer Abeir-Toril. She had led an army of elves, dwarves and elementals against them, using bow, axe and ice to subdue them. It hadn't stopped them from murdering thousands, as they had worked in secret for years, taking over the bodies of those they had duped into believing that they were gods. But they were eradicated from the planet in the end, and were the sworn enemies of all Abeir-Torillians.
She told the Doctor and Donna all of this, and offered the theory that the Pyroviles were up to the same tricks here on Earth. They were interrupted by the arrival of a guest, a man named Lucius Dextrus, who was introduced as the city's Chief Augur.
The daughter of the household, Evelina was also a seer, and the two of them practically competed as they tried to out-predict each other. They'd sussed the Doctor and Donna pretty quickly, but she herself gave them a little trouble.
"You too are a daughter of London, no you are a daughter of – why are you – you shine, you radiate, you are..." Lucius had stopped here, clutching his head, unable to bear looking at her.
"You are the Moon," Evelina said, and Martha had answered, "No, not quite, but you're close, I'll give you that."
Later, they had discovered that the Pyroviles intended on assimilating everyone on the planet and turning them into Pyroviles. The only way to stop them was to cause Vesuvius to erupt and kill twenty thousand people.
Donna, at the last minute, had persuaded the Doctor to save Caecilius and his family, and the seven of them stood on the high hills and watched Pompeii being destroyed.
When they had left, in the TARDIS, the Doctor just let them float in the Vortex. They all made for their bedrooms, needing some time to think. In the privacy of their own bedroom, the Doctor clung to Martha and cried.
For the next several days, he awoke in the night, covered in cold sweat, calling out for absolution, unable to accept the choice he had made. Martha held him, listened to him and let him mourn. She mourned too, they had pushed the lever which set off the explosion together. But for the Doctor, the pain was so much more intense, because it was so similar to what he had done in order to end the Time War.
They weren't alone with their pain though. A couple of nights, it had been too much for Donna as well, and the three of them had slept side by side in Martha and the Doctor's bed, taking comfort from each other, just by being close to each other.
They grew closer together emotionally as well, during those long days. The Doctor confessed that he saw Donna as a sister. Sometimes, despite the age difference, he felt like she was his big sister. Martha admitted that she too felt the same way. They all had a good laugh when Donna said they were both so nutty that even she would have disowned them if they were her family.
It had been just what they needed.
Things got better, they did. But Martha knew that the events in Pompeii would never leave them. In time though, they were ready to move on, to go somewhere new. So, with that in mind, the Doctor had set the controls to random and away they went.
As they got thrown about during the flight, all three of the just let go and enjoyed it – laughing and rolling about, they whooped as they felt themselves land.
The weather outside wasn't ideal, but the view was spectacular. Both Martha and Donna felt the need to go back for warm coats, and though they knew they looked slightly comical with their big faux fur lined hoods at least they were warm.
A rocket passed overhead while they were talking, and Donna was desperate to go and have a look at it. Martha could understand why, it looked like the sort of thing you would see in cartoons and such. They set off in the direction it had gone, crossing ravines and the like on the way. When they reached a large snowdrift, both she and the Doctor stopped abruptly.
They could hear a noise, coming from nearby, it sounded like a song. Donna couldn't hear it, but dutifully followed as the two of them tried to find where it was coming from.
They discovered a stricken life form, half covered in snow, and badly wounded. They examined him, trying to see if there was anything they could do.
"What is it?" Donna asked as Martha knelt down beside it. She held her hand out and the Doctor automatically passed her his stethoscope.
"It's an Ood, it's called an Ood," He explained and Donna stared at it.
"But its face!" she protested.
"Donna don't, not now – it's a he, not an it," the Doctor scolded and Donna looked appropriately sheepish.
"Come here, give us a hand," Martha said, looking over her shoulder. She was pressing the stethoscope to the Ood's chest but she didn't know where his heart was or if he even had one. She took the stethoscope off and handed it back to the Doctor. She pressed her palms to his chest instead and used her power to scan him.
"He's been shot," she told Donna and the Doctor. Sadly, there was nothing she could do, there was just too much damage. She removed her hands and shook her head sadly at the Doctor.
Donna had been talking to the Ood, who had introduced himself as designated 'Delta-Fifty'. The only other thing he said was, 'The circle must be broken'. When the Doctor tried to press him on what he meant by that, his eyes had turned red and he'd lashed out at them. A moment later, he was dead.
Donna asked if they should bury him, but there was no need, the snow would take care of it. So, Donna closed his eyes and they left.
As they were walking, heading the same way as before, the Doctor told them about the time when he had met the Ood before. It was when they had been being controlled by the Devil. Donna didn't believe him, but having heard this story before, Martha knew it was true.
He explained that they were mildly telepathic, which in turn explained the song that he and Martha could hear. Donna said she didn't hear anything, but did not question why Martha had and not her – because she already knew the answer.
During their talks while they recovered from the events in Pompeii, the truth about Martha and what she was had been explained to Donna. She had been expecting fear, or ridicule, or anything in between as a reaction, but Donna had been nonchalance itself.
"Well, it explains why you and space-man go so well together," was all she had said, and that had been that.
They had spied some kind of installation in the distance, and decided to go down and check it out.
When they got there they found an Asian looking woman was greeting a crowd of people. They hurriedly joined in, eager to know what was going on.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ood Sphere, and isn't it bracing? Here are your information packs with vouchers, 3-d tickets and maps of the complex. My name's Solana, Head of Marketing I'm sure we've all spoken on the vid phone, now if you'd like to follow me – "
Here she was interrupted by the Doctor, "Sorry. Sorry, sorry, we're late, don't mind us."
"And you'd be?" she asked, and the Doctor held up the psychic paper.
"I'm Doctor Smith, she's Doctor Jones, and this is Donna Noble."
"Representing the Noble Corporation Plc Limited Intergalactic," Donna added. The Doctor's smile hardened a little.
"Must have fallen off my list, won't happen again," Solana said, as she gestured to a nearby Ood, who promptly handed her a clear plastic folder. "Here are you information packs, vouchers inside. Now, if you'd like to come with me, the executive suites are nice and warm."
A siren went off just as she'd opened the door, but Solana dismissed it as a notice that the work shift was due to change. When they got inside, she gave them a presentation on the Ood and what their company, Ood Operations, had to offer.
When she was finished, the three of them went to the screen she had been using which the Doctor then activated, wanting to see where exactly they were. He also discovered when they were, the year 4126, which Donna had a hard time getting her head round.
When he showed them how the humans had spread over three galaxies, she also asked what Martha thought was a rather poignant question, "Are we explorers, or more like a virus?"
"Sometimes, I wonder," the Doctor told her, and reached an arm out to pull Martha closer.
"So, what are those red dots?" Martha asked.
"Ood distribution centres," he explained.
"Don't the Ood get say in this?" Donna wanted to know. She made her way over to an Ood who was standing nearby and tried to get his attention. "Excuse me, hello! Tell me, are you all like this?"
"I do not understand, miss," the Ood replied and Donna frowned.
"Why'd you say miss, do I look single?" she retorted and Martha smothered a chuckle.
"Back to the point," the Doctor prompted.
"Yeah, what I mean is, aren't there any free Ood anywhere? Are there Ood running wild somewhere, like wildebeests?"
"All Ood are born to serve, otherwise we would die," he told them. Martha frowned and glanced at the Doctor briefly.
"But you can't have started out that way, before the humans, what were you like?" she protested, and the Doctor squeezed her hand.
The Ood they were talking to flinched suddenly, then his translator ball lit up and he said, "The circle, the, the circle."
"What do you mean, what circle?" the Doctor asked but was interrupted by Solana's voice. She was calling for all the Ood to go to the hospitality stations, and the Ood they had been speaking to promptly walked away. They looked at each other for a moment, and then the Doctor said he'd had enough of schmoozing, and suggested they go off the beaten track. Both ladies agreed so they left the party and went looking for whatever might be out there to find.
Donna
When she had first discovered the Doctor had got himself a girlfriend, she had been worried it would mean she wasn't wanted in the TARDIS with them. She'd never thought of him that way, romantically, that is, so it had been something of a surprise when she saw him holding hands with Martha.
In short order though, she'd discovered that Martha was a great person – brilliant and funny, but not one to rub it in your face if you didn't know or understand something. Pompeii had been hard on all of them and she was grateful to the Doctor and Martha for helping her get through it. She was glad that they had closed ranks and been there for each other. When one of them was suffering with a nightmare, or just generally feeling down, the other two were usually there to help pick them up. And the times when all three of them would break down, well, the TARDIS was there, watching over them, like a mother.
If someone had said to her, even a week before, that she would happily sleep in a bed with an alien and his half alien girlfriend, and not think it weird, she would have sent them to the funny farm. But it didn't feel weird. It felt like being part of a family. At one point, she even felt like the three of them, sleeping there, were like triplets, though she let go of that thought pretty quickly, since it made her feel a bit funny about the Doctor's relationship with Martha.
But, they'd weathered the storm, and come out the other side stronger, better. And though they were still hurting, still a bit damaged, they kept going. To her, that was important.
She and Martha had had the girly night they'd promised themselves in the Adipose building. The two of them had shared drinks and nibbles in the TARDIS' observatory, looking out at the stars. Martha had not held anything back, she'd answered all of Donna's questions. Having said that, Donna hadn't asked for every little detail – she'd not got right down to the nitty gritty, since it felt like they were talking about her brother. No one wants to think about their brother having sex.
But, she knew about it all now. What had happened in the Royal Hope, the thing with Shakespeare. Being kidnapped in New New York, the Daleks, and Professor Lazarus, the ship which was sinking into the sun, and then looking after the Doctor while he was trapped as a human in 1913.
The look in Martha's eyes when she talked about those times, working as a maid for a man she was beginning to love and watching him fall in love with someone else, well, her eyes told Donna just how devastating it had been for her.
Then had come 1969, the time when everything changed for her. Martha admitted privately to Donna that one of the reasons she'd taken the power was because it was like a sort of 'up yours' to the Doctor. To prove that she was just as good as him, and didn't need him. And while it that have been satisfying, from a revenge point of view – to rub it in his face that she was just as powerful as him - Martha was much happier with the way things had worked out.
Donna was remembering all this as she walked with her two favourite people, well, after her granddad that was, and she smiled at Martha while they waited for the Doctor to open a gate.
As they trundled through the snow, they saw the truth of what was really happening here. The Ood were not servants, they were slaves. They entered one of the warehouses and found it to be full of containers which looked like the ones you might see at the docks back home. She was horrified when the Doctor told her that they were chock full of Ood – Ood who were waiting to be shipped off all over the 'Great and Bountiful Human Empire'.
They opened one of the containers and found rows upon rows of Ood, there must have been over a hundred in there. She asked them why they didn't just leave, didn't run away since the door was open, and then the Ood confessed the spine chilling truth: that they did not understand the concept of freedom.
The Doctor
When he asked the Ood in the container about the circle, he was not expecting the reaction he got. Every Ood spoke at the same time: "The circle must be broken."
When he asked again, they only repeated the same thing. He asked why – why the circle had to be broken and they, again simultaneously said, "So we can sing."
"That's creepy," Donna observed, and he wondered then why Martha hadn't said anything. When he turned to look at her, she had tears coursing down her cheeks.
"Can't you hear it?" she muttered, placing her hands on either side of her head. "They're screaming!" she cried, hunching over. Seconds later, she stood up straight and wiped her eyes.
He and Donna were looking at her, both severely worried, and she hurried to reassure them she was just fine. "I'm sorry, I – I was just overwhelmed by the song, I let it in, too far, then all I could hear was their pain. But it's OK, the TARDIS helped me balance it out."
He wasn't completely convinced that she was alright, but accepted her word, for now. An alarm blared out telling him that they'd been discovered. They started running. The next few minutes were a blur. Somehow they got separated – Martha and Donna ended up who knew where, whereas he got chased around the warehouse by a giant crane.
He gave a good chase, but he stumbled and the thing nearly got him. Just as he was about to get grabbed by it, it stopped. Guards came and pulled him up, dragging him who knew where. He could hear Donna calling out to him, interspersed with bangs that sounding like something heavy hitting metal. Just as they passed yet another row of the containers, the door of one flew off and nearly took a guard out before hitting the floor.
Martha calmly stepped out of the container, red eyed Ood not far behind her. Ignoring the flabbergasted security guards, she crossed to the container opposite, from which the sound of Donna shouting could be heard and pushing one of the guards out of her way, she yanked the door off its hinges.
The red-eyed Ood attacked, distracting the guards, so the three of them took the opportunity to run away. Solana, the Head of Marketing was right behind them. Once they were out of sight, the Doctor turned and began to question her.
"Solana the Ood aren't born like this, they couldn't be. A species born to serve would never have evolved in the first place. What does the company do to make them obey?"
"That's nothing to do with me!" she retorted indignantly.
He gave her a look full of contempt, "Oh, what? Because you don't ask?
"That's Dr Ryder's territory," She told him.
"And where's he?" he asked, getting out the map they'd been given earlier, "What part of the complex?" She hesitated, "I could help you, with the red-eye, now show me!" he demanded.
She pointed on the map. "There, beyond the red section."
"Come with me," he offered earnestly, "You've seen the warehouse, you know this isn't right. You know this place better than me, you could help," he insisted.
She looked at him for a long time, while Martha and Donna watched her. Then she raised her voice to shout, "They're over here! Guards! They're over here!"
She had made her choice.
Martha
She could sort of understand why Solana had chosen as she had, but at the same time, she knew what she wouldn't have done the same, were she in her place. Solana was scared of taking a chance, of fighting against the system she worked for – of stepping into the unknown.
She and Donna were different. They stepped into the unknown every day, willingly – gladly, in fact. Life with the Doctor was all about the unknown. However, she reminded herself, that since they were currently running from the guards and to the place Solana had told them Dr Ryder worked, now was not the best time for her to be ruminating on the motives of a woman she'd likely never see again.
As they got closer, the song which had so overwhelmed her earlier got louder. "Doctor, can you hear it? We're getting closer!" she yelled and he looked over his shoulder at her.
"You're right, we didn't need the map - we just needed to listen!" He paused, then, "This way!" he said and the three of them turned a corner and stopped by a door. He opened it, and the song grew louder still. She could tell by the look on his face that he could hear it clearly now too.
Equally, she could tell that Donna could not. And considering what the song sounded like, its heart breaking melody, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. Not that she thought Donna wouldn't be able to handle it, but why subject her to something so sad if they didn't have to?
They made their way down some stairs, and when they got to the bottom, both she and the Doctor scrunched their faces at the impact of the singing. He shone the torch he'd got out of one of his pockets around, and they saw a group of Ood huddling in a cage. They made their way over, turned a light on, and crouched in front of them.
At first, the Ood flinched away from them.
"They look different to the others," Donna noted.
"That's because they're in their natural form, before they're adapted to slavery – unspoilt."
"That's their song," Martha said, feeling her eyes go glassy as she listened.
"I can't hear it," Donna asserted and the Doctor turned to face her. "Do you want to?" he offered.
Martha watched as Donna decided, "Yeah."
"It's the song of captivity," she warned.
"Let me hear it," Donna insisted, and the Doctor placed his hands on her temples.
"That's it open your mind," he murmured.
The three of them, crouched in front of the tiny cage the Ood were being kept in, listened together, and felt their hearts shatter with the sadness. The Ood watched them in return.
Donna was crying, "Take it away," she sobbed.
"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked, and she told him she couldn't bear it. He reversed the process and Martha imagined that the song was now gone from Donna's mind.
"I'm sorry," she paused, "But you two can still hear it," she noted.
"All the time," Martha said softly, her eyes not leaving the bent heads of the Ood. She reached out to the Doctor and he gripped her hand, fairly clinging to it, like a life-line. She could appreciate how he felt. Noises from outside announced the arrival of company workers, it sounded as though they were breaking in.
The Doctor said to let them break in, he didn't care. He opened the door of the cage and they went in, sitting with the Ood.
"What are you holding?" he asked one of them, referring to the fact that each of them had something in their hands which they held out before them. "We're friends," he asserted, "Doctor, Donna, Martha – friends," he said, pointing at each of them in turn.
He coaxed it forward, discovering that they held a hind brain in their hands. He explained to Donna that it was the part of the brain which held all the emotion, memory – the personality – strip it away and you lost who you were, "Like a lobotomy," Martha clarified.
Even so, the Doctor said that had to be a third link in the chain, because otherwise a creature with a front brain and a separate hind brain would always be at war with itself.
The guards and the boss – a Mr Halpen found them, and took them away. The three of them were cuffed to some pipes in an office and Mr Halpen accused them of being activists.
He tried to defend his position by saying that the Ood were nothing before the humans came along – just animals, roaming across the ice and snow – and that they hadn't put up much resistance when they were conquered. Donna pointed out the stupidity of that assertion rather nicely, Martha thought.
"You idiot! They're born with their brains in their hands! Don't you see? That makes them peaceful. They've got to be! Because a creature like that would have to trust anyone it meets!"
"Nice one!" the Doctor and Martha complimented her, and she whispered a 'thank you' in return.
"The system has worked for two hundred years; all we've got is a rogue batch. The system is about to be sterilised." Halpen activated what must have been a communications device on his watch and asked, "Mr Kess how do we stand?"
A voice filtered back, "Canisters primed sir. As soon as the core heats up, the gas is released. Give it two hundred marks."
"You're going to gas them!" the Doctor shouted outraged.
"Kill the livestock. The classic foot and mouth solution from the old days – it still works," Halpen replied nonchalantly. All three of them were horrified and glared at him, not knowing what else to do.
Martha thought she might be able to break the cuffs on her, but wasn't sure what would happen then. She wasn't at all sure she could survive a gunshot wound, and figured that if she broke free now, that's what would be waiting for her.
An alarm sounded, Mr Halpen ran off to investigate. When he came back it seemed as though a revolution was going on outside and he left with Dr Ryder, claiming that if he killed them now it would look too suspicious if there was in investigation afterwards, so he was leaving them at the mercy of the Ood.
When they had left, Martha went to work on her cuffs. Donna was shouting at the Doctor asking why he didn't do something – surely he had met Houdini? He countered with the fact that the cuffs were of rather high quality.
"Yes, so I'm noticing," Martha added, before with one last great wrench, she yanked her hands free. She'd cut the insides of her arms a little, though the scrapes were healing before her eyes.
"Great, now do me! Do me!" Donna shouted and Martha hesitated.
"I've only got brute force to use; I might rip your hands off!" she said, looking to the Doctor.
"Get my sonic, is it's in my left inner jacket pocket, setting number – " He was cut off when the door opposite them opened and several red eyed Ood entered.
They stared with fascinated horror for a moment, before frantically trying to pull themselves free yet again. "I don't care, pull me hands of if you have to!" Donna shouted at Martha. She reached into the Doctor's jacket and pulled out the sonic, but before she could do anything, the Ood were nearly upon them.
They cried out, "Doctor-Donna-Martha-friend," and "The circle must be broken," hoping desperately that the Ood would realise who they were and back down. Luckily, they did, and they let them go.
Trouble was, when they got outside, they didn't know where to go from there – they had no idea where Mr Halpen and Dr Ryder were, or what they were up to. An explosion behind them knocked them off their feet, and when the smoke cleared, they saw Ood Sigma – Mr Halpen's personal Ood.
He knew where his 'boss' was going, and he led them straight there. Once inside, they found what just what the Doctor had been looking for.
Donna
"The Ood brain. Now it all makes sense – this is it, the missing link – the third element, binding them together, fore brain, hind brain and this. It's the telepathic centre, a shared mind – connecting all the Ood together in song."
Halpen appeared as the Doctor was speaking and he was pointing a gun at them. She and Martha pointed out that the pylons surrounding the brain were in a circle – the circle must be broken.
It all came out in the wash then – how an earlier generation of Halpen's family had found the Ood brain under a glacier in the north, and dampened the telepathic field, stopping the Ood from connecting to each other for two hundred years. How he now intended to blow up the Ood brain, killing every single Ood at the same time. Then they discovered Dr Ryder was a 'Friend of the Ood', and had lowered the field surrounding the brain when Mr Halpen had given him access to the controls.
After his admission, Halpen tried to throw Dr Ryder over the railings, but Martha was there to stop him, moving so fast that Donna could barely believe her eyes. Martha pushed Dr Ryder behind her, and stared Mr Halpen dead in the eye as he pointed his gun at her face.
Donna herself had to stop the Doctor from attacking Mr Halpen. But then, something else happened. Ood Sigma kept insisting on getting him a drink, and Mr Halpen started pulling out clumps of his own hair. He sounded like he was choking at the same time, and he dropped his gun, bending over, as if in pain. He peeled the skin of his head back, like he was peeling a satsuma, and when he raised his head once more, he had become an Ood!
It was funny, but being with the Doctor and Martha, she wasn't sure what was right and what was wrong anymore, and she told them so.
"It's better that way," Martha said.
"People who know for sure tend to be like Mr Halpen," the Doctor added.
The beeping of the mines Mr Halpen had placed around the area alerted them to the problem which still remained. The Doctor disabled them in a flash, and then he turned to face Ood Sigma.
"Sigma, would you allow me the honour?" he asked eagerly.
"It is yours, Doctor." Sigma told him.
"Oh, yes," the Doctor shouted, jumping around like a child. Donna glanced at Martha, who was watching the Doctor with a fond smile. After Pompeii and everything which had happened there, this was something of a cathartic moment, for all of them.
The Doctor was at the controls of the telepathic field, "Stifled for two hundred years, but not anymore! The circle is broken – the Ood can sing!"
This time Donna could hear the song herself, with no help needed from the Doctor.
The Doctor
They were standing in front of the TARDIS. Sigma and a group of other Ood had come with them to say goodbye.
"The message has gone out. That song resonated across the galaxies, everyone heard it. Everyone knows. The rockets are bringing them back. The Ood are coming home."
Sigma raised his translation ball. "We thank you Doctor-Donna-Martha, friends of Oodkind. And what of you now? Will you stay? There is room in the song for you."
He smiled, but shook his head, "No, but thanks, I've sort of got a song of my own."
Sigma nodded. "Yet, your song is ending," then he looked to Martha, and then Donna, "But a new one is only just beginning."
He was shocked for a moment, but then he knew Sigma was right. Something new was only just beginning. He'd found the love of a mate with Martha, maybe one day would even be his wife, they might even, well, they might have children. And he'd found the love of a sibling with Donna. Yes, this was vastly different to his old song; this was something new, something exciting. This song was one of hope, whereas the old one had been a song of sorrow.
"Well, we'll be off then," he said, nodding towards the TARDIS.
"Take this song with you," Sigma said, "And know this Doctor-Donna-Martha, you will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Doctor-Donna-Martha, and the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your names forever."
When they were back in the TARDIS and hanging in the vortex, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief. Martha plonked herself down on one of the chairs, Donna next to her. He leaned back on the controls of the TARDIS, moving the scanner out of the way.
"Hell of a day," he said, though he was more thinking out loud than anything else.
"You can say that again," Donna muttered.
"But don't" Martha cut in, clearly interpreting some look in his eyes or something like that which told her he was about to do exactly that.
"Overall, I would say it was a good day," Donna said, and Martha nodded.
"It was, it was tough, to be sure, but the Ood are free now, and well, it makes it all worth it, I think." Donna agreed with an 'Mmm.'
He was happy to be silent for once, letting the women speak.
"I could do with some downtime though," Donna said after a moment.
Martha propped her head up with her hand, resting her elbow on the railing behind her. She yawned, which in turn sparked Donna off. Funny how yawns could be contagious, and how even the mention of a yawn could get others yawning.
"I think I will have a bath and then see. How about Monopoly in the games room in an hour and half?" she suggested. Donna considered it for a moment.
"Alright, I mean, I know he'll win, but it should be a laugh anyway," she said, dragging herself to her feet and shuffling out of the room, ignoring his protest of 'Hey!' when she complained about his Monopoly skills.
He didn't have much time to think about it though, because suddenly his arms were filled with a warm and lethargic Martha.
She pulled his face down to hers for a lingering kiss, and when she pulled back, she smiled up at him and said, "Hello you,"
"Hey," he returned with a grin. Then, "Any room in that bath for me?"
