Just One Second

Summary: What if in Doomsday, the leaver on the Doctor's side turned off? Now that the Doctor is in Pete's World, Rose Tyler must continue to save the universe without him along with her newest companion, Martha Jones. AU of Series 3 with Rose.

Disclaimer: Again; I do not own Doctor Who...

Songs:

- Fish Custard (Doctor Who: series 5 soundtrack)

- Journey to the How (Narnia Prince Caspian Soundtrack)

- Victory of the Daleks (Doctor Who: series 5 soundtrack)

Chapter 9: Daleks in Manhattan: Part 1...

Martha woke up from the gentle hum of the Tardis and had a quick shower in one of the bedrooms that Rose showed her. She walked out and went to the control room to see Rose fixing the console and seemed to be arguing with the machine.

"I know you don't like it but it's for your own good!" she growled and sparks flew in Rose's face as the Tardis's reply. "It's not my fault that he pulled out the wrong parts!" Martha couldn't help but laugh and Rose, startled turned to face her. "Oh, Martha! Feeling better?" she asked and Martha nodded.

"Yeah, best night's sleep I've had in days," Martha replied.

Rose grinned and put the tool that she was using away. "Good, cause I know where we're going next," she said and bounced around the console, flipping leavers and switches like a little kid in a candy store. Once they were landed, Martha walked out of the Tardis and was followed by Rose who locked the Tardis doors.

"Where are we?" Martha asked.

Rose continued to grin. "Smell that Atlantic breeze!" she said before she turned around. "Hey Martha, have you met my friend?" Rose added as she looked up, Martha following her gaze.

Martha couldn't help but gape at the sight. "Oh My God! That's the Statue of Liberty!"

Rose smiled. "The gateway to the New World," she replied.

Martha smiled in excitement. "This is so brilliant! I've always wanted to go to New York. And I mean the proper one, not the new, new, new, new" she said, trailing off after saying so many 'new'. Martha bit her lip. "I wonder what year it is, because the Empire State Building is not even finished yet."

Rose frowned as she looked at the Empire State Building. "Final stages of completing the Empire State Building so that means the year should be around..."

"November 1st 1930," Martha said.

Rose was impressed. "You're getting good at this," she complimented before turning to look at Martha who was holding a newspaper.

"So that's nearly 80 years ago," Martha said breathlessly as Rose took the newspaper. "It's funny because you see all those old newsreels in black and white like it's so far away, but here we are. It's real. It's now," she laughed and looked at Rose. "So where to now?" she asked.

Rose handed her the newspaper. "I think our detour just got longer," she replied.

"'Hooverville Mystery Deepens'. What's Hooverville?"

...

Rose and Martha were walking through Central Park with the sun beaming down on them.

"Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the USA, came to power a year ago. Up until then New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties, and then…" Rose was saying when Martha interrupted her.

"The Wall Street Crash, yeah? When was that, 1929?" she asked.

"Exactly. The whole economy crippled overnight. So they ended up here in Central Park," Rose answered.

Martha was shocked. "What they lived here, in the Park?"

Rose grimaced. "You only come to Hooverville when you got nowhere else to go," she replied grimly.

When they arrived at what looked like a campsite, they heard someone arguing and walked over when a man broke up the fight.

"We're all starvin'. We all got families somewhere. No stealin' and no fightin'. You know the rules. Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together! No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got," he said firmly and the two men went their separate ways.

Rose and Martha walked up to the man who broke up the fight. "Excuse me," Rose said and the man turned to her. "Are you the leader here?" she asked.

The man snorted. "If you want to call me that. My name's Solomon," he replied.

Martha stepped forward. "Well I'm Martha and this is Rose," she introduced. "How many people live here?" she asked curiously.

Solomon sighed. " place else to I will say this about Hooverville. We are a truly equal society, black, white, all the same. All starving, so both of you are welcome," he replied and walked back to his tent.

Rose frowned and followed him with Martha behind her. They found Solomon tipping out the coffee from a kettle.

"So... men going missing. Is this true?" she asked as she held up the newspaper that Martha had earlier.

Solomon took the newspaper and sighed. "It's true alright," he replied and walked inside his tent with Rose and Martha following him.

Rose was standing at the entrance of the tent with a small frown on her face. "But... what does missing mean? I mean it's not like you keep everyone register," she said.

"Come in," Solomon said and Rose and Martha sat down on chairs. "This is different."

Martha frowned as well. "In what way?"

"Someone takes them. At night. We hear something. Someone calls out for help. By the time we get there, they're gone. Like they vanish into thin air," he told them.

Rose bit her lip. "Are you sure someone's taken them?" she asked.

Solomon looked up at Rose with a firm look on his face. "Rose, when you got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got. Your knife, blanket, you take it with you. You don't leave bread uneaten, fire still burning."

"Have you been to the police?" Martha asked.

Solomon nodded. "Yeah we tried that. Another deadbeat goes missing, big deal," he said bitterly.

Rose leaned forward in her seat and linked her hands together. "So the two questions we've got to ask ourselves are who's taken them and what for?"

Just then a young man with short chocolate brown hair popped his head in. "Solomon, Mr. Diagoras is here," he said and they followed the young man to where a crowd of people were standing around a man dressed in a suit. Rose assumed that this is Mr. Diagoras.

"I need men. Volunteers. I got a little work for you and you sure look like you can use the money," he said bluntly.

The young man, Frank frowned. "Yeah. What's the money?"

"A dollar a day," Mr. Diagoras replied.

People around grumbled and Solomon stepped forward. "What's the work?"

"A little trip down the sewers. Got a tunnel that collapsed needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?" Mr. Diagoras asked?

"A dollar a day? That's slave wage. Men don't always come back up, do they?" Solomon asked firmly.

Mr. Diagoras shrugged. "Accidents happen."

Rose frowned. "What do you mean? What sort of accidents?"

"You don't need the work? That's fine. Anybody else?" Mr, Diagoras asked and Rose raised her hand. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Enough with the questions!" he snapped.

Rose blinked. "Oh no. I'm volunteering," she corrected.

Martha sighed and raised her hand as well, while looking at Rose. "I'm so going to kill you for this," she snapped quietly, making Rose grin. The Doctor would've loved her as a companion. Solomon and Frank raised their hands as well.

A few minutes later and Rose was in the sewers with Martha, Solomon and Frank.

"Turn left. Go about half a mile. Follow Tunnel 273. Fall's right ahead of you. You can't miss it," Mr. Diagoras ordered.

"And when do we get our dollar?" Frank asked.

"When you come back up," Mr. Diagoras answered.

Rose frowned. "And if we don't?" she asked, not liking this man at all.

"Then I got no one to pay," Mr. Diagoras replied.

Solomon glared at Mr. Diagoras. "We'll be back," he said.

Martha scowled. "Let's hope so," she muttered and Rose's lip twitched.

Rose walked with Solomon while Martha walked with Frank.

"We just gotta stick together. It's easy to get lost. It's like a huge rabbit warren. You could hide an army down here," Frank said.

Martha smiled as she looked around with her torch. "So, what about you, Frank? You're not from around these parts are you?" she asked.

Frank laughed. "Oh, you could talk. No, no, I'm from Tennessee, born and bred," he replied.

Martha frowned. "So how come your here, then?"

"Uh, my daddy died. Mama…couldn't afford to feed us all. So, I'm the oldest, up to me to feed myself, so put on my coat, hitched up here on the railroads. There's a whole lot of runaways in camp younger than me. From all over; Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas… Solomon keeps a lookout for us. So, what about you? You're a long way from home," Frank noted.

Martha grinned. "I guess you could say I'm a hitcher too," she replied.

"You stick with me, you'll be all right," Frank said, smiling at Martha who smiled back.

Rose frowned as a thought came to her mind. "So this Diagoras bloke, who is he?" she asked.

"A couple of months ago, he was just another foreman. Now it seems like he's running most of Manhattan," Solomon replied.

Rose bit the inside of her lip. "How did he manage that then?"

Solomon shrugged. "These are strange times. A man can go from being King of the Hill to the lowest of the low overnight. It's just for some folks it works the other way 'round," he said.

Rose's eyes widened. "Whoa," she breathed and looked at the green blob on the ground.

Martha came forward so she was next to Rose. "Is it radioactive or something?" she asked.

Rose shook her head. "Nah, if it was, we'd either be dead by now or it would be doing something weird," she replied as she crouched down near the thing.

Martha covered her nose and mouth. "Well it's gone off, whatever it is," she groaned.

Rose carefully picked it up with a grimace on her face. It looked like a brain, but not a human one.

Martha sighed as she crouched next to Rose. "You just have to pick it up, don't you?" she asked fondly and Rose grinned.

"You know me," Rose replied before frowning. "Hey, Martha. Shine your torch though it," she said and Martha did. "It seems to be composite organic matter, so your medical opinion," Rose added, smiling at Martha cheekily.

Martha bit her lip. "It's not human, I know that."

Rose shook her head in agreement while Frank and Solomon looked puzzled. "No it's not. And I'll tell you something else," she said as she stood up, Martha standing up as well. "We must be half a mile and I don't see any sign of collapse, do you?" she asked sarcastically.

"Well, where are we then?" Martha asked, confused.

Rose looked around. "Well... We're underneath Manhattan."

Solomon frowned in confusion. "We're way beyond half a mile. There's no collapse, nothing," he added, confused.

Martha looked at Rose. "Do you think that Diagoras bloke was lying?" she asked.

Rose shrugged. "Looks like it," she replied.

Frank bit his lip. "So why did he want people to come down here?" he asked quietly.

Rose pursed her lips and turned to Solomon. "Hey, Solomon, I think it's time you took Martha and Frank back up, I'll be quicker on my own," she said, ignoring Frank.

But just then they heard, squealing?

Solomon's eyes widened. "What the hell was that?"

"Hello!" Frank said loudly but Martha hissed at him to be quiet. He looked at Martha as if she was crazy. "What if it's one of the folk gone missing? You'd be scared, half-mad down here on your own," he pointed out.

Rose frowned at Frank. "Do you think that they're still alive?" she asked.

Frank shrugged. "Heck, we ain't seen no bodies down here. Maybe they just got lost," he suggested when more squealing came through the tunnels.

"I know I never heard nobody make a sound like that," Solomon noted.

But I have, Rose thought bitterly. "We need to go," she said.

Frank frowned. "It sounds like there's more than one of them," he whispered.

Solomon's light caught a huddled figure on the floor which made Martha frown. "Rose?" she called and Rose started to walk forward slowly.

"Hey, are you alright?" Rose asked the figure who stayed quiet. "My friend over there, Frank has got a point though. I wouldn't want to be down here by myself," she added as she walked over. "We know the way out if you want to come," she said and looked at the figure. "What are you?"

"Is, that, uh, a carnival mask?" Solomon asked, nervously.

Rose shook her head and looked at him. "Nope, it's real," she said before turning back to the pig man. "I'm sorry that this happened to you, but I promise I can help. Who did this to you?" she asked but got no response.

"ROSE!" Martha said and Rose got up and saw that more pig men were coming down the tunnel. Martha bit her lip. "Any ideas?" she whispered.

Rose nodded. "Yeah, just one. RUN!" she yelled and they all took off running through the tunnels. This is brilliant, Rose thought as she tried to look for a way out. Then she came across a ladder. "Hey guys, there's a ladder!" she said and started to climb the ladder and opened it with her sonic screwdriver. Martha followed her and Solomon came up as well. Frank was trying to fight off the creatures.

"FRANK!" Rose yelled as he got taken away and tried to go after him, but Solomon pushed her aside and closed the lid before those creatures climbed up the ladder.

Solomon grunted. "We can't go after him," he argued.

Rose glared. "I'm not leaving him!" she yelled.

"No, I'm not losing anybody else! Those creatures were from Hell! From Hell itself!" Solomon protested before he took a deep breath. "If we go after them, they'll take us all! There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Just then, a blonde hair woman came out from the shadows with a gun pointed at them.

"Alright then. Put 'em up," she growled and Martha raised her hands in the air. "Hand's in the air and no funny business," she added and Rose and Solomon put their hands up as well. "Now tell me, you schmucks, what've you done with Lazlo?" she snarled.

Rose and Martha looked at each other, confused.

Martha turned to the woman. "Uh, who's Lazlo?" she asked, nervously.