Just another kind reminder that I do not own Doctor Who, I only own Emmy.
The Lazarus Experiment: Part 1
The Doctor, Emmy, and Martha had stayed in the void for a couple of days after Manhattan. A bit of recuperation time, really. But two days later (Emmy thought, it was hard to tell in the TARDIS), the Doctor decided it was time to go off again.
The three stood at the TARDIS controls. The Doctor was running around, flicking switches and pressing buttons as he went. "There we go..." he said as he finished flying the TARDIS, "perfect landing, which isn't easy in such a tight spot."
"Doesn't seem to be easy at all, considering how much you bring us to the wrong place," Emmy said with a smirk. The Doctor sent a glare in her direction but ignored her otherwise.
Martha laughed at Emmy's statement, "Besides, you should be used to tight spots by now. Where are we?"
"The end of the line," the Doctor responded mysteriously. Emmy frowned. What the heck did he mean by that? Was he dropping them off? She sure hoped not. There was no way Emmy was going back to her normal life, not after the trips she'd been on.
Martha rushed towards the TARDIS doors and the Doctor continued speaking. "No place like it." Martha sent the Doctor an inquisitive look, silently asking if she should open the TARDIS doors. The Doctor nodded and Martha flung the TARDIS doors open excitedly.
Martha stepped out of the TARDIS doors only to be disappointed by the place that the Doctor had parked them. Emmy looked around the room, a bit confused. Where were they?
"Home. You took me home," Martha deadpanned, looking at the Doctor with disappointment spread across her face.
The Doctor didn't seem to be grasping Martha's disappointment, because he nodded excitedly. "In fact, the morning after we left, so you've only been gone about twelve hours. No time at all, really." Emmy hung back, uncomfortable with the situation as the Doctor moved freely throughout Martha's apartment. He shifted through her photos, as if there was no such thing as privacy.
"But all the stuff we've done- Shakespeare, picking up Emmy, New New York, old New York?" Martha asked the Doctor.
"Yep, all in one night, relatively speaking. Everything should be just as it was- books, CDs," he paused, picking some of her underwear off of a rack, "Laundry."
"Privacy," Emmy rebuked, snatching the lingerie from his hands and tossing it down. The Doctor looked down at Emmy with a frown, but she just whacked him across the back of his head lightly, pointing her finger at him.
"Sorry," the Doctor muttered, though he didn't actually seem all that sorry about it. Emmy rolled her eyes and the Doctor turned back to speak to Martha. "So, back where you were, as promised."
"This is it?" Martha asked.
The Doctor took a deep breath in. "Yeah, I should probably... um..." He looked at Emmy and at the TARDIS awkwardly. Oh, how Emmy wished she could be in his head at that moment.
Martha's phone rang, preventing the Doctor from speaking any more. He looked immensely relieved. Martha's answering machine answered, saying, "Hi! I'm out! Leave a message!"
Emmy smiled at the happy answering machine message. She'd always thought that there was something about what people left on their answering machines that said something about their personality. "Sorry," Martha told them, though Emmy wasn't entirely sure why. Maybe she thought that the machine had cut off the Doctor, which it did in a way.
"Martha, are you there?" asked the caller. It was a woman. She seemed to be a little older, and she was clearly very concerned about Martha. "Pick it up, will you?"
"It's Mum," Martha told the Doctor and Emmy, "It'll wait."
On the phone, Martha's mother continued to speak. "All right then, pretend that you're out if you like. I was only calling to say that your sister's on TV. On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested."
Martha reached towards the coffee table to pick up the remote, only to see that Emmy had beat her to it. Emmy held up the remote and smiled slightly. "Sorry." She flicked on the television, where someone was speaking.
"The details are top secret-" began a man, though he was cut off by Martha.
"How could Tish end up on the news?" Martha asked with a frown, eyeing the television even closer.
The screen finally showed the man that was speaking. He was somewhere in his seventies, and he seemed to be having a press conference. Behind him stood a girl that looked quite a bit like Martha. Emmy assumed that was her sister. "Tonight, I will demonstrate a device..." the man on the TV was saying.
"She's got a new job. PR for some research lab," Martha explained to the Doctor and Emmy.
The man on the TV continued on, speaking to the press that stood before him. "... with the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human."
Martha snatched the remote from Emmy and switched off the television, done with what was being shown for some reason or another. "Sorry, you were saying we should...?"
The Doctor nodded, "Yes, yes, we should. One trip is what we said." One trip. Was Emmy only supposed to get one trip? She didn't think so. She hoped not, anyway. How was she supposed to go back to uni now? She had no job. Oh, no. She had no job.
"Yeah, I suppose things just kind of... escalated," Martha said, sufficiently interrupting Emmy from her horrifying thoughts.
"Mmm," the Doctor nodded, "Seems to happen to me a lot." He cast a quick glance in Emmy's direction and she looked down sadly.
"Thank you. For everything," Martha told the Doctor. She looked at Emmy and a bright smile crossed her face. "And thank you. For being an absolutely brilliant friend to me, that is."
Emmy smiled and nodded in response, still feeling a bit awkward about leaving Martha and a bit worried that the Doctor would dump her off at home as well. The Doctor also nodded and smiled. "It was my pleasure," he told her warmly.
The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS, letting Emmy step inside before doing so himself. Emmy promptly walked to the jump seat and sat down as the Doctor piloted the TARDIS, running around wildly, though it had a certain sadness to it. Once the TARDIS had dematerialized and the couple were off to wherever the Doctor had brought them, the Doctor leaned against the console and looked down at Emmy.
"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked. Emmy looked up at the Doctor with a start. She hadn't really been expecting him to say anything.
Emmy nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."
The Doctor shook his head and sat down next to Emmy on the jump seat, facing her. "No you're not. What's bothering you?"
Emmy looked up so that her eyes met the Doctor's, though she could practically feel herself shrinking under his gaze. "I just- I… Are you taking me home?"
The Doctor kept his gaze trained on Emmy, though she couldn't figure out his emotion no matter how hard she tried. "Do you want to go home?"
Emmy shook her head slowly, unknowing of what the correct response was. "No."
The Doctor grinned slightly. He had been planning to go off on his own for a while. He'd just lost Rose, he needed some time. But then Emmy had looked at him like that… and he supposed it wouldn't hurt anyone to keep her around. "Then no, I'm not."
Emmy smiled and stood up, walking in the direction of her bedroom before pausing on the second stair. She turned around and looked at the Doctor. "Wait a second, did that guy say he was going to change was it meant to be human?"
The Doctor's eyes widened and he ran to the console, sending them back to Martha's as quickly as he possibly could. Once they'd landed, Emmy met him at the door. The Doctor flung the door open and the pair peered out. "No, I'm sorry," the Doctor told Martha. "Did he say he was going to change what it means to be human?"
Emmy rolled her eyes at the Doctor's direct use of her words without giving her any credit, but otherwise said nothing.
The Doctor, Emmy, and Martha quickly decided on what to do. Upon deciding to go to Lazarus' presentation, the Doctor and Emmy retreated to the TARDIS to get dressed and Martha went to her own closet. Emmy sorely wished that she could search for outfits in the TARDIS with Martha, but if Martha wasn't wearing something from her own closet her mother would freak.
It took about three hours and probably nearly a mile into the TARDIS wardrobe, but Emmy eventually settled on an outfit to wear. The dress she chose had a black skirt that stopped mid-thigh and a beige top, with a large flower print along the top. She paired the dress with lacy nude pumps that buckled in the front. She chose shoes that were secured to her feet in case there was any running. She could run perfectly fine in heels as long as they stayed on her feet. All those years in dance were coming to pay off. She topped off the outfit with little accessories, only pearl earrings to go with the dress. She wore minimal makeup, only thick black eyeliner and bright red makeup. Her hair was pulled up into an elegant ponytail so that her earrings could be showed off.
Emmy took one last glance at herself in the mirror and sighed deeply, satisfied with her appearance for once. For some reason, she felt immensely nervous. More nervous than she should have. It was just a normal adventure, after all.
She left her room and made her way down the stair of the TARDIS, where the Doctor and Martha were waiting in the console room. Martha was wearing a gorgeous plum dress. "Took ya long enough," Martha smiled as Emmy approached them.
Emmy rolled her eyes and flipped her hair in faux sassiness. "It takes a while to look this good."
Martha smiled at Emmy and the Doctor turned around, seeing Emmy for the first time. He smiled brightly at her, but Emmy found herself wishing that he would do something… more. She couldn't quite figure out what that more was, but she wanted it. Did she have feelings for him? No, it wasn't possible. Not at all. He'd just lost Rose. She couldn't do that to him.
The three set out a short while later. For some reason, the Doctor had thought it would be a good idea to walk to this event. To say that Emmy was angry about it would be an understatement. If he had to walk through the city of London in high heels, he'd understand too.
"Ah, black tie," the Doctor was saying as they walked down an oddly quiet street. "You know, whenever I wear this, something bad always happens."
"Great," Emmy sighed, "Just what we need."
Martha rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on Emmy. It's not the outfit. We both know it's just him." Emmy smiled at Martha's statement and the Doctor huffed indignantly, though not even he could truly deny it. Martha looked up at the Doctor and continued, "Anyway, I think it suits you. In a James Bond kind of way."
For some reason, Martha's obvious flirting made Emmy angry. She couldn't figure out if it was because of Rose, or if it was because she herself wanted to be doing that with the Doctor. Either way, the Doctor didn't seem to notice it.
"James Bond?" The Doctor asked, sounding confused and slightly offended. He got over it quickly, though, and was flattered a moment later. "Really?"
Martha laughed and Emmy rolled her eyes as the pair approached the building that the event was being held in. "Oh, come on Martha. Don't go giving him ideas now."
The building that the event was being held in seemed to be some sort of high tech science facility. It wasn't a lab, per say, but more of a facility for labs and other scientific things of the sort. And looking around at the quality of the place, Emmy found herself wishing that she got a chance to work in those labs.
The entire interior of the building had a chrome feeling to it. Everything was grey, white, or black, with traces of blue here and there. There were touch screen tablets and things all over the place. Emmy didn't even know that 2007 had things that nice, never mind that they were being implemented in a work place to the degree that they were in Lazarus' place.
The main room that the gala was being held in was very bare. There were a few small tables holding drinks along the edges of the room and people carrying trays of small finger foods. The rest of the room was bare save for the very center. The very center of the room contained a large white pod with large pillars surrounding it. The whole thing had bright blue lights on it, which Emmy suspected were for decoration so that the pod would match the rest of the room. Whatever the pod was for, its uses were most likely on the inside.
"Oh, look they've got nibbles!" The Doctor cheered excitedly as a lady walked by with a tray of food. He plucked one off the tray. "I love nibbles." He plopped it in his mouth, a look of pure joy on his face. How a man so old could be so immature, Emmy didn't know.
Emmy and Martha chuckled at the man's absurdity. Emmy opened her mouth to poke fun at him slightly, but was interrupted as a woman came over to them. "Hello!" she greeted, pulling Martha in close.
"Tish! You look great," Martha responded, pulling the woman into a tight hug.
So that was Martha's sister. She was quite pretty. Tish looked a bit like Martha, though not too much. They had the same nose and chin, but that was about where the physical similarities ended. They seemed to be very alike otherwise, though. They both seemed to be raising their eyebrows the same way, and looking about the room with the same emotions across their face. It was clear that the two were close friends. Or, they had been close friends at some time. Emmy had no clue what their relationship was now.
"You look great!" Tish smiled a Martha, looking down at her sister's clothing. Tish herself was dressed rather nicely. She wore a simple black dress with black heels. She wore matching jewelry; earrings and a necklace. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun with a gorgeous black flower clipped in. Tish wore much more makeup than Martha, though it didn't look horrible. Tish had her makeup done so that it complimented her face just right. "So what do you think? Impressive, isn't it?"
"Very," Martha nodded, looking around.
"And two nights out in a row for you. That's dangerously close to a social life," Tish told Martha. Emmy had to hold back her laughter at Tish's comment. She was starting to like Tish.
"If I keep this up, I'll end up in all the gossip columns," Martha joked, going along with Tish. Emmy looked up at the Doctor, but he still seemed to be munching quietly on his nibbles.
"You might, actually. You should keep an eye out for photographers. And mum, she's coming too- even dragging Leo along with her," Tish told Martha, leaning in closer at the last part, as if it were some big secret.
"Leo in black tie?" Martha asked, clearly surprised and a bit doubtful. She half chuckled, "That I must see."
Tish glanced at the Doctor and Emmy. Emmy wished she was able to figure out what Trish was thinking, but she couldn't for the life of her. Emmy felt like she was intruding, all of a sudden. Tish and Martha were having a wonderful sisterly moment, but it was kind of interrupted by the Doctor and Emmy. She doubted that the Doctor felt the same way. He was always oblivious like that.
"Oh, this is, uh, the Doctor. And this is Emmy," Martha introduced them. Tish reached her hand out in the direction of the pair, but didn't seem all that friendly about it. They shook hands and said their hello's to each other, but the entire thing had a certain awkwardness to it. Emmy felt uncomfortable, to say the very least.
"Are they with you?" Tish asked Martha tensely.
"Yeah."
"But they're not on the list," Tish protested. "How did they get in?"
"Emmy's my plus one," Martha told Tish, sending a tense look to the Doctor. The Doctor seemed to get Martha's point, because he held up his psychic paper to Tish. She nodded, not pressing the subject and farther.
"So this Lazarus bloke, he's your boss?" The Doctor asked, shutting his psychic paper and tucking it away in his jacket pocked. He bounced on his heels lightly as he waited for an answer from Tish. Emmy couldn't help but smile slightly at the Doctor's small move. It was small, yes, but the act showed how eager he was for yet another adventure.
"Professor Lazarus, yes. I'm part of his executive staff."
"She's in the PR department," Martha said with a frown. Her sister seemed to be playing up her position... a lot. Unless her job had changed in the twelve hours that Martha was gone, Tish was only just a desk worker. She wasn't anyone special to this company.
"I'm head of the PR department, actually," Tish corrected. The comfortable moment between the sisters seemed to be over completely. Tish and Martha were no longer getting along like old friends, and Martha seemed extremely taken aback by her sister's declaration.
"You're joking," Martha smiled. Even though it had been clear how taken aback Martha was, she covered it up very quickly. She smiled at her sister, showing just how proud she was that she had managed to get such a high position, even if she wasn't completely sure how or when it had happened.
"I put this whole thing together," Tish told her with a nod.
"So do you know what the professor might be doing tonight?" The Doctor asked, not attempting to hide his excitement at all.
Emmy nodded vigorously, a smile on her face as she looked at the pod in the center of the room, "That looks like it might be some sort of microfield manipulator."
The Doctor glanced down at Emmy and shot a look at the tube before turning back to Tish. "Definitely a microfield manipulator. Sonic maybe? It looks like a sonic microfield manipulator."
Tish rolled her eyes. "They're science geeks, I should have known," she said with a slight chuckle. "Gotta get back to work now, I'll catch up with you later." She walked off into the crowd, presumably to do whatever the head of a PR department was supposed to do.
Emmy wasn't at all offended by Tish's quip. She'd grown quite used to it over the years and had actually learned to take it as a compliment of sorts. The Doctor, on the other hand, looked completely baffled.
"Science geek? What's that mean?" The Doctor asked kind of quietly, looking down at Martha and Emmy.
Emmy smiled and Martha laughed slightly, answering him. "That you're obsessively enthusiastic about it."
A faint smile grew on the Doctor's face. "Oh, nice." Emmy couldn't help but think of how cute he looked when he smiled. He just seemed so... happy for that brief moment. Emmy knew that she shouldn't be thinking about the Doctor like that. No, of course not. He'd just lost Rose. Now was not the time. And besides, he was old. Way older than was comprehendible, she knew. It was a bit odd, really. But at the same time, it so wasn't. Because he was the Doctor. And when you were with him in his wonderful TARDIS, all of your worries just floated away, didn't they?
Emmy had been lost in her own thoughts when she heard someone call out from behind them. "Martha!" Martha, Emmy, and the Doctor all turned around to see an older woman had approached Martha, her arm linked with that of a young man.
When Martha turned to look at her mother, it was like she hadn't seen her in ages. "Mum!" Martha enveloped her mother in a large hug, holding on tightly. Martha's mother seemed rather surprised by her daughter's sudden outburst.
"Oh. All right, what's the occasion?" Martha's mother asked as they pulled out of the hug. Emmy wasn't completely sure what Martha's mother was referring to, but she guessed it was the hug. That or Martha's appearance at a social gathering. Tish had seemed pretty surprised by that.
"What do you mean? I'm just pleased to see you, that's all," Martha replied, a bit offended that her mother had asked that question over a hug.
"You saw me last night," Martha's mother told her. Martha had a moment of realization, where she must have remembered that the amount of time that had passed for her had not passed for the rest of her family. To them, Martha had been there all along.
"I know," Martha replied, trying to play it all off normally. "I just... missed you." She quickly changed the topic and took her attention off her mother, instead turning to her brother to speak to him. "You're looking good, Leo."
"Yeah, and if anyone asks me to fetch 'em a drink, I'll swing for 'em," Leo joked with a smile.
"You disappeared last night," Martha's mother said suddenly, interrupting the conversation that Martha had been having with her brother. Well, it hadn't quite turned into a conversation yet. But it would have.
"I just... went home," Martha replied, blinking heavily out of nerves.
"On your own?" Martha's mother asked, her eyes flicking to the Doctor and Emmy. Emmy's eyes widened as she realized what Martha's mother was insinuating because oh no, she thought the three of them had gone home last night. Together.
Martha's eyes widened as well and she looked quite embarrassed as well. "Um, these are a couple friends of mine. The Doctor and Emmy."
"Doctor what?" Martha's mother asked, brushing Emmy off. Emmy was quite a normal name, nothing really to be worried about there. She also looked a bit more like Martha's age than the Doctor did.
"No, it's just the Doctor. We've been doing some work together," Martha answered for the Doctor, worried that he would muck things up. Her mother could be pretty brutal when she wanted to be, and Martha didn't really want the Doctor on the sharp end of that stick.
"And how did you meet Miss Emmy then?" Martha's mother asked.
Emmy sighed heavily, she'd thought she was out of the woods. Martha stuttered slightly, seeming out of excuses, but Emmy jumped in, making an attempt to help out her friend. "I'm a chemistry major. I had just been checking out some of the machines that they use in the hospital on a molecular level for my thesis paper. I had been on lunch break when I stumbled across Martha." It was a complete lie and she wasn't really sure how she would even use machines on a molecular level for a thesis, but Martha's mother seemed to buy it.
The Doctor coughed lightly in an attempt to diffuse the tension. "Yeah, all right." He held a hand out to Martha's mother for her to shake. "Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Jones. I've heard a lot about you.
"Have you? What have you heard then?" Martha's mother asked. She really didn't seem to like the Doctor at all.
"Oh, you know, that you're Martha's mother and…um… No, actually, that's…that's about it. We haven't had much time to chat, you know, been busy," the Doctor stuttered, his never-ending confidence suddenly depleting. He looked extremely awkward and a bit afraid of Martha's mother.
"Busy? Doing what, exactly?" Wow, okay. Martha's mother was either really over protective of her daughter, or she seriously needed to get her mind out of the gutter.
"Oh... you know... stuff," the Doctor muttered quietly.
Martha's mother opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by someone tapping on their glass, signaling that something was about to happen. Everyone turned their attention to the center of the room, where Richard Lazarus stood in front of his giant pod.
Lazarus addressed the crowd and began speaking, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus and tonight I'm going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you'll awake to a world which will be changed forever."
As Richard Lazarus turned to make his way into the pod, all Emmy could think of was that this was not good. Not good at all.
A/N: Okay, I'm not entirely sure on how I feel about this chapter. So let me know what you think, just don't be too harsh, please. Also, I'm sorry that this story updates slower than molasses, but life just seems to be constantly getting in the way.
Also, I've started up a Polyvore with any outfits that Emmy may wear in the story. I'm worried that it will be a little cheesy, but it's usually how I generate my ideas for her outfits, and I'm a big fashion person. So if anyone is interested in that, the link is in my bio.
Any way, I hope you enjoy!