I know it's been a while, but writing the beginning of my other current fic sparked something in this one. I will be writing the two of them as inspiration strikes. Please read and review, it truly makes my day.
When Joe awoke the first thing he noticed was the silence. It unsettled him, sent goose pumps prickling up his arms as he listened intently to try and interpret the disconcerting quiet. Trying to ignore the pain in his head, Joe slowly opened his eyes.
Red flashed before him angrily and Joe groaned audibly. Slowly sitting upright he looked round the empty room. "Martha!" he hissed. "Martha!" His whisper was answered with a short scream. "Martha!" Stumbling wildly to his feet, the pain immediately gone to be replaced with cold fear, he raced down the stairs, skidding to an abrupt halt as he heard footsteps along the corridor. Slowing into a cautious tiptoe, the cockney peered down the walkway to see two figures huddled at the end. They were whispering and although Joe strained his ears he could not pick out what they were saying. Straightening up, one of the figures turned round and Joe's blood ran cold.
"Bloody hell..." This wasn't the face of a human, far from it. Blue, with ears abnormally low down, and angry, dark eyes. And slumped on the floor, previously concealed by this... monster was Martha Jones.
Joe cursed the fact he hadn't got his home guard musket with him or he would've shot the two intruders on the spot. Instead, he forced himself to stay still, trying to access if Martha was still alive. He watched as the second man (if one could call him that) hooked his strong arms around her waist and carried her roughly along the corridor. Joe tensed. If they came any closer, he knew they would be able to see where he was hiding. Preparing himself to run for his life, he held his breath. The steps got closer and closer- tap tap tap tap... Joe closed his eyes...
And the steps stopped.
Joe listened to the sound of a door being unlocked, a dull thud, and he the turning of a key. Letting out a quavering breath, he opened his eyes, just in time to catch a glimpse of one of the figures locking the door.
"It is done," one whispered in an oddly familiar, female voice. "Time to go into the village?" His senses finally returning to him, Joe sprinted up a flight of stairs and concealed himself behind a curtain, watching between the gaps in the steps as the two aliens tapped out the corridor and down the stairs. The front door slammed shut. They were gone.
And Joe began to run down the stairs.
III
"Martha, Martha, Martha..." Martha cried out a little as her eyes blinked open to the harsh light, just as the door slammed behind her. She looked up, disorientated, to the Doctor's concerned face swimming in her blurred vision.
"Doctor!" She sat up abruptly, cupping his face in her hands. "Oh my God, you're ok!"
"When am I not?" he pulled her into a hug. "What happened to you?"
"Mrs May," she said. "She turned into this... alien. There were two of them they were chasing me. I'm fine, I can't have been out for more than a minute." She let go of him, and looked around the room. "What happened to you?"
"More of the same. When you left with Joe, I went for a walk to the TARDIS. She's doing ok, by the way, starting to come to her senses a little more. Anyway, I was just leaving the field we left her in when something hit me on the head. I woke up here." Martha nodded.
"What's the plan?"
"Martha?" A hoarse whisper from the other side of the door caused Martha to jump out of her skin. "Martha... are you in there?"
"Who is it?" she called, her voice shaky.
"It's me, Martha. It's Joe."
"Joe," he could hear the smile in her voice. "Thank God, is everything ok?"
"I dunno Martha, there were these things... bleedin' 'ell I thought you were dead 'n all..."
"I'm fine," she said. "I'm with the Doctor." There was a brief pause on the other side of the door.
"Oh," said Joe. "Right, he was 'ere after all. Right." Martha looked at the Doctor nervously, but he ignored her.
"Right Joe," he said, shuffling closer to the door. "It's your job to think of a way for us to get out of here."
"Me?" Joe hesitated. "OK. I can do that. Just wait 'ere. I'll be back in half an hour or so. I promise."
"Wait," called Martha. "What are you going to do?" A smile spread across Joe's face.
"Just trust me."
III
"So Walker," Captain Mainwaring stood still, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "You're telling me that you went up the church tower and rung the bells which are only to be used in the instance of an invasion just so you could get everybody together to save the madman and the... black girl from where they are supposedly locked in the house of a highly reputable local woman?" Mainwaring released a short bark. "Well you've excelled yourself this time Joe. And I didn't think it would get any worse beyond the pigeon in the organ incident."
"But Mr Mainwaring sir," Joe protested. "You've gotta believe me, they're in serious trouble. I dunno what that mad woman is but she ain't no woman, captain." He turned appealingly to the rest of the platoon who were stood around him. "Come on, Sarge you believe me don't you. Taffy?"
"I knew tha' couple were trouble the second I lay my eyes on 'em," said Frazer mournfully. "Not worth the bother, Joe."
"N'ah don't say that taffy you ain't seen 'em... they're locked up like animals they are. We've gotta save them, as soldiers it's our duty to save them. Mr Mainwaring sir?" Mainwaring stood up wearily.
"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt Walker. We will accompany you to this so called 'cell' where the Jones girl and her... Doctor are concealed and if we don't find them there," his voice softened. "You can wave goodbye to your privileges."
"But we don't have any privileges," piped up Pike. Mainwaring rolled his eyes.
"Stupid boy," he muttered. "Right then Wilson! Jones! Frazer! Godfrey! Pike! And you too Walker..." he turned to the cockney man. "Lead the way."
III
"Martha I didn't tell you about the paperwork I found," the Doctor suddenly said. Martha sat up from where she was lay, her head resting on his chest.
"Paperwork?"
"Yeah," the Doctor got up and crossed over to the cabinet, shuffling through sheets before extracting a cardboard wallet filled with paperwork. "They were passports, identification sheets about this... species. And more importantly, the bodies they possessed." Sitting down, his back leaning against the door, the Doctor picked out a sheet at random. "Look. Real name: Hansl Weisd. Cover name: Doris Gregory."
"She's one of the women at the home guard thing!" Martha blurted out, pointing at the photo attached. "Doris Gregory... bloody hell."
"There are dozens," the Doctor said shortly. "Around fifty or sixty in total. I don't know where the species came from or why they waited until now, but I know their aim."
"Yes?"
"Winston. Churchill."
Martha raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"They want to use the body of Winston Churchill. The prime minister," he added impatiently.
"I know who Winston Churchill is Doctor. But how does this link into changing time? And that was supposed to happen in the church hall. What would the PM of wartime Britain be doing here?"
"That, Martha Jones," he said. "Is what we need to a) find out and b) prevent." They sat in silence for a few comfortable moments, during which the Doctor wrapped his arm round her and stroked up and down her arm with his gentle hand. "Is your head ok?" he asked suddenly. She nodded.
"Fine. I was barely out for a second."
"Doesn't make it any less alarming," he said, gathering her into a hug. She slipped her arms around his relishing the feel of his body against hers after not knowing where he was for so long. Then came the knock at the door.
"Martha! It's me. I bought the platoon with me." Martha looked at the Doctor.
"Joe," she mouthed. He looked down.
"I can hear that." The rapping continued.
"It's me Martha, we're 'ere to 'elp you." Martha raised her voice.
"Thanks Joe. We're still here."
"God Lord!" This time it was abrupt tones of the captain. "You were telling the truth!"
"I never doubted ye for a second," Frazer was saying. Mainwaring looked up and down the corridor smugly.
"We've practised this many times, troops. Clearing a room. I trust I can put your practise into good use."
" Yessir"
"Good."
"Martha!" Joe shouted. "Get away from the door!" He listened to the sound of shuffling before he raised his rifle and fired two shots at the lock of the door. Frazer kicked down the door and Mainwaring was the first through it.
"Put your hands up!" he growled, pointing his gun at the Doctor, then at Martha, then the Doctor again. "NOW!"
"Mr Mainwaring," said Joe, stepping before him. "Sir what are you doing?"
"Stand aside Private Walker. Let the officer sort out this one."
"Joe," whispered Martha, indicating to obey the short, blustering man with a sharp motion of her head. Mainwaring was flushing now.
"You thought you got away didn't you Doctor," he hissed. "You thought you got away and all this time you were playing right into my hands!"
"Doctor! His neck!"
"I know. He's one of them." The platoon watched with bated breaths and a blue-ish tinge settled across the officer's skin. He gasped, his face seemingly smouldering at the sides and dropping to the floor only to reveal another face altogether. A smooth, light blue one with curiously low ears. He held his gun up once more and let it hover over Martha.
"Your lady first. I want you to see her die. Then you. And all your plans, all your schemes will crumble with your corpses." Martha closed her eyes, her body tensing as the plump finger squeezed against the trigger...
"NO!" It was Joe, running from the back of the crowd between her and the gun-wielding officer. Martha screamed as she heard the crack of the gun and the Doctor pulled her down to the floor, her vision spinning into a confusing vortex of shape and colour.
"Joe!" she shouted, stumbling to her feet. He was slumped on the floor beside Mainwaring or the alien who had taken the form of Mainwaring at least, and as far as Martha could see, he was completely still. "No," she whispered. "No, no, no please no."
"Martha," the Doctor held her back as she tried to run towards the still figure slumped across the carpet. "Martha hush now. It's fine, I promise you it's fine." She was crying in earnest now, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Oh God," she choked. "How can it be fine?" The Doctor wrapped her into a long hug.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. Then, to the rest of the men, he spoke louder. "Frank, Mr Frazer I want you to take that man-" he pointed to the alien. "And lock him in the room next door. There are individual keys for every room; they're in the key cabinet at the end of the corridor. The two men nodded solemnly and dragged the alien to his feet before disappearing down the corridor.
Martha emerged from the hug, pale and shaky. "Doctor," she began weakly, but now he was smiling.
"No, Martha," he said. "No, look." And Joe Walker sat up.
Martha thought she was going to faint. She swallowed deeply, her eyes searching for any wounds that would account for the fact that a bullet went straight into his chest. "What the..."
"The Doctor warned me," said Joe. "He said he noticed something odd about the way Mainwaring was acting, he said to wear one of these." He unbuttoned his uniform top to reveal an old metal bin lid. He grinned. "Bullet proof vest."
"But when..."
"The job interview was when I noticed," the Doctor said, resting a hand on her waist. "About Mainwaring. I warned all the men to wear one as a precaution." He beamed at her. "See, it's all ok." But as soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he'd said something wrong.
"You warned all of the men," she repeated. "But you didn't think to warn me."