The round door slid inside the wall loudly, disrupting the otherwise dead silence in the ship. The corridor beyond followed the same shape as the door, giving her the feeling she was walking right into a tube; she had to clasp her hands in front of her to keep herself from touching the metal walls to guide herself down the dark expanse. Apart from the hidden blue lighting radiating off the walls, there was no other source of light to help her see anything beyond her nose. Her footsteps echoed as she walked forward, each step mirroring her heartsbeat.
The red signs painted on the walls glowed menacingly under the blue lighting, making a strange feeling crawl up her spine as she moved forward. She knew where she needed to be. She knew who waited at the end. She knew she had someone to please. What she felt didn't matter, it never had. Only her purpose mattered, and the reward at the end of the line. And even though her comrades had left her to her own devices, she couldn't have been happier, because she had no intention of sharing her prize with anyone.
It seemed she had been walking for ages and ages, her eyes never quite adjusting to the lighting distorting her vision, before she reached the final chamber. The door opened with a terrible moan, metal scraping against metal, and she heard the last of her comrades disappear in the shadows. The room was open to almost all levels of the ship, giving her the feeling that she had stepped into the bottom of a deep well, the ceiling not even visible from where she was standing. The lighting was no better in here, and the hovering blue bulbs were no good in illuminating the group of people huddled in the middle of the room. When they saw her, some cowered away, but as soon as the shadows touched them, they recoiled back to where they had been. Despite the darkness, she could see one figure sprawled in front of her, and she was pretty sure the person was already dead.
With not a single glance downwards she stepped over the body, gathering up her long robes as she went to stand in front of the group. She heard a small whimper come from somewhere in the centre of the room, and most of them were breathing heavily as they looked up at her. ''Please,'' one young man said in a heavy accent, ''we never did anything wrong. You don't have a reason to keep us here.''
''That is not for me to decide,'' she replied, her gaze fixed on him in the semi-darkness. ''I do not have a say in what happens to you.''
''But you can let us go. You can help us. You can even come with us. I can't see how someone like you can do all the things they say you do.''
She paused, considering his words. What were they saying? Wasn't what she was doing a normal thing someone like her would do? What was the matter? Everything she did had a natural outcome, and sometimes people outside of her circle called it a ''consequence'', but she could never see how her actions had consequences. Didn't her actions have the usual outcome? ''I cannot see how someone like me would not. It is, after all, my duty.''
There it was, the whimper again. The man that had been talking to her turned around briefly to whisper something before turning to face her again. ''Please, I beg you-''
He never finished his sentence, for the blast of golden energy that came out of her left hand hit him square in the chest, illuminating Frank's wide eyes before he fell back on the ground, accompanied by the sickening crack of his spine as he landed against a metal protrusion on the floor. The people gathered in the room screamed, but the sound got lost in the depths of the room, and one by one they fell victims to her blasts until there was nothing to be heard.
In the heavy silence that followed, it was easier to pick up the shallow breathing of the person she had stepped over, and she turned on her heel to stare down at him. The scarce lighting only served to illuminate his teary eyes. ''If you… keep doing this,'' he said in barely a whisper, ''wh-who's gonna save you?''
Her arm was up before he had finished speaking. ''I do not need saving,'' she stated before she let the blast fly, seeing Solomon's face in the light moments before it found home…
Alexandra's eyes flew open with a gasp. Her limbs were a tangled mess in her duvet, trapping her under its weight, and she scrambled to throw it off with a desperation she was surprised she even had. The cool air of the room felt like a kiss against her hot skin, but the illumination her hands offered at that moment left her no time to relax before she swung her feet off the bed.
The first thing she did was start an analogue stop watch she had set up on her bedside table and then place two fingers on her neck, feeling her frantic heartsbeat thumping under her skin, and she popped a thermometer into her mouth before her free hand curled around her knee. Breathe in, she chanted in her head, inhaling deeply, and breathe out, she exhaled. Breathe in, and breathe out...
Steadily, her hearts slowed their frantic rhythm, and with them the light that had engulfed her arms concentrated on her fingertips, tiny sources of light that were soon extinguished by her making a fist. Only then did she bow her head and exhale loudly one last time, her tense shoulders slumping forward. Then, she reached over and stopped the watch. Opening the drawer of her bedside table, she pulled out her journal and untied the string to head to a log at the very beginning, a long list of times that occupied several pages. The thermometer beeped in her mouth and Alexandra placed it next to her on the bed as she jotted down the number of the entry she was putting down and the time it had taken for her to suppress the glow next to it at the end of the list.
Immediately she raised an eyebrow. Comparing the number she had written down to the previous one on the list, she noticed that it had taken less time for her to calm down, almost a quarter of a minute. She had calculated an average time, scrawled in a bolded box a few pages back, and though it was usual for each measurement to deviate from that average, she had never seen a drop that big. She put an asterisk next to the latest measurement and flipped through blank pages to reach another log, this time a long list of temperatures. She consulted the thermometer before writing down the temperature she had displayed this time around.
Curious, she thought as she compared the number to her average temperature. It has never dropped that much.
Adding another asterisk, Alexandra flipped to the last section of her booklet, pages upon pages of text filed under entry numbers corresponding with different measurements. After writing down today's entry number with a thick line underlining it and putting an asterisk next to it, she started her usual assumptions:
Sleeping quarters moved to the TARDIS.
Resting period: 1 Earth hour
Outcomes upon waking remain the same. Unusual decrease of resting time and core temperature after this sleeping period. Factors contributing to this change to be determined.
Her hand stilled over the page, Solomon's eyes still shining under the beam of vortex energy in her mind. Swallowing hard, she started a new paragraph.
Dreamscape still holding the same essence. Murder still the prominent feature. Place was now a seemingly inoperable cargo ship. Large group of people gunned down by yours truly.
Not even her small quip could keep the lump in her throat from reappearing before she finished the paragraph.
Among the dead were Frank and Solomon.
Her eyes travelled around the dimly lit room, the hum of the TARDIS coming from within the walls actually helping her concentrate on calming herself down. How she had ended up here, in the time machine, in a room that she wasn't even sure was her own, she couldn't even comprehend. The Doctor had extended the invitation for her to stay once, and that had included choosing a room, and given the chance to do so again, she couldn't even remember what her own room had looked like. But by some unimaginable twist of fate, an opportunity to stick around a little longer had presented itself, just when they had been about to bid Martha Jones goodbye for what seemed like the last time.
And it had been as easy as turning on the TV...
...oOo...
The Doctor pulled a lever and the time machine stilled with a characteristic groan. ''There we go!'' he cheered. ''Perfect landing, which isn't easy in such a tight spot.'' To make a point, he raised his eyebrows at Alexandra with an accomplished look on his face.
''You should be used to tight spots by now,'' Martha remarked as the Time Lady made a face right back at him. ''Where are we?''
''The end of the line,'' he replied, the human wasting no time rushing to the door with a grin. ''No place like it.''
Martha turned around to look at him questioningly and he nodded encouragingly. Her smile widened and she threw the doors open, stepping outside…
...only for her excitement to deflate miserably at the destination. ''Home,'' she deadpanned. ''You took me home?''
Alexandra followed the Doctor outside and looked around at the flat. He had landed in the small living room, the TARDIS barely fitting between the coffee table and the desk, the big window letting sunlight bathe the room in light. The space wasn't exactly tidy, but it had that characteristic lived-in feeling, and anyone could see Martha's personality in all the decorative pieces and colourful details. ''In fact, the morning after we left, so you've only been gone about 12 hours,'' he elaborated, stealing a glance at a set of photos of young Martha and her siblings on display on a shelf.
Alexandra squatted next to the Doctor to get a look at the lower shelves. ''No one will have even noticed you've been gone.''
''But all the stuff we've done - Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?''
''Yep, all in one night - relatively speaking. Everything should be just as it was: books, CDs... laundry.''
Alexandra looked up at them just in time to see a wide-eyed Martha snatch a pair of lingerie from the Doctor's finger, and she couldn't help but giggle.
''So, back where you were,'' he concluded, ''as promised.''
The girl blanched. ''This is it?''
She raised herself to her full height as the Doctor inhaled deeply. ''Yeah, I should probably… um…''
He was interrupted by the ring of the phone.
The answering machine immediately picked it up. ''Hi! I'm out! Leave a message!'' said Martha's cheery recorded voice.
The real Martha looked away sheepishly. ''I'm sorry.''
There was another beep. ''Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?'' the voice of an older woman said, sounding just a tiny bit urgent.
''It's mum. It'll wait,'' the girl in question waved it off.
''All right then, pretend that you're out if you like,'' the woman went on, her remark earning her giggles from the people listening. ''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 frowned and picked up her TV remote as the call ended, and she turned on her TV. On the news was an old man, maybe in his 70s or 80s (Alexandra could never really tell), taking to the crowd of gathered reporters, a young black woman looking very professional behind him. ''...the details are top secret...''
''How could Tish end up on the news?'' Martha wandered as the Time Lords joined her to watch the screen.
''...Tonight, I will demonstrate a device…''
''She's got a new job,'' she explained over the voice of the man. ''PR for some research lab.''
''...with the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human.''
''Sorry,'' she said as she switched off the TV just as reporters started asking questions. ''You were saying we should...?''
The Time Lord took a while to tear his gaze from the now dead screen. ''Yes, yes, we should...'' He supported himself on the half-open door of the TARDIS. '' One trip is what we said.''
Martha looked down at her feet. ''Yeah. I suppose things just kind of… escalated.''
He hummed in agreement before he frowned slightly. ''Seems to happen to me a lot.''
Alexandra bumped his shoulder with her own, an eyebrow raised, earning a laugh from all of them.
''Thank you,'' the human said earnestly, looking between them. ''Both of you. For everything. And seeing you again,'' she added, laying a hand on the Time Lady's arm.
Both aliens smiled. ''It was our pleasure,'' the Doctor replied before heading inside the time machine. Alexandra laid a hand over Martha's briefly before following him.
With a sigh, she moved to one part of the console, helping him take off from the small flat. But they hadn't spent a full minute in silence before their eyes met again, both of them pointing at the other in mutual realization. ''Did he just-?''
''I think he did,'' he agreed with her unfinished statement and both of them put in the materialization sequence, landing a moment later back into the same spot they had justvacated. They both reached the door at the same time, popping their heads outside to look at a very startled Martha, Alexandra's head under the Doctor's. ''No, I'm sorry. Did he say he was gonna change what it means to be human?''
...oOo...
Humanity was incredible.
It was a species that didn't have that long of a lifespan. They often didn't make great efforts to help each other unless there was something they could gain. The highest authorities kept them secluded and often withheld information that would help them advance. They read between the lines frustratingly slow and often saw things that weren't there. Sometimes they would be too trigger-happy and others would show a complete disregard for the rules. As of late they couldn't decide if the aliens that came to Earth should be negotiated with or not.
And they were utterly splendid. They hadn't been on the planet that long, but their brilliant minds had allowed them to make rapid advancements in all fields, whether it be science or culture. Their short time on their planet didn't stop them from living life to the fullest. They had children, they got jobs, they tried to make the best of the short time they had. They fought for their beliefs with every fibber of their being and loved with every piece of their heart. And God forbid someone tried to take away something that was theirs.
Alexandra had always admired the humans' abilities, ever since she had been one. In the following centuries, they would spread across the universe and sear themselves in the stars. They would endure for millennia, survive through hardships and destruction because they had each other. If that wasn't a feat worth of her awe, then what was?
And how was that man going to change what it means to be human?
His words had puzzled her, and still did, even now as she made her way to the console room, having discarded her borrowed nightgown for her normal clothes and bidding a regretful goodbye to her cloak for the evening. To choose to alter anything that made a human human... She couldn't, for the life of her, understand what the professor meant with his words, but she could admit: she was downright intrigued. In theory, a species had the right amount of advantages and disadvantages, each one developed under specific circumstances in specific environments for a specific reason; natural selection at its finest. To step in the middle of this process, to intervene with the way a species evolved and adapted to its surroundings, to upset the balance between its assets and its weaknesses, that would require a very bold attitude and a very open mind. Even she could never bring herself to go that far in her experiments.
When faced with thoughts like these, Alexandra would compare Time Lords to humans. She couldn't help it; in times like these, she always remembered the time she had spent as a human, no matter how short that had been. Humans had one heart; Time Lords had two. Humans couldn't survive the vacuum of space; Time Lords could for some time. Humans had short lives; Time Lords could live for hundreds of years before even regenerating for the first time. Humans were so small, yet would do so much; Time Lords had resigned themselves to observing, never interfering. Humans rushed to share their feelings with each other because their lives were fleeting; Time Lords not only didn't feel the need to do so, but were connected telepathically with their entire species.
There were billions of humans. There were still billions of humans to come.
There were only two Time Lords.
That conclusion always made her stomach turn.
Humans could survive just as they were. How did the man hope to change them?
The console room was empty when she finally reached it, something she hadn't expected to be grateful of. The hum that was present throughout the ship was louder here, and the clicking of all the devices covering the console offered an escape route from her thoughts. Tentatively, Alexandra reached out to touch the coral frame of the console with her right hand, running her fingers over the rough surface, and was surprised when the machine gave what could only be described as a satisfied hum in return.
A small smile played on her lips. ''You like that, girl?'' she called up to the rotor.
In reply, she got a new content hum.
Alexandra giggled. Oh, the absurdity of it, talking to a machine! What would her colleagues think of her if they saw her talking to yet another piece of tech? They certainly wouldn't understand that this piece of tech had a mind of its own, and a soul to go with it...
Her smile fell. Yes, the ship had a mind and a soul of its own, but it would never give her a piece of its mind or a reason behind why it did what it did...
Her feet carried her forward of their own accord, her hand trailing over the coral, and soon enough she was standing over the green panel facing the door. Immediately she lifted her hand away and rested it on her chest, cradled between her hearts, safe from all the interference this part of the console could inflict. No matter how much she had tried to forget over the years, no matter the effort she put into pushing it away, the memory of that godforsaken panel opening wouldn't go away. Even now she could imagine it, as if it was playing out before her eyes: her hand, laden with the gold energy, being pulled down on the panel before it lifted, the blinding light enveloping her, so inviting and warm, an extension of herself, the energy simmering, beckoning her to claim it...
Alexandra shut her eyes and turned away from the console. She hadn't realised it before, but her hands were shaking. She quickly tucked them underneath her arms.
Taking a calming breath, she looked up at the time rotor again. The TARDIS seemed to have stilled, holding its breath, waiting for her next action. The notion unnerved her. ''Why did you do it?'' she said quietly to the silence. ''Opening your heart in the middle of an incursion is dangerous, so why do it?''
For once, it seemed that the TARDIS wasn't keen on replying.
''You must have felt the vortex leaking from me, and your response was to open the heart, but why? What would you gain?''
A sudden burst of static to her left had her look at the monitor halfway around the console in puzzlement. Standing on her tiptoes, she reached over and pulled it towards her with a grunt of effort, only to be treated to a series of videos seemingly recorded from a point on the TARDIS ceiling.
The first showed chaos. The console room was shaking, sparks flying left and right, smoke wafting up from the panels... and its occupants seemingly in a deadly standstill. She could see – to her surprise – Jack, missing half the bulk of muscle he had now and with his hair combed back, standing next to a pillar by the doors, a man in a leather jacket and shortly-cropped hair she remembered as another incarnation of the Doctor, someone she had witnessed in his mind oh so long ago, standing vigil by the console. And bathed in the light of the heart of the TARDIS was an overweight woman in a dress suit, one arm a horrifying green appendage made of muscle with long claws wrapped tightly around the neck of Rose, the Doctor's former companion. As she watched, the woman looked into the heart, captivated by the bright light, and a serene look descended upon her face. The light grew brighter, and the skin suit the Raxacoricofallapatorian was wearing fell away on the floor. With a small time jump in the feed, the occupants were all squatting around it, the Doctor holding up a mud-green egg with tentacles on top.
''She can start again!'' the Doctor was saying cheerfully in a Northern accent, a thing that took her aback. ''Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell 'em to bring her up properly, she might be all right!''
Alexandra frowned. ''Why are you showing me this?''
Instead, the monitor went to static again, only to show another video: this time, the console room was unusually still, and Rose was alone inside, along with another blonde woman in a tan leather jacket. It looked to Alexandra like they were having an argument, the unknown blonde pacing up and down the console, her face always away from the camera recording them. She was making overly exaggerated movements, pointing outside the open doors, racking her hair and motioning wildly at the console, halfway between accusatory and infuriated. Rose, on the other hand, couldn't even meet her eye.
A moment later, the sound came on. ''Do you really want to go back? Do you really want to join him in the middle of all that? Because once I do this, once this panel is lifted, I cannot guarantee your safety,'' the unknown woman was saying.
Rose stared at the panel, then up at the woman, and then her eyes turned to a point outside the door. She nodded a second later. ''He needs our help,'' was all she offered.
The next jump of the video showed the panel swinging open under the woman's hand, both of them now engulfed by the brightness of the light before the static erased the image from before the Time Lady's eyes.
She gave a slight slap to the side of the monitor. ''You're trying to tell me something, but what?!'' she hissed in annoyance.
The next video made both her hands grip the monitor tighter, because it was all too familiar.
In the grainy image she saw herself, so much younger and with darker hair and eyes, working on the panel facing the door, the Doctor on the other side of the console. They were setting up their trap for the werewolves, she knew, to get them away from this planet and to keep them from biting her, but they would never get to implement their plan: energy had started to gather around her hand, and she called out to the Doctor in fright, but before he had even reached her side, her hand had been pulled to the panel and it had swung open.
The white dress she wore shone as bright as the sun, blinding Alexandra even as she saw herself through the monitor. She would have called it vanity, but right now, watching as tendrils of energy danced around her, the light of the heart falling on her like an overly bright spotlight, complementing her skin and making her hair look so much darker in comparison, she couldn't help but be captivated by her image. With the golden energy of the vortex around her, waiting for her to claim it, to finally embrace her potential, she only now realised how right it all looked.
And that shook her to the core.
With an angry flick of her hand, she sent the monitor spinning away from her. ''Stop it,'' she mumbled, taking a few steps back, ''I don't want to see it again, I don't-''
A loud crash interrupted her words.
Alexandra spun around to look at the doors, behind which the sound had come from. She rushed over and pushed them open, only to be met with a truly unusual sight.
By the window of Martha's flat now stood half a bookcase with a metal frame, its top two shelves having fallen to the floor along with anything that had been on them, books and a round mirror and even a plastic model of Earth, and the Doctor standing before it, his back to her, one of the wooden shelves in hand.
The moment he heard the doors open, his shoulders tensed. ''I can explain,'' he started, not even trying to look at her.
Alexandra crossed her hands over her chest and leaned against the door frame, an amused smile playing on her lips. ''Please, do tell.''
Slowly, the Doctor turned around to face her, shelf still held miserably in his hands. His mouth opened and closed several times in an attempt to form words. ''I was looking at the globe.''
She raised an eyebrow, biting down the urge to laugh. In two strides she was next to him, and she reached down to pick up the globe that lay among the fallen items to show it to him. ''This globe?''
''...yes?''
''And what, did it fall off its axis?''
The hands holding the shelf fell and the Doctor sighed in defeat. ''Fine, it was an accident.''
This time she couldn't help herself: she did chuckle. ''What will Martha say if she finds you destroying her furniture?'' Only now realising it, she briefly surveyed the apartment with her gaze. ''Where is she, anyway?''
The Doctor seemed extremely relieved at the change in subject. ''She went to grab some food,'' he said as he knelt down to gather up whatever had fallen, ''she didn't have anything in.''
''She didn't have to,'' she said as she spun the globe on its axis to examine it.
''She wanted to, after all we've been through.''
''And what a lovely thank you this will be!''
His movements stilling, the Doctor examined the mess he had made and cringed. ''Yeah, but everything will be in its proper place before she-''
But just as he was about to finish his thought, the main door creaked open and hit the sofa, followed by a groan. ''Doctor! You should really move the TARDIS, I can barely-'' But Martha stopped short at the sight of the two wide-eyed Time Lords standing with pieces of her bookcase in hand.
The Doctor looked down at the shelf still his hands and quickly slotted it back into place before looking sheepishly back at the girl. ''Well, you just moved around it, hardly a challenge.''
Martha could only stare incoherently at the mess, barely able to motion at it properly with her full-with-bags hands. ''What happened here?''
Alexandra's gaze didn't waver from her as she raised a hand to point at the man beside her. ''He did it.''
''Snitch,'' he grumbled under his breath.
The bags were set down on Martha's desk and the human stared at the Doctor. It could have been called a glare, but the Time Lady could see it in her eyes: she couldn't quite get mad at the Doctor over this. ''If you manage this while we're both gone, what are you gonna do while I'm helping Alexandra pick out what to wear?''
Alexandra nodded, but then did a double take. ''Help with what?''
~\8/~
''What do you think?''
Martha turned around from going through a rack of medieval dresses to see Alexandra holding a gown against her body. It was light pink and silk and reminded Martha of dresses an elf princess would wear, with a v neckline and small white stones creating patterns on its empire waist and leaving her arms bare.
Despite it being a lovely dress, she shook her head. ''You're already pale. They'll think you're glowing.''
The Time Lady considered this and shrugged. ''As long as they don't mean it in a bad way,'' she remarked, dropping the gown nonetheless on a fast growing pile of previously discarded dresses in the middle of the floor. The two had relocated to the TARDIS wardrobe to find the appropriate outfit for her to wear… but Martha hadn't thought her plan through that well. Given the chance to look for clothes in there, she would probably drown in all the garments rather than find something appropriate to wear.
''Haven't you ever gone to a black tie event?'' she asked the Time Lady as the later groaned from behind a rack of floor-length gowns. ''You are 200 years old, surely you must have.''
''I have, but being a professor in the 51st century requires a slightly different dress code when it comes to those.''
''Haven't you gone to an event in the 21st?''
''Once, but I looked 14, and it was more of a royal wedding than a black tie event.''
Martha changed racks, but what her companion had said made her frown. ''Wait a minute, you're a professor?''
Alexandra looked up and smiled. ''Genetics, Luna University. They keep the seat warm in case I go back – you know, time travel and all.'' Her smile slightly fell. ''Sometimes even I don't know when I will go back.''
''The Doctor doesn't seem to stand still wherever he goes, how come you stayed somewhere long enough to become a professor?''
The question seemed to amuse her friend, for she leaned a little closer to Martha over the rack. ''I'm not the Doctor,'' she said in a conspiratory whisper and disappeared behind the rack once again, the sound of metal dragged across metal the only sound between them.
Martha frowned. ''Then why did you leave?''
Hangers stilled over the metal railing, and the human was concerned her question had struck a raw nerve. ''Not by choice,'' was the reply she was given.
She couldn't say she was relieved by that answer. But it had been so rare for her to have a conversation with someone else these past days but the Doctor, and she hardly knew anything about Alexandra apart from the fact that she and the Doctor had an affinity for bantering. She wouldn't press her on the matter, but she did have to get something off her chest. ''The Doctor told me how your planet got destroyed. I'm sorry.''
Martha half-expected another silence, but instead, the Time Lady gave her a small smile. ''Thank you, Martha Jones.''
''Did you know the Doctor before the Time War?''
To her surprise, the Time Lady chuckled. ''Oh no, that would be a tiny bit impossible. I grew up off planet.''
Martha's eyebrows shot upwards. ''Really?''
Alexandra shrugged. ''Yeah. I was… a nun, so to speak. During the war, someone left me to a sisterhood on a planet close to Gallifrey, Karn. Well, close, so to speak… But I grew up with them and I became part of the sisterhood.''
''Then how did you meet the Doctor?''
''I… ended up on Earth in this century, a totally different person than I was before, and he helped me out of a difficult situation I had found myself in, totally by accident. And he helped me become who I was supposed to be.''
Martha frowned. ''That sounds deep, how come you didn't travel with him afterwards?''
The mere question seemed to drain the Time Lady's eyes of any colour. Suddenly, she seemed keen to avoid her gaze. ''Remember how I said that some information came to light?'' At her nod, Alexandra clasped her hands in front of her, tapping at her knuckles with her index finger. She seemed extremely torn, as if contemplating whether telling her would be the best idea or not. It felt like eternity had passed when she finally broke and threw her hands up in frustration. ''It's very complicated, I shouldn't bother you with it-''
''B-but I want to know!'' she offered. ''If it's only between you and the Doctor, you'll never get it off your chest.''
Alexandra pursed her lips in thought, contemplating her words, before giving a sigh. ''I am the daughter of one of his friends.''
It took nearly a minute for the news to settle, but when it finally did, Martha's eyes widened. ''No way.''
''Yes way,'' Alexandra nodded vigorously.
''You-you are the daughter of his friend?!''
''Uh-huh, his best friend.''
''And what was the problem? He even knew your family before the war, he could tell you stuff about them!''
''But I already had a family!''
Martha gave a pause at the exclamation.
''I grew up with lots of admirable women around me. Yes, we weren't related, yes, some didn't like the fact that I was a Time Lady, but they embraced me as their Sister, they let me in on their rituals, they even gave their lives for me when I would never ask for them to do so!''
She seemed to regret letting that slip, for she immediately turned her back on her. Her hands went to grab the rack in front of her, seemingly to support herself. ''Tell me, what would you do if a friend of yours died and left a child behind for you to take care of? There is no other family member left, just you, her best friend.''
She was taken aback by the question. What would she do? ''I guess I... I would try to raise it the way she would want to. Be a good mum for it. Try my best not to replace her... but not become its friend.''
Only then did Alexandra turn back around to face her. ''Exactly. When I met the Doctor, I was 21 years old, I was an infant compared to him. I already saw him as the best friend I never had and I was so thrilled to travel with him... And then he started acting like my guardian. And then I realised...'' she smiled sorrowfully, ''he wasn't seeing me. He was seeing a responsibility. He wasn't seeing another Time Lord who might need help, he wasn't even seeing a new friend. He was seeing the child who never met her mother.''
It wasn't a concept she had to think about every day. It wasn't something that would happen in her world, anyway. But what must Alexandra have felt when he tried to take the mantle of her father? When her friend started treating her like a child to be schooled? When the ghost of her mother shrouded her from the Doctor's eyes? When he saw her as something his best friend had left him for safekeeping?
Had it felt like what Martha felt every time his eyes grew weary with sadness, when she did something that unearthed memories of a time when another woman stood by his side?
''Had Rose left when you met him?'' The question came out before she could stop it.
Alexandra raised an eyebrow. ''Yes... yet it felt like she was still there.''
She had feared the answer would be something like that. ''Know the feeling,'' she mumbled, more to herself than her.
She could feel the Time Lady's eyes studying her intently way before her hand rested on Martha's shoulder. ''The Doctor has lost much in a very short while. It wouldn't be wise to stretch a fresh wound, even if we think it will help.''
Martha could only nod at her reasoning, even if she could feel a prickle in her heart. ''Yeah, you're right. We shouldn't.''
Alexandra nodded with a smile. ''Now the big question is... what is keeping me from wearing what I usually wear to this thing?''
Martha hadn't realised she had been holding her breath until she felt all air leave her lungs. ''Come on! You convinced the Doctor to wear black tie, it's not fair for him!''
''So you're saying I'm doing it as a courtesy to him?''
''No, you're doing it so that you can ditch the boots.''
Alexandra considered her words before raising an eyebrow. ''He's keeping the Converse.''
Martha chuckled. ''And you are gonna rock a lovely pair of heels. Specifically...'' she trailed off, wandering back to a rack, ''one that will match this.'' And she held up one specific dress that had caught her eye.
At the sight of it, the Time Lady's eyes widened in wonder. ''You should go into the fashion industry, Martha Jones.''
~\8/~
Standing just inside of the front door of Martha's house, the Doctor wanted to know which of the two girl's idea it was for him to wait at the entrance.
The moment he had declared himself ready, the girls had unceremoniously shoved him out of the room and instructed him – no, ordered him – to wait for them to get ready. And now he had come to realise the hard way that women of all time periods took roughly the same amount of time to get ready when they have barely any time constrains: a lot. He didn't even want to know for how long he had been pacing at the foot of the stairs, in full black tie and a pair of black Converse shoes to match, waiting for them to come down. And it wasn't like he could do anything to entertain himself, only to pace needlessly and try his best not to dig a hole in the floor.
It was a true blessing when he heard the door upstairs creak open and the sound of heels clicking against the woodwork. ''Oh, finally, do you know how long that was?''
The first one to come down the stairs was Martha, in a purple dress with a pleated skirt that reached her knees and a modest V neckline, her arms bare and the tattoo she had on her right arm visible. A wide black headband woven with sparkling thread held her straightened hair back, and she held a purple handbag in her hands. Her beaded necklace, a constant throughout their few adventures, was still around her neck, now accompanied by silver rings on both of her hands a single silver bangle on her right, and she had put on a modest amount of make-up.
Once she caught sight of him, she scoffed. ''We had a lot to do, you know! We didn't just slap on the first thing we could find!''
''Oh, let him whine!'' Alexandra's voice called, close in tow. ''He's jealous he hasn't been a woman yet.''
Martha laughed as she joined him at the bottom, and she got to work straightening his lapels, and he couldn't help but smile at her attention to detail. ''As if that could happen.''
''Well,'' she said, her voice now much clearer, ''when it does, you'll be the first to know.''
The moment he turned his eyes on her, he found it hard to look anywhere else.
He had seen her in formal attire before, but she had looked much younger then. Seeing her now, one hand on her waist and the other on the staircase railing and older, was another sight entirely. Her dress was a purple a couple shades darker than Martha's, with a deeper neckline that emphasised curves on her body he would otherwise not notice when she wore her regular dresses with the high necklines. She had managed to keep the same style, though, with the fabric reaching her knees at the front and dropping down to her ankles at the back in those characteristic trains she had been fond of even as a human. Right at the end of the neckline, a beaded embellishment in the shape of a flower decorated the empire waist. Her left hand, now set on the railing, was adorned by a gold grid bracelet. He didn't know what she had done to them, but her eyes, locked with his in a challenge that slowly shifted to curiosity the more he stared, seemed rounder somehow, letting the blue shine through more clearly from within the dark eyeliner and mascara. Her once pink lips were now a few shades darker and closer to a red shade, and even from where he was standing he could see the light layer of foundation she had applied didn't do much to obscure her freckles. Her hair was now parted on the opposite side of which she usually preferred, the left side of her face almost completely obscured by the chestnut strands, and curled ever so slightly at the ends. She hadn't used a barrette to hold it in place: she had merely combed it to the other side and let it fall over her shoulder, and it seemed to do the trick. It suited her more that way, allowing him to see her face from a different angle, and...
''Do you have four piercings in one ear?''
It had been the only relevant thing he could say to stop gawking at her like a fish with its mouth open.
Alexandra blinked away her confusion and smirked. ''I once joined some students of mine for moral support,'' she explained as she made her way down. ''It seemed like a good idea at the time. And I almost match Martha now!''
His eyes darted over to the girl, and he just registered the fact that she had two piercings in each ear. ''Oh, nice,'' he commented as he shifted his gaze between each ear.
''Thank you!'' Martha said. ''They are a bit of a bother, no wonder she doesn't show them as much.''
Once Alexandra joined them, he turned to study her own earrings, in colours that complimented her dress, aided by the height her heels added. ''And why now?''
She merely shrugged. ''I have them. What a better occasion to show them? So...'' She wound her arm around his elbow, seemingly giving Martha the queue to do the same, ''shall we?''
He couldn't help but grin at the women on either side of him. He could get used to this.