Disclaimer: Jeeze, I get tired of writing these. You know by now, I don't own it! WAH!
A/N Well, what can I say except THANK YOU once again to all you FANTASTIC people who read, and especially to those who review! Right…next chapter. Martha's gonna get a bit jealous, naturally, but I've found it quite difficult to get across what she's feeling when the fic is mostly focused on the Doctor and Rose. Hope it works OK…
And now I have to deal with the plot! I'm biting my finger nails on this one…it's sooo difficult to get rid of Daleks quickly and without too much mess! I mean there's the good old high pitched sonic ray, or maybe pushing them out of the window…but I wanted to use our little DD seeing as Rose had gone to all that effort to bring it with her! LOL! Anyway – this chapter and the next deal with wrapping the plot up, so PLEASE review and let me know if it's OK. It's all been tied up pretty quickly but I wanted to keep the pace/urgency of the situation…and I'll shut up and post the story now! PROMISE! ; )
10 – The Oncoming storm
"And…that's about it really. I found myself here…" Rose finished, still feeling a little uncomfortable around Martha.
Martha flashed a forced smile at Rose and then looked at the floor. She had hardly spoken since Rose had started telling her story. After the shock of the initial meeting, she had started to feel an irrational dislike of the audacious woman who had bounded into her life, ruining her time with the Doctor. She was jealous. Under normal circumstances she would have probably liked Rose a lot; she felt she liked her and even admired her as she watched the Doctors memories play on the TARDIS hologram. But then, they were just memories…a part of his past. Now Rose was there, sitting right in front of her, stealing the Doctor away with every little glance that passed between them as he worked.
She sighed and looked back at Rose who was watching the Doctor, a sickeningly happy smile plastered on her face.
"Martha…", Rose said, suddenly, still looking at the Doctor.
"Huh?" Martha was jolted from her thoughts.
"I want us to be friends." She said, quietly, looking away from the man she loved and back at his companion, who was obviously annoyed by her sudden return to the Doctors life.
Martha didn't say anything and Rose sighed in frustration.
Her attempts at offering Martha the olive branch didn't progress any further, however, because at that moment, the Doctor came bouncing over. Rose smiled, still unable to believe just how good it felt to be able to see him again…to smell his unique scent, to see that goofy grin.
"I've done it! Got it! Got the blighter! We're all ready to go! Back to Torchwood!" he waved the Dimension Divider around like a man possessed.
"We running again?" Rose asked, standing up and straightening her jacket.
"We'll have to take the TARDIS in – it's quicker; though we'll probably have to fight off half of Torchwood to get away again…They really don't like me poking my nose in where I'm not invited." He shrugged. "Anyway…here we go!" He flicked a switch and the TARDIS took off.
"Your driving hasn't improved much in ten years…" Rose commented, hanging on to the side of the console. The Doctor just grinned, locking his gaze with hers for a moment before they shuddered to a halt.
"Here we are then…" He said cheerfully, opening the door, and then quickly shut it again, a frown etched on his face as Rose heard the one word she had been dreading since she arrived…
"Exterminate!!"
They were too late.
"Was that…a Dalek?" Martha asked, voice shaking.
"Nope…" The Doctor frowned, his jaw set. "That was three Daleks…"
"We're too late then…what're we gonna do?" Rose asked. "We can't let them get out of the building or..."
"First things first…" The Doctor said, business like all of a sudden. "I'm going to use this nifty device here to close up that breach…I can do that from here." He spun the Gallifreyan device around in his right hand. "I've got to stop any more from coming through."
"But then…won't the Daleks that have already come through be stuck here?" Martha asked.
"Yep, that's right Martha." The Doctor said pleasantly, as if she had just answered a maths question correctly.
"So...what are we gonna do about them?" Rose asked.
"Lets just get that breach closed first…." The Doctor fiddled with the device, concentration written all over his face. "I don't intend dealing with a whole army of them again…" He stroked it gently as if he was playing a musical instrument and a bright line of white light shot from the centre.
"Did it work?" Martha asked, once the light had gone.
"Course it did!" The Doctor looked indignant. "It has various compartments inside housing different sources of energy and organic material for many purposes…all you have to do is know how to activate the right bit…just takes a bit of emotion." He looked serious for a moment before smiling. "And…yep – we're still alive! Woo!" He grinned and hugged Rose briefly in celebration. "Now…three Daleks…three Daleks…" he walked over to the door of the TARDIS and looked out again.
"It's the Doctor – Exterminate!" He pulled his head back in. "Umm…make that four." He frowned.
"Four?!" Rose and Martha said together.
"Yep – looks like they've found what they were looking for. Our old friend Dalek Caan is here…a lovely family reunion." He gritted his teeth together. "What to do…what to do…." He rubbed the back of his neck, nervously.
"Umm – Doctor? Shouldn't we be warning Torchwood that there are four psychotic pepper pots loose in their facility?" Rose asked, prodding him gently in the side.
"Good point…Lets go." The TARDIS dematerialised and they headed for the lobby.
"We're doing an awful lot of jumping around in the TARDIS." Martha commented, dryly as they landed with a thud.
The Doctor looked up from the controls, "Well it's that, or get killed." He said, flatly.
Martha suddenly saw a very different Doctor before her. The last time they had faced the Daleks he had freely offered himself up to be killed, and now he was trying to do everything possible to avoid it.
"Stay here." The Doctor looked seriously at Rose and Martha. "Do not come out under any circumstances – it's not time yet." He looked especially hard at Rose, who nodded in a silent promise to do as he said.
He stepped outside cautiously. There was a collective click as the security team armed their weapons.
"Ahh…I thought that might happen. Hello again everyone." He waved nervously.
"Doctor – you violated our trust – you brought your ship inside the facility." Rose could hear an unfamiliar voice speaking to the Doctor. She pulled Martha back as she headed for the door and put her finger to her lips as a sign for her to be quiet. Martha frowned at her, and then stomped off around the other side of the console.
"Yes – urr…sorry about that, but I thought you might like to know that you've got four Dalek's loose on the top floor." The Doctor clicked the TARDIS door shut and moved forwards, speaking to James Parson, one of the senior staff members.
"Daleks? You're kidding right?" James smiled. "They're extinct – you sent them into the void…"
"Well…yes, and no." He looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head and waving his hand. "But there's no time for this - you have to seal off the building. Code Five right now." The Doctor said seriously. "If you don't, everyone in the city will be dead by sundown."
James looked at the Doctor. His expression was terrifying…the records called him 'The Oncoming Storm' and now he understood why.
"Trust me…just trust me – please!" The Doctor pleaded, holding eye contact with the young man for a moment.
"Lower your weapons. Code Five – now!" James yelled, and the men scattered just as the lift at the far end of the lobby pinged open and two Daleks emerged.
"Exterminate! Exterminate!"
"James – run!" The Doctor yelled, eyes wide, but it was too late, the death ray hit the young man and he fell to the ground with a horrible scream.
"It's the Doctor!" One of the Daleks croaked.
"You bet it's me!" The Doctor glared at the Daleks.
"The Doctor…the Doctor – ext…" The Daleks stopped dead, however, when the Doctor held out the Gallifreyan device.
The Doctor laughed, a smile spreading over his face. "Ah ha…has the Doctor got something you want?"
The Daleks made no further attempt to kill him, knowing that their rays would incinerate the device…and the Doctor knew it too. He backed into the TARDIS to regroup just as the Code Five went into full operation. The lifts went offline and the two Daleks were sealed on the ground floor by five-inch thick steel panels, which could only be raised from the outside. The problem was that there were now two pairs of Daleks at different points of the building.
"Just to make things more interesting…" The Doctor sighed turning around to face Rose and Martha who looked incredibly relieved to see him alive.
"You're alive!" Martha squealed, moving forwards.
"So it would seem Martha Jones." He smiled, patting her on the shoulder, but he only had eyes for Rose.
"I thought I'd lost you again…" Rose said, her voice muffled by the Doctors chest as he pulled her into a tight hug.
"Can't get rid of me that easily…" He pulled back, smiling momentarily. "Now…think, think, think, think!" He said, brow furrowed as paced around the console, running his hands through his hair.
"Contamination…yes! Contamination!!" He grinned madly, looking up at Rose and Martha.
"You mean contamination like…like the way I contaminated that Dalek in Van Statten's collection?" Rose asked, unsure of what he meant.
"Something like that…yeah." The Doctor was still thinking it through in his head.
"I'm confused…" Martha piped in.
"Not now Martha – we'll explain later." The Doctor waved a hand at her. Martha crossed her arms, feeling more than a little hurt, but inside she understood the urgency.
"But when I contaminated the Dalek it took ages for it to kick in. It almost killed me a few times…remember?" Rose said.
"Of course I remember…" The Doctor frowned. "Daleks…" He ground the word out as if it was the most hateful word in his vocabulary. "But…" He paused and took a breath – there was a long explanation coming on. "If I can damage this dimension device badly enough to prevent it from allowing dimensional portals but still allow it function on a basic level, and then contaminate the last functioning part with human blood that will spurt out of it when it is activated…"
"But they can't activate it, can they?" Rose said. "The Dalek in Pete's world said it took their commander years to extract the last bit of energy from it…"
"That's perfectly correct Rose…." The Doctor said, reaching into his pocket and putting on his thick framed glasses.
Rose smiled, she could feel another 'but' coming…
"But, seeing as I am so incredibly clever, I can put this little beauty on a timer – like a bomb waiting to go off!" He grinned, and started fiddling with the device. "Then I can offer it to Caan. Caan will take it inside his body armour to keep it safe for later use…then, when time runs out he'll get splatted with the human blood which will contaminate his armour. There is nothing worse for that repulsive little nightmare than contamination by an unclean organic source. His armour will shut down to cleanse itself and his soldiers will be without orders and get disorientated, giving just enough time for Torchwood and their fancy alien weapons to move in and…"
"Boom!" Rose grinned triumphantly.
"Couldn't have said it better myself!" The Doctor smiled. "Caan's armour is stronger than the soldiers…the only way they'll break through it is if we can shut him down. You know…it's so crazy it might just work!"
"Your insanity has never led us wrong before…" Rose commented, wryly.
Martha was amazed at how the pair of them could remain so upbeat in the face of probable death.
"Well – I think you're both mad." She said, shaking her head and letting out a miserable sigh – she was starting to feel like a spare part.
The Doctor started running around the console again, adjusting the device carefully and muttering to himself.
"There…that should do it. Now…Rose – I need blood. Do you mind?"
"Knock yourself out." Rose rolled up her sleeve and the Doctor pulled a syringe from somewhere under the console. "Talk about being prepared…" she said, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh – you never know when a syringe will come in handy…I had to be ready in case your mother tried to come in and dust and I had to drug her." He grinned, and Rose whacked him on the arm.
"Lay off my mum." But Martha noticed that she was grinning too, until the needle pierced her skin.
"Ouch…"
"Sorry..." The Doctor gritted his teeth. "Almost done…there!" He pulled the blood sample away, triumphantly. "Thank you Miss Tyler! Just a minute now…" He started fiddling around with the device again at incredible speed. "Right! I've got no idea if it will work – I might just be insane…but it's the best chance we've got." He looked at Martha. "Martha – I understand if you don't want to come – certain death and all that."
"Wouldn't miss it." Martha smiled briefly before frowning again as Rose sidled up to the Doctor.
"Back to the breach then…" Rose said, taking a deep breath and wrapping her arm around the Doctors waist. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, squeezing her tightly. "And good luck to us all…"
A/N Well….hope it's OK! It was a difficult one to try and resolve…stay tuned for the next chapter. Coming soon…provided I get enough reviews! ; )