Hey guys. It's starting to feel like every chapter I post starts with a little A/N apologising for why this chapter took so bloody young to upload, and this is no different. I've been taking a long hard think about what I actually want from this website and this isn't it. I don't want this to become a chore, because this is what I love doing, perhaps more than anything else at the moment. You can go to my profile for the long version, but this time, I am really going to try very hard to upload more regularly with these 2 stories I'm on at the moment. Those of you who are still with me, I want to thank for the your incredible support. It feels like a bit of a one sided relationship with you being so supportive and me not offering much on my side, something I hope will change. You reviews will get me through these final few chapters, and then I go back to writing something I am more enthusiastic about. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy.
"Alright then Doctor," said Joe Walker, taking a long drag from the cigarette he held between second and third finger. "I think it's time you explained to the likes of us, what the hell is going on." The Doctor nodded enthusiastically.
"Absolutely!" They were gathered in a small, study like room on the ground floor of Mrs May's giant mansion- a room alive with plush armchairs in a deep green and a small cabinet with expensive looking cigars and liquor. The Doctor was stood, leant against the wall of the room while the men of the Home Guard platoon were scattered about the place, on chairs and sofas. The room was hot and stuffy, filled with smoke and the uneasy atmosphere following the sudden disappearance of their leader. Martha was sat on the chair nearest to where the Doctor was stood. The Doctor coughed slightly. "Absolutely!" he said again. Frazer tutted impatiently.
"Well do ye know what yeh plannin' on sayin' or don't ye, man! We wannae hear this, don' we lads!" The Doctor fixed him with a reproachful stare.
"Patience is a virtue," he said crossly. "I'm just deciding where to begin."
"Me and the Doctor are from the future," Martha broke in. The Doctor stared at her for a second, then lowered his head in admittance.
"Yep. That's where I wanted to begin."
"From the future!" said Pike, rising from his chair in the far corner. "Are you really?"
"Nah, don't be stupid spikey," Jones chuckled. "Miss Martha 'ere ain't being serious."
"The blue box you found in the middle of your hall?" the Doctor said hesitantly. "Is called the TARDIS. I'm not going to go into the details now, but basically... it's our transport. Through time. Martha here is from the year 2007."
"No," said Frazer firmly. "Now look here, this situation is dire enough without bringing in ridiculous... made up stories of the supernatural into this. Now ye either tell us what really just happened in there or leave it to the military to sort this one out, you hear me lad?"
"No wait a second, Frazer," Wilson said gently. He turned to look at the pair. "I think they may be telling the truth. What about the strange clothes they turned up in? The way they talk? The things they talk about? Do you remember the novel, The Time Machine?"
"Are you seriously saying..."
"I could prove it to you," Martha found herself saying. She felt in her pocket and bought out her mobile phone. Switching it on- there seemed no point wasting battery when there was nobody here she'd be able to contact- she held it up for the men to look at. "This is how we talk to each other in 2007," she said. "It's like a telephone but you can carry it around with you. There are pictures on it. Coloured pictures on the screen that can change." She flicked through her album. "That's one of me and my sister at a party. That's my friend, Oliver from work. That's my Dad."
"Martha," the Doctor murmured through the corner of his mouth. "Probably not the best idea."
"I have to make them see somehow," she replied. "And we don't have much time. Tell them about the TARDIS." The Doctor sighed, clearly uncomfortable about how much of his life he was revealing to these men from the past.
"Now, my time ship crashed here, right in your church hall. We'd just been to the year 1913 and I hadn't intended upon coming here at all. The TARDIS sensed that something wrong was going to happen here, well in the church hall. Something bad. Somebody changing the path of time. There are certain points in time that are fixed. That you can't change, you just can't. And somebody's going to." Frazer stood up again.
"Hang on, hang on," he said. "If ye are tellin' the truth, if you are, then ye'll be able to be tellin' us who's going to win this war, aye?" A tense hush settled over the room, all eyes fixed on the Doctor. He shook his head.
"I can't tell you something like that," he said quietly. "It's never good for anybody to know too much about their own future." Frazer spat.
"Well ye would say that wouldn't ye," he sat down and folded his arms. "I don't believe it for a second."
"I do," said Joe. "What about that phone thing! Everything they're telling us makes sense. Give them a chance, Taffy!"
"The TARDIS will take a month to recover," the Doctor said. "And we have to live here, as people of this time, until that happens. In the meantime, Martha and I have been finding out a few things about this time changing incident. And, obviously, we've run into these aliens!"
"Aliens!"
"Well surely you didn't think those blue things were human!" the Doctor scoffed. "There are over fifty of them in Warbington on Sea alone. They look like normal people, like Mainwaring, but really they're this alien species I am yet to identify. And they want something. Something that requires them to change time in order to get it."
"What?" Jones whispered.
"That, Mr Jones," the Doctor said, whirling his sonic round in his thin fingers. "Is what we need to find out."
"We know they want to use the body of the prime minister as a host," Martha said. "They want him to become like them."
"But we don't know how they aim to get to him," the Doctor said. He looked up to see the men all looking at one another, not sure of whom was going to speak. "What?"
"Haven't you heard," Joe said slowly. "They've been planning it for months."
"Planning what for months?" the Doctor asked slowly.
"Old Churchill's doing a tour," Jones said. "Of all the home guards in the south. He's coming tomorrow. Mr Mainwaring planned a big parade. Today's meeting was meant to be a last rehearsal."
"So Winston Churchill is coming to Warbington on Sea to see the platoon run by a man who is really an alien who wants Churchill for his specie's plan," said the Doctor slowly.
"We just have to find out what said plan is," said Martha. The Doctor spun.
"What time is Churchill due tomorrow?"
"The parade's at three," said Pike. "The whole village is coming to watch it."
"The whole village, many of whom are the aliens," said Martha slowly.
"Right then," said the Doctor. "We need to find a way to communicate with these aliens and find out what they want. And what it would take for them to stop what they are about to do."
"You make it all sound so easy," Joe chuckled.
"We will think of something," said Martha. "We have to."
III
Half an hour or so later, the men began to wander out of the house with the intention of meeting in the church hall in an hour. Wilson had reluctantly agreed to 'take charge' of the men until the time came that Mainwaring was able to return. Should he be able to of course. As she left the room they had all been sat in, Martha felt a slight pressure on her arm and she turned to see Joe smiling at her nervously. She returned to gesture. "Hey."
"Martha," he said. "I just wanted to... to uhm... to make sure you're ok now. I didn't really have a chance to ask... before."
"I'm fine thanks," she nodded, turning away.
"No wait!" Joe sighed. "Listen Martha are you and the Doctor now... together if you know what I mean. Not that it matters to me, I was only asking."
Martha tilted her head to one side. "You know," she said musingly. "I have absolutely no idea."
"So once this is all over," Joe said. "A little... trip to the cinema would be out of the question I suppose?"
"It would, yes," Martha smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry."
"Oi Joe!" Pike yelled from the other room. "You coming or not?"
"Yeah!" he yelled back, touching his cap briefly. "Yeah I should be off."
"Oh and Joe!" Martha stopped him and smiled widely. "Thanks for saving my life." Joe grinned back.
"Oh yeah," he said offhandishly. "I suppose I did do that an' all." And with that he strode out of the building.
III
The men walked together out of the large house in small groups. Frazer, Pike and Wilson had fallen back to wait for Walker and they all smiled at him as he shut the door behind him- well all except Frazer but Joe really didn't expect any different. "What you all standin' around for ya muppets?" he called out.
"Did ya score?" Frazer shouted at him, his Scottish accent only adding to the aggression of his tone.
"What?"
"The Jones girl!" he barked.
"I saw you talking with her," Pike grinned. "She's ever so glamorous isn't she, Joe. Aren't any girls like her in Warbington on Sea, aye Uncle?"
"Martha's... different," Joe shrugged.
"So..." Frazer made a sound of frustration at the back of his throat in reply to Joe's blank look. "Did you get her?" Walker looked blankly ahead of them still. "For Christ's sake man!"
"No, Frazer," Wilson whispered. "Look." Frazer paled as he turned ahead to look at what the other men were staring at. His jaw dropped.
"Mother of mercy..."
III
When Martha found him, the Doctor was sat on the bed clearly deep in thought. He tossed his sonic screwdriver from one hand to the next, catching it neatly each time. She spoke, announcing herself. "Penny for them?"
"Huh?" he looked up, startled, the sonic skidding out of his grip and clattering onto the floor. He rolled his eyes, jumping to his feet. "Nice one, Doctor," he muttered, catching it up with his slender fingers. He tucked it into his chest pocket and crossed over to the small window.
"We're meeting in the hall in just under an hour," Martha told him.
"No we're not," he said darkly.
"Yes we are-"
"No, Martha." The Doctor took her hand and pulled her over to the window. "We're not." The protest rising in Martha's throat died away into nothing as she surveyed the scene below them.
"Oh," she finally managed. "Right." It was truly like visiting a museum of recent history. Outside of the window, it seemed the whole village had gathered in an array of what any 21st century girl would affectionately call 'vintage' attire. From the mid length dresses of the mothers, to the smart suits and ties of the men to the children standing with large hoops. The aspect of the scene that bought the museum to mind was the way the collection of residents were stood, unmoving. Their eyes were fixed on the house.
Stood nervously in the gateway of the large garden was the home guard. Wilson looked up at them in the window, unsure of what to do. He cleared his throat and directed his voice at the crowd. "I say! There's nothing to see here!" It was as if his voice had woken them from a trance. With a flurry of motion everything they held in their hands was dropped. They were about to change. Martha leant out the window and yelled.
"Get in the house!" The men didn't need to be told twice, they quickly filed back into the mansion slamming the door behind them. She turned to the Doctor. "What do you reckon they want?"
"Us to stop messing around in their master plan probably." He clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Ah well." As he walked away from the window, dropping her hand, Martha could tell that he felt back in familiar and comfortable territory. Back away from the complicated mess that was domestic life and throwing himself straight back into the line of fire. In hindsight, that was when she realised. That as soon as they stepped back onto the TARDIS together- assuming they did of course, as with any other adventure survival was never 100% guaranteed- he would never look at her in the same way he had been for these past few days.
"Doctor," she said sharply, pushing meaningless personal thoughts to the back of mind. "They've transformed."
"All of them?"
"All of them. They're coming up the pathway."
"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to sort out the front garden," the Doctor mused. "It wasn't like we were staying..." his thoughts drifted away, his brain was working overtime, she could tell. Her heart pounded at the sound of pounding footsteps up the staircase, but it was only the men.
"I'll position the men at every window. They have their weaponry-"
"As brilliant as it is to see you taking some control of the platoon Sergeant, that really isn't a good idea. Let's keep mindless shooting on the down low."
"They're beating down the door," Martha called from the window as the men began to settle in the hallway outside of their bedroom. "They're going to get inside." The Doctor strode past the crowd of men purposefully.
"Martha, with me."
"What are you doing?" protested Wilson.
"You too, Sergeant. Joe, Frazer, Pike. The rest of you... oh I don't know. Wait here." The six of them thundered down the endless flights of the stairs in pursuit of the Doctor.
"But what are we doing?" Joe cried.
"We're getting these aliens off of this planet for good," said the Doctor. "Oh else, who knows what they'll do."