Sorry this took so long, been getting ready to move out of the country. Hopefully they will come more regularly, but i am sure you have all heard that one before.

This is for all of my faithful readers and pokers. you know who you are.

He was waiting for her on the Pass. The TARDIS stood tall against the night sky, Martha advanced slowly upon the imposing blue box. She brought her raised hand to caress the wooden frame as she had done so long ago.

The door opened as she was making her greeting to the TARDIS. Martha could feel his eyes upon her. "I was just saying hello." she spoke over her shoulder.

The Doctor made a small noise of agreement before reentering the ship, for a moment she thought he would throw the Regulator and leave her there, but she found the door left open.

He was standing by the console, attempting to look busy. Martha shut the door as she stepped inside and made her way up the ramp. "Where's Donna?"

"Family thing," he waved away. "Said she needed a few days of not running for her life."

"I can understand that."

"So, fancy a trip? There is the most amazing mating festival on Hzabyl, they wear underwear on their heads and hats on their—well you get the idea. " He waved away the notion. "Oh, probably not somewhere we should be anyway. How about," The Doctor brought his hand to his chin and rubbed thoughtfully. "Barcelona! I keep meaning to go back there, and there is always something that happens. Regeneration, world war..."

"Doctor," she smiled. Martha could tell he was nervous, but she had called for a reason, and her sister's sanity was on the line.

"...Sycorax. Oh we could visit the Tao system, there is a star burst happening there that goes off only once in a millennium. We could go and see it, three times. After all, it does travel in space and-"

"Doctor," she tried.

"...time. Funny thing about time." he finished sadly. "There never seems to be enough of it, or the right point. But,"

"I came here for a reason Doctor."

"I know," he nodded slowly. "And I have a fairly good idea of why you called."

He seemed to wind down, hands thrust into pockets, the Doctor studied her silently. Martha almost felt naked under his glare. "I need to find out about what's affecting Tish."

He motioned toward the door and Martha followed him to the kitchen. "Its complex, Martha." he spoke finally.

"So use small words." she accepted the warm mug he offered her, and the two sat at the table.

"Its not that sort of complex,"

"Then speak slowly." she sipped her tea, but her eyes never left his. For his part, the Doctor seemed visibly unsettled at her insistence. Whether it was the prospect of having to terminate the fetus, or the idea of speaking about Gallifreyian culture, Martha was not sure.

The Doctor took his own sip of the hot liquid before speaking. "The Master affected her because he bonded with her." He spat the words as if it were a foul bit of pear he had found floating behind his tongue.

Martha nodded. "I get that. I mean,i assumed when she told me what had happened that that was the case."

"You finally spoke with her then?" he asked. "How is she?"

"That's why I'm here, Doctor. I want, no, I need to know how deep this bond goes. I mean, if the Master is dead, shouldn't that negate the mental whammy he has on her?"

The Doctor smiled a little, "Mental whammy. Oh I do like you Martha Jones."

"This isn't about me," she insisted gently.

He nodded again. "In my genetic make up is the possibility of bonding with another being. Its not something we did on a regular basis, and I am not sure why he chose to use it on Tish. I would have thought he used that particular thing on his wife."

"Lucy," Martha nodded. "I got the impression he did not trust her too much."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, he didn't. But it was more than that. While I was there, on the Valiant, I witnessed how he treated her. He spoke to her as if she was a child. He was condescending to everyone, but to her, it was as if she was his charge, not his wife."

"Did you know? I mean about what Tish was going through there. Did you see anything? She said she talked to you, that you were a good listener."

That same fury flew across his face, but his words came solid and level. "I didn't know anything. I knew he favored her, and I thought," The Doctor raised his head and closed his eyes. "I thought he was trying to gain her trust, or she had become a new pet for him. I never thought he was capable of something like this."

Martha frowned. "A man who takes down a whole planet and enslaves an entire race? The idea of rape never crossed your mind?"

He shook his head. "My people aren't wired that way, Martha."

"Apparently they are, or at least, he was." she sniffed knowingly.

"No, Martha, we aren't like that. Maybe there was a time, during the Dark Times in our history that men took advantage of women, but my people had come through all of that."

"Oh come off the self righteous fop, Doctor." she fumed. "The Master raped Tish, how is that not a part of your race's make up?"

The Doctor wore the cadence of a man trapped. He tapped his fingers along the side of his mug and turned his head slightly. "Rape isn't what this was." he announced.

"You understand that rape is a crime of power, not sexual gratification?" she shot back. "The Master was all about power, whether or not he was into the sexual gratification is a topic for another day. The point is, Doctor, you can sit there and wave the flag of purity all you want. He did it, my sister is messed up as a result of it. And, the proof of his obsession with Tish is floating in a glass tank in your infirmary."

That same thick silence grew between them. It rankled Martha's nerves and made her want to run back to the safety of her flat. But her sister's fate kept her rooted to the spot.

The Doctor acquiesced with a nod. "He bonded with her, and once he did that, he made her tied to him, tied to anything akin to his DNA."

"The baby." she nodded.

"Its simple biology, really. Its the same way that infants are cute, round face, big eyes. The whole package is designed to make humans want to care for them. If you are physically bonded to someone, then you are more likely to fight for them, and any children resulting."

Martha got that, she understood the alien logic. "So, how do we undo it?"

His eyes turned fire, and Martha nearly did run from his glare. "You've come here to help, then?" he asked.

Martha shrugged. "If you can;t do it, Doctor. I understand. I see how you sit in there with him. But, it has to be done. It has to be ended, Tish is in a mental agony that is killing her."

The Doctor shifted in his seat, he brought his face across the table nearer to hers. "Are we having the same conversation?" he asked with an odd grin.

Martha's look from one side to the other was nearly comical. "We have been sitting here discussing this before, but we haven't had this particular part of it, no. Why? Did you show up in the wrong time stream or something?"

The Doctor threw his head back and laughed. He jumped from his seat and held his hand out to her. "Come on." he insisted with that same look he once offered her in an alley.

"Wait," Martha said as she allowed him to take her hand and lead her out of the kitchen."What?"

XXXXXX

They stood in front of the Glass cylinder. The fetus still sat in the same place as it had when she first stumbled upon it. "I don;t understand." she spoke breaking the silence.

"Martha, you came here for a reason, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, she could feel her patience waning, but knew he was working up to something.

"You came here to find out how to help your sister. You came here to break that bond that the Master made with her."

Martha nodded dumbly, "Yes, do you really think you can do that? I mean, if you show me how, I'll do it. Just show me how to turn this thing off."

The Doctor flashed a dark look across his elfish features."Off?" he asked slowly. "No, Martha. I'm not turning this off."

She took a step away from him,"You'll have her twist for the rest of her life just so you can have this, this thing here to gawk at?" She realized her anger was brimming to the surface, she stopped herself and changed tact. "Doctor I realize you are alone, I get that. I know it must be hard for you, but its not fair. You are choosing a maybe life for a real one."

"Martha," He started, moving to close the gap between them.

She raised her hand to stop both his speaking and his movements. "Doctor, this," she waved her hand at the tube. "Is wrong. Its like that that bride in that Dickens book. You are holding my sister's life as hostage."

"Martha, I will not end his life. He has as much right to live as Tish, and I might add, did you forget that it was Tish who insisted to keep him alive."

"But you cannot honor that. You can;t know how she is, Doctor."

"Do you?" he asked. "I thought you talked to her? Surely she asked you to do this for her."

"Do this?" Martha asked, her eyes drifted back to the white elephant in the room. "Do what?"

"What did you think, Martha? Yes, killing the baby would end her bond. Sever it in fact. That is a dangerous thing, however. I don;t know how she would take it. I don;t know a lot of things about this. But, I do know she wanted the baby to have a chance to live. "

It was another cold bucket of water. She had thought that was what Tish was asking. But, Jack, and his endless connecting of dots had led her down another path. She was ready to pull the plug, not to have an abomination thrust into her face. "No," she answered without even knowing what she was negating.

"You want to help Tish?" he asked from his perch. Hands thrust again into his impossible pockets. "She wanted this, Martha."

XXXXX

"You'll feel a little cold." he announced with a sad grin.

Tish nodded from her spot on the weird hospital bed. "Its like a sonogram, right?"

The Doctor nodded back to her. "Yes, only a much better picture, and far less radiation. I need to get a good view of him before I remove him."

"Him?" she asked with a little smirk. "You sound like on of those football Dads, they run out and buy everything for a boy the minute the stick turns color, only to get the news in the delivery room."

He stood with the weird looking wand in his hand, "I already know its a boy, Tish."

Tish raised to her elbows and studied his face, "How?" she asked.

"I feel him, " he answered with a shrug. "So, let's meet the future, Tish." he grineed widely and placed the cold wand on her exposed skin.

"Oh wow," Tish breathed as a full color picture emerged, it displayed across the wall in front of her. Clear and accurate, she could make out the tiny embryo's spinal column.

"Oh, look at you, you beauty." The Doctor gushed. "Spine, limbs forming, oh and." he flipped a switch and the room was doused in sound. A steady four beat staccato filled the air. "Two hearts. Both beating strong and steady."

Tish allowed herself to be swept into the man's euphoria. "He is really real, then."

"Course he's real." the Doctor answered, still studying the video on the wall. "And he is perfect."

Two pairs of eyes held enraptured at the view. Tish sighed and considered her words carefully before she went on. "Will it hurt?" she asked in a small voice.

"Nah," the Doctor spoke, eyes still on the fetus. "I'll put you under. You won;t feel a thing."

"No," she shook her head. "Will it hurt him?"

The Doctor swung his head to face her. Their eyes locked in a way of soldiers on opposite sides of the battlefield, but both tired of holding guns. "Tish, what do you want?" he asked.

She could hear the hope in his voice, but the reality of what she faced held her in a firm, but realistic grasp. "When we were together, when we were on the Valiant. He used to tell me things, anything and everything. The Master would prattle on about how much he missed hone, the silence of the matrix from his mind, the drums in his head."

The Doctor nodded to encourage her to go on.

"He told me about Gallifrey. How children were welcomed into a family. Even children that were not planned for."

"Yes, for a long lived lot we treasured children. On the outside, you would think that we tossed them aside. All children were taken to the Academy at the age of eight,but the time we had them, the time that mattered was important."

"Was there," Tish stopped, gathering strength to ask. "Did this sort of thing happen often back home?"

He was visibly surprised at her question, but Tish watched as he painted on another smile and patted her arm. "Not really."

The silence fell between them again. When Tish adjusted her body, the Doctor took it as a cue to end the show. "Well," he started, turning off the projection and clearing his throat. "Good to know its a nice normal pregnancy. Well, as normal as it could be under the circumstances."

"Do you have to...I mean is there a way to keep him alive?"

"You do know what that would mean for you, right?" he asked her honestly.

Tish nodded her head. "I know, but part of me wants to see him run through that red grass." she gave a stuttering sigh. "How do I know that's not the part that he changed?"

"You don't." he shrugged. "But if he did change you, you'll be altered until the baby dies, or..."

"Or?" she asked, swinging her legs over the side of the table. "Or what Doctor.?"

He stood from the stool by the table. "Or the impossible happens." he smiled sadly.

"I don't think I want him to die, Doctor. But it would kill me to carry him."

"I know." he nodded.

"If someone else carried him..." she hinted.

"It would break the bond, yes. Back home, if this happened, I mean a surrogacy situation, it was a touchy thing. The child would have to be reintroduced to its parents after birth. Messy, terrible thing. Brought down the surrogacy rates, however. That's why we developed looms and pods."

"So,he can live, and maybe have a chance at life?" she asked.

"It would have to be someone with similar DNA to you Tish..." The Doctor warned.

"I figured as much," she nodded. "I think Martha would do it."

The Doctor shook his head. "Its not as simple as that, Tish. There are other parts of it. There are biological changes that could forever change her. Its not as simple as carrying to term."

"I know," she nodded. "I know that it will alter a lot of who she is. But she would do it."

The Doctor came and sat next to her on the table. She shied away a bit, and the Doctor stood quickly. "she would have to stay here for the whole time. And, then there is the baby itself." he sighed. "I don;t think she would do it. And if she doesn't, then you are stuck in this bond for the rest of your life. No, Tish, I think this is all too impossible. I think I would feel better if this was over for you."

"My terms, Doctor. Remember?" she eyed him sternly.

He grinned then, "You have a lot of faith in the impossible."

"No," Tish shook her head. "I have a lot of faith in Martha Jones."

XXXX

"No," Martha voiced again. She turned and made to bolt for the exit.

The Doctor was faster. "Would I lie about this? Would I make this up? You think I am that cruel?" he barked.

Martha still turned toward the door, afraid to face him. "No," she admitted. "But I cannot deal with this now."

"And every moment that you don;t deal with this, is another moment your sister has to twist. Who is being unfair to whom?" He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. "If you don;t want to do this, fine. I will walk over there right now and end this, but its your call, Martha. Tish and I have made our decisions, yours is the only one left."

"How can you put this into my lap? Its not fair." she whined.

"No, Martha, Nothing in this has been fair. This whole thing has been the most unfair situation I have had to be a party to. But, life is like that. You said you felt bad for not being there for her, for not being able to be in the Valiant to protect her. This is your chance to make that right."

"Guilt? You are using guilt, on me?" she fired incredulously. "Had it not been for you, none of us would have been in this situation."

The Doctor stood firm. "Its not guilt, Martha, Its a simple thing, really. Yes, or no. that's all. You don;t have to do it. You don;t have to not do it. You are the lucky one here, you are the one that gets to make a choice."

She shook her head, like a child refusing to answer about being naughty.

"You keep saying this isn't about you. But, it is Martha. Right here, right now, this is about you. If you run out of here without making a decision, then you are affecting four people. You have to deal with this, you have to decide. There is no more time, it has to be now."