A/N: One of the comments I received yesterday was from someone who asked me to tell them that the other teacher was Jack Harkness. Originally, that was not my intent ... but on reflection immediately after reading that comment I thought, well, shit! That could actually work!

I've decided that Martha is not a lovelorn puppy guilty of some kind of smoochy unrequited love crap. She's seen it for herself, she knows that there's no chance that the Doctor is falling for her any time in the future. So that said: Let's give her the supportive, and protective personality we know this girl's got.

If you don't like that characterisation of her, then I apologise, but that's where I'm headed with it.

So this is the last of the setup chapters for this section, and now I can get into the meaty bits of it that I'm looking forward to writing... And don't any of you worry, I will never put Mark in harms way, so don't think it's heading there.

Though the Doctor might ... I reckon Eight's got a decent serving of Oncoming Storm in him .. and I'm looking forward to exploring that. :)

I sinceriously hope that you enjoy... I'll do my best to get more up this weekend!

Thank you again for your comments! They really do give a great incentive to keep going (and let me know you're still with me on this journey)

~~oooOOOooo~~

The Doctor. The pinstriped one. The one she had never seen wearing anything less than a full two-piece suit – except that one time in Rome – running around in a pair of loose sport shorts and a short-sleeved T-shirt with a cape attached to the back of it…

…It wasn't one of his best looks, but it was quite adorable, if very human.

Her hand was on the top of her son's head, and his arms were wrapped tightly around one of her legs. While she perfectly understood his clinginess, she wished that he'd let go of her leg. This heat was brutal, and she was sure that when he let go there'd be a decent wet impression of him in the blue fabric of her skirt.

"Mark, baby," she said after a moment. "Please, not so tight."

A white plastic cup full of ice and water was suddenly thrust toward her. "Here," a soft English voice offered. "Looks like you might need this."

Rose blinked, her back and shoulders jerking in surprise. She looked fist at the cup, and then to the person holding it: a beautiful women with immaculate dark skin and a brilliant white smile. Her dark hair was held back with a single clip that didn't quite sit properly on her head, and instead hung loose to release several wispy bags around her face and neck.

In a word: Damn. In two: Absolutely stunning.

She beamed the woman a wide smile of gratitude and took the cup, passing down to her child without pause. "Thank you very much…" She paused and widened her eyes in a non-spoken request for her name.

"Martha," she answered with a smile as he held up a second cup. "I'm the nurse here at the high school." Her smile fell only slightly to reveal a more cautious and questioning expression. "I haven't seen you around before. Does your child attend the school?"

Rose looked down at her youngster, and then back up to Martha. Her own expression was one of mild offence. "Ehm, no. He's only four. Not even old enough yet for primary school."

"I see," she pressed. "New in town?"

"Passing through," she answered, her concern rising at the questioning and just how small this town must be to be immediately recognised as being an outsider.

"Passing through," Martha repeated to herself. Her eyes flicked toward the men on the track at the bottom of the stadium stairs. "Not here for any other reason?"

"Not with heat like this," she muttered with a flick of her long blonde hair over her shoulder. The tight neatness of the small braids that had held back her loose hair had long ago lost their ability to adequately hold her hair from her face – such was hide and seek and tag with a four year old over three hours. She let out a long sigh. "I'm just waiting for my husband to appear, then we'll be off. No need to be so concerned about strangers swanning about."

Martha blinked and let out a breath. "That was a bit obvious of me, wasn't it?"

"Probably a little rude as well," Rose answered with a shrug. "But I get it: Field full of kids and strange people millin' about." She looked down ad a murmur from her son and answered him back in a language filled with trills and rolls. She petted his head when he nodded and looked back to the field.

"That's an interesting language," Martha noted.

"Arcadian," Rose answered her distractedly, watching both of the men on the field waving their arms and trying to liven up the already boisterous crowd. "A very ancient dialect." She pointed to the crowd. "What's happening down there?"

"Battle of the Science Department," she answered with a shrug. "Biology versus physics. Jack Horn and John Smith teach each course respectively, and there's been some competition brewing between them as to which of the two are more effective to win a race: Biology: Braun and athleticism, or Physics: the function?"

"I see,' Rose answered with a lift in her brows. "Well. I say biology all the way. You can be as nerdy-geeky on the physics thing all ya want, but if you don't have the muscles and stamina to pull it off…"

Martha smiled. "Jack might be a fit bloke, but I think John might actually have one up on him in this race."

"I think I might step down and watch," Rose said more to herself as she tapped her son's head with her fingertip to let him know she wanted to move down the stairs. At Mark's side, her wolf padded protectively against his side huffing in warning whenever anyone got too close.

Martha watched the woman curiously. The Doctor's message had been clear that she should be on the watch for anyone new that might show up in town. This one was about as new as anyone could be. With a flowing royal blue empire-waisted dress, and intricate braiding in hair that fell right down to the dip in her lower back, she didn't even look like she belonged in this time period, let alone the Australian Outback.

To be sure, she followed behind the woman, taking position behind her as the race began.

~~oooOOOooo~~

Jack Harkness' face was broken in two with a wide smile of thrill at the crown that had gathered around he and John Smith. Ahhhh, school athletics carnivals we always fun, and a great source of friendly competition – especially when it came to giving a smarmy little know it all like John Smith a bit of what-for. He'd been looking forward to this race for the last three weeks; looking forward to wiping that smart-arse grin off his face. He was looking more forward to the fact that he'd win this race hands down in front of the entire student body and have the man have to skirt-it-up on Monday as penance for his crimes.

Just which crime? The one where he'd snatched the girl out from under his nose less than two weeks after arriving at the school. The pretty English teacher that he'd been diligently working toward procuring as his own for three months before Smith arrived with his proper British accent and pretty-boy good looks.

Oh yes, this was going to be quite the race…

He looked toward his opponent with a small sneer in his lip. "You ready, Smith?"

John Smith offered him a smile of his own as he tipped his head to one side and said, "You bet I am, Jack." He turned in place and opened his arms to the gathering, and cleared his throat wo address the crowd. "Right, you lot. You ready for the battle of the science nerds?"

"Careful who you're calling a nerd," Jack muttered back. He lifted his head. "Right my Mundawindi dog pack, this one's going to count to the final standings, so make sure you're cheering me on."

Various taunts, and some rather skeezy comments were called from the group, many of which made him laugh He shook his head with a smile and scanned the gathering, le passed a look toward Smith as they both stood ready for the firing shot to get them going. "I want sequins on your skirt on Monday," he warned him jokingly.

"Then make sure you've got plenty of sparkle and spaghetti straps on yours," he teased in reply. "You ready?"

"You bet."

Both men stood at the start, and lowered themselves into a starting position that wasn't a crouch. Jack took a last look around him before he chose to focus on the race. His focus quickly came, but it wasn't on the finish line ahead of him, nor was it on the track itself. His eyes locked on a vision in blue just past the fence.

And she was a vision. Set against the red dirt, the khaki coloured grasses, and the orange aluminium shell of the stadium structure, her deep blue dress stood out like a beacon. The warm winds swayed her long dark blonde hair with the same swoop it did her skirt. Her dark-rimmed eyes, that sharp angled jaw, and those magnificent lips … oh they all belonged to only one person in the entire universe.

"Rose…"

He ignored the pop of the starting gun, and of the man beside him taking off in a run. He ignored the disappointed yells and walked across the track toward her. His walk became a jog, which then turned into a run. His arms flew open and he yelled out excitedly.

"Rosie!"

Rose's eyes snapped to him, first in confusion, then in recognition, and finally they shifted to thrill and excitement. Her mouth moved to say his name, but the sound of it was drowned out by the vicious warning barks and growls from a large animal that launched into a run toward him.

Oh, he was glad there was a fence in front of the … Of the … no, that wasn't, was it?

Skidding to a stop only a foot in front of the fence, he looked up at Rose with wide and horrified eyes. He actually stepped back, bringing his arm up as though to ward off an attack. "Is that a Gallifreyan wolf? How the hell do you have a Dahrama?"

Rose quickly shook herself from her surprise and moved forward to calm her wolf. "Tiallu," she warned her gently. "Settle, down darlin', he's a friend. Not a threat."

Her son spoke in rapid Gallifreyan, assuring her that he'd calm her down. He quickly threw him arms around the wolf's neck and shoulders and buried his little face into her fur. She quickly quietened, offering one last humph of warning to him.

He wasn't moving an inch further toward her, such was his horror. He looked at her with wide eyes. "Rosie?"

Rose skipped in place for a second, and then squeaked as she lifted her skirts, ran down the remaining three steps, and weaved around a small gap in the fence to get to him. She was lifted in his arms and being spun in a circle – several circles – before she even realised she was now on the field of play.

Jack's head was lifted and his eyes wide and reverent at the sight of her up above him, her head thrown back in the sunshine and her mouth wide with laughter. An overwhelming need overcame him at that moment, and in a second, he had her feet back on the grass and had claimed her mouth in a searing kiss.

She was stunned somewhat, and her eyes were wide open to gaze upon his closed lids. Her hands were on his shoulders and she used that position to slowly lever herself back away from him. There was a deep discomfort and pain inside her belly and inside her mind that increased with intensity the more he tried to maintain contact.

She muttered his name against his mouth in a plea for him to let her go. He did, but he didn't fully release her, instead he spoke her name against her mouth. "I've missed you," he vowed.

Very angry rapid-fire Gallifreyan language yelled up from below where he held her at her waist. A small brown haired by shoved his hands and face in between their hips and roughly shoved hard at Jack to push him away from her. Those hostile words continued unbidden as he used both hands against Jack's hips to push him, one step at a time, a considerable distance from Rose. When satisfied that he was a good enough distance away, the young boy stalked back to his mother, grabbed her left hand and held it out for Jack to see. In amongst the indecipherable rant, Jack made out only one word: "Papa" and it was spoken as the child pointed to what looked to be the biggest diamond the Time Agent had ever seen.

Rose crouched beside the lad. "It's okay, Mark. Jack's a friend."

Rapid Gallifreyan again with the only to words recognised were: "Mamma" and "papa"

"Translation matrix not working?" Jack asked quietly. His expression toward young Mark was both amusement and discomfort. "I guess the old boy's working on it, right?"

She shook her head but remained in her crouch beside her son. "I'm sorry about that, Jack. Mark. Well, he's a little protective of the family unit. Thinks he needs to protect his mum's virtue when his daddy's not around."

"Daddy being big ears and sexy leather?" he asked with a wink and a smile. "Have to say, it's about time he took a break from the endless shagging and made an honest woman of you."

Rose's smile fell and sadness crossed her features. Despite having more love, devotion, and affection from her husband than she could have ever hoped to receive even from her first Doctor, she still missed that him desperately.

He saw the sadness and tried to step forward, but was stopped by a small and insistent hand held up on a "stop" position. He made do with tilting his head and wincing just slightly in apology. "I'm so sorry, Rose," he managed. "When I see that you're married with a child, I automatically assumed you were still with the Doctor."

A smile broke. "I am," she breathed out lovingly. "The Doctor is my husband. Just not the version of him you think."

He nodded. "Regenerated. Oh, I get it."

A soft feminine voice interrupted the pair. "Hold on, are you Rose? As in Rose Tyler?"

Rose turned to see the young woman who had been talking to them earlier. Martha, was it? "I actually go by Lungbarrow now," she answered. "But yes, I am." Her eyes narrowed. "How do you know who I am." She looked at Jack. "She's with you?"

Jack shook his head. "No, actually, she's not. She started at the school the same day as Smith.." He walked around Rose toward Martha. There was threat and protectiveness in his eyes. "Just how do you know about Rose?"

Martha took a step back, both hands held up in surrender. "I don't mean any harm to her at all," she croaked out. "I know her because I've met her husband." She circled her finger around her hair. "Wild chestnut curls, puppy-dog eyes, pouty lips." She inhaled. "Completely gorgeous and dresses out of a Bronte tale?"

Rose nodded as a crease formed in her brow. "That's him," she confirmed. "H-How have you met him?"

She swallowed. "I travel with a future version of him. The, ehm, the one you left." She caught her look of surprise but continued anyway. "We met by chance on a planet being overrun by Daleks. Leela was there with him. I mean your Doctor." She tiled her head. "It was only a couple of months ago. You'd just given birth to a son." Her eyes dropped to the young boy, who was still staring down Jack with all of the menace he could. "I suppose your second child?"

"That was four years ago," Rose said softly. "The Doctor. He couldn't tell us what happened." He eyes blew wide as she remembered back to that time. "He said he really couldn't remember anything at all about it. Leela never spoke of it … at least not to the two of us anyway." She actually smiled. "Which got him into a lot of trouble with my mum." She looked at Jack with wide eyes of amusement. "He came home from that trip wearing only his boxers and a shirt, and he couldn't tell us anything about what happened…"

"It was an horrific accident," Martha confirmed with a wince. "He got shot by a Dalek, a new weapon they've got that stops a Time Lord from regenerating." She closed her eyes and shuddered with remembrance. "My Doctor had to save him with his own regeneration energy. It was awful. He was completely covered in blood. Leela and I, we couldn't send him home like that, so we undressed him to clean him up."

"And he didn't bother to get dressed before he came home?"

Jack snickered. "Probably so eager to get home to his wife to do a bit of hot post-adventure shagging that he didn't feel it worth it to waste his time getting dressed when his intention was to get it all off the second he walked out of the TARDIS anyway." He nudged her in the ribs and winked. "Am I right?"

Rose held back her laugh and looked at him as seriously as she could manage given that she just wanted to bust out laughing. "I'd only given birth a day and a half before then. He had to wait almost 6 weeks to get that shag."

Martha looked down to the youngster who had foregone glaring at Jack, and was now staring at the skinny dude being carried by a group of other kids wearing blue clothing all congratulating him on the win. His eyes were wide and very confused by it all.

"That little boy is the baby I saw Romana holding on the video feed?"

Rose petted his head tenderly and nodded. She looked back to Martha. "I'll guess, then, that if my Doctor doesn't remember that day, neither does yours?"

She shook her head. "Not a moment of it. Which is sad, because I still believes that you're dead."

"To him, I am," she said gravely. "At least, it's better that way. I'm never going to see him again. Not in that body, anyway."

"That's really not fair," Martha challenged her. "He's heartbroken, Rose. He loves you like I've never seen anyone love another person."

Rose lifted her eyes to the man she could confirm for now was definitely the Doctor. He was now on his feet and cheering with the kids, high fiving them all. A stunning young brunette woman strode up in a sway toward him, and without a thought, he snatched her around the waist and pulled her in for a victory kiss. "Yeah," she breathed out. "But he's certainly getting over it."

"Don't read into that, Rose," she assured her. "There's something you need to know…"

Jack twisted far enough around that he had to look down his shoulder at his competitor. His lip curled at the scene. "Oi! Smith! Really? In front of the kids?"

"To the victor come the spoils," he called back with a toothy grin.

"Yeah, well you only won by default," he called back as John Smith started a walk toward them. His voice quietened as the man drew closer. "I forfeited."

"A win's a win," he answered back with a shrug. He winked at Martha. "Hey Mar."

"John," she breathed out by way of greeting.

He looked at the young boy looking up at him with wide eyes, and then up to Rose. There was a very miniscule moment of recognition, but it was gone in an instant. He offered her a smile and held out his hand in greeting. "Martha, do you want to introduce me to your lovely friend? Hi. I'm John."

Rose took a step backward, put her hands on her son's shoulders and tugged him back with her. The wolf sensed her mistress' apprehension and started to snarl. "D-Doctor?" she shuddered out so quietly it was barely heard.

He laughed, ignored the snarling of the wolf at his hip, and pulled back his hand. "No. Not a Doctor," he purred. "Well, not yet, at least. I am thinking of picking up my studies again when I get back to London, maybe I'll go for my doctorate. Maybe not. For now, though, just a science teacher."

He then looked to Jack and slapped him against the chest with the back of his hand. "And speaking of. We'd best get back to the games. The future Olympians of Australia are waiting for us to teach them sports things, like javelin, and hockey, and shotput, and all sorts of other sports I have no idea at all about."

"Yeah," Jack breathed out with a frown. "Be right with you."

He looked to Rose and his heart sank. She looked completely distraught, although was battling hard not to show it. She knew this man, she even called him Doctor. But Smith? Well, he didn't seem to even halfway remember her.

"Rose," he ventured gently. "Are you okay?"

She lifted her head with a long sniff and proudly held it there as she assured him she was fine. "Yeah," she managed without a crack in her voice. "I'm good, Jack. Don't worry about me."

"Hard not to," he admitted with a tender smile and a stroke of her arm. "Are you going to be around for a while?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. It depends when the Doctor comes for me 'n Mark. I don't expect he'll be too far away."

"Well, wait for me," he asked with a smile. "Don't let him take you away from me just yet. I –" He looked across the field at the activities "I'm tied up here for a few more hours, but after. I think we need to catch up a little."

She nodded. "I'll try to keep him here, but I'm not supposed to be leaving Gallifrey, so I think he'll be eager to get us back home."

"Gallifrey?" He frowned with puzzlement. "But Gallifrey doesn't exist anymore."

"It… It's a long story, Jack."

"Then you have no choice than to stick around and tell me." He touched her cheek. "Love you, kid."

"Love you too," she breathed out with a smile.

A holler of his name came from Smith, who was gesturing urgently to him from the middle of the field. "Yeah, keep your cape on, Smith. I'm coming!" He gave Rose a quick salute. "See you later, beautiful."

Rose nodded, and Jack ran off. She let out a shuddered breath watching the man she called Doctor laughing and joking around with the colourfully dressed teens.

"Rose?" Martha's voice was apologetic. "There's something you need to know about him." She waited for Rose to look at her, and then looked to the man in shorts in the middle of the field. "About the Doctor."

"It's okay, Martha," Rose said with a smile and a shake in her head. "Him and me, and I mean that him. We're not…" She closed her eyes and sighed. "He's not tied to me, and I'm not to him. He can do whatever, and whoever, he wants to. I have no hold over him."

"That's where you're wrong," she assured her, taking a step closer to her. "You are so wrong on that."

Rose looked to her, but said nothing.

"You still have a strong hold over him, whether you want to believe it or not." She swallowed and lifted her eyes upward as though calming her own emotions. "I saw it when I met him. I've seen it in our travels together .. this ghost of you. I tried to ignore it, and hope that one day he'd get over it." She looked down with a sad smile. "That maybe he and I might…"

"I won't judge you on that," Rose admitted softly. "I won't even get territorial and try to scratch your eyes out." She smiled at being able to say that. "He's an easy man to fall for. I get that."

"But having him fall for you is something different," Martha added. "Especially with how his hearts feel about you."

"Please don't," she whispered.

"No, I think you need to hear this, Rose." She huffed. "I heard how your Doctor talked to him when they met…"

Rose's eyes flashed. "He did what?"

"Verbally beat him to a pulp over you," she continued. "How he – my Doctor - reacted when he found out you were alive and with another him? It nearly killed him."

"Martha," she pleaded pitifully. "Please don't."

"He talks about you all the time," she pressed on. "Takes me to the places he took you. Friend zones by talking about how Rose would do this, and Rose would do that – so much better than I can." She swallowed. "I think you need to know that. You really do. That man out there – " she pointed to John Smith, who was whooping a high five to a kid who had obviously done something brilliant, and then frowned a little. "Well not exactly that man out there. I mean the man he usually is, which he isn't right now." He blew out a breath. "And he's going to be devastated when he realises that you were here, right here, and he wasn't."

"You're making no sense at all right now," Rose muttered.

Martha snorted in lieu of a laugh. "You say that like life with him ever makes sense."

"True," she admitted with a shrug.

"Anyway, what I'm trying to tell you, Rose, is that the Doctor, the actual pin-stripe wearing Time Lord. Well he loves you, and he misses you terribly."

"He really doesn't look like it," she argued softly, remembering the lip lock he had earlier with the other woman. "Seems to have moved on quite well with miss big lips and tight bike pants over there."

Martha snickered at that. "Not territorial over me, but her?"

"She kissed him," Rose said with a sigh. "And he enjoyed it. Madame du Pompous-arse all over again."

Martha was intrigued, and her lifted brow expressed that intrigue quite effectively. She ignored that for now, however and cleared her throat. "Yes. Well. If he was Time Lord him," she began. "He wouldn't have let her anywhere near him."

Don't be so sure of that ended up coming out instead as "What do you mean by that?"

"Rose," she said with a sigh. "Right now. The Doctor isn't the Doctor, Time Lord of Gallifrey." She swallowed with a wince. "Right now, he's John Smith, Human."

Rose twisted to face Martha directly. "What do you mean by that."

"I mean,' she began. "That he's gone and changed himself. That man out there, he might've been born a Time Lord on Gallifrey, but right now, he's just like me, and just like you: An ordinary Human."

"What? How?"

"And worse. The reason he had to change means that having your son here, right now, is more dangerous than you can possibly imagine." She gulped. "You better hope that your Doctor gets here as quick as possible."