Chapter 27 The One with the Party
YIKES! This was a long wait, I'm so sorry. Life has beeeeeen, less than ideal! But, in honour of the 13th Doctor's regeneration episode, I thought I'd give you all a little treat
Happy reading!
I own nothing recognisable x
Huh, this is… different… Florence opened her eyes to an obscene bright blue wall, and not the comforting TARDIS blue that she had grown accustomed to, but a luminous, slightly off putting turquoise that made her still sensitive eyes narrow in discomfort. She sunk a little lower into the, rather plush and cosy, sofa that she had woken up on, looking around curiously. The pounding in her head hadn't faded quite as quickly as it had done in her previous jumps; there was a sharp pain just at the base of her skull, which was not helped by the brightness of the room.
"Hello?" She called out, surely she wasn't still in the TARDIS? There was no sign of the warm hum or even the mild orange hue that seemed to seep through every crack and crevice of a room. She stood, slightly unsteady on her feet, and bypassed the clothes horse full of various pairs of pants and bras, keeping her eyes off the delicates the moment she saw them. Definitely not mine. She looked to her right, and saw that it led towards a kitchen attached to the living room, and as if on cue her stomach rumbled with hunger. I mean, what they don't know won't hurt them. She looked furtively around once more, for any signs of the owner coming back before tiptoeing her way towards the fridge. She briefly stumbled next to the TV console in the corner of the room, panting heavily as the pounding in her head battled fiercely with her determination to walk. She grabbed the bookcase next to the console, muttering a curse and an apology to the owner of the flat when a few of the books fell under her grip of the shelving.
Her lip curled with disappointment at the barely stocked contents of her cold would-be hero in the stark white kitchenette, a half empty block of cheese, some random opened packets of vegetables and half a carton of milk was all that she could see. She closed the fridge with a sigh, turning to the rest of the kitchen, momentarily debating whether it was more intrusive to peek through someone's fridge or through their cupboards before her hunger got the best of her and her hand was reaching for the handle without her mind even realising.
Success. Her hand grabbed onto the plastic tub of cheap unhealthy noodles with almost unbridled glee, and she flipped the switch of the kettle just below the cabinets. It had felt like an age since she had last had the snack that had saved her life from quite a few - and by a few she knew she meant several - late night essay submission deadlines. She filled the pot with boiling water and went on the hunt for something to eat with, playing eenie meenie with the drawers before pulling open the one just on the right and grabbing one of only three forks and dunking it in the pot of noodles and giving them a stir.
She blew on the steaming goodness, deeply inhaling the smell of processed, sweet and sour chicken flavoured broth, lifting the fork to her mouth and taking her first bite. As much as half a potato, two bits of carrot and an inch of turkey breast had been delicious back in the 1940s, this was her first meal in quite a while, and she would savour every second of it.
She continued her investigation of the flat, a couple of shopping lists half crumpled up on the table, a bowl and spoon left in the sink, and half a pack of ibuprofen which she popped two of in the hopes it could lessen the throbbing in her head. She went back into the living room, frowning at the baby and family photos on the mantelpiece, surely she must know the person who's flat she was in. She grabbed an envelope that poked out from underneath a textbook, reading the addressee on the window of the paper.
"Miss M Jones." She put the envelope down and took another mouthful of noodles. She fell back onto the sofa as she chewed and had a flip through some of the other miscellaneous letters on the coffee table, before a lanyard caught her eye, a plastic ID from Royal Hope Hospital with a little picture on it making her sit up straight.
"M Jones…" She laughed when she saw the familiar face of Martha Jones staring back up at her. "Martha!" She looked around the flat with an unbelievable laugh. "Martha?" She called out, feeling a little less guilty about the whole not-breaking-or-technically-entering-but-still. Before she could call out again, a wind picked up in the living room, the orange gauze curtains fluttering by the windows, and the familiar and reassuring sound of the wheezing TARDIS engines filled the flat. Florence stood to attention, one hand still clutching the ID card and the other keeping warm with the comfort food of noodles. She waited as the beautiful - and not too bright - blue of the TARDIS materialised in front of her, almost bouncing from one foot to another in excitement, her headache fading with every pulse of materialisation. The wooden door creaked open and Martha stepped out with a smile on her face, that slowly faded once she realised where she was.
"Home?" She muttered, before Florence squealed with joy,
"Miss M Jones!" She called out, and Martha recoiled in shock at the stark contrast in the moods of the two of them. Florence threw the ID on the sofa and clambered over the coffee table to give her friend a hug, mindful of the noodles she still held aloft to avoid spillages. "Martha Jones, oh it's good to see you!"
Martha stuttered out a laugh, still slightly in shock at where she was. "Florence! Hi!"
Florence pulled back and waved the noodles in her face, "Sorry for the theft, I was just really fucking hungry, I hope you don't mind but your fridge is like, bare… seriously, lovely Martha Jones, where is all your food?" Martha laughed at this, a bit more genuinely, and rolled her eyes.
"I've been doing four days straight at the hospital, sue me!" Florence, placed her hand on her shoulder,
"Okay, I forgive you." She looked behind her, where her lanky blue suited Doctor was leaning against the doorway of the TARDIS. "Oh! Hello, stranger!" She let go of the junior doctor and ran towards the alien one, forcing him down to her height for a hug, giggling in his ear. "Been a while! How rude are you? Leaving me waiting for you in someone else's flat!" The Doctor chuckled lightly, pulling away from the hug and looking around the room,
"Oh come on, not a bad place to wait!" Florence looked between the two of them, and caught Martha looking around her own flat in disdain.
"You took me home?" Martha asked, cutting into the reunion. The Doctor nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets and stepping further into the living room.
"In fact, the morning after we left, so you've only been gone about twelve hours." He gave Florence a 'look at me, how smart am I?' look, and she rolled her eyes. "No time at all, really." He bent down to look at the family photos littered along the mantlepiece, while Martha looked at him in disbelief.
"But all the stuff we've done… Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?" Florence paused, a forkful of noodles on their journey to her mouth,
"Shakespeare? Seriously?" The Doctor wagged a finger at her,
"Don't start asking questions…" He turned his attention to Martha. "All in one night, relatively speaking. Everything should be just as it was. Books, CDs…" He hooked a finger round a pair of knickers hanging from the clothes horse. "Laundry." Martha snatched the pants from his hand, and Florence gave his arm a swift smack for being so nosy. "So, back where you were, as promised."
Martha looked at him. Florence looked between the two of them, suddenly aware of the awkwardness of the situation and debating whether she should have stolen food from the poor woman's flat.
"This is it?" She asked him, and at that moment the Doctor had never looked so blissfully unaware of human interactions, and oblivious to Martha's clear desire to stay.
"Yeah, we should probably… er…" He nodded to the TARDIS, and moved to gesture to Florence to come along with him, when they were interrupted by the ringing of Martha's landline, and the beep of the answer machine.
"Sorry…" Martha muttered, and the three of them stood in Martha's living room, the looming presence of the TARDIS making it seem much smaller than it was.
"Martha, are you there?" A woman's stern voice came from the machine. "Pick it up, will you?"
"It's mum. It'll wait."
"All right then, pretend that you're out if you like…" The three of them shared a laugh at the accuracy. "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 raised her eyebrows, picking up the remote from the table and switching on the telly. Channel 24 popped up with an image of an old man in a suit standing on a podium next to a young black girl who Florence presumed was Martha's sister.
"How did Tish end up on the news?" The three of them stood silently for a moment watching the announcement.
"Tonight, I will demonstrate a device which will redefine our world." Florence slurped up the remains of her noodles, plopping the empty pot onto the coffee table, silently promising to clear up for Martha before they left.
"She's got a new job." Martha explained. "PR for some research lab."
"With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human!" Reporters started shouting questions and flashing cameras at the man, while Martha turned off the TV. Florence frowned slightly at the black screen.
"Sorry. You were saying you should…?" The Doctor stared intently at the TV for an extra second before shaking himself out of it with a sniff.
"Yes, yes, we should… One trip is what we said." He leaned against the door of the TARDIS on one arm, looking off fondly reminiscing.
Martha shuffled closer with a smile. "Yeah, I suppose things just kind of escalated." The Doctor shook his head slightly with a smirk,
"Mmm, seems to happen to me a lot…" The two shared a laugh, while Florence rolled her eyes slightly. There was a brief pause, where Martha seemed to accept that the two of them were leaving.
"Thank you. For everything."
"It was my pleasure." He returned, pushing the TARDIS door open and heading off inside. Florence gave Martha a tight squeeze, swaying her from side to side.
"Martha Jones! Thank you!" She looked at the first ever companion she met on this wild ride she had started with the Doctor, she really hoped this wasn't the last she saw of Martha Jones. She turned and followed the Doctor into the TARDIS, where he was already pressing buttons and flipping switches.
"So Florence Jensson! The only companion I need, where to next?" Florence looked at him with a frown.
"Why not Martha?" She asked, and the Doctor started slightly in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
Florence shook her head, "You know what I mean… Last time I saw you, both of you, we were having a great time in New York… what happened?"
"Nothing happened, Florence." The Doctor told her. "I don't need to tie another human into this crazy life of ours, I showed her the world in one night, and now she can go back to her normal life."
He pulled the lever and the TARDIS began its take off, Florence grabbing onto the console in front of her and rolling her eyes,
"But Martha's great! Why should you show her a hint of the fun we have then take that away from her? Come on, Doctor!" He opened his mouth to answer but she cut him off quickly. "And don't say you don't need another human, we're not bloody pets!" The Doctor stopped suddenly.
"Human…" He muttered, before slapping his head violently. "I am THICK!" He yelled before rushing around the console and reversing his earlier movements.
"What is it?" Florence asked, as he raced around the TARDIS and changed their destination, causing her even worse motion sickness than usual.
"Human!" The Doctor yelled, pulling the lever and the TARDIS landed with a jerk, barely giving it a moment before he ran over to the doors and pulled one open with force. "No, I'm sorry." He told whoever was outside, and from the view of the turquoise walls Florence could see poking over his head she only needed one guess as to where they had landed. "Did he just say he was going to change what it means to be human?"
Florence poked her head out from underneath his arm and gave Martha a grin, definitely not the last time she would see Martha Jones.
The Doctor messed with his cufflinks as the three of them wandered down the streets of London towards Lazarus Laboratories, sighing and tutting to himself as he fussed. "Oh, black tie. Whenever I wear this, something bad always happens." Florence laughed as she grabbed his arm, deftly fixing his cufflinks into place, they were a simple set of silver bars with a TARDIS blue stone attached to the end. Letting go, he looped her arm through the one she had released, pulling her tightly against his side.
"It's not the outfit," Martha commented, "that's just you." Florence laughed, pulling the strap of the dress she was wearing back into place from where the Doctor had jostled it. It was a simple dark green dress that tied in at the waist with a bow, matched with a pair of chunky black heels that Martha insisted she wear despite Florence's complaints about the running they were inevitably going to have to partake in. "Anyway, I think it suits you." She added. "In a James Bond kind of way."
The Doctor seemed rather impressed with the compliment, adjusting his bowtie in a way very reminiscent of his future self, an action that made Florence smile fondly.
"James Bond?" He asked, smirking. "Really?" He looked down at Florence, who grinned slightly, rolling her eyes.
"Come on, Mr Bond, let's get you a martini."
The launch party was in full swing by the time the trio had made it passed security and through to the main hall of the laboratory, with a little help from the psychic paper proclaiming them as Martha Jones 'plus two', Martha taking glee in being the one to hold up the leather wallet with an air of authority.
"Christ." Florence muttered as they entered the room, staring up at the glass chamber that took pride of place into the centre of the party, with four mechanical posts circling it, curving up over the top of the chamber, a light blue glow emitting from all angles. Numerous partygoers mingled around it, all dressed up to the nines similar to the three time travellers, as well as various photographers that had already started snapping away as everyone waited for the main event - whatever that may be.
"So, what do you think -" Martha was interrupted by the sight of a waiter ambling past with a tray of food, immediately capturing the Doctor's attention.
"Oh look, they've got nibbles!" He cried out, grabbing a handful of canapés and handing a salmon blini to Florence. "I love nibbles." Florence laughed as they both popped them into their mouths, the Doctor licking his fingers triumphantly while Martha looked grossly entertained by his madness.
"Hello!" A female voice came from behind the two munching on their nibbles, a young woman grabbed Martha's arm and hugged her tightly, holding a clipboard in her left hand.
"Tish." Martha breathed as she hugged her sister back, Florence could feel her relief at seeing her after what felt like weeks rather than the twenty four hours it had been.
"You look great!" Tish complimented, pulling back, before gesturing around them. "So, what do you think? Impressive, isn't it?"
"Very." Martha agreed, and Florence nodded alongside the Doctor, grabbing another one of the canapés out of his hand.
"And two nights in a row for you…" Her sister teased. "That's dangerously close to a social life!"
"If I keep this up, I'll end up in all the gossip columns!" Martha whispered, laughing slightly.
Her sister raised her eyebrows. "You might actually. You should keep an eye out for photographers." She looked around slightly. "And mum, she's coming too. Even dragging Leo along with her."
"Leo in a black tie? That I must see." Martha laughed, before noticing the furtive glances Tish had been throwing in the Doctor and Florence's direction. "Oh, this is, erm, the Doctor and Florence."
The Doctor wiped his hand of the crumbs from his snack before shaking Tish's. "Hello!" He greeted cheerily, slightly oblivious to her less than warm expression, while Florence just gave her a soft - if slightly awkward - smile.
"Are they with you?" Tish asked, suspiciously.
"Yeah." Martha replied simply, but Tish didn't seem convinced.
"But they're not on the list." She pointed out. "How did they get in?"
Martha and Florence shared an uncertain look, before Martha simply blurted out, "She's my plus one!"
"And he's mine." Florence agreed, nodding to the Doctor, who swallowed quickly before distracting the other Jones woman from their mysterious appearance at the party.
"So… this Lazarus, he's your boss?" He asked, innocently, though Florence noted that he had begun his investigation later than she thought, though she presumed that was due to the 'nibbles' distraction.
"Professor Lazarus." Tish corrected, clearly unamused with his so-called disrespect. "Yes. I'm part of his executive staff."
Martha rolled her eyes slightly. "She's in the PR Department."
"I'm head of the PR Department, actually." Her sister boasted, keen to correct Martha.
"You're joking!" Martha sounded shocked, and Florence couldn't help but understand Tish's indignation at the surprise in her voice.
"I put this whole thing together."
"What is this thing, anyway?" Florence cut in, eager to get to grips with what exactly Lazarus meant by 'change what it means to be human' and how the Doctor and his companions were inevitably going to be running for their lives sooner rather than later. "Like, what's gonna happen? Are we allowed to know or…?" The Doctor nodded towards the machine in the centre of the room.
"That looks like it might be a sonic microfiled manipulator."
Tish raised her eyebrows at his educated guess. "He's a science geek. I should have known." Florence looked up at the tall alien next to her, even in her heels he managed to tower over her. He was such a science geek, the epitome of it, in fact. If only Tish had seen him running around the TARDIS console excitedly describing the Trebola Galaxy's sixteen planets and how they orbited in a perfect pentagon loop around their sun, or his next incarnation sitting on his special swing in the midst of all the wires and circuit boards of the TARDIS' innermost core, ignoring them all in order to fix 'one last thing'. Science geek, space geek, the geekiest geek in the universe - which for the first time in her life, Florence didn't think was an exaggeration. "Got to get back to work now." Tish told them, snapping Florence's eyes back to the two sisters. "I'll catch up with you later."
"'Science geek'" The Doctor questioned, watching the head of Lazarus' PR Department walk away. "What does that mean?" Martha and Florence shared a look, before Florence let Martha take the lead.
"That you're… obsessively enthusiastic about it." Florence smiled up at him, grabbing another canapé from his hand, popping it into her mouth as she spoke,
"Yeah, a great big nerd." The Doctor just winked at her, looking happy enough with his description.
"Ah, nice!" Florence swallowed before turning to Martha,
"So… head of PR, no wonder she was on TV!" Martha shook her head slightly,
"I can't believe it, last I heard she was just running coffee and photocopying stuff, nothing like this!" She looked at the Doctor. "One night for them, feels like I've been away for months."
"No, no, won't be making that mistake again." The Doctor muttered, turning to look at the chamber again, Florence packing away that minute spoiler for later. "I mean, really though, this technology… seems… profound."
Florence looked at him, concerned. "Do you mean in a 'lightyears ahead of its time' way or just like, 'wow what a smart guy can I please have a look in your lab' way?"
The Doctor sniffed slightly, "I'm… not too sure yet."
"Oh, great.' Martha muttered. "Love when we don't know, always fun when we don't-" She was interrupted by the sound of another family member calling out to her.
"Martha!" Florence turned to see the blur of Martha's figure passing her to hug an older woman in a long, gold dress.
"Mum!" She cried as she hugged her tightly, pulling back and letting her mother smooth her hair down with care.
"Alright, what's the occasion?" She asked her daughter, mildly confused but not unhappy about the affection.
"What do you mean?" Martha asked innocently. "I'm just pleased to see you, that's all." The Doctor and Florence shared a look, even by their standards it was a weak line.
Seemingly, her mother was also unconvinced. "You saw me last night."
"I know." Martha smiled up at her mum. "I just…missed you." She tried to draw attention away from her mother, focusing instead on the young man in a bowtie standing next to her. "Looking good, Leo." She punched at him lightly before stepping back a little, her brother laughing slightly.
"Yeah, anyone asks me to fetch them a drink, I'll swing for him." Florence laughed at him, drawing Martha's mum's attention slightly to the two strangers next to her daughter, she looked at Martha with concern.
"You disappeared last night." She almost accused her.
"I just went home."
Her mum was unconvinced, "On your own?" She asked, giving the Doctor a look, which Martha noticed.
"This is a friend of mine. The Doctor. And this is Florence." She made a point to her mother, emphasising both friend and also Florence's presence in the group. Not that it deterred her mum.
"Doctor What?" She asked, and Martha shook her head.
"Just the Doctor… We've been doing some work together… And I met Florence a while back at the hospital." Leo reached out and shook the Doctor's hand,
"Y'alright, mate?" Before turning and doing the same to Florence, who grinned at him,
"Florence Jensson, nice to finally meet you." Leo looked slightly confused by her enthusiasm, while the Doctor tried to charm Martha's mother in return.
"It's lovely to meet you, Mrs Jones." She shook his hand when offered but still looked suspicious. "Heard a lot about you." Mrs Jones raised an eyebrow at that.
"Have you? What have you heard, then?"
The Doctor stumbled at that, having clearly said it out of courtesy. "Oh, you know… that you're Martha's mother… and…" He looked to Florence for help but she shrugged slightly, he was on his own in this mess. "Erm, no, actually. That's about it. We haven't had much time to chat, you know? Been… busy." Florence inwardly cringed at his use of busy, it was not the wisest word choice. Evidently, Mrs Jones agreed.
"'Busy'?" She repeated. "Doing what, exactly?"
"Oh you know… Stuff." Florence rubbed her forehead slightly in exasperation, before linking her arm through the oblivious science geek and patting him lightly on the chest.
"Well done." She gave Mrs Jones a smile. "Sorry Mrs Jones, he's not the best chit chatter… I introduced the two of them! We've been discussing Martha's future at Royal Hope or whether she'd be interested in transferring to another department of medicine over in Richmond when she finishes her residency." She gave a little laugh and gave Leo a look. "Your sister is very stubborn." Leo laughed in response,
"Tell me about it!" Martha's mum still didn't quite look convinced, however before she had a chance to ask any more questions, there was a ringing of glassware that echoed through the room. Everyone turned to where the sound was coming from, and the Doctor bend slightly to whisper,
"Thank you." Florence squeezed his arm that was still wrapped around her own.
"Well, you're bloody useless."
The lights dimmed and the same older man from the news channel on Martha's TV appeared in a spotlight in front of the chamber.
"Ladies and gentlemen." He began, and the room was silent bar the occasional snap of a photographer's camera. "I am Professor Richard Lazarus and tonight I am going to perform a miracle!" He paused slightly for dramatic effect. "It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you will wake to a world which will be changed forever." Florence had to admit, he had a way with words. The room was enraptured by the old man, who turned away from them to open the door of the chamber, climbing inside with slight struggle. The technicians in lab coats fussed around the machines, flicking switches and typing in codes. Suddenly the room was bathed in a luminous blue light, and the machine sprung to life, the columns oscillating and spinning around the central chamber which glowed with a darker blue light. Flashing every so often there was nothing anyone could do but watch.
That was until an alarm sounded. An alarm that was signalling nothing but trouble.
"Something's wrong." The Doctor told them. "It's overloading." Suddenly the computers begin to spark and smoke, the Doctor running towards them, leaping over the controls and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. Florence watched as the machine spun out of control, shielding her eyes as the flashes of light got brighter and more frequent.
"Somebody stop him!" An older lady cried out. "Get him away from those controls!"
"If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it!" The Doctor cried out as he pressed buttons here and there and sonicked various control panels. "Is that what you want?!" Energy started to spill from the chamber, and in a last attempt to stop it, the Doctor leapt back over the desk and yanked one of the cables from the back. The flashing stopped, and the chamber slowed down to a halt.
"Martha, come on!" Florence grabbed Martha's hand and pulled her to the chamber door, just as the Doctor started running over.
"Get it open!"
They pull open the heavy white door, smoke billowing out, obstructing the view of whatever was inside. That was until a hand wrapped itself around the doorframe, followed by a distinctly younger looking Lazarus. Florence's mouth dropped open at the sight of him, it was astonishing. He had the same mannerisms of the old man who had entered the chamber, he walked out both as if he had just been through the mill and back (which Florence supposed, he had) and as if he was still walking with 80 year old limbs that weren't quite functioning. He steadied himself as he stood in front of the crowd, raising his arms up in a grand gesture of exuberance.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he paused dramatically, "I am Richard Lazarus. I am seventy six years old… and I am reborn!" The crowd clapped and cheered at what they were witnessing, while the time travellers only looked concerned.
The dust settled and the lights came back on, Lazarus stepping down from the podium upon which the chamber was placed, shaking hands with his adoring crowd and smiling charmingly at them. Florence shook her head at the sight, it was impossible.
"It's impossible." Martha agreed with her sentiments. "That can't be the same man."
"It must be like a trick or something." Florence agreed. "I mean, this is unbelievable, Doctor, even for you."
The Doctor looked at the scientist, posing for photos with a smug look. "Oh, it's not a trick. I wish it were."
"What just happened then?" Martha asked.
"He just changed what it means to be human." The three watched from afar as an older woman approached Lazarus, talking to him and admiring him, raising her hands to his face as she uttered compliments and praise towards his genius. From their distance Florence heard comments of money and souls from the old woman but nothing more. Until Lazarus suddenly stiffened, throwing his head back slightly before gasping and reaching for a tray of nibble from a waiter as they walked past. He shoved the canapés in his mouth at a rate and disregard for etiquette that would put the Doctor to shame, one by one by one. Florence pulled a face at the sight, both impressed and mildly concerned by the choking hazard.
The elderly lady beside him seemed more disgusted than anything, and didn't hide it as she admonished the now younger professor. "Richard!"
"I'm famished!" He retorted, through a mouthful of food. Florence wondered whether he lost his manners in the process or whether he had in fact always spoken with his mouthful.
The Doctor chose that moment to step down from the platform he had been observing from and into the conversation he wasn't invited to. "Energy deficit." He put simply, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Always happens with this kind of process."
Professor Lazarus smirked slightly. "You speak as if you see this everyday, Mr…?" He trailed off, allowing the Doctor to fill the gap,
"Doctor." He gave him a smile that indicated to Florence that he had no intention of hiding his genius in front of this man. "And well, no, not every day… What would you say, Florence, once a month, a week?"
Florence tried hiding her own smile, he certainly was feeling bold in his tuxedo tonight, and she wasn't mad about it.
"Oh, easily a tri-annual thing." The Doctor bobbed his head in agreement as Lazarus' lip curled.
"I'll go tri-annual. So, yeah, I have some experience with this kind of transformation."
Lazarus shook his head. "That's not possible."
The Doctor nodded his head in the direction of the mechanics behind him. "Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance…" He explained clearly, to the fellow genius in front of him, less clearly to the three others in the conversation. "That's inspired."
"You understand the theory, then." Lazarus dismissed, and Florence raised an eyebrow.
"Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables."
Florence wasn't sure she wanted to think about the possible variables. Usually adventures with the Doctor frequently explored the possible variables and ended with copious amounts of running for Florence.
"No experiment is entirely without risk." Lazarus countered quickly, causing the Doctor to scoff.
"That thing nearly exploded! You might have well stepped into a blender."
"You are not qualified to comment." The older woman said haughtily.
Florence raised her eyebrows and let out a noise of indignation. "Uh, if he hadn't stopped whatever the hell was going on in that thing, it would have exploded! He saved your little party trick, and your life!" Lazarus' eyes narrowed slightly at Florence's thinly veiled insult of his pride and joy, but nevertheless gave them all a sickly sweet smile,
"Then I thank you, Doctor. But that's a simple engineering issue… What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less."
"You've got no way of knowing that! Not until you've run proper tests!" Martha disagreed.
Lazarus gestured to himself. "Look at me. You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need." The older woman sighed dreamily at the suddenly younger scientist, before turning to the three out of place guests.
"This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially."
"Commercially?" Martha looked aghast. "You are joking, that'll cause chaos!"
"Not chaos." Lazarus disagreed. "Change. A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve." Florence rolled her eyes at his attempt at a sales pitch.
"You mean the rich and influential." Florence scoffed at their blank looks. "Or, I'm sorry, is this gonna be readily available on the NHS? I doubt it, this isn't evolution, this is… bordering on eugenics."
"This is about you and your customers living a little longer!" The Doctor concurred, baffled at the prospect of commercialisation of a clearly dangerous machine.
"Not a little longer, Doctor." Lazarus smirked. "A lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely."
The older woman took the moment of incredulous silence from the three of them to draw Lazarus' attention back to her. "Richard, we have things to discuss. Upstairs."
At the silent command, Lazarus gave the Doctor a courteous smile. "Goodbye, Doctor. In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were." He held his hand out to shake Martha's before turning it and pulling it up towards his mouth, placing a kiss on it before darting his eyes to Florence and leaving with his colleague without another word.
Florence let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when he finally disappeared from view, the hairs on the back of her neck felt permanently stuck standing on end.
"I don't like this Doctor, not one bit."
The Doctor hummed slightly. "He's way out of his depth. No idea of the damage he might have done…"
"And? What is it he's done?" Florence questioned, and the Doctor looked down at her with a slight frown.
"Couldn't tell you. Something's not right, I just can't… can't put my finger on it."
"So what do we do now then?" Martha asked, and the Gallifreyan looked around the party slyly.
"Weeeellll… this building must be full of laboratories. I say we do our own tests." Martha smirked,
"Lucky I've just collected a DNA sample then, isn't it?" She wiggled the fingers of the hand Lazarus had just kissed. The Doctor grinned down at her.
"Oh, Martha Jones. You're a star!" He laughed lightly before leading the women out of the party reception and towards the lifts.
Well, they had already rudely gatecrashed a party and eaten most of their food, where was the harm in going through their things while they were at it.
Martha Jones wasn't a scientist, she was a doctor - in training. Of course, she knew about genetic coding, and how to read blood test results and CT scans, but what she was seeing on the screen was slightly out of her depth; which wasn't an unusual feeling while travelling with the Doctor. In fact, it was thrilling. Learning new things, seeing things completely beyond the realm of possibility, figuring out that she was a spec in the magnitude of the universe. It made her feel alive. The science-y stuff, she could take it or leave it, when it started to get really technical, but she supposed going by the look on Florence's face, she was understanding it a lot more than the other woman.
"Amazing." The Doctor murmured, and Florence leaned forward, resting her chin against her hand to get a closer look.
"What is it?"
"Lazarus' DNA." Florence gave him a blank look.
"I got that much, what about it?" Martha looked at the screen, the base pair looked pretty regular, and the backbone.
"I can't see anything different."
Look at it!" The Doctor told them indignantly, as if the answer was obvious. It was moments like this where Martha was glad to have Florence with her on these adventures, the Doctor didn't get the chance to make them feel idiotic when there was two of them to threaten to smack the smarminess out of him.
Annoyingly, the screen almost seemed to be listening to him, as not a few seconds later did the DNA warp suddenly, phasing in and out of something that definitely did not belong inside a human's genetic makeup.
"Well I saw that!" Florence drew back, looking up at the Doctor. "What the hell?"
"Did it just change?" Martha asked, incredulously. "But it can't have!"
"But it did." The Doctor muttered.
"It's impossible."
The Doctor had the smallest of smiles on his face. "And that's two impossible things we've seen so far tonight." His grin grew wider. "Don't you love it when that happens?"
Florence looked at him like he was positively deranged. "No, I don't. Not really. Usually, for us, that means danger." The Doctor kept wiggling his eyebrows at her. "I'm not joking." He clucked his tongue at her, choosing to ignore her complaints, as the three of them knew (whether one of them wanted to admit it or not) that she very much enjoyed every second of it.
"That means Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns." Martha commented, drawing focus back to the matter at hand.
"Hypersonic sound waves to destabilise the cell structure, then a metagenic programme to manipulate the coding in the protein strands." He took a deep breath, and Florence held up a hand.
"Um, human terms? Actually, no, both of you: not freaky super sciencey terms?" Martha almost blushed at the insinuation that she was anywhere in the Doctor's realm of science knowledge, extremely flattered that while she had been lumping the two humans together in their combined annoyance at the Doctor's intelligence on occasion, Florence had lumped the two 'doctors' themselves together. She wasn't about to admit that she had no idea what a 'metagenic programme' entailed.
"Basically, he hacked into his own genes and instructed them to rejuvenate." Martha frowned, nodding at the screen still showing the fluctuating DNA.
"But they're still mutating now." She pointed out, and the Doctor nodded.
"Because he's missing something. Something in his DNA has been activated and won't let him stabilise. Something that's trying to change him."
Florence groaned. "Dare I ask: change him into what?"
"I don't know." He admitted. "But I think we need to find out."
Martha looked at him suddenly, remembering the end of the conversation they had had downstairs at the party. "That woman said they were going upstairs."
"Let's go." With the Doctor's words they were off again, Martha and Florence's heels clacking against the polished floors of the laboratories as they raced to a lift. The Doctor hovered his fingers over the buttons in the lift before pressing the top floor. "Man like Lazarus, he'd want to oversee his kingdom."
The twenty seconds in the lift felt like forever, Martha could feel the tension in the compacted space, the three of them itching to fly out the moment the doors opened. If it wasn't for the Doctor's otherworldly instincts getting him out of the lift the second the metal doors slid open, Martha was sure they would have got caught in a jam trying to fit through the gap together.
"This is his office alright." Martha commented, looking at the stately ornate desk and various pieces of decor mixed with bright futuristic projections and cold interior design.
"So, where is he?"
Martha shrugged, it was eerily silent, but silent nonetheless. No one was there.
"Don't know. Let's try back at the re-" She hesitated, seeing something odd poking out from behind the desk. "-ception." There was something there, she was sure it was a black shoe with something attached to it. They all moved closer.
"Oh my God!" Florence gasped, holding her hand to her mouth.
Martha Jones wasn't a coroner, she was a doctor - in training. She knew exactly what a fibula stripped bare of all flesh looked like.
Okay… who doesn't love a bit of circling back at the end of a POV! I wanted to get this out as sooooon as I had it finished, and hopefully the second part won't be too long after this (I know I say that all the time oops).
See you for chapter 27! xo