Sorry for the late update everyone, real life got in my way! Thank you to those who have followed, favourited and/or reviewed, you keep me writing.
Martha Jones was having the weirdest day of her life. First the drama of dealing with Leo's 21st, then the strange encounter with the people on the street – the people who were with her now and insisted they hadn't been out of the hospital this morning – and suddenly she was on the moon and there were actual aliens at her work.
She followed the strange pair inside, and they hid behind a large potted plant as they watched the aliens, the Judoon, on the level below. Martha watched with wide eyes as one took off its helmet to reveal what looked like a rhinoceros in a spacesuit.
"Oh, look down there, you've got a little shop! I like a little shop," the brown-haired man exclaimed.
"I know you do," the blonde woman, Rose, replied in amusement.
Martha couldn't believe them. With everything that was happening and they focused on the shop?
"Never mind that," she said impatiently, "What are Judoon?"
"They're like police. Well, police for hire. They're more like interplanetary thugs."
"And they brought us to the moon?" She inquired.
"Neutral territory. According to galactic law they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth so they isolated it."
"So the moon is basically Switzerland for Judoon?" Rose asked.
"Hadn't thought of it like that but yeah, essentially," the man inclined his head. "That rain, the lightning, that was them. Using a H2O scoop."
Martha couldn't believe she was hearing this. "What're you on about 'galactic law'? Where'd you get that from?" But the two had already moved off.
She knew she had to stick with them. They were the ones with the answers and Martha wasn't about to let them out of her sight.
"If they're police are we under arrest?" She wondered curiously. "Are we trespassing on the moon or something?"
"No," the man replied, "But I like that. Good thinking! No, wish it were that simple."
"And we both know you don't do simple, don't we Doctor?" Rose prodded, prompting the pair to share a quick smile over some sort of inside joke. Martha resisted the urge to cough loudly just to bring them back to reality. Not married, what a laugh! These two were perfect together.
They soon turned their attention back to the Judoon below.
"They're making a catalogue, that means they're after something non-human," the man explained, and Rose looked up at him with something akin to fear. It was the first time Martha had seen the girl even bat an eyelid, so to see her clearly frightened was disconcerting. He continued in a low voice, seemingly without realising the effect his words were having on his friend. "Which is very bad news for me."
"Why?" Martha whispered, confused.
They both twisted to look at her and she thought about what his statement was implying.
"Oh, you're kidding me," she muttered. They couldn't be serious. "Don't be ridiculous."
They continued to stare, the man raising an eyebrow and the woman smiling in a way that seemed half pitying, half apologetic.
"Stop looking at me like that," she demanded. This had to be a joke. Right?
"Come on then."
They got up and Martha thought about it for a moment longer before shrugging it off. Nah, no way.
She followed them into an empty office room and told them, "They've reached the third floor."
Rose was sitting on the bench, swinging her legs, and the man was pointing what appeared to be a thin silver tube with a blue torch on the end at a computer. The tube was emitting a high-pitched buzzing noise.
"What's that thing?" She questioned them.
"Sonic screwdriver," the guy answered. Martha couldn't believe it – were these people not going to tell her anything?
"Well if you're not going to answer me properly…"
He looked up at that. "No, it really is. It's a screwdriver and it's… sonic. Look." He looked so sincere that Martha almost believed him. Not quite, though.
"What else have you got? Laser spanner?" She enquired, only half-sarcastic.
"I did have but it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, cheeky woman. What's wrong with this computer?" He yelled, striking it angrily.
"Have you tried turning it off and back on again?" Rose joked from where she was perched.
"Yeah, that's helpful," he retorted tersely, and Rose looked slightly taken aback. "The Judoon must've locked it down," he muttered. "Judoon platoon upon the moon."
He rubbed a hand over his chin and through his hair so that it was sticking up all over the place. With his messy hair, Martha couldn't help but appreciate how good-looking he was. It was shame he and Rose were so clearly head-over-heels for each other.
As if to prove Martha's point Rose jumped up and moved over to her friend, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder which he covered with his own hand straight away.
He began talking rapid-fire and Martha could only just keep up. "'Cause we were just travelling past, weren't we Rose? We were just wandering. We weren't looking for trouble – honestly, we weren't, but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, that lightning, that's a plasma coil, it's been building up for two days now, so we checked Rose in – I thought there was something going on inside, turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above."
"But what are they looking for?"
"Something that looks human, but isn't."
"Like you, apparently."
"Like me," he agreed, "But not me. You're being suspiciously quiet, Rose."
"Just thinking," she murmured, biting her thumbnail. "I'm gonna go look for it in case you can't get the records up."
The man's demeanour changed instantly. "Absolutely not!" He snapped.
Rose raised an eyebrow and said icily, "I'm not a kid, Doctor. I know the dangers, and I also know the risk is worth it. What happens if the computer's permanently broken and we've wasted all our time in here? I go out now and it could be the difference between someone's life or death."
"You don't even know what it looks like!" He argued.
"Haven't they got a photo?" Martha cut in. If the Judoon had a picture then she and Rose could somehow get it off them and start searching for the alien themselves.
"Might be a shape-shifter," was the reply.
"Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?"
"If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution."
"All of us?" She asked, still not quite sure how she'd ended up in this situation.
His eyes flicked up to Rose and back to the computer so quickly Martha wasn't sure whether she imagined it.
"Oh yes. But if I can find this thing first –"
Without warning, the man gave a violent shout that caused both Martha and Rose to jump.
"OH, you see they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are so completely thick, they've wiped the records! Oh, that's clever."
Lowering her hand from her heart Martha asked, "What are we looking for?"
"I dunno," he said in strained voice, running his hands through his already crazy hair. "Say, any patient admitted in the last week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up." Referring now to the computer records.
"Is there anyone else who works here that might know of a patient like that?" Rose asked Martha, and she mentally ran through a list of possible people.
"Mr Stoker. You two keep working while I ask him."
She rushed out of the room to find her superior, hoping against hope he'd be able to help. She had a sinking feeling things wouldn't be that easy.
"Got it!" The Doctor exclaimed, "Let's go find Martha."
"I like her," Rose said decisively. "She's smart, and isn't freaking out on us."
The Doctor hummed in agreement. "Mmm. She certainly asks the right questions. I seem to recall meeting another young woman like that a few years ago."
"Oh?" Rose played along. "And how did that turn out?"
"Awful, I can't get rid of her!"
Although he said it with a cheerful air that told Rose the comment was light-hearted teasing, she couldn't help but feel as though something very heavy had struck her in the chest. Logically she knew that the Doctor had meant it as a joke, but with the recent revelation of her extended lifespan she still wasn't fully convinced he wanted her with him for the rest of his life, and it hit a little too close to home.
"Rose," he said hurriedly, deadly serious at the sight of her slack expression. "I didn't mean it like that." He placed a hand on her cheek. "I was just kidding around. You know that, right?"
Snapping herself out of it, Rose cleared her throat. "I know, yeah, of course."
Plainly unconvinced, the Doctor opened his mouth to speak but Rose cut him off.
"No, seriously. I was just being stupid. Us humans and our overreactions, huh?" She attempted to bring back their earlier banter.
It didn't look as though it had worked and the Doctor seemed about to protest when Martha came crashing down the hall.
"The Doctor's fixed the back-up," Rose informed her, jumping on the opportunity for a distraction.
"I've found her!" Martha responded.
"You did what?" The Doctor cut in incredulously.
The door down the corridor burst open to reveal figure clad from head to toe in black leather.
"Run!" The Doctor shouted, grabbing the girls' hands and tugging them forward.
The trio sprinted down the halls with the leather figure chasing them. They passed terrified patients and leapt down stairwells, narrowly escaping the Judoon who were moving up the stairs towards them. Good thing the space-rhinos were so slow, Rose thought to herself.
They kept running until they reached a small side corridor that the Doctor led them down. He ushered them into one of the rooms along it and sonicked the door just as the leather-man reached them. Rose took in the surroundings and discovered they'd ended up one of the radiology rooms.
"When I say now, press the button!" The Doctor commanded.
"But I don't know which one!" Martha cried desperately.
"Then find out!"
Martha immediately went over to the controls as Rose raced up to the Doctor's side.
"Rose, get behind the shielding!" He ordered, using the sonic to adjust the x-ray machine in the centre of the room.
Yeah, right, and let him blow himself up or something. "No way, I'm staying with you."
"Rose we don't have time to argue! You need to move, now."
She stood her ground. "Only if you promise me you'll be okay."
"I promise! Rose, please!"
Without wasting another second she sprinted around the radiation shield just as the leather figure broke through the door.
"NOW!" The Doctor screamed, and Martha slammed a big yellow button down, causing the machine to fire a light so bright they were forced to look away.
When Rose looked back, the thing that had been chasing them was lying face down on the floor.
"What did you do?" Martha asked.
"Increased the radiation by 5000 percent."
Rose's eyes widened. Surely that much radiation would be harmful, even to the Doctor?
"Killed him dead."
Rose rushed around the wall to check he if he was okay, but he held up his hand to stop her from getting too close.
"But isn't that going to kill you?" Martha voiced Rose's fear.
"Nah," he said casually. "It's only Roentgen radiation. We used to play with Roentgen bricks in the nursery. It's safe for you to come out, I've absorbed it all. Just can't touch me yet," he added to Rose. He sniffed and grunted, "All I need to do is expel it. If I concentrate… shift the radiation out of my body and into one spot… say my left shoe. Here we go, here we go, easy does it. Out! Out, out, out!"
Rose watched in amusement as he hopped around like a lunatic, kicking his foot out in front of him, and moving closer to the waste bin.
"Out, out, out, ah, ah, itches, itches, itches, itches! Ah, aw, hold on –"
He ripped the shoe off and slammed it into the bin. "Done."
Rose just grinned at him as Martha decided, "You're completely mad."
"You're right. I look daft with one shoe." He pulled the other one off and it joined its twin in the rubbish.
Rose bit back a giggle and the Doctor beamed at her.
"Barefoot on the moon!" He proclaimed happily.
Rose didn't even attempt to control her laughter at this point and the Doctor strolled over, grinning broadly, to where she stood. She leant against him to stop herself toppling over.
Martha studied them in disbelief for a moment before shaking it off and inspecting the motionless leather man.
"So what is that thing? And where's it from, planet Zovirax?"
"It's just a Slab," he answered, moving to where the medical student was crouched by the figure. "They're called Slabs. Basic slave drones, you see? Solid leather all the way through - someone has got one hell of a fetish."
"I know someone else who used to like a lot of leather," Rose smirked and the Doctor chuckled and got up.
"But who was that woman, Mrs Finnegan? It was working for her, just like a servant," Martha said as the Doctor went over to the x-ray machine and plucked out a very badly damaged sonic screwdriver. Rose gave an involuntarily "Oh," at the upsetting sight. The Doctor without his sonic was almost as strange a thought as this regeneration without pinstripes.
"My sonic screwdriver!" The Doctor cried in dismay.
"She was one of the patients, but –" Martha tried again but the Doctor spoke over her.
"No, no, my sonic screwdriver!"
"She had this straw like some sort of vampire!"
"I love my sonic screwdriver," he said with a grimace at Rose.
"Doctor!" Martha exclaimed, snapping him out of his grousing.
The Doctor turned to face her, pitching the burnt out screwdriver over his shoulder, which caused Rose to wince.
"Sorry," he apologised to Martha, before grinning. "You called me Doctor!"
"Anyway," the medical student pressed on. "Mrs Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mr Stoker's blood!"
"There's got to be a reason for that," Rose rationalized. "She doesn't have time to do something like that without a purpose, why wouldn't she be hiding?"
"Yeah, funny time to take a snack," the Doctor agreed. "Unless… no… yes. That's it! Wait a minute…YES! Shape-changer! Internal shape-changer! She wasn't drinking blood, she was assimilating it! If she can assimilate Mr Stoker's blood, mimic the biology, she'll register as human. We've got to find her and show the Judoon. Come on!"
The three ran out of the room. Rose was ahead of them and as they rounded the corner she saw another Slab coming up the hall. She backed into the other two, pushing them down so that they were all crouching beneath a doorframe.
"Slab," she mouthed to the Doctor and he nodded, confusion fading from his face.
"That's the thing about Slabs," he informed the girls once it had gone past. "They always travel in pairs."
"What about you two?" Martha inquired. "You seem pretty inseparable. Are you like an extraterrestrial crime-fighting duo, or something?"
"Something like that," Rose snorted.
"Oi!" The Doctor protested grumpily, "Not always! Humans – we're stuck on the moon, running out of air, with Judoon and a blood-sucking criminal, and you're trying to give me a job title! Come on."
"I like that," Martha said quietly as they stood up. "'Humans'. Still not convinced you're an alien."
A Judoon appeared in front of them, speedily scanning the Doctor and declaring, "Non-human."
"Oh my God, you really are!"
"And again!" Then Doctor shouted, grabbing their hands and racing away from the Judoon. They ducked as the heard the sound of lasers being fired after them, rounding the corner, though not before Rose felt a searing pain on the back of her calf.
She hissed through her teeth, limping forward a step before resting her hand on the wall for support. The Doctor noticed straight away.
"Rose what are you doing?! We've got to keep going!"
"I think their lasers nicked me," she cried. "You keep moving! I'm human, they're not looking for me."
"Oh, not a chance," the Doctor growled. "I'm not leaving you behind."
He didn't give her the chance to protest, instead he scooped her into his arms and took off running again, Martha trailing behind them.
Although she hated that she was slowing them down, Rose couldn't help but delight in the fact that she was being held tightly to the Doctor's chest. They reached the floor below and the Doctor set her down gently, locking the door behind them.
"You are now, officially, the single most jeopardy-friendly companion I have ever had," he announced in exasperation. "Including Ace, and that's saying something."
He draped an arm around her waist to help her walk along the hall. Rose noticed her breathing was becoming more laboured with every step.
"Won't they find us here?" She asked uneasily.
"Nah, the Judoon are logical, and just a little bit thick."
They passed by the medical student, Julia, who seemed a lot more in control than the last time they'd seen her, as she held up an oxygen mask to a patient.
"They won't go back to check a floor they've checked already. If we're lucky."
"Oh, that's reassuring," Rose panted sarcastically, slightly dizzy now.
Martha stopped by her colleague and bent down next to her, asking, "How much oxygen is there?"
"Not enough for all these people. We're gonna run out," Julia answered sombrely.
"How are you feeling?" The Doctor asked Martha. "You alright?"
"Yeah," the girl smiled in exhilaration. "I'm running on adrenaline."
"How about you Rose?"
Rose hesitated, not wanting to worry him, but her pause was answer enough.
"You lost quite a bit of blood from the cut on your head earlier as well," he noted anxiously.
Rose couldn't ignore the pounding in her head anymore and she felt herself sway off balance. The Doctor steadied her and led her over to the wall, which she slipped down gratefully.
"Go find Mr Stoker's office," she whispered, desperately trying to keep the world from spinning wildly around her to no avail.
The Doctor was reluctant to leave her but followed Martha with a promise of "We'll be right back."
I couldn't find a good place to stop but this chapter was getting a bit long. Any feedback is always appreciated :)