A/N: Here's another episode for my loyal readers! Hope you like reading it as much as I liked writing it! Please review if you read? I love hearing from you. Also, if you read my other fics, I will be updating them eventually, but I can't get this out of my head right now.
Season Three
"Smith and Jones"
Rose made a face at the hospital as she and the Doctor headed toward it. "Why do I have to be the patient?" she asked him, for the third time.
"Well, you're human, and I'm not," he told her, as though that explained everything. "Or, near enough. The scans we did on the TARDIS showed you've got both the energy and a bit of the Time Vortex from the heart in your system-"
"Which means I stopped aging properly, I know," she interrupted. "You told me that. I'm not immortal like Jack, I won't regenerate like you, but if I avoid dying, I could possibly live as long as the TARDIS herself. But why am I the patient here?"
She pointed at the hospital.
The Doctor grinned. "Don't you think it would be odd if they discovered I have two hearts and no lungs?"
She grumbled as they entered, but had to admit he had a point. As she filled out the paperwork to be be admitted, she noticed something on the paper.
"Doctor,"she said. "Only family members are allowed to stay with patient..."
He shrugged easily. "I'll be with you. Remember? We're a team."
She looked at him in exasperation. "But you're not family, and I can't exactly go 'round telling them you're my brother. Someone working here might know me and know I haven't got a brother."
The intense look the Doctor gave her made Rose shiver.
"Oh no," he said softly. "I am definitely not your brother, my Rose."
She smiled at him. He'd called her that several times now. Mostly since they had discovered she wasn't aging anymore. Leaning into his arm, she hurriedly finished the paperwork and gave him a strange look as he took it from her and made a few corrections before turning it in.
"Doctor," she asked when he returned to her side. "Knowing what we do, about this connection to the TARDIS, if I had stayed in that parrallel world...wouldn't the separation have slowly... killed me?"
He blinked, turning to her with a great amount of shock. "I hadn't considered that... I... oh, my Rose! I nearly killed you!"
She grabbed him in a strong hug. "No! You couldn't have known, Doctor. It didn't even happpen, so don't you be getting upset on me."
"Rose Smith."
"That's you," said the Doctor, urging her along.
"Can't be," she shook her head. "I wrote Rose Tyler."
"Better if we don't always use your real name, don't you think," he said hurriedly. "In you go then!"
She headed for the doors, Doctor just behind her. The nurse referred to him as her husband, and Rose half expected him to argue. When he didn't, she blushed a bright red and realized he'd changed the paperwork to allow him to accompany her. Soon she was settled for the night, the Doctor next to her.
They talked about where they would go next, until she drifted off to sleep. Unknown to them, the staff were all talking about the woman and her husband who sat watching her sleep all night with an expression of absolute devotion.
The next morning brought a group of medical students around, and Rose smiled brightly at them, which was easy since the Doctor was still holding her hand.
The man leading them smiled at Rose, a bit condescending, but polite all the same. "Now then, Mrs. Smith, a very good morning to you. How are you today?"
Rose glanced at the Doctor before answering, "Aw, not so bad, still a bit, you know. Blah."
A bare nod acknowledged her, before he turned to address the students. "Mrs. John Smith, or Rose, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains. Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me."
The student named Jones placed the stethoscope on Rose's chest with a warm smile. "Any chance you're pregnant?"
Rose blushed. "No! I mean, I'm sure that's not it."
The young black woman laughed a bit. "No worries, good to see your husband made it back to you after popping out this morning."
The Doctor blinked at her, "Sorry?"
"On Chancery Street this morning. You came up to me and took your tie off," the woman explained, taking Rose's pulse.
"Really?" the Doctor grinned, nudging Rose. "What did I do that for?"
"Knowing you, any number of reasons," the woman in the bed snorted.
"I don't know, you just did."
He shook his head, still smiling broadly. "Not me. I was here, right next to Rose. Ask the nurses."
Jones shrugged. "Well, that's weird, cause it looked like you. Have you got a brother?"
"No, no family anymore. Just us."
Rose reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze which he returned.
Jones' instructor rolled his eyes impatiently. "As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones."
"Sorry. Right," she said, moving her hands to press gingerly on Rose's abdomen. Not finding any sign of distress, she glanced up at the Doctor who winked.
"I weep for further generations. Are you having trouble locating the problem, Miss Jones?"
A bit flustered by the wink, Jones stammered, "Um. I don't know. Stomach cramps?"
"That is a symptom, not a diagnosis. And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart," the instructor sighed.
He picked up the chart, but received a large, noticeable electric shock, and dropped it.
"That happened to me this morning," Jones said curiously.
Another student, a man with blonde hair, said, "I had the same thing on the door handle."
"And me, on the lift," piped another student, a woman with dark hair.
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look. That was a bit much for a normal turn of events.
The instructor waved dismissively. "That's only to be expected. There's a thunderstorm moving in and lightning is a form of static electricity, as was first proven by - anyone?"
The Doctor answered without thinking. "Benjamin Franklin."
"Correct!"
Thinking back, he rambled on. "My mate Ben, that was a day and a half. I got rope burns off that kite, and then I got soaked.."
The instructor raised a brow, "Quite..."
Rose rolled her eyes and tapped his arm. "Err... John...?"
"... and then I got electrocuted."
"Doctor!" Rose hissed, elbowing him. He blinked and looked at her with a sheepish grin.
"Moving on!"
After the students moved on, Rose giggled at the Doctor. "Honestly, appropriate time and place, Doctor."
"I can't help myself sometimes!" he laughed.
Moments later they were up and moving, Rose having changed back into her clothes. They moved by the kitchen area where they saw the student from earlier and kept going. A moment later the Doctor stopped by the window.
"It's raining," he said.
"We've seen rain," Rose said, trying to prompt him to the point, as she was now used to doing.
"Not that falls up," he smirked, pointing.
She raised both brows. "I'll give you that one," she said, moving closer to look.
The hospital began to shake violently, the lights flickering. The Doctor grabbed Rose and held her close as they both crashed to the floor. He tried to cover her head, the pair nose to nose suddenly and a bit distracted. They almost didn't noticed the shaking stop as they stared at each other. Suddenly the Doctor scrambled to his feet, pulling her up as well.
"Are you all right?" he asked anxiously.
She nodded, staring past him to the window. "Yeah, but you take me on some of the strangest dates."
Surprised by the answer she gave, the Doctor spun around and laughed at the view. "Well, how interesting!"
They headed back to the patient area and saw the student they only knew as Jones trying to calm people down.
"All right, everyone back to bed, we've got an emergency but we'll sort it out." She moved to a window and looked out, her epression more excited than afraid. "It's real. It's really real. Hold on!"
She reached for the window-latch.
The dark haired female student that was with her shouted, "Don't! We'll lose all the air!"
Shaking her head, the black woman argued, "But they're not exactly air tight. If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?"
The Doctor shot Rose a grin at that before saying, "Very good point! Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?"
"Martha."
"And it was Jones, wasn't it?" Rose added.
Martha nodded at the pair.
"Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?" the Doctor asked her, a look of sheer delight on his face.
His companion shook her head, looking amused. "He absolutely loves it when people ask the right questions."
The other woman sobbed, "We can't be!"
He immediately dismissed that woman as one of the humans who would simply never understand. "Obviously we are so don't waste my time. Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or...?"
"By the patients' lounge, yeah," Martha answered quickly.
The Doctor offered Rose his arm, his manic grin in place as always. "Fancy going out?"
"What kind of date would this be if we didn't?" she teased him.
He turned to the clever woman. "Would you like come on a walk with us?"
"Okay," Martha shrugged, her curiosity driving her to find out.
"We might die," Rose tested the woman, grinning broadly.
The black woman found herself grinning back. "We might not."
"Good! C'mon," the Doctor cheered. He nodded at the woman cowering in the corner. "Not her, she'd hold us up."
Rose shakes her head slightly, "Rude again."
"Someday you'll reform me," he acknowledged lightly.
The three headed to the patients' lounge and pushed open the doors. They stepped out onto the balcony.
"We've got air! How does that work?" Martha asked incredulously.
"Just be glad it does," the Doctor said seriously.
Staring at the earth, the medical student sighed. "I've got a party tonight. It's my brother's twenty-first. My mother's going to be really ... really..."
Rose placed a hand on her arm, ever a source of compassion. "You okay?"
"Yeah," she said softly.
"Sure?"
"Yeah."
"Want to go back in?" the Doctor asked.
The woman gave a short laugh. "No way. I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same - it's beautiful."
Rose grinned, taking an instant liking to this woman.
"How many people want to go to the moon? And here we are!" Martha laughed, gesturing to the surface of the moonlight.
"Standing in the earthlight," the Doctor said, his arm stealing around Rose's waist.
Martha smiled a bit at the way the blonde automatically leaned back into him, as if this were an everyday thing for the two of them.
"What do you think happened?" she asked the pair.
The Doctor looked at her, grinning quirkily. 'What do you think?"
"Extraterrestrial. It's got to be," Martha said with confidence. "I don't know, a few years ago that would have sounded man, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben - Christmas - those Cybermen things. I had a cousin. Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home."
"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, feeling personally responsible for that.
"Stop," Rose murmured. "We did what we had to, there was nothing we could have done for her."
At the other woman's questioning look, the Doctor admitted. "We were there. In the battle."
"I promise you, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way," Martha vowed.
The Doctor made a face. "It's not Smith, that's not our real name."
"Who are you, then?"
"I'm the Doctor, and this is my... Rose."
She nodded, "Me too, if I can pass my exams. What is it, then, Doctor Smith?"
"Just the Doctor," Rose giggled.
Martha asked, not understanding. "How do you mean, just the Doctor?"
The Doctor grinned. "Just... the Doctor."
"What, people call you 'the Doctor'?"
The couple looked at each other as though sharing an old, private joke. "Yeah."
Martha crossed her arms across her chest, "Well, I'm not. As far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title."
"Well, I'd better make a start, then. Let's have a look." The Doctor stood straight and reluctantly released Rose. He picked up a stone from the balcony and threw it. "There must be some sort of force field keeping the air in."
The stone bounced of an invisible wall that rippled slightly from the contact.
"If that's like a bubble sealing us in, that means this is the only air we've got. What happens when it runs out?" Martha said slowly, glancing back inside.
"How many people in this hospital?" the Doctor asked.
"I don't know, a thousand?"
Rose winced. "One thousand people. Suffocating."
"Why would anyone do that?" Martha asked, horrified.
The Doctor pointed out. "Head's up! Ask them yourself."
Several large ships landed a short way off, dozens of troops disembarking and marching for the hospital.
"Aliens. That's aliens. Real, proper aliens."
"Judoon," the Doctor corrected. He grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her along. "Come, Martha! We have to see the show!"
The three people crouched behind some plants watching the Judoon entering the hospital, walking easily through the force field. People watched, some screaming, some running, some cowering and trying to hide, but the aliens didn't seem to care. The leader took off his helmet and revealed a large rhinocerous looking head.
"Bo sco fo do no kro blo co sho ro!"
"What'd he say?" Rose asked the Doctor. "We're too far from the TARDIS for her to translate."
The Doctor smiled at her, leaning close and whispering, "He greeted them in the name of the Shadow Proclamation."
She shivered and tried to focus on what was happening.
The blonde male student spoke, "We are citizens of planet earth. We welcome you in peace."
The chief Judoon pushed the young man against the wall and shined a blue light in his face.
"Please don't hurt me, I was just trying to help, I'm sorry, don't hurt me, please don't hurt me."
The Judoon played his words back on his portable machine.
The Judoon spoke, "Language assimilated. Designation Earth English. You will be catalogued."
The chief shone a blue light in the man's face and marked a cross on the back of his hand.
"Category: human. Catalogue all suspects."
They started shining the blue light on people, checking their species, then marking the right hand. The women watched and exchanged a look, while the Doctor looked around.
"Oh, look down there, you've got a little shop. I like a little shop."
Rose tried not to laugh at her doctor, but Martha wasn't amused at all. "Never mind that! What are Judoon?"
"Galactic police. Well, police for hire. More like interplanetary thugs," the Doctor explained patiently.
"And they brought us to the moon?" she clarified as they began moving back upstairs.
The Doctor nodded. "Neutral territory. According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, and they isolated us. That rain? Lightning? That was them, using an H2O scoop."
"What's that about 'galactic law'? Where'd you get that from? If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassing on the moon or something?"
He grinned. "No. But I like that. Good thinking. No, it's more simple. They're making a catalogue, it means they're after something non-human, which is very bad news for me."
Rose snorted. "I'm not sure it's such great news for me anymore."
The black woman shook her head. "Why?"
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look.
"Oh, you're kidding me," Martha scoffed.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
"Don't be ridiculous. Stop looking at me like that."
He sighed, tightening his hold on Rose's hand. "Come on, then."
Upstairs, they slipped into a room where the Doctor was examining a computer with his sonic screwdriver.
"They've reached third floor. What's that thing?" Martha asked from her look out by the door.
He answered in a distracted tone. "Sonic screwdriver."
She huffed. "Well, if you're not going to answer me properly!"
Rose shook her head. "No, really, it is. It's a screwdriver, and it's sonic. Promise!"
The stuudent smirked "What else have you got? A laser spanner?"
"I did, but Rose threw it at me on the surface of Vumar III. It was lost to the quicksand pits."
He hit the computer and Rose cringed.
"If you would quit hitting equipment, I would stop getting angry and throwing things at you," she scolded the Doctor who merely winked at her.
"Oh, this computer!" he muttered. "The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon. Cause we were just travelling past, I swear, we were looking around the town, weren't looking for trouble, honestly,well I wasn't but it seems to look for Rose, but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, and that lightning, that's plasma coils, been building up for two days now, so I checked Rose in, thought something was going on inside, it turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above."
"But what were they looking for?" Martha was able to follow him, but only just.
"Something that looks human, but isn't," the Doctor said, frowning.
"Like you. Apparently."
"But not him," Rose said, crossing her arms with a frown.
The Doctor glanced up at Rose, but continued to work.
"Haven't they got a photo?" Martha asked, trying to make sense of this whole thing.
"Might be a shape-changer," Rose said, pacing slightly.
The almost doctor peeked out the door again. "Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?"
The Doctor sighed. "If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution."
She looked back in sudden horror. "All of us?"
"Oh yes. If I can find this thing first..." the Doctor's tone flipped to severe sarcasm. "Oh! Just that they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick! They wiped the records. Oh, that's clever."
Rose moved to calm him while Martha frowned.
"What are we looking for?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I don't know. Any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up."
He began attacking the tower with the sonic.
"Just keep working," the student said with a nod. Finding a patient. That she could help with. "I'll go ask Mr Stoker, he might know."
Martha ran out the door, and Rose wrapped her arms around her middle again.
"You okay, Rose?" the Doctor asked, darting a worried glance at her.
"Yeah, just sort of...empty."
He nodded, glancing at the window. "Well, you are three hundred, eighty four thousand, four hundred and three kilometers from the TARDIS. And your cells are still fluctuating."
She nodded. "Well, it sucks. Let's get this criminal and hand it over to the Judoon so we can go home."
He nodded and took her hand, heading out to find Martha.
The woman they were looking for chose that moment to come running down the hall. "I found her."
He stopped. "You what?" Two creatures in solid black leather with black helmets come around the corner. "Run!"
They ran down the stairs, followed by the creatures in black. They met the Judoon coming up, and dodged out a doorway on the fourth floor. They went skidding around corners and then found themselves ducking into the radiology room. The Doctor closed and locked the door in the face of a Slab.
The Doctor began messing with the machine. "When I say 'now', press the button."
"I don't know which one," Martha exclaimed.
Rose dragged her to the controls. "Well, come on, Martha Jones. Let's find out!"
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on some of the machinery. One of the creatures broke down the door and headed straight for him.
"Now!"
Martha hesitated over the button she'd identified, obviously waiting for the Doctor to move. Rose leaned around her and mashed the button zapping the creature with radiation, the Doctor's skeleton visible. After a moment, the leather creature fell to the floor, immobile.
"What did you do?" Martha gasped, looking from Rose to the Doctor.
"I trusted the Doctor," Rose said simply, moving out to him.
"Increased the radiation by five thousand per cent. Killed him dead," the Doctor said, hopping around a bit.
Martha came out to him slowly, a bit fearfully. "Isn't that likely to kill you?"
"Nah, it's only radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery. It's safe for you to come out, I've absorbed it all. All I need to do is expel it," he said easily, still bouncing and hopping. "If I concentrate I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot. It's in my left shoe. Here we go, here we go, easy does it..." He started shaking his foot. "Out, out, out, out, out. Out, out, ah, ah, ah, ah. It is, it is, it is, it is, it is hot. Ah - hold on. Done."
The Doctor ripped off his left sneaker, throwing it into the dustbin.
"You're completely mad," Martha said slowly.
Rose shook her head looking fully disgusted.
"What?" he asked her, concerned.
"She's utterly right," the blonde woman told him seriously. "You look daft with one shoe."
He immediately removed and discarded the other one. "Barefoot on the moon!"
Rose grinned. "Now see? That makes much more sense."
Martha rubbed a hand over her face before kneeling next to the dead creature. "So what is that thing? And where's it from? The planet Zovirax?"
The Doctor kicked the inert form. "It's just a Slab. They're called 'Slabs'. Basic slave drones, see? Solid leather, all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish."
"It came with that woman, Mrs. Finnegan. It was working for her. Just like a servant."
He nodded as he moved to the machine and took what remained of his sonic screwdriver out of the x-ray machine. "My sonic screwdriver."
"She was one of the patients, but –"
"My sonic screwdriver!"
Rose sat on a stool, a bit winded while Martha continued trying to explain where she'd found the Slabs.
"She had a straw like some kind of vampire."
"I loved my sonic screwdriver!"
Finally, Martha snapped. "Doctor!"
"Sorry," he said sheepishly, tossing the sonic screwdriver away. "You called me 'Doctor'."
Rose stood. "Anyway! You said this Miss Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mr. Stoker's blood?"
The Doctor moved to Rose's side, intent on helping her but she waved him away. Still watching her, he said to Martha, "Funny time to take a snack. You'd think she'd be hiding. 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 morphology, she can register as human. We've got to find her and show the Judoon. Come on! Rose, can you run?"
She gave him a grin and took his hand. "As long as you can."
They ran down the hall, and see the other Slab who just walked past them while they hid behind a water cooler.
"That's the thing about Slabs. They always travel in pairs," the Doctor mused.
"What about you?" Martha asked him.
"'What about me what?" he said, frowning at her.
"Is Rose your wife or your back-up? Are you two really together or are you just using her?"
His expression was horrified that she would even ask that. "Ugh. Humans. We're stuck on the moon running out of air with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal, you're asking personal questions. Come on."
Rose thumped him lightly on the arm. "Watch it."
The medical student gave a sharp laugh. "I like that. "Humans." I'm still not convinced you're an alien."
They stepped out in front of a Judoon, who shined his blue light on the Doctor's face.
"Non-human."
"Convinced now?" Rose snapped.
"Oh my God, you really are!"
"Not now, run!" the Doctor shouted, grabbing both their hands and speeding off down the hall.
They ran, the Judoon shooting after them. They made it up stairs, and managed to lock a door behind them, but when they emerged in the corridor they found several people are falling to the ground, gasping for breath. The Doctor looked at them closely, noting the marks on their right hands.
"They've done this floor," he told them. "Come on. The Judoon are logical and just a little bit thick. They won't go back to check a floor they've checked already. If we're lucky."
Martha saw the dark haired woman from earlier and stopped her.
"How much oxygen is there?"
The woman shook her head sadly. "Not enough for all these people. We're going to run out."
The Doctor looked at Rose's pale face. "Rose, are you all right?"
"Of course I am, my Doctor," she said softly, her voice taking a similar tone as it held on Gamestation 5.
He froze momentarily, staring at her. "She's trying to protect you still, even from this far away. Amazing."
"There are other things to worry over, my Doctor. Protect the people in this hospital," Rose instructed him, her eyes glowing a little.
He nodded, turning to Martha, "How are you feeling? Are you all right?"
"I'm running on adrenaline," she admitted.
"Welcome to our world," he grinned at her.
"What about the Judoon?" she asked.
"Ah, great big lung reserves, it won't slow them down. Where's Mr Stoker's office?"
"It's this way."
She led them into his office, looking around in surprise.
"She's gone! She was here."
Rose patted her arm. "She wouldn't likely stick around the scene of the crime, right?"
The Doctor knelt down, examining Mr Stoker. "Drained him dry. Every last drop. I was right. She's a plasmavore."
His companion frowned. "What was she doing on Earth?"
"Hiding. On the run. Like Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro. What's she doing now? She's still not safe. The Judoon could execute us all. Come on," he said, standing and taking her hand again.
"Wait a minute," Martha said. She moved to Mr. Stoker and closed his eyes, then left with the other two.
"Think, think, think. If I was a plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do?" He grinned and looked at the MRI sign. "Aah. She's as clever as me. Almost."
They heard the Judoon down the hall. "Find the non-human. Execute."
He hesitated, staring at Rose for a moment, then glanced up at Martha. "Stay here. I need time. You're going to have to hold them up."
"How do we do that?"
Rose shook her head. "We've got this, Doctor. You do what you need to do, we'll distract them."
He frowned. "Rose, I…"
She kissed his cheek. "Go. We'll talk about it later."
After a moment, the Doctor nodded and headed into the MRI room, where the machine was making strange noises and Florence Finnegan was working with the controls.
He began babbling, "Have you seen - there are these things, those great big space rhino things, I mean rhinos from space. And we're on the moon. Great big space rhinos with guns on the moon. And I only came in for my bunions, look. They're all right now, perfectly good treatment, I said to my wife, I'd recommend this place to anyone, but then we end up on the moon. And did I mention the rhinos?"
"Hold him!" the woman said to the Slab, that immediately grabbed the Doctor.
In the hall, the Judoon walked into the corridor where Martha and Rose stood bravely waiting for them.
"Find the non-human. Execute."
"Now, listen," Martha said, trembling. "I know who you're looking for. She's this woman. She calls herself Florence."
The Judoon ignored her and examined Rose with his blue light.
"Human. With non-human traits suspected. Non-human element confirmed. Authorize full scan. What are you? What are you?"
It pushed her into the wall, while Martha watched in horror.
In the MRI room, Florence Finnegan was still fussing with the MRI machine, and it had started making strange noises.
"That thing, that big machine thing, is it supposed to be making that noise?" the doctor asked curiously.
"You wouldn't understand," the woman dismissed him.
"Isn't that a magnetic resonance imaging thing? Like a ginormous sort of a magnet? I did magnets at GCSE. Well, I failed, but all the same." He was trying to draw information out of her.
The woman looked down on him. "The magnetic setting is now set to 50,000 Tesla."
He blinked, feigning surprise. "Ooh. That's a bit strong, isn't it?"
"I can send out a magnetic pulse that will fry the brain-stems of every living thing within 250,000 miles. Except me, safe in this room," she cackled.
"But... hold on, hold on, I did geography for GCSE, I did pass that one, doesn't that distance include Earth?" And his Rose? This plasmavore was dangerously close to making him angry.
"Only the side facing the moon. The other half will survive. Call it my little gift," she shrugged carelessly.
He played the part of the simple human well, "I'm sorry, you'll have to forgive me, I'm a little out of my depth. I've spent the past fifteen years working as a postman, hence the bunions - why would you do that?"
"With everyone dead, the Judoon ships will be mine, to make my escape," she said simply.
He looked at her incredulously. "Now, that's weird. You're talking like you're some sort of an alien."
"Right-o," she saluted sarcastically.
"No!"
"Oh, yes."
He shook his head. "You're joshing me."
"I am not."
He laughed. "I'm talking to an alien? In hospital? What, has the place got an ET department?"
"It's the perfect hiding place. Blood banks downstairs for a midnight feast, and all this equipment I'm ready to arm myself with should the police come looking," she gestured to the MRI.
"So, those rhinos, they're looking for you?" He pressed her.
"Yes. But I'm hidden," she said confidently.
"Oh. Right! Maybe that's why they're increasing their scans," he nodded easily.
She stopped and turned around. "They're doing what?"
He nodded cheerfully. "Big chief rhino boy, he said, no sign of a non-human, we must increase our scans... up to setting two?"
She thought quickly, staring off into space. "Then I must assimilate again."
"Now what does that mean?"
"I must appear to be human."
He grinned at her. "Well, you're welcome to come home and meet the wife. She'd be honoured. We can have cake."
She smirked darkly. "Why should I have cake? I've got my little straw."
"That's nice. Milkshake? I like banana," now he was stalling for time.
"You're quite the funny man. And yet, I think, laughing on purpose at the darkness. I think it's time you found some peace. Steady him!"
"What are you doing?"
The Slab held him tightly and Florence approached with her straw.
"I'm afraid this is going to hurt," she said slowly. "But if it's any consolation, the dead don't tend to remember."
In another hall, the Judoon made a cross on Rose's hand.
"Confirmed: human. Traces of cellular mutation. Continue the search."
"Wait, the non human is in here!" Martha shouted, pointing to the MRI room.
They open the door and see Florence drinking the Doctor's blood with a straw. She squeaked and let him fall to the floor.
"Now see what you've done. This poor man just died of fright."
"Scan him!" the Judoon ordered. "Confirmation: deceased."
Rose cried out, rushing forward and falling next to him. "No, he can't be. Let me through, let me see him."
"Case closed," the Judoon said, starting to leave.
"But it was her," Martha announced. "She killed him. She did it. She murdered him."
The alien police paused to say, "The Judoon have no authority over human crime."
"But she's not human," the black woman argued.
Florence held up her right hand to show the black X on the back of it. "Oh, but I am. I've been catalogued."
"But she's not! She assimil- Wait a minute. You drank his blood. My Doctor's blood," Rose said, cradling his body to her. "Martha! Scan!"
Nodding her understanding, Martha grabbed a Judoon scanner and pointed it at the old woman, shining the blue light in her face.
With much amusement, the woman spread her hands. "Oh, all right. Scan all you like."
"Non-human."
Her amused expression fell. "What?"
"Confirm analysis."
She babbled desperately as she began to back away, Oh, but it's a mistake, surely. I'm human. I'm as human as they come."
"He gave his life so they'd find you," Martha said slowly, her heart twisting painfully for Rose.
"Confirmed: Plasmavore. I charge you with the crime of murdering the princess of Patrival Regency Nine."
Furious at being caught, Florence snarled, "She deserved it! Those pink cheeks and those blond curls and that simpering voice. She was begging for the bite of a plasmavore."
The Chief Judoon pointed a weapon at her. "Do you confess?"
"Confess?" the plasmavore laughed. "I'm proud of it! Slab - stop them!"
The Slab shot without hesitation, but the Judoon shot as well. The Slab disintegrated and the weapons were turned on Florence.
"Verdict: guilty. Sentence: execution."
On the MRI a warning sign light up: MAGNETIC OVERLOAD. Florence grinned like she'd won.
"Enjoy your victory, Judoon, because you're going to burn with me. Burn in hell!"
She screamed as they disintegrated her. Martha rushed over to Rose and the Doctor.
"Case closed."
The black woman looked to the Judoon. "What did she mean, "burn with me"? The scanner shouldn't be doing that. She's done something."
"Scans detect lethal acceleration of monomagnetic pulse," came the emotionless answer.
She panicked. "Well, do something! Stop it!"
"Our jurisdiction has ended. Judoon will evacuate."
"You can't just leave it!" she shouted at them. "What's it going to do?"
In the hall, they heard, "All units withdraw."
She turns back to Rose, desperately. "What are we going to do?"
Rose is staring at the doctor and doesn't seem to hear her.
"Rose!"
Martha bends to look at Rose, whose eyes seem to glow slightly. Gasping, she scrambled back.
"Wake up, my Doctor. I need you," she said softly to the man in her arms, breathing some kind of golden vapor into his mouth.
Martha was running out of air, and stayed slumped on the ground. The Doctor woke and started to cough, sitting up as Rose passes out behind him.
"The scanner..." Martha gasped. "She did something."
Trying to regain his clarity, the Doctor crawled to the MRI machine, and unplugged it. Turning to see Rose on the floor, he scooped her into his arms.
"Not again," he said softly. "Martha, can you walk at all?"
She nodded weakly and made it to her feet, following as the Doctor carried Rose down a corridor where patients and doctors alike were very weak or unconscious due to oxygen starvation. He looked out of the window at the Judoon ships.
"Come on, come on, come on. Come on, Judoon, reverse it." It began to rain and he smiled. "It's raining, my Rose. It's raining on the moon."
In a flash of white light, they disappeared, returning to the very spot they had been. Emergency workers rushed in and the Doctor slipped away with Rose while Martha sat, looking thoughtful, outside the hospital.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor took Rose into the med bay, then returned to set a destination for orbit for a little while. Then he returned to her just as she was beginning to wake up.
"You nearly scared me into regenerating," he told her with a tender smile, moving to cup her cheek with one hand.
"Shut up," she said cheekily. "You were dead. But she wasn't having it."
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I can't believe you channeled the power from the TARDIS from the earth to the moon."
She sat up. "I couldn't just let you go, not when I can help."
He sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist. "But we don't know yet what that does to you, my Rose. I don't want you risking your life just to save mine."
She looked at him with a frown. "You know you sound like an ass right now, right?"
He laughed and hugged her. "I am even happy to hear you call me that!"
She hugged him back. "What were you going to say, when you had to leave me in the hall?"
He pulled away slightly, eyes wide and a bit fearful. "Now, does it really need said just now?"
She pushed him away, feeling annoyed. "Yes, Doctor. I rather think it does. I think I've earned the right to hear it. I'm not just a companion anymore. Not a simple human," she held up the hand that was marked when she was catalogued. The black X meaning human was there, but the Judoon had circled hers, indicating her genetic mutation. "I gave up my family for you, for the world, and all I'm asking is that you have the guts to tell me what we're both feeling. So go on then."
The Doctor blinked at Rose, feeling a welling of pride in her. She really was special. He'd always known it. No one had spoken to him like that in centuries! Still… could he say those words with the meaning he hadn't given to any in nine lifetimes?
"I…"
She bit her lip, tears in her eyes. "If… if you can't tell me, I'm not leaving," she promised. "I promised you forever, Doctor. And forever is what I'm giving you. But, if you ever can bear to tell me… just know that I love you."
Rose turned to leave the med bay and head to her room, when he dashed forward and wrapped his arms around his beautiful, spirited Rose, his lips right next to her ear.
"I love you, my Rose. I do. Please don't doubt that. But quite frankly, it scares me more than anything ever has."
She turned to face him, hazel eyes shining. "Oh Doctor… my Doctor… please, say it again?"
He smiled, setting his forehead against hers. "Rose Tyler, I love you."
She kissed him, holding him tightly, laughing as he spun her around. After a moment, she blinked at him. "Oh!"
He looked at her. "What?"
"Martha! We should thank her. She did so well today."
The Doctor nodded, his brown eyes twinkling brighter than she'd ever seen. "Yes we should. Perhaps a trip?"
She giggled. "I was thinking just that!"
Later, they watched as a woman named Annalise stormed out of a pub, followed by Martha's family.
"I am not prepared to be insulted!" the blonde woman shouted.
"She didn't mean it, sweetheart. She just said you look healthy," a large bald man said, following her.
Martha's mother was the next out. "No, I did not. I said orange."
"Clive, that woman is disrespecting me. She's never liked me."
"Oh, I can't think why, after you stole my husband."
"I was seduced. I'm entirely innocent! Tell her, Clive!"
"And then she has a go at Martha, practically accused her of making the whole thing up."
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look at the exchange, smiling a bit. They didn't make her miss her mum at all.
"Mum, I don't mind. Just leave it," Martha begged, stepping out into the street.
The bleached blonde woman pointed at the medical student. "Oh. "I've been to the moon!" As if. They were drugged. It said so on the news."
"Since when did you watch the news? You can't handle "Quiz Mania"," Martha's mother snapped.
The family continues arguing, getting louder and louder until the bleached blonde storms off and the rest of the family stormed back into the pub. Except one woman. Martha, distressed, saw the Doctor and Rose standing there on the corner, looking at her. The Doctor smiled and gave her a 'follow me' look before leading Rose down the alley. She followed him around the building.
She found them standing and leaning against the TARDIS, grinning. She noticed she was grinning back at them.
"I went to the moon today," she said with a smile.
The Doctor smirked. "A bit more peaceful than down here."
Rose shook her head. "Rude again."
Martha spread her hands. "You never even told me who you are."
He shrugged. "The Doctor."
Martha grinned companionably at Rose. "What sort of species? It's not every day I get to ask that."
"I'm a Time Lord."
"Right! Not pompous at all, then," she laughed.
Rose smiled up at him, feeling terribly happy to still be standing with him after everything they had been through together.
He grinned back at the woman he loved - imagine that he got to say that – and then at Martha. "Well, Rose thought since you saved our lives and I've just got a brand new sonic screwdriver which needs road testing, you might fancy a trip."
The woman blinked in surprise. "What, into space?"
"Well," Rose said vaguely.
"I can't. I've got exams. I've got things to do. I have to go into town first thing and pay the rent, I've got my family going mad..." She shook her head, but they could see she really wanted to say yes.
"If it helps, I can travel in time, as well," the Doctor said. "But I only ask each person once."
Rose elbowed him, but he just winked. "You were special, Rose. You still are."
"Get out of here," Martha narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "It does not."
"It does."
"Come on now, that's going too far," the woman insisted.
"I'll prove it," the Doctor said, releasing Rose and popping into the TARDIS.
Martha waved a hand in the empty space when the box disappeared and Rose laughed.
"After everything you've seen and done today, this is what surprises you?" she asked her with a wide grin.
The TARDIS returned and the Doctor stepped out, holding his tie in his hand.
"Told you!" he crowed.
"I know, but... that was this morning! But - Did you... Oh, my God! You can travel in time!" Martha exclaimed.
With a chuckle, the Doctor put his tie on again.
"But hold on," the black woman asked. "If you could see me this morning, why didn't you tell me not to go in to work?"
"Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden. Except for cheap tricks," the Doctor replied waggling his eyebrows.
"And that's your spaceship?"
"Oh, she's more than that," Rose protested. "She's also our home."
He couldn't resist the manic grin as she said that. Strange how a man that didn't do domestic was looking forward to sharing everything he had with a human woman. To Martha he said, "It's called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space.
"Your spaceship's made of wood. There's not much room. We'd be a bit intimate," the other woman said, still waffling.
The Doctor pushed the door open. "Take a look."
She went inside, and Rose made to follow her, but the Doctor held her back.
"Wait, this is my favorite part," he said softly to her.
Martha looks around and runs out again.
"Oh, no, no," she said in an incredulous tone, running all around the box, trailing her hands over the wooden exterior. "But it's just a box. But it's huge. How does it do that? It's wood."
As if to prove her words, she knocked on it, then ran back in.
"Now go in," the Doctor laughed with Rose.
Martha whirled on them as they entered. "It's like a box with that room just rammed in. It's bigger on the inside."
Having echoed the last line with her, the Doctor looked shocked. "Is it? I hadn't noticed. Did you notice anything strange like that, my Rose?"
She shut the door, laughing. "Not even a little, give me your coat before you treat her like a coat rack again."
He'd just taken his coat off, preparing to throw it aside over one of the coral branches. Instead he sheepishly hands it to Rose, who takes it over to the side where she has several jackets in one neat place. "All right, then, let's get going."
"But is there a crew?" Martha asked, taking it all in like a kid in a candy store. "Like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?"
"It's just us," the Doctor answered.
"All on your own?" she said, moving toward the complicated controls.
He shrugged. "Well, sometimes we have guests. It was just me for a long time, then I started to pick up some friends, travelling alongside here and there. Now I have - there was recently a friend of mine who told me forever and actually is going to really give me that. My lovely Rose. And... we'll stay together... Anyway!" He coughed and busied himself with the controls, the conversation getting entirely too emotional for his liking.
Martha looked at Rose. "But, what about your family? Do they know where you are? Are you ever going back? Where they right now?"
Rose smiled a bit sadly. "They… have their own life. But they're happy. They're fine."
The woman thought of her own family, dysfunctional as they were, and frowned at the thought of leaving them behind forever. "Do you ever visit them?"
The blonde woman shook her head. "I can't. It's a long, rather sad story. But I have the Doctor, and that's more than enough trouble for any woman."
"Oi!" he called out, pretending to be insulted. "Right. Martha Jones, you're a bad influence on her. You're just getting one trip to say 'thanks', then back home. I'll not have you corrupting my Rose!"
The women both laughed and he grinned at them.
"So really, what's the deal with you two?" Martha asked.
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked.
"Well, were you just pretending to be married?"
"Of course," he said easily, adjusting something.
"But you're together?"
Rose tipped her head, her trademark tongue in teeth grin in place. "Why, you interested?"
"Now... don't!" he all but begged. "Rose, really, must you?"
"Sometimes, love," she told him. "If you would rather not be mine…"
He shot her a pained look from around the console.
Martha laughed, enjoying the teasing atmosphere that they had. "For the record? I'm not remotely interested. I only go for humans."
"Good," the Doctor said, sticking his tongue out at the woman he loved. "Well, then. Close down the gravitic anomalizer. Fire up the helmic regulator. And finally - the hand brake. Ready?"
"No," their guest said, feeling her heart rise in her throat from the excitement.
"Off we go."
He pulled the hand brake and the TARDIS jolted and shook. He fell, while Martha and Rose barely managed to hold on.
"Blimey, it's a bit bumpy," the medical student commented.
"Welcome aboard, Miss Jones," Rose smiled at her, shaking her hand.
"It's my pleasure, Mr. and Mrs. Smith."
A/N: There is yet another episode rewritten to dance along to the mantra in my head. Hope you enjoyed it and that you continue reading, not to mention reviewing! Your reviews make me the happiest obsessed woman in the universe! Honestly, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun to write these without your responses and input! So keep me happy and hit that little button below!
