The Doctor left the TARDIS again. He didn't acknowledge Major Magumbo as she discussed tactics with two other officers, but he marched past her and toward the tent that was being set up by the medical team. "Doctor Jones-Smith?"
"Please, Doctor, it's okay for you to call me Martha."
"Martha," he acknowledged.
"I thought you were going to go and get some rest?"
"Is Mickey around?"
"He's leading a sweep of the area. He'll be back in about thirty minutes. Is there something I can help with?" Martha asked him and pulled a chair across. "At least sit down for a minute?"
The Doctor nodded and cautiously sat down without leaning back into the chair. "Joshua knows I travelled with his mother. His great grandfather told him stories about it after she died. He also knows that none of it has happened for me yet, so I can't answer any of the questions that he has. He asked what his mother was like before he was born. I don't know how well you knew her or how much time you spent with her, but would you talk to Josh about her? About what you do know? I think he would appreciate it."
"You know we can't divulge any information to you about what is going to happen."
"Mickey already let it slip that there was a metacrisis," the Doctor informed Martha using the word as if he knew what that meant. "If UNIT know about it then there will be a file on it. I could always just break in and access the files directly, or, you could tell me, so I can better support Josh."
"I've had all UNIT files concerning incidents or incursions where you have been involved between the year 2005 and 2026 security sealed," Martha informed the Doctor.
"It's 2006."
"Then you won't need to access any files from 2005 because they will be in your recent memory," Martha commented.
"I can get through UNIT security seals."
"Standard security seals yes," Martha agreed. "I've had them deadlocked."
"You've deadlocked the files."
"I'm sorry, Doctor, but yes, I have."
"If you knew about time lords the way you said that you do then you'd be aware that if I came into contact with personal information that might cause me to act in order to change my own personal future from that which is already established that on returning to my original time line I would be unable to retain that information and I would forget it all anyway."
"I do know that, Doctor," Martha confirmed. "But I also know the longer you remain established in a part of your time line which is not the appropriate part of your personal time line, the more contact you have with personal information and information about future events you will be involved in, and the more involved you become in this time line, the harder it is going to be for you. The more information and memories that you are going to lose on returning to Rose, and the more temporally confused you are going to be. I know that time is fluid, Doctor. I know that it not linear and I know that time can be changed, but, I also know that even you live your life from one day to the next. Maybe they're not in the same place or the same time, but tomorrow is still tomorrow and yesterday is still yesterday, and when you start messing around with that, and you're sitting chatting to me and I'm 20 years ahead and you don't know me, but I've known you for — well I'm not going to tell you how many of the 20 possible years I have actually known you, but it's a lot. You might forget what is going to happen when you go back to Rose, but what if you don't? You talk about Donna as if she is just Josh's dead mother, but she was brilliant and she was your best friend. This is difficult and strange for all of us, but the more you know and the more you find out about what has happened in the last two decades the harder it is going to be for you, not only now while you're in this time line, but also when you go back."
"You're right," the Doctor acknowledged. "But I will still forget information that would be personally paradoxical so I cannot impact on my own linear time line. It is complicated and it's not always pleasant, but I need to know what the events were surrounding the metacrisis so I can determine how that has impacted on Josh and how he is linked with me."
"You definitely feel like you're linked to him?"
"He knocked me off my feet while I was in the TARDIS in the vortex, Martha. I came here expecting to find some incredibly powerful alien telepath and instead it was a 14 year old boy. He reached me all the way out there because he was alone, in pain, and very, very scared. The TARDIS is feeling protective of him as well. I have some instinctive need to make him feel safe and secure. It upsets me that he has been through so much in a way that it would not if he was just a boy that I happened to come across. I feel like I have somehow missed out on 14 years of a boy's life and I've never even met his mother. I'm not his father," the Doctor stated. Martha thought that she detected the hint of a question from him as he paused either waiting for her to confirm or deny it. "I'm not. I'm under no illusion of being physically related to him. I know I'm not," he commented with added conviction. "So does Josh. How did he put it? I'm not his dad because he's half black not half alien."
"Has your connection to him developed a paternal bond?" Martha checked. "Does the link feel like you're his father?" Martha asked the time lord sensitively.
"No."
"Doctor?"
"It's different," the Doctor insisted. "I had better get back to him."
"Go and put the kettle on, Doctor," Martha suggested. "When Mickey gets back we'll both come in and see you both."
"Thank you."
"Do you want me to knock or are you comfortable with me using my key?" Martha asked him.
"You've got a key?"
"You never know when you're going to need your doctor, Doctor," Martha commented.
"Now you're deliberately trying to confuse me," the Doctor complained. He sighed. "Use the key," he responded. "How do you take your tea?"
"Milk and no sugar. Mickey is the same. It's taken me two years to wean him off the three sugars he took back in your time, so don't be putting three in his."
"Two teas with no sugar," the Doctor confirmed. He got up and went back into the TARDIS. Martha could see that he was in pain. She didn't want to remove all the dressings she'd put on his back to check it again so quickly, but she'd make sure he'd taken the antibiotic and some pain relief when she went in.
The Doctor called into Josh before going into the galley. "I'm just going to put the kettle on. Mickey and Martha are going to come in and have a cup of tea with us. Mickey is just doing a perimeter patrol or something and then they'll both be in."
"Is it going to be even weirder for you if they're talking about Mum when you've not met her?" Josh asked him.
"I'm looking forward to meeting your mum," the Doctor informed Josh and smiled warmly. "I'll be two ticks, do you want another hot chocolate?" Josh nodded.