Doctor Jones? Doctor Jones? Calling Doctor Jones!
"I'm so going to make you pay for this, Doctor" the young black woman said as she sat at the bottom of her garden. Martha pulled the coat she was wearing tighter and, as she did so, heard the familiar groaning and wheezing noise that sounded like a piano wire being attacked by a key of some sort. "At last" she got up from the garden chair, picked up her bag and walked over to the doors of the TARDIS and knocked twice.
"Ah, Martha!" the Doctor beamed at her. "Yes, I've regenerated. Had a nasty case of radiation poisoning, but I got better as you can see"
"What do you want that has me waiting at the bottom of my freezing cold garden?"
"Cold?" the Doctor frowned. "Well you best come in then… Hot Air please!" he shouted. Martha heard a slight humming noise before warm air surrounded her body and began warming her up to a more normal temperature. "Right, well as you gathered I need a Human Doctor to do all the Humany check ups"
"Not Donna is it?"
"Er… No, Martha – bad things happened. She's alive, but bad things happened to her anyway. Why don't you come to the library and I'll introduce you to your patient?" and Martha rolled her eyes and followed the young looking Doctor through corridors until they ended up in the library that Martha had spent a lot of time in reading up on Alien Physiology. Sitting at a desk wearing her school uniform was Mandy – the girl looking up at the approach of the pair as they got closer to her. She was writing in a standard exercise book and looking at sheets of paper and at open books – clearly studying something. As Martha got closer, she could see one of the books was a copy of a mathematics text for primary school aged children.
"Do I want to know what happened?" asked Martha.
"Had a bit of an issue with a Space Whale and a Colony on its back. I was able to save Mandy here and a few others, but because of a lot of boring and baffling time laws she has to stay with me" the Doctor said.
"She looks okay" said Martha.
"I am alright" said Mandy. "I finished the Times Table and some of the maths texts you gave me" she proudly held them up to show the Doctor – her delicate handwriting flowing from side to side on the paper.
"That's great" said the Doctor. "I'll have a look at them in a minute. This is Martha – she used to travel with me for a while. She's a Doctor"
"Like you?"
"Not quite" the Doctor smiled. "She's only a medical Doctor, but she is a very good one indeed. I thought she could give you a check up and make sure everything is working fine"
"Oh… Couldn't you do it?" Mandy asked.
"Well, yes… But you see I thought–"
"The Doctor thought you might be a little bit more comfortable with a lady Doctor then himself" Martha said. "I might have to ask you things that could be embarrassing"
"To him or me?"
"Oh, I like you already" Martha laughed. "The Medical Bay still in the same way?" she asked the Doctor.
"I think so" he replied, loosening his bow tie slightly. "I'm sure the TARDIS will move it closer if you asked nicely. Why don't you go with Martha and she can see to what she needs to do, I'll check your work and then we'll all have tea when you've finished?"
"Sounds great" Martha said. "You are fully stocked, right?"
"Got everything to treat her" said the Doctor.
"I meant for you. UNIT have got some drugs on hand if you ever need to use them"
"That'll be the Brigadier's doing I suspect" the Doctor smiled at the thought of one of his oldest friends – one of the few soldiers he had respect for. "Right then…! I'll look at these and you do what you have to. Meet me in the Kitchen afterwards?" and Mandy nodded and gave the Doctor the book she was in and moved towards the doorway.
"You alright?" asked Martha. She had seen a look of sadness and self hatred coming from the Doctor. The woman had often noticed it whenever he had been around children, but she had no idea whatsoever where it had come from.
"Course I am. I'm always alright, me!" and he sat down and picked up a pen and started working on Mandy's maths work. Shrugging to herself, she followed Mandy with the bag containing the tools of her profession to the Medical Bay.
# # # # #
"So, Mandy, first things first – have you ever had an exam by a Doctor before?" Martha asked the girl.
"When the Doctor first took me into the TARDIS" she replied, swinging her legs under the examining table as she spoke. "He looked me over and found a couple of cuts so he took care of them, but nothing else"
"Right then" Martha nodded and opened her bag. "I need to ask you some questions, alright, and then we'll get down to checking you all over"
"What are you going to look for?" asked Mandy with a hint of curiosity that all children had.
"Well we take a little sample of your blood, put it through some tests and then see if there is anything wrong – then we can deal with it. Mainly it's just like making sure your body is alright and in perfect working order"
"Oh"
"Yep! When was the last time you was ill and what happened?"
"I had a bad cold when I was tiny"
"Oh that's nothing" Martha said. "Have you had all of your jabs?"
"Jabs?" Mandy frowned.
"Immunisation" Martha said, thinking that they might have another term for it in the far and distant future.
"No"
"Oh, well we'll just have to see to those in a bit then" Martha said. "Now, has anything at all happened to you that doesn't normally happen to you?"
"No"
"That sounded a little too quick for my liking" Martha replied. "Now then… Shall we try again?" and Mandy nodded.
"I've been getting nightmares, Miss" she said. "And I um… The Doctor won't hear about this will he?"
"Only if I think he needs to" said Martha, putting one hand on the unsure girl's shoulder in support.
"Well if you promise…" Mandy hesitated for several moments before plunging on. "I wet the bed from the nightmares. I panicked about it but the TARDIS helped me out"
"She's kind like that"
"I like her" and the pair were sounded by a light rumbling musical noise and warm air.
"I think she likes you too. Doing that at your age is perfectly normal after what you've been through" Martha assured her. Martha picked up some of her tools and went to work – checking each and every angle of Mandy for any complications. Next, she located the medical scanner and ran it over so that the medical computer on the TARDIS would have a complete skeletal record to compare. Privately, Martha loved it better then X-Ray machines she used at any hospital – even the Torchwood facilities. "Do you stock any child suitable injections?" she asked the TARDIS.
A blast of warm air on her right side only…
"The universal TARDIS code for 'This Way' I think" and Mandy giggled. A small supply of inoculations was kept in a cupboard that was securely locked and out of the possible reach of Mandy. After getting the girl to take off her jumper, Martha pushed the needle into her arm and administered the dose. She repeated this several times more before putting little plasters on the puncture sites.
"Thank you" Mandy said.
"It's my job" Martha said in reply. "Now sometimes these little jabs might make you a little sick, but that's only so your body can build up a defence against it"
"Okay"
"Now…" Martha sat in a chair next to the bed and looked at Mandy. "Now how about you talk to me about the bad dreams?"
"Just bad dreams about what happened with all the other kids" said Mandy, and the girl talked all about her bad dreams – not noticing the shadow of the Doctor as he stood and listened. Martha had, though, and spotted the droop in the shadow as the Time Lord heard things that seemed to affect him. She made a point to ask him about it later before she left the TARDIS.
# # # # #
"What do you plan to do now?" asked Martha later on.
"I'm thinking of settling down in the Vortex for a while" the Doctor said. "A few days or so for sure" he added.
"Doctor…" Martha looked around to see if Mandy was around but the girl was busy in her room. "I saw you listening in to Mandy talking about her nightmares"
"So?"
"Well I saw you react when she talked about the children from where she came from"
"So?" the Doctor repeated.
"So what happened?"
"I killed children"
"WHAT?" Martha shouted in surprise. "Was it an accident?"
"No" the Doctor spun round before sighing and turning back to face his former companion. "I did it on purpose on that day when all the bad things happened"
"When you ended the Time War?"
"Yeah…"
"How… How many?"
"Two point four seven billion" he answered.
"Oh my god" Martha clapped her hand to her mouth and gasped.
"It was either that or allow the Daleks to have free reign over Gallifrey and all the time travel technology there" the Time Lord started shaking. "Can you image that choice, Martha? For you the hardest decision is buying new shoes or not. For me it is the fate of the universe or saving a few children"
"I know you said you had to kill your own people, but I just didn't know it was that bad"
"Well now you know" said the Doctor with a trace of anger. "How is Mandy anyway?" he asked.
"She's got a few things that need looking at, but the TARDIS is well stocked for that as always. She might a little sick from the injections, but that's perfectly alright for Humans. Might I suggest a few days somewhere quiet?"
"The Vortex is quiet"
"A place that not many people can reach you at"
"Oh" the Doctor frowned. "Ah, what about the Eye of Orion? I took Tegan and Turlough there once a couple of centuries ago"
"Whats it like?"
"The entire planet is tranquil as anything you can think of" the Doctor leaned on the console and smiled at memories. "Positive ions hitting the planet creates a field of contentment, joy, pleasure, calmness… Birds are flying around and singing in trees and in the sky, deer walk around in the forests…"
"Deer?"
"My people were never able to figure that bit out" he admitted. "It's like Earth after a thunderstorm and it's been raining"
"The promise of a new day? A new adventure?"
"A new life" the smile dropped a little.
"Sorry. What do you plan to do with Mandy?"
"That makes her sound like a toy, Jones" the Doctor scolded her. "I'm surprised at you!" he laughed. "Like I said to you earlier, she can't return to her own time and I am not dropping her anywhere she could reveal stuff that the public shouldn't know"
"You could wipe her mind"
"NO!" the Doctor's sudden outburst startled Martha. "I'm not going to do that to an innocent girl. If I did that I would be no better than a Dalek or Cyberman. She wants to stay with me and I'm going to let her"
"Do you even know how to look after a child?"
"Once"
"Bad day?"
"Bad day" the Doctor agreed. "There is something else you could do for me, actually"
"Oh?"
"Well Mandy has all her clothes with her, but that's not really a lot. I was thinking that you could take her shopping"
"Why can't you?" Martha asked with curiosity.
"I'm banned from Tesco" he muttered.
"You've got to be joking! Okay, maybe not… Why?"
"I tried to picket the shops because they wouldn't sell Fish Custard" the Doctor frowned at Martha who was bent double with laughter. "Stop laughing, Jones, or I'll tell Mickey about that night on Moffat's World where you ended up sleeping with the High Priest R T Davis" he looked at the TARDIS displays. "What's the date today?" he asked.
"November 11th" Martha replied instantly.
"Ah" the Doctor nodded in understanding. "I had better buy a wreath or something" and the woman knew what the Doctor meant. He had once told her that every November 11th he would set the TARDIS for Earth and lay a wreath of Poppies at the UNIT memorial and also a wreath laid at the cenotaph in London. When she had asked why, the Doctor had only replied that it was because he was honouring a group of people who gave up their lives so that there might be peace.
"The TARDIS should have something appropriate for Mandy to wear in the wardrobe if she has nothing suitable in her own stuff" Martha agreed. She left the Doctor to tinker with the controls somewhat, and found Mandy in her room looking at a picture what she assumed to be her family. "Hey… Look, the Doctor has to go to something important and he thought you might want to do something while he is busy"
"Okay"
"We just have to find you something suitable to wear from the TARDIS wardrobe. After that, the Doctor is giving me a load of money and we're going shopping"
"Why?"
"Because he thinks you might need more clothes"
"I brought everything that I could" Mandy said defensively.
"Oh, well he knows that of course… But the TARDIS told him you don't have anything suitable for this event. And…" she leaned in as if sharing a secret, "We can buy you all sorts of stuff to decorate your room here as well as more than just the clothes you have from the place you came from"
"What's wrong with checks?"
"Nothing, but Earth in this time period has lots of different styles" Martha told the girl. "Besides, I think it's a TARDIS rule"
"The Doctor has a rule about clothes?" Mandy frowned in confusion.
"No – the TARDIS herself does. Trust me, Mandy, because I am a Doctor"
"Not like me" called the Doctor as he randomly walked past the girl's room.
"I hate it when he does that" Martha muttered. Mandy just smiled and laughed as she thought about another new thing in her new life with the Doctor. When the Doctor had been removing all of her close family and friends, he had explained to her parents that because of the complicated rules of time Mandy could not live them. If she did, the very fabric of the universe would become undone and destroy all life. It had been hard for her parents to accept it, but they knew tales of the Doctor – an honest and most honourable man who helped all that he could. When they had asked the Doctor why they and the others had been saved, he had simply replied with "I know what it is like to watch your family die" and they'd left it at that.
# # # # #
"This has got more money on it then I could ever earn in a lifetime" Martha said as she looked at the display on the screen of the Hole-In-The-Wall.
"How much?" asked Mandy with curiosity. She had changed into a pleated knee length red skirt, pale brown blouse, knee length multi-coloured socks and black shoes. When the Doctor had seen the socks, he had remarked on how he had a scarf like that in a previous incarnation which had always been one of his favourite faces.
"According to this" Martha replied, "The Doctor has seventeen million, six hundred and twenty two thousand, one hundred and four pounds and fifty three pence"
"Is that a lot?"
"Just about" said Martha. After taking out a thousand pounds, thinking it was better to have too much then too little, they went to a shopping centre outside London where the two spent the money they had, and more as well, on everything a girl Mandy's age could ever want or need. By the time they had finished, Mandy's head was spinning. She'd never had this much spent on her clothing before as there was a lack of resources on Starship UK for anything like the styles and colours she'd seen in the various shops. Three hours later, Martha had brought her 15 new T-shirts, 15 pairs of jean and khaki trousers. 10 new skirts, 10 new dress shirts, 5 new dresses, a plethora of undershirts and pants, several pyjama sets and 3 pairs of shoes; a basic set of tennis shoes, a pair of hiking boots and a dressy pair that was black to match the black Mary-Jane style ones she currently wore. "How about we put this just inside the TARDIS for now and we go and get some lunch - you look like a girl that would love pizza"
"Pizza?" Mandy frowned.
"Tell me they have that from the time you come from"
"We do, but we only used to get it on 'Italian Cowardly Changing Sides Day'. I always liked the cheese ones, and the sausage ones, and the chicken ones…" Mandy recited the ones she liked.
"I'll take that as a yes" Martha laughed.
#
"That everything?" asked the Doctor as he met up with them later on. He had consulted the TARDIS database and realised that Fish Fingers and Custard was not really the best food for children. As much as he hated shopping, UNIT had always done that for him after he'd soniced a lift to go faster at Harrods back in 1975, he wrote out a list of all the foods suggested by the TARDIS and brought it all and placed it into the cupboards and fridges in the kitchen. Making himself a cup of tea and sitting in the kitchen, he had wondered about how it would be to have a child on the TARDIS once more. Mandy would be the youngest person he had ever had on the time travelling machine. To Human eyes, he supposed, Susan looked youngish, but the girl was only a child by Gallifreyan standards. Then again, he had thought as he sipped the tea, children often found ways of doing things that adults could never. He remembered the time Susan had come up with an interesting solution for a test at the Academy – if a barrier stopped you from going through something, then fly over it.
"Yep" Mandy brought the Doctor out of his thoughts.
"Blimey! You girls need a lot of clothes, don't you"
"Of course we do" said Martha. "Buts that's rich coming from the man that has a wardrobe that has its own bus service"
"That's the TARDIS" said the Doctor. "Are you sure that I can't persuade you to travel again?" he asked Martha.
"I'd rather stay on Earth" she replied, "But what about taking me a few hours into the past? I could catch up on some sleep"
"Fair enough" the Doctor agreed.
"Can you stay for dinner?" asked Mandy.
"What's on the menu?" Martha was careful as the Doctor was known to cook some strange things in the TARDIS kitchen.
"Chips, Chicken Kiev, peas and carrots" the Doctor replied.
"You've been reading up on Earth foods?" Martha was surprised.
"More or less" came the reply. "I wanted to make sure that I could do things for Mandy and not have her rely on the TARDIS all the time.
"You'll be a good dad one day" Martha laughed.
"I was once, Martha Jones… I was once" and the suddenly saddened alien turned and left the console room.
"Still sensitive to that, I guess" the woman winced.
"It was a bad day" Mandy helpfully supplied. "The bad day when all the bad things happened"
"Tell you what, Martha, how about you stay for dinner and we'll pop over to the Eye of Orion for an hour? Least I could do for helping me" the Doctor said, coming back to the console room with a piece of equipment.
"Please…" Mandy begged. "I want to talk to you more"
"Oh, alright" the woman gave in to the twin looks of pleading from the Doctor and Mandy. "My room still where it is? I guess I could do with a shower and change for dinner". The Doctor nodded and gave directions and Martha left the pair as the Time Lord began to tell Mandy which mistakes she had made, why she had made them and how to not do them in the future. As she walked through the TARDIS corridors, her mind went back to when the previous version had told her about the Time War and how he had destroyed his entire planet to stop the Daleks. Those few moments with Mandy, Martha saw how the Doctor would have been with a child as a parent and knew the girl was in safe hands…
#
"I wish that lady could have stayed for a bit longer" Mandy said. After they had had dinner and spent a few hours on the Eye of Orion, the Doctor had taken Martha back home before setting the TARDIS to drift around in the vortex for a while.
"I do, but she's got a life now" the Doctor shrugged. "How about we go visit an alien planet or something?"
"Can we?" Mandy's face split into a brilliant and electric powered smile.
"We can go wherever we want – all of time and space is ours to choose" the Doctor returned the smile with equal strength.
"I want to go somewhere with lots of aliens" Mandy decided after a moment of thought. "Something alien and awesome"
"I have" the Doctor said as he set the destination into the navigation computer, "Just the place – the asteroid Tiaanamat" and with a flick of the wrist, the level to the Time Rotor was thrown and the Doctor and Mandy were off on Mandy's first adventure.
A/N:
Okay, without using google or Tardis Wikia guess where Mandy is going for her first adventure.
A solid grounding chapter here I think but with a few nods to other works of mine such as the mention of Chicken Kievs – my favourite food that is mentioned in my fics by chapter 3. Also, continuing the tradition for all fics of mine released in November the mention of November 11th and what it entails.
There are a few continuity nods and injokes to the Doctor Who universe in this chapter – the first person to correctly identify them as well as the location Mandy has landed as her first alien adventure gets a cameo in the next chapter.
As mentioned on my previous fanfic's release, note the change in updates now this one has been released on ym profile page.
Please send reviews in Hypercubes and send to me via the nearest transdimensional portal or time vortex entry point.
Regards
Pixel and Stephanie Forever