The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 46
A/N: I was wondering which episode I should do and I thought Smith and Jones would be the best one. I'm trying to get on with the plot. Plus, there'll be a lot of shyness about who Rhea pretends to be to the Doctor in the hospital.
Replies to Reviews:
grapejuice101: I do too! It means more now that I know that the Face of Boe really is Jack, that's why I thought he and Rhea would have a more heartwarming ending. I always found it hard to understand why the Doctor or Martha never brought up the fact that they, essentially, watched Jack die after they found out who the Face of Boe was. I hope you like my episode choice!
Guest: Yep, she is. She has serious issues with herself and other people. For now, it might look like she's whiny, but there are reasons behind it :)
NicoleR85: I'm glad you liked it! Hope you like the chapter!
AvionVadion: Thank you so much! Aww, no, you, reader, are wonderful! Hope you like this chapter!
Marmalade1512: Thank you so much! I feel like sometimes writers of OC stories forget about the whole Doctor-alien and OC-human thing. Hopefully, I can correct that as well as I possibly can in the future. Hope you like the chapter!
TheGirlWhoLives: It does sound interesting. Unfortunately, my writing capabilities have gone down low the last week, so the idea will have to put on hold, but I promise to get to it sooner or later and give you full credit for the plot bunny :) Oh, and no problem, it's just my headcanon, but anything to do with regenerations and 11 and River really confuses me too.
DRWfangirl: Oh, I love that scene, it's my favourite. Leela's so badass and Rhea's so similar. We might even see her clothes from Nagada Sang Dhol and Ang Lag De in some chapters. I love the dresses from that movie. They're so epic :)
Warnings: Some more flirting and language warning.
Smith and Jones: Waiting Room
"You know, this is stupid." Rhea called out from the console, while the Doctor checked something on the monitor.
"What?" The Doctor looked up. "There are plasma coils forming over the top of the hospital. Why shouldn't we check it out?"
"Oh, I have no problem with that… aside from the fact that every time you say something like "let's check something out", we end up having to run for our lives from something or fix some deeply integrated anachronism. But anyway, your plan… to get into the hospital… it sucks." She said, dryly.
"I suppose you have a better plan, then?" The Doctor retorted.
"I don't, but I can point out the faults in yours." Rhea smiled, smugly, and walked over to where he was standing near the console. "From what I know of my experience in a hospital, they don't like it when some stranger stays with a patient, they like it to be a family member. So that leaves me as your mother, sister or daughter. I'm too young to play your mother, I'm Italian, but I look like a Curry, so that leaves sister out and I am not playing your daughter. That's just sick."
The Doctor turned and grinned at her. "Oh, I know exactly what role you can play."
Rhea raised an eyebrow. Oh, I am so gonna regret this, aren't I?
"I hate you so freaking much." Rhea muttered, holding onto the Doctor's hand, as they waited in line to approach the reception of the emergency room.
"No, you don't." The Doctor whispered back and tugged the end of her curls, seeing as she had decided to leave her hair half up, half down with side braids. He looked her up and down. She looked pretty, dressed in a floral dress that came up to the middle of her thighs, and wearing high heels, looking professional but incredibly feminine at the same time.
"Oh, I really do." Rhea glowered at him and they stepped up towards the counter. She immediately plastered a soft, fake smile on her painted red lips. "Hello, my husband…" Rhea gritted her teeth. "He's been complaining of a stomach ache for the last couple of days. I've given him some painkillers, but the pain just doesn't seem to be going at all." She allowed mock worry and panic to slip into her voice as she spoke.
"Just fill out these forms and take a seat, a nurse will be with you shortly to take your husband up to a bed." The bored woman said, not taking her eyes off her computer and blindly handing Rhea a clipboard.
Rhea rolled her eyes and snatched the clipboard off the woman, pointedly gesturing to the Doctor to take a seat. "Stop smiling." Rhea hissed. "You're supposed to be an invalid." She grumbled to herself and pulled the clipboard onto her lap, stealing a pen from her handbag. "Name?" She asked.
"John Smith." The Doctor told her.
Rhea rolled her eyes and wrote the name on the form. "You know, no one's actually called John Smith. Age," She looked at the Doctor, thoughtfully. "35."
"35?" The Doctor exclaimed, offended.
"Shut up." She hissed. "Reason for today's visit: severe stomach pains. Date of birth…" She trailed off, writing some imaginary date that coincided with him supposedly being 35. She wrote her own name down as the contact person and managed to hold back a string of expletives as she wrote the word 'spouse' in the 'relationship to patient' section, glowering at the Doctor's gleeful look. Oh, don't worry, honey, I'll get you back for this. She thought, vindictively. She made up everything else in the list, taking a few suggestions from the Doctor, but mostly ignoring him, for example when he kept pushing her to change his age down to 32. She clipped the form back onto the board and slipped the pen back in her handbag, walking over to the reception and giving the receptionist the filled-out form.
"So, how long does this take?" The Doctor asked her after a moment, after she had come back and sat down next to him in the hard, uncomfortable plastic chairs.
Rhea glared at him. "As long as it's supposed to." She growled through her teeth.
It took awhile for a nurse to come and lead them up to bed, which she unmade, so that the Doctor could slip inside. Rhea watched carefully as the nurse attached the IV to the Doctor and made up some excuse to delay the ECG, knowing that their cover would be blown if the nurses and doctors found out that the Doctor had two hearts. The Doctor was just lying there, seemingly happy about the way the kind nurse was falling on top of him in her haste to get him whatever he wanted. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared, furiously, at him, not impressed in the slightest.
Rhea flipped through a magazine that had been lying on the table, rereading everything she had already known. A-Rod and Madonna, Kristin Davis' sex tape, Brangelina's baby bump, Britney's comeback. She had read through so many of those magazines during her time in the hospital, she was sure that her mother had been able to read the magazine print engraved across her pupils.
"Rhea, I'm bored." The Doctor whined from where he was sitting up in the hospital bed.
Rhea rolled her eyes and flicked over a page, not taking her eyes off the magazine. "Well, you were the one who wanted to get admitted."
"Why couldn't you have done this?" The Doctor grumbled, looking very much like a little boy who didn't want to get a shot.
Rhea raised an eyebrow and looked up at him. "And what would we have said? We can't say abdominal pains, they'll think it's just period pain. They'll test me for pregnancy, and I really don't want to have to get into that." She tried to keep her voice light, but the Doctor's slowly darkening eyes suggested that he had seen right through her.
"Sorry, Rhea." The Doctor said, roughly, his hand dragging down his smooth jaw, his voice hurting with the words he was thinking.
Rhea smiled, softly, and reached out a hand to pat his. "S'okay, honey." She saw the answering slow smile spread across his face and if it softened her just the slightest, if it made her just a bit more like the old Rhea, pre-Damian Rhea, then she didn't let it show, she just locked it all up and buried it down as far as she possibly could. "And it doesn't matter anyway, it's better if it's you. It's easier to make up a fake identity for you and get admitted into hospital and let me pay for it, than to explain to them why I'm currently in two places at once."
"How long do we have to stay here?" The Doctor asked, seeing that damaged and broken look in her eyes and wanting to wipe it off with whatever he had with him. So, he decided the best way was to change the conversation and turn her mind to something else.
"Until they come and see you, honey." Rhea told him.
"And how long does that take?"
"If you keep asking me questions, I'll tell them you're in a lot of pain and have them give you morphine." She threatened. She paused. "Does morphine even work on you?"
"Only large amounts." The Doctor told her.
"Damn." She snapped her fingers. "Have to think of something else to shut you up." She muttered.
Martha Jones, a beautiful dark-skinned young woman, having just changed into her white lab coat, joined the rest of the group of students for her rounds, after having had strange run-ins with a man in a tight blue suit and two men wearing motorcycle helmets and black leather. Her eyes widened with surprise when they came upon their next patient, after the lovely, slightly ditzy old lady with the salt deficiency, who was the man who had stopped her this morning on Chancery Street and took his tie off.
There were a group of students in white coats, along with their supervising doctor, approaching them. Rhea narrowed her eyes when she saw a very familiar dark-skinned girl a part of the crowd and started to open her mouth to greet her, when she realised that Martha may not have met the Doctor and her yet. In fact, this may be the first meeting on the Doctor's and Martha's side. She smiled, beatifically, at them.
"Now then, Mr Smith," The supervising doctor glanced at Rhea. "Mrs Smith, a very good morning to you. How are you both today?"
"Can't complain." Rhea said through gritted teeth, the moniker of "Mrs Smith" setting her teeth on edge. "And it's Dr Smith." She hid a grin at the doctor's baffled look. Oh, what, don't I look like a doctor, you arrogant creep?
"Aw, not so bad, still a bit, you know. Blah."
"John Smith, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains. Jones," The doctor turned to Martha. "Why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me." The doctor sounded as if this was a feat in itself and Rhea already found herself annoyed at his smug, fat face. She had to snark.
Martha gave the so-called couple a hesitant smile and approached the bed on the other side of Rhea. She looked over at the Doctor. "That wasn't very clever, running around outside, was it?"
The Doctor frowned, confused. "Sorry?" He said, hesitantly.
"On Chancery Street this morning. You came up to me and took your tie off." Martha said.
"Really?" The Doctor's eyes widened and Rhea looked at him, shocked. Had he managed to get away from me and do that? She thought and looked at the Doctor. "What did I do that for?"
"I don't know," Martha shrugged. "You just did."
"Not me." The Doctor shook his head. "I was here, in bed. Ask Rhea, ask the nurses."
Martha's brow furrowed. "Well, that's weird, cause it looked like you. Have you got a brother?"
"No, not any more. Just me." Rhea reached out and patted the Doctor's hand, comfortingly.
The supervising doctor sighed, annoyed. "As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones."
Martha winced. "Sorry. Right." Martha put her stethoscope against the Doctor's chest.
Rhea watched the girl with interest, wondering if she'd figure it out. She smiled when she saw the answering puzzled look that formed on Martha's face. Martha slid the stethoscope across to the other side of his chest and her eyes widened as she heard the tell-tale thumping of a second heart. She looked up and the Doctor winked at her, making Rhea smirk.
"I weep for further generations. Are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?" The doctor growled.
"Um. I don't know." Martha shrugged. "Stomach cramps?" She guessed.
The doctor narrowed his eyes at Martha. "That is a symptom, not a diagnosis. And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart." He picked up the chart that was lying on the other end of the bed, near the Doctor's feet, and received a significant electric shock, dropping the clipboard, immediately.
"That happened to me this morning." Martha exclaimed.
Rhea looked at the Doctor, worriedly, and he nodded.
"I had the same thing on the door handle." A young man added.
"And me, on the lift."
"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 looked around at the group of students.
"Benjamin Franklin." Rhea murmured, not taking her eyes off the Doctor.
The doctor stared at her with surprise. Oh, sweetie, I'm not just a pretty face. "Correct!"
"My mate Ben," The Doctor exclaimed. "That was a day and a half. I got rope burns off that kite, and then I got soaked…"
The doctor raised an eyebrow at the Doctor. "Quite..."
"... and then I got electrocuted." The Doctor finished, happily, raising more eyebrows and making Rhea shake her head in exasperation.
"Moving on." The doctor said, quickly. "I think perhaps a visit from psychiatric." He muttered to the other students. "And next we have…"
Rhea heard the comment about a psychiatric test and poked the Doctor in the ribs after they had left. "See… I told you they'd think you were crazy."
Martha, standing in the kitchenette and heating up her lunch, was on the phone with Tish.
"No, listen, I've worked out a plan. We tell Annelise that the buffet tonight is one hundred per cent carbohydrate, and she won't turn up." Martha joked.
"I wish you'd take this seriously. That's our inheritance she's spending. On fake tan. Tell you what, I'm not that far away, I'll drop by for a sandwich and we can draw up a plan."
Martha walked over to the window and stared out of the torrential rain that enveloped the hospital. "In this weather? I'm not going out, it's pouring down."
"It's not raining here. It's sitting right on top of you, I can see it, but it's dry where I am." Tish said over the phone.
Martha shrugged. "Well, you just got lucky."
"No, but it's like in cartoons, you know, when a man's got a cloud over his head."
"But listen, I tell you what we'll do. We tell Dad and Annalise to get there early, for about 7:30, for Leo to do his birthday stuff. We tell Mum to come about 8:30 or nine, and that gives me time to have a word with Annalise, and-" Martha's friend, Julia, touched her on the arm, looking out of the window. Martha turned to her, impatiently. "What?"
"The rain." Julia murmured.
Martha looked at her, strangely. "It's only rain." Martha said, slowly.
"Martha! Have you seen the rain?" Tish's panicked voice came over the phone.
"Why's everyone fussing about rain?" Martha exclaimed, confused.
"It's going up." Julia whispered.
"The rain is going up." Tish murmured.
Martha looked out of the window and, sure enough, the rain drops were pelting upwards instead of down.
Then, the building started to shake, Martha and Julia fell, as did most of things on the counters and the cupboards. When it stopped, Martha, shakily, rose to her feet.
"What in hell was that?" Martha whispered.
"Are you all right?" Julia asked, worriedly.
Martha rubbed the back of her head. "I think so, yeah. It felt like an earthquake, or-"
"Martha?" Julia interrupted her. "It's night. It was lunchtime."
Martha shook her head. "It's not night."
"It's got to be. It's dark." Julia protested.
When Martha managed to move over to the window of the kitchenette, she had to hold onto something to keep her bearings. "We're on the moon."
"We can't be." Julia whispered.
"We're on the moon. We're on the bloody moon." Martha said.
It was a few hours later in the afternoon when Rhea heard the commotion going on around her and she frowned, looking at the Doctor, quickly, who pursed his lips. She pulled back the curtain that she had drawn around them, so that they could have some privacy, and walked over to the window that was right next to the Doctor's bed, her eyes widening as she saw exactly what was causing all the panic amongst the patients.
"Doctor." She whispered. "The rain… it's going up, Doctor." She looked at him, worriedly, to find his face devoid of any emotion.
"H2O scoop." The Doctor said, lowly. "It's a method of transportation over long distances. The plasma coils… caused a static build-up in the area. You remember when we came to the hospital yesterday. You told me about the rain cloud."
"It's like in those cartoons, it only rains on one side of the street."
She looked at him, biting her lower lip. "So, who's doing it?"
The Doctor grimaced. "I'm not actually sure."
"Oh, well, that's wonderful, it's really reassuring that I've got you." She said, sarcastically, and then she gripped onto the window frame when the entire building started to shake, things falling out of shelves and of tables. "What the hell is that?" She shrieked.
"We were just transported." The Doctor said, grimly, and Rhea stood up from where she had been hanging off the windowsill.
Rhea looked out of the window and, instead of seeing the bright afternoon sky like there had been on Earth, she could see dark skies and stars as far as her sight went. She pinched the bridge of her nose and looked down, seeing pale ground and craters. She sighed. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Dorothy." She grumbled to the Doctor.
"We're not even on the Earth anymore." The Doctor wrapped his dressing gown around him, tightly, and joined Rhea at the window. "Whoever constructed the plasma coils has taken us to the moon."
Rhea paused. "You know, all the time that I've spent with you and you've not taken me to the moon once." She narrowed her eyes.
The Doctor snorted. "It's not a great tourist destination."
"Still…" Rhea sighed. "Figures I'd only get to go to the moon in life-threatening danger."
"Oi, who said there was life-threatening danger?" The Doctor protested.
"Oh, please," Rhea scoffed. "Can you actually name one time that we've gone somewhere and we've had a peaceful trip… no executions, no imprisonment, no running for our lives, none of that?"
The Doctor looked thoughtful. "Well, there was… no, wait, we almost got beheaded… oh, how about… no, the king threatened to have me dismembered…" The Doctor sighed. "Okay, fine, I'll take your point."
Rhea laughed and placed her hands on either side of his face, tugging his tall frame down to her level and placing a warm kiss to the middle of his forehead. "You might want to get changed. It's hard to save the world when you're wearing a robe, honey."
The Doctor looked down at himself. "Authenticity…wife." He teased and ducked the hand that reached for him, throwing himself behind the curtains, so that he could change into the suit that he had changed out of when he was admitted.
Rhea watched, carefully, as Martha and another one of the interns strode into the ward she and the Doctor were in.
"All right, everyone back to bed, we've got an emergency but we'll sort it out." Martha said, lowly, her voice was clear and controlled and did not betray any panic or fear she may be feeling.
Rhea watched proudly as Martha took control of the situation, not even batting an eyelid that they had just been teleported to the moon. Oh, I see why he asked you to come along with, Dr Quinn. She couldn't see that the Doctor was exchanging a curious look between her and Martha, wondering exactly why Rhea showed such an invested interest in the young medical student. He had caught a similar look back when the doctors had been doing their rounds and the girl had checked his heartbeat. Rhea looked as if she knew her. Well, she might. Rhea knows a lot of people.
Martha went over to the window, followed by her friend. "It's real. It's really real. Hold on!" She reached for the latch on the window, intending to open it out.
"Don't! We'll lose all the air!" Julia sobbed out.
Martha rolled her eyes. "But they're not exactly air tight." She pointed out. "If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?"
The Doctor pulled back the curtains that surrounded her bed, attracting both interns' attention and making Rhea roll her eyes at his display. "Very good point! Brilliant, in fact." He sounded as if he was surprised at that. "What was your name?" He asked, a slow smile forming on his face.
"Martha." She replied.
A smile played on Rhea's lips and the Doctor came to stand beside her. "And it's Jones, isn't it?" She asked, lightly, already knowing the answer, but not willing to reveal anything to the Doctor about how she knew Martha.
Martha nodded and the Doctor took over the conversation. "Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?"
"We can't be!" Julia protested.
Rhea rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously we are, otherwise we would be dead by now."
"So, don't waste our time." The Doctor waved off.
"Matchstick man, don't be mean. She's afraid and she has every right to be." Rhea scolded, seeing the tears that pooled in the other medical student's eyes. Rhea sighed, regretfully. She walked over to Martha's friend and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, leading her over to the chair. "Don't worry, we're safe… at least, for now." She amended. "Just calm down and take deep breaths." She turned her attention back to Martha. "Martha, what have we got around here? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or...?"
Martha nodded. "By the patients' lounge, yeah."
The Doctor smirked. "Fancy going out?"
"Okay." Martha nodded.
Rhea grinned. Oh, I knew I liked you for a reason, Martha Jones. "We might die." She offered, just because she had to.
"We might not." Martha countered and the smirk on the Doctor's face turned into a full-blown, teeth-showing grin.
"Good!" He crowed. "C'mon. Not her, she'd hold us up." Rhea's hand swung up and struck him on the back of the head. "Ow." He cursed and glared at her.
"Don't be a jerk, honey." She chided, patting Martha's friend on the shoulder, who sobbed as they left.
The newly-formed trio, at least from the Doctor's and Martha's point of view, walked through the patients' lounge, seeing a woman sobbing on the floor, people running past, screaming, and approached the windows, cautiously. Outside the doors, there was a low-walled open concrete veranda. The Doctor tested the handles, much to Rhea's and Martha's trepidation, and found that if he pushed, he would be able to open the doors. He looked at Martha and Rhea and all three took a deep breath, just as the Doctor opened the door.
And there was nothing to be scared about. No outrush of air that signified the start of them all suffocating to death. If Rhea were absolutely honest, she did feel a bit disappointed.
"What's the point of being abducted by aliens if you don't have that immediate worry of getting blown out of an airlock?" Rhea whined.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Priorities, Rhea." He chided, gently.
They all exhaled and stepped out onto the balcony.
"We've got air. How does that work?" Martha asked, confused and slightly awed.
"Just be glad it does." The Doctor said, grimly.
The three of them held the silence, looking out onto the moon's surface beyond the hospital.
"I've got a party tonight." Martha said, suddenly. "My brother's twenty first. Oh, my mother's gonna be..." Martha trailed off, sounding as if she were about to cry.
The Doctor looked at Rhea, helplessly, and she walked over to Martha, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You okay?" She asked, softly.
Martha composed herself and straightened. "Yeah."
"Sure?" The Doctor called out, worriedly.
"Yeah."
"D'you want to go back in?" The Doctor asked, carefully.
"No way." Martha said, shaking her head. "Cos... I mean, we could die, any minute, but all the same…" She started to smile. "It's beautiful." Her voice had returned to that same awed tone it had been before, when she had first stepped out onto the balcony.
"D'you think?" The Doctor, himself, had a wistful smile on his face.
"How many people want to go to the Moon? And here we are." Martha countered.
"Good point." Rhea smiled.
"Standing in the earthlight." The Doctor said, and at the same time, he reached for Rhea's hand, joining them in between in their bodies.
Martha now looked calm and slightly more serious that before, able to realise the gravity of their situation. "What d'you think happened?" She asked, quietly.
"What do you think?" The Doctor asked, slowly and curiously.
"Extraterrestrial." Martha nodded, her voice strong. "Got to be. I dunno, few years ago, that would've sounded mad, but these days... that spaceship flying into Big Ben. Christmas. And those Cybermen things, that battle in the sky..."
Rhea grimaced, having lost Martha at "spaceship flying into Big Ben". And Cybermen… battle in the sky? For some reason, she knew that didn't bode well. And if that was the battle the Doctor had been talking about with Donna, that was the battle that they had lost Rose in.
"I had a cousin, Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. Never came home." Martha whispered.
Rhea watched as the Doctor looked at Martha, strangely. She tried the words out in her mind. Canary Wharf.
"They were behind the Battle of Canary Wharf."
"Cybermen invasion."
"Skies over London full of Daleks."
"I'm sorry." Rhea said, softly, not sure of whom exactly she was speaking to, the raw Time Lord at her side or the sombre medical student at the wall.
"Yeah." Martha whispered.
"We were there, in the battle, it was..." The Doctor trailed off, the wound still hurting.
There was a long silence. "I promise you, Mr and Mrs Smith, we'll find a way out. If we can travel to the Moon, then we can travel back, there's got to be a way."
Rhea laughed, suddenly, drawing both Martha's and the Doctor's attention. "Mr and Mrs Smith." She joked. "Oh." Rhea's eyes widened and she smacked the Doctor's arm, who watched her in amusement, appreciating that that she was trying to make him feel better. My Rhea. "I should've put Jane Smith down on the form. I'm kinda like Angelina Jolie in that movie, don't you think? Insanely hot assassin chick?"
The Doctor nodded, grinning, and kissed her on the forehead. "Definitely." He turned to Martha, who was staring at them slightly confused and amused. "Oh, it's not Smith. That's not our real names."
Martha frowned. "Who are you two, then?"
"I'm the Doctor." The Doctor said, looking up at her.
Martha turned her attention back to the surface of the moon. "Me too, if I ever pass my exams." She chuckled. "What is it then, Dr Smith?"
"Just the Doctor." He replied.
Martha narrowed her eyes, confused. "How d'you mean, just the Doctor?"
"He's just the Doctor." Rhea rolled her eyes. "I know, it sounds strange. Just go with it."
"What, people just call him 'the Doctor'?" Martha asked her.
"Yep." Rhea and the Doctor nodded.
"Well I'm not. Far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title." Martha said, turning to face the moon again.
"Well, I've earned that title." Rhea held her hand out for Martha to shake. "Dr Sunehri Adwani. Call me Rhea, though."
"What kind of doctor are you?" Martha frowned.
"Psychologist. I work for the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco."
The Doctor squatted down to the floor, searching. "I'd better make a start then, let's have a look, there must be some sort of…" He found a stone chipping, stood, and threw it over the edge of the wall.
The stone passed through an invisible membrane, which wobbled, rippled blue and then faded.
"It's a force-field." Rhea murmured. "It's keeping the air in the hospital."
Martha's eyes widened. "But if that's... say, it's like a bubble, sealing us in. That means, this is all the air we've got. What happens when it runs out?" She asked, fearfully.
"How many people are in this hospital?" The Doctor asked her.
"Dunno," Martha shrugged. "Thousand?"
"A thousand people will suffocate." Rhea mused, taking over the Doctor's line of thought.
Martha paled. "Why would anyone do anything?" She asked, horrified.
Suddenly, there was a sound above them and they looked up.
"Ask 'em yourself. Heads up!" The Doctor called out.
Three spaceships flew overhead, appearing from behind and above the hospital roof. They looked like massive upright tubes, studded with levels and lights. Martha held onto both the Doctor and Rhea as they watched the ships descended onto the surface, around half a mile away, dust blowing up around the bases of the ships as they settled.
The Doctor, Rhea and Martha stood right at the edge of the balcony, looking out, as a white panel on the base of the foremost tube slid up, a door opening. A ramp slid down, settling onto the moon's surface. Figures, too small for the three to see clearly, marched out in a line, looking very militaristic. They headed down onto the ramp and onto the moon's surface, marching towards the hospital.
"Aliens. That's... aliens. Real, proper aliens." Martha whispered, feeling a mixture of awe and terror.
"Judoon." The Doctor growled, grimacing.
"Honey, what are Judoon?" Rhea asked, quietly.
"Mercenary police force." The Doctor muttered under his breath, low enough for only Rhea to hear.
The Doctor, Rhea and Martha crept out along the mezzanine level of the hospital, gazing over the banister, as humanoid rhinos in uniforms of studded black leather panels used small devices that shone a blue light on peoples' foreheads and drew Xs on the back of their hands.
"They're rhinos." Rhea muttered.
The Doctor's attention was caught elsewhere. "Look down there, you've got a little shop. I like a little shop."
"Priorities." Rhea said, nudging him in the side. "Explain in more detail what exactly Judoon are."
"They're like police. Well…" The Doctor drawled. "Police-for-hire, more like interplanetary thugs."
Martha raised an eyebrow. "And they brought us to the moon?"
"Neutral territory." The Doctor explained. "According to Galactic Law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth. So they isolated us. That rain, and the lightning, that was them, using an H2O Scoop."
Martha looked at him as if he were a mental patient. "What are you on about, Galactic Law? Where d'you get that from?"
Rhea shrugged. "Sometimes it is quite impressive… the extent of his knowledge."
"Ha, you called me impressive." The Doctor teased.
"Oh, please," Rhea rolled her eyes. "This is the exception that proves the rule, sweetie."
The Doctor and her started to shift around, trying to get a better view of the proceedings downstairs, but still stay out of the Judoon's sights.
"If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassing on the Moon or something?" Martha joked.
Rhea smirked. "She's good. I like her." She told him.
"We're not, but I like that! Good thinking. Wish it was that simple. If they're making a catalogue, that means they're after something non-Human. Which is very bad news for me." The Doctor mused. He looked down at Rhea. "And you, I suppose."
"What, why me?" Rhea's eyebrows furrowed.
"Dimples, you've spent enough time in the TARDIS to soak up a bunch of chronon energy and you've been exposed to a lot of non-Humans since you started travelling with me, not to mention, you're…" He paused and looked down at her. "No, sorry, don't worry, too early for that."
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, too early?"
"Spoilers." He said, cheekily.
"Why is that bad news for you?" Martha looked between them. They just looked at her, wondering when she would figure it out. "...no. You're kidding me." She paused. "Don't be ridiculous." They continued to look at her. "Stop looking at me like that!"
"Come on, then." The Doctor said, grabbing Rhea's hand and heading towards the stairs.
Martha just waited for a few seconds before following the couple.
The Doctor, Rhea and Martha ran out onto the stairwell, reading a sign that said 'FLOOR 6', and down the corridor of one of the wards. The three hopped around and over people who had sunk into themselves in misery, huddled up on the floor. They reached the nurses' station which made up a big central part of the corridor, which consisted of a big desk. The Doctor slid into a chair behind the table and started using his sonic screwdriver to hack into the hospital mainframe, Rhea resting her arms on the back of the chair, just as Martha ran up.
"They've reached the third floor." Martha told them and spotted the sonic screwdriver, pausing in hesitation. "What's that thing?"
"Sonic screwdriver." Rhea answered, not taking her eyes off the computer screen.
"Well, if you're not gonna answer me properly." Martha said, disgruntled.
"It really is! It's a screwdriver! And it's sonic! Look!" The Doctor brandished the sonic screwdriver in protest.
Martha smirked. "What else have you got? Laser spanner?" She asked, sarcastically.
"I did, but it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, that cheeky woman…" The Doctor mused. Suddenly, an irritated look formed on his face. "What's wrong with this computer?! The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon Platoon, upon the Moon." The Doctor muttered and winced when Rhea smacked him, lightly, on the head, to make him focus again. The Doctor started to run his hands through his hair, agitatedly, making the strands stick up in odd directions.
Rhea pursed her lips and her mind was taken back to their moment outside her room after Lazarus, remembering how her hands had felt to run through his hair and grip at the ends of the locks and really mussing it up, much like he was doing. Jesus… I really need to forget about that night. But, another, stupidly true part of her opposed this. There's absolutely no amount of vodka that could make you forget what almost happened that night. If you think there is, then, you're fooling yourself. Rhea gritted her teeth against the conflicting voices in her head. Shut up, all of you! She paused. Oh, great, now I'm going insane.
"'Cause, I was just travelling past, I swear," The Doctor swung the chair around to look at Rhea. "I was just wandering, I wasn't looking for trouble, honestly, I wasn't." He said, earnestly.
Rhea shook her head. "I knew this would happen. This always happens." Rhea glared at him. "You are incapable of not getting yourself into a mess, aren't you?"
"I didn't do this on purpose!" The Doctor protested. "I just noticed plasma coils around the Hospital," He looked at Martha. "Like, that lightning, that's a plasma coil, it's been building up for two days now, so we checked in, I thought something was going on inside. Turns out, the plasma coils were the Judoon, up above."
"So, what are they looking for?" Rhea asked, worriedly.
"Something that looks human, but isn't." The Doctor said, vaguely.
"Like you, apparently." Martha added.
"Like me, but not me." He said, sternly, smiling a little in pleasure, when Rhea's nails began to rake through his hair, lightly scratching his scalp. If he started to purr, he didn't dare speak a word, but he and Rhea both knew he did purr and it raised her ego just a bit. He bit down a whimper. "What are you doing?" He hissed.
Rhea smirked and leaned down by his ear, her hair tickling his skin. "Just proving to you that despite your superior Time Lord biology, you'll still fall prey to my magnificent scalp massages, honey." She purred, her seductive voice sending zings of pleasure right down to his groin and he had to admit that his cock twitched.
"Haven't they got a photo?" Martha asked, uncomfortably.
The Doctor shrugged. "Might be a shape-changer."
"Well whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?" Martha asked.
"If they declare the Hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive... They'll sentence it to execution." The Doctor said, grimly.
"All of us?" Martha asked, her eyes wide.
"Oh, yes." The Doctor nodded. "But if I can find this thing first..." He stared at the screen and slammed his palm on the keyboard, an angry look forming on his face. "Oh, d'you see?! They're thick, Judoon are thick, they're so completely thick, they've wiped the records! That's clever!"
"What are we looking for?" Rhea asked.
"I don't know, say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms." He used his sonic screwdriver on the computer again. "Maybe there's a back-up..." He muttered.
"You two keep working, I'll go and ask Mr Stoker, he might know." Martha said, quickly, and ran off.
Martha hurried down a quieter corridor, leading off the main stretch where no people were around, heading straight for Mr Stoker's office.
"Mr Stoker...?" She called out and entered without waiting for him allowing her inside. And she stopped dead. She saw the two strange leather-clad motorcycle men from earlier, standing stock still, behind the Mr Stoker's desk, from where she could see two legs jutting out, obviously Mr Stoker's. She simply stared and watched as the old woman, Florence, who had a salt-deficiency earlier, rose up from behind the desk, a terrible, vindictive glint in her eyes and a chilling smile on her lips. Her lips were dark red with blood and she held a straw, which had the same pigment as the blood, a drop of blood falling from the end.
"Oh, kill her." Florence sighed.
One of the motorcycle men stepped forward and that was all Martha needed to run.
Martha ran out into the corridor, slamming the office door shut behind her, and ran down, nearly colliding with the Doctor and Rhea, who were just ambling down the corridor, smiling.
"I restored the back-up-"
"I found her." Martha interrupted him.
Rhea's eyes widened and her hands fell onto Martha's shoulders. "You did what?" She demanded.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise and Stoker's door went flying, the motorcycle man striding out into the corridor.
The Doctor grabbed Rhea's and Martha's hand. "Run." He said, sharply.
They raced down a corridor, jumping over a few people, running away from the motorcycle man, who was hot on their heels. They rushed into a stairwell and stomped down the stairs, stopping suddenly when they saw Judoon charging up the stairs.
"They can't find you. They'll think it's you they're looking for." Rhea said, hurriedly, to the Doctor.
"Come on, this way." The Doctor said, quickly, and pushed Rhea and Martha in the direction of the Floor 5 door.
They ran out onto the floor to find long, endless corridors, as long as their eyes could see. The entire area was deserted, empty and echoing, obviously not a place reserved for patients. They swung around a corridor, dodging the motorcycle man, who was running with a vicious purpose in mind. There was another nightmarish long stretch of corridor that they raced through. Rhea had the odd thought that this would probably be the best place for another one of those guys to intercept them at the other end of the corridor. Suddenly, the Doctor grabbed the two women and swung them around, haphazardly, making a sudden turn down a side-corridor.
They raced into an x-ray room and the Doctor slammed the door shut behind him, just as the motorcycle man caught up to them, locking it with his screwdriver. The Doctor shoved the other two into the control room.
"When I say now, press the button." The Doctor said, sharply.
"But which one!" Rhea shrieked.
"Find out!" The Doctor snapped and then rushed over to the overhead camera.
The three could hear the motorcycle man attempting to get into the room, slamming its entire body weight again and again at the locked door.
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the moveable arm that the overhead camera was attached to, making it even more mobile, and swung it down to his level. He realised that the door wouldn't keep their pursuer at bay for much longer.
In the control room, Martha found an instruction manual lying on a shelf and started to read, frantically, while Rhea searched the controls for any sign for the 'on' switch. She peeked out of the glass panel, separating the control room from the rest of the lab, and saw the door hinges beginning to give away.
The Doctor managed to get the overhead camera right in front of him and jammed the sonic screwdriver into the camera, so that it was sticking out the top of it. He held the back of the camera against his chest, facing the door, so that it resembled a gun.
The motorcycle man launched himself at the door a final time and the door fell to the floor flat, the motorcycle man standing tall in the doorway.
"Now!" The Doctor shouted.
Rhea cursed and grabbed Martha's hand, slamming both of their hands onto a big yellow button in the centre of the control panel. "Good as a choice as any!"
A/N: Hope you all liked the first chapter of Smith and Jones.
I thought this would be another great chapter for the Doctor and Rhea to act as a married couple again, and in an official sense. And we found out a few things to do with Rhea in this chapter. I just like to give you all little things every once in awhile. She's a psychologist and works for the UCSF Medical Center, which is a real life hospital in San Francisco.
I tried to make Rhea more excited rather than tense in this episode, because she wants to know what makes the Doctor want to take Martha for a trip. She's already a Martha fangirl at this point and she's trying to make sure that Martha gets the opportunity to come along with them. And she's getting to know more about how Rose "died", because that's what Rhea thinks happened to Rose. And that really scares her. I wonder if she'll try and stop Rose from leaving in Doomsday. I wonder if the Doctor will blame her for it.
Anyway, hope you all liked the chapter and don't forget to review! I do so enjoy reading and replying to them!