Time is Still A-Flying

by chocolatequeen

Part 3 of Being to Timelessness. With a bond and a promise of forever, the Doctor and Rose have managed to escape the trap set for them in Torchwood, but Time is not yet done with them. The Master is still in London and Election Day draws ever closer. He's tried to separate them once; will they survive a second attempt? Sequel to To Make Much of Time

20. The Hollow Man

Martha frowned as she looked at her two outfit choices. Thanks to their time slogging through the New York sewers, the hem of her jeans was filthy. Besides, she'd worn her top multiple days in a row and it could definitely do with a wash. The outfit from the wardrobe room wasn't much better—it reeked of exhaust from their trip to New Earth. Right, time to take care of this, she thought as she put her own clothes on. A limited wardrobe won't cut it if I'm staying long-term.

"Martha!" the Doctor said when she entered the console room. "Is there anyplace you'd like to go this morning?"

She smiled; it was almost like he'd anticipated her request. "Actually, could we go to my flat?"

The Doctor looked up from the controls in surprise and disappointment. "I thought you were going to stay a while," he said.

"I'd like to, yeah—but I'd also like to not be wearing the same clothes every day. It's been what… five days?" She shook her head. "I can't even keep track with you. If we could just stop by long enough for me to pack a bag, that's all."

"Of course we can, Martha," Rose said from the jump seat. "You're always welcome to use the wardrobe room, and the TARDIS can give you all the toiletries you need, but I don't blame you for wanting your own things."

The Doctor still looked slightly puzzled, but what could you expect from a man who alternated between two suits? He shrugged and nodded at Martha. "All right then, where's your flat?"

Martha gave him her address, then watched him and Rose fly the TARDIS together. The ship cooperated perfectly today, with a minimal amount of turbulence and a soft landing.

The Doctor bounced lightly on his toes, nodding at the door. "There we go. Perfect landing. Which isn't easy in such a tight spot."

"We're in my flat?" Martha double-checked.

"In fact, the morning after we left, so you've only been gone about twelve hours." He held a hand up to Rose. "And yes, I'm sure this time," he told her, a long-suffering expression on his face.

Martha looked at Rose with raised eyebrows, and she laughed. "The first time he brought me home, he thought it was twelve hours… but it had been twelve months. That's not a driving mistake he'll ever live down."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "You make a mistake once…"

Rose tapped her chin with her index finger. "And then there was Cardiff instead of Naples, and 1879 instead of 1979…"

He heaved a sigh and nodded at the door. "Go on, Martha, you'll see."

Martha pushed the door open, then turned back to them in amazement. "I don't know why it's more incredible that you could land in my flat than it was to visit Shakespeare," she said as she stepped out of the TARDIS, "but somehow it is."

"There's something about coming back and realising you've been all those places, but nothing's changed at home," Rose said.

Martha grabbed the lingerie off the drying rack before the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, then reached into a cupboard and retrieved a duffle. "So all the stuff we've done. Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?" she asked as she shoved her unmentionables into the bag.

The Doctor looked up from the photograph of her family he'd been inspecting. "Yep, all in one night." He looked around her apartment, his innate curiosity just as insatiable here as it was on an alien planet. "Relatively speaking. Everything should be just as it was. Books, CDs…"

"That is so… mental." Martha headed towards her bedroom, but the answering machine stopped her in the doorway.

"Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?"

Instead, she rolled her eyes and continued into her room. "It's Mum. It'll wait," she muttered.

Not surprisingly, her mum didn't give up. "All right then, pretend that you're out if you like. I was only calling to say that your sister's on TV." Martha's attention was finally piqued, and she stuck her head back into the living room. "On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested."

Yeah, maybe. Martha dropped her bag and reached for the remote. Tish stood beside an older man in front of a building, holding a press conference. "The details are top secret," he said.

"How could Tish end up on the news?" Martha tapped the remote against her chin and furrowed her brow.

"Tonight," the gentleman continued, "I will demonstrate a device which will redefine our world."

"She's got a new job," Martha told the Doctor and Rose. "PR for some research lab."

"With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human." Reporters called out to him, but Martha put the TV back on standby and went back into her bedroom.

"Guess I should get this packing done so we can move on," she said. "Any special kind of clothes I should bring?"

The Doctor ignored her, still staring at the now dark television. Martha looked at Rose, who said, "Just pack whatever you'd normally take on a trip, Martha. If we need something special, we can get it out of the wardrobe room."

Rose's voice brought the Doctor out of his daze. "No, I'm sorry. Did he say he was going to change what it means to be human?" he asked, pointing at the television.

Rose grinned at him, excitement lighting her eyes. "A short delay, maybe, before taking off?" she suggested.

"I think so," he agreed. "Martha, are you up for it?"

Martha's dark eyes sparkled. "Absolutely! Let me call Mum and see what she can tell me about Tish's new job."

The Doctor wandered through the flat while Martha was on the phone, absently picking up a CD off the mantle and a paperweight from the desk before Rose took them out of his hands and set them back down. He smiled at her sheepishly. Rude, I know. I'm just curious…

"So that man, Professor Lazarus, runs the laboratory she works for," Martha said, interrupting their conversation. "And tonight, he and Lady Thaw are throwing a party to demonstrate the launch of his new invention."

"Which will change what it means to be human," Rose quoted.

Martha nodded. "Apparently, yeah. Tish managed to get all the family on the guest list." She glanced at the Doctor and Rose. "I'm allowed a plus one, but…"

"We'll use the psychic paper; don't worry," the Doctor said.

"Great. The dress code is black tie for you, and cocktail dresses for Rose and I."

oOoOoOoOo

"This tux is unlucky."

Rose rolled her eyes while carefully styling her hair in a sleek, modern up-do. That was at least the tenth time the Doctor had said that since Martha had informed them of the dress code.

"Whenever I wear this, something bad always happens."

"That's not the tux, Doctor—that's just you." Rose took one last look at her hair and makeup, then tied her dressing gown around her waist and left the en suite.

The Doctor sputtered over her comeback while he fought with the tie. "Are you saying bad things always happen around me?" He pouted, and undid the tie again. "Was our trip to Barcelona bad?"

"Are you saying you're always wearing a tux when bad things happen?" Rose countered. She pulled his hands away from the strip of silk before it became hopelessly wrinkled and quickly did his tie herself.

"How did you get so good at that?" he asked as he peered at his reflection in the mirror.

"I used to practice when I worked at Henrik's. Salesgirls in menswear got a much better commission," she told him, watching appreciatively as he pulled his jacket on. Rose brushed her hands across his shoulders, then tugged at the lapels, making sure the jacket hung correctly on his frame.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her, and she realised her hands had come to rest on his chest. "See something you like, love?" he said with a smirk.

Rose shook her head. "I'm going to the wardrobe room to get dressed. I'll meet you in the console room in thirty minutes."

Her one request to the TARDIS was for a dress she could run in—nothing too long, or too tight around the legs. If someone wanted to change what it meant to be human, it seemed almost guaranteed that they'd be running before the night was over. Rose's seventeen-year-old self, with a wardrobe full of tight clubbing outfits, would have been appalled by her new standards. But adult Rose could appreciate a dress that was sexy and easy to run in.

The ship helpfully directed her to a rack of knee-length cocktail dresses that all had swishy chiffon skirts. Most of them were variations on a theme: wide straps, plunging neckline, pleated bodice, then an A-line skirt, all in the same black, navy, and burgundy. None of them struck Rose's fancy.

She paused halfway down the rack on a dress whose wide straps were made of soft lace. The back of the dress fastened with a zipper that ended at the middle of the back and a button at the back of the neck, creating a keyhole opening framed by the same lace.

But it was the colour that caught her eye. The silky cobalt blue chiffon seemed to shimmer in varying shades of blue and deep teal as the light caught it from different angles. It was completely unique, especially compared to everything else on the rack

Rose took her dressing gown off and hung it by the door, then changed into the dress. The fabric whispered around her knees as she walked barefoot to a rack of shoes and selected silver heels low enough to run in with a strap around the ankle to keep them from slipping off.

She sat down on the low divan to put them on, then stood and examined the full effect in the mirror. The wide expanse of bare skin across her chest drew a frown, but the TARDIS had hidden all the jewellery except her wedding earrings, which she quickly put on. Shrugging, she grabbed a small matching handbag and left the wardrobe room.

The Doctor was polishing the time rotor when she entered the console room, but he dropped the cloth when he heard her footsteps on the ramp. "There you are! I was just…"

The rest of his sentence trailed off into nothing when he caught sight of her, and Rose stopped to do a quick twirl, her lips curving up in a smile when his gaze dropped to her legs.

She crossed the room, not stopping until she was only a foot away from him. "See something you like, love?"

"Oh, yes. Definitely, absolutely." He put a hand on her waist and bent his head to brush his lips against hers.

Rose slid a hand up his chest and over his shoulder to play with the short hairs at the nape of his neck, and the hand on her waist flexed. A moment later, she felt his tongue gliding along the seam of her lips, and she parted them willingly, letting him deepen the kiss.

My beautiful Rose, he said as he teased her with his tongue.

Rose's response was tempered by a sudden awareness of time. They were still in Martha's flat, which meant they were stuck in one time stream. Reluctantly, she pulled back from the Doctor.

"Martha will be expecting us," she said, surprised by the huskiness in her voice. Regret crossed his face quickly, but he loosened his hold on her enough for her to take a step back.

He traced a single finger along her collarbone, making Rose shiver. "You should really wear a necklace with this dress," he commented, his eyes sparkling.

"Well, tell our lovely ship that," Rose retorted. "I looked for something, but she seems to have hidden it all."

Gleeful excitement pulsed over the bond, and Rose narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. What is he up to? she wondered.

He didn't make her wonder long. "That's too bad." He pulled something out of his jacket pocket, then opened his hand to dangle something in front of her. "Do you think this would work?"

Rose gaped at the delicate silver necklace. "Diamonds?" she asked as she touched the three stones set in a v.

"Yep. I saw it and thought of you, since diamond is April's birthstone."

Rose smiled. "Thank you, Doctor. Put it on me?" she requested, turning her back to him. The necklace dropped down in front of her eyes until it rested against her chest. She shivered when she felt the Doctor's cool fingers fumble with the clasp before he got it to latch. A sigh escaped her lips when he kissed nape of her neck, then wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Happy birthday, Rose."

She gasped and spun around. "What?"

Mirth danced in his eyes. "I thought you might have lost track. Today's your 23rd birthday, or would be if we lived linearly." He offered her his arm. "Come on, I think Martha is waiting for us."

The Doctor felt exceedingly smug as he escorted his bond mate out of the TARDIS. She wasn't easy to surprise, and he'd certainly managed this time. He'd been a little worried that he might have jarred her memory when he told Martha exactly how long Rose had been with him, given that she'd celebrated her first birthday on the TARDIS only seven weeks after moving in.

Rose said nothing about his self-satisfaction. He'd pulled off the perfect surprise; he deserved the moment of pride.

Martha was waiting for them on her sofa, but she stood up when they walked in, brushing a hand down her aubergine skirt. Rose smiled when she noticed the familiar wide straps, deep v neckline, and chiffon skirt—Martha had looked for a dress that would be easy to run in too, it seemed.

"I love that necklace, Rose," Martha said.

Rose rested her fingers on it and looked up at the Doctor. The warmth in his eyes made her weak in the knees, and she leaned into him. "It was a birthday present."

"Is today your birthday? Why didn't you say?"

She shrugged. "Well… I'd actually lost track."

"Come on, ladies," the Doctor interrupted. "Time to go save the world."

Martha made a face at him. "Do you have to be so dramatic?" she complained, drawing a laugh from Rose. "You don't know this machine is world-threatening."

The Doctor and Rose exchanged a glance. There was a wrongness in the timelines pulling at them and demanding they fix it. "I suppose not," he said evasively. "But! There's bound to be nibbles at the party, if nothing else. Now come on!"

oOoOoOoOo

After parking the car, Martha led them to a building with a Greek facade, complete with Ionic columns supporting the portico. Other people dressed in formal attire were filing towards the steps, where a red carpet led to the door. An elegant sign by the entrance welcomed them to the gala, with pictures of their hosts, Richard Lazarus and Lady Thaw.

A rather harried-looking woman holding a clipboard stood just inside the doorway, checking invitations against the guest list. Martha smiled at her when it was her turn. "I'm Martha Jones," she said, showing her ID. "I don't have an invitation, but my sister Letitia said she put my name on the list."

The woman ran her finger down the list, then smiled at Martha. "Of course, Miss Jones. Please, have a good evening."

Martha looked up at the Doctor. "I'm going to see if I can find my family," she said. "I'll see you in a bit."

The woman taking invitations looked at the Doctor next and he held out the psychic paper. "I'm the Doctor, and this is my wife, Rose Tyler."

He expected her to wave them in, as people usually did when they saw the psychic paper, but instead, she checked her list. That made the Doctor a little nervous, but a moment later, she smiled and nodded. "Ah, here we are. The Doctor and Rose Tyler—personal guests of Mr. Saxon. Thank you for coming."

After they were past the receiving line, Rose muttered, "Something we'll have to take care of, then?"

"Once we figure out who Mr. Saxon is."

All thoughts of the mysterious Mr. Saxon were driven from the Doctor's mind when they entered the main room, dominated by a large, frosted glass chamber. He and Rose wandered towards it.

Sonic technology, he realised as he got closer.

A server approached, and the tray of hors d'oeuvres distracted him. "I was right, Rose—they've got nibbles!" he chirped, taking several from her as she passed by. "I love nibbles." The server returned his smile, then walked away.

Rose snagged one out of his hand. "We managed to skip dinner," she said. "I'm starved."

"I'm glad I took time to eat before I got dressed," Martha said, rejoining them. "I couldn't find my family—but oh, it looks like someone found me."

Rose watched with interest as a beautiful woman about her own age approached Martha, a huge smile on her face.

"Hello," she said.

Martha took a step towards her. "Tish."

The sisters hugged, then Tish stepped back and took in Martha's appearance. "You look great. So, what do you think?" she asked, indicating to the room. "Impressive, isn't it?"

Martha looked around and nodded. "Very."

Tish tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "And two nights out in a row for you," she said, a curious smile on her face. "That's dangerously close to a social life."

Martha rolled her eyes. "If I keep this up,I'll end up in all the gossip columns."

"You might, actually." Tish glanced around the room. "You should keep an eye out for photographers. And Mum, she's coming too. Even dragging Leo along with her."

Martha's eyes widened. "Leo in black tie? That I must see."

Tish's eyes darted over to Rose and the Doctor, and Rose waited for Martha to introduce them.

"This is, er, the Doctor and his wife, Rose Tyler."

The Doctor put all his hors d'oeuvres in one hand so he could shake Tish's with the other. "Hello."

"Are they with you?" Tish asked Martha, a fake smile painted across her face.

"Yeah."

"But they're not on the list. How did they get in?"

"We were, actually," Rose said. "Mr. Saxon put us on the list."

Tish looked like she still wanted to argue, but the Doctor jumped in before she had a chance. "So, this Lazarus, he's your boss?"

"Professor Lazarus, yes," Tish said, apparently deciding not to question their presence any more. "I'm part of his executive staff."

"She's in the PR department," Martha said dismissively.

Tish narrowed her eyes, and her nostrils thinned. "I'm head of the PR department, actually."

Martha's eyes widened. "You're joking."

"I put this whole thing together," she said, nodding at the party going on around them.

"So do you know what the professor's going to be doing tonight?" the Doctor asked, distracting them from the outbreak of sibling rivalry. "That looks like it might be a sonic microfield manipulator."

Tish rolled her eyes. "He's a science geek—no wonder you're friends." She smiled at all of them. "Got to get back to work now. I'll catch up with you later," she added to Martha.

The Doctor looked at Rose after she walked away. "Science geek? What does that mean?"

She tugged on his lapel. "Means you like to impress us all with your rambling lectures on hypersonic sound waves and their effects on human biology."

He raised his eyebrows. You've been paying attention to my thoughts.

Just wanted to know what was going on.

"Martha."

Martha spun around at the familiar voice and launched herself into her mother's arms. "Mum!" Her mum stroked her hair, and Martha relished the soft, familiar comfort.

She pulled back after a minute, and mother and daughter looked at each other. "All right, what's the occasion?" Francine asked.

Martha froze for a moment. "What do you mean? I'm just pleased to see you, that's all."

Her mum smiled and tilted her head curiously. "You saw me last night."

Rose cut in. "Martha's enthusiastic greeting is probably my fault, Mrs. Jones. I…" She swallowed, and the Doctor wrapped his arm around her waist. "I lost my mother about about ten months ago, and we were talking about that earlier today."

Martha smiled at Rose, hoping she could see the gratitude in her eyes. "Yeah, it just reminded me that you never know how much time you'll have with the people you love."

Her mum still looked doubtful, so Martha turned to her brother, looking to get the attention off herself. "You're looking good, Leo."

"Yeah." Leo huffed out a breath. "If anyone asks me to fetch them a drink, I'll swing for him."

Francine's speculative gaze turned on Rose and the Doctor. "You disappeared last night," she told Martha, a hint of accusation in her voice.

"I just went home," Martha said, feeling like a teenager who'd been caught sneaking out.

"She did have a long day yesterday," Rose pointed out evenly. "What with the hospital being transported to the moon and all."

Martha wanted to hide when her mum looked down her nose at Rose. "And you are…?"

"I'm Rose Tyler, and this is my husband, the Doctor."

"What's your connection with my daughter?"

Rose sighed and looked at the Doctor before Martha could protest her mum's interrogation. "Do you have our identification, Doctor?" she asked him.

The Doctor's eyebrow quirked up slightly, but he handed his wife the psychic paper without question. Martha tried to catch a glimpse of it when Rose showed it to her mum, but she couldn't without being totally obvious.

Francine blinked, then looked at the blank piece of paper and back at Rose. "But you're…"

"We just needed to talk with Martha a little about what happened on the moon. The conversation took longer than we thought it would, and then we learned we were all invited to the same party, so we thought…" Rose shrugged. "Why not come together?"

You're brilliant, Rose, the Doctor told her as he accepted the psychic paper back from her. She'd single-handedly smoothed over Martha's faux pas and given them a logical cover for being in her life.

Someone clinked cutlery against a glass, and they all turned around to face the platform, where Professor Lazarus stood next to the large, freestanding chamber. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus, and tonight I am going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon."

The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest. He knew his Earth history, and the human race didn't make a scientific advancement of that magnitude for another fifteen years.

"Tonight, you will watch and wonder," Lazarus continued as flashbulbs went off all around him. "Tomorrow, you will wake to a world which will be changed forever."

He handed his cane to the woman in a lab coat who'd been standing behind him and stepped into the chamber. His scientific team activated the device and a blinding light flashed over the room. The four pistons around the chamber oscillated, focusing the light inward. An electronic shriek pierced the air, and the whole unit spun faster and faster.

An alarm went off before the chamber stopped spinning. The Doctor looked over at the computer terminals on his right, then back at the chamber. "Something's wrong. It's overloading." He tensed, and when sparks shot out of the console, he couldn't wait any longer. He ran to the terminal to the right of the unit and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. One look at the control panels was all he needed to understand what was happening, and he quickly turned the dial on one and started pushing the buttons that would bring it back within safe parameters.

"Somebody stop him. Get him away from those controls!" Lady Thaw cried out.

The Doctor gritted his teeth. "If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it," he shouted over the sound of the alarm. "Is that what you want?"

He was doing everything right, but he couldn't get ahead of the rapidly destabilising sonic field. Finally, he jumped over the desk and yanked a cable out of the back of the control panel, and the device slowed, then stopped.

Martha and Rose ran to the door. "Get it open!" the Doctor yelled, racing around from the other side.

The smoke cleared, and a blond man in his late thirties staggered to his feet. He touched his face with his hand and smiled, then tottered down the steps out to greet his public.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus. I am seventy-six years old and I am reborn!"

The Doctor set his jaw as the guests all clapped wildly, and cameras flashed. Rose slipped her hand into his. What is it?

It looks like everything went perfectly, but there's no way he could possibly have accounted for all the variables.

"It can't be the same guy," Martha said as they watched Lazarus pose for pictures with his rich and important guests. "It's impossible. It must be a trick."

The Doctor shook his head. "Oh, it's not a trick. I wish it were."

Martha looked up at him, then back at Lazarus. "What just happened then?"

"He just changed what it means to be human," the Doctor said gravely.

Is this the first step towards people like Lady Cassandra? Rose asked.

No. That, unfortunate as it is, is part of the history of the human race. This—he nodded to Lazarus—is not supposed to happen.

Lady Thaw worked her way towards Lazarus, smiling politely at the young women crowding around him. From where they were, they couldn't overhear the conversation, but the Doctor watched the interaction in interest. The older woman held her hands up to his face, and the Doctor thought he saw a glimmer of disgust on Lazarus' face.

After a minute of conversation, Lazarus stiffened and cracked his neck in a not-quite-human manner. A waiter walked by, and he grabbed the tray out of his hands and started shoving the hors d'oeuvres into his mouth one after another.

"Richard!" Lady Thaw protested.

"I'm famished."

The Doctor led Rose and Martha over to the pair. "Energy deficit. Always happens with this kind of process," he said, remembering how hungry regeneration usually left him.

Lazarus looked at him, his lips pursed. "You speak as if you see this every day, Mr.—?"

"Doctor." He shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to shrug modestly. "And well, no, not every day, but I have some experience with this kind of transformation."

"That's not possible," Lazarus told him with a superior smirk.

The Doctor looked up at the chamber. "Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance. That—that's inspired."

Some of Lazarus' disdainful attitude faded. 'You understand the theory, then."

"Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables," the Doctor said flatly.

Whatever rapport he'd developed with Lazarus disappeared. "No experiment is entirely without risk," the other man said, popping the last bite into his mouth and licking his fingers.

"That thing nearly exploded," the Doctor retorted quietly. "You might as well have stepped into a blender."

"Mr. Saxon said you would have an interest in the project, but neither your interest nor your connections give you leave to comment," Lady Thaw told him quellingly.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest. "Excuse you, but if the Doctor hadn't stopped it, that thing would have exploded."

"Then I thank you, Doctor," Lazarus condescended. "But that's a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less."

"You've no way of knowing that," Martha countered. "Not until you've run proper tests."

Lazarus laughed, and his gaze flicked up and down the length of Martha's figure. "Look at me. You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need."

"This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially," Lady Thaw assured them.

"Commercially?" Rose and Martha chorused.

"You are joking," Martha continued. "That'll cause chaos."

"Not chaos, change." All of Lazarus' amusement had disappeared. "A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve," he concluded, looking back at the Doctor.

The blatant greed wrapped in a thin veneer of scientific progress sickened the Doctor. "This isn't about improving. This is about you and your customers living a little longer."

Lazarus' smile was cool. "Not a little longer, Doctor. A lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely."

"Richard, we have things to discuss, upstairs."

Lazarus followed Lady Thaw, waving goodbye to the Doctor, Martha, and Rose. "Goodbye, Doctor." He turned around to look at them once more. "In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were."

He took Martha's hand and placed a kiss on the back of it, then followed his business partner upstairs.

The Doctor watched him go, shaking his head a little at the sheer arrogance of the man. "Oh, he's out of his depth. No idea of the damage he might have done."

"So what do we do now?" Rose asked.

"Now?" The Doctor looked around the room. The sign on the building had proclaimed this to be Lazarus Laboratories. "Well, this building must be full of laboratories. I say we do our own tests."

Martha held up her hand. "Lucky I've just collected a DNA sample then, isn't it?"

The Doctor grinned down at her. "Oh, Martha Jones, you're a star."

Martha turned to Rose as they walked to the lift. "I meant to say, thanks for stepping in with Mum earlier. You were brilliant."

"Yeah, well I have a lot of experience recognising a mum on the warpath, thanks to the Doctor." The women laughed over the Doctor's protest.

The lift came, and they all got in. "So what happened to your mum, if you don't mind me asking?" Martha questioned. "Or was that just a cover?"

Rose smiled sadly. "Canary Wharf." Martha hummed in sympathy, and Rose shook her head. "It isn't like that; she isn't actually dead. But she's trapped in a parallel universe, and I'll never see her again."

The Doctor looked at Rose curiously. "While we're asking questions, Rose, who did you tell Martha's mum we are?"

The lift doors opened on the second storey, and Rose waited to answer until they were walking down the corridor, following a sign that pointed to the laboratories.

Then she grinned at him, letting her tongue peek out. "Investigators with UNIT."

The Doctor laughed. It was the simplest, most obvious cover, since the Brigadier had added a note about her to the Doctor's file. "You are brilliant, Rose Tyler," he proclaimed.

"Yeah, well, now it's time for the two of you to be brilliant," Rose told him, opening the door to a cool, sterile lab.

The Doctor put on his glasses, then swabbed the back of Martha's hand, put the sample on a slide, and slid it under the microscope sitting on the table. He had to hack into the computer sitting next to the microscope to gain access to the program that read the results, but it only took a minute.

"Amazing," he said once the DNA strand appeared on the monitor.

"What?" Martha whispered.

"Lazarus's DNA."

"I can't see anything different," Martha said, and Rose was grateful she wasn't the only one.

"Look at it," the Doctor insisted.

Rose and Martha both looked closer, and a second later, Rose caught a fluctuation in the structure of the DNA. "Oh, my God," she breathed.

"Did that just change?" Martha asked.

The Doctor nodded, and Rose recognised the amazement on his face.

Martha took a half step back. "But it can't have."

"But it did," Rose said, looking at the still shifting DNA.

Martha looked at her, then at the Doctor. "It's impossible."

"And that's two impossible things we've seen so far tonight." The Doctor grinned. "Don't you love it when that happens?"

"That means Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns," Martha surmised.

"Hypersonic sound waves to destabilise the cell structure, then a mutagenic programme to manipulate the coding in the protein strands," the Doctor said rapidly. "Basically, he hacked into his own genes and instructed them to rejuvenate."

Martha looked at the computer again. "But they're still mutating now."

The Doctor's giddy, "Oh look, something new!" excitement faded into serious concern, and Rose held her breath, waiting for him to explain what had gone wrong.

"Because he missed something. Something in his DNA has been activated and won't let him stabilise. Something that's trying to change him."

The atmosphere in the room shifted from cool to chilly. "Change him into what?" Martha asked.

"I don't know, but I think we need to find out," the Doctor said quietly.

"They were going upstairs," Rose said. "And the sign in the lift said executive offices are on the top floor."

The Doctor nodded. "Let's go."

He dashed from the room, and Rose and Martha followed after him. The ride to the top of the building was short, and the lift opened directly onto a large, posh office that clearly belonged to the head of the company. A scale model of a cathedral sat on a table nearby, and the wooden desk was old and obviously expensive.

The Doctor flicked the lights on, and they could see the room more clearly.

"This is his office, all right," Martha said.

The three of them turned around looking for their host, but the room seemed to be empty. "Then where is he?" Rose asked.

Martha shrugged. "Don't know. Let's try back at the re…ception."

Rose and the Doctor looked at her as she stumbled over the word, and then followed her gaze. There was something behind the desk—something that looked like a skeletal leg wearing a ladies' dress shoe.

The sight on the other side of the desk was more gruesome. A dried up skeleton dressed in a black formal gown lay on the floor with a cut glass tumbler beside her.

They all recognised the dress, but it was Martha who put it into words. "Is thatLady Thaw?"

"Used to be," the Doctor agreed. "Now it's just a shell. Had all the life energy drained out, like squeezing the juice out of an orange."

"Lazarus," Rose whispered.

The Doctor nodded. "Could be."

"So he's changed already?" asked Martha.

"Not necessarily," the Doctor corrected. "You saw the DNA. It was fluctuating. The process must demand energy. This might not have been enough."

"So he might do this again?" Martha asked, drawing the obvious conclusion.

The Doctor made a face, but that was enough for Martha. Her family was here, at a party with a mad scientist who was now more Hyde than Jekyll. She ran to the lift, not stopping to see if Rose and the Doctor were following, and punched the button for the first floor, where the party was.

Rose and the Doctor slipped in just as the doors closed. Martha paced the whole way down, tugging at her hair. "This cannot be happening," she muttered.

"He did say he was going to change what it meant to be human," Rose reminded her. "If we'd thought that sounded like a good idea, do you think we'd have stuck around just for the canapés?"

"Okay, fine. I thought there was something fishy going on too, but I didn't think my family would end up at a party with an energy sucking leech who could turn them all into dried-out corpses!" she exclaimed.

"Calm down, Martha," Rose advised. "We'll be back at the party in a minute, and you'll need to look pulled together."

Martha wanted to glare at her friend, but she couldn't. Rose was right. She took a few deep breaths before the lift stopped, then closed her eyes and breathed out slowly before stepping out.

"So what's the plan?" she asked before they reentered the reception room.

"Find Lazarus, see if we can get him alone," said the Doctor. "Talk to him about what we found. Hopefully he'll see reason, and maybe there's something we can do to keep this from getting any worse."

Martha had been watching the Doctor, and he'd looked away from her when he'd said that bit. Oh, my God, there isn't any way to reverse this, she realised. Lazarus was just going to keep getting worse until he eventually transformed completely into… whatever he was changing into.

She took another breath when they reached the door. There would be time to panic later.

"I can't see him," she muttered as they walked past the string quartet.

"He can't be far," the Doctor said, striding through the crowd. "Keep looking."

A familiar voice off to the left caught Martha's attention, and she turned to her brother. "Hey, you all right, Marth?"

Martha didn't bother trying to bluff Leo; he could always tell when she was upset. "Have you seen Lazarus anywhere?" she asked point blank.

He blinked, then nodded. "Yeah, well, he was getting cosy with Tish a couple of minutes ago."

"With Tish?"

In Martha's horror, she was only vaguely aware of the Doctor joining her, while Rose moved to intercept her mother. Rose said something in a low voice, but Martha stared at Leo.

"Where did they go?"

He frowned. "Upstairs, I think. Why?"

Rose stepped forward and took the Doctor's hand. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Jones," she said as they ran off. "I promise this is important."

Martha looked over her shoulder as they left the reception room and winced when she recognised the confusion and mild irritation on her mother's face.

This time, the ride in the lift was silent as they all watched the numbers go up. Finally, they reached the top floor and Martha burst out into the executive office as soon as they doors opened.

A quick glance told her the room was just as empty now as it had been five minutes ago. "Where are they?"

The Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "Fluctuating DNA will give off an energy signature. I might be able to pick it up." He held the sonic out in front of him and moved it in a slow pass around the room. After a quarter turn, it started beeping. "Got him."

"Where?" Martha asked. The Doctor slowly moved the sonic until it pointed straight up. "But this is the top floor." The answer came to her as she said the words. "The roof."

"We'll have to take the stairs," Rose said as they sprinted for the corner of the room.

The roof was only a short flight of stairs up from the executive floor. The Doctor reached the door to the rooftop terrace first and held a finger up. "Let's not surprise our friend," he suggested in a low voice, then turned the handle slowly.

They slipped silently onto the roof and found Lazarus and Tish standing silhouetted in front of a cathedral. They stood quite close, and Lazarus was rambling about the experiment.

"I find that nothing's ever exactly like you expect," he said. "There's always something to surprise you. Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act—"

"Falls the Shadow," the Doctor said, finishing the quote.

Lazarus and Tish turned around. "So the mysterious Doctor knows his Eliot," Lazarus said. A sardonic smile turned the corners of his lips upward. "I'm impressed."

"Martha, what are you doing here?" Tish hissed.

"Tish, get away from him," Martha ordered.

"What?" Tish recoiled slightly and glared at Martha. "Don't tell me what to do."

"I wouldn't have thought you had time for poetry, Lazarus," the Doctor said, "what with you being busy defying the laws of nature and all."

"You're right, Doctor." Lazarus rocked back and forth on his heels. "One lifetime's been too short for me to do everything I'd like. How much more I'll get done in two or three or four."

Rose snorted. "Do you really think it works like that?"

"She's right," the Doctor said, and Martha wasn't surprised when she looked over and saw a sad expression on his face. "Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters; it's the person."

Lazarus' eyes turned cold. "But if it's the right person, what a gift that would be."

"Or what a curse.Look at what you've done to yourself."

Lazarus sneered. "Who are you to judge me?"

Martha motioned to her sister. "Over here, Tish."

Tish's eyes flashed. She stepped closer to Martha, but only so she could argue. "You have to spoil everything, don't you?" Martha recoiled from her older sister's accusation, but Tish didn't give her a chance to defend herself or explain. "Every time I find someone nice, you have to go and find fault."

In her anger, Tish didn't hear Lazarus' first choking spasms as he started to transform. "Tish, he's a monster!" Martha said as Lazarus fell to the ground.

Tish rolled her eyes. "I know the age thing's a bit freaky, but it works for Catherine Zeta-Jones." She finally realised no one was looking at her, and turned around just in time to see Lazarus expand into a huge, skeletal scorpion with the head of a man. "What's that?"

"Run!" the Doctor yelled, leading the way back to the stairwell. When they were all inside, he yanked the door shut and sonicked the lock so Lazarus wouldn't be able to get through.

Martha reached the lifts first and slammed the button, then turned to her sister. "Are you okay?"

Tish stared at the door. "I was going to snog him."

The main lights went out and emergency lights started flashing before anyone could comment on that. "Security one. Security one. Security one," a computerised voice said over the loudspeaker.

"What's happening?" Martha asked when the voice stopped.

"An intrusion." Tish closed her eyes for a moment, then swallowed and looked at them. "It triggers a security lockdown. Kills most of the power. Stops the lifts, seals the exits."

They all looked at the roof access door. "He must be breaking through that door," the Doctor said. And if the lifts are down… "The stairs, come on!"

They'd only made it down one flight when they heard a crash and then a growl above them. "He's inside!" Martha cried out.

"We haven't got much time!" the Doctor said, and they kept running, hoping to get to the reception room before Lazarus caught up with them.

"Okay, Doctor, I've changed my mind," Rose shouted as they ran down the stairs. He looked up at her, and she grinned. "That tux is definitely bad luck."