- 1913 -
- Farringham -
Calypso found herself having a hard time not looking too closely at every tall, brown haired man she came across at the school. She knew she was looking for the Doctor, except that it wouldn't be the Doctor. The man she had met last night was John Smith. A man who had a history, and a life. One that didn't include any memory of herself, or of the man she knew as the Doctor.
She reminded herself of that any time she found herself distracted from the task of overseeing the delivery. The kitchen staff had been kind enough to unload the product for her, and apparently had been used to doing so, so that had come as a relief.
But at the same time she dreaded running into him, because she knew that when she saw him, her heart would start to race. But he would feel nothing. He was a stranger again. She remembered how it had felt that first time; before she had even been sure of her feelings. This time she was afraid it would tear her apart to have him look through her like she wasn't even there.
Once the truck was unloaded she knew she had time to find Martha. Mr. Finley had reassured her that she had all day to finish up the delivery, and she shouldn't try and over extend herself by rushing the order. He had even made some passing comment about splitting the deliveries over two days so that she might still make the dance that night. She had to roll her eyes, she wasn't sure she was ever going to get used to other people taking an interest in her marital status. Even if they meant well.
She had to find Martha, because she had promised to better explain what had happened. When she had asked in the field last night, Martha had just shaken her head and told her it wasn't safe to speak out there. She had been spooked by the lights in the sky, why, Calypso couldn't be sure. After some polite questioning from the rest of the staff, she made her way deeper into the school, finding the hall designated as the staff's quarters.
"Ah, there you are!" Martha found Calypso just as she was beginning to doubt she was headed in the right direction. "Come on, I've just finished up the rooms. That'll buy me an hour or two of freedom." She grinned. "I'll take you to the TARDIS." They stopped back through the kitchens and Martha loaded them up with a picnic before leading her down the road west of the school that headed into the woods.
"Is that gunfire?" Calypso looked about nervously as the sharp popping of an automatic rifle echoed off the trees.
"Yeah, bringing the boys up to be good students along with good soldiers. Guess it's better they're getting the training in now, probably keep a few of them alive in the war." Martha said with a sad frown.
"The war?" Calypso felt a sharp chill in the wind at the mention of battle. It was never something she could just take lightly.
"Oh," Martha's face twisted into a guilty look. "Er, right. Sorry. I forget that you're still traveling in the normal…straightforward direction. Just, uh, forget that bit, if you could."
"Alright," Calypso nodded, swallowing back the lump in her throat. "So how long have you been here? At the school?"
"God. Feels like years sometimes." Martha shook her head muttering. "Only been two months though. One more and we'll be free to leave. Can't wait for that. I've had it up to here with my 'yes sir, right away sir'. The things I've got to put up with. It's like we're in the dark ages." Martha scowled, but as they turned down a bend in the path her face lit up. "Here we are then, that'll be the TARDIS." She hurried forward and Calypso followed her lead. At the end of the road was a moss covered shed that was half sunk into the ground.
"That's the TARDIS?" It certainly didn't look like the blue box she remembered.
"Don't be daft, it's inside." Martha pulled her along as she pushed open the rotten door. Inside the air was stale and thick with the smell of damp. But she could feel the TARDIS. It was weaker than when she had last sensed it, but it was definitely there, and in the corner of the room, she could see the blue doors illuminated by the sunlight that filtered through the shed's spotty roof. She stepped forward, glad to see it. Martha too, was excited, a grin fixed on her face.
"Hello." She whispered and then looked at Calypso a bit embarrassedly. "God, listen to me. Talking to a machine." She shook her head and pulled the key from around her neck. Calypso pressed her hand firmly against the door, feeling the life of the TARDIS brush up against her in greeting.
My thief has been gone a long time. She sounded sad to Calypso, and worn down. Have you seen him? Is he well?
Yes. Calypso closed her eyes and tried to reassure her. Though he is not himself.
Don't fret my sister. He will return to you. Calypso felt a flicker of hope come to life in her chest, she realized that already she had been preparing herself for the worst. But if the TARDIS believed it to be true, it must be so. Unless of course, she was capable of lying, trying to delay the inevitable discovery of the Doctor being lost to her forever. She pushed those thoughts away, not wanting the TARDIS to know of her own frightened uncertainty.
"Are you alright?" Martha was watching her with concern, still hanging half out of the door.
"Yes, sorry." Calypso withdrew her hand, suddenly self-conscious of what Martha might think of her brief interlude. "She was worried."
"She?" Martha's concern now turned to skepticism.
"The TARDIS…" She realized that Martha didn't know about her past, or what she was. It probably should have occurred to her before she had admitted that she had spoken with the blue box. "It's complicated." She said apologetically when Martha raised her eyebrows at her.
"Isn't it always?" Martha asked with a smirk. "At least I don't feel like such a loon saying 'hello' anyway." She nodded toward the inside of the ship. "Come on. He's got a video he made."
"Video?" Calypso frowned as she followed Martha to the center console. Martha looked at her for a moment, and then burst out laughing.
"Sorry." She shook her head, trying to recover. "You talk to spaceships, but you don't know about videos. It's just a bit mad. Of course, it always is with the Doctor."
"Usually." Calypso answered with a grin. Martha busied herself with the controls, seeming to understand exactly what all the dials did.
"Well, they're just like moving pictures. You've got those now, right?" Calypso nodded quickly. "Well that's what a video is. Except this one has got sound. And it's of the Doctor." She turned one final switch and a small screen flickered to life before them, projecting an image of the Doctor.
"This working?" He asked as he tapped the side of the screen. "Martha, before I change here's a list of instructions for when I'm human. One, don't let me hurt anyone. We can't have that, but you know what humans are like. Two, don't worry about the TARDIS, I'll put it on emergency power so they can't detect it, just let it hide away. Four- no, wait a minute, three."
Calypso gaped at the picture. It was him. The Doctor was speaking to them through the screen. Or at least, he was speaking to Martha. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch the image.
"He recorded this before he changed." Martha explained over her shoulder as she spun a dial and suddenly the Doctor was moving much faster than natural and the words were all distorted. "Because there were these creatures, yeah? Aliens. 'The Family' he called them. Apparently they can live forever if they get a hold of the Doctor, or any time lord, and they were chasing us. We had to run, but the Doctor said they'd just find us, said there was no way to escape them because they're such great hunters. But the thing is, they're hunting for a time lord. So the Doctor, well, he changed himself into a human." Her eyes looked up to the ceiling at a helmet like device that hung from a set of cables. "Took the time lord right out of him. It was…pretty unpleasant." Martha shivered once.
"So he's human now?" Calypso couldn't quite hide the disbelief in her voice. She didn't even know such a thing were possible.
"Afraid so." Martha nodded, turning back to the screen. "Just like us." She said absently as she paused the video again. Calypso didn't bother to correct her, she wasn't sure that was a conversation she really wanted to have right then. "Of course he didn't say what to do if I thought they were coming. I mean, that meteorite had to have meant something, didn't it?"Martha wasn't waiting for Calypso to answer, instead she was busy watching the video, hoping to see she had missed something in the recording.
"So are his memories completely gone?" Calypso prepared herself for the answer she didn't want to hear. She stepped away from the console and her eyes drifted away from the screen, away from the haunting image of the Doctor. As she leaned against the railing she felt the familiar cloth of the long brown jacket behind her.
"No, no. He'll be fine." Martha said over her shoulder. "They're just trapped in a fob watch in his rooms. As soon as we're out of this mess he'll be able to get it all back." Calypso breathed a quick sigh of relief, at least there was a light at the end of the tunnel. He may not know her now, but he would, eventually. If he managed to stay out of trouble, that was. She found herself searching his pocket for the necklace, wondering how far along he might be if he was still with Martha. She found it quickly enough, in fact, it was the first and only thing she found, which surprised her. When she pulled it out she saw there were five pearls on the strand, she knew her own had eleven, because she had added another last night. Though she wondered if this truly counted as a meeting, as he didn't know her at all.
"What have you got there?" Martha interrupted her thoughts and she startled as she realized that what she was doing could most definitely be considered snooping.
"Oh, sorry." She thought about stuffing it back into his pocket, but knew that would only look more suspicious. "It's just, me and the Doctor, we meet in the wrong order, so it's hard to keep track of how many times we've met. We've both got a necklace, I was just wondering how many this would have been for him." She did tuck the necklace away then, and pulled her own from beneath her collar so that Martha could see she wasn't just fabricating an excuse. "I guess I don't know if he'll really count this meeting, since he doesn't even know me." The sadness in her voice caught her by surprise.
"Oh, it'll be fine." Martha's smile seemed a bit strained. "He'll come around, just another month to go before we can get back to traveling. Are you two…good friends then?" She asked delicately, recognizing the substantial number of beads on Calypso's own necklace.
"Yes." She smiled, but didn't elaborate further.
"Well that's…nice." Martha tried to be polite. "Do you travel with him often? In the TARDIS?"
"No," Calypso shook her head and tried to ignore the slightly pleased look on Martha's face. "I can't."
"Can't? Why not? It's bloody brilliant. Oh, the things you see out there…" Martha shook her head wistfully, and then abruptly remembered that she was stuck in this world a little longer.
"It's complicated." Calypso reiterated, her voice a harsh whisper.
"Oh. Sorry." Martha looked like she truly meant it. She turned her attention back to the screen when she could come up with nothing else to say.
"Oh…and thank you." The Doctor said, giving a warm smile. Martha's shoulders sank.
"I wish he'd come back." She said so softly Calypso wasn't sure if she was meant to hear. She had to admit they were in agreement on that point. "Anyway." Martha said more loudly as she powered off the screen and turned back to Calypso. "That's the gist of it I suppose. Playing hide and seek with aliens bent on destroying us, and the universe." She shrugged. "It's a living." Calypso grinned, knowing exactly how absurd the Doctor's life seemed in retrospect.
"He does seem to have a real knack for getting himself into serious trouble."
"That's the understatement of the century." Martha snorted and opened up the bag she had stuffed their lunch into. "Let's grab a bite then, I'm starving."
They made conversation about their own travels with the Doctor, and Calypso found herself impressed by the astounding number of places Martha had traveled to, even if they didn't always seem like they had ended as well as they could. Martha seemed to want to talk about the travels simply to remind herself that she wouldn't always be serving as the lowly maid that she was now. Calypso was happy to let her continue, listening to tales of other worlds and creatures that existed far beyond the borders of this planet. As the meal dwindled and the hour passed, they finally started to clean up. Martha had chores to stay on top of, and Calypso still had to make another run to the school, one she wasn't really looking forward to.
"Why don't I show you the fob watch." Martha said as they neared the school again, the guns no longer firing. "Just in case. I really didn't like that meteorite, whatever it was. Things falling from the sky generally spell trouble. And where there's trouble, there's usually the Doctor." They both shared a laugh at that and Martha led her up to the rooms where the faculty resided, a much posher area than those of the staff. She felt her heart starting to drum loudly, but Martha reassured her that John would be out for the afternoon, probably down in the village. Calypso wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed.
"All he's got to do," Martha's voice was lower as they approached the room, wary of passer-byers hearing their conversation. "Is open the watch. It's protected so he doesn't pay much attention to it right now. And we don't want him to open it unless it's absolutely necessary, because they'll be able to find him then." Calypso nodded her understanding as Martha pushed open the door. They were nearly halfway in the room when they realized that they were not alone.
John was sitting on the couch, with Matron Redfern next to him. The Matron's face flushed a bright pink and it became quite obvious that they had interrupted something.
"Martha," John's voice was sharp with contained anger. "What have I told you about entering unannounced?" He didn't even look over his shoulder at them, but his posture was like an animal ready to pounce.
"Sorry." Martha blurted, spinning on her foot. They both stumbled out of the room and Martha slammed the door shut behind them. She gritted her teeth as she shook her head, looking more angry than flustered.
"Well, that certainly wasn't on the list." Martha's voice had a shrill quality to it as she met Calypso's gaze.
"I have to go." Calypso whispered, feeling the tears prick at the corner of her eyes. There was a heavy weight in the pit of her stomach and she was struggling to breathe. She turned and fled down the hall, trying to erase the image of the pair of them so intimately close on that couch. Trying to erase the thought that her Doctor had fallen in love with someone else.
