b Title: /b Really Impossible (1/3)
b Author: /b lj user"bytheseaside"
b (Pinch hitting) For: /b lj user"schizophrenic"
b Rating: /b PG-13
b Pairings: /b Rose/Martha; Doctor/Rose
b Characters: /b Martha, Ten, Rose, Sarah Jane, Luke
b Summary: /b When Sarah Jane suggested he popped in for a cup of tea one day, he wasn't expecting what she had to show him.
b Disclaimer: /b None of these characters belong to me.

b Notes: /b Because of life this is very late. But it's a start, I'm hoping the rest will follow soon. I actually managed to sort of cover two prompts. lj user"schizophrenic" asked for:

Prompt 1: Martha and Ten find Sarah Jane who is somehow with Rose.

Prompt 2: Rose dumps the Doctor for Martha

a href"http://bytheseaside. Impossible: Chapter One /a

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"So where are we going again?" Martha asked the Doctor, as she stood, clinging to the console. The ride was a bit rough, always was.

"Old friend of mine. Sarah Jane – you'll like her – travelled with me, back in day. Saw her again, a couple of years ago. Don't know how she found this number…" he shrugged, "but she says she wants to see me. Has something important to show me." He'd start off the sentence with a smile, but had ended it in a puzzled frown. A look Martha was becoming well-used too. It meant the Doctor had found something that his enormous brain couldn't quite wrap around, but was not overly alarmed by it.

"So, what's she like?" Martha asked, curious. He'd only ever mentioned Rose before, and while she was distantly aware that he'd travelled with others, he didn't talk about them. She wondered if he'd talk about her once she was gone. She tried, but didn't quite manage to suppress the jealousy she felt. In abstract it was easy to deal with the fact that the Doctor had travelled with others, but she was finding the prospect of meeting one a little more difficult. She'd only ever had to compete with Rose before.

"What's she like?" asked the Doctor. "Well, she's like…Sarah Jane! She's brilliant, Sarah Jane." He had the soppy look usually reserved for Rose Tyler painted all over his features. Martha hoped it wasn't an ill-omen.

They landed with a thump and the Doctor led her out of the TARDIS and in front of them was a very nice looking house. The kind that Martha had always wanted to live in as a child. Old, and looking like it might have a few secrets stored inside. She was pretty sure it had an attic. Martha's mood and opinion of Sarah Jane rose several notches.

"Nice house!" She turned to the Doctor to share her impressions. He just looked anxious, which made her nervous; there wasn't a lot that would crack his calm. She reached out and squeezed his hand. "It's all right," she tried to reassure him. "She would have said if anything was really wrong, right? She wouldn't want you to walk into trouble."

He focused on her. "What? Yes. Of course! Sarah Jane would warn me if there was a problem. Or an emergency." He sounded a little unsure, but Martha let it pass.

"Then what are you worried about?" she asked, feeling a little exasperated with his seeming reluctance to either move forward or deal with his concerns.

"Well…last time we met…she…there were things that…I wasn't sure she'd want to see me again." He scratched the back of his neck. Strangely Martha could actually picture that. If she left the Doctor now, she wasn't sure she'd want to see him again either. All of time and space… there was so much out there, and he was part of it all. If you had to move on, could you go back? She'd have to sit her exams one day, and she still wanted to be a doctor, but she had difficulty reconciling that with the life she led now.

"She called you," Martha pointed out. "That's a good sign, right? She wouldn't have done that, if she didn't want to see you?"

"I guess…"

Martha rolled her eyes. "Come on, then!" She began to lead him up the path. She did think it was a little odd, that no one had come out. The TARDIS materialising on your front lawn was a little hard to miss. But perhaps Sarah Jane was at the back of the house, or listening to music really loud, or something. Maybe she was in the shower.

Martha was the one who knocked on the door, while the Doctor bounced around on the balls of his feet like an energetic school boy. He stopped when the door swung open to reveal an actual school boy (well he looked thirteen, so Martha assumed he was at school, when he went to school…on a school day). The Doctor stared as if confronted with some sort of slimy alien that he'd never seen before, and was trying to work it out. The boy stared back, seeming unfazed by this behaviour.

Used to the Doctor and his rudeness, Martha smiled. "Hi. I'm Martha, this is the Doctor. We're looking for Sarah Jane, is she here?" She elbowed the Doctor a little roughly.

"Yup," he said cheerfully, and wandered further back into the house. "Mum! They're here!"

"You didn't mention she had any kids," Martha murmured, as an aside.

"She doesn't!" He said it with such utter certainty, but before Martha could point out that clearly Sarah Jane did have at least one child, a slender woman with shoulder length hair, stepped out into the hall, a warm smile lighting up her features.

"Come in, come in." She waved them through the door, hurrying over the Doctor and throwing her arms around him. The Doctor hugged her back, but it seemed to be more instinctive than anything, as he was staring hard at the boy, who was standing in the door frame to what looked like a living room. Through the crack on the hinges side, Martha could see the silhouette of a third person, a woman, standing by a bay window, looking out, and she wondered why the woman hadn't bothered to come through. But perhaps she didn't know the Doctor.

"You told me you didn't have children!" the Doctor protested the second Sarah Jane let him go.

"Doctor!" Martha said. There was rude, and then there was rude.

"No, it's all right," Sarah Jane reassured her. "It's Martha, right? Sarah Jane Smith. Doctor, Martha this is Luke. I adopted him about six months ago, after an interesting encounter with the Bane. Now, why don't you come through here, Doctor?" she indicated the door that Luke was standing in, and the boy stepped forward out of the way.

The Doctor seemed a little dazed, not really focusing, but Martha thought Sarah Jane looked nervous. A vague sense of foreboding curled through her. Remembering the person standing by the window, and thinking of everything she'd been through in the last few months, Martha's mind, unsurprisingly went to 'trap'.

"Doctor…" she started forward, but someone grabbed her wrist, hard. Martha looked up into Sarah Jane's eyes, which were glittering with some sort of suppressed emotion. The older woman shook her head and placed a finger to her lips. Luke's head was tilted to one side watching the exchange with interest. He seemed unconcerned, which didn't reassure Martha at all.

Martha yanked her hand free and was about to speak up again, to warn the Doctor of whoever was waiting for him, whatever was waiting for him, but by the time she could form any words, that person had spoken.

"Hello, Doctor." The voice was human, soft, feminine and had a London accent. Not so different from Martha's own. It was unthreatening, but Martha still wanted to go to the Doctor, she wanted to be there with him. Sarah Jane caught her wrist again, but not quite as forcefully.

"Leave him," she whispered. "He needs to deal with this."

There was a pause. And then, finally. "Rose?" part whisper, part squeak, and very disbelieving. Through the door, Martha saw him take a step forward and then fall back a step. "No, no, no, no, no. This can't be happening." He patted his jacket. "You're not here. Because if you're here, then the universe…the whole universe could fall apart."

"Universe is in one piece Doctor. So's the other one," said the other voice, now identified as Rose. Somehow she didn't seem happy, which Martha could commiserate with. She wondered if Rose knew the Doctor was travelling with someone else now, or if she was expecting him to be alone.

"But that's impossible. Really, really impossible." He said, finally locating the sonic screw driver at pointing it at Rose (who was still mostly blocked from Martha's sight). Tapping it against his palm, the Doctor scowled.

"And what was it that you always said about impossible, Doctor?" Rose asked, her voice starting to tremble. Martha couldn't help feeling sorry for the other woman. She had no clear idea what exactly was going on, and what exactly it all meant, but Rose sounded so lost. The Doctor had only ever said she was gone, without elaboration, and to be honest Martha hadn't pushed for clarification on that one. If she'd found out how Rose left, then she might find out how she was going to leave, and she didn't want that.

Still, Martha stayed where she was, fairly sure the last thing she should do was interrupt. Beside her, Sarah Jane waited quietly. Luke had disappeared. Then the Doctor moved forward out of Martha's line of sight, and despite herself, Martha couldn't help moving into the room to see what was going on.

Rose Tyler, unsurprisingly blond, but surprisingly young, was standing stock still in the centre of the room. She was not what Martha was expecting. She was far, far too normal. Like someone Martha would pass in the street without taking a second glance.

The Doctor was advancing on her slowly, not seeming to notice that Rose was holding back tears. Once he was close enough, he poked her sharply on the arm, scowling.

That was all it took. Rose took off, brushing past Martha and Sarah Jane while the Doctor stared after her in amazement.

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