"she loved it."
"So where to this time? Do we get a breather?" she finally sighs. It had been almost a year of traveling with the doctor and though he was perky and intelligent enough she was growing ill with these bursts of melancholy at random moments in time.
"Where would you like to go?" he chirps, acting like he didn't know she heard him before. Martha screws up her elegant dark features and then smiles.
"The rose room," she smirks. He scowls. She knows full well that the Tardis will not allow her inside that room and that he would never dream of doing it himself, but she's never known why. Was he a collector of flowers?
"Martha…"
"Oh come on! I just want a peek! I know you go in there," she begs, "I've seen the door shut behind you late at night." He blinks at her flatly. He won't portray the anger he feels or the sadness at her differences from his last companion. She would've asked him on it the instant he left the room, not waited several weeks.
"No." He doesn't elaborate, doesn't have to. He owes this girl nothing. She's never saved his life, never noticed the fault lines first, never so much as asked to learn the controls… "We'll go to… hmm…" he actually ponders on it, wondering if they do need a holiday or not.
"DOCTOR!!" He looks around suddenly at the call of his name. Martha does the same. With no one inside the Tardis that meant the call must have come from the outside. He steps around the console nervously. Not often to people approach his ship calling his name… Martha moves toward him slowly. She's disturbed by the change in events as well the change in his demeanor. She had learned quickly to react with his emotions rather than to them. There's a scraping at the door and he doesn't move, only waits. Whoever they are, they want in. "I'm - I'm home! I'm… Tardis…" He hears her voice before the door opens fully, notes her words with frightful concern. Then suddenly she falls through the door and lands heavily on the grates below, blond hair spilling around her. He recognizes her, in an instant he recognizes her, but he won't move. He won't agree that this is happening, that he isn't dreaming. How many times has he seen her in his room at night? How many times did he look over in the light of the Tardis and see Rose instead of Martha reading on the couch.
"Doctor?" It's Martha's silent question that wakes him.
"Do you see her?" he asks cautiously. Martha nods, afraid to open her mouth again. The doors still stand open, propped against her limp legs as she lies motionless on the ramp. He's shaking and he doesn't know it. Martha does because she's watching him, intent on every bizarre emotion she sees on his face. He isn't the type to be effected by women, he never even so much as double glances at them unless they have blond hair… perhaps that is why he's paying this one so much attention. She glances at his hands and sees his fingers clench into a fist before opening back up. This happens repeatedly, as though something belongs there that's gone missing. He also isn't the type of alien to show emotion and the heartbreak she sees hidden in his eyes is no longer buried. "Rose?" he whispers the word as though it could demolish the universe if spoken too loudly. "ROSE!!!!" this time it sounds practiced and is full of an emotion she never knew him capable of : love. He races over to her side, practically falling as he almost lays next to this girl on the floor. "Can you hear me? Are you in there? Wake up!" he demands, his hand gently slapping the sides of her cheeks. Martha comes to them slowly, perching herself at the end of the rail for safety. She's still not certain of this newcomer or the way he's acting.
"Please… don't do this to me," he pleads with tears in his voice. She's surprised when he tenderly moves a blond strand of hair from the girl's face and gazes at her deeply. "Screwdriver," he finally mutters and leaps back to his feet. Martha follows him to the opposite side of the console to retrieve it, desperately wanting to ask questions, but reluctant with his mood so disheveled.
They come back around the console and there she is, standing. Her blond hair back in place, her eyes roaming over the steal interior of the time machine. She's leaning against the doors that she closed and her mouth is agape. "Rose?" the doctor says that word again with the screwdriver ready in hand and Martha wonders if that's the girl's name.
"Doctor?" The strange child's face lights up in pure joy with only a hint of sorrow. She notices that the girl has been crying, that her eyes are red and swollen and her nose is pink at the very tip. This person obviously knows the Doctor, but who is she? What's going on? "Doc--" and before the girl can finish the word he rushes her, literally runs across the platform to envelope her in his arms. She wraps her own arms tightly around his neck and leaps into him, her feet dangling off the ground as he holds her up. He swings her feet back and forth much the same as long lost loved ones do on reunion.
"You're real," Martha hears him choke out softly and the girl nods, unable to speak through her refueled tears. He knows her answer, he can feel it against his neck. "Rose… oh Rose!" he chuckles, squeezing her tighter to him. They stand motionless and wordless for several more seconds, him holding her up to his height and her whimpering into his shoulder. Then he sets her down, never taking his arms away from her, and stares into her eyes. "I never thought I was going to see you again," he finally says. She gives a snort of laughter and grins.
"How many times must I prove your wrong?" she asks before the laughter takes over.
"This is it, this is it I promise," he laughs and again his eyes don't leave hers. "I love you," he declares suddenly. It takes both females in the room off guard.
"What??" Rose shudders.
"I love you! I never got to say it before and it can't go another second without being said. Rose Tyler I'm so in love with you I don't' know what to do with myself!" He smiles, jubilantly proud of himself and her reaction, but she takes him and Martha by surprise yet again. Before they can blink she's pushed herself forward and claimed his lips as her own. He's shocked, stunned even as he returns it. His hands wandering over her back as she deepens their first true kiss. Finally he retracts from her, grinning maniacally. "Cheeky," he jokes. She laughs out right and nods in agreement.
"Yeah… I can only hold it in so long and it's been four painful years," she explains. "How long for you?"
"Eternity," he says quickly and she gives him a look commanding he give a real answer. "Ten… and seven months." She places a hand on his face to comfort him and satisfy her need for touch. Neither seem to care that Martha still watches on nor that how Rose ended up on Brackia three in the year 500 hasn't been brought up. Inaudibly they've decided to live the lie for as long as possible, without holding it up to reality.
"Um… sorry, but what's going on Doctor?" Martha at length pipes up. The Doctor jerks around in Rose's grasp as though he'd forgotten she was in the room and smiles at her overjoyed. Another emotion she was unaware the alien contained.
"Martha, meet Rose Tyler… my girlfriend," he supplies, almost cracking up at the very domestic title. Rose gives a similar reaction but appears fond of the label.
"OOoo," she giggles. "An upgrade! Seems like only yesterday I was your companion. Nice to meet you Martha. Who are you?" she adds, getting directly to the point of her jealousy. The Doctor's face falls serious as he remembers how protective she is of him and of how much attitude Martha had throw into a punch. The last thing he wants to do is fix up Rose's face after a chick fight.
"I'm the Doctor's assistant. Martha Jones… um, been here for… what a year now Doc?" Martha gives it genuine thought, wanting to avoid confrontation with the stranger. Rose still appears worried, as does the Doctor in his own right, but nothing is voiced. He grips Rose's hand and leads her further inside to greet Martha properly. Rose smiles and shakes her hand, disguising the concern that she's been replaced.
"A year exactly ma'am," he answers Martha's question late. "Rose and I traveled together until she got sucked into a parallel universe to save the world… stupid ape," he taunts adoringly.
"Oh shut it," she chuckles. "You would've done the same, in fact you have!" She pokes fun right back and they still seem to not care that Martha is standing two feet in front of them. "Several times actually."
"Ah yes, but I always came back to you didn't I?"
"Well I suppose, when you don't go changing your face," she teases. "We just can't seem to stay away."
"Happens when you're in love," Martha comments dryly and both time travelers seemed aghast. "What?"
"How did you get back by the way?" he finally wonders, squeezing her hand to remind them that they're both flesh and blood. "I watched the last gateway seal myself."
"Well, being the Bad Wolf and all, I trained my way out," she shrugs. He raises an eyebrow of confusion and she reaches over to grip the arm of the hand holding onto hers. "Well, remember when I took in the time vortex?"
"Yes, I had to explain it all to you because you feigned amnesia," he drones.
"Well, you didn't get all of it. Part of it, the part that was meant to be there, latched onto my DNA. Torchwood was doing scans for personal employee logs and discovered an unexplainable irregularity in my patterns and natural responses… I'm not human anymore, not by textbook terms and well… I kinda of used it to my advantage last night."
"Last night? But you're here now?"
"I don't know how it works honestly. All I know is last night I sat down on my bed and wished with all my heart to be here with you, where I belong… I thought about the things I'd seen with the vortex and I imagined the Tardis flying through space…. When I opened my eyes I was here on a strange planet just outside the Tardis doors. I thought I was dreaming, I've dreamt it so many times that you came back for me and I was afraid you'd leave again before I could get to you… Then I remembered I have a key and used it to get in, just hoping you wouldn't take off before I was through…." His faces falls into grief and guilt as he removes his hand from her clasp and wraps it around her shoulders. The tears started back when she spoke of her dreams and they continued to flow even now. She curls up into his chest for the first time in years when abruptly she crashes and her weight goes out from under her. Martha swoops to help her at the same time he drops to cushion her fall. Together they manuever her lifeless body into his arms bridal style and head for the medical room.
"What happened to her??" Martha's decided she likes this girl who makes the Doctor so happy, who seems to live off his very essence. She also knows watching that girl die right now could shatter what's left of the doctor's humanity.
"The time vortex. It's eating at her cells again, chewing away at anything used to keep her alive."
"But she said she was meant to have it Doctor, at least what she has left. I don't think she's dying! She looks asleep!" Martha protests. He lays Rose on the table and then stares blankly at the wall in consideration.
"Martha, have I ever told you how smart you are?" he smiles at last. "She's not dying! She's exhausted! Using all that energy, it's like running a marathon for her and with the delay it took for her to get from one universe to the other… think of it! Running a marathon for twelve hours straight and then breaking down emotionally with more than you could handle on your best day???" Martha smiles. He's so happy just to have Martha there then, just to have heard her say what was so plain in evidence. He would've worried himself sick over Rose, spent countless nights just watching her sleep because he may never get the chance to see it again, but now. Martha's opened up a window that he should've been able to look through years back! How was he so blinded?? Oh right, he remembers, because it was Rose and he feared the worst.
"So what then, she needs a good night's sleep?" Martha queries, looking over the sleeping girl. Rose seems contented enough, even the sad twist in her expression is gone.
"Nope," he chimes and Martha glances at him confused. "She's already unconscious, her body's way of demanding what it needs to survive. That's why she passed out once she got through the doors, it took what it wanted," he sighs and leans over her still figure. "She heard my voice in her head though, heard me calling out for her. So she woke up again and was forced to collapse in my arms when her strength gave way. She put off her own needs just long enough reunite with me, to assure that we were both real, because she couldn't have waited until she found her bed. I'm glad she did it though, I'd probably be going crazy if she hadn't," he scoffs softly, noting Rose's even breathing with great fascination.
"Alright then, so now she can wake up in the morning and know that all this was real, that you're really here and so is she? And that won't change just because she sleeps?" he nods "GREAT!" she cheers, getting excited in front of him for the first time in months. He beams at his friend cheekily and agrees:
"Absolutely great!"