THIRD AND FOURTH WHEELS
The slim, lovely, blonde, earnest-looking woman had a giant blaster gun aimed into the stairwell, and she stared at two shocked humans and one completely nonplussed Time Lord. She lowered her weapon. "Well, I can see I was right," she said to Mickey. "They did have you researching the H2O scoop. Bloody brilliant."
She gestured for them to come to her side of the door, and they obeyed. She kicked the unconscious Judoon back on the stairway side, and slammed the door. The Doctor sonicked the door locked, and all four parties looked from one to another with varying degrees of shock and bemusement.
Rose shoved Mickey sideways. "Why didn't you tell me what they were doing?" she screeched. "They could have killed you! The risk of molecule dispersal..."
"I know, I know," Mickey said, taking her by the shoulders. "Calm down. I didn't know until they called the other night, I swear."
"Wait a minute," the Doctor said to Rose. "How did you get here? I thought Mickey said they weren't going to tell you until he got back!"
In lieu of answering, she turned and faced him fully and they made true eye contact for the first time. She smiled slightly. "Hello, Doctor."
He smiled sideways, and said, "Hello, Rose."
Any idiot could see that they were holding back, that they would have liked to make the space station move with their reunion. Martha and Mickey made eye contact across the veritable continent of memories, angst, anticipation and whatever else was flying about in the air between Rose and the Doctor. The look they exchanged was one of kindred understanding – when they'd met yesterday, they'd only thought they had a lot in common. This moment made worlds collide, and made yesterday feel like a drunken farce.
After about thirty seconds, Rose finally spoke. "I got here the same way Mickey did," she told the Doctor. "He'd been missing for two days, so I went to my dad to ask about him, and he didn't know, so we went to that wanker Randall. He was all shifty so my dad threatened to tell the council about his tax evasion."
Mickey laughed, "Oooh-hoo, I bet that worked like a charm!"
"Well, here I am," she said, high-fiving with Mickey.
"But you shouldn't have come, babe," Mickey told her. "It's dangerous."
"Please. I wasn't about to let you do this on your own," she insisted.
"Are you sure it had nothing to do with..."
"It had nothing to do with anything except helping you get back home safely," she said slowly and carefully, eyes ablaze.
Mickey stared at his shoes for a few minutes, then said, "Thank you. I'm glad you're here." He took her hand and squeezed it.
Rose turned and faced Martha. "Hello," she said with a friendly, searching smile.
"Hello," Martha said, extending her hand, returning the smile. "I'm Martha Jones. You must be the acclaimed Rose Tyler."
"Erm, well, I'm Rose Tyler," she said, shaking Martha's hand.
"Your reputation precedes you," Martha said, subtly indicating the two men. "Nice to meet you finally." She was pretty sure she meant it. The curiosity had been killing her, especially now with the whole Mickey debacle.
"Likewise," Rose said with a smile. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit in the dark here..."
"I'm a friend of the Doctor's," Martha told her quickly. She was a bit ashamed of the swell of satisfaction she felt at the glimmer of jealousy she saw cross Rose's eyes. She squelched that satisfaction as quickly as it had come on. She wasn't going to be that girl. Martha Jones was not a small person.
"Oh," Rose said rather tightly. "Do you travel together?"
Martha looked at the Doctor, who sighed and then broke eye contact with everyone. Martha said, truthfully, "No, we don't. This is just a coincidence." She could tell that Rose didn't quite believe her, but she wasn't about to back-pedal now, and she wasn't going to boast about her year traveling in the TARDIS. She knew all too well how much that could sting for Rose.
"We did travel together," the Doctor said for Mickey and Rose's benefits. "We've known each other two years. Martha left me just about a week ago."
"Two years?" Rose asked. "How could that be?"
"It's sort of a long story, but one of those years was erased," the Doctor explained. "But I feel the effects of it every day of my life. So do we all." He looked at Martha in a way he never had before. Martha was a bit befuddled by it, but she said nothing to him.
Instead, she addressed Rose. "How long were the two of you together? You know, Rose Tyler is such a touchy subject, I never could get a straight answer out of him."
Rose smiled. It was a smile that carried a grief that Martha had seen in the Doctor's eyes million times. "We traveled for two years," she answered. "But he was a different man when we began."
"Almost literally," the Doctor said.
And that's when the pounding began. The Judoon were on the other side of the door, presumably now fully awake and raging, and these four heroes had been wasting time with introductions and memories.
"Come on!" the Doctor shouted and began racing toward the Judoon ship. Now three companions followed. They were almost to the foot of the ship when the Judoon burst through the door behind them. Once inside, once again, the Doctor sonicked the electronic door locked, and Mickey tore open a wall panel and changed the entry combination.
"Now they have to type in my birthday to get us!" he cried in delight as they all took once again to the stairs. Even the Doctor laughed at that, the image of a bunch of Judoon standing about, trying different combinations, attempting to remember Mickey Smith's birthday.
Another din of noisy metallic banging followed as four people ran upwards in the spacecraft. When they found a landing, the Doctor announced, "Our first priority is de-activating the explosives, next is getting these people back to Earth so that we don't have a repeat performance of the great running-out-of-oxygen-and-passing-out caper from last time."
"I'll try and find the controls for the... what did you call it?" Mickey asked the Doctor.
"The H2O scoop? Good idea. The coordinates for the building size and locale on Earth are probably still set. There will be some type of volume-setting for the water, also probably still set, even though they probably had no intention of sending the building back. All you have to do is reverse the process," he explained. "But make sure you don't do that until the explosives have been de-activated. We can't risk having this building explode in the middle of London."
"I'll try to find some kind of com device so the Doctor can let you know when it's done," Rose told Mickey.
"Good, I get to deal with the H2O scoop. It'll give me something to report to that wanker Randall," Mickey said, beginning to dash off.
"I'll come with you," Martha said, trailing along behind him. The two of them disappeared down a corridor, leaving the Doctor and Rose alone on the landing.
"I'm starting to think that wanker Randall is someone's full name," the Doctor said to her.
"No. He's just a wanker and everyone knows it," Rose shrugged. "A total nudge."
The Doctor chuckled, and then looked up. He could see all the way to the top of the spaceship, and toward the very top, there seemed to be a doorway, glowing green.
"See that green? I think that's the main control room. I believe we'll find our explosives de-activator there," the Doctor whispered. "Fancy a climb?"
She sighed. "Well, twist my arm." Then she smiled, as did he.
Rose's thighs and knees and lungs did not begin to scream until they were almost there. "Did you lot climb all fifteen floors too?" she asked. She was beginning to trail behind him a bit further.
"Yep," he told her, climbing relentelessly.
"I arrived in the lobby just as the teleportation happened. I think I saw Martha in the lobby on her mobile phone. I wondered who she thought she could reach from up here. I guess that would be you, eh?"
"Yep," he said again.
"Blimey! My legs hurt. You must be in pain too. How are you still pushing that hard?"
He turned and faced her. "I go on, Rose. For my own good. For the good of everyone else, I'm in pain, but I go on. That's the way it has to be." And then he continued.
She stood stunned for a moment and watched him climb without hesitation, without showing any signs of fatigue. Bells sounded in Rose's head, and she wondered if she'd have the courage to breach the subject with him. This melodrama was becoming too much... his response to the "pain" question, Martha's words upon meeting her, and the look in her eyes, Mickey's insecurities. She and the Doctor needed have a serious talk.
In another part of the ship, Mickey and Martha skulked about, trying to find an important-looking room that might contain an H2O scoop activator.
"Do you know what this thing's supposed to look like?" she asked him, peering into some small square windows.
"Me? I thought you were the H2O scoop expert," he said, carefully looking around the corner to scout out any potential Judoon threat.
"Just because this is my second go doesn't make me an expert, Mickey," she insisted, hands on her hips, face set in a determined, exasperated expression.
He smiled. "Relax, I'm just joking," he said. "I'm glad you came with me though."
She hesitated before asking, "Why is that?"
"Because it gives me the chance to tell you," he said, turning to face her. "That I didn't know."
"You didn't know?"
"No, I didn't know. I had no idea who you were when I started asking all those questions. I didn't know you knew the Doctor, and I certainly didn't understand that he was the one who broke your heart by being all preoccupied with... Rose, I assume. I didn't mean to frighten you. I just wanted to spend more time with you," he told her, becoming more and more quiet and sheepish as he spoke.
"Spend time with me, but then go back to Rose when you were done with me?" she asked. "Typical. I can't believe I went for another Rose Tyler groupie. You know, maybe you've got it right when you say you're moving to a different continent. I might follow suit. Just let me know where you go, so I don't wind up there too."
"I know, Martha, I know how it looks," he said, now lowering his weapon and leaning against the wall. "I didn't mean to make you feel used. It's just... finally I'd met someone who seemed to understand. Finally, there was someone I could talk to about how distant Rose is most of the time, and not have them tell me to bring her flowers more often, or go into couple's counselling. The fact was that there was no cure for what ailed Rose, except in that stupid blue box, and you seemed to get that. Trouble was, I didn't understand how much you got it."
She sighed and leaned against the wall next to him. "I guess I was being unfair," she conceded. "I mean, I knew full well that you were involved with someone, but I wanted to spend more time with you, too. For the same reasons you just said. And by the way, you smell really nice."
"Thanks," he said, and he meant it. He'd been wondering if anyone noticed his new cologne.
They each leaned in and shared a mutual, conciliatory kiss on the cheek.
With eyebrows raised and his best handsome smile, he offered her his arm and asked her, "Shall we go look for a huge machine that teleports an entire bank building from London to a space station in the Crawlawn galaxy?"
"Ugh, that old line!" she joked, taking his arm.