TAKING CARE OF MARTHA

"Do you have a new flat yet?" asked the Doctor as he fired up the TARDIS' many instruments.

"Not yet," she said. "It's only been a week! I'm staying with my parents."

"Oh yeah," the Doctor smiled. "Francine and Clive are back together. How's that going?"

"Between you and me," Martha said. "I don't think it's going to last. Tish and Leo and I try to be encouraging because we know it's what they want to hear, but somehow, I think their time has passed."

The Doctor looked at her and blinked. Then he settled back into the knobs and switches on the console. "Sometimes that happens, and you just have to let go."

Martha understood. She no longer had to ask what had happened in that control room because the look on his face said everything. Martha had watched her parents grow apart, then separate, and then attempt to be together again, only to find that the time in-between had changed them. They no longer fit. Apparently, in the year the Doctor and Rose had been apart, something had changed them, as well.

The TARDIS made its comforting grinding sound, and then landed smoothly. She peered out the window and found that she was across the street from her parents' home. She turned back to the Doctor and said, "Well, it seems like we just went through this a few days ago."

He smiled. "Funny, that."

She began to walk towards him. "Again, thanks for everything," she said.

Still smiling, he said, "You're welcome."

They hugged hard, as though the second goodbye was actually more difficult than the first.

"Promise me you'll always call if you need anything," he said, still holding fast.

She could feel both his hearts pounding away, like two giant drums. She herself felt the full weight of this second goodbye, but she did not feel the nervousness or adrenaline that he apparently felt. She wondered if it was the aftermath of their latest adventure.

"I will," she said. "I know where to find you."

Finally, they let go, and with a squeeze of the hand, Martha turned and walked toward the TARDIS door. As she reached for the handle, the Doctor ran down the ramp and stood in her path. She looked at him with surprise all over her face.

"Please don't go," he said, his eyes pleading.

"What?"

He pulled her inside, away from the door and took both of her hands in his. "Please stay with me, Martha."

"Doctor, I can't. I have to get past this."

"No, you don't. I want you to stay, Martha. I want you to stay and be with me."

"Be with you?"

He hesitated, his hearts still pounding away inside. "Do you love me?" he asked after a deep, long breath.

She almost cried right there. "Yes," she said, nearly collapsing with the weight of it. "I love you."

"Then stay," he said, his voice breaking. "I want another chance with you. I took our year, which could have been fantastic, and made it about my angst, my past, what I was missing... and about what you could never be. And I never let you forget it. And now I want... I need to make things right. I want you to travel with me and feel like you have all of me, not just the part of me that's not off somewhere wallowing in loss."

"Oh my God," she sighed, tears beginning to fall. "I've waited two years to hear you say that!"

Tears began to fall down his cheeks as well, and he smiled at her through them. "I want us to go everywhere, do everything. Everything new, everything unique – no more of that rebound rubbish. You deserve so much better! I want us to have everything, share everything... share our lives, share our pasts... share a bed, if you want."

She let out a breath of surprise as a sob came out involuntarily. She couldn't stop crying now. "That's what you want?" she asked.

"If you do," he said.

"You can't force yourself to fall in love with me," she warned.

"No," he said. "But I've been given an opportunity, Martha. And I've just been too thick, too swallowed up in my own issues to see it. And I think... I know I will fall in love with you. You are brilliant and beautiful and how could I not?"

"You don't want to be with Rose anymore?" Martha needed to know.

"My relationship with Rose was difficult, and wound up causing so much pain around us. It's like... it's like we blew up Manhattan and then walked away. Now, I've seen the error of our ways, and I'm trying to rebuild, do you understand that? It's no longer about what I want," he said. "It's about appreciating what I have. I used to be good at that. It's time to rediscover my inner-self."

She walked pensively up to the navigator's stool and sat down. "There's a lot of rebuilding to do."

"I know," he replied, beginning to close the gap between them.

"Trust has to be restored. I've developed quite a complex, you know."

"I'm sorry. Do it in your own time, Martha," he said. "I just want you near me."

"And it's not just about having someone near you? It's about me?"

"It's totally and completely about you," he told her, finally coming to rest, leaning on the console in front of her.

"You know someday you'll lose me."

"I don't care," he said. "I know now that the life we could have together is worth that pain. I have to give love its due chance again."

"And you're not just doing this because you're sorry?"

"No," he promised. "Will you give me another chance? Let me give it a go?"

She stood and gazed up at him. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her. This time, it was not a genetic transfer, it was the kiss of two lovers, ready to take the universe by storm.