"Martha!" The Doctor yelled outside the TARDIS impatiently. "We're out here! I swear you humans, especially you female…" The Doctor stopped suddenly as he felt a slap on his arm from Rose standing next to him. He rubbed it with an apologetic look at the offended female in question. "Sorry." Rose just shook her head in disgust like this was not the first time it had happened.
Martha came out of the TARDIS to join them dressed up in what would be considered clothes from the 1970's with an accompanying backpack. Coming out, she hadn't heard what they might have said, but by the Doctor and Rose's body language she had a general idea. Martha slapped the Doctor on the arm much to his complete surprise.
"What?"
"That's for whatever you just said!"
"Bloody hell, you lot sure stick up for each other. Don't you?" All the Doctor got from that was stares that weren't happy with him so he moved on to saying something impressive. "So, Martha, does anything here look familiar?"
Martha scanned their surroundings for the first time. The large buildings seemed quite new along with all the young people dressed as if they were attending a university. On one of the buildings a freshly painted logo was on its side saying, 'SLU.'
Martha jumped at the realization. "Saint Leonard University Medical! This will be my school in about thirty years! What are we doing here?"
"Honestly, I don't know. The TARDIS sort of just willed herself here. Maybe, she wanted to show you something familiar."
Martha was still excited but knew that Rose knew nothing about the shared story she had with the Doctor. She wasn't going to be rude about it. "See, I met the Doctor at Royal Hope Hospital when I was a medical practitioner as part of my education at SLU." Martha pointed to a nearby building that resembled a female dormitory. "During my first year I stayed in that one over there."
The Doctor smiled. "Brilliant! The beauty of 1979."
Rose pointed above herself in glee. "Can actually see a blue sky overhead."
"One reason I prefer the past to the future when I travel. Well, except the twenty fifth century, the five millionth, the forty fifth, and the five hundred and first, or anytime past the twenty third in general."
Rose continued, "And the twenty first."
"No, definitely not. Only reason I keep going back is you lot and all the changes you encounter for the first time then. In fact, did you know that in later textbooks they call the twenty first the century where everything changes?"
Martha just grinned. "I think I've already gotten my demonstration in my lifetime, thank you."
Rose simply said, "Yeah." Thinking about her past adventures these days was like a mixed bag. It was exciting to think about all the good times in her first two or so years and even some of her most recent adventures, but the gap of being separated from the Doctor always seemed to sober her up. If anything the century where everything changed was also the one that tore her life apart, with just the one component left that she could always be happy about. She smiled to herself when she remembered that that component was standing right next to her. For some reason the thought made her rumble. "Anyone fancy a bite?"
Martha nodded. "Now that you mention it, I haven't eaten for at least a few hours. Doctor?"
The Doctor pointed. "There's a cafeteria right over there. As long as nobody's afraid of it."
Rose was curious. "Why would you be afraid of… Oh, right!"
"Exactly!"
Martha chose not to ask what realization either of them had come to and was just looking forward to eating something with her friends. However, her mind did play scenarios as to what they had alluded to while the three of them had walked over.
They entered the cafeteria reliving a recent previous adventure of theirs that involved a rhino, mayonnaise, and a Russian consulate. Rose laughed, "I still cannot believe that you had to get covered in that stuff to distract it."
The Doctor added, "I told you to not look in that mailbox. Don't look! And what do you do? You look!" He threw his hands in the air like he was still upset about it. The Doctor wasn't sure if he was or not. "You two go ahead and sit down and I'll get us something."
The Doctor left them to find some food while Martha and Rose went to find a seat in companionable silence.
While Rose picked up and began reading a particularly uninteresting ad on the table Martha asked, "You ever go to a university, Rose?"
Rose set the add down and smiled. "I did, yeah. In the parallel world I decided to continue my education and graduated."
"And before meeting the Doctor?"
"Actually, I hadn't even completed my a-levels before then. Which was funny because I was able to skip a few years of credits when I had a previous college transcript made up."
Martha laughed. "You didn't!"
"I so did! And I didn't pay for it either because school was always difficult for me growing up. Part of the reason I quit, but when I started back at it everything just came much easier. It was actually in a weird way kind of fun."
"I bet you the Doctor breezed through his classes in his day too. He's bloody brilliant."
Rose actually loved him for that so it became pretty apparent when she answered, "He is isn't he."
"Yeah."
"Funny thing is, Martha, that I told him I loved him last time I thought I'd see him and he heard it. Whatever he was going to say got cut off and it has never been addressed since I've returned. Sometimes I wonder…"
The Doctor suddenly came around the corner holding a tray with fish and chips on it. "You wonder what?"
Rose coughed suddenly and rather comically thought Martha before answering, "That… That I was telling Martha here that I sometimes wonder how school was for you."
The Doctor looked at her like she had grown another head. "Why would you be wondering that?"
Rose was almost defensive. "Can I be curious?"
The Doctor set down the tray on the table before muttering. "Well, in the human definition of the word I wouldn't call it a school per say, but I did spend many years at the Academy."
Both women became interested as all of them began to eat the food. Rose asked, "And how was that?"
The Doctor smiled at the thought. He didn't let himself even think about those long ago days, but when he did it always made him smile. "My training was… well, it was rememberable. Actually, I used to troublemake and not pay attention. I didn't have to because I was one of the more gifted ones." He laughed to himself. "I remember this one time. There was this other student that called himself the Master, was my friend actually, and he…" The memory was too fresh in his mind as the Doctor remembered what had happened only a year ago. "Never mind."
Martha explained to Rose. "The Master died only a year ago."
Rose was filled was a million questions, but she knew this was not the right moment for them. Honestly, she just wanted to enjoy herself with her favorite two people in the entire universe. "Oh. I had a mate I used to get trouble with all the time, Shareen. You remember her?"
The Doctor smiled from a memory. "Do I? I remember meeting her during that one time where we had to track those Aligatormous'. The poor kid was way in over her head."
"Oi, that's my mate you're talking about there! You weren't exactly being forthcoming about it though."
Martha sighed to herself. The Doctor and Rose had begun reminiscing in yet another story of their adventures before her that would take hours to even catch her up on. Those two had too much history sometimes she thought. She muttered to them, "I'm going to get a bit of ketchup. You two want some?"
The Doctor and Rose both nodded before the Doctor answered. "I'd love some, actually. Which reminds me, Rose, do you remember the time we saved…"
Martha had gotten up to leave them talking about their adventures that she could honestly care less about. She walked over closer to the serving area to find some bottles of ketchup before she overheard a curious line from a young female voice saying, "…And there I was in the past, couldn't believe it, and with Shakespeare nonetheless!" Martha stood there and continued to listen eager to find out how that could even be true…