Martha's hands were shaking twelve hours later as she let herself back into Unit's Norwegian holding facility, Amy, Rory and the Doctor at her back like some really odd looking body guards.
The Doctor had wanted to use the Tardis to come back only a few hours later, all the quicker to retrieve Rose, but by waiting they avoided Colonel Holston. The shift rota showed that he would be out of the building. They had eventually agreed that the Colonel was the largest obstacle and if they could avoid him entirely then their plans had a much greater chance of being implemented smoothly.
That didn't help Martha's nerves though and she took an indulgent moment to wipe her sweaty palms down the thighs of her trousers.
"Officer Jones?!" a young man almost stuttered as he spotted her and Martha advanced on the security desk, "The Colonel's not here, I'll call him-"
"That's not necessary," Martha cut in, voice gentle but firm and the rookie just looked confused as she pulled out a neatly folded letter, "As of yesterday evening I have been granted the powers and authority of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and permission to, in his absence, launch a full and authorised inspection of this facility". She handed over her proof to the now terrified looking young man.
"You'll note that any decisions I make at the conclusion of this inspection are final and fully endorsed by the Brigadier?" she only half asked, but the young officer was already nodding so she continued, finally beginning to slow her racing heart.
"Nothing regarding the running of this facility should be changed from normal during my inspection, so if the Colonel isn't here, then there is no need to call him, alright?"
The almost palpable relief on the officer's features didn't truly surprise her after meeting Holston the day before but at the same time she was surprised his disregard for the man was so obvious and Martha let her tone lighten in an attempt to reassure him.
"What's your name?"
"Officer Vance, M'am, Luke Vance"
"Tell you what, Luke," Martha offered gently, "You've seen my authorisation, so you know I've got the clearance to be here and I've also got the upper management override for any door I need to see behind. No need to escort me around, you just stay here and keep doing your job, just like any other day, alright?"
Luke grinned and his whole stance relaxed, "Yes, M'am!" he agreed swiftly, and returned to his seat, turning bright blue eyes on the screens for the security camera's, "Consider yourself and your friends unescorted".
"Thank you Officer Vance," Martha said with a smile and turned to leave just as the Doctor cut in, his tone tense.
"What. Is. That?" he demanded, voice quiet and tightly controlled as he pointed at one of the security feeds, the image displayed twisting Officer Vance's features into a mixture of shame, disgust and horror.
"That's a new favourite 'game' for some of the officers, Sir. I've tried to put a stop to it, but Colonel Holston reckons it's a good way for the men to work off some steam so-"
"Game." The Doctor all but growled the word, eyes transfixed to the screen and Martha felt her stomach turn and nausea rise in her throat.
"The call it 'Prodding the Wolf'", Officer Vance continued, his voice quiet as though sensing that the wrong word might snap the Doctor's control, "Seem to think it's incredibly clever..."
The mans explanation became white noise as Martha, Amy and Rory watched the Doctor watch the screen, where a group of four men with cattle prods were shocking a still chained Rose Tyler until she lunged at them snarling.
"We start there" the Doctor ordered, voice dark and Martha nodded.
"Absolutely".
Rose's mind was all but numb to the pain now and yet the nerves in her body still reacted to the electrical current being delivered by the cattle prods, despite her brains demands that she not give them the satisfaction.
She lunged for the nearest man, a snarl on her lips and hands scraping at his uniform with her nails just as he stepped out of her reach, laughing. They'd unchained her hands for their game and Rose knew that if she could just snag hold of one of them, all the combat training she'd gotten from Torchwood would abandon her and she'd end up embracing her namesake and tearing out their throat with her teeth like a rabid wolf.
The pain, while not extreme, had been frequent brief blasts for what she guessed was nearly an hour now and exhaustion was beginning to creep in, making her sluggish and slow. Her vision was narrowing with each burst of pain and the most recent blast had dropped her to her knees with a frustrated growl when the metallic clanging of her cell opening began, and the four officers silenced their rawkus laughter slowly as they moved away from her almost simultaneously.
If she'd been capable of doing anything other than dragging in deep lungfuls of air, she'd have shouted thanks to whoever had interrupted. With that thought though, her shoulders tensed. The only other person who came to see her was the Colonel and that wasn't the kind of reprieve she'd been praying for.
Rose was so convinced that her day was about to get a hundred times worse that it took her a moment to recognise Martha, and then another moment or two to stop the hope igniting in her chest, her starved body trembling lightly at the strain it had so recently been under.
She was vaguely aware that Martha was issuing orders, demanding information and answers from the men and telling the red head with her to take down their names and other information before dismissing them. The sandy haired young man hovered by the red head's elbow, glaring daggers at the officers, and seemed to be ready to deck them if they made any fast movements.
Rose only had enough energy left to focus on one thing though, the other man with Martha who caught her attention and then held it.
Floppy brown hair and long fingers, wearing tweed and suspenders with a deep blue bowtie and matching trousers and making a direct beeline for her trembling form, with age old sea green eyes that her gut recognised instantly. When he slowed, crouching before her cautiously, and swallowed hard, Rose let her exhausted features erupt into a blinding grin.
"Doctor..." she breathe softly and he froze with surprise colouring his eyes as he blinked at her.
"I regenerated, how did you-?" His voice cracked and he fell silent when Rose let her arms fall around his shoulders, and her head wearily drop to rest against his collarbone in an exhausted hug, her body and mind surrendering to the protection and security his presence wrapped her up in.
"My Doctor, I'd know you anywhere," she promised and pointedly ignored the slight hitch in his breath.
Slowly, wary of doing any more damage to her fragile frame, the Doctor let one arm curl around her in a light hug while his free hand fumbled for the sonic screwdriver, aiming it at the shackles for a moment before letting loose a soft sound of frustration.
"Deadlocked," Rose muttered, exhaustion slurring her words and the Doctor grunted an agreement, glaring at the stolen technology before changing the setting on the sonic and and aiming at her ankles again.
He let a small smirk settle on his lips in satisfaction as the chains attaching to the deadlocked shackles gained a fine layer of frost while the Doctor sent their temperature plummeting rapidly. With a sharp tap from the screwdriver, the chains simply shattered. The shackles still attached to her ankles would have to wait until he got her back to the Tardis, but at least now he could get her back.
"Rose?" Martha's voice forced the blonde to drag her head away from the Doctor and she shot the woman a beaming smile.
"Martha Jones, you are my new best friend," she told Martha softly and pulled a laugh from her.
"The Doctor, Amy and Rory are going to get you out of here and I'm going to clean up this mess, alright?"
Rose frowned, mind struggling to remember what she needed to tell the other woman through her fog of fatigue.
"You can't, not alone," Rose muttered but Martha ignored her.
"It'll be fine Rose, everything's already underway-"
"No, listen to her," Rory's voice cut in gently, his eyes on the desperation flickering over the blondes features and he slowly stepped between Martha and Rose to kneel beside her and lean in to listen to the warnings the woman was still muttering.
"-Been tried before, Holston will kill you if you try and force him out, take over, control it. He'll get you away from here, make it look like an accident, wouldn't be the first time..."
Rory's gentle hand on her shoulder drew Roses' gaze, and she shook her head as if to clear her vision.
"Hide me somewhere, you'll need the Doctor, Holston's insane; Killed investigations before now," Rose drawled, missing the worried glance the Doctor and Martha exchanged as Rose spoke to the blonde man with kind eyes.
"We'll get you to medical," the Doctor said after a moment, "There must be a med bay around here somewhere and you need treatment, Amy, Rory, can you help her while I back up Martha?" he asked, but Amy was already nodding, and Rory hadn't taken taken his reassuring gaze from Rose, but nodded his agreement as well.
If there was more discussion or planning Rose wasn't aware of it, her head returning to the Doctor's shoulder, letting her eyes drift closed until he gently lifted Rose to her feet, placing each of her arms around the shoulders of his companions and letting Amy and Rory all but carry her through the tunnels.
The very instant she felt her body hit the firm but comfortable medical mattress, Roses' mind decided she was with friends and could relax enough to disengage from reality and plunge her into a deep restorative sleep.
The Doctor hadn't known fury like the kind ravaging his body right now since his ninth body had raged at a Dalek in a bunker somewhere in the United States. It was a brush of fire in his blood, a spark licking at the kindling...
'I'd know you anywhere' - pain, exhaustion, trust, surrender.
The flame catching, spreading, igniting...
'Holston's killed investigations before' - fear, worry, hate.
Blazing hotter and rising higher as the fire took hold...
'Martha Jones, you're my new best friend' - hope, joy, relief.
His fury was a roaring inferno by the time he and Martha made their way out of the catacombs and into the brightly lit and exceedingly comfortable above ground building reserved for the Unit staff, while their prisoners were confined to rotting below them, in the dark.
He and Martha approached Luke Vance at the security desk side by side, but with a quick step or two Martha reached the intercom system a moment before him and took hold of the microphone that Officer Vance was already holding out to her, despite the Doctor's glare.
"Holding Facility staff are to report to the Mess Hall in ten minutes. I repeat, all staff to the Mess Hall in ten minutes for a spot inspection," Martha spoke clearly, her voice crisp and firm as he turned off the intercom.
"Doctor Jones..." Officer Vance hissed softly, a warning note to his voice as he drew Martha's attention, and by extension the Doctor's, to Colonel Holston marching through the doors of the facility.
"Thanks Luke," Martha murmured, offering a reassuring pat to the young man's shoulder, "Why don't you head to the mess hall and try to get people seated before we arrive..." she offered and the young man sprang to his feet, unable to hide his look of relief and gratitude as he fled the area.
The Colonel was red faced with anger, hands clenched into shaking fists as he approached Martha but the Doctor stepped into his path with a cruel sneer, blocking the Colonel's direct view of Martha.
"Get out of my way!" the man thundered his order at the Doctor, eyes fixed on Martha, but the Doctor put his hands in his pockets and raised his eyebrows before responding with a simple, "No".
Shocked out of his rampage the man reeled back a step as though he'd been struck and moved his eyes to the Doctor's features before fury overtook him again , but this time aimed at the Doctor.
"What?!"
"I said, No"
"You'll get out of my way or I'll damn well make you!" the Colonel bellowed and the Doctor sneered, eyes darkening and a Dalek would have invoked it's emergency temporal shift but this stupid ape didn't have enough brains, or even a basic level of survival instinct, to perceive the level of danger he was currently facing off against.
"No. It's a negative response. An adverb used to express dissent, denial or refusal. A symbol of non compliance."
The Doctor had seen the punch coming, had even been waiting for it and met the fist with the palm of his hand, muscles meant for strength and fighting, muscles he made a point of not using flexed and forced the Colonel back a step, startling him out of incoherent rage.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said softly, hands loose at his sides now, shoulders back and braced with his chin lifted slightly in brazen defiance, "and you didn't just hurt someone I care you, you tortured them!" he added, snarling and enjoying, just for a moment, the way the Colonel's face paled to a sickening grey.
"The Doctor... The Doctor...?" he asked weakly, all but flinching when the man in question growled.
"Which alien... uh... person...? I can let you take them with you, in exchange for your silence, of course-"
Martha had just been leaning against the security desk, with one of the CCTV cameras trained on Holston, letting the man dig his own grave, but even she tensed as he hit bedrock and kept going.
"She. Bad Wolf. Rose Tyler." the Doctor snarled, his voice rising, "The fact that you torture so many that you didn't even know who I was referring to maks me, quite frankly, sick to my stomach, and I consider myself to have a particularly strong stomach, you kind of have to after over 900 years of time and space, but as for letting me take Rose in exchange for anything, something tells me that you're still under the illusion, or is that delusion, that you're the one in charge here.
You see Martha here? Martha's brilliant, a right genius. Had to be of course, I only travel with the best. Martha saw what was happening here and was rightly sickened, so after a phone call and some catching up over tea Martha and me went to visit an old friend of mine, a very old friend-"
"Who?" the Colonel demanded, but the Doctor ignored him.
"-When we'd explained everything to my very old friend, he made a few phone calls of his own, and now Martha here, brilliant fantastic Martha, has the command powers of a Brigadier and you, Sir, are out of time, a job and any chances you had of walking away unscathed".
As he'd ranted the Doctor hadn't moved, his frame practically vibrating with energy but he'd simply held Holston's gaze with fiery eyes and spoken.
He'd not raised his voice, or shouted, and yet the undiluted venom and disgust conveyed through his tone had the Colonel shivering silently.
Martha saw his eyes dart to the door and took a step forward, slowly moving to stand beside the Doctor.
"There's nowhere to run, Brett, Unit already have officers at every airport, border crossing and seaport in Norway. You'll have your rank stripped and be court marshalled for this... Now come quietly and don't make this any worse for yourself than it already is..." she said, pausing a moment before taking another single cautious step towards the man, "It's over".
"Doctor!" Amy's panicked voice made him turn, and she appeared at the entrance to the catacombs breathless from running, "It's Rose, something's wrong, she's... she's glowing!" Amy gasped and the Doctor's flaming fury spluttered and went out and cold fear raced after it.
The chilling sound of two guns cocking made him turn back, only to find Holston's weapon all but pressed to his skull, and Martha's aimed at the Colonel. His mind, previously organised with crystal clarity now felt full of fog as he watched the scene play out.
"Drop the gun, Holston,," Martha growled slowly, but the mans eyes never flickered from the Doctor's. The two men stared at each other, judging, calculating, testing.
Whatever the Colonel saw though made him back down, despite the burning desire to destroy that the Doctor could see in the mans manic face, and he dropped the gun. The Doctor only waited long enough to make sure Martha had handcuffed and secured the Colonel before spinning and running back into the catacombs, Amy close on his heels.
It would be just his luck, he thought darkly, to lose Rose so soon after finding her once more.