Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Otherwise…there wouldn't be all this bloody secrecy over who's in the 50th. [And Martha would be back…that's for sure!]
The Doctor was busy trying to installing what looked like a playpen inside of the console room. While his beloved ship wasn't against the Time Tot, she was against the thing he was trying to install. "Oh alright!" He snapped, pocketing his sonic screwdriver, after being hit by the metal gate again. "You're bloody stubborn, Old Girl." He paused before grinning widely, "Takes one to know one."
Ancient brown eyes looked at the metal gates sitting on the floor. "Okay, installing one in the library? Easy like quantum physics. Installing one here...you're just fighting me here, Old Girl." The humming of his ship changed slightly causing the skinny man to tilt his head. "Whatta ya mean I'm not giving Martha a choice?" He knew what the ship meant, the Old Girl couldn't speak with him, but he had learned to read her moods.
Her current one was annoyed- with him.
The Doctor winced. It wasn't his fault.
Okay, maybe he had started toddler proofing things without letting his ship help.
Maybe, he was assuming Martha would play family with him.
If Martha didn't stay with him, what would they do with Nate? Did Martha expect him to do it the way humans did? Visit on weekends? He was lucky he had bought Martha home in the same year! And Nate was a Time Tot. He would learn so much more being with him rather than on Earth.
A gentle nudge from his ship and the alien hopped up. "She's awake?" He asked his ship, "You know, I don't think monitoring her is necessary." Despite his words, the Doctor fixed the sleeves on his blue button-down shirt before sliding on his brown suit jacket. Poking his head out the door of the TARDIS he noticed that everything was still dark in the Jones house. "Alright then Martha Jones, we need to talk." He muttered to himself, "And you need more sleep."
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Martha ran a hand through her hair, before touching the sleeping child beside her. Twisting to lay on her side, Martha slid an arm around the sleeping boy. She pressed her cheek against the boy's head. The dark skinned beauty closed her eyes as she tried to get rid of the images of Japan burning.
Nathan rolled over and tucked himself into her arms.
The room to her door opened quietly, before shutting just as quietly. Martha froze, her grip on the child tightened protectively. "Martha." She exhaled through her nose as she looked up. Her eyes made out the outline of a certain tall alien.
"Doctor?"
He knelled next to her and observed her position, "Nightmare?" The protective gestures and the way her frame was slowly relaxing indicated it.
"It's nothing." She whispered softly. She didn't want to bother the Doctor, besides she could take care of herself. "How's the TARDIS?"
He ran a hand through his hair as he talked to her, "Fine. We could go see her, if you want." She shook her head. "Martha, we have to talk and whispering isn't fun when your mother could appear at any minute." His companions lip twitched at the corners. "You'd enjoy watching your mother slap me again?" He tried to sound offended.
"Fine," Martha replied rolling her eyes. She didn't want to leave her family alone again. The alien in front of her merely smiled softly at her, "Just to the TARDIS, no detours and no trips."
"Scouts honor." The Doctor replied with a grin. Martha slowly sat up, she intended to let Nathan stay in the bed, but the Doctor picked the boy up. "He's waking up." He informed her quietly. Glancing at the boy, Martha saw her own brown eyes staring back at her tiredly.
Moving around quietly, Martha grabbed her dressing gown and picked up her flats. She glanced over at Nathan with a frown. "It's probably freezing out, he can't..." The Doctor placed a long bony finger on her lips. It was then Martha noticed that Nathan had fallen asleep again. Shifting the child so his head rested on one side, the Doctor with Martha's assistance found himself wrapping the child up in his suit jacket. "You can't possibl-"
"He's part Gallifreyan, the temperature won't bother him."
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Martha looked around the ship that had been her home. She ran her hand across the railing like she used to when she would marched towards the Doctor. It was subtle, but she noticed the gentle humming of the ancient ship. The coral desktop, the flaring time motor, all of it was a welcoming comfort.
Behind her, the Doctor quietly closed the door to his ship as he followed her up the ramp. "She's been better, but I think overall she's excited."
"Why?" Martha asked as she reached the console in the center of the room. She touched the flaring time motor with fascination. "Why is she excited?" The dark skinned woman turned her head towards the Time Lord.
The Doctor nodded towards the child in his arms. "She's always been motherly." He trailed off as he recalled the way his TARDIS had at attempted to mother Compassion. Of course, in the end Compassion had taken off with Nivet. Whether she was still alive with Nivet was something he had never found out.
Then again, if the Master had been alive…why couldn't say the Rani be around?
Or Compassion and Nivet?
His granddaughter was with her husband and their children.
"Doctor?" Martha questioned as she gestured towards the metal gates on the floor. "Were you child proofing the TARDIS?"
Perhaps the Rani had been right when she referred to him as being dramatic. "No, no-" Martha raised an eyebrow and gestured to the gates again. "Okay, maybe. I just thought…that maybe you wouldn't mind and if you didn't mind then we could…you know…travel…together." The petite woman looked at him with an unreadable expression.
"Like a family?" She asked for clarification.
The Doctor nodded.
Martha sighed softly before glancing around the console room again. "How about I make us tea?"
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To be honest, Martha wasn't sure how to respond to her new situation. She had that little boy that always called her 'mummy,' and then there was the Doctor. He was apparently the child's father, yet Martha knew for a fact there was no way they were the parents of the same child. How long had they travelled together and that alien had done nothing more than send her mixed signals?
Mixed signals did not equal sex, much less nine months of a child developing inside her.
Maybe the time would've been longer, or shorter, because of the alien side. She didn't know and as curious as she was, there was no way that she would know. Unless…Martha squashed her own train of thought, it was a really bad passing thought- contemplating sex with an alien and how reproduction would work.
It was a sign to Martha that she was sexually repressed.
And that the whole situation was more than she bargained for.
Before she understood that Nathan was being placed into her care, it was an easy decision to make after walking for a year. She would leave the TARDIS, finish her schooling and stay with her family. Martha would have a normal life on Earth for the most part; helping Jack if/whenever he needed her.
Nathan was a child at an impressionable age.
The dark skinned Londoner remembered her parents' divorce. The bitter arguments after her mother had discovered her father's affairs. She remembered trying vainly to keep them together only to be rebuffed. More importantly, she remembered taking solace in books. Tish had been older, understood more and was just as feisty as their mother. Leo had been young and always on his father side for no other reason than the man was his father.
She had always wanted children with a man she loved, and that loved her. Martha didn't have a dream for a big glamorous wedding or a Prince Charming. Just to be a doctor, maybe find a husband, if she had children that would be great as well.
If she ever had martial problems with children around, hashing it out like her parents did was a big no-no.
Nathan wanted both his parents and Martha wished she could give him that.
Martha sat the teapot and two cups on the island bar in the kitchen. She didn't have to look far for the fruit bowl; instead she pulled out a banana for the Doctor.
The medical student didn't think she and the Doctor would have a relationship like her parents. They got along better than Clive and Francine. They weren't married and therefore there wasn't any way either of them could have an affair that could destroy their relationship.
Biting her lip, Martha sat at the island bar and poured herself a cup of tea.
She didn't want to tell the Doctor that they couldn't travel together like a family. Martha Jones didn't want to hurt him.
Goodness knows that Martha wanted to be the last person to do that to him.
Hell, Martha wasn't even sure how to talk with him about Nathan staying with her. It was the best option really. He was too young for the Doctor's adventures. A three year-old isn't meant to run from aliens or cause mischief in the distant past or future of humanity.
While Martha was sure she'd have to juggle raising Nathan, work and school, she knew she could do it.
All she really needed to do was to reassure the Doctor and convince Nathan that it was for the best. Let Nathan see that he didn't to have his father around as often as he thought.
Martha hated herself for her thoughts.
She hated herself for taking the only other Time Lord in existence from his father.
"Something wrong Martha?"
It wasn't like she was banning him all contact with Nathan. Or saying when he [Nathan] was old enough that she was going to deny him the right to see the universe.
Part of her wanted to recoil from the Doctor's touch- a hand on her shoulder- but she didn't. She wished she could reply that nothing was wrong, but she couldn't. Instead she turned her head towards him; her messy bed hair sweeping passed her shoulder as she eyed the alien. Nathan was no longer in his arms; instead the child was resting in a room aboard the ship. Those ancient and lonely brown eyes of his were staring at her. "We've got a lot to talk about." Martha finally stated. She gestured to the chair beside her which was obviously his seat with the banana being there.
"I suppose a simple 'go with the flow' and travel with me is out of the question?" Martha arched an eyebrow at him as if asking 'what was the first clue?' The Doctor sighed; the Time Lord knew Martha had a life outside of him. Hell, he remembered her saying she had things to do and that she couldn't just go off with him.
He had said one trip because he didn't want to wonder what it would've been like to have the brilliant medical student with a lot of questions traveling with him. He kept her because she was brilliant outside of medicine and her down to Earth persona kept them grounded.
Kept him grounded.
And he supposed it stood to reason that their one trip was finally ending. That after all this time, after the Master tormented her family and her home planet, after walking the entirety of her planet raising belief and hope in him…
Rose had every intention of growing old while staying at his side and Martha, his doctor, couldn't…no wouldn't do the same. Not that he blamed her. With Rose he had offered a part of himself, nothing that would fulfill her need to settle down, but that hadn't bothered her much. Martha, with Martha Jones he had tried to hide from her. He pushed and pulled her away. In the end, as she walked the world and her family worried every day if she was still alive, he had vowed to stop running from her.
He sat on the bar stool beside her and looked at the prepared cup of tea. Of course Martha knew how he liked his tea, how many times had she made him one in 1969?
The Doctor would never count 1913 because he hadn't been himself.
And the only luck he had was that Joan Redfern hadn't accepted his offer. Martha had been positively miserable, but had made the best of it. He was surprised she hadn't murdered him before that trip to old Western America.
If Joan had accepted, Martha would've demanded to go home. Or murdered them both in their sleep knowing she'd get away with it.
"Doctor, how about we start this conversation off simple. How does he even exist?" Martha asked patiently.
The Doctor watched as she picked up her cup of tea and sipped it. "Hmm, I didn't think you needed that talk Martha Jones. What do they teach human doctors these days?" He smirked, pleased at the look of annoyance on Martha's face.
"That's not what I meant Time Lord." He grinned cheekily at her. "I could punch you sometimes. Right there," She tapped the tip of his nose. "Luckily, I'm not the overly violent type. Now, why don't you stop being witty and explain how I missed my own pregnancy?"
The Time Lord nursed his cup of tea. "You didn't miss your own pregnancy because you were never impregnated." He paused, "At least not by me." His companion's eyes narrowed at him. "We were careful in 1969!" Martha rolled her eyes, but remained silent as she looked at the alien. "Actually, remember Canary Wharf?"
"That's where you lost Rose and I lost Addy." The Doctor nodded, it didn't hurt as much as it used to when he thought of his old companion. Martha tilted her head wondering what that event had to with Nathan.
"Well, you know how Jack said he reformed Torchwood?" Martha nodded, "He had no choice as majority of it was lost when the morons opened a dimensional rift that caused Cybermen and Daleks to come through the void." The Doctor stared at his tea. "It wasn't until that thing with the Master that everything started making sense. Sure humans are a brilliant lot, with a lot of potential, but the amount of knowledge needed to open a crack between dimensions? He more than likely was able to instruct Torchwood while he was Minister of Defense on how to use some of the alien technology they had found."
Martha frowned, "Are you implying Nathan came through that rift? From another dimension, I mean."
"Yes," The Doctor picked up the banana and peeled it. "You remember what I told you about regeneration?"
Martha nodded, "The thing that the Master did before taking off with the TARDIS."
"Correct," The Doctor agreed. "When I was going through his memories I saw his parents." Martha looked at him; the curiosity couldn't have been brighter. "His mother is Martha Jones, a human from the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She wasn't doctor, just a university graduate with a degree in biology. She was saving up for medical school when she met the Doctor."
Martha leaned on her fist and looked at the Doctor with a slight frown. "I nearly had to do the same. If that grant hadn't come through, I would've had to take out loans and get a second job. There was no way I was asking my parents for money, they'd fight over footing the bill." She watched as he bit the banana before nodding at her statement.
"Hmmm, not surprising the universe is full of parallel worlds. One decision or event that's different and several different outcomes appear."
"So the universe is really infinite then?"
"Oh, yes." The Doctor stated before finishing the banana off. "The version of me that your counterpart met was the body before this one. Big ears, leather jacket, and I was fresh from the Time War. In this world I met Rose, but she didn't exist there so I met you sooner. I suppose it makes sense considering…" He didn't want to say if it wasn't for his meeting Rose first that 1969 would be more than just something that had delighted them. That it would be a regular occurrence for them.
That Martha Jones would indeed be his wife through a Gallifeyan ceremony and not just a simple human one.
Those kinds of thoughts and feelings were blasphemy.
This body was born for Rose Tyler…not any other female in the universe.
Martha had apparently followed his thoughts because she cleared her throat. "So the version of you…" She gestured to him, "before this you is the father?"
"Nope, this version of me is," Martha quirked an eyebrow in puzzlement, which is why the Doctor decided to elaborate. "I won't pretend to know the entirety of the relationship between the parallel versions of us. I will say Nathan has met my previous body and your counterpart before his own birth. There was an accident during one of his lessons in the TARDIS. You nearly killed me when I told you he had disappeared. So we knew that we were…well we knew you would be a mother. It took them both a while to realize that he was temporally displaced from the TARDIS and not just another time."
The Doctor looked at his companion wanting to know if she was keeping up. "So our counterparts met Nathan before he was born, but he was born at some point after you…after you regenerated."
"Oh, I love it when you keep up with me."
Martha smiled softly, "Mhmm…keep going."
The humanoid alien grinned, "Anyway, during Canary Wharf our counterparts were busy themselves."
"The Daleks and Cybermen?"
"Along with their version of Torchwood," he reminded her.
Martha stared at him.
"We're dead Martha. Or at least you are and I've undoubtedly regenerated." Before the Doctor could properly understand it, Martha was hugging him. "Oh Martha Jones, that didn't happen here."
"You don't feel terrible for yourself? Your wife and son! In one go."
The Doctor didn't have the heart to tell Martha that he had probably gone dark or killed himself after losing his family twice. And against the Daleks again, instead he wrapped his arms around her. She wanted comfort and this wasn't as bad as it could be. "Martha, there's more…"
"What else is there? I'm dead, you're alone and that little boy-"
"Is actually eleven years-old, Nathan regenerated not long after your-after his mother's death."
"What?"
"She died protecting him, but then he ended up being shot through the void by the daleks." The Doctor slid his hands up to Martha's shoulders. She looked at him with wide brown eyes.
"You mean-"
His brown eyes held hers, "He's pretending everything is the way it should be. I can manipulate his memories of his time aboard the Valiant. I can even remove the Master's hypnosis from him, but I can't change that experience."
"Why hasn't he had a nightmare yet?"
The Doctor sighed, "I assume Lucy and the Master took care of him during them." The Time Lord could understand Martha's look of horror. He wouldn't let the Master take care of a goldfish, let alone his child, from this world or not.
Martha looked down, before looking at him with a determined expression. "If he wants us to be his parents' fine, but he's going to open up about what happened." The woman's determined expression made him smile; at least she wasn't tough on just him. "What is with Time Lords and pretending things are fine?"
"Time Lord minds work differently, we handle traumatic experiences differently. Regeneration is one way."
Martha wanted to grab the Time Lord's hand, but she resisted. Nathan would need more care than she anticipated, but she couldn't use the Doctor as a clutch. She had the same support she always had, herself.
The Doctor studied Martha's body language. She was steeling her resolve and he wondered for a moment if she nee-no if she wanted his help. "Martha." He grabbed her hand. "Martha Jones, I'm here to help." His hand squeezed hers reassuringly. "I'm not going to let you do this alone."
Her brown eyes met his and they stared each other down. The Doctor had forced Martha to do plenty of things on her own. This time…this time he couldn't. "I can raise a child on my own."
"A fully human child, I have no doubt in my mind." The Doctor agreed. "Nathan's part Gallifreyan and he's exhibited a Time Lord trait already: regeneration. You won't know what to do when his telepathy develops- if it develops- and his brain isn't the same as human ones. His intellect, his learning ability will be above that of humans. Martha you're a human doctor! You don't know enough about Gallifreyan physiology to be his physician."
Part of him thought that perhaps he was getting through to his companion. "And what do you expect me to do? Leave him with you? Doctor you can barely keep out of trouble!"
"You're not his mother."
"You're not his father."
"You have no obligations to him. If you want to leave fine, you can go. I won't stop you." The Doctor swallowed thickly as he forced those words out. "You aren't taking him with you." He broke eye contact first. Part of him wanted to stop Martha from leaving. To keep her around for as long as he could, but he knew she had her own life. "You can go back to stud-"
The sound of Martha slapping the Time Lord resonated in the quiet kitchen. "Don't you dare!" Martha growled out. "Don't you dare tell me I have no obligations to that child!" She watched as the Doctor touched his cheek gently. "You expect me to just leave him with you. Go on with my life without him?" She grabbed his tie and pulled his face close to hers. "Let me be clear Time Lord, half-human or not he belongs to Martha Jones. And you can run off in this ship if you want you are not taking him from me."
There was a faint outline on his cheek from where her palm had landed. Martha could tell she and the Doctor weren't going to see eye to eye on this. "You're going back to finish your schooling."
"I am."
"How do you plan to do that with him?" The Doctor placed a hand over Martha's and forced her to release his tie. "And what makes you think that you're the only one to make that decision."
Martha crossed her arms as she looked at him. "Are you looking at the big picture? Are you seeing what I am Doctor? He can travel with you when he's old enough. However being in the body of a toddler is a rather large handicap, especially given the kind of trouble you usually end up in. He stays with you and you'll be bringing me his broken dead body."
"He can regenerate." The Doctor muttered softly. Martha had a point. The child would run out of regenerations eventually.
"He went from eleven to a toddler." Martha pointed out, "So next regeneration is a toddler to what…an infant, a fetus?"
The Doctor hated when Martha Jones had a point, a stupid, yet brilliant point. She stared at him with that defiant expression. This was the woman that he had spent the entirety of 1969 married too. When they fought, the ending was always with-
Martha glared up at the Doctor, what she hadn't expected was the Time Lord to not answer. Nor for him to grab her face, like he had done on the moon, and kiss her. She wanted to fight him, not…
He pressed her against the island bar, slid one hand down to her waist and pulled her closer. She moaned softly into his mouth. The hands Martha had placed on his chest with the intent to push him away, were gripping his lapels tightly as she pulled him closer. He pulled his lips from hers, "You always make good points." Before dipping down and kissing her again.
Martha pulled away, "You always do this when you lose." Before reaching up and capturing his lips again. He growled when she bit his lip.
"I missed you." He whispered softly when he pulled away. Martha looked at him, her expression softer than before. "I don't want either of you to leave me."
Martha pressed her lips to his in a chaste kiss. "I need to finish school. All that time I spent studying to be a doctor…I don't want it to end without me accomplishing that." She closed her eyes when he kissed her forehead.
"After you're done with that…then what?" He asked.
Martha sighed as she opened her eyes again. "I won't stay if our relationship isn't going to change Doctor." He looked at her puzzled. "If I comeback after finishing my exams, what am I going to come back to, an alien that still misses his companion before me? I won't claim to know everything about your relationship with Rose and I'm not jealous or hurt by it. I just want to know when I come back I won't be fighting a ghost. That you will see me and not a girl that isn't here anymore," She met his eyes. "That you'll acknowledge the fact that I love you and even if you'll never feel the same, you'll let me know right then and there."
The Doctor was silent as he held his petite companion. "Martha,"
"I'm not done." The Time Lord closed his mouth. "I'm not saying you all of a sudden need to be in love with me. I am not suggesting you need to do anything other than be yourself honestly. Just understand Doctor that I spent so much time aboard this ship and traveling with you thinking I was second best." Martha poked him in the chest, "But you know what? I am good. And I know what's best for me. Even if you never love me the way that I love you, it doesn't mean we can't be friends. Just know that I won't step aboard this ship with Nathan to play 'happy family' with you if it isn't something we both want."
"Martha,"
"I'm not going to sacrifice my happiness that way." The medical student cut him off. "I'll stay on Earth. I'll find someone that makes me happy. And Nathan…Nathan will be a part of that happiness…alright? I'll never say you can't come around to see him. I will say he can't go off with you until he's older. Doctor, do you get what I'm saying?"
The alien nodded, "How much longer until you graduate?" His companion raised an eyebrow.
"If I pass my exams in the next few months, I should be done in June."
"A few months then?"
"If I pass…"
The Doctor nodded. "We both know Martha Jones you're passing those exams." Leaning down he kissed her forehead again. "I…I suppose I have to make a few arrangements then."
"Arrangements for what?"
He raised an eyebrow, "We could live in the TARDIS if you want, but I figured you'd prefer an actual flat while you're finishing school."
"Doctor…?"
"And if you want a flat, I'm going to need to find one that's bigger than our flat from 1969." Martha was looking at him as if he were speaking Gallifreyan. "I suppose I could work for UNIT again until you're done…"
Martha finally understood what was going on. "Doctor, there are worlds out there that need to be saved. Time periods being invaded by something alien, the not nice ones, and you're going to settle here?"
"Only temporarily and I do have a time machine. Or have you forgotten?"
She examined his facial expression, "You hate being stuck in one place."
"A few months and I have my TARDIS, if I need to leave right away for anything."
Martha reached up and touched the same cheek she had abused earlier. "Now you're just being silly." He grabbed her hand. "Doctor, I can't ask or let you stay with me. You've got the entire universe depending on you."
"I've always found actions were better than words at times." He leaned down and kissed her again. His lips left her own and started tracing a path from her jaw to her neck. Martha released quiet little sighs as her hand slid itself around his neck. "We enjoyed 1969, didn't we?" He asked her in between his kisses. "Besides," His lips hovered over her pulse, "the universe survived then didn't it?" Martha moaned as she grabbed the Doctor's hair when he bit her.
"MUM! DAD!" Nathan shouted as his small footsteps were heard.
Martha chuckled as the Doctor looked up at his TARDIS' ceiling in wonderment. "We'll have to get used to that."
"It's been so long since I've had a child screaming for me." The Doctor slid his eyes from the ceiling to Martha. He helped her straighten her dressing gown, before glancing at the kitchen doorway. "I'm just a touch out of practice."
Martha didn't get to reply as the toddler ran into the room and throw himself at them, his tiny arms hooking around their legs. The medical student bent down and gently pulled his arm from around the Time Lord's legs. "Everything's alright baby." It was a gently tone that Martha had learned soothed children during that Year. Rubbing soothing circles into his back, Martha stood up holding him in her arms. The Doctor left Martha to calm Nathan down, while he moved about the kitchen preparing warm milk.
"Honestly Nathan, what if your mum had been sleep?" The Doctor lightly chastised the toddler. "She needs her sleep, humans get cranky if they don't get enough sleep."
Martha sent the Doctor a look over Nathan's head.
"I'm sorry mummy." Nathan whispered into Martha's chest.
She shook her head, "Don't worry about it sweetheart. You can always wake me up." The Doctor smiled softly as he poured the warm milk into a sippy cup. Martha giggled herself. The Doctor was adorable. Done with the cup, he gestured for her to follow him. Martha followed the Doctor out of the kitchen and down the hallways of the TARDIS. "Don't put thoughts into his head like that Doctor."
The light skinned toddler drunk from the TARDIS blue sippy cup as he leaned against Martha's side on the queen sized bed. Nathan offered his father the cup before hugging Martha's side. She gently ran fingers through his messy curly brown hair. Martha looked up at the Doctor as Nathan fell asleep again. His eyes met hers and Martha wondered if he was thinking about the conversation from earlier. "We make a good team Martha Jones."
"We do." She agreed quietly.
Leaning over the sleeping child the Doctor kissed Martha again. "Get some sleep. I think later today will be very busy."
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Hoshi: So Sheena says this is a bit disjointed (like the previous one) and I can explain it. When I write, I get into the characters head. So the first line is a starting point and that starting point leads to memories and feelings before rounding up back to the first line. Like Nathan, Martha ends up thinking about her parents' divorce because she knows she can't/doesn't want to stay with the Doctor and it reminds her of her own feelings when her parents separated. And that leads back to Nathan because she knows her decision is going to hurt him and the Doctor.
And the Doctor, he knows Martha wants to leave and is hoping vainly that Nathan will give her a reason to stay, even if he knows that won't work. He knows that he partially drove Martha away from him and that she has her own life that she could live without him. He just wants her to be happy and so he's plotting to get that done.