AN: I'm so sorry it took me so long to update this. RL got in the way.

Thank you so much for all the support. Your reviews always make my day. And thank you to Persiflage for beta reading.

I wish you all a merry Christmas!

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Chapter 6

When the first rays of one of the suns fell through the window the next morning, Martha was already awake. She had lain awake on her side of the bed in Firala's hotel for hours, staring at the ceiling while she tried to figure out what to do. She had barely slept at all even though she knew that she had to sleep to keep up her strength if she wanted to find the Doctor. But she hadn't been able to take her mind off the events of the previous day long enough to find sleep.

She pushed the blanket to the side and got out of bed. After a quick shower she put on some jeans and a t-shirt, then pulled her hair back into a simple ponytail.

Just as she grabbed her keys and made for the door she was startled by a soft knock. She took the last few steps towards the door and pulled it open to reveal Firala with a tray of food.

"Good morning," Firala greeted.

"Good morning," Martha replied. She wondered why Firala was there, but before she could say anything, Firala began talking again.

"I thought you might like to eat something while we discuss what to do."

"We?" Martha asked surprised.

"I want to help you. It is my fault that the Doctor is in this situation and the least I can do is help you find him."

Martha gave her a slight smile. She wasn't sure how much help Firala would be but at least she wasn't alone anymore.

She stepped aside to let Firala in and shut the door behind her. Firala walked over to a small table with two chairs on the balcony and put the tray down. She had brought breakfast for two and placed a plate on the table in front of both chairs. Martha followed her outside and sank down on one of the chairs. Firala sat down on the other.

"So, any ideas what we're going to do?" Firala asked her as soon as they both were seated.

"I was planning to go back to the museum and take a look around to see if we can find anything suspicious. And then we could try to have a talk with Anres and Giranlo."

"And what will we ask them?" Firala asked. "I somehow doubt that asking Anres politely if he could let the Doctor go would help."

"I know, but maybe they'll say something that can help us find out where he is. We have to start somewhere,"

Firala nodded. "I wish there was someone with a bit more experience with missing persons who could help us."

"Isn't there some sort of police on this planet," Martha asked. She picked up a piece of fruit and put it into her mouth.

"There is," Firala said as she put some of the food from the tray on her plate. "But Anres has a lot of money. Most of the police will do what he wants. The people with the most money on this planet can do whatever they want. It's always been like this."

"I thought there hadn't been any criminality on this planet for years," Martha asked, remembering what the Doctor had told her about Durelia before they had arrived two days ago.

"That's what we let the tourists believe. There is still criminality but the police are doing their best to cover it up. Almost everyone on this planet lives from tourism so we're doing our best to make Durelia the perfect holiday planet."

"So that means we are on our own," Martha said. She put the last piece of fruit from her plate in her mouth and stood up. Firala was already putting the plates back on her tray and stood up as well.

"Let's take a look at the museum first," Martha said.

...

Martha was glad to find out that the museum opened earlier than the day before so they didn't have to wait until the afternoon. Firala had to organize a few things in her hotel so her employees could take care of everything for a few days if needed, and Martha helped her a bit. When they finally reached the city they only had to wait half an hour until the museum opened. Once they were inside Martha led them to the room where she'd last seen the Doctor. Taking a look around the room she noticed a door with a "staff only" sign. Martha and Firala walked towards it and after taking a quick look around the room to make sure no one was watching them they stepped through. They found themselves in a corridor with four doors on each side. Opposite them was a wall, the end of the corridor.

Martha and Firala walked, careful not to make to any noise, down the corridor. When they reached the first door Firala leaned forward and rested her ear against the wood before straightening again and reaching for the doorknob. The door didn't open and Martha inwardly cursed that she didn't have the sonic screwdriver.

Firala moved to the next door and pressed her ear against it like she had done with the first.

"There is someone inside," she whispered and moved to the next. There she listened again before opening the door.

The room behind the door was a storeroom with nothing interesting inside and Firala closed it again.

"How can you be certain if someone is inside or not?" Martha asked when Firala tried the next door. It was locked.

"My people have excellent hearing," Firala explained. "I can even hear someone breathing through the door if I'm concentrating very hard. We are lucky Anres mostly employs aliens." Firala leaned against the fifth door and listened for a moment before stepping back.

"Someone is coming," she whispered, panic evident in her voice.

Martha grabbed Firala's arm and dragged her a few steps back down the corridor and through the door of the storeroom. She didn't pull the door entirely closed so she could peek through the gab. A man came out of the room, walked down the corridor and disappeared through the second door they'd tried. Martha opened the door again and she and Firala walked back into the corridor.

"He was the only one in that room," Firala whispered. Martha nodded and walked back to the room the man had just left.

The room wasn't big. There were two chairs in front of twenty small computer screens. The screens showed the footage from the CCTV cameras in the museum. Martha walked towards the computer terminal and quickly found out how to choose the footage of the room she had last seen the Doctor in to the time he had vanished the day before. She was very glad of the fact that the TARDIS still translated everything for her so it wasn't hard to operate the computer.

"Hurry up," Firala whispered. She stood next to the almost closed door, peeking nervously outside.

Martha watched on the screen how a man approached the Doctor and Giranlo.

"That's Anres," Firala commented from her spot next to the door.

The man, Anres, talked with the Doctor for a few moments before turning around and walking to the door with the "staff only" sign. The Doctor said something to Giranlo, then followed Anres though the door. Martha wondered what Anres could have said to make the Doctor come with him, and without telling her where he went. She watched Giranlo, who remained in the room for a couple of minutes longer before following the Doctor and Anres. Martha watched the next minutes of the footage at a faster speed and saw how Giranlo came out again to talk to her, then followed her when she left.

Martha looked at the list of the cameras again. There was one in the corridor outside but when she tried to open the footage the computer asked for a password.

She stood up. "Let's go," she said.

Martha and Firala left the room again. They checked the rest of the rooms in the corridor but found them all locked or occupied. "What do we do now," Firala asked.

"First we get out of this corridor before we get caught," Martha whispered back.

They made their way back to the door that led back into the museum. Martha reached it first and opened it carefully to find a security guard standing right in front of it.

AN: Please leave a review to let me know how you liked it.