Chapter Twelve
"You and I can go see Martha anytime," Rose told the Doctor as she slipped her mobile back into her pocket. "She says she's free all afternoon."
"Does that mean we're still going to Cardiff tomorrow?" the Doctor asked with a perhaps too hopeful tone to his voice.
"I certainly hope so," Rose said with a cheeky grin.
The Doctor slowly grinned at her, his tongue curled behind his top teeth. He waggled his eyebrows at her.
The expression on his face almost looked like a challenge, and not one she would pass up. She crossed the room, yanked on the lapels of his new blue suit and snogged him for all she was worth.
At the sound of someone clearing his throat, they broke apart.
"Still in the room," Pete reminded them, and they both had the grace to look sheepish.
"Oops," the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear.
"Sorry, Dad," she said.
Pete tried to look stern. "Yes, well, just don't let it happen again." He winked at them before he walked out the door.
The Doctor smirked at Rose.
"Now where were we?" he asked, pulling her back into his arms.
~oOo~
Martha Jones lived in a moderately priced neighborhood on the southwestern edge of London, a half an hour by car from the mansion and just minutes away from her medical office. Her flat, one of several that had been formed from subdividing an old home, was located on a quiet road lined with mature trees that shaded the entire neighborhood.
Rose considered herself lucky when she was able to find a place to park directly across from Martha's flat as most of the other places to park near the building had been taken. After she got out, she watched as the Doctor carefully unfolded himself from her tiny car.
"Don't say it," she said, pointing her finger at him.
"Say what?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't know," she said. "How about how much you hate my car? How small it is and how you barely fit in it? How much I need a new one? Maybe how it really needs to be bigger on the inside?"
"Okay."
"Okay, what?" she asked.
He laughed. "Okay, I won't say it."
Martha Jones' flat was also not bigger on the inside. In fact, it was smaller than Jackie's old flat on the Powell Estate. It had no entry way. Instead, the door opened directly into a tiny sitting room which had barely enough room for a small sofa and a couple of chairs. Other than the front door, three doors led off from the main room. The door to the kitchen stood open, and that room appeared to be not much bigger than a cupboard. The other two led presumably to a bedroom and a bathroom.
"This is the same flat I had all the way through medical school," Martha said by way of apology after she had let them in. "I did my residency in a hospital near here and never bothered to move. And then Tom and I got engaged…."
Rose laughed. "It's actually bigger than the place I had in Cardiff."
"Really?" Martha asked in amazement. "I would have thought that with your father you would have had a deluxe flat, maybe even a penthouse."
"I wanted to do it on my own," Rose told her. "Now his last place, on the other hand," she jerked her head at the Doctor, "when you first looked at it, it looked tiny, but it was really pretty big. Actually really, really big."
The Doctor looked at her and grinned. "I guess you could say that. Almost seemed bigger on the inside."
Martha looked curiously at them, sensing a private joke.
"Can I get either of you anything?" she asked. "I've got pop, Vitex, orange juice…."
The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, and Rose deliberately stepped on his foot. She had no idea what he was going to say, but she didn't trust it. The Doctor promptly shut his mouth with a puzzled look for Rose.
"Water would be fine. For both of us," she said with a pointed look at the Doctor.
"Oh, yes. Thank you," he said brightly.
Rose and Martha sat down, glasses of water in hand, with Rose on the sofa and Martha on a chair adjacent to her. While they gossiped about the party, the Doctor wandered about the room. It looked very similar to his own Martha's flat. Coffee table in front of the sofa. Small television in the corner. Framed photos scattered around. He picked one up to look at it more closely. The photo featured Martha's parents together, her father's arm around her mother. Evidently in this universe they had never divorced.
Finally the Doctor noticed that Rose was glaring at him, and he guessed he was being rude again. He sat down next to her and turned his attention to the conversation as Rose got to the point of the visit.
"Martha, are you happy in your practice?" she asked.
The other woman nodded. "Yes, I think so."
"Good." Rose stood, obviously signaling she was ready to leave. The Doctor, following her lead, started to get up himself.
"Wait!" Martha said. "Why do you ask? You didn't come all this way just to ask me whether I had fun at the party and whether or not I liked my job."
Rose and the Doctor glanced at each other, a small smile playing around Rose's mouth. They sat back down on the sofa.
"How do you really feel about your job?" Rose asked.
"To tell the truth," Martha answered, "it's a bit boring. Colds, nonspecific aches and pains, check-ups, women wanting to lose weight, the same thing day after day. Not exactly what I imagined when I became a doctor. I've even been thinking of going back to school to specialize in something."
Rose smiled. "What if I could offer you a job that would be much more… challenging… than the one you currently have?"
"At Vitex?" Martha asked dubiously. "That's got to be even more boring than what I'm doing now. What do you get there, the occasional paper cut?"
"No," Rose said slowly and meaningfully, "not at Vitex. Somewhere else. Somewhere exciting and adventurous and where everything you've ever believed in is challenged."
Martha stared at her curiously.
"If you are interested," Rose continued with a quick glance at the Doctor. "We'd like to take you somewhere and show you around. No commitment, but if you come, you can't talk about anything you see tonight."
"Not even with Tom?" Martha asked.
Rose shook her head. "Not even with Tom. And you need to think carefully about this, because if you take this position, you still won't be able to talk to him about it, or at least not unless he passes a background check and receives a security clearance."
Martha stared thoughtfully from Rose to the Doctor and back. "What is this? Secret Service? International Security? Rose, I thought you did something for Vitex, were on the board or something."
"I'm not on the Vitex board. I do, well, other things with a different organization. And it's not the ISS or the Secret Service. In fact," she said evenly, "it might be safer if it were."
Martha's eyes widened, and she turned to the Doctor.
"John, are you a part of this, too?"
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a quick glance.
He cleared his throat. "Yes, Martha, actually I am."
"Martha," Rose said, "our organization is in need of a doctor, a chief medical officer actually, and I think you would be perfect for the job. Are you interested?"
Martha Jones looked thoughtfully from Rose to the Doctor and back again.
"Yes," she said eventually.
Rose smiled. "Then come with us."
~oOo~
"Oh my God, this place is incredible," Martha said as she stared in amazement around her.
Rose had decided that showing Martha the enormous storage bay would be the best way of introducing her to Torchwood. The solar particle scoop they were standing next to towered several stories high above their heads. Behind them was the cockpit and part of one wing of what the Doctor had confirmed was a portion of a Socarthy shuttlecraft, and in front of them was a Cyberman constructed transport vehicle. Other pieces of alien tech of all shapes and sizes lay scattered haphazardly on various shelves and workbenches throughout the room.
"And you said that all of this is alien?" she asked, gesturing around her.
"Yes," Rose answered. "Other than the stuff built by the Cybermen."
"Y'know, I didn't really believe in aliens," Martha said. "Not sure if I still do."
The Doctor's split into a wide grin. "Good for you, Martha Jones! Never take things simply on faith. Investigate the world around you, analyze the data and then draw a conclusion."
Rose glanced at him and grinned. If she had had any doubts about his identity before, which she didn't, that comment alone would have probably convinced her he was the Doctor.
"And you both work here?" Martha asked.
"Well, I have for a while," Rose answered. As she spoke, she led the way through a set of heavy double doors and down a long hall. "The Doctor, though, is more of a… consultant."
"The Doctor?" Martha turned to face the person she only knew as Rose's boyfriend. "Are you a doctor as well?" she asked.
"No," he responded and then immediately corrected himself. "Well, yes, actually I am, but not in the sense you mean." He grimaced and yanked on one ear. "I'm not just a doctor, I'm the Doctor."
"I don't understand."
Neither the Doctor nor Rose responded as they continued to walk down the hall. After passing through another set of double doors, Rose led the way around another corner and through a door labeled simply 'Medical'. The room they were in was a waiting room of sorts, with chairs lining the wall and doors leading to other rooms. Once inside, she peeked through the doors to see if there was anyone else there. As soon as she was satisfied they were completely alone, she turned to Martha.
"I know I told you his name is John Smith, but that's really not true. He's the Doctor. Just… the Doctor."
"You're putting me on. That's not a name. It's a title." She turned and stared at him. "That's what you're called. 'The Doctor.'"
"Yep." The Doctor shrugged almost apologetically.
"Through here," Rose said, changing the subject. She pushed open the door on the far end of the room and gestured for Martha to enter.
Once inside, Martha's jaw dropped. The room was huge, with a long lab bench in the center of the room and two walls covered with high tech medical equipment. She recognized some of it as being for blood work and DNA analysis, but she had no idea what many of the other items were for.
"This would be your lab," Rose told her. She walked around the room gesturing at doors. "Through there is an examination room, that one is autopsy, and your office would be up front, off the waiting room. You'd have a staff of five: an intern, a nurse practitioner, and three lab technicians. You'd be ultimately responsible for everything medical that goes on here as well as some exams and of course all autopsies."
"But I'm not a medical examiner," Martha protested.
"We know that, but doing autopsies here is more… on the job training."
"So medical work, lab work, supervising staff, and… alien autopsies?" she asked in disbelief.
"Pretty much." Rose nodded. "You'd also coordinate medical services with Torchwood Two and Three. Believe me, you'd never be bored."
Martha shook her head. "Spaceships, aliens… this is like some sort of elaborate joke for a television show. I almost expect you to say 'You're on Candid Camera' or something."
"You watch too much television, too," the Doctor said in amusement.
Rose turned to him. "Was the other one this difficult to convince?"
"Weell," he said, dragging out the word and grimacing. "A little. Of course, back then I could convince her with the two hearts and the TARDIS. Plus there was the little matter of the Judoon on the moon…." He grinned at her. "I like saying that. Judoon on the moon."
Martha looked puzzled while Rose sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Don't mind him," she said apologetically. She turned back to the Doctor. "So what do you think?" she asked, trying to get him back on track.
The Doctor looked resigned. "As long as we destroy all the evidence afterwards."
"What are you two talking about?" Martha demanded.
Rose turned back to her and took a deep breath. "What if I could show you proof, incontrovertible proof, that aliens exist? Something that could prove it to you beyond a shadow of a doubt and could absolutely not be faked."
Martha scoffed. "Anything can be faked."
"Not this," the Doctor told her. "A simple mouth swab should suffice, and you can run the test yourself."
"What?" She looked from the Doctor to Rose and back again. And then stared at him wide-eyed. "But the only way to do that…. And I know that you…." She pointed to Rose. "But that would mean that you…." she said, turning towards the Doctor. "No way."
"So, Martha Jones," he said with a rueful grin. "Are you ready to have your universe expand?"
~oOo~
While Martha ran the DNA test on his mouth swab, the Doctor went to Pete Tyler's Torchwood office.
The door of course was locked, but a locked door had never stopped him before. At least not while he had his sonic screwdriver. Unless it was dead-lock sealed. Or wood, he reminded himself. He still hadn't fixed that flaw in his sonic. Maybe with more programming.
The lock was neither dead-lock sealed nor wood, so he made short work of it. After entering, he looked around the small office. It was jam-packed with maps, charts, technical guides and engineering journals. There were also a couple dozen binders on one shelf. He pulled one off at random and flipped through it. It was filled with intelligence on the aliens that had already visited this version of Earth. He grinned as he found most of the so-called 'intelligence' was incredibly full of errors, and he made a mental note to himself to mention something about it to Pete.
After a few more minutes of flipping through binders at random and chuckling at their inaccuracies, he got down to business and scanned the room with his sonic. Nothing. Not a squeal, not a blip, not a beep. If the room was bugged, it wasn't with the same technology as at the mansion.
He tried a dozen other settings. Nothing. No evidence whatsoever of covert surveillance. Well, at least that's good news, he thought.
Later, after the Doctor had returned to the medical lab, he watched with amusement as Dr. Martha Jones stared at the medical results in front of her.
"I can't believe it," she said. "I did the swab myself, and I ran the test myself." She raised her head and stared at the Doctor. "You're not human."
"Weell," he said, drawing out the word and yanking on one ear, "I actually am part human, part something else." He took the test results from her as well as all of the DNA samples she had taken. "I need these. It is essential that no one else find out about this." After shoving everything into one of the pockets of his jacket, he walked over to the DNA testing equipment and sonicked it, wiping out its recent memory.
"So are you interested?" Rose asked her.
Martha grinned. "Hell, yes!"