You guys blew up my email alert thing. It's gone on strike and is now demanding reasonable work hours and wages and admission to a labor union.
Rose jerked her hand away from the faucet with a sharp hiss of pain. It'd shocked her. The water faucet had shocked her. She reached forward carefully and prodded the metal nozzle several times but received no more electric shocks.
"Huh," she muttered, biting her tongue. Well, that was certainly odd, and considering why she was even in this hospital to begin with, odd was to be expected. Making a mental note to tell the Doctor, she turned the knob, cupping her hands under the flow. She brought the water up to her face, washing the remains of sleep and the last traces of her makeup.
She considered her reflection. "You even look like him." She did, especially free of the makeup. Her face was a bit narrower, her eyes definitely harder than they'd been when she was a simple shop girl that the last Time Lord had happened across…or even harder than they were just a few weeks ago when she and the Doctor had walked across the Powell Estate, laughing, hand in hand as they went to visit her mum. Rose swallowed, not wanting to go down that track this early in the morning.
Splashing another handful of water onto her face to wash away the beginnings of tears, Rose brushed her teeth with the odd toothbrush the Doctor had produced from one of his pockets, and turned off the faucet.
The Doctor was waiting for her by her bed and his small smile stretched into a full-blown grin when she came into view. Rose couldn't help but smile back. His joy was infectious. She settled back down into bed and allowed him to tuck the covers around her and sat on the edge of her bed, looking every bit the doting, concerned husband he was supposed to be.
"Doctor," she said. "When I was in the bathroom, the sink shocked me."
"Why?" he asked, only half-serious. "Did they change the way sinks look, or something?"
She rolled her eyes. "No, I mean it literally shocked me."
His face grew serious. "Like static electricity, only sharper?"
"Yeah."
He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. He turned his gaze to the windows and Rose did the same. There was nothing out there except the London skyline. He seemed to be waiting for something. Without warning, a jagged line of light flashed outside the window, and vanished.
"There, did you see?" he asked.
"Yeah, what was that? Lightning?"
"That," he said as another one flashed, "is a plasma coil. They're getting so thick that even you lot can see them now. I need to go have a look at those records now—will you be—"
He was interrupted by the arrival of a man in a suit with an entourage of young adults in white coats. Medical students, Rose wagered. Smart, equipped with A-levels, bright and promising futures ahead of them—staring at her with calculating eyes, ready to figure out what was wrong with her to impress their superior.
The Doctor squeezed Roses hand reassuringly and then plastered on a big grin. "Good morning," he crowed to the crowd.
Rose simply smiled.
"Good morning to you both," the man said. Rose recognized him as Mr. Stoker, one of the doctors who'd popped by yesterday. "Now then, how are you feeling, Mrs. Tyler?"
She tilted her head to the side a bit. "Well, I've been better."
"Rose Tyler, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains. Jones," he said to the young black woman beside him. "Why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me."
Jones nodded, walking around the bed and pulling a stethoscope from her pocket. "Stomach pains? Then eating chips wasn't very clever, was it?" she asked Rose.
Rose blinked. "What?"
"On Chancellor's Street this morning. You walked up to me eating chips and offered me one."
Rose gawked at her and the Doctor chuckled lightly. "Rose, did you nip out for chips this morning? I could've sworn you said you were going to the loo."
"I did, I mean, I went to the loo, but I didn't leave the building." Rose was frowning now.
"Well, that's weird," Jones frowned, "because it looked like you. Have you got a sister?"
Rose couldn't help but flinch at that. For all she knew, she could have a little sister by now. But if the child Jackie had been carrying was a girl, she'd never know. "N-no," Rose said. "No. It's just me. Just us," she corrected, meeting the Doctor's gaze and hating the regret in his eyes. He blamed himself.
"As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones," Mr. Stoker interrupted.
"Sorry. Right." She brandished her stethoscope. Rose inhaled and exhaled slowly while Jones moved the stethoscope around her chest and stomach.
"I weep for future generations. Are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?" Rose shot a glare at the older man.
"I was listening to her breathing, too," Jones explained, drawing back. "Her heart rate is normal and her lungs sound clear."
"The problem is not in her lungs," Mr. Stoker said impatiently.
"Um…she could be pregnant?"
"I'm not, trust me." Rose said, not looking at the Doctor.
"And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart." Mr. Stoker informed Jones and bent to pick up the clipboard at the end of Rose's bed. Her ears heard a faint crackle, like a static shock, and he immediately dropped it.
"That happened to me this morning," Jones said.
"I had the same thing on the door handle," a male student added.
"And me, on the lift," piped a dark-haired woman.
Rose and the Doctor looked at each other as Mr. Stoker went on about how it was to be expected because of a thunderstorm. They knew better.
"—lightning is a form of static electricity, as was first proven by…anyone?" Mr. Stoker looked at his students with hopeful expectancy. But the answer didn't come from one of the medical students.
"Benjamin Franklin," the Doctor said matter-of-factly.
Mr. Stoker looked mildly impressed. "Correct—"
But the Doctor was already going. "My mate Ben, that was a day and a half. Did I ever tell you about that, Rose? I got rope burns off that kite, and then I got soaked…"
They were staring at him. "Quite…" Mr. Stoker said slowly.
Rose elbowed him sharply, willing him to shut up before they decided he was the one that should be in a hospital bed. But the Doctor didn't seem to realize anything was off. "…And then I got electrocuted!" he finished with a broad grin.
This time Rose smacked his arm. He leaned away, looking like a kicked puppy. "Sorry," she apologized to the perplexed crowd around the bed. "He thinks he's funny."
"I am funny!" he protested. "Just ask Abbott and Costello. Now that—that was a day."
"You're a menace, you are." Rose shook her head.
"And you stayed with me anyway."
"I must be mad," she said, but she was grinning and he was too, and just like that the Doctor's comment turned from worrisome to just a young couple's banter.
Mr. Stoker smiled. "Someone will be along later to talk with you further. Moving on!" He motioned for the students to follow.
Miss Jones turned back to look at them with a small smile on her face. The couple smiled back. The moment she turned away, though, Rose smacked the Doctor's arm again.
"Hey!" he protested, leaning away, looking every bit like a kicked puppy.
"You stupid alien git!" Rose hissed. "I thought the whole point of me playing patient was so you didn't have to get in a hospital bed. Keep talkin' like that and they'll think you're mad!"
"Oh, don't worry about me." He waved off her concerns. "I've been in a psychiatric ward before. Got out just fine."
Rose stared at him, her mouth open in shock. "Do you mean to say," she said after a moment, "that you escaped from the madhouse?"
"Yeah."
Her grin widened and her tongue poked out between her teeth. "Oh, that makes so much sense."
He realized what she was getting at and managed to look affronted despite the grin threatening to show. "Oi!" But she was laughing, and it was infectious.
The crowd of medical students passed them again on their way out. Some of them, like Jones, smiled at the sight of the happy young couple that seemed oblivious to the world around them. Some of them frowned, wondering why someone who was supposed to be sick and in pain was laughing like that.
When the students and Mr. Stoker were gone, the Doctor sobered. "I better get moving. Those plasma coils are getting thicker…and if people are starting to get shocked then we're running out of time. Don't leave this room unless you absolutely have to, Rose."
"Okay," she said, stretching up to kiss his cheek. "Be careful."
"I'm always careful," he said.
"Oh, God," she muttered. "Hey, don't forget, you're supposed to swipe somethin' from the canteen for me."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, sliding off the bed, and left the ward quickly.
Rose sighed, leaning back in the bed again. She hated just sitting around not doing anything. She'd rather be with the Doctor so she could at least keep him out of trouble or point out the things he missed. Like the bloody London Eye.
Overhead, thunder began to rumble ominously. Rose couldn't help but shiver. "A storm is coming. " He'd said.
Rose was brought a light meal of applesauce and orange juice and she ate it slowly, savoring each bite, watching the rain trickle down the glass of the windows. Lightning flashed. But it wasn't really lightning. So was that thunder not thunder? And what about the rain? She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with the storm. Something was really, really wrong.
Fear flared in the back of Rose's mind where the TARDIS was. The juice slipped from Rose's fingers and fell to the floor with a splash, but she hardly noticed. The TARDIS was afraid; she was trying to warn them. Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong.
The Doctor. Where was he? If Rose could feel it, he definitely could.
A nurse came over to see if everything was all right and noticed Rose, pale and shaking, in her bed.
"Are you okay, miss?" she asked.
Rose looked at her with wide, terrified eyes. "I…"
The nurse called for one of her colleagues by the window but none of them responded. They were all staring outside at the rain and after a second, Rose realized why. She pushed the covers away and slid out of bed and walked slowly towards the windows.
"Miss—" the nurse tried again, putting her hand on Rose's shoulder.
"Oh, my God," Rose murmured, staring outside.
The rain was going up.
Beside her, the nurse gasped.
She saw her face and the Doctor's, and a voice cried out in a language without words and there was fear—
Light flared outside the window, blinding and white, and then the whole world shook like a violent earthquake had struck. Rose lost her balance and fell to the floor with a scream. The lights flickered and things fell and people screamed and glass shattered as it hit the floor and Rose tried to get to her feet but was knocked over straight away and tossed around like a doll and she couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down and the TARDIS's fear in her mind faded and it's Krop Tor all over again and where is the Doctor—
And then it stopped.
Everything was silent for a moment, except for the sobs and gasps as people tried to breathe. Rose did a quick check—all limbs intact, no broken bones, but she was going to have some serious bruises later—then pushed herself up. She wobbled for a second, but managed to stay upright, and then looked out the window. Night. It was nighttime but it couldn't be because it was lunch time not sixty seconds ago, unless they were pulled through time, but how could you pull a whole building through time?
Extreme distance, time differences, and the Beast were the only reasons she'd ever lost connection to the TARDIS, and she was fairly sure the Beast was gone. So time or space. Brilliant.
A doctor near the window pulled himself up and stared out. "We're…oh my God…we're…." He said quietly, but his voice carried in the near silence that became complete at his words. Others near the window looked, Rose took a step forward, and all eyes saw the gray, rocky expanse where there should be London, and above them—empty space.
Somewhere in another ward, a woman let out a high-pitched scream of terror and all hell broke loose. People screamed and cried and ran. Some curled up on the floor, sobbing hysterically. Panic and chaos and the air stank with fear. Rose stood silent through the panic, staring out the window. She knew that landscape. She'd seen it before from the safety of the TARDIS.
"ROSE!"
The Doctor's voice sent a jolt through her system and she turned to see a skinny streak of blue tearing across the room before she was crushed against the chest of a terrified Time Lord, whose double hearts beat rapidly against her own. He held her for a moment, gasping in relief.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice muffled by her hair.
"We're on the moon!" she gasped.
"I got that. Are you alright?" He pulled back to stare at her, running his hands across her face and arms to check for damage.
"A bit bruised, but I've had worse," she said. "I'll be fine, don't worry." His shoulders sagged in relief at her words and the fear in his eyes dimmed, replaced by seriousness. "I can't feel the TARDIS."
"I know," he said, looking around, and ushered her towards her bed. "Me neither. Get dressed, we need to get a look at what's going on." His gaze swept up and down her body. "Unless you want to run in that."
"All right!" a woman said loudly. "Everyone back to bed!" It was the medical student, Jones, who was surprisingly calm in contrast to the dark-haired woman with her, who looked ready to lose it. "We've got an emergency but we'll sort it out."
The Doctor pulled the curtains closed around them and Rose was already pulling the gown off. "Before that light, the rain was going up. What was that?"
"H2O scoop. That's how they got us up here. And it explains the plasma coils." He handed Rose her clothes, a pair of jeans and a light green t-shirt, keeping his eyes averted out of politeness, though it didn't matter to her at this point. From outside the curtains they could hear Jones talking.
"If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?"
Rose was still pulling on her trainers when the Doctor pushed the curtains aside. "Very good point!" he declared. "Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?"
"Martha."
"And it was Jones, wasn't it?"
Martha Jones nodded.
"Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?"
Rose slid off the bed, straightening her shirt, and moved towards them as the other woman, growing ever more hysterical, exclaimed that they couldn't be.
"Obviously we are so don't waste my time," the Doctor snapped.
"Doctor." Rose gave him a sharp look and put her hands on the woman's shoulders. "Hey, hey look at me. It's gonna be alright." The woman's tearing eyes met hers. "What's your name?"
"Julia Swales," she sobbed.
"Alright then, Julia. My name's Rose. Don't worry; this is nothin' too bad. We've been through worse, me an' him." She jerked her head in the general direction of the Doctor who was talking to Martha. "We'll get this sorted. Just stay calm. You're a doctor, yeah?"
"In training."
"Well, aren't doctors supposed to be brave? Aren't they're supposed to keep their heads in a crisis? Look around, Julia. Julia! Stop crying and look around. See all these people? They're your patients. You've got to take care of them. Do you understand? You got to. I know you're scared, I know, and you've got a right to be. I'm a bit scared, too, but you gotta take care of these people. If you don't, who will?"
Julia looked like she wanted to keep crying, but Rose's words must have gotten through to her because she nodded, squaring her shoulders. "Right…right…" she nodded but her eyes flicked to the window again and her lips trembled.
"Just don't look if it helps," Rose encouraged.
"Rose," the Doctor said. "We're goin' out."
Rose turned, letting her hands drop. "Out? Outside? Can we?"
"I don't know." He grinned. "But it's worth a shot. Might give us a clue."
"Alright," she said.
"Not her, though. She'd hold us up."
Rose didn't argue, but turned back to Julia and gave her an encouraging look and put her hand on Julia's shoulder once more. "Be a doctor," she whispered.
Julia nodded, trembling. Rose gave her the best smile she could then bolted after the Doctor and Martha. The hallways were packed with people moving every which way or huddled against the wall. Rose and the Doctor weaved through with ease and Martha followed through the narrow paths they found.
"I'm Rose." Rose smiled at the other woman, holding out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Martha."
Martha smiled at Rose incredulously and shook her hand. "Likewise, but is this the time?"
"You get used to this sort of stuff when you're friends with him." She gestured with her thumb at the Doctor.
"Friends? But—"
"Here we are!" The Doctor pointed to a sign that read 'Patients Lounge' and stopped in front of a pair of double doors just down from the lounge. "Shall we?"
Rose grinned, her tongue poking out, and together they pushed the doors open and the three of them stepped onto the balcony. It was a bit colder, but not like standing in the open doorway of the TARDIS while they were in space. But they definitely were in space. Any doubts she may have had before were completely erased as she gazed at her planet in the sky, hundreds of thousands of miles away. She inhaled deeply and was pleased to discover that air filled her lungs.
"We've got air!" Martha gasped in wonder as they walked forward. "How does that work?"
"Just be glad it does," the Doctor said seriously.
"Doctor," Rose said quietly. "She was afraid. I felt her fear, just before we…"
"I know. I felt it, too," he murmured.
"I can feel her now, sort of. But it's…faint. We've been farther than this before, haven't we?"
He nodded. "Something's restricting the telepathic link."
"I've got a party tonight." Martha Jones said, interrupting their quiet conversation. They watched her struggling to take in the enormity of what was in front of her. She looked at them. "It's my brother's twenty-first. My mother's going to be really…really…" Her voice broke at the end and she shook her head quickly.
"Are you okay?" the Doctor asked gently.
"Yeah."
"Sure?"
"Yeah."
"Want to go back in? We'll be okay if you—"
"No way," Martha interrupted. "I mean, we could die any minute, but all at the same time…it's beautiful. How many people want to go to the moon? And here we are!"
Rose looked up at the Doctor and smiled. The Doctor's face softened and he slipped is hand into hers. "Here we are," he agreed.
"Almost prettier than Woman Wept," Rose said, turning her gaze to the horizon again. "It's…so small. I mean, I know it's small in the grand scheme…but lookin' at it like this…on the moon!"
"Standing in the earthlight," he murmured.
"You two are a bit comfortable with this. What do you think happened?" Martha asked them.
The Doctor smiled. "What do you think?" Testing her, Rose realized, to see if she was worth keeping around.
Martha considered for a second. "Extraterrestrial," she decided. "It's got to be. I don't know, a few years ago that would've sounded mad, but these days?" she laughed once without humor. "That spaceship flying into Big Ben, Christmas… those… Cybermen things." She paused for a moment. "I had a cousin. Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home."
If she'd been looking, she would've seen Rose flinch as if she'd been struck and the Doctor's expression darken.
"I thought you looked familiar," he murmured.
Martha turned. "What?" she asked quietly.
"Your cousin looked like you, didn't she?"
"What—I mean—how…? Yeah, she did."
The Doctor nodded. "I'm sorry. We were there. In the battle. She was…it was…" he trailed off, unable to find the right words. How could he tell her the that her cousin never came home was because she had been controlled by the Cybermen and was partially responsible for bringing the army into this reality?
"I lost my mum." Rose's voice shook, and the Doctor squeezed her hand comfortingly.
"I'm sorry," Martha said quietly, then swallowed and steeled herself for what had to be done. She was a doctor, they were her patients—like Rose had told Julia—it was her job to keep a level head and to make everything better, even though she didn't have a clue what to do. "I promise you, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be the way."
"It's not Tyler," the Doctor said, pulling away from Rose to look over the sides of the balcony. "That's not my real name."
"Who are you, then?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said. He crossed to the other side and looked over the edge.
"Me too." Martha laughed. "If I can pass my exams. What is it, then, Doctor Tyler?"
"Just the Doctor."
She made a face. "How do you mean, just the Doctor?"
"Just…the Doctor." He said as if he couldn't see the problem with it.
"What, people call you 'the Doctor'?"
"I just call him Doctor," Rose offered.
"Well, I'm not," Martha said stubbornly. "As far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title. And what about you? Is your real name 'the Rose'?"
"No." Rose grinned. "It's just Rose."
"Right, let's have a look." The Doctor leaned down and picked up a pebble then lobbed out into space. "There must be some kind of—" the rock collided with an invisible wall that rippled from the force but remained intact "—force field. Keeping the air in."
They were silent for a moment as they considered this. Rose's blood felt cold. The force field was keeping the air in, protecting them from the vacuum of space. It had to be impenetrable or else the air would escape. But even if she and the Doctor could break through it, they had nowhere to go. There was nothing outside the force field for them. No TARDIS waiting to whisk them to safety. Whatever the fate awaited the people in this place, it was theirs as well.
"Doctor," Rose said quietly as something else dawned on her. "Force fields, they don't create air, do they?"
"No."
"And there's no atmosphere here. Nowhere to get more air from."
"No."
"So…what happens when we run out?"
The Doctor looked at her then, eyes ancient and sad, but with a hint of anger beneath the surface. Without breaking Rose's gaze he asked, "Martha, how many people in this hospital?"
"I don't know. A thousand?"
The Doctor swallowed. "One thousand people. Suffocating. That's what happens."
Rose put her hands over her mouth and closed her eyes. "Oh, God." She sucked in a breath of air sharply. "We're gonna sort this, right, Doctor?"
As the words left her mouth, something rumbled overhead, and Rose recognized the sound of approaching spaceships. Heads snapped up and eyes took in the massive cylindrical ship that passed over the hospital, followed by two identical ones that completely dwarfed the hospital. The Doctor's hand found hers again and squeezed so tightly that Rose could feel the dual pulse thrumming in his veins. Three legs extended from the lower sides of each ship, bending into sturdy legs as they descended. There was something familiar about the ships, Rose realized. She'd seen them before somewhere. A picture maybe?
From inside came the sounds of humans panicking, but the three on the balcony didn't look away from the ships. A hatch dropped down from the bottom of each and out marched a single figure in black, followed by rows of two, each wearing the same outfit, and marching in time. And behind the column, another emerged, identical in shape and size. Rose tried to count and gave up seconds later. There had to be at least two hundred of the hulking black creatures marching towards the hospital, which suddenly felt thin and weak under her feet.
"Aliens," Martha exclaimed. "That's aliens." Rose looked at her and the medical student met her gaze with fear. "Real, proper aliens."
"Judoon." The Doctor said darkly.
Rose's eyes widened and she looked up at him, realizing now why the ships were familiar. It was months ago, the Doctor had landed them on a thriving moon that was famous for its vast collection of every form of art. She'd stepped from the TARDIS, only to be immediately pulled back in by the Doctor. "Oh we're definitely in the wrong time," he'd said, slamming the doors shut, not before she'd glimpsed a gigantic cylindrical ship sitting on a hill in the distance, a menacing presence looming over the city. It had taken a bit of persuading, but she'd finally managed to wheedle out the name of the aliens who used those types of ships.
Judoon. Humanoid rhinos with heads as thick as their skin, intelligent, but daft, and with more than enough muscles. Mercenaries. What did they want with a British hospital?
"Inside," the Doctor barked, pulling her towards the doors. "Now."
"Do you think we can help them?" Rose asked.
"It depends on what they're here for. I'm not going to just waltz up to them if there's a risk they might consider me a target. Martha, where's the closest staircase? We need to get down there and see what it is they want."
"This way, follow me," Martha said and darted through the doors ahead of them. The medical student wasn't wearing the proper shoes for running, nor was she accustomed to the pace the two time travelers set, and they had to slow down to avoid overtaking her. When they reached the staircase, the Doctor took the lead, Rose just behind him, and Martha trailing along in their wake.
"Blimey, you two are fast," she huffed.
"Like I said, you get used to this sort of thing when you're friends with him," Rose said. From below came fresh screams of terror, which meant the Judoon must already be inside.
"Go out that door there," Martha instructed, referring to the door below them where screams were coming from. "There's a balcony overlooking the first floor lobby."
The Doctor pushed the door open and ducked down low as he crept out onto the mezzanine. The two women followed him, Martha easing the door shut, and took in the scene below from behind the cover of potted plants. The Judoon in their full armor, save for one with his mask off revealing an ugly rhino-like face, were moving from person to person, holding their heads and shining a blue light at their faces. Amidst the cries of fear and the beeping of the scanners, gruff voices proclaimed "human" over and over.
The Doctor's attention, however, was on a little stand in the corner. "Oh, look down there, Rose. They've got a little shop. I like a little shop. Remember the hospital on New Earth? They didn't have a shop."
"No," Rose muttered. "Just mad scientist cat nuns and a bitchy trampoline."
"What are you two on about?" Martha looked at them like they'd sprouted extra heads. "Oh, never mind now. What are Judoon?"
"Galactic police. Well, police for hire," the Doctor said, his tone displaying no fondness for them. "More like interplanetary thugs."
"And they brought us to the moon?"
"Neutral territory." The Doctor explained. "According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, and they isolated us. That rain and lightning? That was them, using an H2O scoop."
"What are you on about 'galactic law'? And 'New Earth'?" she asked. "Where'd you get that from?"
The Doctor didn't answer. He stepped out from behind the plants, crouching down behind the glass under the railing to get a better look below. Rose followed him but kept her eyes on Martha. They'd have to tell her soon, she was already getting suspicious. She'd displayed a level head about aliens before now, but how would she react to finding out that one of the two people she'd allied herself with was an alien and both of them were time and space travellers?
"Human." The Judoon continued their scans on the people below. "Human."
"Human, human," Rose muttered. "What else are they expecting to find in an Earth hospital?"
"Something…non-human," the Doctor murmured, glancing at her. "They're cataloguing everyone by species, so they're after something that's not human."
"An alien?" Martha asked. "An alien here? What, disguised as a patient? Are you serious? Are you sure we're not just…trespassing on the moon or something?"
The Doctor looked at her, impressed with the young woman's reasoning the same way he had been with Rose's so long ago in that elevator at Henrick's. "No, but I like that. Good thinking. But no, like I said, this is neutral territory. They're cataloging, and definitely after something non-human."
"So, we'll just have to avoid them," Rose said simply even though it probably wouldn't be. There were hundreds of those things, and they'd be swarming the hospital soon if they weren't already.
"Why?" Martha asked. He looked at her. Martha blinked. "Oh, you're kidding me." The Doctor arched one eyebrow and Rose felt a smile threatening to appear at the amused disbelief on the other woman's face. "Don't be ridiculous."
Rose licked her lips and pressed them together, trying not to laugh. She'd accepted it straight off, so had Donna. Briefly she wondered how the companions before her had reacted. How Sarah Jane had reacted.
The smile faded from Martha's face as she realized he wasn't kidding. "Stop looking at me like that."
"Come on then," he said seriously, taking Rose by the hand. "I never did get a chance to look at those records earlier."
Martha followed them up another few flights of stairs and through the halls. She had nowhere else to go and she was curious about everything, including them. They didn't look alien or sound alien, they were speaking clear English and they sounded like Londoners. But the Judoon were speaking English, too, so that wasn't worth anything. Whatever they were, they were close. They'd admitted her into the hospital under the guise of husband and wife and, looking at them earlier, it had been easy to believe. But Rose had said twice that they were friends, and nothing but the way the Doctor seemed to refuse to let go of her hand and the way they reacted and responded to each other, hinted at anything more. She would ask them later, she decided, if they survived. After all, when else was she going to have a chance to actually talk to a pair of nice aliens?
And dear God, did she hope they were nice and not just playing innocent. It'd be just her luck to end up bundled with them if they were the things those rhinos were after.
The Doctor stopped outside an office and carefully opened the door, peering in. once he was sure the room was empty, he pushed the door open all the way. "I'm going to get to work. Martha, go back to the stairs and keep an eye on them. Rose, stand outside and make sure no one comes in here."
Rose nodded. "Come on."
Martha followed Rose out of the room. The blonde woman leaned against the wall by the door with the same air of confidence that the Doctor radiated, a kind that could only come from experience. Whatever was going on, it was nothing new to them. But for all Martha knew, aliens lived like this all the time, at odds with one another. There certainly seemed to be no shortage of them ready to take over her planet.
Rose watched Martha carefully. The medical student seemed to be considering something and she wasn't heading towards the stairs like she should be.
"Go on," Rose said. "Whatever it is, you can ask. I was like you once."
Martha swallowed. "Okay. Um…you're…both…aliens?"
Rose shook her head immediately at the familiar question. "No. I'm human. That's why I was in the hospital bed and not him."
"He looks human, though, and sounds human," she pointed out. "How do you know he's really an alien?"
Rose arched her eyebrows, unimpressed. "You're supposed to be watching the stairs. Shift."
Martha frowned at her tone and something else that should've been obvious occurred to her. "You're not even really sick, are you?"
Rose only smiled.
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