Sorry for the delay. I've been working on a chapter for my Hunger Games story. I've been seriously neglecting it.
Also, everyone should go check out the event Tally Day on Facebook (facebook dot com/events/409939915760359)
Basically, on April 23rd this year, all Whovians should walk around wearing tally marks on their skin. Freak out Whovians who didn't know and totally weird out the non-believers (everyone else). Go look at the page for more info.
Now enjoy!
It was moments like this—standing just outside the TARDIS in the pouring rain in a back alley after being promised sun, clear skies, and apple grass—that Rose Tyler rued the day she first met a Time Lord who failed his driving test. She shot an angry look at him as she pulled the hood of her favorite gray hoodie over her head.
"Oh that's nice!" Martha grouched, zipping up her jacket. "Time Lord version of dazzling!"
"Nah, bit of rain never hurt anyone." the Doctor insisted. "Come on, let's get under cover!"
The Doctor took Rose's hand and pulled her through the street. It was dirty, like any poor town. Dumpsters here and there, lots of rubbish everywhere, and someone had laundry swinging from a line. Considering his track record, they'd probably ended up on the original Earth in the future.
"Admit it, Doctor, you got the flight wrong again!" she shouted.
"No I didn't! I was trying to go further into the future and not near the hospital. I did it! We are on New Earth, though!"
"Well, it looks like same old Earth to me, on a Wednesday afternoon." Martha informed him.
"Hold on, hold on. Let's have a look." He let go of Rose's hand and ran over to a blank screen in a small, covered alcove. Pulling out the sonic screwdriver, he shined it across the dead screen. Static appeared and he smacked the top of it then an image of a beautiful woman appeared on screen.
"—and the driving should be clear and easy." She was one of those sunny types. Even five billion years in the future they still had people who were chronically cheerful. "With fifteen extra lanes open for the New New Jersey expressway."
The image changed to the view Rose had seen the last time they were here. A bright clear blue sky over the beautiful spiraling buildings of New New York, the sunlight reflecting off the river, as the flying cars zoomed through the air in a beautiful, organized pattern out towards the grass.
She smiled fondly at the memories that view brought back. She and the Doctor had spent time in the grassy hills the first time they arrived. He'd spread his jacket out and they'd laid on the ground, watching the city and sky as the wind had blown their hair, the smell of the apple grass had tickled their noses. She'd marveled at how different he was and how much remained unchanged. Same man. New face. Their first journey since his regeneration, and their first time really alone. She'd been working on sorting her feelings, trying to accept in her heart what she knew in her mind: that the skinny, big-haired, happy man was the same being as the man with short hair and big ears who liked to brood. She'd been getting there, but it was on that hill that she really fell in love again.
"Oh that's more like it! That's the view we had last time." He tapped the screen then peered out from under the cover of the alcove. "This must be the lower levels, down in the base of the tower. Some sort of under-city."
"You've brought me to the slums?" Martha asked huffily. "My first trip into the future and he brings me to the projects."
"Hey, don't forget, my first trip, he took me to the bloody end of the world," Rose reminded her.
"Oh, the slums!" She gave him a thumbs-up. "This is great, Doctor!"
He grinned, either missing the sarcasm or ignoring it. "Isn't it? Much more interesting down here, anyway. It's all cocktails and glitter up there. This is the real city."
"You'd enjoy anything," she muttered.
"That's me. Oh, the rain's stopping! Better and better!"
"Doctor, you said sunlight and apple grass. I see neither. Let's get back in the TARDIS and try to land up top, yeah?"
A noise behind her caused Rose to jump. She spun around, backing towards the Doctor as a part of one of the walls behind lifted up revealing a tall man in what looked like some sort of stall. "Oh! You should have said!" the man greeted. "How long you been there? Happy! You want Happy." He ducked behind the counter and another stall opened up behind them.
"Customers!" a very dark woman shouted down to another stall. "Customers! We've got customers!"
A grinning plump woman opened that stall. "We're in business! Mother, open up the Mellow, and the Read!"
"Happy, Happy, lovely happy Happy!" the man held up some packets and shook them.
"Anger! Buy some Anger!" the dark woman held out a packet as well.
"Get some Mellow," the plump woman told them with a smile. "Makes you feel all bendy and soft all day long!"
"Don't go to them. They'll rip you off," the man said to the potential customers. "Do you want some Happy?"
"No, thanks," the Doctor responded flatly.
Rose looked up at him. "What's this? They didn't have this last time."
"Are they selling drugs?" Martha asked.
The Doctor slowly turned, looking from one stall to the next, and murmured, "I think they're selling moods."
"Same thing, isn't it?"
"Hey, Doctor…five quid says that Sally woman from the screen's on Happy." Rose muttered, trying to lighten the mood. Before the Doctor could respond the cries of the vendors picked up with new vigor at the arrival of a thin, pale-faced woman wearing a dark coat and a scarf over her head. They beckoned to her almost like she was a dog wanting a bone. She headed for the friendliest-looking of the vendors: the plump woman with a nice smile.
"I want to buy Forget," she quietly told the vendor, looking up at the woman behind the counter like she was her savior.
"I've got Forget, my darling. What strength? How much you want forgetting?"
"It's my mother and father. They went on the motorway."
"Oh, that's a swain." The vendor frowned sympathetically and reached behind her and produced a small round slip, holding it out to the woman. "Try this. Forget 43. That's two credits."
The woman accepted the Forget 43 and gratefully handed over the money. She turned away, looking down at the tiny strip in her hand like it was precious.
"Sorry," the Doctor walked towards her, holding out his hand. She looked up. "But—hold on a minute. What happened to your parents?"
"They drove off," the woman explained.
"Yeah, but…they might drive back?"
The woman shook her head, her eyes full of sorrow. "Everyone goes to the motorway in the end. I've lost them."
"But they can't have gone far. You could find them."
The woman looked at him for a second, shaking her head, and with a sigh she pressed the patch to her neck.
"No, no—no, don't!"
Too late. The woman's grief melted away so suddenly, so entirely, that it was like it'd never been there at all. She smiled serenely, a vacant look in her eyes. Her voice was lighter, more feathery than it had been a second before, "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
"Your parents. Your mother and father—they're on the motorway."
"Are they?" she shrugged. "That's nice."
Rose's lips parted in disbelief. Impossible. That was impossible. She knew the kind of grief that woman had been feeling. The aching loss of losing one's parents. She'd felt it after holding Pete as he died and after saying goodbye to her mother. It was not something you could just get over in a matter of seconds. That—that…thing, whatever it was, it had made her forget the grief, or her emotions towards her parents, or something like that. It was wrong.
"I'm sorry, I won't keep you." The woman gave them another smile then drifted away, seeming quite out of it. They watched her go.
"So that's the human race five billion years in the future." Martha sounded disgusted. Rose turned to look at her sadly. It was hard, she remembered, realizing how ugly things could be. "Off their heads on chemicals."
If she hadn't been looking, Rose wouldn't have seen them coming. Two figures moved in the smoke behind Martha, approaching quickly, and her stomach clenched in alarm. She didn't stop to think, diving forward to pull Martha back. She grabbed her arms, but her momentum caused them to swing around so when the two figures arrived it was Rose who found herself being grabbed from behind. Before she could react there was an arm was around her neck and she was stuck.
Martha screamed at the same time Rose gasped and the Doctor whirled around. His eyes locked onto hers for a moment before his face twisted with fury. "LET HER GO!" he roared.
"I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry!" the man who was holding her said. "We just need three, that's all!"
"Get the hell off me!" Rose screamed, struggling against his grip.
"I'm warning you—let her go!" the Doctor shouted.
"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!"
"GET OFF!"
"Let her go! Rose! LET HER GO!"
Rose gritted her teeth, clenched her fist, and rammed her elbow into her captor's stomach. She felt his grip loosen and she hit him again and was able to turn. She slammed her foot down onto his before breaking his grip and shoving him into the side of the rubbish bin. She darted past the woman into the safety of the Doctor's arms. He her protectively for a second and then pushed her behind him. The two would-be kidnappers abruptly found themselves facing an angry Time Lord and on the business end of a sonic screwdriver.
"How dare you!" he shouted at them. The sonic screwdriver buzzed and the guns in their hands shuddered. They dropped them with cries of pain and the Doctor's face twisted in disgust. "They're not even real. Oh, that's clever, but trying to snatch her definitely was not."
"We're sorry," the woman sniveled. "Please, we only need three."
"Three for what?!" the Doctor demanded, stepping closer and pointing the screwdriver at her.
The man put his arm between her in the Doctor. "No! Please, we didn't—we just need three."
"You're not being very clear here, but I think you're smart enough to understand what kind of trouble you're in. You just threatened someone I care about and that is not a smart thing to do. So you better answer me now and you'd better tell the truth, because this is your one and only chance to save yourselves. Three. For. WHAT?"
"For the fast lane!" the man screamed. "What else?!"
"What's the fast lane? Is that part of this motorway?"
"Y-you—how do you not know what the motorway is?"
"We're from out of town," the Doctor growled between his teeth. "Why do you need three?"
"To get access to the fast lane you have to have three adults onboard. No one we know is willing to go with us so—"
"So you thought you'd just come along and snatch Rose so you could get where you're going a bit faster?"
He was furious. Martha had thought she'd seen him angry when Shakespeare accused Rose of witchcraft, but now she realized he'd only been ticked off. This—this was anger. Everything about him, from his expression to the way his fingers clenched around the sonic screwdriver, screamed of his fury at the two humans would darehurt Rose. Briefly, Martha wondered if she would ever find someone willing to defend her this way. The Doctor would kill these people, she realized, if they didn't convince him otherwise, and Rose was just standing there, letting him.
"We would've let her go," the woman assured him. "She could've come back once we got there. We wouldn't have hurt her."
"And you think that gives you the right to kidnap her?" the Doctor spat furiously, turning the screwdriver towards her.
The woman flinched away and the man moved to shield her more with his body, but not before Martha saw her hands protectively cover her stomach. Her eyes widened in shock. The only time she'd ever seen do that was if she was hurt or—
"Doctor!"
"WHAT?"
"Doctor, stop it for a second! Just stop!"
The Doctor turned his head, teeth bared at frustration. Martha looked at him pleadingly. He exhaled through his nose, waiting. She held up her hands calmingly and walked slowly towards the sobbing couple like they were a pair of wounded animals. They inched away at her approach.
"My name's Martha," she told them. "I'm a doctor. What are your names?"
"I'm…I'm Milo," the man said after a moment. He was a tall bloke, though not as tall as the Doctor, light skinned with close-cropped dark hair. "This is Cheen, my wife." She was just taller than Martha, with wavy brown hair past her shoulders.
"Cheen, are you pregnant?" Martha asked.
The woman nodded slowly, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Is that why you need to get to where you're going quickly?"
She nodded again. "Yes. We…we only just found out last week. Scan says it's going to be a boy. We—we couldn't stay here."
"Well, congratulations." They both smiled. Martha turned to look at the Doctor who'd calmed slightly. "I think you can put that down, now, Doctor."
"I thought you were the doctor," Cheen said.
"No, I'm a doctor. His name is the Doctor. Long story. But he's not gonna hurt you now, is he?" She threw him a pointed look.
Rose finally moved then. She took two steps forward and put her hand on the Doctor's back between his shoulder blades. Martha watched a tiny ripple pass through his body and the Doctor exhaled loudly, lowering the screwdriver. His glare lingered on them for a moment then he turned around and pulled Rose into a firm hug, burying his face in her hair. He'd calmed down enough that she no longer feared for the couple's lives, but his anger was still there, waiting.
Martha let them have a moment, addressing the would-be kidnappers to draw their attention away. "That wasn't very smart, trying to take Rose. You're lucky I caught on about the baby. He doesn't take kindly to people that try to hurt her."
"We weren't gonna hurt her," Milo mumbled.
"And, we were actually going for you." Cheen admitted. "She got in the way."
Martha had a good retort coming on, but just then the vendors seemed to realize the drama was over and no one was getting dragged off or murdered.
"Hey, you lot! You all want some Happy now?"
"I've got lots of Mellow! You could do with a bit of Mellow, I think!"
"Oh, put a sock in it!" the Doctor bellowed at them and the vendors, having witnessed the skinny stranger when he was angry, wisely shut up.
He turned to Milo and Cheen, keeping one arm firmly around Rose's waist. "You're just trying to provide for your unborn child, is that it?"
Milo nodded. "Yeah. We're heading to Brooklyn. Everyone says the air is so much cleaner there."
"And you can actually go, well, outside." Cheen added excitedly. "They say the sky is blue…and the sun is warm…and that the air smells like apple grass."
"It does—wait, hang on." Rose held up her finger. "You mean to say…you've never seen the sky?"
Cheen and Milo shook their heads. "No one has, not in our lifetimes anyway."
Martha felt a bit sick at the thought. Never seeing the sky, not once in your whole life? Never feeling the sun? "You're bluffing," she accused. "That's impossible. How could you have never seen the sun?"
"I'm not lying. Look," she lifted her hair, revealing one of those mood patches on her neck. "Honesty patch."
"You idiot! You're pregnant and you've got weird drugs in your system?" Martha reached forward and ripped the vile thing from Cheen's neck and the woman yelped quietly in pain. "Don't use those while you're pregnant. Your baby could come out with—with three eyes or something!"
"That's not as odd as you think," the Doctor told her quietly. "You and Rose, you're the only two pure humans alive today. Everyone else, all the hundreds of billions of humans alive all across the universe, they've all got a bit of something else in them, somewhere along the line."
"You're kidding."
"Nope!" he responded cheerfully. "You lot, you're compatible with almost anything. That's why you've survived this long. Anyway," his tone darkened. "There is something seriously wrong here. I need to hear the full story. Everything you know. And then, then, I may be able to help you get to Brooklyn."
"What? Right here, right now?" Milo glanced around the street.
"Unless you've got some place better."
"Our home," Cheen offered. "It's a bit small but we'll all fit."
"Then let's go," the Doctor said, unsmiling.
Milo and Cheen picked up their fake guns and motioned for the three time travelers to follow them towards a door.
"Sure you don't want some Happy?" the plump vendor offered to their retreating forms. "Then you'll be smiling, my loves!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and turned around, glaring at each of the three people in the stalls. "Word of advice, all of you. Cash up. Close down. And pack your bags."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because as soon as I've figured out what the hell is going on this planet—and I will—then I'm coming back and this street is closing. Tonight." He gave each of them another look then spun back around and followed the group out.
Milo and Cheen's home wasn't exactly what they'd expected.
"Welcome to car 4-6-5-diamond-6," Milo gestured to the thing that resembled a train car. Cheen pulled a sliding door open in the side and motioned them in.
The Doctor didn't move, his arm around Rose. "I thought you said we were going to your home."
"This is our home now," Cheen explained. "When we decided we had to get away from here we sold our flat and all the belongings we didn't really need to afford the car and our supplies." She rubbed her hand up and down the side of the doorway for a moment. "Home sweet home."
"If you try to take off with us inside, you'll never reach the motorway," he promised.
They nodded and Milo climbed into the car. The Doctor followed, helping Rose and Martha in, then Cheen. "Sorry, you'll have to stand or sit on the floor. I'm afraid there's not much room." Milo apologized from the driver's seat. "It's an older model. It's all we could afford."
Cheen started to shut the door but the Doctor stopped her. "I'd prefer if you left that open."
She lifted her hands from the handle and backed away. "We're not gonna drive off, honestly." she huffed as she dropped into the seat next to her husband.
"You tried to kidnap one of my companions. I'm sure it's not too hard to see why I don't exactly trust you."
"We really are sorry."
"Hmm," he muttered, noting the various boxes they had piled in there. "You said you were heading to Brooklyn? Well, that's not far. Why do you need all this stuff? What's this…" he picked up a package from one boxes and looked at it. "Muscle stimulants?" he rummaged around a bit more. "Diapers? Baby clothes? …You couldn't get this stuff when you get to Brooklyn?"
"Don't be daft," Milo laughed. "There wouldn't be any point then."
"Why? You've got at least six months, depending on how human you both are, until the baby comes. You should be settled by then."
Milo and Cheen exchanged disbelieving looks. "They don't know," Milo murmured. "Oh my God, you really don't know? About anything?"
"I know more things than you could ever imagine," the Doctor told him. "But regarding what's going on here and now, I know absolutely nothing and I'm really starting to get annoyed. Talk."
"The Fast Lane makes the journey shorter, but it's still ten miles travel." Cheen explained.
"So?" Martha tilted her head. "That's not far. How long's it gonna take?"
"About six years."
A beat of silence passed then the Doctor surged forward. "What do you mean six years? Why would traveling ten miles take six years? And hang on—you said you were gonna let her go when you got there. Do you mean to say you would've kept her for six years in this tiny bin of a car?"
An angry Doctor and in a tiny space was not a good thing, and though she wasn't to thrilled at the realization she might've been trapped in here for over half a decade, it wasn't going to happen and he couldn't punish them for something they didn't do. Rose grabbed the Doctor by the hand and yanked him back between her and Martha before he could go off on a tirade or worse. "Doctor," she said firmly. "Stop it."
The Doctor met her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, squeezing her hand, then looked at the couple in the front seat. "I haven't been here in a while. Did you ever hear about a big incident at the New New York Hospital involving the Sisterhood?"
"Oh yeah," Cheen nodded. "Everyone has. My cousin married one of those New Humans. Nice guy, a bit slow, but she loves him."
"How long has it been since then?"
"About thirty years."
"Okay," he nodded. "So tell me everything you know about the past thirty years, the motorway, those mood patches…everything."
Milo and Cheen told him about the way things worked in the Undercity. The various areas like Pharmacy Town and Lower New Midtown; what passed for school; all about the mood patches. They were streetwise, both of them, but they didn't know as much about why the way things were the way they were. Like, they knew the walkways and flyovers were closed, sealing them off from the Uppercity, everyone did, but no one knew exactly why. Just like no one knew why the police never responded. If you called you were always put on hold. People had turned to citizen's arrest or just sorting things themselves if they had to. Crime in the city was diminishing as more people went to the motorway, where the crime rates were escalating.
"So…there's not contact from the Uppercity? Ever?" Martha asked. "No police, no medics? No official broadcasts?"
"Well, there's the news," Milo said. "Sally Calypso's always on time with the weather and conditions and stuff."
"Sally Calypso? That woman on the screen?"
"Yeah, that's her."
"But no police?" The Doctor looked at the car's communication terminal. "So if I were to ring them right now…I wouldn't get anything?"
"They'd put you on hold."
The Doctor looked disturbed. "Since when do police put people on hold?"
"Since at least twenty years ago, I'd wager." Cheen leaned back in her seat, staring out the window.
"Tell me about the motorway."
And so they did. People wanting out of the Undercity hopped on the motorway and once they did, you'd probably never see them again. Which explained the woman's behavior earlier. Dozens of ordinary lanes, only one fast lane—supposedly you could get up to thirty miles per hour down there! There were hundreds, thousands of cars on the motorway, all of them trying to get somewhere. Sometimes people would put on oxygen masks and stand on the laybys to watch the cars do nothing, make bets on how long it would take for something to happen, or talk to people in the nearby cars who risked opening their doors for a quick chat, possibly to ask for fresh food.
"Hang on," Milo interrupted Cheen's tale of the one time she'd been paid to fetch some food for a family in a car. He was looking at the clock. "Time for the daily contemplation, or thereabouts." He turned the car on and the Doctor whipped out the sonic screwdriver.
"Oi, easy!" Milo shouted. "I have to have the car on for the screen to work. Look, see?" The woman from before, Sally Calypso, was on screen and talking. He flicked a switch and the speakers hummed to life.
"—the sun is blazing high in the sky over the New Atlantic, the perfect setting for the daily contemplation." She wasn't as cheerful as she'd been before. A soft melody began to play over the speakers. It sounded vaguely familiar. "This is for all of you out there on the roads. We're so sorry. Drive safe."
Then Milo and Cheen started singing. From outside the car, from the speakers themselves, other voices could be heard as well—hundreds of voices, thousands, maybe millions—all singing the words of a song billions of years old, from Earth, together.
On a hill, far away
Stood an old, rugged cross
The emblem of suffering and shame.
Rose knew the song. She'd never been particularly religious, though she and Jackie had been to church every now and then. Usually it was only for Christmas or weddings or occasionally just out of the blue. But she'd heard the hymn in service once or twice; she'd tried her best to sing well (if there really was a God, she didn't want to offend him by singing off-key) and remembered her mum softly singing with her. She closed her eyes, imagining she could hear her mother singing along with these people now. The people of the Undercity, who, she was beginning to realize, were trapped down here.
Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She looked at Martha and saw that she was similarly affected. The Doctor simply looked out the doorway, his expression neutral.
And I love that old cross
Where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
She could feel the Doctor's body next to hers. She could imagine her mum was standing on her other side, just not close enough for touch.
So I'll cherish the old, rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old, rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.
The hymn ended, Milo shut off the car, and silence fell. Martha wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and eased herself onto the floor. The Doctor held Rose close as the tears continued to drip from her eyes, moved by the hymn and her response. He rubbed his hand soothingly up and down her back and gradually her tears stopped.
"She apologized before," Rose's quiet voice broke the silence. "Why did she apologize?"
"We dunno," Cheen murmured. "She apologizes a lot…but never says what for. Everything, I suppose."
The Doctor's voice ended the somber spell in the car. "I'll take you to Brooklyn. You and anything in here you'll need. Sell the rest, get your money back—we won't be able to fit your car through the doors of our ship but you can buy a new one there. You'll be seeing the sky before long."
"You can actually get us out of here?" Milo asked.
"Of course!"
"How?"
"Same way we got in."
Cheen narrowed her eyes. "At what cost? How do we pay you?"
"You don't have to," the Doctor promised. "Just get packing."
A shape appeared in the doorway, head down, dressed in all gray, and with a big gun over its shoulder. It started to climb into the car and Cheen screamed. The Doctor turned, raising his screwdriver in one fluid movement.
"Don't move a muscle!"
The figure froze then lifted its head. It was one of the Catkind—female, by the look of her. When her eyes found the Doctor they lit up and she smiled, both relieved and desperate at the same time. "Praise Santori! You've finally come back, Doctor! You have to come with me right now!"
"Do I know you?"
"You haven't aged at all," she murmured in quiet amazement. She noticed Rose standing at the Doctor's shoulder. "Nor you, Rose Tyler. Exactly the same as when I last saw you. Time has been less kind to me." She looked down meekly.
"Oh my God," Martha whispered. "She's a cat."
"Novice Hame!" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly, recognizing her. He shoved the screwdriver into his pocket and reached forward to embrace her, grinning for a moment, then his grin fell away and he shoved her back. "No, hold on, get off. Last time we met, you were breeding humans for experimentation."
"She was doing what?"
"Are you one of them that created the New Humans?" Cheen asked, peering over the top of her seat.
"I…I was one of the Sisterhood," Novice Hame admitted. "But I've sought forgiveness, Doctor, for so many years, under his guidance. And if you come with me, I might finally be able to redeem myself."
"I'll come later," he told her. "I'm taking these two to Brooklyn."
"Oh, but you can't!" she cried. "There's nothing there! Nothing anywhere but here, nothing but these people."
"Are you referring to the lack of official authority for the last twenty years?"
"Twenty-four years, actually, and whatever they've told you, believe me, the situation is even worse than you can possibly imagine."
He considered her for a moment. "Fine, but they're coming with me."
"I only have enough power for two."
"Then I'm not going. I am not just leaving them here."
"Oh, but you must!"
"Go with her, Doctor," Rose instructed. "We'll stay here and help them load into to the TARDIS."
"But—"
"Go."
"Thank you, Rose Tyler." Novice Hame didn't wait, grabbing the Doctor's wrist with one hand and pressing a button on her wristband.
"Oi! Don't do that—" the Doctor started to say and then they vanished into a burst of white light.
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