Ugh so guess who's sick as a dog? This girl. This is my third cold in four months so they've put me on antibiotics so this go round doesn't end up as bad as the last one.
Please read the bottom AN because there's a something you all need to see! :D
It was nearing eight o'clock as the three time travelers strolled down the street towards Lazarus Laboratories. Martha's heels clicked against the concrete and Rose's skirt billowed in the breeze. The Doctor repeatedly fussed with the cuffs on his shirt and his tie until Rose stepped in front of him and they stopped so she could fix it.
"Oh, whenever I wear this, something bad always happens." he grumbled, lifting his chin so she could work.
Martha shook her head. "It's not the outfit, that's just you."
"Thanks."
"But I think it suits you. In a James Bond kind of way."
"James Bond?" the Doctor asked scathingly. Rose finished straightening the tie and smoothed down the shoulders of his jacket. He smiled at her and they continued on their way, this time with Rose's arm looped through is. Being compared to James Bond must've actually seemed like a good thing because he added almost hopefully, "Really?"
Martha laughed.
"Well, you're certainly no Spock," Rose said.
"You're right. I'm a lot better than Spock."
The front of the building was a great stone edifice with columns, arched windows, and a great door in the middle with LAZARUS LABORATORIES etched into the stone at the top. Two purple banners hung between the columns and a red carpet decorated the middle of the grand stone steps. A few members of the press waited behind a divider, snapping pictures of the guests as they strolled up the carpeted stairs. Behind the original stone building was a more modern looking structure with large glass windows instead of walls. From here they could make out dozens of computers and what looked like a small library, but nothing that really screamed of a research and development company.
The small group of press noticed them coming and when they got close enough they began snapping pictures and asking for names. Martha turned her head away automatically, Rose gave them a friendly smile, and the Doctor chose to ignore them in favor of a more important topic.
"If I'm James Bond," he began as they mounted the steps. "I'm gonna need a theme song."
"Oh, yeah." Rose nodded. "Definitely."
"Any ideas?"
They thought about it and then Martha started humming the original Scooby Doo opening. Rose burst into laughter and the Doctor looked down at his newest companion indignantly.
"Oi!" he cried.
Martha smiled at him continued humming until they reached the podium where a man was checking for names on the invitation list. She took a deep breath and prepared a cheerful smile. When the man asked for her name she said, "Martha Jones. My sister is Leticia Jones, she said I had an invite."
The man scanned the list and nodded after a moment. "Yes, there you are. And you two?"
"We're with her," the Doctor answered cheerily, pulling the psychic paper from his pocket. "I'm Sir Doctor and this is Dame Rose." He flipped it open and held it up for the man to see. He peered at it for a second, glancing at the two of them, and bit the inside of his lip.
"You're only allowed one guest, luv," the man told Martha. "However, I'll make an exception just this once." He waved them past.
The little gala was in full swing on the third floor in a reception room with glass walls on two sides. The room was professional and aesthetically pleasing if one could ignore the tables of equipment and the hulking cylindrical capsule surrounded by four curved pillars sitting in the center of everything. The guests were milling around it, a pleasant hum of civilized conversation over the gentle music being played by a live string quartet. Serving staff with trays and smartly dressed photographers moved through the crowd, passing out hors d'oeuvres and snapping pictures of people and the great thing in the middle of the room.
The Doctor eyed it with trepidation and Rose guessed he probably knew what it was on sight alone. She, however, had no idea what she was looking at. It was just another bloody thing that would probably cause them all sorts of grief because that's the way things worked in their life.
"This dress," the Doctor said in her ear, causing Rose to start in surprise. She turned and smiled at him. He fingered one of the straps. "Where did you find it?"
"The wardrobe. I was just browsing one day and there it was. I guess she knew I'd like it."
He smiled warmly at her. "You look beautiful, Rose."
"Considering I'm human, right?"
The Doctor shook his head and murmured, "Considering nothing."
He noticed something out of the corner of his eye and his attention was drawn to a server with a tray passing them. "Oh, look, they've got nibbles!" he chirped, reaching out to snatch a few off the tray. "I love nibbles!"
He handed one to Rose and popped another in his mouth without even bothering to check what it was. She rolled her eyes fondly.
"Hello!" a feminine voice said behind them and Rose turned.
"Tish!" Martha cried happily, hugging her sister. Tish took a step back and looked at Martha's ensemble.
"You look great. So, what do you think? Impressive, isn't it?"
She nodded. "Very."
Rose noticed the Doctor snag more nibbles from another passing tray and sighed. He blinked at her, completely oblivious, and she just shook her head fondly.
"And two nights out in a row for you—that's dangerously close to a social life."
"If I keep this up, I'll end up in all the gossip columns." Martha replied sarcastically.
"You might, actually. You should keep an eye out for photographers. And Mum, she's coming too—even dragging Leo along with her."
Martha's eyebrows shot upwards. "Leo, in black tie? That I must see."
Tish seemed to notice Rose and the Doctor for the first time and glanced between them and her sister. Martha got the hint.
"This is, uh, the Doctor and his, um, colleague, Rose." She threw a quick glance at Rose, wondering if she should've gone with the routine husband/wife cover.
"Hey." Rose smiled at her.
"Hullo!" the Doctor chirped, mouth full of food, reaching out to shake her hand. Tish shook it and smiled pleasantly.
"Are they with you?"
"Yeah."
"But they're not on the list. How'd they get in?"
"They're my guests. I know I'm only supposed to have one but they both really wanted to come."
"So," the Doctor interjected, coming to her rescue. "This Lazarus bloke, he's your boss?"
"Professor Lazarus, yes. I'm part of his executive staff."
Martha rolled her eyes at her sister. "She's in the PR department."
"I'm head of the PR department, actually." Tish corrected haughtily.
"You're joking."
"I put this whole thing together."
"So, do you know what the professor's gonna be doing tonight?" the Doctor interrupted again and Rose took the opportunity to snatch one of the remaining hors d'oeuvres from his hand. He didn't even seem to notice. "That looks like it might be a sonic microfield manipulator."
"He's a science geek. I should've known." Tish glanced slyly at her sister. "Got to get back to work now. I'll catch up with you later." She smiled once more at her sister then strolled off, her heels clicking against the ground.
The Doctor swallowed the food in his mouth and asked, "'Science geek' – what does that mean?"
"That you're obsessively enthusiastic about it." Martha said.
He grinned, liking the description. "Oh. Nice."
"She just called you a nerd, Doctor." Rose pointed out.
"There is nothing wrong with nerds, Rose Tyler. Some of the greatest inventions in human history are thanks to nerds. Now, let's go and get a closer look at this, shall we? Ooh—I haven't tried those yet," he added to himself, watching another tray go by. He started after it but Rose held out her arm to stop him.
"Ah, ah, Doctor. Focus. You check out the sonic micro-thing, I'll chase down the tray."
"'Sonic micro-thing?' Really, that's the best you can come up with?"
Rose rolled her eyes and pointed at the machine then hurried off to catch the serving girl with the tray.
"Well?" Martha asked. "What do you think?"
"I think she looks beautiful," he said quietly, staring after her.
"What?" Martha blinked and caught on a second later. "No, I didn't mean about Rose. I meant about this bloody great thing."
"Huh? Oh! Right, sorry. Um…yeah…probably, a sonic microfield manipulator—I'd say about a ninety-five percent chance. A very crude model, but given the current time and technology, I suppose it's not too shabby. But…" he trailed off, walking towards it. "What could he possibly do with this that would change what it means to be human?"
"I dunno," Martha murmured.
The Doctor stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and rocked back on his heels, staring intently at it. Martha alternated between looking at him, the machine, and watching for Rose to come back until a familiar voice called her name. She turned and saw her brother, Leo, wearing a suit and black tie as Tish had said, and on his arm was her—
"Mum!" she gasped, hurdling towards her with her arms outstretched. She wrapped her in a fierce hug, never having been more grateful to see her mother in her entire life. She felt her eyes burn as tears threatened to build and she blinked them away quickly. It felt like it'd been ages since she'd seen her. There'd been moments when she'd been afraid she never would again.
"Alright," her mum said, cradling her head. "What's the occasion?"
"What do you mean? I'm…just pleased to see you, that's all."
"You saw me last night."
Oh, God, it really has been only a day for her. She tilted her head innocently. "I know. I just…miss you." She shrugged and turned to her brother, tapping his chest fondly. "You're looking good, Leo."
He chuckled, "Yeah, if anyone asks me to fetch them a drink, I'll swing for them."
Unfortunately, Francine's attention was suddenly preoccupied by the man standing behind her daughter who was watching their exchange too intently for someone just casually eavesdropping. "You disappeared last night," she mused, eyeing the man.
"I…just went home."
"On your own?" she probed, looking at her daughter disapprovingly, and glanced at the Doctor again.
Martha groaned inwardly. She couldn't put it off now that her mum had seen him. She just wished she could've introduced him and Rose together. She could only imagine what her mum was speculating. "This is a friend of mine, the Doctor."
"Doctor what?"
"No, it's just the Doctor. We've been doing some work together."
"Yeah, alright?" Leo reached out to shake his hand and the Doctor returned the gesture with a friendly smile.
"Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Jones," he said, shaking her hand as well. "Heard a lot about you."
"Have you?" she asked coolly. "What have you heard, then?"
Rose couldn't have timed her return more perfectly if she'd tried. She strolled up, her hands cupped around a few little delicacies with she promptly held out to the Time Lord whom she had unwittingly just saved from what had promised to be an awkward conversation. "Here you are, then, Doctor. Oi, only one of each, the others are ours."
The Doctor took two and looked them over curiously. "Oh, look, this one's got a banana slice in it! That's brilliant." He tossed it into his mouth, grinning as he chewed.
Rose held out her hands to Martha so she could take her two and flashed a bright smile at Francine. "Hello! You must be Martha's mum! And her brother, Leo—right? I'd shake your hand but mine aren't free at the mo."
"And who might you be?" Francine asked, her eyes narrowing further.
Rose gave her one of her brightest smiles, the kind that usually won people over. "Oh, I'm Rose Tyler. Nice to meet you."
"Are you a friend of my daughter's as well?"
"Yeah, I'd like to think so. She's been helpin' us with our work."
"She's absolutely brilliant," the Doctor added with his mouth full of food.
"Oh?" Francine arched one eyebrow. "And what sort of work do you do?"
They were saved from having to answer by someone tapping a glass with a spoon to call attention. "Ladies and gentlemen!"
They all turned to face Professor Lazarus who stood in front of the capsule as the lights went dim. The murmur of voices died, the music faded, and cameras clicked and flashed.
"I am Professor Richard Lazarus, and tonight I am going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you'll awake to a world which will be changed forever."
Rose and the Doctor glanced at each other nervously. His eyes were hard and hers were a tiny bit afraid.
Lazarus turned and pulled open the door to the cylindrical capsule and stepped inside. Cameras continued to click and flash, capturing this momentous moment, and stopped only when he shut the door behind him. The lab assistants moved about behind the tables, flipping switches and pressing buttons, and the machine flared to life with a high-pitched whine and a near-blinding white light. Everyone flinched. People moved to shield their eyes, Rose included, and the whine increased.
The four pillars stretched upward and started to rotate, moving in a circle around the capsule. An energy field began to build up, light flashing and crackling within. Faster and faster the pillars rotated, the hum of the machine combining with the whirl of the air being stirred up within. Rings of light shot up the capsule and what looked like a ball of water was building up at the top, spilling downward. Light flashed and crackled. Only the Doctor stood firm in it all.
Then a klaxon began to blare.
Not good! Rose thought, shielding her eyes against a particularly painful flash of light. "Something's wrong. It's overloading!" She heard the Doctor shout. The building around them began to shake and people cried out in alarm and terror.
The technicians tried to shut it down but the equipment was exploding around them. The Doctor hurdled over the tables, whipping out his sonic screwdriver. Rose nearly toppled over when another tremor shook them but Leo caught her by the arms. She saw Martha and her mother clinging to each other for support and she met Martha's terrified gaze for a moment before whipping her head around to look for the Doctor. His face was intense as he worked to shut the machine down.
An old woman screamed for someone to stop him.
"If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it!" the Doctor shouted back at her. "Is that what you want?!"
The water was spilling over the capsule now and the pillars whizzed around it faster than ever. The machine crackled and whined. The Doctor leaped over the table again and with an almighty yank, he ripped a thick black chord from the back of one of the controls and the machine slowed to a stop. The light stopped flashing, the water disappeared as the energy field dissipated, and the pillars slowed to a stop, returning to their original positions.
Martha pulled away from her mother and ran up to the capsule at the same time the Doctor rounded it, shouting, "Get it open!"
Rose felt Leo release her arms and she darted over to the Doctor as Martha wrenched the door of the capsule open. The crowd drifted forward. Through the smoke, a figured emerged. The cameras flashed wildly, capturing the image of the man that stood before them. He had to be only thirty, thirty-five at best. Young, handsome, and blonde—nothing like the old man who had stepped inside the capsule just minutes ago. He looked at his hands and touched one to his face in amazement. He laughed then emerged fully from the capsule and stood proudly in front of his machine.
"Ladies and gentlemen…I am Richard Lazarus. I am 76 years old…and I am reborn!" he shouted, spreading his arms wide over his head in triumph.
Photographers snapped photos wildly and people cheered and applauded at the miracle they had witnessed. A human being had successfully defied the laws of nature and turned back his biological clock. If Rose hadn't seen it herself she wouldn't have believed it. She still almost didn't believe it, except that when she looked at the Doctor's face, she saw an expression of foreboding that spoke volumes. Lazarus descended into the crowd and they welcomed him like a hero. Everyone wanted to shake his hand, to talk to him, to have his or her photo taken with him: the old man who became young again.
Francine and Leo were lost with the crowd, or perhaps they just went to find Tish. Which was perfectly fine with Martha. It gave the Doctor a chance to examine the machine without being harassed by her mother. He couldn't do much more than look at the exteriorly visible mechanics since attempting to disassemble it, scan it with the screwdriver, or lick it would get him promptly hauled off.
"That can't be the same guy," Martha said to Rose. "That's impossible. It must be a trick."
"I don't think so," she replied.
"It's not," the Doctor agreed. "I wish it were."
Martha turned to face them. "What just happened, then?"
The Doctor inhaled through his teeth, watching Lazarus getting his picture taking. "He just changed what it means to be human."
Rose sighed. "Well…considering all the things he could've done, this isn't that bad, right?"
The Doctor looked at her gravely. "Maybe. Or maybe it's far worse than we know. To do what he's done…he's been altered at the molecular level. Human beings shouldn't be playing with their genes—not in this century or the next—and especially not at his stage in life. In 23rd century they produce the first genetic altering apparatus. It allows parents to choose what generic traits their child will display while it's still in the womb. The gender they have no control over, but they can pick hair color, eye color, and even metabolism levels from their potential genes. Remarkable technology but that's the earliest form of reliable genetic altercations and it's only safe during the first trimester. After that and, well, you could've asked for a ginger and wound up with your baby having orange skin and blood red hair."
He shook his head, his eyes following Lazarus' progression through the room the way anyone would watch a poisonous snake. "This kind of thing won't be possible for several million years and even then it's only successfully halts your aging for about two to five years and if anyone does it more than once a decade they usually end up regressed entirely to an infant…or they're aged to a husk." he added, shrugging. "It's tricky business, messing with DNA."
"What about Cassandra?" Rose asked. "She was over two thousand years old, wasn't she?"
He made a face. "Well, yeah, but she was also born billions of years in the future. By then anti-aging is practically child's play, if you can afford it. In some societies anti-aging procedures start when you turn five. You don't become an adult until you're fifty."
"Hey," Martha snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. The Doctor frowned at her crossly. "Save the lectures for later and focus, thank you. What are we going to do about him?"
The Doctor took a deep breath and his cheeks puffed out as he exhaled. "Well, first we find out how much he knows about what he's done. Come on."
They'd lost sight of Lazarus when Martha drew their attention to her so they circled the room, looking for the thick cluster of people that he'd had around him. Instead they found him off to the side with an old woman and a tray in his hand, shoving one snack after the other into his mouth.
"I'm famished!" they heard him say.
"Energy deficit," the Doctor explained and Lazarus turned in surprise. "Always happens with this kind of process."
"You talk as if you see this every day, mister…"
"Doctor. And, well, no, not every day, but I have some experience in this kind of transformation."
Rose nearly snorted.
Lazarus's smile was a bit frosty. "That's not possible."
"Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance," the Doctor said. The total what the hell look on Lazarus's face would've been funny if the situation weren't so serious. "That's—that's inspired."
Lazarus's expression was guarded. "You understand the theory, then."
"Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables."
He regarded him somewhat disdainfully for a moment and then lifted another bite from the tray. "No experiment is entirely without risk."
"That thing nearly exploded," the Doctor said as Lazarus sucked the remains off his thumb. "You might as well have stepped into a blender."
The woman frowned, shaking her head slightly. "You're not qualified to comment.
"If I hadn't stopped it, it would have exploded."
"Then I thank you, Doctor." Lazarus tilted his head in gratitude. "But that's a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less."
Rose laughed once without humor. "You sure about that, mate?" she asked, her East End accent so glaringly obvious among the posh, cultured tones around her.
"You're even less qualified." the woman snapped, lifting her nose.
Her eyes hardened. "An' what makes you say that?" She knew damn well what the woman was thinking. Rose just wanted to hear what she'd come up with.
"She's right, though." Martha cut in before Rose's temper could really get going or the Doctor's expression got any darker. "You have no way of knowing that until you've run proper tests."
Lazarus laughed at their worries. "Look at me. You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need."
"This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially," the woman said to reassure them.
"Commercially?!" Martha exclaimed. "You are joking. That'll cause chaos."
"Not chaos—change," Lazarus corrected evenly. "A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve."
The Doctor was glaring at him now. "This isn't about improving. It's about you and your customers living a little longer."
"Not a little longer, Doctor—a lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely."
"Richard, we have things to discuss. Upstairs." The woman gave the trio another look and walked away.
"Goodbye, Doctor," Lazarus bid with a wave. He stopped, spinning on his heel, and added superiorly, "In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were."
He held out his hand to Martha who took it automatically, though her face wrinkled in disgust when he bent to kiss it. He moved to take Rose's hand as well but she just arched her eyebrow, completely unimpressed. He smiled politely and walked way.
"Ooh, he's out of his depth." the Doctor murmured when he was out of earshot. "He has no idea of the damage he might have done."
"So what do we do now?" Martha asked.
"You mean besides go after that old cow and rip her a new one?" Rose asked through her teeth.
"As appealing as that sounds, we do have more important things at the moment." The Doctor looked around. "This building must be full of laboratories. I say we do our own tests."
"Lucky I've just collected a DNA sample then, isn't it?" Martha asked, holding up the hand Lazarus kissed and wiggled her fingers.
"Oh!" The Doctor beamed her. "Martha Jones, you're a star!"
Martha shrugged one shoulder like it was no big deal. She followed the Doctor and Rose towards a side door feeling quite proud of herself.
Francine Jones watched them go, noting the formation they fell into: him in the front with the two girls following at either shoulder. Flanking him. That—that Doctor man, she didn't like or trust him. There was just something about the way they looked at him and followed his orders without question. Martha had never blindly obeyed someone. She'd always been too smart for that. But all of the sudden it seemed that the Doctor said 'jump' and she asked 'how high?'
And that blonde woman, Rose—she dressed nice but the way she curved her vowels and chopped off the ends of her words gave her away. She was probably just some low class chav that he'd picked up, the way Clive had picked up Annalise.
What if she isn't the only one? Francine thought with alarm. Was Rose just the one he brought along tonight? How many others were there? Did this Doctor plan to add her daughter to his harem?
Well, not if she had anything to say about it.
So, I don't know how many of you follow me on tumblr (username is wintermoth) but one of my friends made a gifset of a scene for me. If you go to my blog, it's: post/43731649322 and seriously, later in the day when I could actually talk, I was practically screeching about it. So if anyone wants to make me some fanart I really won't object at all.
Leave me some reviews to read while I wallow in my misery for the next few days. Dey make me feel better and look at the screen like a cross between *-* and :3