Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no profit from this story. All rights to the BBC.

The day before they reached Europe again, Martha hit upon the perfect solution. She decided to capitalize on the Master's paranoia and the rumors surrounding her journey to create a reason for her travel to give her time to stall and use one of his informants against him. Rose applauded the plan and helped resistance members in Paris build the decoy.

Within Europe, the resistance had spread into a well-developed network ready to seek out and help Martha Jones. Rose quickly found her aid redundant as the resistance was perfectly capable of protecting Martha. She stayed close though, if nothing else she was a friend to the other woman.

As Rose hauled on the oar of the small boat carrying her and Martha to England, she tried to convince herself that it was only the information gathered by the resistance that let her know time was running out. It certainly couldn't be the feeling of time stretching thin and tight around her, ready to snap back like a rubber band with just the slightest touch. The feeling made her edgy and nervous, jumping whenever Martha spoke.

Martha attributed her companion's jumpiness to the closeness of their deadline and goal. The girl, she thought, couldn't be more than twenty-two, though she acted much older. Then again, that year had been enough to make anyone grow old. Still, she was surprised by Marion when they reached the shores of England. Marion clung to the shadows, she barely met the eyes of the frankly gorgeous Tom Milligan who waited for them on the cold, dark beach. On top of that, she told Tom to call her Hopper, instead of giving him her name. She was quiet the whole ride, too. Though Marion worked hard to hide her emotions during much of their trip, her face was a mask of sorrow instead. Martha didn't press her on it. There were any number of reasons to be sad, especially looking at your homeland so desolate and ruined. Your homeland you'd sworn to protect, from what Martha knew of Torchwood.

Rose hardly noticed the funny looks Martha was giving her as they bounced along in Tom's jeep. Time was still stretching and if that wasn't enough, the Tardis was worried about Rose. Rose and the Tardis both knew that the only safe place for Rose to be when time reversed was inside the Tardis herself. The Tardis was pulling Rose to her, ever so slightly. Rose wanted to go, give in to the pull, but they both knew she couldn't travel until the Master was distracted. The stretchiness was giving Rose a killer headache and she was distracted by keeping herself from hopping straight to the Tardis.

Martha caught Rose as she fell getting out of the jeep. The muscles built from the long year allowed her to support the taller woman and ease her back to her feet.

"You don't look well." Martha said, noting Rose's dilated pupils and sweaty brow.

"I'll be... fine. Don't... worry." Rose gasped as she settled back onto her own feet and staggered forward.

Martha glanced at Tom and he nodded. He slung one of Rose's arms around his shoulder and wrapped one of his around her waist, half carrying her into the warehouse where Professor Docherty worked. As Martha introduced herself to the Professor, Dr. Milligan examined Rose.

"I'm fine." She mumbled at him, one hand clutching her head. "Just a headache, plenty of time to get better after tomorrow."

He frowned at her.

"Let's go help Martha." She insisted and hauled herself to her feet again and with a stronger walk than before, born of a renewed purpose, she led him across the room where Martha and the Professor were talking.

"They're not called toclofane, that's something the Master made up." Martha was explaining as they approached.

"Then what are they?"

"That's why we came to see you, know your enemy." Martha told her, her voice bordering on too innocent.

"No one's been able to get inside a sphere, no one can even touch one." Tom Milligan interjected.

"A charge of 510 megajoules will take one down." Rose said softly. "Saw it in South Africa, didn't we Martha?"

Martha nodded and noticed that she didn't mention she had a gun that would do it. She supposed that would make Professor Docherty suspicious and possibly alert the Master to Marion. "A lightning strike took one down." She lied.

Professor Docherty hummed thoughtfully. "I could build something to replicate that."

"Let's do it then." Tom said eagerly.

Rose hugged Martha as she recoiled from the revealed toclofane in horror. Humans. Changed and gone mad, but still humans.

"I should have told them to run. Run the monsters are coming."

The Doctor said it to Harriet Jones just before he took down her career. Humans, the worst monsters in the universe. No wonder River hadn't told her what they were. To see their people so changed, all their humanity lost, was hard enough for Rose, for Martha it was worse. She had met these people, talked with them, helped them.

"Do you think he knows?" Martha asked Rose.

She grimaced. "Yes. If the Master is trying to break his heart, there's no better way left."

Martha straightened and squared her shoulders. "Then he'll need a friend." She said and returned to her mission.

The headache was winning by the time Tom took Rose and Martha into the boarding house for the night. Rose was feverish, sweaty and shaking as well as dizzy.

"We need to get her to bed, or a hospital." Martha said as Tom carried Rose through the door.

"It's after curfew, we'll have to take her in the morning." Tom admitted miserably.

"Do your job." Rose rasped while Tom set her in a hastily vacated cot. "If all goes well, I'll be fine in the morning."

"Marion..." Martha started to say.

"No." Rose interrupted. "The world is much more important than I am. Do. Your. Job."

"I'm a doctor." Martha said, "Helping people who are sick is my job."

"Not yet." Rose argued.

Martha gave up. She knew Marion was less likely than the Doctor to budge. She wondered if that was why they'd fought, Marion and the Doctor. Still, she wasn't sure why stopping the Master would make her friend less ill. Martha walked back out to the room full of people and, as she had done so many times over the last year, she began to tell her story.

Martha cried out as Tom was shot to the ground in front of her and tears crept from the corners of her eyes even but she held her ground defiantly. She looked back at the house, where Marion lay ill, with regret as she was led away from the building. For a long moment she thought she saw Marion's face at the window, watching her sadly, but she decided it was just wishful thinking since the image vanished in a burst of golden light.

On board the Valiant and face to face with the Doctor for the first time in a year, Martha felt none of her old passions. She felt... pity. Pity for a man in love with someone who was lost forever but alive. Someone he cared for and was loved by to the ends of the universe who wasn't perfect, but maybe perfect for him. Martha Jones felt pity for the sad old man who sat before her in a little cage, held captive by the man he wanted for a brother, the man whose forgiveness he sought, but never gave up fighting for what he believed was right. He looked up at her with sad eyes and she saw her pity reflected. He pitied her for the long and miserable year he'd sent her out on. The things she'd seen, the danger she'd been in. And guilt, that was there too. Almost drowning out the rest was guilt for the things she didn't blame him for.

The Master jerked her away from the Doctor and began to monologue about his brilliance. It really was a cliché villain move and it made Martha laugh. He was just so unaware of the end of his plans. She glanced at the countdown as he stopped and stared at her. Slowly she revealed the truth. The Doctor hadn't had time to tell her everything, but she'd pieced the rest together by herself.

The Doctor reappeared with the power supplied by the psychic satellites, the paradox was broken, and time was reversed. Martha stood with her family and hugged them as if she never intended to let go. She wasn't sure if she did intend to ever let go.

Martha could do nothing but watch as the Master let himself die and the Doctor fell apart. She understood better now how he could love someone who did so much harm. His desperation to have someone of his kind around, after what he'd done... Marion had explained what being the last of the Time Lords truly meant and Martha couldn't imagine how heavily that weighed on his shoulders. She watched him cry and her family's shaken expressions and she came to a decision. The Doctor was broken and she couldn't fix him, as much as she tried. But her family was broken too, and she could help them. She was a doctor after all.

Martha unlocked the Tardis for the last time and stepped inside.

"So, where to then?" The Doctor asked, trying in vain to pretend that nothing had happened.

Martha had to interrupt him a few times before she could stop him from listing suggestions.

"You're not staying." He said quietly, his face crumpling in sadness before he pasted back on his usual smile.

"No. It's my family, they've been through a lot and I wanted to be a doctor to help people and now I have people to help. They need me. And you, Doctor, don't."

He started to protest but she stopped him.

"No, Doctor. You need someone. But you don't need me. It's time I learn to stand on my own two feet. I spent so much time believing I was second best, but you know something? I'm good. So I'm going out into the world and I'll prove it."

"Martha Jones, you are a star." The Doctor grinned.

She smiled back and tossed her phone to him. "You keep that on mister. I'm not saying goodbye. That rings? You come running. Got it?"

He nodded.

"Goodbye, Doctor." Martha said as she hugged the Doctor.

"Goodbye, Martha Jones."

Martha dragged her heels as she left that old blue box. As she shut the door behind her she thought of one more thing and stuck her head back in.

"Doctor?" She said and his head shot up, "I hope you find what you're looking for." She said gently then left while he tried to figure out if he was looking for something or not. The only answer he could come up with was Rose, and he knew without a doubt that he'd never find her again.

As Martha went out to face the Master, Rose staggered to the window. Soon, soon, soon, soon, chanted a voice inside her head. She wasn't sure if it was hers or that of the Tardis, or that of time itself, stretched to its breaking point.

She saw her friend face the Master with determination and her refusal to waver. Martha had grown, Rose realized. Sometimes it takes extraordinary circumstances to become the best person you can be. After all, Rose wouldn't have gone to university if she hadn't run off with the Doctor and then been separated from him.

Martha glanced back at the building as she was escorted away. In that moment, Rose could see the Master's eyes greedily fixated on the almost-doctor. He was completely distracted by his prize and Rose used that moment to hop to the Tardis.

The pull of the Tardis was gone from Rose's head and was replaced by a keening of pain that once more forced Rose to her knees. The normal humming of the Tardis engine's was gone, replaced by a rhythmic drumbeat echoing through the console room. Gone, too, were the soft orange and teal lights that filled the room. Angry red light glittered harshly off the plexiglass and metal that encased the rotor. Rose dragged herself away from the horrifying sight and collapsed into her old bed. She curled around a pillow and let the pain wash over her, giving in to tears.

Rose wasn't sure how long she laid there. Lost in the pain of the Tardis she could have been there for five minutes or five hours, time didn't seem to pass as it usually did. Within the Tardis, it may not have. The cry of pain cut of suddenly and the reassuring hum built its way back into existence, soothing Rose back into a comfortable state. The Tardis was in her mind, washing away the vestiges of the pain and easing the hurt of the past years. Then she gently prodded Rose into the shower.

The grimy, rough clothing Rose had lived in was gone when she stepped out of the steaming water. Instead, folded nicely next to a fluffy towel, were a pair of comfortable jeans and a soft long sleeved top that fit perfectly. Back in her room, the travel stained pack she'd carried across universes was gone, replaced by her old red pack, fully loaded.

"Are you kicking me out?" Rose asked the Tardis quietly.

The Tardis hummed an affirmative.

"Why?"

The Tardis began to hum in reply but stopped and, haltingly, spoke into Rose's mind. "Because you look will look have looked at your journal."

Rose frowned as she sorted through the Tardis' words. River was right, the old girl was terrible with tenses. River. Her journal. She was supposed to read the next section now. Rose had written in it often after Martha went to sleep as they traveled together, and before she met the Doctor's other companion, the journal was the only company she had. Still, she'd kept her promise to River and dutifully skipped past the warnings and messages for her next tasks. She opened the creamy pages to the second page of River's handwriting and began to read.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. If there was any other way I never would have let you do that. If it was anyone but you, I wouldn't have believed it possible. But please remember that you are just one person. You have time. Don't jump forward right away. Rest and take care of yourself.

I know you're probably thinking that there's no place for you to go since everyone believes you dead, but you're wrong. There's one person who offered you a place to stay if the worst should happen.

13 Bannerman Road

Ealing

Rose frowned at the paper. Even now she couldn't go hound River for answers. All she had were the cryptic clues. Frankly, she didn't understand why River couldn't just tell her. Rose supposed if she had read ahead, that message wouldn't give too much away provided she didn't dwell on it. If the worst should happen... What worst? The worst thing she could think of was the Doctor leaving her behind... Oh.

She heard voices faintly from the console room so she stepped forward and hopped. Off to 13 Bannerman Road she thought.