She wasn't entirely sure of how long she'd been there. It could have been seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years… It didn't matter. She wasn't confident on how long she'd been there. It had been long enough that she was sure many people would probably think she was dead by this point.
No, she told herself for what seemed like the millionth time, determined to stay positive. No, they searched for me. Even if it wasn't because they wanted me back, they searched for me.
The O'Connors family would have searched for her no matter what. Even if they hadn't looked for her because she was their daughter, they'd have searched for her because she'd been a valuable pawn that could be sold off to the second-wealthiest family on Earth in order for them to expand their empire. When they'd realized their daughter, Jayden, was gone, they'd have likely thrown a small tantrum, complaining that they wouldn't be able to continue with the plans made since her birth.
With a scowl, Jay tightened her arms around her knees. She'd tucked them to her chest to make herself smaller, her greasy blonde hair falling into her equally exhausted blue eyes as she waited to see what would happen. They had no idea. None. no clue that the man included in their plans had been the one to knock her out with a simple drug sprinkled into her drink and sell her alongside a few other unfortunate men and women to some kind of creature that scared the daylights out of her.
Jay wasn't prejudiced against the aliens. Earth's first true encounter had only happened nine years ago, when she was fifteen. She'd not really grown up with them, but she'd had plenty of exposure to some friendlier aliens since they'd shown up, and she even had a deep fondness for a few she'd spoken to during a few of her father's many parties. If there was one good thing about Markus O'Connors, it was the fact that he'd seen the benefit in doing business with those not from Earth, and he'd made sure to include them when so many others had been reluctant.
But this alien…stars above, it was like the aliens from movies made long ago, where the aliens invaded Earth and killed everyone. Maybe even worse. It was a nightmare that had come to life. It was a monster from the worst nightmares she could barely remember as a child, something like the monster she'd once thought lived beneath her bed despite her parents' snarled comments that no such thing existed. With multiple joints in each limb, over-sized arms, no facial features outside of a slash of mouth and jagged teeth, and slimy black flesh…
Jay didn't know what it had done with the two other girls in her cell after hauling them away, but she was sure those blood-stained teeth said enough.
Jay bit her lip, flinching as pain sparked. She'd done that so many times, the skin had bruised and split. She didn't bother to wipe the blood away. If she didn't have an infection yet, then something as small as that might create one. She rested her head back against the stone wall behind her, exhausted. She was a mess, covered in dirt and grime. She was clothed in what was left of an expensive, gorgeous formal blue gown that had been the outfit chosen for her for the party she'd been taken from.
"Can I have a word in private?" her kidnapper had asked. She'd not known any better, though she should have, and had agreed. She knew her father would not keep bad company, no matter how much of a jerk he was himself. Surely the man should have been trustworthy. When she'd woken up with a bunch of other people in some dark space she scarcely remembered, her head aching and eyes burning with tears, she'd cursed her own stupidity.
The familiar shuffling caught Jay's attention, and she pressed her back desperately against the stone wall of her cell. Her body trembled despite her best efforts. She knew that shuffling as well as she knew the beat of her own heart, which began to pick up its pace. It meant that someone was about to die.
The creature stopped outside her cell and it was hard not to stare at it. A slimy gray tongue slid through the air, tasting it like a snake. Its awkward limbs quivered as it tasted her fear. It crooned when it did. Jay bit back a whimper when its grating voice filled her ears. "Not yet…not yet…almost."
Jay waited until it had moved on before she let a sob break from her chest. She waited until she heard a man screaming – and until that screaming fell silent quite suddenly – to bury her face in her hands. She heard someone in another distant cell weep as she did. Jay wondered if they were all that was left, the two of them.
Shivering, Jay cried herself to sleep with her grimy cheek pressed against the wall.
Jay wasn't entirely sure of how much time had passed when she heard someone shouting. Her head snapped up immediately, and she listened with intent. She noted in the back of her mind that she was never sure of how much time had passed here in this personal hell of hers. She cocked her head, blue eyes sharpening warily.
The shouting turned to shrieks pitched so high, they hurt her ears. They were accompanied by familiar sounds of shuffling that warned her of who was coming. Jay pressed back, silent, and then cowered when the creature appeared before her cell. It hauled a struggling woman with it. The barred door of her cell pried open and the creature threw a woman in so hard that she landed on her back and clutched at her chest as she struggled to breathe. Without another word, the creature reattached the door and shuffled off, snapping its teeth with glee and humming about something.
Jay didn't like the sound.
Jay waited until it was gone to crawl over on her bruised hands and knees. The woman was a new arrival, it appeared. She was young, not much older or younger than Jay herself, though her skin was several shades darker than her own and her dark eyes were wild with fresh fear. Her clothes were torn and ripped. Jay wondered how hard she'd fought the creature and commended her bravery. "Are you…okay?" rasped Jay, grimacing. Her voice was rather hoarse. She hadn't spoken in so long.
The woman nodded speechlessly, her expression hard. She ran her fingers through her dark hair. "Ridiculous," she seethed. "Left me there, and then it showed up–"
"Sh," hushed Jay, pressing her fingers to her lips as she tried to place the woman's accent. She'd heard it before. One of her father's co-workers from across the Atlantic had a similar one. "Don't speak too loudly, or it'll come back. It likes strong emotions. I'm Jayden O'Connors, but you can call me Jay. What's your name?"
"Martha Jones," said the woman. Martha took a deep breath. She rubbed her hands over her arms, looking just a little calmer as she said, "Have you seen someone else? I've been looking for him since he disappeared a while ago."
Jay was startled. "You mean you weren't brought here?"
"Other than by my friend, no," replied Martha, climbing to her feet. She went to test the strength of the bars of their cell, giving them a solid shake. She scowled when the door didn't budge. She felt along the bars, seeking a lock. "It's a long story best saved for later. How do we get out?"
"We don't." Jay tucked herself back into her corner. "I don't know where your friend is, but they'll be dead or trapped like us soon."
"Oh, it's not a problem if he's trapped," said Martha. She even looked amused by the idea. Giving up on the bars, she began to pace the cell. Jay watched her from quiet blue eyes. "How'd you end up here then? Where are you from?"
Jay wasn't expecting that question of all the ones that should be asked about their situation. "You haven't heard of me?" Almost everyone would have recognized her on sight. Maybe it was a blessing though. A good thing in a world of bad. "I'm from the O'Connors family. We run the most successful company seen in the last century." She said it as if she was listing off items from a grocery list. She hated it. "We're based in the fifth expansion of New York City onto the Atlantic Ocean." A pause. "Where are you from, Martha?"
"Not there," was her only response. "How long have you been here?"
"I don't know." Jay sighed softly, licking her dry lips. Her throat ached from talking so much for the first time in a few days. She'd not eaten or drunk anything either, which only made it that much harder. She rested her head back, closing her eyes. "A while. When I first came, there were two other women in here with me and nearly thirty overall."
"What happened to them?"
"The creature ate them." Jay opened her eyes again to meet Martha's gaze. She tightened her grip around her knees. "It won't be long. There's you, me, and one other. I can feel it. I'll be next." Her voice hitched a little, tears gathering. "I don't want to die though. I really don't."
"You won't," said Martha fiercely. "That man I know? He'll come find us soon. I mean, if he's willing to stop some witches that nearly killed him and convince some space rhinos to put a hospital back on Earth, then he'll find his way here. I hope. I don't actually know him all that well, I'm realizing."
Jay choked on a laugh. "Then we're as good as dead," she murmured, as if she were confident about it. "It won't let us go. We'll be eaten. I'm sorry that you won't get to go home."
Martha shot her an irritable look, dark eyes flashing. "Don't think like that. It's not helpful. What have you tried?"
Jay thought it over. "Just about everything. I shook the bars, I kicked at them, threw the stones I could pry out of the wall…nothing worked." She drew her knees beneath her and watched as Martha picked up a larger, broken stone and weighed it in her hand. After a moment, she returned to the bars. She ran her fingers over them, searching–
"Aha," crowed Martha, flashing Jay a wicked grin. "A hinge." She wedged her broken stone through the bars and began to awkwardly slam it against the hinge. Jay cowered at the loud clanging sounds that filled the air.
"Martha," she hissed, pleading. "Stop! You'll bring it to us, and then–"
Martha cheered when something cracked and the door, which Jay had ripped at with all of her strength and failed, cracked open. Martha tossed the stone over her shoulder and hefted the door open a little more. "Look!" she said smugly. "Big enough for us to wedge through it now. Are you coming, Jay?"
Jay thought it over, wavering. She was dead either way, she supposed. So, Jay climbed to her sore, bare feet and padded over to join Martha. She swallowed as Martha ducked through the space she'd managed to make, squirming when she got stuck for a moment. When she was on the other side, Martha turned to look back, offering a hand. Jay reached through and took that hand. Martha helped her squeeze through, too.
"Thanks," whispered Jay as she paused to regain her bearings. Jay peered around them. She made a face at the rows of blood-stained cells on either side of her own. It was dim, so dark she could barely see. A single torch down the wall gave just enough light to make the stains look like shadows. Martha barely noticed the stains. She marched up to that torch and pried it from the wall. She made a face, cursing under her breath when it came away somewhat slimy, covered in what looked like mold.
Jay curled her lip in disgust and wrapped her arms around herself as she followed Martha down the stone corridor lined with cells. She kept close, choosing to trust Martha. She would much prefer whatever might come from following Martha then not trying anything and getting eaten anyways. If they had a chance at getting out of this place, Jay believed it would be through Martha, who'd escaped a cell Jay hadn't been able to in the long time she'd been there. Admittedly, Jay was ashamed she'd not been able to do what Martha had – and she'd tried.
As they walked, Jay asked Martha softly, "Where are you from?"
"Earth," replied Martha without looking at her. "I think from the earth a couple of centuries before this one. I'm not entirely sure how long ago. The Doctor mentioned this was…two centuries, maybe? That sounds right. Two centuries in the future. We were only supposed to go on one trip, but something seemed to hijack his ship and dragged it here. I don't remember what he called this place, but he said it's not a parallel universe, I guess. I don't know."
Jay's gaze lit with excitement as Martha spoke. She'd always loved her history classes, and even when her parents had expressed their disapproval, she'd continued to read about it. "I've always loved learning about different periods of time," she said, not questioning how Martha could have possibly traveled through time. "Is it true that you still use fossil fuels to get around? And that you don't live on the moon yet?"
Martha threw her a startled look. "You live on the moon?"
"Some people do, but I've only visited a few times," Jay said with a dismissive wave. "My father says that the family needs to be ready to deal with whatever arrives on Earth, since that's where we're based. We have a vacation home on the moon though." Her throat ached with the excess chatter after going so long without, but she couldn't help herself. Her fear was overwhelming, and speech helped to soothe it.
"...yeah, we do all that," said Martha. "Or don't. What about you? What's life in the future like?"
Jay's smile vanished and she fell quiet for a moment. "Boring," she admitted softly. "Filled with family dinners and extravagant parties when people are starving on the streets. I like the moon though. I'd live there if I could."
Martha watched her out of the corner of her eye as they walked along, following the slimy stone wall. She said nothing though, seeming to recognize that Jay was unhappy with her life. When Jay abruptly paused, however, she glanced at her. "Jay?"
"Did you hear that?" whispered Jay. When Martha shook her head, she tipped her head to the side. A soft sound was emanating from further down the corridor, almost a hum. Jay slid to the floor, resting her fingers firmly against the stone floor. Martha threw her a puzzled look that Jay ignored. She thought she could feel that hum, not just in her head, but in the very stones. "It's not the monster. It's not malevolent at all, but I can hear it."
Martha clearly didn't hear what she was talking about. Jay staggered to her feet, ashamed when Martha had to grip her arm so she didn't fall. They followed the hum only Jay heard, Martha musing they had nowhere else to go at the moment.
It took only a few minutes to find the source, and when they did, Jay's interest was snagged. A beautiful blue box of sorts was emanating the hum, flooding her with warmth. Her heart ached at the sound of it. Martha bolted forward with a cry of excitement that drew Jay's attention.
"The TARDIS!" she cried, though Jay had no idea what that meant at all.
Jay cautiously stepped closer to the box, running her fingers over the deep blue wood. She pressed her cheek to it, in awe when the hum began to change into a beautiful soaring song that made her heart ache.
"Doctor?" Martha called as she tugged at the door to the box that read "police." "Are you in there?" When no one answered, she scowled. "He's not here. Come on, Jay, let's…Jay?" Her eyebrows lifted when she found Jay pressed as closely as she could to the blue box, her lips curved into a wide smile.
"Don't you hear it?" Jay said softly, reluctantly pulling away from the box. "It's singing, Martha."
"No, it's just…wood." Martha made a face, worry gleaming in her gaze as if she worried Jay had been stuck alone in the darkness for a little too long. "It's just wood on the outside of a spaceship."
Jay shook her head in disagreement. "Not just a spaceship," she said firmly. It was so much more. The ship was alive, pulsing with that life, and unlike any other spaceship Jay had ever seen. And she'd seen plenty, seeing as her father sold parts for them. It was how they'd come to their fortune. She thought the box even moaned in protest when Jay dropped her hand away from the sleek blue wood. "Your friend's not here then?"
Martha shook her head, still not looking away from Jay for a moment. "No. No, he's not," she muttered, putting her hands on her hips for a moment. "Which means he's somewhere else in this place. I don't have a key, or we could have waited inside the TARDIS for him…" She eyed the lock with some distaste, and then grabbed Jay's hand and started off again, away from the ship. Jay looked unhappily over her shoulder as they walked. She could practically feel the ship humming beneath her feet.
Perhaps the man they sought could explain the ship's sad, lonely song to her.
This place was quite impressive when it came to making one think they had been lost to time, mused the Doctor to himself as he knelt among the slime left behind by an alien he didn't quite believe he'd come into contact with before. He ran his finger through the slime, contemplating. Usually, he wouldn't have hesitated to pop his finger into his mouth, but the way it burned on his finger…he decided that would be a bad idea. He wiped the slime off on his pants and continued onward, occasionally scanning the area with his sonic screwdriver.
He just couldn't understand. It didn't happen often, but the Doctor couldn't understand this creature, which seemed capable of above average intelligence – he was guessing at that, of course, seeing as he'd only encountered it for the briefest of moments before it had torn off in another direction, seeking something or someone. He wondered once more how it had managed to trap the TARDIS in its little bubble outside of the normal universe he called home.
How?
And he still had to find Martha, too, and make sure that the TARDIS was alright. Heaven forbid it got its claws on his TARDIS…
The Doctor paced down the corridor, not bothered at all by the near pitch black he was walking in. He'd experienced far worse than a dark hallway. The Time War…the Daleks…everything about them was far worse than anything this darkness could bring. He imagined that for some though, this creature would be one of their worst nightmares.
The Doctor stilled when something caught his attention: the sound of someone weeping. Instinct had him hastily tracking the sound. He moved briskly, and sped up when the sound changed to terrified screaming and pleas of "no" and "please."
He stopped when it became silent.
Sadness filled the Doctor. The person was likely dead, if not worse. But the Doctor's attention shifted to the new shuffling sound, which was followed by another scream; this scream was entirely unlike anything he'd ever heard. It echoed through the stone corridors, full of a fury that he might have understood, himself. Goosebumps pebbled his flesh and he shook his head hastily before starting forward again, this time noting that he was now passing walls lined with medieval barred cells. His priorities needed to be rearranged, he decided.
TARDIS first, because then he could find Martha.
The scream made Jay jolt, clutching Martha's arm so tightly that Martha yelped quietly. Her blue eyes rounded with terror, and she whimpered, "We need to go. We need to go now."
Not liking the frantic way in which Jay suddenly began dragging her down the hall, hands shaking so hard she could barely hold onto Martha's arm, Martha demanded, "What was that?"
"It's angry," whispered Jay. "It found that we're not where we're supposed to be. We have to go, Martha. It's coming."
A shiver ran down Martha's spine at the way Jay said it, but she didn't question it. Immediately, Jay and Martha began sprinting down the hall. Jay could feel something burning the bottoms of her bare feet as they did so, seeping into the cuts and bruises that littered them. She didn't care; she simply wanted out, something she'd not thought she'd even remotely potentially get until now.
"We should go back to the TARDIS," gasped Martha as they ran, breathless. She was only a handful of steps behind Jay, who seemed to find speed in her fear of getting caught again. "The Doctor will come back at some point."
"I tried hiding when we first came," argued Jay without looking back, "and it found me regardless. If we go and hide behind the ship until your friend comes, it'll find us, and–"
Jay slammed into something. She rebounded off it and tumbled right into Martha, both of them crashing down onto the slime covered floor. A sharp jagged piece of broken stone tore along Jay's arm, and she gasped at the sting of it. She clutched it, feeling blood immediately seep between her fingers as Martha propped herself up on her elbow and scowled.
The scowl vanished as she took in the equally as stunned man peering down at them, looking shocked that someone had simply run straight into him. At the same time, however, he beamed in relief. "There you are, Martha," he cried, and Jay realized this was likely the person Martha had been looking for. His hands were tucked into his brown suit's pockets, his dark brown gaze darting curiously between them. His dark hair looked as if he'd run his hands through it countless times and stuck up in every direction. "Who's this?"
"Jay," Martha answered, her scowl returning. She clambered to her feet, wiping her slimy hands on her pants. "Where've you been?! We've been looking all over for you. You just…left! While I was being dragged off by that…that thing!"
The man before them – the Doctor, Jay recalled Martha calling him – winced lightly. "Sorry about that, I got distracted," he admitted. He offered a friendly hand to Jay. She hesitated briefly before taking it. She hissed softly under her breath in pain when her arm tweaked upon him helping her to her feet, and he paused to look at her injury for a moment. He clicked his tongue a few times, clearly not happy with what he saw. He paused when a scream echoed through the stone corridors, and Jay's face blanched white. "Have you seen the TARDIS?" he checked with Martha almost urgently.
She nodded curtly. She nodded in the direction they'd come from. "Passed it not too long ago."
The Doctor let go of Jay's arm after ensuring she'd be okay to walk. "Then let's go," he said. He stepped past them, intending to go in the direction of the TARDIS, but Jay grabbed his sleeve to stop him.
"We can't," she whispered hoarsely. "We can't go that way. It's down there. Can't you hear it?"
"Hear it?" echoed the Doctor with curiosity. "What do you mean?"
Jay fired him a rather dirty look. "When it comes past you to kill your cellmates, you know what it sounds like." She lifted her chin, pressing her cut arm to her torn and shredded gown. "We can't go that way. Surely there's another route?"
"I haven't been able to get so much as a semblance of my bearing in here," reported Martha with a shake of her head. "It's like–"
"The corridors regenerate themselves randomly, intentionally confusing the victims stuck in here," finished the Doctor. He grimaced lightly. "Which means if we were to go back the way you came, the TARDIS wouldn't even be there." He raked his hand through his messy hair and then popped a finger into his mouth. He lifted it into the air and paused, then opened his mouth to speak.
A scream cut him off before he could even speak. This scream practically burst their eardrums as the creature threw itself from the shadows, arms stretched out, reaching. The Doctor yelped, whirling around. He shoved Martha and Jay forward. "Run!"
They did.
Jay ran as hard as she could, Martha and the Doctor a few steps behind her as they fled the monster on their heels. Jay shot around a corner like a rocket, weeping as she ran. She could imagine the sight of the alien eating the person she'd shared her cell with, remembering those sharp teeth, her cellmate's screaming–
Even as her legs began to buckle from exhaustion, she pushed herself further and faster. She would not let herself be captured again. Fear drove her forward. Martha didn't let her fall behind as she began to struggle, grabbing her arm and towing her along with her.
Suddenly, she felt it. She heard it. A song.
Jay stopped for the briefest of moments, and the Doctor nearly tripped over her, startled by the sudden stop. Jay hardly noticed. She could hear the song of the TARDIS, as they'd called that beautiful blue ship. It was calling for them. Jay didn't hesitate to follow its call. "This way!" she cried. Martha gave chase, waving the confused Doctor after Jay. Jay was relieved they trusted her enough despite just meeting her to follow her.
The Doctor gave a whoop of excitement, charging forward when the TARDIS came into view. He slammed into the front doors at full force. Whereas the doors had been locked before, the TARDIS seemed to sense their desperation, and the floors flew wide open. They piled in – even Jay, who'd not exactly been invited. She didn't question how they'd fit or what type of ship this one was. There were more worrisome things outside than in.
The doors slammed shut behind them. A second later, the entire ship rocked as the monster slammed into the side of it, screaming furiously. Jay's hands shook at the sound. Her body ached, so full of fiery pain, but she found she didn't care. She simply buckled down onto the strange grated floor beneath her, the song of the ship so loud in her ears. It began to fade after a moment, leaving Jay in blissful silence. She was so exhausted, she almost wished the floor would just rise up and swallow her whole–
But there were gentle hands on her shoulders then, giving her a shake. "Up you go," the man Martha had called a doctor urged gently, smiling briefly as he helped her to her feet. Jay simply blinked numbly at him, unable to believe she'd actually escaped. "Martha, why don't you help her clean out those cuts?"
"Sure," agreed Martha, winding an arm around Jay's waist, and the blonde stopped dead rather than continuing forward. She'd been distracted by her relief before. Now, she took in the massive room around them that couldn't have possibly fit in the little blue box. Yet…at the same time…it somehow fit, with its strange columns and arches and the halls that branched off to nowhere in particular.
She loved it.
"Beautiful," whispered Jay, and the Doctor seemed to beam in pride, even as the ship rocked beneath their feet.
He was quick to move on, however, reaching for a screen that hung above the ship's central console. "We can't leave it here, not if it's been eating people like this." He tapped a few buttons, furrowing his brow. Almost mumbling to the ship itself, he muttered, "Do you know what it is, old girl? Martha, those cuts–"
"Oh," muttered Jay, staring down at her arm with shock. She felt it finally, the way that cut sizzled and burned and nearly bubbled like a burn. The skin had blistered badly beneath the slime coating her wounds. She was fairly sure her feet would look similar as the venom seared its way into her veins, and something told her she'd feel its effects for a long time.
Martha's eyes rounded. "Oh, my–"
Without looking at either of them, the Doctor instructed, "Infirmary, down that hall, two lefts and a right." His dark eyes lingered on the screen that neither of the women could read, too focused to pay them too much attention at the moment. "The TARDIS will put everything you need in a cabinet. Martha, you know what to look for." He flashed them a quick smile over his shoulder in encouragement before going back to what he'd been doing.
Jay couldn't help the question that suddenly blurted out of her, "What are you?"
That snagged the Doctor's attention, unexpected as it was for all of them. He looked startled by her question, as if he'd not thought it'd be one that was asked at the moment. "Time Lord," he said with what Jay guessed was a little bit of forced cheerfulness. He smacked the screen away, abandoning it. Whatever he'd been wanting to know, he'd found it.
"Time Lord," repeated Jay to herself as Martha began guiding her towards the infirmary. "I've heard of you, I think."
As they walked, Jay realized she felt exhausted. Likely because of everything she'd been through, and because there was blood dripping steadily from her arm. She blinked once at the wound, and then furrowed her brow. "Martha," she said uncertainly when she realized it was bleeding far heavier than a gash should be. It bled as if she'd nicked an artery, though she knew for a fact she hadn't.
Martha took one look and went pale. "Doctor!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, hauling Jay forward at a near sprint. Jay stumbled several times, but managed to keep up until they reached the infirmary they were seeking. There, Martha pushed her inside and yanked open the first cabinet she came across. She snagged a few soft cloths and pressed one to the arm wound, indicating she ought to sit in a chair perched off to the side. Once Jay had, she set her bare feet on more cloth, which were quickly soaked with blood.
It wasn't long before the Doctor burst into the infirmary after them. He took one look at Jay's condition, and then uttered a soft curse under his breath. Martha was a doctor, after all, but not trained in dealing with alien-related injuries.
"Keep the pressure on her arm," he said, becoming a whirlwind of chaos as he began seeking something that would help him seal the injury. "Keep her talking."
Martha nodded, calm despite everything that was happening. Jay's face was pale, her lips trembling when Martha looked at her. "You said you were from the future, right?" she said, and Jay simply stared at her, confused by what that had to do with anything. "What about your family? Tell me about them."
"I…" Unsure, Jay sputtered for a moment before stammering, "I-I have a brother."
"Good." Martha gestured at the Doctor until he offered her another soft cloth to press over Jay's arm. He shoved a couple jars at her, too, filled with strange colored ointments. He ordered her to try them and went back to searching through various cabinets, muttering under his breath. "What's his name?"
"Lucas O'Connors," answered Jay.
The Doctor smacked his head on a cabinet shelf and looked over his shoulder, eyes round. "You're an O'Connors?"
Jay seemed to shrink in on herself, averting her gaze. "Yes."
Rather than clarifying what that meant to Martha – something Jay appreciated immensely – the Doctor threw himself back into searching for something that would be of use. Martha looked interested, but took a page out of his book and focused back on Jay rather than questions Jay didn't want to answer. As Martha gently smeared a cream the Doctor handed her over her arm, she asked, "How old is Lucas?" The blood continued to flow, so Martha grimaced and pressed a cloth over it again.
"Nine." Jay's face softened despite the fear she tried to shove down. "He's only nine years old. He's a good kid, even though he's been spoiled by our parents. He just got a dog, the day I left." Her lips trembled. "He named the puppy J.J.; that's what he used to call me when he was too young to say my full name."
Martha murmured a soft sound of approval about what Jay told her, only to grow irritated when Jay suddenly flinched and tried to rip her arm away when Martha tried another ointment. "None of these are working, Doctor!"
"Let me see." He nudged Martha aside, and he gently took Jay's arm in hand. Jay, wary of the two virtual strangers who were clearly doing their best to help her, watched him closely from beneath her lashes. He ordered Martha to hand him a specific jar after a few seconds of inspecting the wound.
As he checked it to make sure it was the right one, Jay said softly, "You're older than you look, aren't you." She paused, and then grew flustered when his lips curved into a hint of a smile. "Not…not to be rude, of course."
He chuckled. "Yes, I am," he said. "Martha, I change my mind, give me the green one with the blue lid on the far side. We'll have to heal the wound first and counteract whatever's infected it later."
"Are you qualified to do this?" asked Martha as she gave him the new jar he'd asked for, her worried eyes darting to Jay. "Shouldn't we take her to a hospital?"
"Probably. After we leave. For now…" The Doctor eyed the jar, studying the clear liquid within. "We'll need a clean syringe, Martha. Third drawer from the top, right cabinet."
Jay's eyes went round as saucers as Martha snatched the jar from him and said, "I'll do it." The Doctor snorted, insulted that she didn't think he could do it, but was immediately distracted from the matter when Jay snatched her arm back, recoiling in terror. "No," she said sharply, "no way. You're not injecting me with anything."
The Doctor furrowed his brow, but Martha caught on almost immediately and guessed, "Whoever put you here gave you something, didn't they?" Jay nodded shakily once, wrapping her arms protectively around herself. Martha gave her a kind smile, trying to reassure her, but Jay didn't find it helping at all. "I know you're scared, but you're bleeding a lot, Jay. We're not the people who put you here. Give us a chance to help you, okay? And then the Doctor will get you home–"
Jay's face blanched white with terror. "I don't want to go home either. The man who…the man who brought me here…my father was trying to marry me off to him for a business deal."
Martha looked taken aback by that statement, but the Doctor took it in stride and said quietly, "Then we'll find you somewhere else to live." When Jay looked at him, searching his gaze warily, he offered, "Nowhere you don't want to go."
Some of Jay's panic eased and she bit her lip, still hesitant, but not as frightened with that promise. Something in her chest loosened. She trusted him, though she couldn't say why. Perhaps it was because she was tired of being lonely and scared, but she trusted him. So she nodded curtly and extended her arm, warning almost sharply, "If this doesn't do what you say it will do, I'll find a way to haunt you."
The Doctor chuckled and took over distracting her so Martha could give Jay the medication. "So," he said, "you're an O'Connors?"
Jay nodded once, flinching when Martha swiped a spot on her arm with an alcohol swab before poking her without hesitation. "Unfortunately," she muttered. "My father is the CEO of one of the biggest companies. We sell parts for spaceships to other wealthy people." She rolled her eyes.
"Quite the famous name in later years," the Doctor mused. "First and only family to spread the industry throughout the galaxy, and even further centuries later. They even end up with their own planet before the name dies off."
"Done!" reported Martha.
The Doctor immediately snagged Jay's arm to look, and the wound seemed to close before their eyes as they all bent to look. The Doctor looked incredibly pleased, and Martha's eyes rounded. He ran a finger along one of the black veins that had formed around the fresh scar on Jay's arm. Jay would guess that her feet looked similar to that. "Martha," he said, turning away quite suddenly, "from here, take a right, a left, another right, third door on the right. After that, the door exactly to your left."
"Doctor?" questioned Martha when he flounced from the room, but he didn't stop to tell him what exactly he was directing them to. Shrugging, Martha let him go and offered a hand to Jay. "Come on," she said. "Let's go see what he wanted us to look at, shall we?"
As they wandered the corridors of the Doctor's spaceship, Jay found herself in awe. It was even bigger than she'd initially thought, and the corridors seemed to go on forever. She ran her fingers along the walls, enjoying the way they seemed to hum with life. It wouldn't surprise her if the ship was sentient.
Eventually, they found what the Doctor had directed them to, and even Jay was impressed by the closet of mammoth proportions. Martha nodded to herself, as if understanding the Doctor's intentions in giving them such directions. "Right," she told Jay, "pick whatever you want out."
Jay didn't recognize half of it, but Martha helped her pick out some clean jeans, a shirt, and some shoes that looked rather like those the Doctor wore. Jay had eyed them warily, but said nothing as Martha steered her to the door on their right after leaving the closet.
A quick bath in a nice bathroom Martha claimed she'd not known existed until then got Jay cleaned up, and the girl found herself relying heavily on Martha for her help when she grew exhausted, ready to pass out in the bath. But, after finishing getting cleaned up, Martha helped her get dressed in clothes she'd never worn before.
As she struggled horribly with tying her shoes, even with Martha's help, Jay admitted with embarrassment, "My family always wears formal clothes. I've never worn anything like this. Just gowns and heels."
Martha snorted softly. "I'll teach you how to tie shoelaces if it's the last thing I do," she told her. "Now," she helped Jay to her feet, "let's go see what the Doctor has figured out about that thing."
The walk to the control room was shockingly short, given their lengthy walk to the closet. The Doctor waited for them by the console, and as Martha abandoned Jay to go and speak with him, Jay simply listened to the beautiful song in her ears. She'd always heard strange things that others couldn't, but this particular song wasn't frightening or even something that worried her.
A sudden burst of commotion from where the Doctor and Martha spoke drew Jay's attention. The Doctor waved sparks and smoke away from his face, annoyed, and Jay had to fight back a smile. The song lilted mischievously in her head. The ship had done that on purpose, thought Jay. A sentient spaceship. "Beautiful," she told the TARDIS. "You're beautiful."
The ship's song swelled in her head, as if pleased.
Straightening and meandering over to join Martha and the Doctor, Jay cleared her throat politely and asked, "What are we doing now, Doctor?"
He flashed her a quick smile, and then turned back to the various buttons, levers, knobs, and so many other things on the TARDIS control console. "There's a single entrance and exit point in this little bubble. It's how we ended up here," he added to Martha. "Accidentally crossed through while leaving the fifteen hundreds. We'll close it up and then find something to eat."
As if accidentally turning up in a bubble universe where a creature akin to a demon ate people was an everyday kind of thing for them. It made Jay snort softly, almost in amusement. She watched him flounce around, chattering about everything and nothing. He changed subjects just as quickly, and Jay hardly understood a lot of what he said. Finally, she cut in. "You're not a human, are you? You called yourself a Time Lord. That means you're not human."
"I'm human," Martha supplied. "Just tagging along for now. He's an alien though."
"You don't look alien," commented Jay to the Doctor. The Doctor huffed in protest, flipping a switch so that a panel in the floor popped open. He didn't bother to respond to them as he clambered down into the floor, muttering under his breath. Jay watched him do so with some amusement, musing aloud to Martha, "He's old, isn't he? Incredibly old, but incredibly kind to those who deserve it." The song that gently swelled around him seemed to indicate such a thing.
Rather than letting Martha agree or add on to her statement, Jay began to explore some more. She ignored the gentle throbbing in her almost thumb fingers, eyeing a corridor with interest. She wanted to run down that corridor and see what other rooms might be hiding within the space ship.
"What are you doing?" Martha asked the Doctor when he finally came back out of the floor, a silver device with a blue tip held daintily between his teeth. The hand not gripping a ladder held a flat metal disk with a very big red button in the center of it. "What is that?"
"A thing," he responded. He clambered out and set it on the console before swinging the screen around to look at it. Jay joined them, peering over his shoulder alongside Martha. She furrowed her brow. She couldn't read the information on the screen, but Martha apparently couldn't either. it was in a rather pretty-looking circular language that only the Doctor could apparently understand. "I'll need your help, Martha. Take this," he handed her the device he'd put aside, "and don't touch that red button unless you feel like imploding today."
Martha fumbled somewhat, nearly dropping the device, but saved it at the last moment. "Right," she said in a stressed voice.
"Jay O'Connors," continued the Doctor, spinning around to face her. She straightened, lips quirking a little as he asked, "How good is your grip?"
"Not very," she admitted. "I can't feel my fingers."
"Then you go and sit in that seat," the Doctor said and pointed at the captain's chair across from the console, which wasn't all that big and appeared to sit upon some spring of sorts. Jay hesitated only briefly before shrugging, deciding it was best to do as she was told. She couldn't really argue with someone who was helping her escape the dungeon she'd been trapped in for who knew how long.
"Martha," continued the Doctor, holding his hand out. Martha very carefully handed the device she'd been nervously holding to him. "I've set some coordinates. When I say so, you'll need to pull this lever." He carefully indicated the lever he meant with his elbow. "Not a second too late, or we'll implode along with the bubble universe outside."
"Right," said Martha with clearly feigned confidence.
Jay shifted uneasily. If what she thought he was saying was right, then… "But we're in the bubble, aren't we? Won't you implode the whole universe?"
"Bubble universe," corrected the Doctor. "It would eat itself in time anyways. We're just erasing itself a little sooner. And we're in the bubble universe, but we won't be for much longer. That's what the lever is for." He winked playfully at Jay, who still found herself uneasy with the prospect.
"There were other people," she said.
"There were," agreed the Doctor, smile vanishing.
"What about them?"
The Doctor's voice was kind when he told her, "The TARDIS isn't picking up any other life signs, Jay. They're already gone." He didn't wait to see how she'd respond to that statement, instead spinning on his heel with a determined look. "Not a second too late, Martha," he recalled as he carried the device to the doors. "You'll have three seconds. Approximately three point…oh, I'd say seven, maybe? Three point seven seconds before it goes off. Be ready."
"I heard you the first four times," said Martha wryly, nerves evident in the sarcastic tone of her voice. She wrapped her hand around the lever, and Jay made sure she was seated, not sure why she'd been told to hold on tight to the seat. Regardless, she watched closely as the Doctor stopped before the doors, took a deep breath, and then yanked the TARDIS door open, arm wrenched back to hurl the device in his hand.
The creature waiting on the other side of the door screamed, and the Doctor hastily recoiled from the black spittle that flew with a yelp. "That's not supposed to happen!" Jay flattened herself against the seat with terror, her own scream escaping. The Doctor took only a second to think about what to do before pressing the button and chucking the device through the creature's legs and slammed the door shut, shouting, "Martha!"
Martha yanked the lever, and the TARDIS began to shake violently, as if trying to dislodge whatever held so tightly to the outside of it. The Doctor stumbled towards the control console, stumbling and staggering as the TARDIS rocked this way and that. When he reached it, he scrambled to reach for various controls.
As the TARDIS worked, the Doctor yelling at the ship for some reason or another, a smile began to creep over Jay's face. She was free. Truly free. Dressed in strange clothes on a ship with two strangers and strange poisonous slime lacing her veins, but free.
And despite all the fear she'd felt for the past few seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, maybe even years…
Jay laughed.
Rewritten: January 3rd, 2024
I have things I should be doing. But I wanted to write this instead.
I have four, almost five chapters written including this one. This fic is something I've tried before, but re-did. It's coming out much better now. :D It's going to be a lot like my Skinwalker fic, in which I update where I can. I'll update every other day to every two days for now due to pre-written stuff, but no promises on keeping that up. This'll go from Martha-era all the way to the end of the 11th Doctor if I actually get that far. Maybe further. We'll see.
I hope you enjoy!