A/N: Welcome back! Hope you're ready for a new chapter! These following two chapters are based on the Doctor Who episode 'Gridlock'.
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is my OC Katy and this story.
Please review and no flaming will be tolerated.
Enjoy :)
ARE WE THERE YET?
"Oh, I swear to you, I'll be there for you.
This is not a drive by."
– Train: 'Drive By' (California 37 [2012])
The Tardis
Katy leant against one of the Tardis's coral support beams, just fiddling with her locket, lost in thought, while the Doctor put in the coordinates for their next destination. Martha, on the other hand, sat patiently on the jump seat, waiting for the Doctor to take her back home after her one and only trip through time.
"Just one trip," the Doctor reminded Martha, who looked solemnly at him; obviously unhappy that her time on the Tardis had seemingly come to an end. Katy glances over at them, curiously. "That's what I said. One trip in the Tardis, and then home." Martha nodded, wondering where he was going with this. "Although, I suppose we could stretch the definition. Take one trip into the past, one trip into the future. How do you fancy that?"
"No complaints from me!" Martha beamed from ear to ear.
"How about you, Katy-love?" The Doctor asks her, brightly.
"Sounds lovely, Doctor." Katy confirms, pushing off the coral support beam and coming over to stand at the console. "Where to next?"
"How about a different planet?" the Doctor suggests, and Martha perks up with excitement.
"Can we go to yours?" She requests, and the bright smile falls from the Doctor's face, while Katy flinches and she clutches once again at her locket for comfort.
He recovers first.
"Nah, there's plenty of other places…" The Doctor attempts to move on from the uncomfortable topic of Gallifrey, but Martha was like a pug dog; not letting go of the subject, and obviously not noticing how uncomfortable and sorrowful both the Doctor and Katy had become at the mention of their lost home planet.
"Come on, though…" Martha insists, and the Doctor and Katy exchange pained looks between them. "I mean, planet of the Time Lords. That's got to be worth a look. What's it like?" She questioned the Doctor, who hesitates a little before replying vaguely.
"Well, it's beautiful, yeah…"
"Is it like, you know, outer space cities, all spires and stuff?" Martha hypothesized.
"I suppose it is..." He mumbles, walking around to come stand beside Katy, who was leaning with her back to the console, looking down at her feet, avoiding eye contact with anyone.
"Great big temples and cathedrals!"
"Yeah…" The Doctor reaches over and takes Katy's hand, trying to bring them both some comfort, and feeling a bit resentful towards Martha, that she had not noticed the distress the both of them were displaying.
"Lots of planets in the sky?" Martha imagined, gleefully.
"The sky's a burnt orange," Katy suddenly speaks up with a sort of faraway voice, alarming the Doctor, and surprising Martha who listens in attentively. "With the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under twin suns…"
The Doctor's eyes were wide with shock, until he noticed a sort of golden glow coming from the locket Katy still had in her hand. He looked up to see that her brown eyes had sort of glazed over, like she was in a trance; and he realised that her locked away memories were leaking through a little, giving Katy this impossible knowledge. He inwardly groaned, wondering how they were going to explain this to Martha…
"…Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow." Katy described, and a melancholy tear escapes from her eye and trails down her cheek. This sight causes the Doctor's hearts to break a little, and he reaches up and gently and discreetly pulls her hand away from her locket, jolting Katy from her vision.
"You've been there before?" Martha asks Katy, surprised.
"Huh?" Katy mumbles, blinking like a newborn, before registering what Martha had said and pales. Especially when she sees the bittersweet, tender expression on the Doctor's face, and she realises what she had just said. "Oh uh, yes. I have. A long time ago. I really miss it…" She mumbles, wiping away the tears in her eyes.
"Clearly, since what you described sounds wonderful." Martha stated, and Katy smiles sadly.
"Oh, it is." Katy confirms, knowing that the Doctor was probably feeling the same way as she was at that moment.
They were severely homesick.
"Can we go there?" Martha requested.
"Nah. Where's the fun for me?" the Doctor instantly changes the subject, giving himself and Katy a reprieve from painful memories. "I don't want to go home!" He lies and parks the Tardis which gives a violent shake before stopping, and then goes and grabs his trench coat and puts it on. Katy follows his example and shrugs on her peacoat, following him and Martha towards the Tardis doors. "Instead, this is much better. Year five billion and fifty-three, planet New Earth—"
Katy freezes mid-step and looks at the Doctor with wide eyes. Why was he bringing them back here? She gave him a pointed look, but he ignores her, still focused on an oblivious Martha.
"—Second hope of mankind. Fifty thousand light years from your old world, and we're slap bang in the middle of New New York." Katy frowns at him. "Although, technically it's the fifteenth New York from the original, so it's New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. One of the most dazzling cities ever built!"
He lets Martha go through first, which gives Katy the opportunity to grab his arm and stop him momentarily.
"What the hell are you doing, Doctor?" Katy hisses underneath her breath.
"Relax, love. I know what I'm doing," the Doctor reassures her underneath his own breath, kissing her on the temple affectionately before gesturing for her to go through before him.
"I certainly hope so…" Katy mutters back.
Pharmacy Town
She and Martha step out into a downpour of rain and realise that the Doctor had parked the Tardis in a narrow alleyway, blocking it off from potential pedestrians.
"Oh! That's nice!" Martha exclaimed sarcastically. "Time Lord version of dazzling…" She tugs the ends of her leather jacket tighter around herself.
Katy, however, takes a good look at her surroundings and tuts with interest, unbothered by the rainstorm. There had been many a time when she had been caught in the rain on her way back from the library after a marathon study session. And never once had she gotten a really nasty cold; something that baffled Jackie a lot. But now that Katy thought back on it, she assumed it was just one of those freaky Time Lord immune system things that not even a Chameleon Arch could hide away.
"Yeah, definitely different from last time…" She comments, just as the Doctor steps out of the Tardis behind them and shuts the door with a click. He grins at the spray of rain that falls on his face.
"Nah, bit of rain never hurt anyone," He argues, ignoring Katy's comment before wrapping his arms around both girls' shoulders. "Come on, let's get under cover!" He pushes them forward towards the entrance of the alleyway they were standing in and they emerged into what looked like a plywood ghetto.
"Well, it looks like the same old Earth to me, on a Wednesday afternoon," Martha observed.
"Hold on, hold on. Let's have a look," the Doctor suggested, and spots what looks like a futuristic computer monitor nearby. He wonders over to it and uses his sonic to get it working. A bubbly looking blonde woman appears on screen with an enthusiastic television anchor-style grin on her face.
"And the driving should be clear and easy, with fifteen extra lanes open for the New New Jersey expressway." The blonde is then replaced with a picture of high-tech Manhattan and flying cars.
The Doctor grinned.
"Oh, that's more like it. That's the view we had last time," He nudges Katy who grimaces a little. "This must be the lower levels, down in the base of the tower. Some sort of lower city."
"You brought me to the slums?" Martha looked unimpressed.
"Much more interesting," the Doctor nodded in agreement. "It's all cocktails and glitter up there…" he indicates to the High-Tech version of New York on the screen. "This is the real city." He insists, and Martha shakes her head and Katy smirked at him.
"You'd enjoy anything, sweetie." She reminds him, and the Doctor winked at her.
"That's me!" All three of them glance up at the heavens when the rain stopped, and the sunshine comes out from behind a cloud. "Ah, the rain's stopping. Better and better!" the Doctor states optimistically.
"When you say last time, was that you, Katy, and Rose?" Martha questioned the both of them, and Katy winces apologetically.
"Yeah, pretty much." Katy confirms as the Doctor looks unconcerned.
"So, you're taking me to the same planets that you took Katy and her sister?" Martha looked appalled.
"Yeah, it looks like it…" Katy confirmed once again.
"What's wrong with that?" the Doctor looked confused. Martha scoffs at him, looking a little judgmental.
"Nothing. Just ever heard of the word rebound?" She points out, but before the Doctor could defend his actions, a man opens a flap covering the front of his stall and beams excitedly at the trio.
"Oh! You should have said!" He scolds them enthusiastically. "How long you been there?" He asks them, before pulling what looks like stickers from his stall. "Happy. You want Happy?"
More stall hatches open up, and this time the proprietors are two women.
"Customers. Customers! We've got customers!" One of the women announces loudly.
"We're in business. Mother, open up the Mellow and the Read!" The second woman shouts at a hidden business partner.
"Happy, Happy, lovely happy Happy!" the male vendor continues flogging his wares at the three of them.
"Anger. Buy some Anger!" the first woman offers.
"Get some Mellow. Make you feel all bendy and soft all day long!" the second woman insists.
"Don't go to them. They'll rip you off! Do you want some happy?" the male vendor questions them, and the Doctor looks at all the vendors with a disgusted frown on his face.
"No, thanks…" He stated firmly and pulls both Katy and Martha away. Both girls were completely bewildered by what they had just witnessed.
"Are they selling drugs?" Martha questioned.
"I think they're selling moods," Katy corrects her, feeling uncomfortable.
"Same thing, isn't it?" Martha snorted not unkindly at Katy's observation, and the younger girl nodded in agreement.
The three of them watch with trepidation as more people suddenly walk into the area, looking listless and dressed in rags. Basically like typical drug addicts. One of them, an extremely pale, blonde-haired young woman walks over to the stalls, looking rather upset.
"Over here, sweetheart!" the second female vendor shouts at the young woman. "That's it, come on, I'll get you first!"
"Oi! Oi, you! Over here! Over here! Buy some Happy!" the male vendor shouts a little too aggressively at the young woman. In the end, she ends up heading towards the second female vendor.
"Come over here, yeah. And what can I get you, my love?" She asks the young woman, sweetly.
"I want to buy forget," the young woman requests, sadly.
I've got Forget, my darling," the female vendor confirms. "What strength? How much do you want forgetting?" She asks.
"It's my mother and father. They went on the motorway," the young woman explains, and immediately the female vendor looks sympathetic; like getting onto a freeway was a death sentence.
"Oh, that's a swine," she tuts before reaching down and picking up something out of view. "Try this. Forget Forty-Three. That's two credits." The female vendor requests, and the young woman hands over the requested amount before walking away. The Doctor, who had been frowning during the entire transaction, walks over to the young woman.
"Sorry but hold on a minute. What happened to your parents?" He asks, looking confused.
The young woman blinks up at him.
"They drove off…"
"But they might come back," Katy pointed out, not really seeing the catastrophe this woman was making this out to be.
"Everyone goes to the motorway in the end," the young woman explained, tearing up a bit. "I've lost them."
"But they can't have gone far. You could find them." The Doctor insisted, but the young woman merely shakes her head and goes to put the weird sticker on her neck. The Doctor's eyes widen, and he moves to stop her. "No! No, no, don't…" But he is too late. The young woman's sad face immediately goes blank, and she looks at the Doctor, Katy, and Martha with a look of complete serenity.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" the young woman inquires.
"Your parents. Your mother and father. They're on the motorway," the Doctor reminds her, looking very disturbed.
"Are they? That's nice," the young woman smiles politely at them. "I'm sorry, I won't keep you." She walks off, leaving the three time travelers completely shocked by what they just saw.
"So that's the human race five billion years in the future?" Martha was disgusted. "Off their heads on chemicals?"
But before the Doctor or Katy could comment, a man suddenly grabs Martha from behind and starts pulling her away, just as a young woman appears from behind him and points a gun at both Katy and the Doctor.
"I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry," the man apologised, looking desperate. "We just need three, that's all." He explained.
"No, let her go!" the Doctor orders urgently. "I'm warning you, let her go! Whatever you want, I can help. Both of us," he indicates between himself and a frowning Katy, who had a calculating look on her face. "We can help. But first you've got to let her go!" He orders sharply.
But Katy had other ideas.
"No, wait! Take me instead!" She bargains, and the Doctor looks at her like she's crazy.
"What? Katy, what are you doing?!"
"I'll go wherever you want, just let Martha go and take me instead!" Katy stresses to the couple, ignoring the Doctor's protests. The couple briefly look at each other before the man pushes Martha aside and grabs Katy.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Sorry." The young woman says to the Doctor and Martha regretfully, before the couple drag Katy through a nearby green door, and slammed it shut behind them. The young woman locks it, before the three of them run along a passageway, while the Doctor desperately attempted to get the door open again.
Backstreet
Katy puts up no fight as the couple guide her down the passageway and emerge into a backstreet, leading her towards a car that looks like a truncated tram. She knew what she had just done voluntarily was mad, but it was better that she was the one taken hostage than Martha, because she had a lot more experience when it came to time travel, whereas Martha did not.
"Get on board," the man requests and both Katy and his female accomplice climb into the strange futuristic car. "Engaging anti-gravs. Hold on!" He requests as he releases the handbrake and the car takes off, just as the Doctor and Martha suddenly burst through the door they had just come through.
They watch helplessly as the car, holding Katy hostage inside it, flies off.
"KATY!" the Doctor shouts in anguish.
"What do we do now?" Martha asks frantically, still reeling from the fact that Katy had swapped places with her.
A rather foolish choice, she thought, because her would-be captors could potentially do anything to her. The Doctor ignores Martha's question and goes back the way he came, practically sprinting down the passageway. Martha literally had to run to keep up with his long strides. She had never seen him look so angry, frightened and desperate as he did right now; and it made her wonder if he was angry at Katy, himself, or the situation?
Pharmacy Town
The Doctor hammers his fist on one of the closed hatches and it opens up, revealing one of the female vendors.
She smiles brightly at him.
"Thought you'd come back. Do you want some happy Happy?" She asks him with a grin.
"Those people, who were they?" the Doctor growls. "Where did they take her?" He demands as a nervous, slightly afraid Martha hangs back behind him, waiting for him to get the information he was seeking, so they could go and rescue Katy from her hostage situation.
Another hatch opens behind them.
"They've taken her to the motorway," the Doctor and Martha turn towards the male vendor, who shrinks back a little at the furious expression on the Doctor's face.
"Looked like carjackers to me," the female vendor countered.
"I'd give up now, darling. You won't see her again," the second female vendor advises the Doctor.
Martha flinches when she notices the Doctor's normally warm, friendly and cheerful brown eyes had immediately hardened and he looked dangerous. The first female vendor foolishly carried on with the explanation, obviously not taking the hint that the Doctor was in a very foul mood now that Katy had been taken away from him.
"Used to be thriving, this place. You couldn't move. But they all go to the motorway in the end," She states, matter-of-factly.
It was then that Martha realised that any desire she might've had for a potential romance with the Doctor had been doomed from the start. She had never seen him as anxious as this before, and it was clear that the Doctor was extremely devoted to Katy.
"He kept on saying three, we need three. What did he mean, three?" the Doctor asks, urgently.
"It's the car-sharing policy, to save fuel," the first female vendor responded. "You get special access if you're carrying three adults."
"This motorway. How do I get there?" the Doctor demanded.
"Straight down the alley, keep going to the end," the first female vendor leaned out of her booth a little and pointed down a nearby alleyway. The Doctor and Martha eye it with a determination. "You canna miss it." The Doctor nodded curtly and both he and Martha head straight towards it. However, it appeared that the first female vendor decided to push her luck and followed up the direction with a sales pitch. "Tell you what," the Doctor paused and turned back towards her, impatiently waiting for her to finish what she was saying, while Martha silently begged the woman to stay silent. "How about some happy Happy? Then you'll be smiling, my love!" She offered, very enthusiastically.
"Word of advice, all of you," the Doctor suggested coldly. "Cash up, close down and pack your bags."
"Why's that then?" the sunny expression on the woman's face faded a little at the implied threat in the Doctor's voice.
"Because as soon as I've found her, alive and well. And I will find my Katy alive and well. Then I'm coming back, and this street is closing. Tonight!" He vowed, before storming off without another word, with Martha hurrying to catch up with him.
With Katy
Katy sat quietly on a camper bed at the very back of the snug futuristic car, just observing the young couple who had abducted her for an unknown reason. The very second the car had taken flight they had relaxed, looking very proud of themselves; and Katy wanted to know exactly the reason why she had volunteered to be taken in Martha's place.
"Now you just settle back," the man suggested to his friend. "It's all going to be worth it."
"Yeah, the view from the windows. You can see all the way out to the flatlands. Clear blue sky." Her female kidnapper sighed dreamily. "They say the air smells like apple grass. Can you imagine?"
"Yeah, actually…" Katy piped up, startling the couple who had apparently forgotten that she had been there. "...it does smell like apple grass." She smiles coldly at them.
"How do you know?" the young woman blinks at Katy, surprised.
"This isn't my first time visiting here. I came to New New York a couple years back." Katy fudged a white lie.
It's not exactly like she could come out and say to these total strangers, that when she last came to New New York was with her newly regenerated alien boyfriend and her adoptive twin sister, just so they could go to a hospital with a green half-moon on the side of it, to visit a mysterious and annoyingly cryptic disembodied head in a jar. Only, instead, her body was 'borrowed' by the Last Human so she could make her escape from the hospital's basement. Not to mention that her boyfriend had parked his blue time machine on the very grass they were talking about.
"They say the houses are made of wood. That there are jobs going in the foundries. Is it true?" the man grills Katy for information.
"First I've heard of it," Katy responded, truthfully. She eyes the gun that the young woman had immediately discarded the second they had gotten into this car, and immediately snatches it up and points it at them. "Now. You both have got exactly ten seconds to explain to me why you needed me here in the first place, or I'll force you at gunpoint to take me back to my boyfriend and our friend."
"I'm sorry. That's not a real gun," the young woman tells Katy sheepishly.
"Yeah, well, you would say that." Katy retorts, a bit puzzled that neither of them flinched when she had raised the gun at them.
"Where do you get a gun from, these days?" the young woman insisted. "I wouldn't even know how to fire." Katy takes a moment to examine the gun in her hand, only to discover to her embarrassment that not only was it plastic and fake, but the fact that if it have been real; the gun was alien in design and therefore probably complicated to use.
"Right…" Katy sets aside the gun and smooths a piece of her hair behind her ear.
The young woman smiles at her kindly.
"What's your name?"
"Caitlyn. Caitlyn Tyler; but I prefer to be called Katy," Katy responded.
"Well, I'm Cheen, and this is Milo," Cheen indicates towards the man, who looks at her through the rear-view mirror and waves. "And I swear we're sorry. We're really, really sorry. We just needed access to the fast lane, but I promise, as soon as we arrive, we'll drop you off and you can go back and find your boyfriend and your friend," Cheen was sincere with both her apology and their reason for kidnapping her.
Katy blinks at her in astonishment.
"Seriously?"
"I swear! Look…" Cheen sweeps back her long hair and shows Katy a green 'mood sticker' with the word HONESTY written on it in capital letters attached to her neck. "Honesty patch."
"All the same, it's still kidnapping!" Katy protested. "Even if I traded myself for my friend's safety." She sighed heavily and took notice of the view outside the windscreen. "Where are we, anyway?"
"We're on the motorway," Milo confirms.
"What's that, then?" Katy indicated towards the smoky grey haze that was hovering around them. "Fog?"
"That's the exhaust fumes," Cheen corrects her.
"We're going out to Brooklyn. Everyone says the air's so much cleaner, and we couldn't stay in Pharmacy Town, because…" Milo trails off, looking over at Cheen who was beaming from ear to ear in excitement.
"…Well, because of me. I'm pregnant. We only discovered it last week." I was kidnapped by an expecting couple… Katy thought dubiously. "Scan says it's going to be a boy!"
"Brilliant. What do I do now, congratulate my kidnappers?" Katy snaps back, irritably.
"Oh, we're not kidnappers. Not really," Cheen insisted.
"You're idiots, actually." Katy retorts in disgust. "You're having a baby, and you're wearing that?" She reaches out and yanks off the HONESTY patch, making Cheen yelp in protest. "How do you know that isn't dangerous for the baby?"
"Look, this'll be as fast as we can," Milo attempts to calm Katy down. "We'll take the motorway to the Brooklyn flyover, and then after that it's going to take a while, because then there's no fast lane, just ordinary roads, but at least it's direct."
"It's only ten miles," Cheen reassures her, and Katy frowns; sensing that they weren't exactly telling her everything.
"How long is it going to take?" She asks, reluctantly.
"About six years," Cheen shrugged nonchalantly.
"What?" Katy's eyes widened in horror. Oh, God… the Doctor is going to kill me!
"Be just in time for him to start school," Cheen cradles her still flat stomach as she and Milo kiss.
"No, sorry, hold on. Six years? Ten miles in six years? How come?" Katy questioned.
Lay by
The Doctor and Martha bursts out of a metal door that the Doctor had managed to unlock with his sonic, and they step out onto a small metal balcony. They instantly start coughing and wheezing in the exhaust fumes.
The stationary traffic is stacked in all directions, including up and down. A car nearby the balcony slides open its door and a figure in a World War Two flying jacket and helmet, goggles and a white scarf across its face, sticks its head out.
"Hey! You two daft little street struts!" The figure calls out to the Doctor and Martha in a thick Irish brogue. "What are you doing standing there? Either get out or get in. Come on!" Neither the Doctor nor Martha hesitate and immediately run towards the idling car and jumped in.
Inside the Car
Both the Doctor and Martha gasp for breath as their rescuer quickly slides the door shut and returns to the driver's seat.
"Did you ever see the like?" The Irish figure scolds them, as a dark-haired woman puts an oxygen mask on them both.
"Here you go," She tells them, with a smile. Both the Doctor and Martha nod gratefully to her in thanks.
"Just standing there, breathing it in…" Their rescuer removes his scarf and goggles, revealing himself to be a humanoid-cat man, much like the Cat-like Nurses the Doctor had met when he last came to New New York with Katy and Rose. "There's this story, says back in the old days, on Junction forty seven, this woman stood in the exhaust fumes for a solid twenty minutes. By the time they found her, her head had swollen to fifty feet!"
"Oh, you're making it up!" the dark-haired woman scolds him, lightly.
"A fifty foot head! Just think of it. Imagine picking that nose…" The cat man joked, earning a small amused smile from the Doctor and a mildly grossed out face from Martha.
"Oh, stop it. That's disgusting." The dark-haired woman protested.
"What, did you never pick your nose?"
"Bran, we're moving!" She alerts him.
"Right. I'm there. I'm on it!" He faces the front and puts his foot down on the accelerator. With a cloud of white smoke from the exhaust pipe, all the cars move forward a short distance. "Twenty yards. We're having a good day!" He cheers before turning back around to address their new passengers. "And who might you two be? Very well-dressed for hitchhikers."
The Doctor pulls off the oxygen mask and hands it back to the dark-haired woman with a polite smile, and Martha does the same.
"Thanks. Sorry, I'm the Doctor. And this is my friend Martha." The Doctor introduces himself and Martha.
"Nice to meet you," Martha smiles politely at them.
"Medical man! Well, my name's Thomas Kincade Brannigan, and this is the bane of my life, the lovely Valerie." The cat-man introduces himself, and the dark-haired woman, who was apparently his wife.
"Nice to meet you!" Valerie shakes both their hands.
"And that's the rest of the family behind you…" Brannigan points to a curtain behind the Doctor and Martha which had been drawn across for some resemblance of privacy. Curiously, the Doctor draws back the curtain, revealing a litter of kittens in a basket.
Martha immediately lights up with delight.
"Oh, my Gosh!" She squeals and reaches forward to pick one of them up. The Doctor also grins and follows suit.
"Ah, that's nice. Hello!" He coos, then swivels round to address Valerie. "How old are they?"
"Just two months," Valerie replies, reaching out a finger to stroke her child's head. The kitten purrs at its mother's touch.
"Poor little souls," Brannigan laments sympathetically. "They've never known the ground beneath their paws. Children of the motorway…"
"What, they were born in here?" Martha pipes up, looking surprised.
"We couldn't stop. We heard there were jobs going, out in the laundries on Fire Island. Thought we'd take a chance." Valerie explained.
"What, you've been driving for two months?" the Doctor was surprised. Brannigan just gives him a funny look.
"Do I look like a teenager? We've been driving for twelve years now," He explained and both the Doctor and Martha blink at him in astonishment.
"I'm sorry?" The Doctor commented.
"Yeah! Started out as newlyweds," Brannigan continued. "Feels like yesterday."
"Feels like twelve years to me.." Valerie disagreed.
"Ah, sweetheart, but you still love me…" Brannigan flirts with Valerie. The Doctor returns the kitten in his hands back into its basket, before turning to interrogate the couple further, and Martha follows suit.
"Twelve years? How far did you come? Where did you start?"
"Battery Park," Brannigan answered. "It's five miles back."
"You travelled five miles in twelve years?" the Doctor confirmed, sounding incredulous.
Brannigan looks at his wife with concern.
"I think he's a bit slow…"
"Where are you from?" Valerie asks the Doctor, who immediately changes the subject.
"Never mind that. I've got to get out. My girlfriend's in one of these cars. She was taken hostage. We need to get back to the Tardis—" The Doctor slides open the car door and nearly falls from Brannigan's car when he takes a step out of it. It is a very long way down, and Martha manages to grab the back of his coat and pulls him back inside.
The Doctor slides the door shut.
"You're too late for that," Brannigan interrupted him. "We've passed the lay-by. You're both passengers now, Sonny-Jim."
"When's the next lay-by?" Martha asks, a little anxiously.
"Oh, six months?" Brannigan estimates, and both the Doctor and Martha look chagrined.
With Katy
Milo steers his car deeper and deeper down the rows of cars, heading towards this so-called 'fast lane'. Knowing that she was technically at their mercy for the duration of this impossible trip, Katy decided to form a truce with her kidnappers for the sake of peace. It wasn't as though the Doctor wasn't going to find and help her … and probably give her a tongue-lashing for putting herself into this situation in the first place. But they still would be rescuing somebody regardless, whether or not it was Martha or herself. Katy squinted through the smog outside, trying to figure out exactly how many cars were travelling on the motorway.
"How many cars are out there?" She asks, curiously.
"I don't think anyone knows," Cheen admits, then reaches for a packet of wafer-like biscuits and offers one to Katy. "Hungry?" Katy turns away from the window she was looking out of and eyes the food.
"Oh, thanks." She takes a small bite. "But how far down is it to this fast lane?" Katy asks with her mouth still full.
"Oh, it's right at the bottom, underneath the traffic jam." Milo explained. "But not many people can afford three passengers, so it's empty down there. Rumour has it you can reach up to thirty miles per hour."
"Wow. That's, like, crazy." Katy exclaims, sarcastically. "But how are you supposed to live inside this thing? It's tiny." She gestures about the interior of the car, looking somewhat skeptical. Katy couldn't imagine being able to live like this for six years. She'd get cabin fever within a couple of months.
"Oh, we stocked up," Cheen explained. "Got self-replicating fuel, muscle stimulants for exercise, and there's a chemical toilet at the back. And all waste products are recycled as food."
Katy pauses midchew and slowly looks down at the biscuit she was eating before dropping it to the floor immediately.
"Great…"
"Oh, another gap!" Milo reports excitedly as the car takes another nosedive down. "This is brilliant."
"Car sign in," the computer suddenly chimes in.
"Car Four Six Five Diamond Six, on descent to fast lane, thank you very much," Milo gives the computer the details. It only takes a few minutes before the computer reports back with what the couple were looking for.
"Please drive safely!"
Brannigan's Car
The Doctor manages to find the couple's communications system and after asking permission to use it, hacks into it. He immediately accesses the police.
"I need to talk to the Police," the Doctor demands into the microphone he had clutched tightly in his hand. However, the response he got was a pre-recorded voicemail.
"Thank you for your call. You have been placed on hold." The computer automated voice responded robotically.
The Doctor blinks in disbelief.
"But you're the police…"
"Thank you for your call. You have been placed on hold." The computer repeated itself. The Doctor huffs in frustration and looks back at Brannigan who was sitting in the driver's seat, half-watching him and keeping an eye on the traffic in front of him.
"Is there anyone else? I once met the Duke of Manhattan. Is there any way of getting through to him?" the Doctor asked, somewhat urgently.
Brannigan raises an eyebrow at him.
"Oh now, ain't you lordly?"
"I've got to find my girlfriend," the Doctor insists, trying to rein in his temper. Valerie looks at him with sympathy.
"You can't make outside calls," She explained. "The motorway's completely enclosed."
"What about the other cars?" Martha piped up, helpfully. The Doctor smiles at her gratefully as Brannigan nodded.
"Oh, we've got contact with them, yeah." He replied. "Well, some of them, anyway. They've got to be on your friend's list." Brannigan consults a small computer monitor on the dashboard and moves a clawed finger down the list. "Now, let's see. Who's nearby? Ah, the Cassini sisters!" The Doctor and Martha look over Brannigan's shoulder and saw on screen a picture of two older women in their late 70s, early 80s, and a number: 3-1-7-a-1. Brannigan taps on the picture and speaks jovially into the microphone. "Still your hearts, my handsome girls. It's Brannigan here."
"Get off the line, Brannigan. You're a pest and a menace," Alice, one of the women, scolds playfully in response.
"Oh, come on, now, sisters. Is that any way to talk to an old friend?" Brannigan teases back.
"You know full well we're not sisters. We're married."
"Ooh, stop that modern talk. I'm an old-fashioned cat," Brannigan responds as he glances over his shoulder at an impatient looking Doctor, chomping at the bit to get some information about Katy. "Now, I've got a hitchhiker here, calls himself the Doctor…" Brannigan passes the microphone to the Doctor, who immediately takes it and starts talking.
"Hello. Sorry. I'm looking for someone called Katy Tyler. She's been carjacked." He explained hastily. "She's inside one of these vehicles, but I don't know which one."
"Wait a minute," May, Alice's wife, speaks up. "Could I ask, what entrance did they use?" She inquires, politely. The Doctor looks over at Brannigan for the answer.
"Where were we?"
"Pharmacy Town," Brannigan responded promptly.
"Pharmacy Town," the Doctor relays back to the two women. "About twenty minutes ago."
"Let's have a look…"
"Just my luck, to marry a car-spotter…" Alice comments fondly. The sound of rustling paper can be heard over the line.
"In the last half-hour, fifty-three new cars joined from the Pharmacy Town junction." May reported, and the Doctor frowned.
"Anything more specific?" He asked, urgently.
"All in good time," She responded calmly. "Was she car-jacked by two people?"
"Yes, she was, yeah." The Doctor confirmed. There was more silence for a few more minutes as more pages turned.
"There we are. Just one of those cars was destined for the fast lane," May stated. "That means they had three on board. And their car number is four six five diamond six."
"That's it!" the Doctor yells triumphantly, and Martha sags with relief, grinning from ear to ear that they had finally managed to locate Katy. "So how do we find them?" He prodded for more information.
"Ah. Now there I'm afraid I can't help," May acknowledged, and the Doctor groaned and turned to Brannigan for assistance.
"Call them on this thing. We've got their number. Diamond six."
"But not if they're designated fast lane. It's a different class," Brannigan stated, somewhat helplessly.
"You could try the police," Alice suggested.
"They put me on hold," the Doctor explained, in frustration.
"You'll have to keep trying. There's no one else." She insisted, firmly.
"Thank you," the Doctor said, a bit dejectedly and hands Brannigan back the microphone. Martha looks at him with sympathy, as the Doctor scowls out of the window, trying to work out what their next move was going to be to get Katy back.
With Katy
The car continues heading downwards towards the fast lane, but something keeps nagging at Katy that something horrible was lurking down there, and that the three of them were heading into a bear trap.
"See? Another ten layers to go," Milo reassures his wife. "We're scorching!" He states enthusiastically. A distant growling noise makes all three of them freeze, and Katy pales.
"What's that?" She asks, nervously. "It's coming from underneath."
"It's that noise, doesn't it?" Cheen suddenly pipes up, and Katy looks at her inquiringly. "It's like Kate said. The stories, they're true."
"What stories?" Katy prompts, a little worriedly. However, Milo scoffs a little and attempts to reassure both of them.
"It's the sound of the air vents," He insists nonchalantly. "That's all. The exhaust fumes travel down, so at the base of the tunnel they've got air vents."
"No, but the stories are much better," Cheen counters Milo's argument. "They say people go missing on the motorway. Some cars just vanish, never to be seen again, because there's something living down there in the smoke. Something huge and hungry. And if you get lost on the road, it's waiting for you."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better about all this," Katy mutters.
Some more distant roars are heard, and this time Milo looks slightly uncomfortable. But then he stubbornly shakes his head and sticks to his guns.
"Like I said. Air vents." He insists. "Going down to the next layer," Milo tilts the steering wheel down again and the car travels deeper and deeper into the layers. But Katy wasn't one to give up that easily and tries again to convince the couple that they were heading for potential trouble.
"Except look out there," She indicates towards the thick, grey smog blanketing everything around them. "Does it look like the air vents are working?"
"No," Cheen concedes.
"So, what's that then?" Katy challenged them to prove her wrong; feeling somewhat triumphant that she appeared to be getting Cheen on her side. But Milo was stubborn.
"Nah. Kid stuff," He speaks into the car's microphone to the computer. "Car four six five diamond six, on descent."
Katy sighed in frustration, and slumps back against the wall, letting her head thud hollowly against it too. She wished that the Doctor was here right now; he was always better at convincing people than she was.
"I've gotta get through to these idiots, somehow…" Katy mutters to herself quietly, staring out of the window at the smoggy wilderness outside.
Brannigan's car
The Doctor sits up with a determination. It was now or never. He leans in between Brannigan and Valerie and addresses the former.
"We've got to go to the fast lane," He states to Brannigan who immediately frowns at the very idea. "Take me down."
"Not in a million years," Brannigan immediately shoots him down. The Doctor gestures between himself, Martha, Valerie, and Brannigan and looks at the cat-man dubiously.
"You've got four passengers!" He reminds him.
"I'm still not going," Brannigan argues. The Doctor rakes a hand through his messy hair; something he did when he was stressed and trying hard to stop himself from doing something that he might regret long term. He decides to appeal to Brannigan's compassionate side.
"Look, she's alone and she's lost." The Doctor explains, desperately. "She doesn't belong on this planet, and it's all my fault. I'm asking you, Brannigan, take me down." The Doctor pleads, and Valerie turns and glowers at him.
"That's a no," She snaps. "And that's final. I'm not risking the children down there." This reasoning sparks both the Doctor and Martha's interest.
"Why not? What's the risk? What happens down there?" the Doctor asks, curiously.
"We're not discussing it. The conversation is closed!" Valerie immediately shuts down, and the Doctor scowls.
"So, we keep on driving…"
"Yes, we do." Brannigan confirms.
"For how long?" The Doctor questions, despite already knowing what the answer was going to be.
"Till the journey's end," Brannigan stated, stubbornly. Then a horrible, grim thought suddenly occurs to the Doctor, and he decides to confirm this theory. He reaches for the microphone and contacts the Cassini's.
"Mrs. Cassini, this is the Doctor," He addresses the elderly couple. "Tell me, how long have you been driving on the motorway?"
"Oh, we were amongst the first," Alice confirms, a bit nostalgically. "It's been twenty-three years now."
"And in all that time, have you ever seen a police car?" the Doctor innocently inquires; making the Cassini's pause for a moment, and both Brannigan and Valerie to pale a bit. Martha winces when she realises where the Doctor was going with this question. It wasn't exactly nice, but it needed to be asked.
"I'm not sure…" May responded, weakly.
"Look at your notes. Any police?" the Doctor prompted.
"Not as such," May confirmed as she flipped through her book, searching for what the Doctor was asking them, and obviously not finding anything.
"Or an ambulance? Rescue service? Anything official. Ever?" the Doctor pressed; obviously knowing that he had hit the nail right on the head, that every single car on this motorway had been basically travelling around in circles this entire time.
"I can't keep note of everything!" May yells, getting a bit upset.
"What if there's no one out there?" the Doctor continues, getting a slightly disapproving scowl from Martha for making the poor woman upset. Brannigan immediately snatches the mike back, and like Martha, scowls at the Doctor for his lack of tact.
"Stop it!" He scolds. "The Cassini's were doing you a favour."
"Someone's got to ask," the Doctor argued. "Because you might not talk about it, but it's there in your eyes. What if the traffic jam never stops?" He challenges him, and Brannigan falters a little at the idea.
"There's a whole city above us. The mighty city state of New New York. They wouldn't just leave us!" Brannigan insists.
"In that case, where are they, hmm?" the Doctor taunts. "What if there's no help coming, not ever? What if there's nothing? Just the motorway, with the cars going round and round and round and round, never stopping. Forever…"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Valerie shouts, tearfully. Suddenly, the image of the bubbly blonde woman from the alleyway, appears on the monitor in front of them. But instead of an enthusiastic smile on her face, she looks back at them with a sad smile.
"This is Sally Calypso, and it's that time again." The Doctor and Martha study her with puzzled, pensive looks on their faces. "The sun is blazing high in the sky over the New Atlantic, the perfect setting for the daily contemplation…"
"You think you know us so well, Doctor." Brannigan scowls a bit resentfully at the Doctor, who remains steadfast with his theory. "But we're not abandoned. Not while we have each other." He reaches over and takes a tearful Valerie's hand in his.
"This is for all of you out there on the roads," A melancholy hymn starts to play over the loudspeakers. "We're so sorry. Drive safe!" The image of Sally Calypso flickers out, and the choir begins singing:
"On a hill, far away, stood an old, rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame…" Everyone, including Martha and Katy in her captor's car, joins in with the hymn, but only the Doctor refrains from singing. "… and I love that old cross, where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. 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."
When the hymn was finished, the Doctor makes his final ultimatum.
"If you won't take me, I'll go down on my own!" He decided, and Martha looks at him with wide eyes.
"What? But Doctor…!" She protests.
"What do you think you're doing?" Brannigan agrees with her, looking at the Doctor like he was mad.
"Finding my own way. I usually do," the Doctor responds with a tiny grin. He sonics open the trapdoor in the floor of the car.
"Capsule open…" the computer announces, and the Doctor squats down to watch the commotion and sees a car stop directly underneath them. He shrugs out of his trench coat in preparation for his descent.
"Here we go!" He declares, triumphantly. He hands his coat to Martha who takes it and loops it over her arm. But she continues to gape at him with disbelief. "Stay here. You'll be safe with them and look after that." He indicates to his jacket and gives it a fond smile. "I love that coat. Janis Joplin gave me that coat."
"Okay. But you be careful, alright?" Martha makes him promise, and the Doctor gives her a sunny grin.
"Always!" And he winks at her playfully. Valerie looks at him with wide eyes, shocked that he was even contemplating doing what she knew he was about to do.
"But you can't jump," She protests, worriedly. The Doctor looks at Valerie with a mingled look of both reassurance and mild anxiety.
"If it's any consolation, Valerie, right now, I'm having kittens." The Doctor admits, looking down the trapdoor a bit nervously. Brannigan looks at him with an expression a cross between mystified and full of respect.
"This Katy. She must mean an awful lot to you," He observes, and the Doctor looks at him with a beaming smile.
"She's my Tether," he admits, and Martha looks a bit crestfallen, but resigned to accept it regardless. "Took me a while to figure that bit out. But it's true. Katy is, and always will be, my everything, and I will do anything for her. Well, bye then!" The Doctor drops onto the roof of the car below, and proceeds to sonic the roof open while Martha, Valerie, and Brannigan watch on in disbelief.
"He's completely insane!" Valerie declared.
"That, and a bit magnificent!" Brannigan agreed with an impressed grin on his face. Martha watches the Doctor disappear into the roof hatch of the car he had just jumped onto with a warm smile.
"He definitely is," She agreed.
A/N: Stay tuned for the next chapter!