A/N: I will admit that when I first saw the episode that this chapter is based on, I really didn't like it. Mostly because I was irrationally jealous of Jessica Stevenson's character. But when I learnt that David Tennant is actually my blood (we're cousins), I felt really stupid for feeling that way and somewhat awkward. Human Nature and Family of Blood are still not my favourite episodes, but I can tolerate them now.
Also note, because of the inclusion of Katy, I will be tweaking it a little to fit her into the episode. Redfern will not be the love interest in this chapter.
I don't own Doctor Who. All I own is my OC Katy, and this story.
Please review and no flaming will be tolerated. Thanking you :)
HEART AND SOUL
"I'll take your bad days with your good;
Walk through the storm, I would.
I do it all because I love you.
I love you."
– Katy Perry: 'Unconditionally' (Prism [2013])
Tardis
The Doctor, Katy, and Martha sprint into the Tardis, closely followed by a blast from an energy weapon, which causes Katy to scream as it narrowly misses her.
"Get down!" the Doctor yells as he gets up from the floor and slams the Tardis doors shut. He immediately goes over to check over Katy and Martha for any injuries. "Are you okay?" He asked worriedly, and both girls shook their heads reassuringly. Neither of them were hurt, just out of breath and confused about why they had been followed and shot at by random aliens.
"What the hell is going on, Doctor?" Katy demanded.
"Did they see you?" the Doctor answered with a question instead of replying.
"No," Katy frowned.
"I don't know," Martha responded, just as bemused.
"But did they see you?" the Doctor was adamant and both Katy and Martha were alarmed by the urgency in the Doctor's voice.
"I was a bit preoccupied," Katy responded truthfully.
"Yeah, I was too busy running." Martha agreed. The Doctor grabs both girls by their shoulders.
"Katy, Martha, it's important. Did they see your faces?" the Doctor insisted.
"No, they did not." Katy confirmed and Martha simply shook her head in confirmation. The Doctor sagged with relief and made a beeline for the console, flipping a few switches and pressing buttons.
"Off we go!" He sets the Tardis in motion. However, when he takes a look into the monitor he curses underneath his breath. "Argh! They're following us!" He despaired and both girls come over to the console, hanging off the side of it for dear life to prevent being thrown to the ground painfully.
"But we're travelling through time," Katy pointed out.
"Yeah, how can they do that?" Martha questioned.
"Stolen technology," the Doctor answered. "They've got a Time Agent's vortex manipulator." Katy's eyes widened as she immediately thought about their friend and ex-conman Captain Jack Harkness, and absently wondered what had happened to him. She is brought back into the present when the Doctor speaks up again. "They can follow us wherever we go, right across the universe."
"Oh, great. Just what we need." Katy drawled sarcastically.
"They're never going to stop," the Doctor realises to his dismay, until he catches a glimpse of Katy's heart-shaped, bigger-on-the-inside locket out the corner of his eye and is inspired by it. "Unless…"
"Unless what?" Katy didn't like the tone of his voice, and her eyes narrowed with suspicion when the Doctor immediately dashes towards the place he kept away specific items for his own use.
"I'll have to do it." He stated.
"Do what?" Katy asked warily. She didn't like the sound of where this was going. The Doctor locates what he was looking for and snatches it up. Although neither girl knew what he had picked up.
"Martha, you trust me, don't you?" the Doctor questioned her, hastily.
"Of course I do," Martha said, immediately. The Doctor eyes his girlfriend who was frowning at him.
"Katy?" He looks at her pleadingly, and she almost felt insulted that he had to ask her that question.
"With my life." Katy stated sincerely and just a tad exasperatedly. The Doctor sags with relief.
"Because it all depends on the two of you." He stated cryptically.
"What does? What are we supposed to do?" Martha asked, very confused. The Doctor holds up an ornately decorated pocket watch and Katy looks at it with trepidation; and she had no idea why.
"Take this watch, because my life depends on it." The Doctor explains hastily. "This watch, girls. This watch is—"
Teacher's quarters
1913
John Smith stirred from his restful sleep, blinking like a newborn in the early morning sunshine filtering through his bedroom window. A nearby clock ticked away on his bedside table as he sits up and gathers his bearings. He yawns and frowns a little when he hears voices in the corridor outside his bedroom, and he swings his legs over the side of his bed and gets up, just in time for a knock on the door.
"Come in!" He calls out brightly. The door opens, revealing his maid; a young woman called Martha whom he had inherited from his family when he had first moved out of his parents' home and became a teacher. She was carrying a breakfast tray, and her eyes widen, and she turns her back to him when she sees that he isn't fully dressed for the working day yet.
"Pardon me, Mister Smith. You're not dressed yet. I can come back later." Martha turns to leave, but Smith immediately stops her.
"No, it's all right, it's all right." He reassures her as he reaches for his dressing gown and slides it on. "Put it down." Martha nodded obediently and puts his breakfast tray on a table beside a leather settee. "I was, er. Sorry, sorry. Sometimes I have these extraordinary dreams."
"What about, sir?" Martha questioned as she walks over and draws the curtains.
"I dream I'm this adventurer," Smith explains, frowning contemplatively. "This daredevil, a madman." Martha pauses momentarily, in the middle of making Smith's bed, but then continues on as if nothing happened. "The Doctor, I'm called. And last night I dreamt that you were there, as my companion."
"A teacher and a housemaid, sir? That's impossible." Martha chuckles light-heartedly.
"And there was another young woman there too," Smith added on and Martha once again pauses, waiting for Smith to continue. "And it's the queerest thing too. I feel as though that I've seen her somewhere before…" He trails off, before shaking his head and dismissing it completely.
"Certainly sounds strange, sir." Martha agreed.
"I'm a man from another world, though." Smith points out.
"Well, it can't be true because there's no such thing." Martha reassures him. Smith wonders over to his mantlepiece, picking up a fob watch from it.
"This thing. The watch is…" He studies it for a moment before putting it back where he had found it. "Ah, it's funny how dreams slip away. But I do remember one thing; it all took place in the future. In the Year of Our Lord 2007."
"I can prove that wrong for you, sir." Martha picks up a carefully folded up newspaper from the breakfast tray and shakes it open for Smith to peruse for himself. "Here's the morning paper. It's Monday, November 10th, 1913, and you're completely human, sir. As human as they come." She tells him with a bright smile. Smith takes the paper and studies it for himself.
"Mmm, that's me. Completely human." A smile crosses his face.
Farringham School for Boys
Corridor
A few hours later found Martha on her hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water, a rag, and a scrubbing brush, scrubbing vigorously at the tiled floor of the school's corridor, with her friend and fellow scullery maid, Jenny. She perks up instantly from her tedious chore when a cap and gowned Smith walks by, his mind preoccupied with something else.
"Morning, sir." Martha politely bids him a good morning, and Smith automatically looks up at the greeting and cordially nods at Martha.
"Yes, hi." He responded before making his way up the staircase. Jenny observes this and shakes her head, a teasing smile on her lips.
"Head in the clouds, that one." She observes. "Don't know why you're so sweet on him."
"He's just kind to me, that's all." Martha defends her actions. "Not everyone's that considerate, what with me being—"
"A Londoner?" Jenny guesses.
"Exactly," Martha smiles warmly. "Good old London town." Both women giggle to themselves as they continue with their chore. However, their smiles immediately drop when they are alerted to the presence of two senior students, who sneer down at them unpleasantly.
"Er, now then, you two. You're not being paid to have fun, are you?" One of them, a haughty young man by the name of Baines chides them. "Put a little backbone into it."
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir." Jenny apologises and resumes scrubbing at the floor. Martha glowers resentfully at the floor, and freezes when the other boy, a lad named Hutchinson addresses her.
"You there, what's your name again?" He asks, and Martha slowly looks up at him curiously.
"Martha, sir. Martha Jones." She answers, and Hutchinson smirks.
"Tell me then, Jones. With hands like those, how can you tell when something's clean?" He mocks her, and Martha just stares at him blankly while both Baines and Hutchinson chortle like the latter's racial slur was the funniest joke they had ever heard. However, before either boy could walk on, an unexpected ally stops them.
"Is there something amusing about that, gentlemen?"
Both boys freeze and the smirks on their faces drop, replaced with strained respect as they straighten up. Jenny and Martha look up from their work to see a stern-faced Katy, or Miss Tyler as she is known at the school, stepping into view with an unamused scowl on her face, directed towards a slightly annoyed Hutchinson.
"Nothing that you would find amusing, Miss." Hutchinson mumbled, and Katy raises an eyebrow at the obvious lie.
"You would be surprised," Katy retorts, eying them off. "May I remind you, gentlemen, that that sort of conduct is not acceptable here. You will show due respect. And you, Mr. Hutchinson…" She stares pointedly at him. "Will apologise to both ladies, but Miss Jones in particular. Or you will suffer detention." Katy pauses, waiting for a response. "Rest assured, gentlemen, Headmaster Rocastle will be informed of this occurrence, and he will decide if any further punishment is required." There was a pause. "Well?" Katy remarked with a raised eyebrow.
"I apologise, Miss Jones." Hutchinson responded begrudgingly.
"Now, do you have some place you need to be?" Both boys nodded. "Good. Off you go." Katy sent them off, and Baines and Hutchinson quickly left.
"Good morning, ladies." Katy bids Martha and Jenny who both smile and nod politely at the school's new librarian.
"Morning, miss." Jenny acknowledges.
"And thank you, miss." Martha thanks her, and Katy makes her way towards the stairs and goes up them, leaving both maids to ponder what had just happened.
"Just think, though." Jenny refers to Baines and Hutchinson. "In a few years' time, boys like that'll be running the country." She continues to scrub at the floor. Martha, and unbeknownst to both maids, Katy, who was listening in, out of sight, adopt saddened expressions, as they both knew what was going to happen in a year's time.
"Nineteen thirteen? They might not." Martha responded with a sad sigh and resumes scrubbing, as Katy bites her bottom lip and continues walking to her destination.
Upper corridor
A few more hours go by, and Katy makes her way down the corridor, dodging students and teachers heading for their next classes, minding her own business as she completes some errands for the library.
"Excuse me, miss." A student accidentally brushes past Katy, and she smiles and nodded at him before carrying on. Making her way towards the staircase, she quite literally bumps directly into Smith, who is carrying a large pile of books.
"Oh! Pardon me, Mister Smith." Katy apologises as Smith drops some of the books. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
"It's quite alright." Smith smiles brightly at Katy when he recognises who had bumped into him. "There we go."
"Let me help you," Katy offers.
"No, no, I've got it, no." Smith declines the assistance, before realising his error. "Er, how best to receive?" He makes a mental calculation in his head, as Katy rolls her eyes, looking at him fondly. The best way of 'receiving' would be for her to stoop down and retrieve his books for him and replace them on top of the pile already in his hands. But decided to hold her tongue and let him figure it out for himself. "Tell you what. If you could take these…" Smith passes the books from his arms into Katy's waiting hands, before stooping down and picking up his fallen ones. "No harm done."
"So I see," Katy grins at him.
"So, er, how has your day been so far?" Smith awkwardly asks Katy, who shrugs nonchalantly.
"Fair to middling. How about you?" Katy responded.
"Oh, much the same."
"I'm glad. I appear to be holding your books…" Katy points out, and Smith immediately becomes flustered.
"Yes, so you are. Sorry, sorry. Just let me…"
"Why don't I take half?" Katy suggested.
"Ah, brilliant idea. Brilliant. Perfect. Division of labour." Between them, Katy and Smith equally divide the books she is holding in her arms in half. Katy smiles at him, pleased that even though he was underneath the guise of an ordinary human being; the Doctor was still as awkward as ever before.
"We make quite a team," Katy observes.
"Don't we just." Smith agrees, looking at Katy warmly.
"So, these, uh books. Were they being taken in any particular direction?" Katy inquires and Smith gestures in the direction he had been walking in.
"Yes. This way." Katy turns and falls into step beside Smith as she goes back the way she had been coming from, following Smith towards his destination. The errands that she had been working her way through for the day, could wait a few minutes more. Besides, it had been a while since she or Martha had had any time alone with 'the Doctor' since they had arrived here at this boarding school to hide. "I always say, Miss Tyler, give the boys a good head of steam, they'll soon wear themselves out."
Katy winces at being so formally addressed and decides to put an end to it. She couldn't wait for the day they could finally 'persuade' Smith to open up that bloody fob watch – which she eventually learned was the same form of Time Lord technology as her locket – and restore the Doctor to himself and get the hell out of there.
"Erm, if you don't mind. When it's just you and me, I'd much rather you call me Katy. After all, we've known each other for all of two months." Actually, it's been more than two months, but details… Katy requested, and Smith gives her a puzzled look.
"Katy?"
"Well, my name is Caitlyn, but I prefer to be called Katy." Katy explains sheepishly, and Smith grins at her.
"Ah. Katy it is then." He conceded.
"And it's John, isn't it?" Katy questions cautiously, keeping up the ruse that they had never met each other before in their lives, in order to keep Smith from becoming suspicious and ruining all the plans the three of them had made before landing here in 1913 Farringham.
"Yes, yes, it is, yes." Smith nodded. They both pass a flyer that had been tacked onto the notice board at the top of a flight of stairs. Katy eyes it with interest.
"Have you seen this, John? The annual dance at the village hall tomorrow. Do you think you'll go?" She asks, pondering if she could privately extend the same invitation to Martha, and obviously when Smith wasn't around and if Martha wasn't loaded down with other chores that evening.
"I haven't really given it much thought, to be honest." Smith admitted.
"It looks like it could be fun, I wonder if someone will ask me?" Katy hints and almost immediately Smith turns red and starts backing away nervously, realising what Katy was getting at.
"Well, I should imagine that you'd be, er, I mean, I never thought you'd be one for." He stammers, continuing to back up. "I mean, there's no reason why you shouldn't. If you do, you may not. I, I probably won't, but even if I did then I couldn't. I mean I wouldn't want to—"
Unfortunately, John was failing to notice the top of the staircase he was approaching rather quickly and Katy's eyes widened in alarm.
"Uh, John. The stairs." Katy warns him.
"What about the stairs?" John frowned in bemusement. Katy reaches out a hand to attempt to stop him from moving any further.
"Well, they're right behind you!" She cautions, but she is too late, and John ends up stumbling backwards down them in a flurry of books and papers. "Oh, sh—dear!" Katy frets, catching herself at the last minute for almost using 21st century cussing, and rushes down the staircase to Smith's aid.
Smith's quarters
Katy manages to escort Smith back to his quarters, before alerting a nearby maid to fetch the Matron and direct her to Mister Smith's quarters as soon as she could. In no time flat, Matron arrives to examine Smith for any serious injuries.
Matron Redfern was one of the few staff members who had made attempts to make Katy feel welcome ever since she and Smith had first arrived at the boarding school months earlier. Katy really liked this kindly older woman; Matron, or Joan as she preferred to be called in private, was the type of person who would bend over backwards to help another person in need, but also was someone you did not want to cross, should you get her angry in any shape or form. She was happily married to the village's mercantile owner, who had been honourably discharged from the army due to war wounds that made it impossible for him to continue his services to King and country. Which suited Joan very nicely, as she had confided in Katy that she had always felt worried for her husband's safety when he had been called up for the war.
"Ow…" Smith groaned unhappily as Joan tended to the back of his head, searching for any hidden injuries his spill down the staircase could possibly have inflicted upon him. She and Katy roll their eyes.
"Oh, stop it." Joan gently scolds Smith like he was one of the students. "I get boys causing less fuss than this."
"Because it hurts," Smith whines. All three of them start when Martha suddenly bursts into Smith's study without knocking. Joan and Smith raise disapproving eyebrows, while Katy mentally claps a hand to her forehead.
"Oh, Martha… Honestly." Katy despairs exasperatedly. If she kept this up, she'd blow their cover and possibly get herself into serious trouble that would prevent her from helping Katy keep an eye on Smith for the last few months that they were stranded here in 1913.
"Is he alright?" Martha asks, worriedly.
"Excuse me, Martha," Joan speaks up, sternly. "It's hardly good form to enter a master's study without knocking." Martha pauses at this, and exchanges looks with Katy who mildly glowers at her before she nods.
"Sorry. Right. Yeah." Martha quickly retreats to the door and hastily raps her knuckles on the burnished oak door before walking back in. "But is he all right?" Martha insists as she goes over to a bemused Smith, who was eyeing her strangely. "They said you fell down the stairs, Sir."
"No, it was just a tumble, that's all." Smith reassures his well-meaning but slightly strange personal maid.
"Have you checked for concussion?" Martha demands Joan, who looks a combination of taken aback and indignant that she has been told how to do her job.
"I have. And I daresay I know a lot more about it than you."
"Sorry," Martha looks a bit sheepish when she realises that she was overstepping her mark, and immediately backs down from her automatic 'doctor' mode. "I'll just tidy your things." Smith nods approvingly, before he resumes his conversation with Katy and Joan, filling in Martha as well.
"I was just telling Miss Tyler and Nurse Redfern, Matron, about my dreams." He explains to Martha who nodded politely, indicating that she was listening to him. "They are quite remarkable tales."
"Yes, you mentioned earlier that you keep imagining that you're somebody else, and that you're hiding from someone." Katy supplied, earning a look of interest from Joan.
"Hiding? In what way?"
"These dreams occur every night," Smith confesses. "This is going to sound silly."
"No, please. Tell us." Katy encourages him with a bright smile. Smith returns the smile before summoning his courage to reveal what he believed to be a rather embarrassing dream. Martha pricks up her ears from her position in the room.
"I dream, quite often, that I have two hearts." Smith reluctantly reveals.
"How peculiar!" Katy exclaimed, trying to keep up appearances that this was news to her. Joan reaches for her stethoscope and puts the earpieces in her ears.
"Well, I can be the judge of that. Let's find out." She requests and Smith obediently turns towards Joan who leans over and places the chest piece over his chest of the left-hand side; neither Smith nor Joan noticing Katy or Martha tensing up nervously. But after a few moments, Joan pulls the chest piece away and removes the earbuds out of her ears. "I can confirm the diagnosis. Just one heart, singular."
"May I?" Katy spoke up suddenly, earning a surprised look from both Smith and Joan and a curious one from Martha, wondering what she was up to. "I apologise," Katy looked a bit sheepish, and began to adlib an excuse. "It's just I've always been curious about what a heartbeat sounds like. It sounds foolish to admit that, but—"
"No, not at all." Smith smiles warmly at her. "By all means, I have no objections." He angles himself in Katy's direction, and Joan helpfully holds out the stethoscope to Katy. She glances briefly over to Martha who looks at her with wide eyes.
"What are you doing?" She mouths at her, but Katy shakes her head reassuringly at her friend and presses the chest piece against Smith's chest.
Thud-thud, thud-thud.
But there was no strange echo of a second heartbeat like she was anticipating. Katy frowns in a puzzlement; questioning if that's what her own heart sounded like in her own dormant state. Realising she was being observed, Katy pastes on a fake look of wonder and pulls the earbuds out of her ears.
"Truly extraordinary." She exclaimed truthfully, handing Joan her stethoscope, which she promptly puts away.
"Indeed," Smith smiles indulgently at her.
"If you'll excuse me. I have some work that needs attending to," Joan explains.
"Of course!" Smith smiles politely at Joan. "Thank you once again for your assistance."
Joan leaves, and Katy takes that as her cue to make her own excuses to leave as well. However, Smith unexpectedly intercepts her.
"Wait, just a moment." He gets up from his leather settee and walks over to his slightly messy desk and picks up a thick Royal Blue journal from it, which looked eerily in the shape of the TARDIS. Something that made Katy's eyes widen slightly when she saw it. "I have, er, I have written down some of these dreams in the form of fiction. Not that it would be of any interest." He sounded rather nervous, and Katy inwardly grinned at his shyness.
"I'd be very interested, actually." Katy confirmed.
"Well, I've never actually shown it to anyone before," He admits before passing the thick leather-bound book to Katy. She opens the cover to the front page and immediately recognises the Doctor's handwriting.
"'A Journal of Impossible Things'" Katy read out loud, before flipping through the pages curiously. Wondering what the Doctor's dormant mind had inspired Smith to document within these pages. Immediately, she recognised drawings of aliens she had met on previous adventures. Such as: Daleks, the Moxx of Balhoon, Autons, a clockwork robot that had once attacked Reinette … and almost immediately, Katy started feeling uncomfortable. "Such imagination!" Katy half-heartedly praised.
"Yes, it's become quite a hobby." Smith acknowledged. Katy continued flicking through pages, reliving the faces of alien friends and foes of adventures past, and stiffened momentarily when she came across a half-drawn picture of her sister's face, staring up at her from the page.
"It's wonderful. And quite an eye for the pretty girls…" She murmured.
"Oh no, no, she's just an invention," Smith reassures Katy, falsely believing that she was intimidated by her sister's face. He misses the slight bristling and narrowing of Katy's eyes when he dismissed Rose as merely an 'invention' but manages to recover just in time. "This character, Rose. I call her, Rose. Seems to disappear later on." He muses, and Katy sighs sadly before moving on to the next page that had a sketch of a Cyberman (which causes her to shudder from unpleasant memories) and a tiny, slightly smudged doodle of the TARDIS, which Smith had labelled as a 'magic box'. "Ah, that's the box. The blue box. It's always there. Like a… like a magic carpet." Smith attempts to explain to Katy, who nodded in understanding. "This funny little box that transports me to faraway places."
"That sounds wonderful." Katy gushes, already knowing this to be true, and flips to yet another page of rough drawings and sketches. This time, they were sketches of the Doctor's previous faces, and Katy trails her fingers down the sketch of the ninth Doctor's face in fond melancholy remembrance.
"I sometimes think how magical life would be if stories like this were true." Smith mutters, absently.
"Yes, if only they were true." Katy agreed, almost mysteriously, eyeing Smith slyly.
"It's just a dream," Smith dismissed, firmly. Katy flips to the final entry; revealing the image of the fob watch that had landed them all in this complicated adventure in the first place.
Corridor
Smith had another class to attend to, and Katy still had to complete some errands for the library, so they parted ways momentarily; with Smith entrusting his 'dream journal' to Katy so she could peruse it in her own time. She made her way down the corridor towards the staircase, before pausing and holding up the journal that held the Doctor's memories within it, sighing heavily and feeling somewhat troubled.
"Katy!" She jumps as though she had been shot and glances about the deserted hallway for hidden eyes and nosy individuals before rounding on Martha, annoyed. "Wait up!" Martha panted, slightly winded. Katy immediately seizes Martha gently, but firmly by the wrist and pulls her towards a vacant alcove before laying in on the medical student for her carelessness.
"Jesus, Martha. You need to be more careful. You never know who could be listening in." Katy scolds.
"Don't worry, I checked before I called out to you. It was safe." Martha reassures her, but Katy shakes her head; realising that Martha just wasn't getting the seriousness of the situation but decides to bring it up later on as she holds up the 'dream journal' and stares at it with trepidation. "So, at least we know what the Doctor's been doing in his spare time."
"Yeah, it's a little bit worrying to be honest." Katy admitted uneasily, as she flips through the pages carefully, so she didn't smear any of Smith's artwork. "Wow, look at the detailing he did in all these sketches…" Katy marveled with awe. Martha frowned with confusion as she looked over Katy's shoulder and points towards one of the alien drawings.
"What the hell is that?" She asks, pointing at the sketch of the Moxx of Balhoon, looking a little weirded out. Katy giggled at the expression on her friend's face, realising that it nearly mirrored the one Rose had when she had first met the alien too … before pangs of hurt threatened to overwhelm her as she remembered her lost sister, and her grin faded.
"That's the Moxx of Balhoon," Katy explains. "He was one of the first aliens I had met during my first adventure with the Doctor … and Rose." Martha looks at her sympathetically.
"Your sister?"
"Yeah. God that seems so long ago…" Katy realises, before coming back to reality and shutting the journal with a snap. "Too bad Smith only believes all this to be a dream."
"Do we need to be worried about this?" Martha indicates to the journal, but Katy shakes her head.
"I don't think so. As long as he only believes these are silly little fairytales he had concocted, it won't tempt him to open that fob watch." Martha eyes Katy's locket curiously.
"How long has it been since you've been tempted?" She indicates to the locket and Katy fingers it absently.
"Every day," Katy replied almost immediately, earning a look of surprise from Martha.
"So why haven't you opened it already?" Martha asked.
"Because I can't," Katy responded truthfully. "It's not like I haven't tried. But the TARDIS continues to tell me that it's not time yet. Believe me, I've tried prying it apart with my fingernail, but it won't budge." A look of frustration passes over Katy's face, as she lets go of the locket and it thuds lightly against her clavicle.
"I wonder why you have to wait," Martha pondered and Katy shakes her head.
"There's usually a very good reason why things like this happen. And maybe there's a reason why I'm not supposed to have my memories back yet. But we're not focusing on me at the moment, we're focusing on the Doctor and protecting him for as long as we can." She looks pointedly at Martha. "So, let's continue doing so."
"Yeah," Martha nodded, and they both leave the alcove after checking the coast was clear and moved to go back to their previous duties. "Are you still going to the pub tonight?"
"Probably not. I was just going to go for a walk. But I might go that way during it." Katy responded. Martha nodded and turned to walk off. "Oh, and Martha? You might need to work on how you conduct yourself in this time period. You're coming across to others as being a bit forward, and people will talk. Be careful, alright?" Katy warns before disappearing up the staircase.
"Yes, ma'am." Martha was a little bit defensive as she retreated to attend to her chores.
Outside the Pub
It was a chilly evening, and Martha and Jenny had taken advantage of their dismissal for the night to enjoy a pint at the local pub. Martha had volunteered to go inside to purchase the beers, while Jenny commandeered a nearby table outside underneath the stars.
"Ooh, it's freezing out here." Martha complained as she came out of the pub, carrying the two pints of beer she had ordered. "Why can't we have a drink inside the pub?" She questioned, and Jenny just looked at her like she was crazy.
"Now don't be ridiculous," she scolded shaking her head at the very idea. "You do get these notions! It's all very well, those Suffragettes, but that's London. That's miles away." Martha silently reprimanded herself, remembering that she wasn't in the 21st century right now, and that women didn't have any rights just yet. But that didn't stop her from scowling resentfully.
"But don't you just want to scream sometimes, having to bow and scrape and behave? Don't you just want to tell them?" Martha questioned Jenny, who shrugged, unperturbed.
"I don't know," She admitted. "Things must be different in your country."
"Yeah, well they are." Martha confirmed stubbornly. "Thank God I'm not staying." Jenny raised an eyebrow at her, perplexed by this younger woman's strange way of thinking.
"You keep saying that" Jenny noted as she took a sip from her pint and eyed Martha curiously.
"Just you wait," Martha insisted confidently. "One more month and I'm free as the wind." She sighed heavily. "I wish you could come with me, Jenny. You'd love it."
"Where are you going to go?" Jenny asked, curiously.
"Anywhere," Martha replied. "Just look up there. Imagine you could go all the way out to the stars." Jenny glances up at the night sky and back at Martha, before shaking her head and looking somewhat mystified by the younger girl's words.
"You don't half say mad things."
"That's where I'm going," Martha insisted, firmly. "Into the sky, all the way out." But then Martha freezes when something flashes in the sky. "Did you see that?"
"See what?" Jenny questioned.
"Did you see it, though?" Martha insisted, hoping that she was just tired and, in her sleep-deprived state she hadn't seen something horribly wrong just fall from the sky. "Right up there, just for a second."
"Martha, there's nothing there." Jenny insists, a little exasperatedly.
Meanwhile while walking in a nearby field, Katy is deep in thought when a green light scans the ground all around her, nearly blinding her when she sees it, before it suddenly disappears without a trace. A horrifying thought suddenly occurs to Katy, and she runs, hoping to find Martha at the pub they had mentioned earlier this morning, and praying that she had seen the same thing too.
"Oh, please. Don't tell me that they've located us…" Katy mumbles out loud to herself, as the pub comes into view, and she heads straight towards it.
"Miss Tyler, are you alright?" Martha calls out to Katy when she sees her, remembering at the last minute not to call her by her name in mixed company. Katy sags with relief when she sees Martha and jogs over to her, slightly breathless from the run.
"Did you see that? There was something in the woods. This light." Katy reports, and her heart sinks when she sees the horrified expression on Martha's face.
Oh, shit! They've found us… To make matters worse, the very person they were trying to protect from the mysterious green light that they had seen, suddenly comes strolling up to them, looking a bit concerned.
"Anything wrong, ladies? Far too cold to be standing around in the dark, don't you?" Smith queries. Katy's knee-jerk response was to grab Smith and Martha by the hands, hi-tail it back to the TARDIS, and get the hell out of 1913. Instead, she merely smiles politely at Smith and attempts to reassure him that all was well.
"Oh, everything's fine, Mr. Smith." Katy lies. "I just thought I saw something—" Another light crosses the sky on cue, making Katy and Martha's eyes widen in horror. "There, there. Look in the sky." Smith, Martha, and Jenny follow Katy's pointing finger up at the night sky, spotting the light.
"Oh, that's beautiful!" Jenny marvels with awe.
"All gone," Smith reassures both Katy and Martha, who still looked anxious. "Commonly known as a meteorite. It's just rocks falling to the ground, that's all." He explained, brightly.
If only that were true… Martha thought, nervously. But I think we're in deep trouble…
"It came down in the woods," Katy insisted.
"No, no, no. No, they always look close, when actually they're miles off. Nothing left but a cinder." Smith was confident that everything was fine, before redirecting his full attention back onto an unconvinced Katy. "Now, I should escort you back to the school." He offers Katy his arm, and Katy realises that she had no choice but to accept the offer. Both she and Martha needed to be extra vigilant now that the aliens they were hiding from were suspected to have found them after all this time. "Ladies?" Smith offers the same suggestion to Martha and Jenny, after Katy takes his arm.
"No, we're fine, thanks." Martha declines politely.
"Then I shall bid you goodnight," Smith doffs his hat at the two maids before turning and leading a worried Katy away. Katy manages to catch Martha's eye and mouth 'be careful' to her before continuing on with Smith. Martha scrutinises the field Katy had come running up to them from with interest.
"Jenny, where was that? On the horizon, where the light was headed." She questions.
"That's by Cooper's Field," Jenny responded, uncertain. Her eyes widen when Martha suddenly takes off in that direction. "You can't just run off. It's dark. You'll break a leg!" Jenny calls out to Martha, who ignores her and continues running. Jenny hesitates before abandoning what was left of her pint and following Martha.
Cooper's Field
Oblivious to the potential danger that she could be putting herself into, Martha rushes into the field where she believes the light had landed. As she looks around for anything obviously out of place, Jenny runs up behind her; short of breath and beginning to lose her patience with Martha for running off in the dark by herself.
"There you are!" Jenny calls out to Martha, who looks frustrated. "Nothing there. I told you so."
"And this is Cooper's Field?" Martha confirms.
"As far as the eye can see, and no falling star," Jenny confirms. "Now come on, I'm frozen to the bone, let's go." She goes over and grabs Martha's arm with the intention of leading her back to town and then towards the boarding school. "As your Mister Smith says, nothing to see." Martha nods and allows herself to be led away, despite deep misgivings. She knew something was wrong and her intuition never failed her so far.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Martha mutters underneath her breath as she jogs to keep up with Jenny's strides.
Tardis
The next morning, Martha cycles out to an old barn where she had already made plans with Katy to meet up and go over what they knew so far, and to make plans in case what they feared had happened last night, came to fruition. She uses the key she was given by the Doctor during their last adventure to open the Tardis and head inside. However, the moment she sets eyes on the Chameleon Arch headset, still dangling from the ceiling, Martha's mind instantly goes back to the moment when the Doctor ultimately made his decision to become human...
(Memory)
Tardis
The Doctor, Katy, and Martha sprint into the Tardis, closely followed by a blast from an energy weapon, which causes Katy to scream as it narrowly misses her.
"Get down!" the Doctor yells as he gets up from the floor and slams the Tardis doors shut. He immediately goes over to check over Katy and Martha for any injuries. "Are you okay?" He asked worriedly, and both girls shook their heads reassuringly. Neither of them were hurt, just out of breath and confused about why they had been followed and shot at by random aliens.
"What the hell is going on, Doctor?" Katy demanded.
"Did they see you?" the Doctor answered with a question instead of replying.
"No," Katy frowned.
"I don't know," Martha responded, just as bemused.
"But did they see you?" the Doctor was adamant and both Katy and Martha were alarmed by the urgency in the Doctor's voice.
"I was a bit preoccupied," Katy responded truthfully.
"Yeah, I was too busy running." Martha agreed. The Doctor grabs both girls by their shoulders.
"Katy, Martha, it's important. Did they see your faces?" the Doctor insisted.
"No, they did not." Katy confirmed and Martha simply shook her head in confirmation. The Doctor sagged with relief and made a beeline for the console, flipping a few switches and pressing buttons.
"Off we go!" He sets the Tardis in motion. However, when he takes a look into the monitor he curses underneath his breath. "Argh! They're following us!" He despaired and both girls come over to the console, hanging off the side of it for dear life to prevent being thrown to the ground painfully.
"But we're travelling through time," Katy pointed out.
"Yeah, how can they do that?" Martha questioned.
"Stolen technology," the Doctor answered. "They've got a Time Agent's vortex manipulator." Katy's eyes widened as she immediately thought about their friend and ex-conman Captain Jack Harkness, and absently wondered what had happened to him. She is brought back into the present when the Doctor speaks up again. "They can follow us wherever we go, right across the universe."
"Oh, great. Just what we need." Katy drawled sarcastically.
"They're never going to stop," the Doctor realises to his dismay, until he catches a glimpse of Katy's heart-shaped, bigger-on-the-inside locket out the corner of his eye and is inspired by it. "Unless…"
"Unless what?" Katy didn't like the tone of his voice, and her eyes narrowed with suspicion when the Doctor immediately dashes towards the place he kept away specific items for his own use.
"I'll have to do it." He stated.
"Do what?" Katy asked warily. She didn't like the sound of where this was going. The Doctor locates what he was looking for and snatches it up. Although neither girl knew what he had picked up.
"Martha, you trust me, don't you?" the Doctor questioned her, hastily.
"Of course I do," Martha said, immediately. The Doctor eyes his girlfriend who was frowning at him.
"Katy?" He looks at her pleadingly, and she almost felt insulted that he had to ask her that question.
"With my life." Katy stated sincerely and just a tad exasperatedly. The Doctor sags with relief.
"Because it all depends on the two of you." He stated cryptically.
"What does? What are we supposed to do?" Martha asked, very confused. The Doctor holds up an ornately decorated pocket watch and Katy looks at it with trepidation; and she had no idea why.
"Take this watch, because my life depends on it." The Doctor explains hastily. "This watch, girls. This watch is me." The Doctor explains, a very serious look on his face. Martha briefly glances between the pocket watch and Katy's heart-shaped locket and makes the connection.
"Just like Katy's locket is her, right?" Martha confirms, and the Doctor also takes a glance at the locket and nodded.
"Correct."
"Yeah but hold on. I'm still lost, Doctor. I need a bit more information on why your pocket watch is so important." Martha insisted, and Katy nodded in agreement.
"Those creatures are hunters. They can sniff out anyone, and me being a Time Lord, well, I'm unique." Katy's eyes widened in realisation, and pales. "They can track me down across the whole of time and space."
"What about me?" Katy questioned. "They can't sniff me out, can they? After all, I'm a Time Lady—"
"No relax, sweetheart." The Doctor comes over and reassures her before she could hyperventilate. "You're safe, they have no idea that you are a 'Time Lady' and they haven't caught your scent." He stresses and Katy relaxes a little, but still looked at her boyfriend with worry.
"And the good news is?" Martha prompted.
"They can smell me, but they haven't seen me. And their lifespan will be running out. So we hide. Wait for them to die." The Doctor confirms.
"But they can track us down." Katy pointed out with a frown.
"That's why I've got to do it. I have to stop being a Time Lord. I'm going to become human, just like Katy did."
Katy winces: especially when she sees the uncomfortably familiar Chameleon Arch headset lower from the ceiling of the Tardis. She turns away from it, reeling from the memories of when she had used one back on Gallifrey.
"I hate that thing…" Katy mutters distastefully, remembering the excruciating pain. The Doctor notices her reaction and frowned.
"Never thought I'd use this. All the times I've wondered." He catches Katy's eye. "But now that I've seen your reaction, I'm really starting to get nervous."
"What does it do?" Martha questioned.
"Chameleon Arch," the Doctor names the headset for Martha's benefit. "Rewrites a Time Lord's biology. Literally changes every single cell in our bodies." He twists a couple of knobs on the console. "I've set it to human." The Doctor puts the pocket watch onto the headset, in the exact same way Katy's Time Lord relation attached her locket. "Now, the Tardis will take care of everything. Invent a life story for me, find me a setting and integrate me. Can't do the same for you, and certainly not for Katy; since she is already underneath the influence of the Chameleon Arch herself. So you'll both just have to improvise. I should have just enough residual awareness to let you in."
"But, hold on. If you're going to rewrite every single cell, isn't it going to hurt?" Martha looks nervously at the Doctor and Katy.
The latter was very blunt.
"It hurts like a bitch." Katy confirms with a dark voice; getting the unpleasant flashback to her final moments as a Time Lady on a dying planet when she passionately screamed herself hoarse from the pain.
Then a few minutes later, she and Martha watch as the Doctor experiences the same torture she went through.
(End of Memory)
The squeaky hinges of the Tardis doors opening, alerted Martha to Katy's arrival and she jolts back out of the unpleasant memory, and turns to give a false smile to Katy, who looks at her friend with concern until she sees the headset and realises what she had just interrupted.
"Hello, Martha. Pleasant morning?" Katy questioned and Martha nodded briefly before getting down to the business of why they were visiting the Tardis.
"I slept okay, I guess." She conceded before frowning with worry. "I still can't believe that they've found us already." Martha bitched and Katy sighed heavily, walking down the gangplank towards the monitor and flicking on the switch to start up the recording the Doctor had created for them both before they went into hiding.
"Yeah, well. Let's not dwell too much on it. We need to focus on the task at hand, and not drop the bundle just because these bloody aliens have finally tracked us down. The Doctor is counting on us." Martha looks shrewdly at Katy, remembering the obvious flirting going on between Smith and Katy the day before, and snorted.
"You don't seem to be having much trouble, as far as I've noticed." Martha pointed out, and Katy stiffens and looks over at the slightly displeased expression on her friend's face. She sighed with frustration.
"I sincerely hope that you're not becoming jealous, Martha." Katy commented, and Martha blinks at her in surprise.
"Sorry?"
"Because I've already gone through that with my sister, and I don't particularly want to go through it all over again with you too." Katy stated firmly as she continued tapping away and searching through the relevant data. Martha was momentarily confused, until she realised where Katy was going with that statement and was mortified.
"Oh, wait. You think that…?" Martha started chuckling uncomfortably, earning a confused look from Katy. "Oh, no. You've got it all wrong. I don't think of the Doctor in that way. I mean, I do admit that I was attracted to him when we first met. But, when it was made obvious that you two were together, I backed off." Martha reassures her friend.
"Then why do you look so upset?" Katy questioned.
"Because I'm finding it hard to figure out a way to protect the Doctor without drawing attention to myself." Martha confessed. "I mean, you saw what happened when I barged into Smith's office without knocking. I don't know very much about early 20th century etiquette, obviously." The young medical student looked a little flustered. "Just something I need to work on…"
"So… we're good?" Katy confirmed.
"Absolutely. You have no problems with me." Martha smiled at Katy who sagged with relief.
"Brilliant. So let's get on with what we're in here for." Katy suggested and stabbed at a button on the console to turn on the recording. An image of the Doctor flashed on the screen, showing him taking a seat in front of the camera and frowning a little.
"This working?" He clears his throat and smiles calmly into the camera. "Katy, Martha, before I change, here's a list of instructions for when I'm human. One, don't let me hurt anyone. We can't have that, but you know what humans are like." Both Martha and Katy roll their eyes at his comment. "Two, don't worry about the Tardis. I'll put it on emergency power so they can't detect it. Just let it hide away. Four. No, wait a minute, three. No getting involved in big historical events. Four, you two. Don't let me abandon you."
"No chance of that happening, right Katy?" Martha mutters underneath her breath at her, and Katy rolls her eyes.
"And fi—" Katy interrupts the recording and fast forwards it, impatiently.
"But there was a meteor, a shooting star. What are we supposed to do then?" Katy questions out loud. She resumes playing the video.
"And twenty-three. If anything goes wrong, if they find us, girls, then you know what to do. Open the watch. Everything I am is kept safe in there." Katy glances down at her locket and absently pulls it out from beneath the collar of her dress and starts fiddling with it, slightly envious of the fact that her boyfriend would be able to just open his watch without unforeseen conditions, unlike her. "Now, I've put a perception filter on it so the human me won't think anything of it. To him, it's just a watch. But don't open it unless you have to. Because once it's open, then the Family will be able to find me. It's all down to you two. Your choice." The Doctor then goes to get up and walk off screen, before he pauses; remembering something and sits back down briefly. "Oh, and thank you."
"Well, that was no help whatsoever." Katy grumbles and moves away from the console, heading straight back towards the Tardis double doors. Martha sighed heavily and switches off the monitor.
"I wish you'd come back." She pleaded and followed Katy. Outside, Martha locks up the Tardis and both head outside the barn, with Martha wheeling her bicycle alongside her.
"We'd better head back. We've both got some work that needs to be done." Katy stated and Martha sighed heavily.
"Yep. Time to go scrub some more floors." She grumbled and Katy smiles at her sympathetically as Martha mounts the bike and rides off, waving at Katy as she goes.
A/N: Stick around for part two!