Hello, friends. One thing to know about me: I almost NEVER abandon a story! I have not done so in years. My OCD will not allow it. So even if there is a delay, it probably just means my time is being eaten by monsters known as family and work! Darn them.

In the case of this chapter, the delay was partly caused by a mistake I made in my writing process which necessitated me taking a lot more time than I had originally planned for this bit.

Anyway, I'm glad you're here, and let's go!

Martha has been snatched out reality, is in a lot of pain in her new reality, and the Doctor has been alerted to her absence by the Shadow Proclamation... suffice it to say that he's not happy. But he IS getting awfully contemplative, and THINGS are evolving fast! Martha is well cared-for, but where? And why and how?

Enjoy!

NINE

The next time she woke up, they were all sitting around her, and this time, discussing football. Apparently, Walt was an Arsenal fan, Holly liked Man U, and the rest were enjoying the sparring.

She could not help but groan as she tried to turn over. She was lying on her side, but wanted to be on her back so she could see everyone.

"Oh dear, oh dear," said Holly, standing up. "Martha, love, what're you trying to do?"

"Just want to… lie…" Martha had begun, when the headache hit again. It came in a wave, and it was bad, but this time, she did not black out. "Damn it!" she spat once the wave was over.

"Want to lie on your back?" Holly asked.

"Yeah."

So Walt stood up, slid his arms underneath her, and changed her position.

"There, now, that'll do, until the next pain arrives," said Holly.

"What is happening to me?" Martha wanted to know.

"Well, for a start, you arrived in pieces," Holly said.

"I heard you lot talking about that before. What does it mean?"

"The rest of us – except for Danielle – got here all at once," Walt explained. "Bella was first – she was here on her own for weeks…"

"It was terrifying," Bella confirmed. "But then a new room appeared, and Walt turned up. He was just standing there in the middle of his room, all of a sudden."

Walt reached out and squeezed Bella's hand, and nodded. "Then Holly, then Petra, then poor Danielle, whose top half got here before her bottom half," he said.

"What?" Martha asked. "How? You got… what, cut in half?"

"I don't know," Danielle said. "They witnessed it, I didn't. All I know is that when I got here, I was bloody confused, and sick. Again, not like you, but still, you know… no fun."

"Wait, this is… this is so weird."

"No arguments here," Bella agreed.

"Sorry, can you help me sit up a bit?" Martha asked.

Walt disappeared for a moment and came back with what looked to be sofa cushions, Danielle helped her sit up and lean forward while Walt arranged the pillows behind her.

"Anyway," Bella continued to explain. "As we talked more about our experiences with coming here, we sort of worked out that Danielle's experience with the German doctor of doom was a bit different from the rest. My husband, Walt's wife, Petra's husband, Holly's partner Ed… they had all been easy prey. All fell for that woman's charms like she was an eight-foot ditch in the ground. But Danielle's husband was slightly different."

Danielle sighed. "Yeah, he made it a bit harder on her. He told me that she had snogged him during one of his sessions alone with her, rather early on, and that they had been continuing to play kissy-face ever since, any time they were alone."

"Nobody else's partner had said a word," Bella pointed out.

"It was tempting to say, fine, go be with her, you two arseholes deserve each other. But I didn't. I put up a fight," Danielle continued. "I mean, I wasn't sure I wanted him back, but asked him if he was seriously about tossing me aside for our fucking marriage counselor, like a fucking chav. I mean, for God's sake, we have three kids, at least have a respectable affair! Then he began to put up a fight as well. The last thing I remember, we were in her office, and Doug was severing his relationship with her, and saying that he still wasn't sure that he and I could stay married, but if we broke up, it wasn't going to be for some tawdry reason like, he's shagging the shrink."

Martha's eyes were wide as saucers now. "Then what?"

"Then she went over to her desk and put her hand on that God-awful wooden eagle thing…"

"The Talisman," Martha said.

"If you say so," Danielle chuckled. "She closed her eyes and said something in some language that I'm pretty sure was not German, and the next thing I knew, I was here."

"Except she wasn't quite, because like Walt said, the top half of her showed up first," Bella said. "She was this… torso for a while. Then slowly, her legs came in."

"But you weren't conscious while this was happening?" Martha asked Danielle.

"Nope," she said. "Thank heaven for that."

"We tried talking to her," Walt said. "She seemed dead."

"Just a torso?" Martha asked.

"Yeah… I mean, it wasn't gory or anything. It was more like she was being uploaded gradually. The image was cut off by fog, or pixels or something," Bella explained.

"Wow," Martha said.

"Which we thought was the weirdest thing ever," Bella went on. "Until you arrived. Head first."

"Head first?" Martha asked.

Holly, at this point, actually leaned forward and took Martha's wrist.

"I have a pulse?" Martha asked her.

"Weirdly, yes," said the nurse. "Stronger than it was an hour ago… how do you feel?"

Martha said, "I'll live. I think. Nausea's abated, no sign of fever. If vitals are strong, then..." and she trailed off, hearing herself having switched gears a bit.

Holly smiled. "Nurse?"

"Med student," Martha sighed.

"I thought you were a P.I.," Danielle said.

"It's… a long story," Martha said. Then, "How is it possible I have a working circulatory system but not a working digestive system?"

"How is any of this rubbish possible?" Holly asked.

"Good point. Now what do you mean, I got here head first?"

"Er, a new room appears each time a new person arrives. This one is yours. We each have a room just like this one…" Bella gestured around, and for the first time, Martha actually took in her surroundings. A circular room with three living alcoves, each with three steps up. One for a bedroom-like area, where they were all sitting. The one to her left was like a lounge, and the one to her right was full of… things. It looked like books and games. All of the walls were all painted cornflower blue, with white wainscoting and Corinthian columns to section off the areas.

One half of the room was just curved wall, with nothing except one lone window. It was just a bit too high for her to see out of; she made a mental note to investigate later.

"Anyway, when there's a new room, we all go and check it out," Walt said. "And when we came in here, it was just a head over there on the floor."

"Oh, God," Martha groaned. "I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault," he shrugged. "But we knew it would be a while before the rest of you arrived, and that it would probably hurt."

"Not while you were… arriving, but after you became whole," Danielle added.

"After the head, next came a left arm, and some internal organs… it was hard to watch. So that's how I ended up in charge of you, even though… what the bloody deuce this lot thought I could do about your pain still eludes me," Holly complained, good-naturedly.

"All of which means, Martha, that your not-husband-colleague-man must've kicked up an almighty fuss when Frau Homewrecker decided to move in for the proverbial kill. He must've fought to stay together with you," Danielle pointed out.

"That doesn't make any sense. The whole point was to let her split us up, so that..." Martha said, frowning, remembering that she had asked him to just divorce her already so they could get on with their lives. His severing of their "marriage" was the necessary ingredient for Weth's overtaking of her, but he wouldn't do it until he knew where Weth would send Martha… she suddenly realised what was wrong with this scenario. She mused, "Oh no."

It sounded like he hadn't surrendered. Something must've happened. He must've done something to piss her off, tip Weth in the wrong direction…

Maybe she didn't need him to give her up, but it made things easier if he did, and that's why her transition here had been so apparently violent. Like, without one partner's permission, Weth has to rip the second partner out of reality…

It also probably meant that the Doctor had no idea where she was. She had been taken too soon.

Bella frowned then, much as Martha was frowning. "Are you sure you and he aren't… you know. I mean, I know you said you were undercover or what-have-you, only pretending to be married, but… could this even be possible if you weren't at least a couple?"

"We're not a couple," Martha muttered. "Believe you me."

"Oh, well… your tone speaks volumes, you know," Holly said.

"So does that ring on your finger," said Danielle.

Martha held up her left hand. "Just a disguise. Part of the ruse."

Danielle grabbed her hand and inspected the ring closely. "At least a carat," she said. "And if I had a guess, I'd say, if not I.F., then it's quite close."

"What does that mean?"

"I.F. is internally flawless. It's a high-quality diamond, Martha. Excellent clarity," Danielle said. Then she placed Martha's hand back on the blankets. "I'm a jeweller. Or… was. Am? I don't even fucking know anymore. Anyway, I've been at it almost thirty years. I know a good diamond when I see one."

"Well, it's not even mine," Martha sighed. "It came out of his… P.I. prop room, for lack of a better way to put it," she said. Then she took a deep breath, and said, "Not a couple, but we are a partnership. From what we understand, the Tertia Trochos' M.O. is to break up partnerships. It's only recently that they discovered marriage counseling and…"

"What the hell is a Tertia Trochos?" asked Petra, who hadn't said anything since Martha had awakened, until now.

Martha sighed. "Okay," she said. "I'll tell you all about me and my friend, my not-husband-colleague-man, and how we got on the trail of Hilde Weth, or Heidi Klum, or whatever her name is. But you have to promise not to think I'm off my nut. I swear, I'll tell you the truth."

"Lay it on us," Walt shrugged.

"Do I have your benefit of the doubt?" she asked them all.

"Sure, yeah. We're all in this together. We want to know, Martha." They all said variations of this, and nodded.

Martha once again took a deep breath and began to tell a story.

Obviously, it wasn't the first time the Doctor had dreaded going into Weth's office, and not the first time he knew that he'd have to do a good "acting" job.

Every time he had been to that wretched place, he had wanted to burst in, and ask the Tertia Trochos point-blank what the hell she thought she was doing, and demand that she leave this planet. But the situation required research, care, and finesse. Above all, to avoid a possible loss of life.

Today, it was truer than ever.

Today, the desire to stride in and take her to task was overwhelming. He was itching to demand that vacate the Earth, and leave every being on it, especially Martha Jones, alone.

But it was also truer than ever that the utmost finesse was needed, or else… well, he didn't know what could happen. He supposed it was possible that he might lose her forever. Or lose her as he knew her. Or…

Well, either of those scenarios was frightening enough to drive him mad. He tried to console himself by remembering that his "acting" job today would be supported by his actual propelling panic. He needed to convince her he was frantic to find Martha… and he was. He just had to hold back from sounding accusatory in any way. He could do that. He was good at this sort of thing… ruses.

Usually, he was better with a companion at his side. But even when one of them got taken, he was usually okay.

When Rose's consciousness and body had been usurped by Lady Cassandra, he had had the wherewithal to pretend for a while that he hadn't noticed, and wait for the right time to pull out the stops and threaten the perpetrator. When her face and mind had been wiped by The Wire, a certain despair had come over him, but ultimately, he found the determination to scheme against The Wire and beat it at its own game. Ditto with "Satan," when the escape vessel had nearly been sucked into a black hole, with Rose in it. The sadness was crushing, but reason was with him, and he'd been strong enough to have faith in seeing her again, and do what needed to be done.

When he'd lost her forever, that was another story. That had nearly broken him. Which was something that Hilde Weth had exploited, and this was how she had been able to get her hooks into "John and Martha." Martha had clearly been right: they should have redirected Weth to their fabricated Mochthos, because him being hung up on his "ex" was a bit too close to the truth. He definitely should have listened to her – he realised that now.

And if only he could have talked with Martha a bit more about the Rose Story before, instead of being such a bloody emotional recluse. Hadn't Weth said that a true partnership was one that had addressed the Elephant In The Room, and it couldn't be broken up? That had felt truer than anything the horrible woman had said.

But, was it honestly what was at the centre of any conflict he and Martha might have? His being hung up on the previous companion?

Well, obviously, it was a thing.

Because as he now climbed out of his brown suit and into a blue one, he felt a tightening in his chest. A swift, suffocating, driving panic that he hadn't felt in any of the times when Rose had been lost. He was on the verge of hyperventilating. He wanted to scream. He wanted to burst. He wanted to throw reason out the window and just surge forward and get her back. There was very little store of rationality here, unlike before Bad Wolf Bay.

And he had felt it before, quite recently.

When? When was it?

He exhaled hard, and realised it had been in New New York, when motorists had kidnapped Martha and thrown her into their vehicle, bringing her well and truly out of his reach.

If something had broken in him when Rose had gone, here was the first true example of the fear it had released. Another heartbreak, another failure, another one… another one…

That day, he had only been able to yell, scream her name, run, and single-mindedly tear through cars to get to her.

Obviously, ultimately, he had learned enough about the Motorway of New New York to free the entire system up enough to allow her kidnappers to feel that they no longer needed her, but the cerebral side to him had taken a while to kick in. And even when he knew the score, he had pushed and pushed and pushed…

He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm, as he did up his red paisley tie and thought about Rose. Lovely, intelligent, devoted, great in a crisis. Also stubborn, a bit petty, territorial, a tad childish at times. And once in a while, entitled.

Then, he thought of Martha. Lovely in a wholly different way, and she didn't have "street" smarts like Rose, but she was plenty practical, plus had skills and knowledge, in addition to common sense. She was also devoted, also great in a crisis. She was certainly stubborn, and could be sullen and passive-aggressive if she got pushed to it, but he had never seen her be outright childish, territorial or entitled.

That was freeing. Not having to clarify every word, worry about the pouting bottom lip at all times, or chase an equilibrium in the TARDIS that seemed all up to him.

Relationships were weird… this one felt a bit lighter on him than the previous one.

He stopped, mid-tying.

Whoa… what was that?

This partnership felt lighter than the previous.

No less deep, no less provocative, and intriguing in all the same ways…

But lighter. Not in a "less baggage" sort of way, but in a "less quicksand-like" way.

Her ability to run and jump and problem-solve notwithstanding, Rose's presence, her help, friendship, and love were like honey: sweet, satisfying, hard to resist, but he often felt enmired in it. It clung, stuck to absolutely everything they touched, and was difficult to wield… for both of them.

Whereas, his time with Martha was starting to feel more like fruit. Her presence and attention were, he was now surprised to realise, every bit as sweet and satisfying, though much crisper, and more refreshing. Perhaps it was something that grew for harvesting in its time, instead of oozing its way into and around everything in their lives.

This was a revelation.

It was growing for harvesting, in its time.

Did he really think that?

Possibly. He wasn't sure. He'd been so raw for most of the past year, he had no idea what he really thought about this sort of thing.

What's more, he was not sure what Martha truly felt about any of this, other than being able to see clearly that he had unresolved feelings about Rose. In fact, at any given moment, he might wonder if Martha was a flight risk. Perhaps after this, she'll have finally had enough, and want to give in and walk away.

"Nope!" he shouted, and he ran at full-pelt back to the console room, switching into trouble-shooting mode. He had to get out of this contemplative funk, or Martha might be lost.

He threw the gears into place and jumped ahead in the TARDIS by twenty-four hours. To make this little ruse convincing, he couldn't go in later the same day – it was for this reason that he had also changed his clothes.

As he prepared to run, it occurred to him that he might find something highly unexpected in Hilde Weth's office, since he had never just popped in before, without an appointment. As far as he knew, the Tertia Trochos only worked on one partnership at a time, so what did Hilde Weth do in there when she wasn't expecting a visit from her mark?

Martha had not expected, frankly, to be believed. But, her new "friends," if that's what they were, had said that her story about the Doctor explained a lot. Not just about them all being snatched out of reality and ending up here, wherever here was, but about things they had seen, about the experience of living in Britain the last few years.

"Well, it's not hard to see that there's something else out there," Walt had said. "It stands to reason that there's got to be someone minding it. Just thought it would be some secretive outside-the-government agency buried under the desert in America, not just some bloke in a box."

"You know what else?" said Danielle. "The fact that he ain't human, it's probably got something to do with why your transition was so rough."

"What?" Martha smiled. "How's that?"

"For a bloke who's super intelligent, super human, and knows what's going on, knows what German Lady is up to, to put up a fight for you…" Danielle started.

"I don't think he'd put up a fight for me," Martha corrected.

No-on seemed to hear her.

Bella piped up. "Yeah, it seems like there's almost a spiritual dimension to it. One partner has to consent to her usurping half the partnership, and want her to do so, in order for her to shift the other partner here. She needs their approval, and if she doesn't get it, then the transition is messy."

"That actually makes sense," said Holly. "If he knows what she's up to, and wouldn't let you go, and he's got alien… I don't know what. Alien brains, alien tech, an alien will…"

Danielle chuckled. "Not bad for a bloke in a box."

Martha had smiled. She hadn't bothered saying that the Doctor is so much more than just some bloke in a box, because she could tell by the response from the others that they understood at least that much.

Okay, things are ramping up... a couple differen types of tension. Hope you're feelin' it!

Thanks for reading - hope you'll leave a review and let me know you're still reading and/or what you're thinkin'.

Enjoy your week!