It's Like Falling (2/?)

[dk323]

Title: It’s Like Falling (2/?)

Author: dk323

Rating: PG-13

Characters/Pairings: Ten/Martha, ?/Martha, mystery pairing, ?

Spoilers: Journey’s End

Disclaimer: Don’t own Doctor Who, just playing with its characters.

Summary: Uninvited guests on the TARDIS turn Martha’s birthday trip into an investigation of a mystery.
Author’s notes: Question marks denote surprise characters though I don’t know if it’s really surprising…but I’ll just do it this way. I’m in the Halloween spirit, so there will be no shortage of strange, slightly disturbing stuff happening in this fic. It is a mystery after all.

Beta: persiflage_1 
Chapter 1: dk323.livejournal.com/14129.html 


 

Then:

Before Martha could move to leave the Doctor’s side, two people suddenly appeared a few feet away from them.

 

“Martha, don’t!” The Doctor admonished her as she rushed over to tend to one of them, who was on the floor, groaning in obvious pain.

 

*

Now:

 

“Martha, it’s all right. It’s just his one heart – it’ll pass.” The other person explained.

 

Martha looked up from her kneeling position beside a version of the Doctor she hadn’t thought that she would ever see again.

 

“I’d feel better if I check him over myself. I am a doctor after all.”

 

“If you must,” She shrugged.

 

The Doctor was still beside the console, but now he was looking at the female with a stern expression on his face.

 

His arms were crossed over his chest. He did not look happy.

 

“I hope you have a good explanation for this, Rose.” The Doctor reprimanded.

 

He’d said his goodbyes – more than once -- and yet she had to come back once again… And the last time, he had thought it was his final goodbye.

 

She looked at him nervously, but stood her ground.

 

“There was this opening, Doctor. We had to investigate it. Can’t leave something supernatural like that exposed...”

 

The other Doctor abruptly sat up as if he had just realized something, “They don’t need to know this, Rose. Can we just leave? We tried it – it worked. Now we have to go back!”

 

Rose went over to her Doctor and whispered something in his ear. Though Martha was next to him, she still wasn’t able to hear Rose’s words.

 

“Are you sure?” He questioned, looking carefully at Rose. Martha got the feeling that whatever Rose told him; it definitely wasn’t good.

 

Rose nodded and he relented.

 

“Rose?” The Doctor spoke up impatiently from his place beside the console.

 

She looked back at her Doctor, mouthing, “Not a word” before turning around to face the Doctor again.

 

Martha tried to get his attention; wanting to know what they were hiding, but he wouldn’t even look at her.

 

Rose sighed, putting a loose strand of hair behind her ear before she continued, “Martha Jones – that is -- our Martha Jones got a little too curious – and well, you know how the saying goes...” She trailed off.

 

“So my alternate self is deceased? Why do we have to know this?” Martha interjected, feeling annoyed. It was her birthday for Pete’s sake.

 

“Just hear me out yeah? It’s important, trust me.”

 

The Doctor went over to the captain’s seat and sat down, gesturing for Rose to continue.

 

All the while, he gave not so subtly peeved glances at his other self who was closer to Martha than he would have liked.

 

“So, as I wanted to say, Martha found this vortex hole just bursting with energy. And she went to investigate. I wasn’t there, mind you. I would have put a stop to it, believe me. She was with this bloke called Tom Milligan--”

 

“Wait – there’s an alternate version of Tom?” Martha brought up, interested.

 

Rose looked over at Martha and nodded, “Yeah, he works for Torchwood. He had some intriguing psychic abilities that interested us greatly.”

 

“We called him the ‘Psychic’.” The other Doctor put in.

 

“Charming.” Martha commented, the Doctor beside her grinned.

 

The Doctor’s other self – who had noticed the Doctor’s annoyed looks his way – took it upon himself to place his arm over Martha’s shoulders.

 

“You’re not staying.” He came close to yelling inside of his other self’s head.

“I’m not doing anything wrong.”

 

“You’re not staying.” He repeated – this time he yelled.

 

Unaware of the silent conversation, Rose went on, “Anyway, Milligan was there with our Martha and he saw the whole thing. Poor bloke, he feels awful that he couldn’t stop it. There was this man who, after his description, I’m positive was you, Doctor. Or at least another version of you. He just floated out of the vortex hole – whatever it was. And Tom said this man looked like a ghost. He could see right through him.”

 

“I told her – warned her to run when she saw him. She didn’t listen. I had hoped that it was only a dream – I needed it to be a dream. But it happened and I can’t change that.” The other Doctor added in frustration.

 

“Martha wanted to be a part of something bigger, Doctor,” Rose told her Doctor softly, “Don’t think it was your fault because of what you told her.”

 

“What did you say to her?” The Doctor inquired; a somewhat accusatory look on his face.

 

“I may have caught her interest by telling her about traveling in time and space…I gave her a piece of a world she couldn’t even begin to understand. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to show it to her…”

 

“You weren’t there when we were on the moon. That’s what started it. So don’t even think that. It was her choice – her decision to seek the extraordinary. Martha told me, Doctor, that she always felt like something was missing from her life. She wasn’t satisfied with the ordinary things in life – she wanted to see more, to do more. It is not your fault.” Rose said firmly to him.

 

“What happened to her?” Martha asked quietly.

 

“From what Tom saw, the ghost grabbed her and seemed to whisper something in her ear. Then he kissed her until…well…we think he may have sucked the life out of her.”

 

“What the hell?” Martha breathed out in surprise.

 

All of a sudden, they heard doors slamming open and closed rather loudly. Music started playing as well.

 

And they heard voices, though they were muffled as if they were coming from behind closed doors.

 

The human Doctor looked urgently to Rose and then grabbed Martha’s hand.

 

“I’ll go investigate. Martha’s coming with me.” He said as he stood up, taking a confused Martha with him.

 

“Why am I going with you?” She asked, wanting answers.

 

“Martha is staying here. There’s no need for her to investigate,” The Doctor said firmly, staring his other self down, “Anyone care to explain what is going on? I don’t like the fact that I don’t know what is happening on my ship.”

 

The Doctor looked back and forth between the other Doctor and Rose.

 

“You know this overprotective shtick – it never works on your companions, Doctor. It’s Martha’s decision. Martha?” Rose said, intentionally avoiding his question.

 

Martha was momentarily surprised by Rose’s words, but then shrugged, “I want to help. I’ve faced worse things and I’m up for a good mystery either way. The TARDIS will protect us, right? So what’s the harm?”

 

The other Doctor, who was still holding her hand, smiled at her, “Brilliant you are, absolutely. Come on then, Dr. Jones.”

 

“Just wait a --” The Doctor began, but the pair of them had disappeared before he could finish; the other Doctor giving a little wave as he faded away with Martha.

 

Rose tilted her head, intrigued, “What was that? Cool trick, have to say.”

 

The Doctor scratched the back of his head, feeling as if things were moving too fast and he couldn’t quite catch up.

 

“It was just a low-powered teleport. I can only use it within the TARDIS for faster transport from room to room or whatnot.”

 

“Been holding out on me, have you?” She teased.

 

The Doctor just looked at her, “I’d rather walk. He was just showing off to get on my nerves. There was no reason for him to take Martha along.”

 

“Yeah, sorry about that. It wasn’t too long ago since our Martha died, and he feels responsible for her death. He’s just trying to cope, that’s all. He only knew her briefly, but she must have had an effect on him. He was getting better too with her help.” Rose explained.

 

“What happened between the two of you? Is everything all right?”

 

She gave him a small smile, “We decided to take a break. Things just weren’t working out. And well, we were moving too fast – trying to prove that we were meant to be for each other. But…” She stopped abruptly.

 

“What?”

 

“I’d rather keep it between me and him, all right? Don’t worry about it yeah? All I’m askin’.”

 

The Doctor nodded, “So you didn’t come here for anything else? Just to investigate?”

 

Rose nodded, “Yeah. That’s all it is.”

 

She couldn’t quite look at him, tugging at her sleeves instead.

 

But odd things were afoot and Rose knew she had to keep moving forward and stop looking back. She knew it wasn’t healthy as her mum had said.

 

The Doctor smacked his forehead suddenly in realization, “The other Martha – the one who – who was that ghost Doctor, Rose? Who was he?” He said quickly, looking at her with wild eyes.

 

“My Doctor has this theory. That it was a part of you that was let go during an event. It rarely happens, so the effects of it are largely unknown. He knows, Doctor, about Donna. What you had to do. He felt it too.” She explained.

 

“A part of me that was let go…let go…no…that’s impossible.”

 

“Your guess is as good as mine. But I think he took Martha to keep the peace. If we’re right, which I’m pretty sure we are, this ghost Doctor stole the other Martha’s life to have her as his eternal companion. As far as to why, we don’t know for sure. If our Martha is with him, then well, she wouldn’t want anything to happen to another version of herself. Hopefully…”

 

“What do you mean – ‘hopefully’?”

 

“We don’t know what sort of influence he’s had on her. Her sense of right and wrong might have gotten skewed. We know one thing – this Doctor is definitely no angel.”

 

The Doctor turned his back on Rose, only saying, “You could go to your room, if you like. It’s still there. I’d rather be alone.”

 

Rose sighed, but did as he asked.

 

But when she went to exit the console room, she found herself against a force field.

 

“Doctor, I can’t get out. There’s some sort of force field blocking the doorway.”

 

The Doctor looked up, “That can’t be.”

 

Rose didn’t know what to say.

 

They heard distant laughter.

 

The music, which had been playing at a medium volume, had stopped.

 

*

 

“Where are we?” Martha asked, curious as she looked around the well-kept garden surrounding them.

 

The Doctor searched around him. He had a bad feeling that the ghostly pair were nearby. After all, he had attempted to teleport to the spot where the TARDIS had said the stowaways were located.

 

“The Rainbow Garden. Touch any of the plants and they change colors. Come on, through this door.” He directed her to a wooden door that was overgrown with vines.

 

At his nod, Martha opened the door, but before she opened it fully, a hand shot out and grabbed her arm. She was pulled through the door.

 

The door shut behind her, leaving the Doctor in the garden.

 

Before she could react properly, Martha’s eyes widened at who had grabbed her arm and now was covering her mouth.

 

“Now don’t scream. I won’t hurt you.” He said.

 

Martha nodded and he removed his hand. She finally noticed where she was.

 

It mostly looked like her room, but it didn’t feel like her room. She wasn’t sure how to explain it. One noticeable difference was the bigger bed.

 

Martha gasped when she saw who was sitting calmly on the bed. It was like looking at her twin.

 

She was wearing a long dark purple strapless dress with a beige sash at the waist. Judging by her appearance, she looked like she had been on a fancy evening out. Martha couldn’t miss the sparkling diamond silver necklace around her neck.

 

“Was she the one who traveled with you?” Her look-a-like asked him, as she looked at Martha with interest.

 

Clarification Time (yay): Ten 2.0 is referred to as “the other Doctor”, “the Doctor’s other self”, “human Doctor”, “her Doctor (referring to Rose)” or “That One” (okay, was joking about the last one - darn presidential debates :P) I do hope I’m not missing anything. Oh, and the “original Doctor” is “the Doctor”. As far as the third Doctor, we’ll see…