A Place in Time (3/30)

[amberfocus]

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Chapter Three:  I Can Feel Your Heart Beat

“Rose?” Martha’s breath caught as Donna repeated that word. Rose. His way back to Rose. She didn’t like what that thought had just brought up in her. She knew she was over the Doctor; she’d made herself be a long time ago. But still…Rose.

She took a deep breath and let it all fall away from her. If the Doctor had a chance, no matter how small, to be reunited with this girl who still held his hearts even after all this time, then there was no question. “Then we need to go find her,” Martha said, her voice strong in her determination.

“It’s not that simple, Martha. I can’t take you and Donna there without warning you of the risks inherent in this venture,” the Doctor said.

“What risks?” asked Donna ever the practical one. “Are they really that much greater than simply travelling with you?”

“The everyday dangers remain the same.” The Doctor stared at the fissure on the view screen. His voice became softer. “But going to an alternate universe has its own special circumstances. There’s no guarantee we can get back home again.”

“So you might get to Rose, but you’d risk stranding us there,” Donna said as usual boiling everything down to the simplest form.

“Yes. And that--.” He broke off for a moment, shoving his hands in his pockets. He turned around to face the two women. “That isn’t fair to the two of you.”

“It’s not like I have anything waiting for me at home,” said Donna. “As long as you don’t chuck us overboard when you find your Rose, then I’m all for it. I don’t mind being stuck in an alternate universe as long as I get to stay on the good ship TARDIS.”

The Doctor smiled distractedly. “I thought she made you time sick.”

“There’s no such thing as time sick, remember?” Donna laughed. “Well, there is, but it’s worth the travel.”

“It’s up to you then Martha.” He turned his soft brown eyes to Martha. “And I know you have people you wouldn’t want to leave behind. It’s your decision.” His shoulders slumped as he leaned against one of the coral support struts.

It wasn’t fair for him to rest this choice on her shoulders. She had a family, a job, a boyfriend, a life. To possibly never see them again…  And he'd thought he could never see the woman he loved again.  She looked up and held the Doctor’s gaze for one long minute. That settled her mind. “There is no choice. If there’s a way back to Rose, Doctor, then you have to take it.” Her voice was strong, firm, in no way betraying the turmoil she felt. But the decision felt right all the way through to her bones. And she still loved him enough to grant him this.

“Thank you,” he told her in a quiet voice. His eyes told her that he understood everything she might be giving up and that she was still going to do it. For him. “Martha Jones, you are one amazing woman.” He hugged her tightly to him. “I can hear your heart beat,” he said absently. That didn’t surprise her at all; it was pounding so hard in her chest.

“Oi, what about me?” Donna said. “Aren’t I amazing, too?”

The Doctor smiled and broke away from Martha, holding out his arms to Donna. “You, Donna Noble, are something else!” He laughed at the series of expressions that crossed her face before Donna decided that this was indeed a compliment.

She gave him a quick hug then pulled away from him and asked Martha, “So what does one wear in an alternate universe?”

“I don’t know, never been,” said Martha.

“Depends on how alternate the universe is that you’re going to,” the Doctor said. “But this one’s close enough to ours. What you have on is fine.”

“Oh, you. You wear the same thing no matter where we go! How can I trust your opinion?” Donna demanded.

“I do not,” the Doctor said looking down at his brown suit. “Sometimes I wear the blue one.”

“Come on,” said Martha. “Let’s go ask the wardrobe room. I’ll trust the fashion sense of the TARDIS over old Doctor Two Suits every time.”

“I’m insulted!” the Doctor said as Martha pulled Donna out of the control room, but he was smiling as they went.


“Tell me about Rose,” Donna said as they were presented with choices by the wardrobe room.

“I never met her,” Martha said.

“But you travelled with him for a year before he picked me up again. Surely he must have talked about her?”

“Did he ever talk about her with you?” Martha countered.

“Just once in the beginning. I found her jacket and he told me he’d lost her. The way he said it, well, even though I was mad at him at the time, the way he said it just about broke my heart. I think he loved her very much.  Later on, every once in a while he'd let something slip.  He'd say, 'Rose would have loved this,' that sort of thing.”

“The only things I know about Rose came from Jack Harkness. He knew her. I’m pretty sure he loved her, too. He said she was young and tough and smart and beautiful, with the heart of a warrior and the face of an angel. Oh, and she was a blonde,” Martha added, as an afterthought, as if it made all the difference.

“Well, she would be, wouldn’t she?” Donna said and Martha laughed.

“I went into her room once,” Martha said. “The TARDIS let me. Usually the door stays locked. She had a photo album in it. She was pretty enough, I guess. But it was when she smiled, really smiled, that I could see just who she was. Her smile lit the room. She was beautiful all the way through. I understood why he loved her.”

She laughed, shaking off the seriousness in her tone. “She even had one of those strips you get when you go into one of those photo booths at the shops. It was of her and the Doctor; I couldn’t believe he’d go in a photo booth, that’s so not like him! But he was smiling in a way I’ve never seen him smile, a way that was complete. He loves her. And I think he needs her.”

“Sounds like she made him a different man,” Donna commented.

“He was happy,” said Martha. “And that’s why I won’t stand in his way of getting back to her. If there’s even the slightest chance, then I want him to be happy.”


The Doctor had busied himself at the controls, making minute adjustments, his eyes constantly flicking between the control screen and the viewer. He had to be careful. Easing the ship through the fissure would be hard to do without creating a full-fledged fracture. A fracture would rip the universe apart. But a fissure would just allow him to slip through. If everything went the way it was supposed to. And how often did that happen?

“Okay, girl, it’s up to you,” he told the TARDIS. “See if you can squeeze us through that little gap without touching the sides. Take us back to Rose.”

The movement was so slow he could barely feel the momentum, but ever so slowly they approached the fissure. As the TARDIS began the long process of slipping through the fissure, the interior of the ship was flooded with swirls of colored lights. ‘It was a bit like being under a disco ball, really,’ thought the Doctor irreverently. ‘While encased in gelatin.  Never doing that again.’

The women returned to the control room. “What’s happening?” Donna asked.

“We’re going through,” the Doctor said. “We’re in the fissure.”

“It’s beautiful,” said Martha, looking up at the brilliant currents of color that floated around them.  She raised a hand trying to touch one and it swished through the light slowly.  “How long until we get there?”

“I don’t know. This isn’t the normal way I travel. I’d guess a few hours longer. It’d probably be a good idea if you two got some rest,” he suggested. “I don’t know what kind of a reception we’ll get when we land and we need to be up for anything.”

“What about you?” Martha asked.

“I’m doing fine,” he said with a wide grin. Martha believed him. He looked like he was running on pure joy.

Ch. 4:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/46681.html