Cheating Time [Rose/Doctor/Martha] 1/2
Jun. 3rd, 2007 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misscamCheating Time
by Camilla Sandman
Summary: You can't cheat time. You can change it, if you're willing to pay the price. You can't cheat it. It cheats back. [Rose/Doctor/Martha]
Disclaimer: BBC's characters. My words.
Rating: Adult. Naughty activities (none too explicit, though), language.
Author's Note: For![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
settai in the Rose and Martha ficathon. I chose prompt 3, which asked for:
At the end of "The Christmas Invasion," Rose and the Doctor parted ways. Several years later, he and Martha show up at her door. Bonus points for Jackie and/or Mickey. Gen, het, femslash, or threesome. Threesome ahoy. AU from PotW, but references events of season two and hints of events in season three. Part one Rose POV, part two Martha. Thanks to Saz for beta.
II
The TARDIS, A Prologue
II
One little human mind. The TARDIS has sometimes gone into the Doctor's mind, but always just a little, and always carefully. She loves the Doctor. She doesn't wish to hurt him, and she knows her touch burns.
But Rose, little human Rose has taken her willingly - demanded her, stolen her, embraced her.
We're going to save the Doctor.
We.
Me.
There's just one; burning. Rose is all the TARDIS is and the TARDIS is all Rose is. Time, space and human emotions.
You're so much, Rose says in awe to herself. I see...
Everything. Past, present, future, suns burning and dying, the scar of Gallifrey like barbed wire across time, stars falling like waterfalls of fire, future, the Doctor changing, wolves, Sarah Jane, Reinette, Cybermen, impossible things, lonely lost child, Cybermen, Daleks, a beach in Norway, and after oh after...
No, Rose says, human emotion and timeless knowledge dancing. She doesn't want that future.
Yes.
"I think you need a Doctor," the Doctor says, kissing her, kissing both, making one into two again.
Just one word of Rose's remains, burning brightly in the TARDIS's mind.
No.
II
Rose
II
It's Rose's twenty-fifth birthday, and she's in a particularly bad mood. She often is these days, and tries to tell herself it's simply the stress of the job.
Leading Torchwood is quite like trying to manage a tap dance while juggling, particularly when the woman under you is called Yvonne Hartman and has Ideas.
Rose knows Ideas. She's seen where they lead.
Then there's Jackie. Jackie wants a grandchild and has even started knitting and droppings Hints to Mickey. Little does Jackie know Rose hasn't slept with Mickey in two years and it's entirely mutual. It just seems easier to let Jackie live in hope. Easier, but crueler.
She's learned to be cruel. Make the sort of choices the Doctor did and she got angry with him for.
The Doctor. She's been tracking him as well as she can with Torchwood resources and she knows he's done at least some of things meant to happen still. Pushed Queen Victoria to make Torchwood. Made television stay television. Time hasn't changed that much.
It's that which really worries her, she knows deep down. Time doesn't seem to like to be cheated and cheats right back.
She watches Yvonne Hartman like a hawk, and doesn't even have time for a birthday party.
"Hey, boss," Mickey says, interrupting her thoughts as he drops down on a chair and puts his feet up on her desk. "You know, next time you send me to drive out a confused Auton, at least let me have the big gun."
"That big gun can shatter a moon," she points out. He just rolls his eyes.
"I know that. I took it from the irate Keglar who was planning to do so, remember? Looked dashingly handsome while doing so, I might add."
She smiles a little. "Irina certainly noticed."
"Irina's a girl. I like women," he says confidentially, and something in his tone tells her he's sleeping with someone new. Probably someone in the organisation, just to complicate things for her.
There are days she wishes she hadn't pushed Harriet Jones to make her head of Torchwood. One of the last things Harriet ever did. And then...
There's something entirely wrong about Saxon, she just wishes she knew what. There's a prickling at the back of her mind and it's getting more insistent. There's another prickling too, and she might even know what that one is.
"You all right, Rose?" Mickey asks, and the real concern in his voice just makes her want to snap at him the more.
"No," she says instead, and they smile at each other.
"Come on, Tyler," he says good-naturedly, swinging his feet off her desk. "Let's go get drunk."
They do.
II
It's three a.m. when Rose stumbles home, singing a little. Mickey has gone to get laid - she hasn't wheedled out of him by who yet, but she will - prickling has been drowned by waves of alcohol and she's feeling generally congenial to the world.
Even when she hears a noise she can't really mistake.
It's not really the aliens' fault they seem to smack into Earth as it if was a magnet, she supposes, but she can blame this particularly one for being a total and galaxy-wide idiot.
"Did you know," she says pleasantly, reaching into her handbag, "that when trying to sound like a cat it helps not to say 'meow'? Oh wait, I told you that last week already, only then it was dogs and 'bark'."
She turns around, sedative at the ready, and finds it isn't really needed. Someone else has already given the Rag - nasty species, but with very nice smell - a sniff or nose spray. (Why that works, she has no idea. Universe's sense of humour, probably.) Someone she knows and doesn't know at the same time.
For a moment, the universe spins and she goes with it.
Martha.
"Oh," the other says, looking a bit surprised. "I didn't know you knew how to deal with... er..."
"Aliens," Rose says helpfully, feeling suddenly so sober it hurts. "I'm Rose Tyler."
"Martha Jones," Martha says, extending a hand. "Rose..."
"Yeah," Rose says brightly. "I used to travel with the Doctor. Nice to meet you."
Spin, crash, and then the Rag very helpfully throws up on both.
"Bollocks," Martha says.
"Fuck," Rose supplies.
"Shit."
"Bloody hell."
"... Ew?"
"Ew," Rose agrees, feeling her mind return to her brain. "Definitely ew."
II
Martha borrows the shower while Rose makes a few calls to Ianto, getting the alien picked up and locked back in - with better locks, this time. After, she showers herself, letting Martha rummage through the closet meanwhile. The water feels not hot enough even at the warmest setting, and she scrubs quite viciously until the skin is almost sore. It isn't just the smell of alien barf she'd like to get out. There's... Oh, everything. Alcohol and memories and sudden desires and stress and the TARDIS, humming in her mind again.
But water runs out, and eventually she walks into the living room to find Martha sitting on the couch in her hoodie and pair of jeans.
"Hey," Martha says a little uncomfortably. "I took something that looked like it hadn't been worn for a while."
"Yeah," Rose agrees. She doesn't mention when she last wore it. "So, is.. the Doctor..."
"Yeah," Martha replies, though sounding a bit hesitant. "He's... We detected some abnormalities in..."
"Time or space?"
"Both."
"Oh, bad," Rose mutters.
"Usually is," Martha agrees. She takes a breath, as if bracing herself. "He talks about you. You were beginning to feel a bit larger than life, to tell the truth. Didn't know how to feel about you."
Strange to hear her own thoughts said by someone else, Rose observes, sitting down in a chair carefully.
"But how did you know I was travelling with the Doctor?" Martha goes on, and Rose almost has to laugh. The sort of mind the Doctor likes, no doubt.
"You met Sarah Jane," she replies. "I knew she'd travelled with the Doctor. She told me about you."
It's impressive to tell the truth and lie at the same time.
"I always knew I wasn't his first," Martha says a little thoughtfully.
"I didn't. I was young. I didn't think."
"You know how many he's had? I mean, as companions."
"No," Rose says truthfully. "I don't know how many he's had, or had as companions."
They both laugh a little awkwardly, but genuinely, and Rose finds to a strange sort of horror she can really, really like this woman. But then, she's always known that.
"He is a good at genetic transfer," Martha says after a moment, mischievous.
"Yeah, at lip removal of time vortexes too."
"Nice tight suit."
"I didn't get to appreciate that too long. But good leather jacket."
"Oral fixation."
"Longing looks."
"He is a right tease, isn't he?"
"The worst," Rose agrees. "Only gets away with it by being an alien."
"Cheating."
"Cheating."
They nod at each other, and it feels almost like an understanding. She should be jealous, Rose knows. She is. But also not. She thinks she might understand, remembering the TARDIS in her head. Maybe.
All of time is awfully long and humans die. Everything dies.
"We've parked the TARDIS not far from here," Martha says a little hesitantly. "I got a key."
Warm against her skin below her shirt, so does Rose. But she doesn't mention that. It seems a little too much like reminding a current girlfriend the ex still is on the boyfriend's speed dial.
"He'll get a bit of a shock," Rose points out, feeling her heart leaping. "Probably worry how much we've told each other."
"Yeah," Martha replies, grinning. "That's the point."
II
The TARDIS sings in her mind the moment Rose steps close, a jubilant chorus that fades to a steady hum. It's feels almost like a welcome home, and that makes her hand tremble a little. Martha seems not to notice, or pretend to at least, pushing the door open and then putting a finger to her lips and winking to Rose.
"Honey, I'm home!" Martha calls in, and Rose swallows a snigger. "Found the alien you sent me after. Pleasant fellow. You could've warned me about the barfing."
"Discoveries made on your own are much more fun!" the Doctor calls back. The new voice of him, even if Rose knows he must've been in this regeneration a while now. New to her. She never had time to make him familiar again.
"Oh, I agree," Martha replies, taking Rose's hand and yanking her in. "Look what I discovered."
The Doctor turns, and Rose feels the smile she's worked so hard to summon falter a little.
"The Doctor, I presume," she says lamely and he stares at her for a second of forever, eyes as deeply brown as they once were blue.
"Rose," he finally says. "Rose Tyler!"
He comes at her so fast she has barely time to swallow, and then he sweeps her up in a crushing hug. She can hardly breathe, particularly when he spins her around and crashes her into Martha and then he seems to be hugging both. It doesn't take long before they all topple over and end up in a heap on the floor.
"Rose!" he beams. "You discovered Rose! Oh, wait. How did you discover Rose?"
"Aliens like her," Martha replies, as if that's explanation enough. "Do you mind, Doctor? You got an elbow between my breasts."
He gets up extremely fast, Rose notes, but doesn't look particularly guilty, eyes still shining at her.
"Jackie! How's Jackie?"
"Mum's mum. Mickey's good too. He works for me now."
He beams even more, and she wonders if all this joy really can be genuine. He didn't like her family that much, did he?
"And you?"
"I'm head of Torchwood," she says, and now his smile does fade. "What's wrong?"
"Torchwood is," he says, steel in his voice. "That's why I'm here. It's all wrong."
She hasn't watched Yvonne Hartman enough, Rose's first thought is. The second isn't really hers.
Yes.
II
Rose is rather glad she cleaned the office the week before when the TARDIS materialises there, but she is a little sad she left her basket of confiscated alien fruits out. Judging by the looks the Doctor is giving it, she's not going to have any left by the end of it all.
"Nice," Martha says, looking the office over and taking in the view. Slight light on the horizon is promising dawn, which she seems to spot also. "We'd better hurry."
"Right," the Doctor agrees, tossing Martha the sonic screwdriver with what seems like familiarity. "You use this one on Rose's computer, see if you can access any suspicious files that way. Rose and I will take Yvonne's. You're sure she's the one?"
"Yes," Rose says, wondering if he's going to ask how she knows or if he'll just trust her. "She's trouble all right."
He nods, but gives her a look she can't quite read.
"Try not to let him wander," Martha says, giving her a wink.
"Short leash," Rose promises, and tries not to have interesting mental images. He follows her docile enough though, trailing three steps behind as she walks through the halls.
"Where did you pick Martha up?" she asks, even if she knows. Sort of. It may have changed.
"Hospital on the moon," he replies. "She saved my life."
"Keeping with tradition."
He laughs a little, but with a queer pitch. "Why'd you leave?"
He had to get to that, she knows, and it still feels like she's suddenly being chased by a very fast and persistent train that doesn't need tracks. "I told you why."
"You lied. You're adaptable. You would've gotten used to the changes."
She turns slightly to look at him. He seemed brighter when she first saw him, now she realises his shell is just harder and more cheerful. He's angry with her, too.
"No," she denies.
"Yes."
Yes. Oh, yes. She could've adapted. Would've. She knows. She's seen it. Laughing with him, travelling with him, being hurt by him, hurting him, hugging him, making a commitment...
Forever.
"Yes," she agrees after a moment. "I was afraid."
That's dangerously close to the truth, and she doesn't offer any more. They walk on in silence for a while, until she turns right and finds Yvonne's office. It looks so much like a copy of hers everyone knows what Yvonne aspires to.
What Yvonne should have been.
The Doctor punches on the computer with something like glee. "Oh, Vista. Vista's rubbish. I much prefer Hablo. I tried downloading Vista for the TARDIS once. She didn't speak to me for a week."
Rose rolls her eyes, but can't manage not to smile.
"Password, password, password," he continues. "What would I be if I was a password?"
"For Queen and country," she replies. "Though you would be The Incoming Gob."
He pauses to look at her, tongue pushed against his lower lip. "Martha likes my gob."
He turns his attention abruptly back to the computer, and she bites back the reply she wants to give.
"She's complaining about you to your boss," he says after a moment.
"That's all right. I'm complaining about her too."
"And she's... Doing nothing else."
"That can't be right," she protests. That really can't be right. It has to be Yvonne. Has to be. "I made sure we didn't start looking for ghosts. But she's the only..."
The phone rings shrilly, and she nearly jumps as the Doctor picks his up and answers. So he's giving one to Martha too. Oh.
"What did you find?" he asks, and he looks outright confused as Martha says something in the other end Rose isn't sure she wants to hear. "Mickey? What do you mean, Mickey Smith?"
Mickey.
Mickey's new girlfriend.
Oh shit.
"Fuck," she says, mostly to herself. "I watched Yvonne. I didn't watch Mickey."
II
"Now you tell me why you knew you had to watch Yvonne," the Doctor says. They're in the TARDIS again, and Rose isn't even sure where Martha is. Maybe the Doctor has subtly signalled he wants some time, maybe Martha's just decided on her own.
Rose is too tired to even tell. She's beginning to feel she hasn't slept for twenty-four hours, and has been drunk too. All she wants is a bed and silence.
Oh fuck, Mickey. Mickey has a design for something she knows all too well what is on his server. Something that would let him travel between worlds. Something she's only seen in a future that isn't meant to come. Not now.
"I just knew," she says numbly. "I knew everything. I thought I did, at least."
She doesn't look at him, but even so, she can almost see his brain working.
"The TARDIS showed you something," he says quietly.
There seems no point denying it. "Yes."
"You left me," he says almost venomously. "I'm the Time Lord. I change time. I could have..."
"Everyone changes time, Doctor!" she snaps back. "Every life. Every breath. You're not..."
His kiss is crushing, more punishment than caress at first, and she responds in kind. His lips are hard against her tongue, but after a breath, they part and she can trace the edges of his teeth. His hair feels almost spiky as she tangles her fingers in it, and his hands are warm against her neck.
When she remembers to breathe, he moves his mouth to her collarbone, teeth scraping against skin. She clings to him a little, feeling the lines of his body bend to meet hers.
When she lifts her gaze, she sees Martha standing in the shadows, watching them with dark eyes.
"Doctor..."
He looks up, and following Rose's gaze he sees Martha and freezes. For a moment, they stand like that, something a bit out of a soap Rose would never admit to watching.
Then Martha walks over, determined and with just the tiniest sway.
"I'm as good as her," she says, indicating Rose, "you just haven't lost me yet to put me on a pedestal. I'm as good as her. She's as good as me. You don't dare fucking choose."
He still holds Rose when he kisses Martha, and Rose can observe the texture of lips on lips. It feels strangely like a seduction, but she's not sure of who.
"I'm as good as her," Rose agrees, pressing a kiss against his jawbone. "You're the fucking tease."
II
Rose isn't a great sharer. She remembers Tia from downstairs, Tia who wanted anything in the world like a Barbie that Rose had. Rose knew. Tia knew Rose knew.
Rose never shared her Barbie.
The Doctor isn't a Barbie - for one thing, he's not plastic, and he very pointedly has Parts. She still isn't all that keen on sharing. She had him first, she wants to tell Martha, at least until she remembers none of them know who his first was. Only he does, and he's unlikely to tell even if they try shag torture.
Martha kisses him, Rose kisses him. Rose traces the form of his quite nice behind, Martha cups a cheek. Martha scrapes a fingernail across his chest, Rose yanks at a chest hair. Martha's on top, Rose is sideways. It doesn't feel like a threesome. It feels like sharing. (Or a tug-of-shag-war, come to think of it.)
At least until Rose feels her fingers seeking flesh and finding Martha's. Warm skin, different texture to the Doctor's, different colour to hers and she traces it until Martha looks at her from lowered eyelids.
Martha. Martha who probably doesn't like to share Barbies either, who is smart and kind and has a lovely laugh. Martha who the Doctor likes. Who Rose likes.
She always has, she knows, and doesn't move when Martha kisses her. A chaste kiss, but a kiss still.
Now it's a threesome.
II
The Doctor, An Interlude
II
The Doctor doesn't sleep, but he can pretend to. He can pretend a lot of things, always has. Sometimes time even pretends with him, and worlds change.
"Rose," Martha says, and when he lifts his eyelids just a little, he can see her touching Rose's hair almost absentmindedly. "Why'd you leave him? Was it the regeneration?"
Rose is quiet for a moment, biting on a nail he remembers the feel of against his tongue. "No. I had time in my head. He took it away from me again, but I saw a future. I stayed. I always stayed at the price of everything and I still didn't get forever. I saw him. After. I couldn't do that to him."
"Maybe he would have done it to himself," Martha points out.
'Maybe I still did,' he thinks.
"I saw you, too," Rose goes on. "I hated you. I loved you. I saw... I see..."
"What?" Martha asks. She shifts slightly in bed, leaving a breast exposed and he remembers the feel of it against his palm.
"It doesn't matter," Rose says, leaning forward and kissing Martha softly, and he knows that if he kisses either, he'll get the taste of both now. Rose and Martha. His.
Yes.
It's all going to work out. Rose, him and Martha. It's going to be a glorious, complicated mess and he can pretend he isn't alone in a crowd, that they're all he needs and everything's going to work out.
He can pretend a lot of things, always has.
Time doesn't always pretend with.
II
(To be concluded in part two.)
by Camilla Sandman
Summary: You can't cheat time. You can change it, if you're willing to pay the price. You can't cheat it. It cheats back. [Rose/Doctor/Martha]
Disclaimer: BBC's characters. My words.
Rating: Adult. Naughty activities (none too explicit, though), language.
Author's Note: For
settai in the Rose and Martha ficathon. I chose prompt 3, which asked for: At the end of "The Christmas Invasion," Rose and the Doctor parted ways. Several years later, he and Martha show up at her door. Bonus points for Jackie and/or Mickey. Gen, het, femslash, or threesome. Threesome ahoy. AU from PotW, but references events of season two and hints of events in season three. Part one Rose POV, part two Martha. Thanks to Saz for beta.
II
The TARDIS, A Prologue
II
One little human mind. The TARDIS has sometimes gone into the Doctor's mind, but always just a little, and always carefully. She loves the Doctor. She doesn't wish to hurt him, and she knows her touch burns.
But Rose, little human Rose has taken her willingly - demanded her, stolen her, embraced her.
We're going to save the Doctor.
We.
Me.
There's just one; burning. Rose is all the TARDIS is and the TARDIS is all Rose is. Time, space and human emotions.
You're so much, Rose says in awe to herself. I see...
Everything. Past, present, future, suns burning and dying, the scar of Gallifrey like barbed wire across time, stars falling like waterfalls of fire, future, the Doctor changing, wolves, Sarah Jane, Reinette, Cybermen, impossible things, lonely lost child, Cybermen, Daleks, a beach in Norway, and after oh after...
No, Rose says, human emotion and timeless knowledge dancing. She doesn't want that future.
Yes.
"I think you need a Doctor," the Doctor says, kissing her, kissing both, making one into two again.
Just one word of Rose's remains, burning brightly in the TARDIS's mind.
No.
II
Rose
II
It's Rose's twenty-fifth birthday, and she's in a particularly bad mood. She often is these days, and tries to tell herself it's simply the stress of the job.
Leading Torchwood is quite like trying to manage a tap dance while juggling, particularly when the woman under you is called Yvonne Hartman and has Ideas.
Rose knows Ideas. She's seen where they lead.
Then there's Jackie. Jackie wants a grandchild and has even started knitting and droppings Hints to Mickey. Little does Jackie know Rose hasn't slept with Mickey in two years and it's entirely mutual. It just seems easier to let Jackie live in hope. Easier, but crueler.
She's learned to be cruel. Make the sort of choices the Doctor did and she got angry with him for.
The Doctor. She's been tracking him as well as she can with Torchwood resources and she knows he's done at least some of things meant to happen still. Pushed Queen Victoria to make Torchwood. Made television stay television. Time hasn't changed that much.
It's that which really worries her, she knows deep down. Time doesn't seem to like to be cheated and cheats right back.
She watches Yvonne Hartman like a hawk, and doesn't even have time for a birthday party.
"Hey, boss," Mickey says, interrupting her thoughts as he drops down on a chair and puts his feet up on her desk. "You know, next time you send me to drive out a confused Auton, at least let me have the big gun."
"That big gun can shatter a moon," she points out. He just rolls his eyes.
"I know that. I took it from the irate Keglar who was planning to do so, remember? Looked dashingly handsome while doing so, I might add."
She smiles a little. "Irina certainly noticed."
"Irina's a girl. I like women," he says confidentially, and something in his tone tells her he's sleeping with someone new. Probably someone in the organisation, just to complicate things for her.
There are days she wishes she hadn't pushed Harriet Jones to make her head of Torchwood. One of the last things Harriet ever did. And then...
There's something entirely wrong about Saxon, she just wishes she knew what. There's a prickling at the back of her mind and it's getting more insistent. There's another prickling too, and she might even know what that one is.
"You all right, Rose?" Mickey asks, and the real concern in his voice just makes her want to snap at him the more.
"No," she says instead, and they smile at each other.
"Come on, Tyler," he says good-naturedly, swinging his feet off her desk. "Let's go get drunk."
They do.
II
It's three a.m. when Rose stumbles home, singing a little. Mickey has gone to get laid - she hasn't wheedled out of him by who yet, but she will - prickling has been drowned by waves of alcohol and she's feeling generally congenial to the world.
Even when she hears a noise she can't really mistake.
It's not really the aliens' fault they seem to smack into Earth as it if was a magnet, she supposes, but she can blame this particularly one for being a total and galaxy-wide idiot.
"Did you know," she says pleasantly, reaching into her handbag, "that when trying to sound like a cat it helps not to say 'meow'? Oh wait, I told you that last week already, only then it was dogs and 'bark'."
She turns around, sedative at the ready, and finds it isn't really needed. Someone else has already given the Rag - nasty species, but with very nice smell - a sniff or nose spray. (Why that works, she has no idea. Universe's sense of humour, probably.) Someone she knows and doesn't know at the same time.
For a moment, the universe spins and she goes with it.
Martha.
"Oh," the other says, looking a bit surprised. "I didn't know you knew how to deal with... er..."
"Aliens," Rose says helpfully, feeling suddenly so sober it hurts. "I'm Rose Tyler."
"Martha Jones," Martha says, extending a hand. "Rose..."
"Yeah," Rose says brightly. "I used to travel with the Doctor. Nice to meet you."
Spin, crash, and then the Rag very helpfully throws up on both.
"Bollocks," Martha says.
"Fuck," Rose supplies.
"Shit."
"Bloody hell."
"... Ew?"
"Ew," Rose agrees, feeling her mind return to her brain. "Definitely ew."
II
Martha borrows the shower while Rose makes a few calls to Ianto, getting the alien picked up and locked back in - with better locks, this time. After, she showers herself, letting Martha rummage through the closet meanwhile. The water feels not hot enough even at the warmest setting, and she scrubs quite viciously until the skin is almost sore. It isn't just the smell of alien barf she'd like to get out. There's... Oh, everything. Alcohol and memories and sudden desires and stress and the TARDIS, humming in her mind again.
But water runs out, and eventually she walks into the living room to find Martha sitting on the couch in her hoodie and pair of jeans.
"Hey," Martha says a little uncomfortably. "I took something that looked like it hadn't been worn for a while."
"Yeah," Rose agrees. She doesn't mention when she last wore it. "So, is.. the Doctor..."
"Yeah," Martha replies, though sounding a bit hesitant. "He's... We detected some abnormalities in..."
"Time or space?"
"Both."
"Oh, bad," Rose mutters.
"Usually is," Martha agrees. She takes a breath, as if bracing herself. "He talks about you. You were beginning to feel a bit larger than life, to tell the truth. Didn't know how to feel about you."
Strange to hear her own thoughts said by someone else, Rose observes, sitting down in a chair carefully.
"But how did you know I was travelling with the Doctor?" Martha goes on, and Rose almost has to laugh. The sort of mind the Doctor likes, no doubt.
"You met Sarah Jane," she replies. "I knew she'd travelled with the Doctor. She told me about you."
It's impressive to tell the truth and lie at the same time.
"I always knew I wasn't his first," Martha says a little thoughtfully.
"I didn't. I was young. I didn't think."
"You know how many he's had? I mean, as companions."
"No," Rose says truthfully. "I don't know how many he's had, or had as companions."
They both laugh a little awkwardly, but genuinely, and Rose finds to a strange sort of horror she can really, really like this woman. But then, she's always known that.
"He is a good at genetic transfer," Martha says after a moment, mischievous.
"Yeah, at lip removal of time vortexes too."
"Nice tight suit."
"I didn't get to appreciate that too long. But good leather jacket."
"Oral fixation."
"Longing looks."
"He is a right tease, isn't he?"
"The worst," Rose agrees. "Only gets away with it by being an alien."
"Cheating."
"Cheating."
They nod at each other, and it feels almost like an understanding. She should be jealous, Rose knows. She is. But also not. She thinks she might understand, remembering the TARDIS in her head. Maybe.
All of time is awfully long and humans die. Everything dies.
"We've parked the TARDIS not far from here," Martha says a little hesitantly. "I got a key."
Warm against her skin below her shirt, so does Rose. But she doesn't mention that. It seems a little too much like reminding a current girlfriend the ex still is on the boyfriend's speed dial.
"He'll get a bit of a shock," Rose points out, feeling her heart leaping. "Probably worry how much we've told each other."
"Yeah," Martha replies, grinning. "That's the point."
II
The TARDIS sings in her mind the moment Rose steps close, a jubilant chorus that fades to a steady hum. It's feels almost like a welcome home, and that makes her hand tremble a little. Martha seems not to notice, or pretend to at least, pushing the door open and then putting a finger to her lips and winking to Rose.
"Honey, I'm home!" Martha calls in, and Rose swallows a snigger. "Found the alien you sent me after. Pleasant fellow. You could've warned me about the barfing."
"Discoveries made on your own are much more fun!" the Doctor calls back. The new voice of him, even if Rose knows he must've been in this regeneration a while now. New to her. She never had time to make him familiar again.
"Oh, I agree," Martha replies, taking Rose's hand and yanking her in. "Look what I discovered."
The Doctor turns, and Rose feels the smile she's worked so hard to summon falter a little.
"The Doctor, I presume," she says lamely and he stares at her for a second of forever, eyes as deeply brown as they once were blue.
"Rose," he finally says. "Rose Tyler!"
He comes at her so fast she has barely time to swallow, and then he sweeps her up in a crushing hug. She can hardly breathe, particularly when he spins her around and crashes her into Martha and then he seems to be hugging both. It doesn't take long before they all topple over and end up in a heap on the floor.
"Rose!" he beams. "You discovered Rose! Oh, wait. How did you discover Rose?"
"Aliens like her," Martha replies, as if that's explanation enough. "Do you mind, Doctor? You got an elbow between my breasts."
He gets up extremely fast, Rose notes, but doesn't look particularly guilty, eyes still shining at her.
"Jackie! How's Jackie?"
"Mum's mum. Mickey's good too. He works for me now."
He beams even more, and she wonders if all this joy really can be genuine. He didn't like her family that much, did he?
"And you?"
"I'm head of Torchwood," she says, and now his smile does fade. "What's wrong?"
"Torchwood is," he says, steel in his voice. "That's why I'm here. It's all wrong."
She hasn't watched Yvonne Hartman enough, Rose's first thought is. The second isn't really hers.
Yes.
II
Rose is rather glad she cleaned the office the week before when the TARDIS materialises there, but she is a little sad she left her basket of confiscated alien fruits out. Judging by the looks the Doctor is giving it, she's not going to have any left by the end of it all.
"Nice," Martha says, looking the office over and taking in the view. Slight light on the horizon is promising dawn, which she seems to spot also. "We'd better hurry."
"Right," the Doctor agrees, tossing Martha the sonic screwdriver with what seems like familiarity. "You use this one on Rose's computer, see if you can access any suspicious files that way. Rose and I will take Yvonne's. You're sure she's the one?"
"Yes," Rose says, wondering if he's going to ask how she knows or if he'll just trust her. "She's trouble all right."
He nods, but gives her a look she can't quite read.
"Try not to let him wander," Martha says, giving her a wink.
"Short leash," Rose promises, and tries not to have interesting mental images. He follows her docile enough though, trailing three steps behind as she walks through the halls.
"Where did you pick Martha up?" she asks, even if she knows. Sort of. It may have changed.
"Hospital on the moon," he replies. "She saved my life."
"Keeping with tradition."
He laughs a little, but with a queer pitch. "Why'd you leave?"
He had to get to that, she knows, and it still feels like she's suddenly being chased by a very fast and persistent train that doesn't need tracks. "I told you why."
"You lied. You're adaptable. You would've gotten used to the changes."
She turns slightly to look at him. He seemed brighter when she first saw him, now she realises his shell is just harder and more cheerful. He's angry with her, too.
"No," she denies.
"Yes."
Yes. Oh, yes. She could've adapted. Would've. She knows. She's seen it. Laughing with him, travelling with him, being hurt by him, hurting him, hugging him, making a commitment...
Forever.
"Yes," she agrees after a moment. "I was afraid."
That's dangerously close to the truth, and she doesn't offer any more. They walk on in silence for a while, until she turns right and finds Yvonne's office. It looks so much like a copy of hers everyone knows what Yvonne aspires to.
What Yvonne should have been.
The Doctor punches on the computer with something like glee. "Oh, Vista. Vista's rubbish. I much prefer Hablo. I tried downloading Vista for the TARDIS once. She didn't speak to me for a week."
Rose rolls her eyes, but can't manage not to smile.
"Password, password, password," he continues. "What would I be if I was a password?"
"For Queen and country," she replies. "Though you would be The Incoming Gob."
He pauses to look at her, tongue pushed against his lower lip. "Martha likes my gob."
He turns his attention abruptly back to the computer, and she bites back the reply she wants to give.
"She's complaining about you to your boss," he says after a moment.
"That's all right. I'm complaining about her too."
"And she's... Doing nothing else."
"That can't be right," she protests. That really can't be right. It has to be Yvonne. Has to be. "I made sure we didn't start looking for ghosts. But she's the only..."
The phone rings shrilly, and she nearly jumps as the Doctor picks his up and answers. So he's giving one to Martha too. Oh.
"What did you find?" he asks, and he looks outright confused as Martha says something in the other end Rose isn't sure she wants to hear. "Mickey? What do you mean, Mickey Smith?"
Mickey.
Mickey's new girlfriend.
Oh shit.
"Fuck," she says, mostly to herself. "I watched Yvonne. I didn't watch Mickey."
II
"Now you tell me why you knew you had to watch Yvonne," the Doctor says. They're in the TARDIS again, and Rose isn't even sure where Martha is. Maybe the Doctor has subtly signalled he wants some time, maybe Martha's just decided on her own.
Rose is too tired to even tell. She's beginning to feel she hasn't slept for twenty-four hours, and has been drunk too. All she wants is a bed and silence.
Oh fuck, Mickey. Mickey has a design for something she knows all too well what is on his server. Something that would let him travel between worlds. Something she's only seen in a future that isn't meant to come. Not now.
"I just knew," she says numbly. "I knew everything. I thought I did, at least."
She doesn't look at him, but even so, she can almost see his brain working.
"The TARDIS showed you something," he says quietly.
There seems no point denying it. "Yes."
"You left me," he says almost venomously. "I'm the Time Lord. I change time. I could have..."
"Everyone changes time, Doctor!" she snaps back. "Every life. Every breath. You're not..."
His kiss is crushing, more punishment than caress at first, and she responds in kind. His lips are hard against her tongue, but after a breath, they part and she can trace the edges of his teeth. His hair feels almost spiky as she tangles her fingers in it, and his hands are warm against her neck.
When she remembers to breathe, he moves his mouth to her collarbone, teeth scraping against skin. She clings to him a little, feeling the lines of his body bend to meet hers.
When she lifts her gaze, she sees Martha standing in the shadows, watching them with dark eyes.
"Doctor..."
He looks up, and following Rose's gaze he sees Martha and freezes. For a moment, they stand like that, something a bit out of a soap Rose would never admit to watching.
Then Martha walks over, determined and with just the tiniest sway.
"I'm as good as her," she says, indicating Rose, "you just haven't lost me yet to put me on a pedestal. I'm as good as her. She's as good as me. You don't dare fucking choose."
He still holds Rose when he kisses Martha, and Rose can observe the texture of lips on lips. It feels strangely like a seduction, but she's not sure of who.
"I'm as good as her," Rose agrees, pressing a kiss against his jawbone. "You're the fucking tease."
II
Rose isn't a great sharer. She remembers Tia from downstairs, Tia who wanted anything in the world like a Barbie that Rose had. Rose knew. Tia knew Rose knew.
Rose never shared her Barbie.
The Doctor isn't a Barbie - for one thing, he's not plastic, and he very pointedly has Parts. She still isn't all that keen on sharing. She had him first, she wants to tell Martha, at least until she remembers none of them know who his first was. Only he does, and he's unlikely to tell even if they try shag torture.
Martha kisses him, Rose kisses him. Rose traces the form of his quite nice behind, Martha cups a cheek. Martha scrapes a fingernail across his chest, Rose yanks at a chest hair. Martha's on top, Rose is sideways. It doesn't feel like a threesome. It feels like sharing. (Or a tug-of-shag-war, come to think of it.)
At least until Rose feels her fingers seeking flesh and finding Martha's. Warm skin, different texture to the Doctor's, different colour to hers and she traces it until Martha looks at her from lowered eyelids.
Martha. Martha who probably doesn't like to share Barbies either, who is smart and kind and has a lovely laugh. Martha who the Doctor likes. Who Rose likes.
She always has, she knows, and doesn't move when Martha kisses her. A chaste kiss, but a kiss still.
Now it's a threesome.
II
The Doctor, An Interlude
II
The Doctor doesn't sleep, but he can pretend to. He can pretend a lot of things, always has. Sometimes time even pretends with him, and worlds change.
"Rose," Martha says, and when he lifts his eyelids just a little, he can see her touching Rose's hair almost absentmindedly. "Why'd you leave him? Was it the regeneration?"
Rose is quiet for a moment, biting on a nail he remembers the feel of against his tongue. "No. I had time in my head. He took it away from me again, but I saw a future. I stayed. I always stayed at the price of everything and I still didn't get forever. I saw him. After. I couldn't do that to him."
"Maybe he would have done it to himself," Martha points out.
'Maybe I still did,' he thinks.
"I saw you, too," Rose goes on. "I hated you. I loved you. I saw... I see..."
"What?" Martha asks. She shifts slightly in bed, leaving a breast exposed and he remembers the feel of it against his palm.
"It doesn't matter," Rose says, leaning forward and kissing Martha softly, and he knows that if he kisses either, he'll get the taste of both now. Rose and Martha. His.
Yes.
It's all going to work out. Rose, him and Martha. It's going to be a glorious, complicated mess and he can pretend he isn't alone in a crowd, that they're all he needs and everything's going to work out.
He can pretend a lot of things, always has.
Time doesn't always pretend with.
II
(To be concluded in part two.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 05:57 pm (UTC)Looking forward to the second part now I see there is one.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 07:39 pm (UTC)Two little things:
Make the sort of choices the Doctor did and she got angry with him for. - I think this would be clearer if it were phrased, "Make the sort of choices the Doctor did and for which she got angry with him." It might just be the ending preposition that makes me double-take, though.
It looks so much like a copy of hers everyone knows what Yvonne aspires to. - You need a "that" before "everyone", and perhaps a "be" at the end.
Also, the Vista dialog was just...*dies* So brilliant.
Fabulous and I can't wait for part two.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 09:35 pm (UTC)congratulations, i look forward to part two with baited breath!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-03 09:52 pm (UTC)Excellent twist and I adore your Martha.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-04 03:18 am (UTC)Can't wait for part two!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-04 08:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-04 08:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-04 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-04 05:03 pm (UTC)This is lovely and I adore Martha's "I'm as good as her. She's as good as me. You don't dare fucking choose."
Way to call the slutboi on the carpet!
Can't wait for ch. 2.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-05 06:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-06 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-16 05:51 pm (UTC)This part is absolutely wonderful. The voices are perfect, and I adore the twist you took in order to make the prompt work. Thank you!