Doctor Who Fic: Universal Realignment (5/8)

[butterfly]

Story Title: Universal Realignment
Author: butterfly
Summary: The Doctor takes Martha and Jack for a trip before the final scenes of "Last of the Time Lords".
Pairing: Doctor/Rose; light amounts of unrequited Doctor/other folks and Jack/everyone.
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords".
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Doctor Who and the BBC.

Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four.

Universal Realignment

"-and the Doctor wasn't really surprised," Martha said, as they wandered down the corridor back toward the main room. At least, she was pretty sure they were headed in that direction. "I mean, he didn't seem to know already, but it didn't shock him."

"I wish that I'd been with you," Jack said. He sounded wistful – having been lucky enough to meet the man in question, Martha didn't blame him. Sure, Shakespeare hadn't smelled all that great, but he'd been charming, handsome, and as interested in having a good time as Jack himself was. "I wasn't sure if Shakespeare preferred any particular gender-"

 

"The wife didn't make you think he liked girls?" Martha asked.

 

"Wife?" Jack said, forehead wrinkling up. "Billy Shakespeare was married?"

 

"You seriously just called him 'Billy'," Martha said, with a disbelieving laugh. "But you were a Time Agent – how could any of you not know something like that? You'd think that history would be completely accurate."

 

"Unfortunately, even before it stopped working, my vortex manipulator wasn't as powerful as the TARDIS – no human time travel is," he said. Martha would be willing to bet that Jack would have never said anything like that in the Doctor's hearing. "And given what intel I've gathered about the Doctor's people, I'm not sure that it's possible for the Time Agency or any other group to ever manage what the Time Lords did. They really do have an innate sense of time and it's not something that humans have evolved to have in any of the time periods that I've visited."

 

"What goes wrong?" Martha asked. It was nice to talk to a bloke who just answered basic questions rather than evading them or going off on some crazy tangent, the way the Doctor did.

 

"Some times – like Shakespeare's – just don't register on our machines. We can't go there at all. If a Time Agent tries to see a Shakespeare play while the author is still alive, they arrive twenty to thirty years after he's died. 1980's London is the same way. I saw that the hard way, slogging through time piece by piece. My vortex manipulator couldn't have taken me there even if it had been working."

 

"Still, people would have known that he was married," Martha said. "If my Earth knew it, yours should have."

 

"The Time Agency didn't have all that many historians in it," Jack said, looking away from her.

 

"I knew it!" Martha said. "It's not that the future couldn't know about Shakespeare. You just didn't bother."

 

"Most of the people from my time don't spend much time thinking about things like that," Jack said, which Martha knew to be a dirty lie, just from Jack's recent words. Jack might like to believe that he didn't think about people's sexuality, but he obviously did -- he just assumed that he'd be able to work around it. "Maybe because it didn't really matter – all humans in the fifty-first century are bisexual-"

 

"Is that even possible?" Martha asked. "I mean, scientifically possible?"

 

"If it happened, it has to be possible," Jack said, which seemed to Martha to be a horribly unorganized way of looking at things.

 

"Well, yes, but… some people could just be conforming to societal norms," she said.

 

"You'd have to find a way to hide your lack of aggressive pheromone distribution, but I suppose that it could be done." Jack angled his head slightly, thinking it over. "Not any of the people I was with, though. Too much enthusiasm."

 

Martha chuckled – Jack was just as proud of his sexual appeal as the Doctor was of his intelligence. God, they were such men. And… while she was thinking of the Doctor…

 

"They've been gone for a while," Martha noted, as they entered the control room and the Doctor and Rose were nowhere to be seen.

 

"They have a lot of catching up to do," Jack said dryly, settling down on the seat. "I'm not expecting either of them to surface for a few more hours, at least."

 

"I didn't even think," Martha said, all too aware that she was blushing. "You're right. Of course. Of course, they would."

 

Martha had experienced her fair share of fantasies about the Doctor over the course of the year she'd travelled with him (and a few during that year when she'd walked the world to save it), so it shouldn't have shocked her how easy it was to conjure up an image of him, pressed up against Rose, his jacket off and shirt pushed up to show a flash of skin. She wondered if he had any moles or birthmarks on his stomach -- to her regret, he'd managed to stay mostly covered up in her presence during both of their extended stays on Earth. If he did have any, they would look very nice, she'd wager, perfect for an enterprising tongue to-

 

"I'm getting over him," she announced to quell her unwelcome thoughts, immediately aware that she'd been far too loud to be believable. Jack gave her a sympathetic look. "Well," she amended, "That's what I was planning on – once we'd dropped you off, I was going to go home and… get over the Doctor."

 

"It's not as easy as it sounds," Jack said, sprawling out on the seat and leaning his arm on the railing behind it. "He's memorable."

 

"You're not kidding," Martha said, reaching up to play with her necklace. "I can still remember the first time that I saw him – I was just walking down the street and there he was, like the most peculiar dream you ever had, taking off his tie and saying things that made no sense at all."

 

"He confused the hell out of me at first, too," Jack said. "I thought I had Rose figured out, but after I'd met him, my theory about her made less and less sense."

 

"You met Rose before you met the Doctor?"

 

"Oh, yes," Jack said, the hot look in his eyes contrasting with the tenderness of his smile. "My introduction to the Doctor's world started with a close-up of Rose Tyler's very excellent bottom."

 

"Is she…" Martha paused and Jack narrowed his eyes slightly. God, this was not going to be easy to say. "I mean, the way the Doctor talks about her, I was half expecting her to be able to walk on water, but she looks... she sounds… if I'd met her before I'd known the Doctor, I don't think that I would have… she has this accent and you aren't from London, Jack, so you wouldn't understand because it-"

 

Jack's lips had tightened and Martha's frustration warred strongly with her sense of honor. She wanted someone to know and to understand and maybe… to forgive her.

 

"I wouldn't have given her a second look," she said, shrugging one shoulder. "Before I met the Doctor, I would have heard her voice and looked at her hair and thought it meant she was some useless social climber who gets everything she wants because she's blonde and… friendly."

 

"Then the Doctor helped you as much as he helped me," Jack said and he was smiling at her, soft and easy. She grinned back at him, feeling warm. Because he was right, she hadn't made any of those old assumptions when she'd first run into Rose. She'd taken the woman at face value and liked her as a person, rather than judging her on her looks.

 

"I guess he did," Martha said slowly. She glanced back at one of the doors behind her – still no Doctor or Rose. "How did she… how did she know how to look into the Time Vortex to save you?"

 

"Oh, there's definitely a story there," Jack said. One that he enjoyed telling, from the sound of his voice. "We went to Cardiff – the same place where I ran into the two of you – to use the Rift to refuel the TARDIS."

 

His tale went on, about Mickey, Rose's old boyfriend, who was still in love with her – of course, because naturally no one ever got over Rose Tyler – and how they'd run into an alien named Blon who was from a planet with a name that Martha knew she'd never remember. Blon had actually managed to take over the TARDIS and she'd been holding Rose hostage when… the console had just opened up, light washing over the room, and when the light had faded, Blon had regressed into an egg.

 

It was a bit of a relief to find out that Rose had been taken hostage sometimes, too, back when she'd travelled with the Doctor. It was comforting to know that she wasn't quite as perfect as the Doctor seemed to believe.

 

"Blon got to have a second chance at life," Jack said. "To be someone who wasn't a monster."

 

"But how did Rose know that she could use that to save you?" Martha just couldn't get the Doctor's words from so long ago out of her head – 'Rose would know'. How? How did Rose figure these things out? She'd spent an entire year with the Doctor wondering if Rose would have been able to fix all of their problems with just a glance and, though she was mostly over that insecurity now, she knew that some of what the Doctor had said had to be based on fact and not just a nostalgic memory.

 

"Desperation, I'd guess," Jack said. "I wasn't here for that but… you've seen the way they are with each other. He sent her away, out of the battle, to save her life. She came back to save his."

 

"And yours."

 

"Secondary consideration," Jack said, a flash of bitterness in his voice. "They left without me. Abandoned me on a space station and went on to have… many fun-filled adventures, I'm sure."

 

"She's like him," Martha said, thoughtfully. It was something that she'd been thinking since before she'd even known who Rose was and it seemed more true with every new thing that she learned. "Not quite human."

 

"Nothing wrong with not being human," Jack said, with a leer and a wink. "It's being inconsiderate that's the problem."

 

"That's something I've been learning. On both counts," Martha said. The Doctor was very dear to her, but he didn't seem to think before he spoke half the time. Which was quite an accomplishment for a man as smart as that. And even his rudeness was appealing at times, when it wasn't directed at her. There was nothing wrong with a bit of directness, after all.

 

Martha sighed as she realized the direction that her thoughts were taking -- rationalization and leaning toward forgiving the Doctor every slight fault. She'd been hoping that she'd stopped doing that. "Jack, you love the Doctor, too, I know. How have you coped?"

 

"I fell in love with other people," he said. "That helped a bit. And I've got my team right now – Gwen, Tosh, Ianto, and Owen. They're… a little like a family. Sweet kids."

 

"Are they really kids?" Martha teased. Jack snorted.

 

"I've been around for over a hundred years, so, yeah, comparatively speaking, they are. But, no… they've faced death and worse," he said. His smile had faded away. "Torchwood has… a high turn-over rate. People die often and they die young. I lost one last year… Suzie Costello. She'd gone mad by the end… maybe that's why I didn't…"

 

He trailed off, looking over past her for a moment. Martha sat down next to him, resting her hand on his knee.

 

"Suzie may be why I understood some small part of what the Doctor was feeling when he forgave the Master," Jack said, covering her hand with his. "I had to shoot her to stop her from killing another member of my team. It was the right call, but I can still see her face when I close my eyes. When I'm dreaming, I hear her voice…"

 

"Did you love her?" Martha asked, hesitantly.

 

"Not enough," Jack said.

 

Martha wasn't sure what to say after that, so it came as a bit of relief when the ship started bumping about a bit.

 

"Are we in flight?" she asked, standing up. "I thought the Doctor needed to be out here for that."

 

"We might be in the Vortex," Jack said, but he was obviously guessing. "We can't be headed towards a destination without him, but I've known him to take the TARDIS into the time stream and just… hang about for a while."

 

"Should we go find them?" Martha wasn't sure how she felt about the idea, even as she suggested it.

 

"Let's give them some more time," Jack said. "The turbulence isn't so bad and they should be able to feel it just as well as we can. If it's something that we need to worry about, the Doctor will come out to take care of it."

 

As if to mock Jack's words, they hit a spot shaky enough that the both of them almost fell onto the floor. Martha bit her lip and looked over at the console. There was something written in the Doctor's language, blinking on the screen over and over in a purple-ish red script. It looked like a warning.

 

"Oh, that can't be good."

---

Part Six

Comments

[jic]

eep!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

*nods*

It has plot!

[shinyopals.livejournal.com]

Some nice interaction between those two in this chapter.

I especially liked Martha's comments on what she would have thought of Rose, had she met her in the street. It rings very true and it's not something I've seen really mentioned before.

Jack comparing Suzie to the Master was a nice reference as well, makes sense, I think.

Time Agency stuff was interesting - the idea that whole time periods can be inaccessible. But I suppose it makes sense in an odd way - some areas of Earth are more accessible than others, after all!

Looking forward to more, want to see where the plot is going now!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Some nice interaction between those two in this chapter.

Jack and Martha have the potential for very amusing conversations (they got to have a couple on the show, but not enough for my personal tastes).

I especially liked Martha's comments on what she would have thought of Rose, had she met her in the street. It rings very true and it's not something I've seen really mentioned before.

The tendency that I've noticed is many places is to make Martha too perfect. Which I personally find very boring. Giving Martha something else that travelling with the Doctor actually made better makes her a more interesting character. Character growth is fun.

Jack comparing Suzie to the Master was a nice reference as well, makes sense, I think.

I love the Suzie stuff on TW so much. Great actress and a really good story as well.

Time Agency stuff was interesting - the idea that whole time periods can be inaccessible. But I suppose it makes sense in an odd way - some areas of Earth are more accessible than others, after all!

*nods*

I find the whole canon notion of other species developing time travel after the Time Lords to be very interesting -- we know that humans lost the ability at some point before "Utopia" because of what the Professor said. I'm curious about what happened with that.

I also like having people/companies/whoever to have some outside limitations imposed. Too much unrestricted power can lead to bad places. And I like the idea that some of the Time Lords' former stranglehold over time travel was biologically-based.

[blackcat-1.livejournal.com]

OK, I have been very bad. Due to time constraints, I had negelected to start reading this fic until very recently. However, I had not forgotten about it. Just thought I'd post now to let you know that I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to where you're going with it.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you're enjoying it. Thank you!