When Everything Changes 1/1; the Doctor, Martha, Jack offstage; PG

[scarfman]

Title: When Everything Changes 1/1
Author: scarfman
Characters/Pairing: Doctor Ten, Martha, Jack offstage
Rating: PG
Setting (spoilers through): Children of Earth: Day Five, before the epilogue
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: Even the Doctor didn't know the whole story.
Much as I agree it would be good for Jack to travel in the TARDIS while he heals (as happens in every single post-CoE Jack story on my flist), I disbelieve it's going to happen in the screen source(s) so thoroughly that I can't write it. Having reasoned that far, though, I concluded there needs to be an in-text reason for Jack not to end up on the TARDIS.
Sequel to my Walking in Eternity but stands alone.
crossposted scarfman dwfiction

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Martha and Tom finally arrived at the ruins of the Hub at night. Gwen had warned her that there'd be a single UNIT sentry, which of course was no obstruction to someone with Martha's credentials, but the sentry wouldn't pass Tom. Neither she nor Tom particularly liked the idea of Martha picking through the debris with only torchlight, alone - but they needn't have worried. Making out her path from what few structures remained recognizable, as Martha approached where the Rift manipulator had stood she made out a tall figure in a long coat. Hope surged for a moment, until it was overwhelmed by anger when she realized the coat was brown rather than grey. Climbing clear of the rubble, she walked up next to the Doctor and snapped, "I kept reaching your voicemail. Where were you?"

"I was setting up Adolph Hitler for business with a nice little portrait studio." He was trying to sound flip, but his tone betrayed how affected he was by the destruction. "Then I nipped over to South America and talked the Aztecs out of their human sacrifice rituals, and made a stop on Mondas to persuade Professor Merthil of the advantages of stem cell research over prosthetics. Well, he was still a student when I dropped in -"

"All right, I get the point," Martha growled. "Web of history, Time Lord's duty to preserve, yada yada -"

"I was keeping Luke Smith and his friends safe in the TARDIS." Before Martha could decide whether she was ready to forgive him, Web of Time or no, relief for Sarah Jane or no, the Doctor turned to her with horror in his eyes that broke her heart. "It's nowhere in the historical record that Torchwood was involved! What did the 456 do to them?"

"The 456 didn't do this, Doctor," Martha said. "The British government did." In five minutes Martha summarized everything she'd learned from Gwen, and what she'd passed on to Gwen after interviewing Agent Johnson. "Gwen's trying to pull together a new team from the people who ... kept the faith during the crisis, because Jack's disappeared." The Doctor had only got paler during her recitation, and hadn't spoken though the story. At the news of Jack's final sacrifice he'd turned away. "Look, Doctor - Gwen, Sir Alistair and I all think you ought to find him and -"

"No," said the Doctor abruptly, still looking away.

"But you can help him! You've both been through such terrible things ..." Martha trailed off. The only time he'd ever opened up to her about the Time War was when she'd coerced it from him, not knowing beforehand the depth of what he'd been hiding. She didn't even know whether he had come to terms with it any better since then.

"Yes, I know what he's feeling," said the Doctor, "and it's not a state of mind condusive to desire for company. Ask Alistair and Sarah Jane if I dropped in after the Time War. Ask them whether they ever saw the face the War regenerated me into. It's no coincidence that the first mirror I saw it in myself was in Jackie Tyler's sitting room."

"He lost his grandson, Doctor," Martha pleaded.

The Doctor looked her in the eye. "That's exactly why I'm the last person he needs to see."

Martha began to get frightened. When the Doctor was most confusing, it meant the news was very, very bad. "Why doesn't Jack want to see you?"

"Think about it. Even if I had known all that was going on, I couldn't have stepped in for the risk to history." Now Martha could hear a familiar hint of denial in his voice, and it consoled her a little: had he known in advance the cost to Jack in addition to the public events, the Doctor would have tried something. "But you know that Time Lord senses are wider-ranged than Earthpeople's. More to the point, Jack knows. And the Web of Time might not cut any slack with him under the circumstances."

"Wider-ranged," Martha whispered. "Than an Earth adult - like an Earth child?"

"I might or might not have regenerated afterwards," said the Doctor. "But Jack knows: if I had been there, Steven would not have died."

fin

Comments

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I keep seeing a lot of fan comments asking where the Doctor was...but he's only really able to get involved in specific circumstances. Can't be easy for him.

[kate-swynford.livejournal.com]

The ending was a complete surprise. Brilliant (although I kind of think the Doctor would have found a way to broadcast the signal without anyone sacrificing themselves.)

[scarfman]

That's true, and that's why I tried to emphasize that the Doctor couldn't afford to have been there. (I'm not saying he wouldn't have been anyway had he known, though. He probably would have, even if he doesn't think so now that we'll never know.)

[scarfman]

It's bothered me so much that I didn't work this into the story somehow that I've gone back and done it.

[lullabymoon]

You've managed to write the Doctor's grief briliantly and the explanation at the end is just great.

[icebluenothing.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Well done.

(I gotta say, though, after carefully marking the spoilers on this one, don't you think using "Martha and Tom finally arrived at the ruins of the Hub" as your cut-text was a little, well, spoiler-y? I know I hadn't seen the episode when I first saw your post .... )

[scarfman]

You're right. I'll fix it. But I'm not going to worry about it very much when it went four days before anyone commented.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

This and the previous are really nicely done; the Doctor is sharp and quick and slightly acerbic. He feels almost prickly at the assumptions that he should do SOMETHING, and I love that Martha and Sarah Jane understand with not too much effort that he just can't. Nice examination of the tough questions.