Title: The Former Companions Club

Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel

Pairings: Rose/Doctor, one-sided Martha/Doctor, one-sided Sarah Jane/Doctor

Story Summary: Former companions of the Doctor have adventures, solve crime and, oh yes, bitch about the Doctor. A story per chapter.

Chapter summary:

Martha’s in a medical prac at the hospital when an alien runs past – and two women she has a surprising amount in common with.

Setting: Between Series Three and Series Four of the new Doctor Who

Author notes:

Inspired by a story by the awesome, the talented, the Doctor Who-mad Lizbee! although this goes in quite a different direction. (“The Ladies’ Auxiliary” can be found at lizbee dot livejournal dot com/661022 dot html) There will, of course, be more chapters! Already written! On their way!

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THE FORMER COMPANIONS’ CLUB:

ACQUAINTANCES

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It was odd, going back to uni and studying again. Hell, it was weird just being in this world. For a year she’d travelled in secret and in danger, as country by country humanity fell. She’d survived the Apocalypse, and now it had never happened. She had instincts, reflexes, from being perpetually behind enemy lines. “A bit twitchy,” one of her classmates had said shakily; she’d almost attacked him with a scalpel when he’d come up behind her unexpectedly. And still, at nights, Martha sometimes woke up in a cold sweat from what she dreamed.

When she wasn’t being woken by her family’s screams, that is. She wasn’t the only one with nightmares.

Oh, she was more competent, more assertive, more perceptive (she saw what was really there); but now she saw the darkness of the world, and while she had become something far beyond what she had been before, in her mind she never measured up any longer.

Once she had known who she was.

-

Martha was on a medical prac in Royal Hope Hospital went something ran past. It was immediately followed by a middle-aged woman in jeans and a leather jacket and a younger woman in a t-shirt that said “AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY”. The first woman had some kind of blaster; the second a mop.

Martha glanced at her startled fellow students, looked back in the direction that the alien and the two women had gone.

“Oh, why not,” she grabbed the nearest scalpel and took off running, “I’m good at this.”

She ran down the corridor and turned, colliding with the two women as they came barrelling back up it. There was an instant’s scrabbling confusion, a glance at the monster thumping up the hallway, and as one all three women ducked into the nearest cupboard and slammed the door.

Dim light came from a small keychain torch in the older woman’s hand.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” she observed.

“Martha Jones, medical student,” Martha stared at the door as it thudded on its hinges, “helped save the world.”

“Really? I don’t remember.”

“There was a paradox machine, when it was destroyed that timeline was erased,” Martha replied.

“Ah. Either you have a very vivid imagination or you’re telling the truth, either way you know a lot more than you should. I’m Sarah Jane Smith, by the way.”

“I think we’ve got more important things to think about,” declared the other woman in a robust Australian accent, “like the fact that an alien is on the other side of this door. And incidentally,” she glared at Sarah Jane, “it completely destroyed my office.”

“Yes, sorry about that,” Sarah Jane was regretful, “I didn’t expect it to do that.”

“Bloody typical,” the Australian muttered, “it’s always the aliens.”

“Who are you?” Martha asked.

“Tegan Jovanka,” said the woman bitterly, “and it’s all the Doctor’s fault.”

“You know the Doctor?” Sarah Jane and Martha said as one, “you know the Doctor?” to each other.

“It’s like a bloody sketch,” Tegan mumbled despairingly as Sarah Jane and Martha stared at each other astonished, “can we finish this later?” she added loudly.

“Oh, yes, we’ve got a job to do haven’t we?” Sarah Jane readied her blaster and stuck the torch back in a pocket, “you ready?”

“Do we have a choice?” Martha said, raising the scalpel.

“Count of three, one, two, THREE!”

They burst out of the cupboard. The alien monster immediately swiped at Martha who promptly stabbed it with the scalpel.

“Nice,” Tegan said, and broke the mop over its head just as Sarah Jane used the blaster.

It stood looking befuddled for a moment before toppling backwards.

-

Martha checked its vital signs.

“It’s sleeping,” she said incredulously.

“I hit it that hard?”

“Actually, that was me. This,” Sarah Jane held up the blaster, “is a soporific ray, used by more pacifist species such as the Kalorfist.”

“Pacifist?” Tegan snorted disbelievingly, “you ever been there during the 597 revolution?”

“I hate to break this up,” Martha raised her eyebrows, “but what exactly are we going to do about an unconscious homicidal alien seven feet tall in the middle of a London hospital?”

Sarah Jane and Tegan exchanged glances, looking at a loss. There was a silence.

“You know,” Martha began hesitantly, seeing that they had no clue, “I don’t exactly approve, but we could always do what the med students do when they break something…”

-

“The closet is only a temporary solution,” Sarah Jane said later.

“You fused the lock,” Tegan pointed out. “And a sonic lipstick?”

“We did ring UNIT,” Martha added, “and I’m backing her up on the lipstick.”

“It’s very useful,” Sarah Jane was crestfallen.

“I’m sure it is.”

“And it’s pink beige, do you know how hard it is to get true pink beige? Believe me, I’ve tried. The things they sell now are always Spring colours, they make me look sallow…”

“Nevertheless,” Martha said firmly, “it’s a bit, well, lame.” She looked apologetic.”

“I know,” Sarah Jane sighed, “to tell you the truth, it reminds me of the Doctor.”

“He’d love it,” Martha agreed. “He’d pull it out, exclaim over it for three minutes, swipe it across his finger so he could taste it, then wander off to look at something shiny.”

“Oh dear.”

“That bastard,” Tegan muttered, “it’s all his fault, I had a fine life before he came along, now all I get is aliens when all I want is to settle down in a decent job and get the kids to behave.”

“Kids?”

“Josh and Maddy,” Tegan explained. “Josh is a little ratbag and Maddy’s a teenage drama queen.”

“Right,” Martha said uncertainly. Most people she met showed some affection when they spoke of their children. “What about you?” she asked Sarah Jane.

“Oh no,” Sarah Jane said with a little laugh, “that ship set sail quite a while ago, I’m afraid.”

“Husband? Boyfriend?” Martha inquired.

“Oh no,” Sarah Jane’s smile was bittersweet, “I never seemed to meet anyone who quite measured up.”

Martha slumped in her seat.

“I know where you’re coming from.” She frowned. “I seem to say that a lot.”

Sarah Jane peered at her sympathetically.

“You too?”

“Yeah. I mean, it was always, ‘Rose this,’ ‘Rose that,’” Martha muttered, “ ‘Rose defeated the Nestene Consciousness,’ ‘Rose was my best friend,’ ‘Rose absorbed the Time Vortex.’”

“Goodness, did she really?” Sarah Jane looked impressed. “I wonder how she managed it?”

“Do you mind? I’m trying to complain here.”

“Sorry.”

Martha sighed.

“I don’t know, she must have been a goddess or something, the way he went on about her.”

Sarah Jane frowned.

“She was quite ordinary actually,” she told Martha. “Dyed hair, bit too much eyeliner, big smile, probably a bit younger than you are. Nice girl though, and good in a tight situation.”

“You met her?” Martha was amazed. Sarah Jane nodded.

“There were some aliens using schoolchildren to solve a bunch of equations, posing as teachers. I turned up to investigate only to find Rose and the Doctor already there, under cover.”

“Fascinating,” Tegan said flatly. She looked mildly bored.

“Well, it was a tremendous shock at the time.”

Tegan glanced at her watch.

I have to go, Josh’s going to be wanting some dinner and I’ll have to find out where Maddy’s decided to stay out all night.”

She fumbled in her purse and handed Martha and Sarah Jane a business card each. “In case you want to talk.”

-

Martha and Sarah Jane were left looking at one another. Martha sighed regretfully.

“I’d better be going too, my Mum’s going to be wondering where I am,” she said. Sarah Jane smiled.

“Of course,” she pulled out a pen and scribbled something on a napkin, “just – contact me, will you?”

Martha followed suit, smiling a little.

“Sure. I think I’ll need to.” She grinned. “He’s like that, isn’t he?”

“Oh yes,” Sarah Jane said, “he always was.”

And Martha was left alone at the table, genuinely smiling for the first time in ages.

END