Those Who Came Before
Created | Updated Sep 15, 2007
"Doctor, do you have anything I can change into, these clothes really need a wash?" Said Martha, the Doctor looked up from under the console
"I wasn't going to say anything," he said with a grin as he leapt up and grabbed her hand "come on". He led her to a large room that was full of clothes; Martha clapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself squealing with delight, dressing up had always been her favourite past time as a child. When they stayed at Gran's house the first thing she and Tish did was head for the loft where they would spend hours rummaging through the boxes of clothes,
"I'm sure you'll find something in here that'll fit you, the laundry room is next to the kitchen" said the Doctor as he turned to leave.
Martha stood open mouthed as she stared in awe at amount of clothes in the room and the mess the room was in. She started opening draws in a huge bureau and found some underwear, she opened another draw where she found some shorts and then went about looking for a t-shirt. She found a draw full and pulled out one with a union jack on the front, she heard the Tardis sigh in her mind and the name Rose came to her, it must have been one of predecessor’s so she put it back, the Doctor would probably freak out if she wore that. Martha blinked a couple of times as the Tardis showed her a picture of a grinning blonde girl dressed in jeans and the union jack t-shirt, so this was the wonderful Rose, she smiled at the picture and some of the bitterness slipped away. She pulled out a very low cut t-shirt, pulled it over her head and looked in the mirror, the shirt was far too low cut for her, if she breathed out too quickly she'd be flashing the Doctor too much of her underwear. The Tardis chuckled in her mind and showed her a picture of a well built, dark haired woman, younger than her and Rose who was dressed in a low cut shirt, shorts and high heeled sandals, Peri was the name the Tardis provided, Martha wondered how she managed to run in that outfit. She pulled out another shirt, a white baggy one and pulled it over her head, this one fitted her ok
"Who did this belong to" she asked, the Tardis provided her with a picture of a young girl with a cheeky grin, dressed in a white t-shirt, a black skirt and holding a baseball bat, the name Ace came into her mind, Martha smiled, she'd like to get to know more about Ace.
She gathered up her clothes and made her way to the laundry room, after throwing them into the washing machine she decided to go back to the wardrobe room and tidy it up, sort the clothes into time periods so if they had to blend in with the locals they wouldn't have to spend hours searching through the mess. Martha made her way back to the wardrobe room and started to pull the clothes off the rail and dumping them on the floor. She started by putting all the really old fashioned clothes together, not being one for history she couldn't tell Elizabethan clothes from Tudor clothes, every so often she would hold a dress up in front of her and giggle at her reflection. After an hour she'd got to the Victorian era, the Tardis had told her the story of a young woman called Victoria who had travelled with the Doctor after her father had been killed, Victoria, she gathered had been rather naive and Martha wondered how she'd coped with all the space stuff.
After another hour of sorting out 20th century clothes she came to the Sixties, there seemed to be more of these than any other decade, she pulled a pair of Capri pants off the floor, they were quite small and certainly wouldn't have fitted her. The Tardis gave her a picture of a very young, elfin faced girl with a haircut that made her look like a pixie and dressed in the trousers she was holding and a striped shirt. Susan was the name that went with the picture, the Tardis held a lot of affection for Susan maybe she was the granddaughter the Doctor had spoken of, the next outfit she picked up was a short sleeveless dress and a cardigan. Martha pulled off the T-shirt and shorts and tried the dress on, she giggled at her reflection it was more Heartbeat than the Diana Ross look she was hoping for
"Who wore this?" she asked aloud, Barbara was the answer she got and the picture that went with it was of an older woman with a bouffant hairstyle that was typical of the sixties. She had a bit of a stern look on her face that made Martha think of a teacher, the Tardis told her she was one of Susan's teachers and was one of the first human to step aboard the Tardis.
Another couple of hours passed and Martha reached the Seventies, she couldn't help laughing at some of the fashions and prayed fervently that the Doctor would never take her there, she picked up a pair of white platform heeled boots and sighed, the woman that wore these must have suffered some sprained ankles in her time aboard. Sarah-Jane was the name of the woman the boots belonged to, according to the picture the Tardis gave her she had shoulder length chestnut hair and a kind smile; she had the look of someone's big sister. Martha hung a long denim skirt on the rail and was told it belonged to Jo Grant, a ditzy blonde according to the Tardis.
The rest of the clothes didn't take her too long to tidy up, most of them seemed to have belonged to Rose, Peri, Ace and a girl called Mel who had the wildest ginger hair she'd ever seen. Martha started to fill a rail with clothes that didn't seem to belong to Earth or a particular period; she picked up a dress made of a light silvery material that was definitely not from Earth, well from not from any Earth period she knew. A picture of a slim girl with wide eyes that made her look startled formed in her mind along with the name Zoë, Martha's eyes widened when she spotted a leather bikini, whoever wore this was seriously kinky
"Oh my God, who the hell wore this?" she asked out loud, the answer came in a picture of a wild haired savage looking woman who looked like she'd just stepped out of the film One Million Year's BC "Leela, blimey she must have been cold in that outfit". She packed it away in one of the draws, making a quick note of which one, in case she wanted to borrow it. She picked up another outfit with a flowery skirt similar to Zoë's but in burgundy this, she was told, belonged to Nyssa, a very aristocratic looking woman with a mop of dark curly hair. She picked up something that seemed really out of place, a lilac coloured airline stewardess' uniform, since when did the Tardis need in flight staff, a picture of a woman with short dark hair and a scowl on her face popped into her mind, Tegan was the name that went with it. The Tardis gave off an air of sadness; apparently, Tegan had never been very happy aboard the Tardis and had left because she just couldn't take the horrors she'd witnessed anymore.
Martha looked at her watch and yelped with surprise, she'd been in the wardrobe room for six hours and had only got half of it tidy, she'd better get back to the Doctor before he came looking for her. She took off the shorts and pulled on a pair of leggings that had belonged to someone called Vicki and put on Barbara's cardigan.
"There you are, I wondered where you'd got too" said the Doctor as she came in with two mugs of tea,
"I've been tidying up the wardrobe room" she said, I've still got loads to do, the next time I'm bored and you're fiddling with the Tardis". The Doctor looked at the outfit she was wearing and smiled,
"That's Barbara's cardigan, Ace's t-shirt and Vicki's trousers," he said softly,
"What were they like" Martha asked as she handed him his mug.
Chapter 2
A few weeks later, after a trip to Woodstock, Martha was hanging the clothes she had borrowed back on the rail and thought she may as well carry on tidying up. There were more men's clothes than women’s but that was only to be expected, he was a man after all and a bit of a clothes horse by the looks of things which she thought was odd because he mainly wore the brown suit, sometimes he wore a blue one, when the brown one was in the wash she supposed. It was going to take her several days to clear all this lot up, Martha looked at the pile of clothes and wondered where to start, it wasn't as easy to sort the men’s clothes by decade as it was the women’s so she decided to sort them into jacket, shirt, trousers, jumpers and others. She started by picking up a striped jacket, she stared at it and wondered if Richard Whitely had been on the Tardis
"Who the hell wore this?" she asked as she put it on a hanger, the Tardis gave her a picture of a dark haired man with a wry smile "who is he"
Ian Chesterton was the reply, he had taught science at Susan’s school and went on to become Barbara's boyfriend. Martha hoped that Barbara helped him change his taste in clothes; she saw a flash of tartan in the pile and pulled it out
"A kilt?" she said to the Tardis and wondered briefly if she could get the Doctor drunk enough to try it on. The Tardis showed her a picture of a grubby, unkempt young man dressed in shirt and kilt, he had a wild look in his eye and a determined look on his face, Jamie McCrimmon was the name the Tardis provided, a young warrior from the Battle of Culloden. Martha grimaced, she didn't pay much attention in history but she remembered this being a very bloody battle, she hung up the kilt and draped the bits that went with it over the rail, she picked up a brown and yellow striped jumper and winced. A picture of a dashing young man entered her mind, the heroic type,
"Steven Taylor, he sounds like a Blue Peter presenter," said Martha with a laugh. She picked up a jacket and some trousers that belonged to an RAF uniform and she could have sworn the Tardis giggled "come on, who owned these?" she gasped as she saw a handsome, dark haired man with a cocky grin on his face holding a glass of champagne
"Oh I like that, very, very nice indeed" she murmured. The Tardis agreed with her and promised she'd find a picture in her room later, Martha bent over and picked up another uniform, this time it was a sailor's uniform and she wondered if the Doctor had a thing for uniform's. Ben was the name she was given and it came with a picture of a muscular, blonde haired man with a saucy smile, just the type she imagined a sailor to be. She picked up a jacket and tie that looked like it came from a school
"Oh yeah, should I be worried yet?" she asked, she was shown a picture of a young man with ginger hair and blue eyes who looked to be far to old to be a schoolboy, Turlough, she was told, was not to be trusted in anyway, Martha agreed, something about him made her uneasy. She burst into fit's of laughter as she picked up a seventies style shirt with a large collar,
"The decade taste forgot" she said as she saw an image of dark haired dark eyed man in a brown suit, Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan of the Royal Navy she was told with some pride, so the Doctor had had another medical Doctor on board, one day she'd look him up and swap stories, if he was still around. After spending a bit more time grouping stray garments together she came across what looked a body warmer in a dirty gold colour, she picked it up and looked at it, it certainly wasn't of Earth origin. A picture of a young man, no more than a boy really with longish dark hair, full lips and a rather arrogant look on his face came into her mind, along with an air of sadness from the Tardis. She learned that Adric had been killed trying to save the Earth from a race called the Cybermen; she could feel the loss emanating from the Tardis so she walked over to the wall and gently patted it. Martha knew the Doctor missed his former companions but wondered how the Tardis coped; she could feel the affection it had for the people who had gone before,
"Martha, hurry up we've landed and this restaurant fills up pretty quick," the Doctor yelled, Martha smirked as she pulled garments off the rail.
"Oh there you are" said the Doctor, he did a double take as he took in her outfit "why are you wearing Jamie's kilt, Turlough's shirt and Jack's scarf?"
"Isn't it suitable?" she asked innocently
"Yes you look fine, ok you look more than fine, it's just not...what I expected that's all" he stammered. Martha slipped her arm through his
"So what's the wine like in this restaurant?" she asked
Chapter 3
Martha wandered into the console room with two mugs of tea in her hand
"Doctor" she called
"In here" said a voice from somewhere underneath her
"Again?" she replied"What do you mean 'again?'" said the Doctor as he poked his head out of the space in the floor
"Well it just seems that the more you repair it the more it breaks down" Martha said as she handed him his tea
"Sometimes I wonder if she does it on purpose" he remarked. Martha smirked, she'd bet on it
"Anyway, if you need me I'll be in the Wardrobe Room" she said, the Doctor raised his eyebrows
"Again?" he said with a grin, she frowned
"I've nearly finished, I didn't realise what a huge job it was going to be, so why do you need so many clothes anyway?" she asked
"Well I've got to blend in" he replied. Martha gave him a look that said 'Oh yeah' everywhere they went he ended up wearing that brown suit
"Right" she said as she turned and headed out of the door.
She bounded into the room and started to hang up more jackets, trousers and shirts. As she was hanging up a black coat that looked like it belonged to an old fashioned gentleman, the Tardis gave her a picture of an old man with white hair and a stern face,
"He can't have been a companion surely" said Martha. 'My Doctor' she heard in her mind "it can't be he's such an old man", she was told that this was the Doctor's first incarnation, before his first regeneration. The Doctor had told Martha about his 'get out of jail free' card, regenerating when he was at the point of death, changing himself at the molecular level, he would be the same man but different, he had explained.
"Susan's Grandfather, so to speak?" said Martha, the Tardis confirmed it, she picked up a velvet jacket and a frilly shirt with distain "he didn't seriously wear this did he", she was provided with a picture of another white haired man. This one looked younger than the first one and had an air of authority about him, he was dressed in the jacket and shirt as well as a black cloak with red lining that made him look like the Phantom of the Opera. Tardis told her that this was his third 'Face' and had spent most of his time on Earth as the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce's scientific advisor. Martha picked up another velvet coat this one was longer, a frock coat, the type Victorian men used to wear
"Another one?" she said. She was told this was his Eighth face and the picture was of a man with darkish, floppy hair, Byronesque was a phrase that came to mind, a favourite phrase of Julia's, his eyes were dark and full of pain, just like her Doctor's, tortured soul was an apt description of the man in her mind. She bent down and picked up a hanger containing a long black coat and a pair of grey trousers, the coat reminded her of The Penguin in the old episodes of Batman that Leo liked
"Which one wore this?" she asked, the Tardis provided her with a picture of a dark haired, unkempt man, with a mischievous smile who reminded her a little of a tramp, the Doctor's second 'Face' she was told. Martha pulled a long beige coat and a pair of striped trousers from the pile and put them on a hanger
"And this one?" she said, Tardis told her that belonged to the fifth incarnation of the Doctor, a young blonde haired man who looked rather vulnerable in the picture she was given, Martha felt in the pocket and pulled out a very withered stick of celery "okaaay". A jumper caught her eye and she picked it up, it was covered in question marks
"I don't know whether I can see him in this or not" she said, the Tardis showed her a picture of a man in a white jacket, the question mark jumper with a straw hat on his head and carrying an umbrella with the handle in the shape of a question mark. "He likes that symbol doesn't he, suits him though, so what number was this one?" she was told he was the seventh incarnation. A leather jacket caught her eye, she picked it up and put it on, it smelled like the Doctor, she could definitely see him wearing this
"Which one wore this?” Tardis said he was the last one, number nine. An image of a tough looking man with, big ears, very short hair and a hard look in his icy blue eyes appeared in her mind "A 'Bovver Boy'" she said as she remembered a phrase of her Gran's, she slipped the jacket off and hung it up. She noticed a huge purple overcoat on the floor and struggled to pick it up, stuffed into one of the pockets was a scarf so she grabbed the end and started to pull it out and carried on pulling, this scarf was never ending. When it finally came out, she hung it around her neck, the ends pulled at her feet
"Who needs a mile long scarf?", the Tardis gave her a picture of a man with wild curly hair and a wide grin, a grin she'd recognise anywhere, she was told he was the fourth face of the Doctor's, Sarah-Jane's Doctor. She folded the scarf up and put it back in the pocket of the coat, her fingers brushed against something sticky, a half eaten bag of Jelly Babies "ooh ooh, yuk that's disgusting" she said as she wiped her hands on her jeans. After a while Martha came to the final coat on the floor, she gingerly picked it up and sighed, it looked like an explosion in a paint factory
"What was he thinking?" she murmured, as she hung it up she noticed the badge of a black cat on the lapel. She unpinned it and put it in her pocket "for luck", she saw a man with unruly blonde hair dressed in the multicoloured coat, all he needed was a red nose and big shoes she thought,
"Number six I take it", 'Yes, all the faces of my Doctor' came the reply "Thank you" said Martha "it means a lot to me that you shared all this with me".
"So this is what you've been doing?" said the Doctor
"The Tardis has been showing me all the faces of the people who lived here" Martha replied, the Doctor walked down the rail stopping occasionally to run his hand over a particular garment
"Yes, many many faces over the years" he said softly "still, we won't need any of these for our next stop, we need to go to Cardiff for a couple of minutes" he grabbed her hand and dragged her after him,
"Why Cardiff?" she asked
"You'll see" he replied.
Chapter 4
This chapter contains spoilers for The Sound of Drums and The Last of the TimelordsIt had been six months since she left the Doctor, after the 'Year that never was'. She had grown up so much in that non-existent year, her friends had noticed, so had her family and so had the man sitting at the kitchen table, she had witnessed so much pain and suffering during the twelve months, she had wandered the Earth telling tales of the Doctor. She'd made up her mind almost immediately that after the Master had been defeated she was going to carry on with her studies, after all easing the suffering of others was the reason she was training to be a Doctor in the first place, she was absentmindedly stirring the tea in front of her when a hand closed over hers.
"You're gonna scrape the pattern off the inside of the cup in a minute" said Captain Jack Harkness
"Sorry" Martha handed the cup over to him "I was miles away"
"Anywhere nice?" Jack asked
"No not really" she replied
"So what are you going to do now Doctor Jones?" he said with a grin. Martha sighed
"I'm not too sure yet, I'm thinking of joining Medecins sans Frontieres, I saw so much suffering last year I tried to help but...I couldn't, I felt so helpless" Jack clasped her hand "but not just yet, I left the Doctor to spend time with the family and work on a couple of other things" she said. Jack let go of her hand and picked up the folder that was lying on the table
"May I?" he asked, Martha nodded and he began to flick through it "who are these people?"
"My...well...our predecessors, the Doctor's former companions and the Doctor's previous faces" she said. Jack stopped at the page with Rose's picture on it and gently ran his finger over her face
"Quite a talent you have," he said quietly. Martha smiled
"Not me, Leo's mate Boxer is a computer artist, he works for the police sometimes making those 'Police want to question this person' drawings you see on the news, he helped me make these" she said, Jack flicked to the page that held the Doctor's ninth face and sighed
"A lifetime ago" he murmured.
"You can keep that if you want, I can print off another copy," she said
"Thanks" he replied
"What about you, what are you doing now?" she asked, Jack laughed
"Nothing, there's nothing for us to do, things have been really quiet now the Master's gone I think alien's are gonna be giving us a wide berth for a while, my team are drawing lots to see who makes the tea at the moment" he said with a grin. A thought struck Martha
"How about looking some of these people up, I'd love to meet someone who knows the Doctor, I want to talk to someone who understands what it's like to travel out there" she said, Jack smiled
"Yeah, I've often wondered about that too" he flicked through the file "I've got contacts at UNIT so I could start with this guy" he pointed to Harry Sullivan "the Navy owe me a few favours too so I could look for Ben Jackson at the same time" Jack remarked. Martha took the file from him and flicked to the first page
"I'll start at the beginning and see if Barbara and Ian are still around, they were teachers at Coal Hill School in the Eastend somewhere". Jack swallowed the rest of his tea down and got up from the table
"Right, I'll call you when I have some news," he said as he caressed her behind,
"Jack" she admonished
"Sorry but you really shouldn't wear those jeans" he replied with a chuckle
"I'll let you know when I have something," she said as he left.
Martha sat at her laptop
"Where do I start" she typed the address for Friends Reunited and put in Coal Hill School 1963 "someone here must know what happened to Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright" she said to herself.