It 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 thingsb 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 aliens 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 East End
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 Wrights,
she said to herself.

Fiction Archive

Reefgirl

20.09.07 Front Page

Back Issue Page