Martha Jones looks over at the small group of men gathered around a table, she can't see the resemblance but the Doctor says they're all him, previous versions of him. Seems the Gallifrey High Council frowned on crossing your own timeline. . .trust the Doctor to cross his own timeline as easily as crossing the street.
The men are talking amongst themselves, either the TARDIS isn't translating for her anymore or they're talking in something the TARDIS can't. . .or won't translate. Getting up from her chair tucked in the corner of the room, she grabs her phone and heads out of the room they'd commandeered on the Satellite and goes for a walk.
She's leaning against the railing looking out at the world below them in one of the observation rooms when a familiar grating noise has her quickly turning around. Her hand comes over her mouth to stifle a scream when the familiar refrain of 'ex-ter-min-ate, ex-ter-min-ate' comes closer. God, hopefully she can get back to the room without it seeing her.
'Exterminate bad taste, make the 6th Doctor wear different clothes!'
Martha blinks. .that's definitely not what she had been expecting to hear. The Dalek pauses in the middle of the room, slowly looks over to where she's pressed against the window, hoping and praying the Dalek doesn't see her, raises and lowers its eyestalk as if looking her up and down, swivels around and leaves the room.
Martha quickly runs back to the room. The Doctors have to hear this.
The 10th Doctor looks over as the door across the room opens and shuts, Martha leaning against it as if her weight could keep it closed. Not that it's likely to happen, the door opens into the wall, not inward.
“Is something the matter, young Lady?” the first Doctor asks, looking over at her.
“I just saw a Dalek in one of the observation rooms.”
“WHAT? Are you okay?” The tenth Doctor immediately leaps across the room, taking her arm and leading her to a chair. Martha realizes then she's shaking like a leaf and she grabs onto his arm as he turns away momentarily. He takes her hand and starts crooning something meaningless, at least to her, as the young man in cricketing clothes presses a hot drink into her hands.
“Martha, tell us everything that happened!” 10 orders.
“I was in the observation room on the next level when I heard that noise. . .that whining noise when a Dalek is moving?” 10 nods encouragement. “I pressed against the glass hoping I was hearing things. .when I heard 'ex-ter-min-ate ex-ter-min-ate'” Everybody shudders. “The Dalek stopped in the middle of the room, looked me up and down with his eyestalk, turned around and went out of the room. Once he was gone. . .I got the hell away from there.” She doesn't tell them about what else the Dalek had said, they'd think she was imagining things.
“Good girl.” 9th says briskly. “I think it's safer for everybody if we don't leave the room. . .or if we do we go armed.”
Martha shudders and takes a sip of the hot tea, eyes fluttering closed as whatever the Doctor laced it with sends her off to sleep. 10 rescues the mug before it drops out of her limp fingers and 9 lifts her into his arm and carries her across the room to a door that opens automatically for him, he places her gently on the bed, taking off her shoes and covering her with the blanket from the foot of the bed.
The next few days pass quickly, Martha doesn't leave the room. She's sitting with Josette. . .the Doctor's daughter of all people when the 2nd Doctor comes scurrying quickly into the room.
“I saw him.” he says. The other Doctors' faces grows hard, Martha realizes with a shudder who 'him' must be. Josette touches her arm lightly and Martha turns her attention to the young woman, Josette looks at her and says something quietly. She scowls and quickly grabs her compu-pad, typing something.
/What's going on?/ Josette types quickly.
“I'm not sure if I should tell you, it's dangerous.”
Josette looks at her with the Doctor's eyes, seeming to look through her. Martha hadn't met Josette before she had been hit by the beam that temporarily scrambled the speech centers of her brain, but she has the feeling she's equally as stubborn as her father. She says something again and Martha doesn't have to understand her speech to know what she's saying. . .Tell Me!
“I saw a Dalek on the satellite a few days ago.” Martha says quietly. Josette takes a deep breath as the Doctors turn in their direction. Martha can see by the expressions on their faces that they didn't want her telling Josette, who calmly takes a deep breath, reaching into her ever-present bag and pulling out a blaster that the 9th doctor recognizes as Jack's old blaster, but obviously fully charged, that she puts on a holster on her hip. A second weapon is placed in a holster on the small of her back, an energy rifle of some type and a staff are pulled from her bag next, both of which are longer than the bag she'd taken them from. The rifle goes on her back and the staff in her hand and she gets to her feet, nimbly dodging the hands trying to grab her, and walks to the door.
Martha, despite herself, jumps quickly to her feet and follows Josette out the door. The door shuts on the calls of the others to come back.
Josette pulls a scanner of some sort from her bag and holds it out, glaring at the result when it obviously doesn't show the results she'd been looking for. She pushes back an imaginary hat off of her forehead and shoves up imaginary sleeves, almost saying 'okay, let's do this the hard way.'
They've managed to cover nearly the entire satellite, Josette easily dodging the various incarnations of her father. They're on the last floor when Martha hears it again.. .a sound once heard you can never mistake. Josette hears it too, she turns around and pushes Martha behind her against a wall almost as if she's guarding her. . .when IT appears in the doorway across from them.
~ ~ ~
The Dalek almost seems to smile, if a tin pepperpot without any noticable features can be said to smile.
'Who. . .who. . .who wrote the book of love?' comes out of the Dalek. Josette rolls her eyes and starts swearing as the Dalek cheekily waggles its eyestalk in her direction and rolls away, making a sound that reminds Martha of a raspberry as it reaches the door..
Obviously Martha isn't the only one to think that, Josette's speaking again and from the tone of her voice she's swearing. Josette shakes her fist in the direction of the retreating Dalek, desperately trying to call up a fireball so she can fry his annoying ass. Martha gasps as fire suddenly appears on Josette's fingertips, Josette just stares at her hand.
“Like that's going to do anything, the damn Dalek will laugh himself to death.” she bitches as she cancels the fire, Martha automatically grabbing her hand and staring at her fingers. They were on fire a second ago, but the fingernail polish isn't even singed.
“I don't think. . .that we should tell the Doctors what just happened.” Martha says softly.
“They'd freak,” Josette agrees. “and I haven't even done anything yet, damn it.” She nods for Martha's benefit and they walk out of the room.
The Doctors look up as Josette and Martha come into the room, Josette putting all her weapons away so the Doctors can't complain. . .at least about that, and settles back in her chair, pulling up the book the fifth Doctor had assigned her as homework on her handheld computer linked to the TARDIS's library and starts reading. . .again. Damn thing doesn't make any more sense now than the first time she'd read it. Martha settles into her chair as the Doctors quietly talk in the corner of the room. . .unaware that someone is silently watching them from the shadows of the room.
The next couple of days pass quietly and Martha leaves the room early in the morning, she has to get out of there, it feels like the walls are beginning to close in on her. She nods at some of the others on the station as she walks along the metal platform against one wall that leads to a small group of shops, the satellite is home to a small group of researchers. . .and a handful of time agents.
The 9th Doctor had swore when two of them had introduced themselves to him, interfering busybodies he'd called them. The 10th Doctor had reaches over and smacked him, none to gently by the wince, and had quietly said something. Josette had looked at them and started cackling for some reason, the taller of the two, a blond with hair pulled back into a ponytail had walked around the Doctors and started tickling her.
“Oh Please,” the dark haired man had said, rolling his eyes“like you're the only one in the family who travels.”
“You know her young man?” the first Doctor had said in a rather snippy tone.
The man had rolled his eyes, not at all bothered by his words. “Please, if you want to be insulting you're going to have to do better than that, half my family are arrogant assholes.”
“And the other half are just crazy.” the man tickling Josette and Josette say in unison.
The Doctors are still leery of them, but the care both men have for Josette is obvious, they're thankful that she has somebody besides the Master to take care of her. She can't stay with them, she lives in another dimension.
Martha whimpers when the door of the elevator she's riding in opens and the Dalek she's seen twice before is sitting outside the door. The Dalek moves into the elevator, a sticker shooting out of the casing and hitting a button.
The Dalek's eyestalk swivels as it looks at the woman standing next to it. The human's heartrate is elevated, no doubt from being in such close proximity.
“Would you please tell the chuckleheads to answer their damn phone?” The Dalek asks as the elevator opens and it gets off, rolling down the hall chanting 'ex-ter-min-ate'.
~ ~ ~
Martha stares at the door after its shut and the elevator begins moving again. Shaking herself, she gets off the elevator and walks to their room. The door opens for her as she approaches it and she walks in to see the two time agents sitting at the table reading the notes the Doctors have made about the situation.
The blond man looks up when the door opens and automatically jumps to his feet, taking Martha by the arm and leading her to a chair.
“Are you okay?” he asks. “Do we need to call the Doctor or medical?”
“I'm fine, just shook up a little.” Martha admits. “I saw the Dalek again, he got onto the elevator with me and rode up to another floor. Before he got off he told me to 'tell the chuckleheads to answer their damn phone?'”
The man currently going by James Brooks but in the 20th century known to Josette under another name laughs at the sour look on his partner's face. The dark haired man stands up and starts pacing the room, cursing softly.
James picks up a futuristic looking device, looking as much like Martha's superphone as a cell phone does two cans on a string and starts pushing buttons.
“No messages.” a monotone voice that sounds vaguely female says.
“If you see the Dalek again, please tell him that nobody's trying to contact us.” James smirks as John finishes cursing, pushes his hair out of his eyes in an irritated move, and drops into his seat with a sigh.
“Oh like you weren't expecting this with Josette here.” James snorts. “Weird stuff follows Josette around like you wouldn't believe.” he tells Martha. “That's how we knew Josette was destined to be one of us, she gets in as much trouble as the rest of the family.”
The door opens again and Josette comes into the room with the 5th Doctor. He's talking to her, obviously describing something and she gives him a fond look you'd give a little kid that's talking about something that's new to him. She looks over at the others, James and John are busy straightening the papers on the table and Martha is sitting in a chair with her feet up and a mug of hot tea in her hand.
Josette settles into her chair in the study area in the corner of the room as the 5th Doctor continues to lecture her about what they'd been looking at earlier. All of the Doctors are taking turns walking with her around the satellite showing her things advances made since the 20th century as they work on her schooling.
The next few days pass quickly and once again Martha finds herself walking the satellite. She's not surprised this time when the Dalek that the Doctors have been looking for but having no luck slides out of the shadows and glides next to her as she walks the halls.
The Dalek's eyestalk looks up at her in a 'well' look and she smiles despite herself.
“I talked to the two chuckleheads. . .and they say that nobody's tried to contact them.”
The Dalek sighs. There's no other word for it. The Dalek sighs and glides away, looking behind him as if to say 'you coming?'
Martha follows the Dalek down the hall to the elevator and up to their room. The door opens and the Doctors look up and get to their feet as Martha and her Dalek companion come into the room.
“Martha,” the 10th Doctor hisses. “Slowly make your way over here.” When Martha is a few steps away from the Dalek the 2nd Doctor grabs her arm and pushes her behind them.
The Dalek is ignoring all of this, instead rolling. . .yes rolling. . .his eyestalk in the direction of the two Time agents. 'Answer your damn phone' the Dalek says in a put upon voice.
James grins and pulls out his communication device. “No messages.” the robotic voice says again.
Suddenly there's the sound of an old fashioned telephone ringing from somewhere. The Dalek swears and the squeaking sound of something being turned is heard before the top of the Dalek flies open, propelled by a fist.
“Then answer mine.” an arm comes out of the Dalek and tosses an object in the direction of the Time Agents. Martha blinks. ..it looks like a cell phone from her own time.
Martha slides between the doctors, ignoring the hands reaching for her and walks over to the decapitated Dalek. The top is hanging off the side and has threads where it fastens down she sees now.
Looking into the Dalek she grins and holds out her hand. “Hullo, I don't think we've been formally introduced, Martha Jones.”
An arm reaches out and a hand grabs hers. “Greta Logan, pleased to meet you.”
“Get out of that thing.” James Brooks, aka Vernon Questor rolls his eyes as he talks quietly on the phone. “No not you, Greta.” he tells whoever's on the other end.
A series of clicks is hears and the front of the Dalek opens up, a young girl not too much older than Josette stepping out and stretching.
“Did you have a reason to be running around the station in that thing?” Now that Martha knows it's not a real Dalek she looks closely at the costume. And it is a costume.
“It was fun?” the metallic voice is the same and Greta reaches to her throat, pulling off something that's nearly invisible. She rubs her throat and speaks again, her voice normal now. “Yeah, I've been picking up stuff here and there,” She folds the costume open further, pulling out a handful of bags she tosses in the direction of the table, the doctors automatically catching bags and placing them on the table. “that I thought might be needed by you. Oh and you might want to move.”
The door across the room opens and a figure comes running into the room, a door opening across the room before she reaches it.
“Told you not to drink that last can of pop.” Greta says in a singsong voice.
The door opens and Josette's head pokes around the opening, gravely flipping Greta the bird before the door shuts again.
~ ~ ~
The door opens and Josette comes out, wiping her hands on a cloth she throws in the direction of a disposal unit.
“Young Lady,” the first doctor says in a crochety old man, well he is, voice. “How did you manage to get your hands on all this?”
Greta smirks. “Daleks are the universes boogeymen, you see me coming in that thing,” she points at her costume that's sitting in the middle of the room, “ and everybody runs. It was just a matter of grabbing everything I thought you'd need to take care of,” she waves a hand in mid-air, “Whatever it is that got all of us here at the same time.”
“You think there's a reason why everybody's here?” the 9th Doctor asks.
“Please, there's usually a reason for all of you to be in one place at the same time, and she,” Greta jerks her thumb in Josette's direction, “isn't that good a reason. One of you could take care of her just as easily as all ten of you.” The third doctor slowly nods, that is something that had been bothering him.
“Now,” Greta jerks her thumb in the opposite direction. “These are my fathers, not just the men that will some day be or were my fathers. . .my fathers. From the same time period as me, within a year at the most one way or the other my fathers. Unlike me and Josette, they generally don't go scaring off in time and space, so there has to be a reason for all four of us to be here at the same time.”
“How do you know they're from the same time period as you.” the fifth doctor asks.
“I know my fathers.” Greta says simply. “They didn't have to think about it, they knew immediately who I was when I started talking, even with my voice changed.”
“This is our daughter,” John Manning aka Steven Dayton says, “A parent always knows when something is off with their child.”
The door across the room opens and somebody comes in with a weapon.
Immediately Greta throws up a forcefield, the energy weapon spattering harmlessly against it. Josette waits until the weapon is empty and when Greta drops the field moves quickly, throwing a punch that knocks the man unconscious.
Vernon and Steve quickly disarm and fasten manacles on him before contacting the time agency. “Go Home!” Vernon orders firmly while Steve's on the communications device.
The door opens across the room and everybody turns in that direction, stunned when they see the 8th Doctor and . . .and Josette standing in the doorway.
“Okay, “ the Josette who'd came in the room shortly after Greta says. “How come I don't remember any of this happening the first time around?” She pulls off the shipsuit Josette had taken to wearing on the satellite, revealing a pair of jeans and t-shirt underneath it. The shipsuit is tossed in the cleaner unit after Josette empties her pockets.
“Because time isn't set in stone?” Greta shrugs. “Times all. . .timey-wimey. I was the big bad evil Dalek so it hadn't happened until we arrived?”
“I hate Time Travel.” Josette complains. The Doctors are stunned when a TARDIS appears in the corner of the room, Josette and Greta kiss James and Joh. ..err Steve and Vernon on the cheeks and walk through the open door. Friday vanishes as the time agency arrives to take their rogue agent off their hands, 10 whimpering softly when both he and 9 recognize a younger Jack Harkness among them.
“Remind me to ground Greta when we get home?” Vernon asks Steve as they gather their belongings and get ready to head home.
“Even if it hasn't happened for them yet?”
Vernon sighs. “I hate time travel.” he complains. Steve chuckles at they teleport from the room.
The Doctors look at the spots where the two time agents and Josette and her sister had vanished from, well at least they won't have to worry about what's going to happen to Josette when she finally has to leave them.