martha_jones

Describe two moments in which your life took a turn, where on the one side, you were one person, and on the other side, someone new.

Whenever it happens, it feels like the first time.

They're on the blasted desert near India. Martha doesn't speak Arabic and the TARDIS is too weak from the paradox machine to translate, but she has Davi with her. Davi isn't really his name, he says, but she wouldn't be able to pronounce his name anyway. He wants to help and he gives her water and holds her hand and translates her stories.

He tells her she's his friend, but she won't tell him he's hers. Her friends die in the Master's world.

But Davi is not going to die. She's not going to let him die, even as he drops from the shot of a Toclafane. It doesn't see Martha and scurries away. They always hurt the ones she cares about and leave her alone.

She runs to Davi's side. He starts shaking and coughing. There's blood everywhere.

( It feels like the first time. )

Muse: Martha Jones
Fandom: Doctor Who
Word Count: 903

Ministers spread the Word. They go from place to place, person to person and tell them what they know of the Word and give others the belief they need to continue living. It requires persistence, patience, and unwavering faith.

In that way, Martha is a minister. Only the Word Martha spreads is "Doctor" and her congregation is the whole of humanity.

And right now, she's spreading the word of the Doctor to a huddled group of survivors in a bunker in Australia.

Above them, nuclear fallout is destroying what was left of their country. Children sit motherless in a circle at her feet, families hold small ceremonies before radioactive bodies are unceremoniously thrown from the shelter.

If Martha's faith wasn't so strong, if she wasn't so certain, then she isn't sure she could keep telling the story she's telling.

"And then, right when the Bard himself couldn't figure out what to say, the Doctor exclaimed 'Expelliarmus!' which just so happened to fit into the rhyme perfectly---"

The kids at her feet whoop with excitement. There's a copy of Harry Potter somewhere between them and they've all taken turns reading it to each other since Martha found it above and brought it down.

The kids love this story about Shakespeare and the witches. The parents love it, too, and Martha's had her tellings of lines corrected so often she's gotten used to saying it wrong, just to make sure her audience is truly listening. Sure, she's removed herself from the climax of the story, but that makes the Doctor more of a hero. And what they need right now is a hero.

She's learned a lot about telling stories. Martha was never the storyteller of her group of friends, she often left that position to her eternally-in-P.R. sister. Tish always knew where to raise her hands and where to pause for drama. When she first started telling her stories, she would imagine she was her sister and the stories would come out as a fairly bad parody of Tish's usual performances.

( But people need the stories. )

Muse: The Doctor (Ten)
Fandom: Doctor Who
Word Count: 2,687
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