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ineedmyfics2012-09-06 11:49 pm
ineedmymods) wrote in ineedmyfics2012-09-06 11:49 pm
Entry tags:
After the Beep
For ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ashavah
Fromlivii
Title: After the Beep
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Martha Jones, Tish Jones
Rating: G
Summary: The world changed, and nobody knew but them.
Author's Notes: I decided to leave out Jack so I could write a story about sisters. I hope it still suits. Thanks tonentikobe for beta reading!
[beep]
Hey, Martha, it's...1:30, I think. I guess you have your phone off. That's okay, you need your sleep. Just thinking of you. I couldn't sleep and was watching the news. They had a story about Japan and I remembered some little thing you told me about there...anyway, it doesn't matter. I'll talk to you in the morning. We still driving to Keisha's birthday party together? Can you believe she's a year old already? Well, good night, little sister...I love you, Martha.
[click]
Martha waits a few minutes after the machine clicks off, but Tish doesn't call back. She never does. Martha almost never answers. It's too hard, at night; the darkness makes everything too real, and she knows Tish is half checking on her as much as wanting to talk.
She archives all these messages, saves them to a flash drive. She doesn't quite know why, but some nights, alone in her room, when she also can't sleep, she listens to them. She loves hearing the cadence of Tish's voice, and the pauses, the things unsaid. Martha hates leaving phone messages, but Tish is an expert at it, always hitting the right mix of confidence and slight rambling to leave the listener at ease, and this makes her love Tish even more.
Of course she never actually turns her phone off. She joked once that if she could have it surgically implanted in her body so it was always accessible, she would. Leo laughed. Tish just looked at her, and understood.
[beep]
Hey, Martha. Just wanted to let you know I got home safely from my date. It was okay. A little boring. He kept wanting to talk about politics. At least it's better than the last bloke, the one who kept going on about alien conspiracies. I just don't want to think about these things right now. Anyway, you're probably out with Tom right now, well done, unless you're asleep after studying all evening, in which case, live a little, girl! And call me in the morning. Good night.
[click]
Neither Tish nor Martha had ever been big drinkers, but once in a while since That Year they started a bottle of wine and found themselves through four without noticing it.
One of those times, Tish had thrown the accusation at Martha again, the same one as she had with Professor Lazarus: "every time I find someone nice, you have to ruin it." Martha knew she meant it in the general - that there was no one to date, now, no one who understood, no one who would talk only about the right things and not think she was strange when she froze up over insignificant details.
Martha thus felt incredibly guilty about Tom Milligan. She hadn't meant for anything to happen with him; she'd left the Doctor to care for her family, study for her exams, and earn her professional title. But Tom reminded her of the good she saw that year, of the best of humanity, and it didn't hurt that he was absolutely gorgeous to boot. When he asked her out she couldn't help but say yes, and slowly it turned serious. Martha had a better handle on her emotions about everything than Tish, and anyway Tom, somehow, he understood when things were bad.
By tacit consent her family never referred to him as Doctor Milligan. No one, for that matter, ever called her Doctor Jones either. Except for Leo, and that was a whole other kettle of fish.
"Remember how he saved us," Martha had pleaded with Tish once. "Remember how you believed in him, in that moment, remember how it worked."
Tish had shaken her head. "We'd never have been in it without him in the first place. No, Martha."
Martha had never pushed. But she continued to see Tom, and she knew Tish was happy for her, but in that moment, with the wine, with the phone call, she knew that Tish was broken, too.
[beep]
Hey, Martha. Missed you at Mum's today. Hope we're still on for tea tomorrow, though of course you'll be there, that's my Martha! Anyway, Mum was Mum - still repressing the whole thing and arguing with me whenever Leo was out of the room. Did I ever tell you, by the way, about the gun? We were talking about the gun, Mum and I. Well, I'll tell you about it at tea tomorrow. See you soon. Good night.
[click]
Tish still hasn't forgiven the Doctor for his forgiveness. "It's just not right," she'd said, over and over again. "It wasn't his choice. It was us he did it to, us there on the Valiant, us, the human race."
Martha, for all she's seen and learned, at least partly, she understands.
Tish tells Martha at tea about the gun. About how Tish had seen their mum's eyes flick towards the gun lying on the floor, hold it in her gaze for a long, long moment. How Tish had known that their mum wanted to take it, and wanted to use it.
How Tish had completely understood.
"And I didn't even care," Tish says, "when Lucy shot him. I was glad, Martha."
"I'm glad," Martha replies, "that it wasn't Mum, or you, or me who did it."
The sisters look at each other, each take a sip from their cup.
"It's not right to kill," Martha says, again, for the tenth or twentieth or possibly hundredth time. "During that year, someone told me, she said I didn't look like a killer. And I'm not, and you're not. It's not right."
Tish looks down, and away, and Martha knows they will have this conversation a hundred times more.
[beep]
Martha, Martha, are you there? Martha, it's Leo. He pulled me aside and he said I had to tell him, tell him everything. He said he knew we were keeping secrets and he wasn't going to stand for it. He said we were different. Mar-
Martha picks up.
She wishes, of course, that her family hadn't gotten involved. That the Master hadn't singled them out, used them, hurt them. But it helps that they know. It hurts her, that they remember all that pain, but without Tish to talk to, Martha thinks she might have gone crazy by now.
But there was always the problem of Leo.
"I told him everything, and he believed me," Tish is saying on the phone.
"Yes," Martha says. Of course he did; Leo might be a lot of things, but he's a good man, and if his sister tells him crazy stories, he's going to believe her.
"He said, well, he was there for Professor Lazarus, and the whole hospital thing, and Canary Wharf with Adeola...he said this was the craziest story yet, but he believed me. Especially when I told him the Doctor was involved."
"Why?" Martha asks, sharply. "Why does that matter?"
"He just said it made sense. From what he got from him, meeting him that time. He asked me about you and him. I told him it was...complicated. That it was your story to tell, but that it was over."
Martha breathes in deeply. Just that morning, she'd been working on authorization at UNIT to call the Doctor in about the ATMOS situation. Why would Tish bring him up now, when they never spoke of him? There are no coincidences, she thought, but if it was a good or bad omen, she wasn't sure.
"I'm glad he knows," Martha says. "I'll talk to him too. Tell him...everything. Everything I can."
[beep]
Hey, Tish. Look, it's me, leaving a message for you! That's different. Glad you're out and not answering, hope you're having fun. Listen, I just had this memory. Professor Lazarus, you were working the PR, and he turned into a giant life-sucking monster thing. And the Doc- well, I ran away after. What happened? What did you tell people? Anyway, it's not important, I was just really curious. ...Did I ever thank you, Tish, for saving me that day? For catching me? ...Tish, I love you. I miss you. I'll be home from assignment soon and we'll catch up and have a drink, okay? I love you, I love you, I love you. I'm going to end this now. God, I'm rubbish at leaving messages. I love you, okay? Good night.
[click]
Tish brings it up as they sit on the sofa, enjoying a good bottle of red.
"I still don't know why I followed you that day," she says. "With Lazarus, like you brought up. Mum was horrified. She was feeling so betrayed, what with Dad and all, and then here we were choosing danger over her. But I just had to," she continues, "I just had to go with you. I'm your big sister, right?"
"Always will be," Martha says. "Tish, I -"
"It's okay," Tish says, and they fall silent.
"So really," Martha says, "what did you tell people about all that?"
"I just cooked up some story, you know, mass hallucinations from drugs in the drinks, tragic power surge from the machine killing those people and the Professor, that sort of thing. It wasn't too hard. People are willing to be spoonfed anything."
Martha doesn't like the hard look in Tish's eyes as she says this, but she doesn't comment.
"I may have got the job because I'm your sister, and that's what...he wanted...but I'm damn fine at what I do, if I do say so myself," Tish says.
Martha smiles, tears springing to her eyes suddenly. "You are, Tish. You're the very best, and I'm not saying that just because you're my sister."
"Oh, shush," Tish says, trying to frown and failing. "Give us a kiss and get on home, you'll be miserable in the morning if you don't get some sleep."
The sisters hug, and Martha gets her bag and heads off into the cold, clear night. At the end of the street she turns and looks back. Tish is standing in the doorway, watching. She raises her hand in a greeting, a salute, a goodbye. Martha nods, and continues on home.
This fic is mirrored at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ineedmyfics.
ashavah From
liviiTitle: After the Beep
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Martha Jones, Tish Jones
Rating: G
Summary: The world changed, and nobody knew but them.
Author's Notes: I decided to leave out Jack so I could write a story about sisters. I hope it still suits. Thanks to
nentikobe for beta reading![beep]
Hey, Martha, it's...1:30, I think. I guess you have your phone off. That's okay, you need your sleep. Just thinking of you. I couldn't sleep and was watching the news. They had a story about Japan and I remembered some little thing you told me about there...anyway, it doesn't matter. I'll talk to you in the morning. We still driving to Keisha's birthday party together? Can you believe she's a year old already? Well, good night, little sister...I love you, Martha.
[click]
Martha waits a few minutes after the machine clicks off, but Tish doesn't call back. She never does. Martha almost never answers. It's too hard, at night; the darkness makes everything too real, and she knows Tish is half checking on her as much as wanting to talk.
She archives all these messages, saves them to a flash drive. She doesn't quite know why, but some nights, alone in her room, when she also can't sleep, she listens to them. She loves hearing the cadence of Tish's voice, and the pauses, the things unsaid. Martha hates leaving phone messages, but Tish is an expert at it, always hitting the right mix of confidence and slight rambling to leave the listener at ease, and this makes her love Tish even more.
Of course she never actually turns her phone off. She joked once that if she could have it surgically implanted in her body so it was always accessible, she would. Leo laughed. Tish just looked at her, and understood.
[beep]
Hey, Martha. Just wanted to let you know I got home safely from my date. It was okay. A little boring. He kept wanting to talk about politics. At least it's better than the last bloke, the one who kept going on about alien conspiracies. I just don't want to think about these things right now. Anyway, you're probably out with Tom right now, well done, unless you're asleep after studying all evening, in which case, live a little, girl! And call me in the morning. Good night.
[click]
Neither Tish nor Martha had ever been big drinkers, but once in a while since That Year they started a bottle of wine and found themselves through four without noticing it.
One of those times, Tish had thrown the accusation at Martha again, the same one as she had with Professor Lazarus: "every time I find someone nice, you have to ruin it." Martha knew she meant it in the general - that there was no one to date, now, no one who understood, no one who would talk only about the right things and not think she was strange when she froze up over insignificant details.
Martha thus felt incredibly guilty about Tom Milligan. She hadn't meant for anything to happen with him; she'd left the Doctor to care for her family, study for her exams, and earn her professional title. But Tom reminded her of the good she saw that year, of the best of humanity, and it didn't hurt that he was absolutely gorgeous to boot. When he asked her out she couldn't help but say yes, and slowly it turned serious. Martha had a better handle on her emotions about everything than Tish, and anyway Tom, somehow, he understood when things were bad.
By tacit consent her family never referred to him as Doctor Milligan. No one, for that matter, ever called her Doctor Jones either. Except for Leo, and that was a whole other kettle of fish.
"Remember how he saved us," Martha had pleaded with Tish once. "Remember how you believed in him, in that moment, remember how it worked."
Tish had shaken her head. "We'd never have been in it without him in the first place. No, Martha."
Martha had never pushed. But she continued to see Tom, and she knew Tish was happy for her, but in that moment, with the wine, with the phone call, she knew that Tish was broken, too.
[beep]
Hey, Martha. Missed you at Mum's today. Hope we're still on for tea tomorrow, though of course you'll be there, that's my Martha! Anyway, Mum was Mum - still repressing the whole thing and arguing with me whenever Leo was out of the room. Did I ever tell you, by the way, about the gun? We were talking about the gun, Mum and I. Well, I'll tell you about it at tea tomorrow. See you soon. Good night.
[click]
Tish still hasn't forgiven the Doctor for his forgiveness. "It's just not right," she'd said, over and over again. "It wasn't his choice. It was us he did it to, us there on the Valiant, us, the human race."
Martha, for all she's seen and learned, at least partly, she understands.
Tish tells Martha at tea about the gun. About how Tish had seen their mum's eyes flick towards the gun lying on the floor, hold it in her gaze for a long, long moment. How Tish had known that their mum wanted to take it, and wanted to use it.
How Tish had completely understood.
"And I didn't even care," Tish says, "when Lucy shot him. I was glad, Martha."
"I'm glad," Martha replies, "that it wasn't Mum, or you, or me who did it."
The sisters look at each other, each take a sip from their cup.
"It's not right to kill," Martha says, again, for the tenth or twentieth or possibly hundredth time. "During that year, someone told me, she said I didn't look like a killer. And I'm not, and you're not. It's not right."
Tish looks down, and away, and Martha knows they will have this conversation a hundred times more.
[beep]
Martha, Martha, are you there? Martha, it's Leo. He pulled me aside and he said I had to tell him, tell him everything. He said he knew we were keeping secrets and he wasn't going to stand for it. He said we were different. Mar-
Martha picks up.
She wishes, of course, that her family hadn't gotten involved. That the Master hadn't singled them out, used them, hurt them. But it helps that they know. It hurts her, that they remember all that pain, but without Tish to talk to, Martha thinks she might have gone crazy by now.
But there was always the problem of Leo.
"I told him everything, and he believed me," Tish is saying on the phone.
"Yes," Martha says. Of course he did; Leo might be a lot of things, but he's a good man, and if his sister tells him crazy stories, he's going to believe her.
"He said, well, he was there for Professor Lazarus, and the whole hospital thing, and Canary Wharf with Adeola...he said this was the craziest story yet, but he believed me. Especially when I told him the Doctor was involved."
"Why?" Martha asks, sharply. "Why does that matter?"
"He just said it made sense. From what he got from him, meeting him that time. He asked me about you and him. I told him it was...complicated. That it was your story to tell, but that it was over."
Martha breathes in deeply. Just that morning, she'd been working on authorization at UNIT to call the Doctor in about the ATMOS situation. Why would Tish bring him up now, when they never spoke of him? There are no coincidences, she thought, but if it was a good or bad omen, she wasn't sure.
"I'm glad he knows," Martha says. "I'll talk to him too. Tell him...everything. Everything I can."
[beep]
Hey, Tish. Look, it's me, leaving a message for you! That's different. Glad you're out and not answering, hope you're having fun. Listen, I just had this memory. Professor Lazarus, you were working the PR, and he turned into a giant life-sucking monster thing. And the Doc- well, I ran away after. What happened? What did you tell people? Anyway, it's not important, I was just really curious. ...Did I ever thank you, Tish, for saving me that day? For catching me? ...Tish, I love you. I miss you. I'll be home from assignment soon and we'll catch up and have a drink, okay? I love you, I love you, I love you. I'm going to end this now. God, I'm rubbish at leaving messages. I love you, okay? Good night.
[click]
Tish brings it up as they sit on the sofa, enjoying a good bottle of red.
"I still don't know why I followed you that day," she says. "With Lazarus, like you brought up. Mum was horrified. She was feeling so betrayed, what with Dad and all, and then here we were choosing danger over her. But I just had to," she continues, "I just had to go with you. I'm your big sister, right?"
"Always will be," Martha says. "Tish, I -"
"It's okay," Tish says, and they fall silent.
"So really," Martha says, "what did you tell people about all that?"
"I just cooked up some story, you know, mass hallucinations from drugs in the drinks, tragic power surge from the machine killing those people and the Professor, that sort of thing. It wasn't too hard. People are willing to be spoonfed anything."
Martha doesn't like the hard look in Tish's eyes as she says this, but she doesn't comment.
"I may have got the job because I'm your sister, and that's what...he wanted...but I'm damn fine at what I do, if I do say so myself," Tish says.
Martha smiles, tears springing to her eyes suddenly. "You are, Tish. You're the very best, and I'm not saying that just because you're my sister."
"Oh, shush," Tish says, trying to frown and failing. "Give us a kiss and get on home, you'll be miserable in the morning if you don't get some sleep."
The sisters hug, and Martha gets her bag and heads off into the cold, clear night. At the end of the street she turns and looks back. Tish is standing in the doorway, watching. She raises her hand in a greeting, a salute, a goodbye. Martha nods, and continues on home.
This fic is mirrored at
ineedmyfics.
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