1969

1969

What if the Doctor and Martha never made it out of 1969?
Would their staged domestic partnership be one of bliss or one of lost thoughts, regrets and misplaced anger?

Martha paced the sidewalk raking her brain for what to do next. ”I need clothes but I need a job to get money to get clothes. Forget clothes I need a place to stay!”
She just glanced around when a sign caught her eye. Help Wanted Free Room and Board in small print underneath she could just make out the words If You’re Any Good.

“Doctor...he seemed distant far away…we need to go”…he wasn’t there not mentally.
She started walking across the street hoping he would follow her.
”Don’t think about it. It’ll all come to you. You’re Martha Jones daughter of the demanding, stubborn, head held high, teeth gritting, let’s tough it out together Francine Jones nothin’s gonna stop ya from getting this job!
“I’m here about you’re sign in the window it says help wanted.” She smiled and hoped she was convincing enough to get whatever job it was right on spot.
The man was taller than her but not as tall as the Doctor and with his olive tanned tone skin and milky chocolate eyes he reminded her of Johnny Depp who by the way was only about six years old she reminded herself.

He showed them to the apartment upstairs were at the very sight Martha’s heart broke.
” This place isn’t fit for a human let a lone a Lord of Time. This isn’t his home the TARDIS is. This isn’t his home but it will have to do. This isn’t his home but I’ll make it one for him.” The apartment didn’t have a stove or a refrigerator just as she expected but she didn’t expect for it to have broken windows, disgusting floor caked with dirt, holes in the walls, grime everywhere and although the whole apartment seemed shot to Hell the bathroom was rather luxuriate.
“It’s wonderful! All it needs is a fresh coat of paint.” As if prompted by those very words the Doctor turned his head to see her and his eyebrow shot up almost to his hair line. “Hasn’t been used much…the man named David Corey began…but once you get it going its home. I’ll leave you and Mr. Uhm…”

“Emerson…she jumped in…Don Rafael Emerson.”
“I’ll leave you and Mr. Emerson to talk it out.” he walked out of the room back downstairs to the store front.
“Nothing to talk about. I’m gonna take care of us. I’m doing it whether you approve or not Doctor.”
He wasn’t there he was somewhere in his memory happy with the girl with blonde hair.

“What’s the job?”
“Mrs. Emerson are you sure you want to do this job.”
She took an I take no crap stance and folded her arms under her breasts.
“It’s Miss Jones and right now I’ll take any job I can.”
He walked off towards a wall where he screwed in a light bulb and the wall opened into a room. “Coming are ya?”

As she followed she took note of all the paraphernalia along the walls, moans and groans coming from some rooms, flashing lights in other and then the sound of music came from one and she saw girls on stage. Her nose wrinkled in disgust at Corey’s taste in business.
“Not so interested now are ya?”

She thought of the Doctor and how he lost his beloved Gallifrey and then how he must have felt after losing Rose. How he struggled to understand John Smith and his attachment to the life he shared with his wife Joan and watched his struggle with his emotions and instincts how he fought to ignore them. Finally she saw his face as he lost his TARDIS. She turned away from Corey choking back tears she whispered”A job’s a job I’ll take it!” The needed another pole girl he called them but stripper and exotic dancer is what she’d call them.

Despite how much she hated it she made two thousand dollars in tips and her first pay check things were looking up. Walking out of the S Lounge she was curious about the other rooms but the Doctor’s face wouldn’t leave her mind. She had twenty-eight hundred dollars in her pocket and she needed it to last until Corey call again. “Right now you’re just a filler…he told her… push comes to shove you’ll become full time.” She headed out toward the rest of downtown to a thrift store and was a bit surprised to see Josef her first tipper. From him she got a refrigerator for about eighty dollars and a freezer for five, two full walk in wardrobes of clothes, a large floor model color tv, lots of dinnerware, quite a few lamps, some albums and a record player and a brand new king sized bed with new mattress set included. Everything after the freezer was free especially since Josef thought he might be invited for a little rough and tumble one day. She spent about two hundred dollars on food, personal hygiene and cleaning products then went down to Ashtonville Carpets were Mr. Trent Ashley, who was responsible for about a thousand of those dollars, gave her a great deal on some multi colored shag carpet, some shelves and cabinetry that reminded her of the grated floors of the TARDIS and a special large lamp.

When she arrived at the apartment the Doctor was gone but she was glad of this for she could fix up the apartment. She switched on some music and went about cleaning hips swaying about to the beat. She scrubbed the floors and walls ignoring the pain in her back and thighs some times reflecting on her travels so far with the Doctor. Of all the stupidest things you could have done Martha Jones this takes the cake! Following a man around is one thing but living with him in an alien spaceship traveling through time and space while being hopelessly devoted to him is another. And you wonder does he ever really see you? I mean really! Does he ever really see stupid little Martha Jones?! Stupid little girl! You should have known that he’d only prefer white long blonde hair and blue eyes!” She wasn’t really aware of how clean things were until she nearly jumped at the knock on the door it was Andy from Andy’s Delivery Service and Window Repair. In less than two hours Andy and his crew had everything set up in what Martha had designated its proper place. Martha looked around and finally felt that this could be home. A sharp nasty cramp set her doubling over the pale blue couch waiting for it to subside she reached into the pocket of her coat she artistically tossed aside and pulled out the pocket biological calculator the Doctor gave her to keep track of her cycle and she frowned at what it said. 9:30 pm today. She looked at the device as though it were evil before tossing it aside it reminded her of her cellphone with only slight differences. She admired and hated the device the Doctor made it especially for her.

“I can’t understand it! I just can’t understand it!”
She had thrown nearly everything in her room out onto the floor of the TARDIS hallway well everything a girl of her stature could move. “Martha…?” the Doctor carefully poked his head around her room door not wanting to regenerate so early in this still new companionship. She didn’t look up at him her shoulders shook so he just knew she was crying his instincts kicked in before he had any idea of what he was doing he had picked her up and sat her awkwardly between his long legs. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his blue suit covered abdomen. “I didn’t get my period…she sobbed I’ve never missed it never since the day it started.” He sat there with her for awhile because he just didn’t know what to say. He could have told her that she was his genetic female preference when it came to a life mate and that a hormone his body secreted was for her protection that if any of the aliens on that planet caught her fertile scent she would have been mated against her will. Instead he told her it was stress and that she needed to relax and that he knew a nice place with wonderful beaches. When he came back he gave her the biological calculator and said he designed it especially for her and her body.

Having bathed thoroughly, for some reason her scent seemed to agitate the Doctor, she’d fallen asleep when the key turned in the lock and the Doctor came in.

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