Martha Jones (greyhoundsix) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-08-19 21:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, martha jones, river song |
Who: Martha Jones and River Song
What: Wine, bonding and sonic screwdrivers
When: Backdated: Mid June
Where: River's Place
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete!
Martha had never known River in the dreams. She had come along after her time with The Doctor, but from what she’d seen of the other woman on Valarnet, she could see what had likely drawn The Doctor to her. She was feisty and adventurous and generally seemed like the sort to challenge The Doctor, which was what he needed. After all, one couldn’t simply sit back and let The Doctor make all the decisions. He wasn’t always right despite the fact that he often thought he was.
When River had brought up her Sonic Screwdriver and that Martha could come check it out any time, she’s jumped on it. All Martha had ever received was her own key to the Tardis, which had also been used to prevent The Master from locating her, The Doctor and Jack, but she had never actually gotten a chance to use it as an actual Tardis key, which was a little disappointing.
On the day they had decided on to get together, Martha headed over to River’s place and upon arriving, rang the doorbell.
Melody William’s house had always been an odd combination of ultra modern and filled with very old things that she’d discovered on assorted digs and the like. The door of course, was TARDIS blue, a color that she’d loved her whole life without ever even knowing why. Of course it was only the door, but it was doubled in a way similar to that of her other mother. When River opened it, it was with a large smile, and she held out her hand. “It’s so lovely to meet you in person at last, after hearing so many brilliant stories about you.”
Brilliant stories of course, didn’t included the fact that Martha had loved him. No, they included her walk and how she had defeated the Master and how she had saved both him and the world. Of course, there was also the bit about how the Doctor had ruined her life, but she had argued (as River had always argued) that it was up to Martha to decide if he had ruined her life, not the Doctor himself. There was something there about his thinking that he was the center of everyone’s universe, and River wanted to disabuse him of that thought. The companions were all brilliant people, and they deserved to say what they wanted about their own experiences.
“Come in, I’ve a bottle of red and white waiting. I didn’t know what you’d prefer but both of them are very good years.” River was something of a snob when it came to wine; probably because she had traveled through time and had tried so many of them.
Martha wouldn’t say that the Doctor had ruined her life; even if she had almost died a couple of times while with him, but she had done it all willingly. She had known, after their first meeting, in the hospital that it could be dangerous to go with him, but she had gone. And sure, she’d had feelings for him, but it had been clear that he wasn’t going to return those feelings and in the end she had ended up with Mickey, who she would never have known were it not for The Doctor.
As River answered the door, Martha smiled in return and took the woman’s hand, “It’s nice to finally meet you too.” Martha enjoyed meeting other people who had dreamt of traveling with The Doctor, because she enjoyed hearing their stories about their time with him. “I’m fine with either, but I think I’ll start with a glass of red. Thank you.” She followed River inside.
“Of course!” Inside was a mesh of things, including the recent acquisition of the light saber that was sitting on her mantle. Melody had put it in a display case and assumed that most people would think it was a prop rather than a piece of actual working tech that she had shot out of General Grievous’ hands. This place was definitely good for somethings. Pointing to a comfy looking sofa, Melody added. “Have a seat. There’s some nibbles out too.” Cheese and fruit, including some of River’s favorites that probably didn’t come from Earth. It was rather nice to have a vortex manipulator at times.
Returning with two large glasses of wine, Melody sat on the other end of the couch and handed one to Martha. “Here you are,” the words came with a smile. “I must admit, I am a bit in awe of you, you know.”
Martha followed Melody into the apartment, glancing around at her surroundings as she did so. She couldn’t help but notice the lightsaber and unlike others, she knew where it had likely come from. Martha hadn’t actually encountered too much danger when Orange County decided to throw Star Wars at them, but she had heard about a lot of it on the network.
After making herself comfortable, Martha took the offered glass from Melody and took a sip before raising her eyebrows slightly, “In awe of me? Why is that?” It wasn’t often that she heard that in the waking world.
“Because of what you did. I know that there is brilliance in all of the Doctor’s companions but there are quite a few I’ve met that couldn’t have survived what you did. And I know the world doesn’t remember it…” River didn’t remember it either, mostly because she hadn’t been on Earth at the time. Instead she had been in the 51st century, recovering from everything and going to school. “But I wanted you to know that someone else knows about it, and they… Well, me I suppose, thinks that you did brilliantly, even though I know it was ruddy hard.” River paused for a second, and she took a sip of her wine. “Someone even wrote a book of your stories, I found it in the library, though the author is a mystery to me.”
River probably could have looked, but she didn’t want to. Instead, she just focused on the fact that it was out there, and she thought Martha should know.
Martha’s brows rose, “A book? In the library here? No, wait, you mean in the dreams?” Martha had heard about The Library when she had joined up with The Doctor and Donna briefly and she knew what had happened there. “I suppose that makes sense. Isn’t everything supposed to be recorded in that library or something?” She didn’t know exactly how the library worked, but she did know that it held far more information than any regular library ever could.
“Every book ever written is there. It's literally an entire planet. And the computer space seems to be almost infinite and full of adventure. It's one of the consolations of being a data ghost.” River smiled, but there was sadness in it. “One good thing; it means I get to meet most of you through it. You know how the Doctor does love being a hero. And heroes always make the best stories.” Which was true and of course she was heavily biased but she believed the best stories tended to be full of the Doctor and his companions.
Her smile brightened as she pulled out her sonic and handed it over to Martha. “Would you believe he made all of these alterations and yet it still doesn't do wood?” If she built her own--and she sort of had with her sonic trowel-- doing wood would have been one of the things that she would fix.
“I’m not going to lie, I’d love to see this library. I could only imagine the things I could read there.” She couldn’t even fathom what every book ever written actually looked like. That was an unimaginable number of books.
Laughing, she took the screwdriver and began inspecting it, “Right? After all those years, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t have modified it yet.” She shrugged a little, “Then again, there probably aren’t too many things one would use the screwdriver on that are made of wood.”
“Well, it’s not exactly safe for living people. The Vashta Nerada live there in great swarms, and I expect given how long it’s been they probably would eat you up in a second.” But River paused and considered it for a second. Melody had not been intent on finding where her dream self had ended up as sort of an immortal tomb, but now she found herself wondering if she could go there (and take Martha along, of course) before the invasion had gotten bad enough that Charlotte had needed to save anyone. She could always pop over there first and make sure it was safe for Martha, if it was here somewhere and Melody gave her enigmatic smile for a second.
It was a smile that the Doctor would know for certain meant trouble with a capital ‘T’.
But onto other things first and working on jaunts with her vortex manipulator (or of course a stolen TARDIS but shush) and River focused on the Screwdriver and the extraordinary woman who was holding it. “You wouldn’t believe how much he needed to modify it to begin with so that he would know the technology and be able to save me. That’s why I’m so shocked that there’s no wood setting. And he may not use it, but it’d be good for me in the course of my work to have it!”
Martha had gone on a few trips, in the waking world, with The Doctor and Clara so if River ever suggested a trip, she would certainly jump at the chance. Time travel and space travel were something she had never thought she would ever do in her life, but now, it was something to looked forward to whenever the occasion arose. And being able to see a place that existed in their dreams, well, that would be the trip of a lifetime.
“I’m not surprised that he could make modifications on the fly. I mean, he’s The Doctor. He’s brilliant.” Which was one of the reasons Martha had fallen for him in the first place; not that it was hard for someone to fall for The Doctor as she had seen on many occasions. “I’m sure you’re just as brilliant though and could figure it out. I mean, then you have something to hold over him.” Martha smirked at River.
River needed to take trips on the fly. She wasn't someone who lived life normally on time’s own terms, especially later in her life. Most of her life had been lived all out of order so that she could have some semblance of a family life even if it was a child's view of what that family life would be. Or should have been rather. So she'd be more than glad to take Martha on a hop or ten. Especially if she stole the TARDIS while doing it.
If nothing else it would keep the Doctor on his toes.
Laughing softly, Melody leaned back against the sofa, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “You know, that's what I should do. Really give the old man a shock when I can actually build a shelf with mine.” There was a memory associated with those words but River didn't expand on it right now.
“Of course I did build a sonic trowel without his help once. I bet I can come up with something. You're brilliant too, I bet you could help!”
“A sonic trowel? How did that work?” While the sonic screwdriver wasn’t technically a screwdriver, Martha had a feeling that River was referring to an actual trowel. “And how did you build it?” Martha couldn’t help but wonder if they had the means to build sonic objects in the waking world or if it there was simply too much alien technology to try and replicate it.
“Surprisingly well, actually. Of course at that time I’d had a good two hundred years to look at the Doctor’s screwdriver, so I did get the hang of it. It was never as good as the Doctor’s, and he said that it was embarrassing, but I still found it to be a little bit sexy. If nothing else, it worked great as a possible murder weapon when I needed one.” River took a sip of her wine, because yes she was a friend of the Doctor’s and all of that, and she was his wife and knew his name, but when she needed to be and she wasn’t on her best behavior, River could kill a man to steal back a diamond and of course, possibly sell it on the black market and steal it back again.
Hey, a girl’s got to make an independant living, and unlike the Doctor, she doesn’t carry her home around with her every where that she goes.
Martha’s brows rose slightly at that, “I guess a trowel could do some damage if needed.” She was still holding the screwdriver in one hand as she brought her glass to her lips with the other and took a sip, “So, I’m curious. Did the dreams change you in any way?” For Martha it was her accent, which she hadn’t had before she’d started dreaming and she knew that the dreams had paused Clara in a way. She still didn’t understand how any of it happened, but after a couple of years it was one of those things that she didn’t think about too much anymore.
Melody inclined her head for a moment as she considered the question that she was asked. For a moment, she just nodded and then reached over and took the hand Martha was holding the screwdriver in in her own. There was no attempt to remove the screwdriver from Martha’s hand, because well… she would feel it anyway. Gently, Melody pressed Martha’s hand to her chest, on the side that wouldn’t normally have a heartbeat. River had spent a lifetime hiding that second beat from people, starting when she’d needed to be a child to be with Amy and Rory. Melody was still working on that ability.
But right now, her two hearts beat in that rhythm of four that they always did and she nodded. “I suppose you could say that. I have a bit of a problem with my respiratory bypass system, though, but I had that even as her.” River just smiled. “We’re not the most patient of people. Either of us.”
Martha’s eyes widened slightly as she felt the two heartbeats in River’s chest. As far as she knew only true Gallifreyans had two hearts and from what Martha knew of River, she was technically human. Her parents had been human, but something had happened to give her Time Lord DNA or something along those lines. Martha didn’t know all the details; just what she’d learned over the last couple of years from various other people from their dreams. “You are going to have a lot of doctors confused from now on.”
River laughed softly, and she just shrugged a bit. “The Doctor taught me how to keep it from other people hearing, so I should be safe from now on. But I must admit at first it was awkward as hell. I’d never had high blood pressure before and having it made me feel a bit old.” Which she probably was, given the two hundred years of memories that were currently inside of her head. “At least I know here the likelihood of being dissected for being different is quite a bit lower than it would be in the outside world. River probably should have worried about that, but she never did.”
River rarely worried about anything other than her family and giving away the secrets that she shouldn’t. As far as she was concerned she could get herself out of most everything and for everything else there was a Doctor about, even if it wasn’t one of the ones who knew her.
“What about you? Was it difficult for you to not have your parents have them as well?”
“If you ever need anything medical you can always come to me too. I’ve helped with quite a few dream related cases,” Such as Cosima’s illness and confirming Clara’s pause, for lack of a better word. “Don’t have to answer too many awkward questions when your doctor dreams too.”
She took a sip of her wine before shrugging a little, “When my accent bled over, my mom and sister didn’t really understand it and kept asking why I was putting on a fake British accent, but my brother thought it was cool.” It was a little strange, growing up in the states, but having a sudden British accent, “Luckily my family is in Boston, so I don’t have to answer too many questions too often.”
Well, if there was someone here who could tend to her odd physiology, it was Martha Jones, and River smiled. “I’ll be pleased to call you my doctor, Martha.” The smile was bright and genuine and she took another sip of her wine, understanding the whole accent bits. Sometimes it was difficult to keep straight for her, and she was used to it far more than Martha was.
“Well, that’s one good thing. So shall we go into the yard and see what you can get up to with my sonic and another glass of wine?” Which sounded dirtier than it meant to, and River chuckled, shaking her head before holding her hand out to Martha in a way that was very the Doctor. “Come along, Jones.”