entrancelogs | hope for continuous motion

Entry tags:

hope for continuous motion

Who: Luke Smith and Martha Jones
Where: Floor 8, room 42
When: Super super backdated to 18/06, the evening after the shadow event.
Rating: A totally appropriate PG, I'm sure.
Summary: Luke makes good on his promise to fill Martha in on his home life.
The Story:

Tuesday evening finds Luke loitering outside Martha’s door, working up the courage to knock. Their last conversation took a sour turn, with his shadow picking at them both. It had been spiteful in a way Luke hadn’t realised he could be, and left him feeling emotionally battered by the end of their talk. Judging from Martha’s queasy expression when she’d cut the feed, it hadn’t been much better for her.

With other people it hadn’t been so raw, or so personal. His shadow was pretty bad, but if there’s one thing the event taught him, it’s that everyone cared more about what their own shadows were saying. And a few comments about murder or some snippy backtalk could be ignored if you were determined enough.

But it hadn’t worked that way with Martha. Their problems had stuck together like a Venn diagram. The Doctor. Their families. That stupid thing he had to go and say about UNIT. They’d both gotten defensive, and it had all ended up as a disaster. ‘I should hear things from the start’, she’d said, like she’d deserved to know all along. Maybe she did. Maybe it was wrong to hide things from her, but having to do it this way unnerved him. With Clara he’d tried to bring it up casually, simply one of many childhood anecdotes he felt like telling. Here, with Martha, it had turned into this whole big admission he had to make. Something serious he’d been lying about.

But that’s all self-pity and excuses, he tells himself sternly. Martha deserves an apology. That has to be done, whatever else happens. And talking to her is only as big a deal as he makes it. It’s not like her curiousity is one-sided. There’s loads of things he wants to know about her. Her adventures with the Doctor, her work with UNIT. He’s almost certain her shadow was going to say something before Martha cut it off, and some sick part of him is desperate to know what happened to her family. Whether it was anything like what happened to his.

He takes a moment to collect himself, and find a smile. Martha’s not someone he has to be wary of. It should be fun spending a little while getting to know her. And that's what he tells himself as he knocks a ragged tune on her door.

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It's not often that Martha gets callers at her actual room. Most people come to see her in the clinic, and she generally prefers that because her room has become a place where she can go and unwind and get away from everything for a while. Not that she has any problem with inviting people over, but it hasn't come up -- she usually goes out to their rooms instead of the other way around.

So the knock is a surprise, but only a brief one. It's not as if she's forgotten her conversation with Luke the day before, and they'd even talked about meeting up afterward in order to sort everything out. She'd had a few painful conversations with people over the course of the weekend, but it could be argued that the one with Luke was the worst. Owen's had been pretty terrible as well. It's no surprise that the worst results came from speaking to those she knows from home.

Not that she knows Luke all that well, and that's the problem, isn't it? Martha's confident that they can sort things out, though. She realizes it's going to be a bit awkward, but she's hoping that they can move past that quickly.

She stands up and opens the door, smiling genuinely at Luke before she steps aside to let him in. Her room is rather ordinary, as it simply takes after her one from back home. It's colorful and organized, but not completely neat. She's got some papers scattered out across a desk and a few jackets strewn around, along with some books from the library sitting in various places.

"Thank you for coming," she says as she shuts the door. "And I'm sorry for everything that I and that... thing said yesterday."

He ignores her apology in favour of inspecting her living quarters, starting from the ceiling and working his way down. Rooms are easy to understand. Easier than people, and Martha's is full of normal things. She hasn't tried to create something beautiful or whimsical, like some of the stranger places he's seen in Wonderland. It's a practical space for a practical person, he decides, and that puts him at ease.

"You didn't do anything bad," he says at last, eyes skimming over the room's layout one last time before turning back to Martha. All she's guilty of is nosiness, and after four years under the same roof as an investigative journalist, Luke can cope with a little of that.

"It was mostly me. All that stuff he came out with. UNIT and that. It wasn't on."

Considering how the rest of Martha's life tends to go, she likes to keep her room as ordinary as possible. Even back home, there isn't much UNIT paraphernalia hanging about. She tries to see to it that there's a separation between work and home, because the last thing she needs is some alien following her back to her flat.

Luke seems interested in the room at first, but he doesn't make his opinion clear either way, probably because there's not all that much for him to comment on. Martha pulls out the desk chair for him and motions for him to sit on it while she goes and flops down onto the bed.

"It's fine," she says. "They were both trying to find weak points and hit on them." And it seems that they succeeded, with how both of them felt at the end of that conversation. "And Luke, I also want to be clear... you don't need to tell me anything you don't want to." It's not as if she can make him, of course, but she hopes that he isn't doing this purely out of obligation.

Martha takes a casual position, so he turns the chair around and sits on top of his foot, propping his hands and chin on the backrest. He bounces the heel of his trainer against the leg, his one concession to how nervous he feels.

"It's fine," he says, mirroring her. It's the easiest conversational choice. "I'd have to tell you anyway. If I got sick." He likes Helen, Owen and Whale, but Sarah Jane's told him to only trust Martha in a medical crisis. His mum is paranoid about normal hospitals, keeps him away from Torchwood, won't even let UNIT know he exists. Martha's a friend of the Doctor. And it still took Sarah Jane three years to decide she was okay.

Luke trusts more easily than his mum does. The Martha in front of him is younger than the one he knows, but he doesn't think this is something that would have changed about her. It's vanity and anxiety that keeps him quiet about this. "You should probably know before I'm having an aneurism and you have no clue what's going on."

At least Luke does a decent job of making himself at home. Not that her room is all that good for having guests. Maybe she should change that -- but then again, she doesn't necessarily plan on making a habit of this. It's usually easier to meet up elsewhere, that's all.

She's about to offer to make tea, because that's simply what you do in a situation like this, but then Luke speaks up and completely derails her from that thought. She's already picked up that Luke's not exactly human, but the idea that he could get sick and she'd have a mystery on her hands is alarming.

"An aneurysm? So what is it, then, Luke? If it's something that could become a health problem eventually, then I definitely need to know." It's a bit safer for her to fall into a professional mode to talk about this, although Martha isn't nearly as strict about that sort of thing as someone like Whale. She takes the health of her friends very seriously, though, and she wants to be fully informed about Luke's condition.

"I don't normally." He's being a bit of a prick. This is the sort of endless hinting that would drive him crazy if their positions were reversed. "Get sick. It's not something I do."

He should have realised earlier that there's a difference between normal people and the Doctor’s assistants. Normal people don’t go around looking for aliens. You can fudge the truth and they’ll write it off as a weird joke, a mental disorder, or an allusion to a crappy childhood. Martha's quicker. He knows she knows. That should make it easier, but now he's at this point, he can't spit it out. It's humiliating to have someone waiting for you to explain all the ways you're not normal. He can't even think of how to start. Hey, Martha, you know how you've been abducted by a crazy megalomaniac who stole your genetic material and made an evil mirror clone? Well, wacky coincidence, but...

"Do you remember- it would have been a few months ago for you. Just before the Daleks. Do you remember Ashley Stafford? That kid with amnesia who got kidnapped?"

She might not. Martha could have been travelling with the Doctor at the time, or off on a mission, but it had been all over the news for weeks. One of several weird child kidnapping stories of the late 2000s. The Guardian had written columns reflecting on a society where a working class boy could go missing and get adopted by an ageing and isolated suburban millionaire, a woman so privileged and disturbed she'd never bothered asking where her new son had come from. "Thought the fairies left him," was a phrase that'd got thrown around a lot. The tabloids had focused more on the "Amnesiac boy stockholm'd by old bat with violent arrest record; rejects real parents" aspect. And no one, not even the police, could work out why the Stafford's vanished into thin air after a couple of days.

"Well. I'm Ashley. He was me."

Martha gets the feeling that Luke doesn't mean to say that he simply has a good immune system. It's got to be more than that, and she certainly does feel teased, but she keeps her mouth shut, waiting for him to come out with it in his own way. Chances are that he's only telling her this because of what the shadow said, so Martha's aware that she has to be delicate about it.

The way he starts things off, though, is not what she'd been expecting. She's not sure what exactly she'd thought he would say, but bringing up something about a missing boy from the papers hadn't even made the list. She does remember it, in that the name was floating around in the news for a while, but it hadn't been on her radar beyond that.

Apparently it should have been.

Martha glances over at him as soon as he allows the other shoe to drop, eyes widening for a moment before she frowns. An amnesiac boy drawn away from his real family and then he turns up with one of the Doctor's ex-companions. There's still a lot of detail missing. "I can only guess that the Staffords weren't actually your parents," she says after a pause. The amnesia was the larger concern. What had he been before that? Before Ashley Stafford?

Luke can't talk about his life as a progressive story. He has to group it into logical categories, and if he can paste a half-amusing joke on top, all the better. Narration overwhelms him with memories, and Luke's brain has never worked out how time is meant to dull pain. The last thing he needs to do is start crying. Then Martha would really know he was a freak.

He doesn't make eye contact, but he's hyperaware of his audience. How Martha's sitting, her expression. Every susurration of movement is catalogued and stored, to get picked over and analysed. Her surprise -he assumes it's surprise- only lasts a moment before she's all business again. When she skips the 'how' or 'why', and draws exactly the right conclusion, he breaks out a grin like she's the most successful contestant on the gameshow. Of course she'd be two steps ahead of his story already.

"Yep. They faked it all. Birthdays. Biological parents. Told me I was a Chelsea supporter, which was my first clue they were nuts." His laugh is weak and self-aware. Such a random anecdote must sound ridiculous out of context, but at the time it was painful information to receive. Part of the sick mind game the Staffords had played, convincing him that Ashley had been the complete opposite to Luke's twisted personality. Charming, sporty, rascally. Normal. Now, it was one of the very few parts of that day in which he could find humour.

"They were Slitheen. Wanted revenge on the Doctor, destroy the earth, whatever." Luke expects her to empathise with exasperation at aliens and their petty racisms and insane schemes. Londoners tend to believe in the grumble-or-else-you'll-cry approach to invasions. "'Course, we waded right into the firing line. Turns out I don't have real parents. Or a past, or... I was seven months old when we fought the Daleks."

Edited 2013-07-08 15:19 (UTC)

With the way that Luke's eyeing her, Martha can tell that he's waiting for every tiny reaction she might have. It's difficult feeling like she's under a lens like that, but she does her best to come across as relaxed, shifting back until she's leaning against the wall that her bed is pressed up against. She wants Luke to feel comfortable speaking about this, no matter how difficult it may be to discuss.

Amnesia is always a bad sign of something else that's gone on, though she can't blame Luke for not figuring it out at first. How could he have known any better? It was natural to trust someone's parents, after all. Martha hasn't interacted with the slitheen herself, but she's heard plenty about them and the idea of having a pair of them as fake parents is horrific.

She manages a laugh at the Chelsea comment, mainly to set him at ease. "The Doctor does tend to cause almost as many problems as he solves, doesn't he?" she remarks with a sigh. She doesn't mean it as an insult. It's the truth, though, and the fact that Luke got caught up in that isn't fair.

"So then... how did you come to be?" Was it the Slitheen's doing? Martha finds it hard to believe that they would be capable of something like that, but she may be underestimating them due to the fact that they're farting aliens. All Martha knows is that whatever Luke is, he's a good person. She doesn't need to know the details to decide that; it's more that she feels it's something she should be aware of if she wants to be his friend.

Martha is taking this all very easily, and while he's grateful that she's not prying, it surprises him. He'd pictured her being like his mum: nosy and questioning every detail. Either she's incredibly discreet, or she's had the misfortune of meeting the Slitheen before. He does quirk an eyebrow at the comment about the Doctor, amused to hear such a statement from another old assistant. There's a story there. Probably lots of stories. Like any other child who grow up hearing about the Doctor, he regards him as a cross between a superhero and a batty uncle, and primarily as a source of interesting exploits. Luke's dying to ask Martha about her adventures. But first he has to address the question he should have answered five minutes ago.

"Mrs Wormwood." He hushes out the name, half-afraid that invoking it will cause the woman herself to appear. "Ever seen a picture of Cthulhu? She's a bit like that, but with more tentacles and less sanity."

He hunches his shoulders, staring vacantly at a spot on the wall besides Martha's shoulder. All these years and he still can't shake this bone-deep fear of the woman who made him. "Her and her family. They were going to enslave us. Eat us. They were feeding us chemicals, but they couldn't figure out how to make humans totally obedient. So they started doing experiments." He spreads his hands as if to say ta da, glancing at Martha uneasily. "Human experiments."

That description of the Doctor is more or less spot on as far as Martha's concerned. Maybe not as much of a superhero as someone who hasn't traveled with him would picture, but he has saved plenty of lives. That need to help others is part of the reason that Martha fell for him, all that time ago. Along with the fact that he'd been charming and swept her off her feet, but that's not something she's going to discuss with Luke any time soon.

The name isn't one Martha knows, but she can only assume it was the alias that a Slitheen took on. A rather nasty one, from the sounds of it. And it seems that she did underestimate them, if they'd gone so far as to experiment on humans.

"That's horrible," she says with a deep frown, covering her mouth as she tries to imagine the terrors that Luke must have endured. Even if he might not remember them (she's a little uncertain on those details), just knowing that it happened must be bad enough. "So if you're seven months old, or were at that point, at least... does that mean they created you and then the whole amnesia bit with the fake parents was the experiment?"

It seems like she's missing a part of the story, or perhaps she's put the pieces together in the wrong order. But they've come this far, which means that she might as well get it all straight now. She can hardly believe that the Slitheen would go so far as to grow their own humans, and she has no idea how they even managed such a thing. Are there others like Luke out there?

Now there's a worst-case scenario that almost makes him appreciate Mrs Wormwood's offbeat approach to motherhood. It's so crazy, it brings a genuine smile to his face. "I wasn't made by the Slitheen!" he protests. "I'm not that messed up. Mrs Wormwood was Bane." Not that that'll mean much to her. The Bane infiltrating UNIT will be a whole year into her future.

The time for avoiding the subject has passed. It's like throwing vinegar on someone. You just have to do it and worry about your laundry bill later. If only he had a cup of tea that he could fidget with.

"And I was the experiment. She wanted to make human biology compatible with hers, find out why some people didn't like the drink she was selling them. Wanted me to be the perfect human. Took my brain apart until I wasn't a person any more, just bits and pieces of other people. Can't dream, can't feel emotion properly. Can't stand on one leg. I can kill things. She made me really good at killing things. All for the sake of improving her recipe. My whole existence was a simpler alternative to mailing out a survey."

It's the genetically engineered equivalent to parents bringing out the naked baby pictures. Owing your life to an attempt to improve a fizzy drink, even if it was a drink made of bits of aliens that brainwashed most of Britain. He swipes a hand over his face in embarrassment, giving Martha a look that says he knows it all sounds ridiculous.

"Could've been worse. My sister was a living bomb. She never had a chance. Sky." He makes sure to say her name with all the gravitas she deserves. Mourning Sky doesn't come easily to him. It feels distant, but at the same time clogs in his chest until his eyes start to water. "Synthetic DNA makes you stronger, but it's easier to manipulate? You can do a lot of weird things to us that'd kill a normal person. And no one brings someone to life in a laboratory out of the goodness of their heart, do they? It was a slice and dice and discard the leftovers situation. It always is."

At least they've gotten to the point where Luke's just setting out all of the details for her and she doesn't need to try and piece it together from vague comments. On one hand, Martha doesn't know if it was right to wring it out of him like that. On the other, it's a relief to have it all out in the open like this.

She's never heard of the Bane, but the name on its own makes it clear that they're not the type of alien species you want to get tangled up with. Adding to that the whole human-creation-slash-experimentation bit, and Martha's hoping that she'll remember this conversation whenever she goes home, so she can keep an eye out for these things.

Some of it sounds ridiculous -- mainly this Mrs. Wormwood's motives -- but the actual things that Luke was put through, those are no laughing matter. He's got the sort of quirky personality that had made her assume he was just a very clever young man, maybe even a genius type, and she would have never known that there was far more to the story than that. She should have asked the Doctor about it, but there just hadn't been time, what with the Daleks trying to destroy the entire universe and all that.

There are parts about this that she wants to protest. Luke seems to feel emotion, judging from her interactions with him. And he doesn't strike her as a killer, either. But in the end, what does she really know about him? Just a handful of conversations, at this point. It does put his last network message into proper context, though, and she wants to kick herself for the way she approached it.

And then it just gets worse, with what he says about her sister. Martha's doing her best not to look horrified, but honestly, how can she help it? She's seen plenty, she's dealt with the Toclafane, but no one really gets used to hearing things like this. Or they shouldn't, anyway.

"I'm so sorry, Luke." The words fall flat. She doesn't know what to say. "Thank you for telling me. I know it can't be easy. But if you ended up with Sarah Jane, then I know that you've made the best of things." Just because he was artificially created doesn't mean that he can't make the most out of his life. Doesn't matter if he's synthetic or not, he's still human as far as she's concerned. "You're more than a shadow -- you know that, don't you?" He shouldn't compare himself to those things. Luke is nothing like them.

"Mum's the most amazing person ever. She made me good." All the pride and love he feels for Sarah Jane is tangled in the fact it's been two months since he's seen her. It's the longest time he's ever gone without her. And after scrutinising Martha's reaction, he can only tell that she looks upset, which is something he didn't want. It's the reason he's skated over the parts of these stories where thousands of people died. "Do you want some tea?" he offers, leaning forward in express sympathy. It's her room, so he can't exactly sort it out for her without being rude, but it'd give both of them something cheerful to focus on.

Of course, Luke's problem has never been a lack. If anything, he appears overemotional. Everything he feels shows up on his face, sometimes deliberately exaggerated like he's got something to prove. It's the tricky business of feeling the right things at the right time. He's apathetic when he should be sympathetic, excited when other people are crying over Dalek invasions. The fear's always too strong and the horror is never strong enough.

And then she brings up the shadows, and he does find it weird that so many people are focused on telling him he's somehow different. Clara said that, too, and he's not sure what either of them are basing their assumptions on. "Why?"

Just in case it's a question without an answer, he tacks on a joke. "No, you're right. I'm more like the people behind the mirrors." After some thought, it's become very important to him that he doesn't call them plain 'mirrors', like some do. Whatever they might be, whether they even care what they get called, talking about them like they're objects can't be a good thing.

"It's really okay, Doctor Jones. I know no one else agreed with me about them. It's fine."

Martha has no doubt that Sarah Jane is the most amazing person ever. She's not going to argue with that. In fact, she wishes that she'd had more opportunity to get to know Sarah Jane a bit better. Another companion who survived her travels with the Doctor, and many years beyond that -- Martha has to admit she'd be curious to hear those stories.

At the mention of tea, Martha jumps up from her bed in a rush and practically trips on her way over to the counter and the tea kettle. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I should have offered when you first arrived!" She really should know better. Her mum would have been appalled at her manners. She gets the hot water kettle going as quick as she can and then turns herself around and leans against the counter, giving Luke her full attention once more.

The fact that he has to ask "why" worries her. Can't he see it for himself? Can't he see the difference? And even comparing himself to one of the mirrors just isn't right. Martha doesn't want to push the point, but the words spill out. "You're your own person. You have a shadow, you have a mirror, that's because you're just like the rest of us."

At this point, it seems like she's carrying on the conversation only to relieve herself of the guilt, though, and so she tries to settle down. "I hope you'll accept my apology all the same," she says after a pause.

The way Martha dashes across the room at the suggestion of tea earns a grin. He's out of his seat to assist her, but she's well ahead of him and there's not really much else to do once the kettle's filled. He winds up opposite her, fiddling with the hem of his scarf. Standing upright in the middle of the room is not the most casual position to carry on a conversation, but long years of talking with the giant computer hidden in the chimney have given him enough practice to make it look easy.

"Only if you accept mine," is his response to Martha's apology, not quite sure what she's referring to, but wanting to be polite. She's done nothing but listen and ask fewer questions than Luke would in her position, so he's happy to brush it off if it makes her feel better. "And thanks. For saying that."

Despite all his theoreticals and principles, it really is a relief to hear that Martha still thinks he's normal. Even Sarah Jane doesn't often include Luke in the category of 'just like the rest of us'. But while the sentiment is appreciated, her justification is difficult to follow. 'Us' is a group that includes a number of normal humans, but there's also Time Lords, fictional characters and personified countries walking around Wonderland. Debating at what point anyone here starts or stops being their own person seems impossible.

"There's so much stuff in the universe we don't understand. I guess I don't get how people can wind up in a nowhere dimension and act like they know how everything works." Especially when half of them are explaining it away with magic. He shrugs, giving Martha a lopsided smile. He doesn't want to argue it out with her, not really, so he tries to shift them onto the topic he's deathly curious about. "Did you ever go anywhere like this when you were with the Doctor?"

It may not be all that clear what they're apologizing for anymore, but the fact is that some hurtful words were exchanged while their shadows were around, so Martha prefers to smooth things over. It seems like everything's sorted between them now, which she's grateful for. The more that she knows about Luke, the easier it is to feel close to him. She can just picture the Doctor spiriting him away in his TARDIS. Martha gets the feeling Luke would make a wonderful companion.

She doubts that Sarah Jane would ever allow such a thing, though. Not when she knows just how dangerous it gets. Martha doesn't have any children, but if she did, she doubts she'd let them travel with that madman. Which makes her a bit of a hypocrite, because she hadn't exactly been open to her mum's concerns at the time.

It's difficult not to take Luke's next comment as a subtle insult, but Martha does her best not to. She doesn't think that she wanders around acting as if she understands how it all works, but she has accepted magic as an explanation already. Mainly because of what she's seen some of her friends do. She can't decide if accepting it is open-minded of her, or ignorant, but she'd rather not argue about it either.

"Most everything still feels like a mystery to me," Martha admits. "Don't really like feeling that way, but with how often things happen here, I suppose it's inevitable." As for her travels with the Doctor, well, she has to take a moment to think that through. "Nothing quite like this, no," she says. "Even for someone like me, a lot of this is brand new."

Martha would be right. Sarah Jane is very against Luke gallivanting off with the Doctor. Not entirely because of the danger involved, but because of what comes after. Being left behind. Sarah Jane walked a path to paranoia and reclusivity that she's only just beginning to emerge from. After four years of coping with the fallout (and there have been a lot of consequences to Sarah Jane's days with the Doctor) traveling the universe doesn't appeal to Luke as much as it did when he was younger.

What Luke is, of course, is oblivious to the idea that he could have insulted Martha. He's too far absorbed in his own anxieties to be able to place himself in the shoes of people who don't think like him. And for all his talk about not jumping to conclusions, he's hypocritically close-minded about what falls too far outside his understanding. All the evidence in the world couldn't convince Luke that the mansion is magic. It's not something he's willing to consider.

He reacts with subdued disappointment when Martha doesn't have a thrilling story of dimension-hopping, and doesn't immediately start regaling him with another adventure. "I have. Once with the Doctor, too. He said he did stuff like this all the time." Which makes it troubling that no one's seen him for a few weeks now. Luke doesn't want to think that Wonderland's beaten him, he's still clinging to the hope that the Doctor knows what he's doing. "He must be off moping somewhere."

It's a jump in topics, but he's betting that the Doctor's reclusive behaviour is on her mind. The other companions he's spoken to have certainly made a point of mentioning it. "I don't think he likes having more than one assistant around at a time," he says, dropping to a playfully conspiratorial tone, like he's sharing the world's worst-kept secret. "I don't think he likes answering questions about why he hasn't dropped by for tea in twenty years."

Martha, on the other hand, isn't all that close-minded. Not when she sees something with her own eyes. She'd prefer a scientific explanation for the things that take place here, of course, and she hasn't completely ruled out that possibility, but the fact is that nothing has been offered up so far. She's seen people heal others with their hands, she's met angels, she's even watched one heal from a cut she inflicted during that event she does her best not to remember. It's gotten to a point where she can't simply stick her fingers in her ears and insist that these things aren't possible.

But Luke went on an adventure with the Doctor? Martha brightens at that, wanting to hear more about it, because she could never tire of stories about the Doctor. It's no real surprise that Luke's done a bit of traveling with him, seeing how his mother is a close friend.

Right as she's going to ask for more details, though, Luke mentions the fact that the Doctor has hardly been around, and her shoulders slump. Of course Martha's noticed. She's kept an eye out for him, checked his room, and while everything's still there, she always misses him. It's like he's actively avoiding her -- and maybe Luke's right, maybe he is. It's a hurtful thing, because what Martha would like is at least a word or two of explanation.

She already has a guess, of course. She's a reminder of his past, of a time that he wants to leave behind. He'd seemed happy enough to see her at first, but maybe that had worn off over time. Martha doesn't want to see him as a stranger simply because he's got a new face, but the Doctor's making it difficult not to. "I wonder... maybe you're right," she says, her gaze drifting down to the floor. The kettle starts to whine and she spins toward it, finding that much easier to focus on. She grabs for a pair of cups and sets the teabags inside, pouring the hot water over them so they can steep. "I just wish he would at least speak to me."

He's not surprised by Martha's downtrodden response. He wasn't aiming to upset her, was trying to make a joke, but everyone's always waiting for the Doctor. Luke doesn't know what's going on with him, but he thinks it's been a long, long time since the Doctor's seen any of them. Something awful must be weighing on his mind. It's the only way he can justify the Doctor casually dismissing Luke and Clyde and Rani without completely destroying his faith in the man.

"Two sugars, please, Doctor Jones." There's nothing like a finished kettle to distract British people from their troubles. The bustle of teamaking gives him an excuse to collect his thoughts. He doesn't know why she left the Doctor, but he knows most people don't go easily. Sometimes they choose to leave, to start families and live new, better lives, but probability isn't on Martha's side. Coming up with something aimed at comforting her would be wading into a minefield of potentially traumatic issues, so he speaks evenly and factually, and searches for a better explanation. One that doesn't involve anything jokingly personal, in case Martha turns out to be like Amy or Donna or Sarah Jane.

"Time doesn't work the same when you're outside the universe. These places cancel out artron energy. It's why the TARDIS can't come here." He thinks it is, at least. The Doctor had agreed with him, so either that's the explanation, or he's too stupid and human to understand the real one. He gives Martha a tender smile, spreading his hands in a short, clumsy shrug. "Probably thrown his internal clock off? I bet he'll turn up in a few weeks, proper confused about why we're all mad at him for vanishing."

Two sugars. Right. That, she can do. Martha reaches out and prepares Luke's cup as planned, whereas she gives her own about the same amount, along with a dollop of honey. Nothing wrong with a bit of sweetness, is there?

Luke's explanation actually sounds like it might make a bit of sense, but Martha sees it exactly for what it is -- an attempt on his part to make her feel better about the whole thing. Martha probably shouldn't take the Doctor's actions personally. She never should have, even back when they'd been traveling, but it had been so difficult not to, and it seems that hasn't worn off completely, even now.

She's thankful to Luke for recognizing well enough to offer a consolation, though, and she nods and smiles at him. "That would be just like him, wouldn't it? Just shows up all of a sudden without a clue as to why the lot of us are all so worried." It's the sort of thing that drives her mad, and it's just another example of why she couldn't stay with him. If anything, this whole experience has reminded her why she left, painful as it had been.

Martha picks up Luke's teacup and hands it over carefully, smiling at him as she does so. "Thank you," she says quietly, and she doubts she has to explain why she's saying it.

He smiles to see her whack some honey in her cup. It's not the expected way to take tea, and it'd probably horrify Luke's very traditionally English mother, but the touch of whimsy suits Martha. The idea that someone who fights Daleks and saves the world and is generally the epitome of cool has a sweet tooth tickles him.

It also sounds like she's got some experience in the Doctor messing her around. He pulls his sleeves over the heels of his hands in order to take the cup, taking that first mouth-burning sip with an upward glance and a slight nod to acknowledge her thanks. Luke knows he's about as subtle as a brick to the head, so it doesn't surprise him that she's seen right through him. He's just glad she's not offended that he tried to comfort her at all.

"At least he's great at planning a holiday? Going to space must be amazing." It's a blatant attempt to both find a happier topic and fish for stories about Martha's adventures, but she can read him so easily, he's not going to bother disguising his interest. "I'm not allowed. Been grounded by the Judoon."

He bites his lip, sheepish and aware Martha might have heard of the universe police, and totally know that getting your interstellar travelling rights revoked by them basically amounts to a space ASBO. "I really hope being here doesn't count as travelling off-planet. You ever met them? Don't think they're into extenuating circumstances."

Martha most definitely has a sweet tooth. Chocolate is about her favorite thing is the world, even if she does what she can to limit her intake of it. It's difficult here, with the diner and the closets more than willing to provide, but she's decent enough at exerting self control.

She raises an eyebrow when Luke takes a sip of the tea almost instantly. That's bold. She blows on her own a few times before testing it, and while it's hot going down her throat, it's in a soothing way. She drifts back over to the bed and sits down on it, relieved to have reached a more lighthearted part of the conversation.

Except... Luke seems to be serious about being grounded by the Judoon. Martha stares at him for a few seconds, a mix of baffled and appalled, before speaking up. "Well, if you make it back home and they start to give you trouble, then you just contact me. Even if it's me in the future, I'll know what to do. I've handled the Judoon before." Martha winks at him and takes another sip of her tea.

She'd like to know what Luke did to even warrant being grounded in the first place, but she'll ask about that soon enough. It's not a story he's going to wriggle his way out of telling, now that he's mentioned it. And if he wants to know about her interactions with the Judoon, then that seems like a fair enough trade.

That is an impressive offer, and he responds to her confidence with a delighted laugh that's touched with scepticism. He doesn't doubt her. He's just stunned that there's anyone who could come between the Judoon and their bloody-minded devotion to upholding the law. Or that anyone who'd met them would be willing to intervene on his behalf. In his experience, the best way to handle them was to not get involved in the first place.

"You would seriously do that?" All the earlier tension between them gets forgotten as he folds up on the edge of her bed. Maybe he's taking her a little more seriously then she intended, but her casual gesture has flipped a switch. One that separates an adult who's kept at a respectful distance from a friend whose personal space is now a little less personal. At least he's careful to keep his trainers off her sheets.

"We are talking about the same Judoon, right? Giant rhinoceroses? Ruthlessly execute anyone who opposes them? Where do you learn to deal with that?"

"Well, provided they don't have a good reason for wanting to keep you on Earth, anyway." Martha revises her statement with a smile and a playful wink. She scoots over to make certain that Luke has more than enough room on the bed, taking another sip of her tea as she nods in response to his first four questions. She doubts there's another alien species out there called the Judoon. In fact, the Judoon would probably prosecute any other species that stole their name, knowing them.

"And... it's not as if I can necessarily convince them to remove that order, but the best way to deal with the Judoon is by tricking them somehow." It seems that she'll be getting into details of her encounter with them whether Luke wants her to or not. But who doesn't like a good story?

"When I dealt with them, they were going through an entire hospital searching for any non-humans. Which meant that once they scanned someone and determined that person was human, they'd mark them on their hand. An alien who was present shifted its appearance to look like one of the humans there. Since that human had already been marked, they wouldn't bother checking her hand again.

"The Judoon are thorough, but they're also very regimented. If you think outside of the box a bit, you can wriggle around their laws." Martha shrugs and leans back, letting out a sigh. That was some time ago, but the memories are still clear as day. "Worth a shot, anyway."

He tuts and pretends offense when she suggests there could be any reason to keep him on earth, arching an eyebrow like he's seen Clara do a million times. It's an effective dismissal. One that would be even more effective if he could keep from chuckling, but never mind. It's disappointing that Martha doesn't have enough clout with them to remove the order entirely, but it's not like Luke's planning to go anywhere further than Cardiff.

When Martha brings up her strategy, his expression twists in visible consideration. "Bluffing isn't really my strong suit," he says slowly. He'd spent most of his time with the Judoon playing amateur intergalactic lawyer, trying to convince them of all the legal reasons they weren't guilty of breaking any Shadow Proclamation acts. It hadn't been a terribly good strategy. Martha sounds like she could be that creative, but he's never really mastered tricking aliens. It's a little worrying to learn that the Judoon are that easily fooled.

"But they actually came to your hospital? They're not supposed to be allowed on Earth." He leans forward, balancing his tea in his lap. It's a weird set-up she's created, and not just because the Judoon were barred from their planet a century ago. She must have worked at a hospital as a student, so was this before she met the Doctor? "So you tricked them? Into looking at her again?"

Chances are there isn't anyone in the entire universe that would have enough clout to convince the Judoon to not do something to their faces. It's why Martha's strategy involves tricking them into allowing something, because that's honestly the only way to get away with things when it comes to those rhinoceros men.

It looks like she left out the most important detail about that little story, didn't she? Martha smirks at Luke over her cup of tea, watching him closely as she speaks so that she can judge his reaction. "That's because we weren't on Earth. The Judoon actually transported the entire hospital to the moon so that they could conduct their search."

Which is how she met the Doctor, in fact. While she has no idea how the other companions met him, she thinks that her story must rank pretty highly in the ranks of "maddest ways to meet him." She hopes so, anyway. "Well, it was clever, because even if they scanned her, she would come up human because she'd assimilated a human's blood. But the Doctor tricked her into drinking his blood, and then I convinced the Judoon to scan her again." Which was simple enough, seeing how the Doctor had been dead on the floor at the time. "Then she came up as alien, obviously."

Which hadn't even been the end of that whole mess, but Martha doesn't want to go overboard with the details.

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