The Waking of the Eternal Nightmare

Disclaimer: Just a quick hypothetical? If I said I woned Doctor Who...would the BBC sue me? Yes...oh...damn...then I don't own them...but...you have no idea how much I want to!!

Summary: Just a little bit of a detour...that took a long time to end. As the Doctor would put it...the scenic route. Was meant to be just a one shot...but...sort of blew out. Hopefully it was worth it...all those hours...I wrote down the hard copy...A4 book...three pens ran out on this story...57 A4 pages long this is. In reality...hopefully, as I said it was worth it. I suppose that I'll dedicate it to those brave three pens that tragically lost their ink in this venture...lest we forget...well...I'm rambling. Sorry! Off you go...and don't forget to review...every writer likes reviews...every writer...despite how awful their stories or poems are...deserve a review. It takes courage to put things like this in front of you lot...you at the keyboard there...so be nice!

The car came to a screeching halt, flinging both the Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness forward in their seats.

They both began to complain under their breath, rubbing their sore chests and glancing angrily at Martha, but she couldn't care less.

In fact, she wasn't aware of anything other than the scene unfolding before her outside the front of the car.

Her mother was being pushed and shoved towards a waiting lock up van, struggling as she went.

Despite not being close enough to actually hear what was saying, she could tell her mother was angry and was venting that anger at those that were around her, screaming and swearing.

Martha couldn't move.

She didn't understand what was happening.

Why were they taking her mother?

What had she done wrong?

Where was her father?

What had happened?

What had her friendship with the Doctor caused?

Suddenly, her mother spotted her in the silver car, at the end of the street.

For a moment they looked at each other, sharing a moment of utter fear through a tacit connection that could only exist between mother and daughter.

Then, Francine Jones, began screaming at her daughter.

Again Martha couldn't hear what was being said, but she instinctively knew that her mother was telling her to run for her life and never look back.

How could Martha do that? She wondered to herself, amidst the fear that rolled around in her mind.

She couldn't leave those her poor old mother to her fate.

By that time the small silver car had attracted attention, not from just her mother, but from everyone else at the scene.

Jack made a small noise in the back, almost like an 'uh-oh' but she wasn't paying attention to anyone.

She saw the men in black, who she deemed to be SWAT or something of the like turn to her, with their guns raised.

"Martha…..turn the car around" The Doctor spoke, his voice clear and loud in her head.

He was sitting up straight in his seat, his hands pressed against the dashboard, pushing against it.

He didn't look to comfortable with the situation at hand or the fact that Martha didn't obey him straight away.

He looked even less uncomfortable when the sub machine guns in the hands of the SWAT began to fire; the bullets smashing into the car.

With a scream of absolute fear and raging anger, Martha reached down, put the car into reverse and slammed her foot on the accelerator.

All she could think of was that she was leaving her mother, perhaps her father too. In that moment she felt like a coward, running from the trouble, even if it was under the instruction of her mother and the Doctor.

A grimace formed on her face as the car seemed to crawl to the corner. It wasn't going fast enough.

That fact was proven when the windshield shattered and in the space of about half a second, there was a grunt from Jack, who was thrown backward into his seat and a scream of pain from the Doctor who leaned forward.

Surprise over took her, quickly melting into shock and fear when she saw the Doctor clasping at a nasty gunshot wound in the chest. He was leaning well forward, almost curled in on himself around the source of the pain.

"Doctor!" she cried over the hail of bullets, barely able to hear herself.

"Just drive" she heard him manage through gritted teeth, and this time, she obeyed immediately.

She spun the car around, jammed it into drive and took off with her foot to the floor, suddenly only to eager to leave.

It occurred to her that whatever wounds that Jack and the Doctor had sustained, where her fault.

If she had not hesitated and sat there, thinking only of her family and nothing else, none of this would have happened.

It just further reaffirmed in her mind that the Doctor did indeed know best.

Taking her eyes off the road for a second, she glanced at the Doctor, listening to his ragged breathing, watching as he stayed in that half curled half uncurled position with his eyes wide and face pale.

He himself seemed to be in shock.

Upon sparing a glance at the wound, she turned her head away quickly. Blood was pouring over his hand, almost like there was no pressure being applied at all.

She didn't turn away because she was squeamish of blood, but she had never seen a Time Lord bleed before; more specifically she had never seen the Doctor bleed and it was very, very disconcerting.

Directly behind her, there was a shuddering gasp for air as Jack came back to life. She'd almost forgotten all about him in the panic.

"Jack!" she cried almost frantically.

There was a stubborn groan from him, as he sat up slowly with a hand to his head.

She kept an eye on him in the rear view mirror.

"What?" he said softly, with a hand against his head, squinting as his eyes readjusted to the light.

"Lay the Doctor down, pull the seat back so it's flat….you gotta put pressure on the wound." Martha spoke rapidly, hoping that Jack wouldn't ask what he had to do again.

She really didn't want to repeat herself.

Mercifully Captain Jack pulled the seat back, until it was flat.

Above a low moan from the Doctor, Jack sort of gasped.

"He's been shot!" He cried.

Martha gritted her teeth and held her tongue. She'd been so very tempted to berate him for being slow as he was, but she had no right, as it was all her fault.

She was distracted enough as it was without having to scream at Jack, and having Jack yell at her.

"I know….just…put pressure on it, and keep him awake" Martha ordered, keeping her voice as level as she could.

She couldn't help but cringe as the Doctor released an agonized groan as Jack's hands pressed down on his wound.

He wasn't ever meant to sound that, that wasn't a noise the Doctor ever made.

With a shake of her head, she concentrated as hard as she could on the road before her. She was trying so hard to fight the urge to turn around and embrace the Doctor, begging for his forgiveness.

"Martha….stop the car." Jack demanded abruptly from the back seat.

"What?!" Martha said incredulously.

"I said stop the car. Pull the car over and let me drive. I know a place we can go" Jack said.

Martha couldn't deny that she wanted to swap place with Jack, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to handle working on the Doctor like he was another patient in the hospital.

She'd known him for so long, and loved him for the same amount of time. It was like being asked to work on Leo after a car accident.

There would be no way that she could keep the pressure on the wound and know that she was causing him pain.

"I….I-I don't think I can" Martha stammered.

"Course you can Martha….just pull over….we'll go too slow if you drive." Jack said, his voice totally calm and collected.

Reluctantly, she slowly pulled over and got out of the car.

Jack had pretty much jumped out of the car soon as it stopped and followed her as she got into the backseat. He grabbed her hands and gently placed them on the wound.

Martha felt her stomach rebelling and she whimpered and tried to pull away.

"No, come on…you know what to do?" Jack asked gently.

"Y-yes…I'm a doctor…" she said softly.

"Good…..look. I know that you're uncomfortable….but you are saving his life….think of it that way Martha….you can do it….talk to him…as you said….keep him occupied to keep him awake and he'll keep your mind off it." Jack said, then darted off, and jumped into the front seat, closing the door and gunning the engine before taking off down the street.

Martha looked down on the Doctor's face, as she pressed a hand to his wound. Soon as she applied any sort of pressure, there was a moan from deep inside his throat and his slim body trembled under her hand.

To calm him, she supped his cheek with her hand.

He reacted to this, struggling to open his heavy eyelids and keep them open long enough to see, but he was failing and wasting precious energy in trying.

"It's me….it's only Martha" she soothed, her voice wobbling dangerously as tears pushed against the backs of her eyes.

A faint smile ghosted into his pale lips.

"….I could recognize those soft hands anywhere….Martha Jones" he murmured under his breath.

Martha smiled sadly in response to these words, and gently stroked his cheek with her thumb, reassuring him.

"I'm so sorry" she whispered sadly, shaking her head.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. Instead Martha head the gurgle at the back of his throat and before she could react properly, he choked.

His shoulders jerked as he began to cough, blood speckling his lips and coating the inside of his mouth.

Martha hesitated again, her heart pounding out of fear. Jack's calming words entered her head and she believed them.

She had to help him, he was weak and hurt and it was up to her. If she was ever going to truly prover her worth to him, she would have to do it now.

"…Just stay calm Doctor….just stay calm….don't panic." She soothed as if he were any other patient, continuing to stroke the side of his face as he convulsed and coughed and choked.

"What's going on?" Jack's commanding voice cut through Martha's mind and she looked up.

His ice blue eyes were gazing hard at her in the rear view mirror, concerned.

"Blood has soaked into his lungs and he's trying to get it back up. I just need to keep him calm or he'll drown." Martha explained in her most clinically professional way.

A single whimper of pain and fear caused Martha to look down on her beloved Doctor, watching as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and was now tracking across his cheek.

She bent lower to him, whispering words of comfort and peace, gently kissing his cooling forehead, trying to calm him.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he stilled. Pale and weak.

Barely conscious.

The struggle had robbed him of nearly all his strength and left him laying helplessly in the seat, breathing raggedly, with a distinct wet rattle in the back of his throat.

It was such a laboured sound, that for a moment, Martha feared that he would simply give in.

"Doctor….Doctor…..it's going to be alright…we've got you…its alright" Martha said softly.

She didn't expect him to respond, he would simply continued trying to stabilize himself.

He was so independent, always doing it by himself. With no or little help.

Not this time.

Martha wasn't going to let him try and recover alone. Regardless if he wanted help or not, Martha was going to help him, she was going to stitch him up, bandage the wounds, and be the hand he could hold when it got too bad.

Soon as Jack got them to this place that he knew, Martha would send him back out. He would go out, scouting for any sort of medical supplies that would make the recovery easier.

As she planned out what she would do to help the Doctor, she absent mindedly stroked his cheek with her thumb.

Her eyes caught sight of his lips, and with suddenly horror, she looked to Jack.

His lips were slightly blue, under the crimson flecks of blood.

"We gotta move faster Jack…he's not going to last much longer unless I get somewhere stable to work on him." Martha said.

Jack glanced at her through the rear view mirror, his ice blue eyes flashing a sort of half wary, half hampered manner.

"Nearly there, nearly there. Keep him talking" He said quickly, looking back at the road.

So, this is what Martha Jones did.

"Doctor….hey…Doctor look at me. Please…" Martha whispered.

But he remained still, his eyes shut tightly almost as if he were trying to keep out the pain.

Desperation clawed into Martha's voice, and tears began to well in her eyes.

"Doctor….please…I'm begging you….open your eyes…." Martha pleaded, tearfully.

Slowly, two deep brown puddles of chocolate opened, just slightly.

Gazing at her, pain ridden, but looking at her.

She sniffed bravely and looked at him sternly.

"You have got to talk to me…Please" Martha said softly.

"…M'so tired Martha….I….I-I need rest" the Doctor said under his breath.

"No! If you go to sleep….I…I can't promise that you'll wake up….and I'll never see you again…" Martha said, bordering on sobbing.

The Doctor looked up at Martha, the pain and weakness so obvious in his eyes. Martha just wanted to take it away from him, even if she had to endure it herself.

All she wanted to do was stop the pain for him, just so the look of agony would leave his eyes.

In her opinion, it had no place in him. He shouldn't even have been hurt in the first place.

"Martha….Jones. Doctor….Martha….Jones" he breathed, smiling a little.

It wasn't the type of smile that she wanted to see on his face, it was a sympathetic smile, the type that a parent gives an upset child, before they explained that there was nothing that they could do to help them.

"Doctor?" Martha asked uncertainly.

His eyes shifted, as he took in her face, but even that seemed to hurt him, a wave of agony washing over his dull eyes, mixing with the sorrow and fear.

The Doctor was afraid.

Not something that she was used to seeing in him, but it didn't belong in him, like the pain.

"I should…have seen you….should have….listened…more often. You're….amazing…so amazing…dear Martha…..I wasted time…should have looked." He mumbled unsteadily.

Martha frowned, suddenly realizing what he was trying to do. And she would have none of it, she wasn't letting him do this to her, not in this time of need.

He was trying, in a very articulate way to say good bye, without the words 'farewell'.

"No…I'm not having that….you keep fighting" Martha demanded, but the order didn't seem to be so much of an order, but more of a pleading.

That much was proven when he smiled wearily, his eyes flickering shut for a moment, and a few breaths later he opened them again.

"I'm too weak…can't….gotta say goodbye" he explained slowly.

"Just regenerate" Jack butted in, making Martha jump slightly.

She had forgotten the world around her.

She'd been so focused on trying to force the Doctor into living.

"No" the Doctor replied, and Jack actually turned.

There was anger and worry on his face not to mention confusion.

"What do you mean? No? No you won't?" Jack asked.

"No….can't" The Doctor said, looking toward Jack.

It was clear that Jack didn't understand, no one understood other than the Doctor, and he didn't seem very interested in spending what he deemed to be his last moments in this universe, explaining what was stopping from 'regenerating'.

The tears that had been threatening to fall from Martha's eyes finally managed to break through and roll down her face, and a pitiful sob escape from her throat.

All attention turned to her, Jack's eyes were on her through the rear view mirror and the Doctor was looking up at her.

"Sorry" The Doctor sighed.

"No. That's enough! No sorry Doctor!! You can't Doctor….you can't just leave us like that….it's not…fair….please! I love you….you can't just leave us…any one of us!!" Martha cried.

Her heart suddenly jumped into her throat as she recognized what she had just said.

Instantly she turned away, putting a hand over her mouth and shaking her head.

The Doctor was silent, his eyes on the roof and a slightly uncomfortable look plastered on her face.

Talking hurt, the words scraped against the insides of his throat and he couldn't even draw in the strength to change the subject.

Waves of darkness lapped against the edges of his vision, and he had to really fight to push them back again.

His chest was on fire, burning with a pain that he had not felt in many hundreds of years. It was so hard just the keep breathing, even with the aid of his respiratory bypass system.

He could feel his hearts struggling, but not so much out of choice, but out of fear.

There was no regeneration.

He needed the link to the TARDIS to help feed him energy while the process was under taken, but the link was non-existent. The Master had severed the link when he'd stolen the TARDIS. He'd managed some how to cut the extrasensory link between him and his beloved ship.

The black shadows on the fringes of his vision were not only unconsciousness.

But death.

Certain death.

And that scared the Doctor.

Martha was right. He could not leave the universe to the mercy of the Maser.

He was the Doctor.

He didn't have the right to die.

It was his job, his reason for existence, to protect the earth and the Universe.

He couldn't leave the people of Earth, the humans that he loved with every inch of his body, to die at the hands of a mad man.

But above all, he couldn't leave Martha.

He'd promised himself a long time ago, that he wouldn't loose her like he'd lost Rose.

He'd protect her until she left…or……died.

It had never even crossed his mind that there could be something more, he'd been so keen on protecting her, keeping her safe.

He'd made this decision after the SS Pentallion ordeal, with the sun virus.

Soon as he gave her that key, he'd made the oath to himself as he looked down at her.

She had been the one that he reached for when the alien fire was incinerating his mind, she'd been the one to take control when he'd given up and had managed to command the dumping of the fuel in time to save him.

She'd been so brave, he'd been so very proud of her.

He'd never been so proud of a human in recent memory. Not even Rose had gotten this level of pride.

He should not abandon her. He could not abandon her after all she had done for him. He would not.

His hand found hers over his wound, and he gave it gentle squeeze, bringing her eyes back to him. He hated the way that she sat there, trying so hard to keep a straight face, but it was so obvious that she was crying, that she was hurting.

He'd seen that look too many times to see it again.

If he did indeed die here, from the wound he had sustained, then he would die fighting.

It was what Martha wanted, it was what Martha would have most certainly done.

"…Can…can you help me?" the Doctor murmured, looking in her eyes for some glimmer, for something that he could hold onto.

She nodded slightly, sniffing slightly.

"…I'm going to try" she said, there was a kind of determination in her voice that told him, whether or not he was going to help her, she was going to go ahead with trying to help him.

Hearing this, the Doctor mustered the strength for a small grin, whilst suppressing a few bloody coughs.

"Then….I can try too…" he murmured, in reply.

It was then that a mutual understanding passed between the two travellers. Martha would follow the Doctor and the Doctor would follow Martha.

"Here we are" Jack said, pulling into a huge warehouse.

His own heart was throbbing painfully. Not only from recently dying, but for fear of loosing the Doctor.

Quickly, he turned in his set, gazing at the pair in the back.

Seeing as Martha was a doctor, then she would be able to tell whether or not the Doctor was in any condition to move. Though, it did concern him, that she would not be able to use her best judgement with him. Some medical procedures that ultimately saved peoples lives were indeed very painful. And Martha would undoubtedly try and save the Doctor from any pain, other than that which he was already in.

He observed them, concern seemed to be the only emotion he could physically show.

Martha sat there, on the verge of tears with her hand pressed down on the now sluggishly bleeding wound in the Doctor's chest.

"Martha?" Jack called.

She looked up, a frown set upon her face and in her eyes.

"You have to get him inside Jack. I'll take care of him when we're in there. I need you to find a hospital or something. We need medical supplies if he's going to survive. Things like pillows, blankets, things of that kind." Martha commanded.

With a quick nod, Jack slipped out of the car, darted around to the passengers side door and gently, but quickly pulled the Doctor out.

His thin frame was light as Jack hoisted him a little further into his arms so his head was rested against his chest. He took almost no toll on him as he carried him swiftly inside.

By this time, Martha was moving ahead of him, her eyes sweeping the surrounding area, searching for a suitable place where they could shelter out of the wind and the cold and the rain.

"What about there" Jack asked, nodding to an inbuilt office that was like a separate sealed off room with frosted windows.

Without a word, Martha ran over to it and forced the door open. She took a quick look inside

"Yeah. In here" she said, waving a hand to Jack.

The Time Agent entered the dank room, pulling the Doctor's body slightly closer still, hoping to protect him from the cold.

Inside was nothing more than an overturned wooden desk, a discarded metal barrel on its side and a long cabinet that spanned the space of one of the long walls.

Martha pointed to the sturdy plastic structure, gesturing for the Doctor to be lain on it.

Jack did so, gently depositing the wounded Time Lord on the long cabinet, cringing at the low moan that it caused him.

The cabinets were about waist height, if not a little higher, so they really could keep a good eye on the Doctor. It was a similar height to a medical table.

"Okay Jack…Go and find me some supplies. Do you know what to find?" Martha demanded.

Jack glanced at the Doctor, who lay pale and limp on the cabinet, struggling to draw in breath, whimpering barely audible sounds of pain and agony and suffering.

"Yeah….I think so…If not….I'll go back out to find what I didn't find the first time." Jack reassured, tearing his eyes from the thin form of his friends body.

Martha gave him a quick hug, thanking him without words. When she let him go, Jack turned to leave.

"Hurry please Jack…." Martha begged, no longer in that commanding tone, but in her normal voice.

Jack flashed her a charming little smile, and saluted her wishes. Then he darted out the door and over to the car.

He would break every speed limit he could, he had a long way to go.

HAHAHA.

Am I evil? I'm sorry, but I have got to clear this up. I love David Tennant and I love 10. How could I not. I love 10 and Martha...yes...this is a slightly 10/Martha fic...I suppose. If you tilt your head sideways. But I'm not really doing anything other than what usually happens. But...it goes on...and on and one and on...no..jokes. It gets better. I promise. This was such a labour, but I got so into it later on. I've re-written this part three times. This would be the forth time...its not at all easy. Please...I'm begging you on behalf of the 10th Doctor and all that he loves and I love and you love and the universe in general. Review...it was a labor of love...but it makes everything so much easier if people praise you for it!!
Review and I promise I'll reply. Please...by the way...has anyone seen the Catherine Tate show with David Tennant as her English Teacher.

I LOVE IT!
BITE ME ALIEN BOI!!
Love you all and review!!