Book 1: Chapter 24

The Doctor was flipping switches and pressing buttons until he finally flipped up a lever and grinning at his success.

“There we go…perfect landing, which isn’t easy in such a tight spot” the Doctor says stretching the back of his head and I roll my eyes.

“You should be used to tight spots by now. Where are we?” Martha says letting go of the console and brushing her hands off then grinning.

“The end of the line.” the Doctor says with an expressionless face making Martha grin and rush towards the doors.

“No place like it.” the Doctor continues and Martha looks at him, questioning if she should open the doors. He nods and she goes outside only to be disappointed in the destination.

“Home. You took me home?” Martha says disappointed and somewhat angry with him and I just put my hands up in surrender mouthing ‘Not my idea’ to her.

“In fact, the morning after we left, so you’ve only been gone about 12 hours. No time at all, really.”

The Doctor says and begins looking about at her photos.

“But all the stuff we’ve done—Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?” Martha says with a open mouth, not happy about him dropping her off.

“Yep, all in one night—relatively speaking. Everything should be just as it was—books, CDs” the Doctor starts and picks up underwear drying on a rack “laundry.” he says and Martha snags the offending lingerie from his fingertips.

“So, back were you were, as we promised.” the Doctor says and I shake my head.

“I promised  no such thing” I tell him placing my hands on my hips.

“This is it?” Martha says with a disbelief look on her face.

 The Doctor inhales deeply “Yeah, we should probably…um…”  he says taking my hand in his, his eyes wide but before he could finish Martha’s phone rings and the answering machine picks up.

‘Hi! I’m out! Leave a message!’

“I’m sorry.” Martha says apologetically making me bite my lip trying not to laugh.

The machine beeps before Francine’s message

‘Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?’ Francine, Martha’s mother says on the other line.

“It’s Mum. It’ll wait.” Martha says nodding and the Doctor nods as well. I snicker at her wanting to avoid her mother but make it seem like a cough.

‘All right then, pretend that you’re out if you like. I was only calling to say that your sister’s on TV. On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested.’ her mother says.

Martha picks up the remote control and turns on the TV. We hear the voice of Professor  Lazarus before we see him. “The details are top secret—“

“How could Tish end up on the news?” Martha says confused as we turn to look at the TV.

On the TV screen we see Prof Lazarus--who looks to be in his late 70s—holding a press conference. Tish is standing behind him.

“Tonight, I will demonstrate a device…”

“She’s got a new job. PR for some research lab.” Martha still somewhat confused as to why she was on the TV.

“…with the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human.”

Martha switches off the TV. “Sorry. You were saying we should--?” Martha starts to say looking back at the Doctor.

The Doctor inhales still looking at the TV “Yes, yes, we should. One trip is what we said.” the Doctor says and leans his hand on the Tardis looking at Martha.

“Yeah. I suppose things just kind of…escalated.” Martha says laughing a bit at the end and I lean on the Doctor.

“Mmm. Seems to happen to us a lot.” the Doctor says looking at me and I give him a ‘what are you talking about’ look.

“Thank you two. For everything.” Martha tells us nodding her head.

“It was my pleasure.” the Doctor says and enters the Tardis, but I hang out for a second.

“We will be right back, just wait, you’ll see” I tell her grinning patting her shoulder and step into the Tardis.

Once inside the Doctor was at the controls already setting us up for something.

“How about we go see an opera” he says and I shake my head.

“Dude, you do realize what he was saying right, that Lazarus guy said something, I can’t remember” I say and look like I am thinking and the Doctor rolls his eyes.

“He said something about changing what it means to be human” the Doctor says brushing it off with a wave of his hand then realizing what he said and re set the coordinates for Martha’s house.

The Doctor opens the door and pops his head out and I pop my head out as well. “No, I’m sorry. Did he say he was going to change what it means to be human?” the Doctor says repeating what he said earlier with a like horrified confused face making me giggle.

“Told you to wait a few seconds, and that we would be back” I tell her smiling and going back out of the Tardis, only to somehow trip over my blue medieval-style dress, that I still had yet to change out of and prepared for a face plant when I felt arms snake around my waist and pulls me into a chest.

“You need to be more careful” I hear him mutter into my hair.

“Ha, me being careful is like you staying put, no can do, it’s this dress I need to get out of it.” I complain.

“Well, since it is your sister Martha, you are invited to that party thingy right?” the Doctor questions her and she nods looking at us confused.

“Yea, and that means…” she trails off and I sigh.

“That means we go and have a look and see what the fuss is about, now outfits, great, i am not wearing a dress, no way, I don’t want to, I just had to wear this for too long, no more dresses, I will wear a suit or something” I say under my breath, but the doorbell rings causing me to turn to look at Martha.

“You expecting someone?” I ask her and she shakes her head.

“No, but let me go check to see who it is” she says and goes to the door only to come back with a confused look and a package in her hands.

“It’s a package?” I ask confused.

“For you though, how they got my address I have no idea, but it’s for you” she says and hands me the package only for it to barely touch my hands before it is taken from me.

“Heyyyy, that’s mine, get your own package” I say as the Doctor pulls out his sonic and starts scanning it.

“No, it could be dangerous.” he says and picks it up shaking it next to his ear.

“Or it could be fragile, now give it here” I say and snatch it from him and try to open it, but it won’t so I give up and take his sonic and open it that way and what is inside is amazing.

“Wow, it’s beautiful” I say and take out what was in it and hold it up. “Look, it’s just a dress and a note, hey no, you are not reading it” I say and move the note out of his line of vision.

Ladybug,

Someone told me something about going to a party later. Hope this helps.

I.J.

P.S. don’t tell your brother I visited you, I am technically doing errands

“haha, ahh, no wonder he knew where I was” I say smiling at how Inato sent and must of delivered the package.” I say realizing that with the initials it was him.

“Who sent it?” the Doctor says glaring at the contents with a weary look.

“Oh stop it, you are the only one I care about, plus it’s a present for tonight, now go get dressed in a suit..” I start to say but he opens his mouth to complain about hating to wear a suit and I glare at him causing him to close his mouth. “That’s what I thought, go change, while me and Martha get ready for this party” I say and grab Martha’s hand to drag her somewhere, when I realize I don’t know where her room is. “Uhh, you lead the way Martha, I will follow you” I tell her and she laughs and lead me to her room I think.

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Once we were in her room she got out a purple dress and she goes into her bathroom to change as I sit and wait for her to finish changing.

Once she came out I smiled, “You look lovely Martha” I tell her and she smiles.

“You will too, with that beautiful dress, you going to get changed?” she asks and I give her a sheepish smile.

“Um, I kinda need help getting out of this, it’s bad enough I can barely breathe in it, but after I got it soaked twice, it will be harder to get off, could you help me, please? I mean if you don’t want to, I can I guess go as the Doctor…” I start to say and she cuts me off.

“No, I will help you get it off” she says happily and walks over to me and tries to help me get out of it.

“Martha, not working…can’t breathe, you’re pulling it….too tight” I say barely being able to breathe now.

“Sorry, sorry, how did you even get into this?” she says struggling to get it off me.

“I don’t know how, Miss. Impossible helped me get into it, as I helped her get into hers, but how to get out of it, I have no idea, plus she got out of it, I think because she didn’t get soaked twice in a few hours made it worse for me” I tell her and she groans and I don’t feel her tugging at it anymore.

“I can’t get it, go ask the Doctor to get it loose, then come back and I will help you get ready and you can help me” she tells me and I smile.

“Deal” I tell her and quickly make my way to the Tardis.

“DOCTOR!” I yell and I hear a crash and he come in quickly as if something was wrong.

“What! What? What happened?” he says taking my face in his hand checking me to see if I was alright and I shove him off.

“I’m fine, just help me get this horrible dress off of me please, Martha can’t get it off, I think she tightened it instead, but don’t take it off, just loosen it please.” I ask him and he sighs out a relief and I notice how he only had on a part of his suit and I blush.

“Right, right” he says and I turn around and feel his fingers loosen the dress gently and turn back around kissing his cheek.

“Thanks, now go get ready, and wear a bow-tie not a tie, please” I say to him and he looks like he is about to protest and I glare at him causing him to nod his head with wide eyes making me smile. “Good, make sure it is Tardis Blue please, I want you to match me” I tell him and leave the Tardis and rush to Martha’s room and see her putting on her make-up.

I quickly smiled at her and rushed into the bathroom grabbing my dress.

Once I finished changing I kept tugging at the dress only for Martha’s hand to slap it away.

“No, stop tugging it” she says as she puts make-up on me and I try to move out of the way only for her to glare at me.

“Sorry, but it is really, really short” I complain. “I didn’t think it was this short, the Doctor won’t leave my side, with this on, him and his over protected-ness” I say as she puts eyeliner on me while I try and sit still.

“You have him wrapped around your finger, he will be fine, I mean look at you” she says after she finished applying the make-up on me, and starts on my hair, doing a waterfall style braid and curling it at the ends then smiles at me like you would a masterpiece.

She grabs her shoes, while I go to put on the converse I grabbed while in the Tardis only to have them taken out of my hands.

“No, these don’t match what you are wearing, the box had heals, now put them on” she says taking them out of my hand and holding them up as if it was a discussing object..

“No, H-E-double hockey-stick no, I refuse to wear heals.” I say shaking my head and placing my arms across my chest.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

“I still can’t believe you made me wear heels” I say growling under my breath trying to keep myself balanced and figuring out what I was going to do once we got there and if I could do something, or just let it happen the way it is supposed to be.

We were walking down the street and the Doctor was fussing with the cuffs of his dress shirt.

“Oh, black tie. Whenever I wear this, something bad always happens.” he says and I swat his hand away from him so he wouldn’t mess it up.

“No that’s just you, darling” I whisper in his ear and fixing his cuffs and making sure that his bow-tie was straight.

“It’s not the outfit, that’s just you. Anyway, I think it suits you. In a James Bond kind of way.” Martha says.

 “James Bond?” the Doctor says looking offended that she would say that then thinking about it “Really?” and puffs his chest approvingly and happy that he got compared to James Bond.

“No, don’t say that, you just boosted his ego like really boost it up” I groan and move away from him only to stumble and the Doctor to catch me. “See this is why I don’t wear heals, I can’t wear them without falling” I say glaring at Martha, but she just chuckles as we approach the impressive entrance to Lazarus Laboratories.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Inside the main reception room, guests are mingling. Dominating the room is a large white round cabinet surrounded by four pillars with a slight curve at the top.

“Oh, look, they’ve got nibbles! I love nibbles!” the Doctor says as he takes something from a passing tray and tosses one whole into his mouth and holds another one out for me but I give him a disgusted look.

“No, I have no idea what that is, plus I don’t eat just anything, can’t trust what is in it” I tell him and shove it into his mouth as he starts to protest and smile at his face before he starts chewing it. Tish joins us smiling.

“Hello.” Tish says and goes to hug Martha.

“Tish.” Martha says smiling as they hug.

“You look great. So, what do you think? Impressive, isn’t it?” Tish says looking Martha up and down then looking around the room.

 “Very.” Martha says while nodding looking around the room.

“And two nights out in a row for you—that’s dangerously close to a social life.” Tish says jokingly making me stifle a laugh.

“If I keep this up, I’ll end up in all the gossip columns.” Martha says jokingly back.

“You might, actually. Keep an eye out for photographers. And Mum—she’s coming too, even dragging Leo along with her.” Tish says filling her in on what was going on.

  “Leo in black tie? That I must see.” Martha says with an unbelievable look.

Tish then turns to look at both me and the Doctor and Martha goes to introduce us.

“This is, uh, the Doctor. And Harmony” Martha says introducing us to her sister and I wave.

“Hello.” the Doctor says shaking her hand.

“Is he with you?” Tish asks and I give her a confused look as to why she disregarded me.

“Yeah.” Martha says stiffly.

“But he’s not on the list. How did he get in? Harmony Turner is, but no one named ‘The Doctor’ on it” she says and my eyes go wide.

“Wait, what, I’m on the list?” I ask her confused and she gives me a weird look and I shake my head. “I mean, of course I’m on the list,  but why?” I ask her.

“He’s my plus one.” Martha says and shifted on her feet.

“So, this Lazarus bloke, he’s your boss?” the Doctor says interrupting before Tish could say anything.

“Professor Lazarus, yes. I’m part of his executive staff.” Tish says proudly.

“She’s in the PR department.” Martha says smiling.

“I’m head of the PR department, actually.” Tish says with a slight frown on her face.

“You’re joking.” Martha says not believing she was telling the truth.

“I put this whole thing together.” Tish says looking slightly upset that Martha wouldn’t believe her.

“So do you know what the professor’s going to be doing tonight? That looks like it might be a sonic microfield manipulator.”  the Doctor says and turns to the machine in the middle of the room.

“He’s a science geek. I should’ve known. Gotta get back to work now. I’ll catch up with you later” Tish says and leaves to mingle.

“Science geek? What does that mean?” the Doctor says and cough trying not to laugh at his obliviousness to what it means and he give me a weird look but I just shake my head.

“That your obsessively enthusiastic about it.” Martha says while chuckling slightly.

“Oh, nice.” the Doctor says smiling and making me laugh at him approving of the word and turning to look at the machine.

“Martha.” I hear Martha’s mother Francine say from behind us and Martha turns around, and I decide to as well to see her look at her mother as if she hasn’t seen her in years.

“Mum!” Martha says and she gives her mother a big hug.

“Oh. All right, what’s the occasion?” Francine says hugging her daughter back.

“What do you mean? I’m just pleased to see you, that’s all.” Martha says happy to see her mother again.

“You saw me last night.” Francine says confused.

“I know. I just…miss you. You’re looking good, Leo.” Martha say to her brother and he looks down at his outfit.

“Yeah. If anyone asks me to fetch ‘em a drink, I’ll swing for him.” Leo says jokingly and I notice Francine notice me and the Doctor standing behind Martha.

“You disappeared last night.” Francine says to Martha looking a bit unamused that she had just left and disappeared.

“I...just went home.” Martha says looking a bit upset.

“On your own?” her mother asks her eyes briefly flashing to the Doctor and I grab his hand.

“This is a friend of mine, the Doctor, and Harmony” Martha says introducing us.

“Doctor what?” Francine asks him.

“No, it’s just the Doctor. We’ve been doing some work together.” Martha says covering it up that he has no other title. Leo shakes the Doctor’s hand, then mine.

 “Yeah, all right” the Doctor says and shakes Francine’s hand “Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Jones. Heard a lot about you.” he says and I elbow him in his side as

“Have you? What have you heard, then?” Francine says not really amused at it and the Doctor’s eyes go wide trying to think about what it is that Martha had told him.

“Oh, you know, that you’re Martha’s mother and…um… No, actually, that’s…that’s about it. We haven’t had much time to chat, you know, been busy.” the Doctor says frazzled and I take over.

“What he means is, we haven’t heard much about you, but of those things that we have, Martha has described you as an amazing mother.

“Busy? Doing what, exactly?” Francine says and turns her head to look at me and I realize what she mean by that and my eyes go wide.

“Oh…you know…stuff.” the Doctor says dumbly starting to get uncomfortable.

“And by stuff he means, experiments and sciencey doctor things” I tell her trying to make it so he didn’t mean anything like what she was probably thinking of.

Our conversation was cut short, as there was a tapping on glass, a signal that an announcement was about to be made.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus and tonight I’m going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you’ll awake to a world which will be changed forever.” Lazarus says and he enters the cabinet. Two female technicians start the machinery from a bank of instruments behind the cabinet. There is a high-pitched whir and a bright blue light as the four pillars begin to spin individually. Creating an energy field. They ten begin to rotate around the cabinet, going faster and faster. A warning klaxon goes off.

“Something’s wrong. It’s overloading.” the Doctor says and I give him a ‘oh really, I didn’t notice’ kind of look and roll my eyes as the technicians tried to stop it, but some of the panels explode, sending off sparks. The Doctor jumps over the low desk and aims his sonic screwdriver at the controls and I bite my lip knowing what is about to happen.

“Somebody stop him! Get him away from those controls!” Lady Thaw says

“If this thing goes off, it’ll take the whole building with it. Is that what you want?” the Doctor yells and pulls one of the main wires that connect to the cabinet and it slowly stops spinning. Martha and I run to the door and the Doctor runs to join us.

“Get it open!” the Doctor yells and they open the door and watch as, through the smoke, Lazarus emerges looking 40 years younger. Photographers snap away as Martha and the Doctor look on amazed. Lazarus touches his face, realizing it worked. He steps completely out and stands before his machine.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus. I am 76 years old and I am reborn!” Lazarus says and holds his arms up in triumph as everyone claps.

“He did it. He actually did it.” Lady Thaw says and people are taking the opportunity to have their photograph taken with Lazarus. Martha watches Lazarus as the Doctor studies the machine me studying it with him as he had dragged me over to look more closely at it.

“It can’t be the same guy. It’s impossible. It must be a trick.” Martha says unbelieving it.

“It’s not a trick” I tell her shaking my head looking at Lazarus.

“Oh, it’s not a trick. I wish it were.” the Doctor says unhappy.

“What just happened, then?” Martha says turning her head to face the Doctor and me.

“He just changed what it means to be human.” the Doctor breathes out and I sigh.

“Which only means trouble” I say and the Doctor grabs my hand squeezing it for reassurance, then my phone went off, and by went off and where it was made the Doctor look at me questionably.

“I don’t have pockets, so I have it in my bra, I’ll see who it is later” I tell him my cheeks turning red from embarrassment for leaving the phone on with sound and not on silent. 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

“I’m famished.” Lazarus says as we walk up behind them.

“Energy deficit. Always happens with this kind of process.” the Doctor says looking interested in Lazarus eating so much.

“You speak as if you see this every day, Mr.…” Lazarus says and the Doctor fills in the blank.

“Doctor. And, well, no, not every day, but I have some experience in this kind of transformation.” the Doctor says looking at him and speaking like it is an everyday experience.

“That’s not possible.” Lazarus laughing and still smiling.

“Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance. That’s—that’s inspired.” the Doctor says furrowing his brows looking at Lazarus.

“You understand the theory, then.” Lazarus says looking intrigued.

“He knows enough to know that you couldn’t possibly have allowed for all the variables.” I say cutting the Doctor off before he could speak.

“No experiment is entirely without risk.” Lazarus says raising his eyebrows and popping another piece of food into his mouth.

“That thing nearly exploded. You might as well have stepped into a blender.” I say pointing out that it was true.

“You’re not qualified to comment.” Lady Thaw tells me somewhat bitterly.

“If I hadn’t stopped it, it would have exploded.” the Doctor points out looking at Lady Thaw and pulling me closer to him. 

“Then I thank you, Doctor. But that’s a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less.” Lazarus says smiling at the Doctor.

“You’ve no way of knowing that until you’ve run proper tests.” Martha says nodding like it was obvious.

“Look at me! You can see what happened. I’m all the proof you need.” Lazarus says laughing.

“This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially.” Lady Thaw says smiling.

“Commercially?! You are joking. That’ll cause chaos.” Martha says looking at her like she was crazy.

“Not chaos. Change. A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve.”  Lazarus says looking from Martha back to the Doctor.

“This isn’t about improving. It’s about you and your customers living a little longer.” the Doctor says his eyebrows furrowing again and I squeeze his hand to try and get him to stop.

“Not a little longer, Doctor. A lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely.” Lazarus says his eyebrows going up as he says this.

“Richard, we have things to discuss. Upstairs.” Lady Thaw says as she walks away and Lazarus moves to follow her.

“Goodbye, Doctor, Harmony, In a few years, you’ll look back and laugh at how wrong you were.” he says and reaches out to take my hand and I give him my hand knowing that we will need the DNA sample later as he takes my hand, kissing the back of it before leaving.

“Ooh, he’s out of his depth. No idea of the damage he might have done.” The Doctor says and glares at the retreating form of Lazarus.

“ So what do we do now?” Martha questions looking at Lazarus retreating form.

Now…well, this building must be full of laboratories. I say we do our own tests. Though I have no idea how” the Doctor says and I whack him on the head. “Oww, what was that for.” he whines and I roll my eyes and wave my hand in front of his face.

“Need a DNA sample by any chance Doctor” I say mimicking his accent grinning up at him.

“You are brilliant you” he says and kisses my forehead grabbing the hand Lazarus didn’t kiss and we head off.

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Once we got to the lab we put in the DNA sample and were now  looking at the results of the DNA test on a computer screen.

“Amazing.” the Doctor said looking at the screen with his glasses on his face making.

“What?” Martha asks.

“Lazarus’s DNA.” I say looking at the screen.

“I can’t see anything different.” Martha says and I roll my eyes.

“Look at it!” the Doctor yells as the image on the screen flickers.

“Oh, my God! Did that just change? But it can’t have!” Martha says her eyebrows furrowing trying to make it seem like it was just her imagination.

“But it did.” the Doctor tells her.

“It’s impossible.” Martha breathes out.

“And that’s two impossible things we’ve seen tonight. Don’t you love it when that happens?” the Doctor says looking at me and I shake my head.

“No, because there is no such thing as impossible, just highly unlikely and when that happens it can only mean trouble.” I tell him, plus with Clara being the Impossible Girl, but nothing really is impossible.

“That means Lazarus has changed his own molecular patterns.” Martha says bobbing her head as she speaks as she doesn’t believe it.

“Hypersonic sound waves to destabilize the cell structure then a mutagenic program to manipulate the coding in the protein strands. Basically, he hacked into his own genes and instructed them to rejuvenate.” the Doctor says quickly then rephrases it so Martha can understand him.

“But they’re still mutating now.” Martha says looking at the screen.

“ ‘Cause he missed something. Something in his DNA has been activated and won’t let him stabilize. Something that’s trying to change him.” I say looking at the screen as it keeps flickering.

“Change him into what?” Martha questions frowning with her eyebrows furrowed.

“I dunno but I think we need to find out.” The Doctor says still looking at the screen.

“That woman said they were going upstairs.” Martha says and the Doctor turns to look at her.

“Let’s go!” he says grabbing my hand and pulling me out as Martha follows us out of the lab.