005: Everything Changes [Location: Amy and the Doctor's House]

[hamsterbait.livejournal.com]

The house was new and unused and, although Time Lords didn't need much sleep, the Doctor had selected a bedroom at random. It was that bedroom that Martha Jones - fully dressed and sprawled out on bed that she'd never seen in her life - woke up in, but, really, the fact that she'd been taken from her flat was the least of her worries.

Her chest hurt.

No. It didn't hurt, as such, but the sensation of two hearts beating in one chest was enough to unsettle someone who'd grown up with one.

Slowly, tentatively, she put a hand on her chest and got to her feet.

Was this how the Doctor felt every day? She could feel time - everything that had been and could be and would be and ...

"Oh my god," she breathed, dropping her hand back to her side and stumbling over to a mirror on the far side of the room. She didn't just feel like the Doctor. She was the Doctor! She was in his body.

Although she couldn't begin to imagine what a person hoped to gain from switching their bodies, Martha wouldn't put anything past the hamsters. Or past the Master, for that matter. As far as they were concerned, their imprisonment was just a great big game.

She needed to find the Doctor.

There was no sign of the tablet on the bedside table - knowing him, he'd left it in the kitchen while making himself a midnight cup of tea - so she had no choice but to head off down the hallway.

"Amy?" she called, "Amy, are you here?"

The Doctor could be a difficult man to find. It'd be a lot easier if she had help from someone they both trusted.

Comments

[Turning up some time later in the day]

[withintheenemy.livejournal.com]

After a tram ride that seemed far too long, the Doctor spotted the familiar shape of the house he and Amy had decided on and grinned. "There!"

The only thing that stopped him from running off in that direction there and then was the fact the tram was still moving, but the moment it came to a stop, he reached back to grab Martha's hand and started off. Just like old times, he reflected absently.

Well, if old time had involved him being in the Master's body, that was.

"Not far now!" he said, glancing back to smile at his friend and previous companion. "Hopefully we can still get there in time before anything happens."

[would-be-doctor.livejournal.com]

It was about time. If the Master had to remain trapped in this tram car for any longer with the Doctor being his infuriatingly evasive self, he was fairly sure he'd have given himself a bloody nose.

But this-- this was a violation he couldn't bear. Martha's hand twitched in the Doctor's grip convulsively before the Master was able to control it. He wanted more than anything to wrench it away, but instead he smiled back tightly and tried to make Martha's miserable human body keep pace with the Doctor's ridiculously long strides. He fervently hoped he wouldn't wake with some sort of hip strain when this was all over.

"Don't worry, Doctor," he said with much more gusto than he felt. "We'll stop him!"

[withintheenemy.livejournal.com]

"Well, hopefully he hasn't started anything yet. But we can't find out that until we get there and... and we'll figure it out when we get there!"

Around the corner, down to the end of the block and there was the house they'd chosen. The Doctor hurried up to the door and raised his hand to knock--

And stopped.

"Wait, what if he answers?" he dithered. "He'll probably be pretending to be me or something. I know, why don't you knock, and I'll sort of keep out of sight. If Amy answers, that's good, but if he-- I mean, I do-- then... we'll have to think of something. Maybe I can sneak in around the back? No, wait. He'll probably be expecting me, so it might seem odd if you show up for no reason..."

[would-be-doctor.livejournal.com]

The Master, currently trying to catch Martha's breath again (how did these humans do it? How did they keep up with him with such inefficient bodies?), rolled her eyes as the Doctor rambled.

"Oh, for R-- god's sake, Doctor!" he amended, catching his slip just in time. "Get a grip!" And the Master reached Martha's hand out ahead of his own body to knock firmly on the door. Four knocks... and then, darting a quick glance at the Doctor, he hastily added a fifth.

[hamsterbait.livejournal.com]

As soon as she heard the knock at the door, Martha - still trying to get used to the strange Time Lord body she'd found herself in - sprinted down the stairs to answer it. It had to be the Doctor. Who else would be turning up at the door - at this door - in the middle of a crisis?

"It's about time you got here," she said as she pulled open the door, "Half the city's woken up in the wrong body ..."

And then she caught sight of the two people at the door. Seeing her own body - her body - was surreal enough, but the all too familiar figure behind it that made her insides freeze.

"Oh my god!" She'd only half opened the door and did her best to block the rest of it with the Doctor's body. "Saxon?"

Even now, she had the presence of mind to remember not to call him 'Master'. The rest of her response was instinctive, even if a rational part of her knew that it probably wasn't him. Not at the moment.

[iminmynightie.livejournal.com]

Amy heard the knock on the door and turned her head in time to see the Doctor's lanky body go running from the kitchen.

"Wait for me!" she called, following after her. But the Doctor always had been a fast runner, and Martha used it to her full advantage as Amy fell behind.

Once she made it to the door, completely winded from the burst of energy, she found that Martha was blocking the way.

"Wha? Is it him?" she asked, trying to catch her breath. "Who's Saxon?"