for nopassenger

[rude_not_ginger]

Quick trip, then get her back home. It was good, it was like when they first started traveling together, only she was more seasoned and he was less steel-heartsed after losing a companion. It would be fun, and he was fairly certain he could convince her to travel a few more after this one, or at the very least take the scenic route home.

It was everything in him not to bounce up and down in excitement.

"Right!" he grinned at his companion over the console. "Anywhere in particular you'd like to take a trip to? Whole of the universe at your fingertips, Martha Jones. Just tell me where."

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[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

"Offer like that makes me wish for a real 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'," Martha mused out loud. "You could probably write that, couldn't you?" Fond smile to her companion.

She had been working very hard for the last 18 months, finishing her medical qualifications, helping out with Torchwood, that business with Owen bloody Harper, and the project she and Jack had come up with. The Doctor had popped back in just when she had come to realise that she needed a holiday, so she didn't mind the naked attempts to woo her back. (It was actually flattering for him to be working for her attention rather than the other way around.)

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I think I did, in the future. That is, my personal future. Seems like something I'd do, doesn't it?" He didn't care for twisty timelines, but that was really all part and partial to the life of a Time Lord.

"Cliffs of the Silver Devastation, maybe? Moon rings along the River Kemach in winter? Fall of the Empire of Rome? You name it."

[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

"Yes, it does," Martha admitted, "now that I think about it."

This was, by her reckoning, approximately the fifth time they had gone down the 'Just One Trip For Old Times Sake' road. Well... sort of fifth. It rather depended on whether one counted individual destinations, or times from which home was departed and the universe was offered up on a silver platter.

From anyone other than the Doctor, the repeated offer and continual attempts to string out the trips would have come off as a seduction... From anyone other than the Doctor.

"Surprise me, like you used to," Martha decided. "Impress me." Playful wink.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor smirked. This was wonderful. It was better than that, it was brilliant. He hadn't thought he'd miss Martha as much as he had, and despite how he promised space, he found himself popping by more and more often. She, more often than not, picked up on what he'd been doing or where he'd been, and they traveled.

He hadn't quite gotten around to telling her how much he'd missed her, yet.

"Oh, you know I can impress," he replied, flipping a switch. The TARDIS tilted on its side and the whole ship reversed course, sending them far into the past.

[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

"So smug," she teased, enjoying his smirk as much as she ever had. Martha suspected there was a knack to shutting off the flip-flops in your stomach when he smirked like that, and hoped she'd figure it out sometime soon.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Well, they say when you've got the moves you should flaunt them," the Doctor replied teasingly, his grin widening as he circled the console to flip a few more switches.

He whistled a few bars of 'You're So Vain', and turned a dial. Was that it? He rather enjoyed the teasing banter across the console. Not that the teasing banter as they walked together wasn't wonderful too.

"Right! Here we are!"

[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

Martha smirked back at him, "Moves?" She cocked an eyebrow. "You know what they say about white blokes and their complete lack of rhythm..."

Onto more pressing concerns: "Where's here?" she asked, waiting patiently for him to bound over from his spot by the console, rather than just running out. He really didn't like it when she 'spoiled the surprise' by 'peeking'. They'd gotten into that last time.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor looked at his arm, a confused look on his face. "More of a pale cream, I think. But I'm not one to spend lots of time in the sun, what can I say?"

His grin returned, and he tugged on his coat as he bounded for the door.

"The jungles of Moracoria," he said, "Most beautiful place in the nine galaxies, according to the tourist guides. No sun on this planet, so I'm afraid I'm not going to get any less pale, but I think you might be impressed with the plant life."

[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

'Lots of time in the Sun' -- she remembered then, too vividly, their encounter with a living sun on her first TARDIS extended-trip. The almost-possession, his fear, her own fear... and shook it off. It didn't do to dwell on bad memories.

"Is this a pervy sentient plant planet? Jack's told me all about those," Martha giggled, following him to the TARDIS door. The Captain had, after a few drinks, regaled her with the story of losing his virginity to a sentient plant and his eternal quest to find a shag that matched it for sheer novelty. She wasn't 100% sure she believed him, but it was a very entertaining story nonetheless.

Then, something else he'd said dawned on her. "No sun? How does the planet support life without light or heat?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Not all life thrives on light, and heat comes from the core of the planet and heated springs underground. It's quite tropical, actually. If dark." He put his hand on the door, and turned around. "And don't believe everything that Jack says."

That said, he pulled the door open and let her step out first. As promised, the world was dark, but the ground and trees and plants in the jungle were bright florescence that glowed throughout the darkness, giving everything a warm, surreal glow. Above their head were a thousand stars, and the whirling vortex of a nanogalaxy, cool and bright against the shocking colors of the life around them.

He followed her, and slipped a hand into hers.

"Don't want to be getting lost."

[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

She was reminded, if only a little, of the stoners who had lived down the corridor in her res hall for her first two years at university. Their dorm was decorated with black-light paint and neon, and this was a little like that, only gorgeous. (And a good deal less seedy.)

"It's absolutely beautiful," Martha pronounced, clasping his hand. "Alright: I'll give you this one. I'm impressed."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He grinned widely.

"Told you."

With that, he gave her hand a tug in the direction of a long, brightly-colored road not far off from the plants.

"Come on, this way! Not far off to the shore!"

[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

She could see his teeth shining in the darkness and laughed softly to herself. Smug alien...

"A road!" she exclaimed, eyebrows climbing for her hairline. She'd not imagined that the planet would be settled! "Shore?" Martha fell in step with him, running gently with him in the glowing dark, his energy -- as ever -- contagious. She was content to sight-see.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"One of the most populated planets in this quadrant, actually. The inhabitants tend to make homes out of the mountains and the shores to keep from damaging the plant life. It's their only light source, so they've taken a more conservative state of mind."

The road led to a beach with black sand that stretched out to a dark-water ocean. The plant life beneath the surface glowed, leaving the water with the impression of luminescence. Thin, tower-like ebony cottages were built just off of the shore, keeping away from the water plants and the tide.

"It's like looking at Earth through a negative," the Doctor said, taking a satisfied sigh.

[nopassenger.livejournal.com]

She could only stare at the sights before her -- so utterly alien, and so, so beautiful. This was possibly the most alien world he'd taken her to yet, and she suspected he'd been saving it for a while, stretching her slowly until she could fathom this world.

A glance in his direction and she could more or less make out the shape of him in the darkness. "Thank you," she said, almost a whisper. (Years of conditioning on Earth -- darkness meant night which meant 'be quiet'.)

In that moment, she was serene, she was at peace. She was expecting it all to fall out in moments, for a violent revolution or alien invasion to take place on the planet -- as they always seemed to when she and the Doctor went walkabout -- but she'd done that enough that Martha truly felt that nothing could surprise her at this point.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor turned his head to face hers. Her awe was wonderful. It was the reason he took companions traveling, to vicariously re-live every world, every place.

"It's my pleasure," he said, and he meant it.

His trainers sunk into the black sand as they neared the water, and everything felt warm from the ground up. Like walking in living sand, actually, with a companion he'd managed to make happy holding his hand.