Doctor Who | Going Under [Dark!Ten AU]

#4: Haunted

Summary: "Long lost words whisper slowly to me. Still can't find what keeps me here when all this time I've been so hollow inside . . ."

Notes: Inspired by and based on Evanescence's "Haunted" (Fallen version). This whole one-shot is pretty much Martha dealing with the events of "Bleed."

Originally published: 2015-02-03 

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Martha's eyes snapped open and she lurched upright out of reflex, gasping for breath. Her momentum had her rolling off of whatever she was lying on and sent her tumbling to the floor. Disoriented, she picked herself up and tried to take in her surroundings once the room stopped spinning. To her horror, she found she was back on the TARDIS (in the console room, maybe? No, it didn't look like it) and wearing the same clothes she'd worn to that party with Tish and Leo, the party where she'd seen the Doctor—

Martha closed her eyes, gave a quick shake of her head. No. Don't think about that.

How long had she been out? Not long, she didn't think, but it was always hard to judge the passage of time in the TARDIS. The fact she'd been unconscious didn't help either.

Wait—where was the Doctor? He wouldn't have left her alone for long. At least, she hoped he wouldn't.

But then, she would have said he would never kill an innocent woman in cold blood.

Martha, suddenly sick with fear, cast her eyes around the room wildly. She didn't see him, and wondered with dread what he had planned for her.

Long lost words whisper slowly to me.
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside . . .

Why was she still traveling with him when all he'd done was either treat her as a rebound or leave her to fend for herself? No, worse than a rebound. She had vague, hazy, half-remembered recollections but no solid memories . . .

. . . Except for the events of either a few short hours ago, or maybe it was the previous night by now.

Back to her original question. She knew why she'd agreed to travel with him in the first place—it had been a "thank-you for saving my life" sort of deal, and then they had kept taking detours on her way home. But now that he'd sort-of officially made her a passenger, his companion . . . Why was she still with him when, as her mother had put it, he was dangerous, that she wasn't safe, that death followed in his wake?

Martha knew the answer to that: Being with him made her feel alive in a way she hadn't, as if her life back on Earth had been hollow. That couldn't be the only reason, though, could it?

No, it wasn't. Maybe her unrequited feelings for him were part of the reason she stayed. Martha had never thought of herself as the kind of girl who would crush on and pursue a guy who wouldn't give her the time of day because he still had feelings for or was in love with someone else. She'd seen that happen with one of her friends, had promised herself she wouldn't put herself in that situation; yet here she was, mooning over a guy from another planet who didn't return her feelings and was pining after his ex-companion.

The soft tread of footsteps suddenly reached her ears; she thought she heard fabric rustling, wood creaking. Her mouth ran dry; sudden panic seized her. Without turning around, she knew who was behind her.

I know you're still there watching me, wanting me.
I can feel you pull me down.

She could feel his eyes on her, fought the urge to look at him.