SPACEMAN AND THE MOON ― doctor who

forty ; human nature, part one

buckle up bitches ;)

Chapter Forty: Human Nature

✰☾✰

LUNA RUSHED AFTER THE DOCTOR INTO THE TARDIS, EYES WIDE AND PANTING FOR AIR, nearly tripping over Martha.

"Get down!" The Doctor shouted and they immediately dropped, a burst of light shooting past them and hitting the console. The Doctor shut the TARDIS doors and helped Luna and Martha up, looking between the pair. "Did they see you?"

"I don't know," Martha responded fearfully as Luna nodded her head. "I was too busy running!"

The Doctor gripped Martha's shoulders. "Martha, it's important, did they see your face?"

Martha thought and shook her head. "No, they couldn't have."

The Doctor nods, rushing past Luna and to the console, immediately sending it off. "Off we go." He turned to her as she rushed to his side. "Are you okay?" He asked gently, pulling her arm into his hands gently, looking at a rather ugly burn.

"I'm fine, love," she said softly. "Don't worry about me."

He hesitated, reaching his hand over the burn, but when she noticed a faint glowing energy, she pulled it away and gave him a scathing look. "Don't you dare waste that," she chastised.

The Doctor looked at her for a moment before turning back to the scanner on the ship and a frustrated growl left his throat. "Ah! They're following us."

"How can they do that?" Martha asked, coming to Luna's other side. "You've got a time machine."

"Stolen technology," the Doctor supplied, rushing around the console. "They've got a time agent's vortex manipulator. They can follow us wherever we go." He looked at the scanner, wide-eyed and Luna could see the fear. She leaned against him lightly and he glanced down, running a hand through his hair. "They're never going to stop." He looked up, before slowly looking to Luna, breathing out through his cheeks. "Unless...I'll have to do it."

Luna watched him for a moment before it hit her. Do it. Like his wife had done. Be human. Be like Luna. But what did that mean? What would that entail? Immediately, Luna was shaking her head.

"No, Doctor, absolutely not, you will not be doing that. No."

He gave her an apologetic look before turning to Martha. "Martha, you trust me, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Martha said immediately, her eyes flickering to Luna who stood behind the Doctor, looking down at the console with a blank expression.

"'Cause it all depends on you."

"What does?" Martha asked pleadingly. "What am I supposed to do? What about Luna?"

"I'll be here, Martha," Luna said softly. "I can't follow you, they saw my face, they'll kill me or worse. Much, much worse. I have to stay in the TARDIS until the time is right, you have to do this yourself. I'm so sorry." She looked to Martha with tears in her eyes and the Doctor placed a soft kiss to her head, whispering the three words neither of them had said in months.

He leaned down under the console and pulled out a watch, holding it up to Martha. "Take this watch because my life depends on it." Martha looked at the watch with a confused expression. "This watch, Martha, this watch is..."

✰☾✰

Luna munched on a sandwich, reading a book on expanding consciousness through human existence, David Bowie playing through the Doctor's bedroom. It was her favorite place to be now. It had been three months of silence. Three months of contemplation. Three months of no one but her own mind and the TARDIS' light telepathy to keep her mind busy.