Ok, so this is my first delve into the world of Doctor Who fanfiction. there are several things i should warn you of first. one - this is a pure 10/Martha story, do not read it if you are expecting any 10/Rose. two - there are many Doctor Who episodes that i have not seen so i apologize if i get some details wrong. This is set just after the episode The Unicorn and the Wasp.

so, please read, and i hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1 ~ Beginnings

The Doctor didn't need to sleep, but when he did his dreams were filled with nightmares. He dreamed of her, her deep, bottomless eyes, her dusky skin, her smile, and the feel of wrapping his arms around her small frame, the electric feeling of her lips pressed against his. And then his dreams would change, and he would watch those same eyes cloud over and become sightless and empty, feel her skin turn cold, and her body freeze. She would die, over and over, every night he dreamed, and no matter how hard he fought the dreams, he couldn't save her.

Tonight, they were dancing in ink, spinning gently on the spot; the twinkling stars overhead the only light for them to see by. And then the dark slipped away and Daleks, the creatures that were always responsible for the end of his dreams, surrounded them. This time she threw herself in front of him as one of the Daleks fired. He screamed her name and caught her as she fell, cradling her still form to his chest as the tears started to fall from his eyes.

He woke up in a cold sweat in the darkness of his room to the loud humming of his TARDIS. She soothed his mind as he pushed the images away and held his head in his hands. That was why he had never admitted his feelings for her, and why he never would, because he simply couldn't let that happen. He had vowed to himself long ago that he would never lose her and that he would never watch her die. And so he pushed those feelings away, pushing her away in the process, and ignored the way his hearts leapt whenever she smiled, the way they kicked into overdrive whenever he hugged her, much to the chagrin of the TARDIS.

The Doctor swallowed past the lump in his throat and pushed down the rising tide of painful memories. He reached out in the semi darkness and groped around on his bedside table for a moment. He found what he was looking for and his long fingers curled automatically around its familiar shape. He found the cold slim surface comforting in his hot hand and held it up to press it against his cheek, shivering as the cool plastic came in contact with his skin. He lay back on the bed and allowed the TARDIS to lull him into a gentle, hopefully dreamless sleep, with her face fixed firmly in his mind, and her phone held in his lightly curled hand.

Donna was sitting in the TARDIS kitchen, fiddling absentmindedly with her cereal. Her mind kept going over the events that had occurred during her latest adventure with the Doctor, replaying the swirling images in her brain. She still couldn't get over the fact that she had met Agatha Christie and the fact that the actual solution to her mysterious disappearance lay at the bottom of a pool in the form of a giant wasp. Sure she had seen some strange things while on her travels with the Doctor, some really strange things if you put it to that, but she had never thought that Agatha Christie would be in anyway involved with aliens. She smiled suddenly, wondering how the other people who had been involved in the mystery were coping. Then again, as the Doctor put it, they were probably just fine; they were British.

Suddenly the Doctor himself bounced energetically into the room, grinning from ear to ear like a maniac. Come to think of it, Donna wasn't a hundred percent certain he wasn't. A genius, yes, a good genius, of course, but perhaps slightly mad.

The redhead watched with interest as the legendary Time Lord strode over, still grinning widely, and said, 'have you finished breakfast?'

Donna raised her eyebrows, 'that's why you came in here? To ask me if I'd finished breakfast? You're getting stranger every day space man'.

The Doctor pouted, 'I just wanted to ask you whether you were ready to keep travelling, I'm getting sick of just floating in the vortex'. He bounded over to the table and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, bitting into it with relish before looking at her inquiringly again.

Donna watched the juice trickle down his chin for a moment before saying, 'yeah, I'm ready'.

The Doctor grinned excitedly and then strode off towards the console room. Donna smiled, privately thinking that he had just proved her point. She had another couple of bits of cereal and then chucked the rest in the bin. She dumped the bowl unceremoniously in the sink and then left the kitchen.

Donna walked into the console room and then stopped when she spotted the Doctor. He was standing in from of the consoles, staring into space, all of his previous excited energy gone. His eyes were down cast and his shoulders slumped. One of his hands was shoved deep in his pocket, and in the other he held a slim mobile that he was staring at. Donna sighed, knowing exactly what he was thinking about and feeling very sorry for him. That pity was suddenly replaced by annoyance though, irritation that he just wouldn't admit how he felt.

She cleared her throat and strolled into the room, 'well you pulled me away from my breakfast, and I hope you have something good in mind or I'll throw the rest of my cereal in your face'.

The Doctor jumped and turned, a grin plastered on his face, slipping the phone into his pocket as he did, and said, 'well we've met one genius writer, I thought you might want to meet another'. He started to press buttons on the console, talking rapidly, 'Enid Blyton, Jane Austin, Charles Dixons, oh!' he grinned again, 'what about J.K? She's absolutely brilliant!'

Donna laughed, 'what about Shakespeare? I've always wanted to know whether you can tell he's a genius by looking at him'.

The Doctor's face saddened for a moment before he said, 'nah, I've already met him and—'

'Really?' interrupted Donna, raising her eyebrows, 'who with?'

The Doctor shrugged, 'Martha, but what does that matter, why don't we meet someone new?'

Donna sighed, unsurprised of his reluctance now, 'fine…what about J.K. Rowling?'

The Doctor grinned and started bustling around the console, 'J.K. it is!'

Donna leaned against a poll and watched him as he chattered excitedly, 'I've always wanted to meet her, I wonder if there will be some kind of alien involved, there usually is when ever we visit someone isn't there?' he looked up at Donna then frowned, 'Donna?'

Donna wasn't listening; instead she was staring at something on the other side of the room. She said very slowly, 'Doctor, you said that it was impossible for people to appear in the middle of your ship right? Except for me'.

The Doctor nodded, 'except for that one time, yeah' he started to turn around, searching for what Donna was staring at.

'So what the bleeding hell is that?' asked Donna, pointing to something that was moving on the other side of the room.

There was a strange ripple in the air in front of them, like the way the air shimmers on a really hot day. As they watched, dust started to rise off the floor of the TARDIS and began to spin gently around the ripple, increasing in speed as more and more dust rose up. Donna blinked, her eyes watering as she tried to focus on the ripple and the spinning dust at the same time and realised that what she had mistaken as dust was actually sparkling, like bright glitter. A moment later the glitter stopped revolving and seemed to solidify, taking on the shape of something that was vaguely human. Then the ripple in the air abruptly expanded outwards and, Donna wasn't sure exactly what she was seeing but it looked as if something stepped out of the ripple and into the solidified glitter. A second later, there was a young woman standing frozen in front of them. Donna blinked and stared, unsure exactly how that had happened, at the strange woman who was still standing completely still.

The woman was very tall and slender and her skin was a light olive tone, which still seemed to shimmer with specks of glitter. She had black hair, which fell in rich tresses to her shoulder blades, and her beautiful face was creased slightly in concentration. Her deep brown eyes were fixed steadily on her left wrist, and Donna thought she could see a strange watch strapped there. After a moment Donna realised that the young woman was probably still somewhere in her late teens.

Donna glanced at the Doctor, 'how did it happen this time? Huon particles again?'

The Doctor shrugged 'I don't think so'. He still looked surprised, but definitely not as much as the time Donna had appeared in his ship all that time ago. He strode over to the girl. He walked around her once then reached out and tapped her on the shoulder curiously. It was as if that triggered something; the girl suddenly jerked to look at him, blinking her almond shaped eyes rapidly. The Doctor grinned manically, 'hi! I'm the Doctor and you just appeared in the middle of my ship!'

To Donna's slight surprise the girl grinned just as excitedly, 'I do apologise for surprising you!' her voice was clear and musical and full of a ceaseless energy like the one Donna saw in the Doctor every day.

Great, thought Donna, another insane traveller. She walked over to them and stuck out her hand, 'I'm Donna, the Doctor's companion. We'll get along fine as long as you don't call me a 'plucky young girl". She threw a glare in the Doctor's direction, referring to their last adventure. The Doctor had the decency to look sheepish, ducking his head so that she wouldn't see his smile.

The girl took the proffered hand with a smile, looking the redhead up and down as she said, 'Cora Smith'.

Her beautiful smile was infectious Donna couldn't help smiling in return, 'so how did you get here?'

Cora smiled and tapped her wrist. A strange watch was strapped there in leather, flashing with several small buttons and lights. The Doctor, who had been watching the proceedings with some interest, said passionately, 'another one! One day I'm going to have to find out where you people are getting those'.

Donna raised her eyebrows, surprised by the vigour in the Doctor's voice, said, 'what is it?'

The Doctor stared at the watch-thing with narrowed eyes, as if he expected it to blow up at any minute, 'it's a Vortex Manipulator. It's a way to travel, through time and space. Its like illegal time travel'.

Cora snorted, 'you know that you have never changed that opinion, ever'.

Donna cocked her head, 'so you know the Doctor, in the future? Is that why you're here, to stop something bad from happening? Of course you probably can't say much, in case it does something to the time space continuum thing'.

Cora raised a slender eyebrow, 'oh your good, some of the Doctor's companions have never quite understood that'.

The Doctor frowned slightly, wondering if she was referring to anyone in particular, 'why are you here though, and err how did you get here?'

Cora's excited energy seemed to abate some what as she said, 'I'm here to warn you about something that is going to happen very soon that will destroy the world unless you stop it'.

The bubbly red head sighed, 'it can never just be a social visit, can it?'

The Doctor smiled slightly, privately agreeing with his fiery companion, 'what happens?'

Cora sighed, 'someone kidnaps and then experiments on Martha Jones'.

The Doctor's blood froze, the world tilted and his head rang as his hearts kicked into over drive. Martha…why Martha, why did something bad have to happen to her, the person he cared about almost more than anyone else. He shook his head, trying to clear it, knowing that he couldn't think like that because he was still trying to figure out his jumbled feelings, and what he was feeling at the present time was too painful to dwell on.

He blinked twice then looked down at Cora again, gazing into her anxious eyes as he said, 'what happens?'

A second later, Donna asked, 'and what's it got to do with the end of the world?'

Cora smiled slightly, 'we're not sure, all we know is that she is taken by someone who does some sort of experiment on her and that around 48 hours later, the universe rips itself apart'. She leaned against the console, careful not to press any buttons, and continued in a dejected voice, 'we knew that something like this would happen, Martha would be kidnapped for example, but something changed and I'm here to make sure the universe doesn't end'.

The Doctor, partly on edge because of his concern for Martha, said angrily, 'so you don't care about Martha at all, you just care about the end of the world'. He knew he was being unfair, but he wasn't sure that he cared right now.

The young time traveller didn't rise to the challenge, but only said, 'that's not true Doctor. But you know better than anyone that you can't just travel through time to save one person, no matter how important they are to you. No matter how much you love and care for them, you can't risk what could happen to the fabric of time just for the sake of that person. What ever is going to happen is a result of something that happens to Martha, something that wasn't supposed to happen, and it needs to be stopped…' she stepped closer and said quietly, so that only he could here, 'for your sake as well as the rest of the worlds'.

She stepped away again and said softly, 'I know what I am talking about. Having the ability to travel in time is both a blessing and a curse, because you see everything that is wrong with the world, you watch people die and you know that you can't change it, can't risk it, even if you think that it would better the world…because you know that you might be wrong'.

The Doctor stared at her; shocked at how much she seemed to understand, and how much she seemed to know about how he felt about Martha…feelings he wasn't even sure of himself. He stared into her deep brown eyes, eyes full of understanding and sympathy, and felt a spark of recognition. There was something very familiar about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

After a moment of silence Donna cleared her throat. Both time travellers jumped and looked at her, as if they had completely forgotten she was there. She said dryly, 'well, if you have come all this way, shouldn't we be busy saving Martha?'

The Doctor immediately launched towards the console and began to press several buttons, in what seemed to be a random order. Cora moved out of the way and moved to stand by Donna, but said nothing.

Donna stared at her unabashedly, as was her nature, and then said accusingly, 'there is something about you Cora, something odd and weirdly familiar…and it's annoying the hell out of me, like an itch you can't just can't reach'.

Cora laughed suddenly, 'I've never been likened to an itch before, but there is a first time for everything'.

Donna punched Cora in the arm good-naturedly then said, 'you know, it will be nice to have someone to talk to, the Doctor may be brilliant, but I really don't understand what the hell he is talking about sometimes'.

Cora winced and rubbed her arm, 'I hate it when—' she stopped suddenly, looking rather guilty then said brightly, 'do you like apples?'

Donna groaned, 'oh lord, you too? Is it in the nature of time travellers to be so excentric?'

so, what do you think? still interested? if so, please continue reading this story! and please review! i accept criticism, but please no flames :)