Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Sorry, but it's the truth. :(

A/N: This takes place just after Blink, but a while before Utopia. Anyway…read and review? Please? *puppy dog eyes*

Summary: Martha and the Doctor travel to 1559, where they meet up with alien pirates. These vicious pirates have only one goal in mind, which happens to involve the deaths of hundreds. Can the Doctor stop them, when he's not doing so well himself? DoctorWhump.

Chapter One

Martha had never thought she'd be so glad to see the inside of the TARDIS. As she limped wearily through the door, dropping her quiver of arrows onto the floor with a muted thud, she allowed her body to sag against the railing just inside. "Blimey. I never want to see another giant lizard again." Reaching up with one hand, she wiped at a smear of vaguely disgusting goop on one cheek.

"What, you didn't enjoy it? Even I haven't been chased by giant lizards before. Well, not often. Well, not every day." The Doctor grinned widely at her, carelessly dropping his wooden bow onto the floor with a soft clang. He stared at her for a few seconds, then his brow furrowed with concern. "Are you all right, Martha?"

"What?" She followed the direction of his worried gaze, noticing for the first time that the sleeve of her shirt was torn, crimson blood leaking through a large cut on her arm. "Oh, I didn't even notice. I guess that amazing giant lizard bit me when it tried to drag me off to feed to its hatchlings," she murmured pointedly, staring with a detached feeling at the wound. "I was too busy fighting for my life to notice things like being bitten. It took you long enough to come rescue me."

"Here, let me fix you up. I can't have you bleeding all over the inside of the TARDIS," the Doctor said cheerfully, ignoring the comment. He rushed over to the center of the supposed police box, placing a blue folder down on the edge of the computer console. He then began rummaging around for something. What, Martha hadn't the slightest idea.

"Doctor? That woman, the one who came up to you on the street earlier. What did she say to you? She acted like she knew you," Martha noted, walking over to join the Time Lord. She stared at the folder, which was transparent. Oddly enough, she could see a photo of some sort of granite angel statue staring up at her.

"Never met her before in my life." His voice was muffled as he continued digging through some sort of drawer.

"Then how…?"

"It was obvious, Martha. She's met us before, but we haven't met her yet. What is in her past will be in our future. It was something about how we'll be trapped in 1969, and we'll need that folder for some reason. I haven't looked it over yet, so I have no idea what she was talking about. Rather confusing to have a one-sided conversation. That bloke she was with seemed to know me, too."

"Okay, that's more than enough out of you, Doctor. You're making my head hurt. This time traveling tends to give you cause for some aspirin, yeah?" Martha idly reached into the folder, cautiously pulling out the photo of the angel. Her dark eyes widened as she stared at the fearsome stone face, its lips bared to reveal sharp teeth. "Wow. What kind of statue is this supposed to be?"

"It doesn't really matter. Yet." The Doctor straightened, taking the photo from her hands and stuffing it carelessly back into the folder. He then proceeded to tuck it into the folds of his coat. "Now, where were we?"

"I believe that you were about to stop me from bleeding all over the inside of the TARDIS," Martha remarked, arching a brow.

"Oh, yes! That reminds me! I had those bandages stored down here somewhere…" The Time Lord returned to his rummaging, then finally came up with a roll of white gauze. "Here we are, then. Just hold out your arm, and I'll get you all fixed up." He started unwinding the roll of bandages.

Martha pulled up what remained of her sleeve, wincing at the sight of the deep wound in her flesh. "How I didn't notice that bloody thing until just now, I'll never know," she muttered, rolling her eyes at herself. "It looks like it's almost all the way to the bone."

"It's fixed easily enough." The Doctor began gently rolling the bandages around her arm, a small smile curving his lips as he worked. "I remember one time when Rose was injured by a junkun alien in the Platooa galaxy, and she-" He broke off abruptly, expression becoming one of stone, almost like the statue from the photo. He hurriedly tied off both ends of the bandages, then turned away.

Martha bit down hard on her bottom lip, eyes narrowing. It always came back to Rose Tyler, the Doctor's previous companion. He just couldn't get over her. He was always talking about her, getting that faraway look in his eyes that showed when he was thinking about her. It was hard enough knowing that he didn't return her growing feelings, but always knowing that he was pining away after someone else…that was torture.

"So, where to next? We could do something fun, after the giant lizard incident," the Doctor announced, whirling back around to face her again. He clasped both hands before himself, looking positively pleased with life. "Would you rather see the home of the Saousaens, or go ice skating on Plutoepallas?" he questioned brightly. "They're both rather nice this time of year. Well, not really this time. But we can make this time that time, if you want."

She really had no interest in either of the things that he had mentioned, but didn't outright say so. "Uh…can't we do something more…human?" she questioned halfheartedly. She didn't really care what they did. She just wanted to take a nap and get rid of some of the tiredness seeping steadily throughout her body.

He stared wordlessly at her for several seconds, then bobbed his head energetically. "Right, then. Something human it is!" He hurriedly rushed around the center of the TARDIS, pressing buttons and pulling levers.

"Where exactly are we going?" Martha hugged herself with both arms, ignoring the slight pain in her left arm that the motion caused.

"You'll have to wait and see. But I think you'll like it!" Grinning with excitement, he kicked the side of the computer console, making a ringing sound of sneaker against metal. "There, that should do it. Hold on!"

The TARDIS shook once, the engines whirring to life with that familiar whirring sound. Martha steadied herself by gripping tightly onto the railing with one hand, waiting with nearly overwhelming curiosity. Where exactly was the Doctor taking her now? More than likely somewhere exotic and alien to her, despite her request that their next activity be human. He tended to like spaceships and distant planets in far-away galaxies. She could only pray that it would be entertaining, preventing her from falling asleep on her feet. Before the lizard adventure, they'd gone to what had seemed to be a kind of fifty-ninth century football game, and everything had been spoken in an unfamiliar language.

Martha had been bored out of her mind, but the Doctor had appeared to enjoy it immensely.

She fought to ignore the tiny voice inside her that wondered if the Doctor was taking her to yet another place that he had once taken Rose, like New New York. She shook her head fiercely. So what if she was just a replacement for some fit bird that she'd never even met? That didn't bother her at all.

Right.

"Come on, come on!" The Doctor pulled a hammer from under the panels of the TARDIS' heart, slamming it down at what looked to Martha's eyes like random intervals. "Don't give out on me now!"

Unexpectedly, the ship shook and rattled wildly. Martha lost her balance, falling down so hard that the breath was knocked roughly from her lungs. She rolled onto her side and forced herself into a sitting position. "What's happening?" she gasped out.

"I'm not entirely sure! I think something might have just passed by us through the time stream!" he answered her loudly, frowning as he whacked the hammer against the panels a few more times for good measure.

"Is that bad?"

"It depends on what whoever was inside is planning to do when they get wherever they're going," he enunciated in a lower tone, distractedly pulling at two more levers. With another shudder, the TARDIS' frenzied shaking slowed, and everything became completely silent.

Martha slowly climbed to her feet, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Uh…are we there yet?" she inquired cautiously.

He laughed, then turned musing. "Yes, we should be. Unless I miscalculated the side winds that we received from the unidentified passing object. If I did, which I highly doubt, then we might be at least hundreds of years from our destination, for all I know."

"Oh, now that's reassuring," Martha stated sarcastically. She couldn't stop her gaze from drifting involuntarily towards the door. "So…where are we?"

The Doctor nodded shortly towards the door. "Why don't you take a look outside and see?" he suggested.

Martha, unable to keep the eager smile off her face at the thought of what could be waiting for her out there, walked swiftly towards the door. Resting her hand on the cool knob for a moment, she then pushed the door open and stepped outside. Her eyes were greeted with the sight of cobblestone streets and fluttering banners hanging above them, barely visible in the darkness. She selectively chose to ignore the horrible stench wafting to her from all around, a sign of a very unhygienic sewer system. "Where are we?" she breathed, asking the question again. "The past, yeah?"

"London, England." The Doctor suddenly appeared behind her, leaning against the doorframe of the TARDIS and gazing out. "January 15th, 1559; the date of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. The first Queen Elizabeth, that is."

"Really? That's...amazing. But didn't we meet her after stopping those three witches in 1599? She wanted you beheaded, if I remember correctly." Martha smirked at the memory.

"Hmmm. Ah, yes. I'd almost forgotten about that, to tell you the truth…" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Who knows, maybe this will be the time when I make her mad enough to ban me from England. That's what happened with Queen Victoria in Scotland once." The Doctor's chocolate eyes filled with unspoken memories.

"Queen Victoria in Scotland? What on Earth did you do to her?"

"Rose and I made her angry by stopping a werewolf," the Doctor answered her quietly. "Nothing that exciting." His wistful tone of voice said otherwise.

Martha heaved a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest. Rose again. When would he finally stop mentioning her all the time?

"Right, then! Let's be off. I believe that some of the first public fireworks will be going off somewhere near Westminster Abbey to celebrate the new queen's coronation, if I can remember my history correctly." The Doctor strode down the street, still talking aloud to himself.

Pausing for a moment, Martha glanced around worriedly at her surroundings. There was a mysterious chill in the air, one that made goosebumps rise on the exposed skin of her arms. Her befuddled gaze landed on the alleyway directly to her right, where a shadow that seemed even darker than the others lurked. It was almost the size of a person, but with the strangest shape for a head…

"Come on, Martha! We haven't got time to dally about!" came the Doctor's voice from further down the street, drifting on the faint breeze to reach her ears.

She suppressed a shudder, unable to guess what was making her feel so uneasy, then turned and rushed after the Doctor.

Okay, guys. Please review. I would really love to hear from you! :D