No Matter (a Doctor Who/Sherlock Holmes crossover) 4/?

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Title: No Matter
Author: sarah531
Rating: PG13
Fandom: Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes
AN: This is set after the Hiatus for Holmes and Watson (oh, and it’s the bookverse, despite my icon) and after Human Nature for the Doctor and Martha.
Summary: A detective, a doctor, a would-be doctor and a Doctor walk into a bar.

Previous chapters: One Two Three

No Matter

The five of them entered the room and saw the two bodies laid out on the floor. Martha found herself pushing past the others and kneeling before the bodies first.

“It’s exactly the same as before, Doctor,” she said.

The others moved forward to see for themselves, but Lestrade hung back. “Who is the negress, Holmes?” he asked.

Martha jumped to her feet, eyes flashing with anger. The Doctor put his hand on her shoulder.

“I’m a doctor. As soon as I pass my exams I will be. I’ve done loads of medical training, I’m far more qualified than you! Alright? Is that good enough for you, mate?”

Lestrade backed away with a look of bewilderment, and an anger that quickly cooled. “She is also an agent of Britain?” he asked the Doctor.

“This is Martha Jones, Inspector,” Holmes said cooly. “You will treat her with the same respect you treat me.”

“Yes, she’s a British agent,” the Doctor said. “Shall I provide her papers, too?”

“No, that’s quite all right.”

They returned to their work, but the examinations- of both the bodies and the room- didn’t take long. The Doctor finally stood up and announced to everyone in general, “I don’t think we can do much else, everybody. Might as well leave these poor people be for now.”

Holmes was still examining the walls, a look of intense concentration on his face. Martha wondered if he minded the Doctor upstaging him.

“The door was locked,” he said. “So was the window. There is no fireplace. There was simply no way anyone could have entered. Therefore, he must have been in the room with them. And either he got past when Lestrade and the police opened the door, or he’s still here.”

“My men were guarding the door-” Lestrade began.

“Silence, man! Give me data. Who owns the house? What are the names of these women?”

“Aliens did this.” the Doctor said.

The room was silent for a couple of seconds. “You’re sure of this?” Holmes finally said. “You don’t know all the facts. None of us do. And I have handled stranger cases than-”

“Aliens did it.” the Doctor said.

Lestrade looked around in bafflement.

“Right,” the Doctor said. “Time to go, I think. Detective, Doctor, Martha- come with me.” He headed out of the door, then popped his head back in and added, “Oh, by the way, Inspector, there’s nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing. We can handle this.”

*

“Where are we going, Doctor?” Martha asked.

“Back to the TARDIS,” the Doctor said. “There’s a device in there, somewhere, which can help me detect alien activity…”

“And we can fix it while we’re there, right?” Martha said. “Fix the TARDIS?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said, “we can do that.”

Holmes and Watson were walking behind the other two and discussing things among themselves.

“This girl with the red balloon, Holmes. I can’t help but feel there is something in that…”

“I will mention it to the Doctor when he pauses for breath, if indeed he ever does.”

There was silence between them for a minute.

“My friend,” Holmes said at last, “you realise that this shakes the foundation of everything we’ve ever thought.”

“I did realise, yes.”

“I shall never turn down an opportunity to learn more about the world, you know that. But this man simply walked into our lives and-”

“He does that,” Martha interrupted, sliding out of pace with the Doctor and walking next to them. “You must be feeling pretty weirded out…I mean, pretty…frightened, right?”

“Miss Jones, I have faced my own death on more than one occasion. I have dealt with all manner of horrors. I have found the answers to questions which-”

“You’re frightened.” Watson said.

“Yes, I am.”

Martha continued to walk alongside them. “You’re a lot like him, you know,” she said to Holmes. “A lot like the Doctor. You’re both…I dunno. Something.”

“Most eloquent, Miss Jones. Martha.”

They walked on.

*

The TARDIS was exactly as they left it.

“Everyone in,” the Doctor said cheerfully. He darted through the blue door first and left the others to follow.

“This might be a bit…it’s bigger on the inside,” Martha explained before going in herself. Holmes and Watson looked at each other.

“Into the unknown, my friend!” Holmes said, and with a barely supressed grin went through the door. Watson followed right behind him, and together they stood and looked around the vast interior. Martha smiled at the amazement on their faces, and then she turned towards the Doctor.

“What are we going to do?”

The Doctor was rummaging about in the debris around the console room. The lights were still off and he was using the sonic screwdriver as a torch. “Got it,” he said. He placed a strange machine by Martha’s feet. “The Timey-Wimey detector. I’m thinking of changing the name. Right, let me just get the TARDIS fixed, just in case we need it, and then we can be off.”

“To solve the murders, I presume,” Watson said.

“If murders is what they are.”

Holmes was examining the console. “And once we solve them, what then?” he asked, not looking up. “You realise, do you not, what you are doing? Three deaths. They need to be explained. I cannot explain them, I am unwilling to lie, and I doubt Scotland Yard will accept ‘aliens’ as the guilty party.”

“You’re probably the smartest man in London,” the Doctor said idly. “You’ll think of something.” He was pulling up the floor panels, and Martha instinctively went to help him. He gave no acknowledgement to her whatsoever, just jumped into the hole he’d made and returned holding a glowing green jewel.

“What’s that?” Martha asked.

“This is what I did when the TARDIS crashed last time,” the Doctor said. “These tiny little cells around the TARDIS, they cling to life, and I can use them. Watch.” He blew on it. “See? By way of an unfathomably clever process, that was ten years of my life I just gave to the TARDIS. And the old girl’s working perfectly now.”

“You are bonded with this machine,” Holmes said.

“Yeah.”

“That’s quite…” He looked at Martha. “Weirding, I believe was the word?”

“Weird.” Martha said. “Ten years of your life? Does that mean, Doctor…”

“I’m not going anywhere soon,” the Doctor reassured her. “Trust me, I won’t notice ten years here or there.”

Martha looked uncertain, but the Doctor simply placed the cell back where it had been and watched as the lights came back on.

“Explain this unfathomably clever process, Doctor,” Holmes said.

“Well, the TARDIS needs energy from our world to work,” the Doctor said cheerfully. “So I gave it that energy. Brought it back to life. All the teeny little nanogenes in this cell, they do what they’re programmed to do and listen to me…and that’s it really.”

“Energy,” Holmes said thoughtfully. “It sounds a lot like you’re using that as another word for ‘magic’.”

“Nah!” the Doctor said. And then, suddenly, about to speak, he stopped.

“Nanogenes,” he whispered. “Nanogenes.”