No Matter (a Doctor Who/Sherlock Holmes crossover) 7/?

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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 Four Five Six

No Matter

The TARDIS cell glowed green.

“Watson,” Holmes said, “take it.”

Watson reached out, took the cell, and his eyes closed.

“He’s dead,” Martha said, slightly hysterically.

“He’s not,” Holmes said.

Watson opened his eyes and looked around at them. “Holmes,” he said weakly. “Hello again, my friend. What was that? What did you do? I’m…”

“Alive,” the Doctor finished, standing in the doorway.

“Alive,” Martha said in wonderment.

Holmes held up the TARDIS cell. It was no longer glowing. “They give you what you want,” he said. “That’s what you said, Doctor.”

“Yes,” the Doctor repeated slowly. “I did. Probably pointless asking how you remembered or how you knew. You also know that’s ten years of your life gone, right?”

“Quite acceptable.”

Watson slowly stood up. “Holmes, I-”

“Think nothing of it, my friend.”

“I shall never be able to thank you enough. What you just did, Holmes, what you did for me-”

“I would do again. Right!” He turned to the Doctor. “You are a careless and reckless and dangerous visitor. But you’re the only one who can stop this. So sit- sit! -and we will talk.”

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“What exactly did he do, Doctor?” Martha asked. “How did that happen?”

“He called the nanogenes out of Watson and into that cell,” the Doctor said. “He caught them. They’re imprisoned.”

“And you may keep them, Doctor,” Holmes said, handing the glowing object over. “There is no way, I take it, to save the three who died?”

“No,” the Doctor said sadly.

“And have you given any more thought as to how these things escaped?”

“Well…”

“You said you were careless. But looking at you now I think there is another explanation.”

The Doctor sighed and looked at Martha. A very long and very guilty look. Martha realised how many times she had seen that look, and felt a small sting of…something. Anger, maybe. Something.

“I would have told you eventually,” the Doctor said. “The Family. You never asked what happened to them.”

“I thought they died.”

“No. They didn’t.”

“Right. What happened to them then?”

“All they wanted was immortality,” the Doctor said. “I was angry. I gave it to them. The mother in a collapsing galaxy, the father in unbreakable chains, the son suspended in time and the girl…in a mirror. In every mirror.”

“You mean…”

“They stayed alive. They’ll stay alive forever. That’s what I did to them. That, Martha Jones, is what I can do. I take lives, innocent or guilty, and I ruin them.”

Martha slowly arranged and rearranged her thoughts. The Doctor looked at her like he was daring her, daring her to stop liking him and go home and get on with life and be a ordinary person again. She found herself thinking of Rose, and whether the Doctor had ever wanted her out of the way, a normal person, safe and no friend of any monster. She wondered, and then she said:

“They deserved it. Sort of.”

“You don’t mean that,”

“Well, no, I don’t. But it doesn’t make you evil.”

“Oh no, Martha, we know I’m not evil. But I can be very, very human.”

There was silence in the room.

“I assume,” Holmes said, “that one of these creatures escaped. And I assume it was, or took the form of, a little girl.”

“They weren’t creatures. They were highly intelligent. And yes, it was the girl who escaped. Daughter of Mine, they called her. I stood next to her and I locked her in a forcefield and I cast her into all the mirrors in the world. But in one split second she must have connected her mind to the nanogenes, reprogrammed them to free her when the TARDIS landed and then cause chaos in the world it landed in. Leave her free again to run about in the world, like that little girl whose body she stole did. Why don’t I get you some tea, Dr Watson?”

“Oh,” Watson looked surprised. “Thank you, Doctor, if it’s not too much trouble.”

The Doctor took a mug from the table and a teabag from his pocket, filled the mug with water from a jug and held the sonic screwdriver to it. While it boiled he said, “I’m sorry. I really am.”

“We are aware of that, Doctor,” Holmes said testily. “How do we capture the creature?”

“Well, it won’t be easy,” the Doctor said. “I’ll do it.”

“What will you do to her?” Martha asked. “I mean, it?”

“Put her back in the mirror.”

“Right.”

“Holmes, Watson, you two are staying here.”

“I will hear nothing of the sort,” Watson spoke up.

“And I intend to see this thing through to the very end.” Holmes said cooly.

The Doctor sighed. “Okay.”

Watson sipped his tea and then stood up. “I will fetch my pistol.”

“Maybe you ought to rest a while first.” Martha said.

“There will be time for that later, dear girl.”

The four of them stood there, uncertain of exactly what to do.

“Let’s find her.” the Doctor said.

The tea was left on the table.