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Something Martha Jones said, one of the last things she said, touched the Doctor in a way that no other companion he had ever had done. When she came bursting back into the TARDIS, jabbering on about Vicki and Shawn—whoever they were; the Doctor thought that this was just her trying to kill extra time and gain a couple more minutes before she had to leave-leave. He also couldn't help thinking “Oh! I knew a Vicki once!”
It was all the Doctor could to just fold his arms, stand up straight and listen. He had plenty of stupid, talkative companions. Even though Martha had proved herself to be one of the first companions he had with independence, intellect, and strength rolled into one very small human, he was sure that even the amazing Martha Jones, world saviour and heroine could have a rant.
But she wasn’t ranting; she was explaining in a very human why she couldn’t go with him.
So this was Martha’s real reason for leaving—not that the parent thing wasn’t true—but she wanted to save herself. For a brief moment the Doctor felt sorry for her, almost guilty. She wasn't the first companion to express affection for him. His companions were like pet dogs. Like a dog loves its master the companions love their Doctor. And that would have been the end of the Doctor's thoughts - but then Martha said something that made him think:
He wasn't pining for Rose; nor Peri, Romana, Sarah-Jane, or Jo. In fact, he wasn't pining for any of his companions. To him his companions were to fill a completely different gap, need in his life, one that he couldn’t bear to keep empty. That was the lack on one person: his granddaughter, Susan.
In fact, the loss of this person was the first of his troubles. his partner and his wife and his mate… whatever you wanted to call it. He had first met her at home on Gallifrey and loved her on sight. And he had really, deeply loved her; completely adored her and spent all day talking about her. She loved him too—but she died young, quite unexpectedly, despite being a Time Lady.
After she died, she wasn’t there to love him anymore but he didn’t care, because he still loved her and didn’t look at any other female creature twice. None of the Time Ladies and certainly not the humans. I mean he liked them, it took time but he grew to like humans very much... but have you ever been licked all over your face by a dog?
The Doctor wondered if someone had told him to get out he would have; he doubted it but it might have pushed him down the right path. After all he has waste centuries pining over his lost partner because even after she was gone he didn’t look at anyone else.
They were merely infatuated; Martha was truly in love with him, would do anything for him, and saved the world for him. The tragic thing was that had someone told him before to ‘get out’ he might have considered moving on with someone like her, even if she was a human.
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tired