To Be Human

Chapter 7 - Daleks in Manhattan

Daleks in Manhattan, part 1 -

When Martha and the Doctor came back to the Tardis, Jane was waiting so she wouldn't have to try and explain how she got in. Not that she knew it. They cast her a worried glance but she just smiled brightly to erase any suspicion about her emotional state when the three entered the Tardis.

"So? What happens now?", she asked, propping herself up on the railing.

"Why? What do you want to happen now?", the Doctor asked, looking at Martha with a smirk.

"I don't know. You said one trip to the past, one to the future but I'm not ready to leave yet", Jane pondered.

"You're not ready to leave?", the Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. I mean, you said I was a mystery that needed solving. And you haven't solved it yet. I didn't think I wanted this but I'm not leaving until you tell me anything, something, one tiny detail about who I was before Martha found me", Jane said with determination and jumped down, "So what happens next?"

The Doctor and Martha smiled at each other and Martha spoke up, "Well... The Doctor and I talked after you just left so abruptly and we both agreed that I spent this entire adventure kidnapped so it can't really count", she looked back at the Doctor once more and he nodded at her to continue, "and if you want you can come, too. But we're going to one more new place."

Martha and Jane smiled brightly at each other and then jumped up and down together, holding onto each other's arms. The Doctor, feeling left out, joined in, putting his hands on top of theirs. They stopped jumping, stepped apart and laughed like mad people before the Doctor turned back to the console sending them back on a bumpy ride, Martha running ahead to the door in anticipation.

"Can I?", she asked when she felt they had landed.

The Doctor nodded as Jane and him came after her.

"Where are we?", Martha asked before the other two had even stepped out.

Jane closed the door as the Doctor answered, "Ah, smell that Atlantic breeze. Nice and cold. Lovely. Martha, Jane, have you met my friend?", he turned and gestured upwards, the women's looks following.

"Is that? Oh my god! That's the Statue of Liberty", Martha exclaimed excitedly.

"Gateway to the New World. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free", the Doctor rambled on, walking ahead.

"That's so brilliant. I've always wanted to go to New York. I mean the real New York, not the new, new, new, new, new one", Martha joined in.

"Well, there's the genuine article. So good, they named it twice. Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally. Harder to say twice. Now wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam", the Doctor kept rambling.

"I don't think they'd have made that musical like that if it was New Amsterdam", Jane told him.

"Good point."

"I wonder what year it is, because look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet", Martha pointed ahead.

"Work in progress. Still got a couple floors to go, and if I know my history, that makes the date somewhere around-"

Before the Doctor could finished Martha had picked up a newspaper from a nearby bench and from behind them said, "November first 1930"

"You're getting good at this", the Doctor said before turning to her, noticing the paper and taking it from her.

"Eighty years ago. It's funny, because you see all those old newsreels all in black and white like it's so far away, but here we are. It's real. It's now. Come on then, you two. Where do you want to go first?", Martha bumped Jane. She smiled before looking back at the paper in the Doctor's hands.