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Who: Martha Snape-Jones and Open
What: An open log where Martha's going on a run.
Where: All around Sobek Croix.
When: Today
Notes: This is an open log, and Martha will be jogging all around so please feel free to hop in! I'd love to use this to build more CR for her.
Warnings: None, will update as needed.

Since she'd traveled with the Doctor, Martha Jones had always used her running time to think. It hadn't started out that way, but having spent the better part of her time with him on the run from something and needing to think about how to outsmart it, or what the next step in the plan should be meant that she'd gotten quite good at it. During the year especially, Martha had thought and walked, or thought and ran, even though there were times when her thoughts weren't the best of company.

Today they moved back and forth, striding the wall between being good company and not. There were still too many variables and too many things to consider about the two of them being here for her thoughts to be one or the other. So instead, Martha ran through the neighborhood, savoring the sensation of real sun on her skin and real wind in her hair. After two years of running in CES where everything was manufactured, it was brilliant to have the luxury of this. Also running like this gave her the time to get to know the land, and hopefully meet some of the people around. Oh, she knew that she could run at Hellsing, but running on a track or treadmill just wasn't the same as road, grass and path beneath her heels.

Every so often Martha wished that she'd had her ipod in her pocket when she'd been taken. Or perhaps the mirror that Severus had given her. Perhaps if she'd had them then she wouldn't have needed to literally see him in order to remember. Thinking about that wasn't helpful, she decided, and her steps slowed a bit as Martha took a shaky breath and sipped from the water bottle she carried.

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For someone who'd taken pains to make himself a contracted, on-call consultant to Hellsing, Jim Kirk certainly was spending a lot of time there. He still spent time exploring the city, talking to people, reading, absorbing as much information as he could about this place in hopes of figuring out how to escape. But his presence seemed to be more centered around the guild hall these days, those explorations now becoming errands to pass the time rather than the main focus of his efforts.

And here he was again, making the twenty-minute hike through Sobek Croix from the nearest rail station, headed to the guild hall. Bones was certainly the more loquacious of the pair of them on the subject of how goddamned good it was to have solid earth beneath their feet and real sun on their faces and wind in their hair, but Jim wouldn't deny that he enjoyed it too. He was taking his time with the walk today, letting his body occupy itself with movement while his mind worked.

It was better than being home alone again. Half the reason he was headed to the hall was to see if Bones was in medical there--the two of them had seen each other so infrequently lately. He knew his friend was still broken up over losing one of their own; all of Hellsing had been moved by Dean Winchester's death but Dr. McCoy was taking it particularly hard, blaming himself for not being able to save the man. He'd thrown himself into work to distract himself, Jim could tell, but somehow his work at Hellsing and his work at the temples conspired to keep him out of Jim's sight all day, every day, lately.

His trained senses caught the sound of someone on the path ahead, moving toward him, the cadence of footfalls telling him they were running. He snapped out of his thinking, attention coming to bear on the figure ahead, quickly appraising the situation. Nothing chased her, and her bearing didn't seem worried, or defensive. Nothing about what he saw and heard told him to ready himself for a fight.

He relaxed, offering a bright, easy smile as she approached. He recognized her. Didn't he? He thought he'd seen her in medical once when he'd poked his head in looking for always-busy friend. "Hi," he called out when she was in earshot. "How's the running going?"

In another time and another place, the voice that spoke to her was shockingly familiar. Jim Kirk had been a friend, but she knew that if he hadn't responded to her then it wasn't the same Jim that she knew, just like she knew that it wasn't the same McCoy who had handed her a scanner. The sensation of loss was one that was painful, in a way.

For all of that, Martha grinned at the Captain, and she took a breath, her hands loose at her sides. "I'm well. Just getting some running in under a real sky. It's been a long time since I've been able to do it." Which was an understatement, but the Barge time could go a bit wibbly wobbly at the best of times. "There's nothing like the real thing."

Her smile and eyes had a bit of a familiarity in them, and then extended a hand towards her. "I'm Martha. I work with Dr. McCoy."

"No, there really isn't. Seems like you don't miss it until you have to try running cooped up someplace, or with some simulation that's supposed to be the next best thing but really isn't."

He nodded, his grin widening as he took her hand. "I thought I recognized you from someplace. I'm Jim Kirk, I'm his--"

He stopped. Blinked a few times, looking her over. Maybe she was just exceedingly quick on the uptake, putting his drifting past Medical with McCoy. Or maybe his CMO had mentioned him... and... described him exceedingly well or something. Maybe. But she'd offered that she worked with Dr. McCoy like she already knew that would mean something to Jim.

"I'm his friend. I'm sorry, Martha, do we know each other? It's not like me to forget a face."

For a moment, Martha didn't know what to say. One would think after years of dealing with Barge amnesia, and everything that went with it, she would have gotten far better at explaining these things than she actually was.

However, if there was someone who knew about alternate timelines, it was probably him. Or perhaps that was only the Jim Kirk she knew. Or had known, really, depending on what happened here. She hoped that it would be that they'd be seeing him soon.

The question about him knowing her took a minute to answer, but in the end, Martha went with the truth. She was a rubbish liar, though perhaps her cover story was one she was going to need to invest some work into. That should help, really.

"Not here." She said with a smile, and a shrug. "Not yet anyway."

Jim nodded, holding up a hand as if to stop her saying any more. Not yet, she'd said, which simply could have been pleasantries, she didn't know him yet but she would now; but maybe not yet meant she knew an older him, a different him, and he knew better than to go poking at an alternate timeline any more than he had to. He still wasn't sure just how serious the older Spock had been with his warnings about not telling people their futures. Better safe than sorry.

"It's all right," he assured her. "It's happened once already. Went to a party and some guy was sure he knew me from somewhere else, another place like this. It wasn't me. Couldn't have been. Alternate realities can be a big old surprise, sometimes." And as much as they surprised him, he couldn't imagine how jarring it must be for the other side, for them to see a face they knew and realize that person didn't know them at all.

"So. Martha. Pretty recently arrived to Hellsing?" He made a point of knowing who was who, and she hadn't been there when he and Bones signed on. And, of course, the other, unspoken question was been in the city long? but he was sure everyone got tired of being asked that. Asking about Hellsing seemed like a bit of originality. Maybe.

It had been pleasantries on her behalf, really. After all, she'd already gotten on fairly well with him before, and right now she felt like gathering more friends was a good idea. Then again making friends was always a good idea for Martha even when it came to the best and most normal of occasions. Well, assuming that there was such a thing anymore.

She had to laugh when he mentioned 'alternate realities.' She couldn't help it. "You know, normally I'm the sort of person who has to give that speech to people. And one about the wibbly wobbliness of time, really." Knowing just how ridiculous those words could sound, Martha grinned a bit. "But I know it's not you, and I know it's not" a pause, because Martha's lip had started to form the name 'Leo' but didn't. "Doctor McCoy or about a hundred other people I was friends with from back home."

Back home meaning aboard the Barge rather than anywhere else at the moment. But the idea of actually going home home was one that had stuck in her head and now it buzzed rather comfortably. "I've been here a bit over a month, I think."

"Really? So did I do all right? Because that's the first time I've given that speech."

He grins again, to show he was teasing. "I'm sure Hellsing is glad to have you. And Bones and I may not be the ones you already knew, but there's no reason we can't be your friends here too." Pause. "Assuming, in Doctor McCoy's case, you enjoy friends who eyeroll a lot."

He gestures at the path. "Which way are you headed? I'll walk with you. Or run, even, if you want."

"You did very well," Martha grinned in return to show that she was teasing as well, and then she nodded. "Definitely friends here too." Martha needed friends on whom she could rely, and people whom she could trust--people whom she already trusted were just a bonus, really.

"I'm quite alright with friends who roll their eyes a lot," Martha admitted quickly. "So, I'm sure we'll get along just fine." After all, she had a fair amount of experience with that, given her husband.

"I actually wasn't headed in a particular direction, just going out for a run. Helps clear my head, focus me, all that stuff." Thinking that may have sounded a bit aloof, she added. "But walking and chatting would be brilliant if you wished it."

Jim's grin widened, the bright smile emphasizing the youthfulness of his face. "Thanks. It probably helped that I had a receptive and comprehending audience," he admitted. "Might've been a harder sell to someone with less direct experience. And I'm glad you're good with eyerolling because I swear one of these days Bones' face is gonna freeze like that."

That last is said with obvious affection behind the teasing. Bones isn't just his crewmate and CMO, the man's his best friend. If he had to be stuck here with anyone, he's glad it's Bones.

"It'd be my pleasure, Martha. Thank you. I was headed to the Guild Hall but I don't have to be there for anything specific; we can take our time."

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