Doctor Who fanfic (VERY AU)

[Romana]

I've been writing a fanfic about a version of myself teaming up with John Simm's version of the Master over on my forum...there's 8 chapters at the mo I think, been a bit stuck for ideas for the last while, because it's so different from established Who continuity, but I hope I can think of something soon *crosses fingers*

Just a warning - my fangirl side is in evidence here (getting kissed by the Master etc.) I'll post the whole lot that I've done here - comments welcome


Title: A Girl And Her Time Lord

Author's Name: Julia

Fandom: Doctor Who

Characters: The Master (Simm) and the author, a 20-something Scottish girl *ahem*

Rating: 12'll do I think

Disclaimer: I do not own the character of the Master...sadly Doesn't mean I can't write stories about him though

Summary: The Doctor has trapped the Master in our reality. That's a reality where both are just characters in a hugely popular, long-running Brit sci-fi show. Why has he done this? Just to teach the Master a lesson, of course. The author randomly bumps into him one day and it's the start of an adventure - but of course she falls for him too, which always complicates things!


CHAPTER ONE

I was on holiday at my sister’s who lives in Edinburgh, when I bumped into him, the man who would change my life forever. It was a hot summer’s day and I’d decided to go into town to spend some birthday money as I’d just turned 27 recently – I was really looking forward to it.

It was in HMV that I spotted him…well actually, I heard him before I saw him. I was over in the rock/pop section of the music department, looking to see if I could find any of the Beatles CDs I needed to complete my collection. My eye caught a small group of people who were gathered in a small circle around someone, someone (it was definitely a man) who was singing at the top of their voice. I recognised the song immediately: “I Can’t Decide” by the Scissor Sisters. My curiosity got the better of me – usually I turn a blind eye to things like that when I’m music-hunting – and I walked over to join the group. They were all laughing and grinning. Looking over the shoulder of one of the others, I got my first glimpse of the man.

The first thing I noticed about him was the way he was dressed. To say he was well-dressed was an understatement. He wore a very smart black suit, a crisp white shirt beneath it, a stripy tie and shiny black shoes. And yet he was acting so…childish! He was clasping a pair of those headphones you see lying round HMV to his ears, you know, those ones you can listen to the music of your choice through? He was certainly enjoying the song, singing along at the top of his voice and doing a little dance, his back was turned towards me at this point. With amusement I found myself thinking how this behaviour was very familiar to me…someone had danced like that to the Scissor Sisters in the finale of Doctor Who Series 3.

He turned round and when I saw his face, I let out an audible gasp. When I realised that it’d been out loud I clasped my hand to my mouth and felt my face start to burn with embarrassment. A few people near me laughed when they heard me. The song had obviously finished too because just before I gasped, he’d taken his headphones off. This meant he’d heard me too and this realisation made my face burn even harder. The man looked at me and tilted his head to one side, looking at me curiously…then gave me a brilliant smile.

“You love that song too, don’t you?” he asked me cheerfully.

I was aware that my mouth was hanging open like a goldfish and snapped it shut immediately. My mind was full of thoughts, thoughts of how impossible this encounter could be but I answered him.

“Y-yeah…it’s brilliant”, I said a little hesitantly. “In fact it’s one of my favourite songs right now – it’s really catchy. Scissor Sisters are great for making catchy songs”.

On hearing my reply, the man (who I’d recognised from the moment I saw his face) grinned again and the way he was looking at me made me blush and look down at my feet.

“Brilliant…I love that word!” he cried. “Human beings may be a bit backwards at times but they definitely make up great words! Brilliant…brilliant…brilliant…yep, I think I’ll be using that one a lot! Oh and if it’s not too much trouble, can you tell me what your name is, girl?”

My mouth was hanging open again. I quickly shut it but the man didn’t seem to bother that I was looking like an idiot, in fact it seemed to amuse him.

“Julia” I told him.

“Julia, eh? Right then Julia, what do you say to a little dance? And since we both love this song, we should dance to it”.

“What? Right now? In the middle of the shop?”

“Yep, right now…in the middle of the shop”.

“With everyone watching?”

“With everyone watching, yep. But before we get started I just want to get something out of the way first”.

Before I knew what was happening he’d placed his hands at each side of my forehead and his face was so close to mine that it was almost touching it. I couldn’t move, I was basically starstruck, knowing who this was. I didn’t want to move either…oh, the amount of times I’d imagined this sort of thing happening!

“Keep still” he said quietly, almost in a whisper. “This won’t hurt a bit, but you might get random images and a slight tingling sensation in your head. Won’t take long though…so don’t worry, be happy!” He followed that with a wink and I almost melted. “Oh and maybe you’d better close your eyes, it’ll work better that way”. I did as I was told and shut my eyes, a couple of seconds later it happened. Just like he said, random images were appearing in my mind, images that I realised were my memories of everything that had happened to me, everything I’d ever thought of and everything I’d seen. Also, just like he’d told me, there was an intense tingling in my head as this was happening – it wasn’t entirely unpleasant either… A few minutes later, it was over – he removed his hands from my forehead and I stood swaying on the spot a little. After a moment’s pause, he looked at me with narrowed eyes and a mischievous smile.

“My, you have been having naughty thoughts about me haven’t you, you naughty girl?”

My face burned so hot it could’ve melted.

“Um…well…er” was all I could say in answer to this.

“No, no. You don’t have to explain. I have that kind of effect on human females all the time” he said while straightening his tie.

I don’t know how it happened, but once he’d said this all my nervousness (well, most of it) faded away. “Tell me your name. Go on, say it!”

“I don’t need to. You know who I am already, you’ve known since the moment you saw me – I saw it in your mind. You know, even though your mind says that my being here is impossible”. He saw the disappointed look on my face when he said this. “Oh alright then your majesty – honestly, humans are so demanding! It’s all me, me, me with you lot”. Smiling a cheeky smile, clearly loving every minute of this, he said the words I wanted to hear.

“I am the Master! There, that good enough for you?”

My shyness came rushing back to me at that moment.

“Y-yeah. T-that’s good enough” I stammered.

“Right then, now that everything’s cleared up, shall we dance?”

And he reached out and took my hand.

[Romana]

CHAPTER TWO

Half an hour later, we sat facing each other over a table in Burger King. The Master was examining his burger closely, turning it round and round in his hands. It was clear that he’d never eaten one before, which I found very funny.

My mind drifted back to just after he’d taken my hand in HMV. True to his word, we’d danced in the middle of the floor. Taking out his Laser Screwdriver from inside his jacket, he’d pointed it at the speakers hanging above the shop floor and a golden ray had shot from it, striking them. At once, the music playing at that moment changed from “New Shoes” by Paolo Nutini (which is a great song too) to “I Can’t Decide”. People had gathered round us as we danced (the Master was a very good dancer and because I was dancing with him, he made me feel more confident with my own dancing abilities) and cheered us on. A few couples even started dancing too. It was the weirdest experience I’d ever had in my life, but also one of the best. Not to mention the fact that at the end of it, he’d kissed me – it took me completely by surprise. “There’s more where that came from” he said, giving me a seductive smile, “but that’s all you’re getting for now”.

A few minutes later, he’d dragged me out of the shop to where we were now – he was dying for something to eat, he’d said. Not a bad plan, I thought: I was starting to feel hungry too, not just for food but for information. Hundreds of questions were flying through my mind, I wanted to know how he’d got here for a start. I’d be able to question him during our snack.

“This is delicious” he said thickly, through a mouthful of burger, lettuce and mayo. “So simple, but it’s got so much oomph to it”. He turned what was left of the burger (he’d taken a huge bite out of it) round in his hands again and took another bite. I’d eaten my own burger and chips already, but the Master was taking ages with his because he kept examining it. Surely it was stone cold by now, I thought.

“So…what are you doing here, in Edinburgh of all places?” I blurted out. “How did you get here? A-a-and, why did you kiss me? I’m not complaining about any of it, I just want some answers because you being here, in my reality, is…well I’d say impossible!”

“Whoa – slow down, princess!” he said loudly, while sweeping the remains of his burger to one side. “So many questions. I’ll answer your last question first…and the answer is…why not? When I read your mind I decided that you’d make good companion material – travelling on my own gets sooooo boring!” He faked a huge yawn and falling asleep at that point, which made me laugh “And” he continued, “since you’re obviously smitten with me then that’s the first good qualification you’ve got. You’re pretty enough for me too”.

I blushed at that point. He noticed and winked at me cheekily.

“Second and third answers now. Why and how am I here, in your reality? The Doctor tricked me, that’s how…said there was something here worth taking over that wasn’t in any other reality. I didn’t know how to get here so he gave me the co-ordinates and followed me, then when I was distracted by something here he somehow got into my TARDIS and stole the piece of kit I need to make it cross realities. Then he pissed off in his own TARDIS, leaving me stranded here. I think he was getting bored of me making his life havoc all the time and just wanted me out of the way. As for me landing in Edin-whatsit, that was completely random. Reckon he’ll be back to give me the Reality Crossing Modulator at some point though, he always ends up rescuing me!”.

“You shouldn’t look like the way you look though, surely you should’ve regenerated after being burnt by the Doctor in that fire!” I asked without thinking.

“Burnt? Fire? Regenerated? What are you talking about?” the Master replied with a highly amused look on his face.

“Your plan to make and rule a Time Lord empire…it failed, the Doctor saved the day as usual and Lucy shot you!”

“Why would I want to rule a Time Lord empire? The one that exists already is stagnant and boring, shuffling around all day in overbearing robes, doing nothing but observe isn’t exactly my idea of fun! And who the hell is Lucy?. Just what exactly have you been watching?”

I was about to answer “Doctor Who of course!” when the realisation hit me. The reality where the Master came from – the REAL Master (and the Doctor too) was obviously vastly different to the way things had been portrayed in this reality, on a mere TV show. Just because something happened on the show in a certain way, didn’t mean it had happened like that in real life. Realising this, I knew I had to tell him how things were in my reality…all about the TV show, how he was just a character and his double was the actor who played him. This was going to be a very strange conversation indeed.

“Well? You’ve got to tell me how you’ve got those crazy ideas about me regenerating, ruling a Time Lord empire and this Lucy person” he said, laughing a little. “I’m all ears”.

Taking a deep breath, I started telling him the highlights of, and everything that had happened recently in my favourite show – Doctor Who.

[Romana]

CHAPTER THREE

Half an hour later, I finally finished telling the Master about how his life and that of his rival, the Doctor, had been portrayed on TV. He’d bombarded me with questions and I’d answered them with as much knowledge as I could muster.

“You’re certainly a fan of this show, aren’t you?” he said in an amused tone. “Slightly obsessed, in fact. Don’t you have anything else you like to do, apart from watching that all the time?”

“Of course I do!” I shot back, a bit annoyed that he was mocking me. “I just, I just…well I’m not that outgoing a person, I don’t go out at weekends and get drunk, that’s not my thing”.

“It’s not my thing either. I prefer being the one in control, after all. Now, enough of this, I have to tell you what’s the real deal where I’m from, none of this made-up nonsense for you any longer”. He shouted over to where one of the Burger King staff was clearing away a tray with leftover food on it.

“You there…boy!” The boy looked up, irritated. “Would you get us a couple of your ice creams…and make it snappy! Come on now, chop-chop!” The boy gave a resentful look at the Master and hurried away through the back.

The Master turned back to face me.

“Now J…it’s alright if I call you J, isn’t it? Yeah, course it is” he said before I could answer. “First of all, in my reality there has never been and never will be, a Time War. The Daleks did try and destroy the Time Lords, but guess what? We were the ones that destroyed them. A small fleet of advance guards approached Gallifrey to do some scouting and report back to the Dalek Emperor, but we found out what they were up to and destroyed them with an ancient Time Lord weapon. Stupid tin pepperpots, they never had a chance! Anyway, we sent a message back to the Emperor telling him what happened to his pathetic underlings, and what would happen to him if he dared try to invade Gallifrey with his Daleks again. Impressive, I think you’ll agree!”

“So Gallifrey actually exists” I said dreamily, picturing what it might look like. “Take me there, I want to see it!”.

“Patience, love. I can’t go anywhere apart from somewhere else on this planet, in this reality for the time being. I need to get the component for my TARDIS first before we start gallivanting round the multiverse. Something tells me the Doctor is lurking in this reality too, spying me to see how I cope before deciding I’ve learned enough. He’ll give it back soon enough. I can see right through him.”

The opportunity to ask him one of the questions I’d been dying to ask him raised itself.

“What does the Doctor look like really? And who is it that travels with him?”

Just at that moment, the boy came back with two ice creams in little tubs, slammed them down on the table and stomped off back where he’d came from, all the time throwing resentful looks back at the Master.

“Aah, it seems dessert has arrived. Tuck in then!” And he took a big spoonful of ice cream and shoved it into his mouth greedily.

It was clear that I wasn’t going to get any more information from him until we’d both finished eating, so I shut up and ate my ice cream.

When we’d finished (he ate his so fast he had to wait a few minutes until I finished mine), he started talking again after he’d wiped his mouth with a napkin…there was ice cream all over his lips.

“I’ve had enough of this place, I suggest we go back to my TARDIS to freshen up and then go out again, I want to do some touristy things whilst I’m still in this city…Edinburgh Castle, perhaps?”

“Yeah…yeah that’d be cool!” I said excitedly. Despite the Master coming from a different reality, he was still behaving in almost exactly the same way that I knew from the TV. And I definitely wasn’t complaining.

With my answer, he grabbed my hand again, said “Come on, what are we waiting for?” and dragged me out of my chair and out the door. Leading me down the street at a fast pace, he asked me “You’re wondering what the Doctor really looks like? Sort of…well he has brown hair down to his shoulders and he dresses in a frock coat with posh trousers and shoes. He’s got a gold fobwatch too, useless thing it is – he likes it though…the sentimental fool!”

This description made me realise which Doctor I was used to on TV was actually the real Doctor. “And his assistant?”

We went round a corner into another street, unusually there was an old red telephone box standing on the pavement, pedestrians were staring at it as they rushed past it and no wonder, it was really out of place. I had a strong hunch what it was…sure enough, when we reached it the Master stopped walking and pulled out a strange triangular key from his trouser pocket. He put it in a small keyhole – which I’d only just noticed – and turned it, the key glowed blue. He was just about to open the door when he stopped and answered my question.

“His assistant? Well she’s quite small and very, very pretty. She’s got quite a mouth on her too. What’s her name again, let me think…ah yes. She’s called Martha Jones. And now, let me introduce you to my ever-faithful friend – the TARDIS!”

With that, he pushed open the door and stepped inside. “Well come on then!” he shouted back to me. A sense of joy rushed over me and I ran inside too.

[Romana]

CHAPTER FOUR

Before I could take in my surroundings the Master shoved a piece of paper into my hands, when I looked at it I discovered it was a map of the ship. It was crudely drawn but legible enough which was a good thing really, considering how many corridors and rooms were marked down on it!

“I changed the layout a few weeks ago, so that’s why this map’s so rough – I needed to map everything out as soon as possible or I would’ve got lost myself before too long! Can you imagine, me getting lost in my own ship! I don’t need it now though, I’ve memorised everything in this magnificent brain of mine so I’m passing it onto you now”.

He moved over to the central console - which was very 1990’s era Star Trek in design - and pressed something. There was a sort of whirring noise and a door opened in the far wall, beyond it I could see a long corridor leading off into the distance. No doubt this was the main corridor that led off to all the side passages and vast rooms detailed on the map.

“Now, I suggest we go off to the wardrobe room and pick a change of outfit, something that’s much better suited to that heat outside!” he said, walking over to me and taking my hand once again. We headed out into the corridor.

On the way to the wardrobe room, we passed countless doors and went down corridor after corridor. All the time I kept checking the map, trying to memorise as much as I could.

“Are we there yet?” I asked cheekily when the Master eventually stopped outside a door.

“You know, I think we are!” he said, grabbing my map and looking at it closely. “Yep! We’re here! I should really label the actual doors too…oh well, I can do that another time! Let’s get back to the problem at hand though, new outfits for today!” He pushed the door open and I got my first view of the cavernous wardrobe room. “By the way, the bit where I keep clothes for my companions is on the right”.

I stepped over the door’s threshold and took in my surroundings. The place was vast and as far as the eye could see there hung racks and racks of clothes, most of them were the Master’s. And they weren’t all suits, there were some very nice shirts and a whole row of jeans that the Master was looking interested in, as he was examining them all and talking to himself in a low voice. Giggling to myself at the madness of it all, I headed off to the right and sure enough, before me stood a large area filled with female clothes. Passing row upon row of dresses, I eventually found the type of clothes that I like: t-shirts with pictures on them and jeans. After a few minutes examining a few different t-shirts that had caught my eye, I selected one with a picture of Donald Duck on it. The jeans were slightly more difficult to choose as I had to find my size, but after some time I managed to obtain a pair of dark blue ones.

“Where are the changing rooms?” I shouted out.

“There aren’t any! Always found them pointless, that’s why I didn’t bother with them! Just change where you are” came the Master’s answering reply, from somewhere near the centre of the room.

I shrugged and started changing my clothes. Once I’d finished, I dumped the clothes I’d had on previously in a nearby wardrobe - and made my way to the centre of the room, looking out for the Master. After five minutes of searching, I found him, or rather he found me.

“Behind you!” he called, and I swung round and almost fainted – he looked absolutely gorgeous.

"How do I look?" he asked.

He was wearing a pair of dark denim jeans, a white shirt and sunglasses. He'd also ruffled his hair up a bit. The look was "Rock star on a day off" and it was very, very sexy. I approved wholeheartedly of his new look...

I blurted my opinion out immediately, I was so gobsmacked!

"You look bloody gorgeous!"

Smiling wickedly, he replied "You're telling me. You look pretty cute yourself!".

For what seemed like the billionth time that day, I felt myself blushing.

"Thanks" I giggled, looking down at my feet.

"Well, let's go and get spruced up a little more...aftershave for me, perfume for you! I'm not saying that you're not sweet-smelling already but there's no harm in a little extra scent when it just serves to attract people more..." He grinned one of his amazing grins at me. "Let's show those other tourists what we're made of, eh? And just in case of emergencies, let's not forget this - could come in handy". He indicated the Laser Screwdriver which he'd put into the small pocket in the front of his shirt.

"Right then, to the spa room we go!" he shouted. He linked his arm with mine and off we went.

[Romana]

CHAPTER FIVE

Five minutes later, I was standing in the middle of the spa room turning round on the spot, admiring the luxurious room and thinking to myself that even a millionaire would be extremely lucky to have a room like this.

There was what looked like a swimming pool, only the fact that there were dozens of gold taps round it gave it away as being an extremely large – and deep enough to swim in- bath. It looked like it was jacuzzi as well though, as halfway down inside it there was a ledge running all round which would be to sit on.

“Do you really need a bath that large?” I asked the Master, who was in front of a mirror which ran all the way along one of the walls, messing up his hair a little more with some hair gel. Just like a good-looking man, I thought to myself, always wanting to improve himself with products even though he doesn’t need improving.

“No of course I don’t, I just decided when I changed the layout that it would be more fun, that’s all! What’s the problem?”

“Nothing’s the problem, it’s just…well I’m not used to seeing this type of lavish decorating, it’s just a bit overwhelming for me. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it!”

He finally stopped messing about with his hair and walked over to a ledge on the other side of the room that was packed with products - hair gel, moisturiser and the like – put the jar of hair gel down and picked up a small bottle which had strange writing all over it. I decided this warranted a better look, so I sidled up to where he was standing and looked closely at it.

“What’s that say? Is that…Gallifreyan?”. The letters were familiar to me but I couldn’t understand what they said at all.

“Yep” he replied. “Bit flouncy, isn’t it? I always thought it should look more aggressive, but that’s my lot for you. Always observing, never interfering – it’s why I left in the first place. Stuck up fuddy duddies, the lot of them. Well, my sister’s ok, but you wouldn’t really want to run into her either, she’s a real pain herself.”

He paused for a minute and his eyes glazed over, I could tell he was reminiscing.

“We used to argue all the time when we were Time tots…in fact we still argue all the time when we cross paths now. She’s got a vicious tongue in her…fantastic scientist and chemist though. As a sideline, she creates special perfumes for both Time Lords and Ladies – each one has a certain chemical in it that will affect either the wearer or someone who smells it. She calls herself the Rani. Silly name, but she insisted on calling herself that for some reason – I’ll bet you’ve heard of her?

“Yeah I have”, I answered. “The version on the show scared me, is she scary in real life?”

“No-one scarier than a bitchy woman! Incidently, this here” – he indicated the bottle he was holding - “is one of her creations. Pretty strong stuff too, if you get very close to me when I’m wearing it, you’ll feel the effects”. He grinned when he said this, it made me think wildly about what he could mean. “Let’s stop talking about her – go and find a perfume for yourself to wear. You’ll find them just down there.” He indicated a group of bottles a little further down the shelf. I started opening them, sniffing each one and trying to choose which one I liked best but they all smelt lovely.

“I can’t decide, you pick one for me!” I said to the Master. He had just stopped rubbing some of the contents of the bottle he had on his neck and was putting it back where it came from. Turning to face the row of bottles I was trying to choose from, he immediately pointed out one – it’s contents were a sort of aqua blue. “That one, you simply have to pick it”.

“Why? What’s so special about that one?”

He smirked. “You’ll see. Hurry up, will you – I want to get out of here and start causing havoc in the city, just how I like it!” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation and I hurriedly opened the bottle and put some of the liquid on my neck and the back of my wrists. Once I’d finished, I stuffed the bottle in my handbag, which I hadn’t parted with since I entered the ship. I couldn’t help thinking more of this mysterious perfume could come in handy later on.

“Are we ready then?” he asked me.

“I’ve been waiting for this type of thing to happen to me just about all my life”, I said to him. “I’m sure as hell I’m ready. Are we using the ship to get to the castle?”

“Nope. I thought we could go on one of those buses of yours, we could cause a bit of a stir at the same time. Remember I have the Laser Screwdriver with me, it can shrink people, freeze time and all sorts. What do you say?”.

The naughty side of my personality rose to the surface. “I say YEAH!” I squealed at the top of my voice, unable to stop smiling. “I’ve had enough of plodding along not doing much in this life…I’m ready to have fun!”

In my head, my mind was full of thoughts. This man had gatecrashed his way into my life and boy, was I loving it! And the more time I spent with him, the more I found myself addicted to him. This was turning out to be the most incredible day of my life and I knew it certainly wasn’t going to be the last. When I thought about my future, all I could see was him. My life was never going to be the same, it had changed for the better!

[Romana]

CHAPTER SIX

We stood at one of the castle walls, looking out over the city. Along the wall stood several cannons at equal distance from each other. They hadn’t been used for hundreds of years but by the look on the Master’s face as he’d observed them, it looked as if that was soon about to change. Then he confirmed my suspicions.

“Let’s set them off, shall we? It’ll cause a bit of a stink but it’ll be fun, which is the important thing, isn’t it?” he grinned.

“You can’t! What if we’re caught and arrested? I don’t exactly fancy being stuck in a jail cell on my first…well, date!”

“You worry too much, J!” no-one’s going to catch us here because I’m going to do this first – watch me now!”. He took the Laser Screwdriver out of his shirt pocket and changed the setting to one that said “Freeze”, then pointed it in the direction of a crowd of tourists that were milling around nearby and fired. The tourists were enveloped in a silver light and when it dissipated they looked like a group of statues, all had shocked expressions on their frozen faces.

“What’ve you done to them? I mean…I know you’ve frozen them, but how did you do it?” I said in dismay.

“Easy, I froze them in a time bubble…and it’s not just that lot over there that are affected, everyone else in the area is too – except us two, of course. They’ll stay like that until I reverse the process, which means we have as much time to ourselves here as we like! Right, let’s get to work on those cannons!” He turned to the nearest one which was just beside us and started waving the Screwdriver over it (after changing the setting back to the usual mode, of course).

I moved backwards a little, afraid the cannon would go off and I would be deafened, and stood watching the Master at work. The bus journey to the castle had been an eventful one, at least in my eyes it was. It had been extremely busy, so busy in fact that there was only one seat left – anyway, he’d sat on the seat and got me to sit on his knee! I knew he asked me to do that deliberately, because he knew the effect this would have on me and he enjoyed it immensely. I sensed that he was doing it for his own benefit too, as before we’d left the ship I’d seen him looking at me. He thought I didn’t see him looking, but I had, out of the corner of my eye. And I loved it. Some old people on the bus had viewed us with slight distaste as we laughed and flirted with each other, but I didn’t care what they thought. By the time we’d reached the bus stop where we had to get off, I was feeling in need of a cold shower.

An extremely loud noise jolted me back to the present. The cannon had indeed gone off, even though there was no visible means of it being able to. It must be advanced science, I thought.

“Now THAT was a noise and a half!” the Master announced cheerfully. “Time to set the rest off, I think…finishing off with that one o’ clock gun”.

He walked to each cannon in turn, using the screwdriver on them. I followed with my hands over my ears, the loud bangs were too much for my weaker human ears to take – the Master didn’t seem bothered by it at all. As we got nearer to the one o’ clock gun, I looked over the wall to Prince’s Street below and saw to some amusement that people on the street below seemed to be in a state of panic, milling around all over the place. I heard some people screaming too, it was obvious they thought the city was under attack. My new best friend was certainly living up to his bad boy reputation, even though I knew that he still wasn’t the absolute evil that they’d made him out to be on TV.

“Your plan seems to be working”, I told him as we finally reached the gun. It wasn’t one o’ clock, but I hardly thought that mattered to him! “People are starting to panic, it looks like they think the city’s under siege or whatever.”

“Humans are so quick to scare these days, aren’t they? That’s what makes things like this so much fun!” He was like an excited child - an excited child with a mad grin on his face, that is. “Now for the piece de resistance…let’s make it so that this gun goes off 50 times in a row, without stopping! That’ll REALLY shake them up! It’ll be fun watching them for a while…and once they realise nothing’s actually going to happen to them, they’ll be so confused!” And he did just that, pointing the screwdriver at it, making the gun start firing seemingly of its own accord – it was all very weird. Once that had been done, he turned to face me.

“Let’s get back to the TARDIS now. We have places to see, more humans to annoy”

“Wait a minute…we have to free those people you froze, remember?”

“Oh, do I have to?”

“Yeah, you have to, you can’t leave them here like this – it’s not right. I might be your companion now but it doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get away with every naughty thing you do!”

“Oh…alright then! I don’t want you nagging me all the way back to the ship, after all…that’s the worst kind of torture! And I don’t want to get on your bad side too much, not when I’m getting to like you more and more…which really shouldn’t happen to me”.

After un-freezing the group of tourists, who all stumbled off in a daze, we made our way back to the TARDIS by the same way we’d come. On the way there we kept looking at each other and smiling and I felt even more chemistry between us. A surprise was waiting for us when we reached the door of the ship: there was a letter pinned to it and the name at the bottom was instantly recognisable to me.

It was a letter from the Doctor.

[Romana]

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Master tore the letter off the door, and read it out loud.

“Dear adversary, by the time you read this I may have regenerated as I feel the time for change is upon me again. I’ve been observing you this past while, both in the present and the future and have come to the conclusion that you deserve the component back for reasonably good behaviour. You’ll never be a saint but it’s an improvement anyway. Don’t think I’m going to tell you what happens in the future though, you’ll find out soon enough.

My TARDIS is located at these co-ordinates, I suggest you come to pick up the component as soon as possible, before I realise how mad this idea of mine is and change my mind.

The Doctor”

“What co-ordinates are these? Where’s the location?” I asked the Master after he finished reading the letter.

“You wouldn’t understand, it’s in Gallifreyan and it’s a number code that determines where the location is”, he replied. He paused for a couple of seconds, thinking a little and then continued “Didn’t I tell you that he’d show up and rescue me? Isn’t that just typical of the man? He might like to be all righteous most of the time, but at the end of the day he always realises that being righteous doesn’t make you cool. Don’t the bad boys in films always get the girl?” He grinned at me and unlocked the TARDIS door. “Let’s go and get that dimension-thingie now!”

I followed him in and watched as he typed in the location code and the central column started moving up and down, just as I knew it would. This was my first actual journey in it and I didn’t have a clue where we were going, or what the Doctor would look like when we met him.

“What incarnation is the Doctor on, do you know?” I asked the Master, who was looking at a small screen on the console that had numbers flashing on it.

“Last time we met, it was his eighth…he does go through them so quickly! I’m only on my fourth body, probably because I don’t risk my life the way he feels he has to…ah! We’ve arrived…hold on a tic!”

He opened the door and went outside, seconds later he came back in and grabbed a leather jacket that was folded over a chair on the other side of the room. “Come on, slowcoach – we haven’t got all day! Haven’t the faintest idea where we are though”.

I followed him out the door and saw that we’d landed in a bleak wilderness, the terrain was very soft to walk on, it was covered in marsh grass and here and there I saw brown pools of muddy water. Couldn’t the Doctor have chosen a better place than this, I asked myself. Then I looked up and just a short distance away I saw a familiar blue box – the Doctor’s TARDIS! My heart gave a small leap of excitement when I saw that the door was opening…

“Doesn’t he look odd!” the Master exclaimed. “Sort of…bohemian!”

To my absolute delight I saw that the man grinning at us from the door of his TARDIS was my absolute favourite version of the Doctor. He wore a floppy brown hat, a long brown coat and coiled round his neck was a long multicoloured scarf, trailing all the way down to the ground. As the two of us approached him, he spoke in a clear, rich voice, addressing the Master.

“My, you have changed a lot, haven’t you? And who’s this delightful girl…your new companion, I presume?” He grinned toothily at me and I couldn’t help smiling.

“Regeneration trauma got your memory again? You already saw me in this new incarnation of mine the last time we met! And you’re being polite to me, which is really odd. Yep, it’s regeneration trauma alright”.

“Could be, could be! I do have the most awful headache, now you come to mention it.” The Doctor winced and put a hand on his forehead. “Come in, both of you and we can have a nice cup of tea and a chat, it’s not exactly the nicest of environments I’ve chosen to land in. My companion Martha – lovely girl, you’ll like her – will be pleased to meet you”.

He retreated inside, leaving the two of us to look at each other in complete amusement and disbelief – both of us, for different reasons, had been completely taken by surprise by this new Doctor. Seconds later, the Doctor came back to the door again with a white paper bag in his right hand which he shook a little, making the contents rustle.

“Incidentally, would the two of you each like a jelly baby?”

[Romana]

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Jelly…what?” the Master answered, with a confused look on his face.

With some effort I managed to stop the laugh that had suddenly risen up to the surface, and asked him “You don’t know what a jelly baby is? Seriously?” Then I reached into the bag the Doctor held out (he also looked as if he was going to start laughing any minute) and took one of the little sugar figures (it was a green one) that the Doctor was so fond of, grabbed the Master’s right hand and laid it on his palm. He looked at the green figure, but didn’t say anything. After about 10 seconds, he finally asked “So what am I supposed to do with this…thing?”

“Dear me, you mean to tell me that despite all the time you’ve spent on Earth, you’ve never heard of jelly babies?” the Doctor cried. “Why, they’re absolutely delicious! I never go anywhere without a bag of them, they’re indispensable I tell you, indispensable!”

“You mean…you eat them? This is some sort of food then?”

“Well, they’re not really food but I do find them extremely tasty…go on, eat that one your companion gave you!”

The Master looked at me for guidance. “Just hurry up and eat it, the suspense is killing me!” I told him, trying to stifle another giggle.

“Alright, alright! I’ll do it, if it’ll get you both off my case. Pardon me for being cautious! He”, he glanced at the Doctor “could’ve been trying to poison me. He always goes a bit gaga after he’s regenerated. But if you’re sure it’s safe to eat it, then fine, I’ll eat it”. And he threw the jelly baby up in the air and caught it in his open mouth, ever the showman. He chewed for a bit, both the Doctor and myself watching eagerly to see what his response would be. After he’d swallowed it, he paused for a minute then said “Not bad, not bad at all!”

“I told you they were tasty” the Doctor boomed, grinning and clapping the Master on the back. “Now I think it’s time we all sat down for that discussion I was talking about, come along you two!” And he disappeared back into the TARDIS.

“Guess you like them then, huh?” I smiled, watching the Master lick his lips and getting the sudden urge to grab hold of him and kiss him. Restrain yourself girl, the little voice of my conscience told me, there’s plenty of time for that sort of thing later on.

“Yeah, think I do actually!” he said, putting his arm round me and walking me into the TARDIS. “Let’s go and get back the missing component now, before he changes his mind”.

The control room of the Doctor’s ship was of a mahogany effect, the console smaller and less flashy and the central column was of a blue colour (the one in the Master’s TARDIS was gold). Sat on a chair with her feet up on the console was a girl I recognised very well – Martha Jones. When she saw the two of us she smiled at me but gave the Master a disdainful look. He stuck his tongue out at her in response.

“Ah Martha, could you show this girl here to the dining room?” the Doctor asked her, indicating me. “Keep her company while I discuss matters with our rebellious friend here.”

“OK Doc” she replied, jumping to her feet. “Come on then…uh, what’s your name?” I told her. “Julia, right. Let’s get out from underneath the Doc’s feet, I kind of want to ask you some questions anyway, like why you’d want to travel with him”. She made a face at the Master, who flicked a V sign at her in return. I was eager to talk to her myself, wondering what it was really like to travel with the Doctor and also finding out what dangers they’d faced in reality. “The dining room’s that way” she said, pointing to an open door on the other side of the room that led into…yes, a wide corridor going off into the distance. Martha made for the door and I followed, giving a quick look over my shoulder at the Master, who was looking a bit bad tempered.

“See you later” I mouthed to him, vowing to myself that in a few minutes I’d be back, listening at the other side of the door in the corridor.

[Drassil]

I've now read your story (sorry it took me so long). Before I review it, are there any more chapters?

[Romana]

Not for the foreseeable future...I've ended up being more smitten with Phil Glenister than I was with John Simm and the thing I had for his version of the Master has faded too

I suppose a good thing is that it proves to myself I'm capable of writing fanfiction if I put my mind to it - I might write a "Galex" fic at some point in the future

NB: Galex = Gene/Alex