Interventions (8/8)
Title: Interventions
Pairing: Simm!Master/Ten!Doctor, Jack/Ianto
Author: Buttercup
Contact: Buttercupgaud@aol.com
Rating: Let’s say R to be safe, but might be PG-13
Warnings: None really. Mild spoiler for ep1 series 2, now.
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, they belong to Russel T and the beeb.
Summary: The Doctor wakes up with a headache, which quickly becomes everyone at TW’s too. Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover.
Thanks: Thanks to the wonderful Amy for beta reading this and being so encouraging.
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
PART FIVE
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
“Everything alright, Jack?” Gwen asked, closing the door to Jack’s office behind her.
Jack looked at her and sighed. He didn’t want to have this conversation right now. “Yeah,” he said shortly. “Is everything ready down there?”
“Yep, all sorted. They don’t seem to have figured out where we are yet, and when they do they’ll have quite a lot to contend with before they get anywhere near the actual Hub. With any luck the Doctor and the Master will be back before then.”
Jack nodded, not feeling particularly hopeful of this.
Gwen was still hovering and Jack wondered if there was any way to avoid this conversation. No, probably not, he thought. Only option now was to brace himself for it. “Jack,” she began, in a tone too casual to be anything other than a prelude into asking about something deeply personal. “What’s happened with you and Ianto?” She paused, and tried to explain herself. “Only, one minute you’re all googly eyes and the next…” She trailed off and shrugged.
Jack leant back in his chair and looked at her for a long moment. “Ianto told me he didn’t want to be with me anymore.” It felt weird saying it aloud like that, and most certainly not good. He frowned. “Googly eyes?”
Gwen waved her hand dismissively at this last part, as he knew she would. “Why did he do that?”
Jack took a moment, trying to not sound as bitter as he felt, before he answered. “The Master.”
“What?” Gwen sat down opposite him. “What happened?”
Jack considered not telling her, but the thought of having someone actually on his side about this whole mess was too appealing. Gwen cared about him, and getting at least some of this off his chest would be wonderful. So he told her. Everything that had happened since the Master had arrived. He left out anything about their past, only alluding to the fact it wasn’t pretty.
Gwen looked at him for a long time when he’d finished. “Oh Jack,” she said softly. “You utter prat.”
Jack blinked a couple of times, waiting for the punch-line of this very inappropriate joke. When Gwen simply sat there shaking her head, he said, “What? Why?”
“You really believe that Ianto even notices anyone else is alive when you’re around?” She didn’t wait for a reply as she ploughed on. “You never listen to anyone, do you? It never occurred to you that what Ianto was saying was actually the truth?”
Jack was feeling too much like the rug had been pulled out from under him to say anything, but as it turned out he didn’t need to because Gwen was talking again. “You’re always telling me to live a normal life, but you’re not even going to try and do the same.”
“That’s not fair,” Jack interjected, feeling that this statement was true not just regarding what Gwen was currently saying, but also the universe generally. “I’ve been trying with Ianto, but he was the one who didn’t want it any more. He can’t just accept who I am now and that what happened in the past is going to stay there and so doesn’t matter.”
“No,” Gwen said. She was using the same tone of voice he’d heard her use a hundred times, that ‘I’m being very reasonable, why won’t you just agree with me?’ tone that Jack loved when it wasn’t being aimed at him. “The past never stays there, and Ianto is crazy about the you here and now, but that’s not always enough. How can you expect him to trust you when you won’t even tell him what it is that the Master’s done that makes you so loopy around him? You can’t expect a partner to just blindly follow you around. Your subordinates at work, yes. Your boyfriend, no.”
Jack raised his eyebrow. Boyfriend. “I…” He sighed and tried again. “I don’t know. You didn’t see them together.”
Gwen smiled, seemingly genuinely amused. “I never thought I’d live to see the day,” she said, shaking her head. “Jack Harkness is jealous.”
“I am not,” Jack said before he realised that he was answering in much too high a pitch and much too quickly. “Damn,” he said.
“Yep,” Gwen agreed. “I reckon you should go and speak to him. Apologise a little. I find bringing food often helps.”
Jack wondered for a moment how many times Gwen had had to apologise to Rhys, ask for forgiveness. Feeling suddenly guilty, he said, “Have you spoken to Rhys today?”
Gwen looked a little surprised by this, but then she smiled. “Yeah, he was going on about seating arrangements, apparently his grandmother’s not talking to his aunt, who isn’t speaking to anyone at all.”
Jack laughed. “Tricky situation. I’d just stick them all on a table together and wait for the fireworks.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “which is why you’ve never gone into the wedding planning business.”
Jack nodded his agreement.
After she’d finished chuckling, she frowned, as though something had just occurred to her. “How do you know so much about Time Lord physiology, by the way?”
Jack fought hard with his immediate inclination to dodge this question about his past and forced himself to answer. “I travelled with the Doctor for awhile, and his ship has a ton of information stored on it. So, I took some time to study it. I figured that there probably aren’t too many actual doctors who’d be able to treat a Time Lord, so it’d be useful if I at least knew the basics.”
Gwen seemed a little surprised. Whether this was down to the forthright answer or the information she’d just learned was hard to tell.
“Oi!” Owen called, from somewhere below them. “Looks like we’ve got visitors.”
Gwen was up and heading toward to the door before Owen had finished.
“Gwen,” Jack said, making her turn back, “thanks.”
She just waved him off and hurried down to the others. Jack sighed heavily and followed after her.
*****
The Doctor had to run to catch up with the Master. He paused when they came across a computer panel. The Doctor reached into his coat, pulling out a sonic screwdriver, which he must have gotten from the TARDIS. He aimed it at the computer and waited for the relevant information to pop up.
“He’s here,” he said after reading the information, “on the top floor by the looks of it.”
“What’s between us and him?” the Master asked, grimly.
“A few computer generated defences that I should be able to turn off from here,” the Doctor replied fiddling with his screwdriver before pointing it back at the screen.
The Doctor hadn’t said anything that didn’t need to be said since they’d got to the TARDIS. The Master was happy about this. He was almost certainly happy about this. Although, he never much enjoyed being ignored. He sighed heavily. “Hurry up,” he said, “they already know we’re here and if we don’t get a move on they’ll shoot us with one of their many automatic weapons and then we’ll be dead. And not in a cosy, “Torchwood will bring us right back” sort of way, but dead.”
The Doctor looked at him over his shoulder. “I’m trying to configure the shields so that once we’ve got through them they’ll close behind us, trapping the guards out.”
The Master felt himself smile, despite his not wanting to. “Clever.”
The Doctor smiled, all teeth and sparkling eyes. The Master looked away. He noticed the Doctor’s smile fade before he turned back to the console. There was a long pause where the Master paced restlessly. He hated being kept waiting.
Then, from down the corridor came the sound of running footsteps. Many of them. The Doctor turned to him. “Time to get going,” he said and took off at a run down the corridor. The Master, feeling irritated that he’d been left behind, scowled and had no choice but to run after him. The Doctor was waiting next to a control panel. “Waiting for the force-field to drop.”
The Master was still scowling and now also panting. “I know.”
The Doctor nodded. There was short buzzing now, and the air before them shimmered for a moment before becoming clear. The Master darted after the Doctor, and turned back just in time to see some armed guards round the corner and come straight for them. He nudged the Doctor, and held out his hand. “Give me the screwdriver,” he demanded.
The Doctor paused for a long moment.
“I can’t kill anyone with it,” the Master snapped. “Just hand it over.”
The Doctor paused again for a moment before reaching into his pocket and slowly handing it over. The guards had, by this time, reached the barrier and were calling for technical assistance. The Master smiled at the lead guard, and gave him a little wave for good measure. Then he was pointing the screwdriver at the console in front of him, trying to find the security over rides. Using his knowledge of the technology he helped to design, he overrode them with ease. Then he set about changing them, upping the voltage of the shock anyone would receive if they tired to run at a force-field, by ten fold. He shrugged. Twenty-fold. Then he turned to the Doctor and gestured for him to carry on their journey to Van Statten.
They paused at each force-field and every time the Doctor looked at him and smiled. It was infuriating. The Master wasn’t sure what this was meant to be achieving.
Obviously catching this random thought via the link, the Doctor replied, “Nothing. It’s just there you are. Here we are, like old time.”
“What old times?” the Master asked, darting through the beams before they started up again. “The times I’ve tried to kill you or the times you actually killed me?”
The Doctor grinned at him. “Both. But it wasn’t always like that. There were times we worked together.”
The Master raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t reply.
“And you’ve got to admit,” the Doctor said at the next force-field, “we were brilliant.”
“Are,” the Master corrected. He realised he was smiling and stopped.
Then they were at a door. It was made of metal and looked pretty solid. The Doctor paused for a moment. “I think he’s in there.”
The Master smiled slowly. He reached out and gently knocked on the door. “Oh, Mr Van Statten,” he called, “time to come out and play.”
*****
The alarms were going off, and the lights were flickering. Jack hated it when that happened. It made everything so creepy. Tosh was furiously wrestling with the Hub’s internal computers, trying to eke out the power supply to the defences.
“They must have some sort of computer whiz with them,” she sighed. “They’re pulling down the defences as fast as I can put them up.”
Owen was holding a gun in his left hand, and was trying to help Tosh with his right. Gwen was with Ianto somewhere in the lower levels checking everything was secure.
“Jack,” Gwen’s voice came through his earpiece and he felt himself relax a little.
“I’m here,” he replied. Where he was, was at the weapons locker, going over everything that they had and trying to find something that would be both effective, and wouldn’t destroy most of Cardiff.
“We’ve checked everything we can think of and we’re going to come back up.”
“Okay,” Jack replied, pulling out a regular handgun and laying it to one side. He seriously hoped they weren’t about to have an Alamo on their hands. From the little the Hub could read of what was trying to gain access outside, there were many, many well armed humans, and few other things that Tosh wasn’t sure of other than that they were alien.
Ianto and Gwen appeared next to him. Jack smiled and handed Gwen a gun. “Thanks,” she said, grinning, “it’s just my size.” She wondered off towards Tosh.
Jack looked at Ianto, who looked back at him. “Did you ever tell the Doctor that you loved him?” Ianto asked suddenly.
Jack blinked at him for a moment. Ianto was looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face. He looked a little uncertain, and perhaps worried although what that meant was beyond Jack. Stalling for time, Jack set about making sure his gun was loaded. When he chanced a look up at Ianto he found him still watching him, obviously not planning on leaving until he got some form of answer. Jack decided to try turning over a new leaf. It was worth at least seeing the other side of one before he gave up on the idea entirely. “No,” he answered. “There wasn’t any point, and he knows anyway. Besides,” he continued, “we weren’t really like that.”
Ianto frowned and shifted about a little. “Like what?”
“That,” Jack replied, gesturing vaguely.
“Like a swirly hand gesture?” Ianto asked.
Jack rolled his eyes. “There wasn’t anything going on, and there would never have been.”
“Oh,” Ianto said. He looked down at his own gun, fiddled with it a bit. “So, he wasn’t interested, that’s why you came back?”
Ianto was… jealous. Jack felt a little like he wanted to laugh, but instead he just sighed. “No, he asked me to travel with him. I wanted to come back. I came back for you. Haven’t we done this once already?”
Ianto shrugged. Then looked up at him and smiled. “Just figured that we might all be about to die. Well,” he gestured at Jack, “not you, I guess, but the rest of us. Just got me thinking about loose ends.”
“Oh,” Jack said. He reached forward and took another gun and began loading that, Ianto did the same with a second gun of his own. “What about you? You have any loose ends that you want to tie up?”
Ianto slowed his actions for a moment and looked at Jack. “I’m not really sure what’s happening between us, right now.” Ianto stopped, half smiled, and corrected himself, “I mean I’m never really sure, but more so at the moment. But, I… well, anyway,” he pointed at Jack, gently pushing his shoulder. “I just thought I should say, I mean, well, I wanted to say really.” Ianto paused, took a deep breath. “Well, anyway, I love you and all that.” He nodded to himself before turning and walking swiftly away towards the others.
Jack was left blinking at the spot where Ianto had been. He opened his mouth a few times but nothing seemed to be coming out. Completely unsure what had just happened, he walked in a semi-daze over to the rest of the team. He shook his head and tried to rally himself.
“Okay,” he said, “if they manage to get past Tosh, I want all of you to stay well covered. We can defend the Hub, but none of you are to do anything stupid; remember I can’t be killed and so if there’s any heroics needed, I’ll handle it.”
Owen shrugged. “You’ll get no complaints from me.”
“Tosh?” Jack asked.
“I’ve done all I can,” she said, slumping a little, but only for a moment. “It’ll hold them for awhile, but not forever.” She reached into her desk and drew out a gun.
“Time for plan B, then,” Ianto said, pulling out a gun.
“We need to establish a line of defence,” Jack said. “All of you, into my office, that should offer some cover as well as a place to see what’s going on down here.”
“Where will you be?” Ianto asked, lagging behind the others.
“Here, someone needs to keep the Hub’s computer’s running, and if they get in, I’ll trigger a lockdown.”
Ianto raised his eyebrows. “Locked in with all those guns.”
“I’ll make sure you all get out,” he said seriously. “I promise.”
Ianto nodded. He looked liked he believed him. Well, at least someone did. Where was the Doctor?
****
The Doctor made short work of opening the door. As it slid back, it revealed a spacious office with a massive oak desk and high-back chair. Sitting in said chair was a middle-aged man with dark hair and a neat beard. As he looked up and his face contorted with anger, but when he realised who was standing, framed in the door, his face lost all of its colour. There was also someone sitting in a much less grand chair, with their back to them.
“You,” van Statten said, standing up, his hands resting on the desk in front of him.
The man with his back to them also stood and turned around.
“Mr Taylor,” the Master said, feeling a little thrill at the look of sheer terror on both their faces.
Van Statten’s hand was already at his intercom.
“I wouldn’t bother with that old thing,” the Doctor said casually. “All your guards are stuck on the lower floors, and besides, I knocked out all internal communications.”
Van Statten paused, probably unsure whether to believe him or not, but then dropped his hand from the intercom. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Now,” Mr Taylor broke in, “there’s no call to be taking any demands just yet.”
The Master’s lip curled into a snarl at this, the cold, calculating tone of this human. Like he could ever hope to control this situation. Control him. He walked around the desk, coming to stand somewhere a little behind Mr Taylor and put his head to one side.
“Was it you, Mr Taylor, that came up with the idea of linking our minds? Of trying to use it to drive us mad?” His voice was soft, gently coaxing the information out of Mr Taylor.
There was a pause before the answer came. “It was my recommendation based on the studies we were able to perform, that that would be the most effective way of controlling you both.”
The Master smiled. “And whose idea were the experiments?”
Mr Taylor shifted a little but held the Master’s gaze. The Doctor was watching them both with a grim expression, taking in all the information before deciding whether or not to act. “They were carried out due to the uncertain nature of your physiology. We had no idea of the complexity of it before we began. There were so many possibilities.”
Mr Taylor seemed not to notice the way the Doctor tensed behind him, perhaps because the Master was still smiling and radiating calm. An idea was waiting to form in the back of the Master’s head but he didn’t let it. He focused with everything he had on the conversation, knowing that he’d only have maybe a second in which to act.
“You took us and experimented on us and made changes to our minds just to see what would happen?” the Doctor asked, his eyes flashing dangerously and his whole body radiating power and defiance.
Mr Taylor was smiling a little, opening his mouth to say something, but the Master was suddenly behind him, taking his head in his hands and twisting. The snapping of bones seemed impossibly loud. Van Statten began to shout something and the Master felt himself smile and waited for the rush of satisfaction. What happened instead was a wave of horror and anguish and anger and guilt. These weren’t his emotions, no, no, not his. He pushed them away desperately, searching for his own. Sought out a feeling of triumph, not just over the Doctor but over the fact that he could control life, decide who would live and who would die. The power of it should be coursing through his veins, being pushing forward by the drums, but they were gone. The Doctor was shouting at him, but it was all too late. There was nothing left of him, the Doctor had taken it all.
*****
“They’re cutting through the door,” Owen said, leaning back against Jack’s desk, they’d pushed it on its side, using it as make-shift shield, bolstered with filing cabinets. They should be able to hold this position for a while.
Ianto sighed and looked over the top of their battlements. “Yep,” he agreed, coming back down and sitting next to Gwen.
“That’s it, then,” Owen replied. “We’re all going to die.” He paused. “Tosh,” he said.
“Owen?” Tosh was sitting on the other side of Owen, holding a gun and looking worried.
“Did I ever tell you that I think you’re really hot?” Owen finished in typical ill-timed fashion.
“No,” Tosh said slowly, her cheeks turning a little red and small smile on her face. “Not that I can remember.”
“Well you are,” Owen said. “And Gwen?”
Everyone tensed in fear at what might be said next.
“Rhys isn’t all that much of a twat.” Owen loaded his gun.
“Thanks Owen,” Gwen said, smiling despite herself.
There was a long silence. “What about me?” Ianto said, not feeling hurt, really, but the sound of the door being cut through wasn’t pleasant.
Owen looked at him. “You make pretty good coffee, you know, compared to the stuff that Jack makes which could melt an oesophagus.”
“Thanks, Owen,” Ianto said slowly, “that really warms my heart, to know you have such depth of emotion.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Still think you look like a prat wearing a suit to work everyday, though.”
Ianto sighed. “It’s called style, not that you’d know what that was if it took all your sorry excuses for clothes and burnt them on your lawn.” He grinned. “You were nearly nice for a whole two minutes then, though. You might be growing as a person.”
“I can’t see it myself,” Gwen said, looking over the barricade before plopping back down. “Not long now.”
“They’ll have to get through Jack, first,” Tosh said. “That should slow them up.”
Ianto felt a sudden weight on his chest. Tried not to think about the fact that everything had been so crap between him and Jack for the last couple of days and they might be his last. At least he’d managed to tell him how he felt, even if it had been too late. That was something at least.
*****
“Look I’m sorry,” van Statten shouted, backing up against the wall. “I never meant this to go so far. But, you nearly ruined me! I just wanted to make sure that that couldn’t happen again.”
The Doctor looked at the Master, who was staring down at the body of Mr Taylor. His face was white and his eyes were huge. The Doctor wrenched his eyes away from him with a massive amount of will power.
“Why do all of this? It seems such an overly complicated scheme,” he asked, the anger gone from his voice. He didn’t have the energy for it any more. The Master’s fear and shock was humming through him and it was awful.
Van Statten looked half-crazed as he stared at the Doctor, trying to back further away from him, but blocked by the wall. “I just had to hide from you, I knew you wouldn’t let me carry on with my hobby, but…” He got a far-off look. “How can you carry on knowing what’s out there and do nothing about it? I came back in time to before I ever met you, thinking you’d never think to look there. I figured if I just kept a low profile then you’d never know. I managed to start again, use some of the technology from my base and start to buy myself out. Funny,” he said, “because part of what made me so rich before I met you was that I sold off most of my assets, and it was to myself! I knew what was worth having, after all.”
“You did business with yourself?” It wasn’t quite a shout, but nearly. The Doctor lowered his voice. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could have created a paradox!”
Van Statten looked confused. “I was careful, I kept my identity a closely guarded secret. Then I met Torchwood, they offered to represent me, to expand my collection and understanding of the technology I had. I managed to eventually buy them out completely, at which point I found out about their dealings with Harold Saxon, or the Master.” He looked desperate. “It was their idea, they said it would be simple and I would be able to control you and then I’d be able to travel the stars as well as time.”
The Doctor found, now, after everything, that he wasn’t much interested in van Statten’s plans. Everything had changed so completely since he went to the Hub to visit Jack that he barely remembered what it was like before. He didn't care. But someone had to, and there was no one else. “How did you manage to travel back in the first place?”
Van Statten, pointed at his desk draw. The Doctor went to it and found a wrist strap, not dissimilar to Jack’s resting in a glass case. He sighed and placed it in his coat pocket. “I can’t let you do anything like this again,” he said.
Van Statten shook his head wordlessly.
“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said. He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the computer sitting on van Statten’s desk and switched it on.
“What are you doing?” van Statten asked, his voice trying to be angry, but his eyes went to the body on the floor, skimmed over the Master and he fell silent.
“I’m wiping everything you have in your database,” the Doctor said, his voice firm. He just wanted to get this over with and leave. He really hated this place. “But, first,” he twisted the screwdriver, “I’m donating all your assets and profits to charity.”
“You can’t!” van Statten cried, coming toward the Doctor.
The Master moved suddenly, stood in front of van Statten, between him and the Doctor. Whatever it was that van Statten saw in the Master’s eyes made him freeze before shrinking back against the wall. The Doctor swallowed and finished what he was doing. Then he lifted the block on the communications, and turned around.
“Now, call off the attack on the Hub in Cardiff,” he said slowly.
Van Statten looked briefly at him, back at the Master and then moved to his desk and picked up the phone. “Stand down, and report back to base,” he said slowly. There was silence while he listened to the reply before hanging up. “What now?" He asked. “What are you going to do with me?”
The Master tensed and the Doctor felt him get ready to attack him, he reached out and gently laid a hand on the Master’s shoulder. There was a moment of confusion through the link before the Master relaxed again.
“I’ll take you back to your own time. After that, it’s up to you. But if I ever-”
Van Statten was nodding and looking terrified.
“Okay,” the Doctor sighed. “Time to go.”
****
Jack stood a little way back from the door. Tensed and ready for the moment when it would finally give way to the onslaught and open. The blue beam of light was busy making an almost perfect circle in the door. Jack remembered someone telling him once that only the criminally insane were able to draw perfect circles free-hand. This did not bode well for whatever was about to come through the door. Jack pulled out his gun and waited. He thought about Ianto and what he’d told him. It was the last thing he’d expected given the last couple of conversations they’d had. It occurred to him, now, of course, that’d Gwen had been right. This whole mess between him and Ianto was his fault, not the Master’s, at least not all the Master’s. He wasn’t quite willing to let the Master off scot-free. But, no, Ianto had been telling him the truth, but Jack was so used to everything having a double meaning that he’d missed it.
He hadn’t had the chance to apologise, or to tell Ianto that the feeling was mutual. They were about to have a final stand and he’d let the opportunity go by without saying a word. He adjusted his stance, pointed his gun at the door. Well, there was only one option left. He’d have to save the day. Then he could get the guy. It was simple really.
Just then the blue beam stopped moving. There was very long pause where nothing at all happened. Jack frowned. Looked over his shoulder at the readouts on Tosh’s computer. Then he smiled.
“What the bloody hell’s going on?” Owen called.
Jack laughed. “Looks like the Doctor saved the day,” he called back. “Now that’s what I call good timing,” he said to himself.
****
Ianto was just putting away some of the files that had fallen out of the cabinet as they’d hastily erected their blockade when the Doctor arrived, the Master in tow and looking, if possible even worse than when he’d left. Ianto turned back to the filing, it wasn’t his business. He could hear the Doctor explaining to Jack what had happened, but he couldn’t really find it in him to care. He would be relieved when the Doctor and the Master left and they could just get on with their real jobs.
The Master was standing behind him. “Come with us,” he said, a smile playing on his lips.
Ianto turned around. “No,” he said. “Even if I did like being used as some sort of weird foreplay between the two of you, which I don’t, then my place would still be here.”
“With him?” the Master asked, reaching round Ianto and trying to pull out a case file.
Ianto took it back, and placed it in the cabinet again. “Yes, with Jack.”
The Master frowned. He stood there, watching Ianto filing for a long time. “I think the Doctor’s changed me.”
Ianto nodded. “Love’s like that.”
The Master glared at him. “What would a stupid ape know of how a Time Lord feels?”
Ianto laughed. “Sorry,” he said, “but I work with Owen, you’re going to have to do a lot more to insult me than bring up evolution.”
The Master looked supremely annoyed, and Ianto suspected it wasn’t all that his insult had failed to make an impact. “I killed someone, in van Statten’s office.”
Ianto nodded, not really sure where this was going.
“It didn’t feel… I don’t feel right anymore.” The Master was fidgeting, looking uncertain.
“Love’s like that,” Ianto repeated, and bent down to pick up another fallen folder.
The Master huffed at him. “I don’t know why I’m even talking to you. You have no hope of understanding me.”
“Nope,” Ianto agreed happily. “But, you’d hate it if I did, and anyway, that’s what the Doctor’s for. Looks like you’re stuck with each other now.”
“For now,” the Master agreed. “Come with me.”
Ianto laughed. “No.”
“Fine,” the Master said. “It’s not just because it’d hurt the freak and the Doctor, you know.”
“Sure it is,” Ianto replied.
The Master huffed again. “You’ll never get an offer like this again, you’ll have to live out your tiny, boring life and never know what’s really out there.”
“Thank God for that,” Ianto said. “I’ve seen more than enough to know that I don’t want your life. I want my life. My tiny, little life, full work and friends and Jack.”
The Master smiled ruefully. “How about a kiss, then? To say goodbye?”
Ianto sighed. “I think not.”
“Master,” the Doctor called. “It’s time we left these good people to clear up.”
Ianto frowned at this. Typical.
“Fine,” the Master agreed, turned to leave, swung back and grabbed Ianto by the head and pulled him into a kiss.
Ianto didn’t bother struggling, just let it happen and then pulled back gently. The Master winked at him and hurried after the Doctor.
*****
“So, goodbye again,” the Doctor said at the door.
Jack grinned at him. “Goodbye, feel free to drop by whenever you want. But leave the wife at home, huh?” he said gesturing with his head in the direction of the Master.
The Doctor looked sad, worried and guilty all at once, which was something of a facial miracle. Jack half smiled. “He’ll get over it,” he said. The Doctor looked a little surprised at this offer of comfort. “You only have each other, so… you know.”
“Not at all,” the Doctor said, but he smiled and pulled Jack into a tight hug.
Jack sighed and let himself relax into it, he pulled back. “Love you,” he said.
The Doctor smiled at him.
“Back. The fuck. Off.” The Master was standing behind him, and his tone was somewhat sarcastic, no doubt a reference to Jack’s reaction at interrupting him and Ianto.
The Doctor look almost pleased for reasons Jack didn’t imagine bore going into. “Gladly,” he said. “Don’t ever come back,” he said mildly to the Master and walked away, not watching them both leave.
****
Ianto had disappeared into the archives and Jack wondered down to find him. When he did he found him sitting crossed legged on the floor, surrounded by case files.
“What are you doing?” Jack asked mildly.
“Cross-referencing old case files by time period and type,” Ianto replied distractedly. He looked up at him. “Want to help?”
Jack paused at this, several more truthful answering crossing his mind before he said, “Sure.” He sat down next to Ianto and picked up a file at random.
“So, go on then,” he said after a moment of staring at it with no idea of what to do.
“Go on then, what?” Ianto asked, taking the file from Jack and placing it on a seemingly random pile next to him.
“Ask me something about my past.” Ianto looked at him with raised eyebrows. Jack grinned. “Seriously, go on, anything you like. I promise I’ll answer truthfully.”
“Okay,” Ianto said. Then he smiled brightly at Jack. “What did you have for dinner last night?”
“What?” Jack asked, looking at Ianto in astonishment. Then he realised. Ianto didn’t want a long explanation for Jack’s entire life. He didn’t need to hear everything. He just wanted to know he wasn’t being shut out. Jack grinned, leaned forward to kiss him. Ianto kissed him back, reaching around him and pulling them together. When they pulled back, Jack realised that he had a ridiculously soppy grin on his face, but he just didn’t care. “Pizza,” he said. “And I love you too, Ianto Jones.”
Ianto smiled at him, then frowned. “You have no idea how this cross referencing system works do you?”
*****
“So,” the Doctor said, swinging his arms back and forth.
“So,” the Master agreed, his own arms crossed tightly over his chest.
“I figure that I’ll drop you off in the Naxar system, around the turn of fifth empire of Balgasious. It’s a fantastic period.” He’d landed the TARDIS already but was stalling opening the doors.
“It’s a thoroughly boring time,” the Master answered.
“Well, where should I drop you off?” the Doctor asked. He was still having trouble looking at him.
“You haven’t mentioned anything about the human that I killed,” was all the Master said.
“There’s nothing to say, it was my fault, I should have realised you’d do something like that and stopped you.” The Doctor wandered over to the console and looked at it idly, not really seeing the readouts. He could feel that the Master was confused, and angry about the fact that he’d been unable to enjoy the kill. He wasn’t really sure what that meant either. “But I’ll be ready next time.”
“Not if I’m all the way out here and you’re off gallivanting about the universe,” the Master pointed out.
The Doctor said nothing for a long time, knowing this to be true but not able to think of another way. In the end he said, “I can’t keep you here, not now.”
The Master sighed heavily. “No,” he agreed. “But it’s not safe for you to let me roam free, either. Imagine what I could do before you managed to stop me.”
The Doctor frowned at him. Where was this going? He could feel something odd through the link but he wasn’t really sure what it was.
“I kissed Ianto,” the Master said.
The Doctor sighed. “I know, I felt it.”
The Master grinned. “Was it good for you?”
“No.” The Doctor tried to actually read what the TARDIS had managed to scan.
“He said that I love you,” the Master said suddenly.
The Doctor looked up so sharply that he might have given himself whiplash. “Pardon?”
The Master’s eyes were dancing. “Stupid ape, mistook hate for love.”
“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed and looked back down again.
“Still,” the Master said, “since Ianto didn’t want to play with me after all, I figure I’ve got some time to kill.”
“Hmmm,” the Doctor said. He didn’t want to hear about this. He just wanted the Master to leave. He’d be alright once he was alone again. It was the waiting to be left that was the problem.
“Perhaps you might show me what’s so ‘fantastic’ about this dump,” the Master said casually. “I hear that they have wonderful pleasure spas, we could go to one.”
Impossible, beautiful hope began to spring up inside the Doctor. “Master,” he said gently, “are you asking me out on a date?”
One side of the Master’s mouth curved up into a smile. “I thought I was asking you for sex, actually, Doctor, but however you want to put it.”
This wasn’t happening, it couldn’t be. The Master would never choose to stay with him. It was certainly a trick or some sort of trap. The Master was planning something. This was true, he could feel the desire for vengeance coming from the Master in waves. He was beyond angry about what the Doctor had done. But there was something else there too. The Doctor had been trying not to think about the link, not invade the Master’s privacy any more than he already had, but he could feel it now. The Master was confused, he didn’t know what not feeling happy about killing that man in van Statten’s office had meant. He wanted to find out if it was just the Doctor’s influence, or the lack of the drums, or him. And… he Doctor felt himself begin to smile. He didn’t want to be alone either.
The Doctor wasn’t really sure what all of that meant. They would never be able to stay together. The Master wasn’t capable of change and neither was he. Although, in the meantime…
“Maybe I could play tour guide for a little while,” he said slowly.
The Master smiled wickedly. “I can feel your desperation for me not to leave.”
“And I can feel your fear about what you might be becoming.” The Doctor faced the Master, head up. There was no need for lies anymore. It felt nice.
“Ditto,” the Master replied. He laughed. “The dance is still going on, Doctor, it’s just a new song!”
“Fine by me,” the Doctor, agreed, “just so long as you know who’s leading.”
“Naturally,” the Master said, reaching to put on his coat and heading for the doors of the TARDIS. “Me,” he said and pulled open the doors and revealed their future.
The Doctor smiled.
THE END
Pairing: Simm!Master/Ten!Doctor, Jack/Ianto
Author: Buttercup
Contact: Buttercupgaud@aol.com
Rating: Let’s say R to be safe, but might be PG-13
Warnings: None really. Mild spoiler for ep1 series 2, now.
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, they belong to Russel T and the beeb.
Summary: The Doctor wakes up with a headache, which quickly becomes everyone at TW’s too. Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover.
Thanks: Thanks to the wonderful Amy for beta reading this and being so encouraging.
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
PART FOUR
PART FIVE
PART SIX
PART SEVEN
PART EIGHT
“Everything alright, Jack?” Gwen asked, closing the door to Jack’s office behind her.
Jack looked at her and sighed. He didn’t want to have this conversation right now. “Yeah,” he said shortly. “Is everything ready down there?”
“Yep, all sorted. They don’t seem to have figured out where we are yet, and when they do they’ll have quite a lot to contend with before they get anywhere near the actual Hub. With any luck the Doctor and the Master will be back before then.”
Jack nodded, not feeling particularly hopeful of this.
Gwen was still hovering and Jack wondered if there was any way to avoid this conversation. No, probably not, he thought. Only option now was to brace himself for it. “Jack,” she began, in a tone too casual to be anything other than a prelude into asking about something deeply personal. “What’s happened with you and Ianto?” She paused, and tried to explain herself. “Only, one minute you’re all googly eyes and the next…” She trailed off and shrugged.
Jack leant back in his chair and looked at her for a long moment. “Ianto told me he didn’t want to be with me anymore.” It felt weird saying it aloud like that, and most certainly not good. He frowned. “Googly eyes?”
Gwen waved her hand dismissively at this last part, as he knew she would. “Why did he do that?”
Jack took a moment, trying to not sound as bitter as he felt, before he answered. “The Master.”
“What?” Gwen sat down opposite him. “What happened?”
Jack considered not telling her, but the thought of having someone actually on his side about this whole mess was too appealing. Gwen cared about him, and getting at least some of this off his chest would be wonderful. So he told her. Everything that had happened since the Master had arrived. He left out anything about their past, only alluding to the fact it wasn’t pretty.
Gwen looked at him for a long time when he’d finished. “Oh Jack,” she said softly. “You utter prat.”
Jack blinked a couple of times, waiting for the punch-line of this very inappropriate joke. When Gwen simply sat there shaking her head, he said, “What? Why?”
“You really believe that Ianto even notices anyone else is alive when you’re around?” She didn’t wait for a reply as she ploughed on. “You never listen to anyone, do you? It never occurred to you that what Ianto was saying was actually the truth?”
Jack was feeling too much like the rug had been pulled out from under him to say anything, but as it turned out he didn’t need to because Gwen was talking again. “You’re always telling me to live a normal life, but you’re not even going to try and do the same.”
“That’s not fair,” Jack interjected, feeling that this statement was true not just regarding what Gwen was currently saying, but also the universe generally. “I’ve been trying with Ianto, but he was the one who didn’t want it any more. He can’t just accept who I am now and that what happened in the past is going to stay there and so doesn’t matter.”
“No,” Gwen said. She was using the same tone of voice he’d heard her use a hundred times, that ‘I’m being very reasonable, why won’t you just agree with me?’ tone that Jack loved when it wasn’t being aimed at him. “The past never stays there, and Ianto is crazy about the you here and now, but that’s not always enough. How can you expect him to trust you when you won’t even tell him what it is that the Master’s done that makes you so loopy around him? You can’t expect a partner to just blindly follow you around. Your subordinates at work, yes. Your boyfriend, no.”
Jack raised his eyebrow. Boyfriend. “I…” He sighed and tried again. “I don’t know. You didn’t see them together.”
Gwen smiled, seemingly genuinely amused. “I never thought I’d live to see the day,” she said, shaking her head. “Jack Harkness is jealous.”
“I am not,” Jack said before he realised that he was answering in much too high a pitch and much too quickly. “Damn,” he said.
“Yep,” Gwen agreed. “I reckon you should go and speak to him. Apologise a little. I find bringing food often helps.”
Jack wondered for a moment how many times Gwen had had to apologise to Rhys, ask for forgiveness. Feeling suddenly guilty, he said, “Have you spoken to Rhys today?”
Gwen looked a little surprised by this, but then she smiled. “Yeah, he was going on about seating arrangements, apparently his grandmother’s not talking to his aunt, who isn’t speaking to anyone at all.”
Jack laughed. “Tricky situation. I’d just stick them all on a table together and wait for the fireworks.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “which is why you’ve never gone into the wedding planning business.”
Jack nodded his agreement.
After she’d finished chuckling, she frowned, as though something had just occurred to her. “How do you know so much about Time Lord physiology, by the way?”
Jack fought hard with his immediate inclination to dodge this question about his past and forced himself to answer. “I travelled with the Doctor for awhile, and his ship has a ton of information stored on it. So, I took some time to study it. I figured that there probably aren’t too many actual doctors who’d be able to treat a Time Lord, so it’d be useful if I at least knew the basics.”
Gwen seemed a little surprised. Whether this was down to the forthright answer or the information she’d just learned was hard to tell.
“Oi!” Owen called, from somewhere below them. “Looks like we’ve got visitors.”
Gwen was up and heading toward to the door before Owen had finished.
“Gwen,” Jack said, making her turn back, “thanks.”
She just waved him off and hurried down to the others. Jack sighed heavily and followed after her.
*****
The Doctor had to run to catch up with the Master. He paused when they came across a computer panel. The Doctor reached into his coat, pulling out a sonic screwdriver, which he must have gotten from the TARDIS. He aimed it at the computer and waited for the relevant information to pop up.
“He’s here,” he said after reading the information, “on the top floor by the looks of it.”
“What’s between us and him?” the Master asked, grimly.
“A few computer generated defences that I should be able to turn off from here,” the Doctor replied fiddling with his screwdriver before pointing it back at the screen.
The Doctor hadn’t said anything that didn’t need to be said since they’d got to the TARDIS. The Master was happy about this. He was almost certainly happy about this. Although, he never much enjoyed being ignored. He sighed heavily. “Hurry up,” he said, “they already know we’re here and if we don’t get a move on they’ll shoot us with one of their many automatic weapons and then we’ll be dead. And not in a cosy, “Torchwood will bring us right back” sort of way, but dead.”
The Doctor looked at him over his shoulder. “I’m trying to configure the shields so that once we’ve got through them they’ll close behind us, trapping the guards out.”
The Master felt himself smile, despite his not wanting to. “Clever.”
The Doctor smiled, all teeth and sparkling eyes. The Master looked away. He noticed the Doctor’s smile fade before he turned back to the console. There was a long pause where the Master paced restlessly. He hated being kept waiting.
Then, from down the corridor came the sound of running footsteps. Many of them. The Doctor turned to him. “Time to get going,” he said and took off at a run down the corridor. The Master, feeling irritated that he’d been left behind, scowled and had no choice but to run after him. The Doctor was waiting next to a control panel. “Waiting for the force-field to drop.”
The Master was still scowling and now also panting. “I know.”
The Doctor nodded. There was short buzzing now, and the air before them shimmered for a moment before becoming clear. The Master darted after the Doctor, and turned back just in time to see some armed guards round the corner and come straight for them. He nudged the Doctor, and held out his hand. “Give me the screwdriver,” he demanded.
The Doctor paused for a long moment.
“I can’t kill anyone with it,” the Master snapped. “Just hand it over.”
The Doctor paused again for a moment before reaching into his pocket and slowly handing it over. The guards had, by this time, reached the barrier and were calling for technical assistance. The Master smiled at the lead guard, and gave him a little wave for good measure. Then he was pointing the screwdriver at the console in front of him, trying to find the security over rides. Using his knowledge of the technology he helped to design, he overrode them with ease. Then he set about changing them, upping the voltage of the shock anyone would receive if they tired to run at a force-field, by ten fold. He shrugged. Twenty-fold. Then he turned to the Doctor and gestured for him to carry on their journey to Van Statten.
They paused at each force-field and every time the Doctor looked at him and smiled. It was infuriating. The Master wasn’t sure what this was meant to be achieving.
Obviously catching this random thought via the link, the Doctor replied, “Nothing. It’s just there you are. Here we are, like old time.”
“What old times?” the Master asked, darting through the beams before they started up again. “The times I’ve tried to kill you or the times you actually killed me?”
The Doctor grinned at him. “Both. But it wasn’t always like that. There were times we worked together.”
The Master raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t reply.
“And you’ve got to admit,” the Doctor said at the next force-field, “we were brilliant.”
“Are,” the Master corrected. He realised he was smiling and stopped.
Then they were at a door. It was made of metal and looked pretty solid. The Doctor paused for a moment. “I think he’s in there.”
The Master smiled slowly. He reached out and gently knocked on the door. “Oh, Mr Van Statten,” he called, “time to come out and play.”
*****
The alarms were going off, and the lights were flickering. Jack hated it when that happened. It made everything so creepy. Tosh was furiously wrestling with the Hub’s internal computers, trying to eke out the power supply to the defences.
“They must have some sort of computer whiz with them,” she sighed. “They’re pulling down the defences as fast as I can put them up.”
Owen was holding a gun in his left hand, and was trying to help Tosh with his right. Gwen was with Ianto somewhere in the lower levels checking everything was secure.
“Jack,” Gwen’s voice came through his earpiece and he felt himself relax a little.
“I’m here,” he replied. Where he was, was at the weapons locker, going over everything that they had and trying to find something that would be both effective, and wouldn’t destroy most of Cardiff.
“We’ve checked everything we can think of and we’re going to come back up.”
“Okay,” Jack replied, pulling out a regular handgun and laying it to one side. He seriously hoped they weren’t about to have an Alamo on their hands. From the little the Hub could read of what was trying to gain access outside, there were many, many well armed humans, and few other things that Tosh wasn’t sure of other than that they were alien.
Ianto and Gwen appeared next to him. Jack smiled and handed Gwen a gun. “Thanks,” she said, grinning, “it’s just my size.” She wondered off towards Tosh.
Jack looked at Ianto, who looked back at him. “Did you ever tell the Doctor that you loved him?” Ianto asked suddenly.
Jack blinked at him for a moment. Ianto was looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face. He looked a little uncertain, and perhaps worried although what that meant was beyond Jack. Stalling for time, Jack set about making sure his gun was loaded. When he chanced a look up at Ianto he found him still watching him, obviously not planning on leaving until he got some form of answer. Jack decided to try turning over a new leaf. It was worth at least seeing the other side of one before he gave up on the idea entirely. “No,” he answered. “There wasn’t any point, and he knows anyway. Besides,” he continued, “we weren’t really like that.”
Ianto frowned and shifted about a little. “Like what?”
“That,” Jack replied, gesturing vaguely.
“Like a swirly hand gesture?” Ianto asked.
Jack rolled his eyes. “There wasn’t anything going on, and there would never have been.”
“Oh,” Ianto said. He looked down at his own gun, fiddled with it a bit. “So, he wasn’t interested, that’s why you came back?”
Ianto was… jealous. Jack felt a little like he wanted to laugh, but instead he just sighed. “No, he asked me to travel with him. I wanted to come back. I came back for you. Haven’t we done this once already?”
Ianto shrugged. Then looked up at him and smiled. “Just figured that we might all be about to die. Well,” he gestured at Jack, “not you, I guess, but the rest of us. Just got me thinking about loose ends.”
“Oh,” Jack said. He reached forward and took another gun and began loading that, Ianto did the same with a second gun of his own. “What about you? You have any loose ends that you want to tie up?”
Ianto slowed his actions for a moment and looked at Jack. “I’m not really sure what’s happening between us, right now.” Ianto stopped, half smiled, and corrected himself, “I mean I’m never really sure, but more so at the moment. But, I… well, anyway,” he pointed at Jack, gently pushing his shoulder. “I just thought I should say, I mean, well, I wanted to say really.” Ianto paused, took a deep breath. “Well, anyway, I love you and all that.” He nodded to himself before turning and walking swiftly away towards the others.
Jack was left blinking at the spot where Ianto had been. He opened his mouth a few times but nothing seemed to be coming out. Completely unsure what had just happened, he walked in a semi-daze over to the rest of the team. He shook his head and tried to rally himself.
“Okay,” he said, “if they manage to get past Tosh, I want all of you to stay well covered. We can defend the Hub, but none of you are to do anything stupid; remember I can’t be killed and so if there’s any heroics needed, I’ll handle it.”
Owen shrugged. “You’ll get no complaints from me.”
“Tosh?” Jack asked.
“I’ve done all I can,” she said, slumping a little, but only for a moment. “It’ll hold them for awhile, but not forever.” She reached into her desk and drew out a gun.
“Time for plan B, then,” Ianto said, pulling out a gun.
“We need to establish a line of defence,” Jack said. “All of you, into my office, that should offer some cover as well as a place to see what’s going on down here.”
“Where will you be?” Ianto asked, lagging behind the others.
“Here, someone needs to keep the Hub’s computer’s running, and if they get in, I’ll trigger a lockdown.”
Ianto raised his eyebrows. “Locked in with all those guns.”
“I’ll make sure you all get out,” he said seriously. “I promise.”
Ianto nodded. He looked liked he believed him. Well, at least someone did. Where was the Doctor?
****
The Doctor made short work of opening the door. As it slid back, it revealed a spacious office with a massive oak desk and high-back chair. Sitting in said chair was a middle-aged man with dark hair and a neat beard. As he looked up and his face contorted with anger, but when he realised who was standing, framed in the door, his face lost all of its colour. There was also someone sitting in a much less grand chair, with their back to them.
“You,” van Statten said, standing up, his hands resting on the desk in front of him.
The man with his back to them also stood and turned around.
“Mr Taylor,” the Master said, feeling a little thrill at the look of sheer terror on both their faces.
Van Statten’s hand was already at his intercom.
“I wouldn’t bother with that old thing,” the Doctor said casually. “All your guards are stuck on the lower floors, and besides, I knocked out all internal communications.”
Van Statten paused, probably unsure whether to believe him or not, but then dropped his hand from the intercom. “What do you want?” he asked.
“Now,” Mr Taylor broke in, “there’s no call to be taking any demands just yet.”
The Master’s lip curled into a snarl at this, the cold, calculating tone of this human. Like he could ever hope to control this situation. Control him. He walked around the desk, coming to stand somewhere a little behind Mr Taylor and put his head to one side.
“Was it you, Mr Taylor, that came up with the idea of linking our minds? Of trying to use it to drive us mad?” His voice was soft, gently coaxing the information out of Mr Taylor.
There was a pause before the answer came. “It was my recommendation based on the studies we were able to perform, that that would be the most effective way of controlling you both.”
The Master smiled. “And whose idea were the experiments?”
Mr Taylor shifted a little but held the Master’s gaze. The Doctor was watching them both with a grim expression, taking in all the information before deciding whether or not to act. “They were carried out due to the uncertain nature of your physiology. We had no idea of the complexity of it before we began. There were so many possibilities.”
Mr Taylor seemed not to notice the way the Doctor tensed behind him, perhaps because the Master was still smiling and radiating calm. An idea was waiting to form in the back of the Master’s head but he didn’t let it. He focused with everything he had on the conversation, knowing that he’d only have maybe a second in which to act.
“You took us and experimented on us and made changes to our minds just to see what would happen?” the Doctor asked, his eyes flashing dangerously and his whole body radiating power and defiance.
Mr Taylor was smiling a little, opening his mouth to say something, but the Master was suddenly behind him, taking his head in his hands and twisting. The snapping of bones seemed impossibly loud. Van Statten began to shout something and the Master felt himself smile and waited for the rush of satisfaction. What happened instead was a wave of horror and anguish and anger and guilt. These weren’t his emotions, no, no, not his. He pushed them away desperately, searching for his own. Sought out a feeling of triumph, not just over the Doctor but over the fact that he could control life, decide who would live and who would die. The power of it should be coursing through his veins, being pushing forward by the drums, but they were gone. The Doctor was shouting at him, but it was all too late. There was nothing left of him, the Doctor had taken it all.
*****
“They’re cutting through the door,” Owen said, leaning back against Jack’s desk, they’d pushed it on its side, using it as make-shift shield, bolstered with filing cabinets. They should be able to hold this position for a while.
Ianto sighed and looked over the top of their battlements. “Yep,” he agreed, coming back down and sitting next to Gwen.
“That’s it, then,” Owen replied. “We’re all going to die.” He paused. “Tosh,” he said.
“Owen?” Tosh was sitting on the other side of Owen, holding a gun and looking worried.
“Did I ever tell you that I think you’re really hot?” Owen finished in typical ill-timed fashion.
“No,” Tosh said slowly, her cheeks turning a little red and small smile on her face. “Not that I can remember.”
“Well you are,” Owen said. “And Gwen?”
Everyone tensed in fear at what might be said next.
“Rhys isn’t all that much of a twat.” Owen loaded his gun.
“Thanks Owen,” Gwen said, smiling despite herself.
There was a long silence. “What about me?” Ianto said, not feeling hurt, really, but the sound of the door being cut through wasn’t pleasant.
Owen looked at him. “You make pretty good coffee, you know, compared to the stuff that Jack makes which could melt an oesophagus.”
“Thanks, Owen,” Ianto said slowly, “that really warms my heart, to know you have such depth of emotion.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. “Still think you look like a prat wearing a suit to work everyday, though.”
Ianto sighed. “It’s called style, not that you’d know what that was if it took all your sorry excuses for clothes and burnt them on your lawn.” He grinned. “You were nearly nice for a whole two minutes then, though. You might be growing as a person.”
“I can’t see it myself,” Gwen said, looking over the barricade before plopping back down. “Not long now.”
“They’ll have to get through Jack, first,” Tosh said. “That should slow them up.”
Ianto felt a sudden weight on his chest. Tried not to think about the fact that everything had been so crap between him and Jack for the last couple of days and they might be his last. At least he’d managed to tell him how he felt, even if it had been too late. That was something at least.
*****
“Look I’m sorry,” van Statten shouted, backing up against the wall. “I never meant this to go so far. But, you nearly ruined me! I just wanted to make sure that that couldn’t happen again.”
The Doctor looked at the Master, who was staring down at the body of Mr Taylor. His face was white and his eyes were huge. The Doctor wrenched his eyes away from him with a massive amount of will power.
“Why do all of this? It seems such an overly complicated scheme,” he asked, the anger gone from his voice. He didn’t have the energy for it any more. The Master’s fear and shock was humming through him and it was awful.
Van Statten looked half-crazed as he stared at the Doctor, trying to back further away from him, but blocked by the wall. “I just had to hide from you, I knew you wouldn’t let me carry on with my hobby, but…” He got a far-off look. “How can you carry on knowing what’s out there and do nothing about it? I came back in time to before I ever met you, thinking you’d never think to look there. I figured if I just kept a low profile then you’d never know. I managed to start again, use some of the technology from my base and start to buy myself out. Funny,” he said, “because part of what made me so rich before I met you was that I sold off most of my assets, and it was to myself! I knew what was worth having, after all.”
“You did business with yourself?” It wasn’t quite a shout, but nearly. The Doctor lowered his voice. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could have created a paradox!”
Van Statten looked confused. “I was careful, I kept my identity a closely guarded secret. Then I met Torchwood, they offered to represent me, to expand my collection and understanding of the technology I had. I managed to eventually buy them out completely, at which point I found out about their dealings with Harold Saxon, or the Master.” He looked desperate. “It was their idea, they said it would be simple and I would be able to control you and then I’d be able to travel the stars as well as time.”
The Doctor found, now, after everything, that he wasn’t much interested in van Statten’s plans. Everything had changed so completely since he went to the Hub to visit Jack that he barely remembered what it was like before. He didn't care. But someone had to, and there was no one else. “How did you manage to travel back in the first place?”
Van Statten, pointed at his desk draw. The Doctor went to it and found a wrist strap, not dissimilar to Jack’s resting in a glass case. He sighed and placed it in his coat pocket. “I can’t let you do anything like this again,” he said.
Van Statten shook his head wordlessly.
“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said. He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the computer sitting on van Statten’s desk and switched it on.
“What are you doing?” van Statten asked, his voice trying to be angry, but his eyes went to the body on the floor, skimmed over the Master and he fell silent.
“I’m wiping everything you have in your database,” the Doctor said, his voice firm. He just wanted to get this over with and leave. He really hated this place. “But, first,” he twisted the screwdriver, “I’m donating all your assets and profits to charity.”
“You can’t!” van Statten cried, coming toward the Doctor.
The Master moved suddenly, stood in front of van Statten, between him and the Doctor. Whatever it was that van Statten saw in the Master’s eyes made him freeze before shrinking back against the wall. The Doctor swallowed and finished what he was doing. Then he lifted the block on the communications, and turned around.
“Now, call off the attack on the Hub in Cardiff,” he said slowly.
Van Statten looked briefly at him, back at the Master and then moved to his desk and picked up the phone. “Stand down, and report back to base,” he said slowly. There was silence while he listened to the reply before hanging up. “What now?" He asked. “What are you going to do with me?”
The Master tensed and the Doctor felt him get ready to attack him, he reached out and gently laid a hand on the Master’s shoulder. There was a moment of confusion through the link before the Master relaxed again.
“I’ll take you back to your own time. After that, it’s up to you. But if I ever-”
Van Statten was nodding and looking terrified.
“Okay,” the Doctor sighed. “Time to go.”
****
Jack stood a little way back from the door. Tensed and ready for the moment when it would finally give way to the onslaught and open. The blue beam of light was busy making an almost perfect circle in the door. Jack remembered someone telling him once that only the criminally insane were able to draw perfect circles free-hand. This did not bode well for whatever was about to come through the door. Jack pulled out his gun and waited. He thought about Ianto and what he’d told him. It was the last thing he’d expected given the last couple of conversations they’d had. It occurred to him, now, of course, that’d Gwen had been right. This whole mess between him and Ianto was his fault, not the Master’s, at least not all the Master’s. He wasn’t quite willing to let the Master off scot-free. But, no, Ianto had been telling him the truth, but Jack was so used to everything having a double meaning that he’d missed it.
He hadn’t had the chance to apologise, or to tell Ianto that the feeling was mutual. They were about to have a final stand and he’d let the opportunity go by without saying a word. He adjusted his stance, pointed his gun at the door. Well, there was only one option left. He’d have to save the day. Then he could get the guy. It was simple really.
Just then the blue beam stopped moving. There was very long pause where nothing at all happened. Jack frowned. Looked over his shoulder at the readouts on Tosh’s computer. Then he smiled.
“What the bloody hell’s going on?” Owen called.
Jack laughed. “Looks like the Doctor saved the day,” he called back. “Now that’s what I call good timing,” he said to himself.
****
Ianto was just putting away some of the files that had fallen out of the cabinet as they’d hastily erected their blockade when the Doctor arrived, the Master in tow and looking, if possible even worse than when he’d left. Ianto turned back to the filing, it wasn’t his business. He could hear the Doctor explaining to Jack what had happened, but he couldn’t really find it in him to care. He would be relieved when the Doctor and the Master left and they could just get on with their real jobs.
The Master was standing behind him. “Come with us,” he said, a smile playing on his lips.
Ianto turned around. “No,” he said. “Even if I did like being used as some sort of weird foreplay between the two of you, which I don’t, then my place would still be here.”
“With him?” the Master asked, reaching round Ianto and trying to pull out a case file.
Ianto took it back, and placed it in the cabinet again. “Yes, with Jack.”
The Master frowned. He stood there, watching Ianto filing for a long time. “I think the Doctor’s changed me.”
Ianto nodded. “Love’s like that.”
The Master glared at him. “What would a stupid ape know of how a Time Lord feels?”
Ianto laughed. “Sorry,” he said, “but I work with Owen, you’re going to have to do a lot more to insult me than bring up evolution.”
The Master looked supremely annoyed, and Ianto suspected it wasn’t all that his insult had failed to make an impact. “I killed someone, in van Statten’s office.”
Ianto nodded, not really sure where this was going.
“It didn’t feel… I don’t feel right anymore.” The Master was fidgeting, looking uncertain.
“Love’s like that,” Ianto repeated, and bent down to pick up another fallen folder.
The Master huffed at him. “I don’t know why I’m even talking to you. You have no hope of understanding me.”
“Nope,” Ianto agreed happily. “But, you’d hate it if I did, and anyway, that’s what the Doctor’s for. Looks like you’re stuck with each other now.”
“For now,” the Master agreed. “Come with me.”
Ianto laughed. “No.”
“Fine,” the Master said. “It’s not just because it’d hurt the freak and the Doctor, you know.”
“Sure it is,” Ianto replied.
The Master huffed again. “You’ll never get an offer like this again, you’ll have to live out your tiny, boring life and never know what’s really out there.”
“Thank God for that,” Ianto said. “I’ve seen more than enough to know that I don’t want your life. I want my life. My tiny, little life, full work and friends and Jack.”
The Master smiled ruefully. “How about a kiss, then? To say goodbye?”
Ianto sighed. “I think not.”
“Master,” the Doctor called. “It’s time we left these good people to clear up.”
Ianto frowned at this. Typical.
“Fine,” the Master agreed, turned to leave, swung back and grabbed Ianto by the head and pulled him into a kiss.
Ianto didn’t bother struggling, just let it happen and then pulled back gently. The Master winked at him and hurried after the Doctor.
*****
“So, goodbye again,” the Doctor said at the door.
Jack grinned at him. “Goodbye, feel free to drop by whenever you want. But leave the wife at home, huh?” he said gesturing with his head in the direction of the Master.
The Doctor looked sad, worried and guilty all at once, which was something of a facial miracle. Jack half smiled. “He’ll get over it,” he said. The Doctor looked a little surprised at this offer of comfort. “You only have each other, so… you know.”
“Not at all,” the Doctor said, but he smiled and pulled Jack into a tight hug.
Jack sighed and let himself relax into it, he pulled back. “Love you,” he said.
The Doctor smiled at him.
“Back. The fuck. Off.” The Master was standing behind him, and his tone was somewhat sarcastic, no doubt a reference to Jack’s reaction at interrupting him and Ianto.
The Doctor look almost pleased for reasons Jack didn’t imagine bore going into. “Gladly,” he said. “Don’t ever come back,” he said mildly to the Master and walked away, not watching them both leave.
****
Ianto had disappeared into the archives and Jack wondered down to find him. When he did he found him sitting crossed legged on the floor, surrounded by case files.
“What are you doing?” Jack asked mildly.
“Cross-referencing old case files by time period and type,” Ianto replied distractedly. He looked up at him. “Want to help?”
Jack paused at this, several more truthful answering crossing his mind before he said, “Sure.” He sat down next to Ianto and picked up a file at random.
“So, go on then,” he said after a moment of staring at it with no idea of what to do.
“Go on then, what?” Ianto asked, taking the file from Jack and placing it on a seemingly random pile next to him.
“Ask me something about my past.” Ianto looked at him with raised eyebrows. Jack grinned. “Seriously, go on, anything you like. I promise I’ll answer truthfully.”
“Okay,” Ianto said. Then he smiled brightly at Jack. “What did you have for dinner last night?”
“What?” Jack asked, looking at Ianto in astonishment. Then he realised. Ianto didn’t want a long explanation for Jack’s entire life. He didn’t need to hear everything. He just wanted to know he wasn’t being shut out. Jack grinned, leaned forward to kiss him. Ianto kissed him back, reaching around him and pulling them together. When they pulled back, Jack realised that he had a ridiculously soppy grin on his face, but he just didn’t care. “Pizza,” he said. “And I love you too, Ianto Jones.”
Ianto smiled at him, then frowned. “You have no idea how this cross referencing system works do you?”
*****
“So,” the Doctor said, swinging his arms back and forth.
“So,” the Master agreed, his own arms crossed tightly over his chest.
“I figure that I’ll drop you off in the Naxar system, around the turn of fifth empire of Balgasious. It’s a fantastic period.” He’d landed the TARDIS already but was stalling opening the doors.
“It’s a thoroughly boring time,” the Master answered.
“Well, where should I drop you off?” the Doctor asked. He was still having trouble looking at him.
“You haven’t mentioned anything about the human that I killed,” was all the Master said.
“There’s nothing to say, it was my fault, I should have realised you’d do something like that and stopped you.” The Doctor wandered over to the console and looked at it idly, not really seeing the readouts. He could feel that the Master was confused, and angry about the fact that he’d been unable to enjoy the kill. He wasn’t really sure what that meant either. “But I’ll be ready next time.”
“Not if I’m all the way out here and you’re off gallivanting about the universe,” the Master pointed out.
The Doctor said nothing for a long time, knowing this to be true but not able to think of another way. In the end he said, “I can’t keep you here, not now.”
The Master sighed heavily. “No,” he agreed. “But it’s not safe for you to let me roam free, either. Imagine what I could do before you managed to stop me.”
The Doctor frowned at him. Where was this going? He could feel something odd through the link but he wasn’t really sure what it was.
“I kissed Ianto,” the Master said.
The Doctor sighed. “I know, I felt it.”
The Master grinned. “Was it good for you?”
“No.” The Doctor tried to actually read what the TARDIS had managed to scan.
“He said that I love you,” the Master said suddenly.
The Doctor looked up so sharply that he might have given himself whiplash. “Pardon?”
The Master’s eyes were dancing. “Stupid ape, mistook hate for love.”
“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed and looked back down again.
“Still,” the Master said, “since Ianto didn’t want to play with me after all, I figure I’ve got some time to kill.”
“Hmmm,” the Doctor said. He didn’t want to hear about this. He just wanted the Master to leave. He’d be alright once he was alone again. It was the waiting to be left that was the problem.
“Perhaps you might show me what’s so ‘fantastic’ about this dump,” the Master said casually. “I hear that they have wonderful pleasure spas, we could go to one.”
Impossible, beautiful hope began to spring up inside the Doctor. “Master,” he said gently, “are you asking me out on a date?”
One side of the Master’s mouth curved up into a smile. “I thought I was asking you for sex, actually, Doctor, but however you want to put it.”
This wasn’t happening, it couldn’t be. The Master would never choose to stay with him. It was certainly a trick or some sort of trap. The Master was planning something. This was true, he could feel the desire for vengeance coming from the Master in waves. He was beyond angry about what the Doctor had done. But there was something else there too. The Doctor had been trying not to think about the link, not invade the Master’s privacy any more than he already had, but he could feel it now. The Master was confused, he didn’t know what not feeling happy about killing that man in van Statten’s office had meant. He wanted to find out if it was just the Doctor’s influence, or the lack of the drums, or him. And… he Doctor felt himself begin to smile. He didn’t want to be alone either.
The Doctor wasn’t really sure what all of that meant. They would never be able to stay together. The Master wasn’t capable of change and neither was he. Although, in the meantime…
“Maybe I could play tour guide for a little while,” he said slowly.
The Master smiled wickedly. “I can feel your desperation for me not to leave.”
“And I can feel your fear about what you might be becoming.” The Doctor faced the Master, head up. There was no need for lies anymore. It felt nice.
“Ditto,” the Master replied. He laughed. “The dance is still going on, Doctor, it’s just a new song!”
“Fine by me,” the Doctor, agreed, “just so long as you know who’s leading.”
“Naturally,” the Master said, reaching to put on his coat and heading for the doors of the TARDIS. “Me,” he said and pulled open the doors and revealed their future.
The Doctor smiled.
THE END