Before Sunset (5/?)
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Pairing: AU!Master/Doctor (10)
Summary: The day doesn't go as Jack expected.
Note: The obligatoy chapter I hate. But it's part of the storyline and if I had to completely rewrite it I would abandon the story here and now. So please accept my apologies and bear with it.
The time agent came back just before dawn. He’d spent the night out since with his guests he hadn’t wanted to bring anyone else to his suit. The device in the door would have alerted him had one of them left their room, but they’d spent the night inside. In the meantime the cameras all over the room should have collected enough material to maybe get a clue of who they were.
He watched the record before dropping into bed. The cameras had started working the moment they’d opened the room. The record showed him leaving, the two strangers having a short exchange of words in a language he didn’t know and, quite interestingly, his computer couldn’t translate, then the one who called himself the Doctor went for the bathroom. To the time agent’s immense disappointment the bathroom camera went dead shortly after. He saw the man take a tool with a gleaming blue light at its end out of his pocket, wave it around and that was it. Finito.
He stared at the screen in confusion. Had that been a sonic screwdriver? Who had a sonic screwdriver?
The other man, Harry, took a different device out of his jacket, wandered through the main room and shortly after all the cameras were gone. So much for that.
At least they were still inside.
He shut down his computer with a sigh, than glanced at himself in the mirror above the desk.
“I really don’t look like a Fred,” he admitted. Well, Bill then. It was as good as any other four-letter name.
It wasn’t like he was going to use it for long.
The agency had sent him because someone was in this time zone who didn’t belong here. He’d arrived a few days ago, gotten this giant suite after having booked it almost a year in the past, (His job had its advantages, especially since the time agency paid for everything.) done a few scans for time travel activities and eventually found these two. In the meantime he’d had fun.
Now his job was to find out if they had any ill intentions, or more generally, if they were about to do something to alter history in any way.
Unfortunately ‘Bill’ wasn’t absolutely certain they were the only time travellers around. He’d detected other activities before they’d arrived, and there were signs of powerful alien technology, appearing and disappearing somewhere in this city. Of course that could be them as well, being time travellers and such. In that case they were quite dangerous. And would be rather pissed if they found out he was a time agent out to stop them.
Of course chances were that they already suspected. He’d have a hard time explaining the cameras - they weren’t exactly twenty-third century technology after all.
He’d just make something up if he had to. Say he’d been filming a porn movie in there or something.
Bill didn’t exactly know what to make of them. They seemed harmless enough, but appearances could be deceiving. And maybe ‘harmless’ was not the right word to use. They didn’t appear to have any ill intentions, but the moment he’d met them Bill had realised that both of them could probably take over the universe with the seer force of their personalities.
And that was very dangerous indeed.
They were also both quite good-looking and the time agent wouldn’t have minded if his flirting had ended in one of their beds, but he was professional enough not to let his libido get in conflict with his work. If he had to, he would take them out, no matter how attractive or likable they were.
But despite all his professionalism he couldn’t imagine them being up to anything nasty. At last that went for the Doctor. Bill had never met anyone quite like him, and he’d met many weird or eccentric people in his life. Something about him was so fascinating, so intriguing that he had been unable not to like him. He remembered the little somersault his stomach had made when they’d danced and the Doctor had taken lead with the implicitness of someone not used to following others. It was not unusual for him to be attracted to someone - more unusual not to be, actually - but he couldn’t remember the last time his stomach had had any say in it.
He trusted the Doctor. He couldn’t help it. He seemed so childlike, free of dark intentions, yet there was something haunted, lost and vulnerable in his eyes that made Bill want to protect him. And that was bad. Not good for business.
He should check if he was being telepathically influenced, made to like them. It could happen. Maybe they really were aliens - he couldn’t forget how cold the Doctor’s hand had felt in his. Unnatural.
Harry was another matter. He seemed nice, funny and charismatic, yet that couldn’t completely cover the hard edge he wanted to hide. He’d acted playfully jealous around his friend last evening but there was something about the way he hovered behind the Doctor that surpassed possessiveness.
If crossed he would not hold back in any way, Bill was sure. In his eyes there had been intelligence, wit and humour but no compassion, nothing but quietly amused distaste for whatever he looked at. It was slightly unsettling, yet at the same time intriguing. He could be dangerous. It was just hard to tell how dangerous.
Bill fell asleep when the first rays of sunlight hit the window. When he woke up it was almost noon and he cursed his sleeping in. After checking if his guests were still with him he showered, dressed and then went over to their room. Today he would take them to where he’d localized the alien technology, see if they had anything to do with it.
He knocked and opened the door to the other part of his suite. Harry greeted him with a smile. He was just slipping on his shoes.
“Hello, Bill!” he said, his voice somewhat subdued. “I was just going to see if you were awake.”
“Just woke up, sorry,” Bill apologized. “You two had a good night?”
“Splendid. Thanks for letting us stay.”
Bill stepped fully into the room and noted that the Doctor was still in bed and apparently deeply asleep. He was terribly pale.
Bill felt an unexpected pang of worry.
“What’s wrong with him?” He kept his own voice down so not to wake him. Harry sighed.
“He wasn’t feeling so well yesterday and now he has a fever. I thought it better to let him sleep. That is, if you don’t mind him occupying your spare bed another few hours.”
“No, not at all.” Bill shook his head as he walked over to the bed. This was not something he had expected to happen.
The Doctor’s forehead was covered in sweat and his breath was laboured. Bill carefully touched his skin to check his temperature, unprepared for his sudden concern.
“He’s freezing!”
“No, he’s burning up,” Harry stated calmly. “As he said, he’s an alien.”
Bill looked at the pale, trembling figure on the bed.
“He really is, isn’t he?” he said quietly.
The Doctor was dressed in one of the pyjamas that could be found in the closet. He didn’t stir when Bill took hold of his hand and felt for his pulse. The rush of relief he felt surprised him.
“His pulse seems normal. A bit weak, perhaps.”
Harry’s face darkened. He walked over to them swiftly and his frown only deepened as checked the pulse himself. For one second the agent thought he saw real concern in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, alarmed.
Harry straightened his composure, shook his head and smiled.
“Nothing, really. I think we should just let him rest. There’s something I want to discuss with you anyway.”
Bill didn’t feel well leaving the ill man alone, but Harry was probably right. Besides, if he was really an alien they could hardly take him to a doctor. Not in this century.
Better get back to the plan then.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested and Harry nodded. He went to take something from the pocket of the coat the Doctor had been wearing last evening and scribbled a note he left on the table before quietly leaving the room after Bill and locking the door.
-
At noon the streets were relatively empty, since the festivities mainly took place at night. Harry and Bill had a quick breakfast in the Hotel’s restaurant, then stepped out into the bright sunshine.
“We’re time travellers”, Harry said suddenly. “And you’re a time agent.”
Okay, that was unexpected.
‘I was supposed to say something like that later this day,’ Bill thought while he wondered how Harry could have found out.
“How did you find out?” he asked.
A look of impatience.
“We travel through time. It wasn’t hard to guess.”
“I mean me being a time agent.”
The question was ignored.
“There are other time travellers in this area,” Harry continued. “They’re dangerous, about to cause great damage to the history of Earth. We’ve come to stop them.”
“And why would you do that?” Bill was getting a bit irritated in his confusion. “Who are you and what gives you the authority to meddle with time?”
Harry snorted.
“We’re just being nice. I didn’t know you needed a licence to save the world.”
“You could cause a lot of damage.”
“Oh, believe me, we have experience.”
“In saving the world or causing damage?”
“Both.”
“And why would you care? You’re friend isn’t even human!”
Harry shrugged. “He’s adopted the planet. Anyway, there was a point to me telling you other than staring a discussion.”
“You don’t say.” Nothing was going as planned. “Is your partner really sick or is that another act?”
“His health has been a bit fragile lately. Another reason why I want to get over with this as fast a possible. Now shut up and listen!”
Bill rolled his eyes. No-one went around the universe saving species just for fun. But then it would explain why Harry’s friend was calling himself ‘the Doctor’, after a well known myth among the Time Agents - someone who travelled though time and space defeating evil for no particular reason.
“Our ship has detected alien technology nearby,” Harry interrupted his thoughts. “You can’t tell me you don’t know about it.”
“Actually I thought it was your doing.” And the time agent still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t.
“And no doubt you wanted to arrest us for it. Never mind,” Harry raised his hand when Bill opened his mouth to reply. “I need your help finding it. Surely you know where to look?”
Bill found himself nodding.
“Then show me!”
Bill didn’t know what to make of all this. He was almost convinced the man was telling the truth but not completely. On the other hand something had to be done here - just this morning his scanners had detected a giant build-up of power, and whatever it was, it would be devastating. And, well, he’d wanted to take Harry to the location of that activity anyway. He was armed. What could go wrong?
“I don’t trust you,” he grumbled as he led the other time traveller to the building over which his own spacecraft was hidden.
Harry shrugged.
“Like I care.”
-
The Doctor woke to silence. He needed a moment to figure out where he was. The world spun before his eyes when he tried to sit up. Breathing hurt. Everything hurt. He felt sick and his head was killing him.
The room was empty and he had to fight down a wave of panic. The Master was out there somewhere. That he couldn’t see him and couldn’t sense him didn’t mean he didn’t exist.
He was out there. And up to something. Something he tried to keep secret from the Doctor. Which to his experience equalled something bad.
He had to stop him. It was the Doctor’s fault that he was here now, and his responsibility to keep him from harming anyone. The thought echoed in his fevered mind and gave him the strength to move.
He was dressed in the shirt of a pyjama - the Master must have done that to cover the marks he’d left on him last night. The Doctor shivered and tried not to think of it. He distantly remembered a shower, still there was dried blood on his thighs and the bed was a mess beneath the cover.
He practically fell out of bed and made his way over to the table on wobbly legs. A note telling him to stay in bed and wait for their return. He’d gone with Jack then. Probably not good.
The Doctor’s coat was hanging over a chair. He searched the pockets with trembling fingers and nearly cried in desperation when he couldn’t find his medicine. He needed something to lower the fever and most of all something to make the pain bearable, so he could move. So he could find the Master.
The Master. He’d taken it away, no doubt. To stop him from leaving the room. He’d already done his best to make the Doctor miserable last night and he’d been unable to stop him.
It was suddenly hard to breathe. The Doctor collapsed on the floor and curled into a ball. Waited. After a while he felt a bit better.
It seemed to take ages to get into his clothes. The door was locked and the Master had also taken his sonic screwdriver, but he didn’t need it pick such a simple lock, even in this state.
Stumbling down the corridor, the Doctor knew there was no use in going after the Master like this. He’d have to get to the TARDIS first, get some painkillers and then see if she was up to a scan for unusual activities.
He more or less fell into the elevator, tied not throw up as it moved down. Cursing the Master over and over again.
Taking a few deep breaths, he walked through the lobby and out into the street. The TARDIS wasn’t far. He did his best not to look too miserable but the people taking notice of his state would probably think he had a hangover anyway.
It was far too hot outside. He felt as if his flesh was on fire and he had to rest every few meters.
Somehow he made it to the ship. His fingers were trembling so hard he had trouble getting the key into the lock. His body could cope with but one heart but it wasn’t actually meant to.
Inside it was much cooler. He fell to his knees and rested his forehead on the floor of the console room as everything went black for a moment.
He had to hurry. Who could tell what the Master was doing in the meantime? No time to waste like this.
With effort he got back to his feet, fell down once more, tried again. He hated it. Hated it.
He’d died many times before but it had never taken so long.
-
- tbc
September 27, 2007
NEXT
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Rating: PG
Pairing: AU!Master/Doctor (10)
Summary: The day doesn't go as Jack expected.
Note: The obligatoy chapter I hate. But it's part of the storyline and if I had to completely rewrite it I would abandon the story here and now. So please accept my apologies and bear with it.
The time agent came back just before dawn. He’d spent the night out since with his guests he hadn’t wanted to bring anyone else to his suit. The device in the door would have alerted him had one of them left their room, but they’d spent the night inside. In the meantime the cameras all over the room should have collected enough material to maybe get a clue of who they were.
He watched the record before dropping into bed. The cameras had started working the moment they’d opened the room. The record showed him leaving, the two strangers having a short exchange of words in a language he didn’t know and, quite interestingly, his computer couldn’t translate, then the one who called himself the Doctor went for the bathroom. To the time agent’s immense disappointment the bathroom camera went dead shortly after. He saw the man take a tool with a gleaming blue light at its end out of his pocket, wave it around and that was it. Finito.
He stared at the screen in confusion. Had that been a sonic screwdriver? Who had a sonic screwdriver?
The other man, Harry, took a different device out of his jacket, wandered through the main room and shortly after all the cameras were gone. So much for that.
At least they were still inside.
He shut down his computer with a sigh, than glanced at himself in the mirror above the desk.
“I really don’t look like a Fred,” he admitted. Well, Bill then. It was as good as any other four-letter name.
It wasn’t like he was going to use it for long.
The agency had sent him because someone was in this time zone who didn’t belong here. He’d arrived a few days ago, gotten this giant suite after having booked it almost a year in the past, (His job had its advantages, especially since the time agency paid for everything.) done a few scans for time travel activities and eventually found these two. In the meantime he’d had fun.
Now his job was to find out if they had any ill intentions, or more generally, if they were about to do something to alter history in any way.
Unfortunately ‘Bill’ wasn’t absolutely certain they were the only time travellers around. He’d detected other activities before they’d arrived, and there were signs of powerful alien technology, appearing and disappearing somewhere in this city. Of course that could be them as well, being time travellers and such. In that case they were quite dangerous. And would be rather pissed if they found out he was a time agent out to stop them.
Of course chances were that they already suspected. He’d have a hard time explaining the cameras - they weren’t exactly twenty-third century technology after all.
He’d just make something up if he had to. Say he’d been filming a porn movie in there or something.
Bill didn’t exactly know what to make of them. They seemed harmless enough, but appearances could be deceiving. And maybe ‘harmless’ was not the right word to use. They didn’t appear to have any ill intentions, but the moment he’d met them Bill had realised that both of them could probably take over the universe with the seer force of their personalities.
And that was very dangerous indeed.
They were also both quite good-looking and the time agent wouldn’t have minded if his flirting had ended in one of their beds, but he was professional enough not to let his libido get in conflict with his work. If he had to, he would take them out, no matter how attractive or likable they were.
But despite all his professionalism he couldn’t imagine them being up to anything nasty. At last that went for the Doctor. Bill had never met anyone quite like him, and he’d met many weird or eccentric people in his life. Something about him was so fascinating, so intriguing that he had been unable not to like him. He remembered the little somersault his stomach had made when they’d danced and the Doctor had taken lead with the implicitness of someone not used to following others. It was not unusual for him to be attracted to someone - more unusual not to be, actually - but he couldn’t remember the last time his stomach had had any say in it.
He trusted the Doctor. He couldn’t help it. He seemed so childlike, free of dark intentions, yet there was something haunted, lost and vulnerable in his eyes that made Bill want to protect him. And that was bad. Not good for business.
He should check if he was being telepathically influenced, made to like them. It could happen. Maybe they really were aliens - he couldn’t forget how cold the Doctor’s hand had felt in his. Unnatural.
Harry was another matter. He seemed nice, funny and charismatic, yet that couldn’t completely cover the hard edge he wanted to hide. He’d acted playfully jealous around his friend last evening but there was something about the way he hovered behind the Doctor that surpassed possessiveness.
If crossed he would not hold back in any way, Bill was sure. In his eyes there had been intelligence, wit and humour but no compassion, nothing but quietly amused distaste for whatever he looked at. It was slightly unsettling, yet at the same time intriguing. He could be dangerous. It was just hard to tell how dangerous.
Bill fell asleep when the first rays of sunlight hit the window. When he woke up it was almost noon and he cursed his sleeping in. After checking if his guests were still with him he showered, dressed and then went over to their room. Today he would take them to where he’d localized the alien technology, see if they had anything to do with it.
He knocked and opened the door to the other part of his suite. Harry greeted him with a smile. He was just slipping on his shoes.
“Hello, Bill!” he said, his voice somewhat subdued. “I was just going to see if you were awake.”
“Just woke up, sorry,” Bill apologized. “You two had a good night?”
“Splendid. Thanks for letting us stay.”
Bill stepped fully into the room and noted that the Doctor was still in bed and apparently deeply asleep. He was terribly pale.
Bill felt an unexpected pang of worry.
“What’s wrong with him?” He kept his own voice down so not to wake him. Harry sighed.
“He wasn’t feeling so well yesterday and now he has a fever. I thought it better to let him sleep. That is, if you don’t mind him occupying your spare bed another few hours.”
“No, not at all.” Bill shook his head as he walked over to the bed. This was not something he had expected to happen.
The Doctor’s forehead was covered in sweat and his breath was laboured. Bill carefully touched his skin to check his temperature, unprepared for his sudden concern.
“He’s freezing!”
“No, he’s burning up,” Harry stated calmly. “As he said, he’s an alien.”
Bill looked at the pale, trembling figure on the bed.
“He really is, isn’t he?” he said quietly.
The Doctor was dressed in one of the pyjamas that could be found in the closet. He didn’t stir when Bill took hold of his hand and felt for his pulse. The rush of relief he felt surprised him.
“His pulse seems normal. A bit weak, perhaps.”
Harry’s face darkened. He walked over to them swiftly and his frown only deepened as checked the pulse himself. For one second the agent thought he saw real concern in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, alarmed.
Harry straightened his composure, shook his head and smiled.
“Nothing, really. I think we should just let him rest. There’s something I want to discuss with you anyway.”
Bill didn’t feel well leaving the ill man alone, but Harry was probably right. Besides, if he was really an alien they could hardly take him to a doctor. Not in this century.
Better get back to the plan then.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested and Harry nodded. He went to take something from the pocket of the coat the Doctor had been wearing last evening and scribbled a note he left on the table before quietly leaving the room after Bill and locking the door.
-
At noon the streets were relatively empty, since the festivities mainly took place at night. Harry and Bill had a quick breakfast in the Hotel’s restaurant, then stepped out into the bright sunshine.
“We’re time travellers”, Harry said suddenly. “And you’re a time agent.”
Okay, that was unexpected.
‘I was supposed to say something like that later this day,’ Bill thought while he wondered how Harry could have found out.
“How did you find out?” he asked.
A look of impatience.
“We travel through time. It wasn’t hard to guess.”
“I mean me being a time agent.”
The question was ignored.
“There are other time travellers in this area,” Harry continued. “They’re dangerous, about to cause great damage to the history of Earth. We’ve come to stop them.”
“And why would you do that?” Bill was getting a bit irritated in his confusion. “Who are you and what gives you the authority to meddle with time?”
Harry snorted.
“We’re just being nice. I didn’t know you needed a licence to save the world.”
“You could cause a lot of damage.”
“Oh, believe me, we have experience.”
“In saving the world or causing damage?”
“Both.”
“And why would you care? You’re friend isn’t even human!”
Harry shrugged. “He’s adopted the planet. Anyway, there was a point to me telling you other than staring a discussion.”
“You don’t say.” Nothing was going as planned. “Is your partner really sick or is that another act?”
“His health has been a bit fragile lately. Another reason why I want to get over with this as fast a possible. Now shut up and listen!”
Bill rolled his eyes. No-one went around the universe saving species just for fun. But then it would explain why Harry’s friend was calling himself ‘the Doctor’, after a well known myth among the Time Agents - someone who travelled though time and space defeating evil for no particular reason.
“Our ship has detected alien technology nearby,” Harry interrupted his thoughts. “You can’t tell me you don’t know about it.”
“Actually I thought it was your doing.” And the time agent still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t.
“And no doubt you wanted to arrest us for it. Never mind,” Harry raised his hand when Bill opened his mouth to reply. “I need your help finding it. Surely you know where to look?”
Bill found himself nodding.
“Then show me!”
Bill didn’t know what to make of all this. He was almost convinced the man was telling the truth but not completely. On the other hand something had to be done here - just this morning his scanners had detected a giant build-up of power, and whatever it was, it would be devastating. And, well, he’d wanted to take Harry to the location of that activity anyway. He was armed. What could go wrong?
“I don’t trust you,” he grumbled as he led the other time traveller to the building over which his own spacecraft was hidden.
Harry shrugged.
“Like I care.”
-
The Doctor woke to silence. He needed a moment to figure out where he was. The world spun before his eyes when he tried to sit up. Breathing hurt. Everything hurt. He felt sick and his head was killing him.
The room was empty and he had to fight down a wave of panic. The Master was out there somewhere. That he couldn’t see him and couldn’t sense him didn’t mean he didn’t exist.
He was out there. And up to something. Something he tried to keep secret from the Doctor. Which to his experience equalled something bad.
He had to stop him. It was the Doctor’s fault that he was here now, and his responsibility to keep him from harming anyone. The thought echoed in his fevered mind and gave him the strength to move.
He was dressed in the shirt of a pyjama - the Master must have done that to cover the marks he’d left on him last night. The Doctor shivered and tried not to think of it. He distantly remembered a shower, still there was dried blood on his thighs and the bed was a mess beneath the cover.
He practically fell out of bed and made his way over to the table on wobbly legs. A note telling him to stay in bed and wait for their return. He’d gone with Jack then. Probably not good.
The Doctor’s coat was hanging over a chair. He searched the pockets with trembling fingers and nearly cried in desperation when he couldn’t find his medicine. He needed something to lower the fever and most of all something to make the pain bearable, so he could move. So he could find the Master.
The Master. He’d taken it away, no doubt. To stop him from leaving the room. He’d already done his best to make the Doctor miserable last night and he’d been unable to stop him.
It was suddenly hard to breathe. The Doctor collapsed on the floor and curled into a ball. Waited. After a while he felt a bit better.
It seemed to take ages to get into his clothes. The door was locked and the Master had also taken his sonic screwdriver, but he didn’t need it pick such a simple lock, even in this state.
Stumbling down the corridor, the Doctor knew there was no use in going after the Master like this. He’d have to get to the TARDIS first, get some painkillers and then see if she was up to a scan for unusual activities.
He more or less fell into the elevator, tied not throw up as it moved down. Cursing the Master over and over again.
Taking a few deep breaths, he walked through the lobby and out into the street. The TARDIS wasn’t far. He did his best not to look too miserable but the people taking notice of his state would probably think he had a hangover anyway.
It was far too hot outside. He felt as if his flesh was on fire and he had to rest every few meters.
Somehow he made it to the ship. His fingers were trembling so hard he had trouble getting the key into the lock. His body could cope with but one heart but it wasn’t actually meant to.
Inside it was much cooler. He fell to his knees and rested his forehead on the floor of the console room as everything went black for a moment.
He had to hurry. Who could tell what the Master was doing in the meantime? No time to waste like this.
With effort he got back to his feet, fell down once more, tried again. He hated it. Hated it.
He’d died many times before but it had never taken so long.
-
- tbc
September 27, 2007
NEXT
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4