Again these characters are not my own but belong to the BBC, This fanfic is a tribute to Anthony Ainlee, who played the Master in the 1980's. The only character I was truly scared off.
Chapter One
Once the TARDIS had steadied herself Dorothy smiled. “Right, is the tea still going cold or have you actually fixed the kettle?”
The Doctor was fiddling with something underneath the console. Mumbling to himself about always having missing bits lying around. Dorothy sighed, rolling her eyes, he had not changed. And, rather touchingly, he had kept the sweater on. “I suppose the Kitchen is still in the same place, Prof?”
“Urgh!” he shuddered. “How have you been coping?”
Shaking her head she walked out of the control room to find the kettle. Hoping that someone sensible had been making sure that the food cupboards were full and the tea topped up. She was not surprised that now he had managed to whisk her away his attention was back onto the TARDIS. The Kitchen was not in the same place. Instead it was a library with a swimming pool. “Shame I forgot my costume.”
“What was that?” he said behind her causing her to jump.
“I thought you were busy in the control room!” she snapped as she thumped him on the arm.
“Ow,” he said as he rubbed it. “What are you looking for?”
“I need a cup of tea!”
“Tea … right. Come on,” he grabbed her hand and led her down the winding maze of the TARDIS.
“Will you stop yanking my arm! I like it there you know.”
“Sorry,” he said letting go. “Just I am so pleased you’re back on board.”
“One adventure!” she said.
“One?”
“One!”
“How boring! I remember you could not even be bothered to talk to your mother at one time.”
Huffing about how people change he turned on his heel and led her to where she wanted to go. She followed behind him.
“The Kitchen!” he exclaimed at last.
Dorothy peered in and walked in. Checking every cupboard for food, there were some things in there. The kettle. Cheap but at least it worked with one flick of the switch. Clearly Gallifreyan technology did not extend to kettles.
“Okay, you have supplies. Good, I can’t go a day without a cup of tea.”
“Satisfied?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Okay,” a smile played upon his lips. “Now, I got a surprise for you.”
Dorothy slumped against the cupboards. “I came here to get a cup of tea, want one?”
“Yes, just that …”
“Have you got ants in your pants or something? It can wait,” picking up the kettle she took it to the sink and filled it with water. Thankfully it was one of those really fast kettles. She barely had time to find a mug and a tea bag before it finished. Once the mug was filled and tea bag disposed of, she took a sip and bathed in its glory, “tea! Well, now you can show me. Remember I can’t run.”
“We are going to have to cure you of this boringness thing you’ve become you know!”
“I have not got boring.”
“Oh yes you have. Boring. Dorothy Boring McShane!”
“As opposed to Scarecrow? Look, Prof, you’re a fine one to talk. You’ve changed too remember. All I’ve I done is get older and wiser. You seem to have younger and sillier!”
“You can take those sunglasses off you know!” he said quickly changing the subject.
“I can’t … I don’t understand. It only started up in the past few years. But the only way I can control it is if I keep the sunglasses on. You know as well as I do what could happen if I can’t control it.”
“The past few years?”
“Since that Harold Saxon debacle. I saw it you know. I did not need to be made to believe. I knew you. I summoned your image in my head and all the adventures came flooding back. I must have been holding them in. Damming them up. Then, well … I noticed my eyes glowing again. How, Doctor?”
The Doctor stopped and frowned. Harold Saxon. The Master as it really turned out to be. Surely he … No. She only called him Doctor when she was truly worried.
“I … don’t … know. Did you know who Harold Saxon was?”
Dorothy shrugged her shoulders. “Someone nasty.”
“Someone nasty!” he mimicked. “That was The Master!”
“THE …”
Then the TARDIS shuddered. They lost their grip and Dorothy spilt some of her tea. “Damn!”
An agonised sound echoed down the hall. The lights flashing on and off down the corridor.
“Oh no!” he ran to the console room.
“Great! Definitely back in the TARDIS. Can’t even have a cup of tea now.”
With regret she abandoned the beverage and took her heels off and chased after him. Crashing through she rushed straight to the controls. “What do you want me to do?”
“That’s the spirit Ace, pull that blue lever down. Right now … lets see what is going on outside,” he switched the screen on and pressed in some more buttons. Twisting some taps to get a good picture quality. “Uh-Oh?”
“I hate the Uh-Oh’s!”
“Ah! This is not going to go down …”
“Hello sweetie! Guess what... I’m almost outside. Be a pet and open the door for me!”
“Who is that?”
The Doctor turned around and looked guilty. “Er, I’ll explain later!”
Dorothy slammed down a big red button and the doors opened. “Explain now!”
“Phew,” the same voice said. “It’s flippin’ cold out there. Hello sweetie!”
“Don’t you ‘Hello sweetie’ the Prof!”
“Erm …”
To Dorothy’s shock she saw the strange woman saunter up to the Doctor and grab him by the jumper lips puckered ready for a kiss. Dorothy charged in and pushed her away.
“I do not know who you are but the Prof does not care for that!”
“And who are you?”
“Dorothy McShane, an old friend of the Prof’s. Who do you think you are?”
“Ladies …”
“I am his wife. So, if I …”
“His WIFE? He’s not married. Not the marrying kind.”
“I am …”
“Stay back!” Dorothy snarled.
“Dorothy … Dorothy … You never told me of a Dorothy, honey.”
The Doctor cringed. “He hasn’t mentioned you yet either.”
“Not shocked. It is his absent-mindedness that attracts me to him. That and he just loves a bad girl.”
Dorothy appraised the woman before her. Wild frizzy hair. Big eyes. Big lips. Big everything! “You look old enough to be his mother!”
“Look, I don’t know when it was when you knew the Doctor but a lot has been going on since then. I am his wife. Tell her sweetie.”
Dorothy turned around to see his expression whilst he was making his excuse. “Erm, yes. I’m afraid that she is, but she is and it is a long story.”
“I wasn’t good enough? Sarah-Jane not good enough? Peri? Mel? Tegan? None of us good enough for you? You had to marry that Charles the Second reject!”
“Hey!”
“Ace …”
“Don’t bother!” she stormed out. “Seems you two got the room to yourselves!”
Slamming the door behind her the Doctor jumped then turned on the intruder. “Oh you do know how to make an entrance don’t you, River?”
“Who is she?”
“Ace. She was with me in my seventh …”
“Ah, that is why you’re wearing the jumper.”
“You don’t seem to mind.”
“No, I know you care for others. They all loved you, you know. Loved you deeply. It seems that she cared about you in a way that you can never feel for her.”
“I best go find her!”
“No, you stay here. I’ll find her.”
The Doctor hung onto the controls. Why? Why did River have to turn up now? What did she want this time? Moodily he punched some useless buttons and then kicked the chair. He had been looking forward to being the old Doctor again. One that did not involve domesticity then she has to turn up and ruin things. He cared for River too and technically they were married he supposed but … sometimes he wished he could kill her as soon as look at her. And he hated how the timelines were always mixed up. Emotions were mixed up too.
<1>
River found Dorothy curled up on the floor in tears. “I would have killed for him you know. Anything for him!”
“Yeah, he does that. Makes people care for him.”
“He did NOT MAKE ME CARE FOR HIM. In fact I owed him. I owe him a lot. And … once, just once I wanted him to kiss me. See me as a woman instead of the teenager I was. Did he? No. In fact, he was the only man I ever trusted. Some of us did marry and find happiness … I couldn’t. I kept comparing them to HIM.”
“Okay,” River sighed sitting down on the opposite side of the floor. “Look, it is complicated between him and me, but I do feel the same. I would kill for that man. In fact I have.”
Dorothy took her sunglasses off to let the tears fall more freely, staining her cheeks with the mascara and eyeliner. Rubbing her eyes. River peered closer at those eyes. The gold tinge made her cringe. Something almost awful had happened to this girl. To River she was a girl.
“Don’t look me in the eyes. Not if you value your sanity,” she sniffed and replaced the sunglasses.
“I am sure he did like you. It is evident in the fact that you travelled with him meant something at least. He wouldn’t let anyone on board the TARDIS.”
“Yeah,” Dorothy snorted. “Not intelligent enough to be his wife.”
“Ace,” his voice sounded. “Look, that surprise I mentioned. Here...” he threw down something.
“My knapsack?” the Doctor nodded. She opened it up. “Empty though. Of course, you did not like my little hobby!”
River looked at the Doctor. “She made her own explosives.”
“My kind of girl!” River said. “Respect. So, you were a bit of a bad girl too?”
The Doctor rolled his eyes as he helped Dorothy up. “And there is something else.”
Dorothy allowed him to lead her. Some of the fight had gone out of her. She missed the labyrinthine corridors with doors leading to who-knows-what. River followed behind her. Of course she was not jealous of his previous friends. Theirs was not your typical marriage after all. They stopped at a door much like any others.
“Open it,” he said. She pushed down the handle. What she saw made her gasp. “Your room. Kept how it was in the hope … I hadn’t forgotten you. And do not think I never cared for you, Ace. I always have. In fact, Ace just about sums you up.”
Dorothy walked through the door and stared around at all the eighties posters … The Cure! Wow. All her old clothes. She flung open the cupboard and found her jacket there. Some of her books and … “My diary?”
The Doctor nodded. “I have not read it.”
“Okay,” she sighed.
“Now it is my turn to leave you two alone.”
River turned around and shut the door behind her. She could trust him after all. Although the niggling doubt of the condition of her new friend’s eyes kept gnawing at her mind. She went to the console room to look up Dorothy McShane in the databanks. What she read astonished her. She did go through some weird things. No wonder she loved him. “That man!” She came up to the event labelled under Survival. The Master … Cats … Hunted becoming the hunter … what was …
Bang! Crash! Vworp-vworp! Klaxon’s sounding. Lights flashing. They had landed and the TARDIS did not like where they had. She seemed to be resenting the thud. And that no one had been listening to her. She also sensed something about this place. Something that sent her whirly nuts all a-jitter.
“You all right old girl?”
“What is happening?” Ace asked she had looked as polished as ever. Not a hair out of place. Definitely a seasoned traveller then.
“I’m finding out where we are,” River said. “please show.”
The Doctor skidded to her side and pressed the same knobs and buttons as before. Ace calmly walked to his other side.
“Biblogia,” the Doctor breathed, “an entire planet dedicated to learning and philosophy. All species that show signs of cleverness are called here.”
“That leaves me out then,” Ace said.
“You have raised billions for charity, you’re not stupid! You’re Ace don’t you forget it!”
“Well,” River said. “Finally a planet where you won’t be able to show off!”
“Play nice,” Ace giggled at the Doctor’s hurt expression. “You can take that sweater off now by the way, you’ve convinced me.”
“Don’t want to now,” he sulked.
River opened the doors and they stepped out into some sort of big Kew Gardens like area. It was humid, huge plants and water falling somewhere. Alien plants, alien insects.
“I really missed this,” Ace said.
They wondered around. Sniffing aroma’s that, on Earth were tepid, here they came alive. Seeing pink frogs and blue spider-like things. How could she have given this up?
Suddenly, a man jumped out from behind a really freaky looking Palm tree. Rather non-descript. Wearing light brown over-alls, an ordinary pair of shoes and thinning, blonde hair. There was something unusual about this man. Something too smooth around the face. Eyes sharing no emotion whatsoever.
“Scanning …” he said in an androgynous voice.
“Who are you?”
“That is my question. I am known as the Care-Taker. Who are you?”
Ace and the Doctor exchanged looks. “A robot?”
“I am the Care-Taker. You are trespassing on university grounds. I shall now scan all three of you and then transcribe the data to the Ultimate Professor.”
“Ultimate …”
Suddenly a red glow filled the room. Lines juddering up and down as they were being ‘transcribed’.
“Data scanned. Ultimate Professor shall be informed.”
<2>
Up in a dark room sat the Ultimate Professor of Biblogia. “Oh yes,” he said. “Oh, Doctor, what have you done with yourself … and … oh … interesting.”
Raising a dark bejewelled wrist he punched in some co-ordinates.
<3>
“The Ultimate Professor is on his way here!”
“Look, Care-Taker,” River said. “We came here to learn. We are honest students.”
“The Ultimate Professor is here!”
“Where?” Ace demanded.
“Right behind you.”
They all turned round slowly. “Oh this is marvellous,” the Doctor said.
“That’s one word for it,” Ace replied.
