Here it finally is!
Please remember to read my other story "Entr'acte" which contains the events happening in this universe of the Day of the Doctor and if you are all new to this story...well, I'd say it would be a nice idea to go check out the first story before this one...but if you don't want to I don't hold myself responsible for your possible confusion.
Ok, as you can see in the Summary I will be bringing in other new characters into the story, enjoy guessing till then!
Oh! There's also a poll going on in my profile so feel free to take part of it.
OK, Now to the serious stuff, I'm about to embark on a rather difficult boat titled " difficult uni stuff", so I might or not take more time than I would like to to update. But I hope to still be able to update regardless everything, just though you'd need to know.
Fine, that'd be the end of my rant for now, go enjoy! :D
"He's late!", fumed a certain Amelia Pond, commonly known by her friends as only Amy, as she scrambled around busily in the kitchen of the Pond residence. It was the twenty-fourth of December –Christmas Day – and she had for the first time in months managed to gather all of the Doctor's companions, which she and Rory now considered as close friends, for a day's outing since the day she held lunch and dinner on the same day UNIT hijacked the TARDIS and flew her around the center of London with a helicopter.
All their new friends having rather busy schedules she hadn't been able since then to gather them all here at her house.
Although Jack had been the one to be there almost always to come by visit as he still dutifully came to check on the Master, or at least so he claimed because Amy was beginning to doubt that he still mistrusted the Time Lord and merely was looking for an excuse to stop by. She made a mental note to tell him next time that he was welcome in her house anytime he wished to come by without any excuses.
But even as he had been the one to visit most he hadn't been able to come by everytime she made an attempt at an reunion, just the last one she had held a little over a month ago he hadn't been able to attend as some sort of alien had fallen out of the rift and given him and his team quite some work as far as she understood.
And then there had been the Smith-Jones, working for UNIT and freelancing now and then didn't make it easy for them to stop by. But everytime they did they made sure to bring along their children as the Doctor had been enchanted by little Zack and Penelope and loved to play with them in the small free patch in their backyard that wasn't occupied by the Master and his attempts at various weird contraptions which she had little to no idea what they did.
Oh, the Master. Amy suppressed a sigh as she thought about the Time Lord that had been living in her backyard till the winter began. When it had truly began to get cold outside she and Rory had one day shared worried glances with each other and decided to corner the Doctor next time he came round to tell him he needed to convince, even brainwash if necessary, the Master into moving completely into his room in the house for the winter. Nope, Amy Pond wasn't about to deal with frozen Time Lords in her backyard and she made it clear to the Doctor.
Before that he had rather pointedly refused to go there unless he truly needed some sleep. And before that he had quite loudly refused to even go near the room, claiming that he would live through his days in the backyard till he finished growing his TARDIS and building everything he'll need in it. Of course the Doctor hadn't left it there and somehow eventually managed to make him acknowledge the fact that he had a room in the house, though Amy suspected it had greatly had to do then with the fact that he hadn't slept in more than two weeks at that time and had become rather clumsy because of it.
If she had thought then he was being unnecessarily stubborn she had been dearly mistaken. This time they were trying to drag him in for whole days and he didn't approve in the slightest and kept going outside with his TARDIS pieces littering almost all their backyard.
It had taken a great deal of coaxing from the Doctor's part and he still had refused. Amy had by then started to get worried about the Time Lord living in her backyard, even if he was almost always a pain in the neck she had seen how happily he and the Doctor both chatted away whenever they were alone, speaking about all kinds of stuff that Amy couldn't even begin to understand – and it wormed her heart to see him so happy.
So if she had to physically drag the Master inside the house by the time it began to snow to keep the idiot alive she would do so without a second thought. Fortunately enough for her – or for him, she still wasn't sure which – the first morning to find the world covered in snow when she woke up in the morning and glanced out of her kitchen's window she had expected to see the bloke sitting there covered in snow like a statue or something, but instead she found him seated in the living room glaring at the snow outside as if it had personally insulted him – according to him it probably had.
She would have loved to say that her problems stopped after the idiot had accepted he couldn't live outside in the snow, but then she'd been lying. Fortunately enough for her sanity and the Master's health the Doctor had made a point of it to come by more often to make sure they weren't too much at each other's throats.
Her thought returning to the Doctor now again made her cry exasperatedly again, "Where is he?!", and she almost dumped the steaming pot she held from frustration.
"Calm down Amy", Rory tried to sooth her as he stirred the contents of one of the pots on the stove.
"He's two hours late! How difficult can it be? He's got River with him this time doesn't he?", she said exasperatedly and turned to face her backdoor.
"If he doesn't walk through that door in the next five minutes I'm going to kill him", she declared.
"Amy", Rory tried, but she ignored him pointedly.
Just as she began to think on how many ways she could kill a Time Lord and Rory began to look rather anxious they both heard the familiar wheezing from the TARDIS materializing in their backyard.
"Finally!", she exclaimed and could hear Rory sigh a sigh of relief behind her.
She crossed her arms as he and River both entered through the back door grinning like idiots and looking as if they had just run a marathon, knowing the live with the Doctor, they probably had.
"You're late", she proclaimed.
The Doctor's face fell immediately as River winced.
"Can't be that much", he tried to evade.
"Two hours!", she yelled as she pointed accusingly at the clock on the wall.
"He drove", said River, leaving the Doctor alone in his predicament for which she received a halfhearted glare from the Doctor.
He turned back to face her as he wrung his hand nervously, 'Good, at least he feels sorry', thought Amy.
"I – I –eh", he began still quite nervous, "Sorry?", he finally tried with a sheepish expression and Amy couldn't bring herself to continue being angry at him.
She gave a defeated sigh and his smile came back as she let her arms rest her sides again, "Fine, but you better be on time next time!", she jabbed her forefinger on his chest playfully.
He grinned happily at her, "Cross my hearts!", he said as he did so on his chest and she couldn't suppress her smile after that.
"How was your trip, River?", she asked her daughter as she went back to busy herself with the lunch.
"Oh, apart from the Zygons, it was wonderful", she smiled.
"Zygons?"
"Yup", said the Doctor popping on the 'p', "Apparently some of them hadn't quite agreed with the peace accords that they last had come up with when some of them had gotten locked up with some of the UNIT guys", he explained.
"Well then go help put the table", she directed him to the diner, "The guests will be here in short", she smiled at his gleeful expression when she mentioned the guests.
"Who will be coming?", he asked brightly as River began collecting all the plates and cutlery.
"Jack said he'd be here whole day till tomorrow, the Smith-Jones promised to come along with the children and Sarah-Jane said she'd be here without Luke, something about a trip he took somewhere with his university pals and you already know about Clara", she listed them all.
"Brilliant!", he said happily and quickly ran to the diner with all the plates and cutlery.
"I'll be checking he doesn't break anything", said River and went after him.
"What about the Master?", she heard him call from the diner as she took a peek at the turkey in the oven.
"Oh, he's, you know, doing scienc-y stuff in his room with some or other – thingy", she explained lamely, honestly she had no idea what he was doing in his room.
She heard no answer from him so she resumed her work around the kitchen.
Little over an hour later the first guest – Clara – had arrived.
"I'll get it!", exclaimed the Doctor and ran to the door as Amy opened the oven to get the turkey out.
"I hope they all get here soon", commented Rory and went to greet Clara in the living room.
"River, go get the Master, tell him lunch is ready", she asked her daughter.
River raised both her eyebrows at her mother, "I don't think he'll come."
"I know, but we have to try", she tried to convince her. River knew that both she and her husband had been trying to make the Time Lord understand that he was welcome, that he was a friend of the family.
River gave a sigh, "Fine", she said, turned around and walked away.
"Hi Amy!", she heard a familiar American accent and turned to find the immortal grinning at her.
"Jack!", she went to embrace him, "Didn't hear you come in."
"The Doctor let me in", he said as they parted.
"Aunt Clara!", they heard a little girl yell in delight.
"That'll be little Penelope", she smiled and the Doctor came running through the kitchen.
"Forgot to put the gifts under the tree!", he said hurriedly as ran back into his TARDIS.
She rolled her eyes at the Doctor's antics and walked over to the living room to greet the others.
"Martha, Mickey!", she embraced them both.
"Thanks for inviting us", thanked Martha.
"How are you?", asked Mickey.
"No, thank you for coming", she smiled and turned to face Mickey, "Fine and Zack and Penelope?", she asked looking around and not seeing them.
"Oh, they went after Clara", explained Martha and at that moment River entered the room looking ready to kill somebody. She scanned the room, as soon as she saw Amy she gave her a look that made her understand that she was not going back to the Master.
Amy walked to River and then the doorbell rang. She sighed and gave her daughter an apologetic look as she walked out and answered the door.
"Hello Sarah-Jane!", she said happily as she opened it and found the female journalist there waiting.
"Hi Amy", Sarah-Jane hugged her.
"SARAH-JANE!", she heard the Doctor yell gleefully behind her and let go of the woman so that the Doctor could have a turn to embrace her.
"Oi", she said after a while, "Raggedy man, we need to talk", she motioned at the kitchen.
"Uhm – Sarah-Jane?", he said uncertainly and the journalist smiled back reassuringly at him.
"You go, I'll be greeting the others", she said.
Amy led the Doctor the kitchen and pointed in the direction of the Master's room, "Go speak with him", she said in a commanding voice.
The Doctor deflated visibly as she said those words and seemed ready to argue with her. She looked him steadily in the eyes and he said, "Fine", in a huff and walked away.
Well, with some luck she'd get the Master out of his shell and have him accept that he actually had friends that cared about him.
She hurried with the last part of the dinner as Rory came in and took the turkey away.
"Turkey's ready!", she heard her husband yell from the diner and carried the salad to the table smiling happily.
They were all seated by the time the Doctor came back alone, she shot him a look across the table and got a smile as an answer. She chose to ignore him after that and went on with her lunch.
They all chatted happily as they ate and after that they all moved back to the living room while the Doctor went to build a snowman with Penelope and Zack and she and Clara cleared the table and eventually prepared tea.
By the time dinner came both the children and the Doctor were bouncing on their feet from excitement and kept eyeing the Christmas tree eagerly. And when dinner finished Martha gave the 'ok' nod and they both ran rapidly and began tearing open their presents as the Doctor stared excitedly at River till she rolled her eyes and told him to go.
They were staring merrily at the man-child and the children enjoy themselves with their presents when the Master finally came from his room and showed his face. So she gave him some dinner which he sat and ate alone in the dining room as she and the others began interchanging gifts and later on when the Doctor and the children had gone outside to play again in the snow they celebrated with a glass of wine.
Amy was laughing at a joke Clara had told when Sarah-Jane asked, "Where has the Captain gone to?"
She looked around and saw the chair where the immortal had been seated was empty.
"He's with the Master in the kitchen", said Rory as he came back with a cup of tea for Sarah-Jane, "Here", he said as he handed her the cup.
"With the Master?", asked Mickey perplexed.
"Yea, apparently Jack brought some booze and is holding some sort of contest with him", he said once he was seated beside Amy again.
"Some sort of contest?", she asked and found herself raising her left eyebrow at him, this could only end in something interesting – or in something terrible bad.
"River it's snowing!", yelled the Doctor as he poked his into the room, his hair already covered with tiny little snowflakes.
"Now, isn't it, Sweetie", she said as she glanced out the window.
"Oh, come on River!", he ran in and now you could fully see his new Christmas-y sweater he had gotten from Jack, grabbed River's hand and dragged her out with him to see the falling snow.
"Well, at least it isn't ash this time", said Mickey as stared after them.
"They never told us", said Sarah-Jane absentmindedly as she watched the Doctor and River stand in the snow outside.
"Never told you what?", asked Amy with a frown.
"Never told us when they married", she explained, "Nor how they met for that matter."
"Yea, why didn't they invite us!", said Jack from the archway, startling Amy.
"Finished with your contest?", she asked the Captain.
He shook his head, "No, you don't happen to have something stronger than this wine do you?", he asked as he held up a bottle wine.
"Eh – no, we don't", answered Rory and Jack gave a slight wince.
"I'll go ask the Doctor then", he turned to walk away.
"You won't get any from the Doctor", she said, stopping him.
He turned back to them, "Why?", he asked.
"He hates it, that's why", she explained and Mickey frowned at her.
"But he used to drink", he said.
She shook her head, "Well, not anymore."
"He spits it out normally", added Rory causing the Captain make a face.
"Okay, not asking him, then", he said dejectedly.
"Oh, and about the wedding, we were there as witnesses", she said proudly.
"Really?", said Clara looking eager to hear the whole story, as did the others.
"Yep", she nodded with a grin.
"And why weren't we invited?", asked Jack, faking a hurt face, but looking curious as well.
"Considering time had got kind of stuck and that all history was happening at once, it would have been a bit difficult", Rory tried to explain their circumstances of that time.
Jack had a raised eyebrow, looking confused and the others weren't looking any better.
"Winston Churchill was the Emperor of the Roman Empire in England", she added, honestly she had no clear how idea she could explain something that not even she understood completely, "They married on top of an American Pyramid."
"Trust the Doctor to marry at the most impossible of the places", he shook his head and went outside, presumably to find more booze.
"So you were there as well when they met?", asked Martha, being the first to recover from their unusual story.
"When River met him, yes", she nodded.
"Oh, yes, they didn't meet in order", Sarah-Jane said wistfully.
"I keep wondering how it is that they ended up together", said Martha, "River with her gun and all", she added to explain.
"She attracts just as much trouble as he does", she said thoughtfully, "Calls him often to run away in the TARDIS", she said with a smile as she remembered all the times he had to rescue her with the TARDIS.
"Really?", said Martha with a laugh.
"Yea, that's how I met her, she jumped out of a spaceship into the space, he opened the TARDIS' doors and caught her", she told them.
"I wish I had seen that", snickered Mickey.
"You should have seen them later that day, we were on this spaceship, being invaded by Weeping Angels and there was a crack in the fabric of the universe in the next room and there they were, flirting with each other as they saved the day."
They all laughed, "Now I really wished I was there", said Mickey as he smiled merrily.
They kept telling stories of their travels with the Doctor till Mickey went for the kids outside who claimed to not be sleepy even though it was obvious they had trouble keeping their eyes open. After that they decided to call it a night and went home, along with Sarah-Jane that was going to fetch Luke from the airport the next day and Clara who was going to visit her father the next day.
River and the Doctor came by and said their goodbyes, but not before the Doctor had made sure along with Martha that the sleepy children had packed all their presents and took a swallow of one of the glasses of wine, only to spit it out a second later.
When everybody had left, except for Jack who was still in the kitchen after getting extra booze from somewhere and was still holding his contest with the Master, they both went to their room for the night. As Amy walked through the house to check that everything was alright she couldn't help but stop and stare at the cylindrical TARDIS of the Master that was parked neatly in the far corner of her backyard.
As she had understood he had been working overtime to get it ready to go visit those friends of his from San Francisco for New Year day. Chang Lee had once offered to buy him a ticket to go visit them, but he had unsurprisingly denied to be helped in any way. Grace had tried to convince him not to be too stubborn when she had visited, but it hadn't helped, if any it had only made it more difficult for even the Doctor to help after that.
She shook her head at the alien's unreasonable stubbornness and walked upstairs.
As she climbed into her bed with Rory he said, "You know, they made me wonder."
"Wonder what?", she asked as she puffed her pillow.
"Wonder how did they meet", he began, "The Doctor and River, they've never mentioned it."
She shrugged and slid into her bed, "We should ask them", she suggested.
He nodded as he did the same, "We should", he was silent for a moment, but then asked, "Do you think they'll be okay downstairs, the Master and Jack", he clarified.
"Yea, nothing to worry about", she said reassuringly, "Good Night Rory", she kissed him, "And Merry Christmas."
"Night Amy and Merry Christmas", he returned her kiss.
So the Cylindrical TARDIS of the Master in the backyard is based on that scene in the Name of the Doctor where they show how the TARDIS looked originally at Gallifrey. I figured that that is how they all look before they first voyage, I'm still figuring out if the Master's TARDIS will be changing of form or if I'm gonna leave it just as it is.
Also, as you can see I threw in some hints of stuff that will get addressed later on in the story.
btw, I love reviews :D