This is set during the End of Time, pt. 2 when the Master has just taken over the world and has the Doctor and Wilf at his mercy. Then...Donna calls. I'm going to imagine that in my mind, he actually talked back. This is the only event I believe that I've altered. The Master is going to be a tad OC just because I've made him slightly too reflective...but I suppose that's why I like Donna...she unexpectedly makes you do that. Enjoy.
"Who the hell is Donna?" the Master cried, throwing a venemous glance at the Doctor.
The Doctor, in his current compromising position of restraint, wasn't able to utter a word in order to save his friend.
"She's no one," Wilf shouted, struggling against his ropes, "you leave her alone you monster!"
Making a face at Wilf, the Master brought the cell phone to his ear in a semi curious fashion.
"Gramps! Help me gramps! Mum and Shaun...they've turned into...I dunno. And I'm remembering things. All sorts of odd things. Aliens. Planets. My head...oh God, my bloody head."
The Master smirked, gesturing for another version of him to trace the call.
"No one is going to save you, dear Donna. You are going to die," the Master triumphantly spat, letting out a huge HA into the phone. Sometimes he really wasn't able to prevent himself from being more self centered than he actually was.
Donna momentarily felt the tears in her eyes cease their flow. Her eyebrows scrunched together at the unfamiliar voice.
"Who the hell are you?" she demanded, much more commanding than inquisitive.
Feeling his grin sprout even further, the Master made eye contact with the Doctor and threw him a wink.
"I am your lord and Master and you are my slave. All you disgusting humans are nothing more than the grime I stomp on."
There was a pause from the other end which made the Master want to pout. He was expecting more conversation just so he could torture the Doctor with what he was saying.
"Blimey, what's crawled up your arse?"
Her reply nearly made him drop the phone.
"Donna!" Wilf hollered once.
One of the guards quickly threw tape back over his mouth as the Master placed the cell back to his ear.
"Was that my gramps? Did you kidnap him? I love him to bits but I can assure you since he's in the prime of his years, there's not much he'd get accomplished," Donna mentioned, grinning at the image of her gramps lifting a car.
"I could always kill him for my enjoyment," the Master ended up responding, unsure how to handle this new nonchalance in her voice.
"Or you could squeeze your cheeks real hard and blow out the spider caught in your arse."
Scowling, the Master lifted the cell away from himself momentarily. He wanted her to fear him, not try to pick a fight. He was supposed to be the one in charge, damn it!
Still, another part couldn't deny that were he not in such a position of power, her comment may have earned a reluctant upturn of the lips.
Meeting the Doctor's eyes, now glued to him, the Master smiled unpleasantly.
"We've located her position. Should we move in now?"
"No," the Master declared arrogantly, "I want to play with her first."
The Doctor screwed his eyes shut pleadingly while Wilf attempted to make as much noise as possible from behind his sealed lips.
"Oh Donna, you are so naive. I am the one who has all of the power here, not you. You are only still alive because I'm allowing it."
Donna rolled her eyes as she stepped backward.
"A man who keeps telling others that he has power, rarely ever has it himself."
Feeling a ruthless rage shoot through him, the Master grinded his teeth.
"Don't you ever compare me to a disgusting race such as man. Real power is something far out of your immature comprehension. It's my duty to show my strength and conquer because that's what power is."
More rage filled him as he heard a snort from the other end.
"I don't have to take this from some imbecilic, earth girl," the Master ground out.
"Oi, sorry. You just don't sound like the type of ma-being who'd be stupid enough to convince himself he has power. I mean think about it. If you kidnapped my gramps then that means he was breaching your sense of power. For a moment, you thought that he was more powerful than you. Same thing with the human race, as you say. If you find the need to control us then that means our strength intimidates you. By the way, did the spider in your arse happen to mate? Cause I think you've got a whole bloody colony in there."
Parting his lips, the Master for once, refused to meet his hostages' eyes. There was something in her words that confused him deeply. He'd thought he had power by being able to control the entire human race, but even then he was still after something. That something being the Doctor's humiliation and TARDIS. And when he had those, would he still want something more?
"So I've figured out," Donna began after a period of silence, "that you're somehow controlling everyone. Or all the blokes running around with bleach blonde in their hair are actually you? Don't tell me how you did it, whole thing being completely mad and all, but I've got to say that for a kidnapper, you're decent looking."
"Sir, would you like us to move in?" a commander questioned again.
The Master scowled once before shaking his head in aggravation. When this woman was dead, all he'd have to talk to was the Doctor whose constant begging for him not to do evil things and behave like a villain was really starting to fry his nerves. For a few seconds at least, would it hurt to talk to someone slightly less annoying than the Doctor? And perhaps a bit more perceptive.
Before replying into the cell, the Master let out a mad cackle. It was only to add in the effect that he was the one intimidating her and not the other way around. The Doctor had to believe that he was being at least remotely evil.
Then, he spun around and lowered his voice.
"I used to be a brunette."
"You're kidding. I'd like to have seen you then."
The Master ran a hand fondly through his hair. Oh how he wished his reign as ruler of all hadn't ended.
"I would have killed you in a heartbeat," he assured with a malignant grin.
"So what's changed?"
This made the Time Lord pause in his mirth, the dominance in the air seemingly lessening.
"What are you talking about? Nothing's changed! I still wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone."
"My gramps is alive."
Throwing a quick glance at the old man, the Master sighed dramatically.
"Small exception. If I don't get the answers I need, the old man dies."
"You could always use your powers instead of adding my gramps into the fiasco," Donna suggested.
"My power is the ability to have him at my mercy."
"Wow...only power I've got is drinking to the point of speaking a foreign language."
He didn't know how it happened but his lips for just a brief second, flew upward.
"Typical for a human. Drinking yourselves to the point of inebriation, then repopulating the world with more idiotic generations than the last."
He was surprised once again to hear a laugh infect his ear drums.
"Just because you don't get much, sunshine, doesn't mean that you've got to cut down the humans that do."
"Don't make me laugh," he sneered, definitely NOT taking offense to her comment. "I've had plenty of experience to know that humans are far behind in the sexual evolution when compared to the rest of the universe."
"You are full of it, you know that? First you kidnap my gramps, then you threaten me, then you tell me that you're a power-hungry blonde from who knows where, and now you're trying to run by me that you're a sex god? Oh please. You might me a looker, but you smell asexual from a mile away."
Setting his lips into a firm line, the Master felt his feet lead him further away from the rest of the occupants of the room.
Inhaling tightly, he briefly took a moment to wonder, out of all the shameful thoughts, what Donna looked like. Unsurprisingly, this musing was met with bitter refusal. He would not stoop himself so low as to idly imagine what the insufferable woman on the other end of the line looked like!
And yet, he couldn't just let her snarkiness go unmentioned. More importantly, he had a reputation to defend.
Pulling the cell closer to his mouth, the Master darkly whispered, "I could do things to you, Donna, that would have you in bed for months."
Donna's shortness of breath was immediate. Which made the Master's smug smile only that much greater. Though, for the moment, he'd ignore just how entirely pleasant it felt to turn the tables on the woman.
"Well, you're good at dirty talk, I'll give you that," Donna casually admitted, all confidence and sass once more. "Still, I'd have to feel it to believe it."
The Master couldn't contain his jaw from dropping a good few inches, his mind indirectly portraying an image of just exactly what her implications were.
"I'd break you in half and mold you into the bed."
"Mate, you couldn't handle me," Donna promised. "Many a man have tried...well, not that many, but few have succeeded."
"Yes, and the problem was that they were all men."
"You're saying that aliens are better at sex?"
"Not better...the best."
"Huh. Didn't think you lot even had those parts."
"What'd do you think we used? Tentacles? Claws?" the Master indignantly snapped.
"I don't bloody know! Whole process could be an oral affair. Who knows?"
"What a displeasing way to fulfill your desires when there are far greater body parts to utilize. Far more pleasing uses for the mouth."
"Alright then. Since you're an expert on sex, you tell me how things are suppose to go in the bedroom. Imagine you walk into a hotel room and a cute, tart, little blonde number is laying invitingly on the bed. How would things get done?"
The Master was at a loss of words. How the hell did he get from threatening to kill her to discussing the way he'd initiate sexual activity with a female?
"I don't have to answer that," he protested, realizing he'd have to rise above her impudent level lest he began losing control of the situation. Though, admittedly, perhaps that control had been slipping for quite some time now.
"I knew it! I bloody knew it! There's not a sexual bone in your body."
Shaking his head in frustration, the Master growled out, "Don't tempt me to kill you."
"Aren't I dead already? Technically, you were planning to kill me at the very beginning of our conversation."
Gripping the cell tighter, the Master felt what could be described as a very frustrated blush claw across his cheeks.
"Why are you so curious about how I'd satisfy a woman? Are you seething in jealousy? Do you secretly long to be with me?"
He heard a derisive snort followed by a fake vomiting sound.
"Hardly. Just that most of the time someone brags about being good in the sack...well, that's all it is. Bragging."
"There are not many things I need to brag about."
"And yet, you haven't answered my question."
"As I said before, I don't need to."
"Really? Not even going to at least let me imagine what kind of terror and repulsion that woman will feel at finding your arse filled with spiders and your source of "power", an inch thick?"
Donna knew she had gotten to him when a stagnant silence fell between them.
She was trying to productively do two things at once. Keep him talking, thus not only keeping herself alive, but more importantly, her gramps. And purposely bait him in a way that would buy her some time to think a way out of her situation.
Though, despite the strangeness of the conversation, there was a part of her oddly excited about his retort to her previous insult. It may have been a death wish to love riling him up, but at times, he really was too easy.
Just as well, however arrogant and supreme he wished to be perceived; no one could resist trying to defend their honor in the bedroom. That was something Donna learned plenty of times.
"Oh my God," Donna gasped, the corner of her lips tugging up, "I was spot on, wasn't I?"
On the other end, the Master was glaring angrily at the wall before him. There was no denying now that she'd successfully gotten to him (something that wasn't an easy task to accomplish). The only question remaining was how had he even let this opportunity come about? He was the one usually in control.
Well, was.
"I'd tear her clothes off," he blurted.
Pausing mid-pace, Donna ventured a peek at her cell in surprise before pulling it back to her ear.
"Come again?"
"I don't typically prefer blondes since I've had a rather...deadly experience with one. But if I saw her on the bed, very obviously in a state of desire, I'd tear off her clothes."
"Oh," Donna breathlessly expelled, refusing to gulp.
Just because he caught her off guard didn't mean she was going to relinquish her power so easily. The madman thrived off of it!
"Next, I think I'd crawl on top of her and pin down her wandering hands to let her know who was in charge."
"Typical."
"Of course it is. It's common knowledge that women don't handle power effectively in the bedroom. Only natural that her place would be beneath me."
"You're kidding me!" she exclaimed in outrage. "Now that I think about it, it's not only your sex life that stinks, but the women you choose to share it with. I feel sorry for you, mate."
"Why? Please tell me, oh all knowing human," he mocked tauntingly, "why you think a male specimen has no right to control everything that goes on in the bedroom."
"Because, you thick idiot, sex isn't about control! It's about releasing and letting go of everything that's built up inside you. It's losing yourself to passion and madness, most of the time not being able to tell the difference between the two. You don't experience that with a partner incapable of doing anything other than laying there. You experience that with someone who's just as equally engaged in the act as you are. Blimey, your record must be pretty dusty if you haven't learned that in all the years you've been going about."
The Master slammed a fist into the wall, paying no mind to the resulting dull throb as chunks of plaster hit the floor. He absolutely loathed how insightful her words sounded. Especially about an act he'd thought he knew inside and out.
"I've got no time for this," he barked. "Enjoy your breaths. They'll be the last you'll take!"
Donna narrowed her eyes, not from fear, but from anger.
"And I hope you enjoy your power, you childish ass. If my gramps has gotten to you, then you lost your power long ago."
Seething, the Master clenched his bruised fist, ready to send it forward again.
"You know no-."
The line went dead.
Staring at it in confusion, the Master initially thought the battery had run out.
However, upon further inspection, he realized what had actually happened. And this realization had him struggling valiantly not to explode.
"She hung up on me."
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Donna strolled cautiously down the street, aware of all the dark brown eyes following her. But that was all they did. Watch her. All blonde, all tall, and all aware of the fury resonating from their original self.
"Bloody creepy," she muttered as her eyes honed in on one blonde clone outfitted in a pink, polka dot bikini top and matching pink bottoms.
Upon noticing her observation, the clone sent her a flirtatious wink.
"Disturbing and bloody creepy," she corrected herself.
A sudden vibration in her pocket made her stop in place.
Should I answer it? He's not setting loose his horde on me yet.
For the time being, she chose to ignore it. There was still anger left over from his earlier threat to kill her. Let it be known that Donna was not a woman who liked being told what to do, much less when and how she would die. Believe in destiny if you will, but she set her own path. Not some alien dunce.
"You better answer the phone," one of the blondes offered (businessman, she gathered).
"Why's that?" she wondered, attempting to sound defiant.
"He'll kill your grandfather if you don't."
Hesitating, Donna reached into her pocket. Her fingers traced the outline of the cell, unsure whether to grab it or not.
"No," she ended up deciding, meeting the man's curious gaze. "If he wants to talk to me so badly, he'll come find me himself. And not have one of you lot do his talking for him. Unless he's scared."
The blonde said nothing further, so Donna continued her way down the street.
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"That granddaughter of yours is gutsy, isn't she?" the Master maliciously spat, enjoying the crease of concern littering Wilf's features.
A muffled silence passed by.
"What's that?" the Master goaded, holding a hand to his ear. "Can't hear you. Must mean you have nothing to say. Which gives me the green light to kill her."
"Hmphmph," Wilf cried behind the tape, shaking his head in panic.
Satisfied with the reaction, the Master involuntarily allowed a strange musing to pass through his mind.
Do I really want to know the answer to this?
Rolling his eyes, the Master approached Wilf and ripped the tape off his lips.
Enjoying the pained yell, he studied the old man guardedly. He was very well aware that the Doctor was still behind him and it was for that reason he was reluctant to ask the question. The old man wouldn't understand the significance of it, but the Doctor very well might.
So, the Master leaned over Wilf's form, a hand resting on each side of the chair he was tied too. Quietly, he commanded, "If you want to keep your precious Donna alive, answer my following questions. Is that understood?"
Wilf nodded his head aggressively, unable to look away from the penetrating glare digging into his.
"This Donna," the Master began offhandedly, "what does she look like?"
"You don't know? There's a whole mass of you. Don't you all share the same thoughts?"
The Master slapped him swiftly across the face, not too sharply, but not softly either.
"I don't believe I asked for your personal opinion. You must really detest your granddaughter if you wish such a terrible fate for her."
"No," Wilf begged, "please, wait. She's...tall!"
"Tall? What a picture that paints in my mind," the Master sarcastically vented, resisting the urge to slap the man again.
"Beautiful," Wilf continued, "she's such a beautiful woman. Never sees it herself and it breaks my heart. Blue sapphire eyes just like her dad. Long, red hair. Sweetest smile that could light a gloomy room."
As Wilf described Donna, the Master found himself becoming more and more pleased with what he was hearing. Strong, independent, and resolute. Gorgeous, apparently. Brash exterior, compassionate interior. Determined, focused, and once held a mind of unwavering considerateness and acceptance. Sounded eerily like someone he could have liked long ago.
This thought in particular troubled him and the deeper he pondered on it, the more he saw why exactly. It wasn't someone he could have liked long ago; it was someone he could like right now, especially when he considered how firmly she still held his interest.
The realization alone left such an acidic taste in his mouth that he had to stop the old man from talking just to keep what he assumed were less than villainous thoughts, from entering his mind.
"Please, she's a good kid. She's got nothing to do with this. Leave her alone."
The Master gestured for another piece of tape to silence the man.
He then spun around and made the mistake of meeting the Doctor's eyes.
They weren't reflecting fear or panic. On the contrary, they were inquisitive, slightly bordering on knowing.
And the Master did not like that one bit.
Dialing furiously, he waited impatiently for the cell to be picked up. If she ignored him this time, he was going to kill her.
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Groaning, Donna glanced down at the cell phone.
Alright, let's get this over with.
"Donna Noble speaking," she answered innocently.
"You're in a good mood for someone who's going to be killed shortly."
"Yeah, suppose I am. Might have to do with something I've sort of realized while talking to you."
"Oh? And what's that? Usually I'm not one for last words but your carelessness has me feeling pity for you."
"Right, here it goes then," Donna started, taking in a deep breath. "You walk into the bedroom expecting to dominate the cheap blonde you so obviously despise when all of a sudden, you feel a new body slam into your front. She's got red hair, great figure after years of dieting, and she's only dressed in black lingerie. Preferably from Frederick's in Soho, but she's not picky. You, being the power hungry alien that you are, attempt to pry her off and throw her onto the suddenly empty bed despite your obvious arousal at her brazen and direct approach."
She paused temporarily, gulping in another bout of fresh air.
"She, whose name I won't mention in hopes of protecting her identity, is having none of it. Her lips devour yours without restriction, passionate and inventive. For just a second, you think you can taste what freedom is. Ironic, considering you wanted to dominate her only seconds prior. Without warning, she breaks off the kiss and tugs you with her onto the bed. The following minutes are spent touching, licking, gripping, tasting, and a whole bunch of other naughty activities that no matter how great at sex you claim to be, I don't think you've ever done. Finally, and this is the absolutely mental part, she ends the seduction on top. And she's good...really, really good. The end."
The cell slipped out of the Master's hand and crashed to the floor with a cluck.
All of a sudden, his skin felt entirely too hot. Worse yet, the lower part of his body was awakening in response to the visual stimulation put forth in his head as he replayed her words.
He wasn't expecting that...out of all the things she could have said...that was...
Inhaling raggedly, he made an attempt at calming down his body. He never had to calm his physiological reactions down before. Ever! He was the one that did the unhinging, not the other way around.
When putting it into perspective, he realized it was worse knowing just exactly who she was referring to in her little story.
After a few harsh seconds of numbing his aroused state, the Master picked up the cell phone with as much dignity as he could.
"Those are, without a doubt, the strangest last words I've ever heard," he commented evenly.
Donna laughed, unable to force back her humor.
"You liked it."
"Don't be stupid."
"No, you don't be stupid. You liked it. Hell, you loved it."
"It was pollution to my ears."
"And your thoughts," she added cheekily.
"You know nothing about my needs," he argued quietly.
"Actually, I think I just redefined your needs."
"You should redefine your hair color. Red is incredibly unattractive."
It was lame, but he felt the absurd need to control this impetuous woman, strike him again.
"So is the color of denial."
"Oh marvelous, Donna! That pathetic retort must have taken you weeks to come up with. Bravo."
"You should have stopped what you were saying after the first three words. Don't get called marvelous all that often."
Recalling what he'd said, the Master found himself fighting to keep the blood from rushing through his veins at an unhealthy speed. This time, he had no idea which emotion was fueling his reaction.
"I'm impressed with one thing, I'll admit."
"What's that?" Donna inquired.
"You're a brave idiot, even in the face of death."
"Coming from the alien who had to kidnap my gramps? C'mon, he's in his late seventies. What's he going to do, club you with his walker?"
The laugh sprouted from the Master's lips before he had a chance to contain it.
"He's essential in the plan I have for this world."
"You didn't mean that in a dirty way, did you?"
Scrunching his eyes shut, the Master argued, "Gods no. That's repulsive."
"Good. Since I am probably having the last conversation of...my life...could you say one final thing to him?"
Immediately, the Master wanted to deny the request. Strangely enough, it stemmed from jealousy. She'd begun talking to him and despite the old man being biologically related to her, thus having the primary right to listen to her last words, the only person he wanted her to continue talking to was him.
"No," he announced with a grin.
"Right. Well, guess I don't blame you for your foul mood," she accepted. "What with the spiders in your arse expanding to the digestive system, there's not much that can be done for your personality."
"You are delightfully hilarious," he deadpanned.
"Glad you agree."
"Only thing I'll be glad of is to be rid of you."
"Fine. But for the record...if you weren't such an evil dick and you welcomed my gramps with open arms, not open chloroform, I'd probably have dated you."
For perhaps the fifth time that day, the Master had to stop what he was originally going to say. Her comments never ceased to surprise, yet annoy him at the same time. They made him feel unbalanced. Plus, he never conversed with humans for such a long period of time, much less kept them alive. They were never interesting or self dependent. They were idiotic and greedy and depraved. There was more darkness in them then he believed there to be in himself.
And yet, he grudgingly accepted that despite all reasoning and what he knew, Donna was different.
Against his own will (or so he told himself) the Master pursued, "Probably?"
"Well...yeah. I'm not one for blondes either, especially ones with spiders living in their arse. But you've got a decently attractive voice and you're remotely intellectual. Don't think I've ever carried on a conversation with a bloke this long. Plus, supposedly you've got a lot of moves to show me...something I seriously doubt. There's not much I don't know already."
Closing his eyes, the Master securely held back the steady stream of suggestive images threatening to pour into his mind.
"And in a really mental way, I actually find your egotistical nature, amusing. It'd be a comfort knowing that if I'm working all night in an office, you wouldn't be lonely, having yourself to shag and all."
"Does this have a point?" he ground out, frustrated at the lack of malicious thoughts in his head.
"Oi, don't rush me! These are the last moments of my life. I want to remember them fondly."
"This is the longest, last moment I've ever witnessed."
"I've got a lot to say. It wasn't until now, I think, that I've realized that. Makes me really bloody proud to have lived my life. Wish I could have done more things, you know? More traveling, not settling for a bloke like Shaun, as nice as he is. Ever feel that? Like you've missed out on so much just because your eyes were focused on one thing your whole life? One thing that you realized in the end wasn't even that important."
The Master's breathing slowed and for once, he actually let himself agree with her. It was the classic case of he and the Doctor. Having done exactly that for centuries, across the cosmos. And even when he finally had the Doctor in his possession, ready to humiliate him, the emptiness refused to leave.
"See you later, then," Donna offered, searching the area around her.
"Later?"
"I dunno...they say it in all the movies when they know they're going to die. Makes 'em feel better."
"You're going to say goodbye to the man who's about to kill you?"
"I'm saying 'see you later'," she corrected. "I could survive somehow. Better hope I don't, though."
"Why's that?"
"Isn't it obvious? You kidnapped my bloody grandfather! If I find you, the real you, I'm going to kick you so hard in the arse that I'd essentially perform an eradication of the habitat of arachnids in your body."
"Sounds painful."
Donna failed to respond, her brain suddenly feeling as if it were on fire. As soon as the word arachnid had left her lips, a vivid memory of herself and a large arachnid-like creature filled her mind. The creature was big, threatening, and a polished red.
"Whoa," she mumbled, dazedly shaking her head.
This action prevented nothing. By the second, more memories poured into the gradually growing crack in her mind. Now, the pain was starting to get intolerable.
"What? Did you just realize how annoying you really are?" the Master baited.
Not able to reply with a biting remark, Donna could only clutch her head as a strangled moan slipped through her teeth. Her cell lay discarded on the concrete.
On the other end, the Master quickly comprehended what was happening. The old man had spoken of a meta-crisis regarding the redhead and it didn't take him long to determine what had to happen so she could stay alive. The human brain was normally a pliant organ, but it undeniably had its strengths in repressing dangerous memories. Should those memories began to tumble out, in Donna's case, her brain would burn up and she'd die within minutes.
There was nothing he could do about this and for once, the Master actually found himself disappointed.
"Dunno what's wrong with my bloody head," she all but whispered breathlessly, the pain becoming crippling.
The Master frowned. He didn't know what to say.
The line went dead seconds later, but he gave the command to find her anyway. She had essentially given him the perfect opportunity to strike the Doctor right in his hearts.
Unfortunately, there was still a nagging feeling wrestling inside him. Like he'd found something a bit more important than he'd outwardly perceived and the actions he was striving to carry out weren't worth the the temporary pleasure he'd experience.
Hardly matters. If I don't kill her, her mind will burn up in the end. There's nothing that can be done.
And so he watched the screen with a mask of glee. From a camera pointing down the street, he could see Donna grabbing at her skull as tears built up in her eyes. The pain, he imagined, was fierce. Like having a flaming wire shoved into the brain.
Versions of him approached her and when they were no more than twenty feet away, the Master, somewhat bitterly, finally welcomed what was going to happen. He may very well come to miss her company.
But then, something remarkable happened.
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"Did you really think I'd leave my best friend defenseless?" the Doctor remarked strictly, lips relishing in the freedom of not being silenced.
The Master studied him carefully. Vengeance marred his expression, but inside, he was experiencing something quite opposite.
She survived.
And the frown he displayed was actually the biggest grin he'd ever produced in his life.
Hope you liked it. And my sad attempt at humor. Leave me a review with your thoughts and let me know if I should keep on spilling out stories of these two. Thanks.