(This story takes place between Mawdryn Undead and into the first few minutes of Terminus, stories from the 1983 Season of the BBC Sci-Fi Drama Doctor Who.)
The Doctor flicked a few switches, and there was a familiar noise that signified the TARDIS being in free-flight. The noise was the only thing punctuating the silence in the control room, where Nyssa and Tegan stood round looking slightly bored. The Doctor looked up from the console, and, only just noticing the expressions on his companions' faces, he put on a smile.
"I thought I'd do a bit of routine maintenance. Check everything's working, you know. It should give Turlough time to settle in, and you two can find something to do in the meantime." The smile remained on his exuberant face, although it did falter slightly as Nyssa wandered over to the door that led into the rest of the Tardis. As she left, he reached into his pocket and strolled over to the hatrack, where he placed his beige cricketing hat with a careful poignancy.
"I'm not all that happy about Nyssa going off on her own in those corridors. Especially with Turlough around, and especially after what happened to her with Mawdryn" Tegan said. The Doctor looked round, lazily.
"Nyssa is perfectly fine on her own, Tegan." He thought for a second, and then looked more concerned. "What's your issue with Turlough?" Tegan shifted uneasily on her feet, and then walked over to close the door that Nyssa had left through.
"I don't trust him, Doctor. He's always skulking around those corridors, and when he isn't doing that he's flirting with me or with Nyssa. He thinks he's still in that school on Earth."
The Doctor looked conflicted for a moment.
"I've had my suspicions, Tegan. I'm not blind. I've the strange feeling that Turlough has been sent to kill me."
Tegan's mouth flew open.
"You mean that you let him in here, with us, when you think he's a murderer!"
"No, no, I don't think he's a murderer, I never said that. I think that he's been sent to kill me. That's completely different."
"Yeah, it sounds it."
"What I'm trying to say," The Doctor sighed, "Is that I have a plan. And I need Turlough not to know that I'm on to him. That includes you as well. My plan requires that you and he keep arguing to a minimum."
"Heh, fat chance," she laughed, "If I think that brat's up to something, then I'm going to tell him."
"As subtle and as tactful as usual, Tegan. I would expect nothing less."
"Well, now you've told me what you've told me I'm even more uneasy about Nyssa going off on her own. I think you should go after her, she trusts you."
The Doctor gave a knowing smile, and walked over to the door.
"Probably more than you do, Tegan," he said with a cheeky grin. "If Turlough returns, I want you to take him to Adric's old room, tell him it's his. And if you don't see any of us in five minutes, go looking yourself." He waited for her to nod in agreement and then passed through into the corridor. The blank white of the walls, disrupted by the familiar roundels, gave him a second to ponder things. Tegan knew so little of what had gone on before her return, she didn't understand how hard it was for him to pretend that everything was normal between he and Nyssa. It was a burden that weighed heavy on his mind, as he traced a familiar route through the corridors to Nyssa's room.
When he arrived several minutes later, he found the door was ajar. He lightened his step, and snuck up to the crack. Inside, he could see Nyssa and Turlough sat on the bed, locked in an embrace, her hands stroking the back of his hair. He said something The Doctor couldn't hear, and Nyssa leant in and kissed him on the lips.
The Doctor felt a dull ache in the pit of his stomach, of the type that he had felt so many times before. It was the feeling he had felt on Gallifrey, the feeling he had felt on the rooftop at Cranleigh Hall. That he was losing her, all over again. He took a deep breath, steeled himself and pushed open the door. Neither Nyssa nor Turlough noticed. Perturbed, The Doctor coughed pertinently, and the two were startled from their embrace.
"Doctor!" Turlough cried, almost leaping from the bed, "I was just… erm…"
"He was just leaving," Nyssa said, smiling as she picked her jacket up off the floor and hid it behind her.
"Of course," Turlough muttered nervously, shuffling past The Doctor and shutting the door behind him.
There was a sudden silence between them.
"That was quick," The Doctor said quietly. "He's barely been here five minutes."
"I know. But I happen to think he's rather charming."
"I saw. He took your jacket off."
"And I kissed him. It's what people do, Doctor, you remember. I'd think that it's none of your business any more."
"It isn't, of course." He looked shaken, and leant back against the door. "It's just that, if you're going to do that sort of thing, I'd rather you didn't do it in my Tardis."
Nyssa let out a scoff.
"And what would you have me do? Ask you to drop us off at a suitable planet so we can have some alone time?"
"If needs must, then yes. I just find it uncomfortable, you, doing it here."
"It never seemed to be a problem before Paris, did it?"
The Doctor winced slightly, as though she had pulled off one of his toenails. This was the first time she'd mentioned Paris since the week after Tegan's return. He'd hoped she wouldn't mention it, but deep down he knew that she would.
"We've been over this, Nyssa. Nothing has changed. If anything, it's even more relevant."
"I still think about it sometimes. The nerve of it. You took me to what you once called the most romantic city in the Galaxy, just to break my heart."
"I appreciate now that Paris wasn't the best choice, but I did what I did because I care about you."
"Cared about me? You ruined me, Doctor. It's easy for you, you'll live for a dozen of my lifetimes. But I had my heart broken by the man I loved, and I have nowhere to go but back to his home. I have to travel with you and pretend that nothing is wrong." Tears had begun to appear in her eyes, and her face was red. The Doctor leaned up from the door.
"It's not exactly been easy for me. Seeing you hurt like that. It's what I was deliberately trying to avoid. Paris was about making sure you knew the risks."
"Oh, yes, the risks!" she said, standing up from the bed. "Funny how all these terrible dangerous things happen to us and yet two months after Paris, and I'm still here."
"It's still too dangerous, Nyssa. A lot of things have happened to us over this past year, and all of them terrify me. When Tegan was possessed by the Mara, when Adric…" Nyssa slapped him across the face.
"Don't you dare bring Adric into this, Doctor."
The Doctor took a second, and then sprung back up, looking Nyssa deep in the eyes.
"Okay, then, let's talk about you. Let's talk about The Master possessing you by pretending to be your father, about him wiping out your planet when you weren't even supposed to be with me. Let's talk about you nearly getting turned into a robot, about you fainting from nowhere, about you nearly being thrown off a roof. A few hours ago you were nearly killed by Mawdryn. And every time that happens, I get more and more afraid that I'm going to lose you."
"Ever since Paris, I have been more than capable of standing on my own two feet. I fought for you on Gallifrey, I helped you escape on Manussa. I'm not Tremas' little girl any more, Doctor."
There was another moment of poignancy between them.
"Indeed you're not, Nyssa, I'm sorry."
"I know you are, Doctor. But I'm getting restless. It's becoming difficult for me to find somewhere else – I keep wanting to leave but I'm never brave enough to do it."
A look of concern washed over The Doctor's face.
"That isn't true, and you know it. You're a very brave person. You always have been."
She reached in and wrapped her arms around the Doctor, hugging him tightly. He responded with the same. For a few moments they held one another, before they separated and smiled at each other.
"I will miss you, you know. If you go. It's been nice having someone in the Tardis that I can really talk to."
"It's ok. You've got your hands full with Tegan and Turlough." There was a cry from the corridor. It was Tegan calling Turlough's name.
"I'd better be off, Tegan probably thinks that Turlough has bashed my head in." They both shared a short laugh as The Doctor opened the door. "Nyssa… you won't tell the others about this, will you?"
"Of course not, Doctor."
He smiled, and then left. As he shut the door, he decided to take the opposite route to the normal one and wander the corridors for a while. Along the way, he felt an inner peace on the issue that had evaded him for some time. Nyssa would be happy no matter what happened, and that's all that mattered in the long term. He paused at a junction near the console room. Something tasted wrong in the air. Moments later, Tegan screamed his name, and he ran towards the noise to find her staring into a destabilising corridor.
"What is it?" Tegan asked.
"We're in trouble," he said, panting. "I'll explain later."
"It's centralised around Nyssa's room. She was doing some sort of experiment. I saw Turlough tampering with some equipment."
As they reached the console room, there was only one thought on The Doctor's mind. Save Nyssa. He wasn't going to let her go. Not yet.