The Doctor swore as the view screen flickered, and turned on. "Romana, there is nothing that you can say to stop me," said the Doctor as she pulled a level on the TARDIS control panel.
"Final offer: return and resign from your professorship and any irregularities in your recent behavior will be attributed to your recent losses. Grief does strange things to even the best of us," said Romana's voice from the view screen. The Doctor paused for a second, her hands faltering on the controls.
"You misunderstand me. This is the only course of action when all variables have been taken into account. The final move, so to speak" the Doctor said as she circled the control panel.
"Koschei knew the risks. You can't bring him back this way," said Romana. The Doctor snarled and turned the view screen to face her.
"Don't you ever- It is not about that," the Doctor yelled into the view screen. She closed her eyes for a second to calm down, "If you have an image of a potential future you do not leave it where one of the participants can see it. Or was that your plan all along?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about," she said. The Doctor shoved the view screen away in disgust.
"After all that we went through this is what I get? It might as well be burned into my memory. A single possibility." said the Doctor. The image in question was a single photograph, origins confirmed, that the Doctor found while digging through the files related to Koschei's last mission. It showed the Doctor, her face to the camera, with a strange blond woman who had her arm around the Doctor's shoulders. It was dated to about forty years local time after Koschei's mission.
"I am sorry, Doctor. You leave me no choice," said Romana. The TARDIS shuddered and lurched as the recall was activated.
"You know why I like this old museum piece? I can do this," the Doctor said as she pulled a lever on the TARDIS control panel, "Don't fail me now, Old Girl."
The console exploded in a flash of electrical energy as its circuits overloaded. The force of the blast threw the Doctor into a wall. She screamed as her head slammed into the floor. She could barely pull herself up as the TARDIS finished materializing.
The Doctor stumbled out of the control room and into the rain soaked night outside. She collapsed into the mud, barely able to stay conscious. The Doctor turned her head and watched her TARDIS dematerialize.
The Doctor woke, jolted out of her sleep. She sat still as she caught her breath and regained her sense of her surroundings, expecting to be in the muddy field from her dream. The Doctor was in a bed, warmed by the human woman still asleep next to her. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart stirred in her sleep from the Doctor's sudden movement, then relaxed.
The Doctor slid out of the bed, careful not to disturb Kate. Humans, in her experience, tend to be most unpleasant when their sleep is interrupted. As she stood, her head throbbed painfully, a reminder of her old injury that had not healed properly.
The Doctor crossed the room to Kate's office. Kate had had the storage room attached to her office remodeled when she decided it was too inconvenient to commute to her flat in the city during the week. The Doctor smiled at that thought as she opened the office door.
The Doctor sat in the chair behind Kate's desk. She slid open the bottom right drawer where Kate kept her good whiskey (Kate was not in the habit of sharing it with people who annoyed her and took great pleasure in giving them barely drinkable swill). The Doctor grabbed a clean glass and poured herself a healthy measure of the liquid. The Doctor took a sip of the whiskey, and closed her eyes as it tingled pleasantly in her mouth.
"In my booze again, Doctor," said Kate. She was standing just inside of her office. The Doctor turned her chair to face her.
"I was about to put the finishing touches on those power conversion figures that you wanted. You will have them before your morning coffee," the Doctor said. Kate joined the Doctor. With one hand she stroked the Doctor's neck, and with the other took the glass of whiskey. Kate drained the rest of the liquid and put the glass on her desk.
"Make sure there are no mistakes. It would be embarrassing for both of us," Kate said.
"In the four years you have known me have I ever made a mistake?" the Doctor said, laughing softly.
Four years ago:
The Doctor struggled weakly against the restraints, her mind a haze. She could feel the damage to her brain from the crash, and from where the humans botched her surgery. The last thing that she could remember before they put her under was trying to explain that she was both not human and that they would cause more harm than they could repair.
She surveyed the room, hoping that she would find something useful now that her mind was as clear as it could be, given the situation. She was in a small windowless room with concrete walls, one door in or out with air vents that could barely fit a mouse. The room was lit by a single fluorescent light recessed in the ceiling its useful components probably protected by shatter proof glass. The Doctor lay face up on a a narrow bed with her wrists and ankles secured to the frame. Most worrying, however, was the IV drip; the Doctor could feel the sedative in her bloodstream and was not sure if she should be impressed that the humans managed to find something that worked on their first try.
The door opened suddenly to reveal a blond woman in a gray trench coat. She gestured for the two uniformed men following her to stay outside of the room. She turned to face the Doctor, who had to carefully conceal her flash of recognition and surprise. It was the woman from the photograph that triggered this farrago.
The woman crossed the room, her heels clacking on the tile floor. The Doctor watched as the woman studied her, analyzed her. The woman reached out with a bare hand and ran her finger along the incision line on the Doctor's temple. The Doctor could not keep the shock and near desperation off of her face when the physical contact did not trigger even a faint sense of mental contact. The Doctor's telepathy was gone, replaced with nothing but a void when she struggled to reach out with her mind.
"Extraordinary," the woman said, barely above a whisper. She ran her finger down the Doctor's hairline, to her exposed neck. The Doctor could not contain a snarl as the woman placed two fingers on her pulse point. The woman made a strange smile as she felt the Doctor's double pulse. She watched the Doctor's reaction as her touch lingered, her features a study in dispassion. After a minute the Doctor closed her eyes and forced her muscles to relax. Apparently satisfied, the woman removed her hand.
"Now that certain matters have been confirmed, I find myself in need of someone with a rather unusual skill set," the woman said. "Contingent upon your continued cooperation and success, of course."
"What sort of skill set? And what happens if I were to refuse?" the Doctor said.
"Oh, a bit of this and that. An experience with the more obscure, exotic branches of science mainly. And if you refuse, I can imagine another, more unpleasant, use will be found for you," the woman said, giving the Doctor a cold smile. The Doctor returned the expression.
"Of course. And I am assuming that this is a limited time offer that expires in the next, say, five minutes. This isn't the first time that I have found myself in this position, but it might be the first time that I accept," the Doctor said. The woman started to stroke the Doctor's hair.
"As for rewards if you prove to be exceptional... Well, power does have its benefits," she said, leaning so that her lips were at the Doctor's ear.
"I accept"
"Good. I don't think that you would be needing this," she said as she slid the IV needle out of the Doctor's arm, "or these." The woman removed the restraints, starting at the Doctor's ankles.
The Doctor started to sit up but the woman put her hand on her shoulder, pushing the Doctor back into the bed. "Now you must not get ahead of yourself. You still need rest," the woman said, "And you wouldn't want me to think that you are planning on betraying my trust."
"Of course not," the Doctor said as the woman began to run her finger along the Doctor's ear.
"Director Lethbridge-Stewart," the woman said.
"Of course not, Director Lethbridge-Stewart."
Now:
The Doctor climbed into Kate's bed and curled up next to the still sleeping human. She watched as Kate's breathing began to quicken and her eyelids flutter as she woke. Kate gave her a half smile and ran a hand through the Doctor's hair.
"What time is it?" Kate said as the Doctor began to nibble at her neck. Even though Kate was used to her alien lover's different ways of showing affection there were times when her meaning was opaque.
"I don't know. Early?" the Doctor said, purring at Kate's ear. "It was just starting to get light outside."
Kate pushed the Doctor off of her and sat up. Undeterred, the Doctor sat up and wrapped her arms around Kate's waist and continued to nuzzle her neck. "Doctor, what did you do this time?" she asked, concerned by the Doctor's rather excessive display of affection.
"Nothing. Now why would you say that?" said the Doctor in mock surprise. "Finished the power conversion calculations, and it is not going to work unless if you want it to explode five minutes after turning it on. Spent most of the night making the plans actually feasible, but it will be more expensive."
"Are you sure?" Kate asked.
"I am always right. Why else do you keep me?" the Doctor laughed in Kate's ear. "The report is on your desk, next to a cup of coffee. I don't know how you tolerate that liquid shit."
Kate sat at her desk reading the Doctor's report, properly caffeinated. The Doctor alternated between pacing the room and hovering over her shoulder.
"Will you sit down," Kate snapped after the Doctor bumped into her desk, almost spilling some of Kate's coffee. The Doctor sat, and rested her feet on Kate's desk until Kate gave her a look of displeasure. The Doctor sighed and removed her feet but continued to fidget impatiently.
"Liz is going to throw a fit. As usual. She will let the first few explode just so that she can throw a tantrum and find someone to blame. She isn't happy unless she has something to be angry about," said the Doctor as she leaned back in her chair.
"Doctor," Kate said, in an exasperated tone of voice.
"What? She has to be the most predictable individual I have ever met. You would think she would get bored," the Doctor said as she stood up and started pacing, "I know I am bored. Bore. Boring. Bored."
"One of these days you are going to go off around the wrong person. And I won't be able to protect you," Kate said, sighing and massaging her temples.
"What is she going to do? Thanks for saving my ass on multiple occasions and replacing a whole science division but that doesn't matter because you are convinced that I am an idiot. Imagine how good that will look," the Doctor said, in a proper rant.
"I know, I know. She is still sour about the affair with the Autons though, so don't give her an excuse," Kate said, hoping that her measured tone would calm the Doctor.
"Maybe this time she will surprise me," the Doctor said as she flopped into her chair. She started to pick at a nonexistent streak of dirt under her fingernail. Kate watched the Doctor until she was satisfied that her rant had run its course, then finished reading the Doctor's report.
"It is not up to your usual standards. Acceptable, but your work has been slipping," said Kate. She gave the Doctor a look that she knew would cause the other woman to squirm in her seat.
"I know. Did I mention that I am bored out of my skull? It has been, what, close to a month since we got anything good," said the Doctor. She paused, waiting for Kate's reaction. Kate leaned forward and raised an eyebrow so the Doctor continued. "Not that any of that matters. I will add a footnote to the report to clarify some of the calculations and rearrange a few things."
Kate stood up and walked to the Doctor. She put a finger under the Doctor's chin and tilted her head up. "That won't be necessary," Kate said. She bent over to kiss the Doctor, running her hand to the back of the Doctor's head. She felt the Doctor's lips tremble against hers as the Doctor relaxed into her touch.