Title: Not The Reunion I Was Hoping For
Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Story Summary: The Doctor wasn't expecting a blonde woman in a suit to burst into the TARDIS and tell him he was real. Reunion fic, kind of.
Setting: After series two of New Who, ignoring series four. Takes place in Pete's World.
NOT THE REUNION I WAS HOPING FOR
CHAPTER FOUR
TORCHWOOD
"You!"
Rose made a dismayed, impatient noise and pushed him back into the room.
"What's going on? What's he doing here?" the young man demanded, while Rose gestured the Doctor and the Master inside.
"Mickey, calm down," Rose ordered as she shut the door. She gave him a hard stare. "Notice anything different about me?"
Mickey was clearly about to say no and ask more demanding questions when suddenly his eyes widened.
He stared at her.
"Yeah. You look older. More… I dunno."
"That's coz I am older, Mickey. I'm from the future. This Doctor's not the one we knew, he belongs to this universe an' he's gonna get me home, but he needs to take a look at the stuff they used to open holes between universes. That's why we're here, in this time."
"But what about us?" Mickey demanded. "Me? Your mum? Pete? You gonna leave Tony too, then? Thought you were rapt in the little bloke."
Rose sighed.
"When I left Tony, Mickey, he was married, with a ten year old kid and one just starting high school. Mum was spending her time going on cruises with Pete an' meeting people and you'd just become a granddad. I don't age properly anymore, and I don't fit in, and I'm not even human. I don't want to stay here and watch everyone die and just become the woman who never gets old, Mickey. You gonna help me or not?"
Mickey gazed at her, hard.
"I'm in," he said finally. He gave the Doctor a mistrusting look. "Even if it means dealing with Ol' Big Ears here."
While the Doctor went "oi!" Mickey looked at the Master and asked,
"Who's this then?"
"This is the Master?" Rose muttered. "Whatever you do, don't trust him, coz there's nothing he likes better than a bit o' chaos."
The Master smirked with a vaguely superior air.
"Right," Mickey agreed. "So what we doing?"
-
The Doctor and the Master went through the equipment, disassembling most of it in the process, and having their usual squabbles while Rose tried to fill Mickey in as much as she could without giving too much away about the future.
"D'you remember the time you went round pretending to be all-powerful and setting things on fire, and I turned up and stopped you?" the Doctor asked. "They think we're gods now. They were calling you the god of chaos and lord of the flame. I've seen carvings; they always give me this great big beard."
"You had the healing patch over one eye because you'd had some accident the day before," the Master remembered, "and those ignorant idiots didn't realise it was a bandage and though you were missing an eye."
"They're like a pair of freaky twins," Mickey told Rose, glancing at the two Time Lords. "They always like this?"
"Pretty much," Rose agreed, eyes glinting in amusement.
"So… grandkids. I was married, then?"
"Yeah." Rose smiled reminiscently. "To a beautiful, wonderful woman. Really smart. You thought she was mental, marrying a bloke like you. But I never saw two people happier together than you two. You really had something special."
"What about you?" Mickey glanced sideways.
Rose avoided his eyes and gave a little, mischievous smile.
"Well, it turns out all this time, I've actuallly been married to my Doctor."
"You gotta be kidding." Mickey stared wide-eyed, and Rose shook her head, laughter bubbling up even though she tried to stop it.
"And, what, you just got married without noticing?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
Mickey shook his head in disbelief.
"Is there some kind of complicated Time Lord thing here that I'm missing?"
"That about covers it," Rose agreed.
-
There was a yelp of surprise and pain from the other side of the room. Mickey and Rose looked over to see the Master, grinning and backing away to put a table between he and the Doctor, who was advancing on him with grim purpose.
The device in the Master's hand was sending off sparks, so it wasn't hard to work out what had happened.
The Master grinned gleefully while the Doctor eyed him consideringly across the table. Rose held up a finger to Mickey, mouthed 'one moment,' and crept up behind the Master. She raised her eyebrows, and the Doctor gave an infinitisimal nod.
Rose hit the Master in the shoulder.
He winced and looked at her with glittering eyes.
"Electrocute him some other time," the Doctor sent Rose a faintly betrayed look, "I don't know how long we have here, alright?"
The glittering-eyed look had vanished at Rose's first statement, and the Master smirked.
"Later then," he announced flippantly, and rejoined the Doctor in gathering mechanical parts.
Rose shook her head and walked back to Mickey.
"They're both mental," he announced.
Rose couldn't really argue with that.
-
It was at this point that the door banged open. The three Time Lords and Mickey looked up to see a team of Torchwood agents standing in the doorway wielding handarms, all aimed directly on the four people in the room.
One of the agents moved forward, smirking.
"And I thought you were in America for the conference, Miss Tyler," he announced. "Never mind. It's actually easier this way."
"What you going on about?" Mickey demanded.
"I'm taking over Torchwood, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
" 'And there's nothing you can do to stop me?' " the Doctor repeated incredulously. "Can you hear yourself?" He turned to the Master. "Even you didn't come up with anything that bad, not after you lost the cape and the laugh."
The Master ignored him, watching the bumptious agent with a look of condescending amusement.
"Really?" His voice went low and seductive. "Nothing?"
"Duck," Rose told Mickey, and pulled him down with her as she hit the floor.
A moment later there was a tremendous BANG and a flash.
The agents caught in the arc of electricity collapsed where they stood. Their leader had reacted in time, ducking back through the doorway. While Rose looked up cautiously the Doctor moved to the door and peered down the corridor.
"He's gone. Come on."
The Master was frowning contemplatively at the scene before him.
"You know, I think that lacked finesse," he said thoughtfully. "I need to come up with something better next time."
"Never mind that!" Mickey was incensed. "Rose and Pete and Jake are all away at the moment. There's no one but me to stop him taking over the place!"
Rose put a hand on his arm.
"There's us." She looked at the Doctor and the Master. "You up to thwarting an attempted coup?"
"Do it all the time," the Doctor said.
The Master just gave a wicked smirk, eyes gleaming.
"Right," Rose looked back at Mickey, "let's grab everything we need and then we can stop this –"
"Moron," the Doctor supplied. He and the Master stuck everything in the quite large 'to take' pile in their pockets, getting a strange look from Mickey who hadn't realised that the inside of their pockets were much bigger than the outside.
"Come on, he's gonna be back with reinforcements," Mickey said.
"My office," Rose decided.
-
Rose's assistant looked up in mild surprise as the four burst into the outer office.
"Miss Tyler? I thought you were in Washington?"
"I am, Lucy," Rose said as she and the others locked and barricaded the door, "I've been time-travelling."
Lucy accepted this without a blink.
"Is there a problem?"
"Jones is taking over Torchwood," Mickey said succinctly.
"Ross Jones?"
"Yep, that Jones," Rose agreed.
"I never liked him," Lucy said tranquilly. "What are you planning?"
The Master looked at her in curiosity.
"Aren't you even concerned?"
"Well of course," Lucy said seriously. "But fussing doesn't help anyone. Better just to do something about it."
Most people thought that Lucy Cole was uncommmonly stupid. Underneath her insipid facade however was a very sharp mind. Rose had found her an invaluable operative. Now she looked on as Lucy and the Master watched each other with intense interest.
Rose had always wondered why Lucy had left so suddenly. It was nice to see things slot into place after all this time.
"We need to incapacitate the agents with him and arrest him without being too obvious," Rose told the others. "I mean, I had no idea any of this happened, except for Jones being arrested and a bunch of agents ret-conned, so we need to keep a low profile or cover it up somehow."
"Shouldn't be too hard," the Doctor announced. He looked at the Master. "You happy to handle it?"
The Master grinned devilishly.
"Leave it to me."
As they watched, the Master began puttign bits and pieces together. Halfway through a banging started up on the other side of the door, and the sound of agitated voices, but the Master continued calmly and methodically.
After a few more minute he finished puttign together his makesift weapon, and nodded to the Doctor.
The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and unlocked the door as everyone but the Master moved back.
It took a few seconds for the agents to break the door down because of the furniture barricaded in front of it, and when they did it was to see the Master standing looking positively fiendish, eyes glowing with malevolence.
They moved to shoot him, but the Master had already acted.
Mid-movement they collapsed, screaming and clutching their heads. Jones, face contorted in agony, managed to aim nonetheless.
There was the loud report of a gunshot.
Everyone turned to stare at Lucy in surprise as Jones slumped lifelessly.
"I never liked him," Lucy reiterated. "He used to make vulgar remarks about me."
"I like you," the Master gave her a rakish grin. "How you you feel about taking over the world?"
"You can plot diabolically later," the Doctor ordered.
Rose looked at Mickey.
"Can you handle it from here?"
"I reckon I'll be alright." He and Rose stared at each other. Then they both stepped forward into a hug.
"You take care of yourself," Mickey told her.
Rose gave a little laugh.
"You too." She held him tightly. "I do love you, Mickey. I'm gonna miss you."
"I know." He broke the hug and stepped back. "You better get going before someone else comes up here."
"Yeah." Rose blinked back tears and looked at the two Time Lords. "You know, Lucy would make a great companion. Cool in the face of danger, smart..."
"Fine," the Doctor wasn't in the mood to argue and both Rose and the Master were looking at him expectantly.
"Do you want to come with us?" Rose asked Lucy. "This is the Master, and the Doctor, and they're time travellers. They're going to send me home, but after that..."
"I'd be delighted," Lucy met the Master's eyes. She gave a little smirk.
He returned it.
-
The four of them made their way back to the TARDIS as quietly and briskly as possible.
"You travel in a police phone box?" Lucy was delighted by the notion.
"Wait til you see inside," the Doctor told her, and unlocked the doors.
Lucy gave a gasp of astonishment.
"It's bigger on the inside!"
While the Master gave an enthralled Lucy some overblown spiel about the lords of time and space, the Dctor nodded to Rose.
"While Casanova over there's showing his new ladyfriend around, d'you fancy a cuppa tea?"
"Love one," Rose said fervently.
-
END CHAPTER
Author notes:
*lets out a sigh*
Sorry it's taken so long for me to update my fics. Lots to deal with at the moment, so I'll probably only update sporadically for now.
Anyway, probably one more chapter and an epilogue to go. Whoo! I'll actually get a fic finished! *feels giddy at the prospect and has to lie down*
Yeah. I've been planning the Lucy Cole thing practically from the beginning, if you were wondering. This chapter didn't want to turn out how I wanted it, but this is as close as I coudl get. Sorry it's not as amusing as the others.
If there's typos, let me know, coz the spellchecker's on the blink and for some reason I don't pick up on errors, reading them off the screen.
