My sincerest apologies. I haven't updated in forever I know. School, track, NHS applications, parents, dances, musicals, and life have gotten in the way. I also hit the big giant wall of writer's block. The good news, I have the next chapter started and I have outlined to the end. I feel so sad now the end is in sight. The bad news: the end is near, and I have a big research paper due soon too. I will try to update more often but I can't make promises.

Just so you know this chapter focuses on Rose, Jack, Martha, and the Doctor during The Sound of Drums. It was hard inserting Rose but I think it's okay. I may have a chapter focusing on the Master's POV of the next few chapters, but I can't do that for a while. I don't own Doctor Who. On with the show


Back to Business

The Doctor awoke the next morning. He looked down at Rose, only she wasn't there. He heard the toilet flush in the bathroom. Rose exited the bathroom dabbing her mouth with a towel. He looked at her confused, "You still get morning sickness?"

"Yeah, and sometimes, if I'm really lucky, I actually get it in the morning," sarcasm dripping in her voice.

He chuckled. "Do you still want to come with me today?" He asked as Rose crawled back into bed.

"Of course I do. Do you have to ask?"

"Yeah, I just have trouble believing you're actually here. You're coming with me on a dangerous adventure."

"Just like old times." She said with her patented tongue between teeth smile.

He smiled. "Just like old times… Well Rose, time is of the essence and we gotta get going. We gotta meet up with Jack and Martha and then we're going to defeat the Master. Whadda yousay?"

"Fantastic!"

-9-9-9-9-9-9-9-

After Rose had gone through various morning rituals and the Doctor made many snide comments about things being domestic the pair finally set off to meet Jack and Martha. Upon arriving at their location they saw Jackie with a small bag.

She slowly made her way over to them. "You forgot a few things." Was all she said before she handed over the bag. She didn't trust herself to do much more.

"Mum!" Jackie turned around and Rose ran up to her and hugged her. "Thank you. Tell Mickey I'm sorry."

"I'll tell him if I see him, haven't seen him since the party."

"Thanks again mum. I'm gonna miss you."

"Me too." Jackie broke the hug and looked at the Doctor. "You'd better take good care of her Doctor."

"Of course I will. Jackie, Do you think you'd mind if Rose and I tried to visit sometime?"

Jackie smirked, "I think I'd like that a lot. See you later Doctor." She turned around and left.

Rose turned to the Doctor, "So are Jack and Martha gonna show up?"

"I don't know, they have some time before they have to show up." Right at that moment Jack fell from a nearby tree.

"Jack!" Rose screamed while running over to him. Martha hopped down from the same tree and started to examine him. Jack wasn't breathing and both women began to worry, that is until Jack gasped back to life. He slowly started calming back down. "Hello" Rose whispered.

Jack smiled and looked back up at her, "Hello."

"Hello, sorry I had to say it twice, for old time's sake."

"Of course, my you're looking as large and as lovely as ever"

"Oh stop it!" The Doctor interrupted.

"I was only saying hello" Jack said standing up.

"Yes and last time you only said hello it was to Martha—what were you two doing in a tree?"

Martha began to blush, "We were waiting for you and uhh we wanted to be able to see you coming."

"Yeah, and it's a really nice tree, lovely bark." Jack added.

"Yeah nice wood." Martha suddenly became very embarrassed and Jack got a proud smirk on his face.

The Doctor suddenly got a look that could only be described as the I-don't-want-to-know-look. Rose stifled giggles while ideas of Jack and Martha dancing entered her head.

"Well then, is everyone ready to go?" nods came from the entire group, "Then let's go!"

-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-

After a long sensation of falling Rose Tyler opened her eyes in her own universe for the first time in years. "I'm home!" she shouted with joy. She noticed a sign "Vote Saxon" She read aloud. "Who's Mr. Saxon?"

"Just a politician, good old Harold Saxon" Jack answered.

"I dunno, something seems fishy…" an uneasy feeling fell over her. Something in the back of her mind seemed to growl….

-2-3-4-5-6-5-6

"But this Master Bloke, he's got the TARDIS he could be anywhere in time and space" Martha worried.

"No he's here. Trust me." The Doctor said darkly.

"Who is he anyway? That voice at the end that wasn't the professor."

"Well, the Doctor told me he's a Timelord and if he sounded different he must have regenerated." Rose explained.

"What's that mean?"

"He can change every cell in his body and his face and personality, like when Jack and I first met the Doctor he had short hair, blue eyes, giant ears and an even bigger nose. He also had a thing for leather." Martha's imagination went wild with that last statement and Jack quietly chuckled.

"I thought you always liked the jacket." The Doctor replied indignantly, he then noticed an eerie tapping.

"I did, and I loved your daft old face as you called it but I much prefer this regeneration." Rose said with her sweetest sugar coated smile.

"Well, if he did change like that how are we going to find him?"

"I'll know him the moment I see him. Timelords always do." The Doctor saiddistracted.

"But hold on, he could be anyone." Martha whispered, "We missed the election." The Doctor got up and the other three began to follow.

"But it can't be. The Doctor said he could sense other Timelords and he's been visiting for a while," Rose turned to the Doctor, "wouldn't you have noticed something?"

They slowly walked toward the big screen TV nearby. Just then the news announcer started talking about Mr. Saxon.

"I said I knew that voice, when he spoke inside the TARDIS. I've heard that voice hundreds of times, I've seen him, we all have." Martha said as the big screen showed Mr. Saxon walking down stairs with reporters flashing pictures everywhere.

"Except me" Rose added shyly, "I guess he's Harold Saxon." Something inside of Rose confirmed he was a Timelord, but she didn't know what.

"That's him... he's Prime Minister. The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain." The Doctor added horrified. He watched as the Master then kissed the woman next to him, "The Master and his wife."

The TV began to send out Saxon's message that left the whole group horrified and freezing chills ran down their spines, "This country is sick. This country needs healing. This country needs medicine. And, in fact, I would go as far as to say, what this country really needs right now...is a Doctor."

3-4-6-5-7-6-6-4-3-2-4-7-6-8-7-8-7-5-3

The team barged into Martha's cramped flat. "Home" she said more for her comfort but it did offer Jack and Rose a brief explanation of where they were.

"What have you got? Computer? Laptop? Anything?" The Doctor asked. Martha began to dig through her things Jack was dialing his phone "Jack who you phoning? You can't tell anyone we're here."

"Just some friends of mine but there's no reply."

"Doctor, just calm down a little, just a teensy bit for me. Okay?" Rose asked ever so sweetly. He took a long slow breath as Martha handed him her laptop.

"I can show you the Saxon website, he's been around for ages." Jack said taking the laptop and putting it on a nearby desk. Just then the computer asked for a password, "Martha what's your password?"

"badwolf" she responded automatically. "all lowercase, no spaces."

The Doctor and Rose perked up. "Why badwolf?" The Doctor questioned.

"I like fairytales. Is that a crime? That's so weird, it's the day after the election. That's only four days after I met you."

"What?" Rose questioned.

"Rose, remember when I told you it had only been 12 hours?" The Doctor asked. Rose smiled and nodded. "Well for Martha it was really only 12 hours."

Martha looked to Rose confused, but Rose quickly explained, "There's a slight difference between hours and months."

"Yeah but her mum still slapped me." Rose laughed and suddenly recalled how the Doctor said he'd never been slapped by someone's mother and now 2 companion's mothers had. Oh how the mighty have fallen she thought. The Doctor suddenly seemed amazed, "I've been flying all across the universe and he's been here the whole time."

"You gonna tell us who he is?" Martha asked with her nerves on edge. She wasn't alone.

"He's a timelord."

"Well, what she means is who'd call themselves the Master?" Rose explained.

"That's all any of you need to know." He turned back to Jack, "Come on show me Harold Saxon." Martha, in seething fury walked over to her phone and checked her messages. It was her sister soshe quickly turned it off.

"Oh like it matters." Rose could only smile in agreement.

-1-2-4-3-5-6-3-5-7-8-5

A while later the group finished watching a Saxon ad. Jack began to relate Saxon's life story, "Former Minister of Defense, first came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve." He looked over to the Doctor, "Nice work by the way."

"Oh, thanks" the Doctor said detached.

Rose turned to him, "Another exciting Christmas?" The Doctor could only nod.

"But," Martha began confused, "He goes back years, he's famous, everybody knows his story, look, Cambridge University, Rugby Blue, Won the athletics thing, wrote a novel, went into business, marriage, everything, he's got a whole life."

-1-3-2-4-5-6-5-3-

Rose was in Martha's small kitchen making tea, "Well if the Master has the TARDIS he could have went back in time and been living here for decades."

"No." The Doctor said flatly.

"Why not? Worked for me" Jack questioned taking a glass of tea from Rose. Martha came into the room in a new outfit, Jack looked at it approvingly and Martha blushed.

"When he was stealing the TARDIS the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates. I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year 100 trillion and the last place he landed, which is right here right now."

"But if they're permanently fused how will you ever go any place different?" Rose asked as she handed him and Martha their teas.

"I'll eventually fix it, but it takes a lot of time and I didn't give him that." The Doctor reassured her as she sat down in his lap.

"But obviously it didn't work the way you planned." Jack reminded him.

"Well the most he could have been here is 18 months. 18 months tops."

"How did he do all this in 18 months though?" Martha asked.

"Well the Master was always," He searched for a word, "Hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale."

"I was gonna vote for him." Martha said half shocked.

"Really?" Rose inquired.

"Well, it was before I met any of you and I liked him."

"Me too." Jack quietly added.

"Why'd you say that?" Rose asked, "What were his promises? What was his campaign like?"

The Doctor caught on to what Rose was trying to say, "What was his policy? What did he stand for?"

"I don't know," Martha said. Her fingers began tapping quietly. "He always sounded good. Like you could trust him. Just nice, he spoke about… I can't even remember but it was good. Just the sound of his voice…"

"What are you doing?" Rose questioned.

"What?" Martha seemed like she just snapped out of a trance.

"You were tapping."

"I.. I . It was just." Martha shrugged as she searched for a reason. "I dunno." Just then the laptop made a sound and broadcastthe words 'Saxon Broadcast All Channels'. The group gathered around the television.

"Looks like the Lord and Master is speaking to his kingdom," The Doctor quipped.

"Britain. Britain. Britain. What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown. Falling from the skies" Rose certainly knew what that felt like, she felt somehow drawn to his words. "You've seen it happening, Big Ben destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas Star, that came to kill. Time and Time again and the government told you nothing." Rose certainly remembered all of the encounters being seen as hoaxes. "Well not me. Not Harold Saxon, because my purpose here today is to tell you this, citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted. A message for humanity from beyond the stars."

A sphere suddenly appeared on screen, "Peoples of the Earth. We come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology, and wisdom and protection and all we ask in return is your friendship."

"Awww, sweet. And this species has identified itself: they are called the Toclafane."

"What?" The Doctor shouted indignantly at the television screen.

"And tomorrow they will appear, not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman, and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer, oh I don't know every, medical student." The four suddenly panicked. The Doctor turned the telly around only to find a bomb attached to it.

"Out!" he ordered, they didn't need telling twice. They were outside in no time. They were barely 3 meters away from the house when the bomb finally exploded. The Doctor began roll call. "Jack!"

"Fine yeah fine."

"Martha!" He turned around to see her frantically dialing on her phone. "What are you doing?"

"If he knows about me he knows about my family."

"Don't tell them anything!"

"I'll do what I like."

"Doctor!" Rose cried. He turned to her and she was holding her back. He ran to her and he saw why. I giant piece of jagged glass was embedded in it.