Next chapter is on the 31st of October.
"We've had a casualty!" The Master sings ahead of them.
The Mistress and Florence can both practically hear the thrum of worry that the Doctor's mind starts to generate.
"And also a lift!" The nuisance of a Time Lord continues before heading into the house, chaos initiated.
Missy sighs, beginning to speak, as Florence projects her voice from behind her.
"I'm fine. A cyberman fell on me." She calls out, muffled a little by her position, as Missy says, "Relax- I'm not letting my own companion die in a forest."
"I wouldn't think you would." The Doctor says defensively, mind still clearly thinking it.
The two roll their eyes and Missy comes to a stop as the Time Lord meets them, wringing his hands, eyebrows dancing in concern.
"Ah- I'll get Hazran- we'll find somewhere to put her so I can take a look." He says, trying to catalogue, even through the clothes, the prone position and the forest debris, how the woman is hurt.
As he runs off and back into the house, Nardole eyeing them but paying little attention to them aside from trying to encourage the children to not stare and get back on with piling up sandbags, Missy huffs.
"He does know that you're my companion, right? We've both told him that, haven't we?" She asks rhetorically, attempting to look over her shoulder and being met with her companion's backside.
She feels what she thinks is Florence nodding and then she makes a strange noise.
"Could you maybe put me down for a second? I'm getting a bad headrush." Florence asks.
The Time Lady is quick to gently slip her companion onto the floor, lying face up and looking quite more flushed than she has in a while.
"How's the pain?" The Mistress asks, squatting down beside Florence's head.
"There." Is the short reply given as the woman closes her eyes, focuses as her eyebrows draw in.
"It's not great- don't think it's very bad though. It's probably just bruising. Hurts like crap though." She complains after the moment of thought.
Despite herself Missy can't help but smile a little and raise one of her own eyebrows.
"Crap?" The Time Lady prompts.
The companion flushes deeper red and looks away, still breathing regularly.
"Kids. I'm trying to teach them not to swear." She explains.
The Mistress smiles, crow eyes winking as she all but laughs at her companion.
"Oh shut up." Florence mutters, hearing it in her thoughts anyway.
"So." The Master starts.
Florence can almost hear the gears turning behind the scenes even though his mind is sealed as shut as hers is at the moment.
The Mistress had looked over her after finally managing to shoo Hazran, who went with little concern, Bill, who left with a lot of concern, and the Doctor, who was persuaded to leave through a threat about messing with his consol settings as soon as she had the opportunity to if he did not go.
As Florence had predicted it was nothing serious aside from a dislocation which hurt like a bitch to fix and some bruising, even if that bruising was extensive, throbbing lightly, and very red, heading into purpling. The area had been washed gently and the Mistress had applied some kind of numbing gel over the majority of her hip and the outside of her upper thigh with a finger pressed to her lips which Florence understood well as 'I'm not supposed to have this so don't say a word'.
The Time Lady had then helped her into a very long and worn nightgown, undone her hair for her and set off to find somewhere to clean her clothes, leaving her alone and in some kind of peace.
And that, of course, was when the Master had decided to drop in.
"You're still alive then?" He questions, rocking back on his heels and leaning forwards, hands held behind his back in a way that unnerves Florence slightly.
She tilts her head from the bed she is propped up in, bird-like.
"Clearly." The woman says bluntly.
The Time Lord hums, thinking for a moment, eyes drifting away from her.
"Most humans, if hit by something as heavy and unrestrained as a falling cyberman and then crushed against the ground, would have broken bones." He states, still unwilling to say whatever he is thinking directly.
Florence rolls her eyes.
"Most humans," he repeats, inspecting his nails as if there isn't a point he is very clearly dancing around, "would never have the strength to stop a cyberman moving more than a few centimeters at most." He says.
"Most humans would not physically be able to dislocate a cyberman's arm so severely that it could shoot itself in the head." He finishes, smirking as he looks directly into her eyes, as if he has won something.
Florence waits to see if he has anything more to say. It's only a moment but it feels like longer between them in this quiet room, the muffled noises of outside only seeming further away.
"If you couldn't tell I'm not 'most humans'." She says warily.
The Master smiles at this.
"So," he says again, grin growing wider as he steps closer to her bedside slowly, "what did you let her do to you?" The Time Lord asks, peering down at her intently, as if she was some kind of prey.
The companion snorts, folding her arms and raising her head defiantly to meet his gaze.
"Whatever we both wanted." She says, the innuendo heavy as she sneers back at him.
The Master just laughs, looking away for a second, running a hand over his face in amusement.
Then he bends down, leans in closer, pressing the length of his right forearm against the pillow pressed against the wall, only an inch or so from the left side of her head.
Florence feels a mixture of anger, fear and disgust well in her at the Time Lord's proximity but allows it, challenges him to go further, to see what happens if he pushes her.
"Oh," he breathes, voice soft, insidious, eyes fixed on hers, "I bet you're barely even human anymore, knowing her." His smile is sick and his eyes are devoid of anything well intentioned.
"Knowing me." He adds, chuckling quietly, breath ghosting over her and smelling bad if more by association than actual smell. There's a small fondness in him as he looks at her, rakes his eyes over her face.
She reads his thoughts in his face and does not return any of the affection.
"I'm not-" She begins to reply, voice low, the beginnings of a snarl, cut off with a wet gasp as her eyes widen and she feels him slam against her mind.
She closes her eyes and slips down the bed, feeling the feverish intensity of him battering against her defenses and clenching her teeth against it.
It takes far more focus than it used to, far more than she thinks that she's had to use before, but she manages to bite him back, snap the jaws of her psyche shut on him as he tries to break them open.
He recoils instantly, both physically and mentally, throwing himself across the room and roaring angrily in pain and confusion.
"What the fuck?" He shouts as soon as he can find words.
(Far sooner than Florence would have preferred)
Florence is holding her own head and rubbing her temples, swallowing against the headache and the tears but laughing still, adrenaline still spiking through her.
"Barely human, not yours," she gets out between shallow breaths, then summoning all of her will, "Mistress!" She calls out.
The companion's mind is a cement block to everyone else right now but she still manages to sense through it the spike of attention she draws in her Time Lady and smile.
"What did you do that for?" He almost whines, still across the other side of the room and watching her warily.
Florence just breathes, feeling the headache spread and the strange tingling of her lips and fingertips and knowing what's coming next.
"Are you-" The Master starts to say as the companion goes limp on the bed, eyebrows creased and mouth fallen open.
He steps a little closer, not too much in case it's some kind of trap, but a little, and bends down to get a better look at her face, head tilted to the side as he squints at her.
"Did you just pass out?" He asks, knowing the question is stupid if she has but truly with no idea how to proceed from this moment if she's passed out and he still has a splitting headache and it feels like there's blood running from his eyes even though there isn't.
He considers moving a little closer than the five meters he has put between them but hears the Mistress' footsteps on the stairs, heavy.
She slams the door against the wall as she storms in, takes one glance at her unconscious companion and then grips his lapels tight and pushes him into a wall very, very hard.
"What did you do to her?" She hisses, face contorted with a rage that scares even him.
"What did I do to her?" He shouts in complaint, "What did she do to me?" He emphasises.
"And-and- what did you do to her and what is she? What the fuck is she?" He cries out, disgusted as he stares over the Time Lady's shoulder at her companion.