Author's Notes:- Thanks to Stonedtoad for the lightening beta.
This is the final part of the story.
Hope you enjoy.
"Well that was an interesting few days," the Doctor mused from where he lay on the couch making Jeannie look up from the TARDIS controls.
"Oh you can talk?" she grinned at him, "How are you feeling?"
The Doctor lay there unable to sit up, "Muggy but thanks to you we're both still alive."
"I'm hoping the Master is dead because I really don't ever want to come face to face with that psycho ever again," she told him moving over to where he sat and bounced to sit up on the cabinet beside the couch, "So, what now?"
The Doctor took a deep breath letting out a long sigh, "Firstly I'll have to be able to move again before we can go anywhere."
"And how long will that take?" Jeannie asked twirling a strand of hair around her right index finger.
The Doctor tried to shrug but couldn't, the paralysing agent the Master had injected into him still affecting him.
"I'll take that as you don't know," she laughed, "Well we're in a temporal orbit around some planet several million light years from where we are according to the TARDIS. So, while you laze about there I'm making dinner."
"I preferred you as a blonde," the Doctor called after her.
Jeannie tossed her recently dark red hair, "I didn't like that dye job much. I prefer this one."
"Some goo fell on your head," the Doctor called after her, "I didn't realise that could be counted as a dye job."
She turned and stuck her tongue out at him before disappearing deeper into the TARDIS leaving him.
"Jeannie," he called after her frowning as she didn't reappear, "I'm unable to move here," he sighed before shouting, "Jeannie!"
x
Carson stood in front of the gurney holding the body of his friend's sister. The lab attendant who had been here when Rodney had burst in had come to find him.
"Rodney said it wasn't her," Carson mused as he looked down at Jeannie's cold still face.
Gently Carson checked the body for anything unusual not surprised when he actually found something.
"Damn," Carson sighed, he hit the button on his radio, "Dr Weir, I need to see you immediately."
About five minutes later Elizabeth entered the room concern on her face, "Doctor?"
"I want you to look at something," Carson told her motioning her over to the gurney.
"Is it something about how Jeannie died?" Elizabeth asked sadly.
"Kinda," Carson replied, he pulled back the sheet to reveal the body lying there.
Elizabeth stared at the young woman lying there, "Who's that?"
"I have no idea," Carson told her, "But this is who was here when I removed this," he held out a small silver sphere.
"So Jeannie's not dead," Elizabeth breathed in astonishment, "Have you told Rodney?"
Carson shook his head, "He already knows. From what I've been told he came running in here looked at her then ran out saying it wasn't her."
Elizabeth chewed her lip for a second before tapping her radio, "Rodney? Rodney I need you to answer me."
"Try Sheppard," Carson suggested.
"John?" Elizabeth called frowning at Carson as she received no reply, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
x
Elizabeth entered her office with Carson to find Jack waiting for them.
"Captain?" Elizabeth asked finding him leaning against the desk.
"The Doctor has gone," he told them, "The TARDIS left about ten minutes ago."
"To do what?" Carson asked.
"My guess," Jack crossed his arms his serious demeanour a stark difference to how he'd been when Elizabeth had first met him, "He's gone after whoever killed Jeannie."
"Jeannie's not dead," Carson told the 51st Century man.
Shock covered Jack's face, "Are you sure?"
Carson nodded, "The body in the morgue is not Jeannie McKay."
"Oh thank God," Jack breathed dropping his head for a few moments, he looked back up at the other two, "Does her brother know?"
Elizabeth nodded, "Rodney apparently was the one who discovered it, both he and Colonel Sheppard are missing."
"He'll have taken them along," Jack told them, "Which means we just have to wait."
Jeannie sat under the console methodically ripping out wires and components reasoning that since they were going to kill her anyway she may as well do as much damage as possible.
There was one guard standing at the door watching her as she pretended to work, he glared at her menacingly any time she dared move close to the door. Jeannie hoped whoever was coming made it here fast as she was sure her guard was getting wise to the fact she wasn't fixing anything. A light brush across her mind made her frown, before she smiled relieved. Rodney was here and coming for her.
Jeannie looked up as she heard noises from outside the room smiling as she saw the guards were dropping their weapons looking confused, the Doctor had somehow got round the Master's hypnosis. She started out of the room finding the gun pressed against her ribs.
"Where do you think you're going?" the guard asked her.
"You had to be the one doing this for kicks," Jeannie glared at him, "Didn't you?"
"Get back to work," he sneered at her.
x
John watched Rodney as he marched towards the ship and his sister. From the moment they'd met John had seen that Rodney McKay was a man who didn't get close to people, both figuratively and literally. He had a personal bubble the size of the entire city of Atlantis which very few people were able to invade.
Elizabeth, Carson, Zelenka and himself were the ones closest to Rodney and even then if you did something like touch his shoulder Rodney would flinch quite violently. Then John had met Jeannie McKay, the first thing she'd done was hug Rodney and Rodney had hugged her right back. Jeannie didn't invade his personal bubble, she was a part of it.
John frowned as he thought of Jeannie; his own growing feelings for his best friend's sister were causing him concern. It was a basic rule that you didn't get involved with your friends sisters no matter what you felt, and John although he was known to…bend the rules this was one rule he had never broken.
"Looks like the hypnosis has broken," the Doctor noted as they saw people stream out of the ship in front of them, "I wonder if Jeannie will come meet us."
Rodney's eyes glazed over for a second before he shook his head, "She's still trapped."
"Then let's go," John told them.
x
Jeannie watched her guard feeling her brother's presence edging closer to them, she decided she'd had enough and turned to her guard.
"Okay, I'm not fixing this," she said forcing as much bravado into her voice as humanly possible hoping her brother and entourage whoever that was made it here before the man decided to shut her up for good.
"Do as the Master orders," he snarled at her.
Jeannie took a deep breath swallowing hard, "No."
He aimed his weapon at her readying to fire and Jeannie took several deep breaths hoping she was right about where her rescue party was.
"Do as the Master orders or I will kill you," he sneered.
Jeannie almost backed down until a flash of spiky black hair caught her eye and she grinned.
"I'd look behind you first," she smiled at the uncertain look that covered his face wondering what expression his face held when John appeared in front of him.
John swung his uninjured arm, the punch throwing the other man back against the wall as Rodney ran in behind John and grabbed the gun.
"Finally," she sighed in relief moving to her brother and smiling as he held onto her after tossing John the gun.
"Don't ever do that to me again," Rodney told her as he let her go.
Jeannie nodded; the Doctor wandered in quickly squeezing her shoulder and looked around, "How much damage did you do?"
"A good bit," Jeannie replied used to the Doctor's quick changes of direction, "I just pulled a lot of things apart."
The Doctor smiled, "That a girl. Okay, let me see if I can cause any more problems before we go calling on an old friend."
"Are you insane?" John demanded, "We should get out of here."
"The Master needs to be stopped," the Doctor replied as he slid under the console.
"Fine," John said, "So we take Jeannie back to Atlantis then come back once she's safe."
"What the hell?" Jeannie turned on him, "Don't I get a say in this?"
"I didn't mean…"
"You think I can't handle this?" she snapped angrily, "Do you have any idea the things I've seen while travelling with the Doctor? Do you know the places I've been, the people I have met and the monsters I've faced? What gives you the right to protect me?"
"Jeannie," Rodney caught her shoulders pulling her back to him, "Calm down."
The Doctor poked his head out from under the console, "Jeannie, enough with the domestic, get over to the regulators and knock them out."
With a sharp glare at John Jeannie headed to do as the Doctor asked.
Rodney turned to his friend, "What the hell did you do?"
The Master was sitting on his throne when they entered the room, his skin seemed even more yellow than it had been when Jeannie had been in there earlier, "Ah Doctor, so good of you to come."
The Doctor stood in the doorway Jeannie just at his right arm her brother at her side while John stood at his friend's side getting ready to protect the others. The Doctor moved forward slightly his eyes never leaving the Master, he continued staring at his nemesis, his once school friend and laughed.
"You look pathetic," the Doctor stated his arm stopping Jeannie moving any further inside, "After everything you've done to extend your life, everything you did to get more regenerations and you are reduced to this. You've stolen so much and now," the Doctor allowed a smile to curl his lip, "You steal a body and its sickness isn't letting you go. A disease is finally eradicating a plague on the Universe."
The Master started to laugh which turned into a racking cough. Once he managed to stop he looked behind the Doctor to Jeannie with a slight leer, "I see you came back for your companion and I thought the camouflage would work."
"It would have," the Doctor replied stepping forward so he could walk around the Master, "Jeannie just has a few little extra qualities that made me sure she wasn't dead."
"Her brother," the Master noted his eyes moving from Jeannie to Rodney whose grip on his sister's arm tightened, "They are closer than I realised, I would like to study how close."
Rodney grabbed his sister back to him, keeping her away from this malevolent near-corpse that was sitting in the centre of the room.
"Not really," the Doctor replied his voice light but every word was filled with steel, "Your android double of Dr McKay was so crude that the camouflage of Jeannie didn't surprise me at all."
"You will not leave here Doctor," the Master told him grabbing the other Timelord's arm; "This is my world."
"I'm not one to overstay my welcome," the Doctor replied, "And considering where we are…"
An explosion shook the entire room, only the Doctor didn't stagger as he kept his eyes locked on the Master.
"Don't get up;" the Doctor called pulling away, he moved back to the door where the others stood waiting for him, "We'll be leaving."
"This isn't the end Doctor," the Master called after him.
"It never is," the Doctor murmured as he moved the others along.
x
John was confused by the way the Doctor was rushing them towards the TARDIS; he knew the Doctor had only set up one explosion to shock the Master guy, he'd watched him.
"Jeannie get it open," the Doctor called from behind as he rushed them forward.
"Come on," Jeannie yelled as she pulled out her key opening the door, "Get your ass in here."
Once Jeannie was in, John ran in followed quickly by Rodney then the Doctor who slammed the door shut before running to the console.
"Jeannie, get over here," the Doctor ordered, "I'm going to need those shields up fast."
"Working on it," she replied as she started pushing buttons and swinging dials.
"Rodney, get under there and reroute as much back up power to the shields as possible," the Doctor ordered.
John frowned confused wondering how Rodney could do something like that to a ship he'd never had any time to look at. Then again this was Rodney McKay, the man seemed to be able to fix anything after looking at it for only a few moments, he could even work Wraith technology with the barest minimum time spent with it and John wasn't surprised when Rodney called out he'd done it.
"Everyone hang on tight," the Doctor told them, "We're about to get flung around."
The moment he finished speaking the ship tilted to one side. John fell back onto the couch; Rodney was still lying on the floor clinging to the console as Jeannie went flying into John. He caught her round her waist holding onto her shivering as Jeannie turned to him her nose skimmed his cheek and he felt her breath warm his skin.
Her eyes had darkened as she stared at him her pale cheeks reddening slightly at the way he was holding her but unable to move as the ship continued to be thrown about.
Finally they were still and John felt Jeannie jerk away from him.
"Where are we?" she asked straightening her clothes.
The Doctor looked at her with amusement, "Do you really want to know?"
"Nah," she sighed helping her brother off the floor, "How long till we get back to Atlantis?"
The Doctor played about for a few moments with the controls having to hit the panel with his fist, "Considering the power we had to use…about an hour."
Jeannie grinned, "Then I'm going for a shower and getting changed," she smiled at her brother, "Keep them amused will ya?"
John stayed seated not surprised when Rodney joined him.
"What happened?" Rodney asked.
"I fixed a feedback loop in his TARDIS," the Doctor explained, "Then I sent it into a temporal orbit so the planet wasn't destroyed when the ship exploded. We simply rode the shockwave."
"And what about the Master?" Rodney asked, John noticed a shiver run across his friend's shoulder.
"Possibly scattered across time and space," the Doctor replied a sad edge to his voice before frowning, "But knowing him he'll be licking his wounds. Time will tell."
x
About fifty minutes later Jeannie reappeared now wearing a pair of jeans, black t-shirt and trainers, her hair was pulled back in a ponytail with small strands around her face that were still slightly damp.
"I'm guessing you have managed to amuse yourselves," Jeannie smiled moving to her brother's side taking a hold of his arm before turning to the Doctor, "So, are we there yet?"
The Doctor threw a long suffering glance at the young woman who simply grinned back at him.
"We'll be back on Atlantis in a few moments," he told her.
"Good," Rodney murmured.
John was more than happy to agree with him, he needed to get some rest and put a good bit of distance between him and Jeannie before he got himself into any situation that could kill his friendship with Rodney.
Jeannie smiled as she listened to the whine of the TARDIS slow to a halt, "Ah gentlemen you're home."
As they moved to the exit the Doctor groaned. All three turned back to him questioning.
"What?" Rodney demanded.
"The good news," the Doctor told them, "Is that we are in Atlantis."
"And the bad news?" John asked worried swapping a look with Rodney.
Jeannie rolled her eyes, "When exactly are we in Atlantis?"
The Doctor grimaced, "Give or take a decade, ten thousand years in your past."
Author's Final Note:- I have a sequel planned.