oOo

Ace rejoined the Doctor in the console room a few hours later. She'd felt the TARDIS dematerialize, but knew the Doctor hadn't found Kyris; if he had, he'd have let her know. More likely he just wanted to be off Earth, away from Susan. No sense leading the Master to her.

Ace's hands slid across her belly at the thought of Susan. She'd come out of her funk after catching an hour or so of exhausted sleep, uninterrupted by so much as a hint of a dream. The trembling had stopped, the tears had dried, but she still felt cold, numb.

Frightened.

Ace felt a surge of anger as recognized her feelings. That wasn't her, being scared, needing a lie down in the med center, trembling and dazed! She heaped silent vitriol on herself as she drifted to the Doctor's side. He'd glanced over as she came into the room, but kept doing whatever it was he was doing to the console. The base was festooned with wires and unidentifiable gadgets, hodge-podged together in an unholy, Frankensteinian mess. She nodded at it. "Will that help us find him?"

The Doctor glanced at her again, no doubt checking her over for more signs of weakness. Let him look; he'd never find her trembling and frightened like that again. She raised her chin a belligerent notch. No one would. After a moment, his shoulders raised and lowered in an unhelpful shrug. "It might help us locate another TARDIS, which is where I expect we'll find the Master. And if we find him..."

"We find Kyris." A note of uncertain hope surfaced in Ace's voice. "But will he still be alive? Quite a trophy, the Doctor's son, to add to the Master's collection." The hope was crushed under the weight of her bitterness.

The Doctor turned to face her. His jacket and hat lay crumpled on the floor, the tip of his brolly poking out from beneath one wrinkled sleeve. His face was drawn, tight with anxiety, but his voice remained even. "Even more of a trophy for the Master to have in his power the greatest Healer Gallifrey has produced in living or recorded memory," he pointed out. "I imagine that's what Kyris has offered in exchange for our parole. His powers, at the Master's disposal." Some of Ace's bitterness flashed in his eyes and peppered his voice as he added: "Since my old school chum used up all his regenerations and is living in stolen bodies and on stolen time, having someone nearby to assure his continued well-being would be more than slightly tempting."

"More tempting to just take over that body, wouldn't it be?" Ace's throat clogged with panic at the thought. "Then he could have the powers for himself!"

But the Doctor was shaking his head. "No, that would be impossible. It's not just a matter of biology, it has just as much to do with the capabilities of the mind. Even if the Master wanted to cast my son out and take over his body, there's absolutely no way Kyris' powers would become his. He's has been living with these abilities his entire life, whereas the Master would have no time to learn them before they burned out his brain." He didn't sound as if he cared much one way or the other how the Master's brains ended up, but Ace knew he cared how his son did. Cared deeply.

As did she. "Does the Master know this?" The Doctor sounded rock-certain, but Ace was grimly determined to find any loop-hole, any flaw in his logic. She refused to be caught as unawares as had been by the realization that Kyris was Susan's father, let alone the fact that she herself was...she stopped there. It was still difficult for her to equate the older woman she'd just met with the new life growing inside her. Life conceived on the TARDIS and destined to grow up there as well...

"Yes, the Master would know this," the Doctor reassured her. "It's not something I pieced together by myself, you know; it's a known facet of Gallifreyan physiology and, for want of a better term, psychology. The Master will know this and won't hurt Kyris."

"If he has time to tell him what he's offering before the Master attacks." Ace held the Doctor's gaze with her own, and it was he who looked away first. Acknowledging the possibility without giving voice to it.

"He still wants the data retriever," was all he did say. Reminding her that the Master was just as interested in obtaining that as he was anything else Kyris might or might not be able to offer.

"Have you used it yet, to look for Kyris? Romana's magic mirror?" Ace's voice tried to be casual.

The Doctor shook his head. "Not yet. But I will." He pulled it reluctantly out of his pocket. No more leaving it behind. Not with such devastating consequences for such a simple slip of his attention.

"When?"

The Doctor held her gaze. When he spoke, he only slightly changed the subject. "You realize I may very will still have to track him anyway. If he's in the Master's TARDIS..."

"Yeah, I get it, we still won't necessarily know where or when it is," Ace replied impatiently. "Just put it in and find out, will you? We need to know."

The Doctor slid the disk into the reader. They both knew his hesitation had nothing to do with uncertainty as to Kyris' whereabouts and everything to do with what state they'd find him in. "Ace, if you wouldn't mind, perhaps you'd better let me do this alone. In case..."

A glance at her stubbornly-set features told him how useless it would be to try and spare her anything unpleasant. "No," she said, flatly. "Don't worry, my frail flower days are done and past, Professor. No matter what else that thing shows us, you won't find me fainting in the med center. Just get on with it." Her expression told him she'd already considered the possibility of what they might see, and she was braced for it.

Before he could depress the button, however, Ace spoke again. "Will we be able to use that to check on Susan?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied. Again he reached for the button, again Ace interrupted.

"So if the Master gets this he can find her. Or if he forces Kyris to tell him, or if he figures out some way to follow us?" The panic was threatening to return, but Ace grimly tamped it down.

The Doctor reached out, but not for the button. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We won't let him have this, Ace," he said softly. "Not ever. It's far too dangerous for far too many reasons, not just because he could locate Susan with it. As for following us, we weren't on Earth long enough for him to trace the TARDIS. And even if he did..." He hesitated, looking Ace over thoroughly before committing to his next words. She seemed more in control, more like her normal self, but still fragile, at least to his eyes. Ready to kick the crap out of the next person who looked at her crosswise, as she might herself put it, but still fragile. Nevertheless, this news might actually be a relief to her, so he plunged on. "Even if he did, he'd never be able to hurt Susan."

"Why not?" Something in his voice alerted her; Ace tensed. Whatever he was about to say next was important, and not just for this moment in time.

"Susan was conceived on the TARDIS. Not only that, but Kyris has a connection to the TARDIS even stronger than the one I have, probably because of his healing abilities. Susan seems to have that connection as well, although on a more unconscious level. And that has always served as a type of protection for her. I just didn't realize why, until now," he added reflectively.

"What, she's never been in danger while traveling with you, is that it?" Ace's voice was skeptical.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, of course not. But she's always managed to come though with little more than a few scratches and a good scare."

"So have I." The skepticism was mounting.

"Think of her as having been conceived in a state of Temporal Grace," the Doctor attempted, but Ace's scowl grew even darker, if that were possible.

She raised a hand. "OK, Doc, that's enough. If you say the Master can't find Susan without the disk--"

"Or the Time Scoop, which was destroyed long before I met you," the Doctor added, then closed his mouth with a snap as Ace glared at him.

"Whatever," she replied through gritted teeth. "Look, I know you're trying to make me feel better, but it isn't working."

He attempted to explain one last time, even if he couldn't clarify something that was as much an intuited belief as anything else. "The state of temporal grace that exists on the TARDIS extends to Susan. It's a sort of protection for her, made stronger by the fact that she grew up on the TARDIS as well as being conceived here." That was the best he could do; he hoped it would be enough.

Ace's frown eased. "So it doesn't have to be something bad that takes her away from us," she whispered, afraid to say the words too loudly, in case some malign influence was listening for just this sort of hopeful thought. "It could just be to protect her now, when she needs it most, when the Master wants to kill her personally. We could send her back to your first self so she builds up this connection without being in immediate danger from that bastard."

"That's possible," the Doctor conceded, but he had his doubts and Ace could hear them bubbling behind his words. But he didn't voice them, and for that she was grateful. For the one shred of hope he allowed her, she would love him the rest of her life even if she'd didn't already. Uncle, father, big brother all rolled into one, and she knew he would do whatever he could to protect not only her baby, but herself and the baby's father as well.

"Right, then," she said. "Let me know when we find them." Not if, never if. They would find them, rescue Kyris and take care of the Master, at least trap him or exile him, keep him from carrying out his deadly revenge long enough for Susan to be born and sent away to safety.

Without admitting it, Ace knew that her belief in that scenario was the only thing standing between her and the yawning abyss of despair she'd almost tumbled into.

And, she suspected, for the Doctor as well.

She watched intently as he depressed the button.