oOo

"There you are."

Tegan flinched at the sound of Ace's voice, but refused to turn around. She'd avoided the newcomers for the past couple of days, telling herself it was to give them time to get settled in, and expecting the Master to return at any moment to imprison them all once again. The longer he stayed away, the more nervous Tegan became, even though she knew she should take it as a good sign. Maybe he wasn't coming back at all. Or maybe he was just playing more games, working on their nerves or waiting for them to relax their guards before he pounced.

"It took me forever to find this place; doesn't the Master have more than one kitchen?" Ace seemed determined to strike up a conversation, which, considering their last exchange, seemed ludicrous. To make small talk after essentially forcing someone to confess their most terrible secret, even in exchange for confessing their own pain, was pointless. Or so Tegan told herself.

To be honest, she was quietly relieved that Ace had made the first move. She would rather talk to that abrasive young woman than try and hold a conversation with the Doctor's son. It was going to take some time before she could become used to the reality of his existence.

"It's a good thing we had some food in our room, although I'm getting sick of apples and whatever those wafer things are. Kyris is lucky; he doesn't eat as often as I do and he's not half so picky." Ace kept up the casual tone, but Tegan felt the weight of her gaze as she deliberately sipped her tea.

It was her third cup, an herbal blend she hadn't tried until now, but it was all the TARDIS shelves currently held. The regular tea was gone, the stock not replenished the way it always had been in the past, and Tegan assumed it had something to do with the Master's disappearance. Perhaps the TARDIS was in a sulk; when Tegan had first searched out the kitchen, after her confrontation with Ace and her own demons, she'd gone straight for the liquor cabinet, only to find it empty. As if the TARDIS sensed her need and deliberately withheld it. Even the bottle of cooking sherry was gone, although she could see the spot it had occupied, behind the jar of olive oil.

"Look, I'm sorry I was so rotten to you, but I'm going crazy, worrying about my daughter." There was a pause, but Tegan once again refused to speak. "I get it, if you don't want to talk to me, but I really think you should let Kyris take a look at you."

That got her attention. Tegan turned to stare at Ace, standing uncomfortably in the doorway. "Is he a doctor?" There was no other earthly reason for him to have a look at her, unless the Doctor's son was a shrink, unlikely as that seemed. Then again, it was just as unlikely that he was a doctor. Lower case. A real one.

Ace started to shake her head, then stopped, reconsidering. "Sort of. Not with formal medical training or anything like that. He's more of a natural. A Healer."

Even Tegan could hear the upper-case in Ace's pronunciation of the word. "A Healer? What, with crystals and herbs, that sort of mumbo-jumbo?" She sounded skeptical.

Ace walked into the room as far as the cabinets opposite the table at which Tegan sat, then stopped, leaning one hip against the nearest counter in a deliberately casual gesture. "No. More like some kind of ancient Time Lord ability that hasn't cropped up in eons. Probably not since the rest of them stopped having babies the regular way and started weaving them on a Genetic Loom. Whatever that means."

Tegan had no idea what she was talking about, at least as far as genetic looms went, but she did grasp the fact that Ace was implying Kyris had been conceived and born the old-fashioned way. She wasn't prepared for the pain that realization caused her, and she returned her attention to her tea. "Good for him. But I'm not injured, so I don't see any point in letting him take a look at me."

"I think it would be a good idea."

Both women turned, to see Kyris standing diffidently in the doorway, gazing directly at Tegan. "Please. I promise it's not intrusive. All I have to do is touch you, your hand or anywhere else you'd like..." He paused, flushing, as he realized how his words might be misinterpreted. "I meant your shoulder or forehead or something like that," he muttered, reddening further.

Tegan laughed. His discomfort dissolved her own tension, diffused her growing anger at what she saw as a couple of well-meaning busy-bodies getting a bit too nosy about her personal business. She stretched out her hand. "Go on, then. Take a peek." She pulled it back suspiciously as Kyris started to enter the room. "This isn't a try at checking out my mental state, is it, reading my mind to make sure I haven't been driven round the bend? Can you even do that?"

Kyris took a deep breath, looked her straight in the eye--and lied through his teeth. "No, it's just a matter of checking out how you are physically." He tried to make his voice as reassuring, as unthreatening as possible. "If there are any unhealed injuries or developing illnesses, I can take care of them for you." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ace react, briefly, to his words, her head jerking slightly before she got herself back under control. She knew, better than anyone, how his healing abilities also involved a certain amount of mental contact, but she also knew, as did he, that Tegan would refuse any help if she knew that. What she hadn't known was that he would lie about it.

He wasn't even sure Tegan needed any help, at least as far as physical ailments went, but he and Ace both agreed that her mental state needed to be evaluated as well. And short of "accidentally" brushing up against a rape victim, touching her without her consent, this was the best way to see how the Earth woman was doing, in every sense of the word.

Tegan once again extended her hand, although her expression remained doubtful. Kyris advanced slowly into the room, squeezing Ace's shoulder gently in passing, but his attention remaining focused on Tegan. He didn't want to scare her; although his personal experience in helping rape victims was non-existent, he instinctively erred on the side of caution. Tegan might have jauntily taken it in stride when she discovered their unconscious forms in the Console Room, might have reacted to their presence with a blend of skepticism and bravado, but he suspected it was all a cover up, and braced himself for a fragile ego even as he reached for her hand.

Before they made contact, the entire TARDIS shuddered violently, throwing Kyris across the kitchen to land in a heap with a steadily cursing Ace on top of him. Tegan, who had been sitting in the corner of the built-in table and bench, was wedged tightly against the wall, also cursing but with slightly less colorful language than Ace. "What the bloody hell was that?"

"I don't know!" Kyris shouted, rolling out from under Ace, who scrambled to her feet even as the TARDIS continued to buck violently, threatening to spill her back onto the floor with every movement. She braced herself against the counter as Kyris made it to his hands and knees. He elected to stay there until the wild movements gradually began to ease. Ace reached down and helped him to his feet. "I'd better get to the Console Room; if we've run into some kind of problem the TARDIS had damned well better let me take control!" He left the room at a dead run.

"You OK?" Ace called to Tegan, who nodded, looking slightly dazed. Her legs were braced against the far end of the bench, arms holding tightly to the table top. "Kyris is right, we need to get control of this machine, and fast, or we could all end up in bigger trouble than we already are!"

Tegan scooted out from behind the table. "I'll come with you. I may not have been able to figure this TARDIS out, but there must be something I can do to help, even if it's just handing over tools." She and Ace raced after Kyris, neither of them hearing the disembodied chuckle that filled the kitchen upon their departure.