oOo

"What do you mean, a few days?" No one was surprised by Ace's outburst.

The Doctor had just informed them that was how long he expected it to take before he fully collated the results of the extensive tests he'd run on Ace and Kyris. The ones he'd run on Tegan had been more routine, to reassure them all that the temporal meddling the Master had performed hadn't done any additional damage to the mother-to-be or her baby. Those he had encouraging results for, to her relief. Ace's too, once she got past her sullen anger at yet another roadblock to her reunion with her daughter. She really was glad to know that Tegan and her baby were all right; she just didn't think she could wait another few minutes to find out about her own, let alone a few days.

"Ace, I promise you, if everything turns out all right, I'll bring you to her myself, not five minutes after I left her with me. My first self," he clarified, although everyone knew exactly who he was talking about. "Please, just try to be..."

"Be what? Patient?" The Doctor winced at Ace's tone of biting sarcasm. "That's all we've been since you got here."

"And I'm afraid you'll have to continue being patient," the Doctor replied, with a bit of ginger in his own voice. They were gathered in the kitchen, all of them: Ace, stalking back and forth with a murderous gleam in her eye; Kyris, standing near the door with arms tightly folded across his chest, his eyes following Ace's every move; Tegan, sitting with a cup of tea in her hands, looking uncomfortable; Noni, almost as tense as Ace, standing in front of the stove with a spatula in one hand while a pan of eggs burned, unnoticed, behind her; and the Doctor, seated across from Tegan, also watching Ace.

"Why? Why can't we just leave?" Ace's tone was belligerent, confrontational, but everyone could hear the desperation behind every word.

"Because there are some anomalies in your DNA." That stopped her short; she paused in her endless pacing, staring at him. Satisfied he had their full attention, the Doctor stood up, walked deliberately over to the stove, reached past Noni and turned off the burner before continuing. "Whatever the Master did to you, it wasn't just to hurt you, or to keep you away from Tegan."

"He did something to our DNA? Like what?" Ace demanded. "Made us poisonous to Susan, made it so we'll go balmy and try to hurt her or kill her as soon as we see her?" She'd always had an impressive imagination; there wasn't a single person in the room who was currently glad of that fact.

Everyone was grateful when the Doctor stopped her. "I don't know. All I can tell you right now is that it appears he modified your DNA." He wasn't sure if he should continue, but he couldn't leave it there. "There are some other things I'm concerned about as well," he admitted. Reluctantly.

"Other things? Like what?" Kyris sounded tense.

His father went very still, then slowly turned his head so his eyes met those of his son. "I believe you know one of them," he said, softly, regretfully.

"What do you mean?" Ace demanded, moving anxiously to Kyris' side. His head was bowed, and she touched his shoulder gently. "Kyris, what is it?"

"I haven't been able to use my healing abilities since the Master attacked us." The admission was quietly made, but everyone heard it and reacted with dismay. "I thought it was some kind of shock, a temporary condition, but now..."

"Now I believe it to be a side-effect of whatever the Master did to you," his father continued when Kyris faltered to a stop. "I cannot believe he would ever have destroyed so valuable a commodity on purpose, no matter how desperate he was at the time. And from what you've all told me, up until the TARDIS sent him away, he did not appear to be that desperate."

Ace hugged Kyris fiercely. "So a few days. If that gives us some answers, I reckon I can wait that long." But no longer, her eyes were saying.

The Doctor hesitated, glancing at Tegan before speaking again. "If you don't mind, I'd like to take Tegan somewhere while we're waiting. There's nothing I can do at this point," he added hurriedly, lest Ace start ranting again. "It's a matter of the TARDIS compiling the data; there's quite a bit of it to get through, and nothing for me to do until it's done."

"Fine." Ace waved a hand dismissively. "We'll see you when you get back."

"I want your word that you won't take the Master's TARDIS and go after Susan yourselves," he admonished them, but he kept his gaze on Kyris. Who nodded, albeit reluctantly. The Doctor allowed himself to relax; even if Ace tried something impulsive, Kyris would reign her in. He knew how to keep his eyes on the prize, even when Ace allowed her focus to stray. Even facing a loss of this magnitude, his child and his healing abilities, he remained stoic. Waiting for the final results, which they both knew, deep in their souls, would not be good.

"Thank you." That was Tegan, speaking to Ace and Kyris. "This is something I have to do, or I'll never be able to come to terms with this." She indicated her stomach, then looked back at the Doctor. "Can we go now?"

He nodded, taking one last look at the other three. Ace and Kyris were still standing there, her head on his shoulder and their arms around each other's waists, but Noni had slipped quietly out of the room. The Doctor applauded her instincts; the young parents needed some time alone together. He offered Tegan his hand. She took it gratefully and followed as he led her out of the Master's TARDIS and into his own.