A/N: I've had this saved for months now, then I got distracted by work, and my book, and hobbies. So the ending of this chapter is a little weak and it's shorter than I wanted it to be, but I'm trying to throw myself back into the Doctor's universe with the upcoming arrival of series 10! (Anyone interested in the idea of a Bill/Di romance? #polyamorywins)

I was in the middle of a panic attack when the Doctor returned. She dropped everything and sprinted to my side, sliding to a halt as she rested a hand on my shoulder. "Breathe with me, breathe with me," she urged. "Come on. In, out. Nice, deep breaths. In and out."

I wheezed and grabbed onto the edge of her jacket. "I-I-I can't- can't stop," I gasped.

"Yes, you can. Just breathe with me. Can you do that?" I nodded. "Good girl. Now, in and out."

My shoulders were still trembling once I managed to regain my breath. I could feel the panic resting in my chest, weighing down on my lungs and heart as I struggled to keep my breathing even. My cheeks had started to dry and the Doctor swiftly wiped them clean with her thumbs. I looked away and stared at a spot on the floor instead of the Time Lady's worried eyes.

"Are you okay?"

I cleared my throat and managed to nod. "Yeah. I'm fine now," I croaked.

"Perhaps we shouldn't go off on another adventure just yet," she mused.

"Why not?"

The Doctor raised both of her eyebrows. "I don't know that you're ready. But we could go somewhere nice and quiet instead, if you wanted." She retrieved the things she'd dropped on the other end of the room and set them down on the jumpseat. Then she leapt towards the console. "I know! The Eye of Orion. You liked it there the last time I took you. It might do you some good to just relax for a bit."

"Shouldn't you be resting, too?" I asked. "You do still have a concussion."

She waved my comment aside with a brush of her hand. "I'll be fine. A concussion's never stopped me before."

"It probably should."

I glanced at the things the Doctor had dropped on the seat next to me. There was a pair of flats, a bag of crisps, a chocolate muffin, and a bottle of water. I was still hungry, considering I'd never gotten to finish my bagel earlier, and quickly gobbled down the muffin; the water followed soon after. The Doctor turned around when I opened the crisps.

"You've got a smudge," she said, smiling affectionately at me as she gestured to the corner of her mouth. I quickly wiped both sides of my mouth clean with my thumb. "How was the muffin?"

"Fine," I mumbled, a little embarrassed.

The Doctor rested her hip against the console. "So. Eye of Orion?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

The TARDIS had landed on the top of a grassy hill that overlooked a great valley of rocks, trees, and patches of grass and flowers. The weather was almost cool enough to need a light jacket, but I enjoyed the feeling of the air blowing across my skin and tussling my hair. Behind the TARDIS was a ruined stone building, moss growing over the walls and shattered stones that had crumbled to the ground.

I took my phone out from my back pocket and snapped a few pictures, my mind already playing around with a few story ideas that had sprung up. Once I'd gotten the pictures I wanted, I started down the hill towards a patch of boulders where there was a scattering of dusty pink wildflowers. I snapped another few pictures and then clambered onto one of the smaller rocks, my phone clutched in my right hand as shaded my eyes with the other.

Stupid, they can change to sunglasses, I reminded myself. The shades switched on with a press to the bridge of my glasses and I smiled. I had already climbed to the top of the largest boulder in the pile when I heard the Doctor call my name. She was at the top of the hill, waving her arm and gesturing for me to come back.

I groaned and started up the slope, pleasantly surprised when the Time Lady met me halfway. "I'll let you go off adventuring if you want," she said, "but I thought you might want these." She handed me my journal, a pen, and a leather bound book. "Just in case you wanted to sit and read or write."

"Thanks."

She grinned. "Of course. If you need me, just give a shout and I'll come running."

At the base of the hill, where the patch of boulders and flowers rested in a mini valley, another hill rose from the ground just a few paces away. I bounded up the next hill, my stupidly weak knees protesting the climb with little creaks and cracks. At the top of that hill I could see a long, silvery stream running through fields and twisting around several other hills and valleys. Before starting towards the river, I turned and took a beautiful photo of the TARDIS standing by herself in the mossy stone ruins. Then I pocketed my phone and raced downhill.

There were a few trees scattered amongst the riverbank, each of them old and bent over the water with chipped bark and pale green leaves. The roots of one tree struggled over the boulders piled at its feet and then fell a short ways from the bank into the river itself. As I leapt onto the tallest rock, about the height of my knees, a little brown butterfly flew out of the branches and fluttered around my head, then landed in my hair. I realized that the blue tint of my hair probably made me look like a giant flower.

The butterfly flew away a minute later, but I managed to get a few semi blurry pictures of it before it disappeared entirely. My phone started buzzing in my hand then and I nearly dropped it in surprise. I was receiving a call from a number I didn't recognize. In fact, there wasn't a number at all. There was just the word 'Unknown' at the top of the screen where the contact's name should have been.

I hesitantly slid my finger across the screen to answer the call. "Hello?"

"Diana! You're alive!"

I could feel my heart hammering inside my chest. "Who is this?" I asked.

"It's me!" It was a woman, her voice tinged with the slightest hint of a Scottish accent. A warning flared in the back of my mind, but I didn't understand why. "Now just- just hold on. I'm coming to get you!"

Something crashed on the woman's end of the call and I heard her shout. The shuddering wheeze of a TARDIS materializing sounded through the phone and then seemed to echo around me. Across the river, a large tree began to appear out of thin air. The wheezing stopped and a panel opened in the tree's wide, knotted trunk. Out stepped a woman in a dark purple dress, her hair curled and pinned in what had once been an elegant style atop her head. Now several thick pieces of hair had come loose and fallen around her face and neck, and her face was marked with black scuffs.

Her ice blue eyes widened at the sight of me. She was frozen for a moment and then she practically launched herself at me, stumbling through the river without a single care about the water splashing up to her thighs. I fell backwards off the rock, wary of the wild eyed woman advancing on me, but she caught me by the wrist and steadied me. Then she pulled me into her arms and buried her hands in my hair.

"You're alright," she gasped. My arms were pinned between my body and hers. "I-I thought…" She pulled back slightly and her hands cupped my cheeks, her eyes eagerly searching mine. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know you," I said softly.

The woman laughed. "Don't be silly, of course you do!"

I pulled my face out of her grasp and stepped back. "I don't," I said firmly. "I'm sorry." And although I didn't recognize her, there was something familiar about her that I couldn't put my finger on. Her bright red lips and smokey eyes reminded me of something, of someone, but there were no memories associated with her face. Except for a name. "Missy?"

The woman smiled, but before she could say anything a shout from the hill above cut her off. The Doctor was standing on the hilltop, her sonic held out in front of her as she looked down at us. "I heard a TARDIS materialize nearby," she called. "What's going on?"

"Time to go!"

Missy grabbed me by the wrist and dashed across the river, dragging me along behind her. The Doctor called my name and raced down the hill after us. The panel in the tree opened with a brush of Missy's hand and we stumbled inside, the door sliding shut just behind me. She dropped my wrist and rushed off, but I immediately turned and tried to wrench the door back open.

"The door's isomorphic, love. It only opens for me."

The Doctor banged against the opposite side of the door, calling my name frantically. "Doctor!" I shouted. "Doctor, help!"

"Hush! I can't concentrate with the two of you shouting."

I whirled around to stare fearfully at the woman as she worked her way around a black and silver console. Although it was a different design and layout than the Doctor's, I could easily tell that Missy was about to dematerialize. "Stop it. Missy, stop it!" I yelled. "Stop!"

"I'm not letting you go," she said, pulling hard on the dematerialization lever.

"No!"

I raced forward and shoved her aside, my books and phone clattering to the floor as I tried to find the phase controller or handbrake in an attempt to stop the ship. Missy's hands tore at mine, trying to drag them away. I was scared and confused, desperately trying to keep her away from the controls long enough for me to pilot the ship myself.

"Diana, stop!" she snapped in my ear. Her fingers closed around my wrist and then yanked my hand behind my back. She turned me around and leaned me over the console, the buttons and levers digging into my back as her face hovered over mine. "I just watched you die. I am not going to lose you again!"

I froze, the sound of her TARDIS whirring in my ears as the dematerialization completed. Looking up into her wild, icy eyes I suddenly realized why my mind had instinctively warned me about her presence. "Get off of me," I breathed, my voice shaky and my eyes watering. "Get off!"

I broke free from her grasp and stumbled to the side, frantically trying to put as much distance between myself and the psychopath that had just kidnapped me. Missy watched me silently, curiously, patiently waiting for my next move. My mouth was trembling when I finally gathered enough courage to speak again. "What do you want with me?"

Missy's expression was completely unreadable. "I wanted to see you again," she said.

"Are you trying to get to the Doctor? Because I barely know her," I rambled. "She knows me somehow, but- Look. Whatever you want, please, just don't hurt me."

"Diana, I would never-"

"No! Don't." I didn't realize I was crying until Missy's figure was almost indiscernible. I haphazardly wiped my cheeks dry and backed towards the doors. "Don't come any closer. Please."

Silence stretched uncomfortably between us until Missy sighed and turned, leaning heavily against the console with her head bowed. "So you remember, then. You didn't recognize me and you barely know the Doctor, but you remember who I am. I'm not a moron. I know what that means." Her laugh was bitter and short. "Well done, Missy. You've made a fine mess of things."

With another gentle sigh, the TimeLady turned to me and smiled. "I can fix this," she murmured. "I will fix this." She typed something into the scanner, the input showing up as Gallifreyan writing, and then flipped a tiny lever below the keyboard.

"W-What are you doing?" I stammered, hardly daring to breathe.

Missy's gaze met mine and I saw sorrow haunting her suddenly ancient eyes. "I'm making things right."

Spouting out of the cracks and corners of the console room came several puffs of smoke. Missy turned towards me and I inhaled sharply, immediately launching into a coughing fit as I backed myself into a corner. I knew there was something in the smoke because my vision was starting to swirl and blur, and my lungs were beginning to ache. My legs crumpled beneath me and I fell to my knees, the spinning sensation in my head making me feel dizzy and nauseous.

"I know you wouldn't want me to do this, that you'd want me to be better." Missy's voice sounded distant and far away, almost muted. "But this is the only way I know how to fix what I've done."

I fell forward and into the Master's waiting arms, my cheek pressed against her arm. I could feel her knees under my back as she gently laid me on her lap. Her fingers cupped my face, but I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone see what she was doing. I tried to grasp the lapel of her dress. Then, darkness.

I winced when my eyes next fluttered open, the pale yellow lights shining a little too brightly overhead. My lungs stung slightly when I breathed in and my forehead was pounding. Groaning, I rolled onto my side and stopped when I realized I was lying on some kind of chaise lounge; an armrest pressed against my stomach to keep me from rolling over the edge.

"Awake at last!" a cheery voice sounded. I rubbed the corner of my eye as a woman dressed in violet stepped into view. "I was wondering when you'd come round."

I frowned, focusing intently on the woman as my brain tried to scramble for a name. "Missy." It was half a question, half a statement, halting and hesitant like a child still learning how how to speak. Missy smiled. "Wait. Where- Where am I?"

"My TARDIS." She sat down at the far end of the lounge, her skirt hiking up just far enough to show her black leather boots. "Sleep well?"

"I think."

"Any dreams?"

My brows furrowed as I tried to recall the fleeting memories of my dream. "I don't remember them." I shook my head and ruffled some of my hair, hoping it didn't look like an absolute mess. "Uh, where're my glasses?"

Reaching past the lapel of her dress jacket, Missy pulled out my glasses and handed them to me. She brushed the lenses off with her sleeve and then slipped them over my ears. "Now. How's your memory?"

"What?"

Missy's smile dropped and she tsked, shaking her head. "Oh dear. You don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what?"

She patted my ankle with a well manicured hand, each of her nails painted black. "After I brought you onboard, you said your head was hurting. Then you couldn't remember where you were, or the Doctor, or even me. And then you passed out."

I anxiously rubbed my chest directly over my lungs, as if I could rub out the dull ache through my muscles. "I did?"

"Mm."

"Well, I- I remember… something. I was with the Doctor, I think. We went somewhere. There was a tree, maybe?" I groaned in frustration and closed my eyes, trying to block out the console room and focus on the hazy memories rattling around inside my head. "Wait a second." My eyes flew open and I cast Missy a skeptical look. "Did you kidnap me?"

Missy grimaced and gestured vaguely with a twist of her hand. "Kidnap is such a nasty word, don't you think? I borrowed you."

"Wait, you borrowed me?" I hastily crawled out of my seat and took a few steps back, one arm extended in front of me. "No, I know I was with the Doctor. I remember that now. And you kidnapped me and I only know your name! Why don't I know who you are? Oh, that's weird. I didn't realize I noticed that."

"Perhaps it would be best for me to explain." I raised my eyebrows, but didn't move any closer or farther away from the woman and her alluring eyes. "I'm a friend of yours. A best friend, actually, from your future. We never really meet in the right order, I'm afraid. But that's what happens when you're friends with a rogue Time Lady."

Although my immediate memories were still confused and jumbled, I could remember with incredible clarity the events before Missy's appearance. Ali and the Starmen, Cassandra - who wasn't really my Cassandra at all, the ghosts that had nearly killed me, and my home. I shook my head and told myself not to think about the family and friends I had left behind. A flash of a memory sparked in my mind's eye: Missy grabbing onto my hand and dragging me into her TARDIS. I met her gaze and suddenly felt like something was wrong.

"You did kidnap me, didn't you?"

"I borrowed you, Diana," she insisted, her accent turning very Scottish. "And it wasn't for any nefarious purposes, before you get any strange ideas in that pretty head of yours."

"Then why did you kidnap me?"

"Borrow!" Missy sighed and rolled her eyes, her lips pressed firmly together. "I panicked," she admitted. "I was in a fight with some Daleks and you were trying to help me and you died. Only you didn't. At the time, I thought you were dead, that the Daleks had killed you, and I sort of lost my mind. Oops." She flashed me an unconvincingly apologetic smile. "I took you because I thought that I'd lost you and the thought of you dying- the thought of your death being because of me… I couldn't-…"

My throat seemed very dry and suddenly, the metal flooring seemed incredibly interesting. "Am I dead?"

"Of course not, stupid."

"No, I mean- you said-"

"I was wrong." The serious gleam in Missy's eyes turned playful and she sprang to her feet, bouncing playfully on the tips of her toes. She licked her bright red lips and grinned. "Luckily for the both of us, you're very much alive. It'd be a shame to lose a figure like yours."

Although it wasn't the time or the place, I was more than flattered and flustered by the Time Lady's flirtatious comments. She was standing by the console, humming to herself as she looked over the controls. I padded over to the console and attempted to peek over her shoulder, but she tsked and shook her head.

"Oh, no. Where we're going is a surprise." She positioned me a few paces away and then looked me up and down, smiling. "Just stay there and look pretty for me. You do it so well," said Missy, winking in my direction.

The ship creaked and groaned as it began to dematerialize, Missy racing around the console to keep everything in order. "Where are we going?" I asked, grabbing onto the edge of a panel to keep myself steady.

"Where you belong," she called over the wheezing of her ship. "Trust me!"

The flight evened out a few moments later and with a snap of her fingers, the doors of her TARDIS flew open. Sunlight streamed into the console room, bright and warm with the faintest sigh of a breeze to accompany it. Missy took my hand and led me to the doors, gesturing to the rolling green hills that stretched out to the horizon. "The Eye of Orion."

"But that's where-"

She nodded. "I know. That's why I brought you back." Her hands ran absently along my arms, leaving goosebumps in her wake. "I shouldn't have borrowed you. But I made sure you were alright and that's enough for me. For now, at least." Missy smiled and took my face in her hands, her thumbs gently stroking my cheeks. "I'm going to do right by you, Diana Scott. I swear it."

Her lips pressed against mine and time froze. It had been ages since my last kiss, ages since another woman held me in her arms and kissed me like I was her entire world. But there I was, wrapped in Missy's embrace with her rose red lips locked onto mine. I wasn't even sure how it happened, but my hands wound up grasping her arms, holding her close as I leaned into her.

A sigh escaped my lips after Missy pulled away, my heart almost beating right out of my chest. She smiled and her thumb traced a sticky smear of lipstick along my lower lip. "There's more where that came from," she breathed. "Call me?"

I nodded dumbly. "Yeah."

I was guided outside and handed my belongings, the foreign call of a bird sounding across the valley below us. "Au revior, mon amour!" Missy chirped from the console. "Don't forget to call!"

The doors slammed shut and, with a few beats of my heart, her tree shaped TARDIS had completely disappeared, as if it had never been there at all. My fingers trailed along the curve of my lips, still tingling from Missy's kiss. I was still replaying that kiss in my mind when the Doctor came running up the hill towards me, minutes later, out of breath and worried out of her mind.

"What happened?" she all but demanded, hands anxiously searching my face for any signs of injury. "Are you hurt? Are you alright? Who took you?"

"I-I'm fine," I stammered. "It was-… It was a friend of mine. She came looking for me. She thought I'd died."

"So she kidnapped you?"

I shrugged. "I think… I think she thought she'd lost me."

"I thought I'd lost you," the Doctor countered, drawing me into a firm hug. "I'm just glad you're safe." I stared out at the horizon over the Doctor's shoulder, unsure of what I was feeling with all the hormones, worries, and confusing thoughts scrambled inside my mind. The Doctor pulled back and took my hand, her fingers twining easily with mine. "Let's get back to the TARDIS. I think we've had enough excitement for one day."