Chapter 9

When she woke the first thing Missy noticed was that Beta was not in bed, which was rare, since the child needed many hours of sleep than her and she usually just kept her company during her sleep. Missy knew it must still be dark outside and that she could enjoy a little more of the covers comforting warmth.

She turned lazily on the bed, stretching her body, that's when she noticed someone in the room and opened her eyes.

The Doctor watched her with a small of pure and evident satisfaction on his lips as he held his daughter sleeping deep in his lap with a spare blanket around her.

Missy sat on the bed, adjusting the nightdress over her shoulders. Her eyes locked on his showed a certain manic glow and her lips curved into a proud smile.

'Little traitor, you just got here and she's already choose you over me.'

He shrugged, unable to look away from her, in her modest attire and loose hair completely messed up. Missy was for him a constant provocation, a path with bright outdoors saying "danger - way to downfall", complete and utterly irresistible.

'Tea?' It was all he asked, preventing any other thought or impression from becoming accessible to her.

It took a little nod from her and in synchrony they moved, she selecting a change of clothes, he transferring their daughter to the bed carefully, adjusting the covers around her to keep her warm.

They faced each other again in the hall.

'I'll put a kettle.'

'kay.'

Neither of them moved, their hands have meet each other's at some point and their fingers intertwined. Gently, the Doctor's other hand removed a lock of rebellious hair away from her face and remained there, touching her locks,

Twelve hours or six years ago their connection had so much magnetism? Perhaps, yes, they might have been on the edge of an abyss waiting for the last stones to break loose for the dive of their existence to happen. A unique and inevitable dive, determined still in their childhood and which they knew, from an early age, to be eternal.

Even without any desire to do so, Missy broke the contact and followed the corridor toward the bathroom to compose herself as he went down the stairs to the kitchen with a mixture of euphoria, relief, hope, and melancholy spinning within.

Missy found him sitting on one of the dry trunks in the garden that the children used as pews to read and on campfire nights in the summer. He watched her approach, raising an eyebrow when he noticed that she wore jeans, a sweater, a coat and boots.

"What happened to your Mary Poppins outfit?" He said mockingly, handing her one of the mugs with tea.

"Became small after a while and I couldn't keep wearing the same clothes for almost six years. Can you imagine how smelly I would be by now?" She accepted the mug, sat next to him and took a sip. "I definitely need some new clothes but I'm thinking about a practical style, no jeans tho."

"They fit you well." There was a note of flirtation in the Doctor's words. Missy gave him a provocative look and smiled.

"I assume Nardole told you about her." She finally got to the point.

He mentioned it. Had more to say but I wasn't listening."

"I bet you got nauseated." Missy said as teasingly, curving her lips in a pout. He looked at her reprovingly and it made her laugh. "I've been waiting for this moment for so long and I missed it. Told him you would be nauseous and walk away."

"And you were right." He indulges her against his own will. The Doctor watched her for a few seconds, and his face became more serious. Missy immediately knew they were reaching dangerous waters. "What happened to you? To the Master?" He asked.

"Oh…" Missy bit her bottom lip in a theatrical way just to gain a few more seconds. "You will not be happy with me if I tell you about Ju-ni-or." She hummed the nickname of her previous self. As the Doctor said nothing and just stood there staring at her, she went on. "He was very tempted to kill you and I couldn't let him, could I? So I had to fool him to the very very end." She shrugged, averting her gaze from him to watch her own boots. "I must say that I remembered a few things at the farm and… well... let's just say I helped him join the sisterhood."

At first the Doctor said nothing. Part of her seemed dismayed at what she had done and that was evident by her posture. He had kept her in the vault mainly to make her become someone better, a concept that could be very malleable, he knew.

"You killed him?" He asked in a low voice, resting his hand on her leg to get her attention again "You killed yourself?"

"You could say that." Her eyes glued at her boots. "Twice by the way. I stabbed him but I was sure he would make to his Tardis before he turns into moi." Her voice was a hoarse whisper. "He shoot me at the back, if it wasn't for your energy and Beta I would have been killed. In the end you were right, I needed to be saved from myself."

After a while in silence as the two of them absorbed the facts, Missy asked, looking back at him: "This will add more time in my sentence?"

"You still got nine hundred years left. I guess one more death won't make too much difference now." He shrugged.

"What about Beta?" She asked immediately.

"What about her?"

"I'm going back to my vault. What are we going to do with her? How we are going to deal with her?"

"I'm not taking you back to the vault. I can't lock you there anymore." The Doctor said simply. Missy could not imagine how much it hurt him every time he walked into that vault to spent hours with her just to had to go and leave her locked up in there. "Not just because of her, I just can't keep leaving you behind but I can't let you go either." He admitted.

"So I'll be kept inside your Tardis."

"No Missy, since I'm you guardian you are going with me wherever I go, at least for the next nine hundred years." Tears streamed down her face and the Doctor delicately dried them with his fingertips. Missy closed her eyes, enjoying the caress and he murmured: "You know, despite how crazy this may be I love you."

"And I love you, my dear Doctor." She replied opening her eyes and giving a sniff. "Are you telling me what happened to you out there?" She asked, completely changing the subject.

"I met myself."

"Yourself? Which one?" Missy's tone became more lively. As a child, she brightened up with any story he had to tell, especially if involved other versions of him.

"The first one."

"Oww… My precious little crush!" Her eyes glittered as she imagined her Theta and the Doctor smiled as he listened her. "I loved that arrogant you so much. You didn't have this many principles back then. Was always running, from Gallifrey, from other people, from problems. We use to have so much fun. How was him?"

"About to regenerate for the first time. Told him about you, sort of, he sounded interested to meet you."

"I bet if I was me back then he would had marry me." Missy teased him.

"So full of yourselves, aren't we?" The Doctor smiled contemptuously.

"Wouldn't he?" She insisted.

"Probably, and we would have killed each other a long time ago."

Missy rested her hand over his and their fingers tangled again. "You not angry with me anymore?"

"Odd thing it that I'm never angry with you."

"I wish there was another way but there wasn't." She said softly and smiled. "And The Mistress is a much better enemy, company, friend and lover than he could ever be."

"You are a good mother as far as I saw."

Missy noticed that by the change of subject the all about the Master was forgiven and forgotten by the Doctor, perhaps not necessarily in that order. More than anyone else they knew each other and he struggled to understand her, she knew that.

"You haven't seen a thing. That little koala sleeping in my bed gets all my attention, she's always with her little arms around me. Sometimes I feel like a tree." Despite her words, she smiled proudly.

"Must be something terrible." He said with a twinge of false irony. "She's adorable, I just wish I haven't missed so much."

"Don't. She have plenty ahead of her for you to witness. Starting for her fifth birthday in two weeks." The Doctor had a stray dog-like look on his face that made Missy feel tempted to plant a soft kiss on his nose, just to make him change his expression, but she controlled the impulse and asked instead. "Do you trust me?" He nodded. "Let me show you."

Missy took the mug from the Doctor's hands and set it down beside her, turning her body toward him. Her knees touched his and then her fingers rested on the Doctor's temples. He immediately leaned toward her touch. They rested their foreheads against each other and their noses touched. They looked into each other eyes for a moment, sharing the same breath and finally their minds met.

She showed him small flashes of her pregnancy. The first time she heard the baby's heartbeats, her belly in different stages and the sense of calm that Beta constantly sent to her mother. She showed him the first time she held their daughter in his arms for the first time, with her blue eyes opened and staring at her. This had been a sight blurred by tears, but no less significant.

She felt the Doctor sigh and tears rolling down her face, his tears.

It showed small flashes of Beta as a baby, growing fast. Her first words, the first steps, the first teeth. She showed him her running with the other children and how she just got asleep clinging to her mother.

At last she showed the girl with her countless drawings and notebooks, as her intellect evolved rapidly, and a funny memory of the girl playing with the little pigs from the farm, muddy from head to toe, as if it were something quite normal.

"She make friends as fast as you," She said at last, interrupting the flow of memories without breaking the link. Her hands went down his face, stroking her cheeks gently and he brought her close, arms around her waist.

When their lips touched, seemed like a thousand years had passed since the last time. They shared chaste kiss, soft, a mere brush of lips, but full of feeling and longing. Together they felt at home again.

"I do like these new cheeks you've got. The bottoms ones are this good?" Missy said, unable to contain herself. Her words implying the obvious, outlined by a mischievous smile.

"I don't know, but we can find out later. What do you think about it?" The Doctor's hands slid slowly down her back, coming dangerously low.

"It's a date." And she leaned back into him, to start another kiss.