Chapter 11 – Lie

Don't say a word
I'm okay with the quiet
The truth is gonna change everything

So lie to me and tell me that it's gonna be alright
Lie to me and tell me that we'll make it through the night
I don't mind if you wait before you tear me apart
So look me in the eye
And lie. Lie. Lie.

- David Cook, "Lie"

AN: I'm not 100% happy with the song for this chapter, but I wanted to get it published and didn't think you guys would care too much. But if you get any ideas while reading this chapter, just let me know!

The Doctor and Rose fall back into their ways of traversing the galaxy together, sticking mostly to the smaller planets that are not heavily occupied. But they always seem to run into trouble. Not a lot of trouble, surprisingly, but trouble nonetheless. Neither of them seem to mind. Rose seems to begin enjoying the running again and they laugh together about everything afterwards.

The Doctor never asks Rose about her conversation with Gwen. He feels as though he does not need to since the Rose that had stepped back into the TARDIS that night was much more relaxed than the one who had stepped off earlier. She is much quicker to smile at him and laugh at his bad jokes. If she ever wants him to know the whole truth, she will tell him. He hears her talking on the phone to Gwen often. Sometimes she's laughing, other times she is crying. No matter which one, the Doctor gives her her privacy.

As for Jack's determination to seek revenge on the Master, the Doctor can't say he hadn't wanted to take him up on that offer right then and there. But as he told Jack, right now he needs to focus on Rose and make sure she has actually recovered this time. He can't imagine leaving her alone or bringing her anywhere near the Master anytime soon. Plus he isn't sure where to even begin looking for him. But he promised Jack that, in time, they will find him and make him pay for what he put Rose through.

One day, the Doctor tries to bring Rose to another one of his favorite planets, right in the middle of Orion's belt. But unsurprisingly, they end up somewhere else. It's a planet he doesn't recognize, but the chill in the air is unmistakable.

Fantorrors. He's dealt with them before. Usually not too bad for him, but for Rose…

He knows if he can find their home base and take out the power crystal that summons them, they will all disappear. Maybe he can find it before they actually run into any of the creatures. He just has to either talk to some of the locals, or follow the source of the cold.

"It's freezing here!" Rose exclaims, rubbing her arms. The Doctor takes of his jacket and drapes it over her shoulders. He's not as cold as she is.

"That's because of the Fantorrors. But don't worry. They're easy to take care of. Follow me." Both her hands are hidden beneath his coat, so he places a hand on the back of her arm and leads her into the cold.

As they walk along, he notices her becoming more and more uncomfortable. She keeps rubbing her eyes and shaking her head. He knows that the presence of the Fantorrors is causing memories of her time with the Master to become prominent thoughts in her head again. He himself is doing everything he can to ignore the memories of the Time War that have been stirred up again. He knows the best thing to do would be to find the crystal and smash it.

They are getting close. The temperature is about ten degrees colder then when they first stepped off the TARDIS.

Then he sees it. A Fantorror. A long, thin, black figure that appears to float as it slowly moves. Without looking directly at them, he can see its red eyes glowing from behind a black veil. He doesn't think it has seen them yet.

Rose is currently looking down as she wraps his jacket further around herself. She must see it though because her eyes focus on where its feet should be and slowly begin moving up it. Before she can get to its red eyes, he clamps his hand over her eyes. She squeals in surprise and maybe a bit of fear as he lifts her up with his other arm and drags her into the nearest building, kicking the door shut behind them.

She pushes him off her. "Don't do that!" She throws his jacket to the ground and runs her hands through her hair. She walk to the other side of the room they had entered into, which looks a lot like a normal house back on earth, and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself.

The Doctor picks up the discarded jacket. "I'm sorry. I had to make sure you didn't look into its eyes. You may have noticed that just their presence makes you think about your worst possible memories. Think dementors in Harry Potter. If you look into its eyes, it sends you into a coma where you relive your worst memories over and over again. I couldn't risk that happening to you. I didn't think. I just reacted. And put this back on. It's freezing it here." He hadn't meant to be that curt with her, but his own memories and trying to fight them are causing his patience to run thin. He throws the jacket around her again. She puts it on properly this time and buttons it all the way up. She flips the collar up and curls into it as much as she can. She uses her breath to try and warm her hands.

"But why is it so freezing in here?" he questions to himself. Usually inside buildings were at least a bit warmer than outside. The only reason it should be this cold is if the crystal were in here. He starts running around the house looking for it, throwing open cabinets and drawers. Searching between the couch cushions.

"What are you looking for, Doctor?"

"The power source. It has to be in here somewhere. Only explanation for the cold. It looks like a black crystal about the size of an egg." He continues his search.

"Doctor."

He continues his search. "Hold on, Rose. If I can find this quickly we might be able to get back to the TARDIS in time to see the sunset where we were trying to go."

"Doctor!" He turns and looks at her, a mischievous, and slightly annoyed, grin on her face. "First off, time machine! Sunset is whenever we want it to be. Second off, an egg sized crystal. Like that?" She points towards the fireplace, directly across the room from the door through which they entered. On the mantle he sees the crystal, glowing a deep purple, just sitting there in plain sight.

Slightly embarrassed, he feels himself blush. "Ummm… Yes. Exactly like that actually." She laughs at him as he walks over to it. He grabs a potted flower that is on the mantle right next to it. Luckily these crystals are very fragile and easy to break. He slams the ceramic pot onto the crystal and it shatters. The room starts to warm up immediately.

"There. That's better," he says as the puts the plant back and picks up the remaining pieces of the crystal.

"Aww… you take the fun out of everything, my old friend," says a man's voice coming from behind him. A voice he recognizes. The Doctor stops dead in his tracks. Did he hear that voice right?

"Yes, Doctor. I'm back."

This time he is sure he heard it right. He spins around as fast as he possibly can with the intention of getting to Rose and doing everything he can to get her as far away from him as possible. When he turns, he realizes it is already too late for that. The Master is already standing right behind Rose. And he has a gun pointed at her head.

"What do you want?" the Doctor snarls.

"Oh, you know. Just wanted to have a little chat with some old friends. Plus, I missed my favorite pet." He sniffs Roses hair. "That's basically what you were, you know. My pet. I gave you food, water, played with you." He pushes Rose's hair behind her ear. "And how do you repay me? You run away. Didn't I tell you to stay?" Rose remains silent, froze, and closes her eyes and tries to pull away, but he grabs on to her arm tightly so she cannot.

"Get away from her!" the Doctor yells, taking a step forward.

"Nuh uh uh!" the Master says as he moves the gun so that it is poking hard into Rose's stomach and cocks it. "If you come any closer, I will pull this trigger. You know I will. You can't get here faster than I can pull the trigger."

The Doctor knows he is right and stops. Fatal stomach wounds are the most painful and take the longest to die from. Which could end up being a good or a bad thing in this scenario. He catches Rose's eye. She looks completely terrified. He tries to give her a look that tells her everything will be okay and he would get them both out of this. But he's not sure how well he does this when he's not positive he even believes it himself.

He watches her as her hands clench tightly around the sleeves of his jacket. She closes her eyes and he can see her start to shake. She begins breathing rapidly. He recognizes the symptoms from the first time they were back on Earth. She's having another panic attack. He needs to try and calm her down before it gets any worse.

"Rose." She shakes her head, still breathing rapidly. "Rose," he repeats. "Rose, look at me. Look into my eyes." She slowly opens her eyes. He can see the panic in them. He remains calm as he tell her, "It's going to be okay. We're going to make it out of here. Just breathe. You are going to be fine. "

"Now, now, Doctor. Don't go making promises you won't be able to keep."

The Doctor ignores the Master and continues looking into Rose's brown eyes. He makes the slow rise and fall of his chest obvious so she can match her breathing with his. Relatively quickly, she catches her breath and slightly nods. All her trust lays with him. Right now, once again, she is putting her life in his hands. He can feel the Master's eyes on him, watching their silent exchange, but ignores it.

The Master then returns his attention to Rose. He pulls the Doctor's jacket off of her and throws it off to the side, then looks Rose up and down. "I see you actually made it out in one piece. I must say that I am impressed, and a bit surprised. I genuinely thought he had decided to stop looking for you."

"I never would have done that!"

"Obviously," the Master says, never looking away from Rose, whose eyes are still on the Doctor. "I must say, you have healed rather well. I purposely made your ropes extremely tight at the end there. I'm impressed you can actually stand, let alone walk around. You must have had one hell of a doctor. Unless…" He looks at the Doctor and smiles. "You used your own regeneration energy to heal her, didn't you? Did you use enough to lose one of your regenerations?"

The Doctor doesn't react. He sees Rose looking at him. She didn't know that he shortened his life when he healed her. He thought she might get all angry and self-sacrificing, saying things about how important he is and how important she is not and he never should have done that. He stares intently at the Master, watching for any opportunity to get Rose away from him that doesn't involve Rose ending up seriously injured or, the option that seems even more likely, dead.

The Master must have noticed a reaction from Rose as to the consequences of him healing her. "I take it that wasn't your idea," his attention is directed back to Rose, who is now looking at the floor in front of her to avoid eye contact with the Master. "You didn't know that he shortened his life just so you, a trivial human, could walk again, did you? And I thought you two told each other everything. Apparently everything but the important stuff apparently. Makes me wonder what you didn't tell him about our time together."

The Master takes a step closer to Rose, so that his body is pressed up against hers. The Doctor can only watch as she closes her eyes and tenses every muscle in her body. The Master places his fingers against her neck. Is he taking her pulse? Then another smirk crosses the Master's face, followed by a maniacal laugh that the Doctor does not like. Not at all.

"You haven't told him everything, have you? And you left out the most important pieces! Have you even realized yet?!" directing his questions at both of them now. "You haven't noticed the lingering side effects?! Even months later?! Oh, this is just too good!" He laughs again. "Much better than I had anticipated. I can't wait to see how this all plays out!

"What else haven't you told him? Let me guess. Did you tell him that I often beat and tortured you? Yes. That would have been obvious from the bruising. What about how I drugged you?" He eyes the Doctor, looking for a reaction. "Seems as though he knew that one. Part of it at least. I bet I know what you left out. If he had known I'm pretty sure he would have tried to kill me already."

He walks so that he is standing directly behind Rose, gun still pressed into her side. He rests his chin on her shoulder and stares right into the Doctor's eyes. His hand slides up Rose's side, under her shirt, and across her stomach. He pulls her tightly against him. The Doctor sees a single tear run down Rose's cheek. Her eyes still clenched shut tightly.

"You didn't tell him about how much fun we had. How I got to know every inch of you." He tightens his grip on her even more as his hand snakes even higher until his hand rests over her bra. He looks at the Doctor as he not-so-gently squeezes, "I was happy to learn why he had kept you around for so long."

It takes the Doctor a second to piece together what it is he is talking about, but when he does, the anger swells in him to an unimaginable level. He's never hated anyone as much as he despises the Master in this moment. His hands curl into tight fists. At least now he knows what it was she has been keeping from him. But why had Rose felt she couldn't tell him about this? She had said something about not knowing how he would react. He was enraged. Had she told him this earlier, he probably would have taken Jack up on that offer to find and kill the Master, which would have meant leaving Rose behind somewhere or taking her with them back to her tormentor. Maybe she knew those were the most likely options and didn't like either of them. But now not only is he enraged, the subject of that rage is standing right in front of him. He can do something about it. He will do something about it. "Get. Away. From. Her!" he snarls through clenched teeth.

The Master smiles like a child on Christmas morning. "Nope. Definitely didn't know that one. I'm actually glad. Seeing your reaction just now makes up for some of what you put me through back on Gallifrey. I know how to get even more retribution though, right here and now. How about we reenact some of those fun, happy times for you to witness?" He starts to unbutton Rose's jeans. He has to use both hands to do it, so the gun is no longer pointed directly at Rose. This is just the opportunity the Doctor has been waiting for.

Faster than he has ever moved before, the Doctor launches himself at Rose and the Master, knocking them both to the ground. His move must have surprised the Master because he loosened his grip on the gun enough for the Doctor to grab it away. He points it as the Master, who has also lost his grip on Rose in the struggle, and stands between where the two of them are lying on the ground.

As the Doctor stands over the Master with the gun, he doesn't even take his eyes off him as he says, "Rose, run! Go back to the TARDIS. I'll be right there." She doesn't need telling twice. He waits until she is out the door and her footsteps dissipate.

"I'm not done with you yet, Doctor," the Master says calmly, smiling up at the man pointing the gun at his chest.

"I know."

The Doctor hates guns. He always has. But right now, he hates the Master even more. He pulls the trigger twice. Once into each heart. Then he kicks the body. Over and over again. Hard. Trying to dispel most of his rage before he heads back to the TARDIS. When he thinks he has done as much damage as he can, he picks up his jacket and walks back to the TARDIS, tossing the gun into a river along the way. He throws the clip in separately and empties the chamber beforehand to hopefully avoid any potential accidents if it is ever found.

Once that is taken care of, he takes a deep breath and runs back to Rose, desperate to take her in his arms.