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Chapter 9:
"Doctor! I know where he is!"
Jack was gesturing frantically for the Doctor to move.
"Run, Doctor." The Master was almost shouting with glee. "RUN!"
And so they ran.
"Torchwood have locked onto his location" Jack shouted as they sprinted out of the housing estate, towards Central London. "We need to get to Blackfriars."
The busses and tubes were still running but it was late and the traffic was light enough to make a taxi the quickest way to get through the city so they jumped into a Hackney Carriage and they were on their way.
The Doctor strongly doubted that it was going to be as easy as this seemed on the face of it. The Master was a genius after all; he wasn't going to let them find him without a bit of a run-around first. And sure enough, the building at the location given by Torchwood was abandoned and boarded up.
"It's empty." Jack confirmed after a thorough sweep, "Apart from this." He handed the Doctor a wrapped package about the size of a shoe box. The wrapping was black with a pink rose pattern, all done up with a pink ribbon and bow.
"Careful, it could be an explosive." Jack warned as the Doctor examined the package.
"Yeah, it could." The Doctor acknowledged, with a nod. "but, it probably isn't. The Master knew where to find us apparently, he's had plenty of opportunities to blow me up so far… he needs me for something." He tore the wrapping off in one go.
It was in fact a shoe box, and nestled inside, among dried rose petals was a mobile phone.
"He used this to direct the call… well… there might be dozens of them, all over London."
"So he's sent us on a wild goose chase!" Jack huffed in exasperation.
"No." The Doctor pulled his ear thoughtfully. "I don't think so. I'm sure this will all lead to him, he's just buying himself some time."
"Time to do what?"
"That's what we're going to find out." The Doctor tossed the phone to Jack. "Get Torchwood to trace the last call made to this."
After a few minutes, Jack handed the phone back to the Doctor. "It's dialling."
"Doctor." The Master crooned "Did you get lost? I expected to hear from you before this… you're not as good as I thought you were."
"Just tell me. Is Rose okay?" The Doctor asked desperately, ignoring the Master's taunting.
"She's fine. Just sleeping."
"If she's fine then let me talk to her."
"But she's sleeping Doctor, you wouldn't want to disturb her would you?"
"I demand that you let me talk to her!" He shouted, his patience in tatters.
"You're in no position to make demands, Doctor!" the Master laughed. "But, if you insist…"
There was silence at the other end of the phone for a second and then a muffled conversation.
"Doctor?" Rose's voice was a little hoarse, but strong.
"Rose!" He breathed, relief flooding through him. "Rose, are you okay? Did he fix your head injury, did he replace the blood you'd lost?"
"What? Blood? I dunno what you're…. oh, yeah he said that was a set up. Not my blood. Look, Doctor he's…"
She was cut off abruptly and there was a loud tut-tutting on the other end of the line. "Now, now, young Rose, we don't want to spoil the surprise do we?"
"Rose!" the Doctor called, desperately.
"Doctor, she's fine – the blood bath was a set up to get your attention, like she said, it wasn't hers. Now… have Torchwood had enough time to trace this one yet?"
The Doctor looked at Jack, he was nodding.
"Don't forget to run, Doctor! Run!"
dwdwdwdwdwdwdw
He'd shaken her awake roughly, her head was still pounding, and it was worse if anything. Her body felt stiff and cold.
"It's for you-hoo!" the Master chimed, brandishing the phone. "It's the Doctor – just let him know that you're not dead." He held the phone to her ear.
Her heart pounded. Was it really him? "Doctor?"
A wave of raw emotion crashed over her as he answered. "Rose!"
And then he started talking about blood which flummoxed her completely for a moment. She hadn't had time to tell him about the poison, but even that right now couldn't dull the relief she felt. He was coming, he was really coming!
Did she ever doubt that?
Yeah, she did, she really did, maybe just a tiny bit but it had still been there. In the past it wouldn't even have been a question… well apart from that time in France when he'd left her, oh and when she'd saved her dad from that car and they'd had that blazing row and then he'd left her, ah, and yeah, when he'd left her at Canary Wharf and then taken two weeks to return…
She tried to fight it down but she couldn't stop the ugly question which raised itself in her head, demanding to be heard.
Had she ever been right to put so much trust and faith in this man? Had she been blinded, so dazzled by him that she'd missed the obvious?
She felt sick and she suspected that it wasn't just because of the poison.
Dwdwdwdwdw
"Doctor, we could be doing this for days! There's no telling how many of these things there are!" Jack bit out impatiently as they found another shoe box with yet another mobile phone nestled inside. This was their eighth now. Eight times being taunted by the Master and he hadn't let them talk to Rose again.
"So what are you saying?" The Doctor demanded as they both sprinted for the bus.
"There must be another way!"
"Jack, have you got a plan? Because if you have, I'm all ears!" they boarded the bus, the Doctor swinging down into an empty seat, leaving Jack standing in the aisle.
"Let me get my team out here?" Jack pleaded, "They can help us Doctor!"
"You do what you want Jack, but right now this is the only way I have of finding Rose and I'm not stopping while you and Torchwood" he spat the word out "find a way of making it worse!"
"It's not like that Doctor, I told you, it's changed. We changed it."
"Try telling that to all the people that the Cybermen killed!" The Doctor snapped, harshly. A lady in the seat in front of him got up to get off and Jack swung down into the empty space.
"I'm sorry, Jack." The Doctor leaned his elbows on the back of the seat in front of him and put his head in his hands. "It's just…"
"I know, Doc." Jack sighed. "But we'll find her…" he looked around for a moment as though looking for the right words.
"I can't believe that you left her at Canary Wharf after all that had happened, and considering what you knew about her timelines disappearing..." He tried to keep the accusation out of his voice as he said it, but it had been plaguing him since he found out.
"I had to move the TARDIS." The Doctor said, shortly. "But, anyway. That was never the plan. You know me better than that, Jack." He raised his head from his hands. "I was going to refuel, drop the TARDIS at her mum's and then be back at Canary Wharf for just after I'd left. I was going to follow her home, make sure she was okay."
"Just follow her?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, crossing my own time-stream just to keep her company for a short trip across London…? That's got to make her suspicious, right? I didn't want to worry her."
"I'm not sure it would've done…"
"I dunno…" The Doctor sighed. "I just dunno, I literally don't know how to be around her at the moment. I just don't want her to know how much she's changed things, how much danger she's…" he broke off to rub his face vigorously with his palms. "…but then, she said she overheard us talking. She might know already… I really didn't want her to find out like that. I didn't want her to find out at all."
"Me neither." Jack put a sympathetic hand on the Doctor's shoulder, then looked round. "Is this our stop?"
The bus had stopped amidst stationary traffic, people were crowding towards the front to get a better look at what was going on and then police sirens sounded from behind them. They both groaned.
"Gotta be an accident or something." Jack said. "I don't believe this!" They were both tired from the stress and the constant moving, criss-crossing London, never knowing when it was going to end.
"Come on." Jack said, getting up. "I've got an idea."
He left the Doctor standing on the pavement by the, now very long, tailback. Horns blared and angry shouts were heard as tempers frayed in the hot, London sun.
When he returned he was wheeling two Boris bikes towards the Doctor.
"You have got to be kidding me?"
"Fastest way to get around London."
"Blimey! Right…" He took a deep breath as he swung his leg over the saddle. "Allons-y!"
Jack laughed, they both did but only briefly, their laughter dying as the contemplated the task still ahead of them.
By the time they reached the hotel it was late evening.
"Erm…" The Doctor approached the reception desk. "Hi, yeah, I'm the Doctor and this is Jack. I think we're expected?"
"Suite 405." The receptionist said with a smile, handing the Doctor a key.
They looked at each other for a moment. They had no idea what the Master had waiting for them, if he was even here with Rose or if this was just another decoy.
The door opened to a luxurious suite. There was a long, dark settee in the middle of the room and across one of the arms, just visible from this angle, was a tangle of blonde hair.
"Rose!" They both said, together as they swept into the room.