He runs towards the library. The Master is shouting at him and for the first time he realizes she is speaking Gallifreyan.
How this came to be? The Master in the TARDIS and apparently wanting to be his companion. It is too surreal to be true and he wishes it is real, but he is too shaken and wary.
The Shadow dig into memories too painful and too recent that were bury deep thanks to regeneration. He is the man that forgets in contrast to the last one who was the man who regrets. All his mistakes, loses; all his guilt and pain were used against him and almost succeed in breaking him.
He stops at the door of the library his breathing too fast and a wave of dizziness comes upon him.
He was ready to let go. He was ready to let it take him, because he is so so tired. He has lost too much and the Universe never stops asking. He, Time´s Champion is so tired.
Time´s answer? The Master. His savior happens to be the one who has opposed him most viciously across said time and space. How he can trust that? How he can believe his oldest friend and best enemy is here to help?
Suddenly small hands grab his face as the Doctor realizes he is on his knees, breathing almost impossible. The hands are very nice, he thinks. Warm, not hot like human hands are most of the time. These are comfortable warm hands, smell like time, atron energy. Home.
"Doctor, breathe" the Master orders and he does. He closes his eyes and takes deep breathes, the TARDIS gentle song and those firm gentle hands, anchoring him down, to control the wibbly wobbly mess of his emotions.
"Thank you" he whispers as sits down, eyes still closed. She lets him go.
"Do you feel better?"
"Yes"
"Good"
And without warning, she slaps him. Hard enough to make Jackie Tyler proud.
He opens her eyes in pain and surprise only to find her standing up, hands on her hips looking down at him. She is short and pretty, but the fire in her eyes and the power that seems to surround her makes her look every inch as dangerous as she is.
"Never chain me again, do you hear me? I am not your prisoner. If you don´t want me traveling with you, I can leave. I don´t need your crap. I am The Master and I deserve"
His reaction surprises him as much as her. He throws himself against her, hugging her legs and almost throwing her to the floor.
"Please don´t. Don´t leave. I can´t, I can´t be alone again " he is babbling and is this not embarrassing?
The Master sighs loudly and he waits to be mocked and rejected. After all she once let herself die just to spite him.
"Doctor, you need to calm down" and she is speaking English now, her accent soft and american. Good. It does not hurt as much as like their dead language.
( Jack. Jack. American accents always make him think of Jack)
"Blimey, I am a wreck, am I not?" he asks suddenly feeling childish and stupid. He still mistrusts this strange woman but can´t let her go. She being here means he is not the only one anymore.
"You have always been Doctor. A crazy insufferable wreck" she answers and he can´t help flinching.
Those perfect warm hands touch his chin again and lift his face up. She is smiling now, a bright brilliant smile with a pinch of mad and broken, the smile of those who suffer, survive and are proud to tell their story.
"But so I am"
And once more, in less than 24 hours, she offers her hand to help him up. Such a little gesture, so much meaning. He takes it and he stands up, his legs a unsteady. She is shorter than him, but almost everybody is.
"I don´t trust you" he blurts out, because he finds it is the main problem with this travel together idea.
"You have already said that. It is good, actually. That means you are just crazy , not crazy and stupid. Just don´t chain me again. If you do I will leave"
"I will not. Thinking about that, how did you get free?"
She smiles and shows him her hand, a silver ring with a red Stone on her finger. Ah, clever lady. Sonic ring.
"It is very handy. A gift from my late husband. But mainly the TARDIS allowed it, she has been very cooperative . This time it seems I am even allow to have hot water" she deadpans.
And he can`t help to laugh. It is a honest loud laugh, because this is silly and impossible and utterly brilliant. It is infectious and she joins him after a couple of seconds. When they can finally stop laughing and he is wiping tears from his eyes the Doctor feels slightly better and his smile more real.
"Well now. I am still hungry. So kitchen. Tea, breakfast and then we talk" she says arranging her dress which was wrinkled after his little clingy display
"Talk?"
"Talk. Your favorite thing in the universe. But really if we are doing this, we have to set some rules, don´t you think?"
He looks at her, and this is the first time since he left Amy and Rory after the Minotaur fiasco he feels something like hope.
He is not alone.
He nods "After you, Master" he courtesies and shows her the door.
"Thank you, Doctor" she courtesies back and steps out of the room.