eighteen | location: the tardis | it's never that simple | locked to morgana & those in hc clements

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

after this.

The Doctor leaves Rose sleeping after a while and heads to the console. He promised he wouldn't take them from Taxon until Rose woke up, and he plans to keep that promise. He'll say goodbye to Rose, send her back to her world, and then take everyone else back. Everyone except the Master. He can't give him back to the timeline, he just can't. He needs to convince himself that he's wrong, but that will take time.

But, there's something he needs to do in Taxon, first. Someone he has to give some very sad information to.

He steers the TARDIS towards another room in HC Clements, one with another victim of the Master's resting up. Vaguely, he recognizes that going to visit Morgana while Rose is sleeping won't look very good to Rose, who is already suspecting he's up to more than he actually is, but he can't just run away from this. Not this time.

He parks the TARDIS in the middle of the room and heads towards the door.

Comments

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"I do not what?" Morgana stops playing with the chain and just takes hold of the key.

"You want to keep her, don't you?" Someone else finds the idea terribly funny, and a great reason to taunt. "But it has so little to do with her situation at home, admit it."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor stays silent and begins putting away the pieces of the first aid kit. He won't rise to the Master's bait. He won't let him taunt him. He won't let him be his Master, as he half-promised Morgana.

He moves to stand to put the kit away.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"Ignoring me now? It won't last." If the Doctor is looking, he would notice that while the Master is talking, the key slips out of the hand, like it is impossible to hold.

"He is teasing you again, is he not? Sometimes I can hear him when he does. Sometimes, all is silent." Morgana's taken hold of the key again.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Probably for the best if you don't always hear him," the Doctor says, putting the kit away and heading back to the couch. He thinks about sitting on the floor again, then thinks about going and trying to sleep, and then finally decides to just sit against the arm.

"Wish I didn't have to hear him. Course, I've got it a bit easier than you, I think."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana turns to look at him, sitting on the arm of the sofa. He feels a lot closer "I think it would be the same. I feel like my gift, being used incorrectly." It is a relief she no longer has it; as she does not wish to wield it as a weapon, even if she is not the one controlling it.

As with every other time after a connection, the pain comes less frequently, but there are moments when it hits, as painful as ever, and there is one now. As much as it hurts, if her theory is correct, it's the most hopeful sign she has.

It is a minute before the pain passes, causing her breathing to quicken, and her to curl back up on the couch, holding her head.

Her voice is shaky when she speaks again. The Doctor is the only one she can check her theory with, so she hopes not to sound too ridiculous. "I think it hurts because my mind is trying to expel him, like a festering splinter." It would make sense, her head hurt, like a severe headache the first time, the second, with a deeper connection, it's pain was sharp. This time, with the violence involved, the pain's increased accordingly.

At least, she hopes she's right, as if there is not a purpose to the pain, she might cry again. Everything hurts.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Bodies naturally work out splinters," the Doctor says, approving of the connection. "And you'll naturally work him out. Your body is tougher than he is. He's nothing but a remnant of what he was."

He wants to comfort her, but he doesn't know how. He's terrified to be too close, to make the Master that much more ingrained in her. If the Master were a metallic splinter, he'd be the exact opposite of the Doctor's magnetism, pushing deeper into her if he got too close.

"It will be all right," he promises.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Knowing nothing of magnetic poles, Morgana looks at him. She's naturally fairly strong, but this has taken more out of her than even her illness months previously.

She's lying facing him, and lifts her hand, like she's planning on taking his hand but another pain hits, and she groans. She closes her eyes tightly, breathing through the hurt. Morgana is hoping it because the Master is nearly gone, but she can still feel him.

She opens her eyes and looks at him, and makes an observation of the two, "You are many things. He is only pain. It's all he wants -- yours in particular."

And another pain hits. It is followed by, what is to Morgana, blissful unconsciousness.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He hates seeing her in pain. He hates seeing her in pain and knowing there is absolutely nothing he can do to fix it. So he sits, and he watches helplessly as she falls unconscious.

"I'll make it right, Morgana," he says. "Don't know how, yet, but I will."