sortofaman | (for Jo, backdated to last week)

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(for Jo, backdated to last week)

The truth was all too difficult, and the Doctor didn't quite fancy thinking on it at the moment. Instead, he was sunning himself on the grass outside the TARDIS.

It wasn't clear what exactly he intended to accomplish, considering he was pale as a sheet for starters, and had been liberally smeared with sunscreen before venturing outside. He hummed to himself softly and closed his eyes, considering a nap.

Beautiful day, even if he wasn't still himself after the adventure as Dr Cameron.

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After spending her first few months on the island doing very little, Jo'd had plenty of time to work on her tan. At the moment, though, she was in search of the Doctor. Now that the TARDIS was working again, she guessed he might be in there, tinkering. So she was surprised to find him doing nothing outside it.

"Hello, Doctor," she greeted him, flopping down next to him the other side of him from the sun. "What happened to make the TARDIS work again?"

"Hullo, Jo," the Doctor said, opening his eyes briefly to greet her with a slight wave. He was worn out from the weekend, yet, and the idea of getting to his feet at the moment seemed a bit of a challenge. "No idea, actually. After Jack and I looked into it, we decided that the technosynaptic pathways and power generation mechanisms self-repaired. But what spurred that so suddenly, not sure."

"I see," she said, although she didn't. She got the gist, though, which was usually enough with the Doctor. "But I can't find the wardrobe room. Have you moved it?" She didn't know how, Chase's suggestions notwithstanding, but it was the only explanation. And one that meant he could tell her where it was.

The Doctor's eyebrows slowly went up, despite his eyes being closed yet. "No," he said, sounding slightly worried. "I just saw it yesterday, same place it always was. Looks a bit different from when you were with me, but you'd know it by the massive amounts of clothes."

"That is what the wardrobe room's for," she said, grinning. "But it wasn't where it was when I was last there. Neither was my room and I only found that by accident." Admittedly, she had got lost, but only after she hadn't found the wardrobe room where she expected it to be. "Never mind, I'll have another look sometime." Now that she had another set of clothes it wasn't quite so urgent.

She sat up straighter and gazed at the Doctor, looking for all the world like he wasn't listening. But that had never deterred her yet, and anyway, he had answered her question. "I wanted to talk to you about the Master," she began, and then waited for him to acknowledge her.

"I didn't move it," the Doctor noted. "Must be something wrong with the spatial development manifolds...I'll look into them."

And he was listening; if he hadn't been, it would have been far more obvious. That, and the expression on his face changed, something set into stone and lines and pain. "What about him, Jo?"

Jo nodded. "Thank you." She'd ask him about that later because she really did want to get the wardrobe room.

She might have felt guilty about the expression on his face when she mentioned the Master, except that she'd had equally bad experiences with him. "It's just, I know he's planning something. He always is." She bit her lip. "You're not going to wait until he kills someone before you do anything, are you?"

The Doctor slowly sat up, opening his eyes and looking straight at her. "I know," he agreed. "And no, I'm not. I've been watching him, rules about a clean slate or not. I know it's only a matter of time before he snaps, and I intend to get there before then. I promise."

"Good." She should have been more trusting that the Doctor wasn't just leaving the Master to his own devices. "What's your plan?"

"Don't know yet," the Doctor said. "He has to make a move first, Jo. I can't do anything unless he starts towards something or does something suspicious. I'm under the law here, unfortunately."

"But the law's wrong." And then she realised what that sounded like. "I mean, in his case everything he does is suspicious."

"I got elected to council, Jo," the Doctor said. "I nearly broke his nose, several months back, I can't take any great preemptive action without getting myself in trouble and then where would he be?"

"Since when did you care about that?"

"Since I couldn't just bugger off when I'd done something other people could see as questionable."

Jo sat back, not wanting the Doctor to think she was completely irresponsible. "I hate that we just have to wait when we know what he's like." She sighed.

"I hate that only a few people believe me when I talk about it," the Doctor said simply. He sighed. "Not you, of course."

"When I've told people they should stay away from him, they've believed me." Although she didn't know if they then did stay away from him. Or if the Master was staying away from anyone. "But they can't understand what he's like like we do. And he could have hypnotised them all by now for all I know."

The Doctor was hardly that optimistic. "I don't think he hypnotised them," he noted, though that did bring some disturbing things to mind. Namely Martha Jones.

"That's good then." That didn't mean he wasn't going to in the future, though. "At least he's here, where we can keep an eye on him, rather than somewhere else causing trouble."

"Well, he was dead back there," the Doctor said, though he wasn't sure how that made him feel, really.

"Regenerating hasn't changed him at all." Although dying and regenerating didn't really change the Doctor much either, so it was hardly likely the Master would reform with regeneration.

"I think madness sort of transcends regeneration," the Doctor noted. "As does age. He didn't quite used to be like this, when we were boys."

Or maybe you just didn't notice, Doctor.

"So you think he's getting worse?" Jo was definitely worried by that idea?

"Over a long period of time. Of course, I was fairly certain he was dead." Damn the bloody Gallifreyan Council.

"If he's regenerated then he must have been dead." Jo sighed. There wasn't really much point discussing what the Master was like because they already knew. "Can't you change the rule so we can lock him up?" Not that locking him up had worked so far, but there wasn't a lot else they could do to stop him.

"Not quickly enough for it to matter," the Doctor said. He sighed. "And it wouldn't pass necessarily anyhow."

"I hate doing nothing." Jo shifted over to lean her head against the Doctor's shoulder and settle down comfortably, contradicting her statement.

The Doctor was slightly uncomfortable for half a second, then gently brushed some stray hair out of Jo's face. "Yeah," he agreed. "Me too."

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(for Jo, backdated to last week)

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