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I took a day off, more or less, just to think about my situation in depth. I couldn’t go anywhere without twenty guards, though, which irritated me. The Master didn’t have this many when we traveled together. Pondering that, I realized he considered himself worth the protection of ten men. He was probably right.
I swam in the lake with the guards all pointed away from me, except for one. His hat and military-type ascot concealed a lot of his features, but something about him just hit me odd. Taking a chance, I waved him closer.Oh my God.Jack.Harkness squatted on the end of the dock and grinned at me. “I take it my spatial concealer doesn’t work very well?” He asked. “It was supposed to obscure my ‘wrongness’.”“What are you doing here?” I whispered. “How did you get here in the first place?”“Punny,” he said, still grinning. “Hitched a ride with a mechanical man and a man who claimed to be you,” he answered. “He also said he was a parallel, Flesh Doctor, but he didn’t look like you. Kind of dishy, if young.”“Where are they now?” I asked, hauling myself from the water. The android Master had picked up a future copy of myself from a parallel universe. Even as a machine he was brilliant.“Swanned off. They said they’d be back by autumn,” Jack answered. He looked at my abbreviated swim trunks and eye paint. “So… The Master?”“Is emperor here,” I said grimly. “He won’t be pleased to see you, Jack.”“Ah, he’ll be all right. He can’t kill me, remember?” Jack helped me stand up. “So, what’s the deal?”“I’m his second in command.”“You’re kidding.” Jack gave me the hairy eyeball. “You accepted any kind of rule?”“I did it by accident,” I admitted. “Still, I’m not bossing people around for anything other than the normal management of the palace.”“And, it’s a great palace,” Harkness said easily. “The Master must have made a moral inventory if you’re living with him.”“He’s trying to do better.” I sat down and opened my picnic basket. “I’m worried he might backslide if he sees you.” Actually, the Master absolutely hated Jack for his out-of-time permanency.“You had better be going about your job,” I heard the Master’s voice said, getting closer with every word. “I don’t pay you to harass my-.”Jack stood up and turned, and the Master stopped dead. “What?” He asked bluntly. “How long have you been here, Harkness?” His eyes moved to me, and I saw betrayal.“I had nothing to do with it,” I said instantly. “He says your android copy brought him here.”“This morning,” Jack finished for me. “Needed a job in the local military, so I applied. Imagine my surprise as seeing the Doctor and you on peaceful Seldatia.”The Master eyed him for what seemed an eternity. He looked at me again. Then, he stepped back a deliberate six feet and arrogantly motioned Jack to come closer. I watched in agonizing suspense as the Master spoke to Jack, and so lowly I couldn’t hear a thing. Jack tilted his head. His eyebrows went up. He said something back, something that had the distinct edge of a warning. The Master narrowed his eyes at him and replied, then turned on his heel and marched away, back toward the palace.Jack sauntered back to me, smiling, but his eyes were troubled. “Congrats,” he drawled. “I’m your bodyguard when he isn’t around.”“What did you say to each other?” I asked.“He told me quite plainly what would happen if I let you get abducted,” Jack revealed. “I told him what I’d do if he shrunk you and put you in a birdcage.”I groaned. “Jack, I don’t need you championing-.”“Like hell you don’t.” Jack interrupted.**“Why did he do it?” The Master asked, striding up and down the bedroom like a man possessed. “Why would my mechanical duplicate go and retrieve Jack Harkness and bring him here to Seldatia?”“That isn’t the best part,” I said. He’d been pacing like this for an hour. “He was accompanied by a parallel, future version of myself, made of something called Flesh.”The Master whirled around. “Flesh? I know what that is. It means your real parallel self deliberately made a copy of himself.”“Sounds like something I’d do,” I admitted. “He says they told him they’d be back in autumn.”“That’s two months!” The Master threw his hands into the air, looking disgusted. “I don’t want to put up with your girlie freak friend that long!”“It isn’t his fault he’s immortal,” I protested.
“An Eternal isn’t at fault for his own immortality, but I hate them,” the Master shot back. He gave me a Look. “You aren’t to be openly friendly with him in public,” he ordered. “The people around here will take one look at him and think he’s moving in on what’s rightfully mine. My status will go down if everyone believes you’re fucking him!”Even though what he said made me mad, I had to grudgingly agree with him. The Master and I weren’t really a couple; we just played to that because of convenience. You can’t really explain a relationship as complicated as ours. “Yeah, Jack’s never made a secret of his…”“Persistent randyness and fixation upon you,” the Master finished for me. “If you gave him a dram of encouragement he’d be on you faster than you could blink.”“True.” Jack liked to look at me, and when he did I could see his thoughts.The Master sighed through his nose and continued to pace. “Just the sight of him makes my gut churn,” he said lowly.“I’m a Time Lord, too, remember?” I asked, holding up a hand.“How do you stand his Continuity?” He asked.“Well, it’s sort of like looking at an automobile wreck. Morbid fascination blended with pity and the desire to not get involved.” He’d work himself into a real lather if I didn’t calm him down some, but I had no idea how to go about dosing him with calm. I’d never been successful at that, not with the Master. “Why’d you make him my personal bodyguard if you can’t bear him?”“Because he’d do anything to protect you, he’s deathless, and he’d do it anyway. All his sneaking around to protect you would be seen, and we’re back to public disgrace,” the Master listed swiftly.“Still, looks kind of good to have an immortal among your employees,” I mused aloud. “People might think even more of you when they understand Jack works for you and can’t be threatened. You know what I mean.”“So, I should arrange an accident for him,” the Master replied, sounding serious. “Immolation? No, I’m known for fire affinity now.” He waved a hand impatiently. “Trampled by the lizard horses? No, one could live through that.”“You aren’t getting him killed just so everyone can watch him resurrect,” I said sternly. “Besides, this is Jack we’re talking about, here; he’ll do that himself, given time. A fight with a jealous boyfriend, playing the hero…”“Yeah, you’re right,” the Master said, relieving me. “That hero shit gets you killed quick. You ought to know.”“Excuse me, you’d gone through five regenerations before you even got exiled for the Prydonian Revolution,” I protested. “How does a math teacher kill himself that often?”The Master rolled his eyes. “You don’t have the stomach for that answer.”I didn’t press it. “Look, Jack bothers me, too, but he is a friend of mine.”“As long as he doesn’t become a friend with privileg-.” The Master halted his words to give me an intense, probing look of pure heat. “You haven’t fucked him, have you?”“I don’t think it’s any of your busin-.”“Answer me,” he demanded, bristling visibly and looking taller. “Did you fuck him?”I stared at him in the sudden idea he was jealous. “No,” I said slowly. To test my theory, I added a casual shoulder shrug. “I did consider letting him, because I thought that would get me out of his system, but decided it wasn’t a good idea.”The Master eyed me so hard I could almost taste him in my head. “You liar,” he accused.“Yeah, I lied,” I said. “I didn’t consider it.” I didn’t like that he could tell when I was lying, not at all. “Wanted to hear what you’d say,” I explained.“Don’t joke about letting Harkness give you the high hard one,” he replied. “It’s disgusting.” The Master went to our tray of afternoon tea things and poured a splash into a cup, his arm moving with jerky, irritated precision. “Even if he wasn’t a disturbing example of accidental immortality, he could hardly be clean. One can see he’s a promiscuous buck without a shred of caution.”“A buck?” I grinned. “I’d say Jack knows what safe sex is, Master; he’s too interested in getting attractive partners to risk VD.”“Nevertheless,” he muttered.“Look, I’ll be careful,” I assured. “With any luck, Jack will find a partner quickly. He’s attractive and persistent, after all. And, people around here aren’t hung up on gender roles when it comes to actual sex.”“That’s true,” the Master admitted grudgingly. “Although, I never saw him as attractive. The only time I ever liked his looks was when I was torturing him.” He bolted his tea and gave a little shiver. “I don’t like looking at him. He triggers an old response in me.”“I worried that he might,” I said.“Did you?” The Master eyeballed me a second before pouring more tea. “You’re a perceptive thing, for the most part. Usually not for me, but there we are.”“It isn’t my fault you’re mysterious.” I got up and poured for myself, grabbing a handful of vanilla flavored biscuits. “Your motives and plans are usually quite cleverly hidden.”The Master gave a tiny jerk of his head as he accepted the compliment as his due. It wasn’t enough to back him down from a grassy knoll, but it seemed to slightly ameliorate his ugly mood. “I’m not so hard to figure out,” he protested. “I have a large ego and large appetites, a desire for conquest and a lack of moralistic restraint.”“You’re always selling yourself short on that last one,” I complained, making him look at me. “With a little effort and practice you could do a lot better with the moralistic restraint. Even death’s agent would have rules to follow.”“What do you know about it? You avoid death.” The Master had no heat in his tone, just fatigue. He rubbed his forehead and set his cup down. “My head hurts.” He tapped a four beat rhythm on the desk six times in a row before appearing to force himself to quit. “Go see if any of those narcotics are left in the loo.”Worried for him, I obeyed. I found a jar of neatly balled-up doses of what he’d given me while I was recuperating from my kidnapping, and carried it in to him. He took three and stuck them under his tongue before shedding his sandals and crawling into bed. “Don’t open that door unless it’s an emergency,” he said tightly, smashing his face into a thick pillow. “I don’t trust myself right now, Doctor.”I locked his door, shed my Converse and jacket, and got in with him. “I’m sorry,” I said, scooting close. “Maybe some sleep will quiet the drums.”“The drums are never quiet,” he murmured. But, he allowed me to gently inveigle an arm under his neck. “On and on and on, like having another Time Lord trapped in my head, his hearts beating faster than mine, urging me forward. Do it, go, kill, maim, mangle, eviscerate…”Sorrow gripped me. He was so plagued, and it wasn’t his fault. Centuries now he’d had those drums, hammering at him for war. It was amazing he hadn’t been more destructive. He must have held on with bloody-minded determination ever and always. I guided his head to rest on my shoulder, and he pressed his face against my neck, inhaling heavily.“If I ever get a chance to kill him, Doctor, I will,” the Master said, his voice against my throat making me shiver.He meant the Lord President. And, I wouldn’t try to stop him.**The Master slept in my arms for nearly twelve hours. I dozed intermittently, aware that those narcotics would keep him from awakening unless urged to it, but unwilling to risk disturbing any peace he managed to find. So, when someone tried his door I just kept still. Eventually, the lock was picked, and the door swung open very lightly to reveal Jack.He looked at us, and his eyes relented to a strange sort of apology. He didn’t know about the Master’s drums, and he didn’t know what we were to each other, but he was trying to accept what our position looked like. Carefully quiet, he stepped in and shut the door. “I knew it had to be deeper than friendship,” he murmured.I had a choice. I could allow him to continue to believe what this looked like, or I could tell him the truth. One would open a completely different set of woes and the other would make Jack continue on in a mild quest to get me in bed himself. If I took the first option at least the Master might get a bit more leeway in Jack’s reasoning. If I took the latter, he’d see the Master as weak.The Master never wanted to be seen as weak.“A man doesn’t do what the Master has done when he’s simply angry at an enemy,” I answered quietly. “We have centuries of issues to resolve, centuries of personal history. We grew up together, Jack.”Jack nodded. “I guess Earth was just a pit stop in your games,” he said, and his observation wasn’t entirely without censure.“Volcano Day,” I said back. Jack wasn’t guilt-tripping me about Earth, not when his fondness for it was fairly new.Jack winced. “C’mon, Doc.”“Don’t throw rocks at me, then,” I replied. “I’ve saved Earth from hundreds of threats.”“Yeah, and he knows that, and that’s why he picks it as a venue to harm you,” Jack said, and truthfully, too. “He attacks what you love. It’s deliberate and personal. Yet, here the two of you are, on a mostly unknown backwater world, cozy in a bed together. He’ll take your benevolence and make you eat it.”“That remains to be seen.”“It’s inevitable.” Jack put his hands in his pockets and had a long look at the Master of All Matter. “Why do you love him? He’s cruel.”“You might as well ask why I love thunder and lightning,” I told him. “I’m not human, Jack, no matter how much I might look it, or how much I cherish Earth. I’m from a culture where duty is taught before anything else, where children know their place. There’s no joy, no risk, no freedom unless you take it.”Jack lowered his head and looked at the Master again. “So, the two of you against the world and the world against the two of you? He’s your partner in wanting more?”“The Master is my partner,” I agreed. “If you can’t accept that, I can’t do anything to make it better.”“But, he doesn’t deserve your loyalty,” Jack argued, frowning.“Yes, he does. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” God, human beings were so arrogant, so sure their moral codes should encompass all of Creation. “You’re coming into this very late in the game, Jack.”“It isn’t a game, what he does,” Jack persisted. “But, when you play it with him, you validate it.”“I’ll talk to you about this later,” I said with finality. “If at all.”Jack understood the dismissal. His eyes narrowed. He backed out of the room and shut the door with force, jolting the Master. I put my hand on his head and stroked his short, fine hair until he relaxed again. I wanted to protect him against everything that wished to harm him, to shield him from pain. That would prove impossible, but it didn’t stop my feelings and it didn’t mean I couldn’t successfully protect him in the short term. 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