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Lapidary	By : Savaialian Category: 1 through F > Doctor Who Views: 1563 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Doctor Who fandom, nor to I make money from writing about it. I use their creations with due respect.

Chapter List
- 1-Lapidary
- 2-TWO
- 3-THREE
- 4-FOUR
- 5-FIVE
- 6-SIX
- 7-SEVEN
- 8-EIGHT
- 9-NINE
- 10-TEN
- 11-ELEVEN
- 12-TWELVE
- 13-THIRTEEN
- 14-FOURTEEN
- 15-FIFTEEN
- 16-SIXTEEN
- 17-SEVENTEEN
- 18-EIGHTEEN
- 19-NINETEEN
- 20-TWENTY
- 21-TWENTY-ONE
- 22-TWENTY-TWO
- 23-TWENTY-THREE
- 24-TWENTY-FOUR
- 25-EPILOGUE
- 22
- 23
- 24
I found him in his bedroom, at his desk, drawing up blueprints for a medical building. Brow furrowed and lips tight, he made a perfectly straight line without a ruler. He could do that, I’d noticed lately. He could also draw perfect circles. “What time do you call this?” He asked, glancing at the water clock unnecessarily. “You were absent during the planning for the Flower Ceremony.”
“I was at the temple,” I said, drinking in the sight of him. The magnitude of his sacrifice to me resonated in my chest. “I had some thinking to do. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.”
“I told everyone you were at the temple anyway,” he said, smiling a little. “It’s a good excuse, worship.”
“Yeah, I’d say so.” I sat on the edge of his desk gingerly, careful to not upset his papers and inks. “When you’ve got the time, I’d like to talk to you.”
Again the Master glanced at the clock. “Give me two hours. I promised I’d get rough plans to the city commission by then.”
“Okay.” I slid off the desk. “I have to go see about dinner anyway. Back in two hours or less.”
“Fine,” he answered distractedly, waving me away.
I promptly went down to the kitchens to speak to Hann. She smiled at me as I came in, motioning me to a chair. “My lord adjudicator,” she said. “It’s good to see you. Do you have a special menu for the emperor tonight?”
“Yes, I do,” I said, thinking of the Master’s childhood food choices. I took up her nearest cookbook and began thumbing through it. “The emperor is very fond of seafood.”
“Oh, yes, he’s often talked to me about getting what he called ‘shrimp’,” Hann confessed. “I don’t think we have such a creature here.”
“That’s fine.” I put the book down. “How about the best fish available?”
“That, I can do,” she said. “When should I deliver it?”
“Two hours,” I said, getting up. “Some sort of good bread, too, I should think.”
“I will make certain there is excellent bread as well,” she promised.
“Thanks.” I went out into the hall and snapped my fingers, throwing my mind out for my TARDIS. I’d never tried to summon her this way, and wondered if she’d cooperate.
My fears were groundless. My TARDIS appeared quickly. I got in, knowing the Master would have taken note of her disappearance from his bedroom. If I did this right I’d be back before he could really worry or get pissed off.
Then, I was off to Earth for the best shrimp, the only shrimp, actually. No other planet had anything of the sort. I bought six pounds of it from a little French shop, and also half a dozen lobsters from a special dispensary in Maine. Then, I went to the oceanography outlet in Lower Canada, a place I’d visited while still possessed of big teeth and hair, and bought living shrimp and lobster from them, dumping all the needed food for them in a separate tank in my science labs.
Next on the list, horses. He’d expressed a desire for them, so I went to the proper eras in Earth’s timeline for the division of the breeds. It seemed to take forever to get twelve prime examples of each breed on the TARDIS, and I was sweating hard upon the completion of that task. My time machine wasn’t meant to haul livestock. Actually, all these animals I gathered might not survive Seldatia, and as much as I hated the thought of getting them killed on a planet far away from where they were born, I hated the thought of disappointing the Master even more.
I made one more stop, back in France, purchasing the finest wines, champagnes and brandies I could from every perfect vintage. I bought two crates of absinthe, thinking he probably would like it, assuming he’d never tried it before, and promised mentally to look into transferring cattle to the Master’s hobby world. Milk and cheese and beef went a long way to satisfying hunger, and the Seldatians were so akin to human beings I doubted their digestive systems would protest over the new foods.
I came back to Seldatia a bare two minutes after leaving, sticking my head out of the TARDIS to see the Master sitting at his desk with a shadowy look. “Just an errand,” I explained. “Popping over to the inner wilds for a mo, okay?”
“I thought you’d swanned off on me,” he said simply.
“Can’t,” I told him. “Won’t,” I added.
Again, he waved me away.
I promptly took my TARDIS down to the kitchens. When I came out, Hann and all her staff were gathered around it, expressions slack with disbelief and awe. “Only my transport,” I said, carrying out the shrimp and lobster. “This, my dear Hann, is shrimp.”
Hann collected herself readily, and all her people gathered around for a quick introductory lesson in how to prepare them. I wrote out some instructions on cooking the things, stumbling only a little on free-styling Seldatian calligraphy. “A lot of heat makes shrimp too tough and small,” I said. “Really, the emperor probably likes them grilled or scorched in butter.”
Hann took up a single shrimp and tore the legs off like I’d shown her, then snipped off the head. “These taste good?” She said doubtfully.
“They are very good when done right,” I said with a wink. “Don’t panic about serving them. If you ruin them, I’ll just get more later. I’m only taking a chance here, you understand?”
“You want to please your mate,” Hann said softly. She drew herself up and looked at all her waiting women. “Did all of you understand what our Lord Adjudicator said about the shrimp and lobster?”
The women immediately gave answers to the affirmative. All of them looked eager to try cooking a new meat. Hann turned back to me, smiling. “We’ll do our best,” she promised.
“Good enough,” I said, kissing her forehead and making her blush. I then darted back into my TARDIS and plotted for the Master’s fenced in grasslands.
**
The horses were far less spooky about new terrain then I thought they’d be. They exited without much fuss, and even stood still while I erected laser gates to keep the separate breeds apart. I gathered a contingent of farmers and gave them a crash course on the animals, stressing the need to keep them from interbreeding or wandering until I could come back and help them. By the time I finished, it was nearly dinner time.
I took the TARDIS back to the Master’s bedroom and came out. He had one look at me and sat straight up. “You’re filthy,” he proclaimed flatly. “You’ve sweated so much your clothes are wet. Go take a shower or I won’t eat with you.”
“Okay.” Feeling pleased with myself, I grabbed a white silk svond from his closet and went into the bath. He suspected nothing, and his ill mood only struck me as endearing now that I knew what he’d done for my sake.
As I soaped up, I considered what he’d gone through with no thought to reward. I didn’t think I had as much fortitude and self sacrifice in me, no matter what I’d accomplished in my life. He’d bested me, there. He’d bested me in a lot of ways, actually. Perhaps it was only right that I take Jack’s advice and give up to him.
I examined myself for hair regrowth and found nothing. Still wet, I slathered on the traditional oils and let them soak in while cleaning my teeth. The black eyeliner went on as smooth as satin across glass. I looked at myself in the mirror, thinking of how the Master had likened my eyes to looking into the abyss.
I hoped he didn’t feel that way anymore, but what could I do to stop that?
Wearing the svond, barefoot, I padded back out into his bedroom and tossed my clothes into the corner where the laundry people would retrieve them in the morning. “Getting hungry?” I asked him quietly.
“I could eat a horse,” he replied, which made me snigger internally.
“I guess I could arrange that,” I said. I peered over him, looking at his blueprints. “Oh, that’s brilliant,” I said, pointing to the schematics he had set for waste disposal. “Solar powered incineration timed for the hottest part of the day with magnification lenses. That ought to keep the germs and pollution at a minimum. Well done.”
“There’s no real way to stop pollution,” he said, sounding gratified and frustrated at once. My praise had meant something even though he felt upset with his solution. “I hate progress, sometimes. It means no more clean air. Seldatia is perfectly pure, and I’d like to keep it that way.” He rolled up his blueprints and opened his door to hand them off to a guard. “Take these down to the elders in the Planning Room,” he instructed. He shut the door and came back in to stretch and give a groan. “Your excellent back massage wore off,” he informed. “All I had to do was give in to some frustration and to stand over another map table for a few hours.”
No condemnation, no hatefulness, no allusion to the awkward and painful business between us, only a simple relation of the production at hand and a thinly veiled desire for another massage.
The Master asked me for the easiest things without asking at all, allowing me to misunderstand if I wanted, and expecting nothing.
And, he always had.
“I’ll give you another massage, if you want,” I promised.
The Master lowered his arms and looked at me hard. “There’s something different about you today,” he claimed. “Could it be you found a little bit of the comfort of ceremony in the temple?”
“You know the comfort of ceremony and gods,” I replied. “I sort of tapped into that this afternoon.”
“Good,” he said with succinct honestly. “Worship of anything is better than atheism; our people believed in nothing, and look at how poor their lives proved to be.” He ran a hand through his short hair and mussed it slightly. “My belly is empty. I hope dinner comes soon. What did you order for us?”
“Good stuff,” I told him. No sooner did I say it, a knock came at the door. I answered to find one of Hann’s women. She winked at me and put the tray in my hands. “I think we did what you wanted,” she whispered.
“Thanks,” I whispered back, and brought the tray in after firmly shutting the door.
“What is it?” The Master came forward with absent curiosity, whisking the cover off. We both stared down into a heap of what looked and smelled like perfect shrimp scampi with a main dish of boiled lobster, side bowls of garlic butter, broiled fish, wild rice and the native, tender pink beans of this world.
“You went out and got me Earthly delights,” the Master announced. “That was your TARDIS errand.”
“Yep,” I said, carrying the tray out to the balcony.
We took opposing places at the tray and began cracking lobsters open. The Master, humming his approval, sat at the same time I did and began an enthusiastic sampling of all Hann had offered us. “Dear fucking Christ,” he said after two bites.
“Yeah, it’s good,” I agreed. “Hann took instruction on shrimp and lobster like a pro.”
The Master slit open his broiled fish to let clam stuffing fall out onto his plate. “Oh,” he breathed. “I’ve tried to explain the perfection of clams. They apparently took me to heart.”
“Yeah, looks that way,” I said, copying him. I hadn’t instructed upon clams. Hann was a kitchen genius.
We ate and ate and ate. I beheld with utmost pleasure the way the Master enjoyed this meal. He relished it with a sort of enthusiasm that made me wish I’d arranged this earlier. But, as much as he liked it, he didn’t lose his decorum. I was so glad he’d been able to stop eating absolutely everything in order to balance out his botched resurrection.
“So,” he said as he wiped his hands and took up a glass. He looked at the white wine and smiled. “More Earthly delights. This should be a good vintage.”
I held out my own glass and he poured for us. We sampled it together. “Oh, yeah,” he murmured. “What should I do for my own apology, Doctor?”
“You think this is an apology?” I grinned at him. “I guess it is, yeah. I don’t need one from you, though.”
“Good, because I’m shit at them,” he replied, smiling back.
I felt a giggle leave me, which only made him smile more.
“Feel like walking?” I asked. “Nothing strenuous, just a stroll.”
“I could.” The Master rolled his head to loosen an apparent stiffness in his neck. “It might feel good to stretch my legs. Standing and sitting all day is bothersome and I don’t like it.”
“You always were a bit sporty.” I remembered him as a child who could climb any tree in mere moments. In our athletics classes he was the first up the rope and downright dangerous in gymnastics. Naturally, he’d hated team sports. “Do you remember hitting Merrikalandrinel with the javelin?”
“I hated that whiny sod,” the Master said as he got up. “Teacher’s pet and student’s pest; I always regretted I didn’t hit him in the head rather than his shoulder.”
“Just made him whinge more,” I said, remembering. “Got others to carry his books for him because of his injured shoulder. Never mind he had another arm to use.”
The Master grinned at the floor a moment. “I hit him in his dominant side, Doctor. He was left handed exclusively.”
“You fiend,” I murmured.
“He should have cultivated his right just like everyone else,” the Master defended. He grabbed his cassock-like over robe and donned it gracefully. “Where shall we go for our after dinner stroll?”
“Oh, out to the enclosed pastures,” I suggested. “I brought a surprise back for you.”
“More splendor? We should fight often.” The Master preceded me, his long garments sweeping out. He looked every inch the confident and powerful emperor. And, while he seemed casual, I sensed in him an underlying frission of uncertainty, even fear. He didn’t know what I was up to, and he’d already admitted he felt very afraid of me. He was braver than he knew, far braver than I’d ever proven.
He was quiet, walking with his hands behind his back, our half a dozen guards hanging well away from eavesdropping at his behest. He thought to indulge me in private conversation if I wanted it, but I was uncertain what to say. I immersed myself in taking pleasure in our surroundings, in the dying sun’s warmth, the moisture molecules seeping up with our footsteps, in the low-key, hushed birdsong all around. Seldatia was a beautiful, beautiful place, and seemed very capable of healing the soul right about now.
The Master stopped and looked all the horses grazing, at his men bringing them water and making large, fenced in places for the separate breeds. He blinked, and then blinked again. “You’ve brought me horses,” he murmured.
“Even wild mustangs,” I said happily. “They aren’t broken for riding, not a single one. I thought you might like to do that.”
The Master’s lips twitched. “Me?” He turned and headed for the mustangs immediately, his smile growing.
I watched with contentment as the Master instructed his men to take descriptions of the horses to the city, and to warn everyone not to hunt them. He told them to wait until morning and let the mustangs go before coming back to me and meeting my eyes. “They aren’t meant to be tamed,” he explained, and I heard an unspoken question.
“Some things shouldn’t be,” I agreed, looking down into those wild and feral eyes that had always been my undoing in one way or another. “And, some things really ought to be,” I followed up, seeing he understood very well I’d referred to myself with that one.
The Master tilted his head, his gaze growing thoughtful, considering. “You do know who you’re asking,” he warned.
“I figure you’re an expert,” I said.
He smiled fleetingly, and I saw a glimmer of temptation take hold of him. “You’re such a tease,” he murmured. “Maybe I don’t want to tame you.” He reached out to smooth my clothing at the shoulder, which had somehow become wrinkled and creased in the last few hours. “Housebroken is something else entirely,” he added wryly. “I’ve never known anyone so capable of going from perfect to rumpled so quickly.”
Safer topics now, but I’d set him to thinking.
“I can’t help it, honestly,” I defended. “It just happens.”
“I know.” The Master turned and crooked his elbow at me. “Come along, you odd piece of arm candy. It’s time for bed.”
“The sun isn’t fully down yet,” I complained, but I took his arm feeling exceptionally happy.
**
- 22
- 23
- 24
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Lapidary