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scripsiTitle: Nothing Interesting Ever Happens in Perivale
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: Teens and up
Word Count: 1801
Chapters: 3/3
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Ainley!Master, Third Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Summary: A story where Sarah Jane goes to Perivale in the wake of Survival, gets an unwelcome guest and have some unscheduled time travels.
AN: There are no real pairings in this fic, but sexuality is acknowledged as is the possibility of past relationships.
The fic on AO3
The fic on Teaspoon
When Sarah Jane’s head stopped spinning, she found they had materialised in a small room. A familiar small room. There were shelves containing stationery supplies, and in a corner stood an ancient photocopier which Sarah Jane had wrangled with on numerous occasions. They were standing in the stationary cupboard next to the doctor’s laboratory at UNIT.
“Why in here”, she asked the Master over her shoulder.
“You didn't think I ever strolled in by the front gate?”
Sarah Jane gently entangled herself from the Master’s arm, and peeked out, but retreated a little when a door opened and a strangely familiar voice called out.
“Bye Doctor! See you tomorrow.”
And then she heard brisk steps and caught a glimpse of her younger self walking past. So they were not only at UNIT then, but to UNIT several years ago. With the Master at her heels, Sarah Jane slipped out into the corridor and opened the door to the laboratory. The Doctor standing with her back to her was her first Doctor. Something twisted oddly inside Sarah Jane as she looked at the familiar white shock of hair, and the green velvet jacket he had liked so much.
“Forgot something?” the Doctor said before he turned around, but when he saw her he raised an eyebrow. “And why are you suddenly older?”
With a lump in her throat Sarah tried to step forward, but the Master, whom she had temporarily forgotten, was suddenly between them, growling deep in his chest at the Doctor. He had seemed comparatively sane all morning, but now he looked worse than Sarah Jane had seen him before. Not only were the eyes yellow, his fangs showing, the spots were back on his skin, and there was also a district change of the shape of his face and nose.
“Behave yourself!” Sarah Jane said sharply in the same tone which had worked before. “This was your idea, remember.”
To her relief, it worked this time too. The Master hissed, but retreated and started to prowl the room along the walls, growling, or perhaps muttering, under his breath.
“That’s the Master”, the Doctor said in a way which suggested Sarah Jane may not have noticed. “In not only one new body, but two?”
Sarah Jane glanced at the Master and after judging him currently incapable to account for himself, launched into an explanation. It struck her, as she was speaking, that this must be why the Master had dragged her along. The presence of the Doctor seemed to affect him far more than her own company. The Doctor listened with knitted brows and nodded at the end.
“So he needs my help to find a cure. I guess. He hasn’t hurt you?”
Sarah Jane thought it over. Last night had been frightening and uncomfortable, but the Master had, after his own fashion, at least tried to not harm her.
“No, she said eventually. Not really.”
“All right then. I’m sure he doesn’t deserve it, but I’ll try. I assume the symptoms fluctuate as he has communicated with you?”
Sarah Jane nodded. “If he calms down more, he’ll be able to speak for himself. Perhaps food will help. He was starving when he found me but he seemed to feel much better after he had eaten.”
“And what does he want?”
“Raw meat, I think.”
This caught the interest of the Master who drew nearer and added in an almost normal voice.
“Not cat, please.”
The Doctor shuddered and went to order a large quantity of raw beef. He looked at Sarah Jane who had sat down, feeling a little dizzy, and added tea, sandwiches, and cake. He ended the conversation by saying he was in the middle of a very important and fragile experiment and was not to be disturbed under any circumstances, even if it took days.
Sarah Jane stared at him. She suddenly remembered a period when the Doctor had shut himself up for almost a week, and Sarah Jane had been drafted by the Brigadier to double-check and file rapports. It had been tedious and not made better by the increasingly pointed remarks from the Brig of how useful it would be to have a scientific advisor who one could actually go to for advice. And what was it with all that raw meat? Sarah Jane had never got an explanation; the Doctor had only looked at her blankly and mumbled something about important research. Now, decades later, Sarah Jane finally knew what had happened.
As Sarah Jane had suspected, the worst cheetah-symptoms retreated as the Master ate. By the time he had devoured the meat and started with the tea and sandwiches Sarah Jane had left, the Master was able to have a semi-polite conversation with the Doctor. Sarah Jane relaxed and realised how exhausted she felt, and the Doctor looked her over.
“Sara, my dear, why don’t you have a rest in the TARDIS for a while?”
“Are you sure?”
“I assure you I can handle whatever comes up.”
With some reluctance, but mostly relief, Sarah Jane left. The last thing she heard was the Doctor saying to the Master;
“I think we should start with stabilising those mood swings of yours.”
Sarah Jane found her old room, which at this point was new, and fell into the bed. Several hours later she woke up feeling almost normal again, and after a bath and a raid into the TARDIS wardrobe for a change of clothes, she felt almost restored. Curious about how the Doctor and the Master got along she returned to the laboratory. When she opened the door out of the TARDIS she heard the Doctor singing his favourite Venusian lullaby, and there was also a strange rumbling sound rising and falling in harmony with the song. When Sarah Jane peeked out into the laboratory, she saw the Doctor carefully measuring a liquid into a glass beaker, with the Master draped over one shoulder. The Master’s eyes were half-closed, and Sarah Jane realised the sound she heard was the Master purring. It was an oddly intimate scene, and she retreated in silence before the two Time Lords noticed her. She went to see what the TARDIS could offer in ways of a snack before returning. This time she opened the door audibly, and this time she found the Doctor and the Master on opposite sides of the worktable.
In the days which followed Sarah Jane fell into a routine of dividing her time in the laboratory, helping when she could, and enjoying time with the TARDIS when the bickering between the Doctor and the Master became too trying. She didn’t half understood what the Doctor was doing, but on the sixth day he produced a faintly blue liquid and pronounced it the cure. The Master looked dubious but dutifully drank it, even if he complained over the taste.
“Well, did it work?” the Doctor asked after a few minutes.
In answer, the Master slung an arm around the Doctor and gave him an intense kiss. The Doctor detached himself from the embrace, a little red in the face, but not overly upset.
“Now, now,” he said, and the Master grinned, his features blessedly free of fangs and yellow eyes.
“It seems to have worked”, Sarah Jane remarked in a dry voice, and the Master included her in his grin.
“I can kiss you too,” he offered. “To double check.”
Sarah Jane took a step back. “That’s not necessary.”
He gave her an unrepentant shrug.
“Your loss,” he said and turned to the Doctor instead. “Well, thank you and all that, and I really must be going.”
“You really should,“ the Doctor agreed. “And I’m not saying behave yourself now, because I know you won’t.”
“How well you know me.” The Master stretched out his hand to Sarah Jane. “Ready to leave?”
This time it was the Doctor who stepped in between them. “I will take Sarah home. I don’t trust you.”
The Master shrugged. “As you wish, though I’m a little put out you don’t think I’m capable to show gratitude.”
He gave Sarah Jane a little bow. “Miss Smith, it has been a true pleasure. As human goes you are almost tolerable. I trust we will not meet again.”
And then the Master was gone, and with him a tension Sarah Jane had become so used to, its absence felt almost physical.
“He seemed rather taken in by you,” the Doctor remarked. “I think it’s quite possible he actually would have taken you home.”
“Well, I’m glad I didn’t have to take it to the test.”
The Doctor smiled and opened the door to the TARDIS with a flourish bow.
“Your carriage awaits you. Where do you want to go?”
“Not Aberdeen,” Sarah Jane couldn’t help saying.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Please take me home. Not too long after I left, if it’s possible, for the Brigadier’s sake.”
The Doctor gave the TARDIS the right coordinates, then said with an unusual hesitation;
“I’m sorry for whatever it was I will do to you which hurt you.”
Sarah Jane tried to answer in a light tone and failed miserably. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Yes, you do. I’ve seen it in your eyes from time to time. Whatever it is my future self will do, I hope he had a good reason.”
“I don’t really know. And it It won’t be you, anyway, Doctor. Not you, you.”
“I’m still sorry.”
They stared at each other a little awkwardly, the Sarah Jane changed the subject.
“Why did you help the Master? I don't think this version of him was nicer than the old one.”
“Probably not. But I imagine he would have become even more dangerous with the cheetah virus infecting him than without. He is not exactly easy to handle as it is.”
“But won’t it be awkward knowing all this about him?”
“Oh, I won’t remember it. As soon as I have dropped you off and the timelines sort themselves out, I will forget all about it. About meeting you too, I’m afraid.”
“But I will remember?”
“Yes. For you, this is in the past.”
They stepped out of the TARDIS into her small garden. Sarah Jane hugged the Doctor, trying hard not to cry.
“I’m still happy to have seen you again.”
Sarah Jane walked towards her house when she heard the TARDIS leaving. She turned to watch it disappear, watching the spot where it had stood until she heard her door opening, and she turned to greet the Brigadier.
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: Teens and up
Word Count: 1801
Chapters: 3/3
Characters: Sarah Jane Smith, Ainley!Master, Third Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Summary: A story where Sarah Jane goes to Perivale in the wake of Survival, gets an unwelcome guest and have some unscheduled time travels.
AN: There are no real pairings in this fic, but sexuality is acknowledged as is the possibility of past relationships.
The fic on AO3
The fic on Teaspoon
When Sarah Jane’s head stopped spinning, she found they had materialised in a small room. A familiar small room. There were shelves containing stationery supplies, and in a corner stood an ancient photocopier which Sarah Jane had wrangled with on numerous occasions. They were standing in the stationary cupboard next to the doctor’s laboratory at UNIT.
“Why in here”, she asked the Master over her shoulder.
“You didn't think I ever strolled in by the front gate?”
Sarah Jane gently entangled herself from the Master’s arm, and peeked out, but retreated a little when a door opened and a strangely familiar voice called out.
“Bye Doctor! See you tomorrow.”
And then she heard brisk steps and caught a glimpse of her younger self walking past. So they were not only at UNIT then, but to UNIT several years ago. With the Master at her heels, Sarah Jane slipped out into the corridor and opened the door to the laboratory. The Doctor standing with her back to her was her first Doctor. Something twisted oddly inside Sarah Jane as she looked at the familiar white shock of hair, and the green velvet jacket he had liked so much.
“Forgot something?” the Doctor said before he turned around, but when he saw her he raised an eyebrow. “And why are you suddenly older?”
With a lump in her throat Sarah tried to step forward, but the Master, whom she had temporarily forgotten, was suddenly between them, growling deep in his chest at the Doctor. He had seemed comparatively sane all morning, but now he looked worse than Sarah Jane had seen him before. Not only were the eyes yellow, his fangs showing, the spots were back on his skin, and there was also a district change of the shape of his face and nose.
“Behave yourself!” Sarah Jane said sharply in the same tone which had worked before. “This was your idea, remember.”
To her relief, it worked this time too. The Master hissed, but retreated and started to prowl the room along the walls, growling, or perhaps muttering, under his breath.
“That’s the Master”, the Doctor said in a way which suggested Sarah Jane may not have noticed. “In not only one new body, but two?”
Sarah Jane glanced at the Master and after judging him currently incapable to account for himself, launched into an explanation. It struck her, as she was speaking, that this must be why the Master had dragged her along. The presence of the Doctor seemed to affect him far more than her own company. The Doctor listened with knitted brows and nodded at the end.
“So he needs my help to find a cure. I guess. He hasn’t hurt you?”
Sarah Jane thought it over. Last night had been frightening and uncomfortable, but the Master had, after his own fashion, at least tried to not harm her.
“No, she said eventually. Not really.”
“All right then. I’m sure he doesn’t deserve it, but I’ll try. I assume the symptoms fluctuate as he has communicated with you?”
Sarah Jane nodded. “If he calms down more, he’ll be able to speak for himself. Perhaps food will help. He was starving when he found me but he seemed to feel much better after he had eaten.”
“And what does he want?”
“Raw meat, I think.”
This caught the interest of the Master who drew nearer and added in an almost normal voice.
“Not cat, please.”
The Doctor shuddered and went to order a large quantity of raw beef. He looked at Sarah Jane who had sat down, feeling a little dizzy, and added tea, sandwiches, and cake. He ended the conversation by saying he was in the middle of a very important and fragile experiment and was not to be disturbed under any circumstances, even if it took days.
Sarah Jane stared at him. She suddenly remembered a period when the Doctor had shut himself up for almost a week, and Sarah Jane had been drafted by the Brigadier to double-check and file rapports. It had been tedious and not made better by the increasingly pointed remarks from the Brig of how useful it would be to have a scientific advisor who one could actually go to for advice. And what was it with all that raw meat? Sarah Jane had never got an explanation; the Doctor had only looked at her blankly and mumbled something about important research. Now, decades later, Sarah Jane finally knew what had happened.
As Sarah Jane had suspected, the worst cheetah-symptoms retreated as the Master ate. By the time he had devoured the meat and started with the tea and sandwiches Sarah Jane had left, the Master was able to have a semi-polite conversation with the Doctor. Sarah Jane relaxed and realised how exhausted she felt, and the Doctor looked her over.
“Sara, my dear, why don’t you have a rest in the TARDIS for a while?”
“Are you sure?”
“I assure you I can handle whatever comes up.”
With some reluctance, but mostly relief, Sarah Jane left. The last thing she heard was the Doctor saying to the Master;
“I think we should start with stabilising those mood swings of yours.”
Sarah Jane found her old room, which at this point was new, and fell into the bed. Several hours later she woke up feeling almost normal again, and after a bath and a raid into the TARDIS wardrobe for a change of clothes, she felt almost restored. Curious about how the Doctor and the Master got along she returned to the laboratory. When she opened the door out of the TARDIS she heard the Doctor singing his favourite Venusian lullaby, and there was also a strange rumbling sound rising and falling in harmony with the song. When Sarah Jane peeked out into the laboratory, she saw the Doctor carefully measuring a liquid into a glass beaker, with the Master draped over one shoulder. The Master’s eyes were half-closed, and Sarah Jane realised the sound she heard was the Master purring. It was an oddly intimate scene, and she retreated in silence before the two Time Lords noticed her. She went to see what the TARDIS could offer in ways of a snack before returning. This time she opened the door audibly, and this time she found the Doctor and the Master on opposite sides of the worktable.
In the days which followed Sarah Jane fell into a routine of dividing her time in the laboratory, helping when she could, and enjoying time with the TARDIS when the bickering between the Doctor and the Master became too trying. She didn’t half understood what the Doctor was doing, but on the sixth day he produced a faintly blue liquid and pronounced it the cure. The Master looked dubious but dutifully drank it, even if he complained over the taste.
“Well, did it work?” the Doctor asked after a few minutes.
In answer, the Master slung an arm around the Doctor and gave him an intense kiss. The Doctor detached himself from the embrace, a little red in the face, but not overly upset.
“Now, now,” he said, and the Master grinned, his features blessedly free of fangs and yellow eyes.
“It seems to have worked”, Sarah Jane remarked in a dry voice, and the Master included her in his grin.
“I can kiss you too,” he offered. “To double check.”
Sarah Jane took a step back. “That’s not necessary.”
He gave her an unrepentant shrug.
“Your loss,” he said and turned to the Doctor instead. “Well, thank you and all that, and I really must be going.”
“You really should,“ the Doctor agreed. “And I’m not saying behave yourself now, because I know you won’t.”
“How well you know me.” The Master stretched out his hand to Sarah Jane. “Ready to leave?”
This time it was the Doctor who stepped in between them. “I will take Sarah home. I don’t trust you.”
The Master shrugged. “As you wish, though I’m a little put out you don’t think I’m capable to show gratitude.”
He gave Sarah Jane a little bow. “Miss Smith, it has been a true pleasure. As human goes you are almost tolerable. I trust we will not meet again.”
And then the Master was gone, and with him a tension Sarah Jane had become so used to, its absence felt almost physical.
“He seemed rather taken in by you,” the Doctor remarked. “I think it’s quite possible he actually would have taken you home.”
“Well, I’m glad I didn’t have to take it to the test.”
The Doctor smiled and opened the door to the TARDIS with a flourish bow.
“Your carriage awaits you. Where do you want to go?”
“Not Aberdeen,” Sarah Jane couldn’t help saying.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Please take me home. Not too long after I left, if it’s possible, for the Brigadier’s sake.”
The Doctor gave the TARDIS the right coordinates, then said with an unusual hesitation;
“I’m sorry for whatever it was I will do to you which hurt you.”
Sarah Jane tried to answer in a light tone and failed miserably. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Yes, you do. I’ve seen it in your eyes from time to time. Whatever it is my future self will do, I hope he had a good reason.”
“I don’t really know. And it It won’t be you, anyway, Doctor. Not you, you.”
“I’m still sorry.”
They stared at each other a little awkwardly, the Sarah Jane changed the subject.
“Why did you help the Master? I don't think this version of him was nicer than the old one.”
“Probably not. But I imagine he would have become even more dangerous with the cheetah virus infecting him than without. He is not exactly easy to handle as it is.”
“But won’t it be awkward knowing all this about him?”
“Oh, I won’t remember it. As soon as I have dropped you off and the timelines sort themselves out, I will forget all about it. About meeting you too, I’m afraid.”
“But I will remember?”
“Yes. For you, this is in the past.”
They stepped out of the TARDIS into her small garden. Sarah Jane hugged the Doctor, trying hard not to cry.
“I’m still happy to have seen you again.”
Sarah Jane walked towards her house when she heard the TARDIS leaving. She turned to watch it disappear, watching the spot where it had stood until she heard her door opening, and she turned to greet the Brigadier.
