Soul's Shadow (Doctor Who - SI)

Part VII (II)

Despite the cold reaction I kind of had the feeling the Master would look at the blood as soon as I left the room. So I did exactly that and asked the TARDIS to bring me to the Doctor instead. It probably was for the best not to think about the Master's behaviour too much. He was switching between being funny, considerate, downright dangerous or simply a prick within fractions of seconds. Maybe it simply was his character, maybe there were a thousand thoughts running through his mind at once and his mood changed according to whatever just came to the forefront. That was a thing I was familiar with. Or maybe he still was torn between hating and... well... whatever for him meant not hating someone was.

The Doctor was in the console room, tinkering about on a part of the console. It appeared he had ripped it out completely to strew all gears, screws and cables over the ground.

"How do you remember where what belongs?" I wondered out loud.

His head snapped up and a goofy grin spread on his face. "Ah, there you are, Lucy! Was wondering how long it would take you to recover from that hangover. What do you think about rainforests?"

"Uh, what? Why rainforests?" Confused, I blinked at him.

"Because there is a whole rainforest...y planet near the Hlochpla nebulae. Thought we might visit. Try out the local berry cocktails. They are infamous!"

"Eh... no."

The Doctor's face dropped visibly, like that of a child who had just been denied a cookie.

"No adventures then? The last no-adventure didn't go so well after all."

I exhaled into a laugh. It was almost adorable to be stared at with such puppy eyes. It seemed he really loved showing people around.

"Not now. The dragon got me a little during the fight. And I'm now having a fever."

Immediately the Doctor shot up, stumbled over some parts and still managed to keep on his feet while simultaneously rushing towards me.

"It got you?! What do you mean, it got you? Are you hurt? Bleeding? All internal organs intact? Where is the wound?" While babbling he hurried around me as if that would reveal anything.

I had to grab his arm to get his attention and he stumbled to a halt, almost bumping into me in the process.

"The Master bandaged it already. It's just a few scratches. But there's still the..."

"He did... what?"

"Uhm... bandaged the wound? And put some weird salve on it. Now it barely hurts."

"The Master?"

I blinked, once, twice and finally let go of the Doctor. "Yeah?"

A good bunch of seconds passed in which the Time Lord only stared dumbfounded at me. Eventually I raised my hand chest-high and waved a little. "You alright?" I wanted to know, half mocking, half concerned that I had done something stupid on accident.

That got the Doctor out of his stupor. He straightened, furrowed his brows, raised them, pursed his lips and finally thrust his hands into his pant pockets. "That's a first."

"What? The patching me up?"

"Yeah, it's not... Are you sure he hasn't put something dangerous on it, or-"

"I am!" I snapped and rolled my eyes. "Seriously. You act as if he's a ticking bomb."

The Doctor opened his mouth, popped one hand out of his pockets to hold a finger up and snapped his mouth shut again. The finger sunk. "Well, you can't know. But actually, yes. He usually is."