The Master Calls

Chapter 5

The incessant stomping on the hardwood floors and the raised voice of the Master awoke Rose out of her deep slumber. What the hell was he doing? She groaned as the pounding headache throbbed through her skull. She groggily sat up and turned bleary eyes to the clock on her bedside table. It was nine in the morning. Way too early for this nonsense. Her eyes adjusted and she saw a glass of water along with an Aspirin sitting on her bedside table. She placed the pill in her mouth and swallowed it down with the water. She flopped back down onto the bed, willing herself to go back to sleep.

There was the sound of something heavy being dropped, followed by the now irate raised voice of the Master. She internally cursed him and sat up. She noted absently that she was still in her dress, minus her shoes. The Master must have tucked her in last night. She shook her head at that thought. The Master, a ruthless Time Lord, tucking a drunken human into bed. It wasn't plausible. She stood and waited for the world to stop spinning and stumbled to the bathroom. After using the loo, she stripped and got in the shower, letting the warm water wash away the grime ad sweat from last night. She was progressively starting to feel better and she got out the shower, drying herself off and donning a thick fluffy white robe and her slippers. She wrapped her hair in the towel and decided a cup of tea was what she needed.

From behind her door she heard the Master issuing orders and she frowned. Who the hell was here? On a Sunday? She opened her door and saw the Master standing in the doorway.

"Make sure you don't drop it again!" He turned and handed her a cup of tea, which she took with surprise written all over her face. "Finish that before you start asking annoying questions. I know how grumpy you are before you've had your morning tea." He turned back to what she could now see were delivery men moving pieces of furniture into the spare room. "No, no! Over there!" he snapped and stalked away from her to go and show them where he wanted to place the dresser.

She took a sip of tea and walked to the doorway of his room. Her eyebrows shot up when she saw a bed already set up, the mattress still wrapped in plastic leaning against the wall. The two delivery men were positioning a dark wood dresser along one side of the wall. An Armoire was standing proudly against the other wall and a desk was sitting next to it.

Rose had considered the rooms to be quite spacious, but with all the furnishings, his room was starting to look cramped. She took another sip of her tea and decided to leave them to it. She went down to the kitchen and was surprised to see a plate of bacon, eggs and toast waiting for her on the table. She blinked. First the tea, and now the breakfast. He was really trying. She sat down and started to eat, feeling life coming back to her.

A few minutes later she heard him enter the room, muttering darkly about 'stupid apes'. She hid her smirk by taking another sip of tea. God, he sounded just like her first Doctor, the one all in leather.

He made a cup of tea and came to sit opposite her. "Sleep well?"

"I did, until all the ruckus started. When did you order all of that?"

"The night I got here. I figured that if I'm going to be stuck here I might as well be comfortable."

"Is it that bad being stuck here with me?"

"When you make me sleep on that awful couch, then yes, it is. By the way, a new couch will be delivered later on today." He sipped on his tea and watched her with mischief in his eyes.

She raised an eyebrow. "My, you have made yourself comfortable here."

"Someone had to. You certainly weren't."

She shrugged, not bothering to deny it. "Hadn't planned on staying here very long." She finished off her breakfast as he watched her with an eagle eye. When she had finished he stood and took her plate and their mugs to the sink. He really was a neat freak, she thought. That was something they were going to clash on. She was messy by nature and had no intentions of changing.