"Wow… you've certainly changed." the redhead scrutinized the building carefully, "How do I know this place isn't booby-trapped?"
"Why would it be booby-trapped?"
"You're the kind of person who lays daft traps for no reason and then lets the chaos unfold before him."
The Doctor frowned, "Hmm. I thought the Master was much more the type to do that."
"Ah, but you'll tinker with anything and try your best to make it into something else. For all I know this whole room could be full of lasers made from leftover teabags."
"Fair point."
"A house and a kid. You've certainly gone domestic."
"Eh, I'm fine with it…" and she noticed the look of adoration and pure happiness in his eyes.
"You really love him, don't you?"
"Of course I do! How could I not?"
"Doctor, he slaughtered millions, he nearly destroyed the planet! And always tried to kill you!"
"Thanks for your concern," he smiled then, "Really, thanks, I missed your concern. But he's changed and we're fine, he hasn't tried to kill me and never would. I trust him with my life and the lives of the some 60 million people on this planet."
"You're serious about this, aren't you?"
"I've tried to help him, and I've lost him so many times. I'm not going to jeopardize our relationship just because of everyone's close-minded old views of him."
"We have those views for a reason."
"An obsolete reason! He's fine now, the drums are gone and he's perfectly sane."
"You're hardly one to be the judge of sanity aboard this ship."
"It's my ship, and I'll be in a relationship with whomever I like on it."
"I see you've already forgotten about her."
He'd been turning and walking away, but now abruptly turned to face her, his face like thunder, "That could never happen. It never even did, and I've moved on. That was cold to bring up that, considering you know how I feel about it."
"You never even told her. Your clone did, but you certainly didn't."
"I couldn't bare to spend my life with someone who'd die in the next 60-or-so years and leave me to live on in pain. Better to live with someone with a similar lifespan."
"Oh, and we've hit the nail on the head! You don't want him because of love, you want him because you're the last of your kind and somehow that means something."
He was scowling now, "That's actually what he thought too. What I thought… But now we know it's nothing to do with that. It's a nice perk to the relationship, but our relationship is based on true and honest-to-goodness love. That's something that nobody can dispute. And anyway, you're my best friend; I thought you'd be happy for me! Everyone else has accepted it, why can't you?"
"Because!"
"Because WHAT?"
"Because you're right!"
"How am I…?"
"We are best friends and… I feel like I'm losing my best friend, like it's already happened and I'm not going to get you back."
The Doctor's expression softened considerably at this, and he pulled her into his arms, "You'll never lose me. What the Master and I have is love and it's special, but it can't break our friendship."
"…"
"Bigger things than great sex have tried, you know. I've always loved you, it may just be platonic love but just like mine and Koschei's it can't be broken. Thought you'd know this by now, I even let him bring you back despite the obvious risks the procedure posed. I trust him with my heart and secrets, but I trust you with my life and my sanity, as well as your ability to stop me when I need stopping. I'd certainly be dead now without that."
"Okay, but you really need to tell me all that's happening with you now."
"We're getting married, here on Earth."
Donna was now gawping openly at him.
"Well, technically we're getting remarried. We got married on the planet Diligo-Ortus a while back, after we were given honorary citizenship for saving the planets' Queen. But Koschei went behind my back and got us a divorce so we could get married on Earth." he carried on, "Along with the benefits we're getting with this, I've also got my own cashflow; Along with my job in Torchwood, I used to work for UNIT a long time ago when I got exiled to Earth. I didn't want the pay because I was going to fix the TARDIS and get out of there, which I eventually did with what tools and materials they supplied me with. But because I didn't want it, I let them manage my finances, and [considering this was all decades ago] it's all accumulated to a good sum of money."
"So basically you're minted? Benefits from the adoption place, new revenue from Torchwood and old hefty revenue from UNIT?"
"I wouldn't use such a term, but yes, I guess you could say that."
"Does the Master know about this? You have to have told him – he could be like a trophy husband, and you wouldn't need to worry about paying for the wedding."
"I don't want him to be a trophy husband! I like him being my regular old husband."
"So you haven't told him?"
"…I've been sure to drop hints."
"You're going to have to do better than that. If you don't tell him, I will."
"Tell who what?" It was now that the Master came walking coincidentally in with Amelia.
"Tell you your fiancée is stinking rich."
"Donna!" the Doctor looked appalled at being betrayed so quickly.
"Well, let's face it, you were never going to tell him."
"I was! …When the time was right…"
"Excuse me, what?"
Donna rolled her eyes, "Your hubbie, with the benefits, his Torchwood money and his old UNIT money, is rolling in it."
"Rolling in what?"
She rolled her eyes again, "Money, you dolt!"
The Master now looked at the Doctor for an explanation, having realized that he was, in fact, rolling in it as Donna said he was. "Well, Donna's essentially right. With all that I have, we wont have any money troubles for a while."
"But you're terrible with money."
"Exactly. I didn't need it at the time of my exile, and I didn't even know how to use it, so I let UNIT handle it all. They collected the interest and made some prudent investments on my behalf, and now it seems to have accumulated to allot of money – and it was quite allot from the start. With it and all we get from the other two revenues, we wont have any money troubles where the wedding expenses and raising Amelia are concerned."
"…Why didn't you tell me?"
"I only found out recently. Jack mentioned it at our first adoption hearing – when you'd taken Amelia to the loo. We did our research, contacted UNIT, pulled some strings and now it all officially belongs to me again, but I've still got a UNIT–employed financial adviser who'll handle all the small things like collecting interest and all the other things I can't really do. I was going to say something about it when I got over the shock of it, I suppose. I was going to tell you if Donna hadn't just blurted it out in front of you."
"You know me, I'm a gossip and I didn't want to be a gossip with this. Best to let me just tell him straight rather than half of London knowing before he does."
"Thankyou, Donna. At least someone wants to keep no secrets from me." and he scowled at the Doctor, a scowl that was usually reserved for Jack when he stopped making sense or started acting like an idiot.
"I can't believe it…"
"I know…" The Doctor looked down at the bank statements again. It certainly was allot of money, and it was growing every day.
"Now we'll be able to give our little girl whatever she wants."
The Doctor frowned disapprovingly, "Wouldn't that be spoiling her?"
"She seven years old and we've only just adopted her – I think we're well within our rights to spoil her for a while."
"Well, not for long; I don't want my daughter being a spoilt brat growing into a shallow cow."
"Y'know what?"
"What?"
"I called her 'our little girl' and you called her your daughter."
"Yes, because she is our little girl."
"D'you think we can get her and Jenny to be bridesmaids at our wedding? I'm sure she wouldn't mind being in a dress, but what about Jenny?"
"She'll have to live with it. Now go to sleep." and the laughing man's guardian angel did watch him sleep on that night.
It was in the daytime, and they were trying to plan their wedding.
"Alright, so I'm the bride this time?" the Doctor said, looking puzzled at the various planning sheets.
"Yes, and I'm your sexy bridegroom who's going to fuck you raw on our wedding night. And we've got Donna helping us with all this when she wakes up," Donna was staying with them for a while to get acquainted and reacquainted with them, and was currently having lie-in in the spare bedroom.
"Well, she is a woman who's been through one failed wedding and a successful one, so she must know something about wedding planning."
"Alright you two, bridesmaid dresses are my domain." Donna came in yawning, dressed but half-awake, "Where's that scot of yours? School, is she?"
"Yeah."
"Well I'm going to need to get her measurements when she gets home then, aren't I?"
"You can get Jenny's measurements."
"Yeah, when she wakes up." the spare bedroom housed two separate beds, and Jenny was staying with them also – until after the wedding.
The Doctor held up a mini-foghorn, "The perks of being a father; you have good reason to own one of these."
Donna grinned, "Nice. Can I go use it now? She's had far too much time in that bed."
The Doctor grinned back, "Yeah, not too much or you'll wake the neighbours–" he paused briefly, "Ooh, that's right! I've got neighbours now," he paused again, "Oh dear. We're going to have to socialize, aren't we?"
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