He's not the enemy

Mission time

Donna

"Mark."

"Hmm?" Mark asks as he looks over at me.

"Do you want to help me try and get the Doctor and the Master together?"

"You want to try and get the two of them together?"

"Yes."

"Thank God! You can finally help me with my plan."

"What?"

"I've been trying to get them together since y'all went to get the Master from the hell that we were in for a while."

"So what's your plan?"

"I want us to go on an outing. Knowing the Doctor, it won't be all that hard to do. There is a nice restaurant with a lovely garden to walk through. You and I can venture off and leave the two of them to walk through the garden together."

"Seriously?"

"What?"

"It's so simple and kinda boring."

"The two of them are killers for the simple and sappy things. The Master likes nature more than he lets on. The Doctor also likes nature, and he enjoys a nice French quinine from time to time. The Master also likes French wine."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"Donna, you seem to forget the fact that the Master and I were stuck together for a while. I know a lot of things about both of them."

"That's not creepy at all."

"Not my fault he told me things."

"I never said that it was."

"No. But you heavily implied it."

"How?"

"It was the way you said it."

"What?"

"Nothing. Anyway, are you in or no?"

"Yes."

"Perfect."

{At the restaurant}

Doctor

"Why are we here?" The Master asks.

"Oh lighten up. This place is nice."

He grumbles a bit to himself as we sit down at our table. Donna and Mark seem to be up to something, but I can't tell what, or if I should be worried.

"Say, there's a garden outside just around the building that we can walk through after we finish eating." Mark says.

"A garden?"

"Why didn't you lead with that?" The Master says and Donna looks at Mark.

"You weren't joking." Donna says.

"I told you." Mark states and a waiter walks over.

{After eating}

"Master how much wine have you drank?"

"Don't ask." He says.

The waiter comes over with the bill and Mark pays it without so much as a glance at the total.

"Shouldn't you see how much you just paid?" Donna asks.

"Ignorance is bliss. Plus I get a discount here." Mark says.

"You do?"

"Yeah, I own a part of the company. So as a result, they give me discounts whenever I eat here. Which is admittedly, not all that often."

"Why am I just finding out about this?" The Master asks and I laugh a bit.

"Because if I told you before, you would have drank the entire supply of wine." Mark states and the Master grumble a bit.

"Why don't we go and look at the garden?"

"Alright." The Master says and stands up quickly.

"I'll catch up in a moment, I need to wait for my card to be returned." Mark says.

"I'll stay with you. You two go ahead, we'll catch up." Donna says and I nod.

I stand up and follow the Master out by following the signs and walking outside to the garden. The second he lays eyes on the garden he seems to relax a lot.

"Master, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Doctor." He says and I nod, though I don't entirely believe him.

"Master."

"Yes Doctor?"

"Why are you lying to me?"

"I'm not lying to you Doctor."

"I can hear it in your voice and your body language gives it away."

"You're seeing things."

"I know you, and you know that I do. You used to complain that I spent too much time analyzing things about you when we were still in the academy together."

"That was a long time ago."

"That is was, but I still know you. I still know when you are lying, and I still know when you're hurting."

"It's nothing of importance."

"Master, whatever it is, you can tell me. Whatever is bothering you, I want to help you fix it."

"You can't."

I walk closer and step in front of him before taking his hands in mine. He tries to pull away from me but I hold them tightly and refuse to let go.

"Please, at least tell me what's wrong?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Master, I just want to help."

"Stop calling me that!"

"What?"

"That's not my name and you know it! Stop calling me that when we're not around Donna!"

"Why didn't you say Mark's name?"

"Because I told him! Now just stop calling me the Master when it's just us!"

{Behind a bush}

Donna

"Mark, what is he talking about?" I whisper to him and he sighs.

"Don't concern yourself with it." He whispers back.

We continue to watch the Doctor and the Master and listen to the conversation. The Doctor looks a little conflicted on what to do now that the Master has asked him to call him by his real name. To be honest, I want to know that his real name is, and I wonder if the Doctor will ever tell him what he and the Master's real names are. Mark seems to know and but he doesn't look as if he is going to tell me anytime soon.

"Alright then,....." The Doctor starts to say but Mark covers my ears.

I glare at him but he keeps his hands over my ears when the Master replies. Mark and I stay like that for a moment before he takes his hands away from my ears and starts to walk around the bush to make it seem like he just came from inside.

I follow him and we start to walk over to the Doctor and the Master. The two of them step away from one another and the Doctor smiles at us.

"I see you both found your way here. Good." Mark says.

The two of them nod and we all walk through the garden together. When we get to the end and walk out to the street, Mark hand the Master a bottle of wine that he bought before we left.

"You look like you could use a drink."

"That I could." The Master says and we all walk inside the Tardis.

I walk over to the couch and sit down while Mark and the Doctor talk about some space technical jargon that I don't understand. The mast quietly sips his wine while sitting on a spinney chair. I chuckle a bit, as I look at the strange group of people I've learned to start calling my family.