Soulforged

Chapter 4

-/-

It didn't hurt.

The Mistress couldn't recall with ease, a time when pain hadn't been the first sense, to penetrate the haze upon waking; it was wonderful, and suspicious at the same time. A deeper breath, in through her nose, confirmed her suspicion...oil...copper...the slightly stale tang, that coated the tongue, that came from recycled air.

So she was no longer on Skaro, but on a ship, or a space station...

Then she caught it, another far more familiar smel,l and suddenly the hum on the periphery of her confused mind made sense...red grass...star dust and the distinctive scent of time radiation, and it was getting stronger. He had come after all, despite everything, and although she would deny it to him, and even to herself, something tight inside The Mistress uncoiled the tiniest amount. He had come after all...

"I know you're awake, there is no use pretending." A familiar Scottish brogue caressed Missy's ears, and it was everything the Time Lady could do, to stop herself from smiling, at the childish tinge of petulance she could hear in his voice. Oh her dear Doctor, he never changed.

"I am merely savouring not waking up in a cell, my dear Doctor." Missy replied softly, her voice little more than a whisper, as despite the repaired damage to her vocal cords, they still felt weak, for some reason. The Gallifreyan words sounding strange, after so long speaking the guttural grunts, the rest of the universe insisted in conversing in.

"The day is young...you still have time." The Doctor snorted, his tone caught between amusement, and something darker ,that seemed to cause his words, to catch on his tongue.

Intrigued as to what could cause The Doctor to sound... what was that word the puppy had used again, yes shame. Missy slowly opened her eyes, blinking as her bright blue gaze searched the room, before finally finding the Doctor, standing near the door half hidden by shadow.

"Hiding dearest?"

"No." The Doctor replied gruffly, before adding this time softer, and mumbled between the fingers he ran over his face, and up into his hair. "No...I'm just tired, and I don't want to fight with you. Please Missy, just for once could we not..."

"Well that's very selfish of you Doctor."

Pouting, Missy allowed her gaze to rake over his form, well what she could see of it, the space tramp look was a thing of the past, thank goodness, and the soft looking velvet evoked memories from the distant past...memories that were shoved aside, as recent events suddenly came flooding back, in such technicoloured force, that a genuine gasp actually escaped from Missy's lips.

The pain...the wet grass under her fingertips...the smell, and feel of her own blood, and the child...her child...their child still, and unmoving in her hands...

"What is it...are you still hurt?" The Doctor demanded, pushing himself away from the wall, his cragged face finally coming into the light, the sharp angles of his face distorted, as those thunderous eyebrows of his drew down deeply into a frown that would have stopped enemies in their tracks.

Yet Missy's concern was far away, and she turned her head, for the first time in centuries interested in something, that wasn't the Doctor. Not a sign. Lowering her shields, Missy pushed past the throbbing in her head, and probed the surrounding area for some sign. He had to be here, after everything she had gone through, to try and save them both...

"Where is he?"

"Miss..."

Ignoring the way her name seemed to break in The Doctor's mouth, Missy forced her stiff body off of the medbay bench, not surprised, when her unsteady feet gave way beneath her. Her body may have been healed, but she was still suffering from the effects of a..what...incomplete...aborted regeneration? She would have to find a mirror, and check, but she still felt like herself.