THE ADVENTURES OF THE DOCTOR'S AMAZING HAND

Chapter Twenty

Rose slept on the bench until about nine in the morning. John kept to the shadows under the bench so no one passing by would be startled by his presence. There were a few people who had passed by. Some people glanced at Rose and a few scoffed at her sleeping there but to his relief no one bothered her. When she yawned and pushed herself up into a sitting position, John came back out and stood near her feet.

"Oh, my aching side. I feel sorry for the tramps who have to use these night after night. They're definitely not for sleeping on," she said to John.

She reached over the end, grabbed the rucksack and pulled it up beside her. She opened it, took out a ham sandwich and ate it while John kept watch.

"Wish we had a map," Rose said while she ate. "I s'pose we could find an abandoned shop and see if there's one inside. Other than that I don't know what to do except head east."

She made a face.

"Ugh, the Doctor must have been off his trolley telling Martha to go walk the world. I barely made it through the night let alone walk across continents. And how's she s'posed to tell everyone in the world about the Doctor in one year? It's gonna take more than one day to reach the coast of England and it'll take months to get across Europe on foot. And I don't even wanna think about Russia and China…and India and Canada and Australia…how will we get across the oceans? John, I still don't know if we can do this."

Just take it one day at a time, Rose. We'll worry about those countries when we come to them, John signed to her.

Rose nodded.

"Hey, love!"

Rose glared when a homeless man slumped down on the bench next to her. John scurried back into the shadows and went around Rose's legs as the man stretched out his arm and rested it on the back of the bench behind Rose.

"What's a pretty thing like you doing here all alone?" he drawled.

"Piss off," Rose said.

"What? I'm trying to talk to you, is that alright?" the man said angrily.

"Just as long as you talk to me and nothing more," Rose replied.

"Why? You got a boyfriend?"

Rose thought about that for a moment and decided that the Doctor had loved her in his own little way and certainly returned the kisses she gave him.

"Yes, I do," she said.

"Yeah, well where is he then?"

Rose hesitated. She didn't want to say he was away from her since she knew it would give the man ideas.

"He's nearby. He's went off in search of a loo," Rose replied.

"Really? Well, I'll sit here till he comes back. I'd like to meet the man who won the heart of a looker like you."

Rose cursed inwardly and tried to think of something else to get rid of him.

"Name's George, by the way. What's your name?" he drawled.

Rose paused a moment.

"Lily," she finally said.

George studied her.

"Really? Because you took a long time to answer me. Which makes me think that's not your real name," he said.

"And what if it's not? I told you I'm not interested in ya. Now my boyfriend's coming back soon and if you don't want a knuckle sandwich I suggest ya move along."

"I'll move when I'm good and ready to," George said angrily. "I told ya I wanna meet this boyfriend of yours and I'm not touching ya. If I wanted to rape ya, I would have done it by now and…"

His mouth dropped open when Rose snatched up her rucksack and moved away from him.

"Bitch!" he yelled at her as he leapt up and went in the opposite direction.

John waited until he was several feet away before he hurried to catch up with Rose. She had stopped by another bench and sat down on it to wait for him.

"Ugh, I hope I can find a CS canister along with the map. I have a feeling I'll need it," she said to John as she picked him up and put him in her lap.

After another hour of rest, Rose decided to walk for awhile. This time she kept her head down and kept calm whenever a Toclafane happened to fly by. To her relief, none of them seemed to notice her and she headed down the mainly deserted city streets, past the deserted cars and motorbikes that lined the road. Occasionally, she'd see the remains of a carcass that had been picked over by animals and she felt sick to her stomach when she realized a couple of them had been human once. After four hours, the sun became too intense and Rose found an abandoned restroom in a deserted office building and a battered couch near the door that offered her shelter from the sun. John stood nearby while she lay down on it and took another nap. While she slept John thought to himself. She had been walking for a night and part of the day and they'd only gone several miles through the city. Rose was right. At this rate, it would take months and months to complete this mission she had given herself. She had noticed the pain and weariness on her face and knew her feet were killing her. The added weight of the rucksack slowed her pace and added even more pressure on her feet and John figured it wouldn't be long before blisters started appearing on them. He paced back and forth in front of the couch trying to think of an easier way to do this. Wryly, he thought of sitting on Rose's shoulder and using his thumb to hitch a ride with someone but so far they hadn't seen anyone driving anything and he figured all motor traffic was prohibited now. He also knew how lucky they'd been with the Toclafane and he knew sooner or later one of them would probably figure out who Rose was and attack her. He thought of having her disguise herself somehow, alter her appearance so she wouldn't be that visible to their enemies and he made a mental note to tell Rose that when she woke up again. He wondered if Martha was also incognito and then realized that he had no idea what she looked like anyway. How would they know her if they ran into her? To his knowledge, Rose and Martha had never met so unless the Doctor had shown Martha a photo of Rose at some point she wouldn't know who Rose was either. He wondered if there was some way of getting a message to her perhaps through the TV, to let her know that they were out here trying to find her so she would temporarily abandon her mission to meet up with them. He figured that after what they had encountered going through London, it would be safer for both women to travel together. He lay down on the floor, relishing the feel of the cold marble on his palm while he continued to think up a solution for them to get to Martha and also for Rose to stay once the world was restored to its former state.

The Master breathed a sigh of relief as he walked into his office. He had a long morning torturing and killing the Doctor and Harkness and he was exhausted. He paused at the open jar and ran his fingers down it, wondering how long the hand had been alive. He figured it was with Rose at the moment, no one had seen any sign of it since the Doctor and Jack had been captured. He was filled with curiosity about it and wanted more than anything to examine it. While he was doing that, he felt someone come into the room and turned to see Lucy in the doorway.

"Darling!" he said happily.

"Harry, how long do we have?" she said bluntly.

The Master froze halfway to her and frowned.

"Beg pardon?" he said.

"How long do we have until we're defeated?" she said.

The Master arched an eyebrow.

"What makes you think we're going to be defeated?" he said.

"I just feel it inside. The Doctor's far too clever for us and now that Rose has escaped, she'll find Martha and help the resistance and…"

"Pish Tosh, Rose has no idea what Martha looks like and since she's down there, I'm not going to air any more photos of her over the telly. As for the Doctor…"

He sneered as he thought of him lying bleeding in his tent.

"The old codger isn't a threat to us."

"Don't be so sure of that, Harry."

"What's that s'posed to mean?" the Master said.

Lucy snorted.

"He's defeated you in the past, hasn't he? Him and his…companions? What makes you think he won't do it again?"

The Master considered that.

"I'll have my guards keep watch over him at all times, him and Harkness."

"And what if the guards break through the hold you have on their minds? That one guard did it. The one that kept helping the Doctor. You said Archangel wasn't one hundred percent foolproof. It's only a matter of time, Harry, mark my words. You may think the Doctor's just sitting in there doing nothing but he's up to something and pretty soon we're gonna find out exactly what it is but it'll be too late then and we'll both go down with this ship because he'll turn his wrath on us."

The Master sighed angrily and held out his arms.

"Won't happen," he said.

"Harry…"

"Won't…happen!" he said emphatically. "The Doctor is mine, Harkness is mine, the world is mine and soon his girls and that hand will be mine as well. You're being paranoid, dearest. We've won. Now relax and enjoy our victory. Come here and give me a hug."

Lucy knew better but she also knew there was no convincing her husband of the truth so reluctantly she stepped into his arms and let him put them around her while she laid her head against his shoulder and worried silently about what would happen when the Doctor finally got the upper hand.

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