THE ADVENTURES OF THE DOCTOR'S AMAZING HAND

Chapter Forty One

The Doctor lay in his tent, gasping as he tried to cope with his injuries. He cursed the Master for doing this to him and cursed himself for being stupid enough to trust the perception filter. He had been a fool for thinking that the Master wouldn't be able to see him and now he was paying dearly for it. Not only himself, but his friends and the family of his friend were suffering now. People had counted on him and he'd let them down.

While he lay there, he saw a shadow through the tent and groaned thinking the Master had come back for more. He was surprised when the person knelt down and he saw Lucy peering at him through the flap in the tent. He was horrified when he saw she had two black eyes and bruises all over her face and upper body.

"What happened to you?" he said, raising himself up on his elbows.

"I wasn't in the mood for sex so Harry beat and raped me."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said sympathetically.

"I heard what Harry said to you. I was listening at the door."

"Oh? You better stop that before he beats you even more."

"No…I…I'm tired of Harry," Lucy said, sitting down just outside the flap. "I see what you mean about his cruelty."

"I tried to tell you that. I've known him longer than you and the only one he truly cares about is himself. You're easily disposable to him like Kleenex. I'm willing to bet he feels no remorse for doing this to you."

"Which is why I want you to escape."

The Doctor was stunned into silence for a moment. A red flag came up and he wondered if the Master had put her up to this. He asked her that and she shook her head.

"Does it look like he put me up to this?" she said, pointing to her bruises. "I want him stopped and I think you're the only one who can stop him."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, I have help with that."

"Yes, and you need to go to them. You need to be with your friends instead of suffering here," Lucy said.

The Doctor studied her face, trying to detect any deception. He couldn't find any on her face, she seemed sincere but he was still having his doubts.

"Are you going with me then?" he finally said.

"No, I'll stay behind to distract Harry for as long as I can. I can take you to a transmat though and beam you down to London."

She reached into the pocket of the brown suit jacket she was wearing and took out a small mobile.

"Call your friends to come get you," she said, handing it to him.

The Doctor looked at it.

"This has a trace on it?" he asked her.

"For God's sake, no. You wanted me to switch to your side and the moment I do, you won't trust me."

"I tend to be wary of people who suddenly switch sides; it's one of the things that's kept me alive for so long. However, I'll take a chance and trust you. I warn you though; I don't like people betraying me."

"Don't worry, I'm not betraying you."

"Okay, what about Jack and Martha's family?"

"We don't have time and I doubt I could free Harkness without raising suspicion. You'll have to go by yourself and figure out a way to free them from down there. Now, do you want to do this or not because I don't have all the time in the world."

The Doctor nodded.

"Let's go," he said.

Lucy helped him up. The Doctor groaned and held his aching side where most of the kicks had occurred. Lucy shot him a sympathetic look and helped him out of the room. The Doctor put the mobile in his pocket, hoping that it didn't have some kind of bug in it that would lead the Master to his friends. He wasn't sure if Lucy was telling the truth but he was willing to seize the opportunity and go on faith. They only encountered two guards on the way to the transmat room and Lucy explained to them that the Master had ordered her to take him to med bay. The guards accepted that and allowed them to go on. Finally, they made it to the transmat room. Lucy helped the Doctor step up onto a small circular platform. While he stood there, holding his side, she ran to the controls near the door. She began punching in coordinates.

"Do you know what you're doing?" the Doctor said to her.

"Yes, Harry showed me how to do this because we used to go down for supplies or sightseeing. I'll get you down there in one piece."

The Doctor hesitated a moment.

"Thank you for helping me," he finally said.

Lucy nodded. She finished punching in the coordinates. Wished the Doctor luck and hit a large black button. There was a flash and the Doctor was gone.

After eating, Rose and John went back outside. By now, the sun was rising in the sky and the countryside was filled with lush green grass. There was a light breeze and Rose could have sworn that the world hadn't been thrown into chaos if the stone legs weren't in the distance. She and John sat down on the hill. Rose brought her legs up to her chest while John stood beside her.

"Wonder where we'll go from here?" Rose said to John. "I've been wondering how we're going to travel the Earth in a year. I know Martha has that vortex manipulator but still, we have to talk to people and that takes time."

We'll figure it out, John signed to her.

"Yeah, I just think there oughta be an easier way to do this. If there was some way we could broadcast on the telly like the Master does. But that would be too dangerous, I suppose. Unless we could figure out how to isolate it so the people on Earth see it and the people on the Valiant don't."

That might be doable but we'd have to work out a way to do it.

"Yeah," Rose said to John. "And we don't have all the time in the world to do it."

Maybe we can recruit others to spread the word and that will make it easier on us.

"That might work better than hijacking the telly," Rose said as he stroked him.

She jerked her head down when her mobile started ringing. She stared at it for a moment.

"Um…" she said, standing up and taking it out of her pocket, "who would be calling me…"

Her eyes bulged when she saw the name on the screen. She slumped back down to the ground and slowly her finger hit the talk button. She raised the mobile to her ear.

"Doctor?" Rose said hesitantly.

"Rose. It's good to hear your voice again.'

Rose fought to keep her emotions in check while John hopped onto his wrist and patted her leg.

"Where are you?" she said.

"In London. I've been set free; at least it looks like I've been set free."

"The Master?"

"No, Lucy. She let me go so I could escape the abuse and find a way to stop the Master. I want to join you. Where are you?"

"Um…we're outside Paris now in the countryside."

"Blast! Well, does Martha have the vortex manipulator?"

"Yeah."

"Let me talk to her. I can talk her through programming it and she can come and get me and bring me to you. I don't know if this is a trap but I'm tired of being trapped with the Master so I'm willing to take a chance. If this is a trap though, forgive me for leading him to you."

"No, I'm sure everyone will risk it to have you with us," Rose said, wiping a tear of joy from her cheek. "I'll get Martha; she's inside the house we're staying at."

"Okay, I'll try to stay out of sight of the Toclafane then while you find her."

Rose could barely contain her joy as she bent down, grabbed John and put him in her jacket. She ran back to the house and went inside to find Martha.

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