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[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Alex is confused. This is extremely obvious by the way she's standing, mouth slightly open, blinking at the sky.]

No...

[She looks around. She puts a hand to her head, feeling the gauze dressing she's become accustomed to. It feels real enough, but that's an old trick, isn't it?]

This is absurd. Completely. It's all in your head, Alex, just like last time, you knew this could have happened again but...

Well, to be fair, my mind could have conjured up something just a bit more familiar, couldn't it have? I mean, I think I bloody owe myself that much.

[Her eyes close for a moment. If it looks like she's just trying to will the Plane away, well, that's precisely what she's doing.]

I'd put up with Gene Hunt over this. But really, is 2008 too much to ask for? London, Earth, 2008, I made it back once already, wasn't that enough?

[She's shouting now, at the star-speckled sky, possibly at the point of hysteria. But don't expect her to go admitting it.]

I'm not leaving there again, you hear me? I am not going through this again!

Comments

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[oh this is new]

[The Master lifts his eyebrows]

I don't think I know you.

[is that a suddenly more-pronouned Mancunian accent shining through? It might just be!]

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Oh, it's not nice to play games with someone so confused!]

Sam, you do. I'm DI Alex Drake. I was - am - a police psychologist in London. You sent me tapes about... About what happened to you, after your accident.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[but it's so much fun!]

...you mean I wake up?

Shit, Gene's going to kill me.

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Oh, Alex, if only you knew when people were totally taking advantage.]

Wait, you mean you don't remember? You don't remember coming out of your coma?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[slipping his hands behind his back to link them together (and to cross his fingers, because if he can't smirk, he has to express his gloating in SOME way)]

No one has told you about the different times here, have they?

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Alex is at a total disadvantage, knowing Sam from voice and picture only. That, and she's a little distracted by the fact he's supposed to be dead and all.]

No, they haven't. Different realities, I get that, but people are from different times now, too?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[He gives a bit of a smile, not edged with his maliciousness. It's far too tempting to test how well she knows Sam by slipping off of the script.]

Are we mad, in a coma, or back in time?

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Those words have haunted her for a while now. She doesn't have a doubt in her mind that this is the real Sam Tyler.]

A little of all three, I think.

[She pauses, before just blurting it out.]

I was shot, Sam. And I woke up in the past, just like you.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[The Master's eyes widen. His mouth opens. Then, he burst out laughing]

God, and you met Hunt too? What is it about that bastard?

[The Master is genuinely wondering this]

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Alex is completely shocked by the outburst and takes a step back.]

I worked for him, at CID. It was a requested transfer to London in 1981.

... I was hoping you would be able to tell me.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Only that he's an headache and a boor. Did you... was there anything about that year that made it important, for you?

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

Well, he's not all bad, really.

[She's a little hesitant about answering that question. But it's Sam, so what's the harm?]

Yes. It was the year my parents died. I thought I could save them, Sam.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[this is the look of loss on Sam Tyler's face, hiding the Master's amusement at a human trying to change history]

We always do. Only human to try it, apparently.

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Irony is so lost on Alex at this point. But that sad look is pretty convincing.]

I couldn't change anything. And I didn't think it was real, and then I thought it all was, and now...

[Her tone is pleading.]

Was it real, Sam? Any of it?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[There is a moment in time - so brief that humans know no name for it - where the Master decides which path to pick. And then he lets out a laugh that is tired of all of this uncertainty]

I don't know. Maybe it was. Maybe it is.

Gut instinct.

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Alex shifts uncomfortably. Even if she understands Sam's plight, it doesn't mean she thinks he's any less mad for it.]

Something's happened to me, Sam. The Guv, I think he's trying to contact me from 1982. It's either real or I'm going mad.

It felt real. I think I wanted it to be real. I wanted them to be real.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Then maybe you have to ask yourself why you would want it.

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

Well, it's the same reason you wanted it too, Sam, isn't it?

I cared about them.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

You could just be hallucinating Hunt. It could all be... well, you're the psychologist, not me.

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

You think I haven't thought of that? I was writing a book about you, I could have constructed what you told me, filled in the details myself, and I would never know because you were -

[She stops, and sobers herself. No point in getting carried away.]

Well, you're the one that decided to go back. Not me.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[wait wait wait Self didn't tell him anything about this]

I did what?

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

[Well, this is awkward.]

You mean, you don't know? You must... come from before all of that happened.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Tell me what, exactly, I do.

[poshmouthytart.livejournal.com]

What would be the point of telling you? You said so yourself, we can't change anything.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[Somewhere, the Master's Northern accent vanishes into the polished BBC accent of a politician]

But humans always try, don't you? You can't accept the past as of it. Not that it matters. Most humans have completely inconsequential lives. You could change anything and the universe wouldn't even notice. It's your arrogance that makes you think otherwise.