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lucy saxon isn't as dumb as she seems to be (neverthatbright) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-01-24 17:44:00

Entry tags:

lucy saxon, the master

WHO: Lucy Saxon and the Master
WHAT: Lucy has no memories of the Master. The Master is suddenly human. Awkward conversation is awkward.
WHEN: Late afternoon
WHERE: Their flat
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

Despite the fact that many people who knew her thought so, Lucy was far from stupid. She wasn't necessarily bright but she wasn't a total idiot. She knew that something was going on that she wasn't being told about. She didn't know what, of course, but she knew things weren't adding up. The first clue had been the fact that Harold Saxon had known her. Now, that in and of itself wasn't too odd. He had written a book that had broken records in its climb to the top of the charts and she was in publishing. However that wasn't all there was.

Her bedroom was the other issue. Discovering she'd been assigned the same flat as Harold had certainly been odd. Learning there was another who was assigned the flat with them, when it was merely a two bedroom, was even odder. Going into the bedroom and discovering articles of clothing that looked very much like things she would wear, tucked away as though they'd been there for some time and had even been worn? That, she couldn't understand. Her natural assumption was that clearly some woman had occupied the room at some point. Yet Harold never mentioned having had another flatmate. Just as he hadn't explained how he'd known her name, up to and especially including why he was comfortable enough addressing her as a very informal 'Luc' when they'd first spoken over the network.

So needless to say, Lucy was well aware there was something she was missing. Something she wasn't being told that, the more she thought about it, was causing her to be ridiculously frustrated and not at all trusting of, well, much of anything really.

Of course, while Lucy wasn't an idiot, she was the sort to keep such things to herself. She rarely confronted others, even when it would be perfectly acceptable to do so, and more than understood her place in the world in which she lived. She was the youngest child of a man with quite a few high-end connections and it was her job to be polite, charming, as attractive as was possible, and primarily seen and not heard. The only time she broke from that role was when she was working and, even then, it often took the assurances from coworkers that made her comfortable enough to push her boundaries and insist on assignments that were worthwhile and interesting. As this wasn't work related, and as her default behaviour when uncertain was to revert to type, Lucy had yet to say anything to Harold regarding her mounting suspicion.

Until now.

Spotting a conversation on the network where someone had apparently died and been restored to life, devoid of any memories of their time previously in the city, Lucy had decided it was time to see if that was what had happened to her as well. If it was, she didn't understand why no one had bothered to tell her as much but, really, she didn't care why. She simply wanted to know because, at the rate things were going, she was starting to feel as though she was going a bit mad. Clearly wanting to avoid such a situation, she finally told herself she would take action as soon as she had the first opportunity. And, as she sat on the sofa a few hours later, reading a book and enjoying a cup of tea, that opportunity seemed to arrive when she glanced up to find her flatmate coming into the room.

Marking her place in the book, she swallowed down on her nervousness, gave him a hesitant smile and a quiet, "I didn't realize you were here." Which wasn't unusual, really. He apparently liked to keep to himself as much as she did, or at least it seemed that way.

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cantyouhearit
2011-01-25 04:42 am UTC (link)

The Master had been making his best attempt to act normal, as though there wasn't anything odd or out of place at all other than being abducted. The Doctor being alive again was something, and while it hadn't fixed all of the issues, it had minimized the guilt that had seeped into his awareness. Humanity was hard, far harder than he'd ever imagined or remembered, and even with the absence of the drums, the Master had had a very difficult time adjusting to being Harold Saxon in more ways than just a mask.

It was made even more difficult by the fact that the one woman that he might actually trust to help him with all this didn't even know who he was. He offered her a slight smile as she looked up from her book, one that very nearly matched her own, and walked over, flopping down next to her on the couch and letting his head lull back against the top of it, turning his gaze to face her.

"I've been quiet," He said. "No reason you should have realized it."

The Master had always been quite good at going unnoticed when he really wanted to.

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neverthatbright
2011-01-25 04:57 am UTC (link)

When he sat down on the couch beside her, Lucy put down her book and twisted a bit to more easily look at him. It was the strangest thing, really. Whenever she looked at him, she felt a surge of something that she couldn't quite identify. It wasn't attraction, or at least that wasn't all of it, because she'd found him attractive back home when he'd first shown up on the literary scene and therefore knew exactly what that felt like. No this was something else. Something more. There was a sense of familiarity, coupled with a desire to touch him, be close to him, that baffled her entirely.

It also added credence to her belief that something more was going on than what she'd been told thus far. Which helped to solidify her determination to find out what. After all, this was her life she was talking about, and something was decidedly off about it. She had a right to know what it was. Even if a very small part of her all but shrieked that she shouldn't demand things from a man who had been nothing but kind to her thus far.

Fortunately, Lucy was many things but rude was hardly one of them. So it wasn't as though she was going to start shrieking at him to tell her what she wanted to know, and to do it now or else. First of all, that was just ridiculous behaviour and secondly, Lucy had never harmed anyone in her life. She wasn't about to start now.

She did want to know what was going on, however. That desire wasn't going to lessen and her confusion was only going to mount the longer she went without having her answers. So after a few seconds of companionable silence, she finally worked up enough nerve to get on with it.

"I'd like to ask you something, if you don't mind," she said almost hesitantly. Reminding herself not to worry her bottom lip with her teeth - a habit she'd had since she was a child that drove her mother positively mad whenever she partook in it - she instead absently worried the hem of her shirt with her fingers, forcing herself to look at the man beside her and not drop her gaze out of nervousness.

"What is it that..." No, she thought, that wasn't the way to start. She tried again. "What I mean to say is..." Still she found herself pausing, unsure just how to phrase it. Finally, with a heavy sigh, she simply asked, "What is it you're keeping from me? And please don't say nothing. I know that isn't true."

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cantyouhearit
2011-01-25 05:58 am UTC (link)

Oh, his Lucy. His dear, sweet Lucy who was so much brighter than people gave her credit for but would never believe it if anyone told her so. It had taken her a matter of days to pin down that something was off, and honest, he would have been surprised if it had taken her that long. It probably had just taken her this long to work up the courage to say anything. The Master smiled. No, not really. Harry smiled, the persona becoming more genuine than it ever had been when he was wearing it as a mask, and reached out to take one of Lucy's hands, gently twinging his fingers with hers.

"So much," He said with a half laugh. "Too much," He said with a shake of his hands before his hand dropped away from hers, his head lulling back and eyes focusing on the ceiling as he laughed again, a quiet, amused, and yet slightly pained sound issuing from his throat. "But I'm not sure how much of it I can tell you. How much of it you would even believe... Much less want to know," He said, letting his head lull back to the side as he looked at her and smile, a tight, slightly sad smile.

"Because you've got a second chance, Miss Lucy Cole. You certainly don't want to waste it on little old me."

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neverthatbright
2011-01-25 07:02 am UTC (link)

She had thought, for the briefest of moments, that he was going to tell her. Lucy had felt her heart skip a beat after he'd said 'too much', blue eyes wide as she stared at him expectantly. The feeling of holding hands with him should have felt odd, should have made her blush and stammer and pull away. However it didn't. And she wanted to know why it didn't.

Except, it didn't seem he was going to tell her after all. Trying her best to hide her disappointment, and knowing she wasn't doing a very good job of it, Lucy dropped her gaze downward. Her brow was furrowed. His words only made everything even more confusing. Yes, he had confirmed that she wasn't losing her mind, had verified that there was certainly something that she didn't know, wasn't being told. However he wouldn't say what that was and, while verification of her hunch was nice, what she wanted was an explanation.

What he said last made her gaze snap back to his. The corners of her mouth curved upward ever so slightly into a gentle, ghost of a smile. "I wouldn't consider you a waste," she said, almost shyly. "I personally think you're rather brilliant."

Ducking her gaze, glancing toward her teacup but finding herself not desiring it any longer, she worried her lower lip between her teeth. Her mother wasn't here and, really, what was the point of being so proper with a man who had just held her hand as though he'd every right in the world to do so?

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cantyouhearit
2011-01-29 02:49 am UTC (link)

"Brilliant, yes," The Master said with a laugh. No one would have ever dared to call him dull in any capacity. Even as a human, he was a great deal smarter than most people, even those typical genius level humans, but just because he was brilliant didn't mean that she needed to be fussing over him like this. It was odd that as he looked at her the Master wasn't thinking about what she could do for him like he had been the entire time they had been acquainted as Harold Saxon and Lucy Cole before. Instead, he was thinking about how much he didn't want to see her end up the broken shell that she had before, clinging to the futility of existence. "But brilliant doesn't equal good," He said, offering her a tentative smile before he noticed that she was worrying her bottom lip and he smile deepened.

"Are you sure that you want to know?" The Master asked, half wary and half relieved. He wasn't sure how she'd accept the reality of what he had to tell her, but he couldn't know if he didn't say anything. And it was worth the risk. She'd already picked out that she was missing something, so maybe filling in the blanks wouldn't be such a bad thing.

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neverthatbright
2011-02-09 08:19 pm UTC (link)

No one, not even those who had issue with her father and attempted to besmirch her name in order to affect his, would ever dare call Lucy Cole reckless. Oh, they might call her a bit on the dim side or comment on how she would rather gnaw off her own foot than act out of line or improper in some way. They could say that she'd only received the position at her publishing company because of her family connections or make accusations of her sometimes influencing the decisions of others merely by mentioning the other various connections her family had throughout Britain and beyond. And if they said any of those things, they would - at least in part - be right.

They could not, however, call her reckless.

Even if there were admittedly times that she allowed herself the very small luxury of wishing she could throw caution to the wind and do what she wanted rather than what was expected of her. There were even times when she felt an urge that made her certain she was meant to be living a life far more exciting than the one she'd been given. But Lucy didn't act on those wishes or urges. She simply ignored them and continued on the path that had been carefully laid out for her. She didn't question, didn't dare rebel, because she was a good girl and good girls didn't do things like that.

And then there was the man sitting beside her. A man she didn't know except through his work yet couldn't escape the feeling that she did, in fact, know him in a much more intimate capacity. He made her feel both safe and in danger at the very same time. An odd combination, to be certain, but also the very reason that she didn't pause for very long to really consider his question to her. She simply studied him for a few seconds, five or six at the most, before nodding her head.

"I do," she assured him. She felt her heart skip a beat, felt her breathing quicken ever so slightly. She meant what she said, though, despite her sudden bout of nervousness at the thought of actually knowing whatever it was that was being kept from her. Reminding herself to keep breathing, Lucy remained focused on the man she knew as Harold Saxon and allowed a ghost of a smile to flicker across her face.

"Please tell me."

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cantyouhearit
2011-02-28 04:43 am UTC (link)

There was a debate in his mind as to whether he should start small or simply reveal everything at once with the hope that it would provoke her memory and not overwhelm her at the same time. In the end, while the option of simply showing her into the TARDIS had passed him mind, he settled on something much more proportionate to their current situation as well as his. Squeezing her hand gently, he raised it to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it. "There's a reason that you don't think it would be a waste," he said, smiling gently. "That's because you've done it all before."

That wasn't really much of an explanation, but it was a starter, a way of easing her into the rest of it that would come soon enough. This was going to be hard enough to believe even without all of the things that lied beyond the fireplace.

"You're missing a lot of your memory," He said, not really sure how much he should tell her. You died and came back to life with several years of experience missing would hardly be taken seriously despite it being the truth. So, instead, he figured he could easily fudge a few of the facts. "It's this place," He said quietly. "It does things like this sometimes, just changing people without warning. When you thought you arrived here, you'd actually been here before. For quite awhile. And... And, you're missing a good two years from before you were here as well."

He was going to see how she took that before going on.

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neverthatbright
2011-02-28 04:56 am UTC (link)

There it was again. The instant his lips brushed against the back of her hand, she felt a surprising lack of an urge to draw away or even blush. In any other given situation, with anyone else at all, she would have done just that if not more. Yet here and now, she didn't. She felt comfortable, at ease. She also wasn't terribly surprised when he said she was missing parts of her memory.

She was, however, a bit stunned at just how much of a gap there seemed to be. Two years. Two years was a long time. A great deal of things could happen in two years. She felt her stomach churn sharply as she stared down at their joined hands. A heartbeat passed, and then another. Slowly, Lucy raised her own gaze until it met his.

"So this place simply..." She struggled for a word that wasn't too melodramatic. "Removed two years worth of my memories, just like that?" Her lips turned downward into a frown but she seemed to falter at reacting in any other real way. What could she do, after all? It wasn't as though getting upset would change things. Lucy drew in a steadying breath and decided to move on.

"What is it I've missed, these past two years?" she asked, voice tinged with curiously. Some of it she thought she could guess at. Most of it she was sure she probably couldn't.

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