It's all AU.

River was barefoot, going through ballet steps, in a park. She stopped and turned to look at Jack.

"Did you want to ask me something?"

The Master had slipped into the library while it was empty. The lights were off, but the fire was lit. The Master was curled into a large, wingback chair -- the sort that the Doctor's seventh regeneration would have been fond of. He was peaceful, and he was at rest.

Until he realized the Doctor was there.

Then he shoved himself out of the chair and onto the floor, with an apology. "I'm sorry."

The Doctor went looking for Mulder.

"How have you been holding up?"

The Doctor was energetic, but not...vibrating.

The Doctor slipped in a chair in the dining of the hotel. Chipper and almost...smug.

"Care for some company?" he asked the person already at the table.

Jack knocked on the TARDIS door, bright and early. He could have let himself in, but he wanted to make sure they were both awake and not trying to murder each other. He also really, really wanted them to come see the surprise he'd brought them. If he had to wander around the TARDIS looking, the effect wouldn't be nearly so good.

The surprise was The Master. He was rumpled, his hands were cuffed behind his back and he was gagged with his tie. He looked far more exasperated and resigned than pissed off.

Jack was holding him by one arm, bouncing on his toes and grinning from ear to ear when the door opened. "Look what I found!" he exclaimed, followed closely by: "Can I keep him?"

He'd barely stepped outside the hotel after his meeting with John, when he spotted the familiar blue box. He did a double-take because the last place he'd seen the TARDIS was... not here. It was probably a duplicate, he knew intellectually.

He wasn't working on intellect at the moment, though. He was running on adrenaline and that meant he saw something familiar, went up to it and pounded on the door. "Let me in."

He wasn't doing much more than wandering around the streets, looking for a TARDIS that felt familiar and drinking a cup of coffee. He spotted a blue box and a Doctor on a pass, and took a couple of steps back to squint. "Hey, you. I take it it's been a while." He offered over his hand.

To his credit Mulder didn't scream like a little girl when the TARDIS landed with a thump. He did however jump, turn pale and turn to the Doctor. "What," he asked, in a tone that would have been demanding if one was blind enough to miss the fear. "Was that?"

The Doctor stepped from the hotel lobby into...well it looked a hell of a lot like New to the 15th power New York. But the sense of weird sticky time, and multiple Time Lords in the distance told him he was still the nexus.

He stood underneath a sky scraper, head titled back, gaping. "Oh. Oh. Wow. That's brilliant, that is."

It was meant to be over. It was meant to be a break. It was meant to be a nice, quiet Christmas with Tom and her family, but oh, no, of course, saving the world again didn't mean that Martha's parents didn't have another flaming row over Christmas dinner or that Leo didn't skip out which meant another row, or that...well, at least Tom was one of the family if they weren't on their best behaviour in front of him.

Piling dishes high, Martha pushed the kitchen door open with her hip, and walked into...the hotel lobby.

"Oh, bloody hell, not again!"

Jamie wandered through the lobby of the hotel, a little sleepy, in his robe and slippers. He got a cup of coffee, then wandered to another table and, unashamedly, poked the other time lord. "You're real then, are you?"

Rose was all bundled up, and looking more chipper then she had in a while. The Doctor just had his coat on, as usual. A good 6 inches had blanketed the town, enough to really play in not enough to trap people indoor is they wanted to get out. The worked on a snowman for a bit, when Rose turned to the Doctor and commented, "Snowball fights work better with more people. Where is everyone?"

Corwen was laid lengthways on her back on a bench by the Hotel, head hanging off the end, looking up at the 'night sky'.

"Do you think they are the right constellations for anyone anywhere, or just what we think should be there?" she asked conversationally as she heard someone approach.

Jack was walking down a flight of stairs inside the hotel, minding his own business, when he nearly collided with someone coming up them. "Whoa! Careful there!" He steadied them with a hand on the shoulder, and himself by grabbing onto the railing. Taking a fall down the stairs didn't seem like a good idea to him. The person he'd 'rescued' may or may not have a different opinion.

The Doctor was, in many ways, much more relaxed than he'd been in months. He was also stuck in one- with no one melting down demanding his immediate attention and he'd stopped freaking out over the fact the Master was newly regenerated and *not* melting down.

This meant he was bored. He very much looking for someone to chat up. Well. Not *chat up*. Somoen different and interesting to talk to. He beamed at the next person he saw - "Hello!"

Koschei peered over the shoulder of the server he'd coaxed out to the lake, nodding to himself at the charcoal, and the plates of meats waiting to grill to the demands of party guests. He grinned as he turned away, watching the path leading towards town for anyone who'd come down for the party.

The Master and the Doctor were. Chasing each other over rooftops with fencing foils. Not the deadly weapons they fought with earlier, because they knew they wanted to run run and they didn't want anyone hurt if they slipped. But the contest, the game, was there. Mostly it was just fun.

The Doctor was pleased to discover he was still the better swordsman, although he wasn't terribly intent on *winning* quite yet. Still, one thing the same. He skidded to a halt and called down a hello to Jack before ducking the Master's next strike. Showing off a bit.

The Doctor had surprised himself by sleeping deeply, and woken with Jack wrapped around him. They'd talked for a while about what had happened and then Jack had finally agreed to sleep in his turn. He'd been through a lot and he was looking pale and drawn again.

The Doctor, on the other hand, was feeling restless as hell and wanted quite desperately to get out of the TARDIS. The fact that he could sense the Master there might have been a quite significant factor in that. He asked the TARDIS very nicely to protect Jack from the Master just in case, eavesdropped briefly at the Master's door making sure Romana was all right in there, and left.

Outside, he felt much better. He stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered along, squinting up at the sky and whistling Oh, What a Beautiful Morning - rather tunelessly.

The Doctor was. Unsettled. There was something distinctly new and unfamiliar about the Master's latest incarnation, and even Jack had seen it.

He went looking for someone old and familiar. Sat down in the chair next to the Master of about seven centuries ago, who was reading in a corner of the library, and said, "I owe you a game of chess."

He'd failed.

( Cut for length )

He followed after the Master and Doctor, because he'd wanted away as much as they had. He hadn't said another word, hadn't made another sound. Shock was protecting him from pain and muddling his thought processes. He hadn't even taken his gun back from the other Doctor. After having been shot with it, he wasn't eager to get it back; though he would later.

He wasn't sure where they were going, and he was so focused on watching the man who was still the Master, but had once been someone very different, that he didn't even notice where they were *going* until they were there. One foot in front of the other, locked in his head, watching and listening.