It's all AU.

Cold was slowly creeping over the town. Snow falling and beginning to accumulate. The Master hadn't mentioned directly *what* he was doing or why, but Romana had caught on, and the implicit invitation to play. She appreciated it, and walked with him to the park nearest the hotel, the both of them in coat, hat, and gloves.

She stepped into the pristine snow, listened to the crunch, watched her shoes make an indentation, and grinned up the Master. He grinned conspiratorially back. Some parts of their friendship were...still new and almost fragile. They were working on it.

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.

Romana was suddenly in the hotel lobby again. Full presidential robes, hat and all, her hair hidden underneath the cap.

She glanced around, trying to process where she was. Sank to the floor, completely unaware of how ridiculous she looked, trying *breathe*. Strange how everything seemed much more overwhelming now she wasn't on Gallifrey, she thought, in a detached way.

Corwen left Harry and Lucy and started heading towards her little house in the woods, her mind was very much taken up with thoughts about the situation. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she was extremely startled when she walked straight into someone walking on the path towards her.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry," she said, flustered.

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 was digging a hole beside his counterpart's original one. It was surprisingly satisfying. He was feeling a lot better already.

Though still disappointed in himself - and anxious because of that.

After leaving the freshly regenerated Master alone to sleep what she hoped was a long enough period of time, she went to go see him, and get a feel for the new personality. The Doctor's blaster still in her pocket, but not out in her hand. She stepped in his room/cell and sat in a chair.

Continued from here and here.

Jack unlocked the door of the TARDIS and pushed it open, more relieved than he'd have liked to admit to see the Doctor and Romana in the console room.

He crossed to the Doctor without a word and just gathered him into a strong hug. Then eventually he let him go enough to look him over. "You all right?" he asked in a low voice.

After a moment's surprise, the Doctor hugged him back, but there wasn't much strength in his arms. "I'm fine," he told Jack, with as much of a smile as he could muster.

Then he looked over Jack's shoulder. "Hello John," he said, surprised again.

The Master watched the cameras that showed the lobby, toying with his fork impatiently before taking another bite of the dinner he'd sat down to when the remodeling was finished. Where was...

A smile spread across his face, watching the revolving door start to spin. He leaned back in his seat, transferring the view of the lobby - dimly lit and small as it was now - to the large screen directly in front of him. Peeling paint over flaking plaster for walls, and a dusty concrete floor with some scraps of carpet still glued down.

He waited until they were all inside before activating the one-way com on the receptionist's desk - painted particle board and plastic, to match the rest of the decor - directly across from the door.

"Welcome to my home, gentlemen, Lady Romana. I must say, I didn't expect quite this turnout. Now, I shan't keep you long, it's a bit of a puzzle ahead of you before we meet face to face.

"As you can see, two passages to your left, one and a lift to your right, and two behind the desk. Only one of them actually leads to where I'm sitting right now. Good luck on figuring out which one. Oh, and do mind your step."

He flicked off the com, settling back in his chair to watch their progress. With any luck, there would be some entertainment to be had before he had to play the polite host.

It wasn't until Jack coughed back into life that the Doctor realised that he'd never seen it happen before. He'd heard about it, here, but this was the first time he'd seen it, and it shook him to the core. The extreme wrongness of it. The way it went so completely against nature - not life rushing out of a body the way it should, but into it. He was shaking as he resisted the urge to run, run away from this abhorrence of nature and bent to gather the newly-woken, confused and terrified Jack into his arms.

It took a while of just holding Jack - sitting on the floor and leaning back against the bed with Jack practically in his lap, rocking him like a child - to calm him into coherence. But eventually calm came, and Jack was able to tell the Doctor what had happened. There then followed a period of self-recrimination from the Doctor which Jack promptly put an end to by straddling him and kissing the hell out of him.

No way the Doctor could continue to think with Jack kissing him like that.

(Continued from this thread.)

Jack was sitting in the middle of the road with his head in his hands, groaning and shaking.

It was probably a good thing there was no traffic here, because there was no way he'd have been alert enough to get out of its way. He was pale, weak and nauseous, with a pounding headache, and not completely sure what had just happened. Except that he'd gone for the Master and he'd woken up dead.

Jack abruptly moved his head out of his hands and threw up on the ground next to him.

Jack was filthy - dirt smuged on his face and hands, outter shirt unfastened and his white undershirt was grimey. He walked into the hotel, flopped down in a chair with a low groan of relief. "I am too old for this shit," he announced, and worked a hand between himself and the chair to press against his back. He arched against that hand, his back cracked and he groaned again.

Romana was happily, even obnoxiously, poking around random buildings with her brand new sonic screwdriver. She had no idea what she might turn up, or if she'd come up with anything meaningful. It was entertaining her at the moment.

Corwen's head was swimming somewhat with thoughts of immortals, parallel worlds and  impossible places. She'd wanted to get away somewhere quiet to try to unwind, and she'd ended up at the library. She was currently sprawled comfortably in a large high-backed leather armchair poking through a book called 'The Universe Next Door'. She sighed loudly. "Quantum Physics gives me a migraine."

Romana sat at a table in the lobby of the hotel, with various electronic components around here.

She was putting together a sonic screwdriver, although it wouldn't be quite recognizable yet, to someone who didn't know very well how one functioned.

She was bored, and wanted something to do with her hands.

Buffy pouted at the notice on the board in the hotel lobby.

"There was a vampire that needed subduing and nobody told me?"

Koschei woke slowly, first aware that the bed only held two, not the three it had when he fell asleep. Soft curves pressed against his left side, a head pillowed against his shoulder. His arm wrapped around a slim waist, holding her close. He opened his eyes slightly, turning his head to look at Romana, leaning in to press a soft kiss to the top of her head after a moment.

Walking away from the cafe, Koschei worried a hangnail between his teeth as he studied the buildings along the street, trying to decide which to check first. "If I were Romana, where would I be?" he murmured to himself, shoving his hands in his pockets, slowly strolling along the street. "Daylight, so not the hotel. Library or a shop?"

He paused at a shop window with a familiar selection of rather silly headdresses. Rather pointless to shop for one of those, when the people to impress them with weren't here. Though they were rather amusing. He chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't think. Hmm. Something with hats, perhaps?"

He glanced up at the sky as he wandered further, raising an eyebrow at the wash of light before looking where he was going again. And stopping short before he ran into a familiar figure.

"Lady Romana." He tilted his head towards her, a small smile on his face.

John was in a good mood. Meeting Lucy had been fun, despite him having to explain a few tough things to her. He really hoped she was going to be okay.

He headed back into town, finishing off the bottle while he walked. He dropped it into a nearby bin when he'd finished. "Right. Library first, I think," he said out loud, hoping that the town would pick up on the idea, and save him some walking time. Sure enough, he soon saw the Library coming into view.

He took a moment to take a deep breath, and calm down a little, before he entered the Library, hoping to find Romana.

The professor had left his astronomy books in the library when he'd gone to dinner with Lucy. He went back the next day (it felt like the next day, anyway) to get them. There was someone he hadn't met before already there, reading. He had to reach over her a bit to get the book he wanted. "Pardon me," he said, smiling at her.