It's all AU.

The Doctor was sitting at a table in the hotel lobby (he'd been spending a lot of time there, hoping to come across his Jack, though he'd slipped out of sight whenever another version of himself came along) making himself a sonic screwdriver out of parts he'd filched from - well - just about everywhere.

He cursed when a part rolled off the table and underneath it, and stiffly bent down to try and retrieve it. His back seized and he found himself effectively stuck.

With relief, he heard the hotel door open. "Excuse me!" he called, with forced brightness, still stuck bent down under the table. "I don't suppose you could help me up, could you?"

The Doctor had spent a week or so resting, making the most of the gorgeously soft bed he'd staggered into, and drinking tea from room service.

Eventually, he'd worked up the energy to get out of bed, get dressed, and venture out of his room. He glanced towards the restaurant as he crossed the lobby, but he couldn't quite face normal food yet. He'd go for a walk instead.

He opened the door of the hotel, and stared. He'd expected a quiet, sleepy little town. What he'd got was New New New New New York.

He'd gone to sleep in his tent on the bridge of the Valiant.

He woke up in the lobby of the hotel.

Very slowly, he uncurled his stiff, arthritic body, pushed himself up to sitting and blinked at the person going past.

The Doctor was out looking for a Master. John's attempts at helping hadn't quite worked the way he'd planned. In a way, he'd actually made things worse because before, the Doctor had been desperately trying to control his desire for the Master and his jealousy of any Doctor here who had their own Master with them. Then John had suggested he go and shag one of them to get it out of his system. And although he'd denied that he could do that and have it remain fun – not get in too deep – and had ostensibly settled for John instead (if John could get permission from Jamie), well… It had started him thinking. Remembering. Wanting.

To his credit, he had gone looking for Jack first, in the hopes of settling his urge. But Jack had remained unfindable.

Which was why the Doctor was out in the night trawling the streets and bars looking for a Master.

When the first one he came across was the newly-regenerated sane one, he almost backed away unseen and scarpered, because that one had such a strong presence, it was dangerous the way the Doctor just wanted to… Well. Jump him. On the other hand, at least this one was safe.

He swallowed, then went and leaned casually against the bar next to the Master. Well, as casually as someone who's jittery with nerves can get. "Mind if I join you?" he asked diffidently.

John was feeling good. More than good. In fact it could be said that he was feeling positively radiant.
( cut for length )

"Hey, outta' my light," he said squinting up, shielding his eyes, trying to make out who the culprit was. "Man's tryin' to work here."

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.

He'd finally sucked up the courage to go and find Jack. That gun was burning a hole in his pocket and he'd had enough of thinking about it. Time to act.

There was no answer at the other TARDIS when he knocked, but he reckoned everyone had to come home some time. So he sat down on the pavement nearby, leaned back against the wall, and waited.

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.

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.

Morning. The morning after the night before, and the Doctor was banging frantically on the door of the other TARDIS.

Really, really frantically. Because he'd spent the night lying beside Jack, wanting to make sure he was all right, and when Jack woke - headache mercifully subsided and his shields much more intact - they'd talked, their quarrel of the evening before forgotten, and the Doctor had told Jack he was furious with the Master for messing with his lover, and Jack had asked him to show him just how furious, and, well, the Doctor had had to go to some lengths to convince him...

And then things had suddenly got really out of hand.

"Come on!" he shouted, almost sobbing, battering at the TARDIS door with his fists. "Please! Come on!"

(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.

The Doctor was striding through town under his very own localised rainstorm. A raincloud was actually following him, raining on him and a patch a few feet wide around him. He didn't look particularly bothered by this.

He was wearing a tux. A very wet tux. And looking furious.

Yana stood at the doors of the TARDIS in the library for a while, trying to decide. He was probably the last person this particular version of the Doctor wanted to see, but he was concerned about him, and...

He sighed. And knocked on the door.

The Doctor had been back to his TARDIS and had finally caught up with Jack again. They'd talked a bit about John and the Master and Jamie, but Jack hadn't really been much help. He'd just kept saying he needed to get to know the Master like the Doctor had got to know John - which worried the Doctor rather. They at least hadn't quarrelled this time, though.

In the end, he left Jack to his own devices and headed out into the town again. Stopped at a little ice-cream shop and got the biggest ice-cream sundae he could find. Sat down and started to eat it.

"He has to be around here somewhere." Tosh leaned against the side of a building, reaching down to pull off one shoe, rubbing her heel. "I'm sure he wouldn't have gone far."

Jack put a hand under her elbow to help her keep her balance, keeping an eye on the street for other people, a small frown on his face. "I haven't seen anyone since we arrived, Miss Sato. Or the TARDIS."

"Well, we haven't searched everywhere yet." Tosh put her shoe back on, giving him a small smile. She tucked her hand into his offered arm, stepping out into the street once more. "We'll find him, or someone, sooner or later."

Jack returned her smile, recognizing the determination she'd shown when he first met her, only a few days before. That somehow, she'd find some solution to the problem of getting home - or finding the Doctor, in this case. He looked over the street as they continued along, spotting a familiar tousled head, even if the outfit wasn't quite what he remembered the Doctor wearing.

"Doctor!"

Jamie got out of bed, read John's note, groaned, then put on his shoes and went to his own room for a shower and a change of clothes. His hair was still wet when he made his way down to the hotel lobby, yawning a little bit and seeking "Eggs?"

The Doctor felt a lot better after... what had happened with the Master. Calmer and as if he'd let go of something he'd held onto for a hell of a long time.

He wandered about the park, breathing in the cool air of the morning and sighed contentedly.

The Master sat at table in the hotel lobby, with a pot of tea, and scribbling in a notebook. Trying to get his thoughts organized. Not distressed really, but thoughtful about a several topics. And not wanting to be shut away from people, in the TARDIS, either. Here, he could people-watch and think.