Full Summary; The Master steals the Tardis from the Doctor at the very end of time, but the blue Timeship has plans of her own to enact, and drops the meddlesome Time Lord in 1973.

Meanwhile, Rose Tyler has been trapped in the parallel world for three years, but has finally fought her way back to where she should be without shattering the multiverse, but landing in the right universe and finding the Doctor once there are two completely different tasks.

As Jack and his Torchwood Team in Cardiff help Rose acclimatise to her own realm once more, the Doctor has taken on Martha Jones as his new companion after a few months of mourning while drifting through the vortex. As she tries to help the Time Lord move on, Martha isn't expecting to bump into the alien's ex, and is less than thrilled at the competition for his attention.

As they travel, and become accustomed to the changes time and space have wrought, secrets, plans, and traps are revealed that could make or tear apart the Doctor's world in more ways than one. A thread ties all of them together, a thread woven through time.

Prologue: The End of Time

His blood ran cold and fear froze his lungs as he saw the light of regeneration flow through the frosted windows of his Tardis. There was nothing he could do now, it was too late. He could sense the other Time Lord inside his mind, but all the Doctor could do was stare in fear, despair, worry, concern, guilt, and unadulterated hope as he staggered a step back and waited, and then waited some more for some sound other than the scream of regeneration. Waiting for some sign of who this particular Time Lord might be.

"Doctor! You'd better think of something!."

Jack's shout, Martha's screams and the shouts of the futurekind from the hall beyond them all washed over him. There was a small part of his mind running ahead and making plans, testing them and discarding them but most of his focus was on his Tardis, as terror and hope battled inside him.

"Now then, Doctor! Oooh, new voice! Hello, hello, Hello... Anyway...Why don't we stop and have a nice little chat where I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me... I Don't Think!."

"Hold on, I know that voice!" Martha gasped from the doorway, distracted from the futurekind fighting to get in, by the words of the newly reborn Time Lord.

The Doctor ignored her, his attention focussed on the biggest potential danger and it wasn't the futurekind. He swallowed hard past the lump in his throat at the strange sing song voice that was somehow still hauntingly familiar. The voice was difference but the intonation, the turn of phrase, it all spun memories in his mind awakening thoughts he'd believed long buried.

Worst of all though, this newly awakened Time Lord was inside the Tardis.

"I'm asking you, really, properly, please just stop, just think!" He managed to choke out at the impenetrable doors of his beautiful ship. He would beg, he would grovel. The Tardis was his home, but the reply he received sent a cold shiver down the Doctor's spine.

"Use my name."

He didn't even hesitate. He knew this Time Lord. They'd once been friends, but now... Now he just wanted his home back, the sounds of his companions were drowned out by the voice from behind those solid blue doors.

"Go on, say my name..."

"Master; I'm sorry-"

"Tough!."

The Tardis engines start to give their signature sound of dematerialization, and the sonic was buzzing in his hand before he could change his mind about causing his ship such pain.

"Oh no you don't!... End of the Universe, Doctor, have fun, bye bye!" was the last sound transmitted from the Tardis before it faded away.

"Doctor, stop him!" Martha screamed, but he'd already done all he could and flicked the sonic closed, ending the long pulse he'd sent in a desperate attempt to fuse her coordinate dials. All he could do now was hope it would be enough to limit their search for the Master... That was assuming they got away from the end of the universe in one piece.

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but from a non linear, non subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.

The Tardis could hear The Doctor's words as she hurtled through time, glimpses of the past flashing through her matrix, even though she'd been separated from him when he'd spoken them. While not the most articulate description of the vortex, it was oddly accurate, she thought as she considered the events she now found herself in the middle of.

The hands controlling her flight path were not those of her Doctor. Her Time Lord, and she resisted his orders.

She couldn't refuse entirely, he was overriding her systems, but Her Time Lord had tried to fuse her coordinate dials and the small error it caused in her systems meant she could put this particular Time Lord somewhere other than where he wanted to go. A small time-range pocket within which she could deposit him.

It was simply a matter of choosing the right time. Somewhere he was meant to be. Somewhere that would cause a chain of events that would lead him to this moment. The Tardis could complete the circular paradox that started and ended with this moment, and with a shudder she planted herself in 1973 and refused to move, circuits shutting down and locking him out, for a while at least, this stranger who flew her with a forceful fist instead of a gentle touch.

Hands flipped her switches and turned her dials as his growls of frustration grew louder. He resorted to throwing his mind against her matrix in an attempt to force her to move, but she held fast against his onslaught and after a time he gave in, resigning himself to the slow path until he had the resources to tear her apart.

He knew he could use the telepathy of the Time Lords to get situated, fake his life, and besides, at least doing things this way, he had plenty of time to prepare some traps for The Doctor.

As he stepped out and locked her doors, the Tardis let loose a soft hum of mixed emotions, and waited for her thief to steal her away from the mad man.

A/N: I've been fascinated for a long time about the idea that Sam Tyler (Simm's character from Life On Mars) was somehow linked into or related to Pete Tyler (Roses' dad) and I finally decided to have a go at getting my ideas down on paper. I've not listed this fic as a cross-over, as there's very little about Life on Mars in here, it's more a brief nod to the other fandom.

Enjoy!