Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or anything related to it.

Summary: "Tick tock, goes the clock, Now what would we rather? Tick tock, goes the clock, a child without a father". What if, as the puppets foretold, the Master died on Mnemosyne, leaving Tejana pregnant and alone? Just how far would she be prepared to go to see him just one more time? Master/OC

Author's Note: This is another story set in my "One Moment in Time" Whoniverse, following on from the events in "The Master's Rose". It's strictly a "what-if" story, an AU of my own story-canon, if you like. It does NOT mean I have decided to kill the Master at the end of "The Master's Rose", because I haven't even written the end yet, so no throwing things at me, OK? There are no spoilers for "The Master's Rose" contained in this at all.

Big thanks to Theta'sWorstNightmare for reading this through before I posted :)

CHAPTER ONE

Tejana watched the time rotor oscillating up and down, back and forth, always with an odd little wobble as it rose, the only thing to break the almost hypnotic rhythm. The beautiful psychic harmonies of the Doctor's TARDIS, so familiar from her girlhood, drifted through her mind, warm and soothing and comforting. Helping her not to think. Because thinking was bad. So very bad. Thinking...remembering...existing at all...it just brought back the pain. The emptiness. The ripping, tearing, agonising feeling of loss, slicing through her like a knife.

"Tejana? Tejana! Are you all right?"

She could hear the voice, swimming through the anaesthetic numbness of the void she had created for herself, calling her back to reality. She had an idea that the person had been speaking to her for a while, but she hadn't wanted to listen. She still didn't want to listen, but whoever it was didn't seem to be giving up. Her eyes focused reluctantly on the speaker. A young man with messy brown hair, earnest blue eyes and a rather large nose.

Rory Williams. Amy Pond's husband.

Tejana liked Rory, she really did. He was a nice bloke, one of the nicest she had ever met. But his wasn't the voice she wanted to hear. And his face wasn't the one she so badly wanted to see.

"What?" she asked distantly.

"I asked if you were all right," he repeated. He was using that tone, the one they all used with her now. The gentle, careful tone, as if she was made of glass – as if, by speaking too quickly or too loudly, they might shatter her into a thousand fragile pieces. But it was a bit too late for that. Everything inside her had already shattered and there was nothing left. Nothing that could ever be repaired.

"I'm fine."

He held a plate out towards her. "You missed lunch. And breakfast. So I brought you a sandwich from the kitchen."

She shook her head. "Thanks. But I don't want it."

"You have to eat, Tejana." That was Amy, right behind Rory. If you found one, the other was never too far away. After all, that was how it should be, when you were a couple. Lovers. Soul-mates. Always together, never apart. Forever. "Think of the baby."

At Amy's words, Tejana's hand moved involuntarily to her stomach, stroking over the slight, almost imperceptible bump that swelled there. The baby. His baby. The son that he had wanted so very much, but now would never see. The sudden upsurge of choking pain was so great that it nearly drove her to her knees. But somehow, she managed to control it, forcing it back down, refusing to look at it. Because she knew that if she looked at it, if she accepted what it was - why it was - she would start screaming and she would never, ever stop.

She could feel the Doctor's eyes on her. He was watching her closely from across the other side of the console. They hadn't spoken much, since she'd been back on board his TARDIS. Just day-to-day inconsequential stuff. But that was the Doctor all over – he had never been particularly good at deep, emotional father-daughter stuff. She could sense that he wanted to talk to her, but he didn't know how. He had never known how. In the past, when she was younger, that had hurt her a lot. But not now. Now, she didn't want to talk anyway. What was the point? There was nothing he could say that would make it any better. It would never be any better. Not ever.

Rory was still holding the sandwich out to her, while Amy stood with her arms crossed stubbornly, her foot tapping insistently on the floor. The small tapping sound almost had a beat to it. One...two...three...four. One...two...three...four. One...two...three...four.

Tejana drew in a small harsh breath that was almost a sob and snatched the sandwich from Rory's hand, cramming it in her mouth with trembling fingers. Anything, anything, if only they would go away and leave her alone. A shudder wracked her body and she felt Amy's arm slip around her shoulders, but it didn't help. Amy's weren't the arms she needed.

"So...where should we go next?" the Doctor was saying, with a cheerfulness that didn't quite touch the bleakness of his eyes. "Somewhere relaxing, somewhere restful. Somewhere where we can put our feet up. A planet with mountains maybe...or somewhere with beaches. Beaches are cool."

Tejana dimly heard Rory reply, but she didn't make any sense of his words. It didn't matter to her where they went. One place was just as good as another, since she couldn't be in the only place she wanted to be. Again, she felt the lulling song of the TARDIS brushing through her mind, as if the sentient time-machine felt her anguish and wanted to comfort her. Blinking back hot tears, Tejana allowed the feeling to wash over her, holding it close, like a child clinging to a well-loved blanket, wrapping it protectively around herself.

If only I could see him, she thought painfully, giving shape to the need that ached like a wound deep inside her. Just once more. Just to say goodbye.

The TARDIS gave a gentle hum inside her head, almost as if in answer, and the temporal energy gleaming inside the time rotor seemed to shimmer and glisten.

"I know! The Garden Planet of Chumeria!" the Doctor announced. "Perfect choice. Just the ticket for a bit of rest and relaxation. Beautiful place! As long as we arrive before the Bannermen attack, of course – wasn't much left after that. Right then! Bit of tweaking on the navigational terminal..." His hands flew across the console as he spoke. "And then we should be good to go!"

With that he slammed down the de-materialisation lever and the entire control room shook violently, throwing all four time travellers off their feet. Sparks flew across the console and the time rotor quaked and groaned ominously.

"Doctor!" Amy called, clinging on to one of the railings with both hands as she struggled to stand upright. "What's happening?"

"Don't know!" he yelled back as he tried a different lever, only to see another shower of sparks flying through the air. "Controls aren't working!"

"Not again!" Rory groaned from his prone position on the floor, not even bothering to try and get up.

"Woo hoo!" the Doctor cried exuberantly, hanging on to the console for dear life as the TARDIS bucked madly through the Time Vortex. "I've got no idea where she's taking us, but it's definitely one wild ride! Geronimo!"

Tejana held on tightly to one of the jump seats, using it to anchor her in place. To her astonishment, despite the unexplained turbulence, the steady psychic ululation in the back of her head had not changed one bit. It was not worried or concerned or anxious – if anything, it seemed oddly determined. The Doctor might not know where they were going, but the TARDIS certainly did.

At last, there was one final, bone-shaking bump and the straining time rotor subsided into stillness.

"Well, we're here," the Doctor remarked into the sudden silence, apparently unperturbed by the unorthodox journey.

"And where exactly is 'here'?" Amy inquired tartly, giving Rory her hand and yanking him to his feet.

The Doctor was already bounding down the stairs, intent on checking the fizzing circuitry under the central console. "Still no idea," he called up to them. "All the systems appear to be off-line!"

Sure enough, all the screens on the control panels were covered in undecipherable waves of white, crackling static. Rory and Amy gave each other a resigned glance and followed the Doctor down to the lower level, peering in at him as he tinkered with several long cables he had detached from under the console.

Not really caring what was going on, Tejana sat down on the seat she had been clinging to, her legs folding wearily under her. Suddenly, she felt a sharp nudge inside her head, almost like an invisible hand urging her in the direction of the outer doors. Her hand flew to her forehead. What the...? But before she could react, the nudge came again, even more distinctly than before. A flash of light caught her eye as the screens in front of her flickered and then sprang to life. She was about to call the Doctor's attention to it, when she read the words scrolling across the navigational terminal.

Location: London, Great Britain, Earth.

Date: 16 May 2008.

Both her hearts seemed to turn over at once, her breath catching incredulously in her throat as she remembered the implications of that particular year for the Earth. She could hear her own thoughts, echoing back to her, almost like an actual voice, as if someone was trying to remind her of what she had so recently wished for:

Just once more. Just to say goodbye.

Again, a gentle psychic shove, subtly pushing her towards the exit. All at once, she understood what the TARDIS had done. This was the only possible point within the causal nexus where she could encounter the Master's final incarnation without technically crossing her own timeline and causing a paradox – the four short days between the reception for Professor Lazarus and the elections that saw Harold Saxon become Prime Minister of Great Britain. Right now, there was no chance of her meeting her earlier self on Earth. That Tejana was far away in another galaxy with the Doctor and Martha, answering a distress call on board a distant spaceship known as the S. S. Pentallion, which was on a collision course with a fiery star. Nevertheless, the TARDIS was treading a very fine line, technically abiding by the letter of the Laws of Time, but only just. Crossing into established events was strictly forbidden. But sometimes there was a little leeway. Room for what the Doctor had always called "cheap tricks". Maybe this was one of those times.

Tejana got to her feet and tiptoed quietly down the stairs, behind Rory and Amy's backs. The Doctor was still babbling away in his usual disjointed fashion, speculating on what could have caused the disruption, his eyes fixed on his buzzing sonic screwdriver as he tried to override whatever was jamming the TARDIS systems. None of them noticed as Tejana grabbed her coat and moved silently across to the double doors leading to the outside world. The right hand door was already slightly ajar, as if it was ready and waiting for her to pass through it.

She knew that if the Doctor saw her leaving, he would try to stop her. There was no way she should be doing this. Even with the sanction of the TARDIS, it went against every rule the Time Lords had ever had. Messing with the causal nexus was a huge no-no, rife with the potential for disaster. But right at that moment, she didn't care. She wouldn't speak to the Master, wouldn't do anything to cause a paradox – she wouldn't even let him know she was there. All she wanted, the only thing she wanted, was to see his face again. Surely that wasn't too much to ask. Surely it couldn't hurt, just one more time. Surely, surely, after all that had happened, the Universe owed her at least that much.

As she slipped out through the open door, she smoothed her hand gratefully down the wooden exterior of the TARDIS, knowing that the time machine had done this out of love and concern for her.

Thank you, old girl.

And as she hurried out into the cold, busy London street, the door shut behind her and there was a small click as the deadlock snapped into place. Up on the glass platform, all the screens on the console shivered into static once more, hiding their tell-tale data from view.

Satisfied with what she had done, the TARDIS gave a small hum of pleasure and settled back into her usual inertia, waiting to see what the Doctor would do.