Imaginary Worlds

"Right, right," the Master settled back and left the Doctor to it as he idly flipped his book on memory loss, trying not to make a big show of reading it for the Doctors benefit.

Marnal woke up not long later, clearly not happy to still be in the car. "How long till home?"

"That is not a proper sentence and not too long. Another hour or so." the Doctor assured lightly. That was all that he could offer really.

Not like he could go any faster. Not legally at least. "Don't worry. It won't be too long."

Marnal frowned, he wasn't entirely sure what counted as a sentence and what didn't, he just slumped down and closed his eyes,he wasn't tired but he was bored.

And all of his stuff was in the boot so that left sleeping as an option. sleeping or trying to read over Mr Saxons shoulder. "An hour is long!"

The Doctor knew that Marnal didn't know the difference between sentences yet. That was why he ever said anything. He was simply informing the lad for future reference.

"It is not. You'll be fine. The hour will be over before you know it." he states lightly, shrugging a bit.

"I don't have any toys. Or books! Mr Saxon gets a book, I didn't bring any," Marnal complained, he'd been too tired at the time to think of it and now he was stuck bored here.

And he didn't fancy that. The Master raised an eyebrow, he didn't have any kid friendly books or items with him. "Think you boy would want to read about alternate realities?"

"Not in the least." the Doctor murmured, digging about in his pocket for a moment before procuring a yo-yo. "There you go." he stated, passing it back to his son.

It would at least keep Marnal distracted for a short time. But that was all he needed for the lad. "Why are you so entranced with those books? I get wanting answers. I don't get you looking at alternate realities for a memory issue."

Marnal caught it and tried to unwind it, yoyos were not very good for cars, they didn't have the right sort of room and for a boy who couldn't work a yoyo, it was frustrating.

"Alternate realities make more sense, this isn't a memory thing, this is just ... weird," the Master pointed out, so many questions and no possible answer, course he was curious.

"And here I was sure that you were stuck on missing memories. My bad." the Doctor deadpanned. It didn't make sense.

"Do explain how this new theory fits?" the Doctor prompted lightly. Hey, at least he was civil.

"The little things that indicate we have another life or perhaps an alternate one. I feel like I always knew you and visa versa, our boys share similar dreams and our kids also show traits of familiar things we can't place," the Master pointed out.

"Also we cant explain why we got out pets, there's always something amiss and ... well, the blue box," the Master explained because that made sense... to him anyway.

"Fine. But alternate realities? If that were the case, then it wouldn't pertain to us. Not really. That's like going into the theory of reincarnation and past lives. It doesn't pertain to us now." the Doctor asserted.

It didn't make any sense to him. It really didn't. The Master was poking at something that, even I it were true, wouldn't change a thing.

"Not true, we could of come from an alternate reality and lost our memories of spit off into another reality or even build a new one," the Master explained carefully to the man.

"You're so close minded, you'll never believe me, even if I proved it so why do you ask?" the Master pointed out, the Doctor was clearly not interested and that was fair.

"Fine. I'll stop asking you." the Doctor muttered. He wasn't close minded. He just didn't want to believe any of it. He didn't like what he was like in those dreams. He didn't like any of those dreams.

"But tell me something? Say you were actually happy and content, but you dreamed of a life where you went rapidly from that to being desperate and hurt. Would you really want to find out that's how you were supposed to be?" the Doctor asked softly.

"Yes. Truth and knowledge are power and if I really didn't ever want to go back, I would of done a better job of hiding it," the Master pointed out with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"It's cheating to deny the past, what happens happens," the Master insisted, time was a very important thing, it can't go back but it can be fixed if work is put in.

"I don't think that we would be together if we weren't where we are now." the Doctor mumbled. He couldn't really say much else on the topic.

The Doctor just had a sinking feeling that, had they been together before, something had to drive them to where they were now. It wasn't a positive feeling.

"But you can't prove that," the Master insisted because he knew the Doctor liked to be very doom and gloom and that was one of those little issues he had to work on.

"It's not possible to prove unless we know the truth," and he would hold the truth higher than anything else.

"And say that everything is fine. What, in your theory, would have brought us to this point? Why would we abandon a life that we were happy in?" the Doctor asked softly, shrugging.

That didn't make sense in the least. "Look. It's not that big of a deal. Really. I'm not going to gripe about your working on this any longer." the Doctor assured.

How do you know we wanted it?" the Master pointed out, he knew himself and it had to be either frced or for a very good reason, either way he needed to know these things.

"You might be happier there," the Master theorised before picking up his book again "But fine, we'll just drop the matter."

The Doctor frowned softly and shook his head a bit. "Don't worry about it. I'm happy now and that's all that matters to me." the Doctor murmured softly.

That was all that should matter to him. Because the Doctor knew how he was and what he wanted, and what he wanted was the lifestyle he currently held.

The Master nodded and went back to his research, enjoying the silence... well, except the noise Marnal made with the yoyo we couldn't use so basically just swung around making woshing noises.

It was seeming to be a very long ride home, the Master was eager to get home now, moreso to stretch his legs than much else.

The Doctor was honestly rather grateful for the lapse into silence. And how could he not be? He didn't like having to deal with this topic in the least. He was actually rather grateful upon pulling up outside of the Master's place.

"Here you go. Like I said, you're welcome to come over whenever you'd like." the Doctor assured brightly, offering a bit of a grin.

"I'll see you in a while," the Master offered, smiling as he got out. Course he didn't give a date, he just grabbed his bags and headed inside, he wasn't sure when he'd pop around yet but the Doctor would call when he needed someone to watch Marnal.

Sigma hurried out the car after him and the two happily headed inside. Marnal frowned. "I'm gonna miss Sigma."

"I know you will, kiddo, but we have to worry about Pest. We can't have the poor cat having an anxiety attack or anything." the Doctor murmured softly with a small frown.

It only made sense that he'd worry. "But I'll think about it." he assured lightly. And that's all he could do.

"Pest doesn't play fetch, he just gets scared and hides!" Marnal complained, he tried yesterday to throw the cat a ball and the poor sod freaked out and ran off to find the Doctor.

It wasn't even like he was trying to hurt the runt either, it just wasn't fair. "I just want someone to play with cause you're busy and I don't know anyone at school who'd want to. Pest doesn't want to either."

"Pest plays fetch." the Doctor murmured, smiling as the cat moved to take over the passenger seat now that the Master was gone. He did have a fondness for the animal.

"Look. I'll look into it. I just don't want you to get your hopes up and realize it won't happen because of Pest. The poor thing has problems. But he's still ours." the Doctor murmured.

"I know and I love him cause you have to love family," the boy recited with a small smile, even if Pest was awkward, he was nothing compared to his uncles family.

Or his granddad. He was probably the best family Marnal had beside his dad. "Why do I never get to see my moms family? Don't I have others? More uncles and stuff?"