3I was very happy to see Grace again but I had hoped for this so have my wish in writing I suppose.
"Don't you want to see your friend?"
The words had stuck as soon as they'd been said and a strange feeling had dispersed through her, from her spine outwards. Wariness, alertness. A tingling which made her stand up straighter and tighten her grip on her sonic.
It had always been good to pay attention to those things- it had kept her alive far more times than she could count.
Something here was very wrong. Far too wrong. Fundamentally wrong.
And yet the words echo still, bringing hope as she steps into the garden, taking the lead.
Bringing guilt as foreboding fills her with memories too recent and she keeps herself between her friends and her 'friend'.
"She got here when you did." Says not-Trine again and again.
The Doctor couldn't help but feel even more suspicious then, still can't as she walks in sunshine and feels the cold in the air.
It's an incredible coincidence for such a strange world.
So the Doctor stands and looks at what she can see of the figure through the washing, flapping on the line.
She feels the moment her hearts splinter because she knows, knows, knows that this can't be real and yet she's running anyway, feet impacting the ground and mind so far gone that she registers nothing except the way the earth gives with each step and the distant awareness that Yaz and Ryan and Graham are all calling out to her in confusion and worry.
The figure turns, pale, lips thin, hands clasped around the blanket tucked around her and hair loose, caught slightly by the wind. Beautiful.
Her vision is obscured as a blanket flaps down in front of her face again but she keeps running, mind quiet as she fixes on the face in front of her- a face she could never forget in one million years.
She can see in those eyes, the cutting nature of her jaw as it clenches and in the tilt of the head, in every small way which she seems unnerved and cautious-
The Doctor stops about a foot from her and waits, a trembling breath passing through her as her hand is suspended between them.
"I've been waiting." She says softly to the Doctor, swallows.
The Time Lady can see the gentle pinkness around the eyes, of the nose, sees her catch her lip with her teeth. She reaches out her hand a little further, lets it rest on the bare wrist, lets her eyes drift to the bare fingernails, the way they twitch at the contact.
"They said you only got here when we did." The Doctor says, voice catching a little but still softened by her new accent.
There's a smile, small, sorrowful.
"There's no point waiting for you in one place. You have always been the most aimless traveller." The woman gets out despite the appearance of new tears in her eyes, unable to hold back the smile which takes her as her breath shivers.
"You're-" The Doctor tries to ask the one question that is holding her back from her friend, finds herself choking on the words, "You're real, aren't you?" She asks, fingers tightening a little around the other woman's wrist.
Gently yet firmly the woman lets go of the blanket with one hand and cups the Doctor's cheek with it.
The Doctor keeps her eyes open as her forehead is brought in to rest against the other woman's.
The emotion that sweeps through her reassures her even more than the memories, halves to so many of her own, do.
"Missy." The Doctor sobs out, letting her arms wrap around the other Time Lady.
"You aren't getting rid of me that easily." The Mistress says, burying her face in the Doctor's shoulder, "I had to blow my way into another plane of existence just to find you. I don't want to do that again." She laughs through the tears.
She can sense Yaz and Graham behind her and knows they're being quiet out of both confusion and respect and pulls away, hands staying on the other Time Lady's shoulders.
"I might need you to- I have no idea what's going on here." The Doctor teases, unwilling to lose contact with Missy for one moment.
"You never do, my dear." The Mistress laughs, swallowing again with her own fingers resting against the Doctor's sides, her new coat.
"You never do." She whispers, smiling back at her oldest friend.
