Title: Plan of Attack
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Peter Carlisle
Fandom: Doctor Who/Blackpool
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1, 5_prompts
Prompt: 4, Narrow it down
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Peter Carlisle. Please do not sue.

***

"What's our first plan of attack, Doctor?" Peter asked, looking up at the Time Lord from where he sat on the couch in the control room of the Tardis. "We're going to have to take the Master by surprise if we hope to find out what he's planning to do."

The Doctor shook his head with a smile, glancing over at his lover. "Taking him by surprise isn't as easy to do as you might think, Peter," he murmured, looking back down at the console and studying it intently. "This is the first time you've had to deal with him."

Peter nodded reluctantly, wondering just what it was about this man that made him so wily and so hard to track down. No, not a man, he corrected himself silently. An alien. With abilities that could make even the Doctor wary of him.

He'd had to deal with criminals who ran to ground and were hard to find before, but .... the man they were after sounded much more cunning than any of them.

What was it that made this man so hard to track down? Was it because he has some special unseen abilities that made him able to hide himself well? Or was it that he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, and that the Doctor didn't want to go rushing into a confrontation?

From what his lover had told him, it was probably a combination of both, Peter decided, propping his chin on his hand with a sigh. If only he had some insight into how this man's mind worked, then he'd be able to help the Doctor with tracking him, he was sure.

After all, he'd been a detective tor a lot of years. That had to be of some use to his love when he was going after a person who amounted to nothing more than an interstellar criminal, didn't it? But he had a feeling that his expertise was in the wrong place here.

Besides, this man didn't seem to be necessarily hiding. It seeemed easy enough to find where he was. The trick would be in stopping him, as the Time Lord had pointed out.

They didn't even know what his plan was yet, which was what made him so dangerous. He might not reveal the grand scheme of his intentions until it was too late to stop them from being put into motion, which was what the Doctor was so concerned about.

Their immediate problem was to narrow down what the Master might have in mind, he told himself, turning his mind to that problem. If he had some better indication of what the Master was like, he'd be better able to do that.

But the Master's personality didn't seem as though it would be an easy concept to grasp, he thought wryly. The Doctor had known him for centuries, after all, and he himself didn't seem to have a good idea of what the man was really like under the surface.

Peter glanced over at the Doctor to find the Time Lord looking over at him with an expression of worry on his face. He sat up, casting a questioning look at his lover.

"What's the matter, love?" he asked, keeping his voice soft. He didn't like it when that look was on the Doctor's face; it usually meant that something was bothering him that he preferred to keep quiet about, as though he thought that Peter couldn't handle what he was thinking.

The Time Lord shook his head, resting his elbows on the console and sighing softly. "I was just thinking that perhaps it wouldn't be the best thing for you to come with me, Peter. I don't want to put you into any danger if I can help it."

Now it was Peter's turn to shake his head as he got up and went over to where the Doctor was standing, wrapping his arms around his lover's slender waist from behind and pulling the Time Lord close against him. His words, when he spoke, were firm and uncompromising.

"I'm not going to stay behind, Doctor. I'm your companion as well as your lover. I'm meant to be by your side, watching your back, and that's where I intend to be."

After several moments went by in silence, the Doctor nodded, though Peter could tell that there was a reluctance about his agreement. But he wasn't going to be dissuaded; he wasn't going to let the Doctor go out there into danger while he kept himself safe.

"Besides, love," he went on, keeping his voice to a soothing tone, "I'm a detective. Things like this are what I was trained to do. You don't think that I'm going to take any unnecessary risks, do you? I know how to keep myself and the people I'm with protected in bad situations."

That wasn't necessarily true, he knew; there were times when he took risks and rushed into situations without looking before he leapt. He'd always been headstrong and impulsive. But he wasn't going to take any chances with the Doctor's life.

"All right, sweetheart," the Time Lord murmured, finally nodding again. "I won't make you stay behind. I just want you to be as careful as possible."

"I promise I will," Peter told him, knowing in his heart that if the Doctor was in any kind of danger, he would do his utmost to rescue the Time Lord -- even if it meant sacrificing his own life. The Doctor was much more important than him, no matter what the other man might think.

No matter what happened, he wasn't going to let the Doctor sacrifice himself. His own life was far more expendable; and even if giving his life for the Doctor would mean leaving the Time Lord alone again, he knew that his lover would understand his reasons. At least, he hoped so.

"Now," he said, turning his attention to what looked like a map that the Doctor had brought up in one of the viewscreens on the console, "let's try to narrow it down as to where this slippery bastard might have gone to ground and draw out of a plan of attack before we go after him, shall we?"

The two of them bent over the map, Peter listening as the Doctor's soft voice explained what he was looking at, taking it all in. This wasn't an easy situation they would be going into, the thought as he listened, but it was sure to be an exciting one.

***