Title: Too Little, Too Late
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 5, 50episodes
Prompt: 1, Blind
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own Ianto Jones or the Tenth Doctor. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor sighed, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling. He was tired, tense, not as much at peace as he would like to be. And all because of those damned dreams that wouldn't leave him alone, those dreams that grew more and more disturbing.

What was causing them? He had no way of saying for sure, but he was almost positive that it was due to the Master. The images that he saw in his dreams certainly couldn't come from his own mind, despite some of the horrible things that he'd seen over the centuries.

Somehow, the Master had found a way to get into his subconscious mind and haunt his dreams. That was the only explanation. When could he have done it? It would have taken physical contact, but there had been no shortage of that the last time they'd met.

It was possible that he'd gotten into Ianto's mind, as well. The Doctor winced at the thought; he didn't want that madman to use Ianto in any way. What the Master had already done to his young lover in the physical sense had been bad enough.

The Time Lord frowned, his mind going back over that last encounter with the Master. He hadn't thought about it at the time, of course, but it could be that this was what the Master had intended all along. He had been planning something in the long-term.

Could the physical horror of that last meeting have been designed to cover up the Master's actual intentions? It was entirely possible that the renegade Time Lord had used that physicality to cover up what he had actually meant to accomplish with the two of them.

It could easily be that the Master hadn't wanted to get his hands on the two of them for purely physical reasons, as the Doctor had assumed. This could have been his plan all along -- to make some sort of connection with their minds, without it being known that he was doing so.

If that was the case, then the Master obviously had some sort of plan that he could be bringing to life at any time. The Doctor's hearts seemed to skip a beat; it was terrifying to think that the Master could have been using the two of them and they hadn't had a clue.

There was no way for him to tell if his suspicions were true or not, but those disturbing dreams had to be at the center of whatever the Master might be planning. They seemed to be the crux of everything; and they were only getting worse over time.

Of course, he could just be paranoid, the Doctor told himself with an inward sigh. It could very well be that he was only having these dreams because some occurrence had made them come forward; maybe he'd just seen too many horrible things for them to be held back any longer.

No, that couldn't be it. He'd seen some terrible things in his lifetime, but nothing that should make these kinds of horrifying dreams attack him on an almost nightly basis. This couldn't be coming from within his own psyche; it had to be augmented by an outside source.

And that source could only be the Master. His lips compressed into a thin line at the thought; he was sure that he had hit on the right explanation of how that bastard had managed to get into his mind when he and Ianto had been held captive.

What would be the purpose of using himself and Ianto in this way? Try as he might, the Doctor couldn't make light of what the Master's plan could possibly be, other than to disturb the two of them as much as he could with those recurring nightmares.

But no -- if the Master had a plan, it was more far-reaching than that. Getting the two of them out of the way as serious adversaries wouldn't be enough for him; they would have to be involved in some way with the larger, more dangerous part of his agenda.

How many sleepless nights had he spent turning over possibilities in his mind? The Doctor had no idea, but it was far too many nights at this point. And he was no nearer to deciphering the riddle that he'd been presented with than he'd been at the very beginning.

Still, he was sure that he was on the right track. Those disturbing dreams had something to do with the Master -- he couldn't doubt that, not for a moment. They were too detailed and too frightening to just be random bad drams that were suddenly coming to him.

The Doctor sighed impatiently, sitting up and resting his elbows on the console of the Tardis. If only he had realized from the first time he'd had one of those dreams that it was caused by the Master, perhaps the situation might be different now. He blamed himself for that.

He had been blind to the possibilities -- or maybe he just hadn't wanted to admit that the Master could have found such an insidious way to get to him. Maybe it was his pride that wouldn't let him admit the truth -- that his adversary appeared to have gotten the better of him.

His pride had been his downfall more than once in the past, the Doctor told himself wryly. He shouldn't let it happen again, but it seemed that was one of his failings. Only this time, he'd involved Ianto in a problem that should be his alone.

Ianto wasn't having these terrible dreams -- at least, not as much as he himself was. He'd had a few, but they didn't attack him nearly every night, even though it was obvious to the Time Lord that his lover's dreams were definitely connected to his own.

Somehow, he'd managed to ignore all of the warnings that he usually gave himself to be careful when he was dealing with the Master -- and he'd stumbled right into a trap that he could feel closing around him. Worse yet, Ianto was caught in this trap right along with him.

The Doctor was fairly sure that the Master wouldn't have been able to reach out for anyone else -- there was no way he could have gotten to Jack, and even if he had, the immortal would have gotten in touch with him about it long before now.

Had he realized what these possible dangers could be too late? Had he pushed them away at his own peril, done too little about them, to the point where they now threatened not only his own sanity and well-being, but that of millions of innocent people as well?

If that was the case, if he'd done too little and was now realizing that fact too late, he would have to do anything within his power to make things right. No matter at what cost to himself, he had to keep the Master's plans from coming to fruition -- whatever they might be.

The only thing that he and Ianto could do at this point was to go to Jack and tell him what they thought was going on. Torchwood would be Earth's first line of defense against the Master -- and Jack had to know what was happening so he could prepare that defense.

How was he going to explain this? Jack knew that he and Ianto had encountered the Master -- he even knew about the physical violations they'd both suffered -- but he wouldn't expect that the renegade Time Lord would come up with something like this.

The Doctor's mouth twisted in a wry smile. No one would have expected this. He hadn't thought of it himself until those dreams had become too insistent to write off as coincidence. And if he didn't realize what was happening, he was sure that no one else would have done so.

Was that his pride getting in the way again? He sighed, shaking his head. He would have to push that pride aside when he went to Jack and explained what he thought was going on. He'd have to ask for help -- and that was never easy for him to do.

Asking Jack for help was particularly hard to do, but he would have to swallow his pride and do it. Jack would be more than ready to jump in with both feet -- especially once he knew that this was a situation that involved the Master in some way.

The immortal had his own axes to grind with the Doctor's ancient enemy, the Time Lord thought with a sigh. He just hoped that if it came down to a confrontation, Jack would be able to put aside his personal vendettas in favor of looking at the big picture.

He himself had learned to do that a long time ago when it came to the Master. But this time, his enemy had involved the Doctor's lover -- and that was something he wasn't going to take lightly. The Master had overstepped any boundaries that might have been set by doing that.

Yes, he had been blind to possible danger -- maybe willfully so, in some ways, he told himself grimly as he stood up and bent over the console. But hopefully, he could rectify that mistake -- if it wasn't already too late to stop whatever plans the Master might have set in motion.

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