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Chapter Text

“It’s this way, I’m positive,” the Doctor declared from several steps ahead of you. “Not too much further.”

She’d been saying a variation of that phrase for the past hour.

You lifted your feet over the twisting roots that covered the ground of the largely untrodden forest, forever mystified by how the Doctor maneuvered over obstacles with a long coat like hers.  

“You’re putting the kettle on immediately when we get back,” you huffed. “And I’m opening that packet of biscuits you’ve been saving for a special occasion. This is special enough.”

Getting back. A concept that wouldn’t be on your radar for another few hours, with the way this was going.

The Doctor murmured a response that could’ve been an uh-huh, a general observational grunt, or an indication of something much worse. You couldn’t quite pinpoint when all her conversational murmurs began to blur together, and yet you could always separate them into various Doctor-ey emotions.

She abruptly turned on her heel, guided by an unknown force.

An observational noise, then.

“The humming is getting louder. Can’t you hear it? Seriously, what’s the point of humans having two ears when you can’t hear even the most basic frequencies?”

The gentle bullying of your species was an indication that the two of you had been walking for a little bit too long, and she was reaching the end of her tether. Still, you trailed behind her without question. This formed the routine of your everyday life. Wherever she went, you followed. 

She threw a look at you over her shoulder, and slowed her pace until she was walking alongside you. Her free hand came to rest between your shoulder blades, slowly drifting down to the small of your back as she veered to the right, guiding you with her.

“I know it’s been a long day, and I’m feeling it too. But I’m absolutely, positively certain we’re nearly there.”

Worry tinged the edges of her tone. 

It had been several hours since the TARDIS had jolted mid-flight as a distress call came in. Hours since the Doctor hauled all those levers on the console and altered the course, bringing the two of you to this planet. Hours since she’d thrown open those blue doors and revealed dense forests and jagged mountain ranges. Way, way too far from the source of the signal.

You were supposed to go on that beachside holiday she had been promising you. Another time, she had said as her eyes flicked around the console. I promise! She'd said defensively when you'd raised your eyebrows. When have I ever lied to you?

“It’s okay, we’re doing all we can,” you tried. You were never sure if your reassuring words found their mark; still, you tried. She didn’t reply.

Her other arm was still stuck out in front of her, the glowing amber of her sonic dancing between her fingertips, guiding you both into the green unknown. 

The buzzing emanating from her sonic upped an octave, and the Doctor let out a small ah. Then, as quickly as she appeared at your side, she vanished into the foliage.

You plunged your focus into keeping up with her now, straying from the beaten path, forearms raised above your head to shield yourself from stray branches—

The atmosphere shifted, trees giving way to an open landscape of dirt and stone. Twenty steps ahead, the ground abruptly ended, plummeting into an unforgiving ravine. Balanced across the gap in an unfortunate - or perhaps lucky - position, was a spaceship no larger than a one-bedroom apartment.  The Doctor was over there in a leap and bound, sonicking a side door.

You walked over and placed one hand on the side of the ship. It was slightly warm to the touch.

“Appears to be a rogue explorer squad ship. Common around these parts,” the Doctor said quietly, grabbing the door handle and sliding it open with a slight rattle. She paused, the air stilling as her gaze lingered on you. “It’s human. Not too far into your future.”

She hoisted herself into the ship before turning around and offering her hand to you in silent question. You took it as you’d done a million times before, letting her pull you through the doorway.

“Antramnius-B is a captivating place. I've only visited once or twice, but not since a few regenerations ago. Overgrown forests, deep cave systems, and occupied by a native alien species,” her voice had slight echo in the empty confines of the ship. “Great planet, in theory. That being said, no humans are known to occupy it. Not for another few centuries, at least.”

You nodded, looking around the ship. It was well and truly unoccupied. Dust had made its way in through the shattered windows and was beginning to settle on every surface.  The ghostlike silence was broken by a persistent beeping that broke from the console, instantly drawing the Doctor towards it like a moth to a light.

You let her tinker away at the front, doing a lap of the ship on your own to look for anything out of the ordinary. There were open compartments, belongings scattered across floors and chairs. Sleeping pods were unmade, the sheets strewn everywhere. Something was off; its inhabitants - dead or alive - were nowhere to be seen.

Upon returning, you found the Doctor crouched in front of the console, pulling various components apart in search of the ship’s black box. You sank into one of the seats in front of the console, immediately feeling the tiredness in your legs. Your hands brushed against something cold and metallic. The seatbelt; buckled but ripped open. An uncomfortable weight settled in your gut.

“Forests, caves, oxygen, and water are enough to get you lot to come sniffing,” the Doctor observed aloud, freeing you from your train of thought. “It’s not surprising to find a human ship here, I mean. Except it is. Because it shouldn’t be here.”

An obvious contradiction. It would’ve surprised you, if you didn’t travel with the Doctor.

“If this planet is occupied, why haven’t we seen anyone?”

“Asking the right questions. Why haven’t we seen anyone?,” she repeated back to you, grabbing a handful of wires and scattering them on the floor behind her. "This planet isn’t as densely populated as Earth, for example, but its population is significant enough that we probably should’ve seen someone by now. It’s a lovely day, I’m surprised no one’s out walking the dog.”

You rocked back and forth in the seat. “Now that you say it, I don’t think we’ve seen many animals, either.”

“Well, this planet has an intricate cave system, reaching from the mountain summits deep into the planet’s core. Most of its creatures have evolved in its caves and still reside there, some only venturing out when the sun sets.”

“Hmm. Could it be that an animal caused the ship to crash?”

The Doctor yanked on something inside the console, to no avail. She met your waiting gaze briefly. “No. Well… I don’t think so. I couldn’t imagine how, since most of them are ground-dwelling. Or underground-dwelling. Nocturnal. Et cetera.” 

You looked around the ship again, racking your brain for clues.

“If I crashed, I’d stay close to the safety of my ship, unless it was unsafe to do so. Right? Is the race on this planet peaceful?”  

“How do you define peaceful?” the Doctor shrugged. “Humans are incredibly intelligent and compassionate, and you still have wars and climate change and Facebook arguments.”

You uncrossed your legs and stood up, the squeak of the chair announcing your movement.

“Don’t wander off,” her focus was pinned on you now. She pointed a finger at you. “Not until we have figured out what happened here.”

“I won’t,” you said, not even trying to sound reassuring, and made your way back to the open door.

Her eyes followed you, brows slightly furrowed. She gave you that look; that look that suggested she didn’t entirely believe you, but hoped that you’d do the right thing anyway.

“I won’t!” 

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

She turned her attention back to the guts of the ship. You braced a hand against the open doorway, gazing towards the forest ahead, and slid yourself onto the steel floor. Your feet dangled about a foot from the ground.

The Doctor’s background tinkering made for a peaceful atmosphere. If you closed your eyes, it’s like you were back on the TARDIS, cross-legged, staring out the open door and mapping out the stars. Drifting, with a cup of tea in your hands. And a biscuit. You hoped that reality wasn’t too far into your future.

You gazed up to see the planet's eerily red sun crawling towards the horizon. You hadn’t noticed it this whole time; the forest canopy was in your way. You would’ve liked to explore the planet properly, if it wasn’t for the situation at hand. Perhaps another time.

Your eyes trailed across the landscape before snagging on some nearby shrubbery.

Between two trees, the bushes were parted.

You pushed yourself out of the ship, a small cloud of dust rising from the impact of your shoes. You craned your neck and took a few steps forward.

You peered down. As the dust dissipated, you noticed… bootprints. Pressed into the dirt, heading towards the gap in the shrubbery.

Brows furrowing, you picked up one of your feet, comparing the patterns on the soles of your shoes to that pressed into the dirt in front of you. Definitely not yours, and not the Doctor's, either. Her boots were not this chunky.

“Can you hand me those pliers?” The Doctor shouted from inside the vessel, a world away from you. “I think I saw an emergency toolkit out the back."

"I think you should come out here, actually." She uttered something unintelligible, swiftly followed by the clattering of tools and ship components.

She was at your side within seconds, her mouth forming around a small oh. Before you could launch into your own theory, she sprang ahead of you, sonic outstretched, coat billowing.

You followed her beyond the treeline, the trail immediately angling into a downwards slope. She was already twenty steps ahead of you. How was she moving so fast, and not tripping over her coat? The trail became so steep that you were inclined to lower yourself into a sitting position and inelegantly slide down.

About twenty minutes into hike number two of the day, the forest grew denser; denser than you thought was possible. The space between the trees appeared to shrink the further down the hill you traversed, the roots growing larger and twisting further out of the soil. They were enormous, larger than any root system you'd ever seen. Like a family of the giant fig trees you'd seen back on Earth, their roots coursed through the forest like hundreds of individual rivers. The Doctor, as usual, maneuvered them with little issue.

"Have you got a signal?"

"Nothing solid," she huffed, sticking her sonic out, then pulling it back to her face, scrunching her nose, and repeating. "There isn't much for the sonic to lock onto, just general lifeforms. Can't pinpoint what type, not yet. Not... close enough. Yet."

You looked down. She was following the boot prints. You caught up, falling into step beside her.

"Just think, though. If I hadn't wandered off…" you elbowed her. "I'm just saying. I'm not intentionally looking for trouble."

"Yeah, neither am I," she lied. "And yes, I admit, that was very clever of you - thank you - but stick closely now. They must've left in a hurry to get away from something. And we could very well be heading straight towards it."

Her warning was straight-forward, and you knew she was serious. Still, she raised her eyebrows at you in that mischievous way. Concerned as she was, she couldn't help her own curiosity.

The next few minutes went by mostly in silence, broken only by your ragged breathing and frantic footsteps. Cliffs rose up on either side of you, the massive roots crawling up them like a huge living fishnet.

At one point, you had to switch course to find your way around a root the size of a small car. The Doctor debated climbing on top of it - to get a good vantage point, was her spectacular reasoning - something you quickly talked her out of, much to her disappointment.

You continued on, the sky above darkening. Was that the sun going down, or the canopy growing too thick? You weren't entirely sure anymore.

Then she skidded to a halt and gasped, and swiftly stuck out her arm to stop you. She not-so-gracefully moved her arm further back, essentially pushing you behind her, and your breath caught in your throat when you realised why.

The ground just ended.

And plunged into the ravine. The bottom was completely shrouded in fog, making it impossible to calculate how deep it truly was.

This point of the ravine was significantly wider than the narrow part where the spaceship had crashed. Your breakfast nearly made its way up your throat when you looked down, so you took a few steps back.

The Doctor continued peering over the edge. It took everything in you not to grab her by the wrist and yank her back to safety.

"Well, that's not helpful," she uttered to no one in particular. "What are we supposed to do with—"

Something echoed from your left. A shrill noise that pierced the atmosphere, travelling from far away and bouncing off… the walls.

Obscured by a knotted grouping of tree roots and leaves the size of dinner plates, the limestone wall gave way to the gaping mouth of a cave.

It was tall; the size of a house, tree roots growing out of it as if trying to escape. Vines haphazardly framed the imposing entrance, giving way to the darkest shade of black you've ever seen. Darker than the space between the stars, as if it contained everything and nothing, beckoning you towards it. You peered down - only to see those same bootprints heading straight into that inky unknown, and your stomach roiled.

You expected the Doctor to plunge straight into that void before her common sense had the chance to kick in, but when you glanced over, that wasn't the case.

She stood there, looking at the cave entrance as if it looked back at her. Her hair slightly unkempt, sweat beading on her forehead. Dust rose from the ground to cling to her boots, her striped navy socks, and the hems of her pants.

This was her, completely in her element. Answering a call from an unknown recipient, following it into the unknown, wherever it may call her. There to help; to be a Doctor. Pausing, calculating. Considering all the potential consequences. Considering…

Her dark eyes fell on you.

You had the urge to look away, but couldn't bring yourself to follow through.

"I won't lie to you, this isn't going to be pleasant. Caves are not the most comfortable places. You can wait out here if you'd like, I could set up a perception filter to keep you—"

"No," you cut her off, and her mouth snapped shut, surprised. "We didn't come all this way for me to wait outside like a lost dog. I'm right behind you."

You spoke confidently, although your stomach pitched at the reality that now lay before you. She gave you a knowing look and smiled, just slightly, just enough to give you that extra ounce of courage.

A rogue, frigid breeze flowed out of the cave and through your hair and clothes.

"Alright then," the Doctor pushed out a breath, returning her attention to the ominous entrance ahead. "We better get a shift on."

Then, a beacon of hope and starlight, she stepped confidently into the cave, the darkness enveloping her like a blanket devoid of comfort.

Chapter Text

The watered-down shades of dusk leaked gently into the cave, a contrast to the reality you now faced.

The colours were so pretty - lilacs and pinks - and you savoured the sight of them as each step sealed your fate a little more.

As your eyes adjusted to the darkness, you could vaguely make out the walls of the cave. At your feet lay a slightly distorted reflection of you in a stagnant puddle. You screwed up your nose and kept walking.

You gazed at the Doctor on your left, visually tracing her outline and committing her to your memory. Her gaze forward, shoulders back, spine straight - if she was nervous, she hid it well.

She pointed up.

There, on the roof of the cave, dangled a colony of bats. Or… bat-like creatures.

There were dozens of them, barely the size of guinea pigs. They had long necks with fur-covered grey heads, long spiny tails, and claws on the tips of their wings. At first glance, they looked more like fluffy wyverns. Many of them were jostling, the nocturnal creatures waking up for a long night ahead.

A breeze came through the passage and one of the bats dropped from the ceiling, caught the draught and flapped towards the entrance. Its wings were silent, much like a barn owl's.

A pang of jealousy flashed through you as you watched it fly into the beckoning night. When you turned back, the Doctor was still watching the colony.

"There's so many of them," you commented, breaking the building silence.

The Doctor nodded, and you sensed the apprehension settling upon her shoulders. "Safety in numbers."

She shifted into a walk, and you followed.

This hesitant, careful venture forwards was nothing like the overconfident Doctor that had shone bright in the previous hours. No, she was not twenty steps ahead of you - she was right at your side now, checking over her shoulder every minute or so.

The passage curved, and you kept walking. And walking…

Into nothingness.

After a few minutes, you raised your hand, and could no longer see it in front of your face. You looked to your left…

"Doctor?"

"Still here," came her response, just an arm's length away from you. The tension in your shoulders loosened by a fraction. "It's not going to get any lighter from this point, I'm afraid."

You had well and truly sealed your fate.

You stopped walking for a second and breathed slowly. Something brushed against your hand, and you flinched.

"Hey! It's just me," she said, keeping her voice down. "It's important we don't lose each other."

Her hand brushed against yours again. Silent reassurance.

I'm here.

"Let's keep moving," she said softly, gently, weighing your growing discomfort against the extremely important mission at hand. 

Her footsteps echoed as she got moving, the sound becoming your lifeline. Something inside your chest shifted as you sensed the space between the two of you growing.You stretched out a hand, reaching forward until your fingers found the fabric of her coat.

Gently yet firmly, you gripped the back of her sleeve. She made a small noise that immediately took up residence in your mind, paused for a heartbeat, then kept walking.

The fabric was soft, and you grasped it like your life depended on it, because it very well could. It brought more comfort than you wanted to admit, tethering you to reality in a place that felt like anything but.

She stopped after a few minutes, fumbling with something. You got the sense of her turning towards you.

"Found this," she said quietly, shoving something cold and cylindrical into your spare hand.

You carefully held the object, slowly turning it in your grasp and tracing your thumb across it. It had a raised, metallic pattern around the outside and a flat top and bottom. Your thumb found a button and, when clicked, it flooded the cave with artificial light.

It was a flashlight. Small enough to fit in your hand.

"Found it in my pocket," the Doctor explained. Your hand slipped from her sleeve, angling the light until you found her. Seeing her face against the cold, grey stone walls brought a wave of relief. "Don't know how long it's been there, mind you. You might want to be careful with the battery. Conserve energy and such."

As if on command, the light flickered. Just once.

It was enough for that pit in your stomach to yawn open again, even if just for a second.

You gazed around the passage. The ceiling was closer to the top of your head than you'd imagined, though there was plenty of room for both of you to stick your arms straight out without touching the walls. Further ahead, the cave forked into two equally unappealing passages.

Yep, this was pretty far out of your comfort zone. If it wasn't for the spaceship's crew needing your help and the Doctor at your side, bright and encouraging and hopeful, you would've happily sat this one out.

"Do you know where we're going?"

She gave you a shrug, nonchalant as ever. As if the two of you were walking down a shopping street, trying to decide what to have for lunch.

Right. Why did you even bother asking?

Still, behind that mask, you saw it flash for just a fleeting moment. Worry. Uncertainty.

She was a terrible liar. She knew it, too, though she'd never admit it to you. Or to herself.

The light flickered again. You hesitated for a second before clicking it off, plunging the two of you back into swirling darkness, and the walls suddenly felt so much closer.

The Doctor pointed her sonic straight ahead, briefly filling the passage with that characteristic dim orange light and its unmistakable trilling sound.

"I'm registering many lifeforms down there. Hundreds. Thousands, even," she spoke quickly. "Some… some human."

Determination flared in your chest, and that was all the motivation needed. Fueled by that burst of courage, you began walking.

You could be brave. If someone's life was on the line, you could be brave. You could do this.

In the darkness, your hand found the Doctor's coat again.

You could do this.

Since taking the readings, she had quickened her step. You wondered if she felt out of her depth, your Doctor, heading into the cracks of this planet without a plan.

"Once we find the crew, we can get out of here," she said quietly, as if reading the unspoken words that hung in the humid air. "We'll head back to the TARDIS, quick as we can. I'll put the kettle on."

Your hand tightened around the fabric of her coat. "Yes please," you said softly.

"It's a deal, then," you could almost hear the smile in her voice. "We can meet in the library, yeah? We can warm up by the fire. There's a book I've been meaning to show you, actually. It's in the paleontology section."

You couldn't help the smile that crept to your cheeks.

"Uncovering fossils on Mars! Did you know they had their own dinosaurs? Not quite like the Earth ones. More… Mars-ified. You'll love it! It's right up your alley."

She was distracting you. You were well aware of this, and you gladly let her.

"That sounds fantastic. I'll be heading there as soon as we get back."

"Though you might want to make a pit stop at your room and get changed first, with all the dirt and dust we've seen today."

You scoffed. "You're not immune to the dust either, you know. I—"

Your free arm grazed against the wall, and you jumped back. That can't be right. It was just…

You stuck both arms out, and to your horror, you couldn't spread them out fully. In just a few minutes, the passage had narrowed significantly. 

"Doctor," you managed.

"S'okay! One step at a time. Deep breaths…"

Easy for her to say.

The air suddenly felt too thin and too humid as you drew more and more of it into your lungs, never quite enough, and your heart leapt into a gallop. You had the sensation of being cocooned in stone, nothing but the vast unknown ahead of you, the world you knew and loved miles away—

Gentle, soft fingers closed around your own, and something within you jolted at the unexpected touch. If your heart wasn't beating fast before, it certainly was now.

She squeezed your fingers once. Twice.

"We have to keep moving. I know it's not pleasant, and I'm sorry." And she really, truly was - you could hear it in her tone. "But once we have found the crew, we are going to get out of here as fast as we can. You have my word."

You nodded for a moment before realising she couldn't see you, then let out a small mhm.

Her hand remained around your fingers, anchoring you to reality.

Touch was simply not something the Doctor did. It just wasn't on her radar; she'd instead show her appreciation through grand acts of service and imagination, broadening your horizons in unfathomable ways. You'd sooner ask her to take you to the other side of the universe than ask for a hug. 

This wasn't a quick outstretched hand, an offer to get you off the ground or onto a steep ledge. This wasn't a sudden arm around the waist to move you out of harm's way, only to slip away just as quickly.

No, this was her finding a way of keeping control of the situation when there was little. This was her keeping you safe.

If she was touching you - and not just touching, but initiating that touch - oh, then she was worried.

"Let's stick together, and we'll be sitting in front of that fire before we know it. You and me, yeah? You'll get bored of me talking about that book before you know it."

You couldn't see a damn thing. But oh, she was close. You could sense it - sense her - in the darkness. Her body shifting beside you, her words moving through the air as she spoke them. It rattled something deep within you that you couldn't quite pinpoint at that moment.

For a brief, bittersweet moment, all was okay. There were far too many emotions coursing through you. There was a time and a place to unpack all that, and that was not here.

You swallowed back all of that, forced yourself into autopilot, and let her guide you.

The two of you walked, the minutes disappearing. You tried not to think about how many kilometers of rock existed around you, above you, and under you, which quickly turned into a "don't think about pink elephants" situation.

The Doctor's hand remained in yours, a lighthouse on the shore of a turbulent sea.

Your palms grew sweaty. You didn't care. At this stage, you'd happily continue holding her hand until the day you died.

After an eternity, the passage widened again. You couldn't see it; but you felt it. The air became easier to breathe. You raised your free hand towards a wall that did not come, and for the first time in a long time, you remembered how to exhale.

You squeezed the Doctor's hand. She squeezed back.

Something squeezed your heart.

You continued walking, one step at a time, swiftly and confidently—

It happened too quickly.

Your foot found a flat rock. In a split second, it dislodged and fell into the void, taking you with it. 

There was the swirling sensation of falling and a scream ripped from your throat as your hand lost hers.

For a heartbeat and an eternity, you were nothing.

Humid air rushed past your face. Your ankle found the ground before the rest of you did, pain cracking like lightning up your leg. The rest of you found the ground in a similar manner, tumbling forward into a mound of rocks and dirt, the palms of your hands taking the brunt of the impact.

The Doctor was yelling your name before the initial shock of what the hell just happened had passed.

And oh, she sounded way, way too far away.

"I'm okay," you shouted back, even though you weren't entirely sure of that yet. "Just took a tumble. I'm not too sure how that happened—"

You shifted your body until you were sitting, momentarily ignoring how angry your ankle felt. Your hands flew to your pockets, fumbling for the flashlight.

You clicked it once.

You were in a huge, cavernous room with hundreds of stalactites dangling from the ceiling. Crystals glowed and twinkled in a kaleidoscope of colours as you aimed the flashlight at them. You moved the light around with haste, heart jumping into your throat with every second that passed.

"Up," said a familiar voice.

Wordlessly, you pointed the flashlight upwards. And somehow, you preferred the darkness.

There was the Doctor - roughtly at the height of a single-storey bungalow, standing atop the cliff you'd just 'had a tumble' from.

She was on her knees, her hands grasping the edge of the very vertical rock face. Those hands that had held yours just mere seconds ago, those knuckles now turning white. Her face was wracked with concern, her mouth forming around words you couldn't hear over the blood rushing to your head.

Time slowed. Your skin suddenly felt too tight, too foreign. The breath in your lungs not enough; the walls of your reality caving in slowly, and then all at once.

You momentarily snapped out of shock when she began maneuvering herself closer to the edge.

"Stay there," she huffed between breaths, swinging her legs over the cliff, trying to go feet-first down the cliff. "I'm on my way, stay there."

You watched helplessly as her little brown boots tried and failed to find any grip on the cliff. She kicked her feet over and over again, aching for a grip on a small ledge or anything, only sending a handful of loose stones tumbling down.

That kernel of hope in your chest faltered with each agonisingly long second, before snuffing out completely as she scrambled back onto the edge.

The flashlight flickered.

This was happening too fast.

She crouched at the top of the cliff, holding your gaze steadily, perhaps more steadily than ever before. You'd never seen her this openly frantic, a realisation that crashed into you with the subtlety of an axe. An eternity passed as she breathed heavily, before diverting her eyes to the ceiling and taking a deep breath.

"You trust me, don't you?"

Your stomach pitched.

"Why are you saying that?"

She produced her sonic and pointed it down the cliff. At you.

Taking your coordinates.

"Don't move," she said, her voice dropping an octave. Something that only happened when she was very serious, or very scared, or both. You didn't dwell on that one. "It's imperative that you don't move. Stay in that room, do not go down any passages, and do not come looking for me."

"Please don't go," you managed.

She rose to her full height. "I'll come as fast as I can."

She lingered for a second, not wanting to take her eyes off you. There was hesitation, her body rigid, and you could almost see her arguing with herself.

She gave you an apologetic look, and then she was gone. Her footsteps fading into the darkness, quick and frantic, until there was nothing left of her at all.

The flashlight flickered again, more steadily this time, as if to rub salt in the wound.

You held the flashlight up, hands trembling, and switched it off.

The hourglass had been flipped.

Without her gentle, familiar voice and your double footsteps, the silence completely enveloped you. Paired with the darkness, your mind plunged into a deep sense of disorientation. It was as if the sun and stars were plucked from the sky, from reality itself, and this was the result.

Far away, liquid dripped onto stone. You focused on that sound to cling to something, anything, that would stop you from spiralling into yourself.

Life with the Doctor had brought you to extraordinary places. Together, you'd seen the summits of mountains around your whole solar system. You'd seen meteor showers and nebulas with your own eyes, and had encounters with species beyond your wildest dreams.

At times, you forgot how dangerous travelling at her side truly was. The Doctor, clad in rainbows and always wearing a smile, would walk into dangerous situations as if they were expecting her.

Her utmost priority was always to keep you safe. To your credit, she always did; you were here to tell the tale, and thank the stars you were.

All until she wasn't there, and the illusion shattered.

Chapter Text

The cavern was a silent contrast to what was going on inside your brain.

An hour passed - maybe. It felt like it, but you had no way of tracking time. Perhaps the sun had come up by now; you'd be none the wiser. In an attempt to distract yourself, you made it to your feet and did a lap of the cavern. Then another one, and another one.

Your ankle protested; that was something you would revisit later, when those bigger fish had been fried. For a few fleeting moments, you treated yourself to a little bit of light.

Your clothes had seen better days. The fall had left streaks of dirt on your pants and jacket, and your mind wandered to thoughts of a warm shower with your favourite soap, followed by fluffy pajamas and a cup of tea…

A rogue breeze flowed into the cavern, sending a shiver through your body, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Perhaps you should've brought a warmer jacket like she said.

At least the stalactites were very pretty. They drooped for several meters, some dangling closer to the ground than others. You wandered to the far end of the cavern, diligently shining your flashlight into every corner.

Then, footsteps. Distantly.

Your heart jumped into your throat as you whirled, flooding the broader cavern with light and straining your ears to identify the noise.

You pointed your flashlight at a side passage, willing it not to flicker.

The footsteps became louder. Louder…

Hope, dangerous and enticing, blossomed beneath your ribcage like a carnivorous flower.

Around the corner came a blonde-haired woman, and the air stilled.

As she stepped into the cavern, you noticed her bright red spacesuit. She stopped in her tracks, a deer in the headlights, and squinted against the light.

It wasn't her. The flower wilted, though a new blossom took root in your chest.

Human… she looked human.

"Ah, what's—"

Before you managed to open your mouth, a second human - a man - rounded the corner.

He was slightly taller than the woman, with a stocky build, dark brown hair and a well-kept beard. He also sported the bright red spacesuit.

"Hello?" Asked the man, placing a protective arm around the woman beside him. The two of them backed up a step. "Who are you?"

"Sorry," you mumbled, lowering the light without turning it off. "I'm… I'm not here to hurt you. That's your ship on the surface, right?"

The man and woman exchanged a wary look. They breathed heavily, almost in sync, the sound of it filling the too-quiet cavern.

Confused and on edge. You had become a pro at this.

"It is," said the man, tightening his grip on the woman and inching ever so slightly closer to her. An observation that frayed your heart around the edges, just a little. "How did you know? Are you… you don't look like you're… with them."

"I'm here with a friend," you tried. "We were… in the area, and caught your ship's distress signal. Decided to see if everything was okay. Which it clearly isn't."

The woman, who had been staring at you this whole time, straightened slightly. You noticed just a fraction of her apprehension sliding away, and you forced a smile.

"We found your ship in a bad way. It looked like you'd left in a hurry, and we were worried, that's all. Wanted to check on you before we continued on our trip."

"This is not a place for a holiday," the man said. You angled the light slightly, only to see sweat beading on his forehead and his hand balling into a fist. That apprehension was back, then. "The damned locals of this planet don't have a shred of humanity. Shot our ship down as soon as it entered the atmosphere."

You closed your eyes, just for a moment.

A part of you - albeit small - had hoped it wasn't true.

"We weren't intending on coming here. We were just sort of… passing by."

The man grunted. He pressed his lips together in resignation and took a step back, sliding his arm from the woman's shoulder.

"You shouldn't have come here," he said, lowering his voice. "They're not… easy to communicate with, this lot. Raina and I are here on an exploration mission, from the colony on Mars. To seek potential alliances and all that. It's going swimmingly, obviously."

"It's going to be alright. I can promise you that," you took a deep breath, letting the worries slide from your shoulders as the task at hand had shifted. "My friend, she's going to fix all this and get us out, and you can come with us in her ship, and we'll drop you off wherever you like. That's a promise."

The man looked past you, into the distance. "I don't see anyone with you."

Just like that, the weight returned to your shoulders.

"We got separated," you said, the words finding their mark once again as you spoke them out loud. "But she's clever. Really, really clever. And I have no doubt she'll figure out where we are soon."

There was not an inch of relief evident in their features. The man pushed out a long breath.

"There are a couple of forces at play here. The odds aren't exactly in our favour," the man said - gently, almost - as he considered you. "Whoever shot our ship is after us. And they won't stop, won't rest, until we're either off this planet or dead at their feet."

You bit your lip. Well, that's not good.

"My friend is good at talking. She'll talk to them. It doesn't sound like it'll help, but if you knew her, you'd understand."

The woman - Raina - inched into the light, and you saw her properly for the first time. She had shoulder length, straight blonde hair - similar to someone else you knew - and a full, round face with fawn-like eyes that darted around the room. A woman no older than thirty who hadn't known a second of rest for hours.

They regarded you wordlessly, and you wondered what they thought of you. So far, it had been a string of empty promises and no actual concrete plan or comfort to offer them.

You looked past them, towards the passage they'd come from, and its beckoning darkness called to you.

You were asked, no - ordered to stay here. But that was a while ago, before the odds began to slip through your fingers like water.

The flashlight flickered. You took a deep breath and switched it off.

"I'm confident my friend will be able to get us out of here. She's done it before. Not here, but just about everywhere else."

A long moment passed.

"It's best if we stay here - she's got coordinates to this exact room, so it's only a matter of time. We'll just tire ourselves out if we keep running."

"They have a point, Jon," came Raina's voice. "Let's stay here. Rest. We are running out of options, anyway."

Jon only grunted in response.

You nodded, distantly aware that no one could see.

There, in the distant corners of your mind, you felt it tugging and nagging. Wanting to make itself known. Doubt.

The realisation settled uncomfortably in your gut.

There was the sound of boots scratching on dirt, and when Jon spoke again, his voice came from lower. You figured he'd sat down, and followed his lead.

"We'll wait for your friend," he agreed, not sounding confident. "We'll stay here. And we'll… we'll wait."

The three of you sat in the darkness, sharing memories. With each story, the cavern warmed just a fraction. Somewhere along the way, you found your humanity again.

Jon and Raina were married, and had exciting careers establishing trading relationships across local exoplanets. They worked for Jon's family, who owned a fleet of ships that had taken them to the far corners of the Milky Way and back again. They brought good news back to their human colony on Mars. It's what got them up in the morning, and they were proud to represent the human race. That was, until they landed on Antramnius-B.

Jon had described the planet as a "tricky nut to crack" with a "hostile reputation". That being said, he'd also heard stories of welcoming and inquisitive locals in the more rural areas. Jon explained this as their reasoning for bringing their smallest ship; to appear less intimidating, with the plan to land far away from any city.

"We brought some gifts from Mars and Earth. Cultural foods, cookware and potted flowers," said Raina. "We're pacifists. We didn't bring any weapons."

Lavender and stars came to mind. You squeezed your hands together a little tighter.

"You have to understand, we truly didn't mean harm. Truly," Jon said, his voice raising just a fraction for emphasis, just enough to send an echo through the cavern. "When we tried to make contact with their comms systems upon entering the atmosphere, we didn't hear anything back. That's when it all went south."

"I believe you," you said, once again hoping your words landed in the right place. "My friend and I believe people are inherently good. I'm sorry your mission to help led you down such a dark and terrible place."

It was a story you knew all too well. Jon sighed.

"Thank you for saying that. Means a lot," he spoke softly, as if whatever alliance the three of you had formed could shatter in a heartbeat. "If we get out of here, we should catch up properly over dinner. Invite that Doctor of yours. Maybe we can arrange a bit of candlelight, too."

Raina laughed lightly at that. It was the first sign of any happy emotion in hours.

Your cheeks burned, and yet, you smiled. Your soul felt a little lighter.

"When we get out of here," you corrected him. "We will. Get out of here, I mean."

Suddenly, someone scrambled to their feet. You flinched at the sudden movement.

"Did you hear that?" Raina said quickly. "I heard…"

"Shh!"

You willed your breathing into steadiness as silence stretched between the three of you. You noticed only the distant dripping of water. Then, very faintly, you heard it…

Shouting.

Unrecognisable voices, from at least three different entities.

You threaded all your focus into keeping up with the sounds, trying to identify a familiar cadence.

"We need to get moving," said Raina, scrambling to her feet. "Where is your flashlight?"

Your palms turned sweaty.

"Wait… wait a second."

A hand, calloused and frantic, landed on your upper arm.

"We don't have a second!" Came Jon's voice, yanking on your arm now. "That's them! They finally caught up! Raina—"

You fumbled for the flashlight, turning it back on. This time, it flickered almost immediately. Raina was already on the other side of the cavern, half-crouched, beckoning the two of you over with haste.

On silent feet, you made your way over. She immediately pushed you and Jon into a narrow walkway, and you wormed your way into it, shuffling as quick as you could. Dread hooked into you as you reeled yourself into the passage, guided by an empty promise of safety on the other side. 

This was you leaving the cavern.

This was you wandering off.

The flashlight guttered completely, plunging the three of you into darkness. Behind you, Jon swore.

"Get it back on!"

You clicked the flashlight frantically, to no avail. "I can't, it's dead."

Raina made a desperate, resigned sound, and the footsteps of your new friends picked up as a body pushed against your back.

Pain splintered through your ankle as you whacked it into the walls of the passage. You bit your tongue, relying on your hands pressing into the rock to navigate the curvature of the passage, to lead you to the light—

Behind you, the shouting grew louder and more frantic. The voices had echoes trailing behind them; they'd made it into the cavern.

Desperation clawed at you.

"Hurry," said Jon in a rushed whisper, grunting as the passage became more and more narrow. "They've got a lot of gear on them. They might not be able to follow us through here."

You didn't like that doubtful tone in his voice, but your options were steadily faltering. You rode that immense wave of adrenaline, pushing against the rock that surrounded you and the darkness that choked you. Hot breath huffed against your neck as the three of you shared shallow breaths.

The passage widened, and your arms spread out as relief flooded through you.

You gasped, drawing sweet, sweet air into your lungs—

Arms locked around you.

"I've got one!"

Light erupted into your retinas, and you stared into the face of your captor.

You first noticed how tall the being was - at least six and a half feet. Then you noticed his curling, protruding canines, and his rectangular stubble-covered jaw. Fortunately, the stench of his sweat hit your senses last. His pupils, shaped into horizontal slits like those of a goat's, narrowed on you like a predator to its prey.

You jolted, again and again, trying and failing to find a gap in his unwavering strength. He only tightened his grip, snickering at you as you struggled and kicked your feet.

"Don't struggle, sweetheart," he grunted. "You're only making it more difficult for yourself."

You turned enough in his grasp to see Jon and Raina meeting the same fate. Raina had found herself in a similar grasp to yours, her hair plastered across her face, feet swinging. Jon stood a foot away, calling her captor every name under the sun with his hands up and a blaster pointed at him.

Your eyes darted around the room. One, two, three, four. Movement from around the corner - five. Six.

Outnumbered.

The captor shifted his arms, forcing your hands behind your back. Cold metal closed around your wrists, followed by a click—

Oh, you were really in it now.

You looked up. Raina was crying. Jon appeared to be physically holding himself back, motivated only by the blaster just a hair's breadth from his head. One of the crew grabbed him from behind, his height dwarfing him, and put him in handcuffs.

You were thrown forward, stumbling into a corner of the cave.

"Against the wall," shouted a new voice.

Regrettably, you obeyed. You took up a spot at Raina's side, giving her an apologetic look, and straightened your spine as you looked into the faces of your captors.

Only to see six blasters, pointed directly at you.

"Feeling intimidated, are we?"

In your peripheral vision, you registered Jon and Raina's gazes snapping to you.

Your heart pounded against your ribs. Behind your back, your hands trembled.

"Silence," shouted that same voice. "You are unauthorised visitors to this planet. Do you understand the consequences of a crime of this size?"

You craned your neck to peek past all the aliens to see who had that particularly loud, almost gravelly voice.

"Sorry, who said that? Couldn't hear you. Selective hearing, if you will."

A body forced itself through the small crowd that stood before you, and you raised your chin.

The commander, if that's what he was, made a beeline for you. He was broad-shouldered and slightly shorter than his crew, and sported an orange stripe down the sides of the all-black jumpsuits the group wore.

He also held a blaster, chunkier than all the others with various switches and dials. He had it pointed directly at your chest while you stared into those goatlike eyes, willing yourself not to flinch.

"Unauthorised," he repeated, injecting venom into his tone. "Human scum. Litterers of the galaxy. You understand the gravity of the situation, do you not?"

"Not good, it would appear."

"Your life is on the line, and still, you jest," he cocked his head. "A crew of three. How peculiar, when the fallen ship only had two seats."

You shrugged. "Stowaway."

The man narrowed his eyes, those slits closing in on you.

You weren't going to let slip that there was a Type-40 TARDIS somewhere in that forest. Not for a moment.

"I'm sure I counted correctly. Even though I'm seeing three… our systems registered four unauthorised lifeforms," he crooned. "Two separate groups, registered at separate distances, and then drawing closer together. Rescue crew? How sweet…"

He wasn't buying your lie.

Frustration pumped through your blood. Right off the bat, you didn't have a shred of compassion for this man. That's where the Doctor might've been different.

"Where is the fourth?"

You suddenly felt less brave. He nudged the blaster into your sternum.

"Where is the fourth?"

"I don't know."

You pressed your lips together tightly, trapping all the words you wanted to say. The corners of his mouth slowly turned upwards into a smile, revealing a set of horrid, heavily-stained teeth.

You willed her to appear from around that corner, sonic outstretched, with a witty phrase on her lips and some control over this whole conversation.

Oh, where was she?

You summoned that tiny kernel of bravery that was somehow still within you, and schooled your features into neutrality. You steadied your breathing and looked at the orc-like commander, refusing to let him shatter that ever-thinning veil of hope you kept draped around your shoulders.

"You missed, didn't you?" You pressed on, wiping that smile right off his face. "When you shot down the ship. You only damaged it, rather than blow it up completely. You missed."

Low hanging fruit. If she could talk, then so could you.

"Indeed," he said, low and dangerous. "That ship was awfully small. Almost too small for us to see as it entered the atmosphere. And yet," he pointed the blaster between the three of you. Raina flinched. "Here we are at last, to finish the job."

You gazed down at a patch embroidered on his chest. Elimination crew.

Dread coiled in your gut.

"I don't know how you got here," he said, pressing the blaster further into your sternum. "But you are also unauthorised. As is your associate, wherever they are."

You remained quiet.

"We will get to the bottom of this, one way or another," he turned, cocking his head again. "Let's get moving."

Alarm clanged through you as the blasters lowered, replaced by unkind hands that shoved the three of you through the cave.

You were being escorted.

That dread coiled tighter, as that vast unknown ahead of you suddenly stretched so much further.

The Doctor - your Doctor. Was she still looking for you, or did she get sidetracked by something more sinister? You brushed past the inclination that you'd fallen down on her list of priorities - but the feeling rose above the tide regardless.

As minutes had stacked into hours, there was still no sign of her - no footsteps, no shouting, nothing. Almost as if she never was.

That initial tug of doubt in the recesses of your mind grew and grew, until it became an all-encompassing feeling.

So, you walked. And your mind drifted.

"I have a duty of care."

You laid your hands on the edges of the console, staring at her. She was on the other side, distracted and avoiding your eye, as per usual.

"I know you do. But I'm just saying, you don't need to be so worried all the time."

"I'm not worried—"

"Yes you are!"

She slowed at that, pausing her workings to finally meet your eye. The weight of her gaze cracked something in your chest.

"Do you think I can't tell when you're lying? After all the time we've spent together—"

"I need to keep you safe!"

Something within you jolted. She leaned down on her arms, seemingly taken aback by her own tone. She angled her head, a muscle shifting in her jaw as she let her words hang in the air.

You looked down, noticing your knuckles turning white, and drew a breath deep into your lungs.

"I know you want to keep me safe. I know the trips we go on can be dangerous, and we never truly know what awaits outside those doors," you tried, really tried, noticing the edge of desperation to your tone. "But I can take care of myself. I've always been fine, haven't I? When have I not been fine?"

When you looked up, she had completely stilled. Her gaze was unfaltering now, and you could almost see the thousands of years of her life stacking up against whatever inner argument she was having with herself.

"I'm sorry," you said, not entirely meaning it. "But I can handle myself. Be useful. Help out. Make a difference."

She didn't reply. That crack in your chest wedged itself open, making way for something far uglier to rear its head.

A long moment passed before she spoke again.

"One day, we will go somewhere completely unlike anywhere else, whether on purpose or not. And the stakes will be too high," she said quietly, her voice barely coming out over the hum of the ship. "The strings of fate will tangle, and we will be separated. And there will be nothing I can do."

It was your turn to stare wordlessly this time. Slowly, she continued her workings at the console, those cogs continuing to turn behind her eyes. She looked at you again.

"And if there is anything I can do to ensure that doesn't happen, then I will do it."

The formation held strong. Jon and Raina walked ahead of you, also handcuffed. The commander led the group, with soldiers at your sides and back as you walked down the wide passage.

You observed your surroundings. Stalactites, puddles, animal droppings. Crystals embedded in the rock. And then, something that stilled your thoughts.

There, on the ground; scratches, scattered and deep, a sharp white contrast against the darker grey of the walls.

Something shifted in the air, then. 

The weight of the situation suddenly became that much heavier, and the worry that overtook you nearly crushed your chest.

It was almost too much for your brain to process. A million questions arose in your mind as a wave of nausea came over you, threatening to send you to your knees, but you kept walking. With these tall aliens and loaded blasters, there wasn't much of a choice.

Jon, walking ahead of you, cleared his throat.

"Where are you taking us? Why not kill us where we stand?"

The crew remained quiet for a moment, a few exchanging glances at his bold comment.

"If we're going to be walking a while, we might as well make conversation."

"We have been tasked with keeping vermin like you off our soil," the commander spoke from several steps ahead. He walked at the front of the formation, barely visible in the darkness. "Ship went down, the rats scattered, and here we are. Protocol states that once unauthorised lifeforms touch down, they must be brought before the court."

"That's a weird and stupid rule," you said, to incredulous looks from your new friends. "Nothing about your planet says you're not allowed to land here. And you won't answer any comms when extraterrestrial ships try to make contact. It's set up for hostility. What do you want?"

Raina nodded silently.

You were met with the unmistakable coldness of a blaster jamming between your shoulder blades. Wordlessly, you picked up your pace a little.

"Would you prefer the alternative? I suggest you keep your mouth shut until we're out of here," the commander grunted, then paused. "Unless you want to tell me where the fourth one is hiding."

"I told you already, I don't know. She's out there somewhere, looking for us."

He scoffed. "If you're telling the truth, that means we've got less work to do."

He looked over his too-broad shoulder, directly at you. He huffed into your direction.

"If your friend is out there on her own, she's already dead."

Chapter Text

The world stopped.

A small, hateful smirk tugged at his features, and your mask dropped completely.

This couldn't be your reality. You refused to believe it, shoving his statement deep down into whatever box you could find in your subconscious. Your ribcage suddenly felt so much tighter.

You looked down, unsure of how your feet were still moving. Apart from the sound of your collective footsteps, the passage was silent - far too silent - had it been like that this whole time?

Then, a sound assaulted your senses.

Something made contact with the ground, over and over, to your right - as if it was running - and the whole group came to a stop. Heads snapped to the right.

The vibrations could be felt through the ground, like an earthquake travelling through the adjacent passage. No one said a thing.

The movements slowed. Then, scratching - like fingernails on a chalkboard - followed by a deep, spine-chilling grunting. You exchanged wide-eyed looks with Jon and Raina, anchored in place by your fear.

Perhaps mercifully, the heavy movements picked up again as the life form bounded out of earshot.

Everyone jostled, uttering concerned words amongst themselves; even the soldiers.

"Okay, let's pick it up," said the commander, his steady voice cutting through the commotion. "We'll split up. Scatter our scents. Confuse it, then regroup in the ravine. It's a straightforward way out from there."

Calloused hands closed around your upper arms. The passage was descending into chaos, the commander's booming voice sounding above all.

"You have all completed your mandatory caving training, let's see you put it to the test," there was not a shred of fear evident in his voice. In fact, he kept it neutral and monotone - it unsettled you. He stuck out an arm, splitting the group in two. "Two of you will take the rogue human. I'll come with you. The rest of you, take the man and the woman. Travel via the western passage, and we'll take the east. Remember the mission, and follow it honourably."

You stepped forward. "You can't separate us!"

You were immediately yanked back, a hand closing over your mouth, tasting of sweat and soil. Your ankle screamed at the awkward impact with the ground.

"Be silent, damn it!" said one of your captors through gritted teeth. The other soldier was at your side in a heartbeat, tightening the handcuffs until they were nearing the point of cutting off bloodflow. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes, only just. "You have no idea what you're dealing with. If you wish to see the daylight again, I suggest you shut up and walk."

There was a fearful edge to his tone that, admittedly, rattled you a bit.

When he removed his hand from your mouth, your gaze fell straight on your fellow humans. The remainder of the crew led them towards a fork in the cave - towards the western passage.

Jon mouthed a swift good luck, though no hope shone in his eyes. Raina gave you a doomed look.

Just as fast as the order was spoken, the group was broken up. They headed down the western passage. You, the commander, and the two soldiers ventured down the east.

The comforting presence of Jon and Raina was immediately replaced by an urge to run after them. You considered your ankle, handcuffs, and the many blasters in the equation, and decided against it. The moment you did, guilt swept through you. 

One of you against three intimidating, authority-obsessed aliens and an unidentified creature. The next few hours would prove interesting at best, and fatal at worst.

The gradual sound of rushing water was a welcome one to your ears.

An hour or so later, the eastern passage had broadened significantly, making way for a trickling stream that eventually widened to a coursing subterranean river. Its current flowed steadily, zigzagging around jutting stalagmites and rocks that erupted from the ground.

To the left of the river sat a raised path that was undoubtedly eroded into shape over the years. It offered enough room for your group to walk in single file; the commander walked ahead of you, and the two other soldiers behind you.

There were few words being exchanged at this stage. Heads up, eyes forward, flashlights on; one step after the other.

No conversation. No warmth.

No sign of the Doctor.

You took in your surroundings as a means of distraction. The other stark difference that separated this passage from all the others were the tree roots. They emerged from the walls and ceiling, reaching in different directions like some kind of sea creature.

Some roots were as tall as you, and some were as small and spindly as a spider's legs. Some burst from the walls and snaked into the river, then back out and across the path; others dangled from the ceiling as if they were grasping for something. Some twisted around the stalagmites or each other like some brutal, twisting dance.

Hope sparked in your chest at the realisation that you must be getting closer to the surface. Though that vast unknown yawned ahead of you, there was the promise of fresh air and light between the present moment and whatever place they were taking you. It was the silver lining to this whole situation.

Ahead lay a root at about the height of your hip, forming a bridge from the path to the other side of the river. When the others spotted it, they grunted at the gymnastics that would be required to maneuver it.

Then, a different sound came out above the rushing of the river.

Scratching. Only just.

You stopped. A hand shoved between your shoulder blades barely a second later, a clear and wordless message to keep walking. Reluctantly, you did. Slowly.

Your eyes were fixated on the twisting root. The scratching continued.

Then, you saw it.

There, in the river… a grey life form, no bigger than a large dog. The water contorted its form, blurring it around the edges. You could barely make out its shape.

As you stepped closer, you strained your eyes to get a better look. The creature's shape continued to contort in the rapid waters. It did not follow the current's flow as most of the fish did.

Something grunted, the sound short and high-pitched. This time, everyone heard.

Splash.

Flashlights angled, and the crew fell quiet.

Four sturdy legs.

Light grey fur.

Two eyes, small and milky like distant stars.

There, stood by a less rapid section of the river's flow, was a bear-like creature with a rounded back. It stuck its short snout into the air, sniffing in your direction.

Except, you couldn't see it. When you looked to where the river's edge met the cave wall, you couldn't see a thing. Just thin air and rock. It was only its reflection in the river that revealed the life form's existence.

Confusion was the first emotion that raced through you. You wondered, not so distantly, if you were seeing things after spending one too many hours in the dark. Fear was the next emotion to arrive, with no subtlety.

The crew stiffened at your sides as the creature continued sniffing the air, angling its furry head in different directions.

It was completely invisible. If it wasn't for the river somehow revealing its reflection and the sounds of its movements, you would never have known it was there. A million questions arose in your mind with nowhere to put them.

To your horror, the commander picked a sizeable stone up from the ground and threw it into the river, landing at the bear-dog's paws. With a yelp, the creature perked up and scurried away.

You watched in disbelief as its contorted form bounded through the shallow banks of the river, leaving splashes in its wake before disappearing into the darkness. In the direction you came from.

"Keep moving," grumbled the commander as the splashes faded into the soundscape. The two other soldiers hesitated, exchanging a look before finally falling into step behind you.

The four of you continued walking for a while, the river eventually narrowing, but not becoming any less rapid. You wondered how your new friends were faring. Where they were. Perhaps they'd made it to the surface. Perhaps they made a wrong turn, and they were far deeper in the cave system, or worse…

You didn't let your mind wander any further.

They will be fine. You will be fine.

The Doctor will be fine.

Your level of concern held your lungs in its hands, threatening to squeeze all the air from them if you thought about her for too long.

She is clever, extraordinarily clever. And she will be fine.

Your lungs constricted.

She will be fine.

Something squeaked above you. You jumped, and the crew pointed their flashlights towards the source of the noise.

To your surprise, hundreds of those wyvern-bats clung to the ceiling of the passage, about five feet above your head.

All of them were awake and stirring. Each and every single one. They made sounds that reminded you of bicycle bells, but more high pitched and less drawn-out.

Some of the animals crawled over each other. Others stretched, revealing the leathery webbing of their wings. You spotted a few juveniles climbing onto their mothers' backs. Though you knew nothing about this species, a feeling of foreboding enveloped you.

As you considered the notion, a small, furry mass swept past your head. Then another. And another.

As you looked back to the colony, dozens of them had begun to drop from the ceiling and flap into the direction your group was heading.

Wings flapped all around you. You dropped into a half-crouch as their chirping turned to screeching.

Within seconds, the entire passage filled with the small creatures hastily flapping past you. Their calls were ear-piercing, and if your hands weren't cuffed, you'd be covering your ears. The commander barked an order, barely audible over the commotion.

Beyond the chaos, a vibration rumbled through the ground. Then another.

Dread travelled up your legs and spine before settling around your throat. For a long moment, you stopped breathing, unsure of where to place your focus.

A drawn-out growl echoed through the passage from the direction you came from. As if on cue, a weight dropped into your stomach. 

You forced yourself to rise back to your full height. The wyvern-bats banked sharply to avoid crashing into you, their wings creating small rushes of air you felt on your face. You gazed into the very dark passage.

Distantly, you registered your captors reaching for their blasters and pointing them into the abyss.

There it was again. The ground shook. And again.

Slowly, a huge grey mass appeared in the river's reflection, bounding towards you. That last bit of hope finally slipped through your fingers.

"Get a move on!" yelled the commander. "Now!"

You weren't going to argue with that. As another roar rattled your bones, you turned on your heel and ran down the passage, following the lead of the wyvern-bats.

Pain shot up your leg with each sharp impact your bad foot made with the ground. You pushed through it; kept pushing as the roaring grew louder, louder behind you.

The crew ran beside you, keeping their hands firmly on their blasters and throwing a look over their shoulders every few seconds.

You could barely see the path through the swarm of wyvern-bats. Instead, you kept your eyes on the commander ahead of you, hoping the bastard knew where to put his feet so you could follow his lead. If you fell…

You forced your focus into taking another step, then another, and another…

Oh, it was so damn hard to balance with your hands pinned behind your back—

Fresher air made its way into your burning, aching lungs. You pushed on.

Within a flash, the passage yawned open into a truly huge cavern, roughly the size of a football field. The space was borderline overwhelming with its sudden arrival. You could hardly wrap your head around the sheer size of it after all that time spent in your personal claustrophobic hell.

And it was… lighter than all the others. You looked up - and realised you weren't in a cavern at all.

When you laid eyes on the stars, your knees nearly gave out.

The sky was graced by two full moons, flooding the ravine with glorious natural light. A swirling vortex of wyvern-bats flapped towards the night sky before scattering among the starfield.

A smile - broad and genuine - broke out across your features. Somewhere along your travels, you learned to find comfort in the company of the stars - and their presence was a massively welcome sight, even now.

The relief was short-lived. You turned to find the crew at your heels. You looked beyond them only to find, well, nothing.

You spun around again, stealing another look at the night sky, and noticed much more this time.

Far, far above at the edges of the cliffs was the forest - its grand, twisting tree roots drooping far into the ravine below.

There, on the other side of the ravine, a small waterfall sprung out of an outcropping of stone, flowing freely into a lake that covered most of the ravine's floor. At three separate edges, the lake branched off into rivers that spilled deeper into the planet.

It was one of the most fascinating sights you had ever beheld, like it was pulled from a postcard and placed in front of your very eyes.

Something cold jammed into your shoulder. You whirled to find the barrel of the commander's blaster now pointed at the centre of your chest, directly over your heart - like he'd memorised human anatomy and its weak spots - and a wildness sprung into his eyes.

"Get back to the passage."

All that calmness had slid from his features now as his finger hovered over the trigger. The slits in his eyes closed on you like a mouse trap.

You looked right back. "No."

"You will go back into that passage," he spoke slowly, enunciating the words, and kept that blaster firmly in place. "And your useless existence will buy us some time."

That relief was long gone now as you contemplated all the bad options that lay ahead of you, recognising that even though there were no good solutions, you still had to choose.

The ground shook again. Another roar rang out, cutting through the stillness of the night. It reverberated off the walls of the ravine.

You saw those cogs turning in his brain as your heart hammered against the blaster. You wondered if he could feel the vibrations and sense that you were bluffing.

You were not the Doctor. You couldn't be, and would never be, no matter how hard you tried to feign bravery in her absence. You were scared, walking a fine line between wearing the mask of bravery and being betrayed by your own body language.

It all happened too fast.

He fumbled with the blaster.

And pulled the trigger.

An invisible force launched you onto your back, dust rising from your impact. Your vision filled with the stars that spun far above.

Every muscle in your body tensed and stayed that way, your hands wedged into the dirt behind your back. Painful tension overtook your body, and you gritted your teeth as your head was pulled back by a force beyond your control.

You wanted to scream and kick your legs and get up and run, but you couldn't. In fact, you couldn't even wiggle a single toe inside your shoes.

You waited for the darkness that surely beckoned, but… it didn't come.

Distantly, that gravelly voice shouted at his crew to run, climb to the exit, and you couldn't even raise an eyebrow to react.

The skies were beautifully clear, with not a single cloud in view. No light pollution stained the night, allowing for unobstructed views of the Milky Way, like someone dipped a paintbrush in stars and streaked it across the sky.

The ground shook again. Your eyes welled up.

This wasn't how your day was supposed to go.

Smaller vibrations - footsteps? - approached from a distance. Perhaps the commander was coming back to pour salt into your wounds. The steps came closer, closer—

When the Doctor's face appeared against the starfield, the ground disappeared from beneath you.

"Hi there!" she chirped, the familiar cadence of her voice like music to your ears, and those tears welled up fast. "It's all happening here, isn't it? Let's get you up… oh, that's not good—"

She threw a look over her shoulder, undoubtedly at someone or something, and grumbled something to herself. She jostled, raising an arm as the familiar trilling of the sonic filled your ears.

A moment later, the tension melted from your body. You drew a sharp breath into your lungs and flexed your fingers behind your back, craning your neck to see her properly. 

Doctor was the first word on your lips.

"Paralysis ray. Convenient bit of tech when you're trying to catch your foes. Nasty when it's used on you, of course," she was shifting herself around now, gentle yet firm hands finding your upper back and then your arms as she helped you to your feet. The brief touch brought you back into your own body, as well as sending your heart soaring for the stars. "Just disabled the connection on his blaster that held the paralysis field in place. He might not notice for a bit. I'll be having words—"

With a huge jolt, the two of you were thrown backwards.

You were thrown further this time, with more than enough force to wind you. You lay on your back once more, gasping for air that didn't immediately come.

When you raised yourself onto your elbows, what you saw made your heart drop.

"Over here!" shouted the Doctor, already scrambling to her feet and sprinting to one of the far walls of the ravine, coat billowing behind her. "This way! Over here!"

She jumped up and down, frantically waving her arms like she was trying to get your attention in a crowd.

Unfortunately, you were not the only one who noticed.

A roar, guttural and absolutely spine-chilling, echoed through the entire ravine. In the forest above, birds scattered into the night sky.

The Doctor, horrifyingly unfazed, planted her feet at the edge of the lake.

A huge invisible form thundered past you, leaving tremors in its wake. A large splash sounded, and your focus snapped to the lake.

What you saw sent shivers across your whole body, your entire being, and your soul.

There, in the reflection of the lake, stood an enormous beast the size of a single storey house. It was bear-like in appearance, sporting dappled-grey fur and that same rounded back as the smaller creature you'd spotted earlier. It had bright white eyes that sunk into the front of its face and a short, compact snout lifted into the air to sniff deeply. 

It lowered its head to the lake's surface as it took a step forward, sending another splash soaring into the air. It stepped towards the Doctor - picking up her scent.

Somehow, you made it back onto your feet. Your focus shifted to her, hoping to catch her eye and work out a plan.

Instead, her focus was completely fixed on the beast's reflections. Her mouth formed around a small oh before bursting into a huge grin, stars sparking to life in her eyes.

She shifted on her feet, getting ready to bolt. She couldn't seem to pull her inquisitive gaze away from the beast, even as its huge form towered over her.

Your stomach pitched so deep it could've pierced the planet's crust. You willed her to run. Back to you. You could figure it out together.

Splashes the same height as you erupted from the lake, one after the other, as the beast bounded for the Doctor.

The stars in her expression guttered, and she bolted to the left. The end of her coat flicked sideways in a way that suggested she had a close call.

"Doctor!"

A low grunt could be heard as dust rose around her. She jumped to the right, her eyes darting all over the place.

She whirled inelegantly and ran into the lake, the water reaching halfway up her shins before she stopped. The beast was immediately on her tail, the tiny splashes left by her brown boots replaced by much bigger ones.

Its reflection emerged on the water's surface like a ship breaking through the fog. It kept its head low, unseeing milky eyes fixated on the rainbow-covered woman that had just saved your life. Saliva dripped from its jaw.

Harnessing the adrenaline, you leapt into the lake, two pairs of eyes landing on you the second you made the first splash.

Chapter Text

The beast, mercifully, slowed its movements. The catch, of course, was that it now picked up your scent, too.

The Doctor's shoulders dropped just a fraction when she laid eyes on you, something like exasperation settling upon her.

"Get back!" she yelled. "You need to stay over there where it's safe—"

"I am not going to stand by and watch this happen," you panted, continuing to slosh through the water. Your words echoed through the ravine, lingering in the air without a response.

She was right. You knew that, deep down, you were of little use to her with a bad ankle and your hands forced behind your back. Still, you couldn't do it. You physically couldn't bring yourself to linger at the sidelines while she put herself in harm's way.

The Doctor gave you a look like she wanted to argue with you, but knew now was not the time.

The beast growled, a low sound originating from deep within its broad rib cage, before it leapt for the Doctor.

She parried to the side as the furry mass soared past her, plunging face-first into the centre of the lake. It kicked its back legs into the open air as it slid through the water and mud, parting the body of water in its wake.

This time, the beast's impact made a wave that could only be compared to a ship being released into the sea. Its reflection fractured for a heart-stopping moment where you couldn't pinpoint its whereabouts.

You stepped back as the wave came through, the icy water coming up to your thighs. The lake bed was soft and slightly muddy; and certainly not stable enough in slightly turbulent waters.

You had pushed your ankle too far with that mad dash down the riverside passage, and you were really beginning to feel the consequences. Tension crawled its way up your leg with each step, settling in your hips and lower back. You made that final push towards her to help, to do whatever you still could. The wave subsided and you were limping now, a realisation you pushed past to preserve your sanity. When that adrenaline wore off—

You looked up, and stillness overcame you.

There she stood, straight-backed with her arms resting at her sides. She was looking at you now, really looking. Her eyes trailed down your body like she was looking for something, before stopping at your leg.

Then, agonisingly slowly, she dragged her gaze back up to meet yours.

The weight of her expression was enough to crack every rib in your chest, and you wanted to run up to her, wrap her in your arms, tell her you're okay—

She finally shifted and was at your side in a second. Wordlessly, she placed a hand on your shoulder, spinning you around. She stilled again when she spotted the cuffs, before wincing and producing her sonic. As that buzzing filled the air, a faint click could be heard, followed by the tension lifting from your wrists, and a splash as the cuffs fell into the lake.

You couldn't help but sigh with relief, pulling your hands forward and gently rubbing your wrists with your thumbs. There were deep, angry red marks that you'd come back to later.

A flash of blonde entered your peripheral vision. She was looking at your wrists, too. Her chest heaved as she considered the marks. You, on the other hand, were suddenly finding it difficult to breathe.

Further ahead, the creature was regaining its bearings. It sat on its haunches, water sliding from its back. Its bulky form and short neck made for uncoordinated movements; it was all claws and teeth. It raised its head to the stars, exposing its furry white chest to the world, and inhaled deeply. It grunted like a short-snouted dog with each intake of breath, and you sensed its frustration growing with each passing heartbeat.

The Doctor stepped in front of you.

"Stay behind me."

Regrettably, you held your tongue. As always, she had the upper hand.

Her eyes scanned each crevice of the ravine, up, then down, then up again. You knew this look; she was calculating a plan. Likely followed by a plan B and C. Looking for possible escape routes, calculating the level of risk, and committing them to memory. Keeping them in her back pocket, in case they were needed. Likely doing all of that within a few seconds.

"So, what's the plan?"

She tipped her head to the side, studying the creature in front of her. "Stay alive."

Grand.

"Don't know much about this species, if that is what I think it is. Trying to figure out what it wants, which is really quite difficult when it's actively trying to kill me," she continued, restlessly shifting her weight from foot to foot. "I usually think better on my feet, though, so we'll see. Most animals lash out for a reason, don't they? Hunger, defending their territory… or maybe it's injured. Or it feels threatened. I don't know. And I really hate not knowing."

Even as death loomed before you, you couldn't help but notice the way the moonlight caught in her hair, and the way she stood with her shoulders squared and chin up, like she was a force to be reckoned with.

Because she was.

"I need you to be quiet for a moment," she whispered. "Can you do that?"

"Of course," you whispered back. "But why?"

"You'll see. I'm buying us some time. "

To your confusion, she shrugged out of her coat and tossed it to the edge of the lake. It landed with a thump.

The beast's stumpy head snapped towards it. It rose to all fours, another wall of water sliding from its back. It began inching towards the heap of light-grey fabric - your lifeline, at the beginning of all of this - that now lay discarded upon the dirt. Seeing it thrown to the side and covered in muck made your heart sink.

"If my hunch is right, the big man will have a fantastic sense of smell, but not the best hearing. Even worse eyesight. It's likely blind," she faced you now, speaking very quietly. "Once it realises that's not me, it will come this way. We need to move now. Slowly, but swiftly."

A walking contradiction, but you understood.

You missed seeing her in explaining mode, the words coming out faster than her mouth could manage. You missed seeing her pull rabbits out of hats. You missed her.

Slowly, she took a step back, soft ripples lapping at your shins. Gentle fingers closed around your hand, and remained there.

I'm here.

You both took a step back, then another, and another. Legs slowly sloshed through the water, making as little sound as possible.

At one point, your heel made contact with a rock under the water's surface, and you wobbled. Her grip on your hand tightened, keeping you upright. The lake's uneven bed proved to be a challenge on your bad ankle.

You squeezed her hand.

She squeezed back.

"If we can get far enough out of its sniffing range, we might be able to outrun it," she continued. If we get back to that river passage, the sonic can trace us back to the entrance of the cave. Not ideal, but possible."

A dangerous, hopeful spark ignited within you, then dimmed.

Following the same way back insinuated hours of walking, if not running. You simply didn't have it in you. Not with this ankle.

The beast reached the bunched-up coat at the same moment the two of you reached the lake's edge and stepped out of the water. It lowered onto its forelegs and sniffed the coat. Its short tail twitched with intrigue.

You wondered if you'd ever take a full breath again.

"There you are!"

A familiar feminine voice rang through the ravine. Your head snapped to one of the passages to see Raina and Jon running for you, still handcuffed, with no soldiers in sight.

The Doctor sighed with exasperation, and painstakingly, her hand slid from yours.

"Stay back! Be quiet!" she shouted, breaking her own rule. They skidded to a halt. "Oh, why did you have to yell—"

Soil and muck shifted on the lake's muddy banks, accompanied by a very large form stirring.

Raina looked like she could pass out right then and there.

Before you had a chance to process it all, the beast was bounding for your two human friends with great ferocity, leaving imprints and claw marks in the ground—

The Doctor broke free from you and made a run for Jon and Raina. You stumbled forward before pain cracked up your leg, forcing you to watch as she sprinted across the ravine.

She pushed into something invisible, and a sickening crunch filled the air as the beast stumbled and crashed into a nearby wall.

An imprint the size of a truck appeared in the cliff, right where the edge of the lake met the rock. You watched the beast's reflection as its giant paws scrambled at the dirt in an attempt to get itself upright. It kicked stones and dust into the air as it did so, and got to its feet worryingly fast.

The Doctor stumbled back, mouth open, and something like fear and regret flashed across her features. You knew, instantly, that she didn't mean to cause such an impact; only to catch it off-guard enough to sway its balance, or redirect the attention to her. She must've not seen it.

Not a moment later, the beast swept with its tree-trunk sized front leg, its claws the size of kitchen knives.

Dread held you by the throat as you watched, helplessly, as it found its target and knocked the Doctor into the wall.

Something cold overtook your body when she didn't immediately stand up. You reached forward and shouted for her, over and over again, willing her to get up, get up…

This was it. Game over.

She stirred as dust rose around her again. Slowly, too slowly, she shifted her body around, using the wall as a guide as she rose to her feet.

Determined but clearly dazed, she began to run along the wall. She stumbled a few times, leaning a hand against the rock to steady herself. Each instance caused your heart to skip a beat, but she managed.

This game of cat-and-mouse was going to continue endlessly if you didn't do something.

A smaller, more high-pitched grunt entered the picture from behind you. You turned to see the passage you'd emerged from, the wild river spilling into it. A small form emerged on the water's surface - you squinted.

It was the creature you saw earlier, back at the riverside. Smaller, with a darker coat, and…

It waded through the river before stopping in its tracks, its ears perking at the commotion. Then, a second one appeared at its side. The two of them followed the bigger one with their eyes, and their ears slowly turned back, coming to lay flat against their necks. They were the same size. Almost as if—

The realisation crashed down upon you. Oh, you really, really hoped you were right.

"Get somewhere up high!" you shouted, noticing a raspiness in your voice, but you didn't care. Further ahead, the Doctor was still running. Her head snapped to yours to give you an incredulous look, as if you were stating the obvious.

"She has cubs!" You shouted, gesturing to the juveniles at the edge of the ravine, their shapes blurring in the river.

Realisation dawned on her then as she scooped up her mucky coat, still running, and made her way over to you. She looked at you in disbelief as she threaded her arms through the sleeves.

"I am so stupid," she uttered. "So, so stupid. Can you believe how stupid I am?"

Jon and Raina were not far off. The beast wasn't immediately behind the Doctor; it was somewhere, unseen in the rising dust, no doubt confused by the four different scents it was picking up now.

A hand tapped you on the shoulder. There she was, gesturing towards a grouping of the twisting roots that drooped down to the ground like curtains.

She didn't need to say anything. You sprang into motion.

"You are extraordinarily clever," she said from barely a step behind, and you smiled. "Of course… of course. She's just protective of her young, I didn't know she had any—"

The two of you made it to the base of the root in a leap and a bound. You threw a look over your shoulder to see Jon and Raina right on your tail, and a wave of relief crashed through you. The Doctor pressed a hand on each of their backs as they passed, zapping their handcuffs off with the sonic and effectively pushing them up the tree root.

The beast was standing at the edge of the lake, sniffing towards the juveniles. Her cubs. Her body language seemed to soften, just a touch. As did yours. But you weren't out of the woods yet.

The babies perked up, and one of them made a sound similar to a bark. All three of them momentarily distracted, though a feeling of foreboding overcame you.

When the Doctor was satisfied that Jon and Raina were steadily climbing, she turned to you.

"Can you climb?"

"Yes," you nodded. "Let's do it."

She didn't look entirely convinced, but gave you a leg up anyway, boosting you to that promise of safety. You grasped at the final straws of strength that were still somehow within you, fingers grappling for the grooves in the root, as you pulled yourself up with all your might.

You dared a look down.

"Go!" she shouted, readying herself. "Don't worry about me, just go!"

She looked far too small down there on the ground, fumbling with her coat and flexing her hands. Watching you. Urging you. Looking over her shoulder every other second.

You had a stomach-pitching hunch that she wanted to linger in the ravine for as long as she could, observing the planet's native lifeforms like the scientist she is.

Distant movements sounded through the ravine. Your gaze snapped to the lake, only to see nothing in its reflection. You hoisted yourself up further and further before daring another look down.

She was right behind you, sonic between her teeth, her knuckles turning white as she grasped the ridges of the giant root and clambered up.

Jon and Raina reached a ledge first. They scrambled onto it, immediately turning and helping you and the Doctor up.

To your surprise, the beast's movements faltered. It still grunted in that low, guttural way that kept the adrenaline pumping steadily through your body, but nothing compared to the terrifying events just passed. 

The four of you were frozen on that ledge for a long moment, gaping at the ground below. Everyone was heaving. No one said a word.

You were crouched at roughly the height of a three-storey house, enough to see the damage done. The combination of the beast's footprints in the dirt and the scratches it left behind made you feel awfully small and fragile. In the corners of the ravine, dust still settled. The two full moons were reflected in the lake, showing its true size from this height.

Jon pointed to the other side of the ravine, and you all saw it then. The mother, walking along one of the branching rivers, with four cubs in tow.

"Ah, look at that," said Jon, throwing an arm around Raina. "She was only protecting what was dear to her."

In your peripheral vision, you could've sworn the Doctor looked at you. Just for a moment.

Down below, the bear-dog licked one of her cubs across its little face with such ferocity that it stumbled, before nudging another with her snout. The little family stuck close together, the cubs barking like a group of content foxes as they trotted alongside their mother. At last, they stepped out of the river's reflection and into a passage, disappearing from your perception.

You finally looked over to the Doctor. She was smiling, just slightly, as her eyes tracked the cubs.

At last, the ravine fell quiet. In the forest above, birdsong rang out. The dawn chorus.

The four of you exchanged smiles. Jon and Raina let out elated laughs before embracing each other tightly, so tightly, and you felt something squeeze beneath your sternum.

When you looked back at the Doctor, she was already approaching you with her arms outstretched. She wrapped you into her arms, your lighthouse on the turbulent seas, your lifesaver, your Doctor. Every piece of you that had fractured in the darkness of the passages suddenly gravitated back together.

A moment of hesitation later, you lifted your arms and wrapped them around her, digging your face into the crook of her neck. You couldn't care less about the dirt clinging to her coat. Her usual scent of tea and vanilla was replaced with that of soil and rain, which you couldn't complain about. The two of you stayed there for an eternity and yet never long enough, and the full scale of emotions from the last night coursed through you at once.

You couldn't remember when, if ever, she last hugged you like this. Perhaps she never had. It felt foreign and deeply familiar all at the same time.

In the corner of your eye, Jon and Raina broke free from their hug and got a move on. You loosened your grip on the Doctor to look at them. A heartbeat later, and quite regrettably, she let go.

The two of you trailed after them, zigzagging between the drooping tree roots and locating a side passage which, thankfully, trailed upwards. The sonic's readings confirmed it.

She walked beside you, looking straight ahead, yet smiling broadly.

"So," she started, pressing her lips together like she was trying to contain her wonder. "Invisible beasts. How about that?"

"I can't quite believe it," you nodded, smiling. "I'm not sure I ever will."

She laid a hand on your upper back in agreement, and it lingered there for longer than usual. Something told you there was something other than wonder and relief behind her smile.

Chapter Text

The Doctor did not leave your side.

The four of you took it easy on the way out; you had the luxury of doing so now. It was a fairly simple stretch out of the passage, albeit a bit of an uphill hike.

At last, a cool, fresh breeze flowed into the passage. You took the air deep into your lungs and picked up your pace a little. Light, glorious and warm, leaked into the cave just a few steps ahead.

When the final passage at last widened and gave way to a familiar-looking forest, your knees nearly gave out with relief. The Doctor was there in an instant, ghosting a hand over your lower back.

You threw your head back, taking it all in. The sky. The canopy. The branches and leaves and blossoming flowers. The sun had recently risen, drenching the forest in buttery light.

Your eyes fell closed, finding a new appreciation for the breeze in the trees and the distant chirps of wildlife. The sounds were so much more vivid. You angled your face until you found the sunlight, and you lingered there for a while, letting it caress your skin. The sensation was akin to the woman next to you, in a way.

When you opened your eyes, she was right there, observing the forest.

At your side, as always. As she should be.

Smiling. As she should be.

The golden rays of morning caught in her eyes and fractured into a million shades of green, reminiscent of rolling hills and shards of malachite. Her hair appeared to be weaved from the sun itself as she deftly moved a strand behind her ear, her earring twinkling in the light.

When her gaze finally met yours, surprise flashed across her features for a split second - as if she wasn't expecting you to be looking at her - and the corners of her mouth slowly turned upward.

There was a certain lightness to her. You looked down at her hands, dirty and calloused, and considered the contrast in the realisation. You wished to wrap your fingers around them; to gently erase the last few hours, and just simply be.

Instead, you just smiled back at her.

Rustling, loud and assaulting, broke you free from your daydreaming. You stiffened at the Doctor's side. She half-raised one of her arms - was she offering you her hand, or wordlessly telling you to stay back? You weren't quite sure.

When the commander burst from the foliage, it took everything in you to keep your spine straight.

Six blasters raised immediately, pointing between the four of you. That lightness snuffed out; the moon rose, and she suddenly seemed a lot taller.

"Surround them!" shouted the commander, and his crew moved into formation to do so. The Doctor's gaze tracked them, silently calculating. "No one escapes. You come with me, all of you—"

"That's a karsturus, isn't it?" the Doctor cut him off. Surprise flashed across his face for a split second. "It is. You know it, and you knew it when you went in there."

He looked between his crew members. "Seize them."

They moved forward. You willed yourself not to shrink as you prepared for those hands to close around your arms, for those blasters to jam between your shoulder blades, and for that paralysis and tension to take over your body once again—

The Doctor pulled the psychic paper out of her pocket and basically shoved it into the face of the commander.

"Karsturi have some of the strongest maternal instincts of any creature in this galaxy. They are not easily separated from their young, unless provoked," she lowered her psychic paper and looked him right in the eye, her focus unwavering. "So, what did you do?"

"You're from the galactic environmental authority? We just had a visit from your office, some twenty rotations ago. We are not due for another—"

"And it appears you've left the environment in quite a state. Calls for another visit from us, I'd say," she continued. As she spoke, she hooked her fingers behind her back, grabbing the sonic with both hands and twisting it. It trilled, only lightly, and you raised an eyebrow - just a fraction. "Really, I'd have expected you to put two and two together since someone put you so high up on the ladder."

The commander frantically gestured to his crew to put the blasters down and, one by one, they did. You breathed a little easier for it.

"Ma'am, your department must understand the mission at hand," the commander started, his voice slightly smaller. "These humans in your tow are unauthorised to Antramnius-B. They are more damaging to the environment than anything else. It wasn't our intention to provoke the karsturus, we were simply tasked with seeking out the humans and taking care of the situation."

She cocked her head ever so slightly. "Were you now?"

He nodded curtly.

"Your comms systems could use some tidying up. Couldn't connect to anyone when I landed. Couldn't even speak to a computer, actually. I'm willing to bet this lot couldn't either," she gestured to the rest of you. "So, in that case, how were they supposed to know that they aren't welcome? Their ship doesn't have any weaponry fitted to it. They pose no risk. What if they were in desperate need of help, and landed on this planet as a last resort? We're collecting quite the laundry list here, aren't we?"

The commander searched for words that he couldn't immediately find.

"So, let's recap. Not only did you provoke a karsturus with an unweaned nest of cubs, you left a group of innocent humans stranded - as bait, might I add - while your crew made a sorry run for it."

Her tone faltered, ever so slightly, when she said bait.

She gestured between the crew this time. "Pretty sure that's against your organisation's code of conduct. What were your superiors going to say when your prisoners were found dead—"

"You are not who you say you are," the commander flipped at once. He took a step forward, but the Doctor didn't flinch. "I am the highest authority here. I know everything that transpires on this soil. I don't know what technology resides within that paper of yours, but I will seize it, just as I will seize you and your friends. That is an order, not a consideration."

The Doctor was the one taking a step forward this time, getting too close to him for your comfort. He completely dwarfed her with his height.

She raised her chin. "I think you'll find that I am at a much higher authority than you."

Clicks echoed through the forest, and the blasters raised again.

"You're coming with us," said the commander.

"Oh mate, you're going to have to try a lot harder than that."

With arms outstretched, he raised his blaster. Towards the Doctor.

You didn't even think.

You leapt forwards.

The Doctor barely had time to react as you slammed into him - right as he pulled the trigger.

And he was thrown backwards against a tree trunk.

You half-stumbled to the forest floor. The Doctor was immediately at your side, a supportive hand on your forearm. The two of you watched as the commander slumped against the tree. Unmoving.

You looked up at the Doctor. She wouldn't have—

As she helped you to your feet, she gave you a knowing look. "Oldest trick in the book," she said under her breath, "reversed the polarity."

The entire elimination crew lowered their weapons and ran for the commander. Chaos ensued as three of them attempted to help him up, to no avail, and another two fumbled with his blaster to disable the paralysis ray.

Amidst the commotion, the Doctor ushered your group down a less-taken trail. She kept one eye on the elimination crew as she urged Jon and Raina into the shrubbery, only pulling her focus away when you passed by. She dropped her eyes to your bad ankle, then back up.

"I'm fine," you insisted.

She pressed her lips together and gave a tense nod of her head, then gently pushed you towards the trail.

"Quick as you can."

You only nodded.

The four of you traversed through the forest with a healthy level of haste, though as time passed, you became unsure that anyone was actually following you.

"They'll catch up," said the Doctor from behind you, as if she knew. "In a bit. In a while, maybe. It's possible to un-reverse the effects of the blaster, but you need the right tools. And what are they gonna do? All they have are weapons. That's what I always say—"

Ah, there she was.

Jon and Raina were about twenty steps ahead, clearly feeling the haste a bit more. Ever since they climbed onto that ledge back in the ravine, they were never further than an arm's length from one another. Jon either had his hand splayed across Raina's upper back, Raina had her arm linked with his, or they were holding hands while navigating the curling roots.

You would be moving hastily, too, if your ankle allowed it. You could practically feel the Doctor's focus on you, considering you; burning you. It made it all the more difficult to hide your limp as you navigated the soft soil.

"You didn't need to do that," she suddenly said, her voice closer than you'd expected. You looked over your shoulder; she had caught up, and fell into step beside you. "Back there. With the commander. I had it under control, you know."

The words caught in your throat. "I know," was all you could manage.

"You could've really gotten hurt."

"So could you," you retaliated. "You almost did."

Her focus drifted down to your leg, and something cold took root in you. The long moment of silence that followed was agonising.

Just as you were preparing another 'I promise I'm fine'-esque speech, the foliage widened into a clearing.

"Pause here," said the Doctor, placing her hands on her hips. Everyone stopped.

She looked towards the unobstructed sky. She stuck out her tongue - a little bit at first, and then all the way. She made a face, as if she was trying to pick apart the flavour profile of a coffee bean.

Whiplash. You just stood and watched, awaiting the lengthy explanation that was inevitably to come.

"So, okay, here's the thing," she began, to dumbfounded looks from Jon and Raina. "There is a planetary comms system. They weren't entirely lying, I gotta give them that. Should cover the whole planet, if I'm correct. Which I really hope I am. Because…"

She shot you a look. You gave her a confused frown.

"…I need to get my ship over here. It'll do us no good to keep running."

You were the one shooting her a look this time. She acknowledged you, then diverted her eyes.

"How is it possible to get your ship over here?" asked Raina. "Is it manned?"

"Nah. But it's about to be."

They didn't respond - unless, you count looking confused as a legible response. You looked towards the Doctor; that sparkle in her eyes gave away that she certainly did.

"There's a certain kind of static in the air suggesting that there is actually a comms field, rather than a number of channels. It's bitter, which is a dead giveaway. Can only taste it right at the back of my tongue," she explained, and for once, everyone actually seemed to be following. "Apart from keeping tabs on the planet, it doesn't appear to be used very much. A pity, really. But we already knew that, else we wouldn't be here right now. That does mean that if I press this, and twist that…"

She produced the sonic and began prodding at the settings. To this day, you were properly mystified by its workings, seeing as it only had one visible button.

"And since I left the secondary communication circuit running aboard the TARDIS, with the firewall up of course… that means, if I do this, and then… sorry, actually, you might want to cover your ears…"

Without missing a beat, she held the sonic straight up in the air. It produced a sound that could've competed in a loudest-school-bell-competition; assaulting, trilling, and just obscenely loud. Your hands flew to your ears, doing little to block it out. Jon and Raina seemed to be suffering a similar fate.

After what felt like an eternity, the trilling slowly subsided. Instead, it was replaced by a much more soothing, rhythmic sound.

You looked up to see the Doctor slowly lowering the sonic until her arm was outstretched in front of her.

There, materialising in the centre of the clearing, was the TARDIS.

Home.

A characteristic thunk echoed through the forest to announce its arrival.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at you, gauging your reaction. She smirked, flipping the sonic in her hand and blowing imaginary smoke from the crystallised end, as if it were the barrel of a gun. In a smooth motion, she slid it into her pocket and motioned at you to come on.

You shook your head, incredulous. 

"In we go," she swung the door open with a creak. "That lot are going to come sniffing now, especially after all the ruckus I just made. Best we don't stick around."

The warmth of the amber-like crystals made the cold passages of the cave seem like a lifetime ago. It was like coming home past midnight to a light left on, and you let the feeling envelop you. As you stepped through the door right behind a very shocked Jon and Raina, the Doctor brushed a hand against your arm.

You turned, surprised. She swung the door closed with her other hand, banishing the dense forest and twisting roots to your memory.

Chapter Text

"I told you we'd make it," you rested your chin on Raina's shoulder in her embrace. "I promised you, didn't I? And here you are."

When you pulled away, she had tears in her eyes. Jon patted you on the back and smiled, perhaps for the first time throughout this whole ordeal.

"I gotta give it to you and the Doctor. That was truly something to behold," he took his place beside Raina in the red sands of Mars. His smile dropped. "I won't lie to you. Throughout that whole ordeal, I thought that was it. Things just kept going south, and I completely believed it'd be impossible to get back home with our ship buggered."

"Perhaps it's time to start believing in the impossible," said the Doctor from the doorway of the TARDIS.

Jon smiled. "I certainly do now. Thank you," he wrapped an arm around his wife. "Truly. We can't thank you enough. How can we possibly repay you?"

"You don't," the Doctor laid a hand on the door. "Just live well."

Raina gave a curt nod. "Can do now, thanks to you."

"You too, Doc," said Jon. "I hope you're taking some time to rest. Both of you."

The Doctor dipped her chin, leaning an arm against the TARDIS door frame. She turned, coat tails sweeping through the doorway as she retreated into the ship.

She was never one for goodbyes.

"I better go," you nodded towards the TARDIS.

Jon nodded. "Take care."

You said your goodbyes, and as you closed those familiar blue doors on that very red planet, a familiar silence settled around you.

There she was, her focus chained to the console like her life depended on it. Deep in thought, and most likely not about the console itself. She wordlessly flicked a lever and set the ship into motion.

You stepped into the light, coming to rest at the opposite side of the console. The central crystal slowly rose and fell, creating a soothing rhythm that reminded you of drifting to sleep. Beyond its motions, she lowered her face. You dipped your head to the side, trying to pick up what she was unintentionally putting down.

This wasn't uncommon for her; silently hunched over the console and brooding over something. If anything, it was an indication that things were returning to normal. Beneath that ancient gaze, however, lurked something else.

"Okay, come over here," she suddenly straightened, and surprised, you obeyed. "Sit down. Take off your shoes."

She gestured to the steps, and you sat down. Your eyes followed her as she crouched down in front of you with her elbows resting against her thighs. Silence stretched between the two of you as you untied your shoes and placed them at the bottom of the steps. Distantly, you registered the TARDIS' dematerialisation sequence fading out. Drifting; not landing.

You placed your feet flat against the step below you, the coldness of the ship's floor leaking through your socks. You rolled up a pant leg, and a weird feeling settled upon your shoulders.

She raised her hands, then stopped herself.

With the amber light of the TARDIS at her back like a rising sun, soft yet piercing, you could pick apart every thread of time that wove her together. She regarded you with a question in her eyes, her hands lingering in the air for a moment too long.

"Is it okay if I take a look at your ankle?"

You nodded. Despite your agreement, there was a moment of reluctance in her movements as she placed her hands on your leg. She raised her gaze with an intensity akin to sunlight through a magnifying glass.

"Does it hurt when I touch it?"

You shook your head. "No."

Slowly, she began to move it. First, she stretched your leg straight, then moved your foot from side to side, then up and down. She looked at you every few seconds with that same question silently hanging in the air. Each time, you shook your head. It was slightly uncomfortable at worst.

Then, her fingers gently curled around your ankle joint and she slowly moved it in a rolling motion. This time, pain shot up your leg. You flinched.

She stilled. Inside your chest, something cracked.

"Sorry," she gently lowered your leg and produced her sonic, scanning it around the joint.

"It's okay," you said quickly. "It wasn't that bad—"

"Not broken," she declared, and you might've seen her shoulders loosen, just slightly. "Just… sprained."

You pressed your lips together and shrugged. "Could've been much worse."

Avoiding eye contact, she rose to her feet and moved to the console. Returning to her endless trove of distractions.

Ah, that was the wrong thing to say.

Sheepishly, you rolled your pant leg back down and began to rise to your feet. That got her attention.

"I think you should go and rest."

You weren't ready to be dismissed - not yet. Not when you had a million questions about her side of the story.

The memory of everything that happened in that ravine crashed into you with little subtlety, stealing your breath. The beast's movements bounding through the planet like an earthquake. The raw, unchained fear that came with not being able to see it. The feeling of impending doom hanging over your head like a cloud. The pain, the exhaustion, and the relief of seeing her again only for adrenaline to immediately replace it.

Yet here she was, right in front of you, giving you that this is not up for debate look.

She had the upper hand - again.

"I suggest grabbing a cup of tea. Then head back to your room, maybe read a book…"

The cracks in your chest spiderwebbed when you realised what she was saying. Tea, bedroom, rest. Alone.

You opened your mouth to remind her of the deal she'd made with you at the beginning of this whole thing. Back when you'd only just stepped into that horrible darkness, with a sense of foreboding but no idea what was to come. The deal of a biscuit and a cup of tea in the library. She'd promised to show you that book on Martian paleontology—

She nodded towards the steps. Towards the corridor.

Your shoulders dropped. Reluctantly and without a word, you went up the stairs.

The TARDIS kitchen had a compelling atmosphere.

It was certainly larger than the kitchen of any homes you'd lived in, with a large countertop island in the centre. A chandelier full of glowing orange crystals dangled from the ceiling, shining light on hexagonal-shaped stove tops and cupboards.

The kitchen itself was always either immaculately clean or overflowing with dishes, ingredients, and strange-looking food preparation tools. On this occasion, it was the former; allowing you to locate the kettle with ease.

As it bubbled to a boil, you drummed your fingers on the countertop. You reached up, opening a cupboard to locate your favourite mug. Your eyes flitted over an unopened packet of Venusian vanilla-flavoured melting moments - or, in her words, just a fancy name for custard creams.

They stared back at you from the shelf, mocking you, an unfulfilled promise hanging in the air. Your fingers closed around the cold ceramic of your favourite mug, and you shut the cupboard door. You continued drumming your fingers on the countertop, with a little more speed this time.

The kettle made a loud click. With a sigh, you poured the boiling water over the teabag you had meticulously picked out from the Doctor's extensive collection. You wrapped your fingers around the mug, letting the warmth seep through your skin. Carefully, you lifted it from the counter and carried it out of the kitchen.

This wasn't an unusual routine for you; recently back from a long adventure with sore feet, wandering the corridors in your socks with a warm drink in hand. And yet, everything felt different.

As you approached your room, the door was already open.

Both figuratively and literally, your door was always open. Always, when it came to her. You fear the feeling wasn't mutual.

When you stepped into the room, a soft rumbling, humming kind of sound caught your attention, coming from the ensuite. With furrowed brows, you lowered your cup of tea onto your nightstand, noticing that your bed was perfectly made and your reading light already switched on.

You turned towards the bathroom. The door was open. Lights on. Water running.

On quiet feet, you shuffled towards the doorway, before stilling entirely.

There she was, crouched on one knee and hunched over the bathtub. The lights had been dimmed, and the air smelled of soap and lavender and new beginnings. Her coat was elsewhere and she'd had a change of outfit, swapping the dirt-covered navy shirt for her equally lovely maroon one. She shifted, rolling back her sleeves—

If you were still holding your cup of tea, you might've spilled it.

There, painted along the outer length of her left forearm, was a bruise the size of a ruler. Splotches of reds and pinks that would no doubt transition into a deep purple within a matter of days coloured her lovely skin. Something akin to dread and shock wrapped tightly around you, and you were a deer in the headlights, unable to react.

At this point, she noticed you.

"Ah! You're back. Good, very good. Did you get your cuppa?"

You didn't immediately find the words. Maybe you left your brain in the kitchen.

"Yeah," you managed, pointing back towards the bedroom. "It's… just in there."

"Lovely. I hope you picked a good tea," she dipped a hand into the bathtub and swished it around, forming clumps of bubbles. She then proceeded to wipe her hands on her pants and roll her sleeves back down, hiding the silent reminder of what transpired. "Ran you a bath. Thought that might… help. With the relaxing."

A small smile danced on your lips. "Thanks."

She turned off the tap and rose to her feet, then placed her hands on her hips, clearly chuffed with her own efforts. She dipped her head, flicking a strand of blonde away from her face, and nodded towards the tub.

"Anything else I can get you? How's the ankle? Make sure you keep it elevated when you get in the bath."

"Ankle is fine. And I think I'm all good. This is… this is perfect, thank you."

"Brilliant."

There was a long moment of silence.

She pressed her lips together and half-raised a hand towards you, before stopping herself like you might shatter beneath her touch.

"I'll leave you to it, then. Yell out if you need anything."

A moment later, she was gone. And despite the condensation on the walls and the steaming bath before you, the room went cold.

The room was beautifully serene, in theory. Glowing orange crystals jutted from walls fitted with dark blue tiles. The bathtub itself was deep, fitting all of you with ease, and filled to the ledge with tall peaks of bubbles. Yellow towels and mats with golden stitching adorned the room. Truly a feat of interior design; you couldn't help but study each corner of the space as your mind drifted.

Beneath the water, you clasped your hands together. A funny feeling settled in your stomach. Despite the cacophony going on inside your mind, your muscles were thankful for the warm water. Perhaps this was the first step to truly letting the events of the night wash away. Literally.

You raised yourself into a sitting position, feeling the slight tickle of bubbles sliding down your bare back. A sigh escaped you.

This was supposed to be relaxing.

With an absent mind, you reached for your cup of tea on a side table, taking a tentative sip. It warmed your throat all the way down to your stomach; the flavour both fruity and spiced, though you couldn't exactly place it.

Perhaps she needed time to think. You pressed your lips together and returned the mug to the table.

The Doctor kept everyone at an arm's length. She was much like the sun; keeping many beings in her orbit, but always at a distance she deemed safe. Whether that distance was actually safe or wholly unnecessary was up for debate.

And you'd accept it, each time and wholeheartedly, if it meant being at her side.

You didn't exactly make the conscious decision to get out of the bath; you just did. Water slid from your body as you slowly rose to your feet, being mindful not to put too much weight on your ankle. You reached for a towel. It was large, soft, and warmed by the ship, feeling much like a hug when you draped it around your shoulders. For some reason, that realisation swirled up your emotions, like swishing a stick through a stagnant pond.

Your mind flitted back to the passages before the two of you were separated. Your fingers wrapped around the fabric of her coat. And then, her hand reaching for yours. The exchanged words in the darkness, genuine reassurance, and promise of safety.

As always - she had stuck to her promise.

And yet, with every leap, roar and swipe of the karsturus, another thread of hope within you snapped. Safety - for what felt like an eternity - felt like an unreachable dream.

Water dripped to the floor as you dried your body. You turned back to the tub, pulling the plug and watching the water circle into the drain.

You needed to talk to her.

As soon as the penny dropped, your heart began to pound.

Quietly, you got dressed into a somewhat comfortable outfit (t-shirt, pants, and your favourite pair of socks). As you stepped out of the bathroom, the ship turned on the internal fans to draw away the humidity in the air. Distantly, the last of the water got sucked into the drain, producing a strange noise.

You walked over to your bed and turned off the reading light the Doctor had left on for you. Guilt settled in your gut, as if you were physically rejecting her kind gesture, but you simply weren't in the head space to focus on a book.

The lights in the corridor were almost too much for you at first. You squinted against the sudden sensation, then stepped through. Towards the console room.

If ever you were looking for her aboard the infinite ship, that was the first place you'd look. It always seemed to call her name, no matter the occasion.

The ship gently flashed the lights, then dimmed them altogether. It's like she knew what you were doing, and wanted to make her approval known by way of dimming the lights for your comfort.

You dipped your chin. Something about it made your heart pound faster.

Chapter Text

The melodic echo of tinkering grew louder as you approached the console room. You stopped at the top of the steps, surveying the room from your vantage point.

You spotted her flat on her back, fiddling with something on the underside of the console. She'd changed into her mechanic's garb, and was accompanied by a rather oversized toolbox sitting beside her.

Cool. Your heart was definitely pounding now.

As you approached, she made a small noise of acknowledgement. Unceremoniously, she scooted out from beneath the console, crossing her legs and sitting on the ship's floor. She shrugged out of her massive mechanic's gloves and, with both hands, shuffled her goggles up to her forehead. It ruffled her hair in a way that made a handful of strands stick out in rogue directions.

Her sleeves were rolled back again, showing more of that awful bruise in the console room's brighter lighting. It sprawled from wrist to elbow like spilled wine, its presence silent yet filling the room.

When her eyes landed on you, her mouth tilted upwards for the better half of a second before dropping again, as if she had a second thought. It didn't exactly do wonders for your nerves.

"Hi," you began, because how else were you supposed to start?

"Has it been that long already?" she said by way of greeting. "Or maybe I just don't remember how long humans like to take baths for. It's been a while since those tubs have been used, mind you. It's something you lot like to do to relax. Right? Or are you more of a shower person?"

"Yeah, you're completely right," you nodded. You were standing before her now, looking down at her still sitting on the floor. It made you feel strange, for some reason, being so much taller than her. "It is relaxing. Was, I mean. I just felt like… getting out. Otherwise I'd turn into a prune."

"Ah! Of course. Well, fair enough. I hope it was… was it good?"

She looked at you expectantly, like she would bank your answer and really study it for the next time she carried out such a gesture.

"For sure. It was lovely. Just what I needed, actually. Especially after…"

You faltered, and mentally kicked yourself. In front of you, that expectant look in her eyes dimmed, and now you really wanted to kick yourself.

"I just, I feel better. Much better. How about you, how are you feeling?"

"Yeah, fine," she nodded, her eyes drifting away from you now. She seemed almost rushed as she shuffled back towards the console. Your smile fell completely now. "All good, me. Barely a scratch. Wanna see what I'm doing?"

She beckoned you over. You lowered yourself to the floor, ultimately just happy to be at her side again, though something ugly brewed deep within you at her casual dismissal.

"There are wires under here that connect to the matrix interface. Some of them run through to the force field generator," she brought up her bruised arm to point at something under the console. As soon as she clocked you looking, she rolled down her sleeves. Tense silence followed. "They're… could be why the TARDIS has been bucking more than usual lately. Could be… a loose wire, or something. So I was looking… for that. Wanna have a go?"

You'd barely nodded a yes before she'd raised her arms to tear the goggles from her head, leaving oval-shaped imprints on her forehead and her hair a ruffled mess. With no small amount of pride, she shoved the goggles into your hands.

Before you could object, she was already untying the apron from behind her back and handing it to you, followed by those giant, bulky gloves.

"Turn around," she said as you slid the goggles over your head until the eyepieces rested at your forehead. You gave her a look, but followed her instruction. She lifted the heavy brown apron over your head until the leathery material rested at your chest, and she began tying the straps at the back. The garment smelled of engine oil and tea. "Is that too tight? Too loose? Can you still breathe?"

"I think so," you said, discombobulated. This was all happening faster than you could process. Were you even comfortable helping out with maintenance? You weren't sure you had a say in the matter.

Distantly, you registered deft fingers tying a knot at your back. She tapped you on the shoulder as a cue to get you to turn around again, which you did, and she gestured to the gloves. You put them on. They were still warm. She watched you, smiling.

"Brilliant! So now, my apprentice, I'm gonna get you to lie on your back underneath the console and—" she frowned. "Oh, one second."

Your breath got caught somewhere between your ribs as she reached her hands forward, so carefully, and held the goggles that rested against your head. Gently, she moved them down your face until they covered your eyes. Her fingertips - soft beyond belief, considering she'd been doing repairs - momentarily brushed against your temples, and that breath disappeared completely. When the eyepieces were properly fitted over your eyes, the room looked a bit darker as if you were wearing sunglasses. She smiled broadly, and gave you two thumbs up.

"Safety first!" she lied. "I'd say you look like a professional, except I'm also here. Right, lay back whenever you're ready."

Lost for words, you laid down beneath the console with absolutely no idea what you were looking at. Through the goggles, you saw various switches, an ominous-looking big red button, and an uncountable number of wires running all over the shop.

"Right, what exactly am I doing?"

"Okay, so, the purple one connects to the matrix interface. Can you see it? It should run perpendicular to the orange ones. I've already switched off the current to this circuit, so you won't get shocked, don't worry."

You wondered what you'd gotten yourself into.

"Sure. There's about five different purple wires, though."

"It's the one that's a bit squiggly. Do you see it?"

You squinted, feeling a bit defeated now. There were so, so many wires in front of you, like a bowl of colourful noodles. "No," you sighed.

"That's alright, don't stress. Here, I'll show you," she shuffled over on her hands and knees before laying down beside you, her arm rubbing against yours. She brought a hand up to a wire that was more bluish-purple in colour, and definitely not squiggly. "This one, I think. That's what it was last time. I think."

She brought her hand back down, and you lifted your gloved hand towards the wire before you realised she hadn't actually given you a second instruction.

"What do I do with it?"

"Give it a tug, and see if it has any give. If it does, the rest of the wire might unravel, and it probably needs tightening somewhere."

Right. Something told you she hadn't had any proper mechanic training - perhaps ever.

Hesitation gripped at you, and you distantly pondered whether the ship would implode if you pulled the wrong wire. But she was right there, looking at you with that glittering hope and anticipation in her eyes, so you wrapped your gloved fingers around the wire and tugged it towards you.

"Does it feel loose to you?" The feeling of her eyes on you set your body on fire.

"I don't know," you shook your head, feeling a little embarrassed now. "I'm not… entirely sure what I'm feeling for, to be honest."

"That's okay! No no, that's fine. She's not fragile, you know. The TARDIS isn't going to break if you tug on something too hard. Here, I'll…"

She brought her hands up again, both of them this time, and wrapped them around your gloved hand, which was still holding the wire. With a bit of pressure, she gave a big tug of your wrist, and something gave way further along the wire.

"Did you feel that?"

As soon as her hands fell away, yours did too.

"I did." No word of a lie. "Yeah, that one. Something's not right with it."

"Bingo," she nodded, and just like that, she was on her feet. "These wires need to be quite tightly coiled, you see. Need to grab the pliers, hang on."

"Aren't loose wires a fire hazard?"

"Nah. Well, technically, yes. Mostly inside of buildings though, if there's flammable insulation and stuff like that. But not here," she spoke very fast, rummaging through the toolbox out of your view.

"I wonder though, should all this wiring be exposed? Or at least be better managed so they're not unravelling and running all over each other—"

"S'all good. It's been like this ever since she redecorated at the beginning of my regeneration cycle," she explained, as if that meant anything to you. "If the wires weren't okay to sit this way, she wouldn't have put them in that position. Appreciate your concern, though. Come around this side, I'll show you how to coil the wire back up."

You slid out from under the console and removed the mechanic gear with a little hesitation, handing them back to her. She absentmindedly accepted them, putting it aside.

Immediately after taking off the goggles, your hands flew to your hair, smoothing it down.

"Okay, I won't do it all the way right now, but I'll show you the gist. Generally you want to open this compartment…" her hands ghosted over the side of the console. "And grab your pliers. Oh, these are probably a little too small. There's some bigger—"

Her own proprioception failed her, and she slammed her bruised arm into the corner of the toolbox.

She flinched.

You gasped.

Her eyes slid to you, something unreadable lining her expression. This time, you couldn't bring yourself to look away.

"You're hurt," you whispered.

She raised a supportive hand to her sore arm, gently rubbing the bruise and not breaking eye contact with you. Her mouth was slightly open as she considered you, grappling with her own vulnerability beneath that millennia-old mask.

"I'm fine—"

"You're not, though. Are you? I've seen that bruise. It's massive."

She stopped her movements.

"This is nothing, I can assure you that," she spoke slowly, and you could've sworn the air in the room physically shifted. "I've barely noticed it, and it'll be gone before you know it," she sighed, then added, "if it's bothering you."

One word arose in your brain, overtaking all other thoughts. No.

"I'm the reason you got hurt," you started.

Her eyes widened.

Wait. Did you really say that?

"You really got hurt this time. When you hit that wall and didn't get up right away, I was so worried and I couldn't move, or think, or do anything. All I could do was watch."

She looked at you, incredulous.

"That wasn't your fault—"

You pushed out an exasperated breath. The moment of silence that followed wedged open that crack that had been spider-webbing across your chest for some time now, and you knew you were entering the danger zone.

If you had watched your step in the passages, or waited outside the cave, or just been a little more careful, the original task of finding Jon and Raina never would've derailed into all of this. Guilt that lined the edges of your mind for hours now took the liberty to flood every inch of your being. Your stomach turned and your vision frayed, like that pit was finally opening up beneath your feet. You willed it to swallow you.

Still, through all of these realisations, she was right there. Her focus unwavering, those eyes frantically roving your face like you were something to be solved.

Then, she brought her hands forward and clasped them around one of yours. Your eyes flew down.

Her palms, cracked and calloused and somehow still soft, enveloped yours in warmth.

Then, like a receding wave, she drew your hand towards her chest, laying it flat against her shirt. Twin heartbeats drummed beneath, faster than you'd anticipated.

She squeezed your hand and you looked up, right into those eyes that had a gravitational pull of their own.

"I have a duty of care."

When your eyes fell closed, she squeezed your hand again. Willing you to see, to understand.

"I'll be honest. I had a bad feeling when we got to the opening of that cave. I think you did, too."

You opened your eyes again and only nodded, listening.

"I thought of asking you… no, insisting you wait outside. I was going to set up a temporary perception filter to keep you safe while I went in. Trust me, it crossed my mind. Multiple times. I never truly know what's going to happen when we step outside of those doors," she nodded towards the TARDIS exit, "and that can be very, very scary. Even when you're me, and you've done it a million times."

You hand remained over her hearts, the rhythmic four-beat thrum becoming your lifeline. Deep down in your chest, that guilt dulled around the edges.

"That being said, you've got all this…" she paused for a second, thinking, looking around the room for her next words. Her tongue darted out from between her lips, and her attention returned to you. "You've got all this potential. You're always so willing to help and give everything a go, even if you have no idea what's going to happen. And I didn't… I didn't want my own concerns to hold you back. So, I let you come. Because it felt like the right thing to do. And then when you fell, and I had to leave you there—"

You shifted now, pulling your hand away from her chest. She stilled for a moment, surprised, and you brought your free hand up to wrap around both of hers.

You barely recognised your own confidence.

"Thank you for letting me come with you," you began, gently wrapping your fingers around hers. Mentally, you mapped out every ridge in her skin, every scab, every callus. "You didn't do anything wrong. You simply did what was right, and that is not always easy. But that is very you. And I can't help but…"

Her breath hitched. For some reason, that observation made your breath hitch, too.

Your focus drifted, studying her hands. Considering all hands they'd held over the years, all the lives they'd saved. Considering the universe those hands had changed and shaped into the one you knew and loved. The universe…

You looked up to find her devastatingly still, studying you with a level of intrigue you'd never seen from her. It terrified you, right to your core.

You weren't sure what overcame you in the next moment.

You lifted her hands up towards your face. And kissed one.

As soon as your lips made contact with her knuckle, featherlight yet completely sure in your movements, a small sound escaped her.

It was all the encouragement you needed.

Slowly turning her hands in your grasp, you pressed soft kisses all over them. Her knuckles, her fingers, the sides of her thumbs. Noting the spots that appeared sore from climbing up those twisting roots, and focusing your attention there.

You raised your eyes to gauge her reaction, and it suddenly became very difficult to compose yourself.

You pulled away with some regret to find her edges softened. She was watching you with her lips pressed together and her eyes full of an emotion you couldn't quite place.

A stillness overcame the both of you. Not like a stagnant pond or a yawning chasm, but like a calm sea or a sunrise cresting over a mountain range.

In the midst of your processing, the corner of her mouth ticked upwards for half a second, just long enough to catch it but simultaneously not being sure that you actually did. She adjusted her hands, now wrapping them around yours once more, and gently turned them over. Exposing your wrists to the ceiling.

Angry red lines ran across your skin, marking the remnants of the handcuffs that nearly led you down a very different path.

Even as your brain offered a million possibilities of what was about to unfold, nothing could've prepared you when she raised your exposed wrists to her mouth. Keeping her focus on you, she pressed a kiss to one. Right over the marks.

The skies cleared and your heart rate tripled. Before you could form any words, she dipped her head and pressed a kiss to the other. Something inside of you simultaneously cracked open and mended back together at the gesture, so light and yet so firm, anchoring you to this strange and wonderful reality you now found yourselves in.

She raised her chin, instead closing her hands around your wrists, rubbing her thumbs in slow circles over the marks. It soothed a discomfort you were not fully aware was even there.

"For the record," she began, the familiar cadence of her voice almost too much in this context, "I thought you were absolutely brilliant out there."

Smiling, you dipped your head, hiding the blush that was creeping at your cheeks.

Deft fingers touched your chin, gently redirecting your focus back to her. Her touch lingered for a split second and also an eternity, her unwavering attention threading itself into your veins.

"I mean it," her voice was so quiet, it barely came out over the hum of the ship. "You were brilliant."

You could barely handle all the praise she was giving you.

"You kept your wits about you, kept everyone calm, and led me back to you. Thanks to you, two humans are safely back on their home planet. And a karsturus is safe and sound with her cubs, as they should be," Her focus briefly left yours, just to look around the console room. "And here we are, back where we belong."

You noticed it, then.

The way one side of her face was drenched in radiant light from the console room's glowing pillars, while the other was coloured by shades of deep blue from the opposing walls.

She was both the sun and the moon, the lightness and the darkness, existing in contradictory harmony right before your eyes. It was nothing new, and yet, everything about the moment felt simultaneously completely foreign and deeply familiar.

You saw her, all of her; not just now, but always.

As she finished showering you in praise, you brought up your hands to rest at her cheekbones. Surprise flared in her eyes as you leaned forward, closed your eyes, and pressed a kiss to her lips.

Time appeared to halt as all the stars spun out and rearranged themselves. She froze at the first touch and your anxiety spiked, until her edges dulled just a moment later and she relaxed into your touch. You could almost feel the tension sliding from her shoulders, then her jaw, and your hands found their way down to the sides of her neck. Her heartbeats thrummed beneath her skin, wild and unruly, and it lit a fire within you.

Something shifted within you the moment she returned the kiss, placing a firm hand on your shoulder as if to keep herself tethered. You broke free for a split second only to breathe, and she looked otherworldly. Her eyes sparked with an emotion you couldn't place, and you realised your hands were still pressed against the sides of her neck. You used that to your advantage, sliding a hand behind her head, your fingers tangling in her golden hair, and you gently guided her lips back to yours.

Nothing was real, and yet, everything was. As you sat here on the floor of the console room in your t-shirt and comfy socks, it was more real than ever.

The ship flared the lights, and you broke free only to stifle a giggle. She noticed as well, regarding the room at large with a frown, though she couldn't help but smile.

The two of you looked at each other for a long moment. In the space between, your hands found each other; intertwined like a pair of vines, never to let go again. And those hands would find each other again and again, a thousand times over.

Chapter Text

Routines aboard the TARDIS returned to normal, with a faint, golden glow around the edges.

One afternoon just a few rotations later, the Doctor had excitedly beckoned you to the control room. She was running around the console with a glimmer in her eyes, her hands moving faster around the switches and levers than her body could carry her.

"Wear something warm," she said, already reading the question in the room. "No, I mean, wear something… suitable for warm weather. Don't come out in a scarf. That'd be bad."

You lingered at one of the amber-coloured pillars, watching her workings. She was a whirlwind of rainbow and gold, the way she punched in coordinates and hauled levers. You learned early on that it was best to stay out of her way when she was focused like this.

"I think I'm good," you looked down at your outfit - light materials. "Wait. How warm?"

She skidded to a halt, then, scrunching her nose and looking up as if the answer was written on the ceiling. "Eh. Similar to a summer's day where you're from? Not, like, heatwave-level-warm, but comfortable. Do you like sand?"

You frowned. "Depends on the context?"

"Beach?"

Excitement bubbled up inside you, and the yes left your lips with little thought behind it. After the dark, cold, and somehow still humid caves that still occupied the recesses of your mind, a sandy coast is just what you desired.

She grinned at you, a gesture that could ignite the stars. As if on cue, the ship came to a halt.

"Alright, go have a look," she straightened, then nodded towards the doors. She gained a certain level of satisfaction from letting you do the honours.

She loved nothing more than to impress you; you saw it in the way her eyes sparkled with anticipation when she brought you somewhere new, or her wild mannerisms when she explained the plan that would inevitably stitch any broken situation back together.

And each time, gladly, you'd indulge her.

So when you opened those doors and were met with a white sands, a calm sea, and lilac skies graced with planets and moons, you didn't feign your gasp. In fact, you played into it some more, just to gauge her reaction.

She was immediately at your back, a smug look on her face. She lingered in the TARDIS doorway as you stepped out to scope your surroundings.

The TARDIS had landed on a river inlet. The beach was long; stretching endlessly in both directions, curving into equally-appealing bays in the distance that were flanked by lush green forests. Out towards the horizon lay an archipelago of islands promising intrigue, and white clouds with silver linings drifted across the sky.

The sea itself was still, small waves gently lapping at the shore. No matter how far you looked, you were unable to spot anything man-made. Just wild, untouched nature as far as you could see.

You turned to the Doctor, still wearing that smile with her arm draped against the door frame, watching you.

"We're on the planet of Luxelitus, on the further end of the Helix Galaxy. The further end from Earth," she added, drumming her fingers on the door frame. "The year is 2025. As of right now, the planet is completely unpopulated. Unless you count the sea creatures and a handful of marsupial species. All harmless. To humans, at least."

Surprised, you took another look at your surroundings, drinking it all in. You suddenly felt so very far away from everything; it would be a terrifying epiphany in any other context, but you felt safe. Comfortable. In good hands - perhaps the best hands in the universe.

You threw a look at her over your shoulder. She brushed her hand down the door frame and retreated into the ship. Confusion took root in your mind.

"Where are you going? Are we leaving already?"

"No, no, just grabbing something," she shouted, her voice slightly echoey from the console room. "Go explore. I'll be back in a tick."

"I'll come give you a hand—"

"No, not needed, thank you," she spoke quickly, her voice straining as if she was lifting something. "Go have a look around, it's safe."

Slightly confused, you bent down and took off your shoes - your ankle, thankfully, doing a lot better - and wandered down to the water.

Some 20 minutes later, the Doctor emerged from the ship - with some goodies.

Halfway between the TARDIS and the water, she unfolded a large blue-and-yellow patchwork style picnic blanket. The gentle breeze lifted the fabric up, and allowed her to drape it over the sand completely flat on the first go. She caught your eye and wordlessly stuck her index finger up - as if telling you to wait - and popped back into the ship. A moment later, she reappeared with a tray.

Inquisitive, you walked over, just in time to see her set down the tray, which was filled with biscuits, a teapot, and… a book.

The Doctor sat down on the blanket and pulled off her boots, throwing them down on the ground. You wanted to cringe at the sand that got trapped between the laces, but she seemed unbothered.

You took your seat beside her. She pulled her legs onto the blanket, sitting cross-legged as she rolled her sleeves back. A warm breeze rolled through the landscape, tangling her hair and yours.

"I had planned to take you here," she said over the breeze. "Earlier. When we were… we were on our way somewhere, then we got sidetracked with… Antramnius-B. The distress signal. I was planning to take you here, on that day."

Her sentence came out all disjointed, like she didn't know what she was saying until the words started to come out.

You looked down and noticed the book for the first time. "Uncovering Martian Paleontology: The First Published Version, Fully Illustrated."

She raised her gaze, squinting into the sun as she found you.

"Figured you might like that book. Especially since we just met some Martians. Well, Martian humans. Martian Martians are a bit different. More commonly called ice warriors, and they're not always friendly. A bit reptilian-looking, but you don't want to say that directly to their faces…"

You hung onto every word as she rambled, pouring tea into two separate cups. Finally, she introduced the book into her rambling, flicking through the pages with you. Dinosaurs on Mars - what a concept.

"These bones in this picture, they were uncovered by a very talented archeologist. Dr Song," she said, lingering on the name for a moment. She looked to you, then smiled. "And, of course, we all need a hobby. If we flick to the back, I actually uncovered these fossils myself, if you'd believe that..."

Of course you would.

As you raised a biscuit to your mouth, she draped her arm around your shoulders. The gesture wasn't uncommon for her; not anymore, and yet still, it surprised you every time.

You dipped your head to the side, leaning against her shoulder. She seemed to stiffen for a split second, before tightening her grip on you. As the world tilted, you closed your eyes for a moment, relishing the sound of the waves and the sunlight that now held you in more ways than one.

When you eventually pulled away, your eyes lingered on her for a moment.

"You feel tense," you began. She met you with a shrug, and you tried to catch her eye. "No, I mean, really, really tense. That can't be good for you."

"Nothing I can really do about it," she said with hunched shoulders, and you immediately shook your head.

"You can. And so can I," you shuffled yourself around and placed two hands on her, indeed, very tense shoulders. She stilled for a moment, as if the gesture was completely foreign in her books. It pained you, just a little, seeing her react that way.

You also paused, waiting for her to raise those impenetrable castle walls you'd come to expect. But, the moment didn't come; those walls stayed down, letting you in, allowing you to gently massage her shoulders.

The very moment you began your movements, a sigh escaped her. You applied a little more pressure around her traps and she dipped her head forward, wordlessly giving you permission to continue.

Those shoulders that carried the universe upon them. Those shoulders that had known more tension than relaxation throughout all her regenerations. Those shoulders that you'd rested your head against today, and not for the last time.

As you moved your thumbs around in deep, circular motions, you imagined that guilt falling away. You hoped you could allow her a moment of safety, just like she'd always done for you.

With the way her head continued to droop, exposing the back of her neck, you figured you were doing something right.

Harnessing a sudden thought, you leaned forward and touched your lips to the back of her neck. A small giggle escaped her as she tipped her head slightly to the side, and you moved your hands up to begin working on her neck.

"This is nice," she said, her voice lilting and soft, much like the waves in front of her. "How did you… oh, that's very nice, actually."

You smiled, continuing your massaging. Your fingers found several - way too many, actually - knots in her muscles, smoothing them out as if you were moulding the universe with your own hands.

She shuffled forward, half-lying back while still supported by her elbows. It didn't seem awfully comfortable - like most of her weight rested upon her arms and shoulders, which would undoubtedly undo your hard work.

Your hands found their way to the top of her neck and into her hair, continuing your movements there.

"Lay back," you instructed, hoping for once she'd listen to you.

To your surprise, she did. She pushed out a breath and laid flat on the picnic blanket. Laying her head in your lap.

Something in you broke at her vulnerability, and pride swelled up inside your chest at the realisation. She looked at you, her eyes like pale light, like she was relishing every second of this. You weren't sure who was enjoying this more.

At last, your hands found the back of her head, right as the sun broke from behind the clouds and threaded itself into her golden hair. Her eyes fell closed and her breathing slowed as she lay there, her hands clasped softly over her stomach, ankles crossed.

The two of you rested in that moment for a long while, not lingering; just simply being. When you weren't watching her, your eyes swept across the planets that hung in the sky, which was transitioning from lilac into violet. The tide receded, and the moon rose - followed by another, slightly larger moon cresting over the horizon.

You brought your thumbs around to gently rest at the sides of her head, and when she didn't react, you dipped your head down - only to find her chest rising and falling slowly, her head tipped slightly to the side, resting against your palm.

She'd fallen asleep.

Any inkling of worry or doubt slipped by you in silence. As the sun slipped below the horizon and the stars made their grand appearance, one by one, you let her rest. 

No one in the universe needed it more than her.