A/N: I didn't write this with the specific intent of posting it on since I fear there are few readers here who can truly appreciate it. For those of you who will read it simply because I wrote it, I love you guys to death. For those willing to take a chance on a Doctor "earlier" than Nine (quote, unquote because there are still new 8th Doctor productions being released), I must say that if you have never met the 8th Doctor and his companion Charley, I STRONGLY urge you to do so. Since I know most of my readers on this site are familiar only with the new TV series, and maybe the absolutely hideous 8th Doctor movie, for many, this will be a first exposure to these two canon characters. I must warn you that there are a number of spoilers - more allusions to events of canon that will be lost on anyone unfamiliar with the progression than "this, this and this happened" - but as introductions go, it should be smooth enough to make sense of it. The 8th Doctor and Charley have the only explicit "I love you"/"I love you" relationship - whatever you take that to mean - in Dr. Who. If you like 10/Rose, you will invariably love 8/Charley. So this is my little sales pitch for Big Finish, and the 8th Doctor audiodramas that are STILL being produced. And this story is exploration of how these two best friends take their relationship a step further.
YEARNINGS
"We are going to change; all three of us. Right now, we're in a world without time - year nothing, year zero. We walk into the Tardis, we start again from scratch. No resentments, no bitterness, no anger, no yearnings. We just share the adventure, agreed?" - The Doctor
The Tardis door creaked as it opened, the way it always did. With baited breath, Charley followed the Doctor out into the blinding sunlight. For a moment, that bright white sunlight was all she could see. Closing her eyes instinctively, she raised a hand to shield them as she gave them a second to adjust.
"Well, it's certainly bright enough."
"Three suns," the Doctor pointed out. "See? One, two, and... Well, the third one's back behind those mountains over there."
Her eyes were slowly adjusting, allowing her to see the mountains he was pointing towards. They were some miles away, past the plain of short-growing yellow-gold grass. There were few signs of wildlife across that plain, but a couple of jagged trees in the same yellow colors lined what she guessed must be a creek.
"Where are we, Doctor?"
"A small planet in the Cravacian Solar System. Never been here before actually." He beamed. "Should be interesting, don't you think?"
She turned to look on her other side, the direction the Doctor was wandering toward. They were on a beach, a vast, endless ocean spreading into the distance. Islands rose out of the horizon like grey, ghostly monsters. Charley had to smile at that. The bumps in the distance made her think of water-dwelling dinosaurs with their backs rising over the glassy surface of the water. And who was to say they weren't? An unfamiliar planet, a solar system she'd never heard of.
She'd never seen a dinosaur. Yet...
"Charley, come look at this!"
She turned in the direction of the Doctor's voice and saw him some distance away already, lying over one of the enormous black rocks at the water's edge and staring down at the side that faced the ocean. She followed, but only made it a few steps before the rocks under her feet made her slow, skipping and trying to find a better way to step.
"Ow! These rocks are so sharp, like glass." She held out her arms as if that would somehow help her to tread more lightly over the jagged fragments that littered the sand. There was certainly no avoiding them. "I'm surprised they're not cutting through my shoes."
"Look," he said as she came closer, ignoring her complaint.
Climbing up beside him, she leaned forward on the rock - glad for its smooth surface - to peer down the opposite side. Brilliant colors greeted her - emerald green and royal blue. They looked like rocks themselves, except they moved, pulsing gently as if with the beat of a heart.
"What are they?" she asked, fascinated. "Are they alive?"
"Yes, I think so. I've never seen them before, but they seem to be breathing. Look." He pointed out the tiny hole at the top of the bright red one. Sure enough, it was expanding and contracting with every "breath".
"I wonder what they're called," Charley mused, reaching down to touch the soft, satiny flesh of the creature clinging to the rock. She was a bit startled by the texture. She'd expected it to be rough and hard, not soft.
"That would probably depend on who you asked."
He turned and sat up, but she continued to pet the rock creature for a moment more. It reacted to her touch, leaning towards her, not away. She smiled.
"The planet itself has a half-dozen different names - all given by off-world species. The dominant species on this planet still lacks even the most basic forms of communication, let alone a naming system."
"It's uninhabited?" she asked, sitting up beside him.
He grinned as he gestured to the rock creatures. "Well, clearly it's inhabited."
"You know what I mean."
"But civilized, no. If it weren't so far out in the middle of nowhere, it would be a prime target for colonization. It has no valuable resources to speak of, but it is a pretty planet."
"Well, then, I suppose it's good for the rock creatures that it isso far out in the middle of nowhere."
"Depends on who's wanting to colonize. If it's a species likely to come in and wipe out all indigenous life -"
"Which it usually is."
"Not always. Some colonists get on rather well with the native species of their planets."
Letting her mind wander, Charley turned to look out over the endless water behind her, then closed her eyes as she breathed in deep. This close to the ocean, she'd instinctively expected the moisture in the air to be salty, but it wasn't.
"The air smells sweet," she observed, fascinated. "Like some sort of fruit perhaps."
"I noticed that too. Certainly not an unpleasant smell."
"No, it's quite nice." She opened her eyes again. "And not the slightest wave in the water. The surface is like glass."
"No moon to pull the tides. Not even one - now isn't that rare? Most planets have at least one - the debris left over from creation. I suppose the water might still get a bit choppy when a storm blows through, but hardly the sea-storms your planet would be accustomed to."
She raised a brow as she glanced back at him. He was at the bottom of the black rock, removing his socks and shoes. "Um... Doctor?"
"Yes, Charley?"
"Did you happen to notice those jagged rocks I was mentioning? You know, the ones that feel like razor sharp knives jabbing at the bottom of your shoes?"
"Rather hard to miss."
"Right. Well, aren't you going to cut your feet to ribbons on them if you take off your socks and shoes?"
He smiled knowingly as he glanced up at her - that mischievous smile he got when he knew something she didn't. "D'you think?"
"I've already felt them through my shoes so yes, I do."
"You felt them pushing on your shoes," he corrected. "Feel them with your hand."
"With my hand?" Now she was just puzzled.
"Yes, that's what I said."
Curious, she climbed down from the rock and crouched at the bottom of it, pressing her hand lightly to the sharp rocks. But they weren't sharp. She pressed harder, and the rocks seemed to give way. In fact, they almost tickled, like a millipede's legs crawling across her skin.
"Oh! They're alive, too!"
"Apparently, they respond to organic tissue. The chemical exchange of nitrogen, if I had to guess."
"Oh, I see! So that's why they feel sharp on your shoes."
"Exactly. And why I'm taking them off."
"But Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"Suppose we... crush them or something."
"No, I don't think so. Push down on them too hard and they simply sink into the sand, then dig their way up again."
"Oh, good. I'd hate to think we were hurting them."
With no more hesitation, she followed his lead, stripping her shoes and then her socks. He wandered away from her slowly, looking all around him as he waited as patiently as he could. She could tell he was bursting with energy. An unexplored planet, warm sun, cool breeze. Bouncing on his heels, he looked as if he were ready to take off at a sprint along the water's edge.
Leaving her shoes on the black rock beside his, she hurried to catch up with him. The ground under her feet tickled - hard sand lined with tiny hairs of soft grass that gave way everywhere she stepped. She tried not to giggle as she hopped from one foot to the other, but couldn't really help a little laugh.
"So that's why you're bouncing!" she guessed.
"Hmm?" Brows raised, he glanced back at her.
"The ground. It tickles!"
He beamed and reached out a hand to close over hers. "Come on!"
As she'd anticipated, he was off running. Not so fast that she had to struggle to keep up, but certainly not a leisurely pace. They'd run much faster over the past few days - namely to avoid being exterminated by the Daleks. Running for one's life certainly put this sort of exercise into perspective.
By the time they made it a hundred yards down the beach, she was definitely winded. He slowed as he noticed, and she bit back the urge to comment on his excessive energy. It wasn't hard when she was still trying to catch her breath. If he hadn't been pulling her by the hand, she probably would've slowed a ways back.
He held her hand in his for a few more steps, then let go as he took off towards the tree line at a full sprint. She followed much more slowly, always a few steps behind as he bolted from one fascinating new discovery to the next - plants and trees and more rock-like animals. He was as interesting to watch as the surroundings. Like a kid in a candy store, full of wide eyed wonder.
For her part, there were a number of things Charley found interesting. There were at least a half dozen different kinds of rock creatures - colorful, plain, marbled, big, small, smooth, jagged... Also notable was the distinct lack of bugs and birds and sounds in general. Luckily, the Doctor's excited rambling more than made up for the natural silence.
Finally, they ended up back on the beach, the Doctor standing straight as he looked out over the calm water.
"Charley, can you swim?"
She frowned as she shielded her eyes from the blinding sun, trying to see what he might be implying she might swim towards. "Yes, of course. You know I can."
"Do you think you could swim to that island over there?"
She hesitated. "I don't know. It looks rather far."
"Yes, but there's no waves, no current. We're not on a tight schedule so you could always stop and float a bit if you get tired."
"And nothing dangerous in the water? Like... sharks or something?"
"Not that I'm aware of. Given the stage of evolutionary progress on this planet, I highlydoubt it."
She hesitated a moment, considering the distance again. A few hundred yards at least. It was further than she'd ever attempted to swim before. But the water was calm and in fact looked rather inviting, particularly since the sun was starting to really beat down on them. The temperature had risen at least five degrees since they'd arrived.
"Yes, alright. I suppose I could make it."
"Excellent, Charley!"
He sounded just like a kid on Christmas morning. It made her smile to herself, even as she turned and looked back down the beach in the direction they'd come. "We'll have to go back to the Tardis, though."
"What for?"
"Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly dressed for swimming."
In her loose-fitting jeans - they really were the most comfortable thing she'd found so far in all of the planets they'd visited - and oversized sweatshirt, she was overdressed even for exploring as the temperature continued to climb. But certainly for swimming, this attire wouldn't do.
Her dilemma seemed lost on the Doctor, who was staring at her with a puzzled look. "Since when have you needed to be dressed for swimming?"
"Well, I'm hardly going to swim that distance wearing this. It'd be far too cumbersome. And modesty demands I wear a bit more than you did in that fountain in Light City."
He laughed. "Nonsense, Charley, there's not another living soul for miles in any direction. Light years, in fact. Well, unless you count C'Rizz and I don't think he'll be waking up anytime soon."
She smiled as she shook her head in disbelief at the fact that he didn't seem to consider himself "another living soul."
"Oh, Doctor."
He was already stripping his jacket, tossing it onto the sand and weirdly organic, tickling rocks. Sometimes, she wondered if she would ever begin to understand the way his mind worked. Her smile saddened a bit as she watched him - as she tried not to do. They'd visited a half dozen planets since they'd returned to their own, rightful universe. But it had only been a couple of days. C'Rizz was still sleeping off his "transmigrational hangover," in fact. And the Doctor's sharp rebuke was still ringing in her ears. No resentment, no bitterness, no anger, no yearnings.
She lowered her eyes now the same way she had then. Had he left off that last bit - the part that was aimed specifically at her - she might not have had any trouble at all with the new behavioral guidelines. C'Rizz wasn't that bad, really, and it wasn't as if he had anywhere else to go. He belonged with them, in a way - displaced, just as she was, from his own home. She didn't mind him as much as she'd thought she would, even if he did occasionally get under her skin.
But that last part - no yearnings... That had been a warning specifically aimed at her. And it wasn't fair, really, for him to ask her for that. It wasn't as if she'd set out with the intention of falling for him, after all. Far from it. And in any case, controlling feelings was nearly impossible when they were well-founded. She could control her actions, the way she responded to those feelings, but she couldn't stop the feelings from being there. She couldn't really comply with "no yearnings." Especially not when he kept doing things, saying things, looking at her in ways that made her remember everything she found so incredibly attractive about him. And it certainly wasn't easy when he seemed oblivious to the fact that he was doing it at all. No yearnings, Charley, but I'm going to tease you with that low, invitational voice - the one that makes you wonder what sort of things I would say in the dark . No yearnings, but I'm going to walk with you hand in hand and make you wonder what my hands might feel like touching you everywhere. No yearnings, but I'm going to strip down naked with you and go for a swim...
And that's precisely what he did. Well, nearly, anyway. Wearing only his undershorts, he left the rest of his clothes in an untidy pile as he ran headlong into the water and dove beneath the glassy surface. He was laughing as he reemerged. "That water feels great! Well, come on, Charley, don't just sit there like a bump on a log. What are you waiting for?"
She was glad, for the sake of her own self-consciousness, that he paid her little heed as she slowly stripped her outer layer of clothing, setting it in a neat pile beside his. Her adaptation to later-period clothing - so much more comfortable! - had changed her underclothes little. She had never been one to appreciate corsets or girdles or tight fitting bodices. A camisole was all she'd really needed, and it was all she'd worn, at least when she could get away with it. That was no different now. Only her tap pants had needed to be shortened and tightened to fit comfortably beneath the jeans. She'd had a good laugh at the evolution of women's underwear around the turn of the twenty-first century, and stuck with something that covered and was comfortable. Standing half-naked on the beach, she was very glad for her moderate-conservative choice.
The Doctor was facing the other direction, shielding his eyes from the suns overhead, as she waded into the comfortably cool water and ducked under the surface as soon as it was deep enough.
"There you are!" He smiled brilliantly at her as she approached.
"This water," she noted, touching her tongue carefully to her lips. "It's sweet."
"Yes, I noticed. So was that rock we were on earlier. The giant black rock, like that one over there."
She raised a brow. "You tasted the rock?"
"Of course! I had to know what it was made of... Anyway, they're made of some type of polysaccharide compound that seems to be less water soluble than any I've ever seen."
"Sugar," she summarized, incredulously. "The rocks are made of sugar!"
"A compound very much like sugar, anyways. I wouldn't drink too much of it, though. It might make you sick."
She frowned as she considered the ramifications of this discovery. "So does that mean when we emerge from this little swim, we're going to be all sticky?"
"Hmm. I suppose so. I hadn't really thought about it."
"Great," she mumbled under her breath. "Something to look forward to."
"Well, the damage is already done."
She sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Can't do any worse to keep going."
He smiled as he gestured to the island in the distance. "Shall we?"
She smiled back, forcing herself to think about anything other than sticky hair and sticky skin and sticky fingers as she pushed off and followed beside the Doctor toward the island.
