TW: drowning, resuscitation
This is what happens when the new identity of one of my favourite characters is released when I'm in the middle of a whump binge.
As we don't know who the next companion is going to be (I don't think Bill is coming back *sadface* but I can hope) I have used Bill. Just pretend the whole turned-into-a-cyberman thing didn't happen, or she was made human again. I'm imagining 13 as a mix of a happier post-Rose 10 and a calmer 11. I hope I have made this a 'strong woman getting whumped' fic and not a 'damsel in distress' fic. *crosses fingers*
Also - medical accuracy? What is medical accuracy? I did take a first aid course about 10 years ago now for my DofE so my knowledge of cpr is rather rusty and possibly now inaccurate. We also didn't learn about drowning specifically, not that I remember anyway. And certainly not Time Lord first aid. I tried to research Time Lord anatomy/physiology but all the info I turned up was rather vague, so I might have made some of it up.
Most of this was written about a fortnight after the announcement of who the new Doctor was so I fully expect to be wrong about things when the new series comes out. But I hope they keep her outfit, or a variation of it, I love it! Depending on how wrong my characterisation is this may be rewritten when/after the new series comes out.
Bill stood horrified at the bank of the lake as the Doctor's weak thrashing stilled under the heavy hands of the large lizard creature. She looked around desperately, trying to find something, something, that could help. The alien was far bigger than she was and if it had managed to overpower the Doctor she had no hope against it.
A pile by the waterside a little way away caught her attention, a strange lump in the otherwise flat landscape, so she stumbled to it, legs shaking and breathing unsteady from the run she had taken to get here. Despite her haste she might still be too late.
The pile revealed itself to be a pile of belongings - clothes, strange electronic devices, the Doctor's sonic screwdriver (which Bill quickly pocketed), a skin bag containing what looked like berries, all probably put there by the lizard still in the lake - and most importantly a gun.
Bill picked it up, the device unfamiliar in her hands, found what she hoped was the trigger and aimed.
The gun juddered in her hands as a bright beam of light shot from it, hitting the creature in the lake in the chest. It turned to her, seemingly not realising she had been there, before falling backwards with a splash and going still. Bill dropped the gun from lifeless fingers as she watched the Doctor's figure intently for any movement.
There was none.
With the creature dead Bill lept into the lake towards the Doctor. The water started at her ankles but quickly rose as she waded in. With each step she could feel heart rise up her throat in fear. The Doctor was floating face down and not moving, blond hair splayed out like a golden crown.
The water had reached her armpits by the time Bill had got to the Doctor.
She reached and grabbed the Doctor's coat collar, flipping her onto her back in the water. The Doctor lay there with her eyes shut, completely limp as Bill grabbed her under the arms and dragged her back to shore, careful to keep her face above the water.
Bill was panting with exertion by the time she was back on dry land but was still careful to lower the Doctor without letting her head hit the ground. She wanted to collapse with exhaustion after her run and impromptu swim but she knew that she couldn't stop. The Doctor needed her.
Bill looked at her friend properly for the first time. The Doctor was pale, eyes shut and lips bloodless. Her hair stuck to her face and she didn't seem to be breathing.
"Shit," muttered Bill as she tapped the Doctor's face. "Doctor?" There was no response as her head rolled limply to the side. "Doctor, no!"
Bill took a breath and recalled the course she had taken. "Focus, Bill. Focus."
She had never been more thankful for being elected to take the first aid course when she first started working in the university dinner hall than she was now. At the time she didn't particularly want to do it but didn't mind having her name put forward when the other staff refused to take part in the course. There needed to be one first aider and why not foist off the job on the newbie?
Bill placed a hand in front of the Doctor's face and waited, counting the seconds in her head. As feared there was no rush of air past her palm.
"Shit," muttered Bill again, straightening the Doctor's head and tilting it back. She took a deep breath and, pinching the other's nose, breathed into the Doctor's mouth. With the second breath she remembered that she was supposed to watch the patient's chest rising, though she couldn't remember why. She thought it rose but it was hard to tell under the thick wollen coat.
Heartbeat was next on her mental list so she pressed two shaking fingers to the side of the Doctor's throat.
Nothing.
She moved her fingers a bit.
"Come on Doctor."
Still nothing.
She pulled apart the sodden coat and laid her head on the Time Lady's still chest, listening for a heartbeat through wet cloth. This wasn't part of her course but tried it in one last hope that she had missed a faint beat with her cold fingers.
Nothing.
Sitting back up again she laced her hands together, palms stacked on top of each other and facing down. Bill had hoped that she would never have to do this in her life but it would seem that the universe had different plans.
She went to put her hands over the Doctor's sternum but then remembered a crucial fact.
"Shit. Two hearts."
She moved her hands to one side, over where she thought one heart might be, and hoped that this would be effective - first aid for Time Lords wasn't something she learned on her course and not something she had asked the Doctor about. If they both got out of this that would certainly change.
She took a breath, locked her elbows and pushed down on the Time Lady's chest. She counted the required number of compressions on one side then swapped to the other, giving her a few breaths before starting again. She tried not to think about the ribs she could feel move under her hand.
Bill's world was focused on counting compressions and breaths for longer than she cared to remember. She didn't want to stop and admit defeat that the Doctor was really dead. Surely she would have regenerated by now if she was going to.
Suddenly the Doctor sucked in a small breath and started weakly coughing. Bill yelped in joyous surprise and grabbed her shoulder, rolling the Time Lady so she was on her side. There was more coughing than breathing but Bill was just happy that there was life back in the Doctor. Seeing her laying there still and not breathing would be seared onto her memory for the rest of her life. Bill rubbed the Doctor's back as her coughing subsided after a few moments and was left panting, still limp with her eyes shut.
"Doctor?" Asked Bill. "Doctor, wake up."
"-ill," the Doctor faintly slurred between her weak breaths. "Bill?" The Doctor's hand moved, searching for the voice and nudged Bill's leg. Bill grabbed it with one hand and continued rubbing the Doctor's back with the other.
"Yeah, it's me Doctor. You'll get your breath back in a minute."
The Doctor's eyes cracked open and Bill smiled at seeing those brown orbs; for a long, horrible moment she didn't think that she would see them ever again.
"Where…?" The Doctor asked. "How?"
"You're safe for the moment. But I don't think we should hang around for too much longer, you never know when more of those things might appear and finish the job that that guy," Bill pointed to the figure still floating in the lake, "started, and I don't think you would like that any more than I did."
"Ngh," groaned the Doctor as she tried to get an elbow under herself. "Help me up."
"Woah, Doctor. Don't you think stay down for a bit, you've only just started breathing again." The Doctor was not to be put off trying to stand, not even being too weak to even sit up. Bill swore under her breath about stubborn Time Lords but leant her muscle to get her upright.
With a bit of manhandling Bill got the Doctor on her unsteady feet, the Time Lady's arm across her shoulders as she leant heavily on her companion. She looked a right state: blond hair plastered to her scalp, grass stuck to one half of her face where it had pressed onto the ground and a bruise starting to purple across the other cheekbone, free hand clutching at her probably sore chest. Bill could hear her breathless gasps as the Doctor's head sunk onto her shoulder; she was really not fit to be moved at the moment.
The head jerked up again after a few moments, turning back towards the scene of her near death.
"He's dead, Doctor. As a door nail," said Bill. "And if I were you I'd want to get out of here. We both could use a set of dry clothes."
The Doctor didn't reply as she kept staring at the floating body. Bill jostled her a little, drawing her attention away from the lake. Bill smiled fondly at her, gently brushing the grass off and hair out of her face.
"Come on, Doctor. Let's get you back to the Tardis."
It was slow going; the Doctor's feet stumbled ever few steps, knees threatening to buckle, nothing like her usual graceful movement. Bill was just glad that between them and the Tardis was rolling grassland- had there been trees and roots to contend with progress would have been nigh on impossible.
Whilst the lake was still in sight the Doctor kept looking backwards, seemingly checking that her near-murderer was still lying dead in the water and not pursuing them. Bill noticed with relief that once the lake disappeared out of sight behind a hill she stopped looking back and the Doctor's breathing also steadied a little the more distance they covered.
Bill tried to give the village they had visited a wide berth without adding too much distance to their journey but the Doctor still noticed the smoke wisping out from behind a few hills. Thankfully that was the only sign of nearby habitation; if any of the aliens came across them they had no way to fight them off: the Doctor was in no shape to fight and Bill had left the gun where it had fallen by the lakeside, not that she could have used it if she had it - both arms were being used to keep the Doctor on her feet.
The Doctor's head rose from where it had been nodding, looking towards the smoke, squinting her eyes against the sunlight. She waved her free hand vaguely in the direction of the village.
"...help."
"You tried to help them but they tried to kill you. I think we should get away from here as soon as possible."
"Still help."
"Do you know just how close to dying you were just now, Doctor?" Bill was starting to get annoyed at the Doctor's selfless attitude, worry wearing her patience thin. "When I got you out of the water I couldn't find either of your hearts beating and you certainly weren't breathing! They don't seem to want your help and they certainly don't deserve it. You are going to the Tardis right now."
The Doctor took one last forlorn look in the direction for the village before turning back towards the direction of the Tardis.
"You're not hurt?"
"No, Doctor," replied Bill. "You are the one they apparently didn't like. They pissed me off when they didn't tell me where you were but that's all they did to me. If you discount the shock of finding you being drowned, that is."
"I'm ok, Bill," Bill didn't look impressed as she was still bearing most of the Doctor's weight and could hear her strained breathing. "A few hours in the Tardis medbay and I'll be as fit as a fiddle."
Bill was relieved when the Tardis finally came into sight. The Doctor seemed exhausted and her breathing hadn't improved. In fact it sounded like it was getting worse, breaths more like gasps and the arm not over her companion's shoulders was held across her chest as if it hurt to breath.
"A few minutes more, Doctor. Then we both can get warm and dry."
Once they reached the familiar blue door Bill propped the Doctor against the corner as she raided the Time Lady's pockets to find the key. The Doctor ignored her and gave the wood at her shoulder a pat.
"Hello, Old Girl," she murmured.
"A-ha!" Exclaimed Bill as her search of the Doctor's pockets revealed the silver key.
A few seconds later the Tardis door was open and Bill was helping the Doctor reach the chairs by the console. After sitting her down and going to shut the front door that had been left open Bill was horrified to turn and find the Doctor on her feet, stumbling around the center column, flicking switches and pulling levers.
"Doctor!" Bill rushed back to the center of the room but stopped before she got in the way of Time Lady. "Don't you think you should wait until you have recovered a bit before flying the Tardis?"
"No," said the Doctor, not looking up from where she was using the controls. "Vortex 's the best place."
With a last circuit of the console the Doctor took hold of the largest leaver and slammed it down. Instantly the familiar noises of the dematerialisation sequence started up.
The Doctor stared up at the time rotor with a tired but manic grin as it started to rise and fall with a groan before a breath caught in her throat and she hunched over in pain. She dropped to her knees, one hand clutching at her chest and the other on the console to keep her upright, wheezing loudly as the last of her strength left her.
Bill knelt at her side and caught her as she lost her grip on the console edge and started to collapse towards the floor.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor didn't reply, just leant heavily into Bill, panting and coughing.
Bill cradled the blond head with one hand and shifted it so that is was resting more comfortably on her shoulder.
"It's ok," said Bill, rubbing a hand up and down the Doctor's back. "Get your breath back, then we'll get you sorted out.
A few minutes later the Doctor hadn't stirred. The Time Lady was still coughing now and again but it no longer sounded like each breath was a great struggle, though it still wasn't normal.
"Doctor?" Bill asked. "You still conscious? What do you want me to do?"
"Medbay," the Doctor sighed, making no move to get up.
"Come on then Doctor, up you get." Said Bill, lifting one of the Doctor's arms across her shoulder again. "I didn't drag your ass out of a lake for you to die in the Tardis. I've only just gotten used to this new face!" A bit of unladylike grunting later and both were on their feet again.
The Doctor screwed up her eyes in pain and clasped her forehead with her free hand.
"Ow. Headache."
"Did you hit your head?"
"I'll be ok, it's only a little oxygen deprivation to the brain."
"Doctor! That's really not good. Where else are you hurt?"
"It hurts to breath and I'm not talking about the bruises I can feel on both sides of my ribs. I can hazard a guess how they got there. I don't suppose you know a Martha Jones by any chance? She's a doctor, and a darn good one at that. Other than that I'm fine, if rather wet. As are you. Why don't you go and dry off, I'll be fine here."
"No way, Doctor. I want to make sure you get to the medbay to find something to help your breathing and not have you sneaking off to go expire in a corner of the Tardis. Come on, the faster we get to the medbay the faster we both can get dry again."
Progress was quicker this time, though they had a minor detour to the wardrobe to get the Doctor a dry change of clothes; Bill was going to change once she'd looked after the Doctor.
Once in the medbay Bill sat the Doctor on the nearest bed before putting her pile of the Doctor's clean clothes beside her and then turned to start to search in the medical supplies.
Bill made an aborted move towards the shelves filled with boxes and bottles of medicine (or what she assumed was medicine) and ended up standing in the middle of the room, looking around in confusion.
"You're gonna have to help me here, Doctor. I don't know what you need."
The Doctor sat hunched over on the edge of the bed, arm still across her chest.
"Oxygen." She pointed at some equipment under the bed she was sitting on. "Pass me the mask up here and then turn the blue valve." Bill did as she was told then sat at the other end of the bed, watching as the Doctor covered her face with the mask and take a few tentative breaths.
A few minutes of oxygen seemed to work wonders- the arm across the Doctor's chest dropped, her hunched shoulders sunk and she was sitting up straighter. Her cheeks were also starting to loose that sickly pale colour.
Whilst she had been helping the Doctor Bill hadn't realised just how cold she was feeling in her wet clothes. The weather outside the Tardis had been sunny but not particularly warm so neither of them had dried off much and the temperature inside the Tardis was at it's usual cool. She tried to suppress the first shiver that ran up her spine but it was not long before the Doctor noticed her companion shivering. She removed the oxygen mask so she could talk freely.
"Bill, go get changed and warmed up."
"No, Doctor. You are still soaking. You're hurt so you come first. Time Lord anatomy or not, wet clothes can't be good for you. The alien version of pneumonia can't be any better than the human one."
The Doctor relented, placing the mask aside and letting Bill help peel off her sodden coat, boots, socks and then her jumper.
With the thick coat and hoodie taken off Bill could see the bruises around the Doctor's throat and neck where the alien had forcefully held her head under the water. They even snaked over her collar bones and disappeared under the collar of her shirt. Bill shivered at the sight of them, after her experience spacewalking outside that space station without a helmet she hated the thought of any type of oxygen deprivation.
Bill was interrupted from her memories by the Doctor's sudden coughing fit. Whilst they had lightened in frequency and severity whilst on the oxygen, without it they came back in full force. She grabbed the mask off the bed and pressed into the Doctor's hand.
"I'm ok, Bill," said the Doctor, not making a move to raise the oxygen mask to her face. "I'm not so hurt that I can't get changed. You go dry off and change yourself before you get ill. You've helped me enough already."
"But…"
"Bill. Go."
Bill reluctantly went but was gratified when she looked over her shoulder to see the Doctor with the mask over her face again, breathing in the needed oxygen.
Bill returned to the medbay, feeling far better now she was warm and in dry clothes. She found the Doctor in her dry clothes sitting cross legged on the bed, one hand holding the oxygen mask resting on a knee whilst tapping at a computer screen attached to the wall with an arm with the other. The screen was covered in the usual swirls and loops of Gallifreyan. The Doctor seemed to be so engrossed in the unintelligible writing that she didn't seem to notice Bill's entrance.
Bill sighed and lifted the hand holding the mask so that it was pressed against the Time Lady's face.
"The oxygen is helping you breath, Doctor, so keep using it. Wotcha looking at anyway?"
The Doctor lifted the mask far enough from her face so she could talk.
"My vitals. From the Tardis medscan. My lungs aren't so good but everything else is ok. Just bruises."
She tapped a few buttons on the screen and the circles disappeared, replaced with english that Bill could easily read. She pushed the screen towards Bill and took a deep breath of the oxygen, triggering a cough.
The screen confirmed what the Doctor said (for once it seemed that she was telling the truth about her health; no matter what face she wore, hiding any problems with her health seemed to be a common personality trait) so Bill pushed it away back towards the wall, out of the way.
"So what do we do now?" She asked.
"There is some medicine that'll help heal my lungs but it'll knock me out for a few hours. My Time Lord physiology could heal on its own but this way is quicker and less painful."
"How long?"
"4 or 5 hours. Six if the damage is really bad. Without the medicine it would take me a day or two to be fully fit. I've done it before but I'd rather skip the long recovery this time, it feels like I'm breathing through treacle."
"That's so not fun."
The Doctor hummed in agreement and went back to concentrating on her breathing.
In the lull in conversation Bill noticed the Doctor's hair sticking up from where she apparently had toweled the worst of the wet out of it. She snorted in amusement and reached out to flatten the strands.
It was then when she realised exactly what clothes the Doctor had picked up from the wardrobe room on the way past. Trousers, shirt and even the neon green fluffy socks were normal but one piece of clothing wasn't.
The black hoodie, whilst tailored for thin person, was obviously made for a tall man so it swamped her slight frame, but she had shoved the long sleeves up past her elbows, out of the way. Bill thought she had seen it before. The Doctor noticed her curious gaze.
"It belonged to the previous me. It's… familiar."
"You don't have to tell me about comfort clothes. I've got a jumper of Mum's, I used to wear it all the time when I was a kid. I still wear it sometimes on bad days, just to feel that little bit closer to her." Bill took a breath. "Do you ever miss the people you were? I know you are the same person, but each time you are a little different than the last. Sometimes I can't believe that you used to be grumpy and Scottish!" The Doctor sighed.
"Sometimes I miss them. Regeneration is essentially the death of that personality. I still have the memories but they almost feel like they belonged to other people. Speaking of clothes I do wonder why I decided to wear some of my past outfits. I had quite the love for bright colours when I was younger. And those frills, what was I thinking?!" She grinned at the memories and suppressed a cough behind a laugh. "Remind me someday to tell you about a scarf I was rather fond of in one incarnation. I don't know how I ever ran anywhere without tripping over it."
Bill snorted, trying to imagine the most outlandish clothes ever. But she didn't think the Time Lady had grown completely out of the love of bright colours - the neon green socks on her feet were a little bright on the eyes.
There was another lull where Bill's thoughts turned to more serious matters.
"So what happened back on the planet? What did you do to those lizard people to make them try and drown you?"
"I didn't do anything! One moment I'm being taken to see a lake that is apparently so crystal clear you can see the ruins of a city in it's depths and the next I've got a fist to the face. Perhaps they didn't like the colour of my hair. Things get a bit hazy after that until I find myself underwater."
"What about that Time Lord breathing thing you told me you had used at Chasm Forge? When you gave me your spacesuit helmet."
"My respiratory bypass. It needs conscious control and I wasn't quite conscious when I needed to be. Whilst I did get it working in the end I think I inhaled a lot of water in the process. And the air I managed to keep didn't last very long.
She paused to think. "How long do you think it was before you got me out of the water?"
"You were still fighting that alien when I first saw you but you stopped fairly quickly after that, that must have been when you passed out. From then until I got you out must have only been a few minutes. I'm not quite sure, I was in such a panic I wasn't paying attention to the time."
"My bypass would have still worked after I fell unconscious so it would have kept me alive a few minutes longer than without it."
"But I couldn't find your hearts beating when I got you out."
"That's a defence mechanism - slowing my metabolism down to try and survive. It wasn't until you got me out of the lake and got oxygen into me that my body got the kick it needed to restart. Thanks for that, by the way, regeneration wouldn't have been far off."
"I'm just glad you're ok. Stay away from any lakes in the future, I don't want a repeat of what happened."
The Doctor huffed out an amused breath.
"Neither do I."
There was another pause as they both remembered the horrific events that they had gone through only a few hours before.
After a moment the Doctor reached out and took the computer screen, bringing it back towards her. She started tapping, changing the screen from the medscan to a read out of the Tardis sensors. She examined it for a few minutes, tapping away at the screen with both hands. The oxygen mask was abandoned by her side.
"The Tardis is currently safely floating in the time vortex and there are no readings that indicate any kind of trouble. So now's probably the time to get my lungs sorted out. If anything happens whilst I'm unconscious the Tardis will keep you safe. And she could probably wake me up if she needed to." She flicked the screen back to her vital readings and moved it out of the way, but made sure that it was angled so that Bill could see it.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Where's this medicine that's supposed to help then?"
"Go go the second set of shelving and look in the right hand cupboard. You are looking for a canister with a yellow stripe around it." Bill moved as instructed and reached towards a likely looking vial. "Down a self. Left, no your other left. Bit more. That one."
Bill came back with a shiny metal canister, about the size of a standard can of fizzy drink. The label, bisected by the bright yellow stripe around its center, was unreadable; it looked like the writing was english but the words were long and meant nothing. She guessed they were the names of the drugs in the canister.
The Doctor took it out of her hands and after examining the writing and seemingly satisfied at what she read, handed it back.
"That's going to go in the oxygen system. It'll knock me out fairly quickly once it's in so if there is anything you need to do or ask beforehand, now is the time."
Bill took a second to think then shook her head.
"I can't think of anything. Lets just get you well again. Just tell me what I need to do."
"There should be a red lever you can pull back to reveal a chamber. It should be near the blue valve you turned earlier. Put the canister in and then push the lever back into position. There should be a click as it engages. Then it's night night for me." She took a knowing look at her companion. "Bill, make sure you get some rest. Don't spend all night here, no benefit can be gained watching me sleep. Check I haven't knocked the oxygen mask off as I pass out then leave me. Watching a sleeping Time Lord can't be the most thrilling of entertainment, go do whatever you humans do for fun for a while. After today I think you deserve it."
She finished her small speech with a long coughing fit that left her breathless and hunched forwards. Bill propped her up and handed her the forgotten oxygen mask.
The Doctor got her breathing back under control after a few minutes then turned on the bed, swinging her feet up and adjusting the straps on the mask. Bill took that as her cue to insert the canister.
She crouched down by the bed and quickly found the blue valve and the red lever next to it.
The Doctor leaned over the side of the bed to check what her companion was doing, but sat back up again when she was satisfied her instructions were being followed correctly.
The lever revealed a chamber, which the canister fitted into easily. She paused with her hand on the lever.
"Doctor?"
"Go for it." Bill pushed the lever home and it slid there with a reassuring clunk.
There was a click and a quiet hiss from the machine as the Doctor settled the oxygen mask comfortably on her face, straps flicking out the end of a few strands of hair, which she pushed out of the way. Bill stood up, waiting and watching the Doctor for any sign that the medication was working.
"It'll take a few seconds," the Time Lady said, slightly muffled.
Bill could tell the moment when the drugs hit. The Doctor sagged where she was sitting and started to list to the side. She giggled a little as Bill caught her by the shoulders.
"I think I should lie down," she slurred behind the mask.
Bill carefully lowered her down as she was quickly going boneless, eyes sliding shut by the time her head had hit the pillow. The hand she was still clutching the oxygen mask with relaxed and fell to land on her collarbone. Bill carefully moved it so that it was resting by her side, the arm completely limp. She gave the Doctor's shoulder a gentle shake.
Nothing. Spark out. The other hand, resting on her stomach, rose and fell with each breath she took.
The medscan screen, displaying the Doctor's vitals - thankfully still in english - showed that she had slipped into a deep sleep, hearts beating calmly and breathing steady and slow.
There was nothing Bill could do now, just to trust that by morning the Doctor would be back to her usual healthy self. She took the opportunity to sit on the other bed in the room and let out a deep, sighing breath, muscles finally relaxing after being so anxiously tense for so long. She watched the Doctor sleep, calm and still and tried to commit the scene to memory. She knew that by morning the Doctor would be bounding around with her restless energy again, with probably no effect of the previous day's trauma so this moment of peace was a relief.
Her stomach gurgled violently, reminding her that she hadn't eaten for hours. With all the events that had happened food had never occurred to her, not even when she went to change out of her wet clothes. Thinking about it she probably should have made the Doctor eat something before administering the medication. Nothing to do about that now, except make sure that there was food ready when she woke up. Anyway, Time Lords don't need as much food as humans, as she had been frequently reminded by both regenerations she had known. But she was only human, so she needed food, and now. Time to raid the Tardis kitchen and leave the Doctor to sleep and recover in peace.
Bill leaned in the doorway of the medbay a few hours later, watching the Doctor sleep. She had meant to go to bed but she just wanted to check on her friend for one last time before she felt she could go to sleep and put the horrible day behind her.
The Doctor was still the same as when she had left- breathing steadily behind the oxygen mask, computer screen showing the same reassuring readout that said that the Doctor was stable and in a deep, healing sleep. Bill went to her side and stroked her now dry blond hair.
"That really was a close one today, Doctor," she sighed. "I really thought I had lost you. I wouldn't mind us going to somewhere less dangerous next time. Just this once."
Before she could second guess herself Bill dropped a kiss onto the Doctor's forehead before taking one last look at the computer screen and turning to leave. She stopped at the doorway and turned back to look at the sleeping Time Lady one more time before she headed to bed.
"Rest well, Doctor," she whispered.
End.
This might have sequal/second chapter, I have a paragraph or two already written. It would be the Doctor's POV of the events in this chapter and also events before and after it. If anyone is interested in more Thirteen whump. But it won't be immediately written - I've got to (figure out how to) write a covering letter and update my CV for a job application first. Eek!
