A/N:

This is the first of three stories I'm writing following this theme.

I wanted to do something hurt/comfort-y along these lines, when I realized that I didn't actually know if the Doctor could swim or not. I put my head together with the fans on Death by Aspirin's forum, and none of us could come up with a conclusive answer, so here we are. In the "Altered Vistas" comics the Fifth Doctor cannot swim and almost drowns... I'm running with that despite it's questionable canonicity. (In the EDA's Eight can swim, so I'm going to assume he learned at some point, possibly due to the events of the following story. ;)

I'd ask that people not leave reviews saying: "You've forgotten that Five swims in Warriors of the Deep." I am in fact aware of what you're thinking of. I've seen the episode more than once, and personally, I don't really feel like that counts, more than anything I feel like it supports my theory that he can't swim. If you think "he cans so totally swim" after watching that, then by all means, let's just assume that Tegan did actually get around to teaching him, no need to leave me a review about it. Not to put anyone off commenting, but I've been getting a slew of obnoxious comments over on Teaspoon.

In any case this story has to come before Warriors of the Deep, due to a few minor plot points, probably immediately before in fact.

Drowning

Five's Story

They were in the Hepsalon system- a neighbor of the Kasterborous system apparently, which the Doctor had informed them off handedly, was where Gallifrey was. Turlough looked suitably impressed at the statement, but Tegan was curious.

"What's so special about this Gallifrey planet then Doc?" she asked in her Australian drawl. The Doctor stood up from where he'd been making adjustments under the console. "Gallifrey, Tegan, is the home planet of the Time Lords," he informed her succinctly before turning on his heal and strolling out of the main doors. Tegan stared open mouthed after him. Turlough walked smugly past her, following the Doctor with the parting shot, "What? Forgot we're not all from your little ball of mud, Earth girl?"

The planet they had landed on had a long and beautiful name that, though the Doctor recited it effortlessly, Tegan was sure she'd never be able to pronounce. The planet was as beautiful as its flowing name though. It was colonized, the Doctor had told them, but almost all of the settlements were on the main continent, and the island they were on remained mainly uninhabited. Though the Doctor told them they were on an island it was apparently a decent size as they couldn't detect saw any sign of the shoreline, not even the calls of seagulls, (assuming they had seagulls.) The jungle was truly beautiful though, lush and green, and spangled with vibrant blooms. The climate was tropically warm, but not unpleasantly humid, and there were surprisingly few bugs. The Doctor had a string of scientific explanations for all of these phenomenons, which he rattled off as they walked. Though Turlough nodded in understanding at a few points, Tegan had the sneaking suspicion that he didn't understand half the things the Doctor said either.

They eventually emerged into a clearing and Tegan gasped in delight. Along the natural animal trail they'd been following, they'd noticed that the ground sparkled occasionally, tiny crystal fragments mixed with the sand and loam dirt. This was something else entirely though. The clearing was filled with crystals as tall as a man. They were a wash of beautiful shades from cranberry to royal blue, and glowed with a soft inner light. Some of the crystals were close together in the center, and formed a kind of natural pool with a sandy bottom, shallow on one edge and deep on the other, perfect for a relaxing swim.

Turlough and Tegan both hurried back to the TARDIS to retrieve their swimwear while the Doctor inspected the beautiful crystals, mumbling observations about their exact chemical composition to himself as he went. When they returned a short time later, he was perched on one of the taller crystal pillars near the edge, cross-legged and serene looking. His beige coat lay over a nearby pillar and his jumper and shirtsleeves were rolled up to his elbows, his only apparent concessions to the environment.

Tegan and Turlough double-checked with the Doctor that the water should be safe for them to swim in, and then triple checked it for any sign of potentially toothy marine life the Doctor might have overlooked. Once they'd reassured themselves, they slipped into the pleasantly cool water.

After that a long and relaxing swim ensued, eventually leading to several intense splash fights, which only abated after a particularly large splash went awry and his the Doctor. The Doctor has slipped into a light meditative trance, shortly after they'd gotten in. They'd stayed quiet for quite a while at first, not wanting to disturb him.

Neither of them had actually ever caught him sleeping, though Turlough had informed her coolly once that although "all mortal creatures sleep sometimes," he'd smugly added "most just don't need as much as you frail earthlings." Lately though he'd often seemed agitated and perhaps a bit travel weary. Both companions knew that Nyssa's sudden departure had affected him deeply. Even with his eyes closed and the faint lines of tension smoothed from his features, the dark smudges beneath his eyes were visible.

Now his eyes were wide open again and he spluttered briefly as droplets of cool water dripped from his blond fringe, running down his face. Both his companions looked suitable abashed without further chastising, so he simply pulled off his wet jumper and moved to sit slightly farther away from the edge of the pool. A while later Tegan and Turlough joined him at the side of the pool, laying out the towels they'd brought from the TARDIS on the soft loamy ground to sit and dry off on. The Doctor stretched himself over the top of a crystal boulder, languishing in a patch of sunlight filtering down through the trees, looking rather like a contented cat.

Hours later as they were preparing to leave, feeling thoroughly rested and refreshed Tegan and Turlough were back to their usual bantering while the Doctor ignored their childish antics as usual. He was bent over the edge of the deepest side of the pool, apparently examining some tiny detail of the sand with great interest. He was so intent he failed to notice Tegan asking him a question. Annoyed by his silence, even after she repeated the question, she turned to Turlough and together they conspired to get a bit of revenge for being ignored.

They both crept up behind him, padding silently on the sandy soil. The Doctor never even noticed their approach. When they stood next to each other just behind him they exchanged quick mischievous grins. Then they reached forward and shoved.

The Doctor barely had time to register the sensation of hands on his shoulders and back before he was falling forward. He managed a yelp of indignant surprise, just before he plunged face first into the pool. Tegan and Turlough whooped with triumphant laughter at the large splash and flailing limbs before them. Tegan doubled over with giggles, while Turlough smirked, chuckling. The two companions were so caught up in their revelry that they did not immediately notice anything amiss.

It was Turlough who notice first. He glanced back into the pool, expecting to see the Doctor's scowling face looking up at him. Instead he saw nothing but flailing limbs beneath the surface and bubbles. Startled, he reached over and grabbed Tegan's arm to get her attention. Tegan looked over at him and then down into the pool.

"Oh he must be joshing with us. He's trying to get us one back by making us think he's drowning," she dismissed. Turlough wanted to believe her, but something was making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Something was very wrong.

"Tegan… Can the Doctor swim?" he asked sharply.

"Of course he c-" Tegan froze mid retort and a look of dawning horror formed on her face. "I don't know," she finished hollowly.

Luckily, Turlough didn't hesitate another second. He jumped off the edge and dived smoothly into the water next to where the doctor had fallen in. Tegan, still frozen in horror, stared after Turlough. A few moments later he bobbed to the surface again. Next to his ginger head another surfaced half a second later, blond and inclined to slip back, face down under the surface. Turlough had the Doctor under one arm, with his free hand fisted firmly on his question marked shirt collar. Kicking closer to the edge, Turlough startled Tegan out of her immobility.

"Help me Tegan! Grab him!" Tegan jumped to do so, catching the Doctor under both arms and pulling him so that his back rested against the edge. Turlough let go and clambered out the help her pull him up.

The Doctor was limp in their arms when they dragged him out of the pool and away from the edge. They laid him out on his back and Tegan immediately set about trying to revive him. She may have been employed as an airline stewardess when she met the Doctor, but Tegan had spent her summers in the outback when she was still in school, swimming everyday to escape the heat. She'd actually qualified as a junior lifeguard at one point.

Remembering her training she checked the Doctor's pulse and respiration first. His bizarre double pulse felt more a less the same as it had the couple of times she'd accidentally brushed against his wrist in passing and felt it's rapid beat, although now it seemed so quick as to almost flutter beneath her fingers. At least it seemed strong and steady. His breathing though was a different story. Specifically, he wasn't.

Tegan placed on hand against the prone Doctor's sternum and brought the other one down hard on top. The Doctor responded immediately, coughing up a mouthful of water and half rolling onto his side instinctually to spit it out. Tegan released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She'd taken a gamble there, not knowing exactly how alien the rest of the Doctor's physiology might be, but hopping she was helping.

She checked his breathing again and found it much improved, but still worrying. The breaths were deep and regular enough, but there was still a strange hitching sort of gurgle underneath them. In fact, the more she listened, the less the sound seemed to synchronize with the pattern of breaths at all.

Tegan patted the still unconscious Doctor's cheeks urgently, trying to wake him up. After a moment or two his eyes fluttered, half obscured beneath the wet curtain of his soaked blond fringe. Bleary chocolate eyes greeted her as she leaned over him to brush his hair out of the way. His gaze did not meet hers though, much to her concern, but drifted past her face and into the middle distance over her shoulder. She placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to rouse him. He jerked under her suddenly and her concern multiplied. In an instant his expression shifted from slack to panic.

She was vaguely aware that Turlough had placed a steadying hand on the Doctor's other shoulder as he spasmed again. This time the action was accompanied by a wet chocking noise. The Doctor jerked a third time and through his wet shirt she realized she could see his abdominal mussels moving. Through the white-turned-transparent material she saw sets of muscles she wasn't even certain humans even had contract in ways she was sure humans' didn't. With a final spasm a stream of water shot out from the Doctor's mouth. He fell back to the ground limply and lay there dazed and panting while his companions stared in shock. Tegan shot a questioning look at Turlough. Though he looked as relieved as she felt he made a show of shrugging coolly and suggestion, "Alien secondary respiratory system, possibly bypass reflex mechanism." Tegan wanted to point out that he was an alien too as far as she was concerned but realized the futility of it.

Bending farther over the Doctor again, she turned her head to listen to his breathing. Slowly it seemed to be evening out and she was relieved to find that whatever had been gurgling had cleared.

"Doctor?" Turlough asked, noticing the brown eyes struggling to focus. The Doctor's gaze settled on Turlough in response to his utterance, a questioning look in his eyes.

"W- cough- Wh- cough- Wh-uh-t?" the Doctor forced out. It was abundantly clear from both the sound of his voice and his winces that speaking was painful. His throat was doubtlessly raw from nearly drowning.

"Quiet now, Doc. Everything'll be all right now," Tegan soothed.

"Rest a while Doctor," Turlough put in. Both companions usually so loud and abrasive found themselves speaking uncharacteristically softly.

"You had us worried there for a moment, Doc." Tegan shook the sand out of her towel and laid it over his wet clothes as she spoke. They sat in silence for some time. The Doctor looked exhausted, but still seamed somewhat restless. After a while Tegan found herself gently stroking back strands of his still wet hair from his temples. He quieted quickly, relaxing into unconsciousness as his eyes slipped closed again.

Turlough grabbed the Doctor's coat and jumper, throwing them both over his shoulder. Together they picked up the Doctor and carried him between them out of the clearing, back towards the TARDIS. They laid him carefully down in front of the doors and Turlough searched the pockets of the Doctor's coat for the key. He produced it with a triumphant sound. With the doors unlocked they carried him through the console room and into the interior of the TARDIS. Tegan's bedroom was the closest door and neither of them really even knew if the Doctor even had a bedroom, so it was without much debate that they took him there.

Tegan left once they'd laid him on the bed so Turlough could finish stripping him out of his wet clothes. In the meantime she went looking for more towels. When she opened the door to the bathroom she usually used to freshen up in the mornings, she discovered it contained not only its own usual compliment of towels, but perched in a precarious tower on the toilet lid, a large stack of fluffy bath sheets. When she picked up the top few she discovered that they were suspiciously warm, as though they had just come out of the dryer. Remembering many of the other odd thing's she'd noticed, and bizarre comments the Doctor often made regarding the interior workings of the TARDIS and it's implied sentience, she opted to ignore the possible implications. Blessing the ship under her breath she gathered the towels into her arms and left. She could have sworn though, that she hard the TARDIS's soft humming rise to a note that sounded unmistakably like a pleased "you're welcome" as she shut the door behind her.

The passage of theme was often difficult to calculate in the TARDIS, so all one cold day for sure was that it was later. Therefore, later, after the Doctor had been thoroughly toweled dry and tucked into Tegan's bed, she sat in a chair next to the bed and watched over him. Turlough had eventually wandered off to go do whatever Turlough tings he got up to when left to himself in the TARDIS, leaving Tegan along with the sleeping Doctor.

Break-

Tegan was amazed that the Doctor hadn't woken properly through all that. He'd stirred a bit and even blearily opened his eyes once or twice, but never come fully awake. Always dropping off immediately again each time he'd been disturbed. She suspected that this might be another "Time Lord-y thing" to reuse a phrase she'd once spoken in front of the Doctor, receiving a wince and a particularly long suffering glance in return. Mostly she supposed she was waiting for him to wake up. He seemed all right now, but she didn't want to chance anything after what had just happened. However, there was no way of telling when he might wake up. Apparently it was a "Time Lord-y" thing to drop off into some kind of weird healing coma if you were feeling out of sorts. In the mean time she'd just have to wait and wallow in guilt.

A part of her wanted very badly to shrug the whole thing off. He'd survived hadn't he? Everything could go back to how it was before their little break, and this could all be forgotten. She recognized of course that this was the same part of her that had defended her decision to braid a rope of sticky licorice into her cousin Sarah's braids at the age of seven with "Well, she looks better now with short hair anyway…" As a grown woman she did not have that comforting blanket of self centered delusion that troublesome children often do to shield her conscience.

"Oh my God, he could have drowned!" The exclamation k3ept running through her mind along with the immag3e of the Doctor's deadly still features when he'd first been pulled from the water. "He could have died!" Would he have regenerated from that, with water in his lungs? She had no idea. The process seemed so impossible almost magical in a way. It seemed inappropriate to ask about it, not to mention tactless considering it had technically been the death of the gangly, toothy-smiled man she'd briefly come to know.

Realizing she was clenching the edges of the bedclothes in white knuckled fists she forced herself to calm down. What she had done had been stupid and reckless and could have ended much worse than it had, but it there hadn't been any malicious intent behind it. There was nothing she could no about what was already done, despite currently residing in a time machine. The only thing she could do now was try to repair the damage done and promise herself that she'd never let it happen again.

They seemed to constantly find themselves in dangerous, impossible, life threatening situations, and the Doctor never shied from them. Up until today, she realized, she'd never really thought that he could be hurt like that. She hadn't really thought of him as an actual person. Real people didn't run around the universe doing what he did after all. To see him vulnerable was staggering in a way. She almost giggled as t5he idea that the Doctor could save planets but couldn't swim popped into her head, then stopped herself, knowing that it wasn't really funny at all.

Much later Turlough walked back down the corridor towards Tegan's room. Or perhaps it was up the corridor he pondered. One often got the sensation of going down hill as one went deeper into the TARDIS and the reverse coming out. His room was much deeper in, down a few more corridors and around a few more corners, providing him with a sensation of comfortable seclusion.

As much as he didn't want to admit to any attachment, he could not deny his concern. It had been a close call earlier, closer in fact than any of his attempts to dispose of the Doctor, he noted with a wry twist of his lips. After the debacle with the Eternals and their yacht race in space he'd given up on all that, turned down the Black Guardian's offer cold.

He paused outside her door and listened. Hearing nothing he knocked gently and then pushed the door open. Inside he found the Doctor still asleep under the covers, but with the addition of Tegan's head resting on her crossed arms on the available edge of the covers. She was still sitting leaned forward in her chair, and had probably only meant to rest her eyes for a minute. Having completed his mission of looking in on them, Turlough retreated back into the hall, shutting the door softly behind him.

Yet later, the Doctor finally woke, having shifted some ten minutes earlier, waking Tegan and giving her time to straighten herself up. He was full awake and lucid, though somewhat confused about what he was doing in Tegan's bed. He blushed embarrassedly when he asked, making Tegan think, not for the first time, that he looked rather like a schoolboy when he did that.

It turned out to be quite the challenge to actually keep the Doctor in bed once he'd a woken. She was quite sure he'd have jumped straight out of her bed and been out the door in a single leap if he hadn't been in such a state of undress beneath the covers. Despite his insistent repetition that he was "just fine", and "fully recovered," he still looked a bit pale and Tegan refused to let him up for at least the rest of the day. At his request she brought him a set of pajamas which she discovered sitting innocently in a neatly folded pile, just around the corner at the end of the hallway when she'd gone looking. They were soft, cream colored flannel with faint tangerine pinstripes that reminded her of his usual trousers.

She noticed that when she came back from the hall, where she'd retreated to give him privacy to change, that he'd not only donned the bottoms and long sleeved shirt, but also flipped up the soft collar to cover his neck. The cut of the flannel top and the lack of a top button showed that it was had clearly been designed to fit comfortably loose around the neck. For whatever reason though, the Doctor had flipped up the collar to cover as much of his neck as possible. When she asked him irritated, if there was something wrong with his neck he was trying to hide from her he blushed again and from his mumbling she managed to glean that he felt it would be inappropriate for him to show that much skin when they were along together. Tegan's mind boggled at the idea of showing one's neck being considered "showing skin", but wisely kept it to herself, seeing how embarrassed he was already just at the mention of the subject and let it drop. This was the first real indication she'd gotten of any legitimate cultural difference between Time Lord and Human social norms. She filed it away with the other scan information she knew about the Doctor personally and his people.

Tegan resigned herself to looking after him the whole time after he tried to get up while she had her back turned and attempt to snag a book off the small shelf in the corner of her room, nearly toppling over before he reached his goal. She spent the rest of the afternoon fetching things to keep the Doctor occupied. He may have been a bit unsteady on his feet but he was well enough to refuse to be still.

The Doctor turned out to be quite shy, blushing again every time he recalled where he was. If prodded too much he would adopt the look of a rabbit about to bolt and she'd have to quickly change the subject to calm him down for fear that he just might. Tegan found herself relying heavily on the past experience of babysitting her younger cousins in order to cope. In the end it was only her nagging conscience and sense of responsibility that kept her at his side sometimes rather than throwing up her hands in exasperation and just locking him in the room from the outside to have done with it. She'd never known a grown person to be capable of such petulant, childish antics.

She had managed to find out a thing or two while she was at it though. One or two of the questions she snuck into the mostly one-sided conversation of his disjointed ramblings as he worked distractedly over various disassembled components strewn over the covers actually got answered. He'd muttered something about the water having gotten into his respiratory bypass before is sealed in reflex and nearly drowning him all over again once he was on land. This seemed to fit with Turlough had suggested earlier.

Tegan finally decided to call it a night, a somewhat arbitrary decision due to the sense of timelessness inside the TARDIS. She was tired, and the Doctor seemed completely back to his normal self. At her suggestion that he should go fend for himself so that she could get her bed back and catch some shut eye he sprang from the bed and was almost out the door before he remembered his manners. With his arms full of all the books, gadgets, and other projects she'd fetched for him, he turned back to her from the open doorway.

"Thank you Tegan, for - er… looking after me," he acknowledged with another schoolboy blush and a slight nod of appreciation. He left then, tugging the upturned collar of his pajamas up a little higher as he did in a somewhat nervous gesture she'd noticed over the afternoon. As she got ready for bed she resolved to teach him how to swim the next time they ended up in a quiet place like today. Also, to get some meat on his bones, he was actually quite skinny under all those layers.

A/N:

Please review or message me and let me know what you think, I thrive on the feedback.

If you spot any grammatical errors feel free to point them out, I'm a nit-picking perfectionist, but this hasn't really been properly proofread, and I was using an outdated version of word, so the spell and grammar check was a bit rubbish... Not that it's that reliable on any version really though...

Constructive criticism is welcome too, though I warn that I will defend my decisions if I meant it that way. XD

Thanks for reading!