Chapter 2: Drowned
The sonic fell from his hands, forgotten, fracturing the surface below. Every single other thought in his overactive brain vanished, leaving only one thing, one person, left standing in its wake. Save the one you love. Save Clara Oswald.
"Clara!" he cried.
The serenity of the ocean was broken like a mirror by the thrashing of a very desperate human.
"Clara! My Clara!"
The Doctor took off on a mad sprint to the shore. Deep cracks formed in the clear salt flats beneath the hard pounding of his feet. His hearts beat into a whirlwind, pounding blood through his ears so loud he thought it would drown out all else.
Suddenly, countless painted beings burst from the water, dancing through the waves in beautiful choreography. They were humanoid in shape but in nothing else, sporting rows of gills cut deep between their ribs and fins in the place of hands and feet. They leapt from the water effortlessly, spinning in the air multiple times in a great display of bioluminescence and color before gliding back beneath the mirrored surface once again. And in the middle of their throng was Clara.
He did not even stop to think about the impossibility of their existence. None of that mattered right now. "Get away from her!" he shouted in as threatening a voice as he could manage.
The creatures let out a rattling hiss through their gills and dove beneath the surface, taking Clara with them.
"Oh no you don't!" he growled.
He reached the water's edge and did not waste a second before diving beneath the waves. The hypersalinity of the water ate at his skin and burned at his eyes. The pristine clarity of the water lent forth a spectacle the Doctor would be in awe of in different circumstances.
The creatures swirled and danced around Clara's body in perfect synchrony. Their pale skin caught the different spectrums of light of the alien sun and spat it back out in great bursts of color. It was almost as if they were worshipping Clara. They zipped up and down effortlessly through the water surrounding her, creating so powerful a water current that she could not fight her way back up to the surface, barely ten feet above her. The scene was as gorgeous as it was horrifying.
He hated it. Nothing which threatened the life of his Clara could be beautiful in his eyes. They were killing her. Red filled his vision in pure fury. He hoped for their sakes that they did not know what they were doing. He was grateful for his respiratory bypass system allowing him to stay beneath the surface for much longer than normal.
Suddenly he caught Clara's gaze. Her eyes were reddened with the sting of the sea and with exhaustion. She had obviously been fighting to tread water for the past several minutes and now her energy to fight against the currents pulling her under in a whirlwind of light had run out.
Those once- expressive chocolate- brown eyes now gazed blankly into his soul. Dim, save for a single spark of hope that flickered at the sight of him. Her body surrendered to the currents, bubbles escaping from her lips like a whisper, her eyelids fluttering for a brief second before finally slipping shut.
'Clara!' Panicked adrenaline pulsed through his veins. He swam as hard as he could, his sodden clothes and heavy boots weighing him down.
The creatures began to dart around him curiously, flashing their lights almost as if expecting him to flash back. He ignored them, powering his way through the currents in their wake.
They obviously took this as a hostile gesture and swarmed him in an angry swirling dance. The Doctor was not usually a man of violence, but right now he could not care less. He lashed out at one of them, catching it square in the jaw with a well-placed punch.
It flickered the row of lights on its sides angrily and suddenly every single one of the creatures surrounded him. They weaved around him menacingly, blaring out their lights in a wide variety of color and frequency, trying to daze him into drowning.
He growled angrily, red hot rage flooding his system. He punched and kicked wildly in every direction with deadly accuracy, moves he must have learned in a previous incarnation. The creatures only grew angrier and whirled faster and faster, taking him deeper and deeper beneath the waves.
And the he saw Clara again. In a break in the spinning wall of bodies, lay the view of her limp body floating back up to the surface due to the salinity of the water. She was facing down.
He screamed. Suddenly and fiercely, something primal tore from what little air he had left stored in his lungs. The creatures, used to a world filled with nothing but pure silence, started with fear and shot away into the depths.
He kicked his feet as hard as he could, his muscles and lungs screaming at him in protest. None of that mattered. Her body floated up slowly through the waves- motionless. No. No! He would not lose her again! Not today!
He grabbed ahold of her prone body with all his worth and hauled her to the surface. They exploded up harshly through the water with the force. The Doctor gasped for air, choking out streams of the extremely salty water.
"Clara!" he gasped, regaining his breath, "Clara, are you alright?" he begged, praying to every deity he knew that she would stay alive. At least just for a moment longer until he could find some help.
It was then that he realized she was not breathing. His already pounding heart shot into his throat. He scrabbled his burning hands at her throat for her carotid artery, searching desperately for a pulse he feared would no longer be there.
But there it was. A weak, thready pulse. She was still alive. She was fighting for him and he'd be damned if he let her down now.
"Hold on, Clara. Stay with me!" he pleaded, clutching her to his chest and holding her head above water.
He dragged them both ashore, the natural mirrors below reflecting the scene above. He laid her down quickly but carefully against the surface of the beach and became very grateful that Clara had forced him to enroll in a basic CPR class at Coal Hill last month.
He clasped his hands together as he had been taught and began to compress her chest desperately. One, two, one, two, to the rate of 100 compressions a minute, to the beat of "Stayin' Alive." He hated the irony.
Water shot from her lungs with every forceful compression. His brain ran into overdrive, trying to remember the details of the session he had then scoffed at. Thirty. Thirty beats and then... And then two breaths. Mouth to mouth.
He counted the beats out quickly and felt a sinking pit of dread grip his system once again.
"Sorry, Clara." he panted, apologizing more to himself than to her for what he had to do next.
He lifted her chin with two fingers and pinched her nose shut. He steeled himself, feeling guilty for being nervous. This was to save her life, dammit! This wasn't a kiss, for godsakes!
He drew in a deep breath and sealed his lips over hers. He forced the air from his lungs into hers, watching her chest rise against her soaked blouse. He did it again before positioning himself beside her chest once again and resuming compressions.
Again. Thirty beats to two breaths. Again and again. No response. Water continued to spurt from her lungs which still refused to breathe. He took a moment to feel her pulse once again.
It was barely there.
"No!" More dread pooled in his stomach and for the first time today it finally registered in his brain that he was going to lose her. She had been too long without oxygen. Her brain was possibly damaged beyond repair. And now she was slipping away.
"No! Come on, Clara! Use that stubborn pudding brain will of yours and fight!" He pounded his fists into her chest. Over and over again, her shirt cold against his skin. The salt coating the fabric burning welts into his palms.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven..." he trailed off, counting mentally as a matter of life and death. He reached thirty and sealed his mouth over hers again for what had to have been the seventh time and breathed air into her lungs.
Suddenly, an entire stream of water burst forth from her lips. He gave her space and she arched her back, struggling for air. His eyes widened, a spark of hope igniting tentatively in his chest. He scooped his arms beneath hers and hauled her to her feet, bracing her back against his chest and positioning his fists just beneath her ribcage. What was this called again? The Ham Lick maneuver? Whatever. All that mattered is that he remembered how to do it.
He squeezed her against his body powerfully, forcing her diaphragm to expel more fluid from her lungs. He relaxed his grip before tightening it again sharply.
"Come on, come on, Clara! You're doing so well, don't give up on me now!"
With one last final heave, the last of the corrosive water shot out of her mouth. A second went by. And then another second.
And then she coughed. And it was the most beautiful sound in the world.
She coughed and coughed, her lungs screaming for air. She gasped frantically, gulping in the air hungrily.
"Clara!"
She slumped weakly against his frame, unable to support her weight. Her chest rose and fell quickly as her body fought desperately to restore oxygen to her starved cells. The Doctor gripped his arms beneath hers and hugged her tightly to his body, gently lowering them both to the ground.
He cradled her upper body against his chest. He felt her pulse. It was still weaker than he would like but a vast improvement from before. Hope and joy bubbled up through his hearts. The Impossible Girl had done the impossible once again. She had beaten death itself.
"Clara! Clara, you're doing fantastic. Just breathe." he brushed a lock of wet hair from her pale face. "Just breathe."
And suddenly there were tears. It was as if the floodgates had broken and now a steady flow of tears streamed down his craggy face. He could not remember the last time he had cried. They flowed unashamed down his craggy face. He had nearly lost her. Again.
But he didn't.
"Oh, my Clara," he sobbed. He had come so close. "My Clara."
Her eyelids fluttered. His heart shot into his throat once more and slowly he was met with the gaze of those beautiful chocolate eyes. They were no longer blank, but sharp instead with a mixture of pain and confusion.
He laughed. A sound of pure joy burst from his lips and he hugged her to himself tighter, intending never to let her go again. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a moment.
"Doctor?" she rasped, her respiratory system no doubt damaged by the submersion of the corrosive liquid. She probably had a long road of recovery before her, but her brain, her brain had survived without even the slightest apparent defect. Against all odds. He would never call the human brain "pudding" ever again.
"Clara?" he breathed. "I'm here. It's me. The Doctor. Your Doctor. You're safe."
She seemed contented with this answer and allowed her eyelids to slip shut once again in exhaustion.
"C'mon," he kissed her forehead softly and gingerly scooped her tiny body into his arms. He rose to his feet, gazing at the shadow of the Tardis beyond. "Let's get you home."
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