Chapter Four
Drip
The tap squeaked as Ashley turned it on and the water flooded out. She looked at it for a few moments, gripping either sides of the sink, before cupping her hands and catching the water. She splashed her face, gasping at the coldness but instantly feeling a lot better. She closed her eyes, and let out a long slow breath.
Now really, she thought bitterly. You've whizzed through time and space in a spaceship and you get freaked out from being under water.
'Soft.' She muttered, turning off the tap. She glanced up at the grimy mirror and took in her reflection. She was still pale and the little bit of mascara she had been wearing was now smudged around her eyes. She didn't wear much makeup these days. There was no point really, unless she was planning on meeting the man of her dreams on some distant planet. After the fiasco with Gordon the Shape Shifter, she didn't really want that kind of attention from anyone. She used her fingers to wipe away the black smudges, and then examined her pale, makeup free face. She had lost more weight. Wasn't a good thing really because she didn't really have much weight to lose in the first place. That was peculiar, as she had done nothing but eat the past few days. At least she thought it was days… It was hard to judge time in a time machine. She put it down to all that running. Hell of course it was the running. She was in better shape than she had even been in her life.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Ashley looked around and grabbed a nearby towel. She sniffed it and grimaced at the damp smell, but it was the only towel there. She hesitated and dropped it back on the rail, opting to dry her face with her t-shirt instead. She looked in the mirror again and sighed.
'Look at you Ashley Chambers,' she muttered. 'Travelling through space. And Auntie Bella was trying to get you to work in the chip shop.'
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Ashley went to turn off the dripping tap, but her hand stopped above it when she realised that it wasn't the tap that was dripping. A drop of water hit the back of her hand.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
She looked up and narrowed her eyes. There were no cracks in the ceiling, but there was a wet patch there. It was dripping continuously. Steady and monotonous.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Just condensation she assumed. She looked at her reflection again. She knew they weren't going to be leaving any time soon now. The Doctor had a new, albeit grim, mystery to solve and they wouldn't be going until he figured out what happened to Project Home. Ashley couldn't understand why anyone in the right mind would want to live on a city that floated on the ocean. Humans aren't supposed to go in water.
She flinched and blinked as water dripped on her nose. She frowned as she wiped it away, and then looked up at the wet patch. Another drip landed in her eye.
'Damn it!' she muttered, blinking at the brief sting. She wiped her eye with the heel of her palm, cursing the stupid dripping water. She checked it in the mirror to see it was all bloodshot and she muttered another curse. She ambled out of the bathroom, still prodding at her eye.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Ashley was surprised to find the Doctor outside of the bathroom, peering out of one of the round portholes at the surrounding ocean. He didn't look around to her as she joined his side and looked out also.
'See any sea monsters?' he asked.
'Don't.' Ashley warned. 'It's not funny.'
He smiled at her. 'It's okay. You heard what Mrs Ellis said. There's no life in the ocean. Well, they're probably wrong because human's are wrong about eighty per cent of the time anyway.'
'If you were trying to reassure me, saying that didn't help.'
The Doctor draped an arm around her shoulders. 'We'll go soon, I promise. We're coming up on the wreckage of the city now. We'll just stick around, see if we can figure out what happened here, and then off we'll pop.'
Ashley glanced up at him. 'If they haven't figured it out in an hour, I'm going to sit in the Tardis.'
The Doctor shrugged. 'You can go and sit in the Tardis now if you like.'
She mulled it over. 'On second thoughts no.' she replied. 'If the sub sinks or something and you drown I don't want to be trapped in a Tardis at the bottom of an alien ocean with no idea how to fly it.' She paused. 'But then again you could always-'
'Forget it.' The Doctor replied, already knowing what she was going to say. 'I'm not teaching you how to fly the Tardis.'
She smirked at him. 'You're only scared that I'll do a better job than you.'
'Course I am.' He grinned. He looked back out the porthole and then pointed suddenly. 'Oh! Can you see that? Look, right there.'
He put Ashley in front of him, holding her shoulders and put his cheek by hers as they peered out. He pointed with his finger. Ashley followed, and gasped at the blank face that stared up at them from the depths. It took her a moment to realise that it was actually a statue. A big statue. The sub moved slowly towards it, and the lights spread over the stone face eerily.
'Kinda looks like the Statue of Liberty.' Ashley commented.
'Probably a copy,' the Doctor nodded. 'Pops up all over the place after the original was destroyed.'
'The original was destroyed? How?'
'Ah, well that's a long story. It involved a few tetchy Guilliders and a badly placed bomb.'
Ashley laughed. 'Trust it to be you.'
They watched as the statue came more into view. It lay amongst rubble and rocks. Its left arm had snapped at the elbow and lay off to one side protruding from the remains of some buildings.
'God damn you you damned dirty fishies!' Ashley cried dramatically, curling up one fist.
The Doctor laughed behind her as he moved away. 'Too many movies. I'm not letting you watch TV again.'
Ashley turned and smiled at him. 'Don't think I didn't see that big TV you've got. Next time you stop to fix something I'm going to be on it.'
He smiled and glanced down the corridor towards the control room where the other three people were. 'Well we'll go and see if they're picking anything up.' He said, heading away. 'You coming?'
'Yeah.' Ashley nodded. 'I'm going to ask if they can do anything about that bloody dripping. It's driving me up the wall.'
The Doctor glanced back at her briefly. 'I don't hear any dripping.' He said distractedly.
Ashley half frowned and cocked her ear at the monotonous dripping that hadn't ceased since leaving the bathroom. A brief shudder ran through her. She shook her head, decided that it must just be her ears with the pressure, and followed the Doctor.
Drip. Drip. Drip.