Darkness and Light

Yaz froze, her heart thumping, staring wildly around into the pitch black.

"Eek, my bad!"

She jumped when the Doctor squeaked her apology.

"What?"

"Tummy dinosaur – it's been a while since those sarnies," she paused, a little guiltily, "think I might have been a bit sick too…"

Yaz's relief washed over her. "Thought you didn't do 'getting sick'?"

"I don't! Must've been something in those darts!" there was another pause, "Honestly! Darts? Archaic or what? I mean, Mesoamerican tribes conquered civilisations with them for a long time, but that was hundreds of Earth years ago. Deadly in their day but can't see a need for civilised culture to be popping people in the neck with 'em in this day and age."

"Don't fancy my chances in the Force if they make a return to popularity," Yaz added, thinking grimly of the dangers officers like herself already faced on a daily basis.

"That's not gonna happen," the Doctor assertion was laced with steel. "Not if I have anything to do with it. Hate weapons. Hate anyone or anything using them. Especially when they're endangering someone I – "

She trailed off, unfinished thoughts stretching out into the darkness.

Yaz cleared her throat, not sure how else to break the silence.

"Yeah, anyway," the Doctor launched back into adventure mode, and it was as though the last few seconds hadn't happened. "Speaking of danger, we need to get out of this one before someone comes to check on us."

"That's more like it!" Yaz enthused, glad to return to normal conversation, that is if you could call any of their escapades 'normal'. She didn't know what was going on with the Doctor at the moment but trussed up in a dark cave was not the ideal situation to start unpacking that one in just yet.

"Brilliant!"

She felt the Doctor wriggle behind her, then heard a stumbling thump, closely followed by a groan of pain.

"Doctor are you ok?"

"Not so brilliant…"

Yaz frowned, "Did you try to get up, fall over, and bash your head?"

"Maybe? Oww…"

"You twerp – I think you might be forgetting something?" Rolling her eyes, Yaz tugged at the rope round their wrists.

"Oh," the Doctor muttered, sheepishly, "might've slipped my mind."

"Try not to do it again - we're really racking up those injuries today!"

"Oooh," the Doctor brightened slightly, "can we get one of those funny human signs that tells you how many days it's been since the last accident on site?"

Yaz laughed for what felt like the first time in ages, buoyed up by the Doctor's childish enthusiasm for all things.

"Yeah, course we can, but we need to work on that track record."

Then the Doctor laughed too, and Yaz began to feel that everything would be alright.

"What if I try slipping through it?"

"Nah, we tried that, and your head got stuck, remember?"

"Ah, yeah…"

They had been at it for at least an hour now but trying to free themselves from the ropes was proving to be very tricky indeed.

"Ok," Yaz thought they needed to pause and regroup, "So we can't pull the ropes apart; we can't pull the piping out of the floor; and we've established that you can't wriggle through that gap between your wrists."

"If only my head was a few centimetres thinner!"

"Doctor," exasperation coated Yaz's words, "for the last time, we are not lopping off one of your ears, so you can slither through."

"It was good enough for George Weasley!"

"But worse for your hearing?"

"Yeah, s'ppose I'd have trouble keeping goggle on too." Yaz could imagine the scrunched up face the Doctor was pulling at that moment. "And my head's still pretty bashed up from earlier. Thought maybe you should kiss it better?"

"Sure thing," Yaz muttered distractedly, "if we ever get out of here! Right, Plan D."

"Really?"

"Promise. Now, Plan D?"

"D for disaster?"

Yaz laughed, "Yup, that's the one. I hope you've limbered up!"

"Ready when you are!" the Doctor rolled her shoulders and wiggled her neck.

Plan D was last on their list because it entailed trying to untie the knot around the pipe using themselves as the ends of the rope. In short, clambering around and over obstacles and each other in the pitch black sounded like a recipe for chaos and further injury. In preparation, Yaz spent some time feeling the tangled lumps of rope, trying to create a virtual schematic to work from. The Doctor, who had all the spatial awareness of a drunk at a party right now, let the young officer work, humming to pass the time.

"Right, you got that knot visualised, Yaz?"

"Yup, reckon I've got a pretty good idea - Alexander the Great's got nothing on me."

"Yaz the Brilliant – that's you!"

Smirking, Yaz tugged the Doctor's end of the rope, lining them up for the first manoeuvre.

"Right, concentrate."

"I'm all ears"

"Thankfully!" Yaz was rewarded with a short laugh, "Right, do exactly as I say. Seriously, if we put one foot wrong, it'll undo the whole plan."

"Yes, Captain."

"That's, Officer Khan to you."

"Of course, Officer," the Doctor was all obsequious obedience, but there was something in the phrasing of her title that flushed Yaz's cheeks with heat. She was briefly very glad for the darkness.

"Right, now follow my lead," Yaz forced her head back into the game, "Firstly we'll need to spin once on the spot."

Footsteps shuffled in the dark and the Doctor gave the OK.

"Next, we're going to have to duck under each other's left shoulders"

They did this, moving cautiously and slowly with Yaz continuing to coordinate their movements. Halfway through another turn on the spot, the Doctor piped up, clearly enjoying herself.

"This is like dancing - twirling and ducking and spinning. Weirdly romantic too, all this dancing in the dark."

"Pipe down, Bruce Springsteen, I'm trying to concentrate."

"Nice fella - awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mind you, not sure that would count for much now and I've got three! Groovy dancer though."

Only half-listening to her reply, Yaz tried to get them back on track, trying desperately to hold the knot in her mind's eye,

"I'm sure you've got all the moves, Doctor, but can you please stand where you are for a moment."

She looped around the timelord a few times, arms raised over their heads, untwisting the tangled ropes from each other.

"Moves? Oh, I've got moves. I can show you moves."

"Good, good." Yaz was definitely not listening now, rather concentrating on the final section. "Now, Doc, I need you to focus completely on what I tell you next."

"Yes, boss."

"Right, this is gonna sound a bit mad –"

"I like mad."

"Good," Yaz grinned, "because all this concentrating is sending me insane. Right, one last push!"

She crouched down and made her arms into a loop.

"OK, can you shuffle forwards a bit until you feel my hands near your ankles."

A slight scuffling was heard and Yaz felt the Doctor's boots bump her fingers.

"Now carefully step over my hands."

The Doctor did this, silently concentrating on not stepping on Yaz's fingers.

"Great," and Yaz stood up slowly.

"Ooh, this is cosy!" the Doctor commented, standing facing Yaz, encircled by her arms.

Yaz snorted, "Ok, now this is the tricky bit – I need you to sorta twizzle round a few times while keeping your arms above your head."

"Like one of those ballerina figurines in a music box, yeah?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Yaz agreed, "but go slowly, ok, if you fall, we both fall over!"

"Bloomin' cheek," the Doctor muttered pouting, as she slowly revolved on the spot, hemmed in by the circle of Yaz's arms, "Like I'm the clumsy one in thi-"

And so saying, she stood on a shoelace, stumbling forwards into an unsuspecting Yaz.

"Woaaaaaaah, there!" Yaz grabbed the back of the timelord's coat, her quick-thinking saving them both from toppling backwards. Reacting on instinct, the Doctor dropped her arms and held onto whatever part of Yaz she could reach.

They held each other for a few seconds, trying to regain a more stable posture.

"Some ballerina you are!" spluttered Yaz as she burst out laughing, gripping on to the Doctor's coat for support.

Chuckling with relief, the Doctor tried to apologise, "Sorry! More 'Nut' than 'Nutcracker', I'm afraid!"

"You said it!"

And as their laughter subsided, Yaz's became slowly aware of a few things. Her hands were still fisted tightly in the Doctor's coat, unconsciously pushing the timelord towards her. She also felt a painful tug at the back of her head, where the Doctor's arms had dropped and caught in her hair, anchoring them together. Lastly, she became acutely conscious of the fact that the Doctor's face must be only inches from her own. She could feel warm breath against her cheek, tingling as heat spread to the tips of her ears.

The darkness seemed to press in on them, and every sense was heightened, almost painfully so. She felt jolts of electricity shooting up her neck, every hair in her scalp prickling with energy as the Doctor adjusted her grip, releasing the dark locks and bringing her hands to rest on Yaz's trembling shoulders. She tried to relax the fingers curled in the timelord's coat, but in doing so found the tips of her fingers burning a brand into the curve of the Doctor's hip.

She cleared her throat, mouth dry and barely breathing.

"Doctor?"

The word hung in the air, heavy and uncertain.

"Yaz."

The blackness pressed in further and hummed with tension.

Yaz swallowed hard. She heard dusty shuffling on stone and felt a shift in pressure on her shoulders. Then heat surged through her as something brushed against her cheek. A warm something. She stood frozen to the spot, thinking that she must have been imagining it. And then she gasped as the Doctor's nose delicately nudged her own, pointy tip cool against her burning skin. Tantalisingly, it traced a slow line up the bridge to her forehead, before slowly following its smouldering trail back downwards. Barely breathing, Yaz stared wildly into the blackness, every nerve ending firing as the cool tip of that nose dipped lower.

Then with a white-hot flash and a yelp of pain, she was blinded again.