Turns out, anti-gravity guns are quite useful for sandcastle building.
So far, in the several hours we've been here, we have managed to make two ten-foot tall sand castles, complete with furniture, doorways, ramparts, and one even has a moat with a drawbridge.
We ate coconuts and wild mangoes, straight off the trees. It really does make a difference, store-bought vs. wild grown. The taste was so much more robust and real.
We played anti-grav Frisbee, too, which was a blast. The Doctor even brought out these amazing masks that supply oxygen for ten minutes at a time. We used them to dive out to the reefs lining the beach, and I've never seen such a colorful collection of marine life. The diversity is simply remarkable. Really and truly remarkable. I never used to like fish very much, but now I think I might.
Presently, we're laying on our towels, under our mushroom umbrella. My skin is tanned, starting to become the slightest shade of red. My olive complexion has always tanned easily, and resisted burning pretty well, so I wasn't concerned, but the Doctor insisted that I put on sunscreen.
Your skin protects you, so it's only polite that you return the favor! He had told me.
I take a deep breath and roll onto my side to look at him, brushing my exploding, beachy curls out of my face. He has on his glasses now, reading a book he'd brought out. It is titled 'Bioinstrumentation, Neobiochemistry, and You!"
It makes me smile, inside and out, because that's the book he reads on his self-proclaimed day off.
"Sun's starting to go down," I say, over everything else that comes to mind.
He looks up from his book, snapping it shut, and takes off his glasses, blinking quickly a few times.
"So it is. I think it deserves a little rest, giving us a day like that, yeah?" He says softly, putting his hands behind his head and laying back down.
I hum in agreement, just quietly watching him, wanting to commit him to memory, as he is now. I get the feeling that this is a very rare thing for the Doctor. It's something he only treats himself to once every few hundred years, I think, being this peaceful and content with his life. Part of the punishment he doomed himself to.
If he got to live, he wouldn't live happily. And most of the time, he doesn't, not really.
But this is him, allowing himself to be happy.
He lets out a sigh and sits up to lean back on his hands, giving me a sidelong glance. His lips twitch up into a soft smile.
"I'm going to take another dip. Join me?" He says, heaving himself up and offering a hand to me. I take it automatically, without a second thought, and we walk through the cooling sand together. The setting sun is turning the sky a bright orange color, and I think it's strange that it reminds me of a planet I've never seen, never will see.
"I can't believe that our whole day just went by without a single hitch. We've had slow days before, but never like this!" I say as our feet splash in the shallows. He gives my hand a squeeze.
"Do you prefer it like this?" He asks, and I hear genuine curiosity in his voice.
I might if he were always shirtless on slow days…
"Well… It's very nice, don't get me wrong, and I do think we needed it… But I feel like we have places to be, people to meet. You know?"
"Oh yes, I think I can understand that. After a while, you start feeling like it's your responsibility. As if the universe might stop its natural rhythm if you're not on your toes. It's an illusion really. We're just two creatures in an infinite system of cogs and bolts, and it will continue to function long after we're both dust."
"I suppose that's true…" I say, not meaning it at all. The universe would be in serious trouble if the Doctor ever decided to quit his meddling, in my expert opinion. But why put that kind of pressure on him?
We're now waist deep in the warm water. The Doctor dives under, and I watch his blurry form kick his way to a spot several yards away from me. He stays under for much longer than I ever could.
Again, note to self; two hearts are not only useful for chase scenes, but also for deep sea diving.
I duck under the waves, reveling in the muffled silence of the entire world around me. I kick my legs mermaid style, leisurely propelling myself towards the Doctor. I have to come up three times before I reach him, and when I do, I find that I can't touch the bottom. So, I float up so that I'm bobbing in the waves like a plank, not really having the energy left after our fun-filled day to tread water like he's doing.
I just close my eyes and feel the ocean moving me, up and down, back and forth. I remember when I used to be able to move it back, to feel every atom of it.
"Evy, be very careful, very still…" I hear the Doctor say and my eyes snap open, adrenaline shooting through my brain almost painfully.
"Why, what is it, what's wrong?" I squeak, and I hear a splashing sound, "Doctor?"
My mind concocts the worst scenarios possible.
Maybe a Madroon has found its way to Earth, bringing the Kleo-Trinifare War back to haunt us. Maybe it's some kind of alien sea monster, and it's currently drowning the Doctor, right under my nose. Maybe it's just a normal sea creature, but that could also be kind of bad, couldn't it?
Most sea creatures communicate with sonar, if I could just get the sonic from the Doctor- no, but wait, it's in his suit pocket-
Then I hear him sputtering water, and he laughs.
"It's just a dolphin, a Bottlenose Dolphin, isn't that wonderful? Go on, say hello, he's friendlier than me, and that's saying something!" He exclaims, and I let out a breath, causing me to sink a bit.
"Oh thank God, I thought I was about to eat my words, that you were being mutilated by some alien sea monster!" I say, but waste no more time, diving under the water, risking opening my eyes to have a look at the dolphin. Surprisingly it doesn't really sting.
I can see the blurry dolphin twisting its way through the water around us, letting out chirping whistles as it approaches me.
I hold out my hand, and it brushes its slick body up against it, playfully twisting away almost immediately. Bubbles rise out of my mouth in delighted laughter when I see more dolphins swimming towards us, a whole pod. The Doctor dives down next to me, and he gives me a thumbs up, flashing a blurred smile.
We swim with the pod for nearly a half hour, I should think. I am utterly exhausted by the time we start to slosh our way back to shore.
"Sometimes, I think dolphins might be smarter than some humans." I muse after a moment, and the Doctor chuckles.
"Sometimes, you'd be right."
I smile, stealing a glance at him. He has little drops of water cascading off of the wet tips of his hair. His skin is ever so slightly sunkissed now.
"Doctor?"
"Hmm?"
My intention had been to poke fun at him for having regenerated all those years ago into such a prettyboy, but instead...
"What I said earlier, the thing I said on accident... You know, that thing about you being a ham, and I blurted out- well, you know, that thing I said.." Words are tumbling out of my mouth, and I don't know why, and I can't stop them, and it is mortifying.
Any second he's going to laugh at me. Any second.
But he doesn't laugh.
His gold eyes melt, and his face becomes very serious, looking at me with no smile upon his lips, no indication that he finds my attempt at conveying my feelings humorous.
Suddenly a sound, a very out of place sound, drifts over the rush of the waves.
A telephone ringing.
Saved by the bell! Oh thank everything good and holy in this world.
The Doctor perks up, freezing for a moment.
"What?" He says, and then he is dragging me back to the T.A.R.D.I.S.
"Are you kidding? There's actually a phone in the police phone box?" I say, and he shrugs.
"Not in it, no. Not at the moment, right now it's just outside," he says, opening the panel with writing on it to reveal a phone, just an old phone. "Why does it keep doing this? It's not even supposed to work!"
It's ringing shrilly, and the Doctor grabs it, holding it up to his ear.
He listens for just a moment, then hands the phone to me.
"I think it's for you, actually."
"Seriously? What, how exactly…" I stutter, taking the phone and raising it to my ear hesitantly. What I hear startles me, sending my heart into my throat.
That's my voice. That is my voice, I'm listening to my own voice.
"-know you can hear me, tell Evelyn Anne Crenshaw, species: human, inhabitant of level five Earth, indigenous to the year 2014, tell her she must never set foot on Solgard, not at any time, under any circumstance! Tell her it all depends on that, everything she is working for. It all depends on a single moment of her timeline. My timeline. Tell her-"
The other line hangs up.