Bill Potts had been waiting for 5 minutes. It felt longer. She drummed her fingers on the Doctor's desk and looked around to see where he had gotten up to. Nardole was not around either- probably begrudgingly running an errand. Maybe Bill should have been grateful for this wait- it had been a very busy day, and it put off her return to Moira- but her finger-drumming became more complex nonetheless. Rat tat tatatat rat tat tat.

10 minutes now. Bill was about to leave the cozy oak office to look for the Doctor when he chose to walk right in. He would strike a dignified figure, what with his mad-scientist hair and imposing stick-like figure, but the casual jacket and hood somewhat ruined it. Especially today, with shortbread crumbs stuck to his lapels. Bill looked at him accusingly.

"You're late," she said.

"You're early." He skipped around the desk to avoid her as she half-jokingly swiped at him and settled into his chair, sitting far too low to be truly comfortable. "What was today again?"

"Due date. You wanted to look over my essay before I submitted it." Bill picked up some papers that were precariously perched on the Doctor's desk and handed them to him. He flipped through the pages nonchalantly and set them back down.

"Ah, the amygdala-affects-anxiety essay. That would put today as the 12th of January, yeah? Didn't want to ask Nardole. You had a spelling error in your second and sixth paragraphs and a source in your bibliography that you didn't use in the essay, but overall your work is quite thorough." Sighing dramatically, the Doctor swivelled around to face the gothic windows. He stared for a few moments before suddenly leaping up and striding towards a large blue police phone box sitting in the corner. He was halfway inside before leaning back towards Bill.

"While Nardole still isn't here, I was going to go out. Want to come?"

Bill was already at his side before he had finished asking. "Of course! Wasn't ready to go home quite yet, and you've left me here too long already." She smiled, just to ensure that he realized that she was joking, but as usual he was not paying too much attention. Instead, he had disappeared inside the box. Bill followed.

The Doctor took his place at the TARDIS controls, hitting all sorts of buttons and flicking dials on each of the console's six faces. Bill perched herself on one of the many metal staircases leading up to the second level of the impossibly large space- much too large to fit inside of the box the two had entered, though it was indeed the box's interior.

With a final lever pulled, the TARDIS groaned into life. The tall column at the center of the room hummed with power, pulsating up and down. Concentric circles with alien engravings located at the column's crown began to rotate. There were no windows to see outside, but Bill felt a thrill of excitement- they had just taken flight. They'd be out somewhere in time and space and back before Nardole returned to chastise them.

The first few minutes went as normal. The Doctor stood at the controls still, inputting their flight path while Bill shouted suggestions at him. Then - bam. The TARDIS shook violently. Bill was glad she had the staircase's railings to hold onto, but the Doctor was not so lucky. He fell to the ground and landed heavily on his right shoulder, frantically reaching up towards the console to get everything under control. Before he could struggle to his feet however, the shaking stopped. Bill and the Doctor exchanged incredulous glances while the TARDIS purred quietly like a content kitten. A few moments of silence passed before Bill noticed-

"We've landed."

The Doctor finally hauled himself to his feet, wincing slightly as he gripped his shoulder and spun the viewscreen over. Bill ran over to him and stood on her tiptoes to look over his shoulder. The viewscreen did not seem to be working- rather than showing them their surroundings, all they saw was murky white gunk criss crossing back and forth. The Doctor grunted, and Bill said, "Well I think that's not good," much more confidently than she felt.

"Well I think you've quite got a talent for understatement, Ms Potts. Stay here, I'm going to grab the torches." With that, the Doctor left her alone waiting for the second time that day.

Another 5 minutes passed. Surely he could not be lost in his own TARDIS? Eventually, Bill's curiosity got the better of her and she opened the TARDIS door.

It was dark, damp, and quite cold. Bill surmised that they must have ended up in a cave. A few dark tunnels, too smooth to be natural, too rough to be artificial, split off from the chamber the TARDIS was. Wanting a better understanding of her surroundings, Bill circled the TARDIS. There, at the top, where the light was, was webbing covering the TARDIS. Bill was not tall enough to even attempt to clear it off, but she made note to try and find a stick to do so later. She wondered how it had gotten there, but quickly shrugged that off as she heard a noise echo down one of the tunnels.

"Hello?" she called out, and started forward in the noise's direction. Within a few moments, it was too dark to see. Bill regretted leaving before the Doctor had come back with the flashlights. To keep from bumping into anything, she kept one hand on the walls. This too she soon regretted. Mostly the walls were the same weird too-smooth too-rough texture as they had been where she came from. However, she soon came across a section that felt somehow more wrong. It was wet and sticky and slimy. She tried to recoil, but she found that she could not- her hand was stuck to the wall. Gulping down panic, Bill next tried to back up. This too was futile as her sneakers were similarly glued to the ground. All she had left was to wave her free hand around and hope to find something that could help her, but somehow that too got stuck in webbing. Where was this coming from? Bill could have sworn that that webbing was not there ready to trap her just a second ago.

Now completely helpless, Bill yelled out for help. Her voice echoed down the tunnel. The noise that had lured her into this hell trap echoed back- closer now. It sounded like footsteps.

Just before Bill could call out to whoever it was coming towards her, she heard bickering.

"Oh Jamie, give it here!" a female voice snapped. Next she felt another cold texture- this time rigid rather than slimy- slice the webbings away and several hands pull her away from her trap, back towards where the TARDIS was sitting.

Now in a less dark area, Bill could see these others. One was a short pretty young woman, maybe about Bill's age with a round face and short dark hair, wearing what appeared to be a silver jumpsuit. The two others were men, one younger and one older. The younger one was also dark haired and wearing a kilt, something Bill found strange. The older man she thought was shorter, but when Kilt stood protectively beside him she could see that they were about the same height, the older man just seemed shorter because his dishevelled clothes were too large for him. While Kilt eyed her suspiciously, Jumpsuit and Dishevelled were instead staring at the TARDIS, quite confused.

At that moment, the Doctor finally emerged from the TARDIS to be greeted by Bill and this party. The Doctor and Dishevelled locked eyes, and Bill had been travelling with the Doctor long enough to recognize his expression- Oh no.