In the endless darkness, Lila didn't see anything, no light, just the heaviness in the air, and the stagnant smell, her only compass was feeling for the walls, that felt like dry ice to her hands, and she wasn't able to hold onto the walls for long, having to time, else she feared her hands become frost bitten.
The walls seemed endless, Lila didn't even know how long she kept following them, but there's no doorways, windows, anything, just walls, and when she tried reaching up, she couldn't touch the ceiling, and the walls much taller than she expected.
"Theo… please… where are you?" Lila's desperate finding him, but the aloof giant hadn't turned up, either in front of her or in her mind, he's no where to be found.
Didn't even smell his cologne, he didn't come through this way.
Way.
Wherever the hell's she at, now.
She would've felt his presence if she was close by, but alas, Lila didn't, and it worried her.
Dejectedly, Lila stopped, incapable of going forward, seeing no point, she'd been doing this for… her wristwatch's affixed to 12AM.
Her back against the freezing wall, Lila sat down, only blackness in front of her, blackness behind her, the only sound coming from her heart, and her lonely thoughts being her only company.
Rubbing her eyes as she exhaled sharply in frustration, Lila sat quietly on the ground, trying to come up with an idea, something, but of course, nothing came to mind, outside the obvious, "getting the hell out of here."
Deciding that wallowing won't get her anywhere, Lila forced herself up from the cold ground, continuing in the direction she walked in before stopping, don't know how long she'll keep walking this time, but she tried keeping her pace.
"Ow! Mother—!" Lila stumbled backwards, a jolt went down her spine, as she held her face, caught in a daze after walking into something.
When she recovers, Lila felt a wall in front of her, using it to guide her up to another part of the darkness.
Felt like she's going around a maze.
No, scratch that.
She is going through a maze!
Last time she went through a maze, it was at the county fair, and they had the mind to have everything illuminated and a way to reach someone!
Struggling, Lila kept up, trying to find a way through the winding maze, sharp turns, sudden dead ends.
It's impossible to tell how far in she's at, where the exit's supposed to be, where she even is in the maze, but stubbornness ran in the Watson family, and Lila's determined to get through this damned maze, one way or another!
"And when I get out of here, my feet are gonna need someplace warm, hopefully, I find that asswipe who shoved me in here," Lila uttered as she grew irritated, wanting to locate the man who pushed her through those doors, stuck her here, wanting to give him the Foreman treatment for it.
…Assuming that she can find her way out of here and find Theodore.
"Come in, Major Tom," Lila tried stirring the aloof giant somewhere in the crevices of her mind, playing on a riff, hoping for some sort of sign that she's getting somewhere, but he never appeared to finish the verse.
Going around the umpteenth corner, Lila caught sight of a silhouette in the distance, moving along the darkness, and without conscience chased after the silhouette, thankful that there's someone in the same predicament as her.
They disappeared around the corner, Lila's able to avoid the wall at the end as she turned her whole body, and kept following the silhouette, calling out to it.
It's stupid, she knows, but this is the only thing Lila's seen since she got into this mess, so while there's dangers presented with doing this, she's just thankful there's someone here.
Continuing her chase, Lila's elated when she gained pace with the silhouette, it's a woman, early fifties, maybe, slightly taller than her, with darkened auburn hair flowing to her waistline, when she turned around to face Lila with her dark eyes, Lila heard the woman, "Is this another trick?"
Glaswegian, pangs of West County, hard to say, but it sounded like the woman's in the same predicament as her.
Just as frustrated as her, it's a good sign, that Lila wasn't the first one this happened to, and that she has someone to express ideas on how they're getting out of here.
She's perturbed by Lila, especially hearing her accent, an American, with a soft southern drawl, as Lila excitedly asked her questions about her time in this maze, how she ended up in it, and the woman barely answered, saying that she's just as confused as Lila.
"Oh, right, name's Ellie," the woman exhaled sharply as she introduced herself to Lila, as she done the same.
Quizzically, Ellie asked Lila if she'd seen a wedding ring anywhere, difficult, she knows, but it'd seem that she must've dropped it, and she'd love nothing more than finding it.
Describing it for her, there's sadness in Ellie's eyes, as she felt the pangs of losing it in the darkness.
She doubted she'd find it and Lila's forced to admit that if she can't even find her way out of here, she doubted she's any better finding Ellie's lost wedding ring.
Walking with her, Lila hoped that with the two of them, there's a chance they'll get somewhere in this hellhole, maybe find a way to reach Theodore and Al.
To keep themselves sane, the women talked to each other, there's nothing else for them to do, except walk, might as well.
"He worked up such a courage proposing me," Ellie smiled brightly as she regaled how much the ring meant to her, how her now-husband painstakingly worked everything out, just to work up a courage asking her hand in marriage.
Smiling back, Lila remarked, "My dad proposed with a busted lip!"
Not her dad's finest hour, but despite getting a busted lip, a concussion, he still managed to give a coherent proposal to her late mother.
Talking as they walked, feeling for sharp turns, anything of note, Ellie described her adult children, Tom and William, the way she described the two, reminded Lila of her brothers.
"Aye, the trouble they get into, it's a miracle I haven't turned grey, yet," Ellie sighed as she admitted that her sons got into heaps of troubles, especially Tom.
It caused Lila to tell her, "Don't worry, Daphne made sure the shoe was her miracle."
Whenever her brothers got into too much trouble, the shoe was Daphne's miracle cure preventing gray hair.
Traversing the darkness, keeping their spirits high by talking about their exploits, Lila shocked that Ellie's husband was also a Doctor, how he kept up the tradition long after marrying and having children with her.
Surprised Ellie when Lila informed her that she's traveling with one, too, as she then went on to tell her how her closest friends, practically family to her, went off to travel with other Doctors, as well.
"It wasn't a meet-and-greet sorta deal," Lila responded how she met Theodore, how he broke into her kitchen, ate a sandwich, and the events that followed.
It's not exactly riveting, Lila knows, but Ellie comforted her as described one of her closest friends, Mercy, meeting a Doctor, soaked from head to toe.
Sadly, Ellie lost touch with her a long time ago, never knew what happened to her, could never find her, again.
She went onto an adventure, as she usually does, and that was that.
"What about the Doctor she was with?" Lila asks about him, a frown on Ellie's face as she answers that she isn't sure, he never showed up, either.
Just like her other friend, Jamie.
Went to travel with a much older Doctor, never came around, again.
It's possible that something happened to the older Doctor, that Jamie gotten stuck somewhere, but Ellie never found him, either.
She travels with her husband, hoping that one of them turned up, but they never did.
"Hopefully they're okay," Lila frowned as she then wondered about Theodore.
Turning her head slightly, Ellie comforted her, saying that the Doctor wasn't someone to quit so readily, he'll come around, in time.
"Yeah, my dork would raise hell if they so much as took away the coffee machine," Lila agreed with Ellie, describing how Theodore wouldn't take her absence kindly, much so when he finds out the state, she and Ellie were in.
All this walking's building up an appetite and thirst, but there's nothing to eat, nothing to drink, and despite all those myths, the carrots didn't grant either women the ability to see in the dark, to find anything.
"You know, there are times where the villain of the day just pops up right there all evil like, bright light and all," Lila groaned that in hers and Theodore's adventure, at least the villain makes themselves known, by now.
She hoped that'd happen, at least they'd get somewhere.
Ellie agreed, saying that in hers and her husband's adventures, at least there's something for them to do, not just wander around hopelessly.
All this walking's getting them nowhere, both women felt the pangs of hunger and thirst, weariness in their legs, that they had to stop for a moment, keeping track of the direction they were coming from.
"Are you married?" Ellie inquired as she sat across Lila.
Shaking her head, Lila replied, "Not exactly."
Curious, Ellie asked what she meant and Lila bashfully explained that, as she told Ellie earlier, Theodore wasn't exactly normal.
Partly-normal, really.
"We were always aware of alien Doctors. I met one, myself… though the way you described him…" Ellie realized that she met a Doctor that bore strikingly similarities with Theodore and Lila weakly raised a finger as she tells her, "Yep, that's his son. One of them."
Amazed, Ellie remarked that she didn't think time passed that fast, but Lila replied that the old Time Lord made home on a different version of earth, hers, with Sarah at his side.
"I suppose it does run in the family," Ellie summed how Theodore gotten the reigns back as the Doctor from his father, Lila admitting that the way she described it, it's pretty much that.
Getting back to her original point, Ellie asked more questions, and Lila had the biggest smile on her face, as she summed for Ellie that while she wasn't married to Theodore… they were connected by other means.
"It's… a process," Lila admitted to Ellie, censoring herself for hers and Theodore's sake, a blush on her face giving Ellie cues what Lila really meant.
Lila's only going to say this, now she understands why Theodore turned redder than Mars when so much as referencing the melding process.
It shouldn't, since how it happened seemed atypical to what they done before, sans that, but oh no, no-no-no, this is was a whole different ballpark.
"He must be that special to warrant that sort of… connection," Ellie raised her brow as she processed what Lila sparsely told her and Lila affirms that despite their meeting being unconventional, it was worth the break-in.
To be sure, they'll marry, hell, at this point they might as well, but that'll be in time, Lila hadn't even come up with a way of explaining this to her family.
She'll probably liken it to the Vulcan melding, leave it at that, keep everything else out of it, and hope she doesn't turn bright red like Theodore.
Unable to check the time, neither women bothered to look at their respected wristwatches as they sat on the cold dark ground.
"Do you remember anything?" Lila asks Ellie as the older woman sat across from her; her dark eyes pointed to the floor.
Shaking her head, Ellie recounted how she ended up here, how she went to bed, woke up here, now she can't find her way out of this bizarre nightmare.
"I remember coming to this station with him… we got separated… and…" Lila tried retracing the steps leading up to her becoming trapped in the maze.
Hazily, she remembered parts of it, which shouldn't have been possible, but she couldn't remember all the details, only that.
It's enough that Lila couldn't leave it alone, she swore she wasn't losing her mind, that she had just experienced the incident hours ago, but Ellie convinced her to stop herself, else she'll make herself sick, and they don't need that on top of everything else.
"Yeah, you're right," Lila frowned as she rubbed her eyes in frustration.
She stopped when she and Ellie heard another set of footsteps, another person!
Jumping up, the women looked in the direction of the footsteps, faintly, Lila caught sight of a fluttering yellow dress.
Taking off like a roadrunner, Lila chased after the faint silhouette, behind her, Ellie tried catching up to her as they ran through the darkened maze.