Chapter 1

"Why couldn't you have just landed the TARDIS on top of the mountain?" Yaz asked, wiping sweat off her brow as she continued slogging her way up the slope.

"What, and miss the fun of a good hike?" the Doctor said, motioning to the trees around them. The switchback trail that went to the top of Mount Paz might take a while to hike up, but at least it was a mountain that could be hiked rather than climbed. "Anyway, there's no level surface to land on up top." She saw Yaz stumble a bit over a crack in the rocks and reached for her hand, grasping it firmly. "I promise it'll be worth it when you see the view. You can see six different landscapes from the peak."

"What are they?"

"Forest to the north, meadow to the east with the sea beyond that, swamp to the south, and a valley to the west, but if you look far enough, you can see the desert just at the horizon."

"That is impressive." Yaz smiled at her. "I'm just glad you're back. I can't really complain about anything you take me to do."

"I try to keep things fun, except when there's something that needs doing." The Doctor squeezed her hand. "It's good to have you back too. And it feels so nice just to stretch my legs after all those decades in prison!"

"I guess I can see why you'd want to walk up a mountain after that."

"And in addition to the daytime view, we'll also have a perfect view of the suns setting, and then the really awesome view comes at night. You can see so many stars from here, and there are polar lights like your aurora borealis. That's why I packed our sleeping bags, so we can spend the night up there and watch the sky! After we've eaten the food you brought." The Doctor had insisted on carrying the heavier pack with their camping supplies, as part of her ongoing effort to convince Yaz that Time Lords possessed super strength. Yaz was carrying a smaller pack with their food for both tonight and in the morning.

"It does sound lovely," Yaz said in what the Doctor thought was a slightly dreamy voice. She wasn't sure if she was imagining it. Certainly the dynamic between them had changed now that it was just the two of them. They'd had a lot of time to talk, and the Doctor had found herself opening up about things she'd never told the whole Fam, creating a new closeness between herself and Yaz. Their time apart had affected them as well. She had seen all the notes in that spare TARDIS, Yaz's desperate attempts to figure out a way to work the complex machine, to find a way back to the Doctor. Worse, she had seen the crumpled little sleeping bag on the hard floor. She knew of only one thing that could motivate someone to devote herself for so long to an impossible task. It was the same thing that had invaded her dreams during the long nights in prison, the thing that had her scrawling poetry on the prison walls and then wiping it right back off with her hands, as if the Judoon might read it and mock her secret thoughts.

Now how did she proceed? Would she kiss Yaz at the top of the mountain or leave it, let her be, assume she would make the first move if it was really what she wanted? Or was it better to just leave things as they were anyway?

"But if there's no area flat enough to land the TARDIS, will there be enough room for us to stretch out?" Yaz asked with a frown.

"Well, maybe not stretch out. Curl up, at least." She smiled brightly. "I can get comfortable anywhere!"

"With a rock for a pillow?"

"I brought pillows. Anyway, you can always lean on me. If you can't get comfortable. "

"And it's safe?"

"Perfectly safe. There are no nocturnal predators here. The only diurnal predators big enough to eat us are the prisera birds, and they'll have migrated by this time of year. That's why I chose to come here in the autumn."

"An autumn night on the top of a mountain? Won't we be cold?"

"Not if we…huddle together." The Doctor felt her confidence evaporating as she said the words. She had pictured it in her mind: they would take in the view, get some pictures, enjoy a picnic dinner while the suns went down, then spread out their sleeping bags and gaze up at the sky. A cool breeze would blow, Yaz would cuddle up to her, the Doctor would hug her to keep her warm, and that was how they would spend the night. So fresh from her time in prison, the Doctor was all about embracing life and the many wonders the universe had to offer – and more importantly, sharing these wonders with Yaz. And this was certainly the way life was meant to be lived: a beautiful sky up above, a beautiful woman in her arms.

But what if that wasn't what Yaz wanted? Was the Doctor tricking her into something? They'd done similar things spontaneously before, but this was different. It was definitely premeditated on the Doctor's part, and she'd pretty much just told Yaz that. Maybe it was a little creepy to drag Yaz into a situation where the need to cuddle for warmth was part of the plan. The last thing she wanted to do was make Yaz uncomfortable now that she finally had her back.

But to her relief, Yaz only smiled and said, "I suppose that's one of the nice things about it being just us girls."

"Yes! Just us ladies. Not a bloke in sight." The Doctor grinned and continued her uphill slog, shifting her hand just a little so her fingers laced together with Yaz's. Yaz's fingertips curled around the Doctor's hand, and it felt so natural. They always felt natural together, her and Yaz. Perhaps her vision of how the night could unfold wasn't so outlandish after all. She supposed she would just see how things played out.

Suddenly, a flapping sound above them made her freeze. "Yaz, don't move," she said quietly, her eyes searching the sky.

"What is it?" Yaz breathed. The question soon answered itself. A bright red and orange bird with a wingspan of well over three metres flew out over the treetops, circling in search of prey.

"I must have miscalculated," the Doctor whispered. "The prisera birds aren't all gone yet. We'll have to go back to the TARDIS as soon as this one passes."

"What do we do until then?"

"Just stay very still. They hunt from the sky, looking for signs of movement down below. Which is why we'll have to move very carefully going down, staying under the cover of trees as much as possible."

"Okay." Yaz kept her grip on the Doctor's hand, watching the giant bird circle. Suddenly it spotted something to their left and dove swiftly below the treeline, re-emerging a moment later with something like a large mountain goat clutched in its talons. The poor animal bleated helplessly as it was carried away, and then both bird and prey were gone.

The Doctor let out a breath. "Now that one's got its snack, it's time for us to move." They turned and began heading back down the way they came, picking their way slowly so they could listen for the sound of wings. "There probably aren't many of them left. Perhaps I got here just a little early, and the migration has already begun, but they haven't all gone yet."

"So I guess our campout is cancelled, then?" Yaz asked, sounding disappointed.

"Well, maybe we could just hop forward a month or so. We could fly around in the TARDIS and makes sure there are no prisera birds before we try again. Might have been a good idea in the first place, now I think about it."

"Sounds good to me. I want to see those lights!"

"Perhaps a bit of a rest in the TARDIS first though. We're going to be a bit knackered after going up and down this mountain. Maybe we'll do movie night in the TARDIS, then come back for—"

"Doctor, look out!"

There was a sudden flapping behind her, but before the Doctor could even look, she felt Yaz shoving her to the ground. She then looked up to see a prisera bird grabbing Yaz by the shoulders.

"Yaz!" she screamed, jumping to her feet just as the bird began to lift Yaz in the air. Without thinking, she grabbed Yaz's feet and tried to pull her back down. She successfully pulled Yaz from one of the bird's talons, but with a mighty flap of its wings it was instantly out of her reach, Yaz now dangling precariously by one shoulder. The Doctor watched in horror as two things happened simultaneously: the bird swiftly rose higher into the sky, and Yaz slipped from its grasp.

Then Yaz was falling, past the slope the Doctor stood on and out of sight.

"YAZ!" the Doctor screamed, not even caring if the bird heard her as she ran to the ledge and looked down, fearing what she would see.

Yaz was only about nine feet down from the Doctor, though she'd fallen much further than that. She was on a rocky slope they'd already walked up, lying flat on her back. She wasn't moving.

This must be how Graham felt after Grace fell. The thought came unbidden, and she quickly pushed it away. This was different, because Yaz was not dead. The Doctor wasn't having that.

The bird seemed to have continued its flight away from the mountain after dropping Yaz, which was just as well, as the Doctor had no time to waste, not even to run back down the switchback slope. Finding hand and footholds where she could, she half-climbed, half-fell down to where Yaz lay, blood seeping through her torn jacket around her left shoulder. To her great relief, Yaz's eyes fluttered open when she landed next to her.

"I couldn't let it get you," she said, her voice faint. "I only just got you back." And then her eyes rolled back into her head, lids closing again.

"No, Yaz, stay awake!" the Doctor cried helplessly. "Yaz, please! I've only just got you back too!"

But Yaz didn't respond. The Doctor grabbed for her sonic, thinking desperately that perhaps Yaz's backpack had broken her fall just enough to prevent serious injury. Then she remembered, with a sinking feeling, that she had insisted on taking the heavier bag, the one with the sleeping bags and pillows. The food Yaz was carrying wouldn't protect her much. The Doctor had just let her down, twice.

She scanned Yaz's entire body with the sonic and studied the readings worriedly. She'd hit her head hard on the rocks, and the back of her skull had just the tiniest hairline fracture. A tiny blood vessel had broken inside, blood seeping ever so slowly into the outer lining of her brain. If the bleeding stopped soon, she would be okay; if not, she might need surgery, and the Doctor was no surgeon.

It was her lower back, however, that had taken the brunt of the impact. Her spinal cord was crushed, most of the nerves severed. She would be paralyzed from the waist down if the Doctor didn't take her to a hospital that had the nanosurgery techniques necessary to reattach the severed nerves.

The Doctor took a deep breath, willing herself not to panic. She knew where to go, and when. Sisters of the Infinite Schism, 51st century. Best hospital in the universe. They would be able to repair Yaz's injuries and give her a restful place to recuperate. All she had to do was materialize the TARDIS around Yaz so she could take her there without moving her and making matters worse.

Closing her eyes, she placed her fingers on Yaz's temple and left her a telepathic message just in case she woke up again. I'm coming right back. Don't move a muscle. Just wait for me. She would be safe from the prisera birds as long as she didn't move. The Doctor took off her backpack, pulling out one of the sleeping bags and gently tucking it around Yaz before beginning her journey back down the mountain.

Too impatient to take the path, she climbed down the most direct way possible, scrambling down rocks and trees in haphazard fashion. She was careful not to fall – she'd be useless to Yaz if she did – but she paid no heed to the bumps and bruises and scratches she received on her way down. It wasn't until she reached the TARDIS that she realised there were tears running down her face.

Well, there was no time to be sad. She could fix this. She wasn't letting Yaz down again. She put in the most precise coordinates she could and materialised around Yaz, taking off again with her friend now lying on the floor of the console room, still out cold. The Doctor quickly reset her coordinates and landed in the front lobby of the Sisters of the Infinite Schism Hospital, immediately bursting out of the doors and accosting the first Sister she saw.

"You have to help my friend," she said breathlessly. "She fell on a mountain and her spinal cord is damaged. You can repair severed spinal cords here, can't you?"

"Yes, we can, but we need to examine your friend first. Where is she?"

"She's here in my ship, on the floor. I transported her as carefully as I could."

The Sister called for help, and some orderlies arrived to carefully transfer Yaz to a gurney. It pained the Doctor to see Yaz so still and lifeless, but at least she was getting the help she needed.

"You're going to have to move your ship to the designated parking area," the Sister was saying. "They can give you a parking pass at the front desk. Is there next of kin available to give consent for your friend's medical care?"

"Er, yes, that's me. I'm her—" She cast around for the most believable answer. "We're married."

The Sister raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure? You just called her your friend."

"Well, I married my best friend. Anyway, we're newlyweds." The Doctor dug through her pockets for her psychic paper, brandishing it proudly. "Here's our marriage certificate."

"'The Viva New Las Vegas Chapel,'" the Sister read. "Unplanned wedding, then?"

The Doctor frowned at the paper as if she could will it to come up with a more dignified-sounding wedding venue. "Look, I know how it sounds, but I love her. You have to make her better. She's everything to me." She swallowed down the lump in her throat. "She's all I really have left."

The Sister sighed. "Married is married. We're not here to judge." She handed the Doctor a tablet. "Fill in patient information while she's being examined."

Nodding, the Doctor went into the waiting area and began filling out the form on the tablet.

Name: Yasmin Khan

Species: Human

Age: 22 Earth years

Biological sex: Female

Gender: Female

Planet of Origin: Earth

Emergency Contact: The Doctor

Relationship to Patient: Spouse

Medical Conditions: None

Allergies: Unknown

Is there a possibility of the patient being pregnant or carrying eggs? Neither

Has patient been exposed to someone with kelsovirus or travelled to a region with known cases of kelsovirus in past 90 days? No

The Doctor had just submitted the completed form and was obtaining her parking pass from the front desk when the Sister returned with an older Sister who was bearing a tablet containing Yaz's scans.

"Hello, I'm Sister Mabela, senior surgeon. And you are?"

"The Doctor. Yaz is my wife."

Sister Mabela nodded. "Your wife does have some bleeding on the brain. We've given her something to slow it down, so she should regain consciousness soon, but a period of disorientation will be normal. We also irrigated and sutured the large scratches on her left shoulder. Do you know what caused that?"

The Doctor nodded gravely. "She was attacked by a prisera bird on the planet Bella 4. It tried to carry her off. I was able to pull her loose from its talons, but then it dropped her over a cliff, and that's how she hurt her back." She blinked back tears. "The bird was diving for me, but she pushed me out of the way, so it got her instead. She got hurt saving me."

"She obviously loves you very much. The good news is, if you consent, we can do the surgery to reattach the severed nerves in her spinal cord. Her feeling should return over the next few days, but she will require weeks of intense physical therapy to be able to walk again. It will be a slow recovery, and painful."

"But she'll be all right?" the Doctor asked hopefully. "She'll get back to the way she was before?"

"Yes. Once she heals, she'll be good as new."

"Then I'll sign whatever you need me to. She needs this surgery. I have to put things right."

"Sign here." The other Sister passed her a tablet. The Doctor scanned over the details of the surgery before "signing" with her fingerprint.

"The surgery will take several hours," the Sister told her, handing her a small electronic device. "This will display any updates on her condition and tell you what room to come to when she's out of surgery. In the meantime, you are free to visit our food court, hospital shop, or recreation areas."

"I think I'll just stay nearby," the Doctor said. "Can I…see her, before you take her back?"

"Of course. This way." She led the Doctor down a corridor to a small room, where Yaz lay unconscious on a rolling bed.

"I'll leave you two alone while we prep for surgery," the Sister said, closing the door as she left the room.

The Doctor went to Yaz's side and grasped her hand. "Yaz, I'm so sorry," she murmured. "It's my fault this happened to you. But they're going to fix you up. You'll be just fine."

Yaz's eyes fluttered a little. "Doctor?" she mumbled.

"Yaz, I'm here!"

"Please don't leave again." Yaz squeezed the Doctor's hand, and then her fingers relaxed again.

"Yaz, I promise, I won't leave," the Doctor said, but she got no response. Swallowing, she sent a telepathic message instead, one that would be in Yaz's mind when she woke up. "I promise I'll stay with you, and I promise you'll be okay, but I need you to be brave right now. Also, you should know I had to tell the hospital we're married—"

Suddenly Yaz's eyes fluttered open again. "We're married?"

"Yes, I had to tell them that so—"

Suddenly the door opened and a Sister came into the room, just as Yaz smiled and her eyes closed again.

"We're ready to take her to the operating theatre. It's best if we do it as soon after the injury as possible," she explained.

"Yes, of course," the Doctor agreed. "I think she's trying to regain consciousness, but she can't seem to stay awake."

"We'll give her an anaesthetic to make sure she doesn't come to on the operating table."

The Doctor nodded in relief. She kissed her fingers and pressed them lightly to Yaz's forehead, then watched helplessly as she was wheeled away.