Woo! Getting better at this every time. Not really though. Regardless though, second chapter and hopefully I'll be able to keep this pace up but we'll definitely see! I may turn this into a biweekly post in hopes of getting back to my Hetalia units story for YenKin's sake haha.

Thanks again to NicoRide, Ghost, Yel, Yen and Killer for helping me to beta read this story and make sure I do my best to stay in character for the 10th Doctor. Constructive notes/comments/reviews are always appreciated and thanks again for everyone's support!

"Ready?"

"Doctor, the repairs have been finished for nearly twenty minutes now. I'm more than ready and I'm beginning to think that you're just stalling."

"I'm not, I promise. Cross my hearts."

Caligo was half tempted to question him about that "cross my hearts" nonsense but quickly remembered that he was an alien. He might look human on the outside, but just like any spacecraft, who knew what he had under the hood. She shook her head to banish the thought before following him almost impatiently toward his ship. Her tech drone Wilhelm and a hotrod red engineer drone hovered just behind her shoulders, waiting almost as expectantly as she was for the Doctor to open the door. He looked like a madman with a grin like that in her opinion.

"You really are curious, aren't you," he asked, grinning like a sly fox. He noted the way her right foot shifted slightly as if she were trying very hard not to show that she was getting tired of waiting. There was no missing the twitch of her right brow, a clear sign of irritation and impatience. The Doctor didn't stop Caligo when she suddenly stepped forward and opened the door herself before freezing in her tracks. Those big, dark doe eyes showed up again and honestly, if this was the look she always got when she was shocked then he was going to have to find ways to keep amazing her. He felt his hearts thrum with excitement in his chest as he waited for the shock to wear off enough for her to speak again, knowing just what she would say next.

What they always said.

"Amazing," she whispered, one hand still on the handle of the door and the other slowly reaching up to rest against the frame. Even if she still stood in the doorway she took in everything she could see, yearning but not daring to take a single step further for a menagerie of reasons that swirled in her head like a violent whirlpool rattling her skull. Excitement and apprehension flooded her body and the skirmish locked her entire body in place. It even made speaking a challenge. Was she really about to entertain the idea of an alien that just popped up in the heart of her home taking her to see a planet that she's never heard of and bring her back to the exact same spot and time?

"No need to be shy. You can come inside!" He gave her the little push she needed to break free of her apprehension and take her first steps inside, taking carefully measured steps so they wouldn't collide as she spun around to take everything in. The two drones had followed her inside without hesitation before the TARDIS door could shut on them and kept close to the lieutenant. The Doctor was still watching, waiting…

"Your ship," she started uncertainly. Caligo stopped near the console and looked down at the ground beneath her feet before slowly letting her gaze rise with her arms and tentatively feel the open space around her. She could still hardly believe what she was seeing and feeling – or rather what she could almost feel. It should've been impossible for a ship this small to be… "It's bigger…inside…?"

"Brilliant observation lieutenant. It most certainly is."

She glanced down at him for a moment before her eyes snapped back up to the roof of the TARDIS at what sounded to be a low groan of sorts. "Your ship is groaning?"

"It's more like a purr, really."

"Your ship is purring…" The drones were suddenly focused solely on her when she dropped her arms and gaze again, breathing deeply as her mind slowly began to process the fact that the Doctor's ship was defying everything she knew and understood about human and alien technology. Her mind wasn't really made for that and it was as if the realization was so overwhelming to her that she was about to shut down like an overloaded computer. Caligo felt her chest tighten and instinctively began to force breaths in faster. She unzipped her jacket as if that would help alleviate the problem and wove her hand into her bangs when a dull pounding began in her right temple...

"Lieutenant?" The Doctor's amusement diminished somewhat when he noticed her unzip her jacket and the drones were watching her like hawks. He quickly pushed himself up from the railing he was leaning against when she brought a hand up to cradle her head and strode over to her, concerned. "Are you not feeling well? You can sit down if you like." She didn't respond and he was sure she could hear him from so close. He lightly placed his hands on her arms, the tension in her muscles easily felt through her jacket, and tried to catch a glimpse of her face or any sign of pain. "Lieutenant Valgus?" The hand on her face twitched in response and he felt her relax all of a sudden. When she finally looked up at him, the doe eyed look of wonder he had been so greatly enjoying was gone without a trace.

"I'm fine now. Apologies for causing you to worry," she answered in that cool, no nonsense tone. It was the same as when he'd first met her probably not more than an hour or two ago.

"You're sure? You looked like you were in pain…"

"It's nothing to be concerned about. I feel fine."

He really didn't care too much for this particular mood of hers. It made her seem too robotic for a human and gave him the chills. Like her personality was so cold that it would give him frostbite if he got too close… He quickly brushed the thought aside and moved toward the console. As long as she's alright now, that's what matters. "Well then… You've been in this observatory for, say… A few months now?"

"Seven years, not including reporting to Central Command in person every month and periodic trips into the city for parts or emergency calls."

"Seven years?!" He gaped openly at her in disbelief and sheer shock from the statement. "Have you ever heard of something called a vacation? Time off? A break?" Caligo merely shrugged in response and quirked a brow at him when he threw his arms up in exasperation. "Fine then. I know where our first stop will be."

"And that would be where exactly?"

The Doctor was already working furiously at the controls, seemingly hell bent on wherever it was he wanted to take her. "We," he said, throwing a switch and causing the ship to suddenly lurch, "Are going someplace where it's hard to do anything but relax." He threw the switch back not a few moments later and gestured for her to follow him out the door. "And leave your little buddies here. No tech or working while you're relaxing. I could feel those knots in your muscles through your jacket for goodness' sake." There was a momentary pause and he turned back to her briefly before taking off his trench coat. "Might not want to walk around with it on actually. It's definitely warmer than Blackridge out there."

Caligo glanced back at the two drones for a moment before giving them a nod and prompting them to go into a sleep mode of sorts. They settled on the floor under the console like a pair of cats curling up for a nap, leaving her to do as she would. "Where are we Doctor," she called after him as they headed out the door. The blaring sun that suddenly illuminated everything around her caused her to momentarily recoil and shield her face. "Why is the sun so bright?"

The Time Lord stood just a few steps in front of her, arms outstretched and letting the rays of the two suns warm his skin. "Nice change from that snowy mountaintop, don't you think? Welcome to Barcelona~" Caligo, having finally gathered her bearings, donned a pair of old fashioned aviator sunglasses and grumbled in response. "You won't be sounding so grumpy after a nice massage I bet- Oh! I like those glasses. Where did you find them?" He leaned down more to her height to get a better look at the tinted brown lenses and even took note of his reflection in them. Caligo quickly leaned away from him when his hand moved toward it, assuming that he would try to take them off.

"These stay on my face until we get inside someplace where there's less sun."

"Could I try them on after?"

"When we get inside," she grumbled again. The Doctor regarded her thoughtfully for a moment while she went ahead and took a look at the resort before them. Maybe the sun was good for her. It brought out that snarky grump from earlier when she was about to slap him for dropping her into a ventilation shaft and that was a welcomed change from the icicle version. "What was the point of bringing me here? There are some reputable resorts back on Earth."

"This is entire planet is like that and so much more~ Come on, let me show you!" The Doctor smiled at her again and offered her his arm to take. It was such a simple gesture and yet he honestly couldn't seem to recall ever seeing someone so confused by it. "Promise I don't bite, lieutenant."

Caligo continued to look between him and his arm, still uncertain of what he wanted her to do. It didn't take long before she picked up that he wanted her to hold onto him or that the offer was at least there if she wanted to. The gesture, she knew, was harmless enough but it made her stomach turn in a way that she simply couldn't ignore. Surely he must think that she was already quite rude and with that in mind, she managed to make herself feel less uneasy when she turned away from him. "I'll assume we're in a civilian environment. You don't have to call me lieutenant," she called over her shoulder as she strode toward the entrance to one of the buildings. Caligo brushed a hand over the skull adorning her rank insignia and it suddenly sank down into the silver, nothing but a faint reflection of it visible only if someone were to look very carefully. She was aware that he was probably confused and maybe even a little put off by her sudden change in mood. Caligo really didn't want to hurt someone who didn't mean her any harm – especially because he didn't know anything about her and quite frankly, she wasn't in the mood for sharing – but she couldn't bother herself with trying to explain things that she didn't even understand about herself.

The Doctor caught up quickly and tapped her on the shoulder, making sure to keep the contact brief. "No no, not that way. Over here~"

"Don't we need to check in or something of the like? I'm sure that it's this way." She pointed to a building whose sign now read "Guest Information" when something dawned on her. "I don't know this language. I'm sure that I don't. How is it that I can read this?"

"Never mind that. It's perfectly fine if we go this way. Trust me, I know my way around here!" Caligo turned to him, ready to give him some sort of lecture about the implications of trespassing and how easy it would be to avoid all of that trouble but all of that caught in her throat when she saw the look on his face. He knew what he was doing. He was eager to have fun and he wanted to share that with her. She felt yet another foreign feeling – an emotion of a different sort, maybe – sweep through her body and the dull throbbing in her skull started again but she quickly pushed it all aside. "I guess it's simpler to just trust your judgment," she nearly sighed, "Although I really would prefer to do things properly."

"Come on lieutenant." The Doctor barely stifled a laugh when she grumbled again in a manner unfitting for someone who seemed to be as uptight as she was. It was fun to push her buttons like this.

"Doctor, I told you. Call me Caligo."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am," he answered with a mock salute. He laughed when she grumbled a little louder than before, muttering something about not doing strange things like that and lengthened her stride when he got ahead of her. Looks like she's got a bit of fire in her after all. I can't imagine why she would be trying to pretend to be so serious all the time he mused to himself.

"You're ridiculous. Where are we going anyway? You still haven't answered any of my questions you know."

"I haven't? Well I thought it would be a good idea to warm up after being stuck on that mountain for seven years," he called back to her, words drenched with sarcasm and giving her a pointed look.

Caligo slouched under his gaze and ground her teeth slightly. "I was notstuck in the observatory. It's my post. I'm supposed to be there."

The Doctor stopped in front of her and turned on his heel, abruptly leaning forward and forcing her to stop short when he held a finger up to her face. "Which is why it's good to get you out of there. If you're going to be traveling with me, you have to be ready to move at a moment's notice and while I see your reflexes aren't bad…" He gestured to her as if to point out the quick stop she did to prevent a collision with his hand and wisely withdrew it from the close proximity to her face when she eyed it like a cat might an unsuspecting mouse. He doubted it a little, but he couldn't be sure if she would be the first companion to make a habit of biting or not. "You're very tense and vulnerable to sunlight by the looks of it. Are you a vampire by any chance?"

He really had to wonder if he'd broken her brain or something to that extent when she remained silent. "Yoohoo…" He waved a hand in front of her face, snapped his fingers a couple of times and even whistled. All Caligo did was sigh heavily and rub at the bridge of her nose just under her sunglasses. "What's the matter? Another headache?"

Her hand left her face and the sunglasses slid down her nose just enough to expose her partial steely gaze, the right eye still covered by that flop of hair she called bangs. "You're saying you brought me to a resort on a planet with two blinding suns to see if I would burn up in the sunlight because you believe vampires exist?"

"Well actually there's nine suns and this was the coolest time of the year which I figured you would appreciate after being stuck in the snow for so long and are you really going to keep wearing that leather jacket because I really think that it's unnecessary."

The young woman's stare only intensified and the Doctor actually felt himself shrink back a little like a child who'd just broken his mother's favorite vase, knowing they were in deep trouble. In his case, it was more like he'd been caught trying to change the subject and that she didn't like his accusations about her clothing.

"And what if I were a vampire, Doctor? You'd let me turn to ash?"

"Oi, that's not what I-" The Doctor was dumbstruck by the sudden realization of what was going on. That hadn't at all been what he had expected from her. In fact, it couldn't have been further from it. He was even more baffled by the smirk that pulled at her lips, the look she gave him that screamed "you don't know anything about me and this is what you get so you'd better watch out before you get burned" and how she strode past him with such gusto. It felt like she took the reins from him and now she was in charge of their little adventure. "This is going to be fun," he murmured under his breath before catching up to her.

"I believe you owe me an answer. What are we doing here?" She was busy removing her black leather gloves when she noticed the terrain had changed from stone walkways and some unusual looking grass to white sand. Confused and a little upset with the sand now sticking to her boots, Caligo shook her feet in a vain attempt to rid them of the pesky particles before taking in her surroundings more fully. A large white sand beach lay before them, filled with people and yet it somehow managed to not feel extremely crowded. The tint of her lenses distorted the true colors enough that she actually took them off briefly and let her eyes adjust to the lighting for the sake of clarity. It looked more like a lagoon to her, now that she had a clearer view of it, seeing the stretch of land at the opposite end of the water and ant sized black dots moving along it. What truly caught her attention though was the water. "It's like glass," she stated, turning toward the Doctor as if looking for affirmation and more likely an explanation.

"Sure does. Even more so when you're on the water itself. It is a beach if that's what you're wondering. You see that thin line out there with the little ant looking things scuttling about?"

"I can't begin to tell you how unnerving your analogy is…"

"That's actually a sandbar currently partially submerged. Now the water here is something special. It's so clean that it's just as you said. Like glass. You can see clear to the bottom when the water's still. They have little ferry rides to take you over there if you're not in the mood for walking you know. Lovely juice bar too."

Caligo huffed at the mention of juice and subconsciously wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "A drink does sound a little overdue for me…" Why did this blasted planet have to have two of its nine suns out at once?

"I'm telling you, you really should take that thing off. You're going to give yourself heat stroke with all that heavy winter clothing and that's no good for humans you know," the Doctor chided, tugging lightly on the fuzzy white collar of her jacket.

"Really. I had no idea," Caligo muttered almost sarcastically. She finally donned her sunglasses once more and cast a glance up at him. "Where are the ferry rides?"

"We could just walk right over. The tide's not that-"

"Boat," she said with finality and headed toward the dock. The Doctor pouted a little and whether she was aiming to or not, she had him following at her heels.

"But it's more fun that way. Don't you want to see alien fish?"

Caligo grumbled something under her breath that he definitely didn't catch this time and got onto the quaint sail boat, not even turning back to see if he would really follow her. Only a few seconds passed before he decided to stick close to the lieutenant and hopped onto the boat as well. Reading this woman was hard. The Doctor could only identify a few different traits about her aside from her very limited range of emotion and very linear thinking. How can she be so curious and yet so closed off to new things all around her? He stopped to consider that maybe he was doing something wrong this time around. Usually his companions were so easily amazed and often went along with his ideas, save for a few of them but Caligo seemed to be moving in the opposite direction most of the time. She was a soldier and he often pegged them to be the types who followed first and thought about it along the way but she was acting more like a leader than just someone who follows. "Can I ask you something?"

"That depends on what you're asking."

That cheeky side of hers again. "Were you always a lieutenant?"

Caligo cast him a sideways glance at his question and felt her brow furrow slightly. "I haven't been demoted if that's what you really meant to ask. I worked my way up to being a lieutenant. First Lieutenant, in fact, and that means that I don't take orders from everyone." The silver insignia flashed in the sunlight as she crossed her arms over her chest, surveying the expanse before her like a lion might their territory. He had no idea how some of these similes came to him when he took a good look at her but they just sort of jumped out at him. Of course, there was something behind each of those things. On one hand she seemed very proud of where she stood, but on the other she might just be looking out for more danger on the horizon. Maybe she wasn't thinking of anything at all and just casually taking in the view.

The Doctor leaned against the railing just a step or two in front of her and looked out at the crystal clear ocean as well. "Do you like being in charge of things?"

"Do you mean to say bossy?"

"Now I didn't say that."

"You're implying it. I don't consciously intend on it. I see a direction that I want to take and I take it. Nothing more or less and certainly not something to read into too much."

"But how do you choose that direction?" The question was easily predictable and she should have seen it coming but the more that she thought about it, Caligo had actually never consciously considered how she made certain decisions. Often times, it was based on logic, a very systematic way of thinking or simply because her superior deemed it to be appropriate and as their subordinate who was she to argue? At least that was how she could remember viewing things. But she couldn't ignore that there had been times, incidents on missions or when she was alone with her work in the observatory when there had been neither a clear cut answer nor someone to tell her which direction to take. She couldn't ignore those moments where she had acted without thinking. Gone left instead of right. Followed the rabbit down the hole. Took the red pill instead of the blue pill. "Do you know where that comes from…?"

It was the Doctor's turn raise a brow at her and so he did, making his confusion plain as the light dancing across the water but she wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him again. "Do I know where what comes from?"

The headache was slowly starting to come on again but Caligo kept her mind as far from the thought of it as she could manage. The small waves that radiated from the boat's movements made her think of the waves of energy that were currently bombarding the shields surrounding the Earth and the readings she might be getting on her computer back at Blackridge. How she should've been there right now instead of with this man who claimed to be an alien and went by the Doctor as a name. How completely insane she would sound if she had someone to regale this experience to and how they would surely have to decommission her permanently and how definitely not ready she was for that to happen. It took a few more minutes before she remembered that she wasn't alone and that she had in fact asked him a question she just might get an answer to this time. "Where did those sayings come from. The white rabbit and falling down a hole, choosing between the red pill and the blue pill…"

"Pills?"

"Why is a rabbit hole always used as such an…artistic way of describing amazement, curiosity, wonder…"

"Wonder and rabbit holes…?" A hand rubbed at his chin as he thought and suddenly his eyes lit up. "Lewis Carroll."

"Who?"

"Lewis Carroll. The author of Alice in Wonderland. It's a children's book! My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that," he suddenly sang with a smile, "Wonderful, mad book. Did you read it as a child?" The smile couldn't have fallen faster when he saw her finally shake her head perhaps almost in dismay. "How did you know that then? Someone been spoiling the story for you?"

"I'd never even heard of it until you mentioned it…" Their boat had come to a stop on the sand bar with a gentle thud and Caligo momentarily forgot about her aversion to walking in the water with her boots on as she stepped off. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone ever speak about it either. It's not something that we…being what we are, take part in, idle conversation. Not in my time. That's considered a very "civilian" thing to do…"

"I get the feeling that interacting with civilians isn't something you're allowed to do?"

"It's a social taboo, not an actual rule…" To her, she was being very plain. Obvious, even. But she supposed that it was the fact that he looked very much like a human that she forgot that he was in fact an alien and she guessed that the time traveling bit meant that he didn't usually spend too long in any particular era or even a place other than his ship. He didn't know. He didn't needto know. In fact, she preferred that he didn't know. Maybe this is why we never really got along with normal people…

As if sensing her shift in mood and the lack of a desire to further discuss her ability to reference things she'd never heard of before, the Doctor jumped onto the shore with her and gave her a friendly slap on the back. "Well come on now. Alien fish," he exclaimed and headed further along the shore. There was something endearing about his enthusiasm that she just couldn't place her finger on but it couldn't beat the sudden aching in her feet she hadn't noticed before. Up until that moment she had never realized just how cold the observatory actually was and how much she could actually feel now that she had some semblance of feeling in her extremities. Caligo had been up on her feet constantly even hours before the Doctor had shown up and her feet seemed to be more than tired of it.

"Well. He was right about the juice bar." The sand bar was short and she was fairly confident that she wouldn't lose him if she just sat down to rest for a moment… The…worker attending the bar gave her a friendly smile.

"What'll it be, ma'am?"

Something a little familiar at last. Caligo drew back the level of her steely gaze and gave him a nod of acknowledgement. "Surprise me."

How long did it take two suns to set on an alien planet? Caligo really wished she had asked before sitting down at the juice bar because now that it was starting to get dark, she realized that she had lost track of the Doctor and had no idea how long it had been since he'd last checked in with her. "The man's the only alien here that resembles a human as far as I know so how hard can it be to find him," she quietly reassured herself. She took one last sip of her smoothie and reluctantly returned it to the current bar attendant on shift. She didn't want to even bother counting the number of empty cups that were sitting on the counter by her seat. The Doctor had made a rather humorous excuse to get her out of the mess of paying for all of it… It turned out that a not-so-quick rest and something in her stomach had been just what she needed to pull herself out of her grumpy stupor and now that she thought about it, she realized that she might not have been the most amiable traveling companion to the Doctor. Hell, she could hardly remember the last time she went traveling anywhere with anyone for nothing but the fun of it and maybe, just maybe, she'd forgotten how to interact with normal people. Does one normally feel guilty about such revelations? If so, then it hardly phased her, but she did feel the need to make some form of amends for this. After all, she must've at least owed him that much. The trip itself was compensation for the repairs to his ship. He really shouldn't have had to put up with this semblance of a poor mood as much as he did…

"And yet, you did," she murmured, starting out along the shoreline of the sand bar where she remembered last seeing him, "I'll never understand someone who goes through so much trouble. Not fully, at least…" But something in the back of her mind made her feel as if it would be better that she tried. After all, she was a smart woman. Surely she wasn't incapable of it. Surely she could manage to find some way of reading him so that she could respond appropriately…

Surely she wasn't completely incapable of being human.

Slapping herself was definitely an option when she foolishly pulled back the right sleeve of her jacket and looked at the time. It was set to follow Pillar's time zone, not…wherever the flying hell they were now and he still hadn't told her so much as the name of the planet they were on. "Two suns… Two fucking suns and suddenly it's dark and he's wandered off I can only imagine where while I'm wandering off even further I don't even know where looking for him…" Caligo was very glad that she had ignored his suggestion of leaving her jacket in the TARDIS because she definitely caught wind of the drop in temperature. As she had expected, the beach was very cold at night, probably as it would've been on Earth and when she considered the fact that she had just come from a snow covered mountaintop she wondered if the warm sun really had that much of an effect on her. I never realized how cold the cold could be until I felt warm, she thought.

The watch was checked again if only for the sake of gauging how long she had spent searching for him. Only about half an hour but if this place was so small then how could she have lost him so easily? Briefly, the thought of aimlessly calling out for him crossed her mind but years of training that reinforced the need for stealth especially in densely populated areas wouldn't allow her to raise her voice. What seemed to be night on this planet had now comfortably settled in around her and while she appeared to be completely unfazed by everything around her, she could easily feel a chill creeping up her limbs toward her torso and the spray of the tide slowly drawing nearer sting the back of her hands. Without even realizing it, she had strayed so far from the small juice bar and the dock they had initially arrived at that they were nothing more than dimly lit blips on the dark horizon. It was only then that she realized that she didn't quite know where she was going and two facts struck her hard:

One, that she was walking around blindly in near total darkness – she had a very good feeling now that there were no moons or at least none that made a difference in such darkness on this planet – with nothing but a slowly rising tide and the sight of bright lights in the distance to guide her steps. The spray of the ocean hit her skin again, making her entire body tense. Caligo was by no means adverse to the element itself, but large bodies of water had always been her downfall. She could never figure out why it was that she sank like a rock doing even the simplest things like floating when anyone else could do it so easily and when she tried to actually swim, it took a great and ridiculous amount of work that was usually less than helpful. Walking blindly through an ocean alone unsettled her.

Two, and probably the thought that gave her a sort of sinking feeling in her stomach now, the Doctor had been out looking at the marine life along the shore. She hadn't seen him since he had told her he was going to look at some of the forming tide pools some ways away from the juice bar and at the time, she didn't see a problem with it. But the thought that maybe he was in the same predicament as she currently was put a deep frown on her face. She didn't have the slightest idea of whether or not he could swim, if he had taken the boat back some time ago and forgot about her or maybe he had entertained the idea of walking back since she wasn't there to pester him about ruining his clothes. What if he had walked back alone in the dark?

It was by far the worst thought she could come up with, not including the logical train of thought that simply went off the rails from that point on, and Caligo did not like it in the least. Alien or not, the Doctor was still technically a civilian in her mind and her obligation was to serve the corps and protect civilians. Of course, it really only applied to the civilians that inhabited the city of Pillar, but her location in relation to her duty was a moot point. "The Doctor is a civilian. Draugr protect civilians. It's my job to protect him," she told herself with conviction she hadn't needed in a long time. Her stride broke into a sprint as she headed toward the lights in the distance and kept a watchful eye out for anyone lost in the darkness with her. "Doctor!"

The Doctor stood on the dock back on the other side of the beach staring out into the dark horizon. He'd accidentally wandered all the way back to the resort where they had started and before he knew it, the suns had set. It hadn't felt like that long ago that he checked up on her at the juice bar but the time certainly did fly on this planet. Every last boat coming back from the little sand bar had been thoroughly inspected by him for any sign of her, hoping that her level headed need to do things the "proper way" would lead her to come back the safest way possible but each group of tourists turned up nothing. The last boat had docked and only the captain and a handful of employees had disembarked. Caligo may have been a smart woman, but he had started to worry when the tide had begun to rise. The wind by the shore whipped his coat and hair around wildly, without care. Maybe she hadn't left the juice bar when she noticed the evening settling in? It really had been a task to separate her from the smoothies when he'd tried to talk to her earlier. "Fourteen glasses… She's got to be sick of those smoothies by now…" That didn't really matter much to him though. At least if she were still there drinking them he could just hop back into the TARDIS and pick her up. He had just turned his back to the shore to do just that when he heard it.

"Doctor!"

Over the strong wind around him, he heard her call out and almost didn't recognize it at all. Seemingly from the darkness, Caligo ran up to him looking almost out of breath. Her dark hair was ruffled by the wind and everything from her knees down looked to be soaking wet. Most noticeable of all was the worried frown on her face and the way it dramatically lightened when she caught sight of him. "You're here," she panted.

"What happened with you? Why didn't you come back on the boat? Your clothes are wet. Did you run all the way back here?" She would probably hate the barrage of questions but he just couldn't shut his mouth. His most worrisome fears were probably true and here he had the best possible outcome: she had found her way back to him, safe and sound. "Caligo!" The Doctor lunged forward to catch her but promptly missed his mark when she suddenly fell back onto the sand, eyes closed and chest heaving as she caught her breath. Fatigue. She'd run all the way back from that sand bar to the resort and now she was tired. He liked running just as much as the next person but even that distance, fighting the tide in the dark would make him a little tired too. Caligo raised a lazy hand, telling him she just needed a minute to rest and he couldn't help laughing. "Oi. Don't fall asleep here. I got us a room so get up and march off to bed, soldier."

Caligo grunted at him in acknowledgement and pulled herself up from the ground a moment later, looking drained and grumpy once again. Without even a general direction to go on, she lightly slapped his shoulder and stumbled toward the lodge. He had expected her to be at least a little put off when he realized that he'd left her behind and maybe she was, but they could always have that discussion in the morning. "One room," she asked, her voice gruff and maybe a little scratchy from the salty air.

"Just one. All I could manage for such a busy season but you don't need to worry." Caligo was definitely expecting more of an explanation but was tired enough to wait until they'd gotten to the door of the room for him to simply press his palm against what looked to be a scanner pad displaying the room number and open it. "I don't really need to sleep. Might just lounge, pace, roam the halls. Things like that."

She mumbled something that sounded like "impressive" as she took one last look at the door before closing it and surveying the room. The best word she could come up with to describe it was circular or maybe cylindrical, for there wasn't a single corner to be seen. Not even the furnishings had straight edges to them and everything had a sort of floral or plant like patterning to it. Short green plant vines hung from the ceiling with colorful flowers at the ends and a few of them emitted a soft, natural glow. The bed felt soft, like sleeping on one of the squishy marshmallows she'd had in one of maybe a dozen smoothies she'd had earlier in the day and it had never felt better than at that moment… Caligo threw herself across the width of the bed without a second thought and while the Doctor might have been irked about her falling asleep in the middle of his… rant, maybe? Pointless to try to define it now. If he were irked by it, she wasn't awake to hear it. If he had a problem with the way she took up at least half the bed with her awkward sleeping position he could always simply shove her onto the floor.

The Doctor caught himself midsentence when heard the thud of his companion collapsing onto the bed and saw that she was out in mere moments. He couldn't blame her. It had been a long day full of twists and turns that, while unanticipated, she had navigated rather well in his opinion for someone who seemed so uncomfortable and unwilling to step outside those lines drawn around her. But maybe, if she stayed on with him long enough, she would come to realize exactly that; they were just lines drawn on the ground around her, not walls or barriers. He pulled her up onto the bed so that she was in some semblance of a normal sleeping position and went on to poke and prod the flowers hanging off the ceiling as quietly as he could.