He hadn't made it. Or had he?
Sat on the ground, holding onto Jane as he kept her warm, Peter hesitated to act. He knew that if he jumped in after the Doctor just as the Time Lord surfaced they could end up crashing headlong into one another. Worst still, he could swim right past him and not know it, drowning as he searched for him in the murky depths.
He allowed another ten seconds to pass. Twenty. Thirty seconds.
"Damn it!" He cursed. "Where the hell is he?"
No one could answer him. The cold and sheer exhaustion had sapped everything from them. Mentally they knew what needed to be done, but none of them was in any kind of state to translate such thoughts into actual actions.
"Peter," Stefan whispered. "Y-you..."
He didn't need to say it. The look in his eyes was enough for Peter.
"I know." He said, nodding. "I'm going."
He was the only one physically able to mount a rescue. The Doctor might already be dead. He might not find him. But, quite frankly, Peter had already had enough about what might be for one day. Leaving Jane, he jumped up and ran over to the pond. Diving headfirst into the water, he kicked out furiously as he swam back down towards the tunnel.
The water might not have been cold to him, but Peter realised in a matter of seconds that he was going to struggle this time. This was his fourth dive and he hadn't thought to prepare his lungs. Worst still, fatigue was really starting to set in now. He'd been awake for almost twenty-four hours, over nine of which having been spent almost being killed half a dozen different ways. He'd been knocked out, strangled, beaten, sliced open and now was once again at the risk of drowning.
Trust the Doctor to be the reason why he'd finally be finished off.
Already, he was back at the tunnel and began to look for any signs of the Doctor. There were very few places he could have gone, but there was always the chance that the Time Lord had become disorientated and had ended up swimming in the wrong direction back towards the cave.
Drifting through the water, Peter was acutely aware of how long it was taking him and how much oxygen he was using up. But as he swam past the first few stalagmites and stalactites, he could see that he did not have much further to go.
Incredibly, after all this time, the Doctor was still alive.
Judging by the number of bubbles escaping his lips, however, it would not be long before whatever reserves of air he had left ran out. The sheer unbridled panic on his face was clear to see as Peter swam over to him, as was the reason why he had not made it through and up to the surface.
His foot had become stuck between two of the rocks and it was refusing to budge regardless of how hard or frantically he pulled and yanked it.
The Doctor stopped struggling the moment he spotted Peter and watched, almost with curiosity, as the soldier swam down towards his trapped leg.
Peter's natural buoyancy was trying to pull him up, forcing him to keep kicking out to stay in place. But now that he was next to the limb, he could see that is was completely wedged in. Short of breaking the bone, and even then it might not be enough, Peter did not see any other way of getting it out.
He started looking around desperately for a loose rock, a stone, anything he might be able to use as a pivot to wriggle the leg free.
Nothing. There was nothing.
He knew his own air was running out, and the surface was at least two minutes away. But to leave the Doctor now would be as good as condemning him to death. It was like some devil voice whispering in his ear. Leave him. Look after yourself. If you stay down here any longer, both of you will die.
No!
The lefthand rock was the problem, Peter could see that. The way the Doctor's foot was pinned and twisted to the right meant that if he could just break the opposite rock then he could free him. But he had nothing to break it with!
Pure frustration boiled through Peter as he grabbed hold of the rock and began to pull back on it. Seconds passed that might as well have been a lifetime. He lost more oxygen as a result and had nothing else to show for his efforts. The rock was not going to break and it had to if the Doctor was going to live.
He felt the Doctor tap him on the shoulder.
Looking up, Peter saw him point his way and then jab his finger in the direction of the tunnel. The meaning was clear even if the Time Lord couldn't speak. He wanted Peter to leave him behind and save himself.
Peter frowned and shook his head.
He wasn't going to let anyone else die today, let alone the Doctor. After all, they had been through, all of the dangers they had faced… This simply wasn't the way the mission was going to end. He wasn't going to be the one to report that UNIT's chief scientific adviser had been left to die on his own all because of some stupid…
He suddenly couldn't stand to see the rock there anymore. Peter had never hated something so much in his life.
The Doctor's lips dared to twitch into a smile as the Nimarian's golden eyes shone like a pair of headlights. He watched as the younger man planted his feet firmly on the ground and grabbed hold of the rock with both hands. Then he began to pull on it again, bubbles bursting from his mouth with the effort.
But he did not stop.
Spurred on as he felt the rock beginning to crack under the pressure of his newfound strength, Peter did not relent and continued to pull and pull against it with an unrelenting determination that he was going to do it.
One of them was going to break first and it was not going to be him!
The Doctor knew that they had reached the point of no return. Too many bubbles were escaping from Peter's mouth and there wasn't going to be enough to get him back to the surface unless he left right now. Suddenly, the lieutenant stopped pulling and looked for a moment as though he was choking as the water invaded his lungs.
He managed to recover himself and carried on pulling. He was committed to saving the Doctor, even if it killed him.
Both of the Time Lord's hearts were beating furiously with the desire to help Peter. He was consciously choosing to drown so that he might succeed in freeing him. But what could the Doctor do whilst his leg was still trapped? Nothing. There was absolutely nothing he could do until he was free. If he got free that was...
The water around them suddenly turned darker. Swirling clouds of red were coming from Peter's hands as he continued to pull against the sharp rock. He'd sliced them open, not able to feel the pain whilst down here as more and more bubbles of oxygen trickled out of him.
The yellow light in Peter's eyes was fading. He was seconds away from blacking out as his bloodied hands slipped and lost their grip on the rock…
It must have been done on pure instinct because Peter was already drifting into unconsciousness the moment it was done. Bouncing up and lashing out with both feet, he struck the rock hard with both his boots. Even underwater, the sound of the rock breaking clean in two boomed as the top of it snapped away and sunk to the floor.
The Doctor was free and could move again!
Buoyancy was already pulling him upward towards the roof, but he didn't care. Peter was in front of him, his limp and motionless body hovering like a watery ghost. His head was lolling onto his shoulder as the last few fine streams of bubbles escaped from his mouth.
Grabbing the soldier by the arm, the Doctor dragged him along as he powered through the tunnel and up towards the surface. He could only hope that it wasn't already too late.
Stefan had begun to pace again.
Rose watched him from beside the small fire he had built out of nothing but a pile of twigs, moss and leaves. Using a couple of flint stones he had found almost instantly to light it, Stefan had not even bothered to get himself warmed up and didn't seem to realise that he was trembling head to foot. He was too busy standing guard over the pond, watching and waiting for Peter to return with the Doctor.
She wanted to join him. She wanted to reassure him, and herself as well, that they would be back any second and that they would both be okay.
But how could Rose do that when she didn't quite believe it herself? She couldn't even feel her legs and didn't know how any of them were still alive. They were in the middle of nowhere with nothing but trees surrounding them. No one knew they were here, and she knew it wasn't going to be as simple as making a phone call and wait around for a lift back to the base.
"Stefan!" The Doctor's voice cried out. "Here, quickly!"
Rose hadn't even heard any splashes coming from the pond and had thought at first that she had imagined hearing the Time Lord break the silence of the crisp morning air.
Falling over in her hurry to get up, she quickly regained her feet and ran the short distance to the pond. She could see the Doctor, alive and swimming to the shore with Peter just behind him and any doubts she might have just had vanished at once.
Then her heart sank as they came back tenfold.
"Oh my god!" Stefan gasped. "Peter. No..."
Peter wasn't swimming, he was being dragged through the water by the Doctor. Unresponsive and looking horribly like a corpse, it was clear that he wasn't breathing. With Stefan hauling him out from above as the Doctor pushed from below, they got him out of the pond quickly and dragged him away from the edge.
Rolling him onto his back, Stefan didn't waste a moment as he began to perform CPR.
Locking his hands together, he pressed down on Peter's chest over and over again, rhythmically pumping his friend's heart to try and get it going again. All too quickly, Stefan reached ten compressions without there looking to be any signs of life coming from the lieutenant.
"Please…" Rose whispered under her breath. "Please don't be…"
Stefan had begun shouting between his efforts.
"Come on, Peter! Fourteen... Fifteen... Sixteen..."
On and on he counted through the teens and into the twenties, all the way up to thirty. Tilting Peter's head back, he pinched his nose and delivered two long, deep breaths into his mouth. The corporal then continued to pound down into his chest again.
Still nothing.
Despite his determination to carry on Stefan was exhausted and must have running purely on adrenaline. Tears had begun to form in his eyes as his breath became ragged and drawn out, announcing to them all that he could not keep it up for much longer.
The Doctor knew what had to be done.
"Stefan, let me take over." He said. "Move out of the way."
"No, he's going to wake up any second." The corporal insisted. "Peter, you're not going out like this! Not after everything…"
A sudden fit of coughing broke Stefan's rhythm. He was barely able to draw breath himself, let alone revive Peter's body and force it into doing the same. Barely a moment passed, however, between him stopping and the Doctor taking over. He pushed the corporal aside before the soldier had a chance to argue. It didn't take much of an effort to move him given his current state. Stefan collapsed to the ground, wheezing and gasping for air as he clutched his side and watched as the Time Lord continue to fight for Peter's life.
"He can't…" He begged. "Please…."
His desperation spurred the Doctor on.
"You hear that, Peter?" He said loudly. "We're not going to let this happen. You are not going to die today. Wake up!"
Then, quite suddenly, Peter did.
Water spewed out of his mouth and he violently began to choke as he drew in his first breath in over five minutes. Peter's eyes flashed yellow as they flickered open, a tiny indistinguishable change hidden in the bright morning light.
As the soldier instinctively tried to sit up, the effort bringing on another bout of rattling coughs, the Doctor carefully rolled him over onto his side.
"Okay, there we go." He encouraged. "Deep breaths, that's it. In and out, nice and slowly."
Drawing out long, laboured breaths, Peter was drained of every ounce of strength. Teeth chattering from shock rather than the cold, he was slowly but surely coming back around. Still clutching his side, Stefan shuffled over to his side and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"You'll be alright, mate." He told him. "But talk about close calls. What the hell happened down there?"
"I got stuck." The Time Lord admitted. "Peter got me out."
Peter grunted in agreement and slowly managed to roll himself onto his back again.
"M-more of a…. joint effort." He wheezed. "Oh, I… need a desk job."
"You wouldn't last a week," Stefan remarked, beaming down at him. "The paperwork would kill you."
Peter laughed at this, though it quickly turned into more coughing. But there was a lot more colour in his face now and his breathing returned to a more relaxed rate. With the sound of his heartbeat pulsating through his ears beginning to quieten down, he tried to sit himself up once more.
"Easy, take it slowly." The Doctor said. "Let me help."
Allowing Peter to do most of the work on his own, the Doctor propped up his back as the soldier's arms shook from the effort.
"I'm fine, thanks" He breathed. "Ah, I feel like I've been hit by a train."
"Or punched in the chest, repeatedly I might add," Stefan told him. "Not just be me either."
Peter followed his gaze and turned around to face the Doctor. He wasn't surprised in the least that Stefan had attempted to resuscitate him, but he wouldn't have put a bet on the Time Lord doing the same thing. Despite his name, his track record had always given Peter the impression of a thinker rather than a doer.
"You never fail to disappoint, Doctor." He told him. "Thank you."
"Just returning the favour, lieutenant. Now, if you're good to go, we better figure out where it is we are."
For the first time, Peter looked properly around at his surroundings. Blinking in the glare of the winter sunlight, he could see that they were in the middle of a large opening in the forest, surrounded by the dense woodland. They had walked miles whilst down in the cave and now could be anywhere.
As instructed, Stefan had built a small fire just on the edge of the forest. Jane was still sat beside it, huddled so close to the warm flames that so risked catching alight if she leaned in any further. She wasn't the only one suffering from the cold. All of them were soaked to the bone and any layers they had between them were not going to do much good until they dried off. In such weather, Peter knew he had to get them all warm and sheltered as soon as possible.
Searching through the hundreds of trees, he could see only one very small opening that looked like it led somewhere. Perhaps it was a hiking trail, but it seemed to be their most logical option if they were going to go to try and find help.
"That has to lead somewhere." He pointed out. "A farmhouse, maybe? We could scout ahead… Wait, Doctor. I gave you my radio!"
Both he and Stefan had been equipped with radios that would link them directly back to his team at base. The corporal's had broken during their fall, but Peter had given his to the Doctor moments before they had all escaped the cave. Digging into his coat pocket, the Doctor quickly found the device and pulled it out.
The water could be heard sloshing around inside it even before anyone dared to ask if it was still working.
"Damn it!" Stefan groaned. "I thought they were waterproof!"
"Clearly not at the depths we went down to." The Doctor said, pocketing it again. "Oh well. I guess we're under our own steam from here then."
Rose instantly looked over at Jane. Her pale, trembling figure was a stark reminder of how awful and exhausted she was herself. Despite her jacket and the UNIT coat she'd manage to hang onto, Rose didn't know if she could manage to go anywhere further than the fire just a few meters away from her.
Peter caught her eye and seemed to sense what she was thinking.
"We can't make that. Not like this." He said, shaking his head again. "We don't even know which direction to go in. No, we stay by the fire and warm up first."
"The team will be searching for us." Stefan reasoned. "If an entire river had drained then -"
SNAP!
The sound of a branch breaking underfoot cracked through the crisp air like a gunshot. The two soldiers were already on their feet, ready to face whatever had just dared to try and sneak up on them as Stefan drew out his gun.
"Whoever you are, show yourself!" Peter ordered loudly. "Now!"
"Wait, don't shoot!" The Doctor intervened, smiling as he spotted what was moving towards them. "Hello there. Where did you come from?"
It was a dog.
The black and white border collie had a droopy ear and a wagging tail. Its bright pink tongue was hung lazily out of the side of its mouth as it eagerly bounded through the long grass and ran straight over to the Doctor.
"He's got a collar." Rose noticed. "Must belong to someone."
The Time Lord was knelt beside it, cooing and fussing over the animal as though it were a long lost friend. The dog in return was enthusiastically sniffing him and licking his hands as he stroked it.
"She is called Molly." He told her. "But, yes her owner is just on the other side of those trees. They've been camping."
"How can you possibly…" Peter began, shaking his head in disbelief. "You didn't even look at the tag."
"I speak dog."
"That's not possible," Stefan argued. "You can't -"
"Stefan, you're best friend is a Nimarian wolf. We've all just spent the night fighting giant bats from outer space." The Doctor interrupted. "So let's not get bogged down with what's possible, shall we?"
The corporal couldn't argue against his logic.
"Okay then, let's go." He said. "Tell Molly to lead the way."