Feel free to post any feedback in the reviews section! Next Chapter comes out next Sunday!
Morgan stared up at the ceiling of the cave as she lay in bed. Well, bed was a bit of a stretch. It was more an inflatable mattress with a bunch of blankets. And when Morgan said blankets she meant A LOT. Unfortunately, caves did not exactly have insolation. Go figure. It was morning. Or well, Morgan thought it was morning. It was hard to really tell these days.
The days sort of just blended together, not quite unlike back in her old universe when they had all had to quarantine. Except now, because of the water blocking out all sunlight, it was nearly impossible to tell night from day. She took deep breaths. In. Out. In Out. No sunlight. Only Darkness. Endless water. No. Morgan shut that thought out as quickly as it had appeared. No. Those thoughts were reserved for nightmares. But the water wasn't going to leave. It was still there. Always. Looming. Morgan shut them down once again, this time for good. She needed to think of something else.
The Days. Blending together. Hard to keep track. Morgan, however, had tried at least. She had tried to keep track of the days. Well, in fact, she was still trying. She sat up slowly and turned to look at the calendar beside her. It had been around mid-October when they had gotten stuck here. Now it was early November. Morgan stood up, trudging over to her calendar to cross off another day. Goodbye November 2. Morgan paused, looking to where her phone was strewn on her backpack. She slid down, kneeling beside it, going to check the time. 7:00 am. A reasonable time to get up. It wasn't as if going back to sleep was an option.
Slipping into a hoodie and some sweatpants (Morgan was too lazy to think of the British way of saying it right now). She made her bed, to the best of her ability, trying to straighten out the sheets even though there wasn't really anywhere to tuck them under. Morgan gave one last inspection of her makeshift 'room' before walking off towards the other cave.
Outside was the main 'room'. It was slightly larger than her room, although hers was barely 2 metres wide. She slid into the fold-out chair beside the Doctor, the food already ready on her plate. The table was, well it was a table… But it was one of those plastic tables that collapsed in on itself once you kicked it hard enough in a specific place. Settling into her spot, Morgan started to eat the omelette. It was a surprisingly good omelette, for the little variety of ingredients they had. Now how the technology had managed to keep an egg from going off was beyond her, but it wasn't really worth it to question it at this point.
"The omelette is really good," Morgan started, breaking the silence, her mouth still full. And it really was, just the right balance of spices and egg and other little ingredients.
"Morgan, no one can understand you when you talk while you're eating," the Doctor complained with his Scottish drawl. He seemed to have already finished, as he was now staring intently at the chessboard in front of him.
Morgan swallowed, "Fine, but I'll have you know it's much more efficient this way," the Doctor just let out a sigh, barely concealing an amused smile. "What are you doing?" she asked again, "You know the chessboard won't do anything if you stare at it like that. Trust me, I've tried," The Doctor just continued intently staring at the pieces, but from closer inspection, his eyes were not staying in one place. They seemed to be following the pieces' paths. Well, their imaginary paths.
Morgan sighed and stood up abruptly, bringing her plate over to the bowl they were using as a makeshift sink. She spun around, taking her chair with grace (shut up, it was very graceful) and placing it down instead across from the Doctor. She fell back into the chair with a thump. Hmm, ok then hello pieces. Morgan leaned forward, glaring at the chessboard. Well, the easiest way to win, was to take the Queen, have her fly across the bard and slap the king into oblivion. Unfortunately, that wasn't how the rules of chess worked.
"You wanna, like actually play or are you content staring at the chessboard for the rest of eternity?" Morgan asked, albeit a bit jokingly. The Doctor sighed, looking up from his imaginary game of chess. He started rearranging the pieces and soon they had all fallen into the normal chess starting positions. He leaned down, entwining his finger and leaning his head on them, giving Morgan a cold, hard, calculating stare. Morgan gave him one right back, mirroring his actions. He made the first move, moving a pawn across the board. Morgan narrowed her eyes. What was that pawn close enough to kill? Nothing, ok, for now, she was safe. Now, what had it uncovered that could kill any of her pieces. Nothing. Ok good. Now, most importantly what could it do next that might pose harm to any of her pieces? Well, nothing, at least not in the next few moves.
Morgan rolled out her shoulders gave a long stretch, continuing to stare at all of the pieces on the board. She needed a strategy. Well, actually she needed a diversion. Well, a diversion for a diversion for a diversion so that the Doctor would have a harder time figuring out her actual plan. Morgan set to work on this and for the next half hour, both continued back and forth. Morgan paused and froze, right as the Doctor pulled one of his pieces forward and set in down. Right in the line of- Morgan frowned and crossed her arms as a smug grin started to form on his face.
"Checkmate," he grinned and Morgan huffed. Come on, she had almost won! Almost won! Ok, probably not, to be fair he probably had been playing easy on her but then had gotten bored of it. He then proceeded to knock down her King and then pick the piece up, just to hammer home that she had lost. Again. Most of their games that past week had gone this way.
"I hate you," Morgan grumbled while the Doctor just continued grinning.
"Doesn't change the fact that I won," he smirked, "For the seventh time in a row," Morgan rolled her eyes and leaned forward to snatch the piece back from the Doctor.
"Give me that," she snapped, but the Doctor pulled the piece away just in time. Morgan sprang up from the chair and ran to the other side of the table, jumping upwards to try to get that stupid piece again. The Doctor, unfortunately, had a firm grip and even when Morgan could reach it, she couldn't pry it from his hands. God, how the hell was she going to last 6 months here without murdering him? They needed to find out a way to get out earlier. And fast. But was there a way? And how would they even know if the barrier would hold for that long...
"I'm going back to my room, where there are no annoying idiots that steal chess pieces," Morgan declared, but then paused as her eye caught on a book strewn across the other end of the table. It was old and the cover was intricate but one thing caught her eye. It was the history of the planet that they were currently stuck on. Noyade. Morgan turned back to the Doctor. "Hey, could I borrow this?" she asked and the Doctor nodded absentmindedly as he started inspecting something, not even bothering to glance her way. Morgan sighed and carefully took the book from the table.
Tracing the lettering that was etched into the rough worn cover, Morgan made her way back towards her room. Flopping back down onto her bed, she cracked open the book to the first page. Morgan flipped through the first few pages and quickly got bored. Nothing. Remotely. Interesting. Not even anything useful. If it didn't have the decency to be interesting, couldn't it at least be useful? Morgan sighed and closed the book, laying her head down on the pillow staring up at the ceiling. Why couldn't there be an easy way out of this? Or some last-minute plan? The Doctor always figured it out in the end didn't he? Didn't he?
This wasn't a TV show anymore, Morgan. This was real life. And in real life, not everything always went to plan. And there weren't always happy endings. And unfortunately, homework existed in real life too. And in real life, people could die. Or drown. Morgan huffed and went to get off the bed but then paused. The book, which she had closed earlier, was now open. Oh god, it was really annoying when that happened, when you read a specific part so much that it just never closes properly. And right as she was about to close it again, the page caught her eye.
Noyade. The name of the planet. Drowning in french. Morgan's gut clenched at the reminder but she pushed it away. Her eyes widened. How had she not noticed that earlier? Quickly settling back into her earlier position, Morgan pulled the book closer to her. She paused and squinted at some of the notes scribbled into the margins but then started reading. The reason the planet was renamed in the first place to Noyade is an interesting story. An event so devastating, there were almost no survivors except for those who lived far inland. Almost no survivors, but how did they escape?, Morgan paused her reading for a second to squint again at the scribbled note, but then continued, A devastating accident, an effort on the government's part to try to raise the sea levels as they were dropping, It worked a little too well. Ah yes, isn't that always the case, trying to fix something but not understanding the consequences. Now, how did this happen? And then, for 6 months, 6 months… almost the entire planet was submerged by a massive tsunami. Sur- Morgan slammed the book shut.
She shoved the book off the bed and curled up. Memories hurled towards her. Like a tsunami. The water. The sand. The Doctor, inspecting it. Morgan froze in realization. That. Idiot- he had known. That was the only explanation. He had known beforehand, he had known the history of the planet- of course, he had known! 'Oh, I had been planning to go to this beach anyway' yeah, but he hadn't told Morgan that it was to look into a strange tsunami! And he had known that they might be stuck here for 6 months. He had even planned for it. The bag. The cave. Everything.
Morgan stood up slowly, her fists clenched. She took a few deep breaths in. She shouldn't jump to conclusions. She didn't even know if this was his book, or even his handwriting yet. She needed some more concrete evidence before she could accuse him. Morgan stood taller and gave the wall a defiant glare. Grabbing one of her notebooks and a pen, she marched out of the room to where the Doctor still was doing who-knows-what.
"Doctor, I need you to write something here, right now," Morgan demanded, slamming the notebook open on the table beside the Doctor. The Doctor looked up in surprise and paused, before tentatively taking the pencil that Morgan was handing him.
"Morgan-" he started but Morgan cut him off.
"Stop, no talking just do it." Morgan snapped and then crossed her arms as she waited for him to do it. The Doctor rolled his eyes and started writing, then handed the notebook back to Morgan. Morgan took it forcefully then slammed both books open onto the table to the pages where there was writing. 6 months… the first book's letters were quick and jotted, methodical. And when Morgan turned to look at her own notebook… I won that game of chess. She dropped them both and continued staring down towards the ground. Her vision was tunnelling. It was the same handwriting. The exact same. That stupid Timelord had-
Morgan spun around towards the Doctor. His eyes widened for a moment in surprise before she brought her arm back and then slapped him. Hard. His hand flew to his face where she had slapped him and he just stared at her. Morgan pulled out her finger accusingly.
"You knew," Morgan started, voice low. She grit her teeth to stop herself from trying to slap him again.
"I knew what?" the Doctor finally said once he could properly form words again, "Is this about the chess game? Honestly Mor-"
Morgan just glared and took a step closer, "No, Doctor, this is about you lying to us. This is about how you knew exactly what this planet was and what was going to happen before you came here, and you neglected to tell us anything." Morgan yelled, clenching her fists. The Doctor stood taller, furrowing his eyebrows and looking down on Morgan. Morgan just stood her ground and stared him down as well. "You knew-" she choked up a bit as it came crashing down again. The wall of water coming, crashing forward. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.
"So now it's my fault?" he asked, even having the audacity to use sarcasm. Morgan scowled. Yes, it was his fault! Finally, he decided to understand.
"Yes Doctor, it is your fault! Glad you finally decided to understand," Morgan spat, "You knew this was going to happen, you knew and you didn't even bother warning us!" she continued, bristling, "We almost died," she continued, her voice dropping to almost whisper. Mrgan quickly covered up her slip up. She was fine. " So yes, Doctor, it is your fault. That we're now stuck here, and we're going to continue being stuck here for 6 months!" she screamed out that last part, going to slam the table with her fists. The Doctor just stood there, looking down condescendingly.
"Oh I see how it is now," he observed and Morgan was about to reply but he silenced her with a glare, "Yes, I did know, but you know why I came? Because there were survivors, and there was only one way they could have survived." the Doctor's voice had gone low now and as Morgan's anger dissipated a little, she began to shrink back, "You, on the other hand, had no plan and decided 'oh yes, it's a good idea to run straight towards an incoming tsunami,'" he emphasized the last word in his Scottish accent. Morgan winced at the mention of the tsunami but continued to face him. He wasn't wrong, but that didn't make what he had done any less wrong either. "'I'm just going to do whatever I want, with no thought towards the consequences because I'm a stupid little human who doesn't think past what I'm going to eat for lunch'," the Doctor finished, his condescending gaze still trained on Morgan.
He was right- He had the audacity. And- she was stupid wasn't she? But still, he could've at least told them. Told them what they were facing. Or better yet, NOT brought them to a disaster zone! But the pit in her stomach and a knot in her throat were beginning to form. He wasn't wrong. But he wasn't right either. And well- the image of her makeshift room flitted through her head. And then of her own room at home. Her life, everything just came crashing down. And at that moment, something must've broken inside her. Maybe.
"Fine," Morgan snapped, barely masking everything that was threatening to spill through. She spun on her heels and marched off towards her room, falling into her makeshift bed and burying her head into her pillow. No matter what she thought at that moment, he had called her a stupid human, that's all she was wasn't she a stup- NO matter who was at fault or who Morgan blamed for their current dilemma. The water was still out there. Waiting to come spilling through. There was no escape. No matter what, one thing was clear. Morgan had messed up. And maybe this time, she wouldn't get a second chance.
Morgan had eyes trained on her plate as she ate. It was well into November now. Or what would've been November? What should've been November… Morgan pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. She buried them. Deep. She didn't want to have to think of that right now. The Doctor sat at the other end of the table. Both about as far away as they could yet from the other. Neither exchanged any words, both eating dinner in silence. Morgan didn't really pay much attention to her meal, she was more focused on maximizing the efficiency of her eating speed. The faster she ate, the less time she had to spend awkwardly sitting in that room. Quickly finishing her meal, Morgan placed it in the makeshift sink and walked hurriedly towards her room.
By the time she got there and checked the time, it was already 7:00 pm. Perfect time for a binge-watch. Also probably the perfect way to distract herself. Morgan carefully walked over to her bag, which she hadn't touched really since she got there. Pulling out her laptop slowly, she typed in her password and opened it up. Oh. Slight problem. No wifi.
Morgan slammed the keyboard a little in anger. As if that would make a difference. Well, it seemed her plans had- wait there was a way- no. No, she was not going to- No. She refused. Morgan sighed in defeat. Then she perked up again. Maybe if she managed to steal the screwdrive-. No. That would never work. And even if she did manage it, she wouldn't have the first clue how to work it. Still, even if she did figure that out it wasn't the most viable option. She could always as- No she wasn't going to-
"You still sulking in there," came the Doctor's voice from the entrance to her room. Morgan sat up straight in alarm. Why was he here? Talking to her? Didn't he take the int that she didn't want to talk to him?
"What are you doing here?" Morgan bit back defensively, shimmying back a little as the Doctor came closer.
"Still sulking then, I take it," he sighed and sat beside Morgan on the mattress. HE was holding two mugs, with something that smelled suspiciously like hot chocolate insi- No. Morgan stop. "I just wanted to apologize." Oh. Well, it was about time. "Iw as a bit too harsh"
"No," Morgan started, surprising even herself with her own words, "No, you were right." And that's why Morgan couldn't accept it. "I think, the world-it's a little too complicated for it to be all one person's fault," she admitted in a whisper and the Doctor nodded in agreement. "I'm still mad at you though," Morgan added offhandedly at the end. The Doctor smiled, shaking his head.
"Yes, of course," he offered her a mug and she accepted it tentatively. It was hot to the touch and emanated warmth, very inviting after having been mostly cold all day. Morgan tried to sip a little but then quickly stopped, having burnt her tongue. Great, now she wouldn't be able to taste anything for the next few days.
"That's hot," Mrgan said, her tongue still out in a sorry attempt to cool it off. `
The Doctor paused, "Well, I suppose that's why they call it hot chocolate isn't it?" he smirked and Morgan rolled her eyes. "What's that there?" he asked, gesturing to her laptop. Morgan paused, shimmying a bit closer so that the Doctor could see the screen.
"Yeah, it's my laptop but there's now wifi down here, obviously so I can't watch Netflix," Morgan started, "Can you do any alien thingy to get it working or something?" Morgan continued, her thinly veiled knowledge passing over the Doctor's head. The Doctor paused and pulled out his screwdriver, taking the laptop from Morgan's hands. He soniced it a few times, and Morgan crossed her fingers that he hadn't accidentally (or purposefully) deleted anything.
"There should be working now. Universal roaming" he exclaimed proudly, ruffling Morgan's hair. Morgan elbowed him and grumbled.
"I'm still angry at you, you know," Morgan clarified. She didn't want him thinking that he could go being a complete idiotic jerk and get away with it. The Doctor just rolled his eyes and handed her back the computer. Morgan toolkit and pressed Enter, a grin spreading across her face as everything loaded. She quickly went to the Netflix page, signing in and going straight to Merlin. Magic, cool theme music and well, Merlin? Yeah, she was definitely in a Merlin mood today. Morgan paused, hesitating a bit before asking. Should she? Maybe the Doctor had stuff to do-
"Hey, do you wanna watch some of this with me?" she offered quickly before she could change her mind. The Doctor paused, a look of surprise on his face. But he quickly replied, moving the computer so that it was more in the middle, on both of their laps.
"Depends on what we're watching," he said and Morgan smirked. Ok, so that was a yes then. He was definitely being forced to watch Merlin now. One of the best shows, second to only Doctor Who and Sherlock. She scrolled until she found MErlin, and clicked on the first episode. It took a few minutes to load (reasonable, since they were currently in a cave, under hundreds of meters of water on an alien planet). As the opening titles started, with the music and nostalgic imagery, Morgan couldn't help the wave of giddiness that enveloped her. She hadn't watched Merlin in so long (Which was a crime by the way, comparable to not watching Doctor Who or Back To the Future)
Morgan had to contain her excited dance as the first scene started playing out. Merlin! It was Merlin. There, before all that had happened in the proceedings seasons. A goofy grin found its way onto Morgan's face that she just couldn't wipe off no matter how hard she tried. But then, her grin quickly fell when Uther finally came onto the screen. Oh. She had almost forgotten about the execution that had occurred at the beginning.
"Oh, so he's an idiot," the Doctor noted as he watched Uther carry out the execution. Morgan nodded, a slightly sick feeling in her stomach. Honestly, they were such idiots! The people hadn't done anything wrong! And killing them would only make the people with magic who hadn't already turned against him with magic hate him more! It was the recipe for a revolution and unstable kingdom. Not only was it horrible, frankly, it was stupid.
"Yup," Morgan said while glaring daggers at Uther through the screen. The episode passed, much the same as she had remembered it, but the nostalgia that came was comforting. And then came the line. That wonderful line. Morgan's favourite line from all of Merlin.
"How long have you been training to be a part," Morgan mouthed along as Merlin said it onscreen. A pause, and an amused look front he Doctor, "You can't address me like that," she continued, mouthing along Arthur's lines, "Sorry, how long have you been training to be a prat," Morgan raised her voice, directing it at the Doctor, " MY Lord, " She smirked and the Doctor rolled his eyes, but he was also grinning. She smirked back again, laughing a little as the Doctor shook his head.
They finished the episode, then moved on to the next, taking small breaks in between. Soon though, it started getting late. Morgan's eyes started drooping and she had to continuously force them open. However, drowsiness soon took over and the heaviness got heavier. Morgan started yawning wide and her eyes fluttered slightly. She wasn't really aware of much that was happening then, except for some movement and her head resting on something soft. Then suddenly, she was enveloped in something warm- a blanket. Morgan drifted off to sleep, a smile on her face.
Everything was dark. Wherever she looked was the same empty churning expanse. No escape. Nowhere to go. The wave came closer and closer. Closer and closer. It wasn't stopping. It would never stop. And this time, the Doctor didn't come. Morgan looked back and somehow there was one noise that was louder than the wave. What used to be the sound of hope. Now the sound of defeat. No more hope. The little blue box slowly faded from view. And then it was gone.
The world was falling. Falling apart. There was no ground under Morgan's feet. And then there was nothing at all. No more air, only the vicious arms of the oceans as they took her away. Everything became blurry. But maybe it already had been. She was going to die. She was cold and empty. Everything started to fade out of view. The darkness swallowed everything. Until there was nothing left at all.
Morgan woke in a cold sweat. Her head shot up and she stood, taking laboured breaths as she shook. Where was she? Was she dead Had the wat- As her breathing slowed and her heart rate decreased, the details came into view and the fog lifted. A small cave, with a bed. It was cold. But there was no wave. She was safe. No, she wasn't. It was still there waiti- Morgan was fine. She was stuck but she was fine. Morgan was drowning.
Morgan blinked a bit and carefully stood. It was dark, but there was a faint light coming from outside of her room. The Doctor must still be awake. Quietly, Morgan wrapped her blanket sound herself and tiptoed to the main room. She needed a break, something to distract herself. Going back to sleep right now was not an option. Her footsteps echoed slightly and as she came into the main room, she stopped. Oh, so that's where the light was coming from.
The Doctor sat hunched over a book- the book. The one about the planet. Morgan froze. Her fault. She took a few more tentative steps forward, ending up beside the Doctor. He glanced at Morgan as she took a seat beside him.
"Couldn't sleep either?" she asked. Well, he probably wasn't tired, cause Timelord. But Morgan 'didn't' know that. He closed the book abruptly and turned to face her.
"Nah," he dismissed, "I'm a Timelord, we don't' need as much sleep," he paused, "Why do you always have to sleep so much anyway? 10 hours a day? Isn't that a bit too much?" Morgan rolled her eyes and ignored his annoyed question.
"You do still need sleep though," Morgan reminded him and he sighed. So she was right. Well, if they both couldn't sleep… "Maybe we could 'go camping'" she suggested. "Like pick a room and then bring our blankets, talk for a bit and then maybe we'll fall asleep that way?"
The Doctor grinned, "Underwater camping, I like the sound of that!" he exclaimed getting up from his seat and starting off towards his room. Morgan cringed but quickly hid it from the Doctor. She gulped and rushed to her own room. Taking her bag, she stuffed it with an uncountable number of blankets and her pillow, heaving it onto her back. Spinning around, Morgan ran back towards the main room but found that the Doctor wasn't there. Odd. morgan peaked into the other room and froze again.
Oh. The Doctor had chosen that room. The room that was a constant reminder of the reality. That they were trapped. Under layers of churning ocean. And they would never escape. And it would be a while until they got out. Morgan fought against her urge to run and instead powered forward into the room. They did always say that the best way to overcome fear was to face it. Maybe it would help. Maybe she would stop drowning. Or she would never stop.
"So, camping underwater," Morgan started, "What next time camping?" she spat it a bit bitterly. The doctor ignored that and just lay down himself gazing out into the abyss. The endless abyss. That would never ever end. Oh great, now Morgan was getting all philosophical. It was an accurate description, ok! Laying down her blankets beside his, she took a tentative step towards her new makeshift bed. Morgan slowly lowered herself onto it, shaking slightly at a crackle from the shield. What if it didn't hold? And then all of the water came rushing in.
She couldn't do it. Morgan couldn't do it. It was too much, being here right in front of her. Too much. Morgan started hyperventilating and the brain-numbing fear took over. She stumbled forward, falling down and hugging her knees. Too much. She curled up into a ball.
"Doctor," Morgan started. He sat up and turned to look at her as she started shaking again. "I can't sleep."
Hope everyone enjoyed that! Any feedback or constructive criticism is welcome! Next chapter comes out this Sunday!