"Hey!" Rose yelled. She paused a moment, stunned with confusion and frustration. "You can't just go swannin' off after that!"

There was no reply, and the water only stilled further.

Where had he gone? Why wasn't he coming back up?

As Rose took in her surroundings, she became aware of the descending sun and the growing shadows that hid from the sharp rays. He had been right, the sunset was going to be spectacular. Being suddenly alone, however, with the itch of an imperative thought scratching at her brain, she wasn't in the particular mood necessary to enjoy it.

"Doctor?"

What was it he had said about night?

The crocodiles hunt at night.

And the Doctor had just left her alone.

Rose cursed under her breath as she started away from the danger of the bank in a smooth breast stroke, towards where the Doctor must have gone, and called his name louder. How long had he been under? Certainly he wouldn't just dive under and drown. Unless crocodiles weren't the only thing...

She quickly avoided that train of thought. What she wanted to know was why they were not getting out of the water if night was soon to be upon them, along with its danger. Should she get out herself and wait? No, she wouldn't leave him.

It had been at least a minute, surely. Rose looked back over her shoulder, the banks of the lagoon in the distance. She had come upon a place where the banks hugged close on either side before disappearing ahead, giving way to a great expanse of still water. Rose tried to stand and was alarmed to find she could no longer touch the bottom. Resorting to treading water, she looked around, feeling very alone and more worried than ever.

"Doctor! Where are you?"

Rose regretted what she had done. She must have pushed him too far. Would he just up and leave her like this, though? Had he not known how to respond?

The Doctor must have come up by now, somewhere. If he was hiding and she ever found him, he had another thing coming.

It suddenly occurred to her that he might head for the TARDIS. There was no place he would feel safer. Rose turned towards the lagoon and hesitated. What if he actually needed help, out in the water somewhere? She couldn't just leave.

The Doctor's soft, controlled tone quietly called her name. Rose spun around.

The light of the setting sun had grown softer as dusk approached. In the long shadows of the trees out in the center of the deeper water, the Doctor gazed back at her, his wet skin glistening slightly in the indirect light.

Rose was about to yell, but stopped herself at the placid expression on his face. Instead, she asked simply, "Where did you go?"

"Ah," the Doctor turned his eyes away briefly as if pondering, "Away."

"You think?" Rose took a deep breath. "I thought you were in trouble!"

The Doctor's brow lowered. "Why?"

"'Cause you weren't anywhere!"

His tone turned defensive and up an octave, but with little force. "I was underwater, just now. You saw me."

"That was over a minute ago, and you swam all this way?"

"So?"

Rose closed her eyes. "I thought you had drowned, or something had pulled you under." She glared at him. "Instead, you were just hiding away from me?"

"Yes."

Rose opened her mouth to continue her tirade, but stopped. She hadn't expected him to admit it. She instead softly asked the obvious next question. "Why?"

At first, the Doctor's only response was to stare at her. Rose felt like she was starting to singe at the edges with the intensity of his eyes, and almost wished she hadn't asked, when he replied, "I needed time to think."

"Time to think," Rose repeated slowly, "by starving your brain of oxygen?"

The Doctor's eyebrows rose as he nodded, then added a small smile. "Yep!"

Rose shook her head. Whatever! "Okay so, what about the crocodiles at night thing?"

"Hm?"

"Crocodiles. They hunt at night. The sun is about to set."

The Doctor blinked as he stared blankly past her. There was a small splash as the Doctor's hand broke the water's surface to pull on his ear as he thought. "Right."

Rose didn't like the look on his face--the look that routinely accompanied a 'Plan B' and involved running.

"Ah, let's make for the TARDIS, shall we?" The Doctor's voice had lost its calm, sprouting nervous inflections. After a few searching glances behind Rose and out into open water, he turned toward one of the nearby banks and dove into a swift crawl stroke.

Rose launched herself after him, struggling to keep up. As the Doctor started to lose her, he suddenly stopped and looked back.

"Come on, then!"

"You're too fast!" Rose hollered up to him, her tone pleading.

The Doctor started off again, but Rose found she could keep pace with him. As they swam with reckless speed, Rose was beset with the unique brand of strangeness of their situation. As the sun crawled from the sky, hiding from them behind the mountains, she took in the drooping moss of the trees ahead, the musky scent of the water, and the ambient clicking of alien insects. The whole of it was so very untamed and raw, much more wild than places they usually found themselves in.

Rose watched the rapid-fire splashing of his strokes and thought the Doctor seemed very much out of place here. So was she, for that matter. It all seemed somehow surreal, yet was tied fast to reality by the familiar presence of danger.

Beginning to tire out, Rose concentrated on just swimming and breathing.

It was then the Doctor disappeared.