Chapter 19: Flashback
Escapism is a wonderful thing. Whether it‘s through stories or simply a break from the day-to-day. Having time away from the things that weigh you down is freeing, restorative and just what‘s needed every now and then. That‘s exactly what our excursion to Africa felt like to me. I had been getting so bogged down in the oppressive reality of being stranded in 2020, haunted by past demons rearing their heads and caught between my feelings for Helen and the obligation I felt to Tania. Being away changed all that and gave Helen and I the opportunity to work things out. Finally, I was seeing things clearly, freed of an emotional burden that I had been buckling under and I got the sense that Helen felt better for it too. The honeymoon phase, as you might call it, would not last for very long. We were due to make our return to London and with it, to reality.
“Wakey-wakey, rise and shine!”
We woke to River’s sing-song voice. I groaned. Sleeping sitting up in a car was far from comfortable. My neck ached and my left arm had fallen asleep and yet, I couldn’t help a small smile when I realised why. Helen stirred on my shoulder, her head nudging against mine as she sat up slowly and released the tight hold that she’d had on my arm. It was hard to tell whether her cheeks were rosy from sleep or if she’d blushed, still somewhat insecure about being in my personal space, but either way, she was a lovely sight to wake up to.
“Sleep okay?” I questioned softly and shook out my tingling limb, hoping she wouldn’t take offense at the gesture.
“Yeah, I suppose…” She answered and sounded quite drowsy still. Her blonde hair was tussled, the bun halfway undone in her sleep, and she yawned. I don’t think I can quite describe all the emotions I felt: the deep adoration the endearing image evoked in me, the surprising contentment and comfort of waking up next to her, and the longing to lean over and kiss her good morning. I settled for allowing her to come around in her own time as she blinked against the lights that were illuminating the inside of the car. Outside, it remained pitch black. Perhaps we hadn’t slept for quite as long as I thought. I looked around as well and it seemed the Doctor and River had swapped places as the Professor was in the passenger seat now, looking around with a knowing smile but silent.
“Where are we?” I asked to avoid any comment that she might have been saving until we were fully awake.
“Little air base we came across. We‘ve been driving for a while but should have a few hours of cover of night left. The Doctor is just having a look if there are any usable planes, if so, we might be able to make the hop across to the British Isles tonight,” she answered pleasantly. “Maybe you should see what she’s come up with? I imagine she’s expecting you to fly it.”
“Yeah, I guess I’d better,” I nodded and cast a quick glance around to Helen. She gave me a soft smile and nod of agreement. It wasn’t that I needed her permission of course, but I knew it meant leaving her with River. That wasn’t a problem as such, their friendship was certainly closer than between River and me, but I expected Helen might become subject to probing questions from the professor, which I wasn’t sure she would appreciate just yet. The fact that Helen didn’t seem to care was reassuring. Perhaps she wasn’t quite as insecure in her feelings as I feared. “See you in a minute,” I reached for her hand and gave her a reassuring squeeze before getting out of the car.
The night-time air was pleasantly cool as it hit my face and blew away the remnants of sleep. I felt surprisingly well-rested. My dreams had turned more mellow, recalling events that weren’t entirely unpleasant and I knew Helen’s immediate proximity had a lot to do with it. I smiled to myself, allowing for a brief moment of joy, as I looked around to see where the Doctor had gotten off to.
Airbase was a generous term for what I found. With only the light of the moon to guide me, I found my way in between two large hangers alongside a short airstrip. Touchdown and refueling, that was all I could imagine had taken place here, but I spotted one of the hangars having been opened - with a sonic screwdriver I imagined - and a figure was moving in the shadows, skirting a small plane.
“That’ll be cosy,“ I commented as I stepped into the hangar. The Doctor looked up, her face illuminated by the shine of her sonic screwdriver, and she grinned:
“And much better suited to flying under the radar as it were,“ she observed and gave the hatch a buzz. Results were instantaneous as the plane‘s security features were no match for her implement of choice: the hatch creaked open and lowered to the ground. Without hesitation, she climbed inside and I followed. It wasn‘t a bad find. The small military plane was made for five people, a pilot and four additional seats behind, two to either side. It would serve us nicely.
“Fuel?” I prompted the Doctor who dropped into the pilot seat and set about checking the state of the vessel. I leaned onto the back of the pilot seat, looking on, familiarising myself with the controls already. They weren‘t much different from the passenger plane we had used on the way here, which made things easy.
“Full tank by the looks of it,“ the Doctor answered, evidently pleased. “Luck is certainly-”
“On our side, yes, makes sense,“ I completed her sentence as it was an observation we had made far too many times by now. It did get me thinking about the potency of the quantum crystalliser and its limitations. A small part of me wondered if its presence had influenced the way in which Helen and I had been able to make sense of our feelings; if under different circumstances, we would have continued the painful back and forth that I feared would have broken me in the end.
“Doesn’t mean we can get complacent,“ the Doctor interrupted my musings. “There is a lot that can go wrong at every turn. It’s not a guarantee,“ she warned sternly and jumped to her feet.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I hummed, casting a glance at my bandaged forearms that rested on the headrest of the pilot‘s seat. I straightened up as well. “But yeah, this seems perfect, I can definitely fly it.”
“Wonderful,“ the Doctor grinned and offered up the seat to me. “I’ll get the others, you start her up.“ She skipped past me towards the hatch.
“Sure thing,” I agreed and dropped into the pilot seat, testing the yoke in my hands.
“Liv?” The Doctor spoke and I turned in my seat to look around, curious as to why she was delaying.
“Yeah?” I responded and found her looking at me with a smile that reminded me an awful lot of the Doctor we usually travelled with. There was a softness about her expression, a sense of boundless optimism and joy.
“I’m happy for you,“ she said simply and not unlike a proud parent. While perhaps slightly bewildering, it wasn‘t unpleasant as she seemed so utterly sincere. “Truly. It’s been a long time coming.” She gave me a smile and since I am me, I couldn‘t simply accept her warm words gracefully. I gave a snotty response that made me feel less self-conscious:
“You know, if it was that obvious you could have said something, saved us the time and-” I argued but the Doctor just chuckled and interrupted:
“Would you have listened?”
“Well-” It was a fair point. I didn‘t like taking the Doctor‘s advice at the best of times - certainly not without a lot of complaining. If they had offered their advice on matters of the heart, matters where I wouldn‘t have taken kindly to them interfering, it would have resulted in nothing but a lot of sniping and sarcasm. The Doctor had a point.
“Nobody can convince you of the things you’re not ready to hear,” she elaborated knowingly. “Helen needed this time. And maybe you did too.”
“Maybe…” I conceded, and the Doctor ducked out of the hatch, leaving me to the controls and my thoughts.
---
“This is snug,“ River commented and while I didn‘t turn to see what was going on in the passenger seats behind me, I could imagine her taking full advantage of sitting so close to her wife.
“It is rather,“ Helen agreed, sounding amused.
“You won’t hear me complaining about being stuck in a tight space with three gorgeous women,” the professor carried on her teasing and the familiar wave of jealousy I felt way back when River and Helen had been keeping secrets behind my back resurfaced.
“River!” I shot her a stern glance of warning over my shoulder. I couldn‘t leave the controls, or rather, I wouldn‘t. Not after what happened last time. Even as I allowed the autopilot to steer, I scanned the dark sky with keen eyes. So far there were no Daleks in sight and we had been flying for a few hours.
“I’m just saying, the fun we could have,“ River replied innocently and flashed me a bright, playful smile.
“As nice as it is to see you again, that’s not an image I need in my head,“ I retorted as dryly as I could manage,though I was glad for the interruption of the tense atmosphere. The Doctor had taken to fiddling with the crystalliser, Helen seemed somewhat lost in her thoughts, and River was clearly bored.
“I, on the other hand-” she hummed mischievously.
“River!” I snapped again, taking great offence at the notion that over over-active imagination might involve my girlfriend. The term was unfamiliar still. It thrilled and unnerved me in equal measures. It just didn‘t sit quite right with me, strangely. Tania had been my girlfriend... but for Helen, the term seemed so... weak. It didn‘t do justice to describe how I felt for her. I cast her a quick glance and caught her looking at me. Where before, one - or both - of us would have turned away, pretended to be doing something else, I smiled at her and she mirrored me. I was pleased that she didn‘t seem bothered by River‘s constant innuendo, she simply leaned back in her chair shaking her head at our friend, bemused.
“Looks like we’re entering British air space,“ the Doctor interjected to change the topic of conversation.
“No fun…” River huffed in response.
As we approached London, I felt the weight of reality slowly setting in and my thoughts turned to the concerns Helen had uttered. Being off on an adventure with the future Doctor had been a strange break in the day to day, we had hit pause on where we had been, and the closer we got to London, the more real things became. The honeymoon, wonderful as it had been, had been short-lived. I considered asking the Doctor to take over for a minute, just so I could be close to Helen for the little time we had left before our return. Perhaps I could steal a few more kisses in the twilight of the back of the plane…
Every now and then I thought I could feel Helen’s eyes on me and wondered if she was thinking the same thing.
“Is that London?” The Doctor asked when the lights of a big city came into view on the horizon. She had taken to pacing the small plane, pushing past River and Helen‘s knees to their constant annoyance. She came to stand behind me, peering out of the windscreen with the sky slowly greying as dawn was breaking.
“Of course it is, can you think of any other big sprawling cities that we might be heading towards in this part of the-” I quipped, as usual jumping at the chance to poke fun, but the Doctor didn‘t let me finish. She grabbed my shoulders in a bid to silence me.
“Liv, Liv!” She shushed me and drew my attention back to the city we were approaching, gesturing towards the lights. Time Lords had superior eyesight so it took me a moment to realise what she was referring to but then, I saw it too. What I had presumed were the bright lights of London, were in fact skyscrapers that stood in flames.
“Oh my God…” I breathed and the horror must have been more than obvious in my voice.
“What is it, Liv?“ Helen sounded immediately concerned and I heard belts being unbuckled as I didn‘t answer, stunned into silence. I clawed my hands into the yoke, knuckles turning white, as I fought the memories of Nixyce VII back. This was not the time or place, I had to keep a level head. I knew what it meant to see a city burn and dread took me over like a gust of cold wind that made me shudder and cease up. Moments later, River was behind me too, whispering curses under her breath as she took in the destruction we were approaching. Helen was there as well, to my right hand-side and she audibly gasped at the sight of her hometown. I released my tight hold on the steering, with one hand at least, and quickly reached for hers. I couldn’t bring myself to form words but I squeezed her hand and knew she understood.
“What happened?“ Helen broke the silence at last, her voice trembling, and I held on to her tightly.
“Something must have prompted this,“ River observed darkly and my thougths jumped to our friends that were somewhere down there. The Doctor, Kate, Osgood, Tania, Martha, Yaz, Ryan, Graham...
“I’m taking us straight down!“ I announced, unwilling to waste time on indecision. Our friends needed our help. They might be injured or worse... I eased the yoke down. “I’ll find a place to land, a park or-” The plane was small. I knew I could practically land it anywhere and in the ruins below, it would hardly make a difference if I caused some havoc of my own. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My brain simply refused to compute it.
“Is that wise? What if the Daleks-” River sought to protest but the Doctor was quick to agree:
“No, no, she’s right, we can’t waste any time.” Her voice was uncharacteristically calm, utterly devoid of the bubbliness and joy I had come to associate with her. It only drove home the seriousness of the situation. “People need our help. Our friends will need our help.” She confirmed what we all already feared.
“It‘ll be alright,“ I told Helen, averting my eyes from our approach for a moment, just long enough to pull her hand to my lips and press a kiss on top of it. I didn‘t know how else to give her comfort, not when I was struggling with my own demons.
“How? How could it possibly be alright?“ She whispered in response and I didn‘t have an answer.
“Buckle up, Helen,“ River took the initiative and ushered Helen back to her seat. I released her hand unwillingly but knew it was far safer.
“Hold on tight,” I told them as we approached central London and I aimed for Hyde Park.
---
The one saving grace was that there were no Daleks as yet. I didn't know why and where they had retreated at the time but I wasn't about to question it as we touched down in Hyde Park. It was a rough landing but I managed to avoid knocking into trees and there were far greater concerns than our comfort.
"Everybody okay?" I questioned when we had come to a halt and the engines fell silent. I looked around to find my friends already on their feet.
"Stay behind me," River advised sternly, readying her blaster. I could hardly argue with that. We were about to walk into a war zone with the rest of us unarmed.
"First aid kit, not much but it's something," the Doctor threw a small parcel towards me as I got out of the pilot seat. She must have found it under one of the seats. She followed River who was opening the hatch, and I met Helen in the middle of the plane, waiting right behind our friends.
"This is not how it was meant to go..." She said softly and I knew what she meant. The timeline had just taken an unexpected turn for the worse, one that had never been mentioned in the notes River had provided us with. From here on in, everything was new, the only advantage we had left was River herself and given the concerned expression on the professor's face, that was not a guarantee.
“Good God…” Helen mumbled as we climbed out of the small plane. There was a lot of smoke and the air was cold despite the fires that were flickering and dancing in sharp winter winds.
“Where is everyone?” River questioned, looking around. The park was empty of humans and Daleks alike. A few trees had been singed, a couple continued to smoulder, and I realised they weren't fresh flames. They were dying down.
“Guess the attack happened a while back…” the Doctor observed the same thing as we ventured further away from our plane. Even as we arrived on the main road beside the park, there was not a living soul in sight. There were, however, bodies. Helen clasped her hand to her mouth and I carried out the grim task of checking for vital signs, knowing full well I wouldn't find any. Anyone who had been able to had fled and barricaded themselves away, and while I couldn't see any Daleks anywhere, I knew we would do well to do the same.
“We need to find the others, get out of the open. If the Daleks are around, they would have seen us landing and will come to investigate," the Doctor instructed.
"Let's get a move on!" River urged us along, towards the underground station at Hyde Park Corner and I realised why: there were Daleks at the far end of the street, shooting towards us. They must have indeed witnessed our landing.
---
It was a mad dash to the underground. River was down the stairs first and her arms flung out to slow our advance!
"Careful!" She yelled, nearly tripping over the rubble that obscured the steps. Destruction had rained from above: half of the entrance to the underground station had collapsed.
"Keep going, it's our best option. We just need to get into the tunnels," the Doctor was bringing up the rear, urging us to keep going as bolts of energy shot over our heads with the Daleks growing closer.
"Euston isn't far. Four or five stops," Helen confirmed and River sought a way forward, keeping a close eye on the stability of the ceiling as we pushed on. We clambered over bits of wall and metal railing that had come loose.
"If the tunnel hasn't collapsed," I observed grimly, dreading what we would find as we advanced further. We were hard-pressed for other options but the thought that we might be heading for a dead-end occurred. "What happened here?"
"Something really, really bad. We won't find out until we find the others," the Doctor put the matter off. The 'what had happened' was obvious enough, the 'why' was the more pressing question.
Luck was, as ever of late, on our side. The underpass at the bottom of the stairs was mostly unharmed, seemingly made of sturdy stuff. The Doctor guided our way with her sonic screwdriver, the only light source underground. Inside the station, schedule boards and overhead lights had crashed to the ground, a wall to the left had collapsed, but for the time being, the ceilling appeared to be holding and the escalators were unobscured. The one thing that was an awful lot to deal with was that there were more bodies: not many but enough. People that had sought to flee into the underground much like us and appeared to have been shot down in front of the ticket barriers that had hindered their flight.
"HALT. DO NOT MOVE OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED," the Daleks screeched, moving along the underpass behind us, blue blasts of energy shooting down the tunnel, illuminating our surroundings in garish hues. Their metal voices echoed through the chamber and startled us out of our petrified horror.
"Keep going!" River shouted over the sound of energy weapons fire and readied her blaster once more.
"River, what are you doing?" Helen exclaimed, mortified as the professor retraced our steps.
"If I can make the underpass collapse-" She answered, aiming her weapon up.
"What makes you think it'll just be the underpass?!" I shouted, realising her intentions. "We might get buried alive!"
"Not with luck on our side!" She gave a daredevil grin and beside us, the Doctor blasted the ticket barriers with her screwdriver.
"Keep going you two!" She told us sternly as River took a first shot at a Dalek that had made it within range. She didn't seem to want to risk collapsing the roof until we had made it further into the station. The Doctor tossed me her sonic, our only source of light, then reached into her coat and retrieved the Quantum Crystalliser. “Take it with you, just in case.” She pressed it into my hand and I didn’t want to take it. It was as if she was allowing for the possibility of them not making it but I knew I couldn’t argue.
"Come on, Helen." I pushed the Crystalliser into my pocket, then grabbed Helen’s hand. We didn't have a moment to lose on indecision. Neither River nor the Doctor could be reasoned with once they had made up their minds so it wasn't wise to try and delay. We had to trust them and I did. Keeping Helen safe became my priority, as it always had been if we're being perfectly honest. As the Doctor joined River, I pulled Helen with me.
"Liv-" She tried to protest but I didn't relent. The escalators weren't far. I clasped the sonic as firmly as Helen's hand, lighting our way as best as I could. The escalators at Hype Park Corner were incredibly steep and we hurried down as fast as we dared.
We were halfway down when the explosion rocked the underground station, the sound of collapsing stone echoed down the tunnels and I lost my balance, my footing and the sonic screwdriver.
And the world was plunged into complete darkness.
---
The lights went off expectantly as I was elbow deep in the engine array. Bright illumination to pitch black. It did what it surely had been intended to do: disorient, unsettle and hinder any progress we had made in the test so far. You would have thought I was used to it by then, after weeks of various tests measuring out aptitudes and problem solving skills, but some obstacles were impossible to prepare for. I wouldn't have expected my reaction to be as strong as it was but those things were far beyond my control.
"Shit!" I gasped as I touched my wrench to a live wire. Not enough to seriously harm me, but enough to give me a painful jolt.
"Liv?" Dal’s voice sounded across the intercom. It was a joint test, all four of us had different tasks and I realised I was falling short and letting my team down by stalling.
"Yes, I'm here, I'm nearly done," I shot back, trying to get back on track with the repairs to the power connections.
"Just keep going, you can do this blind if you need to," he encouraged calmly as a good captain ought to, but sadly I wasn't quite the model crewman. My journey - still unknown to my teammates - had left many marks and bruises, some of which I hadn't really been aware of until that moment.
"I am doing it blind!" I snapped, airing my frustration with myself. As I felt my way forward to the next step, my hands were shaking.
The darkness was all encompassing and I felt an unfamiliar sense of panic slowly creeping up my back. Cold sweat gathered on my forehead and the muscles of my chest cramped up, squeezing my lungs, unwilling to do the work they were designed for. It wasn't the task itself that was to blame. Dal was right, I could do this blind! I'm a good technician and I had the designs and schematics of the Orpheus down flat, we all did. We needed to. All sorts of circumstances could befall us on the way to the end of the universe, we all had to be capable of seeing to our ship. Emergencies like a sudden loss of power, drifting through space, unable to carry on with our journey. Perhaps the engines had exploded and-
"You can do this, Liv."
I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the rising panic as a flash of memory forced itself upon me. Memories of working my way through computer systems and data highways, memories of an explosion and the power failing, memories of floating in suffocating darkness, awaiting death.
"Nearly there."
I tried to concentrate, mapping out steps in my mind's eye and letting my fingers do the rest. My heart was going at a frantic pace. As I recoupled the connectors, I counted along to the beats, hoping it would help slow my pulse but it didn't. I was just short of going into arrhythmia, I could sense it. Maybe this was it: full metabolic collapse. I knew it would happen eventually and could at any time. The beginnings of a panic attack might be just the thing to kick it off. I waited for the thundering in my ears to fall silent, for things to end, if they had to, paranoid about every skip of my heart, every sharp pain, every-
I continued working as if on autopilot, hoping it would distract me from my looming demise but it didn’t. While I wasn't dead yet, I might as well keep going.
The last set of link-ups connected and with it, the lights turned back on. It was almost as disorienting as the plunge into darkness had been. Applause sounded at another task completed and slowly, the panic that had been squeezing my chest dispersed and allowed me to breathe more freely again.
I stepped away from the engine array and dropped the wrench unceremoniously into a nearby tool box. My head was spinning and I considered the irony if after everything, I simply collapsed now. My heart began to slow but not because it gave out, I was able to relax.
"Are you alright, Med-tech Chenka?" One of the staffers inquired as they set up the room for the next practice run.
"Yes. Quite. Just need a moment..." I tried to sound reassuring, as I pressed my hand to my aching chest.
"Do you have a problem with tight spaces?" The staffer frowned, trying to make sense of my state of being. "Or with pressure? You have to be absolutely reliable. Do you have an issue with the dark?"
"No and surely, it doesn't matter," I interrupted, trying my best to sound calm and collected when in reality, my mind was still aboard the isotope carrier, fighting back the darkness. "We completed the task, right?"
"So you did," he couldn't argue with that. We were interrupted by the door to the practice suit sliding open and revealing Dal Broke.
"Well done, Liv," he praised with a kind smile and I barely managed one in return. My body was still shaking from the unpleasant experience. He seemed to notice as much as he turned to the staffer to carry on: "We've been at this for hours, how about a break?"
"We are due to break up for lunch, yes," the young man confirmed. "Testing will resume in an hour." The ISI were running a tight schedule and gruelling as it was at times, it was also nice to be back in a routine. So we nodded in confirmation and the captain led me out of the room.
"Are you alright, Liv?" He asked, as we made our way down the corridor, at the end of which Vi and Bron were waiting for us.
"Yeah just... wasn't prepared for the lights to go out..." I hummed, not exactly eager to share any more than that, particularly when we were about to rejoin our colleagues. I had managed to build something of a relationship of mutual respect and appreciation with Dal over the past few weeks. The same wasn't quite true for the other two.
"I can sense there is a story there," Dal observed and I shook my head, almost instantaneously.
"Nothing worth telling..." I assured him and it was obvious that he didn't believe me.
"Hm..." He gave me a quick sideways glance. "Does it have something to do with why you're here?" He pushed on. "You haven't spoken much about that."
"And I'd rather not," I countered as Vi and Bron joined us.
"I think it would help if you did. Not only to build our relationships but also to-" the captain carried on and I interrupted him, pre-empting the curious glances from the other two.
"I'm sure ISI have a psych on staff that will help me work through my trauma in due course."
"You do keep your cards close to your chest, don't you? I'll figure you out eventually," Dal gave a good-natured laugh as we made for the dining hall.
"Excuse me everyone?" It was one of the lead scientists that approached our table once we had settled for lunch.
"Not a moment's peace and quiet..." I mumbled into my salad and Dal gave me a bemused smile. The scientist however remained unfazed:
"I am pleased to announce that all test results thus far have been exemplary. Your abilities compliment each other and you have developed into a well-working unit. We will be moving forward with all of you once all the formalities are out of the way. Our focus will shift from assessment to preparation."
"Excellent," Dal beamed and Vi and Bron seemed pleased as well. As for me? It wasn't entirely surprising, after all the time they had invested in us already and given the fact that we had become an excellent team. Either way, it was a relief. I was about to join in with the raising of glasses in celebration when the scientist focused on me.
"Records indicate that you still haven't completed your physical, med-tech Chenka?" It was an accusation hidden in a question and it pushed my body back towards panic. I did my best not to let on.
"Oh uhh yeah... just haven't had the time," I tried to put him off. I had yet to find a way around the whole thing. If I had a proper physical, my condition would immediately be revealed and that would be the end of the whole experience.
"It's just a formality, a last but necessary thing to be ticked off the list. You'll be excused from the afternoon activities to take it. We want to move forward as quickly as possible so if for whatever reason your health is compromised, we would need time to find a replacement."
"Right, yes of course," I tried my best to remain calm. I had to find a solution and quickly.
"This afternoon please!" He prompted, making clear that there would be no more delays.
---
Helen's arms were around me in an instant and we braced against the handrail of the escalator. It was pitch-black, we wouldn't have seen death hurtling towards us if the tunnels collapsed in their entirety but at the time, I took solace in knowing if that was to be, I would die in Helen's arms. We waited for the tremors to subside or death to find us - whichever happened first - as we cowered together, hands digging into shoulders and arms, holding onto each other as much as we were holding our breaths.
"Are you okay?" Helen whispered at last and I nodded, doing my best not to let the darkness unnerve me.
"Yes, I think so, but the sonic... must have tumbled down the steps..." I reported mournfully though the far more important thing was that we were alive.
"We may yet find it," I could tell Helen was trying to sound optimistic but her voice came out flat, echoing through the darkness.
"Just hold on to my hand," I told her, attempting to muster optimism of my own and pushed away the thought that River and the Doctor might well have been buried in the collapse. "How did we lose the sonic when we have that blood lucky charm..." I huffed and Helen gave a chuckle:
"If in any other iteration of this, we would have fallen to our deaths, I suppose that is the least unfortunate outcome..." I could feel her reluctance as we slowly made our way down the stairs, feeling our way forward in the dark. "River and the Doctor-" She said at last, explaining her holding back.
"-will be fine, they will catch up, we have to keep going," I tried to sound as sure as I possibly could and ignore the nagging doubts.
"Liv... I really don't like the dark..." Helen squeezed my hand as if to make sure I was really there.
"Neither do I," I conceded. "Always been a bit of a weakness..."
It was a long way down still.
