TWO

 I opened my sore eyes slowly, the sensation returning to my tingling body. I must have passed out after all.

 “And I thought Time Passages were the worst way to travel…” I croaked to myself.

 My blurred vision was clearing as I began to gain consciousness, aware that I was in no great discomfort and was lying flat on my back. But we were no longer falling and the relief flooded through me. My eyes began to focus and I could see grey sky, fast moving dark clouds made ever changing pictures. But were we under a sky of an alien planet? I tentatively moved my arms and began to wiggle my legs, right down to the tips of my toes. The ground beneath was soft, slightly damp and kept shifting. My hands clutched at the grains of fine earth, I was reminded of my childhood and playtime in the sandpit. So far, so good and then I nervously turned my neck to the side, my face sunk into a mound of sand as I spat the grains out of my mouth. So no bones broken but maybe we didn’t land and we just materialized here… Except without the TARDIS. We, why did I keep saying we? With a burning jolt of shame I suddenly remembered the Doctor. I sat up abruptly and to my left I found the Doctor lying spread eagled and face down beside me.

 “Doctor!” I shouted with relief to see my friend. “Doctor?” I repeated anxiously, nudging his arm as he still appeared to be unconscious.

 There was a piercing shriek overhead, I looked up and saw a seagull flying against the wind as though it was being battered by an invisible barrier. My nose twitched as I caught a whiff of the sea, suddenly reminded of great aunt Mavis and my visits to her home in Herne Bay. In the West Midlands, you’re a long way from the seaside and it had been a few years since I had been by the sea as I watched the rolling waves in the distance and listened to the hypnotic, smooth sound of the tide stretching out. My mind was all over the place, though I thought I was coping pretty well considering we had been ejected from the TARDIS and thrown out into the Time Vortex. Just at that moment the Doctor spluttered, I knelt down beside him and gently helped him to turn over. I pulled a tissue from my pocket and brushed the gritty sand from his face.  

 “Easy now, just let me get this sand off you, you don’t want it going in your eyes…”

 When I finished wiping, the Doctor frowned and reluctantly opened his eyes, he stuck his tongue out and began coughing up the sand from his mouth, sand it really does get everywhere. The Doctor turned his head to face me and after all his pain and anguish I was relieved to see him smile, I guess he was also relieved to see me here with him as well. We were both still alive, I think the Doctor was just as surprised as me, if not a little mystified by our survival. But really my friend was not himself and after what I had just witnessed on board the TARDIS I knew him well enough to know that everything was far from alright. The grave reality of our situation hit me like a top shelf of extremely heavy academic books falling on my head. We had lost the TARDIS, the Doctor had lost his time machine and I had lost my ride home. We were stranded and lost somewhere in time. But looking at the positives we were still in one piece and on Earth (at least I thought it was Earth) but the main question being…Where and when? The Doctor suddenly leapt to his feet as though he’d been electrocuted, sand flew everywhere, I brushed it away and rose more gingerly to my feet, shaking out my clothes and hair.

 “For a Time Lord of my age not the most dignified way to end up… Mind you I’ve woken up in worst places…” The Doctor sniffed, musing to himself as he sucked the air through his teeth. He returned his attention to me and in a small voice which no longer sounded like him, asked. “You alright there Anna?” I nodded and threw my arms around the Doctor, glad that the Doctor seemed more like his old self as I felt his returning hug.

 After a few moments we separated, the sound of seagulls suddenly becoming more louder and persistent.

 “Doctor what just happened? Back there on the TARDIS…” My words trailed off, I had said the “T” word and the anguish burning in the Doctor’s eyes frightened me.

 The Doctor cleared his throat.

 “Something I hoped I would never have to do in all the nine hundred years of my travels Anna… I initiated an emergency exit and used the escape time capsule…” The Doctor laughed, it was bordering on the hysterical. “Blimey that was a long shot but it worked. Not the ideal way to travel through the vortex.” The Doctor took my hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry you were alone, I couldn’t talk to you back there, I was busy mentally piloting us most of the way until I lost consciousness and here we are.”

 The Doctor was unusually uninterested in his surroundings, his moods very changeable as he crouched down and scooped up a long piece of cobweb like material, it was still smoldering and that was the remains of the shield that had protected us and kept us safe in the vortex.

 “We’ve lost her Anna, my beautiful TARDIS has gone… And for all I know the last of its kind. I am nothing without her…” Of course the Doctor was in a state of shock, what did I expect after he had lost control of the TARDIS and had to abandon his time machine. But I didn’t know what to do, I felt utterly powerless and it broke my heart when the Doctor stared up at me and clutched his chest, covering both his hearts with his hands.

 “It feels…I feel the separation, it’s as though a great big hole has been cut out of me. I can’t make a connection… I’ve lost contact.” The Doctor wearily sat down and began staring abstractedly at the fine grains of sand running through his long fingers, watching them fall to the ground. I sat back down beside him and placed an arm around him, comfort was the only thing I could offer. He took a sharp intake of breath and began in a bewildered tone. “I just don’t understand it. How did the parasitic entity get on board the TARDIS. Nothing breaches my TARDIS’ defences.” The Doctor gazed up searchingly into my eyes, appealing to me to supply an answer and that’s when I realized, I did know the answer.

 “It was Mike Hilton.” I was shocked that I had said it out loud, an icy chill ran down my spine. It felt like I’d slapped the Doctor across the face for a second time that day. I buried my face in my hands and began to tremble under the realization as I gasped. “Oh no… It’s all my fault.”