3| Breakdown

by Becky Miller

10 Flying close

  He knew before he opened the door, but he was sure when he entered the blue box.

  "They're not here." the Doctor said to Rose, who returned a look of disbelief.

  "Are they in trouble?" Rose asked, because she recognised the concerned look on his face. The Doctor gave a little nod, which told Rose everything she needed to know. They put the robot on the floor and the Doctor told Annika to sit on the chair and be quiet.

  "He's got his phone with him, right?" he asked Rose.

  "Yes."

  "Okay, then I can get the TARDIS to find his signal." The Doctor knew he had to hurry, because he had seen the flashes of the disaster Lynne and Mickey had experienced. If they were still buried underneath all that snow he had seen caving in on them, they had very little time left, so he did something he hadn't done in a very long time and he smiled from ear to ear thinking about it, which made Rose worry, only a little though.

  "Okay, Rose here we go. A premi?re for you. I have found the signal. They are down on the bottom of a very deep crack in the ice and we are going to fly in on them." the Doctor said and straight away the TARDIS lifted itself from the ground and soured through the freezing cold Earth air. It hesitated a bit at first but soon the ride got smoother.

  "Cool!" Rose exclaimed and she had a smile running from ear to ear as well. "Ha, ha. After all this time you are still able to amaze me."

  "Open the door, Rose. It's all right. We are getting close now, do you see them?" the Doctor said as the police box flew into the abyss. He had his hands full making sure the ship didn't slam into the towering high walls of snow and ice, which he barely managed anyway.

  "No, no sign of them yet. Maybe they are buried? Doctor watch out!" Rose yelled as she saw the end of the abyss approaching fast. She could see the reflection of the TARDIS in its smooth surface and she quickly slammed the door shut.

  Though the Doctor pulled up as fast as he could, the ship still flew against the wall, but because it was so smooth they just slid up all they way and shot out of the abyss like a cannonball.

  "Oops, she must have gotten some scratches from that. Luckily nothing's broken." the Doctor said and caressed his ship.

  "Lynne was right after all. You really should learn how to properly fly this thing!" Rose said, still clinging to the railing near the door.

  Annika just sat, holding herself tightly down in her seat. She really exhausted her fair share of flying and crashing today.

  "Still, I think I saw something before we hit the wall, Doctor." Rose said.

  "Okay, I'll set her down in the abyss then." he replied.

  Once he had made a soft smooth landing, the Doctor and Rose stepped out of the blue police box. Not far from it they found three figures hugged together against the wall. It was Mickey, Lynne and the dog, all snuggled up against each other. Mickey and Lynne had blue faces from the cold and the dog on their laps didn't move.

  "Oh, my god Mickey!" Rose exclaimed as she ran towards him, almost slipping on the icy floor.

  The Doctor followed with big leaps and as he kneeled at Lynne's side there was an air of disappointment over him. He thought he had failed. He had found them too late.

  Rose had already felt Mickey's pulse and she cried of relief.

  "He is still alive, hurry get them inside." she said after which the Doctor quickly felt Lynne's pulse as well. He knew Daughters had poor resistance against the cold so the fact that Mickey had survived didn't mean she had too.

  He didn't linger when he couldn't find her pulse, because he was not going to leave her behind anyway, so he and Rose quickly carried them into the ship. Rose took care of them there as she made sure they warmed up, slowly otherwise their bodies wouldn't cope.

  The Doctor realised Annika was still in her seat as she was told to, but now he wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible, because he had enough on his mind now and he was worried he wouldn't be able to contain himself and be polite anymore if she made another stupid comment.

  He dropped her off at the nearest elevator platform as promised.

  Meanwhile Mickey had awoken from his cold afternoon nap, but Lynne's face still looked awfully blue. Laika also recovered and once it was strong enough to stand on its feet the dog went over to Lynne and licked her face.

  It reminded the Doctor of an Earth fairytale about a sleeping beauty and a prince who had to kiss her to awake the princess from a hundred years sleep. Ironically of all the people in the TARDIS it was the dog who kissed her out of her sleep, because much to the Doctor's surprise and relief she did wake up.

  It took a while for Lynne to fully come round, but eventually everyone was up and feeling fine. Now it was time to discuss their next destination.

  "So, where to now?" the Doctor said, but he was immediately pulled back to reality by Lynne.

  "Home perhaps, like you promised."

  "If that is what you want." he said sadly, though trying to appear unaffected. He set the engines in motion and this time they arrived in Cardiff unscathed and at the right time as well.

  Lynne took off the brown velvet coat she had worn because of the icy weather and gave it back to the Doctor who was standing just outside the TARDIS.

  "You can keep it." he said. "Oh, and I've fixed your machine when you were down in the Torchwood basement. I forgot to tell you. So, now you can move somewhere else to live, since they are planning to tear the building down."

  "That was very kind of you, Doctor." Lynne said and just as she turned to walk away he spoke again.

  "You? ehm? are sure you don't want any company after all those years alone? I mean my offer still stands, you can still come with me? us." he stuttered.

  "No thank you, Doctor. You have plenty of people in your ship to look after." Lynne said and gave him a little smile.

  "You're right. Oh, I know! Wait there." the Doctor said and leaped into the blue box only to appear a moment later.

  He had brought the dog, Laika, with him.

  "Here. Take him to keep you company. The Americans think she is dead anyway, so I can't bring her back to her rightful owners and I think she can do with some solid ground underneath her feet again for a while." he said with a generous smile.

  "Thank you, Doctor. For everything." Lynne said and called the dog over.

  Then she turned around and walked away, slowly and gracefully. However the Doctor usually was the one making the dramatic exit with his TARDIS, this time he stayed to see Lynne enter her ship, cloaked as a penthouse, after which he resumed his adventures with Rose and Mickey travelling through time and space.