Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep (23 page)

The Doctor smiled gently, and looked up at the illuminated panel on top of the Cone. Every one of the rigs shown there was flashing with coloured lights.

Euro-Gas was back in business.

'I'd still like to know how I got out to that rig,' insisted Maggie, as she poured after-dinner coffee for her guests, who included Robson, the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria. 'I mean, I can't even swim.'

'You can't remember anything at all?' asked her husband.

'Nothing. It was as though I'd had a nightmare, and had woken up in the middle of the North Sea!'

The Doctor smiled sympathetically. 'Nightmares can sometimes be a very strong emotional experience, Mrs Harris.'

'But how
did
I get out to that Rig?' asked Maggie.

'My guess is that you were cocooned by the foam, and quite literally, transported out there.'

Maggie shivered. 'How horrible!'

'Well, Harris, all I can say is, you were right,' said Robson, who had fully regained his robust appearance. 'I should've listened to you in the first place.'

Harris shook his head. 'I doubt it would've helped. As it turned out, we were lucky we didn't tamper with that Weed.'

Everyone laughed as Maggie turned to her husband and said,

'And the next time you ask me to get something out of your desk, you can come and do it yourself!'

There was more laughter as Robson added, 'And to think I wanted to keep you locked up, Doctor. Just as well for us all that Harris here is inclined to disobey orders!' He dabbed his mouth with his napkin, then rose from the table. 'Well, that was a splendid dinner, Mrs Harris. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm rather tired.'

'Of course,' said Maggie, rising from the table. Everyone but Victoria did likewise.

'Shall we see you in the morning, Doctor?' asked Robson.

The Doctor shook his head. 'I don't think so, Mr Robson. I'm afraid my friends and I must travel on.'

'Oh, really? Where are you going?'

The Doctor took a risky glance at Jamie. 'Er - well, we haven't quite made up our mind.'

'Even if we had,' complained Jamie, 'it wouldn't make any difference. We still wouldn't get there!' He grinned cheekily at the Doctor.

Robson smiled, a rare event for him. But he was clearly sorry to see the last of the Doctor and his companions. 'Well, if you're ever around these parts again, don't hesitate to drop in on us - only through the front gate next time, eh?'

Everyone laughed, then said their farewells to Controller Robson, who went off to resume the long career that meant so much to him.

The Doctor yawned and rubbed his eyes. 'I suppose it's about time we went too, eh, Jamie?' He turned to Victoria, who was still sitting at the table, her face resting on her hands. 'Are you ready, Victoria?'

Victoria slowly looked up at him. There were tears welling up in her eyes.

'Hey Victoria!' Jamie went to her immediately. 'What is it?

What's the matter?'

Victoria looked away. She was too upset to answer.

The Doctor went and sat beside her. Taking her hand and patting it he said, in that soft, inimitably kind and understanding way that was so characteristic of him, 'It's all right, my dear. I know. You don't want to come with us, do you?'

Victoria found it impossible to look at the Doctor. 'I... I don't know. I don't want to leave you, but...' Finally, she plucked up courage to look at him. 'How
did
you know?'

The Doctor smiled at her affectionately. 'I suspected it.'

'Would you mind?' she asked.

'Victoria!' protested Jamie. 'You can't!'

'Be quite, Jamie!' the Doctor said firmly. Then he turned back to Victoria. 'You want to stay, settle down?'

Victoria bit her lip nervously, nodded.

'Then if you really want to - you must do it.'

Victoria buried her head in his shoulder. 'Oh, Doctor,' she agonised, 'I'm so sorry...'

'It's all right, my dear... all right...' He patted her gently on the back of the head, then turned to Maggie. 'Mrs Harris, would it be all right if Victoria stayed with you for a while. You see, she has no parents or family of her own, and...'

'Of course she can!' Maggie interrupted immediately. 'We'd be delighted to look after Victoria for as long as she likes to stay. Isn't that so, Frank?'

Harris nodded enthusiastically. 'With the greatest of pleasure!'

For the first time, Victoria's eyes lit up 'Oh, Mrs Harris, Mr Harris - would you really mind?'

Maggie responded by easing Victoria up from the table, and hugging her.

The Doctor looked relieved. He was concealing the personal sadness he felt. 'Thank you both - very much.' Then, for Victoria's sake, he quickly became very business-like. 'We'll stay here tonight, Victoria - just in case you want to think again...'

'Aye!' snapped Jamie resentfully. 'You're talking nonsense, Victoria - you know you are!'

'Jamie!' the Doctor reacted firmly. 'This is something Victoria must decide for herself. It's her life. We must not interfere.'

Victoria was watching Jamie closely. She couldn't bear that crumpled, hurt look on his face.

The windows of the Harrises' married quarters were thick with frost. But, thanks to an early morning shaft of sunlight which had not been forecast by the computers, the frost was now beginning to melt and trickle.

Inside the kitchen, someone was rubbing a small clear patch on the window. Victoria's face peered out. It was clear she hadn't slept well that night, for her eyes were puffed up from crying. In the distance, she could just pick out the small, stocky figure of Jamie, winding his way in the cold through the grounds of the Refinery Compound. As soon as she caught sight of him, she felt a sinking, hollow feeling in her stomach. Jamie was the best friend she ever had, or was every likely to have. Even though at times he was pompous and opinionated, she knew only too well how difficult it was going to be to continue her life without him.

'There he is,' she thought, as she went out to meet Jamie on the kitchen patio, 'that funny little figure in his kilt, pullover, and tam-o-shanter.' In a few hours time, she would never see him again.

'You're up early,' he said awkwardly. 'Didn't you sleep?'

'Oh - yes,' Victoria flustered. 'I'm feeling fine.'

'Good.' There was an unnatural pause between them, until Jamie finally said, 'D' you know what the Doctor's done?'

'No?'

'He's only gone down to the beach! He gets worse every day!'

He laughed falsely. But Victoria had difficulty in even raising a smile. There was another awkward pause, and then Jamie could contain himself no longer. 'You're still not sure, are you?'

'Yes, I'm sure now,' replied Victoria decisively, 'but that doesn't make it any easier leaving you and the Doctor.'

'Aye. We've been together a good time now. Has the Doctor said anything else to you?'

'No. You know him - he wouldn't. He believes in people making up their own minds.'

'Aye.' Jamie lowered his eyes and made aimless patterns with his foot in the frost. 'You'll be happy here?'

'I think so. The Harrises are nice people.'

'I know. But they're not from your time, are they?'

Victoria was finding it incredibly difficult to explain how she really felt. 'The thing is, I wouldn't be at ease back in Victorian times anyway. After all, I've no family left there.'

'Aye, I know,' sighed Jamie. 'Ah, well... ' He turned to leave.

'Jamie!' Victoria quickly stopped him. 'You wouldn't go without - well, saying goodbye, would you?'

'Och, no! Of course not!'

Victoria sighed with relief. 'Good.'

'Victoria...' Jamie turned back as though there was something he just had to say to her.

'Yes?'

'I... I...' he stammered.

'Yes, Jamie?'

Jamie's courage failed. 'Oh... nothing. See you later.' He turned, and quickly made his way back towards the beach.

A short time later, the Doctor said their farewells to Victoria, and left her with Maggie and Harris on the beach. It was a strange parting, one that seemed totally unnecessary and unnatural to Jamie.

The sky was now a clear blue, and the sun was streaming down on the TARDIS which was waiting at the far end of the beach, covered in a thin film of melting frost.

As the Doctor and Jamie made their way along the beach, they stopped just once to turn and wave back to the solitary trio who were watching them from the distance. Jamie's face had that crumpled, upset look about it again, so the Doctor quickly took him by the arm and led him off.

Victoria watched the Doctor and Jamie disappear inside the TARDIS. It seemed unnatural to her too, the fact that she was not going with them, and large tears began to roll down her cherry-red cheeks.

The grunting, grinding sound of the TARDIS filled the air.

Victoria shivered with the cold, then turned to look anxiously at Maggie and Harris. They responded by smiling at her reassuringly.

'We can't just... leave her,' begged Jamie, as he and the Doctor stared sadly at the three figures they had just left behind on the beach. But this time they were watching them on the scanner inside the TARDIS.

'We're not leaving her, Jamie,' sighed the Doctor. 'It was Victoria's decision to stay.'

'Aye.'

'Don't worry about her,' said the Doctor trying to sound confident. 'She'll be happy with the Harrises.'

'Och, I'm not worrying!' replied Jamie unconvincingly. 'Come on, let's go!'

'All right.' The Doctor turned back to the Control Unit. 'Where would you like to go?'

'I couldna' care less!' Although he tried to resist it, Jamie's eyes were still rivetted to the scanner.

The Doctor watched him for a moment, smiling affectionately at his young companion's emotional outburst. He knew just how much Jamie was going to miss Victoria. 'You know, Jamie,' he said,

'I was fond of her too...'

He sighed again, turned back to the controls and flicked all the necessary switches that immediately set the TtARDIS in motion.

The grinding and grunting sound of the dematerialising TARDIS gradually disappeared. And in its place, the seabirds returned, swooping low over the surface of the water, searching out the fish they had thought they would never see again.

Out and beyond was the vast expanse of sea. The cruel, unyielding sea. Calm again now. The fury gone.

All that remained were the small blobs of bubbling white foam and straggling clumps of seaweed that rolled gently over the waves of the incoming tide.