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"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." - Vladimir Nabokov
Summary:
A normal trip is transformed into a nightmare when the TARDIS takes off without them, but Yaz knows that everything will turn out fine. The Doctor will come back for them... right?
Length: 21,138 words.
READ ON AO3.
Above An Abyss
an angsty thasmin fic with lots of hurt/comfort <3
THE CRADLE
There is a moment of calm, and then the alarms start to go off.
“No,” the Doctor begs, racing around the console. “No, no, don’t do this-”
An alarming crunch echoes through the TARDIS. Yaz clings onto one of the pillars, sensing that they are about to have one of the Doctor’s classic crash landings.
“Doctor?” Dan asks, looking around nervously. “Everything alright?”
She yanks a lever down, rushing around to the other side of the console. “Just having some slight problems. It’s going to be fine. Well, it’s probably going to be fine. There’s at least a 40% chance that it will turn out fine.”
“I don’t like those odds,” Dan mutters, copying Yaz and finding something sturdy to hang onto.
“Okay, I’m going to manually land her!” the Doctor announces. “Hang on tight, it might get a bit bumpy!”
“All your driving is bumpy,” Yaz counters.
Dan snorts. “She’s worse than me mum.”
The Doctor doesn’t respond, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s because she didn’t hear them, or she is just ignoring their comments in favour of trying not to crash the TARDIS. “Here we go!”
There’s an ominous creaking sound and then the entire world tilts. Yaz has been on her fair share of dangerous TARDIS trips and is used to the Doctor’s questionable driving by now, but she can immediately tell that this is something different. Her hair starts floating up past her face as they fall, her stomach doing backflips like she’s on a rollercoaster, and then they hit the ground.
It takes Yaz a few seconds to open her eyes, groaning as she sits up. She reaches up to brush her hair out of her face only to find a wet patch on her scalp, and when she withdraws her hand she discovers it covered in blood. Wiping it on her pants, she uses the pillar to hoist herself to her feet. The world spins around her and she blinks, trying to clear her fuzzy vision, before taking a few shaky steps forward.
“Doctor?” she wheezes, looking around. “Dan?”
Smoke pours from the console and envelopes the room, making Yaz’s eyes water. She can barely see a foot in front of her face, but she knows that the exit should only be a few steps to her left, so she heads in that direction with one arm outstretched. When her palm finally hits wood, she fumbles for the handle and spills out onto the street outside.
Gulping in the clean air, Yaz attempts to rub the smoke out of her eyes. It takes her a minute or so to regain her vision, and that’s when she notices that she is not, in fact, in Sheffield.
Turning around, her mouth drops open in wonder as she sees the city sprawled out before her. Alien skyscrapers extend upwards as though they are trying to snatch the sun out of the sky. Buildings stretch out as far as the eye can see, twinkling like precious jewels in the light. From her vantage point on a pavement above the undercity, she can see buildings stacked on top of each other, strange vehicles that look like something out of a sci-fi novel whizzing by between them.
Yaz has seen many wonders on her travels across the universe, but the Doctor has always preferred natural paradises over man made areas. Over the years, Yaz has had the pleasure of seeing enough flowers to fill a garden the size of Earth and she has spent time in meadows and forests that look like illustrations out of a fairy tale, and she would never trade a single second of it for anything else. But, as much as the Doctor tends to avoid them, she also sees the beauty in cityscapes like these.
When she was twelve years old, Yaz had begged her parents to take them all to New York. Sonya had joined in, one of the few things they have ever agreed on, but the answer was always a firm no. In her dreams, she stood underneath the Empire State Building. She would stare up at it, seeing how the tip disappeared into the clouds, feeling a mixture of awe and insignificance.
This city that sprawls before her now may not be New York, but she still wishes Sonya was here to see it with her.
“Yaz?” Dan coughs from behind her. She spins around, smiling when she sees him.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she says, gesturing at the landscape behind her.
He holds a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun, staring out at the endless, glittering mirage behind her. He lets out a low whistle, raising his eyebrows. “Pretty impressive, yeah.”
“Only a little bit better than Earth,” Yaz jokes.
“Only a little,” Dan smirks back.
“Are you both alright?” the Doctor asks, waving smoke out of her face. “That was a tad bumpier than I thought it would be…”
She trails off, frowning. Taking a few steps forwards, she squints out at the foreign city, before backing away quickly. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”
“What?” Yaz protests. “We only just got here.”
“Besides,” Dan adds, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the TARDIS is currently on fire.”
As if to prove his point, a wall of smoke pours out of the TARDIS doors as soon as the Doctor opens them.
She bites her lip, glancing between the TARDIS and the city behind them. “We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
“It’s also not safe to walk into a burning TARDIS,” Yaz points out.
“You don’t understand,” the Doctor says, and the unbridled fear in her voice is enough to stop Yaz from interrupting. “Not every planet is friendly, Yaz. And the Ancuts are one of the most dangerous and cruel races in the galaxy. Even the planet name, Aclite, roughly translates to 'abyss' in English."
Yaz hesitates at her words, but Dan, ever the optimist, tries to come up with a solution. “Well, we can’t exactly go back in the TARDIS while it’s on fire, can we. Does it put itself out or does one of us have to find a fire extinguisher or something?”
The Doctor rubs the back of her neck. “She can usually fix herself, but this damage is quite serious, so she might need some help…”
“Why don’t you try and fix her, Ms. Engineer, and then we can get somewhere a bit safer, yeah?” he suggests. “I’m sure we’ll be fine if we’re only here for ten minutes.”
The Doctor glances back between the TARDIS and them. Yaz can tell she wants to rush into the flames, so she gently nudges her shoulder.
“Go on,” she smiles. “It’s just like Dan says. We’ll sit right here and you’ll have everything sorted out in no time.”
“Okay,” the Doctor says, pulling her sonic screwdriver out of the inside pocket of her jacket and heading towards the TARDIS. She pauses in the doorway, turning back to them.
“Don’t wander off,” she instructs, that mad grin that Yaz loves so much on her face. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”
With that, she disappears into the smoke, the TARDIS doors slamming shut behind her.
Yaz does exactly as she promised to do, sitting down on the pavement with her legs crossed. The warm concrete that digs into her palms reminds her of hot lunchtimes spent lounging on the playground at primary school, and she closes her eyes and turns her face to the sun. She knows she should feel more worried than she currently does - especially when the Doctor seems to be so worried and they have no way of getting home - but she has been in plenty of dangerous situations, and this doesn’t feel like any of those
Dan takes a seat next to her, frowning at the state of her skull. “You alright? Looks like you bashed your head a bit when we landed.”
Yaz brings a hand up to where she had felt the blood before, but it has already started to dry. “It’s only a mild concussion, I think. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot, even if they aren’t serious.”
He nods, trusting her word. “You better tell me if it gets any worse, or-”
He’s interrupted by the unmistakable wheeze behind them. Both of them turn around, but there isn’t even enough time to stand up before the TARDIS fades out of existence, leaving only a patch of concrete where it had been standing moments before.
Yaz and Dan stare at the empty space for a moment, neither of them sure what to do, and then Yaz launches herself to her feet and takes a few tentative steps forwards.
“Where’d she go?” Dan exclaims, looking around as if he expects the Doctor to appear out of nowhere. To be honest, even a mad part of Yaz’s brain is hoping that the Doctor will jump out from behind a hedge, laughing at their panicked faces and promising to take them home.
“Doctor?” Yaz asks the air, but she already knows that she won’t get a response.
By the time they realise the Doctor isn’t coming back, the sun is starting to set behind the silhouettes of the skyscrapers. Two moons begin to rise behind them, basking the city in an eerie glow, and lights begin to flicker on in the buildings.
To begin with, Yaz is hopeful. It’s just the TARDIS malfunctioning, she tells herself. The Doctor will fix it and then she will come back for them in no time at all. But as the seconds turn into minutes and the minutes turn into hours, she realises that she’s holding onto a dream.
Dan’s face slowly begins to soften into the expression he gets right before he tries to convince Yaz to stop clinging onto her hopes and start facing reality. She saw it on his face a lot for the four years they spent in the 1900s, and to be honest, she’s starting to get sick of it.
“I know,” she says before he gets a chance to speak. “She’s not coming back, is she?”
“Probably not tonight,” Dan concedes, wincing. “But hopefully very soon. I don’t like our chances of staying here if it’s as dangerous as she says it is.”
Yaz sighs. It’s not the first time she’s been stranded on a planet, and she doubts it will be her last. Looking around, she can’t immediately see anywhere to shelter since they are on the outskirts of the city, so she gets to her feet and starts to assess the area.
Cracking his back, Dan gets up next to her. The entire city is spread out before them, a rabbit warren of technology and sound.
“It’s going to be dangerous,” Yaz warns.
Dan shrugs. “I eat danger for breakfast. Besides, I don’t see any other choice.”
“Then I guess we follow the yellow brick road.”
She holds her hand out, offering it to Dan. He takes it without hesitation, giving it a friendly squeeze.
“A city called Abyss,” she says. “Sounds like something from a fairy tale, doesn’t it?”
He laughs. “I s’pose it does. After you, Dorothy.”
Yaz takes a deep breath, forcing air into her lungs. They are stranded on a dangerous alien planet with nothing but the clothes on her back, but she can still feel electricity humming beneath her fingers. The city seems to call to her, beckoning her forwards.
“Here we go,” she mumbles, and they begin to walk.
Read the rest on AO3.
dan really looked at these two, observed them being useless sapphics, and took matters into his own hands. we stan a legend
Really hoping Dan Lewis and Diane fill the hole left by the Ponds. Please Chibnall please let them both stick around for the next incarnation of the Doctor.
Russell T. Russell T. Let be! Let be! Please let Dan and Diane make it to the next season. Good god I love them both so much.
Really hoping Dan Lewis and Diane fill the hole left by the Ponds. Please Chibnall please let them both stick around for the next incarnation of the Doctor.
Can someone please start a petition to make Dan Lewis and Diane the Doctor's next companion pair!?
I know some are cannon but I was lazy
Oh, is that who I am now? Well, it was never that far from the surface, mate.
In the past 24 hours I have watched 2 different Dan Lewis’s walk around their city being sweet and helpful until an alien ruins their date.