Deep

By Berzerker_prime

Notes: Wrote this just after watching "Warriors of the Deep" for the first time. It kinda ended... er... abruptly. There needed to be just a little bit more.

Enjoy! And remember; fanfic authors love feedback.

"There should have been a better way."

Tegan knew that tone of voice. It was a sorrow deeper than anything she had ever heard from any Human (or Trakenite or Alzarian or... wherever Turlough was from which clearly wasn't Earth). Somehow, the Doctor just felt things deeper than anyone Tegan had ever met. Death, particularly from violence, seemed to cut as deeply into him as any physical wound, particularly in this incarnation.

The Doctor was an odd contradiction. There were times he acted like her father and others where he acted like a lost child. He flew into danger, sought it out even, but was so ill-prepared for the outcome of it all.

Right now, the blasted look on his face worried her, almost as much as the actual burn marks on the temples of his head. He looked about the bridge of the sea-base, at all the bodies on the deck, but seemed disconnected. Through the hand she had at his elbow, she could feel him shake, ever so slightly.

Silence stretched on for a long moment and soon Tegan found that Turlough was at the Doctor's other elbow.

"Doctor?" he asked, tentatively.

"Are you with us?" Tegan asked. "Are you all right?"

"Server not found," the Doctor mumbled, "system error."

"What?" Tegan asked.

"Oh, no," Turlough said, gripping the Doctor by both shoulders. The Time Lord didn't seem to focus on him, instead looking through him. "He wasn't disconnected from the computer properly. His mind is still trying to sync up with it."

"But the computer's fried, isn't it?" Tegan asked.

"Should have been a better way," the Doctor repeated, distantly, as if he had not said it before.

"We'll have to do this the hard way," said Turlough. He gave the Doctor's shoulders a firm shake, sending the Time Lord's head bobbing. "C'mon Doctor! Snap out of it!" Another shake and then Turlough gave the Doctor's face a couple of light smacks on the cheeks.

As if startled, the Doctor suddenly focused in on his companion, his hands flying up to grab Turlough's wrists.

"Turlough," he said, as if surprised to see him.

"Are you with us, Doctor?" Tegan asked, again.

The Doctor's head jumped around to look at her. "Tegan!" And then something seemed to crash in on him and sent him reeling. "My head!" he said, squeezing his eyes shut and beginning to sway alarmingly.

Tegan and Turlough were on him in an instant, each supporting an elbow.

"You took a nasty zap from that interface," Turlough explained.

"We should get back to the TARDIS," Tegan supplied, "with everything that happened here, there's no telling when other authorities will show up and blame us for everything."

"Yes, yes, quite right," the Doctor breathed out. He grimaced again, as if the light in the place was bothering him. "I need to lay down," he admitted.

"That settles it, then," said Turlough, slinging one of the Doctor's arms over his own shoulder, "TARDIS it is. C'mon."

Together, Tegan and Turlough managed to get the Doctor through the narrow, white-washed corridors of the sea-base. When they reached the TARDIS, the Doctor fumbled with the key, but soon had it opened. The two companions were about to take the Doctor directly to his room, but the Time Lord made for the console instead.

"Tegan's right," he explained, working the controls though not with his usual energy, "we need to leave here. I'm setting the TARDIS to orbit in the Time Vortex. We should be safe there, for a time." He rallied his energy, but even so he stumbled several times as he wandered about the console. Tegan and Turlough looked on with worry. Finally, as the TARDIS began its flight, the Doctor stepped back and watched it work for a few seconds. "That should do it."

As he watched the column move up and down, the Doctor's face went white as a sheet. Finally, he looked away and put his hands to his head, swaying again.

"All right, then," said Tegan, putting herself under his elbow again, "Turlough can keep an eye on it from here. To bed with you."

"Why are the lights in here so blasted bright?" the Doctor mumbled as Tegan led him through the TARDIS halls and to his room. As gently as she could manage it, she deposited him on the bed. He flopped an arm over his eyes and seemed to be trying to breathe though the pain of a terrible headache.

"Do you get migraines, Doctor?"

"Not so loud, Tegan!" he exclaimed, waiving a hand at her. "No, not usually," he said a moment later, in a somewhat apologetic tone, "only after having my brain hooked up to a computer without being conditioned for it and then sending a surge of electricity through it."

"Well, we should probably do something about those burns on your face," Tegan said, dialing down the lights at the switch near the door.

"What?" the Doctor asked.

In response, Tegan grabbed a hand-held mirror from one of the small tables nearby and brought it over to the Doctor. She held it up in front of him. "Remember? Electricity through the computer that you were hooked up to?"

"Oh, yes," the Doctor replied, setting the mirror aside, "well, I suppose that would do it, then."

"First aid kit?"

"Out the door, to the right, third column of roundels over, fourth from the top."

Tegan nodded and went over to the door. She stole a glance backward as she went out into the hallway. The Doctor had flopped his head back into the pillow and squeezed his eyes closed. He was gasping, but with his teeth clenched tightly. He cracked an eye open tentatively and Tegan hastily moved onward.

He was trying to be strong so as not to worry her. Damn, that man. Couldn't he just let on how badly he felt? He had done the same on the Eye of Orion, just before he had collapsed and they had met his earlier incarnations. He had tried to insist then that everything would be all right and had then ended up unconscious on the TARDIS console room floor.

Tegan muttered obscenities under her breath as she popped open the roundel and pulled out the first aid kit. She opened it up to make sure the proper ointments and whatnot were there and found instead a number of small, strange looking electronic tools inside instead. She checked the cover of the kit and, indeed, the TARDIS was translating the Gallifreyan into English; "First Aid" it read, without a doubt.

"He better not have moved the contents," she mumbled, "I'd hate to try and use a screwdriver on that burn." With a sigh, she closed the roundel and returned to the room.

The Doctor had flopped over on to one side and had his head shoved into the pillow. Tegan had been about ready to let out a glib remark about how she had either found the first aid kit or the small electronics repair kit, but it died on her lips as she walked over to him. Carefully, she sat down on the edge of the bed and gave his shoulder a gentle rub.

"I think I've got it," she said, "but you'll have to tell me which one I need."

The Doctor cracked an eye open and pointed to one of the small instruments. "That one's for burns. There's a switch on the side."

Tegan nodded her understanding and the Doctor let his eyes drift closed again. Tegan pressed the switch on the burn aid instrument and a little blue light flared to life at the tip. She hovered it close to the burn on the Doctor's right temple. Almost immediately, a streak of golden glow shimmered around the burn's edges and spread inward like a tiny line of flames, leaving behind fresh, pink skin in its wake. With a gentle nudge, Tegan coaxed the Doctor to turn his head enough to take care of the other burn. As he moved, he let out an almost imperceptible whimper.

Enough was enough.

"Doctor," she ventured, "I've been traveling with you for a while now."

The Doctor looked slightly exasperated, then fished his memory for some fact or another. In the end, he settled for a simple "Yes, you have."

"So, we can assume that that means we trust each other, right?"

"Tegan, are you going somewhere with this? Because I'm not really in the best frame of mind for... this sort of thing."

"Look, I'm just saying... after everything we've been through; Logopolis, Heathrow, Castrovalva, the Master, the Daleks... Adric. After all that, if you can't tell me exactly how bad off you are, I don't think you'll ever be able to tell anyone."

The Doctor gave a shuddering sigh and Tegan could have sworn she felt a sob shake the shoulder that was under her hand. He didn't seem to have anything to say in response and she could have sworn that she heard a small sniffle.

"Anyway," she said, standing up. She reached down a pulled a blanket up over him. "Just rest for a while. Turlough and I can get by for a little bit."

Before closing the first aid, she pulled out a small package labeled "cooling cloth" and opened it. She folded the enclosed cloth into a narrow rectangle and placed it on the Doctor's forehead. He didn't stir, but some of the tension seemed to ease in his face. As quietly as she could, she closed the case and headed for the exit. She turned out the light and was just closing the door when the Doctor's voice drifted after her.

"Thank you, Tegan," he said.

"Just shut up and sleep, you big, dumb kid," she replied softly, with a smile, then closed the door quietly.