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Chapter 1

Doctor is fiddling with a detonator trying to defuse the bomb. They have been in the tunnel for quite some time.

"Doctor, will you manage?" Yaz is asking anxiously looking at what the Doctor is doing

"Oh, don't worry Yaz of course I will manage, not the first bomb I had to defuse. Just takes a while because.... see...this needs to be very carefully replaced by this little connector here" she's guiding her through it as she's doing it

"Why does he want to kill all these people? Who does that?" Yaz askes a Doctor horrified with the person who set the explosive

"Many years ago, Yaz this race captured and tortured his wife and killed his whole family. He isn't a murderer, he is just driven by sadness. Sadness turns to resentment and resentment turns to rage...belive me I know something about that myself" she looks up at Yaz for a moment as she said that and then continues to defuse the bomb..."There we go...just to slowly turn this aaaaand we are done. There!!!" she makes a satisfying face and looks at Yaz who is standing nervously above her looking around

She gets up and stands in front of Yaz gazing at her gently "Hey it's ok, we are done, let's go...we need to find him I must talk to him.... hopefully and try to reason with him"

"Doctor!!!..." Yaz looks across her shoulders in horror

"What's wrong?" Doctor asks oblivious that the man is standing behind her pointing a weapon at her back

"You stopped it? Why would you do that?" a man desperately asks

She stands still slowly raising her hands up showing she means no harm "I'm sorry. I know you're in pain, but I can't let you hurt all these people"

"They tortured her!!! She was screaming in pain and I couldn't help her!!" he yells at her

"I know, but not these people, there are children here." Doctor tries to reason with a man

"Move away...Now!!!" he screams at her

"I can't, I'm sorry I can't let you do that. Please, I will help you to find whoever is responsible for your family's death and bring them to justice...This isn't justice this is revenge, just let these people go"

"If you do not move, I will shoot you and your friend...last chance Doctor. Step aside" he shakes his weapon to show he is serious about his intentions

Dan walks in on a situation from the bottom of the tunnel

"Dan stay there!!" Yaz gestures with her hand for him stop as soon as he walked in

"Hey mate...I don't know why you're doing this, but killing my friends will not resolve anything...it will just make you a murderer" Dan tries to defuse the situation

The man is crumbling, and tears start running down his face.

"I'm sorry, I have to do this" the man utterly broken down puts a finger of a trigger that makes a clicking noise

Doctor realizing she is moments from being shot looks at Yaz as if to say sorry. But Yaz grabs her for her shoulders and rotates her in a sec to take her place. The gunshot echoes through the tunnel and pieces of stone crumble on top of them.

Yaz is still holding Doctors shoulders but her arms suddenly flop and her knees give in.

"Yaz!!!!!!" Doctor lets a desperate cry grabbing Yaz around her waist to stop her from falling on a ground slowly laying her down on a floor holding her tight

Man drops a gun when he released what he's done "What have I done!!! I'm sorry...I'm so sorry" the man just runs away

"Yaz!!!!!!" Dan yells and runs towards them throwing himself on a ground next to Yaz looking at Blood that is slowly soaking Yaz's shirt.

In desperation she covers her wound with her hand trying to stop the bleeding but she can't...she hysterically gets her coat off and starts rolling it to press on the wound. But Yaz's eyes roll back, her face turning paler

"Doctor..." she yelped before passing out

"Yaz!! Stay with me! Yaaaaz!" Doctor taps her cheek and shakes her to keep her awake, but her hands are covered in blood and the site makes her panic. Dan is pressing Doctor's coat on her stomach trying to slow down the bleeding

"Doctor she's really bleeding she needs to go to the hospital"

"Yaz!!!...Yaz baby look at me, Yaz looook at me!!!!" She yells at her. She really doesn't want to yell at her, but she can feel panic and fear taking over every emotion inside of her.

"We need to get her to Tardis. Now! NOW!!!!.. Help me out Dan!! " she was screaming scared the way Dan has never seen the Doctor before

"I will carry her just go, get the ship ready Doctor"

He picks her up from the floor, but Yaz is weak, so weak her arm just flops down. Doctor gently takes her arm, kissing her hand and tucks it in to stop it from falling.

"Hurry up Dan, I'll get Tardis ready" she runs off

As she gets  to the Tardis starts manically flipping the switches setting coordinates until for a split second she stops and realizes Yaz's blood is still on her hands leaving marks on Tardis console. She closes her eyes for a moment in pain that is ripping holes through her hearts...but she needs to stay focused, so she wipes her hands nervously into her trousers and continues setting up controls.

Dan bursts through the Tardis door with Yaz in his arms. Doctor runs fast at the other end of the control room and grabs the mattress pulling it across the floor to the middle of the room

"Put her here Dan. How is she doing?'' She looks at Yaze's unresponsive pale face and then looks down to her wound but all she can see is her blood drenched coat. She looks at Dan and shakes her head in fear

"It's not good Doctor, we're losing her"

"Nooo...we are not losing her Dan... we are not losing her...not today...no no no no..We need to leave now. Stay with her Dan"

She runs to the controls and takes a few little gadgets from the Tardis. She comes back to Yaz, gives her a shot, and places a little device on her temple.

"What's that Doctor?"

"The shot will slow down the bleeding and prevent her going into cardiac arrest and this thing measures her vitals and records everything for the hospital...Monitor it closely Dan, green is good, orange means bad, red means...never mind...just look for the green Dan and let me know if it changes"

"Sure, not problem"

She strokes Yaz's hair and kisses her forehead keeping her lips pressed on Yaz for a moment just letting herself feel her skin. But Yaz's skin is so cold. She moves just an inch away

"Stay with me please...don't you leave me...don't you dare" she whispers still not moving her lips far from her forehead and quickly kisses her again before she is running back to the console

Dan sits next to Yaz on a floor stroking her head "You're going to be fine Sheffield, hold on"

Dans face is filled with worry, looking at Yaz so lifeless doesn't leave him much hope, but he knows Yaz can feel his fear so he's trying to be brave for her

"Where are we going Doctor?"

"Tsuranga, the best hospital in this part of the universe Dan. If anyone can help her it's them. I already contacted them, and they are waiting for us. Let's go!!!"

Doctor yanks the lever so hard she almost pulled it off the console

As soon as they walk out of Tardis a familiar face is waiting for the Doctor

"Mabli, thank you so much" she hugs the woman "This is Dan"

"Nice to meet you Dan... It’s nice to see you again Doctor, I'm so sorry it's in these circumstances. What happened Doctor?"

"She's been shot by a Turanian gun in the back all the way through her stomach...it's bad ...it's really bad Mabli...I think it snapped her spine and she's losing a lot of blood. I know we shouldn't have moved her, but we had no choice. I've put the vitals reader on her, you will get all the other information from it" she managed to say all of it without taking a breath

She briefs Mabli as they are walking down the narrow white hallway. She's covered in blood and stressed out her mind. Inside she's trying to hold it together but finding it hard to do so.

"Don't worry Doctor, we will take good care of her. We will take it from here" Mabli stops her on the entrance of the operating room gently putting her hand on her shoulder "She's going to be fine" she comforts her softly

Doctor and Dan are left standing in a hallway. She puts her hands on her hips, pacing and looking down on the floor.

"She's going to be ok Doctor, she's strong. This place...well they look like they know what they're doing"

Dan tries to comfort her but also tries to comfort himself at the same time. He is shaken to the core and suddenly this adventure seems all too real...way too real. He can feel his legs shaking.

Minutes seem like hours to Doctor and Dan who are left waiting in a hallway. Doctor slumped to the floor. She's sitting with her back against the wall resting her hands on her knees staring at the floor in despair when the door finally opens and Mabli walks out with a big smile on her face. Doctor jumps on her feet in seconds

"She's going to be fine. She needs rest and she will be mostly sleeping for the next 48 hours. You can go and see her how"

"Her spine?" Doctor asks anxiously

"All repaired as if it never happened. She will just feel really sore for a long time but she's going to be fine"

"Thank you so much" Doctor smiles grateful for the good news

She turns to Dan, but he nods his head "You go...She needs you now, I'll come later" he smiles at her

"Thank you, Dan" Doctor smiles back at him and heads towards the room

"Doctor!' Dan stops her as she's about to walk through the door "I think you should wash your hands first"

She looks down at her dirty hands and looks back at Dan "You're probably right " she says quietly

She walked slowly into the room, being careful she doesn't make any noise. Yaz was surrounded with machines monitoring her condition. Lights were dimmed and only the scanning machine was making a repetitive noise every few seconds going over Yaz who was peacefully sleeping.

Doctor leaned over and kisses her forehead then sits next to her on a comfortable big chair Mabli left for her. She takes Yaz's hand and strokes it gently with her thumb.

"Oh Yaz...why did you do that? That was so silly...What if I lost you, ha? What would I do without you? What would a universe do without Yaz? You probably don't even hear me...but I'm still going to talk...makes it easier to talk...I've never been so scared in all my lives...and I'm old you know I've seen stuff.... but you really scared me. Don't ever do that again, ever"

Doctor slumped deeper into the chair so her head was resting on a bed next to Yaz stroking and kissing her hand. She's gently ran the tips of her fingers from Yaz's wrist over her palm and her fingers when she noticed the inscription on the palm of her hand and got confused about it. She looked at her palm and then turned her gaze to Yaz

"What would the Doctor do" Dan interrupts "She has it written since the Flux"

Doctor looked at him with tears in her eyes "Oh, Dan I had no idea"

"Doctor" a faint voice julted her out of the conversation

"Yaz!!!!" she turns immediately towards her and then gets up from the chair leaning over her stroking her forehead

"Doctor...what...where are we?"

"Tsuranga, you're in a hospital. It's ok you're safe now, just need to rest" she says  gently stroking her hair that's spreading across the pillow and tucks it behind her ear

"And that man...what happened..."

"Shhhhhh" she puts a finger on Yaz's lips "No talking now...rest please"

"Hey Sheffield, give us a scare for a moment. Doctor's right you need to sleep now. You're really weak but you're with us and that's great news."

"I will stay here Dan you go back to Tardis if you want it's fine"

"Ok Doctor see you in the morning. Get some rest Sheffield... it's nice to have you back"

Yaz just waved her hand not saying anything, just slightly smiling. Her skin is still pale and lips a bit blue. She's struggling to keep awake.

"Doctor...please lie next to me" she gazes at Doctor with her big brown eyes like a lost puppy

"If you would like me to?" Doctor gets confused by this request but in a same time extremely happy she made it and even happier to fulfil it

"Yes, I would really like you to" Yaz tries to move a bit to give Doctor some space, but sharp pain stops her from doing it and she cries in pain

Doctor jumps "Noo...wait...slow down!!!!"

She helps her to move very gently as if Yaz is made out of glass and lies next to her putting Yaz's head on her shoulder and wrapping her arms around her

"Sleep now please. You need to rest so your body can heal. Doctor's orders, ok?" she kisses her head

"Mmm" is all Yaz could say before she drifted off to deep sleep happy and comfortable in Doctors arms, she felt so safe like never before.

Yaz woke up after a while, losing track of time not knowing if it was day or night. Doctor was asleep next to her holding her hand on her chest. She looked so peaceful and calm. Yaz never had a chance to see the Doctor sleeping and it was such a change from that hyper woman she got so used to bouncing around all over the place. Suddenly she seemed so different. Yaz studied every part of her face, every little line on the side of her eyes and that cute little wrinkle on the forehead Yaz loved so much. Doctor smelled nice and sweet, her skin silky and so soft.

"God you're so beautiful " she thought to herself

She could feel the Doctor's chest moving underneath her hand as she was calmly breathing. Yaz wanted to stay like this forever. She was so careful not to make any sudden moves, so she doesn't wake her up and stop this moment but Doctor did wake up slowly opening her eyes

"Morning" she smiles and tries to move

"No...stay" Yaz whispers

"I was going to...I just wanted to turn around to see you better" she moves around to face Yaz and puts her arm around her "How are you feeling? You still in pain?"

"Much better. Doesn't hurt as much anymore"

They stay like that in silence just gazing at each other. Yaz was still dowsing off in and out of sleep. Doctor stroking her arm with the tips of her fingers didn't help. It felt so nice she kept falling asleep. Doctor breaks the moment waking her up.

"Why did you do that Yaz?"

"Because I love you and I couldn't lose you" Yaz blurbs it out half asleep and only then she realized what she just said

"Oh Yaz…But I regenerate...regeneration is like flu for Time Lords and you...you die Yaz" she strokes her hair

"And what about this?" she opens her palm to reveal the inscription on it and gently goes with her thumb over it

Yaz quickly closes her hand, blushing and feeling embarrassed that the Doctor saw it. She looks down avoiding her eyes

"Hey...it's actually very flattering"

She puts a finger under her chin and lifts her head up forcing her to look at her

"Look at me"

Yaz looks at her ready to start crying

"Don't cry...I love it...it's beautiful and it means so much to me...But I don't even know what I would do if I ever lost you"

"You'd still have Dan"

"Yaz!!!...that's not even funny" Doctors face changes from soft to serious and she raises a tone of her voice

"I know you regenerate but I was not ready to let go of your face just yet" Yaz smiles

"Well, I will never be ready to let go of you silly...Get that? Now I just want to lock you up in some part of Tardis to keep you from doing something this stupid ever again"

"You want to keep me a prisoner on Tardis?" Yaz starts laughing

"I'm serious Yaz I need to be able to trust you when we go out there...trust that you will not make stupid decisions that could get you killed. You can't let your emotions towards me cloud your judgement like this"

"Ok I promise I will be more careful. Ok?"

"You better be, or I'll regenerate from you stressing me out like this"

"Can we go home now...pleeease. I hate hospitals and besides I already have a Doctor" Yaz pleads

"Yes..I think we can. But rest a bit more, at least for another hour before I get you up. It's what the Doctor wants you to do"

She kisses her hand, and they continue to lie like that for some times Doctor stroking her hair and Yaz falling asleep in her arms

Two days have passed since Yaz was released from the hospital and Doctor fusses over her not allowing her to get out of bed at all despite Yaz feeling almost like a new person. Dan is just smirking every time the Doctor enters a kitchen to get food for Yaz but he's letting her do it. He's starting to think how Yaz taking a bullet for the Doctor was a good thing because it nudged their relationship to a whole different level. Doctor was hardly at the console for two days and she's been spending most of the time in Yaz's room including sleeping in it every night.

"Doctor" Yaz walks in the kitchen slowly she is feeling a lot better but she's still healing and in a little bit of pain and dizzy when she walks

"Hey Sheffield...how you been doing" Dan hugs her and kisses her on a cheek

"Yaz!!!" Doctor jumps when she sees her "Why are you walking alone like that? Go back to your room. What if you fell, ha? "

"Doctor I'm fine I'm fine I need to walk a little bit you know."

"Oh, I bet you're fine now Yaz. You just like all the attention Doctor gives you, admit it" Dan whispers in her ear smiling

"I heard that, Dan!" Doctor replies from the other side of the kitchen

"Nothing wrong with that. I'm glad you fuss around her, she deserves it, should do it more often Doctor" Dan looks at Yaz winking, and she smiles back at him

"Hey, Doctor, I'll take Yaz for a short walk around Tardis till you finish with breakfast"

"Alright Dan just please be careful...and slowly...oh and hold her hand...and Dan.."

"Its fine Doctor don't worry I think he's got it" Yaz smiles at Dan as they are walking slowly out of Tardis

Doctor took them to a beautiful spa planet where Yaz can have fresh ocean air and later when she feels better, nice walks on the beach with her.

"Must be nice...her fussing over you now?"

"Oh, it is Dan. And she sleeps next to me...can you believe it?" her face shines like a sun

"I noticed that...Well Sheffield it was worth taking that bullet...Just don't do it again please...not for the sake of your relationship...you can always talk. Speaking of that...did you talk? You know...about you two?"

"Not really, no. Just taking things as they are Dan."

"Did she kiss you already?"

"Daaan...noo"

"What's wrong with kissing you Sheffield? ...She should be kissing you every day, you took a bullet for her"

"She doesn't want to...you know...she just wants to keep things as they are" her face goes sad as she's saying it

"I think she's about to change her mind...don't you worry. I can smell it...it's in the air" Dan smiles at her gently

"What's in the air?" Doctor walks around the corner

"Ocean air...ocean air smells really nice" Yaz quickly changes the subject getting a bit startled by the Doctor wondering if she overheard the conversation

"It is...yes, it's nice, isn't it? Nothing better than ocean air...Healthy you know...It was very popular in the 19th century you know. It was considered extremely healing"

Doctor walks up to them "Alright Dan, I'll take it from here" Doctor pushes her way in between them quite forcefully and links her arm with Yaz

Dan peaks at Yaz over Doctors shoulder and winks at her cheeky

"Ok I'll leave you two alone. I need to call Di anyway. You girls have a nice time. I'll have a look around this place it seems nice"

"Alright Dan... See you!" Yaz waives at him

"Come on you...plenty walking for today. You need to rest now. Back to bed with you…oh and Tardis made you a nice meal. I have a killer Pakora for you"

"What for breakfast?" Yaz looks confused but she doesn't want to sound ungrateful "Oh that's...fantastic...thank you Doctor"

After having Pakora for breakfast and takin a rest, Doctor set up a picnic blanket on a beach and took Yaz outside. They sat for hours throwing stones in the water and chatting. Doctor felt inner peace she hasn't felt for a long time. She could smell Yaz's hair as the soft breeze was going through it. It was a rare sight to see her hair loose, falling down her shoulders and Doctor enjoyed looking at it. She kept thinking how this beautiful fragile woman was willing to give the only life she had, the only existence she will ever have so willingly and at peace with herself. Living in a moment started having a different meaning. A moment for the Doctor was not the same as a moment for Yaz because her fragile life could end at any time like snapping a twig. She kept thinking how close they both were of losing each other and how forever she wished for could have been forever without Yaz. She kept thinking how she would rather regenerate another thousand times rather than lose her. Suddenly all the decisions she made regarding them two seemed so meaningless.

She turned her eyes on Yaz who was deep into her own thoughts unaware she was being watched. She wanted so badly for Yaz to turn around. She used this moment to soak in her presence like never before, feeling incredibly grateful she has this beautiful woman in her life.

Yaz just gazed at the horizon and at one moment she could feel Doctors fingers touching hers on a blanket. Butterflies started playing in her stomach, but she didn't want to disrupt the moment, so she pretended nothing was going on. The Doctor's hand was sliding more and more over her fingers and soon enough she slowly, sneakily intertwined her fingers with Yaz's. She just smiled but continued to gaze at the ocean.

"Yaz" Doctor said softly

She turned around and their eyes met. Yaz felt the ground opening underneath her. This moment felt so different and tense almost like all the sounds of the ocean have been smothered out and silence filled the air. Yaz could feel pounding in her ears as the Doctor just kept gazing at her softly.

"Yes Doctor" she finally managed to get the words out

"Something is missing" Doctor says softly not taking her eyes of Yaz

"What?" Yaz says sheepishly feeling panic setting in and not knowing how to react

Doctor reached out to move hair from Yaz's face tucking it behind her ear and as she did that her fingers found the way to the back of Yaz's head gently pulling her in until their lips closed the gap. She kissed Yaz so tenderly as if she was made of glass running her fingers through her silky hair.

Doctor pulled back just slightly, stroking Yaz's face with fingers ever so gently and smiling softly.

"Can we have this forever?" she says quietly smiling

"I'd like that" Yaz replied whispering softly

“Good, because I love you too”

Doctor pulls her in for another kiss whilst gentle ocean breeze played with their hair 

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