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Her hands were dancing again. They flicked and fluttered over the console - pulling this, switching that, twisting incomprehensible dials to drag them all over time and space. Yasmin loved to watch her do it. She had a special place - third pillar, clockwise from the door, where she would always lean and watch the Doctor fly the TARDIS. She didn't have a bloody clue what she was doing, but it looked incredible. Like some avant-garde ballet that didn't quite make logical sense.
“They call it the Rainbow Beach, but it's not really a beach. It's not next to the sea, its more of a big lake. And strictly speaking its not a lake either, because the water is actually liquid hexraphite…”
“Come on now Doc, that's not an element, you made that up!” chuckled Graham. “I remember my periodic tables, and hexraphite isn't on it.”
“Oi, it's on mine! You humans, you're pretty good but you always miss a few. Or a few hundred.”
The Time Lord turned, flailing her hands excitedly, back to explaining their destination.
“The sand is millions and millions of tiny little crystals, and in the day they just look like regular old sand, because the sun just gives off the same boring spectrum that most planets do - but the moon, Yaz, the moon - the moon only reflects ultra-violet light, which activates the true colour of crystals. Night falls, and the whole beach glitters with thousands of different colours.”
She was speaking directly at Yaz now. She often did this. Our maybe it was her imagination. Even when she was talking to the whole room, or nobody at all, Yasmin always felt like the Doctor was talking directly to her. When the Doctor spoke, there was nobody else in the room. She couldn't help but return her giddy smile.
“So what are we waiting for?” interrupted Ryan. “Let's go!” The Doctor's smile dropped.
“One problem. It's a bit chilly. Minus fifty degrees Celsius, and that's in the summer. That's a bit too cold for humans, isn't it?”
“Just a tad.” confirmed Graham.
“We’ll get blankets?” suggested Yaz. She felt stupid as soon as she said it. The Doctor's sad voice confirmed her thoughts.
“We’ll need more than blankets. Unless….” She turned back to the console and yanked on a large lever once, twice, three and then a fourth time. Out of the chute below dropped a custard cream, a bourbon, a rich tea, and finally three small devices that looked like batteries with large silver claws. “Thank you, love.” She scooped up all the items and got to work.
“Right, I've got to calibrate these. Once I do, you just stick them on your skin and it'll keep your body temperatures up for a few hours. Ryan, you're on TARDIS duty. Hold that lever there.” She handed Ryan the custard cream. “Graham, you go make us some tea.” She gave him the rich tea. “Yaz - blankets! ” She pressed the bourbon into her hand. Bourbons were her favourite. She turned quickly, before the Doctor could see her blush, and jogged down the corridor, wondering where she would find blankets in this ship.
The TARDIS was enormous. Yasmin had tried to investigate every inch of the place in her first week there. She had counted 178 rooms - storage rooms, engine rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, dining rooms, billiard rooms, rooms that just contained other rooms. She had proudly announced her count to the Doctor, believing she had covered almost all of it. The Doctor confirmed that yes, she had almost covered the entirety of the North-East sector of the Starboard Wing. She found her way to one of the storage rooms, which were filled with dark purple boxes. What was in these boxes seemed to change daily - or maybe the boxes stayed the same and the rooms changed.
Yasmin pulled off lids at random, hoping to find something useful. Most contained random alien gizmos, all of which looked broken. Some contained clothes. One contained three large woollen ponchos - Yaz giggled at the thought of wearing those. Finally, after dozens of boxes lay discarded in the floor, she found three silvery sheets that looked like space blankets at the bottom of a crate. She grabbed them, and made her way back - but not before grabbing the ponchos too.
Graham twirled sarcastically as he put his on, sending Yaz and even Ryan into uncontrollable giggles. “You could've at least got some more flattering colours!”
“I think you look very fetching, as do we all!” Yasmin did a curtsy with her own poncho, giggling again. She only stopped when she realised the Doctor was watching them from the corner.
She wore a look she hadn't seen before. She was smiling, but the smile was sad. She didn't seem to see the group in front of her. She wondered what the ancient woman was recalling.
Yaz furrowed her brow as the other two chuckled to each other still, turning to the older woman. “Doctor? You OK?”
She seemed to snap out of it. “What? Yes! The regulators. I've calibrated them.” She chucked each of the devices to them. “Put them on and let's get out there!” She broke into a grin and sprinted towards the doors, not waiting for them to catch up.
The way the Doctor had described the planet was stunningly beautiful. It didn't do the reality justice. As Yasmin stepped out of the door, she was assaulted by a vanguard of glittering colours. Reds and Pinks and Greens and bright beautiful yellows flashed before her, attacking her eyes from every angle. She had to blink and take a moment to adjust. The sands stretched wide into three directions, shimmering with every shade she had ever seen - and a few new ones too. In front of her, the “sea” stood still, silent, and black as ink. The only light came from the beach around her.
She turned to the Doctor, who's face was lit up like a child on their birthday. She had no words “It's beautiful!” she finally choked out. Doctor grinned back at her. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
They sat for hours under dark sky, chatting and taking in the marvelous sights. She could tell the air around her was bitterly cold, but the regulator seemed to pump hot blood through her, like a fire in a homely hearth. Still, she handed out three blankets she had. All of them had tried to give up theirs to the Doctor, but she had refused, reminding them of how fragile their human bodies were.
Now, Ryan and Graham were attempting a sandcastle competition. Yasmin watched a while, amused at their bickering over whether height or detail was more important, before noticing that the Doctor wasn't watching with her anymore. She was sat apart, looking up at the inky sky, wearing that sad smile again.
She made her way over and sat next to the alien. What do you say to an alien who has lived the life she has? “You OK?” she offered lamely.
“Of course!” The Doctor grinned at her again. “Always alright, me. Especially here. You haven't even seen the caves yet! The caves, Yaz, they're covered in living bark that…” Yaz held up a hand to stop her.
“Now, I know what you're going to say is probably going to be amazing. But I mean it. Are you really OK?” The Doctor just smiled, saying nothing. She bit her lip, thinking about how best to word her next question. “You know, in the TARDIS, I've seen all these boxes full of clothes. Now they can't all be yours, even my sister doesn't have that many clothes. Me and Ryan and Graham… were not the first people to travel with you, are we?” It wasn't really a question. “I'm sorry if these ponchos I picked up… I don't know who they belonged too. I'm sorry if it brought up bad memories.”
The Doctor smiled sweetly at that, and put her hand on Yaz’ arm. “It's fine. Really. ”
“Who were they?”
“They belonged to a friend of mine. My best friend, back then. Amelia Pond. And her husband, Rory. She said we looked like a Peruvian folk band.”
Yaz smiled at that. “She sounds fun.”
“She was! Funny and brave and full of fire. And… she died. Never did get to pick up her stuff.”
She didn't know what to say to that. She just took the Doctor's hand in hers and squeezed it tight. “I'm so sorry.”
“I'm a Time Lord. A lot of my friends are humans. Stuff like that… it comes with the territory. But maybe… maybe it's not fair to you.” She turned to face young woman. “I mean what I said, the day you all joined me. This life is dangerous, and if you ever want to go back…”
“Look around, Doctor. This place… it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. And I shouldn't be here - I shouldn't even be able to survive here. But I can, because of you. You let me see beautiful things that shouldn't be possible. That's what you do.”
The Doctor's Hazel eyes were flecked with the purples, golds, pinks and blues of the beach. Yaz studied them, hoping for some sign that she had cheered her up somewhat. The eyes stared back at her, not blinking. “Beautiful things that shouldn't be possible,” she repeated back to her. “I like that.”
Yasmin was suddenly aware that her hand was still holding the Doctor's on the cold sand. She wasn't sure if the Doctor even noticed, but she didn't pull away. Instead, she pulled her blanket across, over the Doctor's knees, to cover them both.
We’re not dating. Are we? Sometimes the Doctor seemed completely clueless about that one of thing. Although Yaz had always been pretty equally clueless, so who was she to talk. As she sat under the shared blanket, holding hands with this beautiful, impossible woman, she wondered who was more clueless. Possibly both of them. She wasn't about to bring it up though. She simply lay her head on the Doctor's shoulder, and the two of them watched the sparkling sands until the sun came up.