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The Doctor wakes with a start. She opens her eyes to find herself lying flat on her back, staring up at the familiar ceiling of her TARDIS.
For a moment, she's confused. The last thing she remembers is standing on the surface of the cyberconversion planet, watching in horror as a massive beam of red energy hurtled towards her, sent after her by the Master.
She lifts her arms, muscles aching in protest, and holds her hands in front of her face. She closes her eyes for a brief moment, bracing herself for the worst, expecting to see her skin glowing with the golden light that heralds a regeneration.
She opens her eyes.
Nothing.
She frowns and brings her focus inward, searching for any sign that her insides are about to start burning up, that this face is about to change into a new one.
Nothing.
She feels fine.
Carefully, she sits up. Other than the general aches and pains that always happen when she pushes herself too hard, she feels fine.
She looks around. She's lying on the console room mattress. She can see signs of the battle against her worst enemies: there's a haze of smoke from the console lingering in the air, parts of the console itself burnt and blackened. A wall display tells her that they're in the Time Vortex.
A soft murmur beside her makes her look over, her hearts clenching in her chest when she sees Yaz sound asleep beside her.
That's when her memory finally kicks in to fill the gaps.
It's close. Close enough that she feels the heat of the beam on her skin. But she manages to dodge out of the way of the beam, throwing herself to the rocky ground. She tries to scramble to her feet, but she's pushed herself beyond her limits. She can't move. It doesn't matter that the energy beam missed her because now the planet is disintegrating underneath her...
"Doctor!"
It's Yaz. Her Yaz, running across the surface of a disintegrating planet without a single care for her own safety. She starts to tell her to get back to the TARDIS, to get everyone else safe -
"I'm not leaving you here so don't even say it," Yaz says as she carefully lifts the Doctor into her arms.
The Doctor is too weak to protest, so she wraps her arms as best she can around Yaz and tucks her face into the bend of her neck. One moment of vulnerability won't kill her, after all, and Yaz's arms feel so safe...
They make it back to the TARDIS, her friends immediately crowding around them as Yaz walks inside.
"She's fine," Yaz says. "She's fine, she's just tired."
There's a strand of hair falling into Yaz's face. The Doctor carefully brushes it aside, tucking it behind one ear.
Oh, how she loves this woman.
Yaz's nose scrunches up and her eyes flicker open. "Hiya," she whispers.
The Doctor smiles at her. "Hiya, yourself," she says.
Yaz gasps and bolts upright. "Are you okay?" she asks. "I didn't see if the beam hit you, and -"
"I'm fine," the Doctor says. And then, remembering all the times she said that when she really wasn't fine, she clears her throat. "I mean, I'm actually fine. I wasn't hit by that beam and you got me out of there in time." She rests a hand against Yaz's cheek. "I owe you my life, Yaz. Quite a few times over."
Yaz blushes and bows her head. "I couldn't bear to lose you," she whispers. "And I couldn't bear to let him tarnish your name."
The Doctor hears her voice break. For just a moment, she feels that familiar discomfort, that uncertainty of how to handle someone else's emotions when she can barely handle her own. She can feel the instinct to jump up, run to the console, find a distraction.
Instead, she pulls Yaz into her arms and holds her tightly.
Yaz clings to her, crying softly into her shoulder until the emotion of the moment subsides.
The Doctor gently brushes the last of her tears away with a thumb. "What do you say we go get some ice cream?"
Yaz laughs and nods.
The Doctor gets to her feet and half-walks, half-stumbles to the console. "Where is everyone else?" she asks as she starts throwing switches and turning knobs.
"I took them home," Yaz replies. "Well, I tried to. Ended up in Croydon. Close enough, right?"
The Doctor laughs. "Close enough," she says.
The first time Yaz stood at the doors of the TARDIS, looking out into open space, she was terrified. She remembers shaking so badly that the Doctor took her hand and held it tight, a gentle reassurance that she would not let anything bad happen to her.
"Oh, no."
Yaz snaps back to reality just in time to see the Doctor's monstrosity of an ice cream cone fall apart, several scoops floating off into space. She can't help but laugh at the look on her face. "I told you it was too much," she says.
The Doctor pouts.
The two of them sit in silence for a little while, eating their ice cream, gazing out at the Earth in all its glory below. There's a million things Yaz wants to say in that moment, but for now, she's content to savour the moment. The last time she sat quietly with the Doctor like this, she walked away with a broken heart.
"Yaz?"
Yaz's breath catches and she looks over at the Doctor, who's staring intently at the ice cream cone in her hand. Yaz recognizes that look: the Doctor can't do eye contact in vulnerable moments. "What is it?" she says softly.
"Do you remember what we talked about on that beach?"
Yaz's insides squirm. "I don't think I could forget," she whispers.
The Doctor winces and closes her eyes. "When I said that, I…I thought my time was almost up," she says. "I told you all I had a reckoning with Time. And Time told me that I was going to die. It gave me a prophecy. And I didn't want to fix myself to you because I…I couldn't place that burden on you."
Yaz bows her head. "I understand," she says.
"But."
This makes Yaz look up.
"Time's prophecy. Beware the forces that mass against you…and their Master."
Yaz's eyes widen. "What we just faced," she says. "Daleks, Cybermen, the Master. Do you think that was the prophecy?"
The Doctor nods. "We beat it," she says. "You and me. We fought those forces and we won."
Yaz swallows heavily. "So what are you saying?" she asks.
The Doctor finally looks at her, hazel eyes gazing into deep brown. "I'm saying…" she starts, and her voice cracks. She laughs and tries again. "I'm saying I would really like to kiss you right now."
Yaz can't believe what she's hearing. She realizes that the Doctor is watching her expectantly and she nods. "I'd really like that," she whispers.
The Doctor's gaze flickers down to Yaz's lips. She takes a deep breath and leans in close, kissing her ever so softly.
Ever since she finally faced her feelings in the basement of ELF Storage, Yaz has thought about what this moment might be like. And the moment is perfect. The kiss is slightly awkward and the taste of ice cream lingers on their lips.
The Doctor's cheeks flush pink as they pull apart. "I think I might need to work on that," she says. "If you don't mind, of course."
Yaz laughs, the sort of giddy laugh that comes with the release of a huge amount of tension.
The Doctor lifts an eyebrow, but then she's laughing, too, and she pulls Yaz into an embrace.
"I love you," Yaz whispers, because she can't hold it in anymore.
The Doctor's arms tighten around her, and she buries her face in Yaz's hair. "And I love you, Yaz, so very much." she says, and her voice is thick with emotion.
The two of them stay like that for a long time, ice cream forgotten, until the first light of dawn begins to spread across the planet below.
"It's been a long day," Yaz says, slowly standing up, wincing as her muscles protest. "I'm going to get some sleep." She hesitates, wondering if her next move is perhaps a little too brazen. And then she decides that they've both nearly died today so she might as well go for it, and holds out a hand.
The Doctor's eyes flicker from her face to her hand a few times, obviously struggling with the hint. She inhales sharply when she understands, and grins one of those grins that makes her entire face scronch up.
The Doctor's hand is warm in hers as the two of them cross the console room. Soon, they'll face a new future together.
But first, a nap.