Chapter Text
Prologue
Not too far off the shores of South Padre Island, a mere speck upon the salty, crashing waves, a dingy boat rocked and rolled with the motions, flickering lamp light shining from within its glassless windows. Its sole inhabitant was Jim - a man with a long, scraggly beard, adorned with clumps of mucky sand, several seashells, and a ripped portion of netting which was once used for catching crabs.
And catch crabs he did; but this particular crab was different. A hermit - not the sort of crustacean he was accustomed to coming in contact with, save for the sealife section of the local pet store - with a characteristic so faint that he nearly missed it completely. It was just then, as he was making to toss the sorry little creature back into the bay, that he saw a thin, green light emitting from its shell. He stopped in his tracks, intrigued, and looked deeply into the crab’s beady black eyes, searching for any signs of sentience. What he saw within the crab was nearly unthinkable - but Jim was just the type to believe in the unbelievable. To subscribe to such wild ideas, that perhaps a hermit crab can be more than just a hermit crab.
There he was, nearly two hours after the happy accident occurred, and he had yet to prove his own theory. But his dingy boat had been paid off for several years at that point, and Jim reasoned that he could spare a few more days off in order to get to the bottom of this puzzle. Crazy or sane, healthy or un, sober or off his rocker on the drink, he was sure of one thing: this crab did not belong to the sea.
“Don’t worry, my boy,” Jim whispered, cupping the hermit in his hands, inches from his face. “You’re with Jim now.”
Chapter One
“So, what exactly are we doing here again, Doctor?” called Turlough from just outside the TARDIS doors. His arms were crossed, and his usual drawl was tinged with impatience. “I planned to catch up on The Golden Girls today - I better be back in time to finish a few episodes before bed.”
“Oh, shove it, Turlough,” Tegan huffed, pushing past him and out of the TARDIS doors. Clad in a thin coverup dress, a towel and a pair of black sunglasses clutched in her hands, Tegan was not in the mood for any of Turlough’s shit. “We invited you to go snorkeling with us in the bay - it was your choice not to come. Now you have to deal with the consequences.”
He scoffed. “Like what? Sitting around and twiddling my thumbs for hours?”
“I’m sure you can make your own fun, Turlough,” Nyssa said from her perch on an overturned boat. She was dressed similarly to Tegan, albeit much more modestly, and applying copious amounts of sun cream to her already thoroughly-slathered skin.
“Or do you know how to do that?” Tegan asked.
“Now, now, you two. No more bickering.” The Doctor was the last to exit the TARDIS, closing and locking the door behind him. He turned around to face them all, an exasperated sort of smile plastered on his face. “Please, this week, let’s all just get along.”
Tegan and Nyssa exchanged solemn looks, while Turlough’s head dipped to stare at his feet.
“Today will be a fun day, I assure you,” the Doctor continued, gesturing for them all to follow him. They had materialized into a small abandoned boathouse, tucked away on the lesser-used portion of the beach, and the Doctor peeked his head out of the doorway to check that the coast was clear. “Don’t want anyone to think anything unsavory was going on in here, do we?”
“Fat chance,” Tegan mumbled, shooting a fiery glance at Turlough, who mouthed ‘why me?!’ right back at her
“So!” The Doctor clapped his hands. “Tegan and Nyssa - your snorkeling session has been booked for two hours. Just follow the signs marked “Dolphin Watch.” The booking is under Tegan’s name.” He turned to Turlough. “And you, do you know where you’ll be going?”
“Just wandering about, I suppose. A better question would be where are you going? And why can’t we come along?” Turlough began to gesture towards the women, only to find that their figures were already retreating in the distance. He dropped his hands to his side, defeated. “Well, still. Why can’t I come?”
“Well, Turlough, because I was told this is a private matter and to come by myself,” the Doctor sighed, staring off into the direction of a nearby dock, where a dingy boat was tethered and floating blissfully in the water. He looked back down to Turlough. “Otherwise I’d be happy to bring you along. Can I trust that you’ll make it back to the boathouse alright by yourself?”
Turlough grumbled his assent, but gave no definitive answer. He worried that to speak any louder would be to reveal his bitter disappointment; he was still unsure where he stood with the Doctor, what with them only being several weeks out now from the whole Black Guardian ordeal. He was certainly a warm and inviting character, but rather standoffish all the same. It made no sense to Turlough.
“In two hours’ time, remember!” The Doctor said, with a tap to an imaginary wristwatch, as he departed from Turlough, who had only just snapped out of his reverie.
“Yeah, yeah,” Turlough said to himself, now painfully aware of how alone he was. “Well, surely there must be something to do on this wretched island…”
With that, and an increasingly diminishing mood, Turlough clambered up the sandy hill and began making his way into town.
The water was thrashing, freezing, and probably not suitable for snorkeling, but there Tegan and Nyssa were anyway, diving happily into the depths of the bay and drinking in the beauty of its flora and fauna. Whether either of them was admiring the other with greater attention than the reefs - well, it’s simply impolite to ask.
Nyssa had never been in the water, save for a bath, and to say the experience was both thrilling and overwhelming would be an understatement. Still, like every other new thing she tried, she took it in stride, moving her body with the rhythm of the waves to prevent herself from going under. Tegan, on the other hand, had spent a great deal of her childhood swimming on the beach - a common pastime in Australia.
They did technically have an instructor, but had long since lagged behind. Probably not the wisest choice, and they would surely have someone out looking for them before long - but it was a small price to pay for a bit of peace.
And also free snorkeling equipment, if they managed to get back to the TARDIS without being followed.
“Y’know,” Tegan said as they both resurfaced, wiping the water droplets from her face and lifting her goggles for better visibility. “It’s quite nice to have a girl’s day - just the two of us. I was getting really tired of the wiener fest.”
Nyssa was puzzled. “Wiener fest?” she asked, as though the sentiment was utterly bizarre. “I’m sorry, I think I must have missed something.”
Tegan laughed. “Forget it. I’m only trying to say that we should do this more often. And not just because the Doctor needs us out of the way.”
“Alone time?”
Her tone was innocent, but the phrasing was enough to turn Tegan red. “Er, girl’s time. Y’know - there’s only so much we can relate to those two. We women have got to stick together.”
“Well, I suppose that would be true of all of us,” said Nyssa, after a few beats of pensive thought. “We are all aliens to each other, after all. I know I take on a female form, but I’m not sure how much I could relate to your experience as a human woman…”
Tegan was growing frustrated now, and tired of treading water, and thus was unable to think up a cleverer response than just “Yeah, yeah, sure. But still, it’s nice.”
“That, I can agree with,” Nyssa responded with a smile.
Back into the depths of the water they went; Tegan simply observing and enjoying, while Nyssa chose to take a more scholarly approach. She swam off in another direction, as low to the bay floor as she could reach, where an expanse of seaweed and fungi lay swishing lightly in the current. They hosted an array of colors and textures, some flashy and glinting in the rays of the sun, and others more earthy and matte. They were all equally beautiful, save for the specific species of fungi Nyssa seemed to be enamored with.
It took Tegan a few minutes to realize just how enamored she was - she appeared to be frozen to the spot, running pruney fingers along a particularly icky, flowy plant. It was an ugly greenish-beige, and looked even slimier than the seaweed they’d had to traverse through to reach the water in the first place. Tegan wouldn’t have dared go near it in any other situation, but Nyssa’s fascination piqued her own, and she found herself swimming towards her friend to see what all the fuss was about.
Nyssa turned to her as soon as she approached, wide-eyed, and pointed. Tegan followed the point but didn’t see any difference up close than she had from several yards away. When she just wasn’t getting it, Nyssa grabbed her wrist and jerked her forward, brushing the tips of Tegan’s fingers just along the surface of the fungi, but not so roughly that she could actually catch a grip of it. Tegan shuddered against Nyssa’s touch, but tried her hardest to focus and see whatever it was the other woman was seeing.
This went on for far too long, and at a certain point Nyssa simply threw Tegan’s hand away. From her bikini top she pulled a plastic sandwich bag (as if it were no big deal) and pulled a few pieces of the fungi from the reef, presumably in order to study at closer range later.
The rest of their snorkeling adventure went rather peacefully, and it seemed no one had bothered to come looking for them, which was convenient in a way but also spoke a great deal to the safety measures of the Dolphin Watch snorkeling adventure on South Padre.
Their fun was destined to come to an end eventually, and did once they saw the figure of a man with a blond halo peering over the dock at them.
Once they rose to the surface, it was plain to see that the face under the halo of blond was a very unhappy one. As soon as he saw the beaming, wet faces of his companions, the Doctor collapsed onto the dock, throwing his feet unceremoniously into the water, shoes, socks, and all, sending dirty droplets flying into Tegan’s open mouth.
“What’s wrong, Doctor?” she asked irritably, spitting into the water and employing great effort not to add on a snappy “... this time? ”
The handsome alien sighed. “Oh, nothing. It’s quite alright, Tegan. I think I just ought to use my better judgment next time I go out accepting every invitation I get.”
“Hm, that’s not vague at all,” Tegan said, just as Nyssa made to pull herself out of the water, displaying a very plump, wet ass that Tegan had not been prepared to see. At least, not above the surface; there was something more intimate about it. “...A-anyway… Better judgment, yeah, that’s an understatement. Maybe you’ll actually take your own advice one of these days.”
The two women dried off and replaced their swimsuit coverups, but by the time they were ready the Doctor was still staring silently into the water.
Nyssa placed a gentle hand on his back. “Are you sure you're okay?”
He lifted his head to look at her, and the appreciation in his gaze was stark. A moment passed, and he nodded, accepting her help in getting back to his feet. It was odd - one small glance from the Doctor had displayed more vulnerability than he had ever shown either of them in their time as his companions. Even after…
“Come on,” Tegan said, making her way back up the dock. “It’s starting to get rather dark. And I’m sure Turlough’s back at the boathouse waiting for us. Let’s not give him another reason to bitch and moan.”
“Language!” the Doctor snapped, though he didn’t appear to be in disagreement.