DOCTOR WHO - FURY FROM THE DEEP
Page 18
'Aye.' Jamie lowered his eyes and made aimless patterns with his foot in the frost. 'You'll be happy here?'
'I think so. The Harrises are nice people.'
'I know. But they're not from your time, are they?'
Victoria was finding it incredibly difficult to explain how she really felt. 'The thing is, I wouldn't be at ease back in Victorian times anyway. After all, I've no family left there.'
'Aye, I know,' sighed Jamie. 'Ah, well... ' He turned to leave.
'Jamie!' Victoria quickly stopped him. 'You wouldn't go without - well, saying goodbye, would you?'
'Och, no! Of course not!'
Victoria sighed with relief. 'Good.'
'Victoria...' Jamie turned back as though there was something he just had to say to her.
'Yes?'
'I... I...' he stammered.
'Yes, Jamie?'
Jamie's courage failed. 'Oh... nothing. See you later.' He turned, and quickly made his way back towards the beach.
A short time later, the Doctor said their farewells to Victoria, and left her with Maggie and Harris on the beach. It was a strange parting, one that seemed totally unnecessary and unnatural to Jamie.
The sky was now a clear blue, and the sun was streaming down on the TARDIS which was waiting at the far end of the beach, covered in a thin film of melting frost.
As the Doctor and Jamie made their way along the beach, they stopped just once to turn and wave back to the solitary trio who were watching them from the distance. Jamie's face had that crumpled, upset look about it again, so the Doctor quickly took him by the arm and led him off.
Victoria watched the Doctor and Jamie disappear inside the TARDIS. It seemed unnatural to her too, the fact that she was not going with them, and large tears began to roll down her cherry-red cheeks.
The grunting, grinding sound of the TARDIS filled the air. Victoria shivered with the cold, then turned to look anxiously at Maggie and Harris. They responded by smiling at her reassuringly.
'We can't just... leave her,' begged Jamie, as he and the Doctor stared sadly at the three figures they had just left behind on the beach. But this time they were watching them on the scanner inside the TARDIS.
'We're not leaving her, Jamie,' sighed the Doctor. 'It was Victoria's decision to stay.'
'Aye.'
'Don't worry about her,' said the Doctor trying to sound confident. 'She'll be happy with the Harrises.'
'Och, I'm not worrying!' replied Jamie unconvincingly. 'Come on, let's go!'
'All right.' The Doctor turned back to the Control Unit. 'Where would you like to go?'
'I couldna' care less!' Although he tried to resist it, Jamie's eyes were still rivetted to the scanner.
The Doctor watched him for a moment, smiling affectionately at his young companion's emotional outburst. He knew just how much Jamie was going to miss Victoria. 'You know, Jamie,' he said, 'I was fond of her too...'
He sighed again, turned back to the controls and flicked all the necessary switches that immediately set the TtARDIS in motion.
The grinding and grunting sound of the dematerialising TARDIS gradually disappeared. And in its place, the seabirds returned, swooping low over the surface of the water, searching out the fish they had thought they would never see again.
Out and beyond was the vast expanse of sea. The cruel, unyielding sea. Calm again now. The fury gone.
All that remained were the small blobs of bubbling white foam and straggling clumps of seaweed that rolled gently over the waves of the incoming tide.