Should oxygen have run out that very moment, none of the TARDIS travelers would have noticed. Their breaths and hearts stopped in fear as their friend's predicament became a pressing problem.
"Put it back on!" The Doctor shamelessly ordered Bill, who continued to lower her helmet.
"Doctor, that's not me doing that." Her eyes widened, more baffled by than afraid of whatever this suit was doing.
I should have gotten this suit, I should've known that with our luck it'd be the one to become haywire. The other girls pulled at her right arm to no avail.
"Put it back on!" He approached her, trying to take the object that meant safety and put it back in place.
"I'm trying." She forewent being scared in favor of despairing. "I can't move my arms!"
"Stop the cycle!" Ophelia's voice came out firmly, thank God. Ivan just stared at them helplessly.
While Nardole desperately tried to do something with a bunch of wires on the back part of Bill's suit, both girls fought against an urge to hyperventilate. Ophelia wondered if there'd ever be a day when situations like this, life or death matters, would become routine for her. Should that happen, it would mean she stayed exactly where she was and such a thing would be perfect. Then a fleeting thought, an intrusive little thing, came to mind.
Would I ever be the one almost dying? She shut her brain up with a probably, you idiot and focused back as he answered.
"We can't stop it. It's automated." Nice.
"Now we know now why your suit was being repaired. Bill. Bill!" The Doctor waved his hands, catching a pair of terrified eyes. There were less than twenty seconds until it happened. "You're about to be exposed to the vacuum of space."
"Oh, God!" She looked at her best friend, finding comfort in how her expression remained calm, somewhat confident. Not noticing how her eyes had darkened, the only sign of emotion. Thanks to training months six through twenty, no one would know how she felt unless it was deliberate.
"So don't hold your breath." Nardole's quip took them back to that morning's class.
"Or my lungs'll explode." Bill found certain comfort in remembering that information.
"You were listening." The Doctor, joined by his faithful assistant, continued to pull at a seemingly stuck helmet. "Well done."
All other remaining crew members watched in horror as Bill Potts cried, not being able to do anything which did not stop her friends trying.
Three, magnetic boots activated.
"What are we going to do?"
Two, Ophelia made sure her tears were invisible but never stopped trying to separate glove from helmet. To hell with deliberation, right now she felt every bit of human inside crying out at how unfair this was. Her best friend couldn't die, not here, not now. They were supposed to spend a weekend in London next month, or whatever happened inside the TARDIS. No one felt like planning a funeral.
One. The airlock opened.
She looked up to see it was too late.
Unlike what people would like to believe, outer space wasn't welcoming. Instead of a chilly walk outside, temperatures just above absolute zero made whatever unprotected organic matter exposed to it freeze in mere seconds. Bill's breath formed smoke inside the oxygen containment field, icicles forming a delicate design over her jawline. Now openly crying, Lia (a promise was made that she'd let herself be called that if they made it out alive) looked at her Doctor to see a dangerous glint in his eyes.
"Doctor."
Instead of stopping him, she watched as he sacrificed himself by giving away the helmet to a semi conscious Bill. Perhaps gallifreyan biology enabled him to not die by doings this, who knew other than himself? People began to leave their safe spot to go who knew where, Abby shooting a stray zombie into oblivion, but Ophelia stayed by the Doctor's side as her self appointed duty. Due to his life being in way more danger than hers, also a lot more important if it came down to it, she kept a diligent watch as they crossed a long path back into an illusion of safety inside the Space Station. While there was no way to fully know how this stunt would affect him, one consequence got clear once lights turned on. Not that he'd be able to see them.
"You got this?" Nardole called out from beside a dazed, most importantly alive, part time lunch lady. He actually liked Ophelia Watson, not that he'd say it out loud, specially because she'd be very likely to succeed in dealing with a very stubborn gallifreyan man.
"I do." Not really. Given oxygen would soon run out, her body was on the verge of giving up and her present company was about to get really upset. "I got it."
༓☾☽༓
The Doctor getting it seemed to be a problem though. After many years being somewhat independent (she had no idea how old he actually was), this man refused to accept he'd need someone's help to do something so simple as sitting down. As if. Denying both girl and blue skinned alien, his hands touched around until a long bench was located.
"I'm going to be fine." He told her again while the back of his helmet bounced off of the wall. "See?"
What her eyes saw were him dangerously close to either hanging himself on loose cables decorating the ceiling or falling down on his butt.
"I do see that." His body narrowly missed the floor as it unceremoniously took a seat. But you don't. When had her internal monologue become so mean? Not having time to focus on this strange development, much less an imaginary countdown to when her own body would just plainly give up on being conscious, she stood in front of him.
"Well, I don't." The Doctor sassed, trying to keep a positive mindset in place. Which proved hard when his stupid helmet wouldn't come off.
"That's true." Her voice reached him with caution, like one would an injured, possibly dangerous, animal. "Do you need me to do anything for you?"
"No." His gloved hands skidded, not able to get a good grip. "I'll be fine, Miss Watson."
"I know." By now she'd knelt in front of him. "I bet you have something in the TARDIS that'll fix your eyes in no time."
"Exactly!" He felt relieved to know her faith in him seemed unshaken in spite of his temporary affliction. It had to be temporary, should it become anything else... that bridge would be burned later. "Have you seen that infirmary?"
"It's huge." Much like everything inside their ship. "Guess we'll both spend sometime there, huh?"
Dahh-Ren sat, keeping guard from a corner of the 'under construction' part where they'd taken shelter in, eyes subtly watching both people. One barely holding on to consciousness, judging by small beads of sweat gathering on her hairline added slow blinking, and a blind, somewhat arrogant, old man. If these people got them out of here, than he would go back home to open his restaurant because nothing would be impossible anymore.
"Tea and biscuits?" The Doctor finally managed to get free from his helmet, spending oxygen with a couple of deep breaths. Should any human try to do what he just did, death would come in ninety seconds. Time lords would just get headaches, somewhat blinded and the need for a very long nap.
"Only if you tell me a story." Smiling confused their blue skinned guard, shouldn't this be a brainstorming session? Ophelia ignored how breathing became more difficult in favor of sitting down on his right side. "Though right now, I'd much rather hear a plan."
"Well, right now I have one step in it." His milky white stare didn't unsettle her. "Staying alive."
"Isn't that more of a goal?" She leaned against him, finding comfort on just being close.
"No." He kept on talking to keep her awake. "It is step number one, we can't do much if we're dead."
Abby envied how at ease both seemed in spite of everything that happened, their brows furrowed in concentration but lazy smiles whenever a ridiculous idea got said. Judging by a very annoyed blue man, this'd been going on for a long time.
"Dahh-Ren, can you watch him for a few minutes?" She asked her crew mate.
"Sure."
"Ophelia is not going anywhere." The Doctor spoke forcefully, not wanting to let her get away.
"Ophelia is nearly fainting." He felt selfish at realizing how much more confident her presence made him. "She needs some medicine."
If this feeling of emotional dependence came after only one month plus some odd days of being around each other, he'd rather not consider how attached time would make them. Unlike his other companions who had lives once they stepped out of that blue box, this young woman (at least appearance wise) had stepped into it with no intention of backing out.
"I'll be back."
Abby's expertise was this station's layout so it took them merely ten breaths to reach a box marked with 'first aid'.
"Here, this painkiller will dissolve inside your oxygen field until we're able to get you properly checked out." The dark skinned woman attached a small box thing to her suit's neckline and it made a difference instantly.
"Thank you." Ophelia had learned to always sound genuine but this didn't need faking, each step getting easier until they were back with their ragtag crew.
"Don't mean to hurry you," Abby called out to a blind man, doing the opposite of what she was saying. "but in seven hundred breaths I'll be dead."
"I need to think." The Doctor walked ahead, only to bang his shins against some loose metal.
"He really doesn't like help." Nardole held Bill back while both smiled quickly at a returned assistant.
An alarm split their little group up, station crew going to check what was triggering it and the TARDIS girls going to their time lord.
"Doctor, you okay?" Bill asked him with worry, Ophelia just stood back quietly.
"Bill, I've got no Tardis, no sonic, about ten minutes of oxygen left, and now I'm blind." He turned towards them. "Can you imagine how unbearable I'm going to be when I pull this off?"
"Don't do this." She sounded fed up with something. "You always do this."
For the first time, Ophelia's mind wondered for how long these two had known each other before rescuing her from Canassis Manor. Obviously some time given how this seemed to be a long standing bother.
"Do what?" In his defense, most thing tended to fly overhead.
"Make jokes to distract me from whatever's about to kill us." Bill's explanation hung in the stale air.
"What else are jokes for?"
"Doctor! There's a rescue ship on the way." Nardole ran between them, excited about this turn of events.
"We've picked up a company transponder." Dahh-ren held his communication device to his ear while bee-lining for a console.
"If there's a rescue ship on the way, then how can the rescue ship already be here?" Abby strategically blocked their exit with Ivan.
"Too many rescue ships." The Doctor murmured. "There's a first-world problem."
"Who are you?" That's a good question.
"I'm the Doctor." He used sound to position himself facing both crew members. "I will do everything in my power to save all your lives. And when I do, you will spend the rest of them wondering who I was and why I helped you. If anyone's offering a better deal, be my guest."
There was silence for a few moments.
"You didn't save Tasker, did you? And he believed you. Trusted you. " Each word sunk deeper into an endless sea of guilt. "And now he's dead." She raised her blaster to his head, Ophelia immediately taking a step closer. "Can you give me one good reason why you shouldn't join him?"
"Whoa! Whoa! We're all getting a little punchy here." Ivan stood between them. "It's the oxygen thinning. It's making it harder to think."
"Will you get out of my way!" Instead of shooting him, Abby began to shoot at an oncoming horde of zombies. How had they gotten here? These creature were evolving, learning and soon they'd be outmatched. "Head for the reactor core! Run!"
"What's happening?" Ophelia took the Doctor's right arm not giving a damn about his dislike of physical help. They would all make it out alive, home in time for tea. Bill took his other arm, pulling them faster.
"Guess!" Nardole stood as a divisor between both groups in case things went south again.
"They knew we were there, somehow." Ivan said, though not directed at those behind him.
"Voice rec. Had to be." Abby's voiced held firm, biting back fear.
"Doctor? Doctor, my suit!" Bill'd frozen, red light flashing again. "It's doing it again! I can't move!"
"The sequencer's jammed." Both men who were some good with tech began to look for what could be wrong. "It needs a reboot."
"How long will that take?" The time lord inquired.
"Too long."
"Okay, we'll pick her up." Ophelia's suggestion had every person working. "Come on."
"Warning." Velma turned on the magnetic boots, effectively killing their plan. "This is an illegal manoeuvre."
"The suit won't let us." Abby stepped back from them. "Health and safety."
Health and safety?
"Doctor?" Bill called for him, thoroughly afraid.
"Okay, get her out of her suit." He began to claw at his own. "Give her mine."
"The sequencer controls the release clamps." Ivan's answer came as he kept on working. "We can't get her out."
"Well, we can't leave her here. They'll kill her!" Nardole dropped all pretenses of his dislike for the girl.
Please do not interfere with the operation of this suit. Fines may be incurred.
"Oh, great. I'll get fined for dying!" Her words triggered something for the Doctor.
"Fined for dying." He turned his back to them, brains at full speed. "What if there never was a hack? What if this is just business? Business as usual.
"What do you mean?" Bill had trouble understanding.
"Bill. Bill, do you trust me?" His body stood in front of hers.
"Why are you saying that?" No one could have anticipated his next words.
"We're going to have to leave you here." No.
"What? I'll die!"
Ophelia's breathing stopped entirely. Leaving her friend behind seemed like a terrible idea because for once she'd not been able to guess where it was going. For all she knew, this adventure would end in a funeral. But then again, her utmost trust was in the man before her. He'd saved her life more than once, his quick thinking had gotten Bill here and he had come up with at least seventy percent of a plan to be suggesting this crazy thing.
"You're not going to die." His idea of reassurance wasn't working very well. "But I won't lie to you, this will not be good."
"We have to go. Now." Abby urged before walking ahead.
"You will go through hell, but you will come through it." He held both of her hands. "And we will be waiting on the other side."
"But what if I was going to die..."
"You're not going to die!" Ophelia stopped entertaining this notion.
"Would you just say exactly the same?"
"I will see you soon."
Every step they took away felt like betrayal but still Lia's eyes held on until Ivan pulled her along.
"Just tell me a joke before you go."
‧͙⁺˚*･༓༓･*˚⁺‧͙
this chapter began and ended with bill almost dying.