Chapter Text
Yaz, Graham, Ryan and the Doctor were sprinting madly between rows and rows of shiny metallic drawers which towered above them and stretched around like a steel maze. The Doctor skidded to a halt, sonic screwdriver in hand, and paused. The others barely managed to stop themselves from barrelling her over.
“Those things definitely did not look friendly.” Graham wheezed, bent at the waist with one hand resting on his knee. The Doctor’s face scrunched for a moment as she inspected her sonic, the orange light reflected on the metal drawers beside her.
“They weren’t the signals we were looking for…” She said, causing Ryan to raise an eyebrow and then hold up his hand and wave it in front of his face.
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” He chuckled, glancing at Yaz who scoffed and shook her head whilst she wiped sweat from her forehead.
“Not droids Ryan, definitely organic. “She glanced at him and then back to her sonic, completely missing Ryan’s exasperated expression.
“So she can tell me the history of toasters but has never seen Star Wars...unbelievable.” Ryan muttered.
“Urgh it’s not giving me a clear signal, everything’s contradicting and I can’t make heads nor tails of it.” The Doctor gave the sonic a little shake but pouted when it spat out the same readings.
“Those scientists upstairs looked all flash and smart in their coats but who’s stupid idea was it to store their backup power source down here?” Graham said, throwing his hands up in the air. “You know...where the fluffy bitey alien wolves are nesting. Slap up job that was.”
Yaz frowned for a moment, eyebrows pulling together and the tip of her tongue sticking out as she grasped for a memory.
“Don’t batteries last longer if you stick ‘em in the fridge? Hold their charge I mean.” She wondered. The Doctor looked up from her sonic with a beam on her face and clicked her fingers.
“Yasmin Khan, a woman after my own hearts. I think that’s ten points easy peasy. You’re thrashing the boys, I better get the trophy engraved now by the looks of it.” She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows, making Yaz chuckle with a small blush dusting her cheeks.
Ryan rolled his eyes.
“She’s only thrashin’ us cause she’s your favourite.”
“Jealousy isn’t becoming of you, Son.” Graham grinned, winking at Yaz.
“But yeah, Yaz is right. Certain types of batteries, like the fission cell batteries this facility uses, hold their charge for longer in cold conditions, so sticking it in the morgue makes sense. Fission cell’s discharge super quick but once you connect ‘em up they’ll outburn the sun!”
“Unless a pack of mutant alien wolves chew through the connectors.” Graham adds, rather unhelpfully.
The Doctor glances at her sonic once again, calculating how much time they had left, before making a decision.
“Okay gang, our best bet is to split up to try and find that battery. Should be able to hear the thing humming. Ryan and Graham, check the drawers labelled between five hundred and a thousand. Me and Yaz‘ll take the rest.”
“Sounds good. What about the wolves?”
“By the looks of it they’re super sensitive to light, would explain why they chewed the battery to bits.” The Doctor glanced at the dimming and flickering overhead lights of the basement morgue. “So just shine your torches at them and that should scare them off, or at least stun the little guys long enough for you to get a shift on.”
“How long we got until the powers completely out?” Graham asked. The Timelord shrugged.
“‘Bout half hour maybe, less if we’re unlucky.”
“So five minutes then?” Yaz chimed in, stepping up to the side of the blonde woman. “See you guys in a bit, be careful, yeah?”
The boys gave her a smile and a nod before turning and disappearing down one of the many aisles of morgue trays.
“Let’s get searching. The faster we find that battery the faster we can help those people in the hospital upstairs.” Yaz fixed the Doctor with a determined look and set off in the opposite direction of the boys, leaving the blonde to gaze after her with a soft smile and look of adoration in her eyes.
Yasmin Khan, you most definitely speak my language. She thought dreamily, before the young girl turned to face her after realising she wasn’t following.
“Oi, get a shift on.” She said with a raised eyebrow that made the Doctors heartbeat quicken.
“Roger that, PC Khan.” she said and practically skipped over to her companion with a giddy look on her face.
The two walked slowly down the seemingly endless rows of cold storage drawers which stretched out ahead of them. They listened carefully for any telltale humming but all was quiet other than their gentle footsteps on the white tiled floor.