Doctor Who_ Rip Tide - Louise Cooper [64]
Steve said hollowly, 'Who is he? The Doctor ... what is he?'
'I ... sort of know,' she said. 'But not really; not all of it.' More tears started to fall, and Steve was crying too – tears of shock and bewilderment and the sheer impossibility of understanding. Nina reached out to him and he held her and hugged her, each trying to comfort the other.
'You've still got your drysuit on,' she said at last, in the foolish way that people focus on trivia at extreme moments.
'Have I? Didn't notice. And you're soaking wet.'
'Didn't notice.' She sniffed and hiccoughed and almost laughed all at the same time.
'Must've been the spray on the way back. Aren't you cold?'
'Not really. Feel a bit queasy, though.'
'Delayed sea-sickness, probably.'
'Yeah.' She giggled, then pressed her face against his chest.
'Come on,' he said gently. 'Let's take you home, and get you some dry things.'
SAFE HARBOUR
A Sunday morning meant lifeboat practice as usual. Today's training would be a doddle — sun shining in a cloudless sky, sea calm and tide low. The biggest hazard, as one of the crew said, would be making sure that the tractor didn't run over anyone's dog on the way to the water's edge.
Steve was very subdued, but that was only to be expected. He hadn't said much about his private interview with the Divisional Inspector, but it was widely reported that he had been hauled over the coals and was in for an official reprimand. Whether it would go further than that no one knew, but Nina had asked to see the Inspector herself, and (so ran the gossip) had told him in no uncertain terms that she was to blame for the whole thing. That had put her up a good few notches in people's estimation. Very mature, they said. Very honourable. God knows why she did it in the first place, but well done to own up — didn't know she had it in her.
Nina was at the beach this morning, but she had kept away from the lifeboat house. The crew had got to the teasing stage and now ribbed her mercilessly each time she saw them, so she had found her favourite vantage point among the rocks and was content just to watch the general activity on the beach. Steve was taking advantage of the calm conditions to send a trainee helmsman out with two of the older crew; as the lifeboat motored away from the beach Nina watched her brother walking slowly back towards the boathouse, stopping every so often to answer the questions of interested visitors. All things considered, she thought that Steve had come to terms with the situation pretty well. They had had more than one very long talk in the past few days, and he now knew all that she could tell him about Ruth and the Doctor. She still wasn't entirely sure that he believed it all – Steve had one of those minds that could block out information if it became too uncomfortable or improbable –but what he did believe, he was dealing with in his own way. The blisters on his hands had faded, and his energy levels were up – he was eating like a hog, too, which proved he was getting back to normal.
And me?
She didn't really know the answer to that question, and wasn't sure that she wanted to. Maybe in a few weeks she'd think harder about it, but for now it was too recent and too raw, and the disappointment – maybe even the sense of anticlimax – still hurt.
She blinked suddenly, told herself that it was the sun in her eyes, and reached for her baseball cap to put it on and shade her face. Then she stopped, her gaze fixed abruptly on three figures who were walking across the beach.
She had noticed them as they came down to the sand a few minutes ago – not for any particular reason but simply in the idle way of observation. Possibly, too, because