Once Upon a Time Lord

Chapter Three

                  "Illustration" by Karlie ft. my notes & the lovely light from the window

Upon their return to the top deck, they found the Doctor still flying the ship and Lucy leaning over the edge to watch the water below.

"How's the sailing, Doctor?" Killian asked.

"Quite well, but...  Could you take over?" he asked, glancing over at Lucy.

Killian was mildly bothered by this, but he supposed he had flown long enough.  For an amateur, he thought.  Of course there was no way for Killian to know just how experiences the Doctor actually was in the art of ships.

The Doctor handed the wheel over to Killian and moved over to Lucy.  It seemed to Jane that the moment Killian's hand touched the wood of the wheel, a weight of authority came over him.

Lucy and the Doctor stood at the bow, the Doctor's coat resting over Lucy's shoulders and billowing into the wind with her long blonde hair.  Jane considered going over to speak to Killian, but he didn't look like he wanted to be bothered, and Lucy and the Doctor definitely didn't want to be bothered.  She was about to go stare over the edge of the ship when the cannonball struck.

The wood in the bottom of the ship cracked, echoing loudly.  Killian pulled a lever by the wheel and ran over to the edge of the ship to inspect damage.  As he did so, a second cannonball flew up from the island below, which Killian had a few choice words for.

"What do we do, captain?" Lucy asked frantically, still holding the Doctor's coat over her shoulders.  "Where do we go?"

Killian hesitated.  "Stay on deck.  I'll take the wheel.  Doctor, watch the girls."  The Doctor nodded and linked arms with Lucy while Jane trailed behind.

The three of them stopped at the bow.  "Duck!" the Doctor yelled as a cannonball flew a meter over his head.  He ducked, quickly releasing Lucy.  The swiftness of his dive caused his sonic screwdriver to roll out of his pocket.  He chased it down the deck, and in the midst of doing so he heard a third cannonball strike the ship and the splintering of wood, then a scream came from Lucy.  He snatched the sonic from the floor and turned to see Lucy clutching her left arm, which had two wood shards protruding from it.

"Lucy!" the Doctor cried, running to her.  "Lucy, oh Lucy..." he said as he touched he arm gingerly.

Killian glanced over at Lucy as he tried to steer the Jolly Roger to a safe crash landing.  There was no longer any hope of staying in the air.

As the water below drew nearer, Jane pulled herself away from the horror of it and jumped into action.

"Doctor!" she called, making him look up from Lucy's injury for the first time since she had received it.  "Just wrap that up as tight as you can for now.  We're going to have to swim."

Lucy's eyes widened in terror.  "We're crashing?"

Jane hesitated.  "Well, yes.  But Killian's steering us to a safe landing."

"B-But the water... It's ocean water, isn't it?" Lucy asked.

"Yes...?" Jane said.

"Salt water," Lucy said.  "Salt in a cut—that's a literal phrase.  It means really painful."

"I know.  That's why I said to wrap—"

SMACK!

The noise of the Jolly Roger crashing into the shallow bay was deafening.  What little water was in the part of the bay they had crashed into exploded around them.  The ship, having four decks, was actually quite far above the ground when it wasn't partially submerged.  Thus, when the boat had crashed, and Jane having been so close to the edge flew up and over the rim of the ship, Jane hit the ground hard.