Ian thought the Doctor was looking distracted. The loss of Susan had hit him hard, but often he would seem to be right as rain.

Other times, his mood would have shamed every head teacher in the land. Finding the balance was a delicate operation. Which he preferred to leave to Barbara. But sometimes it was his turn, too.

"Doctor?"

"Mm?" The old man looked up suddenly, and Ian idly wondered about the blood rushing to his head. But best not to mention it just now. "Oh, Chesteron. I'm glad it's you."

Ian rocked on his heels. Whatever you were ready for with the Doctor, he could surprise you.

"I think we are about to make another landing. I am very hopeful that it is your planet." He even smiled, although Ian wondered about his teeth.

"Earth again. But will it be the right time?"

"Oh, come, Chesterton. Any time's the right time with Earth." Then the mood was gone, like a slammed door.

"I'll go and inform Barbara," he said, but the Doctor seemed not to be listening again, so Ian just walked out.

***

"Oh, Ian, do you think it really will be our home again?"

"I don't know. But we'll never know if we don't look." He placed his hand on hers, as a sign of reassurance. "Come on, sooner or later, we'll find a way home."

She smiled in gratitude.

***

The Doctor had put a coat on, and was eager for Ian and Barbara to do the same. "The instruments definitely suggest a chill in the air, and we don't want to be catching our deaths, do we?"

Ian helped Barbara on with her coat, idly wondering about the fabric, which seemed unusually soft, yet seemed hardy.

Satisfied they were all ready, the Doctor opened the door, and walked out.

Ian and Barbara stayed put, until he reappeared a moment later.

"Well, come along, then. It looks quite a charming little place."

Shrugging their shoulders again, the two teachers followed him out.

***

It looked like the seaside.

As the Doctor locked the Ship, Ian and Barbara looked around at their destination. A steep, rocky cliff ran along much of one horizon, with the blanket of the sea stretching along in parallel. Ian decided he was making too much of it, and the visual illusion was to be watched.

"It's certainly bracing, Doctor!" observed Barbara, who seemed to be trying to wrap her coat even tighter around her.

"Yes, well, a short walk should tell us where we are. All the signs point to this being your Earth."

Ian watched him walk off in no particular direction. He turned to confide in Barbara. "We'd better keep up with him, who knows what trouble he might get into if we don't?"

She smiled, but politely. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"I don't like it, Ian. There's something wrong."

"Come on, Barbara, you should know that by now with the Doctor. We've hardly had a moment's peace in months." He put his arm around her shoulder, and she said no more. They walked after the old man.

***

The rain started to fall soon after, and the Doctor cursed himself for not bringing any umbrellas. Still, as soon as they found shelter, they could wait for the shower to pass.

But it persisted, and they seemed as far along the beach as ever, with no protection. The only motivation to go on, was that the Ship seemed even further away.

Ian watched as the rain struck the cliff face, sending small rocks trickling to the ground.

Barbara looked the other way, seeing the skies darkening, and the brief flash of lightning. The seas were also beginning to stir, and she had the idea that the tide was coming in.

The Doctor pressed on, sure that the safest course was to keep going until they found a secure place to pause.

There were channels and gullies across the ground, and these were rapidly filling with water. It became a challenge to stick to one straight line, and the Doctor had to be restrained from tracing a more circuitous, yet dry, route, for it seemed as if he were dancing through a field of tulips, and they hadn't the time for flights of fancy.

At length, they could see there was an incline, where they could climb around to the cliff-top. It was only when they reached it and began to ascend that they realised how the water level had risen. There seemed to now be no dry path at all, and the ground that had earlier appeared a rather rough beach now seemed to be a shallow section of the sea.

***

The incline was treacherous, and the Doctor had soon descended to crawling along in a kind of scurry. Ian realised that walking upright was dangerous, and crawling on his hands and knees would take too long, so was trying to copy the Doctor's style, with marginal success.

Barbara was now lagging behind. She felt pains shooting across her back when she started to stoop, and was having to try and keep as straight as she could. This left her prey to the continuing rain, which had been going on for hours now. She was terrified she could easily slide down into the water, and given the gradient of the incline, it would be a long fall, and a nasty landing.

She cast a glance out to where the Ship might be, but could see little through the rain.

Ian had offered to hold her hand, to give her some more security as they travelled, but it had soon seemed even more tricky, and they had sadly parted for fear of dooming each other.

***

The path was a good half-mile, but they finally reached the cliff-top, and suddenly wished they hadn't.

For the cliff-top path was barely two metres wide, and gave onto a sheer drop behind. The ground below looked desolate and lifeless, and was clearly not Earth. There seemed to be no shelter here, and they began to wonder where they could go to escape from the continual rainfall.

The Doctor had taken the decision to press on. "After all, we can scarcely go back now."

Thankfully, Ian and Barbara found they were better able to balance together now, and they followed the Doctor as he pressed on. Also, they were able to stand, even though the rain was still coming down as harsh as before, and was now a shade colder, due to their raised altitude.

***

The cliff rose again, and the view straight down became even more perilous. Barbara tried to look out for the familiar blue of the Ship, but it was nowhere to be seen. The area they had landed on was totally underwater now, and she could barely believe they had been walking on it only a few hours ago.

"Ian, what are we going to do?" She knew it was a bit mean to ask, as he was as out of his depth as she was, but they had hardly spoken for an hour, and she was in dire need of solace.

"It depends where this path leads. I've an idea that we won't be stranded here for long."

"Mm?" Surprisingly, the Doctor was all ears. "Got a theory, have you?"

"As a matter of fact, Doctor, yes I have."

"Well, let's hear it then. Anything to take our minds off being washed away by this rain."

As Ian opened his mouth, he swallowed a gobbet of water, and started to splutter, then cough.

The Doctor was immediately on him, trying to ease the teacher's lungs. "That feel any better?"

A few moments later, Ian nodded, with a weary smile.

"Come on, we can talk more when we reach shelter." The old man struck out in front once more.

"What if we don't find shelter?" asked Barbara. But her words must have been lost on the wind, as neither man answered her.

***

The path continued ever on, but even a non-scientist like Barbara could tell that the gradient of the slope was heading downwards.

"Should find shelter soon," the Doctor informed them, with a burst of optimism.

This soon seemed short-lived, when they realised the truth of the change in slope, and the turn of the path.

They were headed back to the beach. Which would now be covered with a still-rising tide.

"We're trapped!" cried Barbara.

Ian tried to comfort her, and even the Doctor seemed less than pleased.

They seemed to be stuck.

***

To some surprise, Ian took to the lead, and seemed to have a confidence about him, that Barbara and the Doctor found mysterious. They were glad to bring up the rear, as it postponed what they saw as the inevitable.

Before too long, they had reached the water level, but with the rain still falling, it could be a long way to the bottom.

"You two stay here... I want to try something out." And without further word, Ian dived into the water.

"Ian!"

"Chesterton!"

The Doctor and Barbara looked at each other in disbelieving horror. Then they looked back at the water.

Of Ian, there was no sign.

***

Barbara sat down and cried, but the Doctor was a little more resolute.

"We must find a way out of this. We owe it to Chesterton that his sacrifice won't be forgotten."

He offered her a handkerchief, but she continued to cry.

As he looked again at the water, he felt anger at his own impotence. The weather was still driving down, and he suspected he had condemned them all to a watery grave.

Then he looked harder at the water. The visibility was restricted with the rain coming down, but surely that was...

"Barbara! Look!"

Something in his tone was unmistakable. The teacher looked, following where the old man was pointing.

There, in the water, swimming away from them, was Ian.

"He's alive!" She was so relieved, she gave the Doctor a hug, which he decided to put up with, given the reasons for it.

"But what is he doing?"

***

It had been a long time since Ian had swum this hard. But the more he pushed, the better it felt. Even with a difficult tidal current, he felt confident of reaching his goal.

Plus, the life of the woman he cared about was dependent on him succeeding. He needed little stronger motivation at this time.

He had soon realised the depth of the water, and marvelled again at the sheer volume of rain that the storm was bringing down. If it didn't abate soon, he might well be stuck out here. Cramp and hypothermia were twin terrors he didn't want to consider just yet.

Having judged a rough estimate of the distance they had walked along the top of the ridge, less the distance they walked from the Ship to reach the ridge, he should be coming close to it soon.

Striking down with his foot, he felt something stubbing his toe, and he stifled a curse, looking down at a murky blue shape.

A minute or so to check confirmed it was the Ship. He looked back at the ridge, but was dismayed that he couldn't see either Barbara or the Doctor. Perhaps it was further than he had thought. The weather didn't help matters.

Standing on the roof, he waved a couple of times, but couldn't be sure he had been seen. Besides, he needed the energy in his arms to get back to his friends.

After a minute to relax a little, get his breath back, and regain some energy, he struck out into the water again. With the rain still falling, they had only a matter of time before they might be lost here forever.

***

The Doctor had taken his jacket off so that he and Barbara could shelter under it. Now that they knew Ian was alive, it made sense to stay put, and see what plan he had been up to.

Barbara wondered whether the swim would do for Ian, but the Doctor confidently squashed that idea. Inside, he knew that if Ian was lost, they would be next.

After a few minutes, which seemed an eternity, they could see a familiar-looking shape moving through the water towards them. Sure enough, Ian reached the ridge, where the Doctor helped haul him out.

"Well done, my boy! What have you found?"

Ian looked at his friends, and suddenly realised what he was going to have to tell them. "We've got to swim for it."

The Doctor gulped, but realised that the young man was quite right, and started working on a plan for getting into the Ship. Also, he needed to prepare himself for a quite physical effort.

"Are you sure, Ian?"

"Barbara, there's no other way. We've seen there's nowhere else to go. No shelter. If we stay here, we'll just get rained on for the rest of our short lives. I know this is a gamble... but we've got to try. You can swim, can't you?"

"Yes, of course. But, how far is it?"

"Speaking as a scientist... half a mile, maybe." He saw her expression turn to dismay. "Well, look, it doesn't seem that bad. You think you can make it, Doctor?"

The Doctor was stretching his arms, and if Ian hadn't known him better, he would have assumed the old man was actually warming up. "I will try, my boy. It's been a while since I've had to do anything like this..."

To their surprise, the rain slowly stopped falling. The clouds remained grey and forbidding, but the constant deluge was over, for the time being, anyway.

"I suggest, that there is no time like the present. An opportunity like this has to be seized. Geronimo!" With that, the Doctor dived into the water with the grace of a rhinoceros.

Barbara and Ian looked at each other, and gaped. Then, they slowly climbed into the water.

***

The Doctor was feeling unusually emotional. Experiences like this were few and far between, and he found he was actually enjoying it. The water had also calmed with the stop of the rain, so it made for a mild challenge.

Ian and Barbara swam side by side, keeping the Doctor firmly in sight. Ian was understandably tiring, but Barbara helped keep his spirits up, and he in turn supported her, as she plodded along.

***

They nearly missed the Ship, but the Doctor's mood seemed to brighten still further when he realised he had reached his target. Standing on the roof, he fished his key from his pocket, grateful that it hadn't dropped out along their way.

Barbara also stood on the roof, whilst Ian trod water as there was only so much room on the roof of the ship.

"I shall open the door," the Doctor told them. "Chesterton, when you see me go in, you both follow. We shall have to take deep breaths, and move fast. Do we all understand?"

The two teachers nodded. Just then, the rain started to fall yet again, and they knew that, having come this far, they had no other options.

The Doctor clambered down into the water. He smiled up at Barbara, who also started the climb down into the water. Then he nodded to Ian. Then he took a deep breath, and went below the surface.

Ian watched as the old man turned the key in the lock, and shuddered as he saw the force of the water push the Doctor into the room.

"Right, come on!" He saw Barbara take a deep breath, then disappear below.

Taking one last look at this world, Ian took a deep breath, and swam into the Ship.

The Doctor closed the door behind, then started the controls. Progress seemed to be slow, but they finally left the storm behind them.

***

They made a quick, random stop, opening the doors, and letting the water flood out again.

The Doctor popped his head out, saw a man and woman on a sunnier beach, looking rather damp, and he chuckled, muttered an apology, and returned inside.