The moment the Doctor pulled the lever down the floor shook. He gripped the lever tightly to stop from being thrown into the opposite wall as the TARDIS tilted. He looked over at Clara to check that she hadn't fallen, a habit of his as most of his companions grew used to the juttering flight of the TARDIS after just a few trips.
"Fine." She said pointedly, clutching the rail behind her. "And your bow tie is crooked."
The Doctor looked away embarrassed and straightened it before turning back to the console, a hexagonal table with all manner of pipes, cables, levers and buttons scattered around it.
"So that's it?" Clara asked as he ran round to the other side to twist the right knob. "All that just happened on Trenzalore and we just run off to the next place?"
The Doctor looked up and grinned at her. "Running off is what I do best." She didn't smile as he had expected her too but walked up to him, he noticed that her plaid dress was slightly torn at the shoulder from her fall through his time stream and her usually immaculate brunette hair was frizzing about her face.
She leant next to him and stretched her arm out to stop him hitting the blue button he had been reaching for. "Nu uh." She said, quirking her eyebrows up. "I want answers."
He pulled a face at her. "Answers to what?"
"Oh I don't know..."She started airily, tapping the console. "How about we start with the dead wife that you've never mentioned before?"
He felt his muscles tighten and his fingers went rigid at his sides. He looked around the TARDIS, taking in the round walls and blue lighting searching for any distraction from answering.
"River." He said at last as though this answered everything, his voice catching at the end. He looked at Clara who was watching him anxiously.
"River." She prompted.
"You know," The Doctor said loudly and gleefully. "I've changed my mind, I have a much better idea." He ran to the other side of the TARDIS and input the new co-ordinates, oblivious to Clara's protests.
He snapped his head up as he clutched the lever and winked at her. "Geronimo!" He shouted as he slammed the lever down. The TARDIS jerked to the side, snapping Clara's neck round as she went flying into the railing that surrounded the console area.
The droning of the TARDIS was drowned out by a sudden high pitched alarm. Clara, who had shut her eyes at the sudden impact opened them to find the room spinning. She put her fingers to a sore spot on her forehead and they came away red and sticky where they'd hit the metal poles.
"Woops," The Doctor muttered, clutching onto the rim of the console area.
The floor was still shaking and it took Clara a few moments to realise that the room was bathed in ambers and reds rather than the usual icy lighting. She heard the sound of sparks and watched as part of the console combusted.
"Doctor!" She shouted, panicked. The Doctor slammed his hand onto rectangular button which doused the fire but increased the shaking. He gritted his teeth and pulled himself closer to the console. There he grabbed a dial and started to spin it, the dial resisting him more with each turn.
"Oh come on..." He muttered before calling to Clara. "Hold onto something!"
"Why?!" She screamed back but grabbed onto the railing tightly anyway. The moment she did the Tardis span in a full circle, spinning her round the railing so that she was clutching onto the other side. Her teeth jarred together as she slammed into it and she blinked dazedly. The floor was a foot beneath her so she dropped to it before using the edge of the staircase that led back to the console room to steady her as she pulled herself to her feet.
The impact seemed to have stopped the room from spinning so she ran to the console despite the ground apparently trying to push her off.
"Is now really the time?" She muttered angrily at the TARDIS who she thought liked her now but she wasn't throwing the Doctor around as much as she was her. Clara cursed herself silently, talking to the TARDIS? She was becoming as bad as him.
She reached the Doctor. "Can you steady that?" He shouted, pointing to a joy stick that was moving of its own accord. She grabbed hold of it with one hand while clutching the rim with her other and tried to hold it still in the middle.
"What's happening?" She asked. She was surprised to find herself excited, after all that had happened on Trenzalore the TARDIS crashing seemed like a joyful adventure. "Why is the TARDIS doing this?"
"Two theories." The Doctor told her as he nimbly steered it but he said nothing else.
"Care to venture one?" She asked back, giving up on trying to steady herself and clutching the joystick with both hands to finally keep it still.
"Okay first." The Doctor said. "We're going somewhere I've been before. A few moments after I left, if she misses it by a moment it could create a paradox. So it's like her head is a millimetre away from a guillotine. Enough to make anyone...well jumpy. She is literally running parallel to the end of the universe."
The Tardis gave a particularly large shake that would have sent both the Doctor and Clara flying if they hadn't been clinging on so tightly.
"Well that's stupid." Clara said. "You manage to get me back home within minutes, she- I mean the TARDIS does it all the time."
"Yes." The Doctor conceded. "Which is why I think it must be theory two but the possibility of one remains."
The button the Doctor had been about to press exploded in flames which was quickly doused by the wave that crashed through the room. The Doctor coughed a few times whilst the TARDIS's siren wailed ever louder.
"What," He asked. "Was that?"
Clara arched her back so that she could look down the hallway. "The living room door opened."
"Well why would that cause this?" The Doctor shouted over the noise. Smoke had remained from the fire which was causing a hazy screen between them.
"That's where the swimming pool was last, right?" Clara asked, grabbing two halves of a switch and holding them together.
"Oh yes." The Doctor said nodding. "I still can't get used to it not being in the library." He flicked his wet hair out of his eyes sending a spray of water across the room. "Ready?"
"For what?" Clara screamed. "And what's theory two?"
The Doctor slammed a lever down and the TARDIS jerked suddenly to a halt which slammed Clara down on the ground. She lay there for a moment feeling rather battered before climbing back to her feet. She swayed slightly and the Doctor grabbed her arm to stop her from falling. The room appeared relatively unscathed, the bluish light back and only a thin vapour remaining to show where fires had started.
He scowled at her. "How did you do that?" He asked, pointing to the gash in her forehead. She tried to remember the many falls she had had in the last few minutes before shrugging as she failed to come to a definite moment.
"Theory two," The Doctor said slowly. "Is that the TARDIS knew what I was about to do and was trying to stop me.
Clara pushed her own wet hair out of her face and glared at the Doctor. "Which was what exactly? And where are we."
He glided over to the door and ridiculously gestured to it. "Clara," He grinned. "I think I left something at the library."
