Transcendental Dimensions

He could hear Clara enter the TARDIS console room and he poked his head up from fixing the circuits. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, looking down at him for once. Her hair was smooth and shiny and still wet from her shower, she wore fresh clothes with her scent lingering on them which he could recognise anywhere. He must have been staring too long at her. He couldn't always help it, the heart eyes betraying him which he never admitted to, and as Clara was the most beautiful person in the universe to him it was hard not to tell her how truly amazing she was. It set his hearts racing thinking about how brave and kind and funny and wonderful she was. When he looked at her he saw the stars, and he forgot about the beauty of galaxies or planets. Because she was everything and more.

Stop staring, Doctor! Retreating his head back and running round to her with a grin she raised those eyebrows at him.

'What's got you in a hurry?'

'Where do you wanna go?' He asked, his smile still widening.

Her eyes twinkled and she smiled brightly in return.

But before she could give her answer, the TARDIS lurched furiously forward, until it tipped upside down altogether. Clara fell to the floor immediately, banging her head violently on the floor. The Doctor dived toward her body, making sure she was okay and sheltering her from further harm. The TARDIS started to whizz around uncontrollably, and his eyes filled with panic. He managed to figure out that he had left the circuits underneath the console and they were malfunctioning on a massive scale. Yet he knew that was impossible, it wouldn't cause this much damage at all.

Wait...Clara had had a shower. The electrics on the TARDIS were being programmed by the Doctor himself, and had caused one hell of a disruption. Nothing could fix this. Not even he could, with his sonic sunglasses. The power of her shower and the out of place restoration engine both caused this, not to mention the misplaced wires that had been tangled profusely together, the very things he was fixing.

'Doctor!' She breathed, waking up from her temporary unconsciousness.

'Oh god, oh thank god,' he said, pulling her small frame into a bone clenching hug, holding her tight to him, 'are you okay, Clara?'

'Doctor, what's happening?!' She looked around at the upside down TARDIS that was shaking violently.

He quickly explained what had happened, and then it tipped the right way up. Flying across the space, he noticed the room had shrunk considerably.

'No no no no NO NOOOO!' He shouted, as the TARDIS' interior started to shrink in size. A burst of gusty wind blew through, ripping the doors straight off its hinges, so strong they were both launched off their feet and banging into the other side of the TARDIS, which was now an actual police box. The console, the roundels, the transcendental dimensions were all gone, it was just Clara and the Doctor in an empty box, sitting huddled up against the back wall, sheltering their faces from the gale that whirled them through the air. They could see the night sky and it's stars, the tangible wind that was thick as smoke.

'Doctor!' Clara cried, and he pulled her to his side, protecting her, never letting go.

'We must be in the Pyrodoniac galaxy! It's winds are the strongest in the universe!'

'Why is the TARDIS shrunk to an actual police box?'

'Its transcendental dimensions have been destroyed by the fusion of your shower and the engine.'

The TARDIS started to fall, down and down at an incredible speed, and Clara's screams were the worst sounds he ever heard. Holding her even tighter to him, she asked 'Are we going to die?!'

He couldn't answer her, only shout as they descended, but he knew she already knew it.

'Clara,' he said suddenly, 'you've always been there for me. Thank you.' His hand grasped hers tight as they watched them falling, down, down, down.

'Me too, Doctor. You've been my life, and I can't ever thank you enough for everything we've done.'

She looked at him, and he could feel his stomach doing multiple flips that had nothing to do with falling. Her hair was flying everywhere and her hands clenched his even harder at their death fall.

'Clara Oswald...it's my last chance to say it...'

The box crashed into the ground with a force so strong and powerful it resembled a black hole, flinging both Clara and the Doctor through the air to land face down in the dirt. The TARDIS was broken into splinters, and the last image he saw broke his hearts in one last nanosecond of survival. Clara Oswald, sprawled in the dirt, every bone in her body broken and shattered, completely and undoubtedly dead.

And then, his eyes closed.

••••••

He launched himself upward, eyes bugging out of his sockets, trying desperately to breathe, to rid his mind of those images and ban them forever from his mind or the universe, again. Finally catching ragged breaths, he placed a hand to his hearts which nearly gave up on him.

'Clara.' He managed, just barely a raw whisper, every ounce of emotion being conveyed in her name. Repeating it over and over with more urgency, he made sure he wasn't still dreaming. The weight of the dream bearing down on him, suffocating him, his hearts pounding at the thoughts crossing his mind like shooting stars. It was completely unbearable. It crushed him. The realisation of his last words hit him like a tidal wave. His feelings for Clara were transcendentally dimensional like the TARDIS, bigger on the inside, his affections barely scratching the surface. His love for her was unquestionable, unending, ongoing, forever.

But even in his dreams he couldn't say it.