Thank you all for reading and for the kind words. I really liked this story but I felt like there wasn't really a story arc and it wasn't Doctor Whoesque enough, so I have created this prologue to further the story. And to answer your questions, yes it has more to come. I am currently working on the third chapter! xx The Girl in The Red Hat
You never know what's going to happen next when you run with The Doctor. Perhaps you'll end up in Barcelona (the planet, not the city). Maybe you'll eat chips in London and watch time pass you both by. You might even find yourself hurtling towards a sun with only 42 minutes remaining to figure out a solution. One thing I know is that you'll spend so much time trying to remember what on Earth you did with your life before you met The Doctor. Last of the Time Lords.
"Doctor, where are we?" Clara asks, taking a cautious step out of the TARDIS. She looks around, expecting to see something but this place is empty. Completely, totally empty.
"That is a very good question which I will answer in just a moment," The Doctor says, taking a quick glance around and turning back to the TARDIS. "Yep thought so. Pluto."
"Pluto?" Clara asks. "You mean the was still a planet when I was in school but isn't a planet anymore Pluto?"
"That would be the one, yes. It's lovely isn't it?" The Doctor replies, his eyes searching the surface.
"So it's safe?" Clara queries, even though whatever the answer he gives she's sure something will crop up sooner or later. With him, it always does.
"Probably. See any monsters?" he tells her.
"Only you," Clara says with a smile. Then she runs, because there's so much here for her to see and she wants to take it all in now. That's one thing she hasn't gotten used to yet. Everything is so new to her still and she wants to drink it all in so she never forgets.
"Oi," The Doctor shouts after her, watching as she jumps and twirls around. She is beautiful, perfect Clara. He loves the way she is so effortlessly excited by everything. Not like Rose, who seemed to get used it more and more, or River, who sometimes knew more than he did. Clara was exceptional in her ways and that made it so much harder not to fall in love with her.
"Doctor!" Clara screams as something grips her foot. She tries desperately to pull away and he's running over to her. Then whatever holds her foot wraps around her waist and tugs her down into the dark. The Doctor watches as she disappears below the surface of the planet.
Clara wakes up in the darkness, a little blue light in the corner of the room. It's too dark for her to see much around the room, except that she is on some sort of bed and there's a blanket over her. She sits up to see a glass of water of a little table beside her bed, or at least it looks like water. Best not to drink it, she tells herself.
"Hello? Is there anyone around here who can explain what the hell is going on?" Clara shouts into the empty room.
"You are Oswin Oswald. Confirm!" a robotic voice replies. Am I? Clara thinks to herself. No, I don't think that's my name. Oswald. I'm sure that's right but Oswin?
"I'm not," Clara replies, because she is certain that she is not. "Who are you?"
"I am a Dalek," the voice replies. "Who are you?"
"I'm not sure," Clara mumbles, trying to figure out whether she should be frightened or not. Why can't I remember who I am? How did I get here?
"Then how can you be sure you are not Oswin Oswald?" the Dalek asks and she has to admit that it has a point.
"What if I am?" Clara asks.
"We want The Doctor's daughter!" the Dalek says.
The Doctor! Clara thinks. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm The Doctor's companion. I saved him. I am not Oswin Oswald. But I am. Sort of. Daleks. Daleks. He met Oswin in the Asylum of the Daleks!
"I think you've made a big mistake. My name is Clara Oswald, not Oswin. I am not her. I am not The Doctor's daughter either," Clara shouts, wondering why this Dalek is taking all this time with her. She knows, he's told her, that Daleks are pure hatred, they do not reason. So what is this one doing?
"Explain!" the Dalek cries.
"I have. You've got it wrong Dalek!" Clara replies. "Now what is it you plan to do with me?"
"Ex.."
"Sorry, not this time," The Doctor says, stepping in front of Clara. She gives him a smile and then something shifts and what she thought was the Dalek is just a light on the wall.
"Clara, stop!" The Doctor calls, grabbing her hand as she reaches out to touch the Dalek. She recoils quickly when she realises what she's doing.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Clara says, shaking.
"I don't know but hold my hand and whatever you do, do not let go!" The Doctor says. "Well, well. Should have known. It's always you isn't it? Unless it's the Cybermen," The Doctor sighs, looking at the Dalek and holding Clara close.
"That is Oswin Oswald. She will give us The Doctor's daughter," the Dalek repeats.
"I haven't the foggiest where you got these ideas, but this isn't Oswin. Oswin died! I was there and she died. She is dead and so are my daughters. You should know that. It's because of you."
"Incorrect. She will give us The Doctor's daughter," the Dalek repeats.
"Doctor, I'm kind of tired. Can we just go?" Clara mumbles, leaning heavily against his chest and steading herself by listening to his two hearts beating.
"Clara?" The Doctor says, looking at her. "Just hold on a few more minutes okay?"
Clara doesn't respond but she stays standing, holding him.
"She is ours now. And she will give us The Doctor's daughter!" The Dalek shrieks.
"Do you mean Jenny? She died. She is dead. My family is dead. Don't you get that?" The Doctor replies.
"Who's Jenny?" Clara asks. "Am I Jenny?"
"Not right…no you're Clara. Clara, are you okay?" The Doctor asks. He frowns, looking at the Dalek and that's when he realises. "Oh, you're clever. I'm leaving with her now and if you try to stop me I promise you will regret it."
"There's nothing you can do. She is ours. She will be ours. She will come back to us because she is one of us," the Dalek responds as The Doctor lifts Clara into his arms and races his way through the tunnels until they reach the surface. "Just a little bit further Clara. Just a bit further."
Clara looks up at him and smiles. "Why are you carrying me?"
"You…I…stand up then. Just don't go anywhere!"
"What did it mean? Why'd it let us go? It said I was one of them? And Doctor, I was Oswin. I stopped the Daleks. I made them forget. How did it remember?" Clara asks. Why do suddenly remember all of this? What was happening? Why didn't I ask these questions already?
"It let you go because of the nanogenes. It thinks you'll come back. It thinks you'll become a Dalek slave and return to it," The Doctor replies as he searches through all these things that Clara doesn't recognise.
"Doctor?" Clara whispers suddenly, sinking to the floor. "Can you take me home please?"
"And what does it mean my daughter? Even if it won and it got you, it wouldn't get my daughters. Either of them. I mean, I suppose Jenny. There's a slight, very slight chance that she could have regenerated but…it took too long. She would have regenerated. I waited. I waited for her. No, she's gone. But..ah ha… you Clara," The Doctor says, holding the bracelet in his hand, "are going to be fine!"
He turns to give her the bracelet to see her lying still, too still on the floor. "Clara!" he calls, checking her pulse. It's still there, faint but there. "Hold on Clara. Just hold on!" He clips the bracelet around her wrist and then they are off.
The hospital has a shop. The Doctor doesn't notice it, doesn't care for that this hospital has a shop because all he cares about is that Clara isn't waking up. They ask him questions he doesn't know how to answer because they are humans and they don't think but where else can he go? He cannot, will not lose her. They wheel her away from him, and he is begging them to let him stay with her. Instead, he is forced into a waiting room and told to wait. The Doctor hates waiting.
