"This time I pick the song, we are not listening to "Bad Case of Loving You," again."

"What?! It's a good song! Robert Palmer is very clever man, and besides, it's an ode, or a thank you to me for saving him!"

The Doctor and his companion stood around the Tardis' console, adjusting the dials, switches, and buttons that flickered and glowed around them. Both of them stood next to one certain switch which controlled the personal radio.

"You saved Robert Palmer! When?!" Clara asked with wide brown eyes full of curiosity.

"Oh, it was a while ago, you know I still never understood why he said 'Bad case of L-" The Doctor was interrupted when several alarms started to go off simultaneously. The Tardis shook, rumbled and tossed the two time travelers about.

"DOCTOR!" Clara managed to yell while gripping tightly to the railing, knuckles turning white.

"WORKING ON IT!" He yelled back, as he grabbed onto one of the monitors. To the best of his ability, he tried to analyze and figure out the cause of the rocking and alarms.

Then suddenly the Tardis became still, with no more rocking or shaking. Only one single alarm continued to blare, as it echoed off the walls.

"Doctor? Is it over?" Clara asked hesitantly, looking over to the other side of the console where the Doctor stood. She watched his eyes flicker over the monitor quickly.

"Doctor?" She asked again, as she slowly walked around the console. "What just happened? What's wrong? Aren't alarms supposed to be a bad thing?" As she stood arms crossed, next to him, the alarm slowly died off.

His eyes hesitated on the monitor before moving slowly to look at Clara. "Oh, Clara, Clara, Clara. Something impossible."

She paused. "Isn't everything we do impossible?"

"Well… yes and no. It's all perfectly probable, yet people don't tend to believe in it until they see it. Take you for example. But, but- Clara this is not the time!" He rambled on as he excitedly moved around the console room, flicking switches, pressing buttons, examining monitors, and turning knobs as needed.

"How about an explanation for the non-timelord?" Clara asked trying to avoid running into him as he scrambled about.

"I should have noticed this! After all the dimensions should have locked back up and reset! But no. There's still one teenie-tiny crack in ours, leaking into one other dimension!" The Doctor could barely hold his excitement. A crack in the dimensions; all of them should have been sealed of completely; but for… "Oh. Ohhh. Just one. One other pocket dimension."

Clara was trying to keep up and understand his rambles, as his excitement of the unknown in the universe bubbled. Though when his tone of voice changed, she became worried. "Pocket dimension? Like the one when we went g-"

"Ghost hunting, yes."

"But it was like a parallel universe, where that girl was trapped."

"I know."

"How can there be another one?"

"Theres an unlimited amount of them. Though, like I showed you; very, very hard to travel to and from. Each one has a significantly different characteristic from another. Yet… more similar to ours."

It took Clara a minute to process this new information the Doctor was feeding to her. More pocket dimensions? "So, why have you just now noticed that there has been a problem? I mean, shouldn't you have noticed right away?" she asked.

The Doctor's head snapped up so fast, Clara thought that he surely had broken it. "THATS IT. Oh Clara, you are absolutely brilliant! Why?! Why did we just now notice?" He jumped right back to his normal excited self, analyzing more monitors as he went. "I should have noticed right away, but it must have been so subtle, that it slipped through the Tardis's sensors. But why now? Something must have happened. Something major, to cause such a flux to have the Tardis react like that. But how long?! It couldn't have been there that long…" the Doctor went on until he paused again on another monitor.

"What? How long was it there for? Doctor?"

He paused before answering her, "A very long time Clara."

"A relative time frame?"

"The beginning of time." He said looking at his mysterious companion.

Clara had to pause to reevaluate what he just told her."That long!?"

"Yes."

"What did you do!?" Clara asked; "At the beginning of time?!"

The Doctor became flustered, "No! Nothing! Well, not the beginning of time anyway! NO. The dimensions closed somewhat recently!" he retorted matter-of-factly.

"Then why did you say beginning of time?"

He pointed to a monitor; "Look, it says, well roughly translated as 'beginning of time'".

Clara got a closer look at the monitor the Doctor pointed at, and after a few minutes of her examination, and the Doctors' pondering in his own mind, she decided she wanted to know more.

"So what happened that sent that one tiny crack back in time?" She asked stirring the curiosity in the air.

"I have a few theories…"

"And the one you like the most?"

"I recently, I-," he paused unable to finish, with a solemn look crossing his face. Then he looked up into the concerned face of his new companion, pulling his best fake smile; "Why don't we just go test those theories I have instead of me explaining them?" Though before Clara could even answer, or blink, he was off again pulling levers and typing in coordinates.

Clara could see right through the smile on his face, as she looked into even sadder eyes. "So, where -or when- to first?" She asked trying to avoid his sadness.

"Well we can't travel to that pocket dimension in the Tardis right now, she'd burn up. But if we can find out where our two dimensions meet, we might be able to travel there in our relative future, otherwise we might also create a paradox; which are not fun. We are going to need more information." He said giving Clara a wink and some more buttons were pressed.

"So; geronimo?" She asked with a big smile on her face.

"Geronimo."

The Tardis lurched into action, as the time lord and his companion were jostled about inside, traveling through time and space to find more information on another impossible feat of history.

However, The Tardis never failed to land with brakes on and with your last meal back in your mouth.


The Doctor walked backward out through the open door of the Tardis; "Well! What do you think Clara!" He held his arms out wide and gestured to the planet he had taken her to.

Clara peeked around him and raised an eyebrow. "What am I supposed to be looking at exactly?" She asked before she stood straight and crossing her arms.

"Hm?" He rubbed his hands together, his eyes grew wide, "What do you mean we should be-" The Doctor turned around to see not another glorious planet, but to be back on Earth.

"All I see is a little sandwich shop." She pointed out as Clara took a step forward to stand next to the timelord.

"But- but" A confused look crossed his face, before he became saddened by the fact they weren't where he wanted to be.

"Where were we supposed to end up Doctor?"

"The Library!"

"There are plenty of Libraries in-. Where exactly are we?" Clara finally pointed out.

The Doctor stuck his finger his mouth, pulled it back out, let the breeze hit it, and placed it back into his mouth; as if he tasted the air.

"Hmmmm…" he thought as he smacked his lips. "…Cardiff?" he asked aloud, before he repeated the action. "No-no definitely London. Not salty enough for Cardiff. But, Clara, THE Library is essentially a planet. A library so large it is own planet!"

"So why aren't we there? I mean we can find a perfectly fine library here." She suggested, as she walked down the street to ask for directions, only to spot a woman who leaned against a near-by car.

"Plant Library!" The Doctor hissed under his breath as he followed behind.

"Excuse me"; she asked as she walked up to her.

"Hm." She acknowledged Clara with a tilt of her head, never looking up from her phone.

"I was wondering if you could direct us to the nearest library." She smiled her cutest smile, as the Doctor sneered with a look of distaste still on his face.

The woman sighed loudly; "Go right, follow Euston, past the Gardens, past the book store, on your left on Midland." She directed without pausing.

Clara repeated the directions before she thanked her and walked away, with a "Follow me Doctor!"

The woman's attention completely changed at Clara's jeer. She watched the two walk away, before she scanned the near-by area for a distinct blue box. She and everyone that she works with had received clear instructions on what to do if a blue 1960's police box showed up. She put to use her speed dial to call her employer.

"This is sir- I promise. I just had a positive sighting of The Doctor. Yes sir." With that short conversation, she hung up and followed them.

A little less than ten minutes of useless sulking from the time lord, he and his companion ended up at The British Library; and as soon as they walked through the doors, the Doctor's distaste grew into excitement.

"Oh! Look Clara, they even have a little shop! I do love little shops." He carried on bumbling his way through the souvenir shop. "Look they've even have a little Winston! It hardly looks like him, but you can see an unca-"

"Doctor!" Clara called out, but received several quick turns of the head and glares instead of the Doctor's response. "Doctor! Where are you?" she hissed below her breath.

"Over here Clara!" he directed followed by even more glares. She hurriedly followed him past several sections, only ever paused so he could read the catalogs. "Here we are! We'll start here!"

"This is.. the Space and… Cosmos section? Aren't you supposed to know everything about space?" Clara asked as unbelief over took her.

"No, not everything. That would just be – painful. Though you humans like to imagine you do." He glanced back at her, with a cocky grin.

"Hardly."

"But you and your telescopes, always wanting to document something interesting, or never- ugh, seen before. And if this crack is anything like the other crack I dealt with it should look- ugh similar." The Doctor said as he picked up books, and passed them to Clara until her arms were full. Then he continued to do the same; until they both had books piled up to their chins; and waddled loudly to a nearby table. They disposed of their piles and sat down to discuss strategy.

"So a crack?"

"Yes, a crack."

"Anything… special about it?"

"Not really, no."

"Oh. This is going to be fun." Clara huffed, sarcasm oozed from her lips.

"I know!" He replied excitedly as he failed to see her sarcasm, as he dug into his pile of books. Clara stared, eyes wide before she started into her own pile of space picture books.

Every once and a while she would see something that somewhat resembled a 'crack' and pestered the alien about it.

"Is this it?" She asked the first time. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and soniced the picture, flipped his wrist, and analyzed whatever showed up on that screwdriver of his.

"Nope."

"How about this one?"

"Close, but no."

"This one?"

"No."

"Mm.. This?"

"N- Oh. I did that; It looks different from this angle."

Clara continued to flip through the book she was working on now, half-hearted. The Doctor had already finished his pile and had gone back for seconds, and she hadn't even completed half of her pile.

When the Doctor got up for the third time to renew his pile Clara felt a shiver go up her spine. Not so much a visible one; but a shiver like someone had been staring at her for a while, and she started to feel uneasy. She was just about to get up and pull 'My Feet Fell Asleep and Now I Need to Go For a Walk' excuse, (which was semi-true) and see who was watching her.

As Clara got up the Doctor walked past her, and glanced down to look at the page she was on. "Clara!" He hissed, as he almost dropped the books in his hands from excitement.

Surprised by his outburst, Clara quickly spun back around, sat back down, and gestured to lower his voice as she whispered out a loud and confused, "What?!".

He towered over her, as he slapped his finger on a picture in her open book; "That's the crack."

The woman who followed them into the library; and quietly watched their every move, became a little fidgety when The Doctors' companion tried to get up and move about. For the last half-hour she had been trying to get a decent picture of the girl to identify who she was. She must have tried a bit too hard, and started for a little too long; because the companion looked agitated. She was just about to call her boss again, when a low voice was heard in her ear.

"He looks up to something doesn't he?"

"Unfortunately."

A loud audible sigh was heard before he continued; "Clear everyone out – quietly, and quickly. I would like a private word with him."

"Yes sir." His assistant said as she started to go around to the few people in this section and asked them to leave quietly and quickly. Once everyone had left, she move the 'Closed for Renovations' sign in front of the section to keep more guests out. Finally finished, she stood next to her boss. He leaned on an umbrella; listening to their conversation, and waiting for the right moment to confront them.


"Well it doesn't look very crack-y to me."

"A crack in all of time and space and they call it a 'Galactic Snake'! I can tell you, Clara that Galactic Snakes look nothing like that; bit more slinky-like, but very tricky to catch. I think I still hold the galactic record. A cloud!? First a snake now a cl-" the Doctor continued to comment on everything that he read in the caption under the picture.

Clara peered over to the otherside of the page where the description continued to spot with a small box in the corner that was labeled 'Astrometrics' and a sub title of 'Postion' where the numbers underneath that looked like coordinates.

"-You wouldn't just see nothing! You'd see something like a-"

"Uh- Doctor are theses the thingies you were looking for?"

The Doctor looked up to see Clara pointing to 'the thingies' she asked about. His mouth continued to open and shut before he could make any sense to how she found them before he did.

"How?! I mean- yes those are the thingies- coordinates we need!" He said as he grew with excitement. "Oh my brilliant Clara!" He said as he marked the page, and grabbed Clara and kissed her on the forehead.

"I am brilliant aren't I?" She said with a cheeky smile.

The Doctor picked up the book they needed and tucked it inside his jacket. He started to lead the way back out of the library when he noticed the lack of humans in the room.

"Doctor, what's the matter?" Clara asked confused.

Before the Doctor could answer; he was cut off. "The matter, is that you both are here." They both spun around to face the woman and the man with the umbrella. "You said it yourself, you wouldn't stop by here anymore." He said with clear annoyance covering his features.

"Hey! You're the woman who I got directions from. We're you spying on us?" Clara asked upset.

"No, sorry." The woman replied automatically.

"I didn't stop here for him." The Doctor responded to the man.

"Excuse me;" Clara interjected, "You all seem to know each other so how about an introduction?" She asked

"Mycroft Holmes" the man introduced himself as, "and this is my assistant Athena. And you are?" He asked.

"Clara."

"Mm. A pleasure." Clara gave a helpless confused look at the time lord after Mycroft introduced himself.

"I'll fill you in later." The Doctor whispered into her ear.

"Then why are you here Doctor? If not for him then what? Because you certainty did not do a spectacular job at hiding your box. It's sitting there out across the street from his flat!" Mycroft scolded.

"What I'm doing now is none of your business Mycroft Holmes."

"Then it's the government's business. They all may be slowly forgetting you Doctor; but I won't."

"Well then; if you just came here to scold me, I'll be going. Come along Clara!" The Doctor said as he tugged at his companion to follow.

"You know; I should thank you." Mycroft said, which halted the Doctor. "If you hadn't started erasing yourself; he would have surely found you by now. He does love the most bizarre cases. And so do you."

The Doctor turned around with stern face, but sad eyes; never looking directly at the eldest Holmes' brother. "I'm still working on it; you know you always get the best answers from me." He said with a shy smirk. "How's the Royal family? You never really hear much from them when there's a full moon." The Doctor asked as he walked backward out of the science section, Clara in tow as Mycroft smirked and Athena gapped.

"How does he-" Athena started to ask.

"He was there." Mycroft replied as he walked out, and twirled his umbrella around. "Come now, Athena."


"Who was that?!" Clara asked as the Doctor rushed her out of the library.

"The British Government. He runs just about everything that you don't know about." He explained.

"How do you know him?"

"A story for the Tardis. Come on now."

"And what- uh was that about the Queen?"

"Uh- Another story for the Tardis."

They practically ran back to the Tardis, after several times the Doctor turned on the wrong street and Clara had to get him back on the right road. "Huh- We did land on Baker Street. That was unexpected." He said as he let Clara inside. However, he didn't follow her right in; "Where are you taking us?" He whispered softly to the Tardis, as he rubbed her corner.

"Doctor are you coming?!" Clara asked as she poked her head out of the door. He smiled as he hopped into the console room. "So now that we're in the Tardis how about one of those stories?" She hinted at.

"Alright, so I ended up in the Scottish moors-" he began as he typed in the coordinates, he pulled from the book, they 'borrowed' from the library. He pulled a lever and they were off to the corner of the universe.


Authors Note:

Here is hopefully where I can successfully give visual assistance
*Winston doll : . /7cb5316b853ce06a88dd8333f3cd7cd1/tumblr_mp4k7g0s1 O1s2apj8o1_
*Crack in the Universe 'Page': . /images/1686-ssc2006-20a-Where-Galactic-Snakes-Liv e