"Doctor," Clementine's voice came from somewhere behind him, where the Doctor knew she was sitting on the bench.
"Clem?" The Doctor didn't look up from the gauge he was tightening.
"Can we go back?"
Now the Doctor put down his tool and straightened. "Back to where?" he asked.
"My home planet," Clementine was worrying one of her cuticles.
A long pause filled the Tardis.
"Why?" The Doctor prompted.
Clementine's finger started to bleed and she sucked on it before answering. "Lee. He died alone."
The Doctor leaned against the consol. He knew she had more to say.
Clementine kicked her feet. She was too tall to swing them now. Almost eighteen, the Doctor wondered how much longer she'd be traveling with him before someone stole her away.
She began to speak again. "I mean, Lee's dying, and he's going to be a walker, and can't we," she was struggling for words, "Can't someone...We've been to so many different worlds."
"You're wondering if someone, somewhere, can cure him?" The Doctor prompted as she trailed off again.
Clementine nodded. "I mean, the Tardis cured me, right?"
"You no longer carry the reanimation contagion, correct," he replied.
She nodded, staring at the gauge he'd just been working on. "Lee was still alive, last time I saw him." Her voice was adapting that desperate tone she used when she felt the Doctor needed help understanding what was right.
The Doctor stared at her mass of curls for a long moment. "Get your gun," he finally said, turning to the center consol.
He watched Clementine's retreat into the Tardis in the reflection on his view screen, smiling to himself. She'd grown up so well. He'd been afraid that raising a child on the Tardis would make that child distant and hard. But considering her background, what else could he have done with her? It was River who'd convinced that the Tardis could serve as a home for Clementine and, as usual, River was right. Clementine had grown up with a depth of compassion he hadn't expected her to ever have. More are more, she'd become his guiding compass. He rubbed his face and set his graceful hands on the consol.
"Well, old girl, are you up for one more trip through the phase shift?" he asked.
He heard Clementine's return, pictured her tucking the heavy gun into the back of her pants with a gesture that still came too easily. She came into view, tucking her always wild black curls under her battered hat that had been on as many adventure as she had.
"Ready?" he asked, distracting himself by fiddling with a dial.
"Yeah," Clementine gave her hat a final twist and leaned over to take her controls. She and he had learned how to fly tandem, the Doctor found it easier and Clementine enjoyed contributing to their flights. The Tardis bucked and fought against the return across the phase, but between the two of them, they managed to force a landing.
The Doctor looked over at Clementine's pale face. He turned the viewscreen and hit a view buttons, giving them a shot of the exterior.
"We're early," Clementine said in a hushed voice. "See that walker?" she tapped the edge of the screen, then turned it so he could see. A man in a dirty uniform was slumped at a desk, moving slowly.
"He almost got me when Lee was trying to get me to escape." She stared at the screen, her jaw working thoughtfully. "I'm going to go kill him." She opened the grate floor and hunted through the H section until a suitable harpoon was produced. The Doctor watched on the screen as she broke the glass window into the office, sending the walker into a frenzy as it reached for her. Hefting the harpoon, she shoved the heavy iron tool through its skull. The body went still and she wrenched the harpoon out.
"Good shot," the Doctor remarked as she returned to the Tardis.
She didn't reply. Her face had taken on a grayish hue, and when she looked at him her eyes felt as old as anything.
"Clementine," he set a hand on her shoulder.
She shivered at his touch, and brought her brown eyes up to his face. "I could hear them outside." Her voice sounded like it was rising from the depth of the sea.
"You're not staying," he promised, gripping her shoulder tight. "Everything's yellow."
The familiarity of the phrase stopped her from shaking at least. "Even the flowers?"
"Even the flowers." He gave her shoulder one final squeeze before taking the harpoon and setting it aside to be cleaned.
With nothing else to do, they sat on the bench together and watched the view screen. For almost twenty minutes, nothing changed. The Doctor experiment with expanding the range of the sensors to give them a view of the street, and was rewarded only with a shot of a swarm of lumbering, rotting bodies that made Clementine cover her eyes. He switched it back quickly.
Finally the security grate lifted enough to allow a small, blood covered body to pull a much larger body into the shop. It took moment for the Doctor to recognize that small, terrified face as Clementine's. The man was large and clearly unconscious. Young Clementine dragged him across the shop. Her face was streaked with tears.
"Lee! Lee! Wake up!" she cried.
Her voice froze both his hearts and he didn't protest when Clementine reached up to turn off the sound. Her hand was shaking as she did it, and he reached over to send as much warmth into her body as she could. He remembered all too well her first few months on the Tardis.
On the view screen, the man woke, but wasn't strong enough to stand. Clementine was crying. His Clementine shook her head and rubbed her eyes.
They watched in silence as Lee talked young Clementine through locking him to a radiator, and began speaking to her urgently. Older Clementine turned away as they exchanged last words, the Lee sent young Clementine on.
"You're gone," the Doctor said, pulling his sonic from his pocket.
Clementine was already to the door of the Tardis. In the seconds it took the Doctor to reach the door, she was already kneeling beside Lee.
"Lee, it's Clementine. Stay with me, please!" She set a hand on his shoulder.
"Clementine, you need to go," Lee ordered weakly.
"Not this time, Lee." She looked anxiously as the Doctor. The Doctor leapt to Lee's other side, and used his sonic to open the handcuff.
"No, Clementine," Lee's protests were ignored by both as they lifted him between them.
The Doctor could feel the fever burning through the man's flesh. Between Clementine and him, they dragged Lee into the Tardis. Once inside the Doctor dove for his medical kit.
"Clementine! Take us to the coordinates designated Rose 2-1., twenty years earlier and half a mile west. Go!" he shouted.
Clem leapt to obey, her fingers dancing over the controls with just as much finesse as River. She was whispering to the Tardis, begging it to work for her.
The Doctor braced himself as it bucked, then checked on his patient. For a moment, he feared the worst. Lee's eye's had fallen shut and he'd gone still. Then his chest rose and fell slowly. To be sure, The Doctor checked his pulse: still beating weakly under his wrist.
The Tardis landed clumsily.
"Where are we?" Clementine demanded.
"New New York. Best hospital in the universe," the Doctor lifted Lee onto his shoulders and carried him quickly out. He fought of the guilty knowledge of those who suffered and died to make it best hospital. But their time would come, and he wouldn't change that moment. Not with her.
He was snapped out of his revery by a crew of nuns swarming him and lifting Lee off unto a gurney. Clementine followed them as they rushed into the hospital. He turned to close the Tardis doors, then settled on a couch in the waiting area. This was Clementine's moment.
Lee resisted waking up. His dream was too nice. In it he was in a warm bed, under soft blankets, and Clementine was there.
Finally he couldn't hold onto it anymore and he opened his eyes. But he wasn't sure he'd actually woken. The ceiling above him was clean and white. He hadn't seen anything that clean for a long time.
He blinked a few times. It didn't go away. He shook his head as hard as he could. It was still sparkling above him.
"Lee?"
He turned. He thought the voice was Clementine's, but the face was far too old.
"Where's Clem?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"Lee, it's me." The young woman scooted her chair closer.
She had Clementine's eyes and what looked like it had once been Clementine's hat.
He shook his head slowly. He was becoming distantly aware of aches all through his body.
"Clementine's a kid. You're...not."
"Yes, I am." She grabbed his bandaged wrist tightly, sending a new shock of pain into his system, and strengthening the grain of hope that this was real. "Lee, it's me!" There was desperation growing in her voice as she began to speak rapidly. "You killed my babysitter, when she was one of them. I was hiding in the treehouse and I saw you through the kitchen window and she almost got you but then I tossed you the hammer and you killed her. You taught me the word shit that night in the old man's barn. You taught me to use a gun, to keep my hair short... Lee, it's really me! I'm just grown up."
Lee stared at her. "How...how is that possible? Clementine's eight."
"Nine, I was nine, I'd just had my birthday. We're in the future now, I think. After you...after I left, I met this man. He travels across time and space and the galaxy in this fantastic machine. And he took me with him. That's how, I've been traveling for almost nine years."
"That's the story you're going with?" Lee asked, after contemplating this answer for a moment.
The woman who claimed to Clementine smiled through the tears that were refusing to fall from her eyes.
"You spent the last how many months running from dead people and you're finding time travel hard to believe?" she asked. Her voice thickened. "Lee, it's me. You just sent me off by myself, and I made it out alive and here I am."
Lee stared at her. In the silence she bit her lip nervously, and twitched in her seat. Her nose wrinkled in a familiar motion and she rubbed it with the back of her hand.
"I'm dreaming," he finally said. "Or I'm in heaven, or something."
"No, you're awake, this is real." She stood up as a nun in a clean white habit entered and checked one of the machines monitoring Lee. Her massive hat hid her face, but for a jarring moment, Lee thought she was a cat.
He looked back to the woman who claimed to be Clementine, and decided that it didn't matter if he was dreaming.
"Clem," he reached out a hand and set it on hers.
"Lee," she grabbed his hand, and brought it up to her face, where the soft wet tears were falling down her cheeks.
"How's he doing?" the Doctor asked as Clem walked up to where he was waiting in the Tardis.
"He'll recover," she replied, sitting next to him on a small love-seat from early 16th century France. He lifted his arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his side. She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"How's he holding up with everything?" he asked.
"I think he might finally be starting to believe me. The cat nurses are helping with that. And the lack of dead people everywhere." Clement snuggled close enough for him to feel her heartbeat. "Doctor?"
"Yes, Clem?"
"Because of the phase shift, and the alternate Earths, we could easily take him somewhere similar our old world, right?"
"Yes, of course," the Doctor bit back his explanation of the Cosmic Stellar Proton Event and how it led to the Earth being cloned, with each Clone being out of phase with the others. Instead he focused on how she had said 'our old world.'
"Can we take him to your Earth? Do you think Martha could help him get settled again?" She lifted her head enough to look at him with her big eyes.
"You don't want to keep him with us?" the Doctor asked, though the question he wanted to ask was very different.
Clem pulled away from him, and pulled her curls out of her face. The heaviness that settled on his shoulders achingly reminded him of the little girl who'd stumbled into the Tardis.
"Seeing him here," she paused and looked upward for a moment. "I guess I hadn't realized how much I had forgotten. More like wanted to forget. How much I don't want to remember. He doesn't belong on the Tardis."
The Doctor reached for her shoulder. She neither shook him off nor pulled closer.
"We can get him settled, absolutely," he promised.
Clementine nodded and stood, his hand falling off her shoulder.
She had a nightmare that night.
She found herself standing on the edge of rooftop, watching the hoard below her shuffle by. She recognized the house as the one her group had taken shelter in when they were hiding in Savannah. She could hear the snarls and other sounds of feeding walkers in the house beneath her, but she was alone on the roof. The walkers on the ground were so far away, but she could still see them clearly. There was Lee, River, and even Martha, shuffling by with the aimlessness of the dead.
The sound of breaking glass made her turn to a window. The Doctor crawled through the window, dead white eyes fixed on her. His jaw was torn completely on one side, and his trench coat was in shambles around his shoulders. He snarled, and began to climb up towards her. Clementine backed away, looking for an escape. Soon she found herself at the edge of the roof, with nowhere else to go. A glance down showed even more familiar walkers had gathered and were climbing up the siding of the house for her. There was Duck, his head tipped to the side, Katja, and others. Creatures that weren't even human that she'd met her travels were now coming for her. She looked back up and found the Doctor almost upon her. A familiar weight filled her right hand.
"Just dreaming," she whispered to herself as the placed the gun against her temple and pulled the trigger.
In a blinding moment she was back in her room on the Tardis.
The Doctor was sitting on the foot of her bed watching her.
"You had a nightmare," he remarked as she pulled herself into a sitting position.
Clem nodded and tried to pull her hair out of her face.
"It's been a while," the Doctor slowly set a hand on her knee.
She resisted the urge to pull away, instead nodding slowly. She'd had nightmares when she'd first come onto the Tardis, but after the Dream-eater they'd been weaker.
"I think...going back..." she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.
The Doctor nodded. "Do you need to talk about your dream?"
Clem shook her head no.
The Doctor nodded and stood, his hand resting on her shoulder for a moment. "Lee's due to be released today."
Clem nodded. She remembered.
"Are we taking him...?" he asked.
"Your Earth. Martha," she answered.
He nodded. There was a question hanging between them, but instead of asking it, he turned and left her room. Clementine waited until he was gone, then got out of bed and dragged her clothes chest over to block the door.
Lee had to enter the Tardis twice. Once in, then back out to walk around the outside in confusion, then back in to stare at Clementine with a confused expression.
"It's...bigger on the inside," he finally said.
Clem held in her laugh. The Doctor had mouthed the words along with Lee; it was one of his favorite moments when new people came into the Tardis.
"So this is a time machine? And a space ship?" Lee asked, joining Clementine by the consol as the Doctor began his preliminary check.
"Yup," Clementine smiled.
"So we're going to...?"
"Earth. Alternate Earth." The Doctor jumped up to answer the question. "See, after the proton event the earth—and everything on it—was cloned multiple times, with each clone out of phase with the other clones by just enough of a degree that they could occupy the same space." He looked so pleased with himself to have an interested audience. He continued his explanation. Clementine let him move in front of her, then rolled her eyes at Lee and pushed one of the levers up. The Tardis leapt into motion, cutting off the Doctor's explanation as he scrambled for his place at the controls.
Clementine felt herself smile at the familiar patterns of working the Tardis. It responded to her differently than it did the Doctor, a fact that caused him no end of frustration, but she and Clem understood each other. Clem figured it was because mothers were supposed to get along with their daughters, and the Tardis was the closest thing she'd had since her mother had died. There was River, but she was more like a big sister.
The Tardis landed with her traditional screech and Clementine was snapped out of her revere. Piloting had a tendency to make you think about stuff like that, but she shook her head to clear it.
"We've landed! Earth prime, 2012. London, England." The Doctor looked incredibly pleased with himself.
Clementine let him have his moment as he led them through U.N.I.T. Headquarters to the back office of one Dr. Martha Jones-Smith. Rather than stay for the technical nightmare of immigrating someone who didn't exist at all in the world, Clementine found a vending machine and bummed a note of someone to buy a candy bar. Bored steps carried her up to the roof where she stared out over the rooftops of London. Funny how alien it seemed. Here she'd been to worlds that were actually alien, seen planet and civilizations that no other human would see, and it was Earth that she found so foreign. River had assured her once that this was because she was American, and the Doctor liked to hang out in England, but Clementine thought it was more than that.
She leaned on the railing and watched the people below her. Watching them swarm the streets reminded her of her dream.
"You're the Doctor's new friend, right?"
She jumped and turned. "Hello?"
"Mickey Smith," the man held out a hand and offered a knowing smile. "I saw you walk in."
"You're Martha's husband," Clementine replied, shaking his hand. "I'm Clementine."
"How old are you, Clementine?" Mickey asked, leaning on the railing next to her.
"Seventeen." She tried to look casual.
"He's taking them young now, ain't he?" Mickey remarked in surprise. "Or are you that kid he adopted?"
"Guilty," Clementine raised her hand and looked sheepish.
"Wow, must be weird, traveling like that," Mickey said. "I only went with him once, and that place became my home for quite some time."
"Really?" Clementine looked up at him. "Why?"
"We went to an alternate universe. My old Nan was alive and needing lookin' after. So I stayed. She'd been dead for a while here." Mickey's smike fell a little when he looked at her face. "What, you thinking about staying?"
"I don't know," Clementine replied. "Not that it hasn't been wonderful, traveling with him but...I could be normal again. I could stay here. Hell, I might have parents out there. I might be out there. Little me." She smiled and leaned away from Mickey, over the city. "I could find them."
"Yeah, you could," Mickey replied.
"I don't think I remember what it's like to be an ordinary human." Clementine wasn't sure why she felt like she could talk to this stranger. Maybe it was because he understood? "I mean, my world went to shit was I was eight, and ever since then I've traveled with him." She turned and gestured towards Martha's office.
They were silent for a moment. Mickey looked down at the city below them and Clementine looked down to. Hoards of people. Hoards of Dead. River and Kenny and Duck and Ben.
"My friend, she traveled with the Doctor for quite some time. That universe I came from? She's stuck there now." Mickey spoke softly.
"Rose," Clementine guessed.
Mickey nodded.
"Is she happy?" Clementine asked.
"Dunno, no way to see her anymore. Not since the breach sealed and the Doctor destroyed anyway back. That's what he does, you know. He uses people up and discards them." Mickey pushed away from the railing. "I can't make your decision for you, but maybe it's time you be normal. Have a house, get a job, go to university. Just don't let him use you up and leave you."
Mickey turned and left. Clementine stared at the cement tiles in the floor. How similar the buzz of the city below sounded to the moans of the dead.
It took two hours, but Lee was settled with papers and a place to stay, at least until everything else could be sorted. The Doctor had a headache by the end. Lee went to go find Clementine while Martha pulled the Doctor aside for a moment. Apparently bottle blondes were disappearing in the northern part of the country. He took the file of information and promised to look into it.
Lee and Clementine were up on the roof, talking quietly.
"No walkers, anywhere?" Lee was asking.
"Nope, dead stay dead here," Clementine reassured him with a smile.
The Doctor felt a ruffle of jealousy, it was one of the smiles she reserved for him, usually.
Lee nodded and stared out over the city.
Clementine set a hand on his elbow. "It'll be liked what it was before..."
"—Went to shit?" Lee finished.
Clementine nodded and laughed.
"What about you?" Lee asked.
"What do you mean?" Clementine turned her attention to the skyline.
"Are you staying with him?" Lee set a hand on her shoulder so she'd turn to face him. "Or are you staying here?"
They were both silent for a long moment. The Doctor tried to will himself to be invisible.
"You're staying with him," Lee finally said.
Clementine nodded. "I can't...I can't stay here. Not after everything I've seen."
"Not even with me?" Lee asked gently.
Clementine shook her head. "He needs me, you know. Not everyone sees it, but he needs to have people around him. People who count on him."
"That's...not a healthy basis for anything Clementine," Lee scowled slightly.
Clementine shrugged. "Maybe not, but it's true."
"Are you sure you can't...?"
"No, Lee. It's not just him it's...Being around you again, going back there," she stopped and stared down at her sneakers for a moment. "It's toxic. I've spent so long trying to put everything behind me and now it's staring me in the face." She gave Lee a look of desperation that made the Doctor's hearts ache.
He stepped back and opened the door it the building, then slammed it loudly. "Hello then, Clementine, are you ready to go?" he asked.
Clementine and Lee both jumped.
"Yeah, I'm ready," Clementine said stepping quickly to his side.
"So this is goodbye," Lee remarked.
"Yeah, I guess it is," Clementine responded. "Thank you for everything."
Lee held out his arms, and Clementine slid into his hug. The Doctor stepped back into the stairway, to give them their minute.
Clementine joined him, tears finally spilling from her eyes.
He wrapped a hand around her shoulders. "Yellow?" he asked.
Clementine nodded through her tear. "Even the flowers," she choked. He pulled her close and led her back to the Tardis.
Finis.
A/N: I'm a little unclear on the cannontity of Martha's further involvement with UNIT or her relationship with Mickey, so we're going with the idea that she married him, stayed with UNIT and hyphenated her last name for the sake of this fanfiction.