Afterdeath 11

II

She was scared. She was alone. She had no one. The Doctor could relate to that only too well. And now she was dead. The once great Tyrannosaurus Rex was burning in the Thames. For no reason. She hadn't been attacked by a local, he knew that for sure. The fire power needed to bring her down would have been far beyond anything an inhabitant of Victorian London could produce. This was alien. This was pointless, as far as the Doctor could see. And he was angry. He wanted to destroy whoever did this, whoever cost this mother her life. And he would. If he had too, he would.

"She's dead," Clara stated.

"Yes," the Doctor sighed.

"Do we know why?"

The Doctor shook his head.

"I think we might," Vastra said as she and Jenny dismounted from their carriage, "Recently throughout London there have been several instances of spontaneous combustions. If we can find any connections between this and those other cases then we can get to the bottom of this."

She had a point. With her help this could be over in a few days. No matter how much he wanted to do this alone he knew he would need assistance. Last time he tried to stop an enemy alone it almost cost him his life. Now this life was more essential than ever. For Clara's sake and his he needed to stay alive, because he could sense something approaching. Something big...

"Fine then," he said as he allowed Clara to lead him into the carriage and sit down next to him.

The carriage pulled away before the crowd became too large. It would take a long time for the body to be removed and whilst they gathered, no one noticed the man with half a face turn and retreat the dark side alley, his prize having been collected.


Both the Doctor and Clara were tired by the time they arrived back at the house. They leaned against each other as they rested inside the carriage, forcing themselves to move from its lukewarm seats and into the cold London air, never leaving each other's side. They managed to excuse themselves upstairs and found themselves back in the Doctor's room where they sat on his bed. They stayed like that for minutes on end in comfortable silence as they clung to each other, realising for the first time just how close they had come to losing each other.

"Clara," the Doctor whispered into her ear, "Do you honestly feel safe?" Clara looked up at him and sighed, her brow furrowed.

"I don't want to leave if that's what you're thinking," she replied.

"No, but you know how dangerous this job is," he replied holding her shoulders so that she faced him head-on, "I can't always guarantee that you'll be safe."

"I know, Doctor," she said.

"But-"

"Doctor." He silenced himself before she continued, "Why are you asking me this? You know I trust you, don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do but... I'm not sure if I can trust myself to keep you safe," he whispered.

"Why are you so concerned about my safety all of a sudden?"

"I... I have a duty of care-"

"Tell me the truth," she demanded, looking straight into his eyes, daring him to try and lie to her again.

"Clara," he said, "I'm not sure I should be telling you this but... I think I love you. Don't say anything yet," he quickly added as he saw her mouth start to open then shut immediately, "I haven't felt anything like this for a long time. I can barely remember what it was like to have a wife or a close friend. Trenzalore, it changed me. I can't look at you the same way again. I can't... I can't lose... you..." That was all he could say without letting the tears fall. Clara cupped his face with her hand and held him.

"Shh, it's okay you daft old puppy. I love you too. I can see why you left me home, but that doesn't mean it didn't break my heart. If I am going to die, I want to be with you. I want it to be my choice, and on my own terms. Still, it must have been hard for you stay in one place without me for a few decades, eh?" She giggled before she saw the look on his face. It was the same haunted face he wore when he talked about Gallifrey or the Time War, when those memories were his own personal hell. She looked at him again and asked with a trembling voice, "Doctor... H-How long long were you on Trenzalore?"

"Altogether?" She nodded.

He looked to the ground and said with the smallest of whispers that only she could hear, "Nine hundred years."

Her eyes widened and she gasped in order not to scream.

"Nine h-hundred years? No, Doctor please no! You can't be serious!" He just said nothing. "Why? Why would you do that to yourself?"

"I couldn't leave them behind. They all would have died-"

"You would have died if I didn't come back when I did!"

"I didn't though-"

"But you nearly did! Do you think I could live with myself if I just left you to die! I have 'duty of care' as well, you know! I can't lose you either!"

"Clara, you don't understand-"

"Then help me understand! Tell me what happened on Trenzalore!"

The Doctor hesitated.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, the sooner we get over this the better."

"I can't promise that Trenzalore didn't change me."

"I'll understand," she reassured him as she held his hand, "I won't judge. I just want to know."

The Doctor sighed as he held on to her hand a little but tighter. He examined her face and saw her resolve strengthen as she awaited his stories. The Doctor took one last deep breath and began his tale. He told her everything. Barnable, the town, the Daleks, the children, the cyber-men, the never ending barrage of attacks from space, the nights where he just wanted to give up, the days which lasted forever, the fleeting faces that were there and gone so quickly, getting older... And throughout it all, she listened, quietly and patiently, until he had finished.

Tears were shed, hugs were exchanged, and hours passed, all the while the two of them never each other's side. In the end the two of them simply lay back upon the mattress and closed their eyes, letting sleep finally catch up to them.


The next morning Clara found herself alone on the Doctor's bed, a warm patch where his body used to be. She looked around, noticing that his jacket, bow tie and shoes that had been lazily draped over the chair the previous night were gone, indicating that the Doctor was already up. Clara glanced at the clock in the corner of the room, which read 7:30, and quickly walked to her room to get dressed accordingly.

She had seen enough episodes of Downtown Abbey to know the basic gist of how Victorian dresses worked... or was that Edwardian? Regardless, Clara managed to find a decent green dress that just... about... fit! Triumphant in her dressing, she trotted down the stairs, her hair in an elegant bun, towards the dining hall, to find the Doctor casually eating what looked like a strange muffin. He took a bite and looked up from his newspaper. He smiled when he noticed Clara.

"Clara, good morning! I was just looking for anymore leads into this 'spontaneous combustion' case and I think I may have found a pattern!"

Clara smiled at seeing her old Doctor back, it was almost as if his regeneration never happened, as if they never went to that planet. After last night though, she still had doubts as to how much Trenzalore had really taken its toll. She decided to wait and see however, if there any side effects then they would present themselves in time. She strolled over to him and circled his shoulder with her arms, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"What've you found?"

"Hopefully our clue as to who's behind this... Where's Vastra?"

"I think she's in her study."

Indeed she was in the study, currently studying a piece of paper on an easel as Jenny posed for her in a eloquent position.

"Yes..." Vastra murmured, "Most extraordinary..."

"How far've you got Madam?" Jenny asked as she lifted her eyes towards her lover.

"Well," she said as she flipped the board to reveal a map of the London area, "I've managed to map out every single spontaneous combustion event in the local area."

"Oi!" Jenny exclaimed, hands on her hips, "I thought you were painting me! What's the point of me being here then?"

"Well you brighten up the room so well," she smiled. Jenny gave an unimpressed look as the Doctor and Clara entered the study.

"Found anything?" the Doctor asked expectantly.

"Well," Vastra said as she refocused on the map, "I've pinpointed the combustions to these areas, but other than that, nothing. There's almost nothing that links them."

"Yes there is," the Doctor said, "I was looking the post-mortems of the victims. Each one of them had a missing body part."

"So?" Jenny asked, "You can't expect everything to come out clean when your body lights on fire."

"Yes, well, you wouldn't expect entire internal organs to just suddenly disappear either. The cabbie that was admitted this morning had his entire voice box removed."

"So whoever did this murdered those people for... specific parts..." Clara started.

"And burned the evidence, yes," the Doctor concluded.

"So how do we find him?" Vastra asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor grumbled, "Whoever this is seems to have no pattern to when or where they attack, if your map is anything to go by."

"Actually there is a pattern!" Clara chirped up and pointed at the board, "Every single one of the murders happened outside of this area-" she circled it with her finger, "- so we can only assume that they don't want to be associated with that area, either it was too populated or-"

"It's where their main base of operation is located, good work Clara!" the Doctor beamed, kissing Clara on the forehead. He too examined the board much closer. "This means that we should examine any of the shops on these streets," he said as he pointed to the centre of the circle.

"Aha!" Vastra exclaimed, "That's interesting..."

"What is it?" Clara asked.

"Me and Jenny have been investigating some missing persons cases around this area, or more specifically around this restaurant." She pointed to a small restaurant on the side of the street. The Doctor grinned.

"Then that's where we start."