The TARDIS materialised on the towns station. A really badly made town, with life-size cut out figures for target practise, a few with holes from the fired bullets, as well as fake random shops. Star stood tapping her foot impatiently as she and the Doctor waited outside for O'Donnell and Bennett to exit, the humans seeming to test their patience.
"Where's Bennett?" Star demanded as O'Donnell stepped out, "we're in a hurry."
"Oh, he's still throwing up. One small step for man, one giant bleaurgh."
"Oh, time travel does that sometimes." The Doctor murmured.
"Somehow I doubt that Rose or Martha or Amy lost their breakfast on their first trip."
"You seem to know an awful lot about us" the Doctor eyed her.
"I don't like it," Star glared at her. There was a reason they always complained about UNIT having records on them. They hated the attention it gave them. How was she supposed to hide in the shadows with UNIT knowing all about her?
"I used to be in military intelligence." O'Donnell explained to them, "I was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window."
"Why?"
"He made me angry? So, what year are we in?"
The Doctor wet his finger and held it up, feeling the wind against it, "1980."
"So, pre-Harold Saxon. Pre-the Minister of War. Pre-the moon exploding and a big bat coming out."
Star inhaled sharply at the mention of their little incident on the moon. Never again, she'd never leave Clara behind again, even if they told her the plan. Whenever possible she'd go with her or even take her place.
The Doctor frowned at something he didn't know, which hardly ever happened, "The Minister of War? No, never mind. I expect we'll find out soon enough."
"Sorry about that." Bennett shut the door as he finally joined them, "Had a prawn sandwich. Might have been off."
Star hummed, "of course. Blame the sandwich."
"Don't worry." The Doctor waved him off, "Shall we go?"
"Just one sec, I've just got something in my boot." O'Donnell called, moving to lean on Bennett for support before jumping up and down in her excitement once she thought the Time Lords were out of earshot. "It's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside. How can it be bigger on the inside, Bennett?"
"Finished?" Star smirked as the woman finally sobered up.
"Er, yeah." Her face reddened at being caught, she had been trying to play it cool, "let's roll."
~.~
"Why have we gone to Russia?" Bennett wondered as they walked down what was seemed to be made to look like a high streets.
"We haven't." the Doctor remarked, "We're still in Scotland. This is the town before it flooded. The TARDIS has brought us to when the spaceship first touched down. But here and now, it's the height of the Cold War. The military were being trained for offensives on Soviet soil."
They found the spaceship with the ramp down, parking in front of the church. Inside the chamber was still in place with a large mummy on top.
"Oh, is that the pilot?" O'Donnell gaped, "My God, look at size of it."
"No, it's only the body," the Doctor corrected.
"What do you mean, the body?"
"This is a hearse ship."
"The suspended animation chamber's still here, and the power cells for the engine." Bennett called.
"And there are no markings on the wall." O'Donnell nodded.
"Yet." Star muttered.
"Greetings!" Star groaned quietly as the mole-man from Tivoli hurried over, waving a handkerchief at them.
"It's him." O'Donnell blinked, "That's the ghost from the Drum."
"Remarkable." He breathed, getting right into the Doctors face "Oh, and humans, too. Albar Prentis, Funeral Director." He handed out his business card to the three of them. Star teared hers in half and threw it away along with the Doctor.
"You're from Tivoli, aren't you?" Bennett asked him.
"The most invaded planet in the galaxy!" Prentis exclaimed, "Our capital city has a sign saying, if you occupied us, you'd be home by now."
"Yes, I've had dealings with your lot before." The Doctor grumbled, remembering Gibbis from the God Complex, "I can't say I'm a fan."
"No, we do tend to antagonise."
"What are you doing here?"
"Ah, yes. Of course." He ran inside the ship and gestured to the large body, "This is the Fisher King. He and his armies invaded Tivoli and enslaved us for ten glorious years! Until we were liberated by the Arcateenians. But, thank the Gods, soon we'd irritated them so much, they enslaved us, too!"
"My first proper alien, and he's an idiot." Bennett sighed.
"And now, in accordance with Arcateenian custom, I've come to bury him on a barren, savage outpost."
"You mean the town?" O'Donnell frowned.
"Planet." Both Time Lords corrected.
"Although, at the risk of starting a bidding war, you could enslave me." Prentis ran back over to them, "In the ship I have directions to my planet and a selection of items that you can oppress me with."
"Thanks but I prefer to hypnotise people to do my bidding rather than enslave people." Star smiled sweetly, although she had just admitted that she did on occasion hypnotise people.
"Listen," the Doctor shook his head, getting them back on topic, they didn't have time to waste, they needed to get back and save Clara, "we've come from the future. You're about to send some sort of signal. How do you do it? Is it a special pen?"
"What are you talking about?" Prentis laughed.
"The technology you use. The thing that wrenches the soul out of the body and makes it repeat your coordinates for eternity. Give it to me now, I'm going to take the batteries out."
"We don't have anything like that. Even this belongs to the glorious Arcateenians."
"So, if you didn't send the message…" Star trailed, glancing back at the body in the ship before at the Doctor who nodded.
Whatever was in there, wasn't actually dead.
"Back to the TARDIS." The Doctor instructed, "We need to talk to Clara."
~.~
"Wow, 3 rings, must be desperate." Star remarked sarcastically as the woman answered her phone, her face appearing on the monitor as they video called her.
She rolled her eyes at her, "are you all right?"
"Yeah, fine." The Doctor waved her off, "So listen, the spaceship, it's a hearse."
"Clara?" Star eyed her. Her wide brown eyes looked even wider and wetter, like she was on the verge of tears, "what's wrong? I didn't mean to insult you, no, actually I did. Sorry, not sorry." She shrugged.
She swallowed thickly before replying, "Another ghost has appeared."
"What?" the Doctor glanced at Star at that, "Who? Has someone died?"
"Doctor, it's you. Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Well, currently." How were you supposed to act upon hearing that you died and became a ghost in the future?
"What does it mean?"
"It means I die." He closed his eyes for a moment as he took it all in.
"No, not necessarily. We can change the sequence of events so…"
"This isn't a potential future. This is the future now. It's already happened. The proof is right there in front of you. I have to die."
"No. You can change things."
"I can't. Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastrophic. It could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond. Oh, well, I've had a good innings. This regeneration, it's a bit of a clerical error anyway, isn't it?" he whispered that last bit to Star.
She frowned, "no. I like it."
"Well, I've got to go sometime."
"Not with me!" Clara yelled, "Die with whoever comes after me. You do not leave me. I have already seen both of you die! I forbid either of you to die again with me."
"Clara, we need to talk to you just on your own." The Doctor picked up the handset on the console as Clara held her phone to her ear, while Star shooed the humans over to the stairs.
"Listen to me." The Doctor began, "We all have to face death eventually, be it ours or someone else's."
"I'm not ready yet. I don't want to think about that, not yet."
"I can't change what's already happened. There are rules."
"So break them. If Star was dying you wouldn't even think twice about it. And anyway, you owe me. You've made yourself essential to me. You've given me something else to be. And you can't do that and then die. It's not fair. I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt. If you love me in any way, you'll come back. Are you?"
"Of course." Star answered. There was no doubt about it.
The Doctor rubbed his face, "I can't save Moran or Pritchard."
"No, but like you said, if you can, if you can find out why this is happening, maybe you can stop them killing anybody else, you can save us." Clara tried, "And you can stop it happening to you."
"I'll do what I can, but the future has already happened. We've just met the Undertaker and he's still alive."
"So, ghost-y dad," Star began, turning the monitor back on again, no longer needing the privacy, "can you tell how he died?"
"Er, you're the same as all the other ghosts with the weird black eyes and. No. No, wait. Your coat. It's torn. The right shoulder." Clara switched the screen to show the large window and on the other side was the ghost Doctor, just as Clara described, his lips mouthing words as well.
"I assume I'm just saying the same thing as the others." The Doctor remarked.
"No. You're saying a list of names. Our names, mainly. Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell, Clara, Doctor, Star, Bennett, Cass. Who's Prentis?"
"The mole-faced chap."
"Clara?" Star called, seeing the phone drop for a moment as she heard the woman gasp. "Clara! What happened?"
"He's moved inside." She breathed, holding the phone back up to see the ghost as entered the room, "You're inside here now."
"What am I doing?" the Doctor inquired.
"Er, nothing. You're, you're just standing there"
"I'm not trying to kill you? Why am I not trying to kill you?"
"Don't complain!" Star frowned.
"I'm not, I'm curious."
"No, wait, you're moving," Clara continued, her phone following the ghost, "going toward the control panel." They could see the ghost walk to the control panel and press the buttons, opening the Faraday cage door, "Oh, no. He's opened the Faraday cage. He's let the other ghosts out."
"I need to talk to me now."
"Didn't you hear me? You opened the Faraday cage. The other ghosts are outside. Shouldn't we be hiding?"
"In a minute. I need to talk to the ghost me."
She huffed as she set her phone up on a cabinet, facing it at the ghost Doctor, "Okay, Doctor, you're on."
"Doctor." He greeted his ghost self, "Such an honour. I've always been a huge admirer. This is really a delight. Finally someone worth talking to." Star let out an outraged noise at him basically saying she wasn't worth talking to. "oh, you know what I mean." He huffed at her, waiting for her to nod in agreement before he continued to his ghost, "So firstly, why are you here?"
"Still rude even in death," Star laughed as the ghost merely turned away.
"Clara? Clara, what's happening?" the Doctor called.
"Er, you, you've just stopped." She replied, picking the phone back up and turning back to her, "Oh, no, wait, you've started again."
"His message has changed." Lunn called, obviously translating for Cass, "He's saying something different. He's saying…"
"What?"
"What?" the Doctor asked urgently.
"He's saying, the chamber will open tonight"
"Ok, now that the ghosts are out, get in the Faraday cage," Star told Clara, "you'll be safe in there."
"oh, but the phone signal won't be able to get though," the Doctor groaned at the little problem, "What you'll have to do, Clara, put the phone outside, and you can watch it through the little round porthole. And when you see it ringing, if it's safe to do so, go out and answer it."
"Ok, how long are you going to…" Clara began but the Doctor cut her off.
"Clara, listen to me. Don't let that phone out of your sight. We need to be able to reach you, I need to know everything my ghost does. Do you understand? We'll come back for you. I swear."
"Oh and Clara," Star called.
"I know," the corner of her lips curled into a small smile, "keep my mind open."
"Oh, am I really that predictable?"
"Not in the slightest."
She grinned at how well Clara knew exactly what to say to make her happy, "keep safe." She hung up on her.
"Come on." The Doctor turned to lead them outside again but stopped and turned to O'Donnell, "Oh, wait a minute. Not you, O'Donnell."
"Why not?" she demanded, ready to argue.
Because she was next on the list to die, "Someone needs to stay here and mind the shop. What if Clara calls?"
"The last bloke that said something like that to me got dangled out of a window."
"Maybe the Doctor's right." Bennett agreed "Maybe it's best if you stay here."
"Never going to happen. Seriously, have you actually met me?" she stormed back them.
"Well," Star clicked her tongue, "don't blame us if either of you get hurt or worse…"
~.~
"Prentis." The Doctor shouted as they ran back to the ship, only to find the alien lying on the casket, dead himself, the Fisher King nowhere in sight, "Prentis!"
"Guess that dead body wasn't so dead after all." O'Donnell muttered.
"And now we've got the writing." Bennett turned to the wall where the coordinates were no written.
"The Fisher King did it himself." The Doctor stated, "The future is still coming."
He was still likely to die.
"He's also taken the suspended animation chamber to the church," Star nodded to the dirty drag marks on the ground outside the ship.
"What was that?" O'Donnell gasped as the all heard a loud roar.
"We need to get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor deadpanned, "Now!"
They took off in the direction of the TARDIS only for the roar to get louder as they got closer, making them duck into a narrow allyway, leading into one of the buildings.
"It's cut us off."
"Let's split up." O'Donnell decided, "Go on, Bennett." She urged him off as the Doctor ran down the corridor. Star watched as she turned down a corner, knowing this would be when she died. He name had been next on the list and now she was going off alone. She could run with her, probably could save her…but the time lines. Only heroes can save everyone and she was no hero.
"Star!" the Doctor yelled and Star made her decision, following him into a fake bathroom. He shut the door behind her and Bennett quickly blocked it with a chair. They ducked as the Fisher King roared, stomping past the broken window.
As the stomping faded they heard screaming, O'Donnell screaming and Bennett quickly took off, ignoring the Doctor shouting him to stop.
"Idiot," Star sneered as they quickly followed him to wear O'Donnell was on the floor, gasping and moaning in pain.
"Why did you come?" Bennett held her in his arms, "You shouldn't have come. I mean, you never listen to anyone. It drives me mad."
"To keep an eye on you, idiot." She breathed, "So, don't die."
"No." he closed his eyes as the woman died in his arms, and snapped them open as the Doctor and Star approached, "Who's next on the list? That list your ghost was saying, that's the order in which people are going to die, isn't it? I mean, I've only just figured that out. But you knew that all along, didn't you? Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell."
The Doctor sighed solemnly, "I thought perhaps, because her ghost wasn't there in the future, like Prentis's was, I thought maybe, maybe it wouldn't happen. Maybe she stood a chance."
"Yeah, but you didn't try very hard to stop her, though, did you? It was almost like you wanted to test your theory. So who's next?"
"Clara." Star nodded. She was the only person she would change the timelines for. For Clara, she would be a hero.
"Yeah. Yeah. Except now you're going to do something about it, aren't you? Yeah, because it's getting closer to you. You change history to save yourself but not to save O'Donnell. You wouldn't save her."
"We told her to stay in the TARDIS, to try and save her," Star argued, "it's not our fault she refused."
"You could have tried harder!"
Yes, she could have, but she didn't, because that wasn't her.
Not anymore.
"This isn't about saving me." The Doctor shook his head, "I'm a dead man walking. I'm changing history to save Clara."
~.~
"Big day for you." The Doctor remarked as they entered the TARDIS again, Bennett having calmed down slightly from mourning O'Donnell, "Time travel, twice!"
"Whoa, really?" he blinked, looking off put.
"Don't worry," Star smirked at him, "im sure that prawn sandwich wont turn up again."
"So, when are we going to?"
"Off the map." The Doctor answered, imputing the coordinates, "Out of the rule book. What if I don't die? What if I refuse? I'm going to go back to the base and I'm going to save Clara, because that's what I do. And I don't see anyone here who's going to stop me." He gave Star a pointed look, but she merely raised her hands in surrender.
"You know I am all for changing timelines and causing tidal waves and paradoxes." She stepped back out as they materialised, stopping dead when she realised they were still in the town, around the corner from where they parked earlier.
"No. No, no, no, no, no." the Doctor breathed as he spotted their past selves standing on the station.
"What?" Bennett frowned.
"We've moved half an hour backwards. I'm locked in my own time stream. The TARDIS won't let me leave."
"Well, what do we do?"
"Keep out of sight," Star shoved her hands in her pockets as they walked off.
"Until time catches up." The Doctor added.
"Prentis." Bennett spotted the alien ahead of them, "He's alive."
"No, he's just not dead yet. And we don't tell him."
"Yeah, but he's right there. I mean, we can just…"
"No!" Star glared, shoving him against the wall, dagger to his neck threateningly.
The Doctor gently tugged Star away from the human, "However that sentence ends, no, we can't. Save him, and you'll want to save O'Donnell. You can't cheat time. I just tried. You can't just go back and cut off tragedy at the root. Because you find yourself talking to someone you just saw dead on a slab. Because then you really do see ghosts. We don't tell him. Understand? Not a word. We don't have that right. Star, dagger away."
She continued to glare at Bennett as she shoved it back in her pocket, keeping her hand holding it as they walked off again.
~.~
They hid behind a group of bins and barrels, watching as their past selves, along with O'Donnell, as they spoke to Prentis as he handed them his business cards. Bennett got up to move only for Star to shove him back down as the Doctor dove on him to keep him hidden, hitting a bin in the process making on O'Donnell glance over at the noise.
The Doctor sighed as their past selves walked off and Prentis entered the ship, his coat now had the tear that his ghost had. This is what happened when you weren't strict enough with Star and her dagger, he should have known she'd be the one to rip his coat.
Star ran her hand along the rip, "there some needle and thread in the TARDIS. I can stitch it up. We need more time, we need to save Clara."
"I've got no choice now," he rubbed his face, "I have to face the Fisher King. You," he pointed at Bennett, "back to the TARDIS. And you," then at Star, "there's not really much point is there?" she wouldn't listen, the best he'd get is she'd take Bennett back and then follow him anyway. Between those two choices he'd rather have her with him from the start, at least she'd be in his sight then.
"Not in the slightest." She agreed.
He groaned at that.
~.~
"Hello!" Star called as she jumped the last few steps of the metal stairs inside the church as they followed the tracks to where the Fisher King was hiding in the basement.
"Shh," the Doctor shushed her before calling out himself, "we've come from the future. We've seen the chaos you cause. The bloodshed."
"Tell me what you have seen." A deep voice spoke from the shadows.
"Ghosts."
"Ghosts?"
"Souls wrenched from the dead. Repeating directions to here, to this spot, over and over."
"How many ghosts do I create?" It demanded, "How many!"
"Four that we know of. Maybe five by now. Probably more since we left."
"My ghosts will make more ghosts. Enough to bring an armada. Enough to wake me from my sleep."
"What will happen when your people arrive?" Star demanded to it.
"We will drain the oceans and put the humans in chains."
She laughed, "I've heard worse plans," she assured it.
"This world is protected!" the Doctor glared into the shadows, "by my daughter and I."
"Yes. Two people, lost in time." The Fisher King commented. "The seed of their destruction is already sown. They will die. The message will be sent. My people will come, and you will do nothing to stop it, Time Lords."
They heard stomping and turned to see the Fisher King come into view. A tall creature in a spiky armour. "Time Lords. Cowardly, vain curators who suddenly remembered they had teeth and became the most warlike race in the galaxy. But you, you!" he stomped towards them, making the Doctor stagger back against the open animation chamber. "You are both curious. You have seen the words, too. I can hear them tick inside you. But you are still locked in your history. Still slavishly protecting Time. Willing to die rather than change a word of the future. You will be a strong beacon. How many ghosts can I make of you?"
The Doctor straightened back up, "You know, you've got a lot in common with the Tivoleans. You'll both do anything to survive. They'll surrender to anyone. You will hijack other people's souls and turn them into electromagnetic projections. That will to endure. That refusal to ever cease. It's extraordinary. And it makes a fella think. Because you know what? If all I have to do to survive is tweak the future a bit, what's stopping me? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The ripple effect. Maybe it will mean that the universe will be ruled by cats or something, in the future. But the way I see it, even a ghastly future is better than no future at all. You robbed those people of their deaths, made them nothing more than a message in a bottle. You violated something more important than Time. You bent the rules of life and death. So I am putting things straight. Here, now, this is where your story ends."
"There is nothing you can do." It threatened, aiming its large weaponised arm at them.
"Too late," Star shrugged, "I got rid of those words. I really didn't like them."
The Doctor nodded along with her, "The future we saw, none of that will happen now. The message will never contaminate my friends. No one will die. No one is coming to save you. That's the thing about knowing you're going to die. You've got nothing left to lose."
The Fisher King growled and pushed them aside as it stomped off.
"Come back and fight me!" Star yelled, trying to run after it only for the Doctor to hold her back by the collar of her jacket.
"Ah," the Doctor moaned quietly as he realised something. They had moved the power cell, counting down by the dam of the town, ready to flood the place but they didn't have enough time to get back to the TARDIS before she left sensing the danger. He glanced at Star as she patted the animation chamber and sighed, "you knew didn't you?" he asked her.
"You can complain later," she rolled her eyes, "but I'd rather not drown. Again."
~.~
The suspended animation chamber opened again in the main hangar as Clara, Cass and Lunn backed against in as the ghosts advanced on them.
"God it's cramped in there," Star groaned, standing up and stretching.
"Star!" Clara gasped at them, "Doctor!"
"You can kiss my if you like, I don't have morning breath like some people." She wafted her hand in front of her nose and mouth, mockingly.
"Shut up." The Doctor huffed as he scrambled out after her. "Follow me."
~.~
"What's that noise?" Clara inquired as they entered the main control room, hearing the Fisher Kings roar.
"It's the call of the Fisher King." The Doctor answered, turning to the monitors as the four ghosts walked into the Faraday cage where the Doctors 'ghost' was creating the roar. The Doctor pressed on his sonic glasses, shutting them up and his 'ghost' flickered out of existence, "The call of their master. Right! I need to remove the message from your minds. Lunn," he turned to the human, "you first."
The man sat down on one of the chairs as the Doctor placed the sonic on his eyes, having already done him and Star while they were in the chamber.
"So what was it?" Clara asked as she took Lunns place and the Doctor placed the sonic over her eyes, "Your ghost."
"A hologram. Like the one we made of you to lure the ghosts into the Faraday cage. With a soupçon of artificial intelligence, and a few pre-recorded phrases thrown in." he removed the sonic, "All beamed from the sonic glasses." He placed the sonic on Cass as she then took Clara's place, "As soon as you brought us and the chamber on board, it connected with the base's wi-fi and Bob's your uncle, you've got a ghost Doctor."
"Why no ghost Star as well then?"
"Oh please," she scoffed, "I'd know straight away that it was fake. As if I'm that easy to kill."
"And we'll be having a little talk later about somebody," the Doctor gave her a pointed looked, "knowing more than they let on."
"You're the one who insisted on keeping the timelines in order."
"That's not the point."
"Why did they only come out at night?" Clara cut in, sensing soon there would be an argument.
"Because they're electromagnetic projections that were out of phase with the base's day mode. Right." He took the sonic off Cass and she turned to Lunn for translation, "That's it. I've erased the memory of the writing. Though you might find you've lost a couple of other memories too. You know, like people you went to school with, or previous addresses or how to drink liquids. That's you two done. Where's Bennett?"
~.~
They found Bennett outside the Faraday cage, looking at the ghosts as they wandered around "What will happen to them?" he asked, seeing them in the doors reflection.
"UNIT will cut out the Faraday cage with them inside and take it away." The Doctor told him, "Then the space-hearse will be destroyed, so the writing doesn't infect anyone else."
"What do I do now?"
"I don't understand."
"You don't give up just because of one person now gone from your life," Star muttered bitterly.
Clara sighed softly as she walked to stand besides him, "You keep going. You have to. Take it from me, there is a whole world out there. A galaxy, a life. What would O'Donnell have wanted?"
"I need to erase that message from your mind, but it's fine, I'll do it later." The Doctor assured him, sensing the man wanted to be alone for a bit.
"Lunn. Will you translate something to Cass for me?" Bennett turned to him.
"Of course."
"Tell her that you're in love with her and that you always have been."
"What?"
"Tell her there is no point wasting time because things happen and then it's too late. Tell her I wish someone had given me that advice."
Cass stared at Lunn as he translated, "Oh, God, no." Lunn cried, "I was just passing on what he said. Please, don't feel…" he was cut off as Cass grabbed him and kissed him passionately.
Star rolled her eyes and looked away.
What was it with humans and relationships?
~.~
"What will UNIT do with the ghosts?" Clara asked as they dematerialised, dropping the crew off above the surface, the message gone from all of their minds.
"Drag the cage into space," the Doctor replied, "away from the Earth's magnetic field. With nothing to sustain them, the ghosts will eventually fade away."
"Here's what I don't understand. You did change the future. You stopped the Fisher King from returning."
"The Fisher King had been dead for a 150 years before we even got here. But once we went back, we became part of events. But here's the thing. The messages my ghost gave, they weren't for you, they were for me. That list. Everyone after you was random, but you being the next name, that's what made us confront the Fisher King."
"And saying the chamber will open?"
"That was me telling me to get inside and when to set it for."
Star snorted at that. He didn't know to get in the chamber, she had told him to.
"Smart." Clara looked impressed.
"Except that's not why I said them." The Doctor continued.
"How do you mean?"
"I programmed my ghost to say them because that's what my ghost had said. And the only reason I created my ghost hologram in the first place was because I saw it here. I was reverse engineering the narrative."
"Ok, that's still pretty smart."
"You still don't understand." Star shook her head, "When did he first have those ideas?"
"Well, it must have been," her eyes widened as she realised, "Wow."
"Exactly. Who composed Beethoven's Fifth?" he smiled and shrugged, "now if you don't mind I need a word with you." He tugged Star off as she whined in complaint.
~.~
Star sighed and she leaned back on her bed in her room, closing her eyes, growing tired of watching the Doctor pace back of forwards at the end of her bed, ranting.
"You knew exactly what was in the animation chamber but kept quiet?" he held up a hand to silence her as she opened her mouth to defend herself and he continued, "You knew it wasn't my real ghost, but again kept quiet. AND you knew exactly when O'Donnell was going to die, you debated going after her, but didn't. Why?" he sighed sitting on the edge of her bed, looking expectantly at her. "Well?" he asked as she remained quiet.
"Oh, am I allowed to speak now?" she asked, smirking.
"Nova…" he started, warningly.
"Ooh, real name, you must me mad, or upset."
He sighed, he really didn't know what to do with her anymore, "just tell me…is there anything else your hiding from me? Something you're not telling me?"
She'd been doing this for months now, she had kept quiet about Danny Pinks death and things had just gotten worse since she regenerated (she still refused to tell him what happened), he was just worried that there was something important about their future she wasn't telling him.
Without missing a beat she replied, "no, nothing." She met his eyes.
"Just promise me, no more secrets?" he pleaded softly. It was bad enough when he kept them from her, but when she kept things from him, it was terrible.
She nodded, "no more secrets."