RATING: T
SHIP: Eleven/Clara
CHAPTER: 3/48
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Doctor Who, sadly :(
A/N: I'm not so sure about this chapter, so it would really help if you told me what you think :) Thanks!
CHAPTER 3: NEW EARTH
Clara's eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the light. Had she fallen asleep with the light on…? She tried to brush her hair out of her eyes but screamed out in pain. She looked to her left arm which was swollen and red. Only then did the pain hit her and hot tears started to form in her eyes. Her head was pounding and she was sure she was going to pass out. Her hand shook as she was furiously wiping the tears away from her eyes. She remembered The Doctor taking her somewhere…a rock pool. She jumped in…getting back at The Doctor for…wolf whistling? They were then in a water fight…and then she remembered. Something got her foot. Something was dragging her under. She remembered the feeling of weightlessness, her surroundings getting darker and colder…
"DOCTOR!" Clara screamed, her arm reaching a painful height. She heard a loud bang, a few clutters and moans and then The Doctor burst into her room.
"Clara, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to. You were unconscious and I had to get you out and I wanted to save you and-," The Doctor rambled, pacing the room.
"DOCTOR! Shut up! Just bring me some bloody painkillers and get me to a hospital!" Clara yelled and The Doctor stopped pacing.
"Yes, right. OK," The Doctor agreed and left the room. Clara stood up, supporting her arm. She gingerly leafed through her dresses and settled on a strapless maxi dress. It would be easy to get on, at least. She pulled out a pair of pumps and shut her door. She walked to the control room where The Doctor was waiting for her with a grim face.
"Why so glum?" Clara asked while wincing.
The Doctor held up a needle and Clara's eyes widened. She sighed and then walked over to The Doctor.
"I'm sorry," he apologised and she nodded in understanding. She closed her eyes as her carefully took her arm, not wanting to hurt her any more than was necessary. He quickly inserted the needle, squeezed out the painkiller and then extracted it. He placed a cotton bud over the area and then took hold of her other hand.
"That'll help it until I get you to a hospital," The Doctor explained and Clara nodded. He let go of her other hand and she used it to nurse her left arm. He landed the TARDIS and wrapped his arm around her to comfort her, waiting for the painkiller to kick in. He walked her outside where they walked out onto a field overlooking New, New York. The Doctor explained the technical name of the city as the walked up to the hospital.
"This is the hospital on New Earth," The Doctor explained when they entered the hospital as Clara's eyes widened at the cat nun nurses pottering about. The walls glistened bright white, as did the floor.
"Oh, look! There's a shop!" The Doctor squealed and Clara slapped him on the arm with her good one.
"Focus!" She hissed and he nodded
"Right, sorry," The Doctor apologised and walked up to the reception.
"Hello, I'm John Smith and this is my wife Clara Oswald. She's broken her arm," The Doctor introduced and the cat behind the reception nodded.
"Fill this out and bring it to me when you're done," The cat explained in a bored drone, handing The Doctor a clipboard with some forms on it. He sat down on a chair and Clara sat down next to him.
"Two things?" Clara asked and The Doctor looked up
"Shoot," he grinned and Clara's eyebrows furrowed
"John Smith?" Clara asked
"They get catty when I call myself The Doctor. See what I did there?" The Doctor grinned and Clara's eyebrow rose. His grin faded and he looked defeated.
"My wife Clara Oswald?" Clara asked
"They're cat nun nurses. They wouldn't have let me stay with you if I wasn't your husband," The Doctor explained
"OK. Race – Human, Humanish, Humanoid, Humavoo, Hullavoo and…French?" Clara asked, looking at the form and The Doctor laughed
"They tried to get their own planet, but had to settle on being their own race. Very French, isn't it?" The Doctor explained and Clara laughed
"OK, religion. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Potterhead, Whovian. Oh, don't tell me. French," Clara laughed
"What should I put you down as?" The Doctor asked
"Err…Other," Clara decided, pointing to the 'Other' box
"Okay. Occupation?" The Doctor asked
"Do they still have nannies? Wait, what are you writing…seriously? Intergalactic time traveller?" Clara read
"Shut up. Address….TARDIS, Time Vortex, Universe," The Doctor read out loud as he wrote it.
"God help them if they want to bill us," Clara laughed and he smirked at her
"Done. Blimey, I hate forms," The Doctor bounced up and he handed the clipboard back to the cat who looked up at him strangely, shrugged and filed the form.
"Is your arm hurting as much?" The Doctor asked when he was sat down next to her again.
"No, the painkiller's really helped, thanks. How did it happen?" Clara asked and the smile that was on The Doctor's face vanished quickly.
"I, err, freed you from the Macra. That was what got you, and as I was lifting you out of the rock pool I accidentally banged your arm against the rock. I didn't really think much of it because I thought you were dead, and I panicked and-," The Doctor explained and Clara took his hand.
"Hey, I'm not angry. You saved me. So, thanks," Clara smiled and kissed him on the cheek. She leaned back into her seat and saw The Doctor blush slightly.
"John Smith and Clara Oswald?" A cat read out from across the waiting room.
"That's us," The Doctor said, patting her thigh and getting up.
"Yep, I gathered as much, thanks," Clara said sarcastically, supporting her left arm. The cat led them through to a room just as bright white as all the others, except it had a bed and some sort of scanner over it. It wasn't the average run-of-the-mill x-ray, like the one she saw that was used on Artie when he fell of his bike and broke his collar bone. The cat motioned for her to lie down on the bed.
"Is there any chance you could be pregnant?" The cat asked who had a broad Irish accent.
"Nope," Clara confirmed and the cat smiled.
"Okay then," The cat said and started to scan her. The screen next to Clara came to life and showed a heart beating.
"Is that…?" Clara asked, feeling sick.
""Yep," The Doctor confirmed and Clara turned away. The cat moved the camera to her left arm where the bone was clearly fractured.
"OK, Clara," The cat started, turning off the scan, "You have a fracture in your left arm so I'm going to get one of our pressure units. We'll leave that on for half an hour and then you'll be right as rain," The cat beamed
"What, the fracture gone?" Clara asked in surprise
"Yes! Blimey, where have you been living, the 21st Century?" The cat laughed and Clara laughed at the irony. The cat left to go get the pressure units and Clara sat up.
"Oh, New Earth is a very small planet," The Doctor grinned
"What makes you say that?" Clara asked out of curiosity.
"That's the cat which helped me a few hundred years ago to find my friend Martha. We were on the motorway and he had been on the motorway for six years and his wife had kittens," The Doctor explained
"Why didn't you say hi?" Clara asked
"He wouldn't recognise me," The Doctor answered and Clara nodded. The cat returned with a machine that looked like a tube.
"Clara, put your arm in here," The cat instructed, opening the tube on its hinges. Clara tentatively placed her left arm in it, unsure. He closed it around her and then turned it on.
"I'll be back in a few minutes," The cat smiled and then left the room.
"Does it hurt?" The Doctor asked, sitting on the bed next to her.
"No. It tingles, though. To be honest, I'm still on French being its own race," Clara laughed and The Doctor wrapped his arm around her.
"That's why I travel," He said and kissed her on the forehead.
"We never really just sit and chat," Clara mused
"Don't we?" The Doctor asked
"Not really. We're always on the run from something or other. We never really just sit and chat," Clara explained
"Okay. Well, we can sit and chat now," The Doctor suggested
"OK. So what do you really get up to when I'm not there?" Clara asked and The Doctor grinned
"Ooh, quite a bit. I turned Queen Elizabeth into a fish once and had 37 minutes to save the commonwealth!" The Doctor grinned and Clara laughed. He sighed in amusement and then a comfortable silence formed around them.
"Do you ever miss it?" Clara asked, breaking the silence.
"Miss what?" The Doctor asked
"Gallifrey. The red grass, the silver leaves, the shining twin suns?" Clara asked
"How do you know about Gallifrey?" The Doctor demanded
"In one of my lives, I was a Gallifreyan. I never made it to a Time Lady rank. I saw the untempered schism…I ran. And I didn't stop. I never got my own TARDIS, though. One day, rumour was flying around. In the middle of the war, The Doctor had returned. I ran towards the citadel. Something was telling me I had to save you. As I was running, Gallifrey fell. I died. I knew what happened though, what you had to do. I forgave you. I still forgive you," Clara explained visions of orange and red glades flooding her mind. Suddenly, she felt the Doctor's lips against hers. She was shocked, but soon relaxed into it. They fit together so perfectly that Clara wondered why she ever restrained herself from doing this sooner. Thinking of Gallifrey always upset her, more than any other life. She wondered if he ever remembered her, when he started all those years ago, sailing out to see the universe. They broke apart, her need for oxygen becoming apparent.
"Thank you. You don't know how much I needed to hear that," The Doctor said, wiping Clara's tear away.
"It's OK," Clara smiled and he put his hand on her cheek.
"You impossible, beautiful girl," He sighed and then placed his lips against hers again. With her right arm she ran her fingers through his hair and he wrapped his arms around her waist. They continued to kiss until the machine pinged and flew open, whacking The Doctor in the arm. She laughed and took out her left arm.
"Ah! That was quick!" The cat said, coming back in. Clara rotated her arm and wrist and bent her elbow. It was all fine.
"Well, been a pleasure to meet you Clara and John," The cat said, opening the door for them.
"The Doctor, actually," The Doctor said, shaking his hand
"Well, I never! Is it you? How can you look so different?" He asked, his eyes widening
"I took a leaf out of Cassandra's book," The Doctor joked and Clara laughed. The Doctor's hearts swelled, realising she had been there as well.
"Where's Martha?" The cat asked
"Oh, she's on planet Earth and married. How's the kids?" The Doctor asked and he smiled
"Good. Going through their teens now. Not as small as when you saw them last, Doctor," he laughed
"Brilliant. Well, Clara and I'd better be off," The Doctor smiled and he nodded.
"Of course. See you soon," He waved and Clara and The Doctor waved back. The Doctor took Clara's hand and they walked through the hospital. Once they were outside, smelling the apple grass and looking over New, New York, he got a sense of Déjà vu. He took off his jacket and laid it on the grass and sat on it. He motioned for Clara to lie down next to him and they both lay side by side looking up at the sky which was gently getting darker.
"Oh my stars!" Clara gasped as the lights of New, New York came on and illuminated over the river. He wrapped his arm around her and drew her closer as the temperature steadily dropped.
"Any minute now, Clara," The Doctor grinned as he lay on his side. So did she, and they were face to face. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his slightly cold and chapped ones. She instantly felt warmer as he rested his hand on the soft curve of her waist. Suddenly, they were plunged into darkness and she could feel The Doctor smiling.
"Look up," he whispered and she did so. They sky was full of bright, twinkling lights of stars, some distant and some brighter ones not so. A purple hydrogen cloud appeared to be over on one side of the sky and a blue one on the other.
"Whenever there is no cloud cover, the citizens of New America all turn off the lights," The Doctor explained and Clara watched in awe.
"That one there," The Doctor whispered into her ear, pointing to a star.
"Yep?" Clara asked
"It has a planet going around it. A very important planet. It's important because that's where you were born. That's the sun," He whispered and Clara watched it in shock.
"What's its actual name?" Clara asked
"The Shadow Proclamation call is Sol 3/F. I think 'The Sun' is a nicer name," The Doctor whispered and Clara laughed
"And there, that one," The Doctor said, picking up her hand and pointing to another star
"Yeah?"
"Is called Akhaten," The Doctor answered. Clara laughed to herself and they lay there in comfortable silence watching the stars, his arm still around her waist. One by one, all the lights flickered back on and then universe disappeared from their view.
"C'mon," The Doctor laughed, helping a very sleepy Clara up. He picked up his jacket and wrapped it around her. He walked her to the TARDIS and to her room.
"Night," The Doctor said and kissed her forehead and turned to leave.
"Oi!" Clara smirked
"What?" The Doctor asked, turning around while smiling.
"My mouth is here, Chin Boy," Clara said cheekily, pointing to her lips.
"Fine," he laughed and bounded up to her. He captured her lips roughly and backed her into the wall. He pressed up right against her and she lightly scratched his scalp. The kiss was full of built up lust and passion. He ran his hands up and down her back, causing her to shudder. They broke apart, both of them satisfied and dishevelled.
"Was that more like it?" The Doctor grinned
"Definitely," she agreed and pulled him back to her, their lips nearly touching.
"Night," she teased and turned around, entering her room and closing the door.
NEXT CHAPTER: 24 Hours
"I haven't seen them in a while,"
"Clara, he snogged you right outside our front door!"
"You and I both know that I would,"
A/N: Thanks for reading and please review! If you review I'll...er...mention you in my A/N! :D