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Hope this doesn't disappoint
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Four – Damaged
'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! And anyway. You owe me! You've made yourself essential to me. You've given me something else to... to be… And you can't do that and then die. It's not fair!'
'Clara!'
'No! Doctor, I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt! If you love me, in any way… you'll come back.'
Present day London
He ran through the blue doors, kicking them shut behind him. As soon as he reached the open area around the console he carefully eased Clara down onto the floor, dropping to his knees beside her.
"Clara?" With trembling fingers he tugged aside the collar of her blouse and desperately felt for a pulse. His sigh of relief was loud enough to echo around the console room when he found it. Strong and steady. He dropped his head to listen to the sound of her breathing. That was fine too. At least, normal for a human.
He gently dipped two fingers under the top of her blouse and pulled out the TARDIS key. Carefully easing the chain over her head.
"Clara?" He murmured, stroking the side of her face with the back of one gentle finger. "Clara?" He squeezed her hand. When she still didn't respond. He pulled his sonic glasses from his pocket and scanned her body from head to toe. Some trauma around her abdomen, but superficial bruising, nothing to be overly concerned about. Other than that her body was healthy. She just wasn't waking up.
He pulled off his coat and padded it up under her head to make her more comfortable, before looking around for something more suitable for her to recover on than the floor. (He refused to allow himself to consider that she might not yet recover.) There was nothing remotely suitable in the console room. The chairs were all hard angles and no support. Reluctant to leave her for any length of time, he leapt down the stairs to the lower level in a single bound, darted into the corridor and into the first room he came across. He swept a pile of books off a small, two seater settee and wrestled it out of the room, through the corridor and up the stairs. He gently lifted Clara onto it, along with her makeshift pillow, and using more coats, this time from the coat-rack, tenderly covered her up to keep her warm.
The whole time she was being jostled, she didn't respond. Needing something further to do, he rescanned her with his sonic glasses. There was no change.
He sat down on the hard, black chair across from her and watched her breathing in and out, but he couldn't remain still for long. He leapt down the stairs again and grabbed his guitar. Returning to his chair, he turned down the amplifier to a whisper and began to play. But it didn't sound right. He took out his sonic screwdriver and set about enhancing the amplifier. But after a couple of hours tinkering, it still sounded wrong. In fact, even the hum of the TARDIS sounded wrong. Or perhaps it was just the absence of sound that disturbed him. Or maybe the fear that Clara's silence would never end.
Discarding the guitar, he scanned Clara for the umpteenth time, there was still no change. All the time he was wondering – is she still in there? Fear clawed at him – conversations past, running through his head. The things that were said and the things that went unsaid…
And the way she idolised him. 'Old fashioned heros only exist in old fashioned story books Clara.'
'What about you? You stop bad things happening every minute of every day. That sounds… pretty heroic to me'
"I'm no hero Clara." He murmured to the uncaring air. "I'm just a selfish, stupid old man. Look what I let happen to you."
Unable to bear the not knowing any longer, he gently touched the tips of his fingers to her temples and tentatively probed inside her mind to see if he could feel anything of her essence in there.
And then all at once she was screaming.
Her body lurched, back arching, face screwed up with agony, her weight shifted with the sudden movement and she began sliding towards the floor as all her muscles contracted, her arms and legs jerking.
"Clara!" The Doctor yelled in alarm. He instantly let go of her head, and caught her before she hit the ground, easing her down while her body still thrashed wildly.
"Clara!" He shouted desperately again, snatching at one of her flailing hands and gripping it hard to let her know he was there.
Her screaming stopped as quickly as it had begun and she opened her eyes as a loud rasping gasp escaped her, her body was still jerking but the spasms were subsiding.
Her gaze landed on him briefly before flickering away, taking in her surroundings, flickering back to him and then away again as though she couldn't trust what she could see.
"Clara. Look at me." He knelt over her, trying to catch her attention. One hand still on hers, his other reached out to cup her chin gently.
Her eyes settled on him again as he touched her, they were wide, her pupils huge and full of fear. She swallowed a couple of times as though about to speak, then went back to searching her surroundings again, jerking her head away from his touch.
"Clara!" He gripped her shoulders trying to force her to look at him. "It's okay, Clara, you're safe."
"Get off me!" She snarled suddenly, trying to jerk out of his grasp, writhing and kicking out at him when he didn't let go.
"Doctor!" She screamed in panic, her wide, terrified eyes searching, looking everywhere but at him.
"Doctor!"
To be continued…
