Chapter 7

The Doctor was washing his face in the bathroom when he heard a quiet knock on the door. A smile appeared on his face in response to the noise. It must have been Clara.

Ever since their first day in the house, they spent every night together. It wasn't anything they officially agreed to or planned. But, nevertheless, somehow each coming evening, after Ashildr already went to bed, one of them found him or herself seeking for the other.

Most of the time, their late night meetings were anything but special. They were simply watching movies or reading in the same room. Sometimes, they went on a walk and casually spent entire nights talking about any subjects they wished or played in one of the board games UNIT kept in the house. No matter how boring and unrewarding it sounded, the Doctor never regretted any of it. In fact, on a few occasions over the last days he caught himself waiting for the night to finally come. There was something in that woman he couldn't define yet made him long for her like a moth to the flame.

He hurriedly left the bathroom and opened the bedroom doors for her. The picture he saw through the open doors elated him immediately. She was already dressed for the night and was waving at him with a VHS tape in her hand.

"What's that?" He asked in excitement.

"Remember E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,the movie we spoke about the other day? I found it in a video-retail store. Wanna watch it tonight?"

"Absolutely." He smiled at her and left the room, quietly closing the door behind himself.

"Oh, you're gonna love it." She said with a genuine enthusiasm in her voice as they headed down the staircase.

"It was one of my favourites when I was a child. I can't tell you more, but the ending's gonna make you cry."

They entered the living room and the Doctor couldn't help but smile again when he spotted a bowl of popcorn and two glass bottles of Pepsi she had prepared for them. He sat comfortably on the sofa and watched Clara turn on the machine.

After a moment, she joined him on the couch and covered them both with a huge, checked blanket.

Not knowing when, her head and upper back moved and were now supported on his right arm. He had to admit that she was surprisingly open and emotional for someone who was willing to disappear any minute, but for this moment he didn't mind it at all. The sweet scent of her, what he first smelled when she hugged him the other day, was filling up his lungs again and kept his brain away from processing anything.

He wasn't the only one who appreciated the atmosphere tonight. Gulliver, the golden retriever they found the other day, was lying peacefully on the carpet and kept waggling his tail in happiness. Both women were very sceptical about keeping the dog when no one showed to pick it up, but they eventually agreed as he promised to take the dog with him after their job was done.

The movie turned out to be a total bummer, he realised after just few minutes of watching. The reason however was not due to its quality. A few hours earlier he remembered that there was something he should probably check on in the Excalibur, the last place where Luas were seen. Although, he had decided to postpone it till the morning. Now that he had finally had the time to think about it, his mind didn't want to let him forget. His precariousness did not remain unnoticed.

"Is everything alright?" He heard Clara asking him as she stopped the recording. "We went through a few very sad and hilarious moments, but you didn't respond to any of them."

"Yes." He gasped. "Turn the movie back on, please."

Clara snuffled, visibly not satisfied with his answer and spun around a little, so she could see his face.

"You sure?" She asked him again. This time a bit more persistent.

"There's one thing I have to do, but in the morning. So for now please, let's focus on the movie."

"We can watch it some other time if you want to." She smiled at him.

"Tonight." He pointed out. "I want to watch the movie with you tonight."

"No you don't." Clara nailed him. "In your thoughts you're in a totally different place already."

"But we were supposed to spend this evening together."

"If that's the issue, take me with you. We tried it once and nothing wrong happened." She told him blithely while her fingertips were playfully poking his chest.

"Besides, it was ages since I last left the Earth. I love this place, but being here 24/7 drives me crazy sometimes."

He moved slightly under her touch, but didn't do anything to stop the contact. Instead, his long fingers griped her palm and hold it tightly in place.

"For the record, it's been slightly more than a week. And I'm planning to go back to the Excalibur. Not sure you want to go there."

"I'll be fine." She whispered and gave him another reassuring smile. "So maybe we'll do that this way. First we're going to the Excalibur, then we'll watch the movie?"

"Okay" He groaned reluctantly. "It's set then."

Fifteen minutes later, the Doctor was waiting for Clara outside, leaning on the bonnet of a navy blue 1963 Chevrolet Corvette that UNIT left out the front of the manor few days earlier.

"Humans!" He concluded when she finally showed up, in a completely different set of clothes.

"What?" She asked totally confused.

"You can't catch a cold or even feel the shift of temperature in the first place, but still you spent twenty minutes debating on what to wear."

"Your Tardis is parked in the middle of the town. Maybe I simply don't want people to see my pyjamas."

He approached the doors from passenger's side and opened it for her.

"Maybe, but you weren't wearing any. So it was a regular primping, I'm afraid."

Once they both took a seat, he finally turned on the engine and the car started to slowly move along the gravelly driveway. The Doctor used his right hand to switch on the radio and the first verses of Bon Jovi's "You give the love a bad name" bellowed out.

"Why am I not surprised." Clara giggled. "By the way, it hasn't even been released yet. Better forget about playing it aloud among people. Or is your goal is to make somebody cover it before original was even written?"

He held another one of the buttons for a moment and the tune changed to the calm melody of "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want."

"Better?" He teased her as the car glided quickly alongside the silver, serpentine road, illuminated by the moon hanging above a somnolent ocean.

They used his Tardis this time. It felt so strange to have her with him in it. He was trying to imagine himself travelling with her many times before, but he never succeeded. Hence the view of her being so automatic and confident in her actions seemed to be totally unnatural to him.

The ship landed in the middle of a canteen. The ashy remnants of the crew spilled all over the floor contrasted with the happy atmosphere generated by the green painted walls and modern furnishing.

"You sure you wanna be here? I have no clue what we'll find within these walls." He asked her with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Yes." She reassured him once again. "Blaming myself for all this isn't healthy, but pretending it didn't happen won't help either."

The Doctor extended his hand for her and clutched it gently when hers found itself in it.

"Come on then!" He whispered soothingly and they both left the canteen.

They entered a white corridor with plenty of green plastic doors on both sides. The doors were identical, but had on them numbers from 1.01 onwards.

"These are what we're looking for." He whispered as if he was expecting to find anyone else in these ruins. "We're on the sleeping floor. Someone from the crew had a video diary and it has to be stored on a computer in one of these rooms. We're looking for the one belonging to a woman. Her name was Fiona."

"Okay. Should we split up?" She asked him.

"Yes. Good idea. There's another corridor like this one on the level above us. I'm going to look there. You stay here and check these ones."

"Fine."

He disappeared behind one of the doors and left her alone.

Clara started to regret her visit as soon as she opened the doors to the first room. It belonged to a man, Douglas to be exact, as the diplomas and medals spread all over the room stated. He couldn't be more than thirty she remarked when she spotted a photo of him, standing proudly in front a brick house with someone who as she assumed was likely his mother.

During their short stay she didn't get a chance to meet them all. In fact, she knew only names of four from fifteen members of the crew, since the day they arrived many of them were off on holidays. Now, when she finally linked the names of people and their faces the tragedy seemed to be even bigger.

She went into another room in the hall and was more than happy when she saw the name "Fiona" hanging on the walls. She approached the desk and bookshelves and started to look for anything that resembled a computer. Inside a middle drawer of the desk she found something that looked like a tablet. Not wasting any more time, she put the device in the bag she had brought with her.

She was about to leave the room when she heard the metallic noise of a cocking gun and turned around. A masked, silent figure was staring at her, with its gun about to fire any second.

A/N: Thank you for reading my story. I would like to also thank Talk With Your Hands and DreamingCompanion for their help.