Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who
These people have necks way too long for their own good. They've also been celebrating new years for two centuries. Recognise it yet? Because I sure didn't.
I had lost Missy in the crowd somewhere and was wandering around, trying to find her. I had tried shouting her name multiple times, but I could just barely hear my own voice over the roaring music. Perhaps this is why the inhabitants of this planet all used their form of sign language.
About ten minutes after looking for her, I bumped into somebody, and a pair of sunglasses dropped to the floor. I mumbled an apology before walking off again.
At least, I would have had the person not grabbed my arm.
I looked back and was about to yell a rude comment at them before I saw who it was.
Once again, I was face to face with Clara Oswald.
"Hey, Emma! What're you doin' here?" Her speech was slurred and she wore a lopsided grin. It wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that she had been hitting the bottle.
"Oh, hey." I laughed lightly. "Um, I was just passing through with a friend of mine-" A friend? Since when was Missy a friend? "-but I'm gonna be leaving soon."
"Oh, come on! Stay, please? The Doctor really wants to meet you."
I don't think she knew just how much that would make me want to run in the opposite direction as fast as I could. The Doctor? Wanting to meet me? No thanks. I've already gone through enough deja vu.
But Clara's grip on my arm was strong, and I couldn't pull free. Then, I just barely heard a thick Scottish accent yelling through the crowd, and not the one I wanted to hear.
"Clara, there you are! And-" His eyes narrowed when he saw me.
I tried to look as innocent as I could even though I've been hanging out with the Queen of Evil, giving a small wave. I leaned over to the intoxicated woman that was still gripping my arm and mumbled in her ear, "Clara, you can let go now."
"Oh, yeah, sorry."
The twelfth Doctor looked accusingly at me, as though I would've done something to hurt Clara, and said something that looked suspiciously like "how did you get here", but I couldn't be sure.
"What?" I yelled to him. Even though he was standing right in front of me, I still couldn't hear a word he said when he tried saying it again.
"'Ham is your best friend?'" I questioned.
He sighed in annoyance before motioning for me to follow him. So, with the Doctor in front, Clara in tow, and me sandwiched in the middle, we weaved through the crowd. I had thought about dashing off and away from them, but that would only get me in even more trouble than I already was. At first I was wondering where we were going, but I wasn't left that way for long. After going through a few corridors, we rounded a corner and I was left again admiring that big blue box.
That admiration was soon gone though when I remembered what she had done back on Skaro.
He opened the door and walked inside, beckoning for me to do the same. That control room was more homely, that much was true, but it all felt wrong. The round things weren't supposed to be grey, it was much better without all the books lining the wall, the scanners should be round, and there should definitely be more chairs.
As soon as we were all inside, the Doctor snapped his fingers, closing the doors, and whispered something to Clara, who left the console room.
"Now," the Doctor turned around to face me, and scowled when he saw me leaning on the console. He snapped and pointed to the floor in front of him. I sighed, making my way to where he pointed. He then swiftly walked away and stepped over to the console, probably making sure I hadn't touched anything. "What were you doing on that planet?"
"Hitching a ride from your best bud." I answered truthfully.
He frowned. "Missy… Why were you with her?"
"It was either that or dying, thanks to your TARDIS."
The Old Girl gave a noise of complaint.
"How do you know what she's called?"
"I know a lot of things that I really shouldn't. For instance, you wear question mark underpants."
"Right, okay." He walked over, towering over me, and stared me down. "Come out with it."
"Well," I started carefully, "this might sound ridiculous, but from where I used to live, your life was a TV show."
The Doctor frowned even more, before walking over to the console once again and leaned over to look at the scanner after pressing some buttons. He took a few seconds to read whatever was on the scanner before addressing me again.
"It says here that you've been through the rift, through dimensions, and through time as well as space." He looked up at me critically. "You may have gained certain abilities when you passed through the rift, allowing you to see into the future."
I facepalmed, then pinched the bridge of my nose. "You can't be serious." I mumbled.
"Oh, I'm perfectly serious. You're time sensitive."
I raised my eyebrows. "You make it sound like I'm allergic to time."
"Like it or not, that's what you are. The whole deal with my life being a TV show is likely just your mind coming up with a cover story since it can't quite comprehend your ability."
I gave a humourless laugh. "Yeah, right. I'm the one that can't comprehend the truth."
"Listen, you're time sensitive and you've been hanging around Missy. That's an extremely dangerous combination. So you must tell me, have you told her any details at all?"
"I'd have to be extremely stupid to do that."
"Well, with you pudding brains, you can never be sure."
I scowled at that. "Takes one to know one."
His scowl matched mine. "Lookie here, small human. Despite your gallivanting across the universe with one of the most dangerous people alive, Clara still believes you're not as bad as you may seem. I, on the other hand, have no such faith in you." Way to put it bluntly. "I hope you'll do your best to prove me wrong."
It took a while for me to find my bedroom. It's not that I got lost or anything, it's just that the TARDIS kept leading me off track and sending me to so many different rooms. I had a feeling that I never would have gotten to my destination if the Doctor hadn't ordered the TARDIS to lead me to a bedroom. He had said that it was too great of a risk to dump me off somewhere. That if any greedy aliens got their hands on me and figured out that I was "time sensitive", the consequences would be disastrous. That's why he agreed to let me stay aboard his TARDIS for the time being. Although, exactly how long "the time being" would be was anyone's guess. There's no doubt my Doctor would have left the ice planet already, I wasn't even sure if he would be looking for me or if he would have moved on already. And Missy…
Why I would even want to return to her, I had no idea. I really didn't enjoy all of the destruction and death that she created, did I? But, on the other hand, we did have some good laughs together that weren't about killing people. Before my time with Missy, I couldn't even remember the last time I truly laughed about something. But she would almost definitely have moved on by now. She never really cared, after all. She was just playing around with me like I was her "toy."
I stared up at my starry ceiling, collapsed on my bed, as all of these thoughts passed through my head, and before I knew it, I was drifting asleep.
I was startled awake by a knock on my door. Expecting it to be the twelfth Doctor, I opened the door, not caring that I looked like a mess.
Instead, I got an Oswald in my face.
I immediately closed the door, embarrassed, and made myself more presentable before opening it again.
Clara stood there with an amused smile on her face. "Hello." Her voice was as kind as always.
"Hey." I tried to match her kindness as I greeted her. "Come on in."
She entered my room and sat down on my bed that I had swiftly made. "Nice room." She commented before getting to the reason why she was there. "The Doctor told me about what's going on. So, I suppose you're stuck here, huh?"
"Yeah." It came out more peeved than I meant it to.
"He gave you a pretty stern welcome, didn't he?" It wasn't really phrased as a question.
I chuckled. And sat down next to her. "You bet."
"Sorry about him." The apology came from her big brown eyes as well. I found myself getting lost in them. The amount of times I had wished to see those eyes… "He doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word 'sympathetic.'"
"Oh, he's not that bad." I said to her, remembering all the times I had seen the twelfth Doctor's core, seen him at his weakest as well as strongest points. Each time, I remembered the raw emotion coming off from him.
"Hmm…" Next to me, I could tell Clara was doing the same. "The Doctor said you could see into the future. Can you see into the past as well?" She had brought up the subject hesitantly, probably aware that it may be something I wouldn't really want to talk about.
I found myself wondering, just for a moment, if I should tell her the truth. Tell her how I wasn't really time sensitive and how I knew about future events because of a TV show. Those thoughts, however, were immediately dismissed once any thought of the Doctor came into the equation. He was too stubborn, that man. He would always refuse to believe that his life was being displayed on television in an alternate universe. And there was no doubt that if I told Clara about the TV show, that even if she did believe me, she would confront the Doctor about it and then he would dismiss any suspicions that what I was saying was true from her mind. After all, he was the expert on these kind of things. In the end, I decided to lie to her. To go with the Doctor's story.
Well, not completely.
"Yeah, I can see past events as well as future and sometimes present events as well, but, uh, the thing is, I can only see events that are somehow connected to the Doctor or his companions."
"So, how much do you know about me, then?"
"Oh, um, quite a bit actually. You work as an English schoolteacher at Coal Hill right now but you used to be a nanny for the Maitlands, who were family friends of yours."
I'm your daughter.
"Your first memorable meeting with the Doctor was when he was in his eleventh incarnation and you were twenty-seven years old. You're twenty-eight years old now, going on twenty-nine on November twenty-third."
You're my mother.
"Your mom died when you were nineteen years old on March fifth, two-thousand-five."
You have a daughter. It's me.
The urge to just shout it out was so overwhelming that I actually did slip up. I had said "you have a-" before I realized what I was saying and quickly covered it up with "-book called one hundred and one places to see."
"Okay," Clara cut me off, laughing, "you can stop there. Wow. Some of those aren't even major details."
I just shrugged, not knowing how to explain my knowledge to her.
"Well, I hope you'll enjoy your stay." I then became shocked when she planted a kiss on my forehead. Not only was I not expecting it, but it seemed so… motherly. And when she pulled away, she looked a bit confused as well. Her expression quickly returned to normal, though. "Good luck with the grouchy old man and, you should know, if ever you need something, you can always come to me, alright?"
I forced a smile and gave a nod at her, still a little surprised at the forehead kiss. As soon as Clara got up from my bed and left the room, closing the door behind her, I dropped down onto my bed and lay there for a few minutes, staring blankly at the stars above.
Soon enough, though, my impatience kicked in and I couldn't sit still much longer. I wandered through the corridors until I found the console room, and sure enough, the Doctor and Clara were there. I walked in just as the TARDIS landed.
"Oh, Emma, you're just in time." Clara greeted me as I stood in the doorway between the console room and the corridor. "We were just about to-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the Doctor cut in. "Erm, ah, no. We're not- she's not coming with us."
"What?" Clara looked affronted. "Why not?"
"She could still be dangerous. We might be putting others at risk by bringing her with us."
"Oh, come on." Clara protested.
"How am I supposed to prove you wrong if you don't even give me a chance?" I asked.
"Look, one day I might let you come with us but today is not that day." The Doctor told me. He walked to the TARDIS doors. "Clara, with me. You." He snapped his fingers as he pointed at me. "Don't. Touch. Anything. You'll end up flying yourself into the sun and then where will we be?"
And with that, the Doctor exited the TARDIS, and along with an apologetic look, Clara did too. The closing door echoed behind them as I was left behind.
Hours upon hours later, I was sat in the library. That's where Clara found me. I was in the middle of reading Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan, on chapter thirty-five. I had explored the TARDIS quite a lot in my free time. I found the kitchen, all the nearby bathrooms, the storage room, my mom's room, and I was able to memorize the path from the console room to my bedroom.
Clara sat down in a chair next to me. "Hey, I'm sorry you couldn't come with us today. It seems the pilot is more perturbed than I originally thought."
"It's alright. I've had years of adventure already. Besides, he'll come around. He always does."
Unfortunately, he didn't come around the next day, or the next, not even the one after that, and I was slowly going insane from boredom. Not to mention my ADHD was flipping out. I couldn't concentrate on anything. I couldn't read to calm myself, I could barely finish one thought before another one came, and I was bouncing off the walls. The worst days were the days without Clara. Usually, after an adventure and before we went to sleep, we would wander the corridors of the TARDIS; sometimes doing an activity, sometimes just talking. But when she left to go back to her job as a teacher, it was just the Doctor and I. And needless to say, he didn't want to be bothered by an "annoying, small pudding brain."
But after seventeen days of trying to stay sane aboard a ship that hates my guts, there came a part that I recognised.
I had been aimlessly wandering the corridors of the vast spaceship when, all of a sudden, I was thrown to the wall. The TARDIS shook as I steadied myself and started running towards the console room. This was my chance to prove myself useful and show the Doctor that I wasn't a destructive maniac like Missy.
As soon as I entered the console room, a bunch of sparks erupted from my right, forcing me to stumble away. In fact, there were sparks coming from somewhere practically every second. Looking around, I found the Doctor in the console room as well. He was standing near the console, with the phone in his hand, speaking to someone.
"Clara, I'm under attack from four and a bit battle fleets in case you think I'm slacking!" He sounded more than stressed, maybe I could help relieve him of some of it.
I ran up to the console, looking at one of the scanners. On it was the fleet of battleships behind us. I could see a pattern in their shooting, and, anticipating their next few shots, I grabbed hold of the directional pointer and steered us into a sharp right.
The Doctor finally noticed me and, with a bit of an attitude, asked what the hell I was doing.
"Helping!" I shouted back. "You talk, I'll steer."
"You can't fly her!"
"You wanna bet, spaceman?"
I had watched enough of the show, watched enough of my Doctor, and read enough info-books to get the basics of how to fly a TARDIS.
"Doctor," I could hear Clara's voice over the phone, "I think there's something in my spacesuit."
"Yes, that's possible, actually." The Doctor replied as I continued dodging the shots coming from the ships behind us. "You were too long in the spider mines."
"Okay, explain?" Clara asked, sounding a little panicked.
"It's possibly a Love Sprite. Sucks your brain-" Another blast of sparks interrupted his explanation. "Sucks your brain out through your mouth, hence the name "
"It's coming up my leg."
Hang on a second, that wasn't right. In the show, she said that it was halfway up her leg.
"Don't worry, it's just hungry!"
"Oh, yeah, like that's going to reassure her!" I cut in.
"Is that Emma?" Clara asked.
"Yes, she's steering." The Doctor answered.
"She can fly the TARDIS?"
"Don't ask. Describe the four most interesting stars you can see."
After Clara had described the nearby space from her point of view and had said that the Love Sprite was on the back of her head, once again different from the show, I heard the Doctor yell "switch" as he put the phone back. I stepped back from the console, allowing him to put in the coordinates. As soon as the TARDIS materialised around Clara, I ran over to her, lifting up her helmet, looking inside to make sure the Love Sprite was in there, and threw the creature to the TARDIS floor, then proceeding to stomp it to death.
After recovering from a coughing fit, Clara stood up and walked over to the console. "How did we do?"
"Oh, not a word about my spot-on materialisation skills." The Doctor replied.
"What about all the Velosians? Are they safe?"
"Yeah. Well, we lured their attackers halfway across the universe-"
"-and drained their weapons banks." I finished.
"Not to mention, we also saved a school teacher from having her brains devoured and being asphyxiated in deep space."
"So now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go wipe my shoe on the grass."
Doing just that, I heard a pair of footsteps following me. I looked back to see the Doctor standing in front of the closed TARDIS door.
"What?" I asked him, the bitterness in my voice not lost. "Afraid I might set the entire forest on fire?"
He paused before speaking. "You did good, just then. You could have stood back and done nothing but…you helped and uh…" He glanced behind him and I could see Clara standing in the doorway. It was then that I realised that the Doctor and Clara had been talking about this in the TARDIS. "I, um, appreciate it… and…"
"Oh, just spit it out already." Clara said, getting impatient with him.
The Doctor's voice became more stable and serious afterwards. "I think Clara was right about you. You're not so easily influenced by Missy and, next time, I'd be willing to let you come with us if you'd like."
I looked back and forth between the Doctor and Clara in astonishment. "Wait, seriously?"
The Doctor held up his finger. "With close supervision, of course."
At that point, I didn't even care. I would finally be able to get out of that blasted spaceship! "Oh, thank you. Thank you!" I ran forward and enveloped the Doctor in a hug, even though I knew that he would protest.
Clara, on the other hand, gladly welcomed a hug, as she closed the TARDIS door behind her.
The happiness didn't last long, however, because then the sound of swords being unsheathed were heard and in a split second, we had the swords at our necks.
The Doctor, especially, was very unpleased with the appearance of the people holding the swords. "No, no, not Vikings. I'm not in the mood for Vikings!"
"You're coming with us." The leader of the Vikings said.
"No. I'm not." The Doctor argued. "Do you want to know why?"
As the Doctor reached into his pocket to pull out his sonic sunglasses, the Vikings growled and made a variety of other angry noises at him.
"On my face, right now, more advanced technology than your species will manage over the next nine million years."
I couldn't help but snort after the leader walked forward, grabbing the Doctor's sunglasses from off his face and snapping them in two.
"Clara, Emma."
"Yeah?"
"We're going with the Vikings."
That's how we ended up on a longboat for two days, with the Doctor almost constantly telling Clara that yes, indeed, he does have a plan. In all honesty, it gave me way too much time to think. My mind went back to the Doctor's words. You're not so easily influenced by Missy. I couldn't help but think about that picnic with her, watching the city get blown apart. I couldn't help but think about all of the reasons why the Doctor was wrong. I thought about what had happened recently. What Clara had said. Or rather, what she hadn't said. She had mentioned the Love Sprite being on the back of her head when it was supposed to be the back of her neck. That means that my being there had distracted the Doctor and allowed the Love Sprite to get farther than it had in the show. Which meant that I'd have to be extremely careful to not change the events if something as small as being present almost killed a person. But most of all, I thought about a conversation I had with the Doctor soon after my conversation with Clara. I had been in my room when the Doctor knocked on my door. He didn't even give me a chance to say hello before speaking in a very serious tone.
"Why didn't you tell me you could only see events related to me or my companions? That's very strange for a time sensitive."
"Well, maybe it's so strange because I'm not time sensitive."
He scowled. "I'm doing you a favour by allowing you to stay in my TARDIS. If you continue to waste my time with your pesky denies of who you really are, I might just change my mind."
Would he really, though? Would he actually chuck me out? Perhaps things were different now that he knew I wasn't like Missy… I could only hope that was the case. Because if the Doctor got too angry and decided he didn't want me around anymore, I'd have nowhere to go.
I was extremely relieved once we reached the Viking village. Finally, some action. Not only that, but I was also looking for a certain face. It wasn't long before she came into view.
Ashildr. Probably the main reason why I wanted to come along for this adventure. I wanted to meet her, especially at the beginning.
I wasn't paying attention during the Doctor's conversations with Clara or his show of pretending to be Odin. Instead, I was focused on Ashildr. I was focused on her facial expressions; how it went from confused when the Doctor threw his manacles at the chief to unimpressed when he brought out his yo-yo. I was focused on her hands; the way they kept fidgeting with the broken piece of the Doctor's sonic sunglasses. I was completely focused on her body language, storing away all of these little facts in my brain for later. For comparison.
I only started to pay attention when the sky above rumbled and I heard a deep voice bellow out. "Oh, my people. I am Odin, and now your day of reward has finally dawned."
The people began kneeling down, to which the Doctor said, "do not believe this foolish trickery!" He throws his yo-yo up but it falls back down, getting caught on his hand. "It's supposed to do that." He said, not very convincingly.
The face in the sky continued talking. "Your mightiest warriors will feast with me tonight in the halls of Valhalla."
Rays of light were cast down and five Mire warriors appeared. All of them approached the group, scanning each person to see how fit they were. Me? I was watching Clara now. Waiting for her to run over to Ashildr. I didn't have to wait long, and when she did, she called out for me to follow her.
"Do you still have that eyepatch thing?" Clara asked Ashildr once we got to her. Ashildr brought the half of the sunglasses out and Clara guided her hand to her eye. "Point it at our chains and think the word 'open.'" Out of the corner of my eye, I could see more of the Vikings disappear. We were running out of time. "Say it with your mind." The sonic sunglasses began working just as the Mire turned towards us. I could hear the Doctor shouting our names, and I could feel my hands being freed from the chains just as a weightless feeling took over, indicating we had been teleported.
As soon as the weightless feeling began, it stopped, and I opened my eyes not realising that I had even closed them. Clara, Ashildr and I stood up as one of the younger Vikings greeted us. We hear a man grunting and turn around to see the leader of the Vikings forcing the door open with his axe. In the next room stood nothing but a walkway to another door and rows of fans lining the walls.
The Viking chuckled before moving on to the next door, but Clara wasn't quite convinced.
"No, wait. Wait!" She tried getting him to stop.
"There is nothing to fear, strange maiden." He said as the fan blades began to activate. "We are Odin's chosen!"
Just then, energy discharged from the fans and the Viking leader got caught in the middle of them and completely disappeared. His helmet and axe were the only sign he had even existed, and they dropped to the floor. Something that sounded like machinery cogs began moving, and suddenly, the wall began to move too, which one of the Vikings pointed out.
"Odin! Odin!" Ashildr began yelling, as though he would really be coming to help us.
"Use your blades, try to jam it!" Clara told the Vikings, and they did just that. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work.
Clara grabbed Ashildr while shouting for me and the three of us ran to the other door.
"Quick! Pull!" Clara shouted.
"What do you think we're doing?" I grunted back at her, stressed. I hadn't been touching the sonic sunglasses like Clara and Ashildr had been, so I had no idea whether I would still be alive by the end of this or not.
"Quickly!" She said again, as the Vikings were forced into the passageway and the fans began to rotate once more.
I dreamed of butterflies and prairies. No, seriously, I did.
I was sitting alone atop a hill, not watching explosions, simply watching a swarm of monarchs fly by from right to left. When they were finally out of view, I looked to my right again, and for some reason wasn't surprised when I saw a woman in a blue waitress outfit and a ponytail that definitely wasn't sitting there a minute ago. I recognised her immediately. How could I not? It was my mother, after all.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She asked me.
"I wish every day could be like this." I said sadly.
"I know, sweetheart." She wrapped an arm around me, and somehow I wasn't surprised by the gesture or wording either. "But that's why we've got to enjoy the days we have because you never know when it all will end." My mom raised her hand and rested it on my cheek. "Make the most of it, alright? Do that for me."
I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I put my hand over hers. "Please don't go, Mom."
"You've got to wake up now, Emma."
I shook my head.
"Emma, wake up. Wake up."
It ain't easy to say goodby
Darling pleasy don't start to cry
'Cause girl you know I've got to go
And Lord I wish it wasn't so
Save tonight and fight the break of dawn
Come tomorrow - tomorrow I'll be gone
Save tonight and fight the break of dawn
Come tomorrow - tomorrow I'll be gone
Save Tonight, Eagle-Eye Cherry
Okay, I definitely did not expect to write about 4900 words in two days. I guess I just sort of had a writing surge. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up into the next chapter! Please remember to leave a review!
