He was absolutely terrified and that unnerved her. She'd never felt fear from her Dad before. He was covering it exceptionally well, but she could still feel it.
She wasn't sure if he had just been better at masking his emotions in front of her before or if he genuinely had never been this scared before. She didn't even remember feeling fear from him on that awful day when she'd almost died and Tony'd...
She shook her head to clear her thoughts and ran her hands over the console.
"Hello, old girl," she murmured softly. "Remember me?"
What are you doing here? the TARDIS replied.
"Oh, you know, just a bit of sightseeing. Larking about, as Mum said that time she was possessed by a bitchy trampoline."
Why will you do this?
"You know why!" she hissed angrily. "You know as well as I do what has to be done and who has to do it."
It is not yet a fixed point. It has not been too late.
"Well, it will be."
Their hearts are all breaking. Right before me. Is this really what you want, little one?
"Look at the time lines. Tell me I missed something. Tell me this doesn't make everything so much better for everyone in the long run."
Silence.
"That's what I thought," she sighed.
She punched in coordinates and flipped the switch to begin the dematerialization. She walked over and placed her hand on the front doors, smiling sadly over her shoulder at the time rotor as it began to move.
Then Jane Tyler turned and pushed the doors open. She stepped out into the Vortex and disappeared.
A few moments later, the three occupants of the time ship burst in from the hallway.
"What did you do?!" the two Doctors yelled at one another in unison, freezing in the doorway. Brown and gray-green eyes narrowed. "Me?! I didn't do anything!"
"Who cares who did it - fix it," Clara complained, pushing past them both towards the console.
"Clara!" The Doctor watched the tweed covered arm of his former self (future former self? post-former self? Oh, the metacrisis made things difficult) shoot past him and grab Clara roughly by the arm. He pulled the girl back behind him, pushing the Doctor back along with her.
"Hey! Watch it!" Clara protested.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked. His former self was looking out over the console room, filling the space of the doorway as best he could in his lanky form.
"The door is open," he replied tersely.
"What?!" The Doctor leaned over the tweed Time Lord's shoulder, his eyes widening at the sight of the Vortex swirling and spinning past them at breakneck speed.
"Ok, so, whoever just set the coordinates obviously left and forgot to shut the door," Clara stated reasonably.
"Don't be ridiculous. You can't put the TARDIS into flight with the door open," the non-metacrisised Time Lord replied, rolling his eyes. "You could enter coordinates, but you can't remotely force her to take off."
"So whoever did this is still in here?"
"Obviously not, Clara. The TARDIS wouldn't hide someone from me and she said that she isn't the one who set the coordinates. So, whoever did has already left."
"Thank you. You have a very reassuring way about you, Doctor," Clara replied, alarmed at his response.
"See, I didn't think you could even open the door when she was in the Vortex," the Doctor added, staring at the swirling reddish purple haze.
"Nor did I... But, to be fair, we never exactly tried," his former-future-kind-of-brother-like-self added.
"Right, I mean that would be suicide," the Doctor agreed.
"So someone came in here on a suicide mission to send us off somewhere?" Clara asked warily.
"No! Well, yes. Possibly." the Doctor's future-former - ok, no, he was just going to think of him as Doctor 1.0. It saved a bit of brain power and from the look of things, the Doctor was going to need all he could get. Good ol' Tony.
"I mentioned the reassuring thing, yeah?"
"Can we land with the doors open?" the Doctor asked. The TARDIS groaned and shook in response. Doctor 1.0 turned and looked at him in alarm.
"We've got to get those doors closed!" he exclaimed. The two stared at one another for a moment before they both wordlessly shoved their hands in their pockets and began digging around.
"You don't have the scarf in there, by any chance?" the Doctor asked.
"No, it's in the wardrobe! I don't remember where that is right now!" Doctor 1.0 replied. He pulled out a yo-yo. "Damn! Too short!"
"Here, can you hold this?" the Doctor asked Clara as he began piling things in her arms. He was practically down to the elbow in his pocket and still pulling things out.
"Ooh, Jelly Babies!" Doctor 1.0 said gleefully, pausing to snack on an orange one.
"Really? Right now's a good time for a snack?" Clara asked incredulously, her arms currently holding four stuffed animals, a tiny pair of black Converse, three bibs, a pair of toddler-sized denim shorts, a lacy black and pink bra, psychic paper, two bananas, a bottle of water, an open box of condoms, a first aid kit and a bright green remote control car.
"HA! SPARE KITE STRING!" the Doctor exclaimed, shoving a partially full picnic basket at Clara and triumphantly pulling out a ball of string. He ran back down the hallway and wrapped it several times around a pillar before running back. He quickly unrolled a few yards of string before looping it around his waist twice and knotting it securely.
"Wait, no, you're the mortal one, shouldn't I be the one going?" Doctor 1.0 protested.
"You're immortal?!" Clara exclaimed.
"Well, no, not exactly, but more than he is."
"Either one of us goes out that door and we're dead," the Doctor replied, pushing past Doctor 1.0 and into the console room. The TARDIS jerked suddenly and he was sent flying towards the open doors.
"NO!" Doctor 1.0 yelled.
"Doctor!" Clara cried out just as he caught himself on the edge of the console. He beamed back at her as he pulled on a lever to close the door.
"See? I told you the name thing wouldn't matter!"
