Chapter 12: Trapped (Part II)

The Doctor couldn't stop his hearts racing as she lay there, her head resting in his arms. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes every time she failed to respond to him. Hadn't he suffered enough? Why did the universe hate him so much that he was close to loosing someone else?

The rescue teams, who had just gathered themselves together, noticed Clara's lack of movement and made their way over to them.

One on the medics, Nurse Jayne Condor, knelt down at Clara's side and began to examine her with a medical scanner. The results weren't good and the Doctor could tell that by the way her face fell.

Jayne looked up and bit her lip before shaking her head. "I'm sorry…" she whispered, "She has minutes…"

The Doctor felt the lump in his throat grow and he looked down at the woman lying in his arms. Jayne left them and returned to her colleagues.

The Doctor couldn't believe what was happening. However, part of him wasn't surprised. He was continuing with the usual pattern: growing close to someone completely innocent and then destroying them.

"Oh Clara…" he sobbed, "I'm so sorry…"

His hearts fluttered slightly when he saw her head twitch. He quickly wiped away a tear that rolled down his cheek and brushed her hair off her face.

"Clara…?" he asked.

She moaned softly. The pain was completely numbing her body and her breathing was irregular. She managed to open her eyes but she couldn't ignore how heavy her eyelids felt.

"Doctor…?" she breathed.

"I'm here…" he said rubbing her forehead.

She smiled weakly as her breathing grew more and more inconsistent.

"What... what's 'appenin' to me?" she questioned.

The Doctor gulped. "You're gonna be okay." he promised.

Clara shook her head slightly when she saw the tears in his eyes.

"I'm dying, aren't I?" she asked in a whispered.

"I can't lose you…" he told her kissing her forehead, "You're all I have left."

Clara began to silently weep. The physical pain was almost as bad as how she felt mentally. She was dying, and she was taking the Doctor's hearts with her…

The Doctor could feel his hands begin to burn. He desperately wanted to save her… he couldn't face the fact of losing her so soon after the others.

He felt his hearts break a little more as he saw tears rolling down her face.

"Hey…" he soothed rubbing her forehead with his thumb, "Don't cry…"

She gulped and bit her lip in attempt to block out the pain she was feeling.

"I'm dying, Doctor…" she murmured, "I'm scared…"

"Hey…" he soothed once again, "You're not gonna die…"

He felt his cheek become wet once again as another set of tears ran down his face.

"I know you're not gonna die." he assured her.

She sighed and frowned slightly. "How?" she questioned.

"Because I'm not gonna let you." he told her.

"Why ya sayin' that?" she asked through her sobs, "You can't stop it."

The Doctor smiled weakly and kissed her forehead once again.

"Oh Clara…" he breathed, "Just you watch me…"

x-[]-x

Meanwhile, underneath the collapse, Alaya had suddenly found herself in an amount of pain she never knew was possible. She had been crushed by the debris she had been crawling underneath and she could feel it in her pelvis, legs and spine. The pain was intense and inhibiting her ability to breathe well.

She managed to look up at the fragments above her and could see they were very unstable. She began to pull herself along the ground with her arms. Every move was agony but she wasn't prepared to stay there just in case there was another collapse.

She finally managed to reach a small opening in the debris after a minute or two. It was much more stable than the place where she had just been.

She wasn't afraid to admit it, she was scared. She just wanted help to arrive, she didn't want to be alone any longer.

"Help me…" she whispered, "Someone help me please…"

She managed to reach her communicator on her wrist only to see it was damaged. She sobbed slightly and began to breathe through the pain. She desperately wanted help to come. She really didn't like the amount of pain she was in and above everything; she just wanted to go home.

x-[]-x

Clara had lost consciousness not long after the Doctor had spoken to her. There were now three medics around her telling the Doctor how little time she had left but the Doctor had given up listening. He was concentrating on the burning in his hands. The fact that it was growing stronger gave him hope and with any luck, she'd hold on for enough time.

The Doctor sighed and looked down at her lying lifelessly on the ground.

"Get back from her." he ordered after a moment.

Jayne, who was examining her once again, looked up at him and frowned.

"Sir?" she questioned.

"Get back." he repeated as his hands clenched.

She was about to object when suddenly she saw a burning orange gas-type energy emit around the Doctor's hands. As he unclenched his fists, the three of them watched it get brighter and brighter.

They all moved back from the Doctor, mostly due to the shock of what was occurring. He was a human-looking man yet he was doing something completely impossible. Maybe he wasn't human after all...

The Doctor sighed as he knelt down at her side. He proceeded to place his hands on Clara's shoulder blades which resulting in zapping life was suddenly back into her broken body. She awoke abruptly and felt the energy filling her cells. It was bizarre but marvellous feeling.

"Doctor…?" she began, "What are you doing?"

He smiled and brought his face closer to hers.

"Saving you." he replied.

She frowned as much as her aching muscles would let her. "Why?" she asked.

The Doctor bit his lip and smiled softly as the energy expanded around them.

"I never know why." he told her, "I just know who."

The rescue teams all dropped what they were doing and watched in amazement as the energy emitted from the Doctor's hands expanded. It was completely blinding and they had to look away but it couldn't stop the wonder of the event.

It took a few moments before the bright energy that had spread across the clearing began to fade back into total darkness. Even though the lights they had set up were bright, compared to the light from the Doctor's regeneration energy, they were nothing so the dimness was easily noticeable.

Clara awoke moments later to the sight of the Doctor smiling above her.

"Hello." he greeted.

She sighed and slowly sat up with his assistance. She looked down at her body which felt somewhat refreshed. She moved her fingers and felt her forehead, amazed that there was no evidence at any gash.

She looked up at the Doctor. "What did you do?" she asked.

"I healed you." he told her with a smile.

Clara frowned. "How?" she enquired.

The Doctor sighed. "By sacrificing a few hundred years of my life." he told her, "No biggie."

Clara sniggered slightly. "No biggie?!" she quizzed, "A few hundred years of your life aren't particularly important?!"

The Doctor shook his head. "No." he answered, "Because you're still here."

x-[]-x

Alaya continued to breathe through the pain she was experiencing. She looked at the watch on her other wrist. 0348 hours… how long would she have to wait until the rescue crews found her? Would they ever find her alive?

She could feel the pain growing increasingly worse and her breathing was becoming erratic. She was dying…

It came to a point where she had to accept it; no-one was coming for her. She was going to die alone. Once she had finally accepted that fact, she found herself calming down and finding a level of serenity she had never known possible. All of a sudden, all the pain seemed meaningless and she began to welcome the end… at least she was going to die happy.

"I'm ready…" she whispered to herself.

She closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply, treasuring the last minutes of her life. She sighed and smiled. She'd never been religious, never worshiped any type of God, but she wasn't scared of her oncoming death. How could she be scared when she was this tranquil?

Meanwhile in the clearing above her, the rescue teams were still hard at work. Fifteen people were now safely out of the rubble and reunited with their families.

The Doctor was also much better now as Clara was okay. She was still feeling pretty weak but she was alive, that was the main thing.

In the midst of all that was happening, the Doctor had failed to realise the time. He was completely unaware of how close it was until the destruction of the mine…

x-[]-x

Alaya was more than ready now. It was her time. She took what she believed would be her last breath but then she felt something new, a feeling much stronger and more powerful than the pain that had been plaguing her body.

Her eyes suddenly shot open as the pain was overpowered within seconds by the new feeling. It was like a vicious burning, focused mainly in her arms, head and chest. She was burning up, almost as if there was an intense fire blazing underneath her skin.

She began to panic. It wasn't right.

She was now sat up, her arms extended slightly. She examined them; completely forgetting that the pain which was killing her was somehow gone.

"What the hell…?" she asked in a state of terror.

She watched in astonishment, and horror, as her hands suddenly began to burn. She screamed when they began to secrete some sort of golden energy… as if her body were exploding!

At that moment, in the clearing above, The Doctor, Clara and rescue teams were still hard at work. The Doctor smiled as another person was pulled from the wreckage unconscious but alive. That was sixteen in total.

Clara looked over at him and smiled. She was glad to see him content. They both made eye contact and the Doctor winked at her, happy that everything was going to plan.

It was then that he took a quick glance at his watch.

Clara saw his mood change within a nanosecond. His eyes had widened with horror and she saw him suddenly look towards the mine.

The next few seconds happened so fast. The Doctor ran towards the rescue crews, screaming at them to move away. His voice sounded as though it was being amplified with a megaphone as he ordered them to move.

As they all could hear the fear in the voice, they all complied and moved away. Seconds later, the mine behind them blew up, expelling fragments of debris all over the clearing.

The force of the explosion blew everyone to the ground at such a force that the crew members closest to it ended up at least ten metres away from their starting point.

The explosion was over within seconds but it took at least half a minute before anyone dared to move.

When the Doctor aided himself to his feet, the first thing he did was check if Clara was okay. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that her only problem was a case of bad hair.

He went over to her and assisted her off the ground. That was when they both turned to the site of the mine. However, it resembled a rather large bonfire rather than a mine. It was burning brightly, giving off a thick black smoke into the similar coloured sky above.

The Doctor looked over at Sergeant Mendel. He was frantically scanning the structure but the Doctor knew there were no survivors. History had just occurred in front of him, at the cost of 33 people's lives.

x-[]-x

The rest of that day until 0800 passed in a daze. The sun had risen over the site but the only thing the Doctor felt was sadness. The fire was still burning but was under control and slowly dying. The media had surrounded the site, informing the entire country about the event and the onlookers had slowly departed, some leaving behind their families long dead underneath the rubble.

The Doctor and Clara returned to the TARDIS, keen to stay out the media's prying eye. Clara was unsure how to deal with the Doctor's sadness. She could tell that he was blaming himself even though it wasn't his fault.

"There was nothing more you could have done." she reminded him as he stood pointlessly at the console.

He nodded. "I know." he replied before turning and facing her, "But 33 people…"

She smiled weakly. "Did you find out what brought the TARDIS here?" she asked.

He shook his head. "It could have just been an echo from my regeneration energy when I healed you." he said.

Clara raised her eyebrow. "You don't believe that." she pointed out, "I can see it in ya face."

The Doctor laughed slightly. "I don't know what else it could have been…" he admitted.

He looked towards the door of the TARDIS and sighed. He greatly wanted to forget what had just happened outside of it.

He turned to Clara. "Ready to get out of here?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah." she replied.