Kill the Moon (Part 2)
"Will he be back?" Lundvik frowned at the women.
"He will," Evy nodded, "He wouldn't leave us, would he LJ?" she asked the boy.
"Nope," LJ beamed up at her before leaning over so suddenly to return his watch for his father that she nearly dropped him and had to shift to keep him still.
"Miss?" Courtney's voice called out from Clara's side, "Come in."
Clara frowned but lifted her arm, pressing a button on her wrist comm., "Courtney?"
"I'm bored. When are you coming back?"
Clara glanced at Evy who could only shrug, "We're on our way. What you doing?"
"Putting some pictures on Tumblr."
Evy chuckled at that, though Clara seemed more alarmed, "No! Courtney, don't put any photos on Tumblr!"
"My granny used to put things on Tumblr," Lundvik remarked, a moment before the ground beneath them shook slightly, making them stumble, LJ quickly moving to grip his mother instead of lean over. Lundvik turned to check if they were ok, when she caught sight of something only a short distance away, now revealed as the ground had shifted, opening up another fissure that had toppled a boulder over, allowing her to see a small white spacesuit that was lying behind it, "There he is!" she gasped, rushing over as Clara and Evy joined her, "Henry!"
Evy grimaced and stepped back at the sight that greeted them. The helmet of the suit was open and exposed to the vacuum, but resting inside was nothing more than a skeleton. She looked away, out at the moonscape, not really all that pleased with the skeleton before her, it seemed she'd still retained her dislike of them.
"Was that where we landed?" Clara murmured, pointing a short distance away to where the shuttle was resting, new cracks scattered across the moon's surface, the entire area having shifted into an almost unrecognizable picture, "It looks so different."
"It's going down!" Lundvik cried as the cracks in the ground began to creak and crumble, the shuttle toppling right into it.
"Courtney!" Clara lunged forward, about to race for the shuttle, when Evy reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Clara no…" she tried to stop her.
"Courtney was in there!" Clara tugged at her arm, needing to get away.
"She was in the TARDIS," Evy reminded her, "She'll keep Courtney safe. You know that," she reminded Clara, "You know that the TARDIS is the safest place for anyone to be. Clara," she squeezed Clara's arm a bit to get her to look at her, shifting LJ up onto her hip more at the same time, "Clara, trust me," she looked into Clara's eyes, "Courtney is fine."
"But what if she's not?"
"She is," Evy nodded, "You know how the TARDIS works, you know she'd protect Courtney."
"But…"
"We don't have time," Lundvik cut in, "I'm sorry, but we're going to have to take cover. We're running out of oxygen!"
"Daddy!" LJ squealed suddenly, making them look over to see the Doctor climbing out of one of the cracks, his suit slightly wet from the amniotic fluid, but he was grinning as he hurried over to them.
He put his hand to the back of LJ and Evy's back, beaming at them all, "Today's the day, humankind!"
~8~
Clara frowned as she followed the others into the module, Lundvik behind them, and looked around as though something should be there that wasn't, "Where's the TARDIS?"
"She's in the shuttle, isn't she?" the Doctor glanced at her, sealing the door behind them and pulling his helmet off.
"She fell into one of the cracks," Evy told him, setting down LJ to take his helmet off.
"Ah," he nodded, "She'll turn up."
"And give you an earful for how much concern you're showing her," Evy muttered.
"Last time you said that, she turned up on the wrong side of the planet!" Clara huffed.
"Clara," Evy looked at her, "All you need to know is that Courtney is safe, she really is. Right now though, we are not. Right now, the Earth is not. We need you to focus and help us. Ok?"
Clara let out a huff of breath through her nose at that.
"If you want more proof," the Doctor frowned at Clara for her reaction, "Just phone her and see for yourself."
"And how do you propose I do that?" Clara put her hands on her hips, "It's not like I have her number."
"What about the school? Does the secretary have her number?"
"I can't. The secretary hates me. She thinks I gave her a packet of TENA Lady for Secret Santa. Look, Courtney's posting stuff on Tumblr. Doesn't that know where you are?" she looked more at Lundvik for that, knowing Evy's distaste and the Doctor's general lack of interest in the internet's social media sites.
"I don't know," the woman shrugged, "I'm not a historian!"
"Here," Evy sighed, holding out a hand to Clara, "Give me your phone."
Clara frowned but handed it over, watching as Evy began to sonic it.
"And now, if we could focus," the Doctor began, "I know what the problem is…oh," he grimaced, catching sight of something in Evy's mind as she fiddled with Clara's phone, an image of the moon, of them in spacesuits, and moved to her side seeing she'd found Courtney's tumblr, "She can't post that! She can't put pictures of us online!"
"Working on that dear," Evy remarked, flicking the sonic at the wall where a monitor came to life, showing Courtney sitting in the TARDIS, perfectly alive and safe, "Though I believe you were working on the moon?"
"Already worked on the moon," he shrugged, "Ended up with a Greek letter for it."
Evy couldn't help but smirk at that, shaking her head as LJ huffed, seeming to realize that his father was talking about the both of them. She glanced up at the monitor, "Hello, Courtney."
Courtney jumped and looked up, catching sight of them and moving closer to the monitor, "Yeah?"
"The Doctor would like me to inform you that you can't put pictures of us online."
"Are you ok?" Clara hurried to Evy's side, looking up at Courtney who just gave her an odd look for it.
"Er, I'm fine," Courtney remarked, "What's up?"
"I told you," Evy whispered to Clara, "Internal gravity and shielding, she's safer than anyone in the universe at the moment."
"I don't like this," Clara replied just as quietly.
"I know," Evy sighed, reaching out to touch her shoulder, "And I'm sorry, but you have to see it through to the end Clara. You'll understand why then. Can you trust us till then?"
Clara nodded.
"You said you know what the problem is?" Lundvik turned to the Doctor.
"Yes," he nodded quickly, "Yes. It's a rather big problem."
"Ok," Clara took a breath and looked at him, "Do you want to share it with the class?"
"Well, I had a little hypothesis…" he glanced at Evy to see her smiling in encouragement, which told him that she might know what he was guessing and that he was on the right track, "The seismic activity, the surface breaking up, the variable mass, the increase in gravity, the fluid…I scanned what's down there. What do you say, boyo?" he looked at LJ, squatting down to hold up his sonic to the boy, "Want to see what your dear old dad battled through monstrous germs to find?"
LJ beamed and nabbed the sonic out of his hands before he could even finish, about to flick it when the Doctor reached out to gently guide him to point it at a mobile console nearby so that it would work.
A moment later there was an enormous holographic projection of the Moon floating before them in 3D.
"Well done!" the Doctor cheered, holding up his hand for a high-five from his son, "You see?" he looked at Clara and Lundvik, knowing Evy already seemed to know what was happening, "The moon isn't breaking apart. Well, actually, it is breaking apart, and rather quickly. We've got about an hour and a half. But that isn't the problem. It's not infested."
"What are they, then, those things?" Courtney asked from the monitor behind him.
"Bacteria. Tiny, tiny bacteria living on something very, very big. Something that weighs about 1.3 billion tons. Something that's living. Something growing," he slowly stood, his eyes locking onto Evy's as she smiled more, making him grin at solving the puzzle.
"Growing?" Clara, though, seemed confused.
"LJ?"
The boy blinked and looked at his father, confused, till the Doctor gave a small flick of his wrist that had LJ turning and flicking the sonic once more, changing the image to make the moon transparent…revealing what looked like a large, white dragon thing, there appeared to be wings but they couldn't be sure if it was really wings or some sort of thin membrane to help give it extra protection while it rested, curled inside the moon.
"That lives under the moon?" Courtney breathed.
"No," Evy shook her head.
"What?" Clara looked at her.
"That IS the moon," she turned to Clara with a gentle smile, "The moon surrounds IT."
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Lundvik demanded.
"All these cracks you're seeing, they aren't the moon breaking apart, it's just…the shell of a creature starting to shift as the being inside hatches."
Clara blinked at that, "Huh?"
"The moon's an egg," the Doctor said simply.
"Has it, er, has it always been an egg?"
"Yes," Evy gave a small laugh, "For a hundred million years or so."
"Just…just growing," the Doctor smiled at the image, at the creature just sleeping contentedly, breathing softly, "Just getting ready to be born."
"Ok…so the moon has never been the moon?"
"No, no, no, no," the Doctor shook his head, "It's never been dead. It's just taking a long time to come alive."
"Is it a chicken?" Courtney called.
"No," Evy laughed.
"Cos, for a chicken to have laid an egg that big…"
"Courtney, don't spoil the moment," the Doctor huffed.
"But…" Clara shook her head, frowning at the hologram, "What is it?"
The Doctor couldn't help but smile as he watched his son walk the few paces to the hologram, reaching out to try and touch the hologram, seeming to be petting the creature gently even with his hand distorting the image, "I think that it's unique. I think that's the only one of its kind in the universe. I think that that is utterly beautiful."
"Pretty," LJ murmured, before spinning around, grinning up at his mother and opening his mouth.
"No," she cut in, "If you can't have a spider or a panther for a pet, you are NOT having one of those."
LJ pouted and huffed, crossing his arms.
The Doctor had only just started to chuckle at his son's antics…when Lundvik spoke and truly spoiled the moment.
"How do we kill it?"
"What?" the Time Lords all looked at her.
"Why'd you want to kill it?" Clara stared at her in horror.
"It's a little baby," even Courtney was on their side.
"How do we kill it?" Lundvik repeated.
"We don't," Evy shook her head.
"Yes," the Doctor agreed, "There will be no killing of the moon."
"Fine," Lundvik huffed, "Then how do we kill that thing?" she pointed violently at the creature.
The Doctor opened his mouth to repeat what Evy had said, that they were NOT going to kill the creature, when Evy spoke, startling him with her words, "You DO have all those bombs stashed away," she reminded the woman, "IF that's what you want to do."
"Will that do it?" Lundvik frowned.
'Evy?' the Doctor frowned at his Link, not having expected her to even bring up something that would help kill the creature. Surely she had to know that even mentioning the bombs would remind the woman of their existence and make Lundvik consider killing the creature all the more.
Evy glanced at him, 'I don't like it,' she echoed Clara's words, 'But…they need to know,' she gave him a pleading look, 'They need to know that the bombs will work, if they choose to use them. Just…trust me.'
He nodded slightly and looked back at Lundvik, "A hundred nuclear bombs set off right where we are, right on top of a living, vulnerable creature? It'll never feel the sun on its back."
"And then what?" Lundvik looked between them, "Will the moon still break up? You said…you said we had an hour and a half?"
"Without the creature pushing its way out," Evy sighed, "No, the shell wouldn't break up."
"Yes, the gravity of the little dead baby will pull all the pieces back together again," the Doctor added with a frown to Lundvik, who was still looking at this in terms of the moon being a rock and not an egg…and it was even more unsettling to him. For all his jokes before about the moon and things, with Evy's real name in mind, this was hitting too close to home. Because, for him, the moon of his life WAS alive as well, was a living, breathing being…just like this moon was, "Of course, it won't be very pretty. You'd have an enormous corpse floating in the sky. You might have some very difficult conversations to have with your kids."
"I don't have any kids," the woman stated bluntly.
"Stop!" Clara cut in, shaking her head, her eyes closed for a moment before she took a breath and looked at them, "Right, listen. This is a…this is a life. I mean, this must be the biggest life in the universe…"
"It's not even been born!" Courtney agreed.
"It is killing people," Lundvik stressed, "It is destroying the Earth!"
"You cannot blame a baby for kicking!" Clara argued.
"Let me tell you something. You want to know what I took back from being in space? Look at the edge of the Earth," Lundvik gestured out the window, to the image of the Earth hanging in space, "The atmosphere, that is paper thin. That is the only thing that saves us all from death. Everything else, the stars, the blackness. That's all dead. Sadly, that is the only life any of us will ever know."
"There's life here," Courtney frowned, "There's life just next door."
"Look, when you've grown up a bit, you'll realize that everything doesn't have to be nice. Some things are just bad. Anyway, you ran away. It's none of your business."
Courtney glared at that, "I want to come back," she stated, if she wasn't allowed to have a say because she wasn't there, then she would BE there to do it.
"Courtney," Clara shook her head, "You'll be safer where you are."
Evy glanced over at where Lundvik was starting to ender the codes to the bombs as Courtney spoke again, "Look, I'm sorry. I want to come back, ok? I want to help."
"The DVDs," Evy told her, pulling her gaze away from where it had shifted to Clara with a regretful look in her eyes, and forced herself to turn to Courtney…if her plan was going to work, they would need the TARDIS back, "On the blue book shelf just up the stairs, pick one and put it in the slot on the console. It'll trigger an autopilot that will bring the TARDIS to us."
"Right," Courtney nodded.
"And make sure you hang on to the console," the Doctor called as Courtney disappeared off to the side, "Otherwise the TARDIS will leave you behind."
"So what do we do?" Clara walked over to them as Evy picked up LJ, "Huh?" she looked between them, "What do we do?"
But the Doctor was just staring at Evy, a frown on his face as she stared right back, clutching LJ to her, something passing between them that she couldn't read. She could see Evy's eyes turn pleading only moments before the Doctor gave a small nod.
"Nothing."
She blinked at the Doctor's response, "What?"
"We don't do anything," the Doctor turned to her, keeping her from seeing Evy letting out a relieved breath, "I'm sorry, Clara. We can't help you."
"Of course you can help," Clara's eyes widened.
"No," he shook his head, "The Earth isn't our home. The moon's not our moon, not my moon," he glanced at Evy who nodded and back, "Sorry."
"Come on," Clara shook her head, not believing what she was hearing, "Hey…"
Even LJ seemed a bit confused by their words.
"Listen, there are moments in every civilization's history in which the whole path of that civilization is decided," the Doctor told her, holing to pull LJ's suspicion away with another 'epic speech' to distract him, "The whole future path. Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now. Now, you've got the tools to kill it," he glanced at Lundvik for that, "You made them. You brought them up here all on your own, with your own ingenuity," and back to Clara with a gentle smile, "You don't need a Time Lord. Kill it. Or let it live. We can't make this decision for you."
"Yeah, well, I can't make it…" Clara began to argue, the added remark that she wasn't human either on the tip of her tongue before she seemed to realize what she was about to say and snapped her mouth shut.
Evy nodded softly at that, "You CAN," she told Clara.
"What, a…a school teacher and an astronaut?"
"Who's better qualified?" the Doctor laughed lightly.
"The Earth was once saved by a kiss-o-gram and a driller," Evy remarked, "There's no one better to make this choice than you, Clara."
"What about…I don't know, the President of America!" Clara shouted.
"Oh, take something off his plate," the Doctor waved his hand, "He makes far too many decisions anyway."
"She," Lundvik called.
"She," he amended, "Sorry. She hasn't even been into space," he told Clara, "She hasn't been to another planet. How would she even know what to do?"
Clara shook her head at them, "Please…I am asking you for help."
"Listen, we all went to dinner in Berlin in 1937, right?" the Doctor tried to deter her, "We didn't nip out after pudding and kill Hitler. We've never killed Hitler. And you wouldn't expect us to kill Hitler. The future is no more malleable than the past."
"Ok," Clara's voice took on a threatening tone, "Don't you do this to make some kind of point!"
"We're sorry Clara," Evy gave her an apologetic look, "Sometimes points have to be made, and the one we're trying to make is too important for us to muck it up."
"So, actually, no, we're not really sorry," the Doctor remarked, "It's your moon, it's your choice."
"And you're just going to stand there?" Clara scoffed.
The Doctor looked over as they heard the wheezing of the TARDIS growing louder in the center of the room, disrupting the hologram, "Absolutely not," he told her, heading for the doors, his hand on Evy's back as they went, stepping aside to let Courtney out before he helped his Link step inside.
"Doctor…" Clara frowned, frozen in place as she watched Evy enter.
"A teenager, an astronaut and a schoolteacher," the Doctor smiled at them from the doorway.
"Hang on a minute," Lundvik stared at the TARDIS, "We can get in there, can't we? You can sort it out with that thing."
"No," the Doctor looked at them, his gaze settling on Clara, "Some decisions are too important not to make on your own."
And, with that, he shut the doors on them, locking them behind him and hurrying to the console, nodding at Evy who pulled a lever and sent them off into the Vortex. He waited till they had fully dematerialized, till they couldn't hear Clara calling for them any longer, before he braced his hands on the console and bowed his head a moment.
"Thank you," Evy spoke, moving over to him and putting her hand on his arm, "For trusting me with this."
He looked up at her, smiling softly, thinking about the plan she had revealed to him only moments before the TARDIS had arrived, her plan for some sort of existential crisis Clara was facing, and what she needed him to do to set in motion, "It's a hell of a gamble," he warned her.
"I know," she nodded, swallowing hard, "But…this is something Clara needs to confront…and she can't do it with us there, not with Time Lords around. It's something she needs to realize on her own."
"I just hope she does," he murmured, "She may be a Time Lady now, but she's still got that bit of pudding brain in her," he leaned in and kissed her gently, resting his forehead to hers, "I hope this works."
"So do I," Evy agreed, closing her eyes and just…letting herself rest against him a moment, she really, really hoped this worked.
~8~
The Time Lords were silent, standing before the monitor of the console, waiting, watching, hoping that they hadn't been wrong, that they hadn't mucked this up, and that Clara would pull through this. Evy had read about this moment, this particular moment in time, had researched it ages ago, the knowledge of it drifting to the back of her mind and the Doctor's as well. There was going to be a transmission, there was going to be a transmission that changed the fate of the planet, or so the history books said.
Right now, they were waiting for that.
They'd been standing there, staring at the monitor, at the countdown that Lundvik had set for the bombs, one hour, one hour to make a decision about the moon-egg and what to do with it. One hour for Clara, Courtney, and Lundvik to decide. And it was counting down, the minutes seeming to tick down like seconds to their minds.
But there was going to be a transmission, and they needed to see what it said, they needed to see what Clara would do, because from what they knew of Lundvik and Courtney, it would be Clara that thought to make a transmission.
Just as the countdown reached 45 minutes left, Clara's face appeared on a monitor, "Hello, hello. Hello, Earth. We have a terrible decision to make. It's an uncertain decision and we don't have a lot of time. The ones who normally help, they've gone," the Doctor and Evy glanced at each other for that, "Maybe they're not coming back. In fact, I…I really don't think they are. We're on our own. We can kill this creature," the image shifted to the moon, to the creature inside it, "Or we can let it live. We don't know what it's going to do, we don't know what's going to happen when it hatches. If it will hurt us, help us, or just leave us alone. We have to decide together. So, an innocent life vs. the future of all mankind. We have 45 minutes to decide. This is the last time we'll be able to speak to you, but you can send us a message. If you think we should kill the creature, turn your lights off. If you think we should take the chance, let it live, leave your lights on. We'll be able to see. Goodnight, Earth."
The Doctor let out a breath as the transmission ended, the screen fading to static for a moment before returning to the countdown, "She's clever," he murmured, "No denying that came from her Time Lady side."
"Oh I don't think so," Evy remarked, "I think it was a very human thing to do."
"But what will the humans decide?" the Doctor glanced at her.
"Time can be rewritten," she said softly.
"I hope this period won't," the Doctor admitted, "This, what you learned happened…it will make everything worth it in the end."
Evy swallowed hard at that, hearing the unspoken warning in his words, that if this changed, if the wrong decision happened…then everything she was putting Clara through would be for nothing, "Come on," she took his hand and led him towards the TARDIS doors, glancing back at LJ who was still working on his puzzle, having gotten bored of staring at the ticking numbers with his parents.
They pushed open the doors and looked down at the Earth, hanging in space, the TARDIS close enough where they could make out the lights of the different countries. And there they stood, still as statues, watching, the Doctor glancing at his watch from time to time.
"30 minutes," he murmured…when the first set of lights began to turn OFF.
Evy let out a breath, seeing it, but they waited more.
"15 minutes," he reported, the lights now more than halfway dark.
Evy closed her eyes, her hand gripping his tightly…when they reached…
"5 minutes," he whispered.
She opened her eyes to see the entire planet going dark right before her eyes. The entire planet had turned off their lights, the humans had spoken…and they'd just voted to kill the creature in the moon.
"It's time then," she nodded to herself, turning to him, "If it's going to happen, it'll happen right now."
He gave her a solemn nod and they walked back to the console, trying to keep their pace calm and sedate so as not to alert their son to what was happening. If they were wrong about what was coming, LJ didn't need to see this.
The timer had gone to under a minute by the time they reached it, nearing 30 seconds as they watched on baited breath, both of them reaching out to grip a control of the console, needing to be fast if it got too close…
Their knuckles were white from their gripping when the countdown reached 2 seconds…and STOPPED.
"Thata girl Clara," Evy nearly sagged in relief, turning to hug the Doctor tightly at the sheer weight that had just lifted off her in seeing that timer freeze as it had.
"We need to go," the Doctor murmured in her ear, "We need to show them, they have to SEE it to understand."
Evy nodded quickly and pulled away, the two of them hurrying to get the TARDIS out of space and back onto the moon, onto the module. They ran to the doors the second the box thumped down and threw them open to see Lundvik glaring at Clara, who was staring at the woman with wide eyes, Courtney looking between the two women, unsure of what to do.
"Oi!" the Doctor called, "One, two, three, into the TARDIS."
"Quickly, quickly!" Evy urged them.
"What's happening?" Lundvik frowned at them.
"Come and see," Evy held out a hand to them, Courtney quickly taking it as Evy tugged her into the box.
"Come on you lot, move!" the Doctor nodded his head towards the box, Lundvik moving into it as Clara hesitated, looking at the Doctor with an unreadable expression, "Clara?"
"Yeah," Clara nodded slowly, "I'm coming," she still hesitated a moment longer before stepping past him and into the box.
He frowned, watching her pass, but quickly shut the door and ran to help his Link pilot the box back to Earth where they'd have the best view of what was going to happen now.
"Bloody idiots," he glanced up at Lundvik muttering at them, "Bloody irresponsible idiots…"
"Mind your language," Evy shot her a warning look, "Our son is present."
The Doctor snorted, "He's probably heard worse from Jack."
"Don't remind me," Evy muttered, "Don't remind HIM. We've only just gotten him to stop with the bad words."
The Doctor chuckled and leaned against her to pull a lever on her other side.
"You should have left me there," Lundvik moved to Evy's other side, "Let me die. I wanted to die up there with the universe in front of me, not being crushed to death on Earth!"
"Nobody's going to die," the Doctor rolled his eyes at her.
"Just give us one more mo," Evy told her, "And you'll see exactly what we mean."
She pulled a lever and the box landed with a thump, "Come on," she moved to the doors, pulling them open as the Doctor scooped up LJ to carry him out.
They'd parked on a beach, the ocean waves gently coming in before them, the sky clear, the clouds white as ever, everything absolutely calm…
Save for the fact that the 'moon' was literally breaking apart.
Though the effect was diminished by the beautiful sight of the creature inside it spreading its wings and taking its first breath, feeling the warmth of the sun on it, and being able to look upon the universe for the first time ever.
"What's it doing?" Courtney whispered as they stared in awe of the creature moving its arms.
"It's feeling the sun on itself," the Doctor smiled, "It's getting warm. The chick flies away and the eggshell disintegrates. Harmless."
"Did you know?" Clara glanced at them.
"You made the decision, Clara," Evy smiled at her, "Humanity made its choice known."
"No," Lundvik frowned, shaking her head, "We ignored humanity."
"Did you?" Evy glanced over at them, almost beaming at Clara though the girl just looked away and back at the sky.
Lundvik let out a deep breath, "So what happens now, then?" she turned to them when they said nothing, "Tell me what happens now."
"Eves?" the Doctor looked at her.
She gave a small laugh, stepping closer to him and putting her hand on LJ's back as the boy beamed and waved at the creature, "If the path stays the same as now…humans will start venturing into space in the mid-21st century, faster and farther than ever before. And so it will keep doing, till the very end of time," she locked eyes with the Doctor, both of them thinking about the End of the Universe, both of them having been there, both of them having seen the progression of the human journey into space, "They stopped, once, in 2049, they'd stopped going into space…till something…amazing happened," she nodded at the moon though the others were all looking at her, "And it made them want to go out there and see what other amazing things the Universe could offer, on the moon, on Mars, out into the farthest reaches of space and time."
"Not bad for a girl from Coal Hill School and her teacher, eh?" the Doctor smiled at them.
Courtney started to grin at that thought, that she had helped set humanity on that course, and looked back at the creature, only to gasp, "Oh, my gosh! It laid a new egg," she pointed, making them look up at where a brand new egg was resting in the old one's place, another, newer moon, hanging above the earth, "It's beautiful. Ooh, it's beautiful."
"That's what we call a new moon," the Doctor laughed at the sight of the white, pristine orb, flattened and without craters, before he reached out and took Evy's hand, "Or a regenerated moon."
Evy shook her head at him but couldn't help but laugh at that, she was alright with that reference.
Courtney looked over at Lundvik, "You can be the first woman on that."
"I think that somebody deserves a thank you," the Doctor remarked, eyeing the woman.
"Yeah, probably," Lundvik nodded, seeing them both glancing at Clara, the girl standing there with her arms crossed, completely silent, staring at the moon, "Thank you," she offered the woman, drawing Clara's attention just long enough for her to add, "Thank you for stopping me. Thank you for giving me the moon back."
Clara gave her one more nod and turned back to the moon.
"I wonder what it is though," Courtney mused, frowning at the sky, the creature nowhere in sight any longer.
Evy just smiled at that, making the Doctor look at her curiously. She gave him a playful shrug, 'I DID tell the Star Whale that I didn't think he was the last of his kind,' she nodded at the moon, 'Seems I was right.'
His eyes widened at that, his gaze snapping back to the moon, before he laughed, shaking his head in wonder. He could see a resemblance to the Star Whale from the creature. If the Star Whale was male, and that one in the egg was female, the extra little 'wings' could just be the female's anatomy, similar to how the male Star Whale's appendages had been tentacles.
"Brilliant," he breathed.
"Brilliant!" LJ mimicked his father.
The Doctor smiled at his son, ruffling his hair, before he turned to Lundvik, "Ok, Captain, well, you've got a whole new space program to get together. NASA is er…" he turned in a circle, "It's that way," he pointed behind them.
"About 2,500 miles," Evy added, "So if you're up for one more trip," she nodded at the TARDIS, "We can give you a lift."
"Yes," the Doctor nodded, glancing at Courtney, "You still got your vortex manipulators? We'll give you a run home while we're at it."
Evy moved to push the doors to the TARDIS open, holding it for the Doctor and the others to enter, "Clara," she reached out as the girl passed by last, "Are you ok?"
Clara looked at her with almost blank eyes, "It depends."
"On what?" Evy frowned.
"On what you say to me once those two are off," Clara gestured at Courtney and Lundvik, before stepping further into the console room, leaving Evy looking at her concerned, a deep pit of something starting to form in the pit of her stomach at Clara's expression and words.
~8~
The Doctor and Evy looked up from the console to see Clara walking behind Courtney as the two made their way down the upper stairs towards them, both out of their spacesuits and in their civilian clothing. They glanced at each other at the look on Clara's face, for as blank as she was trying to make it, they could see something like fury bubbling under the surface of it. It made them glad that they'd put LJ to bed early again, they hadn't quite lifted his punishment from the biting incident yet, so the boy wouldn't question why they really didn't want him in the console room at the moment.
Whatever was coming with Clara…it seemed like it was not going to be the good reaction they were hoping for.
"Not that it's any of our business," the Doctor remarked as Clara reached them, "But we both think you did the right thing."
"Yeah, you're right," Clara nodded, "It's none of your business. Come on, Courtney, off you go. Double Geography, right?"
Courtney gave her a look for that, "School's just finished, Miss," she reminded Clara.
"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "5 minutes ago," he double checked, "Shouldn't worry your folks too much to be a bit late getting home yeah?"
Courtney shrugged and started for the door, only to stop in the doorway and turn to them once more, "Can we do it again?"
"Go," Clara said firmly, not giving the others a moment to answer, "Go, go. Chop chop. Home."
Courtney rolled her eyes but left, the Doctor reaching out to start the box off, feeling whatever conversation was coming would be safest in the Vortex…only for Clara to reach out and snap the lever he'd lifted back down.
"Tell me what you knew," she demanded, looking more at the Doctor than Evy, as though she thought HE had been the mastermind behind this event.
"Nothing," the Doctor said truthfully, he really hadn't known anything till the very end, "I told you…"
"Tell me what you knew!" Clara crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed at him, "Tell me or else I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate!"
"Clara!" Evy moved to his side, startled by how vehement she was getting, "He didn't know anything…"
"I knew that eggs are not bombs," the Doctor offered, knowing that the second Evy said that SHE knew what was coming, Clara would go on the attack, and he was NOT going to let his Link face another angry Time Lady alone if he could help it. HE had been the one to trust her, HE had been the one not to question her even when he knew she was planning something, so it was just as much on him as her, "I know they don't usually destroy their nests."
"Clara, the point is that we knew you would always make the best choice," Evy tried to placate her, "That you'd make the RIGHT choice. Because you're..."
Clara shook her head, "You've got to be kidding me," she scoffed, "That is…that is a load of utter rubbish!"
"Clara…what happened back there, it wasn't a decision WE could make," Evy tried to explain.
"Then why go there!?" Clara shouted, "Why leave? Why not even just STAND there? Was it for Courtney, was that it?"
"No," Evy shook her head, "We didn't want to influence you."
"And Courtney didn't need that trip," the Doctor waved it off as well, "She would always become the President of the United States, meet this bloke called Blinovitch…"
"Oh shut up!" Clara snapped, "Shut up, shut up!"
"Look, Clara, we didn't do it for Courtney," the Doctor tried to calm her down, both Time Lords starting to get a little concerned, this was…so far from the reaction they'd expected they weren't sure what to do or say that wouldn't set her off, "I didn't know what was going to happen. Do you think I'm lying?"
Clara was nearly panting, tears in her eyes, her expression so, so angry that it was worrying them, "I don't know," she tried to calm herself, "I don't know. If you didn't do it for her, I mean…"
"Clara," Evy sighed, "We did it for YOU."
"What?" Clara shook her head, thrown, "What could this trip possibly have done for me?" she scoffed, "Nothing! That's what. It was pointless! It was a…a…cruel situation to put me in. It was…it was cheap, it was pathetic. It was…"
"It was meant to HELP you Clara," Evy cut in, holding her ground against the girl. No matter if Clara was her son's Link, or a Time Lady, or anything, she was still a young woman, and she was not going to let anyone talk to her or shout at her in her own home, not even Clara.
"Help me?" Clara gaped at them, "That was NOT helping me!"
"It was," Evy nodded, firm, "It was us giving you a chance to realize something about yourself. It was us trying to help you find yourself, and understand who you are."
"Who I am?" Clara echoed once more, "How did that help me understand anything? I nearly didn't press that button!"
She almost let the alien die for the sake of the humans, and something twisted in her gut at the thought that...if the world HAD ended because of the moon breaking up...she'd just picked the alien over the entirety of the Earthling human race. And that nearly made her sick to think, because a small voice in the back of her head niggled at her that she couldn't have picked the humans over the alien, one that might be the last of its kind, that an alien shouldn't have had to be forced to pick over another alien or humans. So what did it mean that she picked the alien? Was it the right thing to do? Or was it the alien part of her driving her to do it?
"But you DID, and THAT was the point!"
Clara opened her mouth to demand more answers…when something else hit her, something much more disturbing than why she might have picked the alien over the humans, it was the fact that she'd even had to make that choice in the first place...and WHY, and what had led to it being up to HER, "…YOU knew," she breathed, the realization hitting her so firmly in the gut that she actually took a few steps back, all of Evy's little comments coming back to her in a rush, all the little remarks about how the trip was important and she had to see it through to the end and...just everything, "You knew, you knew exactly what was going to happen the entire time didn't you? YOU did, not the Doctor but…but YOU?"
Evy let out a long breath, but nodded, "I did."
"And you…you just…you let it happen?" Clara shook her head, "No…no, you MADE it happen!" she looked at Evy accusingly, "You put me in that position, you LEFT me. You forced me into that…that horrible situation! And that…that isn't right…because you…" the tears started to fall from her eyes as the accusation started to turn to anger, "I expected that from him," she jerked a thumb at the Doctor, who had stepped back slightly to allow Evy to hold her own against Clara, knowing his Link wouldn't appreciate him trying to face down Clara for her when she was fully capable, "Not from you, never from YOU," and then the anger changed to betrayal, "You were supposed to be the one that stopped him and kept him in line, kept him from doing things like this and I don't understand, no one would...you wouldn't…" and melted from betrayal to utter horror, "Or is this it?" she looked between them, the tears falling too much for her to try and hold them back.
"Is what it?" Evy said quietly, not even able to get a read off of Clara's mind it was racing and so cluttered.
"Is this what it means to be a Time Lady?" Clara shook her head, because she knew Evy-her-friend wouldn't do that to her, but...would Evy-the-Time-Lady, would any Time Lady have done that? Her mind drifted back to what Danny had said about how the two were talking about the threat to the school, like they were outside it, because they weren't human. And now Evy had done the same, Evy had put her into a situation, without care, because Evy wasn't human enough to care, that had to be it...but if it was...if THAT was what alien-Evy was like...what did that mean for HER? "That…that you force people into situations like this and just…just stand on the side and watch? That you see them terrified and horrified and…and needing help, begging for help, with too much put on them and just…stand there and ignore them? Is that what a Time Lady truly is cos…cos if it IS," she swallowed hard, stepping back from them, "Then I don't want it. I don't want to become that, become you," she looked Evy dead in the eye as she said that, Evy merely straightening her back and looking her right back, "I don't want to be that. I don't want to turn into that and that's…that's exactly what'll happen if I stay with you, isn't it? I'll stay with you and travel with you so much and so long that I'll forget what it means to have ever been human?" she shook her head, "I won't let that happen. So you just…just go, leave me on Earth with what's left of my humanity and go away!"
"Clara!" Evy shouted as Clara turned and ran out of the TARDIS, slamming the door behind her, "Clara!"
"Well," the Doctor murmured after a moment, making his way over to his Link as she slumped, resting his hands on her shoulder and squeezing comfortingly, "That backfired rather spectacularly."
Evy let out a scoffing breath at that, "Do you think?"
The worst part was...Clara had completely missed the point of what she was trying to help her understand.
And now...now it seemed like she'd never get the chance to explain it, explain the point that Clara had missed so entirely.
~8~
The Doctor was standing at the console, absently fiddling with one of the controls, the TARDIS parked just outside Clara's flat building, not inside her flat, but just outside the Powell Estates, waiting, hoping Clara might see them and, when she'd calm down, come speak to them so they could explain. Evy curled up in the armchair on the mid-level, watching the Doctor working away, not wanting to see the monitor showing her what she feared, that Clara wasn't going to come speak to them.
This entire mess...it was all her fault, but if Clara would just give her a chance to explain the point of the trip, she knew it would be cleared up quickly. Until then...all they could do was hope and wait.
She looked over when a knock sounded on the TARDIS doors, glancing at the Doctor before she slowly got up and moved over to the doors, opening one...
Only to see J...no, the Captain...standing there with a very, very cross look on his face.
"I'm going to ask you one question," he told them, stepping in, "Just one. And I would very much appreciate an answer because Clar's not speaking to me at the moment," he grit his teeth at that fact, "She doesn't even want to see me. So tell me," he looked at them, "What. Did. You. Do. To. Clara?"
A/N: Ooh, angry Captain lol :) I'm probably a little evil to leave it like that, but I hope you liked the chapter :) We'll find out exactly what the Time Lords were planning and why they left everything up to Clara very soon ;) I can say Clara might feel more than a little guilty for blowing up at them here when she finds out what it was all really about ;)
I know many of you didn't want Clara to blow up at the Doctor and Evy, especially with her not being with Danny in the story. But I felt like it was a really powerful and emotional moment and, with a slightly different context to it, it could really be a good moment of understanding, internal realization, and growth for Clara when she realizes how badly she reacted and what really happened on the Moon. She thinks it was about showing her what it means to be a Time Lady, to be the one to make those big and horrifying decisions on behalf of the humans...and she couldn't be more wrong ;) I also wanted to show that Evy can make mistakes, she thought that this plan of hers would work, and work well, with a good reaction from Clara at the end of it, that Clara would work out what the intent was, but it went over Clara's head and it blew up in her face :( She made a mistake in how she handled this situation and the consequence was Clara getting the wrong message and the fight they had :(
Small note, I just got back from an interview that came up (apologies for this chapter being later than normal!) and I'm going to try and get my WWTW2 story posted today, but it may end up being a day late (possibly, at the very absolute worst, 2 days late as I've also got Dragon's Fire to update tomorrow and a potential surprise as well). I'll try to get it up as soon as possible, but the time I'd put away to edit it before posting was eaten up :(
Next chapter...tiny Time Lords are cute, bow-ties are evil, but ghost stories are fun! ;)
Some notes on reviews...
I understand that, 12 took me a little while to get used to and I'm still not 100% onboard with him just yet ;) I don't really think it matters if he's Welsh or Scottish to call LJ 'boyo' lol :) My uncle used to call my brother that all the time growing up and he's as American as you can get...though his parents were both German lol :) It sort of started with 11 calling him boyo and it just sort of stuck through to 12, sort of a little continuity to help his son with the transition of his father looking one way and then being another :) But yup, J loves giving nicknames, says it to Clara in Akhaten, there's Riv, V, Jen-Jen, Straxy, JD, also Auntie M, Aunt D, and many more, he's very affectionate in the giving of nicknames :) Lol, I really wanted Ian to just go with it so I'm glad that came across :) I feel like after all he's seen and likely heard of from other companions here and there, that he's at a point where nothing surprises him when it comes to the Doctor anymore :)
Thank you! I think FF glitched, but I went back and removed the repeat-section, thanks! :)
Lol, I'm glad you liked the Moon Moon bit :) My sister showed me it on tumblr and I was like, oh boy, I could imagine the Doctor saying that to Evy on the moon and sort of slipped it in there ;)