The Leaf

"I bet I will!" she crossed her arms. "What is that box, anyway? Why have you got a box? Is it like a snogging booth?"

"Clara…" the Doctor paused, turning to look at Clara again. "A what?"

"Is that what you do, bring a booth? There is such a thing as too keen."

Lights began to flicker off down the street and Adelaide soundly cursed the fact that she didn't have a TARDIS key of her own. "Clara, look around."

Clara frowned. "What's going on? What's happening? Is the Wi-Fi switching on the lights?"

"The Wi-Fi is switching on the people," Adelaide said, pointing to the man across the street.

Clara's eyes widened, gasping. "What is that thing?"

"A walking base station," the Doctor said. "You saw one earlier."

"I saw a little girl."

"It must have taken an image from your subconscious, thrown it back at you. Active camouflage." He hit his forehead. "They could be everywhere."

"Doctor? Adelaide?" Clara pointed towards London, where even more lights had started to turn off. "What's going on? Our lights are on and everyone else's off. Why?"

The Doctor looked up at a sound above them. "Some planes have Wi-Fi."

"I'm sorry?"

There was a plane falling out of the sky heading directly for them. "We must be one hell of a target right now." The Doctor pulled the TARDIS key from inside his jacket. "You, me, Adelaide, box, right now!" He grabbed Clara and pulled her into the box, both Time Lords running to pilot. "Yes, it's a spaceship. Yes, it's bigger on the inside. No, we don't have time to talk about it."

"But…but…but…but it's…"

"Shut up, please," the Doctor snapped. "Short hops are difficult."

"Bigger on the inside. Actually bigger."

The Doctor pulled a final lever, making something spark, and then ran back to the door. "Right, come on."

"We're going to go back out there?"

Adelaide hurried up to the door. "We've moved; it's a spaceship."

"Away from the plane?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Not exactly." He threw the doors open, revealing that they had managed to land on the crashing plane. The Time Lords hurried to the cockpit.

"How did we get here?"

"It's a ship, Adelaide told you. It's all very sciency."

"This is the plane? The actual plane?" Clara frowned at the passengers. "Are they all dead?"

"Asleep," Adelaide told her, having scanned them when they first arrived.

The Doctor broke into the cockpit just as the plane hit more turbulence. "What is going on?" Clara asked them both, following the Time Lords in. "Is this real? Please, tell me what is happening!"

"I'm the Doctor. She's Adelaide. We're aliens from outer space. We're a thousand years old, we've got two hearts, and I can't fly a plane!" he spun to Adelaide. "Can you?"

"I thought you could!"

He looked to Clara, but the human shook her head. "No."

"Oh, fine. Let's do it together." The Doctor grabbed the controls and, somehow, managed to get the plane up just before it actually crashed into the rooftops. "Whoo!" He fell back. "Would a victory roll be too showy offy?"

Adelaide pulled the Doctor away from the controls before he could even attempt anything else as the pilots started to wake up again. "You are not going to do that."

"What the hell's going on?" a pilot groaned.

"Well, I'm blocking your Wi-Fi so you're waking up, for a start." He tapped the pilot's shoulder. "Tell you what, do you want to drive?"

Adelaide pulled the Doctor back to the TARDIS, moving past Clara as she, somehow, sipping the tea she'd managed to keep holding without spilling. "Okay…" Clara asked as they started to pilot again. "When are you going to explain to me what the hell is going on?"

The Doctor just looked at Adelaide. "Breakfast?"

"What?" Clara scoffed. "I ain't waiting till breakfast."

"It's a time machine," he reminded her. "You never have to wait for breakfast." They landed the TARDIS with a jolt, stepping out of the TARDIS into daylight and a round of applause. "Thank you, thank you. Yes, magic blue box." He pulled a fez from somewhere on his person and held it out. "All donations gratefully accepted. Roll up, give us your dosh. Pennies, pounds, anything you've got." He hands it to Clara as she finally stopped squinting. "Keep collecting. We need enough for breakfast." He grinned at Adelaide. "Just popping back to the garage."

Clara spun, "garage?", but the Time Lord had already vanished deep into the TARDIS. She looked to Adelaide. "What?"

"I didn't know we had a garage," Adelaide said, shrugging.

"So this is tomorrow, then. Tomorrow's come early."

Before Adelaide could answer, the Doctor drove out of the TARDIS on a motorbike with a small pod attached. "No, it came at the usual time. We just took a shortcut." He waved at the people who were still gathered. "Thank you, thank you. Tomorrow, a camel." He held a helmet out to Adelaide and then Clara. The human didn't need to be told that she was going to be the one riding in the pod.

They all climbed on, though the Doctor put the money from the fez into his pocket when Clara handed it to him, tossing the hat at a random observer. He seemed very pleased about the fact Adelaide had to wrap her arms around him, something Adelaide honestly didn't notice but Clara did.

|C-S|

They had just reached Westminster Bridge when Clara spoke. "If you've got a flying time machine, why are we on a motorbike?"

"I don't take the TARDIS into battle," the Doctor scoffed.

"Because it's made of wood?"

He pouted. "Because it's the most powerful ship in the universe and I don't want it falling into the wrong hands, okay?"

Adelaide glanced at Clara. "And because it's wood."

|C-S|

They sat around a table in a rooftop café that overlooked St. Paul's Cathedral. They'd all just finished eating breakfast, though the Doctor and Adelaide had shared something. It had originally been going good, but then the Doctor had taken the last bite of pancake without asking first.

Adelaide hadn't been happy about that.

Clara put down her fork as she finished. "So if we can travel anywhere in time and space, why did we travel to the morning. What's the point in that?"

"Whoever's after us just spent the entire night looking for us," Adelaide said, eating the final strawberry. "If you're tired…" Clara nodded "imagine how they feel."

The Doctor nodded. "They came the long way round." He'd pulled out Clara's laptop after Adelaide had just taken the plate in order to keep him from taking it all and had started to work on hacking again. "They've got to be close. Definitely London going by the signal distribution. I can hack the lowest level of their operating system but I can't establish a physical location. The security's too good."

"Are you an alien?" Clara asked them."

"We are, I already told you," Adelaide said. "Are you alright with that?"

"Oh, yeah. Think I'm fine."

"Good."

"So, what happens if you do find them? What happens then?"

He shrugged. "We don't know. We can't tell the future, we just work there."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "You don't have a plan?"

"Oh, you know what I always say about plans…"

"What?"

"He doesn't have one."

Clara frowned. "People always have plans."

"Yes…yes, I suppose they do." The Doctor looked at Clara for a second. "So tell us, how long have you been looking after those kids?"

"About a year, since their mum died."

"Okay. Why you? Family friend, I get that, but there must have been others. Why did it have to be you?" He frowned. "You don't really seem like a nanny."

Clara, instead of answering, grabbed the laptop from the Doctor. "Gimmie."

He just grabbed it back. "Sorry, what?"

"You need to know where they physically are. Their exact location."

"Yes…"

"I can do it." Clara grabbed it back, holding it out of his reach.

"Oi, hang on. I need that."

"You've hacked the lower operating system, yeah?" the Time Lord nodded. "I'll have their physical location in under five minutes. Pop off and get me a coffee."

He frowned. "If I can't find them, you definitely can't."

"They uploaded me, remember? I've got computing stuff in my head."

"So do I."

"I have insane hacking skills."

"I'm from space and the future with two hearts and twenty-seven brains."

"And I can find them in under five minutes plus photographs." She paused. "Twenty-seven?"

"Exaggeration," Adelaide said.

"Coffee, go get," Clara gestured towards the main café. "Five minutes, I promise."

"The security is absolute."

"It's never about the security, it's about the people." Clara started to type, moving at a speed that impressed both Time Lords. She glanced up when she felt them staring. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Sorry, no, it's nothing. It's just, you're a nanny. Isn't that a bit, well, Victorian?"

Clara frowned. "Victorian?"

"You're young. Shouldn't you be doing, you know, young things, with young people?"

Clara eyed him since he appeared younger than Adelaide. "You mean like you, for instance?"

"No…no, I didn't."

Adelaide sighed, pulling the Doctor standing. "Come on."

They walked into the café together, going straight for the coffee bar. She also had to drag him away from the sweets. "Three more cappuccinos over there, please," she ordered, keeping a firm grip on the Doctor's hand.

"One moment, ma'am," the barista nodded, turning to the machine…before freezing, straightening. "You realize you haven't the slightest chance of saving your little friend."

The Time Lords stopped. "What?"

The barista flashed blue for a moment, smiling. "One moment, ma'am." He turned again and stopped. "I said, there's not the slightest chance of saving your little friend. And don't annoy the old man. He isn't, in fact, speaking." Another flicker of light and the man continued.

"I'm speaking," they turned as a woman behind them started to speak. "Just using whatever's to hand." The woman glanced out at the patio. "Oh, she's rather pretty, isn't she? Do you like her? Make her like you, too, if you want." The Doctor's jaw tensed, but the woman flickered again. "You alright, sir?"

He tightened his grip on Adelaide's hand. "Yes. Yes, fine." They ran back outside, where Clara was still working. "You okay?"

Clara nodded. "Sure. Setting up stuff. Need a username."

"Learning fast."

"Clara Oswald for the win. Oswin!" she typed that as her username, but the Time Lords stiffened, remembering the Dalek-Clara.

Without speaking, the Time Lords hurried back into the café. "Now I want you to take a look around," the waitress said, walking up. "Go on, have a little stroll and see how impossible your situation is. Go on, take a look. I do love showing off." The woman walked off, but a little girl stood up nearby.

"Just let me show you what control of the Wi-Fi can do for you. Stop!" Everyone in the café froze.

"We saw what you can do last night," the Doctor told her.

"And clear!" The café emptied.

"We can hack anyone in the Wi-Fi once they've been exposed long enough," the news reporter said.

"One of your walking base stations is here," Adelaide said.

"There's always someone close. We've released thousands into the world. They home in on the Wi-Fi like rats sniffing cheese."

The Time Lords walked up to the television. "I don't know who you are or why you're doing this, but the people of this world will not be harmed. They will not be controlled, they will not be…"

"The people of this world are in no danger whatsoever. My client requires a steady diet of living human minds. Healthy, free-range, human minds. He loves and cares for humanity. In fact, he can't get enough of it."

"It's obscene. It's murder."

"It's life. The farmer tends his flock like a loving parent. The abattoir is not a contradiction. No one loves cattle more than Burger King."

"This ends," Adelaide told her. "We are going to end this today."

"How?" the reporter asked. "you don't even know where we are."

"Who's doing this?" the Doctor asked. "Who is your client? Hmm? Answer me!"

But the television just flashed off, ending their conversation. Adelaide stepped back. "We need to get back to Clara." They ran back outside, only to find a base station with the Doctor's face and an unconscious Clara.

"Clara?" the Doctor rushed to her side. "Clara?"

|C-S|

Before she'd been taken, Clara had been able to locate the Shard as the headquarters of the mysterious controller of the Wi-Fi. The Doctor rode towards it as fast as he could on the motorbike, using the anti-grav abilities of the motorbike to scale the side of the building.

When Miss Kizlet, a woman who was mainly responsible for everything that had been happening, entered her office he had his feet up on her desk. "Do come in," she told him.

"Download her."

She glanced at the window, which he had crashed through. "Sorry about the draft."

"Download her back into her body right now."

"I can't."

He swung his legs off, standing and walking to her. "Yes, you can."

"She's a fully integrated part of the data cloud, now. She can't be separated."

He shrugged. "Then download the entire cloud. Everyone you've trapped in there."

She frowned. "You realize what would happen?"

"Yes, those with bodies to go home to would be free."

Kizlet nodded. "A tiny number. Most would simply die."

"They'd be released from a living hell. It's the best you can do for them, so give the order."

Kizlet scoffed. "And why would I do that?"

"Because I'm going to motivate you," he walked past her, "any second now."

"You ridiculous man. Why did you even come here? Whatever for?"

He grinned. "I didn't."

"What?"

"I'm still in the café."

|C-S|

The Doctor had the laptop set up in front of him with Adelaide standing behind him, Clara on the ground. "I'm finishing my coffee with Adelaide," the Doctor continued. "Lovely spot. You hack people, but me? I'm old-fashioned. I hack technology. Here's your motivation." Adelaide soniced the screen.

|C-S|

The base station Doctor pulled off its helmet, letting its head turn around. Kizlet cowered from it. "No, not me! Not me!"

There was a flash of light, bright enough that even the Time Lords could see it from where they were sitting.

|C-S|

They got confirmation that the plan had worked when Clara slowly started to wake up, but the Time Lords didn't wait. However, that night, when she looked out her window she found the blue box waiting again.

Clara knocked and heard Adelaide call from inside. "Come in!" She stepped inside, finding the Time Lords sitting together on the stairs, reading a book together. The Doctor had reading glasses on, though Adelaide honestly looked more like she needed it. Not that Adelaide was that old, but she did look older than the Doctor.

She walked up to the console, leaning on it as she watched them. "So, they come back, do they?"

"You didn't answer my question," the Doctor said.

"What question?"

"You don't seem like a nanny."

Clara sighed. "I was going to travel. I came to stay for a week before I left and during that week…"

"She died," Adelaide said, "and you're returning the favor."

He nodded. "You've got a hundred and one places to see, and you haven't been to any of them, have you? That's why you keep the book."

Clara grinned. "I keep the book because I'm still going."

"But you don't run out on the people you care about." The Doctor took off his glasses. "Wish I was more like that."

"Hindsight is a terrible thing," Adelaide mumbled, sighing.

"You know, the thing about a time machine, you can run away all you like and still be home in time for tea, so what do you say? Anywhere. All of time and space, right outside those doors." He nodded towards them.

"Does this work?"

"Eh?"

"Is this actually what you do? Do you just crook your finger and people just jump in your snog box and fly away?"

The Doctor made a face. "It is not a snog box."

Clara eyed the pair of them. "I wouldn't be so sure about that." She smiled. "Come back tomorrow. Ask me again."

"Why?"

"Because tomorrow, I might say yes." Clara walked back towards the door. "Sometime after seven okay for you?"

"It's a time machine. Any time's okay."

Clara nodded. "See you then."

She'd just reached the door when Adelaide called to her. "Clara? You had a leaf in your book. Why?"

"That wasn't a leaf. That was page one." She gave them a wave and left the TARDIS.

The Time Lords stayed seating for a few more seconds as they both considered Clara. "Right then, Clara Oswald…" the Doctor leaped up, twisting to help Adelaide stand before they both went to the console. "Time to find out who you are."

A/N: What a charming end to their first adventure together. Everything can only go up from here ;)

Notes on reviews:

Tina. And. Maxwell: I'm so glad you're liking them! I'm excited for these three too - writing Clara really made me love her.