Hide (Part 2)
Evy opened the TARDIS door for the Doctor in his spacesuit as his hands were full with the sonic and camera, letting him step out on the molten surface of the Earth, the sky gray with ash. He walked around, scanning with the sonic when he picked up a trace of something, lifting the camera to snap a few photos before heading back in.
Evy shut the doors as the Doctor held his hands up, "Back off!" he shouted, pulling off his helmet, "Hot suit! Hot, hot, hot!"
"You've got that right," Evy nodded and he looked at her, confused, "Hot suit, hot stuff in it," she smiled, leaning in to kiss him, not getting too close to burn herself on his suit though, "I was right," she smiled, pulling away.
"You always are," the Doctor nodded, "About what this time?"
"Very hot," she winked at him, making him grin widely, and headed to the console.
"When are we?" Clara smiled at them, sitting beside LJ on the floor, cross-legged, the boy seeming to be mimicking his mother by 'face-palming' and shaking his head at how embarrassing his parents were.
"6 billion years ago," the Doctor told her.
"I think it's more 4.6," Evy corrected lightly, flipping a few levers.
"And it's a Tuesday," the Doctor added, moving to lean against the console, just watching her work, he loved watching her work.
"Clara!" LJ called, holding up his Tricey toy, "Rar!"
Clara laughed and picked up the T-Rex toy, deepening her voice, "Roar!" she growled, starting to laugh, "Mine is an evil laugh."
"Bad!" LJ clapped, his parents just watching the two fondly, Clara really was fantastic with children, the perfect distraction for LJ at times.
~8~
LJ was pouting as he couldn't see much, there was a black net-like thing over his push pram to keep the giant insects out as they pushed him through a prehistoric jungle, the Doctor still snapping away.
~8~
They landed in the late Victorian era as well, just outside the newly built Caliburn House, snapping more photos of people walking around.
~8~
"Be careful!" Evy warned as she opened the doors to the TARDIS again.
"Back in a mo," the Doctor winked at her and headed to the doors.
"You ok Clara?" Evy asked, seeing Clara by the monitors, a bit…sad.
"Totally," she nodded, smiling tensely, "Peachy keen."
"Bad!" LJ huffed at her, crossing his little arms as he pouted at her, sad that she was lying to him.
"Yes, you are a rather bad liar," Evy remarked, before shrugging, "Give it time, spend long enough around the Doctor you'll be able to lie instantly."
"Oi," the Doctor pouted, looking at Evy. She laughed and kissed her fingers, pressing them to his helmet, unable to really kiss him with it on. He beamed and pointed back at Clara, "Well, don't press any buttons or pull any levers, or make any funny faces. Actually, don't move. Stand completely still. Don't breathe. Well, you can breathe...but shallow breaths and..."
Evy shook her head, "Just go before I smack you Doctor."
He smiled at her and stepped out of the doors, Evy walking to the console after she'd shut them, and flicking the monitor on so they could watch him snapping pictures on a rather barren, desolate planet, red-skied.
"Clara what's wrong?" Evy asked, rubbing Clara's arm as she sighed, the Doctor stepping back into the room.
"Did the TARDIS say something to her?" he walked up to them, "Are you being mean?" and slapped the console.
"If you don't stop slapping her she's going to be mean to YOU," Evy pointed out.
"She's already mean to me," he stuck his tongue out at her, "You girls with your girl codes and things, right? That's a real thing yeah? Girl codes?"
Evy shook her head, "Was it too much?" she asked Clara.
"A bit," Clara admitted, "Have we just watched the entire life cycle of the Earth? Birth to death?"
"Yes!" the Doctor nodded, moving to LJ and tickling him.
"Rar!" LJ held up his dinosaur at him.
"And you're ok with that?" Clara continued.
"Yes," he repeated.
"How can you be?"
"Clara, the TARDIS is…" Evy began.
"Wibbly Vortex and so on," the Doctor cut in, standing and winding an arm around Evy's waist, the suit now cool.
"Not helping dear," she turned to Clara, "It's just…how we see it, it's how we were raised to see it."
"That's not what I mean," Clara continued.
"Ok...some help?" the Doctor frowned as even Evy looked confused, "Context? Cheat sheet? Something?"
"I mean, one minute you're in 1974, looking for ghosts but all you have to do is open your eyes and talk to whoever's standing there. To you, I haven't been born yet...and to you, I've been dead 100 billion years. Is my…" she swallowed, stepping closer to them and speaking quieter so as not to upset LJ, "Body out there somewhere? In the ground?"
"Yes, I suppose it is," the Doctor whispered back, moving away from the console, Evy moving to help him take the suit off.
"But here we are, talking. So I am...a ghost. To you, I'm a ghost...we're all ghosts to you. We must be nothing."
Evy smiled, "Just like Amy," she remarked.
"You're not that," the Doctor agreed, taking off his gloves.
"Then what are we?" Clara frowned, "What can we possibly be?"
"Best!" LJ reached out and tugged her finger hanging by his face, having heard the last part of her question.
"Yes," the Doctor pointed at LJ, "Exactly."
Clara blinked and looked at Evy for help in understanding the two men, "You are the best life forms, the greatest species, the most indomitable giants to ever roam the Universe."
"You are...the only mystery worth solving," the Doctor agreed, stepping out of his suit and straightening his bow-tie, "But right now we have another mystery to solve eh boyo?"
"Ghast!" LJ cheered, eager to find out what it was.
~8~
Evy stood with LJ in her arms as the Doctor set up a slide projector with the photos he'd taken, just bobbing the boy up and down, trying to calm him, he was getting fussy from all the excitement and finally learning what the 'ghast' was.
"What's wrong?" Emma moved over to Clara as she stared at the board of pictures of the ghost, not even needing to be empathetic to see something was bothering her.
"I just saw something I wish I hadn't," she sighed.
"What did you see?"
"That...everything ends."
"No, not everything. Not love..." she glanced back at Palmer, "Not always."
"Right!" the Doctor clapped, "Done! That's it, gather round, gather round. Roll up! Roll up!" he flipped the sonic on the projector as they all gathered around it, powering it up, using it as a clicker to switch the photos, "The Ghast of Caliburn House, never changing, trapped in a moment of fear and torment but what if she's not? What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here? What if a second to her was 100,000 years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box…"
"Blue!" LJ cut in.
"Yes, boyo, a blue one!" the Doctor cheered, getting just as excited as his son, "What if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" he started to flick the sonic, showing the photos of stills of a woman running, dressed in a white suit.
"She's not a ghost," Evy added as the humans stared at the slides, "She IS lost though, a lost soul. Specifically," she flicked her own sonic, turning it to the woman posed, smiling, a profile shot, "Hila Tacorian, a pioneer time traveler from the future."
"Time travel's not possible," Palmer argued, "The paradoxes..."
"Will resolve themselves," Evy cut in.
"By and large," the Doctor agreed.
"How long has she been alone?" Emma stared at the photo, something about that woman…
"Well, time travel's a funny old thing. I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed..." he glanced at his watch, "Three minutes ago."
"Crash landed? Where?"
"In a pocket universe," Evy explained, "Which is just a distorted echo of OUR Universe," she reached up and lightly pulled LJ's hand away from her hair as he tugged on it, "Sometimes they just happen, but they don't usually last long."
The Doctor blew up two balloons, two long ones that looked like snakes or noodles, and tied them so the air wouldn't get out, "Our Universe," he held up a blue one in his right hand, "Hila Tacorian's here," and the red in his left, "In a pocket universe. You're a lantern," he began, starting to twist the balloons together, making the humans flinch at the squeaking noises, "Shining across the dimensions, guiding her home. Back to the land of the liv…" and the blue one popped, "...ing, pretend that didn't happen," he grinned, turning to continue twisting the remaining red balloon.
"But what's she running from?" Emma shook her head.
"Well, that's the best bit. We don't know yet. It could be anything, even…" he held up the balloon, now shaped like a dog, "A puppy!" he cheered, handing it to LJ, "There you go boyo, finally got a pet eh?"
Evy rolled her eyes, "Ignore him," she pointed her sonic at the projector, "THIS is what she's running from…" she flicked it on and the humans gasped, seeing a distorted creature behind a tree, disfigured, on all fours, looking like a lumpy skeleton, which made Evy swallow and look away, she rather hated skeletons.
"Oh," the Doctor frowned, moving to Evy's side and slipping an arm around her, knowing she had a bit of a fear of them.
"What is that?" Clara grimaced.
"I don't know," the Doctor breathed.
Mummy can I have…
'NO,' Evy cut in, already knowing he was going to ask for the creature even not knowing what it was, and she was NOT going to let a skeleton thing in the TARDIS.
"Still!" the Doctor grinned and clapped his hands, "Not to worry!"
"So, what do we do?" Emma looked at them.
"Not 'we,' you..." he looked at Emma "You save Hila Tacorian because you're Emma Grayling. You are the lantern, the rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid. We need some sturdy rope, a blue crystal from Metebelis Three..."
"Plus, some Kendal Mint Cake," Evy added, following him out of the room.
"What?" the Doctor laughed, that was just like something random HE would say.
"Your son is hungry."
~8~
Clara was up on the console level, sitting on the edge of it as Evy sat on one of the side chairs, feeding LJ bits of the cake he'd requested, they were probably going to spoil the kid, but they loved him too much to care. She always tried to keep him from his sweets, but...there were times where she just wanted him to be comforted, like now, and thought one little sweet wouldn't hurt. And, the man he grew up to be, (if they just did what they felt natural, they were sure he'd be that man,) was NOTHING like a spoiled child.
"Can't you just...y'know?" Clara asked, kicking her legs absently.
"What?" the Doctor glanced up from where he was digging through things under the console.
"Fly the TARDIS into the parallel universe?"
"POCKET universe," Evy corrected, "A collapsing pocket universe."
"The TARDIS could get in there, alright," the Doctor nodded, tossing the crystal he'd found in his hand and slipping it into his pocket as he made his way up to them, "But entropy would bleed her power sources, you see?"
Clara stared at him a moment, "Like...racing with a big hole in your petrol tank?"
"You see it's like racing with a big hole in your pet..." he trailed off, looking at her, well, apparently she DID see.
"Well done Clara," Evy nodded, "It would essentially trap the TARDIS there till the pocket universe decayed into the quantum foam…"
"Which would take about three minutes, give or take, you know," the Doctor shrugged, before laughing, seeing icing all over LJ's face, "Oh, my son you are definitely."
Evy just sighed with a fond smile and wiped her son's face off with one of her never-ending-supply of napkins.
~8~
Evy cautiously stepped over the mess of wires she and the Doctor had set up around the music room, LJ in his pram off to the side, eager to see what was going to happen, to see his parents in action, saving someone. He LOVED it when they did that.
The wires though, were a bit difficult to maneuver around, they were everywhere, hooked up to clocks and to a tripod in the middle of the room where a large, white egg-shaped sphere was set up, glowing.
Clara paused in wandering the room herself to look at the egg, tilting her head as she eyed it closely, a soft frown on her face, "What is that?" she reached out to touch it.
"No!" LJ called, having been watching her.
Clara pulled her hand away and looked at him, "Alright, I won't touch it," she promised the little boy, but he crossed his arms and gave her a disbelieving look, humans rarely ever didn't touch what they were told not to touch, "I promise," she added, crossing her heart, but LJ just patted his other heart and she laughed, crossing her right shoulder too, the boy was so used to seeing his parents do that that it sometimes confused him to think humans had only one heart, "But really though," she turned to the Time Lords, who were making sure everything was ready with their sonics, "What is it?"
"It's a subset of the Eye of Harmony," Evy said.
Clara blinked and looked at it, "The Eye of Harmony," she repeated, for some reason...she couldn't help but think of a star.
There was a picture of a supernova she'd seen once that had a nickname 'The Eye of God,' perhaps that was why. But...supernovas, they were dying stars that exploded right? She remembered from science a dying star could go either way, supernova or black hole, and if it was an eye of harmony...and harmony meant balance...was it like...a star that was caught in the middle?
She shook her head, feeling a bit of a dull throbbing starting there, and rubbed it, "I don't..."
"Of course you don't," the Doctor agreed, "Be weird if you did, I barely do myself."
Clara frowned though, not noticing LJ watching her as she just...thought about it. That phrase, 'The Eye of Harmony' it sounded familiar but she couldn't place where.
"Because he has yet to pass his exams," Evy whispered to her, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Oi!" he pointed at her like he was going to say something, when she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, and he turned right back to Emma, not seeing Evy and Clara smirk behind him, "Right, you, sit down," he put a small sort of head-harness on her head with a large blue crystal in the middle of it, "All the way...from Metebelis Three."
"What does it do?" Emma shifted it a bit on her head.
"It'll amplify your natural abilities," Evy explained as she soniced a few of the clocks, "Like a…microphone."
"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "Or a pooper-scooper!"
They stared at him for that one…
Until the clocks started ticking.
"What exactly is this arrangement?" Palmer glanced at a clock
"A psychochronograph."
"Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit, well...make-do and mend?" Palmer frowned as Evy helped the Doctor into a harness.
They'd agreed HE would go in and get Hila, they both knew how she felt about skeletons and whatever the creature was that was after the woman was too much like it. She didn't want to freeze up and be useless, or be distracted and afraid, the Doctor hadn't wanted her to be scared at all…and they refused to let LJ try despite his complaints that he was big enough.
"Non-psychic technology won't work in there," Evy added, buckling the harness up.
"All I need to do is dive into another dimension, find the traveler, help her escape the monster, get home before the entire dimension collapses, and Bob's your uncle," the Doctor grinned.
No making epic speeches! LJ grumbled.
The Doctor smiled and walked over, kneeling before the pram, "I promise boyo," he kissed his son's head.
"Evy?" Emma spoke quietly, "Will it hurt?"
"I'm not going to lie to you Emma," she crouched before the woman, "It will hurt, very much, but you just need to focus on getting Hila and the Doctor home again, ok?"
Emma took a breath and nodded, closing her eyes, the sooner she did this, the sooner it would be over, "I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm speaking to Hila Tacorian."
The Doctor grabbed the end of a rope on a winch, Clara hooking it onto the back of the harness as the clocks went mad, some going backwards, others forwards, some stopping, some replaying the same second over and over.
Emma opened her eyes as an electric whir sounded and the spinning dish appeared again, faster this time, till it shattered and a swirl of white light blasted into existence, causing the humans to back away and shield their eyes as Evy braced herself, standing by LJ, squinting in it as the boy cheered.
"See?" the Doctor called back, "The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole! A reality well! A door to the echo universe!"
"Emma are you ready?" Evy shouted to her.
"READY!" Emma yelled.
The Doctor looked at Evy, blowing her a kiss and then winking at LJ, "Geronimo!" he cheered, taking a running leap at the wormhole, clinging to the rope as he fell through it.
~8~
"Doctor!" Clara shouted as the winch and rope were pulled.
"Clara don't!" Evy called as Palmer grabbed her and held her back.
~8~
"Whoa!" the Doctor landed with a thump, looking around at the echo-forest he was in. He pulled the harness off and dropped it to the ground, running off, past the trees, only to stop short at a VERY high ledge, looking like he'd fall out of the pocket universe if he took a single step. It was a large floating island the pocket universe, on a sea of stars.
He backed up and ran into the woods again, "Hila! Hila! Hila Tacorian!"
He stopped short once more, hearing something whooshing around him, the creature. He stepped forward, a scampering sound starting, and spun around, unable to see anything, "One...two..." he closed his eyes, doing what he did with LJ when the boy needed encouragement, "Three!" he turned and ran off.
"Help me!" he could hear a woman vaguely shout in the distance, "Help!"
He jumped over a log and nearly ran into Hila as she dashed out of the fog, "Ah! Hila Tacorian, I presume," he grabbed her hand to pull her off.
"Who are you?" she pulled back.
He turned to take her hand again, "Collapsing universe. You and me, dead, two minutes. Have wife and son. No time, complete sentences, abandon planet!" he pulled her again.
But she stopped again, "Wait! There's something in the mist…"
"Then run! Run!" he succeeded in pulling her off this time, the two of them running through the woods.
"Doctor, Doctor!" he could hear Emma calling, "Come home. Doctor, come home!"
He paused, looking around, "Not that way. Which means...probably..." he stopped short, staring at the spot ahead of them.
"What's wrong?" Hila panted.
"You know that exit I mentioned?"
"Yes?"
"I seem to have misplaced it."
They tensed, hearing the scampering sound again and backed up to each other, frightened.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor spun around, hearing Evy calling this time.
"This way!" he ran off.
~8~
"Doctor!" Evy was shouting through the portal as LJ cried beside her, it seemed that he thought they'd be able to see the Doctor through the portal and when his father disappeared he'd been scared. Evy turned and picked him up out of his push pram to hold him, trying to comfort him.
"DOCTOR...come home!" Emma cried as Palmer kept hold of Clara.
~8~
The Doctor ran faster, hearing his son crying.
"Doctor, we're here!" Emma yelled.
"Whoa!" he stopped short, pulling Hila back as a phantom of the Caliburn house appeared in the mist before them.
"What's that?" Hila frowned.
"An echo house, in an echo universe. Clever psychic, that is just top-notch!" he took her hand and they ran for the house.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor glanced to the side to see the creature following them and was thankful Evy hadn't been there, it truly was a gruesome skeleton thing.
"Doctor!"
They ran into the front hall and shoved the doors shut behind them, locking them as a growling and snarling sounded on the other side. He put a finger to his lips and pressed his ear to the door, listening, "It's looking for a way in."
He leapt back when the door was rammed, pulling Hila away by the arm, up the stairs.
~8~
"I'm not strong enough!" Emma closed her eyes, crying at the pain.
"You've got to be now!" Evy told her, clutching LJ to her.
"Just a few more seconds!" Clara tore herself out of Palmer's hold and ran to Evy and LJ, Emma screaming behind her.
~8~
"Grab the rope," the Doctor ordered Hila as soon as they ran into the music room, seeing the harness lying there, "Give it three tugs! Quick as you like!"
"What about you?" she asked, putting the harness on.
"I'll be next," he promised, taking off his tie and winding it around the door to lock it while she tugged the rope.
~8~
"It's Hila!" Evy shouted, pointing at the rope.
Palmer ran over to the winch and began to crank the rope in, pulling Hila out of the well and into the room.
~8~
The Doctor turned to the wormhole, pausing when he heard the thumping against the door, the creature, and nodded, "Ah! Oh, that's what that noise was! Lovely."
~8~
"Emma no!" Evy gasped as Emma fell out of the chair, to her knees, the head-harness falling off her in the process, breaking the connection.
"No!" Clara cried as the portal disappeared, Palmer running to Emma's side, "Evy!" she turned and hugged the woman as she stared at where the portal had been, stunned, LJ sobbing in her arms.
Well…that hadn't quite gone as they'd hoped it would…
~8~
The Doctor frowned, seeing the portal gone, and took a step…ending up right back in the woods. The house was gone, the music room, everything, his bow-tie on the ground, and the creature, he knew, hiding around him.
"Oh, dear," he breathed, picking up his bow-tie, not taking his eyes off the trees.
~8~
Evy winced, hearing the cloister bell of the TARDIS sound, the box knowing her pilot was in danger.
"Shh," she hushed LJ as she cradled him, "Shh, it'll be alright, I swear it…"
~8~
The Doctor stood and looked around, "Oh... dear."
~8~
But mummy, daddy's not here, LJ sniffled, Where'd he go? How's he going to get back?!
"Shh," she murmured, before speaking in a langue the others couldn't understand, "I'll get him back, I promise Sigma, daddy' will be just fine."
LJ sniffled, and nodded, burying his face in her chest, neither of them noticing Clara looking at them oddly at the strange language.
~8~
The Doctor spun around, hearing a whooshing noise, "Where are you?" he called, before he heard the creature and ran.
~8~
Clara looked at the crying LJ and her heart broke for him, and seeing Evy so pale…the woman was worried, she turned and ran back to Emma, "Wake up!" she she knelt down, "WAKE UP!" and shook her, her heart racing, she had to get the Doctor back, for Evy and LJ, "Open the thing!"
"I'm sorry," Emma sighed, sounding so weak.
"Don't be sorry," Palmer murmured to her, stroking her hair, "Don't be. What you did..."
"Wasn't enough, she needs to do it again!" Clara shouted.
"She can't. Look at her!"
"She HAS to!" Clara stood, "We can't leave him!"
"We won't," Evy nodded, turning, pulling herself together, "Clara, I think it's high time for you to see exactly how the Doctor's still alive."
"How?"
"Me," she smiled, kissing LJ's head...and placing the boy between Emma and Palmer, "I am trusting you with him," she pointed a warning finger at them, "You lot, try to open the portal again, Clara, with me, let's go!" she grabbed Clara's hand and they ran out of the room.
Palmer looked down at the little boy in his arms, like so many of the little boys who would grow without fathers because of him, he couldn't do it to this boy, not again. He swallowed and looked at Emma, "I know you feel that you can't do this, Emma, but...look at that woman over there," they looked at Hila as she picked herself up, "You saved her. She's only here because of your strength and so am I."
Emma stared at him.
~8~
"What are we doing?" Clara asked as they ran to the TARDIS, "I thought you said it wouldn't last in that universe thingy."
"It wouldn't last 4 seconds," Evy corrected, "There's lots you can do in four seconds if you're a decent pilot…"
Clara reached the doors first, pushing on them, but the doors wouldn't budge, "Oh, come ON!"
"Really?" Evy grumbled when the doors wouldn't even open for her, "What is your problem with her Sexy?!"
"Let us in, you grumpy old cow!" Clara nearly kicked the door, not even noticing Evy call the box 'Sexy,' of all things.
Evy blinked and looked at Clara, "Did you just call her a cow?!"
Clara winced, when there was a whir behind them, they turned to see an image of Clara standing there, "Whoa!"
"Voice visual interface," Evy muttered.
~8~
"I was as lost as her..." Palmer smiled at Emma, "But being with you...you give me a reason to be, Emma. You brought me back from the dead."
"Safe daddy!" LJ looked at her, tugging on her hair, "Peas!"
Emma swallowed hard and nodded, Palmer helping her stand, LJ in his one arm. Hila stood and moved over to them as Emma put the head-harness back on, reaching out to take LJ from Palmer, closing her eyes as they put their hands on her shoulders.
~8~
"The visual what face?" Clara glanced at her.
"The TARDIS Voice Visual Interface," the projection stated, "I'm programmed to select the image of a person you esteem. Of several billion such images in my databanks, this one best meets the criterion."
Clara huffed and looked at Evy, "You can't deny she's a cow now!"
"You need to let us in," Evy cut in, looking at the interface, "We have to help the Doctor."
"The Doctor is in the pocket universe," the TARDIS stated.
"Please tell me you aren't going to state the obvious and repeat yourself like in Berlin!"
"You can enter the pocket universe," Clara argued.
"The entropy would drain the energy from my heart," the TARDIS repeated, "In four seconds, I'd be stranded. In ten, I'd be dead."
"You're talking but all I hear is, 'meh, meh, meh.' Come on, let's go!" she tried the doors again but nothing happened.
"Listen to me," Evy stepped before the projection, "I am going to be piloting you, I can get us in and out in under 4 seconds, and you know it. Now open those doors or we are going to have words about this later! Do YOU want to explain to LJ why his daddy's dead and his mummy's in hell?!"
The projection blinked out and the doors clicked open.
"Ok, not that I'm not happy about the doors opening," Clara followed Evy in, "But...what as that about?"
She could sense more to it than trying to talk the TARDIS around, feeling like there was more than just devastation over losing your 'spouse' at her words of 'being in hell,' but she didn't know what.
"It's a long story," Evy waved her off, "I'll tell you later, right now...I'm going to need your help Clara."
~8~
Emma took a breath, holding LJ close, using his presence to connect to the Doctor's, "Doctor?" she swallowed, seeing the dish appear, "Can you hear me? DOCTOR?!"
"Daddy!" LJ called.
"Doctor? Can you hear me?" she shouted as the portal opened.
~8~
The Doctor stopped suddenly...
"Daddy!"
~8~
"Hold that level no matter what!" Evy shouted as she pulled a lever and the TARDIS flew off, tumbling everywhere.
"Ah!" Clara shrieked, turning a knob, trying to keep her balance...before laughing, "Whoa!"
~8~
"Doctor, we're here," Emma's voice echoed in the pocket universe, "Come home!"
The Doctor looked around, seeing the house, "Emma?"
"Daddy!"
"LJ!" he shouted, running on…when he heard a snarl.
He stopped and spun around, "What do you want? To frighten me, I suppose, eh? Because that's what you do. You hide. You're the bogeyman under the bed. Seeking whom you may devour. Ah! Ah. You want me to be afraid? Well too bad," he spun, seeing the creature behind a tree, "I am going home to my family and you aren't going to stop me!"
~8~
"Almost got it..." Evy pulled threw up a switch, causing sparks to shoot up.
"Wah!" Clara gasped, "Oh, oh!" she jolted forward, pushing herself half onto the console just as Evy reached for a lever, pulling it down for her instead, "Whoa!"
~8~
"Doctor...hurry!" Emma panted as he looked around, tense.
He spun around, hearing the creature but it was gone moments later, "So why am I still here, huh? Why not just...eat me? Huh? Come on. Because you still need me! Yeah, you need me to piggyback you across," he laughed, "To which I say...come on then, big boy...chase me!" and he took off, hearing the creature chasing him.
Just as he made it to the edge of the house…the creature tackled him to the ground, onto his back. He gaped at the sight of it up close and personal, its face skeletal, looking like it was melting.
"Woo-hoo!" he heard someone shout, "Woo!"
"Duck!" Evy's voice called over the TARDIS comms..
He looked up and laid flat on his back as the TARDIS appeared, whizzing over them, knocking the creature off him.
He jumped to his feet, grinning, and ran for it, grabbing on just as it flew back past him and disappeared...
~8~
Emma screamed, Palmer grabbing LJ from her as she fell to her knees, the TARDIS appearing right in the doorway where the dish had been, the portal fading. They looked over to see the Doctor leaning on the side, braced against it, more like clinging to it, panting. He stayed like that even as the doors opened and Evy stepped out, brushing her hands together.
"And that, Clara," Evy smiled, "Is how you not only come up with a masterful backup plan, but also save a Time Lord," she turned and kissed the Doctor's cheek, before walking over to Palmer and taking LJ, "Now I think we all need a nice cup of tea, I'll go put some on."
And with that, she walked out of the room, the humans and the Doctor staring at her.
"Um…one moment," the Doctor said before stumbling out of the room after her in a rush.
"Where's he going?" Hila asked.
Emma smiled, "To 'thank' her."
Clara just slumped against the door frame of the box and smiled…until the TARDIS closed the doors on her and knocked her on her face to the floor. She rolled onto her back and glared at it, "Rude!"
~8~
That morning the sun was shining as Clara, LJ, Palmer, and Hila walked outside, the Time Lords watching their son closely from a window when Emma approached them from behind, "You wanted a word?"
"Yes!" the Doctor cheered, spinning around to face her...when Evy whacked him, "I mean, if that's..."
"That's fine," Emma laughed, before seeing them grow serious, "You didn't come here for the ghost, did you?"
"No," Evy sighed.
"You came here for me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
They glanced at each other, "There was something we needed to ask you," Evy began carefully."
"Then ask."
"Clara..."
"Yes?"
The Doctor walked over to Emma as Evy turned to look at the woman with her son, "What is she?" he whispered.
"She's a girl," Emma stated, that was quite obvious really.
"Yes, but what kind of girl? Specifically."
"She's a perfectly ordinary girl. Very pretty..."
"Hmm."
"...very clever..."
He hummed, turning back to Evy's side, wrapping his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder as he looked over it at Clara as well, "Hmm."
"More scared than she lets on."
"Aren't they all?" Evy murmured.
"And that's it, is it?" the Doctor looked back at Emma.
Emma frowned, "Why? Is that not enough?"
They looked at each other, that wasn't much of a help, and turned to go.
"She's important though," Emma called, making them pause and glance back at her, "More important than you think."
~8~
Evy stood beside Palmer as LJ babbled excitedly in her arms about the TARDIS the man was staring at. The Doctor and Clara walking behind Hila and Emma as the two women hugged, the Doctor moving to join them as Clara laughed.
"Where will you go?" Emma asked.
"They can't take me home," Hila shrugged, "History says I went missing."
"But they can change history."
"No, no, no, we can't, actually," the Doctor stepped up, "There are fixed points in time you see..."
"Doctor?" Evy called as she walked over with LJ, "Don't make me smack you."
"Right," he nodded, kissing her quickly and stepping back with her and Clara.
"I knew you were there..." Hila told Emma, "I could feel you."
"I know..." Emma stared at her as Evy put a finger to her lips at the Doctor opening his mouth.
"Have we..."
"We can't have. You haven't even been born yet."
"No, you can't have met but she can be your great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter," the Doctor beamed as Palmer walked over, hearing that, "Yours too, of course! But you'd guessed that already, hadn't you?" he glanced at them, looking stunned, then Evy, shaking her head, "Oh...apparently not."
"The paradoxes..." Palmer frowned.
"Resolve themselves, by and large."
"It's why the psychic link was so powerful with Emma," Evy walked over, putting LJ in the Doctor's arms for emphasis, "Blood is thicker than anything."
"Not everything ends, eh?" the Doctor kissed LJ's head and slapped Palmer on the arm, "Not love. Not always."
"Doctor, Evy," Palmer followed them to the TARDIS, "What about, what about...us? Emma and me?"
"What about you?"
"Well, what's supposed to happen? I mean, what do we do now?"
Evy smiled widely, "I think something like this…" and turned to grab the Doctor's face, kissing him soundly, deeply, Clara even managing to walk by and pluck LJ from his hold he was that dazed, "Only perhaps lying down and in a bed," Evy added, smirking as Palmer blushed, "What do you think Doctor?"
The Doctor stood there, stunned for quite a while, before blinking, "Or…" his voice cracked, "Hold hands, you could do that too. Hold hands and don't let go. That's the secret…" he trailed off, staring ahead a moment…
Holding hands...
Something holding hands...
Something holding Clara's hand...
"I'm so...slow!" he smacked his head when Evy grabbed his hands, holding them down to keep him from doing it again as he looked at her, "I am slow, I'm notorious for it, that's always been my problem…"
"You get there eventually," she laughed.
"Oh, yes!"
"Doctor?" Clara eyed them, "Evy?"
"How do sharks make babies?"
"Carefully?"
"No, no, no, happily!"
"Sharks don't actually smile. They're just...well, they've got lots and lots of teeth. They're quite eaty aren't they LJ?" she looked at the toddler.
Mummy can I have a shark instead of the balloon puppy?! LJ looked at her with wide eyes.
'Goldfish or nothing at all, no sharks,' she countered.
LJ pouted, falling silent, he wanted the shark over the goldfish any day!
The Doctor laughed at his boy but continued to explain to Clara what they'd realized, "But birds do it, bees do it, even educated FLEAS do it. Don't you see?"
Clara stared at him blankly.
Evy smiled, "Everyone needs someone."
Clara followed them as they ran to the side of the house and looked up, seeing one of the creatures in the window, "There's two of them?!"
"It's the oldest story in the Universe," the Doctor nodded, "This one, or any other. Boy and girl fall in love, get separated by events...war, politics, accidents in time. She's thrown out of the HEX," he put his arm around Evy's waist, "Or he's thrown into it. Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions, this isn't a ghost story, it's a love story!" he grinned and kissed Evy, before running back to the other humans, "Excuse me! Excuse me! Sorry to interrupt the rest of your life," he turned to Emma, "So...tiny favor to ask..."
~8~
The Doctor and Evy dropped down into the woods of the pocket universe, Evy holding onto the harness, ready to be a physical connection to the portal so it wouldn't disappear again and so that the Doctor would be able to use the Link to find her again as he ran off.
"I'm sorry!" he shouted, "I understand now! I can take you to her! I can take you to a safe place far away from here! You can be together! Well, come on then! She's WAITING!" he tensed, feeling something breathing on him and turned to see the twisted necked thing behind him, "Well, hello again, you old Romeo, you! Come on!" he turned, following the pull of the Link back to Evy, "Here we go!"
They all grabbed onto the harness this time, pulled right out of the pocket and into the Universe.
A/N: Oh LJ, I can only imagine the collection of animals he might one day come to have. Lol, maybe he'll be the Vet or the Zookeeper instead of the Captain? Hmm...nah, I like Captain better :) I just love how much like the Doctor he is :)
Ooh, but next chapter we get the TARDIS, who will end up where?
Next chapter...Evy gives a lesson in lying, LJ has (surprisingly) more focus than his parents do, and we'll see quite a few similarites between Evy and the TARDIS.
Spoilers for TNOTD - I definitely agree on John Hurt. Personally, I think he's the Valeyard since 11 kept saying, he's me but he's NOT the Doctor. (I think) the Valeyard is the only other version that was shown of the Doctor but being someone who was NOT the Doctor too :) Just a 'fingers-crossed' hope :)