The Caretaker, the Dinner Lady, and the TA: Change of Plans

Skye Smith turned at the sound of someone calling her name, frowning when she saw a blonde girl staring at her. It took her a moment to realize though, that it wasn't just some random student, but someone much more important when she caught sight of the pink bowtie necklace the girl wore.

"Tailor!?" she gaped.

Tailor beamed and rushed over to hug her 'cousin' tightly, "Oh my god," she squeezed her, "You've grown so much!"

"Me? Look at you!" Skye laughed, giving her a glance up and down. The last time she'd seen the girl she'd looked about 10, but now she was more a teenager. She did a quick calculation, given what her mother had told her of Time Lord aging, "What are you now, 500?"

To anyone passing by, it could sound like a joke, but only the two girls knew how real it could be.

Tailor laughed, "Close, 406," she answered, "Uncle Jack didn't warn you all?"

"He did," Skye nodded, "But everything happened so fast he didn't get a chance to snap a picture of you for us, and he hadn't seen you guys touch down on Earth since then. He just said you looked like a teenager now. No regeneration, thank god, but just older."

"Yeah, we've mainly hung around here," Tailor agreed, realizing her uncle had been trying to track them down on Earth to check in. She and her mother had called everyone, they all knew that the Doctor had regenerated, that she was older, but they hadn't been in to SEE them yet, "Speaking of here, though, what are YOU doing here?" she grew serious, "Has something happened to Aunt Sarah?"

"No!" Skye rushed to reassure her, "No, nothing like that. Mum just...missed everyone. Clyde and Rani went off to Uni and it was just me and her and, well, things really calmed down on Bannerman Road. Mum still has the house there and Mr. Smith runs scans all the time for any activity, but it's been quiet, so we moved here."

"Wanted to be closer to the action?" Tailor guessed.

"And the family," Skye agreed, "Everyone's seemed to move closer over the years. And when mum found out Aunt Clara was a teacher here, she thought it was a good time to move. Luke is actually interning with UNIT so that was another reason for mum to move us closer."

"Oh Uncle Jack must be so mad," Tailor laughed. Luke was SO smart, Jack must be beside himself that the boy preferred UNIT to Torchwood.

"He was a bit," Skye nodded, "Till I told him I'D like to try out for Torchwood one day. I think he's just happy to get A Smith onboard."

"He'd be very luck to have one," Tailor smiled, though a part of her couldn't quite see Sarah Jane allowing Skye to work for Torchwood, not when it meant her daughter would be around so many guns, "He'd have a Smith and a Jones, no better team."

And, speaking of Smiths and Joneses, she should really find her parents and let them know Christmas was going to come early and they should maybe stick around an extra day for parents' night, just to 'make sure things were alright.'

~8~

Danny looked up when a slice of cake was set down on a plate before him, "Oh, I'm not…is that carrot cake?" he interrupted himself, glancing between the cake and Angel as she moved to sit beside him at the small table set up for the unfortunate teacher selected to watch the dinning hall that period.

Angel smiled, "I have it on good authority it's your favorite," she offered with a wink.

Danny looked sorely tempted, but sighed, "I'm not supposed to be snacking on duty," he explained, not wanting to be rude when the woman had given him his favorite dessert, "Gotta stay sharp and keep an eye out for mischief."

"Oh, I don't think the kids will cause any," she argued lightly, "Not with you around. You're Dan the Soldier Man!"

Danny's small smile began to fall, "What?"

He couldn't help a small niggle in the back of his mind that that was familiar...

"Sorry," Angel gave him an apologetic look, "The kids aren't exactly tight-lipped. I've heard them call you Squaddie, that means you were in the army, doesn't it? A soldier?"

"I was, yeah," he nodded, absently picking up the fork from the little plate and picking at the cake.

"Thank you," she said, startling him when she didn't immediately launch into questions about where he was stationed and his rank and what he did and how long was he there and did he kill anyone, like everyone else seemed keen to do.

"Um…welcome?"

Angel laughed lightly, "My…husband," she caught herself from calling the Doctor her Mate just in time, "And I, we were both soldiers too. I won't pry about any of it. We may not have fought in the same war, but war is war and it's never fun. So thank you, I'm not sure if you hear it enough."

He cracked a small smile at that, "You as well."

"Go on," she nodded at the cake, "I've been snacking on the treats we've been making all morning," she laughed, she really had, taken little bites of every dessert.

Quality control! She'd defended when the other dinner ladies gave her odd looks and mutters about where she put it all, but it was yummy and how could anyone resist making cookies and not eating the dough or the cookies when they were still warm and gooey from the oven. And it wasn't like she horded it all, she'd made plenty, having been assigned to desserts, for the other ladies as well so they could snack if they wanted. It just seemed like she was the only one with any sort of appetite...though now that she thought about it, the fish fingers and custard she'd set up right next to the frosting might have dampened their desire to eat. After making so many sweets, she'd been craving something with a little more to it and, in a moment of nostalgia, asked if she might use some of the fish fingers they kept in the freezer with some custard.

It was delicious.

She shook her head out of her thoughts, "I won't tell if you don't."

Danny let out a laugh and nodded in return, digging into the cake as Angel stood, patting him on the shoulder as she went back to the dinner line to help with the last few stragglers that made their way into the room.

"It's blue!" he heard one of the students saying, and looked over to see one of the boys in his cadet corps holding up a cupcake with blue frosting.

He tensed a moment, not sure if a food fight was about to break out, but the boy just grinned madly.

"That's my favorite color!"

"I got orange," another girl said, showing off her orange frosting, and sounding so excited it was clear to all it was her favorite color too.

"Ha!" a different boy scoffed, grinning so smugly it was as though he were happier than them, "Well, I got a brownie! I love chocolate."

Danny watched in a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and mild awe as other students began to compare their desserts, all seeming pleased to death with the treat or color they received. He blinked at that thought, and slowly turned in his seat as he was sure he hadn't seen the desserts set up in the normal area of the line, only to see there were a few trays right at the very end of the lunch line, littered with different treats. Cupcakes, brownies, cookies, all set up right behind Mrs. Smith who was just plucking the treats, what seemed at random, and placing the desserts on the trays, much to the delight of the students when they saw what they got.

He looked down at his carrot cake and back to the woman, and down once more, before shaking his head, "Nah," and laughing a bit to himself as he cast off his odd thoughts.

~8~

The Doctor smiled to himself as he moved about the school, 'taking care' of it while also slipping more of his little gizmos around. He hid them on the lights of the school corridors, in small cabinets, in vents, anywhere he could place them where they'd connect to the range he was forming. He'd been feeling conflicted all day, the same constant pang he always felt when he was away from his Mate too long. After Christmas, it wasn't easy to be apart from her when they had been constantly together for all those centuries. It was easier, after he regenerated into this form, when there was some sort of danger or distraction around. Not easy, but easier at least. If there was some imminent danger, he could use that, that Mating drive to keep Angel safe, to pry himself away from her and take care of the danger. He could dull the ache he felt to be at her side by using the danger to focus on that.

Not that he ever really WANTED to be apart from Angel, that was ridiculous.

But during the times where it was necessary for them to split up, it was easier when there was a pressing danger, like whoever had been after Charlotte the Dinosaur. Or even if there was something maddening, like how irritating Robin Hood was, to keep his mind off the ache.

Right now he could feel that pulsing need to be around her, he could feel his own basic desire to just be near Angel. And there was no real danger at the moment, no distractions, just mindless tasks he could do in his sleep.

It did nothing to help.

But his Mate always seemed to know when he was barely hanging on by a thread. She'd been keeping him abreast of things happening on her end in the kitchens. She'd had a bit of a fun game going during her shifts, giving the children their favorite treats out of colored cupcakes, cookies, and brownies, before they could even say which they preferred. The students had apparently been thrilled and mystified by his psychic. She'd been a constant presence in his mind, letting soothing emotions drift over the bond they shared to keep him from going off on any of the smaller pudding brains running through the halls.

'You shouldn't call them that, my love,' he heard her in his mind, 'They're children.'

He snorted, 'Everyone is a child compared to us, even the taller pudding brains.'

'Still rude,' she murmured.

He rolled his eyes, but nodded with a sigh, about to respond when he spotted a piece of graffiti on a window, 'Ozzie loves the Squaddie.' He shook his head at that, 'And you say, I'M rude,' he sent to Angel over their bond, sharing the image he was looking at with her, and receiving a giggle in his mind in return.

"What does that mean?" he huffed, pulling out a rag, "Kids. What's the matter with kids today?" and quickly got to work wiping it off the window. As soon as that was done he made his way through the halls, out to the playground, placing another of his devices inside a drain grating.

"Shoot!" a boy shouted, drawing his attention. He looked up to see a black rook set up on a chessboard painted onto the ground of the play area had been knocked over by a football, "Yes!"

"Hey!" Clara was shouting, "I said you could play chess, I did not say you could play football on the chessboard. Jack, Morgan, come on, help me out, clear it up."

He chuckled as he watched her wrangling the unruly children, starting to whistle Pink Floyd's 'We Don't Need No Education,' as he headed back into the school. He'd set up most of the devices, he just needed to run some test scans and make sure they were in the right positions. Angel hadn't reached out to tell him to nudge any of them, so he assumed it meant things were in place. But, this really was quite a serious plan and his girls would be involved, he needed to make sure it was absolutely perfect.

"And one for luck," he murmured to himself as he popped one of his devices into a hanging basket just outside the caretaker's storeroom. He pushed through the door to see the TARDIS set up in the back, just where he'd left the old girl.

"Ok," he nodded, "Now we're in business. Let's see the lie of the land. Time to see what's going on," he stepped into the box a green light nearly blinding him from where various scans were already being run.

"Master!" MK9 squeaked, trundling over to him, "All scanners indicate optimal range."

He smiled at the little metallic dog and squatted down to pat it on the head, earning a tail wag from the pup.

"Hello?" a voice called from behind him, small, human, female. He huffed, getting to his feet once more, "Oi. What are you doing? Are you in there?"

"Mirror, mirror on the wall," he grumbled to himself, "Who's the most dangerous of them all?"

'Rude,' Angel spoke up, seeing how his thoughts had gone to humans, their curiosity, and how he was thinking he should go out there before the girl wandered into the box like humans were wont to do, going places they shouldn't.

'Curiosity killed the cat,' he countered.

'Sissy loves children,' she reminded him, 'She'd never allow anything to hurt them while in her.'

He moved to the console and turned off the scans, not responding as he had nothing to counter with. He could feel how smug she was about that.

"There's been a spillage in Geography," the girl outside the box was shouting, though sounding like she was getting closer to the doors, "I need some paper towels."

He moved to the doors and stepped out, "Can't you read?" he asked the young, black girl that had wandered in.

"Course I can read. Read what?"

"The door," he pointed to the storeroom door where he'd put a sign up, "It says, 'Keep Out.'"

"No, it says, 'Go Away Humans.'"

"Oh, so it does. Never lose your temper in the middle of a door sign."

"What was you doing in there? What's that box?"

"The caretaker's box," he moved to the side, keeping himself in between the girl and the box, "Every caretaker has their own box."

"It says 'Police.'"

"Exactly, there's a policeman in there, in case of emergencies and children," he stepped past the girl and picked up a roll of the paper towels, turning to lightly shove them to her, "Towels, there, g-g-go."

"What was that green glow?" the girl asked, refusing his shooings, "There was a green glow coming from in there. What was it?"

"Of course there was. What's a policeman without a death ray?" he looked up as the bell rang, "Oh, listen, there's the bell. Off you go. Haven't you got shoplifting to go to?"

The girl glared at him for that, "I'm going to tell the Headmaster."

"Oh, yes, fine," he rolled his eyes, "Well, cut along, you're running out of time."

"For what?"

"Everything. Human beings have incredibly short life spans. Frankly, you should all be in a permanent state of panic. Tick tock, tick tock."

The girl gave him an odd look, "You're weird."

"Yes, I am."

"But your daughter's not."

"No, she isn't, far as I can tell," he shrugged, "What about you?"

"I'm a disruptive influence," she spoke proudly.

"Good to meet you," he reached out to shake her hand.

"And you," the girl returned the gesture.

"Now get lost."

"Ok," the girl shrugged, and headed out of the door, just as Clara opened it to enter, "Hello, miss. Love to the Squaddie."

"Sorry, what did you say?" Clara asked as the girl, Courtney Woods, dashed past, before shaking her head when she didn't answer, "What was she doing in here?"

"Paper towels," he answered shortly, "Now, I imagine you have many questions. Fire away. I won't answer any of them."

He was quite thankful now, that Angel wasn't there, nor was Tailor. They both were too honest for their own good and Clara's big eyes seemed to have some sort of puppy-like effect on them. Leave them alone together and he was sure the woman would have been able to work some sort of answers out of Angel. Clara was his sister, yeah, but siblings didn't tell each other everything, in fact, he recalled he and his brother rarely told each other anything of import. The only time they really revealed anything was when they were trying to get the other in trouble with their parents.

Clara, however, crossed her arms, "I don't know why you think that'll work with me," she deadpanned, "I've met the family, remember? I doubt any of them let you get away with this kind of thing and I'm not about to start. This school is in danger."

The Doctor smiled a bit at her sass, reminded of Donna and how she would never let him get away with half the things Rose and Martha and even Amy had, "Well, it's lucky I'm here with my girls then."

Clara rolled her eyes, "It's in danger from you, Doctor."

"Me?" he scoffed. If it was just him, perhaps he could understand that. But Angel AND Tailor were there. If it wasn't enough for Angel to be as much a good luck charm as she was, what possessed Clara to think he'd ever (ever, ever, ever!) put his daughter in danger?

"You wouldn't be here if there wasn't an alien threat nearby," she explained what she'd worked out, "Your strategy for dealing with it clearly involves endangering this school or you wouldn't be tinkering around here or bringing Angel and Tailor in to try and reassure me it's not as dangerous as it is."

"You don't know that."

"I don't know anything because you haven't told me anything! And neither have Tailor or Angel, and for them not to say means I very much will NOT approve, which means you are endangering this school."

The Doctor scoffed, "Really Clara, ye of such little faith when my Mate is an angel incarnate?" he went on activating his sonic, revealing one of his green devices sitting on a table.

"What's that?"

"And really," he kept on, either ignoring her or not hearing her, "Do you honestly think I'd ever endanger a child? Ever?"

"Doctor," Clara cut in, a bit of a flush to her cheeks as he reminded her of that. She was just…she KNEW he'd never endanger the children, but, well, Tailor bringing up how he'd blown up a school in the past wasn't helping. And this wasn't just a random school, it was her JOB. He didn't have the best luck NOT blowing up schools and peoples places of employment and here she was in BOTH, "What is that?"

"It's a scanner," he sighed, "I'm just scanning. Why do I keep you around?"

"Because if you kick me out of the family, the rest of the family will probably go after you and you'd never hear the end of it," she muttered, not believing for one moment that he wouldn't keep her around, "And the alternative would also mean developing a human conscience of your own."

"Angel's conscience enough."

"Alien conscience," Clara corrected. As much as Angel had a human soul, could feel what humans felt, and was so close to her human family, she was still an alien and there were some things that the woman couldn't understand not being human. That was where SHE came in, she liked to think, "Scanning for what?"

The Doctor just straightened and crossed his arms, not about to tell her. Honestly about to tell her to go back to her classroom, when the storeroom door opened and Angel stepped in with a small carton in her hand. His eyes widened as he saw her, "Oh, don't…"

'It was a mistake not to tell her,' Angel argued to him, 'I'd hoped she'd be a bit more distracted by her date tonight, but Clara does love these children. She's worried for them is all.'

"Alien tech," Angel answered, moving over to the Doctor's side as he groaned in a long-suffering way. Really he should have known she'd be keeping as much tabs on him as he was her and he should have known she'd be on her way there.

"What kind of alien tech?" Clara crossed her arms even more.

The Doctor opened his mouth, about to actually answer, when Angel spoke instead, "There's a creature called a Skovox Blitzer in the area."

"And what's that when it's at home?"

"An alien," Angel repeated, "It was probably attracted to all the Artron Energy in the area and, sooner or later, it's going to wander into the humans and it never ends well, especially when the alien isn't humanoid."

Clara shifted on her feet at that, glancing between the Doctor's mildly confused expression and Angel's very basic explanation, not sure what to make of it. Angel didn't lie, so she trusted that the woman was being honest about the alien and, if she was being honest with herself, she HAD seen enough of non-humanoid aliens being treated with suspicion by humans. The Time Lords would do anything to keep both safe, aliens and humans.

But…if that was all it was, why was it such a secret?

"You've been helping us SO much Clara," Angel spoke, not quite reading Clara's mind, but sensing where her thoughts were going, "We CAN handle some things on our own. You deserve a break and a nice date without us popping up and disturbing it or putting you in a bind before it's started."

"Why now?" Clara frowned at her, there had been plenty of other adventures where she was sure they could handle themselves without her but had still taken her along.

Angel hesitated, biting her lip a moment, before sighing, "It's going to be an important night," she offered. It was hard to describe, it was like each time she saw Clara there was this bubbling feeling in her gut, each time it felt stronger, like something was about to happen, a tipping point, but in a very good way. It was so close she couldn't help but feel like tonight it was going to happen, whatever it was, and she didn't want to ruin it for Clara.

The Blitzer just happened to be happening at the same time.

"What's so important about it?" Clara asked, racking her mind to make sure it wasn't Danny's birthday or an anniversary or anything, but came up blank.

"I don't want to ruin the surprise," Angel shook her head, "It's just a feeling, that you shouldn't be bothered tonight and that you're gonna love it. This alien, it's nothing we can't handle."

"Fine," Clara huffed, convinced for the moment, but there was one thing bothering her about all of this, "Why are you using the school though?"

"We're going to lure it here," the Doctor said simply.

"What?!"

"AFTER it's closed for the night," Angel added, reaching out to take Clara's hand as the woman looked like she was going to have a stroke, "After all the students have gone home and the staff has left. When absolutely NO one is here."

"Look," the Doctor pulled a digital watch with an expanded metal bracelet from his pocket, showing it to Clara before slipping it on, "This is a very special watch," he pressed a button on it and disappeared from sight.

Clara blinked, startled, "Doctor?" she nearly began to look around for him, when she realized Angel was still standing there with her arm around empty space…and a bit of her hair on one side of her face was moving like someone was running their fingers through it absently, "Wow…oi!" she jerked back when she felt something on her nose, "Did you just flick my nose?" before she shook her head, "You're invisible. Ha, ha! Oh, my God, that's incredible."

"Correct," the Doctor's voice spoke from just about where Angel was standing, "I am invisible and I am incredible. It's simply a matter of reversing light waves. Hang on, I'm coming back…" a moment later he reappeared right where she thought he was, "We're going to give the Blitzer a tiny whiff of non-threatening alien tech to lead it back here…"

"It's got a very sophisticated scanning system," Angel added, "And we don't know how it'll react to a Time Lord or any other alien…"

"Hence the invisibility," Clara followed along.

"If we had any other place to lead it, Clara, we would," Angel promised her, "But Coal Hill is the only empty place that works."

"I've set up a circle of time mines around the school," the Doctor agreed, "Chronodyne generators. Bit unstable," he shrugged even as he tossed her one of the devices, "We switch them on, the Blitzer gets sucked into a big old time vortex, billions of years into the future."

"Why are you sending it to the future?" Clara asked, "Can't you just give it a ride back home?"

"They're…very temperamental," the Doctor offered, "And very simple creatures," it was QUITE a stretch to call a Blitzer 'simple' but in a technical sense, it was very basic programming, very set standards of operations, "Exposing it to time travel like the TARDIS might not go well."

Clara gave him a narrowed look, it…made sense. She could admit that, not everyone reacted well to the TARDIS and if it was as simple a species as the Doctor said, the TARDIS might be too much for it. She couldn't help but picture a skittish creature, willing to run away at the first sign of a fright or something unknown. They just wanted to get the creature home and if a portal was the easier method, which had to be otherwise they would have just parked the TARDIS around it and carried it off to the future, who was she to argue with their methods?

So long as no one got hurt, which it seemed they were taking precautions to ensure, it shouldn't be a problem.

She began to shift, looking between them, "…and you're sure you don't need any help?" she asked, though her tone was torn.

Angel smiled at that though, it was so like Clara to want to help even as she wanted to be somewhere else with her Mr. Pink. She nodded, "We'll be just fine, Clara," she even crossed her hearts in promise.

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, taking the device back from Clara, "We don't need you this time. We'll see you tomorrow, go somewhere nice. Ancient Egypt. Crocodilopolis. They worship a big crocodile there, so the name is a useful coincidence."

"Go," Angel urged her lightly, "And have a lovely night."

"Yes, go and canoodle with your boyfriend," the Doctor spoke, finally seeming to catch on, grinning at how startled Clara appeared that he had, "Come on. I wasn't born yesterday. Far from it."

Clara beamed, "You did recognize him!"

"Possibly reminded me of a certain dashing young time traveler," the Doctor nodded, winking at Angel, who bit her lip and looked like she was trying not to laugh.

"Oh, of course you recognized him," Clara let out a little giggle, "I…sorry. Stupid. I…I underestimated you."

Angel had to look away, seeing who the Doctor was picturing in his mind…someone who was certainly NOT Mr. Pink.

"It's easily done," the Doctor shrugged it off, "There's a lot to estimate."

"Quite a lot," Angel could agree with that at least.

"And you...you like him?" Clara asked hesitantly, sounding for all the world as though she were a little sister seeking her big brother's approval.

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, a fond look on his face, "I like him very, very much."

"I think he's wonderful," Angel added, hoping it would mean something to Clara when she realized the Doctor had gotten the men wrong. She'd tried to tell him just now, had tried to show him an image of Mr. Pink in her mind, but he thought SHE had gotten it wrong. Not in any sort of mean way, but more of a 'it had to happen sometime' way. It was quite amusing.

"Go home and canoodle," he waved Clara off, "Doctor's orders. Come on."

"Just this once, I'm doing what I'm told," Clara warned him.

"Oh, sing hosanna," the Doctor rolled his eyes as Clara laughed and headed for the door. He watched Clara go, waiting till she'd left the room before he turned to Angel, "I don't think I've ever heard you lie before."

Angel rolled her eyes, "It's not a lie," she replied, "We CAN handle the Blitzer, we ARE scanning for alien tech, the school WILL be empty, and Clara DOES deserve a night off."

"Yeah," he agreed, "But a Skovox Blitzer is one of the deadliest killing machines ever created," he reminded her, "It's not just any old non-humanoid alien. There's enough explosive in its armory to take out the whole planet, which is just as likely to happen as soon as some military idiot attacks it."

"Which is why we are going to stop it," she leaned in to kiss his cheek, before she shifted, holding up a small carton to him, "But first…"

The Doctor blinked and took the carton, opening it and laughing at what he saw, a small cake square with white icing and edible ball bearings sprinkled on top.

~8~

Clara was cautious as she approached Danny on the playground, now that his maths class was over, he had free period to watch the kids. She wasn't sure if her conversation and lingering tension regarding an alien being lured into the school later that night was showing.

"Miss Oswald," he greeted, seeming to pick up on her conflict as he gave her a wary smile.

"Ah, Mr.…Mr. Pink."

"Are you still on for tonight?" he cut right to it, "Cos you had your I'm-about-to-cancel frown on."

She blinked at that, "There's a specific frown?"

"And I was going to say, it's ok, I might have a thing, so…"

Clara gave him a look, feeling a bit touched that he would make something up just so she wouldn't feel bad about cancelling, which made her feel worse about all the times she'd cancelled in the past, "A thing?"

"Er, tomorrow instead?"

"Tomorrow's parents' evening," she reminded him, a time when the parents came in to get an evaluation on their children's progress from the teachers, they were given the day to prepare their notes for each child.

"Not all evening."

"No," she agreed, "Not all evening."

Clara almost smiled at how well he knew her, to know she had different frowns. But this one wasn't so much that she was planning to cancel, but more that she was starting to get nervous. Angel seemed very intent that she go on this dinner and not in a 'we want you out of the way' sort of way, but more 'there is something important that we don't want to muck up for you' way. So what was so important Angel felt like she had to go? What was going to happen between her and Danny that had Angel so insistent?

Oh. My. God.

Was Danny going to propose? Is THAT what it was? Was he going to ask her to marry him!?

No. She shook her head from those thoughts, no, no he wasn't. He couldn't be! They had NOT known each other long enough for that to come up.

…right?

But if he did…what would she do? She loved him, yes, of course she did, but she hadn't even TOLD him that yet and…

Oh. My. God.

THAT was it!

Now Angel's words that she was going to 'love' the surprise came back to her. This was it, this was the night they were finally going to SAY it, say those three words.

And…the fact that DANNY had asked for this dinner, it meant HE was planning to say it first!

Oh she'd been agonizing over whether he felt the same way, especially with how weird she got around him because of her travelling, but now…now she knew it hadn't bothered him. That he liked her (loved her!) in spite of it.

She smiled, she could NOT let this night pass up now, "But no," she added, "I'm not cancelling. I'm all yours."

Danny beamed at that, inordinately pleased, about to let her know…when he caught sight of Mr. and Mrs. Smith stepping out of his storeroom just as Taylor Smith walked over to them, the girl seeming to be vibrating with excitement over something, "What do you think of him?"

"Er, who?" Clara blinked, glancing over her shoulder to see the Time Lords, "The caretaker?"

"Where did he come from? What was he before? He doesn't seem like a caretaker."

"And his wife seems like a dinner lady?" Clara quipped with a laugh, before shaking her head, "Well, they speak very highly of you."

Danny shook his head as the family walked off and focused back on Clara, "Anyway," he smiled, "I'll see you later?"

"See you then, Mr. Pink."

"Miss Oswald," he nodded at her, turning to go with a spring in his step that made Clara giggle to see.

~8~

"Can I do it?" Tailor asked, bouncing on her toes as she looked at her father with big, wide eyes. She had barely let her parents step out of the main doors to the school before she'd rounded on them, "Please, dad?"

The Doctor chuckled, "Alright, alright," he pulled the sonic out of his coat pocket and flipped it in his hand so he could hand it to her.

'So much for your big speech about telling her 'no,'' Angel's voice rang out in his head, causing him to roll his eyes at her.

He HAD said that HE would be the one to lure the Blitzer to the school, citing it was far too dangerous and the emissions had to be just right for it to work and how it would take a skilled hand and that was why HE would do it. He'd sworn up and down that that was that.

And lasted all of 20 seconds before he caved to his daughter's request.

'Well what do you expect?' he countered, 'Really? I could never say no to YOU and she's a miniature you.'

Angel laughed at that.

'Besides,' he continued to defend himself, 'She'll be right in the middle of us. Nowhere safer.'

And really, where else WAS safer? He'd be right beside her to keep watch on the tech going on, making sure she was using just the right amount to distract the Blitzer but not enough to make it fire at a perceived threat. And Angel would be there too, with her senses open and the Vortex at her fingertips, ready to teleport them away if things went wrong.

He doubted they would though. Oh he knew he usually thought that in the past, would say something to that effect and have it all go to hell as a result. But this time…he really believed it. He had heard an echo of something in Angel's mind, after he'd regenerated, how Tailor had wanted to be able to DO things more, to learn how to be like her parents. He knew, he had experienced even, what happened when children were kept from doing what they wanted. His children on Gallifrey had rebelled something awful from time to time when they felt he or their mother were suffocating them or holding them back.

He didn't want to make that mistake again. He couldn't afford for it to happen, not with Tailor, not with his Kitta.

It was an odd combination of wanting to do better by her than he had in the past, wanting to have the best relationship he could with her and…and just wanting to make sure she'd be ok. He had enemies, Angel, even, had enemies. They had already hurt his family in the past and he would give anything to prevent it happening again. And that meant…that meant he needed his daughter to be better, to be able to handle things.

She'd gotten SO excited when they'd robbed a bank, just a silly old bank, and he could see her sense of adventure and excitement at new experiences, so like his own, shining through. He wanted to make sure she was safe and cautious in a way he wasn't.

Hence the Blitzer.

Honestly not the best way he would have wanted this to start off, but it was an opportunity for his daughter to learn WITH her parents at her side to help.

He knew his 'deep cover' was shoddy at best, he knew he really didn't have the patience to blend in with the humans any longer, if he ever did in the past. Christmas had stripped him of that, given him his fill of humans for the time being, he liked to think. But even HE could admit he was being FAR more cautious about this trip than he had in recent times. He'd researched the enemy, he'd come up with a plan, he'd ensured that every feasible error could be avoided. He had safety precautions in place with the watch and his sonic and the mines and an empty school he was familiar with.

And Tailor had been with him every step. Researching, planning, helping him build the mines even. She'd helped with the math for where to place them, calculated the range, even the amount of the sonic pulse they'd need.

He just…he wanted to show her she could have an adventure without the danger, that she could KNOW how to set it all to rights without being in jeopardy.

This was his way of making sure his daughter did better than HE did.

She'd already regenerated once, and that was one time too many as far as he was concerned.

Never again.

Not if he could help it.

And this was his way of helping it.

He was going to let Tailor have more to do on their adventures, but slowly and surely, not just dropping her out of the TARDIS into an ocean and hoping she could swim. He would teach her, show her in his bedtime stories the ways he went wrong, so she wouldn't. He needed to know that, if anything happened to him and Angel, she'd be ok, she'd be able to handle herself.

Not that he had any plans to go anywhere nor let anything happen to Angel for the indefinite future, but with his enemies…

He wanted her to learn alongside them instead of rush off on her own in a pique of irritation with her parents.

They'd missed the terrible twos, god only knew what the teenage years would be like.

"Right," he shook himself out of his thoughts, "Are we all set?" he held up his wrist to show off his watch, Angel and Tailor mimicking him with their own in place, "Then…"

"Geronimo!" Tailor cheered, starting to walk off with the sonic clutched in her hand.

The Doctor physically deflated at that, "I was going to say let's go."

Angel let out a gentle laugh, leaning in to kiss his cheek, and whisper, "Allons-y," in his ear before taking his hand and leading him off after their daughter as he chuckled.

~8~

"I'm not even gonna bother asking if you're sure, mum," Tailor spoke as Angel led them to an old building with a metal gate around it only two blocks away from the school. They had scanned the area, they knew the location of the Blitzer, but they were going to use the sonic to lead them to the pinpoint location.

Angel had just beaten them to it.

"Home, sweet home," the Doctor eyed it. He glanced at his girls, holding up his watch, waiting for them to do the same before activating it, the three of them turning invisible.

The moment they disappeared from his sight, the Doctor tensed. Immediately his mind turned to a small realization that he was probably going to have to stay awake for quite a few days till he just collapsed after this. Seeing his Mate and Daughter vanish before his eyes was doing his head in. Intellectually, he knew they were right there, he could sense them even, the tingling in the back of his mind when another Time Lord was around alerting him to that fact. But, emotionally, his Mate and Daughter had just vanished and why, in any universe, had he ever thought this was a good idea?

A moment later, just a split second after the invisibility was activated, he felt someone he couldn't see take his hand.

'Can you see me?' he asked Angel, knowing instinctively it was her.

'I can always feel you, my love,' she told him, more than just his emotions or physical presence, but his mind and the instant anxiety he'd begun to feel, 'We're both right here beside you.'

He swallowed hard, nodding to himself though no one could see, "Right," he said out loud, his voice a whisper, "Blitzer time."

He smiled when he heard Tailor's giggle.

There was a tug on his hand as Angel began to lead him towards the building, he could hear Tailor's light footsteps behind them as the Time Lady led the way. He tightened his hold on Angel's hand, returning the comfort she had given him, when he felt her tensing at the darkness of the halls. Neither she nor Tailor were a fan of the dark spaces, but they both found ways to cope. Angel had his hand, Tailor had their trusty sonic.

"Where are you, my sleeping beauty?" he began to murmur, his lip quirking to the side, knowing it was lightening the tension for his girls.

Angel slowed, "Around the corner," she warned them, all three carefully making their way around to see the Blitzer, in the flesh, activate at the sound of their approaching footsteps…

But the alien machine didn't attack, looking around as it tried to scan but saw nothing.

"Gotcha," he grinned, "Let's dance!" he chuckled, "Tailor…"

Tailor nodded and gripped the sonic tightly in her hand, taking a deep breath before clicking it on…

~8~

A few minutes earlier...

Clara's smile, which had been warm and happy, grew more and more strained the nearer she and Danny got to Coal Hill.

Oh their dinner had been lovely. It was in this little cozy pub, the meal had been divine, and she'd stepped out in the brisk night feeling buzzingly warm. He hadn't said it yet, hadn't said those three words, but he'd been so adorably nervous all night that she was almost itching to just say it first. But she didn't want to blurt it out, he clearly wanted to say it and she didn't want to steal his thunder. This had been a night HE had planned, she'd let him have his moment.

But…there was a bit of a knot in her stomach as they went for a walk back to her flat. Danny was always such a gentleman, insisting on walking her home. And, yeah, her flat might be reached by walking past Coal Hill, but there were other routes, more direct from the pub than the way Danny had started to walk

Though, maybe this was just his way of making it sweet? Telling her he loved her at the place they both first met?

If it was…she could only feel that knot grow bigger because she knew that the school was the LAST place they should be tonight…and had no way of really telling Danny not to go there without a reason.

"I knew it," Danny muttered, slowing at the corner and looking at the school.

Ok, so the look on his face was telling Clara this was definitely NOT a long walk to gather his courage nor was it a destination he'd planned to go to all along. He was frowning at the building, with narrowed eyes that were…locked on the retreating figures of Angel, the Doctor, and Tailor who had just stepped out of the school to head down the block.

She groaned internally as Danny began to head towards the school with firm steps.

"Danny, what are you doing?" she asked, pretending she hadn't seen the Time Lords departing, "We shouldn't be here after hours…"

"Neither should they."

"They who?" she winced, frantically trying to think of a way out of this.

"The Smiths," he answered, crossing the road, "That Caretaker and his wife, his daughter too. They were here and the school's been closed for hours. Why?"

"Maybe they forgot something?" she offered, a reasonable thing, "They only started today, they might have left something…"

But Danny shook his head, "That man's been acting weird all day," he argued, reaching the doors to the school, "And I'm going to find out what. It's not right, how he was tinkering about…what is that?" he stopped dead just inside the doors, spotting a device blinking green and stuck under one of the fire alarms. He reached out and yanked it off.

"No, don't!" Clara tried to stop him, but it was too late, the green light turned red.

"Do you know what this is?" Danny turned to her with a frown, she'd sounded a bit too frantic and warning just then…

"What?" she scoffed out a laugh, "You just said he was doing something shifty and then you go and touch something equally shifty?" she pointed out, hoping he'd believe her.

Danny seemed to realize that, his eyes widening as he looked at the device, hoping to god he hadn't just pulled a bomb off the wall that was going to explode in his hands.

Oh, my god, was it a bomb?! Was the Caretaker setting up bombs around the school? What the bloody hell was wrong with him!?

His expression grew stormy as he stalked down the hall towards the storeroom…only to stop when he saw another device in the hanging basket by the door. He glared at it, ripping the device out as well.

"Danny, don't…" Clara tried to argue weakly, not needing to be Angel to know that this was going to end very, very badly…

~8~

It was slow going to lure the Blitzer to the school, but with each step away from the old building and towards Coal Hill, Tailor felt more and more confident that their plan was working. The Blitzer was following them, and so far no other incident had occurred, they were SO close!

"9 stop, query rescan," the Blitzer gave minor reports behind them as they went, "Target reacquired: success, success."

"Come on, come on, come on," the Doctor's voice sounded ahead of her only a few feet, before the doors to the school were opened, "Gangway! Not far now. Come on."

"Almost there," Angel reassured her, putting a gentle hand on her daughter's shoulder so as not to startle her but to comfort her the nearer they got, "You're doing so well, sweetheart."

"9 stop parsing data: pursue. Target reacquired."

The Doctor grinned, they were ALL doing surprisingly well.

~8~

"Did you hear that?" Danny asked, turning around suddenly at hearing a sound from the front doors of the school.

"No," Clara said quickly, "What? No. It's just creaking," she tried to scramble for an answer, "Buildings creak."

But Danny was already off, striding for the doors, shouting out, "Hello?!" but no one was there.

~8~

By the time Tailor had uttered an 'oh no' the Doctor had already turned off his invisibility watch, as had the girls. He spun around in the auditorium of the school to see that the devices he'd set up around a circle of chairs were blinking red instead of flashing green.

"What?" Angel stared at them, feeling startled that she hadn't seen this coming. She'd had such a good feeling about the night, and this was shaping up to be very much the opposite of nice.

"Red?" the Doctor gaped, rushing forward with Angel and Tailor, snatching the sonic from his daughter to try and get the devices back on track, "No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"You said this should be fine," Tailor looked to her mother.

She nodded, "As long as the building is empty it…" and then she realized it, "Someone's moved the other mines."

Before the Doctor could even try to switch the sonic to scanning for the ones that were moved, to try and find some way to shift them back into place with the Blitzer in the same building…it crashed through the doors after them.

"Range 1.49: scan complete," it began to move its arms, as though about to get them in position of attack, "Problem, problem."

"Listen!" the Doctor tossed Tailor the sonic, moving in front of her to block the Blitzer's sight of her, holding his hands up in peace, "We're unarmed. We're peaceful. My Mate more than anyone you've ever met," he added, quickly trying to think of a way out of this, "Don't you understand? I…I know that you shouldn't be on this planet but we can help you with that. We…"

"Problem solution:" the Blitzer cut in, "Destroy."

"Oh no you don't," Angel moved beside her Mate, a golden glow of the Vortex starting to swirl around her hands and in her eyes.

And then, as though it wasn't bad enough, Danny Pink stormed in through the doors despite Clara trying to call him back, "I want a word with you…" he began to point at the Doctor...when his words cut off as the scene registered.

A giant robot with guns for arms standing in front of the Smiths with the red devices set up in some sort of ring behind them.

"Get back!" Tailor shouted, "Aunt Clara, run!"

Danny had only a moment to catch that the girl had shouted 'AUNT Clara' before the robot thing was turning on him.

"Problem solution: destroy!"

Danny threw himself at Clara, pulling her into his arms, having felt her grab his to try and pull him back, turning to shield her from the shots the alien-robot-thing was firing at them, ready and willing to die to keep her safe…

When he felt nothing, no pain, no burning sensations of bullets ripping into him.

He turned his head to see a wall of brilliant gold energy had sprung up behind him, blocking the attack. He could just see past it, through the swirling, to Mrs. Smith, her hair blowing from the force of the energy that was surrounding her, the same golden energy as the wall.

Unfortunately, or perhaps luckily, he'd dropped the device in his hands when he'd gone for Clara, the object rolling across the room, having gotten past the golden wall before it was erected…and clashed right into the circle of other devices, turning them green.

"What the hell…" he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

Mr. Smith had grabbed some sort of metal wand from his daughter and aimed it at the devices, causing a mad, swirling vortex to spring up in the middle of the circle.

"Angel!" the man shouted, and Mrs. Smith nodded, throwing out another hand and the alien-robot-machine-of-death rose into the air in wafts of the gold light, and was thrown, with a swing of her arm, towards the vortex.

"Temporal disrupt," the robot was shouting, "Warning. Warning. Temporal failure."

"Mum!" Tailor yelled, having ducked down behind the chairs, watching her mother half in awe, half in concern as she did her best to not only move the Blitzer, but protect them from its wild firing, AND using her power to keep them from being sucked into the vortex along with the machine.

"Warning: system failure. Abort. Abort."

With one final push, the Blitzer went sailing into the middle of the vortex, the Doctor quickly using the sonic to cancel the vortex, flickering it out and casting the room into silence.

Slowly, now that the danger was gone, the golden glow began to fade, Angel panting more from the startlement of it all than from the effort it had taken her, let out a breath only for it to be stolen when the Doctor pulled her into his arms in a crushing hug. Tailor hopped up, running to join her parents after that close call…usually they could see it coming or had some sort of inkling things were going to go bad, but this really felt like it was out of nowhere this time.

"Oh, eww," Tailor muttered into her parents' sides as she glimpsed her father kissing her mother deeply in relief of them being ok. She didn't want to see it THIS up close, but she wasn't going to end the hug just yet.

Her father, though, seemed to have other ideas when they heard Clara's voice drift over to them, asking Danny if he was ok. The Doctor jerked back so quickly it actually jolted both her and her mother. But that just gave her more room to swoop in for a hug of thanks herself.

The Doctor looked from where Clara was helping a very stunned human up, to one of the devices, the one he'd distinctly seen in the man's hand when he'd stormed in, "Oh, oh, well done, PE," he huffed, moving over to snatch up the device now that they were offline, "Brilliant work. What's this? A chronodyne generator? I'll just deactivate that, shall I? I've got a swimming certificate so that qualifies me to meddle with higher technology. Never mind that some people are actually trying to save the planet. Oh, no. There's only room in my head for cross-country and the offside rule."

"Dad," Tailor cut in, giving him a mildly disapproving look.

Which was something to be said that it wasn't a completely outright disapproving look.

It wasn't often that Tailor let her father get away with being rude without calling him out on it, even rarer that she felt like being rude to people herself…but after this? Perhaps a bit of rudeness was called for.

They'd all almost gotten sucked into a vortex and that was AFTER nearly being shot by a Blitzer!

And, well, she knew it was even more than that.

Her father did NOT do well when his Mate or daughter was in danger, and this human had just put them both in a very extreme one.

Honestly, it was a surprise her father hadn't grabbed the man by his coat lapels and hurled him into the vortex after the Blitzer.

"Danny, are you alright?" Clara repeated, the man still seeming in shock, so much so that he didn't seem to realize how much Clara herself was NOT in shock.

"What the…" Danny tried to make sense of it all, "No. What?" and then he looked at Clara, himself panting and shaken and stuttering and honestly so disturbed…to see her looking remarkably calm and collected and what?! How? He shook his head, "Did you see that thing? Tell me you saw that thing."

She nodded slowly, "I saw the thing, yeah," she admitted, right now her concern about how close they'd all come to being killed by a decidedly not scaredy-alien like she'd imagined it was overpowering the lies she'd been telling herself about keeping her lives separate, for she turned right to the Time Lords and asked, "Doctor, are we safe? Is the planet safe? It's gone, Angel?"

"Yeah," Tailor answered instead, pulling away from the tight hug she'd given her mother, her eyes on her father as he paced along the ring of mines, "For now at least."

"What do you mean 'for now?'" Clara frowned, watching as Angel stepped away from her daughter to reach out for the Doctor, the man going right to her side the moment she held out her hand, "The chronodyne worked, it's gone."

"Except that the chronodyne generators have to be precisely aligned to generate the vortex correctly," Tailor explained.

"And the sergeant here, he went and moved one," the Doctor spoke, his voice nearly a growl despite having Angel alive and well and safe in his arms, unharmed, like their daughter was. But he was vibrating with rage right now. Trying to keep it in, because he did not want to blow up around his daughter, and his Mate didn't particularly like when he was shouty at people (especially scared people, which Mr. Pink clearly was but he didn't particularly care right now how the pudding brain felt). It was enormously difficult to rein it in.

This was supposed to go well. He'd planned it out. He'd done it all on purpose this time, actually made an effort to be cautious and safe and educational…and he had NOT been expecting it to turn so badly. Maybe that's why he felt like ripping the pudding brain's head off and seeing if there was any actual pudding inside his skull.

It was one thing to know it was dangerous, to expect something to go wrong, to brace for it when it inevitably happened. He could do what he could to keep his girls safe. This time…this time he'd been so sure it was going to be fine, not his normal cocky 'of course it'll be fine even though it's raining fire and brimstone out' way but a real and genuine belief it would be ok. And then to have it go so wrong and the danger just abruptly show up and have it be because of someone else's actions? Actions he hadn't anticipated or been aware of?

It was the shock along with everything else.

All he had to do was look at the burning hole in the middle of the chairs stacked in the corner of the room to feel the rage bubble to the surface. That could have been Angel. Or his daughter. Or his sister. If his Mate had been any less powerful or in control as she was, this could have ended up much worse.

The fact that his Mate had had to use her power to protect them all only served to make that bubbling turn into an all-out boil.

"It hasn't gone far enough," Angel sighed, hating to say it, but knowing that it had to be said, even as she felt the Doctor tense in her arms, "It'll be back here again."

The Doctor shook his head, burrowing his nose into her hair and inhaling her scent, "How long have we got?" he asked her, "74 hours?"

"Three days?" Tailor moved over to them, taking her father's hand as she watched him desperately try to keep a lid on his anger, "That's not bad," she offered them a smile, "We can think of something to do in half that time."

Angel took a deep breath and pulled away from the Doctor, "We're going to have to," she warned him, "Less than 24."

He closed his eyes, his jaw tight, hands clenching, squeezing Tailor's as though trying to draw strength and calm from her, but it wasn't working. Because, "Now it knows what to expect," he realized, "Now it's scanned all of us and will kill us on sight. Thanks to PE here."

"But Angel could stop it," Clara stepped over to them, hearing a dark threat in the Doctor's last few words, moving to put herself between him and Danny, "You can't tell me that thing is any match for the Vortex."

That was probably NOT the greatest thing she could have said, to imply he should let his Mate face down the deadly alien on her own.

"Except for the fact that 'that thing' is one of the most deadly robotic entities in the Universe," he countered, "It's got security measures upon security measures to ensure its never threatened."

"It's scanned me, Clara," Angel explained, feeling him getting more irate at the realization, "It knows the um, firepower," she offered for lack of a better word, "I've got and it will react accordingly if I try to use it again."

"It'll blow itself up before it lets itself be defeated like that," Tailor added for simplicity.

"Yes, thank you PE!" the Doctor snapped. IF he had ever even considered for the briefest nanosecond of time that Angel could be 'used' in such a way to stop the creature, that would have been all shot to hell now. The moment the Blitzer saw her even a hint of gold around her it would self-destruct to take her out with it.

That seemed to snap Danny out of where his mind had gone as he too stared at the hole in the stacked chairs, "Clara…" he said slowly, just because he hadn't spoken, didn't mean he hadn't been listening, "Why are you talking to them like that? Why are you using words like chronodyne? Was that thing a space thing?" his eyes widened as he saw her standing before the three clearly-aliens and looking far too familiar with them, "Oh. Oh, my God, you're from space. You're a spacewoman. You said you were from Blackpool!"

The Doctor scoffed and walked as far away from Danny as he could, Angel giving Clara an apologetic look before hurrying after him. Tailor just looked between the two groups, not sure what to do in this increasingly awkward situation.

Clara tried to offer Danny a smile, shouting out the first thing that came to mind, "It's a play!" admittedly NOT her best excuse to date, "For the summer fete," Danny didn't look impressed, "I was talking to them today about helping out and that…that's what they were doing. They were rehearsing a play. A surprise play. And, er, you see, the vortex thing is…is a lighting effect. Very clever. And that thing is…is one of the kids. In fancy dress. Really, really good fancy dress."

Tailor leaned in by Clara's shoulder, "I don't think he's buying it…"

"No, I'm not," he agreed with a glare, turning it to Clara, "How stupid do you think I am?"

"I'm willing to put a number on it," the Doctor mumbled.

"Hush," Angel gave him a warning look, "This was partly my fault," she reminded him, "I should have seen something, sensed something…"

She was starting to get a faint suspicion that she was just too excited for Clara's night to feel much of anything else. Like, what was about to happen for Clara just overpowered anything that could go wrong. She wasn't sure if that was right, but just…perhaps she'd put too much focus on sensing Clara and not enough of that night? The Doctor had had a plan, an actual real plan and not a thing! That, of all things, gave her all the assuredness in the world that this was going to work out fine. He had put it together with Tailor and so why should she worry?

This was her fault too.

"I'm not a moron, Clara," Danny, luckily, hadn't heard them, "And they're not caretakers or dinner ladies or…or teaching assistants."

"Well…" Tailor began to argue, but decided better and fell silent.

"I know who they are," Danny crossed his arms, "They're your family. Your space family. He's your dad, isn't he? She your mum? Is the girl your sister?"

"Well he's not completely wrong," Angel murmured. They WERE Clara's family, just…he got the relations wrong.

"How can you think that I'm her dad when we both look exactly the same age?" the Doctor shouted over, honestly feeling a little insulted that the man would ever call him anyone's father but Tailor's.

"We do NOT look the same age," Clara groused.

"Isn't that what twins are though, the same age?"

"Since when are we twins?"

"Well, siblings…"

"Not all siblings are twins!"

"Fine, fine, you can be the younger sister."

Clara seemed about to nod at that, when it struck her, "Hold on, did you think I was the OLDER sister?"

"Oh, she sounds like Donna," the Doctor complained, recalling all the times that Donna got irritated whenever someone thought she was older than she was.

Tailor bit her lip at the mention of the family, knowing one of her Aunts was closer than they knew.

"Oh my god, he's your brother?" Danny sounded quite a bit disgusted with that.

The Doctor shook his head, getting very irritated now. It was one thing to insult him, and he very much was, but to sound so horrified by the idea that he and Clara might be related, well it just made him feel like the man had insulted his daughter at the same time.

"Right, I'm going to hypnotize him," the Doctor pushed off the wall he'd been simmering against, "I'm going to erase his memory."

"Don't you dare," Angel got in his way, a hand on the middle of his chest, "NOT over something like this."

The Doctor looked at her for a long moment, before nodded, reaching up to take her hand off his chest, just holding it. That had been a threat made in poor taste, given everything that had happened with his own memory erasure.

"You can't erase his memory," Clara agreed, "He's my boyfriend. He's going to learn about all this eventually."

The Doctor gave her an odd look, almost incredulous, as he glanced at Danny, "Him?"

"Yes, him," Clara shook her head, not sure why he was acting so odd.

"No, he's not."

"Yes, he is," Angel told him.

"But he's a PE teacher," the Doctor turned to Angel, then back to Clara, "You wouldn't go out with a PE teacher. It's a mistake. You've made a boyfriend error."

"I am not a PE teacher," Danny ground out, sounding done with this argument, "I am a maths teacher."

"You're a soldier. Why would you go out with a soldier?"

"Why would Angel Mate with one?" Clara shot back, making the Doctor step back as though she'd struck him.

"Because I love him," Angel said, squeezing his hand.

"Exactly," Clara pointed at her, "Because I love him!" she snapped. Only for her eyes to widen as her hands flew to her mouth, realizing what she'd just said and how it had come out.

The Doctor looked at Clara, who seemed to have turned into a statue with very wide eyes, and turned to Angel, "What about the handsome one?" he asked her, not thinking he'd be getting any answer from Clara at the moment, "The one with the bowtie?"

"What, Adrian?" Danny almost shouted, angry at the thought of the woman he was dating being with anyone else.

"No, no, no," Clara seemed to snap out of it at Danny's tone, turning to him, assuring him, "He's just a friend and not my type."

Danny shook his head, "Clara, are you going to explain any of this? Who are these people?"

"They're…" Clara struggled even now, even after what Danny had seen, even after half-admitting the Doctor was sort of like her brother, that Tailor saw her as an Aunt, "They're the Doctor and Angel, and that's their daughter, Tailor."

"Hello!" Tailor waved, trying to break the tension…but it just seemed to make it worse.

"Yeah, but who are they?" Danny continued on, "Why have you never mentioned them?"

Clara looked back at the Time Lords, but not even Angel seemed to know what to say or how to get out of this, "Because they're aliens."

"Er, are you an alien?"

"No, no, no, I'm still from Blackpool. I…I call the Doctor my brother, but it's just how I see him," she assured him, "And…and Tailor's like a niece to me because of it. We…the four of us, we travel through time and space."

"Exhibit A," the Doctor moved onto a stage set up on the other end of the room to pull the curtains back and reveal the TARDIS sitting there.

"It's called a TARDIS," Angel offered, hoping this might help Clara seem a bit less mad as she could see that familiar look in Danny's eye that most people got when the Doctor was around, that the person talking was completely barmy, "Our spaceship. Disguised as an old police phone box."

"It's bigger on the inside!" Tailor added, moving over to her father's side and patting the corner of the box proudly, before leaning over to open one of the doors and show the reality of it.

"And we travel the universe in it," Clara finished.

Danny slowly approached the box, looking for all the world as though he were about to step into some sort of trap. He eyed it oddly, leaning in to look around the console room, before making the customary trip around the outside and peeking in again.

"And what about that thing?" he asked, stepping away from the box, gesturing back towards the chairs, "Did you bring that here?"

"We brought it to the empty school to send it away," Angel told him, "We were protecting you from it."

"You said it was coming back."

"Yes," the Doctor's voice grew hard, momentarily having forgotten the tension at talking about the TARDIS, at seeing his girls happy to share their remarkable box, but now, with that reminder, it was hard to look at the man that was responsible for that fact, "It is coming back, thanks to you."

"This is a school. We have to evacuate, call the Army."

"And that is the most dangerous thing right there," the Doctor scoffed, shutting the doors to the box.

"But we need to get help. This is an emergency!"

"Torchwood, as much as I love Jack, might try to confiscate the Blitzer and use its tech," Angel sighed, for as much as Yvonne's reign had ended, there were still bits of the 'if it's alien, it's ours' mentality in Torchwood. Sometimes, if it was tech that could help defend the earth, they'd be willing to try and find a way to use it first…and Torchwood did love their guns, "UNIT would be the most qualified to assist."

"Then tell them to send someone!"

"Hello," the Doctor crossed his arms as he leaned on the corner of the box.

"Dad works for UNIT," Tailor explained, "He is exactly who they'd send to deal with this."

"I don't believe this…" Danny shook his head.

"Look, take him away," the Doctor turned to Clara, feeling the passage of time even more acutely with the human having his meltdown in front of them, spouting about things that were just a waste of time, "Shut him up, shut him down. Up or down, it doesn't matter to me. We've got a lot of work to do. Again."

"Will you be ok?" Clara asked them as the small family moved to pick up the mines.

"Why wouldn't we be ok? We were fine till you two blundered in."

"Dad, it's not Aunt Clara's fault," Tailor reprimanded him.

Angel nodded, "She tried to stop him touching anything."

"Am I just being ignored?" Danny huffed.

Angel turned to Clara, "Go on Clara," she offered, "The work we've got to do, it's complicated."

Clara nodded slowly, understanding it was Angel's coded way of saying it was something exceptionally Time Lord related, some sort of tech or knowledge that one would have to be a Time Lord to understand. And she had memories of being a Time Lady, but nothing close to this…and Danny didn't need to know about the 13 lives she'd lived and was living, not yet.

She turned, moving to lead a very angry and bewildered Danny out of the room, "Come on, Danny. It's alright. Come on, it's all fine. You'll be ok. Let's er, get those legs moving. That's it, down those stairs. Yep, that's it. This can all be explained and everything will be fine."

"And when this is all over, you can finish the job," the Doctor called, just as Danny left the room but before Clara followed.

"How do you mean?" she looked back at him.

"Well, you've explained us to him. You haven't explained him to us."

Tailor rolled her eyes, "Go, Aunt Clara, WE'LL explain him to dad."

Clara gave the girl a small, strained smile, before she slipped out of the room, honestly not sure what was going to happen but hoping against hope that this was the worst it would get.

A/N: I know it may seem a bit odd that Angel didn't tell Clara the whole truth about the Blitzer, but from where she was standing, something very important was going to happen between Clara and Danny, and that was more important to her than making sure Clara joined them on this mission. She also knows Clara and how she can be, and she tried to not lie which she didn't as everything she said she firmly believes, but she tried to make it seem not as serious because she really did want Clara to have a nice night with Danny. And, a small sensation told her that the school HAD to be empty for everything to work, if Clara was there and had to cancel her date with Danny...it might be the straw that breaks the camel's back and gets him to follow her to see why she's always acting so weird.

Sadly, for all her efforts, the plan didn't work and sort of forced Clara into a tough position. Danny, not knowing to trust the Time Lords and with Clara not wanting to expose anything about them or the lies she's told, was suspicious and went to stop them when he saw them enter the school. The mistake with the Blitzer happened, Clara's lies were exposed, and the moment of saying 'I love you' for the first time that Angel had been hoping to preserve came out in anger instead of a sweet moment. It all just went wrong.

Angel's powers are growing, always growing, and she's always learning about it as she goes. There are going to be times where things go wrong despite it or even because of it. Like with River, she tried to prevent something and created a worse future. Here she tried to preserve something and it just all blew up :( Psychics can't be right all the time :(

As for Skye, you have NO idea how much I agonized over whether to have Sarah Jane appear in this chapter with the Blitzer, sort of showing up in the nick of time with her laser sonic. But I felt like that would be too much for Danny to take in at once. Tailor hasn't told Skye about the Blitzer, Sarah Jane hasn't had any inkling about the Blitzer either, or I would assume so as UNIT and Torchwood would have likely been there if they had any idea it was there, the Time Lords just found it first. I also think she and Skye and Tailor would be more along the lines of surprising them at Parents' Evening. Which, I'm sure you can guess, will turn out to be more exciting than anyone planned ;)

But oh no, 'we're getting closer to the Danny showdown. I wonder what will happen... }:)

Some notes on reviews...

Thank you all for your welcome backs :) I'm very happy to be back and hopefully this will continue to be a steady thing :)

I've heard a few people say 13's second season was better than the first, I'm debating watching that first and then going back to her first season. I sort of entered the world of DW with Series 3 and the 10th Doctor and then worked my way back. I feel like, if I'd seen just 9 first, I might not have been pulled in as much so maybe that'll work better :)

I completely understand that. I really had a hard time with the end of 11 and 12, mostly the second season of 12, there were times where I just felt like the plots were just too convoluted and didn't have a real flow or purpose to them and it made it hard to follow for me :/ We'll have to wait and see where the future of the DW stories go, but I am also very excited to get back to some of my other stories too :) I can't wait to see how Angel and Tailor come in too, I feel like with 12 being how he is, it might end up kicking Angel's empathic abilities into overdrive to compensate lol :)

I've originally been in agreement that I would have preferred the Doctor stay male. I actually had a headcannon, after 11/12 that the next Doctor should have been Tom Hiddleston with a personality of SUCH an old school gentleman, always apologizing and being polite and getting so easily flustered. Mostly because picturing that sort of person reacting to River Song was hysterical to me lol :) I'm going to try and give 13 an open mind, but whatever I decide to do with the stories, I'll always do my best to end in a way where the series feels complete, but also has the potential to be continued if I ever change my mind :)