Searching the Stars

by LizzeXX

12/OC -Time Lady- The Doctor and Mac, the Doctor's Chosen, have survived Trenzalore, and now there's a new Doctor rushing about. On top of that, Clara has officially become Mac's Companion, something she's never had before. As the Promise Land looms in the distance, overseen by the mysterious Missy, how will the Time Lords handle all that's to come? Sixth in the Time Lady Memoirs.

6. The Caretaker and the Teacher

A/N: Sorry this was late! I usually try to aim for M/W/F updates, we had some very strong winds in my area yesterday and we lost power :/ Luckily though our town was very efficient about getting repairs going and we just got it back about a little while ago. I've been working on editing this and my Merlin sequel to get them up today ;)

~8~

The Caretaker and the Teacher

Mac was sure it was because of her that the Doctor had decided their next adventure would not include Clara. It wasn't a bad thing, per say, it was more her own back and forth about the situation and not wanting to overstep with Clara that had made him feel like he had to take the situation into his own hands and make the decision she couldn't. She could never recall being so indecisive about certain things before, but such was her current body.

They had had quite the time, recently, ever since they'd robbed the bank, it was like the Doctor kept trying to one-up that, find more interesting and dangerous and thrilling places to go and things to do. He kept calling them 'dates' and she loved the thought that he was tying to impress her…but Clara kept getting dragged along. She loved having her Companion with them, there was no issue with that, she was happy to have the girl along on any adventure, date or not. It was just her growing concern for the girl.

Clara was human, she didn't have the stamina that a Time Lord did and the Doctor was pushing it quite far with how much they got up to during their adventures. They'd ended up on a desert planet at one point, under a sweltering sun, chained to pillars, and then had to flee from sand piranhas. Clara had been saved from ending up badly burned only because she'd basically slathered sunblock on the girl when she saw what planet they landed on, to the point where Clara was even paler than normal, but her skin was saved from cancer! Afterwards, when they were back on Earth, Clara had rushed off before she could wash the block (and the sand stuck to it) off, because she was late for a date.

Then they'd ended up on a planet that was entirely water, the people there having evolved from fish, and things had gone wrong and they'd had to swim for the TARDIS. Luckily she'd wrapped Clara up in a vest, tube, and floaties so the girl had ascended to the surface of the planet much faster and hadn't gotten caught in the seaweed like she and the Doctor had as they tried to get the TARDIS unstuck. But she'd still rushed off, sopping wet, ignoring her calls about how she'd catch a chill because her boyfriend was waiting for her.

And THEN they'd ended up on a planet that reminded her far too much of Messaline, the surface toxic to live on so the humans were all underground and connected by tunnels and she had not reacted well to that, so the Doctor had been on edge and more insulting than normal, and they'd ended up running for their lives trying to find the TARDIS while their new-enemies fired at them. In that case, it was a good thing she'd reacted so poorly, because she'd freaked out, utterly convinced Clara would be shot while she was there, and had refused to let the girl out of the TARDIS unless she wore a literal suit of armor. Clara hadn't been happy to have to run after them with the additional weight on her, but she was alive!

It was a lot for a human to handle, the extremes, the stress, the exhaustion.

And she was SO concerned for Clara's health. The girl needed to rest and sleep and have more balance. But she wasn't the girl's mother, she was her pilot, and she felt like if she brought it up it would be overstepping, that Clara might get upset or feel like Mac didn't want her around. So she kept going back and forth, pacing and fretting and venting her concerns to the Doctor after each adventure, trying to work out what she should do and how to approach it.

The Doctor had decided that the next adventure would be just them, and also because there was a sensitive part of it that would likely cause even more stress to Clara to have her try to balance it all. They would need to keep Clara separate for this next one, which made it easier to decide.

The hard part, now, would be having to tell Clara she wasn't coming with them this trip.

Speaking of the devil, the doors opened and Clara stepped right in, beaming as she headed towards where she was standing by the console, the Doctor on the upper level, "So, where we off to?" she called.

"Clara!" the Doctor spun around, quickly hurrying down the stairs to Mac's side, glancing at her, not sure if she wanted to be the one to say this as it was her companion or if he should since Clara would probably expect it from him more than Mac. Given the way she was wringing her hands, she wasn't sure yet, so he went for buying more time, "You...you look lovely today. Have you had a wash?"

"Why are you being nice?" Clara asked, crossing her arms, suspicious now.

"Because it works on you?"

Clara rolled her eyes, "I expect compliments from Mac, not you," so she turned to Mac, "What's going on? What's wrong?"

Mac gave her a small smile for how well she knew them, "It's not wrong, so much as...different," Mac offered, "It's just that there's going to be no trip today."

"Why not?"

"We've got to do a thing," the Doctor said, "It might take a while."

"What thing?"

"Just a thing."

"You're being mysterious, and do you know what that means?"

"I'm a man of mystery?"

He pointedly ignored Mac's snort at his description.

"It means that you are a very clever man making the mistake, common to very clever people, of assuming that everybody else is stupid," Clara told him, "Where are you going?"

Mac sighed, but the smile grew on her face, "You've caught us," she chuckled, "We do have something in mind, but um," she glanced at the Doctor, "We were just thinking it should be just us, this time around."

Clara looked between them before laughing and smiling, "You could have just said you wanted to go on a date!" she told them, amused.

Mac opened her mouth to agree, seeing that it might be a way to keep Clara away without hurting her feelings, but the Doctor seemed rather offended by the notion that what he had planned this time would be called a date.

"What?" the Doctor scoffed, "It's not a date. We're going undercover."

"Undercover?" Clara repeated, glancing between them, eyeing Mac as she seemed to put her face in her hand and shake her head.

"Deep cover."

"Can you do deep cover?"

"UNIT," Mac reminded her, "I flash my badge and most people don't ask questions."

"Well, yeah, YOU I can see it. Him though…"

"What do you mean?" the Doctor frowned.

"Have you seen you?"

"Of course, I can do deep cover!"

"Where?" Clara giggled, "The Magic Circle?"

"He has been known to blend in when he has to," Mac defended.

"There, see!" the Doctor nodded.

"He just had to use the TARDIS to completely rewrite his mind and make himself think he was actually a human to do it."

"Oi!"

Clara shook her head, trying hard not to keep laughing, before she took a breath, "Deep cover?" she turned to Mac.

"We'll be safe, Clara," Mac promised her, "It's just…it would be very hard for YOU to work up a cover there, and I never want to make anything harder for you."

Clara let out a long breath, getting the feeling that they were going somewhere that only aliens were welcome and not humans or something. Or a place where the species were hostile to humans. She probably should have fought more, asked more, but…she'd be lying if she didn't want a tiny break from all the running and danger herself. A few days she could spend with Danny where she wasn't exhausted or coming up with some sort of excuse to explain herself would be nice.

"You sure?" Clara asked, because she really did care about them, and if they were in danger or going to be hurt…

"I promise," Mac crossed her hearts, "And we'll let you know as soon as we're done that everything's fine."

The Doctor took her silence and hesitation as agreement, snapping his fingers to open the doors to the TARDIS, "We'll see you when we see you."

Clara sighed, but pointed at Mac, "As SOON as you're done," she issued in waring.

Mac crossed her hearts again, waving as Clara moved back for the doors, the Doctor stepping forward and wound an arm around Mac's middle, letting her rest back against him. He waited till Clara stepped out of the box and the doors shut before he huffed.

"As though that would be a date," he muttered in her ear.

She rolled her eyes at that, but smiled, "Make it up to me after," she offered.

He leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek before they turned back to the console, to the monitor where a light was blinking somewhere in East London.

~8~

"We're going to be late," Mac huffed a laugh as she partly dragged the Doctor through the halls of Coal Hill school, heading for the staff room where a small meeting was going on. The headmaster had asked them to be there, to introduce them to the others so that, if anything was needed, they would know who to turn to.

The Doctor was playing the role of Caretaker, while she had managed to work her way into a supply teacher, meant to fill in for one of the science teachers who had sprained their ankle late the night before and wasn't able to make it in that day while they went to get it checked out.

"We're Time Lords, we're never late," the Doctor scoffed.

Mac stopped dead and turned to give him a look.

"Alright, alright, I'm rarely on time," he rolled his eyes, gesturing her onward.

She shook her head but turned to drag him on, quickly knocking on the door to the staff room.

"Ah!" she heard the headmaster within, "There they are," the man cheered, and a moment later the door was opened, allowing the two of them through.

It didn't take long at all to spot Clara among the other teachers, she looked stunned and exasperated at the same time. She very much wanted to send the girl an apologetic look, but thought it might be a little too noticeable.

"Hello," the Doctor spoke, "I'm the new caretaker. John Smith," before he smiled, "And my wife, Mackenzie Smith."

Mac rolled her eyes at that though. She had actually come to enjoy being 'Mackenzie Noble' after that first time she'd introduced herself as it, a way to keep Donna with them. But now that they knew they'd apparently gotten married in Queen Elizabeth's couth, he'd taken no small amount of pleasure in introducing her as his wife and a 'Smith' whenever he could.

"Yes, hello," Mac smiled, "I'll be filling in for Ms. Winnowman."

A young black man stepped forward with a warm grin, "Welcome to Coal Hill, Mr. Smith," he shook the Doctor's hand, "Mrs. Smith," and Mac's.

"Thanks," the Doctor moved to put his arm around Mac's shoulder as he addressed them, "Yes, John Smith's the name. But, you know, here's a thing, most people just call me the Doctor."

Mac very much wanted to shake her head at him when he winked, right at Clara. But she kept herself proper and nodded at the other teachers as they filed out of the room, heading for an assembly that would be happening soon. She was exempt, mostly due to being the supply teacher and not permanent staff, and she needed to gather the 'notes' and plans the actual teach had set aside for the classes in her absence.

Rubbish.

She had loads of ideas for what they could do in class.

"Yes," the Doctor continued, waving the humans on, "So, if anybody needs me, just, you know, give me a shout. I'll be in the storeroom just getting the lie of the land. Yes, no one's taking any notice at all. Absolutely good news because it means I must be coming across just as an absolutely boring human being like you."

"Going a bit far now, dear," Mac whispered to him, patting him on the chest as she moved to shut the door behind the others.

"What are you doing here?" Clara hissed at her, making herself the last one out the door.

"We told you," Mac sighed, "Deep cover," and gently ushered her out. She closed the door and turned, letting out a breath and heading over to the Doctor where he was looking at a map of the school and the grounds around it that he'd pulled from his pocket. Both of them took a moment to just examine it, "It'll have to be indoors," she remarked, "Outside and anyone will see and the last thing we'd need is someone coming over to check what's going on."

He nodded, pointing to the next largest area of the school, "Gym?" he suggested.

"Should work," Mac frowned in thought, "We have to be very careful getting it here though, if it damages the halls or the doors…"

She was cut off from saying more when the door to the staff room opened and Clara strode in, startling the Doctor enough for him to try and cram the plans into his pocket.

"So, you recognized us, then?" the Doctor eyed her.

Clara crossed her arms and gave them a look, "You're wearing a different coat and holding a mop," she pointed out at the Doctor, "And you're wearing a jacket, heels, and glasses," she added for Mac, who was wearing a red sort of suit jacket over her typical black dress and, instead of flats, had heels on. She'd even found her old glasses from when she'd first met the Doctor again and changed the lenses so they wouldn't hurt her eyes, trying to make herself look more like a 'teacher.'

"But you saw straight through that," the Doctor said, proud.

Clara sighed, dropping her arms and looking at them, concerned, "Deep cover in my school? Why? Where's Atif, what have you done with him? And Winny?"

"She sprained her ankle," Mac told her quickly, "Not too badly, she'll be back tomorrow but needed the day off. Lucky for us, bit of a sore area for her. And Atif…"

"He's fine," the Doctor promised, "Hypnotized, he thinks he's got the 'flu. Also a flying car and three wives. It's going to be a rude awakening."

Clara rolled her eyes at him and turned to Mac, "Is it aliens?" she asked, frowning, reaching out to take Mac's hand, "Is that why you're here? Are there aliens? Are there aliens in this school?"

"Besides us," Mac began, "No, there are no other aliens in the school. It IS alien related, but we're just checking it right now," she crossed her hearts, "Just scanning and scoping. That's all."

Clara eyed her a moment, debating how much more she wanted to know about this alien they were scoping, but neither of them seemed overly concerned or worried, "Why couldn't you have just told me that you were looking around the school?"

Mac offered her a smile, "We'd be going 'undercover' in the school. Bit hard for you to go undercover in the place you work," she gave Clara a teasing look that had her rolling her eyes again.

"You really think this is gonna work though?" she had to look between them, but focused more on the Doctor, "You cannot pass yourself off as a real person among actual people."

Mac she had no doubts about, though she was a bit surprised she'd gone for the science teach instead of the nurse or something, she fretted so much it would have been far more fitting.

"I lived among otters once for a month," the Doctor scoffed, "Well, I sulked. River and I, we had this big fight..."

Mac snorted, it wasn't so much a fight as River getting frustrated with the Doctor scaring her date off once and giving him the silent treatment. Though she was a bit relieved by it. Nestene Duplicates? She'd have thought her daughter would have better taste than that, but clearly she was every bit the trouble maker and danger seeker that her father was.

"Human beings are not otters," Clara pointed out.

"Exactly, it'll be even easier."

Mac patted his arm and turned to Clara, "Clara, I promise you, with both my hearts, the school is safe, the kids are safe, nothing will happen to anyone. We're really just having a look about right now, making sure it stays safe. Ok?"

Clara sighed, "Ok."

"Good," the Doctor huffed, "Now...pretend you don't know us, stay out of our way," he led her to the door and held it open, "The less you know, the better. We'll explain it all later. Go and sing with the otters."

Clara muttered, "I hate you," as she stepped past the doors and into the hall.

"That's fine, that's a perfectly normal reaction," and then he shut the door behind her, only to turn and see Mac with her arms crossed, shaking her head at him, "What?"

~8~

Mac was starting to think she may have created a monster as she walked through the halls of Coal Hill on her free period, wanting to meet up with the Doctor and check in. The kids she passed in the halls were all far, far too excited, chattering quietly and quickly with each other, huddled in groups, crouched on the ground and pouring things out of their backpacks.

She may have taken a few liberties with her science class, making it a bit more of an engineering class. She'd been trying to find a piece of chalk to use to just write her name on the board, and the teacher apparently had no sense of organization at all and only a drawer full of junk. She'd ended up tipping it onto a sort of island desk and looking at what was there before calling the students to gather around it and ask them what it was.

Most said junk.

She said it was far better than that.

So, yes, she'd gotten a little carried away showing them all the odds and ends they could make out of, well, odds and ends. A compass using two paperclips, an X-acto knife out of a pencil sharpener and a pencil with some glue, how to use glue to get a splinter out.

…and then it somehow, she didn't know exactly how, devolved into something nearing makeshift weapons.

Rubber band launchers using nothing but a clip and a ruler, a dart launcher using a few sheets of paper and rubber bands and tape, a slingshot using a rubber band and paperclip, and then, probably her worst decision, a catapult using pencils, rubber bands, and string.

…at least she hadn't shown them how to make a crossbow out of pencils or that hidden assassin wrist blade from popsicle sticks!

Everything was relatively harmless, but it seemed to inspire the kids to see what else they could make out of the odds and ends in their own packs and pockets.

She hoped it wouldn't cause too much chaos, but she was afraid it might.

She shook her head as she stepped into the small courtyard of the school to see the Doctor working on a junction box while two other teaches spoke to him, one of them being the nice black man who had first welcomed them. She had known where he was though, he'd been sending her a mental SOS to 'save me from the pudding brains' for the last five minutes, apparently the two teachers, while just trying to be friendly, were annoying him.

His patience with humans was very low in this incarnation, but she understood his ire in this moment. He was trying to set up a perimeter for their plans later, and it was very hard to do when people noticed him or talked to him. He wanted the plan done and done right, to minimize any harm that could come to others. He had actually been very relieved that they had this advanced notice of a potential danger instead of appearing in the middle of it or running into it unprepared. It gave them time to work out a plan and make sure no one would be in the crossfire. He really wanted an adventure where he didn't have to worry about the humans or any other species making a mistake and getting hurt. He'd had enough of it on Christmas.

But now he felt these two teachers were distracting him and keeping him from doing his job and protecting them.

She could spot Clara on the other side of the courtyard, speaking to the headmaster, and thought it best not to interrupt her, so instead she made her way over to the Doctor.

"…Danny Pink here is your man, Mr. Smith," one of the teachers was saying, gesturing to the black teacher, "Five years' military experience, sergeant, here and Afghan, so electrics, boilers, if you need a hand, give him a shout."

"I…I've helped Atif with a couple of things," Danny offered.

"I'm sure I won't need you, Sergeant," the Doctor remarked, "Fully qualified," he turned back to the box and sparks went off a moment later, causing him to jump back and clear his throat, "And if not me, my lovely wife here…" he gestured her over as she approached, "Quite remarkable at fixing the most complicated mess of wires with the simplest means."

Mac gave him an amused look for how he described it, "He just says that because I've managed to keep his…transport…working with paperclip, gum, and rubber bands."

The Doctor just put an arm around her shoulders, "And she's still running like the first day I took off."

"I'm sure we can manage between the two of us," Mac offered to Danny, "But if we get stuck, I'll give a shout. Lord knows this one is too proud to do it," she nudged the Doctor.

"Funny," he huffed, before waving the two men away, "You best get back to your PE class."

"Oh, I teach maths," Danny corrected.

"Do you?" Mac smiled at him

"What, in emergencies?" the Doctor added, a bit more rudely.

"No," Danny frowned, "I'm a maths teacher."

"Yeah, he's a maths teacher…" the other teacher nodded, seeming about to say more when the sound of glass breaking sounded, "Mohammed, put that down!" he shouted, hurrying off after the child who had done it.

Mac winced, "My fault," she explained, "Sorry."

Danny looked back to see what had broken to find that, apparently, Mohammed had shattered one of the windows using a… "Is that a quid and a rubber band?"

"Unfortunately yes," Mac sighed, "I thought it would take them longer to move onto solid objects from paperclips and paper…"

The Doctor just chuckled at that while Danny looked half curious and half alarmed, "So how does that work?" he asked, distracting Danny from it, sure that Mac had taught them many more things they'd be getting in trouble with, "What if the kids have questions?"

"About what?" Danny shook his head, turning back to them.

"Maths."

"I answer them. I'm a maths teacher."

"But he said you were a soldier."

"Yeah. I was a soldier, now I'm a maths teacher."

Mac nodded, "So were we," she offered, moving her arm around the Doctor's waist if only so she could pinch him in the side to get him to lay off the nice man, "Soldiers," she added, "Now, teacher and caretaker."

The Doctor snorted, more like Doctor and UNIT Agent but fine.

"Er," Clara cut in, approaching, likely seeing the Doctor about to keep talking, "Excuse me. Mr. Pink, I think class 9M4 are waiting."

"Yes, you better run along, Sergeant," the Doctor nodded, "That ball isn't going to kick itself, is it?"

"I…I'm not a PE teacher, I'm a maths teacher."

"Best just go," Mac offered him an apologetic smile, "He suffers from selective hearing."

Danny gave the Doctor an odd look, but nodded, turning to go.

"So, Pink," Clara said after Danny was far enough away, "The name remind you of anything?"

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded, "The color."

Mac let out a breath and shook her head, "Orson Pink?" she guessed, glancing at where Danny had gone, "He does look quite like him…"

"Does he?" the Doctor looked at Mac for that, though there was a pout on his face.

She chuckled and leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek, feeling a bit of a thrill that she could do that so openly and no one stared at her for it, "I only noticed because he was at the end of the Universe, nothing else," she assured him, finding it cute he was a tad jealous she'd noticed another man, "He's no you," she added.

The Doctor grinned at that, turning to toss a small blinking device into the cabinet before he locked it closed.

"What are you doing?" Clara caught sight of it, "What...what's in there?"

"Scanner," Mac told her, "And a field," she added, "What we need to keep everyone safe. Not dangerous to anyone, doesn't even give off any radiation."

"So...is he here then?" the Doctor quickly changed the topic, picking up a work bag and heading for one of the doors with Mac.

"Is who here?" Clara asked, confused.

"The one you keep going on serious dates with."

"Yes, we really would like to meet him," Mac added. She would be lying if she said she hadn't been secretly scoping out some of the teachers there (male and female, she wasn't one to judge or assume) to see if any of them might be a fit for Clara. She mostly just cared if they were a good person who would treat her well and love her a great deal…and there were surprisingly a good number of people who were very nice and good people there.

"If he is," Clara said, confirming it was a male, "Are you going to start talking like a normal human being?"

"I promise I won't," the Doctor said, "I'm being nice."

"He actually is," Mac told her when Clara moved to argue, "But I'll do my best to keep him from being too insulting," she added.

Mac glanced back when Clara fell silent to see she'd been caught up by one of the other teachers, one who looked a great deal like the Doctor used to, especially his bowtie.

"Oh, I see," the Doctor murmured and Mac looked over to see his smiling at the sight of Clara and the teacher.

Mac snorted, "That's not her boyfriend, dear," she said, sure of it.

The Doctor seemed more inclined to think it was, it made sense to him, that Clara would be drawn to a man who reminded her of someone familiar to her, "What makes you say that?"

Mac gestured over at them, "She looks like she wants to get away from him," she offered, "That's not how you look when you love someone."

"Is it?"

She turned to him, "Do I look like I want to be away from you?" she asked.

He glanced at her, taking in her smile, the sparkle in her eyes, the content expression on her face, and smiled in return, lifting the hand he was holding to press a kiss to the back of it, before turning to tug her into the Caretaker's storeroom. But she tugged back, causing him to frown.

"I don't want to be away from you," she said, with a teasing smile, "But my next class starts in five minutes."

He rolled his eyes with a huff and let go of her hand, waving to her as she went down the hall, chuckling when she had to duck under a student firing a rubber band at another student across the hall.

~8~

Mac sighed as she stepped into the Caretaker's storeroom a few hours later, rubbing her head. She had made the mistake of mentioning the crossbow and her next class had spent the entire time trying to work out how to make one out of the bits of junk.

Thankfully none of them had worked it out.

The Doctor had been keeping tabs and running commentary on the students and their creations all through the day while he slipped more of the scanners and devices around the school. If he kept up, she might just smack him. She hadn't known it would be THAT hard to control a single room full of children, she had no idea how Clara did it.

She glanced over at the TARDIS, sitting in the corner of the room and headed over to it, opening the doors and stepping inside to see the Doctor running some scans, muttering to himself as he went.

"Where are you, you little…" he began, though he cut himself off when he spotted her, sending her a smirk.

"Don't say it," she pointed a warning finger at him, "You could have just as easily been the teacher in this."

They'd flipped a coin over it, who would fill in for the teacher and who would need to find another way into the school. She had read the file UNIT had on his brief stint as a physics teacher. The school had ended up blown up! She had made the argument that he couldn't be trusted as a science teacher, not with access to chemicals and a Bunsen Burner. He'd sworn he would be more careful, but ultimately agreed to flip a coin when she wouldn't back down.

He'd lost.

Now he was smug because, clearly HE had forgotten what it was like to have to deal with so many children, non stop, for hours on end. And this school was not as well-behaved or academically inclined as the one he'd invaded infested with Krillitanes.

He held up his hands in innocence, opening his mouth to indeed tease her more, when they heard the door to the storeroom open and slam shut.

"Hello?" the voice of a young girl called out, "Oi. What are you doing? Are you in there?"

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most dangerous of them all?" the Doctor muttered to himself.

"There's been a spillage in Geography, I need some paper towels."

"Go on, caretaker," Mac shot him a pleased smirk of her own. If HE could tease her about being overwhelmed with kids, SHE could tease him about how he had to be the one mopping up spillages and cleaning up sick.

"Can't you read?" the Doctor called to the girl as he strode out of the TARDIS.

"Course I can read," the girl scoffed, "Read what?"

Mac moved to the doorway of he TARDIS, stepping out and shutting the door behind her as she looked over at the girl, a young black girl she didn't believe she'd had in class yet, as she stood with her arms crossed, glaring at the Doctor, insulted.

"The door. It says, 'Keep Out.'"

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

"Oh, dear," Mac shook her head at him, Clara was certainly right, he had no idea how to do deep cover without his entire brain being rewired.

The Doctor frowned at that, not seeming to believe that was what the sign said, until he went to check it, "Oh, so it does. Never lose your temper in the middle of a door sign."

"What were you doing in there?" the girl eyed Mac, and the woman could clearly see where the girl's mind was going, the same place Clara's had when they first met, that it was some sort of snog box, "What's that box?"

"A caretaker's box," the Doctor defended, "Every caretaker has their own box."

"It says, 'Police.'"

"Exactly, there's a policeman in there, in case of emergencies and children," he reached out and grabbed a handful of paper towels, shoving them to the girl, "Towels, there, g-g-go."

"What was that green glow?" the girl frowned, this time asking Mac as she had been the one to step out last, which left the girl more time to see in, "There was a green glow coming from in there. What was it?"

Mac laughed and shook her head, deciding to humor the Doctor's excuse, "What's a policeman without a death ray?" she teased, glancing up when the bell rang, "Go on," she urged the girl off, grateful she had another free period this round, she needed the break, "Back to class. Don't forget to drop off the towels."

"Yes, yes, cut along, you're running out of time," the Doctor tried to nudge her to the door.

"For what?" the girl frowned.

"Class," Mac cut in, shooting the Doctor a look to cut off his likely tangent about how short human life spans were, "Don't want to get in trouble for being late. Off you go now."

The girl looked between them, "You're weird," she told them.

"Yes, we are," the Doctor agreed.

"Et hem?" Mac cleared her throat.

"Yes, I am," the Doctor amended, "What about you?"

The girl jut her chin up, beaming proudly, "I'm a disruptive influence."

"Good to meet you," the Doctor shook her hand, still trying to nudge her to the door.

"And you!" the girl finally seemed to get the hint and began to head for it, reaching the door just as Clara was entering, "Hello, miss, love to the Squaddie."

"Sorry, what did you say?" Clara spun to try and catch her, but the girl was already out the door. She huffed and turned back to them, "What was she doing in here?"

"Paper towels," the Doctor waved it off.

"Better question," Mac stepped over to her, "What are YOU doing here?" she teased, "Questions?" she guessed.

"Fire away," the Doctor called, gathering some things into a bag, "I won't answer any of them."

"I will," Mac assured her.

"Is this school in danger?" Clara went right for it, "And don't lie," she shot to the Doctor as he opened his mouth to speak, "You two wouldn't be here, scanning things, if there wasn't an alien threat nearby. And now I'm starting to worry that your strategy for dealing with it involves endangering this school."

"Oh, Clara, sweetie, no," Mac shook her head, "No, we would never, ever endanger the lives of the children, you know that," she reached out to rub Clara's arm comfortingly, "Nor would we endanger the staff either if we can help it. Us being here means the school is safe."

"I feel like you're not telling me everything," Clara admitted, "And I feel like you're doing that because you think I wouldn't approve of whatever plan you do have. And the only thing I wouldn't approve of is endangering this school."

The Doctor sighed at the pleading look Mac was shooting him, knowing he couldn't keep this secret from Clara the way they initially hoped to do, but knowing she wouldn't reveal everything without his agreement since he had been arguing more about telling her nothing at all while Mac wanted her to know the important details.

He turned to one of the small globes he'd been putting into the bag and flicked the sonic at it, activating it, and turning it green.

"Is that one of those scanners?" Clara eyed it, "What exactly are you scanning for?"

"You were right that we were concerned there might be something in the area," Mac told her, "Those scanners should register any alien technology in this vicinity."

The Doctor flicked the sonic, revealing what the scanners had brought up. It looked like some sort of mechanical spider on the bottom half, with a humanoid top half, with arms that were only weapons of some sort, "That."

"What the hell is it?!" Clara gaped at the sight.

"A Skovox Blitzer," Mac began.

"Yes, one of the deadliest killing machines ever created," the Doctor added as Mac let out a breath and shook her head at how he'd blurted that out, "Probably homed in here because of Artron emissions. You've had enough of them in this area over the years. There's enough explosive in its armory to take out the whole planet."

"Yes, thank you, dear," Mac gave him a look.

"What?" he frowned, shaking his head.

Mac rolled her eyes and turned back to a Clara who was looking increasingly concerned, "At one point or another, it'll activate and leave where it's hiding. We can't risk that someone who doesn't know what it is will approach it and be hurt. We HAVE a plan, Clara," she promised her, "We know how to get it away from here. We're just making sure that we have everything in place so not a single person is in danger, not a single child. Ok?"

"But…" Clara began.

"Clara," Mac cut in, "Do you trust me?"

"Of course," Clara said instantly, before understanding, at least partly, why they hadn't told her. She would want to help, and they were clearly concerned about the danger this alien in particular posed. This was, probably, the first time they were clued into an alien danger before they were just dropped in the middle of a situation and left to try and work it out as they went. They KNEW this danger, and they wanted to protect her from it by keeping her away from it. And while that was sweet, there was something else she was more concerned about, "You promise the school will be safe? The kids will be safe?"

"Cross my hearts," Mac assured, doing just that.

"Ok," Clara nodded, taking a breath, "Can you at least tell me what the plan is?" she asked.

"Can you promise me you'll keep out of it?" Mac asked her, her voice and expression gentle so she wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"That's fair," she had to admit, sighing, "I promise," she told them, "So how are you going to do it? You're going to be safe, yeah?"

The Doctor gestured for her to follow them into the TARDIS, leading her up to the console where he picked up a wristwatch to brandish at her.

"A new watch?" Clara eyed it, "Tiny bit disappointed."

"Oh, it's a very special watch, Clara," Mac defended with a laugh, putting an arm around Clara's shoulders so she could squeeze both her arms in a small excited shake, nodding to the Doctor to show her.

He put the watch on, held up his wrist, and pressed a button…disappearing completely from view.

"Doctor?" Clara looked around, before nearly going cross-eyed with a wince, "Oi! Did you just flick my nose?"

Mac laughed, "Pretty cool, isn't it?"

"He's invisible," Clara seemed to realize, laughing as well, "Oh, my God, that's incredible!"

"Correct," the Doctor's voice spoke, though Clara couldn't see him, "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 appeared, nearly causing Clara to jump out of her skin when he was right on Mac's other side, his arm around her shoulder, his hand now right next to Clara's face. He chuckled as she took a step back on instinct.

Mac lightly whacked him on the chest for startling her companion, and turned to the girl, "We're going to give the Blitzer a tiny pulse of non-threatening alien tech, like the sonic. After the school is closed for the night and no one's here, we're going to lead it back to the gym where we can send it back."

"We don't want it to scan us, hence invisible," the Doctor nodded.

"Wait, lead it back to the gym?" Clara repeated.

"After it's closed for the night," Mac repeated, "It's the only area large enough and empty enough where we could have access to to set everything up."

"Set up what?" Clara sked, taking a breath, realizing Mac HAD said after it was closed and empty for the night and not while kids were in session.

"A circle of Chronodyne generators around the school," the Doctor turned, tossing one of the lit device she'd glimpsed him fiddling with before, at the junction box, over to her, "We switch them on, the Blitzer gets sucked into a big old time vortex, billions of years into the future. Dead easy. Tiny bit boring. I'll need a book and a sandwich."

"We'll find a nice little café after," Mac assured him with a tease.

"Perfect way to end a date," the Doctor grinned.

"Oh my god, this is actually a date for you two, isn't it?" Clara shook her head at them, though, thinking about it, she wasn't that surprised that the Doctor's definition of a 'date' with Mac would be them stopping some deadly alien attack…

…and that was probably, on some very small level, another reason why they'd left her out of the loop with the 'deep cover' and the plan for the Blitzer thing. If it was a date, she'd be the third wheel and…

Hold on.

HOW many of their adventures had actually been dates and she hadn't realized she'd been third-wheeling them?

"A bit," Mac chuckled, "But you see," she turned to Clara more, "We have a plan, we're waiting till absolutely no one is near or in the way of getting the Blitzer here, and we're going to be very careful. Nothing to worry about."

"Yes, we'll see you tomorrow," the Doctor waved her towards the door, Clara huffing, but heading for it anyway, "We'll go somewhere nice. Ancient Egypt. Crocodilopolis. They worship a big crocodile there, so the name is a useful coincidence. Go and canoodle with your boyfriend."

She paused and turned to look at them, startled.

"Come on," the Doctor huffed, "I wasn't born yesterday, far from it."

"You did recognize him!" Clara beamed.

Mac gave her a bit of an odd look for that, trying to think if they'd seen any pictures or mention of what her boyfriend looked like that they should recognize him from but there was nothing. The only person who looked familiar was Danny Pink to Orson pink and that Adrian bloke resembling the Doctor's last incarnation.

…did Clara mean Danny?

The Doctor thought it was Adrian, but he wasn't often right about those things, so it must be Danny then.

"Possibly reminded me of a certain dashing young time traveler," the Doctor continued, and Mac did her best to bite her tongue so as not to laugh and to bury her revelation as far back in her mind as she could so he wouldn't see.

She was looking forward to teasing him when he discovered he was wrong later.

"Of course you recognized him," Clara laughed, seeming relieved, and it was clear to Mac now that she really thought the Doctor had worked it out, too, "Sorry. Stupid. I underestimated you."

"Easily done, there's a lot to estimate."

"And you…you like him?"

"Very much," Mac said, speaking for herself at least. From what she'd seen of Danny Pink, he was a very polite, very respectful, very compassionate man. He took his job as role model and 'caretaker' of the children very seriously and he seemed genuine in his desire to help other people. He was modest, given how he reacted to the praises bestowed upon him, and he was patient. He would make a lovely partner for Clara, she was sure.

"Yes, yes," the Doctor waved it off, "Go home and canoodle. Doctor's orders. Come on."

Clara shook her head at them, "Just this once, I'm doing what I'm told."

"Oh, sing hosanna," the Doctor rolled his eyes, before turning to Mac when the doors shut behind Clara, "What are you laughing about?"

~8~

"Ready?" Mac asked as the Doctor stepped out of the school, having made one final check of the scanners and the time mines he'd set up around, she had been scanning the area with the sonic to ensure they had the Blitzer on track and setting the power fluctuations they would need to lure it after them.

He nodded, reaching out to take her hand, "And we're off!" he declared, the two of them walking off down the street, Mac leading the way with the sonic.

Though...it was worrying to both of them when it didn't even take five minutes to walk to where the source of the Blitzer's energy was coming. It really was far too close to the school for their comfort. They had almost hoped that, with the cover of darkness, the Blitzer would have tried to walk farter away from the children's area, but it seemed it had remained stationary. And if it wasn't going farther away then they could only assume it would be heading closer the first chance it got.

It seemed they had made the right decision to step in when they had. At first they had considered merely alerting UNIT about the threat. They were likely to take a more scientific approach than to just run in with guns blazing like Torchwood would have. But if UNIT found that the Blitzer was as dangerous as it was, they would plan for some sort of armed guard or a more thought out attack and that would do no one any good.

Mac had reached out to Osgood though, she trusted the girl to be on alert, to wait and be quiet but ready to bring Kate into the fold if she put out an alert that something had gone wrong and that they needed UNIT's assistance. The girl was happy to help, had sworn she'd have her mobile with her at all times so she could act swiftly.

"Home sweet home," the Doctor murmured as they came to a decrepit building with an iron gate surrounding it. The trace was signaling the Blitzer was in there still. He held out his hand to take the sonic from Mac as he opened the gate to let them in.

"Set the watch," Mac warned him, keeping him from heading to the door until they both set their watches and turned themselves invisible.

They then moved to the door, stepping in and doing their best to keep their footsteps quiet as they moved down the halls, searching for the Blitzer. They couldn't risk using the sonic yet, even just to trace, it would give off energy and a signal even on that setting and while it would have the Blitzer coming to them, it would have it coming aggressive and hostile. They wanted to find it and lure it, not wait for it to reach them and then try to get it to follow.

"Where are you, my sleeping beauty?" the Doctor murmured.

"Shh," Mac hissed at him, they were invisible for a reason! So the Blitzer wouldn't be able to see them, they were being careful as they walked so it wouldn't hear them, him talking would not help anything.

'I was just…' the Doctor tried to defend.

But Mac pinched him in the arm, 'Shh!' she repeated, 'Do you hear that?'

He finally fell silent at that, listening carefully, till he heard what she had, a sort of scuttling noise, like metallic tips clacking along the floor. He grinned, 'Gotcha!'

'Be careful!' Mac reminded him.

Even though she couldn't see, he nodded, holding up the sonic and flicking it on, expelling the smallest amount of a signal before he and Mac quickly headed back to the door, letting out another signal there to keep the Blitzer interested.

"Nine-stop-query-rescan," it would say periodically, stopping when it would lose sight of the energy signal, prompting the Doctor to release another one, "Target-reacquired-success-success."

They quickly made their way down the street, heading back to the school, making sure not to lose sight of the Blitzer. If it got distracted and went somewhere else, they would have a much harder time getting it back to following them. Each time it even paused, another flick of the sonic had it going on.

'Come on, come on,' the Doctor muttered when they reached the doors to the school, Mac hurrying on to open the door for him, so he could keep his attention on the Blitzer. They had to wait till the Blitzer was close enough that it would think to go through the door with the next flash of signal.

'Go,' Mac called out, seeing the Blitzer in range, the Doctor letting out another burst of energy before he ducked into the school, the two of them running down the hall.

When they got to the doors at the end, Mac moved to open it, both of them waiting till the Blitzer entered the school to let out another burst.

'Not far now,' the Doctor murmured, 'Come on.'

"Nine-stop-parsing-data-pursue," the Blitzer appeared, pausing as it tried to find the signal.

'Bingo,' he spoke, flicking the sonic again to draw the Blitzer's attention.

"Target-reacquired."

'Theta!' Mac hissed, unable to see him but not needing to, having a connection to his mind and not having heard him, to know that he hadn't moved, 'Let's go!'

'Right,' he called, and turned to run into the gym, Mac after him.

As soon as they were both through the doors, they clicked their watches off, able to see each other now, before they ran across the room, to the small circle of devices they had laid out…all of them now red instead of green.

"What?!" Mac gaped at them.

"Red?" the Doctor was equally startled and worried, "No!"

"HOW are they red!?" Mac shook her head, hurrying to one to try and see if there was anything they could determine, but the Doctor yanked her back when the Blitzer shoved its way through the door and into the room.

It was too late.

"Range-one-point-four-nine-scan complete-problem-problem," it began to lift its weapon arm at them.

"Listen!" the Doctor shouted, moving in front of Mac to defend her as she searched her pockets for something that would help, "We're unarmed. We're peaceful. Do you understand? I…I know that you shouldn't be on this planet but we can help you with that. We..."

"Problem-solution-DESTROY."

"Of course," Mac huffed, finally finding something that could help. A paperclip and a straw, should at least distract it…

And just as she turned to try and use the straw as a dart launcher, the doors on the other end of the room opened and Danny Pink strode in.

"I want a word with you…" the man began, demanding, as he stalked towards them, and right into the path of the Blitzer.

"Mr. Pink!" Mac gasped.

"Get back!" the Doctor shouted.

Mac was already running towards Danny when the Blitzer turned to him, "Problem-solution-DESTROY!"

She shoved herself into Danny's side, taking him down with her, the man in shock at the sight of an alien, just missing the blast that the Blitzer sent at them. She landed with a grunt, falling hard on her elbow, and rolled onto her back, winded…but twisted when she heard a clack to see Danny had dropped something that was rolling across the floor…one of the time mines they'd set up before.

One of the mines that had to be in a specific place in order for the others to work.

But just as it rolled to a stop by a chair, it came within range of the others, all of them tuning green now.

"No!" Mac forced herself up, throwing herself at Danny again to keep the man from scrambling to his feet, "Stay down!"

The Doctor quickly grabbed his sonic, moving out of the range of the mines and flicked it to activate the mines, causing a vortex to appear in the middle of the room, swirling around and sucking various chairs and other objects into it.

"Temporal-disrupt!" the Blitzer shouted, starting to be picked up by the vortex, "Warning-warning. Temporal-failure!"

"Clara!" the Doctor yelled, seeing the girl entering the room, too, seeming to rush in like she was trying to help, "Get back!"

"What…" Clara gasped, "I…"

"Clara, grab the door!" Mac ordered her.

Clara instantly turned and grabbed hold of the handles for the door, to avoid being sucked into the vortex as well.

"Warning-system-failure!" the Blitzer struggled against the vortex, "Abort. Abort."

But it was too powerful even for it, pulling it right in and disappearing with a quick flick of the sonic. Each of them took a moment to gain their breath with the disappearance of the vortex, before they were trying to get to their feet once more, the Doctor rushing to Mac's side and scanning her elbow as she rubbed it and winced as she flexed it.

And, of course, because she'd been hurt trying to keep Danny safe, the Doctor's next words were a surprise to no one, "Oh, oh, well done, PE, brilliant work!" he spat at the man, even though his focus was on Mac's elbow, "'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," he let out a breath when the sonic revealed it was just badly bruised and not more severe, "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!'"

"Come on, dear," Mac turned, gently shoving him to the side, "Let's clean this up and give Clara a moment, hmm?"

He scoffed, but moved away, sending Clara a pointed look that told her how displeased he was with what happened.

Clara sighed, she couldn't lie and say SHE wasn't displeased either. It didn't take a genius to work out at least part of what happened in the room. The Blitzer thing was there, Mac and Danny were on the ground, the Doctor was trying to get it away. She could guess that it tried to attack Danny who, not knowing anything about aliens, may not have realized he was under attack and caused Mac to rush over to help.

She moved over to Danny, glancing at him to check that he was alright, "Danny, what are you doing here?" she asked, her gaze flickering to Mac where the Doctor was pressing a kiss to her elbow as she rolled her eyes at him.

"I was checking up on them," Danny defended, "He's been up to something, fiddling with the electrics, but what the..." he looked around at all the devices on the floor, "No. What..." he shook his head and turned to Clara, "Did you see that thing? Tell me you saw that thing."

"I saw the thing, yeah," she nodded, glancing over at the Time Lords, "Are we safe, Mac?" she asked, trusting her to be both honest and tactful about her answer, "Is the planet safe? It's gone?"

"Well…" she winced, "It IS gone…"

"Wonderful," Clara let out a breath, realizing it mean the other questions were a negative, they were not safe.

"For the moment," the Doctor had to add, scooping up some of the devices with an angry flourish.

"Chronodyne generators have to be precisely aligned to generate the vortex properly," Mac explained, trying to give a small nod to Danny without calling him out entirely.

The Doctor, however, had no such qualms, "But the sergeant here, he went and moved one!"

"If they have to be aligned to work properly…what happens when they aren't working properly?" Clara frowned, "Where's it gone?"

The Doctor scanned around the area with the sonic, getting a reading of the Vortex that appeared, "To the future, just not far enough. The vortex will open here again, but not in a billion years."

"Then when?"

"Er, 74 hours. Three days. Three days to think of something new because now it knows what to expect, now it's scanned Mac and I it will kill us on sight, thanks to PE here."

"It's not his fault, dear," Mac tried to reason with him, "He couldn't have known…"

Danny seemed to work himself out of his shock at the mention of himself and shook his head, turning to Clara, "Clara, why are you talking to them like that? Why are you using words like chronodyne? Was that thing a space thing? Oh, my God, you're from space. You're a spacewoman. You said you were from Blackpool!"

"Why do you think she's from space just because she knows 'space things?'" Mac had to ask, "She could be undercover from UNIT or Torchwood or…"

"Or it could be a play?" Clara tried to offer, "For the summer fete?"

"Clara," Mac gave her a chastising look, crossing her arms, "What do we not do if we can help it?"

Clara sighed, nearly sagging, like a child who had been scolded by their mother, "Lie."

"Yes," Mac nodded, "You don't lie to us, we won't lie to you. And unless you want us to erase his memory, you may not want to start this off by lying to him either. Your boyfriend doesn't strike me as being stupid."

Danny shifted, the mouth that had been opening at Clara's flimsy excuse, exactly to say 'how stupid do you think I am?' falling shut at the…was it defense? A compliment? From the woman.

"Are we doing a debate on the topic?" the Doctor glanced at Mac, almost hopeful.

"No."

He huffed but kept quiet about it.

"He's not stupid," Clara defended.

But Mac gave her another look for how she didn't deny that Danny was her boyfriend, which was all the confirmation she needed that she had been right and the Doctor had been wrong.

"What is going on Clara?" Danny turned to her, "Who are they?"

"Wait," the Doctor cut in, that same fact finally seeming to hit him, "HE's your boyfriend?"

"Yes," Clara sighed.

"No, he's not."

"Yes, he is."

"Yes, I am," Danny agreed.

"He is, dear," Mac nodded.

"But he's a PE teacher!" the Doctor turned to Mac, "Clara wouldn't go out with a PE teacher. It's a mistake," he decided, turning to Clara, "You've made a boyfriend error."

"I am not a PE teacher," Danny countered, "I am a maths teacher!"

"You're a soldier," the Doctor waved it off, "Why would you go out with a soldier? Why not get a dog or a big plant?"

"Because I love him!" Clara snapped.

"Aww, bless," Mac smiled at her for the declaration, even if the Doctor and Danny both looked stunned at Clara.

"What about the handsome one with the bow tie?" the Doctor seemed to groan, pushing it now, he did so hate to be publicly wrong.

"Adrian?" Clara nearly scoffed, "No. He's just a friend and not my type."

"Clara," Danny cut in, clearly getting frustrated and exasperated now, "Are you going to explain any of this? Who are they?"

Mac glanced over at Clara, the girl floundering and struggling to try and explain any of this to someone as in the dark as Danny was, and stepped forward, "Agent Mackenzie, of UNIT," she offered, flashing her ID at him, "And this is my associate, codename: the Doctor…"

"Husband," the Doctor cut in, putting his arm around Mac's shoulders, "I'm her husband."

"Could be husband," Mac admitted, "Still have to actually find that marriage license from 1562 first."

"Oh bring that up again," he huffed.

They'd been in such a rush that they hadn't gotten any documentation after their rush of a wedding so, sometimes, when Mac was in a teasing mood or a huff, she would bring that up. He hoped it was the teasing mood this time, she didn't seem angry with him, but more like she was trying to put Danny at ease. Not that he thought the human deserved it after getting her injured.

"UNIT?" Danny repeated, with a frown that said he might have heard of it at one point but wasn't familiar enough to really know what that was.

"Unified Intelligence Taskforce," Mac explained, "We handle alien threats."

"And…Clara works for you?" Danny asked, seeming to relax just a little bit. If that was the case then…then it explained at least a little bit of it. If that was her other job and it was some sort of government thing then maybe she hadn't said anything because she COULDN'T if it was very strict intelligence or…

"Clara's her companion," the Doctor said, having to destroy any hope of that, "She travels with us in time and space."

"Yes, thank you, Doctor, VERY helpful," Clara groused, shooting him a nasty look.

"I don't understand…" Danny shook his head.

Clara nearly hung her head, before she turned to Danny, "Mac and the Doctor are aliens," she began.

"Are you an alien?"

"No, I'm still from Blackpool. And, it's like he said, Mac, the Doctor, and I, we DO travel through time and space."

The Doctor moved over to a small stage off to the side, pulling a curtain away so that they could all see the TARDIS behind it, "Exhibit A."

"It's called a TARDIS," Mac offered, "Our ship," she let out a sigh, "Forever disguised as a police telephone box because someone broke the chameleon feature."

"It's bigger on the inside," Clara added, making the Doctor pout at how she'd stolen his thunder from him.

Instead he opened the door to let them see inside, "Voila."

"We travel the universe in it," Mac explained gently as Danny slowly approached and peered into it, before moving to look at the outside of it, "Clara here," Mac smiled, linking arms with Clara s the girl watched Danny nervously, "Is my Companion, I'm her pilot."

"What about that thing?" Danny turned to look at them, "Did you bring that here?"

"No," the Doctor answered, "We're going to protect you from that thing."

"You said it was coming back."

"Yes, it is coming back. Thanks to you."

"Oh, dear," Mac sighed beside Clara, "He was doing so well."

"He wasn't saying anything," Clara pointed out.

"Exactly."

"This is a school!" Danny grew anxious and alarmed, "We have to evacuate, call the Army. "

"UNIT would handle it better," Mac called over to him, "And I AM UNIT, it's why we're here, to handle it."

"This isn't handling it!" Danny argued, "We need to get help. This is an emergency."

"Clara," the Doctor turned to her, now at the end of HIS patience with this whole situation. With the rate the man was going, it would take all night to explain this to him and calm him down, and now he and Mac did NOT have that time to spare. Clara wouldn't be able to help them work out the next steps they could take to stop the Blitzer but she could do this, "Take him away, shut him up, shut him down, up or down, it doesn't matter to me. Mac and I have got a lot of work to do. Again."

"Will you be ok?" Clara glanced at Mac.

"We should be," Mac considered it, hating to say it but having to add, "We would have had this settled before…mistakes were made."

"Right," Clara nodded, seeing how Mac shot a glance at the Doctor who was looking increasingly frustrated and knowing that she should probably take Danny out before the Doctor snapped completely. He'd been, compared to other interactions he'd had, relatively patient and not-as-rude but it wouldn't last much longer, "Come on, Danny," she moved over to his side and turned to lead him out of the room, "It's alright, it's all fine. You'll be ok. Let's get those legs moving...that's it, down those stairs. Yep, that's it. This can all be explained and everything will be fine."

"Don't," Mac whispered to the Doctor when he opened his mouth just as Clara reached the doors with Danny.

"I wasn't going to say anything," he defended, "I was just going to point out that she hasn't explained PE to us."

"I don't think she really needs to," Mac reminded him, "It's her choice what she shares. She didn't want to tell Danny about this, and now it's too late. But she WAS trying to tell us about him, one of us just didn't listen completely."

"True," he nodded as Mac stepped past him and into the TARDIS to check if other scanners had been moved elsewhere in the school that would need to be recovered, "Oi, hold on," he called, following her, "Did you mean ME?"

~8~

They had worked through the night, both cleaning up the scanners, and trying to work out a way to prepare for the Blitzer's inevitable return. They weren't slacking, quite the contrary, they were working as hard as they could to get it done as quickly as possible. They needed time to double check their calculations, to test out their plan, to make sure it WOULD work this time, and they'd had to come up with a plan that wouldn't rely on the generators because, as Danny had proven, it was too easy for them to be moved out of place.

No, they needed something more at hand and closer to home, that they could operate and rely on themselves.

Mac glanced up from where she was twisting a screw into a box with a paperclip, to see Clara step into the TARDIS, noticing how she left the door open a little longer than normal before closing it. She gave the Doctor a look, catching his eye, as he too nodded. It wasn't even just that that alerted them to something else going on, but that they could sense it as well, the TARDIS sending them mental warnings about an extra presence in their home.

Clara clearly wanted something to happen or she would have just welcomed Mr. Pink into the TARDIS without turning him invisible first.

"Hello Clara," Mac called over to her with a small smile.

"Yes, afternoon," the Doctor absently waved, his attention back on the pack they were working on, "Thanks for keeping out of our way. You've not brought Dave with you, I hope."

Mac shot him a look for that, she understood that he didn't like Danny but he didn't have to go out of his way to be mean about it.

"His name's Danny," Clara corrected, walking up the stairs towards them, "And no, I haven't. I've explained it all to him. He gets it, he took it all really well."

Mac opened her mouth this time to point out to Clara not to lie to them, when the Doctor took his turn to throw her a look to silence her now.

"Pass me that synestic," the Doctor held out his hand to Mac absently.

She handed him something.

"This is a toothpick," he held it up at her.

"It works just as well," she rolled her eyes, getting back to work, smirking when, a moment later, he seemed to realize it really did work just as well.

"So," Clara moved to lean on the console, her arms crossed as she watched them, "When the Blitzer comes back, are you going to catch him with that?"

"It'll be a long, fiddly job," the Doctor sighed, "It's going to take us at least 24 hours. Even longer if my lovely wife keeps handing me paperclips and toothpicks instead of the tools I ask for," he shot her a teasing look, "More so if people keep talking to us, so do keep going."

"If it comes back Thursday night...are you sure about that? 'Cos you said chronodyne is unstable…"

"If you want bother someone, go and bother PE."

"Doctor," Mac sighed, "He's a maths teacher."

"That's a shame, I like maths."

"And I liked your last self's hair," Mac shot back, "You shaved it off and ruined it for me," she said lightly, "Bout time something was ruined for you."

"Also not a soldier," Clara added after a moment, "Not anymore."

The Doctor let out a long sigh, "Is this your way of trying to say you're bored?" he asked Clara, "Hanging around, bothering us? Fine," he got up, heading for the console, "Let's go somewhere fun, then, what do you say? Do you want to see the Thames frozen over? Oh, those frost fairs."

"River loved them," Mac smiled sadly, thinking of that, how they'd gotten Stevie Wonder to sing for her on her birthday.

"You can't," Clara pointed out, "The Skovox thing."

"It's a time machine. We can get back straightaway, like we always do on your dates. Just make sure you don't get yourself a tan or anything, or lose a limb."

"I don't think we should, not this time."

"You've never said no before. Not even in the middle of dinner. Remember you had to eat two meals in a row?"

"I just think, with the school in danger..."

Before Clara could even finish, Danny appeared behind the Doctor.

"Danny!" Clara gasped, "Why are you..."

"He already knows I'm here," Danny stated, "That's why he's talking like that. He's being clever."

"He thinks he's being clever, yes," Mac sighed, getting up and moving over to them. She frowned when she looked at Clara, "You didn't have to hide him, Clara," she told the girl, "After everything we've seen and done, you think we couldn't handle a conversation with your boyfriend?"

"You knew he was there this whole time?" Clara winced.

"The TARDIS is telepathic, she warned us there was an additional person here."

"And even if she hadn't, being a Time Lord, we can feel a light-shield aura when it's right next to us," the Doctor added.

"'Time Lord?'" Danny scoffed under his breath, "Might have known."

Mac gave him an odd look, "Might have known what?"

But Danny just looked disgusted, "The accent's good, but you can always spot the aristocracy. It's in the...attitude."

"What attitude?" Mac continued to question, looking even more confused.

"Danny?" even Clara seemed lost.

"Now, Time Lords, do you salute those?" Danny kept on.

"Definitely not," the Doctor frowned, glancing at Mac and feeling as lost as they all looked.

"Sir!" Danny snapped, jumping to attention.

"And you do not call me sir."

"Now, come on," Mac tried to talk them down, "If we could all just take a breath and…"

"As you wish, sir," Danny cut in, ignoring her as he glared at the Doctor, "Absolutely, sir."

"There's no need to be rude," Mac told him, "We all just need to calm…"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Danny turned on her now, "My mistake. YOU'RE the commanding officer, aren't you? Clara's YOUR Companion. Well, Ma'am!" he saluted her as well.

"Mr. Pink this is going a bit far," Mac huffed, glancing at Clara, "Maybe we all need a breath of air…"

"Am I being dismissed?" Danny sneered at her.

"We're not soldiers," Mac defended, "There's no need for dismissals."

Danny scoffed at that, turning to Clara, "One thing, Clara. I'm a soldier, guilty as charged. You see them? They're officers."

The Doctor snorted, "I'm not an officer," but the levity he tried to put in his voice died down when he felt Mac flinch beside him at the accusation.

"I'm the one who carries you out of the fire," Danny informed his girlfriend, "They're the ones who light it."

"That's enough," Mac said weakly, seeming very upset with this addition to the accusation.

The Doctor moved his arm around her waist, knowing that it was a sore spot for her, because she had hated him, HATED him, so much or 'lighting the fire' that destroyed Gallifrey, to have someone else throwing it in their faces was truly hurting her. She hadn't understood then, why he'd done it, what had been at stake, just like Danny didn't. And now Danny was lumping her into it, making her guilt even worse.

He could see it in her mind, how this was like facing a mirror for her, someone so full of hate and anger without knowing the story or giving them a chance to tell it. She saw how angry HE was getting with Danny and her mind was going to a very hard place that it would only be a matter of time before he remembered how she treated him the same and he'd hate HER.

As though that were possible.

"Out," he shot Danny a glare, "Now."

"Right away, sir?" Danny continued to mock, "Straight now?"

"Danny!" Clara snapped, seeming offended on their behalf at least.

"Yes," the Doctor gestured to the door.

"Am I dismissed?" Danny kept on.

"Just get out!" Mac snapped at him finally, though her voice cracked.

Danny scoffed, as though he felt she was faking the tears, as though she didn't deserve compassion for being 'an officer' as he called her. He just turned on his heel and stormed out.

"I'm sorry," Clara turned to them, "I'll talk to him."

"Clara," Mac called, trying to stop her, knowing that Danny was angry and it would only take one wrong word before he snapped at Clara, she didn't want the girl to have to endure that for them. She sighed, too late, Clara was already off, and turned to the Doctor, "You get back to work, I'll go get her…"

"Mac," he shook his head, knowing she'd run the risk of having to face Danny head on if she did.

"Clara's my companion," she reminded him, "I have to protect her."

He let out a long breath, knowing she wouldn't be able to focus if she was fretting about how Danny might treat Clara. "Go on," he acquiesced, waving to the door, but tossing her one of the invisibility watches on the way, wanting to make sure that Danny wouldn't flip out if he saw her there.

She moved to press a kiss to his cheek before she hurried out after Clara, hoping to catch up to the girl before she caught up to Danny.

~8~

"Danny!" Clara shouted as she hurried after Danny down the hall, "Danny! What was that?" she demanded reaching out to grab his arm and turn him to face her.

"Did you not hear him?" Danny shot back at her, breathing heavily in how angry he was, "How he talks…"

"I know he's a bit rude," Clara shook her head, "What I don't know is why you're making such a big deal out of this?!"

"It's because I know men like him," Danny defended, "I've served under them. They push you and make you stronger, till you're doing things you never thought you could. Until, one day, they push you too far and it breaks something in you," he looked at Clara, pained, "It'll only be a matter of time before he does that to you, Clara."

Clara looked at him for a long while…

Before she burst out laughing.

"This isn't funny!" Danny snapped.

"I'm sorry," Clara tried to apologize, "I'm sorry, it's just…do you HEAR yourself?"

"What?" he shook his head, not following.

"The Doctor is Mac's husband, yeah, but HE'S not my pilot," Clara told him, still chuckling, "Mac is the one responsible for me, Danny, not him. He can be rude all he wants, but Mac is the one 'in charge,'" she used quotey fingers, "Of me. The chances of her pushing me too far are like a 0."

He gave her a doubtful look.

"I got a papercut last week, and she fretted so much I ended up in their infirmary, wrapped in a blanket, with an ice cream, hooked up to a heart monitor, while she tried to dab antiseptic on my finger with a q-tip," she gave him a look, "A papercut. In what world do you think a woman like that is going to push me too far? Honestly I have more chance being pushed by Courtney Woods than Mac."

"But the Doctor…"

"I am not his companion, and if he even tries to push me, Mac is usually the first one to tell him no. I have to beg her to let me do things half the time or sneak myself into them. She's a bit of a mother hen."

Danny shifted, both uncomfortable and a bit thrown by Clara's reaction, he'd expected anger, guilt, maybe even apologies…not laughter.

"But they're soldiers."

"So are you," Clara defended and reminded, looking at him, "Whatever problems you have with your past, Danny, don't take it out of them."

"That's not what I was…"

"They could have been just the same to you, rude, abrasive, shouty," Clara pointed out, "They weren't, even though you were a soldier. They didn't judge you, you were wrong to judge them."

"Clara…" he huffed.

"They have been nothing but kind, supportive, and protective of me," Clara cut in, "The Doctor in a less than polite way, but still watching out for me. And Mac?" she shook her head, "God, Danny, if you go too quiet around her she frets that you're upset. If you yawn, she worries you aren't sleeping well. I swear, I've gained at least a half a stone because she thinks I'm not eating enough and need to put more meat on my bones," she gave him a look, "I'm the last person to worry about when Mac is around," she sighed, "I wish you would have given her a chance, given them both a chance, instead of jumping down their throats just for being soldiers."

Danny was silent for a long while.

"Do you even know WHY they became soldiers?" she asked, even though she knew he didn't, she'd kept their talk last night to mostly a very brief summary of her travels with them, not the reason why they travelled, "Do you think they WANTED to be? Or that they chose to be 'officers' or whatever?" she crossed her arms and sighed, "Their planet ended up at war with another species that attacked them. The Doctor tried to avoid it, he didn't want to fight, Mac wasn't so lucky. She got dragged into the weapons section, forced to make weapon after weapon. The Doctor…things got bad, Danny, really, really bad. Their planet was on the brink of being destroyed, children were dying, and he couldn't bear it any longer, so he went back, and he fought, and yes, he 'lit the fire' as you said, to end the war and save everyone else in the Universe from the carnage."

"How'd he do it?" Danny asked, "End the war?" as far as he knew one person rarely ever managed it.

"He managed to freeze his planet and hide it away, leaving the enemy to fire at each other and destroy themselves," Clara answered, "But for centuries, Danny, centuries, he thought he'd failed and that he'd destroyed his planet and everyone on it. Mac…she thought the same and she was so angry and hurt. It took them both a really long time to discover their planet was actually saved. Can you imagine, spending 400 years thinking you killed every single person on your planet?"

She knew enough from things he said and slips here and there that he'd left the army because he'd accidently killed a child during a particularly harsh firefight. It hadn't been anywhere near 4 years let alone 400, and she would never diminish it to say it was 'only 1 child' compared to billions of them on top of all the adults, but it was something to consider. It haunted him, he struggled with it, grappled with the guilt, and he'd just gone off on the Doctor when the man had suffered so much worse.

And now, knowing what she did about the Doctor's trauma from Christmas, how it had shaped who he was now, Danny's words had to hurt even more. Because he'd been thrust into the position of officer there, forced to make those choices and lead those attacks and lose those people for even more centuries. All to try and save more people than he lost. He didn't ask for that, it just happened, and Danny hadn't even wondered what could have happened to make them 'officers' at all.

"No," Danny admitted, seeming properly chastised.

"I think you and the Doctor should take some time, cool down, and then I expect an apology," Clara stated, "From BOTH of you," she rolled her eyes when he opened his mouth to say something, "You were harsh, but he was rude, and Mac can only temper so much of it."

Danny winced, now calm enough to at least admit his behavior had been appalling as well, "I will," he promised her.

"Good," Clara nodded, "For now though, we have parent's night. So…take that time, deal with the parents first, then, after, we'll regroup and see how we feel about going back to the TARDIS, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Clara stepped past him and headed into the school, leaving Danny little else but to follow her. Once they turned a corner down the hall, Mac appeared, clicking the watch's invisibility off with a soft smile on her face, "Well done, Clara."

~8~

Mac had only taken one step into the storeroom when the Doctor was grabbing her hand and pulling her out the room and down the hall, frantic and deeply worried. And then she saw it in his head, what he'd picked up on the scanners, the Time Vortex was activating again and the Blitzer was about to return. Now. They had to warn Clara.

They would never, ever allow the Blitzer to reach the parents or the other teachers, they would give their lives to keep that from happening. But that was the danger, because the Blitzer was incredibly dangerous and if they failed Clara needed to know what to look for to evacuate the others and to call Osgood for backup.

"No!" Mac grabbed his arm and yanked him back as he was just about to barge into the room and demand Clara follow him, in front of all the other parents and teachers. She pushed him back a little and moved to the windows in the doors, waving her hands slightly to get Clara's attention before huffing and pulling a small torch out of her pocket and began to flash it at Clara, managing to catch her eye.

Clara blinked a few times from the light but Mac could see her quickly making excuses to the two parents she was speaking to before hurrying towards them. Though she noticed Danny was following her close behind.

"What's happening?" Clara asked as soon as she was to them, a little further down the hall.

"Clara," Mac reached out to touch her arm, "The vortex is opening."

"You said Thursday night!" Danny cut in, having joined them as well.

"PE, shut up," the Doctor huffed. He may have kept tabs on Mac in his mind, heard the entire conversation that Clara and Danny had had, but the man hadn't actually said anything close to an apology to them and now wasn't the time, "Clara, it'll scan the area, if it gets to parents' evening, it'll kill them all."

"We've got to evacuate!"

"Really," Mac turned to him, "Not helping," she told him, "Sorry."

Clara spoke, "What do I do?"

"Nothing," Mac said, "You go back into that room, you talk to the parents, we'll handle it."

"But?"

"But if it gets us first, we'll regenerate, and that'll cut time into us stopping it, so you need to keep an eye out and be ready to evacuate the others. You have Osgood's number?"

"Yeah," Clara nodded, "But I'm not just gonna go back in there! You need my help!"

"Clara, we don't have time, it'll be here any second."

"Here," the Doctor turned to Mac, offering her the sonic, "Get to the hall. Give it some squirts of helicon energy, setting number 41, no more than three seconds each, random pulses..."

"It's alright," Mac cut in, "Don't need the sonic."

"How else are you gonna…" the Doctor turned to her, but she as already rooting around in her pockets.

"With this," she beamed, holding up a handful of pencils in one hand and 8 rubber bands with a black binder clip in her other hand.

"What the hell could you do with that?" Danny shook his head.

But Mac was already getting to work using 2 bands on either side to bind 2 pencils together, side by side, till she had 2 sets of them, then moving one across the other and using two more rubber bands, crisscrossed, to attach it near the one end. She slid the silver end of the binder clip under the far end of the one set of pencils so it would be right at the end, and used another rubber band through the ends of the crossed pencils and pulling it back to the clip, opening it and hooking the band into it.

She held up the finished product, showing them a…

"Is that a crossbow?" Clara blinked at her, "Did you seriously just make a crossbow out of pencils, bands, and a clip?"

Mac smirked, "Launches pretty far, too," she told them, before turning to the Doctor, "Meet you at the storeroom," she said, pressing a kiss to his cheek before she rushed down the hall.

"Two minutes!" he called after her.

"Shouldn't we help her?" Danny looked between them.

"We're helping her by sticking to the plan," the Doctor decided, "Clara, with me," he turned to hurry in the opposite direction, back to the storeroom. He knew Mac wanted her back in the room, but he had to trust Danny would recognize an impending attack, he COULD use help and Clara would have to do.

~8~

Mac ran towards the gym, skidding to a halt and ducking back around the corner when she heard a crashing noise, seeing the Blitzer stride through the doors and into the hall. She quickly loaded a pencil onto the crossbow, then turned, unclipping the end of the band to let it flick forward and launch the pencil at the Blitzer, striking it in the side.

"Incoming-stop-unidentified," she heard it report, "Attack-commence-retargeting."

She ran across the hall, the movement just enough to get the Blitzer locked on her and following.

"Target-acquired. Destroy."

Mac shoved open one of the doors, making her way to the school yard, and ducking down behind a low wall, peering over the top as the Blitzer followed, looking around at the empty space.

She readied another pencil, wound the band back to the clip, and moved her hand on top of the wall, aiming, and firing the pencil at the Blitzer. Before it even hit her she took off running towards the end of the school the storeroom was located on.

"Target-within-range!" the Blitzer announced and Mac half threw herself around the corner of the school just before a blast went past her, hitting a rubbish bin and causing it to explode.

'Almost there,' she called in her mind, warning the Doctor.

She skid to a halt before the storeroom door, pulling one last pencil on the crossbow and aiming it at the end of the hall. She would need to get the Blitzer's attention, then duck into the storeroom so it would follow her right into it.

The second she saw the black of its legs appearing, she fired, striking it in the shoulder, before she ran into the room.

"Problem-solution-DESTROY," she could hear.

"Incoming!" she shouted out as she slammed the door shut, if just to give them a few more precious seconds, "Clara!" she huffed, seeing the girl there, helping the Doctor put on the pack they had been working on.

"I know, I know, scold me later!" Clara groused.

Mac flinched and ducked to the side, hearing a weapon powering up behind her and narrowly avoiding the door being blown into the room, the Blitzer right behind it.

"DESTROY!" it cried.

"20 seconds," the Doctor huffed.

"DESTROY. DESTROY."

Mac let out a huff, and quickly fired another pencil at it, pulling its attention to her, giving the Doctor enough time to get it settled.

"Green?" he called to Clara.

"Green!" she confirmed.

He quickly held up a small walkie-talkie-like device to his lips, "Stop!" he shouted into it, "Skovox Blitzer!"

Mac let out a breath and began to edge around the room when the Blitzer stilled and turned to the Doctor, lowering its weapon arms, "Awaiting-orders."

"Skovox-Artificer. Analyze-stop-analyze-stop."

"Superior-recognised-pattern-110-orders-orders."

"Why's it listening to him?" Clara whispered as Mac reached them. She'd helped the Doctor get the pack on and assembled but she had no idea what it would actually DO.

"We programmed the pack to replicate the frequency of its superior officer," Mac told her, "It thinks the Doctor is its general."

"Initiate-input," the Doctor spoke to it, "Commence-shutdown-protocol. No-conflict-conclusion?"

"Problem-solution," it countered.

"Conclusion."

"Final-input-code-missing."

"Oh dear," Mac murmured when the Blitzer's eyes turned red.

"Emergency-terminate. Initiate-self-destruct-in...nine...eight..."

"We forgot the final input code."

"…seven-six-five..."

"Do it now!" Clara called even as the Doctor quickly typed on the keypad attached to the pack.

"I need time," the Doctor said, "Distract it!"

"On it!" Mac assured him, moving in front of Clara, and this time aiming a nail at the Blitzer, firing and wincing when it embedded itself into one of its eyes.

"I think you just made it angry," Clara whispered to her as it began to flail.

"I meant to," Mac told her, before pushing her towards the TARDIS, "Get behind it," she shoved her hard so she would do just that, and moved to the side of the room to draw the Blitzer's attention off the Doctor.

"Under-attack," the Blitzer cried, lifting its weapon arms.

Mac merely ducked down and fired another nail, getting it in the shoulder.

"Attack!"

"Artificer!" the Doctor shouted into the device once more, now ready, "Artificer-stop-confirm-stop-override-final-input-code."

It was a moment before the Blitzer spoke, "Code-accepted," it stated, lowering its arms, "Abort-self-destruct. Orders-accepted-stop-stop-stop."

Mac let out a breath and slowly stood as the Blitzer began to power down, until its eyes went dark and it slumped where it stood, revealing Danny Pink behind it, his eyes wide as he took in the sight of the room beyond, his eyes moving to where Clara was peering out from behind the TARDIS.

But Clara's attention was on Mac, rushing past the Doctor as he tried to get the pack off his back, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God, Mac that was amazing!" she hugged the woman tightly, "Oh, my God, you were so brilliant."

The Doctor moved over to them as well, pulling Mac into his arms, "You're alright?" he asked.

She gave him a gentle smile, "Had my trusty odds and ends," she wiggled the make-shift crossbow in her hand, "Do I want to know what you did to the pack?"

It shouldn't have been able to work in such a short amount of time unless he crossed some wires he really should NOT have crossed, temperamental ones that could have blown up instead of working. It was POSSIBLE to work that fast, but it would have been extremely dangerous.

"No," he answered.

"Danny?" Clara seemed to notice him then, cutting off Mac's chastising.

"Um," he cleared his throat, "Sorry, I was just…I wanted to make sure that thing wouldn't just turn around and go for the parents."

Mac put a hand on his chest to keep the Doctor from speaking, knowing he was going to rant about how pudding brains wouldn't know the plan or the complexities of stopping the Blitzer but also how dare he doubt the plan would work and so on. She smiled at Danny instead, thinking about Clara's talk with him and wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, "Thank you for trying."

He nodded, seeming both startled and uncomfortable that she was being kind to him when he'd been so rude to them.

Mac nodded, before turning to Clara, "You both should probably get back to the parents," she reminded the girl, for as much as they wanted to celebrate their success, Clara had a job and had NOT wanted them to interfere with that job. Which they were doing right now.

"Oh, my god," Clara gasped, as though just realizing she'd abandoned the parents and run out, "Right, we do need to get back," she turned to the Time Lords, "You'll be alright getting rid of that thing?"

"Go on," the Doctor waved them off, more because he wanted to get Danny far away from them than wanting Clara to go.

Clara gave them a smile and hurried to push Danny out of the room.

~8~

The Doctor chuckled to himself as he watched Mac wringing her hands together as she kept a close eye on Courtney Woods, the disruptive influence, as she half clung to the doorway of the TARDIS so she could lean out and watch the Blitzer float off in space where they'd cast him off. They'd come across the girl when they'd gone to give Clara a thumbs up and wave that they were going to get the Blitzer gone and would see her later, she was sitting morosely off to the side. Apparently she was a disruptive influence in many, many classes and she was afraid her parents would react badly to it all.

All it took was one sigh and one frown to have Mac offering the girl a trip in the TARDIS, to see space, to try and cheer her up. HE had been perfectly fine just going 'good luck' and moving on, but Mac couldn't.

So there they were, watching the Blitzer float on, while Courtney gaped at the sight of being in literal space, Mac seeming on the edge of pulling the girl back into the box as she was leaning out very far.

"Farewell, Skovox Blitzer," he called out, "Have a nice war. So, Courtney Woods, impressed yet?"

"Actually, I'm feeling a bit ill," Courtney admitted.

"Oh, it's ok, sweetie," Mac quickly moved to her side and began to guide her back into the box, "Come on, let's get you sitting down. I'll do a quick run to the kitchen for some fizzy water and crackers, that ought to settle it…"

"It can be a bit overwhelming," the Doctor agreed, following them, "The Olveron Cluster, especially, a million stars, 100 million inhabited planets…"

They were both cut off when Courtney turned and hurled on the floor.

"Oh, dear," Mac moved to her side, a tissue in hand, trying to move the girl's hair away from her face.

"Ah, yes, there has been a spillage," the Doctor sighed, though he had a soft smile on his face as he watched Mac enter mother-mode for the sickly girl.

A/N: Mac is a saint, I swear. If I were her and Danny treated me the way he did, I'd be like 'Clara, dear, maybe rethink this man' but she's really trying to respect Clara's choice, the talk Clara had with Danny, and give him a second chance because he doesn't know better.

...that may blow up in her face in a different way later though }:)

But lol, I hope you liked Mac teaching the kids some of her tricks and them just running with it and it just getting out of hand :) For the record, yes, I have used Mac's techniques to make the pencil crossbow and the Assassin's Creed wrist blades out of popsicles at one point or another so I can say they are possible ;)

I can say that there will be more about Mac's fears that came up when Danny was shouting and the Doctor was getting angry. She does see herself in his hate and anger and lack of understanding, and for the Doctor to get so mad NOW makes her very worried that he'll realize she was the same and 'hate' her in return :( He'll have a bit of work to do to prove he'd never ever hate her ;)

I hope you also enjoyed Clara's talk with Danny. I laughed a little bit and had to make that Clara's reaction to his accusations because, really, MAC pushing her too far? Letting the Doctor push her too far? :/ Danny has not paid any attention at all if he thinks Mac would lol :) She goes a bit overboard with protecting Clara so really the chances of her pushing Clara are negative :) Which will make things interesting in later episodes, how they come about ;)

Some notes on reviews...

We'll have to wait and see if River or Teddy might pop up, I can say the Doctor has something planned that involves River ;)

I agree, being so near to the wars helps put 9 and 12's personalities in context :( I feel like 9 was a bit easier to handle as he (I think, based on the War Doctor's age and regeneration) had about 100 years from the war ending to when he met Rose so he had that time to...not heal, but put some sort of small distance between the events, go out, help people on his own, change things. 12 goes right from Trenzalore to 12 to travelling with Clara so he is much closer to all that trauma than 9 was, which is always sad to think of what they experienced :( But I can say we will see Mac with 9 at one point ;) I've got an AU planned where she pops up when the Slitheen attack and meets 9 then ;)

Hearing that about Noel was shocking to me :( I don't follow his career closely so I've only seen him in DW, but it just sort of shows you never know the people behind the character as well :( It reminds me of an actor from Disney who got pulled from projects for similar criminal things but involving minors and you sort of go 'But you were in DISNEY, around KIDS, how COULD you' :(