Author's Notes:
The first part of this chapter may look very familiar. This timey-wimey stuff can be a little disconcerting!
If you skipped the last chapter due to the references to the 2016 Nice truck attack, here is a summary of what transpired:
In December 2025, the Doctor had a conversation with Osgood after his visit in the previous chapter with Kate. While Kate's been on the ward recovering from her injuries, there's been a desertion. A member of their group at Royal London left to join another survivor group, taking much of Royal London's critical resources with him.
Balancing a moral dilemma of whether to add wear and tear onto his questionably-functioning vortex manipulator to gather and deliver much-needed supplies to the Royal London group, which only has the need for them on the faulty timeline, versus ignoring their needs and pressing on in correcting the faulty timeline, the Doctor ended up making the supply and delivery trips.
Before setting out on the next leg of his journey to 2016 Nice, the Doctor looked in on Peter in the TARDIS and found him in the grips of a nightmare. He joined Peter in his dream telepathically and managed to nudge Peter's subconscious toward a more pleasant one, learning a little more about the boy in the process.
Chapter 15
Earth, Nice, France
18:00, 14 July 2016
"That's really sweet, Danny, Thanks." Clara paused, looking down thoughtfully at her clasped hands.
"I love you. I really do, and I think it would be better if we waited - shit!"
Clara met the gaze of her reflection in the vanity mirror.
"You can do this. Okay. Let's give it another try."
They arrived at the hotel in Nice an hour ago. Danny decided to squeeze in a workout at the hotel gym before their 7pm dinner reservation. Clara used the time alone in their room to bathe and dress for the occasion, and also practice turning down his proposal. She'd found the receipt for the engagement ring in his wallet while searching for tip money for the porter.
Practicing in front of a mirror didn't seem to be working for her, so she paced for a bit and tried to clear her mind. She knew she was acting silly. After all, she didn't know for sure he was going to propose at dinner. She wasn't even one hundred percent sure the ring was for her.
"How do I do this, Doctor?" She tried to imagine how the time lord would react to her histrionics. He'd been on her mind lately. She even had a dream about him the other night. In the dream, he was alone and in trouble. Clara kept calling out to him, but he didn't hear her.
She pictured him sitting at the end of the bed, swinging his gangly legs.
"I don't see why this is such a big deal, Clara. It's PE. Just tell him you don't want to be Mrs. PE," she imagined him saying.
"It's not that easy. He's a nice guy. A really nice guy. I should be thrilled that he's asking me."
"But you're not."
"I just feel so stifled. I feel like if I marry him then we'll settle down and have 2.5 children and take turns being teacher of the year until it's time to retire, and that will be it. My whole life. Boring."
"Clara? Who are you talking to?"
She snapped out of her intense conversation with the imaginary Doctor to see Danny entering the suite, gym bag in hand.
"Oh, no one. Have a nice workout?"
He came over and kissed her. "Good. You look very nice. Do I have time for a shower before dinner?"
Clara smiled. "Of course, you do. Don't take too long, though, we have to leave early because of the traffic."
The Bastille Day celebrations were already well underway. Danny had made the dinner reservation for 7pm so that they would finish just ahead of the parade, which would pass right in front of the hotel.
When Danny disappeared into the bathroom, Clara grabbed her mobile and stepped out onto the balcony. She had resisted this temptation for two years now, but she couldn't delay any more. She opened her contacts and found the Doctor's number.
Just as she was about to press the dial button, she became aware that she was no longer alone on the balcony.
The Doctor was there beside her. She gasped in surprise.
"You! I was just about to ring you."
She studied his face. He looked older and unwell. He was very pale. His eyes were sunken in shadows. His lips looked parched. She restrained herself from hugging him, knowing this Doctor was not the hugging type.
"How long has it been for you?" His thin lips curled into a cryptic smile.
"That's hard to say. A little while, at least. Longer for you."
"You've been travelling alone?" she asked. He never did well on his own.
"Yes, and no." The Doctor descended stiffly into one of the two wrought iron chairs. He looked so tired. Clara sat, as well.
"Clara, something terrible has happened in the future." His voice cracked hoarsely, and he grimaced, as if his throat hurt.
"I've been trying to sort it. I need your help."
Her heart leapt. But then, reason set in. She shook her head.
"Doctor, I can't. Years have gone by. A lot has happened. Danny's proposing to me tonight. He doesn't know that I know, but," The Doctor interrupted her. His voice was low and calm. His eyes glistened.
"I know, Clara, and I know you want to turn him down. I'm here to ask – to beg you to accept the proposal instead."
"What? Doctor you can't stand him. You never had anything good to say about him. You can't even remember his name, or that he's a maths teacher. And now you suddenly want me to marry him? I don't know what to say."
"Say yes. To him, I mean. If you do, it will fix this part of the timeline."
"And if I don't?"
"In 2025 there will be a global nuclear war. Millions will die."
"All because I turned him down? That makes no sense!"
And she would have been fine with her reasoning, but then he clasped her arm with one bony, cool hand.
"Clara, I can't explain. There's no time. I need you to trust me. Please. This is my last chance. Please just accept his proposal. A large part of you wants to. You're supposed to. And you really do love him. Please."
He looked so ill and tired. So sad. And she did trust him.
"If I do this, will I see you again?" The time lord looked caught off guard by her question. He averted his eyes for a moment and then returned her gaze. Again, there was that glistening. Tears? From this Doctor?
"I don't know, Clara, but I hope so."
Clara searched his eyes again, but all she saw was an earnest plea. Finally, she nodded.
"Alright. I'll do it. For you. But you better come to the bloody wedding."
He smiled at that and a tear slipped out. He dashed it away discretely.
"I will be there. But now I've got to go. Thanks, Clara, and congratulations."
He pressed a button on the device on his wrist and vanished.
Sagacity, The Universal Collaborative for Temporal Insight, The TARDIS
The Doctor collected his strength in the consol room. He sipped from a steaming cup of tea the TARDIS thoughtfully provided upon his return from Nice.
His first attempt in Nice brought with it the full return of the chorenn poisoning symptoms. He dry-heaved on Clara's shoes and then collapsed, only to be slapped awake by none other than Danny Pink, who was fresh from the shower and apparently halfway through shaving. Pink was not happy to see him.
The Doctor pressed the Home button on the vortex manipulator before the shouting started.
For his second attempt he arrived a few moments earlier in the hotel room. This time Clara was well and truly alone, but shortly after his arrival everything went dark. He awoke with his head in her lap. His round-faced friend seemed convinced he'd had a seizure. When he'd recovered sufficiently, he sat up, dusted himself off, and somewhat whoosily proceeded to tell her she had to accept PE's proposal.
In hindsight, his delivery was probably a little (well a lot) gruff. He was sick, impatient to solve this timeline error so he could see what kind of impact it had on events in 2025, and trying to avoid another encounter with PE, who was likely seconds away from returning from the gym. He definitely should have read his audience better. Clara was furious.
She proceeded to tell him in no uncertain terms how she felt about him meddling in her life. She repeated the same instructions to stay away from her that she shouted at him just after the incident with Courtney the disruptive influence on the moon.
Her retort gutted him. Whether it was the chorenn poisoning or his as yet unresolved remorse from how they had last parted, he simply had no comeback. He stared at her for a few moments, opening and closing his mouth, but nothing came out.
He pressed the Home button on the vortex manipulator.
Back in the TARDIS he made a trip to med bay on shaky legs and managed to administer the second to last dose of acaer and then forced himself to wait fifteen precious minutes to make sure the medication was taking effect before he returned to Nice.
The third time went well at first. He managed to materialize without vomiting, passing out or having a seizure. He arrived right after Danny shut the bathroom door to take his shower, giving him a good fifteen minutes alone with Clara.
He remembered to use a softer tone and consider what Clara would need to hear in order to change her answer when Danny proposed. He explained about the corrupt timeline and the horrible situation in 2025. He explained about the time audit and trying to fix the critical events that had gone wrong on the timeline and led to nuclear Armageddon.
When she asked him what had gone wrong here in Nice in 2016, explained that if she turned down PE's proposal he would foil a terrorist and save 86 lives, but also cause the timeline error that led to the nuclear outcome.
His error lay in telling her that if she accepted his proposal, Danny would fail to thwart the terrorist and be killed in the process, but this point on the timeline would be restored.
That led to shouting and hitting, which led to Danny storming out of the bathroom to discover the Doctor.
He pressed the Home button on the vortex manipulator.
On trip number four, the Doctor knew his window of time for remedying things was closing. He still felt exhausted and unwell in spite of the second dose of acaer. He also experienced the eerie sensation of being on the wrong side of a corrupt timeline. He could almost smell the Reapers as they circled high above the planet, preparing to swoop down and devour everything.
With all that as a backdrop, he pocketed his pride and went to it. He begged her to accept Danny's proposal. He explained why at a high level. And he did not tell her that Danny would die if she did as he asked. He felt another small sliver of his soul die, but she finally agreed.
And something still felt wrong, wrong, wrong, but there was no time to stick around and investigate unless he wanted another encounter with PE, which would likely end up in a new and exciting corruption to the timeline.
He pressed the Home button on the vortex manipulator.
Back in the TARDIS and feeling marginally better thanks to the acaer and successfully addressing another critical incident on the timeline, the Doctor decided to look in on 2025 and see what had changed.
Wanting to avoid an awkward meeting with Osgood over the extra supplies he'd covertly dropped off, he opted to go to Coal Hill School and see if correcting Bastille Day in 2016 made a difference in the fate of the school. He was fairly hopeful, since Clara and Danny were central figures at Coal Hill; correcting the fault in their timeline might well at least save the school from a complete levelling. He entered the coordinates and was off.
28 December, 2025, Coal Hill School, London, England
As soon as he recovered sufficiently from the journey the Doctor sighed with disappointment. There had been no change at Coal Hill School in 2025. The building was still largely gone, one cinderblock wall standing alone at the front of the school and serving as a pictorial memorial to those who had lost their lives.
And too late, the Doctor discovered his two most serious blunders.
Blunder one: He should have checked on Coal Hill through the chronoscanner from the safety of the TARDIS.
Blunder two: In his exhaustion and impatience to see what had changed, he'd forgotten to wear a radiation suit. His skin prickled hotly. His hearts pounded rapidly. His head reeled.
He pressed the Home button on the vortex manipulator.