Finally happy enough with this chapter. Thank you to the reviews, follows, favs keep them coming. I'll be going on holiday on the 10th of July to the 15th to Florence so no update until after that, unless i write a short chapter to post before a go.
(That awkward moment when Jenna Coleman landed in Florence a week before my holiday, hopefully she's still there or i can bump into her at the airport.)
jh831 - your question, in chapter 8, yes Lauren does know the TARDIS translates alien languages and only asked for show, read i few lines above from when she asks, she was planning to ask it.
Without further ado, and sorry if there is any spelling mistakes, chapter 12.
Chapter 12 The Fight
"I'm going to detonate the bombs, agreed? Agreed?" Lundvik asked and when nobody answered her she made a move to do so. Before Lundvik even got a chance to do so however, a porthole suddenly broke under pressure and the air began rushing out. Everyone in the room desperately tried to grab onto something stable as not to be sucked out by the vacuum.
"Hang on tight, there's been a breach!" Lundvik shouted over the sound of the air being sucked out as she clung to the table.
By sheer luck, the vacuum sent a large piece of metal flying across the room until it hit the hole, effectively sealing it. Any objects that were in the air dropped with a clang; research papers and the photos lay scattered everywhere. The room was now a mess. The group manged to get their breath back and right themselves; Clara though was the quickest and immediately got down to business before anyone had a chance to argue back.
"If we let it live, what would happen if the moon wasn't there?" She demanded, arms braced on the table in front of her, determinedly staring at the Captain.
"Listen, we haven't got time for this." Lundvik replied trying to keep her cool.
Clara on the other hand was decidedly less cool about the whole situation. "We're discussing it! What would happen if the moon wasn't there?"
"I have a physics book in my bag. There's this thing on gravity?" Courtney piped in trying to be helpful although her knowledge was vastly limited.
"Super. Is there a word search?" Lundvik said in tone that embodied both sarcasm and despair.
Henry hadn't said a word so far but Lauren suspected as much. He didn't serve much in the plot of this episode which meant saving him didn't really affect anything, but that meant he wouldn't end up being a source of help during these moments. He probably wouldn't provide anything useful given his track record. It was rather obvious Henry would take his Captain's side on this affair, also given the fact he's seen the effects on Earth this creature slowly hatching has had.
Clara lightly slapped her palms down on the table, "Okay, there would be no tides. But we'd survive that, right? They've knocked out the satellites. There's no internet, no mobiles. I'd be fine with that." Her facial expression on the other hand was the opposite of fine as she spoke.
Lauren finally decided to give some of her insight into the topic, however her information wasn't going to help Clara or her emotional dilemma but she felt a need to say it. "True there would be little or no tides as the ocean would shrink in size however, without the moon the nights would become darker, and the days would become shorter. The gravitational force of the moon slows down the Earth's rotation, otherwise days would pass in a blink of an eye, imagine how many more days of the year we would have! Another important reason is the axis of the Earth, without the moon Earth's axis can tilt over time to various degrees and this would cause extreme weather and seasons or it might not tilt at all leaving the Earth with no seasons at all."
Yes, I will admit I did research after the episode aired Lauren thought to herself rather proud she remembered it. And I'm glad I did, I feel very much informed.
Although her input to the situation made Clara look even more stressed and ready to break. Clara looked like she could burst into tears at any moment which was very uncharacteristic of her. Lauren felt guilty, she should be trying to make the whole thing easier on Clara without making it obvious she knows too much that even her natural knowledge of the moon and its effects can't even excuse.
"It's not going to just stop being there, because inside the moon, Miss, is a gigantic creature forcing its way out. And when it does, which is going to be pretty damn soon, there are going to be huge chunks of the moon heading right for us, like whatever killed the dinosaurs, only ten thousand times bigger," Lundvik explained equally as stressed as Clara.
"But the moon isn't make of rock and stone, is it? It's made of eggshell," Clara tried to reason.
Lundvik sighed in frustration, "Well you heard all the stuff Lauren said that would happen without the moon!" She gritted out before exhaling roughly, "Oh, God. Okay, okay, fine. If, by some miracle, the shell isn't too thick, or if it disperses, or if it goes into orbit, whatever, there's still going to be a massive thing there, isn't there, that just popped out. And what the hell do you imagine that is?"
"Loads of things lay eggs." Courtney said which didn't help one bit.
The Captain closed her eyes briefly in annoyance, "It's not a chicken," she said slowly.
Courtney looked slightly offended, "I'm not saying it's a chicken. I'm not completely stupid."
"We have no idea if it will harm Earth or not when it hatches," Lauren said.
"No we don't but I would not rather take that risk. It's already harming Earth never mind when it hatches." Lundvik argued.
Even though Lauren knew the outcome Lundvik did have a good point. If a woman is pregnant but the pregnancy starts to affect her health and poses a risk to her life, she under doctors' orders can get an abortion to save her life. It's logical to put the life of the mother first, logical to put the many lives on Earth first before this creature.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…
But this wasn't going to be this case, so Lauren argued further, she glanced towards Clara.
"True, but when birds hatch they don't destroy their nest as far as I'm aware…" Lauren hinted at Clara, hoping she would take that small but important piece of information that the Doctor failed to tell her.
Clara stared back at her, brow furrowed trying to read the expression in Lauren's eyes. She noticed the way Lauren said that, almost like a secret to her. Clara silently tossed the girl's words around her head.
"It's an exoparasite." Lundvik continued her argument.
"A what?" Courtney asked confused.
"Like a flea. Or a head louse."
Clara was shaking her head, eyes glassy with unshed tears, "I'm going to have to be a lot more certain than that if I'm going to kill a baby." She countered Lundvik, glancing back at Lauren. Clara could feel the girl knew something, something important, she recognized that expression of hers. Clara had seen that expression on Lauren's future self, she was hiding something. If Lauren knew something or could help her out in any way to make the right choice Clara would ensure that she will damn well do so.
"Oh, you want to talk about babies? You've probably got babies down there now. You want to have babies?"
"Wha-"Clara looked taken back, "Well yeah."
"Mister Pink," Courtney teased in a sing song voice to her teacher.
"Shush!" Clara silenced her, having none of it.
"Okay. You imagine you've got children down there on Earth now, right? Grandchildren maybe. You want that thing to get out? Kill them all? You want today to be the day life on Earth stopped because you couldn't make an unfair decision?" Lundvik asked Clara harshly.
Clara bit her bottom lip, willing herself not to break or give in to what she felt was wrong. She looked on the verge of another breakdown of tears and she was with all her will power trying to hold herself together. The Captain continued.
"Listen, I don't want to do this. All my life I've dreamed about coming here," she looked to Henry for his agreement, he nodded solemnly. "But this is how it has to end." She finished bitterly before setting the trigger on the bomb to start the count down.
Courtney protested.
"I've given us an hour. There's a cut-out here. If anyone has any bright ideas, or if he comes back, that stops it. But once it's pressed, it stays pressed."
"And if he doesn't come back?" Clara asked quietly.
Lundvik and Henry glanced at each other, "I didn't expect to survive anyway." She replied softly.
Courtney still tried to maintain hope in the Doctor. "He's going to come back, though, right? Isn't he, Miss?"
Clara managed a small, weak smile. "Hey, why don't you call me Clara?"
Courtney immediately looked uncomfortable with the suggestion of calling her teacher by the friendly term of her first name. "I prefer Miss, Miss. We just need to make up our minds, that's all." When Clara didn't response, Courtney said, "Well, you know him."
"I think he really might just be leaving it to us."
The communications system on the computer console suddenly hisses as the screen came to life before them revealing a man at the other end wearing a headset sitting behind what looked to be an office desk.
"Can anybody hear me?" The man on the screen asked urgently. "Come in, please. Can anybody – "
Lundvik stepped into view of the screen and identified herself. The man was from ground control, his haircut giving that part away according to Lundvik. "How are things down there?" She asked.
The man hesitated, "Pretty bad. Yeah. Pretty bad. Listen, we're patched in to one of the TV satellites. We haven't got long. How are things up there?"
Clara stepped up to the screen having an idea, "Can we broadcast on this?"
"Who are you?" The man asked baffled at the unknown woman's presence.
"School trip. Can we broadcast on this?" Clara asked again.
The man on the other end recovered from his surprise, "Well, yes," he answered.
Clara braced herself, uncertain but nonetheless in command as she spoke, "Hello Earth. We have a terrible decision to make. It's an uncertain decision and we don't have a lot of time. We can kill this creature or we can let it live. We don't know what it's going to do, we don't know what's going to happen when it hatches. If it will hurt us, help us, or just leave us alone. We have to decide together. This is the last time we'll be able to speak to you, but you can send us a message. If you think we should kill the creature, turn your lights off. If you think we should take the chance, let it live, leave your lights on. We'll be able to see. Goodnight, Earth."
Clara ended the transmission. The base began to rumble and shake again as the quakes worsened, the creature closer to hatching by the second.
Lauren took a shaky breath in, trying to steady herself. The shaking of the base churned her already protesting stomach.
Clara takes Courtney's hand and leads her out, Lauren, Henry and Lundvik taking the trigger case with her follow down the corridor. The shakes continue, lights flickering madly as something gives way and explodes into flames behind them, they enter another room with a view of the Earth; its lights still visible.
They watch silently as the minutes ticked by. Only half of the Earth is facing the moon, therefore only half can turn off their lights to vote. It was rather unfair, but it appeared to be the only option they had. Half of the world just missed out on voting.
It was while waiting that Clara dragged Lauren off to the side out of ear shot from everyone else.
"Is this right? I don't know if we're doing the right thing?" Clara asked her.
Lauren frowned at her, formulating the best way to respond to her question. Clara cut her off before she could.
"Don't reply with I don't know, or let them decide. I am asking you as my friend please help me because I know you know something!"
"What do you mean by 'I' know something? What could I possibly know?" Lauren whispered trying to ignore the rising pounding in her head.
How could Clara possibly be suspicious? Am I that easy to read?!
"For a start you're more knowledgeable on the facts apparently. And second your face. I recognize that expression. You know something, you had that same knowing look you have had before with Bow-Tie – " Clara stopped abruptly.
Same facial expression? Her future self clearly isn't doing Lauren of the now any favours…
Wait, did she mention Bow-Tie? As in the 11th Doctor?
Lauren was too lost in her wandering thoughts to realize too slowly why Clara suddenly stopped talking. Clara was staring at her neck, more precisely at her injury. Of course Clara had gotten too close not to notice.
"Oh my, your neck! Lauren why didn't you say you're hurt!" Clara demanded in shock, looking between her and the injury noticing how pale and clammy she looked. She placed a hand over the girl's forehead. "You also burning up."
"Deal with me after –"
Clara ignored Lauren's protest. "Courtney? Did you bring any wipes or medical stuff from the chemists than just stuff for travel sickness?"
Courtney, eager to help in any way searched her spacesuit pockets.
Clara gently pulled Lauren's curtain of hair out of the way to get a better look at the damaged skin, some of the hair was sticking to the wound. Clara winced seeing the dried blood around a small but nasty looking bite mark, several scratches surrounded it.
"Ow!"
Clara had lightly slapped Lauren on the arm. "Idiot! Bloody idiot you are," she scolded her. Lauren had the decency to look sorry. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want a fuss, I don't like people fussing over me. Anyway we were kind of busy and I was going to get the Doctor to look at it, when he comes back that is."
At the mention of the Doctor's name Clara's expression hardened ever so slightly. "If he comes back," said Clara quietly looking at the timer counting down to their demise and the lights on Earth still shining, for now anyway.
Courtney came up to Clara's side holding a few items in her hands, "I've some Ibuprofen tablets, baby wipes, and a bottle of water," she held them out to Clara. "Oh my god are you alright?" Courtney caught a glimpse of her bite wound.
"She'll be fine don't worry. I'll take those thanks, you go and watch for the lights, we haven't got long left." Clara smiled reassuringly before turning her attention to Lauren.
"Take the tablets," Clara ordered. Lauren did so in one gulp of water, watching her take a baby wipe and gently start to remove the dried blood around the injury careful not to disturb it.
Lauren hissed, the area was extremely sensitive. Clara prodded more carefully for the next few minutes, alternating between the wound and wiping away sweat from her face trying to cool her down.
"Will she be okay?" Henry came over all concerned.
"She'll be fine," Clara promised him.
"It's not your fault I went after you Henry so don't fuss," Lauren smiled reassuringly at him, "Anyway you prevented it from being worse."
"I felt I owed you." Henry smiled back gratefully. He left them to it knowing she was in good hands and sensing they wanted to be alone.
Minutes passed with neither talking as Clara continued cleaning the wound hoping it wouldn't become infected, looking at it she thought there was a chance.
"He will," Lauren broke the silence between them. "Come back that is."
Clara stopped in her movements. "You seem confident," she remarked.
"And you don't?" It was an honest question.
Clara dropped her hand to her side, the blood was mostly gone now, the injury didn't look half bad now compare to before. The baby wipe though was stained red where once it was white. She looked directly at the younger girl.
"You think you know someone, then they do this and you question it all," she sounded sad. "I mean I try to understand him, I try my best to help him, stayed with him when he needed it the most and now he does this. He seems to be pushing me away a lot lately...What is he trying to prove?" Clara looked very tired. Well she did have a double life.
"Honestly? I think this is one of those moments where an idea was better sounding in his head than in practice," She earned a small smile from Clara with that comment, "I think he's trying to prove a point but doing it badly. He makes choices all the time, not all of them good…"
"Yeah and this is one of his not so good choices running away like that," Clara grumbled.
Lauren wrapped her arms around Clara's shoulders in a much needed hug, Clara hid her face as the Doctor would have said when it came to hugs.
"I feel like a child having to impress an adult by, I don't know, completing an impossible maths question for a gold star sticker," Clara mumbled into Lauren's hair, Lauren being slightly taller of the two.
Well that's one way to feel, thought Lauren as the mental image of a child version of Clara popped unbidden into her head trying to impress an overly grumpy, grey haired Doctor, only for child Clara to stick a gold star on his face. Lauren started giggling.
"What?" Clara asked looking up at her confused at the sudden change of mood.
Lauren laughed louder causing Lundvik, Henry and Courtney to stare at them. "Sorry," Lauren mumbled, "Just what you said gave me a funny image of a little you trying to impress the Doctor before sticking a gold star on his face because he needed to brighten up a bit."
Hearing this Clara laughed too. "If only I was that sassy as a child."
Pause.
"Stop the trigger," Lauren said suddenly, laughter subsided. "Let it live. The world needs hope."
Clara stared at her opening her mouth to speak but only to close it again, changing her mind.
"That's my answer to your question," Lauren clarified. "Anyway, I've already told you what you need to know." She hinted.
Figure it out clever girl Lauren internally begged, I'm trying not to be too obvious here to keep my secret and clearly failing if you can read my face like a book.
Lauren could see the gears turning in Clara's head, she was starting to work something out, trying to hold onto her gut feeling. Without a word Clara walked back to the others, taking the binoculars off Courtney, looking out at the Earth.
Back to watching and waiting.
At eighteen minutes left of the timer lights go out across the world, at five minutes left the planet is dark, all lights off. The Earth had made its choice.
"Night, night," Courtney whispered sadly.
Clara was still internally debating with herself. If she wasn't going to press it, Lauren would but she knew Clara would do it.
Clara looked to Lauren who nodded for her to press it. Like a light bulb Clara realized what Lauren said earlier, when birds hatch they don't destroy the nest, Earth was the nest. There was a chance. Hope. Clara in one determined stride hit the cut-out switch aborting the detonation with a minute to spare.
At that exact moment the TARDIS materialised and out popped the Doctor. "One, two, three, four, five, into the TARDIS," he said.
"What's happening?" Lundvik demanded.
"Let's go and have a look, shall we?" The Doctor beckoned them all into the ship.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Doctor landed them on a beach to watch the creature hatch, the pieces of the moon eggshell disintegrates, and the chick flies away, harmless. The Doctor made his epic speech on the fate of the human race on this one moment that changed history. Then it laid a new egg but Lauren was determined to completely ignore the voice in her head saying how illogical that was and just try and enjoy the moment instead for once.
Clara was brooding, realizing she was potentially just lied to by the Doctor.
Back inside the TARDIS Lauren quickly removed the ruined orange spacesuit and changed clothes. It wasn't long before the same strange feeling returned again. Her headache was back, she probably needed more of those tablets again. She tried to find a mirror to see the result the spider did to her neck as Clara and Courtney headed pass her to the console room.
She managed to find a small mirror and winced at what she saw, a nasty looking spider bite mark. Better get that properly checked out she thought when she poked at the surrounding skin delicacy causing a stinging sensation. She made her way to the console room climbing up the stairs just as the scene between the Doctor and Clara was unfolding.
Uh Oh.
She stood firmly on the top step, hand on the railing looking quite frankly nervous to take one more step as if they were a mine field.
This was the big scene.
The talking point of this episode.
The Fight.
Between the Doctor and his companion. Never have they been at more odds.
"Tell me what you knew." Clara asked with barely contained anger pulling the lever back.
"Nothing. I told you, I've got grey areas," The Doctor made a vague gesture to his grey hair.
"Yeah. I noticed. Tell me what you knew, Doctor, or else I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate," Clara threatened.
The Doctor merely quirked an eyebrow at her. Was it in amusement at her threat? Lauren couldn't tell. "I knew that eggs are not bombs. I know they don't usually destroy their nests. Essentially, what I knew was that you would always make the best choice," he finally admitted to her, leaning a hand on the console looking down at her, "I had faith that you would always make the right choice," he smiled at her trying to be sweet, not realizing how upset she truly was.
Instead he was making Clara more enraged by the second. "Honestly, do you have music playing in your head when you say rubbish like that?"
"It wasn't my decision to make. I told you," he shrugged before picking a pile of books up and setting them on the row of steps with others in an order that only made sense to him.
"Well, why did you do it? Was it for Courtney, was that it?"
The Doctor set another book down on a pile on the top step to the upper level. "Well, she really is something special now, isn't she? First woman on the moon, saved the Earth from itself, and, rather bizarrely, she becomes the President of the United States. She met this bloke called Blinovitch –"
"Do you know what? SHUT UP! I AM SO SICK OF LISTENING TO YOU!" Clara had finally snapped. All that rage and anger, that fear, came crashing to the surface of her normally controlled exterior.
The control freak out of control. All those weeks of the Doctor's insults to her and pushing her away since his regeneration combined with the stress of what she just went through pushed Clara into a breakdown.
She was crying freely now and Lauren wanted nothing more than to run over to her and hug but she was rooted to the spot, not daring to breathe even when her chest started to ache painfully.
The Doctor was frozen in shock. This was not the Clara he knew, he's never since her like this before. He began backtracking, realizing he's done something seriously wrong. "Well, I didn't do it for Courtney. I didn't know what was going to happen. Do you think I'm lying?" He made his way down the stairs to her.
"I don't know. I don't know. If you didn't do it for her, I mean." She tried to gather herself, then the rage she held returned. "Do you know what? It was, it was cheap, it was pathetic. No no, no. It was patronising. That was you patting us on the back, saying you're big enough to go to the shops by yourself now. Go on, toddle along." Clara almost screamed this at him.
The Doctor tried to argue his point of view, "No, that was me allowing you to make a choice about your own future. That was me respecting you."
"Oh, my God, really? Was it? Yeah, well, respected is not how I feel!" Clara began sobbing, face red with tears, breath hitching.
The Doctor was at a loss of what to do or say. "Right. Okay. Er," he stuttered.
"I nearly didn't press that button. I nearly got it wrong if it wasn't for Lauren," Clara pointed to her by the stairs being acknowledged for the first time throughout the whole heated argument. "That was you, my friend making me scared. Making me feel like a bloody idiot."
"Language."
"Oh, don't you ever tell me to mind my language. Don't you ever tell me to take the stabilisers off my bike. And don't you dare lump me in with the rest of all the little humans that you think are so tiny and silly and predictable," Clara stalked closer to him, "You walk our Earth, Doctor, you breathe our air. You make us your friend, and that is your moon too. And you can damn well help us when we need it!"
"I was helping." Was all the Doctor said standing completely still, keeping is facial expression as neutral as possible.
"What by clearing off?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, well, clear off!" Clara shouted at him. "Go on. You can clear off. Get back in your lonely, your lonely bloody TARDIS and you don't come back," Her voice cracked, throat constricted, she marched to the doors.
"Clara. Clara," The Doctor called not believing she was going to do this.
Clara turned to him, breathing more under control as she spoke, "You go away. Okay? You go a long way away."
"Clara don't go please!" Lauren had finally found her voice but it was too late.
Clara had slammed the door shut behind her. The Doctor having immediately, angrily, slammed the lever down making the ship dematerialises as far away from her as she wanted.
Lauren just stared at the door. She thought watching this scene on TV was tense, but this was something else. It was even worse now that it was real, happening before her. Every emotion was real, not acted. That was hard to watch. She didn't make any effect on this outcome. She was emotional herself, her head was pounding, her breathing heavy.
"You go back right now and fix this! You say sorry, bring her back!" Lauren shouted stalking up to him.
"You heard what she said," The Doctor growled, "She told me to clear off and that's what I'm doing." He roughly pressed several buttons, the ship swung through the vortex, he yanked the monitor towards himself not wanting to look at her – he couldn't deal with another shouting, emotional companion.
Lauren got in his personal space. "This is your fault! You pushed her too far! Why are you such a jerk?"
"Oh, don't you start. Go to your room and mope!" He growled pointing in the direction of her bedroom. "Or leave too if you can't take it."
He faltered then. Lowering his arm slowly, "Are you alright?" His voice suddenly changed demeanour from angry to concern.
Lauren was alarmed at the change in his attitude until she realized her breaths were coming out short, she swayed on the spot, stomach protesting and there was a strange ringing in her ears.
Before the Doctor had time to react Lauren's eyes went wide as she clapped a hand over her mouth, but that didn't do any good when she suddenly lurched forward and vomited all over his shoes.