Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who and I never will unfortunately :(

Chapter Two: The Christmas Invasion

Part 2

When she got to the door and opened it, there was no one there and Clara frowned. Well, that was strange.

She shrugged then, deciding that it was just someone playing a joke. She headed back to the living room. There was something different about this room. It took Clara a moment to realize what it was. There was a different tree. A small white one had been there, but now there was a big green tree with different colored lights all over it.

The feeling that something was wrong came over Clara. She didn't know where it came from, but it was there. Something couldn't be wrong. What harm could a Christmas tree do? Still…she wondered who brought it in here.

"Jackie!" Clara called for Rose's mother and it wasn't too long until she came, mobile still pressed to her ear.

"Yeah?" Jackie asked, covering the speaker with her hand, as she stood beside Clara.

The brunette pointed to the tree. "Where did this tree come from?"

Jackie's gaze went to the tree and a bright look crossed her face. "Oh, would you look at that," she said. "Rose got us a new tree."

"But Rose isn't back yet?"

"She must have dropped it off before going back to the market."

"I guess…" Clara mumbled, staring at the tree. What Jackie said made sense…but she couldn't see why Rose would have brought another Christmas tree since there already was one. She turned her head to look back at Jackie. However, she was gone. Clara looked back at the tree again, eyebrows furrowed, trying to think of how this tree could have gotten here. After a while, she gave up. Trying to figure out the weird things that was happening to her was a waste. She never would figure them out.

Going back into the room to check on the Doctor again, Clara went up to him, staring at his still sleeping face. Looks like the tea didn't work. Clara sighed as she sat down on the bed quietly to not disturb his sleep.

"I need your help, Doctor," she whispered, staring at her hands as they rested on her lap. "I want to go home…Rose says you can help me. I want to believe her. I really do…but I can't. It's hard to believe that someone could help me that won't wake up." She looked up from her hands to look back at the Doctor, who still wasn't stirring. "If you can't help me, then who can… I need to get back to my Dad. He needs me. He needs someone to watch over him…make sure he's okay. Mum can't do that anymore…she's gone…" She sniffed as tears filled her eyes. She stopped talking to get a hold of herself before speaking again, wiping away her tears as she did so. "If I don't get back, who's going to do that?"

She fell silent again, glancing back down at her hands. Suddenly, the bed shifted, startling Clara. She quickly looked up and was met with the sight of brown eyes, belonging to the Doctor, who was now sitting up in bed. Clara froze as his tired eyes stared into hers in a way that made her feel like he was looking deep into her soul. It made her heart skip a beat. The two of them stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Clara wanted to say something, but every time she would try, nothing would come out. Finally, she was able to say something after clearing her throat.

"Hello," Clara said gently.

He didn't say anything, just continued to stare at her. After a few minutes, Clara started to feel uncomfortable with his staring.

"Um…" she started to say but she trailed off when the Doctor reached up a hand and cupped her cheek. This action startled her but before she could stop herself, she leaned into his surprisingly familiar touch.

"What's your name…?" He finally spoke, his voice gruff from sleep.

Even though she had told him her name already, she told him again because it was such a brief meeting, "Clara…"

"Clara," he repeated, and she still liked the way her name came from his lips, especially in that gruff tone he had. "Clara…Clara…Clara…" He kept saying her name, sounding completely out of it. He obviously needed to have more sleep. So, she hushed him, bringing his hand away from her cheek. Her maternal instinct kicked in as she gently rested him back down on the bed.

"You should go back to sleep, Doctor," Clara told him softly while she fixed the covers over him before smoothing his hair back, and she vaguely thought about how soft it was. "You look like you need it still."

"Thank you…Clara…" he murmured, closing his eyes at her touch.

"Yeah…" she murmured back as her fingers gently combed through his brown locks. She watched him as his breathing even out and he fell back into a deep sleep. Her hand left his hair and her index finger ran down his cheek. She couldn't help but marvel in the softness of his skin. It took her a minute to realize what she was doing, and she quickly pulled her hand as if his skin burned her, blushing.

What was she doing?

Before she could think more about it, Clara heard a door slam against the wall. Since she was still looking at the Doctor, she saw him flinch in his sleep, but he didn't stir from it. Looking at him one last time, Clara got up and left the bedroom, wanting to see what was going on.

She found Rose, Mickey, and Jackie talking to one another. Jackie looked confused while Rose looked frantic as she looked at both her mother and Mickey, who looked frantic as well, just not as much as Rose.

"Right, it's not safe, we gotta get out of here – where can we go?"

"My mate, Stan, he'll put us up."

Rose gave Mickey an exasperated look. "That's only two streets away." She turned to Jackie. "What about Mo? Where's she living now?"

"I dunno! Peak District!"

"Oh, we'll go to Cousin Mo's then."

"It's Christmas Eve!" Jackie exclaimed. "We're not going anywhere! What are you babbling about?!"

Rose sighed. "Mum…" Then she stopped, and her gaze went elsewhere. Clara followed her gaze and saw she was looking at the green Christmas tree. "Where did you get that tree?" she abruptly asked Jackie, who turned to look at it. "That's a new tree. Where'd you get it?"

"Clara asked the same time, but I just thought it was you!"

"Why would you think it was me?"

"Well, you went shopping, there was a ring at the door, and there it was!"

"No, that wasn't me."

Jackie frowned. "Then who was it…?" They all looked at the tree. Clara stared at it too.

Then all the sudden, the lights turned on, startling every one of them. Clara took a step back, eyes wide.

"What the hell?" she muttered and the other looked towards her, finally noticing she was there.

Something even stranger happened, not as strange as that Weeping Angel was, but still strange. The Christmas tree started to spin, slowly at first and then very fast, faster than the speed of light.

Jackie let out a piecing scream.

The song, 'Jiggle Bells', played as the tree spun around, matching the fast speed of the tree. The tree smashed into the coffee table, breaking it into a million pieces, and now it was heading straight towards them!

"Go, go, go!" Mickey yelled. "Get out!"

Rose and Jackie ran from the room, but Clara stood there, unable to move.

"Clara!"

Mickey shouting her name made her snap out of it and she ran from the room, just in time to see Rose running to the Doctor's room while Jackie ran to the front door.

"We got to save the Doctor!" Rose exclaimed.

"What are you doing?!" Jackie screeched.

"We can't just leave him!" She disappeared into his bedroom and Clara followed her.

"Mickey! Leave it! Leave it! Get out! Get out! Mickey get out of there!" Mickey joined Clara and Rose in the Doctor's room with Jackie shouting, "Just leave him!"

"Get in here!"

Jackie joined them and her and Mickey slide a wardrobe in front of the door while Rose bended over the Doctor.

"Doctor, wake up!"

A sort of protectiveness came over Clara at the sight of Rose trying to wake him up, just when he fell back to sleep. "Don't! Don't wake him up, he needs sleep!"

But she was ignored, causing her to huff herself. All her life, people would ignore her (not her parents) just because she was a pretty face, like she didn't have anything important to say.

There was large bang coming from the bedroom door. The tree was here. Mickey and Jackie were leaning against the wardrobe to keep the tree from coming in. Seeing that Rose wasn't going to listen to her, Clara ran to help Jackie and Mickey.

The wardrobe started to shake as the Christmas tree continued to try and get into the room, earning a yelp from Jackie. Even with three of them trying to keep the tree out of the room, it was no use. The tree finally broke through, sending all of them backwards.

Clara gasped in pain when her back hit the wall rather hard, knocking the wind out of her. Jackie cowered against the wall in fear and wailed out as she gripped Clara and Mickey, who covered their ears at how shrill her voice was.

"I'm gonna get killed by a Christmas tree!"

Then out of nowhere, the tree exploded. Clara's gaze snapped over to the source of the person who did it.

It was the Doctor. Holding out what looked like a screwdriver.

Sonic screwdriver… Clara thought then her eyebrows furrowed together, confused. Where did that come from?

The Doctor lowered it down, a serious look on his face. "Remote control. But who's controlling it?" He climbed out of the bed with shaky feet, but Clara was sure she was the only one who noticed. He then grabbed a nearby robe and wrapped it around his body, tying it up. With that, he headed out of the room with Clara, Rose, Jackie, and Mickey following him.

They all stepped outside, on the balcony, where on the ground stood was three Santas.

"That's them," Mickey said.

Clara stared at them. "What are they?" she asked, and she felt a gaze on her. When she looked, she found the Doctor staring at her. As soon as her eyes met his, he looked away, pretending that he hadn't been staring.

"Shush!" Rose shushed.

A small scowl adorned Clara's face, but then she noticed why Rose shushed them. The Doctor had risen the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the Santas threateningly. They apparently took the threat to heart because they backed away and teleported away.

"They're just gone!" Mickey let out an amused snort. "What kind of rubbish were they?" he asked amused. "I mean, no offense, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver's gonna scare them off."

"Pilot fish…" the Doctor mumbled, staring at the same spot where the Santas had been.

"What?" Rose asked confused as she turned to look at him.

"They were just Pilot fish."

"What are Pilot fish?" Clara spoke up and his gaze turned to hers. His mouth opened to answer when he suddenly stumbled on his feet, looking pale. Before he fell to the ground, Clara caught him in her arms and he gripped his arms around her waist.

"Doctor?! What's wrong?!"

The Doctor coughed loudly and then he grimaced in pain as his arms gripped Clara tighter. "You woke me up too soon…" he panted. His breathing started getting heavy. "I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." More of that orange energy came out of his mouth. "You see? The Pilot Fish could smell it. A million miles away. So, they eliminate the defense – that's you lot – and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple years –"

"That's horrible…" Clara breathed and she found her arms gripping him tighter. For some reason, the thought of these Pilot Fish using him like that sent an unpleasant feeling through her.

The Doctor glanced at her then grimaced again. "We haven't got much time. If there's Pilot Fish, then –"As he was telling everyone this, he searched through the inside of his robe and pulled out…

An apple.

Clara blinked at the sight of it.

The Doctor looked at it confused. "Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?"

"Oh, that's Howard. Sorry."

"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?"

Jackie shrugged. "He gets hungry."

"What, he gets hungry in his sleep?"

"Sometimes."

"Strange…" the Doctor mumbled. Now he was looking even paler, his eyes were starting to flutter, and his grip around Clara's waist loosened.

Again, Clara's maternal instinct kicked in. "You need to get back to bed," she told him gently as her hand unconsciously went up to brush his bangs out of his eyes. Rose scowled at her, but she didn't notice as she was staring at the Doctor with concern in her eyes.

"Wait…the Pilot Fish…" The Doctor said, forcing the words out as his breathing started to slow down and his eyes were fluttering dangerously. "The Pilot Fish mean…that something – something – something's coming…" He got those words out before he fell back to sleep, slumping against her, his entire weight on her, making it hard to keep him up.

Rose took him from her, giving her a glare, surprising Clara.

What was that for?

She didn't ask as Rose started to take the Doctor back inside with Mickey and Jackie following her.

Clara stared after them for a moment before she sighed and went back inside as well.

Clara winced as she settled down on the couch in the living room. Her back was still sore from hitting the wall. Her and Jackie were the only ones in the living room as Rose was with the Doctor and Mickey was getting his laptop.

Jackie noticed her wince and asked with a concern in her voice, "You alright there, Clara?"

She nodded in response. "Yeah, I'm fine…my back's just sore from hitting the wall…"

Jackie stood up from the couch. "I'll get you some Aspirin and a cup of tea."

"You don't have to do that," Clara protested. Jackie has done enough for her as it was. Besides, she was fine. Her back didn't hurt that bad.

"Its fine, Clara," Jackie told her with a warm smile. "I was going to make some tea anyway. I think we all need one."

"Alright…"

Giving Clara another warm smile, she left the living room and into the kitchen, leaving her alone.

At least for a while because then Mickey came into the room with his laptop in his arms. He noticed her on the couch.

"Clara, where's Jackie?" he asked.

"In the kitchen, making us a cup of tea." He nodded and went to set his laptop. There was silence between them until Clara spoke up.

"How's the Doctor?"

"He looked fine…just asleep."

Clara sighed in relief. "Good…" Mickey stopped what he was doing and looked over at her. He stared at her with furrowed eyebrows, causing her to look at him confused, "What?"

"It's just…have you met the Doctor before?"

She was even more confused now. "No…why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "Dunno…I guess it's the way you look him…like you've seen him before."

Clara didn't say anything. Did she really look at him like that?

Mickey said nothing more about the subject as he said, "Jackie, I'm using the phone line. Is that alright?"

Coming out of the kitchen with two cups of tea in her hands, Jackie nodded. "Yeah. Keep count on it." She sat down one of the cups of tea next to Mickey before handing the other one to Clara.

"Thank you," Clara said as she took the tea from her.

Then Jackie took out one Aspirin and put it in Clara's free hand. "Here."

She nodded her thanks and put the pills in her mouth before taking a long sip of tea to get it down. She swallowed as Jackie sighed, looking at the clock.

"It's midnight. Christmas Day."

Hearing those words, Clara felt a sadness come over her. This was the first Christmas she was going to celebrate without her mother…and without her father. It made her eyes tear up, but she wiped the tears away before they fell down her face, not wanting it to catch the attention of Jackie as she knew that the older woman would ask what was wrong and she really didn't want to talk about it.

It was then that Rose came into the room, looking depressed as she sat down on the arm of a chair.

Seeing her, Jackie went into the kitchen briefly before returning with another cup of tea, which she handed to Rose. "How is he?"

"He's fine now…just sleeping…" Rose sighed. She looked so sad as if the world was crashing beneath her feet, like she had lost someone. But she didn't. The Doctor was fine. He was just asleep, not dead.

Clara felt like she was missing something.

Jackie stared at her daughter sadly. There was complete silence in the living room now at least until Jackie decided to turn on the news, sitting down next to Clara.

"Scientists in charge of Britain's mission to Mars have re-established contact with the Guinevere One space probe," The reporter announced. "They're expecting the first transmission from the planet's surface in the next few minutes."

The scene changed to a man named Llewellyn, speaking at a live press conference. He cleared his throat.

"Yes, we are. We're – we're back on schedule. We've received the signal from Guinevere One. The Mars landing would seem to be an unqualified success."

"But is it true that you completely lost contact earlier tonight?"

"Yes, we had a bit of a scare. Guinevere seemed to fall off the scope, but it – it was just a blip. Only disappeared for a few seconds. She's fine now, absolutely fine. We – we're getting the first pictures transmitted live any minute now. I'd better get back to it, thanks." With that, he quickly left the conference.

"Here we go," Mickey suddenly said, staring at the computer screen. "Pilot Fish."

Rose got up to look. Clara stayed seated even though she wanted to see what Pilot Fish were, but she could overhear them, so there was no need to see it.

"Scavengers like the Doctor said." Mickey went on as Rose looked over his shoulder. "Harmless – they're tiny but the point is, the little fish swims alongside the big fish."

"Do you mean like sharks?"

"Great big sharks. So, what the Doctor means is, we had them…"

"And now we get something bigger," Clara finished quietly. Rose and Mickey heard her, and they looked over at her.

"Exactly." Mickey nodded in agreement.

"So, something's coming…like the Doctor said…but what?" Clara mumbled to herself, a thoughtful look on her face.

Rose wasn't paying attention to Clara as it seemed she was lost in her own little world. "How close?" she asked, looking back at Mickey.

"There's no way of telling, but the Pilot Fish don't swim too far from their daddies."

"Funny sort of rocks," Jackie pointed out suddenly and Clara turned to look at the television screen. There was a distorted image on the screen.

"That's not rocks…" Rose stepped closer to the TV, squinting at the screen. Mickey, Jackie, and Clara followed.

The image was starting to get clearer. "…Coming from the depths of space on Christmas morning…"

Suddenly, the image was completely clear, and Clara's eyes widened. It was an alien! A real, proper alien! The creature roared viciously, making them gasp and jump backwards.

The image was only there for a couple minutes before it disappeared entirely.

It returned to the news.

"The face of alien life form was transmitted live tonight on the BBC."

"On the 25th of December, the human race has been shown absolute proof that alien life exists."

"These remarkable images have been relayed right across the world."

With this new information, Clara had a bad feeling in her stomach that something bad was going to happen. Normally, her feelings were right on the spot (she was very perceptive), but she hoped this time they weren't.

"Rose."

Clara glanced up at the sound of Mickey's voice as Rose rushed over to him where he sat in front of his laptop and perched herself on the edge of the chair.

"Take a look, I've got access to the military."

"What? Really?" Clara said in a surprised and impressed tone as she stood up from her seat and went over there.

Mickey looked surprised at the impressed expression on her face as if he wasn't used to having someone impressed by him. "Yeah…"

"Wow…impressive." She smiled at him and he blushed.

"Thank you," he told her, still blushing but it was a little hard to tell with his dark skin.

Clara opened her mouth to tell him, 'you're welcome', but Rose cut her off.

"Mickey, what did you want to show me?" she asked, giving Clara a quick glare before looking back at her boyfriend…or well, friend, at this point.

He shook head to get rid of his blush, which worked, and he cleared his throat. "Er, right…they're tracking a spaceship…" he said as he clicked on something on the computer. On the screen was a diagram that showed just how close the spaceship, holding the aliens they had seen on the TV, was. "It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way."

Rose's eyebrows furrowed together, "Coming for what, though? The Doctor?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's coming for all of us."

"But why would they be coming for us?" Clara was confused. "I mean, we haven't done anything to them. Have we?"

Before anyone could respond, the aliens that were on the telly appeared on the computer screen. This time, they didn't roar angrily but started speaking in a strange alien language.

"Have you seen them before?" Mickey inquired of Rose, who shook her head.

"No." The alien continued to speak, getting more passionate about whatever they were saying, and Rose shook her head again. "I don't understand what they're saying. The TARDIS translates alien languages inside of my head, all the time, wherever I go."

"So, why isn't it doing it now?"

"I don't know…" Rose said quietly, sounding lost and upset. "It must be the Doctor. Like he's part of the circuit, and he's…he's broken."

Mickey looked over at her and sighed, obviously hating to see Rose upset.

Even though she hadn't known her for very long, Clara felt bad for her too, but not too much. Because, honestly, she didn't get why she was upset. Sure, the Doctor was out of it, and couldn't help, but he was still alive. So, Rose should be happy that he was, right? If she was her, Clara would be.

She had no right to judge Rose, of course. She didn't know her well enough after all.

Clara gave a sigh as she went back over to the couch and took another sip of her tea before heading to the kitchen to pour out the tea. Then she left the kitchen to go to the bathroom.

Passing the Doctor's room, Clara couldn't help but peer inside. He was still sleeping, but breathing heavily.

Unable to help herself, she stepped into the room to get a closer look at him. Only to find that he was sweating profusely, and his body was shaking.

Instantly, Clara went into mother mode as her father so fondly called it. She rushed to the bathroom to wet a washrag, then she ran back to the room, only to get on the bed to start trying to get the sweating down. But first she felt his forehead and gasped at how hot he felt.

She brushed back his sweaty bangs from out of his eyes before placing the washrag on his forehead, letting it sit there for a few minutes. After that, she moved the rag across his sweaty skin to get rid of it. She had to get the washrag wet a couple more times.

A couple hours later, his sweating stopped, and his forehead wasn't as hot as it once was.

By the time she finished taking care of him, Clara was exhausted and curled on the bed, falling asleep beside the Doctor.

When she woke up, she was still a little groggy but did take notice to the fact that she was curled up against a warm body.

It was the Doctor.

Once she realized this, Clara's eyes flew open and quickly sat up in the bed, turning her head quickly to look at the Doctor, who was still fast asleep. It took her a couple minutes to remember how she got in the bed and when she did, she relaxed and yawned hugely.

She didn't realize how tired she was. It had been a very long day, so it wasn't surprising that she was.

Clara had started to get out of the bed when she noticed that Jackie was here, and she was asleep with her head on the bed as she sat in a chair at the Doctor's bedside. Careful not to wake her, she got out of the bed and headed to the living room to find no one there. Clara frowned.

Where was Rose and Mickey?

Before she could start looking for them, she heard Rose's voice coming from the front door.

"Sandra?"

Clara went over there and saw Mickey with Rose, both peering out the open door. She came up from behind Mickey.

"What's going on?"

Mickey gave a small jump, startled at the sound of her voice. He looked over at her and answered her question,

"I don't know."

"He won't listen!" A woman, whose name was Sandra, exclaimed upsettingly. "He's just walking, he won't stop walking! There's this sort of…light thing. Jason? Stop it!"

Rose was the first one to step outside, followed by Mickey, then by Clara.

"Right now!" Sandra yelled as she ran after Jason.

Clara stared after them, staring mostly at Jason, who was walking as if he was hypnotized and a blue light was swirling around his head, like Susan said. A gasp coming from Rose got her attention. She found the blonde and Mickey looking over the balcony. Clara looked over herself.

On the ground below, there were dozens of people hypnotized by the same blue light that was going around Jason.

"Oh, my stars…" Clara breathed, shocked. What was going on? She went to look up at Rose and Mickey, but they were already running down the balcony.

She didn't know if she should follow them or not as that's all she's been doing. But something crossed her mind.

If all these people were being hypnotized here, then what about other places? Like where her father was? Wouldn't she want to know what was going?

With that thought in mind, Clara quickly followed Rose and Mickey, catching up to them.

A little bit further ahead, there was Sandra, who was desperately trying to get Jason to stop, grabbing and tugging at his arm. "Jason, I'm talking to you! Just stop!"

Rose and Mickey went up to the edge of the roof with Clara right behind them, looking around.

Hypnotized people stood at the edge of the roofs, on all the flat building. They just stood there as if they were waiting for a signal. A signal for what, though? Clara had no idea.

"What do we do?" Mickey asked Rose quietly.

"Nothing…" she answered bitterly. "There's no-one to save us. Not anymore."

"But we can't do nothing, there must be something we can do," Clara protested.

"There isn't!" Rose snapped, turning her head to glare at Clara. "Without the Doctor, we can't do anything! He's the only one who can save us, and he's gone!"

"If we don't do anything, the people out there could get hurt!" Clara argued, giving Rose her own glare. "What if it was your mother out there?! Wouldn't you want to do anything you could to help her?!"

"I…" Rose went to say something but she shook her head, deciding it wasn't worth it, even if she made a good point. She gave Clara another glare. "I don't have to hear this!" She stormed away in the direction they came from.

Mickey gave Clara an apologetic look before running after Rose, leaving the brunette standing there.

Clara stood there silently for a moment. Then she sighed. She hadn't wanted to start a fight, but she did just that. Letting out another sigh, Clara slowly made her way back to Tyler flat. There must be something they could do. Clara just wished she knew what it was.

TBC...

In...

The Christmas Invasion, Part 3