Professor Missy Smith had a brilliant idea in mind when she woke up earlier in the morning.
She was still receiving complaints regarding her brother and Dr Oswald, and if he wouldn't do anything about it, she would have no choice but to step in.
What's the plan? Simple. Open day gave the perfect opportunity to set her idea in motion.
The vice-chancellor strode into the security office and slammed the door opened after scanning her card, startling the occupant inside.
Henry Alcott had been working as a security guard at the university for almost ten years and during those years, he had never met a vice-chancellor as scary as the woman who was standing before him.
"Ma'am," he greeted politely as he stood up.
"I need you to do a tiny little favour for me," she purred.
His eyes widened in surprise and confusion.
"I need security feed of the main entrance," she said, and he immediately typed something on the keyboard.
Henry then moved aside so that Missy can have a look at the monitor. She knew her brother would be at the university at any moment, and if her guessing is correct, so would Clara Oswald.
At exactly 8:57 AM, her brother's car and Clara were in view of the security feed.
She smiled, causing the hairs on Henry's arms to rise.
"You have control of the lifts, don't you?"
He nodded.
Her attention returned to the monitor. "We're going to play a little game."
Henry Alcott made a sign of the cross.
"What did you do?!" Clara Oswald demanded as she glared at her colleague and rival. "You broke the bloody lift!"
"I didn't do anything!" John answered, mimicking the same expression. "All I did was press four."
Brilliant. Just brilliant. They were stuck in a bloody lift together for who knows how long.
"You must have pressed something else."
The Doctor ignored her as he then pushed the emergency button, silently praying that someone would answer.
"Yes?" a voice on the other end said. He sounded a bit nervous if John was completely honest.
"Hi, um, we're stuck in the lift," he explained awkwardly. "Henry, is that you?"
"Yes, right," he answered. "I'll have to see what's wrong so you'll… have to wait for a while."
"How long, exactly?" Clara asked, a hint of panic in her voice.
Henry didn't answer for a few seconds. "Ten, maybe twenty minutes?"
The Doctor let go of the emergency button and sighed. He really wished the lift would just start working again. It was getting a bit warm, too.
"I wished I had taken the stairs," Clara grumbled. "At least I wouldn't be stuck here – with you no less."
John rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. "It's only going to take twenty minutes at most – stop whining."
"You're not the boss of me."
"No, you're the bossy one."
She pursed her lips and shut her eyes, wishing the nightmare would just end. "In that case, why don't you face the wall like a petulant child?"
"I'm not five!"
"No, you're 500."
The Doctor got closer and instinctively, Clara stepped back until she hit the wall as he towered over her. She got a whiff of his cologne which, as much as she hated to admit it, smells nice.
"At least I'm not an elf."
His colleague snorted and crossed her arms. "Is that all you've got?" she questioned. "Insulting my height?"
"What about you?" he countered. "With age?"
Just as Clara was about to give another remark, she heard the Doctor's phone ringing.
He didn't seem all that pleased when looking at the caller ID. "It's Jack," he stated before answering.
"Where are you two lovebirds?" Jack asked. "Don't tell me you and Clara are actually smooching in there."
The Doctor groaned. "We're stuck in the lift."
What surprised him, however, was that Jack began laughing hysterically, up to the point where Clara could hear him.
"My wish came true!"
The two mathematicians exchanged looks.
"Just go and make out, I mean, make-up while I go to security," Jack said and hanged up, not giving his colleague the chance to explain that he had already called Henry.
"Great, just great," Clara growled. "I'm stuck in here with you and people will get an even wrong idea of us."
"Don't flatter yourself, Dr Oswald- I don't fancy you."
She wished the lift would start moving this very moment or maybe that the Scottish bastard would get sucked into the ground. The latter seems like a better option.
"How long are you planning to keep them in there?" Henry asked, after feeling brave and safe enough to do so. He had many rumours surrounding the woman sitting in his chair. One of them included how she singlehandedly beat up four thugs with nothing but an umbrella at a tube station.
Missy shrugged. "Until they settle their differences."
"That might take an eternity."
"It won't be long until something happens," she predicted.
Suddenly, the door to the office swung opened and Jack stepped in. The grin on his face dropped when he saw the vice-chancellor. "Professor Smith."
She acknowledged his present before returning to the monitor.
"You're behind this," he muttered in realisation.
"Yes, well done, Harkness," she replied sarcastically. "A gold star for you."
He then regained his composure. "So, what's the plan?"
"You breathe a word of this, and it's the end of your career," Missy warned. She might as well kill two birds with one stone since the opportunity had presented itself.
"Ok," Jack answered warily.
"The plan is simple," she began. "Get them to sort out their differences."
The vice-chancellor activated the lift briefly which caused the occupants to hold on to the wall for support.
"Go to the ground floor and wait there," she told Jack before looking at the security guard. "Tell the two idiots everything will be back to normal soon."
"Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch," the lecturer sang as he left the room.
"Why did the lift move just now?" Clara inquired, looking up and then back at the control panel.
"I'm guessing they're still fixing whatever is wrong," the Doctor stated, examining the buttons as his colleague stood behind him.
"Are you seriously trying to fix that thing?" she asked, arms crossed. "You might make it worse."
"I can give it a try," he replied, producing a pocket screwdriver.
She was stunned at the sight of the tool. "Seriously, John?"
He turned around and glanced at her. That was the first time since the fight started that she had called him by his real name. "Slip of the tongue, Dr Oswald?"
The speaker then crackled. "I just want to let you know that the lift will be in operation shortly," Henry said. "The technician is making sure everything is… wired correctly."
"Thanks," John said, stowing away the pocket screwdriver.
Clara sighed, grateful they were interrupted. "At least this farce is coming to an end."
"Really?" he added. "I was hoping we'd be stuck here for another hour or two," the Doctor said sarcastically.
Suddenly, the lift jolted down, surprising the two and not giving them enough time to hang on to something for support.
Clara tumbled forward, crashing into the Doctor and bringing them both to the floor. Her lips then landed directly on his, shocking both mathematicians.
The lift doors slid open, giving Jack, who was waiting for them, a good view of the compromising position they were in.
A grin formed on his face. "Merciful God," he muttered, leaning against as he felt his legs getting weak. "It's finally happened!"
Clara was the first to react by pushing herself away from John and wiping her lips. She had just kissed the Doctor. She just kissed the Scottish bastard. The man she loathed.
John remained on the floor, frozen, thanks to the intimate contact.
"That was sexual harassment!" she growled.
His brain started working again and he knitted his eyebrows. "You were the one who kissed me!"
"You were in my way."
"Lovers' quarrel!" Jack interrupted and their bickering came to a halt. "You do realise the cat's out of the bag, and you don't have to pretend anymore, right?"
John slowly got to his feet, feeling slightly wobbly, unsure of whether it was due to the kiss or the unstable lift. Perhaps both. He touched his lips as they were still burning.
Out of nowhere, his sister appeared, looking calm and collected as she usually would. Brilliant. More audience.
"What's going on here?" she asked as if she didn't have a single clue what had transpired before.
Jack couldn't give a coherent answer as he started talking gibberish and laughing at the same time. She felt a bit disappointed he didn't die of happiness. More importantly, he didn't drop dead.
The Doctor was still somewhat dumbstruck and didn't really comprehend what his sister was saying.
Clara was the only normal person. She cleared her throat and dropping her hand that was still touching her lips. "We were stuck in a lift."
This was the very first time she ever spoke to the vice-chancellor.
"Is that so?" Missy replied. "So, what happened then?"
John and Clara exchanged looks.
"Nothing," he said hastily. "She… um… crashed into me because her short legs couldn't sustain her."
His rival stared at him in disbelief. "Stop insulting my height," she grumbled.
Missy smiled. "Is that all that happened?"
Jack shook his head before he finally regained his voice. "They… they… they…," he struggled to explain what he had seen and made kissing gestures with hands.
"Ignore him, he's delusional," the Doctor said as he pushed his friend away.
"Yeah, he hasn't had his morning coffee, yet," Clara added.
The vice-chancellor decided to let it go as she was pleased her plan had worked, despite not killing Jack in the process. "I do believe Jack has a talk to give soon and please behave yourselves – we have guests."
Clara and John ushered their colleague into the lift.
"I'll take care of it," the Doctor said before closing the lift doors and took them to the Department of Mathematics.
"Do not breathe a word of this to anyone," he said sternly to Jack who was still grinning.
"Seriously, it was an accident," Clara explained. "Like I would ever kiss someone like him."
"What does that mean?" John demanded. "Don't flatter yourself, Dr Oswald, because I didn't like the kiss one bit."
"Guys," Jack said, resting his arms on their shoulder. "The jinx is up – stop pretending you hate each other."
They finally reached the fourth floor and the door slid open. All three stepped out.
"We are not an item," Clara insisted.
Jack shrugged as he checked the time. "Would you look at that?" he exclaimed. "I am going to be late for the talk."
As he walked away, he sang: "Past the point of no return, the final threshold what warm, unspoken secrets will we learn?"
The two lecturers remained in their spot and avoiding any sort of eye contact.
John headed for his office while Clara planned to go to the restroom. They nearly bumped into each other.
"Just heading to my office," he said awkwardly, staring at the carpeted floor.
"Need to use the loo."
They got out of each other's paths and headed their respective ways.
John never felt so strange in his entire existence, as far as he could remember. He unlocked the office door quickly and then leaned against it to shut it.
His lips felt weird, his stomach feels as if it's spinning and he couldn't get the image of Clara lying on top of him out of his head.
The Doctor needed a distraction, but the only image he saw in his mind was Clara Oswald, her wide eyes as they kissed.
"Think of something else," he whispered. "10 times 12 is 120, the square root of 144 is 12, cosine pi is minus one," he rambled, but it did nothing to ease his mind.
He checked the time. 10:20 AM.
People are going to be flooding the lecture room soon for the taster session and he needed to regain his composure.