"Why am I here?"
"Because I asked you to be," Danni replied with a little bit of a sigh. She hadn't thought it would have been this hard to get him to pick up her and Clara. And yet…
"You could have gone on your own," the Doctor said. "You don't need me holding your hand. You're incredibly capable."
"Yes, and your avoiding me," Danni snapped. He blinked, surprised and she sighed in exasperation. "Oh, don't give me that look, Theta! It's been nonstop for days because you don't want to be alone with me!"
"That's not true," he snapped back. "I-I've been giving you space."
"Which is just Doctor code for 'I'm avoiding you'," she pointed out. "It's a tattoo that changes! A tattoo that he doesn't remember getting and one that keeps changing. Why aren't you more excited?"
"Because!" was his grand reply. He was pacing around the console, away from her, so she continued to follow him around. It was what he did when they were having a disagreement. She didn't press the subject, just stared pointedly, waiting for an explanation, until he sighed heavily. "Does she have to come with us?"
"Yes," Danni said firmly. "Because, beyond being my best friend, she's the one that the TARDIS re-routed the phone call to. You'd be an idiot to ignore that."
"Well, maybe I'm an idiot," he said, looking like a pouting child. He seemed to notice the exasperated look his wife was shooting his way, though. "Why is she giving out our number, anyway?"
"She didn't just give it to him. I told her to," Danni lied. She actually would have to have a word with Clara about that after this was all over. She didn't appreciate random people having their phone number. She was going to have to get a list. "Rigsy was a good lad and I thought, should anything like the Boneless appear again, we needed to know about it."
"Fine," the Doctor grumbled. "Go get her. But," he pointed at her, "she doesn't stand too close to me."
"Yes, sweetie, I know the rules," she replied. She looked over her husband, who sounded like a child with his demands. And yet, in that jacket and shirt, his hair the perfect length…
She walked over to him, slowly straightening the lapels on the jacket. "Have I told you lately how much I love you in this jacket?" she asked with no air of innocence at all.
"No," he replied, happily letting her step even closer to him. "Have I told you how much I love you in that skirt?"
And, like they always had done, they found themselves kissing in the middle of the console room, with no regard to Rigsy and his plight. No matter what problems came their way, or how hard they tried to avoid upsetting each other by actually talking about them, there was always time for snogging in their blue box.
"You know," Danni said lowly. "I explicitly told Clara to not come in until I'd convinced you it was a good idea."
He nodded, unable to keep his lips off hers for more than a moment. "I-I need," he groaned, letting her back him up into the console. "I need a lot of convincing."
~0~0~0~
Clara was pacing outside the TARDIS, chewing on her thumbnail, a little nervous as to the Doctor's reaction to Danni's request. She really wanted to go help Rigsy, to save people and not have to do it by the book. She also really wanted to make peace with the Doctor. She wasn't expecting a miracle, but maybe with Danni's help he might not actively hate her so much…
Her eyes widened as a giggle came from TARDIS.
"Really?" she exclaimed, walking very far away from the TARDIS and into the kitchen, which wasn't quite far away enough for her to not think about what the pair were doing.
It really was the worst thing.
~0~0~0~
Danni poked her head out of the TARDIS. "Clara!" she called, running her hand through her hair. Her friend was nowhere to be seen. "Clara?"
She stepped out and headed through the flat, looking into each room before she reached Clara's bedroom. The woman was sat on the bed and looked at her with a raised eyebrow when she walked in. "He's avoiding you, is he?" she asked, a little sharply. They had been so long, and Clara couldn't stop thinking about them both.
Danni shrugged. "What can I say? Have you seen me?" she retorted. "No one can avoid this for long."
Clara stood up, trying not to let her own frustration show. She'd had to go to the farthest part of the her flat away from the TARDIS to even be able to sit still. Sometimes she really hated being in love with her best friend. "Well, I'm sure I've told you to not do… that around me," she scolded.
"I know, I'm sorry," she replied, trying to sound as apologetic as she could. "But, on the plus side, I managed to convince him to take both of us to see Rigsy. So, it all worked out for everyone!"
"Yeah, everyone," Clara muttered to herself.
Stepping back onto the TARDIS turned out to be much harder than she had anticipated. She looked around and saw all of her memories of travelling through the universe with the two Time Lords, the good and the bad. She saw Danny Pink becoming increasingly angry at the lies she'd told him, and she saw the place she'd woken up when she'd thought she'd killed Danni. The console was repaired from when the Doctor had smashed it to pieces but she could hear the anger in his voice still echoing in her head when she'd tried to clean up after him.
And she also knew that, now they were travelling on their own, they'd be a little less discreet. She kept slightly away from the console as those images joined everything else.
The Doctor looked over at his wife as she let Clara in. She looked so happy, happier than he'd seen her since the Ponds, and he knew that was because Clara was there. He, on the other hand, could feel his grumpiness rising just at the sight of her. He still wasn't over the hurt of her turning on them both and the damage that came from that. And, as ridiculous as he knew it was, it hurt him that Danni would still go to her when she was feeling overwhelmed, sometimes even over himself. He knew that, realistically, people had friends and family outside their marriages, much like he did. It was just the old, selfish and jealous part of himself that noticed how close the two were standing, even though Danielle was completely oblivious to the way Clara looked at her.
"I told him we'd be there over an hour ago," Clara reminded her friend pointedly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Time machine," he reminded. "I'm sure that whatever drunken adventure your little friend has been on could have waited five minutes for you to get there."
"Doctor," Danni warned lightly. She moved over to his side though, helping him fly the TARDIS and he felt a little smug at the fact that Clara was watching them work together. He knew, really, that he didn't have anything to worry about, but he had always been a bit of a show off.
He frowned at the TARDIS groaned. "Huh."
"What is it?" she asked. "Is it Rigsy?"
He shook his head. "No, I don't think so," he replied. "I don't think the TARDIS wants to fly anywhere."
"Why not?" Danni asked. She stroked the console top slightly. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"I think it's because Miss Oswald has requested this particular trip," the Doctor explained. Clara and the TARDIS had never really got on, but Danni put her hand on her hip.
"No, that's not it," she retorted. "Anyone who's my friend is a friend of the TARDIS, right sweetie?" She looked up at the rotor, which flashed slightly before setting off into flight again. She looked to the Doctor, smug. "See?"
It still turned out to be rather difficult to get the TARDIS to land. Both Time Lords fought with her to get her to behave while Clara watched on, feeling rather slighted and left out. She had never done anything to harm the TARDIS, but Danni was right; the TARDIS loved Danni and Clara had hurt her. It was just another smack in the face with her mistakes. Although, she wasn't sure why the TARDIS had rerouted the call if she didn't want them to go to see Rigsy and his mysterious tattoo.
When they did finally land in Rigsy's house, Clara was quick to exit. She needed to prove useful in some capacity and so she went for the 'scouting' option. They appeared to be in a nursery, which she wasn't expecting. And, judging by the look on Rigsy's face as he entered the room, he wasn't expecting them either.
"I-I thought you would have come in the front," he admitted, a little baffled as he stared at the TARDIS. Even though he'd encountered the blue box before, it was still bewildering to him.
Danni stepped out after Clara. "Sorry we're late," she told him. "We were aiming for when you rang, but we got…" She trailed off as she spotted the crib in the corner with the small baby inside. She hadn't been expecting children. No one had told her there was going to be a baby. She found very quickly that she couldn't move. The little girl was adorable, there was no denying it, but her instinct had become to get as far away from children as possible in recent years. Even Tony had been a bit of a struggle to stay around too long, and she'd had to run away from his friends as soon as she could.
"Um… who are you?" he asked her, trying not to be blunt and failing miserably. She didn't answer as the Doctor followed Danni out of the TARDIS and almost ran into her. Clara motioned to Danni.
"Oh, you remember Danni," she told him as both she and the Doctor caught sight of the instant. They were over by the side of the crib in an instant.
"Danni?" he repeated. "You-You mean the blonde woman?"
"Yes, that's her," the Doctor replied. He'd been over the 'regeneration' conversation enough times for both him and his wife for it to be incredibly boring. There was something much more interesting in the room.
"O-Okay," Rigsy said, a little redundantly. He didn't seem to have much of a choice but to go with it as the Doctor motioned to the little girl in the crib.
The Doctor, on the other hand, was suddenly entranced by the small girl. "Did you make this human?" he asked Rigsy,
Rigsy frowned. "Lucy? Yeah, she's mine."
Clara joined the Doctor, crouching to look through the bars of the crib. "Oh, hello," she whispered to the little girl. "Oh, Rigsy, she's gorgeous."
"She's better than that," the Doctor replied. "She's brilliant." He looked over at Danni to see if she agreed and saw her stood where she'd stopped, looking over at the little girl with trepidation on her face and he suddenly realised just why she didn't like being around children anymore. All of the little pieces of information of her time running away from Missy fell into place.
It wasn't that she was scared of them. She was scared for them.
He almost laughed. Just from the look on her face alone he knew that she'd never harm a child, but he remembered all the damage he'd done in the Time War, and all of the children he'd thought he'd killed. He understood the fear perfectly. He just knew that, no matter what, he'd never worry about a child around her.
He stood up, glaring at Rigsy. "What are you doing running round getting tattoos when there's…" he started loudly. All three of them turned to him, alarmed.
"Shh!" they told him as the little girl gurgled at the unexpected noise. Clara checked to make sure that she wasn't upset, but she looked fine.
"Look, I didn't get anything," Rigsy whispered. "I woke up this morning and it was just there. Jen noticed it."
"Okay, show me this tattoo that you didn't get, then." Rigsy did just that, turning around and pulling down his collar of his shirt to reveal the tattoo on his neck. It was just three numbers – 133 – and they weren't particularly well drawn either. "It's a tattoo," the Doctor dismissed, turning around and grabbing a fabric book out of Lucy's toys to flick through. "It's very boring."
"No, wait. Just, just keep watching," Rigsy pleaded. The Doctor rolled his eyes but did as he said, looking between his neck and the animals in the book.
"What were you doing last night?" Clara asked.
"That's just it. Yesterday was a total blank," Rigsy replied.
Danni frowned as she walked around the pair to stand the other side of the Doctor from the crib. She glanced over at the little girl but quickly turned her attention to the tattoo. It was a little plain, she had to admit. "Nothing at all?" she asked.
"Jen said that I left the house before dawn, I missed work, and I didn't get back till after midnight. No one saw me all day."
The Doctor finished his book and opened his mouth to complain about wasting his time when the tattoo faded slightly, counting down one to 122. He shared a look with his very surprised wife before putting the book down.
"Oh, that's not boring," he said lowly. "That is very not boring." He pulled out his sunglasses and Lucy gurgled again from the crib, like she knew something was very wrong. Almost automatically Danni moved to the little girl's side, reaching in and picking her up to calm her down. The Doctor didn't seem to notice, and Clara didn't seem to pay her much attention as she tried to see what the two Time Lords had seen.
"What? What is it?" she asked as the sunglasses whirred as the Doctor scanned the tattoo. Nothing of use came up, though, so he took the glasses off.
"Okay, Local Knowledge, you're coming with us," he declared, heading to the TARDIS. "Bring the new hum…" He trailed off as he caught sight of his wife, holding the little girl and looking absolutely terrified, like she hadn't expected to be holding her at all. She held onto her tightly, though, like nothing in the universe was going to harm her. Again, that old familiar ache appeared. That could have been their own daughter…
He shook his head. That wouldn't do at all. He had a tattoo to investigate. "No, don't bring the new human," he said. "I'll just get distracted."
He was about to disappear into the TARDIS but Danni stepped forward. "Wait. We can't just leave her," she told him. "Does-Is there anyone else we can leave her with?"
Rigsy nodded. "Jen's in the other room," he told her. She looked positively relieved at the thought.
"Al-Alright, I'll go give her to her," she said, holding the little girl a little tighter. "I'll be back in the minute."
No one stopped her, Clara slowly encouraging Rigsy into the TARDIS. Danni found Jen pretty easy and the woman looked rather worried even before she spotted the stranger with her daughter.
"Hey, I-I believe she's yours," Danni told her before handing her over. "We're going to take Rigsy to try and work out what the tattoo is. I don't suspect we'll be long."
Jen held onto her daughter. "Thanks," she replied. Danni shot her a soft smile.
"Your daughter is absolutely fabulous," she said quietly. "We'll bring her dad home safe."
~0~0~0~
Clara felt in her element. While the Doctor was scaring Rigsy with his scanner – she was sure there was no need for him to be so dramatic about it – she was plugging in the man's phone to the console and checking its data. She remembered how to do this well and her UNIT brain was kicking into gear; finding out where he had been should have been easy using his phone's location data. Something on it should have pinged out where he had been and, if anything, it was a good place to start.
Danni was hovering at her shoulder, watching her with intrigue but nothing useful came from the scan. In fact, there was nothing at all on his phone. "Rigsy, your phone. It's like they've wiped it, but only the last day. No location data, no texts, nothing." She looked over at him as Danni moved away and to the Doctor. "You're sure the screen wasn't cracked before yesterday?"
Rigsy, terrified to move, just made a noise. Danni looked at the results of the full body scan. She frowned as it beeped, bringing up figures and Gallifreyan symbols. She still couldn't read most of it, but she grabbed the monitor and turned it so she could see better. There was something she recognised.
"He's been retconned," she said softly, looking up at her husband. "Someone's retconned him!"
"Really?" he asked, taking a look himself. She pointed at the reading on the screen which seemed to confirm what she was saying. "How do you know…" She cut him off with a look and he grimaced slightly. "Right, stupid question."
Rigsy, still terrified, felt even worse at their little exchange. "Can I?" he asked the best he could without moving his lips.
The Doctor glanced over and saw that he was still standing perfectly still. "Oh, yeah."
Rigsy let out a sigh of relief but Clara didn't feel the same. "What's retcon?" she asked.
"An amnesia drug," Danni explained. "It's covering the pre-frontal cortex of his brain. It's why he can't remember what happened. They've given him enough to wipe out the last day."
"And-And you know that?" Clara asked, surprised yet again about Danni's seemingly new-found knowledge. "How do you know that? You know human brains, now?"
"Um…" She looked to the Doctor for help to brush off Clara's question, but instead saw the annoyed look he was shooting her way. Danni sighed. Maybe she needed to lead by example. "My memories mean everything to me," she explained. "Means that people have used that against me and-and so I know what retcon looks like on a scan."
"Oh!" Clara explained.
"What?" Rigsy asked, confused.
Feeling a little sheepish, Clara did the best thing she could so and talked over his question. "So, apart from the retcon, did-did the scan show anything else?"
"Yes, yes," the Doctor replied, a little shortly. He turned to Rigsy. "In the last twenty-four hours, you have had significant contact with alien lifeforms, right here in the centre of London." The console pinged again. "Ooo, there's something else," he said happily, checking the monitor again. "Something…" His face dropped. "Not good," he stated. "Weird."
He looked over at Rigsy and Clara, both of whom seemed to notice how he'd suddenly changed his tune. He turned, walking away from them and around the console, meeting Danielle at the walkway to the door.
She could tell something was wrong. Something was really wrong and he really didn't know how to tell the young man he wasn't going to see his daughter grow up. That wonderful new human who was a sight to behold. He felt awful about making fun of his worries over the tattoo.
"What do I say?" he asked Danni. "How do I be nice?"
Danni's eyes widened slightly. He really was concerned about what he was going to say to Rigsy, but she was just blindsided by what that meant. "He's dying?" she asked softly.
"What?" Rigsy exclaimed and the Doctor looked up, meeting his gaze. He looked incredibly sad.
"Rigsy…"
Rigsy shook his head. "No, no, no, no, no!" he exclaimed, scared. "Don't start using my actual name now. Call me Pudding Brain, call me Local Knowledge. Whatever. Just don't call me Rigsy!" He was, understandably, panicking and looked at Clara for an answer. Then one came to mind and he looked to the Doctor, hopeful and desperate. "You're going to save me!" he cried. "You're a doctor. That's what you do."
The Doctor couldn't look at him. He turned around, the pit in his stomach not leaving. He didn't know what to do. He had never seen the readouts from the scan before, he just knew they were bad. He didn't want to let the man die, but what could he do? He was just one man. He just travelled around in a box with his wife, seeing things and healing each other. He wasn't sure if they were both strong enough to heal anyone else.
Danni appeared at his side and took his hand. Her face was kind. It always was, even if he was the only one who could see it. Her just being there gave him comfort. She had waited for him for so long, for decades upon decades not because she couldn't save herself, but because her faith in him was that unwavering. She knew his strength. "Do what you do best," she whispered encouragingly to him. "Be a Doctor."
He wasn't sure if she knew whose words she was echoing, and he wasn't sure if he appreciated the reminder of how much faith he'd once had in Clara Oswald. But he took it and held onto it tightly, much like he did with her hand. "Okay, okay," he agreed. "Yes, okay, let's do this thing." He practically dragged Danni behind him and she was happy to follow. "First up, stop the countdown," he explained. "Five hundred and twenty-six minutes. Right. Okay. Yes, you know, Local Knowledge." He quickly set them into flight. "I don't know who did this to you, or why. But I do almost certainly know how to find them."
"Where?" Danni asked.
"There have always been rumours, stories passed from traveller to traveller. Mutterings about hidden streets," he explained. "Secret pockets of alien life right here on Earth…"
"Oh, you mean Trap Street?"
He looked at her, bewildered. "What?"
"Trap Street," she repeated. "When I worked for UNIT we did a bit of work there. The Shadow Men were killing people near it." She looked to Clara. "Remember?"
Clara nodded. "They police themselves, mostly, but I still go there now and again," she replied. "I'm one of the ambassadors, I think."
"Really?" Danni asked, impressed. "That's really kinda awesome."
The Doctor had deflated quite a bit. "I thought I was supposed to be the smart one," he muttered. "How am I supposed to show off when you know everything?"
"I don't know everything," Danni retorted. "You'll just have to try harder."
"So we're looking for Trap Street?" Rigsy asked. "I've never heard of it."
"Trap Street is just a name I gave it," Clara explained. "It doesn't really have a name. Cartographers used to put fake streets into their maps as a way of seeing if people were copying their work or not. If the fake street appeared, then it was a copy."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "My god. A whole London street just up and disappeared and you lot assume it's a copyright infringement."
"And Trap Street wouldn't appear on any maps because humans can't see it," Danni continued, ignoring the grumpiness of her husband. He just didn't like when Clara had any sort of knowledge to impart. She missed Clara a lot, but she dreaded to think what it would have been like to have them arguing every second.
"They don't particularly like humans there," Clara added. "They can be a bit unfriendly. That's why I tend to go when UNIT needs someone to have a look in." Her eyes lit up slightly. "Oh! I'm an idiot!" she exclaimed.
"Finally, something we can agree on," the Doctor retorted. Danni nudged him in the side.
"The street has a leader, someone who keeps the balance," she explained. "It has very strict laws and, for the most part, UNIT lets them govern themselves. Sometimes, though, we have to go in and we talk to her. And she knows you both."
That never sat well. Danni's mind immediately went to Missy, as it always did, and she suddenly had her hand on her gun in her pocket. The Doctor's went to everyone and everything they'd ever come across, wondering who he had pissed off this time.
"She's the mayor," Clara explained. "Weird name, a bit up herself."
"That's authority for you," Danni said.
"Mayor Me." Both the Doctor and Danni seemed to recognise the name. "Who is she?"
"Um…" Danni cleared her throat. "Remember Ashildr? I told you about her?"
"The girl the Doctor made immortal?"
"That's her," Danni confirmed. "Well, she started going by the name 'Me' when her memories of her old life started to fade. Her human brain couldn't- couldn't hold them in anymore. We've been keeping tabs on her for a while, on and off, but we lost her a while ago."
"The 18th century. Nice to know she didn't stray too far," the Doctor muttered. "If you wouldn't mind, my Pet. I think we've got a few questions to ask our old friend."
Danni helped him fly to the Trap Street, landing just outside its bounds. Rigsy followed the two Time Lords out, still in a bit of a daze, but Clara hovered as the TARDIS finally retrieved the data from the phone.
Danni looked up and down the street. "I know it's here somewhere," she muttered. "Somewhere close…"
The Doctor could feel it. Something not quite right in the air. "It's somewhere close," he agreed. "We need to distract our senses. Clara…" He frowned. "Where the hell has she gone?"
"I'm here!" Clara said, darting out of the TARDIS, phone in hand.
"What were you doing in there?" he demanded, suspicious. She just rolled her eyes and held the phone out to Rigsy.
"Someone called you," she explained. "Yesterday, 6am. Blocked number."
Rigsy took the phone off her, only to drop it on the ground. Immediately his eyes went wide and vacant as he stared at the phone on the floor. He straightened, looking straight ahead and terrified.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked him. "What are you remembering?"
Rigsy didn't reply, instead he started striding down the street and away from them. Danni looked up at her husband. "I think he remembered something."
They followed him down the street slightly and he stopped, staring at the wall. Clara made a noise of recognition. "Oh. Trap Street." She looked to Danni. "I thought you remembered where it was?"
"It's been over a hundred years since I've been," Danni pointed out. "I'm sorry if the exact location eluded me." She frowned slightly, offended as she looked at the wall with her husband. She couldn't see anything…
Clara pinched her and she yelled in surprise. "Ow! That…" Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a whole new street appeared to come off the one they were currently stood on. It was illuminated with a faint glow and made up of old stones and cobbles. "Oh! I remember this!" She reached out and pinched the Doctor, who also yelled like she had done.
"What did you do that for?" he asked.
"So you could see it," she replied.
"How did you know I couldn't see it?!"
She shrugged. "Educated guess," she said with a little cheek. He shook his head, but tried not to smile at her playfulness. They were in a serious situation, they really didn't need to be teasing each other.
"You-You can see it too?" Rigsy asked.
"Very much so," the Doctor confirmed. "50 minutes left. Hoodie up, Local Knowledge. They know what you look like in there."
The Doctor led the way, his wife behind him, with Clara and Rigsy bringing up the rear. He knew that this was the kind of thing he would have normally found exciting, had there not been someone's life on the line. To be honest, he did rather find it exciting now but he didn't want to quite admit that. He would save the day and then enjoy it.
They stepped into the small, deserted courtyard and realised that it offered nothing else of any note to them. It was still dimly lit, with a cobbled floor and no one in sight.
"How come I saw it when you guys couldn't?" Rigsy asked.
"That's because you became distracted," Clara explained. "Whatever is misdirecting us must have lost its hold on you when you saw whatever slipped through your memory wipe."
"Do you not know what it is?" Danni asked Clara. "You've been here a number of times, you said."
"The Mayor isn't particularly forthcoming with information. I just tend to come in, make sure everything is working as it should, follow up on any leads then get out of here. Maybe she'll be more open now you two are here."
Danni very much doubted it.
The floor flashed, a loud surging noise filled the small area and the cracks between the paving started glowing a bright yellow. The light moved towards them, highlighting whatever patches of floor they were stood on and stuck them all on the spot. So, naturally, they all began to try and move as an alarm started sounding.
Two men appeared from inside the shadows. One in a suit, who reminded Clara of a banker, appeared from a basement hatch while the other, much larger and much angrier, man appeared from a bunch of discarded rags and sacks. Clara struggled a bit more to get away, but she couldn't move any more than anyone else can.
Danni, on the other hand, was having a much different experience to everyone else. They all saw the two men approaching them, but she only saw one woman. Two of the same woman, but still one woman. Her hair neat upon her head, her clothes as Mary Poppins as ever…
"No!" she shouted, panic spiking to the point that she couldn't keep it from those around her. Clara felt it like a tightening in the chest, Rigsy watched as his vision blurred and the Doctor felt it in every bone in his body. She reached into her pocket, hands shaking. She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and pointed it straight at her as if she'd pulled her gun out instead. "Stay away from me!"
It was the panic, and her knees giving way, that helped break the illusion in front of her. The two Missys flickered, showing the aliens underneath. Her panic was shaken by the new information – after all, Missy tended to pretend to be the aliens, not the other way around – but she held her sonic in front of her. There was always chance she had thought up something new. She wasn't going to go down without a fight.
The Doctor had turned the best he could on the spot. He knew what that panic meant. "Danni, put the screwdriver down," he encouraged. "It's not her. Put it down."
Clara quickly realised what was happening. She smiled shakily at the two men. "She-She doesn't mean any harm," she quickly told them. "It's just a screwdriver. She's just scared, that's all." She turned her attention to Danni. "It's just two men, Danni. We're in London, remember? The Trap Street?"
"Two men?" Danni asked her. "Can't you see that…" She blinked as one of the Missys flickered into a large man, who leant in close to sniff her. "Do you mind?" she snapped. "I'm not a bloody candle!"
"This one don't smell human," the man snarled, his voice flickering with a Scottish accent as he moved over to the Doctor. "Neither does this one."
The other man stepped forward. "Name, species and case for asylum," he demanded. "Quick as you like."
The Doctor frowned. "Asylum?"
"The reason you're here. The reason you need sanctuary." They all shared confused looks and the smaller man grabbed the larger on. "Why didn't they use the protocol?"
Rigsy leant in close to the Doctor. "I saw through the circuit again. I saw them," he said lowly. "They're definitely not human."
Danni felt her whole body relax in relief. "You saw that too?" she said.
The angry man stepped forward. "You do know this is a refugee camp?" he asked.
They all looked at each other, as if trying to find a story that they could all use. "Of-Of course we do," the Doctor offered unconvincingly.
"Of course he does!" a calm voice said. "Now that you've told him."
"Mayor Me," the banker greeted, giving a small bow.
"That's her," Clara told her friends quietly.
"Yes, we know," Danni replied. Ashildr, or Mayor Me, came into the small area with two policemen flanking her. She hadn't aged a bit, which was not surprising, and she had all the grand air of someone who had lived too long to be concerned with shyness. "Hello Ashildr."
"Ashildr?" she repeated, confused.
"That's your name," the Doctor reminded. "We keep telling you that."
"Do you?" she asked in reply with a tilt of her head, like she genuinely didn't remember. Once again it made Danni so uncomfortable that she shifted on the spot. She hated that she was losing her own memories, the idea that she might not have any left eventually. Ashildr was a very big reminder that, eventually, she might forget her past completely.
"Infinite lifespan, finite memory… it makes for an awkward social life," Ashildr continued. She looked over at Clara. "Nice to see you again, Miss Oswald," she offered.
"Mayor Me," Clara replied with a nod of her head, feeling rather awkward. Ashildr then turned to Danni.
"And you must be the Doctor's wife, Danielle."
"Danni," she corrected shortly. "Apparently not as important as the Doctor, otherwise I'd be in there too."
"Oh, you are very important. You're throughout my diaries. I do treasure the bits of you that are in them. I've read them several times. We once robbed a house together."
"We did," Danni agreed. "And you saw me kill a man after I'd been sold to him."
Ashildr's face lit up in recognition. "Oh yes, I remember that one. Such a strange woman you were travelling with at the time."
"Yes, she's stood about two foot to your left," Danni snapped, suddenly very angry. She turned to the Doctor. "Is-Is she being serious right now?" she asked him. "Because this is so fucking unnecessary. I'm actually going to start killing people if she…"
"I'm sure there's something else going on here," he reassured her. "We'll get to the bottom of it." He held her gaze, letting her see the promise in his words, before turning his attention back to the big problem stood right in front of him. "This is where you went after we lost track of you," he commented.
"Wait, you've been watching out for her?" Clara asked. "Danni said you wouldn't go back to see her."
"It's more like surveillance," Ashildr corrected her.
"It's professional interest," the Doctor said.
"Precautionary measure."
Ashildr looked at the Doctor, waiting for him to correct her again. It was incredibly frustrating when the person you were trying to get to do what you wanted just wouldn't play along. "We need your help," he said firmly. He didn't have time for banter. "Someone in this place is in control of a Quantum Shade." He reached to pull Rigsy's hood down, then decided against it. The young man took off his cap as well and it was obvious that everyone recognised him.
The angry man snarled and took a step forward, one step away from ripping Rigsy apart. "I knew I recognised that smell."
The Doctor tried to ignore how Danni tried to step back and away from the creature and turned to Ashildr. He didn't understand why she couldn't see what they were all seeing, with only the theory of that she saw Missy everywhere as it was. "Call him off," he demanded. "Right now."
Ashildr nodded. "Mister Rump," she said firmly, once and the man stepped back. She walked away from them, taking her scarf off. She was very dramatic, Danni realised. It had to be her age.
She turned around to reveal a large golden necklace and tattoos up her neck. The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "You," he whispered.
"How do you know this man?" Ashildr asked him, as if she was questioning them.
Clara watched the way the tattoos on Ashildr's neck moved, quickly putting two and two together. "Hang on. You did this to Rigsy?"
"Did you expect anyone else?" Danni asked. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"This man committed a crime. I sentenced him," Ashildr stated simply.
"Sentenced him?" Clara repeated, outraged. "He's human, he's outside your jurisdiction. If you had a problem, you should have come to UNIT!"
"This doesn't concern UNIT," Ashildr replied, unmoved by the anger around her. "I also gave him enough time to return home and say goodbye to his family."
"How the hell was he supposed to do that when you dosed him up with retcon?!" Danni raged. "How dare you take someone's memories and life away all at once!"
"I'm afraid no intruder leaves this place without a memory wipe," Ashildr told her. Danni looked to her husband, who looked just as happy as she felt.
"Then what was the fucking point of letting him go?!" she exclaimed.
"That will include you, as well," Ashildr said. Danni laughed harshly.
"Try it," she dared. "Try and take a single memory from me and I will burn this whole street to the ground."
"She will," Clara added. "And we won't stop her."
The Doctor really didn't appreciate Clara encouraging Danni's more violent tendencies. "Ashildr, given we're all going to forget this conversation anyway, perhaps you could tell us what happened here yesterday to necessitate a death sentence?"
Ashildr let out a heavy sigh, like the entire fair was an exasperation and it just angered Danni more. When they had left her, Ashildr had finally begun to understand what being immortal truly meant. Now, though, she seemed to have gone back to her disinterest and coldness. Did they have to go back every hundred years to give her an injection of humanity? Was that even their place?
Yes. As long as she was a danger, she was their responsibility.
"Fine, I'll show you," Ashildr offered. "Mister Kabel, Mister Rump. Permit them entry."
As the aliens moved to let them free, both looking like Missy and just scaring her even more, Danni shook her head. "No!" she exclaimed. "Stop right where you are, do not move a step closer!"
The Doctor looked down at his wife. "Danielle…"
"Don't 'Danielle' me," she snapped. She turned to Ashildr. "I'm not following her into that street until she promises me Clara is safe as well."
"Danni, it's fine," Clara told her. "I've been here before. I can handle myself."
"You've never been here with us," Danni pointed out. "Or with a man with a death sentence that was put on him here." She met Ashildr's gaze. "You know us both, Mayor Me. You know of me and what I will do for the safety of my family. Clara stays safe, do you understand me?"
Ashildr nodded. "I guarantee the safety of Clara Oswald. She will be under my personal protection. That is absolute."
"Don't see you fighting for me," the Doctor grumbled.
"I don't need to fight for you, do I?" Danni replied. "She knows what will happen if anyone harms you. My presence is warning enough."
"Also quite true," Ashildr said with a hint of humour in her voice. "Let them go."
"As you wish, Mayor Me." Kabel, the man who looked like a banker, pressed his foot against a cobblestone and the lights flashed through the ground again. Their feet were released and Danni immediately moved backwards, like she had wanted to from the start.
"This way," Ashildr told them, heading into the street. Clara and Rigsy followed behind her, but Danni grabbed the Doctor's arm, stopping him.
"Tell me you can see her too," she begged in a hushed tone. She was shaking slightly and he shushed her gently, rubbing her arms as if trying to warm her up. "I-I'm not going crazy, am I?"
"She's not here," he promised. "You know she's not. You know you're with me, with Clara and Local Knowledge, following up on an immortal woman we may have left alone too long."
"But-But she was right there!" Danni hissed. "Right in front of me, and you want me to follow her?!"
"Danielle, Danni, my Danni-Girl," the Doctor repeated. She had been getting some much better, but there had been so much further to go. She still barely slept, and she still looked for the best way to run away, but seeing Missy in front of her face set her back even further. She wasn't able to focus on him, looking around for the ever-elusive door that proved she was trapped and asleep. Her hand had gone for her gun even if all she'd pulled out was her sonic screwdriver. He hated the pain she was in and he couldn't do anything about it.
He felt her nudge at his mind, checking that he was who he said he was and it broke his hearts that she just couldn't believe her eyes anymore. He should have never let Missy get away. He let her feel whatever she needed to make her feel safe.
"I don't know why you're seeing her, but I promise the rest of us are not," he told her. "And I promise we'll work it out and you'll know it's all a trick. But Missy is not here. She isn't close. You are safe."
Danni stared into his eyes, looking for the lie in his words, but found not. She swallowed, nodding to herself. "Alright," she agreed. "Alright, no Missy. I'm fine. Everything's fine." She made a dismissive noise. "Of course it's fine. Well, apart from the evil Mayor and Rigsy's death sentence and the fact we've left Clara alone with her. Everything's fine."
"Come on," the Doctor said, taking her hand. "Let's go save Local Knowledge and then drop Miss Oswald back in her boring human life and get on with ours."
"Theta! Stop it. She's my friend, you're just going to have to deal with it. She's not going anywhere."
"Don't remind me," he drawled.
~0~0~0~
It's starting! I hope you're all ready!
It's New Years Eve, so I unfortunately don't have time for review replies. But let me know what you think of this one and I'll reply next chapter.
Thank you all for the support over the last year. Well Wishes for the New Year!