To Be Together

"Question," the Doctor said, taking a small spin on the upper levels of the console. "Why do we talk out loud when we know we're alone?" he leaned to the side, blowing out a candle. "Conjecture. Because we know we're not." He wrote on his blackboard. "Evolution perfects survival skills. There are perfect hunters. There is perfect defense. Question," he pointed down at the console, where Adelaide was reading. "Why is there no such thing as perfect hiding? Answer: how would you know?"

"Logically," she said casually, clearly not paying complete attention to this conversation, "if evolution were to perfect a creature whose primary skill was to hide from view, it would be impossible to know if it existed."

He nodded, putting down his chalk. "It could be with us every second and we would never know. How would you detect it, even sense it, except in those moments when for no clear reason you choose to speak aloud? What would such a creature want? What would it do?"

The word echoed around the TARDIS, and when the Doctor looked back at the blackboard he found that it now just said 'Listen'. "Adelaide..."

Adelaide looked up, spotting what was on the board. "Are you honestly suggesting..."

He leaned on the railing, grinning. "It's a mystery."

"That's not fair."

|C-S|

When Clara's bedroom door opened, just hitting the side of the TARDIS that the Doctor had insisted they park in her bedroom, Clara's head followed a few seconds later. "You just have to squeeze through," the Doctor called, sitting at Clara's dressing table.

"Doctor?" Clara frowned. "Adelaide?"

"Why do you have three mirrors? Why don't you just turn your head?"

Clara looked at Adelaide, who was leaning against the bit of the TARDIS the door wouldn't hit. "What are you doing in here?"

"You said you had a date and the Doctor insisted that we should hide in the bedroom in case you brought him home." Adelaide sighed. "His words."

"Bit early, aren't you?" the Doctor glanced at Clara. "Did it all go wrong, or is this good by your standards?"

"You don't have to talk about it," Adelaide called when Clara opened her mouth. "I've never been on a date, but I understand it's not always a nice thing to discuss."

"Especially when you look like you do," the Doctor said.

"What? What's wrong with how I look?" Clara frowned. "Wait, you've never been on a date?"

"We need you," the Doctor interrupted, standing. "For a thing."

She shook her head. "I can't."

"Oh, of course, you can. Come on, you're free. More than usually free, in fact."

"No, it's just possible that I might get a phone call."

"From the date guy?" the Doctor raised his eyebrows. "It's too late. You've taken your makeup off."

"No, I haven't. I'm still wearing my makeup.'

The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, right. Well, you probably just missed a bit." He gestured at her face, moving over to Adelaide. "Come on, come on, come on, come on."

Adelaide opened the door, both Time Lords stepping inside. Clara followed them with her shoes in hand. "I haven't actually said yes?"

"Yes, you know sometimes when you talk to yourself, what if you're not?" the Doctor asked, pausing by the console.

"Not what?"

"What if it's not you you're talking to? Proposition." He pointed at her. "What if no one is ever really alone? What if every single living being has a companion, a silent passenger, a shadow? What if the prickle on the back of your neck, is the breath of something close behind you?"

Clara, after frowning at him, looked to Adelaide. "How long has he been awake?"

"A rather reasonable time for Time Lords, actually."

"Look," the Doctor gestured Clara over, showing her the blackboard that he swore he hadn't written on.

"It looks like your handwriting."

"Well, I couldn't have written it and forgotten, could I?"

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Have you met you?" She moved closer to the table to the side, which was covered in books to the point she was surprised Adelaide had allowed it. "What's all this?"

"Dreams." Adelaide walked up too. "Accounts of dreams, by different people, all through history. He..."

"We."

"We have a theory." Clara glanced at her. "I helped with the research."

"I'll bet you did. What theory?"

The Doctor moved to the other side of the table. "I think everybody, at some point in their lives, has the exact same nightmare. You wake up, or you think you do, and there's someone in the dark, someone close, or you think there might be. So you sit up and turn on the light. And the room looks different at night. It ticks and creaks and breathes. And you tell yourself there's nobody there, nobody watching, nobody listening, nobody there at all. And you very nearly believe it. You really, really try and then..." he made a grabbing move at Clara. "Something grabs you.

"There are accounts of that dream repeated throughout human history," Adelaide said. "Possibly a coincidence."

"Or possibly not." The Doctor moved around the table, facing Clara straight on. "Now, there is a very obvious question I'm about to ask you. Do you know what it is?"

"Have you had that dream?"

The Doctor nodded. "Exactly."

"No, that was me asking you. Have you had that dream?"

He frowned. "I asked first."

"No, I did."

"You really didn't."

Clara sighed. "Okay, yeah, probably. Yes." She shook her head. "But everyone dreams about something under the bed."

"But why?"

The Doctor took Clara's hand, pulling her back towards the console and a particularly mush-like section of the console. "Just hold on tight. If anything bites, let it." He pressed her fingers into it.

"What is it?"

"TARDIS telepathic interface. You are now in mental contact with the TARDIS, so don't think anything rude."

Clara frowned. "Why not?"

"It might end up on all of the screens," Adelaide called. "And I'd rather not see that."

"The TARDIS is extrapolating your entire timeline, from the moment of your birth to the moment of your death."

Her eyes widened. "Which I do not need a preview of."

"We're turning off the safeguards and navigation, slaving the TARDIS to you," the Doctor explained, hurrying around the console to work. "Focus on the dream. Focus on the details. Picture them, feel them. The TARDIS will track on your subconscious and extract the relevant information. It should be able to home in on the moment in your timeline when you first had that dream. And then, we'll see."

Clara frowned. "What will we see?"

"What's under your bed." He flicked a lever, both Time Lords hurrying to grab onto the console as the ship went flying.

"Ooo!" Clara cheered, laughing.

"Don't get distracted," Adelaide called. "Remember, you're currently the only one flying the TARDIS." Clara glanced to the side as her phone started to ring. "No, Clara. You need to focus."

The Doctor pressed something on the console, making the TARDIS land with a thud. "Okay, that's good," he said, nodding. "That worked. We're here.'

"Sorry, I think I got distracted."

"No, no, no, no, no, the date's fine." The Doctor moved towards the door. "Come on."

"Come on where?"

"Your childhood." He held the TARDIS door open for Adelaide, the pair of them vanishing out into the night. Clara followed a few seconds later after she managed to pull herself free from the interface. "The West Country Children's Home," he said, looking up at the building they'd landed before. "Gloucester. By the ozone levels and the drains, mid-nineties. You must have been here when you had the dream."

But Clara shook her head. "Never been to Gloucester in my life and I've never lived in a children's home."

The Doctor shrugged. "You've probably just forgotten. Have you seen the size of human brains? They're hilarious." He gestured at the building. "Little you must be in here somewhere, with your little brain."

"Isn't it bad if I meet myself?"

Adelaide nodded. "Potentially catastrophic."

"So why did you bring me out here?"

"I was still talking. I needed someone to nod."

"Adelaide?"

"She argues."

Adelaide shook her head. "Likely best for you to wait in the TARDIS for the moment Clara, sorry."

"But..."

The Doctor shook a finger at her. "See you in a minute. TARDIS." He moved back, towards the building, but Clara stepped forward too.

"If I had been distracted, what would have happened?"

"We would probably have ended up in the wrong place. But don't think we have, because the time zone's right." He started walking again. "We won't be long."

"Adelaide, I have honestly never been to Gloucester in my life."

She frowned. "Who was calling you?"

"Someone from work."

The Time Lady raised her eyebrows. The Doctor had kept walking, having decided he didn't want to bother waiting for her when she'd be coming anyway. "Then we are in an odd situation because I don't believe that we should have been able to end up on their timeline when you were the one plugged into the TARDIS."

"Then what's happened?"

"The Doctor and I shall endeavor to find out." Adelaide started walking backward too, going after where the Doctor had. "Stay here anyways. Unless a child is crying."

"Is that your rule?"

Adelaide gave a little smile. "The Doctor said it on our first traveling adventure together." With a final nod, the Time Lady turned and jogged to meet the Doctor, who'd stopped by the door to wait for her.

"What were you two discussing?"

"None of your business." Adelaide stepped forward, used her sonic on the door, and held it open for him.

"Breaking and entering?"

"Sonicing and entering. Totally different."

The Doctor pointed at her, grinning, before entering the building. They both used their sonics to scan the surrounding area as they walked down the corridor. It wasn't far before they found the security man. "How did you get in?" the man asked, catching sight of them in a reflection.

"Your door must be faulty." The Doctor held up his psychic paper.

"An inspection? It's two in the morning!"

He shrugged. "When better? Do you always work here nights?"

The guard nodded. "Most nights, yes."

"Do you ever end up talking to yourself?"

"All the time." The man looked around. "It's this place. You can't help it."

"What about your coffee?"

The man frowned. "My coffee?" he looked over at the mug he'd put down when he'd stood to address them.

"Sometimes, do you put it down, and look around, and it's not there?"

He shrugged. "Everybody does that."

"Yes. Everybody." The television he'd been watching appeared to shut itself off. "Who turned your telly off?"

"It does that. It just goes off." The guard looked back at the television, allowing the Time Lords to step away to continue their search. Somehow, the Doctor managed to find a way to steal his coffee, which had Adelaide shaking her head.

|C-S|

They'd just entered one of the upper floors when they heard Clara speaking. The Doctor looked slightly put out about that, but the two of them still moved to follow Clara's voice. Especially once it became clear that something was wrong. "Okay..." Clara was saying, her voice shaking slightly. "It's not funny this, you know."

The Time Lords rushed into the room, Adelaide staying near the doorway, eyes on the bedspread covered figure in the center of the bed that Clara and a little boy were staring at, and the Doctor moving to a nearby chair. It was his sonic that turned on the lights, making the two humans jump.

"Where is he?" the Doctor frowned, flicking through a book.

"Doctor?"

"I can't find him. Can you find him?"

Clara shook her head. "Find who?"

"Wally."

"Wally?"

He nodded at the book he was holding. "He's nowhere in this book."

The boy with Clara frowned. "It's not a Where's Wally one."

"Well, how would you know? Maybe you just haven't found him yet."

The boy shook his head. "He's not in every book."

"Really?" the Doctor looked at Adelaide like he was honestly upset she'd never mentioned this fact to him before. "Well, there's a few years of my life I'll be needing back." He fixed his attention on the boy again. "Are you scared? The thing on the bed, whatever it is, look at it. Does it scare you?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's good. Want to know why that's good?"

"Why?"

The Doctor moved out of the chair, moving so that he was closer to the boy's height. Adelaide and Clara stepped closer together. "Let me tell you about scared. Your heart is beating so hard," he took the boy's hands, "I can feel it through your hands. There's so much blood and oxygen pumping through your brain, it's like rocket fuel. Right now, you could run faster and you could fight harder. You could jump higher than ever in your life. And you are so alert, it's like you can slow down time. What's wrong with scared? Scared is a superpower. It's your superpower. There is danger in this room and guess what? It's you. Do you feel it? Do you think he feels it? Do you think he's scared? Nah. Loser. Turn your back on him."

"What?"

"Yeah, turn your back on him. Come on. You too, Adelaide, Clara. Turn your back." He moved to the window, turning his back to the bed. "Do it. Just do it now. Turn your back. Do it now, turn your back. Lovely view out this window."

Adelaide and Clara moved to stand beside him, with the boy joining them a few seconds later. "Yeah," Clara said, nodding. "Come and see all the dark."

"The deep and lovely dark." The Doctor, reaching behind Clara and the boy, took Adelaide's hand for a second, giving it a small squeeze. "We'd never see the stars without it."

"There are two possibilities," Adelaide whispered. "Possibility one, that's just one of your friends standing there pranking you. Possibility two, it isn't."

"So, plan?" Clara asked. "Plans are good."

"You on the bed, I'm talking to you now," the Doctor said, addressing the figure without turning around. "Go in peace. We won't look. Just go. If all you want to do is stay hidden, it's okay. Just leave."

They could still see the reflection in the mirror, the figure moving closer to them. "Is it gone?" Clara whispered.

"Use your eyes."

"I can't hear anything," the boy frowned.

The Doctor grabbed his shoulder as the boy moved to turn. "Look away! Look away now! Don't look at it! Don't look round. Don't look round. Don't look at the reflection."

"What is it?" the figure started to pull the blanket off itself.

"Imagine a thing that must never be seen. What would it do if you saw it?"

"I don't know."

"Neither do we. Close your eyes," Adelaide ordered, her and the Doctor doing just that.

"What?"

The Doctor nodded. "Close your eyes. You too, Clara. Give it what it wants. Prove to it that you're not going to look at it. Make a promise. A promise you're never going to look at it."

The boy closed his eyes. "I promise never to look."

"The breath on the back of your neck, like your hair's standing on end. That means, don't look round."

They heard the door slam shut. "Gone."

The Doctor nodded, spinning to look. "Gone."

The boy frowned at his bed. "He took my bedspread."

"Oh, the human race," the Doctor groaned. "You're never happy, are you?" He, Adelaide, and Clara started to investigate the room, though the Doctor got particularly interested in an orange robot.

"Am I safe now?"

"Nobody's safe."

"Especially not at night in the dark," Adelaide mumbled. "Anything can get you."

The Doctor nodded. "And all the way up here, you're up here all alone." Clara hit the back of the Doctor's head. "What was that for?" He paused. "Why didn't you hit Adelaide?"

"Because I like her more. Now shut up, leave this to me." Clara found a small box of soldier toys. "These yours?"

"They're the home's."

"They're yours now."

The Doctor stepped closer to her. "People don't need to be lied to."

"People don't need to be scared by a big gray-haired stick insect and a short ginger woman, but here you two are."

"I thought you liked Adelaide more."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Stay still, shut up, both of you." She went to her knees, placing the toy soldiers around the boy's bed. "See what I'm doing? This is your army."

"Plastic army," the Doctor mumbled.

"Sit." Clara pointed at the chair the Doctor had been sitting in before, the Time Lord taking a resigned seat. Adelaide just leaned against the bookcase; close to the Doctor, but not touching him. "And they're going to guard under your bed. You see this one?" she held up one that had a few parts, including the weapon, snapped off. "This is the boss one, the colonel. He's going to keep a special eye out."

The boy frowned. "It's broken, that one. It doesn't have a gun."

Clara nodded. "That's why he's the boss. A soldier so brave he doesn't need a gun. He can keep the whole world safe. What shall we call him?"

"Dan."

Clara started. "Sorry?"

"Dan, the soldier man. That's what I call him." He took the toy from Clara, looking it over.

"Good. Good name."

He smiled. "Yeah. Would you read me a story? It'll help me get to sleep."

"Sure."

But before Clara could get a book from the case, the Doctor had stepped forward and touched the boy's forehead. "Once upon a time..." the boy fell back, asleep. "The end." He glanced at Clara. "Dad skills."

|C-S|

"So is it possible we've just saved that kid from another kid in a bedspread?" Clara asked, leaning against the console as the Time Lords stood around. It had been quite an event getting back to the TARDIS, as Adelaide had tried to make the Doctor return the coffee he'd stolen and the man had kept trying to get around doing it.

The Doctor nodded. "Entirely possible, yes. The bigger question is, why did we end up with him and not you?"

Clara shrugged. "I got distracted."

"But why that particular boy? You don't have any. You don't have any kind of connection with him, do you?"

Clara shook her head far too quickly for either Time Lord to honestly believe she was telling the truth. "No. No, no, no. Of course not. Why do you ask?"

"The TARDIS was slaved to your timeline." The Doctor pointed to Adelaide.

"What?"

"You're in charge of theories."

She gave him a small smile for that before looking at Clara again. "Theoretically, there would need to be some connection between you and that boy."

Clara nodded. "Will...er...will he remember any of that?"

"Scrambled his memory," the Doctor said. "Gave him a big old dream about being Dan the soldier man." Clara looked down, tears forming in her eyes. "Are you okay?" both Time Lords frowned at her.

"Doctor, Adelaide, I am sorry to ask...and...you know, I realize this is probably against the laws of time...or summat...er...could you do me a favor?"

A/N: Another sweeter opening here. Seems the Time Lords really have hit their stride in adventuring, at least for a little :)