Chapter 2 – Dream
What day is it today? It must be Wednesday. Wednesdays always feel a little bittersweet somehow.
Clara would sometimes ask me if I dream. Of course I dream, I would tell her. Everybody dreams. But what do you dream about, she'd ask. The same thing everybody dreams about, I'd tell her. I dream about the people I've met, the people I love, and the people I miss.
Tonight I dreamt of Clara.
Or at least I think it was her. It's hard to tell, not remembering anything about her looks or personality and all. But I got the impression it was her. I could sort of sense her presence. It's plausible, though, that some memories may escape the neural block during an unconscious state. The things you can do while sleeping are amazing. I should do it more.
In the dream, I was abandoning Clara on the Moon. We had a fight over something or other, and I was leaving her, not knowing if she'd survive on her own or not. The idea of not ever seeing her again caused a stabbing pain in my chest so intense that for a second I thought I'd regenerate, and it made me wake up. That pain felt so strong even when I was awake that I knew it couldn't have been just a dream. It must have been a memory.
So that's why I decided to have a look. I didn't expect to find her still on the Moon. I know there's no point in looking for her in any of the places we've visited. I know it's silly, but I just had to check.
The TARDIS lands on the lunar surface with its usual groaning noise. The Doctor, with his orange spacesuit already on, is checking the location of the lading on the monitor, when someone knocks at the door. Four knocks.
The Doctor's eyebrows raise up.
"Hello? Who's there?" he asks, slowly sliding the monitor back in its place and approaching the door.
More knocks.
"Clara?" a hint of hope – or delusion – colours his voice while he puts his hand on the door handle. "Is that you?"
The Doctor opens the door.
"Sco bo tro no flo jo ko fo to to."
A massive Judoon is standing against the black sky.
The Doctor's eyebrows drop down with disappointment.
"Sorry, whatever you're selling, we're not buying."
He slams the door in the Judoon's face, and goes back to the TARDIS console to take his journal. But the knocks continue.
Starting to get irritated, the Doctor returns to open the door, his diary in hand.
"Listen, I don't have time for this right now, I'm a bit busy doing something important, so if you don't mind-"
The deep Judoon's voice thunders over his, "Prepare to be catalogued."
The Judoon takes a red, dumbbell-like scanner out of his pocket and points it to the Doctor's forehead.
"Wha-What are you doing?" the Doctor stops him, moving the scanner away from his head with one hand. "Don't point things at people, it's rude."
For the first time, the Doctor takes a look at the landscape behind the Judoon. And there's one thing clearly out of place.
"Wait, what is that hospital doing up here?"
He steps out of the TARDIS without bothering to wear a helmet, and moves towards the building.
"Of course," he says, starting to sort his memories out, "stupid Doctor. That was Martha, not Clara. I entered the wrong time coordinates."
"Stop," the Judoon orders turning to follow him with his heavy pace, "or you will be charged with crime".
"I'm a few decades early," the Doctor continues talking to himself without paying attention to the command, walking more quickly towards the hospital despite the weight of his bulky spacesuit, "I met Martha here when the Judoon brought this hospital on the Moon to capture that Plasmavore; me and Clara went to the Moon when it was hatching. Stupid, stupid Doctor."
With the Judoon still chasing him, he reaches the building and glances inside through a window.
"At least I landed inside the Judoon's forcefield. Free air and gravity, not bad."
Then he continues walking around the perimeter of the hospital, opening the diary still in his hand to start writing on it.
Sadly, my perception of time goes bananas sometimes, so I landed on the Moon too early, at the exact moment when the hospital Martha worked in ended up there because of the Judoons. I just realized that me and Clara were here when the Moon started hatching, and there's still ages before that.
So basically right now there's another version of me just a few feet away from me and I could meet him any second causing all sorts of deadly paradoxes. Nice.
The Judoon catches up with the Doctor, and holding him by his shoulder stops him from walking any further.
"Stop."
"Sorry, were you talking to me there?" the Doctor says shrugging, "I wasn't listening."
The Judoon pushes him against the building's wall and shines a blue light on the Doctor's forehead. The Doctor, wide eyed for the shock of the sudden contact, stand pressed against the wall with his arms open, one hand holding his diary firmly, the other grabbing the wall in alarm.
"Prepare to be catalogued or executed"
"Yeah, all right," the Doctor cuts him off abruptly, covering the Judoon's scanner with his hand to block it, "but d'you see the problem? I shouldn't be here. Neither should you. Nor this hospital, actually. Lots of things out of place. It's not a bad idea, though, a hospital on the Moon. I thought they'd open some hotels first, or a shopping mall, to make money from tourists, you know, or from students on a school trip. Maybe even build a school then."
He stops for a moment, his face becoming very serious.
"Oh," he frowns, "I just remembered something."
With a rapid movement, the Doctor sets free from the Judoon's grasp and runs around the corner of the building.
"Sorry, I'm in a hurry!"
The Judoon runs after him, drawing his weapon and trying to aim for the Doctor, but the Time Lord's fast, wobbly pace confuses him.
The Judoon shoots a heat ray at the Doctor but misses him, and the man reaches his TARDIS. He opens the door, and waits on the doorstep for the Judoon to catch up with him.
"You are guilty of escaping," the Judoon's deep voice admonish him. "Sentence, execution."
"Fine," the Doctor replies innocently, "but didn't they tell you? I can't stay still for a moment!"
Grinning like a child, he quickly slips inside the TARDIS and shuts the door in the Judoon's face, then runs to the console and takes off.
The Judoon tries to shoot at the disappearing blue box, but the TARDIS has already flown away.
Inside his time traveling machine, the Doctor can finally catch his breath. He sits on the TARDIS staircase, opens his journal, and goes back to writing.
Despite the inconvenience of an angry Judoon trying to kill me, this journey was useful in the end. The sight of the hospital activated some synaptic connection in my brain that made me think about other public buildings like schools, and I remembered that Clara was a teacher. The very reason why we come to the Moon in the first place was to show one of her students that she was special. Pff.
Anyway, yes, Clara was a school teacher, I remember now. She was an amazing teacher. It feels obvious and natural. She taught English at Coal Hill, of course, but not only that. She taught me what it means to be a good man. She taught me to believe in impossible things, to care, and to dream. I don't know how, but she did.
And even if I don't know her anymore, I'm grateful to her for that.
The Doctor closes his diary and gets back to the TARDIS console. He pushes some buttons and pulls some levers, still deciding where to go next. The run on the Moon has put him in a good mood, and he's more cheerful than before. He almost feels like paying a visit to the Apollo 17 astronauts. Why not? After all, he still got his spacesuit on.
Author's notes: The inspiration for this chapter came not only from Kill the Moon, which is one of my favourite episodes, but mainly from a stargazing event held last week in one of my hometown's squares, when the street lights were turned off to allow people to look at the stars and Jupiter with the help of some amateur telescopes. It was terribly cloudy, but we could have a perfect view of the Moon, and it was beautiful to look at it close up. It was magical.
I hope you enjoyed this more adventurous chapter, please tell me what you think about it in the comments. I'll try to update weekly if I can. Thank you for reading.