Chapter 2: Ten Seconds
". . . I will always catch you. Now let go." His voice had that gentle burr. She loved the way he rolled her name from his tongue, as if it belonged there. He said once, 'Love isn't an emotion, it's a promise.' He was making her a promise right now.
She closed her eyes, I believe you. I can do this. She let her grip loosen.
Then comforting warmth of his hand was gone and she fell away from him.
One second.
Her stomach lurched, adrenalin rushed through her, the dizzying feeling of being terrified and exhilarated all at once. She heard a piercing scream, mingled with the rushing of the wind, and wondered, vaguely, who it was.
Two seconds
She could still see the whites of his eyes and his face outlined against the black sky. His hand remained frozen in the exact place where they had been joined moments before. That scream was her own. Her head pounded.
Three seconds
She blinked and he was gone. The wind blasted through her hair and whipped it around her face and lashed into her eyes. The air rushing past her ears tore the scream from her lungs, and she gasped and gulped for breath.
Four seconds
The starless sky stretched above. The moon hid behind black clouds, as if afraid to witness her fall. She was alone in the void, a pin prick in eternity, surrounded by blackness.
Five seconds
The wind tore at her shirt, tugged at the flimsy fabric clinging to her like a shroud. She was an ice queen spinning in the darkness. Was the vacuum of space like this? It was colder, probably, but as lonely.
Six seconds
Does your life flash before your eyes? She saw her mum's face, then her dad, her gran, her ordinary life. Then the day her life changed, when a boy with a blue box, a foppish smile and bow-tie knocked on her door. An Ice Warrior on a submarine. A ghost story, a love story? Her head thumped and spun.
Seven seconds
Cybermen, too many cybermen. Danny! A steel army, a broken heart, betrayal, forgiveness.
Eight seconds
The air rushed past like the devil's breath, clawing at her clothes, biting her ears. She was so cold now, icicle fingers probed the air. Frostbite? Would she lose her fingertips? She laughed, in spite of herself, worrying about her fingers when she was plummeting to her death.
Nine seconds
He'll come for me. He always comes for me. Doctor. She closed her eyes, and this time it was his face she saw, fire and ice, the oncoming storm, tender and terrible. The impossible man; the soldier so brave he doesn't need a gun, the biggest five year old in the bloody universe.
A scared little boy in a drafty old barn. It's okay to be afraid. Fear is a superpower. Fear doesn't have to make you cowardly or cruel. Fear can make you kind. Fear can reveal hidden things, shine a light on treasures tucked away out of sight. Fear shows you what you want. Doctor.
Ten Seconds
The world grew ragged at the edges, the rush of air in her ears faded and everything blurred.
Catch me, Doctor.
Chapter 3: Catching
Clara fell away into darkness. He turned and scrabbled to his feet, didn't pause or hesitate. As long as he didn't see it, the future wasn't set.
There is no fate but what we make.
He would save her.
He ran. His hearts thumped wildly as he bolted from the edge of the cliff. Thane's men crashed around in the trees, shouting. Laughing. Wondering if Thane would share his prize.
He closed his mind to it. Nothing mattered but saving Clara. He ran faster.
Blinding rain blasted his face. The ground was a quagmire. Newly ploughed, deep furrows wanted to twist his ankles and rick his knees. Mud in thick puddles sucked his feet to slow him. He glanced over his shoulder. Thane's men were at the cliff's edge, some looking over into the precipice, others searching. Another bolt of blue energy cracked overhead, illuminating the field.
"There he is!" Boots squelched into the field; he wasn't even halfway to the TARDIS. He was right, although he took no pleasure in it, Clara would never have made it.
He kept running, zig zagged through the darkness towards the outline of the TARDIS.
Almost home.
Another shot high in the air bathed the field in a blue glow, and this time a second shot followed, using the light of the first to guide it. Not so stupid, Thane's men.
A second after the crack searing pain filled him from his toes to his fingertips. Fire ran through his veins and boiled in his lungs.
It doesn't matter. Keep running. Just keep running.
The TARDIS was so close now; he fumbled in his pocket for the key, reached out with his mind to his ship.
Crack! He didn't notice the flare above this time, but the second shot hit him with the force of a cannon ball, propelling him into the air, his feet scrabbling wildly as he rose then fell, tumbling to the mud.
Get up. Keep moving.
His head pounded. He needed to be inside the TARDIS. He dragged himself to his feet. One pace. One more. The key. His breath came in rasps, his hands shook. Pain everywhere. Then the door swung open. He fell through.
Home.
The TARDIS closed her doors against the rain and the biting wind, and the thugs who banged and shouted at her doors. One tried to shoot her lock and the TARDIS ricocheted that blast right back in his ignorant face.
Her thief was back, he was safely inside her. He was home.
She couldn't always see directly into his mind, but right now he was raw, wide open, crackling with energy from the blast he'd absorbed. As he lay sprawled on her floor she could see Clara in his mind's eye as vividly as he had seen her himself moments before; her hair spread wide around her, her white shirt framed against the eternal blackness, arms stretched outwards.
Clara was falling.
He had to wake up. The TARDIS woke her thief the only way she knew how.
The Cloister Bell boomed.
The Doctor was dimly aware of the deep timbre of the bell echoing through the TARDIS. He felt it in his chest, reverberating, calling him. Demanding. Wake up!
"Ugh." Everything hurt. Every part of him ached. He lay still for a moment. Then he sat bolt upright. "Clara!" Clara was falling. He leapt to his feet, head still swimming.
He threw himself at the console. His head thumping and his vision blurred, he could barely stand. He stumbled to the telepathic interface and plunged his hand inside.
"Catch her," he whispered, as he sank to his knees. "Bring her home."
Ten seconds
Clara's world grew ragged at the edges, the rush of air faded and everything blurred.
Catch me, Doctor.
She heard the TARDIS, that familiar wheezing and grinding that sent her heart racing every time he turned up at her flat. Then, the air was not quite so cold, and the dark not quite so dark. The angles made no sense. It didn't matter, because the TARDIS enveloped her, holding her like a mother, cushioning her fall, welcoming her home.
Clara thought she heard a voice as she spun and twisted toward the light, although she could never say for sure.
"I'll catch you, Clara Oswald," the voice seemed to say, "because I love him, and he loves you."
Then she was in the Doctor's arms and they both stumbled and fell across the console room floor. They slid to a stop just short of the bookshelf. She fought to keep her feet, looked up at him. He was a blur. She smiled faintly. Nothing stayed still, everything swam. She trembled.
"Hello," she managed weakly, before the world went black.
I've posted two chapters for you lovely whouffaldi folk today, as it wouldn't be fair to leave you hanging!
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