'Doctor!' her voice sounded higher than normal and slightly strained. The Doctor leaned forward on Clara's white and stylish console with both elbows and half watched the Judoon General wriggle in its bindings as he spoke. He had managed to place it reasonably out of the way in one corner but the smell of it was still very much there. He psychically asked the TARDIS politely to suction the stench out and purify the air.

'Clara, is everything OK?' he asked calmly, might as well be calm in the face of several levels of problem, 'Doors nice and secure? Shields up?'

'Doors very secured, I don't think she will ever let them open again after the weeping Angel,' he could hear her breathing faster from anxiety, 'Shields? Um… shields, where would I find those?' she finished in a tiny voice.

'Same place as you find them on your own ship…'

'Um…'

'Clara you do have shields?'

'I think so, Ashildr usually does that bit, I do the steering, piloting… I mean I programme the destination.'

He rolled his eyes.

'Shields… which are an important part of every day travel as well as when under attack, are on the console,' he said slowly, 'across from the lever that…'

'Oh! Yes! Got it!' he heard her squeak triumphantly, then a pause. 'Nothing's happening.'

'Have you got the right button?' He glanced at the screen above him to see her demonstrating which she had pressed and then looked at the scene outside where dozens of Judoon warriors were milling around the TARDIS. His old girl standing alone against the vile army. He narrowed his eyes. He could detect the faintest aura around it, the dullest light.

'She's done it for you,' he said. 'Automatically put the shields up to the right level.'

'Oh… right…. I would have managed but… that's nice of her,' Clara sounded put out and he hopped very much it didn't translate psychically to the ship now that her Time Lady brain was more in tune with the TARDIS circuitry. He could really do without it taking against her and chucking her out.

'Clara you didn't have the shields up on your ship when you landed did you?' the Doctor asked frowning.

'No, why would I?'

'Never mind it's just…well it might have saved a bit of damage, your Diner is a mess.'

'It'll tidy itself up,' Clara said dismissively. 'Always does if you wait long enough.'

'Clara!' his tone was horrified, 'Don't speak like that about your TARDIS!'

'Like what?'

'Like she's completely immune to this. Like she is an object! She needs empathy, care, sensitivity. How can you ever expect to have a good relationship with her if you treat her this way? She's been hurt, from your negligence with the shields, your lack of forethought…'

'She could have put them up herself!' Clara said testily, her shock from the diatribe tightening her speech. 'If it was such a big deal!'

The Doctor dropped his eyes to the console already certain of what he would see there, 'No, she couldn't,' he sighed tiredly. 'You've got her on manual override she can't select anything. You are such a control freak, even when you're driving a spaceship. My God Clara how have you survived until now?'

'I had the advantage of being frozen in time… its much harder to die when your death is preordained…' the screen changed above him and the image of Clara sitting at his own console appeared. He watched her adjust her position and felt an immediate stab of pain at her words.

He had done that to her. Fixed her point of death and left her in the moment before its conclusion. She could stay there forever in theory, unfeeling, unkillable, living an empty existence. Now here she was reanimated. Beating hearts, breathing lungs, adrenaline and hormones pumping around her body. He hadn't got used to her again yet, to her in the flesh and not just in restored memory, but he knew she looked exactly the same as she had that moment on Trap Street and that only brought him agony.

Clara didn't appear aware of his scrutiny, but looked rather flustered and spent the first few minutes on screen trying to tame her hair, smoothing it down and then trying to get control of her worry. 'Sorry, sorry, this is all just a bit of a surprise,' she said as he watched her, 'The Judoon bit, not expecting that… the beacon across space…. News to me, but you know… worse things have happened at sea, we can deal… that's what we do. At least I'm not dead again.'

The Doctor gave her a sympathetic look. 'It's how I would have planned this reunion either. And I suppose you weren't to know that if you landed here there would be trouble… although after our experience at my own grave you'd think it would occur to you.' He couldn't resist but to add a nod towards his incredibly mild frustration at her.

'Stop lecturing me!'

'I'm just saying…'

'Well don't,' she folded her arms and looked off camera, 'Shut up.'

Clara stayed that way for a moment too long and he could feel himself chuckling internally at her bossy, control freak, pouty, sulky self as her lips twitched and gave her away. She caved in and looked back at him.

'This is stupid,' she giggled. 'We should be on that couch still with the coffee, and the other things…' he felt himself blush at her words. Another thing he wasn't used to yet. He had only kissed Clara once before and now it seemed she was clearly keen to repeat the experience and he was on a different ship in the middle of a battlefield. Obstacles. Always obstacles.

'What do we do now?' she asked when the pause become long and he was clearly distracted.

'I have an idea but you might not like it,' he resumed.

'Oh?' she asked looking interested.

'I need something that's going to affect hundreds of soldiers at once. Looking through your TARDIS records…' he pointed his screwdriver at the console, 'You don't carry any weapons….'

'No, neither do you!'

'I don't need to!'

'Neither do I!' she protested.

'Clara you've been leaving yourself incredibly vulnerable for decades, on manual, no weapons, frozen until recently. How have you made it this far? Is Ashildr any more use with this stuff?'

'Never mind just tell me your idea,' she said shortly.

'My idea… yes… well you don't have any weapons, the range of this TARDIS isn't great as there have been no decent upgrades, and the Judoon are… ah…' he looked back at the outside feed, minimising Clara's face to one small corner of the screen.

'Ah, what?' she asked reading his worried tone.

'they seem to be crowded around your, I mean my, I mean the police box version of the TARDIS.'

'Why?'

'You. Beacon.'

'But they know you are here. There. Not in this one,' she clarified.

'They're confused. They only have tiny brains, they think I would automatically head back to the Old Girl, or transport myself from here to there… or something. They associated the blue one with me and can't think around it.'

'So what… they're going to attack me instead?' Clara's eyes widened.

'It's a good thing,' he replied.

'What?!'

'You're fine, my TARDIS is impenetrable… she's had her upgrades and you know about siege mode if things get very bad, which they won't. Just sit it out, it'll be noisy probably but that's it. And well she can take out a bunch of them while I…'

'While you…?'

'Well… Outside I used a sonic frequency the Judoon find painful to stop them in their tracks. All I need to do is find a way of magnifying that and it will cripple them.'

'When you say cripple them?' Clara checked with suspicion, she always could tell when he was up to something that would not win one hundred percent approval.

'I mean render them unable to continue.'

'That's a very evasive way of describing it…' Clara commented as the first bangs of Judoon weapons on the walls of the TARDIS began behind her.

'Yes…' The Doctor replied evasively.

'Tell me….? How will it 'cripple them?'

He looked up at the screen briefly and then pretended to be very interested in a switch.

'It will er… blow their heads open,' he said quickly as her jaw dropped in horror, 'but desperate times…' he risked looking back at her and found that she had begun sniggering into the back of her hand.

'You're going to explode the Judoons' heads?' she tittered.

'Yes…. But…'

'Oh Doctor that's going to be messy!' she was laughing hard now and it was as contagious as it had ever been. He was chuckling again even as the Judoon General glared at him from the corner.

'Shouldn't we find another way?' she suggested weakly.

'I didn't realise you were so attached to the giant gnarly alien rhinoceros species who kills for money and can be hired for a fee by angry Time Lords? I'm so sorry, I wasn't aware, would you like me to simply suggest to them they pack up and go home peacefully, thus abandoning their quest to finish me off and giving up their no doubt massive reward?'

Clara managed to keep a straight face for a moment. 'No, no suggestion of that, please carry on.'

'Right,' he said, 'Carry on. I'll tap into the central console auditory system and prepare it for the frequency magnification.'

'She's not always the most co-operative with upgrades and things,' Clara said, 'Ashildr fights with her every time.'

'Do you ask her politely?' the Doctor said lowering himself to the ground and gently running one palm over a panel. 'I mean if you went to the human doctor and he just dived in there to take your appendix out or examine you intimately in some way you might not be so welcoming either.' The panel slid open with a soft woosh. On screen Clara's eyebrows shot up.

'I never thought of it that way,' she pulled a face. 'That wouldn't be pleasant actually. Sorry!' she said to the camera, 'Tell her I'm sorry.'

'She can hear you.'

'Ok, sorry... sorry...' Behind her the thumping noises grew louder. 'Can't they tell they aren't going to get anywhere? Doors sealed, TARDIS impenetrable. Oh wait you said, not very clever, tiny brains.'

'Indeed,' the Doctor pulled himself under the console and began working on the correct circuit. 'But they just keep going regardless of outcome a lot of the time. They're like automatons but very large and very leathery.'

The circuit board was primitive to say the least which rather surprised him given he had stolen that TARDIS from the end of the universe where TARDISes were common place and advanced. Still it gave him a better chance of adapting it and he should be able to adjust what he needed to magnify the signal and finish off all the Judoon.

It was going to be messy though. He'd have to remember to put the general outside before he triggered it or the while console room would need a spectacular clean up and redecoration and he wouldn't be off to a good start with the Diner TARDIS. He made a mental note to himself to help with the clean up of the damage the Judoon had caused her to get a little further in her good books.

Clara seemed to be letting him concentrate for a while but after a few minutes piped up through the speakers.

'Doctor?'

'Hmm?' he answered, screwdriver between his teeth.

'I've been sitting here looking at your prisoner…'

'Um-mmph.'

'He's the General yes?'

He removed the screwdriver and lay looking up at wires. It was proving trickier than he had first imagined and he needed to focus.'

'Yes he's the general, he has all the badges and authority.'

'So he gives the orders?' she asked.

'Yes,' the Doctor answered with mild irritation and fused a wire, sparks flying.'

'The orders he gets from the Time Lords?'

'yes…'

'And are his army bound to follow them?'

'yes disobeying orders from the general is punishable by death. Just as disobeying orders from the peoples who have hired you for their purpose is…'

The Doctor froze suddenly. 'Wait…'

'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' she asked smugly.

'That I don't need to explode their heads?'

'Which admittedly is the more dramatic way of doing this….'

'But less moral…less humane…' he agreed and shot out from under the console, springing up and grinning at the screen. 'Well done Clara! All we need to do is command the army to crawl back through the gaps in the rift and go away.'

'You need to persuade the General first…' she said.

'Yes…' the Doctor glanced at him. 'General! Who gave you, your orders?' The bound and grump General of the Judoon glowered at him and grumbled.

'The Time Lords.'

'Which Time Lords?' the Doctor asked lightly.

The huge creature shrugged. 'Time Lords. All Time Lords…. Took contract from Time Lords, home planet, Gallifrey.'

The Doctor struggled to supress his glee.

'So you currently owe allegiance to Time Lords, all…Time Lords. If you do as you are told you get paid. If you go against their orders you risk execution.'

It grunted a positive response. The Doctor looked up at the screen and winked before stepping forward to heave the General up and propel him towards the door to the Diner.

'Where? Going Where?' the foul Judoon asked.

'Oh you and I are taking a little walk, nowhere too far, just over to that Rift again, you know I've always prided myself on ways to avoid war, bloodshed… death in general if I can.'

The things massive brows furrowed. 'I don't understand.'

The Doctor and his enemy stepped out of the Diner and faced the hundreds of Judoon outside. He hoped that one or both TARDISes were broadcasting he scene to Clara, he did so like to show off for her and make her smile. He patted the General on the shoulder.

'Don't worry your um… pretty little head about it,' he said jovially, 'All that matters is that you are working for all the Time Lords…'

'Yes…'

'And I am a Time Lord…' he gestured towards his chest where his two hearts beat triumphantly. 'As is my friend in the other ship,' he pointed.

'…Yes…' the General said doubtfully. 'She, Time Lord. You, Target…'

'And a Time Lord,' the Doctor added quickly, increasing the Judoon's confusion to new unscaled levels. It shook its head as though in pain and the Doctor smirked; this had to be better than the exploding plan. If it thought its head ached now…

So the Doctor ploughed on taking advantage of that doubt. 'We, Clara and I, we, as two Time Lords, are ordering you to take your army home…' he finished and pointed the sonic at one end of the Rift opening a section just wide enough for two Judoon side by side to enter.

The Judoon stopped in its tracks and gawped, looking from the Doctor to his army and back.

'Time Lord orders….' It muttered ineffectually. 'But… cannot disobey…'

The Doctor raised his eyebrows in mock politeness. 'Orders are orders… off you pop,' he said, sweeping one hand towards the rift in encouragement, 'I've even opened the gate.'