Relict

by LizzeXX

12/OC -Time Lady- The Doctor and his Bonded, the Professor, have escaped Tenzalore with their lives, new regeneration cycles, and their unborn child surviving their 'Fall.' But with the Promised Land being sought and another woman vying for the Doctor's attention in the Nethersphere, what will become of the Time Lords? What of their child? Or…children? Ninth in the Academic Series.

9. Flatline

Flatline

The Professor was sitting on the armchair again, a tub of popcorn in a metal tin balanced precariously on her stomach as she ate it piece by piece, amusedly watching Clara making various trips up and down the stairs and into the halls and back, gathering all the belongings she'd left on the TARDIS in a small pile. They weren't afraid she was moving out, not permanently anyway, she had already explained that she was trying to make a balance for both them and Danny in doing this. She would travel with them, but she didn't want to give Danny the impression that she was going to stay with them for long periods of time. She wanted him to know her life was based with him, but that she spent time with them on 'vacations.' It was also a way to force the Doctor into actually making sure that they got her back to Danny on the proper time because she wouldn't have any clothes or her own things there to make her stay comfortable.

"You could leave all that stuff here, you know," the Doctor called from the console, quite a distance away from the Professor. Her blaster was lying on the armrest of the chair and, with how truly short her temper and patience had gotten between Clara's last visit and this one, he didn't want to think about what it meant that the weapon was in such close reach. She claimed it was because it was digging into her side slightly in her jacket and that she just wanted to be more comfortable, but he was quite sure it was to remind him that she could shoot at him at any time and to watch his manners, it seemed the more pregnant she got, the more maternal she felt towards Clara and having him insult or upset her upset HER, "We do have literally acres of room."

"Oh, no," Clara waved him off, setting down a bag and smiling at them, "It's alright. Danny's got a little bit territorial. The idea of me leaving so much as a toothbrush here," she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and laughed, "But, still, he's alright with us doing this which, I admit's a little bit weird, 'cos you'd think if he had a problem with me leaving stuff in the TARDIS, he'd object to me travelling in the TARDIS. But he's not, so…"

She stopped abruptly realizing that she'd been rambling in more a nervous fashion than normal, which was sure to make one of the Time Lords suspicious. She glanced at them but let out a breath of relief to see the Doctor was focused on the monitor and the Professor was digging at the bottom of her tin of popcorn. Her eyes went wide for a moment, the dig had to mean that the popcorn was nearly gone…which was quite a frightening thought given, when she'd first started to move things from her room, the Professor had only JUST opened that tin.

She hadn't been that long, had she?"

"Sorry," the Doctor looked up at Clara, as though just noticing that it had gotten silent for she'd stopped talking, "Stopped listening a while ago. Ok. Er…same time you left, same place-ish," the Doctor moved to pull a lever, setting the box down.

"Ish?" Clara frowned, "Don't give me an ish."

"Hold on…hold on," the Professor squirmed to be able to put the tin of popcorn on the floor beside the chair, leaning heavily on the side of it to push herself up, sighing with relief once she was upright and heading to the console to check the readings.

She had been feeling better the last day or so, at least when it came to breathing and her heartsburn. It was like the twins had decided to ease off her slightly, wiggling around and cuddling closer to try and not take up so much room, putting a relief on her chest and lungs which she was grateful for. Unfortunately, it also seemed to make her need to retire to the loo quite a bit more, she couldn't help notice she'd used it more and more as the days went on. She could be happy though of one other thing. She wasn't quite as hungry as she had been, her cravings finally settling down. The children seemed to have their elbows pressed into her stomach more now and it was making her less hungry, causing her to eat less when she was hungry, to fill up faster. The Doctor had assured her it was normal and suggested she eat more frequent but smaller meals or larger snacks throughout the day to keep her nourishment up even when she wasn't hungry enough to eat everything she thought of.

She was glad of that as well, her thoughts were a bit more focused on what was going on and not on the food that slipped into her thoughts.

"These readings…" she frowned as she saw them, "They ARE very ishy."

Clara blinked at that, giving the Professor a look, "Ishy?" that was probably the least technical term she'd ever heard the Professor utter.

"The scanner's useless," she murmured, ignoring Clara and turning to walk (she did NOT waddle! She didn't!) to the doors to look out. Normally she wouldn't, preferring her environment scans, but those were unavailable right now, "Oh you're joking!" she huffed as she opened the doors.

"What is it?" Clara headed over, the Doctor already at the woman's side, sliding past her out the door and squatting down to help her out. Wait…squatting? Clara hurried over and got to the door, leaning over slightly as she realized the doors were smaller now for some reason.

"This is ridiculous," the Professor grumbled as the Doctor chuckled, trying to help her squeeze out the door and into the area just outside.

The squatting was horrible and made it hard for her to move. Walking, in general, pained her slightly, caused twinges not just in her back any longer, but the Doctor reached out to rest a hand on her stomach, just under it to help take the weight off and allow her to move more easily. She finally managed to shuffle (shuffle, not waddle!) out of the TARDIS and turned to see it, for some reason, was only a few feet high now.

They were on some sort of vacant train yard it appeared, looking a bit deserted or at least not well kept though still in use as they could hear a train in the distance.

"Oh that's not fair," the Professor pouted as Clara just ducked down and made it out of the box as though it were the easiest thing in the world where the Time Lords had struggled.

"Being short has its advantages," Clara smirked at them, glancing at the fun-sized TARDIS, "So what did this?"

The Doctor walked around the box, examining it like so many of his companions had done in the past, "I don't think we're bigger, are we?" he glanced at the Professor.

She looked around, "On Earth," she nodded, "Our heights are relative to the items around us. Unless the world suddenly grew, we're the same height as always.

"Bristol?" Clara huffed, spotting a sign that read the location, "We're in Bristol!"

"120 miles from where we should be," the Professor gave the Doctor a look at that, seeming to be very disappointed and cross, before shaking her head fondly with a smile, "Impressive."

"No," Clara shook her head, "Not impressive. Annoying."

"Well THIS is impressive at least," the Doctor gestured at the TARDIS before pointing at Clara, "And this is annoying…ow!" he flinched as the Professor flicked his ear for the insult to Clara. He grumbled softly under his breath a moment, rubbing the side of his head.

"He mean the TARDIS never does this," the Professor turned to Clara.

"This is huge!" the Doctor agreed.

"Well, not literally huge," the Professor countered lightly.

"Slightly smaller than usual," he nodded.

"Which is huge," the Professor started to laugh at that.

All it served to do was make Clara roll her eyes at them, "Yes. I get it. You're excited. When can I go home?"

"Your house isn't going anywhere," the Doctor waved her off, "And neither is ours until we get this figured out," he glanced at Clara a moment, "Could you not just let us enjoy this moment of not knowing something?"

"Us?" the Professor raised an eyebrow, trying to cross her arms over her enormous stomach, but being unable to really do so, giving up after a few attempts and letting her arms hang freely.

"Do YOU know what's going on?" he challenged, crossing his arms with a smirk that made her narrow her eyes that he was teasing her about being able to do so.

"There are quite a few things that can cause this."

"Ah, but you don't know exactly which one!"

"…no," the Professor huffed out.

"Then it IS us," he nodded, very pleased about that, it wasn't often that the Professor didn't know what was happening, "And THAT is huge," he added, "It happens so rarely," he looked at her softly, "That we get to learn something together," he remarked, reaching out to take her hand, "You're brilliant, wife."

The Professor let out a soft breath, smiling at him, "You never could think as fast as me, husband."

"And now we're both thinking at the same rate," he teased again about her distractedness lately, "So let's see who can figure it out first while we're both on equal footing, eh?"

She laughed lightly at that and nodded, turning to Clara, "It shouldn't be dangerous, Clara, but we don't want you to get squished accidentally…"

"Why would I get squished?" she frowned.

"There are a few things this could be," the Professor explained, "One could be a failsafe on the TARDIS's part to remove a threat. They shrink, shrinking everything Time Lord with it and well…not shrinking non-Time Lord intruders."

Clara blinked at that, "Lovely."

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "We'll need to check on that, but if it's not, we don't want to waste time just standing around. So we need you to help us find out what's caused this…"

"Fine," Clara rolled her eyes, "I'll go take a look around," she stepped past them to head along the tracks as the Doctor moved to try and help get the Professor back into the TARDIS.

"Next time we should just bring a skateboard and roll you in," the Doctor remarked to his wife.

She shot him a glare and flicked his ear again, "You are so lucky I left my blaster on the armchair," she warned him.

He just gave her a light chuckle for that, winding his arm beside her as they crouched, helping her side-walk into the box, waiting till she straightened within before he slide in and beside her, the two of them heading to the console and starting to look around at the various controls, checking the alarms and internal scanners for anything that might be wrong. But there wasn't anything there.

"So you didn't break any of the controls," the Professor murmured, "For once."

"I'm not that bad," he mumbled, pulling open one of the panels on top of the console to look at the circuitry below, there could be a cracked panel somewhere that was causing this.

"Then you didn't short-circuit the internal dimensional shift and 'shrink us?'" she shot him a look, recalling that mishap. They'd ended up only inches tall, the TARDIS altering the internal dimensions and making all living organism barely a finger's length tall.

"That only happened once, Kata," he huffed, teasingly though.

She smiled, about to open her mouth and list even more things he'd broken that had gotten them into trouble, when there was a sudden jolt that almost knocked them to their bums had they not been able to grab the console as quickly as they had. The Doctor was at her side in a moment, his arm wrapping around her to keep her steady as they looked up.

"Theta…" she began, a hint of a threat in her voice.

He winced, looking over quickly and was relieved to see the blaster was still on the armchair, before responding, "Now, that wasn't me," he insisted. He turned, looking around and spotted something near the door, "Stay here," he murmured to her, making his way over to the wall where the doors should have been. It was as though the doors had been filled in, as though there were only a solid wall there in its place…had it not been for the miniature version of the doors set into the wall instead, "Oh, that can't be good."

"Theta," the Professor huffed.

"It wasn't me!" he insisted, turning to look at her as she attempted to cross her arms again…and ended up having to settle for a scowl and hands on her hips, "I promise," he crossed his hearts, "NOT me."

The Time Lords looked over when the phone on the console began to ring, the Professor moving to pick it up, switching it to speaker as the Doctor joined her, "Clara?"

"Hey," Clara's voice echoed through the room, "I think I've found something. People are missing all over the estate. Do you think there's a connection?"

"Could be."

"And…where are you?"

The Doctor sighed, "Exactly where we were."

"No, you're not. I'm here and I can't see…oh."

"You've found us then?" the Professor guessed that Clara had finally noticed them. If the doors were any indication of how small the TARDIS was on the outside…they were likely barely half a foot tall now. No way they could possibly get out of the box now.

"Is that really you?"

"Yes," the Doctor muttered.

Clara laughed, "Oh, my God, that is so adorable. Are you in there?"

"Yes, we are," the Professor nodded even though Clara couldn't see them.

"And, no, it's not adorable!" the Doctor huffed, "It's very, very serious."

"So is this more shrink ray stuff? Are you tiny in there?"

"No," the Professor sighed, "We're exactly the same size. It's the exterior dimensions that have changed."

"…ok. Are you sure you're not all teeny weeny too?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes at that, frustrated and started to head to the doors to prove it, pausing to give a warning point of the finger back at the Professor not to move and follow him. The doors were only so big and it wasn't like Clara would be able to see both of them and…well, he'd noticed she didn't appear very comfortable moving too much lately, he'd rather avoid that if he could, make things easier for her. So he hurried over to the doors and pulled them open to look out at Clara, barely managing to turn his neck enough to look UP at her. His face, he knew, would appear regular sized but outlined by the tiny doors.

"Stop laughing!" he called as Clara doubled into more fits of laughter, "This is serious!"

"Yeah, well, I can't help it, can I? With you and your big old face. How are you going to get out?"

"We can't," the Professor called, Clara was still on the phone with them thankfully, "Clara, something nearby is leeching all the external dimensions."

"Aliens?" she sobered more at the thought that there was something else there doing this.

"Possibly."

"Oh, who are we kidding?" the Doctor scoffed, "Probably."

"The sensors are down and we can't risk taking off with the TARDIS in this state," the Professor added.

"Clara, we need you to pick up the TARDIS," the Doctor instructed from the doors, "Carefully."

"It should be possible. I've adjusted the relative gravity."

The Doctor watched as Clara reached down and, gently, picked up the little box, putting them almost closer to eye level with her, "You mean you've made it lighter," she stated.

"It's always lighter," the Professor stated, "If the TARDIS were to land with its true weight, it would fracture the surface of the Earth…"

"Yeah," Clara cut in, "Lessons for another time, Gran. What now Gramps?"

The Time Lords smiled at that, Clara had taken to calling them her grandparents again and, while they tried to make it seem like they wouldn't fault her for not doing so last time…they really were so pleased she hadn't stopped doing that. The Professor knew the Doctor was pleased as well, even if he wasn't quite as obvious about it. He wanted to give off the impression he was still cross with the girl.

"I've managed to get a rough fix on the source of the dimensional leeching during one of the scans," the Professor informed her, "It's roughly north west."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at Clara's confused look, how she was turning her head this way and that to try and get her bearings and stuck his fingers out the box to point in the right direction, "That way."

"Please don't do that," Clara leaned back to avoid his hand, "That's just wrong."

"Doctor," the Professor called and he turned around to see her picking up a small wooden box off the console and tossing it to him, "Right, thanks," he nodded at her before turning back to Clara, "You're going to need these," he reached into his pocket and pulled out his small wallet, handing it to her through the doors.

"Oh, wow," Clara smiled as she saw the psychic paper in the wallet, "This is an honor. Does this mean I'm you two now?"

"No, it does not," the Doctor deadpanned, pointing a finger at her through the door, "So don't get any ideas. There can only be ONE Professor out there. Two of either of us and you've doomed the Universe. Understood?"

"Aye, aye!" Clara gave a mock salute, smiling though when he handed her the sonic as well before she moved to put the TARDIS in a bag on her side.

The Doctor rolled his eyes at that, he wasn't finished yet, "And listen!" he called, getting Clara's attention as she looked down at him through the doors, "Stick this in your ear," he managed to get the wooden box out there as well.

Clara frowned but took it, opening it and placing the small earpod over her ear, the Doctor signaling to the Professor to end the call to Clara's mobile.

"Can you hear me Clara?" the Professor called from the console, moving over to some of the other controls and getting to work on them as the Doctor came to help.

"Yes," Clara's voice responded, before she gasped, "Ow! What just happened?!"

"Sorry," the Professor offered, hearing a flinch in Clara's voice, "Nanotech."

"We just hacked your optic nerve," the Doctor brought the monitor over to the Professor, a static on the screen starting to clear to reveal the train station, as though they were seeing it from Clara's point of view…which they were.

"What does that mean?" Clara asked.

"It means we see what you see," the Professor told her, the two of them watching as she turned sharply in a circle, pointing the sonic around at a row of flats and scanning it, turning again past a mural of footprints and hand prints and other markings.

"Anything?"

"Yes, we're dizzy," the Doctor deadpanned, "And if my wife gets sick over that little spin…"

"Nothing useful," the Professor cut in, giving the Doctor a look, she was fine. A bit…lightheaded from the quick turn Clara had done, but fine.

"Try getting closer to north-west," the Doctor ordered lightly instead.

Clara nodded and started heading towards the train tracks, looking over when another voice called to her, "You never did tell me your name!" a young black boy in a bright worker's vest jogged over to her.

"No time to fraternize," the Doctor frowned, "Come on, get rid of him."

"I don't know," the Professor argued, "He could have a better idea of odd goings-on in the area if he works round there."

"I'm er…I'm the Professor," Clara turned to the boy.

"Don't you dare…" the Doctor half-glared at the monitor.

"I think it's sweet," the Professor laughed lightly, "Our granddaughter had to take after one of us," she lightly nudged him in the ribs.

"Professor Oswald," Clara continued, "But you can call me Clara."

"I'm Rigsy," the boy reached out to shake her hand, "So er, what are you a professor of?"

"Of lies," the Doctor mumbled.

"Oh…loads of things," Clara offered instead.

"Clara, see if he knows anything," the Professor offered.

"What are you exactly?" Rigsy continued to speak, "You don't smell like police but that's some pretty cool gear you got there," the man on screen gestured at her ear, "You like a spy, or something?"

"Oh, he's a bright one, hang on to him," the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"You hush or I'll go get my blaster," the Professor pointed at the Doctor, before looking at the monitor again, "Clara?"

"Funny you should say that," Clara began, "Listen…I have a few questions for you."

"Like what?" the boy shrugged.

"Those people, the ones that disappeared," Clara began, "Do you know any more of them?"

"A few..."

"Do you know the first one?"

"Yeah."

"And the latest?"

"Yes."

The Time Lords could practically hear the grin in Clara's voice, "Excellent."

The Doctor glanced at the Professor and sighed, "Better she take after you than me," he agreed reluctantly.

"That's just Clara though," the Professor reassured him, stepping closer to him, reaching out to place his hand on her stomach, "I'd rather like them to take after you."

He smiled at that, looking down at her stomach, at his hand, feeling the babies kicking beneath it, "No," he shook his head, "After the BOTH of us, I think."

"I CAN hear you," Clara's voice spoke as a sort of hissed-whisper, "Don't do your old people flirty thing. You want me on the case, you'd best be too."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at that, "Aye, aye," he mocked, saluting Clara now that she couldn't see him.

~8~

As it turned out, Rigsy truly WAS a bright one and it did them well for Clara to hang onto him as he not only knew who the most recent disappearance was, but also where they lived and had led Clara right to it, "He was the last one to go missing," he explained as Clara reached a doorway that was blocked by police tape that Rigsy merely pulled down, "And when he disappeared all the doors and windows were locked from the inside."

"Ooh, now you're talking," the Doctor grinned, not looking over at the Professor who was now quite smug that he'd been proven wrong, munching on an apple for good measure, "I love a good locked room mystery."

The Professor swallowed her last bite and moved closer to the monitor, frowning as Clara glimpsed what appeared to be a mural on the wall behind a short bookcase of CDs. It almost looked like the top of a desert, an aerial view but very close up, like a sandy, cracked piece of land. Why anyone would want a mural of that was beyond her.

"Yeah, doesn't everyone?" Clara murmured, answering the Doctor.

"What?" Rigsy looked over at her.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm talking to somebody else," they saw her arm move to tap her ear, the resounding thump accompanying it, "They're listening in. Doctor, Professor…Rigsy, Rigsy…the Doctor and Professor."

The Doctor rolled his eyes but flicked a switch, allowing Rigsy to hear them, "Hello, barely sentient local."

"Another Professor?" the boy asked.

"No," the Professor answered, "That was the Doctor. I'M the Professor."

"How do you sleep at night?" the Doctor scoffed, as though the boy SHOULD know which of them was who despite never having met them before, "Clara, missing people, tiny TARDIS, what's the link?"

"I think this is great that someone's finally looking into this," Rigsy remarked as Clara began to slowly wander the room, scanning with the sonic, the Time Lords looking at the readings as she went, "The police weren't doing anything. They never do on this estate. People were thinking that no one was listening. That no one cared. So, yeah. I think it's great what you're doing…"

"Clara, look, I think that we can manage on our own from now on," the Doctor began.

"He may still be useful," the Professor countered on Rigsy's behalf.

"We've got YOU," he looked at her, "What do we need anyone else for?"

"Can STILL hear you," Clara called.

"He lead Clara to the first disappearance," the Professor reminded him.

"We could have looked it up," he argued.

"And wasted time."

"HE'S wasting time gobbing on," the Doctor pouted.

The Professor snorted at that, "Says the man with the gob that never stops?"

"He's a pudding brain! Worse than that, he's a fluorescent pudding brain!"

"He could still be in the room," Rigsy remarked in thought, making them all fall silent, the Professor, though, gesturing at the monitor as though the boy had just proven her right.

"Sorry, what?" Clara turned to him.

"Sorry, nothing. I was just thinking out loud. It's like one of those locked room things you get in books. It's always something weird, like…he's still in the room or something. Do you want to go and check out another flat?"

"Doctor?" the Professor gave him a look that was steadily growing more and more smug.

He should have been annoyed by it, by the sheer smugness, but he was…honestly he was just happy that she was grinning. She'd been forced to sit down and watch him move about around the console, been forced to endure more calm trips for the sake of the babies, he was just thrilled this was something she could feel useful for, "Do you know," he returned her smile with a softer one, "I think that I was wrong about this lad. I think that he could be very useful. Vital local knowledge."

"Oh, really?" Clara turned to give herself a look in the mirror.

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "I mean, not as knowledgeable as the Professor, but I'M not even that knowledgeable. So try not to scare him off."

Clara scoffed, "How would I scare him off?"

"Clara," the Professor called, "If you could finish scanning we can get to another disappearance and see if there are any similar readings.

"Fine," Clara sighed and turned to do just that.

"Maybe he's lost in the desert, or something," Rigsy added, making Clara look over to reveal he was staring at the desert mural.

"Ok, right, are we missing something here?" Clara called out, more to them than Rigsy, "Missing man, locked room. Shrink ray?" she offered, scanning the mural.

The Professor frowned as a small beep went off on the console and turned to examine it.

"Sorry, did you say just say shrink ray?" Rigsy turned to her, incredulous.

"What if he is still in this room like you said, only tiny?" Clara spoke, "You know, like underneath the sofa or something."

"Clara," the Doctor let out a breath, "This is the scaring off that we were talking about. This is why I leave the talking to the Professor."

Clara snorted at that, "You leave the talking to the woman with the blaster and itchy trigger finger?"

"She doesn't insult people as much as I apparently do."

"True," Clara agreed as the Professor looked over and gestured the Doctor to come look at the reading of the mural.

"Ok," Rigsy was saying, "So er, my lunch break's nearly up. This…this has been er, interesting…"

"Clara," the Professor called, "Don't let him go, we need him to take us to the next location."

"Do something!" the Doctor agreed, the reading they'd gotten off the mural…it had the potential to be quite disturbing.

"Rigsy!" Clara turned to the boy who was already in the doorway about to head out, "One sec. Doctor…open the doors."

The Doctor looked at the Professor, a frown on his face, but she nodded, "If it keeps him sticking around…"

He sighed but nodded, heading over to the doors and opening them to reveal that Clara had placed the TARDIS on a shelf in full view of Rigsy.

"Meet the Doctor," Clara gestured at the TARDIS, the Professor watching from the console as Clara looked at the small box, the Doctor's face appearing in it through the doors, Rigsy looked quite startled "So, what do you think? Tiny man idea?"

"Yes, it's a lovely thought," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "One the Professor already considered, which is why I set the sonic to scan for that as soon as we entered."

"Manners!" the Professor's voice called over to him and he huffed.

"Pleased to meet you," he rolled his eyes at Rigsy.

"I saw that!" the Professor looked over at him, pointing at the monitor as he glanced back at her, "Blaster, husband, that is all I'm saying.

"And you didn't think to tell me?" Clara spoke up, pulling both their attention back to her.

"Well, of course he might have been squashed under a policeman's shoe by now," the Doctor offered, keeping his face pressed to the door. Just because Clara wanted Rigsy to see them, didn't mean he had to see everything about the TARDIS.

"What are you?" Rigsy breathed, "Like, aliens, or something?"

"No," Clara said quickly when Rigsy looked at her too, "Well, he and the Professor are."

"The Professor's in there too?" Rigsy blinked as though he couldn't fathom how she fit.

"Doctor!" the Professor shouted as an alarm began to go off in the TARDIS moments after a sizzling noise sounded in the room. The Doctor hurried to her side as she examined what the readings were.

"Professor?" Clara moved to the doors and peeked in, "Doctor, did you hear that?"

"Yes," the Professor nodded, "Whatever it was, it just drained a massive amount of energy," she glanced at the Doctor, frowning, "From inside the TARDIS."

"What was it?"

The Professor sighed, "We don't know."

"But that's the least of our problems," the Doctor muttered, before turning to throw a look at Clara's face in the doorway, striding over to it, "Just get us out of there!" he shouted, slamming the doors.

Clara let out a huff, "Ok," she turned to Rigsy, "Rigsy, this is where we run. Stick with me," she moved for the door at a quick pace, the boy right behind her, the two starting to run once they had stepped foot over the doorway.

"This is just embarrassing," the Professor murmured quietly, looking at the Doctor with a frown, "We're from the race that built the TARDIS. Dimensions are our thing. So why can't I understand this?"

The Doctor reached out and rubbed her arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead, hearing tears in her voice. Her emotions really were all over the place and he didn't want her more upset or worked up than she was. So he gently led her over to the armchair and sat her down, "Take a moment to rest," he told her, "I'll get you a nice cuppa, eh?"

The Professor sniffled, angrily wiping at her eye, hating that she was crying over something so stupid, but she couldn't help it. Bloody hormones, "And a crumpet?"

He chuckled softly, "And a crumpet," he agreed, heading down the steps to the comms. they'd been using, "Clara, we need more info," he told her, "Where else have people disappeared? Go find one of them, the first one if possible, and let us know when you're ready to scan. We need to see if there are any links between the two homes. Alright?"

"You got it," Clara agreed.

The Doctor turned to look at the Professor once more as she sulkily traced patterns and letters on her stomach before he moved to head to the halls to get her what she requested.

~8~

The Professor rubbed her forehead, shaking her head at Clara when a police woman handed her back the psychic paper she'd shown the woman as proof of ID, "MI5?"

She turned to give the Doctor a look, "That was the best she could do?" she murmured, the speakers had been reset so only Clara could hear them, but she didn't want to talk too loudly with that comment.

He just grinned in reply, "Mystery Shoppers?" he supplied, reminding her of their last trip. She had to nod at that, they'd come up with far worse in the past.

"Yes," Clara spoke, a bit too loudly, likely that she'd heard them, "This case has got our attention."

"Well, you've come to the right place, ma'am," the lovely black officer smiled, "First reported disappearance, a Mr. Heath. It's not on the estate, but it's exactly the same MO as the rest."

"Clara, we think that your shrink ray theory was wrong," the Doctor called to her.

"My shrink ray theory?" Clara responded quietly, stepping away and using her mobile as a cover for talking to no one that the officer could see, "I thought you were already scanning for that."

"It's like they vanished…" the officer continued to speak to Rigsy in Clara's place.

"Clara," the Professor spoke up, "Look around, is there anything odd around the walls? Like the mural from before?"

"Why?" Clara asked, but turned to look around.

"Locked room mysteries," the Doctor explained, heading for the doors with a large hammer in his hand, "Classic solution number one, they're still in the room."

"Classic solution number two, they're in the walls," the Professor agreed.

"What do you mean, they're in the…" Clara trailed off and the Professor looked over to see the Doctor had opened the doors and pushed the hammer out the small opening, into Clara's periphery.

"Have we done as much as we could?" the officer was still complaining, "No. Do we have any suspects? No. Off the record, I think the top brass are hoping if they ignore this it'll all just go away."

"Apparently they're in the walls," Clara turned to face the others, lowering her phone and holding the hammer out to Rigsy. The boy eyed it a moment before shrugging and taking it, moving over to the nearest wall and starting to smash it apart. Clara glanced over when another mobile rang and the officer answered.

"PC Forrest," the woman gave Clara an apologetic look and turned to head out of the room to take the call, "Yes, sir. MI5, sir…"

"So," Rigsy glanced back at them, "You and those two in the box. You do this sort of stuff a lot?"

"Oh, well, they're usually out of the box," Clara waved it off, "But, yep."

"So how'd you get this gig? You study science, or aliens, or something?"

That drew a laugh from Clara, "No. Well, it's kind of a more of a right place, right time or wrong place, wrong time depending on how he's behaving, worst time and time depending what mood she's in lately."

"Thanks Clara," the Professor huffed, "I'm pregnant, not homicidal."

The Doctor wisely kept his remark of 'could have fooled me' to himself, instead calling out, "We CAN hear you, you know."

Clara didn't have a chance to respond to that before a scream sounded in the other room, one that sounded very much like the officer. Rigsy and Clara were out of the room in moments, the Doctor back at the Professor's side, watching as the two ran into the very next room…only to see the officer was nowhere to be seen.

"PC Forrest?" Clara called, searching for her, "Hello? Hello?" she moved to the middle of the room where the woman's torch was lying on the carpet, "She's gone…"

"Clara, look up a moment?" the Professor called, frowning and squinting as she caught something out of the corner of Clara's eyes, "To the left…that's it," she nodded, seeing an odd squiggling mural on the wall behind a sofa as well. It looked like a stringy fire going across the wall, but with an almost mirror image below it as well, "That…scan that a moment Clara."

"What are we missing?" the Doctor moved to the controls, taking the readings Clara got as she scanned the wall, "The TARDIS should be able to detect anything in the known universe…" he trailed off as the console beeped, the same results they'd gotten from the other mural.

"That mural," the Professor breathed, "It's not a mural. It's a nervous system scaled up and flattened."

The Doctor was grim as he joined her side once more, frowning as he looked at the image, seeing it now, "I think we've found PC Forrest. What's left of her, at least…"

"Her…nervous system?" Clara's voice sounded queasy.

"And that other one, in the last flat, it wasn't the desert, it was a microscopic blow up of human skin," she'd feared it might be that after the last scan revealed human DNA mixed with the image. She would have thought it was just someone that had touched it, or touched the paint when it was dry. But for another mural to appear, to have the same results, for that pattern to be visible…she knew what it was now.

"What?" Clara gasped, "Why?"

"Whatever they are, they are experimenting," the Professor began, "They're testing."

"They are…they are dissecting," the Doctor glanced at the Professor who had gone a bit green at that, her morning sickness had faded off, but too much of a certain smell or description could bring the nausea up again.

"Trying to understand us," the Professor nodded weakly, "Like Skaldak but not quite."

"How is it not quite like Skaldak?" Clara shook her head, making the image shake, the Ice Warrior had done the same, but more violently.

"I think…they may be trying to understand three dimensions."

Clara jumped and spun around as the sizzling noise sounded again moments before a door slammed shut. Rigsy hurried over to it, trying to pull the door open, but pulled his hand away from the knob quickly, "Ow…" he gaped in horror at the door, reaching out to touch the knob once more only to end up pressing his hand to the door, it looked like it had been painted onto the wood when it had very much been three dimensional moments before, "The handle…"

"They've flattened the handle," Clara called to the Time Lords.

"Fascinating," the Doctor breathed.

The Professor though turned from green to white as she looked at the door in horror.

"Clara," she leaned forward, urgent, "They're in the walls! You must keep away from them. If they touch you, you're finished."

Clara spun around to see the sofa and cushions looking as though they were being sucked into the walls, now turning 2D as well.

"What happens if they touch us?" Rigsy leapt back from an armchair going the same.

"They'll dissect you," the Professor called, "Use the parts of you they haven't examined from others to learn more about you. Each species is unique and right now they're focusing on humans."

The Doctor looked over at the Professor for that last one, sensing something more in her words, it was almost like she was familiar with this…had seen this before…

"That chair!" the Professor shouted, "The hanging chair, get on it!"

Clara and Rigsy hurried over to a chair that was hanging from the ceiling by a thick chain.

"Because they can't jump?" Clara asked the Professor.

"They have to travel along a flat surface," the Professor nodded, "So long as you don't touch the ground, they can't get you."

"How do you know?!" Rigsy cried.

"Because I've faced the Boneless before."

"The Boneless?" Clara shook her head again, "That's what they're called? What sort of rubbish species is called 'the Boneless?'"

The Professor knew Clara was only asking that because she was frightened, trying to make lighter of the situation, "They were only called that…after I finished dealing with them."

Clara fell silent at that, if she was going to say something more, it was cut off by her mobile ringing.

"Hey, you…" Clara quickly answered, starting to talk to Danny and failing miserably at keeping her voice steady.

The Professor looked over at the Doctor who was giving her an expectant look, "Later," she promised, knowing he wanted an explanation, "We need to get them out first."

He nodded and looked back at the monitor, trying to find a way to get the two out of there, "Clara, the window!" he pointed at the screen as the fireplace and walls and floor began to shimmer and wobble, like the wall in the good's lift that had led to the Shakri craft, "Swing!"

Clara kept trying to talk to Danny even as she and Rigsy began to rock the chair back and forth, getting closer and closer to the large bay windows just in the wall, the wobbling moving up the walls to the ceiling now, trying to loosen the chair to drop it.

"Clara, look up and, on my count, shatter the window," the Professor ordered and Clara did just that, staring up at the ceiling as the wobbling around the hook of the chair got worse, "Ok…in 3…2…1…now!" she shouted and Clara flicked the sonic on, shattering the window just as the wobbling released chair, sending them flying out the window and rolling onto the ground.

The Doctor moved to turn the monitor away a moment, facing the Professor, "The Boneless?"

She sighed, "The High Council sent me," she told him, "They were dimensional shifters the Daleks were trying to recruit. They would have been able to infiltrate our bases, slip between all dimensions and reform within our strongholds, plant bombs we wouldn't be able to find, hide them in paintings and murals. They tasked me to come up with a way to stop them…so I did. Sent me to their home world and I set off a dimensional trap, caught them only in the two dimensional world. It had always been a theory among the Academics, a possibility, I just…managed to work it out in the end. Any other world and they'd become too powerful. I thought it would be safest…it seems they're learning to work through the trap."

He nodded at that, "How did they get here?"

"I don't know," she shook her head, "They could have latched onto a ship that might have touched down, or to a Dalek and gotten off the planet till they ended up here."

"Do you know a way to stop them?" he asked her.

He knew her, he knew how she thought, especially during the war it was FAR too easy to predict how her mind worked then. She would have gone to the homeworld with two devices, one to trap them, and one to destroy them if need be. She wouldn't have just stuck them in a 2D world and not had any way to stop them if they managed to escape or came close to it.

"Yes," she swallowed, looking up at the console, "But…"

"You want to give them a choice," he nodded himself, already guessing that, already planning to do the same. It was good to have a backup though, if negotiations went sour, "I was thinking that as well. The War is over, they have no allegiance to the Daleks any longer, no one to fight and no reason to. If we can get through to them, make them realize what they're doing is harming others, they may stop."

"I…don't think they will," she warned him, "It was…ages ago that I trapped them. They may be too desperate to want to stop."

"Then WE stop them," he said easily, almost too easily, "We give them a choice, we warn them what the consequences would be to trying to take over the earth or use the humans like they are, and we see what they do."

The Professor let out a gentle breath at that, her hand resting on her stomach, "Agreed."

Clara was out there, and if the Boneless tried to harm her…

Speaking of Clara, she looked back over at the monitor to see Clara and Rigsy were walking back towards the train tracks, the disappearances all having happened in the same area, only a street away from the rail yard.

"You're quite the good liar, Clara," the Professor remarked.

"Yeah?" Clara responded, "Well, thought it was pretty weak myself."

"I wasn't talking about lying to Danny just then," she corrected, recalling Clara's shouts to the man when he'd called that she was trying to help a boy find his aunt somewhere, "You told us Danny was ok with you being back onboard the TARDIS."

"Well, he is," Clara insisted.

"Yeah, because he doesn't know anything about it," the Doctor agreed, crossing his arms disapprovingly.

"Oh don't give me a lecture now, gramps!" Clara groaned.

"Congratulations," the Doctor cut in, "Lying is a vital survival skill."

"Well…there you go."

"And a terrible habit."

"And a terrible mistake to think you could lie to us and we wouldn't suspect," the Professor added, wincing when a bit of feedback struck, followed by static on Clara's end, "Blowing out the window affected the earpiece," she warned Clara, "Take it out and sonic it."

"Doing it," Clara pulled it out of her ear, unfortunately cutting off their communication and sight with her in the process.

The Professor frowned and looked down at her stomach, "They won't lie to us…will they?" she looked up at him.

"Oh undoubtedly," the Doctor sighed, solemn, "When they don't want to get in trouble or when they want to sweeten us up, when they're older and don't want us to know what trouble they're getting into, when they're embarrassed they like someone…"

The Professor smiled faintly, "I meant about important things. I…I've never raised a child before Theta, I don't…I want them to trust me. I want them to be able to talk to me about anything without fear that I'll get cross with them or be disappointed in them."

The Doctor nodded at that, understanding, "We'll just have to do the best we can to make them know that," he reached out to touch her stomach as well, "We'll set an example for them. No lying."

She gave him an amused look, "Rule 1?"

He blinked, "Ah…"

She laughed at that, "Amended Rule 1: No lying to them."

He gave her a little grin for that, "I can do that."

"And, speaking of doing things…" she looked at the monitor, "Clara?" but there was silence, "Clara? Clara!"

"Look, Clara," the Doctor tried, "Talk to us, talk to us!"

A moment later the image came back as Clara appeared to be placing the earpiece back in her ear, reconnecting their communications and sight.

"Good."

The Professor, however, was frowning at the sight of another set of murals. Clara seemed to be standing in a short tunnel, lined on either side by images of people with their backs to her, "Clara!"

"Ah," Clara winced, her hand flying up to her ear as more feedback started, "A bit quieter if you please," she muttered.

"Clara, the mural," the Professor tried to lower her voice more, "Do you see it? It's the missing people, they're in the walls."

"What do I do?" Clara asked them, turning her back on a small group of men in similar work uniforms as Rigsy that had joined them.

"Act normal, but get everyone out," the Doctor ordered.

"They're very realistic," Clara turned back to the men, walking over to them, "Who painted them?"

"I don't know," Rigsy sighed, "A local artist. Probably a grieving relative."

"Did you ever meet them? Or did they just appear after people disappeared?" she said the last three words pointedly, likely giving Rigsy a meaningful look.

"And who are you when you're at home, love?" one of the men, a rather old, rather crabby looking man nearly sneered at Clara.

Clara held up the psychic paper, "Health and safety. This subway is unsafe. Everyone needs to leave right now."

The Doctor couldn't help but smile at that, glancing at the Professor, "You be health and I'll be safety?" he joked, recalling a few other times they'd gone that route.

"I'd rather be safety and you be health," she teased, making him chuckle.

The crabby old man, however, just glowered at Clara, "This is blank. Try again, sweetheart."

"What?!" Clara spun the paper to look at it.

"It takes quite a lack of imagination to beat psychic paper," the Doctor muttered.

"Stan," the man spun to another worker who had a bucket and brush in hand, "Do your job!"

"Clara stop him!" the Professor shouted, seeing the man reaching for the wall with the brush, intent to wash what he thought was paint away.

Clara had only just fully turned to the wall when the man, Stan, was literally sucked into the wall with a shout.

"Stan!" Rigsy gasped, stumbling back to Clara as the images on the wall started to turn around.

"What is this?" one of the other men breathed, "What are they?!"

"They're wearing the dead like camouflage," the Professor warned, "Clara you need to get out of there."

"Forget Stan," Clara yelled at the men as they seemed completely stunned motionless, "Your friend's gone."

"Clara, get them out of there!" the Doctor ordered.

Clara nodded, "We need to move. Now!" she reached out and grabbed Rigsy's arm, pulling him away with her as they ran down the small tunnel, glancing back to see the images sliding down the wall and into the ground…following them. She shook her head and focused ahead, following the men now as they took the lead, rushing into the rail yard, to a train shed and hurried inside, slamming the rusty door behind them. Clara turned quickly and flicked the sonic at the lock, sealing them in.

"Did they follow us?" a second man wheezed from the run, "'Cos I didn't see them follow us. Are we safe?"

"Are we really hiding from killer graffiti?" the first man rounded on the others, "This is insane."

"It's the Boneless, not Killer Graffiti," the Professor mumbled.

"And Stan was one of them," the second man cried, "Flattened, dead, but coming after us!"

"Clara," the Professor leaned closer, her voice dropping lower, growing serious, signaling Clara to pay close attention, "This is a vital stage. Right now they're all confused and disorientated but pretty soon a leader is going to emerge. You need to make sure that leader is you."

"I'm on it," Clara nodded, striding over to the other men, "George," she faced the second, frantic man, eyeing his uniform name tag quickly, "George, isn't it? Can you watch that area?" she pointed to the side a few feet away, "If you hear anything, anything moves, you shout, ok?"

"He will do no such thing until I get some answers!" the old man snapped, "Who are you? That's what I want to know. Impersonating a government official. Trespassing on council property…"

"Seriously?" Clara scoffed.

"Seriously."

"Fine, I'll tell you who I am. I am the one chance you've got of staying alive. That's who I am."

"Well done," the Doctor smiled slightly at that.

"She sounds just like you," the Professor reached out to put a hand on his arm, "Seems she takes after more than just me," she joked, watching as Clara got the men to work.

"Rigsy, how well do you know this area?" Clara turned to him, "Do you know where that door leads?" she nodded to one behind them.

"It's the old Brunswick line," Rigsy shrugged, "But it's not safe."

"Well, there's safe and there's safe," the first man, Al, judging by the name tag, mumbled.

"Yeah, I know it. I used to go down there all the time."

"Yeah, I'll bet you did," the old man grumbled, sneering at Rigsy, "Painting your filth."

"If I were there…" the Professor curled her hand into a fist as it rested on her stomach. The Doctor just chuckled and reached out to put his hand over hers, squeezing it lightly, rubbing his thumb over the back of it to soothe her though…he probably would have punched the man out by now as well.

"Yeah, well, you might be glad he did," Clara countered, "Those things come in here, that is our only way out," she turned and walked away a few feet, her voice lowering to speak to just them, "I just hope I can keep them all alive."

"Welcome to our world," the Doctor mused, "So what's next, Professor Clara?"

Clara took a deep breath, "Lie to them."

"What?" both Time Lords asked.

"Lie to them. Give them hope. Tell them they're all going to be fine. Isn't that what you two would do?"

The Professor paused to consider that, "In a manner of speaking," she admitted, "Statistically, people with hope tend to run faster, whereas people who think they're doomed…"

"Dawdle," Clara cut in, "End up dead."

"So that's what I sound like," the Doctor hummed.

"The Professor too sometimes."

"Bah," the Doctor waved that off, "I've never heard her sound like that."

The Professor rolled her eyes, knowing he'd heard her like that thousands of times before. But she shook her head, focusing back on the matter at hand, "Clara, do you remember just after we gave you the sonic, that other mural of the foot princes and other markings?"

"Vaguely," she answered.

"It wasn't a mural, it was the Boneless. I…kept track of them just after I dealt with them, just at the beginning, more to make sure that the trap held. They had a pattern for operation. They tried to use the images and impressions of what was left around them to communicate back, but no one noticed them."

"And now they've moved on to flattening and dissection," the Doctor guessed, "Trying to understand. Trying to emulate. But here's the big question. Do they actually know they're hurting us?"

"So what?" Clara sighed, "You think this is all one big misunderstanding?"

"It's doubtful," the Professor warned, "But I can't be certain. I wasn't of the mind to actually get to know everything about my targets, only what was useful and necessary for the mission. Nor did I really care what came after so long as the goal was met and met quickly."

"We would have to ask them," the Doctor agreed.

"And how do we do that?" Clara looked around.

"There!" the Professor pointed at the screen, "That tannoy to your left," Clara spun to look at it, "We can put in the frequency of the TARDIS to the sonic and, if you scan it, we should be able to broadcast a message to them from it."

Clara sighed but headed for it, calling Rigsy over with a step-ladder sitting near him, climbing up it and starting to sonic the old, rusting speakers, "CAN the TARDIS translate to their language? It didn't morph the impression from before into words."'

"The two dimensional world has a two dimensional language to it. It's complicated, it would have taken the TARDIS too long to actually morph it into our words so she left it."

"This is a bad idea," the old man ambled over, glaring up at Clara, having over heard and seen her talking into her earpiece, "What makes these colleagues of yours think those monsters even want to talk?"

"I know a race made of sentient gas who throw fireballs as a friendly wave," the Professor offered as the Doctor moved around the TARDIS trying to find something while she watched Clara working.

"I know another race with 64 stomachs who talk to each other by disemboweling," he called.

"And I've had experience with them before Clara," the Professor added.

"They've got a hunch," was all Clara offered to the other humans though.

"The point being that, in a universe as immense and bizarre as this one, you cannot be too quick to judge," the Doctor rejoined the Professor at the console, "These creatures may not even know that they're hurting us."

"Do you really believe that?"

"No," the Professor sighed, "I don't believe it at all," anyone that even gave pause to consider the Dalek cause she would never believe meant no harm, "But…" she rubbed her stomach, she didn't want her children to see them just assuming the Boneless were hostile without giving them the chance to explain. At a stretch, what if they were on Earth to apologize to the last Time Lords for the War and ask them for help returning to their former form? They had to be sure, the children were developing so quickly she was sure they were conscious and aware of what was going on by now, "We can hope."

"It would make a nice change, wouldn't it?" the Doctor agreed.

"Right," the Professor stepped over to the keyboard as Clara finished, "Starting with pi, it's the longest sequence of numbers," she explained as she started to put in the command, "It's an extension, an invitation, to either ignore or cut off and respond."

They watched on the monitor as the speakers kicked on and a note rang out through the train shed…only stopping after a moment when a beep went off in the console.

"They're responding," the Doctor called, "The TARDIS is translating now. It's a number…"

"55," the Professor called, frowning.

"55?" Clara seemed equally confused, "What does that mean?"

"Tenth Fibonacci number?" the Doctor offered, citing the 'perfect sequence' the one that defined nature and harmony and balance…

"Atomic number of caesium," the Professor countered, anything 'atomic' could be a threat…

"I know what it means," Rigsy spoke quietly, pulling their attention to the monitor where Clara was looking at Rigsy tugging at his jacket, "We all have numbers on our jackets. Have to sign them out. That was the number on Stan's jacket, the man they flattened in the subway."

"They're gloating!" the old man hissed.

"We don't know that," the Doctor argued.

"It could be an apology, for all we know," Clara agreed.

"Really?" Al hesitated, "That's nice of them."

The old man scoffed though, "An apology? Are you seriously…"

He was cut off by another high-pitched noise sounding over the speakers, Clara quieting them to allow the TARDIS to translate.

"22," the Professor called after a moment.

"22," Clara repeated.

Rigsy stiffened, "That's George."

The old man turned his head to look at the man that Clara had sent off to keep watch, "Looks like your number's up, George," before he focused back on Clara, "Now they're threatening."

"Maybe," Clara murmured, "Or maybe they're showing us they can read."

"Oh, grow up! They're picking targets."

"Of course you'd see it that way," Rigsy rolled his eyes.

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Clara," the Professor spoke.

"What?" she replied.

"George hasn't said anything," the Professor mentioned. If someone had told her her number was up or that she was being threatened, she would have responded by now.

Clara seemed to realize that as well and turned to look over at George herself, "George?" she called to the man who was standing very still a few feet away, staring ahead at the other side of the room, unmoving, not even reacting to Rigsy and the old man starting to shout at each other.

"Clara, be careful," the Doctor warned as Clara started to move closer to George.

Clara paused, her breath catching as she noticed something…and stepped to the side to look at George from another angle, only to see the man was nothing more than a 2D image…which disintegrated to the floor moments later, "The tunnel!" she spun back around to the others, running back to them, "They've got George!"

"We know," the Doctor spoke, "We saw."

"What now?"

"Professor?" he turned to her, she nodded, starting to get to work on the console, to prepare the box to stop the Boneless, "Give me a minute Clara," he called back to her, moving to the other side of the console and gathering supplies to make something, "We're working on it…"

The Professor glanced up, hearing a slam on the monitor to see Clara and the others had run far away, into the tunnel, one that looked rather disused, so old that the railway track had been removed, the slamming having been from them first entering. They were slowing down now, nearing a rusty door with a wheel on the middle of it, one that was flat, just like the one in the first victim's flat had been.

"Another flat handle," Clara told them, "They were here. Not now. They've stopped chasing us, I think. It feels like they're cornering us."

"You can't apply human logic," the Professor shook her head, still moving around the console to get the right settings, "You're dealing with creatures from another dimension."

"That's three exits all blocked by those creatures," Al reported.

"Rigsy, where's the next exit?" Clara asked.

"The only other one I can think of is where the old line joins the new, but it's a fair walk," Rigsy answered, "Getting through that door would be quicker."

"But we can't, can we?" the old man snapped, sorely tempting the Professor to grab her blaster off the armchair and go to the door and fire a shot just to spook the man to stop talking…or, you know, 'accidently' get him in the foot…

"I'm just saying…"

"Clara," the Doctor hurried over to the Professor, holding up the small device he was working on, silently asking her to pause her work and help him with his, wanting to get this done as fast as possible, "We might be able to help with that door. Give us five minutes…"

"With my chubby little fingers, we may need six," the Professor grumbled.

The Doctor just grabbed one of her hands and kissed her pointer finger in response, all the time they could afford to waste at the moment, though it made her smile regardless.

~8~

Almost five minutes exactly, Clara's voice echoed through the TARDIS once more, "So this thing you're working on…"

"We've figured out a way to restore three dimensions," the Professor called, that had been what the Doctor had wanted her to look at, if she trapped them in the second dimension, she would have known how to restore them to the third.

"At least on a small scale," the Doctor warned, that failsafe being needed in case the Boneless got hold of it, "Say door handles."

"So, what's that, then?" Clara asked, "A de-flattener?"

"No," the Professor grimaced at the name, "We're not calling it a de-flattener."

The Doctor moved to the doors, pulling them open and sticking the device out them, handing it off to Clara. It was rather crude, even by their standards, but not much could be done in five minutes with just what was on hand. It ended up looking like a rather old calculator with a ball on top of it and a little satellite dish attached to the end as well.

"This should be able to restore dimensions," the Professor informed Clara as the Doctor came back to her side.

"You see what I've called it?" he asked Clara eagerly.

"Two D Is?" Clara murmured, "Two Dee Iz?"

"No," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Twodis. It's called the Twodis," he looked at the Professor for help but she only shook her head at him, amused, making him sigh, "Why'd I even bother?" before he waved his hand at nothing in particular, "Well, give it a go, then."

They watched as Clara held the device up to the door they needed to get through, the one with the flat wheel and activated it. Small pulses of green light drifted out of it, causing smoke to emit from the device and a spark to go off…the wheel still flat.

"Long way round it is," Clara muttered, pushing the Twodis into her bag, through the doors of the TARDIS once more.

The Doctor stepped over and picked up the device, only to look up startled, when alarms began to ring, sending him and the Professor rushing around the console, "Clara, I don't know how, but they're doing it again. They're leeching the TARDIS!"

"How?! Your doors are closed."

"They've changed frequency," the Professor realized, "This time it's different…"

Clara turned to the other men and started to shout, "Listen! The Doctor and Professor think we might be in trouble. They think they might be close…"

"Where, exactly?" the old man demanded.

"I don't know. They're not sure. They're getting readings all around…" she trailed off, her gaze locked on something down the tunnel, pulling the Time Lords' attention to her line of sight where something appeared to be forming in the light that was at the end of the tunnel, like a shadowy shape…

"Oh, that's just great," the old man grumbled, "Sounds important but means absolutely nothing. Can you tell your friends…"

"Clara behind him!" the Professor called a warning as she spotted what looked like a giant hand on the wall of the tunnel, one of the graffiti designs, separate from the wall and grab for Al. But it was too late, it snatched him up into the air, pulling him right back into the wall as he screamed, "They're breaking through the trap," she breathed, the Boneless one step closer to true 3D.

"Run!" Rigsy suddenly shouted, pointing to the ground where lumps and wobbling appeared just like in the flat from earlier.

"The door," Clara called to the Time Lords as they looked around for a way out, a safe path to go down, "The handle's flattened…"

The Doctor ran for the doors, shoving the Twodis out them once more, "I've boosted the output!"

"And it will work this time?"

"Absolutely," he hurried back to the Professor, watching on the screen as Clara turned to the door, clicking it on. The streams of green energy drifted out, just like before, but this time the wheel became dimensional once more.

Rigsy hurried forward and got the door open, slamming it shut behind them and spinning the wheel to lock it.

"Clara, wait!" the Professor shouted as the girl moved to run, "Use it again. It can reverse the process."

"There's a ladder at the end of this," Rigsy told the others, "If we get down into the tunnel, we can make it into daylight."

Clara nodded, "Hang on! Hang on…" she moved to the door and clicked the Twodis on once more, flattening the wheel, hoping it would slow the Boneless down.

"If it's flat, we're safe now, aren't we?" the old man asked.

"They can't get through, can they?" Rigsy turned to Clara.

"Wait…" Clara murmured, staring at the door, hearing a crackling from the other side of the door.

"Clara, run!" the Professor shouted when the wheel became 3D once more, the Boneless working on it form the other side, "They're learning," she sighed, running a hand through her hair, "They were able to manifest in 3D for a moment, but it's enough for them to be able to restore the dimensions they flattened. They can reverse what they've done…it's only a matter of time before they can do the same to what I've done…" she moved to the other side of the console, to where she'd been putting in the commands to stop the Boneless permanently and cursed silently under her breath.

The Doctor moved to her side, his hand resting on her back as he leaned over to see what had cause her such distress, "Clara, do you want the good news or the bad news?"

"We're in the bad news!" Clara shouted, panting as she ran, "I'm living the bad news!"

"The good news is the Professor has a way to send them back to their own dimension and destroy that pocket of it."

"Do it! Now!"

"That's the bad news," the Professor sighed, "The TARDIS doesn't have enough dimensional energy to pull it off."

"Great," Clara huffed as she and the two men came to a rest on a railed ledge on the upper portion of the tunnel, needing to catch their breath, "What do you want me to do about it?"

"The Boneless can release dimensional energy as equally as they can steal it…"

"Maybe if I ask them really nicely, they'll fill you up again!" Clara grumbled, "Hey!" gasped as the old man grabbed at her bag and yanked the TARDIS out of it.

"Give me that machine!" he demanded, looking for the Twodis, "Hand it over!" he managed to nab the Twodis as well, but Rigsy rushed forward to try and grab it back from him…

And the next thing the Time Lords knew, Clara was watching as the TARDIS fell over the railing and into the darkness.

"Doctor?!" Clara called, suddenly frantic, as the TARDIS shook and alarms began to blare, the lights going red, "Professor! I'm sorry! I dropped you down a hole. Where are you?"

"We don't know," the Doctor shouted as he and the Professor tried to get the computers working again, as it was, they could barely hear Clara or see anything useful.

"The shields have gone," the Professor reported, "Structural integrity is failing…"

"Another blow like that and we…" he cut himself of suddenly, not about to entertain that thought. He moved over to the doors to look out, to try and get their bearings and nearly laughed at how truly terrible his luck was, "We're on the train lines," he called back, "…and there's a train coming."

"Oh of course there is!" the Professor huffed, trying to get anything back online.

"Short-term re-materialization?" the Doctor called to her, keeping watch on the train. Of course, they would also land on a raised part of the track, on concrete slabs, so there was no room for the train to pass over them.

"Not enough power," the Professor shook her head.

"Teleport?"

"Not enough power."

"Reroute the heart of the TARDIS through…"

"There is NOT enough power, husband!" the Professor snapped.

"Can't you move the TARDIS?" Clara called, alarmed, still able to hear them.

"Clara, there is no power," the Professor huffed, slamming her hands on the console in frustration, refusing to let her angry/scared tears fall, not when she needed to focus on what she could do to get them out of this. This was her job damn it! It was her thing to come up with plans quickly!

"Listen," the Doctor started to move back towards the console, to the Professor, sensing her anger and frustration and fear and wanting to comfort her, "Do what you can to get those people out of there. You're stronger than you know…"

"No," Clara cut in, "I mean, can't you move the TARDIS. Like Addams Family?"

The Time Lords froze and looked at each other a moment before the Doctor bolted back to the doors, crouching slightly to stick his hand through the opening enough to get his whole hand out, shifting a bit to start using his fingers to drag the box along the concrete and towards the edge…

"We're off!" the Doctor called back to the Professor, not pulling his hand in yet, wanting to get the box up and to the side just a little more, to clear the train completely.

"Clara Oswald you are a genius!" the Professor shouted.

"There we go!" the Doctor cheered, pulling his hand in when he was sure they were safe and shut the doors, starting to dance a little jig back towards the Professor, humming the Addams Family tune as he went.

He'd just reached the console when the TARDIS jolted. His eyes widened and he turned to hurry back to the doors, looking out to see that the vibration of the oncoming train had shaken the TARDIS right back onto the tracks…and this time the train was too close for him to be able to move it in time.

"Professor!" he shouted over to her as the train got dangerously close.

She ducked down near the edge of the console and pulled something under it, filling the TARDIS with a bright light, nearly blinding them both…before it dimmed. The lights low, the computers off, the only real light coming from the rotor. The Doctor moved quickly to her side, helping her get back up, the two of them looking at the dead console, their communication to Clara cut off, the room sealed, even the path to the halls had closed, leaving them trapped in just that room. There was no opening at all that they could see, not the vents, not the windows, nothing.

They were trapped, with whatever air and heat the room naturally had…which didn't inspire much good thought as the chill was already starting to creep in.

"I don't know if you can still hear us out there, Clara," the Doctor called, moving his arm around the Professor, "But the TARDIS is now in siege-mode."

"There's no way in, and no way out," the Professor let out a breath, "I managed to turn it on just before the train hit. But…" they looked at the console, deep frowns on their faces, "There's not enough power left now to turn it off."

~8~

"No, no, no, what are you doing?!" the Doctor hit the scanner with a huff before he stomped up the small steps to where the Professor was curled up as much as she could be on the arm chair, a blanket wrapped around her. She shifted, giving him a pointed look as she made room for him, telling him he had BETTER sit beside her, and so he did.

"I'm sorry, Kata," he murmured after a moment.

"For what?" she snuggled into his shoulder, her breath coming out as a soft puff.

"I was the one to put the TARDIS in siege mode."

"To save our lives."

"Prolong, maybe," he muttered.

"Don't think about it," the Professor whispered, a small crack in her voice telling him not to DARE imply that they or their children were about to die, "Clara…she's smart, we taught her well, she'll find a way to fix this."

"At the end of the day, she's a pudding brain."

"But she's OUR pudding brain," the Professor reminded him, "She's a…low fat, sugar free, dairy free pudding. She's not as bad as the other puddings."

He chuckled at that, "Maybe she's not."

"She's our granddaughter, we have to trust she'll work it out."

"If we must," he sighed, reaching up to run his hand through her hair, "I just…"

"Don't think about it," the Professor repeated, "Trust me, Theta, thinking about what's coming or what might be coming only makes it worse," there was a sorrow in her voice that reminded him she had ample experience with that, both in her training and the war, "Think of something else, it makes it hurt less to distract yourself. Think of something pleasant and hopeful."

"Like what?"

"Names."

"Names?"

"For our children, what should we call them?"

He chuckled, "We already have names."

And they did, they'd picked out Gallifreyan names for their children when…well, when they had been children themselves. When they'd had their lives ahead of them and all the hope in the Universe of actually being Bonded one day. It had taken hours of arguing, but they'd finally picked names.

"But one boy and one girl," she shook her head, her eyes drifting shut at the warmth around her despite the chill in the air, "What if it's two of each."

"Then we reverse gender the other name," he suggested, "Both could be altered to be a girl or boy's name."

She hummed lightly, "That's true."

"Then we don't need to talk about names."

"They'll need other names," she reminded him, "How would we introduce them to Clara? Or to Martha or Jack? We can't tell them their names, we need something that others can call them till they decide if they want to title themselves."

The Doctor blinked at that, "That's…true," he mimicked.

"Well then," she sighed in contentment, "We had better get started…"

~8~

Thinking of names had worked better than the Doctor thought it would, but then again there were…quite a few names to be thought of. Should they rhyme? Should they relate to each other? Should they be utterly different? Should they mean something? Should it be an actual human-like name? Or perhaps just a nickname? Like…pudding and crumpet or something else? They hadn't come to a decision at all but it had helped distract him, ease them both, give them hope and get their minds off the state of the TARDIS. But there was little to be done now. Air was getting harder to take in and it was up to Clara entirely to save them this time.

The Doctor wound his arms around the Professor tighter, "Life support failing," he murmured, the Professor even more tired and affected than he was given the extra strain it was putting on her body, she was completely unconscious and he was doing all he could to not use what little oxygen and heat they had left by raging about that. He was going to hold her as long as possible, be as calm as possible so that the air would last longer. Just a little longer, he had to hope, just a little longer and Clara would figure something out, he HAD to hope that, "I don't know if you'll ever hear this, Clara. I don't even know if you're still alive out there. But…" he sighed, "You were good! And you made a mighty fine Professor too," he looked at his wife, pressing a kiss to her forehead, willing the tears prickling his eyes to not fall as he felt his children kick on his hand, "She would be proud of you."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, if he went to sleep, less air would be used up and…

His eyes snapped open as the TARDIS began to shake, the lights turning red as tendrils of red energy shot down from the doors and over to the console. He looked back and forth between them and the Professor before quickly (and carefully) getting out from beside her and running to the console, checking on the controls as the power began to return, the air filling the room in a warm gust.

"Oh yes!" he cheered, pulling lever after lever, pushing button after button, getting the TARDIS out of siege mode, filtering the energy to where it was needed, resizing the TARDIS back to its proper size and flying it out to where the scanners were now picking up a large energy flux of where the Boneless were.

"What…" the Professor's tired voice drifted over to him as he landed the box with a thump.

He hurried over to her, his hand behind her head as he kissed her forehead, "Rest," he told her quietly, "I can do this," he smiled widely and dashed back to the console, keeping the Professor in his periphery as she slowly started to stretch and move her stiffened limbs.

He grabbed another lever and pushed it down, sending a blast of energy out of the TARDIS, as though he were reversing a force field and using it to push the Boneless back, "We tried to talk," he called as he flipped the comms. on, "We want you to remember that. We tried to reach out, I tried to understand you, but the Professor knew you better than anyone. You've proven why you're here, what you were planning to do, just as she thought. It doesn't matter now though, what you were plotting or hoping for, you've proven you are monsters. That is the role you seem determined to play. So it seems I must play mine."

He gave the Professor one more look, seeing her smiling at him and nodding encouragingly for him to go and be the hero.

He grinned at her and ran out the door, coming face to face with what looked like graffiti versions of humans that were literally struggling to hold themselves together, an inch away from falling apart, Clara, the old man, Rigsy, and another man climbing down a ladder behind him.

"I am the man that stops the monsters," he declared, facing them, "And I'm not just sending you back to your two dimensional prison. No. None of you are going to survive this trip. Sorry," he smirked darkly, not sounding sorry at all, "But you brought this on yourselves. You are not welcome here!" he turned, holding out his hand to Clara who tossed him the sonic, "And this plane, these people, are protected!"

And with that, he threw his arm out, the sonic activating another blast from the TARDIS, a force field extending, but this time, instead of just shoving the Boneless back…they disintegrated before his very eyes with a pained squeal.

He waited a moment longer, making sure they were well and truly gone, before he flipped the sonic in his hand and placed it back in his pocket with a flourish.

~8~

The Professor had never seen a human so thankful to be on the ground as when the stray Clara had picked up, a train driver, stepped out of the TARDIS after it materialized in the rail yard and literally kissed the ground. It had earned a bit of a laugh from Clara and Rigsy, though the old man just continued to sneer at everyone. Rigsy walked off a moment later with Clara's mobile to make a call home, something Clara could understand, leaving the Time Lords, Clara, and the two other humans by the now-normal sized TARDIS.

"You alright?" Clara looked at the driver.

"I'm alive, and I've been inside that," he pointed at the TARDIS with a wide smile, "I think I'm up on the deal. Come here," he chuckled, moving over to Clara and hugging her tightly, "Thank you," he smiled at the Time Lords, the Doctor standing there with his arm around the Professor's shoulders as she leaned on him. He glanced over at the old man, standing from tying his boots, and remarked, "You look chipper," to him before walking off.

"Do people still say chipper?" Clara wondered.

"Apparently," the Professor mused, glancing at Clara who was smiling faintly, but distantly, "Are you ok?"

"I'm alive," was the answer they got, so not a yes or no.

"And a lot of people died," the Doctor finished for her.

"It's like a forest fire, though, isn't it?" the old man turned to them, "The objective is to save the great trees, not the brushwood. Am I right?"

The Doctor tightened his hold on the Professor's shoulders, 'No,' he told her in her mind, 'You are NOT getting your blaster to use on him.'

'But…'

'Save your battery or when I irritate you,' he offered.

'I doubt even you could irritate me as much as he does,' she muttered.

"It wasn't a fire," she settled for saying that instead of putting a hole through the man, "Those weren't trees, those were people."

"They were Community Payback scumbags," the man nearly spat, "I wouldn't lose any sleep."

"I bet you wouldn't," the Doctor looked disgusted by him. It was true, he and the Professor had taken lives before, gave others cause to take their own, they lost sleep over all of them. No one should be so unaffected by taking a life or a life ending that they could sleep soundly.

"It's good to be alive though," the man took a deep breath, grinning foully, "Thank you. Seriously, thank you."

The Doctor shook his head as the man walked off with a skip in his step, "Yes, a lot of people died and maybe the wrong people survived."

"Yeah, but we saved the world, right?" Clara tried to perk them up from their solemn and scowling moods.

"We did," the Professor nodded, starting to smile as she looked at Clara, "You did as well."

"Ok, so, on balance," Clara remarked.

"Balance?" the Doctor turned to her, his hand absently rubbing up and down the Professor's arm.

"Yeah, that's how you think, isn't it?" she started to smirk.

"Largely so other people don't have to."

"Yeah, well, I was the Professor today," Clara reminded him, "I was…I was a bit of both of you I suppose. I was the Proftor…"

"Proftor?" the Professor couldn't contain her snort at that.

"And, apparently, I was quite a fine Proftor," Clara stuck her nose up jokingly, her tone telling them she was purposefully using those words, putting a spin on them.

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck, recognizing where she heard them from, "You heard that, did you?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "But the power was going off so I suppose you were delirious…"

"I had my wife in my arms, of course I was delirious," the Doctor defended, only serving to make the Professor flush and Clara laugh.

"And I know how distracted you get by her," Clara played along, "So I doubt you knew what you were saying to ME…"

"Yes, exactly," the Doctor nodded, not even slightly embarrassed, though he was rather quick to turn the conversation when Rigsy returned to them, finished with his phone conversation, "Ah! The return of the fluorescent pudding brain."

"You do realize he can hear you now?"

"I know."

"Your last painting was so good it saved the world," the Professor commended him, thoughtful, "My first real invention almost destroyed a world," she shook her head, focusing on the here and now, "I can't wait to see what you do next."

Rigsy gave a soft chuckle at that, choosing to ignore her second comment, "It's not going to be easy. I've got a hair band to live up to," the Time Lords seemed a bit confused by that statement, but Clara just laughed knowingly and turned to hug the boy, "Thanks."

Clara gave him a smile and a nod as the boy waved and turned to head off, "Admit it," she focused on the Time Lords again, not about to let this go, "I did well," she looked down as her phone rang and pulled it out of her pocket, tapping the screen quickly to ignore the call.

"Is that Maths?" the Doctor nodded at her phone as she slipped it back into her pocket.

"Just say it!" Clara huffed playfully, "Why can't you just say it? Why can't you just say I did good?"

"Talk to maths boy," he gestured at the phone this time.

"It's not him," Clara said quickly, but they all knew it was a lie, so Clara didn't give them the chance to say anything about it, "Come on, why can't you say it? I was the Proftor and I was good."

The Professor laughed at that, "You were the best Proftor there ever was, Clara."

"Thank you," she smiled before catching the amused look in the Doctor's eyes, "Hold on, are you saying that because I was the ONLY Proftor there ever was?"

The Doctor just zipped his lips and turned to lead the Professor back into the TARDIS as the woman laughed.

"Oi!" Clara shouted, hurrying after them, the door shutting behind her as the TARDIS dematerialized.

A/N: I think this was the shortest chapter lol, though not my favorite episode since the Doctor couldn't really do much and, in the Professor's condition I couldn't see him letting her just wander about without him so she had to stay with him. So I really wanted to have a moment with the Time Lords when their time was nearly out. I feel like...with all the training the Professor went through, she might have been in a position like that before and she would be even slightly familiar with it and do all she could to reassure the Doctor it would be ok. And, on top of that, the Doctor was with her this time, so, no matter what, it's already better for her, so long as he's there :')

Also, I had to add the little tub of popcorn bit to the start of the chapter. My parents got me 7 gallons of popcorn for Christmas...and I ate it in a week lol, so I wanted to put it in as a little joke for the Professor :) And, for anyone that's interested, the sneak peeks for the 2015 stories are currently the next DW series ;) They can be found on my tumblr's 'Upcoming Stories' page ;) I'll be doing 1 per series and 1 for the 50th Special ;)

Small announcement, I've worked out how I'm going to make up for the tumblr takeovers that I missed :) Starting next week, Monday and Wednesday/Thursday/Friday I'll be doing the takeovers. I'll be doing something slightly different than when I shared my tumblr with Cora, how I split it with 2 days and shared it instead of letting her take over. Instead, the OCs will have main control for 24 hours, they'll have it for a majority of the day. Instead of going to midnight like normal, it'll be till 9pm instead, so that I can answer any asks that might have built up unrelated to the takeover. However, if any asks appear that are very important to be posted (like when a plagiarism was brought up on another takeover day) I will answer that one immediately.

The days of the takeovers will be:

Monday (19th) - Kona (The Seer's Edda)
Wednesday (21st) - Leena (The Jackie Holmes Chronicles)
Thursday (22nd) - Angel (The Heart of Time Saga)
Friday (23rd) - Marayna (The Draconian Prophecies)

The reason I will not be doing the takeover on the 20th is because that is the tentative date that Star Wars will be starting and I'd like to keep that day clear to field any questions about it and take any constructive criticisms needed :)

Some notes on reviews...

(Just want to say I'm SO sorry for not responding to this in the last chapter, I have no idea how I missed your review!) If ever I was to disappear for ever or stop writing, I'd definitely be sure to let you all know in every way I could, but I have no plans to ever stop...unless I ended up with a set of published books and a contract with a publishing agency or something...and then I'd still probably write fanfiction to relax and for fun ;) I've got a lot of different perspectives planned for Series 8 and I'm very excited to explore them too :) That's my favorite part about doing so many TL series, they're each different with different outlooks and experiences and interpret things differently so where one might hate Danny, another might love him, I get to explore numerous different ways to take a scene or moment and change the way we see it :) The wi-fi thing annoyed me SO much! Like that was taking it just a little far that they changed it on me :( We might not see much of the hypocrisy of it from 12, not from him personally, this version of him is sort of of the mind that the Professor is the exception to everything, we WILL see other people pondering and mentioning it though ;) And we may see more of it in future incarnations, but 12 is rather fixated on his wife at the moment lol :) Clara is rather like the Anti-Ace, I feel like, at some points she misses the lesson and overreacts to things. It's ironic in that way too. With Ace it was all about trust, she trusted him so much that, in the end that was what he had to shatter to save her. With Clara, she's sort of not trusting him when she really should, every time she hasn't trusted him he's constantly proven to her she was wrong not to, yet she keeps falling into that trap :(

Oh we certainly will see a few TLs not taking the shouting from Clara and Danny. One future TL's reaction to them will be quite funny though :) Mac's current incarnation may be a bit subdued about it all, but the Judge? Oh boy, let's just say no pudding brain is going to shout at her and get away with it }:)

I'm not quite as fond of PC as I have been of prior Doctors. Though, I felt similarly towards 9 at first and it took me a very long time to love him as much as I do now :) I think it might be that Clara and how she is balanced and countered 11 so much better that it's sort of out of sync with 12 and, with the right companion/personality to go against, he would be more likable :) You may like him better in Angel and Evy's stories and a bit of TL5 as well ;)

I'm sorry your week didn't go so well :( I'm glad the updates were able to cheer you up a bit though :)