"You are really heavy, you know that?" Clara chuckled awkwardly, slightly confused by the Doctor's behaviour. Why was he looking at her as if he hadn't seen her in a million years? From her point of view, she had just returned from a trip with him – from the planet of otters. "I didn't know Time Lords could get drunk. I left you alone for one hour, and then I found you drunk in an alleyway."
The Doctor stared at her. Every second with her, he had to cherish it. Her dimples, sparkling brown eyes and her smooth voice. What if this was all a dream? What if he woke up again to find the bloodied body again still staring emptily at nothing? He never got second chances.
"D…Doctor, you're hurting me." Clara stammered as she tried to loosen the Doctor's grip on her wrist.
"Sorry. I'm so sorry. I wasn't trying to." He quickly withdrew his hands. He didn't want to hurt her, never. Wait, did she say one hour?
Suddenly, something sparked in his mind. What if… the Clara he saw was a future version of Clara? What if it hadn't happened to her yet? She had just finished travelling with himself… maybe he dropped her off in the wrong timeline and she hasn't noticed yet?
"Clara, was it your birthday yesterday?"
"Yeah. How did you know? Not bad, you're remembering birthdays now." She approvingly nodded at him.
"What did you do?" The Doctor got her to sit next to him on his bed. "Tell me. I want to know everything you did on your birthday."
"Why….? Since when did you become my therapist?" Clara laughed. She gave in after seeing the Doctor's pleading eyes. "Okay. I drank some coffee from a really good café, biked around, met up with friends…. drove up to Blackpool to say hi to my family… and I think that's about all. It was late but I was planning to rest up when I got back to London… That was until I found the TARDIS and you laying around."
"So you didn't go to the theme park?" He asked just as a confirmation.
"No, although dad was suggesting we should next year. For old time's sake." She smiled. "Maybe you could join us?"
"No." He quickly said. Clara looked at him in surprise.
"Okay, that's fine. Didn't know you didn't like theme parks." Clara replied. He was acting a bit strange but she knew that if she gave him some time, he would inevitably spill the beans. She figured that he didn't really want to talk about whatever had happened right then.
"No… I mean, don't go there. I've been, and it was terrible." He amended. "Wouldn't you rather like a spacey theme park? I mean, Hedgewick's World of Wonders was a mess up. But it wasn't my fault – it was the Cybermen's. There is a theme park not that far away…."
"Stop. Right there. Rambling… again." Clara interrupted. "If you really don't want me to go, it's fine. It was just a suggestion anyway." Clara shrugged. "Anyway… can we travel?"
"You said you've just been travelling an hour ago!" The Doctor exclaimed. Clara's travelling addiction was almost as bad as his.
"Well, if you call that travelling. You were just whinging about otters and whatnot. I tuned out after a while. I want to go somewhere cool. Somewhere REALLY worth going."
They walked to the console room and the Doctor pressed a sequence of buttons. "'Somewhere cool and really worth going' it is, then." The Doctor flashed her a smile and pulled the lever. The time rotor whirred around and the TARDIS landed with a thud. The Doctor checked the monitors.
"Better get a raincoat. It's a bit wet out there." He said as he threw a red umbrella for Clara to catch.
"Thanks!" Clara caught it in one hand and excitedly ran down the TARDIS corridor for a raincoat.
Clara came back dressed up in a clear raincoat and threw one to the Doctor as well. "I got yours for you too."
They opened the doors to see a vast ocean. The TARDIS was parked on the surface of the water like a boat docked on a calm lake. Clara tried to take a step out but the Doctor stopped her.
"No land?" Clara questioned. To the horizon, there was nothing but the ocean. It was drizzling with rain, which disrupted the calm waters with droplets rippling all over the surface of the ocean.
"The gravity on this planet is quite strong. Unlike Earth's ocean, you won't float on these waters. If you step outside, you will fall straight to the bottom, like dropping a pebble down a lake."
"There must be land somewhere then?" Clara asked. She said to take her somewhere awesome, not somewhere wet and drizzly.
The Doctor gazed at his watch. "Land appearing… now."
The ocean started shaking and soon, the water receded to reveal an island. The beach was covered in translucent, purple sand, which sparkled as it met the waves of clear blue water. The city beyond it was made of clear, glass-like structure. It wasn't just an island, it was a whole civilisation.
The Doctor smiled as he offered her a hand. Clara smiled back revealing her dimples as she gladly took his hand.
"The city of Marinopolis. The land here sinks and resurfaces every fortnight so the locals have adapted to grow both gills and lungs."
"So… basically they are mermaids?" Clara gave him grinned.
"Yup. Mermaid people." He replied with a giggle. Clara jumped up and down in excitement.
"Oh my stars, this is AWESOME! I used to love mermaids as a kid." She kissed the Doctor lightly on his cheek. Both of them blushed. "Thank you, Doctor. For taking me here." She added shyly.
As they were walking to the city, Clara grumbled. "Why did you park the TARDIS so far away? Why couldn't you just park it right in the middle? Blimey, it's a long walk."
"Because, Clara, the magnetic poles of this city makes it impossible to land my TARDIS. The closest I can get is 2km away from the city."
"We have to walk two kilometres?!" Clara groaned.
However, the grumbling stopped once they finally reached the city. They wandered around sightseeing the place. Clara couldn't believe her eyes. The buildings were made of glass, pearls and coral, and the sight was just like walking at the bottom of the ocean. The droplets of rain illuminated by the light made the city sparkle like a polished gem. Clara was brought back to reality when the Doctor frowned and stopped in front of a house. She registered a crying noise from inside of the house. The Doctor went in, and Clara followed.
"He's going to die." The woman was sobbing. "What are we going to do, Gildroy? My poor boy." She wailed.
"No one is going to help us, Andrea. We just don't have enough time." The man answered looking away. He couldn't bear to look at his son.
In the middle, there was a little boy sitting on the table confusedly blinking at his parents.
"We'll help." The Doctor interrupted. "Hello, my name is the Doctor, and this is Clara. We're travelling buddies." He shook their hands, and Clara did the same.
The little boy hopped off and curiously approached Clara.
"Hello, what's your name? How old are you?" Clara crouched down to match his eye level.
"Joey. He's two minutes old." Andrea answered instead, wiping her tears.
"Two minutes?!" Clara looked at the Doctor in shock. He looked at least seven years old.
"Marinians grow fast till they reach their adulthood stage. It's part of their adaptation to the environment." The Doctor whispered. Clara nodded in realisation.
"Tell me, Andrea, why is Joey going to die?" The Doctor asked.
"He was born without gills, only lungs. Usually, this is an easy issue that we can fix with Gillweed roots, but the only source of them is blocked by the air leechers. There's no one in the city who is willing to go there and bring it back. We don't have enough time because the island is sinking again in a few hours."
"We'll do it." The Doctor said valiantly. "We'll go there and bring the Gillweed back."
"Sorry? You do know what air leechers are, right?" Gildroy asked, stunned. "One touch, and they will convert any oxygen in your body to water. Your cells will start liquefying. You'll drown to death in seconds."
"We love challenges." He ruffled Joey's fluffy brown hair. "Besides, we'll do anything to save your son."
"Thank you. Thank you so much." The parents bowed to show their gratitude. "And good luck."
He turned around. "Come on, Clara. Let's go."
Out of the corner of Clara's eye, she saw a red lantern floating in the sky. She blinked and it was gone. "Coming!" Clara joined him.
After a walking for a bit, they found the entrance to the cave, which was littered with black slug-like creatures with yellow stripes.
"Be careful. They are the air leeches Gildroy was talking about." The Doctor answered. He picked one up with tweezers and placed it in a glass tube.
"Air leech, you are beautiful."
Clara gave a sour look. "Doctor, why are you taking death-slug creatures?!"
"I'm going to analyse them when we get back to the TARDIS." He shrugged. Clara sighed. Boys and their obsession for collecting bugs.
They carefully made their way into the cave, making sure they weren't touching anything. "Gillweeds emanate a green glow. You'll be able to spot it easily in the dark."
"But we won't be able to spot air leeches in the dark." Clara retorted, her voice trembling in fear and anxiousness. "They are jet black."
"Correct. So do be careful." He smiled brightly. Clara returned a weak one.
The green glow from the sonic softly illuminated the insides of the cave. Few meters in, Clara tripped on a protruding bit of rock and almost touched the black body of an air leech. However, the Doctor grabbed her and pulled her away just in time.
"That was close. Thanks." Clara let out a sigh.
The number of air leeches they encountered became less and less frequent as they went deeper into the cave. Clara suddenly spotted a small squirrel softly glowing in white.
"Stop! Look! A squirrel!" She pointed.
"That's a Riler, unlike squirrels they have a glowing body... Squirrel is close enough. Even though they are nothing like each other. Did I tell you about…" The Doctor rambled. "Oh look!" He pointed stopping mid-sentence. "We found it! There's the Gillweed!" He pointed at the tuft of glowing shrubbery.
Before they could take another step, the Riler abruptly stopped in its track further down the cave. The white glow from the Riler faded to a dark red colour. Clara realised there were more dark red Rilers further down, softly bathing the cave in an unsettling red light.
"What does dark red mean?" Clara had a bad feeling, and the feeling changed to fear when she saw the Doctor's face softly lit by the green glow of the sonic.
"Umm… uh..." He gulped. "Oh, look, the walls are made of glowing stones. If I send a spark down the cave…."
The sonic sparked the cave walls and a flash travelled deep into the cave. Clara stopped breathing in shock. In the fraction of a second when the flash travelled down she saw something impossible.
"Did I…. just see what I… think I saw?" Clara's panicked voice was almost a whisper.
"…. Y…yes. I have a very bad feeling you did. Should I try it one more time?" The Doctor asked in a shaky voice.
Clara nodded. "Mmm hmm." She said anxiously in a very high pitched voice.
Another flash travelled through the cave revealing thousands of dead Rilers. To make it even worse, millions of air leeches were stuck on the walls and the ground as if someone had painted the cave in black and yellow paint. The leeches near the dead Rilers, were spherical in shape, like air bubbles.
"Doctor, why are they in a different shape?" Clara asked, still clutching onto his arm in fear.
"Once they leech oxygen from other organisms, they have to expel it. What goes in must come out." He explained, busily thinking of a plan to take the Gillweed.
The tuft of Gillweed poked out less than ten metres away as if it were taunting the Doctor and Clara.
"Okay, I have a plan." He said after a few minutes. Suddenly, the two felt the tremor of an earthquake. Drops of water trickled down the sides of the cave.
"The island is going down soon. We have to hurry." The Doctor said, concern evident in his voice. "I've adjusted the sonic to repel the leeches for a maximum of 10 seconds. I have to stay here to emit just enough pitch to make them retreat. Meanwhile, you run over there, quickly pull the Gillweed out and we get the hell out of here."
"Sounds like a plan." Clara answered.
"Ready?" The Doctor shared a worried glance with Clara, and she nodded in determination.
"Three… two… one!" The sonic whirred in a deafening high pitch frequency. Clara ran, flinching at the piercing sound, pulled the Gillweed out and brought it back.
"We did it!" Clara exclaimed as she hugged him. There was another tremor and more drops of water flowed to the bottom of the cave.
"It's started. The island is descending to the ocean again. RUN!"
When they escaped the cave, they saw the city in already knee-deep water.
"If the city sinks down, wouldn't Joey be able to swim?"
"No, firstly because he doesn't know how to swim – he was born out of water, only a few hours ago. Secondly because the gravity here is too strong. Everyone, including us, won't be able to resurface. The gravity will pull us down to the bottom of the ocean."
By the time they arrived in Joey's house, the water was up to the Doctor's neck, and Clara was piggybacked on the Doctor's back so her head was above the water. Joey's parents were barely holding Joey above the water.
"We got it!" The Doctor screamed, splashing water everywhere to reach the boy.
Gildroy checked the plant. "Yup, that's Gillweed." Then he gave a disappointed sigh. "This won't do. We needed the root of the plant!"
There wasn't even time to be disappointed. The island, which was still slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, now plummeted down. Now they were underwater, desperately trying to resurface. She saw Joey struggling to hold his breath. What was she going to do?
The Doctor tapped her on the shoulder. She could just about make the green glow of another tuft he was pointing at.
'Hurry!' Clara mouthed. She was starting to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen. She worriedly stared at Joey, who was now limp and unresponsive.
She struggled up to him and gave him the last of her remaining air. Nothing happened. She saw the Doctor, still swimming to fetch the one tuft of Gillweed. She stared back at Joey, who was probably not going to make it until the Doctor came back. In the corner of her eye, she saw the little jar containing the air leech. Clara guessed that the jar must have dropped as they plummeted down to the bottom of the ocean. Suddenly, she remembered something.
"Once they leech oxygen from other organisms, they have to expel it. What goes in must come out." That's what the Doctor had said about the air leeches. She could do it. If she touched the leech, it would swell up with air, which Joey could use until the Doctor came back.
She slowly untwisted the cap of the glass jar. She gritted her teeth and touched the leech. In the moments she felt her blood stop and lungs turn into water, she forced the air from the leech into Joey. The last thing she saw was little Joey's eyes miraculously opening.
The Doctor carefully yet swiftly pulled the roots out and came back to find something he never wanted to see. His hearts tore into million pieces. He weakly handed the Gillweed root to Joey and gently held Clara's body.
Overwhelmed with his emotions, the Doctor swam away from the city with Clara's body to the side so that he could summon the TARDIS to the bottom of the ocean. As soon as he entered the TARDIS, he began to sob. She had died again.
"This is a dream. Please say it's a dream." He begged. "I can't bear this. Wake up, wake up, wake up." He repeated again banging his head on the wall and again. But when he opened his eyes, Clara's body was still there.
The phone outside the console started ringing. He let it ring out, but it started ringing again. He wiped away his tears and received the call.
"Hello?"
"Doctor! Your girlfriend is in hospital. She doesn't want anyone to worry, but we got her phone and we ought to call you…. 'cause… well, you are her boyfriend."
"What? My girlfriend?" The Doctor sniffled. "I don't have a girlfriend. Who is this?"
"It's Angie. And don't be silly Doctor. It's obvious from the way you look at each other."
"Angie? You mean Clara? But Clara is…" He turned around to see the body once again, but it was nowhere to be seen.
"Clara is….?" Angie retorted.
"I will be there." He hung up and pounced on the console.
The Doctor didn't know what was happening. All he knew was that his impossible girl was being impossible once again.