A/N: Wow! Thank you so much for the all the compliments on the last chapter, holy large grazing domestic land mammals… To the guest reviewers, a big thanks since I can't message you to say that to you all personally, you guys are all fantastic and I love hearing from you.
Health and Safety: Chapter 12 – A Two Way Street
Speaking with the TARDIS feels more like a dream than anything, I still don't understand how that just happened, something about me absorbing Artron energy when I went through the time stream? Uhh… Because there wasn't already enough about what happened at Trenzalore that I don't understand...
I also don't know if I should tell the Doctor what happened or not, an edited version at least. This seems like something he ought to know, that he has a 'walking conduit of time energy' with him. But wait, he already said something like that didn't he? When he pulled me out of my mind the first time, outside the dead TARDIS, he said something about me 'brimming' with time energy I think.
His hand slips under my chin, bringing my eyes up to his face, where one of his eyebrows twitches up as a silent reminder that we need to get moving.
"Sorry..." I mumble, letting him go somewhat reluctantly. Using the console for support I manage to get to my feet again, I've had to struggle to my feet a few too many times today. The Doctor staggers up behind me, raking one of his own hands through his hair. He is midway through a loud yawn when Vastra charges into the console room; it's quite a sight to see her in something other than skirts and laces.
"Doctor! What did you do? How long were we under?"
The Doctor stretches, cracking his neck before pulling up the TARDIS monitor.
"It wasn't me, it was the TARDIS. Apparently she thought we were in need of some sleep, and saw to it we got an eight hour nap. She homed in on Jenny while we were out though, we're within a five mile radius of wherever Jenny is, and it's about, oh, half an after we left Bordure." He finishes, shaking his watch a few times.
"Sorry, but how do eight hours fit into thirty minutes?" Ria asks, appearing behind Vastra and also looking very different. With her all covering coat and hat replaced by short cut boots, slacks and a tight fitting leather jacket, only Strax could mistake her for a boy now, even if she put the hood up that was sticking out from under the jacket.
"With a time machine." The Doctor declares smugly.
Her hand goes to her face like she is fighting off a headache.
"So wait, did I just gain the difference in lifespan? Does my heart have a finite number of ticks? Or do we just die on an anointed day and how we get there doesn't matter?"
"I've always thought destiny is a rubbish idea."
"After discovering a blue box that apparently travels through time and space and is bigger on the inside; I'm pretty open to previously rubbish sounding concepts right now." She replies to me weakly, which makes the Doctor laugh.
"She did the thing, the bigger thing, yeah, yeah you know…" He grins, pointing at her with both hands like she can't see him.
Ria passes me a bundle of clothing to put on, which turns out to be a rather awkward adventure since the Doctor is still terrified of letting me out of his sight while we are in the TARDIS.
Under the console, out of sight but not earshot, I start pulling on the trousers she brought me out.
"I didn't do the thing Doctor, the bigger on the inside thing." I call up to him.
"Yeah, you did, you did it while keeping a death grip on your mug, and not spilling your tea, which was quite impressive actually." His voice echoes back.
"The Victorian me though, she didn't." That had been what I meant.
"Did I get the sizes moderately right Clara?" Ria asks.
"Yeah, we're good." I call back up to her, shrugging on a similar jacket to the one she was wearing and making my way back up the curved staircase.
When we step out the TARDIS doors, I'm not sure what to expect, not that I ever really am.
The city that greets me feels old and new all at once. We're parked just off of what looks like a main road in a residential area, under the cover of a row of dense flowering vines growing up a lattice. Some of the buildings around us are made of cement and reddish bricks, while others are constructed of something that looks like a cross of metal and concrete. There are trees lining the both sides of the street, but they don't look real. The trunks of them are jet black, with the branches all in the exact same configuration, sprouting leaves that are an unnaturally brilliant white.
"The leaves acted as air filters when pollution was a big problem, but now they are being slowly switched over to solar generators, just like real leaves except these ones won't be using the energy they catch to help the tree grow, it will be wired back to a power plant somewhere. Most of these are inactive right now though." The Doctor explains to me.
"Doctor, you said we were within three miles of Jenny, did you not?" Vastra asks, her head craning in all directions like she expects to see her wife waiting for us.
"Five miles." Ria corrects her.
"Yes, that was as close as the TARDIS could narrow it down to." The Doctor says apologetically.
"Might I suggest that we split up in order to cover ground in a more efficient manner and increase our chances of finding the girl?"
"There are no chances, we will find her!" Vastra growls at her butler.
"It might be an idea to check out what Enforcement has on this. So many disappearances, they'll have had people looking into it. There is a major Enforcement Office just around the block on Water Street, up that way there. That odd paper thing should fool them into helping right? I'm the only one who can't see it..." Ria voice trails off at the end of her suggestion, as she pulls her hood up over her head and looks warily in the opposite direction she pointed.
"You see past it Victoria, which is more impressive than you know, you're in pretty good company on the short list of people I've met that can do that." The Doctor tells her, ignoring the face she makes at him using her full name yet again.
"Okay, Clara and I will pay the local law enforcement a visit and see what we know, or more likely see what we know we don't know. You three, look for Jenny, Walt gave you a wireless communicator before he let you go right Victoria? Call us if you find her and we will come up with a plan to get her out. Otherwise, meet back here in an hour." He says quickly before leading me down the street.
"Doctor, why do you keep calling her Victoria even though she obviously doesn't like it? You didn't miss her asking Daniel to stop calling her that more than once, I know you didn't."
"I'm using her proper name because while the names we chose are important Clara, why we chose them is important too. She picked that name to hide, and she shouldn't have to." He says, staring straight ahead.
"Maybe she thinks she did something that means she doesn't deserve to use her name." I suggest somewhat innocently. He sighs and walks faster down the road, pulling me along by our joined hands.
Digging my heels into the ground, I bring him to a halt.
"Maybe you're hoping if you don't just let her run away from it, she will eventually see that she can talk about whatever bothers her about her name, or about what happened to make her think she can't use it. Maybe you're trying to help her see that she shouldn't have to hide, and that she could turn to the people she trusts to help her through it, because they want to help her, because they… they… care about her a lot and want her to be okay with whatever happened in the past. Because it's hard to see someone you care about hurting."
We both know that I'm not talking about Ria anymore. The TARDIS said nothing of him letting me in, which was a rather large oversight in my opinion. I can't take this leap alone.
"Clara…" He sighs as I reach up to push a bit of his hair back from where it has drooped over his ancient eyes. It would be quite easy to get used to being allowed to touch his hair… He doesn't say any more, but his mouth has softened from the grim line it was set into.
"Maybe secrets don't keep us safe, maybe we need to stop running so much, and just remember instead…" I all but whisper to him.
"We?" He gives me a knowing smile, eyes flitting up and down my face for any further hints he might glean from it.
I've slipped again; this was supposed to be about him.
"If they find Jenny, do you really think Vastra will wait for us to come back and help?" I ask, tugging on his arm a little and continuing down the street.
"I think that Strax and Victoria will help her keep her head should that eventuality arise. Vastra is not usually impulsive; she makes a great detective for a reason. I expect with other people there to help ground her, and to point out the consequences of her actions she will make the choice that will give Jenny the best chance she can, even to her own detriment."
I have a feeling that he is talking about Vastra as much as I was just talking about Ria...
Both of us fall silent as we round the corner onto Water Street, meeting an incline. The higher up the hill we get, the fancier the buildings look, with offices and shops starting to be mingled among the houses and apartments.
The strange leaves catch my eye again; these ones are glowing faintly in the night, illuminating the street and emitting a quiet hum. The place is eerily silent otherwise; we haven't seen a single person since we stepped out of the TARDIS.
A building about halfway up the hill stands towering over the others; it must be five or six stories high. The upper levels look like they are made of coloured glass, in the dark it is hard to tell if it is green or blue, there are no lights on inside the building for some reason. This impressive structure turns out to be the Enforcement Office, but something is rather odd here. Not only are all of the lights off, but the front doors have been barred shut, with a sign set over the handles indicating a temporary closure of the office in order to 'more efficiently consolidate resources in key priority areas.'
"What could possibly be of a higher priority than a neighbourhood where people are being abducted?" I ask, a little dumbstruck by the seeming lack of logic.
"Remember the off world landing that Bod told us about? Whoever is coming must be important guests, they wouldn't make the trip otherwise, they're coming here for something big, something that the city can't afford to go wrong. One bad day here and this lot have been pulled up to secure the upper city, leaving everyone down here to fend for themselves." The Doctor scowls.
He brings a hand up to his face, rubbing his prominent chin with a gleam of frustration in his eyes.
The sound of broken sobbing brings us out of our thoughts. An older woman is limping down the street, supporting her weight on a sturdy looking cane. She continues past us, stopping in front of a bulletin board a few feet away from the Enforcement Office entrance, nestled under some of the trees.
She unrolls something she had carried under her arm, and reaches up to post it. The edges of the board are covered in tattered remains of old advertisements, for flats, concerts and shop sales. Right across the middle of it though, are six posters, now seven, that haven't faded or worn at all, in fact they look very new.
Seven faces stare at us from the posters, each one that of a missing person.
"My granddaughter." She explains, recognizing the fact that we are standing here. She was so lost in her sorrow I hadn't been sure if she noticed us or not.
"I left my apartment to chase a cat out of the garden box, I got distracted talking to a neighbour and she was gone when I got back. No trace, just an open window. She'd only just arrived this afternoon. She works for a hauling company, she had just gotten into town, I hadn't seen her in months..."
"She will be found." The Doctor promises.
"By who? This lot?" She flings a hand at the deserted building behind us, giving it a dirty look.
"They got pulled out to help make the city look good. No one will care about us out here till after those off worlders get what they came for and leave."
She shrugs us off and shuffles back down the way she came, not sparing us anymore attention.
Stepping closer to the bulletin board so I can see the photographs on the posters better, it's easy to see that there is a pattern to them.
Firstly, all of the people who have been kidnapped are female, ranging from girls in their early teens to a woman in her late thirties. Secondly, they all have the same dark brown coloured hair. Lastly, the kidnappings have all occurred in the last twelve hours.
"Doctor, take a look at these." He walks over, and stares at the posters, eyes flashing between them quickly.
"Whoever is doing this, they are obviously only going after one profile of person. One that Jenny matches." He mutters quizzically.
"But why?"
"I don't know yet." He admits, shaking his head and sighing loudly.
"The timing is really odd Doctor…"
"I know. Somehow these kidnappings and the landing are connected; I think they are at least. I don't understand how though. What do girls with dark hair have to do with this? Ahhh..."
He wrings his hands and begins pacing in circles around me until his phone starts to vibrate from inside a coat pocket, making us both jump as he snatches it out.
"Yes? Okay, right, on our way, hang tight."
We're off at a sprint down the hill before he has the phone back in his pocket, me trailing behind him.
"Doctor, what happened?"
"Explain later, for now just run!"
We skid around the corner, continuing past where we had left the TARDIS, heading into the worn down looking neighbourhood that Ria had looked at with apprehension. The buildings start getting closer together, taller and skinnier, more and more cement looming over our heads and making me feel a little claustrophobic. The Doctor's pace slows abruptly, becoming nothing more than a cautious creeping as his eyes scan ahead of us frantically.
"They should be right here." He whispers, barely audible.
"Why are we being so quiet?"
"Because we're not alone." He murmurs as he ducks under a dense shrub that looks like it hasn't been trimmed in years. I crouch next to him, unsure of why we are hiding but feeling my heart rate pick up. He presses a finger to my lips, which gets my heart going for an altogether different reason… Not far away, I can hear the sound of feet pounding on the pavement.
"Fan out; they've got the girls somewhere down here, find them!" A coarse voice calls out.