*Hello peeps. 26 Chapters, final total, I finally have my ending. And it'll break your hearts. For now, here's another chapter to keep you bubbling over. This one involves rubber ducks, a new sonic and a school trip. I hope you enjoy it. As ever, thank you so much for reading, please follow, favourite and review. Many thanks to you all.*
"Clara?" the Doctor shouted from in the shower. She rolled her eyes at stuck her head in the bathroom, instantly regretting it as the steam worked its way into her hair, frizzing it all over the shop. "I need you!"
"What?" she laughed as she pushed open the bathroom door and stepped inside, slipping off her socks before she did so. "What is it this time? I've taught you how to use the hot water six times already!"
"There's something alien in here, can you get my screwdriver?"
"Alien?" Clara sighed. "What does it look like?"
"It's small and yellow. It looks like a duck. I've never seen anything like it before in my life!"
"That's a rubber duck Doctor," she told him exasperatedly, but with more than a hint of a smile playing on her lips. "I bought it to liven up the place; my shower is a bit well…boring."
"Interesting!" the Doctor called loudly. "It appears to be a rubber-based life form. But I can't fully analyse it without the sonic!"
Clara groaned, giving up. She left the Doctor to it and went to straighten her hair for the second time that morning. After about ten minutes, he stumbled out the bathroom, wearing only a towel, a grim expression on his face.
"Clara, that duck creature. I had to destroy it. I wasn't sure what it was capable of, so I had to kill it. I've done a terrible thing."
"You do realise that that was a rubber duck?" Clara said, amused. "Don't you?"
"Of course I do," he replied, his feathers well and truly ruffled as he ran a hand through his hair. "I was just kidding about destroying it, you know that right?" She raised an eyebrow, thoroughly unconvinced. "You'll see; there'll be an identical one there when you get back from your field trip. I promise!"
"Identical one eh?" Clara's lips twitched at the corners. "Well I'm counting on that Chin-Boy. If there's even the slightest difference…" she whirled round, red hot straighteners still in hand and a wicked smile on her face. The Doctor flinched and stepped back, fumbling for his sonic. He'd burned himself on the straighteners a good half a dozen times and was wary of them. "Well, let's just say I'd hate to see you end up like the poor rubber duck," Clara teased, laughing to herself as the Doctor flailed away, grabbing up his clothes and diving out the bedroom.
Clara whistled a tune to herself as she finished getting ready and went to the kitchen, where the Doctor was sitting at the table, looking like a spoilt child who'd been denied his favourite toy. She grabbed a slice of toast and kissed his cheek as she headed for the door. She had to be at school two hours early for the trip and the Doctor had been miserable at the idea of less time with her ever since she'd mentioned it. He'd muttered something about a trip in the TARDIS that had led to her making him swear he wasn't going to try anything stupid like show the kids in the inside of his dangerous, dimension jumping time machine.
"I'll see you back here at seven?" she reminded him and he nodded, blowing her a kiss as she headed out the front door, chuckling as she did so. As she shut the door behind her, she worried about how the Doctor would cope on his own for a day. She brushed those fears off. He had performed admirably at her birthday drinks, connecting well with her friends. It had helped that their first interaction with the Doctor had involved her incredible new necklace, which all the girls cooed over with jealously, muttering darkly how their other halves (those that had them anyway) never bought them anything as nice or thoughtful. Clara slept in the necklace and according the Doctor, she wrapped her hand over it subconsciously in her sleep. She couldn't help it. She was so happy it was unreal.
The day trip was to Madam Tussauds, the waxwork museum. Clara hadn't ever been and was looking forward to it. Probably more than the kids, she reckoned as she was met by a set of grumbling children, all looking tired and annoyed. There were a handful of teachers going and Clara had a group of eight children to look after for the duration of the trip. There were four boys and four girls, all aged thirteen or fourteen. Clara paired them off, ignoring their grumbles as she sent them onto the coach. She sat at the front with Tom, chatting about nonsense. Tom mentioned he had a girlfriend, which Clara was beyond eager to talk about. If it meant that he was no longer interested in her in that way, then that was a bonus for sure.
The coach trip didn't take too long, but parking up and walking to Madam Tussauds took a while on top of that. It was around 10am when they got inside and the plan was to spend a few hours inside, then lunch, then a theatre trip before dinner at an Italian restaurant for the kids. Clara was looking forward to it. They were going to see Othello, one of Clara's favourites. Her only small regret was that the Doctor couldn't join them. There was no fun in seeing famous people knowing that if he was there, he'd have a story to tell about meeting every single one of them. Clara had met a few, she knew that. She hadn't told the Doctor, but she'd made a list of famous people she wanted to meet before their travels ended. She promised herself she'd cross at least another one of the list tonight. They'd not been into the past for a while and she was hungry for adventure.
They were just moving through the sports section, past gangly figures that Clara barely recognised apart from some of the fit rugby players who her dad shouted at occasionally while she stared at their muscles and pretended to act interested, when one of the children tugged at her arm.
"Miss Oswald?" he asked, urgently.
"Yes Henry?" she asked patiently. "What is it?"
"One of the waxworks moved."
Clara's heart was in her mouth. She tried to stop herself from panicking. Waxworks couldn't move; Henry was being silly. Very silly. Or mistaken. He was just a child; there was no possible way…And yet. Clara couldn't quite convince herself. She scolded her own thoughts. Travelling with the Doctor had made her prey to the delusions of teenagers. She was being silly.
"Now Henry," Clara told him firmly. "They're made of wax, they can't possibly move!"
The scream that filled the air told her that she couldn't have been more wrong. She spun on the spot as one of her girls, Hayley, screamed, a life size Johnny Wilkinson approaching her ominously. Clara yelled and ran over, kicking back the figure and dragging Hayley away from the creature. Thoughts slipped past Clara quicker than she could catch them, most of them involving the Doctor but one overwhelming thought kept entering her thoughts. Save the children. She scouted them out, running over and shepherding them all behind her. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…Bugger. Where was Joshua? She saw the small boy, cornered by three of the monsters.
"Doctor?!" Clara yelled desperately. "Where the hell are you?"
She opened her satchel and scrambled around inside, looking for her phone. She found something else, something better. Something she hadn't been expecting to find. A screwdriver. A pink screwdriver, just like the Doctor's. It had a post-it note attached to it: Just in case x scribbled in the Doctor's barely legible handwriting. Clara grinned despite the situation. He'd given her a screwdriver. One of his screwdrivers. Maybe he'd made her one. Why did it have to be pink? Joshua's scream dragged her back to reality and she brandished her new sonic, keeping the other children ushered behind her.
"Oi!" Clara yelled. "Waxwork thingys! Come and pick on someone your own size!" There were three of them at this point, which turned from attacking Joshua to move towards Clara. She beckoned them and nodded to small Josh, who scrambled past them and behind Clara.
"What is that miss?" one of the children behind her asked.
"Teacher thing. Very clever, not for kids," she snapped quickly, trying to keep her voice even and her mind clear, desperately scrambling to remember the Doctor's advice. Psychic interface. Just point and think. But what did she think? 'Melt the wax?' she tried, sonicing desperately but to no avail. The hands of the creatures dropped, revealing some sort of weaponry. 'Disable the weapons!' Clara tried and this had a better effect. It didn't stop the creatures marching towards her but at least their guns spluttered and failed. She heard a wailing behind her. That was the kids. They were bloody terrified. Come on Clara, think, think. Maybe these things were remote controlled? 'Stop the signal controlling them?' Clara tried, sonicing. This worked a treat. The creatures slumped and stopped. But, even as they stopped, more appeared, coming in from all angles and as fast as Clara soniced, more were coming to life. She cursed and backed off further, guiding them into a corner. At that point, her phone rang. Clara answered, desperate for it to be the Doctor.
"Gotcha!"
That was all she heard him say but there was a materialising sound down the phone. No, Clara corrected herself. It wasn't coming from down the phone at all. It was coming from the other room. Sure enough, her saviour came swaggering in, bow tie straight, hair flippy, sonic in hand.
"Oi, you lot!" he yelled as they registered his presence. "You never learn do you? If I remember correctly, which frankly would be a miracle, as it was the start of my third face and frankly hundreds and hundreds of years ago," he winked to Clara. "You tried Madam Tussauds before. You think I'm stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice?" He put his sonic in the air and it whirled. "I had U.N.I.T install Auton signal breakers in the construction. Basically, goodnight. Tell the Consciousness this is his only warning."
The creatures fell apart and the Doctor put away his sonic, running over to Clara and kissing her, before winking at the children, as if to shush them from telling about his naughty act. Clara held up her own sonic.
"Why is this pink?" she demanded. "Because I'm a girl?"
"Oh, oh I see!" the Doctor grumbled. "I come here, save your life, the lives of all the kids, not to mention shutting down the Autons, they're called Autons by the way, living plastic, created by the Nestene Consciousness, soldiers, not the brains. And I give you your own screwdriver, made especially for you, just so you know; the TARDIS nearly threw a fit. And all you care about is that it's pink! It's not even pink!" he finished indignantly. "It's meant to be red."
"It's pink dear."
"Well then, I'll just take it back if you don't want it."
"No!" Clara didn't want to sound too eager but it was too late for that. She kissed him on the cheek before composing herself, aware the children were hanging on their every word and shooting them strange looks. "Thank you," she whispered. "Do you have any more of those memory pills?"
"I've got this," he murmured. "Well kids, how did you like that practical demonstration? New, robotic waxworks! They were designed for you kids to watch sports people doing actual sporty things and the museum just wanted to test them out. So I thought I'd use it to scare Miss Oswald. But, as it turns out, there were some design flaws and they had to be deactivated. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell any of your parents. The museum might get into trouble. Or worse, Miss Oswald might get told off and we can't have that now can we?" There was a chorus of head shakes. "Now I just need a quick word with Miss Oswald. One moment." He dragged her out of earshot of the staring kids. "I'll get Kate to clear this mess up. You take the kids and rendezvous with the other teachers. Don't argue!" he added before she opened her mouth. "I'd let you join me, but someone has to look after the kids and get them home safe. You have a job to do Clara. Back home by seven, I promise."
"What are you going to do?" she asked him as he swivelled and went to head back to the TARDIS. "I mean, you said these things were just the foot soldiers, do you have a plan to take out that leader?"
"Clara," he smiled. "Of course I have a plan. I'll ask him nicely. You know me."
"I do, which is how I know you are in fact lying and don't even have a little bit of a plan. Doctor," she pulled him into a tight hug and he hugged her back, kissing the top of her forehead. "Come back safe."
As he nodded and strolled off to the TARDIS, Clara couldn't help but worry. She hated not being able to go with him. More than anything, she hated knowing that this might be the last time she saw him alive. Her Doctor, at least. He could change. He could regenerate. Even thinking the word made her shudder. She didn't know what she would do if that happened. She didn't want to consider life with a different man. A different Doctor. It was unthinkable. She turned back to the kids. She wasn't sure what was going on, as security rushed in from all sides, soldiers with guns looked her up and down ominously. Luckily, before they started interrogating her in front of the children, Kate Stewart turned up and snapped instructions, telling them to let Clara and the children go on their way. Clara was grateful as Kate shot her a nod and whispered: "Is he dealing with it?" as they passed. Clara replied with a wistful smile and a nod. Once they had the kids outside, the decision was taken to go for an early lunch and then stroll over to the theatre. Somehow, Clara wasn't quite in the mood for Othello anymore.
"Alright, alright. This is your only warning," the Doctor said, as he stepped out the TARDIS, stared down by a dozen Autons with guns. "You couldn't be covering a transmitter region that big from Earth, so I knew you'd be up here. It's a good thing that Clara's dad called me, or I'd never have worked it out. So, are you going to drop the guns fellas, or am I going to have to kill your boss?" The Autons didn't move. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you," the Doctor grimaced and stepped back inside the TARDIS as they fired. When he stepped out again, he was holding a rubber duck. He winced. He'd been meaning to use it to replace the earlier one, but never mind. He was sure that Clara would understand that the sacrifice was a necessary one. "Last chance!" he yelled, brandishing the rubber duck. "No?" he groaned. Clara was going to kill him. "Geronimo!"
Clara's nerves were shredded by the time she got home. The long day had been so much longer, knowing that every minute that dragged by, he could be dying. He could already be changing his face or have been captured or he could already be Auton soup. She wasn't sure what an Auton was from his description but maybe they ate Time Lords. She didn't know. Every time she thought of him, she gripped the sonic as tightly as she could, her grip on the device unyielding the entire way through Othello. Tom made small talk at dinner and on the coach home but Clara was completely zoned out. As soon as she could get away, she was on her bike, breaking half a dozen speed limits as she shot home. She parked up and almost slipped as she legged it to the doorstep. 6:58. He had to be home. He had to be home. She put her key in the front door and turned it, stepping into her apartment, breath bated.
"Ah good you're back!"
Clara let out a huge sigh of relief and threw herself into the Doctor's arms. He shot her a sheepish grin and indicated to the kitchen as she kissed him passionately and then stumbled back, shutting the front door and composing herself. She giggled happily as he smiled at her.
"I was just making pasta for us," he said. "Told you I'd make it back alright. I didn't even miss any lessons, got back by the end of break."
"How did you know I was in danger?" Clara asked. The question had been bugging her all day but she hadn't even realised it, so bogged down was she in the prospect of him blowing himself up in some Auton ship.
"The rubber duck," he said proudly. Clara pulled a disbelieving face. "Turns out, the rubber duck was alive because it was picking up corrupted signals from the Nestene. It was supposed to be summoning the troops, but some of the mutant offshoots of the signal were bringing the rubber duck to life. Once I'd isolated the signal, I worked out what was causing it. And once I knew it was the Autons, I figured they'd try another cross-London activation sequence. I was wrong." She shot him a look. "Your dad called, ranting about how his rubber duck was being all strange and stuff, so I realised it was a national signal, which meant a spaceship. I thought you'd left the capital," he admitted. "I couldn't remember where your stupid trip was going." She raised her eyebrow at this. "So I called you to get your location. I was terrified the Autons would get to you first."
"They did," Clara admitted. "Luckily I had this!" she held up the screwdriver. "Otherwise they'd have killed us all before you'd arrived. Thanks Doctor. So, did you replace the rubber duck?" she teased, snaking her arms around his waist and resting against him as he stirred the pasta.
"Actually," he paused. "Funny story. Turns out, the rubber duck was the perfect weapon against the Autons. The replacement duck I bought was still being corrupted by the same signal, so I took it up to the Nestene ship and I threw it into the Consciousness. It corrupted the signals, all the Autons fell apart and the Consciousness ended up corrupting itself. It's brain function overloaded and…"
"The ship exploded?" Clara finished, an amused smile creeping onto her lips. "So that's your excuse for not having bought a new rubber duck? You used it to blow up the waxwork people? As far as lame excuses go, you definitely lose boyfriend points for trying something that feeble." She was teasing him of course, but his smirk seemed to suggest he hadn't told her everything.
"Go and check upstairs," he informed her and she did, running up the stairs and squealing before running back down.
"You got fifty rubber ducks?!" Clara exclaimed.
"They saved the world," the Doctor laughed. "It seemed like the least I could do."