Notes: I really hope that you're enjoying this little story arc. I am loving the way it's turning out. I'm almost done the next chapter, so it won't be long. Please review! :D

Clara giggled as she approached the TARDIS. They had parked on top of a cloud! That was brilliant. She would definitely have to ask her parents why they never did anything like that. Reaching the side of the large, blue box, she stroked her hand down the side affectionately.

She revelled in the feeling of the time ship in her mind, the physical connection allowing her contact. It had been so long since she had that connection with anyone. It had terrified her when her grandfather tried to connect with her earlier, but he must have remembered doing that and made sure her shields would hold against him discovering who she was.

There was a sudden click as the door of the TARDIS opened and Clara dashed around behind the ship to hide.

"Hello? Hello? Hello?" the Doctor called as he searched all the way around and Clara ran back down the staircase as soon as she could. It wasn't time yet, she could feel that much.

The Doctor picked up the shawl he found lying on the cloud next to the TARDIS. It smelled like Aria, and he knew that the girl must have followed them back to the ship. She was brilliant! If he wasn't so worried about his wife at the moment, he would insist on taking her with them as a companion. Maybe that was what Rose needed? To see the universe through fresh eyes again.

"We have had a visitor," he announced, showing her the shawl.

"She followed us? What are we going to do, Doctor?" Rose asked worriedly.

"I think, we are going to show someone new the wonders of the universe," he replied.

"But," she began to protest.

"No. Trust me, love. You need this just as much as she wants it," he insisted.

"Aria. Do you think? I mean, with the Daleks, wasn't her name Aria?" she wondered.

"You know, I think you're right. Could be a coincidence," he said teasingly.

"Coincidence, right. Although, that girl's voice sounded completely different," she decided.

#############

Clara dressed quickly, Jenny and Vastra still asleep when she left. She decided that she would resign from the Rose and Crown today. Whatever was going to happen here was happening soon, and she could just keep the job as a governess for now. She couldn't explain it, was still learning how to use her time senses for things like this, but it seemed like that part of this was over. Meeting them outside of the bar had fulfilled her reason for being there, but something with the children was still pulling at her.

As she walked outside, she saw that the snow had all melted. "Look at that. Must have thawed in the night."

Her boss at the Rose and Crown was not pleased with her leaving. "I'm begging you, Clara. I'm on my knees," he pleaded.

"Elsie is back this afternoon, and I was only helping out. I've got my own work to get back to," she told him.

"What work? Why won't you ever tell us?" he asked.

"You'd never believe me," she answered with a grin. Never believe that she was a governess, let alone the fact that she was a human/alien hybrid that travelled in time.

She hired a carriage to take her back to Captain Latimer's house, where she would spend the next few days taking care of the children. Unless of course, some kind of adventure came along with the arrival of the Doctor and Rose, as they had always said happened in the stories from her childhood.

"Alice, how smart you look today," she complimented the maid that greeted her. Clara used her regular accent now, instead of the rough one she adopted at the bar to sound closer to their patrons' social class.

"The governess should enter by the back door, unless accompanied by the children," Alice told her formally, making both of them laugh.

"And how are the children? Excited about tomorrow?" she asked. Human children were always so excited about Christmas. Her family had always just jumped to the day when they felt like celebrating it. She guessed that maybe that took away a bit of the excitement, not having to wait so long for it to come.

"Francesca, same as ever. Digby says he missed you every day. Captain Latimer wants to see you," she answered.

"Of course," Clara acknowledged. She knew the Captain fancied her, but while he was fairly attractive, he had the intelligence of a sack of potatoes. "Every day?" she added regarding how much Digby said he missed her.

"Twice on Saturdays," Alice said with a smile.

"That's better," she smiled and went to the study to see what the Captain wanted this time. "Captain Latimer."

"Ah. Miss Williams, you're back," he greeted her with the nervousness he always displayed around her.

"In time for Christmas. Apologies for the few days absence. Family illness is so unpredictable. You wanted to see me?" she asked.

"Francesca has been having nightmares," he informed her.

"Young girls often do," she answered.

"Every night since you left, she says. Won't tell me about them," he complained.

"Perhaps if you asked her in the right way, there's no one she'd rather tell," Clara suggested. She remembered that she used to have terrible nightmares after looking into the Time Vortex when she was eight. Her father had been wonderful in helping her through it, sitting with her, and singing her back to sleep.

"Children are not really my area of expertise," he told her, the excuse falling flat.

"They are, however, your children," she argued.

"You have, if I may say, a remarkable amount of wisdom in these matters, for one so very pretty, Miss Williams," he told her, then startled when he realized what he had said. "Young! I mean."

"I'll see to the children now," she responded politely, wishing she could leave this time period immediately.

She walked out to the garden where Francesca and Digby were playing. The brother and sister chased each other in a game of tag making her miss her uncle terribly. They had grown up together, more like cousins than anything.

"Miss Williams!" Francesca called excitedly when she saw her.

"Miss Williams, you're back!" Digby echoed as they both ran towards her.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Clara chastised, insisting on the propriety of the time period.

"Good morning, Miss Williams," they each said to her politely.

Clara smiled and shook their hands in greeting. "Good morning, Francesca. Good morning, Digby. Christmas Eve is the most thrilling day, don't you think? Now, what have you two been up to while I've been away?"

"I did seven drawings and we saw a dead cow," Digby told her, delighting in the strangest things. Clara had decided that it must be something about human boys that made them excited over dead animals.

"Well, how exciting," Clara replied.

The trio talked a bit more before Francesca told her about her nightmares. Clara guided the young girl over to a bench to sit while they discussed it.

"They're not exactly nightmares. Just dreams," she told her governess.

"About our old governess. The one who died. She's haunting Frannie from beyond the grave," Digby teased.

"Haven't you spoken to your father about this?" Clara asked, quite concerned about her.

"You can't talk about things like that to Daddy," she denied.

"You could try," Clara suggested.

"Do you want to see where she died?" Digby asked, and Clara decided that it was death in general and not just animals that intrigued human boys.

The children led her over to the pond in front of their house. It was frozen despite the temperature having warmed since the last few days.

"She fell in there, and then it froze. She was in the ice for days and days. I hated her. She was cross all the time. In Frannie's dream she's still down there, waiting to come back," Digby explained.

"Everything else has thawed, but this pond is still frozen," she thought. Remembering the connection of the snowmen with her own thoughts, she considered the possible connection with the ice. Did the ice have a telepathic field connection to this little girl's dreams? "Frannie, this is important. You dream about her. What do you dream?"

"She's cross with me. She says I've been bad, and she's going to come out of the pond and punish me," Francesca admitted.

"When?" Clara insisted.

"She said she'd come back for Christmas. Tonight," the girl told her, nearly crying at the thought.

"I think Frannie's gone mad, don't you? I think she needs a doctor," Digby told her.

"I think you may be right," Clara agreed and hugged the girl tightly. "Don't mention this to anyone else. I'll be back very soon."

Clara ran back to Vastra's house, gasping for breath as she burst through the door.

"I have to call them! We need granddad and gran to help with this, I can't do it on my own," she insisted.

"Calmly now, what is happening?" Vastra asked, guiding her to sit down with them.

"The snowmen are feeding on people's thoughts, we know that. But there's this pond at Captain Latimer's, the last governess fell into it just before it froze and was dead in there for days before she was found. Now, the little girl, Francesca is dreaming about her. In her dreams she says that she's coming back out of the pond to punish them. I know there's some kind of telepathic field involved. I know that man Simeon is involved, but I don't know what to do to stop it! I need their help, Vastra! I have to call them!" Clara rambled fearfully.

"Calm down, now. Have some tea, dear," Jenny said as she handed the girl a cup.

"We cannot reveal who you are. A young woman from this time period cannot be using a telephone. I will call them, let them know that you've found something. You know well enough that they will come and help," Vastra assured her.

Clara returned to her charges for the evening, where she would do her best to protect the children until her grandparents arrived. She was sure now, that tonight would be the end of this trip, and soon she would be free to see her family again.

Vastra wasted no time in calling the TARDIS. "The young woman, Miss Aria? She seems to have discovered something more about the snow. I suggest a thorough investigation before this evening."

Rose felt a bit silly visiting Doctor Simeon in these costumes, but her husband generally had a reason for everything, so she didn't question it. After the last few months perpetually wearing dresses, she was a bit relieved to have trousers on, even if she had to deal with the silly moustache the Doctor had insisted on.

She could barely contain her giggles when she heard the servant announce them.

"Doctor Simeon, sir. There's someone demanding to see you."

"No callers, not in here, not ever. Did he leave his name?" Simeon responded angrily.

"Sir, it's Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson," the man told him at a bit of a loss as the Doctor pushed his way into the forbidden room, Rose hot on his heels. He looked ridiculous in the deerstalker hat and cape, but it was all part of the plan to confuse them as they pushed for information.

"Oh, nice office. Big globey thing. Take note of it, Watson. Now, shut up, don't tell me! I see from your collar stud you have an apple tree and a wife with a limp. Am I right?" the Doctor rambled.

"No," Simeon replied, unimpressed.

Rose took advantage of the distraction to go over to the man's desk, pretending to take notes, but really searching for information.

"Do you have a wife?" he asked.

"No."

"Bit of a tree? Bit of a wife? Some apples? Come on, work with me here," the Doctor continued.

"I enjoy The Strand magazine as much as the next man, but I am perfectly aware that Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character. Get out!" Simeon demanded.

The servant that had greeted them approached the Doctor to escort them out, but he distracted the man quickly by asking, "Do you have a goldfish named Colin?"

"No."

"Thought not. Now, ooo. I see this is one of your business cards. It says so on the front," he told them as he picked up a card from the desk.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Simeon questioned, resigned to the fact that they would not be easily gotten rid of.

"This. Wakey, wakey!" the Doctor shouted as he ran to the giant glass sphere in the middle of the room that was swirling with snow inside. He struck the side of it repeatedly with his cane.

"That is highly valuable equipment. You must step away now," Simeon shouted, trying to stop him from breaking anything.

"We are the Intelligence," a strange voice sounded from the globe.

"Ooo. Talking snow. I love new things. That's brilliant, isn't it, Watson?" the Doctor responded excitedly.

"Fascinating, Holmes. What do you make of it?" Rose answered, trying to make her voice sound more manly.

"No, no, don't do that," the Doctor told her, breaking character for a moment.

"You are not of this world," the Intelligence interrupted.

"Takes one to snow one," the Doctor joked, laughing at himself.

"I can't change my voice, but you can make stupid puns?" Rose protested. He adjusted his bow tie nervously and turned back to the strange snow-thing.

"Right, let's see. Multi-nucleate crystalline organism with the ability to mimic and mirror what it finds. Looks like snow. Isn't snow," the Doctor rambled, finally proving his own intelligence about what was happening.

Simeon went to the wall by the door to ring for more servants to help. "You must leave here now."

"Shut up, I'm making deductions. It's very exciting. Now, what are you, eh? A flock of space crystals? A swarm? The snowmen are foot soldiers, mindless predators. But you, you're the clever one. You're Moriarty. So, you turn up on a planet, you generate a telepathic field to learn what you can, and when you've learnt enough, what do you do? You can't conquer the world using snowmen. Snowmen are rubbish in July. You'll have to be better than that. You'll have to evolve," the Doctor continued.

As the other servants approached, Rose used her sonic to lock the doors into the room. They began pounding on them from the other side and even Simeon and the servant still with them couldn't open them from the inside.

"Sir, it appears to be stuck!" a muffled voice sounded from outside.

"What have you done? Have you locked the doors?" Simeon demanded, storming towards Rose.

"You need to translate yourself into something more, well, human," the Doctor decided.

"Kick it down!" Simeon called through the door.

"To do that you'd need a perfect duplicate of human DNA in ice form. Where do you find that?" he asked.

"Right here, Mr. Holmes. You see, most opened file, most viewed page," Rose told him as she tossed a file folder onto the desk, leaving it to fall open where it was usually opened.

"Brilliant, Watson! You know, you really should delete your history. Governess frozen in pond. Gotcha!" he exclaimed and just as the servants had gotten the door opened, he pulled his wife with him out of the large windows behind the desk.

#######################

"Just like Aria said. The governess frozen in the pond is connected to Simeon and the snowmen. Bright girl," Rose commented as he paced next to the frozen pond.

"Body frozen in a pond. The snow gets a good long look at a human being, like a full body scan. Everything they need to evolve. Good work, Aria. What are you doing here?" the Doctor asked when Strax approached them.

"Madam Vastra wondered if you were needing any grenades?" the Sontaran asked.

"Grenades?" the Doctor questioned incredulously.

"Uh, she might have said help," he corrected.

"Strax, you might have noticed by now, helping with us doesn't generally involve grenades," Rose told him.

"Though there are often explosions," the Doctor mumbled, earning a slap on the arm. "Right, no grenades, though possibly help, a little bit later. Grenades. Honestly, who do you think I am?"

"Sherlock Holmes," Strax chuckled.

"Don't be clever, Strax. It doesn't suit you," the Doctor complained.

"Sorry, sir," Strax grumbled.

"I'm the clever one, you're the potato one," the Doctor told him, poking him in the forehead.

"Yes, sir," Strax replied, clearly exasperated to be taking orders that didn't include grenades.

"Now go away," the Doctor told him.

"Yes, Mister Holmes," Strax grumbled and walked away.

"Don't mind him, Strax. He likes to insult other species when he's stressed!" Rose assured him.

"Oi! I'm only saying it because it's true. You're not clever or funny and you've got tiny little legs!" the Doctor insisted, calling after the Sontaran.

In the upstairs window, they noticed Aria watching them. She waved and motioned for them to come upstairs.

"Looks like we're heading inside," Rose sighed and they made their way to the back door to slip in.