The Girl in the Fireplace, Part Two
Clara glanced around the whole room. Something didn't feel right. She spotted Reinette sleeping in her bed. Snow was falling outside the window. Clara took a step forward, causing the floor to creak. Reinette woke with a start.
"It's okay!" The Doctor said quickly, holding his hands up. "Don't scream. It's us. It's the fireplace man and woman. Look." Clara cut him off.
"We were talking just a moment ago." She reminded the young French girl. "We were in your fireplace." The Doctor used his screwdriver to light a candle so that Reinette could see that it was, indeed, them.
"Madame, that was weeks ago. That was months!" Reniette sat up, bunching her blankets in her lap. The Doctor and Clara shared a look.
"Really?" Clara asked. "I swear it was only a moment ago." Reinette shook her head, her blonde hair catching the candlelight.
"Must be a loose connection." The Doctor said to Clara, who nodded. "Need to get a man in." He said to Reinette, joking. She didn't laugh.
"Who are you? Both of you? And what are you doing here, in my room, in the middle of the night?" The Doctor began to make up some story while Clara figured out why she had a bad feeling. Her eyes had landed on the broken clock.
"Okay, that's scary." She declared, pointing at it.
"You're scared of a broken clock?" Reinette asked, a bit of a giggle in her voice.
"Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a little tiny bit."
"What's so scary about a broken clock?" Reinette inquired, sitting up on her knees. The Doctor made a small noise, obviously understanding what Clara was hinting at.
"Well,you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room, then what's that ticking noise?" As if to underscore Clara's rhetorical question, the ticking seemed to get louder.
"That's not a clock. You can tell by the resonance." The Doctor paused to listen to the ticking. Tick tock. Tick tock. It seemed to be echoing.
"It sounds too big," Reinette whispered, sounding a little scared now.
"Way too big. Six feet, I'd say. The size of a man." The Doctor moved closer to Reinette's bed.
"What is it?" Clara asked, following him. He held out a hand to keep her from coming too close to the bed.
"Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do, break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two? You might start to wonder if you're really alone." The Doctor knelt down by the side of the bed. "Stay on the bed. Right in the middle." Reinette scooted forward, sitting perfectly in the middle of her bed, hands in her lap. "Don't put your hands or feet over the edge." She nodded. The Doctor stuck his screwdriver under the bed. Clara gave a shout when it was kicked out of his hand. She shrieked again when she saw it.
"Reinette, don't look round." Clara whispered quickly, afraid Reinette would see it and get even more scared. The inner nanny in her was coming out (not that it had been there when she ran off with the Doctor). A tall figure, wearing a creepy, old-fashioned, clown like mask and a curly wig was looming over little Reinette.
"Reinette, stay exactly where you are. Hold still, let me look." The Doctor, keeping his eyes on the clown, placed his hands on either side of Reinette's face, two fingers on her temple and one on her cheekbone. "Clara, grab my screwdriver and keep it pointed at it." Clara nodded and plucked the screwdriver from the wood floor. Yet another difference between her Doctor and this one; she had never been allowed to hold the screwdriver before.
Trusting that Clara could stop the clown if it moved- which she probably couldn't- the Doctor looked deep into Reinette's eyes. He looked almost offended by what he saw.
"You've been scanning her brain! What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain?" The clown did not indicate it even heard the Doctor as he yelled at it. "What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?" Still, it did not react.
"I don't understand. It wants me? You want me?" She had turned to face the clown, biting her tongue to stop from crying out.
"Not yet. You are incomplete." A mechanical voice came from the clown.
" Incomplete? What's that mean, incomplete?" Clara asked, bravely taking a step closer to the bed. She still had the screwdriver extended, finger on the button.
"You can answer her, you can answer us. What do you mean, incomplete?" The Doctor demanded, facing the clown full on. The clown jerkily walked around the bed, moving to face the Doctor. A blade shot out of its hand. Clara's eyes widened. She pressed the button on the screwdriver, but nothing happened.
"Monsieur, be careful!" Reinette pleaded, clutching her blanket tightly. The Doctor didn't speak, waiting for the clown to strike. Clara noticed tears in Reinette's eyes. Slipping the screwdriver into the Doctor's hand, Clara sat on the bed and hugged her.
"It's just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it." She sad soothingly, petting her head. Lying of course, but Reinette seemed to calm down. "Everyone has nightmares."
Suddenly, the clown slashed his blade, narrowly missing the Doctor as he dodged.
"Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" He taunted. The clowns blade had gotten stuck in the mantlepiece behind the Doctor. The Doctor gestured for Clara to stand next to him, so she ran over to the side the clown wasn't on.
"What do monsters have nightmares about?" Reinette wondered. With a pointed look from the Doctor, Clara activated the fireplace. They began rotating.
"Me!" He shouted.
The fireplace locked into place with a CLANG.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted, jumping up from her seat on the ground. Mickey followed suit. The Doctor grabbed a tube lying on a half broken rack and sprayed its contents over the clown. It froze.
"Excellent." Mickey said, poking the frozen clown. "Ice gun."
"Fire extinguisher." The Doctor corrected, tossing the empty can to him.
"Where did that thing come from?" Rose demanded. The Doctor shrugged.
"Here."
"So why is it dressed like that?" Mickey asked, eyeing the obnoxious, colorful jester outfit the clown wore.
"Field trip to France. Some kind of basic camouflage protocol. Nice needlework, shame about the face." The Doctor replied. Clara looked at its face and saw that the mask had been ruined by the fire extinguisher.
"What's underneath the mask?" Clara asked, looking up at the Doctor. He raised his eyebrows, clearly finding delight in everything going on.
"Why don't you find out?" He suggested. She smirked and took his advice, lifting the mask up carefully. Underneath the mask was a clear, head shaped container with a bunch of golden wheels and chains. It was like the inside of a clock, which explained the ticking noise.
"Oh, you are beautiful!" The Doctor breathed, awed by the intricate work on this android. "No, really, you are. You're gorgeous! Look at that. Space age clockwork, I love it. I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and, by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you. But that won't stop me." He held up his screwdriver with an excited look on his face, only to be disappointed when the android beamed away in a bright white light.
"What the hell just happened?" Clara asked.
"Short range teleport. Can't have got far. Could still be on board." He began towards the fireplace. Clara followed on his heels, as well as Mickey and Rose.
"What is it?" Rose asked. The Doctor halted, turning to the three of them.
"Don't go looking for it!" He said sternly. He turned to leave again.
"Where're you going?" Rose shouted.
"Back in a sec." He called casually over his shoulder. He stepped on the fireplace again.
"Oi! Shouldn't I come, too?" Clara asked. "Reinette does know me." The Doctor shook his head.
"Too dangerous." Scoffing, Clara crossed her arms. It was a bit daunting that he considered this too dangerous. She had faced an Ice Warrior on her own, faced a Cyber-Doctor, and jumped into the Doctor's time stream, saved him thousands of times, and lived to tell the tale. Of course, this Doctor didn't know about that, but still.
Rose picked up a giant gun, grinning to herself.
"He said not to go looking for it!" Mickey protested. Rose licked her lips, smile still on her face.
"Yea, he did." Mickey couldn't help but grin as well, and picked up his own gun. "Now you're getting it!" The two ran off, leaving Clara on her own.
"Well, fine, then." Clara stalked off in her own direction, no gun on her. It wasn't long until she found the clown. Except, it was a different one. It grabbed her and hit her hard on the head, knocking her out.