I'm Movin' Out

Eleven

It was a foggy afternoon in Hollowmire when he arrived, but after traipsing through the desert all day at Amy Pond's bidding, the icy chill and humid temperament of the weather was a relief. He was not the sort of creature to thrive in stagnant climates, and was glad to have finally detached himself from his ex-wife and his ex-parents-in-law in favour of his last remaining relative who actually did share blood with him – blood and a great deal of other things. That was what he was thinking about when he knocked loudly and authoritatively on the front door of Ravenwood's lonely house on the moors, the bright red convertible making its home on the driveway after being fixed up and delivered. It was a marvellous car, and he was quite sure he was never going to be allowed drive it.

He heard noises on the other side of the door, and then Ravenwood called in her achingly familiar voice, "I'm literally about to go to work, so you can bloody well clear off!" she shouted, taking him by surprise, as she fumbled with her keys and unlocked the door, "I don't know why you always have to just show up here when… oh, god," she said when she opened it and saw that it was the Doctor. "Shit, I'm so sorry! I thought you were Sally. She's the only person who ever shows up here unannounced."

"If it's inconvenient I can take the TARDIS and come back later?" he suggested. She frowned.

"Why? Jenny isn't going anywhere. You're here to see her, aren't you?" she asked, perplexed. He could see now how it may sound like he was actually looking to talk to Ravenwood, who was getting to look very sallow with sunken eyes and a very peculiar aura. When he looked at her he found himself itching to look anywhere else, and really had to focus quite hard to meet her dark gaze, her irises now sinking into a shade which was very nearly solid black. Her pupils were just pinpricks, trying to keep out the light, visible through the lenses of the sun-glasses she had to wear during the daytime. It was getting easier and easier to tell the two Claras apart because of the vampiric traits of the doppelganger. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, sorry. I was just startled by how… dead you look."

"Undead," she corrected, "I do have quite an alarming whiff of decay about me these days. I made a baby cry earlier this week – it's thrilling to uncover so many new talents."

"I see that the sarcasm really transcends all the different universes, then?" he jibed. She didn't say anything, but smiled a little, and then there was a strange silence as she stood holding the door so that he couldn't get into the house. "Is Jenny here, or…?"

"Oh, right. She's in the shower. Well, she just finished a moment ago because the water's turned off, but you can wait, if you like? I'm sure she'll only be a few minutes," Ravenwood stepped aside and let him in, and he was startled by how dark it was. Heavy curtains shrouded the windows, and there were dozens of tall and perilous candles on every surface. He hadn't seen inside her house for a good few weeks, but every time he did it just looked gloomier. If Jenny had any influence on the décor, it was invisible.

"It's very dark," he commented, because he couldn't think of anything else to say to her as she sat in her armchair and began to pull on her boots. She was wearing a lot of black and grey, as well. "Do you think you're being a bit theatrical with the vampire thing?"

"Do you ever think you're being a bit theatrical with the absent-minded professor thing?" she came right back at him, "I mean, elbow pads on tweed? Really? Has anyone ever told you that you look a bit like a geography teacher?"

"No, but I'm offended. Teaching is such a ghastly profession, don't you think?" he quipped. She laughed. Then he made to change the subject. "How is Jenny, anyway? In your expert opinion?"

"She's about as enigmatic as usual. What's the weather like out there? Did it look like rain?"

"It's a fifty-fifty shot."

"This is Yorkshire, when is it not a fifty-fifty shot?"

"A very fair point. There's nothing wrong with taking an umbrella with you, though. Just to be prepared. It's the scout motto, after all."

"Is it?"

"Yes."

"I'll take your word for it," she stood up and went to find her coat, which she had left on the back of the armchair instead of hanging it up in the hall. His Clara always did that, too. "Listen, I really have to go, you won't break anything, will you?"

"No, of course not," he said, "I wouldn't want to ruin your hospitality."

"Hospitality. Right." She cleared her throat. "You know, that thing about looking dead – I could say the same to you," she picked up her umbrella from where it was leaning by the door, "If my heart was still beating it might stop with the shock of you turning up on my doorstep like a ghost."

"I'll wear a mask next time," he said. She frowned, as though that were not a viable solution, then stepped into the mist.

"Feel free to make yourself tea or whatever, yeah?" He smiled and nodded. "Bye, Doctor."

"Goodbye, Clara." She closed the door and locked it behind her. He didn't know what to do with himself after that – make tea, or not? In the end, he decided not to, because he couldn't remember how many sugars Jenny took in hers. So he settled to prowl around and see the kind of house Ravenwood kept, out of idle curiosity. And because she was his wife. There were a few family pictures on the mantelpiece, but she was so young in them all she hardly looked like herself. There were no recent photographs, they were all from years before Ellie had died. Typically, she had a lot of books, which he couldn't help but think were a fire hazard along with all the candles, and there was also an empty glass which was stained red on the inside. It must have had blood in it. He picked it up to look at it when someone cleared their throat and he nearly dropped it.

"What are you doing, dad?" Jenny asked. She had just gotten dressed and still had wet hair, and didn't have shoes or socks on. The black eye she had received the day before last was flaring up nastily, dark blue with red splotches. It matched her hand quite well, her hand which still had thick stitches running down it and titanium screws holding it together.

"Nothing," he said quickly, "I was just…"

"It had Jack's blood in it," she said, "Not Clara's. He donated some bottles."

"Willingly?"

"Of course willingly!" she protested. And then a smile finally broke on her face and she came over to hug him. "What are you doing here? You didn't call. Did Clara see you?"

"Yes, we had a very strange conversation where I told her she looks dead and she said the same thing to me, and that my showing up here was like having a ghost knock on the door. But she's gone to work now."

"Did she remember her keys? And her umbrella? The forecast said it's going to rain."

"She remembered both," he told her, "It's awfully dark in here."

"The light hurts her eyes," Jenny said, shrugging, "And at the moment, it hurts mine, too." She indicated the shiner, though she didn't need to, it was glaringly obvious even in the gloom. "Really, though, did you want something? I mean… I don't mind you dropping by, but it's not my house."

"Does Clara mind?"

"I doubt it, she lets the Spooks here all the time."

"I destroyed the Singularity," he confessed.

"Oh. I thought you already did that? I told you to do it days ago."

"I know, but… it's a very tempting device," he said defensively, "I hate to be rude, but is there anything here to eat?"

"I was just about to make breakfast, is there anything you want? We went shopping yesterday, so the kitchen is well-stocked."

"Anything you like. Weren't you telling me about fried egg sandwiches earlier in the week? I wouldn't say no to one of those."

"Oh, sure, but I don't think I'm a match for the woman in the diner who made the ones I meant," she said, smiling and going through into the kitchen. He followed her and she opened the curtains, which was when he realised her flying saucer was hovering silently in the back garden. He hadn't seen it there earlier, so assumed there must be some kind of cloaking or perception filters at work. Jenny expertly went about finding everything she needed in the kitchen, and he had the sneaking suspicion that Jenny knew her way around Ravenwood's kitchen better than Ravenwood did.

"Did you know there's a giant alien spaceship buried underneath the pyramids?"

"There's what?" she turned around.

"A giant alien spaceship, underneath the pyramids. That was what I needed the Singularity for, to change their intertemporal qualities so that the interiors are mazes and nobody can find their way to the cavern underneath."

"So aliens built the pyramids?"

"No, the Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids on top of the ship. It crash-landed, I think. It's a sort of 'x marks the spot' thing, but more of a warning than an advertisement for buried treasure. Though it very much is buried treasure. Incidentally, pirates never actually marked their treasure with Xs if they buried it, and I daresay very few of them did – they probably spent it on ale and flintlocks and women."

"Uh-huh…" she poured a generous amount of sunflower oil into a frying pan and left it on the rung to heat up, going to slot bread into the toaster elsewhere.

"But I threw the Singularity into a black hole. River bore witness to it."

"Sounds terribly romantic. Why were you in Egypt?"

"Amy wanted to go and see the Sphinx, that's all."

"Isn't throwing it into a black hole a bad idea? Couldn't it do something really bad?"

"Depends on the black hole, I went to Krop-Tor. I met the devil there, did I tell you about that?"

"Isn't he called Vh'ozuth?" Jenny asked, conjuring a bizarre word he did not recognise.

"Isn't… what?"

"The devil you met, I thought he's called Vh'ozuth? Oc'thubha told me about it."

"Oc-whatsit?"

"Oc'thubha, you know – he's the extradimensional deity who lives in the mines and controls the people in the village through, like, baked goods," Jenny explained, "There's a secret tunnel in the pub you go through. You should meet him! He met the Tenth Doctor, I heard, but not you. Sally and Esther were there."

"What do you mean, 'extradimensional deity'?"

"He likes roller disco."

"He what?"

"And he says 'dude' and 'bro' all the time. I think he's fab. You can't look at him, though, or your eyes bleed and disintegrate and you lose your mind." Of all this, only the name 'Oc'thubha' was something he found even slightly familiar, but it was all very alarming. "He gave me these recipe for gooey chocolate cookies. I already had a recipe for gooey chocolate cookies, but it's really all in what flour you use. I'll bake some, soon, since I'm…" she stopped talking midway through her sentence, then changed topic completely, "You're just here to tell me about Egypt, then?"

"I wanted to see you. I was thinking about Time Lords today, what with using the Singularity, and their relics. Do you want me to leave?"

"No, no," she said quickly, but she didn't say anything else. She was thinking about something, but Jenny was usually thinking about something. He rarely saw his daughter and didn't get the sense that she was a million miles away. The eggs were beginning to spit, and she was buttering about eight slices of toast as they cooked. "Do you want them over-easy or sunny-side-up?"

"The first one. I don't want to bite into this and then spill egg all over myself. Is something the matter? Did you want to go to Egypt as well? You would have been a big help, everyone was completely unarmed, even River."

"No, I'm not bothered about that. You remember I lived on Korix for years, that's a big desert."

"Did you live on Korix?"

"I… oh. It was Ten I was there with, sorry… that was when he said he'd have dinner with me and then he totally welched."

He laughed, then repeated, "Welched."

"What?"

"Nothing. It's amusing how the mob slang comes through when you speak sometimes."

"Barely, it was one word."

"Now that I've destroyed the Singularity, where do you stand on the heroin?"

"Pfft! Heroin! Don't be ridiculous," Jenny said very unconvincingly, turning off the gas and separating the eggs so that she could slide them onto the bread. Two sandwiches each. She put on a dash of salt and pepper and then the Doctor sat down at the kitchen table. Outside, it was just beginning to rain; lucky that Ravenwood had taken her umbrella to work with her.

"Did you get rid of it?"

"Of what?"

"Of all the opiates you stole."

"It's complicated. Look, the truth is, I asked Oswin to write me up an easy formula for a contained explosive, because I told her I could read her handwriting, but… I couldn't read it, alright? I usually can, but I didn't know what any of it said, and I'm way too embarrassed to go and ask her to decipher it. So, yes, there's still a very large quantity of heroin on the TARDIS, okay? I'm working on it." While she explained, he took a bite out of the sandwich, and decided it was one of the best fried egg sandwiches he had ever tasted, diner be damned.

"You should have mentioned! We could have taken it to Krop-Tor and thrown it out with the Singularity."

"It might be useful."

"Useful how?" He continued to eat.

"You know, just… it might. Trust me. And I'm not telling you where I've stashed it, so don't even-"

"I bet it's wedged into the wreckage of Adam Mitchell's yacht."

"It's… no!" she exclaimed. He grinned.

"It is, isn't it?"

"Not for long, I'll tell someone to move it. I'll tell Jack, he'll move it."

"He might take it and try to sell it to fund his wedding."

"Well, I… just don't touch it. It's my heroin. And I have other things to talk to you about, actually, so, there. Shut up."

"Oh?" he asked with his mouth full of bread and eggs.

"Yeah. Important things." She didn't explain. He sensed she was waiting for him to put the sandwich down, which he did, though it painted him. He didn't want it to go cold, and you couldn't really microwave eggs to reheat them. She looked at him very seriously after pushing her damp hair out of her face, and leant towards him on the table. Whatever she had to tell him she was not having an easy time finding the words, and he would love to help her but he didn't know what she was thinking at all. Ravenwood had been right, Jenny was enigmatic. "The thing is, dad, that… it's at this point, right, where we've been together for a while, me and Clara, and I have to start thinking in a more sort of, roundabout way about what I want our relationship to be like. And this is all on me, by the way, this is my decision, Clara just told me I should do whatever I think is best, she's not trying to influence me, or anything-"

"I wouldn't think that Clara would try to influence you, to be quite honest."

"I'm thinking about moving out. Of the TARDIS." He had not been prepared for the shock.

"But – no, you can't do that, not after we've finally – and you're – that's not fair," he argued, fully aware that he sounded like a child. Jenny looked hurt, more than her eye and her hand and her other bruises – the bullet wound scarring her arm.

"You can still visit, I'm not cutting you off – you can visit all the time, I'm not moving in with Clara, I'm going to live in the spaceship-"

"It's tiny!"

"It's not tiny, it's the same size as a decent flat. I've lived in worse places. I'm just so tired of getting injured and worrying about how Clara's going to react when I show up with wounds like this," Jenny argued with him, and he knew full-well what she meant. He had been scared of his Clara finding out about the snake bite, so he understood where his daughter was coming from. "It's not about you, or me being bitter, it's just about me trying to look after myself. And I totally got this job, in a bakery, right? There's about a dozen bakeries here. I love cooking! I'm great at it. I'll do those cookies I was just talking about. If I have to pick between Clara and living on the TARDIS then I pick her, I've gone two centuries without the TARDIS and honestly, I'm not sure it's as glamorous as everyone makes it out to be. I'd rather stay in the village. I'm good friends with Sally and Esther, you know. We've got a group chat."

"Yes. So you've said."

"This is the way I normally like to live, I like to briefly settle down in places and get a job, and I like the idea of being here for Clara and of her having an easier time getting in touch with me. What if she lost her phone but she needed me? She would know where to find me if I was here. It's not like you see me half the time even when I am on the TARDIS, and I've barely been there recently. Plus… you know, it's not exactly easy, being around Jack and Ianto. And I've lived alone my whole life, it's not actually that comfortable to try and kindle a family connection based on cohabitation. It's been months, and this is what I'm really sure is the next stage in my life, yeah? And then I could come back if I ever feel like it. If she dumps me."

"I don't think she's going to dump you."

"She might do!" Jenny protested. It sounded like she wanted Ravenwood to dump her. She sighed. "It's really important to me that you understand what I'm doing and why and that you're not angry about it. I've thought a lot, and I don't want to keep getting roped into these schemes and getting myself hurt. I always say that, but it keeps happening anyway, so… this is what I'm doing. I might take up some hobbies. I've been thinking about learning blacksmithing and making a sword, or… painting. Along with the baking, which also includes some cake decorating! I love icing. The colours. I could make wedding cakes – I could even make Rose a wedding cake. You know what, I'm going to call her later and ask her if she has a cake sorted out yet. When's the wedding?"

"In a week. A week today, I think."

"I'll see if she needs a cake…" Now she was off thinking about cakes and whatnot. She did seem very excited about this whole affair. He couldn't work out if he was surprised or not; was he in shock? Or maybe it was just not as shocking as he thought. Maybe he knew now, when he really thought about it, that this had been a long-time coming. She had been ditching the TARDIS to spend time in Hollowmire for weeks, and she was right, even when she was on the TARDIS he still rarely saw her.

"I do understand. It's just big news, that's all. Have you asked her to marry you? Is that what this is about?"

"No, I have not asked her to marry me. We're not getting married. There's too many people getting married right now and talking about getting married – you can't talk to someone on that spaceship for five minutes without them mentioning a wedding, have you noticed?" she said. "I'm not asking for your permission, this is what I'm choosing whether you-"

"And I support you!" he interjected, "Of course I do. I agree with Ravenwood, do whatever makes you happy. But expect visits, and trips. I'll be dropping by, if only to sample all of these cakes. And to meet this Octopus-"

"Oc'thubha."

"Yes, yes, the creature-thing."

"Well, Hollowmire's a weird place. Sally and Esther found a ghost train."

"They what?"

"A ghost train, on the viaduct. And a mind-control top hat. They keep it on a skeleton in the garden."

"I… you have very unusual friends, my dear."

Jenny beamed widely, "Thanks! And I'm sure I'll still be visiting the TARDIS. I'll have to go see Oswin because she'd kill me if I didn't, and I have to keep up with Nios's cooking lessons. It'll probably barely be different, and it's like, a step towards Clara and I living together one day, which we've talked about."

"Really? You're thinking about that?"

"Sort of."

"Hmm," he mused, "I wonder what it would be like if you did live together. Maybe you wouldn't be able to put up with her bad habits."

"She's not that bad," Jenny laughed, "I'm the one with the bad habits, keeping the guns under the bed and skinning dead animals in the garden. Clara would be a saint if she could put up with me, and that's saying something since she's a vampire. Probably couldn't be within a mile radius of a saint. But, you know, I wonder that too, what things will be like for us in the future…"

AN: And the next storyline will be in the future, so that's what that segue is all about. Also, Merry Christmas! Or Merry Christmas Eve, depending on where you are in the world (still Christmas Eve here.) Again, if you didn't get a chance yet, be sure to go read the Christmas chapter of Spook Watch because the main continuity here isn't going to have anything Christmassy in it.

ALSO, I think I'm gonna do joint hen and stag party storylines, so if any of you have any suggestions for that throw them my way - but remember that Jack will be at the hen party, him being the maid of honour, and Donna will be at the stag party, her being the best man.