The Doctor knocked on the doors of a large Manor house, the house looking rather spooky as the storm raged on around them.
"What are we actually doing here?" Clara asked as they huddled under the porch, lowering the red umbrella they used to keep dry from the rain.
"Ghost hunting!" Thea grinned.
The Doctor put a finger to his lips as they heard footsteps approaching the door, pulling them to the side until the door opened and he jumped out with a shout off; "boo!" Grinning at the young man in a tan coat and glasses, a young woman with short brown hair standing behind him. "Hello, we're looking for a ghost."
"And you are?" The man asked.
"Ghostbusters." Clara grinned.
"We ain't afraid of no ghosts." Thea joined in.
"I'm the Doctor." The Doctor introduced, holding up the psychic paper, "this is my daughter, Thea..."
"Doctor what?" The man cut in.
"If you like. And this is Clara," he walked past them and into the house, running over to the large amount of equipment set up in the parlour, "Ah, but you are very different. You are Major Alec Palmer. Member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Specialised in espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance behind enemy lines. You're a talented watercolourist, professor of psychology and ghost hunter." He shook his hand, "Total pleasure. Massive."
"Actually, you're wrong." The woman they knew to be Emma Grayling called, "Professor Palmer spent most of the war as a POW."
"Which is a lie," Thea told her, "a lie told by very brave man involved in very secret operations. Which you knew, but didn't say anything." She leaned closer to the woman, "psychics know when others lie, don't we?"
"The type of man who keeps a Victoria Cross in a box in the attic, eh?" The Doctor added, "But you know that, because you're Emma Grayling," he gave her two gallic kisses, "the Professor's companion."
"Assistant." Emma corrected.
"It's 1974. You're the assistant and non-objective equipment." He grinned, looking back at Thea and Clara, "Meaning psychic."
"Getting that." Clara nodded, "Bless you, though."
"Empathic psychic." Thea gushed.
"Relax, Emma." Alec called, "he's Military Intelligence. So, what is all this in aid of?"
"Health and safety." The Doctor grinned, "Yeah, the Ministry got wind of what's going on down here. Sent me to check that everything's in order."
"They don't have the right."
"Don't worry, guv'nor, I'll be out of your hair in five minutes." He snapped his fingers, moving to fiddle with the equipment, "Oh! Oh, look, kiddo. Oh, lovely. The ACR 99821. Oh, bliss. Nice action on the toggle switches. You know, I do love a toggle switch. Actually, I like the word toggle. Nice noun. Excellent verb." He slapped Clara hand away as she moved to mess with the toggle, "Oi, don't mess with the settings." And pulled out his sonic to scan around the room.
"What's that?" Alec eyed him.
"Gadget. Health and safety. Classified, I'm afraid. You know, while the back room boffins work out a few kinks."
"What's it telling you?" Emma asked.
"It's telling me that you haven't been exposed to any life-threatening transmundane emanations."
"So, no ghost?" Thea pouted. "That's not fair, I want to see a ghost!" She broke into a grin as they all heard an eerie whoosing sound.
The Doctor picked up a candelabrum, "it's ghost time."
"Let's go!" Thea cheered, already turning and walking out of the room as the Doctor hurried to her side, using the candelabrum as the only source of light, "ghostbusters!"
"I will not have this stolen out from under me, do you understand." Alec followed after them along with Emma.
"Er, no, not really, sorry." The Doctor smiled back at him.
"I will not have my work stolen, then be fobbed off with a pat on the back and a letter from the Queen. Never again. This is my house, Doctor, and it belongs to me."
"This is actually your house?" Clara asked him.
"It is."
"Sorry. You went to the bank and said, you know that gigantic old haunted house on the moors? The one the dossers are too scared to doss in? The one the birds are too scared to fly over? And then you said, I'd like to buy it, please, with my money."
"Yes, I did, actually." Alec nodded.
"That's incredibly brave." Clara stared at him.
Thea blinked hearing the floorboards creaking, but not close enough to be from their feet, she looked back, getting the feeling of being watched, "or incredibly stupid." She countered.
"Listen, Major, we just need to know what's going on here." The Doctor told him.
"For the Ministry." Alec frowned.
"You know I can't answer that."
"Very well, follow me." Alec took the lead, showing them down the hall.
Alec led them into a small living room where he had a board of information and pictures about the house and its ghost.
~.~
The Doctor stood, snapping pictures of himself with an old camera as Thea sat to the side with Clara and Emma.
"So, what's an empathic psychic?" Clara asked.
"She can sense feelings." Thea told her.
Emma nodded, "Sometimes. The way a telepath can sense thoughts. Sometimes, though. Not always."
"The most compassionate people you'll ever meet, emphatics." The Doctor added as he wandered over, "And the loneliest. I mean, exposing themselves to all those hidden feelings, all that guilt, pain and sorrow and..."
"Dad?" Thea looked at him seeing Emma growing uncomfortable.
"Yes, kiddo?"
"Hush."
"It's not so bad really, though, is it Thea." Emma turned up her.
"What?" she blinked.
"Being an empathic psychic...you're one as well."
"No, I'm not." She waved her off with a laugh, "I'm just psychic and honestly not even the best."
"Oh, and that's where you wrong!" The Doctor grinned, putting his arm around her and squeezing her in a side hug, "you're brilliant!"
"I'm still figuring it all out." She told Emma, "maybe one day I could be an empathic psychic, but not right now."
At least she didn't think she was. If Emma thought it was maybe she was, or at least would be.
She had never really thought much about sensing other people's feelings.
She was cut from her thoughts as Alec called them over, "Would you care to have a look?"
"You alright?" The Doctor eyed Thea as she nodded, getting up with the rest of them to gather around the board.
"Caliburn House is over 400 years old," Alec began, "but she has been here much longer." He tapped the images showing a blurry figure, reaching out to the camera, "The Caliburn Ghast. She's mentioned in local Saxon poetry and parish folk tales. The Wraith of the Lady, the Maiden in the Dark, the Witch of the Well."
"Is she real?" Clara frowned at the images, "As in, actually real?"
"Oh, she's real. In the seventeenth century, a local clergyman saw her. He wrote that her presence was accompanied by a dreadful knocking, as if the Devil himself demanded entry. During the war, American airmen stationed here left offerings of tinned Spam. The tins were found in 1965, bricked up in the servants' pantry, along with a number of handwritten notes. Appeals to the Ghast. For the love of God, stop screaming."
"She never changes." Clara noted, looking at the images, "The angle's different, the framing, but she's always in exactly the same position. Why is that?"
"We don't know." Alec sighed, "She's an objective phenomenon, but objective recording equipment can't detect her..."
"Without a psychic." Thea finished, nodding.
"Absolutely. Very well done."
"She knows we're here." Emma murmured, "I can feel her calling out to me."
"What's she saying?" Clara asked her.
But it was Thea who answered, "Help me. I can feel her too." She breathed, realising she could feel her, "Oh, that is weird."
Clara glanced back, catching sight of something scuttling past the door, but it was gone before she could see what it actually was.
"The Witch of the Well." The Doctor murmured, "So where's the well?"
Alec pointed at him, leading them over to the blueprints of the house he had laid out of a table, "A copy of the oldest plan that we could find. There is no well on the property. None that we could find, anyway."
"None that you could see." Thea countered.
The Doctor beamed at that, knowing that with her saying that it meant there was something interesting to discover.
Clara, who had been staring at the photos, jumped, spinning around as Thea tapped her shoulder, "come on!" She grinned.
"Where?" Clara shook her head.
"To find the ghost. The Doctor whispered.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Because you want to. Come on."
"Well, I dispute that assertion."
"Are you scared?" Thea teased, "is ickle Clara scared we might find a ghost." She linked her arm through the woman's, "ghosts aren't real, you know."
"Then why are we ghost hunting?" Clara asked.
"For fun." She shrugged.
The Doctor glanced at Emma, seeing her watching them, "I'm giving you a face." He jerked his head to get her to follow them, "Can you see me? Look at my face."
"Fine." Clara huffed, "Dare me."
"I dare you." He laughed, "No takesies backsies."
Clara took the candelabrum and headed out of the room as the Doctor and Thea followed.
"To the music room." Thea told them, smiling back at Emma.
"Its the heart of the house." The woman agreed.
"Say we actually find her." Clara began as they walked through the house towards the music room, "What do we say?"
"We ask her how she came to be... whatever she is." The Doctor shrugged.
"Why?"
"Because were curious." Thea defended. "And she's obviously not a ghost."
"And ignorance is, what's the opposite of bliss?" the Doctor asked.
"Carlisle." Clara answered.
"Yes." He pointed at her, "Yes, Carlisle. Ignorance is Carlisle."
Thea glanced back as they turned a corner, swearing she could feel something behind them. She shook her head.
That was the problem with ghost hunting, the unexplained made one very jumping. It was why so many humans would rather believe in ghosts rather than aliens. They could wave off the strange and unusual because most didn't understand it.
The music room was old and disused with a few music instruments sitting around, collecting dust from over the years. The Doctor pulled out the sonic, scanning around.
"Ah, the music room. The heart of the house." The Doctor remarked, "Do you feel anything, kiddo?"
"No." She shook her head, then nodded, "yes...not yet." She settled on.
"What about you Clara?"
"No." She answered quickly.
"Your pants are so on fire."
"Do you feel like you're being watched?" Clara asked, stepping closer to Thea side.
"Pretty sure dad has a tracker on me yeah." She nodded, "but I don't think that's what you meant." She wandered over to a door leading to another room, "I think I can feel her." She breathed out, her breath showing in the air before her.
The Doctor moved to her side, trying to scan but getting no readings as Thea held out her hand as though the 'ghost' would reach out. He breathed out, seeing his own breath and stepped back, breathing out again seeing nothing, "Cold spot." He guessed, "Spooky." He moved around, seeing where he could see his breath, "Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold."
"It's a circle." Thea noted, watching as the Doctor walked around, pulling out a chalk and marking the area they could see their breath.
"Doctor?" Clara called, growing more uneasey as she kept hearing odd noises, "Thea."
"What?" The Doctor looked at her.
"I'm not happy."
"No."
"It's alright, Clara." Thea linked her arm through the woman's, "i'll protect you from any scary ghost." She told her as they walked off out of the room down a dark corridor with a large window on one side.
They stopped, hearing a loud thudding noise.
"What was that?" Clara whispered.
There was two more thuds. The Doctor breathed out seeing his breath before him. A gust of wind blowing out the candles leaving them in darkness as frost crept up on the windows.
"This was fun to start with..." Thea began quietly, her hand finding its way to the Doctors for comfort, "but when the lights are out...it isn't."
"Okay, what is that?" Clara gasped hearing two more thuds.
"It's a very loud noise." The Doctor said simply, pulling out the sonic to try and give them a bit of light, "it's a very loud, very angry noise."
"What's making it?"
"I don't know. Are you making it?"
Clara glanced back at another thud, "Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"I may be a teeny, tiny bit terrified."
"Yes?"
"But I'm still a grown-up."
"Mainly, yes, and?"
"There's no need to actually hold my hand."
The Doctor frowned at that, seeing one of his hands held the sonic, his other hand holding Theas, the girls other hand tight by her side, "Clara. I'm not holding your hand."
They spun around as lightning flashed illuminating something crooked. Clara screamed, rushing past the Doctor pulled Thea back with them as the girl stared, her head tilted at the thing.
She didn't quite get the chance to get a good sense at whatever it was. But she knew it wasn't something to be afraid off, just because it looked odd and spooky in the darkness, lit up by the lightning.
They ran back into the parlour where Alec and Emma stood, a dark disc spinning before them.
"Has this happened before?" The Doctor questioned.
"Never." Alec shook his head.
"Camera. Camera!" He grabbed the camera, snapping pictures as the disc spun faster, a crack beginning for form inside.
Emma gasped, seeing a figure appear before them.
"Doctor?" Clara shouted.
He spun around, snapping pictures in the archway, seeing a blurry figure seemingly running towards them, in what looked like a forest behind them.
"Help me!" A ghostly wail echoed around the room as Thea spun and caught Emma moments before she collapsed.
Clara gasped hearing a crash from above, "Doctor!"
They all looked over to see the words 'help me' illuminated on the wall by the stairs as it started to fade and the disc disappeared.
"That was spooky." Thea remarked, looking rather bemused to see the humans, and even the Doctor looking scared at what had just happened.
Clara blinked, staring at the girl, "you are fearless."
~.~
Thea smiled as she handed Clara and Emma a cup of tea each as they sat down in the parlour before the fireplace, helping Emma feel better after what happened and gain her strength back.
The Doctor had gone with Alec to the mans darkroom to develop the pictures he had taken.
"Better than my plan," Clara smiled, taking a sip of the tea, breathing in its warmth and comfort. She nodded to the alcohol to the side, "whiskey is the 11th most disgusting thing ever invented."
"Tea has better healing properties." Thea informed them, "Can never go wrong with a good cup of tea."
"So...you and professor Palmer," Clara began, eying Emma, "have you ever, you know?"
"No." Emma shook her head.
"Why not? You do know how he feels about you, don't you? You, of all people?"
"I don't know. People like me, like us," she emended, glancing over at Thea who frowned, "sometimes we get our signals mixed up."
"We feel someway so strongly we think others are returning the feeling." Thea added, understanding her even more now why she didn't try and move closer to the professor, "but sometimes there's nothing there."
That was exactly like her and River they constantly flirted and bounced off one another and she grew to like River and she thought River liked her back and because they never met in the right order she thought...but she had been wrong clearly.
River wanted nothing more than to be friends which hurt very much, even worse than knowing the more she knew River the less River knew her.
She felt so strongly for River she really had believe she felt the same back, but she had been wrong, so wrong, embarrassingly wrong. As wrong as the Doctor.
It hurt terribly that River shot her down like that, would rather kill the Doctor willingly that marry her.
But she could admit how much that hurt.
"Oh, this is there." Clara insisted.
"How do you know?"
"Because it's obvious. It sticks out like a big chin."
"What about you?" Emma asked, her gaze lingering on Clara more, "how are you dealing with the house?"
"It's all a bunch of hocus pocus." Thea sipped her tea.
"You're not scared of anything are you?" Clara laughed.
"I'm scared of 5 things."
"Just 5?"
"She doesn't like the thought of people leaving her or being alone." Emma remarked.
Thea shot her a look at that, "I have my reasons why."
"What are the other 4?" Clara asked gently, "so I know not to scare you. I think its only fair I get to protect you at some point."
Thea smiled, "I'm scared of the dark." she admitted.
You never knew what was lurking in the dark, what could sneak up on you. In the darkness you couldnt see who was with you. What if something happened to someone she loved and she couldnt see to help them? She knew it was stupid and irrationally but she had always been scared of the dark. The fears that never changed even as she regenerated.
"I'm scared of the Whispermen."
On the rare occasion either of her parents had actually put her to bed they'd always read her a story at least. Just a story to trigger nightmares to scare her so all she would do was curl up under the covers and hope nothing could grab her from under the bed.
All that just so she wouldn't wake up and disturb them late at night.
How cruel!
"And the Toclafane."
She shook her head. The year-that-never-was that awful year caused by the Master that she couldnt even talk to anyone about because no one remembered it and those that did either didn't even know what happened on the ground below the Valiant or were unaware of her being aware and probably didn't want to talk about that year either.
Emma stared at her knowing that she wouldn't admit her fifth and final fear to them and changed the topic, "the Doctor..."
"What about him?" Clara perked up, interested to know what Emma had to say about him.
Emma bit her lip, hesitating to say, glancing to Thea before focusing on Clara, the woman was young and innocent and seemed to trust him, "he cant be trusted. There's a silver of ice in his heart."
"Which heart?" Thea quipped. Not at all put out or insulted by Emma's mere observation of her old man. She was absolutely right about him and couldn't help but make a good old joke about their two hearts.
Sometimes humans made it too easy to admit they were aliens only for her comments to be over looked.
"Thea!" They turned hearing the Doctor calling out, "Clara!"
~.~
The trio ran out in the pouring rain, huddling under the red umbrella stopped just before the TARDIS as Clara stared at the box.
"I've got this weird feeling it's looking at me." Clara whispered, "It doesn't like me."
"The TARDIS is like a cat." The Doctor shrugged, "A bit slow to trust, but you'll get there in the end." He dashed out from under the umbrella and unlocked the doors, running up to the console as Thea pulled Clara in with her, not trusting the TARDIS to lock Clara out in the storm.
Clara looked around as she closed the umbrella, seeing nowhere to actually store it, "You need a place to keep this."
"I've got one." The Doctor spun around, only to there wasn't an umbrella stand, "Or I had one. I think I had one. Look around. See if you find it. Did I have one? Am I going mad?"
"I think you went mad years ago." Thea commented, taking the umbrella from Clara and moving to lean it against the doors, rolling her eyes to see an umbrella stand appear just for her.
"So, where are we going?" Clara wondered, joining the Doctor at the console.
"Nowhere." The Doctor answered, starting to prepare the box as Thea came to help, "We're staying right here. Right here, on this exact spot, if I can work out how to do it." he twisted a knob only to Thea to twist it back.
"So...when are we going?"
"Oh, that is good." He laughed, "That is top-notch."
"And the answer is?"
"We're going always." The Doctor spun on the spot before heading to the stairs leading under the console.
"We're going always." Clara repeated, turning to Thea, "does he know that's not actually a sentence?"
"It's got a verb." Thea had to defend.
"What do you think?" The Doctor called coming back up to their level, showing them a bright orange spacesuit.
"Colour's a bit boisterous." Clara remarked.
"I think it brings out my eyes."
"Makes my eyes hurt."
"Is it Halloween?" Thea joked, "ghost that's not actually a ghost out there and pumpkin in here." She laughed.
"Oi!" The Doctor pouted.
"So you really don't think its a ghost?" Clara asked Thea as the Doctor disappeared again to change into the suit.
"No." She scoffed, finishing preparing the TARDIS for the hops to the past, just knowing if she left it down to the Doctor they wouldn't make it. "I'm betting time travel gone wrong."
~.~
Thea stood before the monitor watching as the Doctor stood outside snapping photos of the area, the same spot all across time. They started at the beginning of the Earth, and to prehistoric times, and Victorian times and now the Doctor was finishing up, standing outside of the rocky volcanic remains of the Earth.
"Are you alright, Clara?" Thea asked, eying the woman as she sighed. She had noticed that the further along Earths time they went the more quiet the woman got and she knew it wasn't because she felt sick from the Doctors piloting.
"Totally." Clara nodded, "peacy keen."
"Very bad idea lying to a psychic."
Clara stared at the monitor seeing the Doctor still snapping photos outside, "Have we just watched the entire life cycle of Earth, birth to death?" She breathed.
"...Yeah."
"And you're okay with that?"
"Yes."
"How can you be?"
She shrugged, "its how we're raised. We taught it. we see time for what has been, what it is, what it could be and what it shouldn't be. Everything dies, even planets go out eventually."
"That's not what I mean." Clara shook her head, sighing, "I mean, one minute you're in 1974 looking for ghosts, but all you have to do is open your eyes and talk to whoever's standing there. To you, I haven't been born yet, and to you I've been dead one hundred billion years. Is my body out there somewhere, in the ground?"
Thea hesitated, there was a body of Claras out there, this Claras body would at some point in her future have a grave, unless she was cremated and their was also the body of Victorian Clara, she had also been buried. It was weird to think that the would could have multiple graves and they had no idea why or how.
"But here we are, talking. So I am a ghost. To you, I'm a ghost. We're all ghosts to you. We must be nothing."
"You're giants." Thea told her. "And you know when I was a kid I was quite the detective." She smiled, "you're mysteries worth solving. You humans are magnificent you're constantly learning. I mean you started thinking the sun revolved around Earth and learnt that was wrong and then next you're develop space travel and create colonies on Mars." She blinked, "but a few years in your future." She glanced over as the Doctors stepped back inside, oblivious to their conversation as he quickly headed to get out of the suit.
~.~
Thea crossed her arms, as she watched the Doctor set up a projector for the photo he had developed, she glanced to the side seeing Emma moving to Claras side, speaking quietly. It didn't take an empathic to know something was bothering Clara.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked quietly.
Clara sighed, "I just saw something I wish I hadn't."
"What did you see?"
"That everything ends."
"No, not everything. Not love..." She glanced over at Alec, "Not always."
"Right, done." The Doctor cheered, "That's it. Gather round, gather round. Roll up, roll up!" He held up the sonic, powering the projector up and using it as a clicker between slides, "The Ghast of Caliburn House." He flicked through the photos, "Never changing, trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But, what if she's not? What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here? What if a second to her was a hundred thousand years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box. A blue box, probably. What if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" He began flicking through the photos he had taken, showing a woman in white, running, her hand outstretched, crying out for help "She's not a ghost. But she's definitely a lost soul. Her name is Hila Tacorian. She's a pioneer, a time traveller, or at least she will be in a few hundred years."
"Time travel's not possible." Alec argued, "the paradoxes..."
"Resolve themselves," Thea waved him off.
"How long has she been alone?" Emma wondered.
"Well, time travel's a funny old thing. I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed..." The Doctor checked his watch when Thea beat him too it.
"3 minutes ago." She said, "and one second...2 seconds..."
"We get it." The Doctor placed his hand over her mouth, knowing she would keep counting the seconds and with each second the longer Hila was trapped and needed their help.
"Crash landed?" Emma frowned, "Where?"
"She's in a pocket universe. A distorted echo of our own. They happen sometimes but never last for long." He pulled out two balloons and blowing them up, "Our universe." He held one in his left hands, "Hila Tacorian's here, in a pocket universe." And the other in his right hand, "you're a lantern, shining across the dimensions, guiding her home, back to the land of the living."
"But what's she running from?" Clara asked.
"Well, that's the best bit. We don't know yet. Shall we see?"
The Doctor flicked to the next slide, their expressions growing serious to see a crooked creature with an elongated neck lurking in the trees.
"What is that?" Clara grimaced at the sight.
"I don't know. Still, not to worry."
"Another lost soul." Thea murmured.
"What?" The Doctor turned to her.
She shook her head, tilting it as she eyed the photo of the creature. It looked very much like what they had seen in the corridor when lightning had flashed. So was it like Hila a lost soul trying to find its way back to their universe or something else?
"So, what do we do?" Emma looked at the Doctor.
"Not 'we', you." The Doctor smiled at her, "You save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern. The rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid. We need some sturdy rope and a blue crystal from Metebelis Three. Plus some Kendal Mint Cake."
"Oooh, midnight snack." Thea cheered as they turned and left the room heading back to the TARDIS.
"Ok," Clara rushed after them, "but why does it need to be Emma. If Theas psychic too, why cant she do it?"
"Because Emma has a stronger connection to Hila." Thea remarked, "seeing as they are family."
"What?" Claras eyed widened.
The Doctor nodded, "Hila is her great-great-great-great-great granddaughter."
Claras eyes widened even more, "its her granddaughter?"
"That's time travel for you," Thea laughed.
~.~
Clara smiled as she sat on the edge of the upper level, looking down at the Time Lords. The first thing the Doctor had done was grab the promised midnight snack.
It made her laugh that he seemed to have food on standby.
Her dad used to do the same for her when she had been younger. He always had a secret stash of sweets and chocolate specifically for her, usually only opened when she had a bad day but it had also been there as an emergency for if she got hungry late a night. Which wasn't often, but it showed how much he cared to know it was there when she needed it.
"Can't you just...you know?" Clara called down to them as the Doctor rummaged for something under the console.
He looked up at her, "What?"
"Fly the TARDIS into the parallel universe?"
"Parallel universes are closed off." Thea told her, "crossing them can trigger the release of Daleks in the Void and result in the end of the universe."
"And that's bad?" Clara followed.
"Of course the end of the universe is bad."
"But it's not a parallel universe." The Doctor cut in, "It's a pocket universe. Plus, it is collapsing. I mean, the TARDIS could get in there all right, but entropy would bleed her power sources, you see? Trap her there until the entire universe decayed back into the quantum foam. Which would take about three minutes, give or take, you know."
"You shouldn't suggest mum should go to another universe or dimension which would get her killed." Thea remarked, running a hand along the console, "its not going to make her like you any quicker."
~.~
A thick mess of wires ran out of the TARDIS, through the house and into the music room, hooked up to clocks and a tripod in the middle of the room where a large white, egg shape object sat on top.
"What is that?" Clara reached out to touch the egg.
The Doctor slapped her hand away, "A subset of the Eye of Harmony."
"I don't..."
"Of course you don't. Be weird if you did. I barely do myself. and its not because I barely passed my exams." He added, looking pointedly at Thea as she opened her mouth.
She closed her mouth, pouting, "I didn't say anything."
"I don't need to be psychic to know you are very annoying." He poked her.
She poked him, "learnt that from you."
He pulled a face at her which she mimicked as he turned back to focus on Emma, "Right. You, sit down." He led the woman to a chair, attaching a wire crown to her head, a blue crystal in the middle, "All the way from Metebelis Three."
"What does it do?" Emma reached out to straighten it.
"It amplifies your natural abilities like a microphone, or a pooper scooper."
"What exactly is this arrangement?" Alec frowned at the clocks began to tick.
"A psychochronograph." Thea answered, watching as the Doctor get into a harness.
"Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit well, make do and mend?"
"Non-psychic technology won't work where I'm going." the Doctor answered, "Listen, all I need to do is dive into another dimension, find the time traveller, help her escape the monster. get home before the entire dimension collapses and Bob's your uncle."
"Doctor, will it hurt?" Emma asked quietly.
"No." He told her, before realising she knew he had lied, "Well, yes. Probably. A bit. Well, quite a lot. I don't know. It might be agony. To be perfectly honest, I'll be interested to find out."
Emma glanced at Alec who nodded and took a breath, "I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm speaking to Hila Tarcorian..."
The Doctor connected his harness to a rope as Thea connected the rope to a wrench to help pull them back as the clocks went mad, some moving forwards, others back, some stopping, some replaying the same second.
The spinning disc appeared again, spinning faster until it shattered and a swirl of white light blasted into existence, a wind picking up.
"See?" The Doctor grinned, "The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole! A reality well! A door to the echo universe."
"Ready?" Thea shouted to her.
"Ready!" Emma yelled.
"Geronimo." The Doctor called, taking a running leap into the portal, clinging to the rope as he fell though.
"Doctor!" Clara shouted as the wrench and rope were pulled.
"Don't..." Thea warned her.
~.~
"Whoa!" The Doctor landed with a thump, looking around the echo forest he was in. He pulled off the harness and took of running, passing through the trees only to come to stop, very close to falling of the edge of the pocket universe.
Maybe he should have brought Thea along.
He turned and ran back the way he came, "Hila? Hila! Hila Tacorian!"
He stopped short, hearing a rustling noise, knowing it had the be the creature. Thea said it was a lost soul as well, she hadn't said anything about if it was dangerous or not.
"Help me!" A voice shouted, "Help!"
He spun around, running in the direction of the voice nearly bumping into the woman, "Hila Tacorian, I presume." He took her hand a pulled her off.
"Who are you?" Hila stayed where she was.
"Collapsing universe. You and me, dead, two minutes. No time complete sentences. Abandon planet."
"Wait. There's something in the mist."
"Then run." He urged, "Run!" He took her hand, Hila letting him pull her off this time.
"Doctor!" Emma's voice called to them, "Doctor! Come home! Doctor, come home!"
The Doctor paused, looking around, "Not that way, which means, er, probably..."
"What's wrong?" Hila frowned.
"You know that exit I mentioned?"
"Yes?"
"I seem to have misplaced it."
~.~
"Dad!" Thea shouted, trying to squint through the worm hole to see if she could see either him or Hila, but she couldnt. They didn't have much time left.
"Doctor!" Emma cried, "Doctor!"
The Doctor looked around, hearing Emma shouting, "this way." He pulled her through the forest.
"Doctor! Come home! Doctor, we're here."
"Whoa." The Doctor came to a stop seeing an echo of the Caliburn House appearing in the mist.
"What's that?" Hila gasped.
"An echo house, in an echo universe." The Doctor grinned, "Clever psychic. That is just top-notch."
"Doctor!"
They ran to the front door of the house, hearing scuttling as the creature followed them, running into the main hall, slamming the doors shut behind them as the creature snarled on the other side.
The Doctor pressed an ear to the door, listening to the creature, "It's looking for a way in."
~.~
"I'm not strong enough!" Emma screamed.
"Yes you are." Thea told her, anything to keep her holding on. If she gave up, the Doctor would be trapped. "Hold on."
"Just a few more seconds." Clara agreed.
Emma could only scream from the pain.
~.~
The Doctor grinned as they ran into the music room finding the rope and harness waiting for them, "Grab the rope. Give it three tugs, quick as you like."
Hila ran over and began putting it in, "What about you?"
"I'll be next." He assured her, taking off his tie and using it to lock the doors to keep the creature out as she tugged on the rope.
~.~
"It's Hila." Thea gasped, pointing to the rope as it tugged.
Alec ran over to the wrench and began winding the rope back, pulling Hila through the portal.
The Doctor turned, hearing the creature thumping against the door as though knocking, "Oh, that's what that noise was." He nodded, "Lovely!"
~.~
"Emma, no!" Thea shouted as Emma gave a gasp, falling out of the chair to her knees, the crown and crystal falling off her head as Alec ran to her side.
"No!" Clara cried, running to the portal as it disappeared.
"Dad!" Thea yelled.
~.~
The Doctor frowned, cautiously taking a step and found himself standing back in the middle of the forest, his bowtie on the ground. The creature lurking around him.
"Oh dear." He breathed, slowly picking up his bowtie, not taking his eyes of the trees.
~.~
Thea turned to the windows, hearing the TARDIS Cloister bells, the box knowing her pilot was in danger.
~.~
The Doctor slowly straightened, eying the trees, "Oh dear." He spun hearing the creature scuttling, "Where are you?" He turned and ran in the direction he hoped was away from the creature.
~.~
Clara stormed over to Emma, cradled in Alecs arms, slowly waking up, having fainted, "Wake up! Wake up! Open the thing."
"I'm sorry." Emma sobbed.
"Don't be sorry." Alec soothed, "Don't be. What you did..." He stroked her hair.
"Wasn't enough." Clara cut in, "She needs to do it again."
"She can't. Look at her."
"She has to! We can't leave him." She turned to Thea, wanting her to agree, needing her too.
"I know that you feel you can't do this, Emma, but look at that woman over there. You saved her. She's only here because of your strength, and so am I."
"Can you do it?" Clara turned to Thea, "You're psychic. She has that connection to Hila, but can't you do a weird alien thing and connect to the Doctor?"
"I can't!" Thea shifted.
"Why not?" She demanded, "he's trapped there! We have to help him!"
"I'm can't. I'm not..."
"Not what? The Doctor said you were a powerful psychic..."
"I'm not!" She argued, "he keeps saying it but he's wrong, I'm not!" She shook her head, looking down, "not enough..."
"Yes, you are!" Clara countered.
She couldnt understand why Thea was arguing and wasting time when the Doctor could be back here, safe, already.
"Are you scared?" She asked quickly, keeping her voice low so the others didn't overhear.
"Yes." She whispered.
"Why? You said you were scared of five things, not..." She trailed, recalling how the girl hadn't actually said what her fifth fear was, "you're scared you're not good enough," she realised, "and you're wrong. And whoever it is who made you think that, whoever says you're not good enough, send them to me and I'll give them a good talking to." She determined.
"What if I fail?" She breathed.
"Then Emma will have to try again." She reasoned glancing over to the woman still in Alecs arms, still looking very weak.
She did feel a bit guilty for shouting when the woman had clearly tried her best, that probably didn't help Thea want to try. Anger, frustration and fear made you act out and say thing you didn't really mean.
Thea nodded, taking a breath, "I can do this."
"Yes, you can!" Clara agreed.
"Yeah, I can." She nodded, moving to the chair as Clara set the crown of wires on her head. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the pain as she called out, "Dad? Can you hear me, daddy?"
The portal reopened.
~.~
The Doctor spun around, eyes wide, hearing her, "daddy? Can you hear me?"
"Thea!" He ran off in the direction of her voice, smiling as he saw the house appear again.
"Daddy, come home!"
"I'm coming!" He gasped, hearing the snarl of the creature, "what do you want?" He asked it, "my daughter says you're not a monster. So why are you trying to frighten me? You hide...like...like a bogeyman under the bed. Seeking whom it maybe devour. My daughter is afraid of bogeymen. You want me to be afraid? Then well done," He turned, seeing the creature through the trees, "I'm the Doctor...and I am afraid!"
"Daddy, please come home!" He heard Thea call.
He made a mad dash to the house, not bothering to try and lock the creature out as he ran for the music room, "I'm not going to piggy back you across the universe. So you'd better run faster!" He ran straight for the harness laying on the ground not bothering to put it on as he gripped it tightly, tugging on it and was pulled through the portal.
~.~
The Doctor landed with an 'oomph' on the floor on the music room. He quickly scrambled to his feet, seeing Thea in the chair, crying out in pain, tears streaming down her face, "get it off her!" He shouted, as Clara quickly leapt forwards, being closest to her, and pulled the crown off Thea head, the portal fading before the creature followed after him.
Thea closed her eyes, sliding off the chair to the floor, very weak and tired, but awake.
The Doctor dropped to his knees before her, lifting up her head as she opened her eyes, "wakey wakey, sleeping beauty."
"You came back." She whispered.
"I always come back." He smiled, pulling her into a tight hug, before peppering her face with kisses. He knew that had taken so much from her, she wasn't even complaining.
He used to run from his family, now he ran with it.
~.~
The Doctor smiled as he and Thea stood in the doorway of the house the next morning, basking in the sunlight. He was so proud of Thea for doing what she did, and well, he supposed he should thank Clara for helping. He knew Thea would have outright refused to try without some encouraging and Clara would have been the only one to even try and get through to Thea.
Of course he didn't like that she had to go through the pain to bring him back but he was still so proud of the amazing young woman she was becoming.
"You wanted a word?" Emma guessed, walking up behind them.
"Well, if that's..." The Doctor began.
"That's fine. You didn't come here for the ghost, did you?"
"No." The Doctor answered honestly, knowing there was no point in lying.
"You came here for me."
"Yes."
"Why?" She asked.
"I needed to ask you something."
"Then ask."
"Clara..." He began carefully.
"Yes?"
"What is she?"
Emma blinked, "She's a girl."
"Yes, but what kind of girl, specifically?"
"She's a perfectly ordinary girl. Very pretty, very clever, more scared than she lets on."
"And that's it, is it?" He eyed her.
"Why?" Emma frowned, "Is that not enough?"
The Doctor glanced at Thea who shrugged. She honestly had no idea how they had met the other Claras, she was waving closer to spatial genetic multiplicity, or something similar.
~.~
Thea grinned seeing Alec inspecting the TARDIS, his hand resting on the side as Emma and Hila spoke, hugging.
"Where will you go?" Emma asked her.
"They can't take me home." Hila sighed, "History says I went missing."
"But they can change history."
"Not all of it." Thea cut in, "not this. Sorry." She offered the woman, knowing how difficult it could be to get used to living somewhere completely different. Still, Hila had Alec and Emma to help.
"I knew you were there," Hila eyed Emma, "I could feel you."
Emma nodded, "I know."
"Have we...?"
"We can't have. You haven't even been born yet."
"No, you can't have met but she can be your great, great, great, great, great granddaughter." The Doctor grinned, "Yours too, of course." He added as Alec wandered over, "But you guessed that already, didn't you?" They stared at him, "Oh. Apparently not."
"The paradoxes..." Alec shook his head.
"Resolve themselves." Thea waved him off again.
"That's why the psychic link was so powerful." The Doctor grinned, wrapping an arm around Thea, pulling her closer, "Blood calling to blood, out of time. Not everything ends. Not love. Not always."
"Never ever." Thea murmured.
"Doctor," Alec followed them as they headed to the TARDIS, "what about, what about us? Emma and me?"
"What about you?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, what's supposed to happen? I mean, what do we do now?"
"Start with holding hands." Thea offered.
"Keep doing that and don't let go." The Doctor agreed, "That's the secret."
Thea blinked at her own words holding hands. Last night Clara had said someone held her hand but neither of them had and Alec and Emma had been in another room and they had seen a creature! It had been in the house. She glanced back to the house, able to make out the creature staring down at them in the window.
But if that was here, then it couldnt be in the pocket universe...unless...
"There's two of them." Thea murmured.
"What?" The Doctor blinked, following her gaze to see the creature in the house, not in the pocket universe as he had seen one. He smacked his head, "Oh, yes, brilliant!" He beamed at Thea, "fantastic! Fabulous even." He turned to Clara, "How do sharks make babies?"
Clara blinked at his question, "Carefully?"
"No, no, no. Happily."
"Sharks don't actually smile. They're just, well, they've got lots and lots of teeth. They're quite eaty."
"Exactly. But birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it."
"Every lonely monster needs a companion." Thea smiled, gesturing to the window.
"There's two of them?" Clara gasped.
"It's the oldest story in the universe, this one or any other." The Doctor remarked, "Boy and girl fall in love, get separated by events. War, politics, accidents in time. She's thrown out of the hex, or he's thrown into it. Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions. This isn't a ghost story, it's a love story!" He glanced at Thea, "think you can muster another go?"
"I can try again." She nodded.
~.~
The Doctor fell out of the portal, quickly taking of the harness again, running through the woods, "I'm sorry!" He shouted, "I understand now! I can take you to her! I can take you to a safe place far away from here! You can be together! Well, come on, then. She's waiting!" He turned, feeling the creature breathing behind him, grimacing at the sight, "Well, hello again, you old Romeo, you. Come on, quickly." he turned and ran back to the harness.
They both grabbed it, the Doctor tugging it as they were pulled out of the universe.