Chapter Text
It was a regular autumn evening; cold and raining so much the once delicate, crisp, leaves turned into a wet mush that covered the ground that Clara had nearly fallen over on when she returned home to her quiant London flat after a long day as English teacher at Coal Hill Academy. It had been a long day, but that didn't matter now. No rowdy year sevens or vaping year eights could stop the fact that it was Wednesday, and Wednesday was Clara Oswald's favourite day of the week.
You may be asking why, who likes such a day? You're tired from the first two days of the week, and it's still two more days till the weekend. No one likes Wednesdays. No one except for one Clara Oswin Oswald. Now, this was because, for Clara, Wednesdays meant something special: she got to see The Doctor.
Vwoorp, Vwoorp
Clara Oswald was grading some assessments (albeit rather half-heartedly) as she waited. There wasn't much to grade anyway. She had Courtney Woods work in front of her, and it was more doodling than writing. As she sat there grading, she found her mind wandering, wondering where The Doctor and her would run off too today. Perhaps they would end up with the Roman battalion, or the Greek philosophers, or in the court of Edward VII, or maybe they'd be off in the far future or somewhere in space, they could go off to Mars, or Neptune or some other far off planet with a civilisation to meet and save...
Just as Clara's mind wandered back from her imagination to her marking, and she took a sip of the tea she'd let go cold, she heard the noise. That familiar, wonderful sound. Her favourite sound.
Vwoorp, Vwoorp.
The TARDIS materialised into the middle of her living room, crushing her coffee table with a loud 'crack'. Clara sighed, she was used to it; that was the third coffee table The Doctor had broken and she had a feeling it wouldn't be the last. But however annoyed she might be, she couldn't quite hide the smile that had broken out across her face when she had heard her favourite noise.
Clara got up and snapped her fingers, causing the TARDIS doors to swing open. She stepped into the TARDIS, looking around for The Doctor. "Doctor? I thought we talked about not landing on my furniture." Clara said, announcing her presence in the TARDIS as the doors swung shut behind her. The Doctor popped his head around the time rotor on the console, "Ah Clara! What were you saying?" The Doctor asked. "I was asking you to stop landing on my furniture. It's expensive, you know?" Clara said, walking up to the TARDIS console and leaning against it. "Humans and your material possessions. Honestly, why do you need them?" The Doctor questioned as he walked around the console, "Take a look around here. All I need is right here." He gestured to the TARDIS around them. "Well, I don't know how you Time Lords live, but I'd like my next coffee table to survive." Said Clara, but The Doctor wasn't listening. He'd gotten distracted by something as per usual. Clara sighed, she was used to The Doctor's impossibly short attention span. "Why do I even bother?" She thought aloud. "Hm? Did you say something, Clara?" The Doctor asked, but Clara just shook her head.
"So, Doctor, where are we off to today?" Clara asked, changing the subject after a moment of silence. "Where are we not of to, my dear Clara? We have the entirety of time and space at our disposal. We can go wherever we like." The Doctor's eyes lit up as he rambled about time and space as Clara looked on with an amused smile and a hint of adoration shining in her big brown eyes.
Her adoration soon turned to playfulness as she saw her opportunity. "So can I choose where we go?" She asked but was quickly shut down. "No, absolutely not." The Doctor said. Clara's smile dropped into a pout "Well why not?" She said. "Because I always choose. Stop looking like that it makes your eyes look all weird and big." The Doctor replied. Clara scoffed "Oh come on, that's such a stupid reason!" She protested. "Too bad, Clara. Honestly, you're not a child. There's no need to act like one." The Doctor said, his brows furrowing further than usual with his annoyance with Clara, who was equally as annoyed with him. "So I'm childish?" She raised her voice at him as she pushed herself off the console to a full standing position. "We're saying I'm the childish one here?" She continued with her voice, continuing to raise along with each word. "Right now? Yes. I'd say you're being rather childish." The Doctor replied, annoying Clara even more. God, he could be infuriating. "I think you ought to think twice and maybe look in a mirror before calling me childish, Doctor." Clara continued taking steps towards him until she got right up close to him. "Clara -" The Doctor said, taking a step back and knocking into the TARDIS console.
Beep!
Beep!
The TARDIS let out a deafening high pitched Beep, like a screech of pain. The Doctor and Clara both stepped back away from the TARDIS console, their petty squabble quickly forgotten. The TARDIS began to shake violently, the turbulence knocking Clara and The Doctor to the floor. "What did we do?" Clara asked, and she pulled herself off the ground. "We?" The Doctor muttered, following in Clara's lead and pulling himself off the ground as well. "Not the time." Clara sighed as she held onto a nearby railing. The Doctor made his way over to the console, gripping it tightly with one hand as he tried to get the TARDIS to stop screaming at them.
Beep!
Beep!
The TARDIS wouldn't stop. The lights had dimmed a red that, alongside the horrible beeping, filled Clara with dread. "What's wrong with her?" Clara asked, having to yell to be heard over the blaring noise. "I'm not sure." The Doctor replied. He was doing everything he could to stabilise the TARDIS; he didn't like hearing her in, what sounded like, pain.
The turbulence continued throwing items off bookshelves and knocking over The Doctor's chalkboard. The TARDIS had flipped onto it's side and they were now both hanging vertically, gripping on tightly to what they were holding. "Doctor, I'm slipping!" Clara yelled over the noise as she was dangling from the railing she clung on to. "Hold on tighter!" The Doctor yelled back. "What do you think I'm doing?" Clara was gripping the railing as tightly as she could, but despite her knuckles having turned white from holding on so tightly, she couldn't hold on forever, her grip was slipping and her arms were aching.
"Doctor?" Clara said. "Are you any closer to fixing this?" She asked as her hands continued to threaten to slip off the railing she was clinging to. "Would you shut up!" The Doctor replied. He was trying to focus, and he didn't appreciate the distraction. He was trying everything to calm the TARDIS down whilst also hanging vertically and being shaken like a snow globe. He was, of course, more used to hanging from things than Clara was, but she was doing a rather good job at hanging on, even if she was distracting him with all her complaining. "Doctor!" There she went again. "Yes, Clara?" The Doctor looked over to see his companion now hanging from the railing with just one hand. "Hang on!" He told her before turning his attention back to trying to control the TARDIS but now more aware of Clara's situation. "I am!" Clara was slipping further now. She was swinging about, dangling from the one hand still gripping the railing. She could feel herself slipping, each one of her fingers sliding down the railing, the intense ache and fatigue in her arm...
"Ugh!" She hit the console in the middle of the room. "Clara?" The Doctor called out trying (and failing) to hide his concerns. "I'm alright..." Clara groaned. She was alright just rather bruised, nothing that wouldn't go away in a week or so. She now lay against the horizontal console of the TARDIS, which still hadn't stopped screeching, as The Doctor was still desperately mashing buttons and flipping switches whilst also hanging from a handle on the console feeling his own arms burn. "Come on, old girl, just settle down." The Doctor said to the TARDIS, and she seemed to listen. The TARDIS flipped back. "Ugh." Sending Clara to the floor. The Doctor regained footing a lot more gracefully than Clara, who was pulling herself off the ground again. The turbulence had stopped as had the beeping, the lights returned to their regular cool tone colour, things seemed normal except the beeping had been replaced with a groaning, wheezing noise. Not the normal one that came with the TARDIS brakes. This one was different. It sounded wrong, pained.
"I think we've landed." Said The Doctor as he grabbed one of the monitors that hung from the console. "Where and when are we?" Asked Clara whilst she walked to beside her friend and peered at the monitor.
Shoreditch, London, September 1st 1963
The Doctor's face changed subtly. "London, huh?" Clara said. "Well, not very exotic, but it could be fun." She snapped her fingers, opening the TARDIS doors as she had done earlier and headed for the door, but The Doctor shut the doors with a snap of his fingers as well. "We're not taking a single step out of this TARDIS." He said sternly. Clara stopped in her tracks and turned back to face him. "Well, why not?" She questioned. Her head titled with curiosity, The Doctor was never one to turn down an adventure. Sure, 1960s London might not be the most interesting place in the universe, but Clara didn't see any reason why they shouldn't go explore. "We're going somewhere else." He told her and didn't elaborate at all on why. "What's wrong with here?" Clara asked, confused. "Why doesn't matter. It's my TARDIS we go where I say we go." The Doctor replied.
He input some coordinates into the navigation system and pulled the lever, and nothing happened. The TARDIS continued to make the groaning sound and started to de-materialise, but she soon gave up. The Doctor took a step away from the console with a perplexed expression on his face. Clara shared a similar expression as she approached The Doctor. "What's wrong with her, Doctor?" Clara said. The Doctor pulled the lever again, and the same thing happened: attempted travel with no success. "She won't leave." The Doctor explained even if he wasn't entirely sure what was happening himself.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to stay here and explore anyway then." Clara replied, shaking off the confusion she was just feeling and heading for the door again. "No, we can't." The Doctor insisted. Clara was getting annoyed with him being more cryptic than usual. She didn't open the door, though. "Why not?" She asked yet again. "Well, we need to get the TARDIS up and running again." He gestured to the TARDIS console, which was still emitting an unpleasant groaning. "You've never let me help with the TARDIS before. Why let me help now?" Clara countered. That was a fair point, The Doctor was always very particular about who he let help with his precious ship. "How about you stay here and figure out what's going on, and I'll go out and explore?" Clara suggested before The Doctor could say anything.
The Doctor thought for a moment before begrudgingly agreeing. "Fine. But be back before dark, and don't get yourself into trouble. I'm not coming out to save you, you know?" Clara rolled her eyes playfully. "Alright, Dad." She teased, but she was glad she could get out for a moment and have some fun.
"I'll be back before you even have time to miss me. By then, you'll have figured everything out, and we'll go." Clara said as she opened the door and stepped out into the street, ready to see what 1960s London had to offer.