The Doctor walked through the corridors of the hospital, wondering how he could manage to get himself into such a ridiculous situation. Sneaking through the hallways of the Dalek Asylum to save a cheeky woman who could pull eggs from nowhere. He still had yet to work that out, but he would.
"Danni would not be happy that she missed this." He mused. She hated the Daleks, but she would have enjoyed this as well. The unexplored territory, the sneaking around, the cheeky woman talking to her. His Danni-Girl would have loved this.
"Danni?" Oswin asked in return and he realised that she'd heard him.
"She's my almost but not quite wife." He told Clara, falling back to his new description of the red head who jumped around his time line and into his arms. He'd right that fact that they'd not made it official on top of that pyramid one day, he knew it.
"What's she like?" Oswin asked.
"Oh you know," He replied offhandedly, "Red head, feisty. Loves a good run."
"Sounds like my type of girl." Oswin replied, "Remind me to tell you about Nina. She was a red head too. Wonderful girl."
"Not like my Danni-Girl." The Doctor replied, a smile on his face as he thought on her, "She's completely unique in the universe."
"Then you better come get me, Chinboy." She told him, "I need to meet her."
~0~0~0~
Dr Simeon took a step backwards, stepping into the light and screaming as he was ripped apart. Danni stared at where he had just stood, hand outstretched as she failed to stop him. He was going to destroy her Theta, rewrite everything he had ever done and she'd failed to help when he'd needed her the most. His planning and timing weren't always brilliant, but he was never wrong about anything this serious.
The Doctor gasped in pain before crying out and she turned around, rushing back to his side. Her head was still swimming, her brain felt like it was being crushed, but she fell by his side, taking his hands as he thrashed.
"What's wrong with him? What's happening?" Clara exclaimed, doing her best to calm him down as well. Tears were running down her face as she locked gazes with Danni, but the blonde didn't know what to say.
"He's being rewritten!" Vastra answered for her and Danni shook her head, turning back and stroking his hair as he screamed, twitching on the floor as the Great Intelligence tore through his life, destroying every part of it.
"Theta, I don't know what to do!" She cried, "I-I can't even think!" She bowed her head, squeezing her eyes closed, "River, what do I do?" She demanded, the woman having been stood to the side the entire time, invisible to everyone but her, "Help, please!"
"There's nothing you can do." River replied solemnly as Clara shared a confused with Vastra and Jenny, "His time line is being altered, he's dying at every point he should have but managed to escape. Everything good he ever did is being undone and it's tearing him apart."
"Please, help me!" Danni begged desperately, shaking as the Doctor screamed, "You're my mum, act like it! Tell me what to do!" Clara reached out, placing a hand on Danni's arm.
"Danni, she's not here." She told her friend and Danni shook her head, desperate to try and save her husband.
"She is, actually." River protested and Clara spun to look at River, amazed at how she'd appeared from nowhere. Although, instead of acting surprised, Clara narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Then tell us what to do or go away!" Clara snapped, not even questioning it. She turned back to Vastra, "What is happening?"
"Simeon is attacking his entire time line - he's dying all at once!" She cried as the TARDIS seemed to spark and shudder, even in her ruined state she protested as Simeon attacked her theif. She held out her scanner, watching the devastation Simeon was inflicting across time, "The Dalek Asylum. Androzani."
"The Dalek Asylum?" Danni asked, looking up from her husband, "With the other Clara?" Clara's head snapped back to her.
"What other Clara?" She demanded.
"There was another you, another Clara." Danni rambled off like it didn't matter, "She was called Oswin, but she was you and she saved the Doctor."
"How was there another me?" Clara replied, "Did she die? Is that what you meant that I died again?"
"Now he's dying in London, with us." Vastra shouted, looking up at the ceiling like it would help.
"That's my Clara!" Danni exclaimed, "He's going to kill her again!" She bowed her head, placing a kiss on the Doctor's sweating forehead, "Theta, please, I need your help. Tell me how to save you, please."
"It is done." Simeon's voice rang out through the TARDIS and the bright light that came from his time stream turned a deep, angry red.
"Oh, dear Goddess!" Vastra breathed, horrified and Jenny looked up at his wife.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"A universe without the Doctor - there will be consequences." She replied before hitching up her skirt, "Jenny. With me." The two ran out of the TARDIS, Strax hot on their heels as Danni tried to soothe the Doctor's pain. Clara sat to his side, mind reeling over the sudden information that both her friends had met her before and not mentioned it once to her. Was that her future, to die in the Dalek Asylum? But who was the Clara in Victorian London? Danni had called that version of her, 'her' Clara. Meeting her again and again, and yet Clara had never met them before they'd turned up on her doorstep.
The Doctor had acted like she should have recognised them both, that had always confused her. She had just assumed that it was because he was - well, because he was the Doctor. But maybe they had met her before. Maybe they'd expected her to know who they were, because they knew who she was.
"Danni!" The Doctor cried, suddenly and violently thrashing hard, "No, Danni!"
"I'm here!" She replied, trying to sound calm as she cried, "Theta, it's okay, I'm here."
"Danni, not Danni, please!" He begged, looking blindly outwards. He was in so much pain, he couldn't even see her. She had to save him, she had to stop this from happening. Simeon jumped into his time stream to destroy it, maybe she could do the same to fix it.
She placed a kiss on his head, closing her eyes as her hearts broke, "I'm sorry, Theta." She whispered, "I loved you very much."
"No, don't you dare!" River snapped as Danni stood up, looking at his time line with determination, "You are not killing yourself to save that man!"
"That man is my husband!" Danni snapped in reply, "And he's dying, and this is the only way I can save him!" Clara looked between the two women.
"What? What is she doing?" She asked River, standing up as well she could face her properly.
"She's going to jump into his time stream." River replied, "Scatter herself along his time line and stop the Intelligence from reversing his life."
"Will that work?" Clara asked hopefully and River shook her head, "Why not?"
"Because his whole life is being rewritten." River explained, "His adventures, the people he met, the relationships he created just by being in their lives are going to cease to exist." Clara's brows furrowed slightly.
"And?" She snapped, "We have to save him!"
"I met Jack through the Doctor." River replied firmly, "Without the Doctor, I never would have met him. Without the Doctor, Danni won't exist. Her whole existence hangs on a delicate thread of very specific moments in time. Jack losing his memory, meeting the Doctor and becoming immortal so he's around to meet me. I have to be taken from my parents to be raised to kill him, and I wouldn't have been. There's so much time wrapped up in her very existence that she is very easily unravelled."
"That can't be right." Clara protested.
"Then where has she gone?" River countered and Clara spun to find them now on their own, no sign of the blonde.
"Where did she go?"
"She's being erased."
~0~0~0~
"I am not watching another horror movie." Clara protested firmly as she sat next to Danni on the sofa. She pulled the oversized sleeves up on the dressing gown she was wearing, freeing her hands to pick up the remote, "I want something funny."
"Fine," Danni sighed, obviously annoyed as she finished rubbing the face mask into her skin. She wasn't a fan of putting goop on her face, no matter what properties it was supposed to have for her skin. But, Clara had wanted a girls' night in and she wasn't going to do it by halves, "Just nothing involving frat boys. That American Pie movie was terrible."
"Yes, yes, I know your opinions on it pretty well." Clara murmured. She'd always liked the first American Pie. It had appealed to the juvenile part of herself and when she'd heard the Danni had never watched it she'd insisted on educating her. Danni had not liked it at all and still grumbled about it, "How about Dogma?"
"Oh, I've not seen that since I was ginger!" Danni cried, falling back onto the sofa next to her, "That's the one with Alanis Morisette in as God, isn't it?" Clara nodded as the TARDIS dimmed the lights for them.
"I love this movie." Clara told her, "My mum used to watch it with me all the time." Danni leant her head on her shoulder.
"My mum used to watch Laurel and Hardy with me." Danni told her and Clara looked down at the top of her head. She was staring at the screen as the beginning of the movie started, the definition of a disclaimer in white writing on a black screen. She had a small, sad smile on her face, "Only when I was sick because she knew it cheered me up." It was the first time she'd ever heard Danni talking about her past. She knew she never saw her parents anymore, but not much else. Danni didn't like talking about it, and she didn't push, but she felt touched that she was opening up to her.
"When my mum was sick we used to watch Golden Girls." Clara replied, her own soft smile on her face as she thought on her mum. She leant her head on top of Danni's, "It always made her laugh, even when she was too tired to."
"It sounds like she had a great sense of humour." Danni commented and Clara nodded slightly.
"She did."
~0~0~0~
"Danni, please, no, Danni..." The Doctor groaned, having stopped thrashing. Clara sat by his side, running her hands through his hair gently like Danni had been doing just a few minutes ago. She felt herself crying heavily, but she tried not to think about it, or her friend who had been removed from time and was slowly being undone by an evil man.
"He knows he's going to forget her." River told Clara coldly, "He's going to fade and die not remembering her."
"Why are you saying that?" Clara asked, "I thought you were all protective over her, why don't you care?"
"There's nothing I can do about it." River replied, "My own daughter is being erased from time, I'm sure I'll be next."
"Well what do we do?" Clara exclaimed, tearing her gaze from the woman and looking at the two streams of light that illuminated decaying room. The Doctor's still shone red, but Danni's was still the bright white it had been when they first came in. While she hadn't really been able to tell the difference to begin with, it was obvious that Danni's was losing the tendrils of light that spun around it. She was being slowly erased from time, everything she'd ever done was being removed and Clara felt utterly helpless as the Doctor groaned for his wife on the floor next to her.
"Danni, please... My wife, dying..." Clara's hands clenched. This was all down to some horrid man who could not see the goodness in the people she called her friends, her best friends. He was destroying everything, ripping them apart. An evil, cancerous man raging through the Doctor's life, tearing two people who loved each other apart, and tearing them away from her. She'd done this before, she'd lived through the most perfect couple she had ever known being destroyed and she'd been powerless then as well. It took her mother away from her, away from her father, and all she'd been able to do was watch.
She'd let her mother down - even though she knew that was nothing she could have done, there had always been a part of her that felt like she could have done more for her, for them. They had brought her into the world on a leaf, she was supposed to have helped. She'd had no control over the situation, and she'd vowed to never be that helpless again.
The Doctor and Danni had shown her a world, a universe she couldn't have even imagined, and she was helpless again. She couldn't just sit back, but what else could she do?
"Danni!" Both River and the Doctor cried out, River's voice heartbroken while the Doctor's was filled with agony. Clara blinked, looking up from the Doctor - when had she looked down at him - to see his light swirling alone, a red beam in the middle of the room.
"What happened?" She asked them both quietly.
"She's almost completely been erased." River explained, "Her memories are just echoes, soon we won't remember her at all." River looked devastated, "All that time protecting her, and I still couldn't keep her..." Clara shook her head. No, she wasn't going to let this happen, not again. She looked at the Doctor's time stream, an idea forming that filled her with a sense of hope rather than fear. They'd met her so many times before, maybe this was where it began. She'd save them both, and she'd still see them again.
"I have to go in there." She told them both and the Doctor weakly groaned, shaking his head.
"Please. Please, no..." He begged but she shushed him gently.
"But this is what I've already done. You've already seen me do it." She reasoned, "When I first met you, you told me that she had a friend who died, and I reminded Danni of her. It's because she was me, wasn't it? Her friend was Clara Oswald," she looked back up at the light again, "And this is why."
"Whatever you're thinking of doing... don't." River replied but Clara couldn't help but notice that her tone sounded forced, like she didn't really think Clara shouldn't jump in.
"If I step in there... what happens?" She asked the projection.
"The time winds will tear you into a million pieces. A million versions of you, living and dying all over time and space. Like... echoes." She explained.
"But the echoes could save the Doctor and Danni, right?"
"But they won't be you - the real you will die." River warned, "They'll just be copies."
"But they'll be real enough to save them both." Clara replied firmly, "I can hear it in your voice, you know I should do it to save them."
"No, you should do it to save her." River replied, "But she won't be happy with you sacrificing yourself. Her Clara will always haunt her, she never wanted the same fate for you."
"But I am her Clara." Clara insisted, "I always was, and now I always will be. Her impossible friend, who will always save her." She looked back up at the light, "And I always will." Vastra rushed into the TARDIS, looking incredibly distraught and as close to tears as Clara had ever seen the lizard woman.
"The stars are going out. And Jenny and Strax are dead." She told her, "There must be something we can do?" Clara nodded as she stood up.
"There is." She promised, "I'm going to bring her back. I'm going to bring back Danielle Fielding and I'm going to save the Doctor."
"No... please..." The Doctor whimpered, dying and feeling his hearts breaking as his wife was slowly erased from his memory. He tried to hold onto her, to her smile and how she made him feel every day knowing someone could love him in return. Clara was right, stepping in and rewriting what the Great Intelligence had done to him would bring her back, and the selfish part of him was more than willing to sacrifice Clara for his wife, but she was his friend as well. He couldn't lose her, he couldn't live with the fact that he had indirectly killed her and Danni would never forgive him or herself if she died to save Danni.
"You don't mean that." Clara replied although she wasn't hurt by the knowledge. It was the way it should be. He should want his Danielle back, and she was willing to give herself up so another couple didn't have to go through the loss her father had, "If this works, take her and get out of here as fast as you can." She nodded firmly to herself once, "Save her, Doctor." And with that, she started heading towards the light.
The Doctor, in agony, rolled onto his side, determined to try and stop her the best he could, "No, Clara...!" He groaned and she paused mid step.
"In fact, you know what?" She turned to look at him and he was stunned by the look on her face. She wasn't scared, she was resolute, "Run. Run, you clever boy. Take your Danni-Girl and remember me." And she ran into the light.
~0~0~0~
Clara Oswin Oswald wouldn't say she loved her job, but the Christmas season called for favours to friends and family alike and so she'd taken to being a barmaid with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Still, she was rather glad of the small break she got by collecting the empty tankards and taking them across the alleyway to be cleaned and brought back. It was the night before the day before Christmas, after all, and some of the barflies were getting a little too keen for her liking.
She paused as the door shut behind her and she smiled at the snow, just like it should be. It wasn't snowing at that particular moment, but the chill in the air suggested it would again before the night was over.
She frowned as the snowman that was stood in the middle of the alley caught her eye. She hadn't spotted it when she'd first stepped out, but there wasn't a chance that she could have missed it. It was a strange creation, with almost angry looking eyes, if it were possible for a snowman to be cross.
A couple walked past, a man in purple with a woman on his arm. She was giggling away, whereas the man looked rather grumpy. A little too grumpy for such a young-looking man.
"Did you make this snowman?" She called after them but neither of them stopped.
"No." The man called back in a drawl of a tone and Clara frowned, her hand falling to her hip.
"Well, who did?" She demanded, "Cos it wasn't there a second ago. It just appeared, from nowhere." They fell to a stop, the man obviously not very pleased as they turned around. He was rather young to look so angry and sad, but the woman didn't reflect that at all. Her brown eyes shone behind glasses and her blonde hair stuck out from underneath her hat. She looked like she held so much life in her, Clara couldn't help but smile at her back, despite the creepy snowman. The couple looked rather peculiar together, but at the same time it seemed to work.
One of the reason Clara liked to work as a barmaid, even though she had a lovely little number as a nanny to two lovely children, was she adored to watch people and hear about their stories. This couple drew her attention like no one else, and she was going to get to the bottom of why they both looked so sad.
~0~0~0~
The Doctor's time line flashed brightly, then settled back, no longer red but swirling with the brightness of his life once again. Vastra wasn't sure when Jenny and Strax had reappeared, but suddenly her wife was back and she knew that time was being restored. The Doctor felt better than he had since Simeon had stepped into his time stream, but there was still only one tunnel of light in the middle. He knew she should exist, that Danielle was there in his memories and that soon she would be restored, but he stared into the space where her time line should have been, holding his breath, praying to anyone who could hear him to have it work.
Then she was there. Bright shining light, swirling next to his and his whole body relaxed. He turned and saw his Danielle, his Danni-Girl had appeared back into existence just to his right. Clara had done it, and at a terrible cost he would repay soon. First he strode over to his wife, who was looking around with slightly confused and suspicious look on her face.
"What happened?" She asked, "I was- I don't know, where was-" He pulled her into a hug, a tight grip that had her pressed against his chest as he buried his face in her hair, "Hey, it's okay." She whispered, wrapping her arms back around him, "What happened?"
"You were erased from time." He told her gently, "You were gone, and I couldn't save you."
"Oh!" She said lamely, understanding why he was holding onto her so tightly, "Well, not for the first time." She pulled her head back so she could catch his eyes, "Remember the Pandorica?" He smiled.
"Just before the Ponds wedding." He recalled, "We danced all night. You said yes."
"Even though you hadn't proposed at that point." She confirmed, "I came back then, you should have more faith in me."
"I only have faith in you." He promised and she flushed, looking away from him and frowning once again.
"Where's Clara?" She asked. The Doctor hesitated, wondering the best way to tell her what the woman had done for them.
"She jumped into his time line." River told her from off to the side, "Scattered herself across his life to save you from being erased."
Danni turned to look at her, not really caring if the Doctor couldn't see her, "What? Why the hell would she do that?"
"You were going to do it." River pointed out.
"He's my husband!" She snapped in reply, "Why the hell would she do that!"
"Because she told her to." The Doctor replied for River, his voice low and Danni spun back in his arms to look at him.
"You can see her?" She asked and he nodded.
"I'm still telepathically linked with the TARDIS, as are you." He explained, "When we entered the lower hallway, she appeared."
Danni wanted to question him about why he never said anything, but instead turned to River, absolutely fuming, "You told her to do it?!" She ranted.
"No, she wanted to do it." River replied, "I just didn't dissuade her. He was going to let you be erased, I couldn't let that happen and it's not like I can do anything myself, is it?" She waved her arms out, illustrating that fact that she was very much a projection rather than an actual person. Danni's hands clenched against the Doctor's arms where she held onto him and it was obvious she was getting increasingly upset and angry.
"I'm not going to let her die, Danni." He promised her, turning them so he was stood between the mother and daughter, "She's saved you, now we're going to save her. Or, rather, I am going to save her."
"What do you mean?" She asked, "She's scattered across your time line. She's in a million pieces, there's nothing left to save." She trailed off at the end, eyes stinging as she thought about their poor, brave Clara. Who'd died so they could live, just like her Clara had done back in the past. Her Clara who, on thinking about it, was an echo as well. All those Claras were all from their amazing friend.
"Oh, you cannot be thinking what I know you are thinking." River snapped in disbelief as the Doctor placed a kiss on Danni's forehead before letting you go, "Sacrificing yourself doesn't get you out of the fact that you didn't save her."
"Doctor, what are you doing?" Danni asked him as he regarded his own time stream.
"I have to get her back." He reasoned firmly.
"You can't be thinking of going in there!" She exclaimed, "It'll tear you apart!"
"I have to get her back." He repeated, looking over at his other friends. Jenny, Strax and Vastra, who were all safe because of Clara. She hadn't just saved Danni, she'd saved them all and he couldn't let her die for that.
"But how?" Jenny asked.
"Is she still alive? It killed Dr Simeon." Vastra inquired and the Doctor almost looked insulted at the question.
"Clara's got one advantage over the Great Intelligence." The Doctor told them all.
"Which is?" Vastra asked.
"Me." He turned back to Danni, who was overwhelmed with the fear and despair of everything that had happened and what was about to happen. He cupped her cheek, stroking his thumb against her skin, "If I don't come back..." She shook her head, knowing he was going to explain the emergency protocols and how the TARDIS would default to her. She knew all this, and she didn't want him to tell her at all.
"Just come back." She told him firmly, with no room for argument from him. He nodded, placing another kiss on her forehead.
"Oh of course, he gets to be the hero once again." River raged, "You're leaving her on her own, you know that?"
"Shut up River." Danni snapped and Vastra finally understood what their strange argument was about.
"I'm not leaving her on her own." The Doctor added, "She's got you, hasn't she?" River paused, surprised even now that he'd consider even letting Danni out of his sight, let alone near her. This Doctor had always been so protective of his wife, it had always annoyed her.
"She is right here, you know?" Danni snapped, infuriated by the way everyone seemed to talk about her as if she was a child, "And she can look after herself. She just doesn't want to lose her husband, it's not that big of a stretch." She gave him a little shove towards the light and he smirked at how adorable she looked when she was annoyed, "Save our Clara." He nodded, straightening his bowtie as he looked over their timelines once again. Side by side, as they should be.
"Geronimo." He called for Danni's benefit. He smiled to himself at her faint giggle before taking a running jump into the light.
~0~0~0~
I don't know where I am. I don't know where I'm going, or where I've been. I was the born to bring back Danni and save the Doctor, but she's alive and the Doctor is safe now. I'm the Impossible Girl and my story is done.
~0~0~0~
Danni paced back and forth, alternating between chewing on her thumbnail and chewing on her lip. She glanced at the light that was her husband's grave yet again, willing him to come out yet again. She paused, waiting for as long as she could before anxiously going back to her pacing.
"He should be out by now, shouldn't he?" She asked no one in particular, "It's his own timeline, he should know the way, right? I mean, if it's like a path, which I assume it's not, but he would know, wouldn't he?" She looked over at Vastra, who had her scanner out but also had no idea what to look for within the readings she had.
"His time line has been completely restored." She told the blonde Time Lord, "Nothing is damaged as far as I'm aware, he should be fine."
"Then where is he?" She demanded, turning her back on the lizard woman and pacing down the platform to the stairs.
"You know he's just showing off, he won't be long." River tried to reassure her but Danni glared at her.
"Why would he be showing off?" She snapped, turning her back on River as well. Everything, everyone was annoying her. She wouldn't stop being anxious until he and Clara came back out, and the reassurances weren't calming her down. She pressed her glasses up her nose, digging them in slightly but the action was slightly comforting, something she'd had to do a hundred thousand times before. He'd be fine, they both would be.
The light of his time line flared up just slightly and she rushed over as the Doctor stepped out, carrying an unconscious Clara in his arms. Her hearts sped up at the sight of the girl covered in dirt and dust, as if she'd been rolling around on the floor of the planet outside.
"Is she..." She started but the Doctor quickly shook his head, taking a few steps into the room once again before laying her on the ground. It had taken a lot of strength to even find her, and he panted as he sat on the floor next to her.
"Just unconscious." He promised and she fell to the floor next to him, pulling him in for hug she needed just as much as he did. She buried her face in the crook of his neck as he wrapped an arm around her, his other hand on the back of her head as he held her close, "My Danni-Girl." He whispered into her hair before placing a kiss on her head. He'd truly thought he'd lost her, that he was going to forget her and die not knowing that he'd had a woman who'd loved him in return. That he'd forget everything that had made his life so better, that until his life had been destroyed, he would have lived through it all without her.
She pulled back, meeting his beautiful, shining eyes with her own tear-filled ones. There was so many things she wanted to tell him, so many thoughts running through her head and they were all about him. She couldn't pull them together, couldn't even think of anything coherent to tell him, so she smiled and turned to Clara, "Will she be okay?"
"She was completely engulfed in my life." He told Danni, "Not just my actions, but everything that I have experienced, everything I will. Lives lived and lost, they were all swimming around her. It's hard to even begin to guess what that might have done to her." Danni reached out, keeping one arm wrapped around him, and stroked the brunette's hair out of her face.
"We'll work it out." She declared softly and he nodded.
"Of course we will." He promised, "We always do."
~0~0~0~
Clara's head was pounding even before she opened her eyes. She felt like she'd been asleep for days and yet was more tired than she'd been before. Her body ached, her brain felt like it had been crushed from every side. She felt like she'd been battered and bruised from every side, but she couldn't place her finger on why. She couldn't even bring her thoughts together to remember where she was.
"Clara, sweetie, open your eyes." A voice called to her, the most beautiful voice she had ever heard. Soft and calm, yet encouraging in its tone. She knew she had to do as it said, that she wanted to do what it said. It took all her effort, but slowly her eyes fluttered open.
There was a man and woman hovering over her, the room they were in dingy and dark. The man had floppy brown hair and, as he came more into focus, a bow tie that she rather loved the look of. But the moment the two were no longer blurry, he lost her attention completely. The woman, with blonde hair that shone in the minimal light and kind, soft, brown eyes that glowed brightly with the smile on her face. She was, by far, the most stunning person Clara had ever seen in her life and it took her breath away.
"Hello sweetie." She greeted gently and Clara realised it had been her. The beautiful voice that had called to her, that had helped her find her way back to consciousness had come from the woman hovering over her. She tilted her head, marvelling at her as she tried to keep the woman in focus.
"You are beautiful." Clara breathed before losing her battle with sleep, falling back into dreams of a red head and a blonde she never wanted to lose.