Clara placed the tray down on the table, the same smile on her face that anyone carrying a tray with two over-full cups of coffee sat on top of it had when they managed to walk across a crowded shop and not spill a drop before they'd made it back to their table.
"Your low-fat decaf latte, sir." She told her boyfriend with a flourish, sitting down on the other chair across from him, "Your panini will be brought over shortly."
He nodded, his impress at her ability to carry coffee probably a bit too strong, but she accepted it modestly, "Wow, that was impressive." He told her.
"Well, I have had a lot of experience carrying coffees and other liquids." She teased back before picking up her own cappuccino, "Unfortunately it seems I wasn't qualified enough for food."
"I suspect that has more to do with the fact that a lot of people seem to have decided to had a lunch date in Costa as well." Danny pointed out. She nodded. London was a busy place, it was rare if impossible to find a place within walking distance of the school that didn't have a perpetual queue out the door. However, with both of them off for a rare double period with the Year 7's out for a field trip for History, they were able to grab a bite to eat that wasn't out of the cafeteria. And, it would seem, the rest of the area had decided to join them.
"Yeah, you might be right." Clara agreed. She felt so sorry for the workers behind the counter, who were all working their hardest and still being shot glares by the people waiting for their turn. She definitely could never have worked in anything customer facing, and that was coming from a teacher.
She turned her attention back to her lunch date. It had been a week or so since Danni and the Doctor had been working at the school. A week since he'd found out about her double life, and quite frankly things had just been getting better between them. He still did not approve of her travelling around, but more because of the danger he was certain she was in rather than the actual travelling. He thought she was running away from real life, and to a certain degree she was. But he wasn't going to stop her, he didn't want to dictate her and, as he had said on the day, he would always have her back.
"You're thinking about it again, aren't you?" Danny asked her and she blinked, brows furrowing just slightly as she acted confused.
"About what?" She asked and he placed his elbows on the table, leaning in closer slightly.
"About when I saved your life." He replied, trying to brag, but also feeling very awkward about doing so. However, he knew she liked it because the smile on her face spread and he'd do anything to remind her to feel that happy.
"Yeah," she agreed, her grin growing until her tongue sat behind her teeth when she wasn't talking, "I think I am."
She couldn't help it. He'd risked his life just to prove that he was with her, no matter what her decision was. She was already in love with him, but there was no better feeling than the fact that it was reciprocated. That the man across for her had actually forgiven her lie by omission and was still sat with her waiting for paninis.
They talked about school for a while, because working in the same place meant it was usually the starting point for any conversation. There was a meeting that afternoon over Courtney Woods apparent spiral down from disruptive influence to teenage delinquent. Clara was certain it had something to do with her little trip in the TARDIS, but she didn't mention that.
"So, what have you got planned for us this evening?" Danny asked. It was a designated 'Date Night' that night, and they alternated who was to plan what was going to happen. Clara had the wonderful opportunity to beat a takeaway curry and a night of watching the Die Hard trilogy (she'd been told that the following movies weren't worthy of being in the movie franchise).
"That would be telling." She retorted, mainly because she had no idea what to do. It was a school night, which meant they couldn't, nor wanted to, do anything overtaxing. She was thinking of just another night in watching a movie or two, one where he could spend the night afterwards. Maybe she'd cook some spaghetti.
"You don't have a clue, do you?" He asked with a bit of a laugh and she shot him a look as her phone began to ring in her pocket. She reached in, pulling it out and smiling at the picture of her and Danni that appeared whenever the blonde called her. It wasn't Wednesday, so she was slightly worried something was wrong, but she held a finger up to Danny to tell him to hold the conversation just one moment before answering.
"Hi, everything alright?" Clara asked.
"You won't believe where we are!" Danni's eager voice called over the background noise Clara could here. Her enthusiasm told her that nothing was wrong, so she relaxed and let herself smile in her amusement.
"Go on then."
"Disney!"The part Time Lord exclaimed, "It's the opening day! I can see Walt! He's just over there! It's so wonderful!"
"California?" Clara clarified, not exactly well versed in her Disney locations. She was sure that was the first one opened, though.
"No, Nebu-Nebula 7!" Danni explained, "Hey wait-"
Clara frowned, "Neguel 7." The Doctor's voice corrected down the phone and she rolled her eyes as the phone was passed back, "Don't tell her the wrong place, she'll never know where to go."
"She's not going to come without us, is she?" Danni argued back, "The sunlight comes in blue, you should see it sweetie! Everything looks like it's glowing!"
"You better be getting some pictures." Clara warned, her smile only growing as she thought on the fact that Danni was witnessing the opening of a new Disney park and yet had thought to ring her to tell her all about it, "Wait, how is Walt there? He's dead in this time."
"Oh, it's just a hologram. Well, I think it is… Gotta go sweetie, we're about to be let in! I'll show you when we see you next! Bye!"
Clara shook her head fondly as Danni hung up without waiting for a reply. She wasn't showing off, she was just so happy that she'd wanted to share with her.
"Oh, I know that look." Danny teased her, pulling her out of her thoughts, "That's the look Shauna Michaels gets when she's just talked to Justin."
Clara knew exactly what he meant, and the girl in Year 9 who had the crush, "Excuse me, we've talked about this." She retorted, "She's my best friend, so sue me."
"No one talks to their best friend then looks like that." He replied. Part of him was still concerned that she might fancy the other woman, but he knew it was just that; a fancy. She loved him and he loved her, so he could tease her just to see her get defensive. She seemed to always rise to it.
Of course, what he didn't know was that it was because she'd had a little bit of a crush on Danni after Clara had jumped into the Doctor's timeline. She'd not exactly been open about that fact, just brushing over what she had done to save them both and hid other parts. Not because she didn't think he deserved to know, but because it had been quite the information dump and if he wanted more detail, she'd happily tell him. With his words about fancying Danni, however, she knew she'd probably made the right call, "You obviously don't talk to women much, do you?" Was her tease in reply, "We all look like that when we talk to our best friends."
"Oh, stereotyping to cover your tracks," he accused with a smile, "definitely fancy her."
"I'll go back to school right now." She warned, pointing over her shoulder, "I can storm out on another date easy."
"You wouldn't dare." Danny dismissed with a scoff.
"Oh? And why not?"
He smirked, leaning in over the table again, "Because I saved your life." He reminded her. Clara tried not to smile, to still pretend to be angry but she couldn't. She couldn't have expected the mess that had been his first meeting with the two Time Lords to strengthen their relationship, but it had, and she was so grateful for it now.
~0~0~0~
"You told her what?" Danni asked, jogging slightly to keep at her husband's side despite his rather large, therefore fast, stride.
"I didn't say that." The Doctor dismissed but Clara shook her head as they headed towards Clara's classroom.
They'd parked the TARDIS there but the English teacher had been decidedly absent. They'd found her in a meeting with a bunch of other teachers, including Mr Pink who got a very enthusiastic wave from Danni through the window of the door, discussing Courtney Woods. Danni remembered her; she was the girl who had introduced herself as a 'disruptive influence' and it sounded like things hadn't improved since they'd left.
"She says that's what sent her off the rails." Clara replied, correcting him and telling him exactly what he had done wrong as well. The Doctor just scoffed, holding the door open for his wife as they entered the room.
"Doctor. I know, I know." Clara replied, rushing in front of him and stopping him from entering the TARDIS. He had to know what he had done, "But, you say something like that to somebody, it hurts. Especially if you're somebody of her age, especially if you're you." The Doctor rolled his eyes, stepping around her, "Doctor, it can affect her whole life."
"Bah." He called over his shoulder, opening the TARDIS door this time for Danni.
"Plus, she is special." Danni retorted, stepping into the console room, "You know she is. Since when did you meet anyone who wasn't special or important?"
The Doctor didn't answer, instead dashing forward at the sight of the girl who was causing all this trouble. He hadn't said anything of the sort, anyway, "Oi! Give over!" He snapped, placing the phone she had been playing with back in it's proper place on the console. All he had said was that it took a special type of person to handle travelling on the TARDIS. He wasn't wrong either, was he? Not many people had been sick at the sight of the universe, after all.
"What are you doing in here sweetie?" Danni asked her. Courtney was quick to hold up a bunch of paper towels and some disinfectant.
"I got stuff to clean up with." She told them both eagerly and the Doctor frowned.
"What?" He snapped, following her as she backed away from him. He was rather intimidating, with his annoyed look and the fact he was a good foot and a half taller than her. But, to her credit, Courtney had a lot to prove and she wasn't going to let him scare her away.
"And I got these from the chemist." She continued, holding up her wrist to show the metal bands she'd told her parents were for a school trip. The Doctor glanced at them, still highly confused over why such a short human was in his TARDIS?
"Vortex manipulators?" He asked, which can't have been right. It was totally the wrong century for vortex manipulators to be available anywhere, let alone in a chemist.
Courtney faltered slightly, not really knowing what he was talking about, "Travel sickness." She corrected, her brows furrow.
"Good." He snapped, leaning in closer so she could see how angry he was at her breaking into their home, "Because I don't like people being sick in my TARDIS." He turned back to the console, checking to see that she hadn't been fiddling with anything actually important, "No being sick. And no hanky-panky."
"Doctor!" Clara exclaimed, motioning to Courtney pointedly.
"Sorry, that's the rules." He replied, defending himself.
"Actually, that's not strictly true." Danni added and Clara shot her an incredulous look.
"Danni!" Clara hissed and Danni shrugged.
"What?" She replied like she didn't realise what she'd said. She walked up to Courtney, smiling softly at her, "Sweetie, this is all very sweet, but you can't come travelling with us. It's much too dangerous and…"
"Do you really not think I'm special?" Courtney interrupted, pulling away and looking devastated. Danni quickly shook her head.
"No, no I didn't say that." She promised, "Neither of us have ever said that."
Clara could tell how upset her student was getting, and no matter how much she complained about Courtney, she did actually care about the girl's wellbeing, "Doctor, will you just, just tell her?" She asked, walking over to stand in front of him, hand on her hip in her teacher stance.
"Tell her what?" He asked, perplexed.
Clara leant forward, keeping her mouse closed as she tried to whisper, "Tell her that she's special."
"Have you gone bananas?" He snapped, because you can't just tell someone they were special. He'd told Danielle loads of times, all of his companions really. But none of them ever believed him until he had shown them what he could do. He was only one person; Courtney could learn that on her own.
Clara crossed her arms, obviously not very happy with his answer. She took a step back, giving Courtney space to stare him down, to show him exactly how he'd damaged a young teenager with his flippant remarks.
Courtney didn't hold back. She walked forward, eyes shining and her hurt written all over her face, "You can't just take me away like that." She snapped, "It's like you kicked a big hole in in the side of my life. You really think it? I'm nothing? I'm not special?"
His eyes watched her closely, but her gaze never wavered, waiting for an answer. He looked up at the other two women. Clara still had her arms crossed, staring as if she was waiting for him to put it right, expecting him to do as she had said. Danielle was watching Courtney, worrying her hands as she forced herself to stay back and not rush over to the child to offer some comfort.
He turned around on the spot, hiding the roll of his eyes as they all ganged up on him. Did they have to make him feel so guilty when he hadn't meant anything by his words, "God." He whispered, angry at himself for giving in before turning back to Courtney. Fine, he'd show her too. He'd shown everyone else, "How'd you like to be one of the first women on the moon?" He asked, "Can't do the first, but I can do the second. Is that special enough for you?"
He felt a huge sense of relief as Courtney's lips turned up into a small smile, "Yeah, all right." She replied with a nod.
"Okay. Now we can do something interesting." He told her. The TARDIS already knew his plans, it seemed, as her lights started to flash to signal they were going somewhere. He flipped a switch and they set off into flight, Danielle and Clara looking around in alarm as they realised he was taking them somewhere.
"Hey, Doctor!" Clara exclaimed in alarm as Danni fought the shake of the flight to move over to his side.
"We can't take her into space." She hissed, "She's only 15!"
"You want her to see that she's special, this is the only way I know how." He replied, not taking his eyes off the controls, "A quick lookout, maybe a spacewalk, she'll be back in time for tea."
Danni glanced behind her at Courtney, who looked so incredibly pleased at the new development that she nodded, "Alright, fine." She conceded, "Next time big decisions are brought up before they are made, alright?"
He nodded, filing it away in his ever-replenishing internal notes on his wife, "Noted." He told her. They were getting quite big now, his notes. Not as large or as wordy as they once had been, but he found it fascinating that he was still slightly surprised by the little things he was relearning about her.
~0~0~0~
Courtney couldn't get into her spacesuit quick enough, which Danni found rather refreshing to see. There was something lovely about having a child/teenager on the TARDIS, showing her something pretty amazing. It could be overwhelming, but it could also be inspiring. It was true that she'd thrown up when the Doctor had shown her space for the first time - Danni still wasn't sure how he'd found himself in a showing off contest with a teenager - but Donna hadn't exactly taken to aliens and other worlds the first time around either.
She'd even managed to stop the Doctor telling Courtney that only his wife was allowed to open the doors, although she was certain that was only because they had been to the Moon before. Courtney gave her a little glance, like she was checking it was okay, but at Danni's nod she opened the door.
The teenager had no idea what she had been expecting - dust and darkness mostly - but the small storage room that she looked out into wasn't exactly screaming 'the Moon' to her. In fact, it looked just like the science tech's office. White, with metal shelving and a lot of things she didn't understand.
"This isn't the Moon." She declared disappointedly, "Where are we?"
Danni quickly followed her, also frowning at the very ordinary room they'd landed in, "I dunno." She replied honestly, "Science labs maybe?"
"A recycled space shuttle." The Doctor corrected as he stepped out into the room. The fact that there was barely, if any, change in gravity when he stepped out immediately threw up a multitude of red flags, "2049, judging by that prototype version of the Bennett oscillator." He continued, looking around the room. A room in space with earth-equivalent gravity and what appeared to be a rather large stash of bombs. Very interesting. He took his helmet off, assuming correctly that they were safe and the other three followed, "Where's the gravity coming from?" He asked out loud.
"Gravity?" Danni asked, taking a step closer to him. She'd learnt from experience that if he fixated on something, it was usually worth looking into.
"Remember last time we were on the Moon?" He shot back before he started looking around the room. She smiled slightly at the memory of her and Eleven rushing around on the Moon's searching, bouncing in mid-air as they played a game of tag between them…
"Oh." She breathed, seeing his point. No bouncing, because there was gravity. That wasn't right. The smile stayed on her face; he was so smart.
She started looking around the room as well. They were on a spaceship, and the more she looked the less it looked like the shelves were filled with equipment. In fact, if she didn't know better, she'd say there were weapons. Or ammo. Very big ammo being held in place with nets and straps. That wasn't particularly reassuring.
Clara caught her looking around with a worried frown on her face, "What are they?"
"About a hundred nuclear bombs." The Doctor replied for his wife. Before Danni could comment about the suitability of having a teenager on a spaceship with a bunch of highly dangerous bombs, an alarm started to sound. Not an ear-splitting one, but it made them all take note. The Doctor headed towards the window as the ship began to shake. Danni tried to join him as Clara and Courtney went to anchor themselves to one of the many nets keeping the bombs in place.
"Atmosphere?" She asked, wondering if they'd somehow managed to land on a spaceship heading to another planet?
The Doctor had to grab hold of the window slightly as the shaking continued to increase. He took a look outside and grinned – he had got it right!
"Ah!" He exclaimed, "We're on our way to the Moon." Danni cried out as the shaking became too strong for her to stand up and she smacked into the side of one of the bombs, "Check that. We're about to crash into it!" He stumbled over, helping her up before moving them both to another piece of netting, "Hold on! Hold on!" He told the other three as the space ship plummeted to the earth. He kept Danielle between him and the net for extra stability.
"Why didn't you just tell her you didn't mean it?" Clara asked over the g-force and the alarm but the Doctor didn't reply. He was a grown Time Lord, he could control his emotions better than most people, but he kept his head bowed, enjoying the feeling of his wife up against him as he held them both in place.
When the space shuttle landed with a violent thud on the moon's surface, both Clara and Courtney fell to the floor. The Doctor and Danni, however, both just lost their footing and the Doctor crushed Danni painfully against the netting.
"Oh, that hurt." Danni groaned as the Doctor quickly pulled himself up straight.
"My Pet…" He started, ready to apologise as the doors to the rest of the shuttle opened. Three people walked in, two men and a women wearing space suits much more contemporary to Earth than the ones that the foursome were currently wearing.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" The woman demanded, obviously rather angry that the four were in her ship rather than concerned over why they were there in the first place.
The Doctor quickly stepped forward, taking the lead like he always did and was so very good at, "Why have you got all these nuclear bombs?" He shot back in reply.
"I'm not going to give you another chance." She replied in the same firm tone and the Doctor could have rolled his eyes. Humans, always so quick to accuse. Why not just answer his question? They were on the moon, what could he possibly do?
"Oh? Well, you're just going to have to shoot us, then." He challenged, "Shoot the little girl first." He rushed back, grabbing hold of Courtney and pulling her forward.
"What?" She exclaimed but the Doctor wasn't paying much attention to her.
"Yes. She doesn't want to stand there watching us getting shot, does she?" He continued, "She'll be terrified. Girl first, then her teacher, then my wife and then me. You'll have to spend a lot of time shooting us two, though, because we will keep on regenerating." Danni rolled her eyes, ignoring the way he was antagonising the people who actually owned the shuttle and the way he was rocking backwards and forwards to check the gravity. She headed over to Courtney, sitting down on the floor next to her as she hid away from her husband and the people he was talking to.
"He doesn't mean it." She promised the girl quietly, "He knows they won't shoot any of us, so he's calling their bluff."
"Did he have to use me, though?" Courtney grumbled and Danni nodded.
"Yeah, because you're the one they definitely won't shoot." She replied, "He's proving a point, and unfortunately you're excellent for that."
Courtney didn't reply for a moment, "I'm not a little girl." She grumbled, "I'm almost sixteen."
Danni grinned, nudging her, "He's over two thousand years old, sweetie. Everyone's a little girl to him."
Courtney turned to face her, eyes wide in surprise, "What?" She asked, "He's two thousand years old? Are you that old?"
"Nah," Danni replied, "I'm only about six hundred."
"Is he like your sugar daddy or something?" Courtney asked and Danni couldn't help but giggle.
"Oh, god no." She promised, standing up, "He hasn't got a penny to his name. If anything I'm more rich than he is." She held her hand out to Courtney, "You shouldn't know that term anyway."
Courtney took it, using the slightly awkward hold to stand up, "It was on TV." She explained.
"Of course it was." Danni sighed, walking her over to the rest of the grown-ups.
"Do you know what's wrong with the moon?" Clara was asking the Doctor. Danni gently nudged Courtney to her teacher as she settled back by her husband's side once again.
"It's put on weight." He replied, much to everyone's confusion.
"How can the moon put on weight?" The woman almost accused, like he was making the whole thing up.
"Oh, lots of ways." He replied, offhandedly, "Gravity bombs, axis alignment systems, planet shellers..."
"So it's alien?" She asked, like that was a bad thing and the Doctor hid the concern that brought up. This was the problem with people in power, and it was quite obvious she was in charge. Everything that is different is wrong, and he and Danielle were quite different indeed.
"But the Earth is completely reliant on the Moon, isn't it?" Danni piped up, although her concern wasn't the same as the Doctor's. He was worried about their, mainly her, immediate danger but he could tell she was more worried about the people down below, "Tides and gravity and things, right?"
The Doctor nodded, "The tides will be so high that they will drown whole cities." He commented, looking to who he assumed was the captain.
She gave a small nod, "Yeah." she replied quietly.
Clara looked at Danni, who was stood behind the Doctor with a devastated look on her face. Clara didn't blame her at all. All the people that had to have died within the cities that had been washed away wasn't exactly a wonderful thought.
"So what are you doing about it?" The Doctor asked. The woman, her face hardened already against their task ahead, turned and walked to the wall and pulled off a large black and red box. The detonator. She walked it back over to the Doctor, keeping it firmly in her grasp but making a very poignant point, "This?" He asked.
"That's what you do with aliens, isn't it?" She asked in reply, "Blow them up?" The Doctor turned, looking at his wife, who suddenly seemed just as concerned as he was about the woman's words. He couldn't exactly keep his wife with someone who was going to blow them up if they were deemed a threat, could he? But then, something was very wrong with the Moon, and he had to find out what.
She shot him a small smile and he felt her rub against his mind in an attempt to comfort him. She wasn't worried about herself, she was concerned about the planet down below and he relaxed slightly. She was part human, after all, she did have that defence. She wasn't totally alien.
"What's your name?" Danni asked the woman in front of her, "I'm Danni, this is Courtney," she nodded to the teenager, "and Clara, and he's the Doctor."
She knew that introducing them first would make the woman more inclined to offer the same, "Captain Lundvik, Henry, Duke." She rattled off.
"You're not just here to prime the bombs and leave." The Doctor stated, having let Danielle have her little moment of pleasantries, "Something happened, didn't it? Something that made all the countries of the world group together and decide to bomb the Moon."
Lundvik nodded, "Yes, it did."
"Show me." The Doctor commanded and, after they stared each other down for a moment, Lundvik nodded. She turned to her crew.
"Grab your helmets," she commanded firmly, "we're going out."
~0~0~0~
Courtney was absolutely amazed as the door to the shuttle opened, revealing not only the Moon's surface outside but also a picture-perfect shot. They'd not had to tell the crew of the shuttle that she was supposed to go out first, she'd already made that clear when she'd stood in the doorway, telling them to hurry up.
"Wow." She breathed, obviously in awe before she giggled slightly, "Wow!" She quickly dashed out of the door, taking the first opportunity to jump onto the actual surface rather than walk down the ramp the door had become. She looked up at all of the grown-ups in the shuttle, "One small thing for a thing. One enormous thing for a thingy thing." She declared, her voice full of smugness at how much more special she had suddenly become.
Lundvik turned to Clara, her voice despairing, "So much for history." The Captain took a step forward to follow on and lead her crew, but the Doctor's arm shot out, holding her firmly in place.
"My wife goes next." He told her factually, but before she could question him with the incredulous look she was shooting him, he'd turned back to Danielle. A quick nod for her to follow had her grinning and rushing out. Unlike Courtney, she ran down the ramp until the end before jumping off, landing with a thud. She turned to her husband, a frown on her face.
"It's just not as fun if you're not jumping around like you're all bunny rabbits." She complained before turning to Courtney, "Maybe we'll be able to bring you back to when it's more fun." She commented.
"Bunny rabbits?" Courtney repeated, her nose scrunched up, "You sound like a kid, you know that?"
Danni nodded, linking arms with her, "Courtney, let me tell you something," she started, "something that a lot of people are going to tell you over the years and yet something you're not going to believe. You know that feeling when it's like you're in the middle of a room, and everyone's staring at you, waiting for you to something wrong?"
Courtney nodded, knowing that feeling well. Especially at school, when people always expected her to do something particularly naughty, "Yeah?"
Danni smile at her the best she could through the helmets, "Don't care." She explained, "Never care. They want to judge you, let them. As long as you're not hurting anyone else or yourself, don't care what people think about you. I want to bounce around like a rabbit on the Moon. I could pretend not to want to do that, and you know what happens?" Courtney shook her head, "I don't get to bounce around and no one cares that I didn't. If I do get to bounce around, a bunch of people may think that I'm behaving like a child. But I'm the one bouncing, I'm the one having fun."
She jumped on the spot. It really wasn't as fun as when you floated upwards, "And trust me, it's much more fun than this. I could do this on Earth, what's the point?" She grumbled.
"How are you his wife?" Courtney asked, motioning backwards at the Doctor who was finding out just what had happened. Anything important he would pass on the Danni, so she wasn't too worried about listening, "He's so grumpy, and you're not."
"He isn't always." Danni promised, "And he wasn't always. Being as old as he is, you see a lot of crap, and sometimes it gets to you. And we all deal with things differently, right 'disruptive influence'?" She teased, nudging her pointedly.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be better." Courtney replied, like she was reluctant to say so, "I don't mean to be."
"I know." Danni promised, "You're a good girl, Courtney. You've just got to find something you're interested in. Until then, though," she smirked, "you're on the Moon. Enjoy it."
Courtney nodded, letting go of Danni's arm to fumble for a bit. Then she revealed her phone, holding it up with the camera on, "Selfie time." She declared and Danni giggled. The pair stopped to grab a picture of themselves before Courtney carried on taking pictures of the scenery.
They walked down into a crater, where a while make-shift building sat. Danni slowed her steps slightly to fall in line with her husband. She really wished they were somewhere with a breathable atmosphere so she could ask for his opinion properly. But, with all the helmets on and connected through their various communications devices, she knew she couldn't. Instead she reached out, taking hold of his hand through their bulky gloves.
"There was a mining survey, Mexicans." Lundvik explained as the approached it, "Something happened up here. Nobody knows what. That's when the trouble began back on Earth. High tide everywhere at once. The greatest natural disaster in history." They all slowed down slightly as it became clear the building wasn't in top condition. The airlock door was wide open, meaning anyone in there was long dead, and somehow giant cobwebs covered the entire outside of it.
The Doctor pulled Danni to a slower walk, allowing the captain to peer inside the open hallway. She looked at him, having to tilt her head to be able to see through the helmet, to see him looking at the building with a look of worried confusion.
"Cobwebs?" Clara asked, echoing all of their confusion.
"Henry, go back and prime the bombs." The captain told one of her two men.
"Er, is there any instructions?" One of the asked in replied, his confusion just adding to the absurdity of the whole situation.
The captain sighed in annoyance, "There's a switch on each of them. The light goes red."
"They won't go off?" Henry asked, obviously rather nervous of being in the presence of a hundred nuclear bombs. Understandably so, Danni felt.
"No, not till I fiddle with this thing." Lundvik replied, motioning with the red case that had been the detonator for the bombs.
"Okay." Henry replied and, unable to think of another question to ask or a reason to stay behind, he turned and started walking back.
"Should he be going on his own?" Danni asked.
"We're on the Moon, I think his chances of getting mugged are thin." Lundvik retorted and Danni pulled her tongue out at her, "Shall we?"
"Is that the best you could get?" The Doctor asked as they stepped into the air lock to the building.
"Second-hand space shuttle, third-hand astronauts." She replied like it explained everything. Lundvik led the way and this time both Courtney and Danni were very happy to let her. The Doctor followed, then Clara, with Courtney sandwiched between her teacher and her ex-dinner lady. Danni made sure to close the door behind her so they could turn the air on once they found out why the power was out.
The inside was dark and also covered in the unlikely cobwebs. The Doctor brushed the wall to see if he could tell what the strings were, but with the gloves of the suit on her couldn't tell any difference between them and any other cobwebs. So he settled on getting information on the empty module. There were obviously people working in it, so he wasn't surprised to find out that they were all dead. However, the state of the module definitely didn't say accidental death. And the fact that it was on its way to looking like a haunted house also wasn't very promising.
They reached a small room full of equipment and yet more cobwebs. With spiders being the least likely of sources, he knelt down and examined a torch that had been abandoned on the floor. The room was in slight disarray, but otherwise looked like it had been abandoned as it had stood the day the last screams of the people who had been there had filtered down to earth.
A scream ran out and their attentions were torn off the backstory of the Mexican mineral survey and onto Courtney, who had been the one to scream.
As they rushed ahead into the building to find her, she suddenly stumbled out of the hallway and into Clara, "Courtney." Clara breathed in relief, even as the girl shook in her arms.
"Danielle?" The Doctor called, immediately noticing his wife hadn't come to Courtney's rescue with the rest of them.
"I'm okay!" She called from the hallway and he stepped in after her. She was looking in an alcove, where a spacesuit hung from the wall, looking closely as she tentatively brushed a few cobwebs away. She glanced at her husband, "I saw her walking off and followed." She explained, "I think there's someone in there."
He pulled out his screwdriver, giving the suit a scan to confirm her words, "Or was." He murmured, because there was definitely signs that someone had died in that suit. Roughly ten years ago, which correlated with the story perfectly.
"I'll get some power back on." Duke told them all lowly, uncomfortable with the events as everyone was. He walked through the hallway first, heading deeper into the building.
Clara was next, making sure to stand between Courtney and the corpse, "Don't look." She encouraged gently, leading her through until they reached the next room. Danni left Clara to check that Courtney was alright while she and Lundvik stayed with the Doctor as he slowly lowered the corpse to the ground.
"They were caught, weren't they?" Danni asked her husband as he continued to look over the body, "Like prey."
"Something was learning." The Doctor replied, "Finding out how you're put together. Or maybe how you tasted." He scanned the body again.
"Do we have guns?" Courtney asked from the other room.
"Not unless you brought some." Lundvik replied in a tone that suggested she really rather wished the wasn't the case. She'd feel a lot safer if she had some sort of useable weapon on her right about now.
"Chicken, apparently." The Doctor told them all, following on from his previous statement and Danni nudged him.
"Don't." She warned him, "No one needs to know that much detail." He nodded, agreeing with her for once that maybe not getting all the details wasn't such a bad thing. He stood up, turning her to as the lights flickered on, the power starting for the first time in a decade.
"Are you okay?" He asked her and she nodded, before realising that he probably could feel her nervousness.
"I will be once we find out what's going on and Courtney is back safe on the TARDIS." She explained, "We shouldn't have brought her with us. She should have stayed behind."
"I can hear you." Courtney called through the communication device.
"I know, sweetie." Danni replied, "Sorry."
"That's alright." She replied and Danni smiled at the offhanded way the teenager replied. She was obviously trying to act less scared than she was. Danni could totally relate to that.
"We'll work it out." The Doctor promised, wishing he could give her some more reassurance, but he didn't really feel very reassured himself. The Moon was quite important to everything on the Earth. If something were to happen to it, he wasn't convinced the Earth would survive. And as good as his 'Time Lord Sense', as Danielle called it, was in normal circumstances he really couldn't feel anything from the moment they were living through. A moment in complete flux. It was completely possible that they could be there to blow up the Moon. He just really hoped that wasn't the case.
"Save the air." He told them all, removing his helmet to lead by example. The room the power lit up seemed like a basic, rather sparse office. A large computer sat on the desk on the other side and, after a moment taking stock in the room, he headed straight over and powered it up.
He flicked through the results, and pictures and other findings, his brows furrowing as he analysed the findings, "They didn't find anything."
"Not a thing?" Danni asked, walking over to his side, "Is that right? I mean, I know that it's baron out there, but there must have been something? Surely?"
He glanced down at his wife, agreeing with her completely. There should have been something underneath the surface, "They didn't find any minerals on the moon at all. Nada." He told them all. He turned around, looking for some other sort of clue, anything that might shine some light on what was going on.
"Danielle." He barked, making sure she stayed by his side as he spotted a table across the room covered in photographs. She followed him over as he started sifting through the images, "Oh."
Clara looked over, knowing that tone anywhere, "Oh?" She challenged, heading over to join the two Time Lords and the space captain who had also walked over to take a look.
"Lines of tectonic stress." The Doctor explained.
"That's the Mare Fecunditatis." Lundvik replied, motioning to the large picture the Doctor was holding, "It's been there since the Apollo days. It's always been there."
"No, no, no. These are much, much bigger." He corrected, discarding the photo to look through the rest, "Sea of Tranquillity. Sea of Nectar. Sea of Ingenuity. Sea of Crises." The lights started flickering again, adding to the tense atmosphere that they were already swimming in.
"And that means?" She asked her husband.
"The Moon, this little planetoid that's been tagging along beside the earth for a hundred million years," he glanced at Clara who was, as always, waiting for him to explain, "which gives you light at night and seas to sail on, is in the process of falling to bits" And, as if it had heard him, the moon began to shake and the power shut off, bathing them all in darkness.
~0~0~0~
Courtney was scared. That was very obvious and very understandable, seeing as she'd almost been eaten alive by a giant germ that looked like a giant spider. She had done very well whilst fighting it but no matter how big and mighty she acted, she still was just a child.
Clara wasn't exactly happy to lock her in the TARDIS. The best place for her was back home with her family, but the Doctor was right and they couldn't just leave. If the Moon was really going to fall apart, they had to do all they could to stop it. She'd never been fantastic at science, but she knew how important the Moon was to the planet below. They couldn't just walk away, and so they all went to explore the Mexican survey sight once more.
They found the remains of the other three workers by a crack in the surface, covered in cobwebs just like everything else they'd found. Danni grimaced as the Doctor headed straight for one, "You know, we should take them back." She commented.
"Take what back?" He asked as he crouched down next to one.
"The bodies." Danni clarified, crouching down by another, trying not to look into the helmet, "They worked out what was going on, even if they were too late to tell anyone."
"There's not much to take back." Clara commented, and unfortunately she was right. Danni reached down, though, and plucked a name badge off the front of the suit. She struggled with it for a moment, but managed to pull it off. If not the bodies, they could take back something. Or, at least, Lundvik could. She never liked the part where people were never found again. It reminded her too much of her own fate, of her parents back in the other universe forever waiting for her to return. Everyone deserved closure.
"Is it those germ things, then? Are they like cockroaches? Is it, is it an infestation?" Clara asked as Danni headed over to the furthest away body.
"Is it?" Lundvik asked, alarmed that they might be dealing with alien pests.
"Well, I've only seen one of them." The Doctor replied, crouching down closer to the crack in the surface, "It would take an awful lot more to cause the moon to put on one point three billion tonnes."
He cried out in surprise as one of the giant germs came scuttling out of the crack. It lept into the air with a hiss, landing on the Doctor and sending him to the ground as it tried to rip open his spacesuit.
"Doctor!" Clara cried as they ran over to help him. She pulled out the disinfectant spray that Courtney had used that had showed them all the spiders were germs, but couldn't get it to spray.
"It's a vacuum. It won't work." Lundvik told her quickly. Danni, who had rushed over as well, lifted her boot up high as the other two women grabbed at the spider-germ's legs.
"Get off my husband!" She screamed, giving it the hardest kick she could. It hissed as it lost grip on one side, and Clara and Lundvik ripped it off, chucking it to the side. It hissed again but scuttled back into its lair.
"Well, that makes two." The Doctor panted, taking a moment to catch his breath after that near-fatal experience.
Clara looked around as Danni slid slightly on the dirt, sitting next to her husband. The germ hadn't continued to attack; in fact, it had run away to hide like it was scared.
"Are you okay?" Danni asked him and he could feel the concern and worry rolling off her.
"I'm quite all right, my Pet." He promised, even though he was slightly shaken.
"Sunlight." Clara declared suddenly and Lundvik turned to her questioningly, "If they're germs. My nan says it's the best disinfectant there is." Clara reasoned.
The Doctor quickly jabbed his hand towards the crack, "Shine your light down there." He commanded Lundvik, and she did, revealing the scuttling of thousands of the germs underneath the surface.
"Where have they come from?" She breathed.
"Wherever it is, it can't have been on their own." Danni commented before looking at her husband sharply, "Does that mean there's something else here?" She asked.
"Maybe they've been there all the time." The Doctor reasoned, standing up, "It's warmish. They're multiplying, feeding, evolving." He held his hand out to her, helping her onto her feet before quickly letting go. A lot more was starting to fall into place. Danielle had been right; there was no way that something so primitive had come to the Moon on its own accord. But there were thousands underneath the surface, probably over the entire thing. Something else was going on, something more.
He started quickly walking away, his feet trying to keep up with his mind. He knew he was looking for something, but he wasn't sure what yet, but they didn't have time to dillydally. He knew it was around here somewhere…
"Doctor," Lundvik called as they all followed, "if the Moon breaks up, it'll kill us all in about forty-five minutes."
"I agree." He replied, "Unless something else is going on."
"Do you think there's something else going on?" Danni asked him but he just shot her a look in reply, "You do. But what?"
He didn't have answer for her just yet, but a fissure appeared over a small hill and he rushed towards it. He pulled out his ever-present yo-yo and sent the end into the crack. When it came back up, they all gawped at the sight of it shining – it was wet.
"There's no water on the Moon." Lundvik breathed, bewildered but the Doctor was grinning. He was sure he knew what was happening now.
"It's not water. It's amniotic fluid!" He crowed, "The stuff that life comes from. I've got to go down there."
"What do you mean 'down there'?" Danni asked lowly, knowing the glint in his eyes perfectly.
He pointed at Lundvik, knowing that Danielle wouldn't like the answer to that question. However, last time he'd given her warning about him jumping into a hole, they'd both ended up trapped in a pocket universe and he couldn't risk that right now, "Back to your shuttle. Get your bombs ready." He then turned to Clara, "You, get to the Tardis. Get Danielle safe. Get Courtney safe. I will be back." He reached out, snatching the disinfectant spray off Clara.
"Doctor, Doctor, don't you dare…" Danni started to warn, but it was too late and he was jumping into the fissure, "Doctor!" She screamed down at him, absolutely fuming, "Get back here now!"
"Will he be back?" Lundvik asked, not wanting to lose the one person who knew what was going on.
"Not if he knows what's good for him!" Danni growled, stomping off the edge and heading down to the path they'd made back to the shuttle, "Fucking moron. When he gets back up here, I'm going to kill him." She turned to Clara who had followed knowing that Danni wasn't going to wait for them, "Who the hell just jumps down a hole like that? He doesn't know what's down there!"
"He's your husband." Clara retorted.
"If he leaves me behind again, it'll be ex-husband." Danni warned, "Just you wait."
~0~0~0~
Danni still wasn't sure what they were running from, all she knew was that whatever was attacking the Moon was accelerating rapidly. So, when her husband decided to show up once again and told them to run, then that's what she did. The shuttle had fallen down into a giant crack, so the Mexican module was their only option.
"Will we be able to get to the TARDIS and Courtney?" Danni asked the moment their helmets were off. The power was very slowly turning back on in the building, but at the very least the oxygen still seemed to be working.
"Of course, she'll turn up." The Doctor replied dismissively.
"Last time you said that, she turned up on the wrong side of the planet." Clara pointed out. She knew that the safest place for Courtney right now was where she was, but that was also dependant on getting back to her to take her home.
"That was because Danielle was inside." The Doctor explained, "She's not now, so she'll turn up just fine."
"Look, we need to know where Courtney is." She told him.
"Courtney is safe." He replied but Clara didn't look convinced, "Well, do you have her phone number?"
"No, no, no. Of course I don't have her phone number." Clara replied and the two spent a few moments looking into getting hold of the teenager who was safely in the TARDIS on Tumblr, probably still as bored as she had been earlier on.
"She can't put pictures of my wife online!" The Doctor protested, seeing the selfie that they had taken together earlier on. They didn't really have any photos together, did they? They still hadn't found anything suitable to replace the one in the bedroom, and here was a teenager taking them willy-nilly! And that was before the fact that she was giving Danielle exposure to everyone and everything out there! He'd have to have a word with Miss Woods.
"Why not?" Danni asked, frowning as she looked at the image that had caused such annoyance, "I thought it was a nice picture…" He didn't answer, instead taking out his screwdriver and pointing it at the phone. He then pointed it at one of the monitors and Courtney's face appeared.
"You can't put pictures of Danielle online!" He scolded, "People will see! She has enough attention on her…"
Clara wasn't in the mood for one of his rants about how precious Danni was. She knew this, but one picture wasn't going to do any damage, "Are you okay?"
"Er, I'm fine. What's up?" Courtney asked, vaguely confused over why they all seemed to be worried about her.
Seeing that the girl was safe, Lundvik turned back to the matter at hand, "You said you know what the problem is." She asked the Doctor, who nodded, rushing over to the computer he had been using before.
"Yes, yes. It's a rather big problem." He told them before sonicking the console. Danni smiled, because it was something good, wasn't it? It was rare to see this Doctor to be as excited as his younger counterparts, but whatever he had found underneath the surface had him practically bouncing around on the spot. His words were rushing out like he couldn't keep them in, like he couldn't wait for the next one to come out so they understood what he was showing them. He explained everything. About how they had roughly an hour and a half before the Moon fell apart. About how the germs weren't germs, they were bacteria. And then he brought up an image of the Moon, then showed them what was inside. With wings and a tail, she had to admit it looked rather dragon-like. Very mystical.
"The Moon isn't breaking apart." He told them all and the grin on his face made Danni smile back, "The Moon is hatching."
"Wait, what?" Danni asked as the other two women shared a look. None of them seemed as happy as him, but their confusion just added to his own delight.
"The Moon's an egg." The Doctor replied.
"Has it, er, has it always been an egg?" Clara asked and Danni shook her head.
"No, no, that can't be right." She stated, "The Moon isn't an egg. The Moon has never been an egg."
"Why not?" The Doctor asked her, "Since when did you not believe in impossible things?"
"Because… because people would have noticed." She argued, "People have walked on the Moon, even now. They brought things back. In the future humanity had spread across the universe. Somebody, somewhere, would have mentioned that the Moon had a baby inside of it!"
"Why, did you ask?" He countered and she pouted slightly, knowing he was completely right. She'd never asked, so why would they tell her?
"So it's an egg?" Clara asked slowly, still not sure if she believed what he was saying.
"Yes," The Doctor replied, "for a hundred million years or so. Just, just growing. Just getting ready to be born."
"So the Moon has never been the Moon?" She asked, again just making sure she was hearing him correctly.
"No, no, no, no. It's never been dead." He corrected, "It's just taking a long time to come alive." He was so happy! It was rare that the universe could show him something so wondrous that he felt as in awe of it as he saw Danielle at every stop they made. But this? This was new, and exciting and beautiful all rolled into one.
"How do we kill it?"
And then the mood changed. The Doctor deflated, all of his happiness disappearing as he remembered the species that was being entrusted with this precious new life. Where he saw excitement and joy, they saw threat and destruction. Some things never did change.
"Why'd you want to kill it?" Clara asked, standing up from the crouch she'd adopted to examine the hologram of the creature closely.
"It's a little baby." Courtney protested from the monitor but Lundvik didn't pay any attention to either of them. She had been sent up with a singular mission; the save the Earth from the Moon. Whether it was falling apart, or hatching, or whatever was going on didn't change that. The Moon was a threat to the Earth and she had to stop it.
"Doctor, how do we kill it?" She asked with as little emotion as she could.
"We're not killing anything." Danni snapped, absolutely horrified at the suggestion, "How can you even suggest that? Were you not even listening?!"
Lundvik ignored her too, "Doctor?" She asked impatiently.
"Kill the Moon?" He asked lowly and she nodded. He stared her down for a moment, deciding whether or not to give her the answer. But she didn't waiver and he suddenly felt rather sick to his stomach.
"Kill the Moon." He repeated, turning off the hologram, "Well, you have about a hundred of the best man-made nuclear weapons, if they still work. If that's what you want to do."
Danni turned on the spot, staring at her husband, absolutely blown away by the fact that he was giving her an answer, "Hang on a minu…"
"Will that do it?" Lundvik asked, keeping herself on track and stopping herself from getting drawn into an argument they couldn't have.
"A hundred nuclear bombs set off right where we are, right on top of a living, vulnerable creature?" He snapped, his disgust in her voice, "It'll never feel the sun on its back."
"And then what? Will the Moon still break up?" She asked, "You said, you said we had an hour and a half?"
"Well, there'll be nothing to make it break up. There will be nothing trying to force its way out. The gravity of the little dead baby will pull all the pieces back together again." He explained. He turned his back on the captain, unable to look at her anymore. So he turned his gaze onto his beautiful wife, who looked just as horrified as he felt, "Of course, it won't be very pretty. You'd have an enormous corpse floating in the sky. You might have some very difficult conversations to have with your kids."
"I don't have any kids." Lundvik brushed out and he watched Danielle straighten, her eyes flashing angrily as she stepped forward.
"That's enough." She snapped, "It didn't ask to be born, or laid – whatever – hovering above your planet! We can't just blow it up!"
"It's not even been born." Courtney chimed in.
"It is killing people. It is destroying the Earth." Lundvik argued back and Danni shuffled slightly on the spot. She wasn't wrong, was she? Cities had already been drowned, most likely millions of people were dead and it wasn't even born yet? What would happen if the Moon disintegrated completely?
"You cannot blame a baby for kicking." Clara almost snarled.
Danni held her hands up, watching them shake in the air as she stopped the two arguing, "She's right, Clara." She admitted with a disgusted bite to her tone, "We have to take the Earth into consideration. We can't just let everyone die,"
Clara's eyes widened, unable to believe she was hearing what she was from Danni's mouth, "How can you…"
"But," Danni interrupted sharply, "we also can't just blow up a creature that didn't ask to be here in the first place. It didn't ask to have a whole planet reliant on its home. We have to discuss it."
The Doctor watched them all as Danni briefly instructed Courtney on how to bring the TARDIS to them. It was very obvious that there were two sides in this room. Clara and Courtney, who weren't ever going to agree to the destruction of an innocent creature, and Lundvik, who wouldn't sway from her position. Even he wasn't sure what to do, and with a moment in time in such flux as this one was, he didn't even know where to begin. His Time Lord instincts were kicking in; he couldn't interfere. This was to do with Earth, and if he couldn't help, he had to leave.
But then there was Danielle. His sweet Danni, who was part Time Lord and part Human. Who was desperately trying to get each side to see the other's point of view so they could all come to an informed decision in what was turning out to be very little time at all. The perfect balance of both species – Time Lord enough to be impartial, and human enough to know that it wasn't always that simple. She'd always been the best at solving conflicts, and her time on Christmas had added to her lead ship skills. In his mind there was no one better for the job than her.
"So what do we do?" Clara asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. She had her hands on her hips, staring at him expectantly, "Doctor? Huh? Doctor, what do we do?"
He shrugged, "Nothing."
"What?" Danni asked, walking over, "What do you mean, nothing?"
"We don't do anything." He replied, motioning between the two women and himself, "I'm sorry, Danielle, I can't help you."
Danni and Clara shared a look, both not convinced that he was being serious, "Of course we can help." Danni told him, "We always help. We can't just let this happen."
"You can help, my Pet." He told her, standing up, "But the Earth isn't my home. The Moon's not my moon. It's yours." She blinked, her blood running cold and she slowly shook her head.
"No, no you're not chucking that at me now." She warned him lowly, "You do not get to throw my humanity at me like some sort of trump card, Spaceman!"
"Listen, there are moments in every civilisation's history in which the whole path of that civilisation is decided." He explained, "The whole future path. Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now. Now, you've got the tools to kill it. You made them. You brought them up here all on your own, with your own ingenuity."
"And you don't walk away from people you love!" Danni exclaimed back, "You help. You don't just stand back and let them suffer!" She couldn't believe he was doing this, "Our friends live here, our families! My mum and her mum, and her mum are from that planet!"
"And that's why you're the best for the job, my Pet." He told her and Danni shook her head, tears appearing in her eyes.
"You can't leave me, Doctor." She said, "You know I can't do this on my own." And she couldn't. She wasn't strong like him, nor smart. She had experience under her belt the other women didn't, but that was nothing compared to him. But she could see it in his eyes; he was abandoning her to this decision, "Please." She whispered, begging desperately.
"You're not on your own." He replied, "You've got a teacher and an astronaut with you as well."
"That's not what I mean!" She shouted, startling him slightly, "This is important!"
"Yes, it is." He agreed, "And it's your choice. It's your planet and they're your species." Danni stepped back from him, like she was physically hurt by his words. She looked at Clara, eyes wide and watery as she stared, completely lost and devastated.
Clara turned to him, "She's asking for your help." She snapped.
"Sorry." He replied with a shrug, "Well, actually, no, I'm not sorry." He looked at Danni, trying to make her see what he was showing her. She was strong enough for this, and he trusted her to make the right decision. But he'd already pressed the button on one planet's fate, he couldn't do it one another, "It's time to take the stabilisers off your bike. It's your moon, womankind. It's your choice."
"And you're just going to stand there?" Clara demanded and he shook his head.
"Absolutely not." He promised and the sound of the TARDIS materialising filled the silent air. The door opened and the Doctor jogged up to their home, dodging Courtney who quickly headed into the room.
"Please, please Theta." Danni begged but he turned around, arms out.
"A teenager, an astronaut, a schoolteacher and a time traveller." He declared, like he was giving them a prize. Lundvik looked at the blue box for a moment, knowing that it was more impressive than the small outsides showed.
"Hang on a minute. We can get in there, can't we? You can sort it out with that thing." She reasoned.
"No." He said firmly, "Some decisions are too important not to make on your own."
Danni could only stare as he walked off, doing the one thing he promised he wouldn't do. He had promised that he'd never leave her behind, but she watched the TARDIS disappear in front of her eyes, leaving her to make a decision that she knew haunted him even now, even though he knew the outcome was vastly different to the one he'd thought he'd made. The fate of the Earth versus the fate of an innocent creature, and he'd placed that burden, that decision on her shoulders then disappeared in his blue box to miss the consequences. He'd abandoned her. She was all on her own.
"Theta!"