Clara didn't know what to do. She stared, absolutely flabbergasted, as the TARDIS slowly faded away into nothingness. He was supposed to be her friend, his wife was stood just in front of her, and yet he'd just taken off because suddenly he didn't feel like he had any say in the Earth's future. That was completely new, all he'd done was interfere up until this point. What made this any different?!
She took a deep breath. Now was not the time to focus on her anger. She had plenty of time to rant and rave when their hour and a half was up. Right now they needed to stop the baby being killed. They needed a plan, and so she turned to her other best friend.
"Danni, what do we do?" She asked but Danni didn't move. She didn't tear her eyes off the spot the TARDIS had been sat. Clara frowned slightly, taking a step closer, "Danni?"
"I-I don't know." Danni whimpered, her hands clenched and Clara could see her physically shaking, "I- How could he just leave me?" She didn't understand. He'd always made such a big show of not being like Eleven. He hated the man who was before him, and yet he was leaving her behind in much the same way. In fact, this was worse. This was so much worse because he'd not just left her behind in some unnecessary way of protecting her. This time he had been very clear that he was throwing her straight into the fire and leaving her to burn, "I-I don't…"
"Danni?" Clara took a small step forward, reaching out to rest her hand on her arm. Danni turned, eyes wide and tears streaming down her face, "It's-it's okay." She promised, pulling her in for a hug. Danni didn't return it; she didn't even lift her arms up to try. She just stood frozen on the spot, "I know he's an idiot, I do," she told the blonde, "but we need to do this. The Moon is hatching; we need a plan. You must have something."
Danni didn't have time to reply as the Moon shook again, the surface cracking once again as the alien inside continued to try and break free, and even if she had she had nothing to say, no plan to speak of. Clara held onto her tightly to make sure neither of them fell, but Danni barely seemed to notice the movement. He had to have known she had no plan. Was he mocking her?
"I'm going to detonate the bombs, agreed?" Lundvik declared, tired of all of the hesitation. The Moon was going to kill the planet, and she didn't have time to waste. She walked over to the detonator, glancing back at the other two women, "Agreed?"
The room shook again, this time breaking a hole in the side of the building. Suddenly everything and everyone was being sucked towards it as the air rushed out, "Hang on tight, there's been a breach!" Lundvik shouted over the roar of the rushing air. Clara took a look at Courtney to make sure she was holding on properly before moving Danni over to the other side of the room. She wrapped her arms around her, holding her to part of the equipment that was welded to the wall. Thankfully Danni also held on, clinging tightly as a conveniently placed piece of metal broke free of its holding. It zoomed through the air and covered the breach and the air stabilised once more.
Now confident that they were safe for a while, Clara turned her attention back to her friend. She turned Danni around, forcing her to look her in the eye, "Danni, Danni, what do we do?" She asked firmly yet again, "I know he's left you, but we need your help. I need your help. Please, tell me what to do now. Or-or is the Doctor coming back? Is he really leaving this on our shoulders?"
Danni stared back, her mind feeling completely empty. She couldn't think, even the thought of her husband leaving felt so far away. It was like her mind had shut everything out to protect her from reality. But, somehow, Clara's words broke through, "No." She whispered, "He's left it on mine." She ran her hand through her hair, "I-I can't think." She told her friend, her voice breaking, "Why has he done this to me? Why would he leave me on my own to face this?"
Clara tried to shoot her a smile, "I'm still here." She promised, "What do we do?"
"I-" Danni started, glancing back at where the TARDIS should have been. What should they do? The creature, whatever it was, didn't deserve to die. It hadn't done anything but exist, no one deserved a death sentence for that. But then there was the Earth. Full of Claras, and Donnas, and Courtneys and Ponds and other amazing people that she'd never even get to meet. If they all died, what would happen? A genocide of a species for the sake of another didn't seem like a fair trade, did it?
"We…" she took a deep breath, "we need to discuss it. We can't make a decision on such little information."
Clara almost sighed in relief. Although it honestly looked like it had taken all of Danni's energy to even come up with such a simple, slightly vague, plan, at least it was something! It was more than they had before and Clara could use it. Danni was right. They needed to discuss all possible outcomes and work out what was the best, or least bad, course of action.
She let go of Danni, who slumped slightly against the wall, and walked over to Lundvik, "If we let it live, what would happen if the Moon wasn't there?" She asked.
"Listen, we haven't got time for thi…" Lundvik replied lowly but Clara slammed her hands onto the table.
"You heard her!" She snapped, "We're discussing it! What would happen if the moon wasn't there?"
"I have a physics book in my bag. There's this thing on gravity?" Courtney offered, just wanting to help the best she could.
"Super. Is there a word search?" The captain snarked back. Danni looked over with what felt like blurry vision. Courtney was just trying to help, and she felt like she should defend the poor teenager, but it all felt too much. Too much energy, too much arguing. Too much thinking. She glanced over at the hallway once again. Her husband… She had tried so hard, and she'd made so many mistakes, but she'd never leave him to face anything on his own. Five hundred years of her life fighting his war, and he couldn't stick around for one hour to help her.
Clara also knew when to pick her battles. Even as Courtney looked hurt by the dismissive words, she had to focus on the bigger picture, "Okay, there would be no tides." She answered for herself, "But we'd survive that, right? There's… er… They've knocked out the satellites. There's no internet, no mobiles. I'd be fine with that."
"It's not going to just stop being there, because inside the moon, Miss, is a gigantic creature forcing its way out." Lundvik explained, "And when it does, which is going to be pretty damn soon, there are going to be huge chunks of the moon heading right for us, like whatever killed the dinosaurs, only ten thousand times bigger."
"But the moon isn't made of rock and stone, is it? It's made of eggshell." Clara argued back and Lundvik looked upwards for strength.
"Oh, God." She groaned, "Okay, okay, fine. If, by some miracle, the shell isn't too thick, or if it disperses, or if it goes into orbit, whatever, there's still going to be a massive thing there, isn't there, that just popped out. And what the hell do you imagine that is?" Clara pursed her lips, because it was a valid point. Just because it was a baby alien didn't mean it was a defenceless alien. The Earth might survive the hatching only to be eaten by the creature moments later.
"Loads of things lay eggs." Courtney piped up and Clara nodded, shooting her a soft smile. Again, also true. Just because it could be dangerous didn't mean it actually would.
"It's not a chicken." Lundvik replied with a bite to her tone.
"That's not what she's saying." Danni called over tiredly and Clara was surprised to find she had slid to the floor, her knees bent and her arms resting on it, "She's saying it could be anything. You're assuming it's dangerous…"
"It's an exoparasite." Lundvik retorted, like it was a death sentence all on its own.
"A what?" Courtney asked.
"Like a flea. Or a head louse."
"And don't they need their hosts to be alive?" Danni asked, leaning her head back against the cold metal, "You're the one who thinks it's going to kill everything. What would be the point of it destroying where it lives?"
"Doesn't mean it won't."
"I'm going to have to be a lot more certain than that if I'm going to kill a baby." Clara declared and the arguing continued. Danni closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears from falling. She felt so selfish, but she couldn't even focus on their words. The Moon was hatching, the Earth minutes away from destruction, and all she could focus on was her anger and her hurt. It felt like a giant taunt to her, like he was waving it in her face how he was a 'pure' Time Lord, and she wasn't. How he was clever and she wasn't. How he saved planets and she couldn't even save one.
She'd never thought she had been fully Time Lord. Who knew what mixture ran through her veins, but to find out he saw it as a bad thing, like he was punishing her for it felt like her hearts were being ripped out.
"Danni?" Clara called over and she looked over at her blankly, "What do you think?"
"About what?" She asked.
Clara tried to not let her frustration get to her, "About the Doctor coming back." She replied shortly. She wasn't convinced and by the way Danni rocked her head back to stare out into the hallway, she knew the other Time Lord wasn't either.
"He's not coming back." She replied without any emotion in her voice, "And if he is, it'll only be right at the last moment, after the decision has been made. We're on our own and he doesn't care."
Clara nodded to herself, wondering just how awful Danni was feeling when she felt so incredibly betrayed as well. He was supposed to be her friend, and he'd saved the world on countless occasions before. But because he didn't want to make a bad decision he'd left them to do it on their own. Danni was right, he must just not care at all anymore. She had thought regeneration had just made him more cynical, but apparently it'd just made him cruel, "So, what do we do?" She asked Danni, "You must have some form of plan, right?"
Danni shook her head, "I don't." She admitted apologetically, "I don't know what to do. There's no right answer here."
"It's a baby." Clara argued.
"And it's the human race." Danni countered, "One way or another, the choice is going to wipe out an entire species. How do you decide that?" She looked away from her friend, "The fate of the humans versus the fate of a baby. The fate of the Time Lords versus the fate of the universe. That's what he's done. He's ran off because he'd rather I decided than him."
"Can anybody hear me? Come in, please." A voice from the console declared, calling out for someone to answer. As the rest of the group ran over to the voice of the human race down below, Danni sat on the floor, wrapping her arms around her legs, and crying softly as the world burnt because she was too useless to help.
~0~0~0~
Once again Clara had come up with a plan when the rest of them were unable to. The message from Earth had been on a television satellite, which meant that there was still a signal broadcasting to the planet. Her plan had been simple. The decision they would make would affect the human race directly no matter what the outcome, so let them decide. Lights on to save the baby, lights off to set off the bombs. The human race had consciences, they were good people.
Danni didn't have the hearts to tell her that she was doomed to fail. Clara stayed at the window, binoculars up and ready to watch the world prove her right, but the human race didn't work like that. While individuals may have protested the killing of a defenceless alien in the same way they protested the fur trade and similar things, as a group they were never going to say yes to the possibility of saving the baby over their planet.
Could Danni even blame them? There were mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles down there. People with friends and families and loved ones who would protect them at all costs. The Doctor had only assumed that it was unique in the universe, was wiping out one species for another worth it? And even if it was the only one, that meant that no one would miss it. The creature might be a killing machine.
Or it might just be a baby. Something to grow and show the universe its beauty. But no one life was worth another. None of this was nice.
She smiled softly at Courtney as she joined her on the ground, the pair looking over at Clara for a moment in silence, "Do you think they'll do it?" She asked the blonde, "Do you think they'll keep their lights on?"
Danni didn't say a word, just shook her head a couple of times before falling still. Courtney looked rather devastated at the movement, "How could they? It's just a baby."
"Because there's babies down there too." Danni replied, "Babies and old people and everyone in between. What would you choose? The baby or your parents?" It was a horrible question to throw at the girl, but Danni wanted her to understand. It was an impossible choice made very easy by your own selfishness. Danni would have let the Earth burn to save her husband. She took another look at the hallway she had been trying her hardest not to look at. There had been a time when she could have said the same for the Doctor, but not anymore.
She turned her attention back to Courtney, "You're a good person, Courtney," she told her truthfully, "unfortunately not everybody is. Not everyone looks at the Moon hatching and sees that it's wonderful. Most people look up and are just scared," she tried to give her another warm smile, "it's what makes you special, sweetie. I'm sorry that this was how you had to find that out."
"Why did he leave?" The teenager asked, "If-If he could help, then he should have stayed."
Danni nodded, "You are not wrong there." She murmured before sighing, "It's me." She replied, "He's punishing me for my humanity."
"What?" Courtney asked bluntly, rightfully confused by her words.
"I'm not just Time Lord," Danni explained, "it's only part of me. I'm also part human and… well, who knows what's in Jack." Courtney frowned but didn't interrupt, "He's run away because he's a Time Lord and doesn't want to interfere with the Earth. I'm not Time Lord enough, so I'm human and he decided to let me deal with it knowing that I'm not as smart or as resourceful as he is."
"That's not true." Courtney told her firmly, "I've seen how smart you are. You-You said there was something else going on underneath the surface, and there was!"
Danni let out the ghost of a laugh, "I don't have a plan." She declared apologetically, "I don't have an answer to the choice. I don't know which is the right or the wrong one, and I have no way of working it out either. I'm scared, and I'm out of options and when I needed his help he ran away. Because I'm 'only human'." She scoffed slightly, "'Only human'," she repeated again, "what a load of crap."
"Sorry, but that just seems cruel." Courtney commented and Danni nodded in agreement, "Who would do that to their wife?"
"Someone who doesn't want them to be their wife anymore." Danni replied softly, because it was her only reasoning. Why else wouldn't he help out the woman he loved unless he just didn't love her anymore? He'd told her how she and Clara had helped him see that pressing the button that ended the Time War wasn't the way to go, and if she could remember it she'd do it again, anything to give him the help he needed.
This regeneration had been hard on both of them, but even if she had failed at it, she'd tried to help him. She'd not wanted her marriage to die, she still loved him with both of her hearts and that's what hurt the most. When he'd handed her the atomiser back in the Bank of Karabraxos, she'd not blamed him one for the perceived outcome. When he apologised, she'd accepted and they'd tried again. He'd actually asked her for help, and she'd given it. But when it came to her needing the help, he'd turned his back on her.
It stung deeply that he didn't consider them equal. If he did then he would be here by her side. Even if he couldn't interfere, or help with the choice, he would have stayed to help her with it. To listen, to offer insight on anything she came up with the sort this whole horrid mess. To just hold her hand as they waited for their answer from Earth, because she was scared. To just experience it with her, to be with her as she had to suffer through it. He already did so much for the universe, she understood that the fate of the Earth might be too much for his shoulders. But he could have stayed for her.
~0~0~0~
Clara was getting worried. As the Earth slowly turned, more and more lights were already turning off. It seemed like asking the world for their help might not have been the best way to back up her argument either. She understood, she really did. The fact that the Moon was hatching into some sort of… dragon creature thing wasn't exactly filling her with a lot of confidence. But it was precious, and new and on its own and she still didn't believe that killing it was the answer. They were all scared, but there still was no evidence that they had to be. The Earth could survive not having a moon, but it looked like the Moon couldn't survive them.
She turned to look at Danni. Courtney had been anxiously moving between the two, Danni calming her down enough for her obsessive worrying to work her back up again. Currently the teenager was with her looking out the window as the countdown came dangerously close to being over. Clara held the binoculars out to Courtney, "Mind them for a moment." She instructed before walking over to the blonde.
She hadn't moved since she'd sat down, staring out into nothingness in the times she wasn't speaking to Courtney. She looked so small, so sad and Clara's heart broke for her, but they didn't have time for their moping. She crouched down in front of her friend, "The lights are going out." She explained, "They're going to want to kill it. What do we do?"
And Danni met her gaze with red eyes, looking so tired, "I guess, if that's what they want…" She stated slowly, not sounding particularly happy but also resigned to the decision.
"You can't mean that." Clara replied with a shake of her head, "I don't believe you mean that." Danni shrugged and Clara closed her eyes, taking a deep breath through her nose to calm herself down, "Look," she started, opening her eyes again, "I know that the Doctor leaving has knocked your confidence somewhat, but you need to help me."
Danni's eyes flashed slightly, "Knocked my confidence?!" She snapped back, "Clara, I'm useless without him!"
"That's not true." Clara replied and Danni nodded.
"Yes it is! I have no TARDIS," she waved at the hallway where the blue box should have been parked, "no sonic screwdriver! Since I was twenty-two, for almost six hundred years every decision I have made has involved the Doctor! I can't do this on my own! I don't know how."
"I know you can do this." Clara promised with as much conviction in her voice as she could muster to prove it to her, "The Doctor might not be here, but you're better than you think you are. You spent five hundred years helping defend a whole planet, you can't say that was all the Doctor."
"No, but it wasn't on my own either," Danni retorted, "he didn't just leave me with nothing even when he wasn't there." She motioned to the window Courtney was looking out of, "He didn't just damn me then leave! What I am supposed to do, Clara? How can I possibly fix this?"
"No one is asking you to fix this." Clara replied softly, moving so she was sat next to her, "I can't do it on my own any more than you can. But I need you on side, Danni. Just like you think you need the Doctor here to show you how you can do this, I need you to help me as well."
Danni rocked her head, looking at Clara, "I think you can do anything." Danni promised, "And I'm always on your side, Clara. No matter what."
"Then what do we do?" Clara asked her. Danni paused, trying to get her thoughts back into some form of coherency. Clara was right, and she couldn't leave her alone with this. She couldn't let Clara feel anything like she was now, she didn't deserve it. But she still didn't know the answer.
"What do you think we should do?" Danni asked in return, "Do you think we should blow up the Moon?" Clara quickly shook her head.
"No." She replied softly, "But what if I'm wrong? What if…"
Danni shook her head, "No," she stated firmly, "no 'what if's. If you think that the bombs shouldn't go off, then you should fight for it. If you truly believe that is the right thing, then fight for it."
"What do you think?" Clara asked and Danni shrugged.
"I don't think there is a right answer." She explained, "I think all of them are wrong." Oh, that wasn't very encouraging, "But, if you think that's the right answer, let's go with that because it's all we've got."
"Oh, thanks." Clara murmured and Danni actually let out a small giggle.
"What am I going to do, Clara?" She asked her friend, "How can I forgive him for this? He tried to put the world on my shoulders and pissed off."
Clara didn't have an answer for her. She wasn't sure she could forgive him for this either. It went against everything he'd ever done before, all to make a show of the fact that he wasn't one of them. That they had to do it on their own, because suddenly the stakes were too high.
"Night, night." They both looked up at Courtney, who had lowered the binoculars. Clara shook her head, scrambling up onto her feet and rushing over. But, to her absolute devastation, the whole world was in darkness. They'd all turned their lights off. Humanity had spoken.
"Oh, Doctor, where have you gone?" She whispered, her voice desperate but her blood boiling in anger. This was his fault. He should have helped.
"The Earth has spoken." Danni declared, standing up as well and walking over to the detonator where Lundvik was already waiting. She remembered, long ago, fearing that she was going to die with the Doctor hating her for not warning him about the Ponds. How it had tainted their last moments together. It had been the worst thing she had ever feared at the time, but knowing she was about to die with him just not caring felt an awful lot worse. Hatred and love were always a different side of the same coin. It was an emotion, something he had felt for her. Now she knew the truth. She'd been fighting for a marriage that had already died. She was nothing to him, and this was his grand way of showing her that he just didn't care.
Clara stared out of the window a moment longer before nodding, "Okay." She agreed, heading over to the table as well. This was wrong, it was all shades of wrong. But, they had asked and the world had unanimously agreed and now they had to blow up the baby in the Moon.
"Miss?" Courtney exclaimed, horrified.
"Nine seconds." Lundvik read off the display on the detonator. Clara reached out for Danni's hand and the part Time Lord took it. At least, if they were going to die, Clara was going to die with her friend. Her best friend. Somehow having Danni by her side had made this all just a little less frightening, helped ground her instead of letting herself panic. The only other person she could have wanted more was her other Danny.
"You can't!" Courtney protested in tears and Clara agreed with her completely. This wasn't right, and the way that Danni held onto her tightly just clinched it. If this was the right thing to do, then Danni wouldn't be so scared. Her natural intuition was better than anyone Clara knew. Even though she had insisted that she didn't know the right answer to their horrible choice, the fact that she knew this one was so wrong just said that blowing up the baby wasn't right.
"Sorry, girls." Lundvik said, sounding incredibly sorry even though she wasn't going to falter in her decision, "See you on the other side. Two…"
If you truly believe that is the right thing, then fight for it.
Danni was right. She couldn't just let this happen. She knew it was wrong, she had to stop it!
Danni's hand twitched, every part of her crying out to stop the countdown, but she didn't need to. Both Courtney and Clara jumped forward, Clara reaching the detonator first and turning off the bombs.
"Hey!" Lundvik cried as Danni let out a sob, her hands raising to her mouth. She hadn't gone to stop it. She had stood back and accepted that they were going to kill a new-born creature just because she couldn't make the choice. If Clara hadn't stepped in, if she hadn't been better than Danni could have hoped to be…
A sound Danni and Clara knew all too well filled the little room they were stood in. It was a quick whoosh of air, but then the Doctor peeked his head out of the TARDIS like he'd planned this all along. He pointed at each of them, Danni last, as the lights flickered, "One, two, three, four, into the TARDIS."
"What's happening?" Lundvik asked.
"Let's go and have a look, shall we?" The Doctor replied temptingly. Danni placed a hand on Courtney's back, gently nudging her into the TARDIS after the two women closest to the door. As the Doctor and Lundvik argued over what was happening, Danni took a moment to look around the room. The TARDIS was her home, and yet now she stepped into her, she couldn't feel it. Everything felt like it belonged to him, not to them. This decision was his, it hadn't been theirs. How had she not seen it before? Six hundred years old, and she still thought like she was twenty-two. She didn't have a family, she didn't have a home, and she certainly didn't have a husband.
They all rushed out onto the beach the Doctor had landed them on just in time to see the creature break out of its shell. It spread its wings as a screech from it echoed through the air.
"What's it doing?" Courtney asked as the dragon-like creature seemed to unfurl, flying off in the air.
"It's feeling the sun on itself. It's getting warm. The chick flies away and the eggshell disintegrates." The Doctor explained, "Harmless."
"Did you know?" Clara asked the one question Danni wanted to ask. The blonde took a few more steps towards the ocean and away from the group, away from him. Everything was going to be fine, and maybe he truly hadn't known. Or, maybe, he had and this was all some cruel stunt on his part. She wasn't sure anymore. She just stared blankly out. She couldn't even find it in herself to be happy at the outcome.
"So what happens now, then? Tell me what happens now." Lundvik demanded. The Doctor turned on the spot, back towards them as he turned to look at his wife. She was staring out and he couldn't have felt more proud of her. He knew she could do it, that she could show these little humans the right way and he hadn't been wrong. Even now she could only focus on the creature in the sky. Now she could see herself like he saw her.
He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, before they shot open again and he had the answer they were all looking for, "In the mid-twenty first century humankind starts creeping off into the stars, spreads its way through the galaxy to the very edges of the universe. And it endures till the end of time." He explained, striding towards his wife, his Danielle, "And it does all that because one day in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that make it look up, not down. It looked out there into the blackness and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful, that for once it didn't want to destroy. And in that one moment, the whole course of history was changed."
He wrapped his arms around her from behind, dipping his head down to her ear, "I knew you could do it." He told her, but frowned slightly as she didn't fall into his embrace like she normally would. She just stood rigid, hands clenched as she stared at everything but the man who was holding her.
"I didn't do anything." She replied softly, without emotion, "I didn't press the button."
"Oh, my gosh. It laid a new egg." Courtney breathed and they all looked up to see a new Moon in the sky, "It's beautiful. Doctor, it's beautiful." And Danni really wished she could agree with her. She'd been all over time and space, seen things that were extraordinary and things people would yawn at and everything had always seemed so wondrous to her eyes. The Doctor had always teased her about how she was in awe of everything new she came across, and she'd always felt a bit embarrassed by it but it had never stopped her. But, looking up at the new moon that sat in the place of the old, it didn't look beautiful. It looked dark, and taunting, and she turned away, breaking out his arms and leaving him bewildered as she headed straight back to the TARDIS without a word.
~0~0~0~
Clara made sure to drop Courtney off before confronting the Doctor about what he had done to them all. Fortunately, the teenager seemed to have gotten from the trip exactly what the Doctor intended, she now felt special, but it was very clear that the two women left in the TARDIS were feeling anything but. Danni had walked in and sat on the stairs, and that was where she remained as the Doctor attempted to fly them away from Coal Hill school, probably onto another adventure he deemed them now worthy of going on.
But Clara wasn't having any of it. All her fear, and worry, and self-doubt had quickly joined together on the beach in 2049 and the rage it had formed was just bubbling away, waiting for her to let it loose on him. She flipped another switch and they remained exactly where they were.
He kept glancing over at Danni, who was obviously and understandably quite shaken at the entire affair. It was just another thing that Clara didn't understand. It was one thing to be so unbelievably awful to her and Courtney and Lundvik, but to Danni? When not a couple of months ago he came begging for her help to fix his marriage. Without Danni there, giving her strength and encouragement with her words alone, then Clara still wasn't convinced that she would have pressed the button and stopped the bombs. But the Doctor part of her that still sat in her brain, the part of Eleven that was never going away wanted to tear his new counterpart into shreds.
"Tell me what you knew." She demanded in a calm but firm voice, giving him a chance to explain himself. Instead he just turned his gaze from his wife, wondering if he should just ask what was wrong, and shot her an almost disinterested look.
"Nothing." He replied with a shrug, "I told you, I've got grey areas."
"Yeah. I noticed." She replied, face straight as she fought to keep herself under control, "Tell me what you knew, Doctor, or else I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate."
The Doctor didn't understand. It wasn't an easy choice, that was for certain, but he had faith in both of them, especially Danielle. He couldn't have helped with the choice and if he had stayed he knew he would have interfered when he should have stayed far away. They'd both been off with him since he picked them up again. At first he had thought it was just stress, but then Danielle hadn't hugged him and Clara hadn't spoken to him and he realised that maybe they were both angry at him. But he didn't understand why. They'd done the right thing; they'd saved the Earth. They both should have been happy, what had gone wrong? Had he missed something?
"I knew that eggs are not bombs." He offered Clara as he walked around the console towards Danielle, "I know they don't usually destroy their nests. Essentially, what I knew was that you would always make the best choice." He sat down on the stair just below his wife, where her feet were resting, but she didn't flinch. She didn't look at him and she didn't look at Clara, but he made sure to address her with his next words, "I had faith that you would always make the right choice."
Clara couldn't believe what she was hearing. That one piece of advice, that one line of words from him could have helped sway their entire decision. It wasn't him trying to keep neutral, it was him just keeping information from them. And what was worse was that Danni had said something similar, about parasites and hosts and Clara hasn't listened. But at least Danni had tried to help, he had just run away like the coward he was, "Honestly, do you have music playing in your head when you say rubbish like that?"
"It wasn't my decision to make." He replied, holding his hands up to absolve himself of all guilt, "I told you."
"Well, why did you do it?" Clara challenged, "Was it for Courtney, was that it? Or-Or for Danni, because look at her! Do you really think it helped?!"
The Doctor looked up at his wife, who again didn't even seem to be listening to the conversation and he could tell that the experience had hurt her, "She was the best person for the job…"
"No she wasn't!" Clara snapped back, "And do you know why? Because her husband broke her heart then left her to it! If she hadn't been there everything would have gone very differently but she was not in the right state of mind to be doing anything."
"I didn't just leave her to it." He protested, "She is much cleverer than you are giving her…"
"Do you know what? Shut up! I am so sick of listening to you!" Clara shouted, her voice catching at the end as her tears started running down her face. The Doctor actually started at the sight of her crying, the feeling of guilt only increasing. He had obviously upset them both, and while Danielle was always his first concern, he knew that calming Clara down would help her as well. He stood up, placing a hand on Danielle's shoulder and giving her a quick reassuring squeeze as he headed back over to Clara.
"I didn't know what was going to happen." He reiterated, but she just stared back at him, "Do you think I'm lying?"
"I don't know." She replied, taking a shaky breath as she tried and failed to calm down, "I don't know. Do you know what? It was, it was cheap, it was pathetic." She explained before pointing at him, her eyes narrowing in her anger, "No, no, no. It was patronising. That was you patting us on the back, your wife and your friend, and saying, you're big enough to go to the shops by yourself now. Go on, toddle along!"
"No, that was me allowing you to make a choice about your own future. That was me respecting you." The Doctor explained, because that was what he had been trying to do. He'd been showing them all, showing Danielle, that they could do it without him. Everyone felt like they were so reliant on him and his word, even Courtney had been deeply affected and they'd barely spend half an hour together, he needed them to see that it was his privilege being there, not theirs.
"Oh, my God, really? Was it?" Clara snapped back, "Yeah, well, respected is not how I feel. Respected is not how we feel!"
She could barely breathe, the tears feeling hot as they trailed down her face as she glanced over to Danni. She wasn't saying a word, she wasn't crying or screaming or reacting to anything and Clara wished she could hold it back like she could. She'd allowed herself to open up to her new husband, to finally allow herself to be vulnerable and caring with the man who had insulted and belittled her from the moment he arrived only for him to turn and leave her all alone to make an impossible choice that he knew the answer to.
Clara couldn't blame her for one moment from wanting to hide from it, she felt the same betrayal and seeing her friend suffer from it was the only reason she was ranting and raving now, letting him know how she felt rather than just leaving the TARDIS and not looking back.
"Right." The Doctor stated, "OK, er..." He turned to the console, obviously having no idea how to handle an emotional companion, and while in the past she'd felt amused when Danni had been forced to do the emotional side, now it just enraged her more. After all this time, after all she had done for them both, he should know her better than that!
"I nearly didn't press that button." She explained, "There was no way that Danni could have done it and I nearly got it wrong. That was you," She swallowed down the lump that came to her throat, "my friend, making me scared, making me feel like a bloody idiot..."
"Language." He scolded quietly, pointing at her and her fingers clenched.
"Oh, don't you ever tell me to mind my language, don't you ever tell me to take the stabilisers off my bike!" Clara raged back, "I am your friend, Doctor and she is your wife! Don't you dare lump us in with the rest of all the little humans that you think are so tiny and silly and predictable!" She stormed towards him, eyes blazing, "You walk our Earth, Doctor, you breathe our air, you make us your friends, and that is your moon too," She told him lowly, "and you can damn well help us when we need it!"
"I was helping..." He insisted.
"What, by clearing off?" She snapped back.
"Yes!"
"Yeah, well, clear off!" She screamed, stunning both of them for a moment but she felt power behind the words, her resolve hardening, "Go on." She added, "You can clear off. Get back in your lonely..." She motioned to the console, "Your lonely bloody TARDIS with the woman you do not deserve and you only come back when she decides she doesn't love you anymore." And with that she stormed towards the door. Her words looped around and around in his head as he processed them. Clara didn't know what she was tempting with them, and memories of River taunting him with mentions of this body before he knew it was possible it could exist. 'When the clock strikes twelve'…
"Clara..." He turned to look at her as she stopped in the doorway, "Clara!" He replied, and if he'd been anyone else she'd have thought he was begging her. She turned and looked him up and down, wondering how a man could change so completely.
"You go away." She whispered, "OK? You go a long way away." And with that she opened the door and left. The Doctor watched her, still trying to understand where he'd gone wrong.
"Well, that seemed a bit of an overreaction." He declared, trying to make light of a situation he really didn't understand and turned to look at Danni. She hadn't moved, but at his comment she looked up, her clasped between her knees.
Despite what they both thought, she had been listening during their argument. She'd heard Clara defend her, and the Doctor make up excuses but never once admitting that he'd done wrong. That he knew that leaving them on their own, even if he couldn't have helped, had not only been the wrong move, it had been downright horrid on his part. Clara wasn't wrong, she had been useless, but he just couldn't see it.
"No." She declared firmly, staring at him with a cold look he didn't like sitting on her features, "No, you do not insult her. You do not get to do that."
"I'm sorry?" He asked, surprised and she nodded.
"Yes, you should be." She snapped in reply, "I'd understand if you genuinely felt remorse, but you don't, do you? You're just confused as to why we don't think like you!" She stood up like she was going to storm over towards him, but she just shook on the spot, "Tell me right now why I shouldn't follow her right now. One reason, because you're coming up pretty short now, Doctor."
Her words panicked him, his hearts racing as it finally dawned on him that she looked so angry, but he couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel a single thing coming from her, because she had cut him off. She was so mad that she'd blocked herself up and away from him, and she'd never done that before. Out of grief, yes, but never out of anger, "Danielle, I knew you could do it." He promised, taking a few steps towards her, "I just wanted you to see how special you are."
"I didn't do anything!" She shouted back, this time actually storming down the stairs onto the console floor, "Do you know what I did while you were hiding? For those forty-five minutes you decided weren't worth your time?" He opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off with a single glare, "I sat on the floor and I cried." She told him, "I cried, and I was selfish and I didn't help. I felt tiny! I wasn't a help; I wasn't even a waste of space! I was a hindrance and despite what Clara says, she would have done just fine on her own and you did that! You abandoned me just to prove that I was useless."
"I didn't abandon you." He replied, "I didn't know what was going to happen, I couldn't interfere with your problem!" His wording had been terrible and he seemed to realise it when she straightened up, eyes flashing, "Danielle…"
"Well the problems you have had since regenerating have been your problems!" She shouted, interrupting him before he could explain himself, "But I've tried my bloody hardest to help! Okay, I may have not been the best at it, I think I've done a bloody good job at helping you! I've not been okay with all of it! I've been hurt by the things you've said, sore," she said it pointedly and he actually looking alarmed, "trying to make you feel loved! I think I've been supportive, and even if I've not at least I've bloody tried! But the moment it's my side, I have to deal with it myself!"
"You had Clara." He replied, "And Courtney and Lundvik! You were never on your own!"
"I was useless!" She screamed, "Because of you, because you abandoned me again! I left Clara to make that decision on her own because..." She swallowed, tears of anger spilling over from her shining eyes, "because I was surprised." She surmised, wounded, "After all this time I'm still surprised when you turn on me."
"I haven't turned on you." He promised, reaching out to her but she took a step back, away from his touch, "I just wanted you to see you how I see you."
"Well, don't worry, I do." She snarled, "I'm just a tiny, pathetic, useless little human, aren't I? Only Time Lord until it's more convenient. You don't see me as an equal, and you haven't since the moment you regenerated!" She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down even as the panic of her next words threatened to consume her, "So, tell me again why I should stay." She challenged, "Tell me why I should stay with a husband who thinks that I am less just because of who I am."
"I don't think you're less, you have always been so much more than I could hope to be." He quickly corrected, "It's why I love you."
Danni shook her head, "You do not love me." She bit out, "People who love each other do not just abandon them. They don't jump in their blue boxes and run away. The man I love would never have done that to me. But you don't. You think you do, but let me tell you something Doctor; you do not love me."
"Of course I love you." He protested, but he could see on her face that she didn't believe him, and he could feel his own hearts racing as he realised just how serious she was. They'd been getting back on the right track, their marriage and their relationship at its strongest since Trenzalore and he could see it crumbling in front of his eyes. He needed to fix this, and fast, "Okay, okay, maybe I shouldn't have left you." He agreed, because that was now screamingly obvious that he'd judged it wrong, "But I couldn't have helped. You needed to make a choice!"
"Oh, I did, did I?" She shouted back. She grabbed her finger, struggling slightly but yanking off her wedding ring. She hadn't removed it since they had gotten married, but now the metal burnt her skin and she wanted it gone, "Well, here's my choice!" She turned, facing the hallway of the TARDIS and chucking her ring as far as she could, "For too long I've chosen you!" She screamed, "I'm not doing this anymore!" She stormed towards the door, her hearts screaming at her to stop, but her faith in this choice never wavering. She'd tried to find Eleven within him, then she'd tried to find Twelve to stand on his own. And she found him, but she wasn't a part of him anymore, and she couldn't stick around to be torn to pieces.
"Danni!" He cried, running after her and grabbing her arm in panic, "Wait!" She spun on the spot, glaring at him even as he looked at her with wide, devastated eyes, "Please, I'm sorry. Don't leave, I'll make this right." She looked down at his hand on her arm, then she yanked it away, "Please, I'm sorry, don't leave me."
"I'm not leaving her on her own again." Danni told him firmly, "I've made my choice, and it's Clara." She shook her head, "Just leave us alone." Head held high, she walked out of the TARDIS, and just like that her marriage was over.
She paused outside the door to the room, leaning on the doorframe as she waited. As the sound of the TARDIS flying away reached her eyes she starting crying. This was for the best. She knew it was. He'd abandoned her one too many times, he'd shown again and again that he didn't respect her, didn't see her as an equal. In her long life the one thing she had learnt was that equality was necessary in every relationship. You didn't have to act the same, dominance or leadership wasn't a sign of inequality, but the actions towards one another were. And he'd left her to decide the fate of the Earth because he thought himself above it, above her.
And yet part of her had been hoping that he'd run out after her. That he'd beg her, plead with her, show her that some part of him wanted to keep her by his side. But he flew off, into time and space with her home, and all her things, leaving her hearts in shattered in his wake.
She pushed off the doorframe and slowly walked through the school hallway, smiling softly at the students who greeted her, telling them teasingly that they should have been in class by that point. She glanced into doorways until, finally, she found Clara with her Danny.
"What is that face for, why don't you believe me?" The companion asked of her boyfriend.
"Because you're still angry. You can never finish with anyone while they can still make you angry." Danny replied and Danni smiled, wrapping her arms around herself. Mr Pink, Clara really liked him and she could see why, "Tell him when you're calm. And then tell me."
"When did you get to become so wise?" Clara asked him and Danni stepped into the doorway, watching them hugging and the tears came back to her eyes. Regret swept across her at the sight of the two hugging. What she wouldn't give for a hug off her Doctor right now, but it would only be a patch. A plaster over the many cracks and it wouldn't have saved them.
"Same way as anyone else..." Danny replied solemnly, "I had a really bad day." Danni let them have their moment for as long as she could. She watched them hold each other until her hearts couldn't take the pain anymore. She raised her hand and knocked on the door, startling them both out of their embrace.
"Clara?" She called, voice cracking and Clara immediately let go of her boyfriend, startled by the sight of the blonde.
"Danni?" She asked, leaving Mr Pink to wonder yet again why she was always so focussed on the other woman. She walked over, seeing the tears on her cheeks and the devastation in her eyes, "Did the Doctor send you? Is he coming back?" Danni shook her head.
"No." She whispered, "No, I've, um, I've left him." Clara's eyes widened, stunned by the words that came from her mouth, "I-I chucked my ring at him, and I left him. I told him to never come back."
"You've left him?" She repeated and Danni nodded.
"I was wondering if I could stay with you for a bit?" She asked, her voice small as the sobs started up again, "Just until I get hold of Jack, I promise." Clara shook her head, pulling her in for a hug.
"You can stay for as long as you like." She reassured, "I'm not letting you go anywhere until I know you're okay." Danny watched as Clara placed a kiss on the sobbing woman's temple before leaning her own head against it, closing her eyes. There was something going on there, he knew it, "You're going to be okay, I promise."
"But will he?" Danni whispered in reply.