Chapter Text
Everything was a bit of a rush, but that was to be expected when you were being chased by a former, long-dead governess who was made completely out of ice. Who was also trying to kill them, or at least seriously injure them. She’d found herself on the wrong side of the strange magical barrier (or perhaps the right side, depending on one’s perspective), much to the Doctor’s consternation. She’d been chased by said governess up the stairs, and had been pulled through a tight window that didn't accommodate for her dress sense. She’d fallen on top of the Doctor, leading to an extremely awkward interaction, and now was hurtling up a staircase that didn't make sense. This coming after passing what seemed like a test, finding the appropriate ladder with a handily available umbrella.
As mentioned, it was a rush.
“So you can move your cloud? You can control it?”
It probably wasn’t the most pertinent of questions for Clara to be asking, but it was one that suddenly found itself bouncing around her brain. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism to deal with the madness of her present events, focusing on something so mundane that it made everything else seem normal. Then again, holding the hand of a man who could control clouds wasn’t remotely typical, so where could she possibly draw the line? All she wanted to do was look out towards the snowy skyline, admiring how gorgeous it was from above, before realising how terrifying the white scenery actually was.
“No!” the Doctor responded, clumsily climbing down a few steps to answer her queries. “No one can control clouds. That would be silly! The wind…a little bit.” He was doing that thing with his hands where he couldn’t keep them still, the thing that she was finding quite charming.
There was a disgruntled roar from down below and Clara worriedly looked over the edge, making sure to grip the impossible steel bar. “She’s following us!”
“That’s the idea.” Was there a reason why he sounded so excited about that? He was moving again, almost too fast a pace for her to keep up with. “Keep her away from the snow!” He was practically taking two steps at a time in his haste, and yet made sure to check that she was still there. “So…barmaid or governess? Which is it?”
“That thing is after us and you want to chat?”
“You were just asking about the clouds!”
“That was before I knew that you were wanting her to pursue us!”
The Doctor came to a stop, turning to face her impatiently. “Well, the way I see it…we can’t chat after we’ve been horribly killed, can we?” And then he was moving again, as if his body couldn’t make up its mind.
Clara was only too willing to follow the madman instead of being claimed by the monster. “How did we get up so high so quick?”
“Clever staircase. It’s taller on the inside.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Does any of this?”
“Not really…such as…” She looked at the mist now surrounding them, thick and swirling as they finally left the spiralling steps. “What are we standing on? What’s this made of?”
He had a strange device in his hand that she’d seen a few times, the one that made a horrendous sound and glowed like nothing she’d seen before. He was pointing it at the ground for some reason. She couldn’t start to ponder what use it was going to do. Though it had originally shattered the governess into a thousand tiny shards of ice, so it could have some sort of effect. Clara just hoped that he didn't inadvertently shatter the cloud currently supporting them, because it was one mighty drop that would be greeting them, and she didn't want her evening to end that way.
“Incredibly dense water vapour,” he explained. “Should keep her trapped for the moment.”
Clara spied the strange blue, wooden box that she’d knocked on not too long ago. It was dirty and unkempt, and yet thrummed with the sort of life and possibility that she couldn’t explain. It was straight out of a fairytale, the way she saw it. How had she found herself in the pages of one of those books? What had she done to be so lucky?
“So you actually live on a cloud in a box?” she wondered, dancing through the smoke.
“I have done for a long time now.”
“Blimey, you really know how to sulk, don’t ya?”
“I’m not sulking!”
“You live in a box!”
“That’s no more a box than you are a governess.”
She scowled at his words, watching him walk towards the two front doors. “Oh, spoken like a man!” She pointed a finger at him accusingly, though he couldn’t see. “You know, you’re the same as all the rest. Sweet, little Clara, works in the Rose and Crown .” She barely acknowledged him opening the doors, idly following in his footsteps. “ Ideas above her station. Well, for your information, I’m not sweet on the inside and I’m certainly not…”
He flicked a switch dramatically and the lights turned on, dazzling her momentarily. The interior was larger than she could fathom, mostly silver, a design plan that would have made most people across society gape and exclaim in incredulity. There was some contraption in the centre, the likes of which even the most fabled fiction writers would fail to come up with. All Clara could do was stand completely still, trying to comprehend what she was seeing, whilst doing her best to ignore the cocky smirk he was wearing at finally getting one over her.
“...little,” she finished meekly.
The Doctor held out his arms wide. “It’s called the Tardis. It can travel anywhere in time and space…and it’s mine .”
“But it’s…it’s…” She could feel her chest heaving, despite the amazed grin that wanted to appear on her face. “Look at it…it’s..”
“Go on, say it. Most people do.”
She heard him chuckle softly as she raced outside the box once more, but she didn't care about that. She was too focused on how absurd the contraption was, running around the incomprehensibly small perimeter, dragging her hands across the wooden panels that definitely felt like wood but couldn’t possibly be wood. Clara felt her skirt billowing as she completed the lap in next to no time, charging back in front of the Doctor, skidding to a halt.
“It’s smaller on the outside,” she said breathlessly.
He raised his eyebrows. “Okay…” He almost looked disappointed. “That is a first.”
Worried that something may go wrong, she slowly edged around the console. “Is it magic?” That seemed like the only explanation. “Is it a machine?”
“It’s a ship.”
She laughed. “A ship?” It looked nothing like one of those. She chose to jog up the steps, trying to decipher what lay beyond, currently out of sight.
“The best ship in the universe!”
Clara, moving from spot to spot so quickly that her mind could barely keep up, was by his side once more. “Is there a kitchen?”
The Doctor had been typing something into his machine, but he froze at the question. “Another first.”
She was staring at the screen, which was displaying an image that was somehow moving, a collection of colours and shapes that were dancing for her own entertainment. She was utterly enthralled by the spectacle, when he was giving it no second thoughts. She wondered how long it would take before she ever took this thing for granted.
“I…don’t know why I asked that,” Clara said quietly, feeling rather embarrassed about the strange outburst. “It’s just…I like making souffles.”
Not for the first time, the Doctor paused, though she was too busy running back towards the door to notice. “Souffles?”
She ignored the question, thinking it was irrelevant compared to what was going on. She spun to face him, still clutching the umbrella. “Why are you showing me all this?”
“You followed me, remember. I didn't invite you.”
“You’re nearly a foot taller than I am.” She observed his hesitation, knowing she was on the right lines. She brandished the umbrella to make her point. “You could have reached that ladder without this. You took it…for me.” She threw it through the air and he deftly caught it without flinching. “Why?”
The Doctor, a soft smile on his face, walked hesitantly towards her, reaching into his right trouser pocket. “I never know why. I only know who .”
He held a silver key in front of her face as if it were the most important object in the world. Clara stared at it for a few moments, before her gaze flickered back to his. Gently, he raised her arm so that he could place the key flat on her palm, folding her fingers over it to keep it safe. Despite the coolness of the metal, it came with a strange sense of warmth that didn't make sense, but that was perfectly acceptable in the fairytale she’d entered.
“What’s this?” She could feel her eyes starting to water and she didn't know where to look.
“Me…giving in.”
Her eyes darted rapidly, fixing on his sincere gaze, dropping to their hands clasped together, noticing the absurd tie that he thought was cool. She gave off a short, nervous laugh. “I don’t know why I’m crying…”
“I do. Remember this. Remember this, right now, all of it. Because this is the day. This is the day…” His voice grew louder as he danced around the console. “This is the day everything begins!”
She was smiling, until she felt a pair of icy hands wrap around her torso. In her shock, her arms were thrown up into the air and the key clattered to the floor. She was being dragged out from the Tardis by her frozen predecessor and she yelled out for help, yelled out for the only man she felt could help.
“Clara!” the Doctor shouted. “Clara!”
She was back onto the strange cloud, though she could no longer marvel at its impossible presence. “Get off of me!”
“Water vapour doesn’t stop ice, I should’ve realised,” the Doctor berated himself as he followed them outside cautiously, holding out his hands in what he hoped was a peaceful manner.
“Get off!” Clara couldn’t fight against her surprisingly strong grip, quickly being pulled towards the edge of the cloud.
“Let her go. Let her go now!”
“Get off! Please get off!”
“Clara! No, Clara!”
They shared one final look. In that split second, knowing what was going to happen next, she tried to take it all in for one last time. The cloud that could move wherever it wanted. The mind-boggling blue box that defied proper description. The handsome man who had bumped into her on the street, with his old, sad eyes that were now frightened, after briefly showing their underlying warmth just moments before. She heard him yell out desperately, reaching out towards her in one final attempt to save her. But it was too late.
She was falling. She was heading towards the skyline she had been admiring a short while ago, in an ironic twist of fate. She was scared. Scared of the creature tumbling beside her. Scared of what would happen when she invariably met the ground. Scared of how the children would react to such devastation on the brink of Christmas day. All Clara could do was console herself with the fact that she had been able to experience the magical dream, the excitement and wonder almost making this worth it. Who knew…perhaps she would wake up soon and find herself calmly in bed, having concocted the entire story in her head.
She heard a groaning and wheezing sound but thought that was just the noise of the wind rushing around her head and filling her ear drums. She paid it no notice, closing her eyes as the breeze picked up, before she was surrounded by something else. She was still falling and she still kept her eyes clamped firmly shut, but it felt different somehow. She’d been falling for so long that she started to believe that it would never end. And then Clara felt a sharp pain in her back and what seemed like a splashing sound. She couldn’t process what that meant as everything went black.
**********
When she woke up again, she was somehow back inside the house, laying stiffly on the sofa. Strax was looming over her, flashing a device in her face and the red light made her wince in discomfort. Clara attempted to crane her neck to look around, to see what was going, but discovered that the small action brought with it an abundance of sharp pain. Why was her hair damp? Why was she no longer in her previous outfit, instead clad in the red dress that she normally sported in her other life? What would Captain Montague think? Although she distinctly remembered that her lies had unravelled quite spectacularly thanks to the Doctor.
The Doctor.
The thought of him made her want to sit up, but the strange creature caring for her kept her back pressed against the lounger with one of his grotesque hands. She wanted to fight against him but, just like the governess, his strength was unlike anything else she’d experienced. She froze (she was well aware of the irony), immediately frightened to turn around and find the icy monster still with her, still holding onto her, still pulling her into the abyss.
Someone must have picked up on her distress because they were soon holding her hand, rubbing a thumb over her knuckles to soothe her. Clara looked up, deciding once and for all that she must have been dreaming because the Doctor was looking down at her, his eyes gleaming, a contented smile lighting up his face as he watched her slowly wake up.
“Hi there,” he murmured. “We’ve all been very worried about you.”
She could sense everyone else in the room and yet all she focused on was the man leaning over her. Strax had chosen to move away when his superior had arrived. It was just the two of them, in their little bubble, smiling away simply because they could.
“What…happened?” Clara asked.
“The governess tried to take you away from me, but I wasn’t going to let that happen.” The Doctor’s expression turned grim. “You were falling. Thankfully, I’m a brilliant pilot and was able to input emergency protocols into the Tardis. We caught you. Programmed all the doors towards the swimming pool to open so that you’d have a cushioned landing. The shock of it caused you to lose consciousness but, other than a few aches and pains, you’re going to be alright, Clara. Perfect, in fact.”
“A swimming pool?” Her voice was soft, talking almost taking too much effort.
“It was either that or a trampoline. I didn't have a lot of time to decide.”
“You have a swimming pool in your ship?”
“That, and so much more. There’s so much more for you to discover.” He was giddy, exactly like a toddler on Christmas morning. She idly pondered what he must have asked for as a gift.
“You saved me.”
“Of course I did. The Tardis isn’t used to such short jumps and I’m fairly certain that we technically bent quite a few of the laws of Time to ensure we got to you so promptly, which means she’s going to be out of action for a short while. Just a couple of days whilst she recovers. As you noticed, I haven’t taken her for a spin in a long time so it must have been a rather rude awakening. I think she’s cross with me.”
“But…why? Why go to all that effort just to save me?”
He was holding her hand and she felt something familiar slip in between her fingers. “I don’t know why. I just know who.”
Clara grinned as she spotted the same key she’d carelessly dropped, and she held it tighter than ever before. Something was still bothering her though. Something important. Something she wouldn’t have overlooked if she wasn’t still recovering from the shock of her fall. She groaned, wanting to sit up and the Doctor was more obliging to help her than Strax, who grimaced from his spot in the corner at the motion of her inessential movement. She spotted the captain clutching his children, whose cheeks were stained with tears, though they were now wearing matching grins. Vastra and Jenny were happy to stay to one side, mainly because the maid kept looking at them cautiously.
Clara’s eyes went wide. “What about the Snowmen? Mr Simeon?”
The Doctor waved a hand dismissively. “All accounted for.”
“How?” she asked curiously, her accent becoming more pronounced.
“Does it matter?”
“I’m giving you the opportunity to show off just how smart you are, which is something that a man with your ego never overlooks.”
He smirked at her comment, straightening his bowtie. “If you must know…the governess was also caught by the Tardis, but I made sure that she shattered upon impact. Once I collected all of her remaining shards, I threw them into the time vortex.”
“The
what
?”
“Basically the realm that my ship flies through. It was powerful enough to completely eradicate her, ripping apart her atoms until there was nothing left. Once the Great Intelligence sensed that she’d disappeared with no chance of coming back, it left Doctor Simeon. It was one failure too many, I suppose. He’s been left as a bumbling wreck, a grown man with a child’s mind. It seems that he’d been under the Intelligence’s influence for decades. No wonder he was so cruel.”
“That poor bloke.”
The Doctor’s eyebrows knitted together. “He was nearly responsible for your death.”
“You just implied that it wasn’t his fault. If he was a kid when something happened to him, that shouldn’t be held against him. He won’t cause any harm now, that’s all I can judge him on.”
The Doctor’s smile was warm and affectionate. “Maybe I was so preoccupied with what might have happened to you that I forgot to look at it in that way.”
“Then it’s a good job that you’ve still got me around.”
“It really is.”
“We’ll make sure that Doctor Simeon is cared for,” Vastra commented, forcing them both to remember that they were surrounded by other people. It was too easy to become wrapped up in the other’s company. “He’ll get the psychiatric help that he needs. There’s plenty of money to fund it, with what was left of his institute.”
“Everything works out for the best then. It’s looking like one of my better Christmases.”
“What about…what did you call it? The Great Intelligence? Has that gone? Could the snowmen come back?”
“I’m sure I’ll run into it one day. It’ll be concocting a new plan, now there’s snow chance this latest endeavour is going to work.” He was quite disappointed to see Clara pull her face at his attempt at humour. “Oh, come on! That was funny.”
“I’ll let it slide.”
“Thank you.”
“But only if you answer one more question…”
“Go on…”
Clara was wearing a devilish smirk. “Who changed me out of my clothes?”
The Doctor went bright pink. “It wasn’t me! I assure you! Not that I don’t want to see that…but I’m also not saying that I do …I was busy dealing with the snow globe and…you know…reassuring the Tardis after her brief trip…and…and…are you even wearing new clothes? I didn't notice until you mentioned it.”
She put a hand on his arm to stop him from rambling. “This is going to be fun, teasing you all the time. You’re cute when you blush.”
He grinned despite how awkward he was feeling. “All the time? Does that mean that you’ve considered my proposal?”
“I don’t know yet…” She only relished in how quickly his face fell. “Didn't you say that your ship will be out of action for a while?”
“Just to give her a chance to settle back down.”
“Do you know what that means?”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“You have to stay for Christmas dinner! Then I might consider giving you my answer, if you could ever doubt it.”