locker_monster | Doctor Who fic: Last Request (1/1)

Title: Last Request (1/1)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3,665
Characters: Twelve, Clara
Timeline: Post-"Knock Knock", pre-"Oxygen"; spoilers for "Face the Raven" and "Hell Bent".
Summary: He broke time to save her. Now they have a chance to put things right.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.
A/N: Written for

who_contest's "Heaven's Gate" challenge. This fic ended up being much longer than I anticipated. I apologize now if it rambles on. I'm sure Clara will show up in some capacity in Twelve's last story, so I'm getting this plot bunny down before it gets Moffat'd.

Someone knocked on the TARDIS doors.

The Doctor stopped rummaging through one of his junk drawers. The two rapid taps sounded urgent, but whoever was out there wasn't trying to break down the doors, either. Someone needed him, but it wasn't an emergency. Momentarily abandoning his search for a spare set of guitar strings, the Doctor headed down to the doors and pulled them open.

For a split second, he just stared at his visitor. No one was supposed to know he was living and working in Bristol.

"Hello, Doctor."

Her cool and indifferent tone chased away his surprise, leaving mild disdain in its wake. "Ashildr." He caught the slightest of winces from her. "Or Me. Or whatever you're calling yourself these days."

"Still 'Me'." The Viking girl he had met all those eons ago looked exactly the same, but such was the curse of her immortality.

"What do you want?" The Doctor stood steadfast in the doorway of the TARDIS, ready to shut the doors in Me's face if he didn't like what he heard next.

Her perfected air of detachment slipped for just a moment. In that brief second, he saw genuine emotion within her ancient eyes. Grief. "A last request."

* * *

The Doctor didn't hide his scowl as Me piloted the TARDIS to an undisclosed destination. He hadn't bothered to ask where they were going because he knew Me would never give him a straight answer, but that didn't mean he trusted her completely. The last time Me had lured him to a location of her choosing, he had ended up being transported into his own personal hell.

The TARDIS landed smoothly, without a single bump or shudder. Me stepped back from the controls and she finally looked over at the Doctor. She seemed on the verge of saying something, but once she noticed the Doctor's expression she held back. Instead, she gestured to the doors.

The assumption that it was a trap was an easy one to make, but making snap judgements had never served anyone in the history of time any good. Keeping his doubts in check, the Doctor headed out of the TARDIS. If he paused slightly at the threshold, well, he blamed that more on what he saw outside of the time machine and not because he feared being immolated on the spot.

They had landed in a disused rail yard. Within a glance, the Doctor knew they were still in Bristol. It wasn't the fact that they hadn't travelled far that was odd. No, it was the 1950s style diner sitting in the middle of the rail yard that was odd. The building was completely intact and pristine. This wasn't some abandoned diner forgotten by urban growth or a discarded façade from a play.

He knew this diner. This particular one had disappeared from around him the last time he visited.

The Doctor's pace was brisk as he strode into the diner, the soles of his boots squeaking against the polished floor. Though the booths were set up and 1950s era rock 'n' roll played over the speakers, there were no patrons enjoying lunch. Just as well. There was no staff to take orders or to cook the food.

There was a waitress here last time. They had talked and drank lemonade together. Where was she? She... He tried to picture her face, but it wouldn't come into focus.

A snippet of music resurfaced in his memory instead. It was a gentle melody, one he had written on his guitar. A song for someone he had forgotten.

A greater force seemed to propel the Doctor towards the door at the other side of the diner. He didn't even look back to see if Me was following him.

A door that should have led to the diner's washrooms opened up into a large white room. Glowing circles adorned the walls and a six sided control console was the main design fixture in the centre of the space. A barely perceptible hum could be heard in the background, keeping the room from falling into dead silence.

A TARDIS, but the Doctor was hardly surprised. He had stolen this one, too, if he was remembering everything correctly. So Me had decided to appropriate this one for herself.

"Doctor."

A woman's voice disturbed the stillness of the room. From her tone, she sounded tired but was happy to see him. He caught a glimpse of her through the time rotor, but the glass column and the inner workings distorted her appearance. She sat on the floor, her back against the wall.

Slowly, the Doctor made his way around the console. With each step, more of the young woman came into view, until finally he was standing in front of her with just a few feet between them. They stared at each other for a moment.

And then she smiled at him.

People smiled at the Doctor all the time. It was an automatic response programmed into the human race whenever two people made fleeting eye contact because society said it was the polite thing to do. False platitudes so you wouldn't have to talk to strangers. Bill was one of the few people who actually smiled at him with genuine emotion, but a part of her was still guarded as she tried to reconcile the tutor she knew with the time traveller she had just met.

This smile, though. It was an unbridled smile of joy and warmth that you reserved for a very dear friend whom you cared about most in the universe.

It was a smile the Doctor couldn't return.

"Clara?" He wished he could say that he spoke her name with the same level of familiarity as she had when she spoke his name, but he hesitated, putting a slight pause before the second syllable. He wanted to remember her, he truly did, but all he had was the melody.

Her smile fell by just a fraction, but it couldn't completely diminish her good mood. The Doctor had the sudden notion that she hadn't smiled like this in a very long time. "You came."

"You sent a very intriguing messenger. How could I resist." No, that was wrong answer. He was talking to her as if she were a stranger who had sent him a mysterious communiqué.

She stifled a small chuckle, as if she could read his thoughts. "Aren't you going to ask me?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Why you're here," she clarified. "Or have you worked it out?"

He couldn't keep her in focus. His gaze kept drifting away from her, as though she bored him. His mind was determined not to commit any moment of the conversation to memory. Well, he was never very good at listening to anyone, including himself. With two long strides he closed the distance between them and then he sat down on the floor next to her. Up close, he couldn't ignore her, couldn't deny that she was someone very important to him.

"Me mentioned a last request. Since I doubt that I would be last person Me would want to see, this is obviously your request." The Doctor looked at her, at Clara, picking up the details he hadn't noticed before. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and with her arms wrapped around her legs. The jacket she wore was military green and oversized; not her jacket then. He sniffed the air, picking up a whiff of something from the jacket. Mud and rain.

And ashes.

"Last requests are usually the domain of the desperate, the dying, or the stupid."

"And which one am I?" replied Clara, sensing the Doctor's lingering question. She lowered her arms and stretched out her legs. "Maybe I'm all three."

The Doctor tried not to grimace. Someone had shot Clara at point blank range with an energy blaster, destroying the lower half of her jacket and shirt. Her stomach was one massive wound; the circular burn was ragged and charred, though completely bloodless. It was an injury that normally would have killed someone on the spot, but Clara wasn't normal.

The Doctor recalled how tired she sounded when he had entered the console room, like she never wanted to get up again. "Fine, you're desperate and you're stupid, but you're not dying."

She chuckled again, but this time it lacked any mirth. "One advantage of being dead already." Clara grasped his hand; her skin was cool to the touch. "I made a mistake, Doctor, a big one." He stared into her big brown eyes, surprised by the amount of anguish within their depths. "I walked away from it, but good people, innocent people, paid the price.

"It's always going to be the same story. I get lucky while everyone else faces the consequences. It happened to Danny. It happened to you. I shouldn't get to be that person for the rest of eternity. The one who runs off and learns nothing from her mistakes. I've been living on borrowed time since you pulled me from the Trap Street, but I think my time is finally up."

"So this is your last request? You wanted to say good-bye?"

"No, silly. This is just the reunion. This is my request: Gallifrey. I want you to take me back. And don't give me that look." The Doctor was sure he was just frowning as he contemplated her words, but clearly even that was too dour for Clara. "I died a long time ago, Doctor. This was always how it was going to end."

He couldn't remember how Clara died. His memories of the Trap Street were muddled, like he was viewing them through a fog. She was already dead, yes, but could he really return her to live through the moment of her death again?

She squeezed his hand and the Doctor felt the strength of her conviction. This was Clara's choice. He had broken time to save her. They had to put things right.

"All right." The Doctor thought of adding something else, a joke perhaps, but it didn't seem right.

"Thank you." Clara let go of his hand and climbed to her feet. The Doctor followed suit, though the joints in his knees popped audibly. "Give me five minutes?"

"You're leaving in a time machine. You have all of the time in the world."

* * *

He found Me sitting on one of the stools at the counter in the diner. Apparently the drink machines worked because she had a tall glass of iced tea in front of her. She looked up from the book she was reading, some dog eared romance that probably had been left behind at some point. Did people actually wander into the diner? The Doctor pushed the thought away.

"Well?" asked Me.

"So, the two of you have been flying about the universe, saving people and their planets." He wanted this to be a civil conversation, but a tiny bit of aggravation crept into his voice. It seemed to be his default setting when dealing with Me.

She was wise enough not to take offense with his tone and her reply was more composed. "You don't remember, but you practically handed Clara this TARDIS. You knew she wouldn't go back to Gallifrey, at least not right away. So you can be angry if you want, but Clara took her inspiration from you. We've done a lot of good things since you parted ways."

How could he argue when even he couldn't stay away from the stars? That desire to help, to do good, was a hard one to ignore.

A moment passed, but neither of them made the effort to continue the conversation. The Doctor wasn't offended when Me went back to her book. With nothing else to do, he sat down in one of the booths and took out his sonic screwdriver to start a recalibration of the settings.

As promised, Clara re-appeared five minutes later. It took the Doctor a second to realize what was different. She had changed her clothes. The military jacket was gone, replaced by a grey jumper and a collared white shirt. He was struck with a sudden bout of déjà vu. Judging from the strained silence in the room, he had to guess that this was the outfit Clara had been wearing when she died.

"I almost envy you," said Me, hopping down from her stool. She made it sound like a lighthearted comment, but the Doctor sensed there was a glimmer of truth to the words as well.

Clara frowned at her. "You're not coming with us."

Me spared a glance at the Doctor. "The Time Lords and I aren't on the best of terms. You don't need me there."

He thought Clara might argue - it seemed like something she would do - but instead she pulled Me into a tight hug. Me hesitated for a second before she hugged Clara back. "Thanks for putting up with me and being the voice of reason most of the time. And making killer milkshakes when we had customers."

"I was more than happy to tag along." For a brief instant, a real smile lit up Me's face.

The two women ended their embrace without any further fanfare. The Doctor rose from his booth and fell into step next to Clara as they headed for the door. He was about to step outside when he glanced back at Me. She appeared resigned that she would be on her own once again. Or maybe she was just an expert at hiding her disappointment. He sighed inwardly before turning back to address her. "Promise not to break time."

Me's brow furrowed. "I don't-"

"You own a time machine now. Use it responsibly. If you alter history in any way, I'll know."

Me nodded her understanding. "Good-bye, Doctor."

* * *

Clara was waiting for the Doctor outside of the TARDIS. In his haste to enter the diner, he had left the doors unlocked. Clara hadn't taken advantage of this and he realized she wanted to enter the time machine with him. Her last request wasn't just about going back to Gallifrey. It was also one more trip in the TARDIS.

He snapped his fingers and the doors flew open. Clara stepped inside and he immediately felt the TARDIS surge with energy. His ship was happy to see an old passenger. It was strange to think that the time machine remembered Clara better than he did.

The Doctor shut the doors behind him and went to the console to set the coordinates while Clara slowly wandered around the room. There was a wistful glean in her eyes as she took everything in. Who knew how long it had been since she had seen this impossible space.

The engines groaned and whooshed as the TARDIS disappeared into the Time Vortex, though the Doctor thought he sensed some reluctance on his ship's part when she recognized his chosen destination. The rhythm of the flashing lights was faster, like the TARDIS was grumbling at him. She was always keen to fly away from Gallifrey, not back to it.

"You're travelling with someone." It was less a question and more of a statement. Clara must have noticed something during her circuit of the room.

"Bill. She's a student of mine."

If Clara was curious about how the Doctor had students, it didn't show. Perhaps both of them recognized that there wasn't time to exchange stories. "That's good. You're always rubbish on your own."

The time rotor ground to a halt and the engines faded out with an echoing clang. Gallifrey waited outside of the doors.

For a second, Clara didn't move. She simply stared at the doors. It almost seemed like she wasn't breathing. In contrast, the Doctor's hearts pounded so hard in his chest that the rush of his blood was the only thing he heard. He reached for Clara's hand and held it tight. The contact stirred her from her trance and she looked up at him with the same smile from the diner. They couldn't go back to how things were before she died, but for the briefest of moments, they could pretend.

And then, for one last time, they exited the TARDIS together.

It was another all white room, but the lighting was brighter here. Compared to the console room, which sported warm colours and eccentric touches, the extraction chamber was bland and antiseptic. Of course, it didn't need to be anything fancy. The people who were pulled from their timeline weren't expected to stay long.

The only splash of colour came from the portal at the other side of the room. It looked onto a narrow street, but the colours were too vivid, like someone had turned up the contrast on a TV screen. Nothing moved within that street. It was a scene frozen in time.

"Where is everyone?" asked Clara. "Weren't there two technicians here?" She gestured to the two stations on either side of the room.

The Doctor honestly had no idea where the extraction chamber techs had gone. He had threatened everyone at gun point. He couldn't blame them if they needed a break from this place. "They're down in the Cloisters trying to talk some sense into me. We should have a few minutes to ourselves."

Clara's fingers twitched within his grasp and he realized that he was squeezing her hand too hard. He willed himself to relax. "How many good-byes is this?" asked the Doctor. He had the vague notion they had been through similar scenarios before.

"Too many," Clara answered truthfully. She stared intently at the portal, as if she were afraid that it would try to suck her back in like a whirlpool in the ocean.

He paused and the seconds awkwardly ticked away. "What did I say the last time?"

"Oh you know, you rambled about how I shouldn't eat pears and then you passed out."

The Doctor furrowed his brow. "Not exactly profound."

"It might be if you've never had a pear before." Clara tore her attention away from the portal and they met each other's gaze. "If it's all been said before, then maybe we don't need to say anything else."

She slipped her hand free from his. The portal was no more than a dozen steps away, but it looked further, as if the room were longer on the inside, which didn't seem that implausible for the Time Lords. Clara took one step, and then another, but then she paused and looked back at the Doctor. It was an echo of his last moment with Me. Did he look similarly despondent as she had?

Suddenly, Clara ran back and enveloped him in a hug. Tiny as she was, she still ploughed into him at full speed and the Doctor stumbled back a step. He almost didn't know what to do with his arms. Bill and he hadn't worked up to their way to hugging yet and he and Nardole weren't huggers. It wasn't just that he didn't remember hugging Clara; he couldn't remember how to hug anyone.

He tentatively wrapped his arms around Clara, which only made her hold him tighter. "Have an adventure for me," she whispered into his ear. "Remind Bill that she's the luckiest person in the entire universe."

Their embrace lasted for a few seconds more and then Clara pulled away. The Doctor stood rooted to the spot, wary of getting any closer to the portal and catching a larger glimpse of the Trap Street. It was his past on the other side of the portal and he didn't need to see it again.

Clara didn't even hesitate as she passed over the threshold of the portal and she kept on walking until she was back to where she was when the Time Lords had stopped time. She took a deep breath and it was the last thing the Doctor saw of her before the portal went dark.

He let out a breath himself, trying to release some of the pent up tension strangling his insides. Wandering over to one of the stations, he flicked a switch and the portal shut down completely. The high pitched whine of the complex machinery that ran the extraction chamber dulled to a low buzz. History was finally back on track.

Somewhere else on Gallifrey, a past version of the Doctor was stealing another TARDIS. It was time for him to make his exit before the Council and Ohila discovered that he had returned.

He stepped inside his TARDIS, but he barely noticed the flight back to St. Luke's. It was only when the wheeze of the engines stopped that he realized they had moved. Experience told him that hardly any time had passed since Me showed up on his doorstep. It was still the late afternoon of another unremarkable day in Bristol.

Someone knocked on the TARDIS doors.

"Doctor, are you in there?" It was Bill, here for her daily tutoring session.

"Yes," he called from where he stood at the console.

The doors creaked as Bill opened them. She peeked her head in and looked ready to make a joke, but her smile faded a bit when she saw how distracted he was. "Are you okay?"

Clara's last words, still fresh in his mind for the time being, came back to him. "What paper are you writing for me right now?" the Doctor asked Bill.

"One on climate change. Can't you remember your own assignments?"

"Scrap it. We're going for some hands on experience instead."

Spurred on by the prospect of a trip to somewhere completely new, Bill eagerly entered the time machine. She joined the Doctor at the console and watched as he set the controls. "So where are we going?"

"Some place where we can have an adventure." He pulled down the main control lever and the TARDIS whooshed off into the unknown.