When Clara Met Rose(A Whouffle/TenPetals Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

"You're telling me," commented the Time Lord in the long brown coat, eyeballing the other man warily. 

Clara scratched her arms and looked at Rose, who was seemingly torn between staying put next to her Doctor or running over to the Doctor and Clara. Instead she waved a small hello to Eleven, who nodded his head and smiled back encouragingly.

"Well," said Clara, "We need different names for you two, so Rose and I don't end up with the wrong Doctor-"

"Of course, you would hate for that to happen," butted in Rose. 

Clara shot her a curious look, turning away when Rose stepped closer to her Doctor defensively. 

What is up with her? Clara thought, somewhat offended by the way the other companion was treating her. She gave her an anxious look then carried on as if nothing had happened. 

"I was thinking, that maybe we should name you after the number body that you are. So my Doctor, you would be Eleven, and you," she nodded to the younger man, "would be Ten."

The Doctors broke off their staring contest long enough to give her an appreciative look. 

"That's actually not a bad idea," mused the younger version, "but only when we're in the same room. If we're with you by ourselves, call us the Doctor."

Clara nodded her agreement. "You okay with that, Rose?" she asked. Rose huffed a bit, then nodded. 

"Quite. Now, let's get to it shall we?" Eleven, strode forward finger raised. "Autons at the birth of the universe. Why? Why here? Why now?"

Rose chewed the inside of her cheek. "To stop something from beginning?" She guessed. Ten snapped his fingers, coat billowing around him as he strode to the plastic limbs strewn on the floor and scanned them on his sonic. 

"Yes," allowed Eleven, tapping his temples with his index fingers, "but  what?"

"Maybe to stop one of their enemies!" Clara supplied. Eleven began to nod his head, but quickly began to shake it when Ten did.

"Nah. Autons don't tend to hold grudges," said Ten, frowning at the array of limbs scattered in front of him, his investigation not yielding any results. He lifted his sonic to point at the curved leg still resting upon Eleven's shoulder. "Any reason why you're still holding that?"

Clara smirked, but before she could say a word Eleven said quickly, "Unusual energy fluctuations in the knee. Not particularly dormant this one, considering the sonic boom we directed at them was strong enough to short circuit a small cyber army. It worked before, but..."

Rose crouched down next to Ten. "So they're evolving," she commented.

"And fast. All these other limbs are relatively primitive so, in theory, the Autons must have some kind of base nearby where they can develop, grow and build. And a leader- presumably the Nestene Consciousness," Eleven mused aloud. 

Ten pressed his palms into his knees, pushing himself back up to standing. "But where? On the maps, there are no known-"

"Doctor!" Both men turned and stared at Clara's sudden outburst. Even Rose looked concerned.

"What?" They both asked at the same time. 

Clara pointed other their shoulders to where Autons were filing in through a door marked 'Private-Staff Only' and were systematically blocking off all the exits. There guns were blessedly hidden for the moment, but she did not doubt for one moment that they wouldn't emerge soon and things would quickly become nasty. No sooner had the thought passed through her mind, the Autons lifted their left arms in unison and their knuckles dropped. 

"So there is," said Ten.

"Plan, Doctor. Time for a plan..." mused Eleven, "ideas anyone?"

"Run?" suggested Ten, clicking his fingers impatiently.

"But there's nowhere to run to!" Cried Clara, turning on the spot hair whipping as she desperately sought an exit that wasn't over run with Autons. 

"Oh yes there is," said Ten excitedly, pointing to the Staff door that the waiters had entered through, "Only one Auton- easiest door to get past, the rest have three or four guards. One quick blast from the sonic should disconnect him from the Nestene Consciousness, letting us escape. What do you think Doctor?"

"Excellent idea, Doctor," said Eleven, hand tightening around the shaft of the sonic, "count of three?"

"Why not? Rose, Clara, stay close. Don't let us out of your sights." 

Eleven took hold of Clara's hand, squeezing it reassuringly and whispering to her over the humm of the Auton's weapons powering up, "Don't worry, love- I'm ninety-nine point nine percent sure we'll make it."

"How?" she muttered back nervously.

"One," announced Ten.

He swept an arm at the Autons, "They're leaving an unnecessary amount of guards around unimportant doors, suggesting that they want us to go through that particular one in front of us that they came through, which also tells us that the Nestene Consciousness is down there in their main lair, and wants to meet us. Also, none of them have shot any of us yet when they could have easily reduced us to a pile of ashes by now."

"Reassuring," said Clara, glancing nervously at the guns lined up against them.

"Two," yelled Ten, moving into a runner's pose with Rose. Eleven quickly kissed Clara's hand, levelling the sonic at the lone Auton. 

"Don't worry about it," he insisted, "we'll be perfectly alright."

"Okay," said Clara uncertainly but trusting her Doctor, "just...don't let go, Doctor."

"I won't."

"Three!"

Short update, I know, but I'm going on holiday tomorrow and I figured that a short update was better than no update :) As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please vote/ comment so I know how I'm doing! 

Jazz