BANG another as they approached, too fast, holding each other tightly.
BANG more flowers, and more, and then they were bracing, bracing for impact, and Clara found herself facing upwards - as everything in the sky suddenly vanished and only they were still falling, but the landscape did not change and they did not hit the ground; and instead they found themselves suspended, momentarily, for the longest second, in mid-air. Then they broke through again, and fell ten feet, landing gently in a huge soft mound of delphiniums.
'She wove us a time field. She just needed all the extra bits of seconds to fit them in to break our fall.'
'Why not just come and get you?'
'And bump me into a spaceship? Have you seen the crystal room? Ouch. Not that I would have felt the pain, obviously. I eat pain for breakfast. Pain, and Frosties.'
'Why wouldn't she listen to me?'
'Why wouldn't you listen to her?'
Clara sighed. 'She won't talk to me.'
The Doctor looked at the console. 'No,' he said. 'She has things slightly the wrong way round. She thinks... she thinks whenever the really bad things happen, you're always there. I think she is having some issues with cause and effect. Order of. Time traveller problems.' He patted the TARDIS affectionately.
'Why would she think that?' Clara asked.
The Doctor paused, and then he lied. 'I don't know.'
Clara looked around, and sighed. 'You know,' she said. 'Sometimes I'm not sure you really need me here.'
The Doctor fixed her with a look.
'But you were there for me anyway.'
She nodded. 'Always.' And she turned away.
And as she did so, she said to herself, 'Clara. What are you doing?'
Acknowledgements
Deep and heartfelt thansk to: AlbertDePetrillo, Justin Richards, Steve Cole, Jake Lingwood, Tessa Henderson, Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts, James Goss, Matt Fitton, Matthew Sweet, Tom Spilsbury, Peter Ware, Jamie Mathieson, Pete Harness, Sarah Dollard, Isabel Hayman-Brown and all lovely Whovians everywhere.
Author Biography
Jenny T. Colgan has written numerous bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison.
Doctor Who: The Triple Knife Page 14