To Boldly Go

True Love’s Kiss

“Doctor?” Clara’s eyelids fluttered and her feet stuttered and so did the Doctor’s hearts. “What did you say the pollen stuff would do?”

Alarm bells rang in his head. But he had to remain calm. For Clara. For Danny, who had already spent a day running from alien flora and wouldn’t hesitate to murder him if Clara was harmed. For himself, because if Clara was harmed then Danny wouldn’t be the only one turning murderous.

“It’s essentially a sedative…why?”

He knew the answer before Clara started pitching toward the ground. He caught her easily, bracing one hand on the back of her neck to stabilize it as he wrapped his other hand around her middle to ease her descent.

Danny was there a moment later, panicking with wide eyes and hands that snatched Clara from the Doctor’s hold.

“Clara?” He shook her until her head lolled, which only made the Doctor’s brows furrow deeper.

“P.E.,” he said, swallowing his fear and his fury. “Let’s set her on the bench.”

Danny didn’t respond, but nestled Clara closer to himself and carried her over to the bench. He laid her down gently, lowering her head last, and then traced his hands through her bangs.

When he was sure she was settled, he turned angry and fearful eyes up toward the Doctor.

“What the Hell do we do? What’s that stuff going to do to her?”

The Doctor scratched the back of his neck.

“It’s…in a way, it’s like an aphrodisiac."

Danny’s expression dropped. He lunged forward, both hands folding into fists at his sides, but stopped himself before he could punch the Doctor.

“It’s a…what? But she’s-”

“Well, it’s not exactly-”

“Tell me how to help her.”

The Doctor swallowed. He forced himself to look at Clara. Her sleeping face was like a painting. Her cheeks were blushing pink, skin soft. Bangs flowed down to perfectly frame her eyebrows. Her chest rose and fell with her soft breaths.

“The only thing that will work is…” he rolled his eyes and then looked up at the sky with a cringe. “True love’s kiss.”

Danny’s jaw fell open.

“Are you messing with me? Now? With Clara-”

“I am not joking,” the Doctor raised his voice and locked his eyes on Danny’s. “Danny, you have to…kiss her.”

Danny jerked back in shock.

“But…she’s not even awake…that can’t be right,” he laughed anxiously.

But the Doctor did not change his expression. Instead, he lowered his voice.

“Danny,” he said, “You have to trust me. We have less than half an hour before the poison’s effects are irreversable.”

Danny folded his palms together and brought them to his mouth. He glanced from Clara to the Doctor.

“What’ll happen?”

The Doctor frowned deeply.

“She won’t wake up.”

Again, Danny’s jaw slipped open. This time, it looked like he might be sick. He shut his mouth quickly and swallowed hard, then turned away from the Doctor. He wiped his hand over his mouth.

The Doctor chewed his bottom lip and watched Clara’s ever-slowing breathing. He was about to call Danny’s attention again, when Danny spun back around with a more resolute expression.

“Alright,” he sighed shakily.

The Doctor backed up a step. For some reason, the image of Danny kneeling beside Clara was making his hearts ache. He must just be nervous. If this didn’t work, he didn’t have a Plan B.

Danny traced his fingertips through Clara’s bangs and the Doctor had to turn away. It was a private moment, after all. He didn’t have a right to watch. This was the part of Clara’s life that he wasn’t a part of (alien poison not included).

He heard Danny whisper something unintelligible. The Doctor shut his eyes. He was praying, in his own way. Praying for Clara to wake up, of course. This had to work. Danny was her true love and he was kissing her and Clara would be fine.

“Doctor,” Danny’s voice was just a little bit panicked. “Doctor, it’s not working.”

The Doctor spun round. Danny was still knelt beside Clara, his hand cradling her face. Tears were starting to blink into his eyes as the situation became real and raw and-

“What?” The Doctor said dumbly. He stumbled forward a few steps. “It has to work! You must just not be doing it right.”

Danny straightened his back.

“I know how to kiss,” he snapped, then relaxed with a shaky breath. “Look, isn’t there some kind of antidote? Medicine? Aren’t you supposed to be a doctor?”

“Not that kind of doctor.”

“What other kind is there?”

“P.E., just shut up a minute.”

Danny looked ready to argue again, but he swallowed his response and shook his head.

The two men fell into a deep silence. Both of them didn’t dare look at each other or at Clara. The Doctor could feel his hearts breaking, and he was sure Danny felt the same.

“Er, Doctor?” Danny cleared his throat, then straightened up again. “Do you think…?”

“Yes?”

Danny wiped his hand across his face.

“If you’re sure that’s supposed to work, then maybe…maybe I’m not her true love.”

The Doctor furrowed his brows.

“Who else would it be?”

Danny rolled his eyes.

“Are you really gonna make me say it?”

When the Doctor didn’t respond, Danny’s eyes widened.

“You!”

“Me?”

The Doctor’s stomach dropped. Him? No way. Clara had no use for sad old men. He was one of her hobbies. He was just a friend. He was the man in the box who took her on adventures. Coal Hill was her real life. Danny was her real life.

“No, no,” he backed up a pace. “It can’t be me. It couldn’t be me.”

But she was dying and she was fading and hear breaths were becoming more and more shallow. Her perfectly round face was devoid of its usual expression and her arm was lying limp on the park bench and if he didn’t see those wide eyes again, then what was the point? What was the point of seeing the universe if her impossible eyes couldn’t see it with him?

“Doctor,” Danny offered him a sad smile and got to his feet. “It’s alright. If it saves Clara…”

The Doctor nodded solemnly. Then, his hearts beating madly in his chest, he approached Clara.

Shaky legs dropped him to his knees beside her. Even shakier hands cradled her face, thumbs stroking her cheeks.

He’d never been one for touch; not in this body, anyway. But at this moment, it just felt right. She didn’t deserve to lay here without being held. She didn’t deserve to die cold.

“Clara, my impossible girl,” he whispered, losing sight of everything except her pale face, her parted lips, her closed eyelids. “Don’t leave me.”

He bent lower and lower, until she filled his vision. Then he allowed his eyes to close and searched for her with his mouth. Her lips were soft, and tasted of the cherry flavored lip gloss she’d discovered in secondary school and never grew out of.

He readjusted and kissed her again. Was she just a little warmer? Or was it his imagination?

Her mouth suddenly moved against his. She grunted against him, and he pulled back, darting his eyes open.

“Clara!”

Her eyes were open, wide and shining and filled with questions. Her skin wasn’t so pale and cold. The life was coming back to her. She was moving, and pushing herself up to a seated position. And the Doctor had never been one to bare his emotions, but he couldn’t help the smile that came to his face or the laugh that escaped his throat or the tears that blinked into his eyes.

“Doctor?” She asked, voicing all of her questions in a single word.

“You’re alright.”

“What-?” Clara pushed herself suddenly into a seated position. Her eyes looked up at the Doctor and widened. “Did you…?”