A/N - For being patient with me, you'll be getting two chapters this weekend. One today and one tomorrow. I hope you like getting a little look at Elise's future. We still won't meet her mystery guy (officially at least) for another book. But you might guess it by the end of this book. We'll just have to see...

The Doctor woke up to voices whispering. He pulled himself from under the wreckage of the TARDIS and approached the three men.

"It's rude to whisper. Hi. I'm the Doctor. And you are...?" He examined the names on the men's jackets. "Er, Van Baalen and Van Baalen. Van Baalen and Van Baalen. That's going to get confusing later."

"We found you drifting," Van Baalen said.

"Yeah, your ship was junked up pretty bad," the other Van Baalen said.

"What broke my ship was a Magno-Grab. Found this remote in your pocket." The Doctor held up the remote. "Eh? What are the chances? Outlawed in most galaxies, this little beastie can disable whole vessels unless you have shield oscillators, which I turned off so that Clara could fly. Dammit."

He paused for a moment, realizing Clara was with him. "Clara. Where is she? Girl, about so high. Feisty. She's still on board. Along with Elise!"

Elise hadn't been the control room with them, so there was no telling where she was in the ship.

The Doctor ran towards the TARDIS, but the third man grabbed his arm.

"No, wait. Your pod is leaking fuel. If they're still in here, they're dead." By the way he spoke, it was obvious he was an android.

The Doctor looked around and saw respirators. "Ah, respirators." He ran over them.

"We can open the doors for a split second, reach in and grab her," Van Baalen said.

"Trust me, we can't. Now please, help me get them out."

"I'm telling you, she fried..." the android said.

"Shut it, tin mouth," Van Baalen snapped, "What sort of fee are we talking?"

"If you help me get her out, you get the machine, all the scrap, eh?" the Doctor suggested.

"It's not worth the risk. Four feet of metal? Nah," the other Van Baalen said.

"What if I can guarantee you the best haul you've ever had?"

"Bram, open the bay doors," Van Baalen told him.

"No, no. Please, stop. Listen, listen. Right behind those doors is the salvage of a lifetime."

Elise woke up on the floor of her room. She was lying in her bed when there was a loud bang. Her room was bathed in red light and the cloister bell was ringing.

"Well this is not good."

She picked herself up off the floor and left her room. Elise gasped when she saw the condition the TARDIS was in.

Cables hung from the ceiling and wreckage was scattered along the floor. Her poor blue box.

Elise snapped out of it. She needed to focus if she was going to find Clara and her father. She couldn't afford to be scared at a time like this. She needed to be brave. Elise walked towards a bulkhead door.

A red light was flashing above the door.

"Okay, not going that way." She knew better than to try and open that door.

The TARDIS just wanted to protect her inhabitants.

Elise turned around and started walking back down the corridor. "Clara! Dad!"

Long scratch marks covered the walls. What the hell was going on?

Elise heard a loud growl and carefully turned around, seeing a burnt creature. She screamed and started running.

"Hey, are we really going to risk it?" Bram asked, "That thing is spewing poison. We should blow it back into space."

"Get your gear," Van Baalen told him.

"Hey, I don't take orders from my kid brother."

"Don't try and form sentences, all right? Stick to what you do best."

"Tell me, since when does an android need a blast suit and a respirator?" the Doctor asked, watching the android put gloves on.

"Flesh coating, same as us. He'd burn up," Bram explained.

"No fear, no hate, no pain," the android said.

The Doctor put on his respirator and walked over to the TARDIS, unlocking it.

"Salvage of a lifetime?" Van Baalen asked.

"I feel pretty confident I can deliver on that. Here we go."

The doors opened and smoke poured out.

They entered the TARDIS.

"I don't get it. I thought she was lying on her side," Van Baalen said.

"The TARDIS is special. She has her own gravity. I'd explain if I had some charts and a board pen," the Doctor told him.

"It's...it's...it's bigger..."

"On the inside. Do you know, I get that a lot."

"Whoa. Awesome," the android said in awe.

"Well put. Whoa and awesome." He turned a dial and the smoke disappeared. "Safe to breathe."

They removed their respirators and the Doctor scanned the area with the sonic screwdriver. "Okay, now, the last thing I remember, you were right there. Come on, Clara, talk to me."

"How big is this baby?" Bram asked.

"Picture the biggest ship you've ever seen. Are you picturing it?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Now forget it, because this ship is infinite."

"It could take you hours to find your crew," Van Baalen said.

"Days. Plus this whole place is toxic. Clara could be dead by the time I reach her. As for Elise, she's already died once under my watch and I'm not about to let that happen again. So, here's the mission. We're going to find them in one hour."

"We?"

"You're my guys for this."

"That wasn't the deal."

"'Tis now."

"What makes you think we'll help?" Bram asked.

The Doctor threw two levers and a countdown appeared on the monitor. "I just activated the TARDIS self-destruct system. One hour until this ship blows."

Bram ran for the door, only to have it slam shut in his face.

"Don't try to leave. The TARDIS is in lockdown. I'll open those doors when Clara and Elise are by my side."

"You crazy lunatic!" Bram yelled.

"My ship, my rules!"

"You'll kill us all. And the girls," Van Baalen told him.

"They're going to die if you don't help me. Don't get into a spaceship with a madman. Didn't anyone ever teach you that? Okay, a little gently persuasion. Say thirty minutes." The Doctor pressed a button and it jumped down to thirty minutes.

"She'll die even quicker now!" Bram yelled.

"We all perform better under pressure. Anybody want to go for fifteen minutes?"

His finger hovered above the button and everyone protested. "It's your own time you're wasting. Salvage of a lifetime. You meant the ship. I meant Clara and Elise. Oh and should I mention, Elise also happens to be my daughter? Never underestimate the lengths I would go to to keep her safe. There is nothing more dangerous than a protective father."

Clara ran into a room. She was shocked to find it was a child's nursery.

There were toys scattered along the floor. Was this Elise's old room?

A row of bookshelves sat along the wall. She walked over to them and picked up a book.

"To: Clarice. Love: The Doctor."

Clarice? Who was Clarice?

Clara turned around and there were two beds and a cradle.

The beds had circular writing on the foot of them, much like the symbols in the control room. On the cradle, the writing was on the side.

A picture sat on the bedside table of one of the beds. Clara picked it up and saw a family.

The father was tall, dark, and handsome with dark hair and blue eyes. The woman, with brown hair and hazel eyes, stood beaming with a baby in her arms. It was a boy by the looks of it, with green eyes and dark brown hair. He kinda looked like what Clara would imagine the Doctor looked like as a child. Standing in front of the man and woman were two girls. One had brown hair and blue eyes, while the other one had black hair and violet eyes.

Who was this family? And why did they have a room on the TARDIS?

Something in the room growled and Clara ran out. As she was running, she collided with Elise. "Elise! Oh my god!" Clara threw her arms around the Timelord.

"Clara? What happened?" Elise asked her.

Clara explained while they explored the TARDIS.

Elise rolled her eyes. "Of course that would happen."

They eventually came to the control room.

"Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Clara cheered. She ran to the console and placed a kiss on it.

"Um, Clara," Elise said.

"Yeah?"

"I don't think this is the control room."

"Why?"

Elise pointed at the wall. "No door. This must be a copy room."

"No. You can't do this!"

"Obviously the TARDIS showed us this room because it's important. Despite what you might think Clara, the TARDIS just wants her inhabitants to be safe."

"No, I'm going to find a way out." Clara turned to leave.

"Clara! Wait!" Elise ran after her, only for the TARDIS to show them the same control room.

"Oh, why are you doing this?" Clara whined.

"Because we need to be here! She's trying to keep us safe!"

The two girls screamed when a piece of metal appeared in the control room.

"What's happening?" Clara asked.

"Just stay calm, Clara. He'll find us and save us. He always does."

Clara ran over to a door and pressed the button.

The burnt creature was standing there.

She screamed and ran back to the console.

The girls ran around the console, avoiding the creature.

"Who are you?" Clara asked.

"Why does it matter! It wants to kill us!" Elise yelled at her.

Tricky and the Doctor ran into a control room. "Back where we started," Tricky said.

The Doctor ran to the console. "No, it's an echo. The console room is the safest place on the ship. It can replicate itself any number of times. It's trying to protect us," the Doctor told him.

"Because I tried to give back the circuit?"

"Team TARDIS." The Doctor rummaged around and a piece of metal fell.

Only it didn't hit the floor. It completely disappeared.

"Where did...where did that go?" Tricky asked.

"There's more than one echo room. Hey, look, look." Two shadows appeared on the console. "The TARDIS has got Clara and Elise safe. That was them. That was them there." The Doctor kissed his hands and pressed them to the rotor. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." This Elise would not die on his watch.

"But why...why can't we see her?" Tricky asked.

"It's like a light switch. Two positions, flickering at super-infinite speeds. We're only together for a brief second. Shush."

They could hear Clara panting and Elise trying to reassure her.

"I can hear them."

They heard Elise and Clara scream and a loud growl.

"She's let it in. She's let it in!" Tricky yelled.

"If I can just isolate their position, I can nudge the alternation, reach in and grab them."

"Console room, echo imprint of the original," they heard.

"You're coming with me. I need you to get me out of here," Gregor said, grabbing Tricky.

The Doctor soniced Gregor's computer.

"Scanning for female human. Scanning for female descendant. Scanning for female human. Scanning for female descendant. Unidentified human."

They moved closer to the doors.

"It doesn't know Lancashire and of course it won't recognize Elise."

"What?" Gregor asked.

"It doesn't know sass. Yes! It's found Clara and Elise. It's found them. They're right there."

Clara and Elise partially appeared. The Doctor grabbed them and pulled them through. The Doctor hugged Clara. "It's all right. Clara, I'm so, so sorry. Sorry. Please, please forgive me, Clara."

Clara hit him on the arm.

"Ow! Okay, so we're not doing hugging. I get that now."

Elise, however, threw her arms around his neck.

"It's okay. You're safe. You're safe." He kissed her head, thanking whatever gods existed that she was okay.