A/N - Look who's back for now! I've been missing Elise for a week or so now and It's all because of the comments I get on this series. I love seeing your thoughts and re-reading sections made me want to continue in this series. I promise to finish out this book within the next month or so, so we can move on my favorite book of this series!

Clara, the Doctor, and Elise stepped out into a baggage car.

"Your train awaits, my lady," the Doctor said.

"Wonderful," Clara said.

"The baggage car. But thanks for lying. The real wonderful is through here."

They walked through a doorway.

"There were many trains to take the name Orient Express, but only one in space."

They stepped in a lounge car.

"Of course it is," Clara said.

This whole trip was a dream for a literary nerd like Elise.

"Completely faithful recreation of the original Orient Express. Except slightly bigger. And in space. Oh, and the rails are actually hyperspace ribbons. But in every other respect, identical. Painstaking attention to detail," the Doctor explained.

A man with an eyepatch bumped into the Doctor as he passed.

"Most of the time," the Doctor said rubbing his arm. The Doctor looked over at Clara. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"The smile."

"Yeah, I'm smiling."

"It's the sad smile. It's a smile but you're sad. It's confusing. It's like two emotions at once. It's like you're malfunctioning."

"Sorry."

"I just thought this would be a good one to..."

"To end it. Yeah. It is. It's a good choice. A good one to end on."

Elise couldn't happen but find this trip bittersweet. Their last trip with Clara. The Impossible Girl.

"Yeah?" Clara nodded.

"Mmm hmm."

"Shall we?" The Doctor offered Clara his arm.

Elise felt like she was intruding on a date.

The Doctor, Clara, and Elise found a table and ordered some drinks.

Elise left hers untouched.

There was an announcement over the PA system. "Ladies and gentlemen. If you would be good enough to look from the windows on the right of the train, you'll be able to see the soaring majesty of the Magellan black hole."

"Oh, I remember when this was all planets as far as the eye could see. All gone now. Gobbled up by that beast. And there's that smile again. I don't even know how you do that."

Clara giggled. "I really thought I hated you, you know?"

"Well, thank God you kept that to yourself. There was this planet, Obsidian. The planet of perpetual darkness..."

"I did. I did hate you. In fact, I hated you for weeks."

The Doctor tried to ignore Clara's comments and go on with his lecture.

Would he do this when Clara was gone? Or would he completely stop talking? Would they travel time and space in complete silence?

"Good, fine. Well, I'm glad that we cleared that up. There was also a planet that was made completely of shrubs."

"I went to a concert once. Can't remember who it was. But do you know what the singer said?"

"Frankly, that would be an absolutely astonishing guess if I did know."

"She said, "hatred is too strong an emotion to waste on someone that you don't like."

"Were people really confused? Cos I'm confused. Did everybody leave?"

Clara laughed and wrapped her arms around the Doctor's arm. She set her head on his shoulder. "Shush. Shut up. Look, what I'm trying to say is, I don't hate you. I could never hate you. But I can't do this anymore. Not the way you do it."

"Can I talk about the planets now?"

The question made Elise smile. That's something her father would have said.

"Yes. Go."

"Thedion Four. Constant acid rain. Had a lovely picnic there once, wearing a gas mask."

A blonde woman stood up and looked at them. "That's a lie."

"I'm sorry?" Clara asked her.

"That's a lie, what you said. Thedion Four was destroyed thousands of years ago, so you couldn't have been there."

A couple of guards approached them.

"Miss Pitt, are you sure you wouldn't rather rest in your room?" one of them asked.

"That man's a liar."

"Perhaps you'd allow Mister Carlyle here to escort you back."

Carlyle stepped towards her. "It'll be all right, miss. Just come with me." He led her out of the train car.

"Sorry about that. I suppose it's understandable in the circumstances. I don't believe we've been introduced. Captain Quell," the guard said.

"I'm Clara. This is my friend Elise and the Doctor."

"Ah, another one."

"Sorry? Another what?"

"Well, we've got doctors and professors coming out of our ears on this trip. So, what are you a doctor of?"

"Now, there's a question that's never asked often enough. Let's say intestinal parasites," the Doctor said.

"I'm beginning to think Miss Pitt was right about you," Quell said.

"What's wrong with her? Did something happen?" Clara asked.

"You mean you really don't know?"

Quell led them into a corridor to talk so they wouldn't alarm the other riders.

"There's a body and there's a mummy. I mean, can you not just get on a train? Did a wizard put a curse on you about mini-breaks?" Clara asked.

"It might be nothing. Old ladies die all the time. It's practically their job description," the Doctor told her.

"And the monster?"

"Well, seen by no one except her, which suggests that it wasn't there. A dying brain, lack of oxygen, hallucinations. Anyway, people do just die sometimes. She was over a hundred years old."

"Says the two-thousand-year-old man."

"Clara, you actually sound as if you want this to be a thing. Do you?"

"No. No, look, fine. You know, if you think that there is nothing to worry about, then that is fine by me."

She wants this to be a thing.

The Doctor subtly looked at Elise. Of course she does.

Clara turned and started to walk away. "Are you sure?"

"Ah, yes, I'm sure."

"To our last hurrah."

"Our last, yeah. I mean, it's not like I'm never going to see you again."

"Isn't it?"

"Is it?"

"I thought that's what you wanted."

If this trip was date, then this was the breakup.

Clara walked back up to the Doctor. "No, what I mean, you're going to come round for dinner or something, aren't you? Do you, do you do that? Do you come round to people's houses for dinner?"

The Doctor thought of Amy and Rory briefly. "Of course. Why wouldn't I do that?"

"I don't know. I thought you might find it boring."

"Is it boring?"

"No."

Clara raised her champagne glass. "To the last hurrah."

"The last hurrah."

Their glasses met with a clink.

Clara finished her champagne with a smile. "Goodnight Doctor. Elise." Clara went into her sleeping compartment a few doors down from their own.

The Doctor and Elise entered their sleeping compartment and the Doctor threw himself on his bed.

Elise fixed him with an emerald stare.

The Doctor looked at her.

"It's nothing. Nothing. Definitely. Sure. Ninety-nine percent sure. Really? Ninety-nine percent? That's quite high. Is that the figure you're sticking with? Okay, okay. Seventy-five. Well, that's jumped quite a bit. You've just lost twenty four percent." The Doctor jumped out of bed. "Because you know what this sounds like, don't you? No, do tell me. A mummy that only the victim can see. I was being rhetorical. I know exactly what this sounds like." He grabbed his jacket and went out into the corridor.

Elise threw her hands up in frustration. It was like she wasn't even there!

Maybe she should get off the TARDIS with Clara and find River. Or maybe the guy in the café she met that day. She could strike out on her own and start a new life.

While Elise was pondering, someone knocked on the door. Elise threw open the door and saw Clara. "Clara?"

"Elise? Where's the Doctor?"

Elise shrugged.

Clara groaned and grabbed Elise's hand.

Clara changed back into her flapper dress and the two went exploring.

As they were walking, they came across the blonde woman from earlier. Miss Pitt. She was in her pajamas and holding a shoe in her hand.

"Hello? Are you okay?" Clara asked.

Miss Pitt walked past them.

"Hello? Excuse me? Excuse me?" Clara looked at Elise.

"Maybe she's sleep walking or something," Elise said.

They followed her into the baggage car.

"Miss Pitt, wasn't it? Are you all right? Do you need some help?" Clara asked.

Miss Pitt turned to them. "My name's Maisie. I'm not mad."

"Oh, okay. Er, I didn't say you were, but you've had a bad day. I think anybody could do with a little bit of help after a day like today."

Maisie turned to a control panel at the end of the carriage. "Computer, open the door."

"Call me Gus. I'm afraid this door can only be opened by executive order," the computer said.

Maisie started crying as she pressed buttons on the control panel.

"Are you okay?" Clara asked.

"They won't let me see her body. They should let me see her body, shouldn't they?"

"Er, yeah, I should think so. It's in there, is it?"

Maisie nodded.

Clara turned to Elise.

"Got your sonic on you?"

Elise pulled out her sonic screwdriver and approached the control panel. She soniced it and the door slid open.

Clara and Elise followed Maisie into the room, the door sliding shut behind them.