The Doctor walked back into the console room after leaving the burning Earth's surface. He took his helmet off carefully as the suit let off smoke due to the sudden temperature change from outside compared to the TARDIS. "Right."He announced, clapping his hands together after setting the suit helmet down. "Oh." He blinked noticing the sad look on Clara's face. "What's wrong, did the TARDIS say something?" He pointed at the rotor, "Were you being mean?"

"No sweetheart." The Stone shook her head. "She wasn't mean, Clara is upset because she saw the life cycle of the Earth."

"Okay." He blinked not understanding the issue.

"You're okay with this?" Clara asked him.

"Yes." The Doctor answered.

"How can you be?"

"The TARDIS, she's time. Wibbly vortex and so on."

"Wibbly-wobbly!" Araya laughed.

"Not the time poppet." The Doctor murmured kissing her hair.

"Sorry." She apologised.

"That's not what I mean though," Clara answered.

"Okay, some help." The Doctor asked. "Context? Cheat sheet? Something?"

"I mean, one minute you're in 1974 looking for ghosts, but all you have to do is open your eyes and talk to whoever's standing there. To you, I haven't been born yet, and to you I've been dead one hundred billion years. Is my body out there somewhere, in the ground?"

"Yes," he nodded slightly. "I suppose it is."

"But here we are, talking. So I am a ghost. To you, I'm a ghost. We're all ghosts to you, to both of you." Clara added now looking at the Stone. "What about your daughters?" She raised a brow. "Are they ghosts as well?"

The Doctor went to growl low in his throat at what she was even suggesting. If she thought for a single moment that he would ever forget his children and leave them behind she would be very wrong. The Stone shook her head placing her hand in his, entwining their fingers and gently squeezing to try and calm him down and give some comfort. Clara didn't mean her words she was upset. "We must be nothing."

"No." The Doctor said refraining from pulling a lever and dropping Clara off at her house. "No. You're not that. Araya or Jenny isn't that either, they're so much more than that."

"Then what are we?" Clara questioned. "What can we possibly be?"

"You, Clara Oswald are the only mystery worth solving." The Stone answered as the Doctor stayed quiet. "Araya and Jenny are mine and the Doctor's children," the Stone added. "They will always be a part of us no matter where or when they are." The Stone explained.

"Can we-" The Doctor began in a cold tone only to get cut off by Stone.

"We are not taking Clara home."

"But-"

"She was upset." The Stone glanced at her husband for a moment, meeting his eyes. "I know she didn't mean it, you know how much she enjoys Araya's company. She's very good with her, Doctor."

"Fine." He huffed out, shaking his head and pulled a lever.

The Time Lords ran back to the house as the rain poured heavily, Clara following behind them. Araya was carried by Clara, the pair under her umbrella. While the Doctor wasn't the most pleased with the Stone for even suggesting for Clara to carry their daughter after what she had said to them he stopped arguing after the Stone made a very good point. Araya was still growing and while she wasn't exactly a baby anymore her Time Lord immune system was still developing which meant she was easily susceptible to a cold much like humans.

The Doctor handed the camera to Alec to get the photos together, Araya went with him while the Stone stayed behind with Clara. "What's wrong?" Emma asked seeing the sad look on her face.

"I just saw something I wish I hadn't." She muttered and glanced at the Stone who was looking out the window, rain continuing to hammer down. "I said something as well."

"What did you see?" Emma asked.

"That everything ends."

"No, not everything." She shook her head, "Not love, she glanced at the Time Lady. "Not always, they can prove it." She nodded at the Stone.

After setting all the photos into a projector the Doctor gathered everyone. "Right, done." He announced. "That's it. Gather round, gather round. Roll up, roll up." He activated it with his sonic. "The Ghast of Caliburn House. Never changing, trapped in a moment of fear and torment. But, what if she's not? What if she's just trapped somewhere time runs more slowly than it does here. What if a second to her was a hundred thousand years to us? And what if somebody has a magic box." Araya giggled at him, he winked at his daughter and continued. "A blue box probably. What if said somebody could take a snapshot of her, say, every few million years?" An image of a dark woman in white clothing appeared running away from something.

"She's not a ghost." Araya shook her head. "She is a lost soul though."

The Time Lord nodded. "Her name is Hila Tacorian. She's a pioneer, a time traveller, or at least she will be in a few hundred years."

"Time travel's not possible." Alec cut in. "The paradoxes-"

"resolve themselves," the three Time Lords answered and smiled at one another, the Doctor lightly ruffled Araya's hair.

"How long has she been alone?" Emma asked.

"Well, time travel's a funny old thing. I mean, from her perspective, she crash landed three minutes ago."

"Crash landed?" She frowned. "Where?"

"She's in a pocket universe. A distorted echo of our own. They happen sometimes but never last for long." He took two balloons from his pockets, one red and one blue and blew them both up. "Our universe." He held up the red balloon and then the blue. "Hila Tacorian's here, in a pocket universe. You're a lantern, shining across the dimensions, guiding her home, back to the land of the living."

"But what's she running from?" Clara asked.

"We don't actually know yet." The Stone crossed her arms.

The Doctor grinned. "Shall we see?" He changed the slide and an image of a shadow behind a tree appeared. "Oh." He muttered.

"What is that?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Still, not to worry."

"So, what do we do?"

"Not we, you." The Doctor replied. "You save Hila Tacorian because you are Emma Grayling. You are the lantern. The rest of us are just along for the ride, I'm afraid. We need some sturdy rope and a blue crystal from Metebelis Three. Plus some Kendal Mint Cake."

The Doctor and the Stone found some wire lying in the TARDIS, they grinned and took it. "Can't you just, you know?" Clara shrugged.

"What?" The Stone blinked.

"Fly the TARDIS into the parallel universe?"

The Stone shook her head. "It's not a parallel universe, trust me I've been to a few, it's a pocket universe."

"Plus, it is collapsing." The Doctor added. "I mean, the TARDIS could get in there all right, but entropy would bleed her power sources, you see? Trap her there until the entire universe decayed back into the quantum foam. Which would take about three minutes, give or take, you know."

They stood in the music room, a thick silver cable ran from the TARDIS and into the house. There were clocks located all around the room and a large crystal was held in a cradle at head height.

"What is that?" Clara asked.

"A subset of the Eye of Harmony."

"I don't-"

"We barely do." The Stone cut in shrugging.

"Right." He nodded at Emma. You, sit down. All the way from Metebelis Three." He muttered placing a headset with a blue gem onto Emma's head.

"What does it do?"

"It amplifies your natural abilities like a microphone or a pooper scooper." The Doctor explained.

"Ignore his last example." The Stone said. "It's not like a pooper scooper."

"What exactly is this arrangement?" Alec questioned, looking around at all the clocks.

"A psychochronograph."

The Doctor put on a parachute harness, the Stone kissed Araya's hair. "Stay with Clara, be a good girl, Rae love you sunshine." She placed on an identical harness.

Araya giggled and felt her father's mind in the conversation as well. "Love you, Mummy, love you, Daddy."

"Love you too, Rae" He replied.

"Forgive me, but isn't it all a bit well, make do and mend?" Alec asked.

"Non-psychic technology won't work where we're going." The Doctor informed. "Listen, all we need to do is dive into another dimension, find the time traveller, help her escape the monster, get home before the entire dimension collapses and Bob's your uncle."

"Doctor, will it hurt?"

"No." The Doctor lied.

"Sweetheart..."

"Yes, dear..." he sighed before correcting himself. "Well, yes. Probably." The Stone gave him another pointed look. "A bit." Another. "Well, quite a lot." He huffed in frustration. "I don't know. It might be agony. To be perfectly honest, I'll be interested to find out."

The Stone shook her head. "Because that's reassuring."

Emma looked at Alec nervously who nodded and Emma began: "I'm talking to the lost soul that abides in this place. I'm speaking to Hila Tarcorian."

The clocks started to spin backwards and a wind picked up, the black oval floating thing also appeared. The Time Lords connected their harnesses to rope

"See?" The Doctor shouted above the wind, the oval changed shape, becoming a wormhole. "The Witch of the Well! It's a wormhole! A reality well! A door to the echo universe." He looked at the Stone. "Ready?"

She nodded at him, entwining their fingers together. "Ready."

"Ready Emma?" He shouted.

"Ready!" She screeched,

The Doctor clicked his neck to the side. "Geronimo."

"Oh dear..." The Stone sighed just before they sprinted into the wormhole.

They landed in the pocket universe and removed their harnesses. "Hila?" They shouted as they ran off into what was a foggy woods. "Hila! Hila Tacorian!"

"One, two, three." The Doctor counted and then spun around.

"Help me!" A woman cried. "Help!" She ran into view and through the fog.

"Hila Tacorian, I presume." The Stone said.

"Who are you two?"

"Collapsing universe. You and us, dead, two minutes. No time complete sentences." The Doctor replied. "Abandon planet."

They headed off. "Wait." Hila stopped them. "There's something in the mist."

"Then run." The Doctor ordered and shouted. "Run!"

"Doctor!" Emma's voice echoed through their universe and into the pocket one. "Doctor, Stone! Come home! Doctor, Stone, come home!"

The Doctor winced. "Not that way, which means, er, probably."

"What's wrong?"

The Stone swallowed hard, they didn't think this through very well. "You know that exit he mentioned?"

"Yes?"

"Well, we seem to have misplaced it."

"Doctor, Stone!" Emma continued to shout.

The Doctor looked around, tightly holding his wife's hand. "This way."

They continued to run through, the fog grew thicker, and the Stone swore it grew colder as every second passed. "Doctor, we're here!"

"Whoa." The Time Lords skidded to a stop, and a house with a ghost-like image appeared in the distance.

"What's that?" Hilda asked.

"An echo house, in an echo universe." The Stone said.

"Clever psychic." The Doctor grinned. "That is just top-notch."

"Doctor!" Emma shouted the wind grew stronger, and Araya whimpered from where she was hiding behind Clara. "Doctor!"

They ran into the house and locked the main doors, something on the outside began to scratch at the wooden door.

"It's looking for a way in." The Stone muttered, they turned and headed off towards the music room.

"I'm not strong enough!" Emma shouted.

"Just a few more seconds," Clara replied, Emma screamed.

"Grab the rope. Give it three tugs, as quick as you like." Hila placed on the harness. "What about you two?"

"Oh, we'll be next." He reassured.

Hila tugged on the rope and was pulled through, the Doctor secured the music room door.

"Oh, that's what that noise was." He nodded. "Lovely."

"Doctor." The Stone warned. They left Araya in their universe, she was all on her own. The Time Lord nodded and picked up the harness, "right."

Emma screamed and then collapsed. "No!" Clara shouted when the wormhole disappeared. Araya stared at it for a moment and whimpered again before running out of the music room, the house and straight for the TARDIS, the doors instantly swung open as she got to them and she ran inside, crawling under the console controls she hugged her legs and continued to whimper as her whole body shook in fear.

The wormhole disappeared on the Time Lord's side, they stared for a moment and took a step, standing back onto the Earth in the woods. The rope attached to the harness fell to the floor, and the Doctor's grip on it also fell.

Araya was in their universe and they were stuck in the pocket one with no way out.

"Oh dear." He whispered, both the Time Lords tightened their grips on each other.

"Oh dear." The Stone swallowed hard after hearing the TARDIS cloister bell toll. "Where are you?"

"Wake up!" Clara shouted at Emma. "Wake up! Open the thing."

"I'm sorry." She sobbed shaking her head.

"Don't be sorry," Alec told her. "Don't be. What you did-"

"Wasn't enough." Clara cut in. "She needs to do it again."

"She can't." Alec protested. "Look at her."

Emma was kneeling on the floor breathing heavily.

"She has to! We can't leave them, Araya needs them!" She shouted at Alec then blinked. "Araya." She breathed looking around, the young brunette nowhere in sight. "Araya!" She shouted running out of the music room. "Araya!" She tried again, running out of the house and towards the TARDIS.

She tried to open the doors and nothing happened. "Oh, come on!" Clara groaned. "I want to help! Let me in, you grumpy old cow!" She groaned and turned around, only to see herself.

"Whoa." Clara breathed. "What's this now?"

"The TARDIS Voice Visual Interface." The other Clara replied. "I'm programmed to select the image of a person you esteem. Of several billion such images in my databanks, this one best meets the criterion."

"Oh." Clara narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you are a cow. I knew it. Whatever. You have to help the Doctor and the Stone."

"The Doctor and the Stone are in the pocket universe."

"You can enter the pocket universe."

"The entropy would drain the energy from my heart. In four seconds, I'd be stranded. In ten, I'd be dead."

"You're talking, but all I hear is muh muh muh." Clara huffed. "Come on, let's go."

The hologram vanished and the TARDIS began to wheeze, dematerialising. "Hey, hey, hey!" Clara shouted at it.

Araya sniffed and felt the TARDIS jolt, wheezing echoed in the console room and the time rotor began to move. "What-" she stood up, her eyes widened a second later when the TARDIS materialised somewhere, the doors opened and Jenny ran inside.

"Araya!" She shouted tightly hugging the brunette after spotting her under the console. "Araya, what's wrong?" She breathed, her eyes widening at the distraught look on her sisters face.

She had never seen her like that before.

"They're gone." She sniffed hiding her head in the blonde's shoulder before she sobbed. "They're trapped in a pocket universe."

"Oh, Araya." Jenny sighed tightly hugging her sister. "Come on." She held her hand out. Araya took it. "Let's go get them back."

Araya smiled slightly when Jenny pulled a lever.

The TARDIS materialised a moment later and Clara started hitting on the door again. "Where did you go?" She started to hit on the door again. "Doctor? Stone, Araya?" She groaned getting no reply. "Come on they're still there!"

The TARDIS doors swung open, giving in. Clara almost fell in but managed to stop herself, staring at Jenny and Araya inside. "What." She blinked.

"She came to get me," Jenny informed. "Raes my sister." She nodded at the brunette. "I look after her."

The TARDIS lights flashed happily and then the wheezing started again.

The Time Lords ran through the forest hand in hand while the TARDIS travelled through the Vortex, the three inside hanging on to the machine for dear life.

"Ah!" Jenny and Araya cheered, giggling at each other for a moment.

Clara cried out for her life as they were thrown around.

"Doctor, Stone, we're here. Come home."

"Emma?" The Doctor blinked. He heard a snarl and backed up with the Stone, the two of them back to back.

"What do you want?" He asked. "To frighten us, I suppose, eh? Because that's what you do. You hide. You're the bogeyman under the bed, seeking whom you may devour."

Laugher filled their ears.

"You want us to be afraid." The Stone added. "Then well done. I am the Stone, he's the Doctor and we are afraid."

"Doctor, Stone, hurry!"

"So why are we still here, huh?" The Doctor asked. "Why not just eat us?" He chuckled. "Come on. Because you still need us."

The Stone chuckled as well, "You need us to piggyback you across."

"To which we say, come on then, big boy," the Doctor opened his arms and the Stone copied him. They then ran, running as fast as they could through the forest the Time Lords jumped over the branches on the ground. The creature behind them caught up however, they were knocked the the ground. Shuffling backwards they noticed the TARDIS fly past, grinning they stood up and ran after it, the Doctor linked arms with the Stone and grabbed onto the TARDIS as it went past, pulling her with him.

Emma screamed in agony as the TARDIS materialised. They both sighed, the Doctor kissed his wife's hand, high fived Clara when she opened the door, just as breathless as both Time Lords,

The Doctor bent down to check on Emma, she was fine, they stood up and smiled when the sky was no longer dark, there was no rain and no storm. Only sunshine coming through the windows.

"Mummy, daddy!" Araya burst through the TARDIS doors, tackling both of their legs.

"Araya!" The Doctor cheered picking her up and hugging her, the Stone did the same and the little girl wrapped her arms around both her parent's necks. "You okay?"

"I am now." She beamed and looked at the TARDIS. A blonde wearing combat shoes stepped through the TARDIS doors and into the room.

"Jenny?" They both said smiling as she joined them, hugging her parents tightly.

"The TARDIS couldn't leave her on her own so she came and got me."

The Doctor smiled and handed Araya to the Stone, he walked over to the box and lightly tapped it, whispering: "Thank you."

The Doctor and the Stone stood leaning against the door frame and each other, watching Araya play around with Jenny in the garden, the little girl's giggles filled the air. "I know." The Doctor whispered swallowing hard and pulling the Time Lady closer to him, allowing her to lean onto him even more, the thought of them never seeing either of their daughters again was the most painful thought she ever had. They had both gone through losing their own children before when Gallifrey was destroyed. They couldn't deal with it again. "I'm thinking it too."

The Stone sighed and hugged him around the waist, seeking comfort just like he was with her, they needed each other and relied on each other. It was a necessity for them.

A lifeline almost.

They heard the clicking of boots behind them, it wasn't Clara because even she was involved in the young Time Lady's game now. Clara was brilliant with Araya, for a young Time Lady that was much smarter than any human child would ever be she was just like a human in her heart. "You wanted a word?" Emma said from behind them.

"Well, if that's-" the Doctor began, getting cut off from Emma as they turned to face her.

"That's fine." She nodded. "You didn't come here for the ghost, did you?"

"No." The Stone agreed.

"You came here for me."

"Yes." The Doctor replied.

"Why?"

"We needed to ask you something." The Stone answered. They hoped Emma could give them the answer they needed.

"Then ask."

"Clara." The Doctor replied.

"Yes?"

"What is she?" The Stone raised a brow.

"She's a girl."

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "but what kind of girl, specifically?"

"She's a perfectly ordinary girl," Emma answered. "Very pretty, very clever, more scared than she lets on."

"And that's it, is it?"

"Why? Is that not enough?"

The Stone sighed shaking her head slightly and turned away from Emma. "Come on you three, time to go!" She shouted, mainly to Araya who would end up wanting to stay and explore the house forever if her parents let her.

The TARDIS was parked outside the house and the group stood in front of it, Emma and Hila hugged each other goodbye. "Where will you go?"

"They can't take me home." She informed. "History says I went missing."

"But he can change history." Emma frowned.

"No, no, no, I can't, actually." He cut in. "There are fixed points in time, you see-"

"Hi." Clara came into the conversation and gently pulled the Doctor away. Both of his children giggled at that.

"What?" He frowned.

The Stone shook her head at her daft husband.

"I knew you were there," Hila said to Emma. "I could feel you."

"I know."

"Have we?" She frowned.

"We can't have. You haven't even been born yet."

The Doctor moved away from Clara. "No, you can't have met but she can be your great, great, great, great, great granddaughter." The Doctor nodded at Alec as well."Yours too, of course. But you guessed that already, didn't you." They both stared at him. "Oh. Apparently not."

"Secrets," the Stone winced.

"The paradoxes-" Alec began.

"Resolve themselves, by and large." The Doctor cut in. "That's why the psychic link was so powerful. Blood calling to blood, out of time. Not everything ends. Not love. Not always."

"Doctor, what about, what about us?" He nodded at Emma. "Emma and me?"

"What about you?"

"Well, what's supposed to happen?" He asked. "I mean, what do we do now?"

The Doctor smiled and looked down, his hand automatically found the Stones when he cut into the conversation, the two did it without even thinking, reaching out for the other. "Hold hands. That's what you're meant to do." He nodded. "Keep doing that and don't let go. That's the secret." He winked at them and then froze remembering everything that had happened. "Oh, I'm so slow!" He hit his forehead with his free hand. "I am slow. I'm notorious for it. That's always been my problem. But, but I get there in the end. Oh yes."

"Doctor?" Clara questioned.

"How do sharks make babies?"

The Stone pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sweetheart, Araya is right there." She whispered as the girl giggled.

"Carefully?" Clara slowly replied.

"No, no, no." He shook his head. "Happily!"

"Sharks don't actually smile." She frowned. "They're just, well, they've got lots and lots of teeth. They're quite eaty."

"Exactly. But birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. Every lonely monster needs a companion." He walked up towards the house, Clara followed him and the Stone.

"See," the Stone pointed to the upper window, catching on to what the Doctor meant as the shadow of the monster came into view.

"There's two of them?" Clara asked.

"It's the oldest story in the universe, this one or any other." He said. "Boy and girl fall in love, get separated by events. War, politics, accidents in time. She's thrown out of the hex, or he's thrown into it." He wrapped an arm around the Stone. "Since then they've been yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions. This isn't a ghost story, it's a love story!" He grinned.

"That reminds me of something " the Stone smirked knowingly at her husband.

"Oh, yes." He grinned. "Oldest story in the universe." He winked at the Time Lady beside him. "Who do you think started it?"

"You're so daft," she chuckled shaking her head as she leaned closer to him.

"You love it, dear." He tapped her nose, grinning as she chuckled further.

"Weren't you two doing something?" Clara asked slightly wrinkling her nose at their flirting.

"Right," the Doctor nodded. "Yes." He ran back to Hila, Emma and Alec.

"Excuse me." He cut into their conversation. "Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt the rest of your life. So. Tiny favour to ask."

Jenny and Araya looked at each other and grinned, the two sisters ran inside the TARDIS together.

The Time Lords stood in the pocket universe once more. "We're sorry!" The Doctor shouted. "We understand now! We can take you to her!"

"We can take you to a safe place far away from here!" The Stone cut in. "You can be together!"

"Well, come on, then." The Doctor spun around. "She's waiting!"

Sensing the creature was behind him they turned around and looked up at the creature which had what looked a little like skin being pulled in all directions. "Well, hello again, you old Romeo, you." The Doctor smiled.

The TARDIS wheezed and they grinned. "Now, here she comes."

"Get ready to jump." The Doctor grasped the Stones hand.

─── ｡ﾟ☆･*.☽ .* ☆ﾟ. ───

The love story explanation the Doctor gave was just so perfect and the fact it is so very them made it ten times better. I love these two idiots so much.

I hope you love them as much as me!