elysium ≫ wholock [[ON HOLD]]

ii ➳ crash

"Hello, Clara!" The Doctor had landed his TARDIS as smoothly as possible in front of Clara's flat complex. She'd entered as soon as he arrived, ready for a Wednesday adventure.

She smirked at him, tossing her rained-on coat to the jump seat. "Where to today? Somewhere dry, I hope," she said, joining by the Doctor's side at the console.

"I was thinking we go random today," the Doctor announced, turning a dial. "We haven't done it a lot, have we? And I can make sure it's dry."

"Dry. Good," Clara concluded. "Who in their right mind would build a city under the most weather-y place in existence?" she asked rhetorically.

The Doctor chuckled. "Weather-y? Is that a technical term?" He ignored the little pang of guilt for reusing the sentence.

"Well, it's not 'wibbly wobbly,' is it?" Clara teased.

"Touché." The Doctor flashed his infamous 'I don't know where we'll end up or if there'll be trouble and running involved but it should be fun' grin at Clara before pulling a lever, sending the TARDIS into pandemonium.

The machine shook like she usually did, jerking her passengers to and fro. But then she began to make a distressed sound. The Doctor's eyes widened; Clara noticed immediately. "What's wrong?" she yelled, trying to get a better grip on the railing. The TARDIS jerked harder than normal.

"EVERYTHING!" the Doctor shouted, louder than needed. The console started to smoke up. The Doctor pushed furiously at buttons and flicked switches, but nothing stopped the jerking or the smoking of the console room. "AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WRONG! HOW BRILLIANT IS THAT? YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT WE'RE DOING!"

"I think I have a pretty good idea already!" Clara replied, not feeling the need to be as loud as the Doctor. The TARDIS jolted again, sending the pair into each other. The Doctor held onto Clara with one hand and held onto a rail with the other; Clara clung to his jacket. "Are we - !"

"WE. ARE. CRASHING!" Clara stared at him - how could he be laughing right now? Laughing about crashing.

Just before the violent shaking could get any worse, it stopped. Everything stilled. The console stopped smoking; the beeping steadied to go off every few seconds instead of being consistent. For a short time, Clara and the Doctor stayed hanging onto each other, not knowing if the TARDIS would act up again.

"Huh," the Doctor muttered. He detached himself from Clara and strode over to the door, adding "Extractor fans!" as he went. Clara followed, cautiously pushing open the door to reveal a busy street. A familiar one.

"Back in London?" she asked, stepping outside with the Doctor. He sniffed.

"But earlier. 2012. I'd say...August."

Before Clara could make a comment, the phone hooked up inside the TARDIS began to ring.

+++++

John slammed on the breaks. The cruiser slid sideways, but he didn't bother parking correctly. He slammed the door behind him and rushed into the Scotland Yard. People began to yell after him, asking where the hell do you think you're going?!, but John ignored them all. He stormed straight into Lestrade's office.

"Dr. Watson! What can I help you with?" Lestrade said when he saw John.

"Is this some sort of joke?" John asked, anger growing. He leaned forward on Lestrade's desk, trying to calm himself. "Some sort of joke I'm not in on?"