Madame Vastra knew exactly where to find Danielle. Her conservatory was very enclosed, and heated to remind her of a more tropical climate where she'd thrived as a young girl. The plants made sure that unless you were actually inside the room, no one would know you were there. She entertained clients within it with a veil as it kept her the most in power, but it was where she would also go to feel the most like herself.
Danielle was curled up once again on her favourite chair, wrapped up in the purple jacket of her husband's younger body and was now wearing one of Jenny's costumes she would don when pretending to be a young lad whilst being undercover; a pair of grey slacks and a white shirt.
"Ah, Danielle," she greeted as she came into view, making sure not to startle the blonde too much. "There you are. Miss Oswald was quite worried."
Danni pulled a small smile that fell away pretty quickly. "She's wonderful, isn't she?" she replied. "Clara Oswald. I don't know what I'd do without her."
Vastra sat down in her own chair, twisting slightly so she was facing her friend. "I see you've dressed to leave us," she commented. Danni shook her head.
"No, I've dressed hopefully, not certainly," she replied. "He will come back for Clara, but that doesn't mean he'll come back for me."
"You think he'd leave you both behind?" Vastra asked, surprise in her voice.
"No, I didn't say that," Danni replied. "I don't think he's coming back for me. He'd never leave Clara behind."
"And yet you are so certain he would leave you behind," Vastra challenged. "His wife, the longest he's ever had, and the one he always claimed was the only one who mattered."
"Claimed," Danni repeated pointedly. "Eleven loved me, I know that. He adored me almost as much as I loved him back. This Doctor does not love me."
"You do not know that, Danielle," Vastra insisted but Danni nodded.
"I do," she whispered forlornly. "I know he doesn't, and if he doesn't love me, what's the point in me being there at all?"
"Well, it's nice to know that you're still as dramatic as you ever were, even though it has been over five hundred years since you last visited out little household," Vastra declared, amused. "However, I feel you should wait and talk to your husband before making such rash conclusions." And, as if cued by her words, the sound of the TARDIS materialising outside filtered into the room, the Doctor coming back from wherever he had run off to. Vastra smiled as Danni's head snapped up and around, her attention automatically drawn to the familiar noise of her dearest friend.
She then turned back to Vastra, eyes wide as if looking for guidance, to approve what she desperately wanted to do, which was run to her home and her husband.
"Go on then," Vastra told her, giving her permission to be hopeful and excited. "Give him hell, he'll always need it." Danni nodded, a giant grin appearing on her face as she jumped up off her chair. She pulled the jacket closer around her as she dashed out into the hallway. She spotted Clara running down from the other end, obviously having heard the noise as well.
"Do you think…" she asked with a little bit of a pant and Danni nodded.
"I do," she replied. She reached out and took Clara's hand, holding on to both drag her to the courtyard and to give herself something to hold onto as they both apprehensively approached the TARDIS.
"He's cleaned her up," Danni commented as they both paused, unsure of what to expect on the inside of the blue box. Strax had brought her back still covered in dust and dinosaur saliva, but now she shone with the bluest blue, just like she should.
"I'm sure she did that herself," Clara replied and Danni nodded.
"I'm scared," she declared honestly. "What if he…"
"No, we're not going into that again," Clara cut in before Danni could hesitate any further. This time she dragged Danni forward, opening the door and they both stepped inside together.
Clara's eyes darted around the new room, immediately spotting every new thing that had been added to the space, everything that was missing. The console was cleaner, full of buttons and controls and screens without a typewriter in sight. Books lined the walls of the upper platform that had appeared around the room, blue glowing circles on the wall.
It seemed much more sophisticated, it didn't have the same just-thrown-together feel that the console had always given out. She guessed it was to reflect the new personality, and she still wasn't sure how to feel about it.
"You've redecorated," Danni commented meekly as she looked around, but not with intrigue like Clara did. Everything he had changed felt like a stab in the chest. Her home, her TARDIS, and he'd just changed everything without even a word to her.
The Doctor, who had been sat up on the platform in a large armchair waiting for them, opened one eye to look down at his wife. He had been concerned about her reaction once he'd completed the new desktop. He'd expected screaming and shouting, demanding why she hadn't been let into the design process, but she just seemed to be looking around, taking it all in. He took that as a good sign. "Yes," he replied simply.
Danni just shook her head, unable to squash the hurt and sense of betrayal that each new thing brought down upon her. This was supposed to be her home too, wasn't it? He'd always told her that; calling the blue box 'their' TARDIS, calling Clara 'their' companion. How could he just go change the only home she'd ever had in this universe and not even pick up the phone?
"I, I don't understand," was all she could let out in a pathetic little voice.
"Not completely entirely convinced myself," the Doctor admitted, taking a look around again at the sound of her voice. She didn't like it, did she? He could tell that just by the tone she said it in. It was like she had been trying to sound happy but it just didn't come out that way, so he tried to give a reason for the change. "I think there should be more round things on the walls. I used to have lots of round things. I wonder where I put them."
He stood up as the two women stood hand in hand at the console. His behaviour over the last day – well, the last lifetime, really – had left a lot to be desired. It was why he had redecorated, if he was honest. To remove any trace of the man whose jacket she held wrapped around her, to remove his mistakes with his wife so he could try and start to make amends of the actions of an idiot. He'd lost three hundred years with the woman in front of him, who clung to her friend like she was terrified of him. He didn't know how to handle that; he could feel the holes in his memory the time apart had created. Was he supposed to comfort her? Was he supposed to leave her alone to come to terms with it herself?
He had to make it up to her somehow, but the last thing she needed was for him to make a show of it. No, he had to give her time to come to him, and he'd show her how he could love her properly, not let her down like the floppy haired idiot who had thought she wasn't strong enough to look after herself, or make her own choices.
He headed over to the stairs that would lead down to them, walking around the platform slowly as he watched them both. Clara tried to hold onto Danni for as long as she could, her arm stretching out to keep hold of her hand as Danni moved to stroke the new console top. He narrowed his eyes just slightly in suspicion – he was certain his latent feelings must have been fading by now, he would have to keep an eye on that.
For now, though, he didn't want Danni focusing on their friend, or on the beautiful, clean, functional new console. He wanted all of her attention on him. So he slowly walked down the stairs towards them, one hand on the railing. "I'm the Doctor," he declared in a low voice and her head snapped to face him. He kept his smirk suppressed – he still had it. "I've lived for over 2,000 years and not all of them were good." He reached the console, walking slowly around to the pair. "I've made many mistakes and it's about time that I did something about that."
He came to a stop in front of them and Danni's hearts fluttered hopefully in her chest. His eyes hadn't left hers since he'd started coming down the stairs. Was he going to apologise? Explain why he'd been so distance? She'd forgive him, as long as he still loved her, she could dismiss him not holding her hand.
"I'm sorry that I never thought you were strong enough," he told her. "As today proved, you don't need me there to hold your hand."
"Today?" she repeated, confused for a moment by his words. He nodded, shooting her a look that told her that he didn't quite understand her question.
"You took on the droids with ease," he explained like he was prompting her. "You don't need me there to hold your hand through everything like a child, you'll be fine on your own."
She just stared at him. "On my own?" she repeated again in such a tiny voice that Clara stepped forward, hand on her arm.
"Why would she be on her own?" she challenged firmly.
The Doctor shrugged, turning to the console and setting it in motion, taking Clara back to her Christmas lunch they had interrupted so many centuries ago. "Who knows what might happen in the future?" he offered before turning back to face them. He placed his hands in his pockets, posing in such a way that it showed off the red lining of the jacket he was wearing. It had been the main reason he'd chosen it, he thought it made him look incredibly more dashing. And she deserved that.
"What do you think?" he asked his wife, who was just staring at him through her glasses with those beautiful brown eyes of hers. He desperately hoped she liked it, especially considering how she was still wearing that purple jacket his old body loved so much.
Clara couldn't actually believe what he was saying. He can't have been alien enough to not see how distressed his wife was, but he was talking about his clothes! It was ridiculous, and this time she wasn't going to sit back. He'd forgotten her once and Clara knew she should have said something about it sooner; this had gone on long enough.
"Who put that advert in the paper?" Danni asked instead, knowing that look of determination on Clara's face. She needed to do this herself – it was her marriage, he was her husband, and she had to see if he still wanted to be all on her own. She couldn't let Clara fight her battles for her all the time, but she had to do it on her terms. She needed to process, she needed to make her plan so she could stick to it, and that wasn't going to happen now whilst she felt like she'd been punched in the stomach, was it?
"Who gave Clara my number?" the Doctor replied, missing Danni's little wince at it being 'his' number. "A long time ago, remember?" He turned to Clara. "Who gave you my number? A long time ago, remember? You were given the number of a computer helpline, and you ended up phoning the TARDIS. Who gave you that number?"
Clara frowned, unsure what that had to do with anything. "The woman. The woman in the shop," she offered.
"Then there's a woman out there who's very keen that us two stay together," the Doctor replied, leaning onto the console as the TARDIS very obviously materialised at her destination. He shot her a smile. "How do you feel on the subject?"
"On what subject?" Clara asked, still completely lost as to why they were discussing her when she very clearly wasn't the important topic in their discussion.
"On staying together," the Doctor clarified, a hopeful grin on his face. "What do you say?"
"Seriously?" Danni snapped, her anger and her hurt exploding at his words. He wanted to tempt Clara to stay, but all he could offer her was a promise she'd have to fight the universe alone?
He looked at her, obviously surprised by her outburst and her hands clenched by her side. "She gets temptation and I get abandoned?!" she cried. "Fine! Enjoy!" She turned and stormed out onto the busy, wet, windy street outside. She looked up at the buildings that surrounded the little square he had landed them in. This wasn't Clara's house, or even Clara's area, but she didn't care. She didn't know what to do next, but she couldn't go back in. She couldn't stay.
Clara watched her run out, torn between running out after her and comforting her, and turning to the man behind her and screaming bloody murder. She spun around to tell him off only to see the briefest flashes of hurt devastate his face before he returned to a neutral expression. It had aged him terribly, much more than she thought had been possible, and she'd seen that look before. When Danni had lived with her for that week what felt like an age ago. Every time he'd seen her instead of his wife, his face had fallen in disappointment.
"Why-" she started, wanting to ask him why he was doing this. Why he kept talking to Danni like he didn't care about her, and why he was more interesting in keeping her in the TARDIS than making sure that his wife had survived the death of her husband.
But then her phone rang and the Doctor nodded downwards, as if motioning to it. "Better get that, it might be your girlfriend," he told her half-heartedly, a nod to a conversation had over eight hundred years ago.
"Shut up," she replied with bittersweet amusement. "I don't have a girlfriend." She pulled it out of the pocket of her skirt before heading to the door, looking at the number as she did. Unknown, she probably shouldn't be wasting her time on it. She stepped outside, shutting the door behind her and saw Danni stood looking down the street, looking completely lost and she had no idea what to do. So, to stall, she held the phone up to her ear.
"Hello!" she asked, but there was no answer. She walked over to her friend, wrapping an arm around her before placing a kiss on her head. "It's okay, Danni-Girl," she whispered before turning back to the phone. "Hello?"
"It's me," a breathy voice told her on the other side and she frowned.
"Yes, it's you," she agreed, letting go of Danni to hold her finger in her other ear, trying to block out the outside world. "Who's this?"
"It's me, Clara," the voice told her. "The Doctor." She paused, heart skipping a beat as she glanced at TARDIS suspiciously.
"What do you mean, the Doctor?" she asked lowly, catching Danni's attention, who took a deep breath of shock in. She was staring with wide eyes, but Clara tried not to focus on her. His voice wasn't the Scottish tones of the man in the TARDIS, they were breathy but they were young and she immediately recognised the man who had turned up at her front door in a monk's outfit with his baffled wife.
"I'm phoning you from Trenzalore," he explained and Clara shook her head in disbelief. "From before I changed. I mean it's all still to happen for me, it's coming." He laughed breathlessly. "Oh, it's a-coming. Not long now. I can feel it." He sounded in pain, like it was taking all his strength just to speak and she pulled the phone away from her ear to hold it against her chest. She'd felt her heart tighten when she'd realised which Doctor it was on the other end of the line, and she had to take a moment to catch her breath.
She looked at Danni, whose tear-stained face matched her own, who was looking at her expectantly and yet looking so terrified. He'd done that to her, and Clara pulled the phone back up to her ear. "Why? Why would you do this?" she demanded, determined to get answers from one of the Doctors today.
"I need..." he started slowly, obviously needing to pause to reign his pain in. "I need to talk to Danni." She straightened, shaking her head, feeling suddenly very defensive.
"No," she told him firmly. "No, you can't. I won't let you."
"Clara..." he started, pleading her but she shook her head to herself. It wasn't like he could see her, but it made her feel better to do so.
"No!" she snapped, startling Danni. "Have you..." She took a deep breath, calming herself so she could form a coherent sentence. "Do you have any idea what you've done to her? You've left her with a man who's only broken her heart since the moment he landed!"
"Clara, please," both the Doctor and Danni begged at the same time. She ignored the man on the phone, her attention only on Danni, who held her hand out towards her friend. It shook in the air, but she obviously and desperately wanted to hold it.
"It's just going to hurt you," Clara warned her gently and Danni nodded, because she knew it would. She was counting on it, but she had to speak to him again. She had to know why he'd turned on her, what had changed, and this was going to be her last chance.
Plus, she'd always been a glutton for punishment, hadn't she? That's why she'd fallen for him in the first place.
Clara hesitated, still completely unsure how good an idea it was to let Danni torture herself by talking to a dead man. In the end, though, she handed the phone over and Danni took a few steps away from her, holding the phone to her ear with both of her hands.
"Spaceman?" she asked tentatively, her hearts breaking all over again at the pain filled laugh that came over the speaker.
"Danni-Girl," he said, every ounce of love he'd promised he'd always feel for her coming across in the name. Clara was right, they both were, and it stabbed her in the chest. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
"I don't believe you," Danni told him honestly. "You left me, Theta. You ran away from me, and you told me you'd never leave me behind."
"I know I did. I wish I'd kept it," he admitted. "I've never been good at promises, have I?" She shook her head, the anger bubbling underneath the despair that was eating at her.
"You took three hundred years from me," she whimpered. "We could have been together for all of it. I lost my husband when I was nipping out for Christmas lunch. It wasn't fair, Theta! What did I do to make you think I shouldn't be there for it?"
"I didn't know how long the war would rage," he offered as a pitiful explanation. "I wanted you safe."
"I was safe," she retorted. "I was okay. I was…" she trailed off, breath shaking as she tried not to break down. "Why are you ringing me, Theta?" she asked helplessly.
"I think it's going to be a whopper," he explained tiredly. "And it's the first you didn't know about. I want you to be okay."
"Okay?" she repeated. "You-You have no idea, this will never be okay, Theta." She glanced at the closed doors of the TARDIS. She was half expecting him to take off and leave her there, how was that okay?
"Is-Is it because I bargained with the Time Lords? Is that why you're like this, now?"
"Danni, my Danni, it's okay," he quickly interrupted, shushing her with pained tones, trying to calm her down. "I know you're scared, and you want to run, I understand," he told her. "But however scared you are, Danni-Girl, the man you are with, the new Doctor, he is more scared than anything you can imagine right now."
"No, no he's not," she replied. "I don't believe you. I can't believe anything you say, anymore, Theta."
"You shouldn't," he agreed forlornly. "I lie, about almost anything. Only believe I love you, always. Nothing will change that. Whatever I do, whoever I become, I will always love you."
"He calls me Danielle," she told him, hot tears running down her face as her mind rushed over the new Doctor, the new day with the new man who clearly didn't love her anymore. "Not Danni, or Danni-Girl. He calls me Danielle, and he takes Clara's hand and runs and leaves me behind."
"Regeneration..." Eleven started and she shook her head.
"He left me to die!" she sobbed. "And his first words to me were 'Oh, you're the one I don't like.' We were eaten by a bloody dinosaur, and that's what I get?! So don't tell me you love me, because guess what? In a few minutes you don't even like me anymore!"
She took a deep couple of breath, realising she was shouting at him and she didn't want him to die with the memory of her shouting at him. She didn't want him to die at all, she wanted her husband back. She never thought it would be this hard to have him not die on her.
"I don't know what to do, Theta," she told him sadly. "Tell me."
"Stay with me," he pleaded. "Danni, my Danni, just stay with me. That's all I ever wanted."
"Why?" she begged, looking at Clara, who looked so upset as well. She held her arm out and Clara walked over, hugging her close. She was such a good friend, better than Danni deserved. "He doesn't want me."
"But he needs you," Eleven replied simply. "I always, always need you." The door to the TARDIS opened and the new Doctor leant out of the TARDIS doors, looking over at the two women, slightly anxious. He saw the way Clara was holding his wife and his eyes narrowed. Clara saw it, saw the jealously ghost upon his face and she couldn't help but agree with the faint voice she'd heard from the phone. She gave Danni a quick squeeze before letting go.
Danni looked over at her new husband, eyes wide as she tried to find her husband in the man in front of her.
"So who is it?" he asked, sounding more anxious than she heard him speak since he'd regeneration. All she could do was stare back.
"Is that the Doctor?" Eleven asked.
"Is that the Doctor?" Twelve echoed and she nodded.
"Yes," she replied to both.
"He sounds old. Please tell me I didn't get old. Anything but old!" Danni couldn't help the wet laugh she let out.
"Nothing wrong with old," she replied. "I never cared about that. You were always old and grumpy to me."
"I know," he replied sadly and her face fell in realisation. As he'd aged and she'd stayed stationary, he'd often grumbled about his grey hairs and his dodgy knee. He'd call her beautiful and young, and she'd tell him how she loved him the way he was.
"Is this me?" she asked him.
"My new body reflects the changes I made in the old," he reasoned. "You are the change in me."
"But he doesn't want me," she whispered in pure devastation. The Doctor groaned down the phone, the sound that he knew she wasn't lying but that he refused to believe her.
"Please, my beautiful Danni-Girl," he begged. "He needs you, I swear it." She shook her head
"I don't believe you," she told him, crying again and feeling so incredibly pathetic about it.
"I love you," he promised. "Always, that's all you have to believe. It's there, deep down, it's the only part of me that matters, it'll never go away." She heard it in his voice, he didn't have long left and she started to panic, holding onto the phone tightly.
"Don't go," she begged.
"He needs your help," he told her. "Please help him, for me." She slowly nodded, unable to deny him that. "Go on, and don't be afraid," he laughed breathlessly again. "Goodbye, my Danni-Girl."
"I love you," she insisted desperately.
"I love you too," he promised and the line went dead. She looked at the home screen on Clara's phone, then handed it to the woman wordlessly. She stared at the Doctor, who had at some point stepped out into the street, having no clue what was going on behind his eyes. She didn't know what to do, how could this even be an option for them now?
"Well?" he asked and she shrugged, wiping her tears.
"Well, what?" she snapped in reply.
"He asked you a question," he replied. "Will you help me?"
"Why?" she asked, sounding defeated. "Why should I? You don't even want my help anymore. I'm going to be on my own from now on, isn't that what you said?"
He didn't reply and she laughed hollowly, walking over to him. "I spent so long dealing with a Doctor who hated me, who tried to get me killed," she explained. "He made me feel tiny, and until he regenerated that never fully went away. I used to wait, expecting him to shout at me, to turn back into him." She fell to a stop in front of Twelve, in front of the man who wasn't giving her anything but a look a distressed frustration.
"I was forced into that," she told him. "I couldn't keep away from that man, but this is optional for me." She looked at him pointedly. "You understand that, don't you? I don't have to deal with this anymore. He wouldn't have done this to me."
"He is me!" the Doctor snapped in reply, frustrated by his own inability to convince her otherwise. He had thought he was doing such a good job, reversing what she'd told him on the phone, but she'd still said it. Somehow, without him even noticing, she'd thought he'd turned on her. He'd done everything right. He'd tried to keep her safe, he'd given her a chance to shine, he'd not complained once about the jacket she was still wearing. What else could he do except give her time? "You can't see me, can you? You look at me, and you can't see me. Have you any idea what that's like? We're the same person!"
"No you're not!" she exclaimed. "You're all different! Each Doctor is different, otherwise why bother regenerating at all?! Your personalities are all different, the only thing keeping you the Doctor is what's happening deep inside." She poked her own chest for emphasis. "Deep down, the thoughts and feelings that are always there. That's the Doctor! The rest is irrelevant, the body or the voice, it doesn't matter! That part inside? That's the only part that matters!"
It's there, deep down, it's the only part of me that matters, it'll never go away.
Her breath left her, the realisation hitting her in the stomach. The only part that matters. She looked down at the floor, her eyes darting around. He said it was there, deep down. But how could she believe what he had said? He'd broken every piece of trust she had in him in quick succession, starting on Trenzalore and ending underneath a restaurant in London. She looked up again, looking over the man in front of her like she was trying to find an answer to what to do next.
"How can I believe you?" she whispered. "All you do is lie to me."
"I told you!" he ranted. "You shouldn't! I lie about almost everything."
Only believe I love you, always.
"Almost everything?" she repeated quietly.
"Please, help me," he beseeched again. If he needed to be better, he would be. He just didn't know how, or what she wanted anymore. It had been too long, he needed her help. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again; he wasn't going to assume he knew best unless he was certain. Her head tilted as she looked him over again, as if seeing him for the first time. "I'm not on the phone, I'm right here! Standing in front of you. Please, just...just see me."
He had told her he lied about almost everything, had insisted that she remembered that the only thing he didn't lie about was how he loved her. Had he been lying to her this entire time? Had that thought sat so prominently in his subconscious that he couldn't help but lie to her now?
She closed the gap between them, placing a hand on his chest to feel his hearts. They weren't going particularly quick, just steady underneath her touch. She leant up, pressing a hesitant kiss on his new lips. He didn't try and hold her in place, he didn't pull her into a deep, hungry snog like Eleven wouldn't have. But he didn't push her away, and she felt him start to respond even as she chickened out and pulled away.
"Thank you," she whispered sincerely, much to his confusion.
"For what?"
"For phoning," she replied. "And trying to make it better, in your own, stupid, Time Lord way." He nodded slowly, pretending to understand what she was saying, even if it seemed a little bit like an insult.
He glanced at Clara again, worried about how their friend was doing. Clara had seemed angry at him, maybe this was why. But now she was smiling smugly, like something had happened that she'd been expecting and he realised she'd seen them kissing. He wasn't sure how to feel about someone observing them.
"I-I don't think I like that anymore," he told Danni and she reacted instinctively, feeling herself pull away from him, rejected again by the idea of him not even wanting to kiss her. She paused, trying to listen to his last requests, to give him a chance, helping him.
"Well, we can work on that," she dismissed. She turned and headed over to Clara, linking their arms. "I'm thinking coffees," she told the brunette, who laughed and patted her hand.
"Where are we?" Clara asked the blonde, seeing her really trying to not be upset and deciding that if she wanted to give the new Doctor a chance, she could try too.
"I have no idea," she admitted with fake happiness in her tone, looking over the shoulder. "Coming, Spaceman?" With his long legs, the Doctor quickly fell into step with the pair, next to Danni, where it felt most natural to be.
"I think... we're in Glasgow," he told the pair.
"Heading to your new roots were we?" Danni teased. "Why don't you get us some coffee? You can buy, after all I almost died."
"I'm not sure that I'm the... fetching sort," he replied uncertainly and she shrugged.
"Again, we can work on that," she told him bluntly. "You've never been able to say no to me. Always give in far too easily."
"No," he told her firmly, but she just raised her eyebrows in amusement until he sighed and told them to meet him back at the TARDIS.
~0~0~0~
The half face man's first instinct when he sat up was to put on his hat, as he had done every day for as long as he'd had it. His programming, the memories his software contained told him he should no longer be functioning. To be in a garden didn't make any sense to him whatsoever.
The garden itself was very pretty to look at. A fountain sat in the middle of a grassy area that was surrounded by stone work and flowers. One of the many things a droid could find in his programming to find quite pleasant. However, he still couldn't correlate the fact that he should have, for all intents and purposes, be dead.
"Hello!" a female voice called over to him and he turned his head, spotting two figures sat on the fountain. One dressed in a black long skirt and jacket, an umbrella in hand, and one with a shorter black shirt but a white shirt. Both had brown hair, the one who had called to him with a more formal up-do whilst the other woman had her hair down her back. He stood up, ready to defend himself in the foreign place against the foreign people.
The one with the up-do stood up, placing her umbrella's point on the floor, posing with a hand sat in her waist. "I'm Missy." She glanced at the other woman, who was still sat down. She frowned and jabbed her with the umbrella. Immediately she stood up, although it seemed more like an automatic action, like she was a droid as well. Missy was all smiles again and she waved her arms out, motioning to the little garden they were in. "You made it." She started to walk over, the other woman trailing after her like she really couldn't be bothered. "I hope that silly man wasn't too mean to you."
"Silly… man?" the droid repeated in confusion, his head tilted to one side. Missy nodded, taking his hand and sitting him back down on the chair he'd just vacated.
"Now did he push you out of that thing, or did you fall? Couldn't really tell," she asked him, sitting on the chair next to his. The other woman stood by her side, hands clasped in front of her and staring above his head. "But it's not important," Missy dismissed, making him wonder why she'd brought it up at all, before leaning in closer with a big happy grin on her face. "Did you meet her?"
"Meet who?" he asked, still confused.
"The blonde!" Missy exclaimed excitedly, leaning back in her chair again. "Danielle, did you meet her? Did you like her?" She narrowed her eyes for a moment, like she didn't want him to answer that, before her face fell pleasant once again. "I'm still not sure about the hair, or the eyes, but they don't last forever, do they?"
She did seem to expect him to answer that, but his ancient programming was still trying to process what was happening. "Do what?"
"Eyes," Missy replied, a hint of exasperation in her tone. She tapped her left one with her finger four times, just in case he still didn't get it. "Eyes don't last forever," she looked up at her female companion, who was still staring into nothingness. "Do they, my pet?" she asked but the other one did not reply.
Missy chuckled all the same, turning back to him. "Oh, I think this one is due for a reboot, don't you?" she asked him in a joking fashion.
"Where am I?" he asked in reply and she shot him baffled look.
"Well, where do you think you are?" she asked him and he turned his head to look at the garden. It still wasn't somewhere he recognised. "Look around you, you made it." She waved her hands out. "The Promised Land. Paradise!"
She stood up and walked over to the fountain in the middle, leaving her companion to stand by her chair. She posed by the fountain, hand on her hip again. "Welcome... to Heaven."
She brought her teeth together in a playful bite, before looking skywards. She took a deep breath, arms out by her sides, before walking off, spinning her umbrella. "Danielle, with me," she barked before walking towards the exit of the garden.
The half face man turned to the other woman, recognising the name but not the face. The brown haired woman shot him a sad smile. "I'm so sorry you're stuck here," she told him before following Missy, hands clasped in front of her like it was something she did every day.