Clara steps on shards of broken glass. She sees that the table is empty.
"{Y/N}? Doctor?" Clara asks, she sees part of the broken container on the floor and goes underneath the table to look at it closely. The Dream Crab descends from the ceiling. Clara gasps. {Y/N} turns around.
"What's wrong?" Ashely asks.
"We're thinking about it," the Doctor says.
"Clara!" {Y/N} shouts. Clara is sitting under the table mumbling.
"One hundred minus forty-two is three hundred and fifty-eight times three is one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four minus thirty-two is one hundred and forty-two divided by seven is twenty and, and, and a bit. Think about something else. Think about something else. Danny Pink, Danny, Danny. Danny Pink, I love you" the Crab is visible through the slats of the table "and I'll never see you again, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry I lied. I am sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" mucus falls in a long stream in front of her face, and she screams. The Dream Crab breaks the slats apart and drops.
---
Clara wakes up in bed. It is full daylight. The door opens and a man in a red nylon fake fur-trimmed suit and false beard enters.
"Ho, ho, ho."
"Who are you?" Clara asks.
"What do you mean, who am I? Who do you think I am?" he pulls down the long white beard.
"Danny?"
"Merry Christmas. Come on!"
"Come on where?"
"Downstairs."
"Why?"
"Well, you know what day it is."
"What day is it?"
"Easter. It's Easter Day. That's why I'm dressed like this, I'm Father Easter."
"Is that a thing?"
"No. Because it's Christmas!" Danny says chuckling.
"Oh. Well, you've made me want chocolate now."
"Good. Come on. You, out of bed. Downstairs. I have surprises."
"Tickets for the Indian Orient Express. That painting we saw in Paris, and permission to own a cat."
"How did you know?"
"Because those are exactly the things I want, and you are too clever ever to be wrong."
"How do you make you clever into me being clever?"
"I always protect your ego from the truth."
"Oh, er, thank you for that."
"It's Christmas."
"Hurry up, then!" she goes out onto the spacious top landing, turns and sees a blackboard with 'CLARA!!' written on it. Danny is halfway down the stairs already.
"Danny? Whose blackboard is that?"
"What blackboard? Are you coming?"
"Yeah, just a moment!" she turns away for an instant and when she turns back the word has changed to 'DREAMING!!'
"Clara."
"Coming!" she picks up the blackboard eraser and wipes over the word, turning it to 'DYING!!'
"Clara!"
"Yeah. Just a minute" she tries rubbing it out again. The word transforms into 'YOU' then 'ARE' then 'DYING!'
"You are dying!" now the whole landing is lined with blackboards with the word 'DYING!' written on them.
"Dying! Dying! Clara! Clara! Clara!" she closes her eyes and everything returns to normal.
"Well, come on then. You don't know what I'm wearing underneath this Santa outfit" Danny says.
"Your pyjamas. You're too shy to wear less than two layers" Clara replies.
"You could have used your imagination."
"Yeah, I don't really have to" there is now a blackboard at the top of the stairs behind her, saying 'CLARA!!'
"Clara!"
---
{Y/N} is holding Clara's hand. Clara is lying on the floor with a Crab over her face.
"Clara, you're dreaming. You're dying. Can you hear me? Clara?" {Y/N} asks.
"We did try to waken the others. No stimulus worked" Ashely says.
"Ok, we kill it. We find a way to kill it and we get it off of her. How do we kill it?" the Doctor asks.
"There's no way to kill it without killing your friend, too. And as a scientist, may I just say, I don't like the way you're talking."
"Santa. In the infirmary, you told the Sleepers to go to bed, and they obeyed you" {Y/N} says.
"Sorry, doesn't mean I can get that creature off her."
"No, but you can get back in there unharmed."
"What? You're asking Santa for help? He doesn't exist" Shona says.
"And how would you know that? How did you become an expert on what does and doesn't exist?" {Y/N} replies.
"I can commit several million housebreaks in one night dressed in a red suit with jingle bells, so of course I can get back into the infirmary," Santa says.
"Good. Because there is only one way that I can communicate with Clara" the Doctor looks at {Y/N} with wide eyes.
"Trust me" she whispers.
---
Fairy lights are trailed all over the place, and Danny and Clara are curled up on the corner sofa by firelight. There is a knock on the front door which interrupts a kiss.
"Your dad?" Danny asks.
"Going by the timing, I'd say so."
"Mmm."
"If you let him anywhere near the subject of golf, I will do a thing, and it will not be a good thing."
"Um, aren't we giving him golf clubs?"
"And I'm prepared to use them" they both chuckle as she gets up and goes to the door.
"Hi."
"Hi. {Y/N}?"
"It's not real, Clara. You know it's not real. It's a dream, and it's killing you" {Y/N} says.
"Merry Christmas" {Y/N} closes the door behind her and follows Clara into the living room "you remember Danny, of course."
"Not as well as you, clearly. You've made him a fraction taller. Merry Christmas, PE" {Y/N} says with a nod.
"Compliments of the season, ma'am" Danny replies.
"Dialogue's pretty good, too. Nice work. It's all in the detail."
"Just stop it" Clara replies.
"He's not real, Clara. None of this is real. What's real is there is an alien organism wrapped around your face, keeping you warm and happy while it eats you."
"Mince pie, anyone?" Danny asks.
"You're dying" {Y/N} continues.
"If this is a dream, how can you be here? How can we both be having the same dream?" Clara asks.
"There was only one way to get to you."
"And what was that?"
"I'm dying, too."
---
{Y/N} is lying next to Clara with a Dream Crab on her face.
"Have we just killed her? Have we just made it worse?" Ashely asks.
"She thinks she can join the dream, and get her out. Have a little faith" Santa replies.
---
"You just wake up. Just leave me here, please" Clara says, {Y/N} touches Clara's right temple, Clara recoils slightly due to how cold {Y/N}'s fingertips were.
"You have a pain right here. It's like an ice cream pain, but gentle. Do you know what that is? The skin and bone have been parted, probably half an inch and something has pushed right into the soft tissue of your brain and is very slowly dissolving it. I want you to picture it this way. Somebody has put a straw right through your skull and is drinking you. You should be screaming with agony, but there's anaesthetic. Everything around you right now, even Danny, especially Danny, that's the anaesthetic" {Y/N} whispers.
"Why are you doing this? Why are you saying all of that?" Danny asks.
"Because it's true. How long do you think you've been here?" {Y/N} asks.
"All day" Clara replies.
"No. No, no, no. Barely five minutes. Because dream time goes faster. Because this isn't real. Danny isn't real. Danny Pink died saving the world."
"I really didn't," Danny says.
"I'm sorry. I thought there was a way back for him, but I was wrong. I can't change that. He's dead."
"I didn't die saving the world, {Y/N}, I died saving Clara. The rest of you just got lucky. How long has she got?"
"Minutes, till it's irreversible."
"Well then, get out the way" {Y/N} moves aside and Danny walks up to Clara.
"I'm a dream and you know I am, right?" Clara nods "right, one thing. But it's important. It's a very important thing. That is totally how you guessed all of my presents."
"I miss you," Clara says.
"Five minutes."
"What?"
"You can miss me for five minutes a day. And you'd better do it properly. You'd better be sad. I expect my five. But all the rest of the time, Clara, all the rest of the time, every single second, you just get the hell on with it. Clear?"
"Don't you soldier me."
"Do as you're told."
"Brave" {Y/N} says.
"Dead already. How does she wake up?" Danny asks.
"I don't know. Just try. Accept this isn't real, and try" {Y/N} replies.
"Do it. For me" Danny says, Clara starts crying.
"When I wake up, you won't be there."
"Do you know why people get together at Christmas? Because every time they do, it might be the last time. Every Christmas is last Christmas, and this is ours. This was a bonus. This is extra. But now it's time to wake up" Danny and Clara kiss, a single tear falls from {Y/N}'s eye.
---
~Bread 🍞