Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Clara had walked away and he looked at her. He looked over the console, he had a duty of care, didn’t he? He looks over the screen and realises that he can’t just leave her. He pull the lever and arrives in the bathroom on the cafe she had been suggesting, he walks out before noticing the shocked human in said bathroom and goes to find some human money, when he finds it he goes to order two cups of coffee and when the woman asks for his name he responds with Clara. He gets a weird look from the barista but he ignores it and walks down to where everyone seems to be waiting. He sees Clara walk in looking a bit confused and upset and wonders how to get her attention, before deciding on raising his arms and waving, she looks over and sighs but moves forward. 

She hears her name called out and turns to the barista, taking it nervously. “Doctor, why did you get me coffee?” He looks confused. “You said you needed coffee.” She moves to a table. “I also said I didn’t want to travel with you, you’ve changed a lot.” He looks over her and she takes a large gulp of coffee. She looks at him. “You can go.” He shakes his head and Clara places her head in her hands before getting up to leave, before he asks her to wait. He takes her phone from her hands and looks up the train fare for her to go home. When he finds the amount he presses his screwdriver to the ATM and pulls out the right amount, pressing it into her hand. “For the train.” She stares up at him as he walks away and she looks up the location of the closest station. 

He watches her journey home from his TARDIS and makes sure she’s safe. He remembers a comment she made to his old form about how sometimes, after a stressful day, she wished she could just have a warm shower and an episode of a good tv show waiting for her, he materialises in her bedroom ten minutes before she gets home and starts finding a show she’d define as good and then tries to find the perfect heat for her. He lays out the towels the same way she does on the Tardis when she takes a relaxing bath and attempts to make her a hot chocolate, but in reality he manages to break her microwave and burn some chocolate. He walks over to the bedroom and tries to find her 101 places to go book, gently setting it on the bed in case she wants to read something, then he leaves. 

When Clara walks in she hears water running and walks curiously towards her bathroom, and when she sees it she knows what he’s done and she finally allows herself to cry, because she isn’t sure if her old Doctor is dead, or if he’s buried deep inside this new man. She steps into the shower and lets the tears run down her face. When she leaves the shower she moves to her living room, where the TV is playing a show she’d mentioned to him only once before and the fact he was paying attention made a small smile grace her face, and then she sees the broken microwave and her smile falls back into a frown. She stays watching the show for an hour before turning it off and walking to her bedroom, finding the book placed perfectly on the covers. She slumps down into the pillows and reads. 

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He had waited - in his mind - no less than a day before seeing her again, although he made sure it was at least a week after so Clara could have some time to herself. When he saw her again, she was sitting in a cafe near coal hill school with a coffee clutched in her hands. He walks out and almost smiles, before remembering what she told him in the restaurant, and he adopts a more straight face. He sits across from her and she doesn't look angry when he sees her, she just looks upset and that's what's worse. He looks over her eyes, to him they look impossibly wide and he places a few fingers on her cheek. She pulls back and he lowers his head and wonders if he’s done something wrong as she looks over him.

After that they leave, no talk, no explanation of what he’d done wrong, no question about when they’d meet next, she looked happy about the fact they were splitting up and he found that disappointing but he just walked over to his ship. He watched her from the monitor and saw the the way Clara reacted before seeing what it is she was reacting to and he raced out, even if they weren’t traveling together anymore, he still had a duty of care. He hears a sound like someone has punched metal and then he hears Clara making a horrible sound, sounding partway between a cry and groan. He runs faster and he feels his legs protesting against him. He hears a clanking sound and then someone marching away, he finds her on the floor with some clear injuries and he picks her up with a bit of effort, normally he’d make a snide comment about her but now wasn’t the time. He knows she’s in pain when she doesn’t protest when he starts walking towards the Tardis. He lays her gently on one of the beds in the Med-bay and looks over her. As she shuffles around a bit her top rides up to show a bit of her stomach and he sees the pink bruise forming, a few others disappear under her shirt and he looks over her. “Do you want something cold for that?” She nods quietly and he realises how strange it is for her to be silent. He presses something to her stomach and she looks up at him. “Can I go home?” He nods. “Give me a second, I’ll be back.” He walks out to the console room and enters in the coordinates that are so familiar, before walking back to her. “We’re here.” She gets up and he watches her hobble to the door, he knows she’ll deny any help offered by him, so he watches. 

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He told himself again and again that she’d be safe and then he’d closed the door and flew away. He finds a nice warm place in Victorian London in 1891 and the realises where he is when he sees her. She’s still in the same maroon dress and he knows that this is the echo that brought him out of his grief for Amy and Rory, and then she he’d fell from the clouds. He gestured for her to move closer and then slowly she does. He knows she’ll die just next year and smiles at her. “You know you’ll meet a grieving man soon, can you take care of him?” She looks confused and concerned and walks in the opposite direction and he figures that’s what would happen, who would listen to an old random man. He leaves after a few hours spent wondering whether Clara would be safe. 

He walked through the cold streets and eventually heads back to his Tardis. He rolls up his sleeves and paces round the console, seeing a distress call. He materialises round the ship and sees the woman standing in the entrance. In an attempt to try and move against what Clara told him he smiles, as wide as he can, hoping he doesn’t look intimidating, she raises her gun and paces around, but he keeps his smile on, just to go against Clara for a few moments. When she calms down he lands her on her ship and then he’s faced with something that causes him to run back where he came under the guise of getting someone to help, but he didn't know who to ask, he couldn't ask her, not after her saying she wouldn’t travel with him. He looks over his shoulder at the door. It is outside that door, but he shad to face it, but can he do it alone?