Clara has a new rival for the Doctor's affections - herself!
After my previous multi Doctor stories, and my emotional Menna story Please Don't Change, I present a multi Clara story. This follows on from the closing moments of Time of the Doctor. Some fluff, some whouffle, but some emotional moments as well...
Clara looked across the TARDIS, and there he was, The Doctor. HER Doctor..
"You're young again. You're okay. You didn't even change your face."
"No need to, I was only dying of old age, nothing wrong with me otherwise, a refresh from Gallifrey, and I'm ready to roll for another 500 years! I quite like this regeneration anyway."
"Are you sure you're not suffering from vanity issues?" Clara smirked.
"Ha, ha, can't think where you got that phrase from! Anyway, better the devil you know Clara, I've no idea what the next version will be like, you might be grateful I've stayed the same!"
Clara rushed to hug the Doctor. She was very happy he'd stayed the same.
"But what does this mean Doctor? All the previous events at Trenzalore, does your grave now exist?"
"It's hard to say, a new timestream has been created, so the old events never happened. That grave doesn't exist, so you never jumped into my timestream to save me."
Clara looked a bit hurt.
"Sorry, what I meant is that you still did jump into my timestream, and I'm forever grateful for that, but that Time going forward has gone down a different route."
He kissed her on the forehead,
"But I can still remember it, and you only came after me because you'd seen my fragments? So how can I still be here?"
"Ah, yes, it's a bit tricky really, not sure how things have been affected really, it'll be quite interesting to find out."
At that moment, the Doctor's phone rang. As he STILL hadn't patched into the console, he once again had to go outside to answer it.
"Hello…Oh hello Madam Vastra…yes we're fine…an interesting day, well I nearly died of old age…hundreds of years…no she's fine…I sent her back to save her…something interesting…very interesting…I'll be right over."
"Vastra wants to see us urgently, someone who wants to see me apparently."
The Doctor powered up his TARDIS and returned back to Victorian London, January 1893, where he landed outside Madam Vastra's house.
"Vastra, good to see you again. What appears to be the problem?"
"Doctor, thanks for coming over so quickly. It's Clara."
"Hello" interjected Clara, who waved in her direction. "I'm over here!"
"No, not her. Governess Clara. She's alive!"
"Eh!" replied The Doctor. "But that's impossible."
"Well I am the Impossible Girl" smiled Clara. "So I did still jump into your timestream. Does this mean…"
"That your fragments might now all be alive? I fear that might be the case."
"Fear?" Clara glared at The Doctor.
"No, er not fear. It's just that it could be a bit tricky, all these versions of you, all alive simultaneously."
"Sounds good to me. Anyway, surely that's a good thing, all these Claras saving you."
"You should talk to her Doctor" interrupted Vastra. "Maybe it will help you understand what has happened. She's in the next room, she came here as her best chance of finding you again, a wise move."
The Doctor thought back to this amazing individual, who literally brought him back from his cloud, about the excitement he felt when he brought her to the TARDIS, and the pain and guilt when she died. Could she really be alive again? And how would the paradox of multiple Claras work out?
"Here goes" The Doctor replied, looking nervously at Clara, as he opened the door. In the other room he saw Clara Oswin Oswald, dressed in her Governess clothes. The voice that greeted him was pure barmaid Clara though.
"Doctor!" Clara Oswin Oswald cried out, as she rushed through the door, and planted a big kiss on his lips. "Still a good kisser I see" she smirked.
"You, er kissed me!" stammered the Doctor. "I never, I er mean…"
"I knew you'd return for me!" she continued. "You were all ready to take me away in your ship, the best ship in the universe, that's what you called it. I knew I'd find you again."
She then looked over and saw the glowering Clara, who was starting to wonder if all these other Claras were such a good thing after all.
"It's me! I er don't understand, is it magic, is it witchcraft? And why is she dressed like a tart?"
"I am not dressed like a tart!" replied an indignant Clara.
"Sorry" interrupted the Doctor, "Er this Clara is from the future, people dress differently then."
"This Clara?" replied Clara Oswin. "How can there be more than one of us?"
"She jumped into my timestream and got fragmented creating copies all over time and space, and you are one of them."
"Er, you lost me after jumped. But are you saying I'm a copy of her, a duplicate?"
"You're identical, same face, same height, or should that be lack of height" The Doctor laughed, until he saw the glares coming back from the Claras. "Sorry, er same cute nose."
The two Claras approached each other, it was uncanny. At that moment Strax entered the room.
"Two Claras! Identical clones, you are just like Sontarans!"
"Thank you Strax" replied The Doctor. "You may leave the room now. You will be summoned if I ever need your intellectual input into this issue. Though I may ask the memory worm first."
Strax left the room.
"So what happened" continued The Doctor.
"It's strange" replied Clara Oswin, "You'd showed me your magic ship, then this ice woman grabbed me and dragged me off your cloud. We were falling, I was falling to my death, then all of a sudden I found myself back in The Rose and Crown public house, collecting glasses before I'd met you. It was as if it was all a dream, but it seemed so real, too real to be a dream."
"Clara, all those events happened, but time got rewritten."
Clara Oswin looked even more puzzled.
"It's hard for even me to understand" continued The Doctor, "But my future got changed. I should have died, but didn't and to cut a long story short, as a result of all the changes, you're now alive as well!"
"Is your blue box still sitting on a cloud?"
"Definitely not, it's just outside. Fancy a ride?"
"I don't know, I mean I have the children to look after, they are with a family friend at the moment, but I have to collect them in an hour."
"Clara, this is a time machine, I can fly you back to five minutes ago if you want. What do you say? You must remember the feeling when I first brought you on board, it was going to be the day everything began. Then it was taken away from you."
"I've thought back to that moment, but it's all a bit blurry in my mind now, and I've started to wonder if it wasn't real."
"You asked if there was kitchen on board, as you like making soufflés. The other Clara makes them all the time, well tries to anyway."
Clara glared back.
"All of the universe is out there, waiting for you. Remember when I gave you the TARDIS key; that offer still stands."
"You never gave ME a key to the TARDIS!" interrupted Clara accusingly.
"Well, er I couldn't when I first met you, you were too, er impossible. And now, you don't need one to get in, old sexy just lets you in, now she knows you're, er normal."
"Well, I've always wondered what your ship could do" continued a wide eyed Clara Oswin, "I've never seen anything so magical. I guess one trip won't do any harm."
"That's the spirit" beamed The Doctor, grabbing Clara Oswin by the hand, and leading her to the TARDIS, followed by the other Clara who was starting to feel a bit left out.
Inside, Clara Oswin gazed in wonderment; it was as amazing as she had remembered it. Smaller on the outside, a magic box indeed.
"So, where do you want to go, eh? What do you want to see?" asked The Doctor, an eager look of anticipation on his face.
Clara thought back to when The Doctor had asked her the same questions. She could see the same excitement on The Doctor's face that she had seen when he took her on her first flight, and felt a bit envious. He had someone new and exciting, and Clara wondered if things would ever be the same again for her and The Doctor. It had been hard meeting The Doctor's exes, such as River Song and Tasha Lem, and seeing his feelings for them, but this was worse. She remembered when The Doctor appeared at her door as a mad monk, and now fully understood that his excitement was not for her, but because he thought she was Clara Oswin Oswald, Victorian Governess. Being jealous of someone who was basically the same as yourself, a tricky one to deal with...
After a pause for thought, Clara Oswin replied.
"Take me to modern London, where this Clara lives. I want to see where the original Clara comes from."
"Oh" replied The Doctor, "Nowhere more exotic?"
"It's exotic to me. What year is it now where she's from?"
"Christmas 2013, so over a hundred years in the future."
"The world must be very different in 2013. Judging by the way she dresses, I may look a bit out of place."
"Yes, added The Doctor, "You'll definitely have to take those clothes off."
Both Claras looked at him in mock horror.
"No, er, not like that, I er mean…"
"Blimey" replied Clara Oswin, smiling at Clara, "He doesn't hang around does he?"
"Ok, er Christmas Day 2013 then" continued the flustered Doctor.
"Maybe best avoid Christmas Day" suggested Clara, "Unless you wish to meet my family again. Though at least you've got clothes on this time."
Clara Oswin's eyebrows shot up.
"I'm starting to wonder what sort of person you are Mister!"
"No it's not like that" exclaimed The Doctor. "I was going to church!"
"You were going to church? Things have certainly changed! If I turned up to church naked, Reverend Brown wouldn't know where to look."
I think he probably would, thought The Doctor, who'd met a few Victorian clergymen…
"It's not that sort of church, and you don't actually appear naked, you have…" he searched for words that Clara Oswin might understand "…make believe clothes on, no not make believe, you have clothes on that don't actually exist, but look as if they exist, if er that makes sense..." he trailed off.
"Don't worry Clara" Clara interrupted, "We all still wear clothes in the 21st Century, I'd better find you something more modern to wear if you don't want to stand out too much. I have some longer skirts than this one, and at least there will be no problem finding something that fits!"
The two Claras went off to find Clara Oswin a new outfit. Clara Oswin was dumbfounded as they walked along the TARDIS's endless corridors, his ship was simply enormous. Eventually they found the TARDIS wardrobe, where Clara dug out the most modest dress she remembered wearing, which still seemed incredibly racy and improper to Clara Oswin.
The two of them returned to the TARDIS console; with Clara Oswin now wearing more modern clothing, their identical appearance was even more striking, even the Doctor had to do a double take.
"This is going to get very confusing" he smiled. "Clara Oswin, time to take your first journey in the TARDIS, December 23rd 2013 here we come."
The Doctor pulled the lever, the TARDIS took off then stopped, with a loud bang and sparks flying everywhere.
"That's not right! What's going on?"
The Doctor walked up to the door, and opened it. They were in the middle of nowhere.
"Come on sexy, why have you sent us here?"
All comments gratefully received.
I kept The Doctor as Eleven, as it made more sense to have him interacting with the Clara fragments he'd already met, rather than Twelve. Clara Oswin is Victorian Clara, if it isn't clear.
I wasn't able to specify a separate Clara Oswin Oswald character, as it's not on the list. Oswin Oswald was selected as a representative of the Clara fragments, and yes she will appear in the future...