A/N: I was thinking about the scene where Clara blurts out that she loves Danny and it inspired me to write this fic.

I kept some of the original lines from this episode – you will surely notice. :)

Twelve's hair is a little longer in my fic (just like during filming S9). It will be mentioned later in the story. Just go with it. Thanks. :)

Reviews appreciated!
Enjoy! :3

With Him Is Where Her Heart Lies

Chapter 1: A Boyfriend Error

This time, the Doctor went under 'deep cover' to save the planet from a murderous robot called the Skovox Blitzer. He disguised himself as a caretaker at Coal Hill School - the place where his beloved companion Clara Oswald worked.

His plan to get rid of the monster was clever - he distributed small devices around the building to create a time displacement vortex that would send the robot a billion years into the future - and to prevent from being scanned by the dangerous Blitzer, he used his special watch that was able to make him invisible. The Time Lord lured the creature to school in the evening because it was empty and no one could get hurt.

Unfortunately for the Doctor, Danny was not only working late that day but also sniffing around because he thought that the new 'caretaker' was up to something. By accident, he discovered a strange small device, which he removed and by that he changed the settings completely.

The Doctor ran into the room where the trap was set - and to his surprise he was shortly joined by Danny and Clara. Due to the settings chance, the Blitzer was sent only 74 hours forwards. He was angry and immediately threw a couple of sarcastic remarks at Danny, showing him that it's clearly all his fault. Clara didn't seem to mind at all because she wasn't happy that he had seen all this; she would have to explain it all. She decided to lie first - but the situation got quickly worse...

"He's my boyfriend. I thought you'd figured this out," Clara said, being quite confused now.

"Him?" The Doctor asked in pure disbelief as he pointed with his sonic screwdriver on the man behind her. His brain tried to work out why she wasn't together with Adrian. He wouldn't have such a problem with him because the young man in the bow tie reminded him of his previous incarnation, which Clara loved and admired. He knew she wouldn't fall in love with him - his new him. And there was something... calming on Adrian's appearance. Something that made him proud... something that reminded him of how much she had loved him once - a young, dashing madman with a blue box.

"Yes, him."

"No, he's not," he tried to convince her as if he knew better.

"Yes, he is,"

"Yes, I am," Danny confirmed but the Time Lord didn't seem to care at all- it rolled off him just like water off a duck's back.

"But he's a PE teacher. You wouldn't go out with a PE teacher. It's a mistake. You've made a boyfriend error," he explained to her, hoping she would agree with him.

"I am not a PE teacher. I am a Maths teacher," Danny spoke up, having enough of being ignored.

"You're a soldier!" The Doctor stated quite annoyed to Danny's direction.

"Why would you go out with a soldier? Why not get a dog or a big plant?" he asked his companion, in a tone, which revealed that he didn't understand anything in this tense moment.

"Because I love him!" Clara raised her voice but lowered it again at the end of the sentence as if she suddenly wasn't so sure if that was exactly what she wanted to say.

He gulped.

These words were like a knife that had just cut his hearts in half - they were screaming in agony and he could feel the strong pain in his chest. The Doctor's eyes travelled to the man who was standing behind Clara, examining him thoroughly from tip to toe as if he was an unknown species that he had never seen before.

Danny seemed to be surprised too - because she didn't sound very convincing.

The Doctor could feel the tears coming through his tear ducts to fill his eyes with the salty water, but he managed to hold them back.

His glistening blue eyes found Clara again.

"Why would you say that?" he asked, keeping his voice in tone as much as he could, but even the deaf could hear the uncertainty and fear in it.

"Is this part of the surprise play?" he added, suddenly willing to participate in Clara's lies.

The heart-breaking look on his face made her realise what she had just said and a strange feeling surrounded her - as if she had just betrayed herself.

And not only herself.

The sentence that echoed in the room seconds ago was born in her anger of the moment when the argument between the Time Lord and her boyfriend was about to get worse and worse. And yet they argued about nothing. A meaningless dialogue – like the theatre of the absurd.

She shook her head, "There is no surprise play," came a partial whisper of regret.

"Oh it's a roller-coaster with you tonight!" he shouted and waved his hands in the air, being grateful for the opportunity to react like this.

He turned around and headed to his sanctuary - his TARDIS that was hiding behind the brown curtains as Clara explained to Danny who the man in the brown caretaker coat was.

Danny was completely overwhelmed with the situation. It was hard to swallow that aliens and travelling through time really existed; and that Clara regularly sees another man even more. He hadn't been with her for a long time yet... He always saw that she was a bit unsure when it came to their relationship - he thought she just needed more time, but now he knew what it was. The look on her face, when the hurt Doctor made his way to the blue box, gave her away. At this point he would expect her to tell the truth and explain everything to him, but instead of that she started saying that everything was going to be fine and she walked with him through the corridors and out of the building.

Before the Time Lord entered the TARDIS, he turned around and saw her leaving with Danny. He walked over to the console and wanted to reach for the main lever. His arm was stopped by a disapproving growl of the machine, which made him look up at the time rotors above him while a tear-drop was running down his cheek. He pulled the main lever anyway - just to give it a try even though he knew she would refuse to lift off. He didn't know why... she must have had a reason, but he didn't care because he had no power to argue with her now.

He slipped the brown piece of clothing off and threw in the direction of the rail, but he missed and the coat landed somewhere down below. He turned around, took a deep breath and hit the console hard with his right fist to moderate the mental pain with a physical one. It was not enough, so he had done it again for the second and third time with even more power. It worked – but only for a while.

Thoughts were swirling inside his head as he rubbed the reddish knuckles of his right hand, which was resonating with heat now. He shuffled to his chair where he sank in. He had always been hiding his true feelings for her and suppressed them as much as possible. However, now his hearts were moaning in agony and he finally admitted to himself that he was madly in love with her. The thought of him ending up without his Clara troubled his soul. For whom should his hearts be if not for her?