Blown Away
Chapter 1: Change Your Life
Disclaimer: Doctor who isn't mine.
Summary: Clara knew she should leave. Tampering with the Doctor's past could have huge, perhaps disastrous, consequences, but she couldn't stop herself. Every time she tried, she would look into his old, sad eyes and realize that she could no more leave him than stop breathing.
The first thing Clara became aware of was the sound of the Tardis, the rhythmic groaning sound it makes when taking off or landing.
She had learned to look forward to that sound. She'd spent entire Wednesdays secretly waiting to hear that sound (though she'd never let on just how anxious she was for him to pick her up.)
Last she remembered, she was in the Doctor's arms at Trenzalore. She'd jumped into his timeline. She thought she'd be dead, but she wasn't. The Doctor had saved her, risking his own existence to bring her home. She collapsed into the safety of his arms, he'd carried her out, and then…
She opened her eyes.
She wasn't at Trenzalore, she wasn't even in the Tardis. She was in… London?
"I lost the signal! I got so close."
Clara stared at the man who exited the Tardis in shock. It was the Doctor, but not the Doctor she knew. As if to prove herself wrong a flood of memories hit her. Her echoes knew every Doctor fairly well. She had technically just spent a very long time saving his life.
"We've moved. Does it fly?" A blond stepped out of the Tardis. She must be a new companion. He's always picking up strays. She thought fondly.
Clara decided to make her presence known. "It actually just sort of appeared. How does it do that?"
The blonde and the Doctor turned as one to her.
The Doctor stared, seemingly stunned.
"Don't look at me!" The blonde said "I'm just as lost as you are."
The Doctor shook himself. "Advanced Time Lord technology, you wouldn't understand."
"Isn't it a bit intimate in there with two people?" Clara smirked. She was setting him up, there was no way the Doctor could not show her the inside of the Tardis now.
"How about you pop on in there and see for yourself." The Doctor smirked.
Clara walked through the doors, and was surprised. The Tardis was different now. She whirled around and gasped (using her real surprise to her advantage) "It's bigger on the inside!"
She couldn't help but beam at the pleasure the Doctor took in her reaction.
Then Rose interrupted. "What about the headless thing that we left back at the restaurant."
"It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?" Clara suppressed a snort. Apparently this one didn't have manners.
"I'll have to tell his mother. Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are alien." Rose cried.
Clara was nearly overwhelmed with the need to defend him. Because she could see, deep down in his eyes, that he did care. This Doctor cared so much that he built walls around himself, hiding himself behind scorn and disinterest to shield his heart from the pain.
"Look. If I forgot some kid Mickey" The Doctor snapped.
"He's not a kid!"
"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupide ape on this planet!"
"Alright." Rose conceded.
"Yes it is!" The Doctor interjected.
"If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?"
Clara laughed. The Doctor glared in annoyance at her.
"Lots of planets have a north." The Doctor answered defensively.
"What's a public police call box?" Rose asked next.
"It's a telephone box from the 1950's, it's a disguise."
"Pretty poor disguise, if it's from the 1950s. Can't this vaunted Time Lord technology make it look like something else?" Okay, so it may not have been fair using her knowledge to poke fun at the Doctor, but it was so worth it.
"Alright, so maybe it got stuck looking like this in the 1950s. I don't need any comments from the peanut gallery. What I need, is to find the transmitter." The Doctor replied caustically.
"Transmitter?" Clara asked. Now they were getting somewhere, specifically to the part where they saved the world, or something like that.
"The Nestene Conciousness is using it to control plastic all around the world. It's planning to invade. The transmitter should be a huge circular metal structure, like a dish or a wheel. Close to where we're standing. It must be completely invisible."
Both women had noticed the Eye of London exactly fit the Doctor's description. As usual, though, the Doctor was oblivious. Looking behind him several times and missing the obvious landmark.
Clara laughed fondly. "Oh, you daft old man. It's right behind you!"
It wasn't until after defeating the Nestene Conciousness, when Clara picked up a newspaper lying on the sidewalk, that her good mood disappeared. She knew the date; she would never be able to forget it, because today was the day her mother died.
Change.
After living for over 900 years, the Doctor felt that he should be used to it. Taking two companions on the same day shouldn't be as big of a deal as it was.
Then again, maybe living for 900 years only made him set in his ways. He'd be damned if he ended up a stick in the mud like most of the other Time Lords- no that was not something he'd think about.
He could live for another 900 years, and still feel nothing but guilt at the thought of his people.
"Are you okay, Doctor?" One of his new companions, Clara Oswald, asked.
Something about her unnerved him. The sound of her voice was… familiar, like a half forgotten dream. Her gaze seemed to pierce right through him, seeing into his soul.
"Fine. Always fine, me." He answered. Clara nodded, but it was obvious that she didn't believe him.
"Actually" The Doctor segued "There is something that's bothering me."
"What is it?" Clara's eyes flickered with some emotion he couldn't pin down. Affection perhaps?
"Why did you call me old? It's true that I'm very old by human standards, but you had no way of knowing that."
Clara froze for an instant, like a child with their hand caught in the cookie jar. The Doctor was secretly proud that his question hit so close to the mark, perhaps there was something more to this woman than there appeared.
Then she answered. "It's your eyes. You have old eyes."
Again, it seemed like she was seeing into his soul with those kind eyes.
As quickly as his pride appeared, it vanished. Only someone who had built up their own walls to hide their pain could see them in someone else.
"Right then!" He announced, a little too loudly "Past or future, when would you like to go?"
Change.
His timeline was changing.
Clara, it has to be Clara. She's done something. Is doing something.
He'd tried to bring her out of his timeline, bring her home, but when he'd stumbled out of his time stream, she was gone.
He'd panicked, and threw himself back into his time stream. He scoured every inch for as long as he dared, but found nothing. He returned to a concerned Vastra, Jenny, and Strax, defeated and feeling the same despair that had kept him chained in Victorian London in the first place.
Apparently, she had ended up elsewhere, and was making changes. He could practically feel her soft hands, molding his timeline, his very existence.
It was too late, far too late to stop her now. The new memories were forming faster than he could comprehend. As a time traveler, he would keep his old memories, but that wouldn't be of much use if Clara caused a paradox.
If she changed his past to the point where he wouldn't meet her, she might just pop out of existence, and if she was erased from existence, so would he.
Please be careful, my impossible girl.
A/N: So here is how this story will be structured: I'll spend minimal time recapping episodes. Most of the focus will be on the development of Clara and the Doctor's relationship, along with the potential consequences of Clara meddling with time.
Clara will be paired with all of the new series Doctors (9, 10, 11 & 12), though it will take a while to get to the latter two.