After falling through time for a thousand years, it wasn't a surprise when she found her legs didn't want her to walk. She tried of course, but they'd wobble, her knees would buckle and hit the ground before she got farther than a few steps. Each time he'd catch her, loop his arms around her waist and guide her back to her feet. He attempted to carry her multiple times, but she struggled against it. She was a thousand years old, or a hundred, or twenty-four, or something, but she wasn't a baby. She needed to walk.

The fifth time he pulled her up, she saw another one of him bolt passed and the ghost of his multicoloured scarf brushed her cheek. She screamed. It felt as though someone tried to open her skull with a sledgehammer.

"Shhh, come on, stay with me." The Doctor tried to sooth, but she could tell he was unnerved by the alternate versions of him, passing them on either side, oblivious to the meddling in their time stream. "We need to get out of here, you'll burn up."

"I'm dying, aren't I?" Clara asked weakly as another wave of pain hit. "Honest and proper dying this time."

"No!" The ferocity in the Doctor's voice startled her. "I did not nearly destroy time and space and everything I know for you to die on me again. Just, just hold on, we'll get you back to the Tardis and then…" He trailed off for a moment. "Then we'll take care of your head."

She didn't like the sound of that.

The pain hit her again and she screamed louder. "It's burns! Doctor, it burns!" She could feel the hot tears spilling out from her eyes. She'd tried to keep it together, but so much was happening, had happened at once. She was in the Time War, she was a Dalek, she was a Victorian nanny, she was a nurse, she was a student, a little girl… She was in a car accident, died of cancer, been in an explosion. It bombarded her and as soon as she had her feet planted on the ground, she collapsed again. "It burns."

"Yes, I know." He pulled her up again, but this time kept her in his arms , carrying her. She didn't have the strength to fight against it anymore. "Humans… your brains can't withstand this. We'll fix it though. You'll," His voice cracked. "you'll be back with the Maitlands soon."

She could barely breath now, only able to choke in a small amount of air between sobs, clutching on to the Doctor's coat, knuckles turning white. "You want me to forget."

He stepped sideways suddenly, jarring Clara as he barely dodged Three. He seemed to tense and she heard the cries of Ten becoming the Doctor she knew. "Yes." He said softly, sniffling slightly. "Yes I do."

"You'll have to cut off my head." She snapped with as much spunk as she could manage. She had to admit though, after she'd said it out loud, it might feel better.

"That'll have the same effect as doing nothing." He replied darkly, taking another step forwards.

A cool wind hit Clara's face and amongst all the pain, all the burning, it felt nice. She opened her eyes that she never noticed closing.

They were back on Trenzalore. Away from his tomb, back to where his Tardis was, not the one who was bleeding out and growing. They were outside of his time stream, she didn't know how that was possible, how you actually exit a time stream. At this point she didn't care. She wasn't sure if she'd fallen asleep or blacked out from pain, but next time she opened her eyes, she found herself sitting in the medical bay of the Tardis, still clutching the Doctor's coat. He had weaselled out of. The lights were off, it was almost pure black.

Of course, the Tardis was dead.

"I'm sorry I called you a cow." She sniffed, pulling the coat to her nose. "I'm so sorry."

Now he really would be alone, no one of his kind left, no Tardis and if he had his way, a very forgetful companion. She shook her head, immediately regretting the action as it felt like she'd gotten off of a roller coast. No, he wouldn't make her forget. She was not Donna Noble, she was Clara Oswald, the impossible girl, the one who had watched him afar and saved his lives over and over and, damn it, she would not burn up from this. Besides, the burning sensation was less now, less in her head at least.

She heard a familiar whirling. "I managed to ease the pain a bit." She heard the Doctor, and as he got closer, she saw his tired face lit up in green. "It's just temporary though. I… I can't just make your mind accept thousands of years all at once."

"What about Rory?" She whimpered.

"He lived through a thousand years, and it was horrible for him, but his brain had those thousand years to adjust. You were ripped apart by the universe, we're lucky you're together enough to talk still… you suddenly have memories from nowhere. It's going to overload your brain before it adjusts."

"So you'll just make me forget."

"I don't have a choice!" He snapped, desperation evident in his voice. "You think I wouldn't want to have you around? An impossible girl? One who knows all of me? One who was…"

"A time lord?" She finished.

"Yes," He sighed, "I know it's selfish, but if you… look Clara, you're not a time lady anymore-"

"I know the language."

He stopped. "I-"

"I know how to fix the Tardis, and what the sky looked like and the air smelled like, I remember you! Doctor, please don't make me forget it!"

He shook his head. "I don't want you too! But you'll die! I- I can't let that happen. You saved me, you've saved me so many times. I can't just let you die because I miss home."

"I'll ruin your coat." She said softly, the biggest threat she could come up with in the dark.

"Unfortunate collateral damage." He sighed.

"Just, just give me a moment, yah? Just alone?"

He nodded. "Okay, but not long." He placed a hand to her forehead. "You're, you're really burning, we can't leave it much longer."

He clicked the screwdriver off and she could hear him clamber away. Despite his normal lack of coordination, she didn't hear any trips or bumps or fumbles. She imagined that even dark, he knew the Tardis better than most people knew the back of their hands.

She thought of running, but realized her legs would never get that far. She tried to scan her memory, tried to remember what Time Lords did to block others from entering their minds, but it only made the burning intensify. That was the only time she'd been a member of a telepathic species. She was a sort of lizard thing back with Doctor eight for a while, but never telepathic. She wondered if it hurt, she wondered how much she would need to forget. For Donna it had been him. She couldn't live like that. Artie and Angie wouldn't let her for one.

She stared up at the ceiling, watching the odd patterns that she'd never noticed before. There must be another way, there was always another way…

She froze, her eyes widened. The room, she could see the ceiling.

She sat up, too fast for her body's liking. Where was the light coming from? She glanced around, the burning feeling intensified. It travelled from her head, down her neck, to her arms and legs until she felt like she'd been set on fire.

The light was her.

"Doctor!" She shrieked. "Doctor! Help me!" She was dying, she was burning up. She'd assumed he'd meant metaphorically burn, not actually catch on fire.

There was a clang as the Doctor smacked his head in to something metal in a rush to get to her. He shook it off quickly. "Clara!"

"It hurts!"

She watched his eyes widened and then close. He scanned her with his screwdriver. "Yes, I suppose it does." He said, swallowing hard.

"Fix it!"

He shook his head sadly. "I- I can't fix this."

"What? You're the Doctor! That's your promise!"

He buried his head in his hands. "This cannot be happening... Clara, I can't fix this!"

"Please."

"Close your eyes and think of your home. Think of what makes you happy and hold on to it no matter what."

"Why?"

"Because this is going to get a lot worse."

And then her world was fire.