Clara sat cross-legged on the bed in her room grading papers from an essay on classical literature assigned the week before. The results were in and demanding far more time than she would have liked for reading over each paper with their grammatical errors and poor theses. Not that she had particularly bad students. It is merely hard to breeze past even the smallest issues when one specialises in the perfection of writing.
The sound of a familiar wheezing groan overwhelmed the tiny space of the apartment. It wasn't Wednesday, but it also wasn't the first time the Doctor had arrived on the wrong day. A smile spread across Clara's face, the mere excitement of awaiting adventures already spiking her adrenalin. And of course, there was her Doctor. She hesitated only a moment when the thought of her papers pricked at her mind, but, she reasoned, it was a time machine, and bringing her work with her could actually save her evening.
Clara gathered her things, dashing out the door and into the lounge. The sun was setting through the window, creating a romantic glow behind the beloved TARDIS. She paused for admiration then took a step closer, and then a halt. She remembered. The Doctor, her Doctor was not inside there. It had been a month since his regeneration since everything with the clockwork man in Victorian London and the number of plot-twisting actions from the Doctor. Clara had had three weeks since the ditching in Glasgow to mull over the new face, as well as a first official adventure and an extra week to get used to the character change. Still...
The squeaky door of the Tardis pulled her from her thoughts as the now grey head of the Doctor poked out.
"What are you doing out here? Is your heel stuck?"
Clara faltered a moment at the surprise, "No, sorry. Just admiring the sunset."
The Doctor ducked back into the ship, leaving Clara to follow. Upon entering, the Doctor began babbling off the list of potential locations to visit. Clara sat in the jump seat, not fully listening, using this opportunity of not running for her life to study his new features again. No matter how many times she did it, there always seemed to be the discovery of a new line, a realisation of the true lack of similarity to her previous Doctor.
"Well? Where do you want to go?" the Doctor's voice broke in again.
"Oh, uh, you pick. Whatever's different."
The Doctor nodded as the cogs of his brain began turning. "Different..." he said, already logging in the coordinance. "Different it is!"
The two travelers trudged back into the Tardis four days later, Clara dressed in a commoner's Chinese garbs and both covered in dirt. They had wound up in ancient China inside a small village during a festival. As it happened, they also arrived just before a band of Huns and ended up needing to evacuate the town to avoid the slaughter.
Clara had gone to shower off the sweat and grime of the adventure and to catch up on the work she'd brought. After returning to the console room nearly two hours later, she was a bit surprised to not see the Doctor there. It was a rare occasion for the Doctor to spend any real time around the other areas of the ship. He was always tinkering with something or another in the console room, probably just trying to make sure his old girl would quit on him. He alone had been piloting her for over nine-hundred years. Clara couldn't think of any machine that would last even half that long.
Alone, Clara did her best to curl up in one of the jump seats and pulled out her phone. She began scrolling through her photos when she came across a face she hadn't seen in what felt like ages; the Doctor. It was him from before he changed. She'd taken a selfie of them in Time Square when he had agreed to take her to modern day New York. Though he initially found the prospect boring, she found herself barely able to hold him still long enough for the photo as he dashed about the city trying to show it off. In the shot, he face was tucked just over her shoulder with his usual dopey grin as his feet were already beginning to drag him away. She slid over the screen a few more times till she came to a video of the interior of the Tardis.
"Okay, so the Doctor is going to try and teach me again how to fly the Tardis. But this time I am going to film it, so I don't forget."
"Y'know Clara, it really isn't that difficult if you just be a little nicer to the Tardis. She'll help you along."
"Doctor, I'm not going to talk to and stroke her like you do; it's just weird!"
"We're connecting! She takes me all over the place. The least—"
"What's that?" The Doctor interrupted the video as he came up the stairs from the hallways. He bent over her shoulder, "Is that me?"
Clara quickly closed the app before the Doctor could get a look, "No. It's nothing."
The Doctor stood back, a slight shadow falling over his face, "No, of course not. I forgot." Taking a deep breath, he turned away towards the controls, "Back home then? Things to do, people to see, kids to teach."
"Yeah, sure." Clara pocketed the phone, and the engines were already roaring. The ship landed, and Clara left without a look.