The Sundays In Between

Disclaimer: BBC owns the characters and the episodes. I own my own imagination

This takes place after 'The Name of the Doctor' but before 'Day of the Doctor.' Additionally it takes place after 'Journey's End' but before 'The Next Doctor. Wibbly wobbly, timey whimey.

Rule #1: The Doctor lies.

He doesn't land on Sundays. Lie. He didn't, and he doesn't now, but there was a time in between the then and the now. He claimed it was because Sundays were boring and that nothing happened on Sundays. Lie. They were boring, until he met her. Until the TARDIS dragged his lazy butt to that sunny Sunday day. But Sundays went back to being boring when she left, walked away, disappeared. He avoided landing on Sundays from then on because it was her day... Well, one of her days.

It was the Wednesday after the Doctor had rescued her from his time stream, so naturally The Doctor decided the best medicine would be a safe, calm day at a beach on a foreign planet. Predictably, it was neither safe nor calm: Clara and the Doctor ended up in the middle of a war between some Silurians and a group of rogue Judoon.

"Doctor, at what point did you honestly think that offering a banana to them would stop their fighting?"

The Doctor looked up from the console indignantly and answered the brunette, "Oi! Bananas are a good source of potassium! Besides, it provided enough of a distraction to finish calling the real Judoon force to take care of the rogues."

Clara folded her arms and leaned back against the railing in the TARDIS, "I swear that half the time you don't even have plan."

"That's the plan," he retorted with a grin before turning serious. "Clara..." The Doctor walked over to her and peered intently at her, cupping her face with one of his hands, "Are you okay?"

Worry was etched all over his face; Clara wanted to make it disappear so desperately, "I'm-"

"Don't lie to me." Just as she saw worry in his eyes and wanted to get rid of it, he saw her pain and wanted to heal it. He was the Doctor after all.

Clara glanced at the floor before she reluctantly started, "It's confusing. The lives of the echoes are coming into my head at different rates." She began speaking quicker with a more frantic tone setting in, "I'll remember through a dream some nights, but other times I'm hit with a wave of memories that contains multiple echoes, multiple lives, multiple deaths. Living, dying, living, dying. It's a repetitive cycle! Ahh!"

Clara suddenly stopped and clutched her head. There was a pounding in between her temples that caused her vision to go blurry. She felt like a spring was inside her head exerting enormous tension because it was too big to fit in her head. "Doctor," Clara managed to whisper in distress.

The Doctor immediately brushed her hands away and gently placed his hands on either side of her head. He pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. Clara felt the tension slowly subside and the Doctor backed away a little but close enough to emphasize the importance of the situation. "Clara, this is the third time this has happened since you exited my time stream. How can I help you? Do you need to," he paused and grimaced, "stop... stop traveling? Is it too stressful?"

"No! The trips are good, they help. They provide a distraction from the chaos in my head. The slitting headache only comes when I'm stressed and thinking about the echoes. Traveling helps," the brunette stated with finality.

The Doctor sighed, "I just don't want you to get hurt." He kissed her on the head and then went back to the console. "Now, do we have time for one last trip before dropping you back home?" he asked enthusiastically while waving his arms about in an absurd manner.

Clara laughed, "It's a time machine. Of course there's time, but I am not a Time Lord that can function on minimal hours of sleep. This human needs rest before running off to another galaxy."

"But Clara-" The Doctor whined.

"Oi! If you really need to travel with me that badly just time travel to next week," she said with a grin. The Doctor spluttered indignantly.

Chuckling, Clara opened the door of the TARDIS and turned over her shoulder to say, "I'll see you next Wednesday, Doctor."

Just as she took a step outside she heard a frantic, "Clara, wait!"

The short brunette rushed back in, "What is it?"

"I-" The Doctor rung his hands and spoke falteringly, "You're a good person Clara. You help people when they need it, especially me. You've been my Impossible Girl for a long time... You are an extremely compassionate person with an overwhelming desire to help those in need. Remember that, Clara."

Clara frowned, confused about why he was saying this at this given moment; but when she saw The Doctor's slightly worried face, she smiled to reassure him. "Of course, Doctor. I'll remember. Until next week."

"Until then."

She resumed frowned after the TARDIS disappeared. The Doctor had spoken like he knew about something in the future. Clara shrugged and walked back to the Maitland's house, after all, when it came to the Doctor and time travel, events were bound to be out of order.

(The following Sunday)

"I'm worried. Are you worried? Of course not, that's a silly question. You're not the one that's starting a teaching job tomorrow and will probably teach the students absolutely nothing."

"Clara, calm down! I'm sure that you'll be brilliant," stated Angie.

It was Clara's last day with the Maitland family. She was starting her new job the next day, so Mr. Maitland decided that they should celebrate by getting some take away. Clara and Angie were left at home while Artie and Mr. Maitland went out to get the pizza. Currently, Angie was trying to assure her ex-nanny that she would be a wonderful teacher.

"But what if they don't like me?" Clara asked in a no-nonsense tone.

"I don't understand how anyone could not like you. Besides, they don't have to like you, that's not your job. But I imagine that in a few years time they'll realize what a great teacher you really were and how lucky they were to have you," Angie said calmly. "That's how it was for me. I hated you when you first started nanny-ing, but now..."

Clara smiled at the girl and stood up to embrace her. "You really have become an amazing young women."

Angie stepped back and replied, "I learned from my example. When I grow up, I want to touch the lives of everyone I meet, just like you."

"You give me too much credit," Clara turned towards the front door at the sound of a car door slamming. "Now, let's go rescue dinner from your Dad and Artie before they eat it all."

"Even though you'll have a new job, you're still required to stop by every now and then," stated Mr. Maitland. The small family was gathered at the door to say good-bye and good luck to Clara.

"Yes sir," she replied with a grin. Clara gave Artie and Angie each a hug and said, "Now you two better behave or I'll have to quit my job and come back here to fix up your mess."

They kids exchanged a glance and then Archie commented straight-faced, "We'll do our best to cause as much trouble as possible."

Clara gave them a watery smile and said, "I'll miss you too."

It wasn't until she was half way to her new flat that she realized something was wrong. The familiar blue police box on the side of the road entirely out of place. Clara checked her phone to make sure that it was in fact not a Wednesday. She sighed and then walked over to the box.

Clara frowned when she reached the police box. It seemed... Different from the last time she saw it. She pushed open the door and froze. It wasn't the same console room. Clara quickly walked back outside; yes, it had to be the TARDIS. She shook her head as she walked back in. It had to be the Doctor's. What other Time Lord had a TARDIS with a broke chameleon circuit stuck on a police box?

Clara walked up the console and looked around. The Doctor was nowhere to be seen. She gently ran her fingers across the console and said, "You're still you, aren't you?"

The TARDIS hummed. The brunette broke into a smile, "Of course! You recognize the girl who brought you your thief. He may not have seen me every time, but you probably did. Couldn't put a name to a face though. Oh... In the past, your future, you're upset that I don't recognize you. I'm sorry."

The TARDIS hummed in what sounded like a noise of understanding and forgiveness.

"You'll be mean to me anyway," she said with a smile. "Where is our Doctor? He has to be around here somewhere?"

Clara was so occupied with her conversation with the TARDIS that she didn't hear the door squeak open.

"You must have landed him here because he would never have willingly landed on a Sunday. According to him Sundays are-"

"Boring."

Clara whipped around, but then breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the Doctor. Albeit, not her Doctor, but the Doctor nevertheless. He had messy brown hair and a brown pinstripe suit. No bow tie. He threw a long overcoat across part of the TARDIS and slowly walked towards Clara.

"Sundays are always boring, nothing ever happens on a Sunday... Until now. Who are you? How did you get onboard?" he questioned, only a few feet away from her.

Clara looked up at him sadly, taking in how his eyes seemed to hold a great deal of pain, and yet, "Oh Doctor, you're younger... Your eyes hold so much regret and suffering, but its recent, not that of a man who has replayed the events over and over wondering what he could have done to fix it. You are not that man yet."

"You're from my future," The Doctor said slowly. He brushed past her to the console, "Well, we should get you back to the right time then, don't want to mess with my timeline."

Clara actually laughed as the absurdity of the comment resulting in the Doctor giving her a questioning look. "Doctor, I'm in the right time. You're the one crossing my timeline."

"But that doesn't make any sense. Why would she land me here if it would cross one of my companions' timelines?" he asked turning back to the console. "She should know that you're in my future; the TARDIS, after all, practically is time. Wait a moment, if you're my companion, why aren't you traveling with me right now or right then. Unless..." The Doctor trailed off and gave Clara a sorrowful look.

Clara shook her head and smiled, "No, I'm still traveling with you, but it's more of a part time thing. You pick me up once a week and we go on an adventure, but back to why the TARDIS would land you here." She stood next to the Doctor facing the console and continued, "She's always looking out for you... Oh she is brilliant and so are you." She turned to The Doctor and poked him in the chest, "I should slap, you know."

"Oi! What did I do?" The Doctor asked indignantly.

"You," the brunette poked him in the chest again to emphasize the point, "Well, the future you, knowingly left me to deal with your past self without a warning."

"How are you sure that he- I... your Doctor knew that this would happen today?"

The Doctor saw a look of fondness cross the girl's face before she answered, "He told me just as I was leaving the TARDIS last time I saw him that I was a compassionate person. That I was drawn to helping people, particularly him. I chalked it all up as him being sentimental after..."

"After..." The Doctor prompted.

"I almost died on one of our recent adventures, saving him, you, ironically enough, but enough about me. I'm obviously here to help you. Now sit." She pointed towards the lone bench in the TARDIS and crossed her arms, waiting for him to take a seat.

"Why do all my companions think that they can just order me around?"

"Because otherwise you wouldn't have picked us to travel with," Clara said cheekily. "Now sit."

The Doctor sighed dramatically and flopped down onto the bench. The short brunette sat down next to him, "Good." She continued in a much gentler tone, "What happened, Doctor?"

"Nope. Not until you tell me your name."

"Oh, Clara."

"Clara who?"

"Doctor who?" she retorted, but she froze, remembering how she almost died because of that question. Dying, that triggered other memories. No, she forced those aside. The Doctor needed her right now.

"Clara! What's wrong?" The Doctor was gripping her shoulders and peering intently at her. She had almost fallen over during the onslaught of memories. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Clara answered shakily. The Doctor gave her a patronizing look. "Really, I am. What happened to you though?"

The Doctor released her and rubbed the back of his head. He shook his head and moved to get up, but Clara grabbed his arm and yanked him back down.

"No no. You're not running away from this." She turned away from him and addressed the TARDIS, "A 900 year old Time Lord that doesn't want to talk about his feelings. How original is that?" The TARDIS hummed in what sounded like laughter.

"How did you-"

"No, not now. What just happened to you, Doctor? When you walked in here you looked like you had just lost someone." Clara gasped and covered her mouth," Oh Doctor, I'm so sorry. You just lost a companion."

"More than that actually. The earth had just been stolen by an old enemy of mine, the daleks."

Clara shivered and pushed away the memories that threatened to resurface, specifically that of the dalek asylum, "I remember that. That was before I met you. I now know how truly evil the daleks are. They personify hate. Their only other emotion is fear, that of The Oncoming Storm."

The Doctor whipped his head to her and asked in a broken voice, "They survived?"

She gave him a sympathetic look, "Don't they always?"

He sighed again, "My previous companions started gathering together to try to contact me about where the earth was taken. The battle that followed left so many dead, along with a bad situation with regeneration energy. I trapped the energy in my severed hand, long story," he commented at Clara's questioning look. "Anyway, when my companion touched it, the DNAs merged to create a Time Lord with human genetics and a human with Time Lord genetics." The Doctor shook his head, "My metacrisis forced the daleks to self destruct without offering them the chance to surrender."

Clara laid her hand over his, "He broke your rule. He couldn't travel with you."

He nodded, "I left him in a parallel universe with... A previous companion." His voiced cracked on the last word. Clearing his throat, the Doctor continued, "He's human anyway. One heart. No regenerations. The other metacrisis, Donna..."

"A Time Lord becoming human could live, but a human becoming Time Lord... She didn't..." Clara trailed off hoping that this woman hadn't died.

"No," The Doctor sighed and ran his hand through his hair again, "But to keep the Time Lord part from burning her up I had to remove her memories... Of everything about... This... Donna Noble, the most important woman in the universe."

"And the universe won't ever forget her," said Clara. The Doctor may have avoided the places where the stories were told of the most important woman, but Clara's echoes had heard the stories.

Clara also had an echo in Pete's World, as the Doctor called it; it was one of the few echoes that survived after saving the Doctor. The echo did her small part to help him when the cybermen started attacking, but just as the echo was about to be converted, The Doctor had shut all the cybermen down. Her echo still existed in Pete's World and had met Rose Tyler, so she could say her next statement with full confidence, "The metacrisis you left with your companion though, it's the gift that every one of your companions want, the rest of their life with you. She should be happy; it may not be traveling the stars with a madman in a blue box, but you still have the man inside. You gave her what you thought you could never give her, the rest of her life with you."

"I'm starting to see why I sent you to myself, Clara," The Doctor said looking at her.

"So," he leaped up and started fiddling with buttons on the console while peering at the monitor, "There seems to be a strange influx of time energy on one planet that has never had influxes of time energy. I should probably check it out to make sure that it's alright and that no one with less than honorable intentions is trying to harness it." The Doctor glanced over his shoulder at the brunette standing behind him, "What do you say? A trip to the stars as a thank you present?"

Clara grinned, "I have found in my own experience that traveling is some of the best medicine." She turned serious and pointed her finger at him, "But you sir, I don't care which regeneration you're on, you had better get me home in time to get a good night's sleep for my job tomorrow."

"Yes ma'am," The Doctor said while grinning cheekily.

The Doctor started flipping levers and pushing buttons and just as he was about to throw the lever to send them off, he froze. He looked straight ahead not looking back at Clara, "I have to ask. What are you to him, me?"

He turned around when he felt a small hand touched his shoulder. The Doctor looked downwards to the brunette that had a sad smile on her face, "I'm not here to replace them, Doctor, not as the girl you fancy or your best friend." Clara removed her gaze from his and looked absently behind him, "He, you treated me like a little sister." She looked back to him and smiled, "A little sister that he insisted needed protecting which is absolutely rubbish since you were always the one getting us into trouble."

"Alright then, little sister." Clara's glare went unnoticed as he turned back to the console and placed a hand on the lever.

"Allonsy!"

Clara did a lot of traveling; Wednesdays were for her fez loving Doctor and Sundays for the pinstripe one. She didn't discuss with the bow tie Doctor about what was happening with his younger regeneration, but every Wednesday, just before he dropped her off, he would ask where they had gone. Clara couldn't help the feeling that he was waiting for something. It made finally made sense when she responded one Wednesday that they had visited Mary Shelly.

The Doctor sighed, "Clara, I don't know what's going to happen to us next week. All I know is that this Sunday is the last time you'll see my younger self. After Sunday, the next time I have memories of you are in Victorian London. You knew that day would be the last and so-"

"Doctor," Clara cut him off gently. You already know what will happen; I'll be kind. We both know how much you hate endings, so I'll remind him that this isn't one."

The Doctor responded by giving her a fierce hug,

Clara laughed at the time lord in the pinstripe suit who was bouncing around the console like an energized puppy, "Shoreditch, London. Three minutes aaaaaaand forty-nine seconds after we left." The time lord turned to her and grinned happily. "You're home with plenty of time to grade papers."

The Doctor had noticed as soon as Clara had entered the TARDIS this particular Sunday that something was off. She seemed happy, but it was a little forced. In response he was even more upbeat than normal. He had taken her to the beautiful planet of Florana with its large expanses of aromatic flowers, oceans of warm milk, and beaches with silky soft sand. Clara had smiled in appreciation, but her slight apprehension did not fade. It might not have been a permanent good-bye for him, but in a way it was for her.

"So I'll see you next Sunday, Clara?"

"Doctor…" Clara started, "This was the last trip for us together like this. I'm not privy to all the entirety of our story, but I think that something big must be happening soon." She walked forward and raised up one her toes to kiss his cheek. "It was a privilege and an honor to travel with you, Doctor."

"And you," he replied. Sadness started creeping back into his eye at the thought of losing another companion.

"This isn't the end of the story, Doctor. In your timeline it's more like a prequel," Clara said trying to make the sadness in his eyes recede.

"What about in your timeline?" The Doctor countered.

The small brunette grinned, "It was a wonderful chapter somewhere in the middle, I think."

Clara squeezed his hand and turned towards the door. She wished that she had had more time to think of a more appropriate good-bye, but his lack of knowledge of the future prevented her from saying too much.

Just as she was slipping out the door she turned and looked the Doctor straight in the eye.

"Run you clever boy, and remember me."

Author's note: I have an idea about a sequel oneshot that would include events from The Day of the Doctor, but it hasn't been written yet and I have a busy schedule for the next few months. I hope to eventually get it written out but I have no clue when that would be at the moment.