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Clara had to save the Doctor.

She didn't know why she did. She didn't know what he looked like, who he even was, but she knew she had to save him. He was in danger, terrible danger, and she had to get him out of it.

All this flashed through her head as she ran down the surprisingly even corridor. She'd been lost down here for what felt like days now, having wandered in out of a desire for somewhere to explore and found the tunnel was a bit more like a maze than a regular cave. She never could resist a dark cave, she supposed. The number of times she'd wandered into the mouths of caves by accident in her twenty-five years were uncountable by now. She'd thought she'd broken herself of the habit the last time she'd wandered into a cave; the bear in there had NOT taken kindly to being discovered. However, a tiny voice inside her had told her that entering this cave had been right. She was going to find the Doctor down here, she just knew it. Find him and save him, just as she was supposed to do [1].

Those thoughts in her mind, she took a corner rather quickly without looking. She quickly paid for her inattentiveness when she ran headlong into a rapidly-moving object and crashed into the ground.

"Sorry!" She cried, pulling herself and the other being back up. When she moved to let go of his hand, however, she found herself unable to. He was still gripping it tightly, and continued to do so as he sprinted off, leaving her no choice but to speed up as well.

"Hey! Hey! What are you doing?" she cried, stumbling once and nearly having her arm dislocated for it. "Are you trying to pull my arm out of my socket? Are you trying to kidnap me? Are you trying to-"

"Shut up, lassie!" he cried. "There's a bull beastie comin' this way an' I don' want ye to be right in it's path!" [2]

Something clicked in Clara, something from a life that wasn't her own. This man was young, maybe even younger than she. He was attractive, from the quick look at him she'd gotten. He was oddly-dressed, wearing as mismatched of an outfit as she'd ever seen. He was in danger, if his worried tone and running were any indication. He was trying to protect her, pulling her along with him even though it was probably slowing him down. What was more, he was able to keep this up with little difficulty. Clearly, he had a lot of experience doing this.

This had to be the Doctor.

With that revelation came the awakening of certain…urges. Urges she was sure she had to act on if this were indeed the Doctor. Thoughts rose to the surface of her mind, thoughts that were as tempting as they were embarrassing. She'd only just met him! Why would she suddenly want to pin him to the side of the cave and kiss him like there was no tomorrow?

Suddenly, the two whipped around a corner, and the man who was certainly the Doctor pulled her against the side of the cave, flattening his own body at the same time.

"Sshh," he hissed, putting a finger to her lips. "Maybe it will nae see us."

The beast came charging by the two moments later. It did resemble a Minotaur, Clara thought to herself, though it was considerably smellier than she'd imagined. She wrinkled her nose in distaste.

After a minute, the beast and its accompanying stench passed the two, and Clara breathed easily again as the two both relaxed and stopped hugging the wall like there was no tomorrow. Now then. To business.

"Thank you," she said, smiling at the Doctor. "You saved my life."

"Ye would likely hae been fine if I had done nothing," he replied sheepishly. "Now I need to go find Zoe and-mmph!"

The last was because Clara had rather suddenly smashed her lips against his, slamming them both against the wall with the force of her kiss.

"What in-what on-why did ye just do that?" the Doctor cried as soon as the two separated. His cheeks were a deep red, and he looked all in all incredibly flustered.

"Does there have to be a reason?" Clara replied with a question, smirking. That had been fun even if he didn't seem to know exactly what he'd been doing. There was something about his confusion that felt so right, as though she'd faced this before a hundred times.

"It's just that I barely know ye!" he protested, face still crimson.

"Well, now you know me better, Doctor. How about we go for it again?" she offered, leaning in.

"Och, I dunnae-I mean-what did ye just call me?!" he cried, pushing her off.

"Doctor," she echoed herself. "That's your name, right?"

"Och, no! I'm just-"

"Jamie! Oh dear, where did you get off to this time?"

Just then, another voice down the hallway cried out.

"That's the Doctor," the not-Doctor she'd just kissed offered. "Nae me."

Oops.

Clara looked at him again, shocked.

"But I was sure-"she began.

"Jamie! Oh, goodness sakes. You and your wandering," the owner of the voice scolded as he stepped into view. "You had us worried there for a moment. There's a Minotaur in these tunnels, you know!"

"Doctor-"

"Where did you get so turned around, anyhow?" the Doctor continued to scold. "Did you forget the way back again?"

Clara inspected the newcomer, quirking an eyebrow as she took in his bright eyes, shoddy clothing and mop top. He was continuously wringing his hands together, while his expression was best described as a worried one. He was older than both of them, and all in all reminded Clara of a quirky uncle or eccentric older brother.

…in short, not snogging material.

"Hello! Who are you?" he finally noticed Clara, gaze falling upon her. [3]

"Clara," she replied quickly. "I've already…ah, met Jamie."

The other man gave her a look as if to say met? Aye, I'll call that a meeting, you crazy lass. There was no leer in his eye, however. Thank goodness that he wasn't one of those boys. Instantly, Clara felt a bit guilty. Perhaps she'd been a bit too forward with him. She'd have to apologize later.

"That we have," Jamie said aloud, breaking off Clara's thoughts. "What're ye doing down here anyway?"

Just then, a bellowing sound could be heard from down the corridor.

"Less talking, more running!" the Doctor cried.

"Aye, sounds good!" Jamie agreed, seizing the Doctor's proffered hand. "Come on, Clara!"

The three took off in a sprint, Clara privately promising herself she'd identify if someone she thought was the cause of inexplicable urges before acting on said inexplicable urges.

Author's note: Hi, folks! I announced that I had completed this fic about a month ago on tumblr, but I've been adding a few things before I published it. I'm very excited to have finally done so. This was my first stab at writing Clara, and the first thing I've published relating to either Jamie or Two. Seeing as all three of them are some of my favorites from the Doctor Who canon, I've been really anxious to keep them in character while I've been writing. I hope I did so, but if there's something I got wrong that any of you have spotted, let me know.

Okay, so here are a few things:

[1]: I have a headcanon that Clara has some inkling of her mission to protect the Doctor while she's running around in his timeline. Her amount of awareness varies depending on how urgent her intervention is.

[2]: I have never before even attempted to tackle writing an accent. As such, my capabilities in the accents department are considerably lacking. Apologies. If any of you readers have any suggestions whatsoever, I will take them happily.

[3]: Yes, I have the Doctor meeting Clara way too early. However, I have a couple of rationales for why this could still be canon-compliant. First of all, it was established in The Snowmen that Eleven didn't exactly remember his adventures as his second self too well; he forgot several significant details regarding the Great Intelligence, after all. Secondly, Two got Jamie's face wrong in The Mind Robber. Even though he was under stress (and Frazer Hines was out sick, so he had to get it wrong!), it would be hard to mess up the face of someone as important to him as Jamie. Therefore, he (and, judging from some of Twelve's lines, perhaps it wasn't just that regeneration's issue) had rather bad facial recognition skills.

As always, enjoy and please review! Thanks!