Clara's Confession
I never understood before why the people who call themselves stormchasers do what they do. They spend their entire lives running after phenomena that have the rest of us cowering under shelter. I always assumed that they either have some kind of death wish, or their self-preservation instinct is non-existent. The thing is, when they find one of these storms, they don't just want to watch it. They want to be inside it, RIGHT in the middle of it. When it's over, instead of thanking their lucky stars that they're still alive, they pack up and go running after the next storm.
Then I met the Doctor.
He can't help it - it's just his nature. He's such a powerful force that everything and everyone he touches gets swept along in his wake, and he leaves everything changed. Sometimes it's like a lightning bolt that strikes the sand and forms a beautiful piece of glass; other times it's like a hurricane that devastates all in its path and leaves you picking through the debris to rebuild what's left of your life. If you have the privilege or the misfortune to travel with the Doctor, the only thing you know for certain is that nothing will ever be the same again.
When you travel with the Doctor you know, you KNOW, that the longer you stay - the closer you get to him - the greater the chance that you'll be destroyed by one of the many things swirling in his vortex. But it's too terrible and fascinating to turn away, and at the same time you can't help feeling safe in the eye of the storm. Every once in a while you have a close call, and afterwards there's the breathless, giddy feeling of having cheated death yet again. You briefly think about stopping, about going back to your life, but then you realize that your life just... doesn't mean as much as it once did.
When the skies clear and the Doctor is gone again, you feel bereft, almost like the sun isn't as bright as it used to be. The everyday things that used to have meaning instead leave you fretful, restless. You find yourself constantly listening for the sound of the wind that means the Doctor is back, and he wants you to come with him. Every time it happens I run straight into it. I can't help chasing the storm.