Chapter One
When his clone showed up on the TARDIS, things had been….interesting. He had no where else to go and he couldn't just kick him out. Besides, he had been part of the reason for him even existing in the first place. The ganger had been sad when he 'd learned about what had happened to the Ponds, but he was delighted to hear that he wasn't traveling alone, that Clara was with him. Well, them. It was weird, having a double around. He knew that he could trust him, but sometimes he saw him with Clara and the jealousy seemed to take over, take right now for instance. He was brooding in the TARDIS library, having left them at their flirting game that they had going on. It was driving him mad and he was surprised with how well Clara had taken to having a second version of him around. He'd see them and think that she liked the ganger better.
Speaking of the ganger, he'd recently come up with this game where he'd sneak up behind Clara and 'attack' her with tickles from behind just to hear her laugh. He hadn't noticed that the original him had disappeared. "You don't have to go home yet, do you Clara?" The ganger asked from behind her. He hated how she left to go to her real life. He didn't know how the Doctor could stand it. He wasn't alone, not really, but when Clara was gone he was. And it wasn't like they spoke often, if anything, he'd been keeping his distance lately. The looks he gave him, he knew that his original wasn't happy with how he was acting toward his companion.
The ganger watched as well as heard of how Clara laughed and turned to face him. She was all smiles before the slightest of frowns appeared on her face. "You know that I have to go home. I've got kids to teach and bills to pay." Real life sucked. If only he could convince Clara to stay with them for longer than she had, though he knew that the Doctor had probably tried to get her stay longer before now and he obviously hadn't been successful with it. He doubted that he would be either.
"I know. I just...it gets boring here. He's not...I don't think that he likes me being here very much." He didn't mean to be complaining to her, but he was and she had a sympathetic look on her face. "Have you tried talking to him?" It was obvious that Clara had noticed how the Doctor was acting, though she hadn't done much to try to stop him from acting that way, not yet at least.
Nodding, the ganger replied, "Of course I have. He just mopes and it's getting annoying. I'm trying to be friendly with him but honestly..." he lowered his voice. "I think that he's a bit jealous."
Clara's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Jealous?" She asked. "Of what?" The ganger glanced around, the Doctor wasn't here. He'd vanished somewhere when he'd been teasing her. The copy gestured between the two of them. "Of us."
"Of us? That's absurd. We're just friends." Just friends. Those words, however true, stung a bit, though it didn't show on his face. He nodded. "I know that, it seems that it's him that doesn't."
A thoughtful expression appeared on the young woman's face. "We should do something. All three of us, go somewhere, cheer him up. He's probably not jealous, just...bored. Yeah, that has to be it."
The ganger chuckled. Bored. Yeah, right. "Alright then. Let's go find the Doctor. Let's go somewhere."
And so they did. They found the Doctor in the library, as the ganger had suspected he might be. He was his copy, he knew of the places that he liked to go to get away.
"Doctor?" Clara asked softly as she sat down beside him. She was worried now that the ganger had suggested that his original might be jealous of them. There was no reason for him to be. The Doctor was her friend, the ganger was her friend, that was all that was between the three of them.
The time lord looked over at her, his eyes vacant except for the sadness that she could see in them. Those big sad eyes, she wished that he wouldn't look like that. He should be happy, he deserved to be happy.
"What Clara?" The Doctor asked softly, avoiding looking at his double in the room.
"Why are you hiding away? You should be out there with us, taking us somewhere. Somewhere...awesome. Quit moping and get up."
There was a raise of eyebrows from the Doctor. Moping, he wasn't moping. The Doctor opened his mouth to tell her just that when the ganger interrupted him from doing so. "You are moping. You think that I've taken your place or some other such nonsense and that's not true. We need you. She needs you and the TARDIS, while she likes me, she won't let me fly her."
Maybe his ganger really wasn't that awful. They'd gotten along before, the Doctor just hadn't liked how he seemed to be gaining Clara's attention so quickly. What was he doing that he hadn't done? They looked exactly the same, dressed nearly exactly the same, it couldn't be the looks.
"Fine. Fine I'll take you two somewhere. Just don't...," he almost told them to not flirt and he saw Clara raise an eyebrow in question to what he was going to say. "Nevermind. Come along you two."
With a sigh, the Doctor stood and walked out of the room, leaving the two behind and looking at each other with a mix of confusion and surprise. They were confused by the Doctor's actions and surprised that he had been so willing to do what they wanted right away. Maybe he really hadn't been moping or being jealous, maybe they were just making assumptions that they shouldn't be making.
The two followed after the Doctor and found him already in the console room. "Where are we going Doctor?" Clara asked as she went to stand beside him, well...she actually leaned against the TARDIS console. He leaned an arm around her to flip a switch.
"Somewhere cold. You better go change," the Doctor told her. Somewhere cold? That was different, not that she was complaining. She hoped that wherever it was had snow.
"I'll be right back then. You two behave." The tiny brunette gave each of the two men pointed looks and then skipped out of the console room, down the hallway and into her bedroom. She was glad that the TARDIS wasn't being as cruel as she had been before to her because she liked being able to find her room this easily. Clara went to her wardrobe and grabbed the first jumper she saw. She then found a skirt and leggings to match, some boots and an extra warm coat to go with the look. It didn't take long for her to change, but she did fix up her hair a bit before she went to go see if they'd landed yet.
And landed they had done. Clara entered the console room just in time. "We're here Clara!" The ganger said excitedly. The Doctor was already at the doors, waiting for them. The young woman smiled at the ganger in front of her and said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!" The ganger offered his hand, but she saw how he looked at the Doctor to see if it was okay before dropping his hand at his side. She frowned. This had to stop. Clara grabbed his hand, tugged him along with her and then grabbed the Doctor's hand in her other. "Where are we Doctor? Tell me."
"Svartos. We've landed on the cold side of the planet, just as I wanted us to do. And look!" They had stepped out of the blue box, the doors closed behind them.
"Snow!" The ganger finished for him.
The Doctor looked over at his copy and smiled, actually smiled. They both loved snow, always had. There was just...something so cheerful and wonderful about it.
Clara was bouncing on the balls of her feet. And here he was considered the impatient one. "Really snow? I wish you'd brought us here when Angie and Artie were with us, they'd have loved this."
"Who are Angie and Artie?" The ganger asked, he really needed to give himself a name, he couldn't call himself the Doctor, that name was already taken.
"Oh. They were some kids of mine. Well, not mine, I babysat them." Of course. Now he understood. Clara was always around children, teaching and it made sense that she'd been a nanny. He was still learning a lot about her it seemed.
The trio began to walk, the Doctor leading the way. It was cold and the ganger found himself glancing at Clara every so often, she looked okay. They would have to make sure that she didn't get too cold.
"Look!" Clara said, pointing out something rising in the sky in the distance. Smoke. "There must be a fire. Are there people here? Or should I say natives? They're probably not people."
"You never know. They might be people. Humans have migrated all over the stars to make new homes for themselves when they knew that Earth was dying," the Doctor said knowingly.
The companion nodded. "We should go find out if they're humans. Where there's fire, there's probably food. And I'm starving. Your snog box has nothing but fish fingers, custard and jammie dodgers."
The ganger could have laughed at the offended look on the Doctor's face. "Oi! She's not a snog box. And those are my favorite foods. If you want other food on the TARDIS then bring it yourself."
Clara rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to reply but the ganger stopped her. "Shh...I don't think that those are people," the ganger said softly. They all stopped in their tracks. The aliens, whatever they were, didn't seem to notice them. There were two there, human like, but very obviously not human. Their skin was blue and they wore very little clothing. Clara looked between the two. "Should we go? I um...it's getting a bit cold. Maybe we should."
"Clara, we can't go just because we think that they might be dangerous. Come on. Let's go say hello."
The ganger glanced at Clara and she back at him. The Doctor really could be an idiot sometimes, then again, so could the ganger. Maybe he was right, they usually took risks, so why not?
The trio reached the small campsite and were surprised at what they found there.