My Impossible Girl
Eleven/Clara- Oneshot
"Run, you clever boy, and remember me."
He refused to believe that those were the last words he would hear her say. In horror, the Doctor watched Clara Oswald, his friend and companion, surrender herself to the whirling vortex of his time stream. The barbed strands of light engulfed her completely, swallowing her up instantaneously, as he watched from the floor, helpless. He didn't want to think that she was gone, truly gone, from his existence. His hearts and mind screamed at the thought. No. He needed her.
Uttering her name so quietly no one would even know his mouth was moving, he hauled himself upright. He was determined to try and save her if he could, preparing himself to run into his own time stream, prepared to risk his life to save hers. She'd risked her own to save him more times than enough, and it was about time he returned the favour. He closed his eyes and tried not to cry. Before he could save her, though, there was one last thing he had to do, one last deed he owed another important person of his.
Looking at her now, it was painful. As his eyes met those of the curly-haired hologram of a woman who loved him more than anything, he knew what was coming. He'd known it all along.
The final goodbye to River. His River, Professor Song, wife and friend. As he kissed her, he felt inside of him that this was wrong. He seemed to lose everyone close to him. He was going to lose her like he'd lost Rose, Donna, Jenny… Clara… and so many others. He was going to lose yet another person he loved. Again.
River was his last link to the Ponds. To Amy and Rory, two people he'd never see again, two people he could never get back. When she left, when she flickered away like a candle going out in the night, leaving only memories reminiscent of her very existence, it would sever any connections he had with the girl who had waited and her late husband.
And it almost drove him insane.
"Goodbye, sweetie," River smiled sadly, tears shining in her eyes, as she flickered and faded in the glow of the dancing time stream light. He returned it with sadness so crushing it almost enveloped him. But it didn't. It wouldn't. He would find Clara, the impossible girl, and he would bring her back. He was not losing another person, not today. Not in this lifetime.
He watched River disappear, watched her blink out of existence in a second, and knew that there was one thing that he must do now.
"I'm coming for you, Clara Oswald. Hold on, impossible girl."
With one last shaking breath, he leapt into the tornado of light, and prayed.
"Doctor!"
As the tears dried on her cheeks, Clara looked around her. There was nothing but the swirling fog of a place she'd never been before, the chilling mist of a place long forgotten pressing closely to her aching body. Hurting all over from the fall, she felt damp ground beneath her. Unwilling to get up, she sobbed and sank to the dirt, in complete and total despair.
"I don't know where I am!" she cried brokenly, looking for an answer. Looking for some kind of solitude in this dark hell. There was nothing. Her eyes scanned the shadows. Nothing.
"Clara. You can hear me, I know you can."
The lost girl looked up, hopeful. He was there… but where?
"But I can't see you."
"You're inside my time stream. Everything around you is me.
A man in a leather jacket and black trousers darted past, broad and unwavering, running through the mist and disappearing almost immediately. Clara watched with intrigue and fear, wanting to know who he was but knowing instantly.
The next was a tall, wiry man with spiky chocolate-brown hair, wearing a pinstriped suit and worn white Converse, his long brown trench coat flaring out behind him as he, too, ran into the mist, loping away as gracefully as a gazelle, gone in a heartbeat. The Doctor again.
"I can see you," she whispered.
"Clara!"
"I'm inside my own time stream. It's collapsing in on itself."
"Well get out then!"
"Not until I've got you."
"I don't even know who I am," Clara whimpered.
"You're my impossible girl. I'm sending you something- not from my past, from yours. Look up. Look."
Her eyes met endless darkness above. What was he sending her?
In the black, there was a flicker of colour. A flicker of hope, orange and vibrant, in the form of a single, fragile maple leaf. Clara reached out to the sky, catching the leaf and holding it close like a talisman.
"This is you, Clara. Everything you ever were or will be. Take it. You blew into the world on this leaf. Hold tight. It will take you home."
She stumbled forwards, the sobs threatening to overcome her, as she moved towards nothing blindly. She didn't even know where she was going. The tears streamed down her face endlessly, blurring her vision.
"Clara! Clara, come on!"
Her ragged breathing caught at the sound of his voice. She turned towards it, looking back through the mist… it was faint and it was uncertain, but through the dense fog, she could make out a shape. A shape with floppy brown hair and eyes as green as emeralds, a shape wearing a humble bow tie and a tweed jacket over a velvet waistcoat which crumpled as the Doctor, her Doctor, reached out towards her.
"Come here, you can do it, I know you can!" The Doctor's words were desperate and pleading. His hands were outstretched, yearning to hold her.
"How?" she called, barely able to see through the tears.
"Because it's impossible, and you're my impossible girl! How many times have you saved me, Clara? Just this once, just for the hell of it, let me save you! You have to trust me, Clara, I'm real!"
She was so, so tired. Wavering, she started to move towards him, trying to swallow past the ball of tears lodged in her throat. She kept her eyes locked on his, not allowing herself to think of anything else. Those emerald green eyes kept her walking, kept her moving, kept her going towards home. He was her home.
"Just one more step!"
And just as she thought that she would surely pass out, Clara Oswald, the impossible girl, fell into her Doctor's arms.
Clara fell into the Doctor's waiting arms just as her knees buckled, collapsing into him with one final, heart-wrenching sob. She'd done it. She had made it back to the Doctor- her Doctor- and it had never felt so good to feel him holding her. She ached with relief, tears streaming down her face as she closed her eyes and held onto him as tight as she possibly could.
"Clara! My Clara!" The Time Lord cried, burying his face into her ebony hair, crushing his impossible girl closer to him. She was here and she was his. All here, all his, all undeniably the clever, brave, beautiful Clara Oswald, the girl born to save him.
She sobbed quietly into his shoulder, clutching her maple leaf in one shaking hand, as he held her desperately.
He had not lost her. As he clasped her close to him, he vowed to never let go.
not sure if i got all of the dialogue right, but it was just a quick oneshot. the name of the doctor was amazing3
whouffle feels!
R&R?:)