Chapter One – The Most Beautiful

Clara Oswald had a crush. A crush on an alien? She shook her head, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. What as she saying? She couldn't have a 'crush' on him. He was a marvellous Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey and she was just some human girl spread throughout his entire timeline, right from the start.
After Hedgewick's World of Wonders, when the Cyberplanner had intentionally told her how 'the Doctor' felt about her, she had been wondering how she really felt about him. And the truth was, Clara Oswald had a crush.
She looked up at the Doctor, his dark brown hair curling over his forehead. His dark bowtie was slightly crooked, wearing it in only a sense of fashion he could pull off. Clara seemed to notice everything about him; the way he would tinker with the controls of the TARDIS, the way he could unlock doors with a buzz of his sonic screwdriver. Every time danger showed, her heart tightened at the way the Doctor protectively put his arm around her.
She leaned onto the centre console, staring at the flashing lights and retched leavers. "So, where are we going today, Doctor?" she asked, smiling. She looked up at the Doctor, almost laughing as he screwed up his eyebrows in concentration.
"We are… going to… if I can make this work, go to the stars!" He pushed down a leaver then looked at Clara, smiling as she had no idea what he was talking about. The TARDIS gave a whirr as it took off and Clara held on to the rail, smiling.
The TARDIS landed, suddenly going quiet and the Doctor held his sonic screwdriver up in the air.
"To my knowledge, we are exactly in the centre of the Ternovic galaxy, the second biggest galaxy in the universe."
"But why, Doctor?" Clara asked, standing on her tippy-toes and putting her arm on his shoulder. "Why are we here?"
"To show you the stars, of course!" the Doctor said, matter-of-factly. He straightened his bowtie and raked a hand through his perfect hair. "The Ternovic galaxy is the most beautiful galaxy in the universe."
"Can we see it then?" she asked, now itchy to see what the Doctor called 'beautiful'. He never gave compliments to anyone, not even her, which pained her. Every time she saw him, the strings in her chest tightened and she urged to be close to him; let him hold her.
"Of course, Clara!" the Doctor yelled and then ran to the door of the TARDIS. Clara followed him, her flowery skirt swirling around her. As the Doctor opened the door and the galaxy came into view, her heart almost stopped.
Before her, was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The stars were aligned in a spiral-shaped pattern and glistened in the dark matter of space. Red, gold, blue and stars of all colours glowed in the blackness and at the centre of the spiral was a large red star.
"Wow, it's…it's…"
"Beautiful?" the Doctor finished for her, staring at Clara directly. Her heart fluttered every time he looked at her in that way. It was like he had almost said she was beautiful. She so desperately wanted it to be true. She needed to know that he liked her back.
She gazed back to the stars, the intense heat feeling warm on her skin. She wished she could see it up closer, she wished she could-
She was interrupted as a large blue light came from the corner of her eye. Falling onto the ground, she put a hand in front of her face as the explosion rocked the TARDIS. The Doctor was standing up, his hair billowing in the wind. His face was a mask of pain as the sort-of explosion made him sway back and forth. He held on to the TARDIS's door, retrieving his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. The way his face was enlightened with pain and agony made Clara's chest tighten. What was happening?
She heard the Doctor say, "Get back into the TARDIS! We have to leave! We're about to be covered by a huge wave of intense star radiation! Get down!"
Clara covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes then everything went black.

Clara woke when a loud noise hit her ears. She opened her eyes to see herself in the middle of a completely white room. A slight buzzing rocked her eardrums and her eyes were heavy; she struggled to keep her eyes open.
"Doctor?" she whispered, frightened of where she was. She tried to remember where she was before this, but she couldn't. She couldn't remember a single thing. Where was the Doctor? She got up and noticed a circular table in the corner of the room. Struggling, she dragged herself over to the table and looked down at the familiar pattern on the table. The pattern was made up of glowing red and blue lights.
Clara felt a certain tug at her memories. She'd seen this pattern before somewhere… A memory sparked in her mind. All the events that had happened before came back to her. The stars, the galaxy and the explosion; she remembered all of the events, but what had happened to the Doctor?
The glowing red and blue lights suddenly reformed themselves. They moved and stretched until Clara could make out the glowing words the held them. 'Rose' the glowing words said and then reshaped again, forming the new words of 'Doctor'. Who was Rose and why did is say the Doctor? What did it all mean?
The glowing lights then stretched and tensed until another few words were spelt out. Clara peered at the words, trying to make out what they said. They were in a scratchy font that was hard to read, but the more Clara saw of the glowing words, she finally understood what they were. 'I am here', the words said.
Clara jumped as a whoosh sounded behind her. She spun around, her hazel-coloured hair swishing. In the opposite corner, she could see yet another table. She walked forward, closing in for another look at the new object. Curiosity filled her mind.
On the table was a large book with tattered paper and blank pages. Beside the book was a small, scratchy pencil with a lead tip. Clara picked up the pencil and looked at the old book. Appearing before her eyes, the words 'Write your message here' were suddenly scrawled on the paper as if someone had just written it there. But there was no one around, how could that be? Was she hallucinating?
Inspired by the sudden message, Clara put the pencil to the paper and wrote. 'This is Clara Oswald.' She had no idea what else to say so she left it blank. Moments later, a message appeared, lighting up the room in colourful writing. Clara peered at the writing till she could make it out.
'This is Rose Tyler.'