A Voice from the Past
Disclaimer: I don't own anything!
Summary: SPOILERS FOLKS! This is based off of an upcoming scene in series 8. The eleventh Doctor will call Clara and help her come to terms with the Doctor's regeneration. Some of the dialog is from the actual scene.
Clara sat, lost in thought. She and the Doctor, the "new" Doctor had just had their first adventure together, with the Paternoster Gang, back in old Victorian London. It was just like always, the Doctor and her, saving the day and running from monsters, but it wasn't the same. He wasn't, "her" Doctor.
The Doctor was in the TARDIS wardrobe room, changing out of the old Victorian night shirt he had been forced to wear through their adventure. She knew that regeneration was part of who the Doctor was, always had been, always would be, especially now that he had a whole new cycle of lives to live. Clara herself was perhaps the only companion to have met every Doctor from the first to the current one she now had to start thinking of as her friend.
She was still brooding when the Doctor returned. He smoothed his new outfit, removing every crease and wrinkle. He saw his companion and cleared his throat, shaking her from concentration.
"Well Clara, what do you think?" The Doctor asked, holding his arms apart. His outfit was similar to what the old Doctor wore; A dark blue frock coat, lined in red, over a white button up shirt, beneath a matching waistcoat, dark blue trousers and shiny black Doc Martins. Clara's eyes instantly went up to his neck. No bow tie. Overall she liked the new look, it suited him very well, but the lack of bow tie sent a pang of sadness through her.
Clara sniffed and stood and said, "Very nice, distinguished, reminds me of your third incarnation." This made him smile a bit, but it quickly faded once he saw her sad eyes.
The Doctor walked over to Clara and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm still the Doctor, the same man, same memories, just a new face. I'm just as unused to it as you are."
Clara nodded and put on a brave smile. "I know, I just need a little time."
The Doctor frowned a little and went over to the controls. He turned knobs, flipped switches and pushed buttons, the Time Rotor rose up and down a bit, and then stopped. The Doctor then turned to Clara.
"What did you do?" Clara asked. The Doctor looked into her eyes.
"I'm giving you some time." He held out his arm to the Door. Clara turned and opened the door. They were in London, modern London, about a block away from her Flat. Clara's face fell, and tuned to the Doctor.
"Are you asking me to leave?" The Doctor looked startled.
"Oh, no, no of course not, I just thought, you might want some normalcy, to get over the shock and all, I still want you to travel with me, love you to, but I understand if, you know…" The Doctor trailed off.
Suddenly Clara's cell phone rang. She groaned and took it out of her pocket.
"Just hold on a moment, don't go anywhere!" She ordered and walked away a bit to answer, the Doctor waited by the TARDIS. Clara opened her phone and said hello.
"Hello Clara." The voice startled her. That voice, that voice she knew and loved so much, but it couldn't be.
"It's me, it's the Doctor."
Clara turned to the TARDIS; the Doctor was examining the TARDIS's sign. Clara turned back.
"What do you mean it's the Doctor?" She didn't want to believe it, not wanting to get her hopes up.
"I'm phoning you from Trenzalore." The Doctor said, "Her" Doctor.
Clara looked back at the Doctor again, and then said "I don't understand!"
"From the past. From before I changed. It's all still to happen for me. It's coming though, not long now, I can feel it."
Tears began to fill Clara's eyes. "But…why would you do this for me?"
The Doctor chuckled. Back in his time he was in the TARDIS wardrobe, changing into some new, identical versions of the clothes he had worn on Trenzalore, for over nine hundred years. He found an old phone set in the Wardrobe room, to call Clara on. He slipped on his coat, holding the handset.
"Clara, you are perhaps the one person to know exactly who I am. You have been there for me ever since the beginning, you saved me so many times, throughout all my lives, and at my darkest hour, you brought me back into the light. You helped me to become the Doctor again, when I had thought that I had lost that right forever."
The Doctor straightened his bow tie; his hand glowed with brief energy. He stared at it for a moment, and concentrated. The energy faded.
"I know you're scared, but he will be too; and he'll need you."
Back in real time the new Doctor walked up to Clara. She still had her back to him.
"So who is it?" He asked. A sudden realization came over him. In the past, the Doctor heard a new voice with a Scottish brogue.
"Oh is that the Doctor?" Both of the Doctors said at the same time. Clara turned and looked at the real Doctor, who smiled softly.
The past Doctor laughed and leaned against the wall. "Oh Scottish, the Doctor's Scottish, I love Scottish, haven't been Scottish since I wore question marks, a pork pie hat, and carried an umbrella around! Oh I can't wait! But listen Clara, he may seem to be completely different, but he is and always will be, the Doctor, and he will care for you just as I do."
The Doctor straightened up and turned to the door. "Just promise me one thing Clara."
"What Doctor?" Clara asked tears and a smile filling her face.
"Run, run you clever girl, and remember me." The Doctor hung up, took a deep breath, and made his way to the console room, a proud smile on his face.
The phone beeped, and hung up. Clara stared at the phone for a moment, and then looked back at the real Doctor.
"Are you okay Clara?" The Doctor asked.
Clara grinned, ran to the Doctor, and pulled him into a deep hug. The Doctor was startled for a moment, and then smiled, and embraced her as well. He remembered making that call, remembered how he felt, how he was sad to lose the face he had come to love, but thrilled to have a new cycle of regenerations, to have further adventures for god knows how many more centuries to come, and he was so very glad to still have Clara at his side. They parted and smiled at one another.
"I don't need any more time Doctor, I'm okay, let's go somewhere fun!" Clara ran back into the TARDIS.
Another life ago, yet not so long in the past, the old Doctor smiled and said, "Good Luck Doctor, take care of her for me."
The Doctor stood outside for a moment and smiled.
"I will Doctor, and thank you." He said and went back inside of his wonderful, ship, and flew them away to parts wonderful and unknown.