Episode 7 – All The World's A Stage
Chapter 1
Just over a month had passed since the monster invasion at Coal Hill School. The repairs to the school buildings were well under way and the main complex was scheduled to reopen in just a few weeks. Some parts of the school were safe for use and to avoid disruption to their exams, Year 10 and 11 were utilising the classrooms. That meant that nearly 600 students had to be housed in other schools nearby. It wasn't just the students that had to find an alternate school, the teachers were also in the same position. Thanks to their role in saving the school, Clara and Danny somehow found themselves acting as the head teachers of the school. They were under no illusions, once the school was fully open again a permanent Head Teacher would be found but they were enjoying it whilst it lasted.
Their relationship had begun to blossom after the incident as they both turned to each other for comfort. Unfortunately their temporary roles meant that they couldn't spend as much time together as they would've liked. Clara had remained behind at Coal Hill whereas Danny was working at a school a few miles away. To compensate they were spending most of their evenings at Clara's flat in Shoreditch. Things had quickly progressed and it wasn't too long before the pair was sharing a bed.
One Saturday morning Danny woke up just as the first rays of sunshine was breaking through the curtains. He groaned, stretched his stiff muscles and groped the other side of the bed. He was expecting to find Clara asleep but to his surprise, the bed was empty. Lifting his head off the pillow, he could hear someone clattering around in the kitchen. Smiling to himself he threw off the duvet and padded out of the bedroom.
Once in the kitchen he noticed the cooker was on and there were several rashers of bacon sizzling away in a frying pan. The fridge door was open and he could hear the sound of bottles clinking. Danny casually leaned against the dividing wall, "Hey", he began, "hope you save some for me, I really worked up an appetite after last night".
"Really", Danny froze, that wasn't the voice he was expecting to hear, "I thought I heard some weird noises come from Clara's room last night". The fridge door closed and the Maths teacher's vision was filled with red, "You sound like a wounded walrus by the way", Jenny chuckled, in her hand was a glass bottle full of orange juice, "want a glass?" Danny paled and stiffly shook his head, "Didn't peg you for a tighty whitey's guy Danny", the red head turned and returned to her pan full of bacon.
Danny suddenly became acutely aware that he was standing in his girlfriend's kitchen, talking with her alien friend whilst dressed in just his boxer shorts. Subconsciously he folded his arms across his chest in an attempt to cover up as much of his body as possible. Jenny presence in Clara's flat had been a sore point for the teacher. In fairness to the Time Lady she had given the couple plenty of space. Without the need to sleep every night, Jenny hadn't used Clara's spare bed that often. Danny was still nervous in her presence, like her mother the red head was dangerous to be around as the incident at the school had shown.
Moments later Clara appeared from the bathroom, dress in a white bath robe. She was in the process of towel drying when she noticed an uncomfortable looking Danny, "Morning", she said nervously, "did I miss something?"
"Only the total loss of my dignity", Danny mumbled and quickly scrambled to find some more appropriate clothes.
Completely oblivious to Danny's discomfort Jenny finished assembling her bacon sandwich. She squirted in several different sauces before talking a large bite, "Don't Time Lady's have to worry about their cholesterol?" Clara asked with disgust. Jenny's sandwich was so full of sauce that it was dripping all over her plate.
The red head shook her head, "Faster metabolism as well", she replied with a mouth full of sandwich, "never have to worry about not fitting into my jeans", the Time Lady boasted. Clara grumbled something offensive under her breath and watched with envy as Jenny continued to devour her breakfast, "I've sent Mum a message", she continued, "she should be here sometime today". Jenny swallowed the food that was in her mouth and added, "Well, in theory anyway. You know how well she flies the TARDIS".
A small smile formed on Clara's face, she was genuinely excited to have a visit from the older Time Lady. Their friendship had been a little rocky since her regeneration but Clara had come to understand his incarnation of The Doctor a little more after the incident at Coal Hill. The problem was Danny, could she continue to lead a duel life knowing that her boyfriend was weary of the Time Lady? He barely tolerated Jenny's presence around the flat and the red head had hardly ever been there. "Still comparing Mum to PE?" Jenny chuckled, taking anoter huge bite out of her breakfast.
"No", Clara shook her head, "maybe and if I was I certainly wouldn't discuss it with her daughter". Mid chew Jenny raised an eyebrow implying that Clara didn't really have anyone else to talk the problem through with, "And stop calling him by that ridiculous nickname". With the teacher split amongst different schools some of them had to take lessons in other subjects to be accommodated. All the local schools had an abundance of Maths teachers so he had to shift over to the PE department. Once Jenny heard she immediately gave Danny the nickname 'PE', mostly to annoy Clara.
Jenny finished off the last of her bacon sandwich and dropped the plate onto the side, "The moment will come when you'll have to choose", the young Time Lady began, "Mum and I would never make you choose". She paused to take a swig of orange juice, "After all, who will watch Game of Thrones with me whilst drinking copious amounts of wine", she added with a small smirk.
Clara had to smile at that memory, on one of the few nights that Jenny had stayed over the pair had stayed up until 3am binge watching the show. She had realised two things that night. Firstly Jenny was fast becoming one of her best friends and secondly you should never try to go drink for drink with a Time Lady. Clara had spent the following day in bed with the worst hangover she had ever experienced and from the little she remembered from the evening, Jenny had barely shown any signs of intoxication. "Yeah The Doctor would probably spoil the ending for us", Clara chuckled, "she probably watched it centuries ago".
"More likely she was the inspiration for whole thing", Jenny added, "seriously any good witch or wizard in history, it turns out to be her". The pair laughed loudly even though it wasn't really a joke, The Doctor's footprint certainly loomed large over humanity. Once the laughter stopped, Jenny's face turned a little more serious, "You've got a really good man there Clara", she stated solemnly, "I would love for you to travel with us forever but don't do it at the cost of your happiness".
The brunette nodded slowly at the Time Lady's advice, Jenny certainly had a knack of knowing exactly what she was thinking. The tense mood broke slightly as a now fully clothed Danny walked back into the room. Jenny looked him up and down with a disappointed sigh, "You didn't have to get dressed Danny, I was enjoying the view". Clara slapped the Time Lady on the arm, forcing the red head to hold her hands up defensively, "Hey I was just messing around". She took another gulp of orange juice before handing the rest over to Danny, "I'm going to get my things together, you never know when the TARDIS will show up".
As Jenny left the room, Danny looked at the half drunk glass of orange juice like it was a deadly poison. Clara could only shake her head as she watched him carefully place the glass onto the side, "It's not going to explode", she groaned.
"You can't be too careful", Danny replied absentmindedly. Running a hand down her face, Clara couldn't quite believe how ridiculous her boyfriend was acting. She knew he wasn't a fan of either Time Lady but to take things this far was almost beyond her limit, "She could be carrying some kind of germs that are fatal to humans", Danny added.
"Now that just insulting", Clara spat, "you wouldn't like it if someone said that about you". Danny at least had the good manners to look ashamed at Clara's words, "I've been to alien worlds as well and I didn't need a good hose down afterwards". She placed her hands on her hips and glared at her boyfriend, "Seriously what is your problem with The Doctor?"
Danny scratched the back of his head before answering, "I've seen her world before, every day I was in Iraq", he sighed, "substitute inter-dimensional beasts for insurgents and it's exactly the same". Clara felt a little bit of anger towards Danny disappearing. He didn't like to talk about his time in the Army but she knew that he had seen some disturbing stuff during his tours. She hadn't compared her life with The Doctor to a war zone before, however, after witnessing the horrors of Trenzalore it was a pretty accurate description. "I nearly lost myself back then", Danny continued, "I couldn't handle it if I lost you in that way".
"Danny we'll be fine", Clara began with a confident tone, "I've got two of the smartest people in the universe at my side, one of whom could take down a legion with her bare hands". She took hold of his hands in an attempt to reassure him, "I'll be fine, trust me".
"I trust you", Danny sighed, "I kind of trust Jenny but The Doctor", he bit his lip for a few seconds, "she reckless and unstable. From the little I understood of her technobabble she tore a hole in the universe with a toilet roll holder and some sticky back plastic". Clara could tell from the look in his eyes that he wanted to believe that she would be safe with the Time Lady's but he just couldn't, "Some might find that incredible but personally I find that a little scary".
"I'm not giving it up", Clara stated defiantly, "I enjoy travelling the universe and helping people so you'd better not ask me to give that up Danny Pink".
An awkward silence fell over the front room as Danny contemplated Clara's words. In turn Clara was desperately trying to gauge Danny's reaction to her declaration but the former soldier wasn't giving anything away. "I'm not asking you to stop travelling", he began slowly, "but what if, at some point in the future, someone asked you to?" An angry retort was on the tip of Clara's tongue but Danny held up a hand to stop her, "What if you want to get married in a few years time, have children of your own?"
"Getting a little presumptive aren't we?" Clara frowned.
"I'm not explicitly stating that you do those things with me" Danny replied, "but I'm sure you'll want to at some point. How long do you want to keep travelling with The Doctor for? At what point do you stop rolling the dice and walk away from the table?"
Clara's face fell, it wasn't something she had thought about before, not seriously anyway. During The Doctor's extended absence earlier in the year she had largely accepted that the Time Lady wasn't coming back for her. She didn't have time to think about missing the TARDIS life because it had seemingly been taken away from her. Thinking about leaving of her own accord, that was a different scenario all together. "I'd better go", Danny said and gave a slightly shell shocked Clara a quick kiss, "give me a call tomorrow if you want to do something".
He left the flat and the moment the door closed, Clara sank down onto the sofa with a heavy thump. Her head was full of so many thoughts that they threatened to stop the rest of her brain from functioning. She sat there for several moments, staring blankly at the wall. The points that Danny had raised were flashing across her brain too quickly to think about them logically. Shaking them to the back of her mind, she returned to her bedroom to finish getting ready. A good adventure with The Doctor would help clear her mind and maybe answer some of the questions posed by her boyfriend.