Chapter 1: Good Starts

He had passed out shortly after regenerating and she took it upon herself to drag him back to the Tardis. Once inside, she left him lying on the floor and took a moment to catch her breath. After her breathing normalized, she began to pace around the console room, not even sparing him a glance.

She was very nervous, to be honest. She didn't know whether she should be doing something else besides waiting for him to wake up. And if she was perfectly honest with herself, a small part of her didn't want him to wake up. At least not right now. She needed a little bit of time. She still wasn't mentally prepared for dealing with this new him.

Sure, knowing that he could change before hand was defiantly helping her cope with the situation. But knowing something could happen and have it actually happen right in front of you are two different things.

Would she like him? Would he like her? How different would he be from her Doctor? What if they didn't get along and he kicked her out? Her pacing increased at that thought, and she couldn't help but wish that she still had her Doctor. She missed him terribly already. She rapidly blinked to stop the flooding tears from falling.

Maybe she was just overreacting. She'll learn to love this him just as much as she loved the other. All she needed to do was wait for him to wake up and make sure they had a good start to whatever relationship they were going to have from now on. She took a few calming breaths and kneeled down next to him to finally let herself look over his new body.

He was slightly taller now, judging by how his pants were higher up his legs than usual. He didn't have that child-like face anymore. Wrinkles lined his face, especially around his mouth and eyes. Hopefully he was one for smiles. His chin was smaller, thank god for that. His hair was multiple shades of gray and she found herself liking it very much. It suited this new him. He might not think so, though. From what she could remember he really wants to be ginger.

"Maybe next time, Doctor." She whispered with a smile as she reached her hand out to ruffle his hair. However, she never got a chance for something caught her wrist in midair. The surprise caused her to yell but she quickly covered her mouth with her free hand.

Suddenly, he bolted up into a sitting position and looked around, confused. He finally seemed to notice that he was still holding onto her and let go to examine his hands. He turned them around a couple of times at differing distances from his face before finally settling his gaze on her. He blinked a couple of times. She tried to give him a small smile and waved her hand a little.

Uneasiness quickly settled within her when she saw his expression change from confusion to disgust. He gave a loud groan.

"You have got to be joking. As if the regeneration itself wasn't enough, now I have to deal with this!" He punctuated with a motion to Clara.

"What did I do!?" Clara shouted indignantly. So much for good starts.

"And not only that, I'm Scottish now! Well I guess that part isn't really that bad." He got up, swaying a little before steadying himself.

"Oh, I'm taller now…" He looked down at her as she too stood up, ready to help him incase he lost his balance again. "Or maybe you just got shorter?"

"No, I'm sure you're the one that got taller." She said hesitantly.

"Hmm…"

She eyed him cautiously while he turned around and walked slowly out of the console room and into the hall. His hands were slightly outstretched in front of him, like he was afraid of bumping into something. She followed behind and watched as he entered a room. She waited out in the hall to see if he was going to come out and entered when he didn't.

They were in the wardrobe, rows of clothes stood before her. She would have been amazed at the size of the room, but she had already been there thanks to the endless number of times the Tardis had changed the location of her bedroom, forcing her to wander aimlessly for hours.

She looked around, standing on her toes to see where he had gone to. She walked through the clothes and found him crouched down and digging inside a box full of…

"Glasses?" But he paid no attention to her and continued to look through the box, mumbling incoherent words and occasionally trying on a pair.

"Why are you looking at glasses?" No reply.

"It would be nice if you stopped ignoring me." She said, crossing her arms and taking a defensive stance. Nope, definitely not a good start. She was about to repeat herself when he suddenly gave a triumphant shout, startling her.

"Aha! Perfect!" He turned around excitedly and came to stand right in front of her, slightly invading her personal space. "So what do you think?"

She became slightly annoyed at his demand for attention when he wasn't giving her any and was about to sass him until she noticed the slightly rectangular, black rimmed glasses now resting on the bridge of his nose. She took a closer look, noticed the thickness of the lenses, and realized why he had acted the way he did before.

"Are you blind?" She asked trying to stifle a giggle. But apparently she didn't do a good job of it as his smile quickly dropped and a faint blush covered his cheeks. It was nice to see the blush was still the same.

"No!" He shouted with irritation and took a step back from her. "It's just… fashion."

"Of course it is, give me those." She reached up and took his glasses off.

"Hey! Give them back!" He reached out a hand to grab them but she evaded him and put the glasses on. Pain struck her eyes at the sudden blurriness and she blinked heavily.

"Oh my God! You're as blind as a bat!" She said jeeringly.

"I'm so sorry we can't all have perfect vision like you. Now give them here!" But she evaded his grasp again and continued to walk away from him to look around the room in awe.

"I'm amazed you made it all the way over here without tripping over or crashing into a wall." She said with a smirk.

"Oswin, give them to me."

She froze in her spot and turned to face him. He came up and took the glasses from her face and planted them on his.

"Did you just call me 'Oswin'?"

"Yes, it is your name after all."

"No, it's not."

He looked at her as if she was stupid.

"Yes it is. 'Clara Oswin Oswald'. See? After the 'Clara' and before the 'Oswald'. How do you not know your own name?" He asked incredulously.

"That's not my name, not really." She said with a huff.

"Then what is it?"

"It's just 'Clara Oswald'. How do you not remember that?" She asked, mocking him. He obviously didn't take the way she mocked him very well for she saw his eyes narrow dangerously.

"No, it's not."

"Doctor, I think I know my own name."

"No, you clearly don't. As it just so happened 'Clara Oswin Oswald' was written on your tomb stone. So, HA!" He pushed her forehead slightly with his pointer finger, crossed his arms, and puffed his chest out in victory. She had a feeling that he would be doing that quite often.

"Doctor, that was one of my echoes. You know, the echoes that saved you a million times? Besides, how could it have been my tomb stone if I'm standing right in front of you?" She watched as his triumphant stance changed to one of sheepishness. He shifted his glasses slightly. Her heart softened at his actions.

"Yes, well, I still like 'Oswin' better." He stated without looking at her and turning his attention to the nearby clothes on the racks. Clara couldn't help but smile. She liked this new banter between them, even if this new him was getting on her nerves more times than before. And the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea of him calling her 'Oswin'.

"You can call me 'Oswin' if you want." She said, hoping to heal his wounded pride.

"Oh, I was going to call you 'Oswin' whether you liked it or not. But I guess your approval makes things easier." He responded cheekily while looking through the clothes. She gave him a playful punch on the arm and smiled when she saw his body shake slightly from silent laughter.

Maybe this was a good start after all.

Author's Note: At first, this was going to be a short story (Just this chapter) but I couldn't resist writing more :D Yes, I will be having the Doctor call Clara 'Oswin' throughout this story because it's one of my hopes that he will do so in the show (it probably will never happen, but hey, I can dream can't I?) So if that bugs you then I'm sorry to say that it doesn't get any easier from here. I'm also trying to write them with a father-daughter thing going (inspiration coming from my own relationship with my dad) because I really want that to happen too. Although I have to add that I DO NOT object to a romantic relationship between them and that I'm actually hoping for that just as much as the father-daughter thing. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and I'm looking forward to hearing what you think. Thanks!