Chapter Two
"So what about this Kate Lethbride-Stewart?" John asked, impatiently adjusting his bow-tie, a habit that Clara usually found him committing.
"Not so much as her, more of her fifteen year-old daughter."
"What about her daughter?" John snapped back.
"She claims that this teacher of hers has been...eying her suspiciously for the past few months."
"What? Like stalking?"
"Much like stalking."
"What's this girl's name?"
"Osgood Lethbridge-Stewart." Clara clicked her tongue, reading the name in the fine print from her files.
"Osgood? What kind of a name is that?"
"Well it's better than your name. John Smith, what kind of a name is that? It's as boring as watching paint dry."
John glared at his assistant. "Well, why report to us? Why not tell the school counselor, mustn't be that big of a concern."
"Any form of stalking or activity of a supposed pedophile is a big concern." Clara snapped back at him. "Besides, that school doesn't have a counselor." Clara noted, leaning back in her chair.
"Well, it certainly needs one." John tapped his foot on the floor for a few moments, his hand stroking his rather provocative chin. (Well, provocative is the word that Clara used to describe it. Hell, it was bigger than his bloody face.) Clara rolled her eyes, for John was one to ensue himself in deep thought at times, the longest it lasted was a decent amount of two weeks. All of a sudden, John's face lit up in comprehension, a smile that Clara knew all too well. It meant that he usually had one of those insane ideas of his.
After a while, Clara finally understood what he was getting at. She promptly shook her head. "No, nope, I am not going to do that."
He pouted in reply, a pout that Clara had learned to deny rather well. "No." she repeated herself in clarification, making sure her words got through that thick skull of his.
He glowered at her in defeat. "But you'd make a lovely counselor." he claimed.
Clara raised an eyebrow in response; unsure of whether she'd take that as a complement or not.
Five Months Ago
"So...how's it like? Working with The Doctor, I mean." Amy asked, taking a sip of her tea, steam pouring from the rip of its cup. Oswin looked up at the ceiling of Amy's personal library, for in all honesty, her answer was unexplainable. The Doctor and Oswin were on a business related holiday in Europe, remaining a few nights at their their temporary staying inn, manor of Amelia and Rory Williams, the principal house of a landed estate. The Doctor and Oswin just served as a 'married couple' staying for a visit.
"Oh, I don't know." Oswin replied, her fingertips brushing the dust off of the books sitting atop the library shelf, for the felt almost deadly. "You really need to reread a few of these." Oswin added, brushing the dust in between her thumb and index finger. It had been two months, nearly eight weeks of working with The Doctor, and Oswin thought he was an absolute idiot. He was just so childish, something that Oswin hadn't exactly gotten used to yet, but she'd figured that she'd have to eventually.
"You can tell me, I have worked with him before, after all." Amy noted, and Oswin couldn't object to that. She was right, Amelia Williams was the former Scottish assistant to The Doctor, worked with him for ten years before moving to Europe with her husband. Amy and Rory then mainly worked from home, for they still had an ordinary life to live.
"He's absolutely notorious, rather...alien." Oswin finally replied, already preoccupied in pulling books from shelves and reading their summaries on the back cover.
"Nothing else?"
Oswin shook her head in reply, carefully replacing a few novels in their rightful place.
"...Clara..." Amy then said, the girl before her then turning to face her in surprise for using her actual name. "I beg your pardon, but...have you ever found an interest in fancying John?" Amy suggested, placing her tea cup on the stainless steel tray that carefully lay on the polished wooden table.
Oswin raised an eyebrow at Amy's accusations. "No, never had such a thought."
"So you don't think he's...oh I don't know...good looking?"
"I never said that he wasn't; he could be a pants model for all I care." Oswin replied nonchalantly, seeming to look busy at reading an old, pristine edition of Pride and Prejudice. Amy raised an eyebrow in suspicion, Oswin turning to face her blankly. "That idiotic face of his has its potential, why'd you ask?" Oswin questioned calmly, unintentionally giving interest into her partner's looks.
"Not that major of a concern really, it's just that The Doctor has never really loved anyone." Amy said in despondency.
Oswin looked up at the seventh shelf of books that was far out of her reach. "That's not true."
Amy tilted her head slightly, for it was the slightest bit of an exaggeration, but she had her reasons. "Well, there was River, but to say that she was interested in another man." River was the one before Amy, she had been known to Oswin as 'the one with the skeptic space hair'. Truth be told, The Doctor had an interest in her, but he knew that he'd never get a chance. She was married, had her own children, and if he had the insanity to commit adultery, The Doctor knew that any intimacy between him and River was simply out of the question. River was partners with The Doctor not to be a flirt, not to be friends, but to work, and that's all. River had a life of her own, a world of her own, and The Doctor was just a petty boy with a crush.
"You've given John this change, Clara." Amy told her softly, as if someone were hear the conversation between the two of them. "He's been more... attentive, almost in a way as to impress someone."
"Is that someone supposed to be me?" Oswin asked defiantly.
"Only if you want it to." Amy smiled.
"No, I'm not going to do it." Clara said repeatedly as she walked defiantly down the long corridor of their office, John following behind her like a pleading canine.
"Oh, come on! It's a brilliant plan!"
"Me? A school counselor?" Clara scoffed at herself. "I don't think so."
"But Clara, you'll be great! Oswin and Osgood, you'll go well together." John said, making Clara giggle in reply. She stopped walking all of a sudden to face him, a defeating smile on her face. John, however, was rather surprised. Clara had hardly ever laughed at him, she would usually snap at the stupidity of words that came from his mouth, but for once in the their time spent together, she laughed.
Clara looked down at her shoes. "...if I'm going to commit myself to whatever idiotic and insane plan you have, promise that you'll be with me?" Clara asked earnestly, her expected sass and fiery attitude on a slackening respite. John had never exactly seen Clara seem so nice to him before. It was weird.
"Yeah, of course, always." he nodded his head in reply. "Just...why?" he questioned her in confusion.
"Because I don't like to work alone, Chin Boy." Clara playfully slapped him in the arm, then continuing to walk down the hallway until she was out of sight. John, however, stayed behind, somewhat clinging onto the surface of the floor, a bit stupefied at how Clara was acting towards him. She hadn't called him Chin Boy since the first day he saw her, a nickname that wasn't exactly into his liking, yet the obvious truth. For once she was giving into the fact that John was a complete idiot, and had actually shown that, for one, she kind of liked him that way. John had never really thought that Clara favored him all that much, and for the first time in his life, maybe he was wrong about that.
Some Sherlock he was.