Clara had been staying on the TARDIS for almost two weeks, and that was what worried him.

Before Trenzalore, she had been insistent that their routine was constant. She gave him her Wednesdays and nothing else, and he tried to accept that. She had her life, and he had his. It hadn't been the best of arrangements, but he'd respected her wishes. She'd certainly appreciated his understanding, however forced it sometimes was (he really wasn't very good at aiming; someday he'd miss Wednesday, and then what?), and that was enough for him. So when she'd approached him just a few hours after he'd pulled her out of his time stream, her request had shocked him quite a bit. He still remembered the strange, out of character way she'd acted when she'd asked.

"Doctor?" Clara's voice sounded thin and reedy, shocking him out of his reverie as he sat in the mechanic's swing beneath the console, fingers delicately tucking a loose wire back into its casing after it had popped out during the events of their latest adventure. He glanced up, surprised, catching a glimpse of bare feet at the edge of the room, the rest of his companion's body hidden from view.

"Clara! You're awake!" He leaped out of the swing and came up the stairs to see her standing just at the doorway in a position distinctly unlike her. With her feet turned in so one big toe rested over the other, her arms hugging herself and her hair in a disheveled mess, Clara Oswald was no longer his Impossible Girl, with her brilliant smiles and quick attitude. She looked, quite simply, tired. Broken. So curled into herself that it practically broke his hearts just to see her. He took a step forward, towards her. "Clara?"

She stepped back, lower lip quivering. For the first time he noticed the tiny tremors wracking her body. "How long have I been asleep?" She asked quietly.

"Not sure. An hour or so?" He slipped his sonic back into his pocket and pulled up one sleeve to glance at his wristwatch. "Just under two hours. How do you feel?"

She shifted on bare feet, tucking her heels together. "Not sure yet," She responded, her voice small. "Couldn't sleep any longer, though."

"That's fine. Not sure is fine. There's still time."

She bit her lip and glanced down at the floor, and it struck him how deceiving looks could be. If someone had told him just a day ago that the tiny, fragile girl in front of him was the one who would save his life, he wouldn't have known what to think.

She flicked her gaze back up to meet his, and he noticed her arms slip closer around herself. "Doctor?" She began hesitantly. He could sense a question hanging in the air before her lips parted and she whispered, "Can I ask for a favor?"

His brow furrowed. "Of course, Clara. Anything. Anything at all. What is it?"

She paused. "Can I… Stay here? With you, in the TARDIS? For a while, at least?"

His eyes widened. "On the TARDIS?" Under any other circumstances, he would have been excited, but somehow the look in her eyes made a feeling of dread settle in his hearts, and he knew that the question was not one she would have asked if she were okay.

She nodded slightly. "If… If that's all right."

The Doctor stepped forward and hugged her tightly. "Oh, Clara. Of course you can."

"Thanks."She offered him a small smile, and then stepped back and mumbled, "I'm going to go back to sleep now. G'night."

Her abrupt end to the conversation didn't stop him from replying with a 'good night' of his own. He leaned towards her and kissed her forehead lightly, hands momentarily resting against her cheeks. She gave him the tiniest hint of a smile.

After she turned and the sound of her bare feet smacking against the metal floor faded, the Doctor returned to the mechanic's swing in the hopes of finishing up his work, but found himself unable to focus. After the third time he gave himself a shock with an exposed electrical wire, he sighed and tucked it back into its casing as best he could, then returned to the platform around the central console and spent the next few hours aimlessly with the controls, his mind straying back towards Clara every time he allowed it to.

The next morning, he remembered, she'd come out looking much better. She'd smiled and told him that she felt okay now that she'd slept, but that she still wanted to stay. He should have known that meant she still had her doubts, but he was too elated to see her smile to notice. Any worry he'd had left nagging at the back of his mind had slowly melted over the course of the next few days, their adventures milder than usual but longer now that she didn't have to worry about responsibilities at home.

The sixth night of her stay was the night he first heard her screaming.

He'd jumped out of his chair and ran down the hall at a full sprint, Amelia's glasses still on his face and River's novel still in one hand. When he barged into her room, he found Clara in the throes of a nightmare, her hair damp with sweat and her eyes screwed shut. As he ran to her side they'd flown open, her pupils dilated with fear, and she'd said nothing as she sat up, breathing heavily. Eventually, she'd told him it was just a nightmare and to leave her alone, and that same conversation had happened the night after that and mere moments ago, as well. Everything had been quiet since he'd returned from Clara's room, but that didn't keep the Time Lord from pausing in his work every few moments to listen for the slightest sound.

The nightmares were normal, of course. Given what she'd been through, it was only expected that her mind deal with it in the only way it knew how: the dreams. It would take some time to heal, but hopefully she'd be right as rain within the month. Of course, he didn't have much experience at all with these sorts of things. His companions didn't frequently throw themselves into his timestream, after all. All this was fairly new to him.

It was nearly an hour and a half later when Clara finally emerged. He was alerted to her presence by the sound of shoes against metal, and glanced up to see her enter the console room. She looked all right, he supposed, her hair combed and down and a dark jacket drawn over a red dress. Like normal Clara. He came up to meet her just as she cupped a hand over her mouth in a yawn. "Hey," He greeted her anxiously. "How'd you sleep?"

"All right," She said, though she was still blinking sleep out of her eyes and she'd forgotten to put on makeup. "Pretty soundly after I woke up the one time."

He noticed she avoided voicing the reason she had awoken, and decided not to bring it up. "That's good," He replied. "I'm glad to hear it."

They both hesitated after that. The quiet hung over them like a suffocating blanket, both standing wordlessly because he still remembered her screaming and she knew he hadn't forgotten. Of course he was worried. Why wouldn't he be?

In the end, it was Clara who first broke the silence. She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped past him with a small smile, reaching one hand out to rest it against the edge of the console. "So," She said. "Where are we off to?"

His hearts twisted, confliction raging within them. Her casual way of brushing off the nightmares made him think that something was going on past the dreams, but she didn't want to talk about it. The last thing she'd ask for was him prying where she didn't want him, but what if that was what she needed?

The Doctor's head drooped slightly and he rested against the console, running one hand through his hair and letting out a heavy sigh. Humans weren't his strong suit, they really weren't. He wanted to do all he could to help Clara, and maybe for the moment that was playing along with her nonchalance.

There was a small cough, and he felt a shoulder nudge his arm. "You okay?" Clara's soft voice asked.

Despite himself, he let out a small chuckle. That was his Clara—always worried about him, even when she didn't need to be. "Of course I am." He pushed the matters of her dreams out of his mind for the moment and straightened up, forcing a smile. "Right, then! Traveling! I had a planet in mind for today, you know. Big old planet, sort of out near Akhaten. Totally uninhabited. Absolutely gorgeous in the summertime! What do you say we drop by for a visit?" He flipped a switch and glanced down at her.

A smile lit up her face and made her eyes sparkle—a real smile. He'd missed those. In spite of himself, he grinned back. Maybe he was overthinking things too much. She would be just fine.


A/n: Don't forget to review! Any words of feedback you want to offer are greatly appreciated, and fuel my writing. c: