She didn't know how long she burned for. It felt like eons. She knew she must be crying, but she couldn't feel tears. It was like she'd broken in to pieces again. Her shriek was hoarse and she wished for the Doctor to fix it. She wanted to call for help, to yell at him. She'd asked him for help and he'd just stood there, telling her to think of home. What did that mean? Was she going mad?

She thought of the Maitlands, and her father, and mother and wondered which she was more likely to see next. It hurt so much. How could she survive so long just to die now.

Then all at once the pain was gone. Startled, she found herself falling forwards. Her knees hit the ground and she instinctively braced herself with her arms. She glanced around quickly and then bolted up right. She felt much better. The pain, like a thousand burning suns in her chest was just gone. The fire was gone.

In fact, she felt pretty good.

She rolled her head from side to side, there was a loud pop. She was fine. She looked down, she was glowing slightly, strings of yellow light coming from her arms and then dissipating. Outside of that though, two arms, two legs, same clothes, same height. She felt her face. Eyes in the same place, nose, skin. She was fine, she wasn't charred. She looked around. The Tardis had lit up, the orange glow from before replaced with the normal silver and blue colours.

"You're alive!" She exclaimed happily, running towards the wall of the Tardis and pressing herself to it. "You're alive, oh, thank god." She felt the cool metal of the wall against her cheek and nearly started crying in relief. "You're alive, and I'm not dead!"

The Tardis hummed approvingly.

"Clara?" The Doctor asked. His voice more timid than she had ever heard it before. He held out his hand to her and helped pull her to her feet. She let him bring her to her feet and was delighted to find she could stand. The glow from her arms had stopped. She could hear voices in her head now, the Doctor's voice. He was confused and scared and scanning through all the medical knowledge he hand. She could hear bits of it echo.

Suddenly she felt hungry. Very hungry, as if she'd never eaten before in her life. She need only one and it pushed the other thoughts from her mind.

Food.

"Clara are you okay? Can you move?" Upon seeing her standing he beamed and he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up. "Oh my sweet impossible girl, when will you ever stop being amazing?" He kissed her forehead and her cheeks and held her to his chest, afraid to let go. She could feel both of his hearts thudding against her and tears in her hair. She wanted to say something special, she wanted to comfort him, to ask what had happened, but all should could think of was-

"Pears."

"What?" The Doctor pulled back, she could see confusion in his eyes. She couldn't find it in herself to care.

"I need pears."

The Doctor wrinkled his nose and put her back down. "P-pears? I hate pears they're awful and I never have pears, wait, you- you just exploded, you exploded, Clara. Why are you thinking of pears?"

"Pears are great, I love pears. You normally have food with you." She reached in to the Doctor's pants pocket. His eyes went wide at the invasion of personal space. It wasn't so bad, Time Lord pockets and all, but still...

"Clara!"

"Yes," She agreed to nothing. She wasn't listening, she was digging. He always had food. She wrapped her hand around something and withdrew her hand. She pulled out a baseball. She frowned, that was not food. "I notice we have power now." She added happily, tossing the baseball over her shoulder.

The Doctor looked around, he wrung his hands together as he always did when he wanted to tell a good story. "Yes, it's really quite interesting, when you-"

"We should go get pears." Clara insisted, tugging on the Doctor's braces. He'd taken his waistcoat off at some point in the dark. "I am starving." One of the braces snapped and startled him. He grabbed at it and tried to reattached it while she walked around the room.

He wasn't moving anywhere, he wasn't trying to get her food. She got bored quickly.

So, she bounded out of the room, grabbing the Doctor's jacked off of the medical bed she'd been sitting on moments earlier. She'd been burning, but now she was cold, freezing almost, and hungry. She pulled on the coat and ran off. The edge of the coat the last thing the Doctor saw before she rounded the corner. It took him a moment to register what had just happened.

"Oh you impossible girl." He sighed, chasing after her, his right brace still not attached properly. "Wait! Clara!"

The halls were different, but this time, Clara barely noticed. It was like there was a map in her head, every change, every wall and doorway she whizzed passed like it she'd done it a million times. She understood the coat now, it made her feel important. She laughed. She felt lightheaded. She'd been boiling and burning and dying and now, now she felt so alive. She passed a mirror on the wall. She stopped for a moment to check her hair. It was a bit messy, but understandable.

God she was hungry...

She bolted off again, until she finally reached the console room. She ran to the far side of the console, flipping switches, pressing button and pulling levers. Earth, 2013, one hour from when they'd left. The Maitlands would be out, the grocer open and still daylight. That should be good. She hit some more buttons, adjusting the location and time till it matched what was in her head.

The burning had now been replaced with an itching feeling. One that told her Norgella 6 in the year 2094 had the best pears, and that the chameleon circut could easily be fixed. The parking break was on and that the Doctor wore his clothes not to be 'cool' but so that he could be taken seriously and thought of as older. That he projected his thoughts when confused.

"All right, time to go!" She announced to the Tardis. It thrummed around her, the two finally at a truce.

That was when the Doctor finally caught up to her.

"Clara, you need to just sit down for a minute. You need to understand what happened." He placed his hand over Clara's who was still trying to pull the last lever. "I need to understand what just happened-" He tried to take her hand away to be rewarded with a smack to the side of the head. "Ow."

"Pears! Now, Chin Boy!" And she pulled down on the lever with all her might. She didn't understand, why he was trying to stop this, if she sat still it might come back, the pain, she could handle the itching.

Itching was much better than burning.


Not sure where this story is going, but the idea would not get out of my head.