With the Doctor unconscious again, Clara stirred herself to make him more comfortable. She'd love to get him back to her bedroom off the console room but there was no way she could lift him off the tables. It was uncertain if she would do more harm than good if she tried to drag him. Ashildr's old room was even further away. She started to prepare the food the villagers had paid her with, just in case he awoke hungry. Clara kept checking on him, but the Doctor remained still and lifeless. The mere sight of him lying there so still there chilled her soul. In their long association, this was by far the longest time she'd ever seen him at rest. She could count the number of times she'd seen him sleep on one hand through their years together.

Her thoughts were roiling. 'We take forever to die.' What had he done now? God, what could she do? If only her Tardis were functional! She'd take him back to Gallifrey if nothing else. Even if they refused to help, then maybe the Time Lords would be decent enough to allow them to die together. Because Clara Oswald had no intention of going on alone any more. She wasn't the last of her kind, technically, but for all intents and purposes, she knew the life very well. The loneliness was lethal. For now though, the Doctor was back and she couldn't bear the thought of letting him go again.

The Tardis however, stayed stubborn and, in the end, a frustrated Clara threw the Gallifreyan instruction manual at the rotor. She'd found out long ago Ashildr had not understood as much of the book as she had pretended to. Gallifreyan text was still pretty much a deep, shrouded mystery to outsiders.

Finally, having exhausted all means of activity, Clara sat down beside the joined tables and watched the Doctor. To be honest, even this in itself was a joy. At least he hadn't changed yet. If she didn't know better, it appeared her former stick insect friend had become a tiny bit more muscular. He'd never be a weightlifter, her Doctor, but he didn't seem nearly as frail as he did in those early days of their travels together. To her eyes, oddly enough despite the fatigue, he looked younger than before. Maybe it was the long hair, maybe it was the clothes. But, except for the recent tension he'd been under, the Doctor looked more at home with this persona of himself. Or maybe Clara only hoped that was the case. But his appearance seemed an extension of the new found confidence he'd had during their last year together.

About an hour later, he began to stir again. Clara leaned forward, putting her hand on his cheek. "You're all right, Doctor. You're safe."

The Doctor opened his eyes and Clara felt a thrill of hope. The blue was showing through the white a bit more than before. His eyes moved until they found her face. Peering closely at her, he said softly, "You are here then."

Smiling, Clara took his hand. "You were expecting me to leave?"

The Doctor looked lost and surprisingly vulnerable. "I thought maybe I had imagined the whole thing." He looked away, straining to see exactly where he was. His eyesight was obviously better but not good. He also used the opportunity to turn his face away from her.

Still up to his old tricks then. Warmth for this man flooded Clara's entire being. A hug is a good way to hide your face. Foolish Doctor. "Well, if you did, I am imagining the same thing."

Dawning looks of horror graced both their faces at the same time. "Er, you don't think it's the -"

"The Kantrifarr?" The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know." He tried to sit up. "But if we are in the dream world together, the least they could have done was found me a more comfortable place. My back is killing me!"

Clara laughed and assisted him to sit up and swing his legs over the side. "Do you think you can make it to my bedroom?"

The Doctor looked blank, more so with those semi milky eyes. "Why?"

"Seriously, you are as silly as ever!" Clara exploded. "So you can lie down on a bed, you daft man. Remember your memorable speech about a whole room for doing nothing but lying down?"

"Oh." The Doctor appeared to think it over and Clara immediately felt guilty for giving him such a hard time. It was obvious he was struggling with memory problems, physical problems and, please God, not dying problems. Being this Doctor however, he added waspishly, "Well, I still don't like lying down though. Air clear on that."

"Come on." Clara replied impatiently, slipping her arm around his waist and took more of his weight than she was sure he was aware he put on her. They shuffled off to her room, the Doctor bent over and moving slowly. He would not admit to pain but Clara knew pain was there just by the way he moved. After she lowered him to sit on a nearby chair while she pulled back the covers from her bed, his gaze went to a small silver frame. The Doctor had to pick it up and hold it right in front of his eyes to see it. It was a snapshot of him driving a car somewhere. He frowned.

Clara moved to stand beside him. "Osgood gave me that. She took it on her phone while you two were driving all over London during that Zygon thing. I," she shrugged, "printed it out."

The Doctor gave her an arch look. "Why?"

To his horror, he could see well enough to recognize Clara's eyes were moist. "Because I missed you so much. It was the one way I could still see you."

"Oh, Clara," the Doctor said in a choked voice. He reached up and pulled her close, his head resting on her ribs and her arms around him. For a while, they simply held each other.

DW DW DW

The Doctor insisted he wasn't hungry but he did bolt every bit of the food Clara sat down in front of him. And added his customary ton of sugar to his cup of tea. Finding her eyes watching him, with a fond smile on her lips, he asked, "What?"

Clara laughed, and shook her head. "You must be seeing better now. You didn't miss the cup with all the sugar."

He looked uneasy. "I can see some things, shapes mainly, light and dark. I just can't figure out why I'm still having these vision problems. The Monks cleared that up earlier."

"The Monks?" Clara asked in an 'of course' type of voice.

"Bill asked them to. I said no, don't sacrifice the world to save me but you know what human companions are. They don't do as they're told," he added tartly.

Clara smiled wistfully. "I like him already."

"Er, Bill is a female." The Doctor corrected carefully.

Clara frowned. "Should have known."

Judging by his off balance expression, evidently the Doctor decided silence was best for a number of reasons. Seeing him finish the last of the tea, Clara stood to remove the tray and set it aside. The Doctor lay back, looking drained and tired. "Do you want to talk about it?" Clara asked carefully.

The Doctor looked uneasy, almost haunted. "No."

"Good." Clara settled herself on the side of the bed. "I have plenty of time to listen."

Looking annoyed, the Doctor's eyebrows rose in irritation. "I have always adored the way you ignore me saying no. I just want to be on the record about that."

Clara giggled. "So noted. Proceed."

"I don't really remember everything," the Doctor confessed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't even know how I got here. Wherever here is. I have no memory of it."

"What do you remember?" Clara asked.

The Doctor got that uneasy look, the one he wore when he knew Clara wouldn't approve. "A thing happened with….. Missy," he mumbled.

Clara's face hardened. "You mean she is still around?" she asked belligerently. "Or should I say she was still around you?"

The Doctor tried to wave it off. "I didn't ask for her, Clara," he said defensively. "It was a Time Lord thing; a thousand year obligation as it was."

Eyes widening, Clara asked, "You were stuck with her for a thousand years?"

"As it turned out, not that long. Only about seventy five. I tried to turn her, Clara. She could be such a force for good in the universe. I thought I had won her over but her previous self turned up, with his smart mouth and round face and I lost her again. She went with him. Maybe. I'm still not sure, really. I think she was coming back to me but I don't know." Lost in bitter thoughts, the Doctor said distantly, "I got a lot of people killed. Bill. Nardole, eventually. Including me, I think." He suddenly shut his eyes with a hand over them. "Do we really have to do this right now?"

Clara, seeing his obvious pain and weariness, relented. "Oh, all right. But eventually I do want to hear the rest of it." She paused a moment. "Do you want to rest for a while?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. I hate resting." the Doctor admitted. "Wait, are we alone? Where is Ashildr, Lady Me, Mini Me, whatever she is calling herself these days?"

"Ashildr died, Doctor," Clara said somberly.

His eyes popped open. "What? How?"

"Some sort of virus on Sambla Minor V. She got sick but could never get better. Eventually she got worse and worse; the Mire chip inside her quit functioning. She passed peacefully."

The Doctor was silent. "I'm sorry, Clara." He passed a shaky hand over his brow. "I'm sorry for so many things. Ashildr is near the top of the list."

Giving him a small smile, Clara touched his cheek. "She didn't die cursing your name, if that is what you're worried about. She was ready to go and she had finally gotten past blaming you. She did however, remain an opportunist until the end. Twice the little rat tried to steal the Tardis from me after we fought over something."

The Doctor gave her a look. "But you were alone after her passing?'

Clara looked at the floor. "Yes. I thought I understood the loneliness you felt before. Turned out I only knew a fraction of it."

"Did you keep travelling?"

Clara smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I did. Went to the Three Moon Fair on Gadsden Green."

The Doctor smiled. "Good choice. Love their purple fruit cocktails."

Clara laughed. "I thought you probably would. They are like a sugar high. I drank a couple in your honor, by the way." Her expression sobered. "It was fun for a while but then it just got so…. Lonely. I came here a few years back. Looked around but one day, without warning, the Tardis suddenly lost power and I've been stuck here ever since."

The Doctor nodded and looked over her head for a moment, pretending he couldn't see Clara being brave once again. He held out his arm. Clara accepted the silent invitation and crawled in beside him. Not hearing that double heartbeat in his chest was still disquieting but they drifted off to sleep together soon after anyway.

DW DW DW

"Clara!" A voice whispered loudly in her ear. "Clara, wake up! Seriously, you sleep even more than you used to."

Prying open an eye, Clara saw the Doctor sitting up, trying to get out of her bed, only she had him boxed in between the outer wall and her. "What's going on?" She asked muzzily.

"Well, I don't know, maybe I'd like to get up and stop lying here. Oh wait, maybe I'll just stay here because some tiny human insists on sleeping all day." The Doctor was full of his old impatience.

Sighing, Clara opened both eyes. As usual, she gave him a detailed once over. He still looked exhausted but the white milky film over his eyes seemed less opaque than yesterday. "How are you feeling?"

She half expected some sort of diversion but instead the Doctor subsided with what seemed suspiciously like a groan. "I feel like I've died." The sadness on his face was intense and painful to see.

Clara scrambled up. "What, wait, are you feeling worse?"

The Doctor immediately looked rueful. "No, not really." He stopped for a moment and Clara felt full force the weight of two thousand years of existence, regret and loss. "I'm just… tired. Really tired, Clara. But I absolutely cannot lie here any longer. This is driving me crazy."

"Okay, okay. But you lean on me if you feel dizzy. Can you see where you're going?"

"It's a little better," the Doctor said vaguely.

Grasping his arm, Clara helped him stand. He wobbled for a moment, then the eyebrows flared angrily and, with an arm around her shoulders and determination on his face, they left her room and moved to the windows of her diner to look out upon the countryside.

Even though neither of them should really feel the cold they were both startled to find the diner's windows frosted over and a definite chill in the air. Snow blanketed the ground outside and a strong wind buffeted the windows. It was a lonely, eerie sound.

DW DW DW

The Doctor sat on one of the diner's chairs, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, close to the frosty window looking out at a moonless night. He still couldn't really see good enough to state that for certain but Clara had confirmed it earlier. He wished he had something to do. He tried to fix the heat in the diner but there was no power. There was also no sonic screwdriver. No guitar. Itching to get into the Tardis console room, the Doctor longed to do a proper overhaul of the space time machine but in truth, he wasn't strong enough and his vision was problematic. Clara had fussed at him. He felt guilty. So, he sat here, useless.

He was appallingly weak. His mind was cloudy by hazy memories; pain, disaster, endless Mondasian Cybermen and… death. There was poor Bill, Nardole, Missy (what had happened there?) and the Master. Then they disappeared and he was in the snow and impossibly, there he was, the First Doctor, pompous as ever, the old man, and stealing his lines about not changing and being The Doctor. Well, this Doctor knew the regeneration fire better than any other Time Lord alive, certainly he'd done it more than most, but this whole thing it was so odd, so surreal. He had died, regenerated (Maybe? Maybe not?) and then ended up here on a dead planet with the frozen in time Clara Oswald. It could not get any stranger and he felt ill equipped to deal with it. He really was too old. Too tired to take this on anymore. This time he should have died and stayed dead. Like he wanted.

He shook his head, trying to clear his dark thoughts. It was the not knowing that was driving him crazy. Would he still change? Or was this the final death? At any rate, he certainly didn't trust Rassilon. The Time Lords may have only given him a single extra regeneration. But how did he get here? For that matter, how did Clara get here? And where, exactly, was here? With his eyesight in the state it was in, he didn't recognize these stars, but it was hard to tell for certain. And with Clara's Tardis inoperative, there was no way to find out either.

Glancing over his shoulder through the darkness back where Clara slept in her room, his heart constricted into a tight knot of worry and misery. The Doctor knew only too well how he had destroyed her life. She had sacrificed herself before to be fragmented into his multiple time streams. She had turned away from a normal life with Danny Pink to go adventuring with him. Then she had lost her life trying to be like him. And, in a botched attempt to fix his mistake, the Doctor had left Clara in a half-life with a frozen heartbeat, a stolen Tardis and the unreliable Ashildr as a companion. He had thought by going away he was keeping her safe.

Wrong again, Doctor Idiot.

So, here they were again in their strange odyssey across time and space. What were their options? Did they have any options? The Doctor knew Clara would insist on staying with him and that in itself made him terribly conflicted. If he died here, it would be yet another tragedy she would have to bear just because she'd had the bad taste to stay with him. But what if he changed, regenerated into a man his impossible girl liked even better? A nice young man like before, with good manners (well, as good as the Doctor ever was) and charming. His stomach lurched at the very thought, until he realized he was being a jealous idiot over himself. Moron.

However, maybe there was a chance Clara would want to be free of him with the right reasons and incentives, like any semi sane human being would. Maybe, if he could find some options and maybe if she had time to think it over, she would make the right decision this time.

A small hand rested on his shoulder, making him jump. "Hey. I looked around and you weren't there."

The Doctor turned to find Clara beside him, smiling in the glow of a lantern she carried. "I thought you were sleeping. Again, I might point out."

She laughed. "Shut up. I haven't slept so much in years. I must be relaxed although that would be a novelty with you around. What were you thinking about, sitting over here in the cold by yourself?"

"You. Me. Us." The Doctor looked horrified. This was stuff he never blurted out. Human emotions. Ugh.

Clara sat down beside him, placing the lantern on the table. The soft glow illuminated the area they were in and the table top but not much more. "I think you need to rest. Don't worry so much."

The Doctor gave her an incredulous look. "Really? We have nothing to worry about?"

Clara gave him an intent look. "These last few years have been really hard for you, haven't they? You haven't been able to unwind for a long time, it seems. Not that you were ever any good at it before."

The Doctor faced her, his hand seeking hers over the table. "I worry about you."

"Don't." Clara was firm. "And don't give me that duty of care stuff either. Not unless I can worry about you just as much. That is non-negotiable, by the way."

"Clara," the Doctor leaned forward, "if I can get this Tardis repaired, will you leave here?"

She looked puzzled. "Of course I will." Then a dawning light came into her eyes. "We will leave together."

"You would be better off without me," the Doctor said sadly. When Clara started to protest, his hands waved her away. "No, really, you would. Things didn't go all that well lately. People got killed around me. I got them killed. The worst it's ever been. I lost another companion, Clara. To the Cybermen again, if you can believe that."

Clara started, sadness in her eyes as she relived the last days of Danny Pink. Soon, however, she rallied. "That was then, this is now. I can handle myself," Clara retorted stiffly. "I'm sorry to hear about Bill, was that the one? But sometimes these things happen. It still doesn't stop us from traveling with you, does it?"

The Doctor gave her a look. "Yeah, I remember that. All too well. Too many times. And then some of you all go off on your own and get yourselves killed."

"Look, I blew that Raven thing, all right? I admit it," Clara bristled, still defensive after all this time. "But I've looked after myself for a long time, Doctor, without your help."

"Clara, I-"

"Don't. Let's just don't do this tonight. You are exhausted and I'm even tired. Trying to keep an eye on you has wore me out more than the previous couple hundred years combined. There is nobody after us and we're obviously not going anywhere soon. It feels good to sleep again after so long. So, why don't you get some rest? Try it for a change. I think you're owed several thousand years of rest by now."

The Doctor looked irritated as she pulled on his arm to get him moving. "You'd be safer without me, Clara Oswald. I haven't even gotten to the Time Lords yet. They might still be after me." He paused, looking uncertain and a bit fearful. "I can't even remember what I should be worried about. It is all so hazy."

Clara resisted the urge to give him a sharp poke in the ribs. "Shut up. Sleep. Now."

"Maybe I don't want to stay with you? Did you think of that?" The Doctor erupted with frustration. "Get tired of getting bossed around," he mumbled.

Clara just gave him a sweet smile. "I thought you'd be used to it by now."

DW DW DW

Very early the next morning in the grey predawn, Clara was suddenly startled awake when bright white light flooded in from the open door of the nearby console room. There was the sound of machinery coming on and some blessed heat coming into the room as well although she was at a loss to explain why she was feeling cold these days. But the warmth felt wonderful. Throwing back the covers, she was not surprised to see the space next to her was empty.

With a joyful smile, Clara flung back the blankets and ran into the white console room of her Tardis. The Doctor was sitting on the floor, tools and bits of machinery from the console spread out beside him and his hands deep within the bottom console of the time rotor.

Glancing her way, the Time Lord gave her an impish grin. "I see you finally decided to get up, sleepy head." His hair was mussed and he'd changed to a different dark coat on top of the vest and white shirt. The coat he now wore was one she'd bought on a planet one day when she was missing him so much. It was like an earlier coat of his and it even had the red lining that was so like his old one. Clara was pleased to see it fit him well. Looking around, it was obvious he had been up for some time. Found the coat on the chair, found the tools and immediately tore the Tardis apart. It was like old times.

Clara laughed, really laughed, for the first time in decades it seemed. "You! You're awake already!" She took welcome note of the blue eyes that looked back at her in good humor and affection.

"Um, yeah, I hope so. Otherwise I was sleep walking and have made a mess I cannot fix." The Doctor retorted.

Clara moved closer and sat down beside him on the floor. Last time we did this we were in the cloisters on Gallifrey, she remembered. Touching his arm, she asked, "How are you feeling?"

Giving her a hint of his old impatience, the Doctor said, "Fine."

"Yeaaah, I know, always fine." Clara replied soberly. "What about your hearts?"

The Doctor paused in his tinkering. "I seem to be just like you; no heartbeat." Abruptly switching gears, he replied jauntily, "But I can see again, Clara. See clearly. I figure that's a big improvement, worth two hearts any day." He reached inside the machinery, touched something and the time rotor made a noise almost like normal before it ground to a halt. Frowning, the Doctor asked waspishly, "Clara, didn't you or Ashildr do any maintenance on this poor machine? She's been abused terribly!"

Clara gave his shoulder (as his head was half in the column) a light smack. "Well, we looked for Time Lord Travelers Aid but they never showed up." Plucking at the sleeve of his coat, she pulled her companion's attention back to herself. "Doctor, do you think you can get the Tardis working again?"

"What? Oh yeah," the Doctor said expansively, with that endearing combination of brag and fingers crossed attitude he always carried. "And I expect you to be totally impressed when I do!" He smiled, the affection and humor shining in his expressive eyes.

Clara felt a rush of warmth, pride in her Doctor and his endless skills. Here was what had been missing for so long: him. The absolute joy that she had her impossible man back by her side again. It was overwhelming. Happiness flooded her soul. They might be able to leave this stale, sad planet. Suddenly the planet, the universe or whatever else intruded in their lives didn't mean very much at all. They were together again. The Doctor would get the Tardis working. "Oh, that's wonderful! Consider me impressed. Where are we going? Do you want to look for your Tardis?"

She could tell by the way his face fell that she had said something wrong, terribly wrong. His expression became dark and shuttered. She touched his arm again with more urgency this time. "Doctor, what is it? Tell me, please. You've worked it all out, haven't you?" This time Clara didn't let go and pulled his arm away from the time rotor and forced him to look at her. "Tell me," she repeated urgently.

The Doctor couldn't meet her eyes. "Clara, there is no going back for me. I think, well, I'm pretty sure, there is another me back in the universe I left behind. Another me who is the Doctor now, another me," his voice caught and roughened, "who has the Tardis now." He shook his head; it always so hard to hide what he really felt with Clara. Bill was so much easier to fool. "Another me who has a decent sonic screwdriver which I could really use right now," he added in disgust, struggling with the wiring.

Ignoring the evasion, Clara erupted in anger. "What? How can you be here if that happened? Surely they wouldn't be that stupid!" Reflecting on how that statement sounded, Clara rephrased, but her hatred of the Time Lords was never very far off. "Do you mean you regenerated back there but you're here now? How does that work?"

"I dunno." The Doctor finally did meet her eyes; his were red rimmed and shiny. "This face has never died before. But I have all new respect for Bow Tie; he did it and did it well."

Clara slid her hand into his, removing the everyday screwdriver he clutched from it. "So, if you are dead, chances are I am too, right?"

The Doctor looked beaten; his upbeat mood of triumph utterly gone. "I'm beginning to think that is the case, although your circumstances are different than mine, Clara. If I can get this Tardis working, it is possible you could go back. If this is another universe, that is. You are merely frozen in time. Not dead."

"Well, you can forget that rubbish right now," Clara flared. "I will NOT be parted from you again. I don't care what the Time Lords say, what the universe says, or what some ancient prophecy/urban legend says. I don't even care what you say. If you stay here, I will stay here. No arguments!" She softened. "Besides, you said you always wanted to look around the afterlife. This is our chance."

Suddenly clutching her hand, the Doctor said, "Look, Clara, I don't know exactly where we are. Is it the afterlife? I've no idea. I hate not knowing. Once, a previous me got stuck in E space for a while. It was like a parallel universe. This might be something like that. But I don't know what might happen. I might still, well, die again, as it were, and you might still be stuck here. You don't want that," he added intensely.

"And we might die together this time, officially. Or we might not." As agitated as the Doctor was, Clara felt only calm and great happiness as the burden of eternal loneliness lifted like low clouds along the coast on a sunny day. She moved her other hand to clutch both of his. "I had a taste of your life these past few… years? Decades? Centuries? I don't even know for how long." Tears sprang into her eyes. "I know it wasn't four and a half billion years, but it felt like it. I'm not losing you again."

The Doctor disengaged and brought his hand up, to brush away her tears. "Odd that you can still cry like that, being time locked." He frowned; his thoughts suddenly drifting.

"Odd that you can still cry being dead," Clara retorted weakly.

Clara's words brought him back immediately. "Time Lords do not cry. Really, I don't know where you get these weird ideas," the Doctor informed her gravely but his affronted disapproval was diluted by the warmth in those compelling eyes now blessedly free of white film.

"Oh, go on!" Clara snapped impatiently, almost ready to swat him again. "So, can you get this thing going or not?"

The Doctor gave her that insufferable aren't I clever grin. "Of course I can." He reached up and touched a switch. For the first time in years, the time rotor came alive. "The final touch needed was the imprint of a Time Lord. After they are dormant for a while, a Tardis will shut down if not properly bonded."

"Oh, you weren't being clever at all then. Just a trick of genetics," Clara retorted.

The Doctor gave her that full on smile he used so rarely in their early days. "I'm always clever," he announced with insufferable pride. His face softened and his eyes glistened. "Are you sure you are ready for a brand new adventure, Clara Oswald? Wherever it leads? No idea where we're going or even where we are? Or who we are?"

She leaned forward and kissed his cool lips. Neither of them had much body heat these days but really, who cared? "None of that stuff matters to me. We're together. Let's go see what's out there," Clara suddenly stopped, abruptly. "Well, maybe not yet."

The Doctor looked puzzled but his eyes looked stricken. "You do want to try and go back?"

Clara made an impatient noise. "No. Of course not. But maybe we can help these people here, before we leave. They have a miserable existence. Do you think you can restore some of their civilization?"

Looking thoughtful, the Doctor pondered. "I don't know." He scowled. "I don't even know what's going on here. The Tardis was Time Lord technology; I have no idea what these people use. Or used to have."

"Let's take a look around and see. Unfamiliarity never stopped you before." Clara stopped suddenly.

The Doctor gave her a look. "What?"

"I think I know how you got here, Doctor. The Tardis sent you. Your Tardis. Sent you to me." Clara stared at him intently.

"Clara, that is the craziest idea I've ever heard. The Tardis just doesn't go off and…. " his voice trailed off, his mouth worked but no words came out. The Doctor shrugged. "Crazy," he muttered less than convincingly.

"Reasonable," Clara corrected smugly. "If there is another you back there, she knew I would take care of you here. I would rescue you, like a damsel in distress," she added mirthfully, poking him in the arm.

The Doctor sighed, irritated. "I heard that one before. It's really offensive!"

"I take back everything I ever said about the old cow," Clara said softly. Had to be it. The Tardis sent him here. She sent a sincere silent thank you to the blue box that disliked her so much at first.

The Doctor was studying her face. "Clara, don't sentimentalize the Tardis. She isn't in the lonely hearts club business. It was probably something else," he trailed off vaguely, looking a bit disturbed – and puzzled. He was obviously thinking and not wanting to admit his conclusions.

"Never mind," Clara said with a sunny smile. "You can show me wonders again, Doctor. Just like before. We have a whole new universe to explore."

"If you insist," the Doctor grinned, threw a switch and to her immense delight, the time rotor moved and the Tardis sprang fully to life. Clara laughed, her brown eyes dancing in happiness.

The Doctor watched as his companion sat next to him, her face shining with excitement. He himself still felt more than a little off balance. The massive guilt was still there, bubbling just under the surface. Was he really ready to go on again? Or would he be allowed to go on again? Also, he had to admit, this theory of Clara's about the Tardis threw him off, just a bit. Would she really do something like that for him, this version of him, when she should be caring for the new Doctor in his place. This had never happened before. Why now? Why here? Why to Clara?

No answers, no logic. But for now, the Doctor would not, could not, destroy Clara's happiness. And he had to admit, he was overjoyed to be back with his incomparable impossible girl once more. Perhaps he didn't deserve her but she was back in his life and for once, he would try to just go with it and not torture himself or her with predictions of doom and imminent death.

In the name of getting into the moment, the Doctor did something he would never before allow himself to do. He leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead. Clara was surprised but grabbed his head and returned the kiss to his lips fervently. The Doctor flapped his arms a time or two but soon stopped. They continued like that because there was no one else around in their world.

Which was just the way they liked it.

Reviews are appreciated.