Disclaimer: See chapter 1 for disclaimer.
Chapter 4: Revelations
"Thank you, seriously, thank you," Dorium said as he stretched out his recently healed body and cracked his neck that held his freshly reattached head. "Even with the media chip in my head, I didn't feel whole," he said, chuckling at his own bad joke.
Clara looked at him oddly as Rose responded to him. "You helped the Doctor, even if it was to pay a debt to him. It was the least we could do."
"Yes," Dorium nodded, quite thankful to be able to nod. "Well, such deeds don't come without a price, so what is it?"
"That was a thank you gift," Jack said to him as they sat down in the currently closed Maldovarium. "And, you might say, enticement."
"Enticement for what?" he asked as he looked at Jack suspiciously, having dealt with him a few times in the past.
"We want to trade," Jack informed him as he pulled out a list and handed it over.
Dorium looked through the list, his eyebrows rising higher and higher with each item that the list contained. "This is quite the inventory you're looking for. The precious metals and gems alone would cost several million credits each and the technical schematics might be all but impossible to find."
"Which is why we came to you," Jack said with a cheeky grin.
"My dear Captain," Dorium said in a patronizing tone. "I know you can't have anything to trade that would be worth all of this."
In response, Jack pulled the crystal from his pocket and held it out for Dorium to inspect.
"If you already have diamonds," Dorium began with barely a glance at the gem, "why is that an item on your list?"
"Because that's not a diamond," Rose said with a smug grin as she nodded at the crystal in Jack's outstretched palm.
"That what, pray tell, is it?" he asked, trying not to show his nervousness at the smug smile on the blonde girl's face.
"Azbantium," Jack said simply.
Dorium's composure crumbled as his eyes became huge and his mouth fell open on hearing what a rare and precious stone he was now staring at.
"This is just the sample for you to test," Jack told him.
"There is more where that came from, too," Rose said, still looking quite smug.
"When do you need it?" Dorium asked gesturing to the list.
"Time machine," Jack said referring to the TARDIS, where they had fixed him up a short time ago. "You tell us when you can have it ready by, and we will jump forward."
"I'll need to test this first, you understand?"
"That's why we brought it," Jack said, with a smug smile of his own.
.oOo.
"He really came through," Jenny said with a bit of surprise as they were unpacking crates in a storage room on the TARDIS.
"I've known Dorium for a long time," Jack said with a reminiscent look on his face. "He can be shady, but usually for the right reasons."
"Usually?" Clara asked with a slight smirk.
"Well, everyone gives into selfishness sometimes," Jack said, not noticing the guilty look that crossed Rose's face as she looked away. "But, to be fair, some amount of selfishness is required to keep a healthy mind and body."
"How do you mean?" Jenny asked.
"Here's the psychic paper," Jack said as he slid a box towards the door. "What I mean," he continued as he finished looking through that crate and moved on to another, "is that if you spend all your time only helping others, doing for others, not giving any thought to yourself, eventually you wear down. Some people get so focused on helping others sometimes, that they ignore their own health and get sick."
"And sometimes," Clara said with a thoughtful look on her face, "they stop thinking clearly and become reckless and dangerous."
"That can happen too," Jack confirmed with a nod.
"You were just thinking about the Doctor, weren't you?" Rose asked Clara.
"Yeah," she replied. "I've seen him go too far, in both directions, honestly. I suppose it just goes to show that we all struggle with finding that balance, regardless of age."
"Ah Ha!" Jack shouted with glee. "I found it," he said as he pulled a large box from a crate. "What is it that we need this kind of wiring for though?" he asked. "Seems a bit overkill."
"Yeah," Jenny agreed. "The one with the food processor seems to be more than enough as it is."
"That one stays with the food processor," Rose told them. "Once the TARDIS has finished scanning that equipment, she will be able to adapt the technology and create her own version of it in our kitchen. After that's done, all that equipment goes with the both of you to Torchwood."
"Then what's this cabling for?" Jack asked.
"This one," she said with hope in her voice, "is going to save a lot of lives."
.oOo.
Jack had just finished securing the connection of the massive wire to a central computer core access port under the main console when Clara came to get him.
"All done," Jack told her as he climbed up the stairs to the main level.
"Great," Clara told him. "Come on, Rose is done too. We're ready to test it."
"So, what's the point of this setup," he asked Clara as they walked towards the kitchen.
"Self-sufficiency," she told him. "It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it."
"Fair enough," he agreed. "I still don't understand it, though. I'm not sure I could trust anything that makes food out of nothing."
"It's not out of nothing, Jack. It's just like a transmat."
"How so?" he asked her a bit skeptically.
"Well, how does a transmat work?" she countered.
"It scans your body or the object to be transported, breaks it down into patterns of energy, and then transmits that energy through subspace to the target and puts it back together."
"That's what this does," she told him, "but with a few less steps. That's why we spent all that time getting recipes and ingredients and such to scan into the new device. It will store those patterns, and when you want it, you call it up on the screen, and the system converts energy into the pattern you requested."
"Not only that," Rose said as they walked into the kitchen, having caught the end of their conversation, "but it's a zero-waste system too. Anything that is not needed can be broken down into energy and turned into something else. It's the ultimate recycling plan."
"Well," Jack said, still a little skeptical, "let's see it in action then."
"Thank you for volunteering, Jack," she said with a smirk. "What would you like?"
He gulped a little at that, but decided to brace himself and select something he's had made badly many times before, so he should be used to it. "Coffee, black, two sugars."
Rose pressed a few controls on the device that had replaced one of the cupboards above the counter and they all stared as a mug of hot coffee appeared, disappeared, and reappeared again in the same way the TARDIS does, before it finally appeared fully. She stepped aside for Jack to approach the counter and take the mug of coffee.
Everyone watched as Jack stepped forward, took the mug by the handle, and gently tipped it to his lips. When his eyes seemed to bug out of his head, Rose thought something went horribly wrong. Her fears were cast aside, however, when he pulled the mug away from his mouth.
"Holy crap!"
"What's wrong with it?" Rose asked him.
"It's perfect!" He told her. "I remember you trying to make coffee with a regular coffee pot," he continued with a teasing smirk. "I was expecting something more like sludge, but this is the best damn coffee I've ever had."
Rose smiled as she turned back to the controls and produced four baskets of fish and chips and an assortment of drinks before they all sat down at the table.
"And the equipment that this is based on will be coming back to Torchwood?" Jenny asked just before she savored a forkful of fish.
"Yep," Rose said, popping the p like her Doctor used to do.
"Something like this must require a massive amount of power, though," Jack said. "More than the piddly little nuclear plant near Cardiff can produce."
"That's the reason for the wiring that came with it," Rose told him. "It will hook up to your rift manipulator and draw power directly from the rift."
"I would never have thought of that," he admitted.
"I'm still not putting my mum's soufflé recipe in that," Clara said with a little laugh. "If you would like, I'll get the ingredients from it then make it by hand."
"That sounds lovely," Rose said with a bright smile.
.oOo.
River had just knocked out the Doctor and cuffed him to a support beam. A small part of her resented that his future self knew this was going to happen and never told her, but she also knew that he had to maintain the timelines.
She had just started to work on rigging up a device that would let her hook herself into the computer to give it the extra memory space it would need, when she heard that most wonderful sound that filled her with so much hope.
Stepping around the corner to find the source of the sound, she was surprised to not see a wooden blue police box, but rather a purple box that appeared to be made out of some sort of crystal material. She was even more surprised when the doors opened and out stepped a girl with long blonde hair.
"Bad Wolf?" River asked in a quiet voice.
"Not anymore," Rose said. "Well, not really, though I do still have a small part of the power within me."
"Rose?" River said with even more shock. "But… how?"
"That's a long story," Clara said as she stepped out with a large cable in her hand.
"Clara? The Doctor said you died," River was staring at the two girls with a look of surprise and a little bit of fear. She wasn't used to being the surprised one, and it should be impossible for either of them to be in The Library, let alone together, or with a TARDIS that wasn't the Doctor's.
"Like Clara said," Rose began as she took the cable from Clara and handed connection end to River, "it's a long story. We'll gladly tell you once you're on the TARDIS, but for now, we need to get this hooked up to the computer system."
"What are you planning?" River asked, slipping into professional mode knowing that answers would have to wait for now.
"You're not going to hook yourself up, you're going to hook the TARDIS up," Rose said.
"But that would fry a TARDIS, possibly causing it to explode," River said, not moving yet until she had some assurance. "We can't let that happen again."
Rose raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what she had missed when looking through time, but decided to file it away for later. "Not this one," she said.
Apparently, that was all the assurance River needed as she began to work immediately on hooking up the connection to the computer. "What about the timeline? He wouldn't have kept this a secret if he thought I survived."
"You're going to go through with your plan, just with different connections. As you connect the last cable, we're going to teleport you out, so it will look like you were vaporized."
"That's such a lovely thought," River said sarcastically. "Thank you for that, Clara."
"You asked," Clara responded as she walked back into the TARDIS to monitor the readings on the display. Thankfully, in the time they had been getting to know each other while planning this after dropping Jack and Jenny of at Torchwood, Rose had been able to set the default language on the displays to English. It would be some time before she felt comfortable reading Gallifreyan or even Ancient.
"I'm going to be monitoring you closely," Rose said quietly to River as she sat in the terminal control chair to finish the last of the connections. "The moment you make that final connection, we're pulling you out."
"You're sure this is going to work?" River asked. "I don't want to risk all these people, or the Doctor, on a chance."
"I've already seen it work," Rose responded as she walked away and stepped into the Void TARDIS. She monitored the readings at the teleport controls very carefully just as she said she would. She also peeked at the monitor displaying the outside to them. She watched as her Doctor pleaded with River. Rose just wanted to run out there and give him a hug and tell him it would all be ok, but she knew she couldn't. This was even before the Reality Bomb.
Rose was surprised when she felt a pair of slender arms encircle her from behind. As Clara rested her chin on Rose's shoulder, she squeezed the blonde girl gently. "It's going to be okay," she told Rose.
"I know," was Rose's reply. "It just hurts," she admitted after a moment of silence. "He's right outside those doors, the Doctor that I traveled with for so long. I just want to hold him and tell him it will all work out."
Rather than saying anything more, Clara just held Rose, trying to project feelings of comfort and safety to her, and Rose was thankful for that. Rose steeled herself as the countdown approached zero. As it did, and River connected the last line, Rose teleported her in a brilliant flash of white light.
When the bright white light of the teleport faded, River was standing there next to the center console looking shocked. "Did it work?" she asked.
Just then, sparks flew out of the floor and all the consoles and the lights went dark within the console room, except for the faint purple glow from the Time Rotor.
"What the hell just happened," Clara asked in surprise after a moment.
"I'm checking," Rose said as she worked furiously at another console. A moment later, the console room hummed to life, the lights slowly coming back on. "It worked," Rose said. "It knocked her out for a moment, but it worked."
"What could have possibly happened to knock out a TARDIS?" Clara asked urgently.
"We're in the biggest library in the universe," Rose said, a sudden smile playing across her face. "We just got a copy of it, all of it."
.oOo.
The Doctor was staring out beyond the balcony, listening to the mournful tune of the singing towers, as if they were singing a lament just for him. The sun was just starting to rise, but he felt a darkness descending on his hearts. He had just sent River off, knowing she was going to The Library. He still hadn't thought of anything he could do to get her out of the massive computer, however.
His depression was interrupted by a wheezing, groaning sound slowly building from out on the balcony itself. He turned quickly and saw his TARDIS still at the back of the room, before turning again and walking just as quickly to the balcony to see what was happening.
Materializing before him was the familiar shape of a box, but without any writing, and purple instead of blue. What was most striking in difference, however, was that it appeared to be made out of some form of crystal instead of wood. When the door opened and River stepped out, he thought he was hallucinating.
"Hello, Sweetie," she said to him with a bright smile on her face.
"River? But… how?" he asked in disbelief. "And where did you get a TARDIS?"
"She didn't," came the voice of a friend he thought had died before his very eyes. Clara stepped out from the TARDIS and ran over to hug the Doctor. "Hello, Doctor. It's good to see you again."
"Clara…" he said with a soft gasp. "I've finally cracked, haven't I? You can't be here! I saw you die! And your body vanished!"
"That," Rose began as she stepped out behind Clara, "would be my fault. Hello, Doctor."
The Doctor staggered over to a chair and sat heavily on it. He didn't know if he had really cracked or if he had been somehow thrown into hell to be tormented by the images of those he had lost.
River walked over to him and sat down on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and planting a big wet kiss directly on his lips. "No, you're not cracking up," she said after she ended the kiss. "We are really here. These two lovely ladies here saved me in The Library."
"But, how?" was all he could manage at the moment.
"We hooked this beauty," Rose said as she patted the side of the crystalline TARDIS affectionately, "into the computer in place of River. But you, more than most, Doctor, know how timelines must be maintained."
"It wasn't an afterimage!" the Doctor exclaimed as his eyes widened in surprise.
The three women looked at each other in confusion before turning as one to look at the Doctor for an explanation.
"In the extraction chamber," he said with a nod to Clara. "Alarms went off about the time lock shattering prematurely. I assume that you had something to do with that," he said with a nod to Rose, which she returned. "We discovered that the quantum shade had been destroyed and were scanning the visual feed for any idea of what might have happened to it but the image was severely distorted from the shattering of the time lock. We saw only a vaguely box-like shape of purple and suddenly Clara's body was gone."
"That was us," Rose said as she pointed from herself to the Void TARDIS.
"But how did you survive?" he asked Clara.
"Technically… I didn't," she responded.
The Doctor reached out suddenly and grabbed her wrist, pressing two fingers to it. "You have a pulse again, so you're not time-looped anymore."
Clara looked to Rose, who couldn't resist playing with the Doctor just a little. "She was killed," Rose told him. "But it didn't stick," she finished with a little snicker that caused Clara to smack her on the shoulder.
"I regenerated," Clara said to the Doctor.
"How?"
"Bad Wolf," Rose answered him seriously. "Bad Wolf could see all that was or ever could be, and she found several things that she deemed needed to be changed."
"But… you couldn't control it," he said in confusion. "And Jack…"
Rose looked disappointed in herself as she replied. "Jack was the first," she admitted. "I didn't understand what I was doing, but I learned from that and did a better job with the others."
"What do you mean, others?" the Doctor asked, worried about what she might have done.
"Clara and I are not entirely human anymore," Rose said somberly. "We have been augmented to be more like the Ancient ones,"
The Doctor's eyes again bulged at that admission, only having a vague idea of what she meant, but enough of an idea to know the magnitude of such a change.
"Yourself, River, Jenny, and another have no limit to your regenerations," Rose continued, not looking the Doctor in the eyes.
"Jenny's alive!?" he asked in shock.
Rose nodded. "You know how difficult a first regeneration is. It took her a while to regenerate, by which time you were gone and she took off in a shuttlecraft."
"We have to go find her!" he exclaimed as he tried to get up, but River stayed on his lap and prevented him from doing so.
"Bad Wolf already did," Rose told him. "She's on Earth, with Jack at Torchwood."
"You left her with Jack?" the Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey," Rose defended. "He's like a brother to me, remember? Besides, someone had to explain regeneration and such to her so she knows why you have a different face."
"Fair enough," he responded after a moment. "But, who is the other you mentioned?"
Rose looked away again, but they could all see the mix of sadness and excitement on her face anyway. "I can't tell you that, yet."
"Why not?"
"Timelines, Doctor, must be maintained. Or as your wife would say," she said as she nodded in River's direction, "spoilers." With that said, Rose turned and walked back towards the Void TARDIS, opening the door and looking to see if Clara would be joining here or staying with the Doctor, partly dreading the latter.
"What a minute, where are you going?" he asked.
"You have some catching up to do, Doctor," Rose said, still standing in the doorway of the TARDIS. "Go to Cardiff, fuel up the TARDIS, you won't be disappointed in what else you find there."
Clara kissed him on the cheek and then walked over to join Rose in the doorway, before looking back to the Doctor and River, smiling at them.
"But," the Doctor began grasping for information he still didn't have. "Where did you get a TARDIS? I'm pretty sure you've never been to Gallifrey."
"You've seen her before," Rose said as she looked back to the Doctor. "But the last time you saw her, she looked like a big metal sphere that punched a hole between dimensions."
"The Void Ship is a TARDIS? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?"
"I do, and so did Bad Wolf. That is why she repaired her, enhanced her, and planted the seed of a proper personality, based on your own TARDIS actually."
The Doctor looked a little dumbstruck at being so easily countered and tried one last ditch effort. "Can I see?"
"Next time," Rose told him with a smile. "We're not quite ready for you to try to take her away from us yet." With that said, Rose and Clara disappeared into the TARDIS and took off, leaving a bewildered Doctor and River behind.
.oOo.
"So, what exactly do these do?" Clara asked Rose a few months later. On the table in front of her were what looked like a watch and a choker-style necklace, but given how long it had taken Rose to create them with the help of the TARDIS, she suspected them to be much more.
"The necklace," Rose started, "is similar to the food processor, but rather limited. It has a computer core that takes energy, either from the space around us or directly from the void, and creates nanites that it stores in a pocket dimension. From there it can beam those nanites out to form whatever clothing we want it to, but with the strength of armor."
"You mean," Clara began with a note of awe in her voice, "no need for a huge wardrobe? No need to go clothes shopping again? No need to worry about being dressed inappropriately for wherever we land?"
"Exactly," Rose confirmed. "And the watch is more for convenience than anything else, really. It's like a computer but can interface with your mind like the necklace or the sonic can. It can also project a holographic display into the environment around you should you need to for whatever reason. It does have two rather important functions, though."
"Oh? And what's that?" Clara asked.
"It can also function like a vortex manipulator," Rose deadpanned.
Clara's eyes went wide at hearing that. "So, even if the Doctor does manage to take the TARDIS, we still have all of time and space?"
"Yep," Rose said, popping the p like the Doctor used to. "And both of these can communicate together and with the sonics, and the watches can also serve as coms across time and space if we get separated for whatever reason."
"No wonder it took you so long to make these," Clara said, again with a look of wonder on her face.
"Oh, it's the emergency features that took the longest," Rose informed her. "Considering how much space travel we do, if something happened and we accidentally wind up floating in space, the watch and necklace working together will create a bubble around you and continuously recycle the air in it."
"So, never take them off then?"
"Right. They are completely waterproof and airtight, as well as encased in a micro shield of azbantium, so you don't have to worry about them getting damaged in the shower or just about anything else."
"Jeez, Rose. Did you get any sleep in the past few months? I thought you were spending the majority of the time teaching me the TARDIS systems and languages and our new abilities?"
"I admit, I did cheat from time to time, using the zero room to sleep in, but not all that often. I wanted to get these finished so we would have that much less to worry about."
"Well, it's done now, so maybe you should get some real sleep now," Clara admonished.
Rose mock saluted, before closing her eyes for a moment to focus. As she did, her necklace and clothes glowed with a faint rainbow-colored aura, before morphing into the form of comfortable pajamas.
Clara grinned at seeing the first real demonstration of what this amazing new tech could do. The possibilities could be endless. She leaned over and kissed Rose on the cheek, before standing and stretching, suppressing a yawn as she did so.
"I think sleep is definitely the next order of business," she said as she padded out of the kitchen with a smile at Rose before she disappeared.
Rose stayed in the kitchen, sipping her rapidly cooling tea as she watched Clara walk from the room and disappear down the hall. They had grown even closer in their few months of isolation, but there still seemed to be something missing, like a single piece of a jigsaw puzzle. There was still a dull ache deep within Rose that never completely went away. Hoping that it just meant she was a bit overworked, she decided to do as she promised and get some sleep. Perhaps tomorrow they could take a vacation just to relax.
.oOo.
Rose stared at the display after the TARDIS had landed. It looked absolutely perfect and she hoped Clara would agree. Hearing footsteps approaching, she quickly turned off the monitor and turned around to see Clara walk into the console room with a grin on her face.
"Where are we?" she asked Rose.
"How about you take that bag," Rose said as she nodded at the large bag sitting on the chair near Clara, "and we go take a look."
Clara picked up the bag without even looking inside of it and ran to the doors, opening them and stepping out into the sunlight. The first thing she noticed after the bright sun, was the very sandy and very empty beach that stretched out as far as she could see. When she heard Rose step out behind her, she turned to speak but stopped short.
Standing in front of her was Rose, but her Tee-shirt and blue jeans had been replaced by a modest light-blue bikini with matching sarong. Clara couldn't help but admire how beautiful Rose looked in that moment, before she noticed that she held a picnic basket in one hand and a large beach umbrella in the other. She finally noticed the bright smile on Rose's face and returned it with one of her own.
"The entire planet is deserted," Rose said as she tried to ignore the thrill she got from Clara's initial reaction. "While there are some dangerous land animals, there's nothing dangerous in the sea or within a hundred miles or so from the shore."
Clara grinned at her, before closing her eyes and focusing on her necklace. A moment later, her ensemble was replaced to match Rose, except her bikini was dark pink with a bright yellow sarong. "Absolutely beautiful," Clara said softly, implying the location but not really taking her eyes off Rose until they started walking.
"We've been in the vortex for quite a while," Rose said as they walked a little way down the beach. "I thought we could use a break to just relax and enjoy ourselves."
"I think it's a great idea," Clara replied as she set the bag down and pulled out two large beach towels for them to lay on. As Rose was about to set up the beach umbrella, Clara stopped her. "Do you think we could wait a little while before putting that up?"
Rose looked at her and smiled brightly. "There's some tanning oil in the bag as well."
Clara grinned and reached into the bag, pulling the oil out. She gave a thought to her necklace, causing her sarong to vanish, and plopped herself down on one of the towels to begin applying the tanning oil to her skin.
Rose watched Clara out of the corner of her eye, while applying oil to herself as well, and was pleased to see Clara so relaxed. The past few months of doing almost nothing but learning and reading really had started to wear on them both, so this was a very welcomed break. They took turns applying oil to the other's back, before laying down on the towels with closed eyes, just enjoying the warmth of the sun.
Almost two hours later, after several turns to ensure an even tan, Rose got to her feet and stretched languidly, feeling rested and energized. Looking over at Clara, who was in turn looking back at Rose with a raised eyebrow, Rose smirked and ran to the water's edge, jumping in without a care in the world.
Clara sat up, stretching as well, and watched Rose for a few minutes. She was glad they were taking a break. Rose had put in so much effort teaching her about everything she had learned as Bad Wolf as well as all about their new abilities that came with being part Ancient. As she watched Rose play in the light surf, she decided to put all thoughts of their training aside for the day and just enjoy the time to relax. With that in mind, Clara stood, stretched again, and ran to join Rose in the water.
Just over an hour later, after much laughing and splashing, they returned to their spot on the beach, with Clara putting up the over-sized beach umbrella as Rose pulled some cold turkey sandwiches and bottles of water from the picnic basket. They ate in silence, and Clara couldn't help but think it was a peaceful, comfortable silence. There was no pressing need to be somewhere else, no aliens invading, no Daleks trying to exterminate everyone; just the two of them, enjoying life. Rose was thinking quite along the same lines and let out a relieved sigh as she contemplated how things were going.
"Something on your mind? Clara asked after she heard Rose sigh.
"Not really," Rose replied. "Just thinking how nice this is, not worrying about life and death or hostile takeovers or such."
"Yeah," Clara agreed. "Today has been absolutely perfect."
"I'm glad you think so," Rose said with a secretive smirk.
"Uh oh," Clara said with a giggle. "What have you got hidden up your sleeve?"
"I don't have any sleeves to have something hidden in," was Rose's cheeky reply.
Clara, however, was acutely aware of that fact and tried not to let it show on her face just how much she liked what she saw. "So?"
"What?" Rose asked innocently.
"You know what," Clara said with another happy chuckle. "Are you going to tell me?"
"Nope," Rose told her. "I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise."
.oOo.
Rose and Clara were both enjoying their night out with a few cocktails and dancing together to the loud music of the club. Rose determined that it wasn't quite as nice as their time on the beach, but it was still a lot of fun. Clara was in front of Rose, twirling and moving with the music, in a short and strapless little black dress that was very similar to Rose's own dark purple dress. As Rose finished her drink and set the empty glass on the bar, she walked the few steps to Clara.
Placing her arms around Clara's waist from behind, they started moving together almost instantly, as if they had both been waiting for this exact moment. While they each drew looks from others in the club, something about the way they moved together prevented anyone from trying to cut in wither either of them.
Clara slowly twirled around in Rose's grasp before they were face to face and she couldn't help but smile at the look of bliss on her friend's face. They had both been through a lot of difficult times in their travels, but the fact that they could still enjoy life as they were made it all worthwhile.
When Clara realized her stare was locked on Rose's full, red lips that were forming her brilliant smile, she tore her gaze away and looked into those honey colored eyes that held so much warmth. Right now, however, there was more than just warmth in those beautiful brown eyes that were looking back at her. There was a fire flickering behind her eyes, a look that Clara realized was desire.
Her breathing hitched in that moment. All of their time spent together from the moment they met in the Doctor's time stream, to just now when they locked eyes on each other, suddenly ran through Clara's mind. When she realized how effortlessly they fit together on the dance floor, and how close they had become over all the time they knew each other, her mind started up again, and she panicked.
Rose saw a look of fear pass across Clara's face and grew concerned. When she saw Clara drop two inches, she realized her friend's shoes had probably vanished.
"Clara?" Rose asked, growing more concerned with each second that passed.
But Clara didn't hear her. She was in full panic as her mind raced with thoughts of how wonderful her life had become, and how much she had to lose. With all rational thoughts leaving her for the moment, Clara did the only thing she could, she ran.
Rose looked on, stunned, as Clara ran from the club. They'd just had such a wonderful day together. What could possibly cause her friend to run in fear as she had from the club? Hardly a word had been said in the club itself aside from them ordering their drinks, the volume of the music didn't make conversation much of a possibility.
She looked around briefly to see if there was something that might have caused Clara to panic as she had, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then she remembered that she had been looking right into her eyes at the time. Something in Rose's eyes caused her to panic.
Losing a couple inches herself as she thought about losing her shoes to go after her, Rose quickly left the club as well in search of Clara. Something was wrong and she was determined to find out what. When she got outside, however, there was no sign of Clara anywhere. Walking down the street to an empty alley, Rose used her watch to teleport directly to Clara's location.
Rose ended up in another alley, and what she saw before her made her furious. A strange man had Clara pinned against the outer wall of one of the buildings. He was using one hand to hold both of her wrists together above her head while his other hand was on her bare leg sliding up towards the hem of her dress. Clara was obviously struggling against this attention and that was enough to cause Rose to snap.
Rose's eye glowed a brilliant shade of gold as she stepped over and spun the man around only to grab him by the throat and lift him off the ground. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked in her now dual-toned voice, which had an obviously angry lilt to it.
The man, however, was not all that clever. "What? She was upset, I was just trying to make her feel better."
"Wrong answer," Rose growled out as she physically flung the man half the length of the alley, causing him to land hard against a dumpster, knocking him out.
The next thing she knew, Rose found her arms full of a crying and shaking brunette. With the glow now fading from her eyes, Rose pulled Clara into her side and led them both out of the alley and towards the TARDIS.
It wasn't until they were both inside that Rose finally was able to speak again. "Clara? What happened? Why did you run out of the club?"
Clara had stopped crying but was still visibly upset as she tried to respond. "I'm sorry, Rose. I don't know what got into me. It all happened so fast, so many memories just flashed through my mind in a rush and I panicked."
"Clara," Rose began. "You were looking into my eyes at the time. What did you see?"
Clara took a deep breath as she tried to compose herself. She was still afraid, especially about talking about this, but she didn't see any way to avoid it now. "I saw you were feeling something, very intense, and I wondered what you might be thinking about to cause such an intense look in your eyes."
"You saw our time together, didn't you?" Rose asked.
Clara looked shocked at that. "How did you know?"
"Because that's what I was thinking about," Rose answered simply. "I told you during our training that eventually your telepathic abilities would unlock."
"Thinking about… our time together… is what caused that look in your eyes?"
"I don't know exactly what look you saw," Rose told her, "but that's what I was thinking about at the time."
Clara looked deep into Rose's eyes again. She could still see that desire there, but now it was mixed with a little of the fear she herself was feeling. She could also see compassion and worry in her eyes. Suddenly, Clara felt it all, the desire, the passion, the compassion, the fear and worry, all of it swirling around her like a raging storm.
Her own fear started to grip at her heart again, fear of what would happen if she gave into her own feelings, of what might happen if she took that step that she wanted desperately, but couldn't predict. She knew exactly what she was afraid of, however. She was afraid of giving into what her heart wanted and then having it all ripped away again.
This time, thankfully, rational thought did not flee her mind, and she thought about the feelings and memories she saw from Rose meant. Rose obvious had similarly strong feelings, why else would those memories cause such strong emotions. When Rose's breathing hitched, having obviously seen something in her own eyes, Clara felt as if something clicked into place inside of her.
With an unexpected feeling that the universe was suddenly whole again, Clara did what she'd wanted to do for a long time. Placing her hands on either side of Rose's face, Clara leaned up and kissed Rose.
.oOo.
