Clara only came back to herself when the night was turning into dawn.

She opened her eyes, but found herself still surrounded by darkness. There was a dim light coming from under the door, providing all the luminescence in her room. She assumed she was alone; she wouldn't expect her family to babysit her 24/7, especially when she was knocked out. She was thankful for, at last, not having them hovering over her.

She enjoyed the peace. Tranquility would allow her to think, gather all the information she had been offered the last time she'd been conscious. A heart transplant. Those words kept repeating themselves in an unending loop in her mind. She didn't have to be a medical genius to know the great amount of repercussion that chain of events would bring to her life.

Clara could only remember flashes of the accident. She recalled how scared she had been. How she had wished someone would be there by her side and whisper to her she would be alright, even if it'd be a lie. Lies shielded her from the pain, the hurt of knowing she would undergo a heart surgery and have her life changed forever.

She had become a burden to herself. She didn't blame the Doctor for not having come back for her.

She was cold. She didn't remember autumn to be this cold, not even during the crack of dawn. She wished she could get up and grab herself an extra blanket, but how would she when she was stuck to wires and tubes. She really just desired to unhook herself from all those gadgets.

Her back was sore, so she tried to turn on her side, regretting it the moment the pain from her incision got to her. At least she had retrieved some of her strength back, enough to allow her the slightest of motions.

The pain. She hadn't realized how much it all hurt until then – probably the morphine dozing off of her system. She had always been able to handle a strong level of pain before it became too much, and this was becoming too much. She counted to twelve in hopeless attempts to ease herself down.

Clara concluded she was hallucinating when she heard the TARDIS materializing itself somewhere in the building. Not only had she become handicapped, but gone mentally insane as well.

She shut her eyelids lightly, trying to force herself back into unconsciousness. In the darkness, she wasn't hurting; she was lost, but she wasn't scared. She then discovered how hard it was to fall asleep when her body had just undergone god knows how many hours of sleep, especially when her mind was too unsettling to simply give in to her tired self. Had she only got a book or something to keep her company.

"Clara."

She was startled by the sound of a hard raspy voice calling for her. At first, Clara thought she was dreaming, but when she dared to open her eyes again, she saw him. And he was too real to be an illusion. Clara yearned to reach for him, to wrap herself around his body, but she was restrained in that hard tiny bed.

"Hi," he repeated, hesitantly making his way towards her. It had been almost a year since the Doctor had last seen her, last seen her fragile unconscious form in that same small bunk, even if it had only been a couple of days for her. He had confined himself inside the TARDIS in the time vortex, trusting his machine to take proper care of him. He didn't regret his choice of actions, not for one single day, even if it had required him a long time to adjust his body to his new reality.

When he first woke up, alone, on a hard cold table, he thought he was dying. He wasn't in pain, he just felt like life was being sucked out of him. He had become as human as he could be. It took him several weeks to stop feeling like decaying, to settle on a less strong body, on having one heartbeat only. It was tiring having one heart, but he would survive. At least until he regenerated again and got two hearts back — hopefully; potentially.

He looked at her and she didn't know she was alive because of him. The Doctor would do everything in his power to leave her in oblivion. If she ever found out, he feared she would pull her heart out of her chest just to give it back to him.

And he couldn't lose her. Not when he had already done the impossible to save her.

The Doctor pointed his sonic glasses towards the bulb, lighting it enough to provide them some illumination. Only then he was sure she was awake, so he sat by her side and tenderly grabbed her hand. She looked so small underneath his touch. "Oh, Clara."

Clara looked right into his eyes. He looked lost, broken, like he had lost something, too, she just couldn't understand what it was. She wished she could say something, she hated being the wordless one. She had no other alternative than to draw strength from the link holding them together.

"Clara," he cried her name again, "Of course you had to wait until I wasn't around to go off losing your heart."

She tried – desired – to laugh, lamenting the effort as soon as the venting tube rasped against her throat, causing her to wince, her face turning into a frown. His apologies came in a rushed hush, but she didn't listen to him. He wasn't the one who had crashed her heart, literally. He wasn't the one to blame.

The Doctor sighed, "I don't know what kind of influence your father has on people around here, but the nurses are watching your room like a hound dog. I don't think I've come across a hospital room as guarded as yours. I had to dig up the chameleon pendant out of the deep paths of the TARDIS. Do you have any idea how long it took me to find it?!"

Clara smiled with the corner of her lips. It was the only response she could offer. He carried on, "You know, I could take you away from here with it," he prompted, and she buried her head deeper into the pillow. As tempting as it might have sounded, the simple idea of moving – attempting to – exhausted her.

Understanding her silence, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles of her fingers. "You know, I tried to take you somewhere else. I really did. But your father wasn't very keen on it, he couldn't believe I had less extravagant ways to save you," he took a small pause, "You should have seen him, Clara, he was so desperate. This is why you can't go around losing parts of yourself; neither him, or your gran, or even I can bear the idea of losing you, Clara."

She felt a small twinge coming from the middle of her chest – and so did he. Clara didn't know how to control herself when tears began to run down from her temples to the mattress. To think she had been stupid enough to believe the Doctor would just abandon her. No. They were two parts of a whole.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry," he carried on apologizing. Instead, his words only made the flow of her droplets increase; he had no idea how to help. He was helpless at the mercy of her own pain. "It wasn't your fault, you didn't choose to be lying in that bed. Oh, Clara…" his voice was gradually getting held back by his vocal chords, and he wondered if she could feel his pain, too. "You look so small in that bed, and that's just not you. You're the biggest person I know, it amazes me how you manage to look so tall when you lack in height. And this is why I know for a fact that you're going to leave this place in a blink. And I'll take you anywhere, anytime you want after that."

Clara hated herself for not being able to control herself, but there wasn't anyone else to whom she would break down; show her fragile self. Allow him to know how frightened and terrified she was. No one but the Doctor. For some reason, she knew he shared all her sorrows.

Dreading to disturb her but knowing their mutual need to feel each other's presence, he let go of her hand only to lie down next to her. At first, he was reluctant, afraid she would break if he touched her, but when she leaned closer, he learned she wasn't so easily breakable. Perhaps even unbreakable. He let her head rest on his shoulder, despite of all the wires pulling them apart.

"You're cold," he concurred, sensing her body against his. He had a low temperature body, it was reasonable she would inherit such an aspect from his heart as well. It would take her a while to get used to it. "Do you want me to fetch you an extra blanket?"

Clara remained still. She wouldn't mind another heat provider, but she had just found a position she felt comfortable in, t wasn't her fault if it just happened to be next to his alien physique. Her lack of confirmation was enough to assure him of her answer. The Doctor ran the palm of his hands against the bare skin of her arm.

"I've missed you, Clara Oswald," he whispered, amidst her hair, burying his nose deep into it. She smelled like hospital, but, if he focused enough, he could still inhale her scent. She fit so perfectly in his arms, like they both had been made with the only purpose of completing one another.

Shyly, Clara clung her fingertips around his grey tee, creating yet another unending bond between them. His cold Time Lord body brought her warmth, and she wished she could stay there forever. He made her feel safe, protected. She had missed him, too.

The Doctor let out a long breath. "Are you in pain?" he pondered, afraid to know the answer, needing to know it anyway. He searched for her eyes, although he failed to find them. "And don't lie to me. You know I can see right past you, Clara."

Clara hid part of her face on his shoulder, careful not to choke on the breathing tube. Her reply came in a small, barely noticeable shift of the head, one he could only perceive due to the movement against his torso. Clara knew she couldn't lie to him, but she didn't want to be sent off to unconsciousness as an escape from her pain.

"I'm sorry," he said once more.

The Doctor moved his hands towards her temples, helping her the only way he knew how. In attempts to stop him, Clara intertwined her fingers with his, pulling his palms to cup her cheekbones. She glared right in the middle of his galaxy eyes, begging him not to do anything, just to let the moment take control of them. She knew he would never be able to deny her request.

Silently, he planted a wet kiss on her forehead, before letting her lie atop of him. Clara smiled as her eyelids closed, allowing the silence to devour them. For now, she didn't require anything further than to coexist.

A/N: I thrive on your feedback :)