Since she had gotten home Clara had been avoided by the warring girls, who were truly terrified of her at this point in time. To say she had reacted badly to the devastation Me and Oswin had caused was an understatement and her mood just kept declining every time she stumbled across another area of their war zone.
They had been forced to endure over half an hour of her yelling at them, barely pausing for breath, before she finally banished them to the opposite side of the Tardis whilst she cooked, although the look in her eye caused them to suspect that their food may very well be tampered with, or not arrive at all.
However, as soon as they had pulled a disappearing act and ran from her, she quickly closed the door to the kitchen behind her and started laughing. Much to the amusement of River and Missy who had both taken seats at the table, warily watching for another outburst.
"I'm sorry," Clara laughed as she noted the look of confusion they were both sporting, "But I just can't get over Me's behaviour."
"Not Oswin's?" River remarked curiously.
"Well no." She said, pulling up a chair on the opposite side to Missy, with River at the head of the table. "Oswin is essentially going through her teenage years right now. She may be twenty six but her childhood was very restrictive and her parents were controlling. She's been given more freedom than she knows what to do with and her sense of humour has took on a life of it's own. Me, on the other hand, has lived to the end of everything. She is by far the oldest person on this Tardis, but for some reason she reverts back to a teenager herself whenever Oswin's around. Which is made especially funny when I shout at them both and she acts like a sulky child, I mean look at them! They've both just slunk of back to their rooms."
Missy giggled, "Now that you mention it, that is rather amusing! Especially when we add you into the equation Clara. Oh, I'm so glad you escaped Skaro."
Clara glared at her, "Just for that you can make the three of us a cup of tea. Go on, the stuff's on the counter behind you."
Missy cracked up again but nevertheless got up to do what Clara said.
River snorted as well and exchanged a look with Missy.
"What?!" Clara yelled, suddenly paranoid about whatever common ground the two of them had found.
"Nothing dear." River sighed with amusement.
"Tell me or-"
"Or what, Clara?" Missy spun on her heel, gesturing wildly with a large wooden spoon in one hand and a melon baller in the other.
"Or I'll..." She trailed off as she stared at Missy in confusion, "What the bloody hell are you doing? I said tea, all you needed is a teaspoon, which is kept right next to the mug rack and the teabags."
Missy grinned but didn't say anything, just turned back around to continue playing with the kitchen utensils.
"River?" Clara turned back to River, giving her Clara's best teacher face.
"Stop that, you look like my mother when you do that."
Clara grinned, "Tell me then."
"It's just, out of all the people here, you're the person least likely to be able to control people and keep them in line. But that seems to be exactly what you're doing. You were saying about Oswin and Me acting like teenagers, but what you don't seem to realise it that you're acting like...well..."
"A middle aged, stay at home, mum!" Missy grinned as she placed three mugs on the table.
"What's with everyone calling me old lately, I'm the second youngest here!"
"I think I spot some grey!" Missy suddenly yelled and leaned across the table to tug on Clara's hair who batted her away angrily.
"Very funny Missy, very funny."
Clara took a large swig of her tea, instantly regretting it when she was met with the taste of seemingly every edible food source Missy could find mixed together, and then dunked into a perfectly good cup of tea.
Clara stared at her mug mournfully, much to the amusement of both Missy and River who watched as she seemed to wrestle with a hard decision before standing and walking over to the sink to dump the rest of the mug in it.
"What?" She asked when she sat down, glaring at Missy for her abuse of the poor tea, "I'm British, tea is a part of who I am and you just butchered it cause you're evil!" She hissed the last part, leaning to take Missy's own cup, which she assumed wouldn't have been tampered with.
Clara relaxed and hummed in contentment when she discovered that she was right, and she ignored Missy's glare at her theft and gulped down a large mouthful of the liquid.
"So. I've been thinking."
"That's dangerous, do you need to go lie down?" Missy asked sweetly, brimming with false innocence.
"Oh ha ha!" Clara bit back sarcastically, "Anyway, I was just wondering, why did you really join up with us River?"
River looked up in surprise, "What makes you think I have an ulterior motive?"
"The fact that you haven't denied it, and also I can't believe you would ever let yourself get stuck anywhere."
River sighed and leaned forwards, resting her weight on her arms, "I wasn't going to tell you, I was just going to do it whilst you were sleeping."
Missy looked between them in confusion, having no idea what ulterior motive River could possibly be speaking about.
"You want to save them, don't you?" Clara asked softly, her eyes warm and inviting, encouraging River to put her faith in Clara, which she did.
"Yes." She whispered simply. "I've thought it all through, the Doctor can't ever go back because of the paradox but there's nothing to say that I can't. I already have in fact, to get her to publish the book and add the afterword for him. With a different Tardis, we can just go and get them."
Unexpectedly, Missy suddenly decided to chip in, "I think you should do it."
River's eyes snapped up to her unexpected ally in shock, "I thought you were against people being happy in general."
Missy kicked her lightly and then shuffled forwards in her seat to address Clara.
"River's talking about her parents isn't she?" At Clara's nod of confirmation she continued. "Everyone always underestimates how important family is, even I understand it's importance and I'm a psychopath. And she's right, taking your Tardis to get them wouldn't cause any problems. You'd just have to make sure to keep them within the same time frame when dropping them off for what ever reasons."
Clara nodded decisively, "Ok then, we'll go get them. Tomorrow morning sound good for you River?" She asked with a grin.
If she didn't know better, she could have sworn she saw tears beginning to fill River's eyes as she nodded before subtly hiding her face behind her mug.
"Oh god!" Clara suddenly groaned, covering her face with her hands.
"What?" Missy asked with a scowl at how dramatic Clara was being.
"We're going to have to be careful to keep an eye on Oswin. She met Amy and Rory on the Dalek Asylum and spent the entire time flirting and calling Rory Nina. She'll respect that he's married but she's still likely to try and cause chaos."
"Hmm, I knew there was a reason I liked your little twin Clara." Missy laughed appreciatively.
To her surprise, Clara laughed right along with her, "You know that's how Me described you to the Doctor actually. She called you the lover of chaos and said that you were quite the matchmaker."
Missy looked quite proud of this despite Clara's exaggerated eye roll.
"Quoting me are you Clars?" Me asked softly, as she stuck her head through the door, trying to assess the threat level from her friend.
"Possibly." Clara replied, a lot more cooly that Me was used too, "Are you going to destroy my Tardis again?"
"No, of course not." She answered with only slight hesitation, wisely deciding that today was not the correct choice for a debate on the ownership of the Tardis. Although she did make a mental note for future reference, after all, they had stolen it together. She had clearly made the right choice because Clara sent a beaming smile her way as she gestured for her to sit down.
"I also thought you might like to know something." Me continued as she chose a seat opposite Clara in case her best friend changed her mind and tried to kill her after all. At Clara and River's expectant looks she continued. "I've decided to start going by Ashildr again, completely."
Clara stared at her in surprise, "Why?"
Ashildr grinned at her, "I left that name behind because I didn't need it any more, I wasn't that person and there was no one left to remember her. Somehow I think that might have changed now don't you? I want to try and go back to that Viking girl, even just a little bit. And with everyone here to remind me everyday, I won't forget again."
Missy patted her on the back awkwardly and whistle, "Well thank the stars for that, it was awfully annoying trying to work out whether you were being spoken about in a conversation."
They all shared a laugh at that and Ashildr gently leaned over to tap Clara's hand, "Am I cooking? Seeing as how you don't seem to have even started."
"I don't know let me think about it. Yes!" Clara exclaimed, which caused Ashildr to chuckle.
"I know what I'm getting you for Christmas Clars, I'm going to get you a robot that can cook for you so I can have a day of every now and then."
Clara stuck her tongue out at her good humouredly, "Don't think I haven't noticed you." She suddenly raised her voice, causing Oswin to jump out of her skin as she tried to climb down from the ventilation shaft she had somehow managed to reach the kitchen through.
Oswin sighed in defeat, abandoning subtlety and just jumping down to join the others.
"I'm sorry for setting fire to things in the console room. Can I please be forgiven so I'm not the only one still banished?"
Clara laughed at the defiant look on her face, she knew full well that not a word of what Oswin was saying was sincere but she couldn't bring herself to care too much about that.
From that point onwards the evening passed peacefully, Oswin and Ashildr had apparently sat down together during their banishment and brokered a truce, the terms of which Clara wasn't sure she wanted to know.
Missy had completely rearranged all the utensils in the kitchen when Clara had told her to make tea, leaving Ashildr in a foul mood by the time she finished cooking. But she soon cheered up when Oswin "accidently" kicked Missy as she was walking around the table. Clara was tempted to call her out on it but she noticed the subtle high five between Oswin and Ashildr and figured that whilst they weren't destroying her Tardis it was just best to leave them alone.
Whilst they ate, River regaled them with impressive, wild tales of her adventure through space and time. Both with the Doctor and without. They could all taste the undercurrent of excitement whenever she told a story that mentions either or both of her parents. Each of them felt her joy at the chance to see them again and they all shared a smile whenever she wasn't looking. River may not have been with them long but they were all in agreement, she was family and their family all deserved to be happy.
Missy sat back during these revelations, observing the tight knit bonds between each of the crew members.
In particular, Oswin intrigued her, she was so similar to Clara and yet so different. And on top of that, even with the epic clashes between herself and Ashildr, it was clear to see the genuine love between the two girls, no matter how much Ashildr would've tried to deny it.
Clara grinned in amusement when she noticed Oswin trying to stifle a yawn. "Tired?" She asked curiously as Oswin nodded and pointed at a clock on the nearby wall, that was set to keep them running on the correct time so that they didn't disrupt their natural sleep cycle.
Somehow they had managed to just sit together for over five hours and it was well past midnight.
Clara smiled at Oswin in thanks for pointing her at the clock, she then turned back to the rest of the group.
"Alight, come on guys, I'm getting tired and Oz looks like she's about to keel over, lets head to bed."
The others all mumbled their agreement and stumbled off, leaving Clara to quickly rinse the mugs out and place the plates into the dishwasher that the Tardis had made for her after they discovered that she was essentially useless at what most people would call essential life skills, despite looking after the Maitlands for so long.
When she finally got to her bedroom fifteen minutes later, she collapsed to the sheets gratefully and her eyes started to close.
Her last thought before she went to sleep was a reflective one. She realised how much she appreciated her new family. One that she had built herself and she could just be open and free around.
Clara smiled gently as she allowed herself to drift off too sleep.