It was 16.30. Clara was sat with her head on her arms on her desk not moving, she hadn't stirred for the last twenty minutes after saying goodbye to Paul.
"Clara!" said Adrian, walking up to her and shaking her shoulder, "are you coming for a drink? Cheeky mid-week pint?"
"No," Clara groaned, not moving.
"Come on Clara, it wasn't that bad," Adrian said, "at least no-one got stabbed."
Clara raised her head up. "Hardly a benchmark to judge a lesson on, Adrian." She sighed, "I really need to get some sleep, and I need to ride home. It's been a very long day," 42 hours long to be precise.
"Ok, if you say so. What were you doing last night, anyway?" Adrian sat on the desk. "New fella is it?"
"Oh come on, not you as well," she shoved him, "the kids are bad enough, let alone you lot! You are getting no gossip from me, my lips are sealed."
Adrian paused before getting up to leave. "They blatantly were not last night," he said in a low voice, laughing, walking down the corridor.
"Goodbye Adrian," she said, annoyed.
Clara collected her things and drove home.
It could have been worse, he was right. She just wanted to forget about today and get some sleep. She'd know tomorrow how she'd done.
Clara got in and walked straight to the bedroom, she got changed and sat in the bed. She made sure an alarm was set on her phone, positioned it next to her bed. She was out like a light as soon as her head touched the pillow.
...
Clara was in the school building by 8.10, suitably recovered after 13 hours sleep, she made herself a coffee in the staff room. She looked at her phone, Emily had just texted her.
: How was your evening?
: Not as good as the morning, or the night before. ;-) What are you doing up so early?
: I'm at uni today. Busy after work?
: No plans, want to come to mine?
"See you are looking better today, Miss Oswald," Linda sneered at her, trying to look at her phone, handing her the briefing sheet.
"Good morning Linda," she smiled. "Must have been a 24 hour thing," she said brightly. "Thanks for the photocopies yesterday," she said sarcastically. She had delivered them, deliberately late, halfway during the lesson, not that it mattered as she didn't need thirty copies of briefings, she obviously hadn't bothered to check what she was photocopying. It was funny until the OFSTED inspector had asked to see the handouts after the lesson, and she had to do some emergency sleight of hand to retrieve a different worksheet from her desk.
"You're welcome," she said equally sarcastically, flouncing away from her.
: Fancy giving me a lift on your bike?
: Only got one helmet :-(
: Text me your address, I'll bring a bottle over.
: Deal, see you later. 5pm OK for you?
She sent Emily her address and smiled to herself, putting her phone away.
Bill walked in at 8.30. "Good morning, everyone." There was a mumble of acknowledgement. "As you are all fully aware, OFSTED paid a visit yesterday. I am yet to see the full report, It's due tomorrow but I am lead to believe it will be favourable. Aside from a slight issue with some stray chemicals found in Jordan Cole's locker-" there were sniggers around the room, "-I have not been made aware of anything else. Unless anyone here has anything they would like to share with the group?" There was an extended silence. "No? Ok then. Have a good day."
The teachers dispersed, Bill was walking in her direction, she had already prepared her answer.
"Hi Bill," said Clara, going on the offensive.
"Hello Clara," he said, "I was coming to find you. Glad to see you looking better today."
"How are you?" she said.
"I am very well, but what happened yesterday?"
"Look Bill, I can explain, I wasn't really expecting the inspector to be some sort of Thomas Hardy superfan, I was having a bad day, and Courtney was just really winding me up, and to be honest, -"
"Yours was the only report I didn't get back as it was the last lesson of the day, just wondered how it went."
"Oh," she said, deciding to keep the rest of her prepared answer to herself. "It was OK I suppose, I don't think anything overly untoward happened."
"Good then, well done." He strode off from her.
Clara went to her lessons, hoping the obvious flirting she had done with the inspector after the lesson had worked after she had lost the will to live with Courtney's constant questioning and almost snapped at her.
The day went past reasonably quickly, she found having had a decent amount of sleep had vastly improved her day.
...
She got back that evening to find the Doctor sat on the sofa in her living room, leafing through Heat magazine.
"You know, Clara, if this magazine is the standard of English by which your world is setting itself by, maybe there is some hope for me," he said sarcastically. "How was your day?"
Clara strolled into the living room, arms folded and eyes narrowed. Her previous anger from yesterday, bottled successfully now knew no boundaries. She stood in front of him and tore the magazine from his hands, throwing it onto the floor to her left.
"6am!" she shouted loudly, almost verging on screaming.
"I think you'll find," he turned to the clock next to him, "it's 4.55pm."
"6am!" she repeated, identical to the first time.
He looked at the clock again, "no, it's definitely 4.55, no 4.56 pm now," he turned to face her and then back at the clock, "you need to work on your basic life skills."
"6am!" she said.
"You keep on saying this, but-"
"6am yesterday," she said venomously.
"Oh what? At the school? I thought you liked being at work early?" he said.
"6am! In February, in a car park. In a locked school ground. That's dead with hypothermia." Her eyes had not lost any intensity. "Except you didn't think about that did you? Subzero temperatures for over two hours, on top of that, I was awake for over 42 hours, on top of that," she saved a large amount of volume for the last two words, "OFSTED inspection."
"Ah," he said.
"Ah?" she shouted. "Is that all you are going to say? Ah?" She was steeling herself for her next outburst.
"I didn't know about the OFSTED thing," he said, apologetically.
"Of course you didn't!" she shouted. "I hate you sometimes! So determined to teach me a lesson, oh the irony because I'm a teacher, you don't care that I could freeze to death. It wouldn't be so bad if this was the first time, but it's not! Remember you left me in Glasgow once and didn't come to see me for three weeks, I could have been dead in a ditch!" Her anger was limitless today.
"Come on Clara-"
"Don't you, come on Clara to me!" she slung back at him. She groaned loudly.
There was a knock at the door.
"I mean it's your own fault really-" the Doctor started.
"Oh right, so now it's my fault?" she shouted loudly back at him, anger creeping through her veins. "My fault that I accidentally slept in, because, you know what, it happens! Human beings do things like sleep late-"
"And hangover days and sick days?"
"It was not a hangover day," she said vociferously. "I wasn't even drinking the night before!" Clara moved to leave the room, "Stay here!" she demanded, "If you even look at the TARDIS I will kill you, OK? You are not leaving during the middle of this."
Clara went to the door, incensed with anger, opening it.
"Hey," said Emily, holding up a bottle of wine. "Are you ok? Is this a bad time?"
Clara managed to raise a smile at her, inviting her in, looking and listening behind her.
"Hello," she gave Emily a gentle kiss on the cheek, feeling her anger subside somewhat. "How much of what just happened have you heard."
"Nothing, I heard some shouting from the other side of the door," she smirked. She was obviously lying. "Not much. A bit. Most of it."
"Can you just give me a few minutes, the Doctor is here and we are in the middle of an argument, let me turf him out and then I am all yours. Make yourself at home, the kitchen is here on the left." She left Emily and returned to the Doctor, he was still there.
"I'm very glad you aren't stupid enough to have left," she said at a normal tone, closing the door behind her, she could feel her blood boiling. "I could easily kill you right now."
"Good luck trying, you look like you've been possessed, I'm more curious now."
"I am not possessed!" she shouted louder, sighing. "I am so angry with you!" Clara walked up to the TARDIS door, opening it.
"Aren't you glad you got your sick day out of the way, though?" the Doctor stood up.
"It was not a sick day! It was not a hangover day, it was just a simple mistake, OK?" she hovered outside. "So anyway," she had lost the flow of her argument and had other things on her mind now, "I have a visitor in the other room."
"Since when do you have visitors? Oh wait... Is it Harley?" the Doctor asked.
"Who is Harley?" she said loudly.
"Harley... you know, Harley?"
"Answer my question Doctor," she demanded.
"You know, Harley, the rat, the one that has been living here for over six months. Very friendly after he gets to know you. Can be a little bit bitey. You really need to get another pet, I hear cats and dogs are popular around these parts." He paused for breath, "and for women in your situation, cats are preferable."
"I do not have a rat in my kitchen," Clara shouted loudly.
There was a smashing noise and a scream from the other room.
"Looks like he has come out to meet your friend," the Doctor said. "Hope both your tetanus injections are up to date." He smiled widely.
"Hang on, women in my situation?" she said loudly. "What do you mean by that?"
"You know, single, sans partner, getting on a bit-"
"Getting on a bit?" she shouted. "I'm 29! Try looking in the mirror before saying that. I am not some old spinster cat lady." There was laughter from the other side of the door. Emily was listening to them.
"Correct, right now you aren't," the Doctor agreed.
"Thank you," she said, at a normal voice, beginning to get through to him.
"Because you don't have a cat."
"I hate you," she said loudly, folding her arms.
"So anyway, you asked me where I was taking you earlier," he turned around and opened the TARDIS door.
"Yesterday, when you dropped me off in near arctic conditions," she corrected him.
"Yesterday, earlier, same thing," the Doctor walked inside.
"Definitely not the same thing," she said loudly, eventually following him inside, closing the door behind him, he went to power up the TARDIS.
"Fancy finding out why the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are, well, hanging?" the Doctor said.
"They don't exist," Clara shook her head.
"Don't they?" the Doctor said, smiling, he posed it as a question he already knew the answer to.
Clara folded her arms and screwed up her face. "Oh, ok, go on then," she said after a minute. "On one condition."
"Which is?" the Doctor asked.
"Drop me back exactly when we left, and let me have a decent night's sleep before we go back."
"That's two conditions-"
"Shut up," she said.
"Yes, boss." The Doctor flipped the switch on the TARDIS, and off they went.
...
It turned out the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were full of shape shifting amoeba like creatures, intent on devouring any human life forms to molecular level to feed the greenery. They spent four days hiding out, trying to avoid being dissolved into plant food, eventually locating the source and rehoming it on a planet in the Gilburne nebular.
The Doctor materialised the TARDIS a few minutes after they'd left, the same time and date, and after having an extended sleep in the TARDIS's spare bedroom. She put on the clothes she'd been wearing and fixed her hair, removing a few stray leaves.
She walked into her living room, the Doctor followed her. It was 17.15.
"Thank you," Clara said, going to hug him awkwardly. "Would you like to meet my visitor?"
"What, they one you've been banging on about for the last four days? I'm not sure, I don't do very well in social situations..." he said.
"No, you don't, do you?" she laughed.
Clara went out into the hallway and saw Emily looking at the photos on the wall.
"Sorry about that," Clara smiled.
"How many hen parties have you been to? Or is it just lots of pictures of the same hen party?" Emily asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You know, that is an excellent question!" said the Doctor, appearing behind Clara. "Why didn't I ask that?"
"Emily, this is the Doctor, Doctor, this is Emily." Clara said.
"Is this Jack the Ripper?" the Doctor asked.
"Not as far as I know," Clara said.
"Hi," Emily said. "Have you resolved your argument?"
"What argument?" said Clara, thinking back, they had had many arguments in the last four days, suddenly remembering the whole school car park thing. "Oh yeah, we've sorted that out now. The Doctor left me in the middle of a freezing cold car park at six in the morning the other day. I was a bit angry."
"I could hear," Emily laughed. "Remind me never to get you angry."
"That is a very wise course of action," said the Doctor.
"Is there really a rat in Clara's kitchen?" said Emily, directed at him.
"Oh yes, Harley, did you see him?"
"No I did not," Emily said, matter-of-factly.
"So the Doctor was just leaving..." Clara said.
"Was I?" he said.
"Yes," said Clara.
"I thought you told me you had a whole evening of Netflix and chill planned?"
"What?!" said Clara, blushing. Emily laughed. "I didn't-"
"You know watching Netflix and chilling out," said the Doctor, "that sounds like my sort of evening. Can we watch Breaking Bad? That's my favourite. I can also tolerate House of Cards."
"Yes, that is exactly what we are going to be doing," said Clara, sarcastically.
"Oh good, I was half expecting it to be one of those unfortunate inoffensive euphemistic terms and," he paused, pointing at Emily, "I don't know this one well enough."
"I'm sorry?!" she exclaimed.
"To be fair he is has a point," Emily sniggered.
"Oh don't you encourage him," Clara said to Emily, playfully, elbowing her in the ribs.
"I mean Breaking Bad is good," Emily clarified, her eyes twinkling.
"Thank you, friend. Clara doesn't watch it. So I'll get the duvets, chilling implies that it's going to be cold-"
"Err... no, Doctor, you are leaving," Clara pointed to the front door.
"Why?" the Doctor asked.
Clara had two reasons ready to go. "Firstly, Netflix and chill is a two person activity-"
"Is it?" the Doctor said.
"Right now, yes it is." Clara stated, walking towards the front door.
"Can we ask her to leave?" the Doctor whispered to Emily, pointing at Clara. Emily laughed.
"Doctor!" Clara said. "You can't chuck me out of my own flat! The second very good reason, is that..." she paused, "one of the main components is a disproportionately large amount of not watching the screen due to participation in..." she looked at Emily, thinking of all the things they would probably be doing apart from what she was about to say, "...conversation. More specifically conversation, subsection, trivial gossip." She winked at Emily.
The Doctor screwed up his eyebrows, "but why would you want to do that?"
"I know," she sighed, "sounds rubbish doesn't it?"
"Sounds boring, I'll leave you to it," the Doctor walked towards the living room.
"Doctor, the front door is that way," Clara pointed. "When I have guests you have to use the front door, remember?"
"Oh yes," he nodded.
"Emily, make yourself at home," she said, "let me just see the Doctor out."
"Bye, friend," he said to Emily as she disappeared into the living room, standing at the doorway.
She ushered the Doctor towards the front door. "You can have the TARDIS," she said in a low voice, "if you give me ten minutes, you can come back into the living room and leave. And don't even think about coming back here until at least Saturday morning unless you want to hear gossiping. And lock this door."
"Ok, boss."
"Goodbye Doctor," she said louder, leaving the door on the latch.
She padded back to the living room, seeing Emily looking at the TARDIS.
"Oh, and take this stupid big Blue Police Box thing with you," she shouted down at the empty corridor.
"What is this?" Emily asked, walking around it.
"Oh, this thing," she said dismissively, "he likes to build things and then realise they are too big to get out."
"I... see..." she said, unsure.
"Anyway," said Clara, moving to stand in front of Emily, "we appear to be wasting valuable time." She leant over to kiss her gently.
Emily returned her kiss, laughing into it.
"What?" said Clara, pulling away.
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure who is worse, Lewis or the Doctor..." she laughed to herself.
"I think they are about as bad as each other," Clara mused. Lewis was much worse.
Emily pushed Clara backwards onto the side of the TARDIS, kissing her urgently. Clara straightened herself up and walked Emily backwards towards the bedroom as they started removing clothing from each other, discarded in a trail on the floor. They made it to the hallway before Emily pressed her into the wall at the back, Clara was wearing just her bra on top now. Emily was topless, trying to remove Clara's trousers.
Clara froze as she spotted the Doctor creeping in through the front door out of the corner of her eye as Emily was kissing her neck, watching him see her, standing still deciding what to do. She begged him to turn around and go back out, but instead he walked slowly and silently up the hallway, locking the door quietly behind him, invisible to Emily. He was holding his right index finger to his lips as he stepped. He was about to say something behind Emily but stopped as Clara glared at him, indicating to go to the kitchen. This was truly mortifying.
Clara reinstated the kiss as she moved up off the wall and shoved Emily towards the bedroom, closing the door behind her loudly.