Clara looked up from her book, glancing speculatively at the Doctor.

"What is it?" he asked fondly, not raising his eyes from his own reading material.

"I was wondering," she began slowly, "what it was like to know more than one of me? Wow. That sounds so strange when I say it out loud."

"I didn't get to know all of you," he replied quietly. "I wish I did."

"But the ones you did know? Were they all me? Or, well…I don't know…"

"They weren't all carbon copies of you," the Doctor clarified. "There were many similarities, of course. All the Clara's I met were funny, and brave, and clever, but each a little different. As if I had met your sisters, I suppose is the clearest way of expressing it. What's brought this on?"

"I just wondered what it seemed like to you. Did you know that all of me had jobs taking care of people in some way or another?"

The Doctor put down his book and moved to sit beside Clara. "That makes sense, I suppose. You are a very caring person," he told her, smiling affectionately. "Some things just seem to be part of your fundamental structure."

"Some things," she repeated quietly, looking down at the book in her lap.

"Hey, what is it?" he asked, gently tipping her face up.

"Did you know that all of me lost my mum?"

"Oh, Clara," he sighed, pulling her in close.

"I kept hoping, you know? I just thought that maybe one of me would get to keep her, but…I guess the universe doesn't work that way."

"No, I'm so sorry, but no, it doesn't." He had found, in a thousand years of existence, that the universe occasionally did manage to find a way to balance things out, but sometimes it took time, years, generations, centuries even. To Clara, the loss of her mum was still too raw of a wound to take the long view of things, and so he just held her tightly as she wept out her grief at the injustice of it all.


A universe apart…

"Really, Pete? A nanny? Whatever are you thinking?" Jackie scolded. "I managed to raise Rose all right on my own, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," Pete replied soothingly, "but the thing is, Jax, this time you don't have to. Look, we're both a bit older this time around, why not let someone else do some of the work? And besides…"

Jackie crossed her arms and sighed, raising an eyebrow. "Besides, what?"

"Look, this girl…she's all alone in the world. I think, maybe we can do her some good, all right?"

"Daft, you are," Jackie laughed, giving in.

"All right, then," Pete stepped to the doorway. "Come on in and meet my wife," he invited, ushering the pretty, dark-haired girl into the room. "Jackie, this is Clara."