Chapter 12 : Companion Wanted

As Clara slept beside him, the Doctor lay awake thinking about just how good their latest adventures had been, it seemed every day she loved him more and the depth of her devotion deepened, just when he thought that was impossible.

But she was his impossible girl, and she certainly loved him impossibly, despite all his faults and fetishes and demanding needs...

There had been a time long ago, while Clara was still living part time on earth and enjoying a double life, that he had wondered if she would ever really commit to him.

He had loved her too deeply to ask her, and so had patiently waited.

That wait had paid off now, of course.

But there had been a day that had almost changed everything.

Almost...

It had happened after the painful quarrel he would never forget, when Clara had told him to go away from her – far away...

He had promptly taken off in the Tardis leaving an empty classroom and a flurry of paper in his wake as he left Coal Hill School and Clara's life for a brief and painful time.

It had got very lonely.

But at least he hadn't gone far – he had taken the police box to the other side of town, materialised on a busy street where it would not look out of place, and then consoled himself with the fact that at least he had not gone far away as she had tried to order him to.

That was back in the days when Clara still gave orders, and he did not miss her control freak side at all now, not now things were so much better and she showed him proper respect as a lover, the kind of respect he craved in the bedroom.

But back then, after that quarrel, he had felt desperately alone.

And he had done something random, something totally out of character because of it.

He had taken a pen and piece of paper and written a note:

'Companion wanted for space and time travel.

Must be respectful at all times and preferably have no commitments or complications. Apply within – The Doctor.'

Then he had stuck it on the front of the Tardis door...

The Doctor had gone back inside, leaned against the console facing the door with his arms folded as he watched and waited.

No one knocked.

He thought about Clara.

Her words still stung, their sharpness, the things she had said to him, but most of all, it hurt mostly because the look in her eyes had been pure ice.

He had not expected to get his heart broken after two thousand years, he had figured it had been broken enough times that it had never glued back together right in the first place, also that there couldn't possibly been any pieces left whole to break after so long and so many lives and lost loves...

But Clara had proved that assumption wrong, and sure enough heartache hurt just as much now as it had done all those centuries before when he had felt it for the first time.

Yes, Clara had hurt him, and he was close now to simply taking off and never coming back to this planet again, it didn't matter that he loved the place, it would now forever hold memories of her...

He was lost in thoughts of Clara that made his twin hearts ache.

And then came a distraction.

There was a knock on the Tardis door.

He hurried to answer it, of course it wasn't Clara – but he partly hoped it was, and then he remembered it wouldn't be her because they had just had a bitter falling out...

He opened the door.

"Yes?"

She looked up at him.

The woman was tiny, no more than five feet tall and she had to look right up at him, and as she did so, she smiled and then her gaze shifted back down his body, noticing the way his elegant suit looked good on his slender but athletic frame. Then her eyes met his again and she was still smiling.

"You're the Doctor? Why are you in a phone box?"

"It's a police box!"

She stepped back, looked at the blue box, and as the breeze picked up she tossed her long black hair off her shoulder and then looked at him again.

"Okay, I'll rephrase it, why are you in a police box?"

"If you come inside I'll explain."

Her green eyes sparkled. Those eyes were heavily lined with dark eye liner making her look either a bit gypsy or a bit Egyptian, he couldn't decide which. But her lashes were long and when she blinked seemed to emphasise her striking eyes. Her long hair was up in a high pony tail that trailed half way down her back, the side of her hair was streaked with gold and her tight black top emphasised the curve of her breasts very nicely. Her waist was slender and she wore faded jeans with a leather belt. The jeans hugged her hips and her shoes were high – the heels were the kind of sexy height he wished Clara would wear, but he doubted after their quarrel he would ever speak to her again, let alone talk about his fetishes...

She ran her fingers through a lock of hair that trailed over her shoulder and her silver charm bracelet jangled.

"You want me to go inside that tiny box with you?"

He stepped back and opened the door wider.

"Look behind me. There's plenty of room inside, It's a Tardis, a time machine."

Her eyes widened.

"What?" she said, and she stepped back away from the door, then she walked around the Tardis to be sure she had got it right, and finally, she came back to the open door and looked inside, past the Doctor.

"How can that be? It's bigger on the inside!"

"I know," he replied, "Are you coming in?"

She looked at him. He smiled. She smiled too, and then she took a deep breath and stepped inside, making the choice to take a chance.

As the door closed behind her, she walked towards the vast console area, stopped, looked up, then around, and finally back at the handsome man in the dark suit who stood by the controls. As he put his hands in his pockets she saw a flash of crimson lining to his jacket.

"This is my ship," he told her, "Do you like it?"

She found that question difficult to answer. The place was vast and unlike anything she had ever seen before.

"Yeah...it's alright, it's different."

"Do you like different?" he asked her, "Because I travel to many places and I see a lot of strange things."

She looked a little bewildered, still taking in the fact that the ship was bigger on the inside.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

"Annie," she said, "What's yours?"

"Just, the Doctor."

She looked around the console room again and stepped closer to him, then she looked up at him, and again, her gaze lingered.

"And this is a time machine?"

He gave a sigh.

"Do I have to repeat everything to you twice?"

And she smiled again, and he found it hard to be annoyed with her for too long.

She was nothing like Clara.

She was the kind of girl he could mould to his own liking, if it went that way.

He would probably fall for her eventually, too – but no one could truly replace Clara Oswald. He wished this one could. But Clara was lodged too deeply in his twin hearts for any other woman to make a life changing difference now...

"So, are you going to show me how this time machine works?" she asked him.

He leaned over the console and threw a lever and the engines groaned and whooshed.

As they took off, he snapped his fingers

Yes, he was trying to impress her with that old snap the fingers and the door opens routine...

She stared in surprise to see a view of black space filled with stars.

"Won't we get sucked out the door?"

"The shields are up, we're quite safe. Tell me more about yourself."

She stood there looking up into his eyes.

It was instant attraction, and he knew it.

"What are you?" she asked him.

"I'm a Time Lord, from a planet called Gallifrey. I'm an alien."

"Best looking alien I've ever seen," she said, and she was half joking and half flirting, and she laughed softly and he smiled too, but then her smile faded as she saw his eyes darken and he stepped closer to her.

He knew she wanted him, he could sense her heat rising as her pupils dilated. If he looked into her mind he knew he would see images of pure lust and desire, but there was no need to bother doing that.

Her hand brushed his, and he took hold of it.

She stood there, caught in the power of his gaze, and it was one of those moments where he knew he had a choice – turn away, or kiss the girl.

And so he pulled her close and kissed her.

As the Tardis flew on, he didn't break off from his kiss as he snapped his fingers again and the Tardis doors closed, and then he took her by the hand and led her from the console room and down the corridor that led to his bedroom.

They kissed again as he took her into the room, the lights came on softly as he entered the room and he pulled her over to his big, wide, four poster bed and then pushed her down on to it as he stood over her and stripped off his jacket and waistcoat. He gave a tug to his top shirt buttons, and then he was on her, the two of them rolling on the bed as they kissed again, hot and breathless.

Then the Doctor got up on his knees and loosened his belt and as he made eye contact with her, he saw aching desire.

"You want this?"

He freed his erection, and her mouth dropped open, either because she was impressed, or out of pure need to take him deep inside her.

She nodded.

"Nicely," he said, and as she crawled across the bed he caught her by the hair and slid into her willing mouth. She resisted at first, gasping at the way he had taken control.

"Suck it nicely, swallow it all down, understand I appreciate being the boss around here."

She looked up at him, her mouth still full, and then she sucked again, obediently, and seeing such compliance in her eyes made him harden rapidly, achingly.

Annie obeyed him so automatically he felt his desire rushing higher by the second as a thousand possibilities played through his mind. As her mouth worked on him and his thoughts grew hotter and darker, he lost control, and grabbed her by the hair a second time, burying himself deep in her mouth, ensuring she swallowed it down as commanded.

She obliged easily, and then she released him and looked into his eyes.

"Thank you," he said breathlessly, and he drew her down on to the bed and embraced her.

He held her for hours.

They talked, he told her about his travels and they kissed some more and when he said he needed to explain he was always the boss in the bedroom, she smiled and her eyes lit up.

"Good," she whispered, and they kissed deeply as her hands slid over his body seductively.

"So," she said, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

And that was when the bubble burst.

His eyes filled with tears as he thought of Clara.

"I hope I still do - I'm so sorry, I didn't tell you - but there's someone I love very much. We had a fight and I don't know if she's coming back. I need her back."

And his hearts ached as he wept and Annie held him.

"It's okay," she said softly, "I'm not surprised a bloke like you would have a girlfriend, you're good looking -"

As the Doctor's tears dried he laughed.

"I'm what? You should have seen me before I regenerated, I was much younger then, I looked totally different."

"I don't go for younger men. You're fine just the way you are. Very fine."

And as they lay together he looked into her eyes and wondered what might be if they took off through the time vortex together.

A short while later the Doctor got off the bed and picked up his clothes and began to get dressed again.

His thoughts were caught between Clara and Annie, but he still ached for Clara and that ache was deep.

"I'd better go back to the console room," he said to her, "So tell me, where would you like to go, Annie? I can take you anywhere. Let's see if you enjoy travelling in my Tardis."

"I can't do it today."

She checked her watch, and then her eyes grew wide.

"I've got to be at the school at three! I've got five minutes!"

He was in the middle of getting dressed.

"School? You're not a teacher, are you? Because you don't look like a teacher to me!"

She jumped off the bed and grabbed her clothing.

"I've got a five year old daughter."

She was getting dressed quickly.

"Just get me back as fast as you can!"

The Doctor buckled his belt and reached for his shirt.

"You've got a kid?"

She looked at him.

"Yes, what of it? Can't I do this companion thing on school hours?"

He buttoned up his shirt, left off his waistcoat and put his jacket back on, then paused to run his hand over his hair.

"Annie, travelling in the Tardis can be dangerous. I shouldn't even think about taking you on when you've got a child to consider... but I will think about it, okay? I'll think about it because I like you."

She looked at him gratefully and smiled.

"Thanks," she said, "I like you too, Doctor."

And then he left the bedroom, returning to the console room while she carried on getting dressed.

A few moments later she had joined him, and he had landed the Tardis outside the primary school.

"It's a minute to three," he told her.

She looked into his eyes and as she walked over to him, he thought again of Clara, and his hearts ached for her, but as he drew Annie into his arms and held her a little of the pain subsided.

Yes, he could learn to love her, in time...eventually, if he could ever get Clara Oswald out of his thoughts...

He kissed her goodbye.

"See you again tomorrow?" he asked.

She smiled.

"Bye, Doctor," she said warmly, and then the door of the Tardis closed behind her, and she was gone.

After the Tardis took off again, the Doctor went back to the bedroom, reflecting on all that had happened.

The room still carried the scent of her perfume and as he stepped closer to the bed he recalled the way she had so willingly obeyed him, and the memory of it lingered as he stood there.

Then he noticed a folded piece of paper on his pillow.

The Doctor picked it up.

It was a note from Annie.

As he read it, he realised it was the sweetest goodbye he had ever been handed:

'Dear Doctor,' she had written, 'I know I can't come with you. Because I realise now, what you do is dangerous. I can't fly around time and space and leave my child behind not knowing if I might never see her again. You're right about that. And I also realise you like to live dangerously. Of course you do, it's been the story of my life, it's even the reason my child came to be born in the first place – I can't resist a man who lives on the edge. I'm not saying you're a bad boy, at least not the kind I'm used to, more like you're a rebel, the kind of guy who girls like me fall for and then we get our hearts broken one way or another. But that's okay, I'll always remember you. Stay safe, Doctor. Don't take too many chances when you dice with danger in the unknown. All my love, Annie.'

He had read that letter twice, then folded it and put it away safely, stored with other mementos of lost loves. And then he had thought about all that had happened, and his hearts still ached and suddenly, he knew where he needed to be.

He took the Tardis back to Clara's place and waited for her, and while he waited he took the note off the door and threw it away.

That had been back then, and so much had happened since.

Now he was with Clara, and he intended to stay with her forever.

But once in a while, as she slept and he lay awake beside her, he liked to think back to what might have been.

Her name was Annie, she liked to be dominated and she had sucked his cock.

But she was in the past, and Clara was his future...

Just then Clara turned over and gave a sigh, shifting closer to the warmth of his body.

"I love you," he whispered, and she smiled in her sleep, and he kissed her cheek and she slept on, as he held her and lay there in the dark, thinking about the past and feeling thankful for how it had turned out in the end, because it had to be Clara, it would always be Clara - because she was the woman he loved like no other.