Thank you all so, so, so much for the reviews! I know most of you have been waiting for Clara to dump Danny, but maybe fate has other ideas?

Chapter 26

Clara was pacing her living room while the endless beeping sound on the phone seemed to resound in her head over and over and over again and the longer it lasted, the more her heartbeat seemed to accelerate. Nervously, she glanced at the collection of post-it notes on her shelf, trying to find a good way to start this conversation. But there wasn't a good way, was there?

Just say it

She reached out and took the note off the shelf, inhaling deeply as she did. Something had to change and because Clara couldn't make up her mind, she would let Danny decide. She had messed up, properly messed up. She had cheated on the only man who truly loved her, she had treated him in the most terrible way and if he forgave her for everything she had done, Clara would do everything in her power to honour the second chance. Oh God, he wasn't going to give her a second chance, was he?

"Clara!"

"Shut up!" she blurted out as if by instinct before she could stop herself. Her heartbeat was out of control by now.

To her surprise, Danny chuckled on the other end of the line, but it didn't make her feel any less nervous about what was going to happen. "Is that how we communicate now?"

"Shut up! Shut up!" she repeated exasperatedly, followed by a deep breath. She had to do it and she had to do it now. Somehow, Clara had to find a way to calm down. Her relationship, the only proper relationship she had ever had was about to come to an end. She could feel it. "I need to talk to you."

"Well, I'm on my way to you right now. Breakfast date before school, remember? Give me a couple of minutes-"

"No! Not with you in the room!" she argued immediately. Clara couldn't do it like that. For the past few days, she had considered every possibility, went through every scenario and she had determined that if she looked Danny in the eye while she confessed her transgressions, she would never be able to tell him the truth. Just thinking about the pain and disappointment on his face made her want to blow off this entire idea.

"Oh, how silly of me," Danny said and he kept on chuckling as if it was all a laughing matter. Of course, he didn't know that their relationship was on the line.

"Things to say," Clara uttered eventually. "Not all of them good."

"Okay," he replied, a questioning undertone in his voice. "Wouldn't it be better if I was actually there?"

With a heavy sigh, Clara turned around to look at her shelf and she spotted post-it note after post-it note. Lying. The Doctor. I'm sorry. Then her eyes fell on the small note in her hand again. Just say it.

"Danny, everything is better when you're here," she replied, "but maybe not this."

Just say it

"I love you," she blurted out and all of a sudden, it felt as if a weight had dropped off her shoulders. Clara had never said it before, not to Danny, not to anyone she had dated. She had found excuses, she had found other phrases, other ways to express how she felt, but she had never once said these words out loud. Somehow, the knowledge that she could say them felt like a relief.

"I love you, too," Danny replied and there was a hint of amusement in his voice that angered her a little. She had been nervous, she had prepared for this.

"No, not like this, not like it's automatic," Clara told him. She had prepared for this for days. "I've never said those words before, Danny, and I'll never say them again. Not to anybody else, ever. Those words from me are yours now."

When she was finished, Clara took a long, deep breath. She had done it. She had actually done it. She had said the words and she might undo all of that with the confession that was to follow, but for a brief moment, Clara simply felt free.

Then she noticed that Danny had gone awfully quiet on the other end of the line.

"So, uhm, that's a thing," she said hesitantly and waited for Danny to reply, but to her horror, he never said a word. Clara had no idea what was happening or why he wouldn't say anything. Had it been too much? Had he started to suspect something? Did he know what was coming?

"Okay, Danny," she breathed nervously and waited for him to answer. Nothing. Not even a breath on the other end of the line. Her heart was pounding in her chest when she considered the possibility that she had done something terribly wrong. "Please speak to me. This is killing me."

Clara waited, but the silence on the phone was deafening.

"Danny, I love you," she confessed in a desperate attempt to get him to answer. He had to answer her now. "And you're the last person who's ever gonna hear me say that."

Yet the phone stayed silent and at last, Clara recognized that feeling inside her chest for what it was. It was the feeling of her heart breaking.

There was a sound tearing him from his dream. A terrible, deafening sound making its way into the depths of his mind and rousing him from his sleep and the Doctor uttered a long, frustrated groan as he reached for his phone on the bedside table.

"What is it?!" he half shouted, half mumbled in his sleepy state.

"Wake up, Doctor," his manager told him in a gruff voice. "I've got news for you."

He growled once again and slowly turned around on his back. It was only 8 am in the morning and he wasn't in the state to receive news of any kind, not when he was still half asleep.

"Can't it wait?" he asked, the annoyance and exhaustion showing in his voice. "You know I'm not exactly a morning person."

"Doesn't matter. It's important," Missy said and knowing her, she would stop beating around the bush any moment now. "Amy just called. Clara Oswald put the project on hold. Indefinitely."

"What?!" the Doctor blurted out and sat up in an instant. His head was spinning because of the sudden rush of blood and the news Missy had delivered. He didn't understand it and his tired brain was still wondering if he might have misheard her.

"Clara Oswald put the album on hold due to personal reasons," Missy repeated, more loudly and clearly this time.

"I heard you," he replied. The Doctor tried to wrap his head around the fact, but he couldn't quite grasp it. "Why would she do that?"

"I actually called to ask you the exact same thing," his manager explained angrily. "Doctor, what did you do?"

"Me?" he gasped. "I didn't do anything!"

"Really? Are you sure?" she wanted to know. "You didn't say anything mean? You didn't get into a fight?"

Finally, the Doctor rose from his bed and walked across the room. He couldn't sit still for another moment. Something was wrong, something had happened. But what? Their album had been going so well and right now, the Doctor couldn't come up with a single reason why Clara wanted to stop.

"Missy, I didn't say anything mean and we didn't get into a fight," he promised. "Why would she cancel the album? I don't understand it."

"Well, first of all, she didn't cancel. You both signed the contract, so it would be a legal hassle to get out of that. As far as I understood, she asked to put the project on hold for an unspecified period of time. Could be weeks, months, a year, I don't have a clue," Missy went on. "I'm asking you if you know anything. Did she say something? Did you get into a fight and she needed a break?"

"I, uhm, no," the Doctor replied. "No fight."

However, he now remembered their last conversation and the Doctor started to get an inkling.

"Well, I supposed you can enjoy your holiday now," Missy reasoned nonchalantly. "Go back to sleep."

And just like that, the line went dead.

The Doctor stared at the phone in his hand for a long moment while Missy's words were beginning to sink in. Clara had put the album on hold after their last encounter and the Doctor knew that it could only mean one thing. She had taken Danny's advice and gone on a holiday with him, a sweet, nauseatingly romantic holiday with the altar boy. Clara had chosen Danny over the Doctor and she didn't even have the guts to tell him.

Angrily, the Doctor opened his list of contacts and called Clara, determined to make her admit it. If she wanted to end their affair, she would have to do it properly. She would have to face him and tell him that she didn't want to see him again. Yet the Doctor didn't even get as far as the annoying beeping sound because her mailbox answered straight away. Clara had switched off her phone.

The Doctor huffed and threw the useless device on his bed. Clara Oswald had left him in the most cowardly way possible and once the reality of it had sunk in, the Doctor felt angry, but he also felt something he hadn't actually expected to feel. He wasn't just angry. A part of him was sad. The Doctor would never be with Clara again and the realisation of that broke his heart in the most unexpected way.