Chapter 3

The Doctor, Clara and Lily managed to dodge the teacup at the last moment by taking cover behind a pristine white sofa. A couple of feet away from them, the delicate porcelain crashed to the floor and broke into a thousand pieces. Brown liquid splashed all over the white tiles.

"I thought you said that you two were friends?" Clara whispered.

The Doctor shrugged.

"Ah, maybe we didn't end things in the best of ways last time. Hm. But I really thought he would be over it by now. After all, it has been several hundred years..."

"Be over it? Be over it?" Bobby spat from the other side of the sofa. "You stole one of my most precious possessions!"

"I didn't steal it, Bobby," the Doctor objected while carefully glancing over the back of the large piece of furniture. "I loaned it."

"You never returned it! And now it's gone! Gone forever!"

The Doctor shook his head.

"You have literally billions of others, Bobby..."

"But none exactly the same. Never one exactly the same."

A strange sound came from the direction of the little man. At first Clara could not figure out what it was she heard. Then the realisation dawned on her. Bobby was crying.

"Oh, Bobby," said the Doctor softly.

He rose from behind the sofa and approached his old friend. Several minutes passed and when nothing else came flying, Clara and Lily followed his example.

First Starcontrol Officer Bobby was sitting on a chair looking all miserable with fresh tears on his green cheeks. Beside him stood the Doctor, with an arm lightly around the little man's shaking shoulders.

"I did not know," the Doctor whispered. "I did not know how much they meant to you. I am so, so sorry."

Bobby began to tear up again. The Doctor offered him his polka dotted handkerchief which Bobby gladly accepted.

"I love them all like my children, you know? Every single one of them."

"I understand. Again, I am so sorry."

Clara frowned. Feeling that she had missed out on something very important she asked:

"Doctor, what did you steal?"

The two men looked at her with surprise.

"Why, a star of course," said Bobby so stunned that his tears for a moment stopped falling. "One of my precious, beloved stars."

Clara raised a questioning eyebrow but the Doctor shook his head. Not now, he mimed with a side glance and a nod towards Bobby. Outloud he said:

"What do you say, Bobby, some more tea? I'll put a kettle on. And let's make some scones, shall we? We could all need some freshly baked scones right about now."

Some time later the Observatory was filled with the scent of tea and bread straight from the oven. The Doctor and Clara were sitting at one of the tables, each with their own steaming cup in their hand.

"They seem to be getting along well," Clara noted and nodded towards Bobby and Lily who sat with their heads together a couple of meters away, having an intense discussion about ponies, unicorns and rainbows.

"Ah, Bobby has always loved children. I used to take my children here all the time. Some of my grandchildren as well. Before..."

He fell quiet and for a moment his ancient eyes seemed to go somewhere far, far away. Clara knew that the memories of his lost family pained him. Even though they now knew that Galifrey and the Time Lords had survived the Time War, all those centuries that the Doctor had believed he was all alone had left deep scars that had yet to heal. Clara stroke his arm, knowing full well that there was nothing she could say or do that could lessen the burden for him. In an attempt to steer away from the painful subject, however, she said:

"So you stole a star, uh?"

The Doctor shrugged.

"What can I say?" He said and glanced at her from the side. A smile twisted his lips for a second, proving that she had made the right choice. "My previous incarnation would sometimes act impulsively. No, not the one you met, Clara. The one before that. A romantic fool he was too. Wasting a completely good star just so he could say goodbye to a girl. Idiot. I can't justify his, or I should rather say my actions back then, I really can't. But please remember that I was young at the time, just short of 900 years."

"Yeah, very young indeed..." Clara mumbled.

They fell quit once more.

"Clara! Clara!" Lily suddenly shouted from the other table.

Clara looked at the excited little girl who was jumping up and down next to the green alien.

"What is it, love?"

"Did you know that all the stars have names? Bobby just told me. He has named one after me too. Do you want to see? Do you?"

"Why of course." Clara rose and went over to them.

The Doctor remained in the background and a sad shadow passed over his face as he watched his three friends. It was true what he had said to Clara. Stealing Bobby's star and using it up in order to travel to a parallell universe had been a stupid thing to do and he truely was sorry.

So it saddened him greatly that he needed to do the same thing all over again.