The kettle broke the standoff between the two men, with its loud, insistent whistle. Clara whirled around and took it off the hob. She leaned against the counter for a moment and took a deep breath to regain her courage. Turning back around she faced the Doctor and Danny.
"Look…the kettle's hot. Why don't I make us all a nice cup of tea and we can sit down and discuss this like civilized people?" she reasoned.
"All I want to know," Danny stated with a strained voice, "is why he's here in his underwear, in your house, on a day we were supposed to be meeting for a date."
"One: I'm not in my underwear, if you haven't noticed," the Doctor ticked off, using his long fingers. "Secondly, if you want to get technical about it, this really is MY house, as I bought it for Clara about a month or so ago. I got tired of how cramped it was trying to park the TARDIS in her apartment. The house is actually in my name."
Danny turned an incredulous gaze on Clara. "Is that—is that true? He bought you this house?"
"Well, yes, but it's, well, it's not like that, Danny! He was—he and I were—we weren't—there wasn't anything going on at the time between us then." She waved her hands frantically about, and stomped into the living room. The kitchen was really too confined for all that testosterone. Better to take it out into a larger area to diffuse it somewhat.
Following her, Danny sounded alarmed. "THEN? You mean there's something going on NOW?"
Clara turned and frantically tried to calm him down. "No! I mean, well, no, not right this moment, I mean…no," she finished lamely. "Listen, Danny, he crashed here last night in his TARDIS. He'd just regenerated and he was physically exhausted. His clothes were torn and burnt so I got him some new ones from the TARDIS. It's pretty beat up, too. Both of them are here to recuperate until they've recovered. He slept last night in my bed while I slept on the couch. He'd just come downstairs when you walked in my front door. That's all that's happened."
Danny gave her a long look, and sighed. He looked over to the Doctor, who had followed them into the living room and was now sitting down on the couch, watching them. "So once he's back on his feet he'll be off again, then? Gone?"
Before Clara could answer, the Doctor interjected. "Not until I've had a chat with Clara about a few things."
"Like what?" Danny said, narrowing his eyes. The Doctor narrowed his right back. "Not any of your business," he returned frostily, crossing his arms over his chest.
Danny turned back to Clara. "All right then…I'll leave the two of you to your little chat. But I'll call you later." He leaned forward as if to kiss her, but seemed to think better of it with the Doctor behind her, giving him what could only be described as a glare of death. He took her hand instead and gave it a brief squeeze. Then he left, giving the door a bit of a slam on the way out.
"Why…did you give him a key…to what is actually my house?" The Doctor inquired into the silence following Danny's departure.
"Not for the reason you're implying, thank you very much," Clara tartly replied. She crossed her arms over her chest. "He had been coming over and helping me move furniture from my old place to here. It just seemed easier to let him have a key instead of always running downstairs to let him in when he had something else from my old flat to move into here. I just forgot to get it back from him after I finished moving." She walked over to an armchair and sat down, facing the Doctor.
"Enough about Danny," she continued. "Tell me what happened that caused you to regenerate, and why you look like you do now."
The Doctor's face became drawn. He closed his eyes, and began to relate the past events in a sad, quiet voice. "It all started and ended…with River Song."
Clara closed her eyes, and lowered her head. Of course, she thought. His wife was never truly dead, as long as she was a time traveler. Clara felt she should have suspected that somehow, in some way, River would turn up again. Anything she might have hoped for between her and the Doctor could never exist, as long as River was still out there somewhere, waiting to show up in his life and command his affections. Clara bit her lip.
Her woebegone expression had not escaped the Doctor, however. He quickly rose off the couch and came over to her, kneeling before her and taking her hand. Their eyes met, and Clara was surprised to see tenderness besides the sadness in them.
"It's all right, Clara. Whatever there was between River and I no longer exists. This was the last time I was ever to see her. She has now gone," he swallowed heavily, "to her death." Touching her face gently, he resumed his story.
He had traveled to the human colony of Mendorax Dellora, in the year 5343, on a whim. He'd been following up a lead regarding Gallilfrey's whereabouts that he'd overheard on a lone galactic outpost, and had been passing by the colony when he decided to stop. It was definitely Christmastime of the year there, and he thought it might be amusing to see how they celebrated. He always enjoyed the holiday.
Not long after arriving, he ran into River Song, who didn't recognize him in his last regeneration, being unaware that he'd been granted more of them by the Time Lords. He was also taken aback to find she had not one but two other husbands; one she'd married for convenience, and the other she was planning on running off to some beach resort with. Later on he discovered she'd been married to several others as well. Worse than that, she'd been snitching the TARDIS behind his back, running off with it at random unbeknownst to him. He was starting to feel rather betrayed by what was supposed to be his loving wife.
Eventually, in the course of an adventure with her involving a decapitated head (her most recent husband) and a diamond, she realized he really was the Doctor. At the end of all the chaos they managed to crash land on Darillium; and the Doctor decided it was his final chance to wrap up things regarding his tumultuous relationship with his rather wild wife. A bit of timey wimey arrangements later, he and River entered a restaurant built specifically to his suggestion, to view the fabled Singing Towers of Darillium, and spend their last night together. He gave her the gift of a sonic screwdriver, which he used discreetly to scan her into the neural relay inside it, knowing his tenth incarnation would use it later to upload her into the Library. Receiving the screwdriver with joy, River turned to him and they kissed.
The Doctor then felt his legs go out from under him, and he fell to the floor as his head spun with dizziness. He heard River's voice apologizing to him, and then he saw the face of Madame Kovarian, as she gloated over his prone body. With infinite heartbreak, the Doctor realized his untrustworthy wife had betrayed him again.
