Hello! First things first...I meant to get this up before Christmas (you'll see why at the end) but was unable to because of work and trying to get things ready for the holidays. So my apologies about being late. At least I'm before New Year's! Anyway, one other thing...someone mentioned that yes, Clara has been to Gallifrey before. I'll be honest and tell you I completely forgot-she's actually been on Gallifrey twice, if you count her echo being there and giving the first Doctor the TARDIS, as well as being there when the War Doctor was about to use The Moment on the Time Lords and the Daleks. So yeah, I did space and forget she has been there before. If I ever revise this I'll make sure to change that mistake. Anyway, here's the latest chapter...enjoy! One last thing...this is not where the story ends, there is more to come. :-)
"So…you spoke to the Time Lords…what did you say? What did they say? Please," he took her hands into his, "tell me everything."
With a deep breath, Clara began her tale. "It was the second time I came back, when you were so very old and dying. You'd gone up the clock tower to confront them all. I was so afraid for you…so sad that you'd been fighting all this time alone…and yet so angry. Here you'd been risking your life for so long to protect the Time Lords…and they…they did nothing to help you. I was livid." Her mouth tightened into a straight line as she relived her frustration and anger. "You'd think for all you'd given them they'd at least do something to help you out, especially considering how old you'd gotten, and how near you were to death." She let go of the Doctor's hands and stood up, then strode across the room to stand in front of the tree. After a moment she resumed.
"I walked up to the crack and told them they needed to help you, and that all the name they needed to know you by…everything they needed to know about you… was tied up in that name…the name of the Doctor. And if they loved you they should help you."
"And? Did they respond?" He arose and walked over to her, looking anxiously into her eyes.
"Yes. The crack snapped shut, reappeared later in the sky and they gave you the extra regenerative energy. That's it. That's all that happened." She looked up at him with an apologetic expression that there wasn't anything more to tell.
The Doctor gazed down for a moment, thinking over what she'd shared. Then he looked back up into her eyes, a gentle smile lifting the corner of his mouth.
"My impossible girl…does the impossible for me again. You really are making a habit of this. First you save me from my despair and loneliness after losing the Ponds…then you jump into my timeline and save me from the Great Intelligence, over and over again…then you save me from making the greatest mistake of my life by keeping me from destroying Gallifrey…and then you save me from certain death by convincing the Time Lords to give me extra regenerations." He reached up and stroked the side of her face with one of his hands. "What next will you save me from?"
"Probably yourself," she smirked, the dimples on her cheeks framing her mouth and making her even more enticing to the Doctor. "Sometimes my biggest job is saving you from your own ego."
"Oi!" he grinned. "I'm not that bad!"
"Oh?" She danced away from him, laughing. "I've known you even before your first regeneration. And you've had an over healthy ego from day one, Mister."
"You little…" With a barely contained grin overtaking his features, he made to grab her. Clara giggled and evaded his grasp, but she couldn't elude him forever. His long arms soon wrapped around her and trapped her against him. Laughing in triumph, he then bent down and kissed her lips soundly with his. Clara gave in and nestled into him.
"Clara…my Clara. How I love you so," he murmured, kissing her temple.
She sighed. She had so longed to hear those words from him…from the moment she'd realized he had her heart, when she'd watched him regenerate. Then she had hoped he might still love her, in his twelfth body; but he had withheld any sort of physical affection from her, and so she'd thought any affection he'd held for her was lost with his regeneration. Now was her chance to find out the truth.
"You've told me you still cared for me even while you were tricking me on Trenzalore," Clara ventured. "But I honestly thought you really stopped loving me when you regenerated. You wouldn't touch me and you seemed repulsed by any affection I showed you. I…I don't understand. Why did you change? After you'd regenerated…after we left Vastra's house and started back to the present time…you told me you 'weren't my boyfriend.' You were all but admitting you had thought of yourself that way in your eleventh form. Why tell me, since it sounded like you were informing me you had no intention of thinking that way again."
The Doctor looked uncomfortable for a moment. With a sad expression, he leaned his forehead against hers, then began to explain.
"Clara…you have to understand…I have never stopped loving you, not even in my last regeneration, old and Scottish I might have been. I loved you just as much as I ever did. But the new body didn't like that kind of contact—I can't explain it except that I felt uncomfortable giving or receiving physical affection. And by the time I got used to being in that body…and getting close to finding a way to show you affection…I ran into River Song and the rest is history."
He released her from his arms and turned away from her. "There's…something else as well. When you took up with Danny…I started pushing you away…because I was afraid."
Clara reached out to him and touched his arm. "Afraid? Of what?"
"Afraid that I was losing you…that you didn't love me any more…because I was old. I didn't want you to have Mister Pink…but I thought you didn't want me either." He looked back at her with tired, forlorn ancient eyes. "I couldn't bear to watch you walk away from me. That's why I went off to find Gallifrey."
With a light slap on his arm, Clara remonstrated him. "You idiot. If you had just shown me even a small modicum of affection, had not been so…acerbic…if I'd only known how you felt…I never would have gone after Danny."
His eyes shone. "Is…is that true?"
"Yes, you twit. I'm not making it up. Vastra tried to remonstrate me by calling you my 'dashing young gentleman friend…a lover.' She was criticizing me because she thought I was only impressed by your youthfulness. I told her if anyone could flirt with a mountain range, it was me, and I wasn't distracted by a pretty face." She gave him a sideways cheeky look. "Yes, I fell in love with your pretty eleventh face," she admitted. "But I also fell in love with the man underneath it. And to be honest, I find all your faces charming. I just happen to like the present one the best."
He grinned and put an arm around her. "That works for me, as it's the one I'm presently wearing."
Clara put a hand to his chest to keep him from pulling her too close. "There is one thing I'm curious about, though, Doctor. I understand now why your previous self—the Scottish one—was so reluctant to be openly affectionate. But…why are you so open about your love for me at this time, in this regeneration? What changed your mind?"
The Doctor took a deep breath, looking away from Clara with a sad expression. "After my experience with River I realized that you are one of only three women in my life who have ever loved me selflessly. One is lost to me in the mists of time, and one was lost to me in another dimension. But you…you are here, living, breathing in the now of my timeline. I didn't want to run from you anymore," he finished, turning to gaze into her eyes again. This time, Clara was willing to let him pull her close, but instead he stepped back from her. Taking both her hands in his, he dropped before her on one knee. Then he reached into his pants pocket and withdrew something.
Before her startled eyes, he held up a small TARDIS blue velvet box, containing an impressive diamond ring. "That's why I've decided now is the perfect moment to do this. I don't want to live without you any longer. Instead I want you to make me the happiest man in the universe and become my wife. Will you marry me, Clara Oswald?"
"Yes," Clara whispered without hesitation, tears springing into her eyes.
He immediately stood up, slipped the ring on her finger, and then pulled her into his arms and kissed her lips, passionately. In the background, the clock in the corner chimed out midnight. The Doctor lifted his head slightly, and kissed her forehead. "Merry Christmas, Clara Oswald," he murmured.
"Merry Christmas, Doctor," she replied, aglow with happiness.
