AN: Okay, I completely forgot about the little update before I would put up this chapter, but it was mainly because this chapter was finished faster than I expected. Excusing that little…thing, let's read on.

Hope and Fear

TARDIS

The swirl of memories raced on by, almost entirely ignoring Clara's presence as her mind's eye began to blur, her head pounding before it all suddenly stopped, and she found herself back in the TARDIS beside the Doctor. "Breathe, Clara. Breathe." He quickly hushed as her eyes widened, her ears ringing a little as she sat still, breathing in and out, letting her mind calm down before the ringing went away and her mind's activity ceased into silence. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Clara muttered, still blinking her eyes, even though the haze was nowhere to be seen.

"Do you need a moment?" The Doctor asked, both concerned and afraid, but she just smiled at him and shook her head.

"I've had hangover's worse than-"

"That's not what I meant." The Doctor interrupted, and she slowly nodded in response.

Clara glanced down for a second, continuing to breathe in and out before she lifted her head with a sigh. "Well, I can safely say I understand why you did it." The Doctor smiled solemnly as he got up from the chair and moved to lean against the console. Then, the smile disappeared, and the emotion Clara could see on his face was remarkably close to being called, "Shame". "Did you want to listen to her?"

The Doctor just looked up at her for a moment before he shook his head, which quickly turned into a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "I…I don't know. I really don't." He admitted, looking back down at his feet for a moment before giving out a sigh. "I could've stayed, saved their lives. Or I…I might have died." He gave a half smile, but it neither felt genuine nor forced. Just…just there.

"And you blame yourself for what happened?"

The Doctor just shrugged. "How could I not?"

"Then let me ask one question. When you were him, the Warrior, did you…save more lives?" The Doctor just stared at her for a moment before his eyes grew sad and drifted away. It provided enough of an answer. "How long have you tried to forget about it?" The Doctor just shook his head silently with a shrug, and Clara sighed. "Doctor, that saying, "Forgive and forget"…we both know how it really should be. Forgive but never forget. You can't just forget what happened for you own sake. That's not fair, not on them, and it's most certainly not fair on you."

The Doctor just looked at her helplessly. "So what do I do?"

"Be at peace with it. That's all I can say." Was her answer. "I can help you with it, but forgiving yourself…that's only something you can do. I can't do it for you." When the Doctor only nodded silently, she gave a little sniff before sighing. "Let's start with this: What made you want to forget it?"

"I…" His shoulders slouched in defeat as his eyes closed. "I walked away."

"And what have you been doing since?" She asked, and in silence, he began to smile, his eyes blinking as they began to water, but he did not let the tears run free. "Everyone makes choices, Doctor, good or bad. We can congratulate ourselves for it, we can punish ourselves for it, but we can't go back on them. All we can do is just be a little bit better or a little bit worse." He nodded at that, still keeping silent, and Clara took the moment to get up from her seat to stand before him, reaching to pull one of his hands out of his pockets. "How are you?" She asked, and he shrugged with a slight chuckle.

"I really don't know." He admitted honestly, and she smiled for a moment before her eyebrows drew together in a slight frown.

"Does every regeneration hurt?"

"Oh yes." He answered, not in spite but in an apology. "Even when it couldn't get any worse…" He shook his head for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Tell me, Clara, after all this time…am I a good man?" He asked with eyebrows softly raised.

Clara just looked at him for a few moments, no emotion on her face before she smiled. "Yes…and no."

The Doctor started to laugh. Not fake or cold, but genuine and heartfelt. "I figured that."

Clara chuckled at his response. "Honestly…you do your best, and that's all anyone can do."

He frowned despite his smile. "How do you mean?"

"Don't be the greatest person in the world, no one can be that. Just be…well…you." He chuckled again, and Clara joined in for a moment before she calmed down. Then, without any word, the Doctor started to race around the console, sending the ship directly into flight and forcing Clara to hold onto the railing with an enraptured smile of confusion. "Doctor, what are you doing?!"

"Well…I could tell you but that would be a spoiler!" The Doctor retorted with a grin, but it just made Clara blink repeatedly.

"Spoil what?!"

"Something I've wanted to do for quite a while." He teased, but it yet again just left her completely confused. But before she could do anything, the TARDIS landed and the Doctor raced for the doors, swinging them open, but Clara caught him say something. "Vastra! Vastra!"

"Vastra?" Clara muttered and she began to move away from the railing, but her shaky legs from the sudden trip made her stumble back. "Okay, nope." She grumbled, waiting a few seconds to regain herself just as she heard a pair of footsteps faintly approach before a cut through the light outside.

"Boy! You in there?!" A voice thundered, and the form that entered was…just Strax, eyebrows furrowed in complete puzzlement.

"Wrong gender, Strax." Clara grumbled, and Strax blinked with wide eyes for a moment.

"Sorry." He muttered as he turned to look back outside the TARDIS. "It's just-"

"Yes, the Doctor regenerated." Clara interrupted, and he turned back to look at her with squinting eyes.

"Again?!" Strax asked in irritated amazement. Clara nodded, and Strax just rolled his eyes.

"Strax, what exactly is going on?" Clara half demanded and Strax straightened himself up in response.

"Sir, Operation: Marriage to Clara, is in effect!"

Clara just…stopped. Then, she blinked, frowned, smiled, laughed and then cocked an eyebrow at Strax. "Was this meant to be a surprise?"

"What's a surprise?" Strax asked bluntly.

Before any response could be made, the Doctor came rushing back to the TARDIS with a big grin on his face, but he blinked in confusion at Clara. "What're you still doing here?"

"Strax just realised you regenerated." Clara answered, trying to fight off the urge to grin, and the Doctor turned to Strax with a frown.

"Yes, I regenerated." The Doctor interrupted Strax just as he started to speak. "Again." He added in a mutter as he looked back to Clara. "Come on!" He exclaimed before rushing back out, leaving Clara to chuckle to herself as she, very deliberately, moved slowly out of the TARDIS and into the upstairs bedroom of a large and awfully familiar Victorian house. "Strax, how long since the Crimson…thing?"

"Two months." Strax answered as he closed the TARDIS doors behind them. "No Rose or Jack?"

Clara shook her head. "No, sorry."

"Well, I'm not sorry for the Captain."

"Oi!" Clara admonished.

"Well, he kept looking at me, boy!" Strax retorted.

"I'm not-you know what? I give up." Clara returned with a dry sigh. "I give up." She repeated, tossing her hands in the air as they walked towards the stairs. "And what do you mean, "Looking at me"?"

"I mean he kept looking at me." Strax answered with a shiver. "Sontarans don't behave like that."

"Toooo much knowledge, Strax." Clara warned, and Strax promptly went quiet as they descended down the steps to be greeted by Vastra, her veil gone, and Jenny, who immediately embraced Clara.

"Good to see you again, my dear." Vastra greeted warmly, and Clara grinned.

"I…um…"

"You already know?" Jenny asked in confusion, and Clara nodded.

"What gave it away?" Vastra asked.

"For one, we got a few too many jokes about it." Clara answered. "And two…" She leaned over to the two of them to add in a low whisper, "someone doesn't know the meaning of surprise." When she moved back, the Victorian couple were glaring at Strax over her shoulders, in the manner of a mother admonished a child for "Lying about where all the cookies went".

Vastra just silently shook her head before she and Jenny led Clara into the plant filled observatory, where the Doctor stood alone, silent and utterly bewildered. "Why all the plants?" He wondered aloud with a scrunched expression.

"Does it really matter?" Vastra responded, and the Doctor looked at her with a shake of his head.

"Not really." Then, seeing their strange expressions, he frowned. "Did I miss something?" He asked.

"Strax told me about this." Clara answered, and the Doctor rolled his eyes as he marched over to a bewildered Strax.

"Strax, it was meant to be a surprise." The Doctor growled, but Strax only frowned.

"What's a surprise?" He asked.

The Doctor pointed a shaking finger straight into his face, his lips quivering in childish fury before he let out a snarl and turned to Clara with a sigh. "Well, that part's ruined." He grumbled.

"You can still do it." Vastra interjected, to which the Doctor smiled before he took off his tie and wrapped it around one hand.

"Hold on!" Jenny interrupted, her and Vastra rushing over to "Gently" move the Doctor and Clara into the centre of the room. "There."

"Much better." Vastra agreed.

"You done?" The Doctor and Clara asked in unison.

"I hate weddings." Strax grumbled in the background, to which Vastra rolled her eyes.

"If you're going to ruin the mood, you can very well leave." Strax didn't reply, and Vastra nodded. "Thank you, Strax."

"Now then, tie the fabric around her hand."

"I know how-"

"Don't interrupt." Vastra hissed at the Doctor, who just flinched back.

"I'm just…never mind." The Doctor muttered as he wrapped the fabric of his tie around Clara's hand, who was both grinning in delight, and amused at the situation.

"You couldn't do this any faster?" Strax asked in the manner of a grumpy teenager, and Vastra just rolled her eyes at Jenny.

"You could help to make it faster." They offered, to which Strax sighed before agreeing gloomily.

"What happens next?" He asked as he moved to stand with them in front of the TARDIS couple.

"Well, traditionally the parents of the…whatever you call the "To be married"-"

"Most likely that, darling." Jenny quickly inputted, to which Vastra shrugged.

"The parents, as I was saying, would give their consent." There was a pause of silence, to which the Doctor and Clara exchanged a horrified look.

"No, please, no." They quickly pleaded, but Vastra and Jenny ignored them and looked to Strax.

"Strax-"

"I consent and gladly give." Strax bit out, making the TARDIS couple wince. "Now can we just finish the bloody thing?"

"What do you have against people getting married?" Clara asked.

"Not people getting married, boy, weddings!" Strax snarled, to which the Doctor, Vastra and Jenny sniggered, whilst Clara just cocked an eyebrow. "I was a nurse…so I was forced to be a weddings where the victims-"

"Participants." Jenny interrupted, but Strax ignored her.

"-were meant to be in my care." Strax shuddered in disgust. "They are slow, lifeless, dull and overly complicated."

Clara just looked at the Doctor with a shrug. "I would've said awkward but…yeah, whatever."

"Anyway, Strax-"

"I just gave the consent." Strax grumbled.

"Now you both say, "I do"." Jenny inputted.

"We do." They said dryly in unison.

"No, you…ugh, never mind." Vastra grumbled.

"Now you may kiss the dride."

"Bride." Jenny corrected but Strax ignored it.

"Just kiss." Strax grumbled before he turned his back. "I would rather be fixing my grenades than this."

The Doctor just shook his head before he leaned in towards Clara's ear and whispered something which the three before them could not hear. "I don't think I want to know what he said to her." Jenny said to Vastra before they turned their backs.

Clara just giggled as she looked back at the Doctor, their free hands intertwined by themselves. "Was that your name?"

"Aye."

"Well…it was nice but…I didn't-"

"Understand a word of it? Yeah, that's…that's…that's Gallifreyan for you."

"We may have our backs turned, but we don't hear any kissing." Strax interrupted.

"Thanks for the image, Strax." Vastra and Jenny reprimanded.

"Shush!" The Doctor and Clara ordered sternly.

"You sure about this?" The Doctor asked, and Clara rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"If I didn't want to do this, you would fucking well know -" The Doctor interrupted her, and the Paternoster Gang flinched upon the sounds of a passionate kiss that they refused to see for themselves. The kiss broke apart, the Doctor and Clara giggling maniacally before the kiss seemed to resume yet again, and Strax, unable to help himself, turned around.

"If you would please take this disgusting frivol into your own room in the TARDIS." Strax snarled.

"Strax!" Vastra and Jenny reprimanded.

"What do you think?" The Doctor whispered, but all Clara could do was laugh. "Come along." Then, in a flash, the Doctor and Clara were gone, racing back upstairs to the TARDIS, but as the Paternoster Gang waited, they could hear no sounds of the TARDIS taking off.

"We can check back on them later." Jenny muttered, to which Vastra agreed and the two of them left the observatory.

"Strax, put the kettle on!" Vastra called as she disappeared through the door.

"Yes, ma'am." Strax replied grumpily. "Well…at least that's over." He muttered as he moved into the kitchen. "You would've thought that they would've done this wedding on their own, hmm? Not bring me into it."

Midnight

"Do Time Lords use wedding rings?" Clara asked, her and the Doctor still awake in their bed, staring up at the ceiling that was cycling between different views of space, courtesy of the TARDIS herself.

"Not really, no." The Doctor answered before he looked down at Clara with a frown. "Why? Did you want one?"

Clara shook her head slightly. "If this is a "Non-Human" wedding…I would rather keep it that way. Besides, I might lose the ring somewhere…or sometime. And we can get back at all of those "Put a ring on her" jokes."

"Yeah, I agree with that." The Doctor agreed with a breath, to which Clara smirked.

"Do they have honeymoons?"

"Mmmmm…kind of." The Doctor answered, his tone a little uncertain. "Most of the time, we just…wing it."

Clara cocked an eyebrow. ""Wing it"?"

"Oh, you know what I mean." The Doctor retorted dryly.

"So what next?" Clara asked.

"I don't know. Any ideas?"

Clara raised up, and considering their lack of clothes, the Doctor found it difficult to keep eye contact, but he said nothing of it. "We should bring them on a trip. If only to-"

"Apologize to Strax?" The Doctor finished for her, and she laughed. "We'll ask them in the morning."

There was something in the Doctor's eyes that made Clara frown. It wasn't necessarily a negative feeling, but more like the glint of someone who was…expecting something to happen. "What's on your mind?"

"My hand?" The Doctor retorted, referring to the hand resting lazily on his head.

"Doctor." Clara interrupted, and the Doctor took a breath as the smile faded a little, his expression becoming very melancholic. "Is this to do with him? The Warrior?"

"No." The Doctor answered.

Clara's frown grew softer yet more concerned. "The Master?" The Doctor didn't answer, and Clara laid back down, resting her head beside his, bringing him back into a loose hug. "Can you…you know…bring someone back?"

The Doctor just stared at her for a moment, thinking deeply before he answered. "It's a…shall we say a universal taboo? I can't think of any place that is…kind to reviving those long gone."

"But the Time Lords?"

"They were more…lenient that others, but it was…shall we say a deeply restricted practice. If the Master were to come back…it wouldn't be his first." Clara just stared at him, her eyes widening, and the Doctor nodded solemnly. "In my 7th face, the one with the umbrella," He said with a little quirky flair that made Clara chuckle for a moment before he continued, "he was executed by the Daleks. He…"Survived" as a snake. Don't ask." He interrupted before a bewildered Clara could. "No one knows how he did it. Literally. I do not think even he does. But after an…incident in my 8th face, he got swallowed by the Eye of Harmony."

"He…got out, I assume?"

"More like he was extracted from it." The Doctor answered before giving a sigh. "Had to change the model of the Eye. It used to be a sort of…large temple seal." He blinked for a few moments, and then he shrugged lightly. "Yeah, I'll go with that." He muttered.

"So why did they bring him back?"

"The Time War." The Doctor answered gloomily. "He mentioned that, on the phone call when we were on the run. "The perfect warrior for a Time War.""

"And was he?"

"No. He is anything but that."

"And he ran away." Clara added, to which the Doctor nodded. "But could he come back?"

The Doctor looked at her. "Imagine a Time Lord coming back from the grave without his body. What's he going to look like? Which face would possess him? But the Time Lords are all gone. If he was going to dare for it…he won't have anything but scavenged tech. You want to honestly know what I think?" Clara nodded and he sighed. "No. I don't think he will."

Broadfell Prison Basement
11:00pm, 2nd May 2008

The heavy iron basement door slowly swung open, setting the moonlight free to cast it's gaze into the dark dungeon. Dark, cold, quiet, but not silent. Each drop of damp water rang through like a hammer on metal, and the low whining wind cried through the empty rooms like a mother on death's door. Then, a single shadow cut it's way through the moonlight, and then it began to move. The pair of footsteps echoed around the new figure, blotting out all noise as it walked down the long hallway towards a single, large room at the very end. There was a sudden jangle of keys, the cranking of an unlocked door before it swung inwards to reveal the room's occupant. But the occupant was only a machine. A large machine, shaped strangely like a rectangle spa and filled with lightly boiling liquid, both too clear and too murky to be water. The room was lit up again, this time with the pale light of a torch, shining back and forth over the strange machine before it's movements came to a halt. A second pair of footsteps came down the hall, halting behind the first figure. "How long?"

The first figure turned around, spotting the face of his boss, which his decorative blue uniform confirmed. "Governor Augustus, sir."

He nodded silently in response. "How long?"

"A year, if ours hope are up."

"If not?"

"…then it'll need more time." Was all he could say in response. He heard Augustus turn to leave, immediately blurting out, "Sir?"

"Yes?"

The man gulped. "Who is this?"

When no answer came at first, he turned around, and the man saw a small smirk on Augustus' face. "You already know the answer." He then turned around and left, leaving the man to look back at the machine, just as a second light began to shine from it, albeit it was very dim. This light was a hazy gold, both warmly ethereal and hard to look upon, swirling slowly within the machine's waters. The man could do nothing but watch with unease as it danced about before his eyes, until slowly but surely, it formed into a skull.

AN: Well, the Doctor and Clara are…oh god, what would be the term? Is it time married? Space…married? Let's just stick with married, otherwise it might get complicated. But yes, that final step has been taken, even though nothing will really change with their relationship. Just something that might've been a little overdue. Now, let's just lay out a little plan of what I'm going to do for the next…six chapters.

The first will be an adaptation of "Night Terrors". It will be a little bit different, if only for the fact that we will have 10, Clara and the Paternoster Gang instead of 11, Amy and Rory. The 4th chapter will be "Love and Monsters" but it will be…quite different compared to the TV episode. As for how different…you will have to find out. The two chapters after "Night Terrors" and before "Love and Monsters" will be…well, I won't spoil it, but I am very much looking forward to this. Hehehehe. *Cough* And finally, the last two chapters will be "Time Crash" and "Voyage of the Damned", and after that, it'll be straight into Season 4. Oh BOY, I cannot wait. XD Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading and leave a review if you wish. :)