When Rey and the Doctor greeted Clara the first thing he noticed was her stiffness. She hid it well, smiling politely at Rey as she prepared her portions but it was no secret from him. Her body was still for a moment, an angry or even slightly raging look on her face and he hoped with all his hearts she hadn't found something out. Still, it unnerved him as the surrounding silence and avoided eye contact grew each minute into a deadly awkwardness that made the Doctor uncomfortable. From one moment to the next both their eyes suddenly met and in that second she moved.

'Excuse us.' She said aloud, walking past him and pulling the sleeve of his jacket with her. Rey only glanced behind to see their exit, and he swallowed nervously as she stared accusingly at him for an agonisingly long time. His breath was oddly caught in his lungs, trapped and he searched her silent and stony face hoping she would say something. As it was, his voice was the first to be heard.

'Clara-'

'No, you listen, Doctor. You listen well and good because I've already lost my patience and anymore will be a direct slap, okay?'

Her eyes were fierce and setting alight his own with her state. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and noticed the sky already darkening to dusk. He didn't say anything, which earned him a punch in the arm.

'Ow! Clara, what's wrong with you?' He said, rubbing his arm.

'What's this Doctor?' She asked, holding up a dirty and disfigured piece of fabric he didn't think had any relevance whatsoever to the situation.

'A piece of cloth.'

'Yes, you're right. A piece of cloth. That goes round your neck. Here, let me show you.'

She stepped closer to him, pulling the lapels of his jacket so he couldn't step away. She fastened the dusty cloth round him and he stared down at it in shock.

'A bow tie. Tell me Doctor, what's a bow tie doing in Rey's house, mh? Do you know where I found it? In the sleeve of the clothes she wore the day she was taken. Obviously she had kept them but had completely forgotten about the bow tie that had been given to her by her father on that day as a keepsake. And do you know what? It's the exact same one you used to wear, a purple one with white spots. What colour is that bow tie on your neck, Doctor?'

He sighed heavily, looking down to see the dirtied cloth but still distinguishable enough to notice it was indeed purple with small white spots dotted over it. He had been defeated, and dreaded what would come next.

'Purple,' He confirmed, 'With white spots.'

'Exactly. And I couldn't help but remember what Rey had said about her father's sleeves being purple. I think it was your tweed coat.'

'Okay, look Clara-'

'No. No, don't you dare say anything to me! You knew all along, from the moment we landed on Jakku, you bloody knew all this time and you didn't think it would be right to tell me?! I have a right to know, Doctor!'

His face creased up with pain. There was nothing in the world he hated more than upsetting Clara.

'I didn't want you hurt, or attached. I knew you'd punish yourself brutally for ever abandoning her here and I've been doing it to myself ever since. I didn't want you to know that pain.' He said sincerely.

'Well, I'm in much more pain and rage and distress than I would have been if you had just told me I was Rey's mother.'

'I'm sorry, Clara. I'm so, so sorry. But I didn't want you getting mixed up in this.'

'You let me believe I was finding her parents, you let her believe all these years they were still out there. And they are. It's a good job we came here Doctor, honestly. How long were you going to keep that secret from me?'

Her voice was tearing up in emotion, her eyes still in flames. He carefully drew the bow tie round his neck and let it drop to the sand, meeting her eyes.

'You have to trust me, Clara, on what I'm about to say. I never knew, just like you. I only realised our daughter was here when we neared that village, and that was because we'd had our memory wiped. It was a human one, so it's definitely worked on you for all these years and surprisingly enough on me, too. It made me distracted and in time I completely forgot about it just as you did. But I did finally realise who Rey was and that we had been here before.'

'What could have threatened us so much that we left our daughter and agreed to a memory wipe to forget about her?' Her voice was stumbling, trembling, eyes widening and eventually sparkling. He'd never felt so sorry for her before and yet in twisted truths he was the one to blame for it.

'That's the part I don't know, Clara. I've been trying to find out but there are no answers. It just is what it is.'

'I can't believe you lied to me all that time. Why didn't you tell me?'

'I knew what would happen! You'd want to stay here with Rey or take her into our lives and that's something we obviously decided not to do, hence our memories being forgotten.'

'I don't see how Rey poses any threat to anything or anyone.'

'Neither do I.'

'I need to tell her.'

'What? No, you can't!'

'I have to!' She shouted, 'she doesn't belong here and it's inhuman to even think about letting her live her life with false hope in her heart, hoping her parents will come back for her!'

'I know, but that's just the way it's got to be.'

She watched him a long time before she hissed quietly.

'I can't accept that. I'm going to tell her.'

'Clara, no-' he protested, but she'd already gone inside. Quickly following her, he found her face to face with Rey.

'No, Clara, don't.'

'Shut up for one second, Doctor. Rey needs to know.'

'I need to know what?' She asked, confused.

As Clara looked at her he had no doubt she was feeling the exact same he had when he first found out, marking down all the similarities that were foolish to miss.

'Rey...you're parents aren't out there.'

'What? No, that's not true. I know they're out there, they'll come back for me one day.' Her voice was so full of determination he felt sick to the stomach.

'They already have,' she said, 'we're you're parents Rey.'

She looked dumbfounded by what she heard, startled even, and let go of Clara's hand, her eyes flitting from the Doctor to Clara. She looked on empathetically but Rey's round eyes dilated and assumed her fiercer face she had worn yesterday.

'You can't be. I may not remember but I know it wasn't you.' She deliberately looked at him, as if she was trying to work out just exactly how her father was an old Scottish man with attack eyebrows. He certainly didn't believe she had pictured him that way.

'It was,' the Doctor stepped in, 'I had a different face back then. I was young, brown haired, I wore bow ties,' he said, showcasing the cloth that Rey clearly recognised but was incredibly confused by, 'we left you on Jakku, but we've no idea why. We had our memories wiped and forgot we ever had you.'

'But how? I'm sure it wasn't you. You're not my father.'

'Rey, I am your father. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. I change every few centuries, I regenerate. I was a young, excitable floppy haired gentleman when you were born and when we left you. You are part Time Lord, part human. I don't know when or where you were born but I know for sure. Just look at yourself, and look at Clara. You're practically the same. You can speak different alien languages, including droid, which I must say is an impressive feat. You can pilot ships, you can fight both physically and mentally for which you got your reputation, exactly like me. It all fits.'

Clara stepped closer to her, tone much gentler. 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry we ever abandoned you, we didn't know. I wish we could just find out why...' She said, a single tear spilling down her check. The Doctor knew how Clara felt about children, how she had always liked looking after them and wanted her own so badly and he knew how painful it must be for her to realise she'd abandoned her own child, how wrong and unnatural it was. How she thought she would never possess the ability to ever do something like that. It had been a terrible mistake not telling her.

'Please, forgive us,' Clara said, 'I would never have done that to you, to anyone, intentionally. There must have been a reason because both the Doctor and I would have given up everything we had to raise you. It's true. Please, please understand that.'

Rey didn't say anything but pointed to a wall neither of them had yet seen. The Doctor's eyebrow lifted as he gazed upon hundreds and hundreds of white scratches in the stone wall and sighed in utmost sympathy. Rey turned to them with welling tears in her own eyes, although like her father she kept them hidden and strong.

'Everyday since I first arrived here, I've carved a mark onto the wall for everyday that's gone by that you weren't there, hoping one day you would return.'

'And we have.' The Doctor said.

'By accident,' She reminded them, 'I could never have known who my parents were if you hadn't landed here.'

'I'm glad that we did.' Clara sniffed.

'Look, we're sorry. We are heartsbroken, we really are.'

And he meant it. From the look Clara gave him he knew she had learnt how truly sorry and remorseful he was too. He thought he saw just the flicker of a softening expression in her face and hoped she wouldn't continue to be angry with him, despite how much he deserved it.

'What did you say I was? A Time Lord?'

'Yes. I would say the last of your kind but then you are the only one of your kind. You're part human too. The first ever Time Lord/Human hybrid.'

'How long have you known?' She asked, and the Doctor shamefully hung his head.

'I just found out,' Clara explained, 'I was going through all your stuff to find possible clues and saw the bow tie. I knew it was us and have just then confronted the Doctor about it. He knew the moment he saw you.'

'What?' She asked, her distraught face turning to him.

'It's true. I did know, and every second I felt guilty about it. The memory wipe was only a human one, you see Rey. Whoever administered it clearly thought I was human.'

'Why didn't you say something?'

'I was afraid. I didn't want to tell Clara, I didn't want to tell you because of how painful it would be. I realise now it was foolish to keep it to myself, although I had good reason to.'

'You should come with us.' Clara interjected, 'we can take you back to Earth, we can help you, take care of you like we never had the chance to.'

The Doctor agreed despite the complications of it. No more adventures, no more flying around, just Clara, Rey and him. It was something he oddly decided he wanted.

'Clara's right. You can come with us, leave Jakku, never labour in slavery again.'

Rey swept her eyes round her home, finally coming to land upon him. 'I don't know.'

'Please. This isn't where you belong. You belong with us, in the TARDIS.'

'You said you were leaving tomorrow.'

'Yes.'

'What if I don't come with you?'

The Doctor exchanged a look with Clara, both nodding at their unionised decision.

'Then we'll have to stay here. But you've got to consider it, because this isn't our home and it isn't yours either. You deserve more than this.'

Rey shook her head, 'this is too much to handle, all at one time. I...I want to sleep on it. Please, let me just have some time to think. One minute you're my friends and the next minute you're my own parents.'

'We understand. Take all the time you want. But please, give us a chance.'

She nodded, Rey excusing herself and Clara walking heavily back outside to the sky, and he followed after her. The blankets were still there and the night was already turning a darker blue.

'I still can't believe it. And I still don't get why you didn't tell me.'

'I know, I'm sorry for that. I was mostly in shock too, knowing every time I looked at her...'

'I should have known she was our daughter. How I didn't see just how much she resembles the both of us...'

'You couldn't have, Clara. Only when you know it becomes all too distinctive.'

Her eyes met his when they both sat down and for a moment it was just a pause.

'How did me and you ever-'

'Clara, that's not the question. The question is where, when and why. Where was she born, when was she born and why did we leave her.'

'Well, she's 19 but I surely couldn't have been pregnant that young. That was before I even met you.'

She was staring straight at him and it unnerved him somewhat, like a predator about to pounce on it's prey.

'We must have travelled somewhere, probably backwards in time. It's the only way it would make sense. You know, something's telling me she definitely wasn't born or conceived on Earth, I'm sure of it. It must have been a different planet.'

'It might have been here, on Jakku.'

'No, I don't think so. There was a huge battle back then, I doubt we would have stayed here. I think she was born somewhere on one of those planets.' He said, looking up to view the sky.

Clara did too, but then trained her eyes on his.

'Do you remember what it was like?'

'Do I remember what it was like what?'

'Being young.'

He stared at the sand for a moment.

'I remember you.' He said, his eyes staring into hers. 'I remember how young you looked.'

'Do you remember the things we used to get up to?'

He knew what she was on about and awkwardly cleared his throat.

'Yes,' he said carefully, 'I'm sure it was possible that Rey could have formed some time.'

She laughed for the first time, looking up at him shyly.

'I don't understand why, though. I'm sure you were even more awkward about it back then than now.'

'I'm trying not to take offence to that.' He said gruffly.

'You'd be hopeless in bed, Doctor.'

'And yet you seemed to have enjoyed it.'

She giggled again. 'A little too much, I think.'

He smiled at her, leaning back on his blanket and finally laying down. Clara did the same, looking up at the stars.

'It's weird to think I have a child. That I'm a mother. I never would have imagined anything like this happening.'

'Me neither.'

'We need to find out why we left her,' Clara said, her tone suddenly turning from thoughtful to serious, 'we need to know why we came here.'

He nodded. 'I agree.'

As he blinked slowly up at the sky and his vision went just a little blurry, he unexpectedly felt Clara's lips on his skin, kissing his cheek. He looked at her puzzled, but she only smiled and he returned the favour.

'I still hate you for not telling me.'

As he smirked at her through his drooping eyelids he leaned closer to her and whispered, 'I know that you don't.'

Then and there they both fell asleep and dreamt of what could be in the morning.