Hey sorry it's been a while since I've written. I needed some time to rethink where I was going with this and to restructure the story. I know the story may not seem like it's in the best place right now, but it'll definitely end up in a place that I think we'll all be happy with. So, please don't give up on this yet :)
Okay so anyway here goes!
Chapter 6
Clara woke up in her bed and reached over to turn off her alarm.
She nudged Danny gently. "Wake up, time for school."
Danny woke up and groaned slightly. "It's too early. Remind me again why we chose a profession that requires us waking up so early?"
"Because we love it and children are the future and all that nonsense," Clara said, getting out of bed. She took Danny's hand and sat him up. "Come on, then. It's my turn to make breakfast. What would you like?"
Danny grinned and pulled on Clara's hand, sitting her in his lap. "I would like you to get back in bed."
Clara laughed as well and kissed him, but then pulled back. "We can't. I have to go in early and do last-minute prep for today's lesson, which, by the way, you promised you'd give me a hand with."
"All I heard from that was 'hands'" Danny said.
Clara playfully scoffed and smacked his chest. "That's enough from you. Seriously, we need to get a move on."
"Fine," Danny said, watching Clara get up and walk out of the room. He started getting dressed but paused when he heard a sound.
"Clara," he called into the other room. "Clara, your phone's ringing."
"Could you answer it please?" she called back.
Danny took her phone off the nightstand and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Hello?" came a gruff voice. "Clara?"
"No, it's her boyfriend, who's this?" Danny asked.
"Clara has a boyfriend?"
"Yeah," Danny replied. "We've been together for months. Who is this?"
"Well, hopefully you're an upgrade from Dan the Soldier Man."
Danny rolled her eyes as realization hit. "Doctor? I thought you sounded familiar. What are you calling Clara for?"
"Oh!" the Doctor said. "You're Dan the Soldier Man. Nice to talk to you again."
"Doctor, what's going on?"
"There's a disturbance at your school."
-DW-
"So what did he say it was again?" Clara asked as she and Danny rushed onto the school grounds.
"Something about an alien using textbooks to brainwash kids into submission," Danny said.
"What?" Clara asked. "How does that even work?"
They rounded a corner and entered the caretaker's hut.
"Glad you asked," the Doctor said, popping out of his TARDIS. "Turns out, the aliens have been implanting messages in the textbooks for some while now. As the module progressed, the students took in more and more of the messages, kind of like when you charge your mobile and the little battery thing goes up from one bar, to two, to three, then four. Full battery. Ready for anything."
"Hi," Clara said. It was the first time she'd seen him since their dinner. It had been months.
"Hi, Clara," the Doctor replied.
"How are you?" Clara asked.
"I'm well, and you?"
Clara nodded. "I'm good. I'm really good." She took a step towards him. "Doctor-."
"No time for chit-chat, we need to sort this out before the students come in. If they read anymore of those textbooks, they'll be like a mindless horde, ready to do whatever the aliens want them to."
"What do the aliens want them to do?" Danny piped in.
"A few different species use this technique of brainwashing, but so far this looks to me like the Hitki alien race. They program other species' young to overthrow their authority systems."
"So that sounds bad," Clara said. "What can we do?"
The Doctor quickly dispatched the orders for them and they separated, getting done the tasks they needed to do.
-DW-
Later, Clara, Danny, and the Doctor all stood in the caretaker hut, exhausted.
"So everything's fine now, yeah?" Clara asked. "I mean, with the students. They are going to be fine, we stopped the brainwashing?"
"From the Hitki, yeah," the Doctor said. "But you still have to contend with the brainwashing from the government, media, corporations, not to mention parents and peers. Good luck with that lot."
Clara rolled her eyes at him.
"Still, thank you for coming," Danny said. He looked at his watch. "It's almost time for assembly, I've got to go. Clara, I can cover for you for a few minutes."
"Thank you," Clara said gratefully to him.
Clara and the Doctor watched in silence as Danny left.
"You could've gone with him, you know," the Doctor said. "You didn't have to stay for me."
"No, I do," Clara said. "I need to apologize."
"No you don't."
"I do," Clara said.
"You wanted to know what happened to your mother, I understand that," the Doctor said. "Believe me, I've spent so much time trying to figure out what happened to my family."
"You still haven't found Gallifrey?"
The Doctor shook his head.
There was a slight awkward pause, but then Clara powered through it.
"That isn't what I wanted to apologize for, anyway," Clara said. "I'm glad I asked about her. I needed to know. I'm sorry for how I treated you. I get cross with you for hiding things from me, but I've hidden my mother from you for years. It was always something between us, and it wasn't fair for me to keep it from you. And it wasn't fair of me to get so angry with you and end things how I did."
"So it was an end?"
Clara shook her head. "I don't want it to be. I'm not travelling anymore, but I do want us to be friends. Now that there's nothing more hidden between us."
"You said you needed to deal with what happened with your mother. Have you?"
Clara stiffened. "I think I have," she said finally. "I needed to know if she could have been saved, and I thought that meant knowing if you were there or not. But regardless of if you were there or not, I can't blame you. I think I've been angry about it for so long, I just needed to let it out somewhere or at someone."
"And you chose me."
Clara nodded.
"Well, apology accepted."
Clara looked up at him and grinned, then rushed in for a hug.
"No! Not the hugging!" The Doctor acted like he didn't like Clara's hugs, but both he and Clara could tell that he missed them. He leaned into it slightly.
"Thank you," Clara said into his chest.
The Doctor put his arms around Clara.
"You know, my mum was worried a lot about the kind of friends I had," Clara said. "Whether they were good kids or not. I think she would've liked you."
"I'm hardly a kid, Clara," the Doctor said.
"Still," Clara said, pulling back. "You take care of me."
The Doctor looked at Clara with a look of subdued gratitude, and almost a smile.
"Speaking of taking care of you, how's Danny?" the Doctor said. "It seems pretty serious."
"Yeah," Clara said. "We finally worked out everything. We're really happy."
"Good, I'm glad."
"I know you worry that he's not good enough for me, but I think that's just because you don't know him like I do," Clara said. "You two got off to a rough start, but believe me he is an amazing guy. He's better than I deserve."
The Doctor scoffed at that last part. "I doubt that," he said.
Clara kept talking, ignoring that.
"Give him a chance. He's a big part of my life, and so are you."
"I suppose I can try to get to know him better," the Doctor said. "Though, like I said when you had your first date, I can still pop ahead and check out his prospects."
"Oh, no, I don't think I need to see my future," Clara said. "I'm happy here."
The Doctor nodded. "Well, you're going to be late to assembly. You should go."
"Yeah," Clara said. "Don't be a stranger though, yeah? Come round for tea. I'm glad you called today, you should do it more often."
The Doctor nodded again, then stepped into the TARDIS.
"Til next time," he said, poking his head out, then jumping all the way in and taking off.
Clara couldn't help but leave with a smile on her face.
-DW-
"What are you thinking about?" Danny asked over dinner that night.
"Things are finally good," Clara said. "I feel like everything has come together. You and I, we're great. Things are finally alright with the Doctor."
"That's good," Danny said. "You had a nice chat, did you?"
"Yes, actually," Clara replied. "There's nothing more lingering between us, now we can just be friends without all these secrets and hidden feelings and all of it."
Danny gave her a look.
"Not those kinds of hidden feelings," Clara said. "Ones like anger. We're not hiding our anger at each other anymore. We're not blaming each other. It feels good. It's nice to have my best friend back."
"I'm glad for you, then," Danny said. "You should invite him over for tea. It's probably time for me to give a civil friendship with him a go."
Clara smiled at him. "Thank you. That'd be lovely." She took a sip of wine. "I really do think you two could end up being good friends. You have more in common than you think."
"Let's not go too far," Danny said.
Clara laughed. "Well, I did tell him to come around more often, so that's a start."
"Speaking of," Danny said. "I thought maybe we could start something new."
Clara gave him a quizzical look. "Alright…"
"I've been thinking, and most of my stuff is here. I spend most nights here. The only nights I'm not here are when I run out of clothes," Danny said. "Listen, the lease on my flat is up soon. How about I move in?"
Clara was speechless.
"Is that too fast?" Danny said after a short pause. "Oh no, it was too fast and now you're freaked out and I've messed it all up-."
"No, Danny, stop," Clara said. "It is not too fast. We've known each other for years. Yes, I would love for you to move in here."
"Really?"
Clara nodded. "Really."
Danny leaned over and kissed Clara happily.
Things were good for Clara Oswald.
So this is a short update, but it is definitely an update, so that's something. Clara's relationship with the Doctor is not over and will never be over. They had a lot of unresolved stuff between them and they worked on it. Same goes for Clara and Danny, they worked on their unresolved stuff. Now they're going from there.
Anyway, please leave a review letting me know what you think! And have a great day!
