They had spent 25 minutes sitting around drinking coffee, and though they talked of many things, Clara thought of nothing but the phone call, and how she was going to manage getting time alone at the TARDIS control panel long enough to allow her to research Christmas- it seemed impossible! 'But I'm the impossible girl, I'll think of something.' she thought, determined to fiddle her way about it. She almost felt instinctively guilty, holding back such a massive secret as this from the Doctor before her now- but she knew what she had to do, and she'd do anything to be able to talk to her Doctor for just a little longer. Phasing back into reality, she realised the Doctor was looking at her expectantly, "So? Where?" He pushed, standing up from the armchair opposite. She furrowed her brow slightly, confused, "Where?" She repeated, standing up in sync and absently taking his coffee cup, "Yes, where- where do you want to go today?" He urged, rolling his eyes, "Oh! Sorry, I had a bit of a blank- um… hmm. Ooh! I tell you who we haven't visited in a while…" She began, a smile beginning to slowly form on her face. He blinked slowly, but then it hit him, and his face grew aghast quickly, "Oh you've got to be kidding me, not her! You two might as well be married!"
"Oh, you love Jane Austen too! And besides, I still haven't got her back for the prank she pulled on me last time- have you even read her books? They're amazing. You should know! You, of all people, Mr 'Omnipotent, mysterious, brooding timelord', must have had time at some point in your life to have read one of her books." She pushed, mocking his brooding face with a mischievous glint. He wrinkled his nose and huffed, "Yes, well being the 'Omnipotent, brooding- whatever- I don't have time for soppy classics. I read, CALCULATIONS, and PHYSICS- not romantic novella and life drama- what do you think I am? A pudding brain that spends their life watching Corrie?" He ranted, and she couldn't help but smirk- but then she thought of an idea, and stored it carefully at the front of her mind, waiting until they returned to the TARDIS.
Clara leant against the controls once they got in the TARDIS, staring at the Doctor with a tilted head and a tilted smile, until he noticed, and shuffled awkwardly, finally raising the question, "What? what is it? I know that look, that's the 'let's scare the timelord with a snog box joke' look." He cautiously stated, circling round to stand opposite to her, and not taking his eyes off her for a moment. The statement shocked her, and she let out a sudden laugh, "You remember the 'snogbox' epidemic?" She questioned in disbelief, and his face lit up too, "Of course I do! I'm still not impressed. She's is not a snog box, and I said this before!"
"You did! Oh, and remember soon after? I had to pretend you were my boyfriend, and that escalated when we were on Chr-" Clara cut off, her face slowly dropping to a halt. 'Christmas. Better not, it just brings bad memories- and this isn't him, this isn't then.' The Doctor almost knew the full reason why she had halted her phrase, and he knew it wasn't a good idea to bring it up, so instead, he changed the subject, "As I say… I've never read Jane Austen." Once again she had been thrown into thought about her Doctor, and once again he had tugged her out of her frosted daydreams, "Ah! But you have a library in here, right?"
"…Yes. Where is this-"
"Go! Go find one of her books. Please? I'm not going anywhere until you've read one of those books, or at least started one." He let out an exasperated sigh, and then turned, throwing his hands up in a mock surrender as he walked off with the clanking of boots against metal grated flooring, before murmuring, "Fine- yes, Miss Oswald- if it keeps you happy…"
She watched anxiously until she was almost certain he was out of sight, and then span around quickly, the TARDIS making a sporadic uproar of humming to show it disapproved as she placed her hands against the sides of one of the screens, "Yes, alright alright, I get it, now hush, it's for him, and you should know it. Or, maybe not actually. Oops." her fingers flew through several screens as she figured out where to search this, inevitably finding a screen called 'CONCURRENT ANOMALY DETECTION', with a section for time and place. so she poked at the screen with rapid fire fingertips, 'TIME: 25TH DECEMBER, 2013 / PLACE: CHRISTMAS' The TARDIS spent several painful seconds searching around, but eventually the screen flared up with a flash of white, '! GLOBAL MANUAL STASIS. TIME ANOMALY- SPREADING !' Biting hard on her lip, Clara heard the faint clanking and hurriedly shut off the screens, a single bead of sweat arising on her temple as she swizzled around, leaning back casually and smiling as the Doctor emerged from the door, an unamused expression and a battered copy of an unread book in hand, "Here. But do I need to read it now?" He pined, and she nodded firmly, "How about we leave it a day- you read the book, and I'll sleep-' she pointed a finger at him sternly, and a fake look of strict authority appeared on her face, as she puffed up her lips and narrowed her eyes, "But I want that book read by 10AM, sharp. Or there will be consequences- like a trip to see your new favourite author." She couldn't help but smirk at the end of that sentence, as he opened his mouth in frozen protest, before grumbling quietly to himself, "Oh, yes Missus." And flipping the book open with attitude as the door clicked shut.
Clara let the cool air brush through her hair like a mother to her young child, and slowly made her way up to the front door of her house, looking back and watching The TARDIS dematerialise as she leant against the front door, opening it gently and gliding in before locking up and grabbing a kitchen stool and a newspaper, so that she could sit by the telephone- and wait for him to call. As she sat there, not once did she take a fleeting glance at the paper- it was more an excuse to waste time. Instead, she mulled over the message, not quite sure what it meant- all she knew was that it was urgent, and bad.
The Doctor had finished the book within 10 minutes of his casual orbit of the earth in space- 'What can I say, I'm a fast reader.' Admittedly, it wasn't the worst book he'd ever read. It was eloquent, and provided societal context and a higher standpoint of meaning than the story itself, which differentiated it from being just a silly soap opera of a book. But when he had put the book down and prepared to get the TARDIS back in motion again, he realised that something was bugging him. He frowned suddenly, and froze, hand half stretched out towards the handbrake- 'what is it? I know there's something.' as he thought harder, he realised that Clara had seemed off today. Not only was she distant, but she had voluntarily decided to wait a little longer before going on an adventure again- this was odd. The Doctor didn't immediately think about how, or why- the first question that came to mind was When. Since when had she seemed so fuzzy? Then it hit him-
that phonecall. It could be nothing, but it could be something- and he was determined to find out which of those two alternatives it could be.