Clara laid both hands on the white paint of the TARDIS doors and closed her eyes. She was trying very hard to think grateful thoughts alongside a simple open sesame. Around her the TARDIS was lowering her security settings now that the Judoon were gone but she seemed in no rush to open the doors. Eventually Clara's patience waned and she stamped her foot hard.

'Come on!'

The doors flew open and the TARDIS ejected a stream of smelly steam at her feet.

'Don't worry I'm out of here,' Clara muttered. She couldn't stay angry however as she stepped outside. To begin with she had half an eye out for the weeping Angel she had shoved over but it seemed to have vanished when confronted with the army of rhinoceros. Then, reassured nothing alien was posing any threat right at that moment, her eyes lighted on the Doctor, standing just off from her own battered Diner, closing the hole in the rift he had opened minutes before.

He had his back to her and wore that familiar jacket that brought back warm memories. Clara grinned and trotted through the gravestones before closing in and pouncing, her arms around his middle. He startled and looked down at her over his shoulder before allowing one of his rare beaming miles to emerge.

'I think you'll find I may not be the best with TARDIS shields but I come up with good ideas,' Clara said with self satisfaction. 'I've been travelling a while, on the odd adventure, some might say I've picked up a few techniques to get out of danger.' He gave her a long suffering smile.

'Yes, yes, very clever, I think you'll find I taught you most of those… now let me finish sealing this up and then I will heap you with praise…'

'And reward,' she added coquettishly perching on a gravestone, 'I need a reward.'

'Oh I will reward you,' he lowered his voice and looked at her hard and she felt her face flush a little. Since when did he do that? That look? She supposed he had been alone a long time; that need and want had built up inside of him. The thought made her feel a little weak. All that need was about to be unleashed in her direction. Time Lord style. She was pretty sure that was going to be unprecedented. She pondered as he turned and carried on fixing the rift, stretching high, elongating his body. Her gaze wandered much more than it ever used to as he moved.

Had he been alone all this while? She wondered as she watched. In the confession dial billions of years had passed, the thought of her had kept him focused. Since his release from it not so many years, but she was suddenly certain she didn't want him to spend a minute more alone than necessary. She hoped he'd found companionship, maybe even love.

No, love, she did mean love.

That was a tricky one to swallow. She was prone to jealousy but she knew he deserved the affection he craved but never admitted to wanting. She knew that and she understood him. He had loved her enough to destroy worlds; she loved him enough to let him go. Now here they were again pushing armies back through holes in time and space like it was nothing. Dangerous games.

Judoons were one thing. Simple minded creatures that obeyed orders, but on the other side of that rift she knew now there were Time Lords, Time Lords that wanted the Doctor for punishment or worse. Who quite possibility wanted her too. Who were using her mind to track the man she loved. Was she broadcasting now? Would they hear? Would they send another army? Who this time?

Clara felt a cold sweat break out on her forehead and steadied herself against the stone she perched on. She glanced up at the Doctor who seemed to be taking too long to seal the rift. The first time although he could only patch it he had done it in minutes, now it dragged. She watched the time fibres bind and unravel again as he attempted to keep up a flow of energy. She could hear him making small noises of exertion, panting and cursing from time to time.

'You ok?' she asked hesitantly not wanting to break his concentration.

'Little… more difficult… than I thought…' he strained.

She fell silent, watched him struggle another minute. Then it came to her. Obvious!

'Wait!' she suddenly pushed away from the stone and came to his side. She could see by the blue light of the sonic he was sweating at the temples, his brow furrowed and teeth gritted.

'Clara… I need to… focus…' she saw the sonic pull against him like it was drawn by a magnet; he wrestled it back to point at the still pulsing rift.

'No, wait…' she said and dug in her pocket, 'I can help.'

'Help how? Clara you may be a Time Lady but…'

'I know I'm not educated in the ways of your people,' she teased and he glanced at her irritated at which point the sonic juddered and another few time strands unwound. He looked back at the rift in despair.

Clara pulled out the thing she had been looking for and put it on. He caught the movement in the corner of his eye and looked back at her. She grinned.

'Sunglasses,' she said, 'Sonic ones. Still work, now let's do this together.'

She gripped his hand where he held the sonic and raised it so that the screwdriver was levelled at the most unstable part of the rift. Then she followed its line of fire with her eyes, the sunglasses adding their own power as she controlled them with her mind, better than she ever had as a human, precisely and powerfully. The beams from the two objects combined and the rift shuddered.

In a minute it had knit together but despite further efforts from both of them still would not seal completely. Clara might have suggested another try but when she folded her hand around his again she felt a push of emotion. The Doctor was exhausted, so exhausted he couldn't shield the feeling from her. She looked at him curious. It was odd to read that feeling so clearly.

'You're… you're really drained,' she said in concern, 'What have you been doing with yourself?'

He smiled sadly, 'Downloading memories…' he explained. Clara tilted her head at him.

'Memories of me?' she asked with a tone that would tell him she knew the answer already, 'I think you've got a story to tell me, mister.'

'A story?'

'Yes, I need to know what happened, with you, with the memories, with what you did afterwards.'

'You need to know? You don't need to know any of it Clara, its passed,' he stood watching the rift pulse in the darkness, the faintest light coming from it, but enough to indicate its existence to those who suspected it was there.

Clara pulled on his hand, 'I think I know some stuff, I can guess other bits, but I want the lot.'

'Greedy…' he warned moving away from the rift.

'I need to understand you,' she explained tugging him back a little. 'You and I have this awful habit, we lie, we dissemble, we hide things from the other because we care, and it never works. I don't want to miss a thing; I don't want any surprises. We have to share it all. Doctor, we are still the Hybrid…'

She saw him straighten his back defensively and look skyward. 'Not this, not now… let me have one night where that isn't hanging over us…'

'But it is hanging over us. Look at what has just happened within minutes, hours of us being reunited.'

He sagged right there in front of her and she heard his breath escape him. 'Yes,' he said. HI voice held absolute sadness and resignation.

'You said yourself we have the same problems now we did before, the Hybrid and the prophecy, as well as a bunch of angry Time Lords following my signal across the universe to get to you,' Clara said, 'We need to work out what to do, and to do that I have to understand the bits I've missed, your experiences since Trap Street, since the Cloisters. I have to understand what all of this has done and how you tick. The same for you, no more lies, no more miscommunications and 'well meaning' actions,' we are a clear honest unit.'

She could see him wrestling with himself. 'The more you speak,' he said, 'The more I think there isn't a solution to this. That they will chase you down until they find you if you are anywhere near me, that you are their sacrificial pawn and your role is already laid out. The only way this will ends if I go to them voluntarily.'

Clara stepped forward and took both his hands. 'No, no that's not happening.'

'Then you have to keep running, away from me, go, take your TARDIS and keep moving,' he told her, 'That's the alternative.'

She shook her head hard, 'No, that's not an alternative either.' He looked at her like she had gone mad.

'Clara if we stay together…'

'They will come after us… '

'If you are running from me at least…' he said.

'Then I've all of Time and Space to hide in,' Clara answered, 'But that's no use to me when it's you I want?'

'I will bring nothing but worry and problems to you,' he warned. Clara smiled softly.

'Don't you always?' she laughed, 'Isn't that why it's so much fun? So exciting?'

'So dangerous? Look at what happened before… don't start telling me about the excitement, that was your undoing…'

'We are different now,' Clara said still holding both his hands, 'I'm not reckless now I've had the pleasure of actually dying.' She saw him wince. 'And I have faith in us. I am not going to travel for hundreds of years on my own without you. I don't care if the Time Lords send every species of alien they can after us, we will manage, we always manage; when it's both of us together.'

He pressed his lips together and looked down at their joined hands. 'Clara, if anything were to happen…'

'Shh,' she stood on tiptoe and kissed him gently, pulling way as he released his hands and slipped them around her waist. 'I have been lonely since the day you pulled me from my timeline.'

His face fell further.

'Nothing I do makes up for the fact I'm not with you,' she carried on. 'And I don't say that to make you feel bad it's just a fact.'

'I hid away your memories…' he said quietly, 'I knew I couldn't live with them and now I have them back… I…' he bit his lower lip and looked to one side. 'I know I should send you away, or sacrifice myself but…'

'Be selfish, just this once,' she said. 'Try for the thing you want, that's what I'm doing.'

He looked at her doubtfully for a moment before nodding slowly.

'We're a team,' Clara said, her arms now around his neck, 'So let's work as one. Let's start with a marathon catch up. We were rudely interrupted before…'

'We need to move before we do that,' the Doctor said, looking between the two TARDISes, 'Do something with these and stop the Time Lords from following straight away.'

'Ok, sounds like a plan….' Clara said jigging on the spot to demonstrate her enthusiasm, 'What do you need me to do?'

The Doctor raised one hand to her cheek and softly stroked her skin, he was smiling at first as though he might bend and kiss her, but then worry passed abruptly through his features. Clara felt for a moment like he was looking straight into her head, frowning, reading something there, leafing through her memories like pages in a book.

'Doctor?'

She felt him stop searching her consciousness, and draw back suddenly. He stared at her horrified and as she reached for him again she heard the whispers of a dozen others fade from her mind rapidly, hiding swiftly. They feared detection and were desperate to remain unseen.

'Doctor?' she said again, alarmed.

'Stop thinking….' He instructed in a whisper. 'They can hear you.'