A/N: Sorry for taking so long! At last, here it is :)

"And then there are those memories which time may never make safe, which may always remain jagged and sore, too painful to ever revisit." – David Jones.

It had been six crucial months before The Doctor walked back into her diner. It looked so different from the last time he had been there, and yet nothing had changed at all. He had never been a man big on changes, anyway.

Unsurprisingly, he was met by the same warmth smile from always. He was starting to believe the only reason he kept coming back was to see the look on her face whenever they met. The thing was, he couldn't hide his happiness either. Who the hell was she? And why did she have that effect on him?

"You're back!" she squealed, jumping from the corner of the counter she was sitting in. He had no idea how she kept the place running, as every time he stopped by, he was her only costumer – and she always made a fair point of never letting him pay. "Did you save the world?"

The Doctor chuckled, offering her a face as he made his way towards her, "You tell me. Is your world still standing?"

She peaked through the glass window, "Since the last time I checked, I guess it is."

He opened his lips in a closed smile, motioning towards the nearest table, to where she willingly followed him. "So I guess I did save the world. Gave you back your monkless world."

Her grin was wide, "Then, in behalf of the human kind, I thank you," she joked, but still meaning her words.

The Doctor smiled with his eyes, as her words fed his soul. "Well, come on then, ask away."

She rose one eyebrow high as it could reach, "Ask what?"

"I see it on your face," he explained, staring at her in a way he was sure many would get uncomfortable with, but not her, "You were counting the days until I came back to tell you how I, once again, saved this precious Earth of yours."

"Your ego is just as big, isn't it," she rolled her eyes, "Isn't it possibly that I was just counting the days because I've missed you?"

He cleared his throat, taken aback by her statement. He had never been good with human emotions. "I guess," he lowered his gaze, "Although I'm not sure why would you say that."

Her smile didn't fade away, like she had foreseen everything that he would say, that he would feel. Oh, how he desired to grab that victorious smile away from her face. "I think you know why, you're just not willing to admit the truth."

The Doctor bickered his lower lip, knowing by then he had no chance of winning against her. He, the man who never accepted loss, was defeated by a woman whose name he didn't even know. "Maybe you're right. Maybe you're not. I'm not your common man."

She shook her head up and down, "I've never mistaken you for one."

He let out a long breath, "Alright, you seem to have a fair impression of me, why don't you just let it out? I think we know each other well enough for that already."

They didn't, as a matter of a fact, but he was anxious to the answer anyway. And part of him knew that she wouldn't deprive of that, either.

"I think you're lonely," she blurted out after a few seconds of silence. "And not in a good way. And I think that's why you keep coming back, opening your heart to a complete stranger when you can do it to the people who care for you."

He didn't dare to interrupt her to remind her that she cared for him as well.

"I think you push people out, because you're afraid to let it show. There was once people you could have trusted with your life, but those people are gone and now you're afraid that, if you let yourself open again, they'll leave you. Because they always do. You don't have a single constant in your life, so you've learned to bottle it all up."

Was he really such an open book?

"And I think the only reason you make an effort to wonder off saving planets and civilizations is to make it worth all the people you failed to save, were they known to you or not. You're a good man, even if you don't believe in yourself. You're a good man just for trying to make it right."

Her words stabbed him right between his hearts. Who the hell was she, and how did she know him like she knew the palm of her hand? He seemed to analyze her words for a long period of time, before finally saying, "I think you're lying to me."

"I'm sorry?!" she was baffled by his declaration, hands slightly shaking as she pulled them back to herself.

"I think you know more than you're letting it show," he accused, but his tone wasn't harsh or mad, "I think I'm not a complete stranger to you, but for both our sakes, you're pretending you are. And it makes me wonder whether you just want to kill me or just care for me like nobody else ever has. So, come on, tell me. Which one are you?"

She was silent, her eyes bright but not from the spark they usually held, but she didn't dare to turn her glare away. Almost intimidating him. Almost reminding him. He couldn't stand the way her eyes inflated when staring at him.

When she didn't answer, the Doctor leaned back on his seat, "Why can't you just tell me?"

He could see the air going in through her nose and out through her mouth. "Because it wouldn't be fair," she whispered, her words barely making it past her lips.

The Doctor impatiently tapped his fingertips against the wooden table, "I'm a big man. I can handle myself."

"God," she snapped at him, angrily, "Has it ever occurred to you that not everything is about you? That I'm just as human as you? That maybe, just maybe, I'm as lonely and as broken as you are?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but she never granted him the chance.

"I've lost people as well, so many people, and not in the best way there is to lose someone. My life is just as complicated, as hard, as unfair as yours, and somehow, I've still managed to keep standing, when all of the world as turned on me. I'm afraid that the day I won't be able to carry on anymore is just around the corner, and this is why I wait for your comeback. You remind me of myself, and not in a good way. You and I… we're just the same."

The man of the words was suddenly left wordless. He wanted to end the eye contact, but if he did, he doubted he would ever be able to restore it. He wanted to get up and storm out of there, but he wasn't ready to see the last of her. Not just yet.

And neither was she.

"How did we get here?" he prompted after a silence she wasn't willing to break.

The girl ironically laughed, "The universe is very keen on playing meaningful games, I'd say."

He nodded, hesitantly, "Why were we picked as lead players?"

She jerked back, "I'm not the woman of the answers."

He stared right into the window to her soul, "What's your name?"

She shook her head in disapproval, "Stop. Don't."

"After everything, I think I'm owed that."

"You're not," she scolded him, "Nobody's ever owed anything. Trust me, I learned this the hard way."

He sighed loudly, "Lie to me, then."

She buried her jaw in her right hand, "I won't."

"Why now?!"

"I would never lie to you."

"How's this any better than hiding me from the truth?"

"What is the truth, anyway?" she squealed, her voice higher pitched than before.

"The truth," he was scared to pick his words, "The truth is me and you. We. In this exact moment, we are the truth."

"No," she corrected him, "We are the lie."

His lips fell half opened as he struggled to push any kind of sound off them, "Eventually, the lie must become the truth."

"That's not how it words," she wettened her lips with her tongue, "Sometimes it's better to hide in the lie than to live in the truth. The truth hurts."

"Living your life hiding away from the pain, that's not the way to live."

She offered him a sad grin, "If I were hiding myself from the possibility of suffering, I wouldn't be here," she hinted, "And neither would you."

The Doctor studied her face, but he couldn't read it. At all. "Who are you?" he pleaded, begged, his soul sore from staying in the uncertainty for so long.

"You know who I am," she hissed, voice lacking the amusement it usually held.

He searched every single hidden path of his mind, but she wasn't there. Why wasn't she there? "I'm sorry, I don't think I do."

He couldn't understand why his simple statement made tears fall from her big eyeballs. "See?" her voice was stuck in the back of her throat, "What's the point of facing the truth if we're only going to get ourselves broken over and over again?"

He absolutely hated seeing her sad, needless to understand why. "I wish I could help you. Could ease your suffering."

"I wish you could, too," she confessed, closing her eyes to prevent the remaining tears to fall from them, before opening them back again, "Do you ever wish you could just start it all over?"

He agreed, sharing that feeling down to his soul. To her surprise, he got up from his seat, moving to stand right in front of her. She was perplexed, "What are you doing?"

He offered her the slightest of smiles, "Starting over," there was a smirk hidden in his face, as he granted her his hand, "Hi. I'm the Doctor."

Hesitantly, she wiped the wet tray on her cheeks as she stood up as well, taking his hands into hers. "I'm Clara."

A/N: Yes, I have to admit, this chapter really escaped the dynamic of the previous chapters, but I thought I was quite repeating the story itself and ended up here. I have no idea what's going to happen throughout the next ones, but I hope this has brought to enlightenment to the fanfic as a whole. As always, any feedback is much appreciated :)