Chapter Five

When Clara woke up the next morning the Doctor was sitting in the velvet armchair in the exact some position she'd left him in when she fell asleep. She had tried to convince him that sharing the bed would not be so bad, he'd had none of it of course insisting that his biology made him capable of going at least a day or two without a full twelve hours sleep and just two or three cat naps. At that Clara just rolled her eyes and went to bed not caring to argue with him any longer.

He was staring into the fire, eyes hooded by heavy lids, thumbs on his chin and fingers pressed together pointed up touching his nose, elbows resting on the arms of the chair. He didn't seem to notice she was awake, not until after she sat up, frowning, and asked "Have you been sat like that all night?"

He looked up and stretched a bit, bones cracking which he looked irritated by. "If its morning already than I must have been. Too bad I didn't think to bring a chalk board or something, could have scribbled down all my ideas. I've forgotten most of them now."

"You can't pack a chalk board into a suitcase – you're not Mary Poppins."

"You sure about that? Her bigger on the inside bag didn't have a distinct timelord technology about it" he wriggled his eyebrows in her direction as she got out of the bed to go to the bathroom and change into a dress.

Clara rolled her eyes "Oh please, next you'll be telling me your Santa Clause too since his sleigh must be bigger on the inside to carry all those presents and get around the world in one night."

She shut the bathroom door on his face that had suddenly lit up with a bright expression.

Clara and Jenny where trying to keep back a fit of giggles. It always happened didn't it? That time when you're not supposed to move you immediately want to laugh – need to laugh even. The Doctor had tried to explain that Nervous laughter is laughter evoked from an audience's expression of embarrassment, alarm, discomfort or confusion, rather than amusement which may be rendered by more of a conscious effort in an attempt to move a situation along more quickly – he'd have continued explaining too but Vastra hushed him from where she sat beside him behind a large canvas stealing occasional glances at Jenny.

It was the first exercise they were being put through – painting or drawing your partner the way you see them. Vastra and Jenny hadn't seemed too concerned about the activity, then again Jenny posed for Vastra often and was used to it. The Doctor and Clara however had a brief scuffle over who'd paint and who'd pose ending with Clara posing and the Doctor drawing - mostly because she knew she had no artistic skill and the Doctor hadn't tried drawing since his regeneration yet. Clara kind of hoped he had that skill still from the concentrated looks he kept glancing her – and the irritated ones when she moved or laughed. The guide with them, Heather, hadn't given them any indicators if the paintings where good or bad when she passed behind Vastra and the Doctor. Maybe Clara would catch up to her later and ask for schooling for her failed poker face.

Clara smiled when she heard Jenny giggle again and glance her way in time to see her nearly loose her balance and fall from standing up so long. "Why couldn't you have sat me down too Madame?" Jenny whined but her face was smiling as she looked lovingly at Vastra, who just smiled back.

Clara giggled "Don't start complaining or I'll feel like I owe the Doctor a thank you for putting me in a sitting position" she said, trying not to move her head.

"I think you should thank me" he called loudly over his own canvas, glancing around it to steal a glance at her – she didn't miss the smug grin.

Clara rolled her eyes "I'm not going to thank you."

"Next time I'll make you stand." He warned.

"There's going to be a next time?" she frowned.

She seemed to have stumped him, he hesitated at least. "… Maybe. I think it's turned out pretty well… I think."

Clara heard the insecurity in his voice – the first time since his last self and even then Eleven had been notoriously confident in just about everything. She felt moved to comfort him, just like he had when she was feel insecure, but couldn't really – so instead she drew his mind from it. "Are you being modest?" she hooked an eyebrow at him, turning his way just a fraction.

"Clara don't move." He sounded exasperated, but the insecurity was gone.

Over his shoulder Clara saw Vastra take a none too discreet leer at his drawing – she looked surprised, giving Clara a glance herself, but that was all indicator of his work she got for another half hour before Heather called for them to finish up their work for the afternoon tea. Jenny fell onto Clara's lap almost immediately.

"I swear standing on your feet like that is worse than wearing pinching shoes all day." Jenny said, lowering herself to the floor from Clara's lap and rubbing her sore feet.

"You should see some of the shoes girls in my time wear" Clara said "Heels like this" she demonstrated by holding her hands about seven inches apart and watched Jenny's eyes widen in horror and awe.

"Why would anyone torture their feet like that?" the Victorian girl asked sounding truly baffled as Clara pulled her up so they could go see their portraits.

"Probably so poor short girls like us don't feel like toddlers compared to everyone else" Clara shrugged. "Most of the other people I've met are just a few inches shorter than the Doctor – so that's like two of us!" she joked.

The reached Madame Vastra first who proudly stepped back from her work, an elegant portrait of Jenny in a delicate ballet pose that seemed to ooze peace and beauty. Clara smiled at both the paintings beauty and Jenny hugging her wife before she moved over to the Doctor. "So do you still have my artistic skill?" she asked him teasingly.

He gave her an annoyed look. "Why don't you tell me?" he huffed moving so she could just see over his shoulder.

He'd not painted or drawn her, he'd instead done a charcoal drawing of her face – the most detail she could see was in her eyes which he'd drawn large and wide. She looked more closely and realised she could see what looked like stars reflected in the eyes he'd drawn on her. Clara looked from the drawing to the Doctor – who wasn't looking at her.

"This is… amazing." She said eventually, taking a handkerchief from her pocket. "You defiantly didn't lose the artistic skill in your regeneration."

He looked at her then, a smug smile on his lips. "I didn't, did I?" he even sounded smug.

"You did however forget how to keep charcoal off your face apparently" she scolded lightly, rubbing her handkerchief on his chin where there was a clear thumb print in black charcoal. He jumped lightly at the contact but soon just sat there staring at her face while she rubbed the mark from his face. The Doctor wondered if she knew she was biting her tongue lightly while she cleaned him?

The Doctor cleared his throat lightly, breaking Clara from the almost trance she'd gone in while cleaning him. She bit her lip instead of her tongue and took a half step back. "That cut on your head" he said having noticed while she was so close "the one that needed stitches – it's healed nicely, hardly a scar there now eh?"

Clara smiled, hand touching her forehead where the skin was just a fraction lighter. "I don't know kind of disappointed hoped I'd end up like Harry Potter" she winked.

The Doctor snorted at that "I think you need to be hit with an unforgivable curse for that."

"Damn." She smiled.

Vastra cleared her throat suddenly, they both jumped forgetting anyone else was around and surprised that the room was otherwise empty. "As nice as it is to see you two bonding rather than arguing, now would be a good time to get out onto the grounds of the property and take a look for out sinister beast. Now all the attacks took place around the lake, I suppose we split up and take a side each – if anyone asks you're taking a romantic walk."

And so walking around the lake, which had broken its banks in the rain from the previous night, was how the Doctor found out this regeneration hated mud, and getting wet. He stuffed his hands further into his pocket and complained "It's bad enough this body doesn't seem capable of holding a consistent body temperature, there's a skeleton stealing beastie out there and I'm covered in mud!" he waved his muddied shoe in Clara's direction.

She was a little ahead of him having not been too fussed about the mud, she rolled her eyes before she turned around to him "Hey you're not wearing a long dress so stop your complaining!"

He stopped walking, gave her a suspicious look. "Let me see your shoes."

"What? Why?"

"Just show me your shoes!"

Clara lifted her skirt a tiny bit and showed him the modern white sneakers on her feet.

"Your cheating!" the Doctor glared.

"Am not!" Clara smirked at him "I'm taking advantage of a bad situation. Not my fault men's Victorian outfits are not long enough to hide 21st century footwear that make walking in mud easier." She winked.

The Doctor started off on some rant about her cheating, she caught something about her risking their cover as time travellers and was about to point out he'd risked that an awful lot every time he opened his mouth while he was insistently stalking her at the school after the 'incident' – when something caught her eye.

"Doctor"

"And another thing –"

"Doctor!" she called louder of his voice.

He stopped talking, catching the note of urgency in her voice "What is it?" in one stride he had closed the gap between them until he was standing at her back almost pressed against her, an kind of imposing shadow.

"In the water… I thought I saw something."

They watched the calm water of the lake for a second. It was eerily quiet, no birds or other sounds of life and a typical thin northern fog had settled over the grounds, the dark water of the lake was calm and nothing disturbed it.

"Could have been a fish?" the Doctor suggested, squinting.

"Doctor this is us. Between a bone stealing monster and a nice little fish how many times has our luck let it be the thing that isn't going to try and kill us?"

She had a point.

The Doctor stepped past her for a second, crouching at the water's edge he dipped two fingers into the dark muddy water, sniffed it and then sucked the water off his fingers. Clara wrinkled her nose behind him but didn't make a comment. He rolled his tongue a few times with a frown before he stood up again. "Odd, PH level of this water is far too acidic to be normal – and that's even by Victorian standards."

"Doctor" Clara took a suspicious step back from the water's edge. "Is it in the water?"

The Doctor looked at her. "Clara" he said "It's in the water."

"Okay so… let's move away from the water yeah?"

"Yeah… but not turn our backs to It." the Doctor said backing away from the water slowly, he didn't tell Clara how he felt something watching them. Goosebumps raised on his skin and a dark tickle brushed the back of his neck.

Clara didn't need telling, she backed away with him staring at the water like it was a hunting cat about to pounce and they were little mice. When they were far enough away – they ran.

Later that night after dinner Vastra and the Doctor had pretty much barricaded themselves into the library of the Lodge with a few old books the Doctor had retrieved from the TARDIS which had been hidden in the foliage of a churchyard a few streets away. They were doing their best to find something about a bone stealing thing that lived in the water, so Clara and Jenny had wandered off to the social tea room downstairs.

They had been chattering about some ridiculous thing Strax had done since her last visit when someone started yelling, a bell ringing outside and all at once everyone seemed to rush outside. They arrived in the time to hear the familiar gruff Scottish accent yelling "Let me through."

They were on the banks of the lake, Clara wished she hadn't looked. She had assumed with dread almost as soon as the commotion started that the creature had attacked again but there is a difference between knowing what it did and seeing what it did. She turned away quickly from the fleshy puddle that had been – she recognised the faces even without bone structure to them – Frank and Abigale Knight, the sweet looking couple who'd spoken to her and the Doctor the first night.

Clara was busy trying to keep her dinner down but could still hear the Doctor talking, his tone brook no argument. Occasionally Vastra would add something in, or Jenny, a voice she didn't recognise Clara assumed belonged to the policeman that had arrived on the scene minutes after them.

"Clara can you hold… Clara?" the Doctor stood up, noticing finally that his companion seemed rather distressed as she stood away from the scene and away from the crowd. He glanced down at Vastra who still crouched over the bodies, the lizard woman gave him an encouraging nod and he went to Clara's side. "Clara are you alright?" he muttered quietly, not wishing to be overheard offering her comfort.

"Y-yeah." She let out a shaky breath but when she looked at him her expression was anything but alright. "It's just different you know… when you've me the victims. You wanted me to hold something?"

The Doctor gave her a light encouraging smile, and in a gesture that was becoming more common for him he draped his jacket over her shoulders. "Just keep hold of my Jacket please. Why don't you go inside and I'll meet you later? We shouldn't be too much longer."

Clara hesitated, he saw it in her face, but she nodded and said she'd meet him in their room later before she left, wrapping his coat further around herself.

He returned to Jenny and Vastra, discreetly sonicing the bodies to try get any more information. They managed to stay quiet for a full two and half minutes before they asked questions. That was thirty seconds longer than normal he noticed.

"Is Miss Clara not well?" Vastra asked keeping her eyes low.

"Clara met these people earlier, I think she rather enjoyed their company. It is human for her to elicit a negative emotional response to their deaths." The Doctor said, his voice a tiny bit defensive even to his own ears.

Vastra's expression softened "Not just humans have that response to a family face on a corpse Doctor."

Clara was sitting in the armchair by the lit fire when he returned, she was still wearing his jacket but had changed into the long nightgown she slept in. she brightened a fraction when he entered, looking like she wanted to say something – but the Doctor had missed her open mouth and cut across what she was about to say.

"It defiantly came from the water." He said, his back to her as he struggled to get one of his muddied shoes off. "We found a trail from the bodies to the lake – kind of like a slug trail actually. I'm also pretty sure all this water has caused my shoes to shrink!"

"Any ideas what it is?" she asked curiously.

"Nope, no idea. We can't find any clues to anything amphibious and bone stealing. Little bit concerned it could be a hybrid or two monsters – more likely it's something new. Just means it's a bit harder to find a way to stop It." the Doctor flopped into the other armchair in a way very similar to his other self, eyeing her carefully across from him. She was so tiny her feet didn't touch the floor.

"I was thinking – it lives in the water right so why not try draw it out and trap it the same way you trap anything out of water?" she suggested.

The Doctor frowned. "You mean a fishing rod and a large net? I'm not sure that would work. And we'd need a really big net."

Clara blushed "No I mean… oh never mind it's a stupid idea."

"No go on." He urged leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "I like hearing your ideas Clara. Anyway If you don't forward wrong idea how would you learn what a good one was?"

Clara blinked. "Are you saying you're trying to teach me?"

He smirked "I don't teach just anyway, it's a privilege you should take it as a compliment."

She still gave him an unsure look before blurting "Fire. It probably doesn't like the heat, if you can find a way to trap it you can cut off its retreat to the lake again with some kind of fire blockage?"

The Doctor sat back again, considering and after a few moments smiled. "That's a good start" he said finally, watching he noticed Clara's chest heave discreetly with a relived sigh before he averted his gaze quickly. "Actually it's a really good start, if like Vastra suspects this monster is basically a product of earth and water than fire would be a good way to dry it out so to speak."

He got up again "I need to go talk to Madame Vastra about this. You don't mind do you?"

Clara grinned "You don't have to ask me you know. Actually since when have you asked me, you usually just run off"

"I was trying to be considerate of your feelings." The Doctor crossed his arms defensively. "This is a strange place after all, with strangers, and there are no door locks."

Clara's smile fell and she hesitated then. His teasing smile dropped too when he saw her face and he came back over, crouching in front her. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable… I can wait until the morning to talk to Vastra."

"No" Clara pushed past him to stand, pacing a little she said in a troubled voice "I can't keep being scared you know, it's not fair. I don't want to have to rely on you, and I don't want you to be my personal body guard."

"Let's be fair, I haven't really given you much choice in whether I'm your guard or not." He pointed out honestly.

"Well maybe you should stop…" Clara bit her lip, knowing she sounded harsh. "I don't mean… It's not that I don't appreciate your concern really it's just… I just don't want you to blame yourself if I manage to get myself in trouble or worse again."

"Which is why staying with you is the best way to stop you getting hurt." He tried to reason.

"Or it'll just make you feel worse when I do get hurt. Let's face it, it's not like I'm bound to stay safe with you glue to my hip or not." She said it with a rueful smile, trying to let him know she wasn't angry or hurt – but his face still fell a fraction. "Travelling with you is dangerous – but I love it so don't think I want to stop. Plus let's face it I'm a bit of a danger magnet, so me getting hurt again is inevitable."

The Doctor shuffled his feet, not quite sure what to say knowing she was correct. "…right." He ended up saying with an awkward scratch of his neck.

Clara smiled at his awkwardness. "Are you going to talk to Vastra?"

He started a bit "Oh. Right yes. Will you be alright on your own?"

"I'll probably stay awake until you come back." She confessed.

They shared a small smile, the Doctor awkwardly patted her shoulder before he left.