Chapter Eight
The Doctor finished wrapping his ribs in bandage and stretched making sure the bandage held, despite it being tight enough to make him strain to breathe, he lent to his left and right just to be sure and despite wincing from the pain was pleased the bandaged held. He replaced his shirt, thought about getting some sleep, and decided instead that he should go see Clara first.
He'd missed his companion in the time they had been apart. For him it had been quite a while – he'd lost count while fighting against some burning tentacled sun-like creature that had decided the yummy energy coming from the rip in the vortex was worth going against the timelord – and he had no idea how long it had been for Clara until he landed, but he ached to hear her voice even if she was yelling at him for being gone for so long, and see her wide brown eyes that could show a different emotion to the rest of her. He felt a little buzz at the idea of seeing her again, but quelled the emotion as he walked to corridors to the control room.
An odd buzzing noise stopped the Doctor in his tracks as he walked past what was usually Clara's closed bedroom door – but was now open and clearly showed the little white mobile phone, vibrating on the desk. She must have forgotten it last time – she'd probably be in a right pickle without it, she had so many alarms and notifications on the damn thing.
The Doctor entered the room, normally feeling self-conscious about entering her bedroom but without her there felt normal, he picked up the phone expecting to see another alarm or notification but instead saw an incoming phone call from a number known simply as 'blocked'.
It might be considered a terrible invasion of her privacy if he answered. Then again, she had left the phone in his ship – and he didn't know how much time would have passed between this phone call and when he got the phone back to her. With a shrug, he answered.
"Hello, Clara's phone?"
Heavy breathing on the other line, the sound of typing and then an electronic voice that sounded a little too high pitched to the Doctors ears answered "You-are-not-Clara. Where-is-Clara?"
The Doctor frowned, uncertain he should even reply. "No I'm not Clara, how clever of you to notice." He replied instead, something causing him to growl and lash out. "She left her phone at my… home by accident."
The Doctor heard typing again before the reply. "Stay-away-from-Clara. She-is-MINE." The last word was spat harshly by the typist as well as spoken by the computer – defiantly a male speaker.
The Doctor tightened his grip on the phone, anger bubbled in him, he leant on the console and gave a harsh barking laugh as he growled down the phone "She was mine long before you set eyes on her. And I'm not about to give her up – you come near Clara Oswald, and you're going to be dealing with me."
Whoever was on the other end of the phone hung up without another word – but the rage in the Doctor was just beginning. Who would dare lay claim to his impossible girl?
Another voice in his mind surged up causing the Doctors anger to pause, did he have any right to call Clara his anyway?
Of course he did! She was his best friend in the whole universe, the girl who jumped into his time stream to save him, they saved each other constantly as they ran around the galaxies saving planets and species! She was the girl that stopped him making the decision he regretted for hundreds of years, the girl that encouraged him to find another way to save his home rather than destroy it – she was the reason Two point four seven billion children did not die. Clara was his – and yet he wasn't stupid enough to deny the fact that he was hers in return.
Yes, the Doctor smiled to himself as he slammed a lever down intending to see his impossible girl right then.
The Doctor landed in Clara's sitting room. At first he didn't notice anything wrong as he stepped out of the TARDIS into her tidy apartment. The sitting room was the same as it always had been – maybe a new sweater was draped to dry over the radiator but other than that nothing seemed to have changed, which didn't explain the sudden feeling that something was wrong in the pit of his stomach that had been planted with the phone call earlier and just grew now.
Then he noticed – it was dark. Not night time dark – he checked his watch suddenly concerned he had accidentally landed late at night or early morning – but dark as in Clara had pulled shut all the blinds of her windows, even the kitchen ones, and pulled dark curtains over her balcony doors that usually had nothing covering them.
A little confused the Doctor pulled one of the blinds up, but there was nothing outside on the window that could give any answers to why Clara had blocked out the world from her flat – or as to why Clara herself had not come when she heard the TARDIS engines. The Doctor tried to open the window, wanting to test the air in case he missed something, but found the window itself had been nailed shut from the inside. Odd.
Confused and seeking answers the Doctor turned slowly on one heel looking for any sights of his impossible girl – and found the bedroom door slightly ajar. Quietly creeping – not wanting to wake her if she was home and asleep after she'd hit him with several pillows when his last self had done that – he peeked around the door and found her bed empty.
A soft noise drew his attention to the armchair behind the door – one that used to be kept in the other corner. Clara stirred slightly in what must have been a very light sleep, he big brown eyes blinked open over the blanket she was curled under. She looked scared and confused at first before her eyes focused on him and she blinked again.
"That doesn't look comfortable." He said – but the words had barely left his mouth before Clara had suddenly jumped up and threw her arms around his middle. He gave a soft noise of pain from his bandaged ribs and gingerly patted her on the back. "Clara, is something wrong?"
She tightened her hold on him briefly, he let out an actual squeak of pain this time and she abruptly let go – and he saw tears in her eyes. They spoke at the same time:
"I'm sorry, are you hurt?"
"You're crying, how long was I gone?"
They both blinked at the other's questions, and smiled softly at the other. The Doctor hooked his arm around her shoulder before she could speak again and said almost sternly "I'm fine, just got a bit of a burn from a sun that had tentacles – told you these rips in the vortex could attract some horrible things which is why I didn't let you come." He shrugged leading her into the sitting room – he watched as she suddenly shrugged off his arm to move quickly across the room and pull the blind back across the window he'd revealed. "Now – how about I make some tea and you explain to me what happened while I've been gone since this is obviously not normal."
She gave him a sheepish smile as she stood by the kitchen table, watching him sort through her kitchen to make tea. "So how long was I gone?" the Doctor asked working his way up to asking about her curtains and the phone call he answered for her on the TARDIS.
"Two months." Clara mumbled.
He sighed at that, glancing at her. "It could have been longer. Last time I was absent at least a year."
"You could have told me that before you left, what if it had been that long this time?" she frowned deeply, but a sigh escaped her as she looked away embarrassed. "I missed you."
Clara sighed again and almost missed his reply. "I missed you too…" he barely whispered it.
Clara hugged him again – from behind this time- careful of the ribs he'd damaged. She was even more surprised that he didn't tense at her touch, or try remove her. In fact she could swear he sighed at her touch as he poured hot water into the mugs of tea.
"So are you going to explain the curtains? Also you left your phone on the TARDIS – I ended up having a very… odd phone call with someone." He felt her tense at his back, wanting to turn and hug her back but wanting the truth from her more.
There was a little silence, her face buried in his back still, before she replied. "Someone's been watching me."
Now the Doctor turned, and she released him looking up into his glowering face. "Any idea who?"
Clara shook her head, bit her lip and wrung her hands in worry and nerves. "No. My neighbours have seen him – they described him but it doesn't sound like anyone I know. I haven't seen him at all. But he calls and… started leaving little gifts on my balcony…"
The Doctor held his hands behind his back so she couldn't see the tightening of his fists – his own blunt nails cutting into the palms of his hands, though she was probably aware of the rest of him tensing. "Gifts?" he bit out.
Clara nodded, moving past him to take something from the top of her microwave. "It started with flowers – dead ones. Then my upstairs neighbour's cat with his throat slashed and then… "Her hand shook when she held out the items to the Doctor, who took them aware of the fear in her eyes.
They were photos of Clara. On the back of some photo's he read the lurid ideas this stalker had that he would like to enact on Clara. The content of the photo's itself where more disturbing – they started innocent enough, photos of her in the supermarket or coming in and out of the school where she worked almost like surveillance photos. Then they became more personal – Clara with her step mother and dad at a family wedding. Clara baking soufflés in her kitchen. The final was possibly the most disturbing – Clara in her bed, asleep. And it was not a distance photo either, this would have been taken from inside the flat, the bedroom, itself. The Doctor fisted the photo up in his hand before throwing it onto the kitchen side and looking at Clara.
"You've called the police I assume?"
"They say there's nothing they can do unless he actually hurts me. My landlord was threatening to kick me out after what happened to the neighbour's cat, but all my neighbours vouched for me – even the one who owned the cat." Clara knew her anger had suddenly got the best of her as she launched into her rant – but nothing could stop her, she liked the cathartic feel of finally venting her frustration. "They told me to keep a diary! I'm scared, hell I'm more than scared I'm petrified to leave my flat or even open my curtains!"
Clara was more than surprised when she was suddenly pulled flush against the Doctors chest as he held her, both of them all too aware of her body shaking in both fear and rage as well as the tightness of the Doctors body from anger. While in his arms, feeling safe for the first time in weeks, Clara explained the phone calls too and that the neighbour's and seen the man hanging around the hallway.
"He called your mobile. You left it on the TARDIS." The Doctor said once she had explained everything.
"Y-you spoke to him?" she moved her head briefly to look up, but he was staring straight ahead.
"Yes. He threatened me."
He felt Clara's grip on his loosen a fraction, and finally looked down to frown at her tightening his own grip on her and watched her expression turn to a surprised one. "Don't you dare try to protect me this time Clara Oswald – you've died far too many times for me." He growled at her. "This idiot has chosen to mess with my impossible girl – we'll he's got another thing coming if he thinks messing with the last of the Timelord's."
Clara smiled a fraction, a small one but it was enough to lift all three of their hearts. "The oncoming storm about to bring down the wrath eh?" she teased lighting. "And you know you're not the last anymore-"
"The last who is not lost someone" he amended with a roll of his eyes. "So impossible girl. I say you have three options."
"And they are?" she hooked an eyebrow at him.
"Well the first is that you can continue as you are, and we can go on our adventures on Wednesdays again and I will insist on walking you too and from work again. Actually I'll insist on taking you there in the TARDIS because I couldn't resist confusing and irritating a stalker who doesn't see you leave or enter the flat at all."
Clara was already shaking her head no at that point. "No I can't keep like this Doctor I'm… my life is disappearing!"
He started rubbing up and down her arms "Shh, impossible girl I still have two suggestions. Second one is that you can drop this life, you can come away with me in the TARDIS full time, just pack up your life amend your affairs and disappear – he'll never find you amongst all the stars."
She actually looked like she was considering it, staring away from the Doctor and at the TARDIS parked in the corner of the room her blue pain and soft glow almost a shield itself against the darkness, but then Clara thought of her family – her dad and grandmother and even Linda, she couldn't just leave them. She eventually shook her head no.
"Then that leave's my third plan. You are going to carry on like normal – no don't look at me like that – you are, you are going take down these curtains, except that one let's keep the TARDIS out of sight, and I am going to stay with you until this bastard leaves you alone because no one messes with my impossible girl. I'll be your constant companion, he wouldn't touch a single hair on your head Clara, I swear!"
Clara was eyeing him, but her expression was trusting – dare he say loving? – and he could see this plan was the one she would do, whether it scared her to the bone or not. "You promise you won't leave me?" she asked with suspicion.
"I don't care if I have to take up that abysmal caretaker's job again, I won't leave your side. Not this time Clara, I swear." He moved his hands up to her face, rubbing his thumbs on her soft cheeks and placing a kiss on her forehead – the same way his eleventh face used too.
Clara breathed a sigh of relief at that, the comforting familiar touches he'd been so careful about giving since his regeneration, and smiled again. "What are you going to do if he comes after us, or you?"
The Doctor gave her a full toothed grin just then, almost a feral expression on his face. "I'll dissuade him."
"What if you can't dissuade him?"
"Ill punch him the face." The Doctor shrugged "I haven't punched anyone in the face with these hands yet – might be interesting."
"Or you might break something." Clara couldn't help but tease.
He tapped her head "Cheeky, and when I'm offering you all my protection! Now come on, it's about time you took down these curtains and blinds!"
She hesitated, he saw it, but eventually came over to help him take down the balcony door curtains.
"Doctor?"
"Yeah?" he looked at her under his arm.
"Can you tell me about this sun with tentacles that attacked you?" she gave him a slight glance. "It might take my mind off things."
He gave her a soft smile. "Sure."