The Woman Twice Dead

Summary: He had met her before, not once, but twice. And Fate, cruel Fate, had taken her away only to bring her back to him once more. Maybe, just maybe, the Universe did do bargains after all.

Clara Oswin Oswald. Oswin Oswald. The woman twice dead.

He had met her before, not once, but twice. And Fate, cruel Fate, had taken her away. So he went looking, looking for her all through time and space, travelled to every city, country, planet and to every era, century, period, all of it in hopes that the Universe did do bargains after all.

Because she had been brilliant from the very start. And she had died saving him, not once but twice. And he had to find her. And so he went looking. And he'd stumbled upon a brilliant little girl. And she helped him, she gave him the secret to finding her:

"When I lose something, I go to a quiet place and I close my eyes, and then I can remember where I put it."

So that is what he did, he went to 11th Century Cumbria to have the peace and quiet of a monk. (Yet, as cruel Fate would have had it, that brilliant little girl just happened to be the one person he so sought. And, oh, if only he had been wise enough to see it.)

And in the end, it was her that found him. (Fate again, all the time playing it's cruel, evil, heartless jokes. Although, for some reason completely unknown, this time, this once the joke was not him.) And this time she was only Clara Oswald. And she was just as brilliant, just witty, just as clever, just as perfect, and just as big a mystery as her other selves. And he loved it.

He loved the thrill of the adventure that was trying to figure her out. She was the women twice dead and still she came back to him. (And he could feel the adrenaline pumping and his heart soaring and hope rising within him and he just. couldn't. stop.)

And, for once, it felt so right, so perfect that he was honestly, truly, really, deeply scared. He feared that she was a trap. Because it felt like the Universe had suddenly being just a little bit too kind. That it just couldn't be so easy and simple. (Believing her to be just Clara Oswald seemed impossible because really, she was perfect.)

But in the end, it didn't matter. And in the end she was not just the woman twice dead and it wasn't the Universe the one in charge of Clara's multiple selves.

It was all Clara Oswald, born to save the Doctor.