Her name was Clara.
And for the first time in a long time, he wasn't quite sure what to do next. She wasn't exactly what he expected and he had to acknowledge to himself that he really wasn't sure what he had expected. He recognized the spirit in her and liked that she had not backed down from a fight.
He sighed, running his hand through his hair. It was a habit that he swore that he would try to break, he always fell back into it when he was agitated, thinking hard, or even a little bit unsure.
Not that he would admit to being unsure, no not at all.
"You don't think it's a little bit creepy staring at her from the window? Just a tiny bit stalkerish?"
The Doctor snapped the blinds shut and spun around to face his friend. "I was just making sure she stayed away from the hedges or I would have to go back out there."
Jack threw his hands up, "Whatever you say, Doc. But from the look of things, seemed like you were on the losing side of that argument."
"Well, she'll need convincing but I have it handled." The Doctor scowled at Jack and moved around him to the work bench he had set up in the corner. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"
Jack let out a laugh at the Doctor's comment and again at the Doctor's affronted look. Turning he grabbed his coat off the chair that it had been tossed on when he walked in earlier. "Ok, ok, I'm leaving but I think it's not going to be as easy as you think it will be. She seems like she might be…difficult. "
The Doctor ignored Jack and continued to poke at the pile of electronics he had strewn across the table. Waiting for Jack to leave, the door barely closed before he found himself drawn back over to the window. He watched Jack as he walked up to his new neighbor to introduce himself.
Clara.
He had seen her that very first day, when she had been shown the empty home. He hadn't meant to stare but she had caught his eye with the curve of her smile, the expression on her face as she looked at the house. The way her face had lit up with pleasure and the way her eagerness had shown through had captivated him. He had felt a fission of excitement at the real possibility of this person becoming a neighbor and he hadn't wanted to spend too much time exploring that. He just knew that he was drawn to her smile and the look of contentment on her face only to watch that expression evaporate when she had looked over at his home.
He frowned as she had grimaced at the state of the greenery and could see her trying to look through the hedges. He was not going to admit that it had disappointed him to be the source of her discontent. He had decided then and there that he didn't care to meet her after all and she was probably not going to end up purchasing the home in any case. Best to forget all about her.
Never mind that he had, in that same moment, decided to tear the hedges down between them.
He had almost forgotten about the pretty girl with the sad smile, when he heard the sound of a lorry make its way down the street. Peering outside, he realized it was the girl again. She must have bought the house next door. Again, he felt that mixture of excitement and inevitable disappointment. He watched as she took careful inventory of the boxes moving in and wondered if he should go outside and introduce himself.
He quickly dismissed the idea when he saw her glance at the hedges and with another shake of her head, followed one of the movers inside.
In the end, he decided it was for the best. He was content with the quiet life he had built for himself; he didn't really need any new friends.
He wasn't lonely at all.
He watched Jack make his way over to Clara, clearly intent on introducing himself. Clara stood up to greet him and he wasn't going to ask Jack why he felt it necessary to hold on to Clara's hand for so long. Or why he felt the need to lean in so closely. He frowned when he caught Jack laugh at something Clara said and envied him the ease with which he could meet new people. Jack made it look so easy, accepting that he was a rake and not minding if others thought the same of him. His own special brand of flirting.
Social skills were not a priority for him, as a rule. But this one moment, he wished he could trade places with Jack and make social talk with Clara.
"So, new neighbor?"
Clara looked up at the sound of the American accent, standing to say hello. She smiled awkwardly, not too sure about his wandering eyes.
"Captain Jack Harkness." Did he just wink at her? "And you are?"
"Clara." She hesitated before extending her hand out, which was quickly engulfed. "So a Doctor and a Captain, charming."
Clara could hear the joke in the air and hoped he would let it and her hand go.
"You should see the other guy." He did just wink at her. Clara sighed; she'd dealt with men like him before. All bark and no bite. She tugged slightly on her hand and he squeezed it gently before letting it go.
"So still working on those hedges, I see. You're not afraid of the Doctor's wrath?"
Clara lifted her chin, "Noooooo, he should be afraid of mine."
Jack smiled at her, "Yes, I expect he should. Not sure what his attachment is to those hedges. If you asked me, I think it is cover."
Jack leaned closer to Clara, almost as if they were conspirators together and Clara had to lean closer in order to hear his whisper, "I think he's using the hedges as an excuse to talk to you."
"What? Not possible. Your friend keeps telling me to go away. If he wanted to talk to me, he would have just answered the door like any other normal person."
Jack threw back his head and let out a loud laugh. "One thing you'll discover is that the Doctor is anything but a normal person."
Clara was nothing if not curious, "Soooo, what exactly are you the captain of? And what is he a doctor of?"
"Oh, things. A little bit of this, a little bit of that." His smile did not quite reach his eyes.
"Well, that's enlightening. You and the Doctor seem unlikely friends. Are you colleagues?"
"Hardly and don't ever let him hear you say that." Jack smiled at her, genuinely this time. "Clara, he really is a good guy once you get to know him."
Clara smiled back at him, "Don't think I will be spending too much time getting to know him."
Jack simply smirked at her. "Something tells me you will."
Clara met the gardener, Tom, whom she had hired during half term while she had the free week. He was an older gentleman, tending after gardens for years and had come highly recommended. Her excitement was contagious as she walked through the area, working through ideas for her garden with Tom. He seemed to know exactly what he was about and made suggestions that Clara scribbled down on note cards.
He had taken one look at the overgrown hedges and shook his head. "Those are going to need some work, love."
"I know. I started over there," Clara waved her arm. "But I have a bit of a tricky neighbor situation right now."
"Tricky neighbor situation?"
"Yeah, I dunno. My neighbor doesn't seem too keen on me touching any of the hedges."
Tom nodded; he's probably seen it all. "We'll just deal with what we can. But over in that corner, we could plant some flowering perennials. Maybe something that could create a border like."
Clara followed along after Tom, taking several more notes as he laid out his vision for her space. Out of the corner of her eye, Clara swore she saw a flash of black but when she turned to follow the movement there was nothing but the overgrown hedges staring back at her. She sighed, not sure why she felt slightly disappointed. Jack's words about getting to know her neighbor still lay unsettled in her mind.
"First order of business has to be those hedges."
Clara turned back to Tom, "Sooner rather than later would be best. Let's go over your plan inside, would you care for any refreshments?"
As she followed Tom back towards the front of the house, she stole another quick glance back towards the Doctor's house, hoping to catch a glimpse of him and….and what? Have another great pow wow about how she shouldn't touch the hedges, about how annoying she was?
Clara didn't know what to make of the Doctor, her attraction to him conflicted with her annoyance at his attitude and if there was one thing Clara didn't like, it was not being in control of a situation.
And she could feel this particular situation slowly sliding out of her control.
Clara spent most of the following Saturday moving furniture from side to side, room to room rearranging them until they sat just so. She changed her mind twice on where she was going to place the sofa in the sitting room. The second time she moved it, she decided it was staying; no way was she moving that piece again.
Sweaty and flushed red from her exertions, she stopped when she heard a knock at her front door. Not expecting and visitors, Clara wasn't sure who to expect.
Opening the door, Clara's eyes widened as she looked up at the familiar face in her doorway. "Doctor?"
"Am I interrupting anything?" The Doctor's eyes glanced over Clara's face and she could feel herself flush even further.
"No, just settling in, moving things around."
"Furniture? You've been here a couple of weeks-"
"Well, yeah, I am still deciding where I want to put things. It's a work in progress." Clara could feel herself become defensive. "Can I help you with something?"
He shuffled awkwardly and turned around to pick up a box he had placed on the floor behind him. He looked almost sheepish as he turned to hand her the box, his long fingers tapping sporadically along the cardboard, clearly a nervous gesture.
"I overheard you talking with your gardener about plantings for the front of your garden and I- well, I thought you could use these."
"You overheard?" So she had been right, he must have been outside when she and Tom had been planning her garden.
"Well, listening to you talk to your gardener." He mumbled, voice trailing off. He thrust the box towards Clara, who reached up on her tip toes to peer at the contents. There were rows of blue flowers, each in its own small pot. Wow, he was really into the color blue.
Clara looked back up at the Doctor, whose ears had started to turn red. "They are petunias, I had some out back and I thought-"
"Yeah, they are pretty. Thank you." She waited a moment, not entirely sure what she should do next. That moment was rapidly turning into an even longer moment which would become a completely awkward moment if someone didn't do something soon.
She turned to open her door wider, "Do you want to come in? Place is a mess but I could offer you a cup of tea."
The Doctor stood there for a second; hesitating, before turning abruptly and walking down to the pavement and back to his home. Clara watched stunned, as he opened the door to his house and slammed it shut behind him.
Right. So not a tea drinker that one.
But the petunias were lovely and it had been thoughtful of him to give them to her.