When Clara awoke, it was to the sound of someone rapping softly on the door of her room. She yawned and pushed herself up on one elbow, realizing as her back cracked painfully that she'd once again managed to fall asleep at the edge, her legs hanging off to the floor in a very uncomfortable position. She quickly sat up and tucked the fob watch back into her pocket as Nina opened the door and stuck her head in, letting in with her a pleasant aroma of cooking food. "Mornin'," She greeted Clara. "Did I wake you?"

Clara ran a hand through her disheveled hair and yawned again. "Been up for hours," She lied. "What time is it?"

"'Round eight."

"At night?"

"In the morning." Nina grimaced slightly. "I figured we both needed the sleep. Also, I made breakfast."

Clara's stomach growled at the mention of food. "Really?"

"Yeah. It's more like sorry-I-got-drunk-and-puked-outside-your-door-in-the-middle-of-the-night-breakfast," She admitted. "I cleaned it up, but I thought it might have woken you."

"Oh." Clara stood up and stretched, having no memory of being up in the middle of the night. "No, I must have slept through it."

"That's a relief." Her flatmate gave a cautious grin. "Anyways, I do have to leave for work in a few, so should I just leave yours on the drain?"

"That's be great." As she dragged her hands down her face in an effort to wake herself up, Clara suddenly remembered that she had completely slept through calling Craig. She groaned and raked her fingers through her hair, waiting until Nina had shut her door again to straighten her rumpled clothes and follow her. She was halfway out of her room when there was the sound of the squeaking hinges on the front door and a surprised shout from Nina.

Clara ran out into the front room to see Nina hunched over in the doorway. "Nina?" She asked. "What is it?"

"Uh…" Though Clara couldn't see whatever Nina was looking at through the girl's poufy skirt blocking most of the view, she could hear a crinkling sound, like a bit of paper. "Oh! They're for you." There was a clinking noise and Nina stood up and turned around, and Clara gaped to see that she was holding a glass vase full of flowers, a tiny card in ribbon around it. "Henry must have left this for you."

"Really?" Clara asked, coming over, a little shocked. "Why do you say that?"

"Here." Nina handed the vase to Clara, who took it and stumbled back a little under the surprising weight of the thing. She staggered over to the coffee table and set it down, then crouched to unfold the tag.

Thank you for your help yesterday! x

"It's not signed," Clara noted. "Why do you assume it would be from him?"

"Well, you said you helped him with the sink yesterday, right?" Nina explained.

"Yeah?"

"Well, it's a thanks for the help. Don't worry about it, he leaves me thank-you gifts when I help him out, too. He doesn't mean anything by it."

"Oh." Clara smiled down at the flowers, and leaned in to sniff them lightly. "That was nice of him, then."

Nina huffed under her breath and straightened up. "I'll tell him thanks for you on the way out," She offered, grabbing her bag off the couch and heading towards the still-open door.

"Thanks," Clara called after her, directing her attention back to the vase of flowers before her when she heard the door close. Eventually, she decided to take them back into her room, which brightened up the dull colors a little bit. She set them on the dresser, where the warm light streamed in and made the silky white petals glow. She wondered how Henry had known that white roses were her favorite flower. Maybe it was just a lucky guess on his part, but it was a sweet gesture. She found the tiny hints of a goofy smile growing on her face, but quickly pushed them back down. She couldn't form attachments, not right now, not ever. She had to be taking care of the Doctor in his weakened state, and especially making sure that he didn't go around messing things up or, well… Getting killed. No distractions allowed.

After eating the eggs and bacon Nina had left her, Clara sat down on the couch, pulled out Craig's wrinkled card from her pocket, and dialed him on her mobile. He picked up after the third ring, accompanied by the faint sound of crying in the background. "Hello?" He asked. "Who's this?"

"Oh, um…" Clara trailed off. "It's, uh, me. The Doctor's friend."

"Clara!" She heard relief in his voice. "I was a bit worried when you didn't call last night. What with the fact that there are apparently aliens around, and all that."

"Oh." She gave a small chuckle. "No, no, I'm fine. I was just exhausted, is all. So, um…" She ran out of things to say, and then realized she had actually forgotten why she was supposed to call. "What was this about, again? Sorry, think I'm still a bit sleepy."

"You were going to explain to me the current situation," He reminded her gently. "I'm fuzzy on the details."

"Right." Clara let herself sink further back into the couch, running her free hand through her disheveled hair and taking a breath. "Well, where do you need me to start?"

"First of all, you." She heard a slight crackling and soft murmurs from the other end, and the baby's wailing quieted significantly. "You said you travel with him, right?"

"Yes." She confirmed. "Full time, as of recently."

"Then you're friends?"

The words made a lump form in her throat. "We were before," She replied carefully. "I'm not sure about now."

He hesitated for so long that Clara wondered if he was still there. "Close friends?"

"I'd like to think so."

"But… Just friends?"

Clara took a moment to process the implications, and her eyes widened. "Oh!" She said, just a little too loudly. "Yes, yes. Of course. Just friends. Nothing more."

"So..." Clearly, Craig had misinterpreted her brief panic, and was now tiptoeing around the situation at hand when there was no need to (Or, at least, that was what she was trying to convince herself). "Relationships aren't something I have to watch out for? Like, he's allowed to go on dates and such?"

She found herself stifling a chuckle. "Quite honestly, Craig, I'm not sure you'd be able to stop him."

"Well yes, but you know what I mean!" He sounded exasperated. "I shouldn't discourage it?"

She fell silent, gnawing on her lower lip thoughtfully. "I don't think so," She replied slowly, "but on the other hand, this situation isn't going to last more than a month, hopefully. So it would be bad for him to form attachments."

Her argument apparently convinced him, because he replied a few moments later with, "No dating, then. Probably."

"Right." Clara forced the lump in her throat down, wondering why it was such a touchy subject with herself. She had been over this dozens—no, hundreds—of times, and always it had ended with the same conclusion: Don't even think about it. So she hadn't. Convincing herself that she wasn't saying what she was out of jealousy was hard enough as was. It wasn't even like she would be jealous jealous of anyone he were to date while a human. It would probably, if anything, be that she felt like she wasn't doing a good enough job of being his companion. If he felt he needed someone else, what was her purpose?

Craig coughed quietly on the other end, and Clara realized she must have been silent for a good while. "Anyways," He continued, "Do you know what you're running from, exactly? A description might help."

"Well…" Clara trailed off.

Craig, hearing the grimace in her voice, groaned. "What is it?"

"They're shapeshifters," She replied finally. "Pretty convincing humans, but there are a few ways you can tell the difference."

"Like what?" The phone crackled slightly.

"Well, they're blind, for one. White eyes." She searched her memory for every possible thing she could dredge up about the one she'd met the previous day. "Sweet voices, but their breath smells disgusting. The skin of their hands is composed of tiny green scales. That's it, I think."

"So any sweet old blind lady in gloves could be an alien?" Craig sounded irritated.

"That's the gist of it, yeah," Clara replied. "No other traits that I noticed."

"Wonderful. That's just wonderful." Craig fell silent, and Clara swore she could almost see him, eyes squeezed shut, pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out a heavy sigh. That was how she would have taken the news, anyways. "Thanks for the information though, Clara. That'll make my bit a little easier."

"Not a problem," She responded, giving a small nod even though it wasn't like he could see her.

"Moving onto a different subject," He continued, "You said you were looking for a job?"

Clara straightened up. "Yes," She replied quickly. "I am."

"You were a nanny before?"

"For a while."

"Would you be willing to come over this evening, maybe meet my wife and the kids, and consider taking a day job working for us?"

Clara grinned. "That'd be wonderful," She replied. "I really need this job. What time should I come?"

"Oh, just drop by 'round five. Does that sound all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds lovely!" Clara bit back another smile. She absolutely adored little kids—besides, if she were working right below the Doctor's flat, it would be easier to keep an eye on him. It was pretty much a win-win.

Craig gave her his address, and sensing the conversation was over, Clara was about to hang up the phone. She said farewell and was just pulling it away from her ear when Craig said one last thing. "By the way, did you like the flowers?"

Clara froze, her finger halfway to the 'end call' button. "The—The flowers?" She asked, very carefully, putting the mobile back where it had been a moment ago.

"Yes, the flowers. He said he wanted to thank you for helping him figure out where he lived, and said you looked like the kind of person who liked white roses."

Clara's jaw dropped. She had told him once, months ago, that they were her favorite flower. After all that, had he really remembered? "I—I didn't realize they were from him," She said finally. "I thought they were from my upstairs neighbor. I helped him out with something the other day, and Nina said that he always thanked people with a few flowers whenever they helped him out, but I didn't…" She trailed off. "Really?"

She could almost hear the smile in his voice, and it made her cheeks flush with heat. "Really." He confirmed. "Glad you got them. See you tonight?"

"S—see you tonight." Clara heard the click as he hung up, but she sat there for at least another ten minutes, staring at the wall, trying to process the fact that the Doctor. Had. Given. Her. Flowers. And not just any flowers. Roses. A little thank-you card, a grateful phone call, or anything else wouldn't have set off panic bells in her head, but flowers? That was very uncharacteristic of the Doctor. She'd assumed that he'd be sort of the same person while they were waiting out the alien invasion, but this? This was something drastically different than anything he'd do in his right mind. And if he was a normal human now, did that mean he actually understood the significance of human actions?

Clara shrugged the thought off. It was like Craig had said—just a thank-you for her help the previous day. Still, as she went to clean up the breakfast dishes and take a shower, she couldn't help but wonder if this meant she was going to have a whole new level of problems to deal with.

a/n: As you could probably guess by the amount of time this took, I had a pretty difficult time finishing this one-Surprising, because it's one of the longer chapters. Anyways, please leave a review with any feedback you have! Reviews fuel me, and they don't take too long to write. Happy finals week! (or panic week, if you're me)