Craig, as promised, showed up five minutes later. Clara jumped off the couch to get the door. "Go wake the kids, will you?" She told the Doctor over her shoulder as she crossed the room.
"On it," He replied, and she heard the couch shift as he got up, followed by the sound of his shoes on the wood floor as he went the opposite direction of her.
She tuned out the sound of Alfie's upset whining as he was roused, and instead pulled the door open to greet Craig, who was looking more worn down than ever. "Rough day?" She asked as he came in.
He groaned in response, rubbing his hands against his face. "You have no idea," He replied. "There's so much paperwork, not to mention Soph and I are worried that someone's going to find out we've been lying about this whole thing."
Clara frowned. "It hasn't been that much of a lie," She pointed out. "Besides, it's not like anyone would believe the real thing, so there's that."
He sighed. "I suppose."
There was a muffled thud from Clara's bedroom, and she spun, eyes flying wide with panic. "John?" She shouted, her voice high-pitched. "What happened?" Horrible thoughts filled her head, of the clumsy ex-Timelord dropping Lila or accidentally tripping and knocking over Alfie. "John?"
There was a shuffling sound, and a grunt. "Don't worry!" He called back. "Alfie's having a bit of a temper tantrum, sat down on the floor hard is all. Blimey, it's creaky in here!"
She rolled her eyes and turned back to Craig. "Sorry. It's been relatively quiet around here before this, so we put them down for a nap."
"No problem." He grinned at her. "Got plans after this?"
She glanced over her shoulder at the Doctor, who was carrying Lila in and leading Alfie with his free hand. "Yeah, actuall—" She stopped, and turned back to face Craig, who suddenly looked quite smug, and it hit her. "You knew?" She gaped.
He chuckled at her. "Knew?" He repeated, raising an eyebrow. "I'm the one who told him to go for it."
She groaned and dropped her head into her hands, looking back up a moment later to glare at Craig. "Do you know what a bad idea this is?" She hissed, trying not to be heard by the topic of conversation himself, who seemed to have been temporarily distracted by a wailing Lila somewhere behind her. "He's not thinking straight like this! When he gets his memories back and finds out we went on a date, he's going to be mortified!"
Craig looked at her incredulously, shaking his head a bit. "Blimey, you really aren't paying attention, are you?"
She glared at him. "What?"
He snorted. "Clara, last night he told me he thought he might want to ask you out. The ensuing argument lasted almost half an hour, and do you know who he was arguing with? Himself. The biggest con he could come up with was the chance that you'd say no."
Clara blinked at him uncomprehendingly. "Where did you come in?" She asked finally, not sure what else to say to that and too busy trying to calm the sudden increase in her heart rate.
"I told him he was keeping the kids up with his blabbering, and that he should just go ahead and ask because there was no way you'd say no." He caught her evil eye and shrugged. "I'm not an idiot, Clara. I knew you'd want to."
"What I'd want to has nothing to do with it!" She snapped at him. "I'm supposed to be making sure he doesn't muck anything up while he blunders around England for a month without any of his memories, and I am entirely sure that this qualifies as mucking it up."
Craig looked slightly taken aback at her tone, but his smug expression quickly returned. "So you do want to go out for coffee with him, then?"
She sighed, and gave in. "Yes." She admitted. "I really do."
He raised his eyebrows. "Then stop overthinking it, Clara. He's still the same man. The only thing different is that he's not afraid of feelings. Now go enjoy yourself." He said those last words quietly to her as he took Lila from the Doctor and allowed Alfie to latch himself onto his other hand. Craig nodded to the Doctor, said goodbye, shot Clara a pointed look, and left.
As soon as the door shut behind him, the Doctor turned to Clara. "So, coffee?" He asked slowly.
She almost laughed at him. "I already said yes, John," She replied, shaking her head.
He looked sheepish. "I thought you might have changed your mind," He admitted.
Clara had nothing to reply to that with. She was, honestly, shocked that he actually seemed to care. Her mouth hung half a centimeter open, and a moment later she stuttered out, "No. Of course not."
A look of relief crossed his face. "Good. Right. Okay. Just checking. Um. Craig told me about a nice place, if you'd like?"
Clara nodded, and smiled. "Yeah. Yeah! That sounds good." Despite the guilt shivering in the pit of her stomach, she tried to spin her current situation as a best-case scenario: They'd go out for coffee, and he'd realize he liked her but didn't want to date her. They'd be friends, and that would be that. The guilt receded a little, and she remembered she'd just be taking care of him. That would be all.
"So you just moved here?"
Clara was sitting across the table from the Doctor in the little coffee shop, sipping her drink and enjoying the caffeine buzz that gave her some much-needed energy. She nodded and set the cup down. "I had some family problems, so I moved," She replied. "It was a bit hurried. Don't have much of my own." Out of curiosity, she added, "How long have you lived here?"
His forehead creased in a frown as he tapped his fingers against the Styrofoam cup of his own coffee. "I don't know, exactly," He replied. "I mean, I should, I know, but… I can't remember. That's odd."
Clara was worried that he'd start realizing more things he didn't remember, so she jumped in. "Craig had said you've been living in the flat above his for a few months. Right?"
A look of understanding passed over his face. "Yes!" He said, nodding, then pausing to take a sip of coffee. "That must be it. Sorry, don't know why I forgot for a second there."
"Don't worry about it." Clara replied with a small laugh. "It's easy to forget that kind of thing."
They'd been sitting there for about half an hour, and the conversation had been nice. She hadn't had a real chance to sit down and talk with him since the incident, so finally catching up was both enjoyable and a huge relief, as she'd had no real way of keeping tabs on him before this. He seemed all right, though—noticeably different, but she wasn't sure that was something to worry about. After all, he was only human now, wasn't he? It was a strange feeling, being in the company of a human Doctor, but a nice one as well. He talked much slower, for one.
The Doctor drummed his fingers on the wooden table as he regarded her with a mixture of emotions she couldn't place. That was one downside, of course, the fact that he'd been covering up his emotions for so long that now he expressed them she didn't know what they were. I'll have a whole month to figure them out, she reminded herself. And despite everything, she was looking forward to that month. Sure, she'd be dodging aliens for both of them, but if there was one thing she was curious about it was the Doctor, and now was her chance.
"So what got you into looking after kids?" The question was surprising, and startled her out of her reverie so fast she jolted, splashing hot coffee over the edges of her cup and onto her hands. She let out a string of impressively violent profanity, then immediately clamped one burned hand over her mouth, meeting the Doctor's gaze with a flush rising in her cheeks. He was staring at her with his mouth hanging a centimeter open, frozen with a napkin halfway extended towards her. She took it guiltily and dabbed at her scalding hands, muttering an apology.
"I freak out with hot liquids," She admitted to him with a small laugh. "Nearly dropped a boiling pot of water on my foot when I was nine, splashed a fair amount out onto it anyway. Tends to stick with you."
He shook his head, relaxing a little and resting his elbows on the table again. "Sorry no, that's not it, I just…"
"Oh, right. The swearing." She grimaced, figuring if she hadn't scared him away before, she properly had by now. "I don't do that around kids, if you're wondering."
The Doctor blinked. "I just wasn't expecting that to come out of someone your…"
He still seemed lost for words, but Clara fixed him with a glare anyways. "My what?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.
He seemed to be weighing his options before finally adding, "Your height?" At her look of outrage, he threw his hands up. "You're tiny! Tiny people do not usually swear that much!"
"Yeah, all right," She replied, scoffing at him but trying not to smile. "Anything else you wanna take a jab at as long as we're here?"
"You have a funny nose."
"I what?"
"And you're also bossy."
Clara stared at him for a second, and she could see panic slowly forming in his eyes at what he'd said, but she couldn't help it. She collapsed into laughter. "This coming from you?" She asked incredulously, wondering how the ridiculous-looking man had managed to come up with anything about someone else's appearance (but also, at the same time, wilting a little inside at the memory of the Doctor himself saying those exact things to her not months before, when he'd been half-possessed by the Cyber Planner).
When she managed to look up at him again, still laughing, she was surprised to see he was laughing too. "Me? Like what?"
"Your chin!" She replied, giggling at his look of childish offense. "And the ears, blimey. It's like you've got two little rocket fins sticking up!"
He clapped his hands over his ears and gasped at her, though she was still laughing and couldn't quite manage to stop, though she didn't know why. Her only consolation was that he seemed to be in a similar situation himself.
When Clara finally composed herself enough to look up, he was still grinning widely at her, though he'd stopped laughing. She managed to quiet her last few giggles, and asked, "What is it?"
He shook his head at her, still smiling. "I really do like you, Clara Oswald."
And she smiled back at that, but her stomach was sinking even as her heart fluttered and she could only form one coherent thought: Oh no.
A/n: Dear god, I'm so sorry that took so long! I have been having a MASSIVE writer's block on this story, but it's my most popular one so I sort of forced myself through this chapter for you guys. I really would appreciate some reviews! I only got 3 on the last chapter, which was kind of disheartening, because I know a lot more people than that read this. So if you've been following this for a while, or anything like that, just know that your reviews seriously motivate me to write. I'd love to read some!