Night 1
Perhaps Vashtra had been right after all: On days like this, Clara found herself wondering if she did actually have some subtle sixth sense to detect the imminent presence of a certain Time Lord.
Sure, it wasn't anything quite as flashy or reassuring as a sudden flash or spider senses, an infallible intuition or a sense that the room temperature was suddenly dropping to announce his presence – instead, she'd find herself fidgeting occasionally, tapping the points of one food on the ground or simply sliding into a general sense of subliminal restlessness that seemed more apparent to others than herself.
She'd pass some sort of imperceptible magical tipping point before which she would have been quite happily engrossed in her work, her relationship and the whole rest of her life, or, initially, even kind o relieved to get break from all the madness, but then, without any discernible trigger or cause there would come a moment where she'd feel impatience building up, or find herself shooting the occasional longing looks to a photograph of an old building or a distant star.
As in all friendships, one would think of things to tell or do with ones friends that would be stopped or postponed due to the absence of said friend, things she believed he'd like, jokes she'd like to tell or things she'd like to vent on, though she was usually to proud to use her phone, confident that he would turn up soon enough and that she should try to enjoy the moments in between.
In the mornings, she would find herself picking out clothes that were practical to run in, foregoing the heels she'd been picking out to impress Danny for her trusted old biker boots, 'just in case', not even given it all that much thought as she proceeded through her days, wondering occasionally what her wayward friend might be doing "right now", for some definition thereof – There was a good chance that there were at least four versions of him running around on Earth at any given moment, but her thoughts referred more to the version that had departed from the school's supply closet last week and was bound to, hopefully, show up in front of her eventually, wherever or whenever that old vagabond was drifting around right now.
He was a little bit like a cat in that way, liable to march around for the block, but usually given to return though she could only ever claim so much of a hold over that stubborn man.
Even when he wasn't there he'd be wearing her out – So much, in fact, that she didn't notice how her mind had wandered until she was approached and spoken to from behind.
"Clara?"
"Oh, Danny!" she exclaimed, trying to save face but still somehow eeling like a child caught misbehaving. "You startled me a bit there, I didn't see you coming at all. What's the matter?"
"Nothing in particular." Danny replied as he leaned against the wall next to her, a subtle playful tone in his inflection. "Just that you seem to be standing here by the window, spacing out after all the kids have left."
"I- I guess I lost track of time." She scrambled together, audibly embarrassed at being caught in state that did not quite live up to her standards. "Head in the clouds I guess..." she added, painfully aware of her own awkwardness.
She'd hoped that he'd find it funny and laugh it up, but instead, it seemed to have budged the conversation in a sourish direction, visibly drawing out a thought that fell over his face like a faintly darkening shadow.
"The clouds? Or was it somewhere else?"
He'd spoken with almost palpable seriousness, a clear indication that there were no jokes to be had – she felt almost admonished, but she'd hope that she was self-aware enough to recognize this perception as a side effect of her own pride, restraining herself from replying in the sort of accusatory tone that had nearly blown up their first date.
"What do you mean?"
Even before he put it into words, the nature of his suspicion was rather apparent: "Did you just come back from... traveling with him, is that it?"
The pause indicated that he, too, was exercising restraint, and she appreciated that, especially since she did have a perfectly true and wholly acceptable answer to give to him:
"No, not at all. I'd tell you if that were the case..." She affirmed, watching carefully for signs of change in his demeanor, switching to further elaborations that seemed to come out as aimless bubbling: "In fact, I actually haven't seen him in a while, I wonder where he wandered off to..."
Here, too, he once again put her to shame with his amazing patience and dedication, stirring what should have been, and probably was a distinct warm feeling, but wasn't without its aftertastes.
"Well, I'm not going anywhere, unless you want me to. Your place, perhaps?"
She couldn't say that she wasn't grateful, touched even, a certain head did burn beneath her cheeks at this statement but not without a certain urge to avert her eyes.
"That's... very sweet of you. Thank you." She stated, taking care to communicate this firmly. "But I'm afraid that's 'No, Thank you', I'm not really feeling like that today, I was kind of looking forward to spending a quiet evening by myself today, maybe read some books or grade some papers, I'd just be all distracted...
But we can go out tomorrow, if you want! I know just the place. I'm sure you'll like it!"
"If you say so..."
" I don't just say so, I promise you so, okay? Designated Date Night tomorrow."
"Okay."
Even though that was supposed to have been a conversation with her chosen partner, she felt tempted to sigh. Perhaps, it was because she had disappointed herself, though it may have been for a subtler, emotional reason this time, for what she'd told him had been no lie: Going home and reading was indeed her plan; Besides it building character and cultivation and what not, she felt that the occasional book did a good job at clearing and recharging her mind, and that's why it was on the list for today; Perhaps she'd brew some cocoa, too, she was not so desperate that she'd turn to binge-watching TV shows at this point.
But of course, that plan came with a significant caveat; It was honestly what she was intending to do, but only if, only unless, and fr some reason, she felt more cognizant of that 'If' at this moment that she had over the course of the previous days.
Wishing to clear her head even before she got to the bookshelf (or, perhaps, in case she didn't), she directed her attention to the cool afternoon air and the miscellaneous ambient sounds of city life, trying to put those things out of her mind that she didn't get to decide while focussing on those that she did.
Still, she was barely surprised when she unlocked her door to find the sight of a blue 1960s police box behind it, complete with a wild man tinkering with some retro-futuristic device on her kitchen table, or at least, that's what he seemed to have been doing before she came in; She could be sure as he promptly dropped everything to turn towards her.
"Clara!"
"Doctor!"
Then, a pause.
"I'm not missing anything that I was supposed to notice, am I?" he asked, eyes narrowed in what appeared to be serious considerations. Despite herself, Clara couldn't help but smile. "That's an unusual question."
" Well, it does appear to be relevant, judging on my last few visit. I'd want to rule this out preemptively. And besides, what else should I ask?"
"I don't know, how about 'How have you been'? " she replied a little teasingly.
"How have you been then?"
"Fine. How have you been?"
"Fine enough. I went to the Nevetina Galaxy!"
"Am I supposed to know where that is?"
It then seemed to dawn on him that not all people knew the designations of all Galaxies, though she doubted that he gave much thought to what she specifically would or wouldn't know – He seemed to have expected a reaction to that, nonetheless, he got his act together pretty fast and settled on a playfully cocky presentation.
"You should."
"Aha?"
"After all, it's a Galaxy that you have saved."
"Is that so?" Needless to say, she was intrigued and after a coy moment o mock deliberation, she didn't waste a second in hopping into his time machine.
I've had a backlog of ideas recently & have been thinking of doing a "what the Doctor does while Clara is at work" type story for a while, before the actual show prrempted me with "The woman who lived". Even so, I found this on my harddrive recntly & decided that it might be fun to finish it anyways because I liked some of the ideas in here.
Once I realized that the amount of original material went beyond the scope of what I'd done in my whouffle oneshot collection I thought I#d publish it in a more general manner as I did have a lot of fun with the "exploring an ancient city" scenario. Xalax an its residents are taken from one of my original fictional universes, slightly modified to fit in the Whoniverse. Personally I'm a little proud of this particular work, in the sense that I aim to write the sort of stuff I'd like to read if it were out there - Though I hope that maybe someone else will like it, too^^°