Again, I don't own Doctor Who.
While Vastra, Jenny, and Strax were all perturbed by being woken up after so short a time, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax were glad and relieved that Clara had woken up. Having seen what happened to the Doctor before when he lost companions, they did not want that to happen again. They followed the Doctor back to the sick bay, though Vastra did have a question.
"Strax is a nurse, so I can understand waking up the Sontaran. But why did you have to wake us up?"
"I woke you up because you two are brilliant, Vastra. I am an unsure of what we may find with Clara. She did something that should have been impossible, and survived. If something comes up, I may need someone to bounce ideas off of." The Doctor replied.
This flattered both Vastra and Jenny, and the four of the continued down to the sick bay. When they arrived there, they arrived to see Clara and her father talking, with Clara sitting on the hospital bed, and her Dad standing in front of her. The Doctor smiled.
"So, what conversation did I interrupt? he asked Clara.
"I was telling my dad how we first met."
"From my point of view or yours? Our perspectives are wildly different things on this." The Doctor replied smirking.
"Both. Told my dad how you met me, but also why you were searching in the first place. So you don't seem completely weird" Clara responded with a smile.
"Are you implying I am only just weird? I think I am a bit more than that!"
"Haven't decided on that yet," Clara stated, ending with a mischievous grin.
At this point, Strax interjected "Sir, while I am pleased to see the girl awake, I am wondering if we can put the verbal sparring on hold so I can examine her."
"Ah, yes Strax that would be a good idea." the Doctor replied, looking slightly embarrassed. "Don't forget to put the sprained ankle in the brace."
"What sprained ankle? I don't feel any pain in my legs now." Clara asked. She remembered her ankle hurting down in the time-stream, but was not bothering her now.
"Well, when you going to hug your Dad, you were very wobbly as you stepped to him." The Doctor stated, starting to look concerned.
"Yeah, because right now it is really hard for me to balance. I have crushing headache, it feels like there is a loud conference in my head. It's really disorienting." Clara replied
"That's likely because of the echoes that were created. You have all of their memories." The Doctor simply explained. "Strax, would you come over here?"
"Certainly sir!" Strax responded, starting his examination. The Doctor sat down in a chair next to Dave, and they started chatting, while Vastra and Jenny sat down across from them and chatted privately.
"To be fair, if I saw the same individual die in front of me twice, I would become quite curious as well, and would want to find out what was going on."
"Thanks for being so understanding Mr. Oswald. How far into our adventures did she get?"
"Just call me Dave. She had gotten to the end of the first one, to some sort of Ring System. I am very proud of my daughter."
"You should be, Dave. "
"So, what happens to her now, Doctor? What happens to someone when they jump into another person's time stream?" Dave asked
"I honestly don't know. This has never happened before in the history of my species."
"How is that possible though? I mean, never once in however long your species existed, did that happen?"
"No, it was a tradition for Time Lords to destroy the bodies of the dead in some way. Part of it was because of the fact that travelling through Time and Space does things to your being that are hard to understand. So, for a very long time, it was just tradition."
"You are talking about your people in the past tense. Why?" Dave asked, a combination of curiosity and foreboding coming to the surface.
"They are gone. There was a war. Between my people and another species. In the end, my people, the Time Lords, were willing to rip apart the universe to survive. I stopped that from happening." The Doctor replied, hanging his head low.
"I…I'm sorry" Dave stated. Afterwards, there was silence between in the Room for a few minutes.
"I finished my exam, sir. The boy is correct, as she does not appear to have a sprained ankle. However, her mental activity is beyond all normal measure, and time energy she gained from going into the time stream seems to be having a sort of reaction."
The Doctor, Vastra, Jenny, and Dave got up to see Clara. While still awake, she was beginning to look disoriented.
"Doctor, what is happening to me? I think I am beginning to see other lives now. " Clara stated, sounding worried.
"Tell us exactly what is happening Clara," The Doctor pleaded to her.
"It's like what happened at the Dead TARDIS. I am getting mental images of events I am not familiar with. Right now, I feel I am remembering falling from a cloud. It hurts so much!" Clara screamed, her head sinking into her hands.
"I am so sorry Clara. The human mind is not designed to cope with this. Let me fix -" A visibly sorrowful Doctor started to say before Vastra stepped up into front of him and interrupted.
"You have told me about your past, and your past companions. I will not allow you to do what you did to Donna those many years ago." Vastra coldly stated to the Doctor.
"Vastra, I did that to save her life. If I didn't do that, she would have burned."
"But you did it without her consent! How many times did she tell you to stop? Not only that Doctor, but your entire approach is flawed here. Donna only had the mind of a Time Lord. Clara, meanwhile, has the memories of multiple lives going through her mind, along with a very large amount of time energy. There is a good chance that if you try to tear away that much from her, you could kill her by causing shock. You will not be doing anything to her without her consent. You are no God, and have no right to use people and companions as your playthings. " Vastra hissed at the Doctor. The Doctor, visibly frightened by Vastra's intimidation, backed down took a seat.
"Now, Clara" Vastra started to ask an increasingly distraught Clara, "I think you may have gotten the gist of what can be done in this situation with your mind. If you want, the Doctor can take the memories of you two together, along with all information regarding your echo lives. However, the shock of this may very well kill you. If nothing is done, we have no idea what may happen next. Did you want the Doctor to take your memories?"
Clara, beginning to cry from the combination of the new revelations, and the pain from the flood of memories, picked her head up. "No. I do not want my memories taken away. The day I met the Doctor was the best day of my life. Not just because I met him, but because I have seen more than I could have dreamed of, and found out what I am capable of. I want to remember everything."
Silence once again fell in the room, with Clara now looking at the Doctor, who sat hunched over in a combination of defeat and embarrassment. After a moment or so, Jenny piped up, starting to make a point. "Doctor, Strax mentioned that the Artron Energy was beginning to react. What could that cause?"
The Doctor slowly sat up, thoughts cobbling together like a proto-planet in his head. "Clara, when you went into my timeline, you essentially fell through a time vortex, albeit a small one following my own path in the universe. You are one of the few unmodified sentient beings to do so."
Vastra also started towards a realization. "The Time Lords evolved to be so because of continued exposure to the Time Vortex for eons. Clara, though being exposed to it for a much shorter amount of time, actually survived being in it. That might mean…."
The Doctor interjected "Yes, I am hoping that it might be the case. It would explain why the sprain healed so rapidly. But, evidence for it..." He started to fidget for a few seconds, before hitting on an idea.
"Can I examine your ankle, Clara?" The Doctor asked.
"Okay." Clara took off her boots, and allowed the Doctor to look at her ankle, though still covered in her tights. However, he found what he was looking for right away. He felt an energy he was familiar with himself.
"Not a great amount of it, but it is there. Regeneration Energy. She is regenerating."
"Into your species?!" Dave exclaimed.
"Not quite" Vastra explained "His now-extinct people were Gallifreyan, named after the planet Gallifrey. Many Gallifreyans were not Time Lords, in fact, most weren't. However, Gallifreyans differed heavily from humans. Evolutionarily, Gallifreyans didn't evolve from Apes, or an equivalent. His species evolved from more reptilian ancestors."
"Time Lord is simply an appellation to those to those, usually Gallifreyan, that have been modified by the exposure to the Time Vortex. It is possible to not be Gallifreyan but to be Time Lord," the Doctor explained.
"Sounds easy enough to understand" stated Dave, "I am assuming there may be a complication."
"That would be correct Dave. Clara was born human. Regeneration in this case will also involve biological changes on nearly every level, which could take some time."
"How long do I have until regeneration, Doctor." Clara asked.
"It's only now starting on the process. Considering the scale of the changes that will be needed, Regeneration as an event will likely not occur until Monday, five days from now. However, one of your echoes lived on Gallifrey, correct?"
Clara smiled at that memory. "Yes, I referred you to the correct TARDIS."
"That may ease the transition. Your body may be Human, but your mind already has a little Time Lord within."
Clara looked up to the Doctor from the bed "And you won't wipe my memory? What you did to Donna frightens me."
The Doctor pulled her in close and gave her a hug, with her head resting on his shoulder. "Of course not. I have learned a great deal since then. If you need help controlling your mind over the next few days, I will be able to keep you stable mentally. Now what did you want to do for the next few days?"
"I am not sure. Spend time with the kids and Dad, certainly, but after that, I don't know. Let me sleep on it."
"Certainly Clara. Being on the TARDIS may help your mind cope."
"I like the sound of that. Could you lead me there? In case the TARDIS tries to play a game with my room like she has in the past."
"Of course Clara," The Doctor stated, and then turned to the Paternoster Gang. "And thank you Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. You should retire for the night."
As they left, Vastra turned to the Doctor. "I am sorry for being so harsh earlier. I didn't want you to make a mistake."
"No need. It was good for you to intervene to stop me from doing something questionable and abusing my power. Thank you." The Doctor said. Vastra continued on to her room.
"Mind if I go with you Doctor? I am still a little leery of you." Dave asked coldly, "Though I will need a place to stay."
"Certainly, Mr. Oswald. And you can stay here. We have guest rooms." The Doctor replied.
"Thank You"
Tonight, the TARDIS played no games with Clara, and her room was just a few doors down the hall from the sick bay, on the opposite side. It was only a matter of seconds before the little group of three made it there. Opening the door, Clara immediately went in and lay down on the bed. She noticed a problem.
"Doctor, The memories and thoughts of my past lives are really active. How will I be able to sleep if my brain is in overdrive?"
"Clara, trust me okay?" The Doctor requested of her.
"Of course." Clara stated. The Doctor puts his fingers on Clara's head, thumbs to her cheeks, and the rest of his fingers in a line between her ears and her temples on each side. After concentrating for just a moment, Clara slumped backwards into the bed.
"What was that Doctor?" Dave asked.
"Time Lords, Gallifreyan ones at least, have some ability to hypnotise people. With all of the activity her head, she was going to find it impossible to sleep. I needed to quiet the activity down."
"Meaning…" Dave looked in a mildly confused manner, his face betraying the need for a simple answer.
"I placed the suggestion of sleep into her mind. Clara is now sleeping. She will be for several hours, as any human would."
"Well, it certainly worked. Can you show me the guest room?" Dave asked
"Certainly, it should be just a little down the hall," the Doctor stated. In fact, it was just on the left side of Clara's Room.
"See you in the morning, Doctor. And thank you for your patience."
"Of course, Mr. Oswald."
The Doctor headed back towards the TARDIS control room. While he didn't have a huge need to sleep, the TARDIS needed some maintenance from the little trip to Trenzalore. No doubt the TARDIS was going to be cross at him for a number of things he had done in the past 24 hours.
And now for me to defend a few facets of this. First of all, the thing with Time Lords becoming Time Lords because of exposure to the Untempered Schism/Time Vortex was mentioned during A Good Man goes to War. Also, the evolution of Gallifreyans was mentioned in both the 5th Doctor Story The Visitation, and The Doctor's Daughter. In addition, during the Classic Era of the series, there were times that it was shown that not all Gallifreyans are Time Lords.
As for a Human Time Lord, this has happened before, with River Song. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly how a Human-Time Lord differs from a Gallifreyan-Time Lord, so I am going to have to wing it one that.
Want to get some reviews. Next chapter should be much shorter. Worried about some of the dialogue, especially with Vastra confronting the Doctor. Vastra seems like the kind of character that wouldn't allow the Doctor to pull what he did with Donna, or let him go into God-Mode like 10 did.