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Chapter 22

"What do you want for breakfast?" Clara asked when she stepped from the shower back into her bedroom and to her surprise she found the Doctor already dressed and looking like he was about to leave, "Or don't you want to stay for that?"

He looked at her for a moment, apparently unsure of what to say next.

"I could make pancakes," she suggested, "You like them, right? Or I've got some ready made croissants in the freezer. They could be ready in 10 minutes. And jam. I've got jam, too."

The Doctor gave her a weak smile.

"No," Clara said sternly, raising her finger at him as she stepped closer, "Don't you dare back out now! You said you had feelings for me, I told you I'm not leaving and I certainly don't have a couple of husbands in different countries so you can stop that right now and give us a chance!"

"Clara," he said calmly, "I'm not backing out. I'm really not. I want to be with you. I just need some time to think."

"You can think over breakfast," she told him.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Clara, please," the Doctor almost whispered, "You know I'm difficult, you know I struggle with basic things that most people don't even think about twice. This has nothing to do with you, or us. It's just me. I need to sort myself out. Alone. You can come to my place after school if you want to but right now I just need a bit of time to myself."

Clara took a deep breath. "Okay," she finally said, "But you and me, we're good, right? I didn't do anything wrong?"

He shook his head. "No, not you."

The Doctor left her with an odd feeling that something was definitely not okay but Clara couldn't quite put her finger on it. Maybe it had to do with the other muse that he wasn't telling her about, maybe he was really just confused about everything that had happened lately but whatever it was it had Clara thinking about it all day. She couldn't concentrate on anything else, not even Courtney Woods continuously disrupting her class was bothering her.

Finally when she had finished her classes Clara went straight back home to grab a change of clothes before she headed to the Doctor's house. Then she saw the blinking light on her answering machine. She walked up to it and pressed the button.

"Hello Clara," her grandmother's voice said, "You're probably still at work so I'm just leaving this message to tell you that your father is gonna be released from the hospital tomorrow. We decided to all get together at your father's and Linda's house for tea on Saturday. I hope you can make it, and. . . if you want to you can bring that art teacher. Hope to see you on Saturday. Bye."

Clara smiled and shook her head. She had never been good at hiding things from her grandmother. Her father and Linda were one thing but her grandma was always able to figure her out. She had been the only one in her family to know about Nina and it seemed that now she had picked up on the thing between her and the Doctor as well. Clara wasn't sure if he would even want to come with her on Saturday, if maybe it was too early for that but she would ask him – if only to see his reaction. She grabbed the bag holding her change of clothes and headed out of her apartment.

When the Doctor didn't answer the doorbell Clara used her key to step inside the house only to find it empty. The Doctor wasn't in his studio or any of the rooms and Clara figured he had gone out to run some errands. What she found however was the door to the attic ajar and even though she had tried calling his name and there had been no reply she went to check it out.

The attic wasn't much different from the rest of the house, except that it wasn't filled with paintings entirely. There was some old furniture stacking up and boxes with discarded things that the Doctor obviously didn't need anymore but couldn't just throw out. One thing caught Clara's attention most of all. A painting of a young, pretty woman positioned in front of a chair as if he had spent quite some time looking at it and Clara could understand why. The woman was beautiful and the way she laughed in this particular picture seemed contagious and yet there was a sadness hidden away in her eyes that made Clara wonder how she could've smiled like that at all.

She decided not to snoop around any more. If the Doctor had wanted her to see this he would have showed it to her and so Clara went back downstairs and prepared herself a cup of coffee before she began working on her markings.

An hour passed and Clara was starting to wonder where the Doctor could have gone. It was him who had told her to come by after work so she had assumed he would be home. But then again, that was probably why he had given her a key in the first place.

Two hours passed and her doubts were starting to turn into worry. Clara tried calling him on his phone only to realize that he had left it in his studio and the ringing resounded in the very room she was sitting in.

After three hours had passed and Clara still hadn't heard from or seen the Doctor she grabbed her phone and headed downstairs to the kitchen. A few phone numbers were stuck on the fridge door and she soon found the one that had "Missy" spelled out on top of it. Quickly she dialled the number.

"Hello Missy, it's Clara," she greeted her immediately.

"Ohhh, the muse. Hello Clara, what can I do for you? Is something wrong with the Doctor?"

"You could say that," she replied nervously, "I don't know where he is. He wanted to meet me at his house and he's not here. I've been waiting for over three hours. And he's left his phone at home. I thought he may be at the gallery?"

"No, he's not here," Missy said warily and Clara didn't like the tone in her voice at all.

"I know, I'm being silly," Clara blurted out, "But I'm a little worried about him. I have no idea where he could have gone and he's never stood me up before."

"Did something happen?" Missy inquired and again the tone of her voice was odd, like she somehow knew exactly what had gone down between the two of them.

Clara hesitated.

"Did you, by any chance, sleep together?"

"I, uh," she spluttered, no idea how to reply to that except with the truth, "Yeah."

She could hear Missy sigh on the other end of the line. "And did he say something to you afterwards?"

Clara shook her head. "No, not really. Just that he needed some time to himself."

Missy let out a groan in annoyance. "Alright. Clara, you can stop worrying. I know where he is. I'll send him home."

"What? Where is he?" Clara wanted to know, "Is everything alright with him?"

"Don't worry, Clara. He's just being the Doctor, as always. He's fine. . . ish. He'll be home soon, I'll just give him a whack across the head. Might help if you prepared a cooling pack for that."

"What?"

"I was joking. Thanks for the call. I'll see you around," Missy said and a second later Clara could here the monotonous beeping on the other end of the line.

She was now more confused than ever but if she believed Missy the Doctor was fine at least and soon on his way home to her.