December 5th
It was the sound of a door slamming shut that finally woke the Doctor up. He twined his fingers into the bedsheets and sat straight up, the speedy momentum sending him shooting forward and landing at the base of the bed face first. He rolled off with a somehow bilingual curse under his breath, and sort of stumbled out the bedroom door and into the main room.
He spun a full circle, eyes wide and movements frantic. "Clara!" He shouted, darting from the kitchen, then back, to the bathroom, then back, down the hall and then back again. No sight of her. "Clara?"
The Doctor was beginning to panic. Actually, properly, panic. Where had she gone? Where could she possibly be? Was she in trouble? Was she in danger? Was she abducted? Forced to leave with a gun held to her head, and a threat to snap that pretty little neck if she even dared to call out?
They were all very logical assumptions, he concluded. Anything could have happened.
Should he go out looking for her? Should he stay and wait? No, you idiot, he mentally scolded himself. He couldn't just sit around and do nothing, when Clara's life could be on the line!
"If this was you..." He mumbled harshly, storming up to the window and leaning his forehead onto the glass. There sat that squirrel...that damned squirrel. "If you and your deceivingly bushy tail have anything to do with this, it will be the end of you. Do you understand me!?"
At the loud tone, the innocent animal scurried off, leaving the Doctor smirking proudly at his ability to scare away such a threat.
He'd heard the door shut approximately one minute and forty-seven ago, which meant Clara's captor couldn't have gotten far. He headed straight for the door, but his movement ceased just before his hand could grasp the handle. Why risk going after her now, and possibly find himself going the opposite direction, when he could just get the TARDIS to do the work for him? The ship had full medical files on the woman, so it could easily track her down by detecting the familiar life signs.
With a final decisive nod he turned heel, and raced back into the bedroom.
A very much heavy shopping basket was already filled with various items as Clara worked her way through the aisles of Sainsbury's Local. Her right arm already ached with the weight of the items packed inside the carrier, but she was no where near done. With a sigh and a role of her sore shoulder, she pressed on.
"Clara!"
It was about time.
"Clara! Clara, are you all right?" The Doctor came dashing up, shoe soles leaving skid marks on the white tile flooring as he slid directly past her, then ran back to her side again. "I heard the door shut, and then I couldn't find you. Who was it? Who took you? You can tell me, its all right. I won't let anyone hurt you."
There it was. Another one of those rambling moments that she just loved about him, where his previous self just couldn't resist bleeding through. "Took you long enough." She said coolly, using both hands to pass the the plastic basket into his grasp. "Come on." She beckoned, already walking back down the aisle. "It wasn't the squirrel, by the way."
"Hang on, what?" His eyebrows shot all the way up to his hairline as he stomped after her. "What are you doing?"
"So sweet of you to offer the help." She said kindly, fluttering her eyelashes and giving his chest a thankful pat. "Go fetch some eggs for me, will you?"
"Clara, I thought you were in danger!" He whined.
"Times like this that I actually don't mind your stubborn, overprotective idioticness." She joked lightly. "I knew you'd come after me, worryin' and all. It was the only way to get you to help." She explained with a smirk.
"That was cruel." He hissed.
"Honestly, if I had said, 'Hey, Doctor, want to come shopping with me?' would you have come along?"
"Hell no."
"My point exactly."