CHAPTER FOUR

Time Lords were a possessive species. He supposed it was something in their natures; but they were also loyal, Clara had his heart and his love whether she knew it or even understood what that meant. But his need for more from her, a deeper commitment, hadn't abated with her confession some months ago that she was 'his'. If anything it had strengthened the primal voice in his head that demanded he take action, claim her as his mate before the Universe could throw anything else at them. Unrestrained relationships were half the reason Gallifreyan's and specifically Time Lords had long since abandoned the notion of love being the basis of a relationship, or god forbid a reason to procreate. All relationships on Gallifrey were arranged, their mates preselected and even breeding for progeny was done through the genetic looms. Everything controlled. No messy primal urges to get in the way and disrupt the harmony of society and return them to the savages they once had been.

He found himself sincerely pleased that the Council were no longer about to reprimand him for his current emotional state. It was hardly what one would call self restrained.

Which was perhaps why he made the potentially foolish, most likely to be heartbreaking in the long term decision to ask Clara to marry him. It seemed at the time like the most romantic and sensible thing to do, he wanted the Universe to know that he loved this woman, that she was unequivocally his but most of all he wanted to bond them in a way that would transcend even his death and hers. Although he hoped and prayed hers would be a very long time from now when she was old and grey and done with running.

So of course she'd said no to his sweeping romantic gesture amongst the stars. She'd said it with a kiss, but that didn't make the rejection sting any less, or in any way help to resolve the emotional turmoil of his wholly unprepared Time Lord brain.

It took him months to work up the nerve again. Instead of the romantic gesture he went for the life and death one with the flood of endorphins and adrenalin, both of them soaked head to toe in the entrails of the giant beast that had ingested them and he'd been forced to explode from the inside. In hindsight that might not have been the wisest decision he ever made, but she did at least hesitate that time, before shaking her head and stroking his cheek. "No Doctor."

She never called him 'my love' or any other term of endearment like River had, despite his many protestations of love for her, but he continued to whisper his adorations in Gallifreyan to her, determined to declare her 'his hearts' even if she wouldn't. Instead the words she offered him were telling and simple, 'my Doctor'; he thought they were perfect.

"Be my wife." He whispered it in Gallifreyan against her skin for the third time, as they lay in the apple grasses of New New Earth.

She sighed quietly, reaching out for his hand. "If you want to get me to accidentally agree to marry you then don't re-teach me a language I used to speak." She pressed a kiss to his palm.

"Why?" he asked her the question he'd been too afraid of the last two times, pulling her onto his lap and kissing her gently, insistently, desperate to know what more he could do. It seemed to him the only solution to his current needs, and the most obvious solution to how to deal with the overhanging threat of the Valeyard. No Time Lord in there right or any other mind would be able to harm their wife, not if they had been bonded in the Gallifreyan way.

Clara at least seemed to be considering his question, which given as he was the one that kept springing it on her seemed generous. "Why do you want me to be your wife?" she asked back, just as calmly if clearly a little exasperated with this.

He frowned. "Why does any man want to make a woman their wife?"

Clara captured his chin. "I'm not interested in any man's reasons, I want yours."

The Doctor considered it. "You think I'm being selfish?" he asked quite certain.

"I think your being impulsive." She corrected, "There's a difference." She sighed, "I also think that half the reason you're asking, is because deep down a part of you knows I won't say yes."

"I love you." He bit out hating that quite unintentionally she always seemed to make him feel guilty for saying it.

"And I love you, being your wife wouldn't alter that." She countered.

"I need the Universe to know." He admitted and she pulled away slightly from him, "I need it to understand that it can take everything from me, but not this, not you, not if for even one moment I got to say you were mine... and I was yours." It was a truth, but he would never admit the full of it, that it would keep her safe from him included, she would never believe it.

"Is this for you or for the Universe?" she questioned, her nose doing that slightly wrinkled thing it got when she was irritated with him and deciding whether or not to get angry and he wrestled with the answer.

"For us." He promised, taking her face in his hands and wishing he could make her understand just what it meant. "This wouldn't be simple words Clara. A binding like this, we would be linked, hearts," he placed a hand over hers, "bodies," he kissed her, "minds." He touched his forehead to hers and let his thoughts drift into hers, let her see how much this meant, how serious he was. His first marriage had been arranged as was the custom and children produced through the genetic loom, hardly romantic. His second marriage he had been all but press ganged into left with no alternative, and whilst he had loved River it had hardly been a healthy relationship, or conventional.

"My Doctor." She sighed, closing her eyes as she left her forehead against his until he slowly let the images and thoughts retreat back inside his own mind. "We're running from your death. We might still have years, or days. But it doesn't matter, it's inevitable. You're asking me to marry you on your deathbed... I'm not sure I'm strong enough to survive this as it is, if we're linked like that, I don't want to imagine what it would do to me." Her honesty should have been enough, if he hadn't seen what was coming, perhaps it would have been. But he knew better, a link like that might one day be all that leashed the Beast within him. But he understood her argument, on its face what he was asking of her was a cruelty he supposed.

"I'll survive Clara." He promised, "I will. A new man will walk away, new face, new ideas, new thoughts... but the same memories, same heart, same love. But the man I am now, a part of him will always belong to you, survive in you; no matter what I might become if we do this." He knew he had her, felt the subtle shift in her pulse and the dilation in her eyes, the thought of holding onto a piece of this him beyond death was a carrot she couldn't easily cast aside.

Clara was staring at him quietly, he could feel her mind working as her eyes scanned him, her hands reaching out to trace the contours of his face with her fingers. "Why is it that you can make even the most reasonable of my arguments seem utterly ridiculous." She leant in and kissed his cheek, "You impossible man." She added kissing his mouth chastely. "I'll marry you." She whispered finally in her slightly hesitant Gallifreyan and he felt his hearts tremble with utter relief as he clutched her to him, trying not to break down in her arms as she quietly stroked his hair.

The Doctor didn't know what it was exactly about his argument that finally swayed her, he liked to think that a part of her finally realised he'd never stop asking, that it was perhaps his last and greatest wish to be linked with her in a way that could transcend even the death he was running from. But a larger part of him hoped it was because she wanted it too.

Of course getting her to agree to it and actually getting to a destination where he could perform the ceremony was an entirely different matter. One she was exceptionally good at distracting him from he noted as he pinned her to the floor of the TARDIS console room where her latest distraction had worked well enough that he hadn't even made it a few feet inside his beloved box.

"I know what you're doing." He insisted biting sharply on her earlobe and enjoying the way her entire body arched in response, her own teeth biting down on her lower lip. "Vixen." He hissed, lowering his mouth to the skin that was still over sensitised from his ministrations. "For the last two months you've used every trick in the book... most of them dirty." He winked, trailing lower on her body, "to get me to forget that I'm supposed to be planning a wedding." She had the sense to look coy, her huge eyes blinking innocently back at him; he wondered just how many times he'd fall for that look. "Which is why I've taken to working at night... whilst you lie soundly and exhaustedly asleep in our bed." Her eyebrow quirked at this, it was clearly news to her as he'd been particularly sneaky about returning to the bed before she awoke; he'd realised soon into their adventure that she liked to wake with his warmth wrapped around her and far be it for him to leave his Love wanting.

"Oh god, tell me you didn't pick me a dress." She whispered in mock horror, although he suspected that was some real horror at the idea snuck in for good measure.

He crawled up her body, not releasing his hold on her pinned form just yet. Enjoying the feeling of control, even if it was only for a moment because in every aspect of the rest of his life she was most definitely the boss. "Of course not." He waited a beat, "Jenny and Vastra did."

Her eyes widened a fraction. "I've seen their leather getups... tell me you're joking."

He smirked. "You should have helped." He chastised kissing her soundly. "The invitations have gone out."

Her hands curled around his one which held her firmly in place. "Do I get to know the date you intend to have your wicked way with me, or will that be a surprise too?"

He smirked. "Tomorrow."

Her breath hitched and she stilled beneath him, a slight flicker of fear in her eyes.

"Time machine." He added quietly, "It's always tomorrow." His fingers traced the outline of her lips, wanting her to smile.

"Promise me something." She whispered and he nodded grimly, knowing in this moment he'd do anything she asked. "If we do this, we get a proper honeymoon, a proper go at this married life before you decide to stop running from the future."

And just like that the reason for her reluctance was laid desperately and so obviously clear before him. She feared that taking this final step with him would ring his death knoll, that he'd turn and face the looming spectre of Trenzalore once he had her. It was a ridiculous notion of course, that he'd ever want to stop running with her; or that he'd willingly relinquish her to the Other Doctor that was waiting impatiently in the wings. Words had always been his strongest suit, but he abandoned them in that moment in favour of showing her just how ridiculous the notion was until she was curled contentedly against him a soft smile tracing her lips that he savoured.

"Fine, tomorrow it is, but I hold the right to veto this dress if it's some Victorian monstrosity." She uttered and he sensed quite astutely that she wasn't joking.

The Doctor fiddled with his bowtie, he'd debated wearing one, but it was his thing he decided and he wanted to be unequivocally himself when he married his Clara, whether it ruined the outfit or not.

A solid hand clapped him on the back startling him from his thoughts, "Ready to enter the most terrifying and gruesome battle of your life Doctor... marriage?" Strax all but cackled at him as he straightened his own black tux, looking like a remarkably well dressed potato dwarf all things considered.

"Bit late if I'm not." The Doctor commented, feeling nervous for the first time.

"That's the spirit lad." Strax grinned back at him, "And if not, I have some grenades ready to help you make good on your escape."

The Doctor nodded ruefully, wondering if he might need those with the looks Linda was shooting his way. He understood Clara's reasons for wanting her family here with her, even if the practicalities of it had proven challenging.

Linda of course had been the hardest sell for this whole 'wedding' thing. He'd had to reach into his old back of tricks and hypnotise the damn woman into thinking she'd been on a private plane and that they were in some far flung paradise... but most definitely still on Earth, not on a somewhat more distant moon named Olaris that his people had once colonized to harness it's remarkable time energies. Roughly translated it meant something like 'endless journey'. But it was sufficiently hidden, intact and sufficiently appropriate to perform the proper Gallifreyan ceremony he intended which would bind even his Time Lord biology to Clara's human one.

Clara had of course told her father the complete truth wanting her family to be a part of it and know what it meant to do so. And so he had sat beside her on one particularly uncomfortable and blustery February morning around a hot cup of tea with him; her Gran sat opposite them looking bemused by the whole thing. Her father had taken it remarkably well on the whole. But hearing about it and seeing it were different things, her father had been relatively fine until he'd realised he was going to have to get on board the bigger on the inside ship with the alien who'd stolen his daughters heart. The presence of the others had helped, nice, normal humans from London Katherine Lethbridge-Stewart and Osgood, of course it had caused her father mild alarm when he realised they were most definitely 'Government' women. Fortunately that had been interrupted by their arrival in the Victorian era. Lesbians he was apparently fine with, which was a refreshing change from Victorian values; unfortunately it also meant he most definitely noticed the potato dwarf and the lizard woman from the dawn of time. It didn't help that Linda deep in her hypnotised state appeared to have painted Vastra in the role of air hostess on their 'plane'. As journeys went the Doctor thought he ranked this as one of the worst... and he was including the ones where he'd crashed on that list.

Jenny was being her usual tactful self beautifully distracting Linda from the fact that there was a distinctly alien sky above her head, the ground she was walking on held grass of a distinctly red hue and the trees weren't moving from the wind.

Clara's Gran though was smiling wildly to herself as she came up and linked an arm with him as they walked the short distance out to the precipice of stone outcropping that held the fissure in time just beyond it; an untempered schism waiting to be born, so long as you knew how to manipulate it. "Clara tells me I'm walking you down the isle." She grinned up at him and he noticed the same dimples reflected there. The Doctor couldn't help but admire how well she was handling the notion of all of this, he'd noticed that the older a human became, the less they tended to accept the fantastical; that was until they reached the tipping point of true 'old age'... after all Wilf had been a wonder to behold and worth every ounce of radiation he'd absorbed in the stubborn old soldier's place. He placed his hand atop the one she'd wrapped around his arm, keeping step with her.

"I'd be honoured." He admitted genuinely.

The old woman nodded, smiling softly. "We best not dilly dally though, impolite to keep a girl waiting." The Doctor followed her gaze and felt his breath catch as Clara stood at the low branches of the softly swaying trees that intersected one another about waist height and had been decorated with garlands to resemble an altar looking out over the precipice... Her hair was swept up and adorned in a simple white gown that flowed around her like water, drawing the eye to her gentle curves and emphasising the sheer natural grace of her face. She looked breathtaking. "So beautiful, standing there." Her Gran whispered almost to herself and the Doctor felt the whisper of the sentiment from her memory, the power behind it and he felt himself swept up in it to as they began to move towards the vision that was to be his wife. Vastra and Jenny had of course donned him out in a full Victorian gentleman's tux but he didn't think standing next to her anyone would notice what he'd worn at all.

Step by step he made his way towards her, his eyes flickering briefly to the small group of people here to bear witness. Friends and family, at least those that he wasn't currently hopelessly out of temporal alignment with, or had lost entirely. He'd have given more than he cared to admit to have Amelia here to walk him down the isle, she always had been the closest thing to a mother he'd had in over a millennia, even if it had been in the cunning guise of a best friend, but alas it wasn't to be.

He reached the end of the shortest and most important walk of his life and took Clara's extended hand, leaving her Gran behind to take her place beside her father. There was no officiary; just as it had been on Gallifrey, this was a joining of two people, two minds, two souls. It required no intermediary to speak on their behalf, just the presence of time itself and a woman who would agree to let him do all of this in the way of his people, not hers.

Hand in hand they bound the fabric around their entwined grip. The words 'consent and gladly give' floated over him from those assembled. Eyes linked minds as one they spoke in Gallifreyan to add their solemn vows to one another 'I am yours as you are mine. Mind and heart, body and soul. Bound as one. Body unto body, heart unto heart, mind unto mind for all of time.' His free left hand closed around his sonic and he kept his eyes on his soon to be wife, his Clara, as he pointed it out into the maelstrom, feeling the moment the great schism bled through. Her right hand tightened in his and her eyes widened with fear and no doubt remembered pain, she knew or at least remembered what it was to look into the jaws of madness as all Time Lords did. He raised his unbound hand to her chin promising her with his eyes that she was strong enough and as one they turned to face the temporal vortex and the schism within.

In that moment they were rendered always and forever, split asunder and fused whole, their temporal strands and the exposed wound his Time Lord life would forge in the moment of true death reaching back to hers and becoming one. She was already a part of his timeline, but now the love and intertwining of two time travellers bound in marriage would extend always, even unto death. His true name echoed through their linked minds into hers, as hers, and the many thousand she had held reverberated through his. His final secret laid bare to her accepting hands.

"Husband." Clara finished the ceremony, raising their joined hands to her lips and pressing a kiss to the fabric.

"Wife." He kissed the shadow of her lips that lingered there.

It was done he realised, feeling the pulse of her heart beat forever now in his mind like a beacon that would lead him to her and sensing her time-line laid out before him as clearly as his own.

Applause and a loud whooping he suspected was coming from Strax broke out and the Doctor smiled, but he had eyes only for the woman that had claimed him as husband for always. Lowering his head he caught her lips, giving her the human closure the others could recognise as a wedding ceremony, which elicited even louder cheers. Now as his mind reached for hers he felt hers reach back, brushing over his and sliding into him like warm honey carrying with it her delight and pride; in this moment he felt true peace, happy and full of hope. Perhaps it wouldn't, or couldn't last, but for him, it was already a lifetimes worth.

They danced on Olaris for the first time as a true pair to the sounds created by the temporal winds through the not so still trees. The party went on around them and he scarcely noticed. Only when her father cut in with a gentle word did he disconnect from her mind and sink back into himself fully; stepping back to enjoy the clear happiness etched over his new wife's face as she twirled safely in her father's arms. He hadn't been certain until the moment he had taken her hand at the precipice that she wanted this as much as him; but she as always had driven all doubt from his mind.

Madame Vastra came to stand beside him, drinking that crimson liquid of hers that so turned his nose. "Congratulations Doctor." She tipped her head to him, lifting her veil now that Linda was most definitely three sheets to the wind on the champagne that Strax was determinedly handing her. "To both of you." She indicated the softly glowing Clara as she was twirled around the grass to the sound of the singing trees and the wind, laughing quietly at something her father was saying.

He inclined his head, not trusting himself to speak, wondering if Vastra would chastise him for his foolish folly in taking a human wife so close to his own end.

"I must say, you seem to be positively glowing." She smirked up at him, "So different from the gentleman I found on my doorstep some time ago now."

He smiled quietly, sadly to himself, "Yes, well she always has been good at bringing out the best in me, hasn't she?"

Vastra merely nodded. "It was a beautiful ceremony." She acknowledged. "I hope it brings you the happiness you are searching for."

The Doctor let his gaze drift over to Clara. "It already has."

"Excellent Doctor." She sipped her drink, looking far too satisfied with herself as if she had uncovered a secret he wasn't aware of concealing.

The Doctor deliberately stepped away from her. "Go dance with your wife Madame and I'll do the same." He tipped his head to her and stalked away to do just that, cutting in and directing her father towards Linda who looked quite thrilled to see him again, if a little unsteady on her feet.

"Talking about me?" Clara indicated Vastra who was watching them for a moment before she took his advice and swept Jenny into what he thought rather looked like a waltz.

"Constantly." He muttered, sliding his arms around her back and admiring not for the first time how well she fit against him as she dropped her head to his chest and he cupped her hand over his hearts. He could feel her single one beating in tandem with his... he supposed now he always would. Synchronised. A bi-product of the binding. If hers faltered his would trip right along with her, right until the connection ended and the beats ran silent in one of them. Leaving him to stumble forward alone and deafened by the silence created in the absence of her rhythm.

As with everything she did it seemed almost effortless as she danced with him, transporting him into a state of complete peace with just her soothing presence.

The Doctor of course couldn't hog the blushing bride all night he'd more than a little reluctantly handed her over to Strax and was surprised when Kate pulled him by the hand and insisted he if not dance with her then at least sway. He stared down at the woman who's father had once and always would mean a great deal to him. Her opinion he realised had also come to matter.

"She's good for you." Kate pointed out, indicating Clara with a spin as he pulled her back.

"I always thought so." The Doctor acknowledged.

Kate smiled up at him. "I'm happy for you Doctor, you found someone as wonderful and as impossible as you are, the two of you together make sense."

"Really?" he queried, "Which part?" genuinely curious after all in his experience no one else ever thought a human and a Time Lord together ever made a lick of sense.

Kate smiled not giving credence to his attempt at melancholy. "Doctor," she sighed sounding almost as exasperated as Clara sometimes did with him when they thought he was being particularly dense. "I know all about your previous Companions, I've vetted more than a few of them personally; I know their histories, the good and the bad. Are you honestly going to tell me that if it was Clara that had fallen into that alternate world, that you'd have simply let it stand...?"

The Doctor blinked at the suddenness of the memory, of the reminder of his lost love Rose. The answer roared through him like the surge of their heartbeats. 'Never'. He'd have ripped apart the Universe, torn his own cracks in it and forced it to hand his Clara back.

His heartbeat calmed and he saw Clara turn to look at him with a questioning expression as her own heart beat no doubt settled "I see." He nodded quietly absorbing the lesson and wondering why it was these remarkably short lived human beings always seemed so wise to him.

"Love like that Doctor is precious; so don't try to over think it, because in my rather more limited experience you just end up missing the whole point." He smiled down at her, rather hoping that for once he could take the advice, after all his time left was fleeting and the ache in his bones insistently dragging him back to the correct point in his time-line was ever more pronounced.

But not today.

They danced and laughed and when the time came for him to return them as he waved the last group off ignoring Vastra's smirking form waving back at him, he let the TARDIS doors close and let out a small sigh of relief.

He caught Clara's contented smile beside him and decided not to risk moving the TARDIS for any reason as he rushed over to the console and slammed the parking brake on before he turned back to gaze pointedly at the woman in question.

"Are those your 'come to bed' eyes husband?" she teased and he tried again, she laughed lightly at his equally unsuccessful attempt and he stalked forward lifting her up and spinning her around his own laughter mingling with hers.

"Call me that again." He insisted when he returned her to her feet, cupping her face.

Her eyebrow arched imperiously at him. "Why? Does it excite you...husband?"

He kissed her thoroughly, their tongues exploring as if their mouths were new territory. "Wife." He sighed against her lips, "Come to bed." He murmured, not relying on his eyes to get the message across.

"Why on Earth would I do that?" she teased him mercilessly slipping out of his grasp and rounding the console, at least he hoped she was. "Just think we could be having an adventure right now. Let's go see the birth of the Universe..." she reached for a lever and he darted forward taking her hand and tugging her back into him; she gazed up at him in wide eyed innocence. "Come now Doctor don't tell me you'd rather go to sleep than explore somewhere dangerous and beautiful?"

The Doctor leant down capturing her neck with his lips and biting sharply enough to leave a mark to remind her about teasing him in the future. "Who said anything about sleeping Love." His hands lowered until he settled them over her bottom ushering her forward until his hips bumped hers, "Besides I intend to explore something dangerous and beautiful." She seemed to appreciate the sentiment because she pulled his head down for a kiss and he considered forgetting the bed at all.

"Don't you dare." She bit out biting his lip and he marveled at just how well her mind could connect with his now, even with the barest of physical touches, the binding clearly having taken well to her human physiology.

"You're the boss." He conceded, sweeping her up into his arms and striding forward, willing the TARDIS just this once to cooperate. His bedroom materialised around the next turn and he smiled, 'Thanks Old Girl' he send back to her and stepped up to the doorway, his new wife in his arms. It was a heady moment for him and one he committed to the vaults of his memory as he stepped over the threshold into his piece of Gallifrey. He smiled down at her, seeing her answering dimpled one in return, her dark eyes alight with reflected emotions; this was what it meant he realised, to come home.

Authors note: I know so far so relatively soppy for me and bit of a short chapter, I promise it is getting back to Time of the Doctor any day now, I've got most og the Chapters written so will be publishing them quite swiftly. Thanks for those who have read and reviewed and who are following this story your feedback it is much appreciated.