**Notes: There will probably be one more chapter in this story (it is NOT the end of the series). I will likely take a bit of a break from this series though because I have another story idea burning through my brain. I want to preface this chapter by saying that I loved Clara in season/series 7. In 8, however, I felt that she got really mean to the Doctor and right now, she is being invited along, but if she starts treating the Doctor the way she has been, Rose WILL let her have it.**
Chapter Twenty-Seven – Hello, Clara
After a day or so of lazing around and basking in their proper reunion, Rose and her Doctors decided that it was time to go visit Clara. And so, following a shared shower and getting dressed with repeated interruptions, the New Stuff of Legend took their places at the console and aimed for the day after Christmas. They didn't want to interrupt any family gatherings she may have had, but also didn't want to wait too long in case she did remember the events with the Dream Crabs and felt abandoned.
"Doctor," Rose said with a touch to Evander's arm. "When you talk to her, be gentle in any mentions of Danny."
"What? Why? Shouldn't he be hanging around too?" he said, looking genuinely confused.
Alex groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.
"Based on the memories that you shared with me, I'm willing to bet that no, he isn't. I don't think he came back, love," Rose told him gently.
"Really?" he asked as he stared into the distance blankly. "Why would she lie about that?"
"Why did you lie about finding Gallifrey?" Alex asked as he looked at Evander like he had dribbled on his shirt.
"You were both trying to give the other person a way out. No guilt about leaving them alone, then. It was another version of your usual 'I'm always alright' excuse," Rose explained.
"Alright, I'll try to keep that in mind. Do you think it would be best if I talked to her first, before introducing you two?" he asked, acknowledging Rose's obviously superior knowledge with respect to a human woman's emotions.
"Yeah, probably. Unless she remembers the dream, of course. But even then, maybe some discussion without us around might be a good idea. She was shocked by it all when you told her in the dream. She will be shocked again, but maybe there's a gentler way to break it to her this time," she replied with an expression that said they'd all dropped the ball on breaking that news.
"Ok... Thank you, Rose. I don't usually get second chances and I've had so many chances with you. I've given up on pushing you away any more. You just keep coming back anyway," Evander said with a smirk and a kiss to her forehead.
"Good idea," she said as she squeezed him around the waist.
"Well, we've landed near Clara's place, but not inside it. So, you go knock on the door and we'll go grab some lunch. You and Clara can join us when you're done talking. How's that sound?" Alex suggested as he took Rose's hand.
"Knock? Like a normal person?" Evander asked with a slightly disgusted look on his face.
Rose laughed, "Yes, like a normal person."
They went their separate ways when they left the TARDIS and Evander walked to Clara's door. It felt suspiciously like that time that he visited the Ponds at Christmas after they thought he was dead. He rang the bell and waited impatiently.
He was just about to ring the bell repeatedly when Clara opened the door and the startled look on her face told him that she didn't remember any of the Dream Crab incident. She wasn't expecting to see him.
"Doctor? What... what are you doing here?" Clara stuttered.
"Well, I... I was wondering if you had noticed a rather disturbing pile of black dust near you when waking up recently," he said. It was true, he had been wondering about that. It wasn't the entire reason he was here, but it wasn't completely a lie.
"Umm, yeah. Yeah, I did. Just yesterday in fact. Did that have something to do with you?" she asked suspiciously with a raised eyebrow.
"Sort of. Do you mind if I come in?" he asked more politely than usual.
"Sure. You're being awfully nice all of a sudden," she said as she led him inside towards her sitting room. "Why are you really here, Doctor? I thought you'd be off on Gallifrey, being a king or something."
"I never found Gallifrey," he admitted quietly.
Clara sat down and folded her hands in her lap. She nodded quietly for a moment before saying, "Danny didn't come back. Only one person could use the bracelet to come back and he sent a little boy through instead."
They both sat in silence for what felt like a horribly uncomfortable length of time.
"Clara, I have some news to share with you, but it's difficult to explain. First, I need to ask you what do you remember about my leather-clad self? The one after the war," he began, trying to think of the easiest way to explain Rose and Alex's existence before explaining their current relationship.
"Umm... the memories are all pretty fuzzy. They're jumbled up because there's too much, but umm, I think it was Krakatoa?" she said with a thoughtful look.
He barked out a laugh at the irony that she was the one to send him back to get Rose to begin with. "And from my pinstriped self?" he asked.
"Something at the Library, one other time... can't remember where, but you were really depressed, and then obviously that stuff in England with Queen Elizabeth," she replied. "What's this all about?"
"Back when I wore that black, leather jacket, I met a girl named Rose Tyler. I met her before Krakatoa actually, but when I asked her to come along, she refused." Evander smiled softly as he stared at his hands. "Right after surviving that stupid volcano, however, I went back and asked her again. She healed my battered soul after the war, Clara. She was like sunshine after decades of night," he told their story quietly and didn't meet her eyes, but she listened, just letting him talk.
"After about a year together, we found ourselves on a space station orbiting the Earth and controlled by a massive Dalek fleet. The only way to destroy them, was to create a delta wave that would kill not only the Daleks, but everyone on the space station and the Earth as well. To keep Rose safe, I tricked her into the TARDIS and sent her home. Sound familiar?" he asked rhetorically.
Clara nodded silently, as she clenched her hands together around the blanket she had pulled into her lap.
"Just like you, she wouldn't accept that. Rose ripped open the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex. She and the TARDIS merged then, both of one mind. They flew back to me, destroyed all of the Daleks, and though we didn't know it at the time, she made it possible for herself to regenerate into a Time Lady as well," he paused here as he contemplated just how much of their story she really needed to know.
"Later, when I wore pinstripes, we were separated. She was trapped in a parallel universe, but as Rose has a tendency to do, she did the impossible and came back. Do you remember when I told you that I kept that face for an extra regeneration?" he asked. At her nod, he continued, "I did that for her. Just as we were reuniting, I was shot by a Dalek and I was terrified that if I regenerated, she wouldn't want to stay with me again. But in the process of trying to keep from changing, I ended up creating a half-human version of myself. Being the self-destructive soul that I am, when the opportunity arose, I thought I was doing everyone a favour by sending her back to the parallel universe with him for a lovely happily ever after."
"Because that always works," Clara interjected sarcastically. He looked up at her for a moment and saw that she was shaking her head at him for seemingly missing the obvious again.
"I know. They're back. Both of them," he admitted, finally. "And we're together now. The ... the three of us. I mean, umm... properly together," he began to stumble over his words, hoping that she would understand what he meant without having to explain further.
"That was a very long time ago for you, Doctor," Clara said frankly.
"It was. But it doesn't matter. I've never loved anyone, the way I love Rose Tyler. I barely knew my wife on Gallifrey, Elizabeth and Marilyn were accidents and River was... well, River was complicated. I love all of my companions, but my hearts have belonged to my pink and yellow girl for over a thousand years," he concluded with a look of genuine joy spreading over his face. The expression made his wrinkles almost disappear and years that seemed engraved since his regeneration melted away; he looked like a new man once more.
"Clara, I know that you loved Danny. I also know that our relationship before I regenerated got a bit... confused. I had lost so much at that point and in my running from everything painful, I gave you the wrong impression," he paused for a moment to consider the best way to explain why he had always drawn that line between himself and his companions.
"Doctor, I'm not jealous or anything. I mean, it's great that she's back. I'm happy for you," the slight tremble in her voice, however, said that her sincerity was questionable, but she was doing her best.
"Clara, it's ok," he said and he reached out to take her hand in his. "I'm not questioning your love for Danny. As I told you after I regenerated, I never said it was your mistake. I was the one that gave you the wrong impression. For most species, visual cues of age dictate attraction. You are attracted to someone that is similar to you in age because it means that you'll have the best chance of the longest life together, with as little pain afterwards as possible.
"Visual cues for my species mean nothing. I looked even older at the end of my first life than I do now, Clara. You know that; you saw me. When I first met Rose, I looked twice her age, but it didn't matter to her. Without other Time Lords around, there would be no one who would match my remaining days, especially now that I have a whole new set of regenerations. For me to attach myself to a human, would be like you falling head over heels for a human who was over a hundred years old and living on borrowed time already.
"I never should have fallen for Rose the way I did. Her existence to mine was like a feather in the wind, but I couldn't help it. It was only by the grace of her own foolhardy actions and my TARDIS that I can have her with me now," at that, he finally stopped talking and waited for her response.
Clara sat quietly and thought for a moment. Coming to some kind of decision, she took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. "Ok, Doctor. I understand. And while it is a little bit hard, I can accept your apology for giving me the wrong impression before. I had moved past all of that, when Danny and I got together. But my brain is such a jumble since he died, that I'm not sure what to think about anything anymore," she paused a moment and looked at him with a soft smile. "Can I meet her?"
Returning her smile, Evander stood up and offered her his hand. With a mental query to Alex, Evander directed Clara to the cafe where he and Rose were already eating lunch. Alex and Rose smiled as they stood to welcome them to the table, set for four.
"Sorry, we started without you," Rose said as she extended her hand in greeting. "I'm Rose, as I'm sure he told you. It's so nice to meet you, Clara."
"Oh, not a problem," Clara replied as she shook hands with both Rose and Alex. "No telling what could have happened along the way to prevent the Doctor from getting somewhere in a timely fashion."
"Too right!" Rose said and laughed as she threaded her arms through those of each of her Doctors and they all sat down.
Evander and Clara both ordered some lunch and attempts at conversation became a little awkward.
~'You were right, Rose. About Danny,'~ Evander said to his spouses, silently.
~'Should we invite her along, do you think?'~ Rose asked.
~'I think she'd like that,'~ he replied.
When they were all finishing their meals, Rose decided that she needed to be the one to extend this olive branch. She cleared her throat and asked, "Clara? Would you like to come along for a while? I mean, we'll try to behave ourselves, but we are still kind of in that honeymoon stage..." she trailed off awkwardly.
"Yes!" she shouted quickly. "I mean, yeah... yes, yes of course, I'd love to come," she said in a more normal, if flustered voice. "But, what do you mean, honeymoon? Are you actually married, then?" she asked, pointing between the three of them.
"Well, yes. I know it's a little unusual for this time period, but yeah, the three of us are married. Well... there wasn't an official wedding when we included him in the mix, and I suppose since the actual bit of ceremony that we DID do was while immersed in a dreamscape, one could say, sort of. BUT since the intentions and connections..." Alex rambled to a stop when he noticed they were all staring at him.
"Doctor, seriously!" Rose gently scolded him with a chuckle. "Yes, Clara. We are, but this one," she said with a thumb pointed towards Evander, "never got the big wedding part of it. Said it wasn't important."
"Well, of course it's important!" Clara said excitedly.
Evander immediately had a panicked expression on his face as he realized where this conversation was going. He stood up from the table where they were seated and they followed him from the cafe with matching grins. He shook a finger warningly at all of them as he backed away. "No, no, no. No no no no no... We are NOT going to have some kind of fancy, unnecessary, human ... thing... with, with dresses and... things."
Alex was trying to contain his laughter as Rose wrapped herself around Evander's arm and fluttered her eyelashes at him. Clara seemed to be having just as much trouble containing her laughter as Alex was.
"I have a feeling we won't be able to skip it this time, love," Rose told him with a smile.
Evander's head fell forward and his shoulders slumped as he noted that he would never be able to deny Rose if this was something that she wanted.
"I think I'd better get to work on splitting this pendant and copying my ring... again," Alex said as he bumped his shoulder against Evander's.
"Just to be clear, I am only doing this because Rose wants me to. I would never do this for anyone else," Evander protested loudly to all of them. "And don't expect ME to plan anything."
Rose hugged him around the neck and pressed her forehead against his temple as she sent him the multitude of mental caresses that she knew he loved. Evander had always seemed to prefer mental contact to physical. "Don't worry, my love. We'll take care of everything. Think about how long Jack has been waiting to see us married," she teased.
He groaned inwardly at the thought of how Jack would behave at their wedding. And what would he wear? Clothing was definitely going to be mandatory.
They walked together back to the TARDIS and Clara seemed to hesitate as they approached the door. Rose looked at her questioningly. "What's wrong, Clara? You did say that you wanted to come, right?"
Clara seemed to be startled out of her thoughts at the question. "Oh! Yes, of course. It's just been a while since I did this," she said nervously.
"Clara, I understand completely. I was separated from the Doctor for years before I found a way back. And then we spent another year with just us before we found him again," Rose told her with a reassuring pat to her arm. "Come to the wardrobe with me. I need to find a wedding dress and I'm not sure what will look nice since the last time I wore one; I was shorter and curvier than this."
"Really?" Clara asked and they chatted amiably as they walked into the ship towards the wardrobe room.
Alex and Evander watched them leave, then looked at each other appraisingly.
"You know Rose will want Jack to be there. We'd best try to find him. Did you want to work on that while I go work on the pendant?" Alex asked diplomatically.
Heaving a mighty sigh, he waved Alex off to work on his project and started the TARDIS scanning for Jack at some point after they had last seen him. He monitored the progress of the scans on the edge of his consciousness as he considered how lovely Rose would look. Who else should be there? He supposed that they should probably have Vastra, Jenny and Strax since they already knew about Rose and Alex. They had helped explain the intervening years for them before their reunion. They certainly couldn't have a wedding for a relationship of three in Victorian England, however.
He contemplated possible times and places before shaking his head and adamantly NOT planning any more details about this silly event that he wasn't going to enjoy.