Clara opened her eyes slowly, feeling slightly disoriented before realizing she was in fact in Amy's bed and last night wasn't one of those dreams she tried to hide. She quickly jumped out of her bed and wrapped a blanket around herself as she frantically searched for her clothes. "I'm going to be late!" Clara noticed the clock. She'd never been late for work in her life. She'd also never woken up in someone else's bed in her life so there was a first time for everything.
Clara remembered her dress was still on the living room floor but she could hear Amy humming in the kitchen as plates lightly clinked over a running faucet. She didn't want to face Amy in her current state. Clara quietly tip toed down the hall to her own bedroom to find something to wear for work. She usually had her outfit for the day planned beforehand but she never got the time to last night. Her meticulously planned daily morning routine had been thrown off kilter. After combing her hair at lightning speed she jumped into a black and white polka-dot dress and ran for the door.
"Clara!" Amy caught her with her hand on the doorknob halfway of the door. "Leaving without so much as a 'good morning' or at least stealing a piece of toast?" Amy crossed her arms still wearing her plastic dishwashing gloves.
"Sorry. I'm just so late." Clara bit her lip. "Love you!" She yelled as she ran out the door. Clara's heart raced at the realization that she'd just said she loved her out loud and then promptly shut the door in her face before Amy had a chance to form a rebuttal. Clara was quite certain that her feelings weren't reciprocated. She'd known Amy for years and she'd never heard an 'I love you' cross her lips when she spoke to any of her boyfriends. Amy kept any ideas or love and lust completely detached from one another at all times.
The next Wednesday Clara wasn't sure if she was in the mood to travel on The Tardis although Amy kept insisting. "Amy, do you realize what day it is?" Clara sat quietly in the living room staring at The Tardis.
"I'm sorry, I'm an idiot" Amy sat beside Clara on the couch realizing she'd forgotten completely.
It was the anniversary of the death of Clara's mother. It was a rainy night when it happened. No one saw the car jump the red light. Clara remembered how it felt when the glass shattered all around them. The sound of twisted steel screeching in her ears followed by deafening silence and complete darkness. She could hear the metallic screams of the colliding cars like it was yesterday.
It had been 6 years ago and Amy had accompanied her to the funeral. Clara could feel how hard it was for Amy to handle carrying so much grief for her friend. But as uncomfortable as Amy might have felt; Amy wasn't going to turn her back in Clara's time of need.
Amy feared death. Not her own death; just the idea of death. And Amy hated tears. Amy couldn't deal with sad things. People were under the impression that Amy was immune to sadness and fear but that wasn't the case. Amy got sad a lot more often than she'd care to admit but discussing it made her uncomfortable. She always had a smile and a brave face. Amy was too stubborn to let her emotions win her over.
"Ok" Amy put her hand in Clara's in an attempt to comfort her. "Forget it then. We'll go somewhere next week." They sat in silence for over 5 seconds which was far too long for Amy to handle. "But you have to do something, right?" Amy's voice was suddenly perky. "It'll be good for you to do something nice to take your mind off things." Amy didn't feel she was very good at dealing with people's emotions but she truly wanted to help her friend. Amy heard her phone ring and she quickly got up to take the call in her room.
"Hello?" Amy answered. It was Jeff and he was inviting her out to a party that sounded pretty wild over the phone.
"So you coming or what?!" Jeff had to yell over the booming music.
Amy almost said yes before remembering Clara was sitting alone in the living room contemplating life and death over a cup of tea peppered with salty tears.
"Can't go. Sorry... Family emergency." Amy answered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jeff sounded disappointed.
"It means I'm busy, jerk!" Amy hung up and walked back into the living room to see Clara smiling a little through her sadness.
"Family emergency?" Clara smiled.
"Yeah, what else would you call this?" Amy said as she sat behind Clara and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. "Ooh! Jammie Dodgers! That's what you need!" Amy quickly got up and ran to the kitchen. "Jammie Dodgers..." Amy threw a bag of biscuits at Clara as she ran down the hall to her room "And Ghostbusters" Amy ran back to the living room as she popped a DVD into the player and grabbed the remote. "Or would you rather make popcorn?" Amy plopped back down beside Clara excitedly.
"No, these are just fine." Clara took a bite of her biscuit and smiled.
"We came.." Amy started.
"We saw..." Clara answered back.
"We kicked it's ass!" Amy pressed play and swiped a Jammie Dodger from Clara's lap.
Amy had cheered Clara up but even still it wasn't enough to get Clara to sleep. Amy slept like a baby while Clara sat up in bed completely awake. She walked down the hall and passed Amy's room. She peeked in to see Amy out like a light before going to The Tardis. Clara took a deep breath and walked inside.
The sound of it's engines whirling about woke Amy up and she ran to the living room to find it empty with no Tardis in sight. "Weird." She whispered aloud to herself. "Thought I heard something.." She went back to sleep.