Disclamier: Ido not own Doctor Who all rights go to the BBC.

A/N: Here's a new chapter guys! Hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave a review :)

Claire's Outfit: claires_outfit_chapter_18/set?id=114818509&lid=3219209

After a couple minutes of flying we were back at the Pond's anniversary party. Everything was exactly the way we left it; no one suspected a thing, well except one.

The Doctor and I stood off to the side as everyone raised their glasses in the air after a toast was given to the happy couple. The Doctor put his arms up in the air and did a weird sort of dance causing me to giggle lightly. I noticed Brian staring at us from across the room, once everyone had gone back to their own activities he approached the Doctor and I.

"How long were they gone?" He asked suspiciously.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Brian." The Doctor answered casually.

"They are wearing totally different clothes from earlier."

The Doctor glanced from me to Brian. I shrugged pretending I had no idea what was going on.

"Seven weeks." The Doctor answered. "I got side tracked. A lot."

I rolled my eyes at him earning a playful nudge from the man beside me.

"What happened to the other people who traveled with you?" Brian asked suddenly.

The Doctor sighed heavily a pained expression crossing his features. "Some left me. Some got left behind. And some, not many, but, some died." The Doctor paused and looked down at his feet. "Not them. Not them, Brian. Never them."

The three of us glanced at the happy couple talking and laughing with a group of friends. Brian sighed heavily before leaving us to talk to one of the guests.

I felt the Doctor wrap his arm around my shoulders. I tilted my head up to look at him. A sad smile graced his lips as he stared down at me. He brought his head down close to mine and pressed his lips to my cheek. "And never, ever, you. You are under my protection." He whispered his warm breath tickling at my ear.

My heart picked up its pace and my cheeks blushed heavily from embarrassment. I was at a loss for words. I didn't know what to say in return, all I could do was nod.

The Doctor pulled away suddenly, breaking our close proximity. A feeling of loss came over me once he pulled away, I wanted to wrap myself back up in his arms and never leave. I shook the thought out of my head, praying that he didn't notice my sudden embarrassment.

"I'm going to ask Amy if we can stay with them, care to join me?" He asked awkwardly.

"No it's ok, I'll stay here." I answered waving him off. A look of slight disappointment crossed his features, but he shook it off quickly. He told me he would be right back, before leaving in search of Amy.

With a heavy sigh I glanced at the people around me. Everyone knew each other and were lost in deep conversations, the occasional laugh could be heard here and there. I took a sip of my Shirley temple trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone that passed by me. I felt extremely out of place and I wanted nothing more than to get out of the crowd. I should've gone with the Doctor. I thought to myself.

My phone started vibrating in the back pocket of my jeans. Quickly, I pulled it out, relieved that I had an escape.

"Hello?" I answered as I stepped out into the back garden where it was quieter.

"Hey girl!" Maia practically screamed into the phone. I pulled the phone away from my ear wincing as my ears began ringing.

"Ouch, can you not scream in my ear?" I groaned.

"Sorry. So how's outer space going with your hot alien boyfriend?" She asked.

I took a seat on a garden bench not too far away from where Amy and the Doctor were chatting. "Ok, how many times do I have to tell you he's not my boyfriend?"

"If it's not a thing now, it'll happen eventually." She said a smirk in voice.

"Ha, ha, very funny. He only sees me as a friend anyways." I grumbled.

"So, you do like him!" She squealed.

"Hey, I never said anything about that!" I argued. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the Doctor was finishing up with Amy. He smiled at me and threw me a wave. I gave him a half assed smile and a pathetic wave before pointing to the phone. He only stared back at me with concern. Shit, he's going to come over here I need to change the subject.

"Claire, I knew it. He's a foxy Time Lord now isn't he?"

"Maia, no. It's not like that." I continued to protest.

"Not like what?" The Doctor asked suddenly. I nearly jumped out of my skin as he plopped down on the seat beside me and draped his arm around my shoulders, a new habit of his.

"Hey, did I ever tell you that I met Sherlock Holmes?" I asked changing the subject.

"Claire, why are you changing the subject? I could care less about your space adventures I want to know about your love life." She continued to babble.

How the hell am I going to get out of this?

"Ooh! Can I tell her the story?" The Doctor asked excitedly reaching to grab the phone from my hand. He had a really bad habit of doing that.

"No Doctor." I quickly jumped out of his grasp.

"Listen, Maia, I'll call you back later. You know who is trying to take the phone from me."

"Oh shit, sorry about that. I'll talk to you later. Have fun! Oh, and use condoms!"

"Maia I'm not-" With that she hung up.

"Everything all right?" The Doctor asked coming up behind me.

I turned around to face him. "Yeah everything's fine. Just catching up with Maia, you know how she can be." I laughed. The Doctor furrowed his brow in confusion. "So what did Amy say?"

"Oh! Yes, she said we could stay here. The party should be dying down within the hour then we can settle in."

I nodded in agreement. The Doctor and I spent the last hour of the party helping Brian clean up as Amy and Rory said their goodbyes to old friends. By midnight everyone was out of the house and the aftermath of the party was all cleaned up. Brian bid us farewell once he was sure we didn't need anymore help with anything leaving the Doctor and I alone with the Ponds.

"So yeah, you know where the guest room is. Everything's clean." Amy yawned. "Oh! Doctor, don't touch anything or fix anything or do anything weird to our house while we're all sleeping, okay?" Amy asked shooting him a warning glare.

The Doctor pouted. "Fine, I won't touch anything."

With that Amy and Rory went up stairs to their bedroom. Deciding to retire to bed as well, I made my way down the hallway to the guest room. I flipped on the light and quickly changed into a pair of pajamas. I was about to get into bed when a soft knock was heard on the door.

"Come in." I answered sitting on the end of the bed.

The Doctor came in with a smile on his face and plopped down next to me. "So I was thinking maybe we could stay up late and play the Wii." He paused and looked at me. "Or if you'd rather watch a boring movie we could do that instead."

I smiled at him sleepily. "I'd love to, but I'm exhausted." I said through a yawn.

"Oh, yes of course. Come to think of it I should probably get some sleep too."

"You actually sleep?" I asked trying not to appear too shocked.

"Of course I sleep. I just need less of it than humans. You see humans need at least eight hours of sleep a night while Time Lords only need six hours of sleep every three or four days. Right now I'm going on six or seven days without sleep." He yawned.

"Well since you're overtired, you can stay in here. I'll sleep out on the couch." I said getting up

"No, no. I'll sleep on the couch. You sleep in here." The Doctor said pushing me back down on the bed.

"Nonsense. Doctor, you're too tall for the couch. You have the bed." I argued.

"You know what… " The Doctor started, "No, never mind."

"Wait, what were you going to say?" I asked.

The Doctor tugged at his bowtie nervously. "Well it is a queen sized bed. There's enough room for both of us and none of us wants the other to sleep on the couch…" The Doctor's face started turning redder by the second.

I had to stifle a giggle at his embarrassment. "Umm… I guess we could share the bed. If you're comfortable with that?" I said starting to blush as well.

"Yeah, it's fine with me. Are you ok with that?" He asked.

"Yeah it's fine."

The Doctor nodded before untying his bowtie. Once his favorite garment was discarded he sat on the edge of the bed and began removing his boots and jacket.

I felt my cheeks start to heat up even more. Quickly, I got under the covers and averted my eyes from the stripping Doctor.

A few seconds past and the Doctor shut the lights off. As soon as the lights went out anxiety hit me like a ton of bricks. My heart thudded loudly against my chest; I was surprised the Doctor couldn't hear it. The room was pitch black and I couldn't see an inch in front of me. My fear of the dark was quickly taking its toll on me. My body began shaking slightly as my teeth chattered with fear. The bed beside me sunk in as the Doctor lay down. I jumped.

"Claire, you ok?" The Doctor asked, concerned.

"No, n-not r-really." I mumbled hiding my face in my pillow. "D-don't laugh, b-but I'm kind of afraid of t-the dark."

"Why would I find that funny? Besides, why didn't you say that before?" The familiar buzzing of the sonic filled my ears and the ceiling suddenly turned into a galaxy. The lights from the stars filled the room and different shades of blue and red tinted the walls. "Better?"

"Yes, t-thank you."

"Claire, come here." The Doctor ordered softly.

I rolled over to face him. "W-what?" I asked through my still chattering teeth.

The Doctor held his arms open a sincere expression on his face. Shyly I crawled closer to him. Once I was close enough, the Doctor wrapped his strong arms around me and held me close to his chest. He rubbed small circles into my back with one hand and gently stroked my hair with the other. His lips brushed lightly against my ear as he made soft 'shushing' noises into it.

Within seconds I felt completely at ease. My anxiety attack completely vanished allowing me a peaceful state of mind. I nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck as I gently drifted off to sleep to the sound of the Doctor's steady beating hearts and soothing voice.

A soft yawn escaped my lips as I roused from my deep slumber. Curling up into a ball I nuzzled my face deeper into my pillow. I let out a soft sigh as I let myself snuggle into the most comfortable pillow on the planet. Wait why is my pillow thudding? I opened my eyes and gasped lightly once they came into full focus. My head wasn't resting on a pillow; it was the Doctor. My heart began beating rapidly from embarrassment when I realized we had slept the whole night like this. The Doctor's arms were wrapped tightly around my small frame holding me close to him and his enormous chin rested atop my head. I blushed harder as he pulled me closer to him in his sleep. I didn't want to disturb him; he looked so peaceful as he slept. With no way of escaping without waking him up I decided to just lie there and wait. I took the time to examine his features. Those beautiful green eyes were closed, but flickered every once in a while as he dreamed. His pale skin looked soft to the touch and I had to refrain myself from stroking his cheek. His full lips were parted slightly as warm breath escaped through them; again I had to hold myself back from kissing those beautifully shaped lips.

A longing for him tugged painfully at my chest, but I knew he could never be mine. He already belonged to a woman and I didn't want to get in the way of his marriage even if Amy claimed it was bound to end at some point. I found myself hoping she was right, as I couldn't see myself anywhere else, but with the Doctor. I knew that I had only spent about a month or two with him, but I found myself falling harder and harder in love with him as the days passed on. I wanted nothing more than to be his. To lie with him like this every morning and to fall asleep in his arms like I did last night. That's why I decided to cherish this moment, as I couldn't see it happening again.

Slowly the Doctor began to stir. His beautiful green eyes opened and immediately landed on me. I felt myself shrinking back into my shell under his rather intimate gaze. Awkwardly I averted my eyes as the Doctor let out a long loud yawn.

"Aw, that has got to be the best sleep I've had in ages." He lifted his arms from me and stretched out his lean body. "How did you sleep?" He asked turning back to face me.

I blushed. "I slept well."

"That's good to hear." He glanced at the clock only to do a double take. "10 o'clock! I must have been really tired to sleep for that long!"

I laughed lightly. "Maybe you under estimated how much sleep you really need."

"Well, it's never happened before. Never mind that. Are you hungry? Lets go see what the Ponds keep for breakfast around here." With that he jumped out of bed leaving me longing for his company again.

"You coming Claire?" He asked when he realized I hadn't jumped out of bed as quickly as he did.

I laughed. "Yes, I'm coming." I crawled out of bed after him and the two of us went to the kitchen in search of some breakfast.

So far we've been staying with the Ponds for a little over a week. It wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be and the Doctor made sure to keep himself occupied. Thank God he didn't complain as much as he did the last time we stayed.

During the week Amy and Rory had work leaving the Doctor and I alone with the cubes. We would often throw one back and forth to each other as we talked about nothing in particular. He would tell me stories of adventures he went on with past companions. He spoke of the ancient ice warriors, the Ood, the cybermen, his most hated enemy the Daleks and much more. He spoke of a few of his past companions Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 who sadly past away a year ago, Captain Jack Harkness a very flirty pansexual man who could never die and eventually became the most ancient creature in the universe; the Face of Boe. He also spoke briefly of Rose Tyler; a past companion he loved dearly who had to be locked in a parallel universe. He told stories of Martha Jones and Mickey Smith who he failed to notice as much as his other companions. The two fell in love though and were married about 3 years now. And finally he spoke of Donna Noble who was the most important woman in the universe, but had all memories of him wiped away in order to save her life. Not once did he mention River, she was still a bit of a mystery to me. I only knew what Amy had told me, but I knew there had to be things she left out.

But, I couldn't believe everything the Doctor told me about his past. Amy told me that he usually kept it a secret and kept it all bottled up inside. I had no idea why he suddenly felt the need to tell me all of this. He even took me into the TARDIS at one point and showed me pictures of his past regenerations. It was amazing how many bodies he had lived in; they all looked completely different from one another. His dress sense even changed dramatically when he took on a new form. From a long scarf to a piece of celery from a colorful suite to a long trench coat, it was amazing how much he changed.

When the Doctor wasn't telling me stories of past adventures we would play the Wii or take a few cubes with us on a walk around town. At night he would set up the same galaxy as a nightlight for me. He would press his soft lips to my forehead as a kiss goodnight before leaving the room. When it came time for him to get the sleep that he needed he would come crawl into bed beside me. Usually when this happened I always woke up with his arms wrapped around me. It was strange living a somewhat normal life with the Doctor and the Ponds, so I took the time to appreciate it while it lasted. Normal usually didn't stay in the life of the Doctor for too long.

It was mid morning on a Saturday. The Ponds were usually off work on the weekends so they were sitting in the living room with me watching some reality TV show about evil cats being trained to be good for their owners. The Doctor offered to go out grocery shopping so the house was quieter than it usually was. I curled myself up in a small ball on the chair next to the couch with my sketchbook in hand.

Since I started traveling with the Doctor I hadn't had much time to draw. Plus it seemed as if my creative juices were at a stand still for the past week, but fortunately a surge of inspiration bubbled up to the surface. For the first time in forever I began to sketch. Originally I thought about drawing one of the Transylvanians or perhaps even Sherlock, but I decided I wanted to create, not recreate.

I let my pencil fly across the paper in strange motions until it started to look like something. I enjoyed using this method for when I couldn't think of anything in particular to draw. This particular sketch was slowly starting to look like a flower. Deciding to come up with my own breed of flower, I began to give it elements that were not typically found in your average flower. It curled into a somewhat bell-shape at the top and fanned out like the wings of a bird at the bottom. Deciding that it needed color I added soft blues and purples on the feathery fan and had it slowly fade to white, as it got closer to the top. I smiled at my new creation.

"What'cha drawing?" Amy asked peering over my shoulder.

"I'm just doodling." I answered beginning to work on a second flower.

"Oh that's gorgeous!" Amy gasped pulling my sketchbook out my hands to get a closer look.

I huffed as she passed the sketchbook to Rory.

"Isn't that beautiful. If only this actually existed, I bet it would look stunning in our garden." She smiled passing my sketchbook back to me.

"Thanks." With that I worked on my second flower making this one slightly similar to a tiger lily but gave it small green dots on it's petals. The base of the flower was a light shade of blue and small pink tendrils sprawled out from either side of the flower. Feeling satisfied with my work I closed my sketchbook and continued to watch bad reality TV with the Ponds.

About two hours had passed since the Doctor left for the grocery store; he was bound to be home any minute. I found myself wishing I had gone with him. Being away from the Doctor for only a few hours felt like an eternity to me, not to mention an extremely boring eternity.

The Ponds claimed they had some weeding to do out in the garden leaving me alone in the living room. I sighed deeply and opened my sketchbook again. Might as well draw some more to pass the time. I started sketching a baby dragon being taught how to fly by its mother. I had the basic forms blocked out and was about to put in the details when suddenly Amy and Rory came barging in small patches of dirt smudged on their faces.

"You're not going to believe this, but Rory found a flower that looks just like the one you drew this morning."

I looked to them in shock. "That's impossible. I made that up on the spot."

Rory took his hand out from behind his back and produced the bell-feathered flower I had showed them.

"Oh my God." Not quite believing my eyes I turned the page to the drawing. Sure enough they were exactly identical. "It's happened again." I breathed in disbelief.

"RORY!" Amy cried.

The hand that Rory was using to hold the flower started to take on its coloring. A mixture of blue, purple, and white tinted his hand and slowly started to creep up his arm.

"That's probably not supposed to happen, now is it." Rory stuttered before his eyes suddenly rolled to the back of his head. With a loud thump Rory fell to the ground completely knocked out.

What've I done?

"Here help me lay him down on the couch." Amy ordered.

The two of us dragged Rory's heavy body to the couch. For such a skinny man he sure weighs a lot.

"What do we do?" I cried. "What do you usually do when something bad happens and the Doctor's not here?"

"I don't know wing it!" Amy tried performing CPR on him while muttering. "Come on Rory, don't you dare die on me again."

"Hello? Could you lot come help me, there's an awful lot of groceries." The Doctor called from the kitchen.

Thank God.

"Doctor get your ass in here now! Man down!" I yelled. Amy mouthed 'man down' at me. "What else am I supposed to say?"

Faster than the blink of an eye the Doctor came running into the living room, sonic in hand. He immediately spotted Rory and began scanning him. "What happened?" He asked eyes widening as he examined the readings.

"Um I drew my own species of flower and Rory found an exact replica of it out in the garden. Then his hand started taking on the color of it and he passed out." I explained quickly.

The Doctor scanned the flower before turning to me. "Show me your drawing." I handed him the drawing and watched as the Doctor examined it. "You drew another one, yes?" He asked pointing to the second flower. I nodded. "You two go out in the garden and search for this one. It might be the only thing that can cure Rory, because right now he's dying and there's no other way to cure him. Now hurry! I'll try to slow down the process. Oh and wear gloves, just in case!"

Amy and I ran out into the garden as quickly as possible. Heavy garden gloves protected our hands as we pawed our way through the many plants growing in the Pond's garden.

"Ahh! Found it!" Amy cried holding the flower up in the air in victory.

The two of us quickly brought the flower back to the Doctor and Rory. In the little time we had been gone almost all of Rory's skin was the color of the flower he once held in his hand. He wasn't moving and didn't appear to be breathing either.

The Doctor quickly rubbed the second flower on every inch of Rory's skin. Slowly his skin began to turn to its natural color. A loud gasp escaped Rory's lips as he sat up from his position on the couch.

"Did I die? Again?" He asked.

The Doctor laughed. "Almost. You were lucky this time."

Amy pounced on Rory and showered him with kisses. I looked away to allow them some privacy.

"Claire, come with me." The Doctor said gently.

I obeyed and followed the Doctor into the TARDIS. He put the two flowers into a glass jar and flipped a switch. A green gas enveloped the flowers leaving them completely disintegrated after a few seconds.

I looked down at my hands trying to keep in the tears that were threatening to flow. "I'm a monster." I mumbled.

"What? No." The Doctor was at my side in a heartbeat. His warm strong arms wrapped me in a hug. "You are anything but a monster." He let go of me and cupped my face in his hands. "You are the kindest, sweetest woman I have every met, you wouldn't hurt a fly. Now what makes you think you're a monster?"

"I almost killed Rory." I rasped. "Ever since I met you, things I've drawn have been coming to life. Perious came to life and injured nearly hundreds of people. Now what I meant to be a harmless doodle ended up coming to life and nearly killed one of my friends." Not being able to hold them in any longer I let the tears flow.

The Doctor gently wiped them away with his thumb. "None of us knew your drawings would come to life. Besides, Perious ended up being good and we saved Rory."

"Yes, but what if the next time I decide to let my creative juices flow I end up creating something even more dangerous than what I've already created. It seems like I'll never be able to do what I love without hurting someone."

The Doctor shook his head. "Claire, I am going to find out why this has been happening and trust me I'll make sure nothing bad happens. I promise." With that he placed a kiss to my forehead before letting me go again. All I could do was hope that he was right.