CHAPTER 17

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This story takes place during Jenny Tyler, Time's Angel Chapter 38 and before The Further Adventures of River Song Chapter 5.

Just as the Thorn shot Shehzadi with the staser that she had brought to finish her off with, its ray was blocked by an energy shield that suddenly sprang up out of nowhere around Shehzadi. Both women were shocked by this new development and had no clue what had just happened until a voice said, "I know she's a pain in the neck right now, but she does get better. Trust me!"

They both turned to see a young woman materializing out of thin air with a huge smile on her face. She seemed to enjoy the surprised reaction that she was getting from both of them.

"Hi. It's so nice to meet you. Well, it's your first time meeting me but not my first time meeting you. That's time travel for you though! Sometimes it just gives me such a headache trying to figure it all out. You know the only way that this could possibly get any worse is if Lissa came in here all of a sudden. The three of you would probably blow up the whole planet with all of the angst that you're all carrying around. Considering its current condition though, you might be doing the planet a favor," Jessica Baker said with a grin.

"Who are you?" the Thorn asked in irritation.

"You'll find out some day when you get done being a River Song Wannabe," Jessica said with a giggle.

"How dare you make fun of me? Do you know who I am? I am the Thorn! I will crush you!" the Thorn shouted.

"Oh, you are so cute at this stage! You become so much more boring later on. It's so nice to see you here when you're still so crazy and unpredictable. You're much more interesting this way," Jessica said.

"Why did you save me?" Shehzadi asked curiously.

"Let's just say that you're a louse, but you're not totally unredeemable, Shehzadi. Even you will be surprised at what you're capable of becoming someday," Jessica said cryptically.

"Now you're starting to remind me of River Song," the Thorn said.

"Thanks!" Jessica said happily.

"That was not a compliment!" the Thorn cried out in exasperation.

"It was to me," Jessica replied.

Any response that the Thorn would have had died in her mouth as a nearly revived Marissa punched her in the jaw and laid her out cold on the ground. Marissa ran to Shehzadi and hugged her tightly with relief.

"Who are you? Never mind, it doesn't matter. I just want to thank you for saving her!" Marissa said with gratitude.

"No problem, Mari. You'll do the same for me one day. In fact, you and Oswin help pull my fat out of the fire a lot along with Amy and River. I'm afraid I'm a lot of trouble," Jessica admitted with embarrassment.

"I never would have guessed," Jenny said from behind them all.

Jessica froze up as she realized that she had stayed just a little too long. A look of fear crossed her face for the first time now since she had arrived here.

Jenny walked up to the terrified girl and whispered, "What are you so afraid of?"

"You know who I am, don't you?" Jessica said.

"I can guess. Your two sisters did mention you after all not too long ago," Jenny said.

"If they make my name change by meeting you too early, I'll kill them!" Jessica said furiously.

"Don't worry about it, Jessica. I think your name is safe," Jenny whispered.

Jessica smiled from ear to ear as she hugged her mother tightly. She knew that there were so many more important things to worry about than a name change, but it was her name after all. It was important to her since it had helped define who she was and who she would become, and she loved it just the way that it was.

As Jenny and Jessica embraced, Marissa and Shehzadi smiled together as they watched them.

"I guess it's not too hard to figure out who she is or will be anyway," Shehzadi said.

"No, it's not. She obviously will love her mother as much as I love you," Marissa said with joy.

As the mothers and daughters talked to one another, none of them noticed the Thorn regain consciousness and watch them with envy. She could easily kill Shehzadi now while she was distracted, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it while her mother was talking to her. Seeing Marissa's love for her daughter brought out a long buried part of the Thorn that longed for her own mother's love. A love that she had been denied.

The Thorn used her powers to leave as she promised herself that next time she would not fail. She would find Shehzadi alone eventually, and then she would carry out her mission at last. She knew that Shehzadi would tell no one her secret until then in order to protect her mother from her so she had no worries about that. She knew that Shehzadi could safely wait for a while.

For now though, she had another target to go after. One she had really been looking forward to killing. She knew that this target's death would really hurt her mother, and she longed to see the look on her face once she accomplished it.

Meanwhile, Oswin was traveling with the Doctor, Rose, and Joan Redfern through the Vortex. They were supposed to be bringing Joan back to stay with Donald Noble the Metacrisis Doctor after they had been separated from each other for so long by the Shadow, but the Doctor and Rose decided that Oswin should meet with Clara first. Joan was eager to see Donald again, but when the Doctor explained to her just how important that it was for them to see Clara she decided to wait just a little longer.

The TARDIS arrived across the street from where Rose had told the Doctor Clara lived. It so happened that today Clara wasn't alone. Rose smiled as she saw Clara standing outside her front door with her two young charges, Artie and Angie Maitland. Clara was their nanny and had been ever since their mother had died. No matter what universe she was from, Clara Oswin Oswald always loved children.

Oswin couldn't breathe for a minute as she watched Clara. It was uncanny! She looked just like her. She even had the same mannerisms and walked and talked exactly the same. She could be her twin.

"Oswin, you need to talk to her now," Rose said as she tried to prod her into going over to talk to with Clara.

"I don't know what to say to her. I just . . . ," Oswin said nervously. She was so dumbstruck at seeing Clara that she couldn't even finish her last sentence.

Clara went inside of her house for a moment and left Artie and Angie standing outside alone. Oswin decided that now was just as good a time as any for her to meet Clara so she hesitantly walked over into Clara's front yard.

"Clara, how did you get behind us so quickly when you just went inside a few minutes ago?" Artie asked Oswin in confusion.

"She went out the back door and circled around. Duh!" Angie said as she rolled her eyes at her little brother.

"What's that you're wearing? It looks like you're going to some kind of science fiction convention in that outfit. Is that where we're going? Are we going to a convention?" Artie asked in excitement.

Oswin couldn't speak. She didn't know what to say to the boy. She liked both of the children from the moment she met them. They seemed so familiar to her already. It was just as if she had already met them before which in a way she guessed that she had if she used to be Clara.

She came to a sudden shocking realization as she realized just why that they were so familiar. She used to be their nanny herself in a different life, a life that she couldn't even remember now. She began to get upset at the thought of what she had lost and started to tear up.

"Clara, what's wrong? Are you okay? I wasn't making fun of you or anything. I really do want to go to a convention," Artie said as he began to get upset himself.

Oswin and the two children then all turned to face the front door as they heard Clara gasp in surprise. Clara had just seen Oswin and thought that she was losing her mind.

"W – w – who are you?" Clara asked as she began to shake all over.

"That's a long story, Clara. My friends and I have come here to tell it to you if you don't mind," Oswin said as she spoke for the first time since walking into the yard.

Rose and the Doctor then came walking across the street to stand with Oswin, and Clara began to gather the children closer to her protectively. Oswin realized that she was afraid that they were all in danger from the three strangers.

"I'd never hurt the children. I love them as much as you do," Oswin said as she attempted to reassure her.

"Somehow I doubt that," Clara said as she continued to stare at Oswin in a combination of fear and fascination.

"Why didn't you tell me that you weren't Clara?" Artie asked Oswin.

"I didn't know what to say. I was shocked at meeting both of you because you remind me of two children that I once knew before. You're so much like them," Oswin said.

"What happened to them?" Artie asked innocently.

"I lost them. Forever," Oswin said as she began to tear up again.

Artie walked up to her and put his arms around her as he said, "I'm sorry. Did they die?"

"No, but I can never see them again. At least not in the way that I used to," Oswin replied in the closest approximation to the truth that she could give him that he would understand.

"I'm sorry," Artie said again as Oswin continued to cry.

Rose felt so guilty then as if she had stolen something from Oswin herself even though she knew that it had been the original Clara's own decision that had created Oswin in the first place. She could see Clara beginning to soften towards Oswin as she saw how upset she was and how Artie seemed to immediately like and trust her.

"So who are you anyway? Clara never said that she had a twin sister," Angie asked.

Clara and Oswin both looked at each other for a moment, and they could see from studying the looks on each other's faces that they were both thinking the same thoughts at once. They both smiled at each other as they both said at once, "She's my cousin."

Angie and Artie both blinked at the two of them talking at once and saying the exact same thing in the exact same tone of voice. Rose tried to keep from laughing while the Doctor just shook his head. This seemed like a bad idea already to him to have two versions of the same person meet like this.

"An identical cousin?" Angie asked skeptically.

"So? It happens. It doesn't happen every day, but there have been cousins who look alike before," Clara said as she tried to come up with an explanation.

"There have been cousins that happen to look exactly alike?" Angie asked in an even more skeptical tone now.

"Yes. It happens. How else do you explain the two of us? You know that I'm an only child," Clara challenged her.

"Alright, I guess it has to be true since the evidence is right in front of me. Fun! Now I have two people trying to pretend to be my mother. I suppose that she's going to start helping you take care of us too now that she's here," Angie said with a sigh.

"Two Claras! I like it," Artie said happily.

"You would," Angie said.

"Well, Cousin, I guess I'll just invite you and your two friends here inside for a while. Kids, you can go watch TV while the four of us have a private discussion for a while," Clara said.

As the two Maitland children sat down to fight over what to watch on Clara's television, Clara led Oswin, Rose, and the Doctor into another room and shut the door so that they could have some privacy. They all sat down, and Oswin could see that Clara was still nervous around them.

"I swear that we aren't here to harm you or the children, Clara. We need to talk to you about something," Oswin said.

"Does that something have to do with why you look like my clone?" Clara asked in growing discomfort.

"Yes, it does. I know that you're not going to believe this because I don't completely believe it myself but I'm you. I'm you from another timeline that no longer exists. Basically, I'm a version of you who lived in the future," Oswin said.

Clara just looked at her like she had just escaped from an asylum which seemed ironic to Oswin because she had not too long ago. The thought of it made her want to laugh, and she had to try very hard not to.

"What is it that you find so funny? Upsetting me and freaking out my kids is not funny to me," Clara said angrily.

"If you don't approve then why did you go along with it?" Oswin asked even though she already knew the answer.

"I had to pretend that you were my cousin so that the children wouldn't feel like that they were in danger and also so that they wouldn't keep asking questions that I don't know the answers to," both Clara and Oswin said at the exact same time together.

"Stop that! That's really creepy!" both of the women said at the same time yet again.

"Stop it! I mean it!" they both said once more together.

Clara began to look very worried and anxious now, and Rose could tell that she was very close to either asking them to leave or calling the authorities.

"Oswin, stop it. You're just making things worse," Rose said.

"Oswin?" Clara asked in even more disbelief.

"That's my name. I'm Oswin Oswald," Oswin said.

"What is this? Am I on television? Is someone going to jump out and start laughing at how I've been tricked any minute now?" Clara said as she started looking around for cameras somewhere.

"This is getting us nowhere. We're going to have to use the direct approach in order to convince her," the Doctor said.

He walked up to Clara and bumped foreheads with her as a way of quickly transferring knowledge to her just as he had with Craig Owens once. Both of them cried out in pain, and Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head at the sight of it.

"What. Was. That?!" Clara screamed.

"What do you mean? I just told you about whom the three of us are and what Rose told me about exactly who Oswin is to you all in one big head bump. You can't get more efficient than that," the Doctor said as he rubbed his head.

"I'm losing my mind. I must be. I just had images and information flashing through my head that I still don't quite understand, at least not completely. So you really have a time machine that looks like a blue box, and it's bigger on the inside than on the outside?" Clara asked.

"That's right," the Doctor said with a grin.

"I've become a nutter. That's it. It must be. I've gone insane, and I'm hallucinating now. That has to be it. Either I'm insane or you are," Clara said pointing to the Doctor.

"I'm voting for him," Rose said with a chuckle.

"You're not helping, Rose," the Doctor said grumpily.

"You call her Rose, but her name's really Arkytior," Clara said as she began to finally start processing all of the information that the Doctor had just put into her head now.

"Yes, but I prefer Rose," Rose replied.

"Both of you are worried about something terrible happening that could mean the end of the universe as we know it. Someone wants to enter your past and change it," Clara said slowly.

"Yes and apparently you, well another you, helped to save me from dying before and part of her became her," the Doctor said as he pointed at Oswin.

"Way to go, Doctor. That won't confuse her I'm sure," Rose said.

"I think that I do understand now though. I really do. I once travelled through time and space with you in your blue box, and I helped save your life. Only that never happened now. It still could though so you want me to travel with you again to help stop it if it does happen again. I've got it, right?" Clara asked.

"Yes, that's it," the Doctor said as he stuck his tongue out triumphantly at Rose. He had succeeded in making Clara understand after all.

Clara smiled at his antics as she said, "You love to tease her all of the time. It's one of the ways that you show her how much you love her."

The Doctor looked embarrassed at that as he hadn't meant for that rather personal detail to get through to Clara when they bumped their heads together, and Clara grimaced at the sight of his red face.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let on that I knew that, should I?" Clara asked.

"It's okay. It wasn't anything that I didn't already know," Rose said as she gave the Doctor a quick peck on the lips.

"So do I get to travel in the TARDIS now then?" Clara asked eagerly.

"For the foreseeable future, yes," Rose replied happily.

"Great. What do I do with the kids though? I couldn't exactly bring them along, could I? Could I?" Clara asked hopefully.

The Doctor started to say something but Rose quickly interrupted as she said, "No! It's bad enough that we're putting your life in danger, Clara. We shouldn't be so irresponsible as to endanger the lives of the children as well."

Clara and Oswin both looked at each other and laughed as they both knew what the other was thinking. It was easy to tell just who the boss was in that particular relationship!

"What do I do with the kids then?" Clara asked in concern.

"That's easy enough. Just take care of them as you usually do for the rest of the day, and we'll travel through time to tomorrow morning. Then you can just meet us outside in the same place, and we can go traveling together from then on," the Doctor said.

"I'm supposed to take care of the kids tomorrow too though," Clara said.

"You're forgetting that I have a magnificent time machine that can bring you back right after you left. I'll have you back five minutes later I promise," the Doctor said.

Clara looked at him skeptically as she said, "You forget that you told me about yourself. I know that you can't always go where and when you want to go."

"I promise that five minutes won't turn into twelve to fourteen years, Clara. The kids will still be the same age when we get back," Rose said.

"Okay then. You I'll trust. He trusts you completely after all," Clara said.

"You can trust all of us, Clara. The Doctor may have a lousy sense of direction, but he's a good man," Rose said.

"I know. I've been inside his head after all," Clara said with a smile.

The three of them left then and came back the next morning just as the Doctor promised to find Clara waiting for them with two bags packed.

The Doctor smiled as he said, "I'm so glad that you're a light packer. You would not believe what Donna brought on the TARDIS. I thought the suitcases would never stop coming."

"Oh, this isn't all of it. I have some more inside. I didn't know how long I'd have to stay before we came back so I packed a lot of stuff last night. It would have been different if you were just keeping me onboard for a short while, and then bringing me back again. I wouldn't have to pack anything then. This trip with you sounds like it may be for a while though so I decided to take everything that I needed. We have time for me to get everything onboard, right? This may take a while to move everything after all. It took me all night to pack," Clara said.

"Sure, that'll be fine," the Doctor said as he began to pout.

"We'll all help you move them. It'll go quicker that way," Rose volunteered them all.

As the Doctor, Rose, and Oswin helped to carry Clara's luggage onboard, the Doctor grumbled, "Why didn't you tell me about this? You had to know what she had planned."

"Of course I did. I just wanted to see that look on your face when you found out," Oswin said with a smirk.

"I've trained you well, my apprentice," Rose said with an evil smile.

As the Doctor continued to grumble and the two women began to snicker at him, Clara just shrugged her shoulders. She didn't know what the big deal was after all. It wasn't like she was moving in permanently or something. This was what she always packed for a small vacation.

Next: Oswin reunites with Marissa and her other friends as they begin a brand new adventure together after she finds out some information from Dalek Epsilon of a possible way to cure Marissa of her immortality. Will she succeed in curing Marissa at last?

Clara, by the way, will be found in future chapters of It's Better With Two.