Claudia walks, keeping herself calm and collected as she passes a street on a cold, breezy winter in London. It's been quite some time ever since she's staying this long with the Doctor and Mum. She did occasionally get along with a few adventures, but after it's over, she'll move away from the Tardis to travel around or return to Messaline to help Jenny to fix Messaline into a better home planet.
But ever since Manhattan... she's been staying with them. The Doctor's in pain and grief over the loss they witnessed. She and her mother did as well, being quite close with Amy and Rory. But not as close as the Doctor was with them. Claudia admits she is still sad over that incident, but she's not going to let herself swallow in grief and pain like the Doctor always does.
What happened at Manhattan gives her conviction to save more people.
Luckily, her mother understands that.
But sadly, the Doctor doesn't understand and just shrugs those off.
"Did you make this snowman?" A voice suddenly asked, making her stop from her thought and look back at a woman with red gown, standing not far from a pub.
Claudia glances at a snowman. "No, I didn't," she replied, keeping her veil so this woman won't see her blue hair.
"Well, who did? Cos it wasn't there a second ago. It just appeared, from nowhere."
The bluenette opens up her sonic pen, scans it, and reads the result. "Huh. Interesting. This snow has a small telepathic field in it. Make it like... like it can remember."
The woman scoffed. "What, snow that can remember? That's silly."
"Gotta problem with silly?" She asked back.
"Nothing. Still talking to you, ain't I?"
Claudia likes her. She's brave. "What's your name?"
"Clara."
"Nice to meet you, Clara. But right now, I must go, so goodbye!" Claudia told her and walks away. Right after she turns away, Clara calls her again.
"Oi! Where are you going? I thought we were just getting acquainted."
Claudia chuckles and turns around. "If only that could happen," she simply stated. Right now, she can't let her close to some strangers. Before Clara can say something, she enters the carriage and lets Strax know that she's in. Shs glances over an old-fashioned speaker hanging from the roof.
"How refreshing to see you talking to someone, Claudia. Was she nice?" Madam Vastra asked.
"Yeah. She's nice."
"And made her curious."
Claudia giggles. "I'm not the Doctor, Madam Vastra. Beside, to him, those days are over."
"He can't help himself. It's the same story, every time. And it always begins with the same two words."
"Yeah. Like somebody will just ask, 'Doctor who?' all of sudden."
And just like that, Claudia finds herself face to face with Clara, who drops her head through the flap at the top of the carriage.
"Doctor? Doctor who?" She asked.
▪︎▪︎▪︎
"Hello," a girl's voice greeted, cutting Claudia from her thoughts about the moment she met Clara at Victorian London. She looks at a brunette girl with pigtail, sitting on a swing beside Arthur.
She had been accompanying Arthur for playtime as the Doctor and her mother keep continuing their search for Clara. Initially, they want to bring her and Arthur as well, but they soon realize the young boy might be bored and needs some time to relax time. So her mother decided to split them up, which is why she's standing behind Arthur to swing up his swing.
"Hello," she and Arthur greeted her.
"Are you new here?"
Arthur shook his head. "We're just passing by while the Doctor and Miss Delaney are searching for someone."
"They lost someone?" The girl asked.
"Yeah. Someone that we know as well, despite knowing her briefly."
The girl nods. "When I lose something, I go to a quiet place and I close my eyes, and then I can remember where I put it."
"Not a bad plan. Could be useful advice," Claudia complimented. Maybe she should let the Doctor know that, since he always forgot some things inside the Tardis. One wonders how a man with fearsome rumours can be quite forgetful.
"I'm always losing things. I lost my best pencil, my schoolbag, and my gran, and my mojo."
"Your mojo?" Arthur frowns as Claudia starts to swing around.
"I got it back, though."
"Lucky."
The girl looks around before looking at them. "Have you been looking?"
Claudia sighs. "Yeah, everywhere. Even now, we're still desperately try to find her."
"That's sad."
"Yeah," the bluenette agreed, then noticed a woman speaking to someone else. "Hey, is that your mum?"
"Yeah, I'd better go and see if she's all right," the girl addressed. "How are you going to find her?"
"Well, the first two times my mother and her friend met her, they kinda bumped into her, so we thought maybe if we just wandered about a while, we might meet her again. You never know, the chances might happen."
"I hope you find her again," the girl said as she said goodbye to them.
"Me too," Claudia hoped, kept swinging for Arthur as the boy happily smiled and waved at the brunette girl and her mother.
Note: Intermezzo is basicly a short chapter that usually doesn't include Arthur so it can center about other characters and their interaction from an episode before or from an episode that doesn't get into full story with Arthur. It can also be a small interaction with Arthur from minisodes and others media as well. If some of you want to see some small interaction, you can tell me on the comment section.