I never know why. I only know who. (AU)

Chapter 44

The end? I just don't know.

13th June 2033

Clara and John smiled nervously at each other as they waited at the dinner table. They didn't want to wait by the door, in case they looked too eager, but god if they weren't nervous.

Clara was tapping her cup of tea as John was drumming his hands on his lap.

They were both waiting for the ring of the doorbell; the ring that felt like hours to come but only took seconds for them to run to the front door.

Holding the door handle together, they both opened it slowly, smiling as if they weren't nervous wrecks.

"Hi!" Clara said happily, trying to cool the butterflies in her stomach.

"Hello." The shortish girl in their doorway said. Her voice was more like hers than Clara had thought it would be, and she was much a similar height to Clara. "I'm Ellie."

Clara felt completely crazed that Ellie's adoptive parents had remembered Clara's mums name. It was like the butterfly's in her stomach suddenly exploded as she felt ridiculously happy.

"Hello Ellie." John said nervously, "I'm John." He said, extending his hand for her to shake, which she did slowly, it felt kind of weird once they'd done it.

"And I'm Clara." Clara said, extending her hand to so it could be shook, which once again felt extremely weird to do.

"Would you like to come in?" John asked quickly, stepping aside as the girl nodded and they led her through into the dining room.

They had got the letter asking for Ellie to see them two weeks ago, two months after her eighteenth birthday, and had called up to arrange a date. But now she was here, neither of them could believe it. This was the same person they'd held in their arms eighteen years ago.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Clara asked, trying not to be awkward.

"Yes please." Ellie replied. "Milk and two sugars please."

John sat down at the table, urging Ellie to do so. Clara was just grateful that the kettle was already boiled so that she could bring the tea and talk quickly.

"So..." Ellie began, looking down to the tea she was handed by Clara and then back up to the two adults in the room. She was nervous, of course she was. These were her parents...her real ones.

"I'm sorry this is awkward." Clara butted in, feeling rude. "We're just a little shell-shocked. It's a good thing, but...yeah."

Ellie laughed slowly and smiled a little knowing that they felt the same. "Yeah me too. I've heard lots about you and read all of your letters, but I imagined you like this in the flesh. Not in a bad way, but still."

"Oh God, I wrote those letters when I was seventeen. I bet the advice was awful." John laughed, making Ellie smile too.

"Not really. It was sweet." She said softly. "My parents gave me the box when I was thirteen. Said it was about time I read all of that stuff. It really made me happy to know where I actually came from.....Although I can't lie that I wasn't expecting you two to still be together, let alone married." She laughed but sensed something was up.

"Yeah, me both." Clara laughed. "We only got back together eight years ago though. It was a bit of a shock to everyone really."

Clara was interrupted by the sound of two children screaming at each other.

A boy ran into the room, followed by another little girl, both screaming.

"Mummy, Alfie is trying to steal my barbie doll!" The girl shrieked.

"Daisy, what have I told you about screaming?" John scolded, lifting her into his lap at the same time as Clara grabbed the little boy, who was reaching towards the doll in Daisy's hand.

"Not to." Daisy replied.

"Exactly. And especially not when you know we have guests around. You just make your brother start. Now what do you say?" Clara asked.

"Sorry Alfie." Daisy mumbled.

"And?" Clara added.

"Sorry guest."

"I'm so sorry about this," Clara turned to Ellie apologetically. "They only ever fight when we have people around."

"It's fine." Ellie laughed. "I'm like that with my little brother."

Clara raised her eyebrows intrigued. "You have a brother?"

"Yeah, he's called Lucas. He was adopted like me. He's four years younger though, so he drove me insane." Ellie joked finding it comfortable to talk about this with them in a weird and unexpected way.

"I bet." Clara smiled, looking down to the boy who was curled up in her lap.

"Well, introductions, this is Daisy," John said, pointing down to the girl on his knee, "And she is four, and that is Alfie, who's also four."

"Twins?" Ellie exclaimed.

"Yeah," Clara laughed as she glanced at John.

"God I bet that was hard." Ellie laughed a little looking down at them both, they were adorable children and daisy reminded her of herself in a way. "Hello, I'm Ellie ." She said cheerily, smiling at them.

Clara smiled at her children, who didn't seem extremely bothered. When she looked from Ellie to Alfie and Daisy, she saw the most amazing similarities which the eighteen year old must have picked up on. It was strange, but it made her feel almost sad in a way.

"Why don't you run along and I'll get you some sweeties later if you don't fight?" Clara whispered to Alfie and Daisy, who both eagerly ran off, suddenly willing to share the barbie doll much more than they were before.

"Daisy looks a lot like I did as a kid." Ellie said quietly, musing to herself.

"Really?" John asked, sounding hopeful.

He could believe it was true tell from the way Ellie looked now, with her chestnut brown hair and big brown eyes that so clearly came from Clara.

"Yeah. It's weird, now I look, I can see so much of how I look in you guys." Ellie laughed.

There was a small silence where everyone started to think about their current predicament.

"So, what are you doing in your life?" Clara asked, smiling to her as she glanced over her shoulder to John, who looked happy.

Things may have been different and strange throughout their weird lives, but they'd finally solved it. All the ups and downs and difficulties they'd faced; they were all worth it for this moment.

Twenty years and a million lifetimes lived later, everything was as it was meant to be. Who could ask for more than that? I know I couldn't.