Apple Locket (Whouffle- Doctor Who)

Chapter Five

Clara stayed cooped in her bed for the past week, blocking everything away. She had a break from being a Nanny, but she'd promised she would come back. Maybe sleep would destroy her. She may had blocked the beginning away but one face was still there, she didn't forget the Doctor. Not yet.

"And then he asked her out! I couldn't believe it, can you? I stayed with him for one whole year!" A light squeal came from the other end of the phone. Talking to Grace kept her active, she didn't mind her irritating boy obsession.

She sighed, rolling her head across the pillow "Yeah"

Something knocked against her garden shed, a noise mixing with the sinking of a flower pot. She stared at the ceiling in confusion, phone clipped to her ear.

"Shush..."

"I was ma-, Clara?" 

She ignored Grace, lifting her knees off the bed. She made focus out the window, the sill covered with tissues.

She felt her throat dry up a little.

Not saying a final to Grace, she hung up. Tossing the phone on her bed and rushing down the stairs where she made her way into the garden.

"Doctor" her knees cold and bare under her nightie.

 He smiled at her slightly, standing by the door to the world that was kept for her.

"Wh- why did you come back?" 

"Because I needed you. I wanted you to explore with me" 

He walked up to her "I'll tell you"

"No" She shook her head.  She didn't need to know anymore, her trust was his death.

"Clara, I'm getting old"

She didn't respond, just looking at his eyes stood her down.

"My time...is. Running out" he added after that, turning his gaze away from her. Lips shut tight.

Time

"Then why did you come back? I'm no good for you" Her voice soft. Soft as she'll ever be.

"I wanted to spend the rest of my time with you"

Shallow breaths escaped from her lips, she can feel the invisibility glide through her dry skin. She felt weak, she felt sore. But her heart hadn't died out yet, it was still pumping, beating, racing. Beating because he came back for her, racing because of these words which flutter out of his mouth so easily.

She walked a step up to him, her feet nuzzled inside a pair of slippers. They ached in the cold, but for him, right now, she'd run through the strongest of winds.

She took his hand, placing hers above his. Slowly drifting it towards her chest, she lay the hand on top of the pounding instrument, the sound which the blind hear- her heart.

"This here, belongs to you" 

"Don't say your becoming old Doctor, don't tell me that your time is giving up on you, because my heart will always be young for you" She shut her eye's, dropping their hands away.

If only she knew the reality behind the age he was becoming and the time which always hid behind a door. Wise eye's don't always give it away.

He took her into him, sending his warmth to her. His chin placed above her head.

"I'm sorry" He said ashamed, rubbing circles into her back.

"Please don't be" Her voice blurry from hiding her face in the corner of his neck.

She agreed to enter home later on.

---

"Doctor, do you ever think we'll go to the beach one day?" Clara asked, swinging a beige sun hat around her index finger.

"We have a time machine, you should know" he answered, looking at the woven hat laced with a black ribbon around it's body.

"I take that as a yes then" She smiled, tossing the hat into the suitcase.

"You do know the Tardis can provide you with clothes" he looked down at the piles of folded clothes neatly stacked on top of each other, eyeing the collection of shade's in the corner curiously.

"Yeah, well maybe that old snog box of your's doesn't have fashion sense" She grinned.

He raised his eyebrows, hardly being stung "I'll let you know my box has the fashion of the future!"

"What, like tight mini skirts" She smirked, watching him roll his eyes at her. 

"Anyways, we best get going before someone reports a wooden box go missing" He pushed his self off from the leather recliner, taking one of the zipped cases, whilst Clara managed to do the rest.

"You know that will never happen" She followed him down the stairs, glancing at the hallways for one last time. She looked at the only frame which hung on the wall by the stairs, it was her past. The past with a family who was there for her, but now she remains here without them.

"If I wanted to come back, could I?" She asked, as they reached the bottom of the stairs. The suitcases heaving all the energy out of them.

"Well, if you wanted to, yes"

She shook her head, this was like a museum to her now, her past is locked away here and she wouldn't enter it again. The future is just beginning...

He watched as Clara yanked out a lime book, not carrying enough pages to be called a book though. A leaf was taped onto the wide space on front. She held it against her chest, her possession. 

"What's that?" he pointed.

"My life"

Her life must had been updated since. The edge of paper's seemed creased, and bit's of shiny paper stuck out. He didn't ask more.

They stared around the area for a bit, sinking in the final moments. 

"What will your dad say when he finds you gone?" He worried.

"He won't. He'll say, where has my wife gone?" She smiled slightly, the humor not so bright.

Not wanting to ruin the present, he let her ignore it and took her hand, taking her towards the door.

"Goodbye?"

"Goodbye" The smell of the open reaching her nose again.

With that, the door which lead into another world, with the same wallpaper consuming every wall, shut.