Beware the Calm

Face the Raven

It took him a while to find his way round Clara's kitchen (for a school teacher she was incredibly disorganised! He'd be having words with her about that!) but eventually he was able to make up a tray of 'goodies' that should hopefully cheer her up and make her feel better.

He poured the hot water from the kettle into two mugs, chucked a couple of teabags into each, splashed in an exact amount of milk, dropped two lumps of sugar into Clara's mug and five into his, then gave them both a quick blitz with the sonic shades to get the tea leaves infusing and releasing all their flavours.

Whilst this was going on, he found a packet of custard creams which he emptied onto a plate. That went onto the tray beside the two mugs. As did a glass of water, a packet of aspirin and a home-made ice pack, consisting of a packet of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel.

Then came the precise and incredibly difficult task of retrieving the tea bags from the scolding mugs. As he was prodding and attempting to hook one of the teabags with a finger, wincing and yelping each time he touched the boiling water, he heard a soft chuckle from behind him, and his spirits soared as he turned to see Clara leaning against the door frame, watching him.

"Well look at you, being all domestic," she teased lightly.

By now, the Doctor had given up on using his fingers and had dug out his trusty table spoon, using that to fish out the teabags instead. Once done, he wagged it at her and she held her hands up defensively, well aware that a spoon was quite often his weapon of choice.

"You should be resting."

"I know, and I will. I just wanted to ask you about this." She held up a chess piece – the white queen – for him to see.

"You know I always beat you when we play chess," he shrugged, trying to act like it wasn't important as he turned back to the tray and fished out the other tea bag, plopping it to the side of the sink where he'd put the other one. So of course Clara knew, just from his reaction, that it WAS important.

"Only because you cheat," She smirked, trying to judge his reaction. "And this isn't an ordinary chess piece."

"It's not?" Dropping the spoon into the washing up bowl, he turned back to Clara to see her watching him curiously. "Looks pretty boring to me."

She stood and stared at him for a long moment, until eventually he couldn't stand it any longer.

"What?" He asked, picking up the tray to hide the fact that she was getting him all flustered. "What is it?"

"You," she told him as he shooed her out of the doorway then followed her into the living room.

"What about me?" He set the tray on the coffee table, then picked up the ice pack and as Clara flopped into the sofa, he started to fuss over her.

"You forget I know you, Doctor. I know when you're not – ow!" Her hand instinctively rose to slap the Doctor's own hand away as he pressed the ice pack a little too firmly to her head. He avoided the slap, then made her hold onto it instead. She huffed, but considering the ice was already helping to relieve the throbbing headache, she didn't protest at being made to hold it in place.

"When I'm not what?" He asked conversationally as he took her other hand and popped two aspirin from their silver foil packet into it, then as she tipped them into her mouth, he handed her the glass of water so she could wash them down.

"Thanks," she nodded once she'd finished with the water and passed it back to him. He set it back on the tray, then picked up the chess piece from where she'd sat it on the table, so that he could finally look at it, for the first time, noting the inscription which he'd seen but never actually stopped to read when Aeryn had shown it to him.