Beware the Calm

Epilogue

The Doctor dropped Clara off to visit her Father and her Gran for her thirtieth birthday, though she didn't protest because it had been a while since she'd last seen either of them, and Aeryn's actions had reminded her that life was too short and she didn't know when she might get the chance again.

So whilst she was celebrating with tea, cake and gift wrapped presents, the Doctor went back to the Trap Street and as promised, found Aeryn's body ready for transportation back to Elysium. Ashildr/Me watched him calmly, trying to judge him and his reaction as he picked up Aeryn's body carefully in his arms. He remembered the threats he'd made towards the immortal woman before he'd been transported into his own personal torture chamber within the confession dial, and whilst she at least had the decency to look chagrined and sheepish about the whole situation, he still found that he was furious with her for her entire deception in the first place. He'd blamed her for Clara's death, when really he should be blaming her for Aeryn's. Because it was, as far as he was concerned, all Ashildr's fault that he was now having to take the Caerleon home to be buried in her family crypt.

The thought, of course, had never even occurred to him that perhaps it was also partly his fault for asking Aeryn to accompany him in the first place. If he hadn't...if he'd left her on Elysium...well then he'd still be mourning over Clara. So he'd still be to blame. Which was why it was easier to shift that blame onto Ashildr instead.

Without a single word to the viking girl, he turned and stalked out of her house, back to the TARDIS, where he lay Aeryn reverently in the chair where she'd once sat to watch him, so full of life as they'd worked out how to save the day. Together.

Now, she looked asleep. Peaceful and serene.

After taking her home and explaining what had happened to her father – how she'd died saving a friend and had been incredibly brave, even till the end – the Doctor was amazed to find that her father had been expecting it all along. Apparently during her chat with her father before she'd run off with the Doctor, she'd told her father what she was planning, and he'd been unable, just as the Doctor had been unable, to talk her out of it.

In the end he'd been forced to say goodbye, knowing that the next time he saw her would be at her funeral. But any animosity he might have once felt for the Doctor had also vanished now, and if anything his daughter's death had finally prompted the Governor to be a better man. He promised that from now on, he would follow her example and lead his people as he should always have done from the very beginning, with love and respect. Something Aeryn had understood all along, but he had failed to until it was too late.

After leaving Elysium, the Doctor returned to Clara's flat just ten minutes after he'd dropped his friend off for her birthday. This meant that for a time, he and Clara were able to forget their sadness about what had happened, as they, along with her father and grandmother shared a very happy afternoon together, laughing and telling jokes, eating cake and a selection of other nibbles that Clara's Gran had brought along for the occasion, and watching as Clara blew out the candles on top of her cake to an unusual rendition of 'Happy Birthday', complete with guitar solo by the Doctor.

She then opened her gifts with equal parts joy and surprise over each one - a new handbag and matching purse from her father, a hamper of chocolates and other goodies from Trevor and his wife next door, along with a chocolate wrench which was meant to be a joke, but which the Doctor and Clara actually found was a little too soon to be joking about just yet (Clara still had the bruise to prove it), a stack of first edition Jane Austen novels from the Doctor, signed to Clara by the author herself, plus a bottle of wine, a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates from her colleagues at Cole Hill and some vouchers for her favourite clothes shop from her Gran.

When it was time for her father to take her Gran home, Clara gave them both an extra big hug and a kiss on the cheek, which they thought was odd but pleasantly sweet of her, and finally when it was all over, she and the Doctor slumped back down on her sofa together, content and full, nursing mugs of fresh tea.

"Well, your Gran knows how to make a good sponge," the Doctor smiled, making a point of patting his stomach. "Though I'm finding I'm still a little peckish."

"Still?" Clara asked incredulously, her eyebrows rising in disbelief. "Doctor, I've never seen anyone eat as much as you have today!"

"Even so," he shrugged, sitting forward and looking to her eagerly. "I hear the cakes in Elysium are particularly fulfilling."

She also sat forward, her curiosity piqued. "What are you saying?"

"That we've got another birthday to attend. No invites, of course. We don't need them. Because we're gonna crash it in style. What do you say?"

"Count me in," Clara grinned, taking his hand without hesitation and allowing him to lead her into the TARDIS, already looking forward to their next grand adventure.

As the ancient time machine took off, her birthday cards blew off the shelf where she'd decided to display them, and the leftovers sat idly on the table, along with the still steaming mugs of tea, waiting for her to come back and clean them up again. Whenever that might be.

Clara wasn't even thinking of that now as she helped the Doctor to pilot the TARDIS off into the Vortex once more, heading for Elysium and somebody's twelve hundred and twelfth birthday.