#this au is called 'clara haunting the tardis' :)

[yesokayiknow]

okay so

the mind wipe thing doesn't just make twelve forget clara, it makes him unable to physically perceive her existence.

she's right in front of him and he can't see her. she never leaves the tardis and he literally is unable to notice her. following him around as he talks out loud to himself and she responds and because their minds are so similar when he responds to himself it's almost like he's responding to her. if she doesn't look at his face at his blank and lonely eyes it's almost like he can see her still.

so! we don't know how long there was between finale & husbands of river song but i’m gonna say it's a while! fun times

let's say a year.

let’s say a few years, even.

a few years of twelve doing all he can do to try and fill the gaping void in his memory all the while clara flits around after him like a shadow. i think it takes a few months before she stops talking out loud. or wait, no. she can just pretend he didn't hear her then, just pretend the background is too loud. it takes a few months for her to stop touching him. the lack of reaction there is just. so much worse.

and then one day he leaves. she doesn't leave after him.

(she’d tried a few times. it was worse somehow. even if other people try to make him notice her, he just cant hear them and it’s. it's so much worse)

so yeah. one day he leaves, and when he comes back, its with river song. clara’s not in view, but she can see river. and for a moment she thinks— she considers— but then what's the point? river clearly hasn't met her before, if she's still alive. and the doctor so rarely gets to see river. might as well hang back and not try and throw any spanners in.

the thing is, she THINKS its been years since gallifrey. a few years at most, she THINKS but. but she's barely there and time has always flowed differently and she doesn't need to eat or sleep or breathe and sometimes now she just. blinks. and she knows it's been more than a few moments.

sometimes she blinks and she has the sinking feeling that it's been years.

so she keeps herself in the tardis and she tries to keep herself present and aware and it doesn't always quite help.

river’s no longer here now. there's a man sometimes, and she thinks he can almost sense her. but that can't be right. she's not there, is she? she avoids him, this new person. he's not always around but she hides herself away whenever he's there. it's been. years? decades? and she doesn't remember being seen or heard. and if she walks out when this new man is here— if she walks out and there's NOTHING in his eyes—

well. there's a faint memory of being unable to die but if there was no awareness in his eyes then she thinks she might want to test that.

something she HAS noticed though, is that the tardis has stopped moving. that happened before, she thinks. when river was there? but the tardis has stopped and nobody enters it anymore.

and there's something in the back of her mind. as if there's a new....something. it's not quite in the tardis, but there's something almost familiar in her mind, like an old...friend? an old something. it taps away at her walls when it thinks she isn't noticing. it feels like the doctor. it isn't the doctor. she pushes the small amount of self she has left into a small space in her mind, almost without thinking about it. there's nothing there. there's something there. the doctor hasn't entered the tardis in years and nobody is there not even her she isn’t hearing anything she pushes it back and ignores it.

the tardis starts to move again.

and then, one day: a new person. a girl. she makes her way through as many rooms as she can, brimming with curiosity.

and clara doesn't bother hiding. what's the point? she isn't there.

it's been centuries and somebody is looking at her. it's been centuries and finally somebody catches her again when she starts to cry.

[perfectlyrose]

Monthly Self-Rec: November Edition

Rounding up everything I’ve written in November as part of the monthly self rec project! If you’ve created something this month (doesn’t have to be fic!), write a post about it and we’ll celebrate with you!

obscured [ch 2] - Nine x Rose AU, all ages, 3803 words, WIP

The forest is a dangerous place. Impenetrable fog has descended on it for one day a month for as long as anyone can remember. There are stories of wolves and ghosts haunting the woods and tales of doomed lovers from long ago. Things are about to change though and maybe love will find a way after all.

AO3 // tumblr // TSP // FF

ready to fly - Tentoo x Rose, all ages, 2694 words

The Doctor’s been working on a secret project in his workshop for his and Rose’s second wedding anniversary. The TARDIS is in on the secret and the two of them can hardly wait until the appointed day to reveal the surprise.

AO3

mark for later - Tentoo x Rose, NSFW, 100 words

concentration - Tentoo x Rose, NSFW, 412 words, AO3

something’s in the air (it’s love baby, call it love) - Casanova x Fanny, all ages, 109 words

it’s electric! - Ten x Rose, all ages, 136 words

direct current - Eight x Charley, all ages, 116 words

right at home here in this ghost town - Dimension-hopping Rose, all ages, 1191 words

The need to go, to be anywhere but here, was a buzz under her skin that kept her going when she should be exhausted and kept her up when she should be sleeping. Jumping through the Void repeatedly was preferable to giving in to the one inside of her chest.

AO3

healing sleep - Nine x Rose, all ages, 808 words

Rose and the Doctor are banged up and tired when they end up in a hotel room with only one bed.

AO3

fort building - Ten x Rose, all ages, 254 words

an excessive number of pillows - Six x Rose, all ages, 197 words

Writing Meme Responses: 10,304 words

Buffy x Willow + “you don’t need to worry about me”

Fem!Nine x Rose + bedsharing

Nine x Rose x Jack + visiting an alien festival

Eight x Rose + alien invasion wedding

Clara x Jenny + “this should be our new tradition”

Willow x Martha + met in a college lecture

Fem!Ten x Rose + post-thanksgiving cuddling

Fem!Ten x Rose + giggly smut (nsfw)

Ten x Rose + seeing Rose naked for the first time (nsfw)

Nine x Rose + first kiss

Twelve x Rose + in the console room (nsfw)

Ten x Rose + in the shower

WonderTrev + “Well I hear you’re doing fine. And that you’re doing it the best that you can”

Hannah x Hardy + insecurities

Nine x Rose + accents (nsfw)

Clara x Rose + fake dating

Ten x Rose + spooning

Eleven x Clara + cocktails on the moon

Eleven x Rose + ferris wheel kiss

Nine x Rose + baking

Ten x Rose + wrong number

Hannah x Hardy + stuck inside during a thunderstorm (nsfw)

Bill x Heather + adopting a dog

Bill x Rose + be my model for this art assignment?

Clara x Jenny + adopting a dog

Hannah x Hardy + fire alarm went off at 3 am and it’s cold

Fem!Nine x Rose + made up a reason to give you flowers

Thirteen x Rose + adopting a dog

Two of Clara’s echoes + new neighbors

Eleven x Rose + aquarium date

Clara x Jenny + proposal

Clara x Rose + Clara meeting DH!Rose

Thirteen x Rose + “that jacket is mine, sorry”

Martha & Rose + meeting before either travels with the Doctor

Twelve x Rose + soulmate AU

Clara x Rose + “i don’t want you like a best friend”

Eleven x Rose + “there’s a perfectly good reason for all of these kittens”

Ten x Rose + met in a coffee shop

Original Work: 366 words

Accalia “Callie” Astra Cooper

Total word count for the month: 20,490

Total word count for the year: 118,686

[all monthly self-rec posts]

[chasingthecosmos]

By Any Other Name

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: G Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Eleventh Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 1/26 Read on AO3 here.

"Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that's what was happening ..." A Season 7 AU where Rose returns to her home universe only to find that 100 years have passed and nothing is quite the way that she remembers it. She wakes up with a new body, a new life, and a new Doctor. What has the Bad Wolf gotten her into this time? Rating may go up as the story continues

Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that's what was happening. She had never actually died before, but she still had a lingering suspicion that it wasn't supposed to be quite like this.

It had all started with dreams - dreams of her old life, back in the original universe that she had been born in. She had only had dreams like these twice before in her long life - once when she had originally been trapped here in a universe where giant floating zeppelins constantly littered the skies over London, and once again when the stars began going out and Torchwood had called her in for a special project.

Both times, he had been there, haunting her sleeping hours like a ghost. He was always calling for her, but he always seemed to be just out of her reach. She thought that the dreams would be gone for good when she was dropped off in Norway (again) with his half-human double and had consigned herself to a life of following the slow path.

After that, Rose had gone on for nearly seven decades without another single strange dream haunting her in the night. In fact, she had had a long, happy, normal life - well, as normal as a life with him could ever be. It was a life that she never could have imagined herself having, but it was a life that she cherished nonetheless.

She was used to dreaming about him, though - so when the strange dreams finally began to return, Rose tried very hard to convince herself that it was simply grief that was fueling her nightly visions. She had only just lost him earlier that year, after all. And oh, she absolutely hated that phrase - "lost him", as though she had simply let him slip through her fingers and he could still be out there, somewhere, wandering around, if only she could find him again - but she still couldn't quite bring herself to say the "d" word, so "lost" would have to do.

It was his heart that took him in the end - and the mundanity of it all still made her sick to this day. She supposed that he wouldn't have minded, though - he had always been quite fascinated by his single, human heart. Even when he had known that it was his simply humanity that was going to kill him, he hadn't been upset or afraid - he had gone in peace.

So when the dreams started up again soon after that, Rose told herself that it was all just a part of the mourning process. That was normal, right? But she had lost so many during her long, long life - her father (twice), her mother, and more friends than she could count - but none of that had ever brought on such strange dreams.

They started just the way that she remembered from last time - a voice calling her, beckoning her forward and leading her towards ... something. This time, though, the voice wasn't his - for, at least, it wasn't just him. It was a strange, singing voice that seemed to contain everything in all of time and space with it. There was also a bright, golden light accompanying it - that was new.

After a few nights of her trying to shake the voice off and ignore it, it only became more insistent. In fact, it began to form a face and a shape that was familiar and strange, comforting and terrifying all at once.

"Rose, it's time."

But Rose always vehemently denied it - always pulling back and trying to fight against the current of the voice, the light, the song.

"Come home."

After another week of this, the face that spoke to her became more solid - forming the outline of a young girl with blonde hair and golden eyes. She had a gaze that seemed to look right through Rose's skin and peer into her soul.

"Are you afraid of the big Bad Wolf?" The strange woman had a smile that was like a snarl.

Rose hadn't heard those words in years, and in the dream she always scrambled to try and remember what they meant. The only thing that she knew for certain was that the words were somehow a solid tether to the Doctor - a link that she could follow through all of time and space that would always lead her back to him. For the first time since the dreams had started, Rose finally stopped trying to fight them off so hard. She surmised that if these few spoken words were somehow connected to the one man in the entire universe who she most wanted to see, then maybe this strange woman and her glowing aura were simply another beacon, ushering her back to him once more.

After that, the woman's face began to change. Her long golden hair darkened, as did her sparkling yellow eyes.

"Are you ready to go, now?" she asked one night, reaching her hand towards Rose in a calm, beckoning gesture.

Rose's heart beat once, very hard, as everything in her cried out for answers and urged her forward. Still, she hesitated as she brought her hand up and prepared to touch the strange, otherworldly woman.

In her dreams, Rose's hands weren't aged and wrinkled as they were in real life, but as she stepped closer to the glowing creature, the light shining off of her seemed to seep into Rose's own sin, infusing her with a youthful, ephemeral glow.

"He's waiting," the woman reminded her patiently.

And that's all that she really needed to hear - because if the Doctor was somewhere out there looking for her, then Rose Tyler had no choice but to answer his call. She locked her jaw and forced herself to stare directly into the woman's haunting, golden gaze as she stepped forward and finally felt her fingers connect with the shining light.

"Just remember ... you can't make souffles without eggs."

Before Rose could ask what that odd bit of advice could possibly mean, the eerie melody echoing in Rose's ears took on a strange, familiar rhythm, and she woke up to the sounds of "Habanera" from Carmen ringing in her ears.

--------------------

After that, Rose's dream took on a strange sense of realism - it was so real, in fact, that she began to question what the lady in gold had actually done to her.

In the dream, she was a different person entirely - though she didn't quite know how she knew that (there weren't exactly mirrors lying around in the underground bunker she suddenly found herself in). Dream logic seemed to fill in the gaps, though, and when she was asked, she succinctly informed her companion that she was Oswin Oswald, junior entertainment manager for Starship Alaska.

The man who had done the asking called himself the Doctor. The name rang in her head like a memory - or, perhaps it was more like an alarm - but Rose couldn't quite place where she had heard it before. She certainly didn't recognize his face - she was positive that she wouldn't ever be able to forget a chin like that.

There was a young couple with him, too - a tall, skinny Scottish girl called Amy and a man with quite the remarkable nose who they called Rory.

The whole adventure reminded Rose of her old days of traveling around in the TARDIS, but in the dream she couldn't seem to remember her past with any sort of specificity. It was simply as though she felt a strange, reminiscent ache for days gone by as she - as Oswin - helped the Doctor and his friends navigate through a dalek asylum.

The odd dream turned into a nightmare when it turned out that she wasn't a junior entertainment manager at all - but rather a living mind trapped inside the shell of one of the most feared and hated creatures in all of existence.

It all went quite mad after that, but Rose made sure that the Doctor and his companions made it out alive, even if she didn't. She couldn't quite explain why the urge to save them was so overwhelmingly important, but it didn't really matter. She only knew that the daleks needed to be defeated, and the Doctor needed to live to fight them another day.

The dream ended in a burst of fire and heat, which then dissipated back into that now-familiar glowing, gold light. When she opened her eyes again, Rose was staring into the face of the woman who she now somehow knew was the Oswin girl, though her normally brown eyes were golden as she smiled up at Rose.

"Did you enjoy seeing him again?" she asked, her voice somehow patient and teasing all at the same time.

"Why are you doing this?" Rose demanded angrily. "Why can't you just leave me alone, to die in peace?"

"Because you're not dying," the woman replied evenly. "Think of it simply as ... the next step in your journey."

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked wearily.

"Don't you remember?" the Oswin-looking girl asked, tilting her head at Rose as though she were a wild animal trying to get a better look at its prey.

At her prompting, a memory flashed in Rose's head - a memory that she had tucked away and forgotten long ago. She blinked and suddenly she was back on Satellite Five with the entirety of the time vortex running through her mind. "I can see all that is, all that was, all that ever could be ..." her past self muttered, her eyes glowing bright with the same golden haze that was standing before her now.

"The Bad Wolf," Rose muttered as understanding finally crashed over her in waves. "You're the Bad Wolf."

The creature before her smiled ferally once more, her eyes flashing somehow impossibly brighter. "You know me," the woman replied slowly. "I have been with you throughout all of time and space, Rose Tyler, and I have come again to usher you into the next chapter of your journey."

"But what does that mean?" Rose asked desperately. "What's going to happen to me?"

"Your old body will die," the Bad Wolf explained in an emotionless monotone, "but the mind will move on to a new one."

"A ... new body?" Rose asked, confused.

"In time," the Bad Wolf agreed simply. "It will take a lot of energy to get you back to that world, but it will happen. It has already happened. It will always happen. This has been designed from the moment that you looked into the heart of the TARDIS."

"So all of that ... that dream with the daleks ..." Rose's words trailed off as the memories of the dream suddenly came flooding back to her. That man with the chin ... could it really be?

"It was a weak connection," the Bad Wolf explained slowly. "In time, you will be tied to that world world more concretely. For now, you experience these things as dreams."

"And ... the Doctor?" Rose asked hesitantly, barely daring to hope.

"He's alive and well. And waiting for you."

"But ... the name ... I called myself 'Oswin' ..." Rose continued, still trying to wrap her head around this great, impossible situation.

"Oswin, Rose, Clara, Bad Wolf, what's in a name?" the creature asked, flashing her odd, inhuman smile once more.

"Okay, but ... in the dream I couldn't remember who I was. Not properly, at least," Rose insisted. "How am I supposed to find the Doctor again if I don't even know who I am?"

"The connections will build in time," the Bad Wolf assured her. "All will happen as it was designed to happen. You'll see it all very soon, when I come again at Christmas."

"Christmas?" Rose repeated dubiously.

"Until then, Rose Tyler ..."

And then her eyelids snapped open and Rose came awake with a startled gasp. Her eyesight was no longer as good as it had once been, but in the pitch-black darkness of her room, she could easily see that there was a strange, yellow glow coming off of her skin. She breathed out a heavy, confused sigh and a swirl of bright golden energy drifted from between her lips like smoke and danced before her eyes.

It was all so completely, ridiculously, impossibly mad, but when she got up the next morning, Rose still made sure to mark her calendar and count the days until Christmas. She had to admit that she was interested to see what the Bad Wolf would show her next.

[bliphany]

Fanfiction Rec Day - Whouffaldi

Whouffaldi fics means a lot to me not only because they were the reason I started to read stories written in English, but also because many of they helped me through all the angst of Doctor Who series 9. Clara and the Doctor’s last era wouldn’t be the same to me, if I hadn’t had their company.

Here are some stories that will remain in my memory and even Time Lord's device won't change that. I chose to include some of the writer’s tags just fyi, please still read the original tags per your preference.

(not in particular order)

we tried the world and it wasn’t for us; by twelveclara

She studies him, a gentle smile on her face. Her eyes are warm and he decides he no longer believes in science, or logic; there’s a light that comes from within her, like she has a sun for a heart; she wisps around, glittering, and her shadows are moonbeams. She drips dark matter and stardust. “If I were human,” he says, “the likelihood that I would exist at the same time as you is slim - unaccountably, unbearably slim - that it’s a risk I could never imagine taking.” [clara and twelve and philosophy; the paradox of love, and, as clara says, she’s an english teacher. there are too many words. 4,200 words.]

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sometime around midnight by twelveclara

He struggles between making poetry out of her body and telling her the truth: it’s a difficult combination, needing her to know and needing it to be beautiful. She says, breathless in wonderment, “Oh, the amount of things that had to happen in order for me to be standing here at all.“ [midnight in paris au. 20k words. butterflies in summer; his bones on fire. a writer and his muse. they’re making history.]

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Tidal Wave by samchandler1986

Words:5268; Chapters:3/3

This time, it really is their last hurrah.

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if anybody could have saved me it would have been you by twelveclara

He spends the night threading stars into her skin and pouring the moon into the craters of her hips; she watches the birth of deep space begin unfolding underneath her eyelids, and the universe is returned to beauty once again. Together, he believes, they could be the greatest story ever told; if only she would come back to him. [an impossible decision and its consequences; she never wanted to live forever. timelady!clara au. in 12 parts. 6k words.]

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some mad hope by twelveclara

He’d almost forgotten they were still out there, scattered across the stars and solar systems and galaxies, waiting for him. Ghosts. A curse. She’s gone, but she’s not gone. She’ll follow him forever. The idea enthralls him. Please, he thinks, haunt me to death. “You love her,” she says quietly. [on his way to revenge, he finds answers. maybe they’re not much better. maybe they are. a hell bent alternative ending. hybrid au, 6k words, in 10 parts.]

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a theory about us and the universe by twelveclara

“Call it a paradigm shift,” he responds finally, low and delicate. “The Cybermen and their upgrades, the Time Lords and their time machines; you, alive and standing in front of me.” He stops being able to separate idealism and reality, allowing himself a world in which time watches the way he touches her and thinks,finally, you’ve done enough. [post-hell bent, and simultaneously, pre-magician’s apprentice. some people are much harder to tear apart once they’ve been brought together. based off this theory of mine. 10.6k words]

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Love Me Like You Mean it by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 52343; Chapters: 37/37

1959. Dr John Smith moves to Texas with one goal in mind: to start over and forget about his past. When he meets Clara Oswin Oswald, a waitress and an outcast with a whole lot of buried dreams he thinks that she might be just what he needs to give his life some meaning. Diner AU. Rated E for later chapters. Whouffaldi.

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Orpheus's Rescue by peacockgirl

Words: 34120; Chapters: 4/5; Major Character Death; Face The Raven; Hell Bent

For everyone who liked the poignancy of Hell Bent & Face the Raven but wished for better for Clara and the Doctor. Clara has resolved to visit 101 more places before she dies, but after she discovers the Doctor has lied about losing his memories, will he really be able to let her go? Whouffaldi

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The Box Would be Empty by capildissexy

Words:2174; Chapters: 1/1 Major Character Death

Twelve/Clara discuss her mortality. Inspired by the heavy foreshadowing of Clara's life coming to an untimely end.

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Oceans of Me and You by laekanik

Words: 1468; Chapters: 1/1

"I'll be the judge of time," and what followed after.

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Suited and Booted by levendis

Words: 596; Chapters: 1/1

On the red velvet coat. (Set during "Face the Raven")

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Spring Cleaning by levendis

Words: 672; Chapters: 1/1

The box of annoying things. Post-"Hell Bent"

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Ways to Make it Through the Wall by levendis

Words: 1946; Chapters: 1/1

Those who can't figure out their mistakes are doomed to repeat them: The Doctor, the Axis, and an infinite amount of chances to screw up all over again. Post-"Hell Bent"

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the man who fell to earth by jontinf

Words: 3846; Chapters: 1/1

“Is she your beloved? This Clara Oswald of Blackpool.”

He nearly slices off the tip of his thumb and throws a suspicious glance Bors’s way. “Are you ill, Bors?” he asks. “Have you come down with a case of the bloody flux?”

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bones on fire by kissmeinnewyork

Words: 1238; Chapters: 1/1

There are a million different wars he could wage and a million different stars he could burn, but instead he carries on. (post face the raven.)

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Absence in a Vacuum (Where is the Feedback?) by midnightxgarden

Words: 4339; Chapters: 1/1 Hell Bent

Clara made some promises when she took a TARDIS and ran away, but does a frozen heart ever heal? (aka the story of how accidents bring the Doctor and Clara back together in spite of what the universe demands)

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That Subtle Knot by antennapedia

Words: 1473; Chapters: 1/1 Hell Bent

The Doctor tells his story, then reaches out to touch the waitress's hand. And freezes.

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Hiding by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 893; Chapters: 1/1

They never do it in the TARDIS, or her flat. It's like they're different people out there while they're running, like it doesn't even count, like it never really happens at all.

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clara/twelve fic: history, like love  by twelveclara

There are planets orbiting her eyes and her mouth tastes like the ocean; in her head she hears a shatter, like her soul has pried her ribs apart in a desperate, aching attempt to reach his. “If I could have picked anybody,” he murmurs, “it would have been you.” [these words hurt as much as the truth always does. a soulmates/new girl (but you need no knowledge of new girl, i just took the ‘roommates’ plot) au. 15k words.]

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Things We Don't Say by c1araoswa1d

Words: 1977; Chapters: 1/1

Prompt: At the end of Deep Breath, we hear say, “I’m not your boyfriend,” but then the Doctor has to admit to himself he does have feelings for Clara. 

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One of Us has to Remember by whouffaldigarbage

Words: 2075; Chapters: 1/1

In a moment of panic at the end of time, just before he prepares to wipe Clara's memory, the Doctor goes back in time to Clara Oswald, alive and well. Before she died. Before she lost her pulse. When she was just his Clara. Turns out he's not the only one who misses what they used to be.

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Physicians and Phonographs by whouffaldigarbage

Words: 55212; Chapters: 17/17

A Victoran AU. Clara is a maid overseeing the children of a large estate. Struggling with her own desire for freedom and the suitors pursuing her, she feels a profound lack of something in her life. One day, circumstances out of her control lead her to require the services of the mysterious and ostracized Doctor, and a friendship grows between them that leads to something more. Demons from their past come back with a vengeance, society seeks to tear them apart, the supernatural rears its ugly head, and their future stands on the precipice of extinction. Together or alone they could face it all, but the choice is not a simple one.

Rated M for future chapters. Slow burn fic. Angst, humor, the supernatural, and stuffy Victorian romance, with a dash of the original tale of Beauty and the Beast.

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i live to let you shine by freloux

Words: 1125; Chapters: 1/1

Blanket fort ridiculousness.

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Good Days by samchandler1986

Words: 1211; Chapters: 1/1

He said he never forgets a face. Now, neither does she.

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basil and cleopatra by jontinf

Words: 13891; Chapters: 2/2 Hell Bent

Clara and the Doctor if they'd never stopped running.

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The Thief by antennapedia

Words: 9679; Chapters: 1/1 Death in Heaven

The Doctor just smashed up the TARDIS console, but he needs to get away from there. He shoves his fingers into the telepathic matrix and goes... somewhere. He doesn't care where. The TARDIS cares, however. This is what happened in between the visit to Gallifrey and the meeting in the cafe.

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The Hypervodka Incident by antennapedia

Words: 12086; Chapters: 4/?

There’s some karaoke. And hypervodka. And consequences.

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In Your Place by lornesgoldenhair

Words: 7930; Chapters: 1/1 Hell Bent

After years of travelling with Ashildr Clara decides to return to Gallifrey and her own timeline but attempts to Face The Raven fail and she is left in limbo, unresponsive, unable to live or die. Chased by Reapers and Time Lords Ashildr knows only one person can help them now, but can she risk reuniting Clara with him? With paradoxes and rifts opening, Reapers attacking and all hell breaking loose will Clara close the loop and sacrifice herself or will the Doctor take the place of a woman he has forgotten?

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The Man That Once Was by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 7802; Chapters: 4/4

The Doctor has reigned Gallifrey as Lord President since the Time War. Driven mad by power he has one goal in mind: the utter and absolute extinction of the Daleks. Until one day a seemingly ordinary human girl attempts to steal his most precious possession just to bring a little hope to the entire universe.

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Being Human 101 : Lessons in Physiology by lornesgoldenhair

Words: 21240; Chapters: 9/9

This is set in the universe created by 'In Your Place' wherein Clara gets her heartbeat back after the Doctor sacrifices himself to the Raven, but being a Time Lord with a special connection to his companion, he survives. You don’t have to have read it to read this. The two are different in style too.

In Summary : Clara having been frozen between one heartbeat and the next has to relearn how her body works. Everything from sleeping to processing alcohol, eating to sex, its all hazy to her after 400 years but the Doctor is on hand to help her discover what he describes as 'the fun a working body can lead to.'

Rated M for later Chapters.

A bit of an experimental work in progress.

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dim the lights some, whisky lemon by dorothymcshane

Words: 2360; Chapters: 1/1

”Shut up, Oswald.” ”Make me.” In response he turns her around and pins her to the shelf. She gasps, unprepared for losing her control over him so abruptly, and more than a little turned on. ”My pleasure,” he says, his voice seductively husky, and slides her skirt up to place a hand between her legs.

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Communicate by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 1253; Chapters: 1/1

The TARDIS translation circuit is broken. The Doctor doesn't speak English. But there are three words that the two of them still understand perfectly despite their communication failure. Twelve & Clara.

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All Inclusive by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 34335; Chapters: 21/21

When his sister Missy convinces him to go on a cruise the Doctor has no idea that she is sending him on a party & singles cruise, determined to find him a match. It's even more of a surprise to him when he wakes up the morning after a party and realizes he is married to the annoying woman who vomited on his shoes on the first evening. But all will be well and the marriage can be annulled back on land – as long as he and Clara don't consummate it. Whouffaldi AU.

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Running Out Of Pages by UniverseOnHerShoulders

Words: 2589; Chapters: 1/1

Somehow, their evenings always come to this: Clara doing her marking, while the Doctor sits idly beside her and tries to avoid doing anything his companion might deem to be "annoying." So he's surprised when she asks him for background noise while she works - although of course, there are stipulations...

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Double shot, and extra hot by redpandanormalpanda

Words: 2346

AU when your OTP are both assholes - the Whouffaldi version. ‘I’m a barista and you’re the obnoxious customer who comes through and orders a venti macchiato while talking on the phone the whole time so I misspell your name in increasingly creative ways every day’

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The Edge of the World by infinite_regress

Words: 2262; Chapters: 1/1

The Doctor remembers Clara, his memories return in a flood, and he makes some questionable choices. Luckily Clara is there to pick up the peices

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Bookends by samchandler1986

Words: 529 Chapters: 1/1

As the Earth orbits the sun one more time, as the calendar edges closer to counting another year of her brief life, it’s a time for renewal. Like a mini-regeneration. And unlike the TARDIS, Clara’s wardrobe is resolutely finite.

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Like Stars by c1araoswa1d

Words: 2050; Chapters: 1/1

Twelve and Clara have a quiet evening of babysitting.

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but we're so happy (WIP) by twelveclara

part one: “I knew them both,” Jack says quietly. “I watched them fall in love. I watched them change.” Their knees touch, and her hand is on his thigh, and he’s smiling at her like she’s the sole reason he’s alive; Rory pictures the sun and the earth, orbiting. [punk rock au. from the outside looking in. the song repeats, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you, haunting him. so, maybe he’ll never know. 10k words]

part two: Nobody has ever kissed her like this in her entire life; she swears she’s spent years building up to this, decades, millenniums. Somewhere, a star is dying and a galaxy is being born and her head is a black hole; in every other dimension a version of her stops and takes in a breath, missing something. She says hotly, “If we’re already going to hell, you might as well just fuck me tonight.” [punk rock au. she’s the devil herself and he never stood a chance. 27k words. mature.]

[chasingthecosmos]

By Any Other Name

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: T Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Eleventh Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 31/33 Read on AO3 here.

“Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that’s what was happening …” A Season 7 AU where Rose returns to her home universe only to find that 100 years have passed and nothing is quite the way that she remembers it. She wakes up with a new body, a new life, and a new Doctor. What has the Bad Wolf gotten her into this time? The 50th Anniversary will be included in this story.

Rose felt fear and adrenaline spike through her veins as she and the Doctor faced off against the glowing, gold crack that stretched upwards like a sinister, crooked smile along the wall before them. She wasn't quite sure if the terror that she felt in that moment was coming from her or her bondmate, but it didn't really matter as they both silently held their breaths and examined the strange anomaly.

"Doctor ... what is that?" Rose asked warily as she narrowed her eyes at the gleaming yellow light that ominously lit up the room around them.

Rose could feel the way that his hearts sunk in his chest as a wave of bitter defeat swept through the Doctor's thoughts and instantly flooded her mind. "I knew," he muttered quietly in response. "I always knew it wasn't over." He dropped her hand, then, so that he could shrug off his jacket as he bent down to get a closer look at the crack in the wall.

"It's a split in the skin of reality," he explained as he slowly let his fingers trail over the edge of the jagged line. "It's a structural weakness in the whole universe. Someone's trying to get through it from outside our universe, from somewhere else."

"'Somewhere else'?" Rose repeated dubiously, but the Doctor ignored her as he turned and stalked towards the empty cyberman head that he had brought along with them onto the planet's surface.

"You said 'Gallfirey', why did you say 'Gallifrey'?" the Doctor demanded roughly as he grabbed the robotic helmet and glared deep into its black, unseeing eyes. The name still sent a shock of fear and heartache through them both as the Doctor repeated the words that they cyberman had announced earlier in the day, before they had ever set foot on the snow-filled, wintery planet.

"Analysis of message composition indicates Gallifreyan origin, according to TARDIS databanks," the robot replied matter-of-factly.

The Doctor gritted his teeth together in silence for a moment before he shoved one of his hands into one of his trouser pockets and pulled out a flat, round circle. "Seal of the High Council of Gallifrey," he explained quickly. "Nicked it off the Master in the Death Zone." He slapped the seal onto the cyberman's forehead without any further explanation and tightened his grip on the helmet as he commanded, "There is an algorithm imprinted in the atomic structure - use it to decode the message."

"Message decoding," the robot replied in its flat monotone. "Message analysis proceeding. Information available. The message is being projected through all of time and space on a repeating cycle."

The Doctor's face went pale and Rose felt her fingers clenching into fists at her sides as their combined terror swept through their bond once more and made her heart skip a beat in foreboding.

"Warning: translation will be available to all lifeforms in range," the cyberman continued hollowly. "Translation follows: Doctor who?"

The two words seemed to fill the small room of the tower and echo ominously around them as the robotic voice of the cyberman twisted and distorted, continuing to repeat the question on an endless, repetitive cycle.

"A question only I can answer ..." the Doctor muttered quietly as he hung his head in utter defeat and shuffled back towards the glowing crack in the wall. "A truth field to make sure I'm not lying. If I give my name, they'll know they've found the right place and that it's safe to come through." He sighed wearily as he leaned one shoulder against the wall and began fidgeting nervously with his hands as his gaze stared hard at nothing and his mind began to run through the many terrible possibilities that lay before them.

"Doctor ..." Rose murmured quietly as she stepped close and laid her hands gently over his twitching fingers in an attempt to calm him. "Isn't that a good thing? Don't you want Gallifrey to come back?"

The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut tight as he let his arms drop to her waist and pulled her forward to rest his forehead against hers, but she could sense that her solid presence in his arms was doing nothing to ease the sharp, panicked anxiety that was coursing through his mind.

This is dangerous, Rose, he reminded her silently over their bond. More dangerous than you can possibly imagine. "Any chance I could convince you to go back to the TARDIS where it's safe?" he added out loud, his voice a mere whisper between them as his mind reached for hers and silently begged for her to allow him this one, last comfort of knowing that she was alive and secure while he faced off against this looming, unknowable danger.

"I'm sorry, Doctor," Rose sighed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, "but there's no way I'm leaving you now."

Rose could sense that the Doctor's thoughts were still racing ahead of them both, searching for a different solution or a way to trick her into following his wishes, but they both knew how he had tried and failed at that before, and with a direct line to her thoughts and a truth field hovering all around them, there was no way that he could lie to her now.

Rose knew that she should probably be more upset that he was trying so hard to get rid of her, but she could feel the panicked urgency of his thoughts and she would have been lying if she had tried to say that her own restless anxiety wasn't making her itch to get away from this place as fast as possible. However, they both knew that she had made her choice long ago, and there was no way that she could leave him now, no matter what either of them might have wished.

"Doctor!" a familiar female voice called out suddenly, her voice booming through the entire town and echoing through the dark chambers of the tower around them. "Doctor, face me now!"

The Doctor stepped back and flashed Rose a tight-lipped, pained smile as he begrudgingly accepted their shared fate. "To work, then?" he asked, all of his usual eagerness completely gone from his tone as he fought to meet her eyes.

Rose placed her hand firmly in his, giving his fingers a tight squeeze as she nodded resolutely and stated, "Together."

--------------------

"Trenzalore."

The simple name seemed to ring out across the entirety of the planet as the hologram of Tasha's face stared down at them intently from the night sky above. The Doctor had asked her for the name of the planet, and the answer had instantly turned Rose's blood to ice as the declaration hung ominously in the air around them.

"If you speak your name, the Time Lords will return," the Mother Superious continued gravely.

"If they return, they will come in peace!" the Doctor protested desperately, his grip on Rose's hand turning painful as he faced down the giant projection in an attempt to defend his entire race.

"It doesn't matter," Tasha insisted resolutely. "They will be met with a war that will never end. The Time War will begin anew. You know that, Doctor."

"They're asking for my help!" The Doctor cried in reply, his free hand cutting through the air in anger as he continued to argue with her. For the first time since Rose had paired her mind with his, she could feel what the daleks referred to as the "Oncoming Storm" beginning to rage within him. The cold, harsh reality of it made her shiver.

"And if you give it, war will be the consequence," Tasha snarled darkly, completely heedless to the Doctor's growing frustration. "I will not let that happen, at any cost. Speak your name, and this world will burn."

"No," the Doctor replied, his own conviction just as dangerous as hers. "This world is protected."

He dropped Rose's hand just long enough to grab his sonic and point it at the large brass bell that hung from the top of the tower behind them. As soon as it began to swing and its loud call began to vibrate through the cool, dark air of Trenzalore, he grabbed Rose's hand again and dragged her quickly back down the tower stairs they way that they had come.

"So what now?" Rose asked breathlessly as she struggled to keep up with him. "Doctor, what are you going to do now?"

"Weren't you listening?" the Doctor asked, tossing her a smile over his shoulder that didn't quite match the dark look haunting the rest of his expression. "Now we protect them - the whole planet, all of them. Christmas has a new sheriff."

--------------------

Rose tried very hard to stay hopeful after that, but the days turned into weeks, and when the weeks began to multiply, she quickly began to lose track of just how long she and the Doctor had been in the small, sleepy town of Christmas. The nights seemed to go on for ages with only short glimpses of daylight in between to mark the time by.

And always there were the aliens - most of them small attack forces sent down from the ships above and meant to infiltrated and wipe out the townsfolk in an attempt to get to the Doctor. However, every plan was thwarted in one way or another, and soon it just became something that Rose and the Doctor did - a strange, unconventional way for them both to pass the time. They even made a game of it, sometimes - who could stop the cybermen quicker? Who could dodge the most sontaran lasers? Who could shoot down more dalek drones out of the sky?

The Doctor never once stopped trying to convince Rose to leave, though. Every waking hour that they were together, he was quietly pricking the back of her mind and reminding her that the TARDIS was parked in the center of town and could be used to escape at any time that she chose. Every time, Rose's answer was exactly the same - "Not unless you come with me, Doctor."

And so they both remained - because the Doctor could not choose between the innocent town of Christmas and his own people, and Rose could not leave the Doctor to make the decision on his own.

Without having to discuss it between themselves, the few short minutes of sunlight that the planet received every day quickly became another part of their strange new routine as well. Every morning, as long as there wasn't some danger attempting to sneak its way through the town's border, Rose and the Doctor would meet at the top of the bell tower and watch the sun rise and set together.

"After all these years, I've finally found somewhere that needs me to stick around," the Doctor mused quietly one morning as they sat close to one another at the top of the tower, a single, wool blanket wrapped tight around them both to keep out the planet's wintery chill.

"You're not serious, are you?" Rose asked, scrunching up her nose at him as she handed the Doctor the large bag of marshmallows that he had brought up with them. When she received nothing more than a sad, blank stare in reply, she rolled her eyes and grabbed the Doctor's arm, hugging it tightly between her own as she pulled him closer to her. "People have always needed you to stick around, Doctor. It was you who never wanted to give them the chance."

Rose pressed a kiss to his cheek and silently filled his thoughts with her quiet sympathy. She knew why the Doctor always felt as though he had to run - he was afraid of consequences, afraid of goodbyes, afraid of attachments that he knew would always have to break at some point or another. She supposed that his fears were well-founded in some respects, but she needed him to know that he was loved and needed by more people in this universe than he would ever possibly be able to understand.

"Everyone gets stuck somewhere eventually, you know," she reminded him quietly, "even you."

"Suppose so," the Doctor murmured noncommittally. He plucked a large marshmallow form the plastic bag in his lap and flashed her a small smile out of the corner of his eye as he added, "Stuck with you, that's not so bad."

Rose recognized the quiet declaration from their previous life together, and she rewarded him with a bright, pleased smile as dawn began to glow along the horizon before them.

"Sure I can't convince you to leave?" he asked quietly, immediately diminishing the conviction of his words as he pressed a kiss to Rose's temple and wrapped one arm around her waist to bring her in closer. She turned to rest her head affectionately on his shoulder in response as she gazed out at the pale blue and yellow sky that they had come to call home.

"Never gonna happen," she stated firmly. "Are you ever going to stop asking me that?"

"Nope," the Doctor replied with a soft sigh, his fingers trailing absently along the line of her hip. "Everything ends, Rose. I'm determined not to see yours."

She supposed that there was the one good thing about living in the town of Christmas, at least - with the truth field keeping them all from lying, they had eliminated the need for the use of Rose's second name whenever she and the Doctor were out in public. He hadn't called her "Clara" once since they had first arrived, and no one on Trenzalore seemed to be able to mark the difference.

"Not everything," Rose reminded him quietly, "not you."

"Yes," the Doctor insisted, his grip on her tightening, as though he needed to make sure that she was still real and sitting there with him. "Yes, even me. I can only change twelve times. Thirteen versions of me - thirteen silly Doctors."

"What are you trying to say?" Rose asked, turning her head on his shoulder so that she could meet his sad, gloomy expression. She knew the old Time Lord rule as well as he did - she had questioned her husband about it extensively in their parallel world in an attempt to better understand him and his people. However, she had always just assumed that the Doctor would find some way to circumvent that rule, just as he did with so many others. She had never known that the number of regenerations concerned him at all.

"You're, what, number twelve, including the Doctor I met from the Time War?" she continued hesitantly. "So what are you worried about?"

"Are you forgetting about the Metacrisis?" the Doctor asked pointedly. "I kept the same face, but it was still a regeneration. That means I can't ever do it again. This is where I end up - this face, this version of me. We saw this planet in the future, remember? All those graves ... one of them mine."

"Yes, but I remember Gallifrey, as well," Rose insisted stubbornly. "There were thirteen TARDISes there, Doctor, I counted them."

"That doesn't prove anything," he grumbled with a wary shake of his head. "That could have been anyone, we never saw his face. There's no way of knowing if that was me."

Rose opened her mouth to argue, but her words were cut off as a giant hologram of a familiar face suddenly filled the skies over Trenzalore.

"Doctor!" Tasha called out, her gaze appearing frantic as she quickly scanned the landscape and eventually narrowed her eyes on Rose and the Doctor. "The Church of the Silence requests parlay. Your rights and safety are sanctified."

"I'll be right up!" the Doctor called back warily as he moved to stand, wrapping their shared blanket tighter around Rose's shoulders.

"'Parlay'?" Rose repeated dubiously as she hugged the blanket tighter around herself and moved to follow him. "What's that all about? How long have we been down here, with no word from her or her lackeys, and now, all of a sudden, they want to talk?"

"Yes, it is a bit suspicious, isn't it?" the Doctor replied, narrowing his eyes on the dark, starry sky above them as the sun finished its decent back into the horizon. "Is it dangerous enough that I could convince you to stay behind?" he added, flashing Rose a bright, hopeful look.

"Not on your life," Rose replied instantly. "This one, or the next," she added, giving the Doctor a weighty, pointed look. He ignored her stubborn insinuation and simply sighed in defeat as he led her back down the stairs towards where the TARDIS was parked. They both silently agreed over their bond to save that particular argument for another day.

[chasingthecosmos]

By Any Other Name

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: T Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Eleventh Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 21/30 Read on AO3 here.

“Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that’s what was happening …” A Season 7 AU where Rose returns to her home universe only to find that 100 years have passed and nothing is quite the way that she remembers it. She wakes up with a new body, a new life, and a new Doctor. What has the Bad Wolf gotten her into this time? The 50th Anniversary will be included in this story.

The landing was one of the roughest that Rose had ever experienced in all of her time traveling with the Doctor. With most of the TARDIS's systems shut down, the ship's song was nothing more than a distant, disgruntled groaning in the back of Rose's mind, but she thought that there was something more in the ship's message - almost like a cry of warning.

The Doctor took Rose's hand in his as they took their first stumbling steps onto the surface of the planet Trenzalore. They seemed to have landed in some sort of old, dimly lit graveyard and Rose shivered as the Doctor explained to her the many unique dangers that no doubt lay ahead of them.

It didn't take them long at all to find the great, towering vestiges of the TARDIS herself, and Rose winced as the old ship's song reached into her mind. The familiar melody - which was normally so reassuring that it could instantly calm her, no matter what the circumstances were - was coming out oddly garbled and uneven with time and age.

"What else would they bury me in?" the Doctor grumbled bitterly as he dropped Rose's hand and stormed off with his shoulders hunched up practically to his ears.

However, Rose didn't get the chance to run off after him before a sharp, whispered voice called out to her. "Clara!" Rose whipped her head around at the sound of her false name and stared wide-eyed at the image of Professor River Song that stood just behind her, watching her and the Doctor carefully. "Don't speak, don't say my name," the other woman commanded quietly. "He can't see or hear me. Only you can."

Rose furrowed her brow at the strange woman as she slowly looked her up and down. She appeared real enough - wearing the exact same clothes that she had been dressed in during Rose's dream - but there was an odd glimmer just around the outline of her form that suggested that the image that Rose was looking at now wasn't actually there.

Rose cast the other woman one last wary look before she turned slowly back towards the direction that the Doctor had stormed off to and silently and discreetly motioned for River to follow her. She had to clench her jaw shut tight in order to force herself to hold back the many questions that she had for River - it wouldn't do for the Doctor to hear her talking to herself and worrying over yet another confusing mystery. However, River seemed more than happy to fill in the gaps for her.

"We're mentally linked," the other woman explained as she easily fell into step beside Rose and the two of them continued to dodge through the headstones in the direction of the Doctor. "It's the conference call - I kept the line open."

Rose flashed her a quick, distrustful look out of the corner of her eye as the two women finally came up upon the Doctor, who seemed to have frozen in his tracks and was staring blankly at nothing. Rose ignored River completely, then, as she stepped forward and slid her hand into his, looking up at him with quiet concern.

"Doctor?" she asked hesitantly.

"River."

"Sorry?" Rose replied searchingly. But all other questions quickly died on her tongue as she followed the Doctor's haunted gaze to the gravestone that stood directly opposite him. Carved into the granite in a plain, unassuming font was the name "River Song" - no dates or description, just the one, simple name.

"Doctor, that can't be right ..." Rose murmured, remembering her previous conversation with him when he had clearly told her that he had seen River's death with his own eyes.

"No, it can't," the Doctor agreed breathlessly. "Her grave can't be here."

"Well, if it's not my gravestone, then what is it?" River asked slyly as she circled around Rose and leaned herself casually against the slab of granite before them.

Rose narrowed her eyes at the other woman once more, but she followed her subtle bidding nonetheless as she clung tighter to the Doctor's hand and repeated, "If it's not her gravestone, then what do you think it is?"

The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut tight and shook his head as he searched his brain for any sort of answer that might make sense.

"Maybe it's a false grave," River supplied helpfully, raising her eyebrows at Rose in a pointed look. "Maybe it's a secret entrance to the tomb."

Rose's breath caught and her eyes widened as she looked up at the Doctor and quickly parroted River's words back to him.

"Yes, of course! Makes sense!" the Doctor muttered triumphantly as he dropped Rose's hand and quickly retrieved his sonic screwdriver from his breast pocket. "They'd never bury my wife out here!"

Rose didn't get the chance to admonish him for his tactless use of the word "wife" in that moment as he shot his arm out straight and pointed his sonic at the gravestone. In a flash of green, the sonic whirred to life and then the ground gave way beneath them and everything went dark as Rose and the Doctor plummeted headlong into the ground.

"Where are we?" Rose whispered as she stood shakily to her feet and dusted off the front of her dress. Even though she purposefully kept her voice low, the sound seemed to ring off of the silent stone walls that surrounded them. The only light in the dim, underground tunnel came from large metal torches that lined the walls sporadically along the walkway.

The Doctor reached for one and replied succinctly, "Catacombs."

"'Course they are," Rose replied, her tone laden with sarcasm. "Why wouldn't there be catacombs? Anyway, what was that gravestone all about? Why would someone put River's name over an empty grave? Doctor, you never properly explained what happened to her ..."

"No, I didn't," he replied with a soft sigh, pointedly ignoring the rest of Rose's questions as he turned away and began to lead them deeper into the underground catacombs.

"I died saving him." River's unexpected voice made Rose jump again as she whirled around to face the other woman, who was standing behind her with a small, rueful smile on her face. "In return, he saved me to a database in the biggest library in the universe. Left me like a book on a shelf. Didn't even say goodbye."

Rose lowered her gaze as she felt a stab of empathy for the other woman. She knew only too well how painful saying goodbye to the Doctor could be - she had been forced through the experience far too many times in her long life.

"He doesn't like endings," River sighed resignedly, giving Rose a small, helpless shrug. However, after a brief pause, she cocked her head curiously in Rose's direction as she added, "You seem to know a lot about me, but I'm afraid that I don't know much about you, Clara. I used to study the Doctor's companions, you know - both past and future - but I don't remember ever coming across your name ..."

Rose's jaw tightened as her mind began to race in an attempt to come up with a lie that would be good enough to fool the clever Professor Song when a dark gloved hand suddenly reached through the center of River's chest and another tall man in a top hat with no face stepped through her image and began reaching threateningly towards Rose.

"This man must fall as all men must, the fate of all is always dust," the creature whispered ominously.

"Rose, come on!" the Doctor shouted, seeming to appear out of nowhere as he slipped his hand into hers and drug her instantly out of harm's way. "Run, run!" Rose knew the command well, and she had no trouble heeding his words now as she darted quickly after him.

"The man who lies will lie no more, when this man lies at Trenzalore," the monsters continued to whisper as they hastily followed down the dusty hallway after them.

Finally, the Doctor and Rose reached the end of the path where a large, metal door loomed before them. "Come on, quickly!" he called, giving the door a quick buzz with the sonic and then shoving her unceremoniously through the open arch. He slammed the door shut behind them just in time, one of the creature's gloved hands catching in the crack of the door as the Doctor thrust his entire weight against it.

"What are those things?" Rose demanded breathlessly as the hand finally slipped back out of sight and the door locked securely into place.

"No idea," the Doctor breathed, leveling his gaze on her in quiet concern. "Are you alright?" The way he was looking at her suggested that he meant more than just physically, but Rose still didn't quite know how to tell him that she was seeing a strange dream-image of his dead wife, so she simply nodded her head and dropped her gaze from his dismissively.

As if on cue, a familiar voice suddenly whispered through the darkness. "I can't believe it ..." Rose had to fight not to roll her eyes as she glanced sideways and caught sight of Professor Song yet again. "It can't be possible, how did you ...?"

But River didn't get a chance to finish her breathless question as the Doctor let his torch drop heavily to the ground at their feet and then stepped forward and grabbed Rose's hand once more, pulling them off towards a set of grated stairs.

"Rose," River continued anyway as she rushed hurriedly after them, her eyes wide with wonder as she stared hard at Rose's face. "He called you Rose. But ... that's not possible. You can't be ..."

Rose turned to flash river a threatening glare over her shoulder. If she weren't afraid of replying out loud and risking the Doctor thinking that she had finally lost it, she would have reminded the other woman to keep her voice down and mind her own business. She shouldn't even be here, anyway - wasn't she supposed to be dead?

"You are, aren't you?" River gasped in amazement as the three of them continued to rush quickly up the staircase. "You're her ..."

Rose's sharp retort was just on the tip of her tongue, but it was cut off as a loud whispering suddenly filled the air around them once more, making all three of them hesitate as they looked around anxiously for the source of the noise.

"The girl who died he tried to save, she'll die again inside his grave."

"Run," the Doctor commanded again, tugging Rose's arm as they continued their mad dash towards the ancient TARDIS's console room.

Thankfully, when Rose glanced back over her shoulder, she saw that River's form had dissipated once more - her impossible-to-answer questions and her wide-eyed look of shock gone with her. Rose could only hope that she wouldn't be making an appearance for a fourth time. She wasn't exactly sure what danger there could be in revealing her true identity to a dead woman, but here in this broken-down TARDIS where timelines were falling apart and reconverging in new and mysterious ways, Rose didn't exactly want to find out just how far she could push her luck.

--------------------

However, despite Rose's wishes, River

did

show up again - and just in time to open the door to the Doctor's tomb and save all of their lives. Rose nearly stopped breathing the moment that she heard the quiet, muttered name of the Doctor spoken out loud in the presence of so many other people, and she had to forcefully remind herself that no one else could actually

hear

the whispered secret that River released into the atmosphere.

Rose had only ever heard the name spoken in the voice of her husband - and that only when they were absolutely alone. Hearing it now, spoken in another woman's voice, made her shiver uncomfortably as she glanced nervously towards the professor.

"The TARDIS can still hear me," River murmured triumphantly as she slowly circled the Doctor and raised her eyebrows at him smugly. "Lucky thing, since him indoors is being so useless."

Rose flashed the other woman an unamused look as the Doctor rushed unknowingly past the professor and began to check over each person in their group one at a time. He glanced over Jenny, Vastra, and Strax first, and then was immediately at Rose's side. "Clara, are you okay?" he asked in concern as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

Rose squeezed her eyes shut tight as she embraced him, her heart still pounding in fear as the two of them turned in unison to face the open doors that stood ahead and the ominous, glowing light that lay beyond.

"Do you know what's in there?" the Doctor asked the Doctor Simeon-looking man who stood between them and the tomb.

"For me, peace at last," the being answered simply. "For you, pain everlasting. Won't you invite us in?" The man stepped graciously aside, silently beckoning the Doctor forward and daring him to try and go against his wishes again.

The Doctor tensed at Rose's side as he openly glared at the blue-tinted glow seeping through the doors before them. Finally, he took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and stepped forward to heave the double doors open far enough for them all to enter.

Rose was directly behind him the entire time as their small party slowly entered into the old, derelict TARDIS. The ship's song moaned slightly off-key as they all crossed her threshold into what was meant to be the console room, but had long since been grown over with roots and vines attempting to wind their way around her insides.

As they all slowly climbed the stairs towards the main level of the old console room, Rose realized two things simultaneously. The first was that the ephemeral blue glow that had been seeping out of the room was not - as she had first assumed - the light of the time rotor. In fact, there was no time rotor - not anymore. Instead, a hazy mess of silver-blue lines reached from the floor to the ceiling in place of the TARDIS console, tangling and twisting together in an infinite, intricate dance.

The second thing that Rose noticed was that the great mess of timelines wasn't the only thing emitting a glow from the center of the large room. There was the form of a woman standing in the middle of it all - her odd, inhuman eyes flaring gold as she blinked up to stare directly at them.

"Hello, Rose," the Bad Wolf murmured quietly. "It's good to see you again."