who ten & clara what he's collecting hugs, really where mess hall when hours after he's seen lucy! warnings cheekiness! it'll be v. tame, f'realsies
It was ridiculous how many laws of time were being broken left and right in this universe. How the fabrics binding it together managed to stay that way mystified him. Without a TARDIS, he had no proper way of getting out there in the Time Vortex and seeing it for himself. Even with the TARDIS, he would have little hope of so much as getting her off the ground. It would have been comforting to see her all the same, a gentle sign of hope that things could get better.
Still, he was finding those sentiments in the people he met here, including ones he had yet to meet. Or had he and already forgotten? No doubt the latter, he decided easily enough. He'd gone on to regenerate, and had sorted the way it occurred. In his elation over surviving the Time Lords and avoiding the knocking, he'd nearly forgotten that Wilf had been trapped in the radiation booth. Most days, he carried on forgetting and believing that it all worked out in his favor.
Deep down, the Doctor knew better. He would regenerate, meet the Ponds, and then Clara. How much longer could he get away with being the last of his kind?
Then again, Clara had said something that sent his spirits through the roof when he needed it most--he wasn't the last anymore. They were alive, all of them, and just waiting to be discovered. Whether the universe would be ready for that remained to be seen. Even he wasn't certain of the answer to that, what with having urged them back into the Time Lock with the shot of a gun (that didn't seem to have made the journey with him either, for which he was grateful). All that mattered was simply knowing he hadn't destroyed his own people.
He'd been there to save them.
When he made it to the Mess Hall and found Clara with her book, his face lit up as though he'd just been reunited with a very old friend. He supposed, in many ways, he had. He only couldn't remember the journey. Hastily making his way to her, he stopped well within earshot of her as the smile turned into a cheeky grin.
"Clara Oswald," he greeted in a mock official voice. "Here to deliver several displays of affection post-haste, have I got the location correct?"