Raindrops were tapping against the window when Clara stepped into the lounge with two steaming mugs of tea clutched in each hand. The Doctor was sitting on the edge of the sofa, bent forward with his elbows resting on his knees, a thousand-yard stare broadening his blue eyes. Clara waited with her arm stretched forward until he took the proffered mug. He spared her a grateful glance, and then she sank onto the cushion next to him with a sigh.

For a long time, all they did was stare blankly ahead: her mind too numb to think, his too riddled with questions and anxieties to function.

Clara finally broke the silence. "Has this sort of thing really never happened before?"

"What, you think I travel time and space just… impregnating young women?"

"No, but… you've had kids."

The Doctor nodded stiffly and stared into his mug of tea, his lips pursed.

Clara took his inattention as an opportunity to examine his profile. "I'm assuming their mother wasn't human?"

He cleared his throat. "No."

"But you've been with women—human women—before. Right?"

This was the most agonizingly painful conversation Clara had ever had in her life, including her father's attempt at having the safe sex speech when she was seventeen. And he'd brought a banana.

The Doctor glanced towards the wall and fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat. He sighed impatiently. "Yes."

Clara took a sip of tea and wrinkled her nose when she tasted sugar. She glanced at the Doctor, who had yet to sip from his own mug, and then took it from his grasp. He looked down curiously at the other mug she offered, Clara smiling sheepishly before muttering, "Gave you the wrong one."

The Doctor placed his hand over hers before she could pull away and Clara nearly gasped at the sudden movement. He looked into her eyes with a fervent, piercing stare that made her feel like she was two feet tall, but he didn't know what to say to her. Had he even considered this a possibility, the Doctor would never have engaged in a physical relationship with Clara. Of course, he'd promised himself he would never do so even without the possibility of conception, and yet..

He was weak. He always had been, but it was always easier to deny himself what he wanted when it was better for the people he cared about. But denying his feelings for Clara had become almost painful and incredibly distracting. It had taken all of his willpower at certain moments not to scoop her into his arms and give her the sort of hug he always avoided.

The Doctor looked at her now, sitting next to him on the sofa, her face pale and her fingers shaking, and realised just how terribly he'd failed her. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry, that he would fix this and he would make everything better… but he couldn't. For so many reasons, he couldn't.

The Doctor cupped the warm mug in both hands and remembered Clara curled up in bed just three days earlier, her eyes bloodshot and teary, her voice cracking with misery. If he had any doubts about her feelings on the matter, they were squashed by that image.

"I suppose you'll want to get rid of it," he muttered.

Clara's head snapped up so quickly that her neck gave an audible crack. "What? No! Do you—Do you want me to?"

He blinked in surprise. "I didn't think you wanted it."

Her eyes did that thing where they took up half her face. "Why would you think that?"

"So, you want to keep it?"

"I…" Clara blinked rapidly and then stared at the floor.

The Doctor was reminded of the rain every time they fell silent. That and the ticking clock on the bookshelf served as a testament that this was real; time and space didn't exist in dreams.

Clara set her mug on the end table and then shifted towards the Doctor. "It's just a baby, right? I mean, it might have two hearts and the attention span of a hyperactive puppy, but it should be fine. Normal—relatively. Right?"

"I assume it would be healthy enough," he replied uneasily. "If that's what you're asking."

Clara placed her hands on her face like it had grown hot and stared at him, rapidly blinking back tears. "A-And you," she said more softly. "You will…"

"Clara, what?" he prompted, worried by her sudden upset of emotion.

She lowered her hands and swallowed hard. "Will you leave if I have the baby?"

That question winded him like a blow to the chest. "Don't be ridiculous. Why would I do that?"

She almost laughed. "Because I can't picture you letting a pregnant woman on your TARDIS, let alone a baby… or a child."

"Clara… do you honestly think I could ever turn you away?" he asked earnestly, his gaze growing soft. "Or my child?"

She released a shuddering breath and then smiled brightly with relief. So much anxiety had taken root inside of her when she first suspected she was pregnant that she didn't know if it was that or the pregnancy hormones making her ill, but now that she knew he wasn't going to leave her, the answer was clear.

Clara pulled the Doctor close for a tender embrace, partly so that he wouldn't have to see her lip tremble, but mostly because she felt such a rush of affection and attachment to him that it had to be expressed physically.

He tensed at the contact, of course, because despite all the ways they've touched each other, he was still rather awkward with hugs.

"Sorry," she said with a sniff, then a little laugh as she pulled away. "Sorry. I keep forgetting about the hugging."

"It's OK," he assured her, although his voice was too tense to be entirely believable.

Clara smiled sadly and lowered her gaze, looking up only when she felt the Doctor brushing his knuckles under her eyes. She hadn't even realized she'd been crying.

"Did you really think I would leave?" he asked.

Clara pursed her lips, attempting to smile. "Did you really think the baby wasn't yours?"

It was his turn to grow sheepish. "You have to understand, the likelihood of this happening…"

"Slim to none?" she offered.

"Something like that. I mean, it has happened. Not to me," he amended quickly. "But I suppose I should have known it was a possibility."

"I suppose we should have had a proper chat about birth control," she half-joked. Her expression softened when she met his eyes. "We got a little carried away."

The Doctor lowered his gaze to his lap and nodded, his lips pursed in an attempt to arrange his expression into something less vulnerable and ashamed. He looked down at their hands when Clara linked her fingers through his and gave them a little squeeze.

"Is there a part of you that's happy?" she asked in a quiet voice, as if she were afraid of his reaction. "Or excited? I mean—you're going to have a child. Someone likeyou."

"So will you," he replied.

"Yes, but I'm not separated from the rest of my kind. I know the baby will be half human, but it'll also be half you."

She stroked the soft skin between his thumb and forefinger with the pad of her thumb. The Doctor admittedly felt a stirring in his chest at the thought of sharing his biology with someone, of being a father. It wasn't the same as knowing there was someone else who remembered his planet or his people, but he would share something even better with this child; they would share Clara.

She was still watching him expectantly. He'd never answered question.

Dryly, he replied, "And it'll be half you, which is the real cause for worry."

Clara's eyebrows knitted together with actual concern until she saw the upward curve of his lips. She laughed despite herself and shook his hand away in mock disdain, and the Doctor smiled as she hugged his arm and laid her head on his shoulder. Hesitantly, he lifted his arm around her shoulders and lowered his cheek to the top of her head, his fingers fiddling with the ends of her hair.

"Clara?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Happy."

She huffed in amusement. "God, you don't know how many times I've asked myself that question over the past few days. I've always wanted kids, I just never imagined I'd have one with an alien. Well—that's not exactly true."

"It isn't?"

He glanced down at her face and caught her grinning wistfully. "No, not exactly true."

"And why is that?"

Clara laughed again, this time in exasperation, and sat up to face him fully. "Because one day, Doctor, I met an alien who pulled the rug out from under everything I ever thought I knew, but I wasn't scared because somehow, he made sense. Everything made sense.

"Doctor, you may be an alien, and this may all be terribly complicated because of our different lifespans and your life in the TARDIS and my life on Earth, but honestly? I'm so incredibly happy this is happening with you."

"Even though you thought I would leave?"

She fully understood how ridiculous the notion was by how upsetting the Doctor continued to find it. "Yes."

"You would have been happy if I had left you?"

Clara huffed a laugh and shoved his shoulder. "Shush."

Her smile waned ever so slightly when the Doctor placed his palm over her belly. Clara glanced up at him with wide eyes that made him feel like he was acting inappropriately.

"I…" he began, licking his lips nervously. "Sorry, I'm being sentimental…"

She placed her hand over his before the Doctor could pull away. "That's alright. You can afford to be a little more sentimental."

His eyebrows lifted and fell. "I believe we're sitting here discussing the consequences of my recent rise in sentimentality."

Clara lowered her head against his shoulder, her thumb stroking his knuckles. "Do you regret it?"

He shook his head. "No."

One corner of her lips lifted. "Even now that I'm…?"

"Yes. I mean… wait, no… Hold on."

The Doctor glared at Clara when she started giggling. Heaving a sigh, he pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.

"I could never regret loving you, Clara Oswald."

Her heart beat so fast, she feared it might be bad for the baby. She wanted to say the same, but Clara was speechless.

She'd never expected to hear those words from him, let alone know the feeling of his lips or the softness of his skin. Or feel that deep, female satisfaction upon learning that she was carrying his child.

Unable to speak, Clara grasped the side of his face and kissed him, lips lingering before she pulled back with a nervous giggle.

"This kid is going to have extraordinary eyebrows."