A/N It's the end! I have been blown away by some of the reviews here recently and so flattered. Anyone who has followed, favourite or reviewed either here or at Tumblr deserves huge thanks for all the encouragement you gave me while I was writing this. So thank you! Here's the epilogue just to reassure you all that they are OK in the end ;-)

Epilogue

There were various ways of ending an adventure and Clara had come across most of them in her time with the Doctor. Sometimes it was a case of getting away by the skin of their teeth and diving panting and fearful into the TARDIS while the Doctor skidded to a halt by the console and yanked a lever to send them flying into the vortex.

Sometimes they would just want to leave, regardless of the outcome, the planet being unwelcoming or disappointing or some other variant of not what they expected and the Doctor would tie up the loose ends and disappear into the TARDIS silently, Clara's cue to follow and go. She would be left to explain to the people they had met, or apologise for his rudeness and then join him in the ship telling him off for his abrupt manner and aloof approach.

Sometimes they would get back to the ship and go directly their separate ways to mull over what had happened while at others they would sit together in the library and talk, hot drinks warming their hands and the fire soothing them.

Sometimes she just wanted dropped at the flat. Or in the school.

Sometimes she'd stay a week on board.

And sometimes when things were less pressured and had ended well they would spend an extra day or so on whichever planet it might be and take in the sights and sounds at the behest of their hosts. Clara had been sure that this would be the case with the Anushri, whose worried faces crowded around them as they fell from the closing rift. She and the Doctor had lain on their backs, side by side, the blue sky fresh above them and felt for one another's hand to hold in silence as this dimension's Eck hovered concerned by them and the Maltheus wriggled from Clara's grip to run in circles around their bodies.

She had been sure they would stay a day or two in the luxuriant suite and enjoy the peaceful city and its pleasant inhabitants. She had been sure they had earned that reward. After all everything had worked out, hadn't it? They had survived, the rift was closed and beyond it in the alternate world a revolution was triggered, a hero made.

But it didn't feel the way she had thought it would, her relief at her reunion with the Doctor aside, and Clara knew as she stood at the TARDIS door the next morning that something about this particular trip epitomised her life now that she was full time on the ship. The endings of adventures would never be the same and neither would the adventures themselves. Exploits and excitement, stars and planets, and by her side a man she would die for given the need, made her heart leap with the knowledge of how serious it had all become for both her and him, and bleed with the bittersweet sense that there would be loss in her life too. Loss of the people and places she had left behind on earth, loss of the new friends she met on her journeys from time to time, and always that fear, that shadow of his loss haunting her even at her happiest moments. She had spent just a day convinced that he was gone forever and the scars from that would never heal. The idea that she could ever feel that way again terrified her but she knew she had no choice.

She loved the Doctor and she was bound to him always. If he needed her she would be there, no questions asked. It was her job to protect him, her job to save the Time Lord for her sake as well as his. Forever was too long to be without him, when just one day had been too painful to bear.

Clara let her eyes wander past the group of Anushri who had come to see them off and across the ornate bridge to where a statue was being erected in honour of a familiar face, Eck looking for all the world like he wanted the ground to swallow him, because it wasn't him they honoured but his alternate, and they were different weren't they? Different creatures made of different material?

And yet…

She smiled.

It took her a moment to remember that the little wasp across the bridge was not the same Eck who had died for them the day before, that he wasn't the hero who saved their lives. Different paths had taken them in different directions, left different scars upon their faces, but deep within they had the same courage and the same heart, and she felt that perhaps Eck's story wasn't over; that there were greater things to come. One day he would earn that statue for himself.

'You're doing the thing…' the Doctor's voice over her shoulder, 'The sad smile thing. It's confusing.'

Clara felt him move behind her and slip his hands around her waist, his fingers tracing soft patterns through the flimsy fabric of her dress. He bent and kissed her neck softly before nosing her hair, breathing in deep and long, savouring her scent and being and life. When they had collapsed back into this dimension they had quietly gone back to their suite, retreated together to bed exhausted, thankful just to hold the other in safety, for the calm breathing of their lover in their arms and the lullaby of one another's heartbeats as they slept. This morning she could sense that he ached with gratitude, Clara could feel it in his mind, in the tension of his body and the way his muscles cradled her against his chest, he wanted her and he wanted to take them away from this place. The rising sun had made it real for them, they were alive and they were together, but only just. They were the lucky ones.

She smiled a little wider at his perpetual confusion over human emotions, but her expression was just as sad, 'Do you think he's made of the same stuff?' she asked, 'As the other Eck?'

'Well you would know.'

'Why would I know?'

He turned her in his arms and gazed down at her with eyes that shone blue and clear. 'Clara Oswald I have met many versions of you in the past and although none of them quite match up to the perfection that is the original I can tell you that you are all, every one, made of the same stuff.'

'But you prefer the original of course?' she clarified, her smile becoming lighter.

'Of course.'

She laid her head against his chest and let him stroke long fingers through her hair.

'Are we going?' she asked.

'Yes, I think so, it wasn't quite the break I'd intended for us. The rift is fixed but…'

'Time to move on.'

'Time to go home,' he corrected, 'We could go somewhere more exotic, technically I still owe you a honeymoon, but somehow I can't quite stomach a trip away right now.'

'Home sounds good,' she kissed his chest, between his hearts. 'We can have the honeymoon there.'

He nodded towards the milling Anushri in the centre of the city, 'Said all your goodbyes?' he asked.

'For now.'

'Come on then.'

He turned and she followed into the relative darkness of the TARDIS, swinging the door closed behind her and watching with a sudden sense of normality and calm as the Doctor set about the controls. He typed in co-ordinates and punched buttons with practiced fluency, his body visibly relaxing now he was in his own environment, and as he pulled the lever for dematerialisation Clara caught the darkness around his eyes, the fatigue from so close a brush with death, and vowed to take care of him. The engines started and she felt the first of the heaviness leave her heart.

XXXXXXXX

'You must have a spatula!' Clara called up the stairs of the cottage, 'You have everything else in this kitchen, a spatula is a basic, you should have one!'

'Why is this so important?' she could hear him reluctantly moving about upstairs, presumably dressing although secretly she hoped the clothing he found was minimal.

'Because I'm making pancakes.'

'You don't need a spatula for pancakes you just flip them.'

'How do I get the edges up to flip them without a spatula?' she returned to the frying pan and fretted over the soon to be burning food.

'If you got your mixture right in the first place…' he emerged into the kitchen.

'There's nothing wrong with my mixture!'

The Doctor leaned over her and plucked a hitherto hidden spatula from a utensil jar. Clara snatched it rather ungratefully and received a roll of the eyes as he turned to help himself to coffee. She allowed herself a few seconds to take in the shape of his back and shoulders through the light fabric of his dressing gown before she went back to pretending to be annoyed.

'What's with all the food anyway?' he asked.

'You're too thin.'

He raised his eyebrows at that.

'You are, you're losing weight.'

'I wonder why…' he commented, 'Must be something to do with all the exercise I've been taking recently.'

Clara snorted and finished levering the edge of her pancake up. She allowed him a quick glance with her huge brown eyes which communicated fathomless affection despite her apparent irritation. He smiled and took a gulp of his coffee as she flipped the pancake over. Clara could feel his eyes wandering over her face and neck and dipping down beneath her robe. Her skin felt hot under his gaze and it was with some difficulty that she managed to prepare another few pancakes as he lingered by her side, hands occasionally caressing her hip as he moved around the kitchen.

'Sit down and I'll bring them over,' she ordered eventually.

'Yes, boss.' He sat expectantly as she began to serve generous portions.

'Clara… you know I really don't need…' he was cut off.

'Wait... wait do you hear that…?' Clara dumped the last pancake on a plate and removed the frying pan from the heat. 'Shh… hear it?'

'Hear what?'

'Buzzing.'

'Buzzing?'

'Buzzing like a bluebottle.'

'There are no bluebottles here Clara, in fact there are very few lifeforms at all, mainly flora. I haven't got as far as inventing living creatures for the planet yet.'

'Well something is living in here…. It's making a noise.'

Clara tried to pinpoint the direction of the buzz while the Doctor rather impatiently pulled the pancakes towards him and dug in.

'Eat quietly I'm listening,' Clara said.

'If I don't eat the sound of my stomach grumbling will drown out whatever you think you can hear.'

'Buzzing! There!' Clara made for the front door and the Doctor idly followed her through the living area, plate in hand and fork suspended ready. He leaned against the wall and watched her with amusement as she bent down and traced the edge of the doorframe with one finger.

'I can hear it,' she said slowly straightening, eyes wide.

'Clara I keep telling you there aren't any insects here, well none that would make that noise. The odd butterfly….'

'There!' she pointed.

'What?'

'There, look!'

The Doctor joined her side and looked in the direction of her finger.

On the heavy wood door a single insect crawled slowly over the top panel, its wings occasionally rustling and emitting the same buzz Clara had heard from the kitchen. It wandered rather blindly back and forth trying to find its way out of its predicament, looking for a familiar landmark beyond the expanse of brown wood. Its body was a familiar yellow and black.

'It's a wasp!' Clara cried.

Next to her the Doctor sighed and popped his plate down on a table. 'Hang on I'll get something to swat it with,' he said, 'The sonic has a setting….'

'No!' Clara placed herself between him and the wasp and he looked at her curiously.

'No? Aren't you worried it'll sting you?'

'It's not doing any harm.'

'You hate wasps… oh….' He hesitated, 'You like wasps now? I mean since the Anushri?' he looked genuinely curious.

'They changed my opinion of them.'

'Really?'

Clara looked at it crawling over the edge of the doorframe and approaching her via the wall. She sounded convincing but she knew her face was giving her away. She hated getting stung.

'Don't kill it,' she said by way of negotiation, 'But you can… you know…. Usher it out.'

'Oh can I?' he laughed, 'I can usher it? You don't want to usher it? Seeing as you're such a fan of wasps these days.'

The wasp buzzed and inched closer to where Clara was standing.

'No feel free,' she encouraged.

'Do you know what is interesting?' The Doctor said as Clara shuffled out of the way, 'How it got here. I mean how does a species just appear like that?'

'I don't know… look just open the door and…' she flapped her hands in a 'get out' gesture. The Doctor made great show of opening the door for the lady and then resumed his thought process.

'I suppose it could have flown into the TARDIS, hung around a while and then flown out… or…maybe it's been here all the time…' his face suddenly brightened, 'Perhaps it evolved.'

'What?' Clara looked distractedly between the wasp and her husband.

'Maybe it's evolved, here on the planet, or maybe it's a bit of both. Maybe it hitched a ride in the TARDIS and then came here and adapted. It's always been a question of mine, how does life truly become? From inert to sentient? Has this thing just popped into existence from nowhere? Has it been sent by a higher power or did it guide itself? Why here, why now?' His expression was one of utter fascination.

'Doctor! Enough with the theories…. The wasp!'

'Alright, alright,' he fanned his hand towards the wasp and it took off from its place on the wall flying slowly towards Clara until it hovered in front of her face curiously, its huge black multilensed eyes peering at her and reflecting her image. Clara squinted at it with interest and the faintest hint of recognition. She felt suddenly more at ease.

'It likes you,' the Doctor joked. 'Come on, out with you, Clara won't let me swat you but I wouldn't push your luck.' The wasp floated for another moment in front of her before very deliberately moving to the Doctor for a cursory glance and bobbing once before him. Clara saw him frown at it and then with a final buzz of its wings it turned and flew out of the door.

The pair stood and watched for a second before the Doctor swung the door shut again.

'So a new life arrives on our little planet,' Clara mused, 'Seemingly from nowhere… Evolution you think?' she asked moving back to the kitchen.

The Doctor resumed his seat and his breakfast. 'Evolution… adaptation, chance… Something like that has brought that little wasp here…' he agreed.

Clara smiled to herself with a sudden feeling that she understood the answer better than he. 'Evolution adaptation or chance…. Or something like that,' she said.