He turned just as there came a tug on the door. The Doctor shifted towards it, hearing the wood squeak and a small grunt, and he frowned, looking back to see Clara's smile growing, as though she knew exactly who worked fervently at the handle. And he felt a hint of recognition tickle at the back of his mind just before the door finally gave and a set of tiny feet came storming into the Tardis, bolting past him, and launched up into Clara's arms with a wild laugh.

The Doctor stood dumbfounded as she watched Clara spin once with the small child who gripped her in a tight hug and laid his head against her shoulder, inhaling her deeply with eyes closed for just a moment before he pulled himself back up and said softly, "Hi, mummy."

"Charlie," Clara responded in amusement, head bowing slightly to tap her forehead to his, "You know I'm not your mummy."

He giggled and the Doctor stared, mouth going dry as he watched the boy turn his bright eyes to him to nod and offer quickly, "Hello, Doctor." Then he stated with a tilting of his head, sending his flop of dark hair to the side, "You're late again and we've eaten all the blackberries."

Lips separating and hanging, the Doctor hesitated, seeing the grinning child in person, hanging off Clara happily, little fingers finding her hair to twirl, and he managed to breathe a simple, "Hello, Charlie." He stepped closer to him, watching him giggle as Clara smiled, and he lifted his left hand to touch the boy's cheek, feeling it warmly in his palm as he blushed. "Hello, Charlie," the Doctor repeated, his eyes watering as he watched Charlie's smile – Clara's smile – widen for him.

"Mummy's outside," the boy told him quietly, his voice just as light and airy as he'd heard in the other Clara's head and the Doctor turned to look to the doors before swinging his head back to look at Clara and then Charlie, who giggled and asked Clara, "Has he bumped his head again?"

Laughing, Clara shook her head and she moved with Charlie into the Tardis, leaving the Doctor looking from that hallway back to the front door that still stood ajar. And slowly, he turned and made his way to it, gripping the edge to peer out to see the woman walking towards him, a grin widening on her face as she took in his bewildered expression. Stepping out of the Tardis, he looked around at the sunny park and he looked back at her.

Wearing a sundress and her dark hair in a long loose ponytail, Clara stepped to him and waited as he took her in. The Doctor looked over the tanned skin and the vibrant eyes and he could tell she was at a healthier weight, body standing calmly before him with none of the rigidity it'd held before and he could see the skin at her chest, intact and unscathed. Reaching forward, he took her wrists up in his hands as she laughed quietly, and he ran his thumbs over the spaces where her scars had sat, eyes closing against the smooth skin there.

"Everything changed," he breathed.

"You changed the future," Clara responded.

He enveloped her in a tight hug, hearing her small oomph of surprise just before he pulled her back, gripping at her shoulders and looking back to the Tardis, sighing, "Charlie."

"Just about to turn four – you promised you'd come for his birthday," she reminded, head tilting the same way Charlie's had, her ponytail flicking over her shoulder.

The Doctor's eyes scanned the park and he locked eyes on a thin blonde in an oversized hat who looked up from a drawing pad to wave enthusiastically at him, and then he asked, "Tom?"

Clara frowned, "We had a few good years, we made a beautiful little boy, but in the end it just didn't work out and I think…" she glanced back at Caroline, "I think fate had other ideas."

On a laugh, the Doctor thumbed the ring on Clara's finger and he nodded as she did, smirk wrinkling her nose comically. "I…" he started, shaking his head, "I should know this," he looked to her, "You still know me."

"I remember you," Clara told him. "I remember little bits and pieces of another life – it's strange."

"Time can be that way," the Doctor supplied.

She laughed, "You remembered a few weeks ago, well a few years ago for us, and came to check on us, give us a bit of news, but I guess this is the catch-up; one timeline merging with another." She frowned a bit, admitting, "I'm afraid I'll forget now, just as you remember again."

He shook his head, "Somehow I doubt that."

"Prefer to keep those memories," she told him, "They help me appreciate everything just a bit more," she looked beyond him, to Clara standing at the entrance to the Tardis, Charlie's hand held firmly in hers. "It's sort of weird, seeing her there. She's been in his life from the moment he was born, but it's still weird. My face on someone else."

The Doctor watched her speak and he sighed, "We've been in your life."

Clara laughed, "Of course you have. She made sure of that."

He turned to see Charlie laughing up at Clara, who bent and ruffled his hair, telling him some secret that made him gasp and sway slightly as he spoke back. Comfortable, he thought, like a mother and son should be, and the idea made his hearts jump as he felt Clara twist her alms to squeeze his wrists. "I don't remember," he stated.

"You did; you will," she breathed.

He turned back to look at her and then at the city that sat brightly around the park. The way he remembered it should have been, before that war, and he questioned, "What happened, in this timeline?"

Taking a breath, Clara explained, "What should have happened – that's what you told me. Clara should never have died; you should never have had to go through that loss. Time corrected itself and you went to the treaty. You stopped Wallace and the rogue band of soldiers, UNIT and otherwise, and…" she glanced around, "Time corrected itself."

"You lived," he whispered.

She smiled and stated, "I lived." And she looked to Charlie and breathed, "I lived."

The Doctor laughed, understanding her meaning all too well and he questioned, "What became of Captain Clarice Palmer then?"

Clara smirked and her head shook slightly before she wrinkled her nose, "Clarice Oswald is a happily employed teacher at her son's future school who lives with her wife in a three bedroom house and has never held a gun in her life – and never plans to."

The Doctor's hands slipped into hers and he squeezed them, exhaling a long sigh of relief as she laughed up at him and looked back to the boy with Clara. "What will my new memories bring me? Anything I should be prepared for?"

He turned to see her smirking and he knew she absolutely knew, but she wouldn't say, and he nodded in acceptance before she asked, "Be a pal, send my son back – we're meeting my mum and dad for dinner and Caroline's promised him a bubble bath before we go."

Looking back to her, he slowly enveloped her in another hug, a firm one she accepted, her ear to his chest to listen to his heartbeats. "You loved," he whispered.

"I loved Tom. I love my baby boy, and I love my wife. With all of my heart, I promise you, I love," she responded as she slipped back and nodded for him to turn and head back to the Tardis, telling him, "You gave that back to me and this time I don't intend to waste it, not even for a second, Doctor. And neither will you."

He smiled, genuinely and calmly and then he looked back to Clara. He wished his memories would fill in, but for that moment he was content to know she lived. They lived. He bowed his head and began to walk towards the duo chatting quietly just outside of the Tardis.

The Doctor approached Clara and Charlie, watching the boy step closer to her to lay his chin against her stomach to ask, "Mummy, if there are two of you, and there are two Raggy's, does that mean there'll be two Charlie's?"

"We can't have two Charlie's," Clara told him on a laugh, "That'd be confusing, wouldn't it?"

He giggled and nodded slightly against her, then sighed, "Best not name him Charlie then."

"Best not," Clara repeated confidently with a wrinkling of her nose. Then Clara told him, brushing her hands through his hair to push it away from his round face, "You should go find your mummy, we've got to explore some, the Doctor and me."

He giggled, nodding quickly and giving her a hug she bent to return as he told her, "Love you, Clara."

"Love you too, Charlie," she whispered, rubbing his back as he rushed towards the Doctor and latched onto his leg unexpectedly, giggling up at the shocked look on his face.

The Doctor reached down to pluck him away gently and then he bent, asking him, "You being a good little boy for your mummy?"

Charlie rubbed at his small nose and nodded, telling him seriously, "Yes, Doctor."

"Eating your vegetables and keeping your fingers out of your nose?"

Giggling madly, Charlie hiccupped, "Yes, Doctor."

"Good," then he pointed, "Go on."

Charlie nodded enthusiastically and he turned, rushing back towards his mother and leaping up into her waiting arms and just as Clara had done in the Tardis, this Clara spun him around, holding him close and the Doctor could hear her telling her son, "Ah, my Charlie, I love you so very much."

The boy gripped her tightly and he mumbled on a laugh, "I love you too, mummy."

The Doctor watched them move back towards the blanket where the boy dropped down to hug Caroline from behind, arms draped around her neck as he pointed to ask her about her drawing and he felt his hearts surge as he watched that woman began to explain as the boy pressed his cheek into hers. Proper family, the Doctor knew, exactly what this Clara deserved.

"We should get going, Doctor," his Clara breathed, her hand touching his lightly as she stepped into the Tardis and sang, "All of time and space, everything there ever was and ever will be," and he turned to watch her laugh as she moved backwards into the blue box and down the ramp towards the console as he shut the doors behind him. "Where would you like to start?"

The Doctor moved towards her slowly, a devious grin on his lips as he stepped into the space just in front of her and he bent to kiss her gently. To hear her sigh and small moan just as he inched back to tell her, "You."

She laughed, "Me?"

"All of you," he answered.

Clara managed to feign surprise as she scoffed, "Down boy."

And the Doctor laughed because as she moved to the console and her hands began to move deftly over the controls, he began to remember. It all inched back into his brain like a warm blanket, wrapping up each of his concerns with serenity and he understood all of her was his. And he was entirely hers. Perhaps they'd always been, he thought on a laugh, jumping towards a lever to bring it down before she could, and he laughed with her as they plunged into the vortex.

"Come on, Raggy Bear!" the Doctor shouted, "Let's have an adventure!"

He looked to Clara's glowing smile as the final bits of his memories dropped into place and he looked to that bear, sitting in a console seat. Holding a space, the Doctor knew with a sudden excited glance back at Clara as she let loose a small gleeful shout before toggling a knob and laughing back at him. He slid towards her and wrapped himself around her to maneuver the ship with her, his chin nestling into her shoulder as they slowed and swayed and he knew he would never let another moment pass him by. His hands slipped around her waist and he held her to him, whispering, "Never backwards, Clara."

And she nudged his temple with her own, laughing, "Always forward, Doctor."