Disclaimer: The only part of Doctor Who I own is my unabashed love of it. The rest belongs to the BBC and friends.
Make Haste Slowly – Chapter 18 – Final Chapter
Peering into the fridge after returning to the Maitland house with the Doctor on Sunday afternoon, I can't help but let out a rather frustrated noise at the current grocery situation. As I feared, without me around no one had thought to stock up.
"I'm gonna to have to make an emergency shopping trip." I tell the Doctor as I start making myself a list.
"Would you like some help?"
He laughs at the look of shock I give him.
"I've been known to be a bit handy to have around now and again in emergency situations."
"You could probably save two moons and visit Voltaire or something before I get this done though."
"Yeah, but it wouldn't be the same on my own, and you may have noticed I have a time machine, those moons and Voltaire will still be there later. This emergency however, needs handling now."
Angie and Artie tumble into the kitchen, apparently having listened in on our whole conversation, we really need to be more careful about what we discuss where people can overhear us…
The two of them start talking over each other, offering to help, no doubt wanting to get the Doctor on his own.
Angie had some kind of report for school that she has neglected all weekend though, which is of course due tomorrow, so I put my foot down and she grudgingly stays to work on it, I can't say no to Artie though.
He and the Doctor are surprisingly quite helpful, as long as I give them clear directions at least. Far from being put off by Artie's questions, the Doctor seems to enjoy talking to him, about stars and far off comets and exactly what Martin Luther thought about the Pope. I enjoy seeing the Doctor like this, lit up and happy. Soon I decide it's safe enough to let them off on their own.
While examining an avocado, I hear part of their conversation as they come back with the bananas I sent them for.
"I am really not any good. I don't think I should try it…"
"Nonsense Artie, practice is the only way to get better; you really should join your school chess club! I'm a bit of a chess player myself and it certainly took me a while to get better at it. Luckily I've had quite a bit of time."
"How old are you?" Artie asks, looking very curious.
The Doctor peeks over at me, seeming to know that might not be territory I want to get into right now. Which I don't, we can save the fact that he is over a thousand years old for later… Hopefully much later, possibly never actually.
"Artie, can you give me a hand for a minute?"
He reluctantly leaves the Doctor and ventures off to find some apples.
When we make it to the till, I can't help but have a bit of fun. I know exactly where my wallet is in my bag, but instead of taking it out I dig through the bag, passing the Doctor an address book, a chap stick, some spare napkins and a broken bracelet I'd forgotten about before finally taking my wallet out and paying for our groceries.
He just shakes his head and smiles reluctantly before handing it all back to me.
"No magic wand in there though, so no flowers or fanfare when we leave." I whisper to him as we carry the bags out to the Maitland's car.
Angie has herself set up at the kitchen table by the time we return, and she is looking absolutely miserable.
"What are you working on?" I try to ask cheerfully as I drop a few bags on the counter.
"Just a school report Clara." She says sharply.
I can't stop myself from scowling at her tone, but right now I need to get the frozen stuff into the freezer and put dinner on.
When we all sit down for our family meal, I can't help but feel worried. I managed to keep George and or the Doctor pretty busy all afternoon so that they the former wouldn't be able to start asking the later the mandatory questions... Like where the Doctor lived, what he did, how we met and so forth. We should've come up with answers for these questions before we got here, that really would've been smart. But it looks like we are back to making it up as we go instead of making haste slowly.
When George finally decides that he and the Doctor have exchanged enough pleasantries to get into the more substantial questions, I start fidgeting.
"So, you're a Doctor then John? Like a medical Doctor or do you have your PhD in something?"
"Medical doctor, but I don't have my own office; I do most of my work abroad." He says without hesitating.
George scratches his chin a moment.
"Like a Doctors Without Borders type thing?"
The Doctor beams.
"Yes, quite like that."
Okay, that bit actually went… okay.
"How'd you meet Clara? At university, or somewhere else?"
"I haven't known her that long, although I wish I did. No, I was… very lost and she was kind enough to point me in the right direction, I was afraid I would never see her again after that. Luckily a… friend gave her my number, and she happened to need my help one day so we got to see each other again."
That girl in the shop, still haven't thought about her enough. I can't help but wonder if she is like Jack, a friend for real, just left behind… This is a good story though, we can work with this. Chance meeting and then running into each other again, brilliant, that works.
"Did you two have a good weekend?" George asks me.
"Yeah we did, went for coffee Friday night, spent some time at John's, I helped him sort out some things for his… practice. It was great."
"That doesn't sound very exciting." Artie tells us, looking sad.
Did he expect us to talk about time travel in front of his Dad? We are going to have to have a chat about things we don't mention to George about the Doctor…
"How is your report going?" I ask Angie, to which she rolls her eyes.
"Badly, it's so boring. Honestly. It's for my history class, we were assigned someone who invaded Britain and we've got to talk about why they succeeded or failed."
The Doctor perks up.
"So most of you are talking about failure then, except whoever got William the Conqueror, that scoundrel…"
"I got stuck with Caesar. He's just a stuffy, big nosed old Roman, who cares that he tried to invade Britain in 45BCE." She says, rolling her eyes again as if to emphasize the tedium.
"55BCE, and he wasn't stuffy at all, charming yes, quite lonely, a bit full of himself at times, but not stuffy."
The whole table stops eating to look at me.
"What? It was 55BCE that he invaded Britain the first time, wasn't it?" I ask quickly, looking at the Doctor and feeling suddenly unsure of myself.
"Yes, it was." He nods happily.
"Since when do you know anything about history Clara? You hated it in school, said so yourself." Angie accuses.
"Well, John has given me a bit more of an… appreciation for it." I say, focusing on my plate to avoid the looks I am getting.
"He loves it, and it's quite different when someone is sharing it with you like that. We took a look at Roman history the other day; Caesar was quite a character."
He was brave, he was clever, he was opportunistic, and he was a planner… He was a whole unique person and I got to see that…
Angie looks like she is chewing on lemons for a minute before she asks something that startles us all.
"Do you think you could help with the report after dinner?"
It takes a lot of effort not to look totally taken aback, I don't know if I am succeeding but I really am trying.
"I would be happy to."
"I have a couple books that might help back at my place; I can grab them for you if you want?" The Doctor offers, grinning again, or possibly still.
"I'd… really appreciate that. Thanks." Angie says, before turning to the last bits of dinner on her plate.
The Doctor might not be a God, but I think we just witnessed a miracle...
Once Angie has a pretty well written report put together, she thanks us again somewhat awkwardly before retreating to her room. Artie had already gone to bed and Mr. Maitland was making sure his briefcase was packed for the coming Monday morning.
"I should probably get going…" The Doctor says, glancing at the door, then me and then the door again.
I just give him a look, not really wanting to tell him to leave even though we both know he has to.
"I was thinking we could take our Roman pottery off to Frehalder sometime this week and change it for that golden ticket I promised. When would be a good time for me to come round again?" He asks as he puts his boots back on.
"Um… Not sure, I haven't really checked what is on the calendar this week for everyone. Not sure when I need to have who where…"
"Just give me a call then. I promise that my phone will behave this time." He tells me with a cheeky smirk.
"It was nice to meet you John, please feel free to stop in anytime, don't be a stranger." Mr. Maitland says, giving a little wave as he passes by us and heads upstairs. I really hope he heard nothing about some place called Frehalder… New rules for what we say in the house, I need to get on those…
"Goodnight Clara." The Doctor says, rather sweetly, giving me a quick kiss on my forehead before stepping outside, leaving the door for me to close behind him.
I keep it open until I hear the TARDIS disappearing and then head to my own room. Once upstairs I discover a very old book sitting open on my desk. It's the one the Doctor had been reading at night, by the Venerable Bede.
The page he left open is about Oswald of Northumbria, and Oswine of Deira, both kings in Northern England in the 7th century. I have a feeling there is something I'm missing here, but honestly I am feeling knackered so that mystery is going to have to wait for another day.
I gently set Caesar's medal on top of '101 Places to See' before digging through my jewelry box to find a chain for my key to hang on, my TARDIS key…
I think that there should be time on Tuesday for Frehalder, and if not I will make time for the Doctor… I mean for Frehalder, not my Doctor. Obviously.
A/N: What do I do with myself now? Haha oh dear… Thank you very much readers, I really appreciate you spending your time on this and hope you enjoyed yourself! If anyone has any challenges, prompts, ideas or whatnot they would like me to look at doing next, please feel free to message me. I am incredibly grateful for all the feedback and comments I have gotten for this story and my other ones as well. I want to get better at this!
Below is a rough chapter by chapter timeline, I know I jumped around a lot so I thought this might be nice.
Chapters 1-3: London, 2013CE
Chapter 4: Rome, Subura District, 78ishBCE – Caesar lived there owing to problems claiming his inheritance, at this time he worked as a legal advocate
Chapters 5-7: Rome, Subura District 60ishBCE – Caesar, now a Consul, works to establish land redistribution favouring the poor and Pompey brings soldiers into Rome to back him up.
Chapters 8-9: South Coast of England, 55BCE – Caesar's first of two mostly failed attempts to invade Britain.
Chapters 10-11: London, 2013CE
Chapter 12: Cardiff, 1965CE – Jack has to choose how to deal with the 4-5-6, and is authorized by the British government to sacrifice 12 children to them in order to acquire the cure to a deadly disease.
Chapters 13-15: Rome, March 14th, 44BCE – Day before Caesar's assassination, Cleopatra is visiting Rome.
Chapter 16: Rome, March 15th 44BCE – Ides of March
Chapter 17: Rome, January 1st 1973CE
Chapter 18: London, 2013CE