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“Ah, Clara. Feeling better?” the Doctor said, greeting her as she emerged from the hallways of the TARDIS. She had obviously just woken up.
“Much, thanks. God, your life is tiring,” she replied.
“Tell me about it.” The Doctor flipped a switch on the TARDIS and sat down on the small couch in the console room, patting the small space next to him. Clara sat beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Doctor,” she started, “there were so many of us in your life.”
“So many of whom?” he asked.
“So many ghosts.”
The Doctor was quiet for a moment.
“Is that why you were so eager to save me?” Clara asked. “So I didn’t just become a prop in your time-travelling haunted house?”
“Clara, I—“
“What happened to them?” Clara demanded. “I never saw. I just saw you, never them. You were alone for so long.”
“Um,” the Doctor said, wiping his face nervously. “Some of them left me.”
“How many?” Clara asked. “How many ghosts?”
“It wasn’t my fault!” the Doctor cried. “No, it was, it always was, from Gallifrey to Trenzalore, always, always my fault.” He buried his face in his hands.
Clara sat next to him awkwardly, taking her head off his shoulder. “But it wasn’t,” she replied. “It really wasn’t. You’re a traveler, never a killer.”
The Doctor took his face out of his hands and jumped up, his mood taking a 180. “I suppose you’re right,” he said, brushing it off. He flipped another switch on the TARDIS and ran to the other side, piloting to take his mind off the conversation.
“Doctor,” Clara said. “Who is Rose Tyler?”
The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks, letting go of the monitor so that it spun to the other side of the TARDIS. “She was my friend. My best friend.”
“I kept seeing something. Bad Wolf,” Clara continued. “She’s in another universe, right? With other you?”
“Yeah,” the Doctor said, “but she’s happy, so that’s—“
“And Sarah Jane Smith?” Clara interrupted. “How did she die?”
The Doctor’s head spun. He sat down on a chair, trying to process the information. “Clara, I— I don’t know that yet. You know my future now. You can’t say anything to—“
“She was happy. That’s all you said,” Clara interjected.
The Doctor said nothing for a while.
“How about Amelia?” Clara asked. “I met her once. She was quite cross.”
“She was in a bad place,” the Doctor said without emotion.
“She left you for Rory, yeah?”
“No, never that,” the Doctor replied. “It was more like she couldn’t leave Rory, no matter the circumstances.”
“She died alone,” Clara responded. “Four years after Rory.”
“How do you know?” the Doctor yelled rather suddenly, standing up.
“Y-you said it,” Clara answered, taken off guard.
“Never mind,” the Doctor replied. “You can’t talk about my timeline in front of me. You’re creating fixed time.”
“Whatever,” Clara said, putting her feet up on the console.
“So, more planets?” the Doctor asked.
“Sounds good to me.”
The Doctor continued to pilot in silence while Clara watched him.
“Amy was right,” Clara said quietly. “Never be alone. You’ve been so too much already. You need someone there to keep you calm and rational.”
“That’s why I have you,” the Doctor said, giving her head a pat.
“Yeah, I keep you stable, don’t I?” she replied, grinning. “I’ll go and put some tea on.”
The Doctor watched her leave, his eyes filled with sadness.
Just another ghost someday.