Storm: Time Jump

Brief Interlude 2

Teresa had already spent three days with Clara and the Doctor, and it had honestly been a good time. She'd sheepishly apologized to Clara for her reaction, feeling rather embarrassed for her breakdown to have been her first impression, but Clara had just smiled and waved it away.

She'd muttered something about it being a nice change to the usual 'alone times', making Teresa puzzled as to what she meant, but Clara had glossed over the topic with a wink and 'Spoilers.' The Doctor had interrupted to take them to see the Milky Way, or rather part of it, so Teresa just shrugged it off. She then forgot about the incident, opting to enjoy the most delicious ice cream the Doctor had bought for them on one of the smaller stars.

She and Clara had laughed at the irony, to the Doctor's confusion, and Teresa already knew she was going to be great friends with this small, sarcastic woman. Clara was every bit the firecracker she'd been expecting, and Teresa loved watching how she interacted with the Doctor and often ended up laughing with her as she teased the Doctor.

He'd grumble but his eyes were always bright with amusement, especially when Teresa joined in the fun and teased him with Clara. Teresa was rather puzzled though with how careful this Doctor seemed to be with her. She'd noticed before on travels with Amy's Eleven that he tended to be a lot more touchy-feely and very open with kisses to the head or forehead than even Donna-Ten.

But this Eleven with Clara seemed constantly on the edge of leaning forward and pulling back, like he was battling some deeper urge. It confused her, particularly since he seemed to have no problem still holding her hand when they walked around. And it was puzzling because his behavior changes didn't seem to have a common factor at all.

The first time she'd noticed it had been when he bought them the ice cream. She'd been excited to try it when he handed her her cone, intrigued by the light vanilla color of the soft serve. He'd been laughing at her childish excitement, when she licked the ice cream and exclaimed over how good it was. She'd turned to say thanks, only to blink in confusion at the evident struggle on his face.

He looked torn between leaning forward towards her and keeping himself back, but when she'd pointed it out he'd easily waved it away, back to his light-hearted self. She'd shrugged and moved on, Clara having tugged her away to see the aliens further down the street who were doing a light show by creating small bursts of light with their bare hands. But it had come back to her later, when he'd had a similar expression after she'd been laughing happily when they'd called for a volunteer and Clara had jumped in excitedly.

Teresa had laughed at Clara's enthusiasm, and then at the girl's awed expression as the light danced around her, throwing sparkles and illuminating patterns on the girl's clothes and face. She'd turned to the Doctor beside her, giggling as a dragon was illuminated around Clara's head to the short girl's delight, when she'd spotted the same indecision on his face.

And it happened again on their trip to Asteroid six delta four diamond square. They'd gone to explore a marketplace with many different alien life forms, and Clara had coerced Teresa into trying on a ridiculously large and rather heavy headdress. It had been a good laugh though, and she'd agreed readily, posing like Napoleon and causing Clara to crack up laughing. Teresa had expected the Doctor to join, but he'd had that same look, a mix of strange hunger and restraint.

Now, they were on Stratum three, joining in on a festival of some kind on one of the smaller asteroids. It looked almost like a carnival with various stalls full of games or food or fun toys. At least, it looked like toys although some of them looked alarmingly like weapons. But the Doctor assured them they were almost like children's toy guns, not actually harmful and easing the girls' minds.

Clara had been very interested in the different types of food and she dragged Teresa and the Doctor along as she sampled through as many as she could fit. Teresa joined her, although she had the Doctor explain most of them before she tried anything. Clara tended to just jump in, which was fine until the Doctor told her she'd just eaten an eye. They stopped eating pretty quickly after that.