Nine Months, Twelve Days (Whouffle fanfic)

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His words echoed in her mind as she pulled him into another hug. She couldn't imagine being away from him for that long. Good thing she never would.

"I missed you so much," he said again, this time into her hair as he hugged her. "I was honestly beginning to think I would never see you again."

"I'm here, it's okay. I'm here," she whispered into his shoulder. She could feel a tear hit her shoulder blade as the Doctor started to cry. "Hey, it's okay."

"I am so sorry," he repeated over and over again.

"Why are you sorry? I'm sorry that you had to go through that...you weren't gone that long for me," she said. She couldn't get him to calm down.

"I just...I'm sorry for leaving. I shouldn't have left," he whispered, pulling out of the hug and looking at her for a while. "You look a lot better than my mind blurred you. I mean, you were beautiful in my mind, but...the real you is so much better. Weird?"

"No."

"Clara. Clara Oswald. I love you, I really do," he said to her. He repeated it over and over as if it were a prayer.

"I love you too," she said. She was crying at how the Doctor was reacting to being gone so long; she had never really realized how important she was to him.

"Are you ready to tell me what happened?" she asked him, but all she got in response was a shake of his head. He kissed her forehead and went to shower.

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Clara made the Doctor some tea while he was in the shower and set out some biscuits. She was humming while she worked, if what she was doing could even be called work.

"You never hum when I'm here," he said, leaning against the doorway.

"Yes I do. You just never noticed."

"Sorry," was all he said.

"Don't be. It's not a big deal," she said smirking. "You keep apologizing to me. Why?"

"Because while I was gone all I could think about was how awfully I've treated you, and how much wrong I've caused you."

"Nope. None of that. You've done nothing."

"Exactly."

"Doctor, you're fine. You're back home, and maybe we fight sometimes but you've never done anything wrong to me," she said, looking him in the eyes. "Now drink your tea and stop apologizing."

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Clara crawled into bed that night, not expecting the Doctor to join her. But he did, and when he did, he curled up right against her. She smiled and leaned into him, letting him spoon her.

"I was captured, and they thought I had you with me. So they tortured me to find out where you were," he said. Clara knew this must be his story, so she kept quiet. "They said they wanted your child, whatever that meant. Our child.

"So when I told them that we didn't have a child, they thought I was lying and tortured me even more. They whipped me. They pulled my fingernails out one by one. But I think the worst think they did was show me images of them torturing you."

"I was never there," she said.

"I know it must've been fake, looking back on it now. But at the time I thought it was real, and I tried everything to get you back. The reason it took me so long was because I refused to tell them anything about you, and that pissed them off a bit," he chuckled.

"I am so sorry," she said.

"Anyways, they also had my sonic so that wasn't an option. I just had to wait for someone in that place to mess up eventually. And they did, it just took 163 years."

"Doctor..."

"It's okay now though, because I'm back. And I can fix everything I've done wrong, and I can make sure I never go back to that planet," he laughed.

"It's not funny," she said, whispering.

"I know. I'm just glad I'm back."

"Why would they want 'our' child anyways? That doesn't make any sense," she said, brushing her hair out if her face and snuggling closer into the man behind her.

"The only thing I could reason would be because the child would be part Timelord, and they could steal the child to brainwash it and turn it into a weapon. But even if we did have a baby, which I'm sure will not happen in the near future or ever, then I wouldn't be careless enough to just walk into a place without knowing what I was getting into. Regeneration is valuable, especially when you can brainwash someone with that ability and create your own monster, that is, in some ways, invincible."

"Oh."

"What?" he asked her, sure that he had probably said something wrong.

"You don't think that we would ever have kids? I mean, I'm not saying that I want them, but I always assumed that you would. But then I guess having kids with a human being would be a bit strange, wouldn't it?"

"Clara-- I would love to have kids. But I can't...everyone dies in the end, but it live a hell of no lot longer than you. And if I had kids, I would more than likely out-live them too, and I can't stand the thought of even losing you, much less any child that we ever had."

Clara blushed a little bit. He had caught her off guard; it was so unlike him to say anything like that. Clara sighed and hummed an agreement at him. They laid there in silence for a few minutes before the Doctor said something that made Clara sure he was losing his mind: "What if we pretend to have a kid?"

"What?"

"I mean, to Judy and Hank, we're married. And what do married people do? They have babies," he said, laughing when Clara turned to look at him like he was insane.

"You can't just pretend to be pregnant, Doctor. I don't know how much you know about having a baby, but I'd have to get bigger. And I'm pretty sure that that would be hard to mimic. Just saying," Clara said, shaking her head.

"C'mon, I doubt we'll be here long enough for you to have to start showing. And plus, it'd make our cover more believable. And it'd be kind of fun."

"You're definition of fun and mine are fairly different," Clara said in a serious tone.

"Please? Pretty please? Clara, it'll be fun! I promise. And if it's not, then I'll owe you something," he said.

"That something being taking me to five places of my choosing, no questions asked?"

"Sure."

Clara sighed. "Then I guess...I guess I'm in."

The Doctor kissed Clara's neck as she turned back around and thanked her for playing along, promising they'd be out of the gimic soon.

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So...I suppose I owe you all an apology for not updating sooner. I've been busy, but that's not really an excuse. So..I'm sorry. But please keep reading!