Receiving Another Chance (Book Ten of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

A Promise

Because everyone should have expected Osimoff fluff following that last episode. :)

Enjoy!

***

"So?" Clara looked up at Pietro as they snuggled on the couch together. "What do you think of them now?"

Pietro tilted his head. "Of Miss Tyler and Mr. Pink?"

"Yeah."

"I like Rose," Pietro nodded. "Could use some more convincing on Danny's side." He felt Clara tense slightly, then straightened and looked down at her. "OK. What did he say?"

Clara blinked up at him. "What?"

"He said something to you, didn't he?"

Clara sighed, sitting up as well. "He compared the Doctor to men he's served under, saying they push you and make you stronger till you're doing things you've never thought you could. He said he saw me do exactly what he told me, and thought I should have been scared."

Pietro frowned. "And this is the same man we saw smile at the Bad Wolf and shake her hand?"

"I know," Clara sighed. "He's getting to be a bit overprotective."

"He's looking out for you, Clara. But he's seeing you as the woman that teaches you at Coal Hill. He's not seeing you as Absolute Zero."

"Yeah," Clara nodded. "Rose sent him out after that."

Pietro chuckled. "Good for her."

"Yeah . . . then she told me something." She saw Pietro straighten more at that. "She said that if the Doctor ever pushed me too far to tell her."

Pietro shrugged. "OK."

Clara blinked. "What?"

"It's been dangerous my whole life, Clara," he reminded her. "Stark dropped bombs on us when Wanda and I were children. We volunteered to be HYDRA's lab rats. And now we're Avengers and running around time and space. This is nothing to me. To you, though . . . nothing really happened, and then everything is happening, and all at once. That's something I can't help you with. You said Rose was a soldier, right?" When she nodded, Pietro held out his hands. "She probably had everything thrust at her all at once, too. She'll know more than I do about things like that. The Bad Wolf probably would have been the one to go to about that - but that happened over a millennia ago for her. I'd talk to Rose over Danny any day if something like that ever happened with the Doctor. And it won't, not while the Bad Wolf is around. Which is always."

"Noted," Clara smirked.

"Besides," Pietro added as she took a sip of her wine. "I'd leave with you if that ever happened."

Clara spat her drink back into her cup. "What?" she stared up at him. "But you love the time traveling! You've done it longer than I have!"

"I know," Pietro nodded. "That doesn't mean it's my life. I'd rather stick around with you than travel without you. Wanda would understand that. She'd hate me, but she'd understand. And the Bad Wolf would of course be upset over it, but believe it or not, she held a two hundred year grudge against him one time. She wouldn't stop you. So . . . " He held out his hands. "You leave, so do I."

Clara smiled up at him in relief. "This is why you're my boyfriend."

"Well," Pietro preened. "I try."

Clara laughed and kissed him, happy to spend the night with the man she loved, one she knew would not let her down, even if a certain Time Lord ever did.

***

It's as if I didn't think there would already be enough angst in Series 8 even with "Civil War" coming up.

I think I can definitely say "Civil War" will come after "Flatline." I can't say why because it would spoil the story, but it's a fairly good reason why.

Anyway, interlude done! Next up - "Vincent and the Apocalypse!"