Clara's gathering her stuff together for the start of the new school year. And she has anything but a happy look on her face. She's dreading the year, the last year she was absolute rubbish when it came to teaching. There are lots of butterflies floating around her stomach, and as she looks to Rory, and sighs.
"I'm a teacher to a bunch of kids with anti-social behavior issues." She looks at a pack of pens, and she stuffs them into her bag. "Not a single one of them listened to me last year, and I'm not sure they're going to do the same this year." Her voice sounds agitated, and she tries to blow her feelings off by faking a smile. "I just wish there were openings in a better school, or maybe with the younger kids."
"You're braver than I am." Rory frowned. "And I work in A&E. If you want to talk about it I can get you a coffee." He hoped she'd seen the wedding ring or wouldn't take that as a request for a date - he could see she was very pretty, but he was only really interested in Amy. "Also a few tricks that work for handling the ... uncooperative." He didn't say that she looked like blood in the water in some ways - but he certainly wouldn't have chosen her to deal with anti-social behaviour issues. But in some ways what the Last Centurion didn't know about dealing with the awkward wasn't known by anyone.
"I'm almost sure A&E is far worse, but I could be wrong. The whole difference between kids being kids, and people in pain being daft." Clara is quick to catch on to things, not as if she's interested in Rory anyway. But with a smile on her face, Clara stuffs the last notebook into her bag and she smiles. "Sure, a cup of coffee and we can share our horror stories."
Clara's problem is she's too nice, she tries to threaten the kids but with little success. Hollow threats, but having to deal with the parents and everything else seems to be harder than it seems.
"I'd almost rather deal with an amusement park full of Cybermen than my own class."
At that Rory did a double take. "An amusement park full of Cybermen?" He blinked a few times, and switched to Latin - not that she'd notice if she'd been travelling in the TARDIS. "It sounds as if we've got stories to swap." And when he didn't see confusion or even that she'd noticed. "I'm not surprised. At least you can predict what Cybermen will do. And people in a hospital are normally not trying to get in the way. Unlike kids who don't want to be there."
Clara let it slip, but with everything planet Earth's experienced the Cybermen seem almost commonplace. She looks at Rory with a smile, and she slings the bag over her shoulder.
"I think we do if you spent time with a man in a little blue box." She now wonders if she sounds crazy, she does, doesn't she? The Latin sounds no different from English, and this is the give away to her own answer. She almost wants to exchange stories of her travels more than the stories of teaching. Who else is she going to explain any of the things she said to?
She motions her hand down the street. "Lead the way, and I'll tell you a bit of what I've done over a nice Latte."
"A blue box that's bigger on the inside? Yes we do. And I don't think we need to worry about spoilers." Which was a relief. "You shouldn't know about your own timeline. But if neither of us recognise the other that should be fine." He shrugged. He could claim to be older than The Doctor but that wasn't the same. "Nearest place is a Starbucks I'm afraid" he said, leading the way. "You've not met anyone else like us before?"
"That would be the one." Clara's not sure if they need to worry about spoilers, at least not for her own. "I take it you came from somewhere in his past, or future."
She continues to walk along the London streets, her hand grasping her bag firmly, and a smile starting to form on her face. This is nice; it gave her a chance to avoid thinking about the pending doom she's going to face in a week.
"I'm not that picky! I'd take Starbucks over the food of Victorian England any day." She shudders, and goes for a bit of a tease. "I'm not sure if starvation seems any better than blood pudding or jellied eels." Clara scrunches up her face, and makes a 'bleh' face to make her point.
"Depends where on his timeline you are." Rory shook his head with a grin. "Jellied eels are something I've managed to avoid. But Victorian food wasn't so bad. At least we had tomatoes, chilli pepper, potatoes, and chocolate by then. But I'll see your jellied eels and raise you sweetmeats and sweetbreads." His own face scrunched up, thinking of the taste of testicles and pancreas before he blinked and frowned. "You don't teach history or English do you?" And opened the door to the Starbucks for her.
"I'd say the future, I've never heard him mention you so maybe I'm in his past." Clara finds this whole time travel thing to be confusing at times, and this is going to be one of them. She's seen the pictures on the wall of his companions at UNIT HQ that were being monitored, and she looks at Rory to see if she can remember his face from that wall.
"...Yup. You're from his past." Clara remembers seeing Rory's picture among the rest of them.
Upon being asked about what subject she teaches, she smiles. "English." Clara takes the door from him once he opens it for the next person; she seems to appreciate the chivalry. "We can take one of the big chairs in the corner and talk there, the last we need is people to hear one of us talking in Latin."
"If they hear Latin they'll just think it's Spanish." Rory shrugged. "Better that than understanding what we're really talking about. "And if you're future but haven't heard of me, that makes it easy. He doesn't talk much about people he travelled with before." Rory nodded to the Starbucks counter before switching briefly to English. Partly because Latin didn't have a word for latte, never mind mocha chocolate frappuchino or half the rest of the menu. "You wanted a latte? With sugar?"
Clara looks around at the seating area, and she shrugs. There's no real need to argue about languages. There's far more interesting things to talk about, and the one about The Doctor not talking is one of them. "No. He never does, and it does drive me a bit mad."
She stops her musing when it came down to her order. "No. I think those things have enough, why thank you."
"It's hard to think that at one point, I'll be just a memory and he'll move on."
Rory ordered and paid for the pair of them. "Happens to all of us. And who knows how long it will last or how long you'll live." He shrugged, still speaking in English near the counter. "I'm a little older than I look in some ways."
"It still is a bit troubling, I know he's older than all of us. And I mean, he's really old." Clara stops herself from shouting, but a man who's well over a thousand years old must have issues when it comes to commitment.
She raises an eyebrow; he didn't look much older than she did. She mms, to herself, perhaps Rory is in his early thirties or late twenties perhaps. "Really? If I guess your age right, perhaps you can get me one of the pasties behind the glass case. If I get it wrong, I'll get you a day old sandwich."
Rory laughed as they picked up the drinks, switching back to Latin. "You're on. But that depends which of my ages. Number of years since I was born. Number of years counting the time I've spent travelling with the Doctor. And number of years worth of my own memories I have."
Clara takes her drink in her hand, and she takes a sniff of it before she takes a tiny sip. It is still a little too hot, but in due time her latte will be cool to drink. She motions Rory over to an empty recliner and the couch.
"Now you're making this too easy on yourself to get that sandwich. I'd figured someone who works A&E wouldn't be interested in having one of those sandwiches." Clara leans down to put her coffee cup down on the table, and she slides her bag onto the couch before she sits herself in it.
Now on to business of guessing Rory's age or ages. "Mmm. Age. 34?" The other stuff is far too complicated, so she just guesses.
Rory shrugged. "When was the last time you caught food poisoning from anything? No matter what or when you eat?" Rory was pretty sure there was something going on there - not that he pushed it hard.
At the guess he smiled. "Not bad. 32 chronologically. Or 35 biologically. I think that's close enough that you win?"
Clara furrows her brow, she hmms. "You know, now that you think of it, I haven't been sick at all." She leaves the age guessing game being, but there's a bit of a victory smile that crosses her face.
The fact she hasn't been sick since she's traveled with The Doctor is far more daunting.
"What about you? Have you ever been sick, since you stopped?"
"It's only ordinary illness you don't have to worry about." Rory shrugged. He was used to such things by now. "And who says I've stopped?" Another shrug. "Time machine. He won't cross his own timeline. But I think we're going to have to leave him."
"I haven't had anything but ordinary illnesses before, so I should be fine." Clara's not sure if that's a good thing, getting sick is one way of getting out of an unforgiving job.
She reaches over for her latte, and she slowly sips it. "So you're an on and off again, traveler yourself?" Clara felt the need not to travel with him constantly, especially seeing he looks as if he needs space. Well he kind of needs both space and someone there for company.
"That's one way to put it." Rory smiled. "The people who travelled with the oldest versions of him didn't go home much. But the more recent Doctors have needed more space and been more happy to let us go home." And he'd have to get some sort of contact details for her and pass them on just in case. "Especially as I was almost a tag along at first. It was Amy the Doctor came for."
"I wonder what all of those people he's traveled with are doing now. Do they go on to greatness, or are they destined to do the more mundane. Not that teaching or working A&E are anything but..." Clara thinks aloud so Rory can hear her, and perhaps it is something she will look into during her summer break.
She still wonders about the whole space thing, but ah again research. "And maybe we can start a bit of a club. There's got to be enough of us around to make one happen."
Rory frowned, and his tone was sober. "The one I actually knew is dead. Heart attack. We weren't close - talking about the Doctor while I am still travelling with him was painful for her. She was officially a reporter, who saved the world a few times in her last few years." Rory shook his head. "I don't know about any of the others." But he had some suspicions based on googling and the people who'd turned up to Sarah-Jane's funeral.
Clara listens and she stops herself from drinking the rest of the latte. She never heard of the reporter, and seeing she's just recently met Rory in the flesh, it never dawned on her that some of The Doctor's friends have lived well past their prime.
With a frown on her face, Clara looks to Rory. "Oh. Sorry, he never mentioned her. Or any of you for that matter, like I had said before. And I don't think we introduced each other." Clara offers out a hand. "Clara. Clara Oswald."
Rory took it with a smile. "Rory Williams. He rarely mentions anyone he's had to leave behind. He doesn't want to remember." His eyes went distant briefly, and his voice was almost a whisper. "Leaving people behind for two thousand years gets ... disheartening."
Clara gave it a shake. "I'm happy to have met you Rory, we'll have to do these things more often. Trust me, it's nice to have someone to talk about these things with." Things being the well being of her alien friend, and what their future holds with one another. "Needing his space and some friends at the same time, right."
She looks at Rory's wedding ring, she's still full of questions. With her eyes darting up to look back at Rory, she asks. "So how'd you meet your wife? Was it possible to have a wife while traveling with him? Boy the wedding had to be interesting."
Rory smiled, eyes going slightly distant and an affectionate smile on his face. "First day of primary school. She was trying to climb the fence to escape. I was trying to stop this crazy girl climbing the fence and throwing herself in a bramble patch on the far side. We got in a fight." He shook his head with a wry grin. "As for the wedding, the TARDIS appeared right in the middle of the dance floor for the reception. He also took us on a honeymoon. To moon made of honey, and a planet that had just married an asteroid."
((OOC: The planet that had just married an asteroid is canon from the Sarah Jane Adventures))
Reaching back for her latte, Clara listens to Rory tell about how he and the one he loves met. The two in her mind seem to be meant for one another, very much like how her mum and dad met. A smile forms on her face, and she listens to where they went on their honeymoon.
"Sentient planets, I suppose there's more out there than what he's shown me. Anyhow, your wife travels with him too, yes." Clara's still curious, and she looks down at her latte to pop the lid off to take another sip with a bit of foam forming on her lips.
With a wishful look in her eyes, she wipes the bit of foam off with her sleeve. "Here's hoping I'll end up with that lucky person, and maybe he'll take me somewhere that's quirky."
OOC: Nice. I haven't seen the SJA in a good while. :))
"There's quite a bit more than even he's seen." Rory smiled. "And it's more a case of I travel with him too. He only invited me when he discovered she was engaged." He frowned slightly. "And if you're travelling with the Doctor you're going to need to look in slightly odd places. Soldiers. MSF volunteers. Peaceworkers. Explorers. And other people who've been really odd places and thrown themselves into danger, preferably for a cause."
Clara makes a face when Rory mentions all of those seemingly important roles. There's no mention of teachers anywhere in all of that, and she finds it disheartening. She does know of both Barbara and Ian though, and there's something that gets a smile out of Clara.
"Nothing wrong with finding another teacher to travel with." She might be hinting at something, or someone she does fancy. She appreciates the places they've been to, sure, they end up running for their lives, but having a chance to make a difference means something to her.
"Nothing at all." Rory smiled. "And good luck. It's just people who haven't travelled to strange places and run straight towards danger aren't going to get you." Another smile. "Careful. But I'm sure he would. And the Doctor almost kidnapped me from my own stag party to make sure I'd done enough travelling to keep up with Amy." Rory's smile grew slightly. "Besides. Who wouldn't appreciate it?" Even his father had.
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"I'm a teacher to a bunch of kids with anti-social behavior issues." She looks at a pack of pens, and she stuffs them into her bag. "Not a single one of them listened to me last year, and I'm not sure they're going to do the same this year." Her voice sounds agitated, and she tries to blow her feelings off by faking a smile. "I just wish there were openings in a better school, or maybe with the younger kids."
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Clara's problem is she's too nice, she tries to threaten the kids but with little success. Hollow threats, but having to deal with the parents and everything else seems to be harder than it seems.
"I'd almost rather deal with an amusement park full of Cybermen than my own class."
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"I think we do if you spent time with a man in a little blue box." She now wonders if she sounds crazy, she does, doesn't she? The Latin sounds no different from English, and this is the give away to her own answer. She almost wants to exchange stories of her travels more than the stories of teaching. Who else is she going to explain any of the things she said to?
She motions her hand down the street. "Lead the way, and I'll tell you a bit of what I've done over a nice Latte."
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She continues to walk along the London streets, her hand grasping her bag firmly, and a smile starting to form on her face. This is nice; it gave her a chance to avoid thinking about the pending doom she's going to face in a week.
"I'm not that picky! I'd take Starbucks over the food of Victorian England any day." She shudders, and goes for a bit of a tease. "I'm not sure if starvation seems any better than blood pudding or jellied eels." Clara scrunches up her face, and makes a 'bleh' face to make her point.
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"...Yup. You're from his past." Clara remembers seeing Rory's picture among the rest of them.
Upon being asked about what subject she teaches, she smiles. "English." Clara takes the door from him once he opens it for the next person; she seems to appreciate the chivalry. "We can take one of the big chairs in the corner and talk there, the last we need is people to hear one of us talking in Latin."
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She stops her musing when it came down to her order. "No. I think those things have enough, why thank you."
"It's hard to think that at one point, I'll be just a memory and he'll move on."
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She raises an eyebrow; he didn't look much older than she did. She mms, to herself, perhaps Rory is in his early thirties or late twenties perhaps. "Really? If I guess your age right, perhaps you can get me one of the pasties behind the glass case. If I get it wrong, I'll get you a day old sandwich."
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"Now you're making this too easy on yourself to get that sandwich. I'd figured someone who works A&E wouldn't be interested in having one of those sandwiches." Clara leans down to put her coffee cup down on the table, and she slides her bag onto the couch before she sits herself in it.
Now on to business of guessing Rory's age or ages. "Mmm. Age. 34?" The other stuff is far too complicated, so she just guesses.
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At the guess he smiled. "Not bad. 32 chronologically. Or 35 biologically. I think that's close enough that you win?"
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The fact she hasn't been sick since she's traveled with The Doctor is far more daunting.
"What about you? Have you ever been sick, since you stopped?"
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She reaches over for her latte, and she slowly sips it. "So you're an on and off again, traveler yourself?" Clara felt the need not to travel with him constantly, especially seeing he looks as if he needs space. Well he kind of needs both space and someone there for company.
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She still wonders about the whole space thing, but ah again research. "And maybe we can start a bit of a club. There's got to be enough of us around to make one happen."
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With a frown on her face, Clara looks to Rory. "Oh. Sorry, he never mentioned her. Or any of you for that matter, like I had said before. And I don't think we introduced each other." Clara offers out a hand. "Clara. Clara Oswald."
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She looks at Rory's wedding ring, she's still full of questions. With her eyes darting up to look back at Rory, she asks. "So how'd you meet your wife? Was it possible to have a wife while traveling with him? Boy the wedding had to be interesting."
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((OOC: The planet that had just married an asteroid is canon from the Sarah Jane Adventures))
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"Sentient planets, I suppose there's more out there than what he's shown me. Anyhow, your wife travels with him too, yes." Clara's still curious, and she looks down at her latte to pop the lid off to take another sip with a bit of foam forming on her lips.
With a wishful look in her eyes, she wipes the bit of foam off with her sleeve. "Here's hoping I'll end up with that lucky person, and maybe he'll take me somewhere that's quirky."
OOC: Nice. I haven't seen the SJA in a good while. :))
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"Nothing wrong with finding another teacher to travel with." She might be hinting at something, or someone she does fancy. She appreciates the places they've been to, sure, they end up running for their lives, but having a chance to make a difference means something to her.
"And I'm sure he'd appreciate it."
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