When He's Bored (Doctor Who Story)

Boredom was a concept familiar but not welcomed by the Doctor.
He'd been staring at the ceiling for three hours now, which had took a lot of effort since he hadn't chosen to do so. He didn't move because he didn't want to disturb Clara or Eve.
Eve had gone asleep to the Doctor's right, hugging his arm around her as her head rested in the Doctor's arm. Her straightened hair was like a redder, lengthened version of Clara's, and lay behind her draped over the Doctor's arm, the plaits at each side of her head keeping the hair away from her face. Asleep, she looked at peace, her eyes delicately shut as she took in shallow breaths.
Clara had gone asleep to the Doctor's left, wrapped in the Doctor's arm as she was half-draped over him, her left arm almost reaching Eve, her head wresting on his shoulder. Every faint exhale of breath warmed the Doctor's side, which had started to become annoying after two minutes of Clara going asleep. A contented look on her face, Clara slept peacefully as the Doctor tried not to wake her or Eve.
"Clara?" The Doctor whispered. No response. Not even a small flicker of an eyelid.
"Eve?" He whispered. No response at all.
He sighed, looking up at the ceiling. He supposed he could count the ceiling swirls again...
Or he could *try* to sleep.
He kissed Clara and Eve on the head one by one, and shut his eyes, listening to the gentle breathing of both girls as they dreamt of the stars.
"Did I ever tell you about Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomesday?" The Doctor asked anonymously. "No, I distinctly remember telling you, Eve. More than once. I don't think I've told you, Clara. Shall I?" He smiled. "Okay. Once upon a time..." He began quietly, whispering the story to both girls.
It was moments like this that the Doctor enjoyed the most; that the Doctor lived for. It didn't matter how many monsters he defeated, how many aliens he fought, because if he had nothing to fight for, fighting would be pointless. This was that point to fight for.
By the fifth paragraph, the Doctor's eyes were indefinitely shut. And unaware of his own actions, he fell asleep...


~~~~~


Eve woke up with her face buried in the pillow again.
She always wondered how she actually breathed like that. Turning her head right, she saw Clara still sleeping peacefully.
But no Doctor.
Bleary eyed, Eve frowned as she got her vision to focus on the empty space next to her. The Doctor was most definitely gone. As was his jacket that Eve had gone to sleep in.
"How the..." Eve began, wondering how he'd gotten it off her. In the end, she decided that he'd pulled it off her arms when she'd had her face in the pillow.
She sat up, squinting through the darkness of the room in the TARDIS. She couldn't see anyone there, and she wondered why the Doctor had gone.
"Clara." Eve whispered. She didn't move. "Clara." Eve poked her arm, and she made a sort of moaning noise before rolling to face Eve and pulling her eyelids open.
"...Eve?" She asked, not really sure of what was going on in the first few seconds of waking up.
"The Doctor's gone." Eve said as she looked down at Clara. She frowned.
"Gone? He's probably just gone to eat an ice cream or something." She waved Eve away as she went to roll over and go back to sleep, but Eve stopped her and rolled her back, much to Clara's dismay. "What?" She moaned.
"He took his jacket. You know it's something serious." Eve said, and Clara stared at the ceiling as her mind slowly worked.
"...His jacket's gone?" Clara realised. Eve nodded, just visible in the dark.
"We have to find him." Eve said, pulling Clara up to a sitting position. Clara nodded sleepily, and Eve jumped out of the bed and marched unsteadily to the light switch, turning the light on and blinding herself and Clara.
"Turn it off!" Clara complained, holding her hand over her narrowed eyes.
"Come on!" Eve demanded, grabbing Clara's hand and pulling her to her feet, and dragging her to the door.
"Okay, I'm coming." Clara took her hand back and followed Eve down the TARDIS's complex corridors. They walked to the control room, and frowned as the Doctor wasn't there.
"Doctor?" Eve shouted. They were responded by silence.
"Doctor?" Clara shouted. Silence replied.
"Where are we?" Eve wondered as she looked at the screen above the control panel. She couldn't make sense of the readings, and by the looks of it, Clara couldn't either. She looked completely bemused.
"Use our eyes?" Eve asked.
"Use our eyes." Clara nodded as both girls marched to the doors of the TARDIS. When they pulled the doors open, they were momentarily blinded by daylight.
When the blindness had gone, they focused on the ground ahead and sighed.
"He took his jacket, you know it's something serious." Clara echoed what Eve had said. Eve winced.
"Yeah...um...sorry?" Eve lifted an eyebrow. Clara frowned, looking ahead of her with an unamused face.
"Alton Towers." She sighed.
"Yeah." Eve confirmed.
"So serious." Clara said sarcastically.
"To a child." Eve said.
"To the Doctor." Clara added. Both girls looked at each other like a pair of mature mothers, fed up with their troublesome kid.
"Come on, let's go and find him." Clara said as the girls marched out of the TARDIS and into the theme park, gravitating towards the bigger rides and candyfloss stalls...