calufrax

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Story: Temporal Displacement
Author: Nostalgia
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2,287
Author's Summary: In which Clara may or may not be pregnant.
Characters/Pairings: Eleven/Clara
Warnings: swearing; possible dubcon during offscreen sexual activity

Recced because: In a universe with canonical time travel, a hero who regenerates instead of dying, and villains who can literally threaten all of reality itself, how much more of a leap is a temporally displaced pregnancy? Not much of one, in my opinion, and it's the premise of this story: Clara is going to be pregnant with the Doctor's child in three weeks, and she doesn't want to be, so surely as long as she and the Doctor avoid each other, everything will turn out fine, right? But of course, that's far easier said than done.

With this premise, you could go creepy or comedy, and while the creepy approach would be equally fine with me, Nos' touch here is much lighter. "Temporal Displacement" is breezy and funny without going over the top into crack – and ultimately, it's a surprisingly romantic tale.

Excerpt:

Clara woke up in the medical bay on the TARDIS, relieved to find that there were no needles stuck in her. She sat up as the Doctor waved something metal and probably-sonic over her.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You fainted.”

“Why?”

“Ah,” said the Doctor. “You might want to be sitting down for this.”

“I am sitting down.” She frowned at him. “Is it something serious? Am I dying?”

“You are... that is to say, you will be... potentially... there isn't really a simple way to put this...”

“What,” she asked icily, “is wrong with me?”

“Temporally displaced pregnancy,” said the Doctor.

She understood one word of that, but it was an important word. “Pregnant? How can I be pregnant? I haven't had sex since before I met you!”

“Temporally displaced,” the Doctor repeated. “You haven't... attended the conception yet. But you will, and then you'll be pregnant.”