It's such a human thing, he thinks first. The words, the saying of them out loud. As old as he is, the Doctor likes to believe he's glimpsed love in all of its many forms since the dawn of time. There is no one way to love, no right way to love (though there are wrong ways, certainly, and he's seen those, too), no perfect way. Love can be friendship, romance, understanding, importance. He loves and has loved so many, many, though few deeply. He can't love anyone too deeply, he can't let himself, can't get attached, yet he's found that here in Serthica, he's been pulled towards people in ways he never anticipated, expected, even wanted perhaps. He loves so much, that will always be true.
He still doesn't know Clara very well yet, though he understands that for her, in her supposed future, they're incredibly important to one another. It hurts him all over again to think that she loves him so deeply she felt she had to die for him. While he would gladly offer the same in return to everyone he loves, it's quite another thing to be faced with it in reverse and it's happened far too much in his long life.
Words are important, he knows this very well. Humans want and need to say the words because there might not be time later. The Doctor should understand this, does understand, to a certain extent, even if he's never been very good at saying the most necessary words out loud. Maybe there's a value in it, he thinks. A purpose in saying the words, in finding the strength to confess to them out loud, to even be aware of them. If Clara can be brave enough for it, perhaps he can, too. So he can't help it if, for a moment, his thoughts drift to Vanessa, to a loose and jumbled series of thoughts and feelings that have very recently come to the forefront of his mind. It still doesn't make sense to him, not all of it, but he feels a compulsion to understand what it is, and to seek a strength to say...something to Vanessa out loud, something close to what Clara has said, but in a different way.
It's entirely different, what he feels for Vanessa. That, at least, he understands. From his own perspective, he assumes that Clara loves him in the way that he loved (loves) Amy and Rory; Donna; Martha; Ace; Tegan; Nyssa; Jo. So many, so important. And Clara, now among them.
As he's protected and loved all of them through the years, so will he also with Clara.
He's loved all of them and they've loved him, but he wishes sometimes they didn't love him quite as much as they did because then they risk themselves for his sake and they never should. He thinks of River now. River, who loves him in a different way as well, surpassing his understanding. He doesn't love her the same way, though he understands perhaps he will in his future.
But it's Clara he's holding right now, Clara he wants to protect in the way he failed to protect Amy, and that makes him tighten his hold around her for a moment, pressing closer.
"You're very important to me, Clara," he finally says. "I won't let anything happen to you, I promise. I'll take care of you."
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He still doesn't know Clara very well yet, though he understands that for her, in her supposed future, they're incredibly important to one another. It hurts him all over again to think that she loves him so deeply she felt she had to die for him. While he would gladly offer the same in return to everyone he loves, it's quite another thing to be faced with it in reverse and it's happened far too much in his long life.
Words are important, he knows this very well. Humans want and need to say the words because there might not be time later. The Doctor should understand this, does understand, to a certain extent, even if he's never been very good at saying the most necessary words out loud. Maybe there's a value in it, he thinks. A purpose in saying the words, in finding the strength to confess to them out loud, to even be aware of them. If Clara can be brave enough for it, perhaps he can, too. So he can't help it if, for a moment, his thoughts drift to Vanessa, to a loose and jumbled series of thoughts and feelings that have very recently come to the forefront of his mind. It still doesn't make sense to him, not all of it, but he feels a compulsion to understand what it is, and to seek a strength to say...something to Vanessa out loud, something close to what Clara has said, but in a different way.
It's entirely different, what he feels for Vanessa. That, at least, he understands. From his own perspective, he assumes that Clara loves him in the way that he loved (loves) Amy and Rory; Donna; Martha; Ace; Tegan; Nyssa; Jo. So many, so important. And Clara, now among them.
As he's protected and loved all of them through the years, so will he also with Clara.
He's loved all of them and they've loved him, but he wishes sometimes they didn't love him quite as much as they did because then they risk themselves for his sake and they never should. He thinks of River now. River, who loves him in a different way as well, surpassing his understanding. He doesn't love her the same way, though he understands perhaps he will in his future.
But it's Clara he's holding right now, Clara he wants to protect in the way he failed to protect Amy, and that makes him tighten his hold around her for a moment, pressing closer.
"You're very important to me, Clara," he finally says. "I won't let anything happen to you, I promise. I'll take care of you."