Run. (The DoctorxRose One-Shots)

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

Her name was Rose, but she was much more commonly known as Little Red Riding Hood. She was well known in her village. She was thought of as very brave, being the only one who would trek through the woods plagued by the wolf everyday. All the village children had been raised on tales of the "big bad wolf" and Rose was no exception. She was different though, in the way that she didn't fear the wolf. Rose would never tell a soul, but she almost felt a kinship with this bad wolf.

Rose walked through the wolf's woods everyday. She had worn down a path, but she remained the only one to take it. Rose knew the always constant, never changing scenery well and that was how she found herself diverted from her path one day. She had been pulled off the path by the sight of something unusual in the woods. Something big and blue. As she grew closer, she realized it was a blue box. A police public call box, she read. She wondered how something so large and immovable got out here when she was certain it hadn't been there yesterday. She walked a circle around the box. On one side the words "bad wolf" were painted on the box.

"This is the wolf?" Rose found herself saying out loud. All the stories had described it as an actual wolf, not a big blue box.

"What? Hello?" Rose heard a voice say. Her eyes widened and she struggled to swallow. No one ever traveled through these woods, but her. Was the wolf speaking to her? Rose got over her moment of paralysis and walked around the box. She stopped in her tracks. There was a man leaning out of the box. He had his back to her. She didn't dare move, afraid he would turn around and see her. She watched his shoulders shrug and he disappeared back in the box, pulling the door shut behind him.

Rose approached the door, tentatively tapping it. Immediately, the door snapped open. Rose shrieked and jumped back a few feet.

"Who are you?" The man from the box said.

"You're not a wolf!" was all Rose could say.

"Neither are you," the man said. Rose just stared at him. He stared at her in return.

"Who are you?" Rose eventually asked.

"I'm the Doctor, who are you?" he said.

"People call me Little Red Riding Hood," she replied, tugging on her red cloak to draw attention to it.

The Doctor nodded. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of glasses. He then proceeded to look her up and down. "There's something strange about you," he muttered as he reached into his jacket again. This time he pulled out a strange silver cylinder. He pointed it at Rose and it proceeded to glow blue and emit a strange buzzing sound. Rose backed up a couple steps. "A-ha!" the Doctor suddenly shouted, causing Rose to jump back a few more feet.

"What?" she asked. "What is it?"

"Little Red Riding Hood," he said. "Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf! But that's not how it is! It's not Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood is the Big Bad Wolf! Molto bene!"

"What are you talking about?" Rose said.

The Doctor just looked at her, an almost startled expression on his face. "You don't know," he said.

"You're right," she said. "I haven't the faintest what you're talking about!"

"You don't know you're the wolf," the Doctor said.

"I'm not the wolf," Rose replied. "I couldn't be, could I?"

"I came here because today's the day the wolf disappears," the Doctor said.

"How would you know that?" Rose asked.

"I'm a time traveler," he replied.

Rose just shook her head. "But you're saying I'm the wolf and if the wolf disappears, does that mean I'm going to...to, um...to die?"