Living In Time And Space (Book Six of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Nightmares and Reality

All will be explained, I promise. The Doctor gets sense talked into him from that lady up top, and quite frankly, that pretty much is her reaction to what he tells her. :P

Enjoy!

***

"Saleen Harper to the second floor conference room. Saleen Harper to the second floor conference room."

Saleen frowned, hearing the announcement. "I didn't think I had anything scheduled today."

"Maybe a last minute thing?" Rhodey wondered.

"I'd go check it out, just in case," Sam advised. "We're not going anywhere."

"All right," Saleen nodded, grabbing her jacket. "I'll be back as soon as I'm able."

As she left, the Maximoff twins watched her go warily before exchanging suspicious looks. The last time this had happened, the Bad Wolf had confronted them about when she died.

Was the Bad Wolf finally here to confront her best friend?

***

When Saleen entered the conference rooms, the lights were on a dimmed glow. "Hello?" she looked around, not seeing anyone inside, but one of the tabletop screens was still on. Frowning, she walked over to see what had been pulled up. She gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth.

It was the file she had locked tighter than Fort Knox, the one about when Jessie died on Lake Silencio.

"Would you like to explain, Saleen?" a cold voice from the corner asked; for once, Saleen wished the man had gotten her name wrong. "I'm already in a bad mood. Let's avoid making it worse."

Saleen swallowed. "You remember Utah."

"Quite clearly," the Doctor straightened and walked over, his emerald eyes colder than ice. "What I'm currently remembering is how stunned everyone was to see that she was there."

"Because only a few minutes earlier, we were down by Lake Silencio, watching her get shot by someone in an astronaut suit," Saleen closed her eyes. "She let whoever it was shoot her, apologized to us, started to regenerate - "

"And the astronaut shot again, killing her."

"Yes."

The Doctor growled something the TARDIS matrix didn't translate for her, but given the stormy look in his eyes, Saleen was sure she didn't want to know what he said. "I had hoped this wasn't right."

"Hang on, you knew before you came here?" Saleen stared.

"When Wanda used her magic on me, the Ponds and River were there, accusing me of not being there when she died," the Doctor leaned on the table. "Where we just were, we were in this makeshift space prison that looked like a 1980s hotel, and there was a room for everyone, a room that held their worst fear. I actually saw it happen, and saw all of you there. Then you all were gone, it was just me and Jessie, then Wanda was there, saying that seeing this twice was not a coincidence. When we dropped the Ponds and FitzSimmons off for a while, I came straight here to look around." He looked up at Saleen, a hard look in his eyes. "Who knows about this?"

"Just us that were there," Saleen crossed her heart. "We never told a soul."

The Doctor frowned, then nodded. "This stays between us. This may be a fixed point in time, but I'm going to go to hell and back to stop this from happening."

"Agreed," Saleen nodded, exiting out of the file. "Is there anything else you need, Doctor?"

He considered. "Send Wanda up here, will you?" he finally answered, his voice sounding strange. "I think over her and Pietro, I'd take her."