Dancing Across Time (Book Two of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Interlude: Nightmares

The Face really was a mystery to the Doctor.

He leaned back in the captain's chair, letting Jessie sleep a little as he mused on what Boe had told him. He could see anyone's timeline if he really wanted to. He'd never taken a look into Jessie's.

But what had Boe meant when he said the Doctor wouldn't be able to see where she was going? "Be prepared," he whispered, echoing Boe's words. He groaned, leaning his head back. "Oh, that brilliant Face."

Boe had been right the first time. Jessie had broken, just like he'd said, and the Doctor had been there for her. He'd seen the things she'd had to deal with that others hadn't, and he'd seen how she'd suffered. And now Boe was saying that he wouldn't be able to see where she was going.

"DOCTOR!"

He jerked from his musings, hearing Jessie's scream with his enhanced hearing. He ran through the corridors, trying to find Jessie's bedroom. Whatever she was dreaming, it wasn't good.

***

The faces of her friends morphed together, all of them saying she'd abandoned them for a man who would only abandon her, or worse, use her just like Rick and Alex had back in her school years. She kept whimpering and trying to shake herself out of it.

And then a low voice came chuckling. "Jessie Nightshade, the Deathbringer of Asgard. A child fighting wars she cannot win."

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Hear the words of the Devil, Jessie Nightshade, Vertigo of the Avengers. The war you fight is ending for you. There will be one day where you will not see the light of day again, and that day is fast approaching."

"How long are you going to stay with me?" the voice of the Doctor, the current one, asked.

"Forever."

"But you won't." Images flashed past Jessie: of Daleks and soldiers of metal crying out 'Delete,' and of aliens she'd never seen before. "Death and destruction trail in your wakes, Jessie Nightshade, you Bad Wolf girl. And soon, it shall devour you."

"I'm supposed to go, in a world where I can never see you again?"

"Yeah."

"Forever?"

"Yeah."

"That's not gonna happen."

"Your doomsday approaches, Jessie. And when it comes, prepare for the pain and the suffering. Because when it comes, you will never see the Doctor again."

And the screams of herself and the Doctor made her scream, too. "DOCTOR!"

BANG!

***

Jessie shot up in bed, waking from the nightmare she was in, panting heavily. The door to her room was open, and the Doctor sat next to her, one hand tilting her face up to look at him. "Just a dream," he told her, voice laced in worry. "Just a dream."

She sobbed, hugging him tightly. "It didn't feel like one."

"What happened?"

She pulled back, sniffing. "My friends, telling me things that weren't true. A voice telling me I was fighting a war, and that I wasn't going to win."

"Did it say what kind?"

She shook her head. "No. It said it was the Devil. Doctor, it knew my names. Every name I've had. Deathbringer. Vertigo." She swallowed. "Even Bad Wolf."

The Doctor tensed. "You remember Bad Wolf?"

She nodded. "Boe showed me. He got past Cassandra and showed me everything."

"That Face," the Doctor muttered, sighing. "I wish I could've told you."

Jessie smiled through her tears. "'I think you need a doctor?' Really?"

"I was a little more concerned on you than pick up lines."

Jessie smiled sadly. "He said my doomsday was coming . . . that I was never going to see you again."

"Jess." He looked at her, care and understanding in his eyes that were not the Ninth Doctor's, but at the same time, they still were. "I promise you this, I am not going to abandon you. Never."

Jessie swallowed. "Swear it?" He nodded, and she finally relaxed as she curled up into his side. "Stay with me until I go back to sleep?" she asked in a murmur.

She felt him nod, and she shifted so she could lay back down into her sheets. He rubbed her back comfortingly, and as she closed her eyes, she swore that in the back of her head she heard singing in a language she didn't know comfort her as well.

She was asleep in a few minutes.

***

So we know something is going to happen in "Doomsday" . . . anyone want to guess what? Is Jessie going to follow like Rose . . . or is something else going to happen that's worse or better?

Oh, I can't wait to start writing that. :)