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

Interlude: Survivor's Guilt

"That settles it," Jessie said as she walked into the library later that night, the Doctor reading in a chair nearby. "I am never watching or reading The Prisoner of Azkaban again."

"That bad?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I have faced Malekith the Dark Elf after he murdered Frigga," Jessie said, plopping down on the couch. "Nothing I want to face again. I've faced a Clairvoyant with SHIELD. Never again. But out of everything . . . no. No more werewolves."

The Doctor snorted, going back to his book. "No more Victorian Age."

"No," Jessie agreed before turning onto her stomach so she could still look at him. "So, what is it you're reading?"

He jumped, looking at her in surprise. "Nothing interesting."

She raised an eyebrow. "It's got to be interesting. I don't take you for someone who'd read anything boring." She looked at the title. "I can't even read the cover, so that means you've got to find it - " She broke off. "Wait a minute . . . I can't read it."

"Gallifreyan," the Doctor whispered, closing the book. "And I'm the only one who still knows it."

Jessie tilted her head, looking at him. He seemed deep in thought. "Penny for your thoughts?"

He snorted. "Waste of money."

"Come on, I know that look," Jessie told him, sitting up. "Maybe not on you, but I've seen it before. Out with it."

"I keep thinking of the Captain, of Sir Robert," the Doctor said slowly, setting the book down nearby. "And I think that they shouldn't have died."

"It's called survivor's guilt, Doctor," Jessie said gently. "There was nothing you could've done."

"Yes, there is!" he protested. "I could have stopped them. I could've argued more."

"So could I," Jessie said sharply. "I could've drawn my swords and gone after the werewolf myself. You saved me and Victoria. Had you not stopped me, I could've been wolf dinner."

"And I don't think I could've lived with anything if that had happened!" the Doctor snapped, eyes burning into her. Her eyes widened, and she quickly looked away as the Doctor kept talking. "The way you just oh so casually walk into danger without thinking of yourself . . . honestly? It scares me to death. Every. Single. Time. How did you live with it all the time, Jess? At SHIELD? Losing people day after day, and then walking off as if it never happened?"

"I never just walked off!" Jessie sputtered, looking up. "It's a job! One of the things I was always taught, don't get caught up in a job. But there are those people. And when you lose them, it hurts like hell. And believe me, I've been in hell." She folded her arms, leaning back. "Funny. This is just like after Cardiff. Except we've switched places."

The Doctor huffed. "And just a little bit more tense."

"I eat tense for breakfast," Jessie snorted before leaning back on the couch with a flop and groaning. "God, what's happening to us?"

"Do you want to go home?"

She sat up straight, looking at him wildly. "What?"

"I was just thinking," he said quickly, looking anywhere but at her. "You know, if this keeps happening - "

She brought her hand back and whalloped him on the back of the head so hard he lurched forward a little. "Don't you dare think I would leave!" she shrieked. "No way in the Nine Realms am I leaving you!"

He looked at her. "Never?"

"Never," she confirmed fiercely, getting down to eye level with him. "And nothing you say can change my mind about that. No guilting me into anything, no just thinking because it's for the best, because then I will find a way to get back into the TARDIS and get back here." She sat back. "And about that . . . "

"What?" he asked.

Jessie hesitated. "I think I like that better than Vertigo."

"Like what better?"

"Bad Wolf."

The Doctor looked at her sharply. "What?"

"I like it better than Vertigo," Jessie explained, looking at the fireplace. "I don't know. It just seems like it's a part of me now, and it won't go away. So if there's any situation where things go haywire, just . . . just call me Bad Wolf, OK?"

There was a moment of silence, then he whispered back, "OK."

"Good."

They sat there in silence for a few moments, and then Jessie's phone buzzed. She groaned, answering it. "What?"

"Geez, what alien got ahold of you?"

Jessie shot up straighter. "Saleen?"

"Me!"

"How did you know my phone worked?"

"Super phone. He zapped it."

Jessie sighed. "What is it?"

"First of all, you tell me what he's done to get you in a pinch."

"Narrowly survived an encounter with a Victorian werewolf."

"What?"

Jessie burst out laughing at Saleen's shout, and the Doctor began laughing, too. "Yep! Queen Victoria's family were werewolves!"

"Holy . . . God almighty, Jessie!"

Jessie giggled. "But I get the feeling this wasn't just a social call."

"No. I was wondering . . . if you and the Doctor ever get a spare time, could you come check something out down here? The team and I were investigating, and something here is just . . . off."

"Sure thing. What is it?"

"Well . . . thing is, it's a school."

***

So Jessie has officially become "Bad Wolf." Any thoughts or comments on that?

Next up is "School Reunion" with Sarah Jane Smith, Saleen Harper, and a few more SHIELD friends. Guess which ones!