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

Interlude: Pause and Reflect

Neither Jessie or the Doctor had spoken for a long time.

May knew that immediately. She had been piloting the Bus when she had seen on the monitor that connected to the holding bay that the TARDIS had appeared. She had seen Jessie's meltdown. She had seen Coulson ask the question about Saleen. She had seen the Doctor reply she was home.

Other than that, there had been nothing. Jessie seemed to cling to Skye for a long time, and the Doctor merely helped Jemma and Fitz tinker with something they needed help with. Something was going on, and she needed to know exactly what. She set the plane on autopilot and took off her headphones, stood, then headed out of the cockpit.

***

Coulson was reading a file report when the door opened without a knock. He looked up as May came in, looking tense. He instantly set the file down. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"What happened?" was all she asked.

He blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"With the Doctor and Jessie," May replied, sitting herself down in a chair. "They took Saleen with them after the incident at the school. They come back a week later, on the Bus, and Jessie starts clinging to Skye like a lifeline, and the Doctor's not saying anything either. And where the hell is Saleen?"

Coulson leaned back in his chair. "I don't know," he admitted. "Neither of them seem keen to talk."

"Then we need to get them to."

Coulson shook his head. "That won't work."

"It will if we do."

Coulson looked at her. "You want to make two of them talk?"

"You talk to Jessie," she replied. "I'll talk to the Doctor."

Coulson folded his arms, thinking before nodding. "All right. I will."

***

The Doctor kept taking a look at the literal ice gun that Jemma and Fitz had asked him for help on. Really, how humans could make these things was beyond him. He aimed the sonic screwdriver at the center of the gun -

The doors behind him slid open, and he jumped in surprise, looking over his shoulder to see Melinda May standing there. He took a deep breath. "Do you always surprise people like that?" he asked, turning back to the gun.

"Only when I want to," she replied, walking around the table. "Do you know what it's for?"

"Depends," the Doctor replied in a muffled voice, opening the core of the gun. "Ice gun. Funny. Who made this?"

"Students at the SHIELD Academy."

"Brilliant. If I just knew how they worked - "

"What happened?"

The Doctor looked up sharply to see May standing there with her arms crossed. "I'm sorry?" he stammered.

"How did Saleen leave?"

The Doctor leaned on the table, looking at her. "That's for Jessie to tell you."

"She's worse off than you are," May told him. "You know that. And you keep avoiding her, like you're trying to avoid making it worse. I'll ask again." She leaned forward. "What happened that made Saleen leave?"

***

Jessie hadn't slept for . . . she checked her watch. Twenty hours and seventeen minutes, she thought, sighing as she laid her head on the bar.

"Rough night?" Jessie just grunted in reply when she heard Coulson's voice. He chuckled and moved around the table. "Sounds like it."

"Don't know the half of it," she mumbled.