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

Chapter Eleven: Fear Her

"So where are we going now?" Jessie asked anxiously, pulling on her denim jacket.

The Doctor landed the TARDIS and held up a finger. "You'll see." He walked over to the door and opened it, then blinked. "Ah."

Jessie giggled when she realized he'd parked the TARDIS the wrong way. "Nice going."

The Doctor flipped a few switches, and waited for the TARDIS to readjust. He walked back to the door and opened it, then brightened. "Ah!" he exclaimed, sounding happier.

Jessie walked out behind him, grinning. "So is this the near future or the near past?" she asked, seeing that they were in what appeared to be modern-day London.

"Near past."

"Why are we here?" she asked, surprised.

"Well . . . " He scratched his head. "Pulled in a few calls to the SHIELD team while you were asleep after the Hoix, and decided to take a trip." Jessie's eyes widened when she saw the banner they were approaching as they walked. "Thirtieth Olympiad!"

"No way!" Jessie gasped, grinning widely. "The one Olympics I missed, London 2012!" She grabbed the Doctor's arm. "Oh my God, you are incredible!"

"Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about, wrestling each other in the sand with crowds stood around baying. No." He narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute. That was Club Med." Jessie snorted loudly, and he smirked at her. "Just in time for the opening doo dah, ceremony, tonight. I thought you'd like that. Last one they had in London was dynamite. Wembley, 1948. I loved it so much, I went back and watched it all over again! Fella carrying the torch. Lovely chap, what was his . . . ?" Jessie's attention was drawn to a lamppost, where there were two different "Missing" posters. "Mark? John? Mark?" the Doctor continued, oblivious to her. "Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet."

"Doctor," she said slowly, reading the papers.

"And in those days, everybody had a party to go to."

"Doctor!" she insisted.

"Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top?"

"You should really look at this," she told him, turning to him.

He finally began to walk over to her. "Do you know those things? Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius!" He stopped by her and took a look at the posters. "What's taking them, do you think?" he asked. "Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this." He looked around. "Why's it so cold? Is someone reducing the temperature?"

"It says they all went missing this week," Jessie said, checking the dates. "Why would a person do something like this?"

"What makes you think it's a person?"

Jessie watched a woman quickly put out her trash, then make a beeline back to the house. "Well, whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death." She looked around when the Doctor ran off. "Doctor, what - ?" She huffed, ready to go after him when she heard a minivan's engine sputter and give out. She turned to see one of the roadworkers in the street go over to help the driver push. She walked over in time to hear something about all of the cars doing it. "Do you want a hand?" she asked.

"No, we're all right, love," the worker replied.

Jessie shook her head. "You're not." She joined him, pushing the back end. "I'm tougher than I look. Honest."

The engine roared to life suddenly and jumped forward. Jessie stumbled as the driver got back into the car and drove off. "So does this happen a lot?"