Ending of the Hours (Book Four of the Bad Wolf Chronicles)

The Fall of the Tenth and the Second

"And Steve is insisting that we're going over to Stark's for Christmas," Martha was saying as they walked around Roald Dahl Plass, Donna and Jessie giggling as Martha explained to them about life with Steve. "I'm thinking about it, but with all of those Avengers . . . "

"Testosterone scent rising," Jessie said in a mechanical voice, making them all laugh. "Testosterone scent rising."

She grinned as she walked around with her two friends, both of whom had become closer than she would have ever thought. Traveling in the TARDIS had its benefits, the good represented by Donna, the bad represented by Martha. She couldn't imagine she'd be where she was now if it hadn't been for these two women. Even her first self hadn't taken to anyone like she'd taken to these two -

She stopped. Her first self. Where had that come from?

"Bad Wolf?" Donna asked, turning to her, seeing that she'd stopped right in the middle of the Plass. "Are you all right?"

- Captain Adelaide Brooke died on Earth -

Her eyes widened as her breath started getting shorter, blocking everything else out. She'd asked the Doctor about the Mars expedition, in 2059, and he'd told her that every one of them had died on Mars! Adelaide Brooke hadn't died on Earth, she'd died on Mars!

- Yuri Kerenski and Mia Bennett, both 27, praise her as a hero for saving them in the Mars mission -

She gasped, dropping to her knees, clutching her head when it burst in pain. "Bad Wolf!" Martha gasped, setting her bags down to run over as she shook, more and more memories and timelines being swapped around. "What's wrong?"

"Time," Jessie ground out, shaking her head and trying not to scream as she watched time literally rewrite. "Fixed points in time are being changed!"

"What?" Donna asked, dropping next to her as well. "Like Pompeii?"

"Except Pompeii wasn't changed," Jessie told her, tears in her eyes. "This was!"

"When?" Martha asked.

"The future," Jessie answered before pausing and blanching when a memory came back to her.

"The next time he sees me is not going to be pleasant. The Laws of Time are at stake."

"What does that mean?"

"I can't say anything else. But promise me you won't let him go off alone."

"No," she breathed, raising her head, tears in her eyes. "He wouldn't!"

"What?" Martha asked in confusion.

"Back on Messaline, my last self, she knew this would happen!" Jessie told them. "She knew this was going to happen, and I let it!"

"How?"

She swallowed. "I let him go off alone."

Martha and Donna looked at each other, realizing at the same time the weight in that sentence. Martha had spent a good chunk of time in 1969 with a Doctor that was engaged to her best friend, and he'd been a wreck trying to get back to her. If something happened here, with no idea how long it had been . . . well, that wouldn't be good, would it?

But Donna looked past Martha, and tensed. "Look," she said tightly.

Jessie turned, and her breath hitched when she saw Ood Sigma staring at her, his head tilted. She swallowed, rising to her feet. "He did it, didn't he?" she asked with a swallow. "Because I wasn't there to stop it?" Sigma didn't answer her, and she started to shake. "Is it now?" she demanded. "Our deaths? Is it time?"