Forest of the Dead

Shortness is (hopefully) made up for a good chapter! I hope you like it!

***

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave continued as Jessie looked around for a way to leave. "Hey, who turned out the lights?"

There was a flash of light behind them, and a black fingerless-gloved hand grabbed River's wrist. The woman gasped and turned, and so did Jessie. Behind them was a woman a few years older than Jessie, with dark hair and blonde highlight streaks, wearing a dark blue shirt, blue jeans, black knee-high boots, and a black leather jacket, a tan backpack over her shoulder. She smirked. "Did you forget something?" she asked, holding up her wrist.

River beamed at the Vortex Manipulator the woman had strapped around her wrist. "Thank you!" she told her, giving her a hug. She then broke away. "Vashta - "

"Nerada," the other woman interrupted, nodding. "I know." She pulled out a matching squareness gun. "That's why I came prepared." She shot the wall behind them, then nodded at the others. "That way, now," she ordered, and River climbed through instantly. Jessie stared at her, then went through as well. "Move!"

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave asked.

The woman sealed the wall behind them and turned to River. She just folded her arms. "You hung up on me," she accused.

She shrugged. "I was busy," she said briefly.

"Sorry, but . . . who are you?" the Doctor asked.

"Bishop," she answered, holding out a hand. The Doctor shook it warily. "Joan Bishop. I've known River here for a long time."

"How long?" Jessie asked.

Joan looked at her. "Long enough," she answered, turning around. "Come on."

Jessie looked at the Doctor as River and Joan talked up ahead. "Who the hell is she?" she hissed as they walked.

"I've never seen her before in my life," he answered truthfully.

Joan cut a hole in the wall nearby, and she poked her head in, looking around. "This is a clear spot," she said.

"Right," River nodded, climbing in. "In," she told them all. "In, in! Right in the center. In the middle of the light, quickly. Don't let your shadows cross." She looked around. "Doctor?"

"I'm doing it," he replied, starting to scan the floor.

"There's no lights here," River said, looking around. "Sunset's coming. We can't stay long." She looked at the Doctor. "Have you found a live one?"

"Maybe," the Doctor replied. "It's getting harder to tell." He frowned at his sonic screwdriver. "What's wrong with you?" he grumbled, slapping it against his hand.

Joan rolled her eyes. "Oh, move over," she ordered, lightly tapping him with the toe of her boot. She crouched down, unzipping her backpack and pulling out a fresh chicken leg. "Here we go," she muttered, and tossed it into the shadow. Only a bone hit the ground. "Oh, that's a live one," she remarked.

"That's a hot one," River told the others. "Watch your feet," she ordered.

"They won't attack until there's enough of them," the Doctor told them, looking at Joan in surprise as she stood up, completely calm. She was acting like she'd been expecting all of this to take place. How had she known? And was that entire backpack just chicken legs? "But they've got our scent now. They're coming."

Jessie moved over to investigate on her own. She heard River and Joan talking behind her, before River approached her. Jessie frowned when her own sonic sputtered, and she frowned, rapping it on her knee before going back to scanning. "What's wrong with it?" River asked.

"Must be a signal coming from somewhere, interfering with it," she replied, not looking behind her.

"Then use the red settings," River suggested.

Jessie shook her head. "It doesn't have a red setting."

"Well, use the dampers!"

"It doesn't have dampers!"

"It will do one day."

Jessie eyed the sonic screwdriver she was offered before she took it. "So, some time in future, I just give you my screwdriver," she said slowly.

"Yeah."

"Why would I do that?"

"I didn't pluck it from your cold dead hands if that's what you're worried about," River huffed.

"Trust me, she didn't," Joan told her from where she was leaning against a desk. "I was there. You weren't dead."

Jessie eyed Joan for a second before turning back to River. "And I know that because - ?" she asked.

Joan huffed, muttering something under her breath. River shook her head. "Listen to me," she told her. "You've lost your friend. You're angry. I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Bad Wolf, right now."

"Less emotional?" she repeated, her voice growing angrier and louder as she stood. "Less emotional?!"

"There are seven people in this room still alive. Focus on that," River told her with a huff. "Dear God, you're hard work young."

"Young?!" Jessie shouted at her. "Who are you?!"

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Lux shouted. "Look at the pair of you! We're all going to die right here, and you're just squabbling like bratty sisters!"

River rubbed her forehead before taking a quick look at Joan. She nodded, and so did River before she turned to Jessie. "Bad Wolf, one day I'm going to be someone that you trust completely, but I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really, very sorry."

Jessie frowned, opening her mouth, but River leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Jezebel."

Her jaw dropped open, eyes widening in a mixture of terror in awe as River pulled away. The Doctor must've sensed her confusion, as he turned and stood. "Jez?" he asked hesitantly.

Jessie just stared at River. "How?" she mouthed to her.

"Are we good?" River asked, but Jessie just kept staring at her, completely floored. There was only one person who knew that name, and said person would never tell it. "Bad Wolf, are we good?"

Jessie swallowed. "Yeah," she said faintly before clearing her throat and nodding. "Yeah, we're good."

"Good," River replied simply.

Jessie took a deep breath and turned away, nodding to the Doctor. "We can trust them," she told him.

He nodded. "Know what's interesting about our screwdrivers?" he asked the others around them. "Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough."

"Except hair dryers," Jessie put in with a grin, tugging at her own hair.

"Yes, I'm working on that," the Doctor told her. "So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed? Come on! What's new? What's different?"

"The moon's coming out," Joan replied before anyone could speak.

The Doctor looked up at it. "So it is," he mused before turning to Lux. "Tell me about the moon. What's there?"

"It's not real," Lux replied. "It was built as part of the Library. It's just a Doctor Moon."

"What's a Doctor Moon?"

"A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet."

"Well, still active," the Doctor told him. "It's signaling. Look." He held up his sonic. "Someone somewhere in this Library is alive and communicating with the moon."

"Or alive and drying their hair," Jessie suggested.

He made a face. "No, it's definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through."

"Doctor!" Joan called when an image of Donna appeared.

Jessie grinned. "Donna!"

She disappeared, and River turned. "That was her. That was our friend! Can you get her back? What was that?"

"Hold on, hold on, hold on," the Doctor replied, fiddling with his sonic. "I'm trying to find the wavelength . . . argh! I'm being blocked."

Anita looked down and swallowed. "Professor?" she asked.

"Just a moment!" River replied.

Joan looked down and cursed in something that sounded oddly like Norse. "She's got two shadows," she said sharply.

River spun around and blinked. "OK, helmets on, everyone," she ordered as Joan took a look around. Lux and Other Dave put their helmets on. "Anita, I'll get yours."

"It didn't do Proper Dave any good," Anita said miserably.

"Just keep it together, OK?" River told her.

"Keeping it together," Anita nodded, tears in her eyes. "I'm only crying. I'm about to die. It's not an overreaction."

River slipped Anita's helmet on. "Hang on," the Doctor told her, and he sonicked her visor black.

"Oh, God, they've gone inside!" River gasped.

"No, no, no, I just tinted her visor," the Doctor explained. "Maybe they'll think they're already in there, leave her alone."

"Do you think they can be fooled like that?"

"Maybe. I don't know. It's a swarm! It's not like we chat!"

"Can you still see in there?" Joan asked.

"Just about," Anita replied.

"Just, just, just stay back," the Doctor told her.

Joan took a look around, then stiffened. "Um, River? Doctor? Bad Wolf? A word?"

Jessie frowned as they crouched down. "What?" she asked.

"Seven people still alive, right?" When they all nodded, Joan crossed her arms. "Then how come I counted eight?"

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"RUN!" Joan shouted, jumping to her feet as Proper Dave's skeleton hobbled in.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

***

Joan stopped when they hit a hallway. "River, go ahead," she told her. "Find a safe spot."

"It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit!" River protested. "You can't reason with it!"

"Well, I can try and do something, can't I?" Joan retorted.

River shook her head desperately. "I'm not letting you stay here!"

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not!"

"River." Joan stepped forward. "I know what I'm doing. I promise. I am not dying here today. You know more than anyone just how hard I am to kill."

"I'm staying, too," the Doctor broke in, looking at Joan in interest. "Give us five minutes. Bad Wolf, go with them."

"You got it."

River glared at them before turning to Other Dave. "Other Dave, stay with them. Pull them out when they're too stupid to live." She pointed at them. "Two minutes, you both."

Joan pulled out her blaster as the Doctor turned when Proper Dave came in. "Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"You hear that?" the Doctor asked him. "Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever. Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him. Talk to us. It's easy. Neural relay. Just point and thin. Use him, talk to us."

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave asked.

"The Vashta Nerada live on all the worlds in this system, but you hunt in forests," the Doctor told him. "What are you doing in a library?"

"We should go," Other Dave said. "Doctor!"

"In a minute," he replied, waving him off. "You came to the Library to hunt. Why? Just tell me why!"

"We did not," came a low voice.

The Doctor blinked. "Oh, hello," he greeted the Vashta Nerada.

"We did not."

"Take it easy," the Doctor advised. "You'll get the hang of it. Did not what?"

"We . . . did not . . . come here."

"Well, of course you did!" the Doctor snorted. "Of course you came here!"

"We come from here."

The Doctor blinked. "From here?"

"We hatched here."

"But you hatch from trees! From spores in trees!"

"These are our forests."

"You're nowhere near a forest! Look around you!"

"These are our forests."

"You're not in a forest, you're in a library!"

"And what's in a library?" Joan cut in. The Doctor looked at her, and she looked at him pointedly. "Well? Look around you."

"We should go," Other Dave prompted. "Doctor!"

"Books," the Doctor realized. "You came in the books! Microspores in a million million books."

"We should go," Other Dave said. "Doctor!"

Joan cringed. "Oh, Dave . . . "

"Oh, look at that," the Doctor sighed, looking around. "The forests of the Vashta Nerada, pulped and printed and - " He cut off, realizing what else Joan had said. "Wait a minute, what?"

"We should go," Other Dave repeated. "Doctor!"

"Oh, Dave!" the Doctor groaned, realizing too late what happened as Joan aimed her blaster at Other Dave. "Oh, Dave, I'm so sorry."

A skeleton appeared where Dave's head had been. "Hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave asked.

"We should go," Other Dave's relay repeated. "Doctor!"

"Thing about me, I'm stupid," the Doctor babbled, taking Joan's arm and pulling her closer, blinking a little at how . . . relaxed he was at how close she was. He shouldn't be. That was odd. "I talk too much. Always babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Want to know the only reason I'm still alive?" He grinned. "Always stay near the door!" He aimed the sonic at the floor. "Going down!"

A trapdoor collapsed, and Joan quickly grabbed onto the support rails. "Nice!" she shouted at him. "Real nice!"

"Thank you!"

***

Jessie sat cross-legged on one of the ladders to reach top shelves, hearing River talking to her team. She looked up when she heard the Doctor's voice. "Spoilers! Nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that."

"There you are!" Jessie cheered, running down the stairs to hug him.

"It does for the Doctor and the Bad Wolf," River replied.

"We are the Doctor and the Bad Wolf," the Doctor reminded her.

Joan patted his shoulder. "Some day."

Jessie frowned. "Where's Other Dave?"

The Doctor blew out a breath. "Not coming. Sorry."

"Well, if they've taken him, why haven't they gotten me yet?" Anita asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference."

"It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again."

"Can I get you anything?"

"An old age would be nice. Anything you can do?"

"I'm all over it," he admitted.

"Bad Wolf?" Jessie looked up to see Anita's visor pointed in her direction. "When we first met you, neither of you trusted Professor Song. And then she whispered a word in her ear, and you both did. My life so far, I could do with a word like that. What did she say? Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me."

"Key word is safe," Joan spoke up.

"What?" Anita asked.

Joan turned to River. "That message you told me over the phone. What was it?"

"Four thousand and twenty two people saved," she replied. "No survivors."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "That girl is brilliant!" he cheered. "You don't say saved! Nobody says saved! You say safe! It didn't mean safe! It meant, it literally meant, saved!"

Jessie smiled, watching him celebrate, but she kept an eye on Joan. How that woman knew so much was beyond her. It was weird. And suspicious.

How did she know that?

The Doctor was working at a terminal nearby. "See? There it is!" he told them, pointing. "Right there. A hundred years ago, massive power surge. All the teleports going at once. Soon as the Vashta Nerada hit their hatching cycle, they attack. Someone hits the alarm. The computer tries to teleport everyone out."

"It tried to teleport four thousand twenty two people?" River asked.

"It succeeded," the Doctor agreed. "Pulled them all out, but then what? Nowhere to send them. Nowhere safe in the whole library. Vashta Nerada growing in every shadow. Four thousand and twenty two people all beamed up and nowhere to go. They're stuck in the system, waiting to be sent, like e-mails. So what's a computer to do? What does a computer always do?"

"Saves stuff," Jessie broke in.

River's eyes widened. "It saved them," she realized.

The Doctor nodded, drawing on a table. "The Library," he told them. "A whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything ever written, backup copies of every single book. The computer saved four thousand and twenty two people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive."

"That's a good computer," Joan remarked.

An alarm began wailing, and Lux looked around. "What is it?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"Autodestruct enabled in twenty minutes," the computer announced.

"What's maximum erasure?" River asked, reading the screen.

"In twenty minutes, this planet's going to crack like an egg," the Doctor translated.

"No," Lux shook his head. "No, it's all right. The Doctor Moon will stop it. It's programmed to protect CAL."

The computer screen chose that moment to go black. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor shouted, smacking the top of the screen.

"All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly - "

"Shut up!" both Jessie and Joan barked at the same time, then looked at each other.

"We need to stop this," Lux said worriedly. "We've got to save CAL."

"What is it?" the Doctor asked. "What is CAL?"

"We need to get to the main computer," Lux replied. "I'll show you."

"It's at the core of the planet!"

"Well, then, let's go," River said. She reached for her screwdriver, but then Joan, of all people, pulled out one of her own and pointed it at the Library logo. The logo opened, and a platform rose up. "Gravity platform," she explained, flipping the sonic up and into her hand. "It'll take us down."

"Oh, so you have one, too?" Jessie asked with a snort.

"Yep," she replied with a smile. "Not yours, though."

"Good."

"His," Joan pointed at the Doctor.

The Doctor groaned. "Do we just hand out screwdrivers for free or something?"

"No. He doesn't know I have it."

"So you snuck it out?" River asked, sounding amused.

"Yep," Joan replied, popping the "p." "I'm turning into you."

The Doctor grinned. "I bet we like you."

"Oh, you do," both women laughed as the six people hopped on the platform and rode down.

***

"Autodestruct in fifteen minutes."

"The data core," the Doctor whispered, looking up at the globe with swirling energy. "Over four thousand living minds trapped inside it."

"Yeah, well, they won't be living much longer," River quipped. "We're running out of time."

"Help me," a girl's voice called as the Doctor worked at a terminal. "Please, help me!"

"What's that?" Anita asked worriedly.

"Was that a child?" River gasped.

"The computer's in sleep mode," the Doctor said, tapping at the keyboard. "I can't wake it up. I'm trying."

"Doctor, these readings," Jessie told him, pointing.

"I know," the Doctor nodded. "You'd think it was dreaming."

"It is dreaming," Lux told them suddenly. "Of a normal life, and a lovely Dad, and of every book ever written."

"Computers don't dream," Anita huffed.

"Help me!" the girl's voice called. "Please, help me"

"No," Lux agreed. "But little girls do."

He pulled a breaker, and a door nearby opened. The six ran in to see a node turn to them. "Please help me," the face of the girl from before told them. "Please help me!"

"Oh, my God," River gasped.

"It's the little girl," Anita realized. "The girl we saw in the computer!"

"She's not in the computer," Lux told her. "In a way, she is the computer. The main command node. This is CAL."

"CAL is a child?" Jessie asked in disbelief. "A child hooked up to a mainframe?"

"Why didn't you tell us this?" the Doctor asked angrily. "We needed to know this!"

"Because she's family!" Lux snapped. "CAL. Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time. Any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything, and he gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."

"So you weren't protecting a patent," Jessie realized. "You were protecting her."

"This is only half a life, of course," Lux told her. "But it's for ever."

"And then the shadows came," the Doctor guessed.

"The shadows," CAL told them. "I have to. I have to save. Have to save."

"And she saved them," Jessie finished. "She saved everyone in the Library. Folded them into her dreams and kept them safe."

"Then why didn't she tell us?" Anita asked.

"Because she's forgotten," the Doctor answered. "She's got over four thousand living minds chatting away inside her head. It must be like being . . . "

"Us," Jessie finished sadly.

"So what do we do?" River asked.

"Autodestruct in ten minutes."

"I hate these kinds of computers," Jessie grumbled as they ran out.

"Tell me about it," Joan laughed.

"Easy!" the Doctor told them. "We beam all the people out of the data core. The computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer. She can borrow my memory space."

Jessie's eyes widened. "But that'll kill you stone dead!"

"Yeah," the Doctor admitted with a sigh. "It's easy to criticize."

"If you do that, it'll burn out both your hearts, and don't think you'll regenerate!" Joan snapped.

"I'll try my hardest not to die," the Doctor promised. "Honestly, it's my main thing."

"Doctor!" Jessie, River, and Joan shouted in unison.

"I'm right, this works," the Doctor snapped at them. "Shut up! Now listen. River, you, Joan, and Luxy boy, back up to the main library. Prime any data cells you can find for maximum download, and before you say anything else, Professor, can I just mention in passing as you're here? Shut up!"

"Oh, I hate you sometimes!" River snarled.

"I know," the Doctor chuckled darkly.

River growled. "Mr. Lux, Joan, with me," she ordered. "Bad Wolf, Anita, if he dies, I'll kill him!"

"What about the Vashta Nerada?" Anita asked.

"These are their forests," the Doctor replied. "I'm going to seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content."

"So you think they're just going to let us go?"

"Best offer they're going to get."

"You're going to make 'em an offer?"

Jessie glared at her. "Well, it's better than no offer at all," she replied. "Because I rather liked Anita. She was brave, even when she was crying. And she never gave in. And you ate her." She aimed her sonic screwdriver, and Anita's visor revealed a skull. "But we might let that pass as long as you let them pass."

"How long have you known?" Anita asked.

"Joan noticed it first," Jessie replied dryly. "I saw her keep looking at the floor. So I counted the shadows. You only have one now. She's nearly gone. Be kind."

"These are our forests," Anita countered. "We are not kind."

"I'm giving you back your forests, but you are giving me them," the Doctor told her. "You are letting them go."

"These are our forests," Anita repeated as shadows expanded towards the two of them. "They are our meat!"

"Don't play games with me," the Doctor warned. "You just killed someone I liked. That is not a safe place to stand. I'm the Doctor, this is the Bad Wolf, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look us up."

The Vashta Nerada hesitated, then said, "You have one day" before the suit collapsed.

"Anita!" Joan shouted as she and River ran in.

"Oh, Anita," River sobbed, crouching down.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor apologized. "She's been dead a while now." He frowned. "I told you both to go!"

He turned back to the terminal, and Jessie took a deep breath. "No," she told him.

He frowned, turning to her. "Wh - ?"

She chopped him in the back of the neck, and he collapsed, unconscious in her arms. "You're not doing this," she told him, dragging him off to the side before sprinting over to the terminal and typing at a much faster speed.

"You can't do this!" River pleaded.

"Well, if I'm going to die, I'm going out for a good cause," Jessie retorted.

Joan took a deep breath. "Then I'm really sorry."

Jessie narrowed her eyes, seeing her approach. "What?" she asked.

Joan swung at her, and Jessie quickly held up her hand to block the punch. But Joan grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm up her back, making Jessie cry out before she was chopped in the back of the neck as well, and she saw black.

***

The Doctor started to stir when the computer's voice said, "Autodestruct in two minutes."

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor groaned when he saw River twisting a few wires together, her sitting in a chair, Joan helping her. "Come on, what are you two doing? That's my job!"

"And your wife tried to take it, too," River informed him, nodding off to the side.

The Doctor looked over, seeing Jessie sprawled on the floor as well, out cold. "Well, it's still my job!"

"And I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?" River asked dryly.

The Doctor looked down at his wrist. "Why am I handcuffed?" he asked before seeing Jessie was, too, both of them stuck in place. "Why are we both handcuffed?" He eyed them. "Why do you even have handcuffs?"

"They're not mine," River snickered.

Joan actually blushed. "Spoilers," she mumbled.

"This is not a joke," the Doctor spat as Jessie began to stir. "Stop this now! This is going to kill you! I'd have a chance! You don't have any!"

"You wouldn't have a chance, and neither do I," River interrupted as Joan finished with her set of wires. "J's timing it for the end of the countdown. There'll be a blip in the command flow. That way, it should improve our chances of a clean download."

"River, please," Jessie pleaded hoarsely as she tried to sit up, tugging at the handcuffs and frowning. "Vibranium . . . "

"Sorry," Joan apologized, but she was blushing even redder. "Another thing I stole."

"Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die," River whispered to Jessie. "All the time we've been together, you both knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep with a new hair color and outfit. You took the TARDIS and took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried."

"Autodestruct in one minute."

"You wouldn't tel me why, but I suppose you knew it was time," River continued. "My time. Time to come to the Library. You even gave me your screwdriver. That should have been a clue." Four sonic screwdrivers were on the table by Joan, on top of River's diary. "There's nothing you can do," River added.

"You can let us do this!" the Doctor pleaded.

"If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you," River told him.

"Time can be rewritten!"

"Not the lines we've come from," Joan spoke up suddenly, and the Doctor was startled by the tears in her eyes. "Not one line of those lines can be disturbed. Don't you dare." She shook her head, sniffing as she dropped her wires, looking at River sadly. "I can't believe I helped with this . . . "

"Not one line can be disturbed," River reminded her. "You risked it all to be here. Thank you."

Joan nodded fiercely. "I promised to the end."

River smiled at her, then looked at the Doctor and Jessie. "You'll see us again. You've got all of that to come. You and us, tie and space. You watch us run."

"River, you know my name," Jessie whispered.

The Doctor stared at her. "What?" he asked, shocked. How could River have known her name? Only he knew!

"Autodestruct in ten - "

"You whispered my name in my ear."

"Nine, eight, seven - "

"There's only one reason I would ever tell anyone my name," Jessie insisted. "There's only one time I could!"

"Not just one," Joan told her.

River smiled softly. "Hush, now," she said.

"Four, three - "

"Spoilers," both women said as one.

"Two, one."

Joan backed away, keeping her eyes on River as she held two power cables together, and there was an explosion of light. The Doctor had to turn away, closing his eyes tightly.

A few seconds later, there was a scuffle as a whir of a sonic turned on, and he felt the handcuff unlock. "There," Joan said shortly, handing him his own sonic.

He took it and moved over to Jessie, who was staring numbly at where River was. "What do you mean, there's another time when she can tell someone her name?" the Doctor asked her.

Joan shook her head. "Spoilers," was all she muttered as she left Jessie's sonic on the table. She scooped up the other two and River's diary and stormed away.

***

"Please be patient," the computer announced as the Doctor and Jessie waited in the shop. "Only three can teleport at a time. Do not state your intended destination until you arrive in your designated slot."

Jessie watched as Donna approached. "Any luck?" she asked.

"There wasn't anyone called Lee in the Library that day," she replied sadly. "I suppose he could have had a different name out here, but, let's be honest. He wasn't real, was he?"

"Maybe not," the Doctor admitted.

"I made up the perfect man. Gorgeous, adores me, and hardly able to speak a word. What's that say about me?"

"Everything," the Doctor replied absently. Jessie coughed into her arm, and his eyes widened. "Sorry, did I say everything?" he sputtered. "I meant to say nothing! I was aiming for nothing! I accidentally said everything."

"What about you?" Donna asked. "Are you two all right?"

"I'm always all right," the Doctor brushed off.

"Both of us," Jessie agreed quickly.

Donna gave them firm looks. "Is 'all right' special Time Lord code for really not all right at all?"

"Why?" the Doctor asked.

"Because I'm all right, too," Donna replied.

Jessie nodded when she saw something on a railing nearby. "Come on," she told them.

She walked over to River's diary with the two sonics on top and looked it over. "Your friend, Professor Song," Donna told them. "She knew you in the future, but she didn't know me. What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me . . . "

"Donna, this is her diary," Jessie told her, holding it up. "Our future. I could look you up. What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?"

Donna considered before smiling sadly. "Spoilers, right?" she asked.

Jessie nodded. "Right."

"Come on," the Doctor told them as she set them down. "The next chapter's this way."

Jessie followed him up the stairs when something came to mind. Hang on . . . She turned and raced back down the stairs. "Why?" she asked herself, holding up her future screwdriver and looking it over. "Why would I give her my screwdriver?" She began pacing, hardly realizing the fact that someone was watching from the shadows. "Why would I do that? Future me had years to think about it, all those years to think of a way to save her, and she gave her a screwdriver . . . " Her eyes widened as she flipped the screwdriver over, showing a neural relay with two green lights. "Yes!" she cheered, jumping up and down. "Oh, yeah! I'm good!"

"What did you do?" Donna asked.

Jessie grinned. "I saved her!" she whooped, running off towards the data core.

"Stay here!" she heard the Doctor vaguely tell Donna before he was off and running after her.

"One last run, River," she pleaded as one light blinked out. "Come on! One last run!" She skidded to a stop. "Shortcut!" The Doctor grabbed onto her before she dived down through the floor.

She skidded to the data core and plugged the screwdriver inside, and the neural energy transferred. She sagged in relief, tears filling her eyes, and the Charlotte Node smiled at them.

They smiled back, and didn't notice the figure approaching from behind.

***

Donna looked up from the TARDIS console as the Doctor opened the TARDIS with a snap of his fingers. She grinned as they both walked inside, then the Bad Wolf snapped her fingers, closing the TARDIS doors. "Where to next?" she asked.

"A break," the Bad Wolf replied with a smile. "We need one."

Donna nodded when she realized something. "Oh, Professor Song made a call when I was there, saying she asked someone for help," she told them. "Did anyone show up?"

The Doctor blinked. "She made a call?" he asked.

Donna nodded. "Yeah, she did. Did anyone show up to help?"

The Bad Wolf frowned, then shook her head. "No one at all," she replied. "I don't remember her making a call anyway."

Donna stared at them. "You didn't hear her?"

"Didn't see her either," the Bad Wolf replied. "Why?"

Donna stared at them. Was she going mad?

Or did they not realize what was going on in front of their noses?

***

*grins* So . . . was that twisted enough for you? ;) I hope you all have more questions than answers.

What do you think of Joan Bishop, River Song's friend? Who do you think she is? And how important is she in the spin of all things? And . . . why does River know Jessie's name? And how?

 . . . and how do the Doctor and Jessie not remember her? I can't wait to hear theories for this. ;)

Next interlude will visit a place we haven't been since Book 1, and I'm not telling where. If you know, kudos to you. ;)

But there will not be an update here for a few updates. Next up . . . DOUBLE update for "Apocalypse Rising!" I'll give two updates so we can get a feel for this new Caly and what her relationship with Rose is like.

Excited? Me, too. :) See you in "Apocalypse Rising!"

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