"Make your decision, Mr. Smith," Jenny ordered.

Martha tried fruitlessly to rip her friend's arm off of her, but failed. "Perhaps if the human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge," Baines said.

"Wait!" Martha protested when John began to open his mouth, desperately trying to buy some time. "Wait a minute! What you said earlier. What was it? What was it? Look around here, Baines! Who's missing?"

Baines looked around, then inhaled sharply. "Time Lady," he breathed.

And the doors behind them exploded inwards.

The participants in the dance screamed, and the Family was thrown to the ground, Joan and Martha being released. Martha groaned, rolling back onto her stomach as John hurried to help Johanna, but he froze when he saw who was walking in.

Black booted feet stepped in, and Martha raised her gaze, slowly beginning to smile when she took in the black jeans the former librarian of Farringham School for Boys was wearing. Followed by the tight black camisole top covered by a black zipped jacket, and Martha's eyes widened when she saw the huge gun she held in her hands. She looked into her sharp blue eyes, clearer than Johanna Rossini's eyes had ever been, her hair tangled and wavy, but she didn't have a care in the world. This was definitely not the librarian.

This was the Bad Wolf. "Yes!" she cheered in delight. "Yes!"

The Family scrambled for their weapons, but the Bad Wolf raised her gun and fired off a single shot, blue energy flying towards them. They ducked to avoid, and the shot hit a few of the scarecrows instead. They burst into flames, and the Bad Wolf swung the gun behind her, drawing a smaller one and a glowing knife from somewhere, most likely from her pockets that were bigger on the inside, and she began firing at the scarecrows, picking them off one by one, running forward.

Baines recovered his gun first and quickly began firing back. The Bad Wolf quickly ducked, her SHIELD reflexes kicking in, and as more of the Family recovered, she was forced to duck behind one of the tables. After a few shots, and in a split second, she rolled out again, this time behind yet another table, away from the dancers. She poked her head out once and fired off a few more quick shots, hitting more of the scarecrows before her eyes widened and she ducked back quickly, barely avoiding Mr. Clark's shot at her.

"Leave her!" Baines screamed. "It is the Doctor we need!"

The Bad Wolf instantly ran out, and more fire drew to her, before she jumped, propelled herself off of one of the columns -

And completely vanished in a swirl of white gold.

"What?" Mr. Clark roared angrily, looking around.

"Ha!" Martha laughed in relief. "And now you've made her angry! What do you think about that?"

There was a white gold flare, and the Bad Wolf tackled a scarecrow to the ground. She stabbed it rather violently in the chest, and the knife glowed gold as the scarecrow exploded. Baines ran at her, but she saw him coming. She stood and disappeared again, making Baines stop in his tracks. She reappeared sliding on her knees, swiping her knife across his leg, and he roared in pain, clutching at it. She vanished again, and by now, John and Joan were nearly frozen in horror.

And then she was there, stabbing one scarecrow and shooting another, both disintegrating almost in unison. She kicked another gun over to Martha, who took it and pointed it at Jenny. "Well, that's just lovely," the Bad Wolf commented sarcastically, pointing her gun at Baines. "I wake up, and what do I get? Friends and fellow school people going insane. I repeat. Lovely."

"One more move, and I shoot," Martha threatened.

Baines chuckled. "Oh, the maid is full of fire!"

"That's her," Martha corrected, nodding to the Bad Wolf. "And you can shut up!" She lifted her gun and fired it at the ceiling, showing that she could, indeed, use it.

"Careful, Son of Mine," Mr. Clark warned. "This is all for you so that you can live forever."

"Shoot you down," Baines threatened the Bad Wolf.

She merely raised an eyebrow. "After all that I have been through, and you think that you can bring me down? No. If you try it, I can get you, and Martha gets your . . . Mother." Jenny stiffened. "I've been trained to fire. Martha is scared, and she's holding a gun. Good combination. Would you really risk it?"

Baines glared at her before lowering his gun. Mr. Clark followed. The Bad Wolf smiled cheerily. "Much better. John, Joan, get everyone out. There's a door at the side. Martha, go with them."

"What?" Martha gasped.

"Keep him away," she told her. "If it's a Time Lord they want, they'll get something just as good."

"Do what she said," Joan spoke up to everyone. "Everybody out, now! Don't argue, Mr. Jackson. They're mad. That's all we need to know. Susan, Miss Cooper, outside, all of you!"

"And you," Martha told John, heading towards him and throwing her gun to the Bad Wolf, who swiftly slid her knife somewhere and grabbed the gun, wielding both at the Family. "Go on. Just shift."

"What about her?" John asked, looking at the Bad Wolf, obviously in horror and awe.

Martha shook her head. "I think we should escort your lady friend to safety, don't you think?"

***

Jessie waited until everyone was out before pointing her guns at Baines and Jenny. "Don't try anything," she warned. "Or do you want sonny boy and mother dear to get it?"

"She's brave, this one," Baines remarked.

"Had she not been what we needed, I should have taken her form," Jenny added. "Much more fun. So much spirit."

Jessie held her ground as they tried to close in on her. "So, is Jenny gone?"

"She is consumed," Jenny replied. "Her body's mine."

"She's dead."

"Yes. And she went with precious little dignity. All that screaming."

Jessie phased through a scarecrow trying to get to her and fired at it before firing off a few quick shots at the Family. When they ducked, she ran out through the door, bolting after Martha, John, and Joan. "Love from Asgard!" she shouted before she ducked through. As she ran, she felt something sting her neck. Absently, she smacked at her neck, trying to find the bug that had hit her. She frowned when she came away with nothing before running as fast as she could.

She ignored the way her legs burned sooner than they usually did, and she didn't notice the feral grin Baines was giving as he watched her run.

***

John went straight to the bell in the main hall and began ringing it. "What are you doing?" Martha shouted.

"Maybe one man can't fight them, but this school teaches us to stand together!" John replied.

"Take arms! Take arms!" he called.

"You can't do that!" Martha protested.

"You want me to fight, don't you?" John retorted before shouting as boys appeared from everywhere. "Take arms! Take arms!"

"I say, sir, what's the matter?" Hutchinson asked as he descended.

"Enemy at the door, Hutchinson," John replied. "Enemy at the door. Take arms!"

Hutchinson nodded and instantly went to help the boys pass out guns. "You can't do this, Doctor," Martha tried again before he shot her a look. "Mr. Smith!"

"Redfern, maintain position over the stable yard," he told Joan, and she nodded. "Faster now! That's it!"

"They're just boys!" Martha protested. "You can't ask them to fight! They don't stand a chance!"

"They're cadets, Miss Jones," John told her. "They are trained to defend the King and all his citizens and properties."

"What in thunder's name is this?" a voice asked, and Headmaster Rocastle entered, the boys instantly snapping to attention. "Before I devise an excellent and endless series of punishments for each and every one of you, some enough to keep our librarian busy for months on end, could someone explain very simply and immediately exactly what's going on?"

There was a warping noise, and the Bad Wolf ran through the door, startling enough of the boys to nearly drop their weapons. She instantly doubled, over, panting. "They're on their way," she gasped out, and Martha's eyes widened. "All of them."

"Headmaster, I have to report the school is under attack," John told Rocastle.

"Really?" Rocastle asked. "Is that so? Perhaps you and I should have a word in private."

"No," John said firmly. "I promise you, sir. I was in the village with the Matron. It's Baines, sir. Jeremy Baines and Mr. Clark from Oakham Farm. They've gone mad, sir. They've got guns. They've already murdered people in the village. I saw it happen."

Rocastle stared at him before looking at Joan. "Matron, is that so?"

"I'm afraid it's true, sir," Joan replied.

"Murder on our own soil?"

"Yes, sir," the Bad Wolf replied, and Rocastle turned to her, seeming taken aback by the way she stood tall and how she was dressed, the two guns strapped around her waist. "They're threatening me and Mr. Smith. They're following us. Don't ask why."

Rocastle hesitated, perhaps about to retort, when he saw the look in the Bad Wolf's eyes. He nodded. "Very well. You boys, remain on guard. Mr. Snell, telephone for the police. Mr. Phillips, with me. We shall investigate."

"No!" Martha protested. "But it's not safe out there!"

"Mr. Smith, in addition to our lady librarian, it seems your favorite servant is giving me advice. You will control her, sir."

"I knew there was something about this time period I never liked," the Bad Wolf commented as the two men left. She nodded to Martha. "We've got to find his watch. Now."

***

John watched as Baines murdered Mr. Phillips and called himself and the three others the Family of Blood. He went back as Rocastle entered. "Mr. Phillips has been murdered, Mr. Smith. Can you tell me why?"

"Honestly, sir, I have no idea," John replied. "And the telephone line's been disconnected. We are on our own."

***

"And you're sure they were on the mantle?" Jessie asked again as she triple checked.

"Yes," Martha repeated in exasperation from where she was checking the desk.

"Will someone tell me what is going on?" Joan demanded from where she stood.

"OK, this is going to sound crazy," Jessie began, standing. "When the Doctor and I became human, we hid the alien parts - for me, the Asgardian part, too - and stored it inside watches, like this." She held up her own gold fob watch. "They're not really watches. They just look like watches."

"And alien means not from abroad, I take it."

Jessie snorted. "Oh, that's one way of putting it. The man called John Smith? He was born on another world."

"A different species."

"Duh." Jessie winced. "I mean, yeah."

"Then tell me. In this fairy tale, who are you?"

Jessie looked up, startled. "What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped.

"I'm a friend," Martha offered up. "I'm not . . . a rival. Between the Bad Wolf and the Doctor, though . . . "

"Oh, yes, Martha, thanks for that."

"And human, I take it?" Joan asked.

"I am," Martha replied. "She's not. Don't worry. And more than that. I just don't follow them around. I'm training to be a doctor. Not an alien doctor. A proper doctor. A doctor of medicine."

"Well, that is certainly nonsense!" Joan scoffed, staring at her. "Women might train to be doctors, but hardly a skivvy and hardly one of your color!"

Jessie straightened, ignoring the burn in her legs. "Martha, quick question. What bones are in the hand?"

"Carpal bones," Martha replied instantly, holding up her own and pointing and rattling off bones. "Proximal row: scaphoid, lunate, triquetal, pisiform. Distal row: trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate. Then the metacarpal bones extending from three distinct phalanges: proximal, middle, distal."

"Boom goes the dynamite!" Jessie cheered.

Joan shook her head. "You read that in a book!"

"Yes. To pass my exams," Martha retorted. "Can't you see this is true?"

Joan shook her head, turning to the door. "I must go."

"If we find that watch, then we can stop them," Martha told her.

Joan paused. "Those boys are going to fight. I might not be a doctor, but I'm still their nurse. They need me."

Jessie nodded and turned back to the mantle. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw the journal she had left purposely by the door be taken before Joan left.

***

"You're with Armitage and Thwaites," John rattled off to boys. "They know the drill." He paused when he saw Joan moving around. "Joan, it's not safe," he told her.

"I'm doing my duty," she replied. "Just as much as you. Fine evening we've had together."

"Not quite as planned," John admitted.

"Tell me about Nottingham."

John blinked. "Sorry?"

"That's where you were bought up. Tell me about it."

John nodded. "Well, it lies on the River Leen, its southern boundary following the course of the River Trent, which flows from Stoke to the Humber."

"That sounds like an encyclopedia," Joan commented. "Where did you leave?"

"Broadmoor Street. Adjacent to Hotley Terrace in the district of Radford Parade."

"But more than facts," Joan told him. "When you were a child, where did you play? All those secret little places, the dens and hideaways that only a child knows? Tell me, John. Please tell me."

John turned on her, eyes narrowing. Was she falling for it, too? "How can you think that I'm not real?" he demanded. "When we danced together, all that time I've spent here, was that a lie?"

"No, it wasn't," Joan said quickly. Too quickly. "No."

"But this Doctor sounds like some . . . some romantic lost prince. Would you rather that? Am I not a good enough man?"

"No, that's not true!" Joan insisted. "Never!"

John shook his head, turning to go. "I've got to go."

"Martha was right about one thing, though," Joan told him. "Those boys. They're children. John Smith wouldn't want the to fight, and I assume never mind the Doctor. The John Smith I thought I knew, he knows it's wrong, doesn't he?"

"Mr. Smith, if you please!" Rocastle called.

John shook his head. "What choice do I have?" he asked wearily before leaving.

***

"Beware."

Latimer frowned at the watch he held. "Beware of what?"

"Her."

Latimer looked up to see the girl, Lucy, standing in the corridor in front of him, and he hastily clutched the watch when he saw her sniff deeply. "Keep away," he warned.

"Who are you?" Lucy asked.

"I saw you at the dance," Latimer told her. "You were with that Family. You're one of them!"

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing."

"What have you got there?"

"Nothing!"

Lucy stepped forward, her face twisting angrily. "Show me, little boy!"

"I reckon whatever you are, you're still in the shape of a girl," Latimer threatened. "How strong is she, do you think? Does she really want to see this?"

He aimed the watch at her, and the vision appeared to him, too: explosions and water showering everywhere, the Doctor standing tall, the Bad Wolf at his side. Lucy turned tail and ran.

***

Jessie and Martha ran for the front courtyard at the sound of gunfire, and they made it outside to see the girl, Lucy, approaching. "Mr. Rocastle, please, don't go near her!" Martha told him.

Rocastle sniffed. "You were told to be quiet!"

"Then listen to me," Jessie snapped at him. "She's part of it." She nodded to Joan, who was nearby. "Matron, tell him."

Joan hesitated. "I think that . . . I don't know." She sighed. "I think you should stay back, Headmaster."

Jessie turned to John, hoping that he'd at least have a little bit of sense. "John?"

"She was . . . she was with . . . with Baines in the village," John told him.

"Mr. Smith, I've seen many strange sights this night, but there is no cause on God's Earth that would allow me to see this child in the field of battle, sir." Rocastle held out his hand to Lucy. "Come with me."

"You're funny," Lucy commented.

"That's right," Rocastle told her. "Now take my hand."

"So funny." Lucy pulled out a gun and shot him on the spot, vaporizing him. Jessie instantly pulled out both guns, aiming them at her as Lucy's gun turned to her. "Now, are you going to shoot me?" she taunted. "Really?"

"Nice try," Jessie snarled. "But I've been hiding from you for too long."

"Put down your guns," John ordered.

"But, sir!" Hutchinson protested. "The Headmaster!"

"I'll not see this happen," John replied. "Not anymore. You will retreat in an orderly fashion back through the school. Hutchinson, lead the way."

"But sir!"

"He said lead the way," Jessie told him.

"Well, go on, then!" Baines taunted as he appeared behind his Sister. "Run!" He fired his gun up.

"Run!" Jessie shouted, aiming both guns where the scarecrows stopped and fired, catching the grass on fire. In seconds, there was a fiery inferno blocking them from entering. "Inside! Now!"

John led them all inside, and she stared in anger at the family before turning to go. She paid notice to the fact that she nearly tripped three times on the way, but Baines did, and he and his Sister smirked widely.

Almost as if in triumph.

***

"Now, I insist," John told the three women. "The three of you, just go. If there are any more boys inside, I'll find them." He opened the stable block door, and his eyes widened. Jessie caught a quick glimpse of scarecrows before he closed it. "I think retreat," he commented.

"Here we go," Jessie sighed, running out the other way. She thought she saw someone else running nearby before she stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. The fire in her legs had turned to ice, and she numbly ran for the bushes. "Are you all right?" Martha asked in concern.

"I'm fine, Martha," Jessie replied.

"Doctor!" Mr. Clark shouted. "Doctor!"

Jessie peeked out of the bushes, and she groaned. "I am going to kill him," she threatened, entirely serious.

"Come back, Doctor!" Mr. Clark called as the rest of the Family joined him by the TARDIS. "Come home! Come and claim your prize!"

"Out you come, Doctor!" Baines coaxed. "There's a good by! Come to the Family!"

"Time to end it now!" Jenny added.

Jessie turned when she saw John's face pale. "You recognize it, don't you?" she asked.

"Come out, Doctor!" Jenny shouted. "Come to us!"

"I've never seen it in my life," John denied futilely.

"Do you remember its name?" Martha asked.

Joan looked up from the journal she was reading through quickly. "I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it," she told him. "The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box."

"I'm not - " John began before shaking his head furiously. "I'm John Smith! That's all I want to be John Smith! With his life, and his job, and his love." Jessie shot a look at him, wondering if he was talking about her, perfectly aware that Joan had done the same thing. "Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?"

"Yes, he is, but right now, you're acting like a child," Jessie told him.

"Why can't I stay?"

"Because we need the Doctor," she replied simply.

"What am I, then?" John challenged. "Nothing! I'm just a story!"

"Does that mean I'm a story, then, too?" Jessie challenged, but he just shook his head and ran off. She shook her head as well. "Idiot," she muttered before beginning to stand - and nearly fell in the process.

"Easy," Martha told her, catching her by the arms. "Are you all right?"

"What is with me?" Jessie muttered before running off after John.

***

"This way," Joan told them. "I think I know somewhere we can hide."

"We've got to keep going," John replied, shaking his head.

"John, for god's sake, listen to a woman for once," Jessie insisted. He looked at her in surprise before slowly nodding.

Joan smiled at Jessie gratefully. "Now, follow me."

Jessie ran after the Matron, surprised when she found out that her legs were about ready to collapse under her. "Oh, here we are," Joan said when they arrived at a cottage close by. "It should be empty. Oh, it's a long time since I've run that far."

"Been a long time since I've felt this way after running," Jessie panted, bending over.

"But who lives here?" Martha questioned.

"If I'm right, no one," Joan replied. She opened the door and called around. "Hello?" She waited before stepping inside. "No one home. We should be safe here."

"Whose house is it, though?" Martha asked as Jessie leaned against the table, taking deep breaths to catch her breath. That never happened.

"Er . . . the Cartwrights," Joan replied. "That little girl at the school, she's Lucy Cartwright, or she's taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon and the parents tried to stop their little girl, then they were vanished."

"Stone cold," Jessie confirmed, touching the teapot.

"How easily I accept these ideas," Joan commented.

"I must go to them before anyone else died," John told them.

"You can't," Joan insisted, turning to Jessie. "Bad Wolf, there must be something we can do!"

"Not without the watch," Jessie replied, shaking her head, "and I've only got mine."

"Why are you playing this, Johanna?" John asked, and it practically ripped Jessie apart to hear him accuse her like that. "Why do you act like this is all real?"

"Look at me, John," she told him. "Do I seem like a normal woman to you? Those stories - "

John shook his head, turning to Martha. "And you? You're this Doctor's companion. Can't you help? What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?"

"It's not only him who needs me," Martha replied. "It's because of the Bad Wolf. You're lonely."

"And that's what you want me to become?" John challenged.

There was a knock on the door, and Jessie drew one of her guns, noting how she was shaking slightly. "What if it's them?" Joan asked.

"I'm pretty sure scarecrows don't knock," Jessie told her, opening the door.

Timothy Latimer was standing there, a faint tinge to his cheeks as he feebly held up a silver fob watch. "I brought you this," he said meekly.

Jessie smiled brightly. "Oh, you're fantastic!"

***

"Hold it," Martha insisted to John, holding it out to him.

He shook his head. "I won't."

"Please, just hold it!"

"It told me to find you," Latimer told him, the Bad Wolf leaning on the table extremely heavily, and Martha eyed her for a second before noting how pale her face was, and she narrowed her eyes. What was wrong with her? "It wants to be held."

"You've had the watch all this time?" Joan asked. "Why didn't you return it?"

"Because it was waiting," Latimer replied. "Just like the Bad Wolf's was before I returned it to her. And because I was so scared of the Doctor."

"Why?" Joan asked.

Latimer turned to John. "Because I've seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun."

"Stop it," John said weakly.

"He's ancient and forever," Latimer continued. "He burns at the center of time, and he can see the turn of the universe."

"Stop it!" John shouted, and the Bad Wolf winced, putting her head in one of her hands. "I said stop it!"

"And he's wonderful," Latimer finished.

"I took this," Joan said, holding up the journal. "The journal."

"Those are just stories!" John protested.

"That's what I thought," the Bad Wolf pointed out, her voice more raspier than it had been.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Martha asked. "You're like a dead woman walking."

The Bad Wolf nearly said something before there was a huge bang from outside, and she nearly collapsed. "What the hell?" Martha shouted when the cottage shook.

Joan ran to the window, and a huge light lit up the room. "They're destroying the village!" she gasped.

John straightened. "The watch."

"John, don't," Joan insisted.

"Closer . . . "

Latimer eyed him. "Can you hear it?"

"Closer."

John picked it up slowly. "I think he's asleep," he commented. "Waiting to awaken."

"Why did they speak to me?"

Instantly, John changed from who he was to the man Martha knew him as. "Oh, low level telepathic field," the Doctor began to explain. "You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing - " He broke off with a jerk, and his eyes widened, and Jessie put a hand over her mouth, turning away to hold back a sob. "Is that how he talks?"

"That's him!" Martha cheered. "All you have to do is open it, and he's back!"

"You kew this all along, and yet you watched while Miss Rossini and I - "

"I didn't want to stop you," Martha snapped. "You did enough. He gave me a list of things to watch out for, but that wasn't included!"

"Falling in love?" John asked. "That didn't even occur to him?"

"Not if it was anyone but the Bad Wolf," Martha replied, sure of it.

"Then what sort of man is that?" John demanded. "In my book, he doesn't believe in her. Is that the kind of man he is? Someone who doesn't believe his best friend really exists? How could you ask me to be someone like that?"

"Because the Doctor is worth getting my hearts broken," the Bad Wolf piped up, a tremor in her voice. "It's happened before. And the Doctor is certainly worth the monsters."

"It's getting closer," Latimer remarked.

John looked at the watch in his hand. "I should have thought of it before!" He dropped it on the table. "I gave give them this! Just the watch! Then they can leave, and I can stay as I am!"

"Martha," the Bad Wolf said slowly.

"You can't do that!" Martha protested.

"If they want the Doctor, they can have him!"

"He'll never let you do it!"

"Martha," the Bad Wolf tried again.

"If they get what they want, then . . . then . . . "

"Then it all ends in destruction," Joan interrupted, holding up the journal. "I read to the end. Those creatures would live forever to breed and conquer, for war across the stars for every - " She broke off, staring at the Bad Wolf, her eyes widening in horror. "Oh, my stars," she breathed.

"What is it?" Martha demanded, walking towards her. "What's wrong?"

"Me," the Bad Wolf croaked out, and to Martha's horror, she hunched over, squeezing her eyes shut, shaking it. "Martha, all over, and I don't know what's going on!"

"What is it?" Martha asked, rushing to her side in an instant, wrapping an arm around her before she gasped. "Oh my God, you're burning up!" she gasped, pressing a hand to her forehead.

"What happened?" John asked in confusion, standing from where he sat.

But Latimer got it. "She's dying," he whispered.

The Bad Wolf whimpered, leaning over the table. "Where is it?" Martha asked hurriedly, wondering what was going on. "How can I help?"

"Is there anything I can do?" Joan asked, stepping forward.

"You've done enough!" Martha snapped at her.

"I don't know," the Bad Wolf gasped, looking at Martha, tears in her clouding eyes. "But the cells . . . Martha . . . "

Martha looked down at her hands to see wisps of white gold swirling around them before blinking out. "What's happening?"

"They're killing the regeneration cells," the Bad Wolf groaned. "Martha, it's killing me!"

Martha shook her head frantically. "No," she choked out, beginning to cry. She missed Latimer silently push the fob watch over to John, who was watching with a look in his eyes that spoke of hurt and horror as he took the watch in hand. "No, you can't!"

"I can't hold on," the Bad Wolf told her. "Not now. Not . . . " She screamed, and Joan jumped to her side immediately when she collapsed.

She didn't get there.

The Bad Wolf had barely even begun to fall when John was at her side, catching her. Martha held a hand over her mouth when she saw the gold energy finish washing over his skin as he laid her on the ground. "What happened?" the Doctor asked her, leaning over her, eyes wide and face blanched of any color.

"Started . . . " the Bad Wolf choked out as the Doctor pushed up her jacket sleeves to reveal too pale skin, her veins actually beginning to show. "After the dance . . . "

As her eyes began to flutter, the Doctor leaned over her and pressed his fingers to her temples, his own eyes shutting. Martha watched in anticipation when his eyes flew open and he turned her over slightly, winding his fingers through her hair before pulling it away from her neck.

Martha gasped in shock, and Joan put her hands over her mouth, her eyes side as they took in the swelling on her neck, red turning purple. The Doctor's gaze was hard as he moves his fingers around the area before picking something out. He held up a dart the size of Martha's pinky finger, and his eyes darkened. "Poison," he explained before looking towards the door. "Baines," he snarled. He pointed at Martha. "Get her to the TARDIS, straight to the medical bay," he ordered, standing up and swiping the watch from the table he had dropped it on.

"What're you going to do?" Martha couldn't help but ask.

The Doctor's cold gaze turned to her. "Baines tried to kill someone I love," he told her roughly, and if he saw Joan turn away, he didn't comment. "That won't go unpunished."

And any thought of the Doctor giving mercy to the Family vanished from Martha's mind as he stormed out the door.

***

The Doctor went through the field, trying to stay calm and reign in his temper, but he couldn't. He entered inside and folded his arms, staring at the family. "Stop the bombardment," he ordered.

Baines smiled sickly at him. "Say please."

"I know what you've done to her," the Doctor replied, walking forward, his eyes burning as he glared at him. "And I will give you one chance to tell me what type of poison you've used. Take my advise. Stop the bombardment. Now."

Jenny flipped one of the controls, and the firing stopped. "Good," the Doctor said in satisfaction before doing an inspection of the ship. "Now." He looked at Baines. "The poison. What is it? It's killing her regeneration cells. What have you done?"

"Eukaryn Scorpion venom," Baines replied with a wide smile, and the Doctor's eyes widened in horror. "That dart contained thrice the amount I would normally use. If she is still alive, she will not be for long."

"And that is where you have gone too far," the Doctor snarled, slamming his hands down on one control panel. "Trying to find me and take my life is one thing. To attempt to take the life of the woman I love and cherish is another entirely." He glared at them. "And I can only give you this advice." He aimed his sonic screwdriver at the hydroconometer and alarms began going off. "Run," he told them before turning tail and running.

He heard Baines shouting, and he made it out way before the Family did, and waited for the ship to explode before turning back and stopping in front of the fallen Baines, who looked up at him fearfully. "You want to live forever?" he asked in a growl. "I can give you forever."

***

Martha watched as the Doctor dealt with the Family, his rage over the possibility of losing the Bad Wolf coming over him. She watched him deposit Mr. Clark, the Father, in a pit, himself wrapped in chains forged in the heart of a dwarf star. She felt no pity when Jenny, the Mother, was sucked into a collapsing galaxy. As she returned to the med bay, she checked a mirror behind her, seeing Lucy, the Daughter, for a split second. And she knew what Baines, the Son, had received. To be imprisoned as a scarecrow, watching over England.

Martha bent over the Bad Wolf, keeping an eye on her vitals, but not quite knowing what to do. She knew the Doctor was explaining to Joan and Latimer what had happened, but then she felt for the Bad Wolf's pulses, and her eyes widened in horror.

She quickly ran for the TARDIS doors.

***

The Doctor deposited his fob watch into Latimer's hand, and then Martha burst out, her eyes wild. "Her second heart," she gasped out. "Doctor, her right heart's stopped."

The Doctor's eyes widened, and he turned to Latimer. "Good luck," he told him before running inside, Martha on his heels, when the whole TARDIS suddenly jerked.

Martha fell against the railing as the Cloister Bell began to ring overhead. "Doctor, what's happening?" she shouted.

The Doctor stood from where he'd fallen to the floor. "We're moving!" he shouted in reply, flipping a monitor around.

"Where?"

The Doctor stared at their destination, then closed his eyes. "Thank you," he whispered to the TARDIS. "Always helping us when we need it."

"Doctor, where are we going?" Martha demanded.

The TARDIS settled, and the Doctor ran for the doors. "Get the Bad Wolf!" he shouted to Martha.

She picked herself up and ran towards the med bay, and the Doctor flung open the doors of the TARDIS.

Heimdall, keeper of the Bifrost Bridge, looked down from where he stood, sword in the Bifrost, and nodded at him. "Doctor," he greeted solemnly. "What has become of the Deathbringer?"

The Doctor shook his head. "She's dying," he replied. "And we need your help."

***

We got the Number Six moment in the beginning, and there's Jessie off to the side. :) I'm happy.

Wow. So many people thought the Doctor was going to be mad because she admitted she loved him. Really . . . it was something else entirely.

So. Jessie's dying. Yes, I'm doing it again. But, as some of you know, this is still going to go on for . . . well, as long as I keep writing and as long as Doctor Who stays alive. So? Who wants to guess how long it'll be for her to wake up?

I can't wait for opinions. :P I'll make sure to upload the interlude before I go back to "Apocalypse Rising" so I don't keep anyone hanging. For too long. ;)