After that night, which Amy keeps to herself, they don't see Bad Wolf for another month. Amy didn't grill the Doctor, keeping conversation light and not focused around the mysterious, beautiful blonde that seemed to be so caught up in the Doctor's past.

But then they ran smack into her right when the Gaflorgans were bearing down on them. She smiled, seeming once again ghostly and benevolent. She took Amy's hand and the Doctor's, leaning over to give him a kiss.

He flinched.

"Take hold, Rory Pond," she said gently.

He scowled but gripped Amy's hand firmly.

"Let's go," she whispered and the chaos faded away into blinding light.

When Amy opened her eyes again, they were on the TARDIS. Safe. Whole. One piece. Alive. Together.

"Oh..." Rory breathed.

Bad Wolf smiled at him, dropping Amy's hand. "Yes. You're welcome."

Amy squeezed Rory's hand tighter.

"Ah, yes! Yes, back on board! All aboard! Whoo-whoo!" The Doctor exclaimed weakly, tugging at his hand still encased in Bad Wolf's.

"So... Are you..." Rory began. "Some sort of angel?"

She laughed.

The Doctor laughed too, but his tones were heavier and far less entertained. "Not an angel," he muttered before he finally squirmed away and placed himself on the opposite side of the console.

"Oh Doctor..." Bad Wolf crooned.

"No! No no! Absolutely do not start! I need you out of my TARDIS and very far away!"

"Doctor, what is going on here?" Amy asked. "Why–"

"We'll meet up again soon, Doctor. I miss you," Bad Wolf said, her glowing face turning sad. Then she turned and faded into nothing.

Amy whirled. "Alright. Enough of this. You tell us what's going on. Right now."

"Where to next!" He called out, voice tinged with hysterica. "What about the rainbow falls of Zalapuush! The ruby plains of Garmen Criyle! Or—"

"Doctor!" Rory snapped.

"Rory!" The Doctor barked back, fiddling with controls.

Rory slammed his hands down on top of the Doctor's. "Tell us. What's. Going. On."

"We need the whole story, Doctor," Amy added.

"I..." He looked between them, a sort of panic in his eyes.

"Now's as good a time as any," Amy said casually.

"Later," he pleaded quietly. "Please. Later."

Rory lifted his hands and nodded. "Fine."

"But you will tell us?" Amy asked. "Doctor?"

Rory thought he saw her at their next location. Amy at the following one after that. There were no more ghostly presences on the TARDIS that Amy perceived. She didn't exactly keep her eyes or ears open. She didn't want to know.

"Amy..." Rory said as he towelled his hair dry. "I really think this is getting too far."

Amy nodded, wringing her own shirt out over the tub.

"I mean... Just because you're angry, doesn't mean you should drop us in the river..."

Amy nodded again.

"And it isn't fair to take that anger out on people who have nothing to do with the situation..."

Amy nodded.

"I think it's time we sit him down and get him to explain the whole—"

"He won't tell you," soft tones said as Bad Wolf walked from nothing into the room.

The Ponds jumped, Amy scrabbling to cover herself with her shirt. "You could knock, you know!" She snapped.

"Sorry. You know. For the river." She looked human this time. Like a young girl, though her eyes still bled gold sometimes. She leaned against the frame of their bunk beds. "He won't tell you."

"And why not?" Amy pulled the shirt over her head, grimacing at the cold damp fabric against her skin.

"Because I remind him of his failure." She jerked her head at the love seat against the far wall. "Take a seat. I'll tell you the story.

"Once upon a time," she began without waiting for them to sit. "There was a girl—a shop girl, who worked in London and lived with her mum in a small flat. She had this sort of boyfriend. They hung around together because it was easy and convenient and they liked each other. She wasn't doing much with her life. And neither was he. She stayed late to close up at work on night, and something weird started to happen. She got cornered in the basement by all the shop dummies, and just when she thought it was the end, a hand grabbed hers, and she looked up into pale blue eyes and a kind mouth that said, 'Run.'

"Turns out he was an alien, and she helped him save the world from living plastic. He took her along in his blue box, and eventually she fell in love. Her mum hated him, but she wouldn't have left him for the world. Turns out they faced the end several times over. But they always got out of it together. When they faced the Daleks, however, he sent her away. He didn't want her to die, and he'd made a promise to her mum. Jackie Tyler. She is a fierce woman in all worlds. And so he sent her home with his blue box and the instructions to have a fantastic life."

She dropped her eyes and focused in on the Ponds, sitting flush against one another on the settee. She smiled. "He didn't love her yet. But she loved him so much... She couldn't stay and let him face the end alone. And so she created herself. She created Bad Wolf. For a short stretch of time she wasn't Rose Tyler anymore. She had looked into the heart of the TARDIS and become, fully, Bad Wolf. She had power over life and time and creation and destruction. So she took the TARDIS back to the far future, woke the dead, and destroyed the Daleks, saving her dear Doctor. But she couldn't handle Bad Wolf for very long, and so he kissed her, taking back all the Time. It wasn't meant for humans. And that's how she killed him.

She turned and wandered the length of the room, voice soft—perfect for story telling, if Amy bothered to think about it. "But he was reborn into a new man. A new man who wasn't quite ready. And Rose fell in love all over again. They fought monsters and aliens, played a trick on Queen Victoria, defeated Satan, and saved the world... But then the Daleks came back. And the Cybermen came. And it was all too much. So they had to save the world. Only this time... this time there wasn't a happy ending. This time, everybody didn't live..." Her face screwed up and her voice turned bitter, but she continued.

"This time, she was rescued by a father from another world that wasn't her father before she vanished into the Void to never return. And there was nothing for it. She couldn't stay on that other side of a wall without him. So she planned. And thought. And researched. And used every resource available to her. Because she was clever. The end result?"

She turned to Amy and Rory suddenly and they gasped. "What?" Amy blurted.

Bad Wolf smiled. "The dimension cannon. She built it to travel between the worlds. She saw worlds that the Doctor never helped. She saw worlds that the Doctor ruled. She saw worlds in which the Doctor died." She shrugged. "Some she helped. Some she didn't. Some didn't deserve her attention, and some were to broken for it. But she helped where she could. Because that's what he would have done." She shrugged again casually. "So she wandered. Through the worlds. Do you know how many years its been? How many years? Even I've lost track. It's been so many. And so hard to keep track when you're never in the same place, never in the same time... It gets all convoluted. I'm sure you understand... So I—"

"..ooo! Noo! NOOO! ROOOOOOOOOOSE! ROSE! NOOOOOOOOO!" The Doctor burst into the room, hair a mess, and eyes wild. "What did you tell them! What did you tell them!"

"Doctor! Relax!" Amy jumped up out of her chair.

"NO!" He grabbed Amy's arms and then the front of Rory's shirt. "How could you! ROSE."

Another half smile. She reached out and touched his arm. "You wouldn't tell them, Doctor." The name was a caress. "I had to. Because you wouldn't. You couldn't. I understand. I—" Her voice fell away into a shriek as the Doctor dropped his hands from Rory and Amy, swinging them around to grip Rose's shoulders. He shoved her back into the wall with a growl. And when she breathed his name over Amy's startled shout, his lips closed over hers and she sighed, going loose between the wall and him.

"Doctor!" Rory shouted, rushing forwards to pull him off of her.

"Rory! Rory, wait." Amy grabbed his arm. "Wait..." She repeated in hushed tones.

"Amy! What are we waiting for! He's attacking her!" Rory whispered furiously, yanking his arm out of her grasp.

"No... No, I think this is something different... I think they need this." She stared very hard at the Doctor, his hands planted now next to Bad Wolf's head, the woman's arms twined around his back, fisting his jacket.

"Um... Maybe we should leave."

Amy folded her arms, giving her husband a Look. "We're not going to leave our own room. Hey! Hey you two! Get a room that's not ours!"

The Doctor sprang back from Bad Wolf, flushed, and avoided their eyes. "Sorry. So sorry. Dreadfully sorry. I... I... You—" He jabbed a finger at the blonde. "I'm still angry with you. Ponds, I um... I should apologise. I shouldn't have... That is... My, this was very inappropriate..." He dropped his eyes and then groaned as Bad Wolf stepped back and faded through the wall. "Aw—no! Ro—ose!"

Later, in the kitchen over a hot cup of tea, Amy leaned forward on her elbows. "So."

"So. Yes. So. A brilliant opening conversation piece," the Doctor muttered. "Can mean anything, imply anything. It—"

"You love her."

Looking up at her sharply, the Doctor bobbled his mug, wincing as the hot liquid landed on his fingers. "Amy..."

"You knew her before. Yeah?"

"I...did." The Doctor shifted in his chair, looking rather like a boy who's just been caught tracking something dirty into the house.

"We..." Amy shifted herself, indicating herself and Rory. "Think that it's time for an intervention."

"Intervention? On whose behalf?"

"Yours, of course," Rory said. "Doctor, this isn't healthy."

The Time Lord rolled his eyes, brow creasing in a frown.

"Right," Amy agreed, "You need to... I dunno what you need to do, actually. But you need to do something."

"Right!" He jumped up.

"Sit!" Rory barked.

And promptly sat again.

"Does she know you love her?" Amy asked.

Following the curve of the table, the Doctor muttered, "She knows..."

"But did you tell her," Rory said.

"Oh what do you want! I can't—what do you want from me!" the Doctor exploded. "You all want something—this is just one more—" He took a deep breath, pressing his hands flat to the table and fixing Amy and Rory with a hard stare. "This is something more than you've encountered. This is not something you can... you can fix. So please kindly butt out." Then rose and stalked into the control room.

"Clearly..." Rory said, "this is more serious than we thought."

Amy nodded.