A/N: *Pushes post button with last breath, keels over and dies* *gasps back to life* MUST KEEP WRITING!
Chapter 3! Here, it's mostly my character's point of view.
Oh, and part of this chapter might make it sound like my character is going to have an easy time. Not happening. *grins*
I woke up feeling better than I've ever felt in my entire life.
I took in a deep breath and blinked sleep from my eyes before looking up.
This is not my room.
It looks like I might be in a hospital or something, judging from the bright lights, white ceiling, and a sort of mediciney smell.
Was I in an accident or something?
Then why do I feel like I've just had the best sleep of my life?
Maybe I was in a coma?
Then why do I feel so healthy and light?
"Hello," came a somewhat familiar voice from my left.
I looked over and saw the Tenth Doctor leaning back in a chair, a mostly neutral, if not somewhat curious, look on his face.
Ah, I'm dreaming.
Bit weird for a dream to be worried about accidents and comas, though, but I guess it could be carryover from a previous dream.
I slowly sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed I was on.
Woah.
The world looks so clear now.
Definitely dreaming.
I blinked a couple of times and shook my head.
No change.
Ugh, why can't my brain do this when I'm awake?
The Doctor leaned forward a bit and asked, "You alright?"
"Yeah," I answered, surprised. "Yeah, I am."
"You sure?" This voice came from a little farther off.
I turned to look and saw Rose standing in the doorway, looking rather concerned, but clearly unsure if she should approach or not.
"Yeah," I answered. "Just wishing my head was this clear when I'm awake."
"But you are awake," she said, cocking her head to one side.
The Doctor sat up straight, lifted his chin up, and asked, "You think you're dreaming?"
Hmm. Odd dream progression, considering these two are acknowledging my comment.
Meh. I'll go along with it and see how it goes.
"Well yeah," I answered. "How else could the two of you be standing there?"
Rose opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor held up his hand to stop her.
"How do you mean?" he inquired.
Man, even in a dream it feels awkward to explain this, but...
"You're not supposed to be real. You're TV show characters."
Looks of confusion and concern came over the faces of Rose and the Doctor, respectively.
After a short pause, the Doctor asked, "Is there anything we can do that will prove to you that you aren't dreaming?"
Definitely odd for a dream, but it also meant that this bit of the dream will soon be over with.
"Telepathy," I said with a wry smile. "It never works in dreams for some odd and frustrating reason. If you can say something clearly into my mind, I'm definitely not dreaming."
The Doctor seemed somewhat taken aback by this, then seemed to latch onto part of my answer, because he asked, "Why is it frustrating?"
I answered, "I find telepathy incredibly fascinating. Always wanted to have it myself, if only for the novelty. I know, I know, a mind is a terrible thing to read and all that, but it's still pretty cool. It's frustrating that flying comes easily in some dreams, but telepathy NEVER works!"
The Doctor seemed to ponder this a bit, while Rose looked like she wanted to say something, but wasn't sure what to actually say.
Then he sighed and said, "Well, this is rather easy to prove, then, but it might not be all that safe."
I snorted and rolled my eyes. Figures. There's always something that comes up to rationalize the lack of telepathy.
He gave me a look and continued.
"The reason being that you've basically just recovered from the equivalent of major surgery..." Here he looked away and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "On your mind. By me. Via the same telepathy you want me to use again."
He looked at me nervously, and when he saw my lack of reaction, he explained, "You understand that, had I not done what I did, you would currently be a vegetable, and your mind was too badly damaged by your trip through the Void to fix any other way."
I just stared at him with an "And?" expression.
"Your mind is currently still a bit raw from all the repair work I had to do, and therefore will be sensitive to anything else I might do. I'd rather wait a day or two to do anything."
I just shrugged and said, "You only need to say one word into my mind to prove this is real. It can't be THAT dangerous, can it?"
He seemed to consider this before asking, "You're sure?"
I nodded.
He gave me a calculating look before seeming to make up his mind and got up.
"Wait!" called Rose.
We both turned to look at her.
She looked at me with a somewhat pleading look and said, "This IS real! You're sure you're ok with letting him into your head just to prove it?"
I shrugged again and smiled slightly, then said, "Well, yeah. It's the Doctor. If there's anyone I trust to go into my head, it's him, even if this was real."
She worried her lip a bit and looked back and forth between me and the Doctor a couple of times before nodding.
The Doctor looked at her oddly before turning back to me and walking up to the bed I was on.
I lifted my chin up a bit to expose my temples more, and the Doctor reached over with one hand, placing his fingers on my left one.
A sort of tingly feeling came over my skull, and a word resounded in my head, loud and clear.
"Hello."
To say I flipped out would be the understatement of the universe.
"H*** s***!" I swore loudly, scrambling backwards and tumbling right off the bed in the process.
"Woah!"
As I hit the floor, I realized what I just said and reflexively apologized to Heaven for swearing before promptly continuing to flip out, scrambling backwards until I hit a wall.
The Doctor approached two steps towards me before noticing the terror on my face and stopping, considering something before asking, "Are you alright?"
I just rapidly shook my head and tried to process all of this.
"How can this be real?!" I mumbled, still shaking my head with my eyes squeezed shut.
As I opened them again, the Doctor made eye contact with me and said somewhat cautiously, "Maybe you should just relax a little."
Something about the way he said it made my heart rate slow down enough so that I could think a bit straighter.
Did he just hypnotize me? After all that talk about telepathy being risky to use on my mind right now?
I shook my head again.
Whatever. I'll think about it later, maybe.
Now to figure out how this can be real.
Then it hit me. It was crazy, but so was this situation, so...
Aw, crud, I'll never be able to write fiction again...
I must have mumbled some of that out loud, because the Doctor responded with, "And why is that?"
I looked at him, startled, then considered whether or not to tell him my crazy theory.
And if so, how to go about it.
Judging from the look on his face, I had to say something, and I suck at lying, so...
I sighed.
"Before I explain this crazy theory of mine, I'd like to know, after my mind is stable enough for you to scan again, are you able to tell if any given idea is a result of... not-exactly-rational thought processes or not?" I started.
The Doctor gave me a contemplative look before responding, "Yes. Why do you ask? Are you afraid you might be insane?"
I winced at his word choice.
"I'm not entirely sure, actually, given the situation I find myself in, but if I'm not, the only way you'll ever believe me is if you see for yourself," I answered with a kind of half-nod.
He raised his eyebrows, but said nothing further, so I opened my mouth to continue.
Rose interrupted me, saying, "You actually okay with letting him into your head again?"
I raised an eyebrow at her and stood up slowly, leaning on the wall for support.
"Well, yeah," I answered. "In this particular case, it's in my best interests to let him in, but... Well, I trust him, especially when you're around."
"He put you to sleep earlier, with his mind. And wait-"
I sensed awkward questions about her future existence, or lack thereof, incoming, so I cut her off, turning to the Doctor. "Why?"
He replied, "You woke up screaming in agony, and your conscious mental energy was causing the Void energy you were imbued with to try to neutralize you. Putting you to sleep both stopped the neutralization and stopped you from experiencing any more pain."
"Oh," I said, nodding in understanding. "Well, that's okay, then. Sorta glad I don't really remember that."
Vague memories of pain and lights and cold came to me, so I shook my head to clear them out.
Rose looked contemplative, but didn't say anything else, so I looked back to the Doctor, who motioned me to continue with my original explanation.
"In my universe, there's a phenomenon amongst writers in which the story seems to write itself sometimes. It's powerful enough that it led a few people to make a theory where every time someone makes a decently detailed fictional world, that world comes into being, just as it was imagined. Some say that it doesn't have to be all that detailed, or even logical, but the less logical a world is, the more likely it will cease to exist beyond the point where it was created. Like if someone writes a story, but doesn't finish it, ever, that world will only exist up 'till that point in the story. Or if they do finish it, that world will not exist past the end of the story."
No change in reaction from either of them, so I continued.
"Of course, nobody takes it all that seriously, though I personally am nicer to my characters just in case. Looks like that might have been a good call. Anyways, if the theory holds true, that means there are different levels of reality, each level being fictional to the one or ones above it, so to speak, with either one at the top being the 'prime' reality, or it's one of those things that loops around so that the bottom level becomes the top level or something. It really shouldn't be possible to go from one level of reality to another, 'cause that would be really complicated, so if it's true, I'm just as fictional as you are to the higher level reality. But we're all still real. At the very least, our two universes are linked somehow, with a good bit of influence from either side to the other. Or something."
It was kinda eerie to see identical looks of disbelief on both the Doctor's and Rose's faces.
I sighed and tried to think of another way to approach this topic.
The Doctor was just opening his mouth to say something when it came to me.
"Look, this is pretty much impossible to prove from our perspective. It's like if we were on any given planet and looked up at the sky for a whole day. From our perspective, the sun we see is revolving around our planet. Without any other clues to say otherwise, the only way to know for sure would be to leave the solar system and see for ourselves that it's our planet that revolves around our sun, and not the other way around. We can't exactly leave reality and see the connections between the various multiverses, so we guess and theorize and maybe find some clues that may or may not be actual clues. The only reason I call this world fictional is because I've seen a relatively small portion of your adventures on television. So from my perspective, I either jumped realities or jumped to a universe linked to mine somehow. From your perspective, a crazy girl appeared on your ship and collapsed. And apparently the only method of determining my state of sanity is off the table for a while, so forgive me if I'm a little frustrated."
Rose just raised her eyebrows even higher, while the Doctor gave me a contemplative look.
Just as Rose was about to say something, the Doctor cut in.
"You said there might be clues about this universe's supposed fictionality? What would you consider a clue?"
I frowned and thought for a minute before answering, "Well, you know how every time you say, 'Nothing could possibly go wrong,' something goes wrong? Or when something happens that is supposed to be impossible?"
He nodded.
"And I know you've noticed how important Earth is and how unique humans are. The first happens in fiction all the time, the second is only a clue in this universe because you know so much about it, and even then, you don't know everything, so that might not even be a clue, actually, and the third... Well, anything written by humans that has humans as part of the created universe will have humans being the unique species at the center of everything. Except Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but they do it on purpose, and even then, there's a human in the middle of everything. At least, that's what I gathered from what little I read... Also, haven't you noticed that most of your Earth landings tend to be in Great Britain?"
He nodded again.
"That's where the show is filmed. Notice how Great Britain always ends up with the most important anti-alien organizations and seems to be a target for alien invasions, especially London, the main filming site."
He frowned contemplatively. Rose was frowning and looking at the ground like she was trying to figure something out.
I continued, "Also, your favourite self this time around is your fifth one, which is your actor's favourite one as well."
The Doctor's jaw dropped.
Before he could say anything, Rose cut in.
"Hold on, whad'ya mean his 'fifth one'?"
Ah. I can't be too far into Ten's timeline if she hasn't talked to him about this. But just in case she never asks...
"Um, how soon after you regenerate is this?" I asked the Doctor.
"The process just finished fifteen hours ago," he answered, glancing between me and Rose.
"So you just came back from the Sycorax invasion?"
"Yes."
"Ah." I turned back to Rose. "That thing he did, where he changed into a different shape? That was the tenth time he's done that. This is his eleventh body."
"Really? Huh," she replied, looking over at the Doctor curiously.
The Doctor who was currently clenching his jaw and staring at me with a dangerous look in his eyes.
"How do you know that?" he said dangerously.
I was confused.
"Same way I know everything else," I replied.
"You should not know anything of the Time War," he hissed.
Ah. His War incarnation. I guess even other universes aren't supposed to be able to see into the Time War. Which would sort of explain why we never saw it on the show except for the stuff in "Day of the Doctor". Still...
"I don't actually know much. Only the very end of the War was shown at all, and that's a special case involving a time loop that I'm not sure I can tell you about, even though all the events within are definitely favourable to you."
I could see the gears turning in his head as he continued to stare at me.
"Look, at the very least, our universes are linked somehow, though only one timeline was actually shown. There ARE stories about alternate timelines of this universe in my universe. And I really want to tell you about this particular loop."
He stared at me for another minute before saying, "If you do actually originate from another universe and haven't been to this one before, and if your knowledge of this universe is not irrevocably tied to the timeline you know of, then you can tell me. Until I can confirm these things, don't give me any foreknowledge."
"Even if there are only events in the loop that are either favourable or work out without anyone dying?" I asked.
He paused and considered for a minute before answering.
"If that's the case, you can tell me, but it has to be very detailed, and you have to be absolutely sure that I won't want to change anything once I know."
"I'm pretty darn sure," I said, grinning.
"Just think about it for a while before saying anything," he warned.
"So, if details are important, telepathy would be the best way to go in getting them, right?"
"That would be preferable, but it won't be safe for another day or two, like I said earlier."
"Yet you were okay with hypnosis," I challenged lightly.
He looked shocked, then sheepish at that and rubbed the back of his neck, saying, "Well... that was a really mild suggestion and actually safer at that level than speaking into your mind. It also had less potential for brain damage than the adrenaline shock you were at risk of having."
Ah. The proverbial rock and a hard place.
I was about to respond when Rose suddenly spoke up.
"What's all this about hypnosis?"
The Doctor and I looked at each other and back at Rose.
"Uh..." stammered the Doctor.
"Uh, have you even noticed that people tend to do what he says after he gets them to look at him?" I hedged.
She nodded.
"Well, that's him using hypnosis."
Seeing the panicked look on the Doctor's face and the slightly worried one on Rose's, I added, "But again, he won't use it unless he has to. I was about to hyperventilate and maybe faint, and he just used it to calm me down. As far as I know, he's only used it on bad guys before and maybe a few regular people who were panicking too much to tell him anything important when he was in the middle of saving the world for like the millionth time or something."
When Rose still looked a bit unsure, though somewhat accepting, I sighed and said, "Remind me to talk to you about this later, with or without him around."
She nodded and went back to looking like she was trying to figure something out.
"So how are you going to confirm if it's safe or not for me to give you any foreknowledge?" I asked the Doctor.
He turned to me, still with a slightly worried look on his face, and answered, "I can tell if you're from another universe by scanning your matter for its universal constant and comparing it to the one in this universe. I can tell if you've ever been through the Void more than once by scanning your Void matter. Determining whether or not your knowledge irrevocably linked to how events must transpire in this universe will have to wait until your mind is stable enough to let the TARDIS scan it with certain temporal scanners."
Makes sense that he would get the TARDIS to avoid touching my mind.
Still...
"Just my being here changes things a lot, even if I don't say anything and stay in the TARDIS all the time. Especially if I stay in the TARDIS all the time, actually. And I can't elaborate on THAT without probably making things worse. Let's just say that you have a very complicated life. So if you're not sensing huge paradoxes coming up or something, either you find a way to send me home really soon, or most of my knowledge is safe to share and I might be able to improve things a bit."
The Doctor looked at me seriously for a minute.
"It doesn't quite work like that. I won't sense a paradox unless you actually say or are about to say something you're not supposed to. It's complicated. It also depends on just how you came here. Also, did you know that the last thing you said before collapsing was 'foreknowledge'? And do you remember what you meant by that, other than the obvious?"
I frowned and tried to remember.
"I... I can't remember much," I said hesitatingly. "Just... I think it was something I had to say... It felt... important, somehow. I remember being worried about you using telepathy, at least before I could say it... I'm just guessing here, but it probably had to do with the time loops I know about in which you've already been part of, but haven't closed yet. There's at least two that you can't know about yet, because you WILL want to change things for sure."
The Doctor seemed to consider this before asking, "What do you remember from before you came here?"
I thought about it and answered, "I just remember going to bed. I might have been thinking about the show, come to think of it. What-if scenarios, probably."
More contemplation from the Doctor.
"Well," he said. "We won't find out anything for sure without scans, so you might as well come back onto the bed so we can get started."
He then held out a hand.
I looked at it and tentatively reached for it.
He waited patiently for me to take it.
I stepped forward and gingerly put my hand in his, noticing immediately just how cold it was.
His hand started to close around mine, and I flinched a bit, causing him to immediately open it again.
"Sorry," I mumbled. "This is just so surreal!"
"It's all right," he reassured. "No need to rush."
I finally managed to grab his hand properly, at which point he gently tugged me towards the bed.
He helped me up by using his hand as a support for me to push against, which made it easy to feel the inhuman strength he had.
"That's your new hand, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Strong," I commented.
He gave me a weird look, but left it.
As he turned to set up whatever he needed for the scans, he seemed to realize something and turned back to me.
"By the way, I never got to ask, what's your name?"
I raised my eyebrow.
"You were in my head and you didn't even learn my name?" I asked incredulously.
The Doctor looked affronted.
"I didn't read your thoughts. Was trying to avoid getting any foreknowledge at the time, and anyways, it wasn't necessary to heal you."
Oh yeah.
I conceded his point, answering, "Amber. Amber Williams."
"Well then, nice to meet you, Amber Williams," he said, grinning.
"Likewise, Doctor," I grinned back.
He chuckled a bit and turned back to his instruments.
I watched him fiddle around a bit before turning to look at Rose, who was still frowning at the ground with her eyebrows furrowed.
"What's wrong, Rose?" I asked, which drew the Doctor's attention, causing him to turn to look at her just as she looked up at me confusedly.
"Nothing, really. It's just... it feels like there's something I should remember."
I thought about my place in their timeline and realized that it was right after the Bad Wolf incident.
"What seems to be coming to mind?" I asked carefully, trying to prod her memory a bit without risking a Bad Wolf explosion, even though that only happened in fanfiction.
She closed her eyes and slowly shook her head back and forth, saying, "Just... the singing! From when I saved the Doctor. The last one. I remember singing!"
"Can you remember how it goes?" I asked, careful but curious.
"Yeah, hold on," she murmured before seeming to go into a trance.
She started singing.
My jaw dropped.
It was the Doctor's Theme of 9.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Doctor move forward and open his mouth, so I put up a hand to stop him, still with my jaw on the floor.
9's Theme seemed to start again, but as it proceeded, it turned out to be 10's.
The next and last tune nearly made me cry. It was the Doomsday theme.
She stopped singing, and there was silence for about a second before I realized that there was only one way she could know those themes.
"Bad Wolf," I breathed.
Her eyes immediately flashed gold and she intoned, "Bad Wolf," exactly the same way the Moment did in "Day of the Doctor."
Oh my gosh, I'm in a fanfiction.
The Doctor was in front of her and grabbing her by the shoulders faster than I could blink.
"Rose! You have to let go of the power before it kills you!" he practically yelled, obviously panicking.
Bad Wolf just calmly intoned, "This body will not be harmed. I hold only a tiny fraction of the power I once held, my Doctor, and when you removed what you could a day ago, you removed enough that what remained is tolerable. I hold only the knowledge necessary to keep your timeline safe and must part with it now before returning this power to its rightful resting place inside of me."
The Doctor released her and backed away, saying shocked, "But you shouldn't have that power anymore."
"I am the Bad Wolf, and I am also Rose Tyler. I create myself. The power and I are one. This body was made so that one day, the essence of humanity would bond with the Heart of Time and do what must be done."
"A literal Child of Time..." I breathed.
"Yes," said the Bad Wolf simply.
The Doctor opened and closed his mouth a few times before shaking his head and saying, "Well, you said you had knowledge you need to part with, so..."
"It is not for you. Not yet. It is for the Amber girl I brought through the Void to aid you."
The Doctor looked from Bad Wolf to me in surprise.
I opened my mouth, considered things, and said, "That... actually makes a lot of sense."
Bad Wolf turned to me.
"The events of my last song MUST happen as you have seen it. You may comfort them after the first closing, but you must not interfere."
I furrowed my brow and thought about what she meant. Last song, last song... Oh! Oh. The Doomsday theme. Aw crud, I was so hoping that wouldn't have to happen. But...
"Can the last sentence spoken be completed?" I asked her hopefully.
She smiled.
"If the right words are spoken and the right actions taken, then that is a possibility."
I grinned.
"Sweet."
Then I thought of Journey's End and asked, "What about the events of the return?"
"They can be... modified, but beware. The River must flow. See that you don't divert it."
I understood that one perfectly. I'll have to think about it later.
Any way this goes, it's gonna be awkward for somebody.
I looked down, then at the Doctor.
"Uh, Doctor? You should probably turn around and cover your ears or something. There's something I have to ask, but you shouldn't hear it yet."
The Doctor gave me a dubious look and turned it on the Bad Wolf, who just tilted her head somewhat dismissively. He flinched and turned away, walking to the other side of the room and putting on some earmuffs that he pulled out of a pocket.
I turned to the Bad Wolf and asked, "Is it safe?"
She nodded.
I hesitated before asking, "If everything goes like on the show, will you ever return?"
She smiled warmly.
"Always."
I smiled right back, tearing up.
My smile dropped as I thought of the other maddening aspect of Journey's End.
"What about Donna?" I asked somberly.
She simply said, "Follow your instincts."
"Can I warn him?"
"Only if you keep her identity to yourself until the time comes and if you watch your words."
I nodded ruefully and looked down.
"What about any other events?"
"Other than the time loops you know of and the information I have given you, all other information from your universe pertaining to this one is safe to share. The timeline you saw is not fixed."
"Does that include 'Day of the Doctor'?"
"No."
I smiled.
"By the way, did you or did you not influence the Moment?"
"I conversed with its consciousness for a short while, yes. You have seen the result."
I nodded.
"Will that change much if I am present?"
"No."
"Good. Also, I've kinda always wondered... Back when you destroyed all the Daleks around the station, why didn't you destroy all the OTHER Dalek survivors of the Time War?"
"The Doctor was too scared of what was happening to this body and distracted me. Being part human has limitations, one of which is that I need to focus to do things, and I simply did not have enough time or focus to destroy the other survivors, so I did what I could to mitigate the results of their living on. It is one of the things you will be able to help with."
I thought about this for a minute before deciding to think more about this later.
"Anything else?"
Her voice went hard and her eyes flashed as she spoke her warning.
I looked at her, shocked and scared.
I totally forgot about that particular problem.
So much for 21st century Earth...
After giving me instructions on how to protect myself, she gave me some other information that I knew I'd have to think very carefully about.
Then she lifted her head up, and I heard a sharp intake of breath from the Doctor.
I looked, and he turned around.
I nodded, and he took off his earmuffs.
"Looks like we're done."
The Doctor lifted his chin and raised an eyebrow at the glowing entity in front of us.
"Well?"
Bad Wolf turned to the Doctor and said, "The only message I have for you now is this: trust the Amber girl. She has good instincts."
And with that, the glow faded from her eyes, and she became Rose Tyler once again.
She stumbled back and shook her head.
The Doctor immediately rushed over to steady her, saying frantically, "Rose! Are you alright?!"
"M'fine," she mumbled, trying to swat him away. "What happened?"
The Doctor and I looked at each other.
"It's complicated," hedged the Doctor.
"For once, I agree with him, Rose. Especially since he hasn't had time yet to explain what happened back with the Daleks on that satellite."
She narrowed her eyes and shoved the Doctor off of her, turning to sit in a chair that I just noticed was there.
She crossed her arms and legs and said, "Well then, now's as good a time as any, yeah?"
The Doctor and I shared looks again before I motioned him to speak.
He rubbed the back of his neck and spoke.
"Weell... basically... you looked into the heart of the TARDIS and took all that power into yourself. I was about to be killed by the Daleks when you brought the TARDIS back to me and burst out of it, absolutely glowing with power and called yourself the Bad Wolf. You spread those words around to warn yourself and destroyed all the Daleks. Holding all that power was killing you, so I took it out of you. It's why I regenerated. I thought I got all the power but..."
Here, he motioned to me, who had noticed the omission of Jack's revival, but Rose's eyes were wide.
"I came back to save you, but I ended up killing you!" she exclaimed.
Both the Doctor and I immediately exclaimed, "No!' and looked at each other again.
I let the Doctor speak.
"You DID save me! If it wasn't for you, I would have died permanently!" he frantically explained.
I added, "Yeah, and if he had died permanently, trust me when I say the universe would not be around for much longer. So by doing what you did, you saved both him AND the universe."
She still didn't look happy about it, but seemed to concede it.
"So what's it got ta do with what happened a minute ago, then?"
"Basically, it's apparently impossible to separate the power from you since it was part of your creation or something. It came back for a couple of minutes to make sure I didn't screw up any timelines with what I know and then went away. Well, it's still part of you, or it sorta IS you, but with lots of power and knowledge, but it's not something you can access whenever you want, 'cause that would probably rip holes in the universe or something," I answered.
Rose opened her mouth, then considered something before saying, "Yeah, I think I remember something like that. S'like I told Mickey when the Doctor was in trouble and he asked me if I could do the same thing as I did before, and I said I couldn't."
"Yeah."
The Doctor looked intrigued but said nothing.
"So... now what?"
I looked around.
"Well, I guess we hang around until I'm okay to leave, and I try to make things better for Mister Unfortunate over here."
"Oi!"
I just gave him a look.
Rose snorted.
The Doctor just looked affronted.
"Oh come on, Doctor, bad stuff happens to you all the time."
He pouted and crossed his arms.
"Yeah, jeopardy friendly, you are," needled Rose.
He looked so affronted that we both started laughing our butts off.
By the time we stopped, the Doctor was shaking his head at us, his arms crossed and a small smile on his face.
This somehow set us off again while he turned around and started up some scans.
X-X-X
The Doctor had to admit that he had been suspicious of the entire situation until Bad Wolf manifested.
I mean, if she was the one who brought Amber over to this universe, who was he to argue?
And what kind of future had been in store for him that necessitated help from an extrauniversal human?
He sighed.
Looks like he'd have to wait for some of those answers if he didn't want to risk destroying a time loop.
Though he wasn't quite willing to accept the theory of multiple levels of reality that Amber first put forward.
It was probably some sort of psychic link between her universe and this one.
Though if her knowledge doesn't only consist of events that must happen, as Bad Wolf apparently said in not so many words, according to the brief telepathic contact from it (her?) telling him that it was safe to listen to them again, that means the link is to a neighbouring time track, not his definite future.
Still, there were obviously some fixed events coming up for him that he would not like, judging from Amber's reactions and fear of certain time loops.
He was both curious and feeling dread about it all, but he knew better than to try figuring it out early.
And there wasn't anything he could do about it if Bad Wolf said something had to happen.
He was, however, looking forward to the time loop she was willing to tell him about.
The fact that she seemed comfortable with telepathy was somewhat heartening, as it made things so much easier.
The fact that he couldn't risk such a detailed exploration of her mind until it had sufficiently recovered was not.
He supposed it would be safe to get the general gist of it from her, as long as he set some rules.
He could always just stay in the TARDIS until it was safe.
Still, he wondered just how much she'd seen of his life if she trusted him with her mind.
Though, he noticed that Bad Wolf never actually mentioned the show Amber claimed to see his life on, at least, not when he was listening.
Hopefully, Bad Wolf hadn't accidentally made Amber a seer, because that would complicate things quite a bit.
It wouldn't be the first time that that entity's actions had... side effects.
He thanked whoever was listening that Amber was okay with telepathy, since he could use his to check for false memories.
After he had done some more detailed scans, of course.
Thinking of telepathy reminded him of the small shock and relief he felt when Bad Wolf touched his mind to get his attention.
He hadn't felt that kind of touch in over a century.
Maybe if he could get her to let him touch her mind...
No. Too intimate. He couldn't bear it if he had that touch only to lose it in less than a century.
He knew that he had to resist the temptation to grab that touch again with all that he had.
Otherwise he could never stop.
He sighed.
He had better get started on those scans.
A/N: There! Two chapters at once! They would've been out ages ago, but stuff just kept happening! Gah!
The idea of information from one universe not affecting another is from LovelyAmberLight and is used with permission.
If Rose's reaction to telepathy seems a little OOC, blame it on the shock and Unreliable Narrator. It'll get better next chapter. Be warned that there will be a couple of adjustment chapters so I can realistically get the reactions of everyone involved before New Earth, which will probably end up being chapter 7 or 8.