I made a specific point to remove the nightgown before anyone came to get me in the morning. The priest swung the door open and I smiled at him sweetly. He recoiled slightly, obviously not expecting me to be in such good spirits.

"Are you prepared to confess?"

"Since I am innocent, I have no plans to confess," I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"So, the witch hunter didn't sway you?"

"Sway me into a false confession? I'm afraid not," I said.

"You are evil!" The priest hissed and made a sign of the cross.

"No, I am a woman. Large difference," I said before I leaned towards him slightly and dropped my voice. "I have seen evil and trust me it doesn't look like me."

I'd been referring to the Daleks but judging by the look on his face he thought I was talking about him and there must have been some truth to that. I leaned back with a satisfied smile on my face.

"Now I was wondering if you were going to let me have a trial first or if you're just going to murder me?" I asked lightly as I uncrossed my arms.

"It would not be murder!"

"Really? Killing someone isn't murder?" I leaned forward again, knowing full well that I was playing dirty. "Did God tell you that?"

His face purpled and he waved his hand with a squawk and the men who had escorted me in here yesterday reappeared with weapons ready. I smiled and let them lead me out with my head held high. Now that I didn't have to worry about them shooting the Doctor, I was definitely letting myself be a little more snippy with them. I'm sure the Doctor wouldn't appreciate if he were here, but I couldn't help myself since they were all making it so easy.

I caught sight of the Doctor pretty easily once we got out of the church, since it could only be him who was wearing a cloak drawn over his head while everyone else was openly gaping at me. I almost called him out on it but managed to catch the words before they escaped.

"Oooh chains," I said as they slapped some on my ankles and wrists. "I do believe that's cheating."

"There is no cheating!" I raised my eyebrow up at the priest who was starting to look distinctly purple again.

"Ensuring that I can't swim even if I could seems like cheating to me." I tapped my chin. "Which is probably a sin."

"How Dare-" The priest started over the sound of murmuring billowing out of the crowd behind him.

"Definitely murder. Definitely a sin," I added loudly, and the murmurs grew louder as the priest turned more purple.

"Move!" He ordered and physically shoved me onto the platform that was over the lake. I cast my gaze around casually to see if I could see where the Doctor was standing. I found him off to the side with his hand held awkwardly in front of him and I almost quirked an eyebrow up at him in confusion before I realized that would be a bad idea and made sure to maintain my expressionless face.

"My name is Emma," I said loudly, and everyone took a half step backwards. "You never asked. No sense dying anonymously."

At my words one of my wrist shackles opened with a clank and fell to the ground since I hadn't seen that happening and flinched when they opened. I looked up at the Doctor and realized that he had been holding his hand awkwardly because he was trying to use the sonic discreetly. I was instantly grabbed by several people and I jerked against their holds uselessly.

"Do you have a back up plan?" I bellowed to the Doctor as the townsfolk finished locking me back into the chains. I looked over and realized that even if he had a plan he wouldn't be able to enact it due to the fact that he was currently face down on the ground with his arms behind him, a knee in his back and a rifle pointed at the back of his head. He was still putting up a pretty good fight though, shouting my name all the way, but it still wasn't enough to offset the creeping panic.

The floor dropped from under me suddenly and the shock of the ice-cold water made me reflexively inhale as momentum brought my chained hands up and slammed into my chin. Inky blackness filled my vision.

I came awake with a retching cough as the Doctor turned me on my side before pulling me up into a seated position.

"Emma, Emma, Emma thank god." Judging by the heat seeping over the top of my head he was practically weeping into my hair. There was a deep bone chilling wetness the enveloped me and there was a raspy ache in my throat and chest.

"What happened?" I mumbled.

"What is this witchcraft?" The priest cried and I heard the cocking of rifles. There were several tense moments of silence before the Doctor spoke.

"If you shoot her I will show you a level of witchcraft that none of your tiny brains can comprehend. I will burn your town to the ground with nothing but my mind." I wished that I had the energy to lift my head off the Doctor's shoulder because I hadn't ever heard him sound like this before, never heard him threaten someone before.

"Doctor," I said, and his hands pressed tighter against me though he continued like he hadn't heard me.

"Or you can let us leave. We can leave and never come back and everything will go back to the way it was before," he said though his tone softened from the hard flint of before to something imploring, almost begging. I heard distant mutterings as the Doctor pressed uncountable kisses into my hair. I muttered the Doctor's name again in question and he must have put me asleep because I wasn't really aware of anything again until we were in the TARDIS.

"What happened?" I asked again as he set me down on the jump seat.

"They let us go," he said flatly as he moved around the console with a tense sort of speed.

"What does that mean?" I asked with a harshness in my tone that I hadn't intended.

"It means they let us go," he repeated with a spike of anger in his voice.

"No sorry that doesn't answer my question. You can't just threaten people for the first time in front of me and then brush it off with a 'They let us go'." I snapped and then before I knew what had really tipped us over the edge we were shouting.

"Why can't you trust me?!"

"I do trust you! But I also need to know you're okay!"

"Of course I'm not okay!"

"Well then you're going to have to fill me in on the why because I'm not psychic!"

"YOU DROWNED EMMA!" He bellowed and I stared at him in astonishment.

"Okay and?" It was probably the wrong response because he just looked more upset, but they were the first words that spilled out past my astonishment.

"Drowning counts as dying!"

"That's what's bothering you?" I asked incredulously even though it should have been obvious.

"Of course, it bothers me!" I took a deep breath to see if I could calm down and diffuse the situation.

"If you're worrying about what Eleven said you don't have to. I've made it past twenty-seven," I said as steadily as I could manage.

"No actually you haven't." He slid the monitor in the console around so that it faced me. "Lillian called the other day to inform me that your birthday was in two weeks and we needed to be back for the party."

"Oh," I said as I looked at the blinking countdown on the screen that said we were less than two weeks away. "I have to have been travelling with you for more than a year."

"TARDIS wise? Yes. Earth relative? No," he said flatly. "The TARDIS and I have been keeping track."

"Does the Earth relative really make the difference?" I asked.

"I refuse to take the chance that it doesn't."

"Hey, we're pretty close," I said weakly to try and lighten the room. Judging by the look on his face it didn't work.

"Close?! Close?! Your birthday has been like having a sword dangling over my head, a finish line I am desperate to cross. And you drowned thirteen days before your birthday."

"Doctor-"

"And I couldn't do a damn thing!" He slammed his fists into the console, and I sighed as I held up my hand beseechingly.

"Could you come here please?" He looked over at me as I watched the anger drain out of his shoulders. "Please."

"Emma there's-"

"Plenty I can do to help once you come over here," I said and wiggled my fingers at him. He sighed and walked over to me, sitting down next to me when I grabbed his hand.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted at you," he said softly, and I smiled.

"I shouldn't have shouted back. And I shouldn't have been quite so cavalier about me drowning," I said with a slightly self-deprecating smile. He played with my fingers slightly.

"I told you that I don't want to be like him." I knew he was talking about Eleven without asking. "He was so hurt."

"So were you the first time we met," I said.

"Yes, well you did nearly irradiate yourself to death shortly before that," he said with a slight quirk to his lips and I laughed, glad that we had finally reached a point where we could make jokes about it.

"Sorry I should have specified, I meant when you met me. The you that you were after Rose, Martha and Donna. I looked at you and I just wanted to hold your hand. Much like I did with Eleven." He chuckled at that.

"When I was six, I thought you were in love with Rose," I added after a few moments.

"Why?" He asked with a confused look.

"The way you talked about her. The way you looked when you told me she was gone." He somehow managed to look even more confused.

"I was in love with you by then. I had even admitted it to myself. I didn't think I was very subtle about it," he said, and I laughed.

"I was still six," I reminded him teasingly. "But my point is that you were hurting back then. Sure, Eleven lost me, but who knows how much else he had lost. Maybe that's why he was hurting," I said, and the Doctor sighed.

"You're right. As per usual," he said, and I squeezed his fingers tightly.

"Listen if it would really make you feel better we can just go sit on Earth with Lillian until my birthday," I said and the TARDIS rotor started going up and down. I laughed as the Doctor did a double take and blinked at it in astonishment. "Looks like she made the choice for us."

"I keep telling you she loves you. I'm starting to get concerned she likes you more than me," he said. I leaned in to kiss his cheek with a broad smile on my face.

"I'm sorry again."

"No one's fault Emma. I just had a bad reaction."

"You don't have to look so upset about it, I've had plenty of bad reactions in my time," I said. He chuckled.

"I know how to deal with your bad reactions," he said, and I reached up to tap him on the tip of his nose.

"And I know how to deal with yours. It's why we're such a good team." He smiled and caught my hand to press a kiss to my fingertip. "I suppose that I crossed the century in decades off your life span?"

"Blasted past it," he said lightly. "You may at this point now be approaching your second century."

"Well now I feel bad about it," I said with a over dramatic sigh and he raised an eyebrow up at me.

"Now you feel bad about it?"

"Well yeah, now I don't have any wiggle room for the next time I accidentally flirt with danger," I said with a grin and he laughed before dropping a linger kiss to my palm.

"I love you Emma. Very much."

"I love you too Doctor." We fell silent for a few moments before I spoke again. "Can I extract a promise out of you?"

"Sure," he said, and I swallowed carefully.

"No more threatening people. It wasn't you and it was scary. Scarier than anything else that happened today," I said.

"Of course. Emma, I promise no matter what, no more threats." He smiled at me lovingly, softly and comfortingly all at once before he bounced up from his seat and swept me into his arms. I shrieked in shock and threw my arms around his shoulder.

"Off to the medical bay with you," he said brightly.

"What on Earth for?" I asked with a slight giggle. He nuzzled my cheek with his nose.

"Must make sure your drowning doesn't result it pneumonia," he said, and I laughed again even though it was starting to make my lungs hurt.

"Good. My torso hurts."

"Tea as well then and a hot bath."

"You're the best."