"Why didn't they just eat me?" I asked and the Doctor shot me a wild look. "Sorry, but just standing here watching you pace back and forth is making me super nervous."

"I don't know Emma. I don't know why they didn't eat you, and I don't know what they're doing here, and I don't know how to get you out of this situation," he snapped and I raised an eyebrow up at him.

"You aren't really helping," I snapped back and for a really long moment I thought we were about to have a fight, which would definitely top the list of dumbest fights we'd ever had. But just as I thought we were about to spill over the Doctor flumped back onto the table as he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

"I didn't save anyone at the Library," he said softly. I made a noise of disagreement. "I didn't. Dave, Other Dave, Anita, River, they all died. All the people who made it back were because of River."

"So, you can't think. You can't think because I made a stupid joke about blonde girls in libraries," I said, and he nodded. I took a deep breath because I could work with that, in a way that would probably keep us both sane. "Octavius said that there had been voices reported."

"Yeah."

"Okay, but last time the Vashta Nerada had to borrow the communicators on the space suits, right?"

"Right."

"So how were they talking this time?" I prompted and his hand dropped away from his face to look at me in what looked like astonishment.

"Emma Bradley you are brilliant!" He shouted as he jumped off the table. I made a mental note that he owed me two brilliance kisses now as I smiled at him. "Unearthly voices! Unearthly because they aren't from Earth!"

"You know I'd put that much together oddly enough," I said dryly as I watched him dig around in his pockets.

"Do you mind if I borrow your phone?" He asked and I carefully slid it out of my pocket and threw it at him. He caught it deftly and slapped a bunch of the wires onto the side of it, which he held in place by a handful of rubber bands, before he tipped it upside down and started shoving some of the wires into the charging port before he pulled out the sonic.

"Why doesn't the TARDIS translate for us?" I asked because the number of languages that the TARDIS couldn't translate was very small.

"Because they don't speak a language as such," he said over the whirr of the sonic. I raised an eyebrow up at him. "Honestly, Emma I'm not really sure."

"You could have just said that from the start," I teased, and he flashed me a smile. "You know usually by now you'd have put your brainy specs on."

"I do try to not be predictable," he said lightly before he frowned down at my phone again. "This doesn't make sense."

"There was a mental leap there that I didn't follow," I said, and he waved in my general direction.

"The Vashta Nerada that live on this planet are scavengers, they live off roadkill or the occasional person who gets lost in a forest. Why would they attack like this?" He gestured towards me again and I shrugged slowly.

"I mean they might have been dormant or something and then woken up to discover that their trees were suddenly a box and they were on a completely different continent. If not for the fact that I know you'd come get me if that happened, I would probably lash out too," I said, and the Doctor looked up at me.

"Emma you never cease to amaze me," he said. I gave him an odd look at that.

"You're the one who conditioned me into this brilliance," I said. He sent me an exasperated look before he shook his head.

"We've already discussed that today but actually your brilliance wasn't what I was talking about," he said.

"It wasn't?"

"No, it was your empathy. Most people who have just assumed that they attacked because they're vicious mindless killers, but you just jumped to them being afraid because they don't know where they are."

"It's just what I would do. And besides you're the one who is so fond of the idea that people are people regardless if they're human people," I said which made him laugh out loud.

"I am quite certain that I have never said that," he said between his spurts of laughter.

"But you do agree with the sentiment," I said with a grin.

"Well yes I do." He grinned at me for a moment before the smile fell off his face as I wiggled in place. "Emma, I told you to keep still."

"Yes, I know and I'm trying. It's just that my feet are falling asleep," I said sheepishly as I tired to shift my weight a little more minutely. "Are you sure I can't risk very slowly sitting down?"

"Not overly, but I'm also not willing to risk it," he said before he bounced forward, carefully skirting me to place the phone and wire bundle as close to the crate as he was willing to get.

"So now what?" I asked as he scuttled back in front of me. "Also, I just remembered that I haven't given you any grief for the fact that we might not be in this mess if the sonic did wood doors."

"Is now the time?" He asked and I shook my head with a delighted grin.

"Absolutely not, but I didn't want to let the opportunity pass me by again."

"You are impossible," he grumbled under his breath before settling his focus on the phone behind me. "So, tell me have you been listening?"

"Yes." I jumped at the sound of my own voice coming out of the phone and the Doctor shot me a look as he paled.

"Sorry sorry, but that was freaky," I said as I dug my nails into my palms so that I would keep it together.

"How many?" He asked and I tightened my fist in preparation for the answer.

"Two. We were so hungry."

"Starved on the journey probably," I said mostly to myself, but the Doctor made a noise of agreement.

"Why Emma?"

"So much warmth and life and food."

"It always comes back to that time energy. Between this and the Weeping Angels I'm starting to think I would make a pretty good delicacy," I said. The Doctor passed me an exasperated look.

"You're sense of humour aggravates me," he said dryly, and I beamed at him.

"At least you've accepted the fact that you think I'm funny." He rolled his eyes at me. "But that doesn't really make sense about why they didn't eat me."

"Two fully grown humans in a month? That's a lot of food for a swarm this small, but to pass up an opportunity like you would be against their nature," he said as he crossed his arms in front of himself like he did when he was thinking and didn't like what he was thinking.

"I'm guessing from the look on your face that you have the barest skeleton of a plan to get them away from me." I got a strangled noise of agreement from him in response. "I'm guessing that your plan hasn't considered what to do when the sun eventually sets."

"I had really hoped you wouldn't think of that until I had a better plan in place," he said as he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

"Well I would hate to be predictable," I said. He moved his hand and looked down at the phone.

"I don't suppose that you would be willing to let her go if I promised to transport you back to your forest?" We both stood in silence for a while before the Doctor sighed. "Yeah that was the answer I was expecting."

"Do not even think about offering to trade yourself for me," I said, and he laughed darkly.

"They'd never take the deal. You're worth much more to them."

"Oh, so you considered the possibility," I said lightly. He tipped his head to the side in acknowledgement.

"Briefly. Twenty seconds at most."

"But you think that home is worth more to them than me?" I asked and he reached up to run a hand through his hair.

"Well I'm certainly hoping so." Any response we would have gotten was drowned out by a series of loud slamming noises and the sound of shouting and running feet. I sent the Doctor an unamused look and decided I could risk crossing my arms for the dramatics.

"How much money would you like to bet me that that noise was just caused by Julius Caesar's army?" I asked.

"I am not taking that bet," he said just as a loud thud came from the door behind him. He whipped his head around to look at the door and I flinched as the thud started to repeat rhythmically like someone was attempting to break down the door.

"This is about to get very messy isn't it?" I asked and the Doctor made an aggrieved noise.

"I would have qualified it as messier, but yes." Just as he finished speaking the hinges on the door creaked and it flew open, letting three Roman centurions walk through with swords drawn. The Doctor jumped in front of them with his psychic paper at the ready and babbling about how he was from health and safety and they couldn't be in here.

"I am on orders from Caesar!" The middle centurion cried out and attempted to reach the Doctor to shove him to one side but missed grabbing him by a few millimeters.

"Caesar ordered you to invade a library?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. The centurion on the left frowned at me and took a step towards me and the Doctor jumped in front of him.

"Don't move any closer."

"And why not?"

"This woman has a very dangerous pox," the Doctor said and tossed me an apologetic look over his shoulder as soon as the words were out of his mouth. I rolled my eyes at him, because somehow the explanations he came up with on the fly were brilliant and other times they were like that.

"I thought you were from Health and Safety," the other centurion said.

"He is here for your health and safety by ensuring that you don't get too close to me," I replied sweetly, though I didn't think that that explanation was going to go over much better than the Doctor's.

"This is ridiculous," the middle centurion exclaimed, and I snorted despite myself.

"Story of our lives," I said.

"Emma I'm sure I have no idea what you mean," the Doctor said sarcastically.

"Our forest. We want to return to our forest." Everything in the room went deathly still as the Vashta Nerada spoke through the phone again in answer to the Doctor's previous question before everything suddenly snapped forward at top speed. The centurion on the right shouted something I didn't catch as he dove forward with his sword at the ready while the other two scuttled backwards in shock.

"Emma move!" The Doctor shouted and I dove to the left without thinking and the centurion's scream mixed in with the sound of his sword clattering to the ground followed by his armour and skeleton. I didn't realize I was also screaming until I had my face pressed to his chest. "Breathe. Breathe."

"I can't," I gasped out once I realized that I'd gone straight from screaming to full blown panic attack. Distantly I could tell that he was trying to wiggle his arms out from under mine so that he could calm me down, but I couldn't get my fingers to unclench from his jacket. Finally, he just resorted to resting his cheek against mine and opening our psychic link that way.

"Sorry Emma, but we aren't out of danger just yet," he said, and I nodded as I released his jacket.

"Right." I took a couple shaky breaths. "Romans."

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Sorry about missing last week, I journeyed south on the long weekend but my laptop unfortunately did not journey with me (I forgot it lmao)