Hello to my lovely readers! I'm taking advantage of all these snow days to edit all these chapters, after this one I only have 3 to edit and post before I can write original stuff you haven't seen before, so bear with me!

This chapter contains a panic/anxiety attack and an asthma attack. If you are triggeredor uncomfortablereading these things, please skip this chapter. If you need a brief summary of what happened because you were unable to read this chapter, please, please PM me, I'm more than happy to sum it up for you. Your mental health is always more important to me than read number.

Hope you all enjoy! This chapter was last edited on 2/18/15.

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I could tell he didn't want to talk about it. I could see in his eyes how much he missed her and how scared he was that he couldn't do anything, and the most overwhelming fear of what would happen next.

"There's something about the way you talk about her, Doctor. I don't mean to pry but... She wasn't just a friend to you, was she?" I regretted it the instant I closed my mouth. I should really learn to keep my mouth shut.

Something seemed to shift in the Doctor's expression, his face going to a more neutral, void expression. "Yeah, maybe. Now, you're probably wondering about the..." He flailed his arms desperately, trying in vain to pantomime what had happened to him. "...Thing. With all the weird... Stuff. And the beach."

"How very articulate," I said dryly. "It all makes sense now."

The Doctor smiled at my little snark, before launching into his explanation. "You see, time is usually in flux. Anything can happen, with no fixed outcome or consequence. But every once in a while, there's a fixed point, where something has to happen, a decision needs to be made, stuff like that. It helps keep the balance of the universe and whatnot, very boring, except even I can't tell what's going to happen, and that's saying something." He smiled cheekily. "If one tiny detail shifts within that fixed point, the whole of reality could implode."

I frowned. "Is that what's happening now? All sorts of stuff to do with time?"

"I keep forgetting you're new to this, sorry if I'm a bit confusing. No, the whole time-and-universe-imploding bit is not happening quite yet. We've got about ten years until it happens fully, currently we're dealing with the sort of... aftershocks, but they come before instead of after the main event, because there's no time for the aftershocks to happen after time itself has been destroyed... Sort of like an earthquake backwards. There was a fixed point in Rose's future, and we changed it somehow. Now we have to clean up this mess, and hopefully bring her back. The beach was a sort of flash forward, to what happened in the fixed point and what happens to us if we don't fix something."

"So, do you know when the fixed point was supposed to happen?" I asked, trying to make sense of all the random information.

"That's where things get complicated. If our instruments were even vaguely right, it was supposed to happen in 2006."

"But it's 2014 now!"

"Yep. Like I said, complicated."

"Do you know anything about the fixed point? Or even, as you keep suggesting, how to fix it?" I asked.

"A few things. It involves a beach, something not good, and for all we know, it may even be two points, it's so big. We need to fix it presumably by stopping Rose from dying, but we can't, really, considering I was there. Going back in time and meeting yourself is one of the worst things you can do in time travel, except for cheap tricks. We would have to start by fixing the tiny things that Rose would have done had she lived, all the little adventures and lives saved first, to give this screwed up universe a sense of what was supposed to happen, so to speak, before saving her and snapping her back into the timeline." Something about the way he said this was hollow, and he wouldn't look me in the eyes.

I suddenly noticed the pronouns he was using. For all we know, We need to fix... "Who's 'we?" I asked.

"Well, this isn't exactly a one-man job, you know. I'm going to need help."

"Isn't that what UNIT's here for?" I knew that wasn't what he meant from the look on his face, but I sincerely hoped I was wrong.

"Yes, UNIT's great and all, but they aren't who I need. The thing is, the phrase 'Bad Wolf' isn't just a person, or thing. It's a message, saying that Rose is near, or there's something Rose needs. Your name can't have been there on the wall alongside it as a coincidence. She means you to help, I think."

I swallowed. "What if that's not what she was trying to say?"

"I'm pretty sure it is."

"It sounds dangerous." I never held well with danger, I couldn't even going in the deep end of the pool until I was ten.

"It is, and I'm sorry that I have to ask you to do this. Honestly, I'm so, so sorry. But I need you to come."

"For how long? And why would she look at me for help? I can barely keep myself going these days." I asked. There had to be a way out of this, right?

"Depends on how you look at it. That box, that's my time machine. We could be back ten seconds after we leave. On the other hand, I don't know how long it would be for you and me. The thing with Rose is, she was truly brilliant. She saw the light in the most unexpected people. If she thinks you can do it, believe me, you can." The Doctor's eyes shone as he spoke of her.

I bit my lip, hesitating as I answered. "I... don't know. I have to think about it, I really can't decide just now." I was still processing 'time machine', if I was honest with myself.

He nodded understandingly. "I get that. Just... Don't take too long. Keep in mind that reality is sort of falling apart." I immediately felt guilty. I was worrying about my own safety, putting myself before everyone else, everywhere, when the whole of the universe was falling apart.

He walked off, ending up in very animated conversation with Captain Dailey, who seemed very opposed to something he was suggesting. I laughed a bit internally as she continued to yell at him, but my thoughts inevitably trailed back to the same thing.

Bad Wolf. What was it? She? I wasn't so sure anymore. As far as I knew, it was some sort of ...consciousness... a spirit maybe? It had to do with Rose. Rose had done something, something bad? Then Rose had died.

I didn't even want to pretend to understand it, when it was so damn complicated! And my confusion of the rules of time wasn't even brushing on the fact I had just been signed up for a journey across time and space, to go save planets. I sighed as the reality of this all sunk in. I was living in a sci-fi movie, and this had to be a dream. Naturally, I had never woken up this morning, and I was going to wake up and get fired for being late...again. I sighed, and, closing my eyes, focused on waking up.

Nothing happened. I opened my eyes seconds later, expecting to be in my bedroom, but I was still in the same plastic chair, in the same building, and the Doctor was still across the room. Damn.

I pinched myself. It hurt. I slapped my arm. Ow. I felt the beginnings of real panic seep into the edges of my mind and focused on breathing. I couldn't have a panic attack, not now, not here. I breathed in for seven seconds, hold for four, out in five. I spelled the words in my mind, focusing on the letters. S-E-V-E-N. F-O-U-R. F-I-V-E. I felt better, but still panicky.

"You alright?" A calm voice barely registered, but I only nodded out of habit, not really meaning it.

The Doctor asked me again. "You sure? You look a little nervous, and trust me, I don't blame you a bit. S' a lot to take in. I'm sorry for sort of dumping everything on you earlier-"

I was about to open my mouth to reply, to say he didn't have to apologise, maybe make a self-deprecating joke or two, when the room started shaking.

~0~

When I stood up, bits of ceiling plaster fell off of my shoulders. I let out a choked cough and looked around, lights began to flicker back on dimly, and computers began to restart. As the monitors restarted, white writing began to flash across the blue screens, typing themselves out even with no one near the keyboards. badwolfbadwolfbadwolfbadwolfwadwolfbadwolf... It was neverending.

My eyes were wide and coughs were stealing the air from my lungs as I choked on dust. I couldn't breathe, my eyes were watering, I-

A pair of arms wrapped around my shoulders and waist, guiding me to the back of the room, waving the dust away from my face, making sure I didn't choke. The dust began to clear and The Doctor's dust-covered face was right there.

"Now or never, we need to go. There's nothing we can do to help them, and we need to get you out of here." he muttered, pulling open the blue doors with the one hand not supporting me and pulling me inside with him.

I couldn't fight it with the lack of air in my lungs, and I grappled uselessly at my side for my bag, where I kept an emergency inhaler for asthma attacks, only to realize that the police had taken it as I had come in. It was still inside. I motioned wildly, attempting to mime an inhaler and a bag, pointing outside. It took a moment, but the Doctor put on a mask, like the kind you would see on sick people at a hospital or perhaps a construction worker working with sawdust, or somewhat of a mix between the two, and he ran back out.

He returned a minute or two later with a whole box, containing all the possessions that had been taken from me when I had entered the building, including my bag. I reached down into it, anxiety surging for a moment as I couldn't find the inhaler, before my fingers clasped around a plastic cylinder. I held it to my mouth shakily and pressed the button at the back, breathing in heavily. I felt my airways clear a bit, and added a second breath of the medicated air, before putting the tube down on the grated metal floor and just leaning against the metal wall, breathing heavily, but deeply. The Doctor was crouched next to me, making sure I was still alright, watching my breathing as it slowed and steadied.

It took fifteen minutes of slow breathing and sitting still in silence, but soon I was breathing normally, and I started to move to stand up, but the Doctor stopped me.

"Just sit there for a little while longer. You'll be fine, I promise. We're not in any trouble here."

"But the people at UNIT..." My voice rasped and cracked, and I winced at the sound.

"They'll be fine. Just focus on yourself for a minute."

"We just left them..."

"Shh. I promise, they're fine. I'm going to show you to a place you can sleep alright? Asthma attacks don't go away in fifteen minutes. You need to rest this off."

I sighed and nodded, allowing him to help me up, slowly shuffling down a hallway and into a white bedroom. I was in no state to stay awake, or observe the details of the room. I sat down on the bed, lowering myself down into a comfortable position and shutting my eyes. The Doctor hadn't even left the room yet when I started to snore.

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I really wish Doc Manager's copy and paste textbox was bigger, I hate needing to edit in such a tiny space... idk that's justme...

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Again, if you were unable to read this chapter because of triggers, please please message me and I will give a short trigger free summary so that you can read on without missing stuff.

Love you all! See you in a few days with chapter three!

-Skyler

(POLL: I have several chapters of this fic already written. I'm trying to spread out the updates so that I don't run out of chapters too fast, but I don't know how often I should post them or even if I should be spacing out these updates at all. Let me know in a review what your opinion is!)