'Only you, sweetie,' River sighed in exasperation as soon as the Delnosian villagers had left them alone for a moment. 'Only you would get us in by saying that we're with the Wildlife Control Squad.' But she was fighting an amused grin, so the Doctor didn't really think she minded it.

'Your plan to tell them we're the building inspectors wasn't any better, dear,' he shot back, immediately wondering why on earth he'd called her dear. Dear suggested that they knew each other well, especially after the way he'd said it to her. Bickering like an old married couple, that was what Mr Lux had called it in the Library, after which River had gone and confirmed the theory by whispering his name in his ear. The Doctor still wasn't sure what to do with that, but he hadn't expected he would fall into the role that quickly, or that easily.

River shook her head in what looked like fond exasperation. 'Wildlife Control Squad, Intergalactic Division,' she repeated him, hint of scepticism to her tone.

'It's a brilliant name,' the Doctor defended himself.

'If you say so, Doctor.' She really was enjoying this way too much. Truth was, now that they weren't running for their lives and he actually had the time to think about it, he was starting to enjoy it too. Adventuring with River was not quite the same thing as adventuring with the Ponds, but thus far it was not exactly worse different. Just different.

'Well then, Dr Song, what do you make of all of this?' he invited.

They had been led into what the Doctor deemed the town hall while the Delnosian guards went to fetch the local equivalent of the mayor to fill them in on what was going on, so that they could do something about the situation. He was not leaving here until he got to the bottom of this. When they first arrived he had been too preoccupied with the fact that he was going on a picnic with River Song to notice it, but after stepping on the bones, he'd started paying attention.

This was wrong. This was never meant to be. No, Delnos Beta was not a fixed point in time, but it was wrong all the same. That was the benefit of being a Time Lord; he could sense things like that. Well, feel it was more like it.

'Seems to me that someone has imported a bunch of wolves and has started experimenting with them,' River said. The flirtatious smiles had disappeared. It was all business now. He'd seen that before. In that way she was not his average companion, who required information rather than giving it herself. 'Done a patchy job of it too, if you ask me. Like someone has gone and chopped up a couple of animals and then glued the different parts to one another.'

The Doctor would have to admit that he had not noticed such a thing, but then he had mostly been concerned with the head and the fangs and with a conversation that had not turned out quite the way he'd hoped it would.

Now that he started thinking about it, though, he'd have to admit that something had seemed off. 'They had cat tails. Why would wolves have cat tails?'

River rolled her eyes at him. 'Doctor, why would wolves be the size of horses? Or have hooves, for that matter?'

'They had hooves?' How had he missed that? 'Wouldn't they have needed the… you know, the giant claws for hunting?' He'd never been an expert on wildlife – most of the creatures he dealt with were not of the animalistic kind, so there had never been a need to learn a lot about them – but he was fairly convinced that wolves did not have hooves.

'I think the giant fangs serve them well enough, Doctor,' River pointed out.

There was no arguing with that. He'd seen those fangs relatively up close and had absolutely no desire to repeat the experience.

It still didn't make sense and he said so. 'Why would anyone unleash a couple of creatures on a planet with just lots and lots of grass? Even you humans don't think this planet is worth bothering with. There's just grass. And blue people. Love the blue people.' He could see that River was starting to lose both interest and patience, and got back on track. 'The point is that there is nothing on this planet that could be anywhere near a reason for having the population be slaughtered by wolves. There is nothing to gain here. And if they wanted the population gone, they could have invaded. These people are peaceful. They don't even have weapons! Or hardly any weapons,' he corrected.

River smirked. 'I knew there was a reason I'd never heard of it.'

'River!' he exclaimed, scandalised, realising only too late that she was just teasing him and hadn't actually meant it seriously.

'You're so easy to fool when you're this young,' she said, as if she was just remarking on the weather. For a moment there he could have sworn she was sad, but then the moment was gone, and she was just smiling at him.

'Dr Song, I'll have you know that I am not young!' he protested.

'You're not as old as you will be,' she conceded.

That was probably the best he was going to get, even if that didn't make him do a happy dance around this hall either. Her spoilers got on his nerves, her hints at a future for them made him sometimes downright jumpy. Time was not the boss of him, so how could he possibly have lost control of his own future like that?

'So, alien wolves on a planet for no apparent reason,' she summarised before he could ask the question that was burning on his lips. Who are you? He wouldn't have gotten an answer probably.

'Genetically engineered alien wolves,' he corrected. 'Wolves with cat tails? What are the tails for?' To some extent he could get the hooves. The wolves were the size of horses, so clearly there had been some horse genes mixed in, accounting for the hooves. Might be a mix-up of some kind, first batch gone wrong. The tails, though?

'At the moment I'm far more interested in finding out what the wolves are for, Doctor,' River said, but after a moment she added: 'Do you think the tails are important?'

'The tails are attached to giant wolf thingies eating the local population,' the Doctor said irritably. 'Do I think that is important? Yes, I do.'

He couldn't quite explain why he was suddenly snapping at her. Maybe because he had grown used to River knowing what to do, River taking charge. And she wasn't doing that now.

It was as though she had read his mind. 'But if those wolves are genetically engineered, that makes it almost certainly human work,' she pointed out. 'Wolves, horses, cats. Those are all Earth animals.'

'Exactly,' the Doctor said. 'But that's not right. Humans are not supposed to come here for another two thousand years.' He got up from his chair, too restless to sit down. Lots of thinking almost automatically translated in some physical activity or other, whether that was running around the TARDIS console, tinkering with the wires or, in this case, pacing. 'What are they doing here? If they're even human. Could be another species with access to Earth animals. Lots of intergalactic trade these days.' And he still didn't have an answer to the most important question of the lot. 'And why here? What is this good for? Why now?'

'Looks like we're about to get some answers, sweetie,' River remarked as the door opened and the town's mayor came in.

It was both familiar and reassuring to see the Doctor pace the room, sinking his teeth into a problem like a bull dog clinging to a bone. Except that he looked nothing like a bull dog, which was her luck. She had pictures of his earlier regenerations, and personally she didn't think she would like to be seen in public with a man who thought that a stick of celery pinned to his jacket was the height of fashion. Mind you, not that this Doctor's choice in hats – or neckwear – was much better, no matter how much he insisted it was cool.

But his behaviour was well-known to River, no matter what his age. He was just… a bit more difficult to deal with when he was this young. Just now he had gone and talked about you humans, as if she was just an ordinary human, when she wasn't. It was a painful reminder that this was not yet her Doctor. He didn't know who she was yet, even though he would find out probably within a year.

She was snapped out of her musings when the door opened and a group Delnosians came in. River had seen the guards at the gate before, but had not exactly been paying much attention to them then. At the time she had been slightly more concerned with the wolves jumping at that palisade, keeping her fingers crossed that it would hold, about which she had rather strong doubts. These people here were sitting ducks. It was only a matter of time before that poor excuse for a wall gave way and the people got slaughtered. And River Song was not exactly a Time Lord that she could feel when something wasn't meant to be, but this was definitely not right.

Looking at their hosts now she could see why they were a peaceful people. They were humanoid in appearance, but both longer and thinner than actual humans and, like the Doctor had told her repeatedly, blue-skinned. They looked fragile, not made for fighting. Truth be told, they looked like the first breeze could blow them away.

The Doctor was already up on his feet and all but bounced over to shake the mayor's hand. 'Hello, I am the Doctor and this is Dr River Song, Wildlife Control Squad, Intergalactic Division.' He flashed the psychic paper under the mayor's nose close enough that the poor man almost had to look cross-eyed in order to get a proper look at it. Bless.

From anyone else, the whole title may have sounded absolutely ridiculous. There was no such organisation as the Wildlife Control Squad, never mind the Intergalactic Division, but the Doctor had an air about him that got people to trust him. It was the baby face, River decided. It was one of those faces that was just hard to mistrust.

'I see,' the mayor said.

The Doctor unleashed his widest smile on him. 'We heard you had a bit of a problem with those giant wolf thingies outside your walls. We came to help.'

Giant wolf thingies. River suppressed an amused chuckle. This was hardly the time or place, but the Doctor's sense of naming things was as horrible as it ever was.

'You are most welcome, sir,' the mayor said, offering his hand to the Doctor to shake, which the Doctor did quite enthusiastically. The mayor was swaying dangerously on his feet. 'We had sent messages, but had given up all hope that they would be answered. No one makes it through the meadows any more these days.' He took a step back and favoured them both with an inquisitive glance. 'If you don't mind my asking, I would very much like to know how you managed it.'

'Jammie Dodgers,' the Doctor replied, beaming at River. 'We fed Jammie Dodgers to the wolves. Well, River fed them to the wolves. My Jammie Dodgers. Her idea to be honest. Have you met her? River Song, amazing hair, very clever. Well, for an archaeologist.' The coherency of that speech was probably non-existent to everyone who wasn't used to him, if those blank looks of the Delnosians were any indication.

'At least I earned my title,' she retorted.

For all his going on about being a Doctor, his knowledge of the medical science was hardly worth mentioning at all. If truth be told, he was rather rubbish at it. It was a good thing he had her father on board these days.

She walked over and shook the mayor's hand as well. 'We got your message,' she said. Sometimes it really was better if these matters were handled by someone who knew how to form coherent sentences. The Doctor at the moment didn't fit the qualification. Not that he did it to seem stupid, but right now his mind was going at ninety miles per hour trying to figure out what was going on around here, and carrying a conversation at the same time tended to end in disaster. 'What could you tell us about those wolves?'

It wasn't a very specific question, but so far they didn't know very much yet. She'd see what she could get and work from there to narrow things down. Years of knowing the Doctor had at least gained her one very important skill: improvising. Planning ahead when her husband was involved just didn't work. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

The mayor invited her to sit, which she did, and the Doctor didn't.

'Wolves?' he asked, as if tasting the word. 'Is that what you call them?'

'Let's stick with that for now,' River suggested. It was better than the Doctor's name for them at any rate. She was quite sure they didn't even have a name yet, not if they were indeed the product of genetic engineering.

'So you have encountered them before, yes?' Only a fool would miss out on the anxiety in his voice, the hope that someone had seen this before and knew exactly what to do.

'In a way,' she replied diplomatically. She had seen cats, she had seen wolves and she had seen horses, just not all of them squashed into one specimen. 'What can you tell us about the wolves?' she repeated the question she had started with.

'It all began with the spaceship,' he admitted.

River suppressed a grimace. 'What spaceship?' she prompted.

'It landed not far from here, in the middle of the night, sixty-five days ago,' the mayor narrated. 'We saw it arriving, and decided to look at it after sunrise. But the next morning two of the group gathering grasses came back heavily injured, telling us about the giant beasts that had eaten their other companions. It has been like that ever since. We can't stay within the walls.'

'Because you need the grass,' the Doctor interrupted. 'The grass is your food, but it doesn't grow in the village, so you'll have to go out to get it. Delnosians go out, dinner time for the big wolf thingies.'

The mayor nodded. 'Yes.'

The Doctor resumed his pacing. 'That's bad. That's really very bad.'

'Yes, I thought we had established that, Doctor.'

'No, no, no. You don't understand. Silver said she was born on this planet, remember?' He looked at her expectantly.

'You were the one talking to a wolf, sweetie,' she reminded him. If he actually spoke wolf at all and wasn't making that up on the spot. According to her mother he even boasted that he spoke baby, something she didn't quite buy either.

He ignored her jab at his linguistic skills. 'Yes, but if she was born here, actually properly born here, that means she can't have come in the spaceship. She'd remember it.'

Now she understood what he was getting at, if she actually ran with the idea that the Doctor did indeed speak wolf – and genetically engineered wolf at that – then that led to a rather unpleasant conclusion.

'Accelerated growth,' she said. Very accelerated growth. If the Doctor was right, they could reproduce faster than rabbits.

'The growth takes up a lot of energy, which is why they're always hungry,' the Doctor reasoned out loud. 'But hey what, they're on a planet with a lot of as good as defenceless people, dinner time for all.'

'And they'll keep on reproducing,' River observed. If the Doctor was right at least. He had this nasty habit of being right, though, something he couldn't help but reminding her every once in a while. Small wonder that he had such a massive ego. 'And we have no idea how many there are already.'

'Well, they won't get very far,' the Doctor observed.

'And why is that?' she inquired, having the feeling that there was something he hadn't told her. It needn't even be deliberate, he could have just forgotten. The Doctor was absolutely rubbish at explaining things.

The Delnosians looked as if they had given up trying to get this conversation around the time the Doctor had casually mentioned chatting to a wolf, an animal they hadn't even heard of yet, and shouldn't even know about of for another two millennia.

'We're on an island,' the Doctor informed her. 'Only so far they can go. Well, I say island, it's a rather big island, but it is an island. So, unless they crossbred the wolf thingies with an eagle…' He stopped himself. 'No, no wings. That'd be rubbish. Well, they could have crossbred it with a shark or a duck or…'

In spite of the serious situation, she had to bite back laughter. 'A duck?' Honestly?

'Ducks are cool,' he said in a would-be dignified manner. 'You humans, you love ducks! Where humans go, ducks follow. And dogs. And cats. And about a dozen other useless animals. Point is, wolves can't get off the island, so they'll stay here, eating all of the population within…' He checked his watch. 'About a year. Probably sooner.'

River could have sworn the mayor's cheeks were a paler blue than they had been before.

'We're going on a wolf hunt then?' she asked. She knew there had been a very good reason why she had brought the gun.

That snapped him out of whatever excited mood he'd been slipping into. 'What? No! They're a brand-new life form!'

'You said that before,' she said. And she didn't have any more patience for it now than she had then. 'And they're a brand-new life forms slaughtering the population. So it's either shoot them or import all the Jammie Dodgers in the universe to keep them fed. Your choice.'

She had distracted him. 'All the Jammie Dodgers in the universe?' he sputtered.

River only gave him one of the impatient looks she had copied from her mother, the one that said that he was rambling and they really needed to go and do something useful.

It worked. 'Right. No Jammie Dodgers. No, we are going to get them off-planet. Delnosians can go about their business and we'll drop the wolves off somewhere with lots of rabbits and with no people. Simple.'

Simple indeed. 'It seems your plan has some holes that need filling,' she pointed out. 'What about the owners?'

'Oh, that's easy,' he said. 'We're going to talk to them.' In hindsight, she should probably have seen that coming from miles away. 'Dr Song, how do you feel about running a bit more today?' And the same was probably true for that.

'Oh, I hate you.' It wasn't exactly true, but sometimes she really thought her life would be so much easier if the Doctor would just blow up or shoot the danger and be done with it.

The resulting smile almost split his face in half. 'No, you really don't.' He may not know who she was yet, but he was getting the measure of her, she was sure. And he didn't give her the chance to argue – as if she would want to – because he had already turned back to the Delnosians. 'Right, you lot. Stay indoors and don't move. No need to feel blue.' He stopped himself. 'Oh, that was a bit rubbish. Anyway, not to worry, we are going to fix it. Dr Song, did you have any more of those Jammie Dodgers?'

'In the TARDIS,' she answered. 'I do have a gun.' The Doctor looked a bit reluctant. 'It's either that or ending up as dog's dinner.'

He handed the basket over reluctantly. River wouldn't deny that she felt a bit more at ease with the familiar shape of the gun in her hand. At least she wasn't completely defenceless. And she had been trained to fight. Big wolves were not what her trainers had in mind, though.

'I'll set it to stunning, not killing,' she compromised. Although she would use a setting that would knock them out for a good long while.

But it had been the right call to make, she could tell by the Doctor's face. He adjusted his bowtie and put on that face that he always wore when he thought he was being extremely impressive. Not that this Doctor would admit to wanting to impress her, but that didn't mean he wasn't doing it. 'Well then, River, are you ready to run?'

Truth be told, she wished it wouldn't ever stop.

'Why did I think this was a good idea again?'

According to the Delnosian mayor the spaceship had landed near the lake just about ten minutes away from the village, if one went on foot and ran the entire way. He had of course forgotten to take into account that neither River nor the Doctor were in fact of Delnosian origin. Their legs were nowhere near as long as those of the natives and he didn't think that they were as fast either.

'It was your idea, sweetie,' River reminded him. She seemed far more confident about the whole plan now that she was actually holding a gun. In fact, she was practically radiating confidence, which he shouldn't find as attractive as he did.

'Stop it,' he warned her.

The flirtatious grin came out again. 'Or you'll make me?'

The Doctor suppressed the urge to flail about like a fish on dry land as he tended to do when confronted with that flirting that he really didn't quite know how to handle. And she knew that full well. He might even go as far as to say that his reactions were the only reason why she was still doing it. But he was well over nine hundred years old; he could hold his own. 'Don't think I won't.'

Her grin widened until it closely resembled the expression on the wolf's face. 'Promises, promises.'

He could practically feel the blush creeping onto his face. She'd done it again.

'Ready?' he asked.

They were still standing behind the gate, peering through a small gap to see what was going on outside. Thus far the sight had not been a very encouraging one. The wolves hadn't attacked yet, but they hadn't gone either. Instead they were circling around the walls, waiting until they inevitably came out. The Doctor hated to say that was a rather sound strategy.

'Always,' came the reply.

He beamed at her. 'Well then. Open the gates!' he ordered the Delnosian guards. 'Always wanted to say that, you know.'

But River wasn't listening to him. The moment the gate opened she was out, firing her gun at the wolves before the Doctor had even stopped talking. And she was good. Apparently she used her skills for more than just shooting his fez and creating openings in walls.

He rushed out after her, letting the sonic make the noise again, so that she would have a slightly easier job than she would have had otherwise. As expected, the wolves all cringed in response, allowing River to take down another three of them that were very much in their way.

'Run!' the Doctor yelled as soon as their path was free.

He took River's free hand and pulled her with him just as she was sending a shot at one of the wolf beasties. The shot went overhead and ended in a nearby tree.

Fortunately she refrained from commenting as she ran with him. 'Don't you have something to feed them?' she demanded.

'How should I know? You're the expert on wolf diet!' he protested.

'You're the one carrying the basket,' River retorted.

The big wolf thingies were still following, even though River had brought down their number considerably, which would admittedly have been more of a boon if there hadn't been any more wolves arriving to the pack already present while they were in the village. But they were wary of River's shooting abilities – as they should be – and they didn't like the noise of the sonic any better. They were keeping their distance, but they were still following. Feeding them wouldn't be such a bad idea.

He reached into the basket, taking hold of the first thing he felt. He threw it at the wolves – for lack of a better name and they did look like wolves. On hooves. With the tail of a cat – without thinking.

'Sandwiches?' River questioned.

He fixed her with a look. 'You threw my Jammie Dodgers.'

'Yes,' she said with an air of an adult explaining something to a particularly slow child. 'Because I knew that would work.'

'Sandwiches work just fine, dear,' he argued, fully convinced of that fact until he looked over his shoulder and saw that no, it didn't work. He was just in time to see one of the wolves spitting a tuna sandwich back out again. 'Or maybe not,' he admitted. 'Run!'

'I was doing just that, Doctor.'

They didn't make it in ten minutes, what with constantly having to turn around to hold out the sonic in the general direction of their pursuers so that they remained somewhere behind them and River occasionally shooting her gun, but they did make it in fifteen. River was in charge of navigation since his screwdriver was otherwise occupied and for once he was completely comfortable with letting her take the lead.

They found the ship – yes, definitely human going by the design – at the shore of the lake the Delnosians had mentioned, lying for about a quarter in the water.

Oh.

And the Doctor realised something.

'They didn't land here,' he observed. 'They crashed.'

Thank you for reading. If you've got a moment, reviews would be appreciated.