*cackles* Writing frenzy! I had terrible cramps a few hours ago so to get my mind off of it I started typing. It's now 2:24, wait...2:25 am and I have no regrets! So new chapter! Almost down with Forest of the Dead here and then we'll be moving on to Turn Left. Get excited guys, we're finally gonna get to see Rose!

Don't worry, not much longer until we get to 11 and Amy and Rory with Rose thrown in. *starts bouncing* Oh I can't wait to get that far! What? You think I'm not having fun with this? This is a blast! Plus with this my writing keeps getting better and better! No...seriously...go read my crap from before. It...

It's not good...

"We're going to need a chicken leg," River called out hurriedly, trying to get her breath back after all the running they had been doing. "Who's got a chicken leg?" she half-asked, honestly not expecting much. She then remembered how Other Dave didn't trust his lunchbox. Said it ate his food or something. Quickly spinning around she grabbed the food the man had held out, he was also looking uncomfortable. "Thanks, Dave."

Quickly unwrapping the meat she threw it into the shadows, the meat quickly stripped in less than a second before the bone clattered to the ground. River backed up, trying to put as much distance between her and the shadow as possible. "Okay. Okay, we've got a hot one. Watch your feet!"

The rest of the team was sitting on the ground while she did her best to force back the panic she was feeling at what she was now facing. She had seen a lot of things running with the Doctor and Rose, some she wished she could forget, but this...this had to be one of the worst. She couldn't even fight like she was used to doing...all she could do was run and pray it didn't catch her.

"They won't attack until there's enough of them," the Doctor spoke up, whirling around the room as plan after plan flew through his head. "But they've got our scent now. They're coming." He tried not to think about how depressing that was or how low their chances were. That would just be counterproductive at this point.

"Oh, yeah, who is he?" Other Dave quietly asked, the Doctor tuning the team's words out as he thought. "You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust him?" Call him old-fashioned but he didn't like to put his life in the hands of someone whose real name he didn't even know.

"He's the Doctor," River replied, as if that was all that needed to be said. The thing that startled him most was how trusting the woman had sounded in saying the man's name. While Other Dave didn't have anything to say to that Lux certainly did.

"And who is the Doctor?" the man asked, annoyed as he spread his hands out in as sarcastic a manner as he could. He'd already seen two people die in front of him and he didn't fancy being the next one. River glanced at the Doctor, who was on the other side of the room and scanning with the sonic, looking tense.

"The only story you'll ever tell, if you survive him," River responded, voice hard. Yes. She knew that when you were with the Doctor you sometimes didn't always live. He was like fire, he burned brighter than the stars at times but he could still end up burning you so, so easily. But to River that just made him even more brilliant.

She always had been one for dangerous things.

"You say he's your friend but he doesn't even know who you are," Anita spoke up, sounding confused as to why River seemed to trust the man who obviously wanted nothing to do with her. She knew the Professor was rather persistent but this was just pushing it, even for her.

"Listen," River sighed, "All you need to know is this. I would trust the Doctor and his Rose to the very end of the universe, and actually, we've been... There was a bit of trouble with a wayward alien and all of that..." she trailed off, a smile playing on her lips for a second before it vanished. The team shared a look, once again wondering if this woman was actually sane.

"Um...why does it matter that the Doctor has some Earth flower?" Other Dave asked, looking confused. River looked at him for a few seconds in her own confusion before her eyes lit up and she let out a small laugh.

"No, not an Earth flower. Rose...the woman who is absolutely...fantastic," River whispered sadly. Other Dave shifted uncomfortably while Anita looked unsettled at the pure emotion in the woman's voice. "She's the only flower in existence that could possibly whether those storms of his..."

Lux and Other Dave shared a confused look but Anita just shook it off before speaking up. "He doesn't act like he trusts you though." At this River flinched, as if she had just been slapped.

"Yeah, there's a tiny problem," River muttered, "He hasn't met me yet." And she tried not to sound bitter. She really did try...although she didn't think it quite worked, what with Anita's hurt expression and all. Sighing River quickly stood up and walked back over to the Doctor, who was trying to scan the shadows. River's eyes narrowed at the fact that his sonic didn't seem to be working too well.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked before the Doctor glanced over at her, still holding the sonic up to his ear while turning it on and off and trying to get it to work. He wasn't succeeding from what River could tell.

"There's a signal coming from somewhere else, interfering with it," the Doctor muttered back, shaking the screwdriver and then putting it back up to his ear. River tilted her head at why he just didn't use the other settings to stabilize it. Surely that should have been the first thing he tried.

"Then use the red settings," she suggested, taking her gloves off as she did so. She then looked up to see that the Doctor, from where he was kneeling on the floor, was looking back up at her in confusion and annoyance. Mostly annoyance though from what she could tell.

"It doesn't have a red setting," he replied, as if that should be obvious. River just shook her head and looked at him like he was being deliberately stupid. It was a look that she just loved to use on him. Again, Rose had deemed it as karma for all the years he had done the same thing to everyone he had met.

Well, use the dampers, then."

"It doesn't have dampers," he snapped back, sounding as if that should have been obvious. River just rolled her eyes at his tone of voice. She sometimes didn't know how Rose managed to put up with him without slapping him daily.

"It will do one day," she grinned, holding out her own sonic. The Doctor stared at the device strangely for a few seconds before taking it and slowly standing up, eyes narrowing as he looked over at River.

"So, some time in the future me and..." He can't say it. Can even pretend that she might be there one day. "Some day I just give you the sonic." River smiled and nodded, although the Doctor didn't believe her smile even for a second. He knew that smile was fake, he used it all the time, after all.

"Yeah, it was Rose's idea to begin with for some reason," she explained, the Doctor's eyes narrowing even more. Rose had known how important the sonic screwdriver was to him, and she wouldn't have just suggested giving it to someone like that on a whim...not like it mattered.

"And why would she do that?" the Doctor asked, going along with the charade that Rose was there in the future. Maybe it would help him get some information from this woman who seemed to know as much about him as Rose did. He tried not to sound like he was close to snapping, even though he was. River seemed to be trying to keep her temper under control as well since she was slightly twitching her right hand in what looked like a nervous tic.

It also seemed like she was resisting the urge to get her gun.

"I didn't pluck it from your cold, dead hands if that's what you're worried about," River responded, sarcasm layering her voice, trying but not quite covering up the hurt at what she was being accused of. The Doctor couldn't help but internally wince at the hurt he had heard, even if he didn't know why he cared.

"And I know that because?" He never could stop an argument once it was started, especially since that would mean letting the other person win, and he didn't like to lose. Rose had learned that the hard way when she had beaten him at cards one day and they ended up playing until she had fallen asleep in her chair.

"Listen to me," River said quietly and seriously, "You've lost your friend. You're angry. I understand, really, I do. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor. Right now, and you know Rose would be saying the same thing if she was here."

"Less emotional? I'm not emotional!" he bit back, trying not to think about the Rose part. He really did try to believe that he wasn't emotional, he tried as hard as he could. He didn't think it was really working since he could hear the lie in his voice, and River probably could to.

"There are five people in this room still alive! Focus on that," River growled, sounding close to slapping the man, again, as she gestured to the three humans sitting off to the side. Anita and Other Dave looked uncomfortable being caught in the middle but Lux just looked annoyed at what was going on. "Dear God, Rose was right when she said you were hard work young."

Before the Doctor can snap back his own retort Lux finally got up in a huff and broke into their argument. "Can we not leave the family fights outside?! Let's save all the domestics for when we're not dying!" And damn if the word domestic hadn't made the Doctor flinch. He could just hear the voice of his ninth self viciously swearing in his head. "God, it's like watching the daughter try and convince her father she's all grown up!"

The Doctor refused to think about that last line while River just sighed roughly and looked back to the Doctor. "I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry, Doctor, but one day I'm going to be someone you trust completely...but I can't wait for you to find that out." The Doctor looked confused on why River sounded like she was close to tears before she was suddenly pulling him down by his shoulder and whispering something into his ear.

He was pretty sure what he had just heard shut his brain off.

"Are we good?" River asked, sounding sad. She knew how much hearing that one word would hurt him, how many conclusions he could draw from what she had just said and what he knew right now. They could talk about it later though, later she would figure out something to tell him. "Doctor, are we good?"

"Yeah...we're...we're good," the Doctor mumbled back quietly, sounding as if he wasn't quite sure what to think of the woman in front of him anymore. River repressed the urge to make a whimper. At this point she would rather have him glaring at her...but it was alright, for now. She would figure something out.

Right now they needed to get out of here.

::

Night had finally fallen on the Library and River and what remained of her team were sitting in another round room, filled with shelves of books. The woman was absentmindedly scanning the shadows with her own sonic screwdriver but her heart wasn't in it. Instead she was staring at her sonic, a sad smile showing as she stared at the small device that carried so many memories with it.

"You know, it's funny...I keep wishing the Doctor and Rose were here," River shook her head, trying to keep her sadness locked away. She couldn't break down now. Not now. She had people to take care of...was this what the Doctor felt like, she wondered. When things went wrong and others started dying...

"The Doctor is here at least, isn't he? He's coming back, right?" Anita nervously asked, trying not to move so she wouldn't disturb the shadows that were in her suit. She had passed scared a few minutes ago and was now just edgy. It seemed the longer it dragged on the worst it got.

River looked over at Anita quietly, thoughts racing through her head as she thought about what she could say. Memories flooding her she slowly smiled before sitting back "You know when you see a photograph of friends you know, but it's from years before you knew them. And it's like...it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet.

"Well, yes, the Doctor came. He came when I called just like he always does...only this time Rose wasn't with him. Not yet...she's not there with him yet. And that's probably the thing that kills me most," River grew quiet as Anita looked at her curiously. "Without Rose the Doctor can become so, so dark... Rose is his sun, she's what keeps him from giving in..."

"Who are they? These friends you keep talking about?" Anita asked, intrigued with what the woman she had come to know was telling her. It sounded like a story, a fantastic story like those she had read as a child. River looked up at her and Anita could have sworn the woman was looking straight into her eyes, even though her helmet was shielded. A wide smile worked it's way on her lips as she talked.

"I called and he came...but not the Doctor I know. Now my Doctor and Rose...where to even begin. I've seen whole armies turn and run away, and those two would just swagger off back to their TARDIS. Then he would open the doors with just a snap of his fingers," River snapped her own fingers. As she explained Anita noticed that the woman seemed to be looking at something else. A different time.

"Time's Champion in the TARDIS...with their Bad Wolf. Next stop...everywhere..."

"Spoilers." River and Anita both jumped at the voice that came from the balcony above them. River stood up and looked him in the eye as he spoke, a cold look taking over his features. "Ro..." He swallowed, unable to finish saying the name out loud. "She isn't Bad Wolf anymore...I took that out of her, ages ago."

"Are you sure about that?" River asked, meeting his gaze evenly and quirking an eyebrow. "After all, how long did she last with the Time Vortex itself running through her head? How long did you?" The Doctor slightly flinched before his eyes narrowed even further.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask. How do you even know about her if you're from my future?" That was the one question that had been eating at him for hours now. How had she known about Rose when she was sealed away from him, gone for the rest of his life. And if his voice was deep with fury, well... He was too busy interrogating the woman in front of him to really notice.

"Spoilers," River replied evenly, although it sounded like she hated the word as much as he did. Shaking his head the Doctor quickly made his way down the stairs, jumping over the bottom case once he reached it.

"That's another thing, nobody can open a TARDIS by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that." River crossed her arms and almost seemed to snort as the man turned his back on her.

"It does for the Doctor." At that the man quickly turned back around and glared, bristling with fury. He was quickly going into what the girls had called Oncoming Storm mode.

"I am the Doctor," he growled, River meeting the fury of his gaze evenly. She hated that tone of voice, the one that sounded like he had something to prove, to himself and everyone else. It may have killed her to see this man looking at her like this but damn if she was going to give in now. She never did like to lose, same as him.

They never did play board games on Family Nights after they had learned that...

"Yeah. Some day, when Rose comes back." If there was one thing she believed in it was that the Doctor would always be alright if he had his Rose with him...right now he was as far from alright as he could be. He had been since the day Rose had been ripped from his side.

Turning towards Anita he did his best to put River and her comments out of his mind. They wouldn't do him any good right now. "How are you doing?" he asked, proud that his voice had only come out slightly angry.

"Where's Other Dave?" River asked, finally noticing that the man she had left to stay with the Doctor was gone. The Doctor managed to hide his flinch as he quickly glanced over at her.

"Not coming. Sorry." And he was. He was sorry for every loss of life that seemed to happen around him. He didn't care what Rose said...it always ended up being his fault somehow.

"Well," Anita spoke up, breaking the tension between the two, "If they've taken him then why haven't they gotten me yet?" The Doctor tilted his head to the side as he looked at her, his gaze sweeping over her like that of a puzzle he just couldn't quite get put together. If the girl wasn't so panicked at the situation she probably would have hit him over that.

"I don't know... Maybe tinting your visor's making a difference," he suggested, looking at the two shadows that were behind her. And he really didn't know. Even with the tinted visor she should have been eaten by now.

"It's making a difference all right. No one's ever going to see my face again," she muttered, trying to keep the weakness out of her voice. If she was going to die then she wasn't going to go down sounding like a scared little child. She could at least try to stay strong until the end.

"Can I get you anything?" Just because he knew that her chances were small didn't mean he couldn't help as much as he could.

"An old age would be nice," Anita half-joked, "Anything you can do?" The Doctor grinned, a small spark of amusement in his eyes. He knew he had liked her for a reason.

"I'm all over it," he smiled.

"Doctor..." Anita trailed off, slowly turning back around so she could see his face. "When we first met you, you didn't trust Professor Song. And then she whispered a word in your ear, and you did. My life so far...I could do with a word like that. What did she say?" At the blank stare she got in return she had to repress a sigh. She figured he wouldn't have said anything, she could tell he was the secretive type. "Give a dead girl a break. Your secrets are safe with me."

"Safe..." the Doctor muttered slowly. Safe...safe, saf- Oh. So that was what it was! The Doctor's eyes widened as the puzzle he had been turning over for ages finally clicked into place.

"What?" Anita asked, confused on how the man was now acting.

"Safe," the Doctor repeated, a maniac grin growing on his face. "You don't say saved. Nobody says saved. You say safe." He quickly turned around to Lux, who looked startled at the sudden intensity in the man's gaze. "The data fragment! What did it say?"

"Four thousand and twenty two people saved," he repeated slowly, wondering where this was going. "No survivors." River raised an eyebrow as she walked closer, wondering what that clever mind of his was doing now. Knowing him he could be thinking about anything.

"Doctor?" she asked, the Doctor grinning even wider as he threw himself into the equation. The problem that had been staring them in the face the whole time they had been there. Solving problems...this was something he did best.

"Nobody says saved. Nutters say saved. You say safe. You see, it didn't mean safe. It meant, it literally meant, saved!"

::

"All library systems are permanently offline. Sorry for any inconvenience. Shortly-" The computer's warning faded out and the Doctor quickly jumped on the terminal, standing on a small outing as he tried to sonic the screen back on. He was having little success.

"We need to stop this!" Lux broke in, starting to look frantic. "We've got to save Cal!" The Doctor looked down at him, looking annoyed at the unanswered questions he still had.

"What is it? What is Cal?" Maybe knowing the answer would help him figure out what he was missing. The last piece that just didn't seem to fit into place yet. Lux stared at them for a few seconds before sighing.

"We need to get to the main computer." He knew at this point he had no choice but to show them. He had to trust these people. He may not like them...but he knew he could trust them with this. "I'll show you."

"It's at the core of the planet," the Doctor butted in, somewhat rudely. He figured he could be forgiven for this one, since they were low on time until the whole planet basically self-destructed.

"Well, then," River grinned, "Let's go." The Doctor raised an eyebrow before looking over at River and following her with his eyes to where she walked to the middle of the room, right in front of a large seal that reminded him just a bit too much of Krop Tor. He then watched River point her screwdriver at the seal that was in front of them, the library logo from what he could figure. When it opened and he saw the blue streams of light come up he couldn't help but grin.

"Gravity platform," River said serenely while putting her screwdriver up and grinning. The Doctor grinned even wider as he jumped off the terminal he had been standing on and put his own sonic up before coming over to stand by her.

"I bet I like you," the man grinned as the four stepped on the platform and waited as it started to descend into the core.

"Oh, you and Rose both," River smirked. She couldn't wait to get out of here and go visit her Doctor and Rose, they would love this one. Well...Rose would, the Doctor would probably just be embarrassed at how he had acted back then. Not much longer here...

Then she would be back home.

Okay, few things before I let you go. One, that last line broke my heart a little. I feel terrible yet proud all at the same time. B, no...two, did you all see the part where I put fantastic in there? It made me grin and almost cry. But...you know. That's normal for me. Three, or C, the part about 'next stop...everywhere'?

I am obsessed with that quote of River's. I'm serious, it's always in my head. So I had so much fun writing it to include Rose in there. Hope you guys liked it too. And finally four, or D, or those brackets with the i and the v, the next chapter will be out in a day or two if I can keep up with this pace.

Obsessed with Doctor Who you say? Yes. Yes I am. OH! Guys...guys...it's March. Do you know what that means? SEASON 7 IS BACK! WE GET TO MEET CLARA AND SEE AWESOME NEW VILLAINS AND CLASSIC OLD ONES! WHOO! AND THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY EPISODE IS COMING UP!

Okay, are you ready? I SAY DOCTOR YOU SAY WHO!

DOCTOR-

DOCTOR-

DOCTOR-

WHOOO!

Now...did you actually say it? If you did then please dear god tell me. I could do with smiles at seeing there's people as crazy as me out there.

Note to Que/Self : No more writing notes like this at 2:30am in the morning...it's bad.