*Hey troops, I meant to update before now, but here we go. Oswin Oswald is back. This chapter is a great one for me personally, because it reflects the many different elements going on in the Doctor and Oswin's relationship. It's from Oswin's perspective, but I've tried to make it to obvious to everyone except Oswin exactly what is going on. I hope you like it! As ever, thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, follows and favourites. Next chapter will hopefully be Monday :) TPD*

It took Oswin a couple of weeks to notice the way that the Doctor had shifted his behaviour, but once she had, it was impossible not to notice it. He had become somewhat more reckless than usual and a lot brasher. But simultaneously, he had started acting differently towards Oswin. More flustered than ever, but also sweeter. Oswin wasn't sure what to make of it. Things between them were increasingly confusing her and it was frustrating because the shifts in his temper were becoming alarming.

Things came to a head almost a month after World War III. She wasn't sure where he was taking her but he had promised her a day trip to somewhere fancy, so to dress up nicely. Oswin spent ages getting ready, because she did like to look nice on occasion. As much as she loved the rough and tumble of life with the Doctor, every now and then, it was nice to dress up and feel beautiful, as opposed to the ponytails and the camo jeans. She curled her hair into tight, barrelled curls and wore a long, crimson dress, the deepest shade of red. It was strapless and barely reached her knees. She wore matching red heels and applied blood red lipstick and eye shadow. She found a perfect pair of earrings and a handbag to match. She barely recognised herself in the mirror and smiled as she heard the Doctor knocking on her door.

"Come in!" she called, applying mascara and twirling round to grin at him. He was looking very dapper, with his best black suit and his hair perfectly quiffed. "New bow tie?" she asked, her voice teasing him. To his credit, he didn't get flustered, but beamed at her.

"You noticed?" he sounded like a child happy that his mother had spotted his artwork pinned to the fridge and he straightened the aforementioned dickey bow.

"Of course I noticed!" Oswin smiled at him, a genuine smile for once that lit up her face. "How could I miss it? That bow tie is 50 shades of grey. And no, that's not a good thing."

She hid her face from him so that he couldn't see her holding in her giggles. He was trying to work out what was wrong with his bow tie. Bless him. Oswin examined herself once more in the mirror. She took a deep breath and turned back to face the Time Lord, who was still musing the bow tie conundrum. He smiled at Oswin, and she resisted the urge to blush when his eyes started roaming.

"Like what you see Chin-Boy?" Oswin smirked.

"Yes…I mean no. I mean…you look wonderful Oswin. Are you ready to go?"

"Yep," she grabbed her bag. "But where exactly are we going? You never said…"

"I'm aware," the Doctor replied with a grin. "It's a surprise. I'm surprising you Oswin Oswald. Do you like surprises?"

"The first time you ever surprised me was by rescuing me from that accursed asylum!" Oswin pointed out. "You can surprise me any time you want…Doctor." She only rarely used his name, and it made him blush when she did. She was feeling nice this evening, maybe it was because he was taking her somewhere fancy or maybe she just felt guilty for how sweet he'd been acting towards her, fairly unreciprocated at times.

"Good, I mean I will…" he was blushing again and Oswin rolled her eyes at him, guiding him through the console room. "I took the liberty of keeping her stationary whilst you changed, didn't want a sudden bout of turbulence to ruin your makeup." See, sweet, Oswin told herself. Why was he being like that? "Off we go then."

The second the TARDIS touched down, the Doctor was racing over to the doors. Oswin strode after him as he threw them open and she stepped out into a ballroom, so huge it looked like they were in a castle. The pillars on the walls were intricately designed and the ceiling was patterned so ornately, it must have taken years to perfect. There were couples everywhere, dancing and singing and sharing stories, clusters of individuals chatting away and the Doctor was already throwing himself into it, dragging over a couple of individuals to talk to Oswin. A waiter walked past with flutes of champagne and Oswin gratefully accepted one, sliding the crisp, golden fluid down her throat. She could get used to this kind of luxury.

"Miss Oswin Oswald, I would like to introduce you to His Royal Highness Sven, King of Denmark and his gorgeous wife Queen Anna. They are here on a hunting retreat, here in the Swiss Alps. Old friends of mine."

"The Doctor stopped our Kingdom from falling into the hands of some very nasty creatures," King Sven explained, stepping in to kiss Oswin's hand. "What were they called again Doctor? Cybermen?" The Doctor nodded. "Anyway, he is always welcome to the Royal Court. And so are you by proxy Miss Oswald. You look delightful this evening, might I add?"

Oswin grinned and blushed and the Doctor gave her his smuggest look, so she merely curtsied and grabbed another glass of champagne. The Doctor was raising an eyebrow and then suddenly, he had pulled her out into the middle of the dance floor. Oswin almost spilled her champagne and shot him her prize glare. He took the champagne flute off her and flung it over his left shoulder. She was torn between giggling and looking scandalised and opted for a bit of both as he took her hands in his. His hands were rough, like a blacksmiths. They reminded Oswin of a man that she used to know, long ago, back before the Alaska. Back before all of that. He led her on the dance, gently at first, then suddenly quicker. She gasped as he twirled her, picking her up and down, guiding her one way and then the other. He knew what he was doing, which surprised her. What surprised her more was the intimacy that the dance was conveying and she felt very awkward and wanted to say something to him.

As the dance finished, Oswin went to get more alcohol, thoroughly confused by what had just happened. The Doctor was making all these sweet, intimate gestures to Oswin and she didn't know how to respond. She didn't have those kinds of feelings for him and doubted she ever would. Yet was that what he was trying to transmit? Or was he merely trying to be nice to her, to make up for all the times he threw himself into danger, nearly killing himself? She needed to clear her head, so she asked one of the waiters where the balcony was and excused herself, standing out on the wooden panels, watching the snow fall gently onto the snow-capped mountains.

That was when she heard it. The gunfire. She ducked low and pinned herself to the wall next to the door as she peaked in. Three men. With sub-automatic machine guns. Heavy duty machinery. What were they after? She heard the Doctor talking and a gun went off. Oswin screamed and threw herself out into the room. A hand was on her neck and the nuzzle of a gun was pressed to her. She grabbed the gun and flipped the man over her shoulder, pointing the gun at him as he tried to clamber to his feet. The other two men had the Doctor and Sven, pointing their guns at them. Oswin swore and pointed her gun at the third man.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

"Put the gun down love, we're only here for the King. You and your good Samaritan boyfriend here are worthless, but we don't want to shoot you unless we have to."

"Fat chance of that," Oswin muttered. "The Doctor wouldn't let you get away with this and neither will I." She fired the gun. The Doctor ducked but the bullet was already whizzing past his shoulder into the hand of the soldier who didn't get the chance to fire the trigger. The Doctor was already sonicing, disabling the weapon of the third and final soldier.

"You could have killed him!" he shouted to Oswin.

"But I didn't!" she shot back, not taking her eyes off the soldiers for a second as Sven ducked away from the third soldier, who had gone to check on his stricken colleague. "So get all the Royals out of here. Quickly!"

The Doctor nodded quickly and ushered all of the Danish royals out of the building as Oswin pointed the only working gun at the three soldiers. Her heart was pounding like a jackhammer and she could barely breathe. She couldn't let them see how nervous she was. She doubted she'd be able to pull the trigger again. The Doctor returned a moment later, eyeing up the gun distastefully. Oswin could see the way he was looking at it and rolled her eyes.

"Would you relax Chin, it's not as if I'm going to shoot anyone. Are the royals clear?"

The Doctor didn't respond. He grabbed the man wounded by the scruff of his neck and dragged him to his feet into the TARDIS. Oswin kept the gun trained on the other two as she followed him into the box and shut the doors behind her. The Doctor shot her a look and she shrugged.

"I'm going to stitch up this idiot's hand and then throw him out to join his friends. The local authorities are on their way, armed, not that they'll need to be. The other two guns are useless. You were really reckless out there Oswin."

"So were you."

"I'm allowed to be reckless."

"I noticed," she snapped. "You've been doing it a lot lately. Are you deliberately trying to show off or do you just have a death wish? I'm getting fucking sick of having to pick up your mess. You're welcome by the way, for saving your ungrateful life."

"I didn't ask you to!"

"You didn't have to!" Oswin was angry now. "That's what I'm here for you moron. You!" she pointed the gun at the soldier. "Your hand's fine. Get the fuck out!" He scrambled away and out the doors, whimpering and Oswin hurled her full attention on the Doctor, throwing away the gun and storming so they were millimetres apart. "I am not going to let you kill yourself because you miss Amy and Rory, so yes I'm going to save your ungrateful life each and every time. If you can't handle that…"

He shut her up by kissing her. Oswin was shocked, she was usually the instigator of their casual snogs. This felt different, but she translated her anger at him to passion. She ripped off his jacket and pressed him backwards. He was already working his way out of his shirt and she pressed her hands to his muscular chest. She liked what she saw. Her hands slid down to his length and she gripped it as they stumbled backwards.

"Down boy," she whispered when she realised how hard he was. "There's such a thing as too keen." Before he could respond, she had unzipped her dress and stepped out of it, as they crashed into her bedroom.

Oswin unclipped her bra and mounted the Doctor. He grunted as she removed what was left of his clothing, raking her long nails down his chest, desperate to get a reaction. He leaned up and kissed her again and she savaged his mouth, before she moved south, his member in her mouth now. She heard him squeak and rolled her eyes as she bit down on him. She clambered off him and he groaned as she flicked away her underwear and climbed on top of him. She hadn't done this in far too long. They kissed again and Oswin felt white hot passion shooting through her. He was giving way beneath her, a pawn in her game. She felt herself burning inside and she gave in to the pleasure, exploding and whooping as the Doctor grimaced. She climbed off him and he looked up at her, horrified.

"You can finish yourself off honey," she laughed as he spluttered. "Christ almighty that was fun Chin, we should definitely do that again sometime. I haven't had good old fashioned meaningless sex in a very long time." His face was completely and utterly crestfallen. "Oh for goodness sake, I'm joking, of course I'll finish you off."

The Doctor laughed uneasily as she finished him off. He let rip and she giggled at him, joking about how big he was seemed to cheer him up but there was most decidedly something not right with him as Oswin rolled off of him and breathed heavily, flipping her hair over one shoulder, her breasts bouncing and the Doctor's eyes were still bulged, but there was something behind them. There were times when Oswin didn't understand him one bit, but in that moment she didn't care. It had been a long time since anyone had pleasured her properly and the Doctor had done a decent job of it. She hoped that this new addition to their arrangement would become a regularity, as it was a great way of letting off steam, particularly when she was pissed off with the Doctor.

If only she had realised how completely oblivious she was to the real reason that the Doctor had looked like she'd shot his puppy.